president of china lunches with brazilian president

, the of the people's republic of china had lunch today with the of brazil, , at the "granja do torto", the president's country residence in the . lunch was a traditional brazilian with different kinds of meat. 

some brazilian ministers were present at the event: (economy), (), (agriculture), (development), (), (mines and energy). also present were ( company president) and eduardo dutra (, government oil company, president).

this meeting is part of a new agreement between brazil and china where brazil has recognized mainland china's status, and china has promised to buy more .



palestinians to elect new president on january 9

new leadership could prove to be the key to revitalizing the peace process in the , as both israel and the united states had refused to work with arafat.

the "" had initially reported that former prime minister was selected by the central committee as their candidate for president, but abbas has denied this, saying, "the matter is still being discussed." there have also been conflicting reports on whether or not jailed palestinian leader will run.

barghouti is currently serving five life sentences in israel for attacks against israelis. nonetheless, he remains a popular figure among palestinians for his role in the palestinian uprising, and could potentially win the election if he decided to run.

a win by barghouti could put israel in an awkward spot; however an israeli official said this week that he would not be freed, and a landslide win by barghouti would signify to them that the palestinians were not yet ready for peace.


brazilian delegation returns from arafat funeral

the delegation representing brazil at the funeral of yasser arafat returned today, november 13, 2004. the chief-minister of civil house jose dirceu was a member of the delegation. unfortunately they arrived too late for the funeral and the delegation watched only part of the funeral activities.

pcdob (brazilian communist political party) deputy jamil murad, member of the delegation, said there was a "deep mourning" feeling. jamil murad had visited yasser arafat in april 2004, along with nine other brazilian deputies. according to jamil murad: "yasser arafat was a palestinian leader who became a world projection leader". he said arafat had written him a letter thanking the brazilian people for their support of the palestinian cause and saying that he, arafat, considered president luiz inacio lula da silva a great world leader.


hearing begins over david hookes death

bouncer , 22, is charged with manslaughter.


iran close to decision on nuclear program

iranian representatives say negotiations with europe on are in the final stages.

, kamal kharazi, told state television saturday iranian negotiators have given their final response to a european union proposal to suspend iran's enrichment program. he said it is now up to the europeans to decide whether or not to accept their decision.

iran and the european union's big three powers ? britain, germany, and france ? have been negotiating a deal under which would agree to freeze sensitive nuclear work to avoid possible sanctions.

u.s. , says that iran's nuclear program is intended to make . iran authorities have insisted that their nuclear ambitions are limited to generating electricity from atomic energy plants, not making bombs. 

critics of the position of the united states point to israel's nuclear program. israel maintains a policy of nuclear ambiguity, but is widely believed to possess at least 82 nuclear weapons. the program has not been condemned by the united states.


iran agrees to suspend uranium conversion

uranium is a chemical element which can be used in and . the process of conversion modifies the uranium oxydes into . the purpose of such a conversion process is usually an intermediate step in the production of . uranium hexafluoride cannot itself be used in a nuclear weapon, but can be into weapons-grade uranium, or it can be converted into in a . iran has claimed to be using its nuclear program for only peaceful nuclear energy, rather than for nuclear weapons, but there are concerns in the european union and the usa as to whether they are being truthful.



brazilian soccer player's mother has been kidnapped

robinho is considered one of the best brazilian forward players at the present time and he is an important player for santos.

the authorities are cautious to release any information concerning the case, as this could jeopardize both the investigations and ms. souza's life.



colin powell resigns as u.s. secretary of state, rice likely successor

the " said that powell often had disputes with officials holding what the newspaper termed "more hawkish" views.

on tuesday, president bush announced his nomination of dr. condoleezza rice as powell's successor. " cited senior bush administration officials as saying that her deputy, , will succeed her in her role as assistant to the president for national security affairs if she is confirmed as secretary of state.


high-speed train derailment in central queensland (australia)

queensland transport minister visited the site, and reported that the recording device on board the train would be sent back to brisbane for analysis, in order to determine the cause of the accident.



saddam hussein profited roughly 1b by taking funds from un program

paul volcker, a former american official investigating the diverted funds scandal, has taken some heat from advocates demanding that he haul united nations personnel before the us congress. his reason for not subjecting them to this degree of open scrutiny is that it would have the perverse effect of pushing them into refusing to cooperate with the investigation at all. he plans to release documentary evidence early next year, when his investigation is complete.


latin american drug dealer beira-mar's lawyers arrested

luiz fernando da costa, known as fernando beira-mar or fernandinho beira-mar, is one of the biggest drug dealers of latin america according to police. beira-mar was arrested by the colombian army at april 20-21, 2001, in a farc camp located at a forest near colombia and venezuela and then transferred to brazil where he is been in prison until now.

according to officers the lawyers had offered r$200,000 (us$71,658.9) to police officers asking them to release marcos jose monteiro carneiro, another man accused of being a drug dealer.


pope john paul ii meets iraq's ambassador

""iraq is currently in the throes of the difficult process of transition from a totalitarian regime to the formation of a democratic state in which the dignity of each person is respected and all citizens enjoy equal rights. authentic democracy is possible "only in a state ruled by law", and requires that "the necessary conditions be present for the advancement both of the individual through education and formation in true ideals, and ... through the creation of structures of participation and shared responsibility"
""the struggle to overcome the challenges brought about by poverty, unemployment and violence is also currently faced by iraq. may your government work untiringly to settle disputes and conflicts through dialogue and negotiation, having recourse to military force only as a last resort. accordingly, it is essential that the state, with the assistance of the international community, promote mutual understanding and tolerance among its various ethnic and religious groups. this will enable the people of the region to create an environment that is not only committed to justice and peace but is also capable of sustaining the necessary economic growth and development integral for the well-being of your citizens and the country itself.""


big linux beta 3 released

a linux distribution is a software set with the linux operating system and gnu software. the source code of linux and gnu software is freely available and can be legally distributed among users. big linux is a "live" compact disc version of linux, which means it may run directly from the cd or optionally be installed on the hard disk.
according to its developers, big linux aims to be easy to use and comes with many programs that are used by home users and offices. some included programs are: kde, java, xmms, kaffeine, xine, kopete, yes, xchat, fullt, amsn, the windows runtime environments wine and cedega, the peer-to-peer applications xmule, bittorrent and apollon, openoffice.org, gimp and abiword, the email clients kmail and thunderbird, and the internet browsers mozilla and the proprietary opera browser.

some features of version 2.0 beta 3 are: 3 versions of the linux kernel -- 2.4.25 (for those who use winmodems), 2.4.27 (stable) and 2.6.8 (performance) --, automatic detection of printers, higher boot speed, complete system of network and servers and an automatic hardware detection mechanism. the graphical environment (known as x11) can have several configurations separated by kernel. in this way, the user can have an accelerated graphical environment configuration and an unaccelerated graphical environment configuration at the same time. if there is some trouble with the accelerated graphical environment configuration, this allows the user to switch to the unaccelerated one.

big linux can be downloaded without charge at big linux downloads. this distribution is primarily intended for brazilian users, although anyone can use it.



florida's walt disney world launches revamped attractions

the alien encounter attraction at tomorrowland in the magic kingdom has been revised to include experiment 626 from the movie "lilo & stitch". now called "stitch's great escape!", the dog-like blue creature will lash out of its tube and terrorise the audience. the galactic federation's grand councilwoman, captain gantu and agent pleakley appear in this show, essentially a prequel to the movie.

at the living seas, crush the sea turtle from the disney/pixar movie "finding nemo" will host a new exhibit called "turtle talk", joining smaller nemo exhibits, a mainstay at the attraction for several months. vegetarian shark bruce will soon become part of a shark education exhibit.

according to publicity, the turtle talk show will run every 15 minutes, from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm. a sign language interpreted performance will run on fridays at 10:30 am.

disney is holding the stitch's great escape! sweepstakes, with prizes including a five-day, four night trip for four to walt disney world resort.


hari kostov resigns as prime minister of macedonia

the "bbc" quoted kostov, who was appointed last may, to have said that "there is no will for genuine teamwork" within the coalition, and that one of the parties in the current government has been promoting corruption and nepotism. kostov also claimed that the preoccupation with the rights of albanian ethnic minority in macedonia was obstructing economic modernization, according to reuters. kostov himself was not a member of any of the coalition's parties.

kostov's resignation was preceded by a referendum organized by the macedonian opposition, aimed against a decentralisation law which would have given the albanian ethnic minority in macedonia additional rights. the referendum was declared null and void due to a low turnout. according to the "nos", some now fear that fights between albanian guerrillas and the macedonian army, which came to a halt in 2001, will start again.



senator harry reid elected democratic minority leader

reid won the position as the republican party still holds majority in both houses of congress. (r-il) and tom delay (r-tx) were re-elected by the republicans for new terms as and in the house of representatives.

senator (d-il) replaced reid as the senate minority .


majority of dutch parliament against accentuation of anti-blasphemy article

"nos" reported that donner's own party, the christian democratic appeal (cda), supported his proposal. however, their two coalition partners ? the people's party for freedom and democracy ("volkspartij voor vrijheid en democratie", vvd) and democrats 66 (d66) ? announced they would not back the ban. the labour party, the largest opposition party, also refused to vote in favour. without their support, the motion could not be passed. consequently, "nrc handelsblad" reports, donner withdrew his proposal.

although the dutch criminal code already makes blasphemy illegal, the law has only been enforced three times since the 1930s. the article in question states that anyone who ridicules a cleric or relic may be imprisoned for up to three months. according to dutch broadcaster "rtl", member of parliament lousewies van der laan (d66), will make a motion on november 17 to have the article removed entirely from the criminal code.


president of brazil meets vietnamese president

according to brazilian official sources the brazilian and vietnamese presidents will talk about economic cooperation between the two countries, mainly the production of ethanol. united nations (un) reform and the effort by vietnam to join the world trade organization (wto) will be discussed as well.


brazilian president meets president of south korea

brasIlia, brazil ? mr. luiz inacio lula da silva, the , met with the of the republic of korea mr. at 5:30 pm at the "palacio do planalto" (plateau palace), the presidential official residence, in brasilia, brasil. at 8:00 pm there was a dinner with brazilian and south korean presidents and comitive. 

at the dinner brazilian president luiz inacio lula da silva said south korea is a strategic partner in asia and he also said that business between brazil and korea in 2004 will be 3 billion. mr. lula said brazil supports korea in their effort to join the (idb).

according to official sources brazil and south korea also discussed energy and natural resources cooperation agreements. they signed the "broad relationship of cooperation for common prosperity in the xxi century" agreement which covers natural resources, science, information technology and technology in general.


firefox 1.0 internet browser released by mozilla foundation

mozilla 1.0, a free , has been released on november 9, 2004 by the foundation. 

some major characteristics of the browser are: pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing, integrated rss news reader, themes, online fraud protection, extendable with add-ons and multi-platform (it works on , and ). as of november 16, 2004, there are firefox versions in the following languages: norwegian, polish, finnish, italian, japanese, greek, korean, spanish, russian, slovenian, czech, english, romanian, german, hebrew, french, hungarian, swedish and catalan. other languages should appear later.

firefox has grown rapidly in popularity, with a preview release of the 1.0 version surpassing 10 million downloads in days. the browser has received critical acclaim by some magazines and is seen by many as a real competitor to 's , which currently holds over 90% market share. 
here's what some reviewers have said about firefox:




the software's website can be found at getfirefox.com.




british white paper on public health

the white paper comes after extensive public comment that involved 150,000 people.

smoking would be restricted in enclosed public spaces, restaurants, workplaces, and some pubs. the ban would be enacted gradually, affecting government and nhs buildings in 2006, enclosed public places in 2007, and private property in 2008. permanent exemption would be granted to pubs that do not serve prepared food -- though not at the bar -- as well as private clubs, a decision that has provoked some to call the measure incomplete. up to 90% of pubs are expected to be affected. the scottish executive proposed a complete ban on smoking in enclosed public places last week, and ireland has already banned smoking in pubs and restaurants.

food advertisements targeted to children would be banned until 9pm, under the white paper's proposals. the restriction is a measure to tackle rising rates of childhood obesity. the government also intends to develop voluntary standards on food and drink advertisements to children with industry, only threatening legislation if an acceptable standard is not reached by 2007. additionally, low income families would receive vouchers for fresh fruit, vegetables, milk, and infant formula. school lunches would also be held to stricter nutritional standards. reid has warned that unless childhood obesity is tackled, "we face the prospect of children having shorter life expectancy than their parents".

food labelling would also be improved, with a "traffic light" system implemented. packaged food would be evaluated based on its fat, sugar, and salt content.

the paper is unusual for suggesting a more holistic approach to health care, offering for the first time "lifestyle trainers." the national health service would be funding with an additional ￡1bn to make people's overall lives healthier, which is expected to save ￡30bn in preventable illness.

the paper additionally makes mention of reducing accidents, which affected 2.7m people last year and is a leading cause of child death, curb binge drinking, and reduce substance abuse among youths.

the paper has been criticized by many parties. the tory shadow health secretary has criticized the labour government's comprehensiveness and creation of a "new nanny state approach". he has additionally described it as "gimmicks". the liberal democrats have accused the government of not being comprehensive enough. it has also been criticized by the british medical association as being implemented too slowly, saying "when lives need saving, doctors act immediately".

mr. reid has argued against the nanny state label, saying "in a free society, men and women ultimately have the right within the law to choose their own lifestyle, even when it may damage their own health. but people do not have the right to damage the health of others, or to impose an intolerable degree of inconvenience or nuisance on others ... this is a sensible solution which balances the protection of the majority with the personal freedom of the minority in england".

the full white paper "choosing health" can be read here.


british-iraqi careworker margaret hassan reportedly killed

the international organization care was shocked by the news. hassan led the care-department in iraq for years.

since her kidnapping on october 19, 2004, has appeared on several tapes pleading for her life. she made a personal request addressed to prime minister tony blair to remove british troops from iraq to meet her kidnappers demands.



australians talk tough ahead of brisbane test match

"november 17, brisbane, australia" - the australian cricket team has brashly talked up their chances of winning the first trans-tasman test, which is due to begin in brisbane tomorrow.

bowler shane warne has stated that he will be targeting new zealand captain stephen fleming, glenn mcgrath has revealed that he will be after nathan astle, and australian batsman matthew hayden has vowed to hit new zealand bowler daniel vettori out of the ground.

the new zealand team's reaction to this australian bravado was muted. "it's just history repeating itself", said former new zealand coach and former test player john bracewell. "they just have a set of lines they've been using since i've been coming over here and it's exactly the same story, just a different name saying it. it's just repetitious", he went on to say. new zealand batsman scott styris went further, labelling the australians' comments as "a yawn".

australia is widely tipped to win the opening match of the two test series, especially due to new zealand's loss of frontline players james franklin, darryl tuffey and shane bond to injury.



russian tatars not allowed to use latin alphabet

the law banning all alphabets but has been one in a long range of regulations and restrictions, claimed by officials to be designed to protect russia's linguistic heritage. the russian federal government has been cited to consider the use of a non-cyrillic alphabet by federal states a 'separatist tendency'.


japan to reduce aid to china

assistance to mainland china will total $8.9bn this year, making japan an unusual second to the united states in aid. this is down 30% from 1997, and is the fourth year-on-year decline as of 2003. loans to china total $30bn to date. 

the oda has been a key feature in sino-japanese economic and diplomatic relations. it was begun in the 1980s as china "opened up" to foreign investment. it is in part restitution for damage inflicted on china and atrocities such as the rape of nanking, seen in chinese culture in much the same way as the holocaust is in western culture.

china is increasingly being seen as a competitor, however. popular opinion in japan is also increasingly resentful of what is perceived as anti-japanese sentiment in china. some feel that china should be grateful for oda funds and that it is not. china has also been criticized by japanese foreign minister nobutaka machimura for not being sufficiently cooperative with regards to environmental issues, which necessarily affect its eastern neighbor japan. 

the people's republic of china's communist leaders have also been criticized for violating w:human rights and effecting a military build-up. some argue that economic aid should be tied to compliance on relevant standards.

through the oda, japan enjoys the support of many developing nations in un votes. when china did not react favorably to japan's intention to seek permanent un security council membership, "the japan times" criticized the aid as a "complete waste".

"asia times online" predicts "it is inevitable that funds flowing to china are set for further downsizing."

total japanese expenditures on oda have reached $221bn distributed to 185 nations. currently, the biggest recipient of japan's oda aid is india. japan may soon be outspent in aid to china by france, germany and italy.


crs analyses al qaeda statements

the full report is available at the website of the secrecy news project run by the federation of american scientists. released november 16th, 2004, it is titled "al qaeda: statements and evolving ideology".


barroso names new european union commissioners

his new line-up, according to the "bbc", is mostly identical to his previous one; only two previous candidates (the italian buttiglione and the latvian ingr?da ?dre) have been replaced. the european parliament voted in favour the commissioners on november 18th, giving barroso and his staff the green light to start their official five-year term starting on monday. while the greens, eurosceptics and the communist party voted against, the commission secured the approval of the parliament's biggest parties - the socialists, the liberals and the european people's party. the vote ended with 449 in favour, 149 against and 82 abstentions, "cnn" reports.


sharon considered temporary israeli coup in 1967

days leading up to the '67 arab-israeli war featured a build-up of egyptian, syrian, and iraqi forces on the border that was perceived by many as a threat to the very existence of israel. military advisors pressured for a preemptive strike, which was felt necessary to offset israeli numerical inferiority. then-prime minister levi eshkol was under intense pressure from his cabinet and military on the decision to pursue diplomacy or war. many pro-war officials considered war inevitable and a delay only harmful to israel.

ariel sharon was a major general in the israeli military during the war. on may 28th, he advised the chief of staff yitzhak rabin that the cabinet could be detained and a coup declared. sharon and others felt that the civilian government was unable to reach a necessary decision. the military would make the decision the government would not, and begin war in the government's best interests.

he explains: "we often asked whether in the state of israel there could arise a situation in which the army takes control. and i always said it was impossible, that this couldn't happen in the state of israel."

"and then, after the meeting on may 28, i said to the chief of staff and others who were present, that there had arisen a situation in which this could happen, and that it would also be well accepted - that is to say, to seize control not in the framework of wanting to govern, but in the framework of making a decision, the fundamental decision, and that [the] army can make it without the government."

"i don't remember if he agreed or not, but i think he also viewed it in this way."

sharon stressed that no definite plan existed. however, he defended giving it serious consideration, saying: "they [the civilian government] would have accepted it with a sense of relief. that was my feeling."

prime minister eshkol later decided in favor of war on june 5th. ariel sharon served as a commander of the southern division. his comments may be found in full in "ma'arachot", a publication by the israeli defense ministry.


kmart to buy sears for us$11 billion

discount retailer kmart corp. announced wednesday morning it will buy department store operator sears, roebuck & co.. the deal is to cost $11.5bn and will lead to the creation of the third-largest u.s. retailer, after wal-mart and home depot, and replacing target at number three.

the new company, which is to be called sears holdings and be based near chicago, will have $55 billion in annual revenue and nearly 3,500 retail stores. edward lampert, the chairman of kmart, will become the chairman of the new company, while alan lacy, current chairman and chief executive of sears will be the new chief executive. sears ceo alan lacy, speaking about the deal, promised up to $500 million a year in savings within three years from improved efficient, greater purchasing power and possible store closures. the stores will retain their current names.

the purchase will allow the two stores to sell each other's brands, including craftsman tools, kenmore, and lands' end from sears, and martha stewart and joe boxer brands from kmart. the move is considered a boon for sears, which until recently has confined itself to malls, and can now sell its products in the many kmart locations.

shares of both companies soared after the announcement, sears was up 22 percent on wednesday, whilst kmart gained 15 percent. 




sainsbury's posts first ever loss

sainsbury's, the uk supermarket chain, announced on wednesday that it had made its first ever loss. for the six months to 9 october, it reported a pre-tax loss of ￡39m ($72m), compared with a profit of ￡323m the previous year.

excluding ￡168m of exceptional items, such as the clearance of surplus merchandise, sainsbury's made a pre-tax profit of ￡131m for the first half of its financial year. the company had made a profits warning earlier in the year. the company's shares actually rose slightly on the news. this is due to the absence of any surprises - shareholders were expecting results in line with these.

sainsbury's chief executive justin king admitted the firm had been failing to properly stock its shelves after struggling with faulty distribution systems. this problem however is only one of a series of problems that has plagued sainsbury's in recent years. once the uk's largest supermarket chain, sainsbury's has been overtaken by both tesco and asda in recent years.




chinese submarine enters japanese waters

tenuous relations between japan and the people's republic of china were strained last week when a chinese nuclear-powered submarine entered japanese territorial waters southwest of okinawa.

the intrusion occurred on 10 november, japanese time (utc+9). the submarine was quickly spotted by japan's self-defence forces and was tracked by helicopter as it wandered in japanese waters for two hours before moving north-west. international law requires a tracked submarine to surface and identify its nationality in times of peace; the submarine did not do so.

many japanese officials in the defence agency considered the intrusion an act of provocation and "showing off," as the submarine in question was a particularly noisy model. it continued traveling very slowly after being spotted, and remained in shallow waters. the intrustion caused japanese self-defense forces to go on alert for the second time since the second world war.

the submarine in question is believed to be a type 09-1 han class attack submarine. it is a nuclear-powered submarine designed in the 1950s and first built in the 1974. this class of submarine is thought to suffer numerous defects, including radiation leakage, noise, and an inability to fire missiles while submerged. only two of five submarines are thought to be operational. china has recently begun an active modernization of its navy.

on 17 november, chinese vice foreign minister wu daiwei met with the japanese ambassador to china anami koreshige in beijing and offered an apology for the incident, stating that the submarine was on a training mission and the intrusion was due to a "technical error" and was "regrettable." japan's defence agency is studying whether "technical errors" is a feasible explanation for the incident.

japanese prime minister koizumi junichiro has publicly stated he wishes to speak with chinese president hu jintao about this and other matters of sino-japanese contention at the upcoming annual asia-pacific economic cooperation summit in chile later this month.

despite the increasingly close economic ties between the two nations, distrust has long exisited between japan and china. many chinese people still resent the japanese invasion and occupation of china during world war ii and japan's refusal to formally apologise. japan, on the other hand, sees china as a potential competitor and an increasing threat to its national security.

japan's constitution forbids the nation from exercising military strength in matters other than that of self-defence, but japan's ruling party, the liberal democratic party or ldp, has recently proposed constitutional amendments to give the military more offensive capabilities, among other things.



speculation arises as north korean media drops kim jong il's title

on wednesday north korea's official media dropped kim jong il's honourific title "dear leader", reported japan's radiopress. it was only days after the russian news agency reported that portraits of kim jong il have recently been removed from public display in north korea.

according to radiopress, a japanese news agency that monitors north korea's radio broadcasts, the north's korean central broadcasting station, as well as the korean central news agency and other north korean media, have stopped using the term "dear leader" when referring to kim jong il, the country's supreme leader. now the media in north korea only use the official titles "general secretary of the ", " the chairman of the dprk national defense commission" and/or "supreme commander of the " when referring to kim.

earlier itar-tass also reported that according to an unnamed foreign diplomat in pyongyang, kim jong il's portraits have recently been taken down from public display secretly and without explanation. however, the portraits of kim's father, , still remain, according to the same report. this report has been confirmed by some expatriates living in the country.

this recent development in north korea has given rise to speculation among analysts, some of whom suspected that these may be a sign that kim is losing power, or that a power struggle is going on among the top leaders of the totalitarian state. but most observers believe that the portraits were taken down by the order of kim jong il himself, who might be trying to downsize his own personality cult. "we believe the change was made at his will to soften his image as a leader of a , although it is hard to determine what his real intentions are," said shinya kato, the editor of radiopress.

south korean officials are not yet speculating on the matter, saying the portrait removals "may be for various reasons."

north korea is one of the few states that still exist today, and the political control in the country remains tight. in recent years north korea underwent several minor reforms that did not appear to significantly improve quality of life. it has also remained largely mysterious and secretive to the outside world, as few foreign correspondents are allowed to visit and stay in the country.



south american 2004 world cup qualifiers (11th)

the south american 2004 world cup qualifiers were decided today in the eleveth round of play.


rank points country



israeli army kills three egyptians in border incident

gaza - the israeli army is believed to have killed three egyptian soldiers in a border incident. the shootings occurred near the philadelphi route on the gaza-egypt border. both nations patrol the area intensively for arms smuggling into gaza.

an israeli tank apparently mistook egyptian troops for smugglers.

foreign ministry spokesman mark regev has apologized for the incident, saying: "if egyptians were hit then we regret it. this was not our intention. we want good co-operative relations with egypt ... and if egyptians were hurt then our thoughts go out to them and their families and the egyptian people."

israel has said it is investigating the shootings "at the most senior level." egypt has said little so far.



kanchi shankaracharya jayendra saraswathi in custody

"thursday, november 18 2004, kancheepuram, tamil nadu, india." kanchi mutt seer sri jayendra saraswathi has been remanded to 5 day's police custody in the south indian town of vellore.

jayendra saraswathi is the senior pontiff of the 2500 year old kanchi mutt, situated in kancheepuram in the south indian state of tamil nadu. he is also a prominent religious leader both because of the stature of the mutt and the mutt's large number of devotees but also for his active but unsuccessful role in resolving the ayodhya dispute.

the seer was arrested on 11 november, 2004 at mahboobnagar, about 150 km from hyderabad of directing the murder of a.sankararaman, a former manager of the mutt.
tamil nadu chief minister j. jayalalithaa said on wednesday, november 17 2004 that the arrest was made since they had solid evidence. 
the evidence was in the form of a statement by two of the prime accused in the case confirming his invovlement, huge sum of money drawn to pay for the murder and telephone conversations with the killers.



kyoto treaty becomes legally binding on february 16

"november 18 2004, nairobi." the united nations has announced that the kyoto treaty, which its signatories claim will counter the greenhouse effect and global climate changes, will take effect on february 16, 2005. 

the treaty could not be made legally binding to those countries who signed it earlier, the bbc reports, because they did not make up for the required 55% of the world's emission of greenhouse gases. last month, russia announced they would sign the treaty, pushing that percentage to 55%. andrei denisov, russia's ambassador to the united nations, handed kofi annan the official papers today.

several industrialized nations around the world have refused to ratify the kyoto treaty, in particular the united states of america and australia. the governments of both countries argue that signing the protocol would cause an estimated 3% decline in gdp, and thus stagnation of their economies, while resulting in only small total greenhouse gas reductions worldwide. the also point out that other major nations, notably china, are extempt from the treaty provisions.



world's most-spammed man

"november 18, usa" - william henry gates iii or just bill gates, microsoft founder, receives up to four million emails a year, and most of it is "junk" or "spam," according to microsoft ceo steve ballmer. an entire department filters the unsolicited emails.

the following sources were published prior to the clarification about the quantity of e-mail provided by steve ballmer, of microsoft corporation:




new band aid music video is launched

in the united kingdom, the music video for this christmas' remake of the charity single "do they know it's christmas?" was launched simultaneously today (thursday) on several uk and irish television channels including bbc one, bbc two, rte 1, itv1, channel 4, and sky one. the debut was made at 17:55 gmt. 

the song was originally recorded in 1984 by several of the biggest artists of the time including bono, bob geldof, paul mccartney and george michael. this year, in celebration of 20 years since the first single, the song has been remade by over 50 of today's best selling artists, including coldplay frontman chris martin, robbie williams, bono, justin hawkins of the darkness and dido. 

the song, which is in aid of charity, is already tipped to be the christmas no. 1 in the uk and ireland. the song will also be launched as a charity mobile phone ringtone to raise funds for sudan's troubled darfur region. mycokemusic.com said it was going to put the track on its website from thursday with all profits to be donated to charity. the single will be available to buy in shops from the 29 november.



new beta version of msn search service from microsoft released

some major characteristics of the new msn search service include: up to date information, direct answers, direct actions, content specific searching, search near me feature (results tailored geographically), search builder (the user can customize search results by defining search criteria).

the global beta version of msn search is available here.


longhorn for 2006, according to gates

this is expected to be the first microsoft release since windows xp in october of 2001. there has, however, been some speculation of a "windows xp reloaded" in the interim. longhorn is currently in alpha as a preview-release to microsoft developer network (msdn) subscribers.


us reporter convicted for not revealing source

us district court judge ernest torres convicted taricani, a reporter for wjar-tv news in providence, rhode island. the video in question showed the city's mayor, vincent cianci, taking a $1000 bribe. the official was subsequently convicted for corruption. during cianci's trial, the court had ordered the video to be sealed. it was subsequently released to reporter jim taricani. torres opined that the leak had been designed to prevent a fair trial and, as the video was sealed, the person who leaked it had broken the law.

taricani's refusal to identify the leaker had been the basis for his conviction of civil contempt on march 16. a usd $1000 fine was to be issued every day until taricani revealed his source. he has paid all fines, and was reimbursed by wjar-tv news for all expenses. torres suspended the fine, calling it ineffective.

taricani defended his action, saying: "i made a promise to my source, which i intend to keep."

prosecutions for not revealing sources are becoming an increasingly common occurrence. eight journalists have been convicted in recent months. speaking in an interview wednesday, he said, "i'm proud to be a part of this effort with other reporters who are facing this same thing."

sentencing is to take place december 9th. torres has said taricani will receive no more than six months due to ill health.



brazilian landless workers movement invades city hall

according to local state road police, about 250 members of the brazilian landless workers' movement called mst (movimento dos sem terra, in portuguese) blocked the pa-391 highway for about three hours and later invaded the city hall of santa barbara do para, located at from belem, para.

mst said they wanted to be received by the mayor marise andrea barbosa colares (psdb). she was not available and the mst was received by the mayor-elect ismael rasp rock (pmdb). there was not an agreement, and the mst has camped in front of the city hall. a new meeting is expected in coming days with the participation of the incra (national institute of colonization and the agrarian reformation), a government institute.

mst demands the city hall issue a certificate of agreement regarding the dispossession of an area in santa barbara do para which belongs to the dende do para s.a, a company of para, that according to incra passes for dispossession process. in accordance with information passed for the cabinet of the superintendent, the document was required in september, but the city hall had not issued it.

this certificate requires the city hall to assume a series of responsibilities after installing housing in the area of the city, as well as providing education and medical assistance to those settled.

the mst is a marxist-maoist inspired movement of agricultural workers in brazil. according to mst, in 2003 there were about 632 mst camps in brazil. mst say they fight for the agrarian reformation in brazil. some brazilians have already protested against mst tactics, saying they are against the law and they are violent. currently, mst receives help from the brazilian government and donations from international organizations.



knight to leave nike top job

reuters has reported that philip knight, co-founder of shoe giant nike, inc. will step down as the company's ceo and president on december 28. he will be replaced by william perez, current ceo of s.c. johnson & son, inc.

while industry experts consider this to be a good move as the company looks to expand beyond its core market, analyst jamelah reddy expressed surprise that an individual from outside the company was brought in rather than tapping one of nike's co-presidents. reddy said knight was "leaving big shoes to fill."

the move is a blow to activist organizations which have targeted the company for its use of sweatshop labor and other practices. for example, the progressive anti-consumerism magazine "adbusters" recently introduced their "black-spot sneaker" which they promote as being "for just one thing: kicking phil knight's ass". 

nike spokesman kirk stewart said perez was chosen for his experience in dealing with international markets and brand-building, an important skill as nike continues expansion internationally. nike's international sales now surpass domestic sales, reports bloomberg.

according to espn, knight was responsible for nike's endorsement contract with michael jordan, signed in 1984 when he was still a rookie with the chicago bulls. jordan said of knight, "to me, phil knight will always be recognized as a sports marketing visionary -- he will always be a part of nike. i learned so much about the industry from him and will always admire his drive and creativity."

knight, who according to forbes gave no reason for his departure, intends to retain his position as the chairman of nike's board of directors. he will also hold on to his 28% voting share in the corporation, as well as his 92% share of the non-voting stock.



sudanese parties sign peace pledge

according to the bbc, the document concluded with a memorandum saying that "prompt completion of the peace process is essential for all the people of sudan". the actual peace treaty should, according to the pledge, be signed no later than december 31st 2004. while the pledge focuses mainly on the fights between the rebels in the and the khartoum-based government in the north, there is also attention for the ongoing crisis in east sudan (darfur).

several aid agencies have criticized the un for taking a weak stand against the sudanese government. the has already signed two resolutions threatening economic sanctions against sudan if the government does not disarm its troops in darfur, but, so the bbc reports, the violence is continuing. the civil war in darfur was sparked in 2003, when insurgents started attacking government buildings. the arab government in subsequently sent troops to the region, which have been reported to mass-violate human rights of the black africans living in darfur.



www.cnn.com


beheaded bodies found as fighting continues in mosul

the bodies were found after a jordanian named abu musab al-zarqawi made an internet posting in which he claimed that two iraqi national guard officers had been publicly decapitated in mosul. a local businessman, senan shukri, claims to have witnessed the executions, stating that all onlookers had been warned that if they moved or otherwise disturbed the bodies they, too, would be beheaded.

according to lt. col. erik kurilla of the 24th infantry regiment, high-ranking officials in the iraqi national guard have been notified of the claimed beheadings; he states, however, that they have been unable to determine if any of their officers were missing, pointing out that many were on leave and thus difficult to track down in any circumstance.

the bodies have not yet been removed by u.s. troops for fear that they might trigger booby-trapped explosives.


brazilian landless workers movement (mst) invades in bahia

about 250 people from the mst (movimento dos sem terra, in portuguese) or brazilian landless workers movement has invaded a 223 hectares farm in the city of ubaitaba, bahia. according to agencia folha, fernando rodrigues da silva, 34 members of the movement says they want to press the brazilian government institute called incra (national institute of colonization and the agrarian reformation) to look after their cause.

raul pinto farias, owner of the farm has said he will demand the expulsion of mst out of his property before the court of law.

the mst is a marxist-maoist inspired movement of landless peasants in brazil. according to mst, in 2003 there were about 632 mst camps in brazil. mst is a large organization with many settlements throughout brazilian countryside, especially in the brazilian northeast. their main visible tactic is invading lands around the country.

mst says they fight for agrarian reformation and justice in brazil. some brazilians have already protested against mst tatics, saying they are against the law and are violent. currently, mst funds itself by selling produce grown on its agricultural cooperatives and from donations from international organizations. also the movement receives funds by selling videos of their invasions.



spanish tourist fatally shot in rio de janeiro

' -
juan carlos concero, aged 34, a spanish tourist, was shot in the head during an assault in rio de janeiro today. 
he was carried to souza aguiar hospital where he was in a coma, breathing with the help of life support machines. hours later doctors pronounced him braindead.

the brazilian police offices in charge of the case announced the arrest of three man suspected of shooting concero.



19 burmese political prisoners released; more to come

the releases came after the current regime under soe win dissolved the national intelligence bureau run by prime minister general khin nyunt, who was ousted last month. the burmese state-run television and radio network claimed that the nib had wrongly charged 3,937 prisoners.

min ko naing had been imprisoned since 1988 after leading pro-democracy protests that were quickly crushed by the ruling regime. in total, three senior members of aung san suu kyi's national league for democracy were released. aung san suu kyi herself has been under house arrest since may 2003 following a violent confrontation between loyalists and her dissidents.

at least one nld member expressed optimism about the new development. 77-year-old ohn maung, an nld member freed on friday after being imprisoned since 1998, told reuters "it was a pleasant surprise for all of us." he added, "i did not have to sign any undertaking and i expect most of the nld members will also be released like me."

un secretary-general kofi annan released a statement in which he said that he is "encouraged by reports that a number of people detained for political activities are included among [the prisoners released]." he also called for the release of all remaining political opponents and dissidents, either from prison or from house arrest.

according to witnesses outside yangon's insein prison, altogether approximately 200 prisoners--most serving terms for minor criminal offenses--were released friday.

although burma's military regime changed the country's name to myanmar in 1989--a change recognized by the united nations--many national governments and a large portion of the burmese population still use the name "burma" because they do not recognize the legitimacy of the junta that instituted the change.



brazilian economist celso furtado dies

according to abr (government brazilian news agency) celso furtado was victim of a heart attack. 

he will be buried tomorrow at sao joao batista cemetery, rio de janeiro at 12:00.



four nba players suspended indefinitely for brawl

four national basketball association players have been suspended indefinitely for their actions during a brawl at the end of the friday, november 19th game between the detroit pistons and the indiana pacers. 

ron artest, jermaine o'neal and stephen jackson of the pacers and ben wallace of the pistons learned of the length of their suspensions on sunday. ron artest has been suspended for the rest of the season, stephen jackson for 30 games, jermaine o'neal for 25, and ben wallace for 6. pacers guard anthony johnson received a 5 game suspension. in addition, reggie miller from indiana, and detroit pistons chauncey billups, elden campbell and derrick coleman were each suspended one game for leaving their bench. 

the brawl began with 45.9 seconds left in the game, as ben wallace shoved ron artest after a particularly hard foul by artest. that was settled quickly, but a fan then threw a cup at artest as the referees were handling the aftermath of the fight, and artest went into the stands, and began throwing punches. jackson then joined in and began to throw punches as well. due to the brawl the game was called, and ended with 45.9 seconds left. the pacers were ruled the winner. 

artest has had a history of suspensions before this incident. last season he was suspended twice, once for leaving the bench during a fight, and once for elbowing portland player derek anderson. he was suspended 5 times during the 2002-2003 season.



us exchange rate a concern for europeans

european finance ministers at the meeting which opened saturday, november 20th, are expected to discuss the current exchange rate of the vs. the dollar. the euro is currently trading high against the dollar, so that it takes around $1.34 (as of december 4, 2004) to buy one euro. this has the effect of making exports from europe to the usa more expensive, increasing the likelihood that us consumers will buy from a non- country. the exchange rate is set by the currency markets, although it is heavily influenced by the status (ie. the balance of trade between countries).

some european leaders want the united states to take action to increase the value of its exchange rate. the us though is seen as not wanting to do this, for two reasons:

one side-issue that this discussion might evoke is that of the exchange rate between the dollar and the , which is fixed by china. studies of this exchange rate using the concept of (ensuring that a dollar traded to chinese yuan will still buy roughly the same amount in china) show that the chinese yuan has been around 50% undervalued for the past two years. this makes things from china on average 50% cheaper for a us consumer than they should be. us officials have throughout 2004 repeatedly called for china to end this practice. normally it would end itself, i.e. even with a fixed exchange rate this process could only go on for so long before the entire chinese market becomes valued differently. but since the chinese central bank has been constantly lending money to the united states government (via the purchasing of us treasury bonds), that effect is mitigated. 



brazilian landless workers movement (mst) attacked in minas gerais

seven unknown men armed with guns invaded the "terra prometida" camp, in felisburgo
city, minas gerais, brazil, and killed five members of the
brazilian landless workers movement movement (mst). the "terra prometida" camp
had been invaded by the mst in may 2002 and there were about 200 mst families
living there at the time of the attack. 

according to the brazilian newspaper agencia folha, police said 13 of the
members of the mst movement were injured and five died. four of them are still
hospitalized. two of them, joaquim batista da silva and his son (a 12-year-old
child), are in the felisburgo municipal hospital. the other two, valdemar
barbosa lima and jose maroto lima, are in the santa rosaria hospital in
teofilo otoni city.

according to mst camp leaders the gunfighters set fire to mst tents and started
shooting. 

the police are investigating the case. the workers
party (pt) has demanded the gunfighters' arrest and punishment.

the mst is an ideologically diverse movement of
agricultural workers in brazil officially founded in 1984. mst is for the equitable redistribution of brazilian farmland. according to mst, in
2003 there were about 632 mst camps in brazil. mst is a large organization with many bases throughout
brazilian cities. their most visible tactic has been the occupation of mostly
privately-held plantations and landholdings, sometimes armed with carving knifes
and scythes. 

currently, mst receives help from the brazilian government and donations from
international organizations. the movement also receives funds by selling
videos of their invasions.

overall, a recent report on labor standards in brazil has shown that conditions
for laborers are poor



bulk of iraqi debt to paris club to be forgiven

the three-phase plan approved by the creditors calls for an immediate cancellation of 30 percent of iraq's current debt, which will be followed by another 30 percent in 2005 upon approval of an economic program for the nation by the international monetary fund and 20 percent in 2008 after an evaluation of the effectiveness of the program.

adel abdul mahdi, iraq's finance minister, said that the deal was "historic". he also expressed optimism that other creditor nations, including neighbors in the middle east as well as several eastern european nations, may follow the west's lead in forgiving iraqi debt.

however, bulgaria and romania have announced that they intend to recoup as much as possible of the debt owed them by iraq, claiming that the inflow of cash from iraq is essential to their respective economies. they have, however, indicated their willingness to discuss rescheduling of payments on the debt. dimitar tsonev, spokesman for the bulgarian government, told the sofia news agency that the requests from western leaders to reduce iraq's debt were not the first such requests he had received. romania has said it would like to take a flexible approach to the debt repayments, one which is in line with its economic potential.

the plan is the culmination of a trans-atlantic struggle over the amount of iraqi debt to be forgiven, the united states pushing for a 90 to 95 percent reduction while france argued for much less.



president of brazil meets president of russia

the main discussion topics were the end of the embargo on the exportation of brazilian meats, from animals such as bovines and pigs, to russia and the interest of the russian government in conquering the support of brazil to enter the world trade organization.

lula said brazil will support russia to enter the world trade organization, but russia did not agree with the end of the embargo of brazilian meat. russia has forbidden the entrance of brazilian meat in their country because there was a suspection of brazilian cattle contamination by aftosa fever. brazilian authorities said there is no danger and the cattle's health has been monitored.
by another agreement brazil will teach the russians techniques of soccer and the russians go to repass techniques of athletism and swimming.



activists protest against school of the americas

among the crowd were celebrity-actors martin sheen and susan sarandon; sarandon narrated the 1997 documentary "school of assassins" about the school's history. indymedia web site quotes elizabeth nadeau, a 27-year-old student, as saying "prison will not deter us. we will be here until we close the school and change the foreign policy that it represents."

in 1946 the military latin american training center u.s. ground forces was established in panama; in 1949 it became the u.s. army caribbean training center and during 1963 the training center expanded and became the u.s. army school of the americas (usarsa or soa). the soa mission was to counter the influence of communism in the region, and to assist latin-american nations in fighting armed communist movements. in 1984 the school was moved to fort benning, near columbus. at the end of 2000, the soa was closed as its reason of existence as an anti-communist school was rendered unnecessary. in 2001, the western hemisphere institute for security cooperation was opened in the same location. whinsec offers training to latin american military and civilian forces in combat, counter-narcotics, and counter-insurgency techniques, with training completed mainly in the spanish language.

activists claim that both soa (in the past, during 80's) and whinsec (at present day) trained militias in tactics of violence that are/were used against political dissidents in their native countries. they accuse soa graduates of been responsible of death squads, drug deals, murders, rape and torture. they say the school is responsible by these acts and that many techniques of torture its graduated students have used in their countries had been learned at the military american school. a list of allegeds soa graduated students's crimes can be seen at the virtual truth commission, an anti-soa webpage.

pro-soa say the school was important in the maintenance of the security in the latin america and united states during cold war. a list of death victims by communist groups between 1935-1972 only in brazil can be seen at the ternuma (terrorism never), a brazilian alleged anti-terrorism webpage. also, the us department of defense maintains a list of significant terrorist incidents between 1961-2003, among them are several crimes committed by communist groups. the uk version of indymedia distributes a copy in english of the manual of the urban guerrilla which details techniques of urban terrorism for communism, written by carlos marighella, a communism fighter. the cuban dictator fidel castro advocated armed revolutionary struggle in latin america. the ussr or soviet union gave trainning, military and economic help through cuba to various communists groups in american continent. 

the protest at fort benning which involved a mock funeral procession is an annual event organized by the school of americas watch (soaw) to commemorate the first assassination attributed to school's graduates, the november 16 1989, killing of six salvadoran jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her teenage daughter, at the university of central america (uca). of the 27 soldiers cited for that killing by a 1993 un truth commission, 19 were soa graduates. soaw lists 11 former latin american dictators as graduates of the school. usa deny they supported dictators and they protest against fidel castro, the long-time dictator of cuba, who has received support, military and economic help from ussr for a long time.

soa officials say thousands of soldiers have been trained and about 300 of them have been accused of human rights violations. "the connections that critics make between the school and the crimes allegedly committed by its graduates are tenuous at best", says joe leuer - who worked at soa.

pro-military activists planned a concurrent gathering called "god bless fort benning celebration," to honor the soldiers and history of the military base where whinsec is located. "if they have 10,000, then we have 10,001," organizer miriam tidwell told associated press. unverified reports of this counter-demonstration put attendance figures between 10,000 and 15,000.

whinsec operates with an annual budget of approximately $8 million, the school curriculum now includes a mandated 8 hours of training in human rights which includes "human rights, rule of law, due process, civilian control of the military, and the role of the military in a democratic society."



dan rather resigns as anchor, to stay on as correspondent

it is reported that rather's leaving has nothing to do with a report in 2004 regarding us president bush's national guard service that was widely reported to be factually false. a cbs panel is looking into that report. 

others believe that rather is stepping down due to this report and investigation. howard kurtz, a reporter for the , states that "it's pretty clear that dan rather faced a very unpalatable choice... his contract had at least two more years to run. [should he] step down now before the outside investigative report, commissioned by cbs news expected in the next few weeks about his botching -- and the network's botching -- of that story about president bush's national guard service? rather [decided] today that it would be better for him to step down on his own terms."

dan rather, 74, has been the anchor for "cbs evening news" for 24 years, succeeding . rather is the third most watched anchor on united states television. 
all links dated november 23, 2004.


ukrainian opposition leader calls for police and army to join revolution

mr. kuchma's remarks, which came as ukraine's supreme court heard complaints of involving perhaps millions of ballots in the , represented the collapse of what had been the government's united position that viktor f. yanukovych won the election. 

amid protests of up to 200,000 over ukraine's disputed presidential election, officially declared loser viktor yushchenko has called on the army and police to join a revolution against the government. 

this comes after yushchenko was symbolically sworn-in by deputies this weekend.

western election observers have expressed doubts over the vote's credibility.

viktor yushchenko is a banker seen as pro-western. his opposition is the incumbent mr yanukovych, who is seen as pro-, a sensitive issue in a former territory of the .

"the daily telegraph" quotes yushchenko as saying to deputies: "ukraine is on the threshold of a civil conflict. we have two choices: either the answer will be given by the , or the streets will give an answer."



internal emails expose boeing-air force contract discussions

emails exchanged among officials regarding a usd$23 billion dollar deal with aircraft manufacturer have been entered into the public record. (-az) entered them into the during a speech last week against the now-cancelled deal to lease 100 aircraft from boeing.

congressional lawmakers rejected the proposal in october, although industry experts say the deal had been killed by the because of reports stating that the deal had favored boeing. senator mccain has been the deal's most vocal critic.

the original negotiations with boeing were over a . such contracts are often justified by the speed they offer, eliminating a preliminary bid and selection round that may last months. however, no-bid contracts are only open to the company selected by the procuring agency. this leaves no-bid contracts open to accusations of among the procurement personnel. such accusations have previously been leveled against vice president for a no-bid contract to , and are now being made against senior air force officials for choosing boeing to replace its tanker fleet.

in the released emails, air force officials responsible for the awarding of contracts appear biased against boeing's main competitor, and its .

an email from burkhardt & associates to james roche advises the secretary to release fiscal numbers favorable to boeing, apparently regardless of the facts: "i'd distribute a one page memo saying the per plane cost of the lease will not be greater than x and have x be less than the last lease boeing did for some commercial entity--or that x is y dollars less than the cost of a new tanker," it said. an additional email by roche provides a stark contrast to his criticism of airbus, as he talks to assistant secretary of the air force for acquisition marvin sambur about boeing, saying, "i love ya, big guy. give it to the blue eyed arabs of the north (the expression we used for boeing)."

govexec.com quotes a "senate aide" as saying: "the house language [of the spending bill] ignores an analysis of alternatives called for in last year's authorizing language and by pentagon acquisition director michael wynne and the dsb. it precludes such an analysis and predetermines the outcome in favor of the boeing 767 before the study is even initiated." the activist organization the project on government oversight has called it "a textbook case of favoritism to a single defense contractor."

assistant secretary of the air force for acquisition marvin sambur defended the air force's exclusive consideration of boeing, saying, "this was not a competitive bid process. the air force was ordered by congress to work with boeing on the new tanker program."

boeing had previously hired civilian deputy undersecretary of the air force for acquisition . this caused a controversy over conflict of interest and led to felony charges against boeing chief financial officer michael sears for illegally hiring her. former military personnel are often hired by defense contractors to lobby for contracts.

days after sen. mccain's remarks, the air force said the tanker replacement contract would be revived as an . deputy defense secretary published an open-article in the "congressional record", saying: "after we have selected an appropriate alternative, we intend to require competition."



ukraine political crisis

in ukraine, a dead heat in the october 31 election between current prime minister viktor yanukovych and former prime minister viktor yushchenko resulted in a runoff election on november 21. the runoff was plagued with allegations of large-scale voter fraud, particularly in the oblasts (regions) of donetsk, luhansk and kharkiv in eastern ukraine where yanukovych had the strongest support. election observers from the organization for security and cooperation in europe (osce) state that the election did not meet international standards and was subject to wide-scale, planned election fraud. on the other hand, some groups of international observers such as british helsinki human rights group give a quite different picture of massive violations in western ukraine, and pro-opposition bias of local media there: bhhrg report(the report is discredited in this guardian article ).

the declaration of yanukovych as the winner of the runoff by the elections commission set into play mass demonstrations and demands for a recount or outright revote from yuschchenko supporters. the result has been widely criticised by western media as fraudulent.







ukraine election results delayed by court

according to "", the ukrainian supreme court will resume its investigation of this issue on monday. while the decision was being made, reports were released stating that the foreign policy chief for the european union, , will visit the country in order to meet with the central figures in this crisis.


australia in a good position after first day of adelaide test match

the laughter started soon after australian captain ricky ponting won the toss and elected to bat on the hard, dry pitch. openers justin langer and matthew hayden got off to a flying start, achieving 0/19 off the first two overs. hayden was later caught and bowled by paul wiseman for 70. although hayden was clearly out, he refused to walk, insisting after the incident with craig mcmillan in the previous test, that the field umpires called for the video replay, which quickly ruled that he was out. 

ponting then came out to replace hayden, and quickly took a fancy to the new zealand bowlers. he eventually misjudged a spin delivery from daniel vettori and was stumped for 68. damien martyn briefly stepped in, but was cheaply dismissed for 7, only to be replaced by darren lehmann, who is not out on 28.

the best performance of the innings though, came from justin langer, who is currently not out on 144. australia, at the time of writing, are 3/327, putting themselves into a commanding position for the second day's play. 

australia has already won the series with their previous victory in brisbane, and this test is widely regarded merely as batting practice for stephen fleming's new zealand side. key bowler james franklin is returning from injury in this game, but has had a poor start, with figures of 0/84 off of 14 overs.


170 workers trapped in chinese mine after explosion

chinese state officials said that 123 workers managed to escape the facilities. many of those who escaped the mines are suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning. since the accident, there has been no contact with the 170 workers trapped inside, although the initial number of 183 people still in the complex was revised downwards.

china has had a long history of mining accidents ?its mines are known as being among the most dangerous in the world. last month, more than 150 people died after a gas explosion in a mine in the henan province. the official tally of 4,153 mine fatalities during the first nine months of this year is actually a 13% improvement over the same period last year, which had a total of 6,246 mine worker deaths ?4,620 of them coal mines. 5,203 deaths occurred among workers in other china industries.



ruling party ahead in romanian elections

however the psd did not gain the vote majority needed to declare an outright victory, and it will now proceed to a run-off election against the centre-left opposition. called the truth and justice alliance, the main opposition is a union of candidates from the national liberal party and the democrat party. 

while psd+pur is currently leading, the most hotly-contested election in romania's post-communist history may come down to the run-off, to be held on december 12. the winning presidential candidate of the run-off will not only become the country's president but will also appoint a prime minister to lead the government.

in the presidential election, adrian n?stase, the psd's presidential candidate, won approximately 42% of the vote, while traian b?sescu of truth and justice obtained around 35%, according to exit polls. 

n?stase led the exit polls due to greater support in rural romania, as well as support from the urban poor, due to his policy of boosting the economy. n?stase's psd+pur coalition was also supported because they are credited with saving romania from economic collapse during their presidential and legislative term from 2000 until the present time. during his term of prime-minister of romania, from 2000 to 2004, n?stase not only boosted the economy but ensured that romania entered nato and progressed towards its accession to the european union, expected to occur in 2007. in 2004, the economy is expected to grow by 8.6%, the highest rate in europe.

b?sescu won a majority in bucharest, romania's capital, as well as in the wealthier cities of transylvania. b?sescu is supported by the educated middle-class, who take a favourable view upon his policy of stamping out corruption in one of the region's most corrupt countries. b?sescu has also received a boost due to his liberalist policies and his proposal for tax reform and the introduction of a flat tax.

in the legislative election, the psd+pur coalition obtained 40% of the vote, while the truth and justice alliance trailed with 35%. because the psd+pur coalition did not gather the majority of the votes (50%+1), it will have to form a governing coalition with the minor parties, a process which is expected to be tedious given the fact that both of the major parties have ruled out entering into a coalition with ultra-nationalist the greater romania party, which obtained around 12% of the vote.



researchers discover high temperature enables more efficient hydrogen generation

a more efficient way to produce useable hydrogen has been demonstrated by researchers. it uses very high-temperature electrolysis to separate hydrogen from water, so that hydrogen may be used for energy production.

electrolysis is one method by which laboratories and factories produce hydrogen. an electrical current is passed through water, breaking it down into hydrogen and oxygen gas, which are then collected above the water reservoir.

researchers in salt lake city, utah, at "ceramtech incorporated", in collaboration with workers at "the idaho national engineering and environmental laboratory" report that when water is superheated to 800 degrees celsius, far less electricity is required to produce the same volume of hydrogen. the researchers envision that future nuclear fission plants could be used both to heat the water as part of their cooling system, and generate the needed electricity.

concerns have been raised regarding the safety of such arrangements, however. jeremy desterhoft, an independent consultant on nuclear energy safety, warns the "elevated levels of radiation required to sufficiently lower the atomic separation point is beyond the current capabilities of any recent cooler." he does not believe that economically viable cooling technology will be available for at least four to six more years.



american teenage girl charged with murder of her mother

rachelle waterman, (aka rachelle ann monica waterman and "smchyrocky"), a 16-year-old girl from craig, alaska, usa, has been charged with the first degree murder of her mother.

the case has rapidly received a wide following on the internet, partly because waterman kept a public record of her thoughts and activities on livejournal, a popular blogging service. the last entry, which has since been removed from public view, was posted on november 18, 2004 and read:

just to let everyone know, my mother was murdered.
"i won't have computer acess "[sic] "until the weekend or so because the police took my computer to go through the hard drive. i thank everyone for their thoughts and e-mails, i hope to talk to you when i get my computer back."

a diverse group of users, both friends and strangers, have posted over 5,000 comments on the journal, positive and negative, transforming the case into an internet phenomenon. every entry since march 2004 has apparently now been deleted or hidden, but a zip archive of the entire weblog, from before the entries were deleted, is available on deadly blogging.

waterman was a tenth-grade honor (a-average) student in her second year at craig high school. she was also a member of the academic decathlon team (acdc) and sang in the choir, a profile that has left many people questioning her involvement in the killing and asking what motive there might be. at the time police say the killing occurred, rachelle waterman was apparently playing in a volleyball tournament in anchorage, alaska.

apart from the online diary rachelle kept, the case is also unusual because matricide committed by female minors is extremely rare.

the waterman family is a locally prominent, middle-upper class family. born on august 26, 1988, rachelle showed an interest in acting, computers, movies and music, and was an honor roll student, involved in many extra-curricular activities, including choir, volleyball, and the decathlon team - advancing to upper levels and winning prizes in almost every endeavor. her mother, lauri, was a teachers' aide and served on the board of the little league and the town library. rachelle waterman's 60-year-old father, carl "doc" waterman, is a real estate agent and serves as president of the craig school board. rachelle's older brother, geoffrey, lives out of town and is a student at tacoma college.

waterman and her alleged accomplices, jason arrant and brian radel, both 24 years old, are accused of murdering and conspiring to murder waterman's 48-year-old mother, lauri waterman.

reportedly, arrant dropped radel off near the waterman home shortly after 12:00 a.m. sunday, november 13, 2004 (local time) where radel proceeded to kidnap lauri waterman, force her into a minivan owned by the waterman family, and kill her with a blunt object.

arrant and radel then allegedly met at forest service road 3012 at about 2:30 a.m., and arrant followed radel to its dead end, where radel had driven the waterman's van.

arrant then allegedly watched as radel doused the body and van with gasoline and then used a roll of paper towels to set it on fire, in an attempt to destroy the evidence.

alaska state police lt. rodney dial has stated that a hunter discovered lauri waterman's body and her burnt-out van, while driving on forest service road 3012, a remote logging road, early in the afternoon of sunday november 142004.

on saturday, november 202004, alaska state police trooper robert claus stated:

during ... interviews all three made admissions as to their involvement in the murder. physical evidence recovered at the various crime scenes corroborated many of the defendants' statements ... radel, arrant and waterman have been charged with murder in the first degree. due to the severity of the charges, waterman has been waived into adult court. additional charges of solicitation, conspiracy, tampering with physical evidence and other charges are pending. arrant and waterman will be arraigned in the district court in craig this morning.

on saturday, november 20, 2004, rachelle appeared in craig district court, dressed in an orange ccjf jumpsuit, for arraignment on the charges. waterman and her alleged co-conspirators, jason arrant, and brian radel, faced a 10-count indictment, listing 26 felonies.

the fairbanks daily news-miner reported that, "the complaint against rachelle waterman relied on statements by all three co-defendants. the complaint says the girl told one of the suspects when she and her father would be out of town."

a report in the ketchikan daily news stated that, "the first seven counts of the indictment allege that all three defendants committed the crimes of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder; first-degree murder; second-degree murder; kidnapping; first-degree burglary; first-degree vehicle theft and tampering with physical evidence." other charges were made against arrant and radel. the same report went on to state, "trooper robert claus, klawock resident jan bush and deputy state medical examiner susan klingler testified before the grand jury."

magistrate kay clark presided over the arraignment and set bail at $150,000. clark also appointed a public defender to represent rachelle, who was sent to the juneau department of corrections facility.

judge patricia collins, of the juneau superior court, has been assigned to run the trial for the case. judge collins originally set a date of february 3, 2005 for the trial, but, at an arraignment that week, the trial was rescheduled for august 22. according to court officials, another postponement is likely.

rachelle waterman's court-appointed attorney for the trial is assistant public advocate steven wells. assistant district attorney daniel schally is assigned to prosecute the case.

no motive for the crime has been suggested. readers are closely scrutinizing rachelle's online journal for clues.

as early as february 24th of 2004, she posted the following:

numerous readers have pointed to rachelle's negative comments concerning her mother's wishes to send her to a "fat farm" to lose weight.

in another incident, her mother grounded her (restricted her to home) for receiving an 89% score on a test. rachelle posted these comments to her journal in response to this situation (verbatim spelling):

other readers have pointed to the title of rachelle's journal, "my crappy life (the inside look of an insane person)", and her negative description of her hometown as "hell, alaska, united states":

rachelle posted the following poem to her journal on august 24, 2004, with an indication that she was depressed:

she also had a strong desire not to be at home:

and even posted an "ode to suicide" under the following post:

finally, the weekend before rachelle left on a trip, during which time her mother was allegedly killed, she noted in her second-to-last entry, "i had a migraine from about 9am-6pm".

rachelle waterman is currently incarcerated at the lemon creek correctional facility, in alaska. she signed an agreement to be placed into the general population. corrections deputy commissioner portia parker indicated that waterman "is an adult in the eyes of the law."

alaska law places persons charged with first-degree murder at the age of 16 or older in the adult court system, and most of the records concerning this case are open to the public for inspection.

one of the last entries in rachelle's journal wonders whether anyone is reading her comments (verbatim spelling):

although waterman has not yet been convicted, sociologists and forensic psychologists are beginning to study her journal and the circumstances of her writing it. (the police have seized her computer and are examining the contents of its hard drive for evidence.)

livejournal has subsequently restricted the viewing of her journal.

when interviewed by alaskan television station ktuu about the nature of online journals, (in late november, 2004) forensic psychologist susan lagrande commented that "[i]t's such an anonymous vehicle that you can be whoever or say whatever you want. you don't have all the responsibilities that are inherent in a face-to-face real, legitimate relationship.

this same report pointed out that rachelle waterman had mentioned suicide in her online journal.

criminologist susan magestro was interviewed by ktuu on the subject of juvenile crime, in late november, 2004, after waterman became the second teenager within two months to be accused of murdering her own parent. she stated that "i think that we're starting to see more violence with kids who are younger, and the behaviors that they're exhibiting are more aggressive and more violent." magestro also opined that "we've got a lot more fetal alcohol and drug children who are growing up, and they don't understand the consequences of some of their actions." (there is no indication that waterman was a so-called "fetal alcohol" or "drug" child.)

ktuu reported that magestro "...blames violent movies, tv shows and videogames for desensitizing young people, making them unable to understand the consequences -- or even the reality -- of their actions." 

although waterman has been waived into the adult justice system due to the nature of the crime, the governor of alaska, frank murkowski, has proposed increasing the number of personnel assigned to the juvenile justice system.












world's largest ball of twine turns 50

people in kansas like to just go have a look at things from time to time, particularly if it is kitchy and big. frank stoeber died in 1974, but not before he left behind a legacy of twine. frank started a building a ball of sisal twine (a form of hemp) in 1953, which as grown to 40 ft in diameter hence. the ball of twine's domicile is a mini-museam located in the downtown of cawker city, kansas, which onlookers can simple look at or add twine to. in some ways frank's ball of twine mirrors that of the failed culture of easter island. on easter island, the people built large stone heads in some final attempt to perserve a culture that was dying from lack of trees. similarly, frank's large ball of twine stands an object of preservation. in case you don't make off the coast of chili, head out to the heartland and have a look.


usl v. bsdi settlement agreement unsealed



lycos launches screensaver to increase spammers' bills

internet portal and mail-provider lycos europe has launched a program to increase spammers' bills by having thousands of voluntary users' computers repeatedly query websites from which spam originates. such a tactic would increase the bandwidth costs for these websites. however, it also faces legal questions.

spamming, the mass sending of unsolicited emails, is lucrative in part because each email can be sent for nearly insignificant costs. with such low costs, a commercial spammer needs only to have a very small number of recipients buy their product to make a profit. the goal of many anti-spam proposals has been to increase the cost of spammers sending messages. lycos' approach is to make it more expensive to maintain servers that send spam.

volunteers may download the screensaver from the lycos website for it. the program would run on a user's computer in the background and request about three megabytes (3mbs) of data every day. the screensaver shows which spam server is being targeted by the user, where the server is located, and how many others are attacking it at that moment. target email servers are selected from blacklists from anti-spam organizations, with lycos' own verification.

legal issues arise over whether this can be interpreted as a denial of service attack. in such an attack, computers overwhelm a webserver with requests for data to the point where it does not have the resources to fulfill its normal function. lycos, in explanatory material on the screensaver's dedicated website ( http://makelovenotspam.com ), claims that its technology closely monitors the screensavers' effects on targeted websites and prevents any of them from being completely shut down by information requests. 

lycos europe operates in germany where, according to joerg heidrich of heise zeitschriften verlag, less than completely shutting down a server is not clearly illegal under the penal code. it may, however, be actionable under the civil code. but lycos may be betting that no one will file a suit, as that would require those participating in illegal spamming to reveal their identity.

the website no longer allows downloads of the screensaver, and users of the screensaver cannot connect to spam sites, but are instead given the message 'stay tuned'


valech report released

the valech report, officially titled the national commission on political imprisonment and torture report, was made public yesterday (november 29, 2004) by bishop sergio valech, the head of the eight-member panel commission into abuses committed in chile between 1973 and 1990 by agents of augusto pinochet's military regime. it was prepared by the national commission on political imprisonment and torture at the request of the president, and it is freely available to the public as a document on the internet.

the report was based on testimonies given to the commission by more than 35,000 people. a little over 27,000 of those testimonies were regarded as legitimate by the commission.

on addressing the nation on november 28, 2004, president ricardo lagos said he would propose a bill that will provide compensation to the victims.

most witnesses described behavioral, emotional and psychosocial effects. many said they had felt ? and still feel ? insecure and fearful, humiliated, ashamed and guilty; depressed, anxiety-ridden and hopeless. some persons mentioned alterations in their concentration and memory; others cited conflicts, crises and breakups within their families, as well as conjugal problems. they also mentioned the loss of reference groups and social networks. most victims mentioned sleep disturbances and chronic insomnia, as well as behavioral inhibitions, phobias and fears.

this commission heard testimony from 3,399 women, almost all of whom said they were the object of sexual violence; 316 said they were raped. of the latter, 229 were detained while pregnant. because of the torture they suffered, 20 of them aborted and 15 gave birth while in prison. thirteen women said they were made pregnant by their captors; six of those pregnancies came to term.

the full report, in spanish, can be found here.

excerpts from the report as translated by the miami herald .




gusenbauer reelected as austrian social democrat party leader

alfred gusenbauer has been reelected as leader of the austrian social democrat party (spoe) at the party's convention in vienna. gusenbauer received 88.93% of the vote, an unexpectedly low value. in 2002, he was reelected with 99.6%. gusenbauer leads the spoe since 1999.

albeit the low result he has called the vote an ""impressive display of confidence"". gusenbauer and other heads of the party, including influential vienna mayor michael haeupl have confirmed that gusenbauer will be the party's top candidate for the next parliamental election which will also determine the austrian chancellor.

in his keynote address gusenbauer has issued heavy criticism at the current austrian government which is led by chancellor wolfgang schuessel and the austrian people's party (oevp). 



china and south east asian nations to create the world's largest free trade area

in the last four years china has become a major importer of oil and commodities, and a major exporter of finished goods. china has also strengthened relationships with oil suppliers in the middle east and africa. this pact lifts trade restrictions and removes tariffs from many imports and exports. it also allows china to continue manipulating the value of its currency in its own interests. the yuan is currently undervalued, making chinese-made goods artificially cheap for foreign importers. 

stated in the agreement is asean's intention to create a unified economy--and by implication polity--similar to the eu. this agreement will cement china's role as the center of the south asian regional economy, and at the same time strengthening bonds between china and other countries in the region and ease their suspicions over a growing superpower.

japanese prime minister junichiro koizumi and south korean president roh moo-hyun separately adopted accords with the 10-nation association of southeast asian nations, agreeing to launch the talks early next year. both agreements aim for trade pacts within two years. australia and new zealand are expected to sign similar agreements with asean before discussions close later tuesday, although asean remains wary of australian prime minister john howard's refusal to sign its nonaggression treaty. howard played down these concerns but said on record that he reserves the right to preemptively act against terrorists on foreign soil if they threaten australia. 



hopes rise for breakthrough in northern ireland peace process

it is also expected that the republican sinn fein leader gerry adams would have separate meetings with the irish leader bertie ahern in dublin.
these meetings follow a historic meeting between gerry adams and northern ireland chief constable hugh orde over issues of police reform and decommissioning.

the current impasse concerns the key issues of decommissioning of paramilitary weapons and the 'de-militarisation' of the province. previous efforts to achieve a compromise failed because unionists claimed insufficiently large amounts of ira weaponry had been decommissioned, and that there was insufficient evidence that the weapons had in fact been destroyed.

some unionists are insisting on photographic evidence of the destruction of ira weapons, a request that is bound to be resisted by more militant republicans. even if further decommissioning occurs, republicans are almost certain to want a specific timetable for the removal of british army bases in republican leaning areas of northern ireland (such as south armagh), which are much resented by some local inhabitants.

if the current deadlock were broken, it would mean the reconvening of the northern ireland assembly, which was shut down in 2002 amidst accusations of spying by both republicans and unionists.



us president bush visits canada

united states president george w. bush made his first official state visit to canada this week.

after the political frost between the two states surrounding the u.s.' war on terror policy and its invasion of iraq in 2003, the kind of relationship the neighbor states can build or rebuild is thought to be of concern to many canadians ? the majority of whom remain highly critical of the bush administration's policies.

topics discussed included the u.s. "star wars" missile defence system, the future of norad (north american aerospace defence command), combatting of aids and other diseases in africa, and cracking down on illegal activities on the u.s.-canada border. they also discussed trade issues including beef, lumber, and prescription drugs. 

protesters clashed with riot police in ottawa briefly on tuesday in a break from what has been for the most part a calm series of demonstrations. the indymedia group of websites reported a demonstration on the 29th against the deportation of palestinian refugees.
they also report 15,000 people marched against bush in ottawa on the 30th and have text photos, and a video of the protests. 

during an early afternoon news conference with prime minister paul martin, bush said he was pleased with the welcome he received tuesday morning. "i want to thank the canadian people who came out to wave ?with all five fingers ?for their hospitality," he said with a chuckle.

the official 26-hour visit will take the american president to canada's capital city, ottawa and to halifax, where he will pay tribute to the hospitality shown by canadians on september 11, 2001, when, after the u.s. closed its airspace, more than 200 flights were diverted to canadian airports. thousands of americans were sheltered in halifax (the largest city in canada's atlantic provinces) as well as st. john's and gander in newfoundland, and other centres. 



us secretary of homeland security tom ridge resigns

in his tenure as the first united states secretary of homeland security, ridge has been instrumental in establishing protocols aimed at thwarting terrorism, including a national warning system based on color coding that is routinely publicized nationally.

in his resignation, ridge thanked president bush for the opportunity to help secure the nation and expressed his sentiments that the new security systems put in place since the september 11, 2001 attacks had made america safer and more prepared than it had been. he cited family and personal issues as major reasons for his resignation stating that, "after more than 22 consecutive years of public service, it is time to give personal and family matters a higher priority."

several days after ridge's announcement, secretary of health and human services tommy thompson announced his departure and warned that the nation remains vulnerable to potential food-borne terrorist attacks, stating, "i cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply because it is so easy to do."

as the united states's first secretary of homeland security, ridge resigned his position as governor of pennsylvania in 2001 to take the position for which president bush had nominated him.

he is well-known to americans for implementing the now-famous color-coded terror alert levels and advisories against various sorts of terrorism. 

the department of homeland security is a new player in the power struggle in washington. throughout his tenure, ridge fought a losing battle with the fbi for jurisdiction because the bush administration allowed the fbi to remain a part of the department of justice.



department of defense report lambasts communication failure in us war on terror

advisory committee has released a report harshly criticizing the u.s.-led "war
on terror". the report details communication failures with the muslim
world, and notes that current efforts may have achieved the opposite
of their intended effect.

the report released without publicity the wednesday before thanksgiving by defense science board, focuses on a failure of communication, which the defense science board considers vital to the war on terror. it asserts this failure of "strategic communication" contributes to a perceived "negative image in world opinion and diminished ability to persuade" of the united states, and that a resulting atmosphere of hostility can manifest in numerous ways.

the list of harmful effects includes "terrorism, thin coalitions, harmful effects on business, restrictions
on travel, declines in cross border tourism and education flows, and
damaging consequences for other elements of u.s. soft power".

according to the report, "the information campaign ... is an essential objective, because the larger goals of u.s. strategy depend on separating the vast majority of non-violent muslims from the radical-militant islamist-jihadists. but american efforts have not only failed in this respect: they may also have achieved the opposite of what they intended."

by way of example, the report quotes figures from a june 2004 zogby poll, claiming to show a significant drop in arab support for the u.s. in the past couple years. statistical results are reproduced below.

the report further claims, "american direct intervention in the muslim world has paradoxically elevated the stature of and support for radical islamists." as summarised in a "christian science monitor" headline, 'they hate our policies, not our freedom'.

so why has support for the u.s. dropped? -- to single digits in some arab nations. president bush and others have famously claimed that america is hated for its freedom. but the defense science board concluded that most arabs "do not hate us for our values, but because of our policies." from the same zogby study:

this study explains that while support for american values may not be overwhelming, it is practically non-existent for america's policies in the middle east.

"the overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favor of israel and against palestinian rights, and the longstanding, even increasing support for what muslims collectively see as tyrannies, most notably egypt, saudi arabia, jordan, pakistan, and the gulf states. thus when american public diplomacy talks about bringing democracy to islamic societies, this is seen as no more than self-serving hypocrisy."

in the eyes of muslims, according to this report, america is really only looking out for its own interests.

it concludes from this that the fundamental problem with relations with the muslim world is not a simple matter of crafting the right message. "rather, it is a fundamental problem of credibility. simply, there is none."


blog declared word of the year

merriam-webster’s online dictionary has announced that the word “blog” is their word of the year in their list of top 10 words of the year. 

the top ten list in order was:


reuters reports that the company said most online dictionary queries were for uncommon terms, but people also turned to its web sites for words in news headlines.

"that is what occurred in this year's election cycle ... with voluminous hits for words like 'incumbent,' 'electoral,' 'partisan,' and, of course, our number one word of the year, 'blog'," merriam-webster president and publisher john morse said in a statement.

the dictionary has been criticized however for its definition of a blog on a blog news website, that described merriam-websters definition of a blog as a personal journal as "garbage" and "so 1999".



itms canada launched


itms canada was announced during the launch of the ipod photo, ipod special edition: u2, and eu itms on october 26. apple ceo steve jobs stated that the canada localization was planned for november. apple apologized today for missing its own deadline, and announced that the store will be launched "very soon." no reason was given for the delay.

itms canada is another choice for canadians in legal music downloads which includes archambault.ca (quebecor media inc.), napster.ca (the legal reincarnation of napster), and puretracks.com (moontaxi media inc.).

the canada localization is the 13th nation to be added to itms following its launch in the united states in april 2003; france, u.k., and germany were added, in june of this year and all european union countries, except ireland, were added in october.



kerik nominated as u.s. secretary of homeland security

kerik resigned as police commissioner two months following the terrorist attacks, citing the desire to spend more time with his family, 
but has since kept a very high profile. following the invasion of iraq, he chose to lead the training of iraqi law enforcement. he campaigned for president george w. bush in the and delivered a prime time speech at the .

among other security qualifications, he has served in the , as narcotics detective in the nypd and as private security worker in .

kerik faces the daunting task of running the dhs, an agency assembled from 22 other agencies with over 180,000 employees. 



federally-funded abstinence programs fraught with problems: report

the report found that over 80% of the curricula used by the recipients of the grants contained incorrect information, including the claim that condoms did not prevent the spread of stds and that abortions have a high chance of causing sterility.

these programs are funded by the federal government under president george w. bush's faith-based initiative. according to the report, these abstinence programs?promoted by the administration of president bush?are receiving increasing amounts of funding: nearly $170 million will be spent in 2005, which is more than double the spending on these programs in 2001.

under the faith-based initiative programs, the united states government allocates funds to religious and other community organizations that agree to carry out abstinence education programs which do not include coverage of any other methods of birth control or sexually transmitted disease prevention, as well as other criteria.

the timing of the report is significant in that it comes on the heels of research from columbia university that found that nearly 9 of 10 teenagers who had pledged abstinence from pre-marital sex had broken their vows in the first six years since the pledges. 

the waxman report and the columbia university study describe some abstinence programs as factually wrong and/or ineffective. in a rebuttal, dr. alma l. golden, a deputy assistant secretary in the health and human services department, said in a statement that mr. waxman's report "misses the boat" and that it took information out of context "for purely political reasons."




dem. republic of congo prepares to confront rwanda

december 3, 2004

the democratic republic of the congo may be preparing to have its troops face those of rwanda, which have allegedly been sighted by united nations personnel on the congo side of the border. 

the united nations is attempting to mediate the conflict but both sides of the conflict appear to be pursuing independent policies, with congo's president accusing rwanda of being predatory, and rwandan president refusing to back down from the threat of pursuing rwandan rebels across congo's territory.



ukraine parliament sacks government

the vote came just before international mediators were to commence efforts to resolve the controversial election.


eta bombs five gas stations in madrid

the basque separatist group eta was blamed for five explosions at gas stations in the spanish capital of madrid on friday. the explosions claimed no casualties, but two police officers were lightly wounded.

an anonymous caller contacted the basque newspaper gara at 5.30pm local time, describing the location of the devices and naming eta as responsible for the attacks. the bombings caused city-wide traffic jams, as police and rescue forces raced to secure the targets. the attacks ended a relatively peaceful phase of several months in the conflict between the spanish central government and basque extremists.

while leaders of eta's political arm batasuna have recently hinted at the possibility of a ceasefire, the assault makes any form of dialogue with eta unlikely in the near future. eta is considered a terrorist organization by the united states and the european union.


delta 4 heavy rocket poised for maiden launch

december 13, 2004

cape canaveral, florida - the first new heavy lift space vehicle in a generation is cleared to launch from cape canaveral air force station. the boeing delta iv heavy has missed launch opportunities three days in a row (starting friday, december 12) due to minor technical difficulties. it is now scheduled to launch dec. 20 or 21 from pad slc-37b.

the delta 4 was developed as part of the u.s air force's "evolved expendable launch vehicle" program to reduce costs and improve reliability. the basic design is a two stage, cryogenic lox/lh rocket. strap-on boosters may be added to increase lift capacity. 

two major obstacles have plagued the project in recent years; a bidding scandal which cost boeing a large portion of the military satellite launch business for which it was competing, and a downturn in commercial satellite launches in 2001.

the "heavy" variant of the delta 4 rocket can place 13,100 kg (28,950 lb) into geostationary transfer orbit, greater than any other current rocket. two additional first stage cores are used as strap-on boosters for this configuration. their rated thrust is 2,900,000 n (656,000 lb) each. 

delta 4's main engine, the rs68, is the most powerful hydrogen/liquid oxygen engine in the world, approximately three times as powerful as the ariane 5 vulcain hm60. its design sacrifices efficiency for increased reliability and lower cost: rated specific impulse is 365s at sea level and 410s in a vacuum. the second stage engine, pratt and whitney's rl-10b-2, has a specific impulse of 462s.

the primary market for this launcher will be classified spy satellites for the us intelligence community. most of these satellites were previously launched on the titan 4, which has since been retired. the delta 4 heavy's published launch cost is $170 million, compared to the titan 4's $400 million (1999 dollars).

delta 4 heavy's maiden launch is a demonstration and will carry a dummy load and two nano-satellites. the main payload, dubbed "demosat" is a 6020 kg (13271 lb) mass designed to simulate the dynamic and initial properties of a real satellite. its design consists of large brass rods, intended to fully burn up on reentry.

the two nano-satellites are part of the us department of defense "nanosat-2 program", and built by students from new mexico state university, arizona state university, and the university of colorado at boulder.



mozambique elections: frelimo ahead, abstention levels could reach 80%

with just over 400 thousand votes counted, the frelimo candidate was ahead with 293 800 votes, against 108 807 to afonso dhlakama and 7899 to raul domingos. unnoficial estimates report abstention levels to be between 70% and 80%.

if confirmed, these abstention levels could force a run-off next month, if neither candidate wins the 50% of votes necessary to win the elections.

mozambique's official electoral commission is only obligated to announce the final results by dec. 17.

heavy rains, as well as extreme heat and logistics problems during the 2-day elections could explain the low voter turnout, but there could be other factors responsible for this, specifically the start of the cashew season, a traditional source of income for a substantial part of the population.

the cashew season begins in late november, extending to february or march, mainly in four provinces: gaza and inhambane (frelimo strongholds), and especially in zambezia and nampula (renamo strongholds).

normally, the income obtained from this can sustain the workers for the rest of the year, and usually takes them away from their homes and voting centers.



 


tommy thompson steps down as secretary of health and human services

tommy thompson has joined the growing number of secretaries to leave president george bush's cabinet. 

while thompson will stay on until his replacement is chosen, he has said he looks forward to joining the private sector.

thompson served as governor of wisconsin for a record 4 consecutive terms until 2001, when he joined the bush administration.



humans may have contributed to 2003 european heatwave

scientists using a computer model of the typical european summer with no human influences (without global warming) have compared it to the same model with global warming included. they have concluded that human influence makes extremely warm summers (i.e. summers as warm as the 2003 heatwave) more than twice as likely.

commentators have suggested that in the future this may open the way for lawsuits against heavy polluters by persons whose livelihoods have been affected by adverse climate change. however, the report stesses that though it is in fact impossible to pin any specific extreme climate event on either global warming or natural climate variation, human activities increase the frequency of such events.

the study is based upon climate activity during the last 50 years, which can only be replicated with computer models which include human forcing (co2 and other greenhouse gases (ghgs)). however, even within a warmer world the summer of 2003 was anomalously warm in europe. most simulations of 2003 climate produce cooler weather in europe than what actually happened. it is not yet known if flaws in the models cause this difference, if the warmth of 2003 was part of a trend, or 2003 was merely unusually hot. if there will be a warming trend, a model predicts that such summers could become an event of 1-in-2 probability only by 2050.

in the americas, a series of sudden weather changes has been more frequent in the last 15 years since the discovery of the phenomenon knows as "el nino", in which vast regions of north and south america suffered weather extremes ranging from high tides to extreme hail, rain and snowstorms during summer and winter seasons following extremely hot summers. there's still no scientific evidence that "el nino" is directly influenced by human factors.



twin bombings hit baghdad's green zone

the attacks occurred near the checkpoint 2 entrance at 9:30 a.m. immediately after the blasts, a small arms attack was launched by rebels on checkpoint 1. 

entrances into the green zone, frequented by foreigners and journalists, were immediately sealed.

among the four killed were police officers, and between 35 and 60 were reportedly wounded.

 


napster founder shawn fanning introduces new file-sharing project

shawn fanning, the creator of napster and a founder of snocap, inc., on friday revealed his plans for a legal peer-to-peer file-sharing platform. snocap has signed an agreement with universal music group to make the company's entire catalogue available through the new service. financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

according to snocap's press release, the platform will include a copyright management interface, which will allow content owners to control the distribution of their intellectual property among users. the service's main competitor would be apple's itunes music store, which is currently the most widely used legal source of downloadable music.



digest/29november2004


articles dated 29 november to 5 december 2004 are included in the compilation below. their status in the current proposed review policy at time of compilation is noted next to each date of articles of some length, with articles only in development being listed at bottom.

aljazeera says united states have used napalm in fallujah
29 november 2004 | review failed
fallujah, iraq - according to al-jazeera, an arabic television channel based in qatar, the united states military have used napalm in its assault on fallujah. civilians, it has been reported, have been killed in these latest attacks. the information has not been supported by international mainstream news agencies.

ukrainian opposition leader calls for police and army to join revolution
29 november 2004| not participating
kiev, ukraine - president leonid d. kuchma monday proposed holding a new election to end the political crisis threatening to tear the country apart, according to the new york times.

american teenage girl charged with murder of her own mother
29 november 2004 | under review
united states - rachelle waterman, (aka rachelle ann monica waterman and "smchyrocky"), a 16-year-old girl from craig, alaska, usa, has been charged with the first degree murder of her mother.

ruling party ahead in romanian elections
29 november 2004 | under review
bucharest. romania's ruling social democrat party (psd) has emerged ahead in yesterday's legislative and presidential elections. the voter turnout was around 57% of all eligible voters, which number 18 million people in a country of 21.7 million.

lycos launches screensaver to increase spammers' bills
29 november 2004 | peer reviewed
europe - internet portal and mail-provider lycos europe has launched a program to increase spammers' bills by having thousands of voluntary users' computers repeatedly query websites from which spam originates. such a tactic would increase the bandwidth costs for these websites. however, it also faces legal questions.

us president bush visits canada
30 november 2004 | peer reviewed
ottawa - united states president george w. bush made his first official state visit to canada this week.

china and south east asian nations to create the world's largest free trade area
30 november 2004 | under review
vientiane, laos - the people's republic of china has signed an agreement with asean to establish the world's largest free trade area. japan, south korea, new zealand, india and australia are considering joining. asean members include myanmar, laos, thailand, cambodia, vietnam, philippines, malaysia, brunei darussalam, singapore and indonesia.

outgoing u.s. congress takes parting jabs at wildlife protection
30 november 2004 | under review
washington, dc ?? in what is likely to be its final action this term, the 108th congress nullified the effects of three recent court rulings extending key wilderness protections to wildlife refuge, national park and forest lands, according to wilderness watch and public employees for environmental responsibility (peer). through unrelated provisions inserted in the $388 billion omnibus bill, congressional leaders cut back wilderness safeguards in alaska, idaho and the georgia seacoast.

hopes rise for breakthrough in northern ireland peace process
30 november 2004 | under review
belfast - hopes were rising that the impasse in the good friday agreement could be broken with high level talks in downing street between the british prime minister tony blair and the democratic unionist leader ian paisley.

valech report released
30 november, 2004 | under review
chile - the valech report, officially titled the national commission on political imprisonment and torture report, was made public yesterday (november 29, 2004) by bishop sergio valech, the head of the eight-member panel commission into abuses committed in chile between 1973 and 1990 by agents of augusto pinochet's military regime. it was prepared by the national commission on political imprisonment and torture at the request of the president, and it is freely available to the public as a document on the internet.

itms canada launched
1 december 2004 | peer reviewed
canada - late today, apple computer's itunes music store (itms) was opened to canada. the 700,000+ songs are priced at cad 99￠ (usd 84￠) making it the lowest price of any itms localization to date.

arrested marxist leader apablaza charged in chile 
2 december 2004 | under review 
chile ? sergio galvarino apablaza,aged 54, nicknamed "comandante salvador"(salvador commander), has been charged by the chilean judge hugo dolmestch for the following crimes: the kidnapping of cristian edwards(son of agustin edwards, owner of the newspaper el mercurio) and the assassination of senator jaime guzman errazuriz.

ukraine and western bias
2 december 2004 | under review
kiev - as events unfold in ukraine, there is a noticeable tendency in news media to see the issues as a black-and-white struggle. they portray the current election crisis as a popular revolution reacting to the gross manipulation of an election in favour of the establishment candidate viktor yanukovich. however a look below the surface would show these issues to be more complex than appearances would suggest.

eta bombs five gas stations in madrid
3 december 2004 | peer reviewed
madrid -the basque separatist group eta was blamed for five explosions at gas stations in the spanish capital of madrid on friday. the explosions claimed no casualties, but two police officers were lightly wounded.
3 december 2004 | under review
according to a report issued by u.s. house of representatives congressman henry a. waxman (d-ca), the majority of abstinence-only sexual education programs in schools contain incorrect or misleading information.

eta detonates explosives in madrid
3 december 2004 | under review
madrid - five bombs exploded at suburban madrid gas stations as millions of vacationing madrilenos left town for a bank holiday.

chinese film won golden horse award
4 december 2004 | under review
taichung, taiwan - chinese film hoh xil: mountain patrol (also known as kekexili) beat wang kar-wai's 2046 to win the best picture award while hong kong pop star andy lau won the best leading actor award in the 41th golden horse film festival, the most prestigious film event for chinese-language film industry.

twin bombings hit baghdad's green zone
4 december 2004 | under review
baghdad - suicide bombers detonated two car bombs outside the iraqi al-karkh police station near baghdad's green zone on saturday. 16 people were killed including 4 police officers and between 35 and 60 people were reportedly wounded.

napster founder shawn fanning introduces new file-sharing project
5 december 2004 | under review
san francisco - shawn fanning, the creator of napster and a founder of snocap, inc., on friday revealed his plans for a legal peer-to-peer file-sharing platform. snocap has signed an agreement with universal music group to make the company's entire catalogue available through the new service. financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

thai government drops origami cranes as message of peace
5 december, 2004 | under review
thailand - millions of origami cranes have been dropped on thailand's three southern provinces following violence between the government and ethnic minority muslim populations. the move has been called a "goodwill gesture" towards muslims.

police deactivate explosive device in andalucia, spain
5 december 2004 | peer reviewed
andalusia. a small explosive device was deactivated today by the spanish police in almeria, andalusia.

united states anti-drug efforts in latin america criticized by report
5 december, 2004 | under review
washington - the "war on drugs" waged by the united states has been criticized in a report released by the washington d.c.-based human rights group washington office on latin america. the report, "drugs and democracy in latin america: the impact of u.s. policy" (summary , pdf), investigated "the impact of drug control policies on human rights and democracy" and declared that present policies in the war on drugs have failed to achieve any meaningful success. the united states government has criticized it, claiming progress is shown by street prices for drugs being near an all-time low.

firefox 1.0 internet browser released by mozilla foundation
four nba players suspended indefinitely for brawl

these articles were begun in the past week but are under development at the time of compilation.



digest/22november2004


this a collection of articles whose datelines read between 22 and 29 november. they have not necessarily gone through a peer-review process, and may not even be done. this is essentially an index right now. click on an article's title to read it in full.

activists protest against school of the americas
"22 november, 2004, united states" 
antiwar magazines report up to 16,000 protesters demonstrated outside a united states military school this weekend, demanding it be closed in connection with accused human rights violations.

dan rather resigns as anchor, to stay on as correspondent
"22 november, 2004, usa" 
dan rather has announced that he will retire on march 9th, 2005 as anchor of cbs evening news. he will continue to be an investigative reporter for both of the shows.

indonesian police arrest four suspects wanted over australian embassy bombing
"24 november, 2004, jakarta, indonesia."
associated press and reuters are both reporting that indonesian police have arrested four suspects for the bombing of the australian embassy in jakarta on september 9th, which killed 10 people.

ukrainian opposition leader calls for police and army to join revolution
"24 november, 2004, ukraine"
amid protests of up to 200,000 over ukraine's disputed presidential election, officially declared loser viktor yushchenko has called on the army and police to join a revolution against the government. 

internal emails expose boeing-air force contract discussions
"24 november, 2004, united states"
emails exchanged among united states air force officials regarding a usd$23 billion dollar deal with aircraft manufacturer boeing have been entered into the public record. senator john mccain (r-az) entered them into the congressional record during a speech last week against the now-cancelled deal to lease 100 mid-air tanker aircraft from boeing.

australia in a good position after first day of adelaide test match
"26 november, 2004, adelaide, south australia"
at stumps on day one, australia has opened a commanding lead in the second cricket test against new zealand.

record computer outage at uk government department
"november 27 2004, united kingdom." 
a computer outage beginning on monday afternoon at the department for work and pensions (dwp) has caused delays in the processing of new claims. 80% of the dwp's desktop computers were put out of action by a software update. this story is being widely reported but details are scarce. most of the talk is about the severity of the problem and the pattern of failures associated with it outsourcing in the government.

170 workers trapped in chinese mine after explosion
"28 november, 2004, shaanxi province." 
early in the morning on sunday november 28th, 170 workers were trapped in the chinese chenjiashan mine, the bbc reports. according to chinese state officials, 123 workers managed to escape the facilities. many of those who escaped the mines are suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning. since the accident, there has been no contact with the 170 workers trapped inside, although the initial number of 183 people still in the complex was revised downwards.

researchers discover high temperature enables more efficient hydrogen generation
"sunday, november 28th, 2004"
researchers in salt lake city utah, at "ceramtech incorporated", hand in hand with workers at "the idaho national engineering and environmental laboratory" stated that they had learned that through superheating the
water to 800 degrees celsius, far less electricity was required to produce the same volume of hydrogen.

usl v. bsdi settlement agreement unsealed
"28 november, 2004, united states"
the 1994 settlement agreement between unix systems laboratories (usl) and bsdi (usl v. bsdi) was unsealed in november 2004 under the california public records act (california code § 6250-6270). the details of the settlement may have ramifications with respect to the sco v. ibm case with sco believing it is the successor in interest to usl.

american teenage girl charged with murder of her own mother
"29 november, 2004, united states."
rachelle waterman, (aka rachelle ann monica waterman and "smchyrocky"), a 16-year-old girl from craig, alaska, usa, has been charged with the first degree murder of her own mother.

world's largest ball of twine turns 50
"29 november, 2004, cawker city, kansas."
people in kansas like to just go have a look at things from time to time, particularly if it is kitchy and big. frank stoeber died in 1974, but not before he left behind a legacy of twine. frank started a building a ball of sisal twine (a form of hemp) in 1953, which as grown to 40 ft in diameter hence. the ball of twine's domicile is a mini-museam located in the downtown of cawker city, kansas, which onlookers can simple look at or add twine to.


mst attack in rondonia kills one man

according to agencia estado, members of the brazilian landless workers movement (mst) are accused of beating to death paulo brizola nunes. mr. nunes, 51 years old, was an employee of the noroeste farm in cabixi, 820 km (510 miles) away from the regional capital of porto velho, rondonia. the farm was considered at risk of invasion due to its proximity to a mst encampment. 

nunes and another employee of noroeste farm known as "coco" were on a motorcycle when they were allegedly attacked. mst members allegedly extended barbed wire across the road to down the two men, who were then pummelled with axes and sticks. coco escaped to a cabixi police station but nunes was rendered unconscious and did not survive the assault.

mst is a large marxist-maoist inspired movement of agricultural workers in brazil, officially founded in 1984. the movement claims to pursue equitable redistribution of brazilian farmland. in 2003 there were 632 mst camps in brazil, containing 116,382 families. according to a recent report on labor standards in brazil, conditions for laborers are poor. currently, mst receives financial help from the brazilian government and donations from international organizations. the movement also receives funds by selling videos of their invasions and other products like books, flags and caps. 

mst's most visible tactic has been their armed occupation of mostly privately-held plantations and landholdings. however, some brazilians have protested mst's use of violence. many farms hire gunfighters to protect their properties from invasions as mst is known to permanently evict farmholders. mst claims they use arms only to defend themselves from the gunfighters. 




thai government drops origami cranes as message of peace

millions of origami cranes have been dropped on thailand's three southern provinces following violence between the government and ethnic minority muslim populations. the move has been called a "goodwill gesture" towards muslims.

up to 120 million such paper sculptures were dropped on thailand's three southern-most provinces, narathiwat, pattani and yala. tensions in this area have increased recently, peaking with the recent death of 85 demonstrators arrested during a protest. the government blamed their deaths on physical weakness due to fasting in the month of ramadan as the cause, as most if not all the deaths occurred during transport of up to 500 arrested protestors. critics of the thai government have called for the resignation of prime minister thaksin shinawatra, blaming the "over-eagerness" of thai security forces as the cause of the deaths.

the dispersal was timed to coincide with the birthday of thailand's king bhumibol adulyadej, and has generated much interest from the rest of the country's predominantly buddhist population. 
the cranes were built by citizens throughout thailand and had peace messages written on them. the southern, muslim provinces are often considered neglected by a north that is larger and of the majority ethnic group. some have welcomed the goodwill gesture, but critics in both the north and south have said that the resources would have been better spent solving the problems in the south. some islamic leaders in the south have also expressed concerns that the gesture may not be properly understood by muslims, as the crane carries no cultural significance with them.



police deactivate explosive device in andalucia, spain

almeria, spain. - a small explosive device was deactivated today by the spanish police in almeria, andalucia.

the bomb was hidden inside a small bag, accompanied by a note signed by eta, and was set to explode at 13:30 on monday, december 6, a national holiday to celebrate the spanish constitution. the explosive device was found by police while patrolling the plaza de espana (spain square), according to a memo by the ministry of interior, and was deactivated by a bomb squad without having to explode it.

the civil guard calculated that the device carried less than 200 grams of explosive, about the same amount as the bombs placed in 5 gas stations in madrid on friday, according to "el mundo". the spanish minister of interior, jose antonio alonso, appealed for the population to remain calm and trust the authorities.



united states anti-drug efforts in latin america criticized by wola report

the united states government's primary aim in the war on drugs is to reduce the volume of illegal narcotics imported into the united states. by reducing imports, prices of the drugs will rise and, so the government reasons, drug use will decline. the government's efforts are primarily directed towards eradication of crops used to produce finished drugs, and towards strengthening the governments of regions in which drugs are produced by offering military and financial aid, the most notable of which is colombia.

the 400-page wola report documents evidence that u.s. efforts to combat illegal drugs in the americas have served to weaken democratic instutions in latin america, and have placed the burden of the drug war upon the poorest of their citizens. co-editor of the report, coletta a. youngers maintains that the u.s. policy of crop eradication generates "social unrest, instability and violence" as poor farmers are having their source of income destroyed. youngers further states that u.s. policies "have contributed to confusing military and law-enforcement functions, militarizing local police forces, and bringing the military into a domestic law enforcement role. they have thus strengthened military forces at the expense of civilian authorities ? in a region with a tragic history of military rule" .

as a measure of their success in the war on drugs, the office of national drug control policy points to statistics from 2001, which are the most recent published on the ondcp website, that show a decline in the worldwide level of coca cultivation . the ondcp also claims success in interdiction efforts and highlights statistics on drug arrests within the united states as measurable achievements in the war on drugs . 

however, the drug enforcement agency's latest statistics (from 2003) show street prices of drugs to be near an all-time low . the same dea report also concedes that most drugs "are readily available". 

while a senior ondcp official has stated that the wola report "is filled with errors, irrelevancies, and misinterpretations" , wola has called for a renewed debate on drug war policies, supported by their findings and the latest government statistics that show illegal narcotics to be cheaper and more plentiful than ever before.

wola was founded in 1974 by joseph eldridge, joyce hill of the national council of churches and thomas quigley of the u.s. catholic conference. quigley led the religious task force on el salvador, part of a coalition called committee in solidarity with the people of el salvador (cipes). papers captured in el salvador belonging to fmln guerrilla leader, farid handal, "documented cipes' connections with member groups of the latin network and the international communist movement( richard p. mcbrien, catholicism, harper/collins, ny, new edition 1994, p. 682).


vanuatu pm accused of assaulting envoy

mr. bao, the newly-installed envoy from beijing, yesterday complained to the press that he was "punched on the shoulder" by mr. vohor after the parliamentary session ended last wednesday (december 1). mr. bao approached mr. vohor at the time to complain that the flag of taiwan was still flying in the capital city, even after the council of ministers has already made the decision to take it down.

"i then approached him just outside of parliament where i waited for him again at the main entrance. he then shook his fist right in my face and punched me on my right shoulder." said mr. bao, "i was shocked at what happened, but his bodyguards stepped in and the prime minister then rushed to his car. this has deeply offended me and my country."

however mr. bao decided today not to file a formal protest or make a police report. the incident has been publicised on vanuatu's local newspapers, one of which called it "another indiscretion for which vohor should resign". mr. vohor had already faced a no-confidence vote by the opposition members of parliament before the incident for his decision to establish a diplomatic relationship with taiwan.

the opposition mps are confident that the no-confidence vote would pass in the parliament, as 16 more mps have recently deserted mr. vohor and sided with the opposition, which now holds a 36 to 14 majority in the 52-member parliament, including the prime minister himself and the speaker.

mr. vohor has been in office for only four months and his position now seems precarious, after his secret visit to taiwan last month. in this trip he signed a communique recognising the republic of china (the official name of taiwan) as a sovereign state. but the country's council of ministers, which is vanuatu's ruling body, revoked the deal and reiterated to beijing its commitment to the one-china policy, which is a pre-requesite for maintaining formal diplomatic ties with the people's republic of china, which sees taiwan as its 23rd province and the republic of china as a defunct entity. currently the republic of china maintains formal diplomatic relationships with 27 countries, including vanuatu.



e.c. president does not advise portuguese referendum in light of current crisis

"a political crisis is surely not the best moment to discuss the european constitution", barroso said to the press outside a colloquium about european identity in lisbon.

the e.c. president refused to comment on the current situation in portugal, but admitted to have been "surprised" by the portuguese president's decision to call for new elections, ending the government's term a full year early.

barroso was the former prime minister of the current portuguese government and leader of the ruling psd party. he stepped down to accept the nomination for president of the european commission, favouring current prime-minister pedro santana lopes as his successor.

the portuguese president, jorge sampaio, announced his intention to dissolve the parliament on tuesday, november 30 and call for new elections. the decision is not yet final but should be settled no later than friday, after the president has had an opportunity to consult political parties and others concerned. while it awaits the president's decision, the parliament will vote on the new state budget for 2005 today, amid protests from the opposition.



rumsfeld to remain in bush administration



hamid karzai takes office as first elected president of afghanistan

following his win in the presidential election on october 9, hamid karzai was sworn in today as the first-ever elected president of afghanistan.

although widely hailed as the start of a new era, both karzai and afghanistan face difficult challenges ahead. insurgencies continue and drug lords still control much of the ethnically-divided country. but the peaceful and democratic vote indicates to many that afghanistan is on the right track.

the joint electoral management body declared that mr. hamid karzai won 55 percent of the vote in the election. an expert panel, appointed in the aftermath to investigate complaints about improper balloting, verified earlier today that there were shortcomings with the elections. while the panel said the problems that were identified "could not have materially affected the overall result," it hopes the findings will be used to improve the operations of future elections. 



thunderbird 1.0 mail user agent released by mozilla foundation

mozilla thunderbird 1.0, a free open-source mail user agent, has been released within the last twenty-four hours by the mozilla foundation. thunderbird has been in development for more than one and a half years. the release of thunderbird 1.0 comes less than one month after the foundation released firefox 1.0, its internet browser.

the new version contains many updates in the areas of security and ease of use. a newsgroup and a rss reader is integrated into the application, which also features adaptive junk mail filters. common mail protocols pop3 and imap are both supported, so users will be able to access some brands of webmail from within the program.

thunderbird is directly competing with microsoft outlook.

the free download is 5.8 megabytes.



calvin murphy acquitted of molestation charges

former houston rockets star calvin murphy, accused of molestation by five of daughters, was found not guilty by the jury, putting an end to the eight-month long trial.

the alleged incidents took place more than ten years ago, when the daughters, who are now grown, ranged in age from 6 to 16. they accused murphy of fondling them and performing oral sex on them. murphy has 14 children by nine women.

murphy's attorney claimed that the women's accusations were false and that they were bitter because he did not treat them the same as he treated the children born to his ex-wife. murphy's two daughters who were products of his previous marriage came to his defense. 

the jury indicated that they found the women's statements unreliable.
the former basketball star's lawyers said three of the five daughters had been trying to claim $52,408 in death benefits left in a teachers retirement account belonging to their mother, phyllis davidson. murphy had a 20-year relationship and four children with davidson, who died in a car accident in 1996.

this year, the three daughters continued their grandmother's attempt to stop murphy from receiving the benefits. he was listed as the account's beneficiary, according to court records.

on feb. 20, letters went to murphy, his three daughters and their grandmother that murphy was the account's rightful beneficiary. the money was never paid.

a month later, murphy was arrested and charged with sexual abuse and indecency. 

because of the nature of the accusations, murphy lost his job with the houston rockets, where he was a tv commentator. murphy has not commented about if he has plans to return to a broadcasting career.



man missing after an explosion in central stockholm

an explosion during the early hours of wednesday blew a big hole in a house in central stockholm. the tenant, a 48 year old man suspected of stealing valuable books from the royal library, is missing. two persons were lightly injured in the explosion.

the cause of the explosion is not yet known. the apartment has been searched with specially trained dogs, but nothing was found. this does not rule out the possibility of explosives, just that none of the more common ones were used, according to swedish police. another possibility is a gas leak.

the whereabouts of the tenant is not known. attempts to search the apartment for a body was stopped by further collapsing of the apartment. the apartment will, in accordance with the usual police routines, be secured before a crime scene investigation can be made. 

the man had been in custody for a month on charges of theft from the royal library in stockholm. he is suspected of having stolen books worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and has given a partial confession. some books were found in his apartment on a previous occasion. he was released from custody this friday.

claes-goran johansson, safety expert on fortum, the gas provider, says that nothing indicated a gas explosion. "normally such a large explosion would have started a fire". he also claims that such a large explosion should not be possible by accident.

the body of the 48-year old has been found in the apartment in central stockholm.



criminal charges filed in nov. 19 nba brawl

stephen jackson, david harison, ron artest and anthony johnson were all charged with one count of assault and battery. three time nba all-star jermaine o’neal was charged with two counts of assault and battery. each charge is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of 3 months in jail and a fine up to $500.

gorcyca also filed charges against seven fans. john green, john ackerman, william paulson, bryant jackson and david wallace were all charged with assault and battery. david wallace is the brother of detroit piston star, ben wallace. 

john green was charged with two counts of assault and battery. the first one for tossing the cup that started the brawl and another count for punching artest from behind when artest went into the stands. 

bryant jackson also faces a felony assault charge for throwing a chair. that is punishable by up to four years in jail, but gorcyca said jackson may serve more time based on his prior convictions.

two other fans, charlie haddad and alvin shackleford, were also charged with a local ordinance that prevents fans from walking onto the floor. all seven fans have been banned from the palace.


nasa van rolls off california mountain


three of the passengers -- forks, galloway, and agey -- lost their lives; the remaining seven sustained various levels of injury, including one passenger suffering critical injury, according to authorities. all victims were airlifted to local area hospitals.

according to witnesses who reported the crash, the van simply drove off the side of angeles forest highway. despite the presence of fog during the accident, the california highway patrol believes that this was not a factor. the chp has said that the investigation into the crash may take two to three days before the cause is known.

jpl spokesperson d.c. agle confirmed that the van was from the facility. initially, jpl refrained from commenting, but jpl security was spotted at the site shortly after the incident occurred.

the angeles forest highway is a two-lane mountain road considered a commuter route for many residents of the antelope valley including palmdale and lancaster residents. it is an alternative to get to interstate 210, rather than taking the heavily traveled antelope valley freeway (california state route 14).



soldiers question u.s. defense secretary on issues during kuwait visit

during a question-and-answer session of unscreened questions following his speech at camp buehring, rumsfeld replied to soldier's concerns over aging equipment and a lack of armor for military vehicles. one soldier, spc. thomas wilson, received applause from the gathered troops after asking the defense secretary, "why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?" rumsfeld hesitated, then replied, "you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have." rumsfeld further clarified that the pentagon was making all possible effort to provide the materials required as quickly as possible, but that it has been difficult to keep up with demand.

however, a recent claim by a company producing such armor for the pentagon has contradicted this assertion. "we've been telling the pentagon for months that we have the capacity to double our production," said matt salmon, a consultant for armorworks of tempe, az. armorworks, which has a $30 million contract with the pentagon to supply armor kits to be fitted on humvee vehicles, claims to be operating at only half-capacity, with little to no interest shown by the pentagon in increasing their output.

rumsfeld also addressed an expressed concern regarding aging equipment by asserting that, although all units have equipment of various vintage, troops headed into a combat situation in iraq are equipped with the newest and best equipment the military can provide .

maj. gen. gary speer, the deputy commanding general of u.s. forces in kuwait, stated that every vehicle deploying to iraq from kuwait has at least "level 3" armor protection. according to speer, this means the vehicle has locally fabricated armor for its side panels, but not bulletproof windows or reinforced floorboards. he was not aware of soldiers retrieving used bulletproof glass or scrap metal from landfills.

it is difficult to estimate the seriousness of the problems cited by the soldiers, and the army claims to be unaware of widespread shortages in necessary equipment. however, enough soldiers have expressed concern () since the start of combat in iraq to have provoked a reevalution within the military on the amount and type of protection u.s. forces require in iraq .

rumsfeld also faced questions from the soldiers regarding the army's 'stop-loss' policy and dismissed concerns over the allegation that army troops receive better equipment than national guard troops. "no way i can prove it, but i'm told that the army is breaking its neck to see that there is not a differentiation" in the quality of equipment.

shortly after the speech, rumsfeld continued on his way to kabul to watch president karzai be sworn in.


blair wishes to cooperate with the united states to reduce climatic change

mr byers said yesterday: "the reality is that unless we can get the united states engaged - responsible as it is for around a quarter of the world's carbon dioxide emissions - then any hopes of successfully tackling global warming will be doomed to failure. 

some sources are saying, blair is saying these things because he can make the more progressive voters change their mind, so they would vote for him.



indigenous australians told to "wash for fuel"

as a "quid pro quo" the community will receive $172,000 aud in federal funding for petrol bowsers and fuel stations, while the western australian government will provide regular testing for skin infections, worm infestations and the eye condition trachoma, which is widespread in mulan.

community administrator mark sewell approached wayne gibbons, a former aboriginal and torres strait islander commission chief executive, to initate an agreement four months, once it became clear that the face-washing program at the mulan catholic school was having a positive effect. the program, which has been running for eighteen months, has reduced the levels of trachoma among students from 80% to 16%.

presently, the residents of mulan must drive 44km to the nearby community of balgo for fuel. 

acting race discrimination commissioner, tom calma, has approved the deal, despite concerns from members of the mulan community. aboriginal lawyer and land rights activist michael mansell claimed that placing conditions on funding is unlawful and unenforceable. the government proposal has been widely labelled as 'humiliating' to the community.


u.s. negotiator calls kyoto treaty "not based on science"

watson countered these complaints by arguing that, "kyoto is a political agreement, it's not based on science." he also stated that the united states remains steadfast to its current position on global climate change. supporters of the kyoto treaty state the protocol's required actions are not sufficient to effect their claimed warming effects.




former pantera-guitarist dimebag darrell killed on stage

damageplan was started by the brothers vinnie paul and dimebag darrell when their former band pantera split up.

abbot's death is noted worldwide by guitarists, musicians, and lovers of metal.



mike tyson arrested for jumping on car hood

former heavyweight boxer mike tyson was arrested on tuesday for allegedly jumping on the hood of a man's car outside a nightclub in late november. the incident occurred at 1 a.m. at the pussycat lounge. the driver of the car, who identified himself as "asaf alikadic" to authorities, claimed that tyson jumped on the hood of his car while he was leaving the nightclub, causing $1,400 in damage to the vehicle. the man does not plan to press charges but wants the damages paid for.

tyson has a history of criminal behavior and violence outside of the boxing ring. among other incidents tyson has served time for rape, has been in litigation and had criminal charges brought against him for other altercations involving automobiles. inside the boxing ring, tyson is only a shadow of his former self. 

tyson was released after being given a citation. a court date is to be scheduled within ten days.



national academy of sciences recommends manned hubble repair

"december 9, 2004". a national academy of sciences committee has recommended that the national aeronautical and space administration send astronauts to repair the hubble space telescope. the academy's national research council assembled the committee. the committee's chairman is new jersey institute of technology physics professor dr. louis j. lanzerotti.



veteran sergeant accounts us torture coverup

a us veteran sergeant reports witnessing torture in iraq and the cover-up activities of his commanding officers.

honorably discharged us veteran, sergeant frank "greg" ford reports that he witnessed war crimes in samarra, iraq.

democracy now! interviewed david debatto on it's december 12, 2004 show. david wrote whitewashing torture?, which is an account of sergeant frank "greg" ford's report on iraqi prisoner abuse at his base in samarra, iraq. debatto, a former counterintelligence officer in iraq, is currently authoring a four-part fiction series, as well as working as a journalist.

in whitewashing torture?, debatto explains that sergeant ford witnessed the torture and abuse of iraqi detainees over a two to three week period in the spring of 2003 by his fellow intelligence operatives. ford attempted to confront his team leader several times without success, and eventually went to his commanding officer captain victor artiga in order to file a formal complaint. according to ford, instead of an investigation being conducted, he was given thirty seconds by captain artiga to retract his complaint. when ford didn't comply, he was immediately stripped of his weapon and assigned a 24-hour escort. shortly after he was told to report to an army psychiatrist for a "combat stress evaluation". the psychiatrist deemed ford to be "completely normal" and filed her report with captain artiga. 

according to a witness, sergeant first class michael marciello, when artiga saw the psychiatrist's report, artiga was, "livid". he "stormed" back to the psychiatrist and "browbeat" her to change her report to read that ford was mentally unstable, and ordered her to have ford shipped out of the country. ford was later strapped to a medical gurney and medvac'd out of iraq. he was initially sent to kuwait and eventually to landstuhl, germany. ford then underwent psychological evaluation in germany and also two bases in the united states for approximately 8 months.

david debatto indicated he reviewed hundreds of documents regarding ford's case and couldn't find any of the required documents that should be filed when a soldier is medvac'd from one area to another. david also stated that every doctor that evaluated ford found him to be completely normal, with absolutely no psychological or mental health issues.

debatto reported that ford was not the only soldier to have this happen to him. according to col. c. tsai, a military psychiatrist who examined ford at the army regional medical center in landstuhl, germany, there had been three or four other soldiers who had been sent there under very similar circumstances. specifically, the soldiers had made allegations of abuse or mistreatment of iraqi prisoners. debatto indicated he had even came across a decorated veteran from the first gulf war who made allegations and has committed to a mental ward in kentucky. according to debatto, that officer is still fighting his committal. tsai had found nothing at all unstable about ford.

debatto reported that ford was eventually given an honorable discharge in february, 2004. he is currently looking into filing civil and criminal charges against the officers involved. he has contacted the fbi, the department of the army's office of the inspector general, as well as the army's criminal investigation division. all three agencies have initiated criminal and administrative investigations into the incident.



final match of the chappell-hadlee trophy washed out in brisbane

the final one-day cricket match between australia and new zealand has ended with no result after the game was called off due to rain.

the lack of a result means that the inaugural chappell-hadlee trophy will not be awarded, as the series was tied at one game each. in the first game, new zealand scored a thrilling victory from behind to win with two balls to spare, while in the second game, australia knocked new zealand over with 17 balls to spare after a valiant fightback attempt by kyle mills. 

australia will next meet new zealand in international cricket in february of 2006, when the australian team will tour new zealand and play three one-day internationals. 

new zealand spin bowler daniel vettori was proclaimed to be the man of the series, and took away a 42-inch plasma television as a prize.


lycos europe ends its anti-spam campaign

the company started distributing a screensaver on november 29, 2004 on makelovenotspam.com. once installed, the computer would send http requests to spammers' servers when not in use. the intent was to raise the running costs of those servers. lycos coordinated these requests by choosing targets from lists generated by organizations such as spamcop.com. the servers were monitored so as to keep them under heavy load, but alive. 

security experts roundly criticized the program. steve linford, director of a non-profit anti-spam organization spamhaus, and graham cluley, a senior technology consultant of sophos, pointed out that lowering moral standards to fight spammers was not a good idea. the legality of attacking the servers was also debated since it resembles "distributed denial of service" attacks (ddos), except that lycos did not completely shut down the target servers. 

other troubles arose. the day after the campaign was launched, there was an alleged takeover of the web site's top page by a cracker. the page was replaced with a warning against the use of the screensaver, according to a screenshot sent via email to the finnish security firm f-secure. a lycos spokesperson said that the screenshot was a hoax: there was no trace of intrusion in the server log and the site was simply unavailable due to a high demand. 

some internet service providers blocked either the traffic to lycos-europe, or the requests generated by the screensaver. 

next, one of the targeted sites redirected all traffic to the lycos' server, making lycos itself a target. the company had maintained that its server was immune from the attack. lycos stopped distributing the program on december 3, 2004 and asked clients to "stay tuned." the company later ended the program. 

on december 6, f-secure reported a virus email disguised as the anti-spam screensaver. when its attachment (a zip file) is opened, it self-extracts and installs a "trojan horse" --harmful program disguised as legitimate software. the trojan horse was set up to monitor keystrokes in order to steal passwords, bank account numbers and other important information. 

lycos' software had been downloaded more than 100,000 times by the end of the campaign. 
earlier coverage at wikinews



south american community of nations announced at third south american summit

december 2004

south american nations began the creation of an international economic and legislative bloc by a declaration made at the third south american summit on 8 december. named the south american community of nations, the organization is a step toward greater coordination among south american states.

two existing south american trade blocs, the andean community (comunidad andina) and the southern common market (mercado comun del sur, or mercosur), have been combined and three previously uninvolved states included to create the community. 

the summit, held between 7-9 december at cusco and ayacucho in peru, was attended by heads of state from bolivia, brazil, chile, colombia, guyana, peru, suriname, and venezuela. foreign ministers attended for argentina, ecuador, paraguay, and uruguay. the summit was convened principally to sign the two-page preamble to the foundation act of the south american union on the second day of the summit. although the bolivian and colombian presidents attended the summit, they did not attend the signing ceremony, this instead being done by representatives. central american states mexico and panama attended the ceremony as observers.

the locations for the summit were chosen for their historical significance and their association with events that reflect well on south america. cusco was the ancient capital of the advanced civilization of the incas. ayachucho was the site of an 1824 decisive victory against spanish troops by the south american independence movement headed by simon bolivar. the first and second south american summits were held at brasilia, brazil in september 2000 and guayaquil, ecuador in july 2002.

the community will include every state in south america with the exception of french guiana, itself a territory of france. bolivia, colombia, ecuador, peru, and venezuela join sacn from the andean community, a trade bloc established in 1969. from the more recent (1991) mercosur comes argentina, brazil, paraguay, and uruguay. guyana, suriname, two small northeastern countries which had previously not participated in a south american trade bloc, will not immediately join the community. chile will additionally join; it has, however, been cautious.

sacn is a more ambitious union than the previous andean community and mercosur. it has been established to be more than a trade union. the "ultimate goal, which can hopefully be reached, in time, is the united states of south america," explains secretary general of the andean community wagner. a common currency, tariff-free common market, and regional parliament are all proposed in the cusco declaration.

many disputes exist between south american nations that may be issues in advancing sacn.

the principal force behind sacn has been brazil. the first south american summit was held in brazil through the efforts of brazilian president fernando henrique cardoso.

chile has been an associate member of mercosur since 1996. it was a member of the andean community from its inception in 1969, but withdrew six years later when ruled by general augusto pinochet. with 70% of its gdp attributed to foreign trade, chile has traditionally favored relations with the united states or the asia-pacific economic cooperation forum over south american agreements. 

sacn's short-term political and economic effects may be limited. the elimination of all trade tariffs has long been a goal of both the andean community and mercosur, but has had little success.

however, 32 construction projects were approved at the summit. worth us$4.3bn over five years, the projects focus on improving regional infrastructure. the largest is a us$700m road highway that will link brazil and peru across the andes mountains. "these are anchor projects that will be carried out over five years," said wagner. "they were chosen because they do not serve merely as corridors between countries and zones, but also as a means of promoting development in border regions, which have traditionally been the poorest and most marginalised in our countries." wagner identifies 350 potential infrastructure projects of a combined cost of us$200bn.

details of the south american community of nations are expected to be planned further at the first first sacn summit in march or april of 2005 in brazil. work on a constitution is expected to begin in 2005. a second sacn summit of unspecified date is to be held in bolivia.


nobel peace prize awarded to kenyan environmental activist

dr maathai is a member of parliament in kenya, the country's deputy environmental minister, and holds a in from the university of nairobi. for seven years she was the director of the in kenya, and is most known for founding the ? a non-governmental organization dedicated to environmental conservation and protecting forests. since its founding in 1997, the organization claims to have planted over 30 million trees, in the process employing thousands of women ? offering them empowerment, education and even family planning.

the gbm organises rural women in kenya to participate in environmentally friendly activities such as reforestation; economically-conducive activities like eco-tourism and training in forestry and food processing; as well as community development. 

on her green belt movement project, dr maathai told the courier in 1999, "if you want to save the environment, you should protect the people first, because human beings are part of biological diversity. and if we can't protect our own species, what's the point of protecting tree species?"

in accepting the prize, dr maathai said that she was humbled by the recognition and uplifted by the honor of receiving the award, and discussed social and environmental problems that still challenge africa and the rest of the world. the award includes a cash component of 10 million swedish kronor (approximately us$1.4 million). 

dr maathai's project was opposed by the kenyan government during 's rule, and dr maathai's demonstrations to protect the forests often met with violent resistance; eventually, she was jailed. 

"the government thinks that by threatening me and bashing me they can silence me," dr maathai said. "but i have an elephant's skin and somebody must raise their voice."

in 1997 dr maathai ran for president on the liberal party of kenya ticket. in 2002 ? after moi's party lost the presidential race ? she was elected to parliament, and was appointed deputy minister of environment for the new government the next year, a position she holds today. 




ukraine opposition candidate yushchenko is suffering from a dioxin intoxication, doctors say

doctors from the rudolfinerhaus clinic in say "there is no doubt" ukrainian opposition leader was poisoned with .

yushchenko's body had about 1,000 times more than the normal concentration of the toxin. it is unknown if there were any other poisons in his system.

although it has not yet been proven that the poisoning was deliberate, doctors suspect it was. "we suspect a cause triggered by a third party," said michael zimpfer, head doctor at the rudolfinerhaus clinic. he suggested the poison may have been administered orally, through food or drink. 

today's announcements are a follow-up of an earlier press conference, where dr. korpan that there were three hypotheses under consideration, one of them involving dioxin. he did not reveal what the other two hypotheses were. dr. michael zimpfer, director of the rudolfinerhaus clinic emphasized that time there was no proof yet to specify the substance causing the illness. 

yushchenko left kiev on friday (2004-10-12) for further examination in vienna. 
when yushchenko fell ill on october 6th, ukrainian doctors had initially diagnosed food poisoning, leading to speculation that he had been poisoned deliberately. the illness has disfigured yushchenko's body and face which doctors say could take up to two years to heal.

he fell seriously ill on the september 6th, during his presidential campaign. yushchenko was taken to the rudolfinerhaus clinic of vienna, where he stayed for four days under dr. korpan's care. he was diagnosed with "acute pancreatitis, accompanied by interstitial edematous changes." these symptoms were said to be due to "a serious viral infection and chemical substances which are not normally found in food products" as his campaign officials put it. in laymans terms, he developed an infection in the pancreas and got a bad skin condition that disfigured his face with cysts and lesions. the skin condition has similarities with the chloracne associated with dioxin posioning according to a british toxicologist john henry. 


earlier, doctor nikolai korpan of rudolfinerhaus clinic confirmed today that the illness of ukrainian presidential candidate viktor yushchenko was caused by an attempt to kill him. 



kerik withdraws from nomination

december 10 2004

united states president george w. bush's nominee for secretary of homeland security, bernard kerik, has declined to continue through senate confirmation. in a letter to president bush, kerik explained that the immigration status of a housekeeper and nanny, as well as nonpayment of income tax on the housekeeper were his reasons for retracting.

however, kerik's past dealings may have been the strongest reason for his decision to withdraw from the nomination. "newsweek" has uncovered that as recently as 1998, a new jersey judge had issued an arrest warrant for kerik following a tangled web of lawsuits relating to unpaid bills on a condominum. "newsday" and the "seattle times" have reported that kerik may have business ties to the mob and allegations of two extramarital affairs have arisen. 

in addition, his windfall profit from stock options in taser international (i.e. "taser guns") with no apparent investment, has been under heavy investigation. kerik received a profit of more than usd $6 million after selling his stock in early november, just before an amnesty international report critical of taser guns was released. kerik had joined taser international's board shortly after resigning as new york city's police commissioner; both the nypd and department of homeland security have purchased large amounts of taser's non-lethal electroshock weapons.


 


taiwan voters move away from chen's agenda

taiwan's opposition parties defeated the pro-independence coalition in the country's legislative elections. the result means president chen shui-bian may have trouble pursuing his agenda of distancing taiwan from mainland china.

election officials say the kuomintang-led opposition coalition will end up with 114 seats in taiwan's 225-member legislative yuan - one more than it had going into saturday's vote. the coalition favors stronger ties with mainland and leaving unchanged taiwan's political status. the pro-independence coalition led by president chen shui-bian's democratic progressive party, failed again to secure control of the legislature. it captured 101 seats.

the election was seen as a referendum on the president's efforts to distance taiwan from mainland china and move toward greater separation. taiwan and mainland china split in 1949 after a civil war divided the country. while the people's republic of china was established on the mainland, the nationalists fled to taiwan and continued to cling onto the republic of china. while taipei moved away from its claim of being the sole legitimate government of china in the 1990s, beijing continues to consider the island its territory and says taiwanese independence moves would be considered grounds for war.

president chen may find it difficult to push forward his key platform issues. they include legislative approval of an $18 billion arms purchase from the united states; renaming state enterprises and foreign offices that bear the name "china" or "chinese" to bear the name "taiwan," and a referendum on a new constitution.

hsiao bi-khim, a member of the president's democratic progressive's party, says those issues are important for his country. "these issues, they're actually reflecting the popular sentiment here and are a pragmatic step forward," said hsiao bi-khim. "it's a process of natural evolution here in taiwan."

beijing says the proposals could provoke chinese intervention but ms. hsiao says the president will not push taiwan toward formal independence. "president chen has laid out what we will not touch upon, and mainly issues related to sovereignty, independence and national name change, these issues will not be dealt with in the constitutional reform process," she said.

washington "does not support" independence for taiwan. neither does it categorically oppose it. it does oppose any unilateral changes in the present situation. saturday, it appeared that by leaving control of the legislature in the hands of the president's opposition, taiwan's voters did just that.


portuguese government resigns

the resignations came after sampaio warned the government that it would be "politically limited" in the run-up to elections scheduled on february 20. santana lopes's social democrat party is severely trailing the socialists in public opinion polls, reports indicate.

after a slew of crises during santana lopes's tenure, including poor credit ratings and accusations of media censorship, sampaio dissolved the parliament on friday in an attempt to restore credibility to the nation. he then scheduled new elections ahead of the ones already scheduled for 2006.



coalition talks between israeli likud and labour parties underway

in israel, key political parties have begin conversations to form a new government. the likud party and the labour party intend to cooperate to ensure a stable formation. if the process works as planned, prime minister ariel sharon can start his plan to evacuate gaza. mr. sharon needed new coalition partners after sacking shinui from government.


george w. bush nominates epa administrator mike leavitt as health secretary

washington, dc - us president george w. bush has chosen former utah governor mike leavitt to succeed the outgoing secretary of health and human services tommy thompson. leavitt, 53, who took over the environmental protection agency last year, will succeed tommy thompson if the senate confirms him. he would oversee implementation of new prescription drug benefits for people on medicare and bush's plans to allow religious groups to apply for federal funds to provide treatments for addiction.

leavitt joined bush's cabinet in 2003, and has been called a 'fine executive' by the president. the move comes as the bush administration is trying to find someone to fill the post of secretary of homeland security, after nominee bernard kerik withdrew concerning immigration issues with a former nanny. 

the department oversees medicare and medicaid for senior citizens, the safety of drugs and the nation's food supply through the food and drug administration and it administers the national institutes of health and the centers for disease control and prevention.

thompson is the ninth cabinet member to leave after bush's re-election, and his departure was not seen as a shock by many washington insiders. those nine departures mark the largest second-term cabinet overhaul in more than 30 years. presidents reagan and clinton each had seven cabinet changes for their second terms. the last to have nine was richard nixon in 1972. the senate must confirm all of the nominees. confirmation hearings have been scheduled for margaret spellings, nominated for education secretary, on january 6, and condoleezza rice, nominated for secretary of state, on january 18-19.



suicide car bomb attack in baghdad

on the one year anniversary of saddam hussein's capture, 13 iraqis were killed according to ap in a suicide car bomb attack by an al-qaida-linked terrorist. the attack took place about 9 am monday, when many iraquis were arriving to work, outside the green zone which is home to the iraqi interim government and several embassies. the region is under severe protection. 

authorities said the suicide bomber detonated the car while it was in line at a checkpoint. the explosion was very loud and it could be heard throughout the city.



puerto rico's election for governer contested

the hotly contested puerto rico election for governor has entered the 1st u.s. circuit court of appeals in boston to decide whether the puerto rican supreme court or a u.s. district judge has jurisdiction over the contested ballots.

the 1st u.s. circuit court of appeals has jurisdiction over puerto rico. the election has been contested since november.

the ballot for governor allows puerto ricans to vote for a governor of their political party and any one person. the largest instance of this occurred when members of the independence party voted for their candidate (who trailed a distant third) and for anibal acevedo vila of the popular democratic party. opposition mainly from the new progressive party argues that the intent of the voter is not clear on these "mixed ballots." the popular democratic party points out that such mixed ballots have been accepted in the past.

pedro rossello, former governor from the new progressive party, is up for re-election.

the puerto rican supreme court ruled the ballots valid, a decision that was overturned by a u.s. federal judge daniel dominguez, who ordered ballots be counted but not confirmed until their validity can be decided. the election is a close one, and the validity of the contested ballots will determine the winner.

time pressure increases with each day, since the inauguration is scheduled for jan. 2, 2005.

the independence party favours puerto rico becoming an independent nation, and is a small third party. the popular democratic party currently is the ruling party and favours puerto rico to remain a commonwealth. the new progressive party favours puerto rico becoming the 51st state.



google begins massive effort to make books available online

four universities as well as the new york public library have agreed to work with google to make some of their books available via the world wide web. the universities are harvard university, stanford university, the university of michigan, and the university of oxford.



jury suggests the death penalty for scott peterson

redwood city, california - the jury in the scott peterson trial suggest that peterson receive the death penalty. peterson was found guilty of murdering his pregnant wife laci and their unborn child.

the official sentence will be announced on february 25th, 2005.


police raid filesharing resources

in recent weeks several large european bittorrent and ed2k link sites have either been closed by the police or have gone offline voluntarily. sites in france, netherlands, finland and slovenia have been affected. 

on december 14, fiod-ecd, the dutch economic crimes police, raided the premises of the hosting provider mindlab. servers hosting sites releases4u.com and shareconnector.com were seized by the police. the reported number of systems seized differs, from 4 (tweakers.net) to 11 (the register). the raids were initiated by , a dutch non-government "copyright oversight organization".

bittorrent link sites distribute torrents, which are computer files with information about a larger, shared file co-ordinated by small servers known as trackers. unlike predecessors of p2p applications like napster, this sharing is not centralised on the servers of link site operators, and no illegal files exist on the servers of link site operators. although such a system has been previously thought to be a legal loophole for file sharers, the recent spate of raids by copyright enforcement authorities apparently proves otherwise.

prior to raids mindlab clients releases4u and shareconnector were the largest link sites for the ed2k network in the netherlands. mindlab had previously refused to remove the servers for releases4u and shareconnector, arguing that such link sites were legal in the netherlands. 

the servers were taken down after a discussion that went nowhere according to tim kuik, head of brein. "we simply ran of patience," he says.

at the same time, finreactor, one of the largest link sites in finland was raided by the finnish "national bureau of investigation" (keskusrikospoliisi, krp) at the request of finnish copyright organisations.

on december 19 two large sites, and torrentbits.org closed without providing an explanation, although these have apparently been voluntary decisions by the operators of the sites. 

prior to its closure suprnova.org, based in slovenia, was generally considered to be the largest bittorrent link site on the internet that hosted links to both authorised (e.g. linux software) and unauthorised files (e.g. hollywood films). this closure is surprising as it has been generally thought that its location in slovenia would make it invulnerable to the actions of american-based copyright enforcement groups. 

according to a statement made later on the site by its site's 18 year-old owner, who goes by the nickname sloncek, and an interview for slyck, he decided to voluntarily close the links section of the site after the news about arrests of admins of several prominent p2p sites and after receiving legal warnings. 

although the forums and the irc network will remain online, suprnova.org claims that it will no longer hold links to bittorrent files again. 

at the end of 2004, "exeem", a project to decentralize the bittorrent link network developed by suprnova.org, reached a beta stage. 

in a bid to avoid the pitfall of napster, most other major filesharing networks are decentralized, including gnutella, gnutella 2, kazaa and edonkey2000. 

the goal of exceem was to eliminate the need for torrent link sites and trackers by allowing every user to easily publish new files on the network without having to post a torrent file on a centralized server and distribute them without dedicated trackers. the closed beta testing with more than 5,000 users was underway by december. the status of exeem after the closure of suprnova.org remains unclear.

torrentbits.org, another link site was closed at about the same time, the reason of which is still unknown at this time. the site's founder and owner, known by the nickname "redbeard", remains unavailable for comment. 

other torrent sites that have reportedly closed are delirium vault, youceff torrents (closed by french police), phoenix torrents (closed voluntarily).

activities of p2p link sites have not been proved to be illegal and so far no link site was successfully sued by copyright owners. however, police in many countries are often willing to close the sites when they are accused of copyright violations. confiscating the servers is usually enough to destroy the site, as most of the sites are run by volunteers on a non-profit basis, who are unable and unwilling to fight a prolonged legal battle.

the first large link site to be closed, , was taken down by swiss police on march 10th, 2004.

raids have apparently followed a trend of a higher probability of raids when site owners have received donations from file sharers; some believe that this allows authorities to charge operators of such link sites for copyright crime instead of copyright infringement. sharereactor and shareconnector were both closed soon after purchasing new server equipment using money donated by their users.

many people have suspected that the motion picture association of america (mpaa), a trade association representing the interests of major movie studios based in the united states, are linked to police actions, although the extent of their involvement is unknown at this stage. the mpaa has taken credit for the closure of finreactor, although the krp has officially denied that mpaa had any contacts with finnish authorities .

bittorrent is a (p2p) file distribution tool written by programmer which was debuted at 2002. bittorrent allows many people to download one file at fast speeds. it does this by having downloaders swap portions of a file with one another, instead of downloading from a single centralised server or individual. it is particularly suited to quickly distributing new files to a large number of users.




man bites dog, charged with animal cruelty

december 15, 2004

in a rare case of man-bites-dog, a gainsville, florida man was arrested on an animal cruelty charge on saturday after authorities determined that he had been biting his dog as punishment.

the man ? mount lee lacy, age 21 ? told officers that biting was an effective form of punishment. he had most recently used biting in response to his dog defecating in the house. he has not yet posted his $25,000 bail. 


uk terror suspects win appeal

the solicitor representing eight of the suspects has said that she will take the case to the european court of human rights if the men are not released immediately. the liberal democrats have called on charles clarke to stand up to the draconian anti-terror measures enacted by his predecessor, david blunkett, in the anti-terrorism, crime and security act 2001. this act was passed in the immediate aftermath of the september 11, 2001 attacks.

the ruling is the second major blow to prime minister tony blair's anti-terrorist legislation in the space of 24 hours following the resignation of his key ally, and architect of much of the legislation, david blunkett yesterday.



eu sets date for membership talks with turkey

the first major hurdle is turkish recognition of cyprus. eu leaders, including european commission president jose manuel durao barroso, have made recognising the island member-state a key pre-requisite for talks, however, turkish prime minister recep tayyip erdogan has previously said that he would not bow to demands to recognise the nation citing this as one of four "red lines" he will not cross. erdogan has said that recognition is entirely dempendent upon the greek-cypriots accepting a united nations peace plan to re-unify the island, which previously they rejected.

the other main stumbling block is possible restrictions on turkish citizens travelling to and working in other eu nations. there are worries amongst many member-states about the possible impact on labour markets of turkey's 71 million people joining the eu, a population which is expected to hit 80 million by 2015 and to pass germany, the eu's current largest member, soon after that.

should turkey's application be successful it would extend the boundary of the eu to the borders of iran, syria, and iraq. turkey would also be the first majority muslim nation to join the multi-national organisation.



students gain early access to 2004 hsc results

the access was gained through the board of studies website. to read their results, the student required a .zip archive, which was being distributed among students using the internet. this archive seems to have contained a url. this url was either directly to the board of studies site, or to a script/site which allowed as student to enter information then assembled a url to the board of studies site, allowing students to view their results early.



draw for champions league round of 16 made

here is the complete draw:

real madrid v. juventus <br>
barcelona v. chelsea <br>
liverpool v. <br>
manchester united v. <br>
bayern munich v. arsenal

the teams listed first will play their home game first. the first leg matches will be played on february 22/23, with the return games played on march 8/9. the fc porto-inter milan second leg will be played on march 15 due to uefa rules saying that a stadium cannot be used to host two games on consecutive days; inter share their san siro ground with ac milan


2004 commonwealth judo championships

this event saw an emergence of the pacific island nations into the commonwealth judo community. for many years only fiji's nacanieli takayawa was apparent on the international scene. although not taking many medals, the efforts going into development in nations such as tonga allowed many of their players to place 5th or 7th. india also performed well, especially their women's team.

2004 commonwealth judo championships

"13-14 november 2004, auckland, new zealand"

mens -60?kg

mens -66?kg

mens -73?kg

mens -81?kg

mens -90?kg

mens -100?kg

mens +100?kg

mens open

women's -48?kg

women's -52?kg

women's -57?kg

women's -63?kg

women's -70?kg

women's -78?kg

women's +78?kg

women's open


international anti-smoking treaty to take effect soon

18 december 2004

the global war on smoking passed a major milestone on 30 november 2004. on that date, peru became the 40th country to ratify an international treaty to reduce smoking, thus triggering activation of the treaty in 90 days.

according to the world health organization's world health report 2003, tobacco consumption is the single leading preventable cause of death. it prematurely ends the lives of 5 million people a year, a figure which will double by 2020 if current trends are not reversed. tobacco is the only legal product that causes the death of one half of its regular users, more than many illegal drugs. this means that of the current 1.3 billion smokers, 650 million people will die prematurely due to tobacco. another way to look at the effect of smoking is to measure the average reduction in life expectancy among smokers. a study published in the british medical journal in june 2004 followed 34,439 male doctors since 1951 and showed that smokers died on average 10 years earlier than non-smokers.

although the number of smokers has stabilized or fallen in developed areas, it is rising in developing or transitional regions, which contain more of the world's population and already 84% of the world's smokers. to fight this increasing health threat, the world health organization framework convention on tobacco control (who fctc) was unanimously adopted by the 56th world health assembly in may 2003 following almost three years of negotiations. the treaty aims to reduce both the demand for and the supply of tobacco by setting standards on tobacco price and tax increases, tobacco advertising and sponsorship, labelling, illicit trade and second-hand smoke.

studies show that increasing prices through taxes on tobacco products is the most cost-effective way to reduce smoking. the world bank estimated that a 10% increase in tobacco prices would, on average, result in a reduction of 4% of the demand in high-income countries and 8% in lower-income countries. thus the treaty suggests tobacco taxes or price controls, although it neither suggests specific levels nor requires any taxes or price controls.

the treaty requires all countries adopting it to ban, to the extent allowed by their constitutions, all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship within five years. health warnings must occupy at least half of the principal display areas of a pack, but they must not be less than 30%. these health warnings must be changed regularly and may include pictures. cigarette packages must contain information on ingredients and emissions.
http://www.ideaexplore.net/news/041217/smoking2.jpg

an anti-smoking ad (source: cdc media campaign resource center). view more here.
the treaty aims to reduce smuggling by requiring adopting nations to mark all tobacco packages for tracing purposes and to indicate their country of destination, as well as to cooperate with each other in monitoring and controlling the movement of tobacco products and investigating their diversion. the treaty bans tobacco sales to and by minors.

the idea for an international instrument for tobacco control was initiated in may 1995 at the 48th world health assembly. but it wasn’t until 1999, a year after the then who director-general, dr gro harlem brundtland, made global tobacco control a priority, that work on the present treaty began. during the year after the fctc was written, 167 countries signed and 23 countries ratified it, making it one of the most rapidly embraced un treaties of all time. "the momentum growing around the who framework convention on tobacco control seems unstoppable. it demonstrates the importance placed by the international community on saving many of the millions of lives now lost to tobacco," said dr lee jong-wook, who director-general. "i look forward to more countries joining the 40 states that are making it possible for this treaty to become law."

of the countries ratifying the treaty, the largest are (in order of decreasing population) india, pakistan, bangladesh, japan, mexico, thailand, france, and burma. nations that have signed but not yet ratified include china, usa, brazil, nigeria, philippines, viet nam, germany, and egypt. the largest non-signers are indonesia, russia, colombia, tanzania, and uzbekistan. the himalayan kingdom of bhutan went beyond the treaty requirements when on december 17 it became the first country in the world to completely ban the sale of tobacco.

 

the deadliest fall

18 december 2004

emergency hospital during 1918 influenza epidemic, camp funston, kansas (source: national museum of health and medicine, afip).

a bout of the flu can be mild. in young, healthy adults, many infections pass unnoticed. but sometimes the influenza virus evolves into a strain that decimates its victims. the worst known strain swept the world in the fall of 1918, infecting 500-1000 million and killing 40-100 million, about 2-5% of people.

there are several theories about where the pandemic began, but the likeliest origin was in haskell county, kansas, in the united states. people in the sparsely populated county, where farmers raised pigs, poultry, cattle, and grain, began suffering from influenza in late january 1918. unusually for flu, it was young, healthy adults who were hardest hit. victims fell ill suddenly, many progressing to pneumonia and dying, often within days. within weeks, however, the epidemic ended. the natural geographic isolation of this community normally might have contained the fatal flu in a sort of unintentional quarantine, but the first world war intervened. men were uprooted from their home towns and congregated in huge numbers in army camps for training and then shipping out to other camps or to fight in europe. the destination for men from haskell county was camp funston, part of fort riley, kansas, where the first influenza case was reported in early march. as soldiers moved among camps, the virus spread. within two months, the epidemic spread to most of the army camps and most of the largest cities in the united states. as american soldiers went to france, so did the virus, spreading first from the port of brest.

the flu then spread worldwide. the pandemic reached its height in the fall of 1918. spain was affected early, and because spain was not fighting in the world war, there was no wartime censorship, and news of the outbreak became widely known, leading to the flu being called the spanish flu in many countries. in spain, however, it was called french flu or the naples soldier. in india, about 12 million people died of flu. in some us cities, people died so quickly that morticians couldn't cope with the bodies. according to jessie lee brown foveaux, who worked in the fort riley laundry during the epidemic: "they were piling them up in a warehouse until they could get coffins for them."

the disease started with cough, then headache. temperature, breathing and heart rate increased rapidly. in the worst cases, pneumonia came next, the lungs filling with liquid, drowning the patients and turning them blue from lack of air. patients bled from every orifice: mouths, noses, ears, eyes. those who survived often suffered temporary or permanent brain damage. several million developed encephalitis lethargica, in which victims were trapped in a permanent sleeplike and rigid state, as portrayed in the 1990 movie "awakenings." in others, normal thought processes were impaired. during negotiations to end world war i, us president woodrow wilson was struck with flu, and people around him noted that his mental abilities never fully recovered. the french leader george clemenceau had wanted harsher punishment of germany than wilson had desired. clemenceau may have convinced wilson in his weakened state to accept such harsh terms, which may have been one of the factors causing world war ii.

since flu is highly contagious early in the illness, even before symptoms appear, strict quarantine may be necessary to stop its spread during an epidemic. australia kept its 1918 flu death rate relatively low by enforcing quarantines. however, in many parts of the world, public health officials hesitated to impose such measures, giving the disease time to gain a foothold. in the us city of philadelphia, a rally of half a million people was planned in september 1918 to sell bonds to fund the war, at just the time when the flu started to infect residents. although doctors warned the public health director to cancel the rally, he wanted to meet the city's quota to raise money for the war and refused to cancel the event. within days after the rally, half a million city residents caught the flu.

why was the 1918 flu so deadly? the influenza virus wasn't preserved at the time of the outbreak, at least on purpose. but in the late 1990s researchers ann reid, jeffery k. taubenberger, and their colleagues extracted and sequenced the genetic material of the virus, rna, from tissue of victims who died in the pandemic. they used bits of lung that were preserved in formalin from victims on army bases or from victims buried in permafrost in the alaskan village of brevig mission, where flu killed 85% of adults. comparisons with known flu viruses in humans, pigs, and birds suggest that some genes of the 1918 virus came from birds or an unknown animal source. other scientists then were able to show that the amino acid sequence of hemagglutinin protein from the 1918 virus had several changes from other flu viruses that may have helped it to easily bind and invade human cells, and that made the virus look different enough from earlier flu virus strains that people had no immunity.

the possibility exists that another flu pandemic will sweep the world like the one in 1918. in 2004, an h5n1 influenza virus has killed millions of birds and at least 30 people in southeast asia. so far this virus strain has not evolved the ability to pass directly from human to human, but that possibility becomes more likely as the bird flu pandemic continues and humans remain in contact with chickens, ducks, and other birds. the virus has killed two-thirds of people reported to be infected. dr. tim uyeki, an epidemiologist for the us centers for disease control, says, "you have the ingredients in asia right now for a public health disaster."

but since sequences of this bird flu virus are known, it may be possible to develop a vaccine or set of vaccines to protect against it. at a special meeting of influenza experts on november 11th and 12th, world health organization influenza program chief klaus stohr said, "it is not only possible, but also important, that influenza pandemic vaccines be made available... and there's a shared responsibility needed to make that happen…. we have a huge window of opportunity now."

 


cuba erects billboards depicting abu ghraib prisoners and swastika in response to u.s. billboard

the cuban government has erected a number of billboards outside the u.s. interests section in havana, featuring photos of the abu ghraib prisoner abuses as well as the word "fascists" and a red swastika, covered with the text "made in usa".

the cuban display was erected in response to the us missions christmas decorations that feature a large lighted sign with the number 75 on it - the number of cuban dissidents jailed last year by cuban government.

although cuba made a complaint over the sign and has threatened to take action, the senior us diplomat in cuba, james cason, is standing firm by the decision to draw attention to cuba's human rights offences. the christmas decorations will remain in place until the end of the holiday season.

the rest of the us display features brightly-lit santas, snowmen and a large neon pyramid tree, as well as messages wishing the cubans a happy christmas.




brazilian soccer player's mother freed by kidnappers

miss marina souza, aged 43, mother of robson de souza - known as robinho (little robin) - a brazilian soccer player for the santos football club has been released friday, december, 17 by her kidnappers at santa cruz street, in perus, a district of sao paulo city, after 40 days been captive. she was kidnapped last saturday, november 6, in praia grande, sao paulo, during a barbecue with her relatives. 

right after been released she asked for help in neighborhood, she contacted her son and called the police officers. she was sent to the hospital and the doctors said she is well although a little dehydration and a phew pounds more lean. a ransom (the quantity has not been revealed) has been paid by family and friends.

the police said they are still investigating and they didn't give more details about the case.

sunday, december 18, santos will play the last game of the brazilian championship and according to robinho and his coach there are good chances of he playing. robinho has not been playing (only trainning) with his team santos since his mother has been kidnapped. 

santos football club only needs a victory against the other team vasco da gama to be claimmed the brazilian champion of 2004 over its only adversary in championship atletico paranaense.



battle of the bulge reenacted in belgium

a celebration held here today marked the 60th anniversary of the battle of the bulge ? a key battle for american forces during world war ii. with thousands?including king albert ii of belgium?in attendance at the mardasson monument, the festivities included a parade of military vehicles, soldiers that participated in the battle, as well as a light show.

a memorable moment in the history of the battle ? general macauliffe's reply "nuts!" to the german request for surrender ? was commemorated with the throwing of nuts into the audience. many american veterans attended and participated in the celebration. 


european union council to accept software patent directive

december 22, 2004

the controversial european union directive on the patentability of computer implemented inventions, also called the "software patent directive" has been put to rest for 2004. the directive was expected to easily pass through the european council's fisheries council on tuesday, december 21, but was removed from the agenda at the request of 
poland's minister of science and computerisation, wlodzimierz marcinski. 

the directive's opponents, some of whom had conceded defeat on tuesday before the vote was taken, will continue the debate informally until meetings resume in 2005. 

software developers, who supported the european parliament's proposal last year to definitively rule out software patents, welcomed the delay as a chance to reintroduce those provisions into the current draft.

florian mueller, campaign manager of nosoftwarepatents.com, which is supported by three it companies (1&1, red hat, and mysql ab), applauded poland's move.

"the polish government deserves greatest admiration for its courage!" said mueller in a press release. "now europe has the opportunity to have a constructive debate on the severe shortcomings of the current council text, under the new luxembourgish eu presidency next year." 

germany's representative also backed the delay, saying it would allow everyone to align the current proposal to changes proposed by the european parliament last year. 

"we were well aware that [the current proposal] has room for improvement with an eye to the objective of arriving at a consensus position between the eu council and the european parliament," germany's federal minister of justice brigitte zypries said in a tuesday statement. "we will continue to work constructively toward finding a solution that even better meets the needs of those concerned than the decision taken in may of this year."

on may 18, 2004 eu council reached a political agreement on a "common position" on the directive which ignored the european parliament's vote from last year. the council vote generated a lot of controversy. later, the dutch parliament failed to convince its eu representatives to reverse their vote. 

according to the new voting weights which took effect on november 1, the majority needed to formally adopt the common position (after translations were done) is questionable. the 20 countries that supported the directive on may 18 fall short of the new qualified majority by 16 votes.




poland made software patent directive stop

the directive about patentability of computer implemented inventions (the so-called software patent directive) has appeared in the agenda of today's meeting of the council of agriculture and fisheries council of the eu as an "a-item" (an item which does not need further discussion).

everyone following the events expects the directive will pass, despite the vehement opposition of the european open source organization and small-to-medium software companies.

against all expectations, poland has asked for postponement of the final decision, saying they need a clear text which excludes patentability of software. the polish minister of science and information technology, wlodzimierz marcinski, travelled to brussels to tell the council.

the decision has been welcomed by the opponents of software patents, and condemned by the pro-software-patent lobbies.

with a slim majority, the council voted for the "common position" on the may 18th directive.

since then, most of the countries have received considerable pressure from their citizens and parliaments to reverse the vote. one of the most cited examples is the decision of the dutch parliament, which urged the dutch representative (also president of the council for the second half of 2004) to withdraw their vote. similar decisions have also been made in germany, hungary, latvia and poland. however, the result was only some unilateral statements attached to the directive by their respective governments.

it is believed that this decision is a great relief for those governments, as they can now seek a more widely accepted compromise.

germany has already reacted positively to the event.
germany's federal minister of justice, brigitte zypries, said:


further info:



thieves carry out biggest bank robbery in british history

the gang members did not hurt anyone, although one of the hostages was taken to hospital with , the circumstances of which have not been explained. assistant chief constable sam kinkaid, a police spokesman, said that it is "far too early" to say if the thieves had "any connections to a paramilitary group". 

the money stolen was almost entirely made up of northern bank notes which are highly distinctive, and harder to get rid of in large amounts than the more common bank of england notes. police are hoping that this fact will help them in finding the gang involved.



house of flying daggers (movie review)

opened in limited release on december 3, 2004 (new york city and los angeles, 145 screens)

house of flying daggers is a martial-arts action/romance film.


anita mui was originally cast for a major role in the film. she died before any of her scenes was filmed.

directed by zhang yimou.

the movie is set in china in 859 ad, during the tang dynasty. the local county army outpost is assigned to assassinate the leader of a rebel group called the "house of flying daggers" within ten days. captain leo (played by andy lau) plots with his co-captain jin (takeshi kaneshiro) to infiltrate a local entertainment establishment, where they suspect mei (zhang ziyi) is operating undercover as a member of the group. the rest of the film follows their attempts to follow mei and find the headquarters of the house of flying daggers group.

mandarin dialog, subtitled in english.

running time: 119 minutes

an edko films, zhang yimou studio production in collaboration with beijing new picture film co., ltd.

released by sony pictures classics.

mpaa rating: pg-13, for sequences of stylized martial arts violence, and some sexuality



digest/6december2004


articles dated 6 to 13 december 2004 are included in the compilation below. their status in the current proposed review policy at time of compilation is noted next to each date of articles of some length, with articles only in development being listed at bottom.

veteran sergeant accounts us torture coverup
8 december 2004 | detailed talk section

david debatto reports us sergeant frank ford was immediately stripped of his weapon and assigned a 24-hour escort. shortly after he was told to report to an army psychiatrist for a "combat stress evaluation". the psychiatrist deemed ford to be "completely normal".

criminal charges filed in nov. 19 nba brawl

8 december 2004 | under review

pontiac, michigan ? after spending weeks going over written statements, tv video and even fan shot video, oakland county prosecutor david gorcyca announced criminal charges against five indiana pacer players and seven fans stemming from the november 19th brawl at the palace of auburn hills.

calvin murphy acquitted of molestation charges

6 december 2004 | community reviewed

former houston rockets star calvin murphy, accused of molestation by five of daughters, was found not guilty by the jury, putting an end to the eight-month long trial.

e.c. president does not advise portuguese referendum in light of current crisis

6 december 2004 | community reviewed

lisbon ? the president of the european commission, jose manuel durao barroso, said holding a referendum on acceding to the european constitution in portugal is inadvisable, in light of the current political crisis in that country.

lycos europe ends its anti-spam campaign

6 december 2004 | under review

europe ? lycos europe has ended its anti-spam operation: "make love not spam." a company spokesperson said the objective of the time-limited campaign was to raise people's awareness. the reasons why it ended the campaign was variously reported and speculated in media. the operation, while fairly popular, suffered unexpected troubles and drew criticism from security experts and others from the start.

rumsfeld to remain in bush administration

6 december 2004 | under review

washington, dc ? donald rumsfeld revealed today that he will not resign his position as united states secretary of defense. several other members of president george w. bush's cabinet have resigned. rumsfeld stated he will continue at his post until at least the end of the iraq war, although he did not commit to remaining for the full four years of the administration. while also not committing to any dates for withdrawal of u.s. troops from iraq, rumsfeld indicated his desire that they be withdrawn sometime within the next four years.

vanuatu pm accused of assaulting envoy

6 december 2004 | community reviewed

port vila, vanuatu ? serge vohor, the prime minister of vanuatu, recently came into spotlight as the newest battleground in the diplomatic war between the people's republic of china and taiwan, was accused of pushing the ambassador from the people's republic of china, mr. bao shusheng.


16 foot asteroid passes between earth and satellites

december 22, 2004

a small asteroid passed just under the orbit of geostationary satellites (22,300 miles - 36,000 kilometers) dec. 19. the asteroid, named 2004 yd5, was roughly 16 feet (5 meters) wide. if it had entered earth's atmosphere, scientists believe it would have most likely exploded before impact.

2004 yd5 approached earth from the direction of the sun, and as such was impossible to detect before it had passed.

 


mozambique's ruling party retains control in elections

december 22, 2004

the presidential elections in the southern african nation mozambique have resulted in a landslide victory for the ruling frelimo party. the party's candidate, armando guebuza, was elected to the presidential post for the five-year term starting in 2005 with 63.7% of the vote.

the election was held on december 1 and 2, 2004, and the results were officially announced yesterday by the country's national elections committee (cne). it also announced frelimo's continued dominance in the parliament. the opposition renamo party came in second, with its presidential candidate garnering less than half as many votes as mr. guebuza. for frelimo, 2005 will mark the party's 30th year in power ? uninterrupted since the country's independence from portugal.

the election was closely monitored by international observers, who have alleged some amount of fraud. the carter center ? an organization providing election monitors ? certain aspects of the election contained irregularities, and the tally counting process could not be verified. however, observers appear to concur that any voting fraud in this election is unlikely to change the result of the presidential elections ? though it could have an effect on the allocation of parliamentary seats. nevertheless, the opposition renamo party has announced that it will not take its 90 seats in the parliament because of fraud. the party has one week to appeal the election results.



former indian pm narasimha rao passes away

, former prime minister of india, passed away this morning after suffering cardiac arrest in a private hospital in . he had been in critical condition for the past few days. he was admitted to the (aiims) on december 9 after he complained of breathlessness. 

mr rao has been credited for indian economic reforms during his tenure from 1991 to 1996, and for supporting then finance minister and current indian prime minister manmohan singh's economic reforms, which allowed for the greatest sustained gdp growth in the country's history. 

he has also faced several accusations of bribery, although he has been acquitted on all such charges.

he was the first person outside the to complete his full tenure as prime minister. rao is survived by three sons and five daughters. 


seals say us officer's cover-up was reported by fake seal

frank ford, an honorably discharged u.s. veteran sergeant who works as a california state prison guard has reported witnessing torture in iraq and the cover-up
activities of his commanding officers: december 8, 2004, "veteran sergeant accounts us torture coverup". ford says he was hustled out of iraq for psychological evaluations at military hospitals in germany and usa as part of an army cover-up strategy. david debatto, who wrote the original article about frank ford states that every doctor that evaluated ford found him to be completely normal, with absolutely no psychological or mental health issues. however according to veriseal, which claims to provide independent and no-cost verification of special operations forces personnel backgrounds, the cover-up accusations are being made by a fake seal member.

ford has already made several unsubstantiated claims including being a member of president nixon's security detail, a medical doctor, a nobleman with a castle in europe, a navy seal and knowing the exact location of saddam hussein and ali hassan al-majid known as "chemical ali". also ford has said he has saved the life of a soldier in iraq, but according to the sources familiar with the incident?doctors and other witness?his claims were exaggerated and he did nothing more than hold the wounded soldier's iv bag. the name of ford is listed at the identified seal impostors page from veriseal.

when inquired about some of the ford's exaggerated stories, david debatto said:"ford is an inveterate braggart. this is beyond question as far as i am concerned. however, although that trait may make him unpopular with some, it does not make him a liar. some people seem to have a hard time separating the two."

according to ford he attended a discontinued bud/s program for navy corpsmen during 1980's as a doctor assigned to a navy seal team. however navy records do not list ford among the program graduates. about this debatto said: "he called himself "doc" when i met him too at fort bragg in february 2003. however, i asked him right away if he was an md or phd. and he told me no, he was just a medic, but he has always been referred to as "doc" since becoming a navy medic over 30 years ago. it just kind of stuck he said. he also said he was in some kind of medical school or internship, which, upon later research, turned out to be true. it ain't harvard, but it is a legitimate medical school". actually frank ford is a "doctor of naturopathy" by the clayton school of natural healing in alabama.

according to col. c. tsai, a military psychiatrist who examined ford at the army regional medical center in landstuhl, germany, tsai had found nothing at all unstable about ford." tsai was also interviewed by speigel television in germany on this issue. according to capitain vic artiga, ford's company commander, who ford implicates, he was evacuated for "combat stress" behavioal problems.

in a interview to los angeles times reporter, lt. col. timothy j. ryan, ford's commander, said: "all allegations of prisoner abuse in samarra were investigated immediately and no wrongdoing was ever found". lt. col. timothy j. ryan is also implicated by ford's testimony.

ford said that artiga accused him of being "delusional" and gave him "30 seconds to retract or face psychiatric referral". artiga, who is a police officer in redwood city as civilian, denied ford claims:"that's just laughable. in my years as a policeman, i've done hundreds of investigations. i can tell yoou that the investigation we did was as thorough as they come".

according to sergeant first class michael marciello, an alleged witness, when captain vic artiga saw an initial psychiatrist's report, artiga was, "livid". he "stormed" back to the psychiatrist and "browbeat" her to change her report to read that ford was mentally unstable, and ordered her to have ford shipped out of the country. ford was later strapped to a medical gurney and medvac'd out of iraq. he was initially sent to kuwait and eventually to landstuhl, germany. ford then underwent psychological evaluation in germany and also two bases in the united states for approximately 8 months.

the ford accusation was reported by david debatto and the article can be seen at salon news. the case is under investigation.




near-earth asteroid 2004 mn4 reaches torino scale hazard rating 4

nasa's near earch object program office has recently announced that the asteroid named 2004 mn4, discovered last june, has the highest risk of earth impact to date. in the december 23 annoncement, nasa advised that the 400-meter wide asteroid has a 1 in 300 chance of colliding with earth. as scientists gather more data on 2004 mn4, the probability of collision with earth is expected to decrease.

the level of impact risk is measured in terms of , and the mn4's score was initially 2 out of 10. 2004 mn4 is expected to come closest to the earth on april 14, 2029. 



mumbai officials demolish 39k shanties; 200k homeless

december 25, 2004

officials in mumbai, india, demolished over 6,000 shanties today in a push to eradicate the capital city's slums. in total, 39,000 shanties have been flattened, displacing over 200,000 people, in the city’s biggest-ever demolition drive, which began in early december.

when complete, over 2 million people are expected to be displaced. after wiping out the least desirable shanties, next in line for demolition are the illegal ‘well-off’ shanties and neighborhoods, according to the legal and bureaucratic motions that have been executed toward cleaning up mumbai's appearance by lowering the dominance of shanties, which make up 62 percent of mumbai's housing.

"as far as eye can see, there are mounds of wood, tin and tarpaulin, the remains of 6,200 illegal homes, flattened by a heavy excavator running on tank-like tracks and giant motorised claws," the indian express reported about today's destruction. 

chief minister vilasrao deshmukh said that citizens would see a change within six months. "every chief minister likes to be remembered, and i’m no exception," said deshmukh, who despite having an empty exchequer, also announced that rs 31,000 crore will be spent on new roads, sea links and rail lines. 



arrested marxist leader apablaza charged in chile

sergio galvarino apablaza,aged 54, nicknamed "comandante salvador", has been charged by the chilean judge hugo dolmestch for the following crimes: the
kidnapping of cristian edwards(son of agustin edwards, owner of the newspaper
el mercurio) and the assassination of senator jaime guzman errazuriz.

galvarino apablaza is the leader of the marxist group fpmr - manuel rodriguez patriotic front. fpmr was founded in 1983 and became the armed wing of the chilean communist party to carry out terrorist attacks against the chilean militarist government of the dictator augusto pinochet. its name is a tribute for manuel rodriguez erdoiza, considered a chilean hero in the war of the independence of chile against spain.

after the fall of pinochet's government and the return to democracy in 1989 in chile the organization broke up into two factions: the fpmr party, which gave up the armed fight, and the fpmr-dissidents, which continued terrorist activities. some of the fpmr most recent attacks include the explosion of a building in which the american company flour daniel has offices (august 1994), an attempted bombing of a kentucky fried chicken in santiago (september 1993), an explosion near the chinese embassy in santiago (may 1993), and a bombing of a mormon church in santiago (december 1992).

galvarino apablaza has been arrested in november 29 in argentina. chilean authorities request now the expulsion of apablaza so he can be tried in chile. apablaza and some left-wing organizations want argentina give him political asylum. 

apablaza is also suspected of participating to the kidnapping of the brazilian advertising executive washington olivetto in 2001, according to brazilian police authorities. 



us army gives medical assistance to iraq school

according to defend america, us department of defense news website, us
soldiers members of the 256th brigade combat team, the 199th forward support battalion (fsb), with several units from camp liberty (18th military police brigade, 16th mp brigade, 617th mp brigade, 307th psychological operations battalion, and the iraqi highway patrol) provided medical assistance to iraq children at an elementary school in bagdah.

us major alan kabakoff, with the 16th mp brigade, says humanitarian
missions are very important in winning the war on terror, although you can't see
the importance sometimes: "it's like fire prevention, everyone knows
that it works, it's just hard to prove, unless something bad happens. these
people want the same things that we do, they want safe schools,
safe homes, and safe areas to raise their kids."

staff sgt. jason escoyne, co. c, 199th fsb, who examined the children said
that there was nothing seriously wrong with them. 

this effort is part of the us reconstruction of iraq. till now according to usaid, u.s. agency for international development, in iraq 2,405 schools were rehabilitated including the supply of chairs, cabinets, desks, chalkboards and kits for secondary and primary schools, about 8.7 million science and math textbooks have been distributed, 33,000 secondary school teachers have been trainned, high protein biscuits have been distributed to more than 450,000 children and 200,000 nursing and pregnant women, trainning have been provided to 700 physicians and 2,500 primary health care providers, over 3 million children under five have been vaccinated and more than 1.3 million children under five suspected of malnutrition have been examined.



strongest earthquake in 40 years hits southeast asia

indian ocean - the death toll continues to grow and millions face a homeless life in the new year as coastal communities in south asia struggle against continued aftershocks and flooding caused by the largest earthquake to strike the planet in more than a generation.

the magnitude 9.0 undersea megathrust earthquake struck off the western coast of sumatra, indonesia on december 26, 2004, at 00:58:50 utc (or 07:58:50 local time in jakarta and bangkok).

the earthquake was the strongest in the world since the 9.2-magnitude good friday earthquake which struck alaska, usa in 1964, and the fourth largest since 1900. more than 140,000 deaths were caused by resulting tsunami, which in thailand were up to 10 meters (33 feet) tall, and struck within three hours of the initial event.

multiple tsunamis struck and ravaged coastal regions all over the indian ocean, devastating regions including the indonesian province of aceh, the coast of sri lanka, coastal areas of the indian state of tamil nadu, the resort island of phuket, thailand, and even as far away as somalia, 4,100?km (2,500?mi) west of the epicenter.

"while the earthquake and the tsunamis are no longer ongoing (other than aftershocks), the humanitarian and economic crisis generated by the disaster is still ongoing. this report will attempt to cover the crisis as it continues to develop."

the great earthquake triggered massive tsunamis (popularly known as "tidal waves"), which struck the coasts of the indian ocean. however pacific ocean coasts were not affected.

the aceh province of indonesia is the most affected. officials in sri lanka estimate the death toll to be over 40,000. much of the capital colombo is flooded and high number of casualties are feared in the north east of the country around the town of trincomalee. the new york times estimated that at least 2 hours passed from the time of the earthquake before the island was affected. the tragedy has caused at least some sri lankans to ask what precautions could have allowed more people to avoid harm.

in india, the islands of andaman and nicobar and the southern states of tamil nadu and andhra pradesh are the most affected. the police have said that there are 100 dead in chennai city alone. mild tremors were experienced in chennai, bangalore and cochin cities. the prime minister of india, dr. manmohan singh has expressed concern over the disaster and said that all directions were given to the different agencies including the navy for quick relief work. the meteorological department has warned people in coastal areas in southern india to stay away as there are possibilities of more waves due to after-shocks for the next 3 to 4 days.

in addition to the large number of local residents, numerous tourists vacationing during the busy christmas holiday travel season were among the victims. in a press conference on december 31, swedish prime minister goran persson reported that the number of swedes that are confirmed dead is 59 and the number of missing swedes is 3 559. most of these were on vacation in thailand, primarily in khao lak and phi phi island.

as of december 31, 2004, the death toll is estimated by the united nations to be up to 150,000. however, water-borne diseases are expected to kill nearly twice as many people.

the quake was initially reported at magnitude 6.8 but soon upgraded to 8.5, and then 8.9 and finally 9.0. the largest recorded earthquake was the great chilean earthquake of 1960, at magnitude 9.5.

the hypocenter was measured at 3.298°n, 95.779°e, some 160 kilometres west of sumatra, at a depth of 10 km underwater, within the "ring of fire" zone of frequent earthquakes.

the quake was felt as far away as bangladesh, india, myanmar, malaysia, maledives singapore and thailand.

the earthquake was unusually large in geographical extent. 1,125?km (700?mi) of faultline slipped 15?m (50?ft) along the subduction zone where the india plate dives under the burma plate. this formed a shock wave in the indian ocean, creating tsunamis that traveled at up to 800?km/h (500?mi/h). 

numerous aftershocks of between magnitude 5.7 and 6.1 were reported off the andaman islands in the following hours. aftershocks off the nicobar islands were also reported, including ones of magnitude 7.3 , and 6.5 . (see usgs current earthquake information.)

based on one seismic model, some of the smaller islands southwest of sumatra have moved southwest up to 20 m (66 ft). the northern tip of sumatra, which is on the burma plate as opposed to the southern regions on the sunda plate, may also have moved southwest up to 36 m (120 ft). other models suggest that most of the movement would have been vertical rather than lateral. further measurement is needed to determine the nature of the actual movement. the massive release of energy and shift in mass also caused the earth to wobble slightly on its axis.
one year ago to this day, over 30,000 iranians were killed by an earthquake with a 6.6 magnitude. the indian ocean earthquake came just three days after a magnitude 8.1 earthquake in a completely uninhabited region off macquarie island near antarctica.

earthquakes above magnitude 9 occur, on average, only about once every twenty years.

large amounts of humanitarian aid are needed due to widespread damage to infrastructure, food and water shortages and economic damage to the fishing and tourism industries. epidemics are of special concern, as they are highly likely due to the high population density and tropical climate of the affected areas. the united nations has stated that the largest relief operation in history is underway.

the overwhelming concern of humanitarian and government agencies is to quickly identify and bury the dead before they become a health issue and contribute to the spread of diseases such as cholera, diphtheria, dysentery and typhoid (according to widespread but misguided belief the times). other high priorities are delivery of medical supplies and personnel to overwhelmed hospitals and clinics, tent shelters and clothing to people who have lost their houses and belongings, and potable water. many usual sources of water were spoiled either by salt water, broken by the force of the tsunami, or contaminated with bodies of dead people or livestock, requiring water purification equipment or trucking potable water into the affected region.

governments and humanitarian organisations around the world are scrambling to offer aid and technical help after the quake and tsunamis that killed thousands of people in southern asia and northwest africa and caused wide-spread devastation. the world bank estimates the amount of aid needed at usd 5 billion. 

numerous organizations are also asking businesses and individuals to contribute towards relief efforts:

warning: due the nature of wikinews, it cannot guarantee the veracity of outside links and scams involving charities are a danger. beware of organizations that have names similar to that of well-known aid agencies.
the following countries and organization are contributing towards the relief efforts (listed alphabetically):











australians fast over 2004 xmas in empathy with detainees

two melburnians, juliana qian and emily smith, held a 24-hour fast, including a 12-hour public vigil at the city's central flinders street station on christmas day. seventeen-year-old ms qian said, "i want to show my support to the detainees, and to draw attention to their situation. many iranians have been detained in australia for four or five years. there is much evidence to suggest these detainees would be persecuted if deported to iran."

senator andrew bartlett, of the australian democrats party, fasted for five days earlier in the week, hoping to draw attention to the plight of asylum seekers in the nation's controversial immigration system, which is highly intolerant of what it calls "unauthorised" arrivals. artist and convenor of spare rooms for refugees, kate durham, comedian corrine grant, actor and vice-president of actors for refugees, diana greentree, writer arnold zable, and musician kavisha mazzella have also fasted. other australians continue fasting in a rolling programme of three days each, with the last of these planned to end on new year's eve with a vigil outside st stephen's cathedral in brisbane.

most of the hunger striking detainees have been in high security detention for over four years, with no assigned date for release or repatriation. as many as 27 were starving themselves during this particular episode, and some had sewed their lips. three others had staged a rooftop protest.

a letter from the hunger striking detainees explains their reasons for fasting, and for some having broken fast. "we ... listened to their plea for us to end the hunger strike and have therefore decided to start eating again on christmas day as a sign of our good will and friendship.

"it saddens us that you have chosen to ignore until now all the information about us arab-iranians which we and our friends have provided to you, your minister and her department. we have demonstrated that our arab minority suffers disadvantages and persecution in iran and that, no matter what our individual situation, we all had to flee home because we were striving for more freedom and justice for our people. we are real and genuine refugees.

"it is unconscionable that we are not allowed to submit this information or that dimia and the australian courts should not be permitted to consider it, contrary to other civilized countries. how can we prove our case when the authorities will not acknowledge the independent information we have provided?"

australia's department of immigration multiculturalism and indigenous affairs is notorious for ignoring information provided in support of detainees, while upholding that similarly sourced information proves the detainees claims of asylum are ungrounded. one such case is the bakhtyari family, being deported over christmas. verified documents indicating an afghan origin for the family are disputed by the department, while apparently forged documents are held by the department as sufficient to show that the family are natives of pakistan, hence their current, and ongoing 'repatriation' to that country.

the department has for a number of years ignored recommendations by the australian government's own human rights and equal opportunity commission to improve processing conditions for asylum seekers, particularly with respect to the issue of children in detention. independent organisations such as amnesty international and human rights watch also have repeatedly condemned the australian system.

politicians in the australian federal government express confidence in this system, such as alexander downer, foreign minister, on the bakhtiyaris: "if you're found not to be a refugee and you've been falsely claiming to be a refugee you should go back home and they should go back to pakistan where they came from."



major earthquake jolts bangladesh, centered in nicobar islands

december 26, 2004

nicobar islands - a magnitude 7.3 earthquake occurred at 04:21 utc in the indian region near bangladesh.

seismologists at usgs have indicated that this earthquake is an aftershock of the 9.0 earthquake which had occurred just a few hours earlier, 305 km (190 miles) distant, in the indian ocean near sumatra, indonesia.

the bangladesh meteorological department issued a statement that the quake had struck chittagong, a southern port that is the second largest city in bangladesh.

the hypocenter was measured at 6.901°n, 92.952°e, some 130 kilometres south by southwest of misha, nicobar islands, at a depth of 10km (6.2 miles).



zambian government launches a new agricultural policy

december 22, 2004

the government of zambia has launched a new national agricultural policy, according to a report by the times of zambia. the newspaper reports that the policy was announced yesterday by the country's minister of agriculture & co-operatives, mr. mundia sikatana.

at the event marking the launch of the new program, mr. sikatana described the policy as addressing the issues of food security, economic growth and poverty reduction. the policy will cover all sectors of agriculture in the nation, and will be implemented by the ministry of agriculture.

mr sikatana went on to say that the policy contained detailed strategies to cover a variety of sectors within the agricultural industry, including livestock, fisheries, irrigation, and agricultural finance. the new policy also continues zambia's previous policy of prohibiting the import and use of genetically modified foods within the country. this policy is controversial due to areas of poverty within the country, and the smuggling of genetically modified grains into the country earlier this month.

the zambian government has previously been criticised by some for its annual ban on fishing during december. it is unclear whether this policy, which was widely applauded by environmentalists and implemented to protect sensitive fish stocks, will be affected by the new agricultural policy. 




yushchenko claims victory in re-run

december 27, 2004

with nearly all votes counted, the opposition candidate in the ukrainian presidential elections has claimed victory. unofficial results show viktor yushchenko leading with 52% to the mainly pro-government candidate and current prime minister viktor yanukovich's 44% ? a difference amounting to roughly 2.2 million votes.

this latest round of voting was to replace the results of the second run-off election held on november 21, 2004. after the november vote, many international observers criticized the vote as fradulent, and some regions saw voter turnout listed in excess of 100%, prompting the opposition ? including mr. yushchenko ? to assert that the results were invalid. supporters of the opposition pursued legal channels, such as appealing to the country's parliament and its supreme court, as well as maintained a blocade of key government buildings in an effort to force a new election.

the new results were not, however, accepted by both sides. the government candidate, mr. yanukovich, vowed to challenge the outcome in the supreme court. "i will never recognize this defeat because the constitution and human rights were violated," he said at a press conference.

unlike the november results which were nearly universally criticized by western governments, the outcome of the re-run has been hailed as fair by officials in the united states and the european union. 




u.s. and u.k. governments warn citizens against travelling to areas hit by tsunamis

december 27, 2004

the u.s. state department issued public travel warnings, advising united states citizens to avoid travelling to areas affected by the recent indian ocean earthquake and the resulting tsunamis. the announcements cover indonesia, sri lanka, the maldives and affected areas of thailand. the warnings are set to expire on january 25, 2005, and urge citizens to postpone all non-essential travel to the regions.

the u.k. foreign and commonwealth office also carries travel advice notices covering many of the countries hit by the tsunamis, and similarly urges citizens not to travel to the areas unless absolutely necessary.




asian earthquake toll nears 60,000

december 28, 2004

the toll from the recent earthquake and tsunami disaster that affected coasts of a dozen asian and african nations has risen to nearly 60,000 people reported dead. the nations struck by the catastrophe are struggling to bury the bodies of the dead before disease adds to the already high casaulty figures.

health experts, such as dr. david nabarro, head of crisis operations at the world health organization (who), are predicting that as many as an additional 60,000 people could perish if disease spreads due to lack of safe drinking water, overcrowding in camps, and potential leaks of deadly toxins from factories affected by the disaster. the who is attempting to focus its relief efforts on saving lives and preventing disease in this ongoing crisis.




connecticut serial killer competent- waives further appeals

serial killer michael ross appeared before a court today, and told judge patrick clifford that he wanted to die. if executed, ross will be the first person put to death in connecticut in over 40 years.

ross admitted to killing eight women in connecticut and new york in the 1980s, and to raping several of them.

the hearing considered whether ross, who holds a degree in economics from cornell university, was mentally competent to waive his appeals. dr. michael norko, appointed by the court to examine ross, testified that ross is a sexual sadist and is prone to depression. ross had attempted suicide three times in the past, norko told the court, but he is not suicidal now. norko further testifed that ross is taking medication to control his psychiatric problems.

norko testified that ross made a rational decision in electing to waive his appeals, and the court agreed, finding ross clear headed and well educated.

"this decision is his right to make," judge clifford said from the bench.

however, ross' father and the connecticut public defender's office have filed motions in rockville superior court claiming that ross suffered from mental delusions at the time of his orignial trial, and that his previous attorneys did a poor job defending him. there is no word when the rockville court will rule.

ross is scheduled to die january 26, 2005.



former first lady of taiwan dies at age 88

faina chiang (?方良; pinyin: ji?ng f?ngliang), the russian-born former first lady of the republic of china (taiwan) and wife of the late president chiang ching-kuo died on december 15, 2004 of pulmonary and cardiac failure in the taipei vetrans hospitial. she was 88 years old, although using the chinese system of counting birthdays she was said to be 90.

her funeral was held on december 27, 2004 at the taipei vetrans hospital with several prominent taiwanese politicians in attendance including president chen shui-bian, kuomintang chairman lien chan, and people's first party chairman james soong.

chiang's casket was draped with a taiwanese flag as well as a kuomintang party flag. 

chiang's body was cremated and placed in her husband's temporary mausoleum in taoyuan county. current plans are to have chiang ching-kuo, and his father, chiang kai-shek's, remains moved from their temporary mausoleums to the wuchih mountain military cemetery. originally, plans were to keep the two former presidents in the mausoleums until they could be buried on the chinese mainland after reunification. however, last year a request made by chiang fang-liang was granted to have the remains moved to the taipei cemetery, chiang fang-liang would also be buried there.


security firm identifies united states as world's top spamming country

december 28, 2004

according to research done by an anti-spam research company sophos, the united states is the point of origin of over 42% of all spam. trailing are south korea with 13% and china with 8% of the world's spam. the security firm performed an audit of its honeypots to come up with the figures ? a honeypot is a special system set up to attract spam or spammers in order to gauge spammer activity. 

such activity is not entirely unexpected. the united states accounts for slightly over 25% of all internet usage, whereas south korea and china have about 4% and 11% of the world's internet users, respectively. yet these percentages still point to the u.s. as being a disproportionate source for spam.

the sophos team noted the inefficacy of the can-spam act in its report ? the act has been frequently criticized in the technology media as not doing enough to stem the flow of unsolicited commercial and fradulent email, and the new numbers from the research company only serve to further that claim. indeed, the security company mx logic reported that while compliance with the can-spam act continues to grow, the growth is not enough to stem the increasing flow of spam. analysts blame the increase in spam on spammers' increased use of networks of zombies ? computers that have been hacked into in order to send the bulk email.



time warner, sprint close to mobile pact

if such a deal is struck, time warner will be the first cable company to offer the so-called "quadruple threat" in telecommunications, by offering voice, video, internet and mobile services in a single package.

the "journal" reported that time warner would test market the new mobile service in kansas city before the end of march.

any such deal could strengthen time warner's plans to expand its entry into the telephony market. the company said it expects to have 200 thousand voice customers when it closes its 2004 books friday. as of mid-december, the company said it was adding about 10 thousand new wired voice customers per week.

for voice customers time warner is competing with regional telephone monopolies verizon, sbc and bellsouth, which among them control the two largest mobile networks in the united states: verizon and cingular.


tsunami toll passes 80,000 people as relief effort continues

december 29, 2004

the death toll from the earthquake and tsunamis that has hit countries in asia and eastern africa continues to rise, passing 80,000 people according to reports from several news agencies. a spokesman for the red cross speculated that the toll could increase to over 100,000 as some of the smaller islands in the indian ocean are checked, and a u.n. official said that the death toll might eventually approach 80,000 in indonesia alone.

the immediate fatalities from the earthquake and resulting tsunamis are but a fraction of the total effect from the disaster. the world health organization (who) estimates that 5 million people lack food, water or basic sanitation necessary for survival. officials continue to struggle with burying the dead and delivering basic suvival provisions to the population in the coastal and island areas most hit by the disaster.




republicans subpoenaed in ohio recount

voters in ohio, alleging evidence of voter fraud in the presidential election, subpoenaed several leading republicans as part of a challenge of the election results. ohio republican secretary of state j. kenneth blackwell, president george w. bush, vice-president dick cheney and white house political advisor karl rove were subpoenaed for depositions december 28th and 29th in a challenge supported by the reverend jesse jackson. blackwell has refused to appear, claiming in a court filing that he is not required to be interviewed since he is a high-ranking public official. the lawyer for the other three officials claims that his clients were not properly served the subpoenas. 

the deposition was part of a lawsuit filed at the ohio supreme court challenging the results of the u.s. presidential election in that state. a multi-party recount effort completed on december 28 showed a 300 vote difference between the initial and final tallies, but failed to answer questions about irregularities in the voting process such as shortages of voting machines in minority precincts, problems with electronic voting machines, and statistical improbabilities in reported vote tallies.

in his court filing, blackwell further called those asking questions about the vote engaging in 'frivolous conduct' and making too many requests of election officials around the state. republican blackwell, as secretary of state, assigns all members, directors and deputy directors of the precinct boards of elections that run the elections in the state. challengers to the voting process have questioned whether these boards were adequately run as bipartisan operations, suggesting that since the boards owe blackwell their jobs, this could have established a pattern of problems that favored bush at kerry's expense.



drug-dealers war in rio de janeiro

at least 11 people were killed dec. 26 and 27 in neighborhood gang turf fights between drug dealers at shantytown "morro da mineira" (miner hill) in the catumbi neighborhood of rio de janeiro, brazil.

the fight originated when gilson ramos da silva, 21, a.k.a. "gilson aritana," a member of the ada ("amigos do bairro") gang led other members into the "morro da mineira" (miner hill) to sell drugs, ricardo teixeira dias, a local police official said.

the region is controlled by rival gang comando vermelho (red command), which does not approve of other gangs selling drugs in the region. comando vermelho members started attacking the rival members of ada to protect their turf.

on dec. 26, one man was killed and five others hurt in a gang gunfight with police. there was panic and several residents from the neighborhood could not get into their houses and were forced to seek shelter elsewhere. that afternoon, a burned body was found at presidente vargas ave. near "sambodromo" plaza not far from "morro da mineira".

police found seven beheaded and burned bodies at "morro da mineira", in a dump area. the police arrived there after receiving an anonymous tip presumably from a resident of the neighborhood. 

the police believe there are more dead at nearby "morro do zinco" (zinc hill) neighborhood. the morning of dec. 27, anderson santos de oliveira, 21, was killed by the police in a gunfight. the police said he was carrying a .38 calibre pistol, a 380 pistol and marijuana. by 4:00 p.m. luciano da costa pinto, 22, had also been killed by police in a different incident where police recovered rifles and drugs. 



india issued tsunami warning, nothing happened

"this is news coverage of an ongoing event, information may change rapidly, and some information may be outdated"

30 december 2004 (updated 0920 cet)

indian government issued today a tsunami warning after a new earthquake measuring 5.7 on the richters scale. indian citizens fled the area warned. tsunamis are associated with quakes larger than 7.5 on the richters scales. it should not be a surprise nothing happened today. the catastrophic quake that caused the fatal tsunamis was measured to 9 on the same scale. 7,000 indian citizens are confirmed dead after the first quake.

in thailand, rumours about a new tsunami is causing panic among the several thousand already injured.



mn4 2004 asteroid now considered safe

december 29
united states - according to nasa's near earth object program, 2004 mn4's assessed risk has been corrected downward to zero on the torino scale. the torino scale is the current method by which astronomers classify the likelihood of an impact with a near-earth object. 

a score of zero means that the possibility of a collision between the asteroid and earth has been ruled out of consideration. 

2004 mn4 was once tentatively estimated as having the highest potential of any asteroid to hit the earth. its risk was first calculated as 2 out of 10 on the torino scale. 

this rank was upgraded to level 4 dec. 24, giving it the highest score ever for a near-earth asteroid. it was considered to have a 1 in 37 chance of striking the earth. 

upon discovery of previously recorded sightings of the same asteroid, its estimated flight path was corrected and found to miss the earth entirely, outside of the margin of error. the asteroid will, however, make one of the closest passes of earth ever seen. 

it will pass close enough to the earth's for the planet's gravitational field to influence the asteroid's orbital pattern. however, nasa's current risk analysis for the asteroid indicates that "no subsequent earth encounters in the 21st century are of any concern."

wikinews' earlier report on 2004 mn4 asteroid

near-earth asteroid 2004 mn4 reaches torino scale hazard rating 4 (december 24, 2004)



democrats ask gao for election review

thousands of citizens have reported experiencing problems casting their votes due to long lines at polling places, malfunctioning voting machines, inexplicable numbers of votes cast, and disenfranchisement in urban areas.

"the integrity of our democracy is at stake. we need to give the american people confidence that each and every vote will be properly counted and that the democratic electoral process is respected," wu said. "i also understand concerns about the conflict of interest of having an official in charge of running elections in a key state also heading a presidential campaign. i agree that ohio secretary of state blackwell's dual role calls into question any election decision he made that favored republicans."

other congressmen including john conyers (d-mi), jerrold nadler (d-ny), and robert wexler (d-fl) voiced similar concerns, and requested an investigation by the (gao), citing specific cases in ohio, florida, north carolina, and california. 

in december, conyers, the ranking democrat on the house committee on the judiciary, issued a series of letters about voting irregularities to the media, campaign officials, and manufacturers of voting equipment. these letters seek to collect and preserve information regarding the conduct of the election.

the u.s. government accountability office previously reported on voting irregularities in eariler presidential elections. 

a september 14, 2004 gao report on the 2000 presidential elections detailed changes the doj implemented to try to ensure voter access to polls, and the importance of monitoring election-day activities. the report warned that allegations in the 2000 election lacked sufficient specifics to enable the doj to perform and adequate investigation and recommended that more precise information be collected regarding voting for the 2004 presidential election.



gregoire wins washington state's closest ever governor's race

after two machine counts and a manual recount, secretary of state sam reed declared democrat christine gregoire the governor-elect of washington state.

however, this result was contested by republican dino rossi, who is asking for a new election.

this election was the closest in state history. in the first count, dino rossi won by 261 votes. under state law, this is considered "too close to call" and a recount is required. after this first recount, rossi's lead was shortened to 42 votes. because this was even closer, gregoire and other democrats raised approximately $800,000 to hold a statewide manual recount. she won this by only 129 votes, out of a total of 2.8 million.

to ensure fairness and accuracy in the hand recount, teams of republican and democratic counters worked together in the counting. they were watched over by observers, who were free to stop the count if they had a question or concern.

rossi has threatened on several occasions to file a lawsuit in the state supreme court. he also has asked gregoire to agree to a runoff election.

"this ain't golf," gregoire's spokesman said. "no mulligans allowed here, folks."

any runoff election would have to be approved by the legislature, which is controlled by the democrats.



double car bombing attack in mosul kills 26

attacking a soldier on patrol close to a u.s. outpost, the insurgents had two bomb vehicles. the first bomb attack was designed to draw out u.s. support troops while the second bomb vehicle in conjunction with mortars and rockets was intended to overrun the american outpost.

as reinforcements arrived, u.s. forces came under automatic weapon and rocket-propelled grenade fire, staff sgt. don dees, a military spokesman, said.

the americans suffered approximately 15 u.s. casualties in addition to the dead before u.s. air strikes forced the insurgents to retreat, lieutenant colonel paul hastings, u.s. military spokesman said.

mosul is iraq's third-largest city and has become a hotbed of insurgent activity in the past several months. the u.s. military has conceded it is not in control of some parts of mosul and plans to send more troops for the upcoming election scheduled for jan. 30.

this latest clash comes as the u.s. has begun a new push in the so-called "triangle of death" south of the capital, attempting to secure the region in the lead-up to the elections.


bittorrent tracker site sued by movie studios, will mount defense

december 30, 2004

loki torrent, a site that tracks links to bittorrent files, was sued by the motion picture industry for copyright infringement on december 14, 2004, but has decided to mount a legal defense. the site operators have set up a legal defense fund in order to raise the $30,000 per month they estimate will be necessary to cover legal costs. the suit was filed in a u.s. district court in texas on behalf of columbia pictures ? a major movie studio. the lawsuit is part of the mpaa campaign to crack down on internet piracy.

the lawsuit did not initially mention the site's operator, edward webber ? instead, the suit was filed against a set of people named "john doe" to be identified at a later point.

loki torrent's popularity had increased dramatically in recent days after the prominent bittorrent site suprnova.org shut down in a preemptive move to avoid a lawsuit . 




linux fifth most searched tech word on google in 2004

this ranking follows a banner year for the community-built operating system. the 2.6 kernel, deemed the first enterprise-level release of the software, became available for users in 2004 and made significant inroads into the enterprise computing industry. the idc recently reported a prediction that the worldwide market revenue for linux will exceed $35 billion by 2008. 

"sco" was the no. 1 company query for 2004 in google's report. high-profile lawsuits by sco against ibm and other companies for alleged copyright or patent infringement were filed and dominated linux news throughout the year. 



exeem annonunced to be successor of suprnova

december 31, 2004

yesterday on novastream, sloncek announced officially that the suprnova index for bittorrent, a program used to download music, video, and program files, and responsible for approximately one third of all transfers over the internet, will have a successor. suprnova was voluntarily shut down earlier in the year due to threats made by the mpaa regarding copyright violation.

the program to take the place of suprnova, "exeem", is a blending of 'the tracker', the bittorrent client, and its 'decentralized indexing'. as the program is in a state of testing, its current form is only designed to run on windows. although currently undergoing a beta test, the program will be released some time in the near future. the program also contains a rating and commenting system that, although basic and primitive, seems to be comparable to that of suprnova in its quality.

there are also unconfirmed rumours that sloncek is receiving payment from a third party for participating in the exeem team's efforts. this raises the question: is exeem actually related with suprnova and, in turn, can it be said to be its successor?


'fockers' set to meet another weekend title

of the new films opening this weekend, lions gate's "a love song for bobby long" will have the widest release, playing in eight theatres in los angeles and new york. other openers include thinkfilm's "the assassination of richard nixon", starring sean penn and sony pictures classics "william shakespeare's the merchant of venice" with and jeremy irons, both of which will be playing in four venues in new york and los angeles.

to be considered in wide release, a film must open or play in at least 1,000 theatres throughout the u.s. and canada. the lack of any new wide release competition friday almost ensures that the last week's slate of films will benefit at the box office.

the most likely contender for top-money maker is universal studios' "meet the fockers", the sequel to 200's "meet the parents" starring ben stiller, robert de niro, dustin hoffman and barbra streisand. that movie raked in $44.7 million over the christmas weekend and a total of #108.5 million as of dec. 29, according to box office mojo.

"fockers" is being shown in 3,524 venues over the new year weekend, six more than last week, making it the second-widest released film for the weekend. only the jim carrey family comedy "lemony snicket's a series of unfortunate events" with 3,623 venues has a wider release.

the following films will be playing in at least 1,000 u.s. and canada venues:

movie listings for the united states



nasa: hopes raised for shuttle flights to resume soon

december 31, 2004

nasa's hopes of launching a man into space on the shuttle again are one step closer today. the transportation of a new 15-story external fuel tank from the michoud assembly facility near new orleans today to the kennedy space centre.

nasa plans to spend $612 million repairing the space shuttle system. the main problem that caused the death of seven crew members and the destruction of the columbia is the reason for the expenditure. all of the money will be spent on the fuel systems. making a new foam insulation that will not fall off at launch is the reason for the new fuel tank which will not damage the space shuttle, like the columbia.

there has been no date set as to when the space shuttle will be up and running again but what has to be in the front of nasa's mind is that russia will start to charge for the use of their rockets to put american astronauts in space.


digest/14december2004


articles dated 14 to 25 december 2004 are included in the compilation below.

mumbai officials demolish 39k shanties; 200k homeless. 
25 december 2004 
india government demolishes over 6,000 shanties in a push to eradicate the capital city's slums.

former indian pm narasimha rao passes away 
23 december 2004 
former indian pm narasimha rao passed away after suffering cardiac arrest in a private hospital in new delhi.

zambian government launches a new agricultural policy
22 december 2oo4 
african nation moves to modernize food production infrastructure.

mozambique's ruling party retains control in elections 
22 december 2004 
elections in the southern african nation mozambique have resulted in a landslide victory for the ruling frelimo party.

us army gives medical assistance to iraq school 
22 december 2004 
us soldiers provided medical assistance to iraq children at an elementary school in bagdah.

police raids filesharing resources 
22 december 2004 
the largest bittorrent and ed2k link sites have been closed by police or went offline voluntarily.

european union council to accept software patent directive 
22 december 2004

16 foot asteroid passes between earth and satellites 
22 december 2004 
earth's scientists discover the latest astronomical near-miss.

thieves carry out biggest bank robbery in british history 
21 december 2004 
thieves have gotten away with $39m or $58m from the northern bank.

seals say us officer's cover-up was reported by fake seal 
21 december 2004 
us sergeant frank ford has already made several unsubstantiated claims according to veriseal.

poland made software patent directive stop 
20 december 20 2004 
despite all expectations, the eu council will further discuss the software patent directive.

battle of the bulge reenacted in belgium 
19 december 2004 
seventeen american paratroopers jumped out of two old dakota's who date from wwii.

the deadliest fall 
18 december 2004 
the flu pandemic in the fall of 1918 killed tens of millions. can it happen again?


digest/26december2004


articles dated 26 to 31 december 2004 are included in the compilation below.

'fockers' set to meet another weekend title
31 december 2004
with no new wide releases, last weekend's films are set to rule u.s. and canadian box office receipts once again.

exeem annonunced to be successor of suprnova
31 december 2004
announced yesterday on novastream, there will be a suprnova successor "apparently".
31 december 2004
nasa plans to spend $612 million repairing the space shuttle system.

linux fifth most searched tech word on google in 2004
30 december 2004
sco number one most searched company name.

double car bombing attack in mosul kills 26
30 december 2004
twenty-five insurgents and 1 u.s. soldier dead, 15 u.s. troops injured in frontal assault.

false tsunami alert in india
30 december 2004
citizens flee.

gregoire wins washington state's closest ever governor's race
30 december 2004
republican candidate asks for new election.

democrats ask gao for election review
30 december 2004
house of representatives seeks to investigate the facts behind widespread reports of voting irregularities.

south american community of nations announced at third south american summit
30 december 2004
south american nations have begun the creation of an international economic and legislative bloc.

time warner, sprint close to mobile pact
29 december 2004
company would be able to offer voice, video, internet and mobile services.

tsunami toll passes 80,000 people as relief effort continues
29 december 2004
relief agencies expect number to rise further.

republicans subpoenaed in ohio recount
29 december 2004
ohio republican secretary of state j. kenneth blackwell refused to appear for the deposition. 

asian earthquake toll nears 60,000
28 december 2004
countries bury the dead as threat of disease looms.

connecticut serial killer competent- waives further appeals
28 december 2004
serial killer michael ross told a judge that he wants to die.

security firm identifies united states as world's top spamming country
28 december 2004
42% originates in the u.s.

drug-dealers war in rio de janeiro
27 december 27 2004
in 2 days 11 people were killed in rio de janeiro in gang turf fights between drug dealers.

yushchenko claims victory in re-run
27 december 27 2004
ukrainian pro-government candidate refuses to accept outcome.

u.s. and u.k. governments warn citizens against travelling to areas hit by tsunamis
27 december 2004
u.s. travel advisories to last at least one month.

drug-dealers war in rio de janeiro
27 december 2004
gang drug turf wars leave 11 dead.

strongest earthquake in 40 years hits southeast asia
26 december 2004
the magnitude 9.0 quake rocked the indian ocean off sumatra, setting off tsunami waves.

australians fast over 2004 xmas in empathy with detainees
26 december 2004
members of the public, celebrities and politicians have been fasting in empathy with iranian asylum seekers.


indian ocean earthquake


tsunami toll passes 80,000 people as relief effort continues<br>
29 december 2004<br>
the death toll from the earthquake and tsunamis that has hit countries in asia and eastern africa continues to rise, passing 80,000 people according to reports from several news agencies.

asian earthquake toll nears 60,000<br>
28 december 2004<br>
the toll from the recent earthquake and tsunami disaster that affected coasts of a dozen asian and african nations has risen to nearly 60,000 people reported dead.

u.s. and u.k. governments warn citizens against travelling to areas hit by tsunamis<br>
27 december 2004<br>
the issued public travel warnings, advising united states citizens to avoid travelling to areas affected by the recent indian ocean earthquake and the resulting tsunamis.

strongest earthquake in 40 years hits southeast asia<br>
26 december 2004 (updated 31 december 2004)<br>


kenyans win international race of sao silvestre

the first race of sao silvestre occurred on dec. 31, 1924. since then, the race occurs every year always on the last day of the year. the 15 km (9,321 miles) course is by the streets of the city of sao paulo and the start and the arrival occurs at paulista avenue, a famous street. the competition is part of the official calendar of the international association of athletics federations (iaaf) and the (aims). 

the race name is a homage to saint silvester, a catholic saint who died in december 31, 335. saint silvester was pope during years 314 through 335. during his government the christian religion became the official religion of the roman empire under the rule of constantine the great. this event was important for the christians because they have been persecuted by the roman empire during 300 years and now they would have freedom to profess their religion without been in risk of been arrested or convicted to death by the government. 

for the 2004 race, the number of participants was about 15 thousand, with 13 thousand men and 2 thousand women. the majority of athletes were from brazil but others came from other countries including argentina, australia, sweden, the united states, switzerland, germany, chile, finland, portugal, luxemburg, bolivia, canada, south korea, france, england, malaysia, mexico, peru, puerto rico and uruguay.

the women's race started at 3 p.m.(local time) while the men's race started two hours later.

men

women<br>

 


tsunami deaths mount to more than 120,000

nearly a week after tsunami waves scoured the coasts of multiple countries in southern asia, the confirmed death count is over 120,000. indonesia reports it is no longer counting bodies, but merely struggling to deal with the aftermath and prevent a massive outbreak of .

near the epicenter of the earthquakes and tsunami, indonesia's aceh province alone may have as many as 80,000 death. entire villages are gone, with no evidence left of their prior existence. still, other countries are continuing to report the numbers of dead as best they can:

as many as 10,500 foreign nationals are missing in the region, most of them tourists. has 17 confirmed dead, but more than 2,500 are still missing.



republicans seek to reduce ethics rules

republican members of the house of representatives are proposing a bill that would reduce the standard of ethical conduct required of representatives. currently, the house expects a high level of ethical conduct, beyond the minimum required by law. the proposal, backed by house speaker dennis hastert (r-il), would reduce the expectation to only require the lowest level of conduct. with the new rules, representatives would only be admonished if they actually violate the law.

the current rules were used for the admonishment of majority leader tom delay (r-tx). the committee found issue with the appearance that he had provided legislative favors with the federal aviation administration for political donors in a texas political dispute, and with improperly offering support for another republican representative's son in exchange for the lawmaker's vote in a medicare issue.

democrats and watchdog groups point out that the loss of ethical rules would be a serious blow to the government. fred wertheimer, president of democracy 21, added, "if house republican leaders are allowed to prevail, they will have gutted the single most important ethics standard in the house and turned house majority leader tom delay's multiple ethics transgressions into acceptable conduct for all house members."

the gop has previously attempted to legislate rules to protect delay. in november 2004 the house republicans proposed a rule change that would allow members indicted by state grand juries to retain their leadership posts, in reaction to a concern that delay would be indicted by a texas grand jury. the jury had indicted three of delay's political associates. a number of house republicans benefitted from an aggressive redistricting in texas led by delay that led to the defeat of 5 democrat incumbents. the indictment rule had been adopted by the house republicans in 1993 when they were trying to end four decades of democrat control of the house.



americans contribute to relief effort

while complaints about the 'miserly' generosity of the have surfaced in recent days, donations and actions at the grassroots level have quietly illustrated the concern and sympathy felt by ordinary americans.

on monday of this week, jan egeland, the 's chief of emergency relief, said that rich nations like the u.s. were being "stingy" by making small contributions. egeland later recanted his statement, adding that america's contributions to asia's tsunami relief was "one of the most generous pledges so far."

the bush administration has pledged $350 million in aid for the relief effort. critics have been quick to compare this to the $177 million spent every day in to conduct war in that country. in comparison, there was a $500 million pledge made recently by the government of .

independently of the government, individual americans have been directly contributing money to aid organizations. placed a link for the american , collecting more than $8 million from 100,000 people as of friday, december 31st. 12,000 donors have donated over $1.2 million to the red cross through .

scores of international aid organizations are accepting donations for helping victims of the earthquake and tsunami. many major companies including , , , , google, and aol are helping enable donations through the web.




directv tunes out trio, network in limbo

the future of the artsy trio channel became increasingly grim saturday as satellite tv giant directv dropped the fledgling network from its national channel lineup.

when directtv programmers threw the off switch at 6 a.m. eastern standard time jan. 1, trio, an nbc universal-owned cable television channel, lost two-thirds of its 20 million household subscribers. the channel's remaining 8 million subscribers may not give it enough audience to ensure its survival, according to some experts.

the network received critical acclaim for a quirky lineup that includes the series, "brilliant but cancelled," which took american broadcast networks, including parent nbc, to task for cancelling quality programs.

trio originally got its start in the 1980s as a canadian cable channel owned by the cbc. its original slate was described as "a general entertainment channel that features the most successful contemporary dramas, documentaries and films from canada, the uk and australia. for the last six years, trio has been the largest exporter of canadian tv programs to the us with over 3,000 hours of content," according to cbc press releases.

the channel's canadian roots were cut in 2000 when media mogul barry diller snapped up trio and sister channel news world international from the cbc and partner power corp. for $155 million in cash. diller saw the channel as a cheap consolation prize after he was outbid by nbc for the bravo cable network earlier that year. within months, diller rebranded trio, dumped the canadian dramas and geared it more toward edgier pop culture programming.

over the next couple of years, trio changed hands twice. first to vivendi universal, then to nbc in a package deal that landed the american tv network a movie studio and the usa and sci fi cable networks. trio was seen as more of an afterthought at the time.

in a hint of what may be the fate of the channel, nbc universal moved most of trio's executive and programming staff over to bravo, a now-sibling network, which is seen in 80 million u.s. homes. some experts predict that trio will eventually be folded with its more successful programming ported over to bravo.

"trio was a refreshing oasis on the dial, with a quirky pop-culture attitude that showed in its programming. trio leaving is kind of like having a witty friend move out of town," gael fashingbauer cooper, msnbc television critic said in her weekly column. "it'll be missed."

nbc universal has not commented publicly on the long-term future or specific plans for trio channel besides to say it was committed to programming the network for current subscribers as the conglomerate re-evaluates its digital cable strategy.



australian national archives release loans affair documents

the national archives of australia have, as part of their standard
document release cycle, released thirty year old documents from the
whitlam government.

the centre piece of the 1974 archives are a series of documents from
the australian cabinet and the treasury pertaining to the attempt to
obtain a $us4 billion loan by the whitlam government from the middle
east. the obtaining of these loans and the scandal generated became
collectively known as the "loans affair," and contributed
significantly towards the dismissal of the whitlam government by sir
john kerr the following year.

the documents from treasury, which include descriptions of both the
loan itself and the people involved in arranging them, are scathing.
the "points that might be made" document of december 13, 1974 clearly
states that treasury believed the distinct possibility that the loans
might be part of "a confidence trick of major proportions". minutes
from another meeting five days later state the "incredulity" on the
part of the bank of england and the federal reserve bank of new york
regarding the viability of the loan.

those documents now available comprise the beginning of the loans
affair, from the initial offers to the end of 1974. the remainder of
the loans affair documents, as well as everything else from 1975 will
be released on january 1, 2006.


actor jerry orbach dead at age 69

orbach is survived by his wife of 25 years, elaine cancilla, and his two sons anthony and christopher. 

orbach was born in the tough bronx borough of new york city in 1935 to a family of entertainers. his father leon orbach was an vaudeville actor and his mother emily orbach was a radio singer and greeting card writer. 

the family moved often to keep up with travelling vaudeville acts, but eventually settled in waukegan illinois where orbach played football at the local high school. after graduation, orbach got a summer job at the chevy chase country club in wheeling doing odd jobs ranging from stagecraft to small acting parts in plays. 

he then studied drama at the university of illinois before transferring to northwestern where he studied the stanislavsky method of drama acting. in 1955, orbach dropped out of college and moved to new york city where he got a job as an understudy in the threepenny opera. 

orbach continued to work in theater, eventually earning roles in broadway musicals, but by 1961 had grown dissatisfied with being typecast as a musical actor. he tried briefly to break into film without success, and eventually returned to broadway where he earned numerous accolades for his roles in such musicals as "guys and dolls" and "chicago". 

orbach finally broke into television in the 1980s as a recurring character in shows such as the mystery-drama "murder she wrote" and the hit sitcom "golden girls". 

he earned the lead role as the title character in his own short-lived series "the law and harry mcgraw", a spinoff of "murder she wrote". orbach also scored key roles in a few hollywood films, including the action thriller "f/x", and the dance-musical hit "dirty dancing", but continued to find his mainstay in television crime dramas. 

in 1990, he picked up a role in the new nbc crime drama "law and order" as the acerbic-witted lennie briscoe, a role which soon become a regular job. orbach continued in this role in addition to movie roles and occasional musical appearances until his death this last week. 

orbach was diagnosed with prostate cancer in spring of 2004, a fact he kept private until november when he checked into new york's memorial sloan-ketting cancer center for treatment. in spite of the aggressive nature of the treatment, he died on the evening of december 28.



main page/sandbox3

hello all. is this a sandbox?
__noeditsection__


aid pledges rise; japan promises 500,000,000 usd

in an abrupt about-face, the world's wealthiest nations have begun pouring funding into the earthquake/tsunami damaged region. promised funds have doubled in the past 24 hours, to nearly 2 billion u.s. dollars (usd).

after the u.s. increased it's funding donation to 350 million usd, japanese prime minister junichiro koizumi announced a half-billion dollar donation on saturday, jan. 1. china has promised 60.5 million usd, after japan and the u.s., the united kingdom and
sweden for largest single-nation donation.
norway increased it's funding donation to 180 million usd

despite the encouraging promises, the un office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs in indonesia chief, michael elmquist, warned that logistics of securing the funds, purchasing supplies and shipping them to stricken regions will take time, possibly weeks. in the meantime, the confirmed death toll will continue to climb, as may deaths due to dehydration, disease, and starvation.



main page/sandbox4

__noeditsection__


idi amin offered to act as peacemaker in ni

newly revealed documents from the uk government have revealed that ugandan dictator idi amin offered his services as a mediator and peacebroker during the 1970s in northern ireland.

amin, who is infamous for his brutal regime in uganda, which was responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of ugandans, and the complete expulsion of the country's asian community, wrote in a message to the british government: "i hold a strong view that we in uganda, being a former colony of britain, stand a good chance of mediating between the opposing sides in the crisis that is tearing northern ireland apart". amin, presumably under the assumption that he could become an influential figure on the world stage, continued to say "this serious and regrettable development calls for britain's best and sincere friends to come to her assistance."

according to the documents released by the british national archives, amin's offer was met with a mixture of bemusement and laughter, and a carefully worded reply was sent inviting amin to mind his own business. in a covering note to the original message, the british high commissioner in kampala showed that while the offer showed amin's "naive view of world affairs", it was probably "a genuine and sincere effort to be helpful".

amin was eventually toppled in 1979 by ugandan dissidents, and the tanzanian army. he died in 2003 in saudi arabia.



digest/1january2005


articles dated 1 to 10 january 2005 are included in the compilation below.
experimental format
heavy lift delta iv rocket launch problems
january 8, 2005

us navy los angeles-class attack submarine runs aground near guam
january 8, 2005

tsunami aid donations in 2005 deductible for 2004
january 8, 2005

'noise' takes on 'fockers' in weekend box office race
new michael keaton horror film is panned by critics.
january 7, 2005

pinochet arrested after supreme court ruling
former chilean dictator faces murder, kidnapping charges.
january 6, 2005

january 5, 2005

billionaire mark cuban asks president bush to cancel inauguration parties
entrepreneur critical of u.s. aid to tsunami victims.
january 4, 2005

un 'optimistic' on tsunami aid effort
january 3, 2005

indian sensex reaches a new all-time high
january 3, 2005

'idi amin offered to act as peacemaker in ni
release of british government documents reveals surprising peace initiative.
january 2, 2005

tsunami deaths mount to more than 120,000
january 1, 2005
indonesia stops counting, confirmed counts continue to rise.

republicans seek to reduce ethics rules
january 1, 2005

americans contribute to relief effort.
january 1, 2005
bush administration criticized for 'miserly' pledges, but ordinary americans show true generosity.

directv tunes out trio, network in limbo.
january 1, 2005
loss of its largest carrier may spell doom for struggling cable channel.

australian national archives release loans affair documents.
january 1, 2005
scathing attack by australian treasury over loans in 1974.

aid pledges rise; japan promises 500,000,000 usd
january 1, 2005
nearly 2 billion usd promised, u.n. warns of logistic bottlenecks.


radical group declares tsunami punishment from god

the westboro baptist church (wbc), known for its radical anti-homosexual statements, has founded a website following the asian tsunami disaster targeting sweden. it is the most recent in a string of websites formed by his followers, including ones against canada, united states, and their original website, godhatesfags.com, campaigning against homosexuals.

the anti-swede website ? godhatessweden.com ? proclaims "thank god for 5,000 dead swedes" and indicates that the church members "pray for all 20,000 swedes missing in the tsunami's wake to be declared dead." the website also links to a recording of a recent sermon by reverend phelps and a flyer containing the church's official position. the flyer is a caricature of a devil with small signs declaring that sweden is a "homo-fascist state" and a "damned land of ... sodomites".

the wbc's outcries against sweden seem to stem from the arrest of pastor ake green by swedish authorities for describing homosexuals as "a horrible cancerous tumour in the body of society". 

the westboro baptist church, founded in 1955 by fred phelps, is known for its continuous series of protests and for picketing the funerals of homosexuals, w:aids victims, and gay rights activists. other than the asian tsunami disaster, the group has, in the past, declared the september 11th attacks on the united states and the columbia space shuttle disaster are messages from god warning of his wrath to come against homosexuals, whom he refers to as 'fags' on account of the fact that, like a faggot of wood, they "fuel god's wrath".

in the faq of their main website, godhatesfags.com, rev. phelps expresses his followers' opinions of the tsunami disaster:

""the tsunami was an adumbration of the wrath of god, a harbinger of things to come: that great day of judgment... those asian countries weren’t the only ones affected by the tsunami. do you realize that among the dead and missing are 3,500 swedes and over 3,000 americans? sweden, who recently jailed a gospel preacher for a month because he preached bible verses and sentiments about the abomination that is the homosexual lifestyle from his own pulpit to his own congregation. america, who is awash in diseased fag feces & semen, and is an apostate land of the sodomite damned. and you wonder if this is the wrath of god?""



un 'optimistic' on tsunami aid effort

the united nations (un) emergency relief coordinator jan egeland has said that he is increasingly optimistic about the relief efforts under way in tsunami-stricken countries. however, he cautions that there are still major problems getting aid to the indonesian province of aceh. the bbc's rachel harvey, stationed in provincial capital banda aceh, reports that the area has been completely cut off for a week. he also said that logistical bottle necks that hampered speedy delivery of aid were improving, with new coordination centers set up in aceh, near the epicenter of the earthquake, and jakarta. regional officials warn that despite improvements, some places may not receive aid for up to two weeks.

united states helicopters, based on a us aircraft carrier stationed off the coast of western aceh, have begun dropping food and supplies into isolated parts of aceh province. about 12 seahawk helicopters are involved in the operation. "we are relying on the helicopter system because that is the only way we can reach the most remote areas," said michael elmquist, head of the un disaster relief operation in indonesia. according to the world food programme, some helicopters are unable to touch down because mobs of people run towards them for help. supplies are often thrown out of the helicopters to the crowd below. 



indian sensex reaches a new all-time high

the 30-stock index of the bombay stock exchange (bse) of india today closed at a new all-time high of 6,679.20, gaining 76.51 points.

earlier, the index closed at an all-time high of 6602.69 points at the end of last-week's trading on friday.

also, the delhi-based national stock exchange (nse) nifty also breached the 2,100-mark for the first time in its trading history and closed at 2,115, registering a gain of 34.50 points over the last week's close. 



bush to propose major overhaul of social security benefits

republicans and lobbyists close to president george w. bush have reported that the white house will propose changing the formula for establishing initial social security benefit levels in order to cut guaranteed expenditures on future retirees, according to today's "washington post". the social security administration would no longer use the increase in wages over a worker’s lifetime to calculate retirees’ first-year benefits but would use inflation rates instead. the new “price indexing” formula will reduce individual benefits and overall social security outlays because the inflation rate typically is much lower than the rise in wages. the full impact of the change will be felt in the middle of the century.

the bush administration proposal, which will be offered to congress in february or march 2005, is part of an overall social security reform package that also would create “personal investment accounts” into which individual taxpayers could divert part of their payroll taxes. the white house believes that the shortfall in benefits created by the adoption of price indexing would be made up by capital gains from the stocks and bonds held by individual taxpayers in their personal investment accounts. 

the move is akin to the private sector's migration from defined benefit retirement plans to defined contribution benefit plans such as 401(k)s as almost half of a worker’s benefits will not be guaranteed by the year 2075. president bush will support the move to price indexing for calculating initial benefits by pointing out that it was the approach recommended by his 2001 commission to strengthen social security.

benefits currently are calculated by averaging a worker’s earnings in their 35 highest-paid years and adjusting earnings to factor in cost of living standards at the worker’s retirement age. under the bush proposal, rather than adjusting benefits on the basis of earnings growth, the calculation would be based on the increase in the consumer price index over those years.

the implementation of "price indexing" would cut future social security costs by trillions of dollars. however, the cuts in guaranteed benefits for middle-class and some high-income workers would be substantial: 9.9% for workers retiring in 2022, over 25% for workers retiring in 2042, and 46% for workers retiring in 2075.

opponents of the price-indexing proposal point out that inflation-based calculations of benefits, by linking benefits to prices but not wage levels, would cut retirees out from future increases in living standards since it is wages and not prices that determine standards of living. while american association of retired persons (aarp) policy director john rother concedes that many of the arguments of opponents are valid, price indexing is inevitable and must be viewed in the context of president bush’s total reform package. 

rother points out that social security benefits, which currently equal 42 percent of the earnings of an average worker retiring at age 65, would be reduced to 20% of pre-retirement earnings for future retirees, thus potentially freezing retirees into today’s standard of living. however, rother says that price indexing has to be linked to bush’s private investment accounts as income from the accounts give retirees the chance to make up the shortfalls.


billionaire mark cuban asks president bush to cancel inauguration parties

mark cuban, the billionaire owner of the national basketball association's dallas mavericks, has asked u.s. president george w. bush to cancel the inauguration parties that are planned in his honor and redirect the cost to aid for tsunami victims. 

"it’s up to president bush to set an example," cuban said in his web blog. "could there be anything more confusing and shocking than to read that our country was offering $35m in aid to the areas affected by the tsunamis, but that the cost of inauguration parties would be about $40m?"

"does anyone else think that this is wrong?" he said.

the u.s. administration has since raised its aid pledge to $350 million, and sent a contingent of up to 1,200 marines along with a carrier group to provide assistance to the affected areas.

but many reader comments posted to cuban's blog agree with him and say that the united states is still not doing enough to help. other bloggers have accused cuban of politicizing the tsunami disaster relief efforts.

rex hammock, publisher of rexblog.com, wrote that cuban's statement is unfairly political and takes focus away from the victims.

"why not call for the cancellation of the nba season and take all the dollars advertisers have committed for broadcasting it and send those funds to tsunami relief?" hammock said. "what, the advertisers won't do that? have you asked?"



nias yet to receive aid 10 days after quake

various sources have indicated that as of today no significant international aid has arrived in the island of nias -- a small volcanic island off the coast (north sumatra province, indonesia) -- a full ten days after the 2004 indian ocean earthquake occurred. these observations were noted by former indonesian central parliament member firman jaya daeli, activists from howu-howu (a dutch ngo), and surf aid international.

most international aid in indonesia has been focused on the province of naggroe aceh darussalam (aceh), as it is where the biggest number of dead has been reported.

there has also been other reports from local media that the island of simeulue is suffering similar fate.

although the number of dead in these two islands is relatively small compared to other areas, the number of people left homeless is far from insignificant. in simeulue of the 15 000 households 7 500 have permanently lost their homes. the number of destroyed houses in nias is estimated at 4 500. infrastructure damage, leading to slow distribution of food aid, has lead to the very real possibility of widespread starvation.

early reports of the situation in nais suggested the islands were "submerged" and "obliterated" , however these stories were later suggested to have been greatly exaggerated , fortunately most of the islands estimated 600,000 inhabitants were spared loss of life. the estimated death toll is over 100. eleven members of a taiwanese medical team arrived on nias on december 31 most of whom relocated to aceh due to more pressing need.

the island is popular with surfers who have mounted a considerable grassroots campaign to provide aid to the island (see links below).

communication to and from the isolated island proves to be difficult.




two women strangled in further political violence in honduras

two unidentified young women were found bound and strangled along the road between villanueva and the village of santiago in honduras. a message threatening the same fate to the followers of porfirio "pepe" lobo, the presidential candidate representing the national party, was discovered with the women's bodies.

lobo, who is the head of congress, advocates the return of the death penalty in honduras. lobo's support for the death penalty and strong anti-crime views have provoked hostility and violence from honduran street gangs, known as maras (ants). the two slain women are only the latest in a series of politically motivated violence. a number of people have been discovered cut into pieces with messages against pepe lobo, and against the nationalist government of ricardo maduro. on the evening of december 23rd, 28 people were killed on a bus near san pedro sula.

the government has responded to the recent violence by establishing a strong military presence in san pedro sula and the honduran capital tegucigalpa.




imf offers special loan for tsunami-hit countries

the international monetary fund (imf) managing director rodrigo rato offered special relief funds for the countries victim of the tsunami disaster. the money is, however, in the form of a loan. the imf has been present in the area on various occasions. 

the imf offered a one billion u.s. dollar loan. the money would be given as emergency natural disaster assistance facility, and would be repaid "in full and with interests" within 3? to 5 years. 

the money could help the area tremendously, but since it is a loan as opposed to an outright donation, it may not be as helpful. the loan, some fear, may not lead to economic stability in the long run. despite the possible long term effects, the governments of the tsunami torn nations may simply have no choice but to accept the offer.



australia to deport asylum seekers to tsunami zone

the australian department of immigration and multicultural and indigenous affairs (dimia) said it has had a special hotline running since december 30 in response to the tsunami disaster. 

"people who usually live in an area that has been directly affected by the tsunamis and may wish to temporarily extend their stay in australia should contact the department on the hotline on 1300?735?683," a department spokesperson said.



pinochet arrested after supreme court ruling

former chilean dictator augusto pinochet was officially placed under house arrest a day after the country's supreme court upheld his indictment of one count of murder and nine counts of kidnapping. 

court officials say the arrest order was delivered to gen. pinochet's home near the capital, santiago, wednesday. the 89-year-old retired general has been at his home recovering from a stroke he suffered in late december.

a government commission, the rettig commission, listed 2,095 deaths and 1,102 disappearances during his 17-year rule. in 2004 the valech report that was issued after interviewing an estimated 35,000 people who claimed to have been abused by the regime; 28,000 were regarded legitimate.

the crimes were allegedly committed as part of operation condor, a campaign of assassination and terrorization meant to suppress left-wing opposition to pinochet's regime. the chilean-led program soon spread to other military regimes throughout latin america, and may have had at least tacit complicity by then-u.s. secretary of state henry kissinger. the pinochet dictatorship ruled chile from 1973 until 1990, gaining power after a military coup overthrew the democratically-elected socialist president salvador allende.



key hiv gene discovered

researchers from the argentinian garrahan hospital, the conicet "(national scientific and technical investigations council)" , the university of texas, and the wilford hall medical center discovered that quantities of a specific immunological gene in humans (ccl3l1) may have an effect on the contraction and development of and .

according to the investigation, individuals with fewer copies of the gene are more prone to contract the virus in case of direct contact. each additional copy of the gene reduced the chance of infection by 5-10%, according to a press release from the study's leader, dr. sunil ahuja of the university of texas.

the study is based upon the analysis of blood samples from 4308 subjects, including 800 children at garrahan hospital, located in , . the gene may act upon "blocking substances" that are inside cells and have an important role in preventing infections, including the one brought on by . those cases which presented less quantities of this gene had a higher index of + infections, while the rest appeared to be more resistant.

the research was detailed in a paper published on january 6, 2005, through science magazine's online service, science express.



'noise' takes on 'fockers' in weekend box office race

after two weekends of box office domination, universal pictures' "meet the fockers" will be challenged for the top spot by horror film "white noise", also from universal, which opens in wide release friday.
to be considered in wide release, a film must open or play in at least 1,000 theatres throughout the u.s. and canada. with "noise" being the only new wide release movie for the weekend, it looks to take advantage of movie goers looking from a change from holiday themed film fare.

"noise" is a come-back attempt for michael keaton, who hasn't had a hit movie since 1992's "batman returns". but according to one critic, this film may not be a comeback hit for keaton.

""white noise" never gives skeptics a chance to enjoy the film. i also suspect even believers will be bored," jack garner, film critic for "gannet news service" said. garner's not alone in panning the film. according to web site rottentomatoes.com, 87 percent of film critics in its survey have given the film a bad review. 

"the nominal thriller "white noise" is worthy neither of michael keaton's talents nor even a desperate horror fan's attention," manohla dargis, film critic for the "new york times", said.

but not all reviews were bad. "hollywood reporter" critic, kirk honeycutt said, "even though logic takes a holiday in "white noise", geoffrey sax, a british television director making his theatrical debut, lavishes enough craft on the paranormal thriller to send more than a few chills down the spine."

the movie faces stiff competition as five other films have a wider release, playing in more theatres and reaching a larger potential audience. universal's "meet the fockers", the sequel to 2000's "meet the parents" is playing in about 1,000 more theatres than "noise" and could dominate the box office for a third weekend.

'fockers', starring ben stiller, robert de niro, dustin hoffman and barbra streisand, has made $186.5 million since its release dec. 22, according to box office mojo.

the following films will be playing in at least 1,000 u.s. and canada venues:



discovery of the most powerful explosion in the universe

calculations based on data from the chandra orbiting telescope show the explosion in galaxy cluster ms 0735 is the largest known anywhere in the universe. the explosion is thought to have been fueled by a supermassive blackhole consuming over 300 million stars over hundreds of thousands of years. ms 075 is 2.6 billion light years from earth.



2005/01/08 tsunami aid donations in 2005 deductible for 2004 in the u.s.

u.s. citizens donating in 2005 to help tsunami victims may write off their donations on their 2004 tax returns, thanks to a bill quickly passed in the u.s. house of representatives and the u.s. senate on a voice vote, and signed into law by president george w. bush.

without the new law, contributors would have waited until 2006 and their 2005 tax returns to be able to write off their charitable donations. the law is intended to promote donating towards the tsunami relief effort.

cbs news reports indiana university's center on philanthropy is estimating approximately 322 million u.s. dollars in goods and cash have been donated by private u.s. citizens and corporations, in addition to the 350 million that was promised by the government.

an ap/isos poll has found three in ten u.s. citizens have donated to tsunami aid organizations.

 


heavy lift delta iv rocket launches

a launch on december 21, 2004 by boeing with a new "delta iv heavy" rocket from cape canaveral failed to place a 'dummy' satellite into its intended orbit, but the launch was considered successful by air force officials. 

the dummy satellite, the purpose of which was to monitor the delta iv launch, as well as two experimental nanosatellites, provided by the u.s. air force research laboratory to take digital photos of cloud formations and to test the effectiveness of materials in spacecraft, were lost.

boeing's vice president for expendable launch systems, dan collins, said that the rocket malfunction was caused by a shorter first stage burn then was expected. this was compensated for during flight, however the fuel lost in the process limited final stages of the burn and was responsible for the payload not achieving orbit

a boeing spokesman, robert villanueva, agreed that many flight objectives were achieved, but did not call the launch a success. "we do have an outstanding issue we need to work on before our first operational launch next year," villanueva said. 

boeing was paid at least $140 million by the u.s. air force to place a 'dummy' satellite into geosynchronous orbit, 22,300 miles from earth, according to the faa. the launch was a demonstration for the air force's evolved expendable launch vehicle (eelv) program.

collins also reported, "we now have enough information and confidence in the delta iv heavy to move forward with preparations for the upcoming defense support program launch in 2005. the mission has met all its major objectives. the us air force - was very, very happy." 

the 23-story rocket, a heavy-lift variant of the delta 4 family, lifted off from cape canaveral air force station in florida on dec. 21 at 4:50 p.m. (2150 gmt). the launch was delayed three times in december due to weather problems and technical glitches. 

the delta iv heavy is scheduled to carry the final defense support program missile launch detection satellite to orbit this august. a national reconnaissance office classified payload is set to be aboard the second operational launch scheduled for december 2005.



heavy lift delta iv rocket launch problems

a launch on december 21, 2004 by boeing with a new "delta iv heavy" rocket from cape canaveral failed to place a 'dummy' satellite into geosynchronous orbit, but the launch was considered successful by air force officials. 

the dummy satellite, the purpose of which was to monitor the delta iv launch, as well as two experimental nanosatellites, provided by the u.s. air force research laboratory to take digital photos of cloud formations and to test the effectiveness of materials in spacecraft, were lost.

boeing's vice president for expendable launch systems, dan collins, said that the rocket malfunction was caused by a shorter first stage burn than was expected. this was compensated for during flight, however the fuel lost in the process limited final stages of the burn and was responsible for the payload not achieving orbit.

a boeing spokesman, robert villanueva, agreed that many flight objectives were achieved, but did not call the launch a success. “we do have an outstanding issue we need to work on before our first operational launch next year,” villanueva said. 

boeing was paid at least $140 million by the u.s. air force to place a 'dummy' satellite into geosynchronous orbit, 22,300 miles from earth, according to the faa. the launch was a demonstration for the air force's evolved expendable launch vehicle (eelv) program.

collins also reported, "we now have enough information and confidence in the delta iv heavy to move forward with preparations for the upcoming defense support program launch in 2005. the mission has met all its major objectives. the us air force - was very, very happy." 

the 23-story rocket, a heavy-lift variant of the delta 4 family, lifted off from cape canaveral air force station in florida on dec. 21 at 4:50 p.m. (2150 gmt). the launch was delayed three times in december due to weather problems and technical glitches. 

the delta iv heavy is scheduled to carry the final defense support program missile launch detection satellite to orbit this august. a national reconnaissance office classified payload is set to be aboard the second operational launch scheduled for december 2005.


us navy los angeles-class attack submarine runs aground near guam

the uss san francisco ran aground, or hit bottom, while underwater approximately 350 miles (563 kilometers) south of the south pacific island of guam today at about noon local time (2 a.m. utc).

it is unknown the full extent of the damage and injuries, but at least one person has died and several lesser injuries are known. the submarine is on the surface now and is on its way to a port in guam.

the los angeles class submarine had no reports of damage to the reactor plant, which is operating normally.

military and coast guard aircraft are enroute to monitor and assist in the situation.




extraordinary feature found on saturn's moon iapetus

the cassini space probe, currently in orbit around the planet saturn, has returned extraordinary pictures from the saturnian satellite 
iapetus.

it has long been known to astronomers that iapetus's surface is divided into two hemispheres, one dark, one light. now a narrow ridge of massive proportions, 20 km high and 1,300 km long, has been found around the equator of the moon. the height rivals olympus mons on mars-- but mars is five times bigger than iapetus.

the origin of this feature is currently unknown. cassini will next fly by iapetus in september 2007. the images returned from that pass will have over 100 times greater resolution than the current ones, and scientists hope they will help unravel the mystery.

iapetus, saturn's third largest moon, has a diameter of about 1,436 km (892 miles). jean-dominque cassini discovered the moon in 1672; it was also cassini who determined the color difference on iapetus.

the cassini-huygens mission, named after giovanni domenico cassini (jean-dominque cassini), is a collaborative project with the european space agency, the italian space agency, and nasa.



first unvaccinated survivor of rabies discharged from hospital

rabies is a disease that has no cure and nearly everyone it infects is dead just two weeks after the symptoms show. and yet, last week a teenage girl named jeanna giese was released from a hospital having been successfuly treated. she became the first known person to recover from the disease without vaccination.

on september 12, 2004, jeanna ? a 15 year old from fond du lac, wisconsin? was bitten by a bat while attending church. by the time she saw a doctor about fatigue and numbness, it was october 18, and the bat incident was not brought up until several days later. usually when there is a possibility of rabies, doctors will vaccinate patients: the vaccine has a chance to act before the symptoms appear. in jeanna's case it was too late to try to vaccinate, and her doctors at the children's hospital of wisconsin devised a new treatment. jeanna was put into a drug-induced coma for a week, and doctors began an intensive treatment to prop up her nervous system until her natural immunity recovered enough to fight the disease.

by surviving and recovering, jeanna became the only person known in medicine to overcome rabies without a vaccine. she is not yet fully recovered: the effects of the coma are still apparent, and she has difficulty with movement. yet the doctors believe that she is getting well much faster than they expected, and feel that jeanna will be able to return to her high school studies, needing only physical and occupational therapy.

the novel treatment is hailed by doctors as promising, but needs analysis and verification on another human. jeanna's is the sixth case of human recovery from a rabies infection, but the other five people were vaccinated against rabies either before infection, or before the symptoms appeared.





severe storm hits united kingdom in the early morning

early on saturday morning a severe storm swept northern england and parts of wales bringing destruction and widespread disruption. gusts of up to 128mph were recorded on high ground at 7am utc.

carlisle, cumbria, saw its worst flooding for thirty years and was completely cut off by fallen trees and flood water. three people died and more than 3,000 people were evacuted from their homes. elsewhere, one man was swept away and drowned in a swollen river and another is missing.

a village in the mountainous region of snowdonia saw 225.4 mm of rain in the 72 hours leading up to 6am utc saturday. the monthly average rainfall for the region is 270 mm. many rivers have burst their banks, and although warnings were issued, there has been much damage to buildings in low-lying areas.

off the coast of scotland, a p&o passenger ferry was forced aground stranding the 100 passengers and crew for 24 hours until the ship could be re-floated at high tide. no-one was injured.



peace agreement signed in sudan

in the sudan, a peace treaty has been signed that many hope will end the almost 20 year long civil war. 

rebel leader dr. john garang and sudanese vice president ali osman mohamed taha signed the agreement with foreign leaders such as u.s. secretary of state and thousands of members of the public witnessing the event at nyayo national stadium in , kenya. the deal will see sudan's rich oil reserves being split fairly north?south.

the war was between the muslim north and the christian , and over the last two decades has resulted in the death of 1.5 m people. however, this agreement does not solve the separate, more recent and on-going conflict in darfur. it is hoped this agreement may pave away to a similar treaty to end that conflict.



news briefs: january 9, 2005

the following were among the stories were making international headlines :

sgt. 1st class tracy perkins was given a six-month jail sentence as the result of two incidents a year ago where iraqi captives were pushed into the tigris river. he also admitted to lying to investigators when questioned about the incident.

the longest war in africa's history came to a close after sudanese vice president ali osman taha and john garang, leader of rebel fighters, signed a peace accord. the accord did not include the separate conflict in western darfur.

a newsweek report claims that u.s. military leaders are considering a reagan-era "salvador option" ? the use of special forces soldiers for assassinations in iraq. the idea would be to eliminate rebel leadership in an attempt to shorten the war. 


voting underway for successor to yasser arafat

there are six candidates:

mahmoud abbas, who was the interim leader, is expected by many to win. he is a moderate and many hope he will be able to establish peace with israel, who refused to deal with yassar arafat because of his support for anti-israel militants who target civilians. abbas doesn't support armed conflict, and is calling for peace talks.

polls opened at 5 a.m. local, and were scheduled to close at 5 p.m., but a two hour extension was made due to the large turnout.

voting is said to be going well in the gaza strip and the west bank but there have been reports of difficulties in jerusalem (where ex-us president jimmy carter is observing). over 500 palestinians have been turned away by the israelis running the polling station. carter is said to be 'unhappy'.

israel eased some travel restrictions in gaza and the west bank, but some of the 500 international election observers reported new checkpoints in some areas. the entry points to egypt, which have been closed for several months by israel, remain closed with up to 21,000 palestinians trapped on the other side, unable to vote in today's election. 

the final results of the 2005 palestinian presidential election are expected on monday, january 10, 2005.



one dies in submarine accident

the january 8 submarine accident has left one sailor dead, the u.s. navy has said. the los angeles class nuclear submarine, the uss san francisco ran aground about 260km south of the island of guam. the sailor, whose name cannot be released while relatives are being informed, died onboard the submarine after failed attempts at treatment. of the crew of 137, twenty-three other crew members are being treated for broken bones, bruises, and lacerations.



digest/1january2005exp


palestinian election ends, exit polls give abbas lead

polls have closed in the occupied territories with many exit polls showing that of the seven candidates for palestinian president, mahmoud abbas has a large lead. voting ended at 1900 utc, two hours later than planned due to earlier voting difficulties. while the large influx of late voting added to a heavy turnout means that official totals may be delayed until monday, the primary results are anything but close.

the palestinian center for policy and survey research's exit poll indicates that abbas has won 66.3% of the vote, while the next closest candidate polled 19.7%. none of the other candidate gained more than 3.8% of the vote.

abbas supporters have already begun celebrating, according to correspondents, waving flags and carrying posters of abbas through the streets. they hope that by winning by a large mandate abbas will have a strong platform to pursue his policies of negotiation with israel.

the voting went peacefully for the most part, the most noticeable exception being problems with voter registration and the turning away of hundreds of voters from a large israeli-run polling station in east jerusalem.



nasa schedules launch date for comet-chasing probe

a spacecraft designed to chase a comet and crash onto its surface is scheduled for a launch on january 12, 2005 and 1:48 p.m. est. in early july the probe, named deep impact, will approach comet tempel 1 to take a number of measurements and photographs. the probe will then split in two, with one part ? containing an 820-pound copper weight ? propelling itself towards the path of the comet. twenty-four hours after separation the comet will crash into the slower-moving impactor, creating a crater 100 meters wide.

astronomers know little of the nuclei of comets, and this mission was designed to determine the make-up of comets' cores. the event will be watched by many instruments: there are two cameras on the part of the probe that is not getting destroyed, a camera on the impactor will broadcast almost until the crash, and telescopes around earth will also be aimed at the point of the impact. scientists hope that by studying the depth of the crater and the material ejected from the comet in the crash they will get a better idea of the core's composition.

the probe is named deep impact after a hollywood movie of the same title. in the movie a comet is bombarded with warheads in order to steer it off a collision course with earth. unlike the movie, however, the goal of this mission is not to destroy the comet. indeed, probe's size makes it very unlikely that the comet will suffer more than a crater: the comet is 3.7 miles wide while the probe is about the size of a washing machine.

the probe will be launched aboard a delta ii rocket from cape canaveral in florida.





news briefs: january 10, 2005

the following stories made international headlines monday:

mahmoud abbas called as winner of palestinian presidential election. official results still pending examination of all complaints.

despite torrential rain showers in some areas and civil strife verging on warfare in others, international relief workers continue to aid victims in the aftermath of the 2004 indian ocean tsunami.

aftershocks of the after-christmas indonesian earthquake are still affecting the planet. scientists liken the global vibrations to earth ringing like a hard-struck bell. 

prime minister ariel sharon's new government was approved by the knesset, the israeli legislature, after a tight vote (58-56). the new ministers from the labor party were sworn in shortly after.


life discovered in extreme environment

around seventy new species of microbes have been discovered in a highly concentrated salt basin of the mediterranean sea, so salty that almost half of the liquid is magnesium chloride. researchers, led by paul van der wielen at the university of groningen in the netherlands, found abundant colonies of microbes in ancient salty pockets that are devoid of oxygen.

it has been suggested that pools of a similar liquid might be able to exist on mars, providing a possible niche for simple life to exist there.

nature microbes brave briny basins 6 january 2005

nasa martian water: are there extant halobacteria on mars? 2001

yahoo/reuters salt-loving microbes found in extreme environment 6 january 2005


wells fargo and barclay's rumoured to be in merger talks

sunday express, a tabloid newspaper from the uk reported an anonymous source claiming to be an insider to merger talks between wells fargo bank and barclays bank. 

the rumoured merger would be a radical break in the kinds of mergers wells fargo has done and has said it will continue to do (it is assumed that wells with the higher market capitalization would be the buyer). 

wells fargo has previously shown no desire to engage in retail banking outside the united states, and has only expanded internationally in its consumer finance business and with certain business services. 

wells fargo currently has a market value of 100 billion, while barclays is worth 70 billion. the wire services such as reuters immediately wrote articles about the rumour. barclays refused to comment on market speculation (it is standard for all corporations to consistently refuse to comment on all merger speculation). 

no reporters have so far been able to reach wells fargo for comment. it is claimed that talks have been ongoing since october, although they are said to have stalled and then resumed.

there is however the possibility that wells fargo and barclays could be contemplating a business line sale, instead of a full on merger. one possibility is barclays selling its "barclays global investor" division back to wells fargo. 

wells fargo (under old management prior to the 1998 merger of wells fargo and norwest bank) previously sold its asset management (mutual fund) business to barclays in 1995. renamed barclays global investors, this business remains headquartered in san francisco, and still has some connections to wells fargo's new mutual fund business. 

wells fargo has a long term goal of deriving around 25% of its revenue from investments and insurance; currently it derives around 15 percent of its revenue from this. the purchase of barclays global investor would significantly move wells fargo toward achieving this goal.

another possibility is barclays buying the private label (or store branded) credit cards of wells fargo financial. in november, barclays acquired juniper, a fast growing player in the us private label credit card business. 



brazilian president son's photoblog causes polemic

friends of the son of the brazilian president, , have published photos of themselves partying on vacation in . the news caused arguments and protests amongst many brazilians, with allegations that the government were paying the expenses.
the group of teenagers is shown cavorting at the official residences of granja do torto and palacio do alvorada, both in brasilia; near a brazilian air force airplane; travelling by motor boat in paranoa lake; and with brazilian soccer player .

at first, the photos appeared in the photoblogs www.fotolog.net/tata_lulu, www.fotolog.net/feijao_fodao and www.fotolog.net/gringo_mi. but since the publication of the news by the local newspapers folha de sao paulo and estado de sao paulo, the photoblogs were deleted or the photos removed. some of the photos however, still are available at some user and newspaper sites on the internet. 

since the incident, several people have created orkut communities which comment, joke, and protest about what has happened. one of these communities, named "ferias na alvorada - eu quero!" (vacations at alvorada - i want it!"), had 450 members as of january 7th. 

the brazilian government declined to comment on the pictures.


some of the photos of lula son and friends party:


abbas wins election, offers israel 'hand of peace'

after winning the election of january 9, 2005 by a large margin, new palestinian leader mahmoud abbas offered peace to israel. israel reportedly welcomed the result and asked mr abbas to "clamp down" on palestinian militants. 

abbas said he wants to meet israel's prime minister ariel sharon soon. us president george w. bush has indicated he will invite abbas to the united states for talks, something he never did with abbas's predecessor, the late yasser arafat. 

the eu monitoring team present during the elections commented on the uniqueness of democratic elections in territory under military occupation. leaders, including the u.s. president and european commission president, have praised the election process.

reports indicate some problems surfaced during the voting.

according to observers, some palestinians not on the register were allowed to vote while others who believed they were eligible were turned away. observers also noted registered names were missing from the jerusalem roll, leading to voters being turned away. polling was prolonged for two hours due to an influx of late voters.

preliminary voting results:

mahmoud abbas (abu mazen): 62.3%

mustafa barghouti: 19.8%



uk new year's day murder suspect jumps from seventh floor window

the primary suspect in the murder of student sarah gleeson apparently set himself on fire, then threw himself from a seventh floor window of the corus hotel early on saturday morning, january 8.

police indicated they were seeking to question the suspect, david atkinson, prior to his death. atkinson was a lance-corporal in the british army. he had been present in cambridge on new year's eve, but failed to report for duty to his barracks in waterbeach on january 4.

sarah gleeson disappeared in cambridge on new year's eve, and her body was discovered on january 8, shortly after atkinson's apparent suicide. investigators are working to determine more details about the circumstances and cause of both deaths.

atkinson had been charged with kidnap and assault in a separate case involving a polish woman, although the ministry of defence stated that he had been cleared of those charges in 1998. 



mst will not leave invaded area in minas gerais

the members of the brazilian landless workers movement (movimento sem terra, or mst) have decided they will not leave their camp, called carlos lamarca, an invaded area of casa grande farm. the farm is located at esmeralda city, a metropolitan area of belo horizonte, in the brazilian state of minas gerais. since the judge dr. claudio jose coelho's deadline time giving to them abandoning the area expired yesterday, the arrival of the police force could occur at any time. 

helio do carmo, a member of mst said, "at this moment, the important thing is staying at the camp and resist." help is being provided by other mst camps in the region.

belo horizonte, a city of 2 million inhabitants, is the capital of minas gerais, a state in southeastern brazil.


radiobras brazilian news agency moved to free software

the brazilian government news agency radiobras (abr) website has completed a move to free software. as of january 9, the agency's website is in compliance with the brazilian government's program to use free software throughout the public sector.

free software is software which, once obtained, can be used, copied, studied, modified and redistributed. it is often made available online without charge or offline for the cost of distribution; free software is not limited to being given away, but can be "free as in free speech" and sold for profit. some of the most well-known examples of free software are the linux operating system, the mozilla web browser and the openoffice office suite. 

about 25 people worked on this change. the change has taken about a year and a half, since the first changes of some workstations and servers of radiobras. 

the switch to free software is being implemented by the national institute of technology of information (iti), inspired by similar decisions made in another countries. a reduction in service costs is expected. 



torture and mass arrests of christians in vietnam

a 25-page briefing paper released by the human rights watch reports torture, mass arrests and increasing persecution of montagnard christians in vietnam's central highlands. according to human rights watch there is more extensive use of torture against activists, individuals and religious leaders who have been expelled or returned from cambodia.

the practice of self-criticism sessions, where montagnard villagers are forced by officials to renounce christianity and every political or religious activities in public is common. human rights watch received complaints about these practices at provincies of dak lak, kon tum, dak nong and gia lai during 2004.

according to the report, in december, the month of christmas, police force were engaged in rounding up and arresting dozens of montagnard christians and detaining them at district and provincial police stations and prisons throughout the region. the police arrested 129 people between december 12 and 24 in gia lai province, one of five provinces in the central highlands.

on april 10, 2004, a 25-year-old man was arrested by the police of dak nong province. during the interrogation the police officers extracted one of his toe nails, beat him with a rubber baton, broke his front teeth by beating him repeatedly and they intimidated him with a ak-47 rifle. the police officers threatened him by putting a pile of electrical wire in his front but they didn't shock him. regularly they soak people in water and shock them until they get unconscious.

a man who described himself as a activist with the dega church movement described his arrest and torture by police in dark doa district in march 2003:"i was on my way to another village with my little boy to attend a wedding when they arrested me. they took me to the district police station, where they blindfolded me. they sat me in a chair and forced me to hold my hands up in the air for almost seven hours. policemen on either side of me twisted pens between my fingers and beat my feet with a wooden stick. at the same time they jabbed me in the ribs with their hands. the worst part was that they forced my three-year-old son to sit on my lap the entire time, even though he was crying uncontrollably."

dak nong, a church elder from cu jut district said authorities have recorded members of his village church committee delivering bibles to officials. nong said that the video was used later in television in a false report: "when it was shown on television the announcer said we were voluntarily giving up the bibles. in fact, we were forced."

 


guatemala nominates rigoberta menchu for oas secretary general

guatemala has nominated a nobel peace prize winner, indigenous rights worker rigoberta menchu, 46, to become the next secretary general of the organization of american states (oas).

the post became available after the previous secretary general, miguel Angel rodriguez, served for only 24 days of his term of office, before returning home to costa rica to face corruption charges.

luigi r. einaudi, the former assistant secretary general, is serving as acting secretary general until the oas decides who will serve for the remainder of the current term of office.

before menchu was nominated, the central american states had decided that the candidate should be from central america. but the rodriguez scandal has made it difficult for the central american states to find another candidate they could all endorse.

chile and mexico have proposed their own candidate for the job.

president oscar berger of guatemala agrees that menchu should be the central american candidate. menchu has said that if the central american nations are in agreement, she will happily stand as their candidate.

an indigenous guatemalan, menchu won the nobel peace prize in 1992, and was also prominent in her opposition to the previous frg government which berger defeated.

menchu works for the current government as good will ambassador for the 1996 peace accord.



news briefs: january 11, 2005

the following stories made international headlines tuesday:

one day after eight of its soldiers were killed in an iraqi blast, ukraine's new government may decide to withdraw all troops from peacekeeping duty in iraq.

, speaking from the vatican city, spoke out on a host of social issues including abortion, cloning, same-sex marriage, assisted procreation and the use of embryonic stem cells. 

in less than 24 hours after a country-wide ban on indoor smoking went into place, citizens took to the streets demanding smoker’s rights be restored. restaurant owners face fines of ?2,000 and loss of their license; smokers face fines of ?27.50 for each offense.

in what is called a "reverse spinoff," rupert murdoch's news corp. has offered about us$5.9 billion in stock to buy up all the fox entertainment group shares that it doesn't already own.


mamdouh habib to be released from guantanamo bay without charge

australian attorney general, philip ruddock, has announced that the us is not charging australian mamdouh habib and plans to release him from guantanamo bay, after three years of detention. mr habib, accused of aiding al qaeda by the us, was unlikely to be charged over the accusation upon returning to australia.

recently enacted australian laws could not be applied retroactively, according to mr ruddock, quoted by the sydney morning herald on tuesday. "those terrorism offences are not retrospective and therefore cannot apply to mr habib's alleged activities and associations prior to his capture," he said.

australian abc radio programme am reported last week of fresh allegations that egyptian born australian, mr habib was inappropriately photographed in the presence of an australian government official, and describing bizarre and intricate tortures it is claimed he was subjected to, which he says caused him to make admissions he now regrets.

mr habib's us lawyer joe margulies, says in a news ltd article, that habib received electric shocks and was beaten, kicked and subjected to water torture while imprisoned in pakistan and egypt, and was further tortured in the presence of us and australian officials at guantanamo bay.

according to philip ruddock, "it remains the strong view of the united states that, based on information available to it mr habib had prior knowledge of the terrorist attacks on or before the 11th of september, 2001. mr habib has acknowledged he spent time in afghanistan, and others there at the time claimed he trained with al-qaeda.

"we have requested the united states authorities to inform mr habib of their decision not to prosecute him and of the agreement to repatriate him to australia."

david hicks, now the only australian detained at guantanamo bay, will face trial by a military commission in march on charges of attempted murder, conspiracy and aiding the enemy, according to a second sydney morning herald article.



 


jobs unveils new products after cloud of secrecy and lawsuits

after months of secrecy and lawsuits intended to suppress reporting on unannounced products by independent news outlets, steve jobs, ceo of apple computer, began his keynote address at 17:11 utc this morning, before an enthusiastic audience.

the keynote, held at moscone center in san francisco as part of the annual macworld expo, began with a recap of apple's retail progress over the past year, media coverage, and a demo of the new spotlight search technology in the upcoming mac os x tiger, which was announced at the previous 2004 event.

jobs then made a number of product announcements as he continued his demonstrations:






jobs then made his final announcement, in his trademark "one more thing" style:

jobs then exited as music artist john mayer began his live entertainment act.


news outlets that provided live coverage during the keynote:

summaries posted after the keynote ended:


bush nominates chertoff for new secretary of homeland security

u.s. president george w. bush nominated federal judge michael chertoff as the next secretary of homeland security, replacing secretary tom ridge who plans to step down feb. 1.

judge chertoff has been approved by the senate on three previous occasions and is currently a u.s. appeals court judge in philadelphia. he is considered a "safe" candidate, likely to pass senate scrutiny, a key characteristic after the white house's previous candidate, former new york police commissioner bernard kerik, withdrew after personal information was made public.

at the time of the september 11 attacks, judge chertoff was in the justice department and became involved as one of the architects of the patriot act.

if confirmed chertoff vowed his primary focus as secretary to be, "promoting our homeland security and, as important, to preserving our fundamental liberties."



third case of bse reported in canada

another confirmed case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (bse, or "mad cow disease") was reported today to the canadian food inspection agency (cfia). the infected cow was found in the province of alberta, where two previous cases of bse have been reported in the past year. the cow itself was born in march of 1998, mere months after a ban placed by the cfia to stop the use of any feed which might contain any "specified risk material"-- material that is known to carry the bse agent. the cow's origin is still unknown.

the cfia is now in control of the carcass and makes clear that no part of the cow has entered the food supply.

a team of experts from the united states have been sent to re-evaluate the situation and to make recommendations about reopening the u.s. border. the border was closed to beef exports after the first incident of bse was reported in canada. the closure continues to cause major problems for canadian beef farmers who depended on the united states beef market. 



news briefs:january 12, 2005

the following stories made international headlines wednesday:

after 14 months, three missed deadlines, and a change of ceos, canada's nortel (ticker nt) finally reported their audited restatement of earnings for 2001, 2002, and 2003. five board members are stepping down.

police reported to the sandiganbayan, the anti-graft court investigating the former philippine president, and leaked to the press, that estrada had hosted members of his former cabinet for dinner and stayed overnight away from the hospital in which he is supposed to be confined. he is in hospital to undergo knee replacement surgery.

as new attacks kill at least 25 people, interim prime minister allawi admitted not all iraqis would be able to vote:

"there are some pockets that will not participate in the election but they are not large."


spanish trawler missing, three die in uk as storms hit northern europe

as winds in the uk reach 124 mph, a spanish fishing trawler is missing off the coast of scotland and three people have died in northern britain.

the uk coastguard received an emergency beacon signal via satellite at 2330 utc last night from a boat in the north atlantic, 180 miles west of scotland. no voice radio traffic had been received since the ship's owners talked to the captain at 2030, when the crew reported that they were in difficulties and were losing power. there are 19 crew members on board, five spansish and fourteen portuguese. an raf nimrod search aircraft is due on-scene at dawn to search for the vessel.

two lorries have been blown over. in scotland, the lorry fell onto a car, killing the driver. in northern ireland, the lorry was blown off a bridge into the sea, killing the driver of the lorry. a third person died in scotland when a van was blown into the path of an on-coming lorry. 

across scotland, 60,000 people are without power, many roads are blocked by fallen trees, trains are not running and ferries are restricted to port. the sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in northern england has suffered superficial damage.



cbs fires four in fake bush story fallout

cbs news dismissed four employees tuesday, including three executives, in the aftermath of an investigation into a faulty news story about president george w. bush. , who reported the story, is not included in these dismissals. 

the discharged employees were: betsy west, senior vice president and overseer of cbs news primetime programs, josh howard, "60 minutes wednesday" executive producer, mary murphy, senior broadcast producer and mary mapes, program producer. 

on sept. 8, 2004 cbs presented in 60 minutes wednesday program, a story about president george w. bush service during the . the news questioned bush's commitment to service, saying he refused an order to appear for a physical exam and that bush family tried to favour him. the news relied on four documents apparently written by lt. col. jerry killian (already dead), bush's texas air national guard commanders in the early 1970s.

critics said the documents were fake. after standing its story for about 12 days cbs admitted they could not confirm the authenticity of the documents and asked former attorney general dick thornburgh and former president louis boccardi to start an independent investigation about it. 

the independent panel was not able to make any conclusions about the authenticity of the documents and found that political bias was not a factor, but it did criticize the producers for failing to follow basic journalistic principles when they made no attempt to verify their source's claims.

cbs president said about the matter: "we deeply regret the disservice this flawed 60 minutes wednesday report did to the american public, which has a right to count on cbs news for fairness and accuracy."



nine die in bush-fires in south australia

nine people have died in bush-fires in the region of the eyre peninsula in south australia. the fire has spread over 40,000 hectares of scrub, bushland and farmland so far and is still burning out of control. hundreds of firemen have been fighting the fire, but conditions have been difficult because of strong winds and temperatures soaring well over 40 degrees celsius. of the nine who have died, eight were attempting to escape the advancing fire in their cars. four children were among the dead. locals of some rural towns fled to the ocean to escape the fires. thousands of sheep and cattle have also been killed in the fires.

separate fires have also been burning around mount osmond and cleland national park in the adelaide hills. no fatalities have been recorded in this region. fires also burn in country victoria.

bush-fires are annual occurrences in australia, but these fires have been the worst in terms of deaths since the ash wednesday fires that killed 28 people in south australia. two years ago, over 400 houses were burnt down in a bush fire in the australian capital city, canberra.


huygens moon probe to land on titan

the probe will enter the
atmosphere of 's largest moon,
, on january 14 at approximately 9 a.m.

the 318 kg probe will hit the titan atmosphere at 6 kilometers per second. for the next 2.5 hours, huygens will slow its descent and begin data transmission from on-board scientific packages to the cassini orbiter for relay to earth. it will touch down on the titan surface at approximately 11:30 a.m. utc. the probe will continue data transmission for three to 30 minutes, providing it survives the descent and landing.

nasa launched cassini-huygens, the largest interplanetary space craft ever built,
on october 15, 1997. the craft arrived at saturn orbit in july of 2004. it is the fourth craft to visit saturn and the first to orbit the planet.

on december 25, 2004, the cassini orbiter released the huygens probe. the probe then began a 20-day trip to titan.

experiments on board the huygens probe are designed to examine chemical reactions in the atmosphere, the source of titan's abundant methane gas, the existence of oceans, and the presence
of complex organic compounds.

the cassini-huygens mission is a joint project of nasa and the (esa).

the probe was named after dutch astronomer , who discovered titan in 1655.

the cassini orbiter was named for , who discovered other moons of saturn and the gap between saturn's rings known as the 




united states trade deficit reaches all time high

the united states government reported the largest trade deficit in its history today, totalling $60.3 billion for the month of november.

the commerce department reported a rise of 7.7% from the previous month, in an announcement that had taken economists and analysts by surprise. the reading had been expected to fall to $54 billion, following a softening in oil prices.

the trade deficit through november totaled $561.3 billion, far above the previous annual record of $496.5 billion set in 2003, and put the country on track to record a trade imbalance topping $610 billion when the december figures are added.


uk mounts rescue operation for spanish trawler in distress in north atlantic storm

this afternoon the launched an operation to rescue nineteen sailors from a spanish trawler in difficulties in a north storm.

radio contact with the fv "cibeles" was lost yesterday evening at 2030 utc when the crew reported to the ship's owners that they were in trouble. last night, uk coastguard picked up a satellite emergency beacon signal as winds reached speeds of over 70 mph.

this morning a raf nimrod maritime patrol aircraft located the ship adrift 180 miles off the . a nearby tanker, the "aegean spirit", diverted with the intention of taking the trawler in tow and arrived at 1500 utc. 

however, the tanker was unable to take the trawler on tow, and with no other vessels capable of towing the ship nearby, the coastguard rescue seeking helicopter "mike uniform" was launched from stornoway to extract the crew. the tanker remained on scene to offer some protection from the weather, currently reported as gale force winds and rough seas.


ibm releases 500 patents to open source community

"ibm hereby commits not to assert any of the 500 u.s. patents listed below, as well as all counterparts of these patents issued in other countries, against the development, use or distribution of open source software." 
so begins the pledge ibm has made to "any individual, community, or company" writing or using software defined as "open source" by the open source initiative (osi).

the patents include software for text recognition and database management.

"true innovation leadership is about more than just the numbers of patents granted. it's about innovating to benefit customers, partners and society", said dr. john e. kelly, ibm senior vice president, technology and intellectual property. "our pledge today is the beginning of a new era in how ibm will manage intellectual property."
"this is not a one-time event", said dr. kelly. "while ibm will continue to demonstrate leadership in patent output, through measures such as today's pledge, we will increasingly use patents to encourage and protect global innovation and interoperability through open standards and we urge others to do so as well."

lawrence lessig, law professor at stanford law school and free software proponent commented: "this is exciting. it is ibm making good on its commitment to encourage a different kind of software development and recognizing the burden that patents can impose."
not all are confident of ibm's motives, though.

florian mueller, campaign manager of anti-patent website,
nosoftwarepatents.com, accused ibm of hypocrisy because of lobbying in the european union to push through the
computer implemented inventions directive.

"ibm is just being hypocritical because they want to appease the open source community and make themselves popular," said mueller.

"in europe, ibm is a driving force behind the extension of the scope of patentability with respect to software. if ibm wants to assume the role of a post-christmas benefactor, they'd better stop their aggressive patent lobbying in the eu and their shameless squeezing of small and medium-sized companies with its patent portfolio." 


iraqi violence may restrict elections

iraqi prime minister iyad allawi said that on-going violence in iraq may hamper the forthcoming elections for a new national government, due to be held on january 30.

"there are some pockets that will not participate in the election, but they are not large," allawi said.

fifteen people died in violence across iraq today. a bomb blast in tikrit killed six police officers and wounded a dozen. south of baghdad, a bomb destroyed a minibus and killed seven civilians onboard. the bomb apparently was aimed at a us military convoy. another bomb killed two people in samarra.


us government stops looking for weapons of mass destruction

ahead of next month's publication of the iraq survey group's final report, us intelligence officials have announced that the search for weapons of mass destruction in iraq is over.

the 1,700 members of the iraq survey group (isg) will be transferred to counter-insurgency tasks.



amrish puri no more

actor amrish puri, who was most known for his role as "mogambo" in the movie "mr. india" died of on wednesday at the age of 72. hospital sources say that his death was due to a blood clot in his brain after a brain haemorrhage. 

a veteran of sorts, amrish worked in over 221 movies in his life time, most of which were in bollywood (mumbai, india). in his initial attempt to get into the movies in 1954, he was rejected during a screen-test for a hero's role and only started acting at the age of 40 ? nearly twenty years later. he went on to become the most popular "villain" on the silver screen.


digest/11january2005



news briefs: january 13, 2005

the following stories made international headlines thurssday:

one of the two nasa's rovers roaming on planet mars for over a year has stumbled upon a rock unlike any other previously seen: according to the machine's instruments, the rock may be made out of metal. scientists on the project suspect that the object is a meteorite, and are continuing to examine it with the rover's other analysis and imaging tools.

britain's prince harry was photographed wearing a nazi uniform, complete with swastika armband, while puffing on a cigarette at a costume party. the picture made the front page of london's "the sun" newspaper. the prince's father, prince charles, ordered harry to visit auschwitz to learn more about the holocaust.

with two new cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy confirmed over the past two weeks, canada's beef industry is reeling.

the white house admits that its two-year search for iraqi weapons of mass destruction has ended. u.s. investigators came up empty handed in their search for wmds, a main reason cited by the administration for the invasion of the middle east country. 


thatcher pleads guilty in coup plot

mark thatcher, son of former british prime minister margaret thatcher, was fined us$500,000 and given a four-year suspended jail sentence after pleading guilty to unwittingly helping finance a coup plot.

thatcher's plea-bargain terms include cooperating with investigators, despite having left cape town on thursday to return to london.

the charges brought against him relate to the financing of a helicopter that he claimed was to have been used as an air ambulance. in his plea bargain, he admitted that he had realised the intended mercenary use of the helicopter before the conclusion of the deal.


capture of farc member creates crisis between venezuela and colombia

on december 14, colombian officers arrested rodrigo granda, the chief of international relations for the revolutionary armed forces of colombia - farc. the venezuelan government said granda was arrested inside venezuela's borders, so the arrest was illegal and granda was actually kidnapped. the colombian government said that venezuelans detained granda inside venezuela borders because of a reward offered for his capture by the colombian government. they said he was moved to the region near the border of venezuela, but inside colombian territory, where officers finally arrested him. 

the farc is considered a terrorist group by the government of colombia and by the united states , a colombian ally in the fight against farc.

the farc is a marxist revolutionary group with about 12,000 members. the group originated from the colombian communist party of the 1960s. the farc's main stated objective is the creation of a communist government in colombia. colombian authorities routinely search their members.

during the cold war, the movement received some help from the former soviet union. in recent years, the majority of its funding has come from kidnapping, extortion, hijacking, and illegal trade in cocaine. the farc attacks colombian political and military installations and what the group considers to be strategic targets.

the national memorial institute for the prevention of terrorism, or mipt, an organization based in oklahoma, us, has associated farc with 446 incidents resulting in 955 injuries and 429 fatalities since 1968. on september 19, 2004, the farc killed luis eduardo duque varon, antonio jose duque varon, and alfonso lopez nivia, a move supposedly motivated by the victims' involvement with the self-defense forces of colombia (auc).

there are evidences that the farc has liaisons with latin-american criminals, as for example the brazilian drug-dealer fernandinho beira-mar arrested by colombian army in colombia near the border of venezuela, brazil and colombia. beira-mar confessed his liaisons with the guerrilla to authorities. according to the cobra (alias for colombia-brazil) operation report of brazilian police the farc maintains drug factories in the amazon, near the board of colombia. the manufactered drugs would be dispatched to colombia, united states and brazil. 

the farc has advocates among some people and organizations in latin america. some of the group's principal sympathizers are located in venezuela and brazil. according to them the farc is victim of a calumny campaign organized by their enemies, mainly the us.
farc commander manuel marulanda velez and others are part of the marxist and revolutionary magazine america libre. the brazilian carlos alberto libanio christo, known as frei betto, a celebrity in brazil pt and a personal friend of lula, was former director of the magazine. raul reyes, a farc commander, described the liaisons with president lula in an interview to folha de sao paulo newspaper in august 24 2003 and said he met lula for the first time in san salvador during the foro de sao paulo. olivio dutra, minister of cities of lula, received farc leaders in 2001 when he was the rio grande do sul governor. in march 20, 2002, in ribeirao preto was open a pro-farc comitee by the sports secretary leopoldo paulino (psb) in the government of the mayor antonio palocci filho (pt). presently palocci is the economy minister of lula government. also the farc is a member of the foro de sao paulo since 1990, organization guided by pt and lula. brazilian president luis inacio lula da silva don't recognize the farc as a terrorist movement and say they don't have any illegal relationship with the organization. 
venezuelan president hugo chavez already admitted he encontered farc leaders between 1998-2002. according to him the meetings were a request of colombian president andres pastrana who wanted to negotiate with the rebels.
venezuelan president has been repeatedly accused covering farc. the colombian senator enrique gomez, member of the outer subjects commission of the congress said in a interview to the colombian caracol radio: "a conspiracy between the farc and president chavez has always existed" (audio). colombian senador jimmy chamorro has the same opinion:"there is no doubt about the narrow relation of chavez and the farc, and thus it is demonstrated with the case of the guerrilla rodrigo granda" (audio).
the us newspaper washington post also accused chavez of giving protection and suport to the farc rebels.
the venezuelan union leader of ctv (confederacion de trabajadores de venezuela - confederations of workers of venezuela) who lives in costa rica(he requested political asylum) carlos ortega said about chavez in 2004:"in venezuela chavez doesn't rule, who rules is fidel castro, the narc-guerilla mainly the farc; in venezuela who governs is the international terrorism." 
the venezuelan deputy for the opposition julio montoya said that more than 500 members of farc have become venezuelan citizens irregularly and that they have venezuelan identities. chavez denies the allegations about his government covering the farc guerrilla.

since the arrest of granda, chavez is protesting and accusing colombian authorities of entering illegally in venezuela and kidnap. chavez said in a interview to the journalist eleazar diaz rangel (newspaper "Ultimas noticias") that he has proofs that rodrigo granda, farc counselor, was captured illegally in caracas and moved to cucuta, where the colombian authorities said the arrestment was done (audio). 
according to him the colombian authorities are lying when they said they arrested granda inside colombia (audio). the vice-president of venezuela protested against the granda arrestment and said that if colombia authorities wanted granda, they should have requested his extradition by legall ways (audio). 

according to the colombian minister of defense, jorge alberto uribe, the colombian government paid a reward for the capture of roberto granda. venezuelans detained granda inside venezuela borders because of a reward offered for his capture and they moved granda to the region near the border of venezuela, inside colombian territory, where colombian officers finally arrested him. venezuelan deputy luis tascon said that the reward was of us $1.5 million. the colombian government did not reveal the amount of the reward. 

because of the granda case the president hugo chavez said that the venezuelan ambassador should leave bogota in colombia and that the trade agreements between venezuela and colombia should be paralised. chavez demmands that the colombian president alvaro uribe do a public international retraction excusing for the invasion of the venezuelan territory and the kidnapping of granda.

uribe proposed the creation of a special comissition, so the severe crisis can be resolved. he emphasize colombia did not invaded the venezuelan territory. the us governemnt supports colombia in this crisis and demmands chavez to give a clear declaration about his position related to the farc. 


mexican candidate confident of winning oas leadership race

mexican foreign minister luis ernesto derbez says he is confident that he will become the next organization of american states (oas) secretary general, and will be in the post within 4 months. he claims to have 17 of the 18 votes needed in order to have the support of a majority within the 34 member states of the oas.

the post became available after the previous secretary general, miguel Angel rodriguez, served only 24 days of his term of office, before returning home to costa rica to face corruption charges.

the other candidates for the post are ex el salvadorean president francisco flores, guatemalan rigoberta menchu and chilean interior minister jose miguel insulza.
meanwhile francisco flores is in the dominican republic on the beginning of a tour of caribbean countries drumming up support for his own candidacy. he is being accompanied by el salvador's deputy foreign minister margarita escobar in a clear sign of the importance el salvador puts on getting their candidate into the job.



honduras deploys 8,000 troops to ensure peaceful elections

honduran armed forces spokesman rafael moreno coello announced the deployment of 8,000 troops to ensure the peace in the upcoming internal party elections on feb. 20. the elections will decide who will be nominated as presidential candidates in the two major political parties, the liberal party and the national party. anyone with the right to vote in honduras can vote in either election. the honduran constitution defines the elections, which the supreme electoral tribunal administers.

the troops, who come from all three wings of the honduran armed forces, are responsible for electoral materials, such as ballot boxes, before, during, and after the election. they will be deployed in all regions of the country. the operation will cost 14 million lempiras (us$750,000).

 


bush pressured israel to seize chinese aircraft

some media sources are reporting that israel is facing a diplomatic crisis over a number of "harpy" unmanned aerial vehicles (uavs) purchased by the people's republic of china in the 1990s and returned to israel for upgrades. 

china and the united states are major trading partners with israel, but discussions to resolve the incident in the israeli knesset were muted by a security blackout and delayed by the exit of four knesset members in protest.


third in line to british throne dresses as nazi

prince harry, third in line to be the monarch of the united kingdom, has been photographed dressed as a nazi.

harry, aged 20, was attending a fancy dress party last weekend when a fellow party-goer photographed him wearing a swastika armband and nazi insignia on the lapels of his shirt. the photographs were published today by "the sun", a british tabloid. 

after the picture was published, clarence house (the official residence of prince harry) published the following statement: "prince harry has apologised for any offence or embarrassment he has caused. he realizes it was a poor choice of costume." prince harry himself has made no comments.


suicide attack at karni crossing between gaza strip, israel

three palestinian militants attacked the karni crossing between the gaza strip and israel. the men, each from different palestinian militant movements (al-aqsa martyrs brigades, the popular resistance committees, and the military wing of hamas), used a 200 pound bomb to blast through an iron door that separates the israeli and palestinian sides at the checkpoint. they proceeded to throw grenades and fire their assault weapons. all three attackers were shot dead by israeli soldiers. early reports indictated three israelis killed, the final death toll was six israelis and the three palestinian attackers.

the attack took place at about 11pm local time.

as a result of the attack, israel has cut off all links with the newly-elected palestinian leader mahmoud abbas.



jefferson airplane drummer dies at 66

, the drummer of the legendary american rock band , passed away on tuesday, jan. 11. he was 66. dryden suffered from stomach cancer and heart disease.

spencer dryden was a member of jefferson airplane during the band's heyday. he replaced original drummer and played with jefferson airplane at the legendary and rock festivals.

dryden left the band in 1970 to play with , a country rock band formed by members of the .

he was married three times and is survived by sons jeffrey, jes and jackson dryden.


'electra'-fying competition faces 'fockers'

but universal's dominance of the north american box office receipts is in danger as 20th century fox, paramount, warner brothers and sony all have films debuting in wide release friday.

after a two-week drought of new releases with "noise" the only debut, the jan. 14 weekend is relatively crowded as three new films bow and one oscar-buzz movie expands into wide release.





the following films will be playing in at least 1,000 u.s. and canada venues:



news briefs: january 14, 2005

the following stories made international headlines friday:
the cassini-huygens mission's huygens probe landed on saturn's moon titan and began sending pictures. the first pictures taken during the descent show the probable landing site, and one picture taken after landing shows some ice blocks around the landing area. the images are the first ever taken of the surface of titan.

the robert c. byrd green bank telescope (gbt) in west virginia, usa, a part of the global network of radio telescopes involved in tracking the huygens titan probe, detected the probe's 'carrier' (tone) signal at approximately 10:20 utc.

officials in beijing plan to build the world's longest bridge to connect taiwan to mainland china. the us$242 billion roadway may take 20 to 30 years to build.


el salvador presents flores as oas candidate

el salvador officially presented ex-president francisco flores as its official candidate for the post of secretary general of the organization of american states (oas). the previous secretary general, miguel Angel rodriguez, vacated the post after serving only 24 days of his term of office before returning home to costa rica to face corruption charges.

the salvadoran government claims already to have the support of three other central-american countries and the dominican republic for their candidate. this may not be true, however, because guatemala is still deciding whether to officially nominate nobel laureate rigoberta menchu as an alternative candidate. it is certain that honduras is refusing to support flores because of his refusal to accept the decision of the international court of justice in favour of honduras over a territorial dispute between the two nations when he was president.

flores has criticised mexico for proposing luis ernesto derbez as a candidate, claiming that in the previous election mexico had agreed, as had all the oas nations, that the chosen candidate should be from central america, and that they have gone back on their word by now proposing their own candidate. 

honduras has similarly criticised flores, saying that central america had previously decided to back a consensus candidate, something that flores is not.



viacom delays launch of gay cable channel

media giant viacom has delayed the launch of its -themed logo channel by more than four months, according to reports. originally scheduled to launch feb. 17, the new channel's debut was delayed until a planned june 30 sign on.

part of viacom's mtv networks, logo has secured carriage on time warner cable in manhattan, rcn and atlantic broadband. it is in final negotiations with comcast, the nation's largest cable company, which serves the san francisco bay area.

the channel's management said it will take the extra time to beef up its programming slate and sign on more carriers. logo already has secured the rights to such programming as golden globe and emmy-winning "angels in america" and films such as "far from heaven", "philadelphia" and "the birdcage." 

original programming includes plans for a string of reality-based series and documentaries with titles such as "the relationship show", "my fabulous gay wedding", and "cruise", which take place about a gay-themed ocean cruise ship.



prado dam area evacuated

more than 800 homes have been evacuated in the area located below the prado dam in the city of corona, approximately 50 miles east of downtown los angeles.

evacuations began at 5 a.m., with police ordering residents to leave for their own safety. the evacuations also impacted the rush hour commute due a significant amount of people leaving via the already clogged riverside (91) freeway.

the record rainfall from the recent storms that pounded southern california has left the earthen dam at its maximum capacity. a small seepage that appeared at the base of the dam raised fears of a possible failure. 

officials vary on their assessments of the problem. a spokesperson for the u.s. army corps of engineers, however, who constructed and maintain the dam, insisted that the problem is trivial and people should be able to return to their homes as early as this evening.

the prado dam was constructed in 1941 as a flood control dam for orange county. it controls the watershed of the santa ana river, the largest in southern california.

 


beijing plans $242b freeway link to taiwan

on jan. 13, people's republic of china communications minister zhang chunxian announced a major plan to enlarge the country's freeway system and link all of china's major cities. the project would cost about us$242 billion and take about 25 years to complete, according to cnn news. a certain portion of the plans, however, drew scoffs from both the taiwanese government and the international press?plans including the construction of a freeway to the island of taiwan, over 100 miles away from the chinese mainland. 

the freeway would have to overcome great odds. the length of the freeway, whether a bridge or a tunnel, would have to be much longer than any other in existence. the longest bridge in the world is the lake pontchartrain causeway in louisiana, usa, which is 23 miles long. interestingly enough, the second longest bridge will be the hangzhou bay bridge in china; it will span 22.3 miles when completed in 2008. the longest tunnel in the world is the seikan tunnel, connecting the japanese islands of honshu and hokkaido at 33.4 miles.

besides distance, the bridge would also have to withstand the frequent typhoons and earthquakes that plague the taiwan strait. and, according to the central news agency (cna), taiwan's government funded news service, building a freeway across the strait would cause problems with the area's "black tides" and "marine trench". 

the biggest obstacles to building the bridge, however, may not be with nature, but rather with politics. the beijing and taipei governments do not maintain any official ties. beijing claims taiwan as part of its territory and breaks off political ties with any country that maintains political ties with taipei. the prc has even threatened to attack taiwan if the island declares formal independence.

currently it is not possible to travel directly from taiwan to mainland china or vice versa; taiwanese flights to and from mainland china are detoured through a third-party airport, usually hong kong, before continuing on. in spite of this, the announcement came at a time when representatives from taiwan and mainland china are discussing possible direct flights?at least for the chinese new year.

taiwanese leaders dismissed the announcement as propaganda. it was undoubtably seen by a few taiwanese as an attempt on the people's republic of china's part to annex the island.



long island-sized iceberg to ram antarctic coast

the on antarctica's coastline may be bitten off this week by a huge iceberg which is on a collision course with the floating glacier tongue.

antarctic scientists, at the nearby mcmurdo research station, are watching the movement of iceberg b15a, a remnant of the , which partially broke apart five years ago. 

the 100--long, 1,200 square mile iceberg is affecting wildlife in the area ? particularly that of penguins, which are in their breeding season. biologists fear that if the berg hits the ice tongue and sticks to it, the resulting dam will make it impossible for adult penguins to reach their hunting ground without abandoning their newborn chicks.

if iceberg b15a doesn't stick to the drygalski ice tongue, scientists are considering other possible outcomes:



iceberg b15a's speed is subject to the local tides, which may guide the berg to hit more than once, according to researcher robert bindshadler, who works at the nasa goddard space flight center.

"it's a clash of the titans, a radical and uncommon event," said bindshadler.

 


huygens probe lands on saturn's moon titan, returns pictures

huygens, the european built titan exploration probe, ended its seven-year voyage today when it landed on the surface of the second largest moon in the solar system at 11:38 a.m. utc. the probe, which the european space agency (esa) began developing 17 years ago, has worked well with only minor system failures.

"this is a great achievement for europe and its us partners in
this ambitious international endeavor to explore the
saturnian system", said jean-jacques dordain, the director general of the esa 

the first confirmation that huygens had successfully entered titan's thick atmosphere was at 10:25 a.m. utc when the green bank radio telescope in the united states directly received the faint carrier signal of its beacon. due to the immense distance, the radio transmission took 67 minutes to arrive.

huygens broadcast data to its cassini mothership (the us probe which carried huygens to titan) throughout its descent and then from the surface. after cassini dropped below the horizon of titan (cutting the radio link), cassini turned towards earth to begin transmitting its recording of the huygens data to the european space operations centre in darmstadt, germany.

so far, esa has released least three pictures?two from the probe's descent through the atmosphere under parachutes and then a picture near the surface. the huygens probe took a total of over 300 black and white photographs during its brief mission.

"the huygens scientists are all delighted. this was worth the long
wait," says dr jean-pierre lebreton, esa huygens mission manager.
the cassini-huygens mission is conducted by an alliance between nasa, 
the esa, and asi, the italian space agency. the nasa jet propulsion laboratory designed, developed and assembled the cassini orbiter.



graner found guilty of mistreatment at abu ghraib

a united states army court martial found army spc. charles graner guilty of abusing prisoners at iraq's abu ghraib prison. the jury sentenced graner to ten years in prison.

graner, 36, was described as the ringleader during his four-day trial before a military jury. he was accused of assaulting prisoners for fun.

he pleaded innocent to the five charges brought against him, but the ten person jury took five hours to find him guilty.

during the trial, video and photographs taken inside the prison in november 2003 were presented to the court. the photographs were made public in early 2004 bringing the world's attention to the abuses going on in the prison. 

it is alleged that senior us defence officials knew of the abuse, including the secretary of defence, donald rumsfeld. garner's defense maintained that he was acting under orders to 'soften up' detainees before interrogation.



news briefs: january 15, 2005

the following stories made international headlines saturday:
indonesian officials are warning religious-based organizations that aid workers traveling to sumatra should not try to convert islamic tsunami survivors to other religions. the country is the most-populous muslim nation in the world. 

our sister project, wikipedia, celebrates its fourth anniversary today. the english version of the free encyclopedia has nearly 450,000 articles.

in the aftermath of last month's south asian tsunami, some small island nations point out to similar future dangers caused by rising sea levels due to global warming.

a u.s. army court martial jury found specialist charles graner guilty of abusing iraqi prisoners at abu ghraib and sentenced him to ten years in prison.


finland, canada named among world's most-fit nations

the northern european country of finland was named among the world's most healthy, according to an investigation by the london-based newspaper, "the guardian". according to health experts, finland joins canada as having the distinction of being home to the lowest percentage of "couch potato" citizens among developed nations.

pekka puska, director of finland's national institute of public health claimed that in the 1970s, the country held the world record for heart disease. "finnish men used to say that vegetables were for rabbits and not for men," he said, "and the staple foods were bread and butter, fatty meat and full-fat milk!"

when the finnish government found out the figures in the 1970s, it began a campaign to make a healthier nation. the number of males dying of heart problems has, over the past 35 years, decreased by 65 percent, and lung cancer deaths have also dropped dramatically.

other nations are now considering using similar tactics as the finnish government to make their own countries more healthy, but some say it is yet another example of a "nanny state."

 


ariel sharon gives 'free hand' to military for crack-down

just seven days after the election of the new palestinian leader mahmoud abbas, israeli prime minister ariel sharon has ordered his military today to perform a new crackdown on palestinian militants in resonse to another set of attacks on israelis.

now sharon has told his military to "take any action needed without restriction". sharon said: "despite the change in palestinian leadership, we have yet to see them taking any action against terror."

this follows thursday's killing of six israelis in an attack on a gaza strip crossing point. as a result, the israeli government cut all communications with abbas.

yesterday palestinians fired rockets into israeli territory, injuring two people. 
in response, israeli troops mounted raids into the gaza strip, killing eight palestinian terrorists.

mahmoud abbas was elected on a platform of curbing the activities of the terrorists and pursuing peace with israel.



brazilian deputies meet ramallah abbas

a delegation of brazilian deputies and senators met the new president of the palestine authority, mahmoud abbas, known as abu mazen, on monday, january 10. abbas recognized the preferential treatment offered by brazil to the palestinians and promised reciprocity. carlos abicalil (pt) , member of the delegation, said that the decision of the brazilian president luiz inacio lula da silva to establish, in july 2004, an office of representation in ramallah contributed to the closening of relations between the governments of brazil and the palestinian. 

he praised the choice of abbas, remembering that the election of the parliament, in july, can be a still more decisive step: "from the point of view of the major political representation of the parliament, there is still an incognito, since diverse political positions which didn't participate in the presidential election, with proper candidates, as is the case with hamas - who have an armed and very organized arm - will participate in the legislative elections. evidently, in the composition of the parliament, there will be more or less radical positions around the situation of gaza and jerusalem ".


man is waiting for 139 days in front of theater for &quot;star wars&quot; movie

jeff tweiten, a 27-year-old graphic artist, is encamped in front of the cinerama theatre, on a blue sofa, in the northwest city of seattle, washington. tweiten plans to wait 139 days for the premiere of "star wars: episode iii ? revenge of the sith," which opens may 19, 2005.

he has received help from a community of friends and local business people who have supplied changes of clothes, coffee, food, and a nearby restroom.

city authorities have chosen not to enforce vagrancy laws that would force tweiten to move between the hours of 7am and 9pm local time.

tweiten also camped out for the previous two episodes of the star wars movies, "episode i" and "episode ii". 


japan plans defense against chinese invasion

this new policy contrasts sharply with public comments by japan's chief cabinet secretary hiroyuki hosoda, who as recently as december claimed that japan did not view china as a threat.

japan defense agency director general yoshinori ono pointed to an incursion into the area by a chinese nuclear submarine last november, which has raised the profile of the political dispute over administrative rights for the islands. china has also increased its marine surveillance of the area in recent months.

the release of such detailed plans by the japan defense agency sends a strong message to china?that japan plans to protect its claimed administrative rights over the area at all costs. many japanese believe "that their government should take an even tougher stance toward china", according to ho szu-shen, an associate professor in the department of japanese at fu-jen catholic university. 

the chinese government has not yet commented publicly about the release of the japanese defense plans for the islands. however, in december, the state-run people's daily newspaper editorialized that japan's multi-year defense forces reorganization plan attempts to "play up chinese military threats." china is also unhappy with japan's plans to build a missile defense system in cooperation with the united states.

sovereignty of the island is disputed between japan and china. both the people's republic of china and the republic of china claims soveregnty on the island.

despite japan's claims of sovereignty over the islands, china has begun to claim some of the region's valuable oil and natural gas deposits to help alleviate the shortages for china's growing economy. china recently allowed leased oil drilling to commence within the area that japan has declared as an "economic exclusion zone". japan has lodged diplomatic protests to ask china to discontinue these projects, but china does not recognize japan's claims, arguing that chinese territorial rights end at the edge of the asian continental shelf underneath the east china sea.

on march 24, 2004, seven chinese activists were arrested by japanese authorities when they landed on the islands with the intent to stay for three days. at the time, the japanese ministry of foreign affairs lodged a protest with the prc. the activists were deported by japan after the prc demanded their return.

the name of the island chain is disputed. the japanese refer to the islands as "sento shosho" or "senkaku retto," the people's republic of china (prc) and the republic of china (taiwan) call the island the same name. in prc's pinyin system, the names spells "diaoyu dao" and in roc's system "tiao yu tai."


purged chinese leader zhao ziyang dies at 85

zhao ziyang, the general secretary of the chinese communist party who was purged for sympathizing with the student protestors in the tiananmen square protests of 1989 died on monday in beijing after 15 years of house arrest. he was 85.

zhao was a reformer within the communist party who acted against corruption, and created programs of economic and agricultural reform that allowed parts of china to recover from the failure and famine of the great leap forward. he disbanded communes and allowed farmers to tend their own land; he also introduced the plan to create special economic hubs in coastal areas ? a system that is the current model for china.

in the 1980s, zhao's success gained him a variety of top posts within the poliburo of the communist party, including in 1987 the post of general secretary ? highest rank within the party. he was seen by outsiders as a potential successor to the de facto chinese leader deng xiaoping, though on one occasion zhao had denied that he would be fit for the role.

zhao's rule came to an end in 1989, as he sided with the student protesters advocating democracy in the tiananmen square in beijing. zhao's position was not held by others within the core of the politburo, and he was stripped of his post. 

on may 19, 1989, zhao arrived at tiananmen square and spoke to the protesters. in tears, he apologized for "coming too late" and asked them to abandon their protest.

shortly afterward, zhao was placed under house arrest despite never being charged. two weeks later on june 4, the army was sent into the square to disband the protestors, leading to hundreds of deaths.

he never again made a public appearance and was confined to a courtyard house not far from tiananmen square. from there, mr. zhao ventured outside only rarely and under heavy escort to play golf at nearby courses.

even in death, the government continues to fear that his name might ignite discontent among impoverished farmers, intellectuals, the unemployed and others who want to see sweeping political reforms.

security at tiananmen square was visibly tightened in the days leading to zhao ziyang's death, as reports emerged that he had slipped into a coma. 

official announcement of his passing monday came via a short dispatch by the state news agency, which briefly said that he had died at a beijing hospital after suffering longtime lung and heart ailments. the report referred to the deceased leader as "comrade zhao" and made no mention of his former titles.

he had been in a coma since friday after suffering multiple strokes, a source close to his family said.

he is survived by his second wife, liang boqi, four sons, and a daughter.


u.s. reported to mount covert operations in iran

there are satellite photographs showing disputed nuclear facilities near and . the inspected these sites in early 2002 without finding conclusive evidence of military use, though traces of highly enriched material were found.

the covert missions have been ongoing for nearly a year, and have taken place in as many as ten middle eastern and south asian nations. in return for his country's assistance, pakistani president pervez musharraf is said to have received assurances that the us government will not demand for questioning , pakistani nuclear scientist and creator of their .

the pentagon has strongly criticised the report, though without explicitly denying the existence of covert operations in iran. according to the pentagon spokesman "mr. hersh's article is so riddled with errors of fundamental fact that the credibility of his entire piece is destroyed."

he went on to state: "mr. hersh's source(s) feed him with rumor, innuendo, and assertions about meetings that never happened, programs that do not exist, and statements by officials that were never made."


mars lander website opens

nasa's phoenix mars lander program now has an official web site.

the mission of the robotic craft, scheduled to launch august 2007, is to explore the northern polar region of mars (about 70° n latitude) in may 2008 and to expose the upper few feet of surface material using a robotic arm to find the ice that was discovered by the
odyssey mission in 2002.

the phoenix lander is the first in nasa's new line of smaller "scout" missions in the agency's mars exploration program.



news briefs: january 17, 2005

the following stories made international headlines monday
a catholic archbishop was kidnapped in mosul, iraq according to reports from the vatican. the man, basile georges casmoussa, is an archbishop of the syrian catholic church, and was in mosul ? a city with tens of thousands of christians that make up 3 percent of the country's population. the vatican called the kidnapping a terrorist act. 

after an investigation that lasted for more than a year the national audit office of china found 233 persons, including 80 government officials, guilty of having defrauded the industrial and commercial bank of china (icbc), china's largest commercial bank. the total amount involved in the swindle was 7.4 billion yuan (us$894 million). most of the money appears to have been recovered, but more than 2 billion yuan are still missing and may have been transferred to overseas accounts.

the former commander of the bratunac brigade in bosnia, vidoje blagojevic, was sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment by the hague tribunal for "complicity in genocide". the trial chamber found that blagojevic's brigade, by taking part in the forced transfer of bosniaks from the srebenica area, had aided and abetted a "murder operation" that led to the death of more than 7000 men and boys.

blagojevic was the second person from former yugoslavia to be found guilty of genocide by the tribunal. the first was radislav krstic, the bosnian serb general who led the srebrenica operation. krstic was sentenced to 46 years' imprisonment on 2 august 2001.

eight thai female workers, working for the south korean company "donghwa digital", were paralyzed from the waist down after being exposed to hexane, a chemical commonly used by the electronics industry to clean electronic components.

workers at donghwa used hexane to polish products in unventilated rooms, for up to 12 hours per day. they worked without protective gear, such as gloves, goggles, and masks, for varying durations of time, between seven months and three years.

of the eight women from thailand, seven were illegal migrant workers who were afraid to seek outside help due to their fear of deportation. after a seoul newspaper reported about the women on friday, the south korean ministry of labor initiated an investigation of donghwa digital.

the seoul newspaper, "hankyoreh sinmun", also reported on an earlier similar case involving three chinese women who worked for another company making components for liquid crystal displays.


woman aged 66 gives birth

a 66 year-old woman in bucharest has given birth to a girl and is believed to be the oldest woman ever to give birth.

she had been receiving fertility treatment for nine years before conceiving twins. she had not been able to conceive naturally before.

the baby was delivered early by caesarean section after the other fetus died in the womb. at birth, the child weighed 1.4kg. 


colombia releases official notice in response to venezuela

the government of colombia released an official notice in response to venezuela's 
claims. recently venezuela said colombian authorities illegally invaded venezuelan
territory and kidnapped farc adviser rodrigo granda (also known as ricardo gonzalez). colombia said that colombian forces captured granda inside colombian territory. colombia also accused venezuela of harboring terrorists.

at first, venezuela accused colombia of invading venezuelan territory and capturing granda. later, venezuela said that colombia may have bribed venezuelan public officers.

the venezuelan government's protests are a request of the farc. the farc demands that the venezuelan government assures the safety and freedom of their members inside venezuelan territory.

the complete colombian declaration follows:




safe house in the underground railroad to be torn down

waukesha county, wisconsin, martin luther king day. the waukesha freeman, a newspaper with roots in the abolitionist movement before the american civil war, announced that the wisconsin department of transportation has deemed a house at highway 164 and lisbon road of no historical value, and has authorized its demolition sometime this spring.

a historian in the town of sussex, wisconsin, where the house is located, noted that residents had a verbal tradition that it was a location in the underground railroad, a route for slaves to canada, before the american civil war. 

sue baker, of the waukesha county historical society, which has a museum of county history in the old court house, noted that waukesha county had strong abolitionist leanings.

ironically, waukesha county, due to its high house prices, compared to milwaukee county, has relatively few african-american residents, and statistically, the milwaukee metropolitan area is one of the most segregated in the united states.


hong kong makes first file-sharing arrest

a 38 year-old man has been arrested by the customs and excise department of hong kong, for illegally distributing three copyrighted movies via bittorrent file-sharing technology. this is the world's first criminal arrest of its kind.

the unemployed male was arrested last thursday for uploading "torrents" to a local message board. the torrents allowed people to download three movies from computers at his home in tuen mun, hong kong. however, the suspect was not immediately charged, and investigations are still underway, according to the hong kong government. the law in hong kong allows for a sentence of up to four years in prison, and a us$6,400 fine per violation ? defined as a single unauthorized copy of a protected work.

bittorrent is an ultra-fast file-sharing technology which allows users (or "peers") to share files of any size via the unused upload bandwidth of other peers, even though their downloads are still in progress. the technology was developed by bram cohen three years ago.

in the past several weeks, major bittorrent websites in the united states have closed down due to, or in order to avoid civil charges initiated recently by the mpaa. according to the former operator of one of these sites, suprnova.org, software developers have already worked out a solution and are beta-testing a new peer-to-peer program called exeem. the software will bring together the strengths of kazaa (another peer-to-peer program) and bittorrent.




romania plans to send more troops to iraq

romania's president traian b?sescu has pledged to send an extra 100 infantry troops to iraq to assist the united nations peacekeepers in the area and to ensure security in the upcoming legislative elections, set to take place on january 30, 2005.

the country, a us ally and a member of nato since 2004, already has 730 troops in iraq, being the 8th largest force in the coalition of the willing. the additional deployment will make romania's force the 7th largest in iraq, raising its number to 830 troops. 

these announcements come amid the global trend of military withdrawal from iraq. spain pulled its troops out in early 2004 following a change of government, while romania's neighbours poland, hungary and bulgaria, also staunch us allies, are planning a reduction in the number of troops in the coming year.

this news also comes at a time when the usa is planning to move its european troops from bases in germany to more eastern locations. the most likely candidates are romania and bulgaria, which are in strategic positions close to the middle east.


 


latham quits as australian labor leader

following hospitalisation for pancreatitis and ongoing speculation about his leadership, mark latham has resigned from his roles as leader of the australian labor party (alp) and also the federal member for werriwa. he cited as reasons the media harassment, and a desire to put his family and health first.

mr latham became leader of the alp just over a year ago, on 2 december, 2003, leading the party during the october 2004 federal election. he was hospitalised in the run-up to that election, also for treatment of pancreatitis. following the defeat of his party, his leadership increasingly came under question.

he fell ill a second time almost simultaneously with last year's indian ocean tsunami disaster. his failure to issue a statement on the tsunami drew criticism from the media and calls for his resignation from within his own party, even after it was revealed that he had been incapacitated at the time.

mr latham's resignation sidesteps the possibility of a leadership challenge by other members of the party and leaves no clear successor.



romanian president to visit united kingdom

romania's president traian b?sescu has accepted an invitation by the prime minister of the united kingdom, tony blair, to engage in his first bilateral visit to the uk.

b?sescu was elected president of romania in december 12, 2004, in the country's most hotly-contested election since the downfall of the communist party in 1989.

the president met with quinton quayle, the uk's ambassador in bucharest, romania, where he received mr blair's invitation. in london, b?sescu will discuss the strong cooperation between the uk and romania in iraq and afghanistan, as well as the british support that romania receives in its fight against corruption and its preparation for eu accession. romania is expected to join the european union in 2007.

b?sescu is also expected to discuss regional security in the black sea area, an important issue of his presidency, as well as to meet british businessmen interested in investing in romania. the united kingdom has been one of the largest foreign investors in romania and continues to invest significantly in the country, which is attractive due to its low labour costs, which are lower than those in the new central european member states. foreign investment is expected to increase significantly this year due to romania's new fiscal policy, which introduced a flat tax rate of 16%, the lowest among eu member states and candidates.

after winning the presidential elections, b?sescu was criticised by many for his outspoken support for his plan to create a "bucharest-london-new york axis", a partnership between romania, the uk and the usa. b?sescu later backed down on his claims, though he said that the uk and the us remain of great interest to romania for reasons of security. romania remains a staunch supporter of the us- and uk-led invasion and occupation of iraq.

 


deadliest year ever for journalists?

, 

a new report by the international federation of journalists (ifj) documents 129 cases where media workers have been killed because of their work during 2004. they expect the number to increase as more information reaches them. this could make 2004 the deadliest year ever.

49 casualties (close to 40%) occurred in iraq, making it by far the deadliest country for journalists. at least 20 of those appeared to be cases were journalists were directly targeted because of their profession.

another country that deserved special attention was the philippines where 13 journalists appears to have been asassinated in separate incidents because of their reporting. none of the murderes have been apprehended by the police. 

in nepal two journalists were killed by security forces and one by the rebels. another journalist was killed by land mines.


deadliest year ever for journalists?

a new report by the international federation of journalists (ifj) documents 129 cases where media workers have been killed because of their work during 2004. they expect the number to increase as more information reaches them. this could make 2004 the deadliest year ever.

49 casualties (close to 40%) occurred in iraq, making it by far the deadliest country for journalists. at least 20 of those appeared to be cases where journalists were directly targeted because of their profession.

another country that deserved special attention was the philippines, where 13 journalists appear to have been assassinated in separate incidents because of their reporting. none of the murderers have been apprehended by the police. 

in nepal, two journalists were killed by security forces and one by the rebels. another journalist was killed by a land mine.



romanians raise 395,000 euro for tsunami victims

through a telethon, romanians have raised 15 billion lei, or the equivalent of 395,000 euro for victims of the devastating indian ocean tsunami of boxing day 2004 that claimed more than 175,000 victims.

the ten-hour telethon was organised on sunday, january 16, by the television station realitatea tv, and was the first time an event of this kind had been staged in the country. nicoleta dr?gu?in, a spokeswoman for the network, claims that, "it was a big success... [15 billion lei] is a lot of money for a private television station to raise."

dozens of romanian celebrities took part in the telethon, including goalkeeper bogdan stelea, fashion designers catinca roman and mihai albu, former foreign affairs minister mircea geoan? and the soprano mariana nicolesco. newly-elected president traian b?sescu and prime minister c?lin popescu-t?riceanu also took part. in between the live showings of celebrities picking up calls from romanians who had called to donate, there were shown images and footage from the global catastrophe and its aftermath.

two romanian tourists have been declared missing in the tsunami. the 395,000 euro raised by the telethon supplement that 150,000 euro worth of aid pledged by the romanian government in the form of tents, water and drugs to tsunami-stricken areas of south asia.

 


airbus launches world's largest passenger plane

the new aircraft will take the world's-largest title away from rival boeing's 747. boeing's upcoming new design, the 7e7, does not attempt to compete directly with the a380 but instead is aimed at a more efficient and comfortable flight at 200-250 seats.

airbus chief executive noel forgeard stated that he expected sales of the aircraft to exceed the 250 required for the project to break even. to date, 149 confirmed orders for the aircraft have been received. airbus has hopes that sales will exceed 700. the company is currently in talks with china regarding possible sales there.

the first test flight of the aircraft may take place as early as march, and the first commercial flight is expected to take off in mid-2006 from singapore's changi airport.

british and american airline virgin atlantic has purchased six of these aeroplanes and intend to fit them with gyms and bars as well as seats.


archbishop kidnapped in iraq released unharmed

the syrian catholic archbishop of mosul, basile georges casmoussa, aged 66, who was abducted by unidentified gunmen yesterday afternoon, was released earlier today and is now back in his home.

according to father dwraid brbar of the mosul diocese, the abductors probably took the wrong person. they were not aware that he was an archbishop. "initially they asked for a ransom, but when they realised that they had taken a member of the catholic church they released him without demanding money".

casmoussa was born in iraq and has been archbishop of the syrian catholic rite in mosul since 1999.


new tsunami could hit soon

a british minister in the department for international development says that a second tsunami could hit south-east asia within the next 50 years.

gareth thomas warned world leaders at a natural disasters conference in the japanese city of kobe. the conference was called to discuss the feasibility of an early warning system for tsunamis to be set up in the indian ocean.

he told a bbc radio program earlier today that such a system would cost ￡20 to ￡30 million pounds. there is a similar system in the pacific ocean, and junichiro koizumi, the japanese prime minister, said that japan would provide technical support for the system. "the system needs to be rapidly developed," he told the conference.

the world conference on disaster reduction in kobe, being held only 10 years after the earthquake that destroyed the city, began with a silent tribute to those who lost their lives in the tsunami.

the united nations emergency co-ordinator, jan egeland, said, "i hope that nations will make a strong commitment to establishing a system in the indian ocean that will help vulnerable populations within the next ten years."

he also added that the system would remove danger: disasters will still happen, but forewarned is forearmed.

 


chile's candidate convinced of enough votes to become oas chief

chile's interior minister jose miguel insulza said that he is convinced that he has enough support to become the next secretary general of the organization of american states (oas), and that he sees himself as a consensus candidate.

speaking in brasilia, brazil, he claimed to have the support of venezuela after meeting president hugo chavez last friday. he already has the support of argentina and brazil. he is the more left-wing of the three officially declared candidates, the other two being el salvador's francisco flores and mexico's luis ernesto derbez, so it comes as no surprise that he has the support of other south american left-wing governments.

it remains to be seen whether he can gain consensus of the member states. it is francisco flores who has the important support of the usa, though some see this as a disadvantage.


white rhinos fly to safety

in 2003, about 30 rhinos lived in garamba national park. since then, heavily-armed poaching gangs have slaughtered around 20 of these animals. kes hillman smith of the rhino project at international rhino foundation (irf) now believes there are fewer than 10 animals left in the park.

sometime before the rainy season begins in february, the rhinos will be flown by military transport plane or helicopter to a private reserve in central kenya.

outside of the garamba national park, there are also 10 northern white rhinos in captivity. however, it is very difficult to breed them in captivity.

trade in rhino horn has been banned internationally since 1977, but it is worth more than $1200 (usd) per kilogram on the black market.



news briefs: january 18, 2005

the following stories made international headlines tuesday:

at her confirmation hearings to be appointed the next u.s. secretary of state, condoleezza rice said she is committed to mending international relations and to continued troop support in iraq.

eight chinese construction workers have been kidnapped. the kidnappers are demanding that the chinese government reassure that it will not allow its citizens to work for americans in iraq. they have threatened to execute the hostages in 48 hours if china fails to comply. china has long objected to the last us-led iraq war, which ended with the capture of saddam hussein, the former iraqi president.

mina, saudi arabia, was witness to thousands of pilgrims in a hajj celebrating the life of the 7th century prophet muhammad. they stopped in mina before heading on to mount arafat as part of a five-day cycle of prayer. government officials set up more than 40 thousand fire-proof tents in mina to temporarily house the pilgrims.

in bucharest, romania, a 66-year-old woman who was impregnated via in vitro fertilization gave birth to a 1.4 kilogram (3.1 pound) baby girl through caesarean section. a twin died. romania has no age limit on in vitro fertilization.


first ever corruption conviction of public official in honduras

dante gabriel ramirez erazo, who was director of roads in honduras between 1994 and 1998, was yesterday found guilty of illegal enrichment by stealing 967,892 lempiras ($us51,000) during his two years in this office. this is the first time a public official has been found guilty of this type of offence in honduras. he will be sentenced on february 15th. although the sentence is from 3 to 5 years, he may be able to pay a fine instead. he also has the possibility of appealing to the supreme court of justice, something he may well do as he maintains his innocence. he is not in prison at the moment, but he cannot leave honduras and he has to report to the judges on a weekly basis.
part of the prosecution case against him was his ownership of a house worth 1,350,000 lempiras ($us72,000).



suspects arrested in brazilian kidnapping case



swedish doctor prosecuted for refusal to hand over patient data

a well-known swedish doctor and researcher at has been prosecuted, together with the vice-chancellor and the president of the university council, for failing to hand over sensitive data on patients to outside critics.

the "parliamentary ombudsman", an official appointed by the parliament, decided to press charges against professor , md, professor , (vice-chancellor) and (president), for failing to comply with a court order from february 2003.

the court had ordered gillberg and his colleagues to hand over sensitive data on patients and their relatives to two critics of their research: eva karfve, a sociologist, and leif elinder, a pediatrician. the basis for the court's decision was the section of the swedish constitution relating to freedom of the press. since the university was a public body, it was obliged to turn over any documents to any citizen upon request unless the document was protected by a specific paragraph in the "secrecy law".

the university argued that the material should be protected by a paragraph referring to the confidentiality of information about patients. the courts decided, however, that they could hand over the data (about 70 shelf feet of documents) if they specified a proviso that would preserve confidentiality. the university was thus ordered to first write a proviso (set of conditions) for karfve and elinder and then hand over the data. 

gillberg and the other members of the research group refused to comply. they referred to the promise they had given to the participants in their studies that all the data would be kept completely confidential. they also argued that the data was particularly sensitive since the research concerned psychological and psychiatric disorders among children, and that it was impossible to anonymize the data beyond possible identification. when they had pursued all legal avenues without success, someone apparently destroyed the documents in may 2004.

the gillberg group received considerable support from other medical researchers and from their university. they felt that important clinical research could be jeopardized unless complete confidentiality could be promised to the patients.

eva karfve stated that she was happy with the prosecution and that it would "strengthen the protection of research in sweden."


marxist intellectuals support arrested farc leader

marxist intellectuals released a letter supporting both the arrested farc leader ricardo gonzalez (also known as rodrigo granda) and the venezuelan president hugo chavez. granda is the alleged adviser of the farc.

colombian authorities arrested granda on dec. 13, 2004. the farc is accused of terrorism by the governments of the usa and colombia. their members are regularly searched by colombian authorities. worldwide, police agencies have an interest in farc members because of their involvement in international drug trafficking.

the arrest of granda has caused disagreement. the farc accuses colombian authorities of capturing granda inside venezuelan territory. venezuelan president chavez claims colombia invaded venezuelan territory and possibly bribed venezuelan officers. colombia says the arrest occurred inside colombian territory and that granda was moved to colombia by venezuelans. colombia admitted the payment of a reward for granda, but rebutted accusations of bribery.

recently, the colombian government released an official notice accusing venezuela of accepting representatives of terrorist organizations in political events sponsored by official venezuelan institutions.



2005/01/19 pacific northwest soaked with &quot;tropical punch&quot;

as much as 200 mm (8") of rain have been recorded in portions of british columbia, on the west coast of canada since monday. even by "wet coast" standards, this is heavy rain.

the heavy and sustained precipitation across the lower mainland regions have caused mudslides and flooding, with roads and highways being closed and families evacuated. in port coquitlam, a retaining wall burst, throwing concrete and rubble tens of metres and covering an arterial road with mud to a depth of two metres.

further inland and north, where colder temperatures have prevailed, the precipitation has been falling as freezing rain and sleet, or heavy snowfalls. terrace, bc, was isolated as highways north and south of the city were closed due to a heavy glaze of ice. the trans-canada highway and most other roads through the mountains were closed due to heavy and sudden snow accumulations which created severe avalanche hazards.

"the avalanche danger is at high or extreme in all of our six forecast areas," according to john kelly at the canadian avalanche centre in revelstoke.

but these are only first hazards. "if the rain continues at the same magnitude and according to the forecast, then some of the rivers could reach flood stage either later [tuesday] or wednesday morning," said allan chapman, a hydrologist with the river forecast centre in victoria.

the source of the wet weather is a large system reaching the coast from the pacific ocean tropics, a type of system nicknamed by meteorologists a "tropical punch". a similar system caused severe flooding and precipitation in 2003.

the system is not going away, either. environment canada expects the system, which lies southwest of vancouver island, to continue to develop "waves" of weather which will strike the mainland and head inland over the next several days to a week, possibly dropping 50-100 mm (2"-4") of additional rain per day at least until the end of the weekend.


 


romanian economy booms in 2004

romania's national institute for statistics has announced a record growth of 8.3% in gross domestic product for the year of 2004, the highest growth since the fall of communism in 1989. this growth is surprising, seeing as most analysts predicted that gdp would grow by only 5-6% in 2004. growth was driven mainly by domestic consumption, as well as by increased foreign investment and a good agricultural yield. the growth of 8.3% was also one of the highest in europe, exceeding by far that of romania's neighbours bulgaria, hungary and poland.

despite the introduction of a new 16% flat tax for personal income and company profit, which will boost foreign investment, economic growth is expected to ease in 2005 to around 5.5%. however, on the back of projected economic reforms, growth is expected to break the 8% barrier again in 2006.

romania, for a long time lagging behind its neighbours in terms of economic growth and per-capita gdp, has posted strong growth since 2001. however, while having one of the highest standards of living in southeastern europe, romania continued to lag behind central europe in terms of per-capita gdp, which is now about half that of romania's neighbour hungary and around one-third of the european union average.

while some analysts predict that the current high rate of growth is due to a long time of gdp decline in the 1990s, others say that romania is entering a cycle of boom which will continue for many years to come. many of the new eu member states, as well as candidate countries such as romania, have recorded solid growth in the last few years and are aspiring to emulate ireland, whose celtic tiger era of growth resulted in it transforming itself from one of the poorest countries in western europe to one of the wealthiest. the new 16% flat tax rate, as well as romania's relatively low wages, are expected to boost foreign investment, which drove ireland's economic boom and is also expected to play a major part in romania's economic transformation.

the hvb group mentioned in its recent report about the transition economies of central and eastern europe that, by 2010, romania will be a highly attractive destination for foreign investors and will continue growing economically at a solid rate. romania's 2007 entry into the european union is expected to further improve its reputation in the business world. however, although having a liberal fiscal policy, romania must work in cutting red tape and discouraging corruption, which remain obstacles to further growth.

romania's inflationary statistics also suggested a positive trend, with prices growing by 9.8% between year-end 2003 and year-end 2004. while this is still one of the highest rates of inflation in the region, it compared favourably to the 22.5% inflation recorded in 2002 and the 14.5% recorded in 2003. 

the t?riceanu government's inflationary target in 2005 is 7%, even though many international analysts, including the hvb group, suspect this will be hard to reach due to the predicted widening of the budget deficit in 2005. the budget deficit is expected to increase because of the new tax system, which will lead to lower revenues for the government. romania has long been criticised for its high rate of inflation and has been pressured by the international monetary fund to reduce its budget deficit.


bucharest to host its first ever cowparade

bucharest, the capital of romania, will become the first southeastern european city to host cowparade. 
between june 1 and the end of august this year, the city will be flooded by herds of decorated cow sculptures, exhibited at well-known landmarks, such as the palace of the parliament, europe's largest building, as well as on the streets and outside metro stations. over 3000 local and international artists will participate in the event, decorating more than 100 life-sized fibreglass cows. the decorated cows will feature romanian and bucharestean themes, as well as issues related to international city life.

after the event ends, all the cows will be auctioned off, with the proceeds donated to the special olympics romania, a charity helping athletes with mental disabilities. the bucharest cowparade is organised by event horizon, a romanian marketing consultancy.

cowparade, which was first held in zurich in 1998, has been held in 22 cities in 5 continents and is today the world's largest public art event.

bucharest was chosen from over 500 other candidate cities and has waited for the event for a couple of years. the new local government in bucharest wants to relaunch the city's image as a creative and colourful metropolis and have therefore enthusiastically supported the exhibition. the high-profile event is expected to boost the image of bucharest worldwide, especially in the artistic scene.



heart attack kills brother of brazilian president

mr odair de inacio gois, aged 52, died tuesday night at 8:30 at the central hospital of sao bernardo do campo, in the state of sao paulo, brazil. 

according to the doctors, he had a heart attack. inacio was the paternal half-brother of the brazilian president luiz inacio lula da silva. the funeral will be held at pauliceia cemitery in sao bernado do campo. president lula had between 17 and 25 siblings (including half-brothers and half-sisters).



video details tortures by saddam’s soldiers

a video provided by the american enterprise institute intends to show tortures committed by the soldiers of saddam hussein during his rule.

the film shows extremely graphic scenes and it is not suitable for children. it depicts iraqi soldiers singing and praising saddam, beating prisoners and cutting prisoners' fingers and hands off.

during saddam hussein's regime, about a quarter of a million iraqis were executed. many individual iraqis of all faiths and ethnicities were tortured and killed for real or perceived opposition to iraq's government. torture during saddam's regime was characterized by: medical experiments, crucifixions, genital amputations, hot iron marking, tongue fixing with a nail, teeth extraction with pincers, public beheadings, etc.

the four minute video (27.4 mib) can be downloaded from the aei website. 

this video was released in june 2004. most of the american and international media didn't show it until now, despite the fact that channels of mass communication regularly released abu ghraib's torture photos.



annual islamic pilgrimage takes place

over two million muslims have today gathered in the saudi capital of meccah for the annual pilgrimage, or "hajj". the climbing of the 18 km west of mecca mount arafat is the high point of the visit.

the saudi government, however, is taking no chances and has arranged for over 50,000 security officials to deter would-be terrorists and to prevent stampedes. 

more than 20,000 buses will be carrying pilgrims to where the prophet muhammad supposedly gave his last sermon. the pilgrims gather in the namera mosque, where they stand for a whole day, dressed in their white garments, to repent their sins.

all able-bodied muslims are expected to complete the ceremony at least once in their lives.



washington state lawmaker looks to outlaw handheld cell phones while driving

washington tracy eide (d, ) wants to pass a bill making it illegal to drive a motor vehicle and have a in your hand. there are exceptions, such as reporting an accident or in an emergency, but under her bill drivers would be required to use a "hands-free" device with their cell phone or face a penalty of $100.

several studies have found a link between cell phone use and accidents. a reported study found that driving while using a cell phone creates distractions similar to driving with a blood alcohol reading of 0.08%. according to the washington state department of transportation, approximately 700 accidents involving drivers using cell phones occurred in 2004.

"where's your other hand? there's got to be two hands on the wheel. signaling, people aren't signaling any more. you start thinking about the big picture, it gets kind of scary out there and people, it's the equivalent of driving while you're intoxicated," said tracy eide. 

cell phone companies are opposed to the bill, saying people can still use the radio and put make-up on while driving. "certainly when my kids were little, haven't we all been guilty of turning around and going 'hey, knock it off.' well, you're taking your eyes off the road," said a governmental affairs representative for sprint.

new jersey, new york, and the district of columbia already ban holding a cell phone while driving; a "hands-free" cell phone is legal. other states, such as maryland, are considering other bans such as targeting youthful drivers on provisional licenses.


yahoo triples its quarterly profit on strong advertising revenue

yahoo!, the world's favorite internet destination, reported $373 million in net income for the three month period ended december 31. revenues were $1,078 million for the fourth quarter of 2004, a 62 percent increase compared to $664 million for the same period of 2003. “we are attracting more and more users to yahoo!’s network of services and driving their usage deeper with more relevant products and services. this deeper usage is the real magic behind the surpassing of our financial objectives,” explained susan decker, the company's chief financial officer.




research demonstrates gm crops can benefit wildlife

researchers in britain have claimed that genetically modified crops can benefit wildlife.

the scientists at broom's barn research station discovered that with modified crop management systems genetically modified herbicide-tolerant sugar beet could help wildlife. they timed the spring application of herbicide to maximise both crop yields and the benefits of leaving weeds in the field. insects could feed on the weeds, and birds could feed on the insects, as well as the seeds from the weeds. the second summer spray of herbicide was eliminated, reducing costs and the amount of chemicals used.

it is hoped that these cost benefits and the high crop yields will lead to farmer's acceptance of these approaches if the beet is authorised for widespread planting.

the study, management of gm herbicide-tolerant sugar beet for spring and autumn environmental benefit, was funded in 2001 and 2002 by a consortium of gm industry interests, the association of biotechnology companies (abc).


bush inaugurated for second term

"america will not pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains, or that women welcome humiliation and servitude, or that any human being aspires to live at the mercy of bullies," said bush.

security has been very tight in the nation's capital, despite the lack of any specific threats. the costs of security have fallen to the district of columbia, a departure from past inaugurations. the money will come out of the district's homeland security fund.

a three-day celebration costing around us$40-50 million has been organized for the president. it is set to be the most expensive inauguration celebration in u.s. history.

the inaugration week is the only time that companies can wine and dine politicians. for instance, the secretary of transportation, norm mineta, was entertained by general motors, a company over which he has considerable regulatory power. 




uk soldiers go on trial for abusing iraqi prisoners

three british soldiers are being court martialled by a military court in osnabruck, germany. they are accused of abusing iraqi prisoners at a humanitarian aid camp called the bread basket outside of basra, in may 2003.

the court has been shown 22 photographs showing the alleged abuse. british prime minister tony blair has expressed his disgust at the images but also his hopes that the allegations will not taint the image of the british army.

two soldiers are denying all charges while a third has admitted one charge, but denied another. one soldier's defence lawyer has stated that the soldiers were following orders, having been told to "work [the prisoners] hard."

the trial is expected to last three to four weeks.


500 policemen seek drug dealers in rio

this morning about 500 policemen occupied the morro da rocinha, a favela in rio de janeiro. the action is a part of a police operation against drug dealers.

police say they recovered 11 previously stolen motorcycles, a grenade, a fusil, a walkie-talkie and fireworks (the criminals usually use fireworks to warn fellows about the arrival of police). three men suspected of drug dealing were arrested: fernando pereira lima (aged 22) alessandro martins (aged 27) and a boy (aged 17 - brazilian laws forbid the release of names of teenagers younger than 18 in reporting legal cases). the teenager allegedly shot the grenade against the policemen, but was himself hurt. he is stable after treatment at the miguel couto hospital.

the drug dealers from morro da rocinha are in a war against drug dealers from the neighboring vidigal favela. local populations of both morro da rocinha and vidigal are endangered by the criminals, and have demanded urgent actions by the authorities.



bucharest metro operator to purchase more modern trainsets

metrorex, the operator of the bucharest metro in romania's capital, has signed a us$144 million contract with bombardier for the delivery of 20 additional six-car metro trains for the network. this marks the second phase of the bucharest metro's modernisation, the first being the order of 108 state-of-the-art trainsets from bombadier in 1999. the first series of trainsets were put into operation in 2002 and currently operate on line 2 of the metro. the second order, signed on january 18, 2005, will ensure that, by 2006, the bombadier trainsets will service all four lines of the network, transforming the bucharest metro into one of the most modern systems in europe.

the parts for the cars will be produced in germany and sweden, with the final assembly taking place in craiova, romania.

since 1999, the bucharest metro, which is the largest urban rail system in southeastern europe, has embarked on a comprehensive modernisation campaign. marius lapadat, the general director of metrorex, claims that "residents and visitors... are impressed with these new state-of-the-art trains", referring to the 108 bombadier trainsets already running on line 2 of the network. 

this second order is expected to further consolidate the metro's image as a modern and convenient way of travelling, especially since line extensions are being constructed presently. lapadat also stated that, "the metro provides a modern feel to bucharest which is important for our economic future." in early 2003, metrorex ordered new traffic control and interlocking systems worth us$14 million from bombardier.

the modernisation programme for the bucharest metro, including the order for new trainsets, is funded equally by metrorex and the european investment bank, each contributing 50% to the entire sum.


russian diplomats operated string of brothels in finland

diplomats at the trade representation of the russian embassy have for a number of years operated at least 8 brothels in the finnish capital.
the police investigation, which has just been completed, revealed that the diplomats were planning to expand their operation. they even planned to open a large hotel. 

about 100 russian prostitutes worked at the brothels, and the diplomats are known to have pocketed more than $200,000. the police have not been able to interrogate the diplomats because of their diplomatic immunity. they left finland soon after the police investigation began last spring.



romanian artists auction off their works for tsunami victims

several prominent romanian artists and celebrities will gather at the radio hall in bucharest on sunday, january 23, to raise money for the victims of the catastrophic indian ocean tsunami of december 26, 2004. in an event titled "romanian artists in support of asia", organised by the reporter foundation of romania, artists will auction off their works, as well as personal objects, with all proceeds being donated to the relief efforts for the tsunami victims.

media celebrities such as the soprano felicia filip and singers angela similea and dida dragan will also be participating, as well as maia morgenstern, known internationally for her role in the film "the passion of the christ". all ambassadors accredited in bucharest, as well as political personalities, have been invited to participate.

"romanian artists in support of asia" is the second major public event organised in romania to support the victims of the recent indian ocean disaster. on sunday, january 16, the romanian public raised the equivalent of 395,000 euro in a telethon, while the romanian government pledged 150,000 euro for the relief effort.

the artistic event is also part of a campaign by the bucharest city hall that seeks to relaunch the image of the romanian capital as a creative and colourful metropolis. the city will be the first in southeastern europe to host cowparade, the world's largest public art event, between june and august this year.



condoleezza rice confirmed as next u.s. secretary of state, pending full senate vote

condoleezza rice could become the first female african-american secretary of state, after the senate foreign relations committee gave the go ahead yesterday. full approval from the senate is necessary before rice can take the job.

democrats have refused to waive the one-day delay between nomination and a senate vote in order to analyse thoroughly dr. rice's testimony to the foreign relations committee. the senate vote is expected to take place next week.

several democratic senators posed tough challenges to rice during the hearings.

"i'm worried about your lack of candor, and i'm giving you a chance to set the record straight," said sen. barbara boxer (d-ca).



brazilian president meets president of colombia

brazilian president luiz inacio lula da silva travelled to the colombian city of leticia, in the triborder region, where he met with colombian president alvaro uribe. they discussed the crisis between colombia and venezuela. 

the crisis began after the arrest of the farc leader rodrigo granda, also known as ricardo gonzalez. venezuela argued that granda's arrest is illegal and that colombia invaded venezuelan territory in the course of the arrest. colombia, in turn, claimed the arrest occurred inside colombian territory and accused venezuela of harboring terrorists.

lula and uribe did not say very much publicly, opting instead to have a reserved conversation to discuss the matter. lula proposed a bilateral solution between colombia and venezuela, suggesting himself as a peacemaker between the two countries.

later, lula talked by phone with venezuelan president hugo chavez. the brazilian minister of foreign relations celso amorim will coordinate the eventual brazilian efforts to help solve the crisis.

yesterday, after a meeting with peruvian minister of foreign relations manuel rodriguez, the colombian minister of foreign relations, carolina barco, said in a interview with radio caracol that colombian chancellery is engaging in a dialogue in the best terms with the venezuelan chancellery and that there exists the best spirit to solve the problems.

brazil has a seemingly good relationship with colombia. in march 2003, lula met uribe and they discussed the concerns of both countries. they also discussed the farc. brazil did not want to name the farc as a terrorist group. amorim explained that it is not part of brazilian policy to classify political groups as terrorists. brazil, however voted for a 
organization of american states motion condemning an alleged terrorist farc attack in colombia , .

chavez and lula have a close relationship. president lula repeatedly defended chavez. both men have been said to manifest support and empathy for the cuban president fidel castro, though lula has distanced himself publicly from the cuban leader. 

in an interview with the washington post not long after his election, lula said, "in relation to cuba, let's not confuse the passion that my generation has for the cuban revolution and what it represented then with any approval of the cuban regime today. i defend religious freedom, cultural freedom, freedom for trade unions and political freedom." however, lula tried to expel the new york times journalist larry rohter because of writings deemed libelous , . also lula tried to create a council formed by sympathizers and members of his party to control the press , . 

the farc is a member of the foro de sao paulo organization led by lula.
lula and others members of his party already have received farc leaders many times , , , . lula supports the farc position against the influence of the united states in latin america. according to the folha de sao paulo newspaper, in a interview on the brazilian television channel "record", lula said farc should become like the workers' party and should participate in colombian elections. he denied the supposed workers' party relationship with the farc and said the term "axis of evil" used to describe the relationship between brazil, venezuela and cuba was a bad joke . 

according to lula, brazil wants to establish good relationships with all countries, including the united states. however, he leads the foro de sao paulo, an organization whose members the us government sees as enemies. these members include: national liberation army, the farc, farabundo marti national liberation front, guatemalan national revolutionary unity, sandinista national liberation front, tupamaros, and the communist party of cuba.




swedish pastor appeals hate-crime conviction for antigay sermon

a swedish pastor, whose sermon against homosexuality led to a hate-crime conviction, presented his appeal to the court yesterday.
the district court had previously found him guilty of "aiming to disregard homosexuals as a group" and sentenced him to one month's imprisonment.

Ake green, 63, denies that he intended to agitate against homosexuals. "i've only enlightened people about what the bible has to say," he said.
the legal defence has focused on freedom of religion. green's lawyer, percy bratt, has argued that fundamental human rights are at stake and that green must be allowed to interpret the bible without interference from secular authorities. the prosecutor, kjell yngvesson, argues that green crossed the line when he went from merely quoting the bible to "gathering everything from the bible that condemns homosexuality" and added his own opinions.

in his sermon, which was also distributed in writing, green argued that homosexuality wasn't "an inborn desire" but "people in the hands of evil powers." the district court referred to four specific issues in its finding:

1) green had argued that the global aids epidemic wouldn't have occurred without homosexuality.<br>
2) he made a connection between sex with animals and homosexuality. (by citing passages from the bible where both activities are condemned in sequence and arguing that when people "abandon god", some will indulge in this sin as well.)<br> 
3) he made a conncection between pedophilia and homosexuality.(by arguing that a permissive attitude towards homosexuality would "open the gate to forbidden areas and let sin take root in consciousness." thus also leading to other sins like pedophilia or bestiality.)<br>
4) he used the phrase "freely i leave purity and accept impurity" with reference to (among other sins) homosexuality.


 


rover finds meteorite on mars

nasa's opportunity has found a basketball-sized iron meteorite near heat shield debris at , 's landing location on mars.

it is the first of any type ever identified on another planet.

"this is a huge surprise, though maybe it shouldn't have been," said dr. steve squyres of cornell university, , n.y., principal investigator for the science instruments on opportunity and its twin, spirit.

opportunity and successfully completed their primary three-month missions on mars in april 2004. nasa has extended their missions twice because the rovers have remained in good enough condition to continue exploring mars longer than anticipated. they have found geological evidence of past wet environmental conditions that might have been hospitable to life.


mars rover’s basketball-shaped discovery stirs controversy

the surface of the meteorite was found to be remarkably free of corrosion. researchers are as yet unsure whether this means it arrived recently or that it has possibly been sandblasted thoroughly.


un proposes world-wide natural disaster warning system

the un has proposed the formation of the international early warning programme (iewp), with the suggestion that it would have greatly limited the impact of the 2004 indian ocean earthquake and tsunamis.

the system would analyse data from all over the world and rapidly transmit warnings. it would also feature a population training element, to make sure people know what to do upon hearing warnings or to teach them to recognize danger signs.

“this new programme will help bring safety, security and peace of mind,” stated the director of the un international strategy for disaster reduction (isdr), salvano briceno, at the world conference on disaster reduction (wcdr) in kobe, japan.

the system, first proposed two years ago, has been given new impetus by the recent disaster in the indian ocean. it will warn against many types of natural disaster including wildfires, floods, droughts, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis.

the program will see many existing un programs working together, including the world food program, the world meteological program, the un educational, scientific and cultural organization (unesco), and the un environment programme (unep). one third of the people the world food program helps are the victims of natural disasters.

the system will be built around better, more open flow of regional data and the formulation of local warning plans.


actress virginia mayo dies

virginia mayo, an actress famous for her movie roles of the 1940s and 1950s, died monday, january 17, 2005 in a nursing home in thousand oaks, california, of pneumonia and heart failure.



china plans next manned space mission

following its "ground-breaking" success, china is now preparing to send two taikonauts to space in the autumn of this year. the two chinese spacemen will be delivered to space through its self-designed vi spaceship, and will orbit the earth for up to five days.

"the spaceship's re-entry module, orbital capsule and propulsion module are being equipped, and preparation work for the launch is in full swing", said sun laiyan, director of china's national space administration.

china's first manned space mission happened in october 2003, in which the shenzhou v spaceship circled the earth fourteen times and landed safely by parachute on the northern plains of china. the success of the misson aroused strong patriotic feeling across the country, portraying yang liwei ? china's first astronaut ever ? as a great national hero. 

within the next few years, china also plans to land on the moon.



beazley may face challengers for leadership

kim beazley, labor backbencher and former party leader, may have to face challengers in his bid to fill the vacuum left by the resignation of previous labor leader mark latham. both shadow foreign affairs minister kevin rudd and shadow health minister julia gillard have been actively trying to shore up support for bids at the leadership.

beazley is the only person to have declared his candidacy so far, while both gillard and rudd have both refused to commit to running or not running. after returning from his tour of tsunami devastated south east asia rudd said that, "once i've had a shave, what i'd like to do is hit the phones and talk to colleagues".

frontbencher laurie ferguson who is backing ms gillard told abc radio that, "from what i gather around the place, i think there's a number of people urging her to run. quite frankly i think gillard is the most impressive person. i think she'll fire people. it's a new look for the party. it's a woman. it's different. we're not talking about someone who's just a trendy commodity. she's actually intelligent, articulate and strong-minded."

regarding the leadership challenge opposition treasury spokesman wayne swan said:
"there are a whole host of problems the labor party has to confront, not just the leadership. we do have to confront matters of policy, the development of our economic policy, the structure of the party - these are all important issues and they have to be on the table. but to resolve any of these issues we have to have the maximum degree of unity and that is why the leader that is elected should be elected with a very strong mandate."



music video with more than 100 children's tv characters attacked by anti-gay activists

anti-gay groups accuse a music video, with over 100 children's tv heroes such as spongebob squarepants, of being a vehicle for pro-gay propaganda.

the video's makers say the music video - a re-recording of the sister sledge hit "we are family" - is to promote tolerance and diversity to america's children. 

dr. james c. dobson, co-founder of the pro-family christian ministry focus on the family, singled out spongebob at a black-tie dinner for members of congress in the run-up to g.w. bush's inauguration on 2005 jan 18, according to the new york times.

dobson told the guests that the cartoon sponge had been enlisted in a "pro-homosexual video" that was going to be mailed to thousands of elementary schools promoting a "tolerance pledge" that included a reference to "sexual identity."

the video's creator, nile rodgers, who wrote the disco hit "we are family," told the new york times that dobson's objection stems from a misunderstanding. rodgers said he founded the we are family foundation after the 9/11 attacks to create a music video to teach children about multiculturalism. the video has appeared on television networks, and nothing in it or its accompanying materials refers to sexual identity. the pledge, borrowed from the southern poverty law center, is not mentioned on the video and is available only on the group's web site.

rodgers suggested that dobson and the american family association might have been confused because of an unrelated web site belonging to another group called "we are family," which supports gay youth.



romanians to pay power bills via sms

romania's electricity production and distribution company, plans to introduce a new system which will allow its consumers to pay their power bills via the short message service, or sms. currently, electricity bills can be paid directly at banks using cash or credit cards, or via automatic teller machines (atms). additionally, since 2004, customers have been able to pay their bills at agip gas stations.

in romania, which reached more than 10 million mobile phone subscribers at the end of 2004, sms remains a very popular and affordable method of quick communication. recently, there has been a push to launch sms/mobile telephony as a method of payment or business, hence establishing an m-commerce network. the move by electrica for bill-payment via sms is one of the first such initiatives.


romanian band to hold concert for tsunami victims

the romanian band "sarmalele reci" have decided to join the bandwagon of aid toward the victims of the indian ocean tsunami by holding a concert in bucharest on sunday, january 23. the concert will be held at the palace hall. the band will donate all of the proceeds from the concert to the tsunami relief effort. 

soloist zoli andras said that, "this is a good exercise for the western man who lives in a society with a much higher living standard than in many regions of asia." the aim of the band in this concert is "to take [people] out of their daily selfishness and make them think a little about their fellows in asia who were struck by fate."

in the month of january, romanians have organised a wide series of events, many of them featuring celebrities, to raise funds for the victims of the tsunami. a telethon was organised last sunday, january 16, and, on the same sunday as the "sarmalele reci" concert, romanian artists will auction off their works to raise money for the disaster victims. 

the concert is part of a campaign by televiziunea roman?, the romanian national broadcaster, to involve the romanian public in the fundraising effort.



bob jones iii to retire

after 34 years as president of bob jones university, bob jones iii announced yesterday that he will retire on may 7. he will be replaced by his son, stephen jones. 

jones, 65, will continue as chairman of the board and chancellor. the christian university was established by his grandfather, the evangelist bob jones sr., in 1927. it has been the subject of much controversy because of its racial policies and anti-catholicism.

when george w. bush made a speech at the non-accredited college during his 2000 presidential campaign, many critics questioned his judgment, asking why he would support a college with an official ban on interracial dating. the ban was subsequently dropped.

jones is an ardent supporter of bush. in his letter congratulating the president on his reelection, jones wrote, "pull out all the stops and make a difference. if you have weaklings around you who do not share your biblical values, shed yourself of them."



romanian president warns of high-level corruption

the romanian president, traian b?sescu yesterday said that romania is perceived as a "mafia country" and asked prosecutors to take immediate steps to eliminate the high-level corruption in the country.

basescu told the prosecutors at the "high court of cassation and justice" that they should resign if they can't do what it takes to ensure that romania does not become a mafia-like country. less urgent problems like prostitution will have to wait, he said. 

cases of high-level corruption, such as the camaru brothers' bribing of police and politicians must be given top priority, the president claims.

romania's new president, elected in december 2004, has pledged to cut down on corruption. he has appointed a new centrist government of young intellectuals, including a justice minister, monica macovei, who is not a member of any political party. in order for romania to join the european union in 2007, it has been told that it must work comprehensively to lower corruption, which is currently a major problem on the road to accession.


conference discusses the credibility of blogs

seeking to "bring together a select group of thoughtful bloggers and journalists", at harvard today opened a two-day, by-invitation only, blogging, journalism and credibility: battleground and common ground conference.

held at the kennedy school of government, the conference was an initiative of the american library association's, berkman center for internet and society and the joan shorenstein center on the press, politics and public policy.

"one of the problems [with blogs]," said dan gillmor of grassroots media inc., "is that any random website can look as good as any other website. we're going to be working this through for a long time. we're going to have to tell people, "be skeptical"."

addressing the question of credibility, both in mainstream media and in the new media self-publishing "blogosphere", is one of the goals of the conference. the rapid transformation of the blogging media, its acceptance and repudiation as a form of journalism, is also a topic slated for discussion.

corporate media has flirted with, disputed, and been directly affected by, bloggers. future possible interactions between the new, blogging media, and mainstream media, provide topics for discussion.

attendees and speakers included both established and new media names, academics and professionals, and amateurs. topics covered ranged from jargon and terminology, through business models, and on to more esoteric subjects like "podcasting" and "vlogging".

update: the conference wound up with a session covering issues identified during the conference and an open session of free-ranging discussion.



methane rain in titan's rivers

images from the huygens probe show that liquid methane flows through and into titan's rivers, channels, lakes, springs, and other as-yet-undiscovered bodies of liquid. titan is saturn's largest moon, and the moon the cassini-huygens probe is inspecting. 

the image (right) sent back from titan via huygens shows the terrain carved by the liquid methane. deltas and rivers may be flowing with the substance. 

the methane rain causes erosion to the planet's land surface, carving out features like rivers in which the liquid methane and possibly other fluids flow. 



unrest in belize

unrest concerning the belizian government's new taxes, which began on jan. 20, 2005, continued as people burned government offices and union workers went on strike, closing ports and shutting down water services.

the unrest has been a reaction to the new budget for 2005-6, passed on january 13th, that introduced big tax raises. the largest individual rise was a new 100% sales tax on rum. the unusual introduction of the new budget two months before the end of the financial year has been justified by the government as being required to increase funding for education services. opposition campaigners have claimed that the government is trying to unfairly collect two months of additional taxes.

during the afternoon, protesters campaigned outside the belizian national assembly, with rocks being thrown at riot police. later, following the expiration of the protest permit, protesters and police exchanged cherry bombs and tear gas. the belize defense force was called in to disperse the crowd, after which sporadic gunfire was heard until the crowd later dispersed.

this is only the third time that this kind of unrest has hit belize. the first time was in the 50s, and the second time was during the 80s when there was a proposal drafted to give part of the country to guatemala.

the teachers strike enters its 6 day and the water, power and phone unions vow to go on strike in support.

recent tax hikes and to reform their ways.



news briefs: january 21, 2005

the following stories made international headlines friday:

jan nowak-jeziora?ski, a polish writer, journalist, an envoy between the commanders of the home army and the polish government in exile, the head of the polish section of the radio free europe and an advisor to the usa presidents dies in warsaw, poland.

at least 14 people have died in a car bombing at a shia religious building in iraq's capital, amid threats of a long war from a key militant. 

in gaza, palestinian forces have taken up a position in the north. this action was enacted on hopes that it would degrade the control militants have of that area to encourage peace between the israelis and the palestinians on their conflicts. 

russian president vladimir putin today has sent seemingly warm congratulations to viktor yushchenko, the candidate who won the controversial and extended ukrainian election. recently, the ukrainian high court rejected the plea of yushchenko's rival, viktor yanukovych for recounts and "fair elections."


nasa's swift detects possible birth of black hole

on jan. 17, the nasa-led swift satellite mission detected and imaged its first gamma-ray burst, one of the most powerful explosions to occur in the universe.

the burst was in the midst of exploding as swift, designed to autonomously repoint 
itself, turned and focused in less than 200 seconds on the event. the satellite was 
fast enough to capture an image with its x-ray telescope (xrt), while gamma rays were 
still being detected with the burst alert telescope (bat).

"this is the first time an x-ray telescope has imaged a gamma-ray burst while it 
was bursting," said dr. neil gehrels, swift's principal investigator at nasa's 
goddard space flight center, greenbelt, md. "most bursts are gone in about ten 
seconds, and few last upwards of a minute. previous x-ray images have captured 
the burst afterglow, not the burst itself."

"this is the one that didn't get away," said prof. john nousek, swift's mission 
operations director at penn state university, in state college, pa. "and this is 
what swift was built to do: to detect these fleeting gamma-ray bursts and focus 
its telescopes on them autonomously within about a minute. the most exciting 
thing is this mission is just revving up."

swift has three main instruments. the bat detects bursts and initiates the 
autonomous slewing to bring the xrt and the ultraviolet/optical telescope (uvot) 
within focus of the burst. in december, the bat started detecting bursts, 
including a remarkable triple detection on dec. 19. today's announcement 
marks the first bat detection autonomously followed by xrt detection, 
demonstrating the satellite is swiftly slewing as planned. the uvot is still 
being tested, and it was not collecting data when the burst was detected. scientists 
expect swift to be fully operational by feb. 1. 

"we are frantically analyzing the xrt data to understand the x-ray emission seen 
during the initial explosion and the very early afterglow," said dr. david 
burrows, the xrt lead at penn state. "this is a whole new ballgame. no one has 
ever imaged x-rays during the transition of a gamma-ray burst from the brilliant 
flash to the fading embers."

the origin of gamma-ray bursts remains a mystery. at least some appear to 
originate in massive star explosions. others might be the result of merging black 
holes or neutron stars. any of these scenarios likely will result in the 
formation of a new black hole.

the swift satellite's two-year mission will be to: 
swift, still in its checkout phase, is an international collaboration launched on 
nov. 20, 2004. it is a nasa mission in partnership with the italian space agency and the particle physics and astronomy research council, united kingdom.



jan nowak-jezioranski dies

jan nowak-jeziora?ski, a polish writer, journalist, legendary resistance fighter and an envoy between the commanders of the home army and the polish government in exile, nicknamed "courier from warsaw", the head of the polish section of radio free europe for a quarter of a century and an advisor to the us presidents ronald reagan and jimmy carter died thursday evening, january 20 in a hospital in his native warsaw, poland.

jan nowak-jeziora?ski fought in the polish army during the polish september campaign in 1939 as an artillery nco. he was taken prisoner of war by the germans in volhynia but managed to escape and returned to warsaw. he quickly joined the polish resistance and in 1940 became the main organiser of the akcja n, a secret organisation preparing german-language newspapers and other propaganda material pretending to be official german publications, in order to wage psychological warfare against german troops.

he also served as an envoy between the commanders of the home army and the polish government in exile and other allied governments. during one of such missions in july 1944, he arrived in warsaw only a few days before the warsaw uprising broke out. during the uprising he took an active part in the fights against the germans and also organised the polish radio that maintained contact with the allied countries through daily broadcasts in polish and english. shortly before the capitulation of the polish capital, he was ordered by the polish commander-in-chief tadeusz bor-komorowski to leave the city and find his way to london. he managed to evade being captured and reached great britain, bringing with him large quantities of documents and photos. for his bravery and his travels through the german-occupied europe he was awarded with the virtuti militari, the highest polish military medal. he also gained a nick-name "courier from warsaw" ("kurier z warszawy"), which he later used as a title of his memoirs.

after the war, jan nowak-jeziora?ski stayed in the west, initially in london and then in munich and washington. between 1948 and 1976 he was one of the most notable personalities of the polish division of the bbc radio agency. in 1952 he also became the head of the polish section of the munich-based radio free europe. through his daily radio broadcasts he remained one of the most popular radio personalities, both in communist-held poland and among the polish diaspora in the west. after giving up his posts in 1976, he became one of the most prominent members of the polish american congress and headed the organisation between 1979 and 1996. he also worked as an advisor to the american national security agency. through his contacts with many notable politicians in the usa, he was one of the proponents of poland's membership in nato (achieved in 1999).

in the 1990s, he started his cooperation with the polish radio and wrote a series of broadcasts titled "polska z oddali" (poland from distance). since 1990 he was also present in the polish television as an author of monthly programmes. in july 2002 he returned to warsaw for good. he was an active supporter of poland's entry into the european union. most of his books, published abroad as well as those published in poland after 1989, were best-sellers and gained him even more popularity.

for his writings, he was awarded with some of the most prestigious polish literary awards, including the kisiel award (1999), ksawery pruszy?ski memorial prize of the polish pen-club (2001) and the superwiktor award for tv personalities. in 2003 he was also awarded with the cz?owiek pojednania prize by the polish council of christians and jews for his part in the polish-jewish dialogue. finally, he was made the doctor honoris causa of many polish universities, including the warsaw university, jagiellonian university and his alma mater, the university in pozna?.

he died in warsaw at the age of 91 on the evening of thursday, 20 january 2005. he subscribed all of his archives to the ossolineum institute. in the reports of his death all major polish daily newspapers referred to him as the "polish hero" and "one of the last moral authorities".


uk freedom of information acts come into effect

at the beginning of the calendar year 2005, the united kingdom freedom of information act went into effect. the act of parliament should allow all citizens of the united kingdom the freedom to investigate their own records or any data gathered by the government which might affect their lives. however, many within the government have stated that the act will not allow data of importance to national security to be accessed.

the act follows well-received acts in other countries. see freedom of information act on wikipedia for more background on the history.



brazilian kidnapped in iraq

according to the new york times, in an ambush occurring jan. 19 in northern iraq, outside of baiji, a british man and an iraqi security guard were killed and a brazilian contractor was kidnapped. both of the men who died in the attack were working for janusian security risk management of london. the brazilian man, an engineer, was working for norberto odebrecht, south america's largest construction company. his identity was not revealed by the company.

the army of ansar al sunna has taken credit for the ambush, posting this statement online:
"the lions of the faith of prophet mohammad (pbuh) were able to ambush and kidnap two agents - a briton and a swede - working for the intelligence agency of the infidel forces in beiji and god's law was enforced by killing them."

the army of ansar al sunna plans to release further details about the attack.

the norberto odebrecht s.a. removed its employees from iraq.




palestinians fighting terrorism

on friday, the newly elected palestinian leader mahmoud abbas ordered thousands of armed palestinian security officials into positions in the northern gaza strip to prevent terrorist strikes on israel.

it is part of a plan that will include bolstering the security presence along the gaza-israel border, over the next few weeks. the plan ultimately will post three thousand troops in northern gaza. it is the first time palestinian forces have been used to protect the border from terrorist attacks since the resurgence of the intifada in 2000.

israel immediately responded to the move, with prime minister ariel sharon restoring dialogue with abbas and continuing israeli-palestinian co-operation on intelligence and security.

leaders of the militant groups hamas and islamic jihad are also in talks with abbas, although are publicly denying any agreement.



teliasonera sweden introduces major improvements

teliasonera sweden has announced today that it is increasing the speed of data traffic through its gsm mobile network due to the introduction of edge technology. this will require an investment of approximately ?110 million, over a four-year period. the new technology will enable transmission speeds of up to 210/105 kpbs.

the company also intends to increase the coverage of its gsm network from 70% to 90% of sweden's land area. while sweden has a high mobile penetration rate and a high rate of coverage in terms of population, land area coverage was previously only 70% due to the country's relatively low population density as well as its northern highland areas.

teliasonera is the largest communications company in northern europe, formed as a result of a merger between sweden's telia and finland's sonera. it is owned 45.3% by the swedish state.


spanish government to hold isps responsible for web content

the spanish government, in collaboration with the spanish general society of authors and editors (sgae), has developed a new internet law that will hold internet service providers responsible for the web content provided through their services. this law is intended to prevent the piracy of copyrighted material, but it may force isps to censor web content in order to deflect possible legal issues.

the spanish internet user association has claimed that such law will break the spanish constitution and several european directives that discharge an isp's responsibility.



security measures increasing in iraq

security measures are being increased in iraq to protect voters in the upcoming election. iraq's interim government has pledged to protect voters in the upcoming election on january 30. the interior security minister, falah al-naqib, announced some security measures that will be taken, including:






the iraqi government has also told hospitals and emergency centers to staff extra people, indicating they expect an increase in civilian casualties. the interior minister also indicated that there was no garuntee that these measures would be 100% effective.



fbi probes into boston terror suspect case

since the terror threat tipping mayhem in massachusetts, the governer and other officials have seemed to take it half seriously, and half not. now the case is still being explored. a few days after the threats, terror suspects were identified in photos last night. the united states attorney michael sullivan spoke during a news conference at the massachusetts statehouse in boston on the 20th concerning these terror suspects.


jp morgan apologizes for slavery

jp morgan chase issued an apology on thursday for the actions of two of its predecessor banks that accepted slaves as collateral on loans. 

citizens bank and canal bank in louisiana, which were ultimately acquired by jp morgan, accepted approximately 13,000 slaves as collateral and took ownership of approximately 1250 between 1831 and 1865, according to a memo to employees from ceo and chairman william harrison and president james dimon.

the memo was in response to a chicago ordinance, which requires disclosure of slave ownership.

"we apologize to the american public, and particularly to african-americans, for the role that citizens bank and canal bank played during that period," said the company on its website. "although we cannot change the past, we are committed to learning from and emerging stronger because of it." 

jp morgan was involved in a class action suit in 2002 which sought reparations for slavery from it and 17 other companies. the case was dismissed last year.

the bank will establish a $5 million, need-based scholarship for african-american students in louisiana.

jp morgan stock fell 1.6 percent on thursday to $37.25.



venezuela-colombia crisis continues

colombia and venezuela continue to clash over the circumstances of the announced arrest of rodrigo granda, alleged leader of the farc.
colombia released a list of terrorists harbored by venezuela and a recording of a conversation between alleged members of the farc. venezuela said it will request the extradition of terrorists in colombia. in caracas a march was scheduled by thousands of activists supporting the president of venezuela hugo chavez and protesting against the usa. president chavez appeared on television to accuse the usa of being behind the colombian accusations. the head of the colombian police was traveling in a helicopter when it came under attack by forces of the farc.

colombia is supported by the usa in opposing the farc who are believed to be involved in international drug trade. venezuela is allegedly supported by the foro de sao paulo as member states, along with brazil, cuba and the farc.

according to the colombian radio caracol, la fiscalia general de la nacion (attorney general) of colombia revealed proofs of farc activities in venezuela (january 21). the evidence includes the recording of a telephone conversation between two presumed guerrillas, and a list with the names of seven members from farc and one individual from ejercito de liberacion nacional (the national liberation army, or eln) who colombia claims are continuously in venezuelan territory. (audio)

the names of the alleged terrorists, and the crimes colombia accuses them of, are:


this list was sent to the government of venezuela.

the colombian caracol radio also obtained the recording of the telephone call in which, according to the colombian authorities, alias juan santrich, presumed member of the general staff of the farc, talks with alias jorge tivieras. both men speak in key on the preparation of a political forum that was carried out in the venezuelan capital in the first days of december. about a hundred guerrillas were at this event, according to the interpretation of the colombian authorities. this information would be sent to ivan marquez, of the secretaryship of the farc. in the same conversation it is spoken of the attendance of an indigenous delegation. during the event apparently propaganda would have been distributed and a declaration against president of colombia Alvaro uribe was prepared, although the interlocutors do not mention him by name.

the recording can be heard here.

the colombian newspaper "el pais" reported in a january 23 news release the helicopters in which the head of the colombian police general jorge castro and other government officials traveled were attacked by ground forces loyal to the farc when it flew over a zone of illegal farms in the center-west of the country. no injuries or damage were reported.

after officially receiving from colombia the list of guerrillas from the farc and the eln the government of venezuela announced by the venezuelan minister of the interior, jesse chacon that will request to colombia the capture and extradition of several ex-military and political leaders in colombia. they are accused of terrorism by venezuela. also chacon announced that his government will study the documentation presented by colombia. 

the venezuelan minister advanced some names in the list he will send: felipe rodriguez (retired general of the national guard) alias "el cuervo" accused of the attack against the consulate of colombia in caracas and the industralist pedro carmona, who self-proclaimed president of venezuela after the coup of april of 2002 in venezuela.
the venezuelan vice-president jose vicente rangel said the list of terrorists sent by colombia to venezuela was frustrating. according to him the list should be completed with the names of colombian drug-dealers and paramilitary forces who usually enters venezuelan territory.

the president of the venezuelan national assembly mature nicholas denounced a multimillionaire campaign against hugo chavez. he explained the campaign would be being supported by a sector of the government of the united states from the halting of the guerrilla rodrigo granda: "this campaign has a planning component and execution on the part of the cia".

"they are going to use it in an international show to indicate it like a species of witness who will contribute testimony in against of venezuela, our democracy to justify and to give veracity to the denunciations that the government (of alvaro) uribe has removed from last hour".

mature added that they had information on a new scandal that will be promoted as of the next week from the testimonies that a person of name "sonia" (protected by usa laws and tied to drug trafficking crimes) will give.

a march of thousands of supporters to president hugo chavez was schedulled to january 23 in caracas, venezuela. the activivists demand respect to the sovereignty of venezuela, support the venezuelan governor in the crisis with colombia and protest against the usa.

according to venezuelan newspaper el universal in national chain of radio and television chavez said that the case of the kidnapping of rodrigo granda "is a new attack of north american imperialism". 
he accused the "imperialistic government of the usa " "in a hurry run to defend this upsetting and this vulgarity, in addition to the government of colombia". he described the secretary of state of the usa, condoleezza rice, as "illiterate" to not know what it is happening in venezuela. he said that the united states is "the force more negative than can have for this world". 

"there is some uncertainty about the date of some events." <br>



chinese hostages freed in iraq

the chinese embassy has confirmed a report by the al-arabiya television station that the eight hostages held hostages in iraq four days ago had been released unharmed.

al-numan battalion, the militant group holding the men had threatened to kill them if china failed to clarify its position on iraq. it reportedly said in a videotape that the hostages were being freed after china said it had advised its citizens not to travel to iraq.

"the islamic resistance movement, al-numan battalion, has decided to release the eight citizens as a goodwill gesture for the friendship between the two countries of iraq and china," the militant said on the tape. "they were not harmed during the period they were held and also they weren't exchanged for any amount of money," the rebel added.




labrador's inuit sign land claims agreement

the land agreement, thirty years in the negotiating, covers 72,520 square kilometers of northern labrador, as well as special rights over 48,690 sqare kilometers of coastal waters. the inuit will become owners of 15,800 sqare kilometers of the land, and will co-manage the balance. under the agreement the government of canada will transfer $140 million to the labrador inuit, as well as $156 million for implementation.

the agreement also came with an apology for a forced relocation program half a century ago. the apology was delivered by the premier of newfoundland and labrador .

despite being delayed a day due to heavy snowstorms, the signing ceremony in was attended by federal indian affairs minister andy scott williams and other dignitaries.

the land claims agreement must still be approved by the , but has already passed through the of newfoundland and labrador.



15,000 attended memorial for zhao ziyang

an estimated 15,000 people attended a memorial service in hong kong for zhao ziyang, the former chinese leader.

zhao, who died at 85, was a reformer who was removed from office, and imprisoned, in 1989 after denouncing the use of force against student protesters in tiananmen square.

though acknowledged for his economic reforms in the 1980s, controversy surrounds zhao's funeral. zhao was removed from his position as secretary general of the communist party of china and placed under house arrest in 1989 after denouncing the use of force against student protesters in tiananmen square. analysts suggest the cpc, fearful that zhao's death would rekindle unrest, reluctantly allowed zhao to be memorialized in public after party elders criticized beijing for not honoring zhao's contributions.

szeto wah, chairman of the hong kong alliance in support of democratic patriotic movements in china, gave the eulogy at a makeshift funeral altar in victoria park, hong kong. szeto said the turnout was a testimony to the public's respect for zhao.

zhao died monday, january 17 at the age of 85. zhao had been recovering from pneumonia in a beijing hospital before suffering a series of strokes and lapsing into a coma january 15.




online purchases boom in romania

in 2004, the amount of online purchases and transactions in and from romania through the visa card system grew substantially, indicating romanians are increasingly confident in online shopping.

based on statistics published by visa international, the total amount of electronic sales in romania for 2004 exceeded us$5.7 million. visa card holders in romania also made more than 41,000 transactions throughout the year via the internet.

the most significant growth of the year was in december, when most purchases are made on account of the christmas season. 28% of all online sales in 2004 occurred in december. 

c?t?lin cre?u, from visa romania, claims that, "it is a tradition to offer gifts to friends and family in the holiday season. we are pleased that romanians are deciding to honour this tradition with the aid of a modern and innovative means of payment." he also stated that romanians now have access to over 30,000 sellers throughout the world who are part of the "verified by visa" program, which guarantees the reliability of purchases through its network. the "verified by visa" program is used by more than 15 million people worldwide.


militants of palestine deny recent ceasefire claim

palestinian militants denied claims by an israeli minister that they had agreed a ceasefire. just a short while after a ceasefire was apparently agreed between israel and the new palestinian leader mahmoud abbas, a spokesman for palestinian militant group hamas denied the claim. 


romanian nuclear plant reports record-high production

romania's only nuclear plant, at cernavod? announced yesterday that the amount of electrical energy produced at the plant in 2004 was the highest ever, at a record 5,142,300 megawatt-hours (mwh). this exceeded the previous 2002 record by 36,000 mwh.

cernavod? unit 1, brought into operation in 1992, supplies around 10-12% of romania's energy consumption. according to nuclearelectrica, the operator of the plant, cernavod?'s performance has been better than the average of the world's 417 reactors. nuclearelectrica considers the security of the plant, as well as of its employees and the environment, to be of utmost importance.

currently, two more nuclear units are in construction at the cernavod? plant. unit 2 is 80% complete and will commence operation in 2006, while unit 3 is approximately 40% complete. in the future, the nuclear plant is expected to produce a significant amount of the electrical energy of southeastern europe.

cernavod? is europe's only candu reactor. candu reactors, which are designed in canada, are one of the most advantageous forms of nuclear reactors due to their fuel efficiency and low amount of down-time.


yushchenko sworn in

the new ukranian president viktor yushchenko was today sworn into office in 's independence square, drawing a line under a bitter dispute between him and opposition candidate . taking the oath of office, yushchenko added "this is a victory of freedom over tyranny. the victory of law over lawlessness."

opposition candidate and backed viktor yanukovych has challenged the validity of the election rerun on december 26 2004, which saw his victory overruled. as recently as a few days ago, the supreme court overruled a final request to delay the ceremony. mr yanukovych has stated that he will take his battle to the .

in a ceremony watched by eight heads of state, viktor yushchenko urged unity between sides and promised deeper integration into the .



relativity turns 100

as part of the united nations world year of physics 2005, events and celebrations around the globe are planned for the centennial of the publication of albert einstein's theory of relativity.

some of the more noteworthy events include:

?chancellor gerhard schroder sparked off ceremonies at the german historical museum in berlin for the "year of einstein".

?a statue by robert berks will be unveiled at princeton, new jersey , his home for the last 22 years of his life.

?a relativity inspired ballet is to be performed in london.

pirelli relativity challenge 2005?explain relativity with a five minute multi-media presentation, win $30,000.

although best known for the theory of special relativity, it was a series of papers published in 1905 (later known as the "annus mirabilis" papers?the miracle year) that formed a break from newtonion or classical science and changed modern physics.

while the title isn't known on a world-wide basis, the final paper einstein that year?"does the inertia of a body depend on its energy content?"?produced a famous mathmetical formula: "e=mc2", which describes the relationship between mass and energy.

significant events



 


romanian pm visits brussels

the romanian prime minister c?lin popescu t?riceanu is on an official visit today and tomorrow to brussels, where he will meet with the president of the european commission.

during the visit, t?riceanu will present the priorities and strategies of the romanian government regarding the country's accession to the eu. romania is expected to join the european union on january 1, 2007, provided it fulfills the commitments to integration that it promised during accession negotiations.

the prime minister said that, "the european integration is the government's absolute priority". t?riceanu was accompanied by the independent justice minister monica macovei, who will discuss the justice and internal affairs chapter. justice and internal affairs has remained to date romania's most problematic chapter towards accession, with the country coming under fire for its political interference in judicial institutions. macovei claims that by march this year, a reform strategy will be put into place regarding the independence and efficiency of the justice system.

 


woman appointed as bucharest prefect

mioara mantale was appointed yesterday as the new prefect of the romania's capital bucharest. she is the first female prefect in the history of the city. mantale said that, "i am honored that the romanian government had confidence in me to appoint me in this position", adding that a woman in a public position is a positive thing.

mantale, who is 38 years of age and from the northern town of ia?i, specialises in the capital market and has a masters degree in internal law and international environmental law. 

prefects in romania are appointed by the president and are sent to each of the 40 counties and well as the capital, bucharest. they act as the liaison between the central government of romania and the local governments of each county. 

mantale's appointment was well received after the previous appointed prefect resigned after president traian b?sescu claimed that he was not a good choice. mantale is part of the democratic party, the same party that b?sescu belonged to before being elected as president. she also had good relations with the president while he was the general mayor of bucharest.


romanian social democrats criticise flat tax

romania's social democrat party has criticised the government's new fiscal policy, which is centered around the introduction of a 16% flat tax for personal income and company profit.

the social democrats, which were in government between 2000 and 2004, were defeated in romania's elections at the end of 2004. the current centre-right governing coalition is made up of the liberal and democrat parties, as well as the humanist party and the democratic alliance of hungarians in romania.

the vice-president of the social democrat party, mihai t?n?sescu, expressed his concerns that the flat tax would reduce individuals' contribution to the state budget by 10%. he also envisioned a rise in inflation as a result of a greater budget deficit.

the current government, however, defended the flat tax, saying that the drop in budget revenues will be lower than expected, due to taxes being collected more efficiently. the current minister of finance, ionu? popescu, said that, "effects of individual tax cuts, along with reducing taxes on companies' profits have helped countries such as slovakia, russia and ireland develop."

during romania's election campaign in 2004, president traian b?sescu promised that he would introduce a flat tax of 16%. romania's previous progressive income tax, during the social democrat government, ranged between 18% and 40%. based on the models of slovakia and estonia, which have prospered from a flat tax system, the new 16% tax is expected to ensure higher economic growth, reduce corruption and the grey economy, and encourage greater foreign investment. 

the 16% tax rate has meant that romania now has one of the most liberal and competitive fiscal policies in europe, similar to what ireland introduced before its celtic tiger period, which resulted in very high growth and development.

 


lithuania plans to adopt euro in 2007

, latvia ? the central bank of lithuania announced that it plans to adopt the common european currency, the in 2007, and replace its national currency, the .

lithunia intends to introduce the use of the euro as an official currency on january 1, 2007, where it will be used alongside the litas until january 15. from january 15, the euro would become the only official means of payment.

lithuania joined the european union in 2004, and like the other new member states, it is obliged to adopt the euro when it is ready. however, in order to adopt the euro, a country must be part of the eu's (erm ii) for at least two years. during that time, the currency must not fluctuate more than 2.25% in relation to the euro. additionally, the budget deficit should be under 3% of .

lithunia became part of erm ii in june 2004, meaning that the earliest it could join the euro would be in june 2006. however, its target is 2007, which, at the present moment, seems to be achievable, considering the country's low inflation and budget deficit. the litas has been pegged to the euro, since february 2002, at a rate of 1 euro = 3.45 litas.

so far, only 12 out of the 25 members of the european union have adoped the euro. however, in the next decade, it is expected that most, if not all, of the ten new member states will adopt the currency. lithuania is expected to be the first to adopt the currency, in 2007. estonia and slovenia, which are the only other new member states that are part of erm ii, are also expected to join the common currency at this time.

larger countries like hungary, czechia and poland, which are not yet part of erm ii, may have to wait until 2010 at least, due to their large budget deficits.

lithuania has been one of the most enthusiastic new member states concerning european integration. besides its early adoption of the euro, it was the first country in the eu to ratify the .


northeast us blizzards create havoc

january 24, 2005
in the northeastern corner of the usa, snowstorms have created mayhem as they cover the region with snow and ice. several cold fronts, which lead to these storms, have spread from the south of the united states to areas like massachusetts, rhode island and new jersey, just to name the few states with serious blizzard emergencies. most of the northeast region is covered in powdery whiteness. up to two feet make transportation virtually impossible, even for air flight. the blizzards have not only wrecked ground transport, but have disrupted thousands of flights. this blizzard was extreme, even by new england standards.

the blizzard also hit southern states and left four inches of snow in washington dc.



top zarqawi ally captured

al-jaaf was said to have been a threat to security because of his ties to the militant group zarqawi and his previous criminal record. interim prime minister iyad allawi's party offices were close to the site of the recent bombing in baghdad, these bombings were claimed by zarqawi supporters on their website, but, luckily, mr allawi was not in the area at the time of the blast, which happened on monday.


militant group declares war on iraq poll

"we have declared a bitter war against the principle of democracy and all those who seek to enact it," the speaker has said in a tape reportedly from zarqawi. al-zarqawi has now declared war on the upcoming iraqi poll, a bad sign for the mission in iraq. 


report: the pentagon's new powers

washinton d.c., usa ? (washington post) a washington post report reveals a secret intelligence department created by the pentagon "directly responsive to tasking from secretary of defense" donald rumsfeld. the report raises questions regarding the legality of the strategic support branch, allegations disputed by pentagon spokesperson lawrence t. dirita:

sen. john mccain (r az) expects the u.s. senate armed services committee to hold hearings on the issue. "i'm always sorry to read about things in the washington post when they affect a committee that i am a member of."

members of congressional intelligence committees were reported as not being aware of the program. funding of the program was through "reprogrammed" funds, without explicit congressional authority or appropriation. 

 


google plans free internet phone service

internet search king google is preparing to provide free voip service ? a technology that that makes it possible to have a telephone conversation over the internet. existing technology will be marketed in the google name, something which may make all the difference.

sources suggest that google may firstly introduce its telephony service to users in the united kingdom, but the actual date when the service will launch and the exact details of the plan are as yet unknown.

google is a california-based search engine whose mission "is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful". the largest search engine on the web, google receives over 200 million queries each day through its various services.


taiwan's cabinet resigns

"the cabinet has tendered its resignation," chen chi-mai, spokesman for the cabinet, told a news conference on monday. 

the entire 20-member cabinet, including premier yu shyi-kun, tendered its resignation to give president chen shui-bian a free hand in choosing a new set of ministers.

the move follows the parliamentary election last december, in which president chen's democratic progressive party and its allies failed to win a majority over the rival opposition coalition, led by the nationalist party of china ? also known as kuomintang (kmt).

in taiwan's political system, the president is the head of state and appoints the premier, who heads the cabinet and runs the day-to-day affairs of government. the premier liaises with parliament (the legislative yuan), which has the final say over lawmaking. 

president chen is expected to name the new premier on tuesday. whomever is appointed will form a new cabinet in consultation with mr. chen. mr. chen is widely expected to name frank hsieh, the mayor of kaohsiung city and close ally, to this post. the choice of premier may signal mr. chen's desired successor for 2008 when his two-term limit ends. several key members of the outgoing cabinet are expected to retain their jobs.

philip yang, political professor at the national taiwan university, doesn't expect taiwan's policy towards the people's republic of china to change much with a new cabinet.

"it is expected that those cabinet members who are in charge of cross-strait relations will remain unchanged. so i believe in terms of policy, there will be no major changes," he said.

beijing sees taiwan as a breakaway province and has threatened to attack if independence is declared. pro-independence supporters, such as mr. chen, maintain there are two countries. the two sides split amid civil war when the communists established the people's republic of china on the mainland while the nationalists moved their government to taiwan and maintained the seat of the republic of china, which the communists regard as defunct and illegitimate. 

mr. chen won re-election in last year's presidential election by a narrow margin, but his pro-independence party then failed to gain a majority in the december parliamentary elections as had previously been predicted. 

analysts suggest the military threat and the growing economic relationships between the two sides swayed taiwan's voters to not provoke beijing. professor yang thinks if there are going to be changes in taiwan's new cabinet policy towards mainland china, it will result from public pressure to reduce tensions.

"in terms of policy there will be no major changes, but definitely some pressure from the people and from the parliament," he said. "[they] would ask the government to be more active to improve cross-strait relations."

the new cabinet will take office on february 1, along with the new parliament. 



rumsfeld skips munich security conference

the u.s. defense secretary will not attend high-profile talks on international defense policy at the munich security conference claiming prior commitments. rumsfeld will send douglas j. feith, the undersecretary of defense, instead, to discuss such items as the e.u. and u.s. stances on iran.

rumsfeld previously stated that he would not attend the conference unless germany voided a complaint from the new york-based , asking german authorities to prosecute him for . the group filed the complaint last december with the federal german prosecutor's office, accusing rumsfeld of war crimes and torture in connection with 's .

german legislation allows prosecution for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide regardless of where the crime occurred or of the nationality of the accused.



china hands stiff sentences to 27 farmers over land seizure protest

a chinese court has handed stiff sentences to 27 farmers who protested the confiscation of their fields. the sentences come as the government struggles to deal with a rising tide of sometimes violent protests by farmers angry over what they allege are illegal land seizures by government-backed developers. 

for months, a group of farmers camped outside the local headquarters of the communist party in sanchawan village, in china's shaanxi province. the farmers were protesting plans by developers to seize their land and pay only $60 each in compensation.

the farmers said the compensation from the government-backed developers was too small, and the seizure was illegal.

five months into the sit-in, paramilitary police descended on the village and arrested the group for charges including obstructing traffic and attacking government agencies. the detainees' sentencing came last week. relatives of those arrested say some received sentences of two to six years, while a man accused of leading the demonstration was ordered to spend 15 years in prison. 

the sentencing has drawn protests from overseas human rights advocates like nicholas becquelin of the new york-based human rights in china group, who says the government has recently tried to stop the protests from spreading by imposing a general ban on news coverage of land seizures. 

he said the authorities are hoping the stiff sentences will discourage others from protesting.

"the government is sending a message to petitioners and protesters, saying that if they resort to this kind of demonstrations that the communist party does not allow, they will be seriously punished," said mr. becquelin.

china's economy is booming and cases like the one in shaanxi province are becoming more common, with more peasants losing their farmland to make way for development projects backed by local governments.

officials estimate 70 million people have lost their land to the construction of roads, dams, housing projects and factories. analysts predict that number will continue rising as the economy continues to expand.

as the economy grows, so do the disparities between rich and poor. the central government says the latest figures, from the year 2003, show farmers' per capita disposable income totaled about a third of that of urban dwellers. 

despite the government's assertion last year that rural incomes are growing, many of china's 800 million farmers live in deep poverty. under china's socialist system, farmers cannot own the land they till, but rather lease it from the state. plots are small and yield barely enough for families to eat. 

local officials have the power to make decisions on the land, leaving peasants little recourse should the officials choose to seize their plots. 

anger at the seizures has fueled desperation among peasants who complain they have not benefited from china's economic growth in the same way as people along the industrialized east coast. 

some demonstrations have turned deadly. last november, government troops opened fire and killed a number of protesters in a remote part of sichuan province, where thousands of residents were protesting the seizure of their land for construction of a hydroelectric dam project. 


mars rover tracks viewed from orbit

the picture was taken from mars orbit with the mars orbiter camera
on board the . the image was captured on april 26, 2004,
opportunity's 91st martian day. the rover was on its way to
endurance crater.
also visible and labeled on this image are the spacecraft's
lander, backshell, parachute and heat shield, plus effects of its
landing rockets.

the camera captured this image with use of a technique called
compensated pitch and roll targeted observation. in this method,
the entire spacecraft rolls as it passes over the target area so
the camera can scan in a way that sees details at three times
higher resolution than the camera's normal high-resolution
capability.

sunlight illuminates the scene from the left. north is toward the
top of the image. the 100-meter scale bar is 109 yards long.

image credit: nasa/jpl/msss


google launches video search

the aggressive internet search king is eyeing your television. google inc. today announced the launch of google video, a new free service which allows users to search thousands of television programs every day ? everything from sports to dinosaur documentaries to news shows.

"google video" currently covers eight television channels:


just type in your search term, "google video" will search the closed captioning text of all the programs in the archive for relevant results. it allows users to have a look through short snippets of the text along with still images from the show. if a user provides their zip code, the site displays information on when the show will air next.

google is a u.s.-based search engine whose mission "is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful", according to the company's corporate web site. the largest search engine on the web, google receives over 200 million queries each day through its various services.



pentagon to explain, or deny, new spy plan

a recent article in the washington post revealed the existence of a new type of battlefield intelligence group, referred to by the pentagon as "strategic support teams". the military in the field are using these units to improve their intelligence gathering capabilities. 

the news of the existence of these units has sparked controversy over the manner in which they were created as well as the manner in which they are used. according to the original report in the washington post, these units have been in operation for two years. they deploy small teams of caseworkers, linguists, interrogators and technical specialists to work alongside special operations forces. this is readily acknowledged by the pentagon. 

however, there is some dispute as to the accuracy of other items mentioned in the washington post report. according to the post, the units were designed to report directly to secretary of defense donald rumsfield, and use "reprogrammed" funds, or funds not appropriated with congressional authority or oversight.

the pentagon, however, denies these accusations. in a statement made by pentagon spokesman lawrence dirita, "there is no unit that is directly reportable to the secretary of defense for clandestine operations as is described in the washington post". mr. dirita went on to say, "further, the department is not attempting to 'bend' statutes to fit desired activities, as is suggested in this article."

pentagon officials told reporters that the funding and other arrangements for these new units had been worked out in close coordination with the cia and that appropriate congressional committees had been fully informed. one defense department official explained that part of the reason for the controversy might be that lawmakers contacted by the post or other news organizations for information may not have recognized the new name given to the units, "strategic support teams". according to this official, when these lawmakers were originally briefed on these new intelligence units they were referred to as "humint augmentation teams" (humint is short for human intelligence, referring to information gathered by human operatives). the pentagon later changed the official name of the units to strategic support teams. the official spoke on the condition that he not be identified.

many democrats, such as sen. dianne feinstein (d-calif) and rep. ellen tauscher (d-calif) are calling for congressional hearings to investigate the matter. 

"while i fully support improving the ability of our men and women in the field to get accurate real time intelligence, the creation of this unit raises a number of questions that this committee has a duty to examine," tauscher said. 

many republican lawmakers have stated their opposition to such hearings, such as the chairman of the house armed services committee, rep. duncan hunter (r-calif).

"the notion by some that various steps taken by the department of defense to enhance such intelligence is somehow sinister and illegitimate is nonsense," hunter said. 

the undersecretary of defense, stephen a. cambone, met with the chairman of the senate armed services committee, john warner (r-va) and the panel's top democrat, carl levin (d-mi) for more than an hour on monday. warner said he was satisfied by the briefing and would ensure that other committee members were briefed fully as well. 

"in my opinion," he said, "these intelligence programs are vital to our national security interests, and i am satisfied that they are being coordinated with the appropriate agencies of the federal government."


fbi places limitation on public viewing of files

the u.s. federal bureau of investigation?the organization responsible for enforcing federal laws?has won a battle that could make it much harder for the public to access its files. if it is true that the requirements of scrupulous indexing and searching of files have been relaxed to the point of making subjective the process of retrieving them, it is a violation of the freedom of information act (foia), which states that the public may view files of the unclassified category. from the perspective of the fbi, as deduced from their arguments in the case, the burden of doing complete searches is unreasonable. 

currently, only indexes of the files are searched in response to requests based on the foia. a lawsuit filed by the brother of a deceased federal inmate claimed that his specific request turned up no results, despite the proven existence of the files relating to the case against his brother, and the circumstances leading up to his death in prison, which was ruled a suicide despite the appearance of a violent death.

critics of the government case, from the fields of journalism and academic law, contend that it is possible that the transferring of files from paper to electronic records is being used as an excuse to avoid doing complete searches that may turn up evidence of official wrongdoing.



academy award nominees announced

notably missing from the best picture category are two of last year's most controversial films "the passion of the christ" and "fahrenheit 9/11", voters instead opting with biopic "ray" and golden globes best comedy winner "sideways".

competing for best actor are jamie foxx, clint eastwood, leonardo dicaprio and hotel rwanda's don cheadle.

academy awardR-winning actor tim robbins has been tapped to present at the 77th academy awardsR, telecast producer gil cates announced today.

robbins received his first acting oscar last year at the 76th academy awards, for his supporting role in mystic river. in 1995, he received a nomination for directing dead man walking. robbins is currently filming war of the worlds and will be seen next in the secret life of words.

meanwhile, documentary category rules for the 78th annual academy awardsR have been changed by the board of governors of the academy of motion picture arts and sciences to exempt documentaries "with a true theatrical rollout" from the rules' television blackout provision. 

the change will apply to documentaries released during the 2005 academy awards year. 

documentary branch executive committee chair freida lee mock said the theatrical exhibition requirements of the rules for the documentary awards were instituted in 2003 at the branch's request to encourage commercial theatrical runs for documentary films. 

"our new rules had a positive impact," mock said. "since 2003 there have been a growing number of documentary theatrical releases, and that growth exploded this summer." 

but some of the films bumped up against the television blackout provisions of the rule and were thereby prevented from having a television exhibition until a nine-month time period had expired. 

the academy isn't trying to prevent television exhibition for documentaries that have had a successful theatrical run, mock said, "but we want documentaries to be able to exploit their theatrical release as fully as possible, so we've modified the rules to exempt those documentaries from the blackout provisions." even for documentaries with more modest theatrical runs, the 2005 rules reduce the blackout window to six months. 

to qualify for exemption a film must have had a minimum of 25 commercial exhibitions for paid admission in motion picture theaters in 15 states, each exhibition to be at least two consecutive days. (exhibitions held at festivals, benefits, special events and the like do not qualify under this provision.) 

the 2005 rules also contain a provision requiring that short documentaries "must be contractually available for theatrical release for six months after receiving a nomination" unless they have met the test for the new blackout exemption.



city of sao paulo celebrates 451 years of existence

tonight seven hours of festivities will take place in the well-known avenue paulista, in the heart of sao paulo. over one million people are expected to show up at the celebration of the city's 451st anniversary.
both the city´s mayor, jose serra, and the state´s governor, geraldo alckmin, are due to attend the celebration.



lab creates petrified wood

a process that would normally take millions of years, scientists have mimicked within a couple of days. today, researchers at the have turned wood mineral by the process of soaking poplar and pine in a chemical mix and then cooking them. the team of scientists accomplishing this feat, led by yongsoon shin, bought pine and poplar boards and performed a series of steps. the first step leading to the petrifying of the wood is thinly cutting it, then soaking it in acids and a silica solution, after that, heating it, and lastly, cooling the product in argon. silica takes up a bond with the carbon left in the wood's cellulose, creating silicon carbide, widely known as a ceramic.

 


frank hsieh named new taiwanese premier

taiwanese president chen shui-bian has chosen frank hsieh, a leading member of his pro-independence democratic progressive party, as the new premier of the republic of china.

frank hsieh replaces yu shyi-kun, who served as taiwan's premier for three years. mr. yu and the entire 20-member cabinet resigned monday to allow president chen shui-bian to reshuffle the cabinet, after his party's coalition lost parliamentary elections last month.

mr. hsieh, the 59-year-old mayor of taiwan's second largest city, kaohsiung, is a close ally of mr. chen and will be expected to closely carry out the president's agenda. mr. hsieh served as chairman of the democratic progressive party from 2000 to 2002.

president chen praised mr. hsieh as "the best person" to help open a new era of negotiations with both the opposition and with mainland china. 

analysts suggest that mr. chen's appointment may signal president chen's preference for a successor. mr. chen's second term ends in 2008 and mr. hsieh has had previous experience as a vice presidential candidate in 1996.

in ways, the two men are alike. both grew up in poor families, graduated from taiwan's most prestigious national taiwan university, and passed the bar with the highest score in their junior years in college. like president chen, mr. hsieh rose to prominence defending the dissidents of the kaohsiung incident and went on to serve as a taipei city councilor and a legislator.

mr. hsieh is expected to announce a new cabinet in two days. the cabinet must be endorsed by the new parliament, which convenes february 1. 

analysts believe that many key ministers, including those responsible for foreign affairs, defense, and mainland affairs, are likely to retain their posts.

mr. hsieh on tuesday promised to seek co-existence and "cross-strait peace" through dialogue with the people's republic of china. he said the new cabinet must maintain cross-strait stability. he will also need to smooth the economic recovery.

he will have to face a parliament in which the opposition holds 114 of the 225 seats. mr. chen has complained that passage of his key bills have been slowed by the parliament.

the pro-independence policies of president chen and his democratic progressive party have angered beijing, which considers taiwan a breakaway province. beijing has threatened a military attack if the taiwan independence is declared. the two sides split amid civil war in 1949 when the communists established the people's republic and the nationalist party, or kuomintang, moved the original government to taiwan where they maintained the republic of china, which beijing regards as defunct. president chen maintains there are two countries.

the kuomintang favors maintaining the status quo. party leaders say the question of whether taiwan should be independent or reunited with mainland china should be decided by future generations. the kuomintang, citing its parliamentary victory, had sought to name its own premier and government.

philip yang, an associate professor of political science at national taiwan university, says the recent election's message was that the president and his new premier will have to pay serious attention to relations with beijing.

"a new message from the people [is] demanding the government to pay more attention to enhance cross-straits interaction," he said.


don brash at orewa: 'whatever happened to personal responsibility?'

on january 25, 2005, don brash, the leader of the new zealand national party made a speech to the orewa rotary club where he focussed upon welfare dependency. he pledged to reduce the number of working-age beneficiaries from the current figure of 300 000 to 200 000 over ten years. his particular target was the 109 000 solo parents on the domestic purposes benefit (dpb). brash suggested a greater role for adoption in reducing this number, and also hinted that mothers who did not name the father, or who had another child while already on the dpb, may be penalised. brash's advocacy of adopting children out has lead to a number of attacks, prime minister helen clark responded by saying "i think we need to support people to keep their babies".

new zealand will hold a general election this year, most likely in september. the national party is trailing the governing labour party by about 14% in the polls, but last year it polled better than the labour party following a speech on race relations by don brash at the same location a year earlier. this speech is gearing-up the national party and setting policies in the build-up to the election.
new zealand under went significant welfare reform during the early 1990s under a national government, with a 25% cut in benefits at the 1991 'mother of all budgets' by ruth richardson. the current labour government (1999-) has restored some of the previous benefit levels.



mst creates marxist school in brazil

the inauguration was attended by the brazilian minister of the agrarian development miguel rosseto, venezuelan education and culture ministeries delegates, the writer fernando morais among other international guests.

according to the mst the proposed courses for the school are: professorship and pedagogy (teaching), collective administration expert, general farming, movement leadership, and human and social sciences.

joao pedro stedile, a leader of the mst said:
"this school is for taking the power for the workers. so that the friends transform the scientific knowledge into instrument of liberation and not of exploitation, as they do."
he also said: 
"our enemies are the large farmers, the imperialism, the multinationals, the bankers, the capitalist exploitation and the ignorance. against them we fight." according to him the school has an ideological function.

the brazilian rural society (sociedade rural brasileira-srb) president criticized the inauguration of the school. he said “is absurd that brazilian courts accept the creation of a school which will teach desrespect for the law. instead of the executive being there joining them, it should do something so the law gets obeyed.” according to him the pedagody that will be followed by the mst school is concerning since it is attached to old revolutionary ideologies. he accused mst of teaching guerrilla techniques to children.

according to the president of the uniao democratica ruralista (udr) luiz antonio nabhan garcia, representant of the farmers, the government of the president luiz inacio lula da silva gets perverted upon the society when it supports a school which teaches invading lands. “in a country like ours, poor in education, is not acceptable that the government supports a group which acts against the law and indoctrinates anachronistic ideologies of che guevara and fidel castro”, he added.

 


news briefs: january 26, 2005

the following stories made international headlines today:

india today celebrated its 56th republic day. 

president apj abdul kalam took the salute at the parade. the national flag was hoisted and the armed forces and paramilitary units carried out march-pasts at rajpath in new delhi. 

focus is on relief work as the death toll nears 300 persons killed in a stampede and fire during the popular annual pilgrimmage to the mandher devi temple southeast of bombay, india.

the record-shattering estimate is "conservative", and higher than the budget office's number of 328 billion . the budget office's long-term predictions suggest deficit spending will taper off by 2012, but (as with their projection of the current deficit spending) it does not include costs of war. president bush's 2006 budget is expected at the capitol on feb. 7, and it too will not include requests for war funds; those are expected in separate funding requests as they were in 2004.


the british referendum question is published today

the question in with the british people will vote on the european constitution is published today, as part of the bill on the european constitution going through parliament. 

the question in a referendum, expected to be held in 2006, will be: "should the united kingdom approve the treaty establishing a constitution for the european union?"


sharon to open discussion with abbas

israeli prime minister ariel sharon has decided to re-open diplomatic contact with the leader of the , mahmoud abbas.

sharon had cut all links after a suicide attack killed six israelis at a border entry point, just days after abbas has been elected leader. however, abbas has made moves to curb the activities of palestinian militants, leading to a drop in violence in the region.

palestinian officials say that palestinian security forces will be deployed in the southern gaza strip within 24 hours to reduce attacks on israel. in addition, israel has agreed to stop the targeted killing of palestinian militants, reports say.



bush requests $80bn to pay for on-going military operations

u.s. president george w. bush has asked the u.s. congress for an additional $80bn to pay for the on-going military operations in iraq and afghanistan.

this is on top of $25bn approved by congress last summer in the fiscal defense appropriations bill for 2005. bush states that this money is to provide u.s. troops with "whatever they need to protect themselves" and also to fight terrorism in iraq.

the money will support the 'global war on terror' until september 30, 2005. of the $80bn, $75bn will be spent on the repair and replacement of equipment, training of the iraqi security forces, and basic personnel costs.

the remaining $5bn will be used to fund state department embassy construction, activities in iraq, and humanitarian operations in darfur, sudan.


expedition 10 completes first spacewalk

commander leroy chiao and flight engineer salizhan sharipov have just completed their mission's first space walk aboard the international space station. the mission lasted 5 hours, 28 minutes, ending at 1311 utc.
the two astronauts, working in russian space suits, performed a variety of tasks. chiao and sharipov installed a work platform, called the universal work platform, along with its base and associated wiring. they also installed a commercial robotics experiment and a biological experiment on the exterior of the zvezda service module. in addition, they checked vents on systems that help control the station's atmosphere and relocated a japanese physical science experiment.

residue accumulation around the vents of the elektron oxygen generator was noted and photographed by sharipov. technicians on the ground will analyze the information to determine if this residue has been contributing to the problematic operation of the elektron.

during this spacewalk, the station again encountered the mysterious forces that have been saturating the control moment gyros during previous spacewalks. russian thrusters were activated to counter this force.

the walk marks chiao's fifth for 31 hours, 34 minutes, accumulated time and shapirov's first.

this was the 57th space walk conducted at the station and the 32nd to be based out of the orbital outpost. expedition 10 is scheduled to conduct its second spacewalk in march.



white house cuts hubble from budget

a senior administration official, speaking anonymously, confirmed on friday that the proposed nasa budget for the 2006 fiscal year will not contain additional funding for a hubble servicing mission. the budget plan is to be announced feb. 7.

the white house eliminated funding for a service mission the hubble space telescope from its 2006 budget request and directed nasa to focus on deorbiting the spacecraft at the end of its life, according to government and industry sources .

intensive work has been under way at nasa's goddard space flight center to develop telerobotic servicing skills for the hubble space telescope in the event that a space shuttle crew is never again sent to the orbiting facility. aerospace firms in the united states and in canada have teamed with nasa to develop a hubble robotic vehicle deorbit module.

"excellent progress is being made on a telerobotic approach to servicing the hubble," said jim crocker, vice president of civil space at lockheed martin space systems of denver. the firm has supported nasa's planning and, later, the repair and servicing of the hst with four space shuttle missions to date.

the telerobotics team at work at goddard space flight center "have a good shot at pulling this off," crocker told space.com the day before the space news story on the white house hst decision appeared

the estimated $1 billion plus cost for a robotic or shuttle servicing mission is considered too high by the white house in light of higher priority missions such as the shuttle "return to flight" project and nasa's "moon, mars and beyond ."

the anonymous u.s. official told reuters the estimated cost of a robotic repair was $2 billion and one feasibility study gave it an 80 percent chance of failure

"hubble is in year 14 of a planned 15-year mission," the official said. "trying to send a robotic mission to extend that time period would be a $2 billion gamble with taxpayer dollars where the odds are 80-20 that it would fail."

congressman steny hoyer (d-md) released the following statement january 25 condemning reports about eliminating funds to repair the hubble space telescope. the hubble space telescope is managed by the goddard space flight center which is located in congressman hoyer's district.

"i am very concerned about reports that the bush administration may eliminate federal funds to repair and upgrade the hubble space telescope from its budget for fiscal year 2006. since its launch in 1990, the hubble telescope's state of the art technology has dramatically changed our understanding of the universe and produced thousands of extraordinary discoveries



iraq: marines killed in helicopter crash

a u.s. marine transport helicopter has crashed in western iraq, killing 31. although there was bad weather reported in the area, cbc quotes an anonymous official as stating, "i have not heard anybody attribute a cause."

the helicopter went down at 1:20 a.m. local time near rutbah, about 355 km west of baghdad, while conducting security operations. the aircraft was transporting personnel from 1st marine division. rescue and investigative teams are on the scene.

the event may be the largest loss of life since the invasion in 2003. on march 23, 2003, during the initial invasion, 26 soldiers lost their lives in various incidents. since pres. bush declared major operations over on may 1, 2003 there have been several events with large loss of life, including the collision of two black hawk helicopters while avoiding ground fire, killing 17, and a chinook which was shot down near fallujah.

the u.s. military reports, for wednesday january 25th, four u.s. marines from the 1st marine expeditionary unit were killed in action in al anbar. an army soldier with the 1st infantry division was killed when a combat patrol was attacked near duluiyah. a series of car bombs and attacks resulted in at least six deaths in iraq and more wounded, including at least seven u.s. military personnel.



people killed as three trains crash in los angeles

ten people are dead and up to 200 injured after three trains crashed in glendale, a suburb of los angeles. 

two passenger trains and a freight train carrying gravel collided at 6:05 a.m. local time during the morning rush hour. both passenger trains were double-decker metrolink trains, one northbound from union station, the other southbound. one train overturned, and the other caught fire.

the northbound train normally carries 30 to 50 passengers. the southbound train normally has 200 to 250 people on board.

over 300 firefighters are attending the scene.

the chief of police of glendale reported at a press conference that a man trying to commit suicide drove his car onto the train tracks, but apparently changed his mind and left the vehicle before the impact, leaving the vehicle on the tracks. the suspect was taken into custody by police officers who arrived at the scene of the accident and has, according to the police, already admitted driving the vehicle onto the tracks.



rice new secretary of state

washington (ap) the senate on wednesday overwhelmingly confirmed condoleezza rice as secretary of state after a host of democrats harshly criticized bush administration iraq policy. the expectation of rice becoming the secretary of state, like many presumed, has come true.



sun donates solaris operating system, 1,600 patents to community

the full operating system is expected to be released for download sometime in the second quarter of 2005. following along with the system source code are 1,670 patents sun will make available for use by open-source developers. sun hopes to leverage greater innovation in software from the open source community, in return for allowing the code to be used without charge.

"this is not an eol (end of life) release. it's a supercharged, turbocharged rocket launching," sun ceo scott mcnealy said. "no one else has done what we have just done."

the move follows a recent move by ibm to grant use of 500 patents freely to open source software developers. open source developers had been becoming concerned that bureaucracy and legal issues associated with software patents could be damaging to their livelihoods and to innovation. the moves by sun and ibm seem intended to placate this growing fear.

dynamic trace, or dtrace is the first opensolaris component to be released. dtrace is a performance-analysis tool that tells developers how to optimize their applications for maximum performance. 

the code is to be released under sun's own licensing scheme, the common development and distribution license (cddl) version 1.0. this license has been approved by the open source initiative (osi).

sun's license is based on the mozilla public license. the free software foundation has stated on its website that sun's license, while free, is not compatible with the gnu public license (gpl) used for the popular open source linux operating system. this does not mean that linux software and opensolaris software cannot be used together, but limits the extent of integration which may be achieved.

sun had previously allowed free use of the operating system solaris by some users, for example students. this move greatly extends the range of free uses permitted, and allows users to read and modify the source code without charge or non-disclosure agreement.



distributed computing climate change model gives bleak results

results published in the science journal nature suggest previous inter-governmental panel on climate change (ipcc) predictions will need to be revised upwards.

climateprediction.net has released it's first results, indicating that global temperatures could rise by up to 11° c, even if global carbon dioxide levels are limited to twice those found before the industrial revolution; levels that high are expected to be reached in the middle of this century.

the results indicate that carbon dioxide emissions will have an even bigger affect on the global climate than previously thought.

the climateprediction.net is a distributed computing project. more than 95,000 people around the world have downloaded the software which runs calculations when the user's computer is idle, releasing computer power greater than that of even the largest supercomputers.

the project is a collaboration between several uk universities and the met office, funded by the british natural environment research council and the department of trade and industry. in the summer of 2004 the project joined forces with the seti program, with university of california computer scientists developing a version of the seti software to run climate change models.



esa's smart-1 takes its first close-up images of the moon

the european space agency's (esa) lunar probe smart-1 has taken its first images from a low orbit around the moon, returning images of great detail. smart-1 caps a streak of major planetary missions by the esa in the past year.

two features of smart-1 have brought particular attention to the project: the ion drive and a sophisticated navigational software.

the probe features a low-thrust, long-duration ion drive, where ionised particles are accelerated by electromagnets and ejected from the motor of the probe to provide propulsion. the energy for this is supplied by solar panels, potentially allowing months of thrusting.

the probe arrived in lunar orbit on november 15, 2004. the ion drive has been firing for much of the time since, leading the probe to orbit ever closer to the lunar surface.

the coupling of the camera and the navigational system will allow more precise mapping of the moon's features than ever before. using very precise positioning, the system will be able to measure the angles of shadows to such a degree that researchers will be able to build a very accurate topographical map of the moon's surface features.

the series of images were taken at an altitude of 5,000 to 1,000 km above the moon to test the onboard camera. on february 9, the ion drive will be turned on once more to drop the probe to a height of 3,000 to 300 km above the surface. from then on, it will begin the bulk of its scientific investigations.




condoleezza rice confirmed as u.s. secretary of state by senate vote

the united states senate has voted to accept president george w. bush's nomination of condoleezza rice as united states secretary of state. eighty-five senators voted to approve her accession while 13 opposed it. two senators did not vote.

democratic senators had criticised her during debates on the nomination, but this did not prevent her gaining the second-highest ever number of votes for a nominee for secretary of state.

the former head of national security replaces colin powell, who became the highest-serving african american in u.s. history when he became secretary of state in 2000.

ms rice is expected to be sworn into office in the white house later this evening, with a more elaborate public ceremony on friday, and to begin her new role on thursday morning.



2005 world social forum in porto alegre

the fifth (wsf) has kicked off in porto alegre, rio grande do sul state, brazil. the forum is back in its original home, porto alegre, after last year being held in mumbai, india. the event was opened january 26, 2005 and it is scheduled to continue until january 31.

the world social forum is an annual meeting organized by left organizations, mainly from brazil. it discuss strategies to fight back against the , and . according to the organizers "the world social forum is an open meeting place where groups and movements of civil society opposed to neo-liberalism and a world dominated by capital or by any form of imperialism, but engaged in building a planetary society centred on the human person, come together to pursue their thinking, to debate ideas democratically, for formulate proposals, share their experiences freely and network for effective action."

just under 6000 different groups and organizations will participate in the six day event which joins discussions, protests and festivals. 

both the brazilian president luiz inacio lula da silva and venezuelan president hugo chavez are to be guests at the forum; however the reception of the two leaders is set to be quite different. da silva (commonly referred to as lula) has faced criticism from the leftists set to make up the majority of participants at the forum due to the allegedly weak results of the government social politics and the way the government conducts the economy. this is in stark contrast to the reception that he received at the 2003 forum (also in porto alegre), where he was hailed as a hero.

hugo chavez on the other hand is set to receive a warmer welcome for enforcing a 2001 law allowing for the expropriation of idle agricultural land from large estates. however, the government of venezuela has also received criticism for what some feel to be intimidation of journalists and other anti-democratic acts.

this year the event has been tarnished by the brazilian journalist polibio braga, who alleges illicit negotiations between the world social forum and gp equipamentos eletricos ltd, a brazilian company contracted to work on the infrastructure for the forum. he also accuses the brazilian government of trying to stop the police investigation into the matter.

in 2006 the forum is scheduled to be held in venezuela and/or simultaneously in different cities around the world.




news briefs: january 27, 2005

the following stories made international headlines today:

the government of china has detained several people who were mourning the passing of former communist party leader, zhao ziyang. mr. zhao was the former communist party secretary general who purged for opposing the 1989 military crackdown on the tiananmen square student movement. he died two weeks ago at age 85, having spent the last fifteen years of his life under house arrest. at least three people were beaten during the arrests today, according to reports from the afp.


saskatchewan town asks for return of &quot;accidental&quot; tsunami donation

the municipal council of a small town in canada's prairies has said it "accidentally" donated $10,000 to the red cross for tsunami relief. now it wants its money back.

the council approved the donation during a jan. 10 meeting by 3 votes to 2. however, the mayor was in the hospital and the deputy mayor, barry lewis, who substituted didn't realize he could vote. if he had voted, it would have been against the donation.

some townspeople accused councillor dorothy lockwood of ambushing the meeting by presenting the last-minute proposal to divert money from the town's centennial fireworks fund. lockwood claimed the timing was urgent as the federal government's deadline for matching donations was the next day at midnight.

the red cross has already deposited the cheque, but has indicated it will return the money.


 


china commutes tibetan monk's death sentence

the people's republic of china has commuted the death sentence of a prominent tibetan monk, tenzin delek rinpoche, ordering him instead to spend the rest of his life in prison.

in 2002, a chinese court found tenzin delek rinpoche guilty of involvement in a series of terrorist bombings earlier that year in a region of sichuan province historically part of tibet, and of inciting separatist activities. he was sentenced to death, but the sentence was then postponed for two years. 

upon the expiration of his suspended sentence late last year, chinese officials suggested they might go ahead with the execution. it was to have taken place last month.

but higher people's court of sichuan decided to commute the sentence, saying the monk had obeyed certain conditions that were not disclosed. officials say he confessed to the bombing, a claim human rights advocates say they do not believe. 

tenzin deleg, who is widely respected among tibetan buddhists, has said he was wrongly accused. 

anne callahan, manager of the free tibet campaign in britain, says communist officials targeted the spiritual leader because they viewed his vast following as a threat to their authority among the large community of ethnic tibetans in sichuan province. 

she says her group believes the real reason for the reprieve of the death sentence was the international pressure brought on beijing by governments and private organizations. 

"the reality is that his case generated a whole international campaign on his behalf and has actually highlighted the degree of religious repression in sichuan now," she said. 

the reprieve came exactly two years after the execution of another man, lobsang dhondup, who was tried and convicted along with tenzin delek for the 2002 bombings. 

the dalai lama and his tibetan government in exile, along with several human rights groups, had called for the sentence to be reversed.

the united states expressed serious concern about the monk's closed-door trial, saying chinese authorities failed to provide clear and convincing evidence of guilt. the issue came up during visits to beijing by secretary of state powell and other high-ranking bush administration officials. 

officials at the u.s. embassy in beijing had no immediate comment following the news of the court's decision. 

meanwhile, tashi phuntsog, described as tenzin deleg rinpoche's "right-hand man," walks free. he was released earlier this month after being detained since 2002, 10 days after tenzin deleg rinpoche.

the government never said why tashi phuntsog was jailed or why he was released early. 

human rights watch, calling on the communist government to explain tashi phuntsog's detention believes he was released needing medical attention. "tashi phuntsog entered prison as a healthy man in his early 40s, and he was cast out literally as a broken man," it said.

xinhua reports he has been "well and fairly treated."



crosswords/2005/january/27

feel free to use the wikimedia sites to solve our wikinews crossword (please do not fill it out online as it would spoil it for other people, print it out and fill it in at you own leisure!)

answers tomorrow.


driver who caused los angeles train crash charged with murder

juan manuel alvarez, 25, could well face the death penalty for his actions. it appears he parked his jeep cherokee on the railway line with the intention of committing suicide, but then changed his mind and left the vehicle. three trains carrying approximately 350 people were involved in the crash, injuring up to 200 passengers.

his arraignment was delayed from thursday to friday due to his medical condition. he was charged with 11 counts of murder and was held without bail in a hospital's jail ward after apparently slitting his own wrists and stabbing himself in the chest. prosecutors have filed 10 counts of murder with so-called special circumstances, and will add the 11th victim to the complaint shortly. under california law, this makes alvarez eligible for the death penalty.

the accident was caused as a result of a chain-reaction derailment of three union pacific trains. investigators are continuing to try to determine the exact sequence of events.



row intensifies between sinn fein &amp; the irish government

the row between the irish government and sinn fein intensified today with gerry adams accusing the taoiseach bertie ahern of attacking sinn fein in order to divert attention from the jailing of disgraced former minister for justice ray burke.

burke, who is a former fianna fail minister, began a six-month prison sentence earlier this week for tax offences.

speaking in london on the eve of his meeting with british prime minister tony blair, the sinn fein president said bertie ahern had 'cleverly defused the ray burke affair by opening up a full frontal attack on sinn fein'.

mr adams said that attack was driven by political considerations because the government had decided that little progress could be made in the northern ireland peace process in the next few months. 

referring to yesterday's heated exchanges in dail Eireann between mr ahern and sinn fein td caoimhghin O caolain, mr adams said, 'we want to do business with the taoiseach, but he can't expect to attack us in the way that he does and for us not to robustly defend ourselves.


report: british serial killer murdered 250

the sixth report of the harold shipman inquiry, released today, concludes that british family doctor, shipman, killed about 250 during his career. shipman was arrested for the murder of kathleen grundy in 1998, and concerns arose around this time about the excess number of deaths among his patients.

shipman was found guilty in 2000 of 15 counts of murder and one of forgery of a will, and jailed for life. the on-going inquiry, chaired by dame janet smith dbe, began soon after to investigate his past, as well as other suspicious deaths linked to the doctor.

according to the sixth report of the inquiry, it is now thought that he may have begun killing at the very start of his career, possibly through recklessly prescribing drugs, in 1971. it is thought he later developed a deliberate intention to kill, mainly targeting the elderly. his first murder may have been as early as in march 1971, and the inquiry concluded he continued to kill until 1998, the year of his arrest.

shipman was found dead, hung with his bedsheets in wakefield prison on 13 january last year, raising questions about what measures could have prevented this apparent suicide and another investigation, this time by prisons and probation ombudsman stephen shaw.

 category:united kingdom]] 


one hundred dead after air raid in darfur, sudan

african union monitors in the darfur region of sudan have witnessed an air attack that has killed around 100 people.

the sudanese government carried out the attack on a village in the northern part of darfur. it represents a major violation of the ceasefire signed last april between the government and the rebels.

the rebels began their war with the government in 2003, accusing the government of neglecting their region and of oppressing black africans in favour of arab africans.

 


new york radio station apologises after 'humorous' tsunami song

the new york radio station hot 97 has apologized after one of its djs played a song making light of the recent tsunami catastrophe in asia.

the 'tsunami song' was played by 'miss jones' on the hip hop and r&b station's morning show earlier this month. miss jones and station management later apologised on-air.

miss jones and the morning team have now been suspended indefinitely.

"[ expand] this article!"

 


palestinian authority bans citizens from carrying weapons

the palestinian authority banned citizens from carrying weapons this thursday in a step to reduce violence while negotiations with israel continue on a proposed ceasefire. in addition, they will appoint a new security minister known for his tough stance against militants ? preconditions for peace talks with israel.

if enforced, this ban will be a strong move against guerilla groups, which actively display their weapons in the gaza strip and west bank due to the lack of control by the palestinian security forces.

furthermore, the palestinian security forces are planning to move in to the southern gaza strip to rein in attacks against israel, to supplement their forces currently deployed in the north.

mahmoud abbas' actions are winning praise from israeli prime minister ariel sharon, who said thursday that conditions are right for a breakthrough toward peace. he said that he is "very satisfied" with his actions, which aim to curb four years of attacks against israel.



cnn founder ted turner calls fox news bush's propaganda machine

ted turner, the founder of cnn, last tuesday accused fox news of being a propaganda mouthpiece for the bush administration. he likened the network's current popularity to adolf hitler's rise to power in pre-war germany, and criticised the "dumbing down" of news which left the public uninformed of crucial issues.

turner said, "adolf hitler was more popular in germany in the early 1930s than people that were running against him."

fox news in turn accused cnn of simple sour grapes.

in a statement, the channel claimed that ted was "understandably bitter having lost his ratings, his network and now his mind - we wish him well."

turner resigned from his post as vice president of aol time warner in january 2003. he remains one of america's largest private landowners, possessing approximately two million acres of land.

fox news remains the highest rating 24-hour news channel on us cable - but has been highly criticised for its perceived right-wing bias.

recent house committee on government reform figures by the us democrats show that the us administration spent over $us88 million on public relations contracts in 2004, of which 41 per cent were awarded on a non-competitive basis. 



news briefs: january 28, 2005

the following stories made international headlines today:

russian salizhan sharipov and u.s. w:leroy chiao installed equipment on the exterior of the iss, including the 20-inch robotic arm. they also inspected and photographed the oxygen generator and carbondioxide scrubber, which have had mechanical issues, and discovered an unexpected patch of oily brownish-black residue near the vents.


2005 world social forum-brazil coverage

brazilian president luiz inacio lula da silva has defended himself before over 15 000 activists at the world social forum in porto alegre. he interrupted his speech to respond to hecklers by saying "those of you that aren't from here, don't be afraid. these people that don't want to listen are sons and daughters of the pt "(partido dos trabalhadores, "worker's party")" that rebelled. that's typical of youth and one day they are going to mature and we'll be here with open arms to welcome them back". supporters also drowned out the hecklers by chanting "lula" the president's name.

the president also used his speech to help launch an ambitious campaign by 1,000 non-governmental organizations to halve world poverty within ten years. "for the first time, the forum takes upon itself the task of making a priority of an issue such as poverty," lula said.





















zhao ziyang's funeral scheduled for saturday

chinese communist leaders and the family of the late purged party chief, zhao ziyang, have agreed to bury him on saturday, nearly two weeks after his death. the burial has been delayed over disagreements between mr. zhao's family and the government over the funeral arrangements. 

for many in china and overseas, the former premier of communist party general secretary symbolized the drive for a reassessment of the government's 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in tiananmen square. 

in the two weeks since his death, police have been posted outside the beijing home where mr. zhao spent his last 15 years under house arrest and where hundreds have been assembling to pay tribute. agents have been turning many of the mourners away.

the leadership wants the ceremony on saturday to take place out of the public eye and officials announced thursday that foreign journalists would not be allowed to cover it. however, mr. zhao's family has asked for appropriate honors in keeping with his status as a former party chief. 

instead of being given the customary state funeral to reflect his former positions, he will be given a more low-key ceremony.

disagreement between the family and the government about what should be said at the funeral was part of the delay. zhao's family disagrees with the government over the correctness of zhao's actions regarding tiananmen square. 

state-controlled newspapers and broadcasts have been devoid of news on zhao's death and on what his eulogy will say. 

cheng li, a professor of government at hamilton college in new york, says the communist leaders have been trying to ensure that mr. zhao's funeral and eulogy do not ignite what might be an explosive new debate.

"they don't want to see it widely publicized," he said. "certainly, they don't want to repeat what happened 16 years ago because of the emotions and other things could lead to a very sustained, prolonged event." 

analysts say the government sees a parallel with the death of another reformer, party leader hu yaobang, which sparked the demonstrations in may and june of 1989.

mr. zhao, then the communist party chief, went to the square two weeks before the crackdown and tearfully urged the students to abandon their protest. 

shortly after, the leadership accused him of sympathizing with the demonstrators and trying to split the party. he was ousted as party chief and placed under house arrest until his death on january 17th at the age of 85. 

while many young people in china today do not remember mr. zhao as an advocate of reform, emotions remain high among those who do recall his role. witnesses on thursday said guards beat a number of people - some of them elderly - who have been trying to pay tribute to the late leader outside government offices in beijing over the past few days. 

 


28 alleged putin insulters freed from police custody

about twenty eight human rights activists who had been imprisoned on wednesday, january 26, 2005 have now mostly been freed from police custody following rapid international solidarity appeals. the activists had been imprisoned in relation to their protest in the main square of krakow, poland, against the presence of vladimir putin at the ceremonies for the 60th anniversary of the freeing of the auschwitz-birkenau concentration camp. 

at least two people were officially charged, under article 136 of polish criminal law, with the offence of insulting a head of state, namely, vladimir putin, but it remains unclear how many people in total have been charged with this offence.

vladimir putin, who is suspected to be responsible for war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity in chechnya, was neither detained nor arrested during his visit to poland.





china detains and beats mourners for zhao ziyang

the people's republic of china intensified security to prevent mourners attending funeral in beijing for zhao ziyang. mr. zhao was the former communist party secretary general who was purged for opposing the 1989 military crackdown on the tiananmen square student movement. he died two weeks ago at age 85, having spent the last fifteen years of his life under house arrest. 
according to a story released by the agence france-presse anonymous witnesses said the government detained several people in beijing. they claim some of these people were severely beaten.
a man who preferred to be anonymous said: "a man from henan province was beaten badly. his left eyeball looked like it was beaten out of its socket and he had a one inch cut to his right eye. an elderly woman from shandong province was beaten to a point where she couldn't move and a man from hunan province was also beaten."

according to the witness the police argued zhao was a political criminal. they said:"why are you commemorating him? you're clearly opposing the government."

the government of china has already received criticism for what some feel to be intimidation of activists and other anti-democratic acts like censorship , 





p&amp;g to acquire gillette for us$57 billion

american manufacturing giant (p&g) plans to acquire for us$57 billion in stock. the purchase plan calls for p&g to swap 0.975 shares of its stock per share of gillete co. p&g also announced a stock buyback program in which they would purchase up to us$22 billion of shares over the next 18 months. including the stock buyback program, the merger is being financed by 60 percent stock and 40 percent cash.

p&g is known for brands such as and washing powder, cosmetics, potato crisps (chips) and and lacoste perfumes.

gillette, known for brands such as razors, dental care, and batteries, has had growing problems with the growth of private labels and price cuts demanded by large supermarkets.

after the acquisition is completed, gillette's ceo will be p&g's vice-chairman. kilts said that he expects that this acquisition will cause additional mergers to take place.

"i believe the consumer product industry needs to consolidate," said kilts, "we believe we can bring these companies together and create a juggernaut."

p&g and gillette have a combined market capitalization of about $185 billion us, which will make it the largest in the sector.

the early morning announcement states that 6,000 employees will be eliminated. most of the layoffs will result from reducing overlapping management positions and other supporting positions within the combined company.

antitrust regulators in the us and europe plan to review the acquisition, to determine whether the combined company will have too much power over pricing and shelf space.

p&g plans to provide additional details about the merger friday morning (east coast time) in new york.


crosswords/2005/january/28

feel free to use the wikimedia sites to solve our wikinews crossword (please do not fill it out online as it would spoil it for other people, print it out and fill it in at you own leisure!)


answers tomorrow.


telekom austria could take-over romanian mobile telephony giant

communications corporation telekom austria has stated that it intends to expand in southeastern europe and is specifically targeting the romanian mobile phone giant mobifon, which operates under the brand name connex. mobifon's connex gsm network is the second-largest in romania, with more than 4.9 million subscribers. mobifon is also one of the largest and best-known romanian companies, as well as one of the largest isps in the region.

several sources have stated that vodafone, which has an important share in mobifon, could sell its shares to telekom austria to take-over the romanian operator for approximately 3 billion euro.

this is not the first attempt by telekom austria in its drive towards expansion in the region. at the end of 2004, it signed an agreement to buy mobiltel from the bulgarian government for 1.6 billion euro. telekom austria also intends to expand into serbia and bosnia in 2005, followed by macedonia and montenegro.

mobifon, the romanian operator, is currently a branch of telesystems international wireless (tiw), a canadian communications company which also owns the oskar brand in czechia. the main shareholders in tiw are netherlandic operator mobifon holdings bv, with 63.45% share, as well as vodafone europe bv (20.15% participation) and deraso holding bv (14.4% participation).

with 4.9 million customers, mobifon has significant market share of romania's 10.2 million mobile phone subscribers. it also plans to be the first operator to establish a 3g network across the country.


honduras' head of congress illegally standing for president

head of congress is illegally standing in the february 20th internal party elections for president of honduras, according to a group of 20 well known from the capital . this is because in the run up to the previous elections it was decided by the 5 presidential candidates, including fellow national party member and current president , to support a ban on members of the national congress from standing for president. this was in order to discourage people from using the congress as a launch pad for their presidential aspirations. a constitutional reform to this effect was then passed by the congress while it was headed by mr lobo. this law appears to have been conveniently forgotten until yesterday when these lawyers made a public announcement calling on both the supreme electoral tribune and the public ministry to determine the illegality of pepe lobo's candidacy, and to act in the case of his not being allowed to stand.

lobo is an illegal candidate

law and morality-an opinion


man convicted of murdering wife 28 years ago

mother of three carol park disappeared from her home near barrow, cumbria, in july 1976 when she was 30 years old. she had had a tempestuous relationship with her husband, and had previously twice left him to live with a lover. park reported that she was missing from their home when he returned with his children from a day trip to the seaside resort of blackpool. because of her earlier disappearances, he did not report her missing to the police for six weeks, shortly before she would have been expected to start a new school year as a teacher.

a jury at manchester crown court however heard evidence that the keen climber and sailor had bludgeoned her to death with an ice axe, tied her body up in a foetal position, and wrapped it in plastic and a weighted carpet and dumped the body in coniston water, the third largest lake in england. the body was discovered by an amateur diving team in 1997. the jury heard that if the body had been dumped only a few feet further from the shore, it is likely that it would have sunk to the deepest part of the lake beyond the reach of divers, and would never have been found.

park was arrested and charged with the murder in 1997, but his trial then collapsed through lack of evidence. further evidence came to light, including geological evidence that the rocks which were used to weigh down the body were of a rare type which happened to be found in the rockery of the parks' house, and the meticulous knots used to tie up the body were described as "unusual", of the type used by climbers or sailors, and park was re-arrested in 2004.

the prosecution admitted that most of the evidence against park was circumstantial, and there were some exclamations of surprise in the public gallery when the jury returned its verdict. in a plea of mitigation, defending lawyer mr andrew edis qc said that park, who had subsequently remarried twice, had lead an otherwise blameless life. trial judge mr justice mccombe said that he was not sure if there was a significant degree of planning in the murder, but he did take into account the degree of violence employed in the killing, and the degree of suffering endured by many people, not least the park children, because of the concealment of the crime for so long, in passing a sentence of life imprisonment with a recommendation that park not be considered for parole for 15 years.



hamas takes victory in gaza elections

hamas, a radical islamist party, has won by a large majority in the gaza strip council elections held last month. hamas won 75 out of the 118 seats, with fatah, the party of palestinian leader, mahmoud abbas only managing to secure 39 seats. of the ten council areas in gaza, hamas has control of seven.

fathiya barghouti rheime, a 30-year-old high school teacher, and mother of two, was one of the seven hamas mayors elected in the gaza strip. she has become the second female mayor of a palestinian community, and the first ever elected one. "it's a sign of change," she said "i'm deeply concerned about transmitting the picture of the active islamic woman to the world, to wipe away the blemish of the veil."

in the west bank, female candidates won 52 of 306 seats. two and a half times the number of seats that had been reserved for women.



crosswords/2005/january/29

feel free to use the wikimedia sites to solve our wikinews crossword (please do not fill it out online as it would spoil it for other people, print it out and fill it in at you own leisure!)


answers tomorrow.


annan invites iraqis to exercise democratic rights

with just days to go before sunday's historic poll to choose a new government in iraq, un secretary general kofi annan has invited the people of iraq to exercise their democratic rights.

the poll, the first free elections in a generation, faces disruption from insurgents who are totally opposed to democracy. annan warned them not to interfere and promised continuing help from the un for the country in the future.

annan made his appeal in a pre-recorded message, broadcast on tv inside iraq. "elections are the best way to determine any country's future; please exercise your democratic rights on sunday," he said. "whatever your feelings about how the country reached this point, this election offers an opportunity to move away from violence and uncertainty toward peace and representative government."

the un has been providing advice and technical help to the independent electoral commission of iraq (ieci), as well as $100m funding for the poll and co-ordination of international assistance. a team of 40 experts has overseen the delivery of three million tonnes of election materials and helped the ieci and iraqi officials prepare and maintain the voters register.


taiwan-china flights begin

beijing/taipei ? nonstop flights between mainland china and taiwan took off saturday for the first time in more than half a century.

traditional dragon dancers in bright costumes performed on the tarmac as three airplanes prepared to leave beijing's airport saturday, the first to fly nonstop to taiwan since 1949. the ceremony marked the first of 48 charter flights allowed to operate between taiwan and the mainland over the three-week chinese new year holiday season. 

later, a china southern airlines plane, which took off from the guangzhou, landed at taipei's chiang kai-shek international airport amid similar fanfare. this marked the first successful direct flight across the two sides, still technically at war.

the republic of china government banned direct flights after the kuomintang defeat in the chinese civil war to the communists caused the government to retreat to taiwan. although there is consensus on all sides to resume the three links ? direct postal, telephone, and airline links ? between mainland china and taiwan, taiwan's president chen shui-bian has been reluctant to move ahead, citing the possibility that the people's republic of china could disguise troop carriers as commercial airliners to invade taiwan.

all normal airline flights between the two sides have to be routed through a third party ? usually hong kong ? making a three hour flight between taipei and shanghai last eight hours. 

taiwanese and mainland airlines are forbidden to travel into their respective airspaces, forcing passengers to change airlines too. these restrictions were first lifted for chinese new years in 2003, but those flights still stopped briefly in hong kong. 

taiwanese legislator john chang, the grandson of former president chiang kai-shek, spoke of the flights' significance at the ceremony. 

mr. chang said that despite differences, the flights symbolize "the hopes of the two sides for peace, stability, dialogue and mutual development."

mr. chang had been part of the group of opposition lawmakers that helped arrange the flights.
this year's flights were planned after diplomatic negotiations in macau, ending on january 15. they are aimed to allow the easy reuniting of families which are split between the island and the mainland for the celebrations.

the roc government hopes the flights can form the basis for further negotiations and better relations with the people's republic of china. however, the prc, which is refusing to deal with the independence-leaning government of president chen, is less optimistic.

most of the passengers taking advantage of the nonstop flights, running until february 20, are taiwanese businesspeople who work on the mainland. 

many taiwanese have lobbied their government to ease its ban on direct air links, especially as trade continues to grow between the island and the mainland, despite the political tensions. mainland chinese officials this month said cross-strait trade had reached a record $70 billion in 2004.



us navy chooses us-europe us101 helicopter to be next marine one

the u.s. navy has chosen the us-europe us101 helicopter to be the next marine one, the helicopter for the u.s. president.

the present aircraft, sikorsky seakings, are around thirty years old and do not have the payload capacity to carry the modern communications gear demanded by the white house. the contract is expected to cover the purchase of 23 helicopters.

when invitations were made to industry inviting proposals for replacements, sikorsky offered their h-92. lockheed martin did not have a suitable helicopter and, rather than developing, a new design, offered the european eh101, renamed the us101. the us101 will be built in america using mainly us components with some european content.

the eh101 was developed jointly by the british company westland and the italian augusta, who formed the augustawestland company. the helicopter has seen service with the british army in bosnia, the royal navy in the recent iraq war and with canadian coastguard in search and rescue operations.



iraqi elections kept low-key, but secure, in paris

fourteen countries outside of iraq have been selected for the installation of polling stations for the iraqi national assembly election. among these, paris, capital city of france, will welcome voters from france, belgium, and switzerland.

while the event has not been kept secret, the french government and media have been quite discreet about it. the polling station has been installed in an unused elementary school in a calm residential neighbourhood of the "xiiie arrondissement", without fanfare. most inhabitants are not even aware of its presence ? that is, until they notice the unusual deployment of police and come across the posters written in french and arabic. despite the discretion, the sight of police guarding a polling station is striking in a country where elections are a calm affair on a sunday, and polling stations, most of which are installed in schools, are only noticeable because of the official billboards carrying the candidates' posters.

security measures have been taken ? metallic barriers prevent parking in and around the front and back entrances to the station, and crs riot police with bulletproof vests guard the entrances.
still, overall, the security measures remain limited. traffic flows in the street, passers-by freely walk in front of the station entrance, no display of heavy weapons. this contrasts with the use of military troops and deployments of "gendarmes mobiles" that france used in its vigipirate anti-terror plan following the islamist terror bombings that it suffered in 1995, or the typical security measures kept around possible terror targets such as the embassies of israel and the united states of america. this time, military cars and a handful of soldiers were seen in the morning, but were gone in the afternoon. 


official figures didn't show 60% of dead iraqi civilians were killed by coalition forces, says bbc

the bbc reported on january 27 that statistics released by the iraqi ministry of health showed that coalition forces killed 60% of the civilians that died in the period july 2004 to january 2005. 

the figures, normally available only to the iraqi cabinet, show a total of 3,274 iraqi civilians were killed and 12,657 wounded during the continuing conflict. these figures exclude the deaths of known insurgents.

however according to the iraqi ministry of health, the bbc misunderstood the matter. according to the previous story from bbc these figures were a result of coalition and iraqi security forces military operations.

however, the iraqi ministry of health explained that the published figures also include iraqis killed by terrorists, not only those killed by coalition forces or iraqi security forces; and that those recorded as killed in military action included terrorists themselves, and iraqi security forces.

the bbc recognized their error and apologized in a recent news item, and retracted the conclusions drawn by their original report:

""the bbc regrets mistakes in its published and broadcast reports yesterday," reported the bbc.""

the figures, based on records from iraqi public hospitals released by the iraqi ministry of health, are shown in the following table:

shortly before the release of the figures by the bbc, us ambassador john negroponte had told bbc reporter john simpson:

"my impression is that the largest amount of civilian casualties definitely is a result of these indiscriminate car bombings."

 


chinese airlines agree purchase of boeing 787 dreamliners worth us$7.2bn

officials from the people's republic of china have agreed to purchase 60 boeing 787 dreamliner aircraft in a deal worth us$7.2bn.

in china, airliners are selected and purchased by the government, which then distributes them to different airlines. the preliminary agreement will see dreamliners delivered to six airlines - air china, china eastern airlines, china southern airlines, hainan airlines, shanghai airlines and xiamen airlines. the deliveries are scheduled to be in time for the 2008 beijing olympic games.

the aircraft was once named the 7e7 but was renamed at the same time the deal was announced. boeing will begin production in 2006 and the aircraft should enter airline service in 2008. it will seat 200 to 300 people and will have a range of 3,500 to 8,500 nautical miles. through the use of the latest materials and designs it will be 20% more fuel efficient than the equivalent aircraft today.


ex uk minister chris smith was hiv positive for 17 years

ex-british culture minister has lived with the hiv virus for 17 years, he has revealed to the sunday times.

the former cabinet minister decided to go public after the former south african president nelson mandela announced his son makgatho mandela, had died of aids.

'when i first heard about it, i was really worried because there was hardly any treatment,' he told the newspaper.

mr smith was quickly put on a course of anti-retrovirals after he was diagonosed. he said that he had "been with the all the time".

chris smith revealed he was gay in 1984. he was sacked from his post (which he held since 1997) in 2001, after controversies over the national lottery and the construction of the new wembley stadium.

he is due to stand down at the next general election.



crosswords/2005/january/30

feel free to use the wikimedia sites to solve our wikinews crossword (please do not fill it out online as it would spoil it for other people, print it out and fill it in at you own leisure!)


answers tomorrow.


first free iraqi election begins; insurgents strike

the first free elections in over 50 years have begun in iraq, via proportional representation, to choose members for a 275-strong assembly that will then draw up a constitution.

interim president ghazi al-yawar was among the first to cast a ballot.

however violence has already begun to overshadow the event, both inside iraq and abroad, with a suicide bomber blowing himself up close to a polling place in western baghdad, and a riot and bomb scare in sydney, australia.

according to police reports four people were killed and at least nine injured in the baghdad bombing. a total of at least 36 people have so far been killed in iraq today in various suicide bombing since the opening of the polls.

as well as suicide bombings, insurgents have used mortars to attack the people. in southern baghdad they killed at least two people, and in hilla one person was killed. mortar rounds have also been fired on other cities, including mosul and baquba.

28,000 polling booths in 5,578 stations opened at 7 am (local time), closely guarded by both coalition troops and iraqi security forces. turn out has so far been described as "sporadic", with queues in shia areas but few people voting in sunni areas.

"thank god, thank god." said the interim president, "blessed are the iraqi elections. we greet all iraqi people and urge them not to give up their rights, to vote for iraq, elect iraq and not to give up on iraq"

"deep in my heart, i feel that iraqis deserve free elections," he went on, "this will be our first step towards joining the free world and being a democracy that iraqis will be proud of."

booths have also been set up in many countries outside iraq to allow expatriates a chance to vote in the elections, however iraqis in countries without booths are complaining about not being able to use postal votes, and those in countries which do have booths complain that there are not enough of them.

iraqis in new zealand would have to travel to australia to lodge their vote. "there is a lot of interest in this election. not all the iraqis here have passports yet, so not so many can travel. i'm a little sad that we can't contribute to this," said wellington's iraqi association spokesman jafar abdulghani yesterday. "our association would have been very interested to invite the organisers to help us with voting." there are currently around 7000 iraqis in new zealand who are eligible to vote.

fifty people rioted in sydney, australia, when about 20 protesters yelled insults at voters leaving the center, setting off the melee. voting organizers said the protesters were wahhabis, members of a sect of sunni islam associated with militants in iraq. police said there no were arrests and no reports of injuries. after the fighting was contained, an unattended backpack found near the center led police to close the center and cordon off the area.

it turned out not to be a bomb, but polling was extended. thair wali, an iraqi adviser for the international organization for migration, said the fight broke out after the protesters began using cameras and cell phones to take pictures of voters leaving the station. "this is scary for the people, taking photos of the voting," he said.

iraqi nationals abroad have said they failed to register to vote, fearing terrorists would then target relatives in iraq.



french goat is found to have bse

the european union has announced that a french goat has become the first animal other than a cow to ever have tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (bse). the results were announced after over two years testing of the goat's remains. scientists originally thought that the goat was suffering from scrapie, another degenerative disease that can be found in goats and sheep.

this discovery proves correct the theory that bse, or mad cow disease as it is commonly know, can exist in ruminants other than cattle.

the eu has stated that eating goat products is still safe due to precautionary measures which have been put in place. "i want to reassure consumers that existing safety measures in the eu offer a very high level of protection." the eu commissioner responsible for health and consumer protection, markos kyprianou said regarding the findings.

"this case was discovered thanks to the eu testing system in place in france."

"the testing programme has shown us that there is a very low incidence rate of tses (transmissible spongiform encephalopathies) in goats and allowed us to detect suspect animals so that they can be taken out of the food chain, as was done with this goat and its entire herd." 

the eu intends to test 200,000 goats in the 25 member states over the next six months.

 


habib back in australia, thankful to supporters

in a statement through his australian lawyer, stephen hopper, the habib family thanked the australian people during mr habib's incarereation. the statement also offered thanks for the work of mr habib's american lawyer saying, "most of all we'd like to thank joe margulies for his excellent efforts ... joe's the best lawyer in the world."

mr margulies says mr habib needs medical treatment for chronic physical and mental conditions he suffers from his incarceration.

mr habib was detained by coalition forces in three weeks after the september 11 attacks on the world trade center in new york, on suspicion of having links to osama bin laden and the al qaeda terrorist group.


protests at new york's hamilton college over controversial professor

churchill's paper, entitled "some people push back", charges that all american citizens are complicit in the "genocide of 500,000 iraqi children," which he maintains occurred during the gulf war as a direct result of military actions and the destruction of infrastructure and the water supply. due to their inaction and empowerment of the american government, he compares american citizens to "good germans." he also charges that the inhabitants of the targets of attack, namely the pentagon and world trade center, have a dubious claim to the title "innocent civilians," as the pentagon was a military target and the wtc was home to many who he alleges profited from the iraqi genocide.

administrators defended professor churchill's appearance despite the fact that some considered his views repugnant and disparaging.

according to hamilton college spokesman michael debraggio: "hamilton, like any institution committed to the free exchange of ideas, invites to its campus people of diverse opinions, often controversial."

the university of colorado's interim chancellor phil distefano said in a statement:"i wish to make it clear that professor ward churchill's views of the events of 9/11 are his own and do not represent the views of university of colorado faculty, staff, students, administration or regents. while i may personally find his views offensive, i also must support his right as an american citizen to hold and express his views, no matter how repugnant, as guaranteed by the first amendment of the constitution."

the professor's opinions divided new york's hamilton college, where churchill is scheduled to speak. jessica miraglia, a student at hamilton, created a poster defending the professor reading "you don't have to agree with them in order to learn from them.". sophomore matt coppo, who lost his father in the world trade center attacks was angered over the invitation to churchill. "knowing that i'm paying for a person to disrespect my father, it doesn't go over too well in my mind." 

two congressmen from colorado asked professor churchill to apologize for comparing victims of the 9/11 world trade center attack to nazis. professor churchill has said that he will not back off his statement.




ephraim kishon dies at 80

he was born on august 23, 1924, in budapest, hungary, as ferenc hoffmann. a prisoner in a hungarian concentration camp, he escaped during the journey to the extermination camp of sobibor.
he returned home to find his family alive and joined them in hiding until the end of the war. 

changing his name to ferenc kishont, he worked as a writer in a pro-communist satirical magazine until fleeing to israel with his first wife, eva, in 1949. there, an immigration clerk changed his name to the hebrew ephraim kishon (????? ?????), which he had used ever since. recently, he lived in both switzerland and israel. 

a worldwide bestselling author, his books and short stories were translated into 37 languages. he also wrote a regular column in maariv, wrote numerous plays, and created several films, amongst which are "sallah" ("???? ????"), which won two golden globe awards and was nominated for an academy award, and "the policeman" ("????? ??????"), which won one golden globe award and was nomniated for an academy award.

he won many awards over the years, including the israeli nordau prize for literature (1953), the israeli sokolov prize for journalism (1958), the israeli kinor david prize (1964), and the israel prize for lifetime achievement (2002).

israeli prime minister, ariel sharon, said in a eulogy: "ephraim kishon was one of the giants of israeli culture, who created an entire cultural world for a country in formation; he created an entire world of culture for the country." 

prior to the funeral, his coffin was placed on the morning of february 1, in the journalists' house in tel aviv, where his friends, colleagues, family, and fans, payed their lasts respects to him. amongst them was israeli minister of education, limor livnat, and mayor of tel aviv, ron huldai.

kishon left behind his third wife, lisa, and children raphael, amir and renana.




report into 2003/2004 new south wales (australia) hospital safety released

the report detailed 13 patients who had operations that they were not meant to have or who had the wrong part of the body operated upon. it also noted that another 22 were seriously injured in falls in wards and bathrooms.

other statistics included four suicides in hospital, with another 128 occurring in community care. another nine people retained surgical instruments or materials inside them after the operation. the rest of the serious incidents related to labour and delivery problems (26) and clinical management problems (157).


crosswords/2005/january/31

feel free to use the wikimedia sites to solve our wikinews crossword (please do not fill it out online as it would spoil it for other people, print it out and fill it in at you own leisure!)


answers tomorrow.


crosswords/2005/january


quick crosswords for january (solutions are on following days):



crosswords/2005

quick crosswords for 2005(solutions are on following days):





crosswords/2005/february

quick crosswords for february (solutions are on following days):




slovak escapes from avalanche using urine

a slovakian man who was trapped in his car under an avalanche, has escaped by urinating on ice to melt it. the man?who had 60 half-litre bottles of beer with him in the car?literally drank his way to safety.

"i was scooping the snow from above me and packing it down below the window, and then i peed on it to melt it," he said.

rescue workers found the man still drunk on a mountain path in slovakia’s tatra mountains four days after his audi car was buried. 

"it was hard and now my kidneys and liver hurt. but i'm glad the beer i took on holiday turned out to be useful and i managed to get out of there," he said. 

he first planned to shovel the ice from outside his window, directly into his car, but soon realised that he would run out of room in his car before he would be able to reach the top.

snowfalls of levels not seen since 1941 have fallen over parts of europe over the past week. some places have registered more than 3 meters of snow in 24 hours.



vandals deface australia's myall creek memorial

police are investigating damage to a memorial to the 28 victims of the myall creek massacre. the plaques which are in the town of inverell in northern new south wales, australia had the words "murder", "women" and "children" hammered from it leaving the plaque unreadable.

inverell police senior constable chris curtin said that "we got reports [from a local aboriganal elder] that deep gouges have been scratched into the plaques along the memorial walk. several of the plaques will have to be replaced."

the nsw government has reacted to the event by calling the vandalism an appalling and insulting crime. "this is a gross act of vandalism, defacing this memorial is disrespectful and insulting to the people who were murdered, and their families." aboriginal affairs minister andrew refshauge said.

"all you're doing is really showing the blackness in your own heart, the sadness of your own spirit - there is much more at stake here than that," mr refshauge continued. "the reconciliation of aboriginal and non-aboriginal people in the region is already a powerful movement - join it, don't trash it."

the myall creek massacre is particually important in australian history, as it marks the first time that europeans were charged and convicted of murdering aborigines. "it was the first occasion when european law was applied to deliver justice for aboriginal people," mr refshauge said. "that's why this act of vandalism is especially appalling."



metlife to acquire travelers life and annuity from citigroup

metlife announced on 01/31/05 that they were going to acquire travelers life and annuity from citigroup. travelers life and annuity is an insurance underwriter. metlife is a large life insurance and annuities underwriter. metlife will have to borrow a lot of money to pay for the company, so rating agencies like s&p warn that the aa credit rating of metlife might be lowered. this would cause the interest rates at which all of metlife's debt must be repaid to increase.

citigroup committed to continue distributing travelers life insurance and annuities through its smith barney stock brokers, primerica agents, and citibank branches. 

citigroup was previously known as travelers insurance before it bought citicorp. first the property and casualty business of travelers was spun off, and now the life insurance division has been sold off. this is primarily because insurance underwriters get a lower price to earnings multiple from the stock market because of the cycles and uncertainty associated with the insurance business. also, having an insurance underwriter and a bank together does not usually create "cross-sell" opportunities, because consumers and businesses almost always buy life insurance and annuities through brokers who have a duty to give them other options. citigroup will continue to sell insurance through its brokers as before.


virgin of suyapa visits honduran suburb devastated by massacre

the virgin of suyapa, a 6cm high statue that is the patron saint of honduras, was brought to the local suburb of eben ezer in chamelecon, san pedro sula, after the residents of this area experienced the massacre of 27 people returning home by bus on 23rd december 2004. a further 29 were left injured. many thousands of people from all over come to suyapa, a suburb of the capital , to celebrate her name day in early february, and she made this visit yesterday, sunday january 30th, as a part of this year's celebrations. 

her presence was heavily guarded by a contingent of armed military troops, as this statue has already been stolen more than once, though always recovered later. a minute's silence was held at the spot where the massacre took place. the nationally well known bishop's assistant romulo emiliani led the ceremonies. 

 


raf hercules crashes north of baghdad killing ten

a british royal air force c-130k hercules transport aircraft crashed 30 km north of baghdad in iraq yesterday, killing ten service people.

the aeroplane was flying from baghdad international airport to the u.s. airbase at balad, when it crashed at approximately 1635 local time. 

the royal airforce at raf lyneham has confirmed that ten british servicemen were killed in the crash: sqn ldr patrick marshall, flt lt david stead, flt lt andrew smith, flt lt paul pardoel, master engineer gary nicholson, ch tech richard brown, flt sgt mark gibson, sgt robert o'connor, cpl david williams all of the royal air force and acting l/cpl steven jones of the british army royal signals. the uk ministry of defence has said that the aircraft was on a routine transport flight.

flt lt paul pardoel was an australian born navigator serving with 47 squadron lyneham of the british raf. flt lt pardoel is australia's first casualty in iraq.

the cause of the crash is unknown and is under investigation.


 


kofi annan notes high turnout in 2005 iraq elections

un secretary general kofi annan has noted that the iraqi people turned out in large numbers to vote in the january 30 ballot. voters were deciding who to elect to the 275 seat transitional national assembly.

sporadic violence saw the deaths of 22 people across the country during voting, but attacks by insurgents did not seem to deter voters from exercising their new democratic rights. annan praised the courage of the people and congratulated the independent election commission of iraq (ieci) and un officials for successfully running the poll.

the secretary general went on to say that the success bodes well for the on-going transition process. the next step will be a referendum in october 2005 on the constitution the transitional national assembly will be tasked with drawing up.

in the out-of-country voting program, 93.6% of iraqis eligible to vote, did so.



us guards kill four in iraqi prison riot

four prisoners at camp bucca theatre internment facility near umm qasr in southern iraq, were killed by us guards during a riot that broke out at the facility yesterday. the us military has also stated that 6 other detainees were injured during the riot.

a statement from the us military said that the riot started just after noon, in one of the camp's ten compounds, following a routine search for contraband.

"the riot quickly spread to three additional compounds, with detainees throwing rocks and fashioning weapons from materials inside their living areas," the statement said. "guards attempted to calm the increasingly volatile situation using verbal warnings and, when that failed, by use of non-lethal force. after about 45 minutes of escalating danger, lethal force was used to quell the violence." the statement said.

"the cause of the riot and use of lethal force is currently under investigation by the chain of command and the us army's criminal investigations division, which is standard procedure whenever a detainee death occurs," the statement continued.



iraqis vote in massive numbers

the iraqis turned out in large numbers to the national election of january 30, 2005, risking their lives and ignoring the threats and attacks of terrorist groups. the rebels caused at least 44 deaths during the election. ten of the deaths were caused by suicide attacks. the al-qaeda organization announced on a website that 13 suicide attackers participated in the attacks.

despite the violence, a 'loosely estimated' 60% of the 14 million registered electors appeared to vote, according to the electoral commission. proportional representation was the voting method used to select the members for a 275-strong assembly that will then draw up a constitution. the iraqis faced up to threats, attacks, and the inconvenience of long lines caused by the security measures at polling booths.

this was the first free election held in iraq in over 50 years. the 2005 iraq election was very different than the previous one in 2002 during the regime of saddam hussein. at that time the iraq elector was offered "yes" or "no" choices in a referendum for the only candidate, saddam hussein. the results of that election showed 100 percent in favor of hussein in a 100 percent turnout. that election was called the mother of all election frauds, since any iraqi elector who didn't appear and vote for hussein was condemned to death. , 

mahdeya saleh, an 80 year old iraqi citizen said: "i had often been forced to vote under saddam hussein. today i come out of my own will to choose freely the candidate of my choice for the first and last time in my life." 

"why should i be afraid?" arifa abed mohamed told a christian science monitor reporter at a baghdad polling station. "i am afraid only from god."

other iraqis expressed a similar disregard for the rebels’ threats. “i would have crawled here if i had to,” samir hassan told a reuters reporter. “i don’t want terrorists to kill other iraqis like they tried to kill me.” hassan lost his leg in an october 2004 car-bomb attack.




 


mother of first australian soldier killed in iraq expresses anger

mrs pardoel said she opposes the war. "i think it's just cold-blooded murder. look at all those young american boys that have been slaughtered," she said. "i don't think this should have gone on ... he said to me one night he phoned, he said, 'mum there's nowhere to hide here, it's just so dangerous, there's nowhere to hide'." 

thirty-five year old flight lieutenant paul pardoel had been on his last flight when the c-130 hercules he was aboard crashed north of baghdad yesterday, killing ten personnel. he was serving with the british royal air force (raf), to which he had transferred several years ago from the royal australian air force (raaf), as navigator in 47 squadron lyneham raf.

mr pardoel had been expecting to return in july to his wife and three children in australia, where they had recently bought a new house in canberra.

australian foreign affairs minister, alexander downer, says he is saddened to hear of the man's death.

"i want his family to know, and his friends to know, that he certainly did not die in vain, that this tragic accident occurred - or this tragedy because it may not have been an accident - but this tragedy occurred on a day when 65 per cent of the people of iraq went out and voted," he said.




nepal’s king gyanendra dismisses the government, claims power for himself

the king of nepal, , has dissolved the coalition government, accusing it of factional fighting and failing in its duty to protect democracy. several key political figures in the old coalition have been put under house arrest, including the leader of the .

the king has said that he removed the government of prime minister because "it has failed to make necessary arrangements to hold elections by april and protect democracy, the sovereignty of the people and life and property". the king had repeatedly called on deuba to set a date for elections despite threats by rebels to block any vote.

"i have exercised my rights given to the crown under the present constitution and i have, therefore, dissolved the government for the larger interests," the king said.

this announcement occurs with the backdrop of a which has claimed the lives of more than 11,000 people since 1996.



crosswords/2005/february/1

feel free to use the wikimedia sites to solve our wikinews crossword (please do not fill it out online as it would spoil it for other people, print it out and fill it in at you own leisure!)

if you like, you can follow the instructions on crosswords/across lite to download and solve today's crossword on your computer. 

answers tomorrow.


poll shows romanians are optimistic about current government

a survey by the romanian institute for marketing and polling (imas) shows that 64% of the country's citizens consider that things are moving in the right direction and are optimistic about the future of romania. 

additionally, 59% consider that the current centre-right liberal government, led by c?lin popescu t?riceanu, will do a better job than the previous social-democrat government under adrian n?stase.

the surveyed people were also asked who they would vote for if an election were held now. 66% said they would choose the governing truth and justice alliance, while only 19% said they would back the social democrats. this is one of the lowest approval rates for the social democrats ever, especially considering that they achieved 37% of the vote in the november legislative elections, and the social democrats' adrian n?stase only narrowly lost to current president traian b?sescu in the december run-off election, getting 48.77% of the electorate's vote.

in terms of individual politicians, presdient traian b?sescu has the highest approval rating, with 73% trusting him. the next most trusted is the prime minister, c?lin popescu t?riceanu, of the truth and justice alliance. he has an approval rating of 64%.

perhaps shockingly, the poll shows that the far-right nationalist great romania party leader, corneliu vadim tudor, has an approval rating of 21%, while the interim social democrat leader victor ponta has an approval rating of only 15%.

this dramatic fall in the social democrats' popularity is expected to change romanian politics significantly, considering that , after the fall of communism in romania, they dominated politics for most of the years up until the present.

what matters most, though, is that in romania at present, most people trust the people which elected as their leaders, something which is crucial at a time when romania must implement important reforms to prepare for accession to the european union in 2007.


blair says iraq election was blow against global terrorism

according to the british prime minister tony blair, the iraq election was a blow against global terrorism. he vowed to stand by iraq as it moves to build a democracy and paid tribute to british military personnel who died in a plane crash on election day.

in a nationally broadcast statement, blair said: "it was moving and humbling for those of us lucky enough to live in a democracy and take it for granted, to see the enthusiasm and the simple determination, the clear sight of courage of millions of iraqis that came out to vote for the first time in their lives, despite the terrorism, despite the threats, despite the dangers...democracy in iraq is not just good for iraq itself. it is also a blow right to the heart of the global terrorism that threatens destruction not just in iraq but in britain and virtually every major country around the world."

president bush also spoke of the incident, saying he mourns the british and american military personnel who died on sunday.



survey reveals us student apathy for freedom of speech

“these results are not only disturbing; they are dangerous,” said knight foundation president and ceo hodding carter iii. “ignorance about the basics of this free society is a danger to our nation’s future.”

researchers from the university of connecticut questioned more than 100,000 high school students, nearly 8,000 teachers, and more than 500 administrators and principals, in a two-year study costing us$1 million. entitled "the future of the first amendment", the study was commissioned by the florida-based john s. and james l. knight foundation.

according to the study, teaching of first amendment values is effective in redressing the types of misunderstandings revealed, but it concludes even the basics are not being taught effectively now.

appreciation and understanding of the rights were much greater amongst teachers, principals and adults, studied in this, and other recent studies. in contrast, students were more likely than others to think that potentially offensive song lyrics should be allowed, and student publications should not require approval from the school authorities.

other findings included that one in five schools offer no student media whatsoever, and that finances limit the ability of administrators to offer such opportunities for student expression, particularly for low income, inner city and regional schools; and that student participation in student media increased appreciation for first amendment rights.



colombia releases detailed report about the farc

the colombian caracol radio reported on january 31, 2005 that the government of colombia released a detailed document which describes how the farc operates in colombia and around the world. the report was prepared by the unidad administrativa especial de informacion y analisis financiero del ministerio de hacienda(special administrative unit of the information and financial analysis of the ministry of the finance) and describes how the farc operates and manage their finances. the study was delivered to the colombian government at the end of the last year. 

according to caracol radio the most important facts from the report are the following: 
the report identifies three types of guerrilla:

28 percent belongs to the high ranking members of farc, 64 percent belongs to the middle ranks and 8 percent to the lower ranks.

the costs of feeding people who are kidnapped is 2,382 million pesos






farc recruit people of between 16 and 30 years of age. the new recruits first get a minimum information on internal, objective statutes of the organization and commitments. after been incorporated, the members are sent to training basic schools by a period between 3-5 months. when they leaves the scholl they are considered flat guerrilla. after two years depending on profits and behavior the guellicas can get promotion to squadron commander, delegate of guerrilla, commander, etc. 


support to the captured members and their families.



there are 57 clandestine airports that the narco-traffickers use(this is a big number since in colombia there are only 73 official airports). the farc rent the use of these airport to drug-dealers and receive income of up to 7154 million pesos from doing so.

the report says that the farc directly commercializes 30 percent of the drug that is produced, and the remaining 70 percent is left to international networks of drug trafficking.


according to the vice-minister of defense andres penate the majority of the farc incomes comes from the commercialization of the drugs, followed by extorsion and kidnapping.

currency converter.


venezuela-colombia crisis:castro intervenes, chavez and uribe scheduled to meet

the president of colombia alvaro uribe is scheduled to meet the president of venezuela hugo chavez thursday. apparently the crisis between venezuela and colombia is almost solved. the crisis began with the imprisonment of the alleged farc member rodrigo granda by colombian forces on december 13, 2004. venezuela accused colombian of invading venezuelan territory. colombia accused venezuela of harboring farc terrorists.
the president of cuba, fidel castro, intervened in the crisis and talked to chavez and uribe. 

according to bogota's newspaper el tiempo, uribe asked for castro's help on january 21. castro responded with surprising speed and effectiveness. on january 21 castro sent the chancellor felipe perez roque to caracas where he met with chavez and then returned to havana, informing castro on the results of the encounter. after midnight castro communicated by telephone with uribe for two hours. they decided that castro would send his vice-chancellor with a letter detailing what they had talked about to chavez. 

during the world social forum in porto alegre chavez appeared to be optimistic about the end of the crisis. he recognized the importance of castro's role in the resolution of the problems between colombia and venezuela. also he was thankful for the help of the other leaders in south america.

the crisis between venezuela and colombia lasted more than a month without a solution and it was entering a dangerous stage, with severe accusations from both sides. during recent days the us government became more interested in the conflict and was pressuring chavez for a clear declaration about his relationship with the farc. the us is an ally of colombia in the fight against farc. farc is a member of, and supported by, the foro de sao paulo, an alleged anti-imperialism and anti-liberalism organization of south america. other forum de sao paulo member states include brazil, cuba and venezuela.

"there is some uncertainty about the date of some events." <br>



brazil forbids previous release of statistical data

the brazilian government announced on january 28 that the brazilian institute of geography and statistics (ibge) will have to provide the ministry of planning and budget with all research data 48 hours before it is released to the press. the ministry will be responsible for checking the data before it becomes public. all government employees with previous access to ibge data will be required to keep it private or face prosecution.

according to the announcement, the objective is to organize the flow of information according to practices adopted in several other countries. both the government and the ibge deny claims of censorship and data manipulation.

ibge is an independent public agency responsible for research in brazil.



microsoft releases new msn search

microsoft released today the final version of its new service, msn search. the new features that are available include tabs that allow consumers to target searches to the web, news, images, music, desktop or microsoft encarta.


australian prime minister to visit aceh

australian prime minister john howard will visit banda aceh this afternoon. 

he will visit the hospital which reopened recently with the help of australian and german military doctors, and also take a helicopter tour of tsunami-ravaged coastal areas. he will also hold talks with senior indonesian ministers who are overseeing relief efforts.

australia has committed aud$1 billion in aid over five years to the tsunami recovery, it's largest ever foreign aid program. 


human rights group critical of us opposition to icc in darfur

us based has criticised the united states attempts to block the un from referring atrocities in the region to the (icc). the us favours setting up an ad hoc tribunal instead. hrw claims that the resulting delay will lead to the loss of more innocent lives. 

the us has long opposed the icc, because of concerns over politically motivated prosecutions of it's citizens. 

a report prepared by a five member un commission noted "killing of civilians, enforced disappearances, destruction of villages, rape and other forms of sexual violence, pillaging and forced displacement, throughout darfur", and secretly named alleged war criminals that should go before the icc. 

, the u.s. ambassador-at-large for war crimes, said "we don't want to be party to legitimizing the icc." 

in the last two years in the region more than 70,000 people have been killed, and over 2 million displaced.

the united states, which signed but did not ratify the statute during the administration, withdrew its support soon after assumed the presidency. it signed the icc statute at the last minute, primarily so that it could continue to take part in negotiations on the rules of procedure for the new court, in an attempt to obtain an exemption for u.s. nationals taking part in un-sponsored peacekeeping missions--as several other countries were able to do. the u.s. fears that american soldiers and political leaders may be subject to frivolous or politically motivated prosecutions.

u.s. opponents of the icc maintain that in cases where the u.s. failed to act quickly enough to prevent disaster the u.s. has been criticized for allowing genocide to occur (e.g. :""rwanda: u.s., france blamed for genocide"",""rwanda-us: intelligence warned early of genocide, new papers show""); in cases where the u.s. "has" acted quickly they have been criticized and even accused of war crimes (e.g. yugoslavia, :""yugoslavia: us terrorism"", ""american slaughter of people in somalia"").

furthermore, opponents contend that the neither the icc nor the united nations has any real power to enforce the extradition of war criminals from signatory states. therefore, any kind of military action to force compliance would have to be undertaken (in large part) by the u.s., action which would expose u.s. officials to spurious charges of war crimes.


pope john paul ii has flu, taken to hospital

pope john paul ii has been taken to hospital and is suffering from a "breathing crisis", the vatican has confirmed.

the vatican said in a statement that the pope, 84, is suffering from an acute respiratory infection. he was admitted to the gemelli polyclinic hospital at 2300 local time (2200 utc).

according to the vatican the pontiff is suffering from an acute inflammation of the larynx as well as laryngo-spasms that constrict the lung's intake of air. he was diagnosed with a severe flu three days ago and taken to gamelli as a precaution. 

the pope is no stranger to gemelli polyclinic hospital. in 1981 he was taken there after being shot in the abdomen by mehmet ali agca and he has been re-admitted at least three times since.

although the vatican usually does not comment on the pontiff's state of health, it is widely known that the pope suffers from parkinson's disease, and chronic joint problems. 


australian churches begin campaign against late-term abortion

australian churches have begun a public campaign opposing late-term abortion. anglican, catholic, baptist, presbyterian, buddhist, hindu, lutheran, sikh, salvation army, wesleyan and seventh-day adventist religious groups issued a signed statement yesterday calling for laws limiting abortions after a pregnancy has reached its 20th week. 

the statement also calls for information to be provided to women considering abortion. they should receive detailed information about the health risks, the stage of the actual foetal development and the exact nature of the medical procedure. additionally, a seven day "cooling down period" should follow initial counseling to give women more time to consider their decision.

but according to the document, the concerned church leaders are also aware that public opinion in australia is predominantly pro-choice.

and new south wales premier bob carr has revealed that of 31,600 abortions in nsw last year, only 200 were in fact late term. 

prime minister john howard has welcomed the renewed debate about abortion without committing himself yet. 


nepal's king names new cabinet

king gyanendra of nepal has today announced a new 10-member cabinet, after yesterday sacking the coalition government. the king, who some nepalis view as a reincarnation of the hindu god vishnu, made the announcement on the state run television and radio service. "a new cabinet will be formed under my leadership," he said. "this will restore peace and effective democracy in this country within the next three years."

gyanendra named rames nath pandey as foreign minister, dan bahadur shahi as home minister, as well as radha krishna mainali, a member of the communist party, as minister for sports and education. the king has decided to head the new administration himself, after accusing the old administration of failing to ensure the small nation's security. nepal is in the midst of a maoist insurgency that has claimed more than 11,000 lives since 1996. 

all telephone lines and mobile telephone networks have been cut with the outside world. flights into and out of the capital of kathmandu, have also been stopped. however one flight did leave for new delhi overnight. local radio stations are also reported to have been shut down, and nepali websites are inaccessible from outside nepal.

the united nations, britain, the united states and india criticized the king's action, and australia has advised its citizens not to travel to nepal.

kofi annan, the secretary-general of the un has said that the king's actions are "a serious setback for the country ... steps should be taken immediately to restore democratic freedoms and institutions" the us administration added that the sacking was a "step back from democracy" and india joined into the chorus by saying that the developments were a "cause of grave concern". the uk, the usa and india have all provided nepal with arms and given the army training under the banner of security aid. the nepalese army has tripled in size in less than 10 years. the us alone is estimated to have supplied 20,000 m-16 rifles as well as night-vision and communications equipment, and counter-insurgency training.

the indian express newspaper is reporting that the indian government tried to dissuade king gyanendra from a "power grab" a few weeks ago.

a statement from new delhi said ""these developments constitute a serious setback to the cause of democracy in nepal and cannot but be a cause of grave concern to india," an indian foreign ministry statement said. the latest developments in nepal bring the monarchy and the mainstream political parties in direct confrontation with each other. this can only benefit the forces that not only wish to undermine democracy but the institution of monarchy as well." india shares an open border with nepal. 

the leader of the maoist rebels, prachanda, likened the kings actions to "medieval feudal autocracy", and said that the king was trying "to push the nepalese society of the 21st century back to the 15th.". in a statement to a [cpnm.org maoist website] he said "we heartily call upon the entire pro-people forces of the world to raise their voices against this autocratic step and in the favor of the nepalese people's democratic movement,"

prachanda, denounced king gyanendra as a "national betrayer" and told nepalis to "shut down nepal" in a three day general strike from wednesday to friday, however witnesses in kathmandu said life was going on as normal, and there are no obvious signs of additional security. meenakshi, a street sweeper outside the gates of the king's palace said "i just don't know anything. i am just here like any other day," the king has imposed a state of emergency which forbids mass gatherings.



new drugs listed on australian pharmaceutical benefits scheme

two new drugs used in the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have been added to the australian pharmaceutical benefits scheme (pbs), health minister tony abbott announced today. the new drugs are risperdal consta, for the treatment of schizophrenia, and zyprexa, for the treatment of bipolar one disorder.

the pharmaceutical benefits scheme is a programme that provides heavily subsidised prescription drugs to all citizens and residents of australia. most necessary medicines are included in the list of medicines covered by the pbs. 

the federal government through the pbs purchases medication in bulk from drug companies at a pre-agreed price. the consumer then buys the medicine from his/her pharmacist at a subsidised price and the pbs covers the difference between the bulk purchase cost and the consumer price.



australian pm arrives in aceh

australian prime minister john howard has arrived in the provincial capital of banda aceh. he is taking a short tour of the tsunami-hit region, and meeting with indonesian government officials. 

he was met at the airport by foreign minister hassan wirajuda and officials coordinating relief efforts in the region. 

he will tour the coastline by helicopter, and visit australian military engineers who are clearing debris. 



man run over by train near adelaide, loses both legs

a man is in royal adelaide hospital in a critical condition after being run over by a train north of adelaide today. the accident occurred at 1:30pm acdt. 

the man has lost both his legs. 

reports indicate that the man was a railway employee involved in shunting of train carriages. 


paedophile forced to flee australian town

a group of protesters have now gathered outside mr ferguson's new home in ipswich, who at one stage threw rocks at the house. the mayor has defended the actions of the protesters saying "all the residents are doing is showing their democratic right - what they feel - and i think that in this country, they have a right to do that," he said.

"i think the only thing left is institutionalise. i think that's the only thing left in this community because you just can't keep shifting the problem all over the state and all over the country until people start showing signs of remorse and show signs of whether they've been rehabilitated."

however the premier of queensland, peter beattie, reponded by asking mayor paul pisale what he meant by "institutionalised". "to do what?" he said."okay, so you actually believe that somebody should be locked up forever? we have laws in this state now, and i will talk to paul about this, which basically say that a paedophile will not be released if they're a danger to the community."

but the deputy opposition leader jeff seeney says that in mr ferguson's case "those laws have failed," he said. "he needs to go into an institution and peter beattie has a responsibility to ensure that people such as that are kept in an institution."

 


girl killed by falling tree

a 16 year old sydney student was killed when a 10 metre gum tree fell on the tent in which she was sleeping. 

another girl sleeping beside her was unharmed. 

the accident occurred at 1:30am aedt at a campsite near wombeyan caves. the girl was participating in an overnight leadership camp with sydney's private queenwood school for girls.

severe storms have lashed the east coast of australia for the past few days. 



british incapacity benefit due to be overhauled today

an overhaul of incapacity benefit is due to be announced in parliament today.

the payments are likely to be renamed and there could be financial penalties on those who do not actively seek work.

the benefit, given to those unable to return to work, currently varied between ￡56 a week to ￡74.

under labour proposals, a flat-rate of ￡56 would be introduced. but financial penalites will be taken on those who do not attempt to look for work, if they are able to.

incentives will be offered for claimants to undergo training, rehabilitation classes and attend work-focused interviews.

charities such as leonard chesire have voiced concerns that the plans could damage disabled people already living in poverty.

"people whose condition causes them pain or fatigue should not be forced to look for employment," said a spokesman for the disability charity.

the have claimed that the proposals will not work, and have suggested that a scheme run by the voluntary and private sector could get 250,000 people into jobs.

the accused labour of applying a "one-size-fits-all" approach.


crosswords/2005/february/2

feel free to use the wikimedia sites to solve our wikinews crossword (please do not fill it out online as it would spoil it for other people, print it out and fill it in at you own leisure!)

answers tomorrow.


brazilian ministry of education defends external control over universities

the brazilian government has proposed a policy to increase external control on public and private universities. the brazilian magazine veja published a cover story about the subject criticizing this proposal. 

the magazine put a picture of a donkey on the cover, a critical allusion to the recent political decisions related to education taken by the government (in brazil the donkey is a symbol of stupidity). the magazine claims the recent decision of the government's new education policy is motivated more by ideological rather than technical reasons.

on june 06, 2004 during a convention of intellectuals, the president of the confenen (national confederation of the educational establishments) robert dornas said the idea of external control conflicts with the idea of the university autonomy. "this is the way of all totalitarian states" , he added.

the vice-chancellor of the ufrj (federal university of rio de janeiro), aloisio teixeira, said to fear that the advice finishes obliquing the activities of the university. according to him the university should be evaluated by already existing mechanisms, as the national congress. pablo alcantara gomes, the chairman of the board of the brazilian universities’ vice-chancellors, said brazilian universities do not need external control, but internal advice with participation of the society.

there are worries that with the external control universities may be subject only to political and ideological oriented decisions of non-representative groups. 

the ministry of education tarso genro is a defender of the external control: "i am enthusiastic about the external control. me and my friend olivio dutra (minister of the cities), are the founders of the shared public budget program in porto alegre. this model of management worked like a organized social external control over what is the exposed power nerve, the public budget. and it worked. therefore, i think it is a good thing. we have to enrich what is not the state, but the public space." 



law center helps defend open source

eben moglen, columbia university law professor, will head the new
software freedom law center (sflc). an initial 4 million dollars has been provided by open source development labs (osdl) to fund the project.

the law center will provide free legal service for open source projects and developers. in 2004 osdl established a separate $10 million linux legal defense fund providing legal support for linus torvalds, linux kernel creator and end user companies subjected to linux-related litigation by the sco group. the new law center will not be affiliated with the osdl.

"this is about taking care of the goose that laid the golden egg and not letting wolves come in the middle of the night and steal it away," moglen said during a press conference. "this is a legal firm not involved so much in litigating and defending as it will be for counseling and advising and nurturing non-profits and to prevent millions of dollars in litigation."

moglen will serve as chairman and director-counsel of the non-profit organization. also on board as directors are: lawrence lessig, law professor at stanford law school; daniel weitzner, director of the world wide web consortium's technology and society activities; and diane peters, general counsel at the osdl. daniel ravicher, executive director of the public patent foundation, will help manage as legal director.

moglen, one of the world.s leading experts on copyright law as applied to software, will run the new law center from its headquarters in new york city. the law center will initially have two full-time intellectual property attorneys on staff and expects to expand to four attorneys later this year. initial clients for the law center include the free software foundation and the samba project.

other services provided by the sflc include: asset stewardship, to avoid intellectual property claim conflict; license review and compatibility analysis; legal consulting and lawyer training.




foreign troops should stay, says iraqi president

the iraqi president ghazi mashal ajil al-yawer said yesterday, on february 01 2005, that the us and other foreign troops should remain in iraq. "it's only complete nonsense to ask the troops to leave in this chaos and this vacuum of power." 

he expects foreign troops to leave after insurgent groups have been defeated, the security situation has been improved and iraq's own security forces are strengthened. "by the end of this year, we could see the number of foreign troops decreasing," he added. 

other iraqi ministers echoed the president's statement.

"we don't want to have foreign troops in our country" said hazem shaalan, the iraq defence minister.

"but at the same time, we believe that these forces should stay for some time until we are able to control the borders and establish a new modern army and we have efficient intelligence."

"at that time ... we'll ask them to leave."


bolivia rejects chile's oas candidate

the reason behind bolivia's rejection of the chilean candidate is the ongoing dispute between chile and bolivia that began with the in 1879 and resulted in bolivia losing it's maritime border (and thus maritime access) at . bolivia is still demanding maritime access, something chile refuses to give. bolivia thus believes that mr insulza would be incapable of finding a solution to what bolivia feels is it's legitimate demand for maritime access were he to become the oas secretary general. while bolivia believes that the oas is the right multilateral forum to address this issue chile claims that it is an issue between bolivia and chile, and should not concern other nations, a viewpoint that mr insulza has himself expressed.

the bolivian ambassador to the oas maria tamayo arnal pointed out that in 1979 and 1989 the oas approved resolutions stating that bolivia's lack of maritime access was of hemispherical interest. 



swift satellite goes fully on-line

nasa's swift satellite has completed all tests since
its launch last november and with the ultravioliet/optical telescope
(uvot) now on line, is now fully functional for the mission's 2 year quest
for gamma-ray bursts.

the uvot was tested on the pinwheel galaxy (m101).

"after many years of effort building the uvot, it was exciting to
point it toward the famous pinwheel galaxy, m101," said dr. peter
roming, uvot lead scientist at penn state university. "the ultraviolet
wavelengths in particular reveal regions of star formation in the
galaxy's wispy spiral arms. but more than a pretty image, this
first-light observation is a test of the uvot's capabilities."

gamma ray bursts are some of the most powerful objects observed
in the universe and are thought to signal the birth of black
holes.

swift is designed to detect the bursts and automatically
re-orient itself to gather images and data of the phenomenon.
swift detected and imaged its first official burst on january 17,
2005, before the uvot was operational with the aid of the burst
alert (bat) and x-ray (xrt) telescopes activated several weeks
earlier. the bat detects the gamma-ray bursts, automatically and
immediately turns the telescope, bringing the xrt
and uvot to bear on the location of the event which record
detailed observations of the burst afterglow.

the uvot is a joint product of penn state university and the mullard space
science laboratory.



eastern australia hit by severe storms

the whole of the east coast of australia has been lashed by severe storms in the last 24 hours, with at least one reported death. wind gusts in some areas reached 110 kilometers per hour, and flash flooding and power cuts were reported from far north queensland to tasmania in the south.

state emergency services (ses) crews are stretched to the limit, working into the night to cope with the effects of the freak weather.

around 29,000 homes in queensland experienced power outages.

sixty millimetres of rain fell in an hour on the region around herberton, in far north queensland. a man and woman were rescued from nearby sandy creek after their car was swept off the road while trying to cross the creek during heavy storms last night.

the man had escaped to cling to a tree, but lost sight of his wife as the car was washed away. rescuers later found the woman on the bank. neither was seriously injured.

about 150 kilometres to the south-west, a search continues for missing stockman, a 38-year-old from carpentaria downs station near einasleigh who failed to return after checking fences yesterday.

heavy rain and large hailstones pummelled sydney and the central coast.

the nsw state emergency service reported receiving more than 2,300 requests for assistance, mostly in western sydney and gosford. 

"most of those jobs have been for hail damage to roofs, fallen trees on houses and across roads, flash flooding and water getting into properties," said ses spokesman david webber. 

around 100,000 homes in nsw experienced power outages. 

in the southern sydney suburb of bexley north three people were rescued from vehicles when they attempted to drive along a flooded road, and a girl was killed near mittagong when a tree fell on the tent in which she was sleeping. 

melbourne has been hit by severe flooding as wild storms and heavy rain strike the east coast of australia. with triple the city's average february rainfall in just 24 hours, major roads and train lines have been cut and travel is extremely difficult.

a search involving police and state emergency service volunteers is currently underway for a schoolboy, believed to have been swept into floodwaters north of werribee, and a 10 year old girl narrowly escaped being killed when a tree fell through the house in which she was sleeping. the tree missed her by centimeters. she was trapped for an hour before being freed by emergency services and taken to the royal childrens hospital in a serious condition.

the spirit of tasmania i was also forced to return to station pier, in port melbourne, after windows were broken when the bass strait ferry encountered 20 metre waves caused by the gale force winds. 

the city received 120mm of rain in the 24 hours to 9am, while the average monthly rainfall for february is 45mm. making this the largest measured rainfall in a 24 hour period for melbourne since records began in 1856. the rainfall stopped sometime this afternoon local time. authorities urged people to stay away from melbourne city centre.

south australia has, for the first time in 27 years, experienced hail in february.



china forbids 50 electronic games

the director of the state anti-pornography office, liu binjie, said that the chinese government will concentrate on combating illegal publications: pirated textbooks, electronic publications and illegal journals that may have negative influence on the youth.

among the banned games are: "manhunt", "fifa 2005", "the sims 2", "battlefield vietnam", "painkiller: battle out of hell", and "age of mythology: the titans".


short-tailed bats to be transferred to kapiti island, new zealand

all previous attempts at moving bats have failed due to their natural homing instincts. however scientists with the department of conservation, are aiming to overcome this by shifting juveniles. the young bats, which weigh in at only 14 grams each, were born in the week around new year and were raised at pukaha mount bruce national wildlife centre near eketahuna.

conservation minister chris carter said that while the trial was risky, it was also worthwhile. "a willingness to push boundaries and try new things is exactly what conservation in new zealand needs," he said.



crosswords/2005/february/3

feel free to use the wikimedia sites to solve our wikinews crossword (please do not fill it out online as it would spoil it for other people, print it out and fill it in at you own leisure!)

answers tomorrow.


cuba restores relations with european union

the government of cuba has re-established official contacts with all of the european union countries. the diplomatic relationship with the eu had been limited for more than 18 months.

the eu relationship with cuba was injured on march-june 2003 after the arrest and conviction of 75 "dissidents" by the cuban government. in a separate case, three cubans were executed on foot of a sentence handed down by a civil court, and confirmed on appeal by the cuban supreme court, which found them guilty of hijacking a ferry and endangering the lives of its occupants. cuba accused the dissidents of collaboration with the us and sabotage against the cuban communist system. all 75 "dissadents" appear to have pleaded guilty of receiving illegal payments from us agents in court when confronted with the evidence. 14 of the 75 convicted mercenaries, who the us continues to insist were "dissadents", have since been released on licience. 

cuba and the eu began to come close again after the efforts of the president of the government of spain, jose luis rodriguez zapatero. at that time, the german chancellor gerhard schroder didn't agree with zapatero about unfreezing the relationships between cuba and the eu. schroder believed cuba should first show real commitment to improving the human rights conditions on the island. however, on november 25, 2004, the cuban chancellor felipe perez roque announced the re-establishment of official contacts with the government of spain.

on november 30, 2004, cuba released four political dissidents: marcelo lopez, margarito broche, Oscar espinosa chepe and raul rivero. the dutch presidency of the european union praised the cuban decision. cuba said that the decision was not influenced by the spanish government.

on december 15, 2004 the council of the european union for latin america committee recommended the suspension of the diplomatic sanctions against cuba, according to alleged spanish diplomatic sources.

finally, on january 10, 2005, the cuban foreign minister felipe perez roque told journalists:"we can say that from this moment onward cuba has re-established government-level official contacts with all european union countries." on january 31, 2005, the eu council of foreign ministers agreed to a suspension of eu sanctions against cuba. the international non-governmental organization reporters without borders protested and sent a open letter to the president of the european commission on february 1, 2005.



george bush delivers state of the union address

u.s. president george w. bush tonight presented his annual state of the union address. in the address, he proposed economic change, social security reform, the defense of the definition of marriage, and the spread of liberty in iraq and elsewhere. the elections in iraq were cited as an example of this.


beslan siege organiser speaks

the beslan siege organiser, chechen rebel shamil basayev, has spoken for the first time since declaring he was responsible for the hostage situation. the beslan school siege last september resulted in 330 deaths, half of which were children. basayev was also responsible for the moscow theatre siege, in which 130 people died after a military assault to free the hostages and overwhelm the terrorists.

a package containing three video cds with an hour's statement by basayev was sent to channel 4 news, four months after they asked an intermediary questions about them man behind the attacks.

in the statement, the rebel leader aimed to justify the siege, claiming the russian government's aggressive response was unexpected and led to the large number of deaths. he claims that he would and likely will do it again, though he said he appreciated that it would appear cynical. he restated that he is fighting for an end of russian military offensives in chechnya.


pm of georgia dies of gas poisoning

zurab zhvania, prime minister of georgia, was found dead of gas poisoning at a friend's home. the china daily quotes interior minister vano merabishvili: "this is a tragic accident... it was a gas poisoning."

zhavani was visiting in the home of raul usupov, deputy governor from the kvemo-kartli region, when an apparent carbon monoxide leak from a gas space heater overcame and killed both him and his host.

carbon monoxide poisoning is not unknown in georgia; 45 deaths by carbon monoxide poisoning are reported by the official russian information agency. power supplies are not entirely reliable, and central heating systems are not universal, so small portable heaters are common even in the capital.

president mikhail saakashvili called an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss responding to the death. "(zhvania's death) is a huge blow for our country and personally for me as a president and as a person," quotes the china daily, "i have lost my closest friend, my most loyal adviser, my biggest ally."

once a protege of eduard shevardnadze, and widely viewed as his chosen successor, zhvania chose to join the opposition in supporting saakashvili. he has been viewed as a moderating influence on saakashvili, who appointed mr. zhvania after taking office one year ago.

zhavania joined georgia's green party in the 1980s. he was chair of georgia's parliament from 1995-2001.

"he played an important role in helping georgia meet its aspirations for greater peace, prosperity and euro-atlantic integration," nato chief jaap de hoop scheffer said in his expression of condolences. 



european union rejects software patents; starts new process

despite assurances from the european commissioner for the internal market charles mccreevy that the council would adopt its controversial common position text covering software patents, members voted to restart the entire process with a new directive.

mep michel rocard noted several "inelegancies" by the commission in his speech against the directive, such as not taking into account any of the parliament's substantive amendments in its recommendation to the council. he also took the dutch and german governments to task for ignoring their respective parliaments. the irish presidency's sponsorship by microsoft was also criticised, as were the attempted ratifications at fishery council meetings.

there was also confusion over the actual effects of the proposed directive with industry players confirming that the council text allowed pure software patents, while the commission claimed it would not.

"in the debate, broad agreement prevailed over the fact that the current proposal was counter-productive and far from a good basis for a decision," said italian mep monica frassoni.

the computer-implemented inventions directive was voted down by members of european parliament (mep) in the legal affairs committee. 19 meps voted in favour of re-starting negotiations, 2 against with one abstention.



un says no genocide in darfur

a report released by the united nations last week said that there is no genocide in sudan's western region of darfur. 

the report also says that the sudanese government and its arab militias had committed crimes against humanity by destroying villages and torturing, killing and raping civilians. according to the report, there is credible evidence that local rebel groups, including the sudanese liberation army, are responsible for serious violations of international law which may amount to war crimes.

the government of the united states and aid agencies say genocide is been committed in sudan.



un iic report faults former &quot;oil-for-food&quot; director

, 
former u.s. federal reserve chairman paul volcker delivered a preliminary report of the investigation into the united nation's oil-for-food program with iraq under saddam hussein, which is sharply critical of the procurement process used and former program director benon sevan.

volker heads the independent inquiry committee, an investigation requested by un secretary-general kofi annan in june, 2004.

annan has already responded to the report, ordering disciplinary action for sevan and other un officials of the former program.

volker expects the report will go some ways to responding to critics of the un program. "i think it's important to find out the extent those attacks are justified," he is quoted as saying. "there are obviously problems in the institution and we have identified some of them. but the end of this should be a reformed and stronger u.n., because i believe - and i know the other committee members believe - that the u.n. has an important role to play but it cannot be effective if it is under suspicion all of the time."

charges that un officials misused 1.4 billion usd of administrative funds are unfair, volker said. "we do not find evidence that this was a big slush fund," he said. "the money was carefully budgeted. they didn't spend all of the money they had budgeted. they gave some of it back to iraq."

the independent investigation committee report faulted the contract procurement process which selected banque nationale de paris, saybolt eastern hemisphere bv, and lloyd's register inspection limite, saying it did not conform to financial and competitive bidding standards. the choices were "clearly affected by political considerations" according to volker.

sevan is particularly faulted for personal financial transactions, including $160,000 over 1999-2003 which his lawyer has stated came from an aunt who has since died. 



cambodian opposition leader stripped of immunity, flees country

, 

sam rainsy, leader of the opposition party in the cambodian national assembly, and two other members of his party, chea poch and cheam channy, have been stripped of parliamentary immunity. rainsy has left the country, while channy has been arrested.

assembly members are immune to prosecution or arrest for expressing their opinions as part of their parliamentary duties. armed forces surrounded the assembly building in phnom penh during the vote thursday, which requires a two-thirds super majority.

speaking on behalf of the united states, state department deputy spokesman adam ereli called on cambodian prime minister hun sen's government to "allow all citizens to peacefully express their political views without fear of retribution or intimidation."



crosswords/2005/february/4

feel free to use the wikimedia sites to solve our wikinews crossword (please do not fill it out online as it would spoil it for other people, print it out and fill it in at you own leisure!)

answers tomorrow.


in several german cities students demonstrate against study fees

in germany 30,000 students demonstrate in 5 big cities against study fees. people think, that paying for information is not socially compatible and gives only privileged people the chance to get in depth information. germans demand a broad and free education for every citizen of the world. in the next weeks, students will fight for justice and show solidarity with the countries of the federal republic, which want to already demand study fees in the next term.

at this time, the first education in germany is free, but the federation decided days ago, that the states of the federal republic can create their own financing concepts, because cdu governed states complained against the federation.

several german states partly plan to plug budget gaps with the money from the young people willing to give their power for a broadly educated germany.



australian immigration detains aussie flight attendant for 10mths, and maltreats her

volunteer advocates' requests for ministerial intervention, prompted by her clear distress and aberrant behaviour, went unanswered for seven weeks, while ms rau was held at south australian baxter immigration detention center.

several days ago, refugee advocate pamela curr had visited and spoken with the woman, then unidentified and known only as anna, and said "she exhibits psychotic symptoms, screaming and talking to herself at times, and screams in terror often for long periods especially when locked in the cell.

"such is her terror of being put back into this cell that it takes six guards in full riot gear to manhandle her back into the room and close the heavy door."

"we have reports from witnesses that the guards are enjoying this aspect of anna's behaviour," said refugee advocacy group chilout.org at around the same time. 

one message from a fellow detainee posted on the refugee advocate website safecom.org on january 24, said ms rau appeared to be "very, very sick".

"she takes her clothes off and wanders around in this all-male compound," the account read. "she screams obscenities, throws food at other detainees and smashes things."

according to ms curr, ms rau was being held in isolation in baxter's dedicated 'red one' isolation block for 18 to 20 hours a day, and in daylight conditions for 24 hours a day, a practice which has in the past been criticised because of use of isolation and sleep deprivation in department of immigration and multicultural and indigenous affairs (dimia) facilities to coerce cooperation from inmates .

the migration act prevents anyone from acting on behalf of a detainee unless the detainee requests this in writing, and so chances of any improvement in ms rau's condition or welfare were slim. the act makes no provision for cases such as this, where the detainee is no longer competent to make such a request. mental ill health is a reported by-product of the dimia system of indefinite detention .

fellow detainees became concerned for ms rau's welfare when immigration authorities failed to remedy her mental ill health, and were unable to identify her. refugee advocates in contact with detainees then led a campaign to identify the woman, resulting in her family recognising her description.

thirty-nine year old qantas flight attendant cornelia rau had in fact been listed as a missing person with new south wales (nsw) police since august of last year, after disappearing in march. a nsw police effort to find her in november failed to identify that she was being held by australia's department of immigration and multicultural and indigenous affairs, meanwhile dimia was stumped as to the identity of their german-speaking prisoner.

the immigration department said it had gone to great lengths to identify of ms rau, contacting the police missing persons registry in queensland, and several foreign governments, but not nsw police missing persons. "all the information provided by the woman led the department to believe she was an unlawful non-citizen. at no time did she state she was a permanent (australian) citizen."

aborigines at coen in far north queensland had found cornelia in a disturbed state on march 31 last year, and become concerned, taking her to police for her own safety. the queensland police failed to identify her and assumed she was an illegal immigrant since she spoke german. instead of hospitalising ms rau, they handed her over to immigration officials, on april 5.

according to ms curr, when she spoke to ms rau at baxter last month, "her english was fine. she told me then she really wasn't in touch with reality, but there was a moment of clarity when she just wanted to get out of baxter. i spoke to a detainee two days ago and he said her english was so good he thought she was an aussie girl." 

ms rau had arrived in australia at the age of 18 months from germany. cornelia's sister chris says, "the two groups who were kind to cornelia in all this time were the two most downtrodden groups in society -- the aboriginal people in cairns and the refugees in baxter. there's an irony in that".

the australian federal government human rights and equal opportunity commission (hreoc)'s immigration detention centre guidelines state that, "immigration detainees who are found to be severely mentally ill should be transferred to an appropriate facility as soon as possible."

the immigration department said she had been under mental supervision at all times. "a number of medical assessments were conducted by healthcare professionals, including doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists," a departmental spokesperson said. 

findings by a number of independent inquiries have shown that long term, indefinite detention, which is the norm within the australian immigration system, has the unfortunate side effect of inducing mental health problems in individuals who were otherwise healthy on entering the system, and refugee advocates have pointed to this issue previously in cases involving non-citizens.

countless human rights violations have been documented within dimia's system by the federal government's own policing body, hreoc, which has complained repeatedly for years that its recommendations are not being met. principally, that the system of mandatory detention itself is an infringement of human rights and should be abolished, and that children (of whom there are currently 87 in detention ) should not be held in custody.

hreoc criticises the general lack of adequate mental health services, the use of isolation detention for behaviour management, detainees' restricted access to legal assistance and lack of information about the application process, their limited access to general information and contact with the outside world, including relatives, and the effects of such long term detention on the detainees, specifically on their mental health. 

past publicised cases have shown detainees denied any legal avenues they do not explicitly ask for using correct legal/bureaucratic terminology ; failure to provide adequate medical assistance; and habitual isolation of troublesome detainees instead of meeting of their grievances.

hreoc has the ability to make recommendations only, and it is up to the government to enforce, or not enforce them.

"it's pretty dangerous if you have alzheimer's disease or you speak a second language right now," according to labor immigration spokesperson, laurie ferguson. mr ferguson believed queensland police and the federal government had questions to answer, and that there should be an inquiry.

as well as the personal cost to cornelia rau and her family and friends, each day a person spends in immigration detention costs the department between $111 to $725 . according to dimia, "government policy is that, where practical, immigration detainees should be billed for the cost of their stay in detention." it is not known whether the department intends to bill ms rau.



chandra telescope finds missing baryonic matter

scientists studying data from the 
chandra x-ray telescope have
found strong evidence for the missing half of ordinary matter
in the universe. two immense intergalactic clouds confirm the
existence of a cosmic web of hot gas, predicted by computer
simulations, containing baryons, the material making
up visible objects in the universe.
"an inventory of all the baryons in stars and gas inside and outside
of galaxies accounts for just over half the baryons that
existed shortly after the big bang," fabrizio nicastro of the
harvard-smithsonian center for astrophysics. "now we have found the
likely hiding place of the missing baryons." nicastro is lead author
of a paper in the february 3, 2005 issue of 
nature describing the recent research.

various measurements give a good estimate of the mass-density of
baryons - the neutrons and protons
that make up the nuclei of atoms and ions - in the
universe 10 billion years ago. however, sometime
during the last 10 billion years a large fraction of the baryons,
commonly referred to as "ordinary matter" to distinguish them
from dark matter and dark
energy, have gone missing.

using the computer predictions, nicastro and colleagues
searched specifically for the diffuse system of gas clouds
galaxies and galaxy clusters form within. evidence of the
clouds had been previously detected around our own galaxy and in
the local group, but the temperature range (a few
hundred thousand to a million degrees celsius) and low density
have prevented detection outside the immediate neighborhood of
galaxies and the reliable estimation of baryon density for the
entire universe.

the clouds were detected using chandra observations when the
galaxy mkn 421 brightened in x-ray
emissions. the x-ray spectral data showed two hot gas clouds,
150 million and 370 million light years distant, absorbing the
x-rays from mkn 421. the data shows the presence of carbon,
nitrogen, oxygen, and neon present in the clouds. combined with
other data the research team determined the thickness and mass of
the clouds.

assuming that the size and distribution of the clouds are
representative, nicastro and colleagues made the first reliable
estimate of average density of baryons in such clouds throughout
the universe, finding it consistent with the mass density of the
missing baryons.

mkn 421 was observed three times with chandra's low-energy
transmission grating (letg), twice in conjunction with the high
resolution camera (may 2000 and july 2003) and once with the
advanced ccd imaging spectrometer (october 2002). the distance to
mkn 421 is 400 million light years. 


iraq election: partial tally report shows support for shiite candidates

iraq ? with more than two-thirds of the 3.3 million votes counted in the iraqi legislative election, the united iraqi alliance has a considerable lead over interim iraqi prime minister iyad allawi's iraqi list which trails with approximately 17% of the current tally.

the election commission (ieci) did not have firm figures for how many people voted, but estimates approximately 8 million iraqis participated in the historic poll. the results so far do not include the northern provinces which are largely sunni and kurdish strongholds.

the most recent returns were from the provinces of babylon, basra, karbala, maysan, muthanna, najaf, qadissiyah, zi qar and wassit, and from baghdad.

jalal talabani, leader of the northern kurdish political bloc, has called to be nominated as the new prime minister or president, a proposal which may indicate the suspected deal between the shia and the kurds may in fact be in place - a situation sure to inflame the former ruling minority sunnis.

final results are expected to be announced on tuesday, february 8.




bbc unveils plans for new britain only imp player

the today unveiled it's plans for a new imp player with which people in the will be able to any bbc tv or radio programme for a week after it has been broadcast in the uk. these downloads will have a limited life, becoming inactive a week after the show has been shown live in the uk. the bbc are justifying their proposed decision to restrict the use of the new player to those using a uk on the basis that it is only uk citizens who pay the . in the uk it is illegal to use a television to receive uk broadcasts without a television licence, but no such restrictions are in place for using either a radio or a computer. it is the money from the licence fee that funds the bbc. 

at the moment it is possible to listen to live bbc radio, and to some old programmes for a week, as well as some news output, including , by through the internet, and this service is available in every part of the world. at the moment there are few sites whose availability is restricted depending on where one is geographically located. some countries such as iran and china restrict what the users in it's country can view on the internet, but till now almost all of the material that has been released has been made available all over the world. 

the imp is still not ready, and while the bbc are hoping to release it this year they are refusing to make any promises. clearly having the technology in place to ensure that the downloads deactivate at a given moment, and that people outside the uk cannot access these downloads, either directly through the internet, or indirectly through , is going to take a little while yet. 


conocophillips announces $1bn share repurchase

houston - the major oil company, conocophillips, today announced that it is to buy back up to $1bn worth of common stock over the next 2 years. the major aim of the repurchase is to ensure existing shareholders do not have their stakes in the company diluted over the coming years as a result the company's stock compensation program. the purchase of stock will be done over the next two years at manager's discretion at prevailing prices as permitted by securities laws and other legal requirements. 

the company also announced a quarterly dividend of 50 cents per share which is to be payable on march 1, 2005, to stockholders of record at the close of business feb. 15, 2005.



grey wolves are still protected by the endangered species act

, 

this week, a court case has decided to maintain the grey wolf's endangered species protection status.

defenders of wildlife filed a suit after march 18, 2003, when the fish and wildlife service decided to downlist the wolf from "endangered" status to "threatened" status. such a move would have dramatically weakened the legal protection of the animal, and jeopardised it's recovery, according to wildlife campaigners.

rodger schlickeisen, defenders of wildlife's president, commented:

the government's plans to reclassify the grey wolf were criticized as 'not based on science or the law' by the us district court ruling. the court ruled today that it was unlawful for the administration to weaken legal protections for the grey wolf in large areas of its historic range based on recovery success in a just a few core areas like the northern rockies and great lakes. this ruling calls into question other bush administration wolf proposals, one of which is their attempt to remove protections entirely for the wolves in the northeastern united states.

schlickeisen also stated:



brazil receives cuban foreign minister

the cuban minister of foreign relations felipe perez roque visited brazil on february 2-3. he met brazilian president luiz inacio lula da silva and the brazilian minister of foreign relations celso amorim.

according to the brazilian ministry of external relations website, the objective of the visit was to intensify the dialogue and to fortify the cooperation between brazil and cuba, giving attention to the development of high level agreements between the governments.

on february 2, the cuban minister was received by the brazilian senate president jose sarney, the president of the chamber of deputies joao paulo cunha and by the chief of staff jose dirceu.

on february 3, roque met lula da silva and amorim. during the meeting, he mentioned that he was carrying a personal message from the cuban president fidel castro to lula da silva. "we express to lula cuba's affection for the project of integration of latin america," he added.

roque also said that cuba supports the candidacy of brazil for the un security council: "we hold the same position as brazil in favor of a multipolar world, a world in which the un's role and authority are strengthened, concurrently with a profound reform and democratization of the united nations."

roque and amorim discussed the situation in haiti. he reiterated that cuba keeps a contrary position to the form as haitian president jean bertrand aristide left power.

during the visit, the cuban minister of foreign relations, felipe perez roque, also met parents of brazilian students studying in havana, delegates from the landless workers movement (mst), delegates from labour unions and delegates from student organizations which expressed solidarity to the cause of the cuban revolution. 

brazilian diplomatic relations with cuba were suspended in 1964, and reestablished in 1986. bilateral relations between brazil and cuba have strengthened since then, particularly in the past few years. the brazilian government advocates the end of the us embargo against cuba. the brazilian government says the unilateral application of economic and commercial sanctions for political purposes violates the principles of international law. 

cuba purchased 480 buses from brazil for collective transportation in havana and between provinces in 2000. the brazilian national bank for economic and social development (bndes) participates in the funding of an project aimed at the modernization of the cuban sugar industry. 

the president of cuba, fidel castro, has visited brazil several times, most recently in september 1998, june 1999, september 2001, and january 2003.



java creator criticizes .net

james gosling, the creator of the java programming language, said last week that he believes microsoft is wrong in its decision to support c and c++ programming languages in the common language runtime in microsoft .net. according to him, this decision may lead to severe security flaws in .net. gosling is currently in australia, giving talks and visiting friends.

according to gosling, the problem lies with the programming languages and some of their characteristics: “c++ allowed you to do arbitrary casting, arbitrary adding of images and pointers, and converting them back and forth between pointers in a very, very unstructured way." 

the java language was developed due to limitations of c++. gosling began using c++ for the former sun microsystems's star-seven project. at that time gosling concluded c++ was inadequate and created the oak language. the oak language would become the language known today as java. the former star-seven project shares its defining characteristics with networked software applications today: safety and portability.

gosling continues: "if you look at the security model in java and the reliability model, and a lot of things in the exception handling, they depend really critically on the fact that there is some integrity to the properties of objects. so if somebody gives you an object and says 'this is an image', then it is an image. it's not like a pointer to a stream, where it just casts an image."

charles sterling, a microsoft developer and product manager of the .net framework, didn’t entirely disagree with gosling’s thoughts. but he said that .net defines different types of code. and there is the code which is managed by the .net framework. all new microsoft languages, such as c# and visual basic.net, produce only code managed by the .net framework, so they are safe.

a key idea that has not shown up in gosling's talk is that java itself allows a very similar process to occur. java's jni (java native interface) allows the integration of the same unsafe code that prompted gosling's central thesis.

however, gosling says languages like c and c++ can still produce unsafe code which would not follow the rules of safety of .net. this sort of code, usually found in old software applications, requires additional .net permissions to execute. sterling says it is up to developers to decide whether or not to use unsafe code in their .net applications.

 


gnu hurd operating system: first user program run using l4 microkernel

a collaboratively-developed operating system kernel known as gnu hurd has been made bootable using the l4 microkernel, which provides room for significant speed improvements over an existing implementation using the mach microkernel. the newer architecture also has a more lively developer community.

developer marcus brinkmann made the historic step and finished the process initialization code, which enabled him to execute the first software on hurd-l4. in a message to the l4 port of gnu hurd mailing list, brinkmann wrote, "we can now easily explore and develop the system in any way we want. the dinner is prepared!". however, the kernel's current feature set is very limited. "with my glibc port, i can already build simple applications, but most won't run because they need a filesystem or other gimmicks (like, uhm, fork and exec), and i only have stubs (dummy functions which always return an error) for that now," he added in a later posting. 

compared with linux and bsd unix's monolithic kernel architecture, a microkernel based operating system provides developers greater modularity and isolation from hardware, a big win with l4 already being available for a large number of hardware varieties.

there is a cost in speed for such abstraction, and this cost was higher on mach, at around 15%, compared with only around 5% on l4 and it's predecessor l3, both developed by dr. jochen liedtke. 

the greater modularity and abstraction of a microkernel approach means that the microkernel itself does not need constant modification as is seen in the linux kernel today, since it provides only the very minimum of services, and does so very carefully. thus, the fact that l4 was developed in 1996 is seen as exemplifying this stability -- rather than showing its age -- since few, if any, improvements in approach have been imagined in the meantime.

however, the mach kernel first developed ten years earlier at carnegie mellon university is seen as a flawed first implementation, with the lessons learned being implemented in microkernels like l4, known as second-generation microkernels.

the gnu hurd forms the base of the gnu operating system, much of which has been widely adopted by users of other unix-like operating systems, including linux. the gnu project has been developing the hurd since 1983. in 1990, the gnu project decided to use the mach kernel, rather than writing their own. the hurd is released as free software under the gnu general public license (gpl).

the hurd kernel is an experiment which aims to surpass existing unix kernels in functionality, security, and stability, while remaining largely compatible with them. it currently runs on intel ia32 machines. according to the gnu hurd project, "the hurd should, and probably will, be ported to other hardware architectures or other microkernels in the future" .

`hurd' stands for `hird of unix-replacing daemons'. and, then, `hird' stands for `hurd of interfaces representing depth' - perhaps the first software to be named by a pair of mutually recursive acronyms.

a limited port of linux already runs on l4, known as l4linux.



un board supported saddam hussein's regime, says iraq's ambassador

at un world headquarters in new york on friday, february 4, 2005, iraq's ambassador to the united nations, samir sumaidaie, declared to reporters that the international body of the united nations helped the regime of saddam hussein. this allegation came one day after the former u.s. federal reserve chairman paul volcker delivered a preliminary report of the investigation into the united nation's oil-for-food program with iraq under saddam hussein. sumaidaie says he has serious doubts about the role of the former un secretary-general boutros boutros-ghali although there is no charge against him in the report.

in an interview with voice of america reporter peter heinlein, sumaidaie said: "in the early days, the secretariat bent over backwards to please the saddam regime. at that time it was boutros boutros-ghali who was the secretary-general. and the report asserts that he tried to please the saddam government by accommodating its requests which laid the basis for most things that went wrong later... what's clear to me is that saddam and his regime were able to manipulate things in such a way as to get what they wanted out of this program."

in a recent interview with the new york times, sumaidaie said the inquiry's investigators were ignorant of the un system and that their allegations were silly.

after being questioned by journalists, the current un secretary-general kofi annan said: "each secretary-general has to do things his way and in accordance with the circumstances that he finds himself in. i think mr. boutros-ghali has indicated in the report, the environment and the circumstances in which he was taking those decisions and i don't want to second-guess him."

on friday, annan said there were some hard knocks in the report and said he would take action promptly: "we do not want this shadow to hang over the un, so we want to get to the bottom of it."



crosswords/2005/february/5

feel free to use the wikimedia sites to solve our wikinews crossword (please do not fill it out online as it would spoil it for other people, print it out and fill it in at you own leisure!)

answers tomorrow.


new york court rules in favor of same-sex marriage

doris ling-cohan, a new york state supreme court justice, said new york’s state constitution guarantees lesbian and gay people equal access to marriage rights that are violated when same-sex couples are not allowed to marry.

"this is a historic ruling that delivers the state constitution's promise of equality to all new yorkers," susan sommer, supervising attorney at lambda legal defense fund, said in a statement to reporters.

in the new york state justice system, the supreme court is court in which cases originate, and is not the highest court. decisions from the supreme court may, with reason, be appealed to the appellate division, and possibly beyond that to the court of appeals, the highest court in the new york state justice system.

justice ling-cohan ordered the new york city clerk's office to start issuing marriage licences to same-sex couple within 30 days. an appeal is expected.




missing afghan jet found; 104 believed dead

on saturday nato and afghan troops located the wreckage of the missing since thursday.

afghan interior ministry spokesman latfullah mashal announced the discovery. "the debris of the plane was found around 25 kilometers east of kabul in a mountainous area called band-e ghazi."

the jet had been enroute to kabul from when it was diverted due to heavy snow. the crew then sought clearance to land across the border in , before it lost contact with air control. 104 persons are reported to have been aboard, including 8 crew members; there are no signs of survivors reported.

the weather conditions have hampered search and rescue efforts. nato-operated helicopters located the crash site. afghan police and units from afghanistan's foreign peacekeeping force are investigating the scene of the crash, according to mr. mashal.



g7 announce debt relief plan

the quarterly g7 finance ministers and central bank governors' meeting at lancaster house concluded on february 5, 2005, with the g7 failing to agree on a plan to reduce debt in developing countries. according to the los angeles times, british chancellor of the exchequer gordon brown announced that he believes, "this summit will be remembered as the summit for 100% debt relief" for the 27 countries involved in the enhanced hipc initiative. ministers from other g7 countries disagreed. brown's so-called international financial facility proposal, or iff, "would not work for the u.s," undersecretary of the u.s. treasury john taylor said to the los angeles times.

the joint statement issued by the ministers in the wake of the conference stated that, "we are agreed on a case-by-case analysis of hipc countries, based on our willingness to provide as much as 100 per cent multilateral debt relief." the ministers did not cite a figure for the minimum amount of debt relief that would be provided.

the conference was preceded by a demonstration in trafalgar square on the theme of "make poverty history." nelson mandela spoke at the demonstration, attended by an estimated 20,000 people, according to world development movement, an organization involved in the planning of the event. chancellor brown invited mandela to address the g7 on february 4, 2005, which he did in a "fireside chat," according to larry elliott of the guardian.

the g7, or 'group of seven,' is a coalition of seven major industrial democracies: the united kingdom, france, germany, italy, japan, the united states, and canada. they hold quarterly meetings to discuss financial matters.


bob marley birthday celebrations marked by dispute over possible reburial

the celebrations to mark the 60th birthday of , the musician who died of cancer in 1981, have been marked by controversy. since his death these festivities have always taken place in jamaica, but this year they are taking place in ethiopia, and particularly in the town of , which is where the former ethiopian emperor and god gave land to the rastafarians to settle on nearly 40 years ago.

the controversy was sparked last month by bob's wife comments that she wanted his body to be reburied in ethiopia. such was the wave of disapproval generated that she quickly backed away from her original statement, but the question as to where his remains should lie is now being hotly debated both in jamaica and the rest of the world.

as a rastafarian bob marley's spiritual home was in africa, and specifically in ethiopia. yet he only visited the country once, and according to those who want his remains to stay in jamaica, he was entirely a product of jamaican culture.


uribe-chavez meeting postponed

the colombian president alvaro uribe velez was forced to cancel the planned meeting with the venezuelan president hugo chavez on thursday. he is suffering from gastrointestinal and labyrinthitis problems.

uribe remains hospitalized in the naval hospital of cartagena in colombia.



farc attack: 16 colombian soldiers dead

the attack started at 02:40 and finished at 05:20 yesterday february 1st. this was one of the most severe attacks made by the farc in the last few years.

the navy soldier john jaider foronda described the attack to the colombian caracol radio:"i was sleeping. it was 02:30 when we heard the cylinder exploding. it sounded like a bomb. it was at the house of my lieutenant. i got pieces of grenade in my leg and arm." audio.


crosswords/2005/february/6

answers tomorrow.


crosswords/2005/february/7

answers tomorrow.


inquiry to be held into australian immigration detention of australian woman

the woman, cornelia rau, still insisted she was german anna schmidt, according to her sister christine yesterday. "i think it will take a long time for her to stabilise," she said. "at the moment she doesn't accept that she is cornelia and she doesn't want to see us."

"she is still insisting her name is anna schmidt and that her passport is in baxter and that she wants to return to germany."

refugee advocate pamela curr claims ms rau was held in isolation for 18 to 20 hours a day in baxter's 'red one' isolation facility, where she was allegedly kept in simulated daylight for 24 hours a day.

her family had only discovered her whereabouts through a refugee-initiated effort to identify the woman, authorities having failed to connect the unidentified detainee with her missing person file, held by new south wales police since august last year.

after her family recognised media reports of her on thursday, and contacted the police, her photo was emailed to the baxter compound and her identity confirmed.

the schizophrenic woman had spent six months in a queensland prison, according to channel nine news, as well as at least two months in immigration detention, according to various sources. earlier reports had her being handed over to immigration authorities over 10 months ago, with only five days spent in custody with queensland police.

ms rau is presently recuperating in hospital.



sports footwear companies progress towards eliminating sweatshops

a united nations report has shown that sports footwear companies are making progress towards ending the use of sweatshops and are implementing more worker-friendly codes of practice than clothing companies and retailers.

the study, published by the international labour organisation, suggests that consumer pressure is behind the changes. as a result of consumer's concerns, footwear companies have been diverting financial and human resources towards developing and implementing better codes of conduct for suppliers. large teams have been established within companies to work toward the goal of better conditions for factory workers.

the study, based upon interviews with hundreds of managers, activists, government officials, factory workers and worker representatives and visits to companies all over the world, goes on to suggest that workers should be given more powers to oversee conditions in their places of work.

clothing companies have been failing to make such good progress due the large number of constantly-changing suppliers they use, with the ilo study describing progress as "spotty." a major retailer may have a supply base of over 5,000 different companies, making it more difficult to establish stronger, more effective links with supply companies. they have also assigned less manpower to the task of compliance with codes of practice.

in some areas of the retail industry, there has been almost no compliance with codes of practice.


coup in togo after president dies

after the death of president gnassingbe eyadema, the army of the african state of togo has suspended the constitution and installed the son of the late president, faure eyadema, as the new leader.

the constitution stipulates that the parliament's speaker should take over power in the event of the death of the president. eyadema did not hold the office of speaker of the parliament at the time of his father's death.

the african union has spoken of a "military coup" taking place in the country. the united nations and the european union have also made calls for the army to respect the rules of the state.

by the time eyadema's death was announced on public radio, the army had already sealed the border. it then installed faure, previously the communications minister, as president. army chief of staff gen zakari nandja said the decision had been taken to "avoid a power vacuum."

the speaker of parliament, fambare natchaba ouattara, who was returning to togo from paris, was reportedly not permitted entry due to the border closure. he is now exiled in neighbouring benin.

gnassingbe eyadema, 69, africa's longest-standing ruler, died while being evacuated for medical treatment abroad. after seizing power 38 years ago, he dissolved all political parties. he legalized elections due to popular pressure in 1991, but won three elections. accusations of electoral fraud and political repression continued. in 2002, he amended the constitution to lower the minimum age for the presidency from 45 years to 35 years.

the day after the president's death, natchaba was dismissed by the parliament and unanimously replaced by faure eyadema by the deputies who were present at that time. the parliament also eliminated a constitutional requirement that elections be held within 60 days of the president's death, clearing the way for faure to rule until the end of his father's term in 2008.



twenty-seven die as bus falls into gorge in kashmir

twenty seven people are dead and 35 injured after the bus in which they were travelling left the road and fell into a gorge in kashmir, india.

the bus fell into a deep gorge near barmeen, 90 km from the winter capital of kashmir, jammu. twenty seven people died at the scene and another 35 have been transferred to a nearby general hospital.

police are investigating the cause of the accident.


list of communist spies leaks on the internet

a list of 240,000 names from a soviet union-era secret file has been leaked on the internet. the list contains the names of potential collaborators with the communist government of poland, and its victims. the list has overtaken "sex" as the hottest search item on the internet in poland. piotr tchorzewski, an employee of poland's biggest internet portal onet, said:"this thing is huge. we have recorded around 100,000 internet searches a day for the list, which is 10 times the number looking for 'sex'."

last week the polish journalist bronislaw wildstein obtained the list from the national remembrance institute (ipn). the files accessed by wildstein were protected and few people--primarily historians and journalists--had been authorised to see them.

wildstein obtained the list legally, and he distributed it to his colleagues. somehow, the list has been leaked on to the internet. since then the list has been copied and widely distributed on websites and peer-to-peer networks.

on the onet site the list is at the top of search items. visitors are referred to 650,000 links related to it. on google the search for "wildstein list" returned 15,800 references on february 6, 2005.

the prime minister marek belka expressed concern for the safety of active intelligence agents whose names might be on the list.


american indian movement protests against professor ward churchill

the american indian movement protested against the controversial professor ward churchill, chairman of the department of ethnic studies at the university of colorado, who in a paper written after the september 11, 2001 attacks on the world trade center in new york, compared the victims of the attack to "little eichmanns".

the american indian movement says churchill’s statements comparing victims to nazi war criminal adolf eichmann who implemented adolf hitler’s plan to exterminate european jews and others should be condemned by all. also, they say churchill fraudulently represents himself as an indian and a member of the american indian movement.

additionally, ward churchill has perpetrated art fraud and plagerism. he was banned from selling his artwork in 1990.
http://wardchurchill.blogspot.com/2005/02/chief-wannabe-is-art-fraud-indian.html
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/001596.htm


new london police commissioner blames middle-class cocaine users for violence in colombia and on british housing estates

the new police commissioner has warned middle class dinner party users of cocaine that he is out to get them. in contrast, he is relaxed about cannabis smokers, saying he does not wish to waste police time pursuing them. he has been quoted as saying: "people seem to think the price of a wrap of cocaine is 50 quid [uk pounds], but the cost is misery on estates here and a trail of blood back to colombia. someone has died to bring it [cocaine] to a dinner party. people who wouldn’t dream of having a non-organic vegetable don’t seem to notice the blood on their fingers."

blair is clearly trying to prick the conscience of the 624,000 estimated cocaine users in the uk, hoping to persuade them to boycott this class a drug. others, including colombian winner and author , have stated that the misery both in colombia and on poor housing estates in the uk is caused not by drugs themselves but by the banning of them. marquez has specifically said that he cannot see the end of the civil war in colombia as long as the illegal drug trade exists, and he cannot see the end of the illegal drug trade unless drugs are legalized. the trade in cannabis also generates violence both at home (in the uk) and abroad, in spite of sir ian's softly, softly approach to this recently reclassified class c drug. 

 


astronomer proposes hubble replacement

colin a. norman, professor of physics and astronomy at 
johns hopkins university, testifying before the 
u.s. house of representatives committee on science february 2nd, presented the hubble origins probe (hop) as a replacement for the hubble space telescope.

concerning the shuttle's estimated one billion dollar cost and 65 month
time-frame for deployment to earth orbit, norman said: "the
groundbreaking science, the cutting edge technology generated in
the development of new instrumentation, the ability of hubble
science to engage the interest of the public, and its impact on
the imagination of students, make it worthwhile to invest this
sum of public funds to complete the last chapter of hubble's
remarkable legacy."

hop will tackle three of the most central intellectual issues of
our age; the nature of dark energy, the nature
and distribution of dark matter, and the
prevalence of planets, including earths, around other stars.

norman noted during the testimony that hop would be, essentially,
a lighter copy of the hubble space telescope and would include
two instruments that were scheduled for installation on the
hubble: the cosmic origins spectrograph (cos), the wide field camera 3 (wfc3), plus the new very wide field imager (vwfi) to be paid for and provided by japan.

the vwfi has a field of view 17 times greater the advanced
camera on board the hubble now, and is 3-4 times more sensitive
at critical wavelengths. this will provide for mapping 20 times
faster than achievable by the hubble at present.

the cos would make possible the identification of the invisible
portion of "ordinary matter," potentially residing in gigantic
gas clouds discovered by the
chandra x-ray telescope.

"the wfc3 has greatly enhanced power for discovery in the blue and
the red region of the spectrum and will significantly enhance
studies of galaxies and stars. its infrared capability is
essential to studies of dark energy," norman added.

"the decision is obvious. we must continue with the
hubble adventure to explore these great questions
further, to understand more fully our remarkable
universe and our place in it. we must do this with
intense determination and energy and thus continue to
inspire new generations with the wonder and thrill of
exploration and discovery," concluded norman.

colin norman was educated at the university of melbourne and
oxford university. he has been a professor of physics and
astronomy at johns hopkins university and astronomer at the 
space telescope science institute since 1984.




thaksin shinawatra leads party to stunning victory in thailand

prime minister of thailand, thaksin shinawatra, appears likely to be returned to office, making history as the first elected thai pm to win a second term. if exit poll indications are borne out, his thai rak thai (thais love thais) party will win in a landslide, to become the first single party majority in thailand's relatively short history of parliamentary democracy.

the thai rak thai (trt) party looks set to secure approximately 375 seats in the election, allowing them to form the first single-party elected government in thailand's history. the main opposition party, pak prachatipat (democratic party), had hoped to secure 201 seats to prevent a trt majority but conceded defeat long before the ballots were completely counted. the leader of the democrats, banyat bantadtan, has announced he will resign.

"i would like to congratulate thai rak thai for achieving its goal of being a single-party government," banyat bantadtan, leader of the pak prachatipat is quoted by the independent as saying. "i would like to encourage the two other opposition parties to join the democrat party in monitoring the government for the benefit of the people."

trt has promised to eradicate poverty, by spending $60 billion on new infrastructure and pushing ahead with privatisation of state firms against fierce opposition from unions. cheap loans and subsidised healthcare for thailand’s poor rural areas sweetened the deal.

already making history as the first elected pm to serve a full term, thaksin is widely viewed as turning the recent tsunami disaster into a political asset. when five- to eight-thousand thais and foreign tourists were killed in the disaster, mr. thaksin responded by touring affected regions, refusing international aid loans, and promising farmers, fishermen, and the tourism industry support and compensation.

thailand's economic growth rate during the past term in office had broken 6 per cent, second only to china, and rural income soared by 20 per cent.

another big issue during the previous term was conflict between security forces and muslim insurgents in the three southernmost provinces of narathiwat, pattani and yala. with around 10-30,000 troops on duty guarding polling stations, no overt violence arose during the vote, although there had been around 600 deaths in the past 13 months.

thaksin himself has been dogged by conflict-of-interest and nepotism allegations, including in 2001 charges of concealing financial assets, which could have put him out of politics for five years. a controversial 2003 campaign against drug users was widely seen as amounting to simple assassination of drug dealers, with several hundreds or thousands of alleged extra-judicial killings condemned by the united nations.

after first entering thai politics in 1994 as head of the anti-corruption palang dharma party, the multi-billionaire head of telecom giant shin corporation had set about building trt for the 2001 election. forming a coalition from previous parties and factions, thaksin was seated as pm with 248 seats of 438 to trt.

election officials said there were 146 allegations of fraud which merited investigation, with opposition and independent observers saying that vote buying had started weeks ago. however, more than 70 percent of the 44.8 million eligible voters cast ballots in the country's population of 62 million.

"the election may be free, but i don't think fair," said somsri hananuntasuk of the asian network for free elections, citing reports that party workers were paying bangkok slum dwellers 200 baht ($5.21) each for votes.

officials were reportedly planning to confiscate mobile phones at polling booths and to arrest voters who snapped a picture of their completed ballot papers with a camera phone as proof to claim a payment, though whether any such incidents occurred is unknown.

two election commission volunteers were killed in the south by gunmen during campaigning last month, but, according to general kowit wattana, thailand’s police chief, “ambushes and killings of candidates are down from four years ago.”



shi'a leaders call for religious state

iraq ? with a strong lead in a pre-weekend partial report, shi'a leaders have begun making known their interests in a shiite prime minister. others have spoken of the negotiations for the constitution. grand ayatollah mohammed ishaq al-fayad is quoted saying the separation of religion and state must be "completely rejected."

"all of the ulema (clergy) and marja, and the majority of the iraqi people, want the national assembly to make islam the source of legislation in the permanent constitution and to reject any law that is contrary to islam," he said in his statement.

vice president cheney and donald rumsfeld spent the weekend on television shows and interviews assuring the u.s. public the iraqi elections would not result in a theocracy for the country.

"we have a great deal of confidence in where they're headed," mr. cheney said on "fox news sunday". "i don't think, at this stage, that there's anything like justification for hand-wringing or concern on the part of americans that somehow they're going to produce a result we won't like."

the violence of the insurgency, however, has returned after a brief lull following the elections whose final returns are expected in the coming week.




chinese new year to be celebrated in bucharest for the first time

designed to promote chinese cultural heritage, the event will be organised by bucharest city hall, as well as the romania-china cultural centre and the chinese embassy in bucharest.

signifying the end of the winter and the start of spring, the chinese new year takes place on a different day at the beginning of the year, based on the moon's position relative to the sun. the celebrations will mark the beginning of the year of the rooster.


sibiu international airport to be modernised

the international airport of sibiu, romania, will be modernised through 2007, when the city will become europe's capital of culture. representatives from the sibiu county council, sibiu city hall and the sibiu prefecture asked the romanian government to allocate funds for the modernisation of the airport. the city wants to update the airport infrastructure because the city will receive a tourism and visitor boom when it becomes the european capital of culture in 2007. 

martin bottesch, the president of sibiu county council, claims that five times more passengers will use the airport in 2007 than in 2004, when it received 45,000 passengers. the sibiu international airport currently has flights from sibiu to bucharest, the romanian capital, as well as to munich and stuttgart in germany and bergamo, treviso, verona, bologna and rome in italy. despite the air connections, train remains the most popular way of reaching the city, though it is believed that the modernisation of the airport will change this.

sibiu, which is located in central romania, in the province of transylvania, is one of romania's best-maintained and most-visited medieval cities. it is also one of romania's most important cultural centres, home to the brukenthal museum, which is one of the most renowned in central europe. the city of 170,000 is also home to romania's largest german population. while today it only makes up 1.6% of the city's population, sibiu maintains an important german heritage in terms of culture.


michael jackson pre-trial starts

the pre-trial hearings in the trial of the pop singer michael jackson have begun the process of jury selection. an initial jury selection of 4,000 people has been narrowed down to 250 by judge rodney melville and the prosecution and defence attorneys.

the process of selecting the final 12 jurors and eight stand-by-jurors will continue on february 14th, following the death in the family of jackson's lead defence lawyer.

jackson, 46, is accused of child molestation in a case which is expected to last up to six months.


crosswords/2005/february/8

answers tomorrow.


pirates killed 30 sailors in 2004

the international maritime bureau, an agency of the international chamber of commerce, has stated that 30 sailors were murdered by pirates during 2004. the bureau's "2004 annual report on piracy and armed robbery against ships" shows that the number killed has increased from the 21 who died in 2003, according to data collected by the imb piracy reporting centre in kuala lumpur, malaysia.

however, the total number of attacks has decreased--325 recorded attacks, down from 445 in 2003. 

indonesian waters are the most violent, with 93 incidents; one-quarter of the global total of attacks. tugs and barges are common targets, with crew members often being kidnapped.

nigeria has the most dangerous waters of any african country. in 2004, there were 28 attacks (down from 39), the third highest number of incidents in the world.


easyjet passenger figures rise almost 24%

london - low-fares airline easyjet today announced that passenger figures for january rose to over 2.08m, a 23.8% rise on 2004. load-factor dropped slightly to 76.4% whilst average yields only fell 2% between october and december. after what was expected to be a tough winter period for the airline industry--with the flamboyant ryanair ceo micheal o' leary having stated in december that a "bloodbath" was to take place in the european aviation industry--the figures were better than expected. 



ellen macarthur sets round the world solo sailing record

on arrival in the english port of falmouth, she was greeted by a crowd of thousands and full media array, the bbc extending its already considerable coverage, fronted by senior presenter sian williams - and told that on behalf queen elizabeth, she is to receive the award of dame - and she also received the honorary title of lieutenant commander of the british royal naval reserve.


cocaine smugglers robbed while fleeing authorities in honduras


romania, 14th most attractive country for business relocation

bucharest, romania ? according to the economist intelligence unit, romania was the 14th most preferred country in the world for foreign companies looking to relocate their activities. this confirms romania's growing attractiveness for foreign investment.

the study examined the conditions in sixty countries, and took into account nine categories of indices: geographical proximity, political and security risks, economic stability, legislation, taxation, labour costs and skills level, and infrastructure. the scores given to the countries ranged from 1 to 10, 10 being the highest. the final composite score was calculated as a weighted average of the scores of the nine indicators. some indicators, such as labour costs, had more weight than others.

romania's final score was 7.08 points, edged out in europe by only bulgaria (7.08 points), slovakia (7.12 points) and czechia (7.26 points). romania's strengths lay in the workforce cost category, where it received a score of 9.49, and in the geographical proximity chapter, where is received 8.35 points. it also scored well in the categories of economic stability and political and security risks, with 7.2 points each. the country's weaknesses were mainly in the infrastrucutre chapter, where it received just 4.6 points.

romania is further expected to improve its score in the coming years, as the effects of its new 16% flat tax rate on personal income and corporate profit come into effect, and as the country joins the european union in 2007.

the worldwide leader in attractiveness for business relocation was india, with 7.76 points, due mainly to very low labour costs, high skill levels and a stable legal system. india edged out china by a considerable margin, with china being ranked second, with 7.34 points. china lags behind india mainly due to its lack of a well-developed legislative system.

surprisingly, wealthy countries such as japan, norway and denmark ranked very low, mainly due to their very high cost of labour.


 


romanian agricultural head sent to prison for corruption

cicerone m?gerusan, the chairman of romanian agricultural company agromec, from the city of targu mure?, was sentenced yesterday to seven years in prison for taking bribes of us$65,000. the anti-corruption court found him guilty of taking the bribes from a businessman in 2002 and 2003 in exchange for illegally handing over company shares. m?gerusan was investigated after the businessman informed prosecutors. he can now appeal the sentence only at the supreme court, the country's highest court.

the cicerone m?gerusan case is seen as one of the first successes of a high-profile anti-corruption campaign that has started this year, due to the new romanian president traian b?sescu, who has promised to crack down on widespread corruption in the country. m?gerusan is one of the first prominent figures to be imprisoned. 

while there remain other high-profile officials suspected of corruption, romania has set a significant precedent in dealing with the corruption problem. additionally, on sunday, traian b?sescu issued an ultimatum to police and prosecutors, giving them six months to prove that they are serious about fighting corruption. 


production of gm soy crops surges in romania

the average production of genetically-modified (gm) soy grew by 50 tonnes to 250 tonnes per square kilometre last year, said constantin sin from the romanian ministry of agriculture. soy is the only gm crop allowed in romania for commercial purposes. additionally, the area cultivated with the modified soy increased from 396 km2 in 2003 to 581 km2 in 2004. gm soy is mainly farmed in southeastern romania, in the counties of br?ila, c?l?ra?i and ialomi?a.

in 1996, the european union endorsed the import of transgenic soy, and, in 2004, the green light was given for the sale of new genetically-modified products which were used for animal breeding. globally, the largest producers of genetically-modified soy are the united states of america, argentina and brazil.


crosswords/2005/february/9

answers tomorrow.


hubble space telescope to be burnt up; jupiter icy moons orbiter cancelled

the revolutionary space telescope that brought great images of space back down to earth will lose out in nasa's budget reorganisation for 2006. while nasa's budget will increase by 2.6%, most of hubble's $93 million in funding will be directed into bringing it safely to earth. the big winners include the space shuttle program and the international space station, including the development of a new shuttle replacement.

a planned fifth maintenance job on the space telescope was cancelled as a result of the columbia disaster, and experts argue as to how long it can remain useful to scientists. it is expected to fail irreversibly by 2007 if vital work is not done.

another project to bite the dust was the jupiter icy moons orbiter (jimo), which would have been the largest satellite ever sent to the outer solar system. it was to have featured a new form of nuclear reactor as propulsion, but instead nasa has allocated $320 million to developing nuclear technologies in space in a less aggressive, more stepped approach.

in a january 2004 speech, george w. bush proposed a human return to the moon and a first journey to mars. this grand aim is behind the agency's new budget, with $6.8 billion (over one-third of the total) devoted to the iss, space shuttle and space travel support.



abbas, sharon declare truce at middle east summit

israeli prime minister ariel sharon and palesinian president mahmoud abbas today declared an end to military and violent activities against each other. the two leaders made the expected announcement at a summit held at shram el-sheikh, egypt, the first such meeting between the two sides in four years.

prime minister sharon pledged to end military operations against palestinians, and president abbas similarly said that the palestinians will likewise end "all acts of violence against israelis...wherever they are". both leaders expressed hope that the agreement will lead to long term peace in the long-running conflict. prime minister sharon said that the agreement is part of the goal of "quiet, dignified and peaceful lives for all the nations in the middle east". president abbas said "the calm that is currently prevailing in our territories signals the start of a new era, the start of a hopeful peace." both sides also confirmed their intent to create an independent palestinian state. the talks became possible in the renewed optimism after the death of yassir arafat and the election of abbas.

the agreement marks a profound change in israeli-palestinian relations, but the negotiated truce is a shaky peace. the ability of president abbas to exert control over palestinian militant groups is questionable, and thorny political issues remain for the israelis if they begin to withdraw settlers from the occupied territories. there are signs that the palestinian resistance groups are willing to participate in the cease-fire: the terrorist organisation, hamas released a statement in the hours before the summic stating that "was prepared to calm down resistance raids in the event the zionist entity reciprocated," referring to sharon's pledge to stop military activities, yet shortly after the summit a spokesman for the organization said it will not be bound by the cease-fire.

the agreement includes a pledge by israel to release 900 palestinian prisoners, to create join committees on prisoner release and the withdrawal of troops from palestinian territories, and cooperation with palestinian security forces in occupied areas.


microsoft to buy antivirus firm sybari software

microsoft has announced that it plans to purchase antivirus firm sybari software in order to expand its market within the computer security market. the takeover comes after microsoft purchased romanian security firm gecad in 2003 and two months after an announcement that it is to acquire anti-spyware vendor giant-company software.

sybari is a private company based in east newport, new york that develops antivirus software which can be used with microsoft's exchange software, as well as with the lotus notes system.

this takeover is seen by analysts to be hostile move on microsoft's part, as it places the software giant in direct competition with market leaders symantec and mcafee. sterling auty, an analyst with jp morgan, told reuters that he estimated that microsoft could be competing for up to five percent of symantec's business and up to eight percent of mcafee's revenue.

microsoft's shares rose $0.10 at midday to $26.26, while both mcafee and symantec shares fell.



tiny planet discovered in mini solar system

alex wolszczan of penn state and maciej konacki of caltech announced the discovery of the smallest planet detected outside our solar system. the new body is located in the same planetary system where wolszczan found the very first extrasolar planets in 1992.

the planet, approximately one-fifth the mass of pluto, orbits the pulsar psr b1257+12, 1500 light years from earth. "despite the extreme conditions that must have existed at the time these planets were forming, nature has managed to create a planetary system that looks like a scaled-down copy of our own inner solar system," wolszczan said.

three terrestrial planets discovered earlier occupy orbits similar in proportion to the orbits of mercury, venus, and earth. the new fourth planet is in an orbit six times larger than the third planet's position, corresponding to our own asteroid belt.

"surprisingly, the planetary system around this pulsar resembles our own solar system more than any extrasolar planetary system discovered around a sun-like star," konacki said.

"because our observations practically rule out a possible presence of an even more distant, massive planet or planets around the pulsar, it is quite possible that the tiny fourth planet is the largest member of a cloud of interplanetary debris at the outer edge of the pulsar's planetary system, a remnant of the original protoplanetary disk that created the three inner planets," wolszczan explained.

since the original discovery of planets in 1992, wolszczan and colleagues, using the 
arecibo radio telescope in puerto rico, ". . . feel now, with this discovery, that the basic inventory of this planetary system has been completed."


india tops list of top offshoring locations

london - has placed first in the "economist" magazine's list of the top offshoring locations in the world. the list, compiled by the "economist intelligence unit", measured the attractiveness of 60 countries as destinations for offshoring, scoring each country on nine criteria commonly used by companies when deciding where to locate offshore. the list was compiled as part of the "economist ceo briefing 2005". india came out first with a overall score of 7.76, followed by with 7.34 and the with 7.26. the list was dominated by eastern european and south east asian countries. the top developed country was with 7.23, ranking 6th overall. 

the top fifteen were as follows:

1st - india with 7.76 points <br>
2nd - china - with 7.34 points <br>
3rd - czech republic - with 7.26 points <br>
4th - singapore - with 7.25 points <br>
5th - poland - with 7.24 points <br>
6th - canada - 7.23 points <br>
7th - hong kong - 7.19 points <br>
8th - hungary - 7.17 points <br>
9th - philippines - 7.17 points <br>
10th - thailand - 7.16 points <br>
11th - malaysia - 7.13 points <br>
12th - slovakia - 7.12 points <br>
13th - bulgaria - 7.09 points <br>
14th - romania - 7.08 points <br>
15th - chile - 7.08 points <br>



danish elections have endorsed the current centre-right coalition

copenhagen ? the danish people have voted to keep the current centre-right political coalition of the venstre (the liberal party), det konservative folkeparti (conservative people's party) and the dansk folkeparti (danish people's party).

prime minister anders fogh rasmussen's liberal party retained the largest number of seats in parliament. the governing coalition between the liberals and conservative people's party remained intact. they will likely be supported largely by the danish people's party, which gained 2 seats. the radikale venstre (radical left) party gained the most seats of any party, although it remains outside the governing group of parties. the election marked the second time in a row that the social democrats were not the largest party in the parliament, a change from most of the 20th century. the party lost 5 seats and leader mogens lykketoft resigned immediately after the election.

venstre, the liberal party of the prime minister, campaigned on their municipal restructuring plan, as well as a continuation of the "tax-freeze" and tight immigration requirements. they also promised to see 60,000 jobs created during a second term.

the largest opposition party, the socialdemokraterne (social democrats) led by mogens lykketoft focused on employment, which they claim has decreased under the current government.

the dansk folkeparti, who support the venstre-conservative coalition, criticized the "tax-freeze" but agreed, conditionally, to support it for another parliamentary term. they also wanted increasingly tough immigration restrictions.

going into the election, the governing coalition had 94 of the 175 seats up for election. (danish overseas territories designate four additional representatives).



crosswords/2005/february/10

answers tomorrow.


brazil dismisses english language skills on diplomatic career admission

the brazilian ministry of external relations decided to remove the english language knowledge section from qualifying tests required by the brazilian school of diplomats, the rio branco institute. the decision proved controversial among brazilians.

in brazil, those interested in following a diplomatic career first must study at the brazilian school of diplomats: the rio branco institute (irbr).

after having passed the rio branco institute's (irbr) entrance examination, the student becomes a third secretary. the career path then continues to second secretary, first secretary, counselor, second class minister, and first class minister or ambassador. 

the candidate must fulfill the following requirements before signing up for the entrance examination to irbr:
be brazilian by birth, have a clean criminal record, be up-to-date with military and electoral obligations, and have concluded a full undergraduate course recognized by the ministry of education before the date of inscription.

the course of study is 2 years long. in the first year, the student has lectures in international public law, economics, brazilian foreign policy, history of international relations, theory of international relations and brazilian readings, diplomatic language, english, french, and spanish. for every three class hours on concepts, there is one lecture, seminar, workshop or debate guided by an expert in the field.

in the second year, the student develops his diplomatic professional skills. he works as a trainee in different units of the government and at brazilian embassies and consulates in south america and mexico.

the following written tests are part of the entrance examination: portuguese, english, french and spanish languages; history, geography, brazilian and international law, brazilian and international economy, and international politics. also, the following oral tests are required: international politics, english, and portuguese language.

until 2004, the english language tests could eliminate a candidate. however, on december 7, 2004, the brazilian minister of external relations celso amorim changed the entrance examination rules. failing the english test no longer removes the student from the program. 

the following tests can still remove a person from the program: portuguese language, history, and geography. 

the minister celso amorim explained his decision: "this is a democratic decision. i would rather have a diplomat who knows portuguese and brazilian history well than another one who knows english well".

however, the decision proposed by the ministry of external relations caused some controversy.

the senator and former diplomat arthur virgilio(psdb) sent a letter to minister celso amorim protesting against the change in the entrance examination to irbr. he said that the minister's decision is nonsense, a symbolic protest against the usa. the decision minimizes the importance of english in the world. according to him, the government is being underhanded. "the question is not to love or to hate the united states, but to recognize their enormous weight, until bothering, in the world-wide scenario," he added. 

the journalist and high critic of the government and the workers' party (pt), percival puggina, said: "on march 18, 2004, during a opening speech of a popular restaurant of coca-cola in belo horizonte , president lula said: 'i spent much time in my life thinking that if you wanted to be anti-american you should not drink coca-cola. later, i got more mature and realized that there is nothing better than waking up at night and finding a coca-cola in the refrigerator.' however, lula’s anti-americanism which still remains is more naive than not drinking coca-cola. the ministry of external relations under the rule of celso amorim gives us a clue when it eliminates the english knowledge skills as a requisite to the entrance at the rio branco institute. i assume that this is a kick in both bush’s groin and in blair’s ankle. camoes is thankful, but he excuses the courtesy."

in an interview with the brazilian newspaper folha de sao paulo, the minister celso amorim told:”it should be explained that the english language was not removed from the examination, and it will not stop being obligatory; it will just not remove students anymore. brazilian diplomats will still have to know english as well as other languages too. what the itamaraty (the brazilian ministry of external relations) decided was to take for itself the costs of the necessary complementation so that the diplomat has the domain of the language.” amorim also added: ”there are many people who i knew during my life with all the requisites to be diplomats, but who had difficulty to pass in an examination of eliminatory english.”

according to amorim, the english language elimination test favors the children of diplomats. ricardo neiva tavares, spokesman of the itamaraty, says that with the changes candidates of all regions of the country can compete evenly to enter the diplomatic career.

the former chancellor celso lafer criticized the decision: "portuguese is not the language used in international communication." according to him, the change in the admission examination is a false idea of democratization.

cristovam buarque professor of university of brasilia, senator (pt) and former minister of education during lula’s government said: “the knowledge of foreign languages, especially of english, is absolutely necessary to the diplomat. but this knowledge little says about the potential of creativity, knowledge, and ability of a youth who intends to enter the diplomatic course. henry kissinger, for example, would have been disapproved of in our course of diplomacy, since he still speaks with a german accent.”


farc surround colombian town

the community of the town of condoto, 600km of bogota, in the region of , has been surrounded by the revolutionary armed forces of colombia for a week. the rebel army is interfering with the movement of people, food, and medicine to the city. according to the government of choco secretary fredy lloreda the action is apparently in retaliation for recent operations performed by government forces against the rebels.

the farc are a marxist revolutionary group with about 12,000 members which originated from the colombian communist party of the 1960s. the farc's main stated objective is the creation of a communist government in colombia.

according to the colombian government, the us fbi, and interpol, the majority of the farc's recent funding has come from kidnapping, extortion, hijacking, and illegal trade in cocaine.

the farc are considered a terrorist group by the governments of colombia and the united states, a colombian ally in the fight against the farc. the farc are a member of the and are opposed to the influence of the government of the united states in south america.





star ousted from galaxy by black hole

a close encounter with the supermassive black hole at the center of the milky way has set a star on a one way trip into intergalactic space. the star, detected at the mmt observatory in tucson, arizona, is zipping outward at a speed of 1.5 million miles per hour. rocketing along at twice the galactic escape velocity, the milky way's gravitational attraction doesn't have the holding power to keep the star from disappearing into the emptiness between galaxies.

"we have never before seen a star moving fast enough to completely escape the confines of our galaxy," warren brown of the harvard-smithsonian center for astrophysics (cfa) said. "we're tempted to call it the outcast star because it was forcefully tossed from its home. only the powerful gravity of a very massive black hole could propel a star with enough force to exit our galaxy."
using measurements of the star's line-of-sight velocity, the scientists have concluded the star, cataloged as sdss j090745.0+24507, is moving almost directly away from galactic center. composition and age of the star also provide evidence of the star's origin and ultimate fate. "because this is a metal-rich star, we believe that it recently came from a star-forming region like that in the galactic center," said brown. less than 80 million years were needed for the star to reach its current location, which is consistent with its estimated age.
margaret j. geller, michael j. kurtz and scott j. kenyon, along with brown, will publish their find in an upcoming issue of "the astrophysical journal".

the harvard-smithsonian center for astrophysics is based in cambridge, massachusetts, where scientists study the origin, evolution and ultimate fate of the universe.


baugur makes a us$1,8 billion bid for somerfield

london/reykjavik ? the icelandic retail and investment company baugur is making a bid for the british supermarket chain somerfield of ￡1 billion, 120 billion isk, or us$1,8 billion. the supermarket chain has 700 somerfield supermarkets and 500 kwik save discount foodstores across the united kingdom. baugur already owns the iceland supermarket in the uk and ireland, bonus and hagkaup supermarkets in iceland, and other retailers in iceland, the faroe islands, united kingdom, sweden & denmark. 



carly fiorina ousted from hp

new york - carly fiorina was ousted by the board of directors of hp yesterday, much to the delight of wall street. ms fiorina's resignation was the result of a disagreement with the board over the future of the company. often cited as america's most powerful businesswoman, ms fiorina presided over the multi-billion dollar merger between hewlett packard and compaq computers in 2002. 

the move comes after several months of intense speculation about her future with the company. having promised billions in annual savings to the company from the 2002 merger, the combined company failed to keep pace with competitors such as dell, or to deliver any significant increases in profits, particularly in the personal computer market. a recent investigation by fortune magazine highlighted the fact that the firm's highly profitable printer business supported the lower-margin computer business. 

after the announcement, hp shares surged 10% on wall street against a generally poor performance by the major indices.



hamas dampens palestinian-israeli truce

following the much hailed truce between the israeli government and the palestinian authority, the most powerful armed group in palestine has declared that the conference in sharm el-sheikh has changed nothing.

hamas said that although the palestinian leaders had announced a truce, the organisation was not bound to it. the group also said in a statement that it should have been consulted first, a view shared by another militant group - islamic jihad.

both groups have largely observed an unofficial ceasefire for the past three weeks, having reached an understanding with palestinian leader mahmoud abbas that would enable him to negotiate with israel in an environment of relative calm.

the groups appear to have come to an agreement that they should continue to observe a month's calm, as agreed with abbas in late january. hamas spokesman mushir al-masri told aljazeera that hamas leaders would be seeking a meeting with abbas within the next few days to discuss the summit. masri, however, said that the sharm el-sheikh talks had been "disappointing," as the agreement did not represent many of the palestinian groups.

khadir habib, a spokesman for islamic jihad, said, "islamic jihad has endorsed a one-month period of quiet and we will respect it", indicating that some palestinian groups may be willing to withdraw from violence in order to give the new peace process time to develop, however, some violence and hostility have greeted the new ceasefire, with gunfire from an israeli settlement which has reportedly critically injured a 22-year-old palestinian man. the israeli army said it is to check the report.


fbi investigates 250 thousand poisoned u.s. dollars

the has taken over a case covering several cities. police found $250,000 in sealed bags, intercepted between , and northeast . state troopers counting the cash became ill, and one was hospitalized. the cash is believed to be drug money.

sources told cbs 3 tests on the cash counter revealed the presence of a toxin derived from the bacteria staphylococcus. there is speculation the contamination may have been deliberate to prevent the money being tampered with in transit.

fbi spokesperson jerri williams said, “this is under investigation and we have no information to provide to the public at this time."

a warning has been issued recommending that officers should take extra precaution and wear protective masks when handling suspected drug money. 


israel-palestine ceasefire begins with violence

minor violent incidents and claims of lebanese sabotage marked an unsteady start today for the israeli-palestinian truce, already threatened after militant groups hamas and islamic jihad announced that they were not bound by the agreement.

two israeli motorists escaped uninjured in the west bank today after coming under fire from palestinian gunmen.

elsewhere, hamas militant hassan alami was found dead in the khan younis camp of southern gaza, killed while carrying out activities for the group. although hamas refused to be bound by the agreement signed yesterday in sharm el-sheik, it has promised to keep quiet at the request of mahmoud abbas.

another palestinian man is in a critical condition after being shot in the chest. the man, from the rafah refugee camp, was shot near the israeli settlement of atzmona. the israeli army, which has a garrison in atzmona, is looking into the incident.

meanwhile, ramallah has accused lebanese rebel group hezbollah of attempting to sabotage the fragile peace agreement in the middle east. the group, backed by syria and iran, are attempting to recruit palestinian militants to engage in attacks of israeli targets, claim palestinian spokesmen. the charges mirror those made recently by israel, which has long accused hezbollah of bankrolling palestinian violence in the region.

hezbollah denies the charges, and claims to be honouring the ceasefire agreed yesterday. however, palestinian officials claim to have intercepted bank records and email communications that prove that the guerilla group is recruiting militants in the west bank. abbas is shying away from any confrontation with the group at the moment, but has sent an envoy to beirut to persuade hezbollah to desist from its aggressive activities.

despite the setbacks, israel has begun to lift restrictions of travel and issue permits to 1000 palestinians to work in israel, as part of tuesday's deal. sharon has agreed to travel to ramallah to continue talks toward peace in the region.



explosion in madrid; basque separatists blamed

, 

at 8:30 am utc yesterday a car bomb exploded in downtown madrid, spain, near the city's main convention center. the explosion occurred shortly before king juan carlos and mexican president vicente fox, were due to open the arco art fair.

forty-three persons were hurt, including 6 police officers. reuters reports 24 were taken to the hospital, though none were seriously injured. the juan carlos i convention center suffered major damage to its facade from the blast.

explosives experts estimated the size of the bomb between 20 and 30 kg (44-66 lb) of explosive material, according to spain's interior minister jose antonio alonso.
the blast is the most serious explosion in spain since the march 11, 2004 al-qaeda train bombings. it coincides with a police crack-down on the basque separatist group eta in the lead up to the basque regional elections in april.

the basque newspaper gara received a warning from a caller claiming to be with the separatist group eta half an hour before the blast, announcing that a car bomb would explode soon after.

eta grew out of a call for action against francisco franco, who ruled spain from 1939 until his death in 1975. a basque nationalist movement, eta grew into a guerrilla force which, to date, is responsible for killing more than 800 people.

the goals of eta are to force the creation of an independent basque nation, including both the french and spanish basque regions. initially, under the franco dictatorship and during the transition periods following his death, eta enjoyed widespread support in the basque communities. with the increasing radicalism and violence of their methods, this popularity has waned, and organizations such as "gesto por la paz" (the association for peace in the basque country) now hold silent protests after eta acts of terrorism.



kobe commemorates earthquake victims

several commemoration ceremonies were recently held for victims of the great hanshin earthquake of 1995, mainly in kansai region. the municipality of kobe and supporting organisations held one such ceremony in the early morning of january 17. it was the biggest ceremony held that day. over 5,000 people gathered in the east playground in the center of city. participants included surviving citizens and volunteers from around the whole country who had helped out. at 5:43 a.m., just 10 years after the earthquake first occurred, people lit candles in honor of the 6,433 victims. the victims included 133 people who died in the aftermath of the disaster, due to physical or mental difficulties caused by the heavy changes in their life. 

the earthquake centered around awaji island, near the city of kobe. it measured 7.3 on the richter scale, the biggest quake to hit japan since world war ii. though a great earthquake could theoretically occur in any part of japan, and scientists had warned of the possibility of earthquakes in the kansai region, citizens and local government tended to be unaware of this possibility 10 years ago. the death and destruction caused by the quake gave a serious shock to the city's residents. one story of the kobe city hall was totally destroyed, and a part of meishin highway between nagoya and kobe was ripped apart; a bus barely avoided falling from the broken highway. engineers buttressed vulnerable city structures throughout japan after the earthquake. research revealed that architecture designed under national earthquake-proof standards had survived the earthquake. many old buildings were rebuilt, reconstructed, or given structual support. vulnerable city infrastructure was also attended to; in some areas water and fuel supply had been disrupted for over two months. many municipalities reviewed their standards for civil engineering design.

the earthquake also revealed systematic vulnerability within the japanese government. the prime minister at that time, tomiichi murayama, first learned of the earthquake from a tv news program two hours later, and not from a government report. he called his secretary, who also knew nothing of it. the government improved these weaknesses, and in the case of the chuetsu earthquake in october 2004, the prime minister's office was able to quickly deal with the accident.

after the earthquake, many people spent days in shelters. 104,900 houses were completely destroyed, and 144,256 only partly desroyed. the hyogo prefecture and municipalities provided temporary shelters, called kasetsujutaku. such temporary houses had remained since 2000. since those houses were provided to individuals and not to communities, many people found they were no longer with their familiar neighbors after moving. this caused serious problems among people, especially the elderly. since 2000, around 200 people have died alone in such temporary houses, to be found only days later; this was considered a serious social problem. a word was even coined for this situation, "kodokushi" (meaning "death in solitude" in japanese), but some say no effective solution has yet been offered. 

the earthquake has also had a bright side. before the earthquake, it was not popular to participate voluntarily in social activities in japan. the earthquake moved many people to join such activities. since it was close to the end of the japanese schoolyear, many students could stay in the affected area for long days. and it has been not easy to have a vacation for japanese workers, as many people took vacations from their company and went to the affected area to help out. this was not just a temporary movement, but influenced people to consider such social engagement as a regular activity (one can see a similar influcence in the case of the chuetsu earthquake).

 


$158 billion missing in u.s. medicare drug benefit cost estimate

u.s. medicare drug benefit cost estimates rise to $558 billion in latest congressional budget office (cbo) estimates.

the cbo estimated that the medicare modernization act, "would result in additional direct spending of about $395 billion over the 2004-2013 period." the estimate included $552 billion mandatory spending for medicare part d, offset by savings of $13 billion from changes to parts a and b, and "estimated savings of $145 billion in medicaid and other federal programs because the part d benefit would reduce spending in those federal programs."

although the projections only slightly modified the net costs, from $552 billion to $558 billion, the $158 billion in offset from previous estimates were completely removed with a limited justification. "the estimated savings to medicaid and other federal programs are incorporated in our baseline projections and are not separately identifiable," the cbo said.

the $552 billion dollar figure is missing from the november 2003 estimates, with a total cost for 2004-2013 presented as single line item of $410 billion as "prescription drug benefit (title i)." over the same period the current estimate, which is categorized differently, lists the total costs for the "benefits and mandatory administrative costs" as $779 billion, with part d. premiums and payments by states reducing the number by $221 billion to $558 billion.

the report presented two tables: one justifying the prior $395 billion figure, including itemizations for "savings to medicaid and other federal programs" totaling $145 billion and "other spending effects" totaling $13 billion, and another presenting the current estimate, which only listed "savings to medicaid and other federal programs" and "other spending effects"as being "not separately identifiable."

"this just brings us back to the bush administration's credibility gap," rep. charles rangel of new york told the l.a. times. medicare is overseen by the house ways and means committee, and rep. rangels is the senior democrat on the committee. "how can we trust them on social security when they did not play straight with the facts on medicare?" he said.

dr. mark b. mcclellan, administrator of the centers for medicare and medicaid services, disagreed, saying "there has been no significant change in the cost of the drug benefit" for the years 2006 - 2015 despite the numbers he brought forward having a cost of $1.2 trillion dollars. he points to a difference in years covered by his estimates as the reason, and that the numbers represented "gross costs" and did not reflect premiums paid by medicare beneficiaries, compulsory contributions by states or savings to the medicaid program.



togo's new leader promises elections, but doesn't say when

the new leader of togo, the late president gnassingbe eyadema's son, faure gnassingbe, pledged to hold "free and transparent elections which reflect the will of the people" as soon as possible, though he did not mention a specific timeframe, nor did he address international criticism of his ascession to power. 

togolese politics have become a subject of criticism by the african union, the european union and the united nations after the death of eyadema late last week. eyadema was africa's longest-ruling leader whose 38-year rule was marked by government-sponsored violence and the stifling of political expression. 

the constitution of togo was amended to permit eyadema to retain power, to allow more than two five-year terms in office, and to lower the minimum age for a president from 45 to 35. the latter move was seen as a way to allow the succession of the presidency to eyadema's son, then only 35 years old.

when eyadema died on saturday of a heart attack, the country's constitution called for power to be transferred to the head of the national assembly. instead, faure gnassingbe assumed power and the constitution was amended to allow this, causing criticism from foreign commentators.

faure gnassingbe also promised reforms, and an open dialog with the opposition parties. however, with the opposition leader out of the country since an assassination attempt in 1992, and the presidential term not set to expire until 2008, it is not clear how much change these promises will bring in the near future.




google releases test of mapping service

google inc. on tuesday rolled out a test version of its mapping service ? a type of service long offered by its rivals yahoo and microsoft. the web site, http://maps.google.com, is designed to let users display maps of locations around the united states and canada, find businesses near those locations, and generate driving directions between locations.

unlike the competitors' offerings, google's mapping system shows bigger maps and does not require a reload of the web page when a user pans or zooms the map. the site uses the google local search to incorporate local businesses onto the map. google uses mapping data from teleatlas and navteq, according to information shown on the mapping site.



north korea declares it has nuclear weapons; cancels talks

the statement declared, "we had already taken the resolute action of pulling out of the and have manufactured nuclear arms for self-defense to cope with the bush administration's evermore undisguised policy to isolate and stifle the [north korean government]."

"nuclear weapons will remain [a] nuclear deterrent for self-defense under any circumstances," said the ministry. "the present reality proves that only powerful strength can protect justice and truth."

previously, on february 4, the state-run carried a reaction to the inauguration speech of president : "in his inauguration speech, bush trumpeted that 'fire of freedom will reach dark corners of the world.' this is nothing but a plot to engulf the whole world in a sea of war flames and rule it by imposing a freedom based on power."

technical experts and politicians have advised though that this announcement might still need to be taken with suspicion, however, as north korea has made large announcements before making large demands many times in the past as a form of bluffing. because they have never shown any outside experts concrete proof of their having successfully extracted the from their reactors, nor that they have managed to perform the complicated chemistry and engineering necessary to develop a prototype , and have not performed the requisite first , their nuclear status, though declared, is being viewed as somewhat ambiguous. it is also unknown whether their purported nuclear weapons are sophisticated enough to fit onto their missiles, a complicated task to achieve without testing or outside assistance.

a week earlier, new information about north korean sales of nuclear materials had come out - including allegations that they had provided uranium to libya's now-defunct nuclear program. 

in the following days, president bush's public rhetoric with respect to north korea seemed to have softened, and his administration sent a new envoy to the , , and governments to discuss pressuring north korea to give up its nuclear arms development. the envoy, michael green (an asia expert on the ), was sent to meet with chinese president hu jintao with a letter from president bush "written to underscore the greatly heightened urgency" of the situation. green also met with south korean president and japanese prime minister .

this week, the yonhap news agency reported (via afp) that south korean foreign minister ban ki-moon was also travelling to , to talk with us secretary of state condoleezza rice and other us officials about north korea's nuclear weapons program.


crosswords/2005/february/11

answers tomorrow.


prince charles to marry camilla parker bowles

prince charles, britain's heir to the throne, has announced that he is to wed his lover of 34 years, camilla parker bowles. in a press statement, the prince of wales said “mrs parker bowles and i are absolutely delighted. it will be a very special day for us and our families.”

mrs parker bowles will use the title "hrh the duchess of cornwall" after their marriage, and it is intended that following the prince's accession to the throne, mrs parker bowles will use the title "hrh the princess consort".

the pair are to marry on 8th april 2005 at a private civil ceremony in windsor castle, which will be an occasion primarily for friends and family. there will then be a service of prayer and dedication in st. george's chapel, to be conducted by the archbishop of canterbury, dr. rowan williams.

queen elizabeth ii and duke of edinburgh also released a press statement saying: "the duke of edinburgh and i are very happy that the prince of wales and mrs parker bowles are to marry. we have given them our warmest good wishes for their future together."

the proposed wedding is likely to raise many religious and constitutional questions, especially as mrs parker bowles is divorced and her husband is still alive. however, the archbishop of canterbury said "i am pleased that prince charles and mrs camilla parker bowles have decided to take this important step."

the marriage will end many years of speculation spanning a relationship which has lasted since 1971. following the death of the prince's previous wife, princess diana, media speculation about the couple has increased.


 


pope to leave hospital

pope john paul ii left rome's gemelli hospital today, having been treated for throat spasms brought on by flu. the 84-year-old pontiff had been in hospital for 10 days.

vatican spokesman, joaquin navarro-valls, said that the pope had been "cured" from the breathing difficulties, which lead to his hospitalization. navarro-valls also said that the pontiff had undergone a number of tests, including a cat scan, which had ruled out any new illnesses.

the vatican reports that the pope has recovered his voice and that he will make his regular appearance for crowds in st. peter's square. the vatican is also being quiet regarding speculation as to the pope's successor, the bbc reports.

the pope's last appearance was from his hospital window on sunday (6th february).



colombian army and farc in combat, 28 dead

since yersterday the colombian national army and farc rebels have been fighting in the department of antioquia in colombia. recent reports account that 17 military and 11 guerrilla were dead during the combats until now.

yesterday conflict occurred in the jungle, near the spring of the el porroso river, rural zone of mutata, uraba province of the antioquia department. 
the general carlos alberto ospina, colombian military forces commander, told the engagement began after they intercepted a farc group in its path to a indian community settled around the region.

a military officer and 16 soldiers of the "batallon de infanteria no. 46 voltigeros" died in the battle. a sub-official and a soldier got hurt. 11 guerrilla from the farc were killed as well. eight soldiers are still missing, according to report released by the colombian caracol radio.

in another campaign soldiers of the "batallon de contraguerrillas 41 heroes de corea de la primera division" dismantled a laboratory with chemicals used for the processing of narcotics in a farc camp, located in the city of vista hermosa, meta department.



rallies against feb. 1 royal coup in nepal

the first major protests started thursday on the streets of kathmandu, where protesters unfurled banners and shouted slogans. they were quickly arrested by police, who had caught wind of the plans and mobilized their forces on the streets.

at least ten arrests took place, sources say.

these protests were organized by the human rights and peace society (hurpes) and were announced earlier this week. the protesters are angry over king gyanendra's decision to take over the government, censor the media, cut communications, ban dissent, arrest opposition leaders and place military on the streets.

earlier in the week, krishna pahadi, the founder of hurpes, called for the protests.

"we would like to fill the jails of nepal for the sake of democracy, human rights and the peace," he said.



saudis vote in first municipal elections in the kingdom

saudis are voting today in the country's first municipal elections that have been held in the kingdom. this is first time democratic elections have been conducted in the kingdom and as many as 100 candidates have been put forward per seat in the capital, riyadh. there has been rows over whether women should be allowed to vote or stand in these elections and if there will any major changes in policy as only 50% of seats are being contested.


brazil opens xiv international fair of books in cuba

on feb. 3, 2005, the brazilian minister of education, tarso genro, opened the xiv international fair of books in havana during his five day visit to cuba. the fair is scheduled to continue until february 13, 2005.

minister genro opened the fair saying, "cuba and brazil have the same mixture and the same condition of sovereign nations." according to genro, it was a honor for brazil to be invited to the fair, where the country was the guest of honor.

at the fair, the ambassador of brazil in cuba, tilden santiago, spoke in name of the brazilian president, lula, that the fair of books will help to strengthen the relatioship between both countries. "between brazil and cuba there is a tradition of friendship which goes back to candido portinari and nicholas guillen, leo brower and egberto gismont, and alfredo guevara and glauber rocha," he added. 

the brazilian delegation donated 400 complete book collections to cuba. the brazilian addition to the fair included lectures, handiwork, films, literature, music, poetry, art demos and shows, and information on politics and history. 

genro also met with fidel castro, president of cuba. among the subjects discussed were the interchanges between both countries in the educational field, relationships between universities, value of the spanish language, cuban methods of alphabetization, and brazilian undergraduate students in cuba.


iranian president vows to maintain nuclear program

iranian president mohammad khatami said today that his country will never give up its nuclear development process.

talking to foreign ambassadors in tehran, he said, "we give our guarantee that we will not produce nuclear weapons because we're against them and do not believe they are a source of power, but we will not give up peaceful nuclear technology."

"iran has achieved nuclear technology without the help of others, and it will never give up its right [to use it] under illegitimate pressure from others," khatami said.

his remarks come as iran faces increasing pressure to curb its nuclear activities. the united states and the european union wants the country to give up enriching uranium, a key process in both nuclear power generation and weapons production. iran claims to have suspended such enrichment?president khatmi said that enrichment is "our clear right" but that iran had suspended it only "to show our goodwill". the eu wants a permanent cessation.

khatami also denounced, "the slanders of the american rulers against the iranian nation and the establishment", saying they were aimed at "putting a cover on the failures of the extremist us policy".

newly-appointed u.s. secretary of state condoleezza rice said while touring europe this week that diplomacy with iran must be given every chance to succeed, adding that no deadline had been set to take the issue to the un security council.


bush administration removes critical report from website, replaces civil rights commission chair

a report documenting the civil rights record of the bush administration has been removed from the commission's website. the report was submitted to the administration in december by a committee, chaired by mary frances berry, who has served as chair of the u.s. commission on civil rights for nearly 25 years. 

the report, "redefining rights in america: the civil rights record of the george w. bush administration" described setbacks to a range of civil rights issues from policies that have further polarized communities. one week after berry submitted the report, the bush administration forced her out, announcing her replacement before she had actually resigned. the new chair, attorney gerald a. reynolds, was quoted in a "new york times" article as saying he believed traditional civil rights group "overstate the problem" of racial discrimination. his appointment has been termed "a disaster" by naacp board chairman julian bond. 

in an exclusive interview with tolerance.org february 9, berry warns of further erosion to civil rights, with a weakened civil rights commission unable to press the justice department to enforce the laws. 




shakidor dam bursts in pakistan after heavy rain

after a week of heavy rain and snow, the shakidor dam near the coast of the southwestern pakistan province of baluchistan burst around 6:00 pm local time. so far, at least seventy people have died after five villages were swept away. many bodies have been recovered by coast guard vessels sweeping the sea off the affected area with fishing nets.

provincial minister sher jan baloch announced troops have been called out for rescue operations. "the army has started rescue operations to try to save as many lives as possible." while over 1,000 have been rescued, possibly as many as 700 are missing - they may have been swept out to see, or may be seeking refuge on high ground or elsewhere. alotogether, over 30,000 people have been affected.

president musharaf has announced a million dollars for the victims.

the 148 m (485 ft) long shakidor dam near pasni failed on friday, sending thousands of people fleeing for safety. the dam, 800 km south of quetta, the capital of baluchistan, was built two years ago. although the specific details are not known, it is believed the dam was overwhelmed by past week's heavy rains which have caused flooding in the region.

the flooding has cut off pasni and other coastal regions, washing out roads and bridges. at least another 50 have died elsewhere as a result.




crosswords/2005/february/12

answers tomorrow.


canadian pm martin testifies before sponsorship scandal inquiry

, 

paul martin, prime minister of canada, had the opportunity to testify thursday before the gomery commission of inquiry on the so-called "sponsorship" scandal. the prime minister provide long and exhaustive, and many times exhausting replies to questions raised by commission co-counsel, mr. finckelstein. the prime minister managed to distance himself from a programme about which his predecessor, the right honorable jean chretien testified on tuesday, had as its objective national unity which was a matter under his purview.

during questioning the prime minister sought to distance himself from the secret fund used to finance the sponsorship program. the unity reserve, he has said, was "deeply in the bowels" of the finance department's budget infrastructure, and did not receive more than semblant review before being approved.

"the responsibility of the minister of finance is to set the financial context," he testified, "once the minister of finance does that, which is essentially the presentation of the budget, his responsibility comes to a total end."

the scandal involves hundreds of millions of dollars spent in a program created to respond to the 1995 quebec referendum. the funds were allocated to promote canada through cultural and sporting events in quebec, where separatist sentiment was still strong, but a 2003 report from sheila fraser, the auditor general of canada, suggested as much as $100 million may have been misspent for little or no work on advertising firms with close ties to the liberal party of canada.

over the past year the gomery enquiry, appointed by pm martin, has produced little evidence beyond that of the original report, but has provided a forum for the opposition parties to attempt to embarrass the ruling liberal party.




arthur miller dies, aged 89

arthur miller, the revered american playwright, has died aged 89 in roxbury, connecticut. the creator of death of a salesman and the crucible had been suffering from cancer and pneumonia.

miller's most famous play, death of a salesman, was first performed in 1949. willy loman, the central protagonist, became a symbol of the difficulties and frailties of the 'american dream'.

arthur miller became embroiled in 1956 with the communist hysteria which engulfed the united states as the cold war began to take shape. when he refused to name friends and colleagues to the house committee on un-american activities, he was held in contempt. the decision was later overturned, however miller's experiences led him to write the crucible, a thinly veiled critique of the mccarthyist witch-hunts.

fans of miller and his works worldwide paid tribute today to the pulitzer-prize winning playwright. zoe caldwell, american actress who had appeared in miller's "the creation of the world and other business", told ap that miller "was a big man and a deeply american man who was lucky enough to have extraordinary women in his life." miller's fame was precipitated by his stormy relationship and subsequent marriage to marilyn monroe, which lasted five years.

"mr miller passed away at his home in roxbury, connecticut, last night at 9.17pm of heart failure," his assistant revealed. mr miller leaves behind three children: jane-ellen, robert and rebecca miller.


french television authority stops broadcasts of iranian station for antisemitic content

yesterday, the french television authority ? the csa ? ordered eutelsat, a satellite television broadcaster, to stop transmitting the tv station sahar-1, operated by the iranian government.

the ban was motivated by sahar tv broadcasting antisemitic fiction, as well as talk shows in which the existence of the holocaust and the gas chambers in nazi extermination camps was denied.

a recently aired show, "for you, palestine: zahra's blue eyes", in the word of the french tv authority, "systematically presented israelis and jews in a demeaning manner, as persons without scruples, ready to steal the eyes of a palestinian child".

french law criminalizes incitation to racial hatred, as well as the denial of the holocaust.

the government-controlled iranian media, as the anniversary of the liberation of the auschwitz concentration camp was approaching, published a number of columns in which the holocaust was described as a "historical lie". sahar tv has already come under the criticism of media watchdogs for antisemitic broadcasts.

france's broadcasting authority, the "conseil superieur de l'audiovisuel" or csa, is an independent administrative authority. the nine members of the council are named one third by the president of the french republic, one third by the president of the senate, one third by the president of the national assembly.

france has already moved on several occasions to stop the broadcasts on its territory of antisemitic foreign broadcasters. on december 13, 2004, the french highest administrative court, acting on the request of the tv authorities, issued an injunction ordering eutelsat to cease broadcasting hezbollah television al manar in france.



tropical cyclone meena strikes cook islands

over the previous 2 days, as the storm made its way through the island group, flights to and from both rarotonga and the outlying islands had been suspended, planes put under cover or flown out of the area and tourist resorts evacuated in the face of forecasts of 270 km/h wind gusts and 10 metre storm surges. 

about 200 tourist stranded at rarotonga airport, after leaving their tourist resorts ahead of the storm, had to be evacuated to a local emergency shelter. some criticised "air new zealand" for not giving more warning it was cancelling their flights.

although flights resumed only 15 hours after the storm passed to the east, there was significant local flooding caused by 15 m high waves. iconic store trader jacks was inundated by the sea as were other parts of avarua town and northern rarotonga coast. although the cleanup is expected to take several weeks, damage was nowhere near as severe as that caused by cyclone heta to niue in january 2004.


michael smith foundation gifted by bc government

the spark which led to the foundation of the michael smith foundation was struck by nobel laureate michael smith, who saw a need in british columbia to pursue research funding and helped connect the key organizations and stakeholders in health research in the province. working toward their vision of health research leadership, and their strategic objectives of health improvement, research funding and bc's knowledge economy, they have striven to increase provincial investment in health research.

the liberal government in victoria, which has set the next provincial elections for may 17, used the throne speech to announce a long list of spending initiatives ? most of them dependent on their re-election to power. 

 


estonia becomes european leader in internet usage

the northern european country of estonia is facing a boom in internet usage due to low prices and a dynamic market. in recent years, the country has tried to emulate the scandinavian model of technological infrastructure and is now considered to be the most technologically-advanced of the former-communist countries of europe. estonia, which joined the european union in 2004, has also exceeded other members and has become a leader in european internet usage.

the country is now one of the world's largest per-capita users of online banking, which has surged due to the growth in number of internet leased-line connections. more impressively, the country is a european leader in terms of the number of permanent high-speed internet connections. it is outstripped only by denmark, the netherlands, belgium, sweden, finland and france, and thus ranks 7th in the 25-member european union in terms of broadband internet penetration.

estonia's internet boom has also been due in part of government policy. the government now wants to use the 450 mhz band to create a new digital wireless network that would cover the entire country. edvard saarma, the chief of the communications department at the economy ministry, said that, "in principle, this will be like a large wi-fi network that will cover all of estonia."


fans jumping for juno tickets

the stage has yet to be set, the lights haven't even been hung, but juno fever is already starting to grip canadians.

the 34th annual juno awards honoring canadian music is scheduled to take place at the mts centre in winnipeg, manitoba, canada april 3 and it appears that people want to be a part of the action. 

five hundred advance ticket packs that went on sale friday at 10 a.m. (canadian central time) sold out almost instantly. tickets for the event will officially go on sale saturday february 12, also at 10 a.m. those tickets are expected to cost anywhere from ca$40 to ca$116, depending upon seating.

tickets for the show have sold out quickly in previous years. the music awards show has gained popularity ever since private broadcaster ctv began broadcasting it live in 2001. last year the broadcast attracted 1.51 million viewers, making it the most-watched show of the evening.

this year brent butt will host the show with k-os, billy talent, k.d. lang, neil young, and the tragically hip already confirmed to perform. earlier this week when nominations were announced avril lavigne led the pack with five nods. the rebel pop star was followed closely by diana krall who received four nominations for her album the girl in the other room.



aids 'super bug' diagnosed in new york

although diagnosed in only one man so far, this mutated version of the virus progresses to aids faster than other forms of hiv, officials said. diagnosed with hiv in mid-october, the unnamed new york city man developed the full-blown form aids by mid-january. normally hiv infection can take up to 10 years to develop into aids. 

dr. ronald o. valdiserri, the director of hiv/aids prevention at the centers for disease control & prevention (cdc), told the "new york times" this new strain of virus is unique because of the rapid progression of the disease and its resistance to multiple aids drug regimens. although the new york case appears to be isolated at this time, the cdc has sent a nation-wide alert to health departments in every state.

"it appears this individual has contracted a new, particularly virulent strain of hiv that swiftly advanced to aids in just a few short months," charles farthing, md, aids healthcare foundation's chief of medicine said in a press release. "unfortunately, it also seems that few of the aids treatments currently available today can be used in his case, as this particular strain of infection appears to be resistant to most known aids drugs."

dr. thomas r. frieden, commissioner of the new york city department of health and mental hygiene, urged all newly-diagnosed hiv patients to get tested to see if they have this new form of the virus. he also said all sexually active people should be tested for the hi virus.

new york health officials said they estimate that about 88,000 new yorkers have hiv infection or aids and that an additional 20,000 are infected but unaware of their condition.



new zealand recorded crime statistics available online

new zealand's recorded crime statistics are now available online from statistics new zealand.

in an unheralded change to its website on january 20, 2005, statistics new zealand now provides the last 10 fiscal years of recorded crime statistics for new zealand. using the "table builder" service, the country's crime statistics can now be examined and analysed online in unprecedented detail.

although new zealand police has previously published "official crime statistics" reports online, these statistics have only ever been available at a summary level, as a printed style document. this development allows detailed information, that was only ever available though an information request to police, to now be seen immediately and desired statistics can be manipulated interactively.

statistics are available either nationally or by each police district and area for the each of the last 10 years or each of the last 24 months. recorded crime statistics can be analysed down to the individual offence, with scene information for recorded and resolved crime. offender apprehension statistics are also analysed down to the individual offence as well as the age, gender, ethnicity and resolution action taken with the offender.

the recorded crime statistics also have a significant amount of accompaning metadata. relevant legislation for each offence, together with caveats and interpretation notes for each parameter accompany these statistics. users can now interpret these statistics for themselves, rather than relying on other agencies interpreting, or possibly misinterpreting, their requirements.

this innovation appears to be a leading edge breakthrough in publically available crime statistics. although a number of jurisdictions place statistical reports and summaries of crime statistics on websites, these all are in the form of printed style documents. this move appears to be the first time that internet users can interact with a website to extract their own customised reports from the available crime statistics.

internationally, crime statistics have been difficult to obtain, and even more difficult to compare. interpol, the international policing organisation, for example, does not even make international statistics publically available on its website but restricts them to authorised law enforcement officials. other countries present their statistics in detailed reports that need to be read and interpreted with care to understand them correctly. different countries also count crime in different ways, often ignoring less serious offences or only counting the most serious of multiple offences occurring at the same time. 

in new zealand's case the basic data is now online. the analysis can be done by the user.


french economy picks up but falls short of government's hopes

after stagnation starting from 2001, the french economy grew at a rate of 2.3% in 2004, with growth picking up especially in the last three months of the year. however, the growth rate falls short of the 2.5% predicted by the french government. the seasonally-adjusted growth rate of 0.7-0.8% in the fourth quarter of 2004 is also the most solid growth since early 2002.

france, and the eurozone as a whole, has faced economic stagnation since the september 11 world trade center attacks, which had profound effects on the global economy. growth, however, picked up in 2004 and is expected to further improve in 2005. unlike germany and italy, france's economy has shown to be more resilient, even though it too slowed down in 2001-2003.

the government's target for 2005 is 2.5% growth. while the rebound in output is good news for europe's third largest economy, unemployment remains one of the highest in europe at 9.9%.



crosswords/2005/february/13

answers tomorrow.


california public school requires rfids on students

an elementary school in northern california has been testing a radio frequency identification (rfid) tag-based identification program on its 7th and 8th grade students since january 18th, 2005. according to the aclu, this is the first time that public school students in the united states have been required to wear devices that enable automatic identification. rfids have previously been used to track students in japan.

rfid tags contain antennas to enable them to receive and respond to radio-frequency queries from an rfid transceiver, enabling identification of pupils when they are in the vicinity of the detectors.

each student is required to wear an id card on a lanyard around their neck. an rfid tag, manufactured by local sutter corporation incom, is attached to the card. the school has installed rfid detectors at the doors of seven classrooms as well as the bathrooms, though they claim that the bathroom units were not turned on, and subsequently been removed after complaints from parents.

while some parents have complained about the system, local high school teacher tim crabtree told the san francisco chronicle, "it's baffling why so many people are bothered by the district being able to tell them where their kids are at,"

on the other side, the san francisco chronicle quotes the 13-year-old daughter of michelle and jeff tatro as saying:"look at this. i'm a grocery item. i'm a piece of meat. i'm an orange." another couple in sutter, michael and dawn cantrall, filed a complaint with the american civil liberties union, or aclu. the complaint centered on the violation of privacy and concerns about safety.



pfizer and microsoft team up against viagra spam

"buy cheap viagra through us - no prescription required!" anyone with an active email account will recognize lines like this one. according to some reports, unsolicited advertisements ("spam") for viagra and similar drugs account for one in four spam messages. 

ever since pharmaceutical giant pfizer promised to cure erectile dysfunction once and for all with its blue pills containing the drug "sildenafil citrate", spammers have tried to tap into male anxiety by offering prescription-free sales of unapproved "generic" viagra and clones such as cialis soft tabs. legislation like the u.s. can-spam act has done little to stem the tide of email advertising the products.

now pfizer has entered a pledge with microsoft corporation, the world's largest software company, to address the problem. the joint effort will focus on lawsuits against spammers as well as the companies they advertise. "pfizer is joining with microsoft on these actions as part of our shared pledge to reduce the sale of these products and to fight the senders of unsolicited e-mail that overwhelms people's inboxes," said jeff kindler, executive vice president at pfizer. 

microsoft has filed civil actions against spammers advertising the websites canadianpharmacy and e-pharmacy direct. pfizer has filed lawsuits against the two companies, and has taken actions against websites which use the word "viagra" in their domain names. sales of controlled drugs from canadian pharmacies to the united states are illegal, but most drugs sold in canada have nevertheless undergone testing by the u.s. food and drug administration. this is not the case for many of the viagra clones sold by internet companies and manufactured in countries like china and india. while it was not clear that canadianpharmacy was actually shipping drugs from canada, pfizer's general counsel, beth levine, claimed that the company filled orders using a call center in montreal, reported the "toronto star".

for microsoft's part, they allege that the joint effort with pfizer is part of their "multi-pronged attack on the barrage of spam." as the creator of the popular email program outlook, microsoft has been criticized in the past for the product's spam filtering process. recently, microsoft added anti-spam measures to its popular exchange server. exchange 2003 now includes support for accessing so-called real-time block lists, or rtbls. an rtbl is a list of the ip addresses maintained by a third party; the addresses on the list are those of mailservers thought to have sent spam recently. exchange 2003 can query the list for each message it receives.


"the first version of this story was written by and using moonedit, a free editor for real-time collaboration. as such, it is an experiment in collaborative writing."


former google employee says he was fired because of blog comments

a former employee of google, inc. has said he was fired after he made a series of unfavorable comments about the company on a publically-viewable blog. mark jen, formerly a microsoft employee, began work at the mountain view, california company on january 18. he then went on to make several observations about the company over the following week. in particular, some of the comments included information on the company's financial situation garnered from an internal conference and indications of the company's new products for 2005.

nine days later, apparently of his own volition, jen removed the comments from his blog. however, on january 28, google fired him, an act which jen attributes to his blogging. google has not commented on his dismissal to other news sources, but has acknowledged that jen no longer works at the company.

in his blog, on february 11, 2005, jen appeared positive about his future. "i've actually viewed this as a great learning experience. obviously, i've gotten a first-hand chance to learn about the power of blogging. i've also learned to be a little more analytical about situations, a lot more cautious and a lot less assuming." 



hamas considers ceasefire talks after abbas meeting

hamas announced that it will continue its undeclared ceasefire while it considers whether to officially join a ceasefire with israel declared this week by the palestinian authority and the israeli government at a conference in the egyptian resort of sharm el-sheikh.

palestinian leader mahmoud abbas held talks earlier in the day with hamas leaders at an undisclosed location, with the aim of persuading them to officially join the ceasefire. the bbc is reporting that hamas is concerned about the pace of peace talks, worrying that protracted negotiations may lead to little benefit for the palestinians.

hamas (????), an acronym for harakat al-muqawamah al-islamiyyah (arabic: islamic resistance movement, hamas is also arabic for 'zeal' or 'courage'), is a palestinian islamist paramilitary and political organization, regarded by some as a militant organization and by others as a terrorist group.

the united states, canada, israel and the european union, among others, consider hamas a terrorist organization.

hamas was founded by shaikh ahmed yassin (later assassinated by the israelis) and mohammad taha in late 1987, inspired by the egyptian muslim brotherhood. currently led by khaled mashaal, the movement is dedicated to fighting the israeli occupation of palestine, which, in hamas' definition, includes all of israel and the israeli-occupied west bank and gaza strip. the organization is highly popular among palestinians in the gaza strip. it also has a following in the west bank, and, to a lesser extent, in israel, other middle eastern countries and throughout the palestinian diaspora.

the movement's popularity stems from its paramilitary activities and its charitable operations; the provision of welfare and social services to the palestinian poor.

hamas is notorious for using the tactic of suicide bombing against israel, particularly against civilians in busy city areas.


somalians protest against deployment of african union troops

on friday thousands of somalis made a peaceful protest in mogadishu against the planned deployment of african union troops into the country.

the islamic courts' union, the umbrella organisation of islamic clerics and the supporters of two warlords-turned-cabinet ministers, husein aideed and osman ali ato organised the demonstration.

many of the protestors claimed to reject the intervention of foreign troops on grounds of faith.

the african union plans on deploying troops forming a peace support mission to support the return of somalians from . the country has been without government since 1991 when president was overthrown, with various factions and warlords fighting for control since.

the new transitional federal government, headed by president , is due to take control on february 21.

abdullahi yusuf was elected president by somalia's transitional parliament on october 10, 2004. he won the votes of 189 of the 275 members of parliament, with the election held in a sports hall in nairobi, kenya. his government is recognized by most western nations as the country's legitimate rulers



chicago chef invents edible menu

cordon-bleu chef homaru cantu has announced a technique which allows him to create dishes made of edible, inkjet printed paper. cantu, a head chef at the moto restaurant in chicago, has modified an ink-jet printer with the help of computer specialists from local firm deep labs and loaded it with cartridges containing concoctions of fruit and vegetables. using this modified printer cantu then prints onto edible sheets of soybean and potato starch tasty images downloaded from the web.

“you can make an ink-jet printer do just about anything,” says cantu. once the items have been printed they are dipped into a powder made of soy sauce, sugar and vegetables before then being further processed by frying, freezing, or baking them.

cantu has applied the technique to the printing of menus so that diners can further flavor their soups by ripping up the menu and adding it to the dish.

he hopes that his idea may find its way into popular media. “just imagine going through a magazine and looking at an ad for pizza. you wonder what it tastes like, so you rip a page out and eat it,” says the chef who is working at perfecting the flavors and has applied for a patent on the technique.

cantu also has plans for further culinary innovations. he plans to cook steak using a handheld laser that will sear the inside of the steak well done whilst leaving the outside medium rare. he also plans to use the laser to produce bread baked from the inside out thus producing a crust on the inside.


crosswords/2005/february/14

answers tomorrow.


howard dean elected chairman of u.s. democrats

the election of dean to the post reflects the party's trust in his accomplishments during the presidential campaign. as a candidate, dean mobilized support from across the country in his "dean for america" campaign, using the internet as a medium for organizing fundraising. according to msnbc, the house minority leader nancy pelosi said "he has used the power of technology, the force of his personality and the depth of his ideals to bring new people into the party." dean did not win the party's nomination, which instead went to .

in his acceptance speech, dean called for increased organization, and standing up for the party's platform. he said "standing up for our beliefs, organizing, and transforming our party into a grassroots organization that can win in all 50 states: that's how we will rebuild the democratic party."

dean's new position faces a mixed reaction from other politicians. the chairman of the , ken mehlman, said that "howard dean's energy and passion will add to the political discourse in this country and he will be a strong leader for his party." former of the house of representatives newt gingrich has recently said that the democrats should only elect dean "if they have a true death wish."




un troops accused of rape in congo; un staff suspended due to iraq oil-for-food corruption

united nations (un) troops based in the democratic republic of the congo face 150 allegations of rape including gang rapes committed against children as young as twelve. 

the un's office of internal oversight services reported these crimes which occurred even while investigators were in congo. the secretary-general of the un, kofi annan has condemned the soldiers and has banned the peacekeeping troops (those deployed in congo) from having sex with local residents.

the soldiers are believed to have bribed young starving children with eggs, milk or a few dollars to have sex. there are believed to be at least fifty different soldiers involved. kofi annan pledged personally to "root out this problem." the united nations has 65,000 troops in 16 different locations, with 16,700 un soldiers and other staff in congo alone.

annan also faces serious allegations of impropriety for the un's $64 billion oil-for-food program which allegedly enriched annan's relatives, senior officials within the russian and french governments and deposed iraqi president saddam hussein. the un's own internal inquiry headed by former united states federal reserve board chair paul volcker confirmed misconduct allegations leading to the termination of several senior un officials.



new ariane 5 eca rocket launch a success

the european space agency's new ariane 5 eca rocket placed two satellites in orbit saturday february 12, successfully completing its initial qualifying flight. the ariane 5 eca is to be the esa's new workhorse launcher for injecting payloads into geostationary orbit.

launched from the guiana space centre at kourou, french guiana, the new rocket design carried three payloads: the x-tar-eur communications satellite, the sloshsat flevo experimental satellite, and the maqsat b2 which remained attached to the ariane upper stage.

the ariane eca can carry up to ten tons of payload improving on the launch capacity of the ariane 5 generic by 4 tonnes.

this launch was the second test for the new design following a launch failure in december 2002.


shiites win dominating role in iraq

iraq ? the shi'a united iraqi alliance (uia) candidates have won at least 132 of 275 seats in the iraq national assembly, according to the results announced sunday.

capturing 48.1% of the national vote, the uia is the largest single block in the assembly. yet even so large a block must create alliances with other parties to form a unity government. there has been ongoing speculation the uia is in negotiations with the democratic patriotic alliance of kurdistan in advance of the poll results.

the union of the khurdish parties garnered 25.4% of the national vote, equivalent to 71 seats, giving khurds a vital voice in the national assembly. the parties have reiterated their call for a khurdish president or prime minister.

"al-qayimaal iraqia", dominated by iyad allawi's iraqi national accord party, polled at 13.8%, and secured 38 seats.

sunni voters stayed away from the election in droves, leaving them with very little representation in the assembly. the iraqis, the largest sunni party in iraq, received only 150,000 votes, less than two percent of the votes reported. the next largest, the independent democrats movement, gained less than 0.1 percent.

the national assembly vote on also included elections for governors, and the khurdistan assembly.

there are approximately 14.2 million eligible voters and 7,761 candidates in the transitional national assembly race. approximately 58% of eligible voters cast their votes in the election, in line with pre-election projections.





the aviator and vera drake scoop top prizes at the 2005 orange bafta film awards

london ? the big-budget hollywood movie "the aviator" and the low-budget brit flick "vera drake" have scooped the main prizes at the 2005 orange bafta film awards. four gongs went to the aviator with the top ones being best film and cate blanchett for best supporting actress. vera drake got three gongs with best director, best actress & costume design. jamie foxx got best actor with ray and clive owen got best supporting actor with closer.























__noeditsection__


gunman opens fire at upstate new york shopping mall

police said that two people were injured. one of the victims received a serious gunshot wound in the leg. that victim, a 20-year-old army recruiter, was taken by helicopter to an albany hospital where doctors said the man may lose his leg. another victim was hit in the hand by shrapnel.

police took a 24-year-old man into custody. the suspect is currently being interviewed at the ulster county sheriff's department. police report that an assault rifle has been recovered at the mall.

officials say that the man entered the best buy store and opened fire as he walked towards the entrance to the rest of the mall. when the gunman ran out of ammunition, he surrendered to a mall employee.

a gap employee told a fox news reporter that mall staff ordered shoppers into the back room of the store when the first shots were fired.

a shopper, heather craig, told cnn by phone that, when shots were fired, the numerous people filling the mall corridors were tripping over each other trying to exit the building, while some people stood dumbfounded. none of the frightened shoppers confronted the gunman before his surrender.

officials said that the mall will not be reopened until at least monday.
police have locked down the mall as swat teams continue to search the building. 

earlier reports said that there were as many as three gunmen but police now believe that there was only one gunman.


brazilian medicine council against cuban privileges

the brazilian regional council of medicine has protested against a ministry of education decision to accept the diplomas of cuban medical school graduates without subjecting them to a more rigorous evaluation process.

under the brazilian 44045 edict of july 19, 1958, all students of medicine, brazilian or non-brazilian, who studied in a foreign institution must undergo a strict evaluation before their professional registration is granted. the law aims to ensure that the physicians who graduated at foreign universities are properly prepared for and familiarized with the particular medical conditions of brazil. some diseases like malaria and dengue for example are very rare in some countries but are more common in brazilian territory.

however the brazilian ministry of education (mec) has come to an agreement with the cuban government to allow medical students who studied in cuba to go through a less rigorous examination. furthermore the mec wants to exempt the students from the cuban escola latino americana de medicina (latin american medicine school) or elam located in havana from the examination. under the agreement, the diplomas of elam students would be automatically recognized as valid in brazil. the brazilian president luiz inacio lula da silva signed the endorsement of this agreement last year during his visit to cuba.

the brazilian regional council of medicine from sao paulo is opposed to the idea of accepting the cuban diplomas and is to dispute the deal in court. the council says the government decision is unfair and disadvantages brazilian students. it also says that the decision puts the brazilian community at risk because of differences between cuban and brazilian medical education. cuban physicians are prepared for cuban conditions and necessities in health which differ from brazilian ones. additionally the council argues that the decision is against the law because the brazilian 44045 edict demands that all medical students from foreign schools have to pass a careful examination.

the cuban first secretary of technical and scientific collaboration in health, filisberto perez, recognizes that both brazil and cuba have different models of apprenticeship in medicine. however he believes that cuba and brazil can recognize each other's diplomas without difficulty.

early this year, a team of brazilian inspectors visited the leading medical schools in cuba to evaluate them so the degrees can be formalized. 

the mec's decision has angered some brazilian students. "why would i study for two years so i could get admitted to a brazilian school if it would be easier to "buy" my diploma in cuba?" asks artur oliveira mendes in a email sent to a academic organization. he added: "...our schools of medicine are demoralized before the president's declaration."

the brazilian students who are in cuba were selected by the pt, pcdob, and mst. 

senator jose agripino maia (pfl) asked the minister of education tarso genro to explain before the senate education commission why the students from cuba are being favoured by the brazilian government.




u.s. drones reported in iranian airspace

three u.s.-government sources have reported the existence of u.s. military drone flights made over iran, carrying surveillance equipment and particle filters capable of detecting nuclear materials. confusingly, u.s.-military sources denied the overflights.

iranian military personnel said they were aware of them, and sightings had prompted a number of ufo reports in the area of iranian nuclear installations. they viewed them as provocative and probably designed to trick the iranians into turning on their radar so that the us could determine potential targets.

because iran does not have political ties with the us, it has formally issued its objections to the flights through swiss diplomats.


american nun murdered in brazil

gunmen murdered an american catholic nun, sister dorothy stang, 73, in para, brazil. 

the crime occurred saturday, feb. 12, at 9:00 a.m. her attackers shot stang six times: once in the head, three times in the back, while she was carrying a bible. another shot, at her neck, was fatal. the crime occurred in anapu, para, inside the amazon region.

stang is from ohio, united states. she had been living in para for about 38 years. she came to brazil in 1966. she is a member of the catholic group sisters of notre dame de namur. she was an activist and had been working at the region of anapu. earlier this year, the missionary received an "honorary citizenship of the state" from the state of para. 

stang had been defending the projeto de desenvolvimento sustentado(project of supported development) or pds for short. the trans-amazon development project was designed to generate jobs and income in anapu. it supported the creation of an fruit processing industry, the construction of two small 500 kilowatt hydroelectric powerplants, and aided reforestation in degraded areas. according to reuters, loggers, ranchers, and large farmers have been strong opponents of the project and of stang.

stang has already received death threats several times before. in march 2004, she asked for help from brazilian federal authorities, saying she and other persons were on a death list. 

on another occasion, in august 2004, she said, "it is not my safety but that of the people that really matters. all of the sisters of notre dame working in brazil work very closely with our people and want to be a sign of hope. it is wonderful to be a part of this struggle and this is the contribution of notre dame."

the police requested the arrest of four suspects. two are the alleged gunfighters eduardo and fogoio, one is a man called tato who supposedly contacted the gunfighters and the other one is a farmer, vitor miro bastos de moura, known as bida who is believed to have contracted the assassins.

the brazilian police also found a body of another man 500 meters from the place were they found the body of the nun. the murdered man was identified as the peasant adalberto xavier leal, known as the cabeludo or the hairy man. he was working for a farmer who had already invaded the area of the pds maintained by sister dorothy. 

the brazilian police commissioner marcelo ferreira said the peasant was killed as a revenge for the murder of sister dorothy. he received several shots from an armed group. according to the police the group would be connected to the missionary.

the funerals of sister dorothy stang will take place in anapu and altamira. she is scheduled to be buried on the morning of feb. 16 in anapu.

in the united states, a funeral mass is scheduled on march 19 at mount notre dame convent chapel in cincinnati, ohio.

the brazilian government declared the resolution of the case a high priority. president luiz inacio lula da silva sent two ministers and the federal police force to the region. eight ministers are scheduled to have an extraordinary meeting and discuss the case.

rosana gisele da costa, a friend of stang's from the institute of environment research, told reporters that there must be a more active government presence in the region. 

"unfortunatelly this is not a isolated case", da costa said. 

she said other people will die if the brazilian government does not start good political development of the region. she hopes the current actions by the government after the murderer of sister dorothy will not be temporary.


video(terra news) 


severe weather warning issued for samoa

the fiji meteorological service issued a severe weather warning for samoa at 0835 utc today. forecasters are predicting damaging gale force winds, heavy rain, squally thunderstoms and heavy seas that may cause the flooding of low-lying land in the south pacific island of samoa within the next 24 to 36 hours.

the intensifying tropical cyclone olaf is following in the footsteps of cyclone nancy and the two storms are expected to interact in some way over the next 3 to 4 days. some predictions indicate the two storms may merge.


madrid skyscraper devastated by fire

the 32-story windsor tower, located in the business district of madrid, spain, was devastated by the largest fire in the city's history.

the fire destroyed large parts of the building, completely gutting the top 14 floors. parts of the structure collapsed during the blaze, which was extinguished on sunday evening. 

the 106m high tower is now extremely unstable, and experts believe there is a chance it could collapse in the next 24 hours. surrounding areas have been evacuated, traffic diverted, and trains stopped on the three subway lines beneath the building.

the fire is believed to have been started by an electrical short-circuit on the 21st floor. no-one was in the building (which was undergoing refurbishment) at the time of the blaze; the only casualties being three firefighters treated for smoke inhalation.

the top twenty floors of the building housed the deloitte & touche auditing firm. the remains will be demolished at a future date.



crosswords/2005/february/15

answers tomorrow.


iran rejects eu nuclear reactor offer

iran has rejected an offer by the european union to supply a light-water nuclear research reactor.

iran currently plans to build a heavy-water reactor at arak in central in iran, which could be used to convert uranium into plutonium, an element used to build atomic bombs. 

the reactor design being offered by the eu would demand the use of enriched uranium, while a heavy-water reactor only requires natural uranium for fuel. were iran to take the eu reactor, their ability to use the reactor would be limited by outside supplies of enriched uranium?presumably allowing better regulation of their ability to use the civilian reactor for military purposes. with a heavy-water reactor, iran would be able to presumably use uranium from its own uranium mines, and would be less dependent on western technology or approval. according to globalsecurity.org, iran has as many as 10 active uranium mines.

according to bbc news, iranian foreign ministry spokesman hamid reza asefi rejected the offer saying "we intend to turn into an important and a major player in the nuclear fuel supply market in the next 15 years because there will be an energy shortage in the future." 

the u.s. and the eu want iran to cease all operations that could be used to produce weapons-grade nuclear material?namely uranium enrichment and the proposed heavy-water reactor operation.



passenger ship voyager radios sos in the mediterranean

a passenger ship, the "voyager" enroute between spain's to the italian island of , radioed a distress call earlier today after getting into difficulties in heavy seas. a huge wave shattered a bridge window, damaging control systems inside.

the bahamian-registered ship is carrying 776 passengers and crew, 480 of them spanish. some sustained minor injuries when the ship sailed into the storm at 8am today. 

french and spanish tugs have been dispatched to assist the vessel, and the british gas tanker "gimi" has diverted to offer help and is relaying radio signals from the stricken ship. "voyager" "is in a difficult situation but is not drifting", according to the french coastguard, with only a single propeller still providing force.

the ship was sailing from to barcelona when she encountered the storm. the crew have restored power to two of her four engines and she is now diverting to tunis, and is expected to reach port on tuesday.


westjet airlines retires 18 aircraft

westjet airlines is taking a ca$47.6 million charge on its books to retire 18 older airplanes. they will be replaced by 16 new 737 planes. calgary based westjet announced this friday amid growing concerns about fuel prices. westjet expects the new planes will save up to 30% more fuel. 

the decision is expected to be a major hit to their profits and short-term growth potential. "it looks like the growth curve is going to slow down and fairly substantially through this next year," independent airline analyst rick erickson said friday. "i won't expect that there's going to be very much in the way of new destinations for westjet to serve." westjet plans on reporting year end results next tuesday.


best buy signs leases for 28 new stores

electronics retailer best buy said today that it signed leases for 28 new stores. this is part of the company's plan to build 60 new stores this year. best buy, the largest consumer electronics retailer in the united states, declined to discuss the terms of the leases but did say that the new stores will result in the addition of 3,500 more jobs to the corporate payroll.



large explosion in beirut kills many including former prime minister

a large blast on the seafront of west beirut, lebanon has killed several people, including former prime minister rafik hariri.

current reports conflict on the total number of casualties, suggesting nine or ten people killed and around 100 injured. hariri was travelling in a car in a motorcade when the explosion occurred around 1pm local time. his bullet-proof car was totally destroyed. the attack took place near the luxurious saint george hotel, in a residential neighborhood.

the cause of the blast is currently unknown for certain but it is believed to have been a car bomb. anonymous sources have said car containing 300 kg of tnt was used; however other reports have suggested the explosives were placed in a building. the explosion created a crater at least 10 m across and devastated the fronts of nearby shops and hotels, destroying several buildings entirely. apartment windows within a 1km radius were blown out.

only one group has claimed responsibility, a little-known organisation from syria called victory and jihad in greater syria. there has been no confirmation that this group actually carried out the attack. hariri's supporters see syria as being responsible for the attack. lately, hariri had become a chief opponent of the syrian military presence (14,000 troops) in lebanon.

the bbc quotes the group has having said "we hold the lebanese authority and the syrian authority, being the authority of tutelage in lebanon, responsible for this crime and other similar crimes."

rafik bahaa edine hariri (november 1, 1944?february 14, 2005) was a lebanese self-made billionaire businessman, and was twice prime minister of lebanon, before his last resignation from office on october 20, 2004.

 


'baby 81's parents confirmed

'baby 81', a four-month-old baby boy so named because he was the 81st admission into the hospital that day, has been confirmed to be the child of jenita and murugupillai jeyarajah. he was lost during the indian ocean tsunami that killed more than 228,000 people. eight other families also claimed him to be their lost baby although no others filed a formal claim for the child.

dna tests confirmed the jeyarajahs as the real parents after the couple waited seven weeks for his return. the parents tried to get him back many times and were involved in a physical attempt at taking him. his father also said that he would commit suicide if authorities did not return his child.

"i am so happy, and i only have to thank god for giving my child back... we've got the results for all our hardships," mr. jeyarajah said after the ruling.



crosswords/2005/february/16

answers tomorrow.


a policeman is killed and another one is tortured in mst camp, in brazil

on sunday, february 6, 2005 the police officer luiz pereira da silva was murdered inside a mst camp in the brazilian city of quipapa, pernambuco. his colleague, police officer cicero jacinto da silva, was captured and tortured. another policeman, adilson alves aroeiras, escaped. this week authorities from pernambuco said they will strengthen the investigation.

the three police officers were from the 10th batalhao da pm (military police battalion). they were travelling in an unmarked police car. members of the mst destroyed the car with scythes, and set fire to it.

the policemen were pursuing jose ricardo de oliveira rodrigues. oliveira rodrigues is accused of assaulting banks and robbery of goods transported by vehicles in the roads of the region. he hid at the mst camp known as "bananeiras" (banana tree). the peasants interfered with the arrest of oliveira rodrigues and got into a conflict with the police. police officer luiz pereira da silva was killed by three gunshots. police officer cicero jacinto da silva was captured, and later tortured. officer adilson alves escaped. the mst activists disarmed the officers and took their bulletproof vests. 

later on saturday (february 7, 2005), police commander major sillas charamba negotiated the release of jacinto da silva. the policemen's pistols were returned, but the bulletproof vests could not be because they had been destroyed.

the mst says that the former mst leader oliveira rodrigues was already banished from the moviment. the mst says the peasants didn't know that the three men were policemen, that oliveira rodrigues deceived the other peasants, and that the policemen could not be identified as police officers. the mst say they have previously brought oliveira rodrigues to the attention of the police for the alleged theft of a motorcycle and beating of a woman.
the mst regional coordinator jaime amorim has been invited to go to the town police station and explain to the police that the mst has already denounced oliveira rodrigues. according to the police comissaire antonio carlos camara there are no recorded complaints concerning oliveira rodrigues from the mst at the police station.

the regional superintendent of the national institute of agrarian development (incra) in pernambuco, maria oliveira, expects the arrival of a special federal task force this week (february 15, 2005). the force will assist in the disarmament of mst members from the bananeiras camp.

the secretariat of social defense of pernambuco announced the backing of the investigations with the help of the group of special operations and the nucleus specialized in the verification of multiple homicides.

the police requested that incra provide more information about the mst members from bananeiras camp, some of whom are suspected of murderer and torture, so they can be properly investigated.


chinese mine blast kills over 200

fuxin city (阜新市; pinyin: fux?n shi) ? an underground explosion in a mine in china's northeastern liaoning province has left over 200 miners dead.

current figures say 203 miners were killed, and another 22 were injured with 13 miners still missing. the blast occurred at 3:49pm local time on monday afternoon. 

the explosion, 242m underground, is believed to have been caused by gas igniting. 

this morning a rescue team arrived at the site in fuxin to attempt locate survivors and treat injured.

china has a history of major mining accidents. last november, 166 miners died in an explosion in mine in chenjiashan mine in shaanxi province. in 2004, a official figures show that 5,000 workers died in accidents in mines, 35% of the world-wide death toll in coal mines.



yahoo chooses dublin as location of new european headquarters

earlier in the month, ireland lost a potentially multi-billion euro investment by dell for a new manufacturing facility to scotland. this was a huge disappointment for ida ireland - the countries main development agency - which had offered heavy incentives to the us computer maker. this brought about fears that ireland had lost its ability to attract high-value investments from foreign multinationals - the driving force of ireland's celtic tiger economy.

speaking about the investment, the irish minister for enterprise, trade and employment, micheal martin, said winning the yahoo project was a ""truly outstanding achievement for ireland"". yahoo's senior vice president international, john marcom, said the decision to locate its european operations headquarters in ireland was influenced by a ""number of factors"" which included ""the calibre and volume of graduates available in ireland, the up to date cost competitive telecommunications and data centre infrastructure, and the assistance of ida ireland."" 

yahoo is one of the world's largest internet companies. its decision to locate in ireland confirms dublin's continued attractiveness to internet and technology companies - google, bell labs, ebay, microsoft, amazon and oracle all have significant irish operations.


conservative white house reporter using pseudonym gains access to presidential press briefing and classified documents

a lack of thorough and consistent measures to pick the white house press corps members has led many to question the reason a little-known conservative reporter had access to sensitive documents and the president of the united states.

jeff gannon, whose real name is james guckert, has been operating under an assumed name while attending white house press briefings. gannon/guckert was a reporter for the news service talon news, a website believed by some to be a branch of the gopusa, up until his recent resignation due to the incidents surrounding him.

the spotlight was originally cast on guckert when called upon in a january 26 news conference. he asked president george w. bush how he could work with democratic congressional leaders "who seem to have divorced themselves from reality." bloggers, seeing this as a "softball" question almost immediately began to question guckert’s credentials and motives.

guckert supposedly had access to classified documents that named valerie plame as a cia operative as well, which adds more fuel to the fire of the justice department’s investigation of the release of her name.

bloggers revealed james guckert's real name, and that he was the registered owner of jeffgannon.com, hotmilitarystud.com, militaryescorts.com, and militaryescortsm4m.com.

the accusations that guckert has no degree in journalism, reports through a small organiztion funded by a larger conservative news outlet, operated under an assumed name, and is directly linked with pornographic domain names, have many questioning how exactly he received a press pass in the first place.

white house press secretary scott mcclellan, when questioned about this event, stated that guckert did not have a regular white house press pass but was cleared on a day-by-day basis to attend briefings and used his real name. mcclellan defended guckert’s clearance saying that, "he, like anyone else, showed that he was representing a news organization that published regularly and so he was cleared two years ago to receive daily passes just like many others are."



wikinews profiled in news report

the tech beat, an online extension of magazine, posted a profile of on tuesday. wikinews is an news source run by the non-profit .

the review compares wikinews to "a cost-free or ", noting the volunteer base of that collaborate in writing wikinews articles. the tech beat cites the recent successes of internet as evidence that wikinews has a bright future. 

the recent offer by to host , an open content encyclopedia, was also mentioned to attest to the potential of wikinews.

wikinews was launched as a demonstration in november 2004.



'the gates' opens in new york city

on february 12, 2005, at 8:30 a.m., new york mayor michael bloomberg dropped the first piece of fabric in the gates, a land art project by christo and jeanne claude.

the artists installed 7,500 metal "gates" along 23 miles of pathways in new york city's central park. each gate supported a flag-shaped piece of saffron fabric. the project is scheduled to run from feb. 12, 2005 through feb. 27, 2005. the project is sometimes referred to as ""the gates", central park, new york, 1979-2005" in reference to the time between the artists' initial proposal and the present day.

the installation of the project began on january 3, 2005.

during the week of january 17th, the park was filled with workers using fork lifts to move the rectangular metal plates into position all over central park.
there were small signs placed on every walkway in the park with alphanumeric codes that the workers were using to place the metal places onto the designated spots.

as of january 27, most of the plates had been placed in their positions. many had small orange plastic markers sticking up a foot or two (around half a metre) from each end, possibly intended to help people find the base plates if they were covered with snow. a major snow storm and extreme cold hampered progress in late january.

as of february 7, there were many teams of workers wearing silver grey smocks moving the vertical parts of the gates and attaching them to the base plates. the documentation describes the color as "saffron" but local observers describe it as orange.
when attached, the vertical pieces are about 6 metres high, with a cross bar at the top from which the flag piece hangs. the most common width seems to be 11 feet (3.35 metres), though they vary considerably (depending on the width of the path) from around 6 feet (2 metres) to over 20 feet (6 metres).

once bloomberg released the first piece of cloth, the rest of the gates were opened over the course of the next few hours, with large crowds of people watching. generally, the crews of people who erected the gates were assigned to open them. they simply had to walk underneath, and use a hook at the end of a long stick to pull a loop hanging from the cross bar of each gate. that opened the cloth bag which contained the "flag" part of the gate. the bag fell to the ground, along with a card board tube around which the flag was rolled. the flag then hung majestically from the cross bar.

as of feb. 13, all of the gates have been opened. the project staff is still deployed in the park, patrolling, and replacing a few of the gates that have become damaged. there are many more people then usual walking around in the park, looking and photographing the gates.



altered hiv a potential cancer treatment?

at ucla, a team of researchers has developed a harmless version of hiv that is designed to seek out, and potentially destroy, cancer cells. 

in a laboratory-mouse experiment, the treated cells headed directly for melonoma and lung cancer cells, clustering around them with a surprising level of intuitiveness. gene therapy for cancer has been at an impasse for the last 20 years, said the team, but now an effective carrier has been found in the most unlikely of sources. essentially, one of the world’s largest health threats is now being considered to fight another.

says dr. irvin chen, from ucla's aids institute, "the disarmed aids virus acts like a trojan horse, transporting therapeutic agents to a targeted part of the body, such as the lungs, where tumors often spread." 

first the virus's coating is removed and the virus is reprogrammed so that it recognizes and attaches to the p-lipoproteins of a cancer cell, one of cancer's primary defenses. the retro-virus was also altered with a fluorescent protein for easy tracking within the lab mice. the next step will be to graft a cancer-killing gene onto the modified aids virus's genetic structure. 

currently, a case of melanoma skin cancer spreading to the lungs is a confirmed death sentence. should this method of treatment improve into a workable treatment, both life-threatening cancers and the aids retro-virus could be effectively neutered. but the team cautions that the treatment is in the very early stages and will take several more years to develop.


mayor of london compares reporter to nazi prison guard

london mayor ken livingstone has refused to retract a nazi insult made to a reporter. the comments were made when evening standard reporter oliver finegold approached mr livingstone while he was leaving a party celebrating the 20th anniversary of chris smith becoming the first homosexual mp to “come out”, which he was attending as a private matter. livingstone apparently saw the presence of the journalist as an infrigement on his private life.

mr livingstone is reported to have asked 'what were you before?' and then asked if finegold was a german war criminal; he then compared the reporter to a “concentration camp guard.” 

ken livingstone has headed the greater london authority since 2000.

labour's mayor is said to be “standing by” his remarks and at his weekly press conference on tuesday ruled out an apology and said that his comments were not racist.

“if you think they are racist, i think you are wrong,” he told media representatives.

the board of deputies of british jews has submitted an official complaint to the standards board for england which, if it decides to take action has the power to suspend or bar mr livingstone from office or alternatively may recommend that mr livingstone do something like attend race awareness meetings.

in separate moves the london assembly passed two motions on monday asking the mayor to apologise for his comments. 

the mayor has said that his comments would not affect the 2012 olympic bid made to the international olympic council, representatives from which arrived in london on tuesday. 

on the recording made by the reporter mr livingstone is heard to ask mr finegold if he is a “german war criminal,” to which mr finegold replies “no, i’m jewish, i wasn’t a war criminal. i’m quite offended by that.”

the mayor then went on to say “ah right, well you might be, but actually you are just like a concentration camp guard, you are just doing it because you are paid to, aren’t you?”



another body found in brazil near u.s. nun murder scene

according to the brazilian newspaper "o estado de sao paulo" the body of a prominent brazilian agriculturalist was found on the morning of tuesday, february 15, in anapu, para, brazil.

the man, identified as the agriculturist claudio branco who was also known by the nickname mato grosso, had received several gun shots to his chest. he was found in anapu at gleba manduacari, on government property controlled by the agency incra. the area was to be used by slain sister dorothy stang in a new project. 

branco's body was moved to altamira for an autopsy.



kyoto protocol comes into effect

the kyoto protocol, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from developed nations, came in force on wednesday at 6am utc. the treaty has been signed by 141 nations who together account for 55% of global carbon dioxide emissions.

the treaty was proposed in december 1997 and requires signatories to reduce their combined greenhouse gas emissions to 5% below 1990 levels by the year 2012 in an effort to reduce the impact of global warming. each country has individual targets.

of the major industrialized nations, the usa and australia are notable absentees from the list of signatories. both argue that the treaty is flawed and that signing the protocol is not in their national economic interests. the united states produces more co emissions than any other single country in the world, both in total (5,410 million metric tons) and also per capita (20.1 tons per capita).

despite this, the way was paved for ratification of the treaty after russia signed up in november 2004.

other criticisms of the protocol are that the treaty does not include india and china, or other developing nations.

countries that ratify the treaty will have access to the emerging international market in carbon credits, estimated to be worth billions of dollars each year. this system allows individual countries to trade in their emission allowances - a country can buy credit from another that has cut emissions, and then increase their own carbon dioxide production.



chinese researchers crack major u.s. government algorithm used in digital signatures

according to computer security expert bruce schneier, a widely-used cryptography algorithm, known as sha-1, has been broken by three researchers at shandong university in china. designed by the us intelligence agency nsa, sha-1 has been adopted as an official us government standard and has become widely-used in security applications worldwide, notably digital signatures. the three female researchers, xiaoyun wang, yiqun lisa yin, and hongbo yu, have reduced the amount of time needed to find two documents with the same signature by a factor of more than 2000.

the sha-1 algorithm is used to compute a short string of numbers, known as a hash, for any digital document. the algorithm is constructed such that small changes in the document cause the hash to change drastically. by this means, the hash can be used to verify that a document has not been tampered with.

the attack that schneier describes is a "collision attack," rather than the more useful "pre-image" attack. in a pre-image attack, the codebreaker is able to find a document with different contents that matches an existing hash and so can claim an existing signature was on something else. in the somewhat less valuable "collision attack," the codebreaker is able to devise two documents that both have some particular hash. a adversary might use this to claim that an altered document is the original on the grounds that they have the same hash. a crafty adversary might also be able to trick someone into signing an innocuous document, one of a pair from a collision. the other document, which might not be as harmless, would then also appear to have been signed by the same person. if collisions can be found for sha-1, then digital signatures will no longer vouch for a document's authenticity.

the attack, for now, is more of a theoretical than a practical kind: it would currently take thousands of years on a modern personal computer, and would still be slow even if a large number of computers were used in parallel.

xiaoyun wang is currently a professor at shandong university, while hongbo yu is a doctoral candidate at the same institution. yiqun lisa yin is currently a visiting researcher at the princeton architecture laboratory for multimedia and security (palms). last year, xiaoyun wang and hongbo yu also took part in breaking a series of similar algorithms, including the widely used md5 hash, as documented in their paper presented at the crypto 2004 conference.

officials from the national institute of standards and technology (nist) have recently recommended dropping sha-1 in favor of stronger, slower algorithms, such as sha-256, federal computer week reported on february 7, 2005, just 7 days before schneier announced the sha-1 break. despite deprecating sha-1, william burr, the head of nist's security technology group, said that "sha-1 is not broken, and there is not much reason to suspect that it will be soon."


wal-mart way to be revised

u.s. retail-chain wal-mart stores will revise their "everyday low price" strategy at seiyu supermarket in japan. seiyu's year-end loss in 2004 was 12.3 billion yen. the u.s. style low price selling did not appeal to japanese consumers. 

wal-mart bought a 6.1% share of the seiyu company in 2002. at that time, seiyu had lost money in 3 out of the previous 5 years. wal-mart introduced their "everyday low price" selling method to seiyu, with lineup such as 900 yen fleece wear or jeans imported directly from china. sales did not grow as expected, since consumers wanted a more varied range of products rather than just cheap prices. "we will adjust our bias to low priced items, and resume selling name-brand goods our customers like to see," says ceo masao kiuchi. seiyu will go back to their previous way of marketing through inserted fliers showing the daily specials, quite the opposite of wal-mart way.


lack of facts no hindrance to speculation about google, wikipedia

"google inc. has made a proposal to host some of the content of the wikimedia projects." this small sentence has launched a thousand rumours, and not just in the blogosphere and on slashdot, but in businessweek and on abc news as well.

the offer, as described on the on wikimedia's , is less exciting than the speculation, however. the page simply says the board is discussing the offer, which does not require advertising, and plans to meet with google via irc in march. 

for google, flush with us$52 billion capitalization since its ipo in august 2004, an offer to host some wikimedia foundation content is a small expense. for wikimedia, a non-profit with a bandwidth appetite doubling every four months, prowling for funds is constant. 

the offer was met with howls of varying sorts, depending on where they emanated from online and business circles. john dvorak seems opposed to any such deal, and his views have traction online, judging by comments on slashdot after a link to his column appeared there.

equally speculative calls from the other direction say google and wikipedia are destined to join forces. unnamed analysts quoted on techwack (and re-quoted on p2pnet.net) called it a response to microsoft's re-entry, newly powered with its encarta content, into the search engine market.

blogs linked google stock deals with the rumours of a hosting deal - and with the valuable commodity of social responsibility. the wikipedia's community run the gamut of hopes and fears as well.

that such limited facts can raise the passions of the online and the business communities to such a pitch should impress both google and wikipedia with their status on the internet.



u.s. 2004 tax rates lower for those earning over $10 million, tax policy center says

the tax policy center has published a table that states that taxpayers earning more than $10,000,000 in 2004 paid lower tax rates than taxpayers earning between $1,000,000 and $10,000,000. among other things, it breaks down the average tax rate by cash income into various income tax categories.

according to the tax policy center, the average tax rate paid by the 9,000 taxpayers earning over $10,000,000 in 2004 was 20.1%, more than 2% lower than the nearly quarter million taxpayers earning between $1,000,000 and $10,000,000. if taxpayers earning over $10,000,000 were taxed at 22.3%, the rate of those earning between $1,000,000 and $10,000,000, the federal government would have received an additional $4.8 billion in revenue.

taxpayers who earned more than $10,000,000 paid a lower average rate than any category of taxpayer earning over $100,000. although taxpayers in the $75,000 to $100,000 range paid 18.9% of their income in taxes, 1.2% less than those making over $10,000,000, taxpayers in the $100,000 to $200,000 range paid an average of 20.6%, or 0.5% more than those making over $10,000,000.
furthermore, the tax policy center's analysis is described by david cay johnston, new york times columnist and author of "perfectly legal" as "understating the real economic gains of those at the very top, who have perfectly legal ways to defer reporting income for tax purposes."

the tax policy center is a nonpartisian joint venture of the urban institute and brookings institution and comprised of nationally recognized experts in tax, budget, and social policy who have served at the highest levels of government.


zapatero builds left axis in south america

the prime minister of spain jose luis rodriguez zapatero visited brazil, argentina, chile and uruguay recently, in a effort to build a left axis in south america.

the cited countries' south american presidents agreed to collaborate at international level, particularly in the united nations, european union and with paris, berlin and madrid.

zapatero visited the following cities in four days: brasilia, sao paulo, buenos aires and santiago de chile. according to official sources these visits are the last part of the project he began at the eu-latin american summit in guadalajara, mexico and pursued in the iberoamerican meeting in costa rica in november.

 


google offers to help wikipedia

google inc. may offer hosting services to wikipedia, a free community-built encyclopedia, and other projects hosted by the wikimedia foundation. preliminary talks are scheduled to continue in march. 

the steps of google towards wikipedia are not surprising. google's competitors, such as clusty.com, msn search, and yahoo, already offer searching of encyclopedias as a dedicated search category. clusty.com offers the english wikipedia, msn search links to encarta, and yahoo has access to the columbia encyclopedia.

wikipedia is often one of the top results of many searches. anyone can distribute and even modify wikipedia content in compliance with its license, called the gnu free documentation license. besides attribution, the license requires that modifications are made available under the same conditions, a principle known as "copyleft" and most frequently applied to computer software such as the free operating system linux.

how would a tight wikipedia integration into google look? 
the technical side of google hosting also leaves various possibilities:

here is an excerpt of a page about hosting posted on wikimedia's "meta-wiki", which is used by the community to coordinate project organization: 

"google inc. have made a proposal to host some of the content of the wikimedia projects. the terms of the offer are currently being discussed by the board. the developer committee have been informed of some of the details via email. a private irc meeting with google is planned for march, 2005. please note that this agreement does not mean there is any requirement for us to include advertising on the site." 

the original summary was written by angela beesley, one of the two elected board members of the wikimedia foundation, which operates wikipedia and its sister projects. according to a message posted to a public wikimedia discussion list by the second elected trustee, florence nibart-devouard, wikipedia founder and wikimedia president jimmy wales met with google founders larry page and sergey brin on february 10, "who were extremely enthusiastic about the whole project." 


"this article was originally based on the blog entry "google wants to host wikipedia or its content" by "sweet silhouette". portions of it are therefore licensed under the creative commons attribution license 2.0."


crosswords/2005/february/17

answers tomorrow.


countryside alliance lose legal case on uk fox hunting ban

the british has lost its legal bid to keep hunting with hounds after the high court rejected their appeal, which had been made on the grounds that the 1949 was invalid. the high court rejected this, ruling that the 1949 act was valid. this means hunting with dogs for foxes, hares and badgers will be illegal from friday 18 february in england and wales in accordance with the .

the countryside alliance has said it is challenging the decision in the (the highest court in english law) and the .

the has said the arguments were “wafer thin”. 

however the ca as said that the police would have difficulty in policing the law. the has said it is setting up a “crimewatch service” to police the ban. 



study claims to show difference between male and female brains

michael gurian, psychologist and author of ""what could he be thinking?"", has claimed to identify approximately one hundred structural differences between male and female brains in a recent study. gurian comments:

one major structural difference that gurian has made clear is that males generally have more activity in the mechanical centers of the brain, while women have more activity in centers of the brain dedicated to verbal communication and emotion. a clear example of this is the hypothetical situation of giving a child a toy. he explains it as such:

another expert, dr. marianne legato, says it all boils down to genetics, noting that the y chromosome (which only males carry) has "at least 21 unique genes unique to males which control many of the body's operations down to the level of the cells."

gurian agrees that culture is significant in brain development, but argues that biology plays an equally important role. he makes a point of how the mri scans show that the female corpus callosum, the center of the brain which regulates communication between the brain's hemispheres, is larger than the male's. on the other hand, the scans also show that information flows more freely between the hemispheres of the male brain. 

the exact role that brain structure plays in behavior, however, has been an area of considerable contention in science for literally hundreds of years. early studies in craniometry conducted by paul pierre broca were used to attempt to distinguish differences between human races, though have now been dismissed as scientific racism. the nature-nurture debate has raged for centuries in a variety of forms, without yet any clear resolution as to the role in which innate biological tendencies interact with environmental conditions or willed behavior. as such, studies relating to brain structure and claims to innate behavior often generate substantial controversy.

mit anthropologist of science joseph dumit's study of brain imaging in his book "picturing personhood: brain scans and biomedical identity", noted that the apparent "transparency" of such pictures (the appearance that they can be easily interpreted by laymen, when they are often the source of ambiguity and dispute by even highly-trained neurosurgeons) has led to their proliferation as indicators of objective truth in media and in courts of law, and that such conclusions are often knowingly exaggerated by the specialists creating the images for better visual effect. 

the timing of gurian's book comes on the heels of another controversy over gender differences sparked by comments made by harvard president lawrence summers, who blamed low numbers of women in the sciences on genetic differences. summers has been criticized by a large number of academics and scientists, as well as by many news publications, in the wake of what he was reported as saying during a conference on january 14. 


brazilian president lula met chavez, military and economic cooperation

the brazilian president luiz inacio lula da silva met the venezuelan president hugo chavez on february 14, 2005 in caracas, venezuela. brazil and venezuela signed agreements of cooperation on many areas. according to the brazilian government this was a strategical encounteur. this meeting is the first of three meetings that president lula will have with south american presidents in three days. the scheduled meetings are with the presidents of: venezuela (february, 14), guiana (february, 15) and suriname (february, 16).

president lula was accompanied by the following comitiva: the minister of development, industry, and external trade luiz fernando furlan, the minister of finance antonio palocci, the minister of foreign relations celso amorim, the minister of health humberto costa, the minister of mines and energy dilma roussef, the minister of tourism walfrido mares guia, the president of petrobras jose eduardo dutra, the president of national economic and social development bank (bndes) guido mantega, the president of eletrobras silas rondeau cavalcante silva and the special secretary for aquaculture and fisheries jose fritsch. in addition a delegation of executives representing enterprises from brazil accompanied the president.

the brazilian ministry of external relations told the trip aims the construction of a strategical alliance and commercial integration between both countries. the brazilian presidential advisor marco aurelio garcia said:"with this gesture, brazil will consolidate one of its major political goals, which is the constitution of a south american community of nations". he added: "these agreements with venezuela are strategical. we want this agreement as a model for other agreements in the region." 

according to president lula the integration of the latin america is the priority number one of his government. days before the arrival in venezuela and commenting about the trip lula said: "we're going to do the same thing in colombia and in other countries in which integration is no longer a campaign speech but part of the way we deal with real things, day to day". 

the integration of the latin america is the politics repeatedly proposed by lula during the meetings of the foro de sao paulo. according to him and the others members of the foro there must be a integration among all the left parties and governments of latin america. the union aims to be an alternative and opposing force to the politics and influence of the richest countries, mainly the united states. among the organizations which are usually participants of the foro de sao paulo are: communist party of cuba, colombian communist party, communist party of bolivia, communist party of brazil, workers' party, paraguayan communist party, peruvian communist party, socialist party of peru, national liberation army, revolutionary armed forces of colombia, farabundo marti national liberation front, guatemalan national revolutionary unity, tupamaros.

on december 4, 2001 during the 10th edition of the foro de sao paulo in havana lula said:"a shoal of small fish may mean the finishing of the hungry in our countries, in out continent. we should not think as the history ended on our journey by the earth. even it happens just once, or with one gesture, let's effectively contribute to the improve the life of millions of human beings who live socially excluded by this neoliberal model."

in venezuela, once again, he brought out the integration wish: 
"this is the biggest dream i am carrying, that we can negotiate collectively, not like one country, but like a set of countries so we can do that our people may have the chance to conquer the full citizenship."

brazil and venezuela signed agreements of cooperation in the sectors of electric energy, mining, exploration of oil and gas, science and technology, fishing and agrarian development, military, communication and defense of the amazon. they discussed about the creation of the south development bank and collaboration in the audio-visual diffusion.

pdvsa (venezuelan petroleum s.a.) and petrobras (brazilian petroleum s.a.) signed a intention protocol for the building of an oil refinery in brazil. the investiment will be worth of u$ 2 billion and the expected production is 150 thousand to 200 thousand barrels. another four agreements were signed covering petroleum exploration and production in venezuela.

the national economic and social development bank (bndes) will liberate u$ 900 million to finance infrastructure projects in venezuela. 

contracts worth of u$ 235 million were ratified. according to the superintendent of the bndes's area of foreign trade luiz antonio araujo dantas these u$ 235 million funds will be for the third line of the caracas subway, the purchase of harvestors and other agricultural machinery and for the la vueltosa hydroelectric plant.

venezuela will support brazilian candidacy to the united nations security council.
brazil and venezuela signed agreements of technological and industrial cooperation for aerospace development and amazonia monitoring.

brazil will sell to venezuela 26 attack airplanes type super tucano and 12 airplanes type amx-t manufactured by embraer (brazil's aircraft company). according to the representant of embraer in venezuela joany kings the program will cost uss 300 million in two years.

the venezuelan air force is using 20 old model tucanos. 
the new model super tucano is equipped with last generation technology and can carry up to 1.15 ton of bombs. 
the amx-t model is a two-seat advanced trainer amx variant which can do strategical attacks from long distance using guided bombs. 

brazil will transfer technology knowledge to venezuela with the goal to stimulate venezuelan development in the military field and other areas.




thorpe to miss 2005 world swimming championships

olympic and world record holder, ian thorpe, has decided not to swim at this year's world championships in montreal, . the 22 year old australian has designated 2005 as a "training year" and has no intentions to compete this year in order to focus on preparations for the 2008 olympics in beijing.

his decision not to swim will leave the 400m freestyle event open to other swimmers for the first time in seven years. the 400m has been "his" event since 1998 when at just 15 he took the world 400m title in perth, . he went on to win the world title again at fukuoka, in 2001 and in barcelona, spain in 2003.



microsoft announces new security software, new version of internet explorer

microsoft plans to include many features to increase security. these features are to protect against threats such as , , and .

release of a test copy of the new version is expected some time in the middle of this year. also in the works is a microsoft developed program. this move puts pressure on other major players such as and . the anti-spyware product is currently planned for release to windows users for free.

analysts contend that these plans to rework internet explorer are likely due to increased competition from smaller browsers such as . aol plans to release a new version of with protection against phishing as well.

to further compete, more content related services may be incorporated into the browser. martin reynolds, a vice president of technology forecasting firm gartner inc., said, "i don't think we will see a whole bunch of new features. we will see the existing features of the browser tightened up so the security becomes more manageable."



israeli parliament approves final step before implementation of gaza disengagement plan can begin

israel's knesset has voted to approve the compensation package for israeli settlers who will be impacted by the proposed disengagement from the gaza strip. eight thousand israelis will be evacuated from the gaza strip and four settlements in the northern west bank removed.

mks voted 59?40 to approve a series of measures that will compensate the settlers who face relocation under the plan, with five abstentions from arab mks. prime minister sharon's likud party was split, with 18 mks voting for it and 17 against.

the $1bn plan will now go before sharon's cabinet on sunday, where it is expected to be passed. after that, the israeli withdrawal from the gaza strip could begin this summer.

however sharon's government faces collapse if his budget is not passed by the knesset by the end of march. if that deadline is not met, elections will be called and the plan may well be stopped.

last week, sharon and palestinian president mahmoud abbas agreed a ceasefire after four years of violence.


nhl season canceled amid player pay cap dispute

gary bettman, the nhl commissioner, today announced that the 2004/2005 season of the national hockey league has been canceled. the announcement served only as official comfirmation of what was generally expected as wild speculation had raged during the past few days. the dispute centered around player pay caps, which where staunchly opposed by the players. the majority of nhl clubs have lost money over the last five years and as a result the clubs wanted to cap pay at a set amount. the club owners would not go above $42.5 million for any one club, whilst the players refused to go below $49 million. speaking about the cancellation, gary bettman said ""the shame of this is that our fans deserve better.""

this will be the first year since 1919 that the stanley cup - the top prize in the nhl - will not be awarded. that year, a flu epidemic forced the finals to be called off.



oldest human fossils dated as 200,000yrs old

two sets of remains, one a near complete set, the other just a skull, found in ethiopia forty years ago, have been dated using potassium-argon dating, as the oldest human remains yet discovered at 195,000 years old. remains from herto, ethiopia held the previous record of 160,000 years.

the findings, published in the february 17 issue of the journal nature, show the remains "omo i" and "ii", approach what geneticists believe is the age of the human race ? 200,000 years. due to geological activity in the region, this number may not be accurate; it is feasible that the fossils are as young as 104,000.

the uncertainty is due to the method by which they were dated from the known geological age of surrounding rock. the exact dig location where the fossil remains had been excavated in 1967 needed to be relocated.

it was determined that "omo i" and "ii" were buried in the lowest sedimentary layer, dubbed "member 1", of the 100-meter-thick kibish rock formation, near the omo river. by searching for datable material in that layer, and then dating it using the potassium-argon method, a research team was able to estimate an age for the fossils by association.

the date found agrees with findings from genetic studies on modern human populations, which use extrapolation to determine a date for the earliest modern humans.

in the same "member 1" sediment layers, were found additional "omo i" bones, animal fossils, and stone tools.

"those who believe that there is widely scattered evidence of 'modern' behavior going back 200,000 years in africa will be delighted that modern human anatomy also goes back that far," according to study co-author john fleagle, a physical anthropologist at stony brook university in new york.

when comparing the two sets of fossils, there is an anatomical difference between them. "omo ii" is much more primitive in appearance, while "omo i" more resembles modern anatomy. their existence in the same location in the same geological timeframe, may change the way scientists believe humans evolved.

chris stringer, director of the human origins group at the natural history museum in london: "given what we see in larger fossil samples from other regions, we may need to accept that african populations showed large [physical-form] variation at this time."



funeral held for the former lebanese prime minister

a funeral procession several kilometers long wound its way through the lebanese capital of beirut for the former prime minister yesterday. mr hariri was assassinated three days ago, on the 14th of february, when explosives equivalent to approximately 300 kg of tnt were detonated as his motorcade drove past the st george hotel in the lebanese capital. the hundreds of thousands of mourners in the funeral procession were convinced that the assassination was carried out by the syrian government and used the opportunity to voice their anger at the syrians. 

the funeral united the many lebanese factions, with christians, druze, and shia and sunni muslims marching side by side in the procession, accompanied by the tolling of church bells.

french president jacques chirac, a friend to mr hariri, was in beirut yesterday and praised the work that mr hariri had done in his fight for lebanese democracy and independence. he also offered his condolences to mr hariri's family.

the us house of representatives has paid tribute to the former lebanese prime minister and also called for syria to withdraw troops from lebanon. mr hariri was described as a philanthropist who chose to put the future of lebanon above political interests and used his own funds to assist the country's economic reconstruction after years of civil war.

darrell issa, a california , said demonstrations by lebanese calling for syria's withdrawal from lebanon underscore the key issue facing the country, "there is no proof that syria was directly responsible for this assassination,” he said. “but there is no doubt that syria has remained in lebanon far longer either than their mandate, or than in the agreements under the taif accords of 1989."

, a west virginia , also took to the floor of the house to denounce the killing. "it was a criminal act, it was a heinous act of terrorism, of those who don't have the courage to work through the political system or differences. i do not know who is to blame, certainly there are enough outside forces in the region that once again are looking to lebanon to play their ugly, deadly games," he said.

the united states withdrew its ambassador from damascus following the bomb attack, and has again demanded that syria withdraw its troops from lebanon.


chubu international airport opens

chubu international airport, japan's third major international gateway, has opened near nagoya. also known as centrair, the 24-hour airport is on an artificial island 30 minutes south from the center of town and opens on time to serve expo 2005, kicking off in march. the new airport replaces the existing nagoya airport and also takes over its iata code ngo.



crosswords/2005/february/18

==quick crossword

answers crosswords/2005/february/19.


colombia-venezuela meeting in caracas to end crisis

after five hours of meeting, the presidents hugo chavez from venezuela and alvaro uribe from colombia put a end to the diplomatic tension that had completed two months.
the crisis started with the alleged irregular arrest (according to venezuela) of the farc guerrilla rodrigo granda by colombian authorities. 

president chavez said: "we have decided to turn the page so we can fix the things that were misadjusted, clarify the things that could be clouded and work together in the construction for the common people".

the meeting was scheduled for early this month, however it was postponed due to a disease of the colombian president.

the encounter served both to finish the harshness between the two countries and to resume bilateral agreements and the activity in the border which were paralyzed as a result of the crisis.

moreover chavez insisted on venezuela is not a santuary of guerrillas. uribe admitted that the colombian armed conflict is a problem which must be solved by his country despite the disturbances caused by subversive groups in the neighboring countries to colombia.

as a result of the meeting, the presidents will organize a binational high level commission in the next weeks. the commission will evaluate the crisis's consequences, reinforce the integration between both countries and coordinate the future of the antiterrorist fight. the fight against terrorism will be done by security organisms of both countries by means of a rigorous legal adjustment in the actions which implies to cooperate so that the sovereignty is not affected and the sovereignty is respected, according to uribe.




five hundred cattle die of neglect on west australia property

rspca inspectors found about 500 cattle dead on a remote station in western australia. water is being trucked in to care for another 2500 cattle on windidda station, east of wilun, which is leased to an aboriginal corporation.

state agriculture minister kim chance says the propery was found abandoned and only two of the property's 13 watering stations were working.

"the lease is owned by an aboriginal corporation (but) the precise of identity of the corporation is somewhat obscure," mr chance said.

wa rspca spokesperson kelly oversby said they made the shocking discovery after an anonymous tip-off. 

"experienced inspectors have told us it is the worst case of animal cruelty they have ever seen," ms overby said.

"as well as the cattle, brumbies, camels, dogs and kangaroos have all perished."

animal welfare


brazil: occupied area conflict, 2 deaths

the occupation was coordinated by the regional branch of the movement of workers without a roof. 
the occupied area was in parque oeste industrial, in goiania. there were 2,862 families (men, women and infants) living there according to the government of goias and 4,000 according to the movement's leaders. the area had been under occupation since may 2004. the expanse is 891,000 m2 as stated by the newspaper diario da manha. 
they named the area condominio sonho real (real dream condominium).

failure by the occupiers to obey a court determination to leave the area resulted in the use of the police force to enforce the law.

the serious conflict began yesterday (february 16, 2005) at around 9:20 am when about 500 policemen from the battalion of shock entered the area to remove the families. the battalion of shock is a specialized military police unit set up to deal with activist conflicts. 

the trespassers were expecting a frontal attack, however the police demolished a wall at the rear with the help of a front-end loader and surprised them. the resistance didn't last long and by 11:00 am all occupiers had been removed.

guerrilla tactics were used by the occupiers. they dug 70 cm deep trenches, prepared hidden traps with props of wooden and metal, built barricades with stacks of tires, stones and other materials. some dwellings were incinerated and they used molotov cocktails and other self-made bombs. scythes, hoes, machetes and guns were also used. 

the police commander, lieutenant colonel antonio elias, said that lethal weapons were not used by the police. the shots which were heard during the conflict originated from the members of the movement gun's.

pedro nascimento, aged 22, and wagner da silva moreira, aged 20, both died during the conflict. police claim they were victims of friendly fire. the injured were transported to hospitals. four of those hospitalized required intensive care.

the secretary of public security of goias, jonathas silva, considered the operation a success. "we would not like that it had victims, but unfortunately the occupiers were armed," he said.

the police arrested two leaders of the occupation: americo rodrigues and agildo wagner jaime. another 21 leaders escaped and they are being pursued by the police.



second u.s. anti-missile defence system test fails

the united states' second attempt to test a ballistic missile defence system ended in failure on monday when the interceptor missile did not leave the launch pad.

an unarmed ballistic missile was fired from kodiak island, alaska, which was supposed to have been shot down by the interceptor missile. however the missile remained in its silo in the ronald reagan test site on the marshall islands in the pacific ocean.

the test is the second straight failure of the system; in a test two months ago, the missile also failed to fire, that time due to a software fault. initial investigations into monday's failure blamed a malfunction in ground support equipment, rather than a fault with the missile itself.

the tests are the first in two years; in an earlier series of tests, the system intercepted five of eight target missiles launched.

the project, known as the 'son of star wars' (the cancelled 1980s strategic defence initiative was known as the star wars program), was announced by president george w. bush in 2002. the system was supposed to have been operationally deployed last autumn.

this year, $9.1 billion is to be spent on the development of the system. but in his budget for 2006, bush has cut the spending to $7.8bn.


armstrong will compete in 2005 tour de france

lance armstrong has announced that he will attempt to win a seventh tour de france crown in 2005.

the 34-year-old texan announced his intentions in a statement on wednesday, ending months of speculation.

armstrong, who suffered from testicular cancer from 1996 to 1998, has won six straight tour de france titles; a feat no-one else has achieved. 

this season, armstrong will be riding with the discovery channel pro cycling team, after us postal service ended their sponsorship of his team last year.

five times tour runner-up and 1997 winner jan ulrich said in response to the news, "it's good that he is there. the best should be at the tour."

armstrong will also be racing in two other road cycling stage races in france and the u.s. this spring, and will be in a one-day race in belgium in april. there is the possibility of armstrong competing in more races this season if he and his team manager believe he is fit enough.


boeing unveils long-range 777

boeing has unveiled a new ultra-long range version of its 777 airliner, capable of flying from london to sydney non-stop.

the 777-200lr can fly for 9,420 nautical miles (17,446 kilometers) with 301 passengers onboard, giving it a range greater than any other airliner in the world.

the aircraft can fly from new york to singapore and from los angeles to dubai with a full passenger and luggage load non-stop, and has been named the worldliner by boeing to mark the fact it can connect almost any two cities on earth. 

although it can fly from london to sydney non-stop, the 777-200lr will have to break its return journey to refuel due to direction of the prevailing winds in the upper atmosphere.

so far, boeing has received five orders from two customers for the 777-200lr since it was announced in february 2000. the first of the new airliner will be delivered to pakistan international airlines in january 2006. eva airways is the other launch customer.

first flight is scheduled in early march.

the 777-200lr will be the basis for an all-freight version of the 777, announced last november.

boeing's european rival airbus, which has out-sold boeing since 2003, believes that the future of passenger flight is in very large aircraft like its new twin-deck a380 airliner flying up to 840 people between a relatively small number of large hub airports world-wide. passengers would then take connecting flights to reach their final destinations. 

boeing, by contrast, believes passengers will want to fly direct between more local airports too small to handle aircraft like the a380.


china overtakes u.s. as world's largest consumer

china is now the world's largest consumer of resources, passing the united states.

china's consumption exceeds the u.s.'s in grain and meat, coal, and steel, with the u.s. only still using more oil a year.

china uses more wheat and rice than the u.s. every year, with the u.s. only taking more corn. in total, china consumed 382 million tons of grain in 2004 while the u.s. used 278 million tons.

the world's most populous country also eats more meat, consuming 64 million tons a year compared to the u.s.'s 38 million, despite the average chinese person eating 49 kg a year (the u.s. average is 127 kg). 

however the u.s. still uses three times as much oil, consuming 20.4 million barrels a day in 2004 while china uses only 6.5 million. but china's oil consumption doubled between 1994 and 2004, while the u.s.'s only increased by 15%. japan is the world's third largest oil consumer. car sales doubled in china over the last two years.

china is rapidly heading to being the largest producer of carbon dioxide, the gas responsible for the greenhouse effect. two-thirds of china's electricity is generated by burning coal, using 800 million tons a year.

china has a population of 1.3 billion people and its increases in consumption are being driven by a booming economy. however, the country only had an average per-capita income of $5,300 in 2004, one-seventh of the u.s.'s $38,000. the u.s., with its population of around 295 million being about four times less than china's, still consumes considerably more per person than does china, despite the differences in raw values.

the country now imports large amounts grain, soybeans, iron ore, aluminum, copper, platinum, phosphates, potash, oil and natural gas, forest products for lumber and paper, and cotton. in order to feed its demand for raw materials, the country has formed economic relationships for long term imports from major exporters such as russia, brazil and australia.

the country is also growing rapidly in economic strength; along with japan, it buys most of the u.s. treasury's securities that allows the us to run its huge financial deficit.



cricket: australia defeats nz in twenty20 international

australia has defeated new zealand by 44 runs in the one off twenty20 international match at eden park.

this victory, in the first full international twenty20 match, gave australia a unique treble having won the first ever test match and then the first ever limited overs international.

batting first, australia set a total of 214, with australian captain ricky ponting top scoring with 98 runs from 55 balls, including 8 fours and 5 sixes. new zealand's kyle mills led the bowling attack with 3 for 44.

in reply new zealand were all out for 170. scott styris top scored for new zealand with 66 runs from 39 balls. australian paceman michael kasprowicz finished the match with figures of 4 for 29 from his 4 overs.

the new zealand team had dressed in the 1980s beige uniform for the occasion. many had also grown facial hair suiting the 1980s for the match.

the teams now go on to play a one-day series followed by a test match series.


greenspan's testimony suggests &quot;more of the same&quot;

alan greenspan, chairman of the federal reserve has suggested that there will be "more of the same" in coming months from the fed. in his speech during testimony before the u.s. senate banking committee on wednesday, mr. greenspan noted that the economic fundamentals of the appeared to be stable. on thursday, greenspan spoke before the u.s. house committee on financial services and when faced with questions regarding social security reform issues, he hinted that he was in favour of partial privatization of social security - but the general consensus on wall street is to expect more of the same.

however, economic advisors were somewhat disappointed that most of the testimony in both speechs was focused on the upcoming social security reform and did not address monetary policy as broadly as they'd hoped. mike moran, chief economist at daiwa securities america inc, is quoted in the investors business daily as saying "chairman greenspan provided few explicit insights into his plans for monetary policy."

greenspan reiterated his concerns about market reactions to the burgeoning federal deficit. "we are not sure to what extent and how much the market will respond," he said.

parsing greenspan's reports to congress is a wall street obsession, but the general consensus from his recent testimony is to expect little change in the current fed policy. economists expect "measured" hikes to the central bank's short-term interest rates from the next few meetings of fed policy-makers.

"in my view the bottom line is that we are in for more of the same," said steve stanley, chief economist at rbs greenwich capital to the associated press.



foreigners buy record number of canadian securities

foreign investors invested a record ca$53.2 billion into candian securities in 2004, statistics canada says.

this was almost double the ca$18.5 billion recorded in 2003 and just beat the previous record of ca$52.8 billion in 1993.

of the 53.2 billion, about 35 billion was put into stocks and 20 billion into various bonds. 

"for the year as a whole, foreign investors picked up $20.2 billion in canadian bonds; a substantial increase over the $7.0 billion purchased in 2003 but just half the high of 2001," the agency said.

roughly half of the purchases were directly influenced by the acquisition of john hancock financial services in april which has created the largest north american insurer.

canadians themselves were also buying foreign securities in record amounts.

"overall for 2004, canadian investors purchased $16.2 billion in foreign securities. of this, outlays of $15.1 billion were made in foreign bonds - almost double the amount from the year before and by far the largest ever yearly investment by canadian investors in the foreign bond market," 



united iraqi alliance win slight majority

final figures from baghdad today showed that the shia united iraqi alliance has won a slight majority in the new iraqi national assembly. the party took 140 out of the 275 seats in the assembly. 

the major opposition party will be the "kurdish alliance", which took 75 seats. the third largest party will be that of interim prime minister iyad allawi's party, which won 40 seats. 

reports in u.s. media say that many sunni voters stayed away from the polls either because of a fear of violence or to support the call by some radical clerics to boycott the elections. as a result, the sunni-led iraqis party won only five seats in parliament. the results are summarized in the following table:

chief un election adviser, carlos valenzuela, congratulated those involved with the election. he commented that "the elections were not perfect, they were never meant to be, but they were extremely successful."

there were fears before the election in international circles that a low turnout could jepordise the legitimacy of the new assembly. however, nearly 8.5 million iraqis voted - 58% of the registered electorate. as noted previously, the turnout percentage did vary significantly among the various population groups. by combining the two different shiite parties and comparing to estimated population groups in iraq we find:

the shiite and kurdish groups had more than 80% turnout whereas the sunni group had a turnout under 4%. the low turnout by sunni voters resulted in much higher representative success for both the shiite and kurdish groups in the parliament.



former paraguayan president's daughter found dead

paraguayan authorities have confirmed the discovery of the body of cecilia cubas
gusinky, aged 31, daughter of the former paraguayan president raul cubas. she
was kidnapped on september 21, 2004 in the outskirts of asuncion.

the body was found inside a tunnel under a house which is located in
Nemby, 29 km from asuncion. members of the
leftist party patria libre (free country) were believed to live there.

this kidnapping shocked paraguayan public opinion because cecilia was the
daughter of a former president and because two days ago it was discovered that
the kidnappers would have been advised by the colombian
communist insurgent armed group farc.

the authorities claim the kidnappers were led by the patria libre member osmar martinez. he was exchanging emails with trotador505
who according to colombian police is rodrigo granda, farc chancellor. martinez was arrested in january in caaguazu, 200 km from asuncion.
"we don't deny our fraternal relationship with this brotherlike organization",
martinez said in relation to farc.
he also told how he had photographs of himself with fidel castro, brazilian
president luiz inacio lula da silva, politicians of the people's republic of china, libya and iraq and added: "i am proud of relating to the great men of universal history".

people are speculating on the possible participation in the crime by members of the paraguayan police.

the advanced state of decomposure indicates ms gusinsky had been
dead for more than a month.

capture of farc member creates crisis between venezuela and colombia,
january 15, 2005 


u.s. envoy selected as top intelligence officer

john negroponte, united states ambassador to iraq, has been nominated
as the country's first national intelligence director by president
george w. bush. the two-month-old directorate, created by congress as part
of an intelligence community overhaul, will be one of the most
powerful positions in the federal government.

negroponte will oversee 15 intelligence agencies, coordinating
operations and setting budgets. he will, as head of the new office,
report directly to the president.

"john brings a unique set of skills to these challenges," said
president bush at a press conference this thursday.

negroponte has served in the american foreign service since the early 60's,
from vietnam to the united nations and now currently iraq.

lieutenant general michael hayden, director of the national security
agency was also announced as deputy to negroponte.

senate confirmation is still required before either can assume the
offices.

negroponte has been a controversial figure in the past for his time as ambassador to honduras from 1981 to 1985, when the united states under the reagan administration was involved in violent conflict in central america. fearing that central american governments were turning towards communism, the reagan administration assisted numerous rebel groups in attempts to overthrow left-wing governments, especially in the case of the sandanistas in nicaragua. central american activists have accused negroponte of ignoring human rights abuses by the contras and their honduran hosts, which the reagan administration funded by secretly selling arms to iran. (see iran-contra affair)


robot 'learns' to walk like a toddler

engineer russ tedrake has designed a robot that is engineered to walk like a human. tedrake did his work in the massachusetts institute of technology. 

the robot uses a method called "passive-dynamics" to move, taking advantage of gravity and kinetic energy to move its limbs. this approach differs from standard motorized robots (such as the famed asimo), and requires only a small fraction of the energy to achieve the same amount of locomotion. 

these passive-dynamic robots have sensors that collect information two hundred times every second, constantly sending new instructions to the motors. the sensors also dictate the course of actuators that control tension in the robot's ankles.

the robots learn from their experience walking, getting a bit more precise with each step. effectively, the robot will also learn to walk on different types of terrain, like going from grass to sand. tedrake comments on this:



italian government criticizes swedish television broadcaster

the italian government has criticized the swedish public service broadcaster sveriges television (svt) for their recently launched campaign called "fri television". one of the promotional films in the campaign refers to the media situation in italy. the film says that president sivlio berlusconi was elected after a campaign on his own television channels and that he now also controls the state television, rai.

the music theme of the campaign is a mandolin version of the popular italian song "o' sole mio".

the italian government has said that this is a matter for italy. telecom minister maurizio gasparri said that the information is false. the swedish ambassador in italy, staffan wrigstad, was yesterday called to the italian ministry of foreign affairs.

the ceo of svt, christina jutterstrom, says that she doesn't have plans to stop the campaign. "this campaign is like italian shoes. it's pointed and a bit uncomfortable", jutterstrom said to the swedish news program rapport.




crosswords/2005/february/19

answers tomorrow.


millions found by irish police in raids

over ￡2m has been recovered by gardai ("irish police") in multiple raids in the republic of ireland. seven arrests have so far been made in cork and dublin during a series of raids. of the ￡2m found, approximately ￡60,000 was in northern bank notes. forensic examinations are being carried out to see if the money is related to the ￡26m northern bank raid in december. the finds come on top of ￡175,000 which was surrendered to police in dublin on thursday night.

one of those arrested so far, an unnamed cork man has appeared in court charged with ira membership. irish police chief noel conroy commented that several of those arrested are suspected members of the ira.

after the revelation that the ira were possibly involved in the december robbery, speculation has been mounting in the national media that the main republican party, sinn fein, were aware of plans for the robbery. sinn fein president, gerry adams, who is currently in spain said people should not be in a rush to blame republicans. however it is clear that he is under a lot of pressure as he has decided to return to ireland early from his trip.

the december robbery is widely blamed for having ruined chances at a new peace deal in northern ireland. unionist parties have called for sein fein and the ira to be excluded from future discussions.



protests in colombia after children killed by landmine

three children were killed sunday in vistahermosa, meta, colombia when a landmine exploded during a soccer game. according to residents the landmine had been left by farc's guerrillas.

the children were identified as 4-year-old william cardona, 9-year-old javier cardona and 8-year-old john jairo cardozo were buried on tuesday in maracaibo. 

the deaths of the boys resulted in a peaceful protest by 1,500 students from local elementary and middle schools. the students walked the streets of the town along with their teachers, since most of the adults feared the retaliation by the armed groups of farc.

colonel carlos hugo ramirez zuluaga of the xii brigada movil del ejercito said that there are about five thousand landmines in the region which is part of the old zone of distension where the insolvent dialogues of peace with the farc were carried out between 1992 and 2002.

the ngo campana colombiana contra minas (colombian campaign against landmines) denounced the deaths on tuesday.



togo's faure gnassingbe says elections will be held in 60 days

following pressure from african leaders, togo's president has announced on friday that new elections will be held within 60 days. mr. gnassingbe was selected as the successor of his father , africa's longest serving leader, who passed away two week ago. 

"i have decided in the higher interests of the nation to continue the process of transition in line with the constitution of 1992 ... and organise the presidential election within the stipulated time of 60 days," mr. gnassingbe told in a televised address on a state channel. he said that he intends to remain in power until the elections.

mr. gnassingbe's selection with the army's help ? in contrast to the process outlined by the togolese constitution ? has drawn sharp criticisms from world leaders and togo's population. despite his decision to hold elections the criticism continued. on saturday president , the chairman of , said that togo faces "immediate sanctions" if mr. gnassingbe did not step down. according to the constitution in effect at the time when gnassingbe eyadema died, upon the president's death power is transferred to the head of the national assembly.




russia negotiating missile sale with syria

russia announced wednesday they were in negotiations with syria for the sale of anti-aircraft missiles.

israeli prime minister said that he received a letter from russian president vladimir putin in which he told him that moscow will go ahead with the planned arms deal. 

al jazeera quoted mr. sharon saying "i wrote to president putin but we got an answer [saying] they are going to sell that kind of weapon to the syrians." there are conflicting reports among news agencies about what type of missiles are being sold?some have reported that they are , while others have reported that they are . iglas are shoulder-fired weapons capable of being carried by individual people, contrasted to strelets which can only be fired when attached to vehicles, reuters reported. the former would presumably be more attractive for terrorist proliferation.

in the past russia had denied that it wanted to sell missiles to syria. the and israel have protested sales of the missiles, saying russian arms supplies would aid terrorists in the middle east. 

there have been concerns that us-made missiles, similar to the igla, have been acquired by terrorists in the middle east and pose potential dangers for military and domestic flights when they are taking off. during the (1979?1989), the usa sold stinger missiles to the fighters to use against the ussr. various branches of the mujahadeen later became the and al qaeda, with whom the us has been engaged in the since the 2001 world trade center/pentagon attacks.



reporters can be jailed, appellate court says

, ?

judith miller of the new york times and matthew cooper of time magazine can be jailed for refusing to reveal their sources to a u.s. federal grand jury, according to the decision of the u.s. court of appeals in washington d.c.

the reporters were among those approached with information about valerie plame as a cia employee, and have refused to testify before an inquiry into the leak of national security information. neither reporter actually wrote an article about ms. plame, whose identity was actually broken by robert novak in a july 14, 2003 column in the chicago sun-times, but they have been the target of special counsel patrick fitzgerald of illinois.

the u.s. intelligence identities act makes it illegal to reveal the identity of cia officers. however, the three-judge panel's decision on tuesday upheld a lower court's ruling last year that ms. miller and mr. cooper should answer confidential conversations with government sources. citing secret evidence presented by mr. fitzgerald, the panel said this case differs from the classic uncovering of wrongdoing by reporters relying on unnamed sources.

 


earthquake stirs panic in indonesia

a 6.5 magnitude earthquake has hit the indonesian island of sulawesi, according to the u.s. geological survey. the tremor, lasting about 2 minutes, sparked panic in numerous seaside communities on the island. according to officials, no injuries have been reported but sea water levels have risen up to four meters in areas.

though precise details of the earthquake are still unclear, the us geological survey has said the tremor just after 0800 local time (0000 uct) was 10km (6 mi) beneath the sea bed. local meteorological officials have reported to the associated press news agency the earthquake had been 37km (23 mi) under the sea of flores.



crosswords/2005/february/20

answers tomorrow.


bus crash in germany kills 1 injures 7

a bus has crashed in germany, between ludwighausen and kaiserslautern, killing 1 and injuring 7. the bus was carrying 34 people on a ski trip, the circumstances of the accident are not yet known. 

the one death is a british citizen, has be confirmed by the foreign office in london, the several injured passengers have been taken to area hospitals. apparently, the coach did not have winter tyres. developing.



australian reserve bank warns of slowing economy

the outgoing governor of the reserve bank of australia, ian macfarlane, has warned that the australian economy will probably begin to slow after over a decade of solid growth. mr macfarlane, in a speech to the house of representatives, said that both interest rates and inflation were likely to rise. "we forecast gradual rises in underlying inflation, with it reaching 2? per cent by end 2005 and 3 per cent by end 2006."

the prime minister, john howard, responded to the news by saying that "we will never go back to the 17 per cent interest rates under this government" and added that homeownership "should always be something which is kept within the reach of australians on modest incomes."


north korea has no further interest in negotiations with united states

xinhua quoted an unnamed north korean spokesman as stating that "the dprk [north korean government] has no justification to take bilateral talks... on the nuclear issue of the korean peninsula with the united states now." north korea has demanded that the united states end its perceived hostile policy toward north korea before talks can begin again.

last week, north korea claimed to have successfully developed , and pushed for two-party talks with the us. the us and china have pushed for multiple party talks. though north korea has not provided any substantial proof for its weapons claims?and has not performed the ceremonious "" usually required by declared nuclear powers to demonstrate their capability?us intelligence agencies believe that north korea may have produced anywhere from two or three such weapons ('s guess) upwards to fifteen ('s guess). the estimates were made on the basis of the amount of the north koreans would have been able to recover from their at .


airlines fight new eu passenger compensation legislation

airlines have attacked new eu legislation which will force them to pay greater compensation to customers in the event of overbooking, cancellations and delays.

consumer groups have praised the new rules, which set the level of compensation between ?250 and ?600 depending on the circumstances and the length of the flight. "this is some comeback for passengers who have been inconvenienced," james fremantle, industry affairs adviser for the air transport users council, told reuters. before this legislation came into effect, passengers "bumped" from a flight could claim between ?150 and ?300.

the new rules apply to all scheduled and chartered flights. previously only scheduled flight operators were obliged to offer compensation in cases of overbooking? they did not have to extend compensation to travellers affected by flight cancellations. low cost airlines have criticised the new compensation levels arguing that the compensation paid will exceed the price of the ticket.

the effort by the eu is to discourage airlines from deliberately overbooking flights, a practice which has become routine for most major airlines. overbooking often leads to "bumping", where passengers who cannot be guaranteed a seat are moved to a later flight. in future when this happens airlines will have to offer compensation. additionally, if flights are cancelled or delayed by more than two hours all passengers must be compensated. this will be the case except in "extraordinary circumstances", the definition of which may or may not include bad weather, security alerts or strikes.

"it's a preposterous piece of legislation, we among all airlines are fighting this," ryanair deputy chief executive, michael cawley told bbc radio 4's today programme. it has also been claimed that the advice may mislead customers by having them believe that they may be entitled to compensation if flights are delayed due to bad weather.

marja quillinan-meiland, european commission spokeswoman has said that there are "grey areas" but added "these are not as big as the airlines are making out." disputed cases would be heard by national enforcement bodies which would decide if there is a case to answer. 

european regions airline association (eraa) director of air transport andy clarke said "we reckon it's going to cost european air passengers ? not the airlines, the airlines have no money, it has to be paid by the passengers ? 1.5bn euros, that's over ￡1bn a year loaded onto european passengers. that's basically a transfer of money from passengers whose journeys are not disrupted to passengers whose journeys are disrupted."

these extra costs may also lead to carriers cancelling routes to areas that have been identified as problem destinations. 

the european low-fares association (elfa) is mounting a legal challenge to the laws. elfa and international air transport association expect a ruling from the european court of justice in fall of 2005, until then airlines have said they will comply with the regulations. 




hundred of thousands march in rome to demand freedom for kidnapped reporter

some 500,000 people gathered today in rome to march silently, demanding the liberation of giuliana sgrena, a reporter who was kidnapped on february 4 in iraq.

politicians, associations and citizens took part in the gathering, set up by the communist newspaper il manifesto, sgrena's employer. according to demonstrators there were 500,000 people, while the police estimates a turnout of 200,000.

"the march is a way to say, loud and clear, that we want giuliana sgrena to be freed... to say no to terrorism and violence", piero fassino, leader of the democratici di sinistra (democrats of the left) party, said.

giuliana sgrena was kidnapped near baghdad's university on february 4 while she was covering iraqi elections for il manifesto. on february 15 associated press television received a video showing sgrena demanding help from italian politicians and people, and asking for italian troop's withdrawal from iraq.




ex-priest shanley sentenced to 12-15 years for child rape

former roman catholic priest paul shanley was sentenced to 12-15 years in prison on tuesday, february 15, 2005. the sentencing occurred at middlesex superior court in cambridge, massachusetts, usa. shanley was recently convicted of multiple counts of child rape and indecent assault and battery against a child.

shanley's conviction is part of the aftermath of what the boston globe called a series of "brutally damaging revelations about scores of priests who over a period of decades had kept their jobs despite raping, molesting, and groping children and adolescents." the revelations culminated in the resignation of cardinal bernard f. law, leader of the archdiocese of boston on december 13, 2002.



psni confirms northern bank notes are from northern bank robbery

the police service of northern ireland (psni) has confirmed that the 50,000 found earlier today in a leisure complex building was from northern bank robbery. the leisure centre is used by serving and retired psni officers on the outskirts of and the find is believed by the police to be an attempt to distract them from the money laundering investigation currently taking place.

meanwhile, it is likely that the ￡60,000 seized at a house in on wednesday night is to be confirmed as having also come from the northern bank raid.


cricket: australia defeats new zealand in series opener

australia has defeated new zealand in the first of five one day internationals between the two nations in wellington, new zealand.

batting first australia set a moderate total of 7 for 236. opener matthew hayden showed a welcome return to form top scoring with 71 runs from 109 balls.

in reply new zealand looked to be struggling at 5 for 113 but hamish marshall's innings of 76 from 69 balls brought them back into the equation, however the australian pace combination of brett lee and glenn mcgrath took new zealand's final 4 wickets cheaply in the 47th and 48th overs bowling the kiwi's out for 226.

the series continues on tuesday in christchurch.




china steps up anti-gambling campaign

chinese president hu jintao is stepping up a government campaign to eradicate illegal gambling in china, detaining over 4,000 gamblers in an effort to clean up the public image of the party.

cadres and officials within the party have been caught using illicit funds, sometimes embezzled from local, state-run organizations, to gamble at set up in border-towns within , in , and in other popular gambling resorts outside of the direct control of the mainland government.

to assuage any fears that this latest campaign extends to ordinary working-class citizens, deputy public security minister bu jingfu has announced that ordinary citizens need not worry about being prosecuted for "friendly" games of . he did not specifically address whether mainland citizens should reconsider visiting the numerous mahjong gaming parlors which dot urban centers throughout the country.

"the whip that is used to beat wolves should not be used to beat sheep," stated bu jingfu.

china allows a "social welfare" , for which citizens can purchase tickets that help to fund social programs. however, this legal form of gambling is mostly favored by lower-income players who don't have the opportunity to travel to the lavish gaming casinos frequented by the wealthier class of businessmen and party officials who can travel across the border on easily obtained one or two-day .

despite relatively harsh penalties for those who are caught participating in illegal gambling operations, a number of provinces are well-known for hosting high-stakes gamblers in illegal, underground operations that are run on the mainland under the noses of local authorities. to combat these operations on a national level, the public security ministry has sent 13 "inspection teams" to these provinces in an attempt to crack down on these operations.

one historian believes that china's government, which in its various forms has tried to stop avid gamblers for thousands of years, will have no better luck with its current campaign, than it has in the past.

"it is really hard to get rid of gambling," said guo shuanglin, a professor of history at people's university in beijing.

guo explained, "there were strict laws against gambling in almost every dynasty in china. take the song dynasty, for example, when gamblers were sentenced to death. in the ming dynasty, gamblers' hands were chopped off. even in the period of the republic of china, they had a very strict anti-gambling law."

as far away as , casino operators are seeing a shift in for their most elite players, called "whales", who are known to bet upwards of us$50,000 a hand. since the 1980s, las vegas has seen a shift from japanese businessmen to chinese players, who now make up over 50% of the high-end clientele at some las vegas casinos.

shen mingming, a expert on chinese gambling, is skeptical that china's government can sustain a long-term campaign against gambling.

"it means long hours for the police, and it cannot be sustained," he said. "when the campaign is over, these organizations just quietly come back to life. can you keep doing these campaigns every few months?"

however, this time china's government has set up a special telephone number, to encourage citizens to turn in government officials who are embezzling government funds for illicit gambling runs.

china has recently conducted a series of high-profile arrests of corrupt officials who are caught gambling with public funds, two of whom used tens of millions of dollars to fund their gambling lifestyle.

the government has also made one special arrest to show that even high-level officials are not immune to prosecution due to their party position. cai haowen, who had been groomed by former chinese president , was arrested this month on an overnight train in province, while fleeing authorities for embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars and losing it all while gambling.

finally, china is starting to crack down on the easy visa programs which have permitted so much traffic to gambling emporiums outside of mainland government control. the new visa program requires that records be kept of the identity of the visa holder. this new visa requirement has started to have a noticeable effect on some border-town casinos, leaving a number of properties with idle employees and few chinese customers.



disturbances after football match in liverpool

thirty fans were arrested and five officers were injured saturday night in liverpool following manchester united's 2-0 win at everton in an fa cup match up.

officers in riot gear were called out to the everton valley section of the city to separate the rival fans of the teams. it is believed that ill-feeling marking wayne rooney's return to goodison park erupted outside the ground into what merseyside police called "large-scale disturbances". officers were hit by rock, bottles, and other projectiles, several needed to be taken to area hospitals for treatment of their injuries.

during the match, a missile from the crowd struck united keeper roy carroll. everton have vowed to ban for life the fan who threw the projectile, believed to be a coin, which injured carroll. police also reported recovering a mobile phone which was thrown onto the pitch during the game.


spain to vote on eu constitution

madrid - spain today will be the first of the european union nations over the next few years to vote on the treaty establishing a eu constitution. the referendum being held, one of 9 confirmed by member countries, is expected to draw 40 to 50% of spain's 35 million voters. 

polling stations have been opening since 0800 utc, with a small stream of people casting their ballot. the question on the ballot paper is:

"?aprueba usted el tratado por el que se establece una constitucion para europa?" "("do you approve the treaty establishing a constitution for europe?")"

it is expected that a yes vote will come from the referendum, though the referendum is non-binding, with parliament having the final say.

however, despite constant media bombardment, as many as 90% of spaniards are unsure of the content of the constitution, according to a government poll. 

spain has been a member of the european union since 1986 and has received large amounts of development grants and subsidies. since joining, it has grown into one of biggest economies in europe and the world. 

according to the spanish interior ministry, all of the ballots being casted 77% have said "si" (yes) to the treaty establishing a eu constitution. however turnout has been low with only 42% of the voters voting in this referendum.

the results of the referendum, 77% say si "(yes)", 17% say no, and 6% of the ballots are estropeado "(spoilted)".



us and japan offend beijing over taiwan

the chinese government is rebuffing a joint statement issued by the united states and japan, which has broken new diplomatic ground by declaring that taiwan is a shared strategic security concern for the two nations.

beijing's opposing statement read, "chinese government and people resolutely opposes the united states and japan in issuing any bilateral document concerning china's taiwan, which meddles the internal affairs of china, and hurts china's sovereignty."

china's foreign ministry also, "urged the united states to see to their respective commitments toward chinese people concerning taiwan, and refrain from doing things that affect peace and stability in asia and pacific."

the us-japan statement also asked china, "to improve the transparency of its military affairs".

the joint statement was issued after a us-japan meeting, attended by donald rumsfeld, condoleezza rice, japanese , and japan's defense chief yoshinori ono.

on the us-japan relationship, rumsfeld declared, "i can't think of a time when the relationship has been closer or more constructive".

rumsfeld also noted that china, which is in asia, is, "increasing its military capabilities in a fairly significant way".

"it (the taiwan strait) is seldom, if at all, referred to in a formal document," said a us official.

diplomats pointed out that the joint us-japan statement was a first in the 50-year alliance between the two countries.

former pentagon official dan blumenthal believes taiwan will welcome this statement.

"china has been investing very heavily on that they deploy across the taiwan strait as a tool of coercion and intimidation. they have some five- to six-hundred missiles pointed at taiwan, but it concerns other regional actors as well, not just taiwan," he said.

bilateral discussions between us and japanese officials at the cabinet and ministerial levels of their respective governments have not been held since december, 2002.


crosswords/2005/february/21

answers tomorrow.


david beckham's new son, cruz is born

the real madrid midfielder and captain of the england national team david beckham and his ex-spice girl wife victoria have given birth to a baby son called cruz beckham. the baby delivered by caesarean section in the hospital ruber internacionalon in madrid, spain, spain at 1040 cet. cruz is the third child of the beckham clan together with his older brothers brooklyn and romeo. he weighed on arrival at 3.2kg (7lb).



starburst across galaxy impacts earth's ionosphere

a flash of energy from across the galaxy on december 27 was 100 times larger than any previously seen. the x-ray burst was powerful enough to affect our ionosphere in the same way a solar flare does.

according to astronomers at the , the enormous energy burst from a remote magnetar was likely caused by an abrupt adjustment, or "starquake", in the outer layer of the magnetar, causing a "catastrophic" disruption of its magnetic field.

more energy was released in a tenth of a second than our sun has emitted since the dawning of the human race.

the magnetar, known as sgr 1806-20, is 50,000 light years away in the direction of the constellation sagittarius. that places it on the opposite side of our milky way galaxy, which is roughly a disk 100,000 light years across.

magnetars are a rare type of neutron star with unusually strong magnetic fields. sgr 1806-20 is only 20 kilometers in diameter, rotates once every 7.5 seconds, and has a mass comparable to our sun.

neutron stars are stars which have exhausted their nuclear fuel and collapsed. there are no electrons or atoms in the cores of these massive objects, just neutrons packed tightly together.

an article from the harvard-smithsonian center for astrophysics will be published soon in nature magazine.



plague kills scores in democratic republic of congo

an outbreak of pneumonic plague has killed 61 people as of february 15 in the democratic republic of the congo, according to the world health organisation (who).

the deadly disease has struck in ituri district, oriental province, in the northern part of congo. while 61 deaths have been confirmed, the total number of cases is not known.

samples have been taken from 40 patients and sent to laboratories in kinshasa for analysis. so far, all the victims have been suffering from pneumonic plague, with no cases of bubonic plague detected.

all the victims are workers at a diamond mine employing 7,000 people. the mine was re-opened on december 16 last year, and the first cases were reported four days later.

teams from medecins sans frontieres, who, medair and the ministry of health have gone to the region to assess the situation, while a multi-disciplinary team flew to the area yesterday. 

if access is possible, the team will assist in treatment, surveillance, and in the tracing of people who have possibly been exposed to the disease.

pneumonic plague is a highly infectious disease which has caused many epidemics and pandemics in history. pneumonic plague differs from bubonic as it specifically infects the lungs.

the infected lungs raise the possibility of person-to-person transmission through respiratory droplets. the incubation period for pneumonic plague is usually between two to four days, but can be as little as a few hours. the initial symptoms of headache, weakness, and coughing with hemoptysis are indistinguishable from other respiratory illnesses. without diagnosis and treatment the infection can be fatal in one to six days; mortality in untreated cases may be as high as 95%. the disease can be effectively treated with antibiotics.

it is primarily a disease of rodents. human infection most often occurs when a person is bitten by a flea that has previously fed on an infected rodent.

globally, the world health organization reports 1,000 to 3,000 human cases of plague every year.



professional cyclist fired for breaking contract through anti-doping statements

professional cyclist matt decanio was fired in january from the ofoto/sierra nevada cycling team for breaking what the team spokesman josh kadis called "ground rules" about what materials decanio would be permitted to post on his anti-doping website, according to a report by velonews. the websites at issue are stolen underground and mattdecanio.com. decanio's anti-doping stance started with his admission to the use of epo in the summer of 2003 in preparation for the housatonic valley classic in connecticut, usa.



thirty hospitalised after melbourne airport gas leak

thirty-nine people have received treatment and 30 taken to hospital after a suspected at melbourne's tullamarine airport.

passengers and employees in the terminal took ill early morning, reporting , and difficulty breathing. around 10 a.m. hundreds were evacuated from the terminal as a precaution.

at this stage the source of the leak has not been identified.



author hunter s. thompson found dead

american author and journalist hunter s. thompson found dead in his aspen, colorado home of an apparent suicide. his son, juan thompson, told the associated press that his 67-year-old father shot himself at the aspen, colorado residence.

"on feb. 20, dr. hunter s. thompson took his life with a gunshot to the head at his fortified compound in woody creek, colorado. the family will shortly provide more information about memorial service and media contacts. hunter prized his privacy and we ask that his friends and admirers respect that privacy as well as that of his family," juan thompson said in a statement issued to aspen daily news. the death was confirmed by pitkin county sheriff bob braudis.

hunter s. thompson was best known for his 1972 book "fear and loathing in las vegas". he was recently married and had emotionally supported his friend john kerry's candidacy.



romania plans its next privatisation initiatives

the romanian government has made plans and identified its aims for the next privatisation program which will end in 2006. by the end of next year, the government hopes to sell all of its shares in romtelecom, romania's largest telecommunications company, which is currently owned by greece's ote but which the government maintains a 47% share in. the full privatisation will occur in two phases, with some of the government's existing shares being sold on the bucharest stock exchange this year, and the remainder being sold in 2006.

by 2006, the government also wants to sell its share in postelecom, another telecommunications operator, and complete the privatisation of the radiocomunica?ii, the national radio communications company.

the government also wantes to begin analysis and consulting into the privatisation of "po?ta roman?", or romanian post, the full privatisation of which is set to be completed by 2009 at the latest.

romania has embarked on a quite comprehensive program of privatisation since 2000, having privatised a part of romtelecom, as well as full privatisations of several energy distributors and the nation's largest banks, in addition to other smaller companies. however, these privatisations are dwarfed by that of petrom, romania's national oil company, which was bought by austria's omv in 2004 and is the largest romanian privatisation ever.

the current liberal-democrat governing coalition in romania has privatisation and economic liberalism as one of its main policies, having also introduced a 16% flat tax rate for personal income and corporate profits at the start of 2005.

 


bucharest boasts largest cinema complex in southeastern europe

the largest multiplex cinema complex in southeastern europe opened on friday in bucharest, the capital of romania. the cinema is operated by movieplex italy and is located in the plaza romania shopping centre. robert longhi, the general manager of movieplex, said that the value of the investment reached 4.7 million euro. it is estimated that, during the first year of activity, the cinema will attract one million customers.

plaza romania is one of the newest shopping centres in bucharest, having opened in october 2004 after a 45 million euro investment by anchor group, a turkish company, which also invested in the bucharest mall, another large shopping centre in the romanian capital.


new research reveals a more emotional and troubled president abraham lincoln

as the bicentennial anniversary of president abraham lincoln's birth approaches in 2009, renewed interest is resulting in a new abraham lincoln presidential library and museum in springfield, illinois in the united states of america ? the town he called home.

extrapolating out of a long-neglected set of interviews conducted by william herndon, lincoln's partner in law for 16 years, scholars have found that lincoln seemed to have a soft side. within a few years of his arrival, lincoln fell in love with a local tavern keeper's daughter ? ann rutledge. herndon was surprised to hear about her, but of 24 people herndon interviewed to who knew lincoln and ann at the time, 22 said he courted her. but in august, rutledge contracted typhoid fever and died.

from then on, lincoln would resemble the stoic man celebrated today. however, he was not without depression upon the death of his lover. one witness remembered, "he made a remark one day when it was raining that he could not bear the idea of its raining on her grave." lincoln's exceptional reaction, to the point that many worried that he would commit suicide, had more to do with his own past ? the death of his mother when he was but nine years old.

lincoln would court again, this time to mary todd. after a guilty one year and still no commitment, lincoln wrote to james speed, a friend with whom he lived for more than four years, that he was racked with the "never-absent idea that there is "one" still unhappy whom i have contributed to make so. that still kills my soul." upon a hasty marriage, "the debilitating episodes of 'hypo'"?as lincoln called his depressions?"did not recur," and henceforth, lincoln was known for his resolution, a matter of necessity to actually initiate and carry out the civil war, and to emancipate the slaves.

in a his book, "the intimate world of abraham lincoln" () (published posthumously), published last month, the late psychologist c.a. tripp asserts that abraham lincoln was "predominately homosexual". most historians, however, disagree, pointing out that tripp is applying 20 century social mores to a 19 century context. they have noted that many men slept in beds together in the 19 century, and that tripp is wrong when he states that speed is the only one to whom lincoln signed letters "yours forever" ? he signed notes to at least a dozen other people this exact way. historian david herbert donald writes, "i simply cannot believe that, if the early relationship between joshua speed and lincoln had been sexual, the president of the united states would so freely and publicly speak of it."

in his 20s and 30s, lincoln was more subversive than people acknowledge. as a member of the whig party, he published anonymous letters in local newspapers deriding his party's political opponents, the democrats. this practice was not uncommon at the time, but burlingame, a historian who is writing a four-volume biography of lincoln, has come across more than 200 such letters he believes were penned by lincoln. during the presidential elections of 1836 and 1840, he accused the democratic candidate, martin van buren, of supporting black suffrage?what he seemed to suggest as an unforgivable sin.

however, through writing a mockery of the democratic state auditor, james shields, for being, "a fool as well as a liar," being challenged to a duel by shields, and the two men barely being persuaded by their seconds to call it off, "lincoln may, for the first time, have understood 'honor' and honorable behavior as all-important, as necessary, as a matter of life and death," writes wilson.

four years after his squabble with shields, lincoln was elected to the u.s. house of representatives. however, his 1846 two-year term was uneventful?he passed no bills and his only notable speech criticized the ongoing mexican war, making him seem disloyal at home. upon the elections of 1848 he merely went back home and got to work in his law practice. he was incredibly successful ? he probably handled over 5,100 cases over his career ? and earned perhaps twice the money historians previously thought. his supporters made him out a simple backwoods man, but cullom davis, professor emeritus at the university of illinois?sprinfield, commented that, "by the mid-1850s, you'd have to say he was enjoying an upper-middle-class lifestyle."

again, he was a heroic man who would not only take clients whose cases he philosophically agreed with, lincoln represented all people across all spectrums ? from murderers to adulterers, farmers to doctors. in 1847, lincoln even defended a kentucky slave owner who wanted to keep some slaves in illinois, where slavery was illegal. lincoln lost.

fortunately, lincoln's large law practice gave him national recognition, and when push came to shove, despite being moralistically human, lincoln tackled, head-on, the most vexing issue of at least one and one-half decades. the kansas-nebraska act, which created future states such that voters could decide for themselves whether slaves would be allowed in their area, completely undermining the missouri compromise, gave lincoln the inspiration he needed, along with an enduring and haunting image of shackled slaves on the ohio river, "like so many fish upon a trot-line."

and so lincoln leapt into the fray, denouncing slavery, although he undoubtedly found its guarantee entwined in the constitution. abraham lincoln, however, would once again show his capacity to rise and meet the challenge; before leaving illinois for the white house, he told a group of journalists, "well, boys, your troubles are over now; mine have just begun."

 


crosswords/2005/february/22

answers tomorrow.


five hundred palestinian prisoners released by israel

as part of the confidence-building measures in the newly agreed ceasefire being brokered by palestinian president mahmoud abbas and israeli prime minister ariel sharon, israel has released 500 palestinian prisoners into palestine.

the release is the largest mass release of palestinian prisoners for nearly a decade, since the release of 800 prisoners in 1996, and comes within a package of measures agreed by the palestinian and israeli governments at the egyptian resort of sharm-el-sheik.

"releasing prisoners is a very good step," said jibril rajoub, the palestinian security chief.

abbas and the palestinian authority expressed disappointment that sharon has refused to release larger numbers of the more than 8,000 palestinian prisoners held in israeli prisons. israel has promised to release an additional 400 prisoners in the coming months, with the names to be determined by a joint palestinian-israeli committee.

israel is very concerned that the former prisoners not jeopardize the peace initiatives, and has required each to sign a pledge not to return to violence.

the israeli cabinet approved sharon's plan to withdraw from gaza and the evacuation of settlers from the west bank on monday, feb. 21.



university of southern california spit test predicts cavities

a simple saliva test can predict whether children will get cavities, how many cavities they will get and which teeth are most vulnerable.

developed by researchers at the university of southern california in los angeles, the test quantifies the genetic component of tooth decay, spotting the risk when something can be done about it. 

"when we apply this to young children, it allows us to predict what might be their future caries history?the number of cavities that they'll get by, say, their late 20s or early 30s," says researcher paul denny. 

called the caries assessment and risk evaluation (care) test, the test measures the relative proportions in saliva of different types of sugar chains called oligosaccharides. the same sugar chains are present on tooth surfaces. 

the effect of sugar chains on teeth's resistance to disease is analogous to the effect of "good" and "bad" cholesterol on blood vessels. "good" sugar chains tend to repel bacteria that cause cavities while "bad" allow bacteria to bond to teeth and start the decay process. unlike cholesterol, however, sugar chain makeup in humans is 100% genetically determined. 

denny and colleagues have found that the sugar chain makeup in saliva can predict a child's future cavity history to plus or minus one cavity with greater than 98% confidence. 

the findings suggest that in developed areas of the modern era genes play a more significant role in tooth decay than in former times or third world nations where gross malnutrition and negligent oral hygiene held the greatest impact on dental health. 


kashmir avalanches kill at least 100

avalanches following the worst snow in two decades have killed over 100 people south of srinagar in indian-administered kashmir, with many more still missing and remote areas still isolated. forty-five tourists have been rescued, and the death toll is expected to rise as rescuers--including a large number of indian troops--deal with the 4.5 metres of snow that have fallen since last friday.

the crisis has cut off electricity in srinagar for three days and is not affecting the water supplies. there are queues for cooking gas, and helicopters have been bringing in additional supplies.


spain says yes to eu constitution

spain today became the first european union member to ratify the new by a . with a vote of 77%, the yes camp, lead by prime minister , was the winner. speaking about the result he said, ""today has been a great day for all europeans"". 
the no campaigners, who achieved 17% of the vote, were eager to point out the low turnout of 42%.

with the referendum, one in three spaniards gave a yes vote. this is in stark contrast to the 90% of the spanish parliament that voted yes for the constitution.

despite the apparent enthusiasm by spaniards for the new constitution, a recent government poll indicated only one in ten actually knew anything about its contents.

the official campaign was mainly dedicated to ask for the "yes" vote, without explaining the contents of the text. very popular faces of singers and footballers were used for this campaign.

although a yes vote is a welcome start for the constitution - which must be ratified by all 25 member states by november 2006 - spain was seen by many political commentators as an easy win. it is expected that of the twenty-five countries, britain is the most likely to vote no.



6.4 magnitude earthquake hits iran

an earthquake with a hit iran yesterday. the earthquake was centered around the southeastern town of zarand, about 440 miles away from the capital, tehran. early reports indicate at least 40 villages with a combined population of 30,000 people have been damaged, with 420 deaths and slightly less than a thousand injured. 

earthquakes are nothing new to iran, with killing 31,000 people in december 2003. heavy rain and bad visibility have made early relief efforts difficult; despite this some 1,500 members of the iranian red crescent have begun organising camps for the newly homeless.



canada's next ambassador to u.s. instigates outrage over missile defense

, 

ottawa - frank mckenna, canada's next ambassador to the u.s., announced canada's partnership in the u.s.a.'s continental missile shield program. "we are part of it now," he said at a press conference in ottawa.

prime minister paul martin has said there is no deadline, that canada has not made a decision and will not until the matter has been debated, and defense minister bill graham agrees: "canada's position is not a done deal."

opposition parties expressed a range of responses on this hotly contested topic. bloc quebecois mp michel gauthier charged "they don't want to tell the population that we've got our arm in the wringer of the washing machine and it's sucking us in." 

stephen harper, leader of the conservative party and a long-time proponent of the missile shield program, was angered by the liberal party's failure to live up to its promise to bring the issue up in parliament before any decisionmaking. "how could this prime minister secretly make this decision, so clearly breaking every commitment he's made to this house and to canadians?"

the canadian public is adamantly opposed to the missile defense, as they have shown in several polls. martin's own party is on record opposing the installation of u.s. missiles in space or canadian territory, so there were outcries from within the liberal party as well as from the opposition. 

recent tests of the missile defense have failed, on february 14, 2005 and december 15, 2004. the next most recent test was more than two years earlier.



australian government commits more troops to iraq

australian prime minister john howard has admitted this week's decision to commit an additional 450 troops to iraq is a policy backflip.

during the 2004 election campaign mr howard indicated that there would be no major increase in the number of australian troops in iraq. however yesteday's announcement is set to more than double the number of australian troops on the ground in iraq.

mr howard justified the reversal of policy as being in the "broader interests of democracy in the middle east". he also explained that the decision came in response to requests from british and japanese leaders.

the commitment of extra troops comes as a result of the dutch government's decision to withdraw 1400 soldiers from iraq, in response to political pressure in holland.

the australians will be deployed to the iraqi province of al muthanna to provide military support for japanese engineers working on reconstruction projects. 



crosswords/2005/february/23

competition: see tomorrow's crossword for details.

answers tomorrow.


european commission approves the accession of bulgaria and romania

the european commission, the executive arm of the european union, has publically-approved the accession of candidate countries bulgaria and romania, which are set to join the eu on january 1, 2007. the approval comes after bulgaria and romania completed accession negotiations in june and december respectively, and the text for the accession treaty was completed earlier this month.

the next step before accession will be the approval of the accession treaty by the on april 13, before the document is expected to be signed on april 25.

, the european commissioner for enlargement, who is from finland, said that the ec's approval marks a new stage in the relations between the eu and the two candidate countries, and gives a clear message that the commission welcomes bulgaria and romania into the european family.

however, rehn also said that the two countries have a lot left to be done until their accession in less than two years. the release states that, "the commission will continue to carefully monitor whether the two countries respect their engagements and obligations until accession and will support the two with all the instruments at its disposal."

another important mention was that of the safeguard clause, which means that if any of the two countries do not meet their reform fulfillments and there are serious problems with their progress respecting their obligations, the eu can postpone accession by one year, to 2008.

the romanian prime minister, , responded to the approval by saying that, "the ec approval for the accession treaty confirms romania is fulfilling its commitments and that the country is on schedule with the integration process."


romanian leu continues to surge

the leu, romania's national currency, continues to appreciate against the euro and the us dollar after it reached high levels a few days ago. yesterday, one euro could be bought for just 35,844 lei, down from 36,133 lei two days ago. these rates are also significantly stronger from the period in mid-2004 when the euro was worth more than 40,000 lei. last week, the leu reached such a high rate against the euro that the national bank of romania had to intervene and restore the exchange rate back to around 37,000 lei per euro. the leu's growth also had an impact on global exchange rates, weakening the us dollar worldwide by 1%.

the national bank, however, is hesitant to intervene in the marketplace once again due to the positive effects of the leu's appreciation on importers, who can now get products for lower prices, and for consumers, who now have higher purchasing power for imported goods. romanians are also pleased that their currency, which has faced long periods of fairly sharp depreciation in the 1990s due to high inflation, is finally picking up again and strengthening against other currencies.

the leu's appreciation, however, isn't all positive, because it is putting a great deal of pressure on exporters. other countries are finding romanian exports more expensive, and therefore less competitive, due to the leu's appreciation, and this could widen the already large account deficit in the country.

analysts predict, however, that the leu's surge cannot be stopped and it will continue strengthening against the euro, reaching a rate of 34,000 lei for one euro in the next week.

the current leu will be replaced in july 2005 with the new leu (ron), with 10,000 old lei = 1 new leu. the revaluation is expected to prepare romania for adoption of the euro in 2012. starting from next month, all romanian prices must be shown in both the old currency and the new currency. the national bank of romania has said that it expects the exchange rate between the new leu and the euro to hover at around 3.5 ron = 1 euro when the ron is introduced.



crosswords/2005/february/24

answers tomorrow.


dark matter galaxy discovered

astronomers claim they have discovered the first galaxy made entirely of dark matter. 

the galaxy was found 50 million light years away using the university of manchester's lovell telescope in cheshire and confirmed with the arecibo telescope in puerto rico. 

while it contains mass that rotates like a normal galaxy, it contains no stars. rather, it appears to entirely comprise dark matter, mysterious matter that differs greatly from the normal (baryonic) matter with which we're familiar. 

the discovery came from a five-year project to study the distribution of hydrogen atoms throughout the universe. hydrogen gas releases radiation that can be detected by radio telescopes. 

in the cluster of galaxies known as virgo, an international team from the uk, france, italy and australia led by researchers at cardiff university found hydrogen atoms amounting to 100 million times the mass of the sun. 

they have named the find virgohi21. 

the find is considered incredibly important because cosmological models suggest that dark matter is five times more abundant than baryonic matter in the universe yet is difficult to study from earth because of the planet's proximity to the sun.

"the universe has all sorts of secrets still to reveal to us, but this shows that we are beginning to understand how to look at it in the right way," says jon davies of cardiff. "it's a really exciting discovery." 


effort on to eradicate polio from asia in 2005

, 

the global polio eradication initiative has announced its goal to eradicate polio from asia in 2005. 

the 16 year old private-public project aims to add poliomyelitis to the list of childhood diseases which have been eliminated. the world health organization, rotary international, the u.s. centers for disease control and prevention and unicef are leading the initiative and coordinating a series of overlapping immunization campaigns in the region.

in 2004 afghanistan, india, and pakistan cut their number of polio cases by 45%. in 2005 the goal is to cut the number of cases by 100%.

the three countries are the last in asia to have endemic polio, and the disease is confined to a small number of regions within the country. only 186 cases were reported in 2004, down from 336 the previous year.



mysterious power failure takes down wikipedia, wikinews

on monday, at 10.14 pm utc, the wikimedia server cluster experienced a total power failure, taking down wikipedia, wikinews, and all other wikimedia websites.

the servers are housed in a colocation facility (colo) in tampa, florida, usa. they occupy two racks, with each rack receiving electricity from two independent supplies. however, both supplies have circuit-breakers in them, and both opened at the same time, leading to a total power failure. all computers immediately went down. it's normal for fire safety regulations to prohibit uninterruptible power supplies in colos, with the colo providing its own ups and generator instead. the circuit breakers were on the computer side of this emergency power system, so none of the computers continued to receive power to survive the breaker trip or shut down safely.

the actual reason why the circuit breakers tripped is currently unknown.

when power was restored, it was discovered that most of the mysql databases that store the data which makes up wikipedia et al had been corrupted. the main database and the four slaves had all damaged the data on their hard disk drives beyond the ability of the auto-correction to repair. only one copy survived safely, on a machine that is used for report generation and maintenance tasks, which remained 31 hours backlogged while catching up after an unusually heavy update load during the previous week. 

volunteer wikimedia engineers worked through the night rebuilding the databases from the sole good copy onto the other servers. the wikipedia database is over 180gb in size, making the copying process last 1.5 - 2 hours for every server it was performed upon.

regular back-ups of the database of wikipedia projects are maintained - the encyclopedia in its entirety was "not" at risk. the last database download was made on february 9; all edits since then could only have been laboriously rebuilt from logs and recovered from the damaged database requiring much more time and effort.

limited read-only service was established late tuesday afternoon, with editing becoming possible 24 hours after the power failure. final repairs continue now, as well as upgrades to prevent similar issues in the future. server-intensive features, such as categories and 'watchlists' that display recent changes to selected articles to registered users, remain disabled to ease the load on the recovering systems.

the process which led to the damage originated with the operating system, disk controllers, or hard drives failing to flush the data correctly. 

if the power to a database server is cut mid-write, the database may be corrupted and unreadable, however the operating system, hardware, and software are designed to make this very unlikely. in a previous incident in 2004 power was also lost to a server but the database was undamaged.

to avoid such damage, each database server saves a copy of an edit to be applied to the database on a separate storage system before making the actual update to the database itself. this so-called 'write-ahead logging' should ensure that in the event of a system crash, the database can be rebuilt from a 'last-good' state by replaying the edits saved in the log. 

earlier this year popular blogging site livejournal suffered a similar power failure when another customer at their colocation facility pressed an emergency power off button, intended for use only by firefighters. the company suffered database corruption similar to that seen at wikimedia. 

livejournal are now fitting ups to their servers to ensure that they have time to shut down safely in the event of a power failure. wikimedia was said to be investigating the possibility of fitting similar equipment at the time of this failure.

several pundits have suggested that the use of another database, such as the proprietary database oracle or the free postgresql, would have avoided the database corruption seen at the server cluster. a post-mortem of the incident show the failure was in the operating system, or the hardware, or some combination of the two. livejournal, which also uses mysql, reported similar database corruption after their power cut.

the wikimedia foundation only allows the use of free software on its systems, and future versions of the mediawiki software will support the postgresql database.

users are reminded that during times of system failure or excessive demand, they can still search wikipedia using google. the articles may be viewed using google's cache.




illegal dye found in british food

london, dublin - the illegal food dye "sudan red 1", derived from chillies and banned in the eu since 2003, due to an associated risk of cancer has been found in several hundred products on european shelves. products containing the illegal ingredient range from crisps, , casseroles and various chicken products to dozens of seasonings and sauces. the italian food authorities found the illegal dye over routine checks, and thus alerted the british and subsequently the irish authorities. 

the dye found its way into the european food supply as a primary ingredient in a batch of "crosse and blackwell worcester sauce" ingredient manufactured in britain by "premier foods", which was then used in all of the affected food products. as a result of the find over 400 products have been withdrawn in the uk and ireland. the financial cost of recalling all the affected products in britain alone is expected to top ￡100m, ?145m.

despite the recall many industry experts are trying to calm the public. one common analogy in use is, ""just like one cigarette is unlikely to cause cancer on its own, one meal containing sudan red is also unlikely to cause cancer."" the problem is, if people regularly consume the dye, then the risk of cancer is greatly increased.

several lists have been published by the uk and irish food standard authorities. all products on the following lists contain the dye and should either be thrown out or returned to the shop where purchased:





feverfew compound gets at leukemia roots

a compound in the common daisy-like plant feverfew kills human leukemia stem cells and could form the basis for newer, more effective drugs for the disease.

american researchers at the university of rochester medical center in new york say that it could take months to develop a useable drug from the compound, parthenolide. 

however, they are working to do so with chemists at the university of kentucky who have identified a water-soluble molecule with the same properties. the us national cancer institute has also accepted the work into its rapid access program, which aims to speed experimental drugs into human clinical trials. 

"this research is a very important step in setting the stage for future development of a new therapy for leukemia," says rochester researcher craig jordan. "we have proof that we can kill leukemia stem cells with this type of agent, and that is good news."

parthenolide appears to target the roots of myeloid leukemia, stem cells, while current treatments including the relatively new drug gleevec don't. so, "you're pulling the weed without getting to the root," says jordan. 

used for centuries to fight fevers, inflammation and arthritis, feverfew earned interest from the rochester researchers after other scientists showed that it could prevent skin cancer in animal models. 

so the researchers investigated how a concentrated form of the plant component parthenolide would affect leukemia cells and normal cells. 

comparing the impact of parthenolide to the common chemotherapy drug cytarabine, they found that parthenolide selectively killed leukemia cells while sparing normal cells better. 

while the findings suggest that parthenolide is a good starting point for new drugs, people with leukemia aren't being encouraged to take high doses of feverfew as they could not take enough of the remedy to halt the disease. 

the research is reported in the journal "blood".



palestinian legislators approve new cabinet for abbas

, 

legislators in ramallah have accepted a cabinet with few returning staff after twice rejecting prime minister ahmed qureia's more staid proposals.

"we have agreed in principle with abu mazen (abbas) to let this crisis pass," fatah mp mohammed horani said.

members of the dominant fatah party rejected two earlier line ups, before accepting the third late wednesday after a further meeting with president mahmoud abbas. fatah controls 63 of the 85 seats in the palestinian legislative council.

the legislators were dismayed by a lack of change in the initial offerings, reportedly heavy with old guard politicians from the previous administration. approximately 70% of the 24 cabinet members are new ministers that have not served before. reports differ, with reuters claiming 17 ministers are new, while the times of london claims 20.

nasser yousef has been accepted to take the security forces roughly from behind, and mohammed dahlan, currently a security advisor to abbas, is also in the new line up. abbas is reported by the cbc as eager to consolidate control in security as part of an effort to clean up corruption and tighten domestic oversight in the occupied territories.

some of the politicians who will not be a part of the new cabinet include nabil shaath, the foreign minister, and saeb erekat, the negotiations minister. 

the cabinet will now be brought to the legislative council on thursday for a vote.



crosswords/2005/february/25

answers tomorrow.


pope in hospital again

pope john paul ii has been re-admitted to rome's gemelli hospital with a relapse of influenza which saw him hospitalised earlier this month. 

he was wheeled into gemelli hospital on a partially elevated stretcher, and was waving to people as he entered the clinic.

later, vatican spokesman joaquin navarro valls announced that the pope had undergone a tracheotomy to assist his breathing.

the pope's re-admittance again raises questions about how long his papacy will last. one of his close aides refused to rule out the possibility of the pope retiring saying it was up to his "conscience". the pope has recently indicated that he has no intention of retiring by saying that the call "to guard his flock" was "particularly alive in him". 

the operation lasted around thirty minutes, and navarro valls said to media that it was a success.



finnish-french mep criticise finnish president and foreign minister

the former finnish rally driver and current member of the european parliament for grand sud-est france, ari vatanen, harshly criticised finnish president tarja halonen and the current foreign minister erkki tuomioja for having an anti-american stance and maintaining old-fashioned ideologies about defence strategies that hark back to the 1970s, in an article in the wall street journal europe. 

the ump member, born in finland, said that considering that 94% of the nations in the eu are nato members, it does not make sense for finland to not join.

according to vatanen, when the mep first tried publish the piece in the helsingin sanomat, the newspaper refused to publish it.

accondingly helsingin sanomat, 57% of finns are against joining nato, while 23% are in favour.

helsingin sanomat is the main newspaper of finland and the biggest daily subscription-based newspaper in scandinavia. the paper is independent and non-aligned. 


toothpaste fills cavities without drilling

a paste containing synthetic tooth enamel can seal small cavities without drilling. kazue yamagishi and colleagues at the fap dental institute in tokyo say that the paste can repair small cavities in 15 minutes.

currently, fillers don't stick to such small cavities so dentists must drill bigger holes. hydroxyapatite crystals, of which natural enamel is made, bond with teeth to repair tiny areas of damage. 

yamagishi and colleagues have tested their paste on a lower premolar tooth that showed early signs of decay. they found that the synthetic enamel merged with the natural enamel. the synthetic enamel also appears to make teeth stronger which will improve resistance to future decay. as with drilling, however, there is still the potential for pain: the paste is strongly acidic to encourage crystal growth and causes inflammation if it touches the gums. 

the paste is reported in the journal "nature".



crosswords/2005/february/26

answers next week.


yukos loses chapter 11 bid

the russian oil giant "(Юкос)" has lost its bid for protection by a court. yukos sought chapter 11 protection, to prevent the forced sale of the subsidiary by the russian authorities.

judge letitia clark said that the oil company didn't have a strong enough presence in america to warrant chapter 11. 

the sale was made to pay yukos' us$27.5 billion tax bill, yuganskneftegaz was originally sold for us$9.4 billion to a little known company "(Байкалфинансгруп)" which was later bought by the russian state-owned oil company "(Роснефть)". 

yukos was started by the russian billionaire , who is in prison for fraud, embezzlement and tax evasion charges that he denies, saying his arrest is politically motivated by the russian president vladimir putin.


crosswords/














several un troops killed in congo ambush

at least eight un peacekeepers have been killed in an ambush by militiamen in the democratic republic of congo. the attack happened in the morning and it is believed that the lendus ethnic militia known as fni are likely to be behind the attack. the peacekeepers are all believed to be from bangladesh and are in the ituri area of the congo along with 4,800 other peacekeepers from several contries including pakistan, morocco and nepal. 
a un spokesperson has said ""there are at least eight dead and some still missing"" indicating that it is possible that more have been killed or injured. the spokesperson has added that ""lendus are not people that take hostages, they just kill.""



the british minimum wage goes up in october

the british prime minister tony blair has announced that the minimum wage is to go up from gbp 4.85 (eur 7.03) per hour to gbp 5.05 (eur 7.32) per hour in october and gbp 5.35 (eur 7.76) per hour in october 2006. the minimum wage for 18-21 year-olds, the development minimum wage will also go up from gbp 4.10 (eur 5.94) per hour to gbp 4.25 (eur 6.16) per hour. the rises was a recommendation by the low pay commission, a government organisation responsible in the minimum wage said that the minimum wage has increased the amount of jobs in the market. 

the minimum wage started in the uk in 1998 as one of the election proposal of the labour government and it started at gbp 3.60 (eur 5.22) per hour. 

the trade union congress said they welcome the rise, however they want the minimum wage to go up to gbp 6.00 (eur 8.70) per hour. the confederation of british industry (cbi) called for a "pause year" on the minimum wage to assess the above inflation rises

political speculators are says the announcement is to coincide with a possible general election in may this year. 



mutant gene predicts common parkinson's

a genetic mutation has been linked with typical, late-onset parkinson's in a step towards new drugs that target particular forms of the disease.

american and european researchers led by neuroscientists at the mayo clinic in jacksonville, florida discovered the mutation in a recently identified gene called lrrk2 that previous studies have already linked to some forms of parkinson's.

the mutation, dubbed g2019s, is the first, the researchers say, to be associated with typical, late-onset parkinson's. 

"from a research point of view, this is the first time we could identify what appears to be typical parkinson's disease cases before people develop symptoms," says mayo clinic neuroscientist matthew farrer. "we know if someone inherits the mutation they are going to get parkinson's disease."

the mutation was discovered by sequencing the lrrk2 gene in families with parkinson's from the us, norway, ireland and poland. 

it was found in 22 of 42 family members of people with parkinson's while it was absent in more than 2,000 healthy controls. 

all people with g2019s mutations shared a genetic pattern indicating a common, ancient ancestor. 

the finding shows that the most common form of parkinson's disease, which was thought to be sporadic, has a genetic component. 

while it's a small number of cases, says farrer, the finding should help in the creation of parkinson's models. 

farrer and colleagues are also starting to examine the cellular role of the lrrk2 protein and why the mutant gene causes disease. 

"it's an exciting time in the study of the genetics of parkinson's disease," says farrer, who notes that there are already clinical trials of drugs called mixed-lineage kinase inhibitors that may be targeted at the form of the disease linked with the mutation. 

the research is reported in the "american journal of human genetics".



explosion in central tel aviv nightclub

four are dead and fifty injured after a suicide bomber set off an explosion at a nightclub in central tel aviv. the blast was in the queue going into the club, stage, on the main promenade. the bomber had been stopped from entering the club by security guards just before the explosion. 

at first the militant groups hezbollah, al-aqsa martyrs' brigades, islamic jihad and hamas all denied involvement, but according to the bbc the islamic jihad later claimed responsibility for the blast. a spokesman for the group stated that "israel has not abided by the pacification period. this is the main reason that led to this operation".

palestinian president mahmoud abbas released a statement after a meeting with his security chiefs:

the swift condemnation and call for action by the palestinian leader has caused israeli officials to declare that the attack, the first since an informal truce began early this month, would not derail the peace process. it was also the first suicide bombing in israel in almost 4 months, during which pullbacks from occupied territories have been announced, and palestinian prisoners have been released.



british iraq abuse case soldiers jailed

the three british soldiers in the centre of an iraqi abuse scandal have been jailed for between 140 days and two years and all three have been dismissed from the army. l/cpl mark cooley, 25, cpl daniel kenyon, 33, and l/cpl darren larkin, 30, assaulted a number of iraqi prisoners in camp bread basket, near basra. 

gen sir michael jackson said that he wanted to, "place on record how appalled and disappointed i was when i first saw those photographs at the outset of the trial", and has said he apologised "to those iraqis who were abused" and to iraq as whole. 

the men said they felt they were scapegoats as they felt they were other soldiers in the abuse and one of the men's lawyers said there was, "a significant number of other soldiers, including many senior to him, some of whom have been promoted, were involved in the mistreatment of iraqis that day".

in a separate court martial last year, the soldier who took the photos used as evidence in the trial, gary bartlam, admitted taking photographs of the iraqis simulating sex acts. he was sentenced to 18 months in a youth detention centre and disgracefully discharged from the british army. 



montserrat refugees to be deported from u.s.

a last gasp effort is underway to prevent the deportation of montserratian refugees from new york city, u.s.a., to the disaster-stricken volcanic island they fled ten years ago.

representative w:major owens (d, ny), of brooklyn, is hoping the outpouring of support for victims of the asian tsunami will save the refugees from returning to an island with an active volcano that is at constant risk of a further catastrophe.

until last year, the department of homeland security had allowed the families to stay in the united states under a special designation called “temporary protected status”. but in july, secretary of homeland security, tom ridge, withdrew the status?not because it was safe to return to montserrat, but because the volcano would remain active for decades to come and therefore was no longer a “temporary” danger. on february 27, the city’s estimated 100 montserratians and their families will be forced to leave or risk deportation. a further 200 families, many of them living in boston, are also under threat.

earlier efforts to win a reprieve for the montserratians were blocked by anti-immigrant forces in the house of representatives, led by congressman tom tancredo, of colorado, rep. owens said. but he added that a new bill, which he introduced at the end of last month, might be more popular in the wake of the asian disaster.

“we hope that the approaching emergency situation plus the drama of the tsunami will help change some of the attitudes about this,” rep. owens said. “and some of the people who opposed this legislation on the basis that they opposed immigration, will see that it is not about immigration but about coming to the relief of people who have been victims of a natural disaster.”

meanwhile, new york’s tiny montserratian community must wait and hope. for those not fortunate enough to have married a us citizen or to have found an employer willing to sponsor them, the coming weeks are crucial.

pearl ryner, 40, a refugee who works as a medical technician at the king’s county hospital in brooklyn, said she refused to get married just so that she can stay in the united states. but she is a single mother with four children and she does not want to uproot her family and start over again.

“i worry. i cry. i am still hoping,” ms. ryner said. “what do i do? where do i begin? how do i pick four kids up and take them away? if i buy a plane ticket, where do i go? these are questions that i do not have an answer for.”

the department of homeland security has suggested that because montserrat is a british overseas territory, montserratians should go to the uk. but the refugees say they have no relatives or friends they can stay with in the uk, and that they have made homes and started careers and lives in the united states.

if the refugees are deported to montserrat it will be to a 35 square-mile island, two-thirds of which is buried beneath volcanic rubble and ash. the capital, plymouth, in the south east of the island has been abandoned, and there is a housing and employment shortage.

the soufriere hills volcano erupted in 1995, but the british foreign office website warns that the volcano remains active. heavy rain can cause mudflows, and people suffering from breathing problems risk airborne dust and volcanic ash. the collapse of a lava dome in 2001 spewed clouds of ash that affected puerto rico, a self-governing territory of the united states, 200 miles away.

moreover continued volcanic activity is triggering landslides that have caused two tsunamis in montserrat during the past ten years. the first, on december 26, 1997, created a wave three meters tall, which rolled northwards along the coast. the second, in july 2003, measured about four meters and traveled to guadeloupe 30 miles away.

sherry coriette, 28, who works for a major retail company in new york, said that she still has not decided what to do. “i have a good job, i pay my bills,” ms. coriette said. “eight years ago i left with nothing and now i am having to face starting all over again.”

matthew dunn, chairman of the new york chapter of the american immigration lawyers association, said that as long as there was a potential for danger, the united sates should offer the people of montserrat a safe haven.

“i would argue that is what our country is all about: helping and protecting people,” mr. dunn said. “but the biggest shame in all of this is that because there is so few of them, they do not have a big enough voice.”


 


u.n. reports afghan opium production is up again

afghanistan is the #1 producer of in the world ? responsible for 87% of all illicit opium production ? according to reports from the united nations (unodc), and its opium production has accelerated since the coalition invasion in 2001.

the november 2004 annual reports put out by unodc show that afghanistan opium production has been increasing each year since the coalition invasion. the unodc report for 2004 shows a 64% increase over the previous year in the area of opium production, and a 22% increase in export value for the year(2.8 billion).

"it could be brought under control with a good dose of law enforcement, which at the moment is lacking," antonio maria costa, executive director of unodc, said in an interview in 2003 when reports showed an increase in hectares under production of 8% over the previous year. "i believe that the war against terrorism, leaving aside addiction, will not be won unless we control the opium economy of afghanistan."

doug wankel, counter narcotics coordinator at the u.s. embassy in , said the opium industry in afghanistan is financing terrorism in an interview with usa today. "it's financing subversive activities. it's financing warlordism. ... and if it's a threat to the government of afghanistan, it's a direct threat to the national security interests of the united states."

calling the data "disheartening," unodc reported that afghanistan now produces three-fourths of the world's opium. the report estimated revenues from growing and trafficking to be half of afghanistan's gross domestic product.



bacteria thrive deep under sea floor

analysis of sediments taken from hundreds of metres beneath the ocean floor
has shown them to contain living microbes. according to a study produced
by a team of researchers supported by the international ocean drilling
program, this is the first time that microbes have been found in abundance at such depths.

scientists have long speculated about how much of the bacterial content of
the sediments is biologically active. techniques used to stain the bacteria and
identify them could not previously discriminate between live and dead
cells. for this study a new technique that could distinguish between alive
and dead cells was used.

the results were surprising. the sediments, some of which had been
collected from up to 800 metres from beneath the sea floor and
are said to be up to 16 million years old, contained between 10-30% living
bacteria. scientists estimate that between 60-70% of all bacteria are
living deep beneath the surface, far from any sunlight.

"we didn't have clear evidence that bacteria there were alive until now,"
said ecologist and team member lev neretin of the max planck institute for marine biology
in bremen, germany. according to calculations,
the populations of bacteria multiply at the same rate as their surface
cousins and contribute significantly to the balance of greenhouse gases,
consuming and producing co2. they also contribute methane via a metabolic
process that does not require oxygen.

"because they play such a major role in the biochemical processes in the
subsurface, clearly they are driving lots of reactions that produce the
chemical steady state on earth," said dr john parkes, one of the original
co-authors of the paper which appeared in nature magazine, "possibly we
might not have oil and gas formations without them."

how could these bacteria get so deep beneath the ocean floor? "the only
reasonable way is for them to be buried there," says bo thamdrup, a
microbiologist from the university of southern denmark, odense. the
extremes of temperature and pressures tolerated by these bacteria add
weight to the assertion that microbes may flourish in the extreme
conditions of other planets.

"it is well known that bacteria living in deep oceans have special
adaptations to help them survive," says thamdrup. "i'm sure these bacteria
have special adaptations too." a full genetic analysis may soon reveal
them.



suspect in btk killings arrested after 25 years in hiding

wichita police today arrested dennis rader, who is suspected of being the btk killer. btk, an acronym for "bind, torture, kill," was the name the serial killer gave himself after killing eight people between 1974 and 1986 in that manner. the killer was thought to have disappeared for 25 years before he resurfaced in march of 2004. he was later linked to two unsolved murders, which took place in 1985 and 1991. police chief norman williams publicly announced the guilt of mr. rader prior to any trial preparations when he said to reporters ""the bottom line, btk is arrested.""

the commander of the task force investigating the btk killings, lt. ken landwehr, said rader had been arrested after being pulled over in a routine traffic stop. authorities had questioned a ""person of interest"" friday, which led them to a park city home just outside wichita and eventually to the identity of btk.

btk was notorious not only for his brutal way of killing people, but for taunting police and other investigators with letters throughout his 12-year killing spree. investigators had run out of leads until police received a letter from btk in march of last year.

police have said they charge rader with eight counts of first-degree murder and two other homicide charges. according to cnn, police were able to use rader's daughter's dna to find rader. dna of close family members has been used in a few previous cases to identify suspects, through a new technique known as familial searching. 


princeton media class discusses wikinews

according to ryan walsh, editor of the websites for both the princeton journal of science and american foreign policy, internet news service wikinews was the topic of a report by federico baradello in a princeton university course on mass media and public policy. the course, offered through the woodrow wilson school of public and international affairs, studies "the impact of policy on the content, presentation, influence, and technology of a rapidly-evolving 21st century news media," according to the school.

walsh, currently a junior at princeton, characterized the report in an to wikinews user pingswept as "great" and added that "everyone in the class seemed to enjoy learning about wikinews, and federico was a great speaker."

according to an from baradello, the report, which took place on monday, 21 february 2005, provided a "basic overview of its history (evolution), ownership, viewership, and position in the news market." it included a live demonstration of adding new content to wikinews. the barebones content provided in the demonstration was developed into this article.

baradello's report is available on the course's blog. his final course paper on the decentralization of news gathering includes a case study on wikinews with commentary from jimmy wales and will be available in pdf form by late may.


founder of amnesty international dies, aged 83

the founder of amnesty international, peter benenson, passed away last night after suffering for some time from a serious illness. at age 83, it is forty four years since he founded amnesty as a result of reading an article about the imprisonment of two students in portugal who had drunk a toast to liberty. 

amnesty international said they will be holding a public memorial service and there will be private ceremony for family members however there will be no funeral service. amnesty international's current secretary-general, irene khan, said after his death: ""peter benenson's life was a courageous testament to his visionary commitment to fight injustice around the world.""

the organisation was initially formed in 1960 for ""a one-year campaign for the release of six prisoners of conscience."" today amnesty has over 1.8m members and campaigns for human rights on a global basis. mr. benenson was originally trained as a lawyer before he dedicated his life to the promotion of human rights.



bank of america declares 1.2 million account records &quot;lost&quot;

currently, the u.s. are looking in to the matter, a federal agency whose brief includes investigations of serious financial crime such as this. all parties concerned are worrying about possible identity theft as it contained valuable information such as bank account numbers, names and addresses. 



romania announces 18 percent increase in tourists in 2004

carmen moraru, the promotion and marketing director at ant said that many tourists came as part of holiday packages or tours, organised around the regions of maramure?, transylvania, moldova, the prahova valley and the danube delta.

in 2005, the number of tourist arrivals is set to rise further, mainly due to a romanian promotion campaign launched across europe. the country's tourist revival is mainly due to its diversity - it is home to europe's largest delta, the black sea coast with its resorts, the carpathian mountains with their skiing and winter activities, transylvania with its ecotourism, agritourism and beautiful landscapes, as well as the medieval history of cities like sibiu and sighi?oara.


cambridge planning board approves new science building at harvard

the planning board of cambridge, massachusetts voted in unanimous approval of harvard university's plan to build a 410,000 ft2 (38 090 m2) science center at 24 oxford street, according to the local newspapers, the harvard crimson and the cambridge chronicle. more than half of the space in the building will be constructed underground.
the northwest science building, as it will be called, will house the laboratories of roughly 30 harvard science faculty members, as well as a chilled water plant and an electrical substation. the building was designed by craig hartman, an architect in the san francisco office of skidmore, owings and merrill, who also completed harvard university master plan in 2002, according to the firm's website. skidmore, owings, and merrill also designed such notable buildings as chicago's sears tower and the recently completed international terminal at the san francisco airport.

the vote to approve the plan occurred at the february 15, 2005, meeting of the cambridge planning board at the city hall annex, 344 massachusetts avenue in cambridge. in what the harvard crimson called a "departure from the norm," there were no comments from residents at the hearing. the crimson reported that the harvard officials at the meeting took this as "a signal that the community was well-informed about the project prior to the presentation." the sign advertising the hearing can be seen at right.
in related news, the director of urban design for skidmore, owings, and merrill's new york office, vishaan chakrabarti, will be speaking at the harvard graduate school of design on march 1, 2005.

 


ireland beat england 19-13 in the rbs six nations

ireland got off to a perfect start, despite having to play against the wind; with a drop goal by ronan o'gara putting the homeside 3 points up after just four minutes. but due to some awful defence by the irish, england too the lead with a try by martin corry and charlie hodgson had no trouble converting to put england ahead by four points. ronan o'gara quickly got another 3 point from a drop goal to bring the score to 7-6 in favour of england. two minutes later england went behind after a successful irish penalty. england went ahead again at twenty five minutes with a penalty from hodgson after a dry spell of fifteen minutes for the visitors. ireland earn't a hard fought drop goal just after the half hour mark by ronan o'gara. 

at half time, ireland were just marginally ahead at 12-10. eight minutes into the second half, ireland missed a chance to go five clear when an o'gara penalty went wide. hodgson got his third score with a drop goal at fifty seven minutes to bring england anhead by one point. however their lead was short lived as a brian o'driscoll try and subsequent conversion by ronan o'gara put the irish ahead 19-13. despite numerous strong attacks in the last fifteen minutes, england failed beat the irish defense.
ronan o'gara was the "rbs man of the match"

 


two-headed baby has second head removed

an egyptian baby, born with two heads, is recovering after a successful operation to remove the second head in cairo on thursday.

the ten-month old baby was suffering from a condition known as craniopagus parasiticus, which is a medical condition where an undeveloped, parasitic twin head is attached to the body of a developed twin.

the second head was said to be able to smile and blink, but was not capable of independent life.

manar maged underwent a thirteen hour operation to have the head removed. there have only been eight cases of this condition recorded. a baby suffering from it underwent a similar operation in the dominican republic in february 2004 but did not survive.

baby manar is doing well and shows no signs of paralysis. it is expected that she will remain in intensive care for at least a week.


nine rescued from roof of blazing taiwanese skyscraper

nine people were rescued by helicopter from the roof of a blazing skyscraper in taiwan on saturday.

the people were dining in the rooftop restaurant when a fire broke out lower in the 25 story golden plaza tower. the fire is said to have started in a disco on the 18th floor at about 4pm local time.

four people died in the fire, including two employees of the tower. the body of a security officer was found on the 18th floor with another body found nearby. two more were found in an elevator. two or three people suffered minor injuries after inhaling smoke.

the building in taichung, taiwan's third largest city, houses offices, shops and schools.

those fleeing the building at ground level had to cover their heads to protect themselves from falling glass and other debris. fire fighters extinguished the blaze after an hour and a half.


pope john paul ii makes surprise appearance at window of his hospital room

pope john paul ii made a surprise appearance at the window of his 10th floor hospital suite at gemelli hospital in rome and waved to onlookers, shortly after he missed the weekly angelus blessing for the first time in his 26-year papacy. it was his first public appearance following his tracheotomy on thursday.

archbishop leonardo sandri, substitute secretary of state of the vatican, performed the weekly angelus blessing in the pope's absence. he also read a message written by the pope. "i ask you to continue to follow me with your prayers," it said.

the pope's appearance was broadcast worldwide on television and was shown on a giant screen in st. peter's square.


'aviator,' 'baby' dominate 2005 academy awards

the were held on february 27th, 2005 and broadcast live across the world. some of the more poignant moments included a tribute to , frequent host of the awards, as well as a video tribute to many people involved in the movie industry who died in the past year, including , , , , and , set to the music of .


















al otro lado del rio", from "




mighty times: the children's march


wasp


construction for romania-italy pipeline to start in 2007

the pipeline will run from constan?a, romania's largest port on the black sea, through romania, serbia, croatia, slovenia before ending up in trieste, northern italy. tapu named chevron texaco, british petroleum and omv among the companies interested in the project.

the oil pipeline is expected to cost romania 1.9 billion euro.


romanian vat to remain at 19 percent

after introducing a low flat tax rate of 16% on january 1, 2005, which applies to both personal income and corporate profits, the government has had to fund the tax cuts through alternative means, including increases in other types of taxation, to avoid running a high budget deficit. for example, from april 1, the government will increase as well as a range of other taxes. despite the increase, romania continues to have one of the lowest fiscal burdens in europe due to the new 16% flat tax rate.


three romanian ports closed due to heavy fog

the port closures left 54 ships in the harbour or stranded at sea, said alexandru mezei, the director of shipping navigation at constan?a port, the largest port in romania. however, he claims that the closure was necessary to prevent accidents from occurring, as the fog had reduced visiblity below safe levels.


gene switch turns stem cells into cancer killers

a has been discovered that turns into killers, promising new treatments that boost the body's ability to destroy tumors.

these components of the can eliminate virus-infected and cancerous cells. research leader inpyo choi says the team observed that vdup1 plays a decisive role in causing stem cells to become natural killers. 

the discovery was made by examining mice bred to lack the gene. the mice had a dramatic reduction in the number and activity of natural killer cells. 

besides determining the gene's importance to the immune system, choi and colleagues have developed technology needed to spur the creation of natural killers from a person's own stem cells. 

choi calls this "the first step toward developing new treatments using our own immune system to fight cancers and other serious diseases." 

the research is reported in the journal "".


rare antibody yields aids vaccine insight

a rare antibody has yielded insight into creating an effective aids vaccine. 

scientists at the scripps research institute in la jolla, california and several other institutions say that the neutralizing antibody broadly defuses hiv. 

neutralizing antibodies are secreted into the bloodstream following exposure to a virus, where they bind to viral particles, prevent them from infecting cells and spur their destruction. because neutralizing antibodies attack viruses before they enter cells, they could form the basis for effective aids vaccines if present before exposure to hiv. but while the body makes many antibodies against hiv, they are usually unable to neutralize the virus. some people, however, do produce effective neutralizing antibodies for hiv. 

dennis burton of scripps and colleagues have now described the structure of one of these, called 4e10. in tests, the antibody neutralized nearly 100 strains of hiv from around the world. 

isolated about a decade ago from an hiv-infected person by study coauthor hermann katinger of the institute for applied microbiology of the university of agriculture in vienna, austria, the antibody shows what type of structure can neutralize hiv. 

it appears that 4e10 targets an area on the hiv surface protein gp41 that the virus uses to fuse its membrane to a human cell's membrane during infection. 

because the antibody's structure shows what this area on hiv's surface looks like, it provides scientists with a template for reverse-engineering components for aids vaccines. 

the research is reported in the journal immunity. 


lebanese government resigns amid protests

the government has resigned amid a protest by 10,000 people in martyrs square. the -backed government lead by prime minister omar karami was under pressure in recent weeks, particularly after former prime minister rafik al-hariri was killed earlier this month.

the protests were demonstrating over syria's large military presence in lebanon. syria has over 14,000 troops in lebanon.

announcing his resignation, karami said, ""out of concern that the government does not become an obstacle to the good of the country, i announce the resignation of the government i had the honour to lead."" in response to the governments decision to resign, opposition leader walid jumblat said, ""the people have won.""

the syrian government, which backed the government of mr karami said that the matter was "an internal affair" for lebanon.



bomb blast kills iraqi police, army recruits

a suicide car bombing in al hilla, south of baghdad, has killed 125 people, mostly iraqi applicants for police and army waiting for medical exams becoming the worst single event since the initial invasion. at nearly the same time another car bomb exploded in musayyib, 30km north of hilla.

the attack occurred about 8:30 a.m. local time monday, in a crowd of mostly shi'a recruits applying for positions with the country's security forces, and as citizens were arriving at the nearby outdoor market.

the recruits were waiting for required medical exams at a clinic across from the mayor's home and the market. shoppers in the market, men, women and children, were among the dead from the blast.

there are conflicting reports regarding the musayyib explosion, with some reports indicating only the bomber died and others suggesting a police officer also dying from the blast.

babil province police released a statement regarding the blast, reporting several arrests were made after but not elaborating further.

attacks by the insurgency forces appear to have increased in deadliness. interior minister falah al-naqib said monday at a news conference in baghdad "the number of casualties is much more than before."

al hilla was the scene of a major battle in the 2003 invasion of iraq, with several hundred iraqi forces reported to have been killed in fierce fighting. the city is now included in the polish military zone under the occupation of iraq.



crosswords/2005/march/5

answers next week.


new version of firefox web browser released

the mozilla foundation recently released an update to mozilla firefox. according to the developers, mozilla firefox 1.0.1 patches 17 security flaws and improves stability. the update is available from getfirefox.com by clicking 'download now' or 'other systems and languages'.

windows users should currently be seeing a small icon on the menu bar of the browser indicating that an automatic update to the new version is now available for installation.

mozilla firefox 1.0.1 is available at the time of writing in us english, french, spanish (latin american), german, italian, dutch, finnish and polish, among many other languages.

however the updated windows version has a flaw affecting anyone who previously installed firefox as a 'zipped' build, rather than using the standard automatic installer method. (zipped builds are often customized versions designed for increased speed or development work). if version 1.0.1 is installed over a zipped build, users are reporting that the browser crashes when attempting to enter text into the location or search boxes.

anyone encountering this problem is advised to delete their mozilla firefox folder in 'program files', then re-install. their bookmarks, extensions etc will not be affected.


new flood warning system introduced in romania

especially in the bistri?a region, floods continue to be quite a frequent problem, even though they are not particularly severe.


british investors are increasingly interested in romania

quinton quayle, the uk's ambassador in romania, said at a conference held by the romanian-british chamber of commerce that there are approximately 20 british companies investing in romania this year, but would not reveal more information.

brian davies, president of the british company sanders polyfilms, which currently has operations in romania, claims that investors from the uk come to the country not only for the local market, which is the second-largest in central and eastern europe, but also because romania could be a great export centre to other markets in the region.

other factors that make romania attractive are a low flat tax rate of 16% on personal income and corporate profits, as well as a skilled, english-speaking workforce. 

so far, companies from the united kingdom have invested $1.2 billion in romania. romania's total foreign direct investment (fdi) in 2004 was 4.1 billion euro. besides the uk, other large investors in romania are austria, italy, germany and france.

relations between the uk and romania have been boosted recently as a result of the romanian president, traian b?sescu, making a visit to london earlier in the year. during his election campaign last year, b?sescu said that he wanted to create a london-bucharest-washington axis, accenting the importance of romania's relationship with the united kingdom and the united states of america. romania's ties to the uk are also important as the uk will hold the eu's rotating presidency from july to december 2005, at a crucial stage of romania's preparations for eu accession, which is expected to occur in 2007.


jermaine pennant jailed for drink-driving

the incident occurred on january 23 of this year, pennant was arrested after crashing teammate ashley cole's car into a lamppost. the 22-year-old claimed that he crashed the car after attempting to operate the car's satellite navigation system.

despite the claim by warbutton that imprisonment "could completely destroy his career", birmingham city have said that they will stand by the player, and help to rehabilitate him. arsenal released a statement saying that the sentence would not impact the player's future with the club; his contract with club expires in the summer, at the same time as his loan-spell with birmingham ends.


controversial melatonin supplements confirmed as sleep aid

an analysis of melatonin studies has upheld the controversial supplement's effectiveness as a sleep aid. 

the analysis, which included 17 peer-reviewed scientific papers, was aimed at determining whether supplements of the hormone can improve sleep among insomniacs, older adults and others. 

"a meta-analysis essentially tells 'yes' or 'no'?that a treatment does or does not have a significant effect," says richard wurtman of mit, the study's principal investigator. "when a meta-analysis says 'yes,' there should no longer be any controversy about whether the treatment works." 

previous studies by wurtman and colleagues showed that small doses of melatonin, about 0.3 milligrams, are necessary for restful effects. the researchers found, however, that commercially available melatonin pills can contain 10 times the effective amount. 

at that dose, says wurtman, the hormone's effects end after a few days because melatonin receptors in the brain become unresponsive when exposed to too much of the hormone. 

such inadvertent overdosing, say the researchers, has contributed to controversy over melatonin's efficacy. 

but the new meta-analysis shows that melatonin does indeed have positive effects on sleep?even though some of the analyzed studies also involved high doses of the hormone. 

the research is reported in the journal "sleep medicine reviews".



green tea component protects heart cells

uk ?

researchers from the uk have shown that a chemical in the tea reduces cell death following such incidents, which in turn could fight tissue death and organ failure. 

led by anastasis stephanou, the researchers showed in heart cells that the chemical (egcg) inhibits cell death, apparently by blocking the action of a protein called star 1. 

this protein is activated in cells after a stressful event and contributes to inducing cell death. 

egcg also appears to speed recovery of heart cells to spur tissue recovery. 

stephanou says that while the researchers are "extremely encouraged" by the findings, more research is necessary before people are advised to drink green tea after heart attack or stroke. 

the research is reported in "". 


u.s. supreme court: death penalty for juveniles is unconstitutional

in a 5-4 decision, the supreme court of the united states ruled today, in "roper v. simmons", that it is unconstitutional to impose capital punishment on those who committed crimes while juveniles. justice wrote the majority opinion to overturn the death penalty for juveniles, which was also supported by justices john paul stevens, , ruth bader ginsburg and stephen breyer. dissenting were justices antonin scalia, william rehnquist, and clarence thomas, with justice sandra day o'connor providing a separate dissent.

christopher simmons received the death sentence for brutally kidnapping and murdering shirley crook as part of a burglary. the case worked its way up the court system, with the courts continuing to uphold the death sentence. however, in light of a 2003 u.s. supreme court ruling, in "atkins v. virginia", that overturned the death penalty for the mentally retarded, the missouri supreme court reconsidered mr. simmon's case. it concluded that "a national consensus has developed against the execution of juvenile offenders" and sentenced mr. simmons to life imprisonment without parole.

the case eventually made its way to the supreme court, where it was argued on october 13, 2004. the constitutionality of capital punishment for juveniles was put into question, citing the eighth amendment that protects individuals from cruel and unusual punishment. 

previously, a 1988 supreme court decision "thompson v. oklahoma" barred execution of offenders under the age of 16. in 1989 "stanford v. kentucky" brought into question the constitutionality of execution for those under age 18. at the time the supreme court upheld the possibility of capital punishment for offenders who are 16 or 17 years old when they committed the capital offense. the same day in 1989 the supreme court ruled it was permissible to execute the mentally retarded in "penry v. lynaugh". however, in 2003, the decision was reconsidered in "atkins v. virginia" citing that decency standards had evolved and execution of the mentally retarded was now considered to be cruel and unusual punishment and thus unconstitutional. 

"roper v. simmons" brought the age issue to the table again. in question is whether it is constitutionally permissible to execute an offender who committed a capital crime while under the age of 18. as in the issue of executing the mentally retarded, the supreme court has now decided that society’s standards have evolved since the 1989 case and that it is indeed cruel and unusual punishment to execute a juvenile, under age 18.

supporting this ‘’evolving standard’’, is the body of scientific and sociological research that finds juveniles have a lack of maturity and sense of responsibility, compared to adults. adolescents are overrepresented statistically in virtually every category of reckless behavior. in recognition of the comparative immaturity and irresponsibility of juveniles, almost every state prohibits those under age 18 from voting, serving on juries, or marrying without parental consent. juveniles are also more vulnerable to negative influences and outside pressures, including peer pressure. they have less control, or experience with control, over their own environment. they also lack the freedom that adults have, in escaping a criminogenic setting. 

another key basis to support the “national consensus” on the death penalty for juveniles, is the increasing infrequency that it is applied at the state level. while 20 states have the juvenile death penalty on the books, only six states have executed prisoners for crimes committed as juveniles, since 1989. and, just three states have done so in the past 10 years: oklahoma, texas, and virginia. furthermore, five of the states that allowed the juvenile death penalty at the time of the 1989 case have since abolished it. thus, the execution of juveniles is indeed becoming increasingly unusual in the united states and a “national consensus” has developed.

in evaluating whether penalties violate the eighth amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, the supreme court has taken guidance from the law of foreign countries and international bodies. since 1990, only seven other countries ? iran, pakistan, saudi arabia, yemen, nigeria, the democratic republic of congo, and china ? have executed juveniles. since then, however, each of those seven countries has either abolished the death penalty for juveniles or made public disavowal of the practice. now, one finds the stark reality that the united states stand alone, as the only country in the world that continues to allow execution of juveniles. furthermore, only the united states and somalia have yet to ratify article 37 of the united nations convention on the rights of the child (september 2, 1990), expressly prohibits capital punishment for crimes committed by juveniles. 

in drawing the line at 18 years of age for death eligibility, the supreme court considered that is also where society draws the line between childhood and adulthood for a multitude of other purposes. 

both the scalia dissent, joined by rehnquist and thomas, and justice o’connor’s separate dissent put into question whether a “national consensus” had indeed formed among the state laws. in addition, scalia also objects to taking guidance from foreighn law in interpreting the constitution.

implications of this ruling, are particularly felt in the state of virginia, where it is now most certain that will not face the death penalty. he is responsible in-part, along with , for the attacks that terrorized the washington, dc area in october 2002. he had already been spared the death penalty in his first trial, for the murder of fbi employee, linda franklin, outside a home depot store in falls church, virginia. however, mr. malvo is also set to face trial in prince william county, virginia for another murder, and yet to face trial in louisiana and elsewhere for other killings. in light of today's supreme court decision, the prosecutors in prince william county may not pursue the charges against mr. malvo, after all. the primary reason for extraditing these two suspects from maryland, where they were arrested, to virginia, was in fact the differences in how the two states deal with the death penalty. while the death penalty is allowed in maryland, it is only applied to adults, whereas virginia had also allowed the death penalty for juvenile offenders. 

note 1: while the supreme court did not cite specific research studies, their arguments are well-grounded in the substantial body of scientific and sociological research that recognizes the mental/developmental differences between adults and adolescents. in fact, neither the majority nor dissenting opinions put the research into question. the references listed below go into great detail about these differences, the development of the human mind, and it’s capacity for judgment which might not fully mature until the age of 25.




elan; biogen withdraw multiple sclerosis drug after death

Elan, the largest irish pharmaceutical company, and its partner biogen have withdrawn the multiple sclerosis drug "tysabri" from clinical trials after the death of a patient. the drug was seen by many as a possible blockbuster drug with the potential to alleviate much of the suffering of the millions of multiple sclerosis suffers worldwide. however it is now quite unlikely that it will ever make it to market.

the news has seen the shares of both companies fall steeply, with Elan having lost almost 70% of its value after monday's announcement. two years ago Elan was the largest irish plc, with a value in excess of $20bn, but an accountancy scandal saw its shares fall from over ?73 to ?1.50 within a few weeks. since then the stock had risen back to trade between ?16 and ?18 a share on the back of good restructuring news. however the withdrawal of "tysabri" leaves elan with almost no potential future revenue streams.

biogen shares which had hit a 52 week high of $70 just two weeks before the announcement have since fallen to just $41.26. combined equity losses on monday for the two firms was over $17.8 billion.

the paitent who died had been taken in combination with another drug - "avonex" - for the last two years. if it emerges that the death was as a result of taking "avonex", then it is possible "tysabri" could be re-introduced to the market. however for the moment rivals will be seeking to steal a lead in the potentially lucrative ms drug market.



britain unveils flu pandemic preparedness plan, buys 14m courses of treatment drug

the government of the united kingdom has unveiled their strategy to deal with any future influenza pandemic in their pandemic influenza contingency plan.

the document, based on the world health organization's framework for responses, explains how the uk would respond to a major outbreak of flu. 

any flu pandemic would differ from the seasonal outbreaks of flu observed worldwide every year. while seasonal flu kills 12,000 britons annually, a pandemic would affect far more people and could result in the deaths of up to 50,000 people in the uk if there were no medical intervention.

the government will have the power to cancel events where large numbers of people gather, such as football (soccer) matches. it could also advise travel restrictions to and from areas of high infection, but would not be able to enforce any such measures.

schools might be closed in the event of a flu pandemic, and infected people would be asked to remain at home, although again no quarantine measures could be imposed by the government.

further plans include education of the public to recognize symptoms of the flu and how to avoid infection.

measures will be made to maintain basic services in the event of a pandemic despite staff absences through illness.

a major cornerstone of the plan is the prescription of oseltamivir, an oral neuraminidase inhibitor drug that combats influenza. the drug is currently marketed by hoffman la roche under the trade name tamifluR. 

the uk department of health intends to stockpile 14.6m courses of the drug over the next two financial years, giving enough to treat one in four of the population - the ratio recommended by the who. 

canada and australia have also bought the equivalent amounts of anti-viral drugs. the u.s. has also bought large amounts of similar drugs.

the total cost of the acquisition was not published by the government, but the bbc estimated the cost to be ￡180 million.

unlike a vaccine, oseltamivir can be used to treat any strain of the influenza virus. many new variants of the influenza virus are seen every year, and combined with the long lead times associated with the development of vaccinces, mass vaccination is frequently impractical.

some parts of the newly-revealed plan already exist. the uk government recently gave ￡500,000 to the who for survellience of so-called 'bird flu' in south east asia, a possible source for any future pandemic. the department of health will also continue to monitor flu-like cases seen by doctors and hospitals.

influenza is an extremely variable disease; similar viruses are found in pigs and domestic fowl. in areas where there are high concentrations of humans, pigs and birds in close proximity, such as parts of asia, simultaneous infections across species enable genetic material to be exchanged between the various strains of flu. this appears to be the principal method by which new infectious strains arise. 

it is believed that sooner or later, a recombination may occur to produce a strain as lethal as the 1918 virus. in late 1997, a new strain of avian influenza (also known as bird flu) originating from chickens infected 18 people in hong kong, of whom 6 died. this strain did not appear to be readily transmissible from human to human, but such a high mortality rate, and the possibility of a further recombination to make it more infectious, meant that the risk was considered so great that all domestic poultry in hong kong was slaughtered. avian influenza transmissible to humans resurfaced in january 2004 in cambodia, vietnam, and thailand.

there were several serious outbreaks of influenza in the 20th century. the most famous (and the most lethal) was the spanish flu pandemic (type a influenza, h1n1 strain), which lasted from 1918 to 1919 and is believed to have killed more people in total than world war i. lesser flu pandemics included the 1957 asian flu (type a, h2n2 strain) and the 1968 hong kong flu (type a, h3n2 strain).

although there were scares in new jersey in 1976 (the swine flu), worldwide in 1977 (the russian flu), and in hong kong in 1997 (avian influenza), there have been no major pandemics subsequent to the 1968 infection. increased immunity from antibodies and the development of flu vaccines have limited the spread of the virus and so far prevented any further pandemics.



ernst zundel expelled from canada

white supremacist and holocaust denier ernst zundel was expelled from canada and arrived in germany today. a federal court judge ruled that his anti-semitic activities were "not only a threat to canada's national security, but also a threat to the international community of nations."

in a press release given by b'nai brith canada, executive vice president frank dimant said that "for decades zundel has spewed his venom and imbued his brand of hate in a new generation of white supremacist groups that had made him a hero ... zundel's day of reckoning has finally come." canadian jewish congress national president ed morgan was quoted as saying that “this is a significant day for the jewish community (of canada) and for all those who treasure tolerance in a multicultural society ... zundel’s departure demonstrates canada’s abhorrence for those who would propagate holocaust denial and antisemitism. it brings closure to our efforts to bring this man to justice." 

zundel's toronto lawyer, peter lindsay, said zundel is "very disillusioned about the process and about being the victim of a secret trial, and now being deported based on evidence he's never seen."

upon arriving in germany, zundel, 65, was immediately taken into custody by authorities on the grounds that he was running a web site denying the existence of the holocaust, which is a crime in that country. prosecutors in the city of mannheim have issued a warrant for his arrest according to the associated press. a spokeswoman for the federal justice ministry, on condition of anonymity, said authorities were able to open a case against zundel because his holocaust-denying site can be accessed in germany.

in 1977, zundel founded a small press publishing house called samisdat publishers which issued such pamphlets as "the hitler we loved" and "why and did six million really die?" by richard harwood aka richard verrall (a british neo-nazi leader) as well as booklets claiming that ufos were actually nazi secret weapons operated from secret nazi military bases in antarctica. zundel lived in canada for 42 years as a landed immigrant. his last two years were spent in a toronto jail, where he was held under the canadian security certificate law. the law was passed after the september 11, 2001 attacks in the united states, and allows the canadian government to hold suspects of terrorism without charge, based on secret evidence that does not have to be disclosed to a suspect or his defense.



bucharest to be 'rebranded' for 800 million euro

bucharest is currently looking at possibilities to improve its appearance and rebrand itself as a lively, creative and vibrant city. many initiatives have sprung up to improve the city, including the organisation of cowparade later this year. additionally, the old town centre will be restored. due to romania's current economic boom, several other major construction projects are taking place.

bucharest city hall has blocked traffic in the city center due both to the old town restoration and to the "esplanada" project.


first swahili office suite released in dar es salaam, tanzania

on monday, february 28, 2005, jambo openoffice.org, the first swahili office suite, was released at the university of dar es salaam in tanzania. the office suite was translated from the english version of openoffice.org, an open source suite based on sun microsystems' staroffice. jambo openoffice.org was translated by a multinational team including swedish and spanish programmers, as well as linguists from the university of dar es salaam. monday's release included builds for linux and windows.

the office suite has four components: a word processor, a spreadsheet, a presentation creator, and a drawing program. the translation effort required translating 18,000 english strings, made up of one or more words, many of which have previously had no direct swahili equivalent. as part of the translation, the team developed a glossary of 1500 technical words in swahili. the office suite also includes a spellchecker with a lexicon of 70,000 words.

swahili is not the only african language into which openoffice is being translated. according to ethan zuckerman, a fellow at harvard university's berkman center for internet and society, openoffice is being translated into nine official languages of south africa by translate.org.za. the same organization is also supporting translation efforts to bring the software into the rwandan language kinyarwanda, and hausa, a language spoken largely in nigeria.

swahili is spoken by approximately 55 million people worldwide, predominantly in east african countries, including tanzania and kenya.

interview with the project coordinator

"replies to questions from by alberto escudero-pascual, march 3, 2005"

the suite contains more than 99% of the strings in swahili. the ones
that are left in english (less than 100 strings out of 18,000) will
be worked out in the next release. yes, this release is fully functional
in swahili.

no alternatives. this is the first ever release of a word processor in swahili.

i "expect" the software to get installed in all the primary schools of
the country. i also expect the software to be installed in the main
universities of the country and colleges. we have postive feedback
from them but this is a rather "political" decision out of my (our)
control.

the secondary schools have compulsory english so they might not want
to install it.

east africa, ufff that is like asking what it infrastructure is in the
whole europe :-d
if you mean connectivity, all is satellite vsat upstreams. most of
the local loops in dar are based on ieee 802.11b. it is expensive for
most of the locals. but there is an internet exchange already in dar es salaam
where the isp peer together. things will always get
better. the software is placed in the ix.

the software will spread slowly, but i am sure that will spread.

the tanzanian team will start translating ooo training documentation,
and next they will work with firefox. a linux desktop might come next
year.
i have no idea what will it take to translate knoppix, but the
priorities should be in getting first a couple of good tools as
openoffice and firefox and do loads and loads of training material in
swahili.

i have developed an almost automatic version to update jambooo 1.1.3 in
kiswahili. the udsm has access to one of the build servers. i expect a
new release of jamboo, maybe 1.1.4 with all the bug corrections in six
months. the next step is to migrate to ooo 2.0, i have no clear
picture of how that will happen.

nope, the win32 version was developed entirely in sweden and spain during
christmas 2004 . the new build system does not require visual studio
to "update" the swahili strings.

sida (swedish international cooperation agency) has funded the
university of dar es salaam and the institute of kiswahili research
for one full year. my company it+46 also was funded by sida to support
the project technically.

it+46 has contributed 50% of its working-time at no cost to the project.

our plan was to be in tanzania only six months and handle all the
technology and the training back to the university as we want them to
keep on with the development by themselves. now, we are trying to find
similar projects that need support. there are many languages out there
after all.

coverage of linux release in december:

about the visual studio donation for the windows build a few weeks ago:

blog entry about workshop in arusha:

interview with escudero from october 2004:

general background:

older media coverage:

related stories about microsoft in africa:



martin firm on missile defence results in chilly response from white house

senior canadian officials said tuesday that u.s. president george w. bush has not returned a telephone call paul martin made to him last week, due to the canadian government's decision to not participate in the u.s. missile defence initiative.

the prime minister was hoping explain canada's reasons for saying no.

although the white house has formally stated it's "disappointment" on the decision, it also stated that bush would likely talk with martin on the issue when the two meet with mexican president vicente fox on march 23 to discuss the future of nafta, the north american free trade agreement.

a martin spokesperson told the "toronto star" that "the decision to not participate (in ballistic missile defence) ... was canada's alone to take ... the bush administration, while disappointed in the decision, recognizes that fact and is not seeking apologies." the canwest news service reported that another martin spokesperson, melanie gruer, played down the reports by saying that "the president has been travelling," and that prime-minister martin's aides acknowledge the pressures on busy leaders' schedules. 

u.s. officials had mentioned that secretary of state condoleezza rice's decision to postpone a visit to ottawa was in response to the non-participation decision. canadian foreign affairs minister pierre pettigrew spoke twice to ms. rice, finally ensuring that she will come to canada as planned, despite concerns it was cancelled over the disagreement.

martin, orgininally backed the missile defence initiative and committed to closer co-operation with washington when he came to office in 2004. this position was reversed last week



green paper asks for the bbc's board of governors to be scrapped

the green paper of the future of the bbc has asked for the board of governors to be scrapped and replaced by two boards, one representing the public and an executive board. the proposals were announced by the british culture secretary tessa jowell in the house of commons. 

other things she has asked for is the licence fee be kept, currently at gbp 121 (eur 176.26) per householder, more independent television to be made on the bbc, currently 10% must be made by independent television companies & to stop chasing ratings, mainly by copycating programmes from other channels. 

she said that the board of governors was “unsustainable” and lacked “clarity and accountability”. shadow culture secretary john whittingdale said that the green paper did “not go far enough” countining saying that they were “largely cosmetic changes to the structure and oversight of the bbc”. 

the green paper was made as the charter that is the basis of the bbc is to reviewed in 2007 as required by law.



blair rejects anti-terror bill compromise

a compromise put forward by the conservatives that would have allowed easier passage through the commons of the proposed new anti-terror legislation has been rejected by prime minister tony blair. the bill proposes new "control orders" for terror suspects which include house arrest, curfews, tagging and bans on internet and phone use. the bill will replace current powers that allow the detention of foreign terror suspects without trial which has been ruled against as a breach of human rights by the law lords.

the conservatives wanted a "sunset clause" inserted into the bill which would have allowed ministers to revisit it in november. mps from all parties have severely criticised the way the bill has been seemingly "steamrollered" through the commons with only two days to debate the plans before a vote is called.

conservative leader michael howard said in the commons that it would be "far better if the whole of the legislation was subject to a sunset clause so parliament could consider it all in a proper way instead of it being ramrodded through."

mr. blair said that the new house arrest powers were already going to be subject to a sunset clause because it was annually renewable. "i believe they are a proper balance between the civil liberties of the subject and the necessary national security of this country that i will not put at risk," he added.

opposition to the bill by the conservatives and the liberal democrats have already won concessions this week. home secretary charles clarke has backed down and allowed judges to have the first say in the most severe control order cases, however, this may not be enough to ensure a smooth ride through the lords. it is expected that the bill will face tough opposition and demands for a radical re-draft.

liberal democrat home affairs spokesman mark oaten has urged the conservatives to "stick firm? there's a lot of talking left. i would be uneasy about supporting a very bad bill even if it was just for eight months," he said.

a spokeswoman for human rights watch said that it was a "basic principle" that people should only be punished after a fair trial. "having a judge impose those punishments does not sanitise them either," she added.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4311295.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4289349.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4303869.stm


federal suit filed against rumsfeld for prisoner abuse

the lawsuit was filed in federal court on behalf of eight men who were subject to torture and abuse at the hands of u.s. forces under secretary rumsfeld's command. the parties seek a court order declaring that secretary rumsfeld's actions are in violation of the , federal statutes and .


steve fossett attempts a record flight around the world

steve fossett, piloting the virgin atlantic globalflyer, has set the record of being the first person to fly around the world unrefueled, solo. he is also got the record for longest unrefueled flight of a jet aircraft.

steve departed from salina kansas 18:47 cst on monday and has successfully crossed the , northern , the , and southern and central . he then crossed the pacific moving from to , then went on to southern . from there her crossed the southwest united states, and landed back in salina kansas at 13:50 cst on thursday. 

one major problem has been encountered during this trip. somewhere in the first several hours of the flight 2600 pounds of fuel was lost. the engineers have two theories on what caused this loss. one is an extreme case of the fuel evaporation. it was expected to evaporate, but not at anything approaching this rate. the other possibility is that there was a leak or other type of error in the plumbing. because the aircraft had never been flown fully fueled before, there was no previous data on what could be causing this.

steve fossett is already in the record books for being the first to pilot a balloon around the world. he has also been unsuccessfully attempting to achieve a record altitude for a glider for the last four years.

the aircraft was built for sir richard branson and his virgin atlantic airways. it was constructed by burt rutan. burt also designed the voyager airplane which was piloted by his brother dick rutan and jenna yeager on the first unrefueled flight around the world. burt is also the designer of space ship one, the first private craft to enter space.


new zealand elects first female speaker

margaret wilson was appointed as speaker of the house of representatives. she becomes new zealand's first female speaker of the house. she also rounds out the top positions within new zealand being taken by women. all four of governor-general, prime minister, chief justice and the speaker of the house are female.

wilson was voted in with 64 votes. clem simich (national mp) received 37 and act mp ken shirley got five votes. the position has usually been appointed unopposed, but the other two candidates stood to protest at the lack of consultation by prime minister helen clark.
wilson takes over from jonathan hunt, who leaves to become the high commissioner for new zealand in london. hunt will remain in the backbenches until early next month. wilson was previously attorney-general, a position that deputy prime minister dr. michael cullen now holds.

 


proposal to ban voip in costa rica

the state owned telephone monopoly in costa rica, the "costa rica electricity institute", (ice) has called for internet to be made a criminal offence. in costa rica it has been illegal for anyone other than ice to offer telephone services. with a reputation for preventing any rivals from challenging its monopoly, but also for providing an efficient service, ice has recently seen its monopoly dented with as many as 20% of calls being routed through skype and other voip service providers. 

on the other hand those who seek to promote the software industry in costa rica, which already has a dominant 78% share of the market in central america and the caribbean, have reacted by saying the proposal would be disastrous both to software development and the country's ability to outsource work. the ice claims that its telephone structure is being used by voip service providers, which is almost certainly true given that skype offers calls from the internet to phones in costa rica for 8 us$ cents per minute. 



ex-ontario premier harris to deny ipperwash allegations

ex-ontario premier mike harris has allegedly made some comments that may link him to the violence that happened in a police action in 1995 which left a native activist killed.

kettle point chief tom bressette testified on tuesday that he was warned just 12 hours before opp officers marched on ipperwash provincial park and killed native protestor dudley george to "get those fucking indians out of the park even if you have to draw your guns to do it". the warning was allegedly on the telephone by bob watts, a former employee of the ontario native affairs secretariat, on sept. 6, 1995, just hours before opp officers marched on ipperwash provincial park.

bressette claims that watts told him harris, who was premier of ontario at the time, had made the comment in "some kind of cabinet meeting". harris has always denied that he had nothing to do with the police action at the park. peter downard, his lawyer, says that his client will "absolutely" deny the allegations. and that his reputation has been tarnished with "very low-grade quality information that ordinarily would never have seen the light of day in a legal proceeding."

the inquiry is finding out how george was killed during a confrontation between ontario provincial police officers and three dozen people protesting that ancestral burial grounds had been desecrated in ipperwash provincial park. acting sgt. kenneth deane has already been convicted of criminal negligence causing george's death. the inquiry continues today. 



steve fossett becomes the first person to fly solo, non-stop around the world

steven fossett (60) landed safely back on soil earlier this evening to claim the world record for flying non-stop by himself around the world. he landed at 7.49 pm utc in kansas after what had been a nerve racking last few hours.

having left with over 18,100 pounds of fuel on board the futuristic single seater "globalflyer", it emerged that 2,600 pounds of fuel had "disappeared". this meant that had the winds gone against fossett, he would have run out of fuel before the finish line. luckily however, he was able to conserve fuel due to strong tail winds throughout the last few thousand miles of the journey.



take-two interactive profits surge 74%

take-two, the company behind the grand theft auto video game franchise, has reported a 74% rise in quarterly profits. the company also revealed that sales of its bestselling product; "grand theft auto: san andreas" had surpassed 12 million copies.

the company stated that profits were $55.2m up from $31.8m in the same quarter last year. per share earnings were $1.19, comfortably ahead of analyst expectations of $1.09 a share. sales also rose substantially, from $375.5m to $502.5m. 

despite the news shares in take-two drifted $0.45 lower to $37.42 due to the company forecasting a loss of 20 cents a share for the coming quarter.



martha stewart released from prison

the american domestic diva was today released from prison after a five-month stint at the in . she will continue the rest of her sentence with an electronic tag for the next five months under house arrest. 

martha stewart was sentenced to five months in prison, a further five months under tag and fined 30,000 for charges of conspiracy and obstruction stemming from in shares after the company's wonder drug lost its licence. 



former ukrainian minister found dead

yuri kravchenko, a former interior minister in ukraine, has been found dead in his home just hours before questioning for the case of murdered journalist georgiy gongadze. early reports indicate that he committed suicide, but the circumstances of his death will most likely result in further investigation by the authorities.

yuri kravchenko was the ukraine's interior minister in 2000 when mr. gongadze was murdered. mr. gongadze's headless body was buried in the woods near but his head was never found. nobody has yet been arrested for the murder, but it was believed that mr. kravchenko's evidence could have led to an arrest.



sunflower oil saves at-risk newborns from infection

simply massaging low birth weight babies with sunflower seed oil can protect them from potentially fatal infections.

infections and complications from preterm birth cause more than half of all neonatal deaths, and very low birth weight babies are particularly vulnerable. 

preterm babies have immature skin that lacks a protective film called vernix that has antimicrobial properties. 

in some countries, such as india, newborns are routinely massaged with mustard oil. 

but mustard oil, says gary darmstadt of john hopkins university in baltimore, maryland, can delay recovery of the skin barrier and have a toxic effect on skin. 

seeking an alternative low-cost product, darmstadt and colleagues experimented with sunflower oil and an ointment called aquaphor that comprises petrolatum, mineral oil, mineral wax and lanolin.

the researchers tested the treatments on 497 newborns (72 hours old or less) and preterm babies (less than 33 weeks gestation) between 1998 and 2003 in bangladesh.

they applied the treatments to the entire body besides the scalp and face three times daily for the first 14 days and then twice daily until discharge. 

babies treated with sunflower oil were found 41% less likely to develop infections than controls.

"evidence is emerging that the skin is much more important as a barrier to infection than previously recognized, particularly in preterm infants whose skin is underdeveloped," says darmstadt. "the good news is that treatment is available to strengthen the function of the skin as a barrier in these vulnerable newborns."



italian journalist giuliana sgrena freed

giuliana sgrena was freed from captivity in iraq today. the italian journalist was abducted in baghdad exactly a month ago while she had been reporting for il manifesto.

the islamic jihad organisation had taken her hostage on the 4th february with the demand that italy withdraw all of its troops from iraq. on february 16, a video was released with a clearly distraught mrs sgrena begging for italy to withdraw from iraq. however despite the video, the italian senate voted to extend its miltary forces' stay in iraq.

the reason for her release is unknown. some italian journalists have suggested that the italian government paid a ransom.

later on friday, sgrena's newspaper reported that u.s. forces fired at a car carrying the reporter shortly after her liberation, killing an italian secret service agent. the editor of il manifesto newspaper, gabriele polo, was reported by reuters as saying that sgrena's car was fired on as it made its way to baghdad airport. "this news which should have be a moment of celebration, has been ruined," polo told sky italia television. 

"an italian agent has been killed by an american bullet. a tragic demonstration which we never wanted that everything that's happening in iraq is completely senseless and mad," he added.


bill gates receives honorary knighthood

bill gates, founder of the software giant microsoft, has been made a "knight commander of the order of the british empire" in recognition of his business skills and work on poverty reduction. he received the title on wednesday, march 2, at a private meeting with queen elizabeth.

now at age 48, bill gates is the world's wealthiest man, according to forbes magazine. bill gates rose to fame in the early nineties as the ceo of microsoft, the maker of microsoft windows 95, the world's best selling computer operating system at the time.

though mr. gates has now been knighted, he cannot use the term "sir" since he is not a citizen of the united kingdom. he can instead place the letters kbe after his name. if he chooses to become a subject of the queen in the future, he can have his title upgraded to "sir".



new york public library opens collection of 275,000 digital images

the launched a new website that offers over 275,000 historic images culled from the library's collections. the images have been digitized by the library's digital imaging unit with assistance from outside contractors, according to a press release issued by the library.

most of the images are over 100 years old, and many have entered the . despite the public domain status of the images, the library will be charging for reproduction rights for the images. the images are freely downloadable for "personal use." the library's notes that, "this use is solely for one’s private study or display, and the image(s) are not to be disseminated."

in an email to a , tom lisanti, the library's manager of photographic services & permissions noted that, "the usage fee is not a copyright fee. you are free to obtain a copy of these images from a source other than nypl. usage fees help ensure that the library is able to continue to acquire, preserve and provide access to the accumulated knowledge of the world."

the issue of whether the library is creating a new work with a new copyright when it scans in the public domain images has not been resolved, according to professor .

in an email to the same , lessig writes, "this hangs on a tough, unresolved question: whether the digitization produces a 'thin' copyright around the public domain work. that copyright would not forbid you from extracting the public domain component, though how you would do that is hard to see (and hence this is a hard question)."


world-wide measles deaths drop 40% over last five years

the world health organisation (who) and the united nation's children fund (unicef) have released figures showing that world-wide, deaths from the disease measles have dropped by 40% over the last five years.

in 1999, 873,000 people died from disease, while that number fell to 530,000 in 2003 - a drop of 39%. the largest drop was seen in africa - 46%.

just ten years ago a million children a year died from the disease and another 30 million were affected, often being left with long-term disabilities such as brain damage and blindness.

who/unicef started a drive to cut measles deaths in 1999, with the aim of halving deaths by the end of 2005. governments around the world began implementing their proposals.

the main aim was to achieve the vaccination of at least 90% of all children born (around 130 million a year). a second aim was to ensure that all children between nine months and 14 years old receive a second chance for immunization, either through routine health care or special initiatives. the special initiaves have proved especially effective, vaccinating 350 million children from 1999 to 2003.

an indirect benefit of the drop in measles cases has been the releasing of money previously used for measles treatment for other health care projects. for example, in togo, 95% of children under five now receive vaccinations against measles and polio, mosquito nets to guard against malaria, and de-worming tablets.



report finds afghanistan is on the verge of becoming a narcotics state

march 5, 2005

a u.s. state department report was released on friday, march 4, officially detailing the extent to which production has soared in afghanistan since the three years ago. the report made its way to u.s. congress via secretary of state condoleezza rice. although the scope of study is large, investigating the status of illicit narcotics in almost every country during 2004, attention has focused on afghanistan. with more than 510,000 sprawling acres of the impoverished country (three times the amount in 2003) utilized for opium poppy cultivation (the raw material for ), the report warns that the country is becoming a "narcotics state" like colombia for .

in addition, the report indicated that afghanistan's opium production soared to 5,445 tons last year, producing 17 times more of the raw drug material than second-place myanmar. the report stated that the explosion of narcotic production in afghanistan is "an enormous threat to world stability."

to combat this issue, the bush administration has proposed us$780 million to institute a plan that works on two levels: to promote alternative crops to farmers and to increase military interdiction for finding and destroying heroin labs and storage facilities. at the time of publishing, the u.s. government has already committed us$1.2 billion to for 2005.


pope john paul ii dies

after months of failing health, "his holiness" passed away today, april 2, at 9:37 p.m. local time (19:37 utc). he was 84 years old. an email message to journalists from the spokesman joaquin navarro-valls from the vatican confirmed the death at 20:00 utc.

the pope had a tracheostomy earlier this year to help him breathe, and then lost his ability to speak last week. on thursday march 31 he developed a urinary tract infection that led to septic shock and cardiovascular collapse. a nasogastric feeding tube was inserted to help him regain strength. the pope elected not to return to rome's gemelli hospital, but instead to stay in his own apartments where he was tended to by his personal doctors and vatican medical staff.

the same night, he was administered the "sacrament of anointing of the sick" also known as the last rites. on friday april 1, the vatican said he was having difficulties with both his heart and his kidneys.

italian news agency agenzia giornalistica italia reports the pope's final message was "i am happy, you be happy, too. let's pray together with joy. i entrust everything to the virgin mary with joy".

a description of the last moment of the holy father from father jarek cielecki, director of the vatican service news and of the italian tv catolic tele padre pio, tells us the last moment of life of this great man. "the holy father died looking at the window, gathered in prayer. as such he was conscious. just before dying, the pope raised his right hand in a sign of blessing, as if he was aware of all the people gathered in prayer. then, as soon as the prayer ended, the pope did a huge effort, said the word 'amen' and died."

the vatican has announced that the funeral will take place on wednesday, april 6 and that the pope's body will lie in state from monday, april 4.

many have paid tribute to the pope and his more than quarter-century reign:


the announcement of pope john paul ii's death in saint peter's square at 19:58 utc was met with applause, a traditional italian gesture of respect, followed by silence.
the italian government declared three days of national mourning. (earlier in the day, all major italian sporting fixtures had already been cancelled.) it was reported that he had already been dubbed 'john paul the great' by many in the tearful crowd in st peter's square.

in krakow, poland, a crowd gathered in the square outside of the archbishop's residence. the polish government declared a period of national mourning, from today until the funeral.

many catholic churches around the world remained open to allow people to pray, or held special masses. in dublin, ireland, the pro-cathedral remained open until midnight to allow people to pray privately for the deceased pope. in the united kingdom, westmister cathedral remained open to allow people to sign a book of condolence.

the flag of the united states flying over the white house was lowered to half mast.

born karol jozef wojty?a in wadowice, poland on may 18, 1920, pope john paul ii became the first non-italian pope in 455 years when he was chosen on october 16, 1978 to lead the roman catholic church following the sudden death of pope john paul i.
his more than 100 trips abroad have attracted enormous crowds (some of the largest ever assembled). with these trips, john paul has covered a distance far greater than that traveled by all other popes combined. they have been seen as an outward sign of the efforts at global bridge-building between nations and between religions that have been central to his pontificate.

pope john paul ii has beatified and canonized far more persons than any previous pope. it is reported that as of october 2004, he has beatified 1,340 people. whether he has canonized more saints than all his predecessors put together, as is sometimes claimed, is difficult to prove, as the records of many early canonizations are incomplete or missing.

first diagnosed in 2001 and confirmed by the vatican in 2003, the pope had suffered from parkinson's disease during the last few years of his life. this restricted him to only speaking a few sentences at a time and also affected his hearing and mobility.

 


four royal canadian mounted police officers killed in raid

four royal canadian mounted police (rcmp) officers were shot and killed while raiding a house in the rural town of , alberta. the suspected shooter, james rosko, 46, also died in the raid. the rcmp reported that he committed suicide after killing the four officers with his own rifle.

the officers were carrying out a court-ordered property seizure. they discovered stolen property and a marijuana growing operation. 

the following officers were killed in action:


the shooting has shocked the peaceful region and the country of canada. the liberal party of canada has responded by agreeing to recommend tougher laws for grow-ops. local citizens are reacting to the losses with memorials and condolences. 

the rural town of mayerthorpe, with a population of about 1,600, is located about 130km northwest of .



us military developing non-lethal pain weapon

the us military is funding the research and development of a weapon that could be used to inflict excruciating pain from up to 2 kilometres away, but is meant to otherwise leave victims unharmed. pain researchers have been left furious after work aimed at controlling pain has been used to develop technology aimed at maximising it.

intended for use against protesters and rioters, the research focuses on the effect electromagnetic pulses can have on pain reception. due to be ready by 2007, the pulsed energy projectile (pep) weapon will fire a burst of electrically charged gas, or "plasma", which will generate an electromagnetic pulse on impact. it is this pulse which will trigger impulses in nerve cells causing extreme pain. 

a review of the non-lethal weapon by the us naval studies board in 2003 concluded that peps produced “pain and temporary paralysis” in animal test subjects. studies ongoing at the university of central florida in orlando aim at optimising this effect. the ultimate aim is to generate a pulse which will trigger optimum pain in the subject without damaging tissues. studies due to be carried out on lab grown cells aim at identifying the threshold of pain that can be inflicted on someone without causing death. there is some concern that the studies will fall short of demonstrating a safe level for a plasma burst. 

the work came to light after documents were released under the us's freedom of information act to the sunshine project, an organisation who aims to expose biological weapons research. one document entitled “sensory consequences of electromagnetic pulses emitted by laser induced plasmas” concerned the generation and firing of peps. pain researchers have condemned the research, claiming that it could be put to use as a means of torture and that it is unethical. 

“i am deeply concerned about the ethical aspects of this research,” said andrew rice, a consultant in pain medicine at chelsea and westminster hospital in london. “even if the use of temporary pain can be justified as a restraining measure, which i do not believe it can, the long-term physical and psychological effects are unknown.”

clinical psychologist at university college london, amanda williams expressed concern that victims risk long term harm. “persistent pain can result in a range supposedly non-destructive stimuli which nevertheless change the functioning of the nervous system,” she says. studies “cannot tell us about the pain and psychological consequences of such painful experience,” she said.


irish unemployment rate steady at 4.2%

according to the central statistics office (cso), the unemployment rate in the republic of ireland was steady at 4.2% for february. the total number on the live register was 155,900 a fall of 1,300 from january. 

all counties bar waterford, cavan, kildare and longford experienced a fall in unemployment, with tipperary north having the largest individual drop with a fall of 6% in the unemployment rate. 

a similier report by eurostat - the statistical office of the european union - for the month of january put irish unemploment at 4.3%, confirming beliefs that ireland now has the lowest rate of unemployment in europe. ireland is followed closely by luxembourg with a rate of 4.4% and austria at 4.5%. the eu average is 8.8% with poland having the highest rate at 18.2%. 



david blunkett is not the father of kimberly quinn's son

dna tests have proven that david blunkett is not the father of kimberley quinn's baby son, lorcan. the spokesman of the former minister said that test, categorically denies that david blunkett is the father of ms. quinn's second son lorcan. the test was carried out a few weeks ago with consent of both parties. 

however stephen quinn, the real father, attacked blunkett by saying "we are angry that mr blunkett has yet again chosen to talk to the press about... our family."

mr. blunkett was the former home secretary in the united kingdom, until he resigned after it emerged that he had had an affair with mrs. quinn.




italian journalist wounded after release in iraq, security officer dead

italian security officer nicola calipari has been killed, and giuliana sgrena as well as two other security agents have been wounded after u.s. forces opened fire on the car they were travelling in shortly after sregna's release from captivity.

multinational force iraq officials have stated that the car approached a military check-point at speed at 8:55pm baghdad time on friday. soldiers opened fire on the vehicle, injuring ms sgrena and killing one other.

"there was suddenly this shooting, we were hit by a hail of gunfire, and i was speaking with nicola, who was telling me about what had been happening in italy in the meantime, when he leaned towards me, probably also to protect me. and then he collapsed and i realised that he was dead," ms. sgrena told italy's rai radio.

she said the shooting continued "because the driver wasn't even managing to explain that we were italian."

when questioned if the car was going too fast as it approached the u.s. troops, she said: "we weren't going particularly fast given that type of situation." 

ms sgrena was given medical care by coalition forces medical personnel for a superficial wound to her shoulder. her left-wing newspaper, il manifesto, claimed that the bullet had previously passed through the body of calipari.

the prime minister of italy, silvio berlusconi, has demanded an explanation for the shooting. president bush told mr berlusconi during a telephone call that there would be a full investigation, and offered his apologies.


boeing allowed to bid for u.s. space launch contracts again

boeing's launch systems, launch services and delta program business units are to be allowed to bid once more for u.s. space launch contracts, the usaf has announced.

boeing had been suspended since july 24, 2003 after violating federal law. the company was discovered to have been in possession of thousands of pages of documentation from lockheed martin, boeing's rival during the 1998 evolved expendable launch vehicle source selection process. 

the usaf and boeing have signed an interim agreement to protect the air force's interests. the agreement allows for the reinstating of the suspension if boeing is indicted or convicted, or if new evidence is found. 

boeing will have to submit to outside verification of the remedial steps it has taken, and cannot charge the air force for associated costs. internal management responsibilities for ethical practice have been changed.

lockheed martin's atlas v and boeing's delta iv are two types of expendable rocket, designed to reduce the cost of space launches.


china plans anti-secession law for taiwan

the people's republic of china government plans to pass an anti-secession law, aimed at preventing a declaration of taiwan independence. the law shows the "strong determination of the chinese people" and will "never allow secessionist forces working for 'taiwan independence' to succeed at breaking away from the mainland" according to an announcement made by china's premier wen jiabao at the national people's congress in beijing.

the chinese state council is also planning to increase the country's military budget by 12.6 percent, to us$29.98 billion, for the current fiscal year.

the anti-secession law, as well as the military budget increase will both be discussed during the parliamentary meetings which begin today, and continue for the next 12 days. over 3,000 delegates assembled in the great hall of the people today to listen to wen's two hour speech and begin discussions.

taiwanese politicians reacted with disappointment to the planned anti-secession law, and promised protests in the streets of taipei and kaohsiung this sunday. taiwan's president chen shui-bian even threatened to introduce an "anti-annexation" law to oppose china's move.



us and france ask syria to leave lebanon

the us and france are repeating their calls for syria to completely withdraw from lebanon. the two countries are leading an international campaign, based upon the un security council resolution 1559.

syria's president bashar al-assad promised to gradually withdraw his troops from the region, but the us state department is calling bashar al-assad's promise "insufficient" and demanded an "immediate and full withdrawal".

the french foreign ministry issued a statement which read, "we note the announcement by the president of the syrian republic of his decision to apply" un resolution 1559. "we, therefore, expect him to fully withdraw his troops and services from lebanon as soon as possible."

bashar al-assad has announced a "two-phase" withdrawal of syria's troops, but the timetable is not yet determined.
"the syrian army wants to pull out quickly ... as soon as possible logistically," said syrian cabinet minister buthaina shaaban.

other countries shared the concerns of the us and france:


lebanese opposition leader walid jumblatt welcomed bashar al-assad's announcement, calling it a "positive start", but other leaders, such as former president amin gemayel are concerned that "the syrian army will stay in the mountain range within the lebanese border".

the international campaign to ask syria to withdraw from lebanon has gained increased publicity since the assassination of former lebanese prime minister rafik hariri, in beirut, on february 14.



gaa: westmeath beat donegal by narrowest of margins


westmeath managed to beat donegal by the narrowest of margins in a thrilling game at mullingar's cusack park earlier today. the allianz nfl division 1a clash had been tipped to end in a draw, but a late burst of energy by the lakelanders ensured a victory. 

both teams scored a goal with colm mcfadden and dessie dolan both finding the back of the net, however both teams had several missed chances; with ryan bradley hitting the woodwork in an early penalty and martin flanagan unable to beat the goalie.

the final score was 1-12 to 1-11.



freed hostage sgrena, says shooting &quot;no accident&quot;

italian journalist giuliana sgrena has suggested that it was "no accident" when us troops shot at her car, resulting in the death of an italian intelligence officer who had helped to secure her release from captivity earlier that day.

speaking to the press at the rome hospital where she is being treated for a gunshot wound to her shoulder, she said, "it can't be just said that it was just an accident. we can't accept this, it is not possible."

sgrena's suggestion is being reinforced by her partner, pier scolari who said "i hope the italian government does something because either this was an ambush, as i think, or we are dealing with imbeciles or terrorized kids who shoot at anyone," 

italian prime minister silvio berlusconi at a press conference in rome today looked visibly angry and said "i immediately invited the american ambassador to come speak with me, to clarify the actions of the american military for such a grave accident that someone is going to have to take responsibility for,"

sgrena claims that italian secret service agent nicola calipari was fatally hit when he moved in front of her in the car after the soldiers opened fire on the group.

"it wasn't a checkpoint, but a patrol that started shooting after pointing some lights in our direction," the ansa news agency cited sgrena as telling prosecutors. "we hadn't previously encountered any checkpoint, and we didn't understand where the shots came from." the new york times quotes sgrena as stating that, "there was no bright light, no signal."

the london observer reported, "sgrena told colleagues the vehicle was not travelling fast and had already passed several checkpoints on its way to the airport. the americans shone a flashlight at the car and then fired between 300 and 400 bullets at if from an armoured vehicle. rather than calling immediately for assistance for the wounded italians, the soldiers' first move was to confiscate their weapons and mobile phones and they were prevented from resuming contact with rome for more than an hour."

the us military said in a statement: "about 2100 [1800 gmt], a patrol in western baghdad observed the vehicle speeding towards their checkpoint and attempted to warn the driver to stop by hand and arm signals, flashing white lights, and firing warning shots in front of the car. when the driver didn't stop, the soldiers shot into the engine block, which stopped the vehicle, killing one and wounding two others." 

american soldiers have had been victims of suicide car-bomb attacks in the past. on december 4, 2004, two cars exploded next to a checkpoint at the green zone in baghdad, killing 16 and wounding dozens. on december 13, another car exploded in baghdad killing 13.

sgrena had been held captive for a month by iraqi rebels. she works for the italian newspaper il manifesto, founded by the former leader of communist youth luciana castellina . the paper has been characterized by the partito della rifondazione comunista as a "communist daily" that has been "engaged against the war [in iraq]."




fisichella wins australian formula 1 grand prix

fisichella, driving a , started from leading for the majority of the 57 lap event.

fellow renault driver finished third, with 's separating the pair.

it was an unhappy weekend for defending world champion , who began from the rear of the field after his qualifying hopes were severely dented by melbourne's changeable weather. schumacher made steady progress through the field during the race but retired on lap 43 after a collision with fellow german .

the next grand prix is scheduled for march 13 in .


cia sending suspects overseas for &quot;rendition&quot;

the cia has been secretly authorized by a classified directive, signed by us president bush, to send suspects overseas as part of a "rendition" process.

the program has been used to manage the large case load which has accumulated since the september 11, 2001 attacks, leaving us officials free to concentrate on the "high value" suspects who are kept under us control at secret locations throughout the world.

today, us officials were reluctant to defend this policy for any specific cases, but white house spokesman dan bartlett presented a generic defense of us anti-terrorism policies on sunday talk shows in the united states.

a former government official claimed that the program was "fully authorized" and that the cia was "not doing anything illegal" in an interview with the new york times, and said that the leadership of the house and senate intelligence committees was able to find out about the program, or had been informed of its existence.

allowing the cia to have so much power in deciding who can stay in the country and who is shipped off to other countries is controversial, because in the past, the white house, state department, or justice department would have been involved in approving individual cases of sending prisoners to other countries.

while refusing to admit that the rendition policy even exists, the bush administration claimed that they do not hand over people to be tortured in other countries, to get around us laws which prohibit such practices.

however, the new york times interviewed a number of current and former officials who believed that the policy was designed to allow the government to plausibly deny that torture was being tolerated.

the case of australian mamdouh habib attracted widespread attention in that country, after he was released in january after 40 months, without any charges being pressed. australian officials were aware that he had been transferred by the united states to egypt for six months. during this time, habib claims he was subjected to various methods of torture, including electric shock and being held under water.

the united states denies that habib was tortured with their knowledge, although us officials were not present during his overseas captivity and could not guarantee that he had not been tortured. egypt has not confirmed that habib was ever in the country.

a similar case involving syrian born canadian maher arar, deported to syria in october, 2002, subsequently held and allegedly tortured for 374 days, led to canada issuing a travel advisory strongly cautioning canadians born in iraq, iran, syria, libya and sudan against travel to the united states for any reason. a subsequent internal rcmp investigation found several instances of impropriety in the arar case, including the provision of sensitive information on arar to us officials, and that a liaison officer may have known of the deportation plan but did not contact his supervisors.

mr. arar's attempt to sue american attorney-general john ashcroft over the incident in january 2004 was dismissed when the us government invoked the rarely used "state secrets privilege", claiming that to go forward in open court would jeopardize intelligence, foreign policy, and national security interests.

legal analysts point out that information obtained through the use of torture is useless in court proceedings, but us officials insist that the information obtained from such interrogations is still useful for their purposes, and that "it has resulted in the capture of terrorists."



deutsche borse quits lse takeover

the owner of the frankfurt stock exchange, deutsche borse has said it is quitting the takeover of the owner of the london stock exchange, lse. its planned gbp 1,3 billion (eur 2 billion) takeover (530p per share) was stopped by opposition for various shareholders from both parties. its announcement is a setback for the chief executive werner seifert. 

this just leaves the euronext nv as the sole bidder of the lse. it owns the stock exchanges in paris, amsterdam, brussels, lisbon and the tiny london-based exchange liffe.



nobel laureate hans bethe passes away at age of 98

nobel laureate in physics died in his home in on march 6, 2005, according to cornell university, where he was professor emeritus of physics. 

hans albrecht bethe (pronounced "bay-ta") was born on july 2, 1906 in the city of , then part of germany (now part of france). he studied physics at frankfurt and obtained his doctorate from the . 

bethe, whose mother was [[judaism|jewish}}, fled germany in 1933 when the came to power. bethe, along with hundreds of other jewish academics, were fired from their posts as a result of one of [[adolf hitler]]'s first anti-semitic acts. bethe moved first to [[england]] and in 1935 to the [[usa]] where he taught at cornell university. 

between 1935 and 1938, he studied and reaction cross sections. this research was useful to bethe in more quantitatively developing 's theory of the compound nucleus.

during [[world war ii]], he served as a prominent member of a special summer session at the at the invitation of , which outlined the first designs for the and served as the beginning of the . when oppenheimer started the secret weapons design laboratory, , he appointed bethe as director of the theoretical division. 

after the war, bethe argued that a crash project for the should not be attempted, though after announced the beginning of such a crash project, and the outbreak of the , he signed up and played a key role in the weapon's development. in 1968, he reflected upon the choice, noting that "it seemed quite logical. but sometimes i wish i were more consistent an idealist." though he would see the project through to its end, in bethe's account he was primarily hopeful that the weapon would be impossible to produce. he later characterized as the "father" of the hydrogen bomb, and as its "mother," and himself as its "midwife." 

among his many honors, bethe received the in 1955, and in 1961 he was awarded the of the for his work in identifying the energy generating processes in stars. in 1967, bethe was awarded the nobel prize in physics for his studies of the production of solar and stellar energy, . he postulated that the source of this energy are in which was converted into .

during the 1980s and 1990s, bethe campaigned for the peaceful use of [[nuclear energy]], arguing against the and against . in 1995, at the age of 88, bethe wrote an open letter calling on all scientists to "cease and desist" from working on any aspect of nuclear weapons development and manufacture. in 2004, he signed a letter along with 47 other nobel laureates endorsing [[john kerry]] for president of the united states citing [[george w. bush|bush]]'s apparent misuse of science.

[[category:physics]]
[[category:science and technology]]
[[category:obituaries]]
[[category:north america]]
[[category:united states]]
[[category:new york]]
[[category:europe]]
[[category:germany]]
[[category:nuclear power]]
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[[category:nuclear proliferation]]
[[category:religion]]
[[category:judaism]]
[[category:particle physics]]
[[category:adolf hitler]]
[[category:world war ii]]
[[category:cornell university]]

insulin levels tied to alzheimer's

while , a characteristic of , is linked with neurodegeneration, the new finding provides a strong connection between diabetes and alzheimer's disease.

"what we found is that insulin is not just produced in the pancreas, but also in the brain," says study senior author suzanne de la monte of and brown university . "and we discovered that insulin and its growth factors, which are necessary for the survival of brain cells, contribute to the progression of alzheimer's." 

this raises the possibility, says de la monte, of a "type 3" diabetes. 

the finding was made by studying a genetic abnormality in rats that blocks insulin signaling in the brain.

in the rats, de la monte and colleagues found that insulin and related proteins igf i and ii are expressed in neurons in several regions in the brain. 

additionally, they determined that a drop in insulin production in the brain contributes to brain cell degeneration, a symptom of alzheimer's. 

"these abnormalities do not correspond to type 1 or type 2 diabetes, but reflect a different and more complex disease process that originates in the cns (central nervous system)," the researchers report. 

analysis of postmortem brain tissue also revealed that the proteins aren't produced at normal levels in human alzheimer's sufferers. 

insulin and igf i were significantly reduced in the frontal cortex, hippocampus and hypothalamus?all areas affected by alzheimer's?while not in the cerebellum, which is generally not affected by alzheimer's. 

the study "opens the way for targeted treatment to the brain and changes the way we view alzheimer's disease," says de la monte. 

the research is reported in the "".


british airways ceo set to step down in the summer

the sunday times and observer newspapers today both stated that british airways ceo rod eddington is planning to step down in the summer. althought no official announcement has been released from the airline about mr eddington's future, speculation is already mounting on who the successor will be.

possible internal candidates include marketing director martin george and finance director john rishton. however it is quite possible that an external executive such as willie walsh, former ceo of aer lingus, could take the post. mr walsh successful turned around aer lingus into one of the most profitable "national carriers" in the world after it had almost bankrupt in 2002.

mr eddington took over the top job at british airways in may 2000



peruvians sue newmont mining company over mercury poisoning

peruvians living near the site of a release of mercury are preparing to sue a u.s. mining company, announcing last saturday that they will bring their case before a denver judge.

on june 2, 2000, a serious accident in the province of cajamarca, in peru, poisoned many residents with mercury, a highly toxic heavy metal. a truck from newmont mining company dumped two metal canisters of mercury along an andean highway, in the communities of san juan, choropampa, and magdalena. curious townspeople (mostly children) picked up the silvery droplets, and some even drank some of it. many residents became sick from severe mercury poisoning. some of those who came in contact with the mercury suffered blindness, and one even had a purplish rash on her body.

over 300 people directly suffered the effects of mercury poisoning.

as the owners of the yanacocha mine which produced the mercury, newmont mining offered up to us$6 thousand to more than 700 local residents, but over 1,100 others are still engaged in a legal battle with newmont over the case.

in today's global economy, many international businesses have looked overseas to maintain their profits, but environmental law professor james otto is asking about the cost to the environment and public health. "any company that wants to mine internationally now must not only have the legal right to mine but also a 'social license' to operate," he said. "peru has been a wake-up call."

as the peruvian residents gear up for their lawsuit against denver-based newmont mining, the world's largest gold mining firm, some of these important questions may finally be answered. after the breakdown of mediation talks with newmont on january 20, the residents and their lawyer decided to stop negotiating behind closed doors and take their case to the public. last saturday, march 5, 2005, they announced that they are bringing their suit before denver district judge robert hyatt. "if successful," states ken krowder who represents the plaintiffs, "[this] would mark the first time an american firm is held accountable for environmental damages overseas."

this is not the first time newmont mining has had trouble with an emerging third world environmental movement. recently, in august 2004, a us$543 million lawsuit was filed against newmont mining by the indonesian environmental ministry and local villagers. they claim that pollution caused by the company’s mining activities has caused serious illnesses and other health problems, including skin disease, tumors, birth defects, and a decline in fish stocks, a staple food. one particular mining practice used frequently by newmont mining in indonesia is submarine tailings disposal, a waste disposal method for mercury and arsenic that is outlawed in the united states.

at least six newmont mining managers, including an american and an australian, face up to 15 years in a jakarta prison for environmental and corporate crime in that case.

the local peruvian residents are continuing their fight for safer mining practices and compensation for existing damage and injuries. thousands of local townspeople protested against the yanacocha mine last fall, demanding protection for the local water supply.

newmont mining officials have blamed the june 2000 mercury spill on a contractor, and have lost the battle to keep the case out of the american court system.




the president of bolivia resigns

the president of bolivia officially resigned sunday, march 6. now the president of senate hormando vaca diez is the temporary president of the republic of bolivia. 

mesa resigned because of the announcement of highways's blockages by , both the leader of the growers and the movement toward socialism (mas). the blockages serve to pressure the legislative so the hydrocarbons law can be approved. the law aims to raise the taxes levied on hydrocarbon extraction from 18 to 50%.

the mas is a political party formed basically by coca-growing (known as "cocaleros"), , admirers of , and people. the party is against the government of the and the alleged american influency in the region, the and the . morales in his own words, explain some of the mas motivations:

morales is an admirer of fidel castro and he says he is inspired by the presidents of and , . he supports the creation of an anti-imperialist block formed by latin-american and arabian countries against the usa, which is being organized by the brazilian president.

bolivia economy depends on exportation of (oil and gas). other sources of resources comes from the cultivation of coca.
the coca growers demands the same treatment the government is giving to hydrocarbons. however, the production of coca in great quantities is controversial since the coca is the raw material of . cocaine is considered illegal in bolivia and in the majority of other countries

in october 2003, morales caused the resignation of the president gonzalo sanchez de lozada. after the resignation of lozada, mesa, the vice-president, assumed the command of bolivan government.

morales said about the resignation of mesa:"the only resignation purpose is to blackmail, this resignation is not worth, it basically serves so the october agenda does not occurr (agenda purpose is nationalization of gas production and to proclaim a constitutional assembly [note:where politics propose a new constitution]). 

the blockades of roads occurred in two strategical places: at the city of el alto, neighboring to the capital, and at el chapere, which binds the cities of cochabamba and santa cruz de la sierra. 

the country is divided. there were some protests and manifestations for and against mesa.


invisibility shield gets blueprint

two engineers, andrea alu and nader engheta of the university of pennsylvania in philadelphia have come up with a 'plasmonic cover' which they claim could render objects "nearly invisible to an observer".

the idea is still in its infancy, but it is said not to violate any obvious laws of physics. john pendry, a physicist at imperial college in london, uk: "the concept is an interesting one, with several important potential applications. it could find uses in stealth technology and camouflage."

earlier attempts at constructing an invisibility screen resulted in the chameleon-principle: screens were coloured to match their background, rendering them hard, but not impossible to see, but usually from only a limited point of view.

the principle on which the technology is founded can be explained as follows: an object can be seen because light scatters from its surface back to our eyes. if the scattering of light could be prevented, the object could not be seen. by making a screen resonate in tune with the light, scattering of light would be prevented. this can be achieved by using plasmons, waves of electronic density caused by electrons in a metalic surface moving in sync. if the frequency of the light is close to that of the shield, the light scattered by the object will be negligible compared to the light scattered by the shield. for visible light, silver and gold can be used as metals, for other frequencies, such as infrared and ultra-violet, other metals will have to be used.

 


china declares &quot;the state shall employ nonpeaceful means&quot;

china passed a new law that codifies a legal basis for authorising the use of military force to stop taiwan from formally declaring its independence from the mainland. the anti-succession law was passed by the national people's congress on march 8 in beijing.

the deputy chairman of the npc told members gathered at the great hall of the people that, "if possibilities for a peaceful reunification should be completely exhausted, the state shall employ non-peaceful means and other necessary measures to protect china's sovereignty and territorial integrity." the broad language of the law does not specify any exact measures china might take, but its effect is to reinforce the mainland's long held position of a one-china principle.

the mainland affairs council in taipei described the law as "malicious" and "crude". taiwan views the development as violating international norms for peacefully resolving disputes. "this law exposes china's plot to impose armed force to swallow up taiwan," read the council's written statement. "in essence, it has handed its military a blank check to unleash force against taiwan." a taiwanese defence ministry spokesperson announced that military exercises will be held this summer to practice defending against an attack.

the white house had urged china to reconsider the law before it was passed. white house press secretary scott mcclellan said, "we view it as unhelpful - something that runs counter to recent trends toward a warming in cross-strait relations. we oppose any attempts to determine the future of taiwan by anything other than peaceful means."

china has always officially maintained that taiwan, which split from the mainland in 1949, is a rogue territory which must eventually reunify with china. just recently in a ‘four point guideline' set forth on march 5, 2005, chinese president hu jintao said, "on no account shall the 1.3 billion chinese people allow anyone to undermine china's sovereignty and territorial integrity. we will not have the slightest hesitation, falter or concession on the major principle issue of opposing secession. the 'taiwan independence' secessionist forces must abandon their secessionist stand and stop all 'taiwan independence' activities."

chinese opposition to a plan by taiwan president chen shui-bian for a referendum on a new constitution that may violate jintao's ‘four-point guideline' is seen in part as prompting the new law.



premature aging disease reversed in cells

genetic abnormalities behind the premature aging disease progeria have been corrected in cells in a step towards gene therapy for the condition.

affecting about one in eight million children, hutchinson-gilford progeria (hgp) causes sufferers to rapidly experience symptoms of old age. 

the average life expectancy of those afflicted is just around 14 years, with many dying from such age-related conditions as heart disease. 

the disease is known to be caused by a mutation in the gene lamin a. 

the mutation is thought to adversely affect the expression of genes by preventing appropriate genetic "editing." 

the inappropriate editing cuts exons?"sentences" of genetic information?too short.

tom misteli and colleagues of the us national cancer institute have now found a way to correct the editing error.

they did this using synthetic molecules called morpholino oligonucleotides that misteli likens to a "molecular band-aid."

the researchers say the discovery could aid the development of gene therapy for progeria.

the research is reported in the journal "nature medicine."


british airways announces new ceo

the british national airline, british airways has announce that the former ceo of aer lingus, willie walsh is to be their new ceo. mr walsh is to replace the current ceo, australian-born rod eddington in september after his retirement. 

willie walsh started as a cadet for aer lingus at the age of 17, later becoming a captain of the airline. in 1998, he became the chief-executive of the airline's charter subsidiary furtura, and later in 2000 chief finance officer. in the wake of 11th september 2001, he became the chief-executive of aer lingus, itself. worried about what happen to swissair and sabena, he looked at the rival irish airline ryanair for inspiration and made aer lingus in effect a no-frills airline, such as replacing the infamous turquoise uniforms with polo shirts and promoting via the internet. 



chechen leader killed by russian special forces

, the leader of the separatist movement in chechnya, is reported to have been killed by . 

fsb head announced that special forces attached to the fsb (the successor to the ) had "today carried out an operation in the settlement of tolstoy-yurt, as a result of which the international terrorist and leader of armed groups maskhadov was killed, and his closest comrades-in-arms detained". a body was shown on russian television that looked very much like maskhadov. , one of his closest allies who acted as his spokesman and "foreign minister", told a russian radio station that it was probable that maskhadov had indeed been killed

russia had considered the chechen separatists terrorists, and accredited the , along with other acts to the militants. maskhadov has condemned any crime against civilians.

aslan alivitch maskhadov, born 21 september, 1951, was the leader of the separatist movement in the russian republic of chechnya. he was credited by many with the chechen victory in the , which secured temporary "de facto" independence for chechnya. in january 1997, maskhadov was elected president of chechnya on a platform including demands for independence from moscow. following the start of the in 1999, he returned to leading the guerrilla movement against the russian army.


syria begins withdrawing troops from lebanon


syria has begun to withdraw its troops from northern and southern lebanon despite a large rally in beirut to support the syrian presence.

lebanese defence minister abdul-rahim murad said troops would pull back to the eastern bekaa valley on tuesday, but refused to give a date for a full withdrawal. the movement of the 6,000 troops involved would take six to ten days, he said. syria has a total of 14,000 soldiers in the country.

earlier, a peaceful hezbollah-organised rally saw hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets of beirut to show their support for the syrians. the pro-syrian lebanon-based shia muslim organization, which maintains an armed militia in lebanon, promised more rallies throughout lebanon. according to michel aoun, a former prime minister of lebanon, it appears that the turnout was artificially inflated, with palestinian, syrian, and other non-lebanese groups attending, as well as with coercive tactics used by syrian intelligence officials.

lebanese opposing the presence of syrian troops held counter-rallies just 300m away, with smaller turn-outs.

syria has come under increasing political pressure to withdraw. u.s. president george w. bush said in a speech today, "freedom will prevail in lebanon. all syrian military forces and intelligence personnel must withdraw before the lebanese elections for those elections to be free and fair." 

lebanon plans to hold a general election in may.

syrian troops and intelligence officers have been present in lebanon since the country began a peace-keeping mission in lebanon during the 1976, following the start of lebanon's civil war. u.s. forces withdrew in 1984 after a suicide attack killed 241 marines. ever since, syria has had a strong political hold on its neighbour.

united nations resolution 1559 requires the immediate and complete withdrawal of all syrian forces from lebanon. france, russia, germany, and saudi arabia have made similar calls.


ash and steam reported over mount st. helens

portland, oregon ? a cloud of white steam and ash rose as high as 36,000 feet from mount st. helens in the u.s. state of washington at 5:27 p.m. pst today. the eruption was visible from the portland metropolitan area in the neighbouring state of oregon, causing traffic slowdowns as commuters slowed to watch the spectacle. news helicopters have shown photos of lava emerging inside the crater. although the eruption was mostly over by 6:07 p.m. pst, an ashfall advisory until 9:00 p.m. pst has been announced for communities around the mountain. 

the volcano has been building a new dome in its crater in recent months and causing tremors. it seems to have done enough damage to knock out at least two of the seismometers operated on its dome by the pacific northwest seismograph network, although this could be the result of either damage to the seismometers themselves, or their telemetry equipment.

the volcano is most famous for its dramatic eruption in 1980 which killed 57 people and blew the top off the mountain.



brazilian physicist who discovered the pion dies

the brazilian physicist cesare mansueto giulio lattes, aged 80, known as cesar lattes died on march 8, 2005 at 3:40 pm. his death was caused by a cardio-respiratory failure and occurred at the hospital of the universidade estadual de campinas (unicamp), in the barao geraldo district, in the city of campinas, sao paulo state, brazil.

lattes, along with giuseppe occhialini and cecil powell was responsible for the discovery of the subatomic particle called the pion, in 1947. this discovery was very important for the understanding of the sub-atomic structure of the atom.

the physicist was born on july 11, 1924 in curitiba, parana. for the last 30 years of his life he lived at campinas, in barao geraldo. he worked at the brazilian university unicamp and he was the founder of its department of cosmic rays and chronology of the "gleb wataghin" physics institute.



children poisoned by tainted cassava in the philippines

over 27 children are dead, and another 100 are hospitalized, after eating tainted cassava on the central philippine island of bohol, according to local officials. francisca doliente told the associated press that a friend who shared a portion of the cassava with her 9-year-old niece, arve tamor, was "gone...she died".

"it was during recess time. the children bought cassava," said mabini vice-mayor ester tabigue.

"several children were brought here vomiting and complaining of stomach aches," said dr. elpidio bonito. he noted that seven children did not make it to the hospital before succumbing to the food poisoning.

at the ubay l.g. cotamura community hospital, dr. leta cutamora confirmed 14 fatalities and 35 others under treatment.

almost 50 students from the san jose elementary school were sent to two other hospitals. one of the sellers of the cassava, a middle-aged woman, was also sent to the hospital.

cassava is a starchy delicacy made from a tropical plant. it is poisonous when raw, and must be prepared properly so it is not converted into cyanide by the human digestive system.

"some said they took only two bites because it tasted bitter and the effects were felt five to 10 minutes later," said dr. harold garcia, from the garcia memorial provincial hospital.

a sample of the cassava will be studied at local crime laboratory group, to try and determine what caused the food poisoning. the cassava was deep-fried and caramelized.



trial of alleged brazilian &quot;chainsaw massacre&quot; deputy begins

the trial of the former brazilian deputy hildebrando pascoal was scheduled to began on march 8 at 8:30 am in brasilia. however the trial began about an hour later, because pascoal needed to talk to his lawyer.

pascoal, the former police officer reginaldo rocha de souza and the alleged drug dealer alexandre alves da silva are in trial because they are accused of murdering the police officer walter ayala in september 1997.

there are several other serious accusations against pascoal, including: dealing with the drug cartel, leading death squads, robbery and political corruption. 

the case was widely discussed in brazil because a witness (whose identity could not be revealed since its life was in danger) said that pascoal personally cut off the arms and legs of a man with a chainsaw. another one told pascoal killed at least 60 people.

pascoal says he is innocent and that all the accusations were forged by his enemies: the former court president of acre, jersino jose da silva and the federal prosecutor, luiz francisco de souza.

pascoal has been in jail for about 6 years. 


report urges kenya to ban plastic bags

they are cheap, useful, and very plentiful, and that is exactly the problem, according to researchers. a report issued on feb. 23 by a cadre of environment and economics researchers suggested that kenya should ban the common plastic bag that one gets at the checkout counter of grocery stores, and place a levy on other plastic bags, all to combat the country's environmental problems stemming from the bags' popularity.

the new report was a result of work by kenyan government, the united nations environment programme (unep), and the kenya institute for public policy research and analysis. it evaluated the state of waste management in the country with particular attention to plastic bag pollution, and recommended that bags less than 30 microns in thickness be banned, a levy be placed on suppliers of thicker bags, and a number of programs be developed to encourage people in the country to not litter, but to recycle and use alternative or reusable bags for their shopping needs instead.

on one hand, the bags are often better than the alternatives, and are getting better. the society of the plastics industry (spi) in the united states quotes the university of arizona 's report that plastics are getting more compact and take up less space in landfills. plastic bags compare favorably with paper bags which require more energy to produce, generate more waste and burn less cleanly, according to the spi.

but on the other hand, the bags have gotten so thin as to be barely reusable and recyclable: grocers will frequently double-bag heavy produce, and the bag weighs so little that a great number of bags have to be collected to create an effectively recycled mass of plastic. the light-weight bags are easily picked up by wind, and end up escaping open trash bins and refuse heaps. by littering the landscape, plastic bags become a choking hazard for cattle; in the sea they hurt marine mammals. in , plastic bags were banned after they were blamed for blocking storm drains and causing flooding. even if they do enter the landfill successfully, the bags take up to 1000 years to bio-degrade.

plastic bags in kenya are an especially acute problem. according to the report, waste management in the country isn't very effective, due partially to a lack of municipal trash pickup in squatter settlements and satellite towns outside the cities' boundaries. less than 25% of the solid waste generated daily gets processed by a combination of public and private efforts. 

sometimes plastic bag litter can have even further consequences. according to 2004 nobel peace prize winner, kenyan professor wangari mathaai, discarded bags fill up with rainwater and become perfect breeding grounds for malaria-bearing mosquitoes. is africa's most deadly infectious disease in children, and over 50% of all hospital visits in some areas are malaria-related. social costs of plastic litter add up as well: countries lacking comprehensive waste management often sprout underground economies of ragpickers ? typically children who wander refuse heaps and collect potentially recyclable materials for sale to shady businessmen operating from official dump sites. the ragpickers in developing countries struggle with plastic bags, preferring thicker materials that require fewer items to be picked up for the same weight.

the problem with bags is that they are victims of their own success: they are so very cheap to manufacture that, at a cost of 0.01 per bag, retailers often absorb the price of bags into the price of merchandise they sell. this makes the bag appear free to the consumers, who in turn do not value it, and toss the bag away with little reuse. in a vicious circle, the low cost of the bags drives down the amount of material used to manufacture them, creating bags that are flimsy and not easy to reuse.

the report places an emphasis on learning from the successes and failures of other countries' approaches to regulating the plastics industry. several european countries introduced legislation that deals with plastic bags. in ireland, a surcharge on plastic bags decreased their use by 90%. a similar move in denmark saw the bag use drop by 66%. australia and new zealand have also considered or implemented some plastics regulation legislation. south africa's plastic bag problem reached a climax in 2003 ? plastic bags littered the street to such an extent that they earned the nickname "national flower". the country introduced regulations similar to those proposed in kenya, and within less than a year a reduction in plastic litter was already apparent, according to the report.

the report also recognizes that policies require tradeoffs, and incorporates this into their recommendations. for example, the suggested policy of banning thin bags in favor of thicker ones seems counterintuitive: after all, the thicker ones contain more material that is the cause of the pollution. furthermore, a ban on thin bags will decimate the industry producing those bags, likely resulting in job losses for kenyans, as was the case in south africa when that country introduced similar legislation. however the report notes that this will be offset by increases in production of alternative bags, or in the recycling industry.

the manufacture of plastic bags is a sizable industry. in the united states alone the film, sheet, and bag portion of the plastics industry produces more than $26 billion in sales in one year. the sheer number of plastic bags used are staggering, too: in hong kong more than a quarter of a billion bags get used every year, in san francisco over 50 million, and almost 300 million in kenya. the spi ? the parent organization of the film and bag federation ? claims that more than 80% of consumers reuse plastic bags as trash can liners or for similar purposes, but that's misleading even when restricted to the united states, as the number of bags used is still very high on a per-capita basis. according to the worldwatch institute, an independent environmental organization, americans throw away 100 billion plastic bags every year, with only 0.6% of the bags being recycled.

the bag manufacturer association in the ? the film and bag federation ? appears aware of environmental issues surrounding their products. the federation's web site explores some environmental concerns, mainly recycling and reuse. but the issue of plastic bag overuse or excessive littering in developing countries is not addressed directly on their site.

donna dempsey, the executive director of the film and bag federation, said in an email to a wikinews reporter that "there are better ways in kenya and other places to reduce the amount of bags used, such as re-educating the grocery bag checker not to double bag products and on the amount of groceries one bag is made to carry". she said that members of the association ? companies in the united states and ? are investing millions of dollars into "bag to bag" recycling programs, which use material from recycled plastic bags to create new plastic bags, as well as programs that buy back recycled bags and turn them into plastic decking.

the government of kenya has signaled that they support solutions to problems caused by plastic waste. at the opening speech of the unep governing council/ministerial environment forum on feb. 21, 2005, kenya's president mwai kibaki said: "in our major cities, plastic bags are used in large quantities at the household level. however, these bags are not disposed of in ways that ensure a clean environment. my country welcomes initiatives to address this problem." 

prof. wangari maathai, who is the country's deputy environment minister, supports the effort from her official position. she promotes the 4-rs ? reduce, recycle, re-use, repair ? and encourages the use of locally-made cotton or sisal bags. yet as the authors of the report write policy action must be fairly swift to be effective, so should the government commit to the report authors' recommendations it will have to quickly match political action with their words of support.

plastic bag pollution has been a contentious issue with the people of kenya for a number of years. six years ago, the wildlife clubs of kenya organized a campaign march to urge the government to regulate the bag producers. but not everyone is optimistic about the plans to regulate plastic bags. dave jones from believes that the way to control pollution is to have clear policies on land ownership: "no single land owner would allow his property to be polluted by others" he writes in a letter to kenya's daily newspaper, the daily nation. in after the bag regulations were implemented negative reactions included concerns that the poor already re-used the flimsy bags as source materials in producing home-made items such as hats or purses ? occupations made impossible by the ban.




google releases final version of desktop search

google has today launched the final version of its google desktop search program. google desktop is a search engine for windows which allows the user to search their computer's files' contents for a specified phrase, and includes support for many different file types, including audiovisual media, web pages stored in the local cache, e-mail, and various kinds of document files.

in beta since last autumn, version 1.0 adds the ability to search pdfs, netscape/mozilla/firefox browser histories, and thunderbird emails. the software also has an added a plugin facility to allow third-party developers to add support for additional file formats. a registry for a small initial set of plugins is currently available, as well as incentives such as t-shirts and free advertising for developers who submit new plugins.

competing windows desktop search products have also been released by yahoo!, microsoft, and copernic. mac osx tiger is planned to offer similar functionality through "spotlight", and future linux distributions are expected to include "beagle" desktop search.


son of slain chechen rebel maskhadov vows to continue father's work

after the recent killing of chechen rebel leader , it was not clear who would take his place. his son anzor maskhadov, aged 29, has quickly emerged as the most likely candidate to carry on his father's work.

speaking at his home in , azerbaijan, mr. maskhadov told the reuters news agency ""i will continue my father's work. i have been in touch with his associates who are living abroad."" he went on to describe the killing of his father as a ""terrorist act"" planned by the russian authorities.

the chechnya area of russia has effectively been at war with russia for much of the past decade: pro-independence guerrilla groups are faced by russian regular army and special police forces. numerous crimes against civilians and human rights infringement incidents reported in the area, involving both russian army and rebel groups. 

late president maskhadov was considered a moderate pro-independence chechen leader, in contrast with . he made numerous negotiations offers, all of them left unanswered by the . with russian forces nominally controlling most of the chechnya, his ability to control chechen warlords was being questioned, though he reportedly managed to maintain lateral cease-fire in most parts of chechnya shortly before his death. 

maskhadov was the last publicly elected leader of the self-proclaimed republic of ichkeria. it's first elected president, was killed in the sophisticated special forces operation of russia's fsb in the 1990s.

russian state run-media and mps hailed the killing of mr. maskhadov ? many believing his rebels were responsible for the and the in 2004.

russian government took the hard-line position against chechen rebels, denying any negotiations with the rebels after hostage takings and bomb explosions in moscow (), downed airliners, hostage taking in and other terrorist acts attributed to chechen rebel groups. in many cases, chechen groups claimed responsibility for these acts. maskhadov denied any involvement in terrorist acts. according to russian government's point of view, the war in chechnya is merely a 'counter-terrorist operation' with an objective to 'restore the constitutional order'.



ancient neanderthal protein sequenced

an international team has extracted and sequenced a protein from a 75,000-year-old neanderthal fossil in research that demonstrates a new method of comparing genetic relationships between organisms.

"this research opens up the possibility of getting detailed protein information from past human populations, to make inferences about the evolution of human diet and physiology," says erik trinkaus of washington university in st. louis.

the research was led by trinkaus and colleagues from washington university in st. louis and the max planck institute for evolutionary anthropology in leipzig, germany. 

the oldest fossil human protein ever sequenced, the protein came from a neanderthal discovered in shanidar cave, iraq.
protein sequences can be used in a similar way to dna to provide information on genetic relationships between extinct and living species. 

since ancient dna rarely survives, protein sequencing could be used to determine such relationships for very old fossils that no longer contain dna. 

for their study, trinkaus and colleagues sequenced the bone protein osteocalcin from a neanderthal and found that it is the same as that in modern humans. 

the researchers also found big differences in the sequences of neanderthals, humans, chimpanzees and orangutans from that of gorillas and most other mammals. 

they suggest that this is a dietary response related to an abundance of vitamin c in the diets of herbivores such as gorillas that is absent from the diets of omnivorous primates such as humans and neanderthals. 

the research is reported in the "proceedings of the national academy of sciences". 


italian pm rejects us version of shooting

in his first public speech since the fatal shooting that killed an italian intelligence agent in iraq, italian prime minister silvio berlusconi has rejected the version of events presented by the us administration. 

the intelligence agent, nicola calipari, was escorting freed hostage, italian journalist giuliana sgrena, when their car came under fire by us troops on the journey to baghdad airport last week, leaving nicola calipari dead and giuliana sgrena and another intelligence agent wounded. 

mr berlusconi has disputed us claims that the car was speeding and also said that the us military had known of and authorised the car's journey. berlusconi's speech to parliament comes a day after his foreign minister, gianfranco fini made a similar speech to lawmakers, where he refuted ms. sgrena's claims that the shooting was the result of an ambush. 

the us began their official investigation on march 8, four days after the shooting. the results are yet to be determined.

however in a statement given immediately after the attack by the us army's 3rd infantry division, who controls baghdad, said that italian officials had given no advance warning to the us army of their journey, and that the car was speeding and refused to stop. one army official stated that the car was traveling over 100 miles per hour (161 kilometers per hour) and almost hydroplaned several times, an assertion that sgrena herself seemingly corroborated in her article for "il manifesto".

"the united states has no intention of evading the truth. i'm sure that in a very short time every aspect of this will be clarified." mr berlusconi said, describing the shooting as an "accident." adding that he expected the findings of an investigation into the shooting, being led by a us brigadier general, in cooperation with italian authorities, to be released in three to four weeks.

meanwhile the office of italian president carlo azeglio ciampi said that it had received a letter from u.s. president george bush saying that the shooting was a "terrible tragedy" and that "president bush assures president ciampi that the united states will move toward a swift and exhaustive joint investigation."

recently, the associated press and the italian rai tgi television released photos of the car after the attack by american soldiers., the pictures show little visible damage to the vehicle. 

sgrena claims that the american soldiers fired between 300 and 400 rounds at the car from an armoured vehicle. this is disputed by the us military, as a tank or other fighting vehicle would likely have entirely destroyed the car.


microsoft considering backport of winfs to windows xp

in recent days, reports have surfaced that microsoft may plan to backport its system to .

the technology, intended to track file metadata for better organization and searching capability, had previously only been planned as part of the forthcoming operating system release.

support for windows xp, while surprising, may aid developers in speeding adoption of the new technology in their applications.


cyclone ingrid crosses far north queensland coast

the cyclone "ingrid" will hit the coast of queensland, australia later today. "ingrid" is the strongest cyclone that strike australia since 1974 when cyclone "tracy" devastated huge areas, including the city of darwin on the north coast.

though "ingrid" has lost momentum during the last few days and now ranks 4 instead of 5, several communities in north-western australia have been evacuated, daycare centers have closed and flights and ships are grounded or in port. even more people might be evacuated to nearby airbases if the situation worsens.



bush calls romania a special ally of the us

president traian b?sescu of romania today had a half-hour meeting with president george bush in the white house, as well as a press conference in the oval office, as part of b?sescu's visit to the united states of america. during the press conference, bush said that romania was a "special ally" of the united states, as well as "a friend". 

bush said that he was impressed by b?sescu's high-profile fight against corruption, as well as his vision for consolidating democracy and prosperity in the black sea region, an area of strategic concern for the united states. he also acknowledged romania's support and involvement in the democratisation project in ukraine, georgia and the republic of moldova.

since the 1999 nato military intervention in kosovo, romania has been a key ally for the united states in southeastern europe. it has also been one of the most vocal supporters of the us-led invasion of iraq, sending over 800 troops and planning to increase its contigent at a time when other countries are pulling out. b?sescu, which has been romania's president since december 2004, has also signalled his intention of closer ties with the united states, as well as the united kingdom, by envisioning the creation of a bucharest-washington-london axis of co-operation. b?sescu visited tony blair in london last month. ties between the countries are expected to increase as the us moves its military bases from germany to an area near the town of constan?a, a black sea port in romania.

before b?sescu's arrival, bruce pitcairn jackson, the president of project for transition democracies, said that romania and bulgaria are the "success stories" of southeastern europe and that the two cuntries' eu accession, expected in 2007, will significantly increase the prospects of democracy in the black sea area.

analysts also say that, due to the support of the united states and the united kingdom, romania will become the most powerful force in southeastern europe and a source of democracy and prosperity.


flat tax boosts average romanian salaries

romania's flat tax rate of 16% on personal income and corporate profits, which went into effect on january 1, 2005, has proved to have a positive effect on romanian salaries, which increased by 5.2% in the january 2005 in comparison to december 2004. the effect is even larger when compared to january 2004, with net wages increasing by 25.3% and gross wages increasing by 18.8%.

in january 2005, the gross (pre-tax) average monthly salary was 9,514,658 lei, while the net (after-tax) average monthly salary was 7,233,298, which is equal to roughly 200 euro or us$270.

romania's flat tax system is one of the most liberal fiscal policies in europe and was introduced in order to boost spending power and salaries, encourage foreign investment and greater consumer spending.



selgros cash and carry to open two new stores in transylvania

german supermarket chain cash and carry has announed that it intends to open two new stores in transylvania, romania's western region, this year. the two new stores will be in the cities of and , both major transylvanian centres. the cost of building each store will come to an average of around 15 million euro, with the cluj-napoca store scheduled to open first.

this week, selgros opened its eighth cash-and-carry store in romania, in the western transylvanian city of . the chain already operates stores three stores in bucharest, as well as one store each in , , and .

after bucharest, transylvania is romania's most prosperous region and has therefore been the focus of foreign investment as well as a centre for the operations of foreign companies.


us pulls out of optional protocol to vienna convention

in a two-paragraph letter from condoleezza rice to kofi annan, the united states has left the optional protocol to the vienna convention on consular relations concerning the compulsory settlement of disputes. 

this treaty, which the united states remains within, gives foreign citizens the right to demand that they see a home-country diplomat when detained. the optional protocol, that the united states just left, puts disputes about those rights under the international court of justice. 

state department spokeswoman darla jordan said, "the international court of justice has interpreted the vienna consular convention in ways that we had not anticipated that involved state criminal prosecutions and the death penalty, effectively asking the court [international court of justice] to supervise our domestic criminal system... [withdrawal from the protocol is a way of] protecting against future international court of justice judgments that might similarly interpret the consular convention or disrupt our domestic criminal system in ways we did not anticipate when we joined the convention."



hong kong chief executive tung chee-hwa officially resigns

after a week of swirling rumors, hong kong's leader tung chee-hwa announced at a press conference today at 5:36 p.m. that, "an hour ago, i tendered my resignation as chief executive of the hong kong special administrative region to the central government." it has not yet been officially accepted by beijing, though it is likely to pass as a formality.

though tung cited health reasons for his decision, it is widely believed he was given the signal to resign by the central government of the people's republic of china. 

"i am 68, because of long hours, 16 to 18 hours a day has taken toll on my health. the third quarter of last year, i began to feel very exhausted, and my immunity is not as good as it was before. doctors told me that my health used to be good, but if i work this particular schedule continuously it won't do. doctors asked me to change lifestyle, if i don't comply, my health will be in decline and will suffer from more exhaustion." 

when asked whether he was pushed out by beijing, tung replied, "that is not the case at all. the central government has repeatedly affirmed the work that i and my colleagues of the sar government have done, so that is not the case at all." 

tung had become extremely unpopular in the last few years, culminating in a july 1, 2003, rally when over 500,000 people demonstrated against his handling of severe acute respiratory syndrome (sars), the economy and controversial state security provisions. 

with his resignation, chief secretary for administration donald tsang will take over as provided by the basic law. a special election is required within 120 days according to the chief executive election ordinance. 

in his final comments, tung expressed regret in his inability to complete his term because of his poor health. 

"the sense of attachment... with hong kong people is enormous, it's just a very special feeling. its kind of sad to leave."

related news story on news.gov.hk


blogshine sunday pushes for government sunshine online

blogshine sunday, a national effort among webloggers to publicize the importance of open access to government information is scheduled to take place on march 13, 2005. 

on that day, freeculture.org will organize web-based writers to relate their experiences and thoughts on open-access to governmental records and freely available public information. webloggers will be encouraged to highlight the need to have public records available in electronic formats to facilitate easier searching of information and more widespread access. another goal of blogshine sunday is to emphasize that open access to governmental information should be granted to everyone, unpaid reporters and bloggers as well as professional journalists. 

recently, bloggers have played an important role in shaping public opinion about issues that were initially overlooked by traditional media. freerepublic.com blogger harry w. macdougald was the first to scrutinize documents that suggested that president bush was derelict in his military service in the 1970s. cbs news reported on the documents as if they were legitimate, but macdougald discovered that the documents used a typestyle that was not available at the time they were supposedly written. following macdougald’s blog posts questioning the documents, cbs said that they regretted reporting on the documents as though they were authentic. since bloggers are generally unpaid and do not have the editorial restrictions of professional journalists, as the macdougald example illustrates, they are sometimes better able to research and report on issues not covered by traditional media.

blogshine sunday is held in conjunction with sunshine sunday, when professional journalists and news media will publish articles and editorials on the importance of the open records. freeculture.org was started last april by two college students in an effort to show that technology can better facilitate public affairs involvement. more information on blogshine sunday can be found at: blogshine.org



colombia extradites guerrilla to the usa

the communist farc guerrilla named omaira rojas, or nayibe rojas cabrera, or nayibe rojas valderrama, or sonia was extradited to the united states. the colombian president alvaro uribe velez authorized the extradition requested by a tribunal court in washington.

the guerrilla was given to dea officers wednesday, march 9, at 3:25 p.m. in the airport of barranquilla, colombia.

colombian and american authorities say that sonia directly negotiates the delivery of narcotics to drug dealers from peru and brazil.

sonia's lawyers said she could not be extradited to the united states since her real name was not determinated. they demanded a revision to the process. the government of colombia didn't accept the arguments and uribe signed the authorization for the extradition.


investigation over finnish defence images

helsingin sanomat reports images circulating over the internet that purport to show male conscripts being sexually abused and humiliated, which turned out to be a prank. they allegedly show conscripts masked and with gas masks over genitals.

in the images, released through internet forums, soldiers are humiliated by their officers, being forced to act like dogs with other soliders holding their leashes. the defence forces communications director ossi kervinen considers the matter unfortunate.

the images are strikingly similar to those that came out of the abu ghraib prison last year.

finland has a policy of neutrality, with a requirement of conscription for all men between the ages of 18-30 for 180 to 362 days. however, they can opt to do civil service work instead, which lasts 13 months.


bolivian congress refuse president's resignation

the national congress of bolivia refused the resignation of the bolivian president . the congress members of the movement toward socialism (mas) and the indian movement pachakuti didn't support the decision.
the president of bolivia carlos mesa officially resigned last sunday, march 6. at the occasion he explained his decision saying:
mesa's resignation was influenced by the pressures of , both the leader of coca growers ("cocaleros") and mas. morales caused the resignation of the former bolivian president gonzalo sanchez de lozada in october 2003.

the mas resist the efforts of the bolivian government to eradicate . the use of coca is an old tradition of bolivian indians, as tea, medicine, and during social events. the cultivation of coca is a financial resource to bolivia. bolivia is considered the world's third-largest cultivator of coca, after colombia and peru.

however the coca is also the raw material for . coca products are exported to drug cartels in , , , , and the as reported by arrested drug dealers.

the mas is pressuring the government so the new hydrocarbons law can be approved. the law aims to raise the taxes levied on extraction. mesa said that the law as stated is not viable.

mesa has the support of part of bolivian population. according to the analysts carlos valverde and jorge lazarte, morales lost credibility with this crisis.

the opinion of morales is that his public image has not deteriorated. he says that the bolivian population will continue to support him. he also accuses mesa of trying to favor the interests of oil companies, contrary to the interests of bolivia. he announced that he will continue to organize protests against the government.

labour unions and indigenous groups continue the blockage of roads in bolivia to express their dissenting opinion against the government.



bulgarian government says u.s. killed bulgarian soldier in 'friendly fire' incident

according to lieutenant colonel sevastian dobrev, a bulgarian defense ministry official, u.s. forces killed a bulgarian soldier in what the army calls a 'friendly fire' incident in iraq on march 4. the official, who has direct knowledge of the investigation, told "voice of america news" on wednesday that bulgarian military police in iraq are convinced that 30-year-old junior sergeant gardi gardev was killed when several american troops opened fire on his convoy.

dobrev said the shooting took place at night in a desert area, when bulgarian troops and u.s. forces at a nearby radio post were not able to recognize each other. he said the trouble began after bulgarian troops stepped out of their armoured vehicles to fix a problem with their communication equipment, about 160 kilometers southeast of baghdad.

"at that moment one iraqi car tried to pass them," he explained. "they tried to stop it, but the car did not want to stop. they shot two times in the north direction in that area. a few seconds after that our coalition partners from the united states from this radio post opened fire."

lieutenant-colonel dobrev said two bullets hit machine gunner gardi gardev during the incident. he said colleagues tried to revive sergeant gardev, while an american helicopter was called in to take him to a hospital.

however, the helicopter did not land and another emergency vehicle arrived too late to save his life. mr. dobrev said the inexperience of american forces at the recently built radio post in the area contributed to what the army calls a "friendly fire incident."

"our guys know exactly where they are deployed on the ground. they signed this place on their maps," he said. "but there was no contact, any kind of contact, between the bulgarian battalion and the american radio post there."

mr. dobrev said bulgarian and american military officials will meet in baghdad saturday to discuss how to improve coordination and the outcome of investigations by bulgarians and two american teams.

he denied the incident has increased anti-american sentiment in bulgaria, which is among several eastern european countries supporting the us-led efforts in iraq. bulgaria has a 460-strong battalion in the iraqi city of diwaniya, serving under polish command, and its mandate expires mid-2005.

bulgarian soldier gardev, who was buried tuesday in his home village of dolno sahrane, was posthumously awarded the rank of candidate officer and received a medal for his apparent bravery in iraq.

he died around the same time that american soldiers shot and killed an italian intelligence agent, while also wounding an italian journalist the agent had helped to rescue from insurgents. u.s. officials have expressed their regret over both incidents. on march 7, the bulgarian government stated that jr. sgt. gardi gardev was killed by u.s. troops. 

officials from 1st corps support command of the multi-national force iraq are investigating the incident, and have said that they are committed to working with bulgarian officials to discover what happened.


"this article is based on a report by "voice of america news", which is in the public domain."


united nations passes declaration on human cloning

a divided un general assembly has voted to approve a nonbinding statement against all forms of .

the vote, held tuesday, came after four years of debate and an end to attempts for an international ban.

in the 191-nation assembly, there were 84 votes in favor of a nonbinding statement, 34 against and 37 abstentions. 

proposed by honduras, the statement was largely supported by countries and opposed by countries with active embryonic stem cell research programs. many islamic nations abstained.

the "", as it is named, calls for all member states to adopt a ban on human cloning, which it says is "incompatible with human dignity and the protection of human life."

the , which has long pushed for a complete ban, voted in favor of the statement while traditional ally , where is legal and regulated, voted against it.

the statement should have no impact on countries that allow therapeutic cloning, such as britain and south korea, as it is not legally binding.

"the foes of therapeutic cloning are trying to portray this as a victory for their ideology," bernard siegel, a attorney who lobbies to defend therapeutic cloning, said in a report. "but this confusing declaration is an effort to mask their failure last november to impose a treaty on the world banning therapeutic cloning."

of the 191 countries eligible to vote:

84 countries voted in favor of the declaration against cloning:

afghanistan, albania, andorra, australia, austria, bahrain, bangladesh, belize, benin, bolivia, bosnia and herzegovina, brunei darussalam, burundi, chile, comoros, costa rica, cote d'ivoire, croatia, democratic republic of the congo, djibouti, dominican republic, ecuador, el salvador, equatorial guinea, eritrea, ethiopia, georgia, germany, grenada, guatemala, guyana, haiti, honduras, hungary, iraq, ireland, italy, kazakhstan, kenya, kuwait, lesotho, liberia, liechtenstein, madagascar, malta, marshall islands, mauritius, mexico, federated states of micronesia, monaco, morocco, nicaragua, palau, panama, paraguay, philippines, poland, portugal, qatar, rwanda, saint kitts and nevis, saint lucia, saint vincent and the grenadines, samoa, san marino, sao tome and principe, saudi arabia, sierra leone, slovakia, slovenia, solomon islands, sudan, suriname, switzerland, tajikistan, the former yugoslav republic of macedonia, timor-leste, trinidad and tobago, uganda, united arab emirates, united republic of tanzania, united states, uzbekistan, zambia.

34 countries voted against the declaration:

belarus, belgium, brazil, bulgaria, cambodia, canada, china, cuba, cyprus, czech republic, democratic people`s republic of korea, denmark, estonia, finland, france, gabon, iceland, india, jamaica, japan, lao people's democratic republic, latvia, lithuania, luxembourg, netherlands, new zealand, norway, republic of korea, singapore, spain, sweden, thailand, tonga, united kingdom.

37 countries abstained from voting on the declaration against cloning:

algeria, angola, argentina, azerbaijan, bahamas, barbados, burkina faso, cameroon, cape verde, colombia, egypt, indonesia, iran, israel, jordan, lebanon, malaysia, maldives, mongolia, myanmar, namibia, nepal, oman, pakistan, republic of moldova, romania, serbia and montenegro, somalia, south africa, sri lanka, syria, tunisia, turkey, ukraine, uruguay, yemen, zimbabwe.

36 countries were absent from and during the vote on the declaration against cloning:

antigua and barbuda, armenia, bhutan, botswana, central african republic, chad, congo, dominica, fiji, gambia, ghana, greece, guinea, guinea-bissau, kiribati, kyrgyzstan, libya, malawi, mali, mauritania, mozambique, nauru, niger, nigeria, papua new guinea, peru, russian federation, senegal, seychelles, swaziland, togo, turkmenistan, tuvalu, vanuatu, venezuela, vietnam.



six-year development framework for sudan released by un

the joint assessment mission between the world bank and the united nations released on march 9, 2005, a plan for the development of sudan over the six years remaining between january's peace agreement and the vote in 2011, in which southern sudan will decide whether to break away from the north. the plan, titled "framework for sustained peace, development and poverty eradication in sudan," describes two phases, the first through 2007, the second through mid-2008. the first phase will focus on emergencies and the repatriation of refugees, while the second will consist of "major infrastructural programs", according to the sudan tribune.

while the majority of the $7.8 billion needed for the development described in the plan will come from sources within the country, the plan asks for $2.66 billion from other countries. according to reuters, the un's joint national transition team will hold a conference to ask for money in norway in april.




crosswords/2005/march/12

answers next week.


china launches its first private airline

china's first private airline okay airlines (奥?航空 aok?i hangk?ng) took off on its maiden flight today from tianjin (200km north of beijing) to changsha (in hunan province, central china) to kunming (in yunnan province).

the airline tried to start last saturday, but it had problems with the paperwork from the civil aviation administration of china (caac). the price of a ticket was cny 1,180 (us$ 143), but customers for the first flight got a 40% discount.

according to china daily, three more private airlines will exist: shanghai-based "spring international airlines", chengdu-based "eagle airlines", and gansu province-based "huaxia airlines". 


bbc's political show makes special edition from shanghai

the bbc's political debate show question time aired a special edition from shanghai yesterday. this was the first time that a political show from the west was made in china. the show was broadcast on bbc one and bbc world; however, it wasn't shown in china, as a condition of the programme amid fears that it would be inflammatory and present negative views of the government.

the panel contained the chinese politician liu jianchao,who is the chinese foreign ministry spokesman and long yongtu who is general secretary for the boao forum for asia, together with chris patten, the last governor of hong kong, isobel hilton, a writer who has a large knowledge of china & david tang, fashion designer.

the audience contained a mixture of chinese and westerners together with people invited by the government. the questions concerned, among other things, the next chief-executive of hong kong, china's attitudes toward taiwan, whether china has growing problems concerning spoilt children, the growing human rights question, and whether china will economically overtake america in 20 years time.

many members of the audience liked the show and hoped a similar show will be broadcast in china, in a few years time. the program, which was part of a week-long bbc focus on china, was hailed as a sign that china was becoming more liberal and accommodating to western media presence and involvement in china.



many infertile american women want sex selection

many infertile american women would choose the sex of their next child if given the option.

a survey of 561 women being treated for infertility has found that 41% would use sex selection if it were offered at no cost. 

contradicting fears that such sex selection would cause gender imbalance, the survey found that women with no children would choose baby girls and boys in approximately equal numbers.

furthermore, women with only daughters wanted to select a male child while women with only sons wanted to select a female child.

"sex selection is a topic that's almost taboo for physicians to talk about," says study lead author tarun jain of the university of illinois at chicago. "prior to this study, there has been no data to indicate what the demand might be."

of 561 survey respondents, 229 would want to select the sex of their future child. 

among these, 45% had no children and 48% had children of all the same sex. 

half would choose to select the sex of their next child even if they had to bear the cost. 

about 55% would choose sperm separation, 41% would choose preimplantation genetic diagnosis and 4% would choose neither.

sex selection is controversial. the american college of obstetricians and gynecologists opposes it for nonmedical reasons and so does the international federation of gynecology and obstetrics. 

the american society of reproductive medicine supports it for nonmedical reasons for family gender balancing provided methods used are safe and effective. 

"as the techniques gain more popularity, physicians will have to decide if they will offer the procedure to patients with and without children," says jain.

the research is reported in the journal "fertility and sterility".


judge threatened michael jackson with jail

an angry judge rodney s. melville threatened to issue a bench warrant for the arrest of world famous pop singer michael jackson if he failed to appear at the santa barbara county superior court in california thursday jan. 10, 2005. jackson is under indictment there on seven counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a child under 14, and two counts of administering an intoxicating agent. jackson, held briefly under the threat of jail by authorities on nov. 20, 2003 when charges brought against him were formalized, gained his freedom later that day by posting a $3 million bail.

judge melville, apparently frustrated with jackson who had in two earlier instances caused delays in his court room, issued the warrant just 5 minutes after noting the singer’s conspicuous absence at the scheduled 8:30 a.m. proceedings. jackson's defense lawyer, tom mersereau jr., advised the judge that jackson awoke earlier that morning with severe back pain and was under treatment at an area hospital at the time. the judge moved to give the celebrity one hour to appear or face arrest for contempt of court.

as word of the warrant threat traveled to the large news presence gathered outside, a media countdown began. during the countdown, live televised reports recounted how jackson had arrived for court 20 minutes late on his own arraignment for these charges, only to be met by a stern lecture from judge melville for that transgression. there was also another occasion where jackson, while recovering from flu symptoms, delayed the trial's jury selection for a week until he was well enough to return. the glaringly clear message sent by the judge was: bad back or not, jackson was to appear in court! and fast! only the televised scene of jackson's expectant defense lawyer mersereau with his assistant susan yu, both busy on cells phones while tensely waiting curbside beside the court house for the jackson motorcade, seemed to undermine a feeling that jackson would make it in time to avoid having his bail revoked.

as the deadline came and passed without jackson’s arrival, live reports were busy with speculation on the superstar persona of michael jackson then taking on newer aspects of super-bizarre. but jackson’s flair for tardiness showed itself with an arrival that was a mere 3 minutes after the judge was being forced to make good on his threat. dressed in a blue blazer over a light weight undershirt, the star's recent departure from the hospital was evident by the pajama bottom pants and open-heeled bedroom slippers he wore into the court room.

jackson had the assistance of his father and a body guard at each side to keep him steady as he gingerly walked into the santa maria court house. he listed slightly to the right and kept a fixed, distant face that was surrounded by uncombed strands of his long hair. the summons issued by the judge forced jackson from his hospital bed to show the world he was not above the law. 

in private chambers, judge melville met with both the prosecution lawyer, tom sneddon, and jackson’s defense lawyer to verify the defendant’s claims of back pain. after re-taking the bench in the court room, the judge announced to the jury they would proceed with the docket as planned. mr. jackson narrowly escaped prison, and the trial would continue where it left off on the previous day with direct testimony from the now 15 year old boy who accuses him.



uk &quot;terror bill&quot; passed after standoff

after an unprecedented thirty hour debate in the united kingdom between the elected government and the main opposition party, the conservatives, the "prevention of terrorism bill" was passed by the house of lords. 

despite the new legislation being passed, the conservative leader michael howard claimed victory, as the prime minister, tony blair, made a last minute compromise on several details of the bill.

the lengthy debate was the third longest in the history of the house of lords. the new bill will replace the current anti-terrorism, crime and security act 2001




us may not have known of sgrena rescue operation

the italian dailies la repubblica and corriere della sera are reporting that us forces may not have been informed of the operation to rescue kidnapped italian journalist, giuliana sgrena, in which the intelligence agent nicola calipari was killed by us troops.

the italian government disputes this account, and has said that the us was fully aware of the operation on march 4.

la repubblica is reporting that us forces were aware of italian intelligence agent nicola calipari's presence, but not the specific details of his mission.

speaking in the la repubblica newspaper, general mario marioli assisted those involved in the operation in baghdad, by obtaining a special badge for them from coalition forces upon their arrival. 

however, as the deputy commander of the coalition forces in iraq, marioli reported that he was unaware of calipari's purpose in iraq, so he could not tell coalition troops on the ground the details of the italian mission.

according to la repubblica, marioli reported that he "had no contact with us intelligence officers" prior to the shooting.


meath/kildare by-election turnout between 20-30%

early turnout for the two by-elections in ireland today was between 20% and 30%.

the two elections in the meath and kildare north constituencies are taking place to elect two new td's to the dail after the two former representatives; john bruton and charlie mccreevy, took up posts in the eu.

a large number of votes was expected in the last hour of voting, as commuters returned home from dublin. polling started at 9am and ended at 10pm. 

the votes will be counted beginning at 9am in naas and navan.



defendant shoots judge, three others at atlanta courthouse

a defendant on trial for rape in atlanta, georgia reportedly stole a deputy sheriff's handgun and used it to shoot the judge, court reporter, and two deputies friday morning. three people were killed and one was wounded.

fulton county superior court judge rowland w. barnes has been confirmed dead along with the court reporter and one of the deputies. after the shootings, the suspect reportedly attempted to carjack several cars in a bid to escape. he attempted to carjack a green honda accord with license plate 6584-yn, from a newspaper reporter, but eventually fled by other means. the reporter in question, don o'briant from the atlanta journal-constitution, was beaten by the suspect but was fortunate to receive only cuts to his face and a broken face from a fall.

the car was listed as being used by the suspect in public alerts across the area before it was realised that the car was in fact still in the garage of the courthouse.

the suspect has been identified as brian nichols, 34, who was facing a retrial for rape and kidnapping after the first trial ended with a hung jury. police are desperately searching for nichols, as he is considered armed and dangerous.

the suspect reportedly stole the handgun by overpowering a deputy sheriff while he was being taken into the courtroom by the deputy, said assistant police chief alan dreher. he then shot and critically wounded the female deputy, went to the courtroom where his trial was due to take place, and held about a dozen people at bay there before killing the judge and court reporter. he later shot and killed another deputy outside.

the deputy from whom nichols stole the handgun is now sedated and in critical condition after surgery and has a bruise in her brain, according to jeffrey salomone, an attending trauma surgeon at grady memorial hospital. although she was shot in the head, the bullet did not penetrate her skull, said salomone.


garry kasparov retires from professional chess

"chess is life in miniature. chess is battles, chess is struggles." said the longtime world champion garry kasparov at the height of his career. in a surprise announcement friday, the grandmaster said he will retire. he went public with his intentions from linnares, spain after winning a prestigious tournament there. the news comes as kasparov, now 41, declared an ambition to devote his energy into the politics of his native russia.

alternately known as brash, emotional and brilliant, the maverick kasparov could be a formidable opponent in the realm of politics. he will partner with the russian group known as the committee 2008 (komitet 2008), whose members are attempting to influence the 2008 russian election that will replace putin. the champion said he also wants to write books, with chess being among the subjects, but he will not play any more at the professional level.

always mercurial in defeat, kasparov lost his final game in tournament play in a stunning upset by veselin topalov of bulgaria. the upset did not take away his victory at the tournament, but his announcement came after being bitterly stung in defeat. 

at age 22, kasparov became the youngest person ever to hold the title of world champion when he won it from fellow russian, anatoly karpov, in 1985. the two players dominated the field until infighting in 1993 caused kasparov to break away from the w:federation internationale des Echecs (fide) and form the professional chess association (pca). in this forum he defeated british challenger nigel short. for a period of time, kasparov, of the pca, and karpov, who reclaimed the top spot of the fide, both claimed to be world champions. however, the ratings system developed by fide held that kasparov was the stronger player. the pca eventually fell apart in 1995.
in 1996, kasparov was at the top of his game, when a team led by ibm introduced deep blue, the strongest of a new class of chess playing computers. in a highly publicized face-off of man vs. machine, kasparov won the 6 game match. a year later, against an enhanced version of deep blue, he lost. he blamed the loss on a variety of factors, including fatigue against his tireless opponent.

while the machine found a new place in the chess world, and while a new generation of chess players favored "speed chess", where the fast pace of play does not allow for deep calculation, kasparov turned his attention to taking on the world.
the kasparov vs. the world online chess game in june 1999 brought together chess players from around the world in a cooperative effort to beat the reigning world champion. with more than 50,000 individuals submitting move votes, kasparov vs. the world was one of the largest interactive gaming events in history. kasparov won this match.



atlas v rocket launches with inmarsat satellite

a built v launch vehicle, successfully launched from , at 21:42 (4:42 p.m. ). it placed the inmarsat 4 f-1 communications satellite into orbit. this was lockheed-martin's second try to launch the satellite. yesterday's attempt ended in a scrub when the flight control computer passed a red-line with less than three minutes remaining in the countdown.

this was the fifth launch of the atlas v vehicle, and the first launch where the rocket used three of the first stage, aerojet built, solid rocket motors. it also had the narrower 4 meter payload fairing. 

for the first part of the flight, the rocket was powered by a common booster core with two rd-180 rocket engines plus three solid rocket motors. when their fuel was expended the solid rocket motors burned out and were jettisoned. 

the common booster core then continued pushing the payload and upper stage, with its two rd-180 engines producing 806,000lbf of thrust. the common booster core expended its fuel around four and a half minutes into the flight. at this point the first stage common booster core separated from the upper stage and payload.

after the stage separation, the centaur upper stage started its engine and burned for nearly ten minutes. during this burn, the payload fairing separated from the spacecraft, leaving the satellite exposed on the nose of the rocket in the vacuum of space. when the ten minute burn was up, the centaur coasted with the satellite for another ten minutes waiting to get to the optimal point for the final burn. at around 24 minutes into the flight, the final burn of the centaur stage occurred, placing the spacecraft in a super-synchronous transfer orbit. after this burn was complete, the centaur separated, leaving the spacecraft on its own. 

now the spacecraft must attempt to open its solar arrays and place itself in the final . because of this special type of orbit, where the spacecraft goes around once every 24 hours, the satellite will appear to sit in one place over the equator. from this location, inmarsat will use it to provide bgan (broadband global area network) which is a 3g compatible, 432kbit/s data service, to much of the world. 

the atlas vehicle was rolled out of its vertical integration facility 1800 feet from the launch pad early yesterday morning (before the first launch attempt). the reason for this launch day move is because of the clean pad concept. 

past american rockets (with the exception of the saturns and space shuttles) have always been assembled on the launch pad. in the case of a delay in launching, this would cause delays in all the rockets that needed to be launched after the one that experienced the delay. with the new clean pad concept, rockets can be assembled and checked out before being moved to the pad, saving delays in the schedule. 

the launch tower and rocket move out to the pad along a set of railroad tracks, making the 1800 foot journey in approximately half an hour, topping out around two miles per hour. 

because of the clean pad concept, none of the launch control electronics or spacecraft environmental systems are on the pad. instead, they are run along the railroad tracks with the rocket as it moves to the pad on launch day. when they get there, they slide into concrete enclosures so that they are not destroyed during the rocket launch. 



comedian dave allen dies aged 68

the famous irish has died aged 68. known as the "sit-down comedian," allen was among the first to base his dry wit humour around the comic practices of large organisations and institutions such as the . 

born in dublin in 1936, he later moved to england to pursue his career. he initially was a , but later entered comedy. his fame peaked in the 1970s and 1980s with the "bbc" tv shows "the dave allen show" and "dave allen at large."

he is survived by his wife karin, and their three children.



3 dead as man on trial for rape escapes

during the trial of a man yesterday for rape at an atlanta court house, the man on trial allegedly stole the gun of a nearby deputy and shot dead the judge, a reporter and another deputy. the suspect, brian nichols aged 33, was at court for the fourth day of his trial for numerous charges filed by a former girlfriend. nichols was being tried a second time after his first trial ended in a hung jury (8-4 for acquittal).

after fleeing the court house atlanta police assumed he drove away in the reporters car and issued a nation wide "look out" for the vehicle. the car was found later parked in the courthouse garage. he is still at large, and a massive police hunt is under way. the prior day to the incident, mr. nichols was found to have two handmade knives hidden in his shoes. georgia prisoners often make "shanks" to try to fend off gang rapes while in custody.

there is a bounty of $60,000 for any information leading to mr. nichols' re-capture.



criminals kidnapping mother of soccer players, in brazil

the mother of brazilian soccer player luis fabiano has been kidnapped. according to the television channel tv espn brasil, the kidnapping occurred friday, march 11, by morning in ponte preta district, campinas, of sao paulo.

the police are not giving too many details, and a great part of local media is not reporting the case, afraid of putting the life of fabiano's mother at risk.

this is the third kidnapping of a soccer player's mother in four months. on february 23, ilma de castro libanio, 51, the mother of the brazilian soccer player edinaldo batista libanio, 25, known as grafite was kidnapped. 

on november 6, 2004, the mother of robson dos santos, or robinho, was kidnapped.

in both cases, the hostages were released and they are well, and the police arrested the suspects. 



canadian airline jetsgo ceases operations; 17,000 stranded

jetsgo, canada's third largest airline, has ceased all operations because of spiralling oil prices and a federal safety investigation. 

the low-cost carrier had been expanding rapidly in recent months, having added four new routes in december alone. however, the sharp increase in oil prices has forced the airline to ground all flights. the airline, which has 1,200 employees and 29 planes, lost c$55 million (us$49 million) in the past 8 months alone.

the move has stranded over 17,000 passengers across its routes. a spokesperson from canada's transport department commented, "they'd grown too fast and it was putting strains on senior management."

no arrangements were made with air canada or other airlines to take care of their customers. the air canada web site stated that "no arrangements were made by jetsgo that would enable air canada to accept jetsgo tickets." 



us senate passes new bankruptcy bill

in a vote of 74-25 last thursday, the us senate passed a measure that would change laws, making it harder for individuals seeking relief from their debt burden to avoid repayment. almost twenty democrats joined republicans, who currently hold a majority of the seats in the us senate, in passing the bill.

lobbyists for credit card companies and financial services firms have worked for the bill during the last two administrations. a similar measure passed both the senate and house during the previous administration, but then president bill clinton the measure in 2000.

democrats sought to soften the bill by allowing bankruptcy filers to negotiate directly with lenders for relief, but the amendments were defeated by the republican-controlled senate. proponents of the bill claim the rise of bankruptcy filings to nearly 1.5 million a year shows that abusers of credit use the filings to shield themselves from irresponsible practices.

"there has been an explosion of bankruptcy," said iowa republican sen. charles e. grassley, the bill's sponsor. "we preserve the principle of a fresh start, but we also establish a principle that if you have the ability to repay some of your debt, you are not going to get off scot-free." however, massachusetts democratic sen., said, "this legislation makes the bankruptcy courts of the united states the collection agency for the credit-card industry." 

the bill impacts a broad spectrum of law, but the most significant impact is on personal bankruptcy filings. individuals who get behind in repaying credit card debt face high interest charges and stiff late payment fees. by only meeting minimum payment requirements, borrowers remit to the lender over the life of the loan an amount in interest and other fees that can far exceed the value of the principal balance of the loan. this can put consumers who run up high balances on various cards at financial risk of default. critics of the bill blame these aggressive lending practices as a contributing factor in the rising trend of bankruptcy filings from 1996.

the proposed bill doesn't only affect debtors with credit card debt.

it also affects debtors who have run up large medical bills.

patients with a past medical history that disqualifies them from full medical coverage, can easily find themselves facing insurmountable medical bills after just a short stay in the hospital. these individuals will no longer be able to get a fresh start after these personal disasters, and will be forced to live in poverty until they can pay off their medical bills as part of their chapter 13 filing. (prior to this bill, they would have been able to file chapter 7, completely discharging their debt.)

, which accounts for 70% of bankruptcy filings, allows individuals to eliminate most non-secured debts after liquidating assets, with the notable exemption of one's principle residence in most states. the senate passed bill would change chapter 7 eligibility by applying a means-test, where those with a median income higher than the state average would be required to file under provisions. under chapter 13 protection, an individual's debt is not forgiven; rather it is restructured for payment under more lenient terms.
this was the first major overhaul of federal bankruptcy law in many years.

under the old bankruptcy law, a personal bankruptcy attorney could not be held financially responsible for his clients mendacity. under the new bankruptcy law, the bankruptcy attorney is responsible for his client's lies to the court about his assets and the bankruptcy attorney and his insurance carrier can be held responsible by the bankruptcy court.

the result is that personal attorneys (this does not apply to corporate bankruptcy attorneys) are likely to flee the personal bankruptcy field when the new law takes effect. their companies will not offer the sort of coverage that they would need to continue to practice. 

so when consumers need to file personal bankruptcy under the new law, they will be unlikely to find a bankruptcy attorney to represent them. consumers will have to file pro se: such consumers will be likely to fail due to the complexity of the law.

the bottom line is that the field of personal bankruptcy law as a practice area of law will cease to exist when the new bankruptcy law takes effect, and consumers will be unable to secure legal counsel and so consumers will lose what legal protections counsel now affords them.

under the new bankruptcy law about one half million americans will be forest to pay for at lest 5 years on longer they will be held in servitude as chattel they will be completely subservient to a dominating influence of the company that holds the loan. their loan will be put on the market for sale for profit. the people will be forced to work harder. people who fail to go to court will have a arrest warrant made out in their name and people who refuse
to pay. they will be subject to fines and or jail. about fifty thousand americans will punished by a fine and or about three 
thousand americans every year will go to jail under the new bankruptcy law. for some people this will be a third strike they will be put in jail for life.

the bill has the support of president bush, and its passage in the house sometime next month seems likely. if enacted into law, lending companies will recover more money on what otherwise would be written off as bad loans. those persons of median and higher income seeking relief would be required to file under chapter 13 status and pay up to $100 per month under court imposed conditions. it is expected the proposed changes would cause a sharp increase in filings before the new law could take effect.



bin laden banished from islam in iberia

the spain islamic commission ? who is the guideline of the islamic religion in iberian territory ? announced a religious decree (fatwa) against the saudi terrorist osama bin laden, for whom the religion urges the expulsion of the islamic creed because of his criminal intentions and continuing to hide his violence and terrorist acts behind and within the islamic religion. islam advocates peace and brotherhood.

the commission secretary mansur escudero says that bin laden represents not only a danger for the spanish society in general, but also for the umma (islamic community) for using the message of muhammed with harmful intentions. the decree also extends to the members of the terrorist network al qaeda. according to the sentence they should not be considered as muslims anymore, but as apostates, according to sharia (canonical law).

while spanish muslims show solidarity with the victims of september 11 during their usual meetings inside mosques, at the same time al qaeda's radical arm in iraq urges to do more terrorist attacks against american targets and against the european countries established in iraq since april, 2003. the islamic group supporting osama bin laden is the wahhabi sect, headquartered in saudi arabia and principally funded by saudi princes. the wahhabis are found in many other nations.


british 13-year-old given life for rape of teacher

a british boy has been ordered to be detained for life for the rape of his teacher. he was just twelve years old when he attacked the teacher in county durham last november.

the crown court heard that the boy had attacked the female teacher after a one-to-one session, and then drove the teacher's car away from the scene before abandoning it thirty miles away.

the boy, who also suffers from learning difficulties, admitted to the rape in court.

the defence told the court how the boy had been the victim of sexual abuse since he was very young. at just three and a half, concerns had been raised over his 'sexualised' behaviour. by four, he had been encouraged to experiment with alcohol and cigarettes. 

but judge mr justice grigson told the boy: "despite your very young age, it is quite clear that you knew what you were doing." 

the judge told the boy that he must serve at least 21 months of his sentence but will most likely be behind bars for much longer. he will also be on britain's sex offender register for all of his life.

the agencies which should have protected the boy in his early life have launched an enquiry into their failings.



fbi suspect jesse james captured in rio after five years on the run

brazilian federal police arrested jesse james hollywood, aged 25, in saquarema city, rio de janeiro, on march 8.

james had been sought by the fbi for more than four years.

according to the police, he was living in saquarema with a woman who is pregnant. his arrest occurred while they were in a mall.

james was deported to the united states for trial. the two countries do not have a formal extradition treaty.

on friday, james appeared in a santa barbara, california court for arraignment on charges of kidnapping and murdering a 15-year-old boy.

james will plead not guilty, according to his attorney, james e. blatt.

blatt also criticized the portrait prosecutors had painted of his client.

"have you ever seen a 20 year-old mastermind? he was not the shooter. he was not at the scene," said blatt.

blatt requested that the trial be continued on april 4.


suspect in georgia courtroom slayings caught

the suspect in the triple murder at a courthouse in atlanta, georgia, yesterday surrendered to police after holding a woman hostage in her apartment overnight.

police believe the suspect, brian nichols, may also have killed a u.s. immigration and customs agent as he fled to the suburb of duluth northeast of the city. it is unclear whether the hostage ended her ordeal with nichols by escaping, or was simply let go, when she reported the incident to the 9-1-1 emergency service.

a multi-agency manhunt for the suspect ended this afternoon with a swat team surrounding the apartment of the former hostage. nichols was able to watch events as they unfolded outside the apartment on the television of his former hostage. charles walters, gwinnett county police chief, said nichols "literally waved a white flag or a t-shirt and came out to our folks."

the body of federal agent david wilhelm was found shot to death hours earlier about 15 miles from the scene of the arrest. police have not directly linked nichols to the murder, but note that the victim’s pickup truck, badge and pistol were missing.

vernon keenan, director of the georgia bureau of investigation, said of the woman who was held hostage, "it’s my understanding that he had told her, 'if you do what i say, i won’t kill you.'"

nichols has been taken into federal custody. the atf announced that they have charged him with possession of a firearm by a person under indictment, while they prepare to file additional charges.


gay play about jesus christ to open in brazil

brazilian plastic artist alexandre linhares has written and is producing a 75 minutes play titled "jesus pra cristo" (jesus for christ), containing homosexual themes and inspired by the rock opera "jesus christ superstar" by tim rice and andrew lloyd webber. 

in the play, mary, the mother of jesus is a transexual, jesus is a punk revolting against the society, mary magdalene is a drug dealer, prostitute and homosexual, james is hiv positive and homosexual. the cast includes homosexual and transexual actors.

the plot begins with a 15 years old transexual (mary) who sees a angel announcing she will conceive the savior of the world. later, jesus begins to do miracles during world war iii. followers go after him. jesus is charged with anarchism and condemned to death. 

alexandre linhares, the author, tells how the play idea was born:

the play is scheduled to open march, 18, as part of the theater festival of curitiba.


bright object falls from sky over northwest united states

a bright object was seen falling over the night sky across the pacific northwest, at about 7:45 p.m. pacific time march 12. eyewitnesses from as far south as northern california and as far north as vancouver, british columbia reported seeing the object falling in the western sky.

“the object began as a small white dot roughly the brightness of a planet, and quickly became a brilliant blue-green color with a long spark-like tail of yellow specks. from my vantage in southeast portland, oregon it moved roughly from south to north and at a 45-degree angle downwards through the sky. i also saw two flashes of white light as the object disappeared behind the hills on the west bank of the willamette river,” reported wikinews contributor .

it is not known if the object impacted, but it was witnessed to fall over the pacific ocean.

the last reported meteor impact in the oregon area happened in may 1981.



france beat ireland in rbs six nations

france yesterday ended ireland's dream of winning the grand slam - european rugby's top title. the rbs six nations clash, which took place at dublin's lansdowne road finished with the french team ahead on 26 points against ireland's 19.

after a french dominated first half, ireland had a glimmer of hope as brian o'driscoll managed to get a try almost from nothing mid-way through the second half, sadly for the homeside, it wasn't enough as france responded with a second try to take them to 26 ponits.



gaa: dublin too strong for westmeath

a rather unimpressive dublin side narrowly beat an even less impressive westmeath side last night in front of a capacity (10,000) crowd at dublin's parnell park to bag two points in the allianz nfl division 1a match.

the first half included a succession of poor wides by dublin's forwards, but westmeath failed to capitalise on the mistakes of their opponents, finishing the half with just three points.

the second half was a slightly better contest with a sudden burst of energy by the westmeath forwards producing several points to bring the game back to level pegging at 0-8 to 0-8. however with several chances squandered and consistently poor passing, westmeath fell two points behind in the final few minutes of the game.


pope john paul ii leaves hospital

pope john paul ii has returned to the vatican after spending two weeks in rome's gemelli hospital. the 84 year old pontiff had been in hospital recovering from throat surgery after having experienced breathing difficulties brought on by flu.

when he arrived back in the vatican, he addressed a large group of pilgrims from his tenth floor room. despite sounding quite hoarse, he managed to speak a few words ? first in polish then in italian ? to the audience below.



german supermarket chain uses fingerprint id for payment

the future of grocery shopping has changed in the palatinate region of germany. last november, the edeka supermarket chain offered in one of its rulzheim stores fingerprint identification as method of payment. customers can have their fingerprint put on file and begin using the system as an alternative to cash or card. customers then place their finger on the scanner to complete a purchase.

the supermarket owner roland fitterer claims the system shaves 40 seconds off checkout time and plans to introduce it into his other 5 stores.

internet and biometrics services provider, it-werke, is the technology company behind the effort. the supermarket is their third client to adopt what it-werke calls its digiproof technology.
there was sufficient interest among store customers that 100 registered to use the system. the chances are one in 220 million that two people have the same fingerprint.



chechnya chopper crash kills 15

a russian helicopter crash near grozny, chechnya killed 15 of the 16 servicemen aboard, leaving one seriously injured. the mi-8 helicopter hit a power line before bursting into flames when it struck the ground on thurs march 10.

video footage of the scene was broadcast by nty television. early speculation that the crash was the result of hostile fire seems doubtful at this time. investigators were able to recover the flight recorder to help establish the cause of the crash. russia has lost helicopters due to ground fire in the chehnyan region in the past, but pilot error or malfunctions have also been to blame.

interfax quoted a source within the russian military as saying the helicopter was transporting 7 intelligence officers being sent into the region for “anti-terorist activities”. 



syria affirms withdrawal intentions

un special envoy terje roed-larsen said in a telephone interview saturday from beirut that syrian president bashar al-assad made "a firm commitment" for a two-stage pull out of forces in lebenon. roed-larson met with the leader at his aleppo home late last week for talks on syrian intentions of following the un security council resolution 1559.

the us and french backed resolution calls for the complete withdrawal of syrian forces from lebanon and reaffirms lebanon's sovereignty and independence. it is hoped that the withdrawal will be completed prior to the lebanese election scheduled for early may.

a complete plan and time table for full withdrawal is not yet known. white house national security advisor, stephen hadley, said the united states is waiting for details of the meeting with the special envoy. according to a report in the washington post, the first part of a pull-out calls for one third of the troops to be either removed or relocated into eastern bekaa valley and to shut down intelligence headquarters in beirut by the end of march. then on april 7, a lebanese-syrian military commission will meet to discuss the removal of additional forces.

the washington administration seems prepared to accept a syrian withdrawal in phases, but is cautious of al-assad's pledges. hadley said on a 'fox news sunday' broadcast interview: "in the end of the day, it's going to be deeds, not words, that matter."

the assassination of lebanese former prime minister rafik hariri on feb. 14 galvanized anti-syrian opposition and foreign pressure that was calling for an end to the syrian presence. it is estimated their total military force is now 15,000, with an additional 5,000 intelligence assets, down from a high of 40,000 during years of syrian involvement. syria occupied lebanon beginning in 1976 when the country was at civil war. associated press and us intelligence reported significant troop movements out of lebanon beginning in earnest last week amid differing protest groups in beirut who marched both for, and alternately against, the syrian involvement.



romania to cancel trains on major line due to road works

romania's passenger train operator, cfr pasageri, announced today that several train services will be cancelled between march 17 and 20 on the main bucharest-bra?ov line. the cancellation is due to construction on the access road over the railway line.

cfr said that any trains running between bucharest and bra?ov, including those that proceed towards western transylvanian cities such as cluj-napoca and oradea, are to be cancelled, either for the whole route or parts thereof. the cancellation will only affect "intercity", "rapid" and "accelerat" trains.

the intercity services between targu mure? and bra?ov, as well as the rapid services between gala?i and bra?ov are also affected by the roadwork, as are international trains from budapest, prague and vienna, which go to bucharest via bra?ov.

for passengers who wish to make alternative travel arrangements, there are frequent private coach services between bucharest, bra?ov and beyond.


slovakia on track to adopt euro in 2009

slovakia is on track to meet its target of adopting the currency in 2009, claims , the european union's monetary affairs commissioner.

the main monetary figures and the fiscal situation "are going in a good direction," almunia said. "if things continue as they are today, i'm sure the slovak authorities will meet the target of being a member of the eurozone in 2009."

slovakia joined the european union last year along with other , , and mediterranean states. the of its has been one of the highest in the european union, recording 5.5% growth in 2004. almunia said that authorities should use this growth to curb the country's relatively high budget deficit, a necessary prerequisite for joining the euro zone.

before a country adopts the euro currency, it must dwell in the for two years, where its exchange rate relative to the euro, as well as its budget deficit and inflation, are closely monitored. for slovakia to adopt the euro in 2009, it must join erm ii in 2007. three new members, slovenia, estonia, and lithuania, have already joined erm ii and are on track to adopt the euro in 2006?2007.


dutch member of parliament proposes to abolish the cabinet

the dutch member of parliament geert wilders has finished his statement of principles, which sets out his political plans for the future. the 20-page statement is referred to as 'onafhankelijkheidsverklaring' (declaration of independence) by wilders. it is a continuation of a ten-point plan written by wilders and former colleague, gert-jan oplaat, and proposed to wilders' former party, the vvd.

the ten-point plan caused disagreement between wilders and the vvd, including a difference of opinion on whether to allow turkey to enter the eu. wilders left the vvd on september 3rd last year. he started a political party of his own, known as groep wilders (group wilders). though he did not have enough votes during the last election, he refused to relinquish his seat in parliament to the vvd.

in his statement, wilders proposed among others to abolish certain ministries. wilders also proposed outlawing the further creation of islamic schools and closing mosques that proclaim extremist views. furthermore, he proposed that the number of provinces be reduced from 12 to 4, the five islands of the antilles be expelled from the kingdom of the netherlands and the number of civil servants be cut by 50%.

because of his marked views, public opinion of wilders and his statement is strongly divided. as a result of his criticism of islamic extremism, wilders (along with ayaan hirsi ali) received several death threats, which are taken very seriously after the murder on theo van gogh by an islamic extremist last year and the assassination of political icon pim fortuyn in 2002. he is being held in a secure location, where he organises dinners for ?2000 to raise money for his campaign.


israeli general refused nz visa

israel's deputy chief of staff major-general gabi ashkenazi has been refused entry to new zealand, where he was due to attend a meeting of the united israel appeal in auckland last sunday.

an nz foreign office spokesman confirmed that a visa had been refused, linking the decision to the unresolved diplomatic row over the conviction of two suspected mossad members, uri kelman and eli cara, who attempted to fraudulently obtain a new zealand passport - new zealand is awaiting an official apology.

jews in new zealand are particularly upset, as the iranian foreign minister kamal kharrazi visited new zealand in august for talks with the nz government. iran's stated goals include the destruction of israel.

a spokesman for general ashkenazi's office in tel aviv perferred to say that the general had decided not to visit new zealand "for personal reasons", rather than admit to the denied visa.


padraig harrington wins first pga tour event; the honda classic

the irish golfer padraig harrington has won his first pga tour event, the "honda classic" at palm beach, florida.

at age 33, the irishman defeated the world's second-ranked vijay singh in a playoff on sunday to claim his first win on the pga tour. harrington had 11 birdies in the final round alone, putting him 9 under par, enough to secure the playoff against the fijian.

in addition to winning the $990,000 top prize, harrington became the first irishman ever to win a pga tour event.



protesters rally in beirut

dueling between protest groups continued yesterday in beirut at martyrs' square where hundreds of thousands demonstrated in opposition to syrian forces inside lebanon. it is estimated the rally consisted of nearly a million people, making it twice the size of the one organized last week by the shiite group hezbollah who call for syrian forces to remain in lebanon.

monday's rally also marks the one month anniversery of the assassination of former anti-syrian lebanese prime minister rafik hariri. crowds wearing colors of red and white to show their unity fell silent as church bells tolled at 12:55 in observance of his death and the hour it occurred.

protesters also sought to undermine support for prime minister omar karami, who was reinstated after the opposition movement had succeeded in forcing him out. karami, and president emile lahoud who reinstated him, are both pro-syrian. the sheer size of the demonstration that shouted chants of "freedom, sovereignty, independence" puts the momentum of the debate back on the opposition movement's side.

according to the associated press, the number of people attending this demonstration makes it one of the biggest anti-government protests in the arab world. if the police estimate of one million participants is correct, one in four inhabitants of the country attended the rally.
the us state department has dubbed the movement "cedar revolution."



cookbook is free reference work community's most active project

, an internet project which seeks to create free content textbooks using wiki technology, has published its february 2005 statistics. the project leads the statistics, both by number of contributors (94) and by total edits (668). newcomer of the month is "", with 337 edits by mainly one user, followed by "" (320 edits). seventy contributors edited on "", followed by sixty-eight users on the "". wikiversity is a project of its own which aims to build a collaborative learning environment online. 

wikibooks was originally meant as a place for textbooks and manuals but has increasingly become a community creating books on all kinds of subjects, with the cookbook being the most prominent example. intended as a "collection of recipes from around the world", it hosts recipes from to , ethnic cuisines from the to the , and gives background information on ingredients, nutrition, and many cooking techniques.

wikis are openly editable websites that are often used to create knowledge bases. wikibooks is a project operated by the wikimedia foundation, a non-profit organization based in the united states which runs several free content wikis, including wikipedia, a free encyclopedia, and wikinews, a free news source. the statistics for wikibooks are extracted using an sql query on the latest wikibooks database dump. 

top active statistics on wikibooks

"originally based on an anonymous ."


brazilian president party received money from farc, say documents

documents of the brazilian agency of intelligence (abin) say that the workers' party received 5 million dollars to be used by political campaign of candidates in 2002 from the colombian communist armed group revolutionary armed forces of colombia (farc-ep). the information was reported by the brazilian magazine veja that circulates this week in a headline story called "farc's tentacles in brazil".
according to the magazine, reporters had access to documents of abin that described the liaisons between the workers' party (pt) and the colombian guerrilla movement farc.

the workers' party (pt) is the party of the brazilian president luiz inacio lula da silva. pt is one of the biggest left-wing parties in latin america and at this moment the strongest and more organized party from brazil. it is one of the political brazilian parties that has the biggest and most active militancy.

abin's main document, number 0095/3100 of april 25, 2002, says that a meeting occurred on april 13, 2002, in a farm near brasilia. the meeting lasted about 6 hours, there were approximately 30 persons, among them the father oliverio medina, one of the representatives of the farc in brazil, and members of pt. a disguised abin's agent participated of this meeting and annoted everything.

according to the agent, during the meeting, father medina announced that he would donate 5 million dollars for politicians' electoral campaign of his choice.

abin agency has six documents that describe the liaisons between pt and the farc. among the six documents, 3 of them say explicitly that 5 million dollars donation for pt's candidates occurred. the money probably came from trinidad and tobago and went to 300 brazilian businessmen who distributed the quantity among the party's committees.

another document says that the brazilian congress employee and former-militant of the brazilian communist party (pcdob), maria das gracas organized the meetings with farc members. she is considered a personal friend of the farc commander knows as mauricio. maria said: "i know him [the commander mauricio] off course, and so what? i did not organize any meeting."

the militant antonio viana who was in the meeting said: "we have talked about everything, except money."

the colombian radio caracol says that, according to a research done by the colombian government, the farc invests next to 476 million pesos per years in activities in foreign countries. the official farc representatives for this work are: luis alberto alban, ovidio salinas, ricardo morantes, jairo alfonso lesmes, father oliverio medina, jesus carvajalino and liliana lopez. father oliverio medina is the name of who would be responsible for the intermediation between members of political parties in brazil and the farc.

sometime ago, the brazilian deputy alberto fraga (ptb) knew about the abin's investigation and denounced the scheme during a speech on the brazilian congress. in addition, he tried to open a commission to investigate the matter. nevertheless he did not obtain support to open the commission. the pt deputy luis eduardo grenhalg told him that he might be processed by government if he continued on commenting about the subject, says fraga. grenhalg says that he only suggested for fraga not spreading informations that were not real. 

the psdb candidate jose serra tryed to talk about the farc-pt liaison during the 2002 presidential campaign. however he was punished by the electoral court at that time.
the workers' party (pt) released an official statement signed by the national president jose genoino repudiating the magazine's article and denying all presented facts. part of the note tells:

the note says that the article is irresponsible, that it comments on facts without any sustentable evidence. it still says that the magazine denies itself when later in the text it affirms that it did not find any solid indication to proof that 5 million dollars were really sent to pt by the farc.

the note affirms that this kind of insinuation is not new and the party was already a victim of it before. it says that during the 2002 presidential campaign the candidate jose serra (psdb) was punished because his denunce was empty. the documents commented by the magazine date of april 25, 2002, epoch in which the brazilian president was fernando henrique cardoso. at that time there were many spies searching and collecting, like snakes, for situations that could prevent the free desire of the brazilian people to vote for the changes.

some members of the national congress are trying to begin a official investigation.

this is the second time, this year, that a south american government is criticized for alleged supporting relations with the farc. last month, colombia and venezuela almost entered in a war because of the arrestment of the alleged farc's chancellor rodrigo granda. colombia accused the government of venezuela of giving protection and support to farc's guerrillas. venezuela accused colombia of hurting his sovereignty. the two countries only entered an agreement after the intervention of the president of cuba fidel castro.

also this is the second time, in less than a month, that a political party from south america is accused of implication with the farc. on february, paraguayan authorities discovered cecilia cubas gusinky's body, 31 years, daughter kidnapped of the former-president of paraguay raul cubas in a hole, in Nemby, 29 km from the capital asuncion. members of the party patria livre were living in that place and they were considered to be the main suspects. osmar martinez, that belongs to the party, was arrested. according to the police, some time ago he had communicated by email with the farc chancellor rodrigo granda. in a interview martinez said that he supports a "brotherhood relation" with the farc.

a note from the workers' party (pt), of february 16, 2002 called 
"the truth about colombia and the farc - and pt" tries to clarify the relationship between the party and the farc. a portion of this note says that:

the note also criticizes the decision taken during the previous government, of fernando henrique cardoso, which did not recognized the colombian guerrillas of the farc diplomatically. according to the note that would not be a good idea, since the farc could win the war against colombia.

the note criticizes the support of the government of the united sates to colombia and affirms that with it the conflict tends to remain more violent and last more. in relation to the drugs, the note affirms that the pt is emphatic in the combat against the drug traffic. nevertheless it says that there are credit "contradictory informations" relating to the implication of the farc with the drug traffic.

the pt refuses to classify the farc as a terrorist organization. the party justifies the decision saying that it can act as mediator in the conflict, this way.

the farc is member of foro de sao paulo since 1990. according to the first forum final resolution, on july 4, 1990, the forum goal is "to improve proposals of united and consensual acctions".

raul reyes, farc commander described part of the farc relationship during an interview for the brazilian newspaper folha de sao paulo on august 24, 2003 . in the interview he said that he knew the brazilian president luiz inacio lula for the first time in san salvador during the foro de sao paulo. the farc commander affirms that the main contacts in brazil are the ones in the worker's party (pt) and in the landless workers' movement (mst). he says that farc has contacts among intellectuals, catholic priests, historians and journalists. among them there are carlos alberto libanio christo or frei betto (former lula advisor) and emir sader (writer). also he says that the affirmation that the farc produce cocaine is untrue.

the brazilian drug dealer luiz fernando da costa, also known as fernandinho beira-mar, was arrested by colombian army on april, 2001 in the city of maramduba, in colombia. with him there was also arrested the farc leader, acacio medina, or negro acacio ? o estado de sao paulo, on april 21, 2001.

in brasilia, beira-mar was interrogated by dea agents. beira-mar talked about his liaisons with the colombian guerrillas. the recording of this conversation was a key factor so the us government could request later the extradition of three other farc guerrillas. some details of this meeting were published by the colombian magazine cambio 

according to beira-mar, he was buying 600 kilos of coca, per week, for two million pesos from peasants. he was paying to the farc a million pesos for every processed kilo. he also said that he was giving weapons to the colombian guerrillas.

farc and eln delegates act in schools, labour unions and brazilian universities spreading ideas about the revolutionary movement. 

some of these meetings are organized by left-wing groups. one of the most
active of these groups is the "permanent committee of solidarity with the people in fight". the committee organized more than 40 lectures in sao paulo
according to the president of the usp workers labour union 

on august, 2001, representatives of the farc, took part of a meeting with the members of the socialistic youth of pdt .

on march 20, 2002 in ribeirao preto, a pro-farc committee was created by the secretary of sports at that time leopoldo paulino (psb), during the government of mayor antonio palocci filho (pt). palocci is the current minister of the finance , 

during a interview to the brazilian television channel eptv, yesterday, leopoldo paulino said that the comitte did not aim collect founds to the colombian guerrilla. he said that the committee is of solidarity with latin american people, engaged and militant. he said that he doesn't think that the farc need any other extra financial support. paulino said he has empathy by the guerrilla because they fight against the united states. he also said that he did not take part of the meeting described by the brazilian magazine and that he don't know father olivera medina. 

on 2001, farc commanders were received by the governor (at that time) of rio grande do sul, olivio dutra (pt) ,
. farc leaders were honored and acclaimed during the world social forum in porto alegre. olivido dutra is the current minister of cities. at that occasion, deputies of rio grande do sul congress protested against olivio. 

the brazilian press already have published stories about the relationship between the farc and the workers' party (pt). but, none of these previous stories was so emphatic as the recent one published by the magazine veja, this week.

however the magazine veja is cautious saying that although all the people and the dates cited by the abin agents were correct "the magazine did not find solid evidences to proof that pt received money from the farc". 

in the story, the magazine did not detail the participation of the farc on the foro de sao paulo, neither its activities in brazil. 

farc and pt have been in contact at least for about 12 years at least, since the farc joined to the foro de sao paulo in 1990. foro de sao paulo was founded after the falling of berlin wall by brazilian luiz inacio lula da silva and the cuban president fidel castro.

america libre is the name of a magazine published by some participants of the foro de sao paulo. the america libre magazine publishing conseaul is formed by pt members and other brazilian personalities: luis eduardo greenhalgh (pt), fernando morais, emir sader, roberto drummond, gilberto carvalho, leonardo boff, rubens paolucci jr, joao pedro stedile (mst leader), chico buarque de hollanda (singer), etc. also part of the publishing council is the farc commander manuel marulanda velez (tirofijo). . the former-president of the publishing council was carlos alberto libanio christo, know as frei betto, former lula's personal advisor and journalist.
activities of the foro de sao paulo usually are not not mentioned by brazilian media. even the story of magazine veja this week didn't say the name foro de sao paulo. instead the magazine preferred to use "a debate with political parties and social organizations of latin america and of caribe to discuss the effects of the fall of the wall of berlin." rarely the name foro de sao paulo is mentioned by brazilian news agencies. 

some journalists already denied the existence of the foro de sao paulo. luiz felipe de alencastro already wrote articles for the magazine veja. he is brazilian history professor in the university of paris. in october 30, 2002, during a talk for the council on foreign relations (cfr) in washington, a participant asked alencastro about the foro de sao paulo. alencastro answered: "it's interesting. you'll see, because i live, i mean, i live now in france. i had been living in brazil for 12 years. we never heard about this foro de sao paulo in brazil."
documents about the foro de sao paulo can be find in left-wing party websites.
, 
. pt talks about the foro de sao paulo in its documents 
at the website of the perseu abramo foundation, organization founded by pt, there is the speech of the president luiz inacio lula da silva during the meeting of the foro de sao paulo in havana, cuba. 

an article published in the communist party of brazil (pcdob) official webpage by the journalist and vice-president of pcdob jose reinaldo carvalho called "sao paulo forum - the convergence point of the latin-american and caribbean left" talks about the foro. pcdob is an ally and the party participates on the government .

in 2004, a group of journalist sent a proposal to the brazilian president lula asking for the creation of an inspector organism to control the conduct of the brazilian press. this organ would have power, according to the proposal, to censure journalistic works considered inappropriate. journalists could lost their professional licenses. , , , . 
the proposal was considered too authoritarian by other journalists who protested against it emphatically. the law had no support for its creation, in spite of the pressure exercised by the government, and by some journalistic sectors supporting the proposal 
one of the critics against the proposal was that the journalists who supported the idea (and that would be the ones who would fiscalize the media) were members of pt or pcdob.


judge strikes down same-sex marriage ban in california

superior court judge richard a. kramer struck down two california laws that limited marriage in the state to a union of opposite-sex couples. the ruling came one year after when it opened its city hall to same-sex weddings over valentine's day weekend through march 11 2004.

kramer said the two california laws violated the state's constitutional guarantees of privacy and a legal concept called due process - which tries to ensure each person is treated equally by the law. "the denial of marriage to same-sex couples appears impermissibly arbitrary," kramer wrote in the opinion released monday.

in his decision, kramer cited united states supreme court case law ranging from "" to "" in a step-by-step dismantling of legal arguments against same-sex marriage. including the following excerpts:

kramer, a catholic republican judge appointed by , california's previous conservative governor, issued a "stay" on his order, making it a tentative decision by delaying its implementation for 60 days to allow the same-sex marriage opponents time to file an appeal to his ruling. the case is widely expected to be brought before the california supreme court.

less than a year ago, the state's supreme court annulled more than 4,000 same-sex marriages which took place in san francisco county in 2004. the court did not rule on the constitutionality of same-sex marriages, but ruled more narrowly that san francisco mayor gavin newsom overstepped his authority by unilaterally deciding not to follow state laws he did not agree with instead of challenging the laws in court, which is the proper legal way to overturn or affirm laws in california and much of the united states.



beijing cracks down on manhole cover thefts

beijing's utilities are cracking down on manhole cover thefts by removing the incentive to steal them. a pilot program is using a new material with negligible recycling value in over 2,921 installations of various types.

"we are still looking for the perfect substitutes for the manhole covers," said city spokesman wang xin.
over 240,000 covers were stolen from beijing's streets in 2004, nearly half of the 600,000 installations scattered throughout the city.

the high recycling value of the metal used to manufacture the previous models led to a crime wave of thefts, driven by illegal scrap metal dealers who purchased them for approximately us$2.4 dollars.

the covers cost between us$145 and us$182 to replace.


taiwanese political parties propose &quot;anti-invasion&quot; laws

two taiwanese political parties of the independence-leaning "pan-green alliance" unveiled new bills today in response to the new "anti-secession" law passed earlier this week by the people's republic of china.

the democratic progressive party is expected to introduce a bill giving the president of the republic of china the power to take "non-peaceful" action, or other actions, to "safeguard taiwan's sovereignty and territory". the draft version of the law mandates that the taiwanese president must report to the legislature on any such actions within thirty days.

dpp caucus whip peter lin said that although the signatures of only thirty lawmakers are required to make the law valid, over fifty have already been gathered.

the seven-article draft law states that the taiwan issue is not a part of china's internal affairs, but rather that it is an international matter between nations. it goes on to state that it is necessary and urgent to quickly enact counter-legislation to deter mainland china's annexation efforts. it further calls for increased trust and understanding between the two sides, including greater trade, sporting, and cultural links.

the taiwanese solidarity union also proposed a new "anti-annexation" law. the eleven article draft states that "taiwan is already an independent sovereign state and it is not an issue for taiwan to declare independence or seek separation from china". it goes on to state that the government should call a referendum to amend the taiwanese constitution to safeguard taiwanese sovereignty. the draft law would also give the taiwanese president authorisation to resort to "non-peaceful means" to resist chinese aggression.

taiwanese independence has been a thorny issue in recent years, as some taiwanese politicians insist that the democratic island is a sovereign nation, and chinese authorities insist that it is a part of the prc.



china enacts historic &quot;anti-secession&quot; law

by a vote of 2896-0 (with two abstentions), the national people's congress of the people's republic of china has passed an "anti-secession" law designed to thwart taiwan independence. chinese president hu jintao quickly signed a presidential order to bring the law into effect.

the law provides a legal basis for china to use force, or "nonpeaceful means" as the chinese government has phrased it, against taiwan, should reunification efforts fail. 

chinese premier wen jiabao stressed that the legislation is aimed at achieving peace in the taiwan straits. 

speaking at a press conference following the law's passage, wen stated, "this law is meant to strengthen and promote cross-straits relations. this law is for peaceful reunification. it is not targeted against the people of taiwan, nor is it a war bill."

"this law is to contain and oppose taiwan separatist forces. only by containing and opposing taiwan separatist forces can the taiwan straits have peace," he added. 

the vote was broadcast live on state-controlled television and radio. the chinese xinhua news agency has taken the unusual step of setting up a special section on its internet site to explain the law and its ramifications from the chinese perspective.

chinese officials describe prc policy as being committed to peace to the maximum extent possible, while acknowledging limits to peaceful negotiation. a xinhua headline from the days leading up to the law's passage declares, "china pursues peace, but not at any price." 

wang zhaoguo of the national people's congress previously stated on march 8, "using non-peaceful means to stop secession in defense of our sovereignty and territorial integrity would be our last resort, when all our efforts for a peaceful reunification prove futile." added wang, "no one is more desirous of achieving a peaceful reunification than we are."

taiwanese politicians reacted with strongly-worded "anti-invasion" legislation, and vowed to call a one-million strong rally in opposition to the new law. 

the timing of the legislation comes at a delicate moment for u.s. secretary of state condoleezza rice, who is making her first trip to china in a few days.

"we do view the adoption of the anti-secession law as something that is unfortunate and not helpful to encouraging peace and stability in the taiwan strait," said white house spokesman scott mcclellan.


suspect in atlanta courthouse shooting appears at hearing

brian nichols appeared before cobb county magistrate judge frank cox on tuesday, four days after fleeing atlanta in a killing spree. the hearing took place inside a fulton county jail. accompanied by nineteen security officers and shackled at the hands and feet, nichols only words when asked if he had any questions were, "not at this time."

the 5 minute hearing was a formality to re-file charges of rape against him. he will be charged with 4 counts of murder and is currently being held with bond.

nichols allegedly shot the judge presiding over his rape trial along with two others present at the time in an atlanta courtroom. he then fled to a suburb outside the city. later that evening, it is allegeded he shot a us customs agent before taking a woman hostage in her own apartment, alluding the massive manhunt.

nichols ultimately let the hostage, ashley smith, go free. he surrendered peacefully to a swat team after smith alerted authorities.



ex-worldcom chief found guilty of all charges

a federal jury found bernard ebbers guilty of all nine counts in the indictment brought against him. the verdict was handed down by a new york jury after 8 days of deliberation on the former worldcom ceo and mastermind behind the accounting scandal that brought down the telcom giant. 

ap writer erin mcclam reports, "ebbers' face reddened.", as the verdict was read. sentencing is set for june 13 when he will face up to 85 years in prison.

ebbers testified in his own defence, saying he left the details of the company's accounting to others and that he had no knowledge of shady practices. but scott sullivan, ex-chief financial officer and key prosecution witness, directly linked ebbers to the fraud. he had agreed to co-operate with prosecutors in the hopes of receiving a lenient sentence for his own involvement in the fraud.

the demise of wordcom sparked a massive class action law suit by investors. the drastic plunge of worldcom's stock value cost upwards to $11 billion as the scandal unravelled. secuities fraud case filings stemming from the suits will probably break new legal ground whereby the actions of investment banks and public accounting firms will be called into legal question.



former worldcom chief found guilty of all charges

a federal jury found bernard ebbers guilty on all nine counts in an indictment for fraud, conspiracy and false regulatory filings. the verdict was handed down by a new york jury after 8 days of deliberation on the former worldcom ceo and mastermind behind the accounting scandal that brought down the telcom giant. 

ap writer erin mcclam reported that when the verdict was announced, “ebbers’ face reddened.”

sentencing is set for the second tuesday of next week when he could receive 85 years in prison for the conviction.

ebbers who took the stand in his own defence, said he left the details of the company's accounting to others and that he had no knowledge of shady practices. but scott sullivan, the ex-chief financial officer of the company and key prosecution witness, directly linked ebbers to the fraud. sullivan agreed to co-operate with prosecutors in the hopes of receiving a lenient sentence for his own involvement in the scandal.

the fall of wordcom sparked a massive class action law suit by investors. the plunge in worldcom's stock changed the capitalized value of the company in the range of $11 billion as the scandal unravelled. secuities fraud cases stemming from the suits will probably break new legal ground where the involvement of investment banks and public accounting firms who would normally check company irregularities will be called into legal question.



mother of the detroit tigers baseball player urbina was kidnapped by farc leader

venezuela recognized that the mother of ugueth urbina, maura josefina villareal, was kidnapped by the revolutionary armed forces of colombia (farc-ep) commander alvis patino, known as "el chiguiro". urbina is a venezuelan and a major league baseball right-handed closer who plays for the detroit tigers.

chiguiro has been captured on february 2005. a delegation of authorities from colombia was sent to venezuela, so he could be identified. now, after his identification, colombian officers expects he can be extradicted to colombia. in colombia, chiguiro is expected to be judged for the alleged crimes of kidnapping and murderer of the american missionaries sthephen everet and thimoty dike in 1995.

some venezuelan baseball players from the major leagues said that kidnapping is a new situation they must learn to live with. none of them said that the risk of kidnappings would prevent their return to venezuela. 

for years, venezuelan cattlemen near colombian borders say that they are victims of extorsion by farc forces. this is the first time that the venezuelan government recognizes that the farc is responsible by this kind of crime in venezuela. 

according to the colombian authorities, chiguiro is envolved with the exchange of drugs by weapons with brazilian traffic drug dealers. 


brazil defends china against human rights violation charges in un

last year brazil voted for china and helped to stop a discussion on the subject in un. the only latin american countries who favored china in 2004 were brazil and cuba.


uk chancellor of the exchequer makes 2005 budget speech

the united kingdom chancellor of the exchequer, the right honourable gordon brown pc mp, in a speech to the british house of commons today presented his ninth budget, what is very likely to be his last budget before the next uk general election. this opened the parliamentary debate on the 2005 finance bill, and was followed by responses from the opposition parties.

in a 48 minute long speech, the chancellor presented a budget of "tax cuts that are reasonable, spending that is affordable, and [economic] stability that is paramount", that was "the prudent course for britain". there were few surprises that had not already been indicated in his 2004 pre-budget report. the increase in the threshold on stamp duty was greater than that forecast by commentators, as was the amount of the council tax rebate to households with pensioners.

before the speech, commentators had speculated that the chancellor would increase the threshold for stamp duty on house purchases from ￡60,000 to ￡100,000 (the same increase that the liberal democrats had proposed in their alternative budget in february 2005), to reflect the increase in house prices over the past few years and to reduce the burden on first-time house buyers; and would not increase the duty on petrol. in his 2004 pre-budget report, the chancellor had committed to no increases in the duty on spirits, in advance of the duty stamps scheme scheduled to be introduced in 2006.

in his budget report, the chancellor announced that the threshold for stamp duty on house purchases would increase from ￡60,000 to ￡120,000, effective from 24:00 march 16, 2005.
in his budget report, the chancellor announced that the rates of duty on spirits, cider, and sparkling wine would remain frozen at their current levels.
in his budget report, the chancellor announced a 1 penny increase in the duty on beer, and a 4 pence increase in the rate of duty on wine, effective from march 20, 2005.
in his budget report, the chancellor announced a 7 pence increase in the duty on cigarettes, effective from 18:00 on march 16, 2005.
in his budget report, the chancellor announced a refund of the vat incurred by local councils in expenditure on childrens' services; and an extension of the refund, of 100% of the vat incurred by church renovations, to 2008.
in his budget report, the chancellor announced the deferral of the increases in the duty on most fuels, to september 1, 2005.
in his budget report, the chancellor announced that there would be no increase in the rate of vehicle excise duty.

in his 2004 pre-budget report, the chancellor had announced a payment of ￡50 to households with someone aged 70 or over in 2005.

in his budget report, the chancellor announced a council tax credit of ￡200 for households with someone aged 65 or over in 2005.
in his budget report, the chancellor announced that income tax allowance would increase from ￡4745 per annum to ￡4895 per annum.
in his budget report, the chancellor announced that the rate of capital gains tax was remain frozen at its current level; and a raise in the inheritance tax threshold from ￡260,000 to ￡275,000, from april 6, 2005.
in his budget report, the chancellor announced that the rates for corporation tax and company car tax would remain frozen at their current levels.
no further changes to the savings threshold for benefits elegibility had been expected. in the 2004 budget, the chancellor had already announced that the threshold would increase from ￡3,000 to ￡6,000 from april 4, 2005. in his 2004 pre-budget report, the chancellor had announced

in his budget report, the chancellor announced that child tax credit would rise by 13% over 3 years, to ￡63 for the first child and ￡111 for 2 children, and that child benefit would rise to ￡17 per week.
in his budget report, the chancellor announced a ￡200 winter fuel allowance in 2005 for pensioners.
in his budget report, the chancellor announced 
in his 2004 pre-budget report, the chancellor had announced the extension of the length of maternity leave from 6 months to 9 months, beginning in april 2007.

stating that he had augmented his budgetary goal of "forg[ing] a british way to stability" with a goal of "forg[ing] a british way to success", in his budget report, the chancellor announced 
in his budget report, the chancellor announced that paid maternity leave would be further extended to 1 year.
in his 2004 pre-budget report, the chancellor had 

in his budget report, the chancellor announced that the ￡7,000 higher subscription limit on isas would be extended to april 2010, one year further than that indicated in the pre-budget report, increasing the maximum total tax-free saving over the lifetime of such accounts to ￡100,000.
in his budget report, the chancellor announced that pension credit would increase by 13% to ￡119 per week.
in his budget report, the chancellor announced an increase in spending of ￡3.5 billions on police and law & order in 2007/2008 compared to 2004/2005.
in his budget report, the chancellor announced an increase in spending of ￡23 billions on health in 2007/2008 compared to 2004/2005.
in his budget report, the chancellor announced 
in his budget report, the chancellor announced new compensation payments to servicemen and servicewomen who are injured in the line of duty, and a scheme that would not penalize them for continuing to serve. he reported that defence spending related to the conflicts in iraq and afghanistan had amounted to ￡4.9 billions.
in his budget report, the chancellor announced that the construction of a memorial to the queen mother would be funded by the issuance of a new coin, commemorating the queen mother's 80th birthday.

in a speech lasting 16 minutes the leader of the conservative party, the right honourable michael howard qc mp, repeatedly accused the chancellor of presenting a "vote now, pay later" budget. mr howard stated that he agreed with the prime minister that this would be "the last budget that this chancellor will ever deliver".

mr howard began by welcoming "the chancellor back to the general election campaign", and throughout his response made frequent references to the chancellor of the duchy of lancaster. he stated that the conservative party's policy would be to give pensioners a ￡500 council tax rebate in 2005.

expanding upon his "vote now, pay later" theme, mr howard stated that "this chancellor has got form", describing mr brown's 2001 pre-election budget as "a vote now budget" and mr brown's 2002 post-election budget as "a pay later budget". mr howard also questioned the accuracy of the forecasts in the budget report, accusing it of being a "dodgy budget based upon dodgy numbers", and pointed to mr brown's budget reports in previous years where the forecast in the budget report had been for a surplus of ￡58 billions but where there had actually turned out to be a deficit of ￡41 billions. mr howard accused "the chancellor's forecasts of surpluses" of being as unreliable as "the prime minister's forecasts of weapons of mass destruction".

in a speech lasting 15 minutes, the leader of the liberal democrat party, the right honourable charles kennedy mp, emphasized themes of "social justice" and "fairness", and contrasted liberal democrat budgetary policies with those of the labour party and of the conservative party. 

mr kennedy began by pointing to the "favourable backdrop" against which mr brown was publishing his budget, stating that one of the reasons for the favourable economic circumstances was the implementation by the labour party of the liberal democrat policy of an independent bank of england.

accusing mr howard and mr brown of engaging in a "dutch auction" with respect to council tax rebates for pensioners, and of both ignoring the "ticking bomb" of council tax revaluation that would markedly affect people's council tax bills, mr kennedy stated the liberal democrat policy of scrapping the council tax entirely and of instead bringing in a system of local income taxation. mr kennedy characterized the council tax rebates as a "quick fix for this year only", and contrasted this with local income taxation which he characterized as being one that "pensioners benefit from every year". mr kennedy also questioned why the national audit office would not have "access to mr brown's books", for checking the assumptions made in the budget report, until the end of the year.

further outlining the liberal democrat aims for "social justice" and "fairness", mr kennedy accused the state pension system of being one that is "iniquitous" for women, whom he said both lose national insurance credit as the result of time taken off work for starting and raising families and who have to rely upon the state pension more because of their greater life expectancy. mr kennedy also stated that the poorest 20% of people in britain pay more, as a proportion of their income, than do the richest 20% of people.

mr kennedy concluded by pointing to the lack of any mention of the environment in mr brown's speech, which he termed a glaring "sin of omission", and by describing the liberal democrat presentation of its taxation and spending policies as being one of "that's who'll pay it. that's what it will cost. that's who'll benefit.", and accused the labour party of, by contrast, making pre-election promises in the past to not raise income tax, only instead to raise national insurance contributions after the election.



vodafone buys connex and oskar

vodafone, the world's largest mobile telephone company, has bought romanian operator connex and czech operator oskar in a deal worth 2.6 billion euro. both connex and oskar were majortarily owned by telesystem international wireless group, a canadian corporation. while officials from the companies did not make public the individual value of the two operators, it is expected that most of the 2.6 billion euro was paid for connex, which has a market value of 1.5 to 2.3 billion euro.

the takeover of connex is said to be the biggest deal in romania in 15 years. before the takeover, vodafone owned 20.1% of the company, while now it owns 99.1%, the remaining 0.9% being owned by a cypriot company.

arun sarin, the ceo of vodafone, said "i am delighted that [connex] and oskar, both fast growing mobile operators, will become part of vodafone."

connex is romania's second-largest mobile telephony operator, with more than 4.9 million customers at the end of 2004 and nearly 50% market share. it is also one of romania's most recognised and successful corporations, and one of europe's fastest growing mobile phone operators. oskar has 1.83 million customers and is also growing at a fast rate.


suspect in atlanta courtroom shooting gets hearing

brian nichols appeared before cobb county magistrate judge frank cox on tuesday, four days after fleeing in a killing spree. the hearing took place inside a jail. accompanied by nineteen security officers and shackled at the hands and feet, nichols only words when asked if he had any questions were, "not at this time."

the 5 minute hearing was a formality to uphold the rape charges against him. he will be charged with 4 counts of murder and is currently being held with bond.

nichols allegedly shot the judge at his rape trial along with two others in an atlanta courtroom. he then fled to a suburb outside the city, where later that evening he shot a us customs agent before taking a woman, ashley smith, . smith was held by nichols in her own apartment for 4 hours while he eluded a massive .

nichols ultimately let smith go free. he surrendered peacefully to a team after she alerted authorities.



mars studies find water

studies of mars point to evidence of the presence of liquid water on the planet's surface and a vast amount of underground ice near the equator within the past few million years. liquid water is believed to be a key ingredient for life, therefore the presence of water on mars helps support chances of extraterrestrial life, reported the journal nature today. in the studies, strong indications of glacial and volcanic activity were presented. the combined research on this subject, including a study in december 2004 indicating that five volcanoes were active as recently as two million years ago, justifies further search for signs of life on mars scientists say.

a few million years is a mere minute on the geological timescale of mars which has been around for 4.5 billion years.

the scarred surface of mars cannot be attributed solely to asteroids. new images of the landscape taken by the high resolution stereo camera (hrsc) on the european space agency's mars express mission show that flowing water, large glaciers and active volcanoes have also taken their toll on the face of mars.

some evidence collected by two mars rovers that nasa sent to explore the planet shows that mars was hotter and more humid millions of years ago than it is today. also important were active volcanoes that can stimulate the forming of microbial life as they do here on earth. scientists recently discovered bacteria near the mouths of undersea volcanic vents on earth where bacteria live off sulfur instead of oxygen and discharge methane as a by-product of their life cycle. though controversial, the discovery of signs of methane gas in mars' atmosphere also interests researchers who believe it indicates the possibility of subsurface life.

geologist james head of brown university led a group of researchers who examined landforms thought to be glacial during the viking program in the 1970s. they found evidence that glaciers moved from the poles to the equator between 3.5 and 4 million years ago, suggesting that mars is currently in an interglacial period. 

a third study looked at an area of frozen water roughly the size of the north sea that formed near the equator around five million years ago. it is now thought that the ice was once liquid water carried along by volcanic eruptions in a region known as cerberus fossae.

researchers have long assumed water on mars had all evaporated into the martian atmosphere. a 1991 hypothesis, then considered outrageous by suggesting mars was no stranger to floods, is now supported by recent findings. the hrsc data suggests water is still present both in liquid form and ice. mars express will deploy a special radar instrument in early may which should be able to detect water and ice even several miles beneath the surface.

should water be found on mars, the chances of finding life are great. many extremophiles, bacteria living under extreme conditions such as extreme salinity or heat, have already been discovered on earth. in february 2005, scientists announced the discovery of bacteria that survived in a state of frozen suspension for 32,000 years. 

likewise on mars, a sample of ice could offer great insight into the evolution of the martian environment and atmosphere. these discoveries may offer a great chance to get objective evidence for mars research.




the woodcraft folk loses subsidy

london ? the woodcraft folk, a british socialist inspired youth organisation, lost its government subsidy of gbp 52 000. the department for education and skills said the organisation's claim for a grant lacked detail and that they did not have “sufficiently robust outcome indicators”, meaning that it did not represent a “good value for money”. this is the first time in 40 years the group was denied funding by the department.

loss of the grant puts the future of the organisation in doubt. the grant money provides a fifth of the funds that helps pay for its full-time staff and headquarters. the rest comes from donations, subscriptions and a grant from the co-operative group

some members of woodcraft folk have charged that the real reason the funding was stopped is the group's strong support against the iraq war. it has helped lead some of the anti-war movements. 

it now plans to mount a campaign to get the funding back.

the woodcraft folk started in 1925 as a socialist and co-operative alternative to the scouts, who were seen as increasing militaristic in the years immediately after the first world war. 



mao-style suits fading away in china

the famous "", prominently worn by chinese leaders in the decades following that country's , is on the verge of disappearing from china, as the fashion-conscious younger generation shuns the previously common style in favor of the latest apparel offered by modern designers.

china's president hu jintao was last seen in a green mao suit while visiting a military base during the .

during the recent gathering in beijing, sun fucai, manager of the official red capital clothing store, reported that mao suits made up only five percent of his sales.

one shopkeeper near beijing, hu bixing, sells mao suits, but hasn't worn his own mao suit for about ten years. he says they are "...so out of fashion."

in china, the style of dress is still worn by older urban dwellers, and many farmers still wear the hat which typically accompanies the suit, called a "liberation" cap.

the mao suit has a long history in china, going back to 1912, when it became known as a "zhongshan suit", because , or sun zhongshan as he is more commonly known in chinese, popularized the style as the president of the republic of china. it was later made famous by the during his reign as the leader of china.

one mao suit owner remembers purchasing what for him was a very expensive version of the suit when it was more popular several decades ago.

"i haven't worn it in 20 years," said government-employed driver zhang xiaotong. "if i put it on today people would look at me like i was a bit odd."


50 italian parliamentarians call for global summit for &quot;a new financial architecture&quot;

a letter and motion to be debated by italian parliament this week calls for action to address speculative bubbles and potential future financial crashes in the global economy. the motion asks for a global summit similar to the 1944 bretton woods united nations monetary and financial conference, which gave us the imf and world bank.

the letter raises questions about the sustainability of current financial trends, based on the highly speculative nature of today's markets. for example, according to the letter, "it is estimated that the entire financial bubble, counting all financial derivatives and all other forms of existing debt, is equal to about $400 trillion, compared to a worldwide gdp of slightly more than $40 trillion".

last years collapse of italian dairy company parmalat, with "14.3 billion euros that must still be accounted for", is given as evidence for "a lack of effective tools and controls regarding financial operations". enron, which famously collapsed in november 2001 revealing faudulent accounting practices from previously respected accounting firm arthur andersen, is given as another example.

oddly, the largest collapse on record, that of worldcom, is not mentioned, though the set of examples is not purported to be exhaustive. a number of other crashes are mentioned: the ltcm fund, argentine bonds, cirio, and finmatica.

the motion, linked to supporters of the lyndon larouche movement, is signed by parliamentarians lettieri, soro, delbono, tolotti, widmann, villani miglietta, rosato, albertini, morgando, diana, luigi pepe, damiani, ostillio, de brasi, maccanico, carbonella, paola mariani, grandi, pistone, giovanni bianchi, giacco, benvenuto, piscitello, camo, realacci, squeglia, rocchi, iannuzzi, intini, meduri, santino adamo loddo, boccia, villari, chianale, siniscalchi, sandi, cusumano, cennamo, annunziata, rotundo, bonito, buemi, pennacchi, fanfani, tarantino, rodeghiero, angioni, detomas, and nesi. 

debate was scheduled for march 14-18.


cuba defends china-taiwan reunification

the government of cuba said that it will give total support to the principle of "one china", as expressed by the people's republic of china government. 

the statement released on march 14 (monday) by the cuban ministry of foreign affairs expressed strong disapproval of any external attempt to obstruct the chinese objective of reunifying their country. according to cuba, taiwan is an inalienable part of china and the cuban government rejects any attempt to consider taiwan as an independent territory.

the note mentions the principle of territorial integrity established in the un charter and in resolution 2758 passed by the general assembly of un in 1971. resolution 2758 replaced the republic of china with the people's republic of china as china's representative in the un.


flexible displays soon to be in production

roll up displays for use in hand-held gadgets will be available for mass production by march 2007 according to co-developer philips. working with us based paper pioneer e-ink, philips have developed a 13cm wide screen which is just 0.1 millimetres thick and can be rolled up so that it is only 15 millimetres in diameter. 

the screen, which philips hope to license to makers of in-car satellite navigation systems, mobile web browsers and smart phones, uses no back light and displays a monochrome image in four shades of grey as well as black and white. according to philips the screen is able to give a “paper-like contrast”.

the screen consists of a backing layer of plastic film which contains a matrix of transistors. this is topped off with layer transparent “electronic ink” capsules and a layer of clear plastic. the capsules are approximately 50 micrometres in diameter and contain polarised black and white particles. using the transistors, a pattern of positive and negative charge can be applied which manipulates the particles to form monochrome images.



actor robert blake acquitted

visibly relieved and sobbing as the verdict was read, robert blake was acquitted on all counts and walked out of the courtroom yesterday a free man.

charged with murdering his wife, the jury acquitted blake due to lack of evidence. he was also charged with two counts of soliciting to have his wife bonnie lee bakley killed. the jury acquitted him on one count, and the judge dismissed the second after the jury became deadlocked in an 11-1 vote.
he was greeted by a crowd of cheering supporters outside the courthouse. the star of the television series "baretta" crushed out one of his trademark cigarettes and spoke to the gathering, thanking his lawyers and private investigators who he described as, "this small band of dedicated warriors that saved my life."

in a speech that lasted 30 minutes, he talked of having to spend $10 million for his defense and said that he was now a poor man who needed a job. the 71 year-old actor also said he was ready to "cowboy it...get in a motor home or van, feel the wind in my hair and find a little bar in arizona or someplace."

the prosecution, which did not seek the death penalty, painted blake as caught in a loveless marriage with bakley. tricked into marrying her by his love of their daughter rosie, now 4, they claimed that he had felt trapped by a woman who had a history of being a low-life grifter. they alleged that blake, frustrated after trying to find someone to kill his wife for him, killed her himself. they also claimed that he was the trigger man who, after dining with his wife in their favorite restaurant, put two bullets in her head as the two of them sat in their car outside. 

the jury foreman in the trial, thomas nicholson, described the prosecution case against blake as "flimsy." he said "they could never connect all the links in the chain. we couldn’t put the gun in his hand." blake's defense team was also able to successfully discredit witnesses who testified on the solicitation charges.



tibetans demand that china release panchen lama boy

tibetan activists are demanding that the people's republic of china release gedhun choekyi nyima and his family. nyima, aged 16, is considered the 11th by tibetan buddhists. the pachen lama is the second-highest figure in tibetan buddhism.

tibetan activists say that nyima and his family were kidnapped by chinese authorities on may 17, 1995, just days after the boy was recognized as the of the 10th panchen lama by the dalai lama. at that time the boy was 6 years old. human rights groups claim that he is the youngest political prisoner ever.

the whereabouts of nyima and his parents are unknown. the chinese government claims to be protecting them because of death threats they have received and say that the boy is in school and that he and his family are happy.

tibetans don't believe the government's version of the events and are campaigning for the panchen lama to be released. 
after the arrest of the panchen lama, china named a rival boy, gyancain norbu, the son of a communist, to the office. the new boy is not well supported by most parts of the tibetan community.



dog owner to face felony charge

two dog attacks in a week puts spotsylania county authorities in the spotlight to take action on pet owners for their dog's behavior. in unrelated incidences, an elderly woman was killed and another woman was bitten. three dogs have been shot dead by police.

an 82 year old woman was walking her shih tzu breed of dog in her front yard last week when she came under attack by three pit bulls. she died being transported to the hospital after police responded and shot two of the attacking dogs. they later captured the third dog and euthanized it.

more recently, a 31 year old woman was bitten on her hand during a fight that ensued between two pit bulls in her back yard. the responding police officer shot the aggressor dog.

public outcry over the death of the elderly woman stirred procecutors to charge the dogs’ owner, deeana large, with involuntary manslaughter. this is a first for the commonwealth of virginia where charges that carry a maximum penalty of 10 years are leveled in a case involving a pet's owner. in order to gain an indictment, prosecuters will have to prove the dogs' owner was criminally negligent. in the biting incident, the attacking dog’s owner faces a misdemeanor charge of letting the dog run at large.

deeana large, who initially said she owned only 1 of the 3 dogs involved in the mauling case, has not yet been formally charged and awaits indictment. investigators in the case say there were earlier reports of her dogs allegedly killing a german shepard and a kittten in her neighborhood. complaints by neighbors spurred an animal control officer to be looking for the dogs at the time the woman was killed.



communists protest arrest of farc chancellor rodrigo granda

rodrigo granda, also known as ricardo gonzalez, was arrested by colombian forces on december 13, 2004.
the communist group revolutionary armed forces of colombia (farc) claims the arrest is illegal, since granda was in venezuela for purposes related to his work as a international farc delegate. however, the colombia government does not recognize the farc as a legitimate political group and accuses the farc of terrorism and drug trafficking.

according to a note released by the farc, several communist parties are showing solidarity with the farc by protesting the arrest of rodrigo granda. in addition, they criticize the extradition of the farc commander simon trinidad to the united states of america.

the political parties are:communist party of greece,
portuguese communist party,
communist party of the people of spain,
communist party of spain,
new communist party netherlands,
communist party of ireland,
workers party of ireland,
party of italian communists,
socialist alliance party- romania,
party of communists of cataluna,
communist party of argentina,
union of communists of ukraine,
french communist party,
tudeh party of iran,
communist party of malta,
new communist party of britain,
communist party in denmark,
communist party of norway,
communist party of luxembourg,
communist party of usa,
communist party of britain,
communist party of tadjikistan,
communist party of israel,
communist party of denmark,
bulgarian communist party “georgy dimitrov”,
communist party of poland,
colombian communist party,
communist party of chile,
party of communists (mexico),
party of the communist refoundation,
communist party of turkey,
communist party of canada,
communist party of finland,
romanian communist party,
workers communist party of bosnia and herzegovina,
socialist party of latvia,
democratic progressive tribune- bahrain,
sudanese communist party,
japanese communist party,
communist party of estonia,
communist workers party of russia,
communist party of brazil,
communist party of jordan,
party of democratic socialism, germany,
communist party of albania,
the party of labor (emep) turkey,
communist party of venezuela,
communist party of slovakia and the 
communist party of egypt.

on january 2005, several intellectuals had already protested the arrest of rodrigo granda.


mccartney campaign changing minds about ira

the late robert mccartney's five sisters are visiting the united states in an effort to place pressure on the ira. they are meeting with ted kennedy and other political leaders to gather support. they are also meeting with president bush on st. patrick's day, and will give him a dossier. they accuse ira members of killing their brother during a brawl in a belfast bar in january. sinn fein is also alleged to have attempted to cover up the incident by at least one of the women.

catherine mccartney said to the bbc, "we have to be very careful that we're not being used by anybody and that includes sinn fein and all political parties, we're not stupid women... we get the impression that someone thinks out there that somebody's behind this, pulling our strings. the only person behind this is our robert and he is the person pulling our strings."

in response to the killing, the ira expelled three of its members and sinn fein expelled seven. also, the ira offered to shoot the men responsible for the killing, an offer which the mccartney family declined.

two sinn fein candidates were in the bar on the night of the killing.



maradona honored with the keys to cartagena

the former argentine soccer player diego armando maradona, aged 44, was honored with the keys to the colombian city of cartagena. 

maradona is in cartagena recovering from stomach surgery he had to reduce the size of his waist. the surgury was necessary because maradona is suffering of severe obesity problems which may put his life at risk. he is 5 foot 6 inches (1.67 meters) tall and weighs 267 pounds (121 kg). 

the argentine was grateful for the homage and showed good humour:
"i want to thank the mayor for giving me the keys to the city. even though i do not have the keys to my own house, i have a key to the people, like those of cartagena, and it fills me with pride." 

he added: "i offer my thanks in my own name, in the name of my two daughters and that of my whole family. thank you cartagena and thank you colombia."


brazilian abin director: no proof linking farc money to pt

the head minister of the institutional security cabinet of brazil's general jorge felix, and the director-general of the brazilian intelligence agency (abin), mauro marcelo de lima e silva say that the documents mentioned by the brazilian magazine "veja" may be incorrect. last weekend, "veja" reported that partido dos trabalhadores (or pt), the brazilian ruling party and the party of president luiz inacio lula da silva, received 5 million dollars from farc in its 2002 political campaign. the magazine used documents gotten from abin itself as a source in their reporting.

felix testified before a commission of deputies and senators to explain the allegations published by "veja". his statements make the possibility of a congressional investigation commission, as suggested by the deputy alberto fraga (ptb), unlikely. the leader of the government, aloisio mercadante, said pt will prosecute fraga for defamation and that he considers the case finished.
the official abin version is stated on its website. the agency stores and archives all data collected by the intelligence service. even data that does not fulfill all the abin criterion for consistency and veracity remain in the abin archive so they can be re-evaluated in the future. according to felix, abin archives may contain data that are not relevant, tendentious or even completely untrue. the documents mentioned by the magazine "veja" are a kind of this material. since abin cannot guarantee the veracity of these data, they should not be reported.

the general didn't say whether or not abin confirmed the meeting between farc delegates and pt members as stated in the documents. "i can't speak about that in front of the press", he added, explaining that the documents are a state secret.

the magazine "veja" was very cautious when it reported the story. the article says that they did not find solid evidence to prove that pt received money from farc. "veja" investigated the facts described in the documents and admitted the donation could be untrue: 

although they found no solid proof relating the money transaction, and although the magazine considered the abin's documents might be untrue, "veja" said the documents were consistent enough to be sent to the president: 

some deputies demand further investigations of alleged farc activities in brazil.
the brazilian deputy arthur virgilio (psdb) said: "these investigations cannot stop... i give to pt the benefit of doubt as an institution. however the ideologic political relationship is evident." the brazilian deputy antero paes de barros (psdb) said: "there must be more clarifications because the state interest is high in this case". 

the farc and pt are part of the foro de sao paulo organization created by cuban president fidel castro and luiz inacio lula da silva to discuss new strategies for the left in latin america after the fall of the berlin wall and collapse of communism in .

pt admits that some of its members have met farc members in the past, but maintains the farc donation are untrue. the party said if evidence showing its members received money from the farc was found, that member would be expelled from the party. they also said if a donation occurred, it would be confirmed by the brazilian central bank's records, and it has not. pt believes the alleged party relationship with farc is being used by the political opposition in negative propaganda. 

according to the president of the joint congressional commission for the control of intelligence activities, senator cristovam buarque (pt-df) the investigation is finished. the senator said that the accusation of the alleged donation of 5 million dollars to the pt was a sad
episode because it affected a party's credibility without anybody seeing any proof.


robot zoe detects life in atacama desert

zoe, a four-wheeled robot constructed by carnegie mellon’s robotics institute, is the first rover-based system to discover life. although the presence of life in the chilean atacama desert is no surprise, zoe is a step forward in an effort to design automated systems to find life on mars.

zoe, named after the greek word for "life", is part of a three-year life in the atacama project at the astrobiology science and technology program for exploring planets (astep). it was specifically designed to be deployed as a remotely-operated or autonomous rover.

the life zoe was able to detect came from four elements. zoe detected signs of chlorophyll, dna and protein, which are strong indications of life. scientists then gathered visual evidence from the pictures taken by zoe. the research was presented this week at the 36th lunar and planetary science conference in houston, texas. the study was led by nathalie cabrol, a planetary scientist at nasa’s ames research center.

one of the important new features developed for zoe is a fluorescence imager in the shadow under its belly that can be used in daytime. this tool scans for chlorophyll-based-life that would otherwise be rendered undetectable by sunlight. zoe also carries a spectrometer that scans for chlorophyll using visible and near-infrared light.

zoe searched for signs of life in coastal and inland regions of the atacama desert between august and october of 2004. she was remote conrolled from pittsburgh, pennsylvania while a ground crew followed her to verify her detections.

with studies suggesting the existence of life on mars, the new system may soon see implementation. 


wolfowitz picked for top spot at world bank

the announced the selection of paul wolfowitz to head the world bank, replacing john wolfensohn who retires as acting president after 10 years. the switch is expected to occur sometime in june.

the choice of wolfowitz is raising controversy in europe and developing nations. known as hawkish and outspoken, wolfowitz was a pro-iraqi war neo-conservative in his role as deputy secretary of defense, and a chief architect in the build up to war with iraq. some question whether wolfowitz, who was criticized for brushing aside european and nato calls for caution before the iraq war, would use the international monetary fund (imf) as tool to extend u.s. foreign policy interests. 

historically, it has been the white house’s prerogative to name the candidate because the u.s. holds a majority on the 24 member board, but board members from nations other than the u.s. are seeking their own interviews to qualify the candidate before a change is made. "the executive directors have agreed to conduct informal meetings over the coming days with the us nominee as part of the consultative process." the imf said in a statement. "thereafter, the executive directors will meet in a formal session to select the president at which time an official announcement of the outcome will be made," it said. the vote is set for march 31, the same day wolfensohn retires.

rob nichols, the us treasury spokesperson, said wolfowitz has begun scheduling meetings with board members and that, "our nominee… looks forward to meeting with and listening to members of the world bank board." reuters reported. in the meantime, wolfowitz has worked to assure those with concerns of him, saying he would come with an open mind and no political program. 



sci-fi and fantasy author andre norton dies

the famous sci-fi and fantasy writer andre norton dies aged 93 of congestive heart failure at her home in murfreesboro, a nashville suburb. 

alice norton (17 february 1912 ? 17 march 2005) was born alice mary norton in cleveland, ohio. she published her first novel, "the prince commands", in 1934. a famous science fiction writer, she was the first woman to receive the grand master of fantasy award from the sfwa in 1977, and she won the nebula grand master award in 1984. norton requested before her death that she not have a funeral service, but instead asked to be cremated along with a copy of her first and last novels.



tsunami exposes ancient ruins in india

probably one of the first good things to come out of the 2004 tsunami in asia, ancient ruins were discovered in india. fishermen along the shores report seeing the ruins along the shoreline near mahabalipuram when the waters receded just prior to the arrival of the tsunami. mahabalipuram is a port city of south india, dating back to the 7th century, around 60 km south from the city of chennai in tamil nadu.

the fishermen reported a complex consisting of ancient temples. some mention seeing at least 20 distinct temples, and hundreds of refrigerator-sized blocks. the walls were covered with barnacles, coral and mud. local folklore tells of an ancient port in the area.

on the shore, three structures consisting of elaborate carvings in the shape of animals were uncovered. the structures appear to have been covered in sand, which had been wiped away by the force of the tsunami. the structures appear to belong to a port city built in the 7th century, said t. satyamurthy, a senior archaeologist with the archaeological survey of india. the sculptures, representing an elephant, a lion and a flying horse, were commonly used during the pallava dynasty, which ran from the 4th to the 9th century, archeologists say.

the temples along the shores of mahabalipuram are already a famous feature of the city, and have been declared a unesco world heritage site. legend has it that the city was home to seven pagodas. underwater excavations of the area by the archaeological society, run by the indian government and navy divers, began on thursday. 



no talks until ira &quot;criminal activity&quot; dealt with

northern ireland secretary paul murphy said there is "no hope" of political progress on peace talks until all ira "criminal activity" has been dealt with.

mr murphy praised the courage of the mccartney sisters' campaign for justice for those responsible in the murder of their brother robert mccartney. their brother was stabbed and kicked to death after an altercation in a bar in the center of belfast. the gang which killed him included at least three members of the ira. 

mr murphy's comments came during a visit the sisters made to washington. they met president bush who is said to have offered support and encouragement for their campaign. gerry adams, leader of sinn fein, has pointedly not been invited to the white house. 

belfast's self-governing assembly is the product of a peace deal made in 1998. it collapsed two years ago, leaving the british province to be run directly from london ever since. attempts to restore the assembly have met numerous obstacles in the intervening years, mostly centered on the presence and actions of the ira. 

in recent weeks the ira has been linked not only to the murder of robert mccartney, but also to the widely publicised theft from the northern bank of ￡26 million in december. 

"as far as the political process is concerned, to all intents and purposes we are not talking about any future negotiations or discussions until the issue about criminal activity on the part of the ira is addressed," mr murphy has said. until that happens, there "wasn't any hope at all" of progress to restore the institutions of government to northern ireland. he added that the mccartney sisters "remarkable campaign" had "personalised the issue of criminal activity" and given a face to individuals suffering from brutality and savagery.

gerry adams said the case has become steeped in politics, and the only people that could not be accused of political motivation were the mccartney sisters themselves. 

reported separately, the controversial 'detention-without-trial orders', brought in last week under the prevention of terrorism act, could be used against members of the ira. the government has refused to rule out the possibility of control orders being used on members of the group. home secretary charles clarke has said that the orders had been working well in their first few days although there had been some teething problems. 


drinking habits tied to genes

the amount of alcohol people drink may be influenced by their genes.
a new study has found a link between specific , drinking habits, and possibly alcohol addiction. 

the study, by uk researchers at the universities of and , involved data from nearly 1,000 people who provided detailed information about their drinking habits. 

the researchers focused on a gene that controls chemical signaling in the brain. 

different versions of the gene may influence the balance and effect of signaling molecules. 

one genetic variant?a version of the dopamine d2 receptor (drd2) gene?was strongly linked with alcohol consumption. 

drd2 appears to affect positive feelings from alcohol, meaning that people without the variant might find drinking less pleasurable. 

the research is reported in "the pharmacogenomics journal".



irish mobile penetration rate hits 94%

according to a quarterly report by comreg (commission for communications regulation) on the irish telecommunications market released today, irish mobile phone penetration has hit a new record of 94%. this is an increase of 6% from the same time last year, when penetration rates stood at 88%. the statistic means that there are now 3.78 million mobile phone subscribers in ireland. the document also indicated that the number of broadband customers in ireland now stands at 131,550.

among other things the statistics revealed that:

earlier this week eircom, the largest broadband provider in the country announced that it intends to double its standard packages speed from 512kps to 1mbps. also meteor has announced that it would consider allowing a mobile virtual network operator (mvno) to piggyback on its network.



english wikipedia passes 500 thousand article milestone

wikipedia hit the half-million mark friday as the english-language encyclopedia passed the 500 thousand article mark, according to a press prelease by the (the wikimedia foundation also runs wikinews).

the article that put the site over the top was "involuntary settlements in the soviet union." the total of 500 thousand articles exceeds any other encyclopedia, according to the press release. 

with an average of 2,500 characters per article, wikipedia contains 1.25 gigabytes of raw text, which if printed on double-sided letter-size paper would form a stack about 66 feet or more than six stories tall. other recent additions to its english-language edition include hundreds of full-length songs, almost a gigabyte of new images, and subject-specific portals. 



fireball generated in u.s. laboratory resembles black hole

brown university professor horatiu nastase has written a paper detailing calculations that suggest that a fireball created in the relativistic heavy ion collider at brookhaven national laboratory in upton, new york, may have been a black hole.

the fireball occurred as scientists conducted experiments involving the smashing of streams of gold nuclei together in the rhic and is reported to have been three hundred times hotter than the sun. it absorbed more than ten times the predicted amount of energy and radiated it as heat, a behavior characteristic of black holes.

scientists have reassured the public that this phenomenon does not pose a threat; the fireball existed for one millionth of one billionth of one billionth of one second (one second divided by 10 septillion ? a 1 followed by 25 zeroes) and was not dominated by gravity as previously observed black holes have been, providing the energy for their cataclysmic appetites.



pakistan test fires nuclear-capable missile

pakistan announced that their military conducted a successful test-firing of a nuclear-capable missile, with a range of 2,000 km (1,200 miles), earlier today.

"today, we carried out a successful test-firing of the indigenously developed shaheen ii missile," announced a pakistani military official.

a statement issued by the pakistani military noted that pakistan gave prior notice of the test to nearby countries.

"the test was carried out to verify some of the refined technical parameters," the statement said, "al hamd-o-lillah' (with the grace of god) all parameters were validated."

pakistani president general pervez musharraf congratulated the engineers and scientists who conducted the successful test.
"the capability was here to stay, will continue to go from strength to strength and no harm will ever be allowed to come to it," said musharraf.

the "press trust of india" pointed out that the missile, "was capable of hitting targets deep into the indian territory," and that the missile had been test-fired previously under the name "hatf-vi", as a counterpart to india's "agni-ii" missile system.

india and pakistan have both conducted a series of missile tests in the region.


cassini discovers saturn moon atmosphere

nasa's saturn exploration spacecraft, cassini, has discovered an atmosphere about the moon enceladus. this is the first such discovery by cassini, other than titan, of the presence of an atmosphere around a saturn moon.

enceladus's gravity is too weak to hold an atmosphere around the planet, leading scientists to believe that volcanism, geysers, or gases escaping from the surface or the interior as a continuous source for the atmosphere.

the atmosphere was detected using a magnetometer during two close flybys of enceladus on february 17 and march 9. the magnetometer is used to measure the magnitude and direction of magnetic fields surrounding saturn and its moons. the magnetometer detected a bending of saturn's magnetic field around the moon, indicating the saturnian plasma is being diverted away from an extended atmosphere. the observations from the enceladus flybys are believed to be due to ionized water vapor.

"these new results from cassini may be the first evidence of gases originating either from the surface or possibly from the interior of enceladus," said dr. michele dougherty, principal investigator for the cassini magnetometer and professor at imperial college in london.

scientists have suspected enceladus as geologically active and a possible source of saturn's icy e ring. enceladus is the most reflective object in the solar system, reflecting about 90 percent of the sunlight that hits it.
cassini first arrived in saturn orbit july 1, 2004, releasing the huygens titan probe on december 25, 2004 which landed on titan january 14, 2005.

the cassini-huygens mission is a cooperative project of nasa, the european space agency and the italian space agency. the cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at the jet propulsion laboratory in pasadena, california. 


wales win grand slam, rbs six nations and the triple crown

it was clear from an early stage that wales was on course for a win, with the score being 16-3 mid-way through the first half. the irish effort improved in the second half with two closing the gap - but it was never going to be enough to beat a superb welsh side.

the result means wales have remained unbeaten throughout the tournament.



europe marks second iraq invasion anniversary

today, saturday the 19th of march, thousands across europe marked the second anniversary of the us-led war on iraq with protest marches and rallies for peace. 

anti-war march in london: in london, uk, police said 45,000 people took part in a march following the traditional route; a hyde park start, past the us embassy and finishing in trafalgar square. according to organisers, almost 100,000 people took part. there were no reports of violence or unrest at the rally.

in istanbul, turkey, about 15,000 people marched to protest against the continued us presence in iraq.

athens, greece, was brought to a standstill by more than 5000 trade unionists who marched to the us embassy.

meanwhile, more than 400 miles away from london, in the welsh coastal town of aberystwyth, about two hundred people also took part in a peace rally. the first annual "all wales peace festival" ("gwl heddwch a chyfianwnder cymru gyfan") took place on an unseasonably warm and sunny day for mid-march in the coastal town. 

lasting about an hour, the rally made its way around the streets of the town, making its way to the ruined castle that overlooks the town, where the crowd heard speeches by a number of individuals, including ken booth, the head of aberystwyth university's renowned international politics department. there was no suggestion of violence at the rally, with a wide variety of people from different backgrounds making up the march.

police presence at the march was moderately heavy yet restrained, with the police evidently not wishing for a repeat of the scenes two years ago when authorities were taken completely by surprise as protesters brought much of the town to a halt and occupied the council tax offices for two hours.

attendance at all protests was a mere shadow of that just before the start of the 2003 war, when london saw over a million take to the streets to protest the imminent invasion.


texas representative proposes to outlaw 'sexy' cheerleading

, texas representative proposed a bill last week to ban "sexually suggestive" in texas , , and .

the movements typical to cheerleading are sexual, said edwards, and send out the wrong message, especially as youth should be encouraged to be more reserved where sex is concerned. the penalty for schools that continue to allow the activity would be a cut in state funding.

edwards filed the bill after witnessing several performances in his district.

several others agree with edwards’ proposal.

"anything that promotes family-oriented behaviour is a good thing," said rhonda roberts, a director for the united spirit association.

"i don't think this law would really shake the industry at all. in fact, it would give parents a better feeling, mostly dads and boyfriends, too," said j.m. farias, who owns austin cheer factory. he pointed out that cheering competitions frown on the movements in question.

cheerleading is a activity and sometimes competitive involving organised routines including elements of and , to encourage crowds to cheer on sports teams. it is a popular activity practised by millions of american students. in texas, there are competitions that start at the age of four.



lebanese president to skip arab summit

lebanese president emile lahoud said he will not be attending the upcoming arab summit scheduled for monday. the announcement was made saturday after a car bomb in the early morning hours wrecked a six-story apartment building, causing injuries, but there have been no reports of deaths.

it is not clear at this time who is responsible for the bombing. both the lebanese and syrian governments denied any involvement. there was an accusation, reported by reuters on sat mar 19, 2005 12:27 pm et, made by key opposition leader, walid jumblatt, saying, "the security agencies belong to "it" (meaning syria). there is no other explanation. when security agencies come under lebanese control it will be another matter." the opposition wants syrian military and intelligence agents out of the country and opposes the pro-syrian lahoud and prime minister rafik hariri. 

the violence threatens efforts by opposition groups and pro-government groups to build consensus and stability before the upcoming national election in may. mr. lahoud's office released a statement today that read: "the president affirms the need for such a dialogue meeting starting today in any place they agree on, including the presidential palace, which will keep its doors open."

the president's invitation was dismissed by an opposition legislator. the ap reports fares soeid saying, "it's too late. this subject is closed."




rice pushes for fresh nuclear talks with north korea

condoleezza rice, in as part of her first trip to asia as united states , gave a speech in which she urged north korea to return to currently stalled six-party talks. she also pressed asian partners in the talks, , japan, and , to make greater efforts to bring back into the fold.

north korea insists that rice's labelling of pyongyang as "an outpost of tyranny" is evidence that it is regarded as an enemy rather than an equal partner in the negotiations by the united states. the north korean government has stated that it will not return to talks until rice retracts this statement.

pyongyang claims that it desires as a defense against american aggression, although many members of the bush administration have previously insisted that the united states has no intention of invading north korea.

rice will also travel to south korea and china before ending her asian tour.


crosswords/2005/march/19

answers next week.


japan will not shoot down missiles headed for allies

japanese prime minister junichiro koizumi announced on friday that japan will not shoot down missiles that are headed for its allies.

koizumi spoke at the plenary meeting of the upper house of the japanese parliament.

"the purpose of our country's missile defense is to intercept incoming missiles targeting japan," said koizumi. "we are not thinking of dealing with other missiles targeting our allies."

koizumi pointed out that the angle and altitude of a missile in flight could be used to determine the target of the missile. he went on to clarify that he believed japan could provide data about missiles to the united states without violating japan's constitution.

japan plans to install several american-made patriot "pak-3" complexes for its land-based defense systems, and later plans to install the american-made aegis combat system on its naval ships.


explosion kills 42 miners in northern china; 27 missing

forty-two miners are confirmed dead and 27 are missing, after an explosion at the xishui mine in shuozhou, a city in china's shanxi province.

six rescue teams are working at the site to rescue the missing personnel, according to liu jiwen, an onsite rescue consultant. two miners were rescued earlier in the day.

xishui mine is licensed to produce 150,000 tons of coal per year. but the mine was ordered closed in 2004 for safety violations.

"in defiance of the order, however, mine owners have restarted production this year," stated a province-level official.

police have arrested the owners of the xishui mine.

zhang baoshun, the governor of shanxi province, is on the scene to oversee the rescue work and an investigation of the accident.

twenty-two other miners were working at the nearby kangjiayao mine at the time of the accident, although it is unclear if any of those miners were affected.

thousands of miners die in mining accidents each year in china. today's accident comes just one day after 19 coal miners were killed in a mining accident in the sulongsi mine in chongqing, and one month after the largest accident in recent history killed 214 miners, in fuxin, liaoning province.



powerful earthquake rocks southern japan, tsunami warnings issued

a powerful magnitude 7 earthquake rocked japan's southwestern island of kyushu at 10:53 am local time today (0153 utc), prompting the japanese meteorological agency to issue tsunami warnings for the area. the tsunami warnings were canceled later in the day.

a 75-year-old woman was killed in fukuoka city by a falling wall. at least 400 people were injured by the quake. local fukuoka airport and high speed bullet trains in the area temporarily suspended operations to look for damage.

according to the agency, the epicenter of the earthquake was in shallow water in the sea of japan, off the north coast of fukuoka prefecture.

small aftershocks continued throughout the day, with authorities advising that residents should be prepared for aftershocks of up to magnitude 6.

in the aftermath of the quake, people were quickly alerted to the state of the situation by television reports, telephone, and text-messaging systems.
interviewed by telephone in hitoyoshi, well inland from the epicenter of the quake, a local resident noted the severity of the quake was frightening, and left the elderly woman unable to remain seated on a chair. shutting off gas was the first priority, with the local television coverage providing a quick status update for the situation, followed by an interruption by national emergency network coverage.

a foreign resident of fukuoka city reported taking refuge under his desk for several minutes as books and ornaments fell from shelves. he prepared to evacuate to high ground in case of a tsunami, but news reports indicated little danger from a tsunami. he also reported that japanese residents appeared unconcerned by the quake, with many strolling near momochi beach shortly after the quake, showing little apparent concern.
in tenjin, downtown fukuoka, fukuoka building's windows shattered, and the block was quickly cordoned off. in addition to fukuoka building, many other buildings and businesses remained closed to shoppers.

wikinews contributor oarih reports that a festive atmosphere pervaded the streets, however, as employees from nishinihon shimbun (a major japanese newspaper) passed out one-page articles on the earthquake and curious onlookers investigated the damaged buildings and sidewalks. many residents, relieved by the relatively low damage inflicted by the earthquake, started visiting pubs and restaurants at lunch for a celebratory beer. with train and subway services disrupted, queues over 100 people long formed at some nishitetsu bus stops in tenjin as dusk approached.

the penetration of modern text-messaging by the japanese keitai, the common japanese cell phone system more prevalent than computer-based email, led to quick status checks on many family members located near the coast around fukuoka, close to the quake's epicentre. wikinews contributor oarih reports that cell phone service providers were swamped by the spike in use, however, and both voice and text services remained unreliable for much of the day.


explosion kills 35 in pakistan; many injured

thirty-five worshippers are confirmed dead and many are injured after an explosion near a mosque in fatahpur, pakistan, at 10:30 pm local time (1730 utc).

"i can confirm that 35 bodies have been counted," administrator mahmood mari told .

"it was a powerful bomb. there was blood and body parts everywhere," police official mehrab khan, told ap.

"right now people are angry. they are wailing and crying. some of them have blocked roads in the town and we are trying to control the situation," khan said.

the remote town of fatahpur is located about 300km (180 miles) from quetta.

no one has has claimed responsibility for the attack, according to local officials.

the blast caused the largest death toll this year in an area affected by religious conflict and tribal uprisings. officials have not determined a cause for the blast.


explosion injures 11 in beirut

eleven residents of an apartment building in the christian neighborhood of new jdeideh, located in northern beirut, lebanon, were injured by an explosion just after midnight local time.

the explosion was caused by a bomb placed underneath a car that was parked near the eight-story building inhabited by the injured, and left a seven-foot-deep hole in the ground. the building was ruined by the blast.

the lebanese army responded with a tighter security policy.

"the army will not allow that freedom of expression be abused in order to harm security and stability," declared the military statement.

lebanese president Emile lahoud decided not to attend the upcoming arab summit, and appealed for talks to avoid religious violence.

"car bomb messages do not threaten our national unity," said opposition leader walid jumblatt, speaking from his mountain palace in mukhtara.



explosion injures at least 14 in colorado

at least fourteen people were injured today by an explosion at the remote electric mountain lodge, in paonia, colorado.

the blast was reported at 2:30pm local time (9:30 utc).

a county investigator suspects that the explosion was caused by .

"we're starting to get patients now, but i can't tell you how many we're expecting ? a bunch," hospital administrator tom mingen told denver's cbs4 news from delta county memorial hospital. he continued, "electric mountain lodge is probably in the most remote part of our county. about 20 miles north of paonia and 17 miles in by snowmobile."

the lodge, located in the gunnison national forest area at an elevation of 9,200 feet, is only accessible by helicopter or snowmobile during the winter season.


explosion kills briton in qatar; dozens injured

one briton is dead, and dozens of others are injured, after an explosion ripped through a theatre in the fareek klaib district of doha, qatar this morning.

"one building at the theatre collapsed. there was pandemonium in the area. it took firefighters some time to put out the fire," said british diplomat eric mattey.

"one person was killed and 12 were wounded, of whom 10 have left hospital," said a statement issued by the interior ministry.

according to witnesses, about 80 foreigners were in the audience, watching the second act of shakespeare's "twelfth night", at the time of the explosion.

although the us central command is located in the arab gulf country, the bombing was the first of its kind in qatar. the theatre is located in the same area where the us embassy was previously located before it was moved to a new location.


explosion kills four policemen in kirkuk; eight injured

four policemen are dead and eight people are injured, after a roadside explosion in , iraq earlier today, according to lieutenant colonel yadkar muhammad.

the officers had just attended a funeral for a fellow officer, who had been killed on friday by gunmen after another roadside explosion.

the military had no information about today's explosion.

hundreds of policemen have been killed since the start of the us-led .


south american channeled apple snail discovered in georgia

the american state of georgia faces a new problem as wildlife officials discovered the south american channeled apple snail along the alabaha river in pierce county last month. similar snails have been seen in four american states, including at least nine florida counties, and indonesia.

apple snails (those of the "ampullariidae" family) are tropical and sub-tropical freshwater snails. they are named for their round shell, which is apple shaped. the channeled apple snail ("pomacea canaliculata") has a yellow-to-brown shell that may grow to the size of a baseball. unlike many other freshwater gastropods, apple snails have both a lung and a gill. this allows them to live even in oxygen-poor waters. outside of their natural habitat of south america, the snails have no natural enemies. as they reproduce quickly and feed on aquatic plants, which provide food and shelter for native species, they can be devastating to their new environment.

"this discovery is one of particular interest because of the invasive nature of the species," assistant chief of dnr's non-game wildlife and natural heritage section jon ambrose told the ap. "because of the array of problems that can arise from releasing non-native species into georgia's waters, we want to stress that this is not a responsible practice for pet owners."

dnr biologists searched the site of the discovery again last weekend. although no more channeled apple snails were found, they may return for a more elaborate search. the georgia winter, more severe than florida´s, may put a stop to the threat.


the man who died in explosion in qatar is named

the british man who died in an expolsion in a theatre in the qateri capital has been named by the british foreign and commonwealth office as jonathan adams. his family has been informed but asked for no further details to be released.

the qateri authories believe the suicide bomber was an egyptian living in qater.


search engine google sued by agence france presse

the issue of whose news content belongs to whom could get serious judicial review in a 17.5 million brought against the search engine giant google. the french news agency agence france presse (afp) is suing google news for including their headlines, story leads and on the site's news summary pages. afp alleges they asked google to refrain from the practice, but the site has not complied.

the basis for the suit is that afp sells its content via a . they allege google news copies their content and provides it free in the form of a short summary. the suit was filed at the u.s. district court for the district of columbia on thursday.

google has not responded to the lawsuit yet.

a federal appeals court ruling in 2002 allows web sites to use thumbnails and 30 to 40 words of text if the content is linked to the source. earthtimes.org writes of google's practice, "(it) does seem to follow the federal ruling guidelines."



lebanon's opposition holds syria responsible for beirut explosion

the lebanese political opposition group, dubbed the "cedar revolution" by the us state department, claims syria should be held responsible for a car bomb that rocked the christian neighborhood of new jdeideh in the capital city of beirut, the blast occurred early yesterday morning.

"the security agencies belong to [syria]. there is no other explanation. when security agencies come under lebanese control it will be another matter," reuters quotes opposition leader and druze chieftain walid jumblatt as saying.

after the car bomb explosion, which injured eleven people, a series of fake bombs were discovered throughout the neighborhood. there were also and several sonic grenades thrown at pro-syrian lebanese democratic party offices.

"we warn syria not to let these midgets carry out security actions in the country," reuters quotes jumblatt as adding.

"this has been the message to the lebanese people...to sow fear and terror among lebanese citizens if there is a syrian withdrawal from lebanon," said pierre gemayel, a christian opposition member who visited the site of the blast.



driftwood crucifix listed on ebay for $25,000

a piece of driftwood in the shape of a crucifix is listed for sale on ebay with a starting bid price of $25,000. the seller, known as "marzipanda," from scottsdale, arizona lists its description as a "natural found wood jesus christ crucifix cross easter."

maripanda describes the discovery of the piece as, "my very dear friend found this amazing natural driftwood while hiking a few years ago. so striking because it clearly resembles the lord and all the details."

expensive found art christiana made international headlines in november 2004 when a florida woman named diana duyser sold a partially eaten grilled cheese sandwich on ebay for $28,000 to canadian online gambling website, goldenpalace.com, after claiming she saw the likeness of the virgin mary burned onto the toast.

but not all high-priced christian fare on ebay is of dubious value. a perusal of christian-themed items as of march 20, showed 13,944 for sale on ebay. they ranged from other found art to some very expensive and authenticated rare art.

one such item has an ebay seller from tel-aviv, israel listing a 19th century iron wall plaque with a starting bid of $30,000 and a shipping cost of $2,000, making it the most-expensive christian religious item listed for sale on the auction web site.

under the "christian icons" section of the site, the 14 cast iron plaques are advertised to have been made in 1855 and portrays "jesus in jerusalem" with the 14 stations of christ.

another high-priced christian-themed item is a set of chalices and paten in ft. lauderdale, florida for $3,550. the gold-plated silver is thought to have been made in the 1870s.




anti-war march in london

tens of thousands of anti-war protesters marched though london on saturday to mark the two year anniversary of the . organisers estimated the number of marchers at over 150,000, however the police put the number at 45,000.

the march started at hyde park and moved past the american embassy, ending in . the protest was one of a number of demonstrations around the world. protests took place in japan, australia, and the united states.

the protests had been called by the anti-war assembly of the 2005 , an annual conference of the alternative globalization movement which took place in , brazil in january 26?31, and were supported by coalitions from all over the world. the london protest was organised by the .


violent protests break out in kyrgyzstan over allegedly rigged parliamentary elections

at least 10,000 protesters stormed government buildings, burnt down a police station, and took control of an airport to prevent reinforcements from being flown into jalal-abad, kyrgyzstan today as they demanded the resignation of president askar akayev. the protesters claim that recent parliamentary elections were rigged.

according to a police source in the capital of bishkek, four police were beaten to death in clashes with protesters.

last week, akayev warned civil war would break out if there was an attempt to copy the ukrainian "orange revolution." however, the government says it wants a peaceful resolution. "we have never gone against our own people, especially not with weapons in our hands," prime minister nikolai tanayev said.

opposition leader kurmanbek bakiyev says negotiations will only be fruitful if president akayev himself is involved. "all other lower level negotiations will be just a waste of time," bakiyev said.

the u.s. state department issued a statement saying the situation could be dealt with "according to the rule of law," and spokesman adam ereli said, "u.s. officials have been in contact with both the government and opposition to reinforce this message."

the osce stated the elections did not properly measure up to international standards, citing "lack of effective voter access to diverse sources of information, bias in the media, continued de-registration of candidates on minor grounds..., and inaccurate and poorly maintained voter lists."


cambridge, ma, landmark &quot;gas with a smile&quot; requests waiver in conversion to hess express

gas with a smile, an independent gas station on massachusetts avenue in cambridge has filed with the city for a hearing with the license commission to amend its license to do business as hess express. according to the cambridge department of human services, the christos poutahides no. 6 family limited partnership, which owns the station, has asked that they be allowed not to offer repair services at the site. a hearing will be held on march 29, 2005, at the lombardi municipal building at 831 massachusetts avenue in cambridge.

according to a guide published by the city, a "garage and gasoline license" is required "for a commercial or residential parking garage with space for 3 vehicles or more to keep and store flammables."

gas with a smile was shut down by the city fire department in 1999 for failing to upgrade its underground gas tanks to comply with federal regulations passed 10 years earlier.

hess express gas stations are owned by amerada hess, which operates approximately 1250 gas stations on the eastern seaboard of the united states.


bush signs historic schiavo bill into law

president bush approved a historic bill designed to keep brain-damaged terri schiavo on life-support, shortly after it was sent to him by the us house of representatives.

"today, i signed into law a bill that will allow federal courts to hear a claim by or on behalf of terri schiavo for violation of her rights relating to the withholding or withdrawal of food, fluids, or medical treatment necessary to sustain her life," said bush's written statement.

bush waited at the white house for the bill's arrival and signed it into law after returning early from a vacation at his texas ranch.

the house passed the bill by a vote of 203?58 shortly after midnight in a rare sunday session called at 9pm that night. democrats objected to a call for unanimous consent earlier in the day. although most members had left for the easter break, 261 of the 435 house members returned for the vote.

representatives debated the measure in the house from both sides.

rep. , a wisconsin republican, said of previous rulings in florida that they were "enforcing a merciless directive to deprive terri schiavo of her right to life." he continued that the house should "reinforce the law's commitment to justice and compassion for all americans, particularly the most vulnerable."

democrat of florida disagreed, saying "tonight this congress is about to commit a travesty. tonight congressional leaders are poised to appoint this congress as a judge and a jury."

the us senate had passed the bill by unanimous consent earlier in the day.

terri schiavo has been on life-support for over 15 years, and is currently cared for at a florida hospice. she is considered by physicians to be in a "permanent vegetative state", while her parents contend that she is viable and that there is hope for recovery. schiavo's feeding tube was removed on friday after florida courts ruled in favor of her husband, michael schiavo, who acts as her legal guardian in the matter. terri schiavo's siblings, and her parents, bob and mary schindler, challenge this decision.

"we are very very thankful to have crossed this bridge," said suzanne vitadamo, terri schiavo's sister. "we are hopeful, we are very hopeful, that the federal courts will follow the will of congress and save my sister's life."



wsj: diller close to $2 billion deal for ask jeeves

the corporate boards from both companies were in talks all weekend negotiating what appears to be an all-stock deal. if approved, the price tag would be a substantial premium over "ask jeeves" valuation of $1.4 billion as of friday's stock market close.

the acquisition of oakland, california-based "ask jeeves" by iac would mean they own a known brand name and get a foothold in revenues from search engine advertising. the company also would become a direct competitor with companies such as google, , amazon.com and microsoft who also have launched their own high-profile internet search engines. "ask jeeves" also owns other brands, including excite.com and iwon.com.

diller has built interactivecorp on the backbone of the cash generated by home shopping network, a company he used to bankroll the purchases of a large portfolio of internet and electronic commerce companies. these include , , match.com, citysearch and the . 

he also bought and grew cable networks and sci fi channel before selling them off to nbc universal, of which he is the largest individual shareholder.



car maker delorean dies at 80

automobile industry pioneer, john delorean, died saturday in a new jersey hospital by complications from a stroke.

delorean was born in 1925 in detroit, michigan to european immigrant parents. he received an education in automotive engineering and quickly rose through the ranks of packard and later general motors (gm). delorean was credited with the development of the pontiac gto, which helped introduce the era of "muscle cars". by 1965, delorean led the entire pontiac division, and four years later was promoted to the prestigious position of leading gm's chevrolet.

in 1973, delorean quit general motors and started his own company, the de lorean motor company. the company's product was the dmc-12, an unusual car featuring an unpainted, stainless-steel exterior and gull-wing doors. the company started production in 1981 but failed less than two years later, having produced under 9,000 vehicles. despite the company's failure and the car's dismal sales, the car itself gained a cult following after the release of the 1985 movie back to the future which featured the car as a time-travel machine.

delorean himself was in nearly as much trouble as his company. in 1982 he was arrested for attempting to sell $24 million worth of cocaine to undercover police, and after his company's failure, he became involved in a multitude of lawsuits alleging investor fraud. though delorean successfully resolved the cocaine case after claiming entrapment, his other legal cases would drag on until 1999, when he declared bankruptcy.



kofi annan unveils un reform plan

un secretary general kofi annan will formally present a plan this morning to the un general assembly when it meets in new york later today. the plan, entitled , is part of the un's attempt to revitalise itself during its sixtieth anniversary year.

if implemented, this plan will be the largest change ever to the international body, calling for the addition of nine members to the security council, and for the creation of a new human rights council to replace the 53-member .

the canadian ambassador to the un, , was the first diplomat to officially respond by saying, "a lot of hard work lies ahead but we are optimistic." , amnesty international, and other , have come out in support of the plan.



eu concerned about microsoft compliance, $5 million daily fine possible

bill gates's microsoft could be fined as much as 5.0% of its daily income, roughly us$ 5 million per day according to wall street journal calculatations, if it does not comply with demands set by the european commission. the commission investigated microsoft's practice of bundling the windows media player software into the windows operating system in 2003-2004, a practice which rivals complained was destroying the market for their own products. the "wall street journal" reported monday a week ago that the european commission would decide their course of action in two weeks time.

negotiations between microsoft and the commission broke down in march 2004 and the company was subsequently fined a record ?497 million (us$ 613 million) for its breaches of eu competition law.

the ruling is subject to appeal, but a european court decided in dec 2004 that fines imposed on microsoft by the eu would not be delayed. microsoft paid the ?497 million fine and must now ship versions of windows without windows media player. it was also decided by the eu court that microsoft must license many of the protocols used in its products to developers in countries within the european economic area.

the european commission rejected today a proposal by microsoft to license its workgroup server software protocols. these protocols would allow programmers to build server programs that are compatible with systems and pcs running the windows operating system. influencing the decision were complaints from the free software foundation europe (fsf europe), which said the per-server licensing proposal violated the principle that the protocols could be used to develop free software, because there is no way of knowing how many servers will be using free software.

"microsoft either doesn't understand or doesn't want to understand the idea of free software," said fsf europe spokesman joachim jakobs. 

jakobs explained that as free software is freely distributed, it is impossible to predict the extent of its use. also, authors of free software would encounter copyright issues with microsoft when using the protocols to distribute their software. microsoft stated last friday that it is still trying to find the balance between the need to preserve the private interests of microsoft and the public interests.

earlier, the european commission rejected microsoft's proposal to release the new windows media player-free version of windows under the name "reduced media edition." microsoft is now investigating other names suggested by the commission. it is still unclear whether a deadline is or will be set for the demands by the eu.


yahoo! snaps up flickr

portal and search company yahoo! has purchased ludicorp research and development ltd., the private corporation which owns the photo sharing site flickr.
the news was officially disclosed in a sunday posting to the corporation's staff blog and is credited to caterina fake, flickr's vice president of marketing and community. the posting announced the sale, but did not disclose details of the deal. in a report by silicon.com, yahoo! spokeswoman joanna stevens confirmed the deal on sunday but also did not disclose the terms. 

both fake and stevens said flickr will remain independent. stevens added that flickr's employees will relocate to the yahoo! headquarters in sunnyvale, california later this year.

rumors of the sale have been circulating amongst bloggers for some time, though neither company would confirm or deny the rumored sale. other rumors had google or aol as flickr's probable suitor.

flickr allows users to upload pictures from their computers, digital cameras, or camera phones to a personal website where they can display them, engage in photo blogging and create photo albums. the graphics may be licensed under a variety copyright license schemes including public domain, and photo owners can be easily contacted through the website.

yahoo! had earlier announced yahoo! 360°, a blogging service with sharing privileges and integration with other yahoo! services such as internet broadcasting and instant messaging. 




possible black hole created in us

us particle physicists at brookhaven national laboratory in upton, new york have created a fireball in a particle accelerator that bears a striking similarity to a black hole. it was generated at the relativistic heavy ion collider (rhic) by smashing beams of gold nuclei together at almost the speed of light. 

the collision produces a ball of plasma which is about 300 million times hotter that the surface of the sun. the fireball can be detected because it absorbs jets of particles produced by the collision, but in this case 10 times as many jets were being absorbed as had been predicted by calculations. 

physicist horatiu nastase of brown university in providence, rhode island says that the calculations show that the fireball has properties similar to that of a black hole. nastase says this could help explain why so few jets are seen coming out of the fireball. he thinks the particles are being absorbed into the core and reappearing as thermal (hawking) radiation, just like theory predicts happens in a black hole. 

other physicists have pointed out possible holes in nastase’s calculations. carlos nunez of mit in cambridge, massachusetts said, “i wouldn’t say his model is wrong, but it’s clearly under construction.”

even if nastase turns out to be right, the black holes created pose no danger. at this scale gravity is not the dominant force in a black hole and they quickly evaporate away - this one lasted a mere 10 seconds, that is 10 million, billion, billionths of a second.




u.s. jury deliberates immigrant smuggler case

a houston jury resumes deliberations today in a federal smuggling case where 19 illegal immigrants died from heat and lack of oxygen. the defendant, tyrone williams, 34, could face the death penalty for his alleged involvement in harboring and transporting illegal immigrants across the us-mexican border.

he was reportedly paid $7,500 to bring the immigrants to houston in a tractor trailer truck.

williams, a jamaican citizen, was a member of a smuggling ring. he alone faces capital punishment charges, while 14 other ring members were charged with less serious offenses for their involvement in the case. williams allegedly made a four-hour trip across the border and then parked at a truck stop in victoria, about 100 miles from houston. he left the truck while 75 persons suffered in the cargo area of the trailer during sweltering heat.

the prosecution claims he abandoned the trailer while ignoring screams for help and banging on the walls from those inside the trailer.

his defense attorneys argue williams was unable to hear anything from the trailer, and they further say greed by other ring members was the cause of the deaths since the trailer was so overcrowded. williams should not be singled out, his attorneys maintained, just because he was the driver of the truck.

"he didn't care," said federal prosecutor daniel rodriguez during closing arguments. "to him, these weren't people, they were merchandise."

the jury asked u.s. district judge vanessa gilmore three questions before the trial was adjourned for the weekend.


bank of ireland to axe 2,000 jobs

it emerged last night that the bank of ireland, ireland's second largest bank, intends to lay off 15% of its workforce. such a move would affect 2,000 of the bank's 12,000 employees. the job cuts would be an effort to reduce the banks large cost base and thus improve its overall competitiveness.

newly appointed ceo brian goggin, who took over from michael soden at the end of last year, suggested at the time of his appointment that one of his first moves would be to cut costs. this objective is likely to be fulfilled on tuesday when the company makes a formal announcement about the cuts. the relative contributions of staff versus technology to the bank's cost versus revenue base is unclear from the announcement, begging questions as to the rationale for such changes. 

the irish banking sector - one of the world's most profitable - has experienced a dramatic change in the last few months. danske bank, one of denmark's leading banks recently announced the purchase of national irish bank. the bank of scotland also recently announced its entry into the irish retail banking sector by purchasing the esb chain of retail units for ?120m. both banks have said they intend to introduce significantly cheaper products to the market over the next twelve months. 

both the bank of ireland, and its biggest competitor aib announced profits of over ?1bn last year.



david suzuki to visit university of toronto

environmentalist and science broadcaster , best known as the host of the hit tv show "", is taking a trip to toronto to speak about climate change. suzuki will be speaking about how to achieve sustainable development within one generation.

the david suzuki foundation developed a report, "sustainability within a generation: a new vision for canada", partly in response to research that found canada ranked 28 out of 29 developed nations in environmental categories such as climate change. the report outlines an agenda for the country to make it a leading sustainable economy, focusing on efficiency improvement, eliminating waste and pollution, and developing sustainable urban centers.

the event, presented by jack layton and sponsored by the new democratic party of canada, will be held on april 2nd, 2005 at convocation hall on the university of toronto campus, ontario.



kyrgyz president orders election probe as protesters seize control of second city

thousands of protesters seized control of a second city in kyrgyzstan as president askar akayev ordered a probe into allegations that the elections were seriously flawed on monday.

“the south of the country is under the control of the people. now we should concentrate on [the capital of] bishkek,” said former ambassador to britain and opposition leader roza otunbayeva to "the times". “we have only one demand ? that akayev should resign.”

president akayev ordered the central election commission and supreme court to begin an investigation into allegations that sparked the protests. according to his office, he ordered them "to pay particular attention to those districts where election results provoked extreme public reaction ... and tell people openly who is right and who is wrong."

about 1,000 protesters armed with flammable liquid and clubs seized the governor's building in osh, kyrgyzstan's second-largest city. the crowd of protesters, which swelled to 2,000, then seized the regional police and security stations of the city located 300 kilometres south of bishkek.

"this is a new day in our history," said an opposition official named omurbek tekebayev. he also said the opposition would hold elections for alternative executive bodies throughout the country, and that they plan to call the presidential election, which is scheduled for october of 2005, within three months.

according to tekebayev, the deputy regional police chief has joined the opposition and will be in charge of police under the new regional government.

elsewhere in the country, at least 17,000 people continued to protest the alleged electoral fraud.

protesters also seized control of the southern city of jalal-abad on sunday.



noted stamp engraver czeslaw slania dies at 83

stockholm, sweden. 21 march 2005

the swedish post office announced the famous stamp engraver, czeslaw s?ania, died in the night of thursday, 17 march.

born in czelad?, poland in october 1921, he was trained at the krakow school of fine arts from 1945. while still a student, he was hired by poland's printing bureau and began a career as an engraver, producing his first postage stamp for poland in 1951.

in 1956 s?ania moved to sweden, where three years later he began work for the swedish post office and became their chief engraver. he produced over 1,000 stamps for sweden and 28 other countries. his work is of such recognized quality and detail that he is one of the very few "household names" among philatelists. some specialize in collecting his work alone. his 1,000th stamp was the magnificent ""great deeds by swedish kings"" by david klocker ehrenstrahl in 2000, which is listed in the "guinness book of world records". he was also engaged in engraving banknotes for many countries, recent examples of his work including the prime ministerial portraits on the front of the new canadian $5 and $100 bills.

s?ania was active until the end of his life, delivering his last completed stamp that commemorated the 60th anniversary of the united nations general assembly, in february 2005.



american thom mayne snags pritzker architecture prize

longtime los angeles architect thom mayne was awarded this year's . established in 1979 to honor "consistent and significant contributions to humanity," the prize is considered by many to be the highest honor in the field. the award includes a bronze medallion and us$100,000. mayne was the first american to receive it in 14 years; previous american recipients include robert venturi (1991) and frank gehry (1989).

mayne earned his architecture degree from the in 1968. a few years later he founded his own architecture school, the , which remains to this day. he then moved to los angeles, where in addition to running a firm, morphosis, he teaches architecture at ucla.

mayne's earlier work, considered "angry" and "brooding", was outside of the architectural mainstream. his style was often called bold and audacious. this style has recently become more accepted, as morphosis won contracts to design government buildings in california, oregon, and washington, dc. the firm also designed an olympic village in queens, in preparation for the city's 2012 olympics bid.

on receiving the prize, mayne said, "this is such a big deal...it is not in my nature to think about being the one who prevails. for my whole life, i've always seen myself as an outsider."



volunteers endure bed-rest study

volunteers began a 60 day bed-rest marathon on march 19 to study simulated weightlessness effects on women astronauts. the study, women international space simulation for exploration(wise), is conducted at the medes space clinic in toulouse, france.

the 12 women, selected from 1600 applicants hailing from france,great britain, germany, finland, the netherlands, poland and the czech republic began the study after a 20 day screening for baseline comparison data as the study progressed.

the women will conduct all activities from eating, bathing, and reading while lying in hospital beds tilted headfirst at a six degree angle. this particular position, called head-down tilt bed rest was determined from previous studies to remove the vertical load of gravity on the body, inducing changes similar to what astronauts in a genuine weightless environment experience .

long term exposure to weightlessness creates a number of physiological and psychological problems in astronauts such as:

a total of 24 women will participate in the study. a second group of 12 will join in september.

three groups of eight women each will be studied over the course of the two campaigns of bed rest. one group will serve as a control, receiving no specific treatments, the second will exercise, while the third will receive nutritional supplements.

the study is designed to fill in gaps of knowledge on the differences between men and women during extended weightlessness. it also aims to develop countermeasures for reducing the debilitating effects of long spaceflights.

participating agencies in the study include the european space agency, nasa, the french space agency and the canadian space agency.



india and europe team up for moon mission

the european space agency (esa) council approved a cooperation agreement on march 17 between the indian space research organization (isro) and the esa for india's chandrayan-1 moon satellite mission. the chandrayan-1 will be india's first moon mission attempt.

europe will, under the agreement, provide and support three instruments for the lunar explorer: cixs-2, chandrayan-1 imaging x-ray spectrometer; sara; a sub-kev atom reflecting analyzer, and sir-2, a near-infrared spectrometer. europe will support hardware for the hex, high-energy x-ray spectrometer. data from these instruments will be turned over to the esa for distribution to esa member states. these instruments are the same as the ones carried onboard esa's smart-1 moon exploration spacecraft.

isro plans to launch the half-ton chandrayan sometime before 2008 for a two year mission to study the solar system and the moon. the satellite will be boosted by india's polar satellite launch vehicle.

the isro has been placing satellites in earth orbit since 1975 and has developed its own launch vehicles and satellites for telecommunications and weather forecasting. a manned mission had been previously considered but was deemed too costly to carry through.


ourmedia.org project launched to provide global repository of &quot;grassroots media&quot;

launched yesterday with funding for bandwidth and storage donated by internet archive, a new website called "ourmedia" aspires to serve as a global repository for free content, which donors are encouraged to license for re-use by others.

started by internet archive employee j.d. lasica and marc canter, who founded macromind, which became macromedia, "ourmedia" has a team of what lasica refers to as "moderators" that will ensure that the site does not host pornography or copyrighted or defamatory materials. their rules" note that the moderators will be the "sole arbiters" of what will be hosted on the site.

lasica and canter have been working on the site with a cadre of volunteers since they met at a supernova conference 9 months ago, according to lasica's blog. the site was started in the summer of 2004, and announced its official launch on march 21, 2005.

while the server initially hosting ourmedia was not able to handle the load imposed when publicised on tech news sites such as slashdot and boingboing (reported by itconversations, among others), it has now been replaced and improved. according to a post on the ourmedia blog, "the transition to a new dedicated server has been completed, the database configuration has been given an overhaul, and some of the code has been cleaned up."

the software running ourmedia is an open source content management system called bryght, described at bryght.com as "the drupal core set of modules plus a set of contributed drupal modules." ourmedia describes their system as being "alpha" quality; they note that because all of the media files on their site are being hosted by the internet archive, users will need to register with both sites with the same username and password until the registration systems are unified.


surfwax releases &quot;quick index&quot; to 600k wikipedia terms

surfwax, inc., a metasearch engine and knowledge-tool provider announced its release of wikiwax, a new portal for searching wikipedia article titles. this is the latest addition to its offerings of narrowly focused search portals, such as its news accumulator and shopeasier shopping portal.

wikiwax claims to index over 600,000 wikipedia terms, and its list of titles was last updated sometime in march, 2005. once you enter terms into the search field, a menu of matching titles is shown; selecting one of the titles takes you directly to its wikipedia entry.

wikiwax uses a surfwax feature called "lookahead" to suggest auto-completions of search terms as a user types them. it matches both articles whose titles start with the search terms, and articles containing those terms in that order. for example, a search for "wales, jimmy" would find the article "jimmy wales". a search for "the earth" would also match "the earth stood still, the day". surfwax offered visitors this manner of "lookahead" auto-complete searching for over a year.

other surfwax projects include nextaris, an all-in-one "information exchange" portal offering searching/uploading/sharing/publishing/social-networking, and search packages targeted to specific industries, such as the surfwax scholar portal offered to educational institutions. 



u.s. tv networks look to past for future programming

after four years of focusing on high-profile reality television, network executives are turning to the past for inspiration on scripted series. some networks said they are "more consciously aggressive about developing shows" that recall such classics as "taxi" and "barney miller", craig erwich, a programming executive for fox, told "usa today". in the same report, kevin reilly, nbc entertainment chief said, "i don't think the answer has to be that it's groundbreaking or something you've never seen before." 

but at least one ad buyer had reservations about the rear-view mirror technique. "every network seems to be looking back rather than forward for programming ideas. the reminiscence factor may be good if you are looking for an older audience, but it may not be a way to bring in the younger audiences," laura caraccioli-davis, senior vice president and director of starcom entertainment told "mediaweek" magazine.



ten dead on minnesota indian reservation after school shooting

a 17-year-old minnesota student is believed to have shot his grandfather and grandmother, drove his grandfather's squad car to the high school, and shot a security guard, a teacher and five other classmates, later committing suicide. this happened at 3pm local time on monday (2100 utc), and as many as 14 others were injured before the rampage subsided.

one witness said of the gunman, he was "grinning and waving".

"i looked him in the eye and ran in the room, and that's when i hid," sondra hegstrom told "the pioneer of bemidji". "you could hear a girl saying, 'no, jeff, quit, quit. leave me alone. what are you doing?"

today's incident marks the highest death toll yet in us school shootings since the columbine high school massacre in april 1999. there were 15 people shot in jefferson county, near littleton, colorado, in the columbine shooting.

police are still investigating any possible motive.

"it will probably take us throughout the night to really put the whole picture together," said fbi spokesman paul mccabe in a briefing to the press. "we do have evidence that we believe that the shooter is dead," he continued, "we believe he was acting alone."

reporters were asked to leave the area, located on the red lake reservation, by tribal authorities.

"the events that took place today involving the shootings at the red lake high school make this one of the darkest and most painful occurrences in the history of our tribe," said floyd jourdain jr., chairman of the red lake band of chippewa indians. the indian band is made up of about 5,100 people, living on 825,000 acres of land in the northern part of the state.

minnesota's last school shooting was in september 2003, when two students were fatally shot at rocori high school. that incident had statewide implications, causing a hearing on expansion of tribal gaming in minnesota to be canceled for the day.

"we ask minnesotans to help comfort the families and friends of the victims who are suffering unimaginable pain by extending prayers and expressions of support," said a statement from minnesota gov. tim pawlenty.


romanian commercial bank to launch smart cards in early april

starting from april 4, the romanian commercial bank ("banca comercial? roman?", or bcr), the country's largest bank, will launch a smart card system for all its atm network as well as its point-of-sale terminals in more than 5,000 stores across romania. while the system will be enabled to work with these cards from april, the smart cards themselves will only be issued to account holders in the second half of the year.

smart cards in a banking context are cards which contain information on a chip and can permit greater security and control of transactions. bcr is the first romanian bank to use this technology.


romanian visa card transactions increase by 60 percent in 2004

total romanian visa card transactions rose by 60% in 2004 in comparison to 2003.
they reached a value of us$2.8 billion. this was due to a 30% increase in the number of cards issued, as well as greater spending by romanians. the results are based on both atm transactions and purchases in various stores.

according to visa, purchases with visa cards almost doubled to $164.4 million. the number of people in romania who pay with visa cards rose by 130%, reaching 3.3 million customers. the most popular cards were visa gold, with nearly 800,000 cards issued in 2004, and visa electron, with more than 600,000 cards issued.

visa cards are an increasingly popular way of consumer spending in romania and, by the end of 2004, they were accepted at 15,727 locations across the country, an increase of 17.7% in comparison to 2003.


romanian mobile phone giant connex to launch 3g network

romanian mobile telephony giant connex, recently bought by vodafone, announced the company is planning to introduce 3g services and video telephony. romanian cities effected by the change are: bucharest, cluj-napoca, timi?oara, bra?ov, constan?a, ploie?ti, craiova and ia?i. the only 3g-enabled model currently sold by connex is the nokia 6630.

ken campbell, chief marketing officer of connex, said he expects the 3g introduction to be successful, given the romanian interest in video telephony services. connex's 3g technology will also provide a permanent connection to the internet, access to multimedia content, live video streaming and video conferencing. the network also provides mobile broadband speeds of up to 384 kbps.

connex is currently the second-largest mobile telephony company in romania, with nearly five million customers. it is one of romanian's best recognised companies.

 <!-- nokia are a finnish company --!>

romanian defense minister to visit bulgaria

the romanian defence minister teodor atanasiu will start a two-day tour of bulgaria today by visiting the country's main air-force base at graf ignatievo. atanasiu will meet with bulgarian prime minister simeon saxe-coburg gotha and defence minister nikolay svinarov. the theme of the visit is the deepening of bilaterial military co-operation between the two neighbouring countries.
romania and bulgaria both joined nato in 2004. they are also expected to host us military bases in the near future as the usa wishes to move its european troops from germany into southeastern europe. the deepening of military ties between the countries is expected to increase their strategic military position in the world. both romania and bulgaria were major participants in the us-led invasion of iraq and the resulting peacekeeping efforts. romania currently supplies one of the world's largest contingents of troops in iraq, with nearly 1000 people.


internet through electrical power network introduced in bucharest

between 10 to 15 of bucharest's 61 unirii boulevard residents will be able to connect to the internet through their power lines. starting from may of this year, a trial was organised by electrica muntenia sud, the electricity company of bucharest and southern romania.

the technology, known as power line communications (plc), enables the transmission of broadband internet and fixed line telephony data through the existing electrical power network. the technology, in use by 13,000 people in 30 countries throughout the world, is considered very advantageous due to its high speeds and low cost. it uses infrastructure that is already available in most people's homes.

once the unirii boulevard trial concludes, and if it is successful, electrica muntenia sud will roll-out the plc internet plan to the mass market. it is expected to be embraced by romanians because its data transfer speed of 5mps is available for a monthly subscription fee of less than 15 euro.

bucharest is the first city in southeastern europe to trial such innovative technology.


eu looks set to continue arms embargo on china

the eu is likely to delay the end of its arms embargo on china until next year, european diplomats said. the delay is a response to legislation passed in china earlier this month, authorising the use of military force against taiwan if it attempts to officially secede from the mainland.

the eu came under intense pressure from the united states to not lift the embargo imposed after the tiananmen square massacre in 1989, when the chinese government suppressed pro-democracy demonstrators. the us congress threatened that it would retaliate against the eu if it lifted the arms embargo, by blocking the approval of technology transfer licenses.

the eu has made clear the delay is only temporary, and their commitment from last december to lift the embargo still stood.

european commission spokeswoman emma udwin added, "the timescale is completely open, no deadline. [the] luxembourg presidency said in january that they wanted to lift the embargo within their presidency, but there is no obligation to do that."
china defended its anti-secession law and responded to the ban by saying, "the eu ban on arms sales to china is political discrimination against china and out of keeping with the times," liu jianchao, a chinese foreign ministry spokesman told a news conference.

"we hope the eu will make the political decision to lift the ban as soon as possible," liu continued. "it's unreasonable to link china pushing the eu to lift the arms embargo and china passing the anti-secession law," he said.

on sunday, british foreign secretary jack straw in a british television interview commented that lifting the arms embargo was "more difficult rather than less difficult," and that china's anti-secession law towards taiwan created "a difficult political environment."

however, diplomats have told "le monde" that the uk was lobbying for a push-back of the decision to 2006, particularly among various eu countries more focuses on human rights issues.

the uk continues to support ending the embargo in principle, and prime minister blair has envisioned a successful decision by the summer. while britain is sensitive to american pressure, it nonetheless wants to assure a positive road leading up to its assuming of eu presidency duties on july 1.

us secretary of state condoleezza rice characterized mr. straw's remarks as "sobering comments" during her stay in beijing on monday.

"after all, it is american forces here in the pacific that have played the role of security guarantor," she said.


farc and brazilian workers' party:the general didn't tell the truth, says former abin superior to veja

the head minister of the institutional security cabinet of brazil, general jorge felix, and the director-general of the brazilian intelligence agency (abin), mauro marcelo de lima e silva, testifying before a commission of deputies and senators, said documents may be incorrect. they maintain the brazilian magazine "veja", in its article "farc's tentacles in brazil", should not be used. 

this weekend, "veja" presented testimonies by people who allegedly worked on abin's farc-pt investigation. these contradict the explanations that general felix gave to the commission.

last week, the magazine "veja" reported that the workers' party (pt) received 5 million dollars to be used for the political campaign of candidates in 2002 from the colombian communist armed group revolutionary armed forces of colombia (farc-ep). the news appeared on by brazilian television chanells globo and record.
"veja" said that it used as its sources the documents from abin and the allegations of abin's employees. the head minister of the institutional security cabinet of brazil's general jorge felix, and the director-general of the brazilian intelligence agency (abin), mauro marcelo de lima e silva, said that the documents were not reliable.

the official abin version can be seen on its website. the agency stores and archives all data collected by the intelligence service, including data that do not fulfill all abin's criteria for consistency and accuracy. every kind of document remains in abin archive so it can be re-evaluated in the future. according to general felix, abin archives may contain data that are not relevant, tendentious or completely untrue. the documents mentioned by "veja" are this sort of data.

according to brazilian federal senate's website, general felix told "the documents were archived because they don't deserve credit, and they don't present any proof related to the allegations contained therein".

the general said: "of course abin monitores all farc activities, it is part of its job; however, in this specific case, there is no sustainable argument, and there is any credibility. therefore, the papers are archived."

on 21 march "veja" published another article named: "they know everything about it", contradicting abin. the article stated that two people -- a alleged spy who was in a meeting where a supposed donation by the farc member father medina took place, and his former abin superior, colonel eduardo adolfo ferreira -- had said that the documents were not merely information ignored by the agency, due to a lack of evidence, as the general felix argued.

"veja's" wrote that the documents that mentioned the alleged farc-pt relationship were considered very important by abin. "veja's" story told the documents were archived and the investigations into their contents ceased after the victory of the brazilian president luiz inacio lula da silva (pt). 

"veja" has since claimed to have interviewed the albin spy again, whose identity the magazine chooses not to reveal, since he is allegedly still active.

according to the spy, he infiltrated the labour union movement twenty years ago. his colleagues were pt members and communists and his task was informing the intelligence agency about the brazilian labor movement.

according to "veja", the spy says that he came upon the farc case accidentally. it happened when leftists invited him to be part of a pro-farc committee, in defense of the colombian guerrillas. the spy claims to have agreed and he began to frequent the meetings, which were almost always secret.

"veja" says that, on april 13, 2002, the spy took part of a meeting together with other leftists, in coracao vermelho (red heart) hacienda, near brasilia. "veja" reports that the spy heard father oliverio medina, representative of the farc, announcing that he would donate 5 million dollars for the campaign of the brazilian president luis inacio lula da silva in 2002.

furthermore, according to "veja", the abin's spy said: " immediately i left the meeting, on april 13 and met my abin contact, near a highway close to the coracao vermelho hacienda. there, inside the car, i wrote the my dispatches about farc money going to the pt. i had listened the story for the first time. father oliverio medina was quite happy."

the brazilian magazine continues reporting the alleged spy story:

"on april 22, i listened again to this story. it was during a meeting in a labour union. one of the friends of the farc, a chilean militant, said that they were 5 million dollars and that the money had been already distributed for the pt."

"the abin found the history so important that my contact, colonel eduardo adolfo ferreira, invited me to dinner (...) "

"my stories are based on the facts that i see and hear. i do not know if the money was delivered. i know that, among farc's friends, this matter was treated responsibly and secretly. the money would come from trinidad and tobago to 300 pt businessmen, who would distribute it for the party's committees. moreover, i wrote this in the reports that i delivered to the colonel."

"veja" claims to have interviewed colonel eduardo adolfo ferreira who was abin's employee for seven years and who allegedly coordinated the investigation on the relations between the farc and the workers' party (pt). 

colonel eduardo adolfo ferreira, aged 49, worked for abin during seven years. he left his job in 2003 because of alleged differences related to the way the investigations were being carried out after the victory of workers' party (pt) in 2002 campaign. the colonel works for the military police in the federal district at present time.

"veja" said that the colonel told there are at least two dozen reports describing the pt-farc relationships in abin. colonel ferreira says that the document 0095/3100 mentioned by "veja" last week is not even the most important one.

"veja" said that colonel ferreira told the documents were not archived by abin because they were dubious. the colonel said that the documents that describe the relations between pt and farc were taken very seriously by abin.

according to "veja", colonel ferreira said that in order to avoid the unathourized release of information, the reports were written inside the intelligence director jose milton campana's office at that time . campana got a promotion to abin assistant-director by the current pt government.

inside campana's office, other people were in direct contact with the papers: an analyst and an adviser.

according to "veja", the colonel said: "we finished three reports on the case". the colonel said that abin, with the help of the federal police, had traced part of the money that might have come from farc to pt. there were three payment authorisations, for 1 million dollars each, with indications that they were part of the farc's money. the colonel said: "we cannot affirm that it was the guerrillas' money for sure. there were indications. strong indications, but the investigation stopped after the pt won the elections and i left abin."

the magazine "veja" emphasized that it is not deliberately accusing the workers' party (pt). the magazine warns that some politicians can try to obtain political advantages with the news.

brazilian senator demostenes torres (pfl) said: " if both declarations are true, they reveal that abin appeared to the congress commission and it concealed the truth of the parliament's members. it is serious." the senator told he will ask an secret audience to hear the abin's spy and the colonel eduardo adolfo ferreira.

general jorge felix refused to comment the case explaining that everything were already had been told to the deputies and senators commission.

"veja"'s last article:"they know everything about it" was not covered by most part of brazilian newspapers. however it appeared on television and on some journalist's blogs.

it is known that the farc and pt politics have met since 1990. many of these meetings occurred during the enconteurs of the foro de sao paulo. 

the peace talks between colombia and the farc guerrilla started in 1998, during government of the colombian president andres pastrana arango.

the farc had sent a letter to the xi foro de sao paulo meeting congratulating lula da silva for his victory in 2002 elections (farc felicitam brasil pela vitoria de lula - o estado de sao paulo).

in a interview to valquiria rey, from bbc, in march 6, 2003 farc commander pastor alape praised the independent stance of the brazil. he told he didn't think that brazilian government would sign any statement including farc on the list of international terrorist organizations.
if the brazilian government considered the farc as a terrorist group, all farc members could be arrested inside brazilian territory. 

some analysts say that the communist colombian guerrilla aims to extend its influence throughout other countries in latin america., 

after the pt candidate luiz inacio lula da silva assumed the government the most visible change was the association of abin with the cuban service of intelligence.

abin signed at least an agreement of cooperation with the cuban service of intelligence. the abin general-director mauro marcelo de lima e silva was in havana, in february, this year, discussing an agreement between abin and the cuban service of intelligence, the direccion general de inteligencia (dgi). , ,
the brazilian government denied his agents would be trained in cuba. the government affirmed that it was only an mere bilateral cooperation agreement to resolve problems related to the terrorism and the traffic of weapons. 

the workers' party (pt) released an official statement signed by the national president jose genoino repudiating the magazine's article and denying all presented facts. part of the note tells:

the note says that the article is irresponsible, that it comments on facts without any sustentable evidence . it still says that the magazine denies itself when later in the text it affirms that it did not find any solid indication to proof that 5 million dollars were really sent to pt by the farc .

another note from the workers' party (pt), of february 16, 2002 called 
"the truth about colombia and the farc - and pt" tries to clarify the relationship between the party and the farc. a portion of this note says that:

the leader of the government deputy aloizio mercadante (pt) said: "if this donation existed, which i do not believe, it was not done to pt, but to individuals who are alleged connected to the party. case they were identified and they were part of the party, they would be forced to leave."

the deputy paulo rocha (pt) said that the magazine does not have any proof that the money transference from farc for pt occurred. "the magazine admits by itself that that there are no documents verifying any insinuation of this nature", he adds.

deputy paulo rocha also says that the meetings between farc delegates with brazilian politicians were part of a farc attempt of establishing a diplomatic representation in brazil, which did not happened. so, according to the deputy, there were meetings between the father oliverio medina, who worked as farc ambassador, with parliamentarians of diverse parties. the deputy said: "meetings can have happened, but there is no political and financial relation with the pt." for the deputy there are no reasons to create a congress investigation commission, as suggested by oppostion parties. 

the senator cristovam buarque(pt) said that the case was a "sad episode, because it affected a party's credibility without anybody seeing any proof." in his opinion the case repercussion was positive "because it demonstrated that brazil is a country capable of placing the head of its intelligence agency before the entire press and all the members of congress and exit calmly, without a dent to its credibility."

according to the abin directors general jorge armando felix and mauro marcelo de lima e silva there is no solid evidences relating finantial help from farc to pt. because of that, there is no reason to start a new investigation and the case must remain archived.

the "veja" admitted in its article that it is possible that the farc delegate father medina did not said the true when he told the farc would donate 5 million dollars to pt campaign in coracao vermelho hacienda. also the magazine admitted that it cannot proof the donation occurred and it says that it is possible that the abin documents are untrue. the magazine "veja" said it didn't involve the workers' party, as an organization, in the case. 

the national secretary of international relations for workers'party (pt), paulo ferreira, says that the central bank records show that no money entered in brazil from trynidad and tobago during 2002 and 2003. 

the leftist antonio carlos viana told to the brazilian newspaper correio braziliense that during the encounter between farc and pt members in coracao vermelho hacienda there weren't any discussion about money. he said:"we believe that the path to peace in colombia is people and brazilian government recognizing the farc. however we can't take any responsibility by the farc's actions and we deny categorically any discussion about money to electoral purposes in brazil."
according to an article in pcdob website: "none of the participants of the enconteur in coracao vermelho hacienda says that father oliverio medina offered money to pt".

the president of pt in santa catarina milton mendes says:"(...)i am perplex and honestly convinced that the article is shameful, irresponsible and a pamphlet.". he criticizes "veja" because the magazine said no proofs were found related to the money donation.

accusations against pt can be used by the political opposition in negative propaganda.

the congress commission which heard the abin's directors considered the case closed on alleged farc donation to pt.

some opinion excerpts from the 
o estado de sao paulo forum:

magazines and newspapers must be careful with explosive news <br>
"i am not pt sympathizant and i have already criticized some points about the party and the government(...) there is no saint in any political party, neither in the several religions, neither in the church. however, i can't believe that someone inside pt, after i have some knowledge about its leaders, might have received any contribution from the farc (...) fake dossiers have already been created relating the psdb with foreign bank accounts and these news were denied later. the farc donation is a campaign gossip which is already began by pt unfortunately." ? antonio carlos rocha da silva / sao paulo

possibilities <br>
"the news published in veja magazine, march 13, this year, is really daring. saying that the pt received money from the farc is serious and grave. if the magazine published the story, there must be, at least, some kind of information.(...)the workers'party members deny the fact, with no exception. but you must remember that most of them have belonged to armed groups during the militar regime.(..)if the pt did not prosecute the magazine, the doubt can cause some harm.(...)" ? jorge cortas sader filho / niteroi

new story, old subject <br>
"the farc/pt connection is older thant the bible draft. in 2002 a deputy tryed to create a cpi [congress commission of investigation] to investigate the donation, however he didn't get enough signatures. (...)if the article is lying, the pt have to proof and expose the magazine, then prosecute it.(...) the worst blind person is who doesn't want to see. this kind of person, the fanatic voter, is not helping in nothing brazil." ? sonia / rio de janeiro









texas baby removed from life support against mother's wishes

sun hudson, a six-month old texas baby died last week when health care providers at texas children's hospital in removed his life support system over the objections of his mother. the action was authorized under the 1999 futile care law which was signed into law by then-gov. george w. bush.

under the texas futile care law, health care workers are allowed to remove expensive life support for terminally ill patients if the patient or family is unable to pay the medical bills.

sun hudson's mother is dealing with the aftermath of that law. "this hospital was considered a miracle hospital. when it came to my son, they gave up in six months," wanda hudson told reporters how she was forced to give up medical control of her son. "i talked to him, i told him that i loved him. inside of me, my son is still alive." 

the hospital had blocked the media from the child, despite mother's invitation to see the baby. "i wanted y'all to see my son for yourself. so you could see he was actually moving around. he was conscious," she said.

the event stirred national attention as it sparked comparisons to the terri schiavo case in florida. a victim of severe, and otherwise terminal brain damage, terri schiavo's future is locked in a legal battle between her husband who wants to remove life support and her parents, who cite religious reasons for keeping their daughter alive.

michael schiavo, husband of terri schiavo, was asked about the hudson situation on the march 21 edition of cnn's "larry king live." when king asked how mr. schiavo felt when he learned that president bush had signed such a law in texas while he was governor, schiavo was at a loss of words.

but schiavo's lawyer did respond, saying, "obviously, there's a tremendous amount of hypocrisy there ... it would lead one to believe that a lot of this was politically motivated, and i think that's what the american people have concluded." schiavo's lawyer echoed the sentiments of florida representative debbie wasserman-schultz, a democrat, who raised the "hypocrisy" question when she first mentioned the 1999 texas law issue on the house floor last week.

over the weekend, president bush signed a special federal law that moved jurisdiction of the schiavo case out of the state of florida and into the u.s. federal court system after florida courts ruled that michael schiavo had the right to remove terri's life support, which includes a feeding tube and intravenous liquids.

after signing the schiavo law sunday, president bush said, "it is wisest to always err on the side of life."



large creature loose in london suburb

police organized a search in the sydenham park area of south-east london after a local, anthony holder, was attacked by a 6ft long black animal while looking for his kitten in his back yard that borders a woodland.

holder said the animal pounced, knocked him to the ground, and then he was "in its claws for about 30 seconds. its teeth were out and i tried to defend myself and eventually i got the thing off my body." holder was scratched all over his body and suffered swelling and bruising to his hand and the back of his head. he called the police at about 2:15 am while the animal sat in the garden next door.

while holder was being treated by paramedics, the metropolitan police conducted a search of the area. a citizen and a police officer saw the creature, believed by some to be a panther. another officer also believed he saw the animal and reports it as approximately the size of a labrador retriever. the neighbourhood is being patrolled by an armed police response vehicle staffed by officers equipped with rifles and taser stun guns.

scotland yard is currently seeking specialist advice from experts from the rspca and london zoo. a spokeswoman said: "we are trying to establish exactly where the animal may have come from. in the meantime we are asking the public to be vigilant. if anyone does see the animal, do not approach it but dial 9-9-9 immediately." 

people are also being advised to keep pets indoors.

sightings of big cats have increased in recent years. the notion of a large predator in london was initially dismissed by scientists, but evidence from footprints and droppings has led to other conclusions. the british big cat society estimates 50 to 100 are currently loose across england. livestock has supposedly been attacked a number of times. farmers near burford in oxfordshire have offered a ￡5,000 reward for the capture of a large black creature suspected of killing livestock in the area. however, there have been virtually no human encounters. 



mother of another brazilian soccer player kidnapped

police did not release further details. according to recent reports, three armed men kidnapped ines fidelis regis, the mother of rogerio, who plays in sporting clube de portugal.

this is the fourth kidnapping of a soccer player's mother in the last four months. on february 23, ilma de castro libanio, 51, the mother of the brazilian soccer player edinaldo batista libanio, 25, known as grafite, was kidnapped.

on november 6, 2004, the mother of robson dos santos, or robinho, was kidnapped. on , the mother of brazilian soccer player luis fabiano was kidnapped by criminals, also in campinas. the mother of fabiano is still missing. the other hostages were released and are well.



hsh prince rainier iii of monaco is in intensive care

monte-carlo - the monarch of the principality of monaco is in serious condition. he is hospitalised with a relapse of a lung infection and in intensive care at the centre cardio-thoracique de monaco, according to the royal monegasque household. 

this is not the first time that the 81-year-old prince rainier iii has been in hospital. he previously was hospitalised on the 26th of october 2004 and the 8th of march 2005.

prince rainier is famed for being the husband of the late princess grace (grace kelly), and for investing in business at a famous gambling centre. he has been on the throne since 1949, making him one of the longest reigning monachs in europe.



creationist sentiments affect imax business strategy

imax cinemas in several southern us states have begun to refuse screening of films that deal with evolution and the big bang, fearing they will drive away customers. this step follows pressure from customers claiming such films are blasphemous to the christian religion and are counter to biblical teachings which fundamentalists take to be the literal word of god.

some of the affected cinemas are located in science museums often visited by families. carol murray, the marketing director of the fort worth museum of science and history in texas, commented that trial customers complained, "i really hate it when the theory of evolution is presented as fact," a view reflected by several others. conversely, a producer of an imax film entitled "volcanoes of the deep sea", james cameron, said that he was "surprised and somewhat offended" at some of the reactions.

films suppressed by this controversy include "cosmic voyage" (which deals with the big bang), "galapagos" (dealing with the development of evolutionary theory by darwin) and "volcanoes of the deep sea" (about deep-sea thermophiles).

although this move only affects about a dozen southern us cinemas, it has proved significant due to the manner in which imax operates. imax presentations are filmed and projected using specialized equipment in specially adapted theatres. imax films also have tight production and marketing budgets. at any one time, an imax film may be shown at only two dozen locations. as such, profits may be significantly reduced if just a few locations refuse to show a given film, swaying producers to avoid producing films on contentious subjects which may be construed by christian fundamentalists as blasphemous.


us interest rates rise to 2.75%

the u.s. federal reserve (fed) today raised interest rates by 0.25 of a percentage point to 2.75 percent. the increase in the federal funds rate, the interest that banks charge each other, is seen as an anti-inflationary measure and was widely expected by the financial community.

it is the seventh time the fed has raised interest rates since june 2004 when rates stood at just 1 percent -- a 46-year low.

the u.s. economy has been gaining strength since the economic downturn in 2001 and 2002. the rebound was largely fueled by historically low interest rates which enabled consumers to borrow much more money than they would have otherwise -- thus boosting personal consumption.



train derailed by collision with semi in saskatchewan, canada

twenty-four cars of a west-bound canada pacific train were thrown from the tracks after the train collided with a semi tractor-trailer in poor weather and visibility near regina, saskatchewan around 11 a.m. tuesday morning. the driver was rushed to hospital.

the accident took place on a level section of highway 46 just north of highway 1, about 25 kilometres east of regina. the rcmp spokesperson reported the crossing is marked with lights, but weather may have played a role.

"road conditions were wet and sloppy and it's foggy," rcmp cpl. brian jones said to the cbc. the bad weather, including a heavy overnight snowfall, may have contributed to the accident.

most of the 93 cars in the train were empty bulk transit cars, used for moving agricultural products such as grains. the rcmp report that neither train or truck were transporting any hazardous materials.



kyrgyz government declares elections valid, refuses to declare state of emergency as opposition cements control of the south

kyrgyz authorities declared 71 of the 75 seats elected to parliament valid on tuesday as the opposition cemented control and attempted to maintain order of the country's south, including the cities of jalal-abad and osh, by holding joint patrols with local policeman.

president askar akayev, saying protests against him were part of an attempted coup, claimed "criminal elements connected to the drug mafia" were behind the activities, and "the opposition is directed and funded from outside."

however, the president ruled out declaring a state of emergency, saying he was "fully committed to not taking such measures."

bazambai solpuyev, a leader of the opposition, claimed that joint public safety patrols has been set up with local police, and this claim was confimed by a spokesman for the kyrgyz interior ministry.

anvar artykov, head of the opposition-backed osh provisional authority, declared that president akayev’s authority was no longer being recognized in the region in a statement broadcast on a local television station. 

prominent opposition figure roza otunbayeva claimed that "people’s power" provisional authorities controlled five of the eight districts of jalal-abad province, all but one district of osh province, four districts in talas province, and one in naryn.

law-enforcement bodies in the regions have transferred their allegiance to the provisional authorities, although some policemen were not reporting for work. according to reports, relative calm prevailed throughout opposition-controlled regions.

"we are moving towards control over half the country," otunbayeva said. "the next goal will be [the capital of] bishkek."




nasa's spitzer space telescope views alien worlds

for the first time since the discovery of planets outside the solar system, light from two of the 145 confirmed extrasolar planets has been directly captured by nasa's spitzer space telescope.

astronomers dr. david charbonneau of the harvard-smithsonian center for astrophysics and dr. drake deming of nasa's goddard space flight center (gsfc), working separately on one each of the two planets used a simple technique to gather the infrared glow that the planetary bodies emit.

the planets, designated hd 209458b and tres-1, are classified as "hot jupiter" planets. these types of extrasolar planets orbit closely around their suns, absorbing the starlight and brightly radiating in the infrared wavelengths.

using the spitzer telescope, the astronomers first collected and measured the total infrared output from both the stars and planets. the stars alone were again measured when the planets disappeared behind them during their natural orbits. by comparing the differences between the two measurements, the scientist were able to determine how much infrared light each planet emits.

"in visible light, the glare of the star completely overwhelms the glimmer of light reflected by the planet," charbonneau said. "in infrared, the star-planet contrast is more favorable because the planet emits its own light."

the data obtained indicates the planets are at least 1,340 degrees fahrenheit, justifying the classification of "hot jupiter". more observations from spitzer could provide information about the planets winds and atmospheric compositions.

"spitzer has provided us with a powerful new tool for learning about the temperatures, atmospheres and orbits of planets hundreds of light-years from earth," said dr. deming.

"it's fantastic," dr. charbonneau said. "we've been hunting for this light for almost 10 years, ever since extrasolar planets were first discovered."

dr. deming's paper on his findings appears today in nature's online publication; dr. charbonneau's paper will be published in an upcoming issue of the astrophysical journal.

the spitzer telescope was launched august 25, 2003 and is scheduled to be de-orbited sometime in 2008. spitzer was named for dr. lyman spitzer who, in the mid-1940s, first proposed placing telescopes in space.

the harvard-smithsonian center for astrophysics is located in cambridge, massachusetts.
the goddard space flight center is located in greenbelt, maryland.

nasa's jet propulsion laboratory manages the spitzer space telescope mission for nasa's science mission directorate. science operations are conducted at the spitzer science center, pasadena, california.


icelandic parliament grants bobby fischer full citizenship

in an overwhelming vote, the icelandic parliament voted tuesday to grant the incarcerated bobby fischer full citizenship. the former world chess champion has been detained in japan since july after being arrested for attempting to travel with a revoked united states passport. japanese officials have previously said that in such a case fischer would be sent to iceland rather than face punishment for violating us economic sanctions by playing a match in yugoslavia. the us has said it will oppose any such action.

the vote earlier today was 40 in favor, 2 abstentions, 21 absent, and 0 opposed. by a special variation from usual protocol, the measure was pushed through in only 12 minutes. the parliament had earlier declined to grant fischer full citizenship, offering him instead a special icelandic passport. this, however, was not enough for japan, which refused to release him. 
fischer's case has been long and convoluted. originally pursued by the us for economic sanction violations, fischer has been on the run since 1992. in that time he has shown his anti-semitism by having issued statements praising the september 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the united states, and denying that the holocaust occurred. for these and other comments the united states chess federation revoked his membership. he is now also wanted for tax evasion on some property he owns in the us. he was arrested in japan in july for travelling with a revoked passport, and has been held since then awaiting deportation. in that time he has tried to avoid being deported by doing such things as revoking his us citizenship and marrying a japanese woman.


australian govt to lessen numbers of immigrants detained indefinitely

the australian government today announced terms of a new class of visa which is aimed at reducing the number of immigration detainees locked up indefinitely, after years of criticism by human rights watchdogs.

the new return pending bridging visa allows for release of detainees held for over three years and who have exhausted all rights for appeal, but who cannot be removed from australia. in the community they will be provided income support, medicare, maternity and child benefits, rent assistance and permission to work, and will be required to periodically report to authorities.

senator amanda vanstone, minister for immigration and multicultural and indigenous affairs said, "the new bridging visa will only be granted to a relatively small number of detainees where ... it is not reasonably practicable to achieve removal in the short term and where the detainee undertakes to cooperate fully with removal from australia, once that becomes practicable."

"the new bridging visa will not be available to detainees with current visa applications, or who are challenging decisions, either through review or courts," the minister said.

"the new bridging visa category does not apply to failed asylum seekers on nauru. management of that caseload remains completely separate from onshore cases." 

and the visa applies only at the minister's discretion.

a recent high court decision has left it in the government's hands to resolve the issue of indefinite detention, maintaining that under the law there was nothing to prevent immigrants who could not be sent to another country and are not accepted by the australian government, from being imprisoned forever.

the change is thought to allow release of up to 100 detainees currently held, although it is not a blanket release for all detainees held over three years, for example the longest-serving detainee, peter qasim who has been held for seven years, will not be eligible.

ms vanstone claims mr qasim has not co-operated with the department's attempts to establish his identity. india will only take him if it can be proven that he is indian - and without any evidence available except his language, he has been unable to return. but according to ms vanstone, all it requires is "further co-operation from mr qasim" - therefore he remains in detention.

qasim wrote in an open letter in september: “i have asked 80 countries to take me but all have refused. i have committed no crime but i have a life sentence. please give me freedom. i would work hard with a grateful heart. but i cannot live imprisoned forever without hope.”


minuteman bike path iced out through arlington after 4th snowiest winter on record

the minuteman bike path, which runs 12 miles from cambridge to bedford, massachusetts, is now passable by bike through arlington, after what the national weather service has called the fourth snowiest winter in boston's recorded history. the path has been covered in snow and ice since the blizzard of 2005 covered it in late january.

the stretch of the path that crosses lexington and bedford is marginally rideable, particularly between lexington center and the bridge over route 495, according to a sortie undertaken by wikinews writer . the first large patch of snow occurs just past the four-mile marker, near trader joe's in arlington.

the path is not plowed in arlington, lexington, or bedford, though the city of cambridge plows a short section near the southeastern terminus of the path at the alewife subway station. in the winter, the path can be a "scenic trail for cross-country skiing," according to the friends of the minuteman bikeway website.

the bike path runs in the right-of-way once accorded to the boston and maine railroad. the conversion from abandoned railway to bike path occurred from 1991 to 1993. the path is named for its similarity to the route followed by paul revere and william dawes on their rides to warn the minutemen of lexington about the impending arrival of british soldiers on april 19, 1775.

 


au$1.25m reward offer for proof of living tasmanian tiger (thylacine)

australian magazine "" has offered a reward of au$1.25 million for conclusive proof that the legendary , is still alive.

says the bulletin, "a live, uninjured animal must be produced. all government regulations and provisions must be adhered to. a panel of eminent experts chosen by us will have the final say - along with conclusive dna testing."

although the last confirmed wild thylacine sighting was in 1932, and the last captive, named benjamin, died in the beaumaris zoo in hobart on september 6, 1936, the legend has lived on, with occasional claimed sightings both in tasmania, and on mainland australia.

as recently as february of this year, a german tourist claimed to have taken photographs of the creature near lake st clair in tasmania. according to the bulletin, over the past 70 years there have been more than 4000 claimed sightings, but not a single verifiable artifact of hard evidence.

appearing like a large, striped dog, the thylacine was in fact a marsupial, with a pouch like a kangaroo or koala. present on the australian continent for tens of thousands of years, persecution by farmers, government-funded bounty hunters and, in the final years, collectors for overseas museums saw the remnant tasmanian population wiped out.

nick mooney, a wildlife biologist with the department of primary industries, water and environment, investigates 150 claims of sightings each year. he told the bulletin he was open-minded to the possibility of the thylacine's survival, "but if i had to make a call, i'd put money on them not being out there."

the reward offer marks the 125th year of publication of the bulletin magazine.



google launches google code project, showcasing open source code, apis

on thursday, march 17, google announced the launch of code.google.com, a new website for its open-source software (also known as "code") and apis, for use by external developers. this launch is the first significant contribution google has made to the open-source community. the release was announced at the end of the o'reilly emerging technology conference in san diego.

google's announcement comes two weeks after yahoo announced its own developers program, offering access to a new collection of its apis, at the search engine strategies 2005 conference & expo in new york. chris dibona, google's open source program manager, spoke about the release, emphasizing their desire to feature good programs that were being developed using their apis. two xml feeds are currently offered on the site, one for general updates to code hosted there, and another for changes to the weekly featured content.

the initial software projects provided on the google site are narrowly focused, consisting of tools for debugging and compiling in two computer languages, c++ and python, particularly when handling multi-threaded code. google says this is in part to get feedback from a particular audience, before expanding the scope of the project.

these tools are all available under the bsd open-source license, though the site's faq notes that it is not tied to any particular license, and in the future is likely to include code released under a variety of free licenses. google has said that it is developing this site, in part, in the hopes that it can use some of the resulting code in the future.



symbian licenses email technology from rival microsoft

mobile phone operating software maker symbian is licensing the microsoft activesync technology in a move that surprised analysts. the license would allow symbian to develop a plug-in for mobile phones to let users check email that is served by microsoft exchange server mail system.

symbian was formed in 1998 by ericsson, nokia, motorola and psion in a collaborative desire to counter microsoft's emerging market power in operating systems for handheld devices. while microsoft now provides the windows mobile software for mobile phones, it has not attained significant market penetration. at the same time, in part through the increased popularity of research in motion's "blackberry" mobile email device, users have come to expect their mobile phones to synchronize email with various mail servers ? including exchange server.

symbian appears to be sensitive to the appearance of collaborating with the very competitor that spurred their creation. symbian's press release emphasized that the licensing of the technology introduces just one of the many methods the symbian software communicates with email servers. the spokesperson for the company, peter bancroft, was also on the defensive: "microsoft isn't a monolithic company" he said, referring to the fact that exchange server and windows mobile are created by two different divisions of microsoft.

shares of research in motion dropped on the news.



un reform: china, south korea question seat for japan on security council

a south korean official expressed doubts over united nations kofi annan's apparent support for a permanent security council seat for japan, and attention has been drawn to widespread mistrust of japan by chinese ? although the chinese government has not commented directly against japan.

asked to comment on annan supporting japan gaining the seat, foreign ministry spokesperson liu jianchao said, "i think reform of the un security council should have its eyes on increasing work efficiency ... and at the same increasing the representation of developing countries."

four hundred-thousand chinese have signed an on-line petition opposing japan's bid, and a poll last year put opposition within china at 95 percent. resentment still runs high after japan's invasion of china from 1931 to 1945 led to death or injury of up to 35 million chinese, and sexual slavery of tens- to hundreds-of-thousands of women in mainland asia.

the un reforms currently being discussed are the largest changes since the body's formation 60 years ago.

last year, japan, germany, brazil, and india formed a lobby group supporting each other in bids for seats on the influential security council. but north and south korea oppose japan gaining a seat, italy opposes germany, pakistan opposes india, and mexico and argentina oppose brazil.

the united states, britain, france, russia, and china are permanent members of the council, with the other 10 seats filled by other countries, selected from regional groups for two-year terms. 






explosion near beirut kills three, injures five

three people are dead and five are injured after an explosion tore through a shopping center near the port of jounie, 20 kilometres north of beirut, lebanon. the 45-pound bomb, which was placed under a stairwell, exploded around 1:30am local time (0330 utc).

police say they believe the bomb was placed there just before the center closed.

the blast caused serious damage to the shopping center, breaking windows, causing false ceilings to collapse, and pillars to warp within a radius of several hundred meters.



india signs on to chemical patents to comply with wto order

a bill passed by india's parliament put an end to the manufacture of many cheap generic drugs copied from products protected by foreign company patents. a patents amendment bill (2005) has been condemned by foreign aid groups who expect a significant rise in drug costs as a result of the bill.

drug compounds in india were previously not protected by patents, meaning that research and developement costs borne by the originating manufacturers were avoided by generic drug producers. the new bill "will move india toward the patent mainstream and support and encourage innovation and investment in research and development in india," said ranjit sahani, managing director of novartis india.

as the world's fourth-largest manufacturer of drugs by volume, the pharmaceutical industry in india is valued at us$5 billion - but ranks as only 13th by value, reflecting the low costs to consumers of the products. "because india is one of the world's biggest producers of generic drugs, this law will have a severe knock-on effect on many developing countries which depend on imported generic drugs from india," said samar verma, regional policy adviser at oxfam international.

around half of african, asian and latin american hiv patients needing anti-retroviral drugs rely on low-cost drugs from india, which are sold at one twentieth the price of similar drugs produced in the west.

more than 90 per cent of drugs listed as essentials in india are either unpatented or expired. drugs patented before 1995 -- when the world trade organization [wto] set a 10 year deadline to enact protection -- will not be eligible under the bill.

some degree of protection was mandated by wto in order for india to have greater access to international markets. opposers of the bill say it goes too far. 

the agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights [trips], under wto, allows developing countries to not provide patent protection for uses of known drugs, new dosages and formulations, or combinations of known drugs.



u.s. federal marshals seize killer beds

on behalf of the fda, u.s. federal marshals have begun seizing beds which have killed at least seven patients out of about 30 who had become trapped by the products. three versions of the bed were found to be "dangerous to health" by the fda, with the specific danger of, "placing patients at an increased risk of entrapment and asphyxiation."

the model numbers of the faulty beds include the "vail 500, 1000, and 2000 enclosed bed systems". the beds are made by toledo, ohio-based vail products, inc.

in a government press release, the fda pointed out that vail had failed to heed two previous warnings issued by the agency, asking the company to comply with regulations regarding proper labeling and usage directions. the fda also said that vail had failed to supply required documentation to the agency to comply with the "medical device reporting" and "reports of corrections and removals" regulations.

at the time this story was filed, the vail web site made no mention of today's fda announcement. toledo's "wtol news 11" reported that, "company officials say their beds aren't dangerous if used properly." the vail corporate web site claims that the beds allow, "the patient to move about freely within a safe, padded environment" and "control wandering."

the fda is the u.s. agency responsible for regulating food, drugs, medical devices, and cosmetics.



96 dead of ebola-like marburg virus in angola

more than 100 people are dead in uige province in northern angola, due to a virus related to the ebola virus, known as the marburg virus, which causes death by bleeding and is both "very virulent" and "very contagious". a longer incubation period without symptoms than that of the ebola virus has authorities keeping a watchful eye for the disease migrating.

"this is a possibility. the incubation period is 21 days so we must reinforce the surveillance in neighbouring provinces and especially in luanda," vice minister for health jose van dunem told "reuters".

the virus is transmitted by bodily fluids, including saliva. most of the victims have been children under five. there is no cure, but the 70 percent survival rate is somewhat better than the worst form of ebola, which has a survival rate of only 10 percent.

symptoms of marburg include high fever, headaches, nausea with vomiting, and diarrhea accompanied by blood.


parker shown the door as gap spokeswoman

parker who turns 40 friday and is best known for her role as the manolo blahnik shoe-crazed carrie bradshaw on the hbo comedy, "," was ousted after less than one year of a multi-year contract. she signed a three-year $38 million deal with the san francisco-based retailer in mid-2004 and has only appeared in ads for the company since the 2004 holiday season.

"while gap will always seek partnerships with celebrities, musicians and rising stars, we don't have any future plans to sign a single person to a multi-season deal like the unique and special relationship we enjoyed with sarah jessica," gap said in a statement monday, stopping short of calling the ad campaign a failure. one such rising star slated to appear in the upcoming summer white denim promotion for gap is 17-year-old grammy-nominated british singer joss stone. 

although gap would not say its parker ad campaign was less than successful, the same can not be said for stock market pundits. "if you're like me, and have gotten a little sick of hearing sarah jessica parker sing about how much she likes being a girl on those gap commercials," alyce lomax, a stock market commentator for the motley fool web site, said. "investors who have been watching this stock know that despite the best efforts of ms. parker and the creative teams that came up with the ads, gap's quarterly fashion sense continues to be, well, flattish ... in the meantime, other, hotter retailers have stolen the show."

in a statement to reporters, parker called the spilt with gap a mutual decision, and walks away $38 million richer and recently signed a 2-year deal with former employer hbo to develop future programming for the network. parker is also scheduled to appear in two upcoming comedy films, a movie adaptation of the comedy central series, "strangers with candy", as well as "the family stone", costarring and claire danes. 



chess legend avoids 10 year prison term

former world chess champion bobby fischer will move from japan to his new home of iceland despite requests from the usa for his deportation to the us. mr fischer had been held in japan since last july when he was arrested on what us officials claimed was an invalid us passport. he was freed from detention on march 23 after 9 months in confinement.

mr fischer is wanted in the usa for violating executive order 12810, signed by then-president george h. w. bush in 1992. eo 12810 placed sanctions on the former yugoslavia, where mr fischer played a chess match in 1992 against boris spassky. if mr fischer had been sent to the us, he would have faced a ten year prison term. the u.s. revoked his passport in 2003 and mr fischer was later arrested at narita airport while trying to leave japan en route to the philippines.

following an appeal by mr fischer's supporters, the parliament of iceland granted mr fischer an icelandic passport on monday. mr fischer won the world championship in reykjavik, iceland in 1972, against mr spassky, then of the soviet union, and mr fischer remains popular among icelanders. (mr spassky became a french citizen in 1978). the 1992 rematch was billed as as being for the "world championship", although by then most chess fans recognized garry kasparov as the world's #1 player.

iceland's ambassador to japan, thordur oskarsson, said that the us government had sent a message of displeasure to the icelandic government before its parliament passed the bill allowing for mr fischer's citizenship. mr oskarsson went on to say that, "despite the message, the decision was put through parliament on humanitarian grounds".


kazaa trial concluding

the trial against internet file-sharing network kazaa in sydney, australia, is coming to an end, as closing arguments began today. kazaa pleaded it could not be held responsible for the copyright infringements perpetrated by its users, as it cannot control how the software is used.

the peer-to-peer distribution software and its owner, sharman networks ltd. and its directors were sued by a group of australian record labels for copyright infringements by the network's estimated 100 million members worldwide. members of the software share music files with each other, and download up to three billion songs and music files monthly. the music industry claims it has lost millions of dollars in unpaid royalties as a result.

lawyer tony meagher argued that sharman is no more responsible for the uses of its software than the designers of the photocopiers and video recorders were responsible for the illegal copying of materials on those machines. the remaining question is whether kazaa authorises its users to download files illegally.

"we tell these users in our web site and we tell them in our license that they cannot use this (software) for infringing copyright," meagher told judge murray wilcox. by consenting to this license by users, kazaa is exempted from responsibility.

the record industry claims kazaa not only enables but encourages copyright infringement. record industry lawyer tony bannon argued that as kazaa collected information from its users through spyware and sold it to advertisers, the company's claim that it had no control over the software was "completely mind boggling."

this is not the first trial against kazaa, and other programs of its kind. in august last year, judge stephen wilson ruled that the distribution by grokster and morpheus of peer-to-peer software does not violate u.s. copyright law. rod dorman, lead trial council for sharman networks in the u.s., said, "as a result of this decision, sharman networks will be filing a motion for summary judgement, nearly identical to the successful motions filed by grokster and morpheus, and we are confident that judge wilson will find that our product, kazaa, is a lawful product as well." however, the ruling held no precedential effect in the australian trial, as the principles differed.

kazaa and the fasttrack protocol are the brainchild of the scandinavians niklas zennstrom and janus friis, and were introduced in march 2001 by their dutch company consumer empowerment. it appeared during the end of the first generation of p2p networks. napster shut down in july of that year. (wikipedia)

the trial is expected to wrap up later today. a verdict should be passed within six weeks.



new kyrgz interior minister says force may be used, riot police clash with protesters in bishkek

about 200 riot police violently broke up a peaceful, anti-akayev protest of some 300 to 400 people and arrested 20 to 30 protesters in the capital city of bishkek on wednesday, just hours after president askar akayev appointed head of police in the city, keneshbek dushebayev, as new interior minister.

"our primary task is to restore constitutional order in all regions," the new interior minister said. "the law gives us every right to take action, including by using physical force... and firearms."

akayev has previously stated that he would not resort to force to end protests.

akayev dismissed interior minister bakirdin subanbekov and the general prosecutor, myktybek abdyldayev, earlier in the day. according to a spokesman for akayev, abdil seghizbayev, the dismissals were for issues relating "to the events in the south and their poor work on preventing those events."

seghizbayev stated that prime minister nikolai tanayev would visit the southern city of osh for negotiations on thursday, but said there would not be talks with "criminal groups that are controlling the situation there."

elsewhere in bishkek, approximately 10,000 people held a pro-government demonstration as riot police guarded key government buildings and main roads were sealed off. several demonstrators said they had been coerced into taking part. 

"our classes were cancelled and we were told to be here at the meeting in support of akayev," a kyrgyz national university student said.

"we are protesting instead of working now," said an employee of the interior ministry at the rally.

neighboring tajikistan also sealed border crossing points from kyrgyzstan into the country because of the unrest.




harp seal hunt approved by canada, activists call for boycott of canadian seafood

, 

ottawa says it will allow the harvest of 320,000 young seals this year, prompting a backlash from international environmental activists who call for a boycott of the canadian fisheries products.

the seal hunt is an annual event on the ice floes off the east coast of canada where the seal nurseries give birth. this year's hunt begins march 29, and lasts for two months.

the government reports the harp seal population is large and healthy. "the harp seal herd - the most important seal herd for this industry - is estimated at around five million animals, nearly the highest level ever recorded, and almost triple what it was in the 1970s," a department of fisheries and oceans statement said. large scale hunts will continue to be allowed until the harp seal population drops below four million.

environmental activists protest and observe the hunt annually, but this year's larger number of seals has brought a bigger response. observers are already in the hunt area, and officials said if too many show up they will be prevented from interfering with the hunt. the annual protests, and the publication of photos of the hunt, are a public relations problem for canada.

protests were held in 50 cities around the world last week, and activists say they would press consumers and restaurants to avoid canadian fish for at least the duration of the hunt.

"we're going to be encouraging consumers to enter into dialogue with their grocery stores and their restaurants and say 'please don't serve canadian seafood' or 'i won't buy canadian seafood until this hunt is over'," said pat ragan of the humane society of the united states [hsus] to "reuters".

the international fund for animal welfare sponsored two independent veterinary teams to observe the 2001 hunt which concluded the animals are often (42% of the time) killed in an inhumane manner and not in accordance with canada's own laws.




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ground broken on northpoint development in cambridge, massachusetts

a view of the leonard zakim bridge from the construction site. the warehouses at right will be replaced by a five-acre park within two years. the elevated roadway in the foreground is the john f. gilmore bridge.
construction of two condominium buildings and a five-acre park began on march 21, in east cambridge, massachusetts. the buildings and park are part of the 45-acre northpoint development, which will take 15 years and more than $2bn to complete, according to the "boston globe". the buildings, designated as "building s" and "building t" by the planners of the project, spaulding & slye colliers, have been designed by local architectural firm childs bertman tseckares and architects alliance from toronto. buildings s and t are the first of an eventual 20 buildings planned at the site.

the development will fill what used to be a railroad yard for the guilford rail system, a subsidiary of guilford transportation industries. according to hoovers.com, guilford is controlled by timothy mellon, heir to the mellon banking fortune. guilford rail systems has its headquarters in north billerica and owns 1600 miles of railroad throughout new england. the tracks in the northpoint plot have been removed, though boston subway's lechmere station remains within walking distance of the site, along with parts of boston and cambridge. the site is bordered by route 93 on its eastern side, monsignor o'brien highway to the west, and the gilmore bridge to the south.

the landscape architecture of the park is provided by michael van valkenburgh associates, a landscape architecture firm on concord avenue in cambridge. the firm's principal teaches in harvard's graduate school of design. mvva is also completing the landscape for harvard's northwest science building.

cambridge planning board approves new science building at harvard, february 28th, 2005


john couey confessed to police in 1991 to molesting his stepdaughter; never prosecuted

last night, cnn's played a chilling police audio tape of a 1991 confession made by the accused killer of 9-year-old . on the tape, is heard admitting to molesting a young girl in her own backyard. for the crime he was subsequently charged, convicted and imprisoned for 2 years. 

an accompanying written report by the officer who took the taped confession says; "couey admitted that this was not the first child he had ever touched, however, this is the first time he was caught." the officer continues, "couey admitted to molesting his wife's daughter, however, she agreed not to report the incident if he left the house and gave her a divorce, which he did." cnn was unable to locate couey's former wife.

the revelation calls into question the way couey has been dealt with by officials over the years. he spoke on the 1991 tape about how he "needs help" and "wants help".

mary doyle, a citrus county probation official, said monday that if they had known couey was a registered sex offender, they may have been able to keep him away from jessica lunsford. florida courts do not provide probation workers with criminal backgrounds of their probationers, even in the case of registered sexual offenders like couey, doyle said. with that information they might have tried harder to locate him when he failed to report in with probation officials last november. when detectives did finally catch up with him, they learned he had been living across the road from jessica.



bush, martin, fox hold summit, sign spp accord

american president george bush, canadian prime minister paul martin, and mexican president vicente fox met at baylor university in waco, texas on wednesday. the leaders discussed cooperation in the areas of border security, trade, and immigration, signing an accord called the "security and prosperity partnership of north america."

"in a rapidly changing world, we must develop new avenues of cooperation that will make our open societies safer and more secure, our businesses more competitive, and our economies more resilient," read a joint statement released by the three leaders.

the agreement calls for greater sharing of intelligence and the strengthening of infrastructure security. it also seeks to develop a common system for screening travellers, and promotes collaboration in the sectors of transportation, energy, technology, and financial services.

each nation will set up ministerial-level working groups that will "set specific, measurable, and achievable goals and implementation dates" and "identify concrete steps the governments can take to achieve these goals," according to a white house press release. the initial reports are due within 90 days.

president bush, while not offering specific details, also said that he would "continue to push for reasonable, common-sense immigration policy with the united states congress."



explosion at texas refinery kills 14, injures more than 100

a huge explosion at the third-largest oil refinery in the united states killed at least 14 workers and injured more than 100 others at about 1:30 p.m. local time (19:30 utc) on wednesday, in texas city, texas.

the blast caused extensive damage to the bp facility, left a large crater in the ground, and flung chunks of burnt metal onto cars and trucks in the employee parking lot. windows and lights shattered in homes and other buildings miles from the blast location. a massive cloud of black smoke hovered over the sky.

"it was real scary," refinery worker charles gregory told the "associated press". "have you ever hear the thunder real loud? it was like 10 times that," he said.

authorities do not suspect that the explosion was caused by terrorism, but have not yet determined the cause of the blast. federal investigators have been sent to the site, according to daniel horowitz, the director of public affairs for the us chemical safety and hazard investigation board.

"we have no reason to believe this was anything caused by an outside agent," said bp spokesman hugh depland.

the 1,200-acre facility employs 1,800 workers, and outputs three percent of the oil supply for the united states (almost half a million barrels a day). the western side of the facility directly affected by the blast makes high-grade fuel.

firefighters worked for over two hours to fight blazes caused by the explosion.

company officials have not yet announced how long production will be suspended at the refinery. gasoline futures began trading higher at an all-time peak of $1.60 a gallon during after-hours trading on the new york mercantile exchange, but retreated to $1.58 later in the evening.

"it's a sad day for bp," said site director don parus.

texas city last suffered a major accident in april 1947, when a ship filled with ammonium nitrate exploded, killing about a third of the town's population, and injuring about 5,000 others.


woman finds human finger in bowl of chili at wendy's restaurant

san jose, california ? a woman eating a bowl of chili at a wendy's restaurant bit into a chewy bit that turned out to be a human finger. she immediately spat it out, warned other patrons to stop eating, and upon recognizing the object as a finger, vomited.

"i'm more of a carl's jr. person," the 39-year-old las vegas woman, anna ayala, told "knight ridder". she said this incident was her first visit to a wendy's restaurant. ayala described how she found the finger, "suddenly something crunchy was in my mouth," she continued, "and i spit it out."

according to devina cordero, 20, after ayala found the finger, she ran up to her and cordero's boyfriend and said, "don't eat it! look, there's a human finger in our chili."

"we went up to the counter and they told us it was a vegetable," cordero continued. "the people from wendy's were poking it with a spoon."

the restaurant is located at 1405 monterey highway, just south of downtown san jose.
wikinews reporter drove his car up to the drive-thru menu and found that chili was still on the menu, at a price of us$1.19 for a small serving. he also witnessed workers unloading supplies from a semi-trailer truck in the restaurant's parking lot, and carting them into the back door of the establishment.

according to ben gale, director of environmental health for santa clara county, the finger did not come from any of the employees at the restaurant. "we asked everybody to show us they have 10 fingers and everything is ok there," he said. the found portion of the finger likely belonged to a woman because of its long and manicured fingernail, also found in the food.

officials seized the food supply at the restaurant and are tracing it back to the manufacturer, where they believe the finger may have gotten mixed in with the raw ingredients used to prepare the chili. the restaurant's operators were later permitted to re-open after preparing new chili prepared from fresh ingredients.
as this story was filed, there was no mention of the incident on the wendy's corporate web site. wendy's issued a statement through a spokesman.

"food safety is of utmost importance to us," said wendy's spokesman joe desmond. he referred to the incident as an "unsubstantiated claim."

"we are cooperating fully with the local police and health departments with their investigation. it's important not to jump to conclusions. here at wendy's we plan to do right by our customers," desmond said.

according to county health officials, the unfortunate woman who bit into the finger is doing fine, despite her initial reaction. officials also noted that the finger would have been cooked at a high enough temperature to destroy any viruses.

the santa clara county medical examiner reported that the finger had a solid fingerprint, although investigators did not say if a search of fingerprint databases would be performed to find the owner of the finger.


iraqi, american forces raid insurgent training camp, killing 85

iraqi and american forces raided a training camp in a remote, rural region 160 kilometers north of baghdad on wednesday, killing 85 insurgents. seven iraqi commandos were killed in the raid and six were injured, according to the us military.

in addition to placing the insurgent death toll at 85, the iraqi government also said that between 500 and 700 iraqi commandos took part in the raid.

after encountering heavy fire from an estimated 100 insurgents as they approached the camp, the iraqi commandos called in support from the american 42nd infantry division, which sent in ground troops and attack helicopters. the battle began at approximately 11a.m. local time (0800 utc) and lasted seven hours.

the training camp, located in a remote region near lake tharthar, which is adjacent to the predominantly sunni anbar and salahuddin provinces, is the largest guerilla training camp that has been discovered in the war so far, according to iraqi officials.

the insurgents had planned to attack the city of samarra, located 55 kilometers east of the lake, with a large number of car bombs, according to the iraqi interior ministry.

iraqi officials claimed that most of the insurgents came from arab countries, though men from the philippines were also among the deceased insurgents. they also claimed to have captured one algerian.

"the arab countries are sending fighters into iraq because they want to destroy our democratic movement," said general rashid flaiyeh, head of iraqi police in salahuddin province, in an interview broadcast on state-run television network al iraqiya.


new company to research artificial brain

a company named numenta was founded today by jeff hawkins, founder of handheld computer company palmone, and his longtime partner donna dubinsky. the company is focused on the creation of technology to emulate the workings of the human brain. they are based in menlo park, california. 

hawkins has been intrigued by the faculties of the human brain for years. in 2002, he founded the redwood neuroscience institute. his theories on the working of the brain were explained in "on intelligence: how a new understanding of the brain will lead to the creation of truly intelligent machines," co-written with sandra blakeslee. hawkins' official recognition with the company will only be as 'founder', as the company will be led by dubinsky. hawkins will continue as chief technical officer of palmone and remain at redwood.

the company will not charge fees for its products during the first few years in order to encourage further development of the technology and build up a development community. the annual budget of more than $1 million will be paid by hawkins and dubinsky, who have raised an undisclosed amount from a handful of friends and associates.

hawkins and third co-founder of numenta, dileep george, have been working on developing the technology since 2003, and have devised an example piece of software. data is put into the program by showing it 90 different pictures. the software can then recognise any of the 90 objects, even when drawn incomplete or in bad quality. pattern matching is still difficult for today's hardware and software technologies. if outfitted with a camera, a sophisticated pattern matching system could be used by law enforcement to recognise the faces of wanted criminals in crowds.

other notable attempts at creating more powerful computer systems include artificial intelligence, which started in the 1950s and took off in the mid 1980s and led to disappointment due to high expectations, and the quantum computer, both fields are still in active development.

jeff hawkins and dileep george will be publishing a paper on 'a hierarchical bayesian model of invariant pattern recognition in the visual cortex' at an upcoming neural networks conference.

 


arab summit comes to an end

the summit rejected jordan's plan to normalise relations with israel by instead sticking to the 2002 peace plan. that plan promised to normalise relations only after an israeli withdrawal from , the creation of a palestinian state, and the settlement of palestinian refugees.

the summit announced the creation of an arab parliament to be based in the syrian capital of damascus. it will contain four members from each of the 22 arab league states.

libyan leader muammar gadhafi, the longest serving arab leader at the meeting, caused tensions by telling the palestinian delegation he thought both "palestinians and israelis are stupid." he also reiterated his call for a single state solution, saying "the solution i think is to have a single state. we cannot have two states." he also addressed terrorism, claiming it was the result of "oppression, injustice, arrogance, insults, contempt and the humiliation of this [arab] nation."


new figures released on irish income distribution

new figures released yesterday by the central statistics office of ireland confirmed that dublin has the highest level of disposable income per person in the republic of ireland whilst cavan, donegal and kerry have the lowest figures.

taking 100% to be the national average, dublin's disposable income per person was 13.4% above the national average, compared to the bottom three counties which were up to 16.5% below the national average.

according to the figures, only four counties in the country were above the average - dublin, kildare, wicklow and limerick. six counties were less than 90% of the national average.

the figures indicate that southern and eastern regions have the highest levels of disposable income in the country. the western, border, midland and northern regions have the lowest levels.

the figures - althought the latest available - were put together in 2002. it is likely the situation has changed somewhat since then.



canada set to rule on u.s. army refugee

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the immigration and refugee board of canada is scheduled to release its decision on jeremy hinzman's application for political refugee status.

the case is being closely watched as it will directly affect at least 8, and possibly more, u.s. military deserters in canada, and could further strain relations between washington, d.c. and ottawa.

hinzman's application was heard at a three-day immigration hearing in december. at the hearing he argued that he fled to canada to avoid military service in iraq in an illegal war, possibly making his participation a war crime under the nuremberg tribunals. the u.s. army has declared hinzman "absent without leave" (awol), and said he would face charges as a deserter which include the possibility of the death penalty.

"my life isn't that significant, but it's also not so worthless to be killed or go kill innocent people," said hinzman.

canada has accepted refugees in the past fleeing compulsory military service, but as hinzman volunteered to serve this case is breaking new ground.

hinzman is a practicing buddhist, and applied for conscientious objector status in the army in 2002 before his unit was ordered to afghanistan. his application was rejected and he was ordered to ship out to iraq in late 2003. at that time he and his family fled from his north carolina base for canada (his wife, nga nguyen, is also seeking asylum.)

the immigration and refugee board's decision is expected thursday afternoon on their website, and will not be announced publicly.




pbs cancels 'wall $treet week' after 35 years

the program, based in owings mills, maryland, has been on the air continuously for 35 years, becoming one of the longest-running programs in u.s. television history. it had been struggling to regain audience lost after the producers fired long-time host louis rukeyser in 2002 and signed a controversial deal with aol time warner to co produce the show with the editorial staff of "fortune magazine".

according to a report in the "new york times", after rukeyser's dismissal, 22 of the show's regular expert guests vowed never to appear on the program again. rukeyser was later hired by cable channel cnbc, where he hosted a program that aired in direct competition with "wall $treet week" in the u.s. eastern time zone until he fell ill in december 2004.



entrepreneur's rfid chip implant to open doors, start car

a technology entrepreneur in northeastern washington asked a doctor to implant an rfid chip into his hand in order to experiment with the technology. amal graafstra, who runs a technology company in bellingham, wa, asked a doctor to place the chip under the skin of his left hand, and posted pictures of the procedure to the photo-sharing site, flickr. graafstra plans to use the chip for keyless entry to his car, home, or as a login for computer systems.

implanting rfid chips is a relatively old technology. professor kevin warwick of the university of reading, uk implanted a 23mm rfid chip into his left arm in august 1998. it allowed him to open doors and turn on the lights in a room as he entered. further european research in the area was recently dealt a blow when the european group on ethics in science and new technologies made a presentation to the european union raising privacy concerns over the potential for such chips to be used to track members of the public.

in mid-2004, about 160 mexican officials received rfid implants for security purposes, and scientists in the past have implanted themselves with such chips for research purposes. in october 2004, the u.s. food and drug administration (fda) approved the implantation of verichip technology for medical purposes.

an implantable rfid chip is a minuscule capsule containing a microchip and an antenna, all enclosed in glass. the chip that mr. graafstra had implanted was 12mm long and 2mm in diameter ? about the size of a grain of rice. rfid chips work by storing a unique identification number in the microchip. this number can be retrieved by a special rfid reader that is held within close proximity. graafstra notes that his chip can be read from a distance of about 2 inches (5cm), and only provides the single identifying number.

describing himself as a long-time tinkerer, graafstra's comments do not show much of a hesitation to perform this process. "i like to mod things, and i guess it was only natural that it extended to my own body," he wrote in an email to wikinews.
graafstra appears to have been impressed by the process, too. "it was odd feeling it [the chip] being pushed under the surface of my skin... without feeling pain, i was able to really get a feel for just how utilitarian our bodies actually are and how... separate the skin layer really is from the muscle layer under it," he told wikinews. he was able to use his hand to perform technical computer maintenance just an hour after the procedure.

rfid is a controversial technology. privacy advocates fear that the technology might be abused by governments and used to track people. microchip implants have been used for years for tracking lost pets.

the pictures that graafstra posted spurred commentary in the blogosphere, with some assuming that the pictures ? or the process ? were faked. graafstra denies this, and posted a short video of himself triggering the rfid reader with a swipe of his hand.




akayev flees kyrgyzstan as protesters seize control of bishkek

thousands of demonstrators, reportedly cheered on by residents, overran the kyrgyz presidential palace, seizing control of bishkek’s government buildings and forcing president askar akayev to flee the country.

some 10,000 protesters gathered on central ala-too square in the country’s capital this morning. fighting broke out between supporters of akayev and the anti-akayev protesters at the demonstration, and, although it was reportedly relatively minor, a "reuters" witness reported hearing gun fire.

at the rally, the protesters gave speeches stating that the opposition would today finish taking control of the country. keneshbek dushebayev, newly appointed interior minister and chief of police for the city, called on them to give up their plans, but his pleas were dismissed by the protesters.

however, the interior minister assured them that the akayev's regime would not use force against them, despite the fact that riot police suppressed a smaller demonstration the day before after he claimed that the use of force was lawful.

the presidential palace was reinforced with police forces and soldiers as about 5,000 protesters marched to the palace, chanting “down with the akayev clans.”

the forces surrounding the building, which reportedly numbered in the hundreds, repelled an initial attempt to storm the building by the protesters, but the forces dispersed as about a thousand protesters fought back, armed with rocks and clubs, attempting to storm the building a second time. 

once inside, hundreds of protesters ransacked the building, throwing portraits of akayev out the windows and destroying documents.

thirty people were injured, according to medical officials.

interfax reported that akayev had flown to kazakhstan with his family by helicopter earlier. 

former vice president felix kulov, who was jailed in 2000, was among many political prisoners freed. he praised the "revolution made by the people."

"let's keep the peace, let's not lose our head," he said into a megaphone on the steps of the palace, addressing the protesters. "i want to thank you that you weren't afraid and were peaceful and civilized."

felix kulov was quoted as saying that akayev had resigned, though he denied this. "akayev's resignation will come when we find him," he said.

the demonstrations began at about noon local time (0700 utc), and, by 3:30 (1030 utc), every government building in the capital was seized. the opposition quickly established a “coordination council of national unity.”

"we will establish order. we will not allow looting. we will hold our own elections to start our rule," kurmanbek bakiyev, leader of the newly established coordination council said.

confirming interfax’s reports, he also said "askar akayev right now is not on kyrgyz soil."

former legislator oksana malevanaya, speaking for the coordination council on state television, now under opposition control, said that the former parliament would meet thursday night.

kyrgyz supreme court chairman kurmanbek osmonov told the session of parliament that the court had declared the elections invalid. he reportedly stated that the court considered the convened former legislature as the legitimate one.

"it's not the opposition that has seized power, it's the people who have taken power. the people. they have been fighting for so long against corruption, against that [akayev] family," ulan shambetov, an opposition activist, said.

presidential elections are reportedly likely to be held in may or june, followed by parliamentary elections in the fall. the old parliament will serve as the legitimate legislature until the elections are be held.

top government officials, including prime minister nikolai tanayev, who cancelled his trip to osh for negotiations today in light of the new developments, and state secretary osmonakun ibraimov, resigned.

opposition mp ishinbai kadyrbekov, former parliamentary speaker, was named acting president and newly freed felix kulov was named head of the ministries of security in the country by the parliament.

elsewhere, in batken, the third regional center in the south after now opposition controlled osh and jalal-abad, hundreds of protesters broke through police lines and seized government buildings.

monica whitlock, a correspondent for the bbc, notes she observed that some protesters carried pink banners while others carried yellow ones, suggesting that the opposition is fractured.

widespread looting reportedly continued overnight, as law enforcement officers were not present on bishkek's streets. bishkek was described as sinking into a state of "anarchy" by one observer, as gangs of people roamed the streets and plundered stores of consumer goods. several bishkek residents blamed protesters from the south for the lawlessness.

"there are looters and there are no police to stop them," felix kulov told "reuters". "the law enforcement bodies are completely demoralised."

amid the continued instability, kazakhstan tightened security along its border with kyrgyzstan, as uzbekistan and tajikistan have recently done.


sony's playstation portable is launched in north america

sony launched its eagerly anticipated playstation portable (psp) in the north american market today. the playstation costs $250 and plays mp3 files, movies and of course games.

launched previously in japan last year with much fanfare, the psp quickly achieved sales of more than 800,000 units. the device is sony's first major attempt at challenging nintendo's long held grip on the market for handheld games. 

nintendo currently holds a 90 percent of the market share for handhelds in north america. with the recent introduction of nintendo ds, the fight for control of this market is expected to become even more intense. 

the first shipment of 200,000 psp units were made available for purchase in japan on december 12, 2004. all units sold out within the first two days. some users reported problems with the launch units, including dead pixels (discolored squares) within the lcd screen and game discs ejecting abruptly if the system is twisted. sony offered to replace these psps under warranty, but said they do not consider a display faulty unless four pixels are within 1cm (0.39 in) of each other. 

sony have said that the following titles will be launched during the "launch window":


the unit measures 170 mm (6.7 in) (length) × 74 mm (2.9 in) (width) × 23 mm (0.9 in) (depth), and weighs 260 grams (9.17 oz) including the battery. the most noticeable element of the psp is its 4.3" 16:9 ratio tft lcd screen sporting a 480 x 272 pixel resolution capable of 16.77 million colors.

the playstation portable's cpu is a mips r4000 (32-bit) cpu, split into two cores each operating between 1 and 333 mhz; the system has 32mb of main ram and 4mb of embedded dram. the primary cpu core is responsible for traditional game processor functions; the secondary core, dubbed the "virtual media engine", is responsible for decoding multimedia, for example the h.264 decoder. 

the independent 166 mhz graphics chip provides hardware polygon and nurbs rendering, clipping, morphing, texture compression and tessellation, along with handling image output. specifications state that the psp is capable of rendering 33 million flat-shaded polygons per second, with a 664 million pixel per second fill rate.

unlike sony's playstation 2 console, the gpu (ps2 vector unit equivalent) is not programmable.



expo 2005 opens in aichi, japan

the 2005 world exposition opened today in aichi, japan. the fair, which runs until 25 september 2005, is expected to draw over 15 million visitors from across the globe. 121 countries will take part in what is expected to be a 135 billion yen event. 

the first expo - the "great exhibition" - was held in 1851 in london. the event had always been held in either europe or north america, until in 1970, it was held in osaka, japan.

one of the major attractions at this year's expo is the skull of an 18,000-year-old woolly mammoth.


 


tsunami death toll updated

new figures on the indian ocean tsunami disaster death toll have been released by indonesia's national disaster relief coordination agency. it confirms 126,473 dead and 93,943 missing in indonesia, the worst hit nation by far.

the tsunami was the result of an undersea earthquake near the northern tip of sumatra (in indonesia) on december 26. the waves struck as far away as tanzania on africa's east coast. 

according to sri lanka's centre for national operations, it was the second hardest-hit by the disaster with 30,957 dead, with another 5,637 people listed as missing.

according to sbs world news today, the total dead and missing for all eleven countries damaged by the tsunami now stands at 282,517. 

"figures from sbs world news march 24, 2005"

<nowiki>*</nowiki> aid workers claim this figure to be inflated.
over a thousand europeans were killed in the disaster. mostly holiday-makers, of those lost it is estimated that one third were german. another 1,100 were listed as missing.



un security council approves peacekeepers for sudan

the united nations approved the deployment of 10,000 peacekeeping troops and 715 civilian police to southern sudan. they will monitor a peace plan that ended the country's 21 year long .

the peacekeeping force will enforce a ceasefire agreement between sudan's government and the .

jean-marie guehenno, head of un peacekeeping operations, welcomed the security council's unanimous support of the resolution, but warned of "serious political hurdles" and "unprecedented logistical obstacles".

"if security does not improve quickly, the killings and rapes will continue. we must not allow allow this catastrophic scenario to become a foregone conclusion," he said.


harvard's berkman center blog group develops blogging tutorials

a discussion group about weblogs, or blogs for short, that meets at harvard university's berkman center for internet & society last week began releasing video tutorials about how to blog using various web and software tools.

harvard university's berkman center hosts the blogging discussion group, which has met weekly for the past two years.

after months of discussion and collaboration on the new tutorials, at friday's evening meeting presenters showed off some of their early video tutorials, which stream recorded audio, and previously-captured video of a computer screen, along with simultaneous live audio from a microphone.

participants learned how similar tutorials can be constructed using free software tools such as camstudio. audio of the session was made available on the world wide web.

shimon rura, a local software developer, presented 

a recent screen-capture + voiceover flash file he had made, demonstrating how to use a bookmarklet in the frassle blogging package. other participants discussed video demonstrations of how to podcast, and how to use specific blogging tools such as wordpress. 

there was also disussion of a recent initiative to set up a "blogging101" site for distributing and translating these instructional materials. rebecca mackinnon, a noted blogger and berkman fellow, spoke about the bloggercorps initiative to connect non-profits who want broader exposure with local blogging enthusiasts.

the meeting was held inside the main conference room in the berkman center's cambridge offices on massachusetts avenue.



yahoo adds creative commons search for locating reusable content

"yahoo!" has launched a beta version search tool at http://search.yahoo.com/cc, designed to locate content on the web under a creative commons (cc) license. while most copyrighted material on the web does not allow reuse, other than "fair-use" allowances, copyrighted material held by creative commons licensing allows the public to reuse material in a variety of ways specified by the copyright holder under the licensing agreement.

the nonprofit organization behind the license, creative commons, was founded in 2002 by stanford law professor lawrence lessig. the organization provides 11 agreements customized for use in various countries. depending on the licensing agreement, users can reproduce or modify the work as long as they mention the original creator. some licenses prohibit reusing works in a commercial setting.

not everyone is impressed by the new search tool. shelley powers, author of "practical rdf" from o'reilly press, writes in her book's blog, "since cc licenses are recorded using a standardized meta language," "yahoo!" is, "just checking for this information in the process of their normal operations." john batelle of searchblog points out that a9.com incorporates a similar feature in a9.com's open search. wikinews reporter found that a9.com requires registration and login to use the creative commons search.

lessig recently reflected on creative commons' success in a guest post at "yahoo!'s" search blog. describing an event at the launch of creative commons korea, he said: "at the end of our final celebratory dinner, one of the judges who had helped launch cc-korea asked me, 'so what will make cc in the world as successful as cc-korea?' and i recognized, for the first time, that this project that we started two and a half years ago had finally left home. i was no longer asking others to help; others were demanding from me a success to match their own."


us dog attack owner charged with involuntary manslaughter

a spotsylvania county woman, whose three dogs allegedly attacked and killed her elderly neighbor, was freed wednesday by posting a $10,000 bond. dianna large, 36, received one felony charge of involuntary manslaughter and three misdemeanor charges in an indictment issued last week.

in her first appearance before a judge, she answered circuit court judge william h. ledbetter questions with simple “yes sir.” and “no sir.” responses. the short hearing, held thursday, formalized the charges against her. the involuntary manslaughter charge, a first in the severity of punishment being sought on a dog owner in the virginan state of usa, carries a maximum penalty of 10 years.

state procecutor wiliam neely said that large knowingly let her three pit bull dogs run free, and that an animal control agency person had warned her to keep them under better control. she also a violated a county ordinance requiring owners of dangerous dogs to post a warning sign to visitors. the prosecution also noted that none of the three male dogs were neutered.

the animal control department of virginia maintains a dangerous dog registry. it contains a list of owners whose dogs are deemed dangerous to society. the link to the registry was moved to a more prominent position on the county web page following the attack.



protesters arrive at baxter detention centre in australian desert

hundreds of protesters arrived at the baxter detention centre in the desert to demonstrate against the incarceration of refugees held there. an additional 300 protesters converged on the home of immigration minister , in the state capital of , on their way to baxter.

people from all over australia are protesting against the australian government's policy of . the first protesters arrived by buses in early friday morning.

detainees seem split over the protest. "" reported detainee peter qasim as saying, "it stops people from visiting us, it stops us receiving any calls. it is a good idea to protest but better somewhere other than here."

however, other detainees have been reported as saying, "it is better in front of baxter, i believe showing baxter, protesters will shout about human torture inside detention. then there would be good publicity about all torture inside baxter detention."

and, "we welcome all of [the protesters] and we thank [them] all who has seen disgrace of this human torture. further we thank to you all who come and visit and looking after us all the time, we need it."

despite fears of violence, there has been no confrontation between the police and the protesters.


scientists discover soft tissue in dinosaur bones

scientists have uncovered soft bone tissue of a tyrannosaurus rex known as mor 1125, found in a sandstone formation in montana.

mor 1125 was 18 years old when it died, 65 million years ago. similar tissue of a dinosaur has never been found before, as all remains found until now were fosilized. the tissue still contains microscopic structures resembling bloodvessels and cells. the comparison between the structures found in the t-rex and a modern day ostrich shows a remarkable similarity. the results have been duplicated with an 80-million-year-old hadrosaur and two other tyrannosaurs. the discovery was reported in today's issue of science.

results similar to the popular film "jurassic park" are unlikely, as the recovery of dna from the tissue is improbable. the results remain astounding, however, and tests with antibodies that react to collagen shows the tissue may still contain proteins. “ultimately if we could establish chemical composition, we would have insights into all kinds of things: diet, sexual maturity, whether the specimen is the male or female.”, paleontologist hans-dieter sues said.

richard a. hengst of purdue university said the finding "opens the door for research into the protein structure of ancient organisms, if nothing else. while we think that nature is conservative in how things are built, this gives scientists an opportunity to observe this at the chemical and cellular level."

matthew carrano, curator of dinosaurs at the smithsonian's national museum of natural history, said the discovery was "pretty exciting stuff." "you are actually getting into the small-scale biology of the animal, which is something we rarely get the opportunity to look at."


five dead, over 200 injured as looting continues in bishkek

rtr television reported 5 people died and about 200 were injured as looting continued thursday night in the kyrgyz capital of bishkek. the newly appointed head of security ministries, felix kulov, said at least 31 police officers were wounded.

windows were smashed, shops were looted, and shopping centers were set ablaze during the unrest. gunshots were also heard.

"former president [askar] akayev is personally responsible for this. he had a chance to resign, instead of which he ran away," kulov said. "the looters kept shouting 'this shop belonged to the [akayev] family, this is why it is ours'."

the kyrgyz ambassador to the united states, baktybek adrisaev, characterized the opposition's actions as "an anti-constitutional coup." the ambassador claimed that akayev was in "a safe place" and that he had not resigned.

most reports, although unconfirmed, said akayev was in kazakhstan. however, interfax, by a source they described as "credible", reported he was in the resort area of borovoye, in the akmola region of northern kazakhstan.

"i cannot confirm these rumors. he is simply not here," ruslan aubakirov, head of district administration, told ria novosti in response to the reports.

opposition mp ishinbai kadyrbekov had initially been named acting president yesterday, but today opposition leader kurmanbek bakiyev was named both acting president and prime minister. "parliament today appointed me prime minister and gave me the functions of president," he said to applause at a rally.

he urged opposition supporters to not allow looting and stressed that popular opposition figure, felix kulov, would coordinate law enforcement. heads of law enforcement agencies reportedly told kulov that 90% of their staff were demoralized during consultations last night. despite these developments, bakiyev declined to declare a state of emergency.

bakiyev, outlining his plans for government on friday, told a session of parliament, "let me create an executive body of power that will not exist forever, but for about three months."

kulov, newly freed from prison by protesters, stated he would return to prison when he was no longer needed. "i was sentenced to imprisonment 
and must serve my time," he said. "i am not interested in posts or positions. i was just asked to help protect people and their property."

russia and the united states, who both have military bases in the country, vowed to stay out of events. security at russia's base was increased, although both countries said they did not expect trouble at their bases.

"kyrgyzstan is not planning to review its previous international engagements," kurmanbek bakiyev told reporters. "this applies to the air bases of the [u.s.-led] anti-terrorism coalition and the russian air base at kant."

the united states called for fresh elections , and russia has pledged to work with the opposition. russian president vladimir putin also announced that akayev would be welcome in russia.



kidnapped italian journalist refutes american government claims

italian journalist, giuliana sgrena, who was hit by american artillery fire after being rescued from kidnappers in iraq, was released from the hospital thursday. her injuries, more serious than initially reported, were caused by a projectile that burst her shoulder open and punctured her lungs. she suffers with fluid build-up in her lungs to this day and was unable to leave her home to participate in news interviews. 

sgrena told an independent reporter, naomi klein, in a report yesterday (friday, 3/26/2005) on the "pacifica radio network" broadcast called "democracy now with amy goodman," that they were not on a high security airport road which the americans had claimed. there were no "checkpoints" ? they had already passed through them in the green zone. sgrena stressed this as being very important to this story, and little reported upon in the u.s.

she said they received permission from security officials to use a little known, but very secure, road that was near to their airport destination. this road had no roadside bombs ? it is not open to the public and has absolutely no military checkpoints. access to the road was gained by first passing through the american-held security territory called the "green zone". located in the heart of baghdad, the zone is probably the only partly secure area of the entire country, according to sgrena. they had their headlights on for easy identification while they traveled, and were in mobile phone contact with italian security officials.

ms. sgrena asks why a tank would fire high velocity munitions at a small vehicle with permission to cross on such a secure road with absolutely no other traffic? what would the motive be to have her killed? it is known that the anti-artillery munitions were 4 inch long armor-plate penetrating rounds, which could explain her severe injury and the death of her body guard.

her tragedy and the death of nicola calipari have been very detrimental to italian prime minister silvio berlusconi's public opinion, particularly regarding his participation in the u.s. invasion of iraq. she had just been released from a horrible sequence of events beginning with her kidnapping and imprisonment in a small room. she did not know "night from day for an entire month." she feared the house she was in might come under fire from american helicopter gunships. she could hear them overhead at all hours of the day and night.

she was told by her kidnappers that "americans did not want her to get out alive," which she dismissed at the time as a threat from the kidnappers. she also said the statement by the kidnappers had an eerie overtone to it, since she knew that bush didn't want any independent journalists to carry tales out of the killing zones, or to talk to everyday iraqis. 

according to sgrena, she was placed in the back seat of the escape vehicle with the head of italy's foreign military intelligence, nicola calipari, after her release. he was killed during the attack when he shielded sgrena from bullets by jumping across her body. the shooting was done by heavy artillery on top of the attacking tank, not a simple machine gun. they fired at sgrena from behind ? hardly a situation where the car could be a threat to the tank. when the driver, giulian, climbed out of the shot-up car, he was in touch with his superiors in italy ? and ms. sgrena says he was telling them they had been taking intense gunfire, "300 to 400 shots." the americans aimed guns at him and told him to hang up immediately.

klein, the reporter with this story, stated the american press has not reported any of this. nor have they given the american people any idea of the seriousness of the injuries to sgrena. sgrena also questioned why the us army was not aware of her release from kidnapping, as all of the major news wires had reported it prior to the shooting incident.
late thursday, italian justice minister, roberto castelli, contacted american officials for permission allowing italian police access to the escape car, a toyota corolla which was rented from the baghdad airport. americans have previously only permitted italian authorities access to photographs of the car, and have not stated when they will allow the italians to have access to the vehicle.

recently mr. berlusconi has begun to backpedal on his statement that italian troops would be out of the war zone by september. he now claims he never said that, and italians won't leave iraq until it can police itself.



terri schiavo's father makes appeal to have feeding tube reinserted

terri schiavo's father made a last-minute appeal to have his daughter's feeding tube reinserted friday.

"terri is weakening. she's down to her last hours," said bob schindler, schiavo's father. "something has to be done and done quick."

bob schindler and his wife mary filed an emergency appeal friday to have a feeding tube reinserted in their 41-year-old daughter. earlier friday, u.s. district judge james whittemore rejected the family's previous appeal. on wednesday, he rejected a similar request.

the new appeal will be filed in the in , although that court has twice before rejected the family's appeal.

the tube was removed on friday, march 18, 2005.


canada considers copyright act changes

, .

ottawa announced several proposed amendments to the canadian copyright act, including signing onto two world intellectual property organization (wipo) treaties and requiring internet service providers to keep records on users who transfer many files online.

according to the announcement, the changes would "clarify that the unauthorized posting or the peer-to-peer file-sharing of material on the internet will constitute an infringement of copyright."

recording industry representatives were ecstatic with the news. "this is terrific news," said graham henderson, who heads the canadian recording industry association. "clearly, once we get implementation there will be no doubt ... it will be illegal to engage in unauthorized file-sharing."




taiwan democratic alliance for peace plans massive rally on saturday

over 500 groups, including the democratic progressive party, are planning a massive march and rally for saturday in taipei city. march promoters are vowing to bring one million people onto the streets to protest the people's republic of china's "anti-secession" law aimed at thwarting taiwan independence.

the march, titled "326 march for democracy and peace", will begin in ten different locations, converging on the square near the presidential office in downtown taipei city.

"democracy and peace are the ultimate goal of the march," said joseph wu, the mainland affairs council chairman. wu announced on friday that he would take part in the rally, but did not disclose in which part of the parade he would appear.

taiwan's president chen shui-bian announced on thursday that he will also attend the event with his family.

"i cannot and will not be absent on march 26, and i will take my entire family to participate in this sacred moment in history to walk and stand up together with the taiwanese people," chen said. chen further declared that he has, "heard the outrage and anger of the taiwan people."

a chinese scholar warned that the situation could become "further aggravated" by saturday's planned event.

"the secessionist forces plot to stir up public sentiments to embolden themselves. such moves are doomed to meet failure," said huang jiashu, a professor at the people's university of china. he stated that secessionist forces had "malevolently distorted" the anti-secession law.

the "taiwan domestic news hour" on "ettv" is running a "326" graphic to note the march and rally during its news reports about the upcoming event, and also has an animated graphic with marchers carrying signs in the lower-left hand corner of the screen.




jerry springer joins u.s. liberal radio network

after initially being carried by only 45 stations nationwide, the host of the long-running syndicated program, "" will eventually have his radio show heard on all 51 air america affiliates. the show also is planned to be broadcast by the sirius and xm satellite radio services. 

springer said he is committed to making his radio show a success. "progressive, populist voices need to be a part of our nation's dialogue," springer said in a press release. "i hope i can make a contribution." 

although best-known for his low-budget, tongue-in-cheek talk show, springer does have a political pedigree. he was a democrat mayor of cincinnati in 1977 and made a failed bid for governor of ohio in 1982.



ruling forbids radioshack brand in canada

a u.s. district court in tarrant county, texas, issued a summary judgment thursday against circuit city's intertan inc., requiring all 950 radioshack stores in canada to stop using the radioshack brand in store signs, packaging, products and advertising after june 30.

radioshack's canadian operations were spun off in 1986 to a new corporation, intertan canada, which was purchased in 2004 by radioshack's major u.s. competitor, circuit city. shortly thereafter, radioshack sued intertan, alleging it had violated the terms of their licensing agreement and seeking the right to terminate the contract early. 

in a statement released following the judge's ruling, radioshack's general counsel, mark hill, claimed: "the most important thing to us was to protect our brand position in canada." 

circuit city chairman and chief executive officer, w. alan mccollough responded today in a press release seeking an appeal: "we respectfully believe the court has erred in the partial ruling entered yesterday and we will use every means of relief possible to exercise our rights under the agreements, including all appeal rights. the company believes the positions taken by intertan are correct and believe intertan will ultimately prevail in the legal proceedings."




nra official suggests arming teachers to prevent school shootings

a lawyer who is expected to become the president of the national rifle association (nra) said in a comment to associated press (ap) that arming teachers with firearms is a solution to be considered in preventing school shootings by students. sarah s. froman, an alumni of harvard law school and a practicing lawyer, implied that allowing teachers to carry weapons is one of the many options that should be examined.

guns and other weapons are commonly banned on school campuses in the united states, but the high-profile incidents of students defying the bans and bringing firearms to classes could place the school at a disadvantage if the student were to fire the weapon. in the case of the recent student shooting at a native american reservation in minnessota the school had metal detectors and had an on-duty security guard. the guard was unarmed, however, and was gunned down by the student.

froman told the ap that if it is the responsibility of teachers to protect students from harm, then the society must find a way to let teachers do that. she also said that gun control laws or bans cannot prevent a malicious individual from acting out, and provided an example of a 1997 shooting incident where an armed teacher was able to help police apprehend the student.

froman is currently the nra's first vice president, and is expected to be elected to the post of president in the organization's elections next month. the current president of the 4-million member organization is actor and activist charlton heston.



ibm releases freeware for visualizing document histories

ibm's t.j. watson research center in cambridge released a free tool march 25 for visualizing the changing history of a document or directory of documents, called "history flow". the tool offers a variety of views of document histories, including a view that gives each revision equal importance, and a timeline view which displays each revision proportionally to how long it remained current. each different editor who makes changes to the article has a distinct color, allowing for that editor's text to be tracked over time. 

the tool was first developed in 2003 by a collaboration between fernanda b. viegas of the mit media lab and martin wattenberg and kushal dave of ibm. it was initially tested out on a large subset of the pages of wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia project which preserves every change made to each of its articles. the resulting paper was drafted in the winter of 2003 and presented at a conference in april 2004; it remains the most comprehensive overview of the lifecycle of articles in an active wiki community. a year later, the history flow paper is still the most frequently cited source of statistics about the reversion of vandalism on wikipedia.

the current tool is maintained by martin wattenberg and jonathan feinberg at ibm. it allows users to download the text and histories of the contents of any moinmoin wiki, or to view the history of the contents of an entire directory of documents. the tool is free to download and use, but its code is not open source. the support for moinmoin wikis comes via a plugin, so the tool may be extensible to the native interfaces of other wiki engines in the future.



us secretary of defense donald rumsfeld visits brazil

tuesday (march 22) the united states secretary of defense donald rumsfeld arrived in brazil for a visit with brazilian president luiz inacio lula da silva, vice-president and defense minister jose alencar, and other top officials.

in a meeting with president lula dasilva and his vice-president and minister of defense, jose alencar, mr rumsfeld discussed brazil leading the un military forces in haiti, terrorism and narcotrafficking.

rumsfeld told to afp journalists:
"the united states has put forward four topics, which we have agreed to take up: application of a law to down [drug traffickers' aircraft]; [un] operations in haiti; drug trafficking; and the fight against terrorism, including brazil's position on security in south america." 

rumsfeld and alencar held a joint press conference in brasilia, the capital city of brazil.

rumsfled stated that the friendship between brazil and united states is long-standing and highly-valued. he added that the us and brazil were allies in the second world war and partners in helping to shape key post-war institutions including the united nations.

journalists asked both jose alencar, and mr rumsfeld if they were concerned about venezuelan president hugo chavez, particularly after his recent purchase of 100,000 ak-47 assault rifles.

rumsfeld said:

the brazilian vice-president said that brazil prefers not to interfere in the affairs of others: 

president lula is scheduled to meet president hugo chavez, the president of colombia alvaro uribe velez and spain's prime minister, jose luiz zapatero next tuesday in ciudad guayana, venezuela.

the workers' party secretary for international foreign relations didn't agree with the us defense secretary regarding venezuela. he said that his "declaration, does not contribute to a process of stabilization of the united states' relations with latin america. it is a kind of mentality that, unhappyly, still is present in the american state, which considers latin america as an extension of its territory." 

rumsfeld praised brazil's leadership in united nations operations in haiti where they have maintained order in the country after the overthrow of former president jean bertrand aristide in february 2004.

a reporter asked mr rumsfeld whether brazil is ready to have a seat on the un security council. he answered by saying the department of defense doesn't have a voice or a role in that and the matter should be answered by the us president and the secretary of state.

journalists asked the brazilian vice-president jose alencar three if brazil will declare the revolutionary armed forces of colombia (farc) as a terrorist organization and if the government is worried about the farc infiltration in brazilian territory. alencar was evasive and he refused to answer the questions directly. 

alencar said brazil repudiates narcotrafficking and that "if the organization adopts crime as an instrument for raising resources, obviously it is something that must be combated." 

later he became impatient and said that he had already said everything he had to say. , 

mr rumsfeld visited sivam, the amazon surveillance system. sivam, which was built by u.s. defense contractor raytheon corporation, is an arrangement of interconnected sensors and radars to supervise both environmental conditions and criminal activity in the amazon, 

according to the communist party of brazil (pcdob), about 60 activists protested in the amazon against the visit of rumsfeld when he was touring sivam.

renato rabelo, the president of the pcdob released a note repudiating the visit of the us secretary. "the communist party of brazil repudiates the presence in domestic territory of the secretary of the defense of the united states, donald rumsfeld. the undesired visitor is one of the main expoents of the tyrant and imperialist government of the united states", says a excerpt.


morogoro plastic, funded by barclays, to open $2m network of recycling plants in tanzania

morogoro plastic will open a plastic grinding plant in the tanzania town of morogoro in april of 2005, according to faustine rwambali of the "east african". the grinding plant will be followed by a network of 5 washing plants around tanzania. 75% of the $2m (2bn tsh) investment needed to build the system of plants has been provided by barclays. the first three washing plants will be in mwanza, arusha, and dar es salaam, followed by a plant on the island of zanzibar and one in the southern part of the country.

the "east african", a weekly business paper published by the aga khan's nation media group, reports the grinding plant will have a daily capacity of 3 tons of plastic. this capacity will be upgraded to 10 tons per day once equipment ordered from portugal arrives in june, reported ippmedia, the news arm of east african beverage conglomerate ipp holdings. praful ladwa, the director of morogoro plastic, claims tanzania produces 1000 tons of plastic per day. once the full network of plants is functioning, ladwa hopes it will be able to handle more than 75% of that waste stream.

according to the "east african", tanzania has 15 to 20 plastics companies. ladwa said the new plant system will be the "first of its kind in east and central africa." morogoro plastic plans to expand its recycling operations into neighboring kenya and uganda by 2007. ladwa asserted that the system would create at least 10,000 jobs in the region.


india to build aircraft carrier by 2012

india announced on march 23 that it will build an indigenous by 2012.

the announcement represents a historic military development for india and the asian region. although india is already one of the nine countries capable of projecting their military power via aircraft carrier, they have not had the capability to build an aircraft carrier themselves.

the project will begin on april 11 with a "steel-cutting ceremony" attended by indian defence minister .

the vessel will be constructed at a state-owned shipyard with technical assistance from foreign consultancy firms. an company is providing design consultation while a firm is contributing technology.

the construction of an indigenous aircraft carrier is part of india's larger plan to modernize its navy. india aims to strengthen its navy, and its military power generally, through greater cooperation with and purchase of weapons systems from the .

in a related development, the united states announced on friday that it intends to help india become a "major world power."


protests continue at baxter detention centre

three and maybe four protesters were arrested as demonstrations entered their second day at the baxter detention centre in the south australian desert. the protesters were arrested trying to get closer to the faculty. along with hundreds of other protesters, they marched to the back of the centre but were met by police in riot gear as well as mounted police.

two activists from brisbane were arrested in the action, while a third person, who wished not to be identified, was also arrested. protesters report that a fourth person appears to be missing.

an estimated 400 protesters have been camping around four kilometres from the centre over the easter weekend, to highlight the australian government's policy of mandatory detention. police have been using helicopters to watch the protesters as they have marched from their campsite to the centre.

more than 200 police charged at protesters as they marched toward the centre. the protesters had formed a tight group and were slowly marching towards the centre. one protester received a minor arm injury during the clash.

"i think it was quite over the top," said protester mark goudkamp. "i mean it was pretty clear [by] the way that we were marching in very slowly, very packed as a united group that we didn't pose any threat to the security of the centre on the inside."

"everyone was banded together and people at the front knocked down the fences and we moved forces past the barrier and down to the detention centre,” said kate, a protester from brisbane.

“we pushed forward and got quite a fair way into the space. the cops rode horses to try to ward us off and generally tried to intimidate us. i was scared, but i felt safe within the group,” she said.

police have said that they will charge several protesters over damage estimated at several hundred australian dollars caused during last night's demonstration. the damage is mainly political graffiti and minor damage to a wooden fence just outside the detention centre.

one protester said that despite the threat of prosecution he would continue such actions. "i don't want trouble but... we have nothing but our hands," he said.

"with our hands and with our voices we are going to free the refugees. if the property is being used unjustly, as it is in this case, i think it is the right of every right-thinking person to damage that property to free those held unjustly as the refugees are in baxter."

however mark goudkamp said that this was a minority view. "[the property damage] was a very, very small incident amongst everything else that happened. of course [police] are going to try to focus in on that to portray it in whatever negative light they can to try to justify their over-the-top presence here," he said.





land conflict mars good friday in jerusalem

a conflict erupted between greek orthodox monks and arab christians in jerusalem on good friday, as the arab christians protested the monks' sale of church land to jewish residents.

israeli police broke up the protest near the church of the holy sepulchre.

omar harani, a 25-year-old leading the protesters, told the "telegraph", "we gave the land 2,000 years ago to the church to look after," and continued, "so it is not their land to sell. for hundreds of years we christians, who used to be 15 per cent of the population, have been persecuted and driven out of the holy land and now we are a tiny minority. but we will make our voice heard to stop this sale."


pilgrims journey to jerusalem for good friday

christians from many countries flocked to jerusalem on friday, to follow the traditional via dolorosa, or "way of sorrows", marking the various spots in the city at which jesus stopped, according to christian tradition, on the way to his crucifixion on the hill of calvary. 

some of the visitors carried large crosses, and others had crowns of thorns on their head.

visitors from far-flung locales including ireland, the philippines, and the united states have been coming in numbers much higher than in previous years, when regular occurrences of violence caused travel to israel to plummet.

"with the ceasefire and arafat’s successor, there’s even less reason to worry," said 38-year-old connon mccabe, from dublin, ireland.

"in the last 15 days, we’ve seen hundreds more visitors," said muslim shopkeeper hashim melki. "i like having people in my shop again after four years," melki said.

israeli police estimated attendance at the event was about 3,500.


u.s. willing to sell f-16s to pakistan, india

the united states announced that it will be willing to sell f-16 fighter jets to pakistan on friday. u.s. state department officials said that the sale would improve regional security.

a senior u.s. official, speaking to afp on conditions of anonymity, reportedly said that the amount of planes which will be sold to pakistan is "relatively small," although he said that" there is no set limit on what the united states is going to be willing to sell."

pakistan reportedly wants 25 of the planes, which have a maximum range of over 2,000 miles and are capable of being used for ground or air attacks.

president bush personally telephoned indian prime minister manmohan singh to inform him of the new developments before the announcement, according to white house officials.

according to a spokesman for singh, the indian prime minister expressed "great disappointment" and said that it could have "negative consequences" for the security of india.

the senior u.s. official also said that "we don't see any impact on the relevant military balances in the region." he added that the united states would be willing to sell both f-16 and more technologically advanced f-18 fighters to india, if india desired them.

"new delhi television" reports that the offer "has been welcomed" by india's ministry of external affairs. "xinhua" has stated that india is seeking a new contract for a purchase of 126 fighter planes. 

the announcement was also welcomed by the pakistani government. "we welcome this good gesture and it shows good friendship between pakistan and the united states," pakistani information minister sheikh rashid said.

"xinhua" reported that potential sales could benefit us aerospace giant lockheed martin, which hopes to fill "looming gaps in the production line."

the company "has not been officially notified by the u.s. government of any agreement", lockheed spokesman tom jurkowsky told the "washington post". the bethesda-based company said that it would have to close its production line in fort worth, texas if it does not receive additional orders by this fall.


u.s. unveils plans to help india become a &quot;major world power&quot;

the united states announced plans to help india become a "major world power in the 21st century" on friday.

washington has offered to engage in a strategic dialogue with india regarding security issues such as missile defence and other issues, such as cooperation in the high-tech, economic, and energy sectors, under the plans.

"its goal is to help india become a major world power in the 21st century," afp reported a senior us official speaking under condition of anonymity as saying. "we understand fully the implications, including military implications, of that statement."


deep impact cruising for comet crash

nasa's comet busting spacecraft deep impact has moved into its cruising phase towards a rendezvous and collision with comet tempel 1 on july 4, 2005.

the cruising phase is the second of five phases mission planners have set for the mission. the first commissioning phase was begun soon after launch and was designed to test and calibrate the instruments on board the two-part spacecraft. all instruments have checked out except for the high resolution instrument (hri).

mission controllers performed a "bake-out" or heating of the hri to remove moisture that accumulated during the craft's final hours on the launch pad and its travel through the atmosphere. test images taken after the procedure indicate the device has not reached perfect focus. a special team has been assigned to investigate and bring the instrument into full focus.

"this in no way will affect our ability to impact the comet on july 4," said rick grammier, deep impact project manager at nasa's jet propulsion laboratory. "everyone on the science and engineering teams is getting very excited and looking forward to the encounter."

deep impact has four data collectors to observe the effects of the cometary collision: the high resolution instrument consisting of a camera and infrared spectrometer; the medium resolution instrument; and a duplicate camera on the impactor targeting sensor. they will record the vehicle's final moments before it slams into comet tempel 1 at a relative velocity of 37,000 kilometers per hour (23,000 miles per hour). the medium resolution instrument and impactor targeting sensor are performing as expected.

dr. michael a'hearn of the university of maryland added, "we are very early in the process of examining the data from all the instruments. it appears our infrared spectrometer is performing spectacularly, and even if the spatial resolution of the high resolution instrument remains at present levels, we still expect to obtain the best, most detailed pictures of a comet ever taken."

deep impact is a two part vehicle: the flyby spacecraft and a smaller impactor. 24 hours prior to impact, the flyby craft will aim tracking telescopes at the comet and release the impactor.

the impactor is a battery-powered spacecraft that operates independently of the flyby spacecraft for just one day. it is called a “smart” impactor because, after its release, it takes over its own navigation and maneuvers into the path of the comet. the crater produced by the impactor is expected to range from the width of a house up to the size of a football stadium and be from two to 14 stories deep. ice and dust debris will be ejected from the crater revealing the material beneath.

nasa's hubble, spitzer and chandra space telescopes, along with the largest telescopes on earth, will observe the effects of the material flying from the comet's newly formed crater along with the imagers aboard deep impact.

deep impact was launched on january 12, 2005 on board a delta 2 rocket.


gender imbalance in tsunami deaths

up to four times as many women as men died in the december 26 indian ocean tsunami, figures published by oxfam international today reveal.

"in some villages it now appears that up to 80% of those killed were women. this disproportionate impact will lead to problems for years to come unless everyone working on the aid effort addresses the issue now. we are already hearing about rapes, harassment and forced early marriages. we all need to wake up to this issue and ensure the protection, inclusion and empowerment of the women that have survived,” said, becky buell, oxfam’s policy director.

as well as recognition of the disparity, and further research, oxfam calls for a number of practical measures including assistance for men in affected areas to "adapt to changing gender roles including caring of children" and better protection for women, who may be finding themselves severely outnumbered by men.

as well as reporting that workers on the ground have been "becoming increasingly aware that a disproportionate percentage of the fatalities there were female", the study looks in detail at a number of locations in indonesia, sri lanka and , the three countries with greatest death toll from the disaster, and finds consistently that women killed outnumber men.

the differences are explained in the report as originating both in differences in ability ? more men can swim and climb trees in the affected areas than women, and men are generally physically stronger ? as well as in differences in activity that the individuals were engaged in at the time the tsunami struck ? many women in aceh were indoors at home with the children on a sunday morning, while many men were fishing at sea, or on errands.

in india, many of the women were waiting at the sea-shore for men to bring home the catch, when the wave hit. the wave at sea had not yet broken, and so posed no threat to vessels far enough from shore.

in sri lanka in batticoloa district, the tsunami hit at the hour women on the east coast usually took their baths in the sea.

women looking after children at the time of the tidal wave were further distracted by trying to save their children, while men away from the house were able to dedicate more of their efforts to saving themselves.

another factor particularly important in aceh was that many of the men of the region had left to seek work elsewhere, while women stayed behind in their home community, which was almost completely wiped out by the wave.

the survey looked at aceh besar district of indonesia, the north aceh district, the two worst-affected districts of tamil naidu in south india, being nagapattinam and cuddalore, and used rough statistics and anecdotal information from sri lanka, where hard figures are not available.


pope john paul ii unable to lead good friday services

pope john paul ii, the most visible global christian leader and head of the largest christian denomination, roman catholicism, has for the first time been unable to lead traditional good friday services in rome.

he appeared to worshippers via a video presentation from the vatican.

the catholic leader has been diagnosed with pulmonary illness and parkinson's disease.

catholic services on this day are strictly liturgies of the word with an optional eucharist, as the mass cannot be celebrated on good friday.


zimbabwe's mugabe: vote for us or starve

in a land of four million people where roughly one fourth of the population faces danger of hunger, opposition party supporters are receiving a harsh message from government run emergency food stations in the run up to thursday's election: vote for mugabe, or starve. 

as two british newspapers reported four days before general elections, zimbabwe's leader robert mugabe is using food as a political weapon in a country dominated by scarcity.

the government food distribution agency is the only source for something to eat for vast numbers of zimbabweans today. determined to destroy opposition parties, mugabe and his supporters seek to prevent anyone who supports the opposition from receiving rations.



india may rise as regional power

in the wake of 's march 26 announcement that it intends to build its first indigenous aircraft carrier, and recent american overtures aimed at greater defense cooperation to help make india a "major power," speculation is rife as to the future geopolitical consequences for the asian region and the world.

india's rise to greater military power may serve as a counterbalance to in the asian region. china is interested in developing a free trade pact with india and has made overtures in that direction, which are under consideration in india.

indeed, china's military might is also increasing at a rapid rate as that nation's government commits an ever-greater percentage of its budget to national defense.
nonetheless, the two nations are seeking a free trade agreement (fta), which some observers have declared as having the potential to be "the most significant event of this decade" for the asian region.




hundreds of thousands march in taipei

hundreds of thousands of demonstrators filled the streets of taipei saturday evening, as several political parties and the taiwanese president chen shui-bian voiced their opposition to the new anti-secession law passed by mainland china last week.

protestors chanted "oppose war, love taiwan" in what has been termed a "democratic carnival" in downtown taipei. the "carnival" consisted of activities of different themes relating to taiwanese national sovereignty and cross-straits relations.

reuters news agency reports that organisers had hoped to attract one million people to the marches, but police estimate an attendance of only 230,000 so far.

"i am here to protest against a barbaric china who looks down upon the taiwanese people," said fan wen-yi, a 70-year-old businessman. "the anti-secession law, simply put, is a law that authorises war. if they really see taiwan people as their compatriots, why do they enact such a law?"


hundreds of thousands protest anti-secession law in taiwan

hundreds of thousands of demonstrators filled the streets of taipei, taiwan on saturday, as several political parties, 500 civic groups, and president chen shui-bian voiced their opposition to the "anti-secession" law passed by the people's republic of china last week.

the "associated press" and the "sydney morning herald" estimated turnout at close to one million. police spokesman tan szu-huai initially provided an estimate of about 300,000, but "ap" is reporting a revised police estimate of one million. "reuters" news agency reports that organisers had hoped to attract one million people to the march.

"what do we want from china? peace!" dpp lawmaker bikhim hsiao chanted with the crowd.

hsiao told "cnn", "[this law] essentially gives china a blank check to use force against taiwan, and they are the ones legislating, they are the ones interpreting the law, and executing and implementing the law."

taiwan's president chen shui-bian joined the protesters with his family and a security escort at 3pm local time. chen is not scheduled to make a major speech to the crowd once they assemble at presidential office in downtown taipei city, although he will preside over a ceremony with songs for each of the four major ethnic groups before the rally ends.

protestors chanted "oppose war, love taiwan" amongst what has been termed a "democratic carnival" in downtown taipei. the "carnival" consisted of activities on different themes relating to taiwanese national sovereignty and cross-straits relations.

protestors attended from all over taiwan, many braving arduous ten-hour or longer bus rides to taipei.

taiwan's former president lee teng-hui, the spiritual leader of the pro-independence tsu, and premier frank hsieh, a member of the democratic progressive party, are also taking part in the march.

vice president annette lu is expected to make an appearance at the presidential office.

taiwanese television station "ettv" on its "taiwan domestic newshour" and others are providing live coverage as the march and rally progresses.

andrew yang, secretary-general of the council for advanced policy studies in taiwan, told "bloomberg", "china probably won't respond too strongly to the rally, focusing instead on how to make progress in terms of a peaceful, pragmatic approach."

at the time this story was filed, china's state-controlled "xinhua" and "people's daily" news agencies had no immediate comment about the march or the planned rally, but earlier today, "xinhua" reported that on friday, a chinese expert "urged the taiwan authorities to grasp the 'sincerity and goodwill' expressed in the anti-secession law," stating that "taiwan independence" secessionist forces had "malevolently distorted" the legislation and "sought to instigate hostility" between the two sides.

china's state-run news agencies also quoted professors from chinese universities on friday, who warned that the situation could become "further aggravated" by saturday's planned event.

"china's hard line stirs throng in taiwan." keith bradsher. "new york times." march 27, 2005. 



police, militia confront looters in bishkek, leaders say city now calm

a 6:00 p.m.-6:00 a.m. curfew was imposed in the kyrgyz capital of bishkek on friday night as policemen and some 2,000 voluntary civilian militia members patrolled the streets. they were authorized to shoot into the air to disperse the looters.

three to six people were killed as sporadic gunfire was heard in the capital overnight, and 129 people were detained.

felix kulov, newly appointed coordinator of law-enforcement, said of the situation on friday, "the city looks as if it has gone mad."

however, after the night's events, he was confident that the situation had improved. "the situation is fully under control. we do not need a curfew," he said saturday morning.

"voluntary people's militia groups and units of the kel-kel opposition youth organization are responsible for maintaining order in the city," a source within the interior ministry told interfax.

the opposition has now claimed that it did not originally intend to seize government buildings in bishkek on march 24.

"on march 24 we didn't plan to seize the government headquarters in bishkek, we were getting together for a peaceful rally. but when stones started flying at the rally, the people blew up and seized the kyrgyzstan government headquarters," rosa otunbayeva, newly appointed minister of foreign affairs, told a news conference on friday.

deposed president askar akayev claimed that he had not resigned and vowed to return to the country in the future, in a statement released to itar-tass. 

"the rumours about my resignation from the presidential post are deceitful and malevolent," he said in the statement. "under the circumstances i decided to temporarily leave the country to avoid bloodshed."

akayev stressed, "my present stay out of the country is a temporary occurrence." 

interfax reports that akayev flew to russia from kazakhstan friday night. russian president vladimir putin has said that akayev would be welcome in russia.

china closed its border with kyrgyzstan temporarily, until march 28, following similar closings by the countries of uzbekistan and kazakhstan. tajikistan has left some crossings open but has tightened security.

many countries, including the united states, the united kingdom, france, and china have issued travel advisories, advising their citizens not to travel to kyrgyzstan because of the unrest.

officials with the state department say the united states accepts the "realities on the ground" and will work with the interim kyrgyz authorities to build democratic institutions.

the european union called for the people of kyrgzstan to behave "responsibly" and offered to cooperate with the new leaders.

javier solana, eu foreign policy chief, also added that "the eu will continue to support the efforts of the osce mission in bishkek."

russia has said that part of the responsibility for triggering the uprising lies with the osce. russian ambassador to the osce, alexei borodavkin, told afp that the osce report on shortcomings in the kyrgyz parliamentary elections in february and march of 2005 had "to some extent, triggered the unrest."

russia has also called the revolution "illegal," although russian authorities have also offered to cooperate with the interim kyrgyz authorities.




fire in tema, ghana threatening oil refinery

a fire which broke out onboard a greek oil tanker in the port of tema, ghana at 9am friday (local time), now threatens an oil refinery. the chief of ghana's port authority, ben awusu-mensah, said 80 firemen are currently fighting the blaze. "the situation is extremely critical" he said, "they're trying to harness the flames, but there are fears they might catch the refinery".

at least three people have died. authorities believe the toll will rise to eleven. "we've brought out two more bodies today and we've seen between six and nine more but it is very dark and hot in there," said one firefighter.


four americans die from mine impact in afghanistan

four us soldiers were killed by an explosion on saturday morning in afghanistan when their vehicle ran over a mine. the soldiers, part of a joint u.s.-afghan patrol, were travelling forty miles south of when the explosion occurred.

a marine also died in a separate incident while performing a security patrol in anbar province.

seven u.s. soldiers have been killed this year in afghanistan.

two u.s. soldiers were also killed in baghdad and two wounded when their patrol was attacked with a car bomb.


chinese government to safeguard old beijing

beijing's city legislature has approved a bill, one year in the making, to safeguard the historical and cultural heritage of old beijing. the new 41-article set of regulations will come into effect may 1, requiring the city to protect listed heritage sites and unlisted sites deemed of historical or cultural value. it also guarantees protection for the area within the city's second ring road.

director of the beijing administrative bureau of cultural heritage, mei ninghua, said "the most encouraging content of the regulations is that beijing will pay more attention to protecting the old city's landscape in its entirety, rather than just focussing on scattered heritage sites." this means the old city layout, colours of buildings, and the names of houses and lanes will have legal protection.
"we took measures to protect the city's siheyuan courtyard houses by tagging protection plates on more than 650 of them in 2003, preventing them from being demolished or damaged during the city's massive housing reconstruction projects," said mei.

"now the new regulations give legal buttress to the protection of siheyuan courtyard homes, as well as other unmovable ancient treasures, that have yet to be listed but are at risk of being demolished during urban renovation."

modern beijing, capital of china for 850 years, was built by mongul emporer kublai khan in 1267 ad. in the vicinity of the current city once was ji (?), the capital of the state of yan (燕), a power of the warring states period - but it has been lost in the mists of time.



multiple parliaments meet in kyrgyzstan, legitimacy uncertain

although the supreme court reportedly annulled recent election results on march 24, two rival parliaments have been meeting in the kyrgyz capital of . the central election commission of kyrgyzstan voted to endorse the legitimacy of the newly elected and protested parliament on saturday. 

both a pre-election chamber, comprising of an upper and lower house, and a post-election chamber, comprising of single house, met in separate rooms of the parliament building on saturday. mps from both parliaments are set to meet and debate how to proceed. among solutions proposed are keeping both parliaments functioning until the next election.

"our opinion is that we should be the legitimate lawmakers because the people have chosen us," said roman shin, who was elected to the new parliament. he said the mps of the former parliament, which were meeting once again, "don't want to abandon power." 

"the revolution was made by [only] 5,000 people," he said, and added that he and his allies could organize at least five times as many.

"it all happen so fast, we don't even know if we can call it a revolution," felix kulov, newly appointed head of security ministries, told . "we still haven't figured out what happened. people just ran into the white house and the president fled the country. it was not planned. it was not a revolution. but now we have to take control somehow."

hundreds of protesters rushed into the kyrgyz parliament demanding a meeting with acting president on saturday, according to a ria novosti correspondent. 

they demanded that the newly elected parliament be declared illegitimate. bakiyev promised that he'd settle the matter within two weeks, and the protesters were reportedly not satisfied by his assurances.

eight of ten members of the central election commission of kyrgyzstan voted to acknowledge the protested results of the last election as legitimate. earlier this week, the supreme court declared the election results annulled.

"the decision of the supreme court is illegal as it was made under pressure of the crowd. after the announcement of the registration results the central election commission can hold a session, for instance, tomorrow," a newly elected mp, alisher sabirov, told ria novosti. 

on saturday the upper house of the former parliament said it would preserve its authorities before the june 26 presidential elections and did not acknowledge the new parliament.

leaders of key political structures signed a compromise memorandum on the march 25. the memorandum states that the former parliament will continue to serve until april 14. after that, the new parliament will take over.

however, quite a few mps are doubting the legitimacy of the march 25 memorandum. they are demanding that the former, two-house parliament's tenure be extended. the more radical mps are demanding that the new parliament, or "imposters," must leave the parliament building. they contend that the memorandum must be revised.

the lower house of parliament is also rumored to be discussing the possibility of declaring a state of emergency, behind closed doors.

, who was elected both acting president and prime minister, also appointed new ministers on friday. among the newly-appointed ministers are myktybek abdyldayev, former chief prosecutor who had been fired by deposed president on wednesday, as interior minister, felix kulov as minister of security, and rosa otunbayeva as minister of foreign affairs.

the ministers were appointed as acting ministers and thus did not need the approval of the upper house of parliament.

the former parliament also scheduled kyrgyz presidential elections for june 26. this announcement was met by mps with applause. 

"i think i should run in the presidential elections. god willing, i will," bakiyev said.

adding to the uncertainty, deposed president askar akayev has said that he has not resigned and intends to return to the country. however, bakiyev and kulov both said that there were no grounds for impeaching or persecuting akayev.

"the vote of no confidence takes place in case of high treason or after initiation of criminal proceedings. so far, we have no evidence of either," kulov said in an interview on national television.

"i have no intention of persecuting askar akayev. he has done much for democracy and building a sovereign kyrgyzstan," bakiyev told reporters.

bakiyev reportedly met with the ambassador to kyrgyzstan and discussed the situation with russian president over the telephone. putin reportedly offered the county russia's help.

bakiyev appealed to the staff of deposed president akayev and prime minister tanayev's offices to report back to work. "we must re-establish order in the white house," bakiyev said.



conservatives plan to reject budget over newly introduced kyoto amendment in canada

the canadian conservative party plans to reject the federal budget. a recently amended provision allowing the government to control greenhouse gas emissions is "completely unacceptable," says its leader stephen harper.

harper said thursday his party plans to vote against the omnibus budget bill if it includes the amendment to the canadian environmental protection act. it would add greenhouse gas emissions to the list of controlled substances, allowing the canadian government to regulate those emissions, he contends. "this is an attempt by the government to get unlimited power to impose multimillion-dollar fines on any basis, without any parliamentary approval or discussion, whatsoever." harper said.

the controversial amendment was introduced after a lengthy cabinet debate between finance minister ralph goodale and others.

when the budget was tabled last month, harper initially said his party would support the bill. he now says the party will oppose it unless the liberal government removes the amendment. environment minister stephane dion, who is attempting to have a $10 million kyoto implementation plan in place by april 4, said he would be "very, very pleased" to fight an election over climate change.

the ndp and bloc quebecois have both said they will oppose the bill. the liberal party of canada has 133 seats, so its defeat seems certain if all four parties hold their positions.

both the ndp and the bloc also accuse the liberal party of trying to tack the kyoto amendment onto the bill without sufficient debate.

bloc leader gilles duceppe said that he was not satisfied with a number of provisions in the bill. “first of all it's not enough on kyoto. we don't know the plan, we didn't discuss the plan," duceppe said. “i'm ready to have an election any time if this is what they want."

ndp leader, jack layton, said "the liberals are playing games with the environment. paul martin doesn't care about the kyoto plan. he cares about playing politics and that is what's going on here."

it will be up to prime minister paul martin whether a defeat triggers an election.



ncaa men's division i basketball tournament reaches &quot;elite eight&quot; round

the ncaa men's division i basketball tournament has entered the quarterfinal, or "elite eight", round of play, in what is shaping up to be an exciting tournament with its fair share of upsets and underdogs.

one example of outstanding play by a low-seeded team is #7 seed west virginia, who beat #2 seeded wake forest in a double overtime game in which junior guard mike gansey poured in 29 points, many late in the game.

west virginia plays #4 seed louisville at 4:40 pm est tonight, while #3 seed arizona plays #1 seed illinois at 7:05 pm est.




massive star cluster found in milky way

european astronomers discovered a very young and huge star cluster within our milky way galaxy using european southern observatory telescopes. the discovery was made at the la silla observatory in chile.

hidden behind a veil of dust and gas, the super star cluster, known as westerlund 1, is
1000 times closer than any other known clusters. these super star clusters were previously known to exist as pairs or groups of interacting galaxies located at immense intergalactic distances. it is so close--within 10,000 light years--scientists will be able to examine its structure in detail. until now, super clusters were far too distant for individual
stars to be distinguished.

initial observations have led scientists to conclude the group contains at least 100,000 times the mass of the sun, with some single stars shining with a power of 1,000,000 suns and 2000 times larger than our own. all the stars are in a region less than six light years across.

the existence of westerlund 1's has been known since 1961. discovered by swedish astronomer bengt westerlund while in australia, the cluster is located in the southern constellation ara (the altar). it was a dimming factor of more than 100,000 caused by the gas and dust between us and the cluster that prevented the actual structure and nature of the phenomenon to be determined.

using a variety of instruments, including the wide field imager (wfi)
attached to a 2.2 meter scope and the superb-seeing imager 2 (susi2) camera
on the eso 3.5 meter new technology telescope
(ntt), 200 cluster member stars were identified. these and other
observations have revealed the cluster contains young stars on the
order of 30-40 times more massive than our own sun. the age range has been
determined at 3.5 to five million years old, making this cluster very young
compared to the galaxy itself at around 13.5 billion years.

the research will appear in the leading research journal "astronomy and astrophysics", and is titled "on the massive stellar population of the super star cluster
westerlund 1", by j.s. clark and colleagues. a second paper, "further
wolf-rayet stars in the starburst cluster westerlund 1", by ignacio
negueruela and simon clark will also be published in the same journal.


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mozilla foundation rolls out second security update for firefox browser

the mozilla foundation released the second major security update this week for their flagship browser firefox. the fix patches a serious flaw in the way firefox handles animated gif image files. firefox browsers infected by malicious code could experience a buffer overflow, temporarily locking up or "freezing" a user's computer, or even executing arbitrary code which could take over a user's computer.

the flaw was discovered and reported by "internet security systems, inc". the upgrade was the second major security fix in less than a month for the browser, which has grown in popularity to ten percent of the browser market in the united states. 

although there were no known exploits of the bug, chris hoffman, director of engineering at mozilla, told reporters, "[because] mozilla is committed to delivering the most secure product possible, we decided to quickly issue an update to patch the bug."

the mozilla foundation did not offer any details about the issue of vulnerability, but a second major security overhaul in such a short time underscores challenges faced by the nonprofit foundation as it goes head-to-head with the market leading internet explorer browser by microsoft.

the new release, firefox version 1.0.2, "illustrates the dedication of the strong community of developers working on the product," according to hoffman. "...we’re able to turn around patches much faster than a traditional corporation," he added.
users can download the update at no charge, and can find additional information at the mozilla website.


lebanon yields to opposition tide

a late night car bomb explosion on saturday in beirut wounded 5 people and sparked a large fire in an industrial suburb east of the city. this marks the second car bombing inside a week's time in the lebanon capital’s anti-syrian vicinities.

the blast added an exclamation point to the sudden policy shift by lebanon's top leadership.

in an announcement earlier saturday, foreign minister mahmoud hamoud said to reporters, "lebanon agrees to the creation of an international commission of inquiry if the [un] security council takes such a decision to uncover the truth in the assassination of rafiq hariri". the statement came after a joint meeting in beirut with un ambassadors from britain, china and russia. further meetings with un envoys from france and the united states are being sought.

opposition government pressure, spearheaded by druze chieftain walid jumblatt, called for the removal of all lebanese security chiefs earlier that day. urging for their resignations, jumblatt said, “it is not possible to carry out a just, serious, clear and transparent investigation if the heads of the agencies remain in their place.”

lebanon’s pro-syrian government originally rejected a un security council report issued thursday that found, "[security services] has neither the capacity nor the commitment to reach a satisfactory and credible conclusion" in the bombing assassination of the anti-syrian former prime minster rafiq hariri. the un investigation complained they could not conduct it more thoroughly, partly due to lack of cooperation from lebanon’s security services. the un report bolsters jumblatt claims these services are staffed by pro-syrian agents and are the source of the car bombings and other lawlessness.

the hariri assassination on feb 14 was the galvanizing force that spurred opposition government groups to street protests and rallies. the capital has since been beset with protesting groups both for, and against, the syrian presence in lebanon. a recent rally was estimated to have numbered a million people.

in the face of these events and un pressure, the syrian capital of damascus agreed to have its forces leave lebanon. the syrians have completed the first phase of its previously announced two-stage withdrawal. a meeting is planned for early april where a lebanese-syrian military committee will discuss the how the second stage will be conducted. the goal is for complete withdrawal before national elections scheduled for may.

the worry is that lebanon may be so far diminished in the vacuum created by the syrian exit, the country may plunge into chaos. 




dick, spielberg among science fiction hall of fame inductees

scheduled to take place on may 6 in seattle, this will be the first induction ceremony since the hall of fame moved to seattle from its previous home in lawrence, kansas. induction into the hall is not based on any single work, according to the hall's press release, but for a lifetime of creative endeavors that "shaped" the science fiction genre.

inductees come from four categories: film, television and media, literature, art, and a category called "open" which is designed for individuals who do not fit into one of the other categories. 2005 is the first year the hall inducted people for works other than literature.

only two of the inductees, spielberg and harryhausen, are alive to accept the honor. dick and bonestell died in the 1980s.



guards uncover 600-foot escape tunnel at us prison in iraq

us troops guarding camp bucca in southern iraq have apparently foiled an escape plan by uncovering a 600 ft of escape tunnel leading from the sprawling, 6,000+ person, detention center. the tunnel had apparently not been used, and officials were uncertain how long detainees had been working on it. no information has been given regarding any prisoners who may have been responsible for the effort.

a number of such tunnels had been found before, but none of this scale or quality.

"we were very close to a very bad thing," said major general william brandenburg, us commander of detainee operations in iraq.

the prisoners may have planned to make their move under cover of dense fog that often rolls in from the persian gulf.

"there was a good chance they would have got out of the camp," he said.

extending from beneath the floorboards of a detainee tent to the exterior of the camp, and dug using shovels fashioned from thick poles, canvas, pieces of metal and rope from the tents, the tunnel was buried between 12 to 16 feet underground over its 600 ft length, and around 3ft wide. dirt had been removed using a cut-open, five-gallon water jug, according to lt. col. guy rudisill, speaking for the detainee system.

colonel rudisill said the guards had begun searching for underground escape passages after finding a 300 ft tunnel last week. they then noticed dirt in latrines and piles of dirt by the camp perimeter.

the facility, with 6,049 prisoners, is twice as large as the notorious abu ghraib in baghdad and holds nearly two-thirds of all those detained in iraq.


new kyrgyz election scheduled after lightning coup

ignoring ousted president askar akayev's refusal to resign, the former, pre-election, kyrgyzstan parliament has scheduled a new presidential election for june 26. acting president kurmanbek bakiyev said he would run in the election.

meanwhile, former interior minister keneshbek dushebayev, who was ousted along with akayev, announced today he was leading thousands of counterdemonstrators from akayev's native area of kemin toward the capital of bishkek, to protest thursday's coup, which also began with a group of a few thousand young demonstrators, who in a few hours broke through the lines of guards protecting the presidential headquarters and effectively unseated president akayev, ending his 14 years in power. it was unclear as night fell whether dushebayev's march had succeeded in making its way to the capital, but the new leadership which seized power on thursday following the protests said that it was maintaining control of the country, and that the march had fizzled out.

bakiyev switched the venue of a news conference today, reportedly because of a rumoured assassination plot. bishkek was calm compared to the looting and chaos that followed on the heels of the thursday protests and coup, but bands of looters still roamed the city and government officials were taking no chances. according to an eyewitness ap report, residents of the capital are still "frightened and shocked." 

it is not clear where akayev is right now; the interfax news agency, citing unnamed sources, reported earlier that he has arrived in russia. bakiyev has criticized akayev for fleeing the country in its time of need, and maintains that he is surprised by the speed of recent events. 

"it didn’t enter my head that this could happen," bakiyev said, according to a reuters report.




canadian union, railway reach last minute accord

, 

the international brotherhood of electrical workers (ibew) and canada national railway (cn) have worked out a tentative agreement, avoiding a walkout scheduled for midnight on the 26th by 604 workers.

the previous contract expired 31 december 2003, and the union notified cn of their intent to strike 23 march. the ibew members covered under the contract maintain the track signals, and radio and data networks which monitor the movement of trains.

federal mediators helped facilitate the agreement, invited by both the union and company. montreal-based cn announced the four-year deal via a business-wire release, but withheld the terms of the agreement pending a ratification vote, but did say the agreement is retroactive to 1 january 2004.

cn resumed talks earlier in march with 1,750 engineers after the union and company agreed possible work stoppages would be after 12 may 2005. track maintenance workers signed a 4-year contract deal with cn in february, as well as a tentative settlement with conductors, yard service employees and traffic co-ordinators. in 2004 a 28-day strike by 5,000 clerical and cargo terminal workers cost the company an estimate ca$24 million.



risk of major us shipyard bath iron works closure termed &quot;substantial&quot; by maine congressman

maine representative tom allen told the "kennebec journal" last week there was a "substantial risk" of three major military bases in maine being closed by president bush's base realignment and closure commission. nine nominees by the commission will be required to submit recommendations for base closures in may of 2005. the three bases in maine are bath iron works, the portland naval shipyard, and the brunswick naval air station. between the three stations, they employ 16,000 workers.

representative allen's comments took place in an interview with the "kennebec journal". his remarks were misinterpreted as suggesting there was a "good chance" some bases would close. the "portland press herald", which ran the story using "blethen maine news service" as their source, later admitted that "he did not say they had a 'good chance' of being closed." allen did not disagree with his characterization of "substantial risk" to the bases, but he insisted his comments were not meant to be predictive.

bath iron works is the largest single-site employer in maine, with 6400 employees. the shipbuilding yard is situated on the western shore of the kennebec river in bath, maine, where the general dynamics subsidiary has been building ships for 120 years. bath iron works is one of two yards in the us that build surface vessels, such as the new ddx class of destroyers for the us military, according to "wcsh 6 news" in portland. the second is ingalls shipyard in mississippi.


wendy's sales down in northern california

customers are staying away in droves from northern california wendy's restaurants, after a las vegas woman found a finger in a bowl of chili at the establishment.

restaurant owners are reporting to company headquarters that sales are down since the incident.

"it is an isolated incident. however, it is dramatically affecting sales in that market," said wendy's spokesman denny lynch.

investigators are still planning to look for the owner of the finger.

"nobody's claimed it yet," said capt. bob dixon, of the santa clara county coroner's office.

industry analyst peter oakes told "associated press" that there should not be a long-term impact to wendy's business.

"to me, the yardstick here is whether the single incident prompts the consumer to lose confidence in the brand. it's understandable to see some kind of knee-jerk reaction," oakes said.

the stock market was closed for the good friday holiday, so traders have not weighed in on the stock yet. wendy's international, inc. (wen) closed at us$39.43 on thursday.


chili finger may have been raw

investigators are no longer certain if the finger found in a bowl of wendy's chili at a san jose, california outlet last week was cooked or raw.

"we're still going to have to sit down with our crime lab experts and see if there's a test that can determine that," said sheriff's office captain bob dixon.

dr. martin fenstersheib, santa clara county's health officer, told the "san francisco chronicle", "the possibilities are still all out there on where and when it came into the chili."

investigators are working with the u.s. food and drug administration to track down the suppliers of the ingredients used to make the chili, which included beef, beans, celery, onions, and green peppers.

denny lynch, a wendy's spokesman, admitted that the wendy's location at 1405 monterey highway had no security cameras, so they were unable to determine from video if an employee had been involved with the incident.

anna ayala, the 39-year-old woman who found the finger, has returned to las vegas.

"i don't want to talk about it," she said. ayala refused to say whether or not she had plans to sue wendy's over the incident. "at this time, i don't know. at this time, i want to be left alone," said ayala.

dr. fenstersheib said that even if the finger was still raw when ayala bit into it, the risk was low that she would have become infected with anything. however, he advised that ayala should undergo a series of precautionary follow-up tests.


togo opposition wants election delayed

the opposition parties in togo held a demonstration on saturday to demand a delay in the upcoming elections. the elections to replace the deceased ruler, gnassingbe eyadema, are scheduled to be held on april 24, 2005.

the elections were scheduled after an outpouring of international criticism about the army's installment of the late president's son as the country's new leader. the son, faure gnassingbe, initially circumvented the constitutional process for new elections 60 days after the death of a current president, but announced elections after african and european leaders strongly criticized the move.

the opposition is demanding a delay for the election, because they fear they will not be able to carry out a sufficient campaign. the candidates from the two prominent opposition parties, emmanuel bob akitani and nicolas lawson, both registered with the election officials despite the view that elections should be delayed. in a demonstration in the nation's capital, akitani's supporters cheered as the candidate called for better representation on elected bodies ? something the government denies is a problem.

the supporters of the current government also held a rally in the city, shouting "no" to the prospect of delaying elections.



former british prime minister james callaghan dies aged 92

london ? the former british prime minister leonard james callaghan, the baron of cardiff has died at the age of 92, just a day before his ninety-third birthday. he died at his home in east sussex, leaving two daughters and a son. his wife, audrey, died just eleven days ago. 

james callaghan was prime minister from 1976-79 before margaret thatcher became prime minster in 1979 after the surprise resignation of harold wilson. his premiership could be considered to include some of the bleakest times for britain, since he was prime minister during the 1978-79 winter of discontent, when there were numerous strikes. however, his proudest achievement was the introduction of cat's eyes in britain's roads when he was transport secretary.

tributes including the prime minster tony blair saying he was a "giant" of the labour movement. former rival and prime minister margaret thatcher said he was a "formidable opponent". chancellor of the exchequer gordon brown said he was "mourned throughout the world" and "it was a commitment to public service that brought jim callaghan into parliament in 1945, and while jim rose to the top he never forgot his roots." 




five wounded, two killed in lebanon blast

a large explosion rocked an industrial area in the largely christian area of bawshriyeh, east of the lebanese capital of beirut. the blast occurred at approximately 21:30 local time on saturday. it is believed that five people have been wounded, two have died, and that three buildings were set ablaze.

an unnamed lebanese security source stated that a car rigged with explosives was the cause of the explosion. no group has of yet claimed responsibility.

this is the third blast to have targeted lebanese christians in a little over a week, and the anti-syrian opposition representatives were quick to blame syrian-backed elements. opposition leader walid jumblatt told lebanese television channel lbc, "they will use all means to try to destroy national accord. it is true that today they are targeting christian areas but before that they targeted hariri."

former lebanese prime minister rafik hariri was assassinated in february after a car-bomb attacked his convoy. hariri had been a vocal critic of the syrian presence in lebanon. the attack intensified internal and international pressure on damascus for a withdrawal of syrian forces. there had been around 14,000 syrian troops stationed in lebanon.


cricket: sehwag dominates, but india trails

india v pakistan - third test, day 3 - bangalore, india

virender sehwag's characteristic 201 wasn't enough to help india to safety, as a late spur of wickets in the final session left the hosts at 6-379, in response to pakistan's first innings score of 570, still trailing by 191 runs, at close of play on day 3 of the third and final test of this historic series.

sehwag dominated each and every pakistani bowler during his dominant batting display, a second score of 200+ against the sub-continental neighbours. his innings, which could have been brought to an end when he was 43 when asim kamal missed a sharp chance at short leg, constituted 28 fours and two mammoth sixes.

sehwag shared vital partnerships with fellow opener gautam gambhir, rahul dravid and sachin tendulkar; however none of those blossomed into a dominating partnership, which could have brought the match in the middle, instead of giving pakistan the edge.

gambhir was the first wicket to fall on the day, when caught at slip off a wide sami delivery for 24, ending a 98-run opening partnership. but his wicket had no effect on sehwag's concentration, as he kept blasting ball after ball, reaching the three-figure mark, when the team scored had reached only 150.

dravid, on the back of two centuries in the last match, looked solid enough to threaten the pakistani bowling, however a surprising lapse in concentration had him trapped in front of the wickets off leg-spinner danish kaneria, for 22. even as sachin tendulkar, the new man in, looked shaky to start with, sehwag continued his onslaught, reaching his 150, as well as 3000 runs in test cricket, becoming the fastest indian to achieve that landmark.

tendulkar soon found his feet though; even playing the customary paddle sweep that he has made his trademark. his dismissal was brought about by shahid afridi, who deceived him, to edge a straight drive to younis khan at backward point.

post-tea, sehwag galloped to the double hundred, before losing his cool, just two balls later, to kaneria, giving a simple caught and bowled chance to the leggie. india lost two more wickets, within just 37 runs, to end up on the back foot at the end of the day. sourav ganguly, eluded of a century since more than a year, was stumped off a well-disguised googly for one, off kaneria again, who finished with three wickets.

vvs laxman remained unbeaten on 51, with irfan pathan joining him at the fall on the sixth wicket, that of dinesh kaarthick for 10.

pakistan 570 all out
younis khan 267, inzamam-ul-haq 184, harbhajan singh 6-152
india 379-6
v sehwag 201, vvs laxman 51*, danish kaneria 3-97

india trail by 191 runs, with four first innings wickets in hand.



bobby fischer sues us government from new icelandic home

chess prodigy and former world champion, bobby fischer, arrived by jet thursday in iceland after being released from prison in japan the day before. jailed 9 months in japan for traveling without a valid passport, and dogged by a u.s. felony charge for violating a government sanction, the 62 year old eccentric chess genius was just last week granted icelandic citizenship based on humanitarian grounds.

in a first order of business to clear fischer's way into iceland, a lawsuit was filed by his lawyer where he alleges the u.s. government conspired to have him arrested, and that his right to "due process" was violated by not providing him notice of the revocation of his passport.

describing his detention as “…harsh conditions, amounting to torture,” fischer said he was “kidnapped” by u.s. president bush and japanese prime minister junichiro koizumi.

the u.s. refuses to acknowledge fischer’s status as citizen of iceland, but the lawsuit blocks his deportation to the u.s. until the legal matter is resolved. iceland does have an extradition treaty with the u.s., meaning fischer’s troubles are far from over now. if deported to the u.s., the felony charge he faces could carry a maximum 10 year sentence.

the u.s. charges fischer with violating government sanctions 13 years ago against yugoslavia. he traveled to serbia, then part of yugoslavia, for a 1992 rematch against boris spassky, a russian chess king, who fischer defeated in 1972 to become world champion in a famous showdown in reykjavik, iceland.

during his flight to a stop-over in copenhagen while en route to iceland, fischer conducted an interview with "ap television news" on board. "bush does not respect law," he told the "ap". "it's like in the comics, like billy batson used to say 'shazam!' and he becomes captain marvel. he (bush) just says 'enemy combatant! now you have no legal rights.' it's a farce," he said. "this is absolutely cooked up between bush and koizumi."

very opinionated, but normally less outspoken, fischer’s verbal attacks express outrage over the treatment he is receiving.



pakistan admits scientist sold nuke tech to iran

a pakistan official admitted earlier this month that abdul khan, one of the country's nuclear scientists, provided centrifuges essential to high-grade nuclear fuel and weapon production to iran. 

centrifuges are used to refine uranium fuel, a dual-use product which can be used in nuclear reactors or in nuclear weapons. the pakistani government denied any knowledge or approval of the transfer of technology.

reportedly, pakistan has refused to allow anyone outside the pakistani government to interview mr. khan, who remains under house arrest at his home in pakistan.


motive in wisconsin church murder-suicide a mystery

seven members of a church were killed by terry ratzmann, age 44, in brookfield, wisconsin march 12. after shooting eleven people, ratzmann fatally shot himself. four victims died at the scene; three others died at a nearby hospital.

there is no clear motive but police say that ratzmann, a long-time member of the protestant living church of god, may have been angered by the teachings of church leader, roderick meredith. apparently, meredith's teachings differed from those herbert armstrong, founder of the , of which the living church of god is a member. armstrong died in 1986 and meredith formed a splinter group of the faith which raztmann joined shortly thereafter.

church members said that ratzmann, described as a loner, had been depressed since he was laid off as an engineering technician in 2002. he had been working occasionally at contract jobs since then and his most recent contract as a computer technician was scheduled to end march 25, a week before the shootings.

mourners created a make-shift memorial outside the living church of god building in remembrance of the seven victims.



sri lanka accepts 'one china' policy

sri lankan ministry of foreign affairs said the government accepts beijing's "one china" policy and that taiwan is an inalienable part of the people's republic of china, according to a march 17 press release.

the current foreign ministry communique, recollects the press communique issued by the foreign ministers of china and sri lanka in beijing in december 2004. sri lanka reiterated its support for chinese legislative measures to oppose forces seeking to secede from china.

in the communique, the sri lankan government categorically mentioned, sri lanka opposes secessionist actions in any form and fully supports a process of peaceful national reunification. the sri lankan government further said, it welcomes growing cross-straits economic and other exchanges such as the promotion of direct trade, mail, air and shipping links.

in the mean time, chinese president hu jintao issued a presidential order regarding the promulgation of the anti-secession law on march 14, which was adopted at the third session of the tenth national people's congress, china's top legislature.



new zealand labour party announces 'early election' list

the announced its party list admidst speculations it may call an early election. the must be held before [sept 24 2005. the list ranking is often seen as a ranking of the importance for each politician to the party. 

hon. was ranked at number five, the highest ranking of any maori mp. the maori mps face a strong challenge from the newly formed . , the highest placed non-mp, is all but assured of a seat in the next . is placed at 42, and represents labour's interest in courting the asian vote. the asian population has grown significantly over the past ten years within new zealand. 

the surprising absentee is hon. , the minister of police. he has been criticised for performing poorly in the house, and it is speculated he was offered a low ranking and refused. he is likely to return to parliament on the basis of his strong hold on the electorate seat.

at the time, no other major political party has released its list.
 changed its electoral system to in 1996, before then it used . in the , labour won 52 seats. labour then became government in a minority coalition. elections are held every three years in new zealand.


eu nabs us$300 million illegal trafficking in spain

officials arrested 41 people from five countries sunday in connection with a trans-european operation. the individuals are suspected in laundering us$300 million in gang-related activities such as prostitution, murder, and arms and drug trafficking, according to police with interpol and .

the bbc reported citizens of , , , , and were among those arrested and charged with illegally siphoning money from , a large russian oil company. yukos maintains it was unaware of such activities.

the crackdown went by code name and was a joint effort between spain and russia, officials said. the arrests were centered in the area of spain's southern mediterranean coast.


report reveals top 10 most-confusing tech buzzwords

in early march, the group used a predictive index computer algorithm to track specific words and phrases in the media and on the internet. they were tracked in relation to frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets.

the global language monitor claims to analyze and catalogue trends in word usage and word choices, focusing on the linguistic impact on various cultures. the glm says it relies upon a global network of volunteer linguists, professional wordsmiths and other bibliophiles to monitor the trends in the evolution and demise of world languages. 
glm's list, in order of frequency of use, of the most-confusing technology terms with the group's explanation as to why they are faulty follows: 

other terms being tracked included "client/server," "solution," "paradigm," "backward compatible," and the "stun protocol."


kulov declares newly elected parliament legitimate, kyrgyz parliamentary conflict deepens

kyrgyzstan's parliamentary conflict intensified sunday as felix kulov, appointed acting minister of securities by the reconvening former parliament, endorsed the newly elected parliament and threatened to "take measures to arrest" mps of the former parliament that would not step down peacefully.

"the new parliament is legitimate and the old parliament's term has expired," kulov, who was freed from prison by protesters following the overrunning of the presidential palace, said.

"according to the law, the new parliament has to start work... there are people whom i don't like in the newly elected parliament, but i am a law-abiding citizen and will obey the new parliament." he said that he had lost an election because of the interference of deposed president askar akayev's authorities, "but despite this, i acknowledged my defeat. we're not hicks here, we're members of the un."

"your term has expired. you had been elected for five years. a new parliament has to be elected. whether you like it or not, i will obey its orders," kulov said to the former mps. "if you attempt to call people to go on the streets, i will be forced to arrest you; please don't take offence."

his threats were challenged by acting prosecutor general azimbek beknazarov who said, "these are the people who freed you, will you arrest them?" 

kulov, appearing to apologize for his remarks, responded "i am tired; i apologize for that."

beknazarov, closely allied with acting prime minister and president kurmanbek bakiyev, admitted the newly elected parliament was officially recognized. but alevtina pronenko, a member of bakiyev's acting cabinet, said of the situation, "i think that the people will not stand for this." she said the decisions of the former parliament should be considered valid.

"if we can’t agree, we will not avoid a civil war,” beknazarov said.

the supreme court declared the new parliament illegitimate and endorsed the former parliament several days ago on march 24, but the central election commission voted to endorse the new parliament, saying the supreme court's decision was illegal.

the osce is sending legal and constitutional experts to unravel the parliamentary conflict. the osce also rejected the recently declared june 26 election date. "i don't believe this [date] is realistic because it's a very short period of time. there are still a lot of questions unresolved -- constitutional questions," markus mueller, the osce's envoy to kyrgyzstan, said. "if it does not become quieter, elections will just add to the instability." its secretary general, jan kubis, arrived in bishkek on sunday. kubis, who was involved in negotiations in the ukraine last year, met with bakeyev and other opposition leaders.

bakiyev said akayev remained the president under the constitution but ways of removing him as president legally were being examined. he also offered akayev immunity were he to return to kyrgyzstan.

kulov said that he was "too busy" to even think about running in the new election, which bakayev has said is planning on running in.

ousted interior minister keneshbek dushebayev's announced plans to march on the capital with akayev supporters did not come to fruition. about 700 protesters supporting akayev gathered about 50 miles from bishkek, in akayev's native area of kemin, and about 150 of them blocked a main road into the capital before dispersing. they said they did not accept bakiyev as their leader.

"we have not and will not arrest our political opponents or former officials," kulov said.



doctor who returns as uk saturday night timeslot lord

after almost a decade off the air, the science fiction television series "doctor who" returned with new episodes to bbc airwaves on saturday night, drawing a large audience.

starring movie actor christopher eccleston, the ninth actor cast to play the doctor, as the newly reincarnated time lord, the new series showed off a bigger budget with expensive special effects and a much darker ? and sexier ? tone. the new star and series got a blessing from actor sylvester mccoy, who played the doctor in the 1980s.

"i am very envious about not being in it. the writing is terrific and the toys they play with are much more sophisticated than they were in my day," mccoy wrote in a column for bbc news. "my only criticism was about the tardis. it was far too clean. it needs to look a bit more battered and bruised as if it's been through the odd asteroid or two," he said.

the doctor's new sidekick is played by billie piper, whose marriage to chris evans ended during filming.

"we're pleased so many people sat down as a family to watch the return of the doctor," a spokesperson said. families apparently sat down in droves. preliminary ratings figures show "who" wooing 10.5 million viewers at its peak, or more than 44 percent of all television households in the united kingdom, for the debut episode. 

this made it the most-watched show of the evening, easily outpacing second-place "ant and dec's saturday night takeaway" on itv, which attracted an average of 7.2 million households. 

the series will run for another twelve episodes.

one of the longest-running dramas in british history, "doctor who" has been airing sporadically since its debut in 1963. ironically, the series cancellation in 1989 was due to low ratings.



australia silent on un racism committee condemnation

the australian government has been keeping quiet about a un committee's repeated criticism of its record on race issues. a report issued over two weeks ago by the committee on the elimination of racial discrimination has not received comment from the government in the media, and domestic media coverage has been scant, as reported by the sydney morning herald, and confirmed by a search of news search engine news.google.com.

according to australians for native title and reconciliation (antar) national director david cooper before the case was heard by the un committee, "we fully expect the government is going to deflect it by criticising the un process."

in fact, this criticism was given in the session, and nothing has been heard from the australian federal government since, on the committee hearing and report.

after reciting a list of australian anti-racism initiatives, ambassador to the un mike smith, described the 18 committee members' work in the previous session five years ago as "cursory" and "unreasonable". he said they had largely ignored progress being made in australia, yet displayed "an unquestioning acceptance" of critics of the government.

regis de gouttes of france called mr smith "exceptionally rude".

jose lindgren alves of brazil told him, "as a veteran diplomat, this statement, with its language describing programs and attacks on ngos, reminds me of the sort of statement from communist bloc countries and latin american dictatorships that australia used to condemn."

the committee was positive about a number of improvements in race-related issues in australia over the five years since its last report. these were,

however the report contained a large number of serious criticisms, and a reminder that the convention prohibits direct as well as indirect discrimination. australia was asked to report back on progress on a number of items within one year.

the criticisms were,



zimbabwe church leader calls for uprising against mugabe

a catholic archbishop in zimbabwe urged followers to start a non-violent, popular uprising against the country's president, robert mugabe. archbishop pius ncube on sunday told a south african newspaper that he hopes that mugabe will be ousted in the parliamentary elections that are scheduled for thursday.

ncube is an outspoken critic of mugabe's government. ncube said, "i hope that people get so disillusioned that they really organise against the government and kick him out by a non-violent, popular, mass uprising". he believes that thursday's vote will be rigged, ensuring victory for the currently ruling party, the zimbabwe african national union - patriotic front (zanu-pf). the government was also recently criticized for implying that supporters of the opposition party will be denied food by the government's food distribution program.

ncube's statements may be seen by the government as a call for unauthorized protest ? a crime in zimbabwe punishable by up to 20 years in jail. ncube seems aware of the dangers of protests: "people must be ready even to risk losing their lives; everyone wants to keep safe," he said. the main opposition, movement for democratic change, said that police arrested 200 demonstrators at a rally on sunday. 

robert mugabe has ruled the country since the end of white rule in the country in the 1980s.



harvard women's hockey loses ncaa title to minnesota for second straight year

harvard university's fourth ranked women's hockey team crimson lost to the first-ranked minnesota gophers, 4-3, after a close title match where harvard was coming from behind all game. this was a repeat of last year's title match, which the gophers won by a wider 6-2 margin.

minnesota's offense was led by natalie darwitz, the all-time point leader in women's ncaa hockey. harvard's caitlin cahow tied the game at 3 points, 6 minutes before the end of the game, but darwitz sealed the win with her 114th point, a rebound shot with 68 seconds left.

this was harvard's first loss in 22 games, who ended the season with a 27-7-3 record. minnesota finished the season 35-2-2. the loss came only one day after the crimson's men's hockey team lost an extremely close semifinal match to the unh wildcats, after 15 minutes of overtime.



stanford women's basketball knocks three-time champion connecticut out of ncaa tournament

the stanford cardinal defeated the reigning champion connecticut huskies 76-59 in the third round of the women's ncaa basketball tournament. the game was played in kansas city, missouri, usa. the cardinal were led by pac-10 freshman and player of the year candice wiggins with 21 points and susan king borchardt with 16 points, including 4 of 5 shooting from 3 point range.

the cardinal jumped to an early 12-6 lead with strong play from alaskan senior azella perryman, but the huskies fought back to lead by 6 at halftime. the huskies sank a 3 point shot with 4 seconds left in the first half to double their lead from 3 to 6.

stanford started the second half with a 6-0 run against the huskies, tying the game at 33. strong play by the cardinal led to a 64-53 lead with 3:27 remaining. in the waning minutes of the game, the huskies attempted desperate three-point shots, including one successful attempt by senior ashley battle, and fouled stanford players until the end. with 24 seconds left and down by 15, the huskies stopped fouling stanford. susan king borchardt put in one last layup with 6 seconds remaining, which produced a "smirk" from stanford head coach tara vanderveer, according to kzsu radio broadcaster danial novinson.


china and taiwan react to &quot;326&quot; rally

chinese media and former roc president and spiritual leader of the pro-independence tsu lee teng-hui (李登輝) responded on monday to the massive rally held saturday in taipei.

in mainland china, the "china daily" published an editorial under the headline, ""march sets stage for secessionist scheming"" in which it labeled the rally as "secessionist scheming" and a "misuse of people power".

"china daily" said of president chen that, "his participation in the protest added to his record as a man of bad faith. only one month ago, chen solemnly pledged to develop cross-straits relations during his meeting with pfp chairman james soong. unfortunately he has failed to honour his word."
in taiwan, former president lee teng-hui (李登輝) asked for the roc government to follow up on the large turnout with concrete measures.

the "taipei times" quoted lee, "the march 26 march ended perfectly, yet it wasn't just the close of a political carnival." lee continued, "it was a new starting point for consolidating people's identification with taiwan and declaring the taiwanese people's strong will to defend their right of self-determination."
"that 1 million taiwanese people came out was a display of the mainstream of taiwanese public opinion, and officials should respond to that with practical actions and policies," lee told a symposium. "otherwise the march will just have been emotional venting, which won't solve the current [cross-strait] problems."

lee made his remarks at the "taiwan advocates" symposium.




irs goes after ebay sellers

this could be a surprise to some of the 135 million registered ebay users who consider trading on san jose-based auction site to be a non-taxable hobby. complicating matters, ebay says it doesn't report individual sales figures to the government ? users are responsible to report any profits on their own tax returns.

the amount of money traveling through ebay is big business. $33.8 billion worth of merchandise was sold on the site in 2004, up from $5.2 billion in 2000.

although ebay pays taxes on its share of the sales (5.25 percent cut from each transaction as of feb. 18), the irs fears some small businesses are using the site to dodge tax responsibility. adding to the confusion, some sellers may legally be a taxable business without realizing it.

the u.s. internal revenue service has a nine-point checklist it uses to determine whether or not a money-making activity is legally a business, which means money made is taxable, or a simple hobby ? where it is not taxable. the irs can consider a person to be a legal "business" even though they never incorporated or claimed to be one.

according to woodbury, new york-based accountant bart fooden in an associated press interview, the irs looks for such things as evidence that the auction seller depends on the ebay sales income to pay for activities other than maintaining the hobby, acts in a businesslike manner when selling on auctions or puts enough time and effort into the ebay activities that there is an obvious intent to make a profit.

but fooden said in the same interview casual users probably have nothing to worry about. those cleaning out closets or the garage and selling off junk for less than the original price paid are not turning a profit, so that money is not considered income and is not taxable.



first bird flu case reported in north korea

north korea's official news agency, , reported an outbreak of bird flu in the capital of pyongyang. kcna reported three separate outbreaks at poultry farms in the capital, and said hundreds of thousands of chickens have been culled in an attempt to stop the spread of the disease.

"radio pyongyang" said, "countermeasures are underway to prevent an epidemic and stem the spread to other poultry farms". experts warned that a bird flu epidemic in north korea would deprive the population of its main source of protein.

kim yong-taek of the korea centre for disease control and prevention said, "upon its outbreak on those farms the committee lost no time to take emergency measures and meticulously organised veterinary and anti-epizootic work to prevent its spread to other poultry farms."

according to the state-run media, there have been no human fatalities from this outbreak.


crowded house drummer found dead

, drummer for the popular 1980s band , was found dead in a melbourne park saturday.

an ambulance service spokeswoman told the "sydney morning herald" that ambulance officers arrived at park on saturday afternoon. they reported hester had "attempted suicide" and suffered "strangulation". the 46-year-old-father-of-two was last seen walking his two dogs in the popular suburban park near his home on friday evening.

hester had a history with bouts of , but seemed to be coping well following eight years of . friends told the "", however, that he suffered a recent turmoil in his love life. firstly, there was the end of his romance with long-time partner and mother of his two daughters, and then a parting last december with new zealand singer kashan, whom he planned to wed in may. there appeared to be no indication he was distressed when he left the house to walk his dogs.

hester, from melbourne, australia, was a founding member of the internationally popular group crowded house. previously, he was in the band with crowded house leader during the early 1980s. he quit crowded house in 1994, two years before the band broke up, and became a television personality in australia with his own prime-time show, then working mostly as a freelance drummer [e.g. for tarmac adam]. he had his own music chat show, "hessie's shed", on in the late 1990s, and also had a recurring role as paul the cook on the children's program "." he also hosted the successful australian music channel "s ' series.



magnitude 8.7 earthquake hits northern sumatra, indonesia

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a magnitude 8.7 earthquake has been reported in northern sumatra, indonesia by the u.s. geological survey (originally an 8.2 magnitude at 2:37 et (7:37 gmt) the usgs reclassified it to an 8.7 magnitude). 
government spokesman agus mendrova reported more than 290 deaths on the island of nias. hundreds of others were reported trapped in collapsed buildings, including structures weakened by the december 26th earthquake.

a destructive wave was intially feared and many nations issued tsunami warnings. after the quake a usgs instrument near the cocos islands recorded a tsunami type wave which the usgs classified as "small." tsunami warnings were later withdrawn.

the quake occurred at 11:09 et (16:09 gmt), and is considered a "great" earthquake, the largest of seven grades. this earthquake is also classified as a "shallow" earthquake, occurring within the top 50 kilometres of the earth's crust. shallow earthquakes are more likely to cause a tsunami, because as the lower within the surface the earthquake occurs, the less warping of the ocean floor occurs. this earthquake was a thrust quake; the december 26th indian ocean quake was considered a megathrust quake.

the u.s. geological survey originally estimated the magnitude at 8.2, but japan's meteorological agency measured the quake at magnitude 8.5 and the u.s. geological survey later raised its estimate to 8.7. in comparison, last december's earthquake was measured at 8.1 initially by the usgs, before finally being placed within the 9.1 to 9.3 range by scientists in february 2005. 

at 16:29 utc, an informational tsunami bulletin number 001 was released by the pacific tsunami warning center, stating that there is no threat to pacific coastlines, but warning of the possibility of destructive tsunamis on waters near the earthquake's origin.

there have been numerous reports of persons who have felt the earthquake fleeing their homes to higher ground, and sri lanka was under an evacuation order. residents of banda aceh, indonesia, one of the cities most devastated by the december tsunami, also fled. since the december 26th earthquake relatively minor tremors have been common however this was reported to be more intense and long-lasting than any aftershock.

thailand, which was criticized for its failure to alert citizens to tsunami dangers after last december's earthquake, warned about the possibility that a tsunami might hit that nation's southern provinces.




space station crew perform successful spacewalk

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commander leroy chiao (u.s.a.) and flight engineer salizhan sharipov (russia), suited in russian orlan spacesuits, left the international space station on a 4.5 hour long spacewalk to install antennas for the european automated transfer vehicle (atv), inspect and photograph other exterior equipment and launched the nanosatellite mini-satellite. this is the last scheduled walk for the expedition 10 crew.

at 06:25 utc, the two astronauts left the station from the pirs dc1 docking compartment/airlock and proceeded to install the last three of six space-to-space communication antennas for the atv's rendezvous and docking with the iss next year.

sharipov next deployed the foot long, 11 pound russian nanosatellite, tossing it into space by hand. the object of the experiment is to develop small satellite control techniques, monitor satellite 
operations and develop new attitude system sensors. russian ground crews reported good signal reception from the satellite two hours after its release. 

the two astronauts next proceeded to the aft end of the zvezda service module. a global positioning system (gps) antenna and necessary cabling for the atv was installed and the men worked their way back to the airlock.

the station maintained its attitude, despite the loss of a gyroscope earlier in the space station mission, until the end of the spacewalk. chiao and sharipov reported being a safe distance from the attitude adjustment thrusters. russian ground control activated the jets and normal attitude of
the station was regained.

they returned to the airlock at 1055 utc, completing the mission an hour earlier than scheduled.

chiao and sharipov arrived on the station october 16, 2004. they are scheduled to return to earth on april 25, 2005. this marks sharipov's second walk in space and chiao's sixth.




tsunami fears rise after latest indonesian temblor

after a magnitude 8.7 earthquake rocked late monday, local populations were reminded of the devastating , that killed 273,000 people as they scoured the shores and seaside areas of countries exposed to the , although three hours later with only one small tsunami observed the threat had passed.

still, according to reports, thousands of coastal residents near the indian ocean were evacuating to higher ground for the night in case the experts were wrong. reports also say authorities urged islanders near the coast to move at least two kilometres inland.

"it looks like many people have left the coasts. i don’t know exactly how many people but they are moving away from the sea shores to the interior areas," dr. unni krishnan, coordinator for relief agency action aid said in an interview with a reporter from "the scotsman".

minutes after data from the earthquake started coming in, half-way around the world from sumatra, an emergency response center kicked into action. the (ptwc) in issued a tsunami alert - advising "immediate action" and evacuation procedures were advised for some coastal areas.

"authorities in those regions should be aware of this possibility and take immediate action. this action should include evacuation of coasts within 1,000 kilometers of the epicenter and close monitoring to determine the need for evacuation further away," the ptwc alert said.

the ptwc said they did detect a small tsunami that stuck the south of the quake's epicenter. however the ptwc went on to say that if no tsunami activity was observed within three hours of the 4.10pm utc quake, there was no further danger. that time has passed.

a spokesman for the in an interview with the afp said when such a large quake strikes, the sends out e-mails, faxes and telephone messages to nearby agencies warning them of possible aftershocks, or likely tsunami activity.




britain's howard-flight controversy continues

at a news conference intended to be on the conservatives' childcare policies, michael howard's decision to sack conservative mp howard flight has continued to dominate as the ex-tory deputy chairman's expulsion from the party was the subject of every question.

the affair began when the mp for arundel and south downs was recorded as saying that the conservatives' spending cuts of ￡35bn would 'only be the start' under a tory government. this issue has been of particular significance in the run-up to the expected general election on may 5th.

mr. flight has resisted his removal from the candidate list, insisting it is the prerogative of the local party members only and not head office. he has taken legal advice as to summoning an emergency general meeting of arundel and south downs conservative association.

howard flight has insisted that he would not stand as an independent candidate.




freak wave drags funeral party out to sea

two brothers were swept away and a woman was pulled to safety on sunday after a wave, said to be 5-6 metres (17-20 feet) high, washed over their funeral service in spain’s canary islands.

the massive wave struck while a party of 15 was spreading the ashes of a 16 year old boy in the sea, according to manuel sosa, one of the rescuers. the boy’s father, age 36, and a paternal uncle, age 23, were swept away and are presumed dead. the mother, age 34, was caught in the wave, but rescued.

the tragedy occurred near the village of arucas on gran canaria island.



foreign governments move to aid earthquake region

after facing criticism for being slow to act and initially giving too little after the december 26 indonesian earthquake and tsunami, the united states government was quick to act when a massive earthquake hit indonesia again march 28. u.s. state department adam ereli said under orders of president george w. bush, american embassy officials have been in contact with both indonesia officials and the international red cross to coordinate international relief efforts and other foreign aid.

the two former u.s. presidents, bill clinton and the current president's father, george h.w. bush, already are heading up u.s. aid efforts in the region as the result of the last major temblor. "we still have people over there assisting from the first one, and they will be our first line of defense, once we know what kind of damage there is," pat mccrummen, spokesman for the american red cross told the associated press.

although relief officials have been in contact with various governments, no specific pledge amount has been announced (as of 20:51, 28 mar 2005 (utc)). 




ireland's smoking ban a success after first year

tomorrow will be an historic day in the republic of ireland. it will be exactly one year since the initial introduction of the once controversial . the ban, introduced on march 29 2004, made ireland the first country in world to completely ban smoking in all workplaces.

the idea was initially met with much skepticism by the irish who traditionally had a worldwide image as a land of drinkers and smokers. however despite this early uncertainty, the ban has been a huge success. cigarettes sales have fallen by as much as 60% in , with the country's biggest tobacco brand, , reporting an overall drop in sales of 7.5%.

the announced earlier this month that over 7,000 had given up smoking in the past twelve months. a survey by the showed 82% supported the ban. anti-smoking lobby groups such as ash had been calling for a ban for many years prior to the government's initiative.

on 3 december 2003, new zealand passed the which lead it to become the second nation to impose a total ban. its ban came into effect nine months after ireland's, on 10 december 2004. in january of this year italy also introduced a ban. sweden intends to go smoke free in june of this year and in scotland, the hopes to have a ban in effect by early 2006.



new kygryz parliament backs bakiyev, lower house of former parliament steps down

the newly elected and protested kyrgyz parliament today voted to back opposition leader kurmanbek bakiyev as prime minister, as the reconvening former parliament had done days before. the lower house of the former parliament also formally stepped down, although the upper house has not done so yet.

deposed president askar akayev issued a statement from russia in response, accusing the new leaders of disgracing the country and ruining the economy.

in response to the endorsement, bakiyev issued a statement acknowledging the newly elected parliament as the legitimate one.

"i can be reproached for saying earlier that the february and march polls were not legitimate. i said so. but in this parliament we have questions to only 15 to 20 constituencies, no one is saying that all deputies have to go," bakiyev explained.

speaker of the outgoing lower chamber of the former parliament, ishenbai kadyrbekov, said that the decision was "a political, not a legislative decision, made for the sake of stabilizing the situation. ...if needed, the legislative assembly may convene again."

despite the situation, omurbek tekebayev, newly elected speaker of the new parliament, told kyrgyz television that akayev was still legally the president of the country and should return, if only to complete a formal resignation. "new presidential elections can only be called after talks with akayev, otherwise it will be another anticonstitutional move," he said.

opposition leaders have offered akayev immunity and said that he would not be impeached or otherwise prosecuted if he returned to the country.



past jackson abuse claims to be used in court

in what trial watchers say is a blow to michael jackson's defense, judge rodney melville ruled monday to allow the use of past allegations of child molestation in the trial. the decision was reached in deliberations done in the jury's absence. the ruling means that prosecution, led by district attorney tom sneddon, can introduce what it says are 5 cases of prior molestation. 

the prosecution, which originally submitted 10 cases to the deliberations, was ruled able to proceed with 5 due to a 1995 law passed in california. the law, aiming specifically at child molestation and domestic violence cases, is unlike other cases where the prior criminal conduct of the defendant is not permissable in court.

the ruling will allow testimony in cases arising from over 10 years ago. allegations involving the behavior of jackson, now aged 46, with boys 10 to 13 years old at the time will be presented. so far, only one boy has agreed to testify. in the other 4 cases, third party witnesses or family members, are planned.

jackson's defense attorney, thomas mesereau jr. worked to have the cases excluded during deliberations. noting that macaulay culkin, of the movie "home alone" fame and once frequent visitor of the jackson's neverland ranch, in an interview with larry king has previously and publicly stated "nothing happened." 

mesereau promised to make a "mini-case" out of each of the new allegations, which could drag the trial on indefinitely. the "ap" reports him saying, "you can't stop the defense from putting on a full-blown defense and i mean just that."

in 1993, a molestation charge was settled out-of-court for $26m by jordan chandler, ending his accusations against jackson. his mother plans to testify in this trial.

defence attorney thomas mesereau jr.:
""[this evidence would] easily reduce the burden of proof and the presumption of innocence and render an unfair trial.""

the defense have claimed that some of the boys listed would testify to jackson's innocence and that they are based on third party claims, many of which are after michael jackson's money. ""how can you just allow a parade of third-party characters to come in without any victims?""

santa barbara county district attorney thomas sneddon has claimed these other cases will show behavior that is ""very similar, if not identical"" to that which is claimed by gavin arvizo.

michael jackson has said ""none of these stories are true. they are totally fabricated. it's very sad, it's very, very painful. i pray a lot. that's how i deal with it, and i'm a strong person. i'm a warrior, and i know what is inside of me. i'm a fighter, but it's very painful at the end of the day. i'm still human, you know. i'm still a human being, so it does hurt very, very, very much.""

michael jackson continues to deny 10 counts of abuse and false imprisonment.



irish scientists had predicted further sumatran earthquake

irish researchers predicted two weeks ago that there would be further earthquakes in the same region as the massive boxing day 2004 quake.

on monday night a massive 8.7 scale earthquake hit the island of sumatra.

on march 17, researchers at university of ulster, coleraine in northern ireland published a report in the scientific journal "nature" that showed stress was building on the fault near sumatra and that the risk of a second powerful earthquake was increasing.

the researchers said in the report that in subduction zones, a pair of massive earthquakes relatively close together is not uncommon. the last such incident was 1999 in duzce, turkey where a 7.4 magnitude quake was followed by a 7.1 magnitude quake three months later.

in the nature report, the researchers pointed to evidence suggesting that stresses in the fault near northern sumatra were significantly higher than those of the 1999 turkey rupture. the quake that eventually did strike sumatra was exponentially more massive than the 7.0 to 7.5 magnitude quake the researches suggested in "nature." but it still was less powerful than the december 2004 quake and did not result in any life-threatening tsunami.


 


another arrest in minnesota school shooting

news spread in the red lake community today as funerals for jeff weise and three of the nine victims were held that another student was arrested in connection with the school shootings of march 21. authorities said little officially beyond confirming today's arrest. however, a source with knowledge of the investigation told the minneapolis star-tribune that it was louis jourdain, 16-year old son of red lake tribal chairman floyd jourdain. it is not known at this time what charges will be laid or what led authorities to the boy but juvenile proceedings have begun in federal court. 

last tuesday, investigators had said that weise had acted alone and his motives were unknown though he suffered from depression and expressed interest in nazism. 


u.s. supreme court hears mgm v. grokster

oral arguments in the landmark case of "mgm v. grokster" legal battle were heard before the supreme court of the united states march 29. in the case, 28 entertainment companies have joined together to sue streamcast, maker of morpheus software, and grokster.

a final ruling is expected on the case within a few months. the issue heard before the court was an appeal of prior decisions made since 2001 at the u.s. district court level and from the ninth circuit court of appeals. both of those decisions were in favor of grokster's right to market its p2p software.

p2p stands for peer-to-peer software, which uses the internet as a medium for millions of users to distribute digital content, such as music, movies, books, and software, among themselves. by far the majority of the content distributed through this method is without the permission of the copyright holder.

morpheus is one of the most-popular peer-to-peer software products worldwide. streamcast also operates musiccity.com. lawyers from the eff foundation (www.eff.org) are serving as defense counsel in the case.

the result of this case could determine the ultimate fate of p2p software in the u.s., whether it is legal for software companies to produce and sell software that, in the opinion of some, facilitates profit illegally from the trade in copyrighted materials. however, even if illegal in america, such software might still be widely available from international hosts due to technological limitations of enforcing such a ruling. the companies behind this effort are aiming to hold technological innovators legally responsible for infringing uses of their technology.

"about 36 million americans ? or 27 percent of internet users?say they download either music or video files and about half of them have found ways outside of traditional peer-to-peer networks or paid online services to swap their files". as a measure of public opinion on the issue, they stated, "49% of all americans and 53% of internet users believe that the firms that own and operate file-sharing networks should be deemed responsible for the pirating of music and movie files," according to pew internet & american life project in their most recent survey,

the landmark "betamax" decision of 1984 ("sony corp. v. universal city studios") is the most relevant u.s. case law in this matter (note: the precedent betamax case supports the legality of p2p netowrks). a decision in the mgm v. grokster case could either affirm "betamax", or overturn it. this is the case that essentially created the vcr market in america for distributing movies at home, and so in this modern technologically updated version, there are billions of dollars in future revenues now at stake.


surgeons reattach boy's three severed limbs

a team of australian surgeons yesterday reattached both hands and one foot to 10-year-old perth boy, terry vo, after a brick wall which collapsed during a game of basketball fell on him, severing the limbs. the wall gave way while terry performed a slam-dunk, during a game at a friend's birthday party.

the boy was today awake and smiling, still in some pain but in good spirits and expected to make a full recovery, according to plastic surgeon, mr robert love.

"what we have is parts that are very much alive so the reattached limbs are certainly pink, well perfused and are indeed moving," mr love told reporters today.

"the fact that he is moving his fingers, and of course when he wakes up he will move both fingers and toes, is not a surprise," mr love had said yesterday.

"the question is more the sensory return that he will get in the hand itself and the fine movements he will have in the fingers and the toes, and that will come with time, hopefully. we will assess that over the next 18 months to two years.

"i'm sure that he'll enjoy a game of basketball in the future."

the weight and force of the collapse, and the sharp brick edges, resulted in the three limbs being cut through about 7cm above the wrists and ankle.

terry's father tan said of his only child, the injuries were terrible, "i was scared to look at him, a horrible thing."

the hands and foot were placed in an ice-filled esky and rushed to hospital with the boy, where three teams of medical experts were assembled, and he was given a blood transfusion after experiencing massive blood loss. eight hours of complex micro-surgery on saturday night were followed by a further two hours of skin grafts yesterday.

"what he will lose because it was such a large zone of traumatised skin and muscle and so on, he will lose some of the skin so he'll certainly require lots of further surgery regardless of whether the skin survives," said mr love said today.

the boy was kept unconscious under anaesthetic between the two procedures. in an interview yesterday, mr love explained why:

"he could have actually been woken up the next day. because we were intending to take him back to theatre for a second look, to look at the traumatised skin flaps, to close more of his wounds and to do split skin grafting, it was felt the best thing to do would be to keep him stable and to keep him anaesthetised."

professor wayne morrison, director of the respected bernard o'brien institute of microsurgery and head of plastic and hand surgery at melbourne's st vincent's hospital, said he believed the operation to be a world first.


congressional dems visit to iraq encourages support of bush $81b &quot;reconstruction&quot; plan

a visit to 's "" on two separate days last week (march 22 and 24, 2005) has convinced washington's democratic senators and representatives that things are going well.

the senate delegation, led by senator harry reid (d-nev), visited on tuesday. the house delegation, led by nancy pelosi (d-san francisco), visited two days later. they all came away from their whirlwind visits with opinions that although conditions were improving there would still be many years of american occupation before iraq could be a true democracy.

"although progress has been made, there is a significant way to go until the iraqis are capable of providing for their security," said pelosi, the house democratic leader. she led an eight-member group that included seven democrats and republican rep. (r-vista) (san diego county).

the delegations spent their one day in iraq's green zone, the heavily protected area in downtown baghdad that serves as headquarters for the 150,000 u.s. military forces and diplomats and the iraqi government. they headed to their other stops in , , and . security was tight and didn’t allow for any additional travel in the war torn nation.

the sole republican in the congressional delegation, issa, said "i believe it will be a fairly long stay."

pelosi’s comments echoed issa, and added "the cost of this war is huge to the american people," citing 1,500 service personnel the bush administration has admitted were killed in action, and the estimated $500 million-a-day price tag. "the message some of us had for our military leaders and iraqi leaders is that whatever it takes to transfer security responsibilities should be applied now. it's long overdue," she added.

an emotional trip to beirut, lebanon, by the congressional delegation included a visit to the grave of former prime minister , who was assassinated in a feb. 14 bombing that is blamed, but not substantiated, to have been committed by syrian agents. darrell issa, of lebanese descent, noted "there's a huge permanent group of mourners at his grave, with hundreds of tents set up.'’

senator reid stressed the need for continued u.s. support for reconstruction efforts, along with training iraqi security forces to replace u.s. military personnel and help bolster the iraqi economy and political structure. "everyone understands that reconstruction is an important part of the u.s. mission here," he added.

senate minority whip (d-ill.) agreed: "i believe what we are seeing here is good."

senator barbara boxer (d-ca), a leading critic of the bush administration's iraq policy, seemed upbeat about the future of the new iraq government. iraq's future stability "greatly depends on the training of iraqi security forces."

"we got a very, very upbeat report from the top u.s. military officials,” she added.

all of the delegation seemed to agree that their trip enforced the enormity of the challenge and the financial need to help the iraqi people. this would require a continued input of american taxpayer dollars and left little doubt that they would line up to support the bush administration’s proposed new $81 billion dollars (us) in expenditures there.



sudan preemptively rejects security council resolution on war crimes extradition

in anticipation of a security council vote on trying alleged darfur war criminals at the , sudan announced today it would reject any united nations resolution that required war crimes suspects to be tried abroad. the resolution before the unsc was drafted by the french delegation, and is expected to be voted on this week.

sudanese foreign minister mustafa osman ismail said, "any resolution that is going to include the taking of a sudanese ? whether he is a rebel or government official ? outside the sudan: we are totally against it." in contrast, some rebel groups are in favor of the resolution. tajeddin nyam, of the rebel group "justice and equality of movement," said he thought the resolution would contribute to peace.

perhaps in an effort to avoid such extradition, sudan has begun arresting officials in relation to human rights abuses in darfur. government officials announced that 15 members of the military and security forces in darfur had been arrested this week, and were to be sent immediately to local courts.

the region of darfur has been the center of civil strife for over two years, during which time tens of thousands of people in the black african population have been killed, and many more wounded or abused, by government-supported arab militias. it has often been suggested that this qualifies as , and that darfur is enduring the world's most severe and localized abuse of civil rights.



israeli parliament rejects disengagement referendum

israel's parliament, the knesset, voted against a bill calling for a referendum on prime minister ariel sharon's controversial plan to withdraw israeli forces and civilians from the gaza strip and some parts of the west bank. the vote passed 72-39, with three abstentions and six absent. the vote removes the last major hurdle for mr. sharon to implement the proposed plan, scheduled to start in july.

mr. sharon's administration has not yet survived the upcoming vote on the 2005 budget, which takes place on tuesday. but it has secured the support of the secular shinui party, so a majority looks likely. shinui had reservations about the amount of money transferred under the budget to projects organised by ultra-orthodox parties. under israeli law, if the budget fails to pass, new elections must be held. opponents of the disengagement plan intend to use the budget vote to topple mr. sharon's government, and several mk's attacked shinui for their decision to support the budget.

mr. sharon's position sparked a rebellion from his own center-right likud party, with a significant majority of likud mks voting in favour of the bill, including several members of his own cabinet. finance minister binyamin netanyahu, foreign minister silvan shalom, justice minister tzipi livni, and education minister limor livnat all voted in favour of a referendum.



us transportation security administration &quot;made inaccurate statements&quot; about passenger privacy, says department of homeland security report

in a report from the department of homeland security released on friday, march 25, they allege the us transportation security administration "made inaccurate statements" about its management of personal data belonging to passengers. the report claims, "tsa did not ensure that privacy protections were in place" as it handled data transfers to private contractors for use in the development of a computerized passenger screening application, called capps ii. while the report criticizes tsa for its inaccurate statements, it notes the "misstatements were apparently not meant to mischaracterize known facts," but were instead "premised on an incomplete understanding" of the truth.

according to the report, the data at issue described passengers flying on the following airlines: america west airlines, american airlines, continental airlines, delta air lines, frontier airlines, and jetblue airways. in most of the problematic transfers, the privacy violation occurred by allowing third parties to access passenger data that was not anonymized. in one case, passenger information was made public on the internet through a presentation prepared by torch concepts. according to the report, "
torch concepts' subsequent efforts to remove the presentation from the internet have failed."

in an "ap" report, "yahoo! news" notes that tsa announced the launch of its "secure flight" system, saying, "congress has said the agency can't proceed with secure flight unless the government accountability office reports that the technology ensures privacy and that the data are protected." the report from the gao was to be released monday, march 27, 2005.


china releases 'human rights report' on u.s.

in response to the united states department of state issuing its annual "country reports on human rights practices", china has issued a contradictory report highlighting human rights abuses in the us, "the human rights record of the united states in 2004".

for the past six years, the people's republic of china has issued an annual statement on human rights in the us in response to the annual report on china. "only the chinese people themselves have the right to comment on the human rights situation in their own country," said liu jianchao, spokesman for the chinese foreign ministry. 

the us state department, beginning in 1977, issues annual country reviews of its perceptions of the rights records of individual nations, based on the "universal declaration of human rights". the current report for 2004, released on february 28, 2005, contains candid assessments and detailed criticism of the human rights records of 192 countries, including china. amnesty international, the international 'watch-dog organization' for human rights, has however criticized this paper as being biased, because it is made by a government which itself is violating human rights on many sectors.

the chinese response, was released on march 3, 2005. in this report, the chinese government attempts to deflect criticism of itself by drawing attention to the various publicly documented shortcomings within us society, including statistics on crime, violent death, imprisonment, poverty, rape, child abuse, and racial and sexual discrimination that are an acknowledged and publicly documented part of life in the us.

amnesty international's 2004 annual report on us human rights in 2003 agrees with many of these claims.

amnesty is also worried about: severe violations committed by the united states' army outside the countries' borders; the situation of the prisoners in guantanamo bay; united states' general misbehaviour against international peace; ill-treatment of us immigrants; ill-treatment and excessive use of force by the us law enforcement officials; the us citizens losing civil rights and liberties after the 9/11 attacks; and continued use of death penalty by the state, which is in direct breach with the 3rd article of the united nations' "universal declaration of human rights" (the right to life).

comment by peter edidin of "the new york times", characterized the chinese report as "a frank indictment [that] draws a picture of america that approaches caricature. but that doesn't mean it won't buttress the negative image of the united states held by its critics around the world."

this ongoing dispute does not capture the entire relationship of us and china on civil rights. even as both sides trade accusations, the us on march 18, 2005, declined to table a resolution at the un criticizing china, citing the ongoing improvements that are being made in that country. this is the second time in three years that the us has not submitted such a resolution, which in fact has never passed the un when it was submitted before.



cure for cat allergies may be close, with help from some mice

although they may be unwilling participants, a group of mice are helping solve a long-time conflict between cats and humans. scientists from (ucla) and the (niaid) reported today in the scientific journal that they have developed a technique that will one day lead to a cure for cat allergies.

the scientists have bred mice that were genetically engineered to be allergic to cats, and injected these mice with a special , derived from both cats and humans. normally, when humans allergic to cats come in contact with a particular feline protein their body releases a that causes the allergic reaction.

the newly developed protein is a fusion of cat protein with a human protein that normally acts as a brake on the . the cat part stimulates an allergic reaction, but the human part suppresses the response and, in the process, resets the immune system.

after being treated with the protein, it took the mice a month to be cured.

according to experts, nearly one in every seven children are allergic to cats. however the scientists who made this discovery feel that their technique may also be adapted to cure other types of allergies, including food allergies. in some populations allergies affect a large number of people ? as many as 30% of all adults in , for example.

the new cure is still in development stages, and will need years of animal and human testing before becoming commercially available.




australians more concerned by global warming than terrorism, says lowy report

a report released by allan gyngell of the lowy institute on monday, revealed many australians view us to be as dangerous as . it also found that 58 percent of the population had a positive view of the united states. 

the lowy institute, established in 2003 with a $30 million endowment from australian philanthropist , claims it is "an independent, non-partisan think tank."

the report, entitled "australians speak 2005: public opinion and foreign policy", showed that global warming and nuclear proliferation were greater foreign policy concerns than terrorism and illegal immigration. 70 per cent of australians were worried about global warming, the report stated, while only 63 per cent were worried about international terrorism. the report also noted most australians believed improving the global environment should be australia's number one foreign policy goal.

mark wakeham of greenpeace said, "clearly australians understand the warnings from scientists about far better than our governments do. once again, the community is leading and governments will be pulled into line."

he continued by saying, "scientists tell us that, to avoid dangerous warming of more than two degrees, we have to cut our greenhouse pollution by at least 60 per cent by 2050. this means moving rapidly and decisively away from dirty coal to clean, renewable sources of energy like solar, wind and energy efficiency."

the lowy institute surveyed 1000 randomly selected people to interview for the report.



upper house of former kyrgyz parliament steps down, bakiyev pledges to fight corruption

the upper house of the former kyrgyz parliament declared it was terminating its work "to stabilize the situation and do away with conflicts" on tuesday, as the lower house had done a day before.

the decision was signed by 32 of the 45 deputies. "we think we have fulfilled our task, as far as was possible, especially in this time of trials," they said.

opposition leader and acting president and prime minister kurmanbek bakiyev, said the deputies "have made a historically correct decision." he called on everyone to accept the new parliament as legitimate "in the interest of the whole nation".

bakiyev then delivered a 30-minute speech to about 300 civil servants, which was received with complete silence. he told them, "fighting corruption and paying pensions and benefits is our number one priority now."

"we need to deal with the economy ... a huge part of the state system was devoted to the election process. that is not a secret...we have all seen what happens when the executive branch gets involved in elections. i think we will not get into that now ... i think that staff should get back to work," he said.

"whoever is ... on my staff, if i hear that they got promoted for money or because they are someone's relative, or they belong to particular clan, then this person will be removed immediately," he added.

"we will set up public hotline so that people can complain against corruption," he told them.

meanwhile, deposed president askar akayev's supporters said they would form a party and run a candidate in the presidential poll.

ousted emergencies minister timirbek akmataliyev and interior minister keshenbek dyushenbayev said they were forming the akyikat (fairness) political party. akmataliyev said he would run for president in june.

the two called for akayev to return to kyrgyzstan and formally resign. "askar akayev has to come back to the republic and answer for his actions in front of the people, after which he must immediately resign," akmataliyev said.



japan asks &quot;where's the beef?&quot;

shortages of beef in japan prompted consumers to submit a petition with about 1.19 million signatures to japan's agriculture minister yoshinobu shimamura on tuesday. the petition was presented by a group led by takashi sakamoto, president of a chain of used book outlets.

japan has banned imports of u.s. beef for 15 months, citing concerns about mad cow disease after authorities discovered a cow with the disease in the united states.

japanese health and agriculture ministers said they would ask their country's food safety commission to approve lifting the ban.

"we will ask the commission to decide if resuming u.s. beef imports is safe based on safety measures taken in the u.s.," said health minister makoto kanie.

analyst kazuhiko saito says this may cause a delay "until later this year", telling "bloomberg", "the commission has been very slow on reviewing domestic mad cow tests and will also be slow to review the u.s. beef import plans."

u.s. lawmakers and diplomats have pressed japan to re-open their market, and some washington lawmakers have even threatened japan with sanctions should beef imports not resume soon. us secretary of state condoleezza rice brought up the matter earlier this month during her visit to japan.

so far, the japan food safety commission has only taken the step of loosening inspection rules, such that mad cow testing is not required for all imported live cattle.

japan has dealt with 14 cases of mad cow disease of their own.



sleepiness: a yawning chasm for working americans

did we need to take a poll to find out how well america sleeps at night? probably not, but the results of the poll offer a worrisome picture about our problems getting a good night’s sleep.

the national sleep foundation, the poll sponsor, reports three-quarters of adults say they frequently have a sleep problem, such as waking during the night or snoring. the average adult gets less than the recommended seven to nine hours of uninterrupted sleep each night. this leads to poorer health, lower productivity on the job, more danger on the roads and a less vibrant sex life. one-fourth admit their sleep problems do have an impact on their daily lives.

becky mcerien, 50, in philadelphia, told a reporter "by 3 to 4 in the afternoon, i'm starting to feel brain-drained and i need that caffeine to pick me back up again,"

but guillermo sardina, 55, of hamilton, n.j., said "i sleep through the night. i'm a sound sleeper. i don't even remember my dreams." he averages six or seven hours a night.

darwin mccallian, 51, of burke, va., rises at 4 a.m. to get a jump on traffic for his commute to washington, dc. he usually gets six to eight hours of sleep.

"when i sleep in a little bit longer, it makes me a safer driver," mccallian noted.

sleep foundation ceo, richard gelula, said the link between sleep and quality of life is strong. it affects professional relationships and takes a serious toll on personal interactions and intimacies:

they recommend avoiding alcohol and caffeine close to bedtime, and that adults pay attention to how much sleep they get as well as the quality of that sleep, and seek help if needed.
wikipedia article on sleep


lorry drops thirteen tonnes of fish in british town

a lorry spilt thirteen tonnes of raw fish on a road in the small british town of shaftesbury, dorset, earlier today.

crates of iced fish, worth ￡80,000, apparently burst out the rear doors of the lorry as it climbed a hill.

the bbc reports dorset police as saying "it appears as the lorry started its ascent up the hill the load in the rear of the articulated container slipped backwards, probably on the wet floor, and the weight of the fish on the rear doors forced the doors open."

the clean-up was hampered by poor weather conditions as dorset county council struggled to use a digger and a second lorry to clear the fish.


canadian football league to test atlantic expansion with exhibition game

the canadian football league released details today concerning the june 11 exhibition game dubbed touchdown atlantic between the toronto argonauts and hamilton tiger-cats at huskies stadium in halifax, . the game is planned as a gauge for expansion east to an atlantic city but with ticket prices at $40 and $62.50 (canadian), cfl commissioner tom wright admitted they were considerably more expensive than the average price for other season-ticket holder single games which, he said, is "in the mid to high $20 range".

at the news conference in halifax, wright defended the prices as necessary to break-even with the additional costs required to set-up the game and temporarily expand huskies stadium from 2 000 to 10 000 seats and comparable to similar, one-time events.

events halifax chairman fred macgillivray said he is confident that the showcase game will be a success. "i think the general public's reaction to this event will tell the cfl that there are a lot of people in the maritimes who want to see cfl football and we feel very confident we'll have a full house for that event in june", he told the news conference.

hamilton head coach greg marshall agreed and said he thinks expansion to halifax is viable. "halifax is the natural site and it's just a matter of coming up with the facility", he said. "i think there's a lot of interest here and i think there's a lot of interest in the cfl to put a team here."

events halifax and the cfl have also set up a number of events surrounding the game including a friday-night kickoff party, a schools program, open team practices with player autograph opportunities and a pre-game festival.

cfl fans watch with interest how ticket sales will do when they go on sale on april 8 as the league considers expansion in 2008.


california state university, chico fraternity suspended for making frat house porno flick

the local chapter of the phi kappa tau fraternity at california state university, chico was suspended after members were linked to a pornographic dvd apparently filmed in the club's fraternity house. according to reports, the dvd shows students engaged in various sexual activities with female porn actresses.

the chico fraternity also has been suspended by the national phi kappa tau organization and chico state's interfraternity council, the student governing body for all fraternities. in addition, the national interfraternity council issued a press statement saying it was embarrassed by the chico group's actions.

the company responsible for making the porno film is -based shane's world. a spokesman for shane's world said the chico fraternity contacted it months ago with the idea of making a sex film in its "college invasion" series.

the company says it requires all students who participate in its sex films to show proof that they are 18 or older and sign release forms. shane's world has made five other dvds at other u.s. universities since 2000.

university officials suspended the local fraternity from being able to participate in school sponsored activities at the rural northern california campus. the school also is investigating whether any illegal activities happened during the porn shoot including underage drinking.



o.j. simpson lawyer, cochran, dead at 67

johnnie cochran, u.s. lawyer famous for getting o.j. simpson acquitted of murder charges in the 1990s, died tuesday afternoon in his home in los angeles, california. he had been suffering from complications of an inoperable brain tumor. 

"the family of attorney johnnie l. cochran, jr. and members of the cochran firm are deeply saddened by the passing," his family said in a statement to the press. "the world has lost not only a legendary attorney, but an outstanding humanitarian."



monday night's indonesian quake toll appears less than first feared

although monday night's quake off indonesia, at 8.7 on the richter scale, was one of the ten largest in the past 100 years, the death toll has been relatively few. damage was also less than expected, and the feared tsunami never eventuated. but 430 are confirmed dead, with aid workers guessing a final toll of 1,000 to 2,000.

over 270,000 died following last year's december 26, 9.0-richter quake and tsunami, prompting alarm when such a large quake struck on monday night. mass evacuations and alerts turned out to be unnecessary, when the potential hazard of a tidal wave failed to arise.

initially indonesian vice-president yusuf kalla put the number of dead at the island of nias, near the quake's epicentre, at up to 2,000. but officials who flew over the area said the damage could be less than expected.

indonesian national coordinating disaster relief agency said only 330 were so far confirmed dead at nias, with a further 100 coming from another island, simeuleu, according to the head of the health office in aceh province, mulya hasjmy, and numbers expected to rise as workers further explore the rubble.

the quake occurred offshore, with its centre around 205km west of sibolga on sumatra island, and 245km southwest of sumatran city medan, about 320km from that of the quake which caused december's tsunami.

oxfam aid workers at gunung sitoli, the main town on nias, described the scene. "the water system has failed completely and huge holes have been made in the roads," said alessandra villas-boas. "bodies are being pulled from the rubble as i speak."

president susilo bambang yudhoyono has declared a state of emergency, and is to visit nias today. the airport there was found to be intact, patients were receiving medical treatment already, and a field hospital was in the process of being erected on mainland.


 


woman sells name on ebay

a , usa woman has sold her name on and received an offer. terri iligan, age 33, will legally be named "goldenpalace.com" after the required legal work is complete.

the casino owning the website paid 15,199 over the ebay auction service.

she said that she got the idea when trying to find how much it would cost to send one of her children to a school previously attended by .

in an interview by knoxville tv station , she said, "to my kids and to my husband, i will always be terri." as to the opinion of her husband and children, she said, "he thinks it's funny. as long as they get to call me mom, they don't care."


sciscoop changes ownership

sciscoop, the online collaborative science news source, has changed ownership after two and a half years of operation under its previous webmaster, ricky james. an earlier report by wikinews that the site would be shut down was in error.

james cited lack of time as the reason to pass on ownership of the site, which specializes in breaking news in science and technology. the site has a growing membership and gets more than 30,000 hits a day.

sciscoop headlines are also carried on slashdot and by the google newsfeed. the site has a burgeoning archive containing hundreds of searchable news stories, providing visitors with an invaluable record of science news over the past few years. sciscoop also allows members to customise the layout of pages at their whim and add functions to their personal page, such as rss newsfeeds.

the new owner and maintainer of the site is science writer david bradley, who also operates the sciencebase science news site. bradley is currently formulating a mission statement for the sciscoop site but has already said in a statement that, "the site is not going to disappear, nor is it going to change so radically that you won't recognise it."



un secretary general annan cleared of influencing oil-for-food contracts by volcker report

un secretary general kofi annan has been cleared of wrongdoing in an investigation of charges that he influenced the un to award aid-screening contracts in iraq to swiss company cotecna inspection services, which employed his son kojo annan. the investigation was led by former us federal reserve chairman paul volcker, who said that the investigation initiated by kofi annan should instead have been referred to un's independent watchdog agency. the report issued was called by the secretary general a "second interim report" in his statement reported in the new zealand herald. the commission will issue its final report in the northern hemisphere summer of 2005.

while kofi annan was exonerated, two of his staff members, iqbal riza and dileep nair, were criticized by the report. riza allegedly shredded documents related to the contracts under investigation after the secretary general ordered that they be retained. the new york times said that nair was "faulted for appointing a person to a high-level post with oil-for-food responsibilities who did almost no work on the program".

according to the new york times, the secretary general said "i am deeply saddened by the evidence to the contrary that has emerged, and particularly by the fact that my son had failed to cooperate fully with the inquiry". the guardian reports that annan's son concealed from his father the fact that cotecna continued to pay him for 6 years after "he left cotecna in 1998". it was not clear from the guardian report why cotecna was paying kojo annan if he had indeed left the company.

asked whether he planned to step down as secretary general, as called for by us republican senator norm coleman, among others, kofi annan responded, "hell, no!" according to ewen macaskill of the guardian, as well as an unattributed sydney morning herald article. senator coleman continued to press forward with his criticism of annan and calls for his resignation despite the report's findings.



three romanian journalists abducted in iraq

three romanian journalists were abducted in baghdad, iraq shortly after romanian president traian b?sescu visited the country to meet with the romanian troops deployed there. the journalists went missing monday, and have been identified as reporter marie jeanne ion, cameraman sorin dumitru miscoci and reporter ovidiu ohanesian. miscoci and ion were both from the television station prima tv, which had been in baghdad for five days to conduct interviews with prime minister iyad allawi and interim president ghazi al-yawer. ohanesian was an investigative reporter from the bucharest-based 'romania liber?' newspaper, and was scheduled to return to romania this weekend.

the three journalists were abducted from a street next to the flowerland hotel, in the upscale jadriya neighborhood, where they were staying. a hotel employee stated that the abduction occurred at approximately 20:30 on monday. prima tv also confirmed that it lost contact with the crew at 19:45 on monday, and that ion and miscoci were probably kidnapped by a rebel group from baghdad's al-mansur district.

the kidnapping was confirmed as marie jeanne ion made a phone call to the prima tv newsroom shortly after she was abducted, speaking a mixture of romanian, english and arabic. she told her colleagues to call the romanian embassy in baghdad for help. voices of men, seemingly angry and shouting in arabic, could be heard in the background. a few minutes later, ion sent an sms message from her mobile phone to prima tv, saying "help, this is not a joke, we've been kidnapped. help!"

dan dumitru, the news director at prima tv, told another television station, realitatea tv, "all i know [is that] they have been taken by force and we can't reach them any more." ohanesian, the reporter from 'romania liber?', could not be contacted, even though his colleagues in bucharest tried ringing his mobile phone, which was switched off.

president traian b?sescu, who has just returned from a surprise visit to iraq, said on monday night that "all the state structures are on alert and determined to resolve the disappearance of the three journalists." he also said that romania has sought the help of the us-led coalition authorities in iraq.

romanian prime minister c?lin popescu-t?riceanu confirmed the kidnapping on tuesday morning, while on monday evening he claimed that it was unclear what had happened to the three abducted journalists, and that no-one had contacted the romanian government or authorities demanding a ransom. he went on to say that the journalists went missing in an upscale district that is only known for low-level crime, and that there is consequently a "ray of hope" that their abduction is not serious. however, t?riceanu said that a special crisis unit was created inside the ministry of foreign affairs to solve the abduction problem. the unit will make use of all necessary state institutions, including romanian and foreign intelligence agencies.

romania currently has one of the world's largest contingents in iraq, with more than 800 troops. during his visit to baghdad on the weekend, president b?sescu said that he does not want to reduce the troop contingent and that romania "will continue to take part in the reconstruction and stabilization missions in iraq." romania also announced that it will be sending 100 troops for peacekeeping purposes soon. this news comes in a time when most other countries in europe have considered recalling their troops.

until now, the romanian presence in iraq has not been as controversial as in other countries, mainly because no romanian troops have died in iraq. however, the abduction of the three journalists, announced on monday, is expected to result in a decline of public support for the war, especially since 55% of romanians are opposed to romania's contribution to the war, after an opinion poll conducted in bucharest on monday. this is expect to result in authorities in reducing their plans for a stronger romanian military presence in iraq.

romanian political analyst stelian t?nase said, "it will be a shock for the public. it is the first time something like this has happened. if romanian authorities aren't able to free the journalists, it will harm the support that b?sescu enjoys."

the french authorities were the first government to sent their sympathies to the romanian people in regards to the abduction of the three journalists. the spokesperson of the french ministry of foreign affairs, michel barnier, said "romania can be sure of france's understanding." in response to whether romania and france will collaborate on this case, m. barnier said, "we will see if there is a request from the romanian authorities." french journalists have also fallen victim to iraqi rebels. florence aubenas, a french journalist, and her iraqi guide were kidnapped in january 5 of this year, and have not yet been found.



laura bush takes a quick trip to afghanistan

in a surprise announcement, united states first lady flew to afghanistan for a 5-hour stay today. bush has desired to take this trip for a number of years, but it has been delayed for security reasons. security is still a concern ? the trip was only announced as she was about to depart from andrews air force base near washington, dc.

bush told reporters, "i have been so looking forward to going to afghanistan. when i really realized the plight of the women under the taliban, i also found that american women really stand in solidarity with the women in afghanistan." 

bush would arrive in on wednesday, and spend most of her short stay at the women's teacher training institute learning about education for women in afghanistan. she also planned to meet with the country's women who run "micro-enterprises" making rugs and scarves. education secretary margaret spellings came with bush on this trip.


german retail giant rewe to open penny market stores in romania

german retail corporation rewe plans to open several penny market discount stores in romania in the middle of this year. rewe is mainly interested in opening stores in cities such as ploie?ti, campina, tecuci, foc?ani, one?ti, craiova, caracal, constan?a, medgidia, alexandria and ro?iori de vede. most of these cities have populations of below 100,000 people, and rewe is hoping to take advantage of a market that has not been highly tapped into, since most of romania's larger cities, such as bucharest, cluj-napoca and ia?i, already have multiple large supermarkets and discount stores.

rewe also announced that, over the next few years, it intends to open a total of 50 penny market and xxl mega stores in romania. rewe already operates 14 several highly-successful billa supermarkets throughout romania, mainly in large cities, as well as 8 selgros stores. rewe has previously made announcements that it wishes to expand its billa and selgros brands more extensively. the total value of the company's investment in romania is around 200 million euro.

romania is currently going through a retail boom, especially in the supermarket and discount stores area. large corporations such as rewe and carrefour have established very successful branches in romania, and other retail giants such as tesco and walmart have announced their intention to enter the romanian market, which is the largest in southeastern europe.

the "mini max discount" company said it would open three stores in romania, in april-may of this year, in the cities of slatina, targovi?te and urziceni. it plans to open up to 100 stores until the year 2010. meanwhile, tengelmann, rewe's rival, said it would invest 200 million euro in romania to open 120 supermarkets in the next five years.



new zealand praised by nato secretary general

jaap de hoop scheffer, secretary general of nato has praised new zealand's role in providing security, and aiding with reconstruction in afghanistan. he made the comments in wellington during a three-day visit of new zealand.

"the fact that we are in afghanistan, and that we see new zealand participation in afghanistan is proof that we are fighting this fight together," said mr. scheffer.

after talking with mr. scheffer, prime minister helen clark said "later this year when the parliamentary elections are held in afghanistan, the bonn process will have run its course. we need to start talking with our partners in nato, in the afghanistan government itself, about what is the post-bonn process." 

mr. scheffer is scheduled for further talks with the prime minister, as well as other ministers and officials wednesday. on thursday he will address victoria university's institute of policy studies and the institute of international affairs. he is the first head of nato to visit new zealand.

mr. scheffer will leave on thursday for australia and then japan.



market data/^ixic


brazilian president defends chavez and criticizes us

the brazilian president luiz inacio lula da silva met the leaders of colombia, venezuela and spain, in ciudad guyana, 500 km (311 miles) from caracas, in venezuela, tuesday, march 29.

the regional summit aimed to improve the diplomatic relations between colombia and venezuela, that had been shaken after the arrest of the farc communist member rodrigo granda, in december, last year.

the following leaders were present at the meeting: the president of colombia, Alvaro uribe velez, the spanish prime minister jose luis rodriguez zapatero, the president of venezuela hugo chavez, and the president of brazil luiz inacio lula da silva.

during the summit, the brazilian president defended the venezuelan president hugo chavez and he criticized indirectly the government of the united states for his opinions in relation to chavez. according to lula, south america is capable of taking care of its own problems.

lula said: "we do not accept defamations against our "companheiros" (comrades). we do not accept insinuations against comrades. venezuela has the right to be a sovereign country, to take its own decisions". lula also added that he is not afraid of doing this affirmation in "any place of the world".

the us secretary of defense donald rumsfeld, was in brazil on march 22 and he said that he was very worried about the political situation in venezuela. venezuela is buying weapons and warlike material in great quantity and washington is considering the country a harmful influence in the region. recently venezuela announced that it would buy 100,000 ak-47 rifles.

lula also said:"i believe that venezuela has the right to be a sovereign country, of making its own decisions and, at the same time, venezuela does not need to be accused of things that those who are with you know that this is not part of your thought nor of your behavior."

"there is many people talking badly about us in the world", he added.

the venezuelan president did a calmer speech for the us: "we are not here to cause problems to anybody, for any reason. we were called to form this new geopolitical map, without confrontation with nobody (...) because it is convenient for us and all: it is convenient for the investors, for international businessmen, for national businessmen and for the united states themselves."

chavez and lula both denied any involvement between their governments and the farc guerrilla.

the spanish prime minister, jose luis zapatero said: "this is a meeting for the dialogue and the cooperation between free and democratic nations that want the advance of their people".


metal press crushes illinois worker

a resident of schaumburg, illinois in the () was severely injured by an industrial punch press machine on monday. he died an hour later.

elk grove village police said william naras, 48, was operating the machine at a local metal manufacturing plant when he became pinned by an i-beam, or metal arm, about 4 p.m. he was transported to alexian brothers medical center in elk grove village where medics pronounced him dead at 4:51 p.m.

the death was ruled an industrial accident and reported to the u.s. occupational safety and health administration, according to a spokesperson for the cook county medical examiner's office.

presses of the type which killed naras routinely develop pressures in the 80,000 pounds (40 tons) per square inch range, according to manufacturers’ internet pages.



school dinner costs just 49p in wales

a survey carried out by bbc wales has revealed that the contents of a school meal in wales cost on average just ￡0.49 per pupil. average spending on meal ingredients varied slightly from council to council; with the cardiff city council spending just ￡0.40 on each meal, whilst powys council lavished ￡0.69 per pupil.

the survey follows a recent surge in media coverage of the eating habits of teenagers and children in the uk. celebrity chef jamie oliver recently embarked on a campaign to improve food standards and raise awareness in schools. in response to his campaign the government has promised to spend an additional ￡280 million over three years on school food in england.

the survey covered twenty councils throughout wales.



falwell's condition upgraded to &quot;stable&quot;

the lynchburg general hospital in lynchburg, virginia, reports that jerry falwell's condition has been ugraded to stable and his respirator has been removed. his lungs remained congested.

doctor now say that the viral pneumonia that had hospitalized falwell, 71, just five weeks previously had not returned and he did not have a heart attack.

he was admitted tuesday in a state of "respiratory arrest" and needed emergency resuscitation. he had been unconscious for 5-8 minutes although a cardiologist, dr. carl moore, said testing showed "his heart is strong" and there was no evidence of mental or neurological damage.


ms-13 &quot;gangsters&quot; and arizona &quot;vigilantes&quot; prepare to rumble

ebner anivel rivera-paz, a leader of the vicious mara salvatruchas(ms-13) gang, has issued orders from his prison cell for his followers to teach the american "minutemen" volunteers a lesson when they begin patrolling the mexican border tomorrow. 
ms-13 gang members are considered to be america's most violent gang with such acts of barbarism as to "cut off the testicles of their enemies and feed them to their vicious dogs" and "cut the heads off their opponents to play soccer with them". however, such allegations of brutality doesn't seem to frighten the "minutemen" who are a group of americans who are organizing more than 1,000 volunteers to patrol the arizona-mexico border beginning april 1st. they have been called vigilantes by presidents bush and fox and sometimes sarcastically refer to themselves as "undocumented border patrol agents". james gilchrist, a vietnam veteran and spokesman for the minutemen in response to the ms-13 threat; "we're not worried because half of our recruits are retired trained combat soldiers..they(ms-13) are just a bunch of punks."

ms-13 gang now has about 20,000 members nationwide and u.s. immigration and customs enforcement (ice), has begun to focus on the gang with an initiative they call "operation community shield". the very existence of ms-13 is considered by the conservative voice to be a direct consequence of the usa government's 1980's policies in central america; "the chickens are coming home to roost.its(ms-13) members are the sons of immigrants from el salvador and other central american countries that were forced to flee because of the cia instigated war during the reagan administration that completely destroyed the physical, economic, social, religious and cultural infrastructure of the region. ms-13 was founded in los angeles by the offspring of the immigrants for protection."



british computer magazine discovers electricity cost of running computers

british computer magazine "pc pro" has investigated the electricity costs of running today's computers.

their investigations showed that an individual could save ￡250 a year while a medium-sized business could potentially save ￡5,000 a year by making changes to the way computers and their peripherals are operated.

a crt monitor uses ￡150 of electricity over five years; enough to pay for a new low-power lcd monitor. using a screen saver, rather than turning the monitor off or using many computers' built-in feature to turn monitors off after a period of inactivity, could cost ￡100 alone in a year.

it was also discovered that turning a single laser printer off overnight and on weekends would save ￡70 over the life of the printer.

many others computer users however run 'distributed computing' projects while their computers are idle, such as the '@home' series of projects (including the well-known 'seti@home').



taiwan nationalists leader visits beijing

a delegation of from the chinese kuomintang (kmt, or nationalist party), is meeting with communist party of china (cpc) officials in beijing today, led by kmt vice chairman chiang pin-kung.

"we hope the current crisis can be minimized," chiang said in beijing. "after the anti-secession law was enacted we saw reactions and protests," he continued, "the beijing authorities have likely heard it for themselves but we have also brought the voice of the taiwanese people with us."

chen yunlin, director of the taiwan affairs office of the people's republic of china, hosted chiang at a banquet in beijing's diaoyutai state guesthouse. chen characterized the delegation's visit as opening "party to party dialogue" and that the visit "has inaugurated the first sign of a dialogue between your party and our party."

wednesday evening, chen met with the delegation to discuss cross-straits economic ties. representatives from numerous other chinese agencies were also present at the meeting, including the ministries of agriculture and commerce, and the general administration of civil aviation. the meeting discussed the possibility of opening up taiwan to tourists from the mainland.

zhu peikang, vice chairman of the central committee of the mainland's revolutionary committee of the kuomintang, also welcomed the nationalist delegation.

zhu said chiang's visit was important, and "focused on the common interests of the people on both sides and the promotion of the cross-straits exchanges and cooperation."

earlier in the day, chiang was in nanjing, to lay a wreath at the tomb of his party's founder, sun yat-sen. he also signed a guest book at the former nationalists presidential office with the line, "icebreaking journey."

"my heart was filled with limitless excitement and deep emotion," chiang told the "associated press". "it was very moving to visit."

nanjing was the former capital used by the nationalists before they lost the civil war with the communists and evacuated to taiwan in 1949.

in taiwan, joseph wu, chairman of the mainland affairs council, condemned the visit by the nationalist delegation to the mainland.

"the chinese strategy is always divide and conquer, and the kmt is playing into china's hands," he told "the new york times" and "international herald tribune" reporters. "it's very odd that they would cooperate with the communist party instead of the ruling party here on taiwan," wu said.

vice minister of foreign affairs michael ying-mao kau disclosed that the united states is concerned about the nationalist visit, and that american officials have privately said that taiwan's political parties should first unify and build a consensus to strengthen their negotiating position with mainland china.




egyptians protest against president despite ban

hundreds of demonstrators have taken to the streets of cities across egypt to protest against a possible fifth term of president hosni mubarak.

activists are campaigning to prevent mubarak from gaining another term after 24 years in power. they are also calling for his son gamal not to stand in elections in september and also that reforms are made to the country's constitution.

hundreds of kifaya ("enough") protesters were met by thousands of riot police in cairo and were prevented from reaching the parliament buildings. protests in alexandria were called off after security forces sealed off all routes in to the area of the planned protest. people later said that the police allowed a pro-mubarak rally shortly afterwards.

the security chief of cairo has stated that the police will no longer tolerate such protests. he is quoted by bbc news as saying "if we are getting to the stage of getting used to violating [the rules], then the principle is that legal regulations must be implemented." street demonstrations have been illegal since laws were enacted after the 1981 assassination of president anwar sadat.

one leader of kifaya was reported as saying the large deployment of security personnel had turned cairo into "a military zone".


fox tv executive takes reins at paramount studios

entertainment industry rising star gail berman was named president of the viacom-owned paramount pictures film and television studios wednesday. she is scheduled to start in may. currently berman heads up the programming division of the u.s. fox network.

berman is credited for the major turn-around in the fortunes of the fox network. their ratings were at the bottom of the heap of the four major u.s. broadcast networks when she took over programming in 2000. according to the latest nielsen ratings, fox is the no. 1 u.s. network in primetime programming, thanks to such hits as "american idol", real-time suspense drama, "24", and hit teen soap opera, "the o.c.".

in moving from television to the movies, berman acknowledged to reporters that she faces a challenging learning curve. she replaces outgoing paramount president, donald deline.



charlottetown, p.e.i. residents rally to support restaurant

the owners of the noodle house restaurant of , prince edward island (p.e.i.), canada were overwhelmed by community support tuesday when the restaurant overflowed with customers, cards, flowers, and personal pleas to not leave the province.

according to "cbc news prince edward island", the recent outpouring of support occurred after tommy and lina ko, the restaurant owners, announced they would close the restaurant and leave the province following an incident two weeks ago, when groups of up to 200 teens from two nearby schools surrounded the restaurant, pelting it with snowballs, and threatening the kos. charlottetown police chief paul smith told cbc pei that his force is ready to take whatever action is necessary to crack down on the behaviour and last week started videotaping over lunchtime when most of the misbehaviour has taken place. police noted that they have received complaints from other businesses, pedestrians, and drivers in the busy "fast food alley" and intend to seek co-operation from the schools in identifying the main culprits.

however, a cbc pei story from october, 2002, reported the kos asking police to do more to stop the littering and other vandalism in the area including having signs smashed, windows broken, and fireworks set off in front of their restaurant. at that time, deputy chief richard collins told cbc pei: "you can't have upwards of 1,500 to 2,000 students in and around that area at dinner hour and not expect for some of them to misbehave," but promised to continue patrols and try to teach the students respect of property.

tommy ko told cbc news that he was overwhelmed by the support this week and in thanks put on a surprise free buffet, though customers insisted on paying anyway. nevertheless, after fighting the harassment for some five years, the kos say they still are not sure they want to stay.


akayev willing to resign as president of kyrgyzstan

in an interview broadcast on russian state-run channel one television, deposed kyrgyz president askar akayev, when asked whether he was prepared to resign as president, replied, "of course, of course - if i am given the relevant guarantees and if it is in full accordance with the current legislation."

he added that he had "the desire to help so that the newly elected president is legitimate."

while acting president and prime minister kurmanbek bakiyev and former acting minister of securities felix kulov have offered him immunity, he said he would only return if parliament offered him "personal safety guarantees."

bakiyev warned that akayev's return could "give rise to mass unrest."

in related news, acting minister of securities felix kulov has been removed from parliament on his own will, ria novosti reported the parliamentary press service as saying.

he was reported as saying that "the set goal has been achieved: the situation in our republic has stabilized."



new york times finds flight logs that back canadian's claim of kidnapping by us government

maher arar, a syrian-born canadian citizen, is suing the united states, accusing them of kidnapping him and sending him to syria, where he was detained and tortured for a year. on wednesday, "the new york times" reported that flight logs they have examined appear to support his claims.

they report that records in a database compiled from u.s. federal aviation agency records show that a gulfstream iii jet, tail number n829mg, followed a flight path matching the route he described on october 8. 2002, a day after his deportation order was signed. the flight went from new jersey to an airport near washington, then to maine, rome, and beyond.

the records also show that the jet made a trip to guantanamo bay, cuba, where the united states holds hundreds of detainees.

the u.s. justice department, in papers filed in a new york court replying to arar's lawsuit, says the case was not one of rendition, deportation for interrogation abroad, but simply one of deportation. they claim that he was deported to syria because they had information that he was a member of al qaeda. arar denies this allegation.

arar was freed from syrian detainment in october 2003. syrian officials said they had not been able to find information connecting him to al qaeda. the syrian ambassador to the united states referred to the release as "a gesture of good will toward canada."

in a telephone interview with the new york times, after seeing a photograph of the plane and being informed of the path it followed, arar said "i think that's it. i think you've found the plane that took me."

"the facts we got from maher right after he was released are now corroborated by public records," maria lahood, a lawyer for arar said. "the more information that comes out, the better for showing that this is an important public issue that can't be kept secret."

a spokesman for the u.s. justice department, charles miller, said that the government has no comment on the case. the administration has refused to cooperate with the canadian inquiry into the case and has asked a judge to dismiss his lawsuits on the grounds that classified information would be revealed if they were allowed to continue.

president bush has said it is not united states policy to engage in torture or send detainees to countries where they are likely to be tortured.



pressure building on myanmar to decline asean chair

pressure is building on myanmar to decline next years revolving asean chair due to its human rights record. the us senate majority whip mitch mcconnell, has said that the usa should boycott asean meetings next year if myanmar takes the chair.

the un special envoy to myanmar, tan sri razali ismail, has backed moves by malaysian lawmakers earlier this week against myanmar's chairing, saying "the un is always on the side of democracy. it supports the principles these people are pushing and these principles are very important for all governments to adhere to,"

“i don’t think there’s any attempt to punish myanmar but to make them understand asean is guided by certain principles in order to be a member or in order to be leading asean for a certain period,”

filipino legislators are also following malaysian lawmakers, and are expected to propose that all member countries adopt a stand on myanmar when asean legislators meet in an inter-parliamentary union conference in manila on april 3.


new doctor who quits series, bbc searches for replacement actor

success may be too much of a good thing for the future of storied bbc series "doctor who". after the unexpected popularity of last saturday's return of the series to bbc airwaves, the star of the show is calling it quits from fears of typecasting.

according to a report from the bbc, actor christopher eccleston, who injected a edgier and sexier image onto the title character plans to leave the series once his 13-episode commitment is over later this year. eccleston told reporters that his last appearance as the doctor will be for a december christmas special.

the show, which debuted march 26 after a 16-year hiatus, was the highest-rated television show in the uk that night. with an estimated viewership of about 10.5 million at its peak, more than 44 percent of all television households in the country tuned in to see the new doctor. "the audience's response for the new doctor who has been incredible and i am really proud to be part of it and i hope viewers continue to enjoy the series," eccleston said in a bbc release. 

but that popularity was a double-edged sword for eccleston. with roughly half the population seeing him as doctor who, he feared that once typecast as a science fiction time lord, audiences may not accept him in other roles. at one year, eccleston will be the shortest-lived doctor after paul mcgann who starred in the 1996 telemovie.

but the television network airing the show wants more of the crowd pleaser. the bbc has committed to producing a second 13-episode run of the reinvigorated series and says it is in talks with actor david tennant to take on the role. tennant is a star of the bbc period drama, "casanova".

in the announcement of the renewal of "doctor who", the bbc did say it re-signed series co-star billie piper, who agreed to reprise the role of the doctor's sidekick for series two. 



dresden city council wants dna matching for doggy-doo

councillors at dresden city council in germany would like to match doggy-doo left by pets on the sidewalk and in parks, against a database storing profiles for all of the city's 12,000 registered dogs. karl jobig, a politician in dresden, was surprised when his proposal received a majority vote.

"in this way, dresden will once again be one of the cleanest cities in germany," roland putzger, the leader of the local council, told "".

dna from registered dogs would be collected from blood or saliva for the "genetic fingerprinting" service.

's data protection commissioner, andreas schurig, ruled that dogs had no rights over their data and could not object to the compulsory tests.

the proposal will be binding if the council passes it by majority vote in may.



un report: earth ecosystem in peril

a report tuesday from a united nations-backed project, consulting more than 1,300 scientists from 95 countries, and written over the last four years, warns that 60 percent of the basics of life on earth ? water, food, timber, clean air ? are currently being used in ways which degrade them. furthermore, fisheries and fresh water use-patterns are unsustainable, and getting worse.

"the harmful consequences of this degradation could grow significantly worse in the next 50 years," according to a press release from the millennium ecosystem assessment (ma), a massive four-year study begun in 2001.

"we've had many reports on environmental degradation, but for the first time we're now able to draw connections between ecosystem services and human well-being," cristian samper, director of the smithsonian institution's national museum of natural history in washington and a chief architect of the study, told the christian science monitor.

the project's "synthesis report", first in a series of eleven documents and published yesterday, explains the objective: ""to assess the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being and to establish the scientific basis for actions needed to enhance the conservation and sustainable use of ecosystems and their contributions to human well-being.""

it then goes on to report on four main findings:





walter reid, the study's director, speaking at yesterday's london launch of the report said it shows that over the last 50 years "humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any comparable time in human history."

"this has resulted in substantial and largely irreversible loss in the diversity of life on earth," he said.

it is unclear what this will mean to future generations or the possible emergence of new diseases, absence of fresh water and the continuing decline of fisheries and completely unpredictable weather.

with half of the urban populations of africa, asia, latin america and the caribbean suffering from several diseases associated with these problems, the death toll is reaching 1.7 million people a year. entire species of mammals, birds and amphibians are disappearing from the planet at nearly 1,000 times the natural rate, according to the study. oxygen-depleted coastal waters and rivers result from overuse of nitrogen fertilizer - an effect known as "nutrient loading" which leads to continuing biodiversity loss.

with the united states' non-participation in the kyoto treaty, former u.s. senator timothy wirth, president of this u.n. foundation, says "u.s. leadership is critical in providing much-needed expertise, technological capabilities and ingenuity to restore ecosystems.

"we can take steps at home to reduce our nation's adverse impact on the global environment."

"at the heart of this assessment is a stark warning," said the 45-member board.



man attempts to foil breathalyzer by eating feces

a man accused of driving under the influence of alcohol stuffed his mouth full of feces in a failed attempt to foil the police breathalyzer.

the man was arrested sunday by south simcoe police after his pickup truck was pulled over on ontario provincial highway 11 in stroud, ontario, canada. on the way to the police station for testing, the 59-year-old vomited, urinated, and defecated in the police cruiser. sgt. james buchanan said that upon arriving at the station, the prisoner grabbed a handful of his own waste "and placed it in his mouth, attempting to trick the breathalyzer machine".

nevertheless, the man registered two readings of more than twice the legal blood alcohol limit of 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood in his system. he was charged with impaired driving and driving over the limit and was released on a promise to appear in a bradford, ontario court on may 12.


harvard hosts conference on technological future of news media

harvard university recently hosted a symposium called "whose news? media, technology and the common good" at its nieman foundation for journalism. held march 3-4 and providing a certain amount of video to be rebroadcast through the web, the event was widely commented on by both bloggers and traditional media.

among the participants was richard sambrook, director of the bbc world service and global news division, which has taken on the challenge of incorporating the voices of citizen journalists into their news gathering and presentation process. at what he calls the "community level", the bbc is engaging a project called "digital storytelling" in which they are assisting and working with individuals in the recording and production of videos that "document their lives and report and cull things of importance to them", which the bbc has then distributed by a variety of means. they are also encouraging participation in issues of citizen concern at the national and international levels.

some participants such as co-creator of the seminar, matt thompson expressed concern over the growing centralization of the ownership of mainstream news media in the hands of a few corporate sponsors, at the same time it incorporates these growing sources of audience information. "i think that people are looking forward to a media that can truly respond to them, even if the...corporate centralization aspects of it in this giant 'googlezon' entity give many people pause" quoting a metafilter.com thread to the effect, "i for one welcome our new googlezon overlords."

there was some discussion of the traditional media and its engagement with recent issues of national importance. "i think there's been a massive media failure across the board...there's been an institutional failure.", said mediachannel executive editor danny schechter in discussing his film, "wmd: weapons of mass distortion". he suggested two basic fixes including "more diversity of perspective...let's have a real debate and discussion" and "don't take everything at face value and check facts and look at perspectives from other countries." he decried what he called "groupthink" in american media and called for "more feisty independent journalists, and more watchdog, less lapdog."

however, some other critics have elsewhere expressed concerns about the actual independence and diversity of webloggers and other non-traditional media as an antidote to perceived media bias. for example, there is often a perceived lack of race or sex diversity among top bloggers. steven levy, a senior editor of newsweek, has recently written a column addressing concerns about the over-representation of white males among top bloggers on the internet. technorati.com, a website which describes itself as "the authority on what is happening on the real-time web", maintains a list of the top 100 blogs that was used as the basis for his column. however, others such as heather mac donald at national review have pointed out that there are no actual barriers to participation to anyone who wishes to engage in blogging, and so such imbalances in representation are probably not the result of personal bias.



voting in zimbabwe starts amid accusations of rigged outcome

elections in zimbabwe began with both the ruling and opposition parties predicting victory.

current president robert mugabe predicts a "mountainous victory" for his party, the (zanu-pf). the main opposition ? (mdc) claims the election is being rigged, and despite being allowed to freely campaign, the government's intimidation of voters and moves to hurt opposition supporters will prevent the mdc win. 

the government recently withheld food aid from those supporting the mdc, according to a united nations report. the un further reports the government dismissed election officials and poll workers suspected of supporting mdc.

criticism of the government has been loud. last week, a catholic archbishop in zimbabwe urged followers to start a non-violent, popular uprising against mugabe, and rallies have been common in recent days. the previous elections, which the mdc almost won, were marred by violence and similar allegations of vote-rigging.

more than 5.7 million zimbabweans are registered to vote, and can cast their ballots at one of the more than 8,000 polling stations.


 


chlorine spill in china's jiangsu province kills 28, injures hundreds

a tanker truck filled with 35 tons of liquid chlorine collided with another truck and crashed in china's jiangsu province on wednesday, leaking its load, killing at least 28 and injuring hundreds. 10,000 villagers have been evacuated from the surrounding area along the beijing-shanghai expressway.

the driver left the scene of the accident in huai'an city, but later in the day turned himself over to authorities in nanjing, the provincial capital. the driver of the other truck died on the scene.

vice mayor lu changsu told china's "xinhua" that the death toll may increase because three patients are still in critical condition. lu said that 350 people remain hospitalized.

a cleanup crew is treating the accident site with a caustic soda. area farmers are concerned that local farmland will be rendered infertile by the spill.

cpc vice premier huang ju asked the provincial jiangsu government to "spare no efforts", according to "xinhua".


terri schiavo dies

terri schiavo died this morning in st. petersburg, florida, moments after 9 a.m. est. thirteen days ago, her feeding tube was removed after courts repeatedly ruled schiavo would not want to be kept alive in her current state. schiavo suffered severe brain damage in 1990 after a mysterious cardiac arrest. 

many news sources allege the cardiac arrest was caused by an eating disorder, while her family maintains she had no eating disorder at all. during the attack, her brain was starved of oxygen for 14 minutes, leading to the death of many of the in her brain and possibly leaving her in a (pvs).

michael schiavo argued before the courts that his wife would not want to live for a prolonged period on a feeding tube. in 2001, the tube was removed, but was reinserted two days later after an appeal by terri's parents, bob and mary schindler. after the schindler family had all of their appeals rejected, the tube was removed once again in 2003, but reinserted six days later when governor and the florida legislature collaborated on a bill, allowing bush to order the tube reinserted. after the law was overturned in may of 2004, and the schindler family's numerous appeals were again rejected, the tube was removed on march 18th.

president george w. bush held a press conference, in part to offer his condolences to the friends and family of schiavo. the president commended those on both sides of the issue.

an autopsy is planned to be performed in the coming days, which both the schindler family and michael schiavo hope will shed some light on the cause of her brain damage.

schiavo is survived by her husband, parents and her younger siblings robert jr. and suzanne; she had no children. schiavo was 41 years old.


google starts prefetching top search results for mozilla and firefox browsers

google engineer reza behforooz announced in a google blog entry on march 30 that search engine google has enabled ""link prefetching"" for some of their search results. the "link prefetching" has not been standardized, but it can enable faster page loading of google search results in mozilla and firefox browsers that have the feature enabled.

when google determines a user has a high likelihood of clicking on a search result, google inserts a tag into the results they send out in response to a search. some browsers can then preload that page, so in the event the user does select the page, it loads very quickly.

for example, a google search for "wikipedia" today by yielded an html page with this code included:
codice_1
while not a formal benchmark, in casual testing by , firefox 1.0.2 loaded the wikipedia main page in about half the time when the page had been "link prefetched", as opposed to when it had not been. the load times were approximately 1.5 seconds and 3 seconds respectively. internet explorer 6.0 loaded the same page in slightly less than 3 seconds.

users who want to disable prefetching in firefox can do the following:



palestinian security chief quits, says too little is being done to curb lawlessness

tawfik tirawi, head of palestinian intelligence in the west bank, resigned thursday. fatah officials said he told president mahmoud abbas that too little was being done to curb lawlessness in the west bank and gaza.

"i cannot work under these conditions," he wrote in a letter of resignation given to abbas.

he reportedly claims other heads of palestinian security organizations had not done enough to impose the rule of law abbas has promised. abbas himself said some senior palestinian officials are blocking his reform efforts.

tirawi is the most senior security official to resign since abbas' election in january.



eu, canada impose duties on some us goods in retaliation for byrd amendment

the european union (eu) and canada announced they will impose a 15% tariff on some united states (u.s.) imports. permission for the sanctions was granted by the world trade organization (wto) due to the u.s. maintaining a law known as the byrd amendment, which gives its companies billions of dollars collected from foreign rivals.

u.s. congress failed to repeal the four-year-old byrd amendment ruled illegal by the wto in september 2002. the wto gave the eu and canada, in addition to brazil, japan, india, south korea and mexico the right to impose retaliatory tariffs on november 27. the tariffs will take effect may 1.

the retaliatory tariffs will largely affect u.s. paper, clothing and machinery for the eu and live swine, cigarettes and oysters for canada.

in the 2004 fiscal year, u.s. based timken received $40 million, and lancaster colony corp. received about $26 million. the eu says that total payouts will rise as high as $1.6 billion in the fiscal year of 2005 unless the law is repealed. the u.s. congressional budget office estimated that payouts for the fiscal year of 2006 will reach $1.15 billion.

the european tariffs will collect near $26 million, while the canadian tariffs will amount to near $11.6 million.

the european commission, in a statement, said the tariffs were caused by "the continuing failure of the u.s. to bring its legislation into conformity with its international obligations."

according to canadian trade minister jim peterson, the tariffs are "a strong message that we are all sending to the u.s. that international rule, those of the wto, must be respected. we just cannot allow the u.s. to illegally disburse funds that are collected."

a spokesman for the u.s. trade representative, richard mills, said "we're disappointed that this step is being taken. the u.s. is working to comply with the wto decision."

other countries such as japan and mexico are considering a similar move.

president bush has called for congress to repeal the byrd amendment since february.



pope in medical crisis

several sources report pope , who was receiving nutrition from a tube inserted through his nose, is no longer using the tube. the tube was inserted shortly after the pontiff appeared at his window overlooking and was only able to speak several words.

the tube used was threaded down the nose and throat into the stomach. a surgically implanted tube was also considered at the time, but it was deemed excessively invasive according to dr. barbara paris, director of geriatrics at in .

there are reports the pontiff has a severe urinary tract infection. the infection caused a severe fever which developed into a medical crisis. he is being treated by antibiotics and has recently suffered from heart failure and a significant reduction in kidney function. according to the vatican, he is currently "lucid", breathing shallowly, and surrounded by his top aides.

the pope's condition has led many to pray ? both and non-catholics. a large number of people are outside the papal apartment in the . many people have also come to pray at in .

the ailing pope also suffers from , which makes it difficult for him to talk while knee and hip ailments are taking a serious toll on his mobility. the series of new ailments follows the breathing tube insertion by only a month's time.




us lowers bar in age discrimination suits

the us supreme court ruled wednesday that plaintiffs bringing lawsuits against employers need not prove the employers intended to discriminate against them on the basis of their age. the ruling lowers the legal bar, over which an employee who felt wronged by an employer must pass, by allowing cases to move forward when explicit evidence is lacking.

the court ruled on the case of police officers in jackson, miss. in their 5-3 decision, they found for a group of officers to proceed with damages claiming they were harmed by their department’s salary policy. the findings of the court do not mean the group of officers will necessarily win their lawsuit. rather, the judges thought their particular case was flimsy, but they ruled the officer’s complaints were on valid grounds to pursue the claim. therefore, the suit will not be thrown out of mississippi’s state court as being groundless.

business interests closely watching the case and fearing worse were reassured by the court stopping far short of supporting the officers’ claims. the jackson city salary plan was changed to increase the pay of junior level officers by 30% to be competitive with surrounding municipalities and attract recruits.

the more senior level police officers’ age discrimination allegations will probably not be enough to win the suit, but the effect of the new law means employers will need to defend their practices, and cannot summarily get lawsuits dismissed on the basis of allegations being groundless. legal scholars believe this has importance because it acknowledges some forms of age discrimination in the work place are subtle. with half of us workers in the workforce now over 40, employers will need to be attentive to their practices or find them challenged in court.

the language of the ruling broadens the nation’s existing law found in the age discrimination in employment act passed in 1967. while lawyers do not expect a great increase in age-bias cases due to the ruling, it does make the path to mounting a case easier. it is notable that corporate policies that do adversely discriminate against older workers are still considered legal if they are formed on reasonable grounds other than age. the law’s effect will not necessarily have employers change their policies, but rather re-think their practices to assure they are fair.



iraq: uneven voter turnout elects women who push sharia law while anti-woman violence rages

half of those who won seats reserved for women in the new national assembly of iraq are members of a coalition dominated by shi'a religious parties, and they say they want islamic sharia-based laws with legal differences in treatment for the sexes, and which permit a certain level of domestic violence.

says nada al-bayiati, of the women’s organisation for freedom in iraq, "it's weakening our position. how can you argue for women’s rights when the women are undermining you?"

eighty-nine in all, women make up one-third of the current parliament.

the shi'a cleric-backed united iraqi alliance (uia), holds the majority of seats in the national assembly since the recent election, and asserts that sharia is ""non-negotiable"".

"if you say to a man he cannot use force against a woman, you are asking the impossible," pediatrician turned politician, jenan al-ubaedey of the uia, told "the times".

"so we say a husband can beat his wife, but he cannot leave a mark. if he does that, he will be punished."

"if you don’t allow your husband to take another wife, he’d have an affair anyway . . . i’d rather know my husband has another wife that i know about."

under a proposed law, men would be allowed up to four wives, regardless of the desires of the first wife, while women may have only one husband.

and if two other laws currently slated for debate go through, women will only be eligible for half the inheritance given to men, and denied custody of children over the age of 2 in the event of divorce.

legitimacy of the election, and the assembly it elected, has been questioned.

forty sunni groups via the muslim scholars association, had called for boycotting to protest the u.s.-led occupation, while shi'a on the other hand vigorously promoted voting in the election, influencing not only voter turnout, but also what candidates were on offer.

and over 40% of iraq's population live in mostly-sunni governates of baghdad, al anbar, ninawa and salah ad din, where entrenched violence was significant-enough to dissuade willing voters.

turnout in these four governates ranged from a mere 2%, in al anbar, to a high of only 51%, in baghdad. comparatively, in the nine more peaceful, mainly-shi'a regions in the south, turnouts averaged 71%; and for the three kurdish regions in the north, the average was 85%. 

final official figures of the independent electoral commission of iraq (ieci), reveal that overall, 58% of registered voters actually voted in the 2005 election ? however many who were eligible did not register including three quarters of expatriots.

one woman who abstained, houzan mahmoud, a uk based spokesperson for the organization of women’s freedom in iraq, did so not because of a clerical command or to protest the occupation. in a published statement she says that violence that has erupted against women since the invasion, and that policies do not differ significantly between candidates, when it comes to women's rights.

"if iraqi women take part in sunday's poll, who are they to vote for? women's rights are ignored by most of the groupings on offer," she writes.

"in reality, these elections are, for iraq's women, little more than a cruel joke. amid the suicide attacks, kidnappings and us-led military assaults of the 20-odd months since saddam's fall, the little-reported phenomenon is the sharp increase in the persecution of iraqi women. women are the new victims of islamic groups intent on restoring a medieval barbarity and of a political establishment that cares little for women's empowerment.

"having for years enjoyed greater rights than other women in the middle east, women in iraq are now losing even their basic freedoms. the right to choose their clothes, the right to love or marry whom they want. of course women suffered under saddam. i fled his cruel regime. i personally witnessed much brutality, but the subjugation of women was never a goal of the baath party."

however, according to the us state department's fact sheet iraqi women under saddam's regime: a population silenced, iraqi women in fact endured significant political repression under the regime of saddam hussein. the iraqi government and its representitives are claimed to have used beheading, rape, torture, and murder as political tools against certain women such as political dissidents or those whom the government declared to be prostitutes, in order to maintain their party's hold on power. 

some of these kinds of violence continue to be perpetrated by certain individuals and groups in the new iraq. mahmoud continued, "in the last six months at least eight women have been killed in mosul alone - all apparently by islamic groups clamping down on female independence. among these, a professor from the city's law school was shot and beheaded, a vet was killed on her way to work, and a pharmacist from the alkhansah hospital was shot dead on her doorstep."

but the move to sharia law actually came before the election. in january 2004, the iraqi women's league (iwl) expressed horror at the interim shi'a dominated iraqi governing council's "decision 137", which they explain replaced iraqi civil law concerning family law, with sharia law.

"decision 137 establishes sectarianism and gives formal power to informal, unaccountable and self appointed religious 'leaders'," the iwl statement said.

"the iraqi family law (otherwise known as the personal status law) is the achievement of the struggle of the iraqi people for much of the past century not a law written by saddam hussein."

after protest by iwl and others, and appeal to former u.s. administrator paul bremer, the decision was anulled.

"iraq! what about iraqi women?", an essay by bhaskar dasgupta, tells that iraqi women were winning rights as early as the 1920s and 30s, which improved their status. by the time of the overthrow of hussein, they had formal equality under law, including not only the right to vote and freedom from wearing of veils, but the right to work with equal pay, paid maternity leave, higher education, extensive medical coverage, and eligibility for political office or voluntary military service, among other rights.

according to dasgupta, these rights made iraq a leader in equality of the sexes in the middle east for the better part of last century, although a number of studies reveal horrific abuses of both women and men, under hussein's regime, and hussein enabled laws allowing men to kill their wives in certain situations (see wikipedia article "honor killing" for background on the practice).

the first gulf war in 1991, and ensuing sanctions, made economic conditions in iraq difficult, and literacy and employment rates of women began falling.

now the majority party in the only internationally recognised parliament of iraq wants to reaffirm the interim iraqi governing council's repeal of the personal status law, and its replacement with laws based on sharia, a doctrine which in some countries sees women stoned to death as punishment for engaging in extra-marital love affairs.

the organization of women’s freedom in iraq in its latest newsletter, equal rights now, alleges widespread violence against women since the u.s.-led invasion. the violence has been facilitated by the general lack of order, and includes documented cases coming from u.s. troops, as well as locals.

"violence against iraqi women in general and in the city of mosul in particular continues. groups of political islamists, in collaboration with remnants of the ba'ath party, have launched a campaign of terror and killing against women for no reason other than that we are women," reads one report.

the report continues to detail killings of women attributed to islamist gangs, who "have sanctioned the raping of
'' and 'infidels' because they claim those women's souls, property and bodies are fair game for all so-called freedom fighters".

many other such reports exist, despite a strong taboo against discussion of sexual abuse, which could be expected to result in significant under-reporting of these cases. however, many of the allegations have not had the degree of media coverage that the notorious abuse cases of abu ghraib prison of 2003-04 received.

according to dr udaedey, many of the women legislators are in fact puppets. "it's true that many of them ? maybe a third ? have just been put there by the men. they are not aware and don't come to meetings, so they don't know what's going on," she told the times. "about 10 per cent of them are learning, but the others don’t really care."

however, dr. udaedey plans to remained focused on protecting the role of iraqi women as shar'ia law seems destined to become a guiding influence on iraq's new constitution. according to her interview in the christian science monitor, "she plans to encourage women to wear the hijab and focus on nurturing their families. at the same time, she says, she will fight for salary equity, paid maternity leave, and reduced work hours for pregnant women."

elected prime minister ibrahim jaafari, in an interview with der spiegel, also asserts that women will not be forgotten in the new iraq. he says that sharia law will remain "only as one of several sources of jurisprudence" and that women will "never [be required to wear veils in the new iraq]. they will be free to choose for themselves."


minutemen gather to patrol us-mexican border in april

april 1, 2005 

starting april 1, an organization of volunteers known as the minuteman project is planning to begin patrolling a 23-mile stretch of the arizona-mexico border in the search for illegal immigrants. the project is described as the "nation's largest neighborhood watch group" by minuteman field operations director chris simcox. 

the goal of the project is to make americans aware of porous and undefended american borders. motivated by a concern for illegal drug trafficking, the availability of entry points for potential terrorists, and a lack of effective enforcement of immigration laws by us federal and state officials, the name minuteman was used in order for the group to portray itself as a "grassroots effort to bring americans to the defense of their homeland, similar to the way the original minutemen from massachusetts (and other u.s. colonies) did in the late 1700s," according to the group's website.

the activities of the minutemen are protected by legal rights found in the us constitution, according to various commentators. says arizona gov. janet napolitano, "people are entitled to exercise their first amendment rights and entitled to assemble...that's why you can't stop the minutemen from coming even though, from a law enforcement perspective, it's worrisome to have untrained people, potentially armed, performing what should be a law enforcement function." some of the minutemen plan to be armed in order to defend themselves in case of aggressive action by potential armed illegal immigrants and those who transport them. the carrying of handguns is allowed under arizona law and is protected by the second amendment.

the minutemen are not allowed by law to arrest or detain potential illegal immigrants, and any such action is forbidden by the group's organizers. the project's goal is to survey the area using planes and binoculars, and to alert the appropriate authorities and follow suspected illegal immigrants until they are detained. observers from various groups, most prominently the american civil liberties union (aclu), plan to be on hand to monitor the activities of the minutemen with a view to mounting possible legal challenges against them. 

critics, such as some arizona state hispanic lawmakers, are planning to show up at the public gatherings and press conferences of the minutemen, in order to raise criticism and present contrary points of view in the public eye about what they believe to be the current state of illegal immigration. some opponents have also complained that many participants may be motivated by racism or vigilantism; however, the organizers of the project make a point of emphasizing their lack of participation with separatist or supremacist groups and the racial diversity and inclusiveness of their volunteers.

illegal immigrants and their public benefits have come under increasing scrutiny in recent months in arizona, with the passing of proposition 200 on november 2, 2004 by a margin of 56% of voters in favor. this proposition attempts to prevent illegal immigrants from voting or receiving some government services. the effort to define what benefits they can legally be excluded from is ongoing, for example with the recent failure of hb2264 to pass an arizona senate committee; the bill would have required some illegal immigrants to pay higher out-of-state rates for college tuition.

similar efforts to the current minuteman project have been organized in the past few years, but with few participants and without notable success. some local residents were concerned that possible violence could erupt from the presence of additional armed individuals, either among the minutemen or the illegal immigrants. others welcomed the presence of the minutemen, considering them tourists helping the local economy, and appreciating their drawing attention to the perceived lax enforcement of border control by federal authorities. their activities are planned to last for about a month.



maine passes gay rights law

with the stroke of a pen, gov. john baldacci of maine signed into law a gay rights bill that extended legal protection against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. the new law does not legalize same-sex marriage.

known officially as "ld 1196," the bill's wording adds the term "sexual orientation" to the list of protected classes in the maine human rights act banning discrimination in employment, housing, education, credit, and public accommodations. the bill was passed by the maine house of representatives by a vote of 91-58 wednesday. the state senate approved the bill the same day by a vote of 25-10.

already protected classes under the state's human rights act are gender, age, religion, race, and physical and mental disability. additional language was added to ld 1196 before it passed clarifying that it would not extend marriage rights to same-sex couples and exempts privately-funded religious groups from having to comply with its provisions. the new law takes effect june 30.

government official said the new law is needed to send a message. the office of the maine attorney general says that the number of hate crimes against gays and lesbians increased by 12 percent in 2003. baldacci said those figures underscore why the new law is needed.

"this act not only offers essential civil rights, but serves as a welcome," baldacci said in a press conference after signing the new law. "our doors are open to all people. this is a proud day for maine."

but at least one group is organizing to stop the new gay rights law in its tracks. according to reports, the christian civic league of maine has filed initial paperwork to put a voter initiative on the november 2005 general election ballot to overturn the new law.

the group must get at least 50,519 valid signatures from registered voters of the state by a june 28 deadline. michael heath, executive director of the group, told the associated press that the league has a goal of 70 thousand valid signatures and hopes to raise $2 million to fund a campaign, called a "people's veto," to repeal the new law.



the vatican: pope suffers from congestive heart failure

according to the vatican, the medical condition of pope john paul ii is very grave, and reports indicate that during today's treatment his heart momentarily stopped beating.

the pope has been undergoing treatment for a urinary infection, and yesterday developed a high fever. he has been breathing through a tube in his throat, and a feeding tube was inserted as the pope was having trouble swallowing. 

earlier, news organizations reported that the pope received the sacrament for the sick and dying ? commonly known as last rites. the vatican today confirmed this. these rites are administered to those close to death, but may also be administered to those very sick, and may be repeated if necessary. the pope has previously received last rites after an assassination attempt on his life in 1981.

the latest malady to affect the pope ? the urinary infection ? is treatable with antibiotics, and according to a vatican spokesperson the pope was responding well to such treatment. some physicians fear that a failure in one system may "cascade" to a failure in other organs, further deteriorating the 84-year-old pope's health.

some italian newspapers have already claimed the pope is dead, which the vatican has denied. 


wikipedia victim of onslaught of april fool's jokes

today wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone with access to the internet can edit, was the victim of an onslaught of practical jokes, as april fool's day kicked in various timezones around the world, at least those parts which follow the gregorian calendar. it is believed that wikipedia contributors were kept busy tidying up and removing prank articles and changes made by other wikipedia contributors, and were expecting to be cleaning up the aftermath for days afterwards.

the most highly visible prank was the 2005 britannica takeover of wikimedia encyclopaedia article. other pranks included:

most edits which were judged (rightly or wrongly) as april fool's day pranks were quickly undone, although tacit community consensus left several to stand throughout the whole period of april fool's day. being accessible worldwide (by people who can afford internet access) in all timezones, april fool's day lasts for more than 24 hours at wikipedia. the change to the deletion notice was undone within 31 minutes, for example, despite the notice being altered at 05:08 utc, night-time in europe and the united states.

several wikipedia contributors have expressed their dismay at the amount of work being generated, though these views may or may not be indicitive of the contributor base at large:

other wikipedians have shown dismay at how quickly the april fools gags are undone:


zimbabwe election victory for mugabe

amid claims of rigging by the opposition party, news reports today from the zimbabwe capital city of harare, say current president robert mugabe has again clinched a party victory in this round of national elections.

this national election bears similarity to the 2000 election when allegations that mugabe's dominant political party, the zimbabwe african national union - patriotic front (zanu-pf), used its position in power to steal the election were widespread. morgan tsvangirai, leader of the movement for democratic change (mdc), who after that election appealed to the nation's courts for justice, appears ready this time to take the argument to the street, possibly sparking violent protests and unrest. the leader urged, "zimbabweans must defend their right to vote and they must defend their vote."

past mdc street protests were met violently by mugabe's regime, and the court system in zimbabwe is seen as largely supportive of the zanu-pf agenda.

the zanu-pf took 55 of the 120 seats in the zimbabwe parliament. the mdc took 34 seats. the mdc had received strong support during pre-election rallies and had hoped to gain enough new seats to gain a legislative majority in the parliament. mugabe, now 81, will appoint another 30 seats, which will ensure his party a majority.

tsvangirai cites the area of manyame located near the capital as an example of election rigging. mugabe's nephew, patrick zhawao, the ruling party candidate was declared winner. on thursday night election officials reported 14,812 votes were counted. then early friday morning, the total vote count was reported at 24,000, with zhawao getting more than 15,000 of the vote.

the over-night voting count inconsistency led him to charge, "the government has fraudulently, once again, betrayed the people," he told reporters at a news briefing.



bus drivers to strike in auckland

stagecoach, auckland's main busline, may suffer strikes from its workers on monday. british-owned stagecoach believes a one day strike has become unavoidable after unions representing over one thousand workers walked out of renewed negotiations yesterday.

eighty thousand passengers making one hundred and fifty thousand trips in and area from orewa to pukekohe will be affected by the proposed industrial action. more strikes are also threatened for the following week.

company operations director, warren fowler said, "they are looking hellbound to have a strike. we have now made four offers or proposals to the combined unions to reach a settlement and avert industrial action, but we just don’t seem to be making any headway - it’s very frustrating."

unions advocate gary froggatt said he is frustrated the different offers represented different ways of dressing up the same amount of money. "they are using the same money - there is no increase in the money they are offering," he said.



parents of terri schiavo to sell list of supporters to marketing firm

april 1, 2005

a local news station reported the parents of the late terri schiavo, the schindlers, are to sell a list containing the names of people who donated money to their fund. the fund was used to finance legal battles for keeping their daughter alive.

a spokesperson for the schindlers confirmed the story.

the company who will receive the list, 'response unlimited', usually pays $150 a month for a list of 6,000 names, and $500 a month for a list of 6,000 e-mail addresses.

the schindlers have declined to reveal how much money they will receive for their list.



flora springing into spring in mid-atlantic coastal region, usa

mid-atlantic coastal region,usa

while residents of the northeast u,s, may doubt that spring is really here judging from the recent cool, damp and rainy weather march has afforded the region, local flora are now springing forth from the winter chill. throughout the region, outdoor life has begun to burst forth with buds on trees and shrubs alike.

area forsythia are in full bloom. this common and sturdy shrub can be found all around the region and is used as a source for seasonal flower cuttings suitable for various floral arrangements. the dormant stems of forsythia may be cut and brought inside before they bloom, where they will later flower when placed in a vase filled with water. once spent, the yellow pedals fall off fairly quickly, usually within a few days.

after months of wintry nakedness, bradford pears also are entering their blooming season. in summer months while in full foliage, the trees are used as shade trees along city streets. but during spring bloom the resulting mess of dropping flower petals coupled with a spring rain can cover cars parked under such a tree with a sticky mess.

regional rain fall accumulations for 2005 for january and february were 2 inches less than normal. that deficit was made up during march as the region was repeatedly soaked by rain. as a result, the total accumulation of rainfall for the year now is an inch above normal.


rural african school goes to sweden for environment award

emwatsi primary school in western kenya has been selected as a 2005 international finalist for the volvo adventure award for their project "biodiversity conservation through beekeeping", which focuses on income diversification through honey production, conservation of natural vegetation and planting of bee forage trees.

it is the first time in the history of the volvo adventure award that a kenyan project has been selected as an international finalist. emwatsi primary school is a member of the lake victoria schools agroforestry & environmental education network, which is facilitated by the world agroforestry centre (icraf) and the kenya forestry research institute (kefri) within the framework of the 'farmers of the future' initiative.

volvo adventure was set up to recognize and reward practical environmental action being taken by young people in their local community. it is open to young people around the world aged between 10 and 16 years, working with schools and youth and community groups. volvo adventure is supported by the united nations environment programme (unep).

15 projects from all over the world have been selected by a jury of international experts out of hundreds of applications. five pupils and two teachers of emwatsi primary school will take off to sweden in may to participate in the volvo adventure conference and present their innovative project and practical action. the project will also be showcased to the world on the volvo adventure website and will contribute to an international handbook of practical environmental action.



ms-13 gang threatens the arizona &quot;minutemen&quot;

april 1, 2005 

ebner anivel rivera-paz, a leader of the vicious mara salvatruchas, nicknamed the ms-13 gang, issued orders from his prison cell for his followers to teach the american "minutemen" volunteers a lesson when they begin patrolling the mexican border today.

ms-13 gang members, considered by some to be america's most violent gang, is accused of engaging in such acts as cutting off the testicles of their enemies and feeding them to their dogs, and cutting the heads off their opponents to play soccer with. however, such allegations of brutality don't seem to frighten the "minutemen", a group of more than 1,000 volunteers planning to patrol the arizona-mexico border beginning april 1st. they have been called vigilantes by president bush and mexican president vicente fox. they sometimes sarcastically refer to themselves as "undocumented border patrol agents". james gilchrist, a vietnam veteran and spokesman for the minutemen, in response to the ms-13 threat said; "we're not worried because half of our recruits are retired trained combat soldiers... they [ms-13] are just a bunch of punks."

the ms-13 gang now has about 20,000 members nationwide. the us immigration and customs enforcement, nicknamed ice, began to focus on the gang with an initiative called "operation community shield". the very existence of ms-13 is considered by the "conservative voice" to be a direct consequence of the usa government's 1980's policies in central america; "the chickens are coming home to roost. its ms-13 members are the sons of immigrants from el salvador and other central american countries that were forced to flee because of the cia instigated war during the reagan administration that completely destroyed the physical, economic, social, religious and cultural infrastructure of the region. ms-13 was founded in los angeles by the offspring of the immigrants for protection.



witnesses saw truck &quot;rev up and race&quot; before recent texas oil refinery blast

witnesses say a truck was idling near the scene of an explosion at a texas refinery which killed 15 and injured over 100 others on march 23, according to u.s. chemical safety and hazard investigation manager bill hoyle.

"witnesses saw vapor in the area of the truck and observed the engine begin to rev up and race," hoyle's statement said. "this behavior by a diesel engine indicates the presence of a flammable atmosphere entering the air intake. a driver reported trying to shut off the engine but was unable to do so." hoyle's statement continued, "there are multiple possible sources of ignition in an operating refinery unit and we have made no determination about the ignition source at this time."

the investigation has been delayed by bp and occupational safety & health administration officials, who are trying to preserve evidence at the site for their investigation. they are also concerned about further injuries from hazards left over from the explosion, such as falling debris and unstable structures. the environment protection agency also detected benzene in the atmosphere over the plant, which was treated with a layer of foam.

bp has retained control of the plant since the march 23 accident. police arrived quickly the day of the explosion, but left after the initial emergency was over.

"our officers could respond over there, but they don't have a clue," texas city police sgt. curtis pope told the "houston chronicle". "the fact is they have chemical and equipment hazards. we don't know the chemicals."


ted koppel to step down from 'nightline'

ted koppel announced he plans to quit as host of the 'nightline' television program after his contract runs out december 4, 2005. 

executives at abc are considering canceling the nightline program after his departure or possibly changing the show to a live, hour-long format.

nightline has fallen behind in rankings compared with programs such as "meet the press" and "face the nation". network news in general is losing ground in recent years to cable news, talk shows and the internet. television anchormen who have left in the past several months include tom brokaw of nbc and dan rather of cbs. the only other major television anchorman of the past few decades who remains in his chair is peter jennings, who has been on abc's "world news tonight" since 1982.

koppel began working for abc in 1963, serving as a foreign correspondent for the network. he started working for the nightline program in march 1980. the program, started in 1979, was created to provide nightly news updates on the iran hostage crisis. 

koppel is 65 years old and has a daughter named andrea koppel, who is the cnn correspondent to the department of state. he says he has no plans to retire, but he is looking into other projects. koppel received numerous awards for journalism, including 41 emmy awards.



fourth lebanon bomb rocks shopping mall

another bomb has exploded late friday in a shopping center in the lebanese christian village of broummana east of beirut. nobody was killed in the blast, but twelve people have been wounded, though not seriously, reports say. lebanese television pictures showed extensive damage to the area. the explosion is the fourth targeting lebanon's mainly anti-syrian christian population in as many days. the last, on march 27, killed two people and wounded five others.

the explosion happened at about 9:45pm local time, at the 'rizk plaza' shopping mall. it is understood from local media that a bomb was placed in the underground parking area below the complex, although there has been no official confirmation from security services. sources on the ground say that the actual commercial center occupied the ground floor, with upper stories occupied by inhabited apartments.

located in the metn range of mountains east of beirut, broummana is about half-hour's drive from the capital and is popular with tourists, particularly those from the gulf states.

earlier, the pro-syrian prime minister omar karami had announced that he would not step down as he had previously announced before. he will instead attempt to form a unity government until the country's elections, due in may. the anti-syrian opposition had refused to join his government and have instead demanded his resignation.

lebanon has seen significant political unrest since the assassination of its former prime minister, rafik hariri, and the subsequent pullback of syrian forces stationed in the country.




violence in rio ends in 30 deaths

from thursday through friday night in a sad spectacle of savagery, 30 innocent men, women and children were killed in rio de janeiro by criminals.

the killings occurred randomly at several places around the metropolitan region of rio de janeiro. the same death squad of criminals is suspected in all the killings. according to rio's public security secretary marcelo itajiba, outlaw police officers may be responsible for the crimes.

the criminals' actions might be a retaliation against recent arrests of policemen involved in fighting corruption and criminal activity.

in the victims' list released by the police include six children from ages 13 to 16, and three victims older than 50. the remaining were aged 18 to 45. some of the victims were just walking in the street, 11 were in a snack bar, and one boy was playing pinball when attacked. other victims were found at random places around the city.

on wednesday a group of outlaw policemen killed two people, beheading one of them.
the head was hurled in a direction towards the patio of the police station, the 15o batalhao de policia militar de caxias, in rio.


abbas fires security chiefs for failure to curb lawlessness

palestinian authority chairman mahmoud abbas fired several security chiefs friday for their failure to curb lawlessness in the west bank and gaza strip. the announcement comes a day after tawfik tirawi, head of palestinian intelligence in the west bank, resigned, saying that too little was being done to curb lawlessness by other security chiefs.

haj ismail, head of palestinian national security in the west bank, also resigned friday after abbas called for his resignation.

"reuters" quoted a palestinian official as saying that abbas "was not happy with the performance of some of the heads of security forces... and he will take other crucial measures in the near future."


american comedian mitch hedberg dies on tour at 37

stand-up comedian mitch hedberg was found dead wednesday in his hotel room in new jersey. the comedian, originally from the st. paul, minnesota region, was on an east coast tour of the usa. hedberg started his career in south florida, and later worked in seattle.

while the cause of hedberg's death is yet unconfirmed, hedberg's performance at a show in portland, maine in october 2004 suggested he might have a problem with drug use. according to steve kolowich of the "bowdoin orient", "hedberg, who was clearly intoxicated, was falling down all over the stage that night. at one point, he lay down behind the back curtain and told jokes for approximately ten minutes before rolling back into sight. he also asked the audience where the best bar in town was, and invited them to join him there after the show."

according to an "ap" report on kltv.com, hedberg's mother, mary hedberg, claimed speculation that her son's death was drug-related was "gossip." the same report notes that services will be held in woodbury, minnesota on tuesday, april 5.

hedberg, a frequent guest on late night with david letterman, had released two cds titled "strategic grill locations" and" mitch all together". he also directed a movie, "los enchiladas!" the movie premiered at the sundance film festival.



australia, nato enhance ties

australia has plans to post a defence attache to nato headquarters in brussels, and enhance counter-terrorism intelligence co-operation ? but will not be increasing troop numbers to assist the multilateral defence body in its task in afghanistan.

nato chief suggested during a recent visit that more help in the troubled nation would be welcome. australia currently supplies just one soldier to afghanistan who assists in the clearance of landmines and unexploded ordnance. up to 150 had at one time been on the ground there after the september 11 attack on the , but were brought home by november 2002.

"we are facing terrorism everywhere and anywhere," mr scheffer said. "we are all facing ? the nato alliance, australia and this region alike ? the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. we are all faced with the consequences of fragile and failing states."

defence minister robert hill said a change of role for nato, set up to counter the perceived threat from the in the , meant australia was likely to be working more closely with the organisation in the future. nato now provides security in afghanistan and trains iraqi personnel.

 


sbc teams with scientific-atlanta for cable tv rollout in 13 us states

regional u.s. telephone giant sbc communications is one step closer to offering cable television to the 18 million households in its 13 state coverage area. the company announced a $195 million contract with scientific-atlanta thursday to provide a video operations center and regional hubs for the new service. under the brand name, u-verse, the sbc's television rollout is set to launch in 2006 after field trials begin later this year.

the company is seeking the so-called "triple play," where a telecommunications company offers voice, data and video in one bundled package. local telephone companies like sbc have been losing business to cable tv companies, which have added telephone and internet services in recent years.

in a slew of recent deals, sbc is looking to stop that trend. within the past six months it has signed alliances with various technology firms to build out a fiber network to the home strategy. for instance, sbc has a $1.7 billion deal with alcatel to build out its fiber optic network and a 10-year, $400 million, pact with microsoft to license its iptv technology to allow multi-channel television to stream over its internet backbone.

in most of the u.s. only cable tv companies like comcast have been able to offer the "triple play" of voice, video and data services. but traditional phone companies like sbc and verizon have been upgrading their copper wire telephone networks to fiber optic. sbc says it plans to spend billions of dollars to overhaul its telecommunications network, saying the aging and brittle copper wires which were originally laid in the early 1900s do not have enough bandwidth to allow television capability.



crosswords/2005/april/2

answers next puzzle.


telescope takes first image of planet outside our solar system

"space.com" reported yesterday on a picture of a planet taken by the very large telescope located in chile. the european southern observatory's telescope, which was used to capture the picture, has made the first confirmed discovery of a planet orbiting another star.

scientists have been trying to locate planets outside our own solar system for nearly 10 years. inferences of nearly 150 planets in other solar systems have been observed so far by using instruments and measurements that only suggest the existence of another planet. until now, no planet has been confirmed by the means of a photographed image. there was, months earlier, another team of scientists who took pictures of what might be another planet, but that image remains controversial because it shows what may be an even more distant object instead.

the research team that photographed the planet with its host star was led by ralph neuhaeuser of the astrophysical institute & university observatory (aiu). "the detection of the faint object near the bright star is certain," he told "space.com" on friday.

the new image contains the star, gq lupi, with an orbiting planet. it is smaller than our sun, 70% the size, and is located 400 light-years away from our solar system. the planet is nearly twice the size of jupiter. unlike our sun which is 4.6 billion years old, the gq lupi star is approximately 1 million years old and is considered very young for a star. the planet orbiting gq lupi is three times further out than neptune's orbit around our sun, and scientists estimate the orbiting period to be about 1,200 years. the planets wide orbiting distance from the gq lupi was an important element for enabling the photograph to be taken.

the planet, much like the star it orbits, is very hot ? about 2,000 degrees kelvin ? so despite the detection of water in the planet's atmosphere, which at that temperature would make it gaseous, there is no expectation it might support life.

the discovery will be detailed in an upcoming issue of the journal "astronomy & astrophysics".



vatican releases statement on health of pope

at 9.30 am today the vatican released a statement to give the latest news of the health of the pope.

in the statement, the condition of the pope at 7am utc this morning was described as being "substantially unchanged and therefore very serious". at dawn, he was said to have entered a "compromised state of consciousness".

last night, the pope was heard to say several times 'i have looked for you. now you have come to me. and i thank you.' the statement was an apparent reference to all the young people he met during his pontificate.

although the pope is reported to have spoken, many people are unconvinced, following his inability to speak during easter mass.

in a press conference held this morning, the official papal spokesperson, joaquin navarro-valls, is reported by "bbc news" as saying "sometimes it seems as if he were resting with his eyes closed, but when you speak to him, he opens his eyes."


australian treasurer told to 'try harder on welfare'

a professor from australia's most prestigious university said yesterday that australian treasurer, peter costello, "must try harder on welfare." professor bob gregory of the australian national university and leading economist said, "if people could not hide on disability and sole parent pensions then [mr costello] couldn't claim credit for the fall in unemployment."

"in my view, the treasurer has to come out openly and say that he has not been able to produce full-time jobs at a sufficient rate to get people off welfare. either he has to wait until the economy generates unskilled jobs or he has to play around with the wage system."

another report relating to the australian social security system was released yesterday by researchers at the university of melbourne. it found that care-givers who look after mentally ill dependents claim significantly less stress when they engaged in work outside the home.


australian rescue helicopter crash in indonesia: nine dead

a royal australian navy (ran) helicopter, helping victims of last week's earthquake in indonesia, crashed saturday night, killing nine australians onboard,and injuring two. the australian prime minister, john howard, described the event as 'heart breaking' and said the crash of the sea king helicopter appeared to be an accident.

the 30-year old helicopter crashed on approach to amandraya village on the remote west coast of indonesia's island of nias, ferrying an emergency medical team from the hmas kanimbla to the village. they were part of a relief effort following the devastating earthquake on monday.

six from the navy and three from the air force, died, confirmed defence force chief, lieutenant general peter cosgrove.

the dead were seven men and two women, including four air crew, with the remainder were members of the medical relief team intending to commence operations on the ground.

the two injured survivors were airlifted to kanimbla for emergency surgery by a second helicopter from the ship that landed with a medical team after seeing smoke from the crash site.

"the helicopters had been working for a while in inserting, on the southern end of (nias) island, medical teams which indeed evacuated some of the indonesian people back to the ship for treatment. this was another one of those sorts of tasks," said the defence force chief.

"after losing contact with that aircraft, a second sea king from the kanimbla, in the general area, came upon the aircraft on the ground, on a soccer field, on fire. events unfolded from there. we know that the helicopter was flying at low height at about the time when the crash occurred. but we don't know (what went wrong)."

the kanimbla immediately scrambled its second helicopter to inspect the crash zone for a second time after indonesian military authorities in the area suggested the other nine passengers on board may have survived. an hour later the ship's crew members were informed that all nine had been killed and their bodies were discovered in the wreckage by a team of paramedics and rescue personnel.

airworthiness investigators would immediately begin an investigation to find out the cause of the incident. inquiries would include a coronial inquiry to be conducted in australia.

the names of the dead have been released:

"royal australian navy"

"royal australian air force"


 


united states helped kyrgyz pro-democracy programs

shortly before parliamentary elections were held in kyrgyzstan, an opposition-run newspaper ran photographs of a palace under construction for since-deposed president askar akayev. this newspaper received grants from and was printed on a printing press financed by the us government.

the us government itself confirms this. in fact, nearly one year ago in may 2004, lorne craner, us assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor revealed:
"we did a project recently... in kyrgyzstan where there had only ever been one printing press. we funded the operation of another printing press there so that newspapers that were once unable to print day by day -- due to censorship and lacks of facilities -- are now able to print much more often, basically every day now."

kyrgyzstan became the nation with the highest per-capita foreign assistance level in central asia after the collapse of the soviet union. most of the money came from the us, under the freedom support act, passed in 1992 to help former soviet republics in transition. money ear-marked for kyrgyz pro-democracy programs totaled about $13.3 million dollars last year.

according to a us state department statement, the programs receiving the money "focus on improving political processes and accountability of government institutions, strengthening civil society and public advocacy, and supporting independent media."

akayev, in an interview with ria novosti, said that the opposition which had taken over the government in kyrgyzstan was supported "with financial and technical support from the usa."

as proof, he cited a report which was posted on the internet and attributed to the us ambassador in kyrgyzstan. "the scenario was carried out to a tee. in it he writes that president akayev has to be toppled, removed. and because the country is key, a neighbor of china, with a russian [military] base, it's necessary to increase influence there."

"the new york times" described this report as "crudely forged" and kyrgyzstan's new leaders have pledged to keep both the us and russian military bases in the country and maintain friendly diplomatic relations with russia.



google doubles gmail storage, adds text formatting

nb this subject is also covered in gmail 1st birthday; storage capacity increased to 2gb
on the first anniversary of gmail's release, google has announced that it will increase the amount of storage available for the users of the web-based email service from 1 gb to over 2 gb. additionally, they have added formatting rich-text features to gmail. according to a page at the gmail help center, while not all accounts currently have the formatting features added, "over the next several weeks, we are introducing rich formatting to all of our users."

the increase in storage is announced on the main gmail page with a javascript counter that increases the quoted available storage in relation to the current date. for example, on april 1 at 5 a.m. utc the site announced 1025 mb available, 30 hours later ? 2050 mb, and a week later it should announce a total of 2075 mb. 

unless google adjusts the code behind the counter, the text will read "over 2075" after april 9.

"code analysis performed by , and while believed to be correct, is original reporting and has not been verified by any external source. a is available."




iraqi insurgents attack abu ghraib

an insurgency involving approximately 40 to 60 fighters at abu ghraib prison base was repelled by the iraqi and us armies on saturday, according to lieutenant colonel guy rudisill in a conversation with "reuters".

the conflict, described as intermittent and lasting an hour, involved two car bombs, rocket propelled grenades and small arms fire. officials in baghdad reported approximately 20 u.s. service members and 12 prison detainees were wounded. according to the colonel the attack occurred at 10 a.m. est.

us forces responded with heavy weapons fire and eventually brought the situation under control. there are no reports how many insurgents were wounded or killed in the battle.

"cbs news" reported that there was a car bomb explosion today in the city of khan bani saad, located in central iraq, killing 4 police officers and injuring 5 civilians. while in iraq's capital city of baghdad, in a drive by shooting gunmen killed hassib zamil, an education official, outside the education ministry offices.

 


inspectors close chicago landmark healthy food restaurant after finding dead mouse in cooler

chicago city inspectors closed the landmark lithuanian restaurant healthy food on thursday, after finding mouse feces on the meat slicer and cutting board, and a dead mouse in the cooler.

the restaurant has operated at 3236 s. halsted, on the south side of the city in the bridgeport neighborhood, since the 1930s.

"wikinews" reporter placed a call to the restaurant to inquire if they were open. the call was answered by a woman who said, "no, we're closed. there's some technical difficulties. i'm sorry. thank you for calling." a second phone could be heard ringing in the background.

streets and sanitation spokesman matt smith told the "chicago sun-times", "to reopen, they're going to have to present us with a revamped game plan for not only rodent control but also housekeeping, they'll have to make all the corrections that our inspectors point out," he continued, "and pass a very stringent follow-up inspection."

patrons have praised the restaurant's sauerkraut soup and other dishes over the years. before it was closed, the restaurant had a lot of traffic from the nearby cook county circuit court. the restaurant was once voted "best ethnic eastern european restaurant in chicago", according to "new city".



volunteers gather to help patrol arizona's border with mexico

volunteers from across the united states and some foreign countries gathered friday to start an unofficial border patrol project.

they converged on the town of , arizona to take part in what organizers call the minuteman project. 

many came with personal firearms, cell phones or walking canes.

most estimates numbered the group at 400 to 450 people, recruited from the internet, far less than the 1,300 the organizers had hoped for, but “it was enough to send a message,” according to . , r-.

"the federal government has walked away from this border," he told some volunteers. he gained support and popularity for his stance against illegal immigration, but was characterized as anti-immigration in general.

"we are here to exercise what is a basic american right: free speech and the right to assemble," he said.

local citizens such as luis martinez, a third-generation tombstone-area resident, were very unhappy with the developments. "they've come here to cause problems -- to fight. not to solve problems.

"i work in a ranch and all the ranchers use labor from the other side" of the border.

as martinez fought back tears, he said he wanted to see the throngs leave tombstone and go home.

during speeches delivered at orientation meetings, rep. tancredo was applauded loudly as he dismissed criticism from those who have called the volunteers racists and xenophobes. his fellow [[republican party (us)|republican}}, president , described the group as "vigilantes." mexican president used the term "cazamigrantes" ? immigrant hunters.

tancredo said: "we are saying to our government, 'please enforce the law,' that is not a radical idea. that is not a vigilante idea. it is an american concept: the rule of law."

many of the volunteers, some from as far away as italy, are bedding down in the nearby miracle valley bible college for about $5 a night. others are camping on the grounds of the run-down campus, about two miles north of the border.

opposing sides were on the streets in tombstone, although it appeared there was little contact or friction. local, state and federal officers had mobilized in case confrontations arose.

james gilchrist, a former marine and a retired accountant from aliso viejo, arizona, who ran the sign-up effort, said he expected more than 1,000 volunteers to help highlight the 30-day effort. the project's goal is to patrol 23 miles of the , watch the border, and report illegal activity to law enforcement officials. 

many people fear that the project could result in vigilante violence. organizers hope it causes the u.s. government to increase border patrols.

tombstone is best known as the site of the 1881 .


[[category:united states]]
[[category:mexico]]
[[category:immigration]]
[[category:north america]]
[[category:republican party (united states)]]
[[category:minuteman project]]
[[category:tom tancredo]]

losses almost double for 3, a mobile phone company

3, the 3g mobile phone firm owned by hong kong based hutchison whampoa has reported pre-tax, pre-exceptional losses of hk$37.5bn (us$4.8bn/?3.7bn) for 2004. this compares with losses of hk$19.6bn (us$2.5/?1.94bn) in 2003 when the company was only in operation for seven months.

despite the losses, hutchison whampoa chairman li ka-shing said "3 achieved substantial business momentum in 2004". the firm now has over eight million customers worldwide, with three million of these in the uk.

3 was the first 3g provider in the uk, ahead of incumbent vodafone by launching in 2003. vodafone currently has about 200,000 customers for its 3g service in britain.



abbas orders more security reforms, hundreds of security officers to be forced to retire

palestinian authority chairman mahmoud abbas has ordered hundreds of palestinian security officers to retire as part of a plan to reform his forces and end continuing lawlessness, a palestinian official told "reuters".

the official said that abbas has ordered the ratification of a law which would effectively force hundreds of security officers from fatah's older guard to retire early. the fatah faction is widely seen as corrupt, and abbas has promised to fight this corruption.

"hundreds of security men will retire," the official told "reuters". he also said that the law would take effect next week.

this comes just days after tawfik tirawi, head of palestinian intelligence in the west bank, resigned, and abbas had several security chiefs fired for failing to curb lawlessness in the west bank and gaza.

haj ismail, head of palestinian national security in the west bank, who resigned friday after abbas called for his resignation, blamed the government for not stopping violence and lawlessness in gaza and the west bank in recent months. tirawi also said that heads of other security organizations were not doing enough to halt the lawlessness when he retired.



time for north americans to spring ahead one hour

the time has come for north americans to enjoy the extra length of the northern hemisphere’s spring and summer day, by observing (dst).

in most areas of the united states, canada, and mexico, dst observers should turn their clocks "ahead" one hour at 2 a.m. sunday morning.

in canada, the change takes effect in newfoundland and new brunswick at 12:01 a.m., and 2 a.m. in most of the rest of the country.

arizona, hawaii, the part of indiana in the eastern time zone, puerto rico, the virgin islands and american samoa do not change their clocks. certain areas in canada also do not observe dst, such as saskatchewan province. mexico only started observing dst in 1996, after the north american free trade agreement, to coordinate their times with neighbouring states.

north america isn't the only region observing dst. many european countries began last week and several countries south of the equator returned to standard time in march as they enter autumn. other countries continue to discuss whether or not a switch to the system is a good idea. in israel, a knesset committee recently decided to begin observing daylight savings on the last thursday before april 1.

in north america, daylight savings time ends the last sunday in october.

safety advocates say this is a good time to change batteries in your smoke detector as well.



world bank to tighten security belt for wolfowitz arrival

despite controversy ignited by the nomination of paul wolfowitz to head the world bank (wb), the 24-member board of directors voted unanimously on thursday to accept his confirmation. a whirlwind tour by wolfowitz, who traveled to many capital cities of the bank’s major shareholders and met with voting board members, quieted misgivings over his succession to the incumbent president john wolfensohn.

widespread criticism of the wolfowitz role in the us build-up to war in iraq heightened levels of security concerns within the bank as they anticipate his arrival. the wb, from the executive level down to memos circulated among departments, express concern for it becoming the target of terrorist attack. the level of seriousness being taken by wb led it to set up cost estimates for improving security.

wolfowitz will assume leadership in june this year. despite a belief by some that he acts unilaterally and lacks development experience, a european commission spokeswoman, speaking for commissioner olli rehn, told a news conference that[rehn] "was satisfied with everything he heard from mr wolfowitz concerning free trade and also on poverty reduction and development policy."

the "associated press" quotes the belgian development aid minister saying, "there are no objections of eu countries."

the public display of support belies dissention underneath. "reuters" reportedly received a confidential email that provided details of a comment line on an internal website for the wb staff who use it from their far flung locations. the feelings about the wolfowitz nomination received 1,300 responses, mostly about the bank’s reputation and effectiveness under the new leadership.





catholic church prepares for papal election conclave

with the death of roman catholic pontiff john paul ii, 84, on friday, the prepares for the conclave, or assembly of cardinals, who will choose the next pope. all under the age of 80 are required to attend and cast their votes at the election, which must be held from 15-20 days following the funeral of the deceased pontiff.

the papacy, the highest office in the catholic church, lies vacant until the election of a new leader for the over one billion-strong denomination.

117 cardinals will meet in the vatican's to conduct the election, beginning on april 18, it was announced today.

this conclave will be the first time in history the cardinals will be allowed to move around the vatican instead of being isolated in the sistine chapel during the elections. however, they are not allowed to receive or send any messages outside vatican city during the election period. those who do so will face excommunication.

this will also be the first time that after a full week of voting, two votes each morning, two each afternoon, the required 2/3+1 support can be set aside and a new pope elected by 50%+1 of the cardinals.

at the last conclave, john paul ii was elected after four days.

thus, the new pope is expected to be known sometime between april 18 and april 25.




marketing blitz begins for final 'star wars' film

with six weeks before the sixth and final "star wars" film saga, "revenge of the sith", hits theaters worldwide on may 19, the movie studios behind the brand have launched a massive marketing and merchandising campaign. it includes toys aimed at children, collectibles for adults active in fandom and other related merchandise such as science fiction novels based in the star wars universe.

the 20th century fox and lucasfilm studios make millions of dollars in licensing fees from toy manufacturers and promotional deals with fast-food restaurants, candy and cereal boxes. even telephone companies are getting into the act. cingular wireless will be rolling out a "star wars"-themed promotion and handset downloads within the next few days, according to a company spokesman.

sales from "star wars" tie-in merchandise have brought in a lot of money over the years. "star wars" toy sales themed with "the phantom menace" brought in $500 million. in 2002, "attack of the clones" toy sales were $225 million, according to reports.

in january 2003, toymaker hasbro struck the biggest licensing deal for the brand when it agreed to pay lucasfilm $200 million in cash and stock for the exclusive rights to make "star wars"-themed toys until 2018. that figure does not include lucasfilm's percentage of the profit from each toy's sale.

wal-mart and target, the two largest toy retailers in the u.s. have entire aisles devoted to tie-in "star wars" action figures, full-sized mock ups of light sabers and other more whimsical items. hasbro is even marketing a "darth tater" special edition of its classic mr. potato head.

the merchandise also has a literary side. author matthew stover has a monetization of "revenge of the sith" as part of a multi-book deal between lucasfilm and publisher random house's science fiction specialty label, del rey. stover's book has consistently been in the top 50-most ordered books, according to amazon.com. other "sith"-themed books released within the past few weeks include coffee table picture books and behind-the-scenes documentation detailing the making of the film. 



speculation abounds on future pope

speculation is mounting in rome with vatican observers suggesting that many factors will go into the decision of who will be john paul ii's successor.

it has long been considered extremely unlikely that the next pope will be an american. cardinal francis george of chicago declared in 2003 that "to some extent, even the appearance of being in some sense captured by, as we say now, the world's only superpower, would not be helpful to the mission of the church." some say the choice of a french pope would also be overly controversial.

the polish-born karol wojtyla was the first non-italian pope in 455 years. though in catholic tradition, the pope bears the title of primate of italy and archbishop of the roman province, or for short, "bishop of rome," this does not necessarily mean that he must be italian, or roman, as was demonstrated with the election of john paul. nonetheless, the rise of a non-italian pope in 1978 may be followed by a desire to reclaim the chair by italians.

italy will be the country with the greatest representation on the conclave, with 20 eligible cardinals. the us trails far behind at 11, and behind them are spain (6), france (5), and brazil (4). 

europe forms the largest bloc with 58 papal electors, while latin america and africa have 21 and 11 respectively.

john paul ii was a relatively unknown archbishop at the time of his election, indicating that it is not impossible for church leaders not well known throughout the church across the world to be potential recipients of the office.

many analysts suggest the strong possibility that the cardinals will seek to avoid electing a young pope in the wake of john paul's 27-year reign. age has been a factor in the choice of pontiff during the church's history, and may surface again. the "new york times" speculates that cardinals may choose a slightly older pope "in order to avoid another long reign," like that of john paul ii. two well-liked figures, angelo scola of venice, 63, and christoph schonborn of austria, 60, may well be too young to be chosen for the office. moreover, some feel that an older pope may be selected specifically to serve as a "transitional" figure following the previous lengthy papacy.

among the most prominent 'papabili,' or likely potentials for the papacy are:

others include giovanni battista re, 71, president of the vatican commission for latin america, and belgian cardinal godfried danneels, 71.

analysts suggest that among the important issues around which the election of the next pontiff will center are candidates' position on socialism and capitalism, other religions or ecumenism, abortion, homosexuality, clerical celibacy, as well as their degree of progressivism or conservatism and relations with the international community.



two newcastle football players fight each other, both sent off

barclaycard premiership football match between newcastle united and aston villa ended up with a fight between two teammates. newcastle hasn't lost a single game since january 23 and looked as favourites for their april 2 home match against aston villa. however things haven't went as planned. on the 5th minute of the game juan pablo angel scored for the away side. villa continued to dominate and in the second half any hopes of fightback for newcastle were shattered as steven taylor got sent off for the deliberate handball. the foul warranted a penalty and gareth barry scored from the spot. seven minutes later he did it again, after stephen carr brought down darius vassell inside the box.

however, it was not a result that disappointed toon fans the most. two newcastle players, lee bowyer and kieron dyer, engaged in a fight in the middle of the pitch at the sight of the crowd. referee barry knight made a decision to send both off. after the match, manager graeme souness made no excuse for the behavior of the players; however he defended dyer, as it was bowyer who started punching him. both players could be facing 3-match bans by the english football association.


names of australians killed in helicopter crash released

the names of nine australian service personnel who died saturday in a helicopter crash near the village of aman dray on the indonesian island of have been released by the (adf). the tragedy is the worst naval flying accident in australian history.

the lost lieutenant mathew davy and lieutenant paul kimlan from the australian capital territory, lieutenant matthew goodall, petty officer stephen slattery and leading seaman scott bennett from new south wales, and lieutenant jonathan king from queensland.

the lost squadron leader paul mccarthy from western australia, flight lieutenant lyn rowbottom and sergeant wendy jones from queensland.

the bodies have not yet been removed from the wreckage.

two other men who were onboard survived the accident are currently being treated for fractures on hmas kanimbla, which is stationed just off nias.

australian investigators have left for indonesia to try to determine the cause of the crash. witnesses who saw the accident, said the helicopter slammed into the ground nose first. people from the local village tried to help pull the two survivors free, but said the aircraft exploded into a fireball within five or ten minutes of impact, hindering the rescue.


fbi: death of the georgian prime minister was an accident

the death of the n prime minister, , on 3 february 2005 was an accident, which was caused by a faulty gas heater in the home of a friend. the united states federal bureau of investigations (fbi) came to this conclusion following investigations in the apartment in {[w|tbilisi}} and in their laboratories in the usa.

bryan paarman, legal attache at the u.s. embassy in georgia who also leads the fbi office in tbilisi, released details of the official investigation report at the news conference, which states that the late prime minister schwania died of poisoning. the poison concentration in his blood at the time of death amounted to 72%. likewise his friend, , with whom he had been staying, had 74% carbon monoxide in his blood at death. no other drugs or poisons were found in the blood of the two men.

carbon monoxide, said the fbi, leaked from a defective gas heater that had been installed improperly a few weeks before it caused the death of the prime minister and his friend. the fbi had it tested in the apartment and stated the heater in the apartment caused the level of oxygen in the air to decrease to 18.4%. such small oxygen percentage is lethal, explained the fbi.



archbishop desmond tutu calls for african pope

nb this story is also covered in the article desmond tutu calls for election of african pope

should such an event occur, it is widely believed that cardinal francis arinze of would be the most likely candidate. the 72 year old "prefect of the congregation for divine worship" is known to be theologically conservative but very knowledgeable about the islamic religion, an important strength given recent hostilities between christians and muslims. arinze was one of the five cardinals chosen by the pope to sit on the "committee of the great jubilee" in 2000.

if cardinal arinze becomes the next pope, he would be the first african pope in over 1,500 years - the last being pope gelasius i who was the pontiff from 492 to 496.

however in nigeria such predictions have been met with mixed responses. a churchgoer in the state of enugu told the "reuters" news agency, "i doubt if world politics will allow a black man to be pope."



chinese protesters smash up japanese market

protesters demonstrating against broke windows of the japanese ito-yokado store on saturday, in the city of chengdu, the capital of sichuan province. "kyodo news" reports the incident marks the first time japanese property has been damaged in a protest in china.

the japanese consulate general reported about 30 people participated in vandalizing the store, and that hundreds of people had gathered during the three-hour long demonstration.

the protesters are part of a movement to stop japan from becoming a member of the u.n. security council. chen tong, editor-in-chief of the "sina.com" web site, says a petition with millions of signatures opposing japan's appointment to the council will be presented to the u.n. and the japanese embassy in beijing.

un secretary-general kofi annan recently proposed appointing japan to the unsc as part of an overhaul of the u.n. organization.


tartan day festivities april 6 in new york

tartan day in the united states is being kicked off with big celebrations in new york, including parades and marching bands. the grand marshall of this year's parade was randall wallace, a scottish-american and author of the screenplay for the movie braveheart.

week-long festivities were to include the annual "tunes of glory" parades, pipe bands from 3 countries, an exhibition called "scottish village", and a fashion show on wednesday called "dressed to kilt". one of scotland's national treasures, william wallace's sword, left scotland for the first time in 700 years and was flown to new york for their tartan week celebrations of 2005.

tartan day was designated as a holiday by the us senate, "national tartan day", in 1998. support for the holiday first gathered momentum in canada through the efforts of ms. jean watson in the 1980s. the purpose of the holiday is to remember the contribution of scots both at home and abroad, raise the profile of scotland, and encourage tourism and trade. 

the date of april 6 was chosen because the "declaration of arbroath, the scottish declaration of independence, was signed on april 6, 1320 and the american declaration of independence was modelled on that inspirational document." in australia and new zealand, tartan day is celebrated on july 1, the anniversary of the repeal of the act of proscription in 1782.

president george w. bush in 2002 wrote a letter to the scotsman newspaper supporting the annual celebrations, writing, "as you take part in customs that honour the role of scottish americans in our history, i join you in celebrating the contributions of these important americans. this observance renews our appreciation for the diversity and remarkable heritage that unites us all." 

in the us house of representatives on march 9 last month, seven years after the senate approval, a voice vote was unanimously taken to declare "national tartan day" a national holiday. 

the number of americans with scottish or scotch-irish ancestry according to the 2000 us census is about 9.2 million, comprising 3.2% of the us population.



web site claims abu ghraib attack for al quaida

a group from al qaeda claimed responsibility today for the saturday evening prison attack at abu ghraib in iraq. the us military revised casualty reports upward to 44 american soldiers and 12 iraqi prisoners injured, some seriously.

the attack came at the end of a day that witnessed a series of violent attacks elsewhere throughout the country. six other people were killed in iraq yesterday, ending recent hopes that violence may be subsiding.

a web statement posted by islamists on sunday said, "your brothers in the al qaeda organization (for holy war) in iraq launched a well-planned attack on abu ghraib prison, where muslim women and men are held." the statement also says, "this battle is part of a series of raids."

the "gnn" reports u.s. army 1st lt. adam rondeau saying, “this was obviously a very well-organized attack and a very big attack.”

the abu ghraib prison, located 18 miles (30 km) west of baghdad, is still supervised by american forces following the notorious prisoner abuse scandal last year. approximately 3,300 iraqi detainees are held there.


annual rich list shows ireland now has six billionaires

the annual sunday times rich list published today showed that ireland now has six euro billionaires, up from four last year. the combined wealth of irelands 250 wealthiest is ?42.3bn.

topping the list was the new entrant hilary weston with a fortune estimated at over ?7.2bn. weston was excluded in previous lists because the majority of her wealth was made abroad, however a rule change this year allowed the dublin born model to enter in first place. mrs weston, 63, grew up in ireland and built her modeling career there before becoming wed to galen weston, heir to his grandfathers multi-billion euro retailing fortune in canada. the couple permanently moved to canada in 1983 after a kidnap attempt by the ira.

the top six on the list were as follows:


the iconic rock group u2 placed 10th with a combined fortune of ?629m.



advocacy groups complain about 4parents.gov sex-ed website

the sexuality information and education council of the united states (siecus) has written a march 31 letter to michael leavitt, secretary of health and human services (hhs). the letter presents a number of complaints about the new hhs website for parents, called 4parents.gov.

an additional 145 advocacy groups have signed on to the letter, including notable liberal groups such as the american civil liberties union (aclu), planned parenthood, and the national organization for women (now).

among the concerns expressed in the letter about the website:

siecus further requested that the site be "immediately taken down and that a formal review of its content and techniques for communication and behavioral learning be launched," in which siecus and its related associations would be assisting.

according to the 4parents.gov website, " 4parents.gov is part of a new national public education campaign to provide parents with the information, tools and skills they need to help their teens make the healthiest choices." whether this implies that other websites or educational materials will be released in the near future was not made clear.

the site appeared to particularly focus on parent-child communication and the delivery of sex-ed information to parents in order to support that cause. the stated goal of this campaign is improvement of public health through the reduction of sexually transmitted diseases (stds) and other health-related issues that affect teens.



akayev signs resignation agreement

deposed president of kyrgyzstan askar akayev said that he had signed his resignation in the kyrgyz embassy in moscow sunday. he said an official resignation ceremony would take place monday.

the signing of his document came after two and a half hours of talks with a delegation from the kyrgyz parliament, including speaker omurbek tekebayev. akayev said a resignation document was drawn up during the meeting.

"we have approved a very good and historic document," akayev said after signing his resignation. it will "pave the way for finding a way of out the political crisis that kyrgyzstan has found itself in."

tekebayev said the agreement "will ensure peace and legitimacy."

while full details of the document were not available, akayev said russia and kazakhstan were listed as guarantors. akayev also said that under the agreement, parliament would pass a resolution recognizing his privileges as a former head of state - namely, immunity from prosecution. he and his family are widely seen as corrupt in kyrgyzstan.



lebanese-syrian meetings reach full withdrawal accord

united nations envoy terje roed-larsen and syrian foreign minister farouq al-shara announced sunday at a joint news conference that syria will withdraw all troops and foreign intelligence agents by the april 30 deadline. the withdrawal would precede the upcoming national elections scheduled for may, and would end 25 years of syrian military occupation in lebanon.

the news conference came after meetings in between syrian president bashar al-assad and the lebanese army chief general michel suleiman that dealt with the withdrawal timetable. roed-larson said, "syria has agreed that subject to the acceptance of the lebanese authorities, a u.n. verification team will be dispatched to verify the [full withdrawal]."

the removal of syrian military presence in lebanon is a main sticking point of the anti-syrian, or opposition group, objections towards forming a new government. after a february bombing assassination of the previous lebanese prime minister , who was also anti-syrian, he was succeeded by . massive opposition group street protests forced the pro-syrian karami to resign, but a week later he was re-installed by president al-assad to spear-head the new government's formation.

mr. karami has been unable to secure opposition group support for forming a new government. the lebanese parliament must act soon to form consensus in announcing new elections, or its legal mandate to do so will expire.



nasa prepares to roll orbiter discovery to launch pad

nasa has announced the planned rollout of the shuttle discovery from the vehicle assembly building (vab) to its launch pad at nasa's kennedy space center. nasa is preparing the shuttle for its "return to flight" mission.

the rollout will take nearly 6 hours to cover the 4 mile stretch from the vab to launch pad 39b and will begin at 12:01 a.m. edt (04:01 utc) on april 5. the fully assembled space shuttle vehicle stack (orbiter, external tank (et) and twin solid rocket boosters (srbs)) will be mounted on the mobile launcher platform and delivered to the pad.

the return to flight mission is the 114th space shuttle flight, and the 31st flight of the orbiter discovery.

nasa "return to flight" main page


hunter s. thompson obituary spawns &quot;murder&quot; theory

hunter thompson, the author of "hey rube: blood sport, the bush doctrine, and the downward spiral of dumbness", once discussed on radio the possibility that he would be murdered to shut him up ? and that it would be made to look like a suicide.

paul william roberts, a friend of thompson and a well known travel writer, in an obituary played on this possibility for dramatic effect. roberts related the fact that thompson was working on a story relating to the world trade center demolition, and did say he was going to be murdered, and that the murder would be identified as a suicide. roberts says in the second paragraph that thompson did, however, commit suicide, and was not murdered. 

two years ago in january 2003, thompson actually did give an interview on kdnk radio (colorado) where he made a suggestion that he may be murdered to shut him up.

"bush is really the evil one here and it is more than just him. we are the nazis in this game and i don't like it. i am embarrassed and i am pissed off. i mean to say something. i think a lot of people in this country agree with me...we'll see what happens to me if i get my head cut off next week -- it is always unknown or bushy-haired strangers who commit suicide right afterwards with no witnesses," the writer said.

more confusion has arisen after a quote from one of the police officers investigating the death scene. deputy ron ryan said there was a spent shell casing, but there was no cartridge in the firing chamber, as there should have been under normal circumstances. sheriff's officer disalvo confirmed this opinion; "i think a bullet from the magazine should have cycled into the chamber". this "single bullet" problem has led to speculation that thompson was coerced into self-inflicting a gunshot wound, being given a gun with a single shot, perhaps accompanied by threats against his family.

speculation arose that the gun used to kill thompson could have been capable of a manual ammunition cycle, though as yet no support for this claim has been offered. disalvo said he hadn't checked the gun, but that the weapon could have been on a manual cycle that would have stopped the other cartridges from going into the chamber.

the spent slug was found in the stove's hood behind hunter thompson's body, investigators said.

thompson died february 20. the county coroner ruled that thompson's death was a suicide on february 21.

other friends were not surprised at his death. "i wasn't surprised," said george stranahan, a former owner of the woody creek tavern, a favourite haunt of thompson. "i never expected hunter to die in a hospital bed with tubes coming out of him."

neighbours have said how his broken leg had prevented him from leaving his house as often as he had liked to.

one neighbour and long-standing friend, mike cleverly, said thompson was clearly hobbled by the broken leg. "medically speaking, he's had a rotten year."



venezuela buys more weapons, now from spain

the spanish government of jose luis rodriguez zapatero has reached an agreement with venezuela for the sale of 10 c-295 medium transport military airplanes, two cn-235 persuader maritime vigilance airplanes, and eleven ships, eight of them exclusively for military use.

the total value of the sales is about 1,3 billion euros. the agreement represents the biggest military sale ever made by spain. 

several political and spanish newspapers criticized zapatero's decision. mariano rajoy, pp party leader, labeled the decision "a monstrous mistake". the spanish newspaper "diario de sevilla" editorialized that "the destination of the weapon bought legally on the international market should not fraudulently go to armed, terrorist, and paramilitary groups, etc, that could use them unduly."

venezuelan president hugo chavez said that "the weapons are not instruments of war but instruments of peace". according to chavez, the ships will be used to step up venezuela's coastal patrols against the drug trade.


india and china to discuss energy: cooperation or competition?

chinese premier wen jiabao visits india this week, appearing on the forefront of a dialogue soon opening between the two most populous nations in the world. it is likely the two nations will engage in a growing race to gain access to energy resources they need for their soaring economic expansion.

the premier was received by tata consulatncy services ceo mr. ramadorai during his visit to bangalore. he then visited the tcs global development center for general motors(gm). the ceo of tcs was quoted saying "premier wen's visit is a significant milestone that has added a further impetus to our presence in china".

both countries seek to secure oil from multiple locales around the globe where most western nations cannot compete, including sudan and myanmar. china also is courting support from venezuela, currently one of the largest suppliers of oil to the us. if successful, chinese and indian demand has the potential to create increasing difficulties for the us to fulfill its energy needs from traditional sources.

china and india, whose relations are sometimes troubled by border disputes, are warming up to each other. analysts suggest that an agreement reached during the dialogues could preempt competition and conflict over oil in the future. 

india and china are partners in sudan's greater nile project, but cooperation between the two may not come easily. indian industry may seek to shy away from extending assistance to a nation some view as an economic rival during the ascendancy of the subcontinent's gnp.

these events come at a time when the united states recently announced its intention to help india, a past rival of china, become a "superpower." india has also been planning military expansion and modernization.


india-china border talks resume

longstanding border issues will be on the top of the agenda at an upcoming meeting between chinese premier wen jiabao and top india leaders as wen visit new delhi this week.

despite past military conflict, wen has declared his intention that disputes will not stand in the way of cooperation.

among the other issues to be discussed are energy cooperation, which many analysts, however, feel may not be as easy to attain as some hope, given the economic competition between the two rising giants.

these events come at a time when the united states has recently announced its intention to help india, a past rival of china, become a "superpower." india has also been planning military expansion/modernization.


mpaa's valenti signs betamax tapes for eff protesters as grokster case continues in us supreme court

as the case between film studio and file-sharing software firm continues in the us supreme court, protesters from the (eff) adopted a novel tactic. eff staff technologist seth schoen arrived at the courthouse with several . as , until recently the president of the (mpaa), arrived, eff media coordinator annalee newitz asked valenti to sign one of the tapes; valenti complied with her request.

in testimony before the in 1982, valenti sided with an effort to outlaw early video cassette recorder standard, betamax. the valenti testimony included the oft-quoted phrase, "i say to you that the vcr is to the american film producer and the american public as the boston strangler is to the woman home alone."

the case now before the supreme court, mgm v. grokster, has some similarities to the betamax case of 1982. both disputes concern new technologies used for copying media ? exclusively video in the earlier betamax case, all-digital media in the current case of grokster. there are dissimilarities as well. a recent statement from spokesperson and professional singer, sheryl crow, points out that with betamax technology, "a second copy turned out to be of measurably inferior quality," while with grokster, "one could possibly distribute millions of perfectly reproduced copies." crow also quotes an expurgated version of the copyright clause of the us constitution,

"to promote the progress of...useful arts by securing ... to authors [sic] the exclusive right to their respective writings ..."

the original text reads:

"to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;"



hbo plans expansion of tv channels in asia

u.s. media giant time warner plans to increase the international reach of its hbo television empire with an expansion of television offerings in asia. the channels will be available via both wired cable services and by satellite, which is more popular in asia than it is in the united states.

"cable operators throughout asia are preparing to dramatically expand channel capacity on many of their systems through digital technology," jonathan spink, ceo of hbo asia said in a "world screen news" report. he said hbo plans to be one of the first programmers to take advantage of increased channel capacity.

the first new channel hbo plans to launch in asia is hbo signature, which is targeted to women. it is planned to debut in singapore, hong kong, indonesia, macau and sri lanka by the end of the year. according to reports, hbo already has struck deals for carriage in all of those countries except macau.

in addition to programming hbo signature to women, the company said it plans on two other genre-based channels, but did not disclose what niches they would market toward. a clue could be to look to the u.s. where hbo's niche channels include hbo family for children-friendly programming and the self-explanatory hbo comedy channel. like the parent hbo asia channel, along with limited original programming, the new genre channels are expected to offer top hollywood fare dubbed into local languages.

this is the largest expansion of hbo asia, which has been operating in asia since 1992 and serves 25 countries, since the launch of cinemax asia in 1996.



uk prime minister sets 2005 general election date

the united kingdom prime minister, the right honourable tony blair pc mp, at 09:00 utc today formally requested the queen to dissolve parliament on april 11, thereby confirming may 5 to be the date for the next general election.

mr blair had delayed the formal request for the dissolution of parliament for 1 day, as a mark of respect for pope john paul ii, who died on saturday april 2. all political parties had suspended campaiging for two days; and mr blair and other politicians had been attending services to mourn the death of the pope. 

the wedding of his royal highness prince charles had previously been scheduled for friday april 8, and hence members of parliament (lords and commons) would have not sat on that day and would have stopped sitting on thursday april 7. however, because of that subsequently being the date set for the funeral of pope john paul ii, the wedding has been postponed to saturday april 9. 

members of parliament (lords and commons) will thus stop sitting on friday april 8. this leaves just four days for all remaining legislation to be passed. it is expected that some government bills will be simply dropped, to be reintroduced in the next parliament if the labour party wins the general election.

the last prime minister's question time in the house of commons is scheduled to be tomorrow, wednesday april 6 at 11:00 utc.

after the election, the new parliament is scheduled to be summoned on wednesday may 11. its first business will be the election of the speaker and the swearing-in of members. the state opening of parliament is scheduled to then be on tuesday may 17.

the calling of the general election marks the formal beginning of the general election campaigns by the u.k. political parties, although in practice all three major parties have been actively campaigining for several weeks. the conservative party election slogan "are you thinking what we're thinking?" was, for example, used by the party leader michael howard in his response to the budget report on march 16, 2005 and was launched by the scottish conservatives on march 10.




13 pilot whales returning to sea, off western australia

rescuers were today sending a pod of 13 pilot whales back into the ocean at geographe bay, near to busselton, south of perth, in western australia. six additional members of the pod had died during the stranding, including at least one calf. more than 300 people were watching as the whales set out to sea following a 30 hour rescue effort.

the whales had become stranded early yesterday. several power boats and a spotter plane were escorting the surviving whales towards cape naturalist, in an operation expected to take several hours.

western australian state government department of conservation and land management (calm) officers feared that the whales could become stranded again.

one calm officer, neil taylor, told "abc news" dozens of his colleagues and community volunteers had helped the whales survive throughout the night.

"the vet has checked them all and given them some antibiotics yesterday, last thing before dark," he had told the australian national broadcaster.

"i think the plan is that the vet will be there again [today] and will give them some vitamins to kick them along before they actually take their swim out to sea."



maiyo and romanova triumph in charleston's cooper river bridge run

linus maiyo of kenya, 22, and olga romanova of russia, 24, won the men's and woman's races, respectively. maiyo finished in 29:30 and romanova in 34:04. runners were treated to the "second worst weather" in the history of the race, according to race organizers. it rained for the first hour of the race and the first few minutes of the walk. the morning saw winds of up to 25 miles per hour with temperatures around 65°f.

before race organizers closed registration early, over 42,000 people signed up for this year's event, vastly more than the record of 30,000 registrants set just last year. participants represent all fifty states and many countries. the race's popularity has steadily increased since its inception in 1978. 

this may be the last year the race is held on the pearman bridge; future races will be held on the new arthur ravenel jr. bridge scheduled to open this summer. the charleston running club, which helped start the cooper river bridge run, plans a burn the bridges run over the old bridges after traffic moves to the new bridge.

workers on the ravenel bridge cheered the runners and walkers as they passed.



gmail 1st birthday; storage capacity increased to 2gb

nb: this subject is also covered in google doubles gmail storage, adds text formatting

gmail was yesterday officially 1 year old. after last years announcement of gmail from google, which was nicely timed for april fools day. this years gmail bombshell is that there will be a possibility for infinite storage with google already moving stroage up to 2gb thats what some paid services offer. rumours do exsist that you can already fill your gmail account to more than 100% (105% for example) which is not confirmed in anyway. however could be entirely possible as filling gmail is proving for me and many others to be difficult. there are reports on slashdot of nice new features on gmail such as coloured text, a full list can be found on gmail's help pages.




funeral of pope john paul ii will be friday 8 april at 10.00

the funeral of is due to take place on friday 8 april at 10 a.m. local time, on the steps of st. peter's basilica.

at 5 p.m. monday, his corpse was moved to the basilica, which was then opened for the public to pay homage to the dead pope. the basilica will remain open almost around the clock tonight, and possibly throughout the week, closing only between 2 and 5 a.m.

after the funeral ceremony on friday, his corpse will be buried in the "grotte vaticane" below st peter's, the final resting place of many previous popes. this decision came from the absence of a decision of the pope in merit, in which case the tradition is followed.

the date was revealed at 1:15 p.m. today at a press conference held in vatican city. 
vatican city times are two hours ahead of gmt.


us blocks use of mapping technology in china

the has blocked the use of its advanced technology for mapping mineral deposits in , according to mining operation bhp billiton (bhp).

"they can dictate where we can and can't use it," a bhp spokeswoman said.

"the australian" first reported the decision last week, after clinton dines, the chief of bhp's chinese operations, told analysts about the u.s. navy's decision. bhp confirmed this story to "the new york times" in melbourne last friday.

the u.s. maintains a list of munitions which are prohibited from being exported to china. pentagon spokewoman lt. col. tracy o'grady-walsh confirmed that the "falcon" system was on the list of prohibited munitions and that it could not be exported for use in china without a waiver from the president. the ban has been in place since the tiananmen square incident in 1989.

the "falcon" system, used by bhp under a special license from the u.s. navy, is based upon american nuclear-submarine technology. technically described as an "airborne gravity gradiometer", the "falcon" system has been adapted by bhp to explore for a broad range of minerals underground. bhp has used the system since 2000. at the time, a bhp executive described the system as "the holy grail of the exploration industry."

bhp earns 10 percent of its revenue from sales to china.


desmond tutu calls for election of african pope

nb this story is also covered in the article archbishop desmond tutu calls for african pope.

retired anglican arch-bishop desmond tutu has called for the catholic church to appoint an african as new pope. "we hope the cardinals when they meet will follow the first non-italian pope by electing the first african pope," said tutu on sabc tv at a press conference in his cape town home.

nigeria's cardinal francis arinze, currently number four in the church hierarchy, is seen as the best hope for a pope from the third world. if arinze is elected he will become the first african pope since gelasius i in 496 ad.

"there should be democracy in the catholic church. europeans should allow an african to become the next pope," said 21 year old nigerian student, ifeoma ezinwa, at the saint monica catholic church in igbogbo, lagos. "the church is growing in africa. if arinze gets to that position, he would work for its faster growth," she continued.

however steve uwagba, a nigerian accountant, thought that "international politics in the church may not allow him to get the papal seat. the odds of international politics and conspiracy against africa weigh heavily against him."

tutu also added that "we know that [the pope] was a champion for world peace. and more than any other pope [he] went around the world galvanizing the faithful who turned out in droves to meet him. we also want to pay tribute to him for his concern for the unity of humankind. he was the first pope, i think, to gather together ... leaders of other christian denominations, calling them to prayer for the world,"

the archbishop of cape town njongonkulu ndungane - tutu's successor - offered his condolences to the world's catholics. "our sincerest condolences go out to catholics worldwide on the death of their great leader. we thank god for his ministry and that he has now been relieved from pain,"

father stephen chukwu of st augustine's church in ikorodu on the outskirts of lagos, nigeria said to a congregation of three thousand, "the whole world is standing still. people are held spellbound because the mighty has fallen. the whole church mourns because a leader and a revolutionary has gone," he told the crowd, many of whom wept and sobbed.

"who would ever believe that a pope could come from outside rome? he was an ideal man and he led an ideal life. he held tenaciously to the teachings of the apostles. he was against killing and abortion," he declared. he was not a friend of the wealthy or the mighty. he was a friend of those in the gutters. he preached and fought for democracy.

after mass mary okoli, a 42 year old teacher said "my hope and prayer is that we get an african, especially a nigerian, to replace him and continue his good work,"
"we are particularly grateful for the attention he paid to africa and the developing world during his papacy. his concern for the poor marked him as a truly caring leader and we share the grief and loss of the catholic church at his passing. we also pray for the catholic church as it contemplates the election of the next vicar of christ," he said in a statement.


voyager space probes face shutdown

interplanetary space probes voyager 1 and 2, after traveling 28 years
and 14 billion kilometers to the edge of the solar system and the
threshold of interstellar space, face a possible shutdown in october
of this year.

nasa's earth-sun system division, which runs the program, amongst
others, has had to cut its budget for next year from 74 million to 53
million dollars, calling for some project abandonments. the cuts for
voyager and other missions are planned to help fund president george
w. bush's "vision for space exploration", his plan to return to the moon
and a manned mission to mars.

according to the washington post, dick fisher, nasa's deputy director
for the earth-sun division, said the agency based its cuts on a
"senior review" by outside experts, giving voyager a low priority
among the division's 13 "extended" missions.

it costs nasa $4.2 million a year to run the voyager science
programs which have an expected operating lifetime to the year 2020.
both spacecraft function well and continue to return valuable
scientific data. most recently, information about massive solar
flares that occurred in 2003 and the resulting shock waves that
traveled through the solar system were detected by voyager 2 in april
of 2004.

"there are no other plans to reach the edge of the solar system," said
stamatios krimigis, on board the voyager mission since before the
launch in 1977. "now we're getting all this new information, and here
comes nasa saying, 'we want to pull the plug.' "

other missions possibly affected by the budget cuts include: ulysses,
to study the sun; geotail, wind, and polar studying effects of solar
events on earth; fast auroral snapshot (fast), studying earth's aurora
and the transition region and coronal explorer (trace), studying solar
atmosphere and magnetic fields.

no final decisions have been made as of yet but are expected to come
sometime this month, possibly by april 15. edward stone of the
california institute of technology told nature magazine: "we are
currently developing a plan for shutdown."




talks held to avert nigerian oil production strike

april 4, 2005

talks are being held between nigerian unions and the country's government ahead of possible strikes next week. earlier talks last week ended with no agreement.

the unions have called for three-day warning strikes over issues of job cuts and welfare. although common, such short strikes tend to have little effect on oil producers as they can often manage to maintain production for short periods with non-union staff.

however there exists the possibility of supply interruptions from the world's eighth largest producer of oil if the union's fears are not dealt with and more strikes take place.

"today's meeting is crucial," said the deputy of the pengassan union babatunde ogun. "we will focus on conoil and belpop. if these issues can be resolved today, then things will be much easier," he continued, referring to the two state-owned companies at the centre of the dispute.

while in london on late sunday the nigerian presidential petroleum advisor edmund daukoru said he was hopeful the state and the unions could reach a deal.




royal wedding delayed as prince plans for pope's funeral

the wedding of britain’s prince charles to camilla parker bowles was postponed by one day to allow prince charles to represent the royals at friday's funeral of pope john paul ii. the royal's wedding will now be celebrated on saturday, april 9.

the prince cut short his swiss skiing holiday and returned to london today. he will make travel arrangements for his trip to the vatican on friday, and attend a memorial service for the pope at london’s westminster cathedral this afternoon. mrs. parker bowles will accompany him today, according to his clarence house office.

parker bowles will not be joining prince charles for the pope's funeral. however, prime minister tony blair and the archbishop of canterbury, rowan williams, will be in attendance.

the change in wedding plans threw windsor businesses in disarray, where hotels had taken bookings for friday wedding parties. the owner of a crafts center there, kashmir dhillon, had to order fresh tea towels with the april 9 date. “we will be the only ones with the 9th on it if it goes ahead,” she said.

a series of postponements have hampered the prince's and parker bowles' wedding arrangements. initially they were planning to use windsor castle, but were unable since it was not licensed for civil ceremonies. after it moved to a more meager town hall setting, the queen decided not to attend, immediately generating rumors of a royal snub.

the queen will still attend the blessing ceremony at windsor castle afterwards.

there also was debate over what name parker bowles would take should her husband become king. prince charles liked “princess consort,” but the government says she must be called “queen,” whether she uses the title or not.

final arrangements for the wedding will be announced soon, according to the prince's spokesperson.

prince charles divorced his first wife, princess diana in 1996, a year before she died in an automobile accident in paris.


legendary canadian football coach frank clair has died

, the (cfl) coach and architect of the powerhouse of the 1960s and 70s died sunday at the age of 87 in , , .

nicknamed "the professor" for his skills at recognising talent, teaching the game, and ability to get the most from players, clair first came to canada to coach the in 1950 and ended his first cfl year with a championship; repeating with the argos in 1952. he left the argonauts following a salary dispute and ended up in ottawa in 1956 where he took on the daunting task of reviving the rough riders team which were poorly run and disorganised. he led the team to an incredible 14 consecutive seasons of playoff appearances and three grey cups.

he retired from coaching following the 1969 grey cup to take over the position. at that time, clair led the cfl in seasons coached (19), regular-season victories (147), playoff seasons (17), consecutive playoff seasons (14), playoff victories (22), grey cup appearances (six) and grey cup victories (five). his winning ways continued as gm when ottawa won the 1973 and 1976 grey cups. nevertheless, he was let go in 1978 and ottawa has not won a grey cup since.

according to the "ottawa sun", former sports editor jane o'hara described clair as a no-nonsense, to-the-point, type of gentleman who was short on smiles, but always seen coaching his team wearing a snap-brim fedora and standing poker-faced and erect on the sidelines.

he was inducted into the in 1981 as a builder and the ottawa stadium () was renamed in his honour in 1993.



terri schiavo cremated


a complete was done prior to the cremation to dispel any beliefs that the cremation was done to hide anything about schiavo's condition. according to the district medical examiner's office in largo, full results of the autopsy will not be ready for several weeks.

terri schiavo's parents, the schindlers, requested an independent expert to observe the operation, but the request was denied by medical examiners.

both sides of terri schiavo's family plan to have separate funerals. mr. schiavo apparently plans to bury terri's remains in pennsylvania, while the schindlers are planning a funeral mass tomorrow at the holy name of jesus catholic church in , florida.



china censors, arrests catholics in wake of pope's death

chinese catholics' response to the recent death of pontiff john paul ii have motivated more actions against free speech and arrests in china by the government, asianews reports. 

at the same time as the chinese government is expressing condolences for the death of john paul ii, it has begun the arrest of dozens of catholics, particularly among the underground church. the vatican has already protested the arrest of catholic leaders. some of the most recent arrests include auxiliary bishop yao liang on 31 march and father wang jinling on 1 april, both from hebei province dioceses.

many other catholic leaders have been arrested without having charges brought against them.

various websites have apparently been censored by the government. likewise, many online forums and chat groups discussing the figure and life of john paul ii have appeared, yet, on 2 april, almost all news about the pope disappeared, stated asianews.

one chinese priest is reported as declaring, "the pope knew communism, and has always helped and encouraged us to live the faith and to be courageous in the face of persecution," asianews quoted.

alongside the catholic patriotic organization, the government-approved church's official name, underground churches throughout china have been holding religious services.


nigerian housing minister fired in anti-corruption drive

nigerian president olusegun obasanjo has dismissed the minister of housing, alice mobolaji osomo, as part of an on-going anti-corruption drive to clean up nigeria's world image.

a statement from the president's office said mr. osomo was sacked after the sale of public property violated instructions. according to a "bbc" report, the minister allocated more than 200 properties to top officials rather than going on public sale.

president obasanjo has been vocal in tackling corruption and reportedly warned officials their greed is undermining his attempts to win international debt relief. in march, he fired education minister fabian osuji in a broadcast to the nation during which he said 14 people had been involved in fraud and accused mr. osuji of offering a bribe of 55 million naira (us$417,000) to senate president adolfus wabara in order to get a bigger budget for his ministry.


us highway administration releases interim report on boston's big dig: press release claims tunnel safe, but report does not

april 6, 2005

on april 4, the federal highway administration released an interim report on leaks in the central artery tunnel, part of boston's big dig. the press release about the report claims that the report "concludes that the project is structurally sound and remains safe for traffic." however, the report does not reach those conclusions.

the report does not evaluate the current safety level of the tunnel; and on the subject of safety, it notes that ensuring the safety of the tunnel will require speedy implementation of a permanent repair of last september's major leak. the safety claim is repeated and touted as a "rare bit of good news" about the big dig in an associated press story by steve leblanc.

the central artery tunnel, which allows interstate 93 to pass beneath downtown boston, experienced a 300 gallon-per-minute leak of water into the tunnel in september of 2004, according to the recent report. mac daniel of the boston globe notes in a recent article that the september leak caused "a 10-mile traffic jam".

in response to the leak, the federal highway administration formed the tunnel leak assessment team to provide an independent assessment of the leaking in the tunnel and the efficacy of the repairs underway.

the report reaches three main conclusions:

according to the "new york times", matthew amorello, chairman of the massachusetts turnpike authority, praised the report, stating that, "this independent affirmation that the i-93 tunnels are safe and structurally sound will allow drivers to use them with confidence."


university of north carolina wins 2005 basketball tournament

april 7, 2005

the university of north carolina tar heels won the 2005 national collegiate athletic association (ncaa) division i men's basketball championship title in the u.s. national college basketball tournament, beating the university of illinois fighting illini by 75 points to 70. this tournament is sometimes referred to as march madness. the final championship game was played on the evening of april 4, 2005 at the edward jones dome in st. louis, missouri. 

ncaa sports.com

men's basketball illinois fighting illini


al gore-owned cable news channel to relaunch august 1 with viewer-created content

starting august 1, the channel will be known as current and will aim its news programming at the 18-34 year old demographic that traditionally does not tune into cable news. "the internet opened a floodgate for young people whose passions are finally being heard, but tv hasn't followed suit. young adults have a powerful voice, but you can't hear that voice on television ... yet," gore said in a press release issued from the network's san francisco studios.

gore said the new channel will be partly created by citizen journalists, where viewer-created reports will find their way on air. "we want to transform the television medium itself, giving a national platform to those who are hungry to help create the tv they want to watch. we're creating a powerful new brand of television that doesn't treat audiences as merely viewers, but as collaborators," gore said in the release. the network posted submission guidelines on its new website which launched monday.

gore bought newsworld international (nwi) from vivendi universal last year for $70 million. it was the only tv asset of vivendi's not snapped up by nbc in the creation of the nbc universal media conglomerate. nbc already had two struggling cable news channels of its own. nwi's current news content is mostly rebroadcasts of news produced by the canadian broadcasting corporation.

originally, the network was going to be remodled as a liberal counterpart to the popular fox news channel, which some critics claim is a conservative-slanted newscast despite the network's denial that it is "fair and balanced" in its reporting. but after market research, the new owners of nwi decided that a liberal news network was not financially feasible.

instead, they focused on a youth-skewed news channel under the code name "indtv" (pronounced "indy tee vee"). the new name, current, and re-launch date announcement was timed to coincide with the annual national cable & telecommunications association convention, which is being held this week in san francisco, the same city as channel's new headquarters.




abu ghraib prison camp struck by tractor bomb

april 5, 2005 

a suicide tractor bombing struck the american held abu ghraib prison camp monday, the 2nd attack in two days. four iraqi civilians are reported wounded.

the explosion occurred near the gates to the prison camp, and comes on the heels of a large attack earlier on saturday, where both us soldiers and iraqi detainees were injured. the apparent motive of the saturday attack was to free detainees.

the "new york times" reports that an official of the interior ministry said a letter was written by a woman who claims to be a detainee at the prison. in the letter, she reportedly begs to have the prison attacked to save her from the dishonor of rape by her american captors. the letter was circulated among sunni mosques.

an internet posting by the jordanian militant abu musab al-zarqawi claims responsibility for both the abu ghraib attacks. the al qaeda militant group also claimed responsibility for the first attack.

the report of the tractor bombing came as military officials were announcing that a short riot broke out friday in another american prison called camp bucca. rocks were thrown and tents set on fire during a protest over several prisoners who were being transferred. four guards and twelve prisoners were injured.

the camp bucca facility holds about 6,000 detainees, while abu ghraib holds 3,300. 


google maps incorporates satellite images

april 6, 2005 
google maps has incorporated 
satellite images
as a feature in their beta google maps service. now users can opt for a satellite image after they search for an address or driving directions, by clicking the satellite link at top left of the page. 

satellite images are provided by keyhole corp. which was acquired by google six months ago. satellite images will be at least 6 months old. according to john hanke, keyhole's general manager, nobody will be able to read a license plate on a car from an image or see what an individual doing at the time it was taken.

google maps still only covers road maps in north america.


tech heavyweights unite to offer $100 laptops to poor nations

mit media lab, together with amd, google and rupert murdoch's news corporation, is developing a laptop which will cost $100 or less, after making a $10 profit on each unit when it is mass-produced. the laptops will be used by children in the developing world.

the project aims to allow children to take a laptop home after school hours, to enable more families to "cross the digital divide".

the laptops will have a processing power of 500mhz; 1gb storage; a 1 megapixel, 12 inch display; and usb, wi-fi, and cell phone connectivity. the laptops will use open source software, running on gnu/linux, to reduce the cost.



triple limb-reattachment fails - boy loses foot

terry vo, the 10-year old australian boy who had two hands and a foot reattached by surgeons after losing them in an accident, has had to have the foot re-amputated. he will be given a prosthetic foot in its place.

the operation to re-attach three limbs was thought to have been a first - but was ultimately unsuccessful, with the foot having died inside, and receiving insufficient blood supply following the surgery to reattach it.

"that would lead to the small muscles in the foot actually constricting, the toes bending over and a deformed ... foot that is sort of clawed over and doesn't have good sensation," said plastic surgeon, mr robert love today, on australia's abc radio.

"even if you can get all of that to survive, he [would be] worse off than having had an amputation."

"what is very disappointing is that for the first two days after [the operation] the foot looked absolutely magnificent," he said.

terry's hands were healing well, said the surgeon. the prosthetic foot would allow him to walk normally, since his knee was intact.

 


'great' title for john paul?

if recent trends are to portend the future, late roman catholic pontiff john paul ii may be known to posterity as "john paul the great."

a growing portion of catholics, and even senior clergy, have begun to use the title, which has been held previously by only three out of history's 264 popes.
pope gregory i of the sixth century, of the fifth century, and of the ninth century up to now, have alone been acclaimed "great" in church tradition.

historian robert louis wilken, writing in catholic periodical "commonweal" in 2003, "greatness is as mysterious as it is elusive," alluding to the ambiguity of the criteria used in applying the title. 

for instance, some figures ? such as theologian or the apostle , the first pope ? despite their wide influence in church history, have not been granted the honorific by historians or catholic tradition, while others relatively unknown today were indeed accorded it. 

newspapers in italy, the united states, and throughout the globe have featured the acclamation "great" for the deceased pontiff. catholic-oriented websites and online forums, as well, abound with the title.

the 's official paper, "l’osservatore romano", also echoed the "great" appellation. 

moreover, a vatican homily text for sunday, 3 april, contained a reference to the title. though the honorific was ultimately not used during the homily's delivery by cardinal , until john paul ii's death, it is maintained that vatican documents can be considered official even when not read aloud.




owner of wendy's chili finger still not found

health officials in san jose, california are still unable to identify the owner of the missing finger found in a bowl of chili at a local wendy's restaurant last week. 

fingerprints on the detached digit have been run through an fbi database as well as the local criminal database in santa clara county, but no matches were found. according to rich reneau, who is currently leading the investigation, the fingerprint was marginal, and the likelihood of finding a match is slim.

the finger is also undergoing dna tests by the county medical examiner, which could determine the race and gender of the owner of said finger.

plans for a toxicology lab to run tests on the finger to see if the tissue contains preservative chemicals, such as embalming compounds are underway.

according to lt. chris forrester, the coroner may end up hiring a private lab to run further tests on the finger.

wendy's international stock was trading at us$39.37 tuesday morning, relatively unchanged from its levels last week, before the news hit the stock markets.


china to sell warships to pakistan

as chinese premier wen jiabao continues his tour across south asia, visiting first india and now pakistan, it has been announced that pakistan will purchase frigate warships from china. 

china has also previously declared its hope of cooperation with india's government.

a frigate is a warship typically used to protect other naval vessels or merchant marine ships and to combat enemy submarines.

pakistan and india have traditionally been considered rivals. both nations, however, have garnerned favor and support from the us in recent times. 

pakistan has granted much support to the american campaign against terrorists in central asia. the united states has recently announced its intention to help india, a past rival of china, become a "superpower." india has also been planning military expansion/modernization. the united states has also declared its willingness to supply f-16 fighter jets to pakistan as well. 



aclu: gen. sanchez possibly perjured himself at 2004 senate inquiry

the american civil liberties union (aclu) claims that a recently obtained 18-month-old memo shows that a top u.s. commander of armed forces in iraq was untruthful when he testified before the united states congress last year on iraqi prison abuse. the september 14, 2003 memo was among government documents concerning the u.s. invasion of iraq. the aclu gained access to the documents after successfully suing the government under the u.s. freedom of information act.

the 2003 memo seemingly contradicts sworn testimony by sanchez given during the senate hearing on iraq prison abuse. intentionally being untruthful at a congressional hearing is considered the crime of perjury.

on may 19th, 2004, during those hearings, jack reed, a democratic u.s. senator from rhode island, asked sanchez about claims of abuse of iraqi prisoners under u.s. care. "general sanchez, today's "usa today", sir, reported that you ordered or approved the use of sleep deprivation, intimidation by guard dogs, excessive noise and inducing fear as an interrogation method for a prisoner in abu ghraib prison," reed asked sanchez. "is that correct?"

"sir, that may be correct that it's in a news article, but i never approved any of those measures to be used within cjtf-7 at any time in the last year." he then reiterated, "i have never approved the use of any of those methods within cjtf-7 (coalition joint task force-7) in the 12.5 months that i've been in iraq," gen. sanchez's answered at the hearing.

but sanchez's 2004 answer is at odds with the 2003 memo bearing his signature, which specifically addressed sleep deprivation ("sleep management"), intimidation by guard dogs ("presence of military working dog"), excessive noise ("yelling, loud music, and light control"), and inducing fear ("fear up harsh"). the following are excerpts from the memo:

the label "s/nf" stands for secret/not releasable to foreign nationals. information is properly exempted from the freedom of information act (foia) if it contains national security information.

the only section in the memo that gen. sanchez labeled "u" for unclassified was:

the aclu said it sent a letter to attorney general alberto gonzales requesting an "investigation of possible perjury by general ricardo a. sanchez" and renewing their prior request "for an outside special counsel to investigate and prosecute violations or conspiracies to violate criminal laws against torture or abuse of detainees."



arinze and tettamanzi equal favorites as new pope

irish betting shop chain, paddy power, is taking bets for a new pope. the current front runners are cardinal francis arinze of nigeria and cardinal dionigi tettamanzi of italy, who have each been given odds of 11-4.

"our feeling is, we held off a few days, and now the cardinals themselves are convening in rome," darren haines, a spokesman for paddy power said.

"we do it very much in the same way as a horse race," haines added, "without sounding so callous, in a sense, we have contenders, and you very much rate the speculation on the contenders, very much by going on media reports in the religious press ... our trading manager is very clued up on this, though she hasn't had divine intervention."

the full betting list can be found here.


china responds to us plan for import quotas

"this is not reasonable," foreign ministry spokesman qin gang told reporters. "this is unfair. this is protectionist."

the u.s. administration justified their decision by presenting data which showed increases of over one thousand percent for cotton knit shirts and cotton trousers. the administration also cited a 300 percent increase of imports of underwear.

qin disputed the u.s. reasoning for the decision.

"the major reason for this issue is that the united states has over-protectionist, irrational and unreasonable arrangements," he said.

"other countries that are more competitive will still take over from china, and the us can't impose safeguards on those countries," peter liu, chairman of the textiles and apparel committee at the american chamber of commerce, told the "financial times" in hong kong. "obviously, the us textile industry has concerns about job elimination, but on the other hand there are a lot of us industries that like to do business with china by exporting to china. if this escalates into a trade war, that's to nobody's benefit," he said.

the u.s. association of importers of textiles and apparel (aita) also supports china's product imports.

"there is no reason to believe that imports of these products from china are causing market disruption," aita spokeswoman laura e. jones said.

the u.s. administration cited a need to avoid "market disruption."

"free trade must be fair trade, and we will work to ensure that american manufacturers and workers compete on a level playing field," read a statement issued by u.s. commerce department spokeman carlos m. gutierrez. "the decision is the first step in a process to determine whether the u.s. market for these products is being disrupted and whether china is playing a role in that disruption." the statement also said the administration was "providing assistance to our domestic textile and apparel industry consistent with our international rights and obligations."

"we are very pleased that the government is taking this action," lloyd wood, a spokesman for the american manufacturing trade coalition told "the new york times". "it sends a strong message to china that predatory trade practices will be investigated."

the u.s. committee for the implementation of textile agreements issued its decision on monday, under the rules of the world trade organization (wto). china joined the wto in 2001.

shirts, trousers, and underwear are one of the few remaining types of clothing manufactured in the united states. the united states is running an all-time high trade deficit with china of us$162 billion.



talk-therapy can make a difference in early treatment of severe depression

an individual in the initial stages of moderate to severe depression may experience relief from cognitive therapy equivalent to careful drug therapy. this is the conclusion from the april issue of the archives of general psychiatry, a publication of the journal of the american medical association’s “archives.”

although antidepressant medications are the most widely used and effective treatment, cognitive, or talk-therapy, under the direction of highly trained professionals, has now shown potential in treating the early stages of major depressive disorder.

an eight week study by researchers at the university of pennsylvania and vanderbilt university examined the response of 240 depressed patients, randomly placed into three groups. the first group (n=120) received psychological therapy; the second (n=60) a more traditional drug routine, and the third group (n=60) only pills.

the study found that both treated groups recovered wellness much better than the placebo group. at eight weeks, the medication group was at 50 per cent, the cognitive therapy group was at 43 per cent while the pill placebo group had only a 25 per cent improvement.

after 16 weeks both medically treated groups had about 58 per cent improvement. remission rates were better with the antidepressant medications at 46 percent with 40 per cent for the cognitive therapy group. further follow up showed sustained improvement with the medicine-treated group in the vanderbilt university location. the u of p groups remained about equal.

in conclusion, the report stated, “cognitive therapy can be as effective as medications for the initial treatment of moderate to severe major depression, but this degree of effectiveness may depend on a high level of therapist experience or expertise.”




editor's note: this study was supported by grants from the national institute of mental health, bethesda, md. glaxosmithkline, brentford, u.k., provided medications and pill placebos for the trial.


2005 national conference in the norwegian centre party

norway; kristiansand: in the weekend between the 11. and 13. of march the norwegian centre party held its annual national conference in kristiansand. the conference was clearly inspired by the prospects of a majority in the parliament together with the norwegian socialist left- and labour party, according to all polls.

in this conference the leader, Aslaug haga, was re-elected against one vote and to great applaus from the 187 other voters. 

compromise on oil drilling in the barents sea <br>
the matter of greatest anticipation before the convention was a question if the environmentalist centre party would open for oil drilling in the barents sea. the centre youth had clearly announced its opposition to the suggestion at an earlier point. 

after a long debate with both very young and very old committed debaters the coalition of the hardest environmentalists, the leader and the centre youth surprisingly lost the voting. the centre party opened for a compromise proposed by one of the two second leaders, lars peder brekk, on accepting oil drilling with untraditionally strong demands for environmental safety.

focus on decentralization <br>
the leader, Aslaug haga, and most of the debaters in the conference made it clear that the centre party was sharpening it decentralization-knives. in the conference haga was joined by several other active members in underlining the centre partys role as the most dedicated decentralizationing-party in norway.

it was clear from the debaters that the main role of the party in a possibly upcoming majority-government (majority in parliament) with the labour and socialist left party mainly was to make the government focus on turning around the sentralization of norway and to hinder the labour party and the conservative party from cooperating on sending a new application for membership in the european union.


2005 national conference in the norwegian socialist left party

norway, kristiansand: this weekend (1. - 3. april) the norwegian socialist left party held its 16. ordinary national conference. the conference was characterized by the members and speakers obvious belief in themselves winning the upcoming election together with the norwegian labour party and the norwegian centre party. this partly unofficial alliance has lately been leading all polls with the rarity of a majority of the members of parliament ("stortinget"). norway has not seen a government with a majority in the parliament since shortly after wwii, when the labour party governed.

new gas powerplants in norway <br>
in a resolution from the conference the socialist left party opens for the building of new gas powerplants in norway, as long as these powerplants do not release any co2 into the atmosphere. 

this has been a matter of great discussion in norway and prime ministers have given away their chairs in the dispute. in the latter the centre party also made a similar resolution, and so it seems the upcoming government will open for the building of these plants.

agains membership in the european union<br>
the socialist left party is still clearly opposed to norway entering the european union (with only five votes for membership). 

as both socialist left party and the centre party are clear non-unionist parties, it seems they will block the labour party from sending any applications for membership in the upcoming four-year government period. 

more abortion and status quo on prostitution<br>
the socialist left party wants to expand the time limit for abortion to 16 weeks after impregnation.

the socialist left party does "not" want to criminalize the act of buying services from prostitutes. 

there was a great deal of discussion surrounding the subject of prostitution. as the socialist left party has a large group of feminists among its active members, there was a great minority voting "for" criminalization.


dmitri young hits three home runs in tigers' opener

april 6, 2005 
the detroit tigers began their 2005 season in style on april 4, defeating the kansas city royals 11-2 in their home opener of the major league baseball season. the game, played in front of a record crowd of 44,105 at detroit's comerica park, was an offensive showcase for the tigers, led by dmitri young, who went 4-for-4, matching a career-high 5 rbis. three of young's four hits were home runs, making young only the third baseball player in history to hit three home runs in a season opener. the previous two players to accomplish that feat are george bell, who hit three home runs for the toronto blue jays against the royals on opening day, 1988; and tuffy rhodes, who hit three home runs for the chicago cubs against the new york mets in 1994.
tigers starter jeremy bonderman was the winning pitcher, the youngest starter to win an opening day game since 1986. 


miles-long queue to view pope john paul one last time

tens of thousands of regular people walked through the domed st. peter's basilica today, but the queue behind them never seemed to ebb, according to reporters in the vatican.

winding over two miles from the bier holding the pontiff's body all the way to the tiber river, backpackers from all over the world, young and old, students and the disabled, waited and slowly shuffled toward their goal: one last look at the pope they had come to feel was like a father to them.

a french park ranger spoke of the physical pain the pope must have suffered while remaining so peaceful in spirit. another visitor was hoping to kiss his hand or touch his robe. they were satisfied with merely a chance to view his crimson-robed body, as visible in death as he had been only weeks earlier, in life.

nearly 2 million people will visit the vatican for the funeral service on friday, an unprecedented salute for a public figure who may have helped bring down the iron curtain.

other voices were heard as well, but they were in dissent. amidst pope paul’s uncompromising orthodoxy, they said, he had destroyed democracy in the church and alienated many. and although most of the mourners were contrite and moved slowly through the long queue, there were the usual “line jumpers,” greeted by catcalls and impatient reactions from others.

“filthy pigs! we’ll all be dead by the time we get in,” an elderly woman spat in italian.

the city of rome, which surrounds vatican city, has set up campgrounds in stadiums and public places for open use during the events. one lady said she didn’t care where she slept or even if she would.

sabina la versa had taken the all-night train from sicily to view the pontiff. she said “the pope’s love for us flowed like water from a jug. i’d wait here forever to say arrivederci,” italian for “see you again.”


alex sanchez suspended for drugs

28 year old alex sanchez, outfielder for the tampa bay devil rays, is suspended without pay for 10 days for using a performance enhancing drug. sanchez is the first player to be suspended under major league baseball's new, stricter drug policy. 

the baseball officials and the players' union have both decided to not disclose the specific substance which tested positive.

sanchez originally planed an appeal against the ban, but decided against it. he denies taking any performance enhancing drugs and blames the positive test on over-the-counter vitamins, muscle relaxants and protein shakes that he takes, but has not identified any specific medications as of yet.



bomb explodes on historic kashmir bus route

april 6, 2005 

a bomb, injuring three people, exploded on a new bus service route 
between the indian and pakistani sides of the kashmir border. two other bombs on the route were found and defused. a replacement bus is scheduled for an inaugural run this thursday.

threats of violence against passengers, and attacks on the bus on the
inaugural trip, were issued by muslim militants.

the bombs were found on a section of highway between srinigar, in indian-controlled
kashmir, and muzaffarabad, the capital of pakistani-controlled kashmir. the defused explosives weighed more than 60 kilograms each.

no civilians have traveled this route since 1947, when
india and pakistan won independence from
britain. the kashmir territory has been under dispute by india and
pakistan since that time, with china joining the dispute in 1962 when
it took control of a region along the eastern border.

the bus link is seen as a major step toward healing the hostilities
between india and pakistan by allowing families, separated for decades
during the dispute, to re-unite.

since 1989, a handful of islamic militant groups have fought for
kashmir to become independent or to merge with predominantly muslim
pakistan. with the bus route opening coming on the top of
other so-called "confidence-building" moves between pakistan and
india, the militants apparently feel their movement is under threat.

bharat karnad, an analyst with new delhi think-tank center for policy
research, stated: "once people get their free access and they can
freely move from one territory to another, meet the families and so
on, the great incentive and motivation is gone to risk their lives to
fight for some notion of jihad that some groups may propound."

most of the 24 passengers expected to take the maiden voyage,
officials say, are in protective custody because of threats made by
some of the militant groups against them and their families.



harvard university divests $4.4m of petrochina stock

april 6, 2005

in response to pressure from students and faculty, harvard university announced on april 4 that it would sell its shares of petrochina stock, the harvard crimson reported. the crimson noted that the university held 67,200 shares of petrochina in december of 2004. at present prices, the stock would be worth approximately $4.4 million, said the paper. the precise details of harvard's holdings in petrochina were not specified in the university's statement; it stated simply that it would direct the harvard management company to "divest its holdings of petrochina stock."

petrochina is a subsidiary of china national petroleum company, which invested $1bn in what the crimson called a "joint venture" with the government of sudan to develop the nation's oil infrastructure. the company was characterized as playing a "leading role . . . in the sudanese oil industry, which is so important to the sudanese regime" by harvard president lawrence summers, said the globe.

according to the boston globe, harvard's divestment is particularly significant because harvard "never fully divested itself from companies doing business with apartheid south africa, unlike many other major universities."

the divestment occurred after a petition started by two harvard juniors, ben collins and manav bhatnagar, circulated at the university, receiving signatures from more than 80 faculty members and hundreds of students.

51 suspects named by un for war crimes in darfur


nasa's mars rovers exceed all expectations

april 6, 2005 
with the approval of an additional 18 months of funding, nasa's twin mars rovers, the spirit and opportunity, will continue their exploration of "fantastic" landscapes for an additional 14 months.
"the rovers have proven their value with major discoveries about ancient watery environments on mars that might have harbored life," said dr. ghassem asrar, deputy associate administrator for nasa's science mission directorate. "we are extending their mission through september 2006 to take advantage of having such capable resources still healthy and in excellent position to continue their adventures."

with 11 months of extensions exceeding their successful three-month prime missions, "we now have to make long-term plans for the vehicles because they may be around for quite a while," said jim erickson, rover project manager at nasa's jet propulsion laboratory, pasadena, calif. 

scientists are within a few football field’s distance of a region called “etched terrain,” with rocks exposed by actual wind erosion rather than craters. there are rocks different from others in any other time in mars’ history. "this is a journey into the unknown, to something completely new," said dr. steve squyres of cornell university, ithaca, n.y., and principal investigator for the rover's science instruments.

the rover opportunity has overtaken spirit in total distance driven. it has been pushed by rover planners to roll more than three miles?eight times the original goal.

on march 20, a new martian record of 722 feet in a single 24-hour drive was accomplished by opportunity. even spirit is exceeding expectations although it is in much rougher terrain, climbing a rocky slope toward an area called “husband hill.”

the rovers have shown signs of wear and tear. spirit’s rock abrasion tool grinding teeth might be nearly useless after exposing the interior of five times more rocks than its original design goal of only three rocks.


 


51 suspects named by un for war crimes in darfur

april 6, 2005 
the sudanese government said it will not hand over 51 suspects named by the un for war crimes in the darfur region.

the sealed list, presented to the international criminal court (icc) on tuesday, was drawn up following an investigation by the un into claims of killings, torture and rape committed by government forces and militias in the darfur region. sudanese president omar al-bashir, backed by huge protests against the un in sudan's capital of khartoum, snubbed the un resolution which was passed last week to bring suspects to trial before the court. omar al-bashir explained that he "shall never hand any sudanese national to a foreign court". 

icc's chief prosecutor luis moreno ocampo said, "now, we have a common task to end the culture of impunity," upon receiving the list of suspects at the un headquarters in new york. he continued: "i will closely monitor ongoing crimes in darfur as well as efforts to prevent and stop them". the darfur case is expected to demonstrate the effectiveness of the icc, whose purpose is to try alleged genocide, war crimes and mass human rights violations criminals.

as the icc, based in the hague, received thousands of pages of evidence collected by un investigators, sudanese protesters descended upon the gates of the un compound in khartoum, fiercely criticising the un's involvement in the darfur conflict. 

"we are coming here to say to america 'no' to these orders. we are not people who have to listen to orders from anybody except the sudan," one demonstrator told the bbc. stating that it will prosecute suspects itself, sudan's government earlier described the un's decision to try individuals allegedly linked to the atrocities committed in darfur as "unfair, ill-advised and narrow-minded". the un has since said it hoped the sudanese government would cooperate before indictments and arrest warrants are issued, and the un understood that sudanese rebels will surrender to the court if they are indicted. 

according to the un, at least 180,000 people have died and more than two million have fled the region since the conflict between black african rebels and arab militia began two years ago.



brazil organizes summit of south american and arab countries

brazil's capital city of brasilia is scheduled to host the summit of south american and arab countries from may 10 to the 11th, according to the brazilian ministry of external relations. the organizers say that south american and arab countries will discuss political, commercial, cultural, and scientific and technological cooperation.

the summit was proposed by brazilian president luiz inacio lula da silva during his visit to several arab countries in december, 2004. this was the first time some of the countries visited by lula had entered into contact with a brazilian ruler since 1876 with then brazilian emperor, dom pedro ii.

during a visit to the headquarters of the arab league, in cairo, egypt, lula da silva proposed the creation of a summit of south american and arab countries. "the summit aims the creation of a new world where the third world countries can have a new role", lula added.

the countries scheduled to meet next month are:

some concerns from israel and the united states have been raised since the announcement of the meeting. however the brazilian minister of foreign relations, celso amorim, said that the meeting is intended as a forum to discuss only cooperation between the two regions and it is not a political attack on israel. "it is a meeting of two regions, which will discuss mutual cooperation", he says.


british journalists on trial in zimbabwe

correspondent toby harnden and photographer julian simmonds of "the sunday telegraph" weekly, were put on trial for violating zimbabwe's "access to information and protection of privacy act". the act requires all journalists in zimbabwe to obtain accreditation from the state media commission. the two are also accused of breaking immigration laws by overstaying their visas.

the journalists were arrested last thursday during the election that saw victory for president robert mugabe's zanu-pf. the trial is being held in a small town 40 kilometers north of harare, capital of zimbabwe. despite being granted bail, the pair are spending a fifth night behind bars in harare. although they face two years in jail, it is believed they will instead be fined and deported.

"the accused persons had no right to cover the elections because they had no accreditation and had no right to stay in the country beyond march 28," state prosecutor albert masama said in court statements.

the prosecutor said the two flew into harare and met unnamed members of the opposition movement for democratic change. simmonds was arrested after he was seen taking photographs of a line of voters at a polling station.

defence lawyer beatrice mtetwa, said the men had valid visas and believed they were in zimbabwe legally when they were arrested. she said the two were tourists and visited such resorts as the victoria falls.

more than 200 journalists were accredited to cover last week's elections, but many more had their applications rejected.




jeter saves the day for the yankees

after a blowout win for the new york yankees on sunday, their ancient rivalry with the 2004 world series champion boston red sox resumed with a close game on tuesday that went down to the wire. yankees closer mariano rivera had a blown save in the top of the ninth when he surrendered a solo home run to red sox catcher jason varitek that tied the score at 3-3. yankee derek jeter saved the day in his lead-off at bat in the bottom of the ninth, hitting a walk-off home run off keith foulke to win the game for the yankees. yankees manager joe torre said, "we escaped today. mariano is still the best in the game as far as i'm concerned. that doesn't mean that clubs aren't going to get to him once in a while. these guys we're playing are the world champs."

rivera and the yankees won't soon forget the glory snatched from them by the red sox in last year's american league championship series. the red sox were within three outs of being defeated in a sweep when they rallied against mariano rivera at fenway park in game 4. they went on to win in 12 innings, and won the next three games to take the series, and went on to win the world series.

other spotlights included starting pitcher carl pavano's debut for the yankees and hideki matsui, who hit his second home run in two games.

today's game was played in front of 54,690 at yankee stadium.




first female boxing death occurs in us sanctioned match

becky zerlentes, 34, died on sunday, april 3 in what was to be her last boxing match before retirement. the match, a colorado state golden gloves bout, was held in denver on april 2. her opponent for the senior women's title in that match was heather schmitz, 32.

zerlentes received a knockout punch in the third round by a straight blow to her left temple. she received immediate attention from ringside physicians, but never regained consciousness, even after being admitted to denver general hospital for emergency surgery on saturday night. she expired on sunday due to blunt-force trauma injuries received to the head, resulting in a blood clot on the brain.

her opponent heather schmitz met with reporters and expressed her regret, saying, "i didn't want to hurt her. i feel very bad about that."

"nobody thought it was a very hard blow," said jeanne depriest, manager of zerlentes' team. "we've been talking to people all day trying to find out what happened." zerlentes was wearing her required protective headgear at the time of the accident.

several commentators have remarked on the coincidental similarities between zerlentes' death and the events depicted in the recent oscar-winning film, million dollar baby, in which a character becomes quadriplegic as a result of a spinal cord injury suffered during her last fight.

usa boxing oversees the sport of amateur, olympic-style boxing in america, as a member organization of the international amateur boxing association (aiba). the non-profit organization has overseen men's amateur boxing since 1888, but has only admitted women to the sport since 1993. there are currently 2,200 registered women boxers, according to usa boxing, and interest in the sport is increasing.

"the usa boxing family's thoughts and prayers go out to becky's family and husband. we are deeply saddened by this loss," said sandy martinez-pino, president of usa boxing.

in the aftermath of zerlentes' tragic death, the usa boxing authorities have continued to affirm their high level of safety precautions and close oversight of the sport's conditions and equipment. according to their website, amateur boxing was ranked 23rd in rate of injuries, behind soccer and gymnastics (national safety council, 1996) and 8th in rate of sports-related fatalities, behind football and scuba diving (boxing and medicine, human kinetics illinois, 1995).

zerlentes had an amateur record of 6-4 (6 wins to 4 losses), and was a former regional boxing champion with several brown belts in martial arts. she had a phd in geography from the university of illinois, urbana-champaign and was an adjunct instructor in geography at front range community college in colorado. she is survived by a husband and family.



north american citizens dealt passport requirement

north american travelers will see a phased-in requirement to carry passports in the coming years. in a multi-national initiative to restrict illegal immigration and travel, a passport layer of stricter identification will be introduced for travel throughout the continent by the year 2008. the us state department announced the new american travel rules monday. 

for the most part, north american citizens can now travel to neighboring countries without formal papers. but starting in december 2005, u.s. citizens travelling by air or sea to or from the caribbean, central and south america will need a passport to get back into their native nation. showing a driver's license or a government-issued photo id card will no longer be sufficient for making the border crossing back.

secretary of state condoleezza rice said that passport restrictions will help keep out "people who want to hurt us." 

rice made a brief trip on march 10 to meet with mexican president vicente fox before leaving on her far east tour. the mexican meeting was to pave the way for a march 23 summit with canadian prime minister paul martin and fox at the president bush ranch in texas. issues concerning immigration, border security and water rights were discussed at the meeting. the intent of the summit was to produce a north american initiative that will strengthen security and economic ties.

the passport rules are a result of that summit.

the next phase of the passport requirements begins dec 2006, when passports for air and sea travel to, or from mexico and canada, the caribbean, bermuda and us will be required. the final phase involves any travel: whether air, sea or land crossings, passports will be required at borders by dec 7, 2008.



businesses shy to adopt windows xp sp2

a survey of 251 north american companies revealed that less than 10% of their computers have windows xp service pack 2 installed. the results of the study, conducted by assetmetrix, were released this week after 136,000 pcs running microsoft's windows operating system were examined. although many of the companies in the poll are still using earlier releases of windows, such as windows 2000 and windows 98, only 24% of businesses using windows xp had successfully rolled out sp2.

released in september 2004, sp2 includes security improvements for the windows xp operating system, including an enhanced firewall and a pop-up ad blocker for internet explorer. when it was first made available, businesses could opt to postpone installation of the service pack so that their respective it departments could prepare for the update. however on april 12, microsoft will force users to upgrade to sp2 via their automatic windows update system, which delivers software over the internet. assetmetrix believe this move will catch out unprepared companies.

"microsoft allowed a significant period of time to accommodate companies' demand to test and validate windows xp sp2 within their it infrastructure," explained assetmetrix research labs' managing director steve o'halloran.

he added: "based on our research, a substantial number of companies have yet to decide whether to accept or embargo windows xp sp2. to date, we have observed that 40 percent of companies using windows xp have actively avoided upgrading to sp2, and only 7 percent have actively accepted it. the other 52 percent of the companies showed no direction or policy towards sp2, and may find themselves having support issues by allowing multiple editions of windows xp to exist in their infrastructure."


taiwan’s blue camp pays respects on the thirtieth anniversary of the passing of chiang kai-shek

translated from report by: zhang yongtai (voice of america/ taipei)

"in order to remember the passing away of taiwan's former leader, the opposition parties of the pan blue camp used the tomb sweeping day holiday to visit chiang’s tomb and pay respects. however the democratic progressive party government did not hold any similar activities."

the chairs of taiwan’s opposition parties, the kuomintang (kmt), new party (np) and people first party (pfp) used the tomb sweeping day break to lead trips to the taoyuan county tzuhu and touliao mausoleums (resting spots of chiang kai-shek and his son chiang ching-kuo respectably.) because the bodies of chiang kai-shek and chiang ching-kuo are planned to be moved to wutzushan military cemetery in taipei county in august of this year, the opportunity to visit the tombs of the two former leaders is almost gone.

democratic progressive party (dpp) pays no visits to chiang’s tomb

during the rule of the kuomintang government, visiting the tombs was a major event, presidents lead the chiefs of the five branches of the government in a memorial at the tombs. though following taiwan's gradual shift towards democracy the visits to the tombs have become more and more simple and forlorn. after the kuomintang lost control of the government the event even became an activity only for the pan blues; the dpp government not only didn’t visit the tombs, they didn’t even hold similar ceremonies.

lien chan: “would be pleased to visit the mainland”

because kmt vice chairman chiang pin-kun’s recent visit to mainland china caused such mixed reactions in the political arena, the question of when kmt chair lien chan would visit the chinese mainland was also a hot topic. after paying his respects lien expressed that he was honored by the invitation to visit the mainland, but a time frame for the visit is still awaiting further confirmation: "i would be pleased to accept such of visit, and go on a 'journey of peace, the time (of the trip) should be in the near future, as for how to determine the time for certain, it will require contact from both sides to decide."

james soong: don’t rush

as for the people first party chair james soong, who in the month of february held talks with president chen shui-bian in the so-called “chen-soong meeting”, appeared conservative in answering questions about himself visiting china: “which party wants to rush to go first, the pfp wont do like others did and try to go against the policy, today we hope to place policy before politics.”

soong also said that the relationship between taiwan and mainland china is very complex, and the kmt and dpp both can’t solve the problem within fifty years or five years. the pfp hopes that both sides of the taiwan strait can benefit; he said he believes that a relationship between the two sides is not a one-sided wish, and hopes it can take place in an atmosphere in which both sides desire not to encroach on the dignity of taiwan. soong also stated that he will soon be able to meet with chen shui-bian and lien chan to discuss the taiwan strait situation.

john chiang: tombs should become a “tomb containing clothing without the body,”

also worth mentioning is the discussion about what will be done with the mausoleums of the two chiangs once their bodies are moved to wutzushan military cemetery. john chiang, chiang ching-kuo’s illegitimate son, said that he hopes the taoyuan county government will be able to maintain the original spirit and cultural spirit of the mausoleums. he also suggested that once the bodies are moved, the tombs become a “tomb containing clothing without the body,” and hopes the places will remain open to the public so they can remember the ways of their predecessors.


study: cognitive therapy as good as medication, but lasts longer

a landmark study comparing effectiveness in reducing major depression of two forms of initial treatment ? cognitive therapy which involves discussing thought processes with a qualified counselor, vs medication ? has revealed that both forms of therapy reduce depression, but that the benefits of cognitive therapy last longer than those of medication. the study finding contradicts current treatment guidelines of the american psychiatric association (apa).

the 16-week study, by researchers at the university of pennsylvania and vanderbilt university, was the largest trial yet undertaken to resolve the years-old debate. two-hundred-and-forty patients with moderate-to-severe depression were given one or other of the treatments, or a purposely-ineffective placebo. study representatives described the two treatments about equally effective ? both much more effective than the placebo ? but with the positive effect of talk-therapy lasting longer.

in fact, the cognitive therapy group saw only as many relapses as a another group that had continued to receive drug therapy.

"we believe that cognitive therapy might have more lasting effects because it equips patients with the tools they need to learn how to manage their problems and emotions," said robert derubeis, professor and chair of penn's department of psychology. "pharmaceuticals, while effective, offer no long term cure for the symptoms of depression. for many people, cognitive therapy might prove to be the preferred form of treatment."

"medication is often an appropriate treatment, but drugs have drawbacks, such as side effects or a diminished efficacy over time," derubeis said. "patients with depression are often overwhelmed by other factors in their life that pills simply cannot solve. in many cases, cognitive therapy succeeds because it teaches the skills that help people cope."

researchers pointed out that while the effectiveness of cognitive therapy depended largely on the experience of the practitioner, the same was true of medication, due to the judgement required in prescribing correct dosages of drugs.

the apa , on the basis that a quote appearing on wikinews could be distorted by subsequent edits of the article.


cricket: india beat pakistan in visakhapatnam odi

the indian cricket team showed a good spirit both in batting and bowling activities which helped them beat pakistan in the cricket match held at visakhapatnam by 58 runs.

batting first, india's v sehwag (74) and dhoni (148) with a contribution from dravid (52) helped them to put a challening 357 runs to pakistan. pakistan however were all out for 298 in 44.1 overs. a nehra took 4 wickets.

(50 overs maximum) 

dnb: a nehra.

fow: 1-26 (tendulkar, 3.2 ov), 2-122 (sehwag, 13.4 ov), 3-140 (ganguly, 19.2 ov), 4-289 (dhoni, 41.2 ov), 5-300 (dravid, 42.1 ov), 6-301 (kaif, 42.4 ov), 7-318 (yuvraj singh, 45.5 ov), 8-325 (harbhajan singh, 47.2 ov), 9-356 (khan, 49.6 ov).

fow: 1-5 (shahid afridi, 1.2 ov), 2-89 (salman butt, 12.6 ov), 3-129 (inzamam-ul-haq, 19.1 ov), 4-176 (abdul razzaq, 27.2 ov), 5-204 (shoaib malik, 31.2 ov), 6-222 (mohammad hafeez, 33.3 ov), 7-263 (yousuf youhana, 38.1 ov), 8-268 (naved-ul-hasan, 40.4 ov), 9-296 (mohammad sami, 43.2 ov), 10-298 (kamran akmal, 44.1 ov).


abc to move internet news network back to u.s. tvs

april 6, 2005

the u.s. television network abc says its 24-hour news network, "abc news now", will become a permanent 24-hour television news network starting in july. currently, the operation is only available on the internet as a streaming media web site.

the network started as a experiment by the walt disney company-owned abc in the summer of 2004 during the u.s. presidential campaign nomination conventions. it was mostly broadcast as a subchannel or shared channel within the bandwidth of an existing digital television (dtv) channel already owned by abc. for instance if the local abc affiliate is on channel 7 with a dtv channel of 23, then "abc news now" may have been available on digital channel 23.1, sharing the same bandwidth.

because few households in the u.s. are equipped to tune in digital over-the-air sub-channels, and virtually none are carried on local cable companies, ratings were low for the fledgling digital channel. adding to that technical difficulty, cable carriage of the network was small. "abc news now" was delivered to only 6 of the 110 million u.s. households via cable. most viewers of the network, 30 million at last count, watched the network via the internet.

citing money reasons, abc shuttered the over-the-air "abc news now" broadcasts in january to focus on building the web-based service. but come july, abc plans to return its news network and its 20 original programs to local tv stations. without any commitment from national cable or satellite companies, abc will return to digital sub-channels on local dtv transmissions.



nigeria destroys illegal small arms

april 6, 2005 
nigeria is cracking down illegal firearms, the xinhua news agency reports.

so far this week the nigerian government has destroyed 2,738 small arms and 5,368 rounds of ammunition, primarily in the troubled niger delta region.

the government began a project last october to rid the country of illegal arms and tuesday's news will bring the total weapons seized and destroyed to 4,678 along with 8,256 rounds of ammunition.

nigerian defence minister rabiu kwankwaso told local nigerian newspaper vanguard, this was "the highest single destruction ever". he added: "the war against the proliferation of illegal arms and ammunition is being won by the government."

the government will continue to "recover and destroy illegally acquired arms in order to engender a peaceful and secured environment for socio-political, economic and cultural development," kwankwaso continued. 

the niger delta holds most of the country's oil reserves, which makes nigeria the eighth largest producer in the world. fighting in the region claims over 1,000 lives a year.

residents of the niger delta have been fighting armed campaigns against oil companies that have begun oil production in the area. they claim that they have been inadequately compensated, that the land and water are being polluted, and that the nigerian police and military have been acting in collusion with the oil producers to attack local villages, and torture and execute campaigners.




u.s. baseball: delgado starts off well with marlins

april 7, 2005

carlos delgado was impressive in his national league debut with the florida marlins on tuesday after getting off to a slow start. in the first inning, the marlins scored five runs off atlanta braves starting pitcher john smoltz, while delgado struck out on three pitches. delgado made up for this disappointment by following it with four straight hits, hitting four-for-five with three rbis "en route" to a 9-0 victory.

before the start of the season, there was some concern about how the change from american to national league would affect the slugger's performance. delgado spent the past thirteen seasons with the toronto blue jays before signing a four-year, $52 million contract with the marlins. marlins manager jack mckeon said, wryly, "many of the writers asked during spring training if his change of leagues was going to be a factor. in the first inning, it was." delgado has certainly made an impact on the marlins organization, and there is a lot of excitement in miami over his new arrival. opening day attendance was a record sell-out at dolphins stadium of 57,405, and spirits are high as the marlins are one of the favourites to win the national league east, thanks in no small part to delgado's presence. but, the baseball season is a long road to travel; as delgado said, "obviously, we have good talent here. we've got to go out and play. because we've got such and such, and we picked up this guy, that doesn't mean anything. you've got to go out and do it on the field. yeah, it was a great game. but it's over now."

today's game was played in front of 57,405 at dolphins stadium.




toronto transit union threatens strike for monday

april 6, 2005 

bob kinnear, president of amalgamated transit union local 113, said today that toronto, ontario, transit workers may begin striking as early as this monday. a strike of the 8 400 employees would leave approximately 1.3 million daily riders looking for other means of transportation and clogging city roads.

the union voted down the toronto transit commission's (ttc) offer march 9 with a 99% vote in favour of a strike. the five-year offer was said to include a two per cent wage increase in each of the next three years. the union said it wanted increased pension contributions and more leniency in scheduling. the union has now been in a legal strike position since april 1 but has said it would withhold strike action as long as serious negotiations were taking place. today "canadian press" reported that ttc vice-chairman joe mihevic said the two sides were in "heavy, heavy" negotiations but going well and hoped they would continue.

mr. kinnear, however, announced a noon friday deadline for a contract and told reporters that he feels the commission has been "dragging their heels on issues that they absolutely know are key to a settlement". he characterized the commission's negotiations as a "strategy of delay, defer and ignore".

the most recent ttc strike was in 1999 and jammed city roads for two days before the provincial government ordered the union back to work.



swift mission measures distance to star explosions

april 6, 2005
in another first for the nasa-led space telescope mission called
swift, five months into its mission it measured the distance to two
gamma-ray bursts (grb), back to back, from opposite parts of the sky.
the grb's are over nine billion light years away from the earth.

the measurements were obtained utilizing the ultraviolet/optical
telescope (uvot).

"swift will detect more gamma-ray bursts than any satellite that has
come before it, and now will be able to pin down distances to many of
these bursts too," said peter roming, uvot lead scientist at penn
state. "these two aren't distance record-breakers, but they're
certainly from far out there. the second of the two bursts was bright
enough to be seen from earth with a good backyard telescope."

the swift science team said these types of distance measurements
will become routine, allowing scientists to create a map to understand
where, when and how these brilliant, fleeting bursts of light are
created.

gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful
explosions known in the universe, are thought to signal the birth of
black holes; either from a massive star explosion or a merger of
smaller black holes or neutron stars. several
appear each day from earth's vantage point. they are difficult to
detect and study because they occur randomly from any point in the sky
and last only a few milliseconds to about a minute.

swift, with three telescopes, is designed to detect bursts and turn on
its own to focus its telescopes, within seconds, on the burst
afterglow, which can linger for hours to weeks. the uvot is a joint
product of penn state university and the mullard space science laboratory in
england.

swift detected the bursts on march 18 and 19, as indicted in their
names: grb 050318 and grb 050319. the uvot team estimated that the
redshifts are 1.44 and 3.24, respectively, which corresponds to
distances of about 9.2 billion and 11.6 billion light years. (the
second estimate reflects a more precise measurement made with the
ground-based nordic optical telescope.)
distance measurements are attained through analysis of the burst
afterglow.

swift detected 24 bursts so far. grb 050318 was the first burst
where the uvot detected an afterglow. the lack of afterglow detection
is interesting in its own right, roming said, because it helps
scientists understand why some bursts create certain kinds of
afterglows, if any. for example, swift's x-ray
telescope (xrt) has detected afterglows from several bursts. the uvot
detected afterglows in grb 050318 and grb 050319 in optical light, but
not significantly in ultraviolet.

"every burst is a little different, and when we add them all up we
will begin to see the full picture," said keith mason, the u.k. uvot
lead at university college london's 
mullard space science laboratory.

mason said uvot distance measurements will become more precise in
the upcoming months as new instruments aboard swift are employed.

swift is a medium-class explorer mission managed by nasa goddard space
flight center in greenbelt, maryland. swift is a nasa mission with
participation of the italian space agency and the particle physics and
astronomy research council in the united kingdom. it was built in
collaboration with national laboratories, universities and
international partners, including penn state; los alamos national
laboratory in new mexico; sonoma state university in california; the
university of leicester in leicester, england; the mullard space
science laboratory in dorking, england; the brera observatory of the
university of milan in italy; and the asi science data center in rome,
italy.


prince rainier iii of monaco has died

april 6, 2005 

his serene highness prince rainier iii (rainier louis henri maxence bertrand grimaldi) of the principality of monaco has died. prince rainier has been prince of the tiny mediterranean country for almost 56 years. he was 81 years old.

he died at 0635 local time (0435 utc) at the centre cardio-thoracique de monaco with his son prince albert by his bedside. he had been hospitalized since march 8, 2005 and his health declined steadily since then. he had been suffering from heart, kidney and lung problems. 

prince rainier is famed for being the husband of the late princess grace (grace kelly), and for investing in business at a famous gambling centre. he was on the throne since 1949, making him one of the longest reigning monarchs in europe.

prince rainier is succeeded by prince albert ii, who has already been serving as regent since march 31.




militants attack kashmir bus route safe house

april 6, 2005
islamic militants claimed responsibility for an attack on a government guesthouse sheltering passengers on the first bus in 50 years to cross between the indian and pakistani sides of kashmir.
authorities say the bus will depart as scheduled thursday. the attack occurred in srinagar on the indian controlled side of kashmir.

it is unclear whether the passengers or any others in the building, which housed several offices, were injured.

four islamic militant groups claimed responsibility later in the day for what they said was a suicide attack on the building complex. so far there has been no information from indian security personnel as to how the attack was carried off.

indian prime minister manmohan singh is expected to come to srinagar to see the bus off on thursday despite the attack. another bus is due to depart from the pakistani side of kashmir, bound for india, later the same day.

one bomb exploded along the route yesterday and two other were defused.


iraq elects kurdish president, saddam said to be shaken

the kurdish population of iraq celebrated today the appointment of veteran kurdish leader jalal talabani as the country's new president. the confirmation comes after iraqis braved suicide bombings and other attacks to vote on the future of their country's government more than two months ago. as well as electing talabani, iraq's parliament also appointed shi'a adel abdul mahdi and sunni arab tribal leader ghazi yawar as vice presidents.

"this is the new iraq -- an iraq that elects a kurd to be president and an arab former president as his deputy," said parliament speaker hajem al-hassani earlier. during saddam hussein's rule, the sunni minority dominated iraq, while shi'ite communities were oppressed and the kurdish population massacred as they fought against saddam's regime. the kurds make up 20 percent of the country's population, while shi'ites make up 60 percent and the sunni arabs make up between 15 percent to 20 percent. reports say talabani has pledged to work with all ethnic and religious factions to rebuild iraq and has called upon neighbouring countries to stop insurgents from further disrupting iraq.

although his post is seen by some as a ceremonial position, talabani's role will include overseeing the completion of iraq's new constitution by august this year and appointing shi'ite leader ibrahim al-jaafari as iraq's prime minister.

echoing the comments of many kurdish iraqis, mohammed saleh, a 42-year-old kurd in kirkuk, told reporters: "today jalal talabani made it to the seat of power, while saddam hussein is sitting in jail. who would have thought."

according to agency reports, saddam hussein, imprisoned at a u.s.-run high security facility on the outskirts of baghdad, was said to be "clearly upset" as iraq moved closer to becoming a democratic state again. watching the election results unfold live on iraqi television, saddam "realised that it was over, that a democratic process had taken place and that there was a new, elected president," iraq's human rights minister bakhtiar amin told reuters earlier today.

 


canada presses iran for an international investigation into kazemi death

april 6, 2005<br>

canada pulled out of a trade conference with the iranian government after discussions surrounding the alleged torture and death of photo-journalist zahra kazemi fell through. the move comes after accusations by canada that a canadian journalist, kazemi, was savagely attacked in iran. the allegation was denied by iran's foreign affairs minister kamal kharazi on tuesday. canadian ministers have since responded by calling for an international forensic investigation into the kazemi case.

"we will continue to put pressure on iran," canadian foreign affairs minister pierre pettigrew said yesterday. "this is something on which we will not give up. we know that in iran it is lies, it is coverups that are being presented to us."

the allegations stem from iranian born doctor shahram azam, who fled to canada and revealed last week how he examined kazemi in june 2003, following her arrest in iran. azam told reporters that kazemi was brought to him by iranian authorities with severe injuries that were said to have been inflicted whilst in custody. kharazi dismissed azam's claims, adding that he has never worked at the hospital in which he claims he treated kazemi.



space shuttle discovery resumes rollout to launch pad

nasa reports that the return to flight mission has started to roll toward the launch pad once again. 

the rollout of the shuttle , scheduled for april 5 around midnight local time, was moved forward as a precaution when a small crack was discovered in the foam insulation on an external fuel tank. officials decided it was no reason for concern.

as of 2:04 p.m. edt (18:04 utc) today the orbiter began inching out of the vehicle assembly building's hanger at in and onto the access road for the launch pad 39b. it is expected to reach the launch pad around 8 p.m. edt.

the actual launch window for the 114th space shuttle flight, and the 31st flight of the orbiter discovery, will be no earlier than may 15 to june 3, 2005.

the trip to the international space station, "return to flight" sts-114, will last 12 days and be the first flight since the tragedy in 2003. this flight will test a new robot extension arm, the -built orbiter boom sensor system, used to repair the exterior of the international space station. 

"nasa" first motion: discovery starts crawling to the launch pad april 6, 2005


childhood exposure to tv linked to bullying

april 17, 2005 <br>
in an "archives of pediatrics & adolescent medicine" report, economist frederick j. zimmerman ph.d. and colleagues at the university of washington, in seattle, found there is a statistically significant relationship between bullying behavior by adolescents and the amount of tv they watched. while previous studies linking the phenomenon have been done before, this study used data from a us national longitudinal survey involving 1,266 four-year-olds, to provide what authors describe as "empirical support to theories that suggest that bullying might arise out of cognitive deficits as well as emotional ones," according to "newswise".

of mothers who reported their children displaying bullying behavior, the study found that those watching 3.5 hours of tv a day were 25% more likely to bully, while those watching 8 hours or more were 200% more likely. the report based its findings on statistics of tv watching by children at age 4, and then compared that history to reports by mothers of their child's behavior between the ages of 6 to 11.

“the magnitude of the risk associated with television… is clinically significant,” the report's authors wrote. bullying behavior by school children is thought by some to be a health problem.

the study also assessed parental factors that reduced the negative impact of watching television. these included taking children on outings and activities, reading to them, and regularly exposing them to new ideas. results suggest that children receiving cognitive support were a third less likely to become bullies.

another parental factor looked at was providing emotional support. simple things like eating together and talking about topics important to children were found to have an effect.



japan announces moon program

april 6, 2005

"until now, the question has been, 'can japan develop its own manned spaceship?' we will know the answer in another 10 years," jaxa chairman keiji tachikawa told the "associated press".

the plan includes the development of robots and nanotechnology, and calls for the design of a space vehicle to carry passengers and cargo to the moon. the japan aerospace exploration agency (jaxa) asked for a budget increase to about us$2.6 billion a year to fund the program.

aerospace professor taketoshi hibiya, who works at the tokyo metropolitan institute of technology, questioned the value of going to the moon.
"if you are hoping to exploit energy resources for example, the question is whether you gain more energy than you expend getting to the moon and back," hibiya told "reuters". "as scientists, we want to experiment with everything, including manned flight, if we can get the money," he said. "unfortunately, the country's budget is in a bad way at the moment."

japan is running a national debt of 751 trillion yen (us$6.94 trillion).

japan said it would decide within 10 years whether it would pursue its moon program on its own, or if it would team up with other nations.

no country has sent a manned mission to the moon since the apollo program of the 1960s and 1970s. china and russia are both planning moon programs of their own. china plans to send a satellite to the moon in 2007. russia has a plan to send personnel to the moon sometime between 2015-2020 as part of a larger program to one day send a mission to mars.

jaxa's next mission will survey the moon with the "selene" probe. the mission was scheduled to launch this year, but has been delayed for unknown reasons.



16 dead after u.s. helicopter crashes in afghanistan

april 6, 2005 

a us chinook helicopter crashed in south-eastern afghanistan 80 miles south west of kabul, killing at least sixteen people on board. another two are missing, presumed dead.

the crash is believed to be an accident; there are no indications that it was shot down. 

the helicopter went down near the city of ghanzi at 2.30pm local time in bad weather while on a routine flight to bagram airport. a second helicopter which was with the first arrived at bagram safely.

rescue operations were started at once but work at the site has been suspended for the night.

the identities of the dead are currently not known.




italy urges pilgrims to avoid rome city centre for pope funeral

as many as four million pilgrims are expected to flock to rome for the pope's funeral friday. italian authorities have in response urged visitors to avoid entering the centre of rome and instead use a special camp open on the outskirts of the city. already one million people have arrived to see the pope john paul ii's body lying in state and officials have said that it will be impossible for visitors arriving now to witness the funeral first hand.

"the city centre cannot take the arrival of any more faithful," guido bertolaso, head of crowd control for the funeral, said today. he added: "anyone arriving tonight or tomorrow will have no possibility of following the funeral at st. peter's."
the city of rome, which is normally home to three million inhabitants, is said to now be focusing its efforts on tightening its security ahead of friday's event. the 200 foreign delegates expected to be present at the funeral are said to be an attractive terrorist target, resulting in the closure of italy's air space over rome during the day, sources have claimed.

speaking to the associated press, an official of the rome prefect's office, which is responsible for coordinating the city's security said: "precautions have been taken for airports, stations and all the other places where people gather." authorities have also increased the number of law enforcement officers in the city centre for the occasion.

 


iranian opposition group declares all acts of current government void

in a document dated march 30, 2005 by a group calling itself "the 70 million people of iran," a declaration was issued asking the current government of the islamic republic of iran to "...peacefully surrender the power to its rightful owners..." by june 16 of this year. the group's relationship to political parties in iran is not known.

the document addresses the supreme leader khamenei, chairman akbar rafsanjani of the expediency council, and president khatami, and enumerates the group's grievances against the regime. it threatens boycotts and blackouts throughout iran on june 10 if there are no indications the regime intends to comply with its demands. copies of the document have been furnished to the leaders of the eu, russia, japan and the united states.

the group alleges that elections that regularly take place in iran are biased:, writing ""your own meaningless and rigged elections will be your undoing,"" but does not seem to propose constitutional changes. it uses words suggesting they plan to use violence, including extrajudicial execution, against the reformist president mohammad khatami and against the conservatives who dominate parliament: ""beginning on june 18 and every day thereafter, we shall strike like a furious flood to cleanse our nation from your filthy existence. ...if you have been so foolish to stay behind, you will experience our rage. retribution will be swift for those who stay behind and stand in our way.""

a separate document to the leaders of the g8 nations asks for their support, and promises armed resistance to the current government of iran on june 18, 2005 if peaceful remonstrances fail to have their intended effect.

the source for the translation and dissemination of the documents into english, french and german calls itself the iran of tomorrow movement (iotm), an exile group operating from encino, california in the united states. the group claims there are "2,195 resistance cells" operating in iran and abroad. 


abc news anchorman peter jennings diagnosed with lung cancer

april 7, 2005

abc news anchorman peter jennings was diagnosed this week with lung cancer. despite beginning out-patient treatment next week which will involve chemotherapy, jennings will continue to front abc's 'world news tonight' show, "to the extent he can do so comfortably", says abc news.

"almost 10 million americans are living with cancer," jennings told abc staff on tuesday. "i am sure i will learn from them how to cope with the facts of life that none of us anticipated." the 66-year-old anchor man, who gave up smoking several years ago, added: "i hope it goes without saying that a journalist who doesn't value deeply the audience's loyalty should be in another line of work."

jennings began his career at abc news in 1964 and in 1983 was made senior editor and anchor of "world news tonight". due to ill health, he was unable to work during his network's special report on the recent death of pope john paul ii.



hackers crack sony psp to allow internet chat, web surfing

sony's recently introduced playstation portable has proved popular with curious geeks who discovered various talents hidden within the new handheld video console.

the biggest 'hack' so far has been the manipulation of a web browser embedded within the psp game 'wipeout pure', which can be easily coaxed into accessing the majority of internet via a suitable portal. jonathan terleski was able to monitor the digital conversation held between his psp and sony's website when the browser in his game 'wipeout pure' would try to download new software from sony via the internet. using a suitably set up dns server, terleski configured his handheld console to access his own custom psp portal, instead of sony's website, and then invited other owners to use his gateway to the web. 

from this discovery, robert balousek later created a web based irc interface that allows people to talk to each other and hold conversations in real time via the internet on their psp consoles. according to reuters, his irc website has to date been used by as many as 100,000 visitors and balousek now plans to introduce a web based interface to the aol instant messaging network for psp users.

other notable recent 'hacks' include reading ebooks and comics and watching pre-recorded television shows, taken from a tivo, on the sony psp.

none of the 'hacks' have yet employed writing custom software for the device. so far, most are spin-offs of jonathon terleski's web browser hack. other hacks, like the ebook reader and television show viewer, are made possible through use of the psp's built in tools for viewing video and images. sony has not yet released an sdk which would allow end-users to write 'homebrew' software, therefore hackers are tied to manipulating software included with the psp or available through the games purchased separately.

speaking to wikinews, jacob metcalf, who documented the web comic's hack on his website, explained his motivation: "web comics are already designed for on-screen reading and they have some of the same audience as people who play games - lots of the most popular web comics are about gamers, like pvp and penny arcade."

he added: "i do wish that [sony] would come out with an actual web browser like the dreamcast had. south korea is going to get a real web browser and i have a feeling in my gut that there is going to be internet software for the psp like a web browser and email announced at e3 this year."



bitmover ends free bitkeeper, replacement sought for managing linux kernel code

april 7, 2005 

bitmover, the company producing a management program for computer source code named bitkeeper (bk), announced on april 5 that it will no longer be providing a free version of its product.

as a result of bitmover's announcement, the programmer who wrote the original linux kernel, linus torvalds, stated on a mailing list that he "decided to not use bk mainly because [he] need[s] to figure out the alternatives". as to an alternative to bitkeeper, torvalds hinted that he is considering monotone but that subversion, a recent replacement for cvs, is out of the running. bitkeeper was originally developed to allow torvalds to manage code contributions more easily, according to jeremy andrews at kerneltrap.org, and was previously provided to kernel developers free of charge, though it was restricted in its use.

bitkeeper is the software that torvalds and hundreds of other linux developers use to manage submissions of code to the linux kernel, the heart of the computer operating systems referred to as "linux" or "gnu/linux". linux is distributed in many different forms, bundled with other software by companies such as red hat, novell, and linspire.

while the details are not clear, it appears from andrews' article that bitmover's decision to stop releasing the free version of bitkeeper is related to a dispute with torvalds' employer, open source development labs (osdl).

according to kerneltrap, an osdl contractor had been reverse engineering the free version of bitkeeper in order to make an open source replacement, which is prohibited by the license under which the free version of bitkeeper is released. nevertheless, torvalds notes in his post that he is "personally very happy with bk, and with larry [mcvoy, the ceo of bitmover]."


western australia apologises to abused wards-of-state

april 7, 2005 

the state premier of western australia (wa), dr geoff gallop, gave an apology to children physically and sexually abused in institutional care within the state between the 1920s and 1970s. the statement was given in reaction to an australian senate inquiry into institutional child abuse published last year.

"we acknowledge our state's history, the role played by the state in providing care for children and particularly past practices in the provision of care," dr gallop told "australian associated press".

"we apologise to all those people who were harmed as children while in institutional care, and express deep regret at the hurt and distress caused. we recognise that the effects of physical, psychological and sexual abuse did not end when these children became adults."

many of the children had been placed in care by government agencies.

"overwhelmingly, the (submissions) make tragic and distressing reading. they tell of neglect, of shocking abuse, of predatory behaviour from so-called carers and of criminal activity," senator mclucas told federal parliament at the time of the "forgotten australians" report, last year.

"the evidence is also there that authorities in the church and in governments either knew or should have known that much of this horrific activity was occurring."

the inquiry found that an apology was an important symbolism in recognising past wrongs and helping victims gain closure, according to an "abc news" report. and dr gallop said the victims' personal histories must be heard and acknowledged in order to build a better care system for the future.

wa's community development minister, sheila mchale, said those wishing to find out about their time in care in wa as children should contact the department for community development, which is also providing counselling services to those who were abused in an institution.


fbi starts investigation of charges of shoddy work on new sf bay bridge

april 7, 2005 
the federal bureau of investigation is investigating allegations of wrongdoing in the building of a new $1.5 billion "skyway" portion of the san francisco-oakland bay bridge, according to a report published in the "oakland tribune." the bridge spans the san francisco bay between oakland and yerba buena island. there are so far no criminal charges filed.

the paper reported that welders for kfm, the company under contract to build the bridge, told authorities they were pressured ? and even paid monthly bonuses of between $200 and $600 ? for performing substandard welds on the support piers for the bridge if it meant the project proceeded faster. but caltrans, the state agency in charge of building the bridge said their inspectors checked the welds and determined the work, although rushed, met safety standards.

"we've got good welds, good procedures and everything is in place to have a quality product. if a defect got in, we can't find it," pete siegenthaler, caltrans project manager told the tribune in an interview. a kfm spokesman told the "tribune" that the welds are in "compliance with stringent caltrans specifications."

according to a report by oakland television station, ktvu, the office of the inspector general of the u.s. department of labor and the u.s. department of transportation are joining the fbi in the investigation of the matter. the federal government is getting involved in the investigation because more than $1 million in u.s. taxpayer money was spent during its construction.

if questionable welds are found in the support piers, according to reports, much of the new construction may have to be torn down to be rebuilt.

the current 68-year-old span was damaged in the 1989 loma prieta earthquake. at $6.2 billion total, the new bridge qualifies as the largest public works project in california's history.



separatists fail to stop re-opening of kashmir bus service

april 7, 2005
a bus service successfully crossed the disputed region of kashmir today despite coming under attack early on in its journey. it is believed islamic separatists launched grenades at the indian run bus minutes after it left a station in srinagar, although the coach continued on to muzaffarabad after it survived without damage. whilst its passengers escaped unhurt, the attack is understood to have injured four other people, including a policeman. indian authorities also located and defused at least one explosive device placed along the bus route.

the service, the first of its kind in almost 60 years, transported pakistani and indian kashmiris across the conflict torn region, passing the cease fire line between india and pakistan, dubbed the 'line of control'. the bus trips, which run to and from srinagar and muzaffarabad, are seen as a major step forward in the growing peaceful relations between india and pakistan. the two nuclear powers both seek to control the kashmir region, which has been a flashpoint for conflict for over 50 years. 

"a door has opened," said indian prime minister manmohan singh today as the bus set off from srinagar. "pakistan and especially president general pervez musharraf have helped us open this door and without their support, the door would not have opened. this is the beginning of a new phase. violence is not going to solve any problems." 

anti-indian separatist kashmiri militants have branded the return of bus service as a "betrayal of peace", according to reports.

earlier this week, guerrillas attacked a government safe house where the bus' passengers were said to be staying.




brazilian cardinal criticizes president after inquired about brazilian pope

april 8, 2005<br>

brazilian cardinal dom eusebio oscar scheid, archbishop of , harshly criticized brazilian president luiz inacio lula da silva after arriving in rome on tuesday. the criticism was in response to a journalist from the brazilian newspaper "o estado de sao paulo" who asked if it was now time for brazil to have a after having a worker president.

dom eusebio said: "no, don't put lula [the brazilian presidente luiz inacio lula da silva] in this story, not yet. you'll mess up everything because he and the holy spirit don't agree that well. do you think that he knows the holy spirit?"

eusebio, commenting on the brazilian president's opinions about the new pope, said "lula shouldn't try to interfere or give hunches." he also added that, "lula doesn't have a straight faith. his attitudes are not logical under our faith. his faith isn't cultivated. lula is not catholic, he is chaotic."

he went on to criticize the government, saying "lula is very poorly advised. we are almost under a dictatorship because everybody is from pt [the workers' party]... i have some doubts about lula's words. politicians say one thing one time and they say other things later."

on brazilian foreign policy, archbishop eusebio said: "it is extremely towards the left... [i think about the visit of president lula da silva to in ] that they were two fools meeting each other. the left has never benefited anyone. look at , and cuba."

the brazilian cardinal dom eusebio oscar scheid has been discussed as a possible , or one who could become pope, though he has said "nobody wants to be pope. who wants to be pope?"

until wednesday, the brazilian government declined to comment on dom eusebio's interview.

dom eusebio oscar scheid, along with dom claudio hummes who is archbishop of , tried to play down the statements on wednesday. dom eusebio said of the interview, it was made on an inappropriate occasion, after a long, tiring flight and that he didn't want to disrespect the government. according to dom eusebio, the succession of john paul ii is not a subject which the president should address. dom claudio said that president lula "is" catholic, in his way. 

dom eusebio oscar scheid is 73. he will take part on the that will choose the new pope. dom claudio hummes, 71, is seen as a serious latin-american candidate to the succession of pope john paul ii.



australia appeals for no execution in indonesian drug case

a 27-year-old former beauty student from the gold coast of australia faces the death penalty. she was allegedly caught at bali airport importing marijuana from australia in october. appearing before an indonesian judge after authorities found 4.1kg of high-grade cannabis in her unlocked boarding bag, she could be sentenced to death by firing squad, the maximum penalty for the crime.

with that possibility looming for ms. corby, her father journeyed to her side, and an anonymous email petition was distributed around australia and overseas, calling on the australian government to ensure that, innocent or guilty, ms. corby is returned to australia to escape execution.

an australian witness who volunteered information which he says will endanger his own life, has testified that schapelle corby was unwittingly caught up in a domestic australian drug-running operation gone wrong. the man alleged that australian airport workers had placed the contraband in her luggage after it had been checked-in, with the drugs to have been removed before the luggage left australia. 

ms. corby, who says she is innocent of the charges, staggered and paused to vomit while being led through a throng of journalists watching her trial in jakarta, indonesia, earlier today.

"i'm really sick," ms. corby told densbar's head judge linton sirait, who told her to take better care of herself in jail so she would not get diarrhea. "don't be stressed," judge sirait added as he adjourned the trial until april 14.

her sister said a doctor would visit her in prison to assess her condition. her father, suffering with prostate cancer, said it was difficult to watch his daughter struggling so hard when things were nearing the "nitty-gritty now."

he added: "the stress and the whole thing and the stomach cramps and the nerves. it's getting on top of her."

australian politicians, noting the public support thrown behind the gold coast citizen, are promising to take her case up on several issues with the indonesian attorney-general later today. however, mr. corby expressed doubts that politicians could work things out: "it depends on what they call justice here [in indonesia]. it looks a bit fairyland to me."

"everything's reversed here. you're guilty until you're proven innocent," commented mr. corby in indonesia. indonesian president susilo bambang yudhoyono is said to be monitoring the case to ensure the court hands down a just and fair verdict.



wikimedia announces yahoo! support

april 8, 2005

the wikimedia foundation and yahoo! announced on thursday they reached an agreement by which yahoo! will provide hosting capacity to wikimedia. 

yahoo! will dedicate a significant number of servers in one of its asian facilities for hosting wikimedia's free content websites. jimmy wales, ceo of the wikimedia foundation, says this generous donation will be of particular benefit to the vibrant and growing community of wikipedia users in that part of the world.

the yahoo! donation is a gesture of support for the charitable goals of the wikimedia foundation, and does not imply any ownership of the content. they do not expect wikimedia to host advertisements in return for this support.

as of april 7, yahoo! will also test the integration of wikipedia content in its french-language "yahoo! search" shortcuts, to be followed by other languages to accommodate users in asia, latin america, europe, and the united states. the shortcuts will show contextually relevant abstracts of wikipedia articles in response to user queries.

yahoo! is one of the wikimedia foundation's earliest corporate supporters. the relationship began last year with yahoo!'s integration of wikipedia into its content acquisition program.



space shuttle discovery photographed from iss

april 7, 2005 
"expedition 10" commander leroy chiao, on board the international space station (iss), caught a candid shot of the shuttle craft discovery on its way to launch pad 39-b at the kennedy space center.

chiao used a digital camera from an altitude of 220 statute miles to photograph discovery during its roll out in preparation for the first launch of a shuttle in the two years since the columbia disaster. the shot was made at 4:35 eastern daylight time when the iss flew over the launch site.

two pads at launch complex 39 are visible in the image. discovery's launch pad, 39-b, is on the left.
inset points to discovery.


at least four killed by bomb thrown from motorcycle in cairo

april 7, 2005

four people were killed today after a bomb was hurled into a busy bazaar in cairo, egypt. the blast occurred near the al-azhar mosque and injured at least an additional 18 people. the bomb is thought to have been thrown from a passing motorcycle, which then landed amongst crowds of tourists and shoppers gathered on al-moski street, in cairo's ancient muslim centre.

rabab rifaat, an egyptian woman who witnessed the carnage, said she heard "a boom, a horrible sound, very loud", immediately before seeing body parts flying through the air.

the explosion was followed by a grisly scene, according to doctors who say a french female tourist killed by the bomb arrived at a local hospital in an "unrecognizable state". at least one man died of his injuries later in hospital, sources claim, while hundreds of police sealed off the scene. the egyptian government later confirmed that four french, three americans, an italian, a turk and nine egyptians were injured in the blast.

the al-azhar mosque is regarded as being an important islamic learning institution. last october, 34 people died when islamic militants bombed several hotels in the sinai peninsula, targeting tourist hotspots in egypt.

egyptian officials are continuing to investigate the attack.



us house committee approves daylight saving time amendment

the u.s. house energy and commerce committee passed an amendment on wednesday to extend daylight saving time by two months. the bipartisan measure is sponsored by representative , republican of michigan, and representative ed markey, democrat of massachusetts.

"the more daylight we have, the less electricity we use," representative ed markey said. markey also supported the measure by pointing out the business benefits. "there's more economic activity, because people feel they can walk around safely," he said.

"extending daylight-saving time makes sense, especially with skyrocketing energy costs," rep. fred upton said.

the bill extends daylight saving time to begin on the first sunday in march and to end on the last sunday in november. daylight saving time currently begins on the first sunday in april and ends on the first sunday in october.

the estimates that extending daylight saving time would save 10,000 barrels of oil per day. the united states consumes approximately 20 million barrels of oil per day.

the house is planning to approve the energy bill to which the amendment was attached in several weeks. several other amendments to the bill are still being debated.



fda mandates &quot;black box&quot; for celebrex, pulls bextra off market

april 7, 2005

drug giant pfizer’s two blockbuster cox-2 inhibitor drugs, celebrex and bextra, were both cited by the food and drug administration for safety problems, particularly for long term users.

last thursday the fda allowed pfizer to keep celebrex on the market if it added the “black box” warning to the physicians’ guideline. this warning is the strongest the fda can give to doctors, and focuses on the increased chances of cardiovascular problems and gastrointestinal bleeding. doctors should use the lowest possible dosage of celebrex and for the shortest time necessary, it adds.

meanwhile, bextra was taken off the market today. bextra users were told to stop taking the drug, according to reports.

pfizer agreed to mandates by a blue ribbon panel of specialists, convened in february, to review the risks associated with the popular cox-2 class of painkillers. the pills are taken by 50 million people worldwide.

the actions by the fda are attributed to charges the agency was too slow and allowed manufacturers to report problems voluntarily. it also comes as other experimental cox-2 drugs emerge, such as merck’s arcoxia and novartis’s prexige, and seems to raise the requirements for their future approval.

critics said the cox-2 inhibitors were over-prescribed and offered no more relief than cheaper over the counter medications such as ibuprofen.

pfizer inc "(nyse symbol pfe)" was trading at 26.90 at close on thursday, up 0.15%

 


ethiopia plans to expand country's internet access

at an information technology conference in addis ababa, prime minister meles zenawi of ethiopia vowed to offer universal internet connectivity in the country within three years. the government is working with a united states technology company to fulfill this promise.

the government will invest us$40 million in the venture, which will lay nearly 10,000 of cable. ethiopia currently ranks low in internet penetration, with just 30,000 connections available for its 71 million inhabitants. part of the program is the installation of internet access at 450 secondary schools throughout the country.

zenawi explained the change of heart that led to the decision to invest in this infrastructure project. "not long ago many of us felt that we were too poor to seriously invest in information and communication technology," he said at the conference. "we were convinced that we should invest every penny we have on securing the next meal for our people. we did not believe serious investment in ict had anything to do with facing the challenges of poverty that kills. now i think we know better," he explained to the delegates.

not everyone thinks that the government knows better. giovani peri, assistant professor of economics at university of california, davis, specializes in macroeconomics and growth theory. peri believes that the ethiopian government may be misguided in its direct investment in the build-up of information technology, and should instead create incentives for the private sector to build such infrastructure.

professor peri likened the internet access project to previous failed attempts by african governments to stimulate growth via large-scale projects. "[african governments] in the past tried to build airports ... in the middle of desolation." ? but people need to know that the environment is right for business, he said, not just a good airport. he said that the investment in internet access might be too early for that country, and that before it is built, the country needs a good educational system to get the scientific community involved in the process of building technology infrastructure.

ethiopia's population is mostly rural, and over half of the population is illiterate. the country's per capita is us$560.



first iraq medal of honor recipient receives memorial headstone at arlington

us army sergeant first class paul ray smith was honored at a ceremony on april 5 at arlington national cemetery, where a memorial headstone was unveiled by his widow birgit, and their two children jessica, 18, and david, 11.

the headstone is a special, gold-lettered memorial tombstone, one of only six such markers to be found in arlington. the inscription states, "in memory of paul ray smith...his spirit lives forever."

smith was honored posthumously by president george w. bush on april 4, 2005 with the highest citation for valor that can be bestowed by the us armed forces, the medal of honor, for his actions during operation iraqi freedom on april 4, 2003, the day of his death. during a ceremony in the white house, president bush presented the award to smith's family and described him as "a soldier whose service illustrates the highest ideals of leadership and love of our country."

smith's death occurred while leading a defensive battle against over 100 of saddam hussein's republican guard. while attempting to build a holding area for enemy prisoners of war about a mile from baghdad international airport, smith and the three dozen men he commanded in the 3rd infantry division were surprised and outnumbered. 

during the medal of honor ceremony at the white house, president bush said, "with complete disregard for his own life and under constant enemy fire, sergeant smith rallied his men and led a counterattack. seeing that his wounded men were in danger of being overrun, and that enemy fire from the watchtower had pinned them down, sergeant smith manned a 50-caliber machine gun atop a damaged armor vehicle. from a completely exposed position, he killed as many as 50 enemy soldiers as he protected his men."

"sergeant smith's leadership saved the men in the courtyard, and he prevented an enemy attack on the aid station just up the road. sergeant smith continued to fire...until he took a fatal round to the head. his actions in that courtyard saved the lives of more than 100 american soldiers...we count ourselves blessed to have soldiers like sergeant smith, who put their lives on the line to advance the cause of freedom and protect the american people."

the us army has revealed many details about smiths' actions that day. while his commander was on a reconnaissance mission, he led the defence of his platoon (and the mortar team, scouts and medical aid station based nearby) by throwing a grenade, firing rockets and firing his own weapon. after a bradley fighting vehicle was forced to withdraw from multiple rocket-propelled-grenade strikes and a lack of ammunition, he ordered another soldier to reverse an armoured personnel carrier back into the scene of the fight, whose original crew had been incapacitated moments before by a mortar. smith then engaged the attacking iraqi troops using its roof-mounted un-armoured .50-calibre machine gun, knowing it was the heaviest weapon between the attackers and the troops behind him. smith fired over 300 rounds before he was killed. the us army states that his actions killed 20-50 iraqi troops, and that his actions saved the many us troops stationed nearby.

in an unmailed letter home, smith said that he was ready to give "all that i am to ensure that my boys make it home". his medal of honor citation was given, "for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty."

smith was also the first ever to earn a medal of honor flag, a new award which will be given to all future medal of honor recipients since being authorized by congress in a 2002 law. the flag is a simple design that consists of a blue field, fringed with gold, containing 13 white stars, similar to the medal of honor ribbon. 



cambridge, mass., city council recommends construction firm w. r. grace remain under dep supervision for asbestos contamination

the cambridge city council adopted a resolution on april 4 to request that the us department of environmental protection (dep) "take explicit account" of the activities of local construction firm w. r. grace, which has previously contaminated an industrial area near the alewife train station with asbestos. the council cited grace's "extraordinarily extensive and well-documented history of contaminating sites and concealing the contamination" as the reason for its request.

the resolution was a reaction to a response action outcome statement and risk characterization (rao) that w. r. grace filed with the dep. the cambridge chronicle recently took the filing as evidence that "the state seems poised to stop watching over" the contaminated site.

in february, w.r. grace was indicted by a federal grand jury for contamination as a product of vermiculite mining operations in libby, montana, usa. the company was also charged with "concealing information about the health affects [sic] of its asbestos mining operations."



sex, mental and physical exercise, fight dementia

professor perry bartlett of university of queensland's brain institute recommends sex, cryptic crosswords and a good run to stave off dementia.

the researcher, interviewed on australian abc radio today , said that with 52,000 australians expected to be diagnosed with dementia by the end of the year, people wishing to ward off the degenerative disorder may benefit from activities which stimulate growth of new cells in the brain, accompanied by mental exercise to select for survival of the resulting crop of new cells.

"quite prolonged exercise is very good to make new neurones," said the professor. "these new nerve cells are really quite vital to our ability to function in the higher brain functions, such as memory and learning. most of them die. we now know that we can preserve some of them by giving direct stimuli."

professor bartlett explained recent research findings, including those from collaborator jeffrey d. macklis at harvard in the us.

"there are a lot of hormones and changes in blood that go up and down after exercise, and so that may be a lead to some of the chemicals that can drive the production of nerve cells.

"one of the chemicals that seems to promote neurogenesis is prolactin, and prolactin levels are very high in pregnant females. prolactin levels, by the way, also go up during sex as well. so one could think of a number of more entertaining activities than running in order to regulate the production of nerve cells.

"perhaps doing something a little more inquisitive or intellectual might be good at selecting their survival. so perhaps one should run a long distance and do the cryptic crossword or something like that," he said.

professor bartlett gave the same suggestions as being potentially helpful in depression, last year in an interview on the abc "science show". 

 


police search home of las vegas woman who found finger in her chili at wendy's


"they put guns to us and handcuffed us and threw us to the ground in front of all my neighbors," ayala told the "san francisco chronicle" on thursday evening. "they treated us like trash, like terrorists. it's the worst nightmare," ayala said.

"i've been dragged through the mud. we've been treated like animals. i've been through too much," ayala told the "san jose mercury news" on thursday evening.

although police have not named ayala as a suspect in the case, "san francisco abc 7" is reporting that the search warrant may be related to ayala's dead aunt. ayala disputed the abc 7 report.

"i would like to know who she is and why i wasn't invited to her funeral," ayala told the "las vegas review-journal". ayala stated that she does not have a dead aunt. she also denied reports that a cooler had been seized from her home during the search. ayala also said that her teenage daughter, genesis reyes, had torn shoulder ligaments as a result of the search. the "las vegas review-journal" ran a photo of reyes wearing a sling in their friday edition.

however, ken bono, a friend of the ayala family, told the "las vegas review-journal" that police had taken a cooler during the search.

"basically they kicked the door open. they pulled everything out of the closet," her roommate told a las vegas news crew, in a report aired on "nbc11 news".

in san jose, police spokeswoman gina tepoorten confirmed to reporters that investigators had served the warrant in cooperation with las vegas police on wednesday, but she refused to reveal specific details about the warrant.

"we're going to conduct a thorough investigation into this case and our investigators are talking to everybody involved, and that includes customers at wendy's at the time as well as the finder of the finger," tepoorten said.

wendy's is offering a us$50,000 reward for information leading to the source of the finger.

"it's very important to our company to find out the truth in this incident," tom mueller, wendy's president and chief operating officer told "associated press". "we believe someone knows exactly what happened, and hopefully the reward will encourage this person to come forward."

wendy's claims that their internal investigation shows that the finger did not end up in ayala's chili through any of the ingredients in their supply chain.

"with all the facts we have, we find no credible evidence to indicate that wendy's was the source of the foreign object," mueller said.

business has fallen off dramatically at wendy's outlets in northern california since the finger was discovered on march 22.

"this has been an ordeal for all of us. hopefully there will be a resolution soon," wendy's spokesman bob bertini said.

the wendy's outlet where the finger was found, located at 1405 monterey highway, just south of downtown san jose, is owned by fresno-based jern management.


future british monarch prince charles marries camilla parker bowles

today at 11:30 utc his royal highness the prince of wales married camilla parker bowles in a civil ceremony at windsor guildhall. the union was blessed at 13:30 utc in a church ceremony at st george's chapel, windsor castle. local police estimated that 20,000 people lined the street of windsor in order to catch a glimpse of the royal party.

the civil ceremony was attended by 

prince william and tom parker bowles formally witnessed the marriage.

at 6pm the couple left windsor castle for raf northolt, where an aircraft from the queen's flight took them to aberdeen in scotland to begin their honeymoon.

the wedding had suffered from a series of delays and changes to arrangements.

initially the couple had been planning to use windsor castle for the ceremony, but were unable to do so since it was not licensed for civil ceremonies. after it moved to windsor guildhall, the queen decided not to attend, immediately generating rumors of a royal snub.

the wedding had originally been scheduled for friday april 8, 2005. however, the prince of wales's commitment to attend the funeral of required that the wedding be postponed until the following day.



bill clinton to visit romania

bill clinton, the former president of the united states of america, will make a visit to romania on may 21, to participate as the keynote speaker at the beyondborders 2005 conference in bucharest. the conference will have the theme of "branding a country: building a reputation from within" and is the inaugural beyondborders conference launched by the brand academy, the first romanian institution dedicated to brand education.

clinton's previous visit to romania was july 11, 1997, when he visited the country to promote political and military integration around the time of the nato summit. he was the first us president to visit romania since the romanian revolution of 1989 that overthrew the communist regime.

the beyondborders 2005 conference will focus on strategies to brand romania and promote it to the world. in recent years, romania has realised the need for branding and for improving its image in the world in order to fuel prosperity. branding would focus on building a reputation a positive reputation for the country abroad and emphasising its authentic values. the conference organisers hope that it will act as a springboard for an integrated national branding project for romania.


romanian president meets with eu officials in bucharest

the president of romania, , met yesterday with jonathan scheele, the head of the european commission's delegation to bucharest, as well as with several european parliamentarians (meps). the parties discussed romania's accession to the eu, which is particularly important as the accession treaty is scheduled to be signed late this month, after being voted on by the european parliament on april 13.

b?sescu told the delegation that european integration remains romania's first priority at the moment, and that after negotiations were closed with the eu in december 2004, accession became a matter of internal politics rather than foreign affairs.

the meps talked to b?sescu about public opinion regarding eu accession in romania, as well as the impact of accession on the rural population. judging from recent polls, the overwhelming majority of romania's population approve eu accession, even though this may be partly due to the fact that many of them have not been adequately informed of the costs of accession. the parliamentarians also discussed the environment and the situation in neighbouring countries, especially moldova. was also discussed in the context of promoting romania's image to european union citizens.

the delegation also discussed with b?sescu a key issue in romania's accession process: judicial reform. the romanian president told the meps that romania has taken bold steps to reform its judiciary and fight . there is also progress towards forming an anti-corruption department within the internal ministry of romania.

as part of romania's foreign policy, b?sescu also said that, once a member of the european union, romania would act as an advocate for other states wishing to join the organisation, as well as seeking to attract public attention to the broader region. romania and bulgariaare the most advanced countries in southeastern europe in terms of eu integration, and will therefore be the first countries in this region to join the 25-nation bloc.


romanian pm and siemens discuss electroputere privatisation

the romanian prime minister, c?lin popescu-t?riceanu discussed on thursday the involvement of siemens in regard to the privatisation of romanian locomotive company electroputere. 

electroputere, which is based in the southern romanian city of craiova, remains one of the largest state-owned companies in romania after the fairly rapid privatisation process of 2003 and 2004. there have been attempts to privatise the locomotive manufacturer for a long time, yet all of them failed. however, gabriel zbircea, the president of the authority for the recovery of state assets (avas) declared in march of this year that they would resume the privatisation process by dividing the company into four divisions, each to be sold separately. 

siemens is expected to be a major potential buyer of electroputere, especially regarding the magnitude of deals in transport infrastructure that the romanian government has conducted up until now with the german corporation.

 


funeral of pope john paul ii takes place

the funeral of pope john paul ii took place today in vatican city, in front of st. peter's basilica. the pope died on april 2 after a long battle with parkinson's disease and several other health problems.

over four million people went to rome to attend the funeral. the number of people present was so large that it was not possible for everybody to gain access to the funeral in st. peter's square. several large television screens were installed in various places in rome to let the people watch the ceremony. in many other cities of italy and in the rest of the world, particularly in poland, similar setups were made, which were viewed by a great number of people.

a large number of high-ranking representatives of many countries, as well as many representatives of the roman catholic church and of several other churches, were present at the ceremony. among these were u.s. president george w. bush, iranian president mohammad khatami, and french president jacques chirac.
the high number of people present in rome and the presence of many important heads of state caused serious logistical and security problems for the italian government.

speculation has already emerged that the late pope may soon be made a saint; he has been referred to as "the great," a title only bestowed on three of his 263 predecessors - and on none since the ninth century; many pilgrims in the crowd chanted "santo! santo!," expressing their desire for him to be elevated to this stature. some pilgrims held banners reading "santo subito", meaning "sainthood now."

following the funeral, the body of the pope was laid to rest beneath st. peter's basilica in a private ceremony. buried with him was a bag of commemorative medals and a scroll with an account of his life.




cairo blast kills 3

april 8, 2005 

visitors to popular tourist spots are warned to avoid large groups, the us embassy in cairo said in a statement issued today. a bomb blast yesterday in a cairo bazaar killed 3 and injured 18. police are still investigating the cause of the blast which appears to be the work of a single individual.

egyptian minister of tourism, ahmed al-maghrabi, in an effort to calm the public told reporters, "people should not be scared away from this country." the explosion killed an american tourist, a french woman and the person who was probably the bomber.

the explosion occurred at al-moski bazaar near the al-azhar mosque, a popular tourist destination. the bomb was packed with nails, obliterating the person who detonated it. 9 people remain hospitalized, and nobody has claimed responsibility for the blast.



msn encarta introduces wiki-like enhancements

, 

microsoft's encarta has announced the addition of a blog as well as some wiki-like functionality to the online subscription encyclopedia.
encarta is welcoming revision suggestions from their users, but they have a disclaimer:

when the changes are implemented at "encarta", readers can click an "edit this article" link to have their contribution reviewed by editors at microsoft for possible use. 

the web enhancement has introduced a minor security glitch for the subscription service. when trying to look up an article on encarta as a non-subscriber, web surfers receive a teaser page suggesting the user sign up for a subscription . however, using the editor url for the same article will get a wysiwyg display of the article requested; a simple way around the subscription requirement .


in an interview with jimmy wales, founder of wikipedia, on friday he suggested the two are not the same, and encarta's model will not be able to do what wikipedia does.







spam mailer gets 9 year jail sentence

a , usa jury found a man, described as one of the top ten spammers in the world, guilty on friday of the felony crime of using an alias to send massive bulk e-mailings. the 9 year prison sentence handed down by the jury was put on hold by the circuit judge thomas horne, allowing the perpetrator, jeremy jaynes of , , to seek an appeal.

jaynes, who used the alias “gaven stubberfield” as well as others, peddled junk products and pornography. prosecutors say he grossed up to $750,000 a month by sending at least 10 million emails a day using 16 high-speed lines. 

the case was prosecuted in virginia because it is the home to the leading aol, the company who instigated the charges. this is the first time a conviction has been gained using the legislation enacted in 2003 to curb bulk e-mail, aka , from unsolicited distribution into users mailboxes. 

jaynes remains free on a $1 million bond while his case is appealed. prosecutors differed with his attorneys on the prospects of jaynes winning his appeal.

his attorney, david oblon, though never denying that his client was in the “marketing” business, argued that nine years was too long to sentence an out of state resident for a law that had taken effect just two weeks earlier.

"we have no doubt that we will win on appeal," oblon told reporters. "therefore any sentence is somewhat moot. still, the sentence is not what we recommended and we're disappointed."

prosecuter lisa hicks-thomas said she was pleased with the outcome and confident the law would be upheld on appeal.


music promoter mean fiddler sold for almost ￡38m


mean fiddler plc, one of the most successful music promoters in the uk and ireland has today agreed to be taken over by the irish owned gaiety investments (owner of mcd promotions) and us based clear channel communications. the deal values mean fiddler at stg￡37.9m (?55.3m; us$71.4m) or ￡0.60 a share. it will be an all cash transaction.

mean fiddler was founded in 1982 by vince power, a native of county waterford, ireland. the company, which started life as a small but trendy club in london, grew rapidly in the 1980's to encompass a french restaurant and three venues in london; the acoustic room, the powerhaus and subterania.

today the company regularly organises some of the largest music events in europe. it runs the reading and leeds music festivals and also owns a 39% stake in the glastonbury festival.


 

eric rudolph pleads guilty to avoid death sentence

rudolph will plead guilty to a string of bombings ? an in , georgia; a , women's clinic in 1998. he was facing trial on other bombing charges including a lesbian night club and another women's clinic, both in the atlanta area.

although one of the victims said she thought the plea bargain put too little penalty on rudolf for his crimes, prosecutors said it was better to make a deal to put rudolf in prison for life and protect others from future attack.


maine, usa, land use regulatory commission approves reconstruction of camps on protected allagash river

the maine land use regulatory commission (lurc) affirmed on april 6 its previous finding that two cabins on the allagash river in northern maine would be permitted to be rebuilt, the bangor daily news reports. the commission's initial decision had been appealed; with this decision, the appeal is rejected. the construction is contentious because the river has been protected by the state since 1966. according to the paper, the commission noted that the task of rebuilding the cabins had been listed in the 2003 river driver's agreement. the only mention of the so-called taylor camps in the 3-page agreement is as follows, under the heading "creation of historical/cultural visitor center": "explore idea of michaud farm historic place, that could involve restoration of taylor camps and historical demonstrations--canoe access only."

according to the maine bureau of parks and lands, the taylor camps are three log cabins built in the 1930s by henry and alice taylor. mr. taylor worked as the allagash game warden. the bangor daily news noted that the other buildings in the area, such as the michaud farm, are not included in the permit that was granted this week.

local resident gary pelletier began reconstructing the cabins in the summer of 2004, but was halted by the appeal of the permit granted by lurc, according to the bangor daily news. now that the appeal has been rejected, pelletier will resume work. pelletier is quoted by the bangor daily news as saying "we're going to gear up," in reference to his preparations for the reconstruction, allagash resident and town selectman roy gardner that there was an ice jam in the river that he estimated was "ten feet thick" earlier this week, according to an article on april 6 in the daily news.


hundreds arrested following pro-democratic rally in nepal

april 8, 2005
more than 500 activists, journalists, lawyers and students were arrested friday in nepal, whilst protesting against king gyanendra's take-over of the country's government. human rights groups have now called for a un investigation into alleged abuses of civil liberties after king gyanendra declared a state of emergency at the start of february.

"we see no sign that the rule of law is being restored," nicolas howen, secretary general of the international commission of jurists, said. "the appalling violence against civilians carried out by the maoists and security forces continues and the democratic parties, human rights organisations and the media are still intimidated and controlled." 

the state of emergency was initiated to properly tackle nepal's maoist rebels who, according to king gyanendra, seek to replace the monarchy with a communist republic. fears are now growing that violence in the country will continue to increase and insurgency in nepal has claimed the lives of at least 11,000 people since 1996. arjun karki, president of the federation of non-governmental organisations in nepal said today: "if they are suppressed, those who support democracy are forced to use other means. so those who repress democracy should really consider their actions first."

elsewhere in nepal today, soldiers repelled a rebel assault on one of their bases in the country's northwest, say reports. 



un forced to cut food rations to a million sudanese

april 9, 2005

the un's world food programme says it has received just us$275m of the us$468m it believes is needed to feed two million people in the darfur region of sudan. the shortfall will force the organisation to halve its non-cereal daily rations to ensure supplies will last through the coming summer period.

"we are very concerned about the negative effect this drastic ration cut will have on the health and psychological well-being of thousands of people, who are already weakened and traumatised by war," said carlos veloso, wfp's emergency co-ordinator for darfur.

according to the un, at least 180,000 people have died and more than two million have fled the conflict torn region of darfur since fighting between black african rebels and arab militia broke out in 2003. emmanuel akwei addo, the un's independent human rights expert in the sudan, claimed yesterday that the 2000 african union troops present in the remote region were unable to reverse the deterioration of security in darfur.

he added: "the present situation in darfur is said to be a time bomb, which could explode at any moment. the rebels have grown more intransigent, and security on the ground is getting worse. aerial bombardment still goes on."




german wikipedia dvd sells out first 10,000-copy run

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directmedia publishing, a german publishing house founded in 1995 that specializes in digital media, announced the release of a dvd of the german wikipedia earlier this week. the dvd may be purchased online (via sites like amazon.de) for around 10 euros, and a free download of the dvd image will be available in a few days for those who prefer to burn their own copies. the dvd includes built-in software, , for browsing and searching through its content.

this new project follows the successful publication of a last october, which distributed over 10,000 physical copies and saw over 100,000 downloads of the cd image. directmedia worked with wikipedia editors over the months leading up to the release to finalize and update the dvd content, hosting a tagging party at their headquarters in amtsgericht berlin-charlottenburg, germany.

the announcement of the release came on april 6, five days after the dvd was first available for online purchase. by the end of the next day, the dvd was the best-selling software package on amazon.

by april 9, all 10,000 copies of the dvd's first production run had been
sold or shipped to resellers. another production of 10,000 copies is scheduled for april 13th. the complete dvd image should be available for free download in a few more days; the project page on the german wikipedia will be updated as soon as the image is available.





pope's brazilian cousins lament his death

pope john paul ii has a brazilian cousin living in rio grande do sul, brazil. he is joao woidyla, 83, and he came to brazil in 1914, before john paul ii was born in march, 18, 1920.

according to the story told by local news agencies, the pope's last
name was woidyla too, like joao's. the pope changed it to wojty?a when he left poland to avoid political persecution. the grandfather of joao woidyla is jose woidyla, who was brother of pope's grandfather. joao's family discovered the relationship when karol was elected pope. the pope himself recognized the relationship and sent him a letter.

pope john paul ii has other cousins in brazil too: isidoro, alfreda, genoveva (joao's wife) and bolessuaf.

bolessuaf, 86, likes to read the card written in polish that he received from his cousin, the pope.

"a great man, who always fought for the good of the others", he adds.

joao and his wife genoveva met the pope john paul ii during his visit to brazil in 1980.

the cousins got very sad when they heard that the pope was gone. "to me, he seems to be a brother, more than my own brother ", said isidoro. joao said about the pope: "i think he did the work what should be done. i hope the next one works like him". he added: "it is like to lose a father, i am very sad".

according to "folha de sao paulo", brazilian government invited joao to take part in the funeral of the pope. he declined saying that he is afraid of flying in airplanes.


angola: marburg virus still spreading, 180 dead

marburg virus is still spreading in angola, and 180 are now dead, according to recent information from the world health organisation (who). the disease is similar to the ebola haemorrhagic fever (ehf) virus in its symptoms, though less deadly and slower to spread ? which has lead to more deaths overall. because marburg kills more slowly, a victim has more time to make contact with potential hosts.

the incurable, though not always fatal, disease is passed on by contact with bodily fluids, including spit and blood. victims bleed to death.

as of yesterday, 205 cases had been identified, with at least 180 fatalities. the disease is now present in seven of angola's provinces, the latest outbreak occurring in zaire province with six cases. the proportion of deaths in this outbreak was unusually high. 

according to the who, "the dramatic symptoms of marburg haemorrhagic fever and its frequent fatality are resulting in a high level of fear, which is further aggravated by a lack of public understanding of the disease."

mobile surveillance teams in uige, where the majority of cases have been located , were unable to investigate several reported deaths, or to ensure the still-contagious bodies were appropriately dealt with, after transportation vehicles were attacked and damaged by local residents.

said the who through a press release, "because the disease has no cure, hospitalization is not associated with a favourable outcome, and confidence in the medical care system has been eroded.

"who is familiar with such reactions, which have been seen during previous outbreaks of the closely related ebola haemorrhagic fever. two medical anthropologists are already in uige and will be joined shortly by experts in social mobilization from angola, the democratic republic of congo, and mozambique. public compliance with control measures is not expected to improve in the absence of intense campaigns to educate the public about the disease."

provincial authorities were being engaged in an attempt to urgently find solutions.

who was appealing, via the united nations (un), for funding. the un health body currently needs us$2.4 million to support the ministry of health, angola.

some 50 international experts were deployed in angola, a country where 27 years of civil war has left health systems and staff unable to cope with a major epidemic, according to mike ryan, director of who's alert and response operations.

"the situation right now in angola is not under control yet...this is still a health crisis at the national level and requires a profound commitment both from national authorities and the international community in order to contain this disease," he said.

two deaths had been confirmed in luanda, angola's capital of 4 million, and six more cases were being investigated there.


bush epa nominee abandons insecticide-on-children study after senate hearing

following a senate hearing in which the bush administration’s nominee for epa administrator, stephen johnson, stoutly defended his plan to pay parents to document the effects on infants of insecticide use in the home, he reversed course and stopped the program.

among the original requirements for the 60 families requested to be participants in the “children’s health environmental exposure research study” (cheers) study according to epa were that they must:
this original version of the requirements can be viewed in the internet archive, a free online repository that creates copies of websites on a regular basis. the third requirement was reworded by november 2004, according to the internet archive: "maintain your normal pesticide or non-pesticide use patterns for your household. we will not ask any parent to apply pesticides in their home to be a part of this study."

according to the above document, the area of jacksonville/duval county was chosen for reasons of existing year-round high usage of pesticides and other household chemicals within the home, as well as relevant data from existing prior studies. the study involved researchers visiting the home of participants, parents videotaping their children's activities with a supplied camcorder, children wearing a small "activity sensor", and parents collecting food and urine samples for detailed analysis of the effects of chemical exposure to common commercially available chemicals, primarily pesticides, on which "current information... is very limited" . 

selection for the study began in fall 2004. as incentives for their participation in the planned two-year study, parents were to be given $970, a t-shirt, and other gifts, and would have kept the video camera at its conclusion.

complaining that the study was necessary, johnson yielded to two democratic senators who had threatened to block him, using all means available, from officially taking the helm of the environmental protection agency, of which he is the acting head. the block on his nomination was lifted afterwards although some democratic senators would not say how they would vote on the final nomination.

under his guidance, the epa agreed to accept $2 million for the controversial $9 million cheers study from an industry trade group, the american chemistry council, which represents the chemical insecticide manufacturers. the study was to be conducted with the cooperation of the duval county health department, and the us centers for disease control and prevention, based in atlanta.

senators barbara boxer (d-ca) and bill nelson, (d-fla), demanded the cancellation of the study as proof of johnson’s acknowledgement of what she called a "gross error in judgment".

“the cheers program was a reprehensible idea that never should have made it out of the boardroom, and i am just happy that it was stopped before any children were put in harms way," boxer said. she added that testing on humans should not be a part of any united states environmental policy.

"i am very pleased that mr. johnson has recognized the gross error in judgment the epa made when they concocted this immoral program to test pesticides on children," boxer said.

work on the study was halted last november by johnson while an independent review of the study's design was conducted at his request. part of the reason for the study's current cancellation was what the epa in its press release has termed "mischaracterization" of the nature of the study as though children were being deliberately sprayed with pesticides.

johnson defended his approach, "i have concluded that the study cannot go forward, regardless of the outcome of the independent review. epa must conduct quality, credible research in an atmosphere absent of gross misrepresentation and controversy. i am committed to ensuring that epa's research is based on sound science with the highest ethical standards."

in november 2004, william farland, an administrator with the epa's research department, told "the oregonian", "there's no suggestion that we are asking them to use pesticides. we simply want them to continue to carry out their day-to-day activities."




who's the richest entertainer in australia? the wiggles of course!

the top money grossing entertainers in australia in 2005 were not kylie minogue, nicole kidman, or russell crowe. in fact, it was four tot-time entertainers, the wiggles, with their preference for bright colours and sing-along dance numbers. their earnings level was estimated at au$45 million over the last year by australian publication "business review weekly (brw)", in its yearly who's-who ranking of the nation's top 50 entertainment earners.

"they got into the market early, they took time to understand their audience, not only children but the parents who pay for everything," "brw" managing editor tony featherstone, said.

though almost doubling her earnings from the previous year, nicole kidman only made second place, at au$40m. and crowe came in third, at "only" au$27m. fourth place was long-time heavy metal favourites, ac/dc, whose estimated income was au$18m.

another children's entertainment band, hi-5 came in sixth with $15m, after naomi watts.

 


mozilla foundation prepares third firefox security update

the mozilla foundation is in the final stages of preparing the third security update to the popular free internet browser firefox.

this update will fix a security issue highlighted by internet security firm secunia which allows remote users to read the memory of a computer running earlier versions of firefox. information such as the websites the user has recently visited or their e-mail addresses can easily be recovered.

users can visit the secunia website and use a test page to see if they are vulnerable and to study the kind of information that the flaw discloses. secunia currently recommends disabling javascript in the browser as a short-term measure against the bug.

the release will also fix some bugs discovered in version 1.0.2 and a selection of other security issues.

the third release, to be known as 1.0.3, comes hot on the heels of 1.0.2, released on march 23. as before, users will need to download and install the entire 4.7mb program from mozilla.org, rather than download a microsoft-style patch. mozilla is working on an update system that will make updating via smaller patches possible in the future.

this release has had a difficult birth, with initial versions preventing many popular extensions (user-installed sub-programs that enhance the capabilities of the browser) from operating. mozilla developers have worked hard on the issue and are now confident that they have plugged security holes in a way which will not cause inconvenience to users.





time warner/comcast bid to snap up adelphia cable service

april 9, 2005
a bid topping $17.7 billion was jointly proffered by time warner inc. and comcast corporation on thursday to buy beleaguered adelphia communications corporation in an industry consolidation move. adelphia is the fifth largest cable service provider in the united states with nearly 5 million subscribers.

the market-share grabbing bid trumps the previous cablevision offer of $16.5 billion. the bid is under scrutiny by the presiding judge over the adelphia’s chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, and must also be approved by the company’s creditors owed in the range of $20 million.

the acquisition race to gain dominance in the cable service provider market is driven by the high cost of installation and maintenance of cable lines. fiber optic networks deliver traditional entertainment programming over a cable wire and is becoming increasingly popular for broadband internet content. the growing trust and recognition of voice over internet protocol (voip) suggests phone service subscribers will eventually migrate to cable voice communication as opposed to keeping with traditional copper land lines. telephone company operators are scrambling to keep up.

the largest percentage of the bid would be put up by time warner (tw), who could gain by getting subscribers from the valuable los angeles market currently owned by comcast and adelphia. tw can also simultaneously divest itself of a stake owned by comcast in tw by making a tax-free swap using some of the newly garnered adelphia subscribers.

while the consolidation would likely get a look by the government with an eye towards a growing monopoly in the market, it would doubtfully be blocked considering the existence of competing technologies. competition exists in the form of still numerous television by airwaves usage, satellite providers, radio content companies, and telecom providers.

adelphia suffered a corporate scandal in 1992 with similarities to the worldcom fall. members of the rigas family, founders of the company, were alleged to have siphoned off millions of dollars and hidden $2.3 billion leading to the bankruptcy filing. john rigas and son timothy were convicted july of 2004 and await sentencing.



drug-resistant infections on the rise in american hospitals

april 9, 2005 

a rise in flesh-eating staph infections has worried doctors about the possible spread of drug resistant bacteria.

staphylococcus aureus, commonly known as staph, is a bacteria that commonly causes skin infections in otherwise healthy people. however, as a persistent threat in hospitals, it tends to infect patients who are already sick and whose systems are vulnerable due to iv lines that pierce the skin. doctors have already battled for years against drug-resistant strains of the bacteria, but the struggle has generally been confined to hospitals. 

now, however, methicillin resistant staph aureus (mrsa) has been spreading in communities outside hospitals. cases have multiplied by 25 times since 1998 at the university of chicago. a los angeles hospital documented 14 cases of the flesh-eating infection, where patients required substantial time in intensive care and surgery. the infections are particularly problematic because nearly a quarter of people who get a staph infection require hospitalization. 

staph infections are spread much like other diseases, with crowded conditions, poor hygiene, and skin-to-skin contact most frequently to blame. at higher risk are prison inmates, homeless people, military personnel, and families with kids in day care. athletes also have a higher risk, because sweating makes it easier for bacteria to infect the skin. 



hard drive technology breaks storage density record

hitachi global storage technologies, the san jose, california-based joint venture of storage vendor hitachi and u.s. technology giant ibm, has set a new record for storage density at 230 gigabits per square inch (gb/in). the company has developed technology to implement a recording method known as perpendicular recording, which allowed the increase in density above the current ~130 gb/in limit.

techworld claims there is a race between hitachi and toshiba for who will get the first drives to market which use the technology. according to hitachi, they expect, "to ship [their] first perpendicular recording product in 2005 on a 2.5-inch hard drive". toshiba is also planning to ship a drive in 2005 that uses perpendicular recording.

according to techworld, toshiba will ship an 80 gb, 1.8" drive in 2005. toshiba's 1.8" drives are used in portable electronic devices such as apple's ipod, which is currently available in sizes 60 gb and smaller.

while all commercially available hard drives to date use longitudinal recording, perpendicular recording has roots in research done in academic circles over 100 years ago.

hitachi tech has produced a flash animation that explains the rudiments of perpendicular recording in a music-video style.

inspired by the 1970s "schoolhouse rock" series of educational animation shorts, the flash movie features whimsical moments with data bits and disk platters that speak and sing (not possible with today's technology), it also contains realistic details. of no importance to the viewer, but perhaps of interest to some, the animation shows texas instruments' uc5608dwp chips visible briefly in the background. while ti's uc5608dwp 18-line scsi terminator chips have been made obsolete by the new ucc5618, the chips are indeed designed for use in hard drives.


toronto prepares for monday transit strike

the toronto transit commission is expected to strike monday. the ttc workers union, the amalgamated transit union local 113, rejected a deal offered by ttc management. they last went on strike in 1999. the average daily ridership exceeds 1.3 million passengers.

the city of toronto has prepared to help deal with the forecasted traffic congestion by opening up free parking for car-pools at 14 city-owned community centres, banning parking on some city streets, and opening up some bus-only lanes to car-pools.

the initial deal, which was rejected, offered a 2% wage increase over five years. with a huge turnout the union-members voted against accepting the offer with a 99% majority according to a press release by the union. the union rejected the latest offer friday reported to be a three-year contract with raises of 2.75 percent in the first year, three percent in the second and 3.25 percent in the third.


u.s. postal rate increase proposed

the u.s. postal service has filed a request with the independent postal rate commission seeking a 2-cent increase in first-class mail. other types of mail would probably increase as well, with the proposed higher rates taking effect early next year.

first class mail would go from 37 cents to 39 cents; postcards from 23 cents to 24 cents. 

the postal service blamed the proposed increase on a 2003 law requiring the agency to place $3.1 billion annually in an escrow account. they said they would withdraw the rate request if congress changes the law.


chinese rioters storm japanese embassy in beijing

as many as a thousand rioters attempted to storm the japanese embassy in beijing late saturday, shouting "boycott japan!" and "japanese pig come out!", throwing rocks and smashing guardhouse windows. protesters proclaimed, "chinese people shouldn't protect japanese," at the 500-odd riot-police who had arrived to guard the compound, wire agencies reported.

the japanese government had been criticised earlier this week for approving a controversial history textbook that protesters, as well as many in china and korea, say whitewashes japan's wartime atrocities against china. japan's ambassador to beijing defended the textbooks, adding that they were produced by private companies and not the japanese government.

the chinese "people's daily" provided a report about the events which led up to the riot. the report cited the protesters' demands to "safeguard [the] diaoyu islands"; "smash japan's daydream" of on the un security council; and boycott japanese-made products.

between six- and twenty-thousand had turned out for a peaceful, legal anti-japanese rally earlier in the day, prior to the emergence of the full-scale riot.

"our generation believes that china must stand up for its rights and stop being soft on japan," li jiangchuan, a college student told "the new york times". "japan should stop lying about history and tell the truth," he said.

"every chinese feels anger at the way japan ignores its own history and tries to occupy china's sovereign territory," li hongbo, 19, student at tsinghua university, told "the new york times". china and japan have recently disputed ownership of the string of tiny diaoyu islands in the east china sea, which have natural gas reserves.

according to "new york times"' reporter joseph kahn in beijing, "subsequent gatherings at the japanese ambassador's residence and the japanese embassy appeared to have been organized without official approval and were considerably more tense, with the police closing off many roads and busing in reinforcements to maintain order."

participants in demonstrations also attacked the bank of tokyo-mitsubishi branch and a japanese restaurant whose waitresses wear kimonos, reported "reuters". thousands also threw stones at the home of the japanese ambassador to china, koreshige anami, according to the "kyodo news" agency.

japan formally protested the event with the chinese diplomatic mission in tokyo. chinese diplomats expressed regret that the protest had gotten out of hand.

"the fact that people took actions such as throwing rocks at the ambassador's residence as well as the embassy is not something that the chinese government can accept," chinese vice foreign minister qiao zonghuai was quoted as saying. 

"representing the government, i offer my heartfelt sympathy and express my regret" he said.

"some people in beijing organised a demonstration themselves in protest against the wrong attitude and practice japan had taken recently on the issue of its history of aggression," foreign ministry spokesperson qin gang was quoted as saying .

"the chinese government demanded the demonstrators to keep calm and sane, give voice to their attitude in a lawful and orderly way, and not to engage in excessive action," he said.

however, the "bbc" reported that the authorities had signaled "tacit acceptance, if not approval" by allowing saturday's protest to happen in the first place. 

reporting of at least the initial larger rally by chinese government-operated media outlets such as "people's daily" quoted above, was 'rare', according to a number of sources. as explained by japanese "kyodo news", "china's state media seldom reports on protest rallies inside china." 

reports indicate that the initial protest was organised substantially by communication over the internet, including email, bulletin boards, and instant messaging. 

the demonstrations have been attributed a number of records for size-in-recent-years, including "largest to be held in the capital since a massive outpouring [of] anti-american sentiment in 1999, after the united states bombed china's embassy in belgrade during the war against serbia"; ; "the biggest protest against foreigners since [the same event]" ; "one of the largest protest events authorized by the chinese government in years" ; and "the largest anti-japanese demonstration in beijing since the two countries normalized diplomatic ties in 1972" .


gaza cease fire rocked by latest killing of youths

april 9, 2005

the two month old truce between israel and the palestinians is still intact after three teenagers were shot down earlier today while trying to smuggle firearms through the egyptian border. palestinians claim they saw the children attempting to fetch a football that had landed in a no-go zone near a refugee camp, in southern gaza. israeli army sources say the youths entered a forbidden area heavily guarded by israeli forces near the border with egypt. the teenagers were fired upon by soldiers after they ignored warning shots.

militants responded by firing mortar shells at jewish settlements in gaza, although no one was injured.

the level of violence in the gaza region had dropped significantly since the cease fire was agreed upon by both sides of the conflict. islamic jihad chief mohammed al-hindi said today: "so far, the palestinian factions have not declared an end to the calm... but they are studying the issue anew because of continued zionist aggression." saeed siyam, a hamas leader in gaza, told the "associated press": "the palestinian people cannot stay silent in the face of this crime and it cannot pass without punishment."

"these kids were not playing soccer," said an anonymous israeli army commander today. "you don't get there by accident."



thousands march on baghdad in anniversary protest

april 10, 2005
tens of thousands of protesters waving national flags marched in baghdad, iraq on saturday, the anniversary of the toppling of saddam hussein. chanting "no, no to the occupiers," they massed at firdos square on the site where hussein’s statue was pulled down two years ago today.

central baghdad shut down ahead of the march and iraqi security searched most protesters before entering the city. us and other peace-keeping forces remained out of sight. the march, sponsored by the cleric muqtada al-sadr, passed with no notable violence or arrests, and the crowd was dispersed by early evening.

there were simultaneously another 5000 protesters who marched in ramadi, a city west of baghdad.

calling for the withdrawal of occupation forces, protesters aped the televised images of occupation forces by knocking down their own effigies of george bush, tony blair and saddam himself. the effigies were clothed in red ? a symbolism they have been marked for death.

iraqi ali feleih hassan told the "associated press", "no one accepts this. i want them out. they have been here for two years, and now they have to set a timetable for their withdrawal."

the us has been unable to set a timetable and is determined to stay until they believe the country is secure. muqtada al-sadr, an opposition negotiator, ultimately ended an uprising after signing a peace agreement with us forces last august.



australia unemployment at 30-year low, but under-employed also at 5.1%

australian unemployment is at a 28-year low at 5.1 per cent, according to recent figures from the australian bureau of statistics (abs). this has prompted debate over whether interest rates should increase . however, the number of underemployed still remains high, at 600,000 ? that is, around the same 5.1 per cent figure when compared to australia's labour market of 10 million .

according to the employment minister, kevin andrews, 1.6 million jobs had been created over the past nine years, including 330,000 over the last 12 months. 4

a report from his department which described the employment market over the 12 months to august 2004, as one of 'solid growth', said total employment increased by 2.1% over that year.

"advertised vacancies increased for trade occupations, marginally decreased for professional occupations and decreased for associate professional occupations," reads the october 2004 "australian jobs update" report.

"the strongest numerical rises in employment occurred in health and community services (up 60 600), construction (up 43 400) and manufacturing (up 40 900) while the strongest rates of growth were in mining, personal and other services, and health and community services."

although there is widespread speculation, amp capital chief economist shane oliver told australian associated press that the strong job market did not necessarily mean that the reserve bank of australia would hike up interest rates. 5

"the labour market is one of the last indicators to turn down, so we've already seen the economy slow down - particularly in the housing sector - and you would think that it is only a matter of time that we'll see a slowing in (jobs)," he said.

"i think the reserve bank will probably need to see clear evidence of wages growth coming through to inflation before they move again."

the still-large under-employed category defined by the abs includes a wide range of persons ? anyone employed for less than 35 hours a week, willing and available to work additional hours. 6 7

a study by the melbourne institute found in 2001 that one employed person in six is under-employed, with 5 per cent of available worker-hours unutilised 8. this was associated with part-time employment for females, but with full-time employment for males.

the 2001 study found that part-time workers seeking full-time employment felt negative effects, "not far short of those attributable to unemployment".

roughly 60% of the half-million-odd eligible for unemployment benefits in february were denoted as "long-term" unemployed, according to the department of employment and workplace relations. 9 less were long-term unemployed in february than at the same time last year. in 2004 there were 1.43 long-term unemployed for every short-term unemployed, while in 2005 there were 1.34 .

but ten years ago, there were fewer long-term unemployed than short-term, with 1.07 short-term unemployed to every long-termer .

 


panic in sumatra after new earthquake

april 10, 2005
people living on the indonesian island of sumatra have fled their homes after an earthquake of magnitude of 6.7 hit the area earlier today. although the quake was not powerful enough to cause a tsunami, the event sparked fears of a repeat of the december 26 magnitude 9.3 earthquake in which around 300,000 people died. today's tremor struck 70 miles southwest of padang, a city in western sumatra, yet no damage has been reported so far.

an indonesia geophysics and meteorology agency official said: "many people in padang are panicking. people have left their houses, especially those living on the coast."

the pacific tsunami warning center in honolulu, hawaii, said in a statement: "earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts located within a few hundred kilometres of the earthquake epicentre." 

scientists are cautious that another major earthquake could occur along the indian ocean faultline, which has seen a number of minor tremors since the december 26 quake. although most countries have a contingency plan for earthquake related disasters, a tsunami warning system for south asia will not be ready until the end of 2006.



south african former apartheid party dissolves

the former party of apartheid in south africa, the new national party (nnp), has finally been dissolved by a vote of the party's federal council on april 9, 2005. the vote was 88 in favor, 2 against, and 3 abstentions.

this follows a decision under the guidance of party leader marthinus van schalkwyk last year to join forces with the ruling african national congress party (anc). "the forerunner to the nnp, the national party, brought development to a section of south africa but also brought suffering through a system grounded on injustice," said van schalkwyk.

the nnp was the successor to the national party, taking the new name in 1997 to distance itself from its apartheid past. the national party was the governing party of south africa from 1948 to 1994, and promoted policies of apartheid and the promotion of afrikaner (white south african) culture.

former south african president frederik willem de klerk, who oversaw the end of apartheid during his tenure from 1989 to 1994 as its last white president, called for the creation of a new party to take the nnp's place. "i think there is a need to establish something to take the place of the national party, but hopefully without the historical baggage which the national party carried and which also played a role in its demise," said de klerk.

proportion of the nnp share of the national vote have been steadily dropping since 1994, when it received 20.4% as the national party in the nation's first free multi-racial elections, to 2004, when it received 1.7%.

other prominent south african parties include the anc (african national congress), ruling party with 69.7% of the 2004 vote; and the democratic alliance (da), a liberal party which is the official opposition party to the anc, and received 12.4% of the 2004 vote. until being dissolved the nnp was the fifth largest party in the country.

concerns have been expressed about the long-term unchecked dominance of the anc and the possibility for corruption, with business monitor international expressing the view that, "while official graft is low by both global and african standards, the blurred
line between the government and the dominant anc party gives plenty of scope
for abuses." 

transparency international ranks south africa at 44th on its list of corrupt countries in its 2004 corrupt perceptions index, ahead of most african nations but behind botswana (31st) and tunisia (39th). for comparison, the united states ranks at 17th on the same list.



death toll mounts in nepal civil conflict

as many as 116 nepalis have been killed in recent confrontations between maoist guerrillas and government troops, according to recent estimates from multiple sources, including india's "the hindu".

approximately 113 bodies of maoist rebels were recovered following a fierce battle between guerrillas and government security forces three days ago. the clash took place 550 kilometers west of nepal's capital kathmandu, when rebels attacked an outpost of the royal nepalese army. three government troops were killed.

nepal's king gyanendra seized power on february 1 for the second time, in what he described as a necessary act to prevent the country from falling to the insurgents. gyanendra has promised that peace and democratic institutions would be restored within three years; however, he has currently suspended many civil liberties, arrested demonstrators, and used armed soldiers to censor the news media.

nepal's army is under international scrutiny for potential violations of human rights, and some nations including india and the united kingdom have suspended aid. the united states is considering revoking its military aid unless the government's emergency regulations are ended.

the united nations will be sending human rights observers into the country per an agreement signed monday by louise arbour, un high commissioner for human rights, and ramesh nath pandey, nepalese foreign minister. "breaking the cycle of serious and systematic abuses [by both the government and rebels] will be the first essential step toward achieving peace and reconciliation in nepal," said arbour.

as the "san francisco chronicle" has reported, the rebels have brought about the brutal deaths of countless villagers, causing terror throughout nepal. more than 11,000 deaths are believed to have been caused during 9 years of violent conflict.

an army commander interviewed by the "chronicle" stated, "we are winning this war," against the rebels. reflecting on his statement, he immediately retracted this, declaring, "nobody is winning," he says. "we are killing nepalese, and they are killing nepalese."



china anti-textbook protests grow larger

chinese protests against the publication of a japanese government textbook continued for a second day in china, (sunday) as an estimated three thousand protesters marched on the japanese consulate in guangzhou. thousands of protesters also marched in shenzhen, throwing objects at japanese businesses.

the protesters repeated their demands for a boycott of japanese goods, to block japan from obtaining a seat on the u.n. security council, and for japan to change textbooks which they say whitewash japan's war atrocities. protesters burned japanese flags while singing and shouting anti-japanese slogans. they also carried anti-japanese signs along with chinese flags.
chinese view the textbook as "whitewashing" the events and actions of japan to cast them in a more positive light. 

the protests are against the , which is publishing a high-school textbook that refers to the nanjing massacre as an "incident" (translation) and de-emphasizes the roles of comfort women as well as the contemporary issues surrounding japanese prime minister junichiro koizumi's visits to the yasukuni shrine, in honor of japanese soldiers. 

the japanese government has claimed that the demonstrations have an "anti-japanese sentiment," for which china should apologise.
in , japan formally summoned wang yi, china's ambassador to japan, concerning china's actions on sunday.

"we formally demanded china’s apology and compensation," said japanese foreign minister . he also said that wang yi replied "no" when asked for an apology.

while not issuing a formal apology through diplomatic channels, wang claimed that china did not approve of the violent aspects of the protests.

"the (chinese) government does not agree with extreme action," he said.

back in , the "people's daily" reported that chinese foreign ministry spokesman qin gang deflected blame away from china for the recent downturn in sino-japanese relations.

"japan must adopt an earnest attitude and appropriate ways to deal with major principled issues concerning the feelings of the chinese people," qin said. "the japanese have to do more things conducive to enhancing mutual trust and maintaining the relations between the two countries, rather than doing the reverse," he said.



scientists proudly display oldest crystal on earth

a tiny piece of rock 4.4 billion years old went on display in , sunday for one day only. a jazz band played music, with rocks for percussion, which they said might be appropriate for displaying the bit of crystal, barely two human hairs wide.

the tiny gem was found in in 1984, and analyzed in 2001 by experts, and has led to the reappraisal of early .

"the whole thing is something that captures your imagination," he told reporters.
"this is our first glimpse into the earliest history of the earth. the miraculous thing about the crystal is that we've been able to make such wide-ranging inferences about the early earth." 

the exhibit was under police guard. the tiny sliver will return to australia with a professor from in , who discovered it in 1984. it will go to a museum.



fda recalls &quot;mama's&quot; brand smoked salmon

a nationwide alert for consumers to avoid the 'mama's smoked nova salmon' product in 8-oz. bags was issued by the u.s. food and drug administration (fda) when the threat of contamination with listeria monocytogenes was discovered.

listeria is a bacteria organism which can be serious and sometimes cause fatal infections, particularly in the young, frail or the elderly.

healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such a high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea. symptoms vary with the ability of the patient's immune reaction, and could be life-threatening.

consumers are urged to return the product, individual 8-oz. packages marked: "sell by sep 17 2005 27183", "sell by sep 18 2005 27183". they may also be in shipping cartons labeled: "09/17/05 sell by 27183", "09/18/05 sell by 27183" to the place of purchase for a full refund. questions may be directed to the company's recall coordinator at (305) 621-7600 ext 211.


israeli president shakes hands with leaders of syria, iran at pope's funeral

in controversial reporting by the israeli media, , the president of israel, reportedly shook hands with two mideastern leaders, the iranian president mohammad khatami and syrian president , during his trip to the pope's funeral on april 8. if true, it is a notable incident and the first time leaders of the two anti-zionist nations of iran and syria have ever shaken hands with an israeli leader. 

syria is still technically in a decades-old state of war with israel since an end to it was never officially declared. peace talks between the two countries broke down in march 2000 when bashar assad's father, , rejected a peace proposal of former president . since hafez assad's death in june 2000, peace talks have not resumed. 

iran has had no diplomatic relations with either israel or the united states since their in 1979.

the three leaders were seated near each other while observing the funeral by a coincidence of their alphabetical listing. "the syrian president sat in the chair behind me ... we exchanged smiles and shook hands," said katsav, according to the website of israel's newspaper.

katsav also claims he later shook hands and spoke with khatami and assad during the traditional christian service exchange of peace. katsav and khatami, both born in the iranian city of , share the persian language. katsav reportedly said when leaving, "the iranian president held his hand out to me. i shook his hand and greeted him in farsi."

upon khatami's return to iran, he denied the handshake ever occurred, saying “these allegations are false like all the other allegations made by the israeli media and i have not had any meeting with a personality from the zionist regime,” according to the . "as reiterated time and again, we do not morally and logically recognize israel which was created based on force and usurpation."

he continued with "[iran] would not do anything against the middle east peace plans ...but the world should know that as long as the legitimate rights of the palestinian people are not recognized, these peace plans will not achieve anything'."

according to the "jerusalem post", a member of assad's entourage did confirm on friday night that a handshake with katsav occurred, and reported this quote by a syrian army radio source saying "the gesture was an expression of manners and has no political significance." katsav also told israeli "channel 2 news" on friday evening that his handshakes with assad and khatami were merely polite gestures and had no implications for the relationships between their countries.



eu accession treaty for romania published on the internet

romania's ministry of european integration has made public the text of the european union's accession treaty with romania and bulgaria, making it available on its website. the text of the treaty is available freely, in romanian, at .

the accession treaty, which is due to be voted by the european parliament on april 13 and signed on april 25, is the legal document facilitating romania and bulgaria's accession to the eu, which, according to the treaty, will take place on january 1, 2007.

the treaty's content has been posted online in order to inform romanians of the costs, standards and responsibilities of european union accession. the text was published after the european commission asked for romania and bulgaria to better inform their citizens of what eu accession actually means. bulgaria similarly made available the content of the treaty, in the bulgarian language, in early april.

once the accession treaty is signed, romania and bulgaria will have to withdraw from the central european free trade agreement, as they will be integrated into the eu-wide free trade area. additionally, from april 25, the two countries will send observers to the european parliament and will be able to participate in other european union institutions and events as observers.

when the two countries join in 2007, the european union will have 27 members in total and more than 480 million citizens. the timetable for accession, and the implementation of the treaty, however, will be in jeopardy if the european parliament fails to approve the accession of the two countries on april 13, or if the two countries are deemed unprepared for accession by the european commission, in which case the so-called safeguard clause will come into effect, postponing accession by one year.



runners, fans prepare for 109th boston marathon

the 109th running of the world's oldest annual marathon, the boston marathon, will start in hopkinton, massachusetts, at noon on monday, april 18, 2005. the marathon, one of the few marathons that requires entrants to run below certain times in another marathon to enter, is "tough for the runners" because of the late start time, the monday start date, and the remote start location, according to don allison of cool running. despite the entry requirements and hardships, the marathon is expected to draw over 20,000 runners, 500,000 spectators, and 1000 members of the press.

race director dave mcgillivray told the boston globe that, "we're not the fastest course, we're not the biggest field, we're not the richest purse, but we're the most prestigious." the globe notes that the chicago marathon is known for faster times, a purse 50% larger than boston's, and a field twice as large. still, in boston the winning man and woman each receive $100,000 in prize money.

the boston marathon is know for the set of 4 hills that runners hit in newton, a suburb west of boston. the fourth hill, known as heartbreak hill, occurs at the 21-mile mark.


romanian government to strengthen laws against tax evasion

the romanian government has drafted legislation pertaining to tax evasion that makes it a criminal offence on the same level as crimes against individuals. developed with the aid of romania's business community, the new law is expected to reduce corruption and tax evasion. according to the new law, the maximum jail term for tax evasion will be boosted up to 20 years. this sentence, however, will only be passed in circumstances of large-scale fraud. for evasion of up to the equivalent of 10,000 euro, the punishment will be either a fine or up to 2 years in prison. for tax fraud of up to 500,000 euro, the term will be extended to 2-8 years in prison. it is only for those whose tax evasion exceeds 1 million euro that the jail term will range between 10 and 20 years.

in the same package of legislation, the government approved several changes to banckruptcy law, which makes it easier for businesses to file for bankruptcy. the new laws are expected to make romania's business environment cleaner, resulting in more foreign investment, less corruption and more revenue for the government.

at the start of the year, the romanian government introduced a new flat tax system for romania, in which the tax rate is 19% for both personal income and corporate profit. this has led romania to have one of the most liberal tax policies in europe. the lower rate of tax has already reduced fiscal evasion to a significant extent because more people and businesses are encouraged to pay the tax. however, in order to further reduce the grey economy in romania, advisers said at the start of the year that the government must also back this up with tougher legislation against tax evasion. previously, romania's tax evasion laws were fairly lax, leading to quite a significant extent of tax fraud. now, with the new, highly-publicised tax evasion laws, it is expected that the risk of getting prosecuted for not paying an already-low tax rate will force many businesses out of the black market into the legal economy.


romanian investor kidnapped in the democratic republic of the congo is safe

a romanian been found and declared safe, according to the romanian ministry of foreign affairs. the romanian, which has as of yet only been identified by his last name, dinca, had been kidnapped by soldiers dressed as civilians.

dinca was the president of mega star congo company, a romanian enterprise operating in the drc. after his kidnapping, one of his employees said that his boss had been kidnapped by military subordinates of a congolese general who had been watching and following dinca for the previous two weeks. other employees confirmed this, saying that dinca had been watched by groups of soldiers in his home at gombe. the romanian foreign ministry said that the kidnapping has occurred due to a "private commercial dispute."

le phare, a congolese newspaper, reported that, "this kidnapping, which undermines the actions of the head of state and members of the government members, raises a big question mark, both for the authorities and for the army commanders. if the insecurity is due to the soldiers, it is worrying that such a climate is maintained by superior officers and generals."

the romanian ministry of foreign affairs stated that they would continue to try and protect romanian businessmen who invest in the drc and prevent similar incidents in the future.


arsenic and thalidomide may be used to fight cancer

a gathering of more than a thousand medical researchers in , , has been told that and ? banned in the 1960s after being linked to gross birth abnormalities ? held hope as a basis for new treatments, extending the lives of patients with an so-far incurable bone marrow cancer, .

diagnosis of the disease has increased by 45% in australia since 1992. it is the most lethal form of cancer, and the topic of discussion, at the 10th international myeloma workshop, continuing until the 16th of april.

the two treatments had advantages over existing treatments, including lessened side-effects, and reducing the need for chemo- and radiotherapy. they may also be usable to treat other illnesses. both were still under test.

"the development of arsenic dates back many years when it was used for lowering the in patients, even at the turn of the century," professor miles prince, of the peter maccallum cancer centre, told "" for the 10th international myeloma workshop.

"subsequently [arsenic] was used in china since the 1960s for treating certain forms of leukaemia," he said.

it could be used to induce the cell to "commit suicide".

"the side effects with thalidomide are much less than with chemotherapy because it's not damaging innocent bystander cells - so you don't get low blood counts, you don't lose your hair, you don't get a sore mouth," he said.

"it was originally thought to work because [thalidomide] blocks the blood vessel growth in , and that is still true, but the research that we've done has shown that one of its major causes of action is to stimulate [ ] which are directly against the tumour, and these t-cells help patients with myeloma fight their disease," professor douglas joshua, head of at in sydney, told australian radio.

"there's no doubt that with the new combinations of drugs - we've got thalidomide, the sons of thalidomide, velcade and arsenic - we're adding years onto patient's lives and certainly it could add up to five years or more," according to prof. prince.


las vegas 'chili finger' woman has history of lawsuits

anna ayala, the woman who claims to have found the notorious "chili finger" at a outlet in , has filed lawsuits against other businesses, according to researchers at the "associated press". her previous court battles included the national el pollo loco chicken-chain, a previous employer, and even general motors.

ayala successfully won her suit for medical expenses against el pollo loco, after her daughter genesis contracted salmonella poisoning from eating at the restaurant. however, ayala lost another suit in 2000 claiming that a wheel fell off her car.

ayala's original account of the incident spoke "emotionally and with disgust" to the "san jose mercury news" when she described it to the paper.

"lies, lies, lies, that's all i am hearing. they should look at wendy's. what are they hiding? why are we being victimized again and again?" ayala recently told "the associated press". ayala is now in her las vegas home, avoiding reporters.

"it doesn't prove anything," family spokesman ken bono told the "san francisco chronicle". "my mom has 10 lawsuits. a lot of people have lawsuits. why would she sue for money? she has plenty of money," he said.

nick muyo, a spokesman for the san jose police department, said not to expect new information in the case for at least a week.

"we just want to step back and take a deep breath," muyo told "knight ridder newspapers". "from a law enforcement point of view, once you establish it is a human finger, you have to wonder is this a case of industrial accident or is this a case of unreported homicide," he said.

las vegas police searched anna ayala's home on wednesday, retrieving a cooler and other effects from her home, such as a makeup case.

despite the incident, which has dramatically reduced sales at northern california wendy's outlets, die-hard wendy's fans are still turning up for lunch, even at the outlet where the finger was found, at 1405 monterey highway, just south of downtown san jose.

"we've eaten here for years," a police officer told the "san francisco chronicle" under the condition that he remain anonymous. "they're very nice people. when we work spartan stadium, we always eat here," he said.

san jose city council candidate andrew diaz still eats the chili. and he witnessed the finger discovery.

"i walked away real slow," diaz told the "san francisco chronicle". "i didn't want any commotion," he said.


sesame street to promote healthy lifestyles

pbs has recently decided it was time their cookie monster was sent on a diet. sesame street's cookie-loving muppet icon developed a sudden interest in vegetables, as part of pbs's drive to instill a healthy lifestyle in children.

the blue furry monster's makeover comes as part of a larger plan, introducing additional characters as well. intended new cast members include talking eggplants and carrots, among others.

according to the "sesame street muppet bios", "this season, cookie monster learns a lot about health and nutrition. hoots the owl explains in a song that 'a cookie is a sometimes food,' and he joins wyclef jean in a rap song, 'healthy food'."

every other day, health will be the focus of the shows. in addition, every other day there will be segments dealing with health/nutrition. there will be a "health moment" at the top of every show featuring special guests, celebrities and sesame street characters.

the producers of the show insist that they are not asking small children to go on a diet.

"we would never use the word 'diet' with pre-schoolers," a spokeswoman told "the new zealand herald".


german wikipedia dvd on p2p networks

, the german wikipedia dvd is a popular item on european ftp sites.

the dvd project with directmedia publishing gmbh was built from the march 3, 2005 database archive, and has been packaged as iso image files to be made available online.

when the news was reported @ heise online, ftp requests to the university of erlangen quickly overloaded the 622mbit connection server. the average load is still above 482.39 compared to 20 before the announcement.

in the afternoon, the ftp server belnet joined in also hosting these files which can also be downloaded by using the peer-to-peer file transfer software bittorrent.

the dvd image is 2.7 gigabytes in size, and includes browsing software for microsoft windows, mac os x and linux. the download is large, but is also available from directmedia for about ?10 on dvd - although their initial printing of 10,000 sold out within 3 days.

stimulated by the success of this dvd project, several english news services have raised the question of when an english dvd of wikipedia will be available.





nasa announces daily video feed for new discovery mission

nasa has announced a special daily video feed of its two upcoming missions. one of the space shuttle discovery. the coverage, which began earlier on monday on the program, "the sts-114 return to flight gallery," will air daily at 1 to 3 p.m. edt featuring video related to the launch of the discovery.

the second mission is expedition 10. this will send replacement russians to the icc--international space station--crew.

commander sergei krikalev and flight engineer and nasa station science officer john phillips, the crew of expedition 11, are scheduled to launch from the baikonur cosmodrome, kazakhstan, at 8:46 p.m. edt, april 14. 

european space agency (esa) astronaut roberto vittori of italy will be joining them aboard their soyuz spacecraft. vittori is flying to the station for eight days of scientific research under a
commercial agreement between esa and the russian federal space agency.

the new video feed is expected to include a rotation of video items including full length interviews with each of the orbiter discovery’s crew members. 

the sts-114 crew includes commander eileen collins, pilot jim kelly, mission specialists soichi noguchi, steve robinson, andy thomas, wendy lawrence and charlie camarda. this will be the first mission flown since the colombia accident in february 2003.

the mission will link discovery to the international space station in the first of two test flights to verify new inspection and repair techniques. it will also resupply the iss with necessities.

in addition to the nasa tv channel, the programs will air on nasa’s internet service, http://www.nasa.gov/ntv, and be available on other uplink facilities.

shuttle discovery has a possible launch window from may 15 to june 3, this year.




'sahara' opens as top film in u.s., canada

moviegoers who pushed it to no. 1 with a reported $18.1 million take for the weekend ending april 10 at the u.s. and canadian box office welcomed the premiere of the movie "sahara", starring matthew mcconaughey and penelope cruz. still, the total was $10 million less than "sin city", the top film of the previous week, made in its debut.

"sahara" is described as an adventure movie with plenty of fun. mcconaughey plays a tanned and fit traveler searching for a long lost u.s. civil war battleship, filled with gold coins, and finds love in the process.
"sin city", starring bruce willis and jessica alba, dropped to second place but was still doing well with a $14.1 million dollar sophomore weekend. filling out the top shows: "miss congeniality 2: armed and fabulous", which falls from #5 to #7 with more than $4.1 million "the pacifier," which drops from #6 to #8 with more than $3 million; "the ring two", from #7 to #9 with $2.9 million; and "the upside of anger," from #8 to #10 with $2.6 million.

ticket sales at all box offices showed a decline from last year for the same weekend.



tom delay raises republican hackles as ethics charges dominate news

as tom delay's (republican member of the u.s. house of representatives from texas), alleged ethical lapses began to dominate american political news stories and the sunday talk shows, have led some republican members of the majority leader’s own party to question the reasoning for his refusal to account for his actions or resign.

last year, in a glimpse of problems yet to surface, the republican head of the u.s. house committee on standards of official conduct, or "house ethics committee", presided over three admonitions that included offering to endorse the candidacy of a political lawmaker’s son in exchange for votes on legislation. the ethics complaints were originally filed by democratic rep. chris bell of texas on june 15, 2004, and began to heat up in the months prior to last year's elections.

a texas grand jury is taking a hard look at delay’s fund raising practices, and has already indicted three of his close associates. last week the washington post reported that mr. delay took a trip to moscow in 1997, financed by lobbyists of the russian government.

delay’s representative, dan allen, told reporters "congressman delay's effective leadership to build and strengthen the house majority is exactly the reason he is being targeted by liberal groups funded by george soros."

but christopher shays, a republican from connecticut, a republican moderate, told the associated press that delay’s "conduct is hurting the republican party" and "hurting any republican who is up for re-election [in 2006]."

the news agency reported that delay would look forward to meeting the charges with the ethics committee in a sit-down and blamed all of his problems on house democrats.

senator chris dodd, a democrat from connecticut, advised his republican colleagues strongly to “be careful about how closely you embrace mr. delay, as long as he's there, he's going to become a pretty good target." his remarks were nationally televised on abc tv.

those republicans working with the majority leader said his ethics are only a problem to democrats trying to regain power in the house. but the ethics committee’s membership is equally divided between republicans and democrats.

other republicans are starting to get jittery about their reelection hopes if delay is allowed to retain power.

"tom's conduct is hurting the republican party, is hurting this republican majority and it is hurting any republican who is up for re-election," rep. christopher shays, r-conn., told the associated press after making similar comments at community meetings in his home district this weekend.

he told reporters he thinks delay should step down.

the third-ranking republican in the senate, rick santorum of pennsylvania, said delay needs to “clear the air.” but he thinks everything done by delay was “according to the law.”

"i think he has to come forward and lay out what he did and why he did it and let the people then judge for themselves," he said on abc's this week, a sunday political talk program. "now you may not like some of the things he's done, that’s for the people of his district to decide, whether they want to approve that kind of behavior."

santorum faces reelection in 2006.

delay is under investigation by the travis county (texas) district attorney, democrat ronnie earle, who has already indicted three members of delay's organization, texans for a republican majority political action committee (trmpac), on charges of money laundering and accepting illegal campaign contributions. 

delay and his associates are alleged to have created a front group to launder money obtained through this illegal method. the district attorney believes he is enforcing the law enacted by the texas lawmakers.

delay and his supporters contended that this investigation and the indictments were politically motivated maneuvers by the democratic travis county, texas district attorney ronnie earle. earle has been characterized as a controversial and colorful political figure with a history of pursuing unconventional indictments against elected officials including sen. kay bailey hutchison. however, his record shows that he has indicted more democrats than republicans.

federal investigators are probing a lobbyist, jack abramoff, another delay associate, for bilking millions of dollars from native american casino operators for promises of congressional action to support their businesses. abramoff and others may have underwritten overseas travel for the majority leader, which is a violation of law.

delay has taken on the nation’s independent judiciary, particularly those who disagreed with him on the reinsertion of the feeding tube for terri schiavo, a brain damaged florida woman who died on march 31. reports that he pulled the life support from his own father, when he was fatally injured in the 1980’s, didn’t deter him.

"the time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior," delay said of the judges.

asked what his associates think of delay’s latest slew of bad news, spokesman dan allen replied, "members were very supportive through the week last week and going into the weekend."

the bush administration said that delay has not become the political liability that senate majority leader trent lott, r-mississippi, became in 2002.

both chris shays and joel hefley, a republican from colorado, the past chairman of the house ethics committee who sanctioned delay three times, have signed a resolution, crafted by democrats, that would end some of the rules changes that their own party pushed through to help delay only three months ago. delay voted for the changes to cover his actions as well.

hefley said "a lot of folks mention quietly that they are concerned about it. on the other hand, you have a lot of members standing up and pledging their undying support for mr. delay,"

eleven years after the republicans swept power in the congress from the democrats, they seem more intent on protecting delay than keeping the “contract with america,” according to critics. they say “that is the corrupting influence of power.”

dewayne wickham of usa today asks, “how will voters respond to this breach of the contract?” the next federal elections will take place in november of 2006.




visiting students detained in louisiana, usa, while photographing exxonmobil chemical plant

a group of 13 students from antioch new england graduate school in keene, new hampshire, usa, were detained by security officers as they photographed an exxonmobil chemical plant in baton rouge, louisiana. the students were accompanied by two professors and an officer from the louisiana attorney general's office. the officer, willie fontenot, was subsequently asked to resign from his position at the attorney general's office.

mr. fontenot has issued a response, provided to by steve case, a professor present at the incident. fontenot writes,

""last week, i was asked by attorney general charles c. foti, jr. to either retire or run the risk of being fired. no specifics were given to me explaining this decision by the ag. i have always understood that, as an unclassified civil servant, i served at the pleasure of the ag and that i could be dismissed at any time and for no reason. because of my age, health issues, and investment of twenty-seven years in the state system, i decided early retirement was the best option for me.""
the full text of fontenot's statement is reproduced here.

according to a press release from antioch, the group was initially detained by two off-duty police officers who were under the employ of exxonmobil but dressed in their police uniforms. the officers were shortly joined by two other security officers who were employed by exxonmobil. when asked what reports the officers intended to file, "the off-duty sheriff's department officer refused to answer, and instead responded aggressively that he was going to call in 'homeland security' people who would detain the group into the night," said the press release. in the end, the group was detained for "more than an hour."

one of the professors, abigail abrash walton told the keene sentinel that one of the officers, "aggressively told us that he’d be calling in the homeland security people, whatever that meant, and to expect to be with them all night."

the keene sentinel reports that the students were visiting the area because, "exxon was said to be buying up houses and paying to relocate their owners for various reasons, including that people were allegedly getting sick because of pollution." the other course instructor, steve chase, was quoted in the sentinel as saying that, "our objection was not that police officers or even corporate security guards would stop and ask us what we were doing. that seemed totally fair. but lies were told, threats were made and the idea was to intimidate."

the sentinel noted that an exxonmobil spokesperson, stephanie cargile, stated that, “we believe our exxonmobil security personnel and the off-duty east baton rouge sheriff police officers acted professionally and cordially to mr. fontenot and the antioch students.” the venue in which the statement was made was not mentioned by the sentinel; thus far, the report has not been corroborated by wikinews.


child killed by family dog

april 12, 2005<br>

in what authorities call a terrible tragedy, a four-year-old boy was killed sunday afternoon by the family dog. the orange county, virginia usa boy was playing in his back yard while their dog, a rottweiler-german shepherd mix, was chained to a stake.

the parents of the boy were home when the mauling occurred, but there were no direct eye witnesses to the attack that took place in the placid pines mobile home park. county sheriff c.g. feldman said, "we'll probably never know what provoked the attack.” he told the "associated press", “the boy had grown up with the dog."

a "cbs6" broadcast said investigators saw no signs of parental negligence, and the boy was their only child. no charges against the parents were filed. the dog was euthanised monday.

sheriff feldman stressed there were no similarities or connection with an earlier case of an elderly woman killed in an attack by 3 pit bulls in the nearby county of spotsylvania just over a month ago.



australian immigration denies issuing banned drug

the australian department of immigration (dimia) today denied issuing a banned drug to immigration detainees, either in australia or on nauru. but the asylum seeker resource center (asrc) said in a press release yesterday that a woman detained here was administered the drug, until advocates called the minister's office recently to have it stopped.

"it took a phone call to the minister's office to stop the administration of [vioxx]," says pamela curr of the asylum seeker resource centre (asrc) "inadequate care for asylum seekers is so normalised in the detention centres that the doctors contracted by the detention system continued to administer a banned drug."

dr graham, a us whistleblower influential in getting the drug banned, has described that the painkiller and anti-arthritic vioxx, banned on september 30, caused up to 160,000 heart attacks and strokes, and 27,785 deaths from heart ailments from 1999 to 2003. 

dimia this afternoon repeated its claims published in this morning's "age", that the drug has not been prescribed in its detention system since sometime before the ban was even made, and "no detainees at nauru were taking the medication".

according to dimia, the drug was withdrawn from use at nauru last september, and doctors at other detention centers around australia were directed on october 1 to stop prescribing vioxx. all stockpiles of the vioxx had been destroyed when it was withdrawn.

the asrc says the international organisation of migration (iom), who "run the camps under orders and with funding from dimia", made the same claim in january 2005. refugee advocates had emailed the iom, believing at the time that vioxx was still being prescribed.


australian man arrested at u.s. capitol building

a 33-year old visitor to the united states, named wen hao zhao from sydney, australia, was arrested at the capitol building on monday, after he was observed by police standing in a "statue-like pose" and carrying two suitcases. 

when confronted by officers of the united states capitol police (uscp) who were called to the scene at 12:45 p.m. est, he is reported to have been unresponsive to questioning. "he only would say at first that he wanted to speak to president bush," according to uscp chief terrance w. gainer. some reports suggest that the man was limited or unresponsive in his use of english.

the west lawn area next to the capitol building and an adjacent part of 1st street was evacuated and tourists were briefly prevented from entering the building on the possibility that the suitcases may have contained a bomb. 

authorities x-rayed the bags and examined them for over 3 hours. one bag was found to contain only clothing. the other bag, which apparently was thought to contain wiring which might belong to an explosive device, was destroyed on-site with a water cannon; after which, the bag was found to have contained only common items such as a cd player, batteries, and a watch. 

zhao was arrested at 1:45 p.m. est without resistance on charges of disorderly conduct; other more serious charges could be filed. however, allen doody of u.s. bureau of immigration and customs enforcement (ice) has indicated plans to deport zhao back to australia within a few days without charges. "we do not plan to charge him," doody said.

zhao is dual-nationality chinese-australian, who entered the us legally on his australian passport less than a week ago.



klm flight to mexico sent back by u.s. homeland security, inquiry follows

everything seemed alright on 747 flight "kl685" en-route to mexico, friday, april 8 ? until the captain hailed u.s. flight control for permission to pass over u.s. airspace and permission was denied. little did he know, the names of two passengers on board had been linked by mexican authorities to a u.s. department of homeland security watchlist, who then contacted u.s. authorities.

attempts were made to divert and have the passengers disembark in , but ultimately this failed ? and left without an alternative route, the plane was forced to return to its port of origin, amsterdam ? in the netherlands.

flight kl685 carried 287 passengers and 15 horses, all of whom had to put up with a day's delay, and among the passengers, "frederic hennekens", a lawyer from . hennekens later made an appearance on the dutch behind-the-news television show nova, offering his personal experience on the matter.

the klm at first denied this had happened, but later affirmed this when journalists pressed the matter at hennekens' request.

hennekens said the flight went well initially, they were ahead of schedule by an hour at the time the captain announced that entry to u.s. airspace had been denied. no reason was given to the pilots, and as a consequence the passengers were left in the dark as well, being told only that they had to turn back to amsterdam.

three officials in all ? including one of the cockpit crew and a ticketing officer upon return ? told hennekens that the passenger list given to the u.s. authorities had been checked too late. this is in contrast to klm's official response monday, april 11.
"nova"'s correspondent "twan huys" reported from new york, having spoken with the . he said that according to the department the first warning that something was wrong with the plane did not originate with the pilots or the klm, it came from the mexican officials, per the u.s.-mexican treaty on passenger lists.
according to the report the department also said that the klm is aware of this "passengers watchlist" or "no-fly list", and blame the airline for not checking the list properly at schiphol airport.

the two people on the list who were denied entry were not apprehended on their return to europe in either the united kingdom or the netherlands. the dutch government said that these people were not on the european version of the "no-fly list," and as such were left alone. inquiries are presently being held by both dutch and american governments, trying to ascertain where communication broke down, and how to avoid situations like this in the future.




new top-level domain names created

at the recently held "22nd icann international conference" in mar del plata, , the icann (internet corporation for assigned names and numbers), officially designated three new top level domain names: .jobs and .travel and .eu.

tralliance will operate the new .travel domain and employ media will operate the .jobs. domain. registration will start in a couple of months. prices have yet to been determined.

.jobs was created for the use of personnel businesses, .travel for the travel industry, and .eu will be used by organizations based in the european union.

icann has also entered into negotiations with registries for .cat, .post and .mobi domains.

the icann, established by the u.s. department of commerce in 1998, is a non-profit corporation responsible for the technical coordination of the internet through the assignment of domain names and ip addresses.



cloned cattle's milk and meat seem safe, according to new study

a national academy of sciences report (.pdf) last year said that while the milk and meat from cloned animals would not likely make anyone sick, more research should be performed. now, a new us-japan study published in the april 11 online issue of the proceedings of the national academy of sciences says that milk and meat from cloned cattle does indeed appear to meet industry standards and appears to be safe for human consumption.

as bbc news reports, the scientists, led by professor jerry yang from the university of connecticut, compared the produce from two beef and four dairy clones, all derived from a single holstein dairy cow and a single japanese black bull, with the produce from normal animals of similar age and breed.

the meat was analysed against more than 100 physiological, tissue and cellular components, while the milk was analysed for protein, fat and other variables. no significant differences between the produce of cloned and normal cattle were found. higher levels of fat and fatty acids were found in the cloned cow meat, but they still fell within beef industry standards.

while the study showed the cloned produce to be within the range approved for human consumption, the scientists stressed that the research was still in its early stages. their findings, they said, provide "guidelines" for further research with larger numbers of clones from different genetic backgrounds.

cloning livestock may one day increase yields by copying those animals that are especially productive and especially resistant to disease.

"the milking production levels in the us are three to four times higher than levels in china; maybe even five times or more compared to cows in india and some other countries," professor jerry yang told bbc news. "therefore cloning could offer technology for duplicating superior farm animals. however, all the products from these cloned animals must be safe for human consumption. ...and it is a major issue for scientists to provide a scientific basis for the data and information to address this question."

as usa today reports, there is currently no law governing the sale of meat or milk from the estimated 1,000 to 2,000 cloned farm animals in the usa. but since 2003, the us food and drug administration (fda) has asked producers to voluntarily keep the meat and milk of these animals, and that of their offspring, out of the food supply.

wired news reports that companies like viagen and cyagra, which offer livestock-cloning services, have also been waiting for several years for a final say from the fda.

"for the united states agricultural industry, (cloning) can reduce the number of cows necessary for milking," said jerry yang "they can have a pleasant environment and produce even more milk." he also said that cloning cattle from the united states, where genetic breeding is more advanced, could save developing countries 50 years of breeding.

the idea of cloning animals for human consumption is not without its critics. first, there are the welfare concerns, as most cloned animals do not make it to term before being born, and many of those that do are born deformed or prone to illness. the humane society of the united states has asked for a ban on milk and meat from clones for just this reason. second, there is still the concern that healthy clones may have subtle defects that could make their food products unsafe to eat.

as the washington post reports, some critics are asking why it is necessary to clone cows that produce huge amounts of milk when surpluses, rather than shortages, are the main problem facing the u.s. dairy industry today.


irish enterprise exchange launched in dublin

the irish stock exchange (ise) officially launched the new irish enterprise exchange (iex) this morning in dublin, ireland. the exchange is aimed at smaller firms seeking to raise capital without the hindrances and additional costs associated with a full listing on the main exchange.

at the moment eight companies are listed on the exchange - all having been previously quoted on the exploration securities market (esm) and the developing companies market (dcm). however it is hoped that many small irish firms listed on the alternative investment market (aim) in london will eventually pursue a dual listing with the iex.

the rules for listing on the iex are significantly looser than for a full listing - no trading record is required; no minimum number of shares must be in public hands; and in most cases prior shareholder approval is not needed for acquisitions or disposals. the main requirement for listing is that prospective firms must have a market capitalisation of more than ?5 million.

the iex has long been a major ambition for irish stock exchange ceo tom healy and indeed the exchange as a whole.

 


eritrea plans to vaccinate 500,000 children

eritrea officially launched a new national vaccination program yesterday to protect children against deadly polio.

despite having no confirmed cases of polio since 1997, neighbouring countries such as ethiopia and sudan have had more recent cases. the program will take place in two rounds, the first of which runs from monday till wednesday this week and the second is planned for may 13-15..

unicef says that africa accounts for 75 percent of polio cases reported worldwide so far in 2005. but efforts are being made to eradicate the potentially fatal virus. a total of 23 countries are currently planning to immunise up to 100 million children across the continent.



us trade deficit soars to new high of us$61.04 billion

the u.s. commerce department released new figures on tuesday, showing an imbalance of us$61.04 billion as of february. the figure was up 4.3 percent from the us$58.5 billion deficit last january.

"while we imported the necessities, we didn't sell a lot to the rest of the world," joel naroff, president of naroff economic advisors told "bloomberg". "as for the fed, this report would likely mean more measured rate hikes," he said.

"we are sucking in more products faster than we can sell abroad. it will reduce gdp growth a bit, but not a lot," david berson, the chief economist for fannie mae told "reuters".

the trade deficit has been aggravated by high oil prices and a surge of textile imports after the lifting of quotas on january 1. oil prices have been close to record levels recently, but light sweet crude fell $1.85 to us$51.86 on tuesday, after the international energy agency issued a prediction that interest rates and fuel costs would slow down demand for oil.

the new trade figures temporarily forced the dollar down against the yen and the euro. but later in the trading day, the dollar recovered lost ground as traders waited for a statement about the u.s. federal reserve meeting last march.


liberal democrat party pauses to welcome donald james kennedy

, 

one week into campaigning in the united kingdom general election, the leader of the liberal democratic party, charles kennedy, has become a father. 

kennedy's wife, sarah, was taken to st thomas' hospital, london, yesterday, and kennedy abandoned the election tour on the first day out to join her. donald james kennedy was born just after midnight. 

"everything went tremendously smoothly," kennedy explained to reporters. "this new donald james kennedy who becomes the latest addition to the clan is our pride and joy."



britney spears announces she is pregnant

following weeks of speculation in some media quarters, it has been announced that britney spears, 23, is pregnant. 
in a posting on her web site, spears announced that she and husband, kevin federline, 27, were expecting their first child together. her publicist, sonia muckle, confirmed the singer's pregnancy tuesday but gave no further information.

"the time has finally come to share our wonderful news that we are expecting our first child together. there are reports that i was in the hospital this weekend," read a statement allegedly written by spears. 

federline has two children with his ex-girlfriend, actress shar jackson. he met spears last year when he was a backup dancer on her tour and his girlfriend was pregnant with their son.

 


nz prime minister in mid-air emergency

preliminary reports suggest the cabin door popped open during extreme turbulence, which also caused a minor injury to the pm's elbow. two police officers on board held the door closed while the plane made an emergency landing at paraparaumu airport, near wellington.

"i had two new zealand police with me who acted very, very quickly to grab the door and the two police officers were strong enough to hold the door right through the landing," ms. clark said

the transport accident investigation commission (taic) will be investigating.

no result as yet.


ibm and national geographic to launch dna database project

genetics researchers announced today that they will beginning a five-year plan to create a map of human migrations based on dna mapping. the "genographic project" will be funded by the waitt family foundation, ibm corporation, and the national geographic society, and plans to collect 100,000 samples of dna from people all over the world in order to sequence how related to each other they are.

details on data collection have not yet been specified, but there are implications that some of the data will come from field work among indigenous groups, and that other individuals may purchase kits to submit their own dna in order to learn about their own genes.

the project has drawn immediate comparison with the failed human genome diversity project from the 1990s, which ended after controversy over the patenting of the dna of indigenous peoples. the genographic project leaders say that they will make the information from their project public and will not patent genes. whether or not researchers using the data will be subject to licensing guidelines, or whether they can patent their own discoveries using the data, remains to be answered.

in the last decade, the role of ibm tabulating machines in the holocaust has been explored and criticized by a number of historians, and national geographic has often been a target of critical theorists who have seen it as often representing the "gaze" of imperialism and orientalism.

previous genetic mapping projects which focused on specific ethnic groups have met with continuous controversy, with allusions often made to the projects of racial anthropometry of the early 20th century which served as the "scientific" backbone to scientific racism and eugenics legislation. though the genographic project participants have tried to emphasize that their project will be to look at the "similarities" between different groups of people rather than the "differences," it seems likely to remain a controversial issue.


four romanian ambassadors recalled

romanian president traian b?sescu signed an order yesterday recalling romania's ambassadors to three european union countries - austria, lithuania and greece, as well as croatia. the romanian embassy in vilnius, lithuania, is also accredited to represent romania's interests in latvia. 

all five of the recalled ambassadors were appointed by the previous administration, under president ion illiescu. the recall is part of an ongoing process of replacing romanian ambassadors abroad, with the present government planning to recall nearly all diplomats appointed by the previous administration. 

the minister of foreign affairs, mihai r?zvan ungureanu, said that the recall was not based on political criteria, or as a way of politically undermining the choices of the previous administration, but rather on the efficiency of the diplomats as well as their age, seeing as many of them are past retirement age.


new industrial area to be created in arad county, romania

the local government of arad county in western romania today launched a project calling for the creation of a new industrial area in the commune of zimandul nou. they have already allocated 0.3 km2 for this project, with more land being expected to be allocated for the industrial precinct.

the president of arad couty council, iosif matula, says that the labour force in the area is qualified in industrial occupations, especially in the fields of textiles, furniture, electronics and tools industries. the site also already has all the necessary infrastructure, such as gas, access to sewage and a water purifying facility.

the industrial area will be located on the outskirts of the zimandul nou commune, which is a fairly small, rural town. the proposed zimandul nou industrial area is one of the latest development projects by the arad county council, which has, since a few years ago, embarked on a fairly wide-ranging project of attracting foreign investment and developing further industry in rural areas.

the county capital, arad, with a population of nearly 190,000, is one of romania's largest industrial centres and is a major centre for foreign investment, but the county council would like to see more industry heading to the rural areas. the zimandul nou precinct will be the eighth industrial zone in a formerly-rural area in the county. the other seven areas have already attracted combined foreign investments of over 120 million euro.


torvalds codes temporary replacement for bitkeeper

in the wake of bitmover ceo larry mcvoy's decision to end the free distribution of the linux version of the source code management system bitkeeper, linux founder linus torvalds has written a program called "git" to access the linux source code repositories, torvalds wrote in a post to the linux kernel mailing list. the program, resting at version 0.04 as of april 13, is, according to torvalds's readme file: ""a stupid (but extremely fast) directory content manager. it doesn't do a whole lot, but what it _does_ do is track directory contents efficiently.""

when bitmover changed its licensing scheme, torvalds wrote that he was looking into using monotone; he added that he did not want to use subversion (svn). according to kerneltrap.org, on april 7, torvalds noted, "i detest the centralized scm model, but if push comes to shove, and we just _can't_ get a reasonable parallell merge thing going in the short timeframe (ie month or two), i'll use something like svn on a trusted site with just a few committers . . ."

while torvalds characterized monotone as slow, he was hopeful that it could be sped up. he anticipated using the pre-bitkeeper system of "people email patches to linus" until the 2.6.12 kernel is released in the next month or so.


india-china border-treaty hoped to improve ties, facilitate trade

india and china have settled long-time border disputes, and with freed up cross-border traffic look to creating what would be the largest trading bloc in the world, between the two most populous nations on the planet. during a recent visit by chinese premier wen jiabao to the indian capital of , a border was finally agreed on paper.

"india and china can together reshape the world order," indian prime minister manmohan singh said monday.

"china has a large manufacturing base. i believe it is the world's factory. and india with its development in software and other areas, i feel, is the world's office. what i am suggesting is to bring together the factory and the office," chinese ambassador to india, sun yuxi, had said ahead of the visit.

the agreement is the first official document for the 3,500 km disputed border between the two countries, in more than 20 years. the dispute erupted into war in 1962, followed by a 14 years freeze in diplomatic relations.

china would give up claims on 90,000 square kilometers to the north-east of india, formally recognising as parts of india, ? a kingdom that merged with india in 1975 ? and ? an area in which china had repeatedly claimed.

india would be formally recognising tibet as a part of china, giving up , uninhabited land on the plateau that seized from the indian states of in 1962. india agreed also "not to allow tibetans to engage in anti-china political activities on its soil", according to a report in "the economic times" of india. 

a new cross-border trade route would be allowed through , in sikkim, and significant road work was to facilitate higher traffic, at least on the chinese side.

eleven guiding principles and political parameters for resolving the disagreement, were put forth in the document, including a commitment to enhance bilateral trade from the present 13.6 billion to us$30 billion by 2010 ? trade which only a decade ago was worth just us$1 billion.

"this matter tells us that as long as the two sides bear sincerity, and patience, the border between china and india will become a bridge linking the friendship of the two sides," wen said of the document he signed with singh.

"a growing and stable china is in the interest of india. similarly, a growing and stable india is in the interest of china," the chinese premier said.

"it shows a lot of give and take on both sides," said national security adviser m.k. narayanan, india's special representative for the border talks.

the treaty "respect[s the] status quo, and is tantamount to accepting the line of actual control as the border between the two countries," said swaran singh, a china expert at the jawaharlal nehru university in new delhi.

"the next two years are very crucial to determine how much the two sides put the guiding principles into practice for the actual demarcation of the frontier," he cautioned.

feasibility of a china-india free trade agreement would be examined ? with china eager, but india tentative.


tarom cancels all bucharest-arad flights

romania's national airline, tarom, has announced that, from may 15 this year, all of its flights from bucharest, the romanian capital, to arad, a city in the country's west, will be cancelled, due to lack of financial viability and an increase in competition. the reason for the cancellation is mainly due to the planned inauguration on may 16 of a bucharest-arad flight operated by the private airline carpatair, romania's second-largest airline. 

carpatair has grown very quicly in the past two years, adding several new destinations, both in romania and abroad. also, it has taken away many of tarom's customers on international routes because it provides direct connections from transylvanian cities such as arad and timi?oara to german and italian cities, saving customers the task of changing flights at bucharest. also, although carpatair started out as a transylvanian airline, it now also flies to destinations in romania's east, and is expected to open up new routes via bucharest, in a further attempt to compete with tarom and win more market share.

in 2004, tarom was romania's largest airline, carrying approximately 940,000 passengers. carpatair came in at second, carrying approximately 271,000 passengers.


romania to adopt euro between 2012 and 2014

mugur is?rescu, the governor of the (bnr) predicted yesterday that romania would adopt the sometime between 2012 and 2014, possibly joining the as early as 2010.

in july 2004, romania will revalue its currency, the , so that 10,000 old lei will equal 1 new leu, with 1 euro being equal to approximately 3.6 new lei. dual pricing, in both the old leu and the new leu, has already been introduced from march 2005. the transition to the new leu is expected to stabilise the romanian currency and prepare the country for euro adoption.

after is?rescu's declaration, many people commented that they were surprised by how late the target date for euro adoption had been set, being 7-9 years away. however, is?rescu responded by stating that the new central european members of the , which joined in 2004, have not yet joined the euro, and that countries such as the czech republic, poland and hungary are only expected to adopt the currency between 2008-2010, 4-6 years after accession. in romania's case, the adoption will take place 5?7 years after accession in 2007.


european parliament approves accession of romania and bulgaria to the eu

the has today approved the signing of the accession treaties of romania and bulgaria, effectively endorsing their accession to the european union. the parliament voted on the romanian accession treaty with 497 positive votes, 93 negative votes and 71 abstentions. bulgaria received a slightly more positive message, with 522 votes in favour of its accession treaty, 70 negative votes and 69 abstentions.

after this vote, which was legally-binding, the two countries will sign their accession treaties on april 25, when they will move from being candidate countries to accession countries - that is, from april 25, the two countries will send observers to the european parliament and will receive larger amounts of pre-accession funding.

the approval of the accession treaty is a very positive signal for romania and bulgaria, confirming their progress towards eu accession until this stage. both countries started negotiations with the eu in 2000, and completed them in 2004.

the approval of the treaty is expected to encourage greater foreign investment to the two countries. already, the fact that they were eu candidate countries has made them more competitive than their neighbours. for example, romania received $5.5 billion of foreign investment in 2004, triple the amount received in 2003. bulgaria also attracted $2.54 billion, the highest per-capita amount in the region. stocks have also risen, with the bucharest-based bet10 exchange rising 84% in the last 12 months, and sofia's sofix rising 69%.

also, the countries will benefit from a greater role within the european union. they will send observers to the european parliament from april 25, which will be able to take place in debates, even though they will not have voting power. also, the countries will receive more funding between 2005 and 2007.

this step was one of the largest hurdles that the two countries faced before accession in 2007. once the accession treaty has been signed, the only way that accession can be postponed is through the implementation of a safeguard clause by the european commission, which can take place if either of the two countries are unprepared for joining the eu in key areas or have major problems with the last phases of accession.

however, despite the positive effects of the accession treaty vote, romania and bulgaria still have a significant amount of work to do in order to be fully prepared to join the eu in 2007. the establishment of an independent judiciary is a major issue in both countries, as is corruption. additionally, the european parliament has notified bulgaria that it must deal with in a more dynamic manner. in the case of romania, the eu has said that more progress must be made in bringing competition law up to eu standards, as well as protecting the and reducing state aid to loss-making industries such as the steel sector.

, the european commissioner for enlargement, said that "these countries still have a lot to do. they have criteria to fulfill so the safeguard clause doesn't kick in." if the safeguard clause is implemented, accession will be postponed until 2008. however, in the case of bulgaria, the safeguard clause can only be implemented if all 25 member states vote unanimously on it. in the case of romania, only a majority vote is needed.

in either case, analysts are predicting that both countries would have to face very major problems in key areas for the safeguard clause to go into effect.



survey finds spam tolerance growing

a survey by the pew internet & american life project found that 28% of users with a personal email account say they receive more spam than they used to, while 22% say the amount has decreased.

53% of the users surveyed said that spam has made them trust e-mail less; this is down from 62% last year. 22% (down from 29% last year) report that they use e-mail less because of spam.

spam however is becoming more accepted. 77% of users last year reported spam has made being online unpleasant, this year the number falls to 67%. users also reported that pornographic spam is down.

in contrast, “phishing” (email fraudulently requesting personal financial information) is up. 35% of users say they have received a phishing attempt, and 2% have provided the requested information to phishers. 

the pew internet & american life project is a non-profit research centre that produces reports that study the social effects of the internet.

http://www.pewinternet.org/ppf/r/155/report_display.asp

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/11364931.htm


indiana businessman held hostage in iraq

al-jazeera tv has released video of an american, 47 year old jeffrey ake of laporte, indiana, in the custody of three machine-gun wielding masked men.

a us embassy official said the video did not have an audio track, but al-jazeera reports the man is asking that american troops be removed from iraq so that he may live.

ake is posed behind a wooden desk holding what appears to be his passport and a photo id. his family had no comments on the situation, nor did those at ake’s business. he is the president and founder of equipment express of rolling prairie, indiana, a industrial assembly plant for water bottling equipment.

white house press secretary scott mcclellan said that no negotiations with the kidnappers will take place.

ake is one of at least 200 foreigners who been kidnapped or have gone missing in the past year in iraq. at least 30 have been killed. 



new zealand cricket under pressure to stop zimbabwe tour

new zealand cricket is coming under increasing domestic pressure to reject a touring trip to . the international cricket council (icc), however, has demanded of the new zealand cricket team, called the 'black caps', to keep the scheduled play in zimbabwe where there is to be five-week tour later this year.

new zealand prime minister helen clark has condemned the tour stating, "zimbabwe has just had a rigged election, which has produced a result which is simply unbelievable. i ... wouldn't go near it." but she refused to ban the tour, placing the onus instead on new zealand cricket.

the icc may fine new zealand up to us$2 million dollars for not attending the tour. england cricket, though, just bought its way out of playing two test matches at a cost of $400,000.

in 1981 there were nationwide protests during the south african springbok rugby tour. several games were cancelled due to the protests.




tory candidate in election gaffe

the photo in question originally showed matts and the conservative front-bencher anne widdecombe campaigning on behalf of an immigrant family living in weymouth, in the dorset south constituency, in march last year.

when the photo appeared in matts' campaign literature, the people in the background were removed from the photo and a slogan calling for the family to be allowed to stay was replaced by one calling for immigration control.

the seat, taken by labour's jim knight in the 2001 general election, is one of the most fiercely contested in the country, being labour's smallest majority.

conservative leader michael howard condemned matts' behaviour but refused to sack him. conservative shadow chancellor oliver letwin, from neighbouring dorset west, said that the message on the doctored photo was consistent with conservative policy.



nasa rethinks abandoning hubble

in the aftermath of the accident, which cost the lives of seven , the current chief of nasa had decided further maintenance to the space telescope of was too dangerous, and that maintenance of the telescope would be dropped, essentially decommissioning the . this caused some concern in the scientific community. a mission to repair the satellite using robots was dismissed as too complicated.

however, in light of space flight being resumed as of may 19th, the decision should be reconsidered, according to the nominee for the next chief of nasa, griffin.

"we should revisit the earlier decision in light of what we learn after return to flight," griffin told the senate commerce committee tuesday. he noted when nasa resumes space flight, it will be with the completely-overhauled shuttle - effectively a new vehicle - which will require new risk-analyses.

the hubble telescope has some major discoveries on its record, providing the first visual proof for , the and establishing for the first time the age of the universe. hubble's solar cells should provide it with enough power in its current state to maintain orbit until 2007. it was hoped that with servicing, the telescope could be maintained until 2011. its replacement the , which will be equipped with , will not be launched until 2010.



blair launches third and final manifesto

tony blair today launched the labour party's 112 page manifesto for a third term, entitled "britain: forward not back", at london's mermaid theatre this afternoon, promising not to increase income tax or vat.

blair, with chancellor gordon brown, described the manifesto, which focused on economic policy, as "radical", "quintessentially new labour" and giving people the "chance to succeed and make the most of what they have".

as well as economic promises, the manifesto pledged better social housing, increased funding and reform of education and the national health service and the introduction of community police patrols. the manifesto does not promise a freeze on national insurance, the income-linked tax which funds the nhs and pensions.

conservative leader michael howard said that the british people had "heard it all before", and reiterated claims that labour would have to increase taxes significantly in the third term.

deputy leader of the liberal democrats, sir menzies campbell, whose party was the only mainstream party consistently against the iraq war, said labour would "not be judged by their promises, but by what they have done", adding that labour have not kept their previous promises.

the conservative party and green party launched their manifestos yesterday, and the liberal democrats launch theirs tomorrow.



uk general election, 2005

the 2005 uk general election was held on thursday 5th may. the election resulted in a third term for tony blair's labour party.

below are the latest wikinews stories on the campaigning parties and candidates.

saturday:
friday:
thursday:
monday:
april 30:
april 29:
april 26:
april 14:
april 13: 
april 12: 
april 5: 


police investigate new lead in 'chili finger' case; ayala abandons lawsuit

san jose, california police are investigating a new lead in the wendy's "chili finger" case. the "san jose mercury news" is reporting a spotted leopard tore off part of a finger from an owner of exotic animals, sandy allman, in pahrump, nevada. the portion of allman's torn off finger was approximately the same size - 1 1/2-inches long - as the one which resident anna ayala found in a cup of chili, at a san jose outlet on monterey highway on march 22.

pahrump is approximately 45 miles away from las vegas.

"what are the odds?" carol asvestas told the "san jose mercury news". asvestas says she witnessed the leopard tear off the finger and owns an exotic animal sanctuary. she reported the incident to a hotline run by wendy's, which is offering us$50,000 for information leading to the origin of the finger.

"somebody might be able to say it looks the same but scientifically to say it's the same, you'd have to do dna testing," captain bob dixon, of the santa clara county sheriff-coroner's office, told the "san jose mercury news".

cindy carroccio told the "san jose mercury news" that the finger was not reattached, and that the clinic "gave it back to her (allman) in a little bag of ice."

on the same day the pahrump exotic animal lead was announced, anna ayala decided to drop her lawsuit against wendy's.

the lawsuit "has caused her great emotional distress and continues to be difficult emotionally," jeffrey janoff, ayala's attorney told the "associated press". janoff declined to provide more of an explanation for why he was no longer involved with the case. he denied that there was any connection to the new lead from pahrump.


britons urged not to vote by post

the call comes one week after a labour councillor in birmingham was jailed for election fraud, after party campaigners collected blank ballot papers from confused voters in a trial of a postal-only election.

on sunday the judge in the trial of muhammed hussain, richard mawrey qc, described the postal voting system as hopelessly flawed, and said the government was in denial about the problems.



labour attack tory economic policy

the pledge of ￡35 billion of savings from "government slimlining", and subsequent tax cuts, has been attacked by labour and the liberal democrats. the conservatives plan to continue funding front-line services at the current rate by relying on economic growth to make up the difference. 

labour described the plans as "a complete economic mess", the current chancellor, gordon brown claiming there would be a shortfall of "￡18.9bn in year one, ￡18.5bn in year two and ￡14.4bn in year three." labour leader tony blair claimed that the labour and the conservatives economic roles had reversed since the 1980s, when many had lost faith in labour's ability to handle the economy.

the deputy leader of the liberal democrats, sir menzies campbell, claimed that ￡5.5 to 8 billion of cuts were unrealistic.

labour's manifesto is launched tomorrow, and the liberal democrats launch theirs on thursday. conservative shadow chancellor oliver letwin has already criticised gordon brown's budget of march this year, claiming it will create an ￡11bn shortfall.



sit-in at washington university, st. louis enters ninth day

thirteen students demanding a living wage and increased benefits for workers of washington university in st. louis, have entered the ninth day of a sit-in at the school's administrative offices. also, adding to pressure mounting on university officials, 15 additional students began a hunger strike last night.

the protesting students seek a living wage of at least $9.79 and more benefits for the university's contract workers.

yesterday, the administration agreed to commit $500,000 toward a benefit and wage package, but student organizers insist that the university will need to spend about $2.4 million annually to raise employee wages above the poverty line. currently non-union workers make $8 per hour.

last month a hunger strike at georgetown university led to a compromise between a student coalition and the administration increasing wages and benefits.



microsoft releases low-cost windows xp starter edition in brazil

microsoft has announced a low-cost windows xp starter edition is to be launched in brazil.

windows xp starter edition has been previously released in several other countries in asia and russia. these editions are sold only as a low-cost oem bundle. the edition is quite similar to windows xp home but with some restrictions: only three applications may be run concurrently, 800×600 is the maximum display resolution and home networking is disabled.

brazil has been increasingly adopting open source software for it projects, rather than using microsoft products. the country recently launched the pc conectado initiative, which aims to greatly increase the use of computers in homes, schools and businesses by making them as much as 50% cheaper. an important cost-saving measure is the exclusive use of open source software. no microsoft software is being used.



unions ballot to &quot;shut down the bbc&quot;

trades unions are to ballot members on strike action following the announcement of 4,000 job cuts at the british broadcasting corporation (bbc).

formal notice of the strike ballot was sent to the public service broadcaster today by bectu, the technicians' union, the manual workers' union amicus and the national union of journalists (nuj), after the director general, mark thompson failed to rule out compulsory redundancies.

the job cuts announced last month, amounting to approximately 20% of the bbc's staff, are part of ￡355 million of savings that the bbc are making before the review of the broadcaster's royal charter by the department of culture, media and sport, which fund the bbc through the license fee. further production jobs are being moved into the private sector.

luke crawly of bectu said that it was unrealistic to expect 100% programme quality from 80% of staff. ballot papers will be sent in seven days, with the aim of shutting down live broadcasting of sports events including the wimbledon tennis tournament and the football association cup final.

the bbc's rival itv is experiencing strike action over wages at production companies london weekend television (lwt), yorkshire tv, granada and 3sixtymedia, that has led to prerecording of shows and has forced itv to borrow studios at the bbc's television centre.


conservative party launches manifesto

the conservative party of the united kingdom, monday, launched its slimline manifesto for the may 5th general election, a twenty-seven page document entitled "the british dream".

the manifesto focuses on five key areas:

lower tax and value for money: the party plans to make up to ￡12 billion of savings annually by reducing beurocracy such as quangos. ￡8 billion will reduce previous deficit, and ￡4 billion of tax cuts will be made, especially to what have been called "stealth taxes". the party promised that funding for education, health, transport and international development would not be cut, and spending on police, defence and pensions would be increased.

flexible childcare and school discipline: the manifesto promised an increase in maternity pay and more choice of childcare. under a conservative government more independence over expulsions and admissions would be given to school heads and governors. special schools for disruptive pupils would be created, and more vocational courses would be created for 14-16 year olds.

better healthcare and cleaner hospitals: a major feature of the coservative campaign has been hospital sourced infections, and in respose the party have promised to introduce ward matrons charged with keeping hospitals clean, with the authority to close wards with mrsa infections. a conservative government would contribute funding towards operations in private hospitals. econimic migrants with hiv or tb would not be allowed to live or work in britain.

safer communities and more police: a conservative government would increase police recruitment by 5,000 a year. the manifesto promised to increase prison terms and increase britain's prison capacity by 20,000 places. the party would reverse the labour government's decision to relax laws prohibiting canabis use.

secure borders and controlled immigration: the manifesto proposes a new border police at britain's busiest air and sea ports, with 24 hour surveilance. the party would set a quota on economic migrants and reject asylym-seekers who are not vetted by the unhcr.

party leader michael howard summed up the manifesto: "if you long for cleaner hospitals, more police, school discipline, controlled immigration, lower taxes and accountability - you can vote for it, on 5 may", accusing prime-minister tony blair, who is campaigning for his third term, of letting the country down.

the manifesto has been criticised by the labour chancellor, gordon brown, for being unrealistic in its extimates of savings, and in predictions of economic growth resulting from tax cuts, calculating that there would be approximately ￡18 billion annual deficits.

labour's election strategist, alan millburn, said that the manifesto shows that the conservatives still stand for privilege and not opertunity, and described it as the shortest suicide note in political history.

the deputy leader of the liberal democrats, sir menzies campbell, claimed that claimed that ￡5.5 to 8 billion of cuts were unrealistic. charles kennedy said that voters had already decided the conservative party could not run public services.



deadly virus samples missing in mexico/lebanon

nb "this story has also been covered in the article killer virus sent worldwide. there have not been two incidents."

the world health organisation (who), in a statement issued tuesday, urged scientists to destroy samples of a deadly flu virus that could potentially cause a global pandemic.

shipments of the influenza virus sent to mexico and lebanon are unaccounted for. the u.n. health organization said 10 countries receiving samples already destroyed them, while 5 more countries are in the process of doing so.

the virus, a/h2n2, was detected by a canadian lab which contacted the public health agency of canada, who in turn warned the who and other national health agencies on march 26.

meridian bioscience sent routine testing kits infected with the virus to almost 5,000 laboratories, of which 3747 in 18 countries have so far been identified as having the virus, most of them in north america.

the virus is a variant of the h2n2 virus which caused the 1957 asian flu pandemic, but which was displaced by the h3n2 variant. people born after 1959 are unlikely to be immune to the virus.



bbc launches the creative archive

with little ceremony, one of the most innovative and radical new media projects in decades, the creative archive was officially launched today by the british broadcasting corporation (bbc).

in partnership with the open university, channel 4, british film institute and creative commons, the creative archive will allow uk residents access to selected items from the archives of british public service radio and television broadcasting.

the archive has been in pre-development stages for several years, and today's official launch saw the creation of the creative archive website and the creative archive license, a special copyright license developed with oxford university and the creative commons project. under the license british citizens will be able to download and modify clips from the archive without having to pay royalties.

over the summer, the bbc will be releasing archives of documentaries, particularly from its acclaimed natural history collection, under the creative archive license, while channel 4 has commissioned a special selection of programmes which will not be broadcast, but will be available on the internet. the bfi will be releasing silent movies from the early 20th century on the creative archive.

other organisations expressing an interest in the creative archive include teachers' tv, the natural history museum and independent television news.



german cannibal seeks review of manslaughter conviction

yes, he carved up and ate another human being, but it was not without the victim’s express consent?so goes the defense of armin meiwes, known as the ‘german cannibal,’ following appeals by both sides, defense and prosecution, of the verdict.

while meiwes was convicted to 8 ? years in prison for the manslaughter killing and eating of another human, bernd juergen brandes, he argues that the victim had volunteered to be eaten, advertising the fact that he wanted someone to take part in “slaughter and consumption” on the internet.

testimony in the case showed that brandes wanted to die a stabbing death after imbibing a bottle of cold medicine to lose consciousness.

brandes “came to me of his free will to end his life,” said meiwes. he believes his actions are a mercy killing, not manslaughter.

the federal constitutional court of germany, the highest court in the country, is reviewing the january 2004 conviction. the trial gained notoriety both from graphic descriptions meiwes gave during the proceedings, as well as a grisly video presented to the judges in closed session.

meiwes seeks a reduction in sentence to 5 years, while the prosecution believes the cutting and dismembering deserves not just the full 8 ? years already passed against the defendant, but a life sentence.

the court should decide by friday, april 22, 2005.


major 'spiritual life of college students' study released by ucla

results of the second phase in an ongoing major study of the spiritual lives of college students was released wednesday, april 13 by a research center at ucla. the study is a groundbreaking attempt to gain insight into the spiritual lives and concerns of students and improve how faculties and administrators at us colleges and universities address this part of their students' lives.

the study, named the spiritual life of college students, was conducted by the higher education research institute (heri), a research center of higher education in the united states. heri is based in the graduate school of education & information studies (gse&is) at university of california, los angeles (ucla). 

heri also produces a widely-cited annual survey of entering freshman through its cooperative institutional research program (cirp) program.

co-principal investigators of the project were alexander astin, founding director of heri and widely-cited author of 20 books on higher education; and helen astin, psychologist, professor at ucla, and author of 11 books and many articles on women, leadership and spirituality. the study was funded by a grant from the john templeton foundation.

the study has so far been undertaken in two major phases. first a pilot survey was taken in spring 2003 by 3,680 undergraduates at 46 us colleges and universities.

results from that survey were used to revise the questions, then the survey was given again in fall 2004 to 112,232 students, the freshman classes of 236 us colleges and universities in the united states. the study included both quantitative (multiple choice) and qualitative focus group interview approaches. copies of the questionnaires which were administered are available from the center's website.

heri also conducted a secondary survey of faculty to assess their spiritual beliefs in conjunction with this study.

a follow-up survey of students is planned for spring 2007 when they are expected to be juniors.

goals of the in-depth, multi-year project are to:

for purposes of the study, the spiritual aspect under discussion was taken to refer to varying concepts such as traditional beliefs, mystical experiences, and a personal sense of meaning and values, in other words, "our interiors, our subjective life, as contrasted to the objective domain of material events and objects." 

the differences and similarities in students' beliefs, activities and affiliations were examined along a number of dimensions, to assess the impact of the students beliefs on their daily lives. the results are summarized below. note that the terms describing the various categories are taken verbatim from the survey results. note also that some of the percentages add to more than 100% because the answers were not mutually exclusive and more than one answer could be checked.

the survey offered 20 choices of religious affiliation of various kinds, which may be broadly classified as christian sects, buddhist, islamic, jewish, other, and none. the most numerous categories of response were:


the fact that the survey was administered only at us schools agrees with the expression of predominantly christian opinion.

here is a quick summary of some of the major beliefs and interests of the students, that may be seen to indicate their overall level of involvement with such issues:


some of the findings in this area include:


although this percentage seems high, the proportion of us adults who pray is even greater at 82%, according to the barna group. this fact is "not surprising" according to the author of the article in the christian science monitor, given that college students are widely perceived as being hedonistic and less than serious.

student's religious beliefs and affiliations were correlated with their political orientation in some predictable and some unexpected ways.


unexpectedly however, very religious students were found to be more likely to oppose the death penalty and affirmative action, but to hold generally similar views to less-religious or spiritually inclined students on issues of race and sex.

the study also noted "sharp differences" in areas such as legalized abortion, casual sex, same-sex marriage, and the legalization of marijuana based on the students' level of religiousness or spirituality.

the findings on religious tolerance seem consistent overall with the practice of reconciling contradictions of religious faith in a modern, pluralistic society.


the student's personal level of confidence in their own belief was also studied:


the survey also attempted to address how students feel about the role their schools should play in assisting their personal spiritual quest.


the results seem to indicate a substantial demand for greater support of student's religious and spiritual pursuits by the colleges and universities they attend. this in turn suggests that future programs to address these kinds of needs may be developed at some colleges in response to the awareness raised by this study.



chinese authorities question genetically altered rice allegation

authorities in the people's republic of china today questioned the integrity of tests conducted by greenpeace, the environmental awareness organisation, purporting to show that genetically engineered (ge) rice has been illegally farmed and sold, in the largest rice-producing country.

greenpeace alleges through a press release that "it appears ge rice is being sold, planted, consumed, and possibly exported", with the chinese government not having approved the crop. local farmers in hubei province where the ge crops were allegedly found, had tipped the organisation off.

greenpeace says it tested rice bought there during february and april, and 19 of the 25 samples taken returned positive results for transgenic dna, with two containing an alteration that means the rice incorporates genes from a bacteria, bacillus thuringiensis (bt), used to produce a toxin that kills pests. "(see tests results summary)"

"we've asked the agricultural department in hubei province to conduct on-the-spot examination on this issue," an unidentified official with the office of genetically modified organism safety under the ministry of agriculture was reported as saying, by "china daily".

"we have not seen the concrete testing reports. moreover, the testing of gm (genetically modified) rice seeds should be based on china's technical standards," he said.

programme director for greenpeace in beijing, liu haiying, told by the newspaper that samples collected in hubei province were sent to a gene testing laboratory in germany.

zhu xinquan, chairman of the chinese society of agro-biotechnology, said to "china daily": "i cannot agree with the findings of the report by greenpeace and i am wondering if the tests conducted by the organization are scientific or not."

"regulations on gm food have been in force for several years in china and the nation is doing more research before approving the commercialization of gm rice. a cautious attitude must be taken on the safety of gm rice since it is a highly important food for chinese people," said zhu to "china daily".

scientists at huazhong agriculture university in wuhan, capital of hubei, have been conducting tests with the engineered strain of rice. 

the area is geographically close to an area diverse in rice strains, where greenpeace says that natural evolution of rice is threatened by the potential of escaped gm rice genes. this is centered in the nearby provinces of guizhou, guangxi and yunnan. 

greenpeace says, "no country in the world has commercially released ge rice."




israeli paratroopers stop 15-year-old palestinian from detonating himself

hassan hashash, a palestinian aged 15, was detained by the israeli military on tuesday, april 12, at the hawara checkpoint south of nablus in the west bank. hashash had been hiding five explosive charges under a winter coat before attempting to ignite one in the presence of israeli soldiers, the military said. in the sweltering 26°c (78°f) heat, the teenager's incongruous attire caught the attention of an idf paratrooper nicknamed muli.

"the boy pulled out a matchbox, held up a pipe bomb, and attempted to detonate it," said muli. "we aimed our weapons at him and told him to move away from us" (ynet).

the military reported that after taking the youth to an isolated area they searched him and found another four explosives.

"you could see it's a young child who was sent [by someone]," said muli. "i looked into his eyes: he was on the brink of tears and scared to death."

the hawara checkpoint has seen this kind of trouble before. in april 2004, soldiers there arrested a 16-year-old, also palestinian, with a suicide bomb strapped to his body. the teenager, hussam abdo, later told an israeli newspaper he was on a mission to kill israeli soldiers. 

israeli radio noted that this is the third palestinian child in the past two months caught attempting to transfer explosives past israeli checkpoints.



lib dems launch manifesto

an exhausted charles kennedy returned to the election campaign to launch a twenty page liberal democrat manifesto targeted at disaffected labour voters, promising a fairer tax system and withdrawal from iraq.

entitled "the real alternative" the manifesto pledges to reduce the lowest rate of income tax, but increase the rate on those earning over ￡100,000 to 50%. the party would also scrap the unpopular local council tax in favour of a new local income tax. the manifesto also promises to remove hidden "stealth taxes".

under this system the party claims the poorest 15 million (25%) of people in britain would be better off, and the middle 50% would be paying no extra tax.

the manifesto promised to scrap the controversial university tuition fees, increase services for pensioners and add ￡100 a month to the state pension, and train 21,000 new primary school teachers and 10,000 new police. a lib dem government would make eye and dental checks free, and reduce the cost of prescription medicine.

the liberal democrats were the only one of the three largest parliamentary parties to have consistently voted against the iraq war, and the manifesto has promised an exit strategy with a phased withdrawal of britain's 8,000 troops still in the country.

"we reject a foreign policy based on 'my ally right or wrong'," kennedy said. "and we say that war should always be a last resort."

kennedy, who became a father on tuesday, admitted he'd had little sleep before the manifesto launch, and stumbled while answering questions on the proposed tax system.

deputy leader of the labour party, john prescott, focused on the 50% of the population falling in the higher tax bands, claiming that under a lib dem government a household with a combined income of ￡41,000 would be paying an extra ￡1,170 tax a year.

conservative party chairman, dr liam fox said that the liberal democrats were not the real alternative on crime and the "immigration system being chaos".

kennedy rejected this claim: "over the course of the last parliament the liberal democrats have been the real opposition - over issues like iraq, student top-up fees, the council tax and compulsory id cards - while the conservatives have either lined up with labour or flip-flopped."

a guardian/icm opinion poll yesterday found that while the conservative's policy on immigration was popular with traditional conservative voters, it was unpopular with undecided voters, and was failing to win voters over from other parties.


killer virus sent worldwide

the world health organization (who) issued a warning to 3,747 laboratories in the united states and 17 other countries around the world, instructing them to destroy samples of the deadly h2n2 asian influenza virus that was mistakenly sent to them last fall by the college of american pathologists, us company meridian bioscience and several other organizations responsible for testing laboratory proficiency worldwide, as soon as possible.

the h2n2 flu strain killed between 1 million and 4 million people in 1957 and is thought to have become extinct in the wild in 1968. the who stated that the virus strain should never have been circulated, because of the risk that it could cause a pandemic among people born after 1968, who would probably have little or no immunity to it, as the strain is not contained in current flu vaccines.

the centers for disease control and prevention is operating under the presumption that the h2n2 strain was purposefully dispatched. officials of both organizations have assigned a low but real risk to the possibility of an outbreak. no-one has actually become infected.

according to who, the virus was sent to laboratories in belgium, bermuda, brazil, canada, chile, france, germany, hong kong, israel, italy, japan, lebanon, mexico, saudi arabia, singapore, south korea, taiwan and the united states. meridian executives were unavailable for comment.


lawsuits filed against students accused of illegally sharing files over the internet2

the recording industry association of america (riaa) has filed 405 lawsuits against students at 18 colleges across the us. the riaa says these students were illegally sharing songs and films over the internet2. they claim that 3,900 songs were available on the network. the riaa said that each person sued downloaded an average of 2,300 songs.

the mpaa has also filed several lawsuits, against students, but has declined to comment on the number of students sued. the mpaa claim that users of the internet2 had swapped 99 terabytes of films per day. this is more then 15,000 full length films.

the internet2 is a high speed network used by 207 us universities. it was designed to provide a high speed alternative for researchers and other educators to share information. the internet2 allows for very high speed connections ? a film can be downloaded in as little as 30 seconds, compared with approximately six hours over other high-speed connections, such as dsl.

cary sherman the president of the recording industry association of america is quoted as saying that "internet2 is increasingly becoming the network of choice for students looking to steal songs and other copyrighted works on a massive scale”.

some have raised the issue of how the riaa and mpaa gained access to the network, as it is a closed network environment for universities only. the internet2 does not know how they gained access as they have not given them access or handed over any data. the riaa will not say how it did the monitoring, but claims it was entirely legal.

a spokesperson for the internet2 told the los angeles times that copyright infringement is prohibited under its rules, though its chief executive, doug van houweling, in a separate interview admitted that he is aware that there is a lot of file-sharing going on. he also stated that it is possible to filter traffic so as to block illegal activity; however, it would slow the network's performance and they will not be doing it.



when the dog bites the hand of a stranger


legislators in spotsylvania county, virginia, are proposing a new law that would make pet owners criminally responsible for their animal’s actions.

this follows the death of a boy after a dog attack. the proposal would make it a category iv misdemeanor if a conviction for negligence is gained against a pet owner charged for their dog biting someone, punishable by a $250 fine. for a second offense, the penalty can go up to $1000 or 6 months in jail, and for a third offense, $2500, or a year in jail. the legislation, if enacted, would enable the creation of a criminal profile for a negligent animal owner and the animal itself.

on a "cbs6" news report broadcast recently on an orange county boy killed by the family dog, they said the station received many angry e-mails from dog owners about the story when it was aired earlier that day. it is a topic that draws strong views from both sides of the argument, and probably explains why the commonwealth of virginia has been strangely quiet on the subject. it appears the state government is willing at this point to let it be slugged out at the county level, while remaining distant and learning from it above the fray. this means that if a spotsylvania county dog owner cannot abide a new law that might fine him $250 because his dog bit the mailman, he can move to a nearby county where no such law exists.

the legal wording the county might use in drafting the legislation should not concern itself with the species of pet. all pets should be affected because the legislation should be indiscriminate. what it needs to concern itself with is what meets the definition of a pet, and exactly what negligence is.

recall that dianna large, now charged with a felony, originally said she owned only 1 of the 3 pit bulls involved in the attack that killed an elderly woman. even if she later recanted that, if her defense can show that her status as pet owner of the other 2 dogs is only slight, or if it exists at all under current law, that would have a big impact on the case.

there will be a public hearing on may 10 to discuss proposals that may change county legislation.



u.s. federal agents arrest two houston men in un oil for food scandal

two houston residents were arrested at their homes today as a federal indictment was unsealed in u.s. district court in manhattan.

david chalmers jr, a houston oilman, and a bulgarian citizen, ludmil dionissiev, a permanent u.s. resident, were taken into custody. a third man, john irving, was also indicted. he is a british citizen whom prosecutors hope to extradite to the u.s.

u.s. attorney david n. kelley announced that most charges focus on chalmers. at a new york news conference, authorities accused the men of plotting to pay secret kickbacks so chalmers’ oil companies could sell oil under cover of the iraqi oil-for-food program.

the funds were intended for humanitarian relief, not oil revenues.

the three men face a maximum of 62 years in prison and fines totaling $1 million (us) if convicted. additionally, the court could force them to make restitution. 

the indictment says the government seeks forfeiture of at least $100 million (us) in assets from the three.

the same news story said an indictment on another case was unsealed in that court today. tongsun park, a south korean, was charged with conspiracy to act as an unregistered government agent for iraq in the united states to create the oil-for-food program.

lawyers for the defendants were not immediately available.

the oil-for-food program began in december 1996 as a humanitarian effort to support the people of iraq, and ended after the us-led invasion in 2003. many scandals and kickbacks are documented and criminal prosecutions for bribery, sanctions busting, money laundering and fraud are expected to lead to dozens of arrests in many countries. reporters were told that it is likely that the enforcement actions will occur in mid-summer, 2005.


china calls japan's gas drilling plan 'a serious provocation'

chinese foreign ministry spokesman told reporters that china is protesting japan's plan to allow drilling for gas and oil in disputed waters in the , characterizing the move as "a serious provocation".

on wednesday, japan announced that they would begin processing applications to allow oil and gas drilling firms to explore in the disputed area, east of the "demarcation line" which has held up applications to drill in the area for decades.

"the chinese and japanese positions differ on that matter, but we need to continue talks from a big point of view, without inflaming conflicts, and to turn the sea of conflict into a sea of coordination," japanese prime minister junichiro koizumi told a news conference.

qin gang said that china reserved "the right to take further reaction," according to "".

"china has never ever recognized and will never recognize the demarcation line," qin told reporters.

japan's exploration of the disputed zone could start early next month, and will be defended by japanese military vessels, according to the "sydney morning herald".

japan's latest move further inflamed sino-japanese tensions. chinese activist feng jinhua plans to meet with his group to plan a second weekend of protests in china over japan's actions.

"expression of anti-japanese sentiment and boycott of japanese products is to be expected from chinese citizens," jinhua told the "sydney morning herald".

thousands of anti-japan protesters marched in beijing, guangzhou, and shenzhen last weekend.


slime-mold beetles named for bush, cheney, and rumsfeld

while naming 65 new species of slime-mold beetles, entomologists quentin wheeler and kelly miller named three after u.s. president george w. bush, vice president dick cheney, and secretary of defense donald rumsfeld. of the genus agathidium, they are bushi, cheneyi and rumsfeldi.

wheeler, keeper and head of entomology at the natural history museum in london, intended the names to be an honor: "we admire these leaders as fellow citizens who have the courage of their convictions and are willing to do the very difficult and unpopular work of living up to principles of freedom and democracy rather than accepting the expedient or popular."

miller is a post-doctoral fellow at brigham young university.

a. bushi miller and wheeler inhabits southern ohio, north carolina and virginia. a. cheneyi miller and wheeler lives in chiapas, mexico. a. rumsfeldi miller and wheeler is from oaxaca and hidalgo in mexico.

other inspirations for names include their illustrator frances fawcett, their wives, geographic areas, latin and greek words, the aztecs, pocahontas, and darth vader.



u.s. federal judge overturns ephedra ban

a , utah nutritional supplement manufacturer won its appeal against the fda on wednesday as a federal judge lifted a ban and sent the case back to the agency for revised rulemaking in accordance with the court's decision. 

judge ruled that no further enforcement of the fda action can take place until the fda reviews its current regulation.

neutraceutical claimed in its lawsuit that the product "has been safely consumed" for hundreds of years and is not harmful at low ephedrine product levels. the fda had decided to ban the supplement based on a reverse logic that the product had to be proven safe. the lawsuit effectively argued that it is the fda's task to prove that all dosage levels of ephedrine were unsafe. the court agreed with the manufacturer that this assumption could not be proven and, when taken in low doses, less than 10 mg, that agree with the product labeling, ephedrine was not shown to be an "unreasonable or significant risk."

a group of private researchers claimed that ephedra was the most dangerous herbal product on the market. they collected data from poison control centers. it was not considered to be a drug and could not be controlled the way pharmaceuticals were, and was sold over the counter.

the death in 2003 of 23-year old pitcher brought a slew of negative reports on the product that foreshadowed a sharp drop in sales.


romanian economy predicted to maintain steady growth until 2008

the national forecast committee of romania today released its economic predictions for the country in the period 2005-2008. the report predicted that the romanian economy should increase steadily over the next three years, with a rise in gross domestic product (gdp) of about 6.2% per annum until 2008. by the end of 2008, this should lead to romania's gross domestic product being nearly 30% larger than it was at the end of 2004. for 2005, the prediction is that the economy will grow by 6%, after last year's impressive growth of 8.3%. the reason for the slowing of growth is due to government reforms from 2005-2008, as well as counter-inflationary policy, which are expected to stabilise consumption and therefore slow growth. despite this, even a growth rate of 6% is one of the highest in the region, and well above the european union average.

concerning the structure of gdp between 2005 and 2008, the largest increases are expected to be recorded in the services and industry sectors. while total agricultural output is also expected to rise, it will contribute a smaller share of gdp in comparison to 2004, when a good harvest enhanced total gdp growth by nearly 3%.

the other important macro-economic indicator that the report said romania must focus on is inflation, which is expected to lower to 7% this year, after a rate of 9.2% in 2004. the national bank of romania and the romanian government have pledged to lower inflation until the country's eu accession in 2007. while unemployment dropped to 6.2% in 2004, one of the lowest rates in europe, it is expected to rise in 2005 to around 7%, due to structural reforms of the economy, as well as a drop of state subsidies to key industrial sectors. however, by 2008, the forecasted unemployment rate is 6.1%.

whereas gdp growth, inflation and unemployment are all expected to improve favourably until 2008, the weaker point in the economy is the current account deficit, which should continue to increase until 2008, according to the national forecast committee. in 2006, the current account deficit is expected to be 6.2% of gdp, while in 2008 it will be around 5%. while these rates are an improvement of the 2004 figure of nearly 7%, they still remain fairly high. on the other hand, direct foreign investment is expected to rise significantly until 2008, covering a portion of the current account deficit. foreign invesment in 2005, should reach 4.1 billion euros this year, and will probably increase significantly from 2007 onwards, as romania becomes a member of the european union.


france telecom significantly increases its share in orange romania


france telecom announced yesterday that it would increase its indirect participation in orange romania to 96.63%. this is because it acquired over 23% of the mobile phone operator from a group of investors led by the aig new europe fund. the investors include the polish enterprise fund lp and polish enterprise fund iv lp, innova/98 lp, communications venture partners, bancboston capital, societe generale romania fund and alcatel nv. before the share increase, orange romania was owned 51% by france telecom's subsidiary orange, 22.6% by wirefree services belgium and the rest by several smaller investors.

orange romania is currently romania's largest mobile phone operator, with 48% market share and over 5 million subscribers. between 2003 and 2004, it registered an increase in turnover of 47%, with total turnover in 2004 being 624 million euro.


united states arrests 10,340 fugitives in first-of-kind nationwide sweep

the united states marshals service working together with nearly 960 other law enforcement agencies recently concluded a week-long operation, operation falcon, which succeeded in the arrest of 10,340 fugitives across the united states and elsewhere. other regional sweeps have been conducted before; but this was the first of its kind at the national level and resulted in the highest number of arrests ever recorded in a single operation.

operation falcon, which stands for "federal and local cops organized nationally", received the cooperation of more than 3,000 law enforcement agents from the us marshals, state, county and city level, and other us agencies. operations were also coordinated internationally with interpol and the us state department, resulting in the detainment of 16 foreign and international fugitives.

operation falcon was conducted during a one week period, april 4-10, 2005, chosen to coincide with national crime victim's rights week, april 10-16, the dates being chosen to "honor the victims" of violent crime in america. “by taking violent fugitives off the streets and putting them behind bars where they belong,” said attorney general alberto gonzales, “we've honored the victims and made our streets safer.”

the focus of operation falcon was on apprehending fugitives wanted for violent crimes, gang activities, drug trafficking, and sex-related offenses. arrests were made in all 50 states, the district of columbia, guam, puerto rico, and in several international locales.

“i applaud the achievements of every deputy marshal, police officer, detective, trooper, investigator, deputy sheriff, and special agent who hit the street virtually around-the-clock for seven days,” said robert j. finan ii, the marshals service’s assistant director for investigative services. he continued, “also of note is that during the course of this initiative, there were no serious incidents or serious injuries to either law enforcement officers or those who were taken into custody.”

here are some of the arrests that were highlighted by press releases of the us marshals.





aarp claims us prescription drug prices continue to rise

the organization formerly known as the american association of retired persons released a report claiming that prescription drug prices in the united states rose 7.1% in 2004. overall u.s. inflation was about 3 percent in 2004.

the study covers 197 of "the brand name prescription drugs most widely used by americans age 50 and older." the drug prices are compared on a month-by-month basis, i.e. january of 2004 is compared to january of 2003. percentages were then averaged to arrive at quarterly and annual figures. according to the report, most of the change occurred in the first quarter of 2004; the average brand-name drug price in the first quarter of 2004 was 3.5% higher than the average price in the same quarter in 2003.

the pharmaceutical research and manufacturers of america, a trade group, faults the aarp's report. for example, the trade group says medical inflation, which is greater than overall inflation in the united states, would have made a more appropriate comparison.

three drugs increased by more than 20% in price in 2004, said the study: premarin, miacalcin, and neurontin. the companies that led the way with price increases were boehringer ingelheim, aventis, and purdue pharmaceuticals, each with average price increases of greater than 10%. three companies increased their prices by less than 6%: merck, glaxosmithkline, and eisai, according to the study.

 


movie industry looks toward bittorrent as possible video distribution method

according to dr. vinton cerf, a few movie producers have talked about using filesharing such as bittorrent for the distribution of video content. dr. cerf is considered to be one of the fathers of the internet. one of the problems with having a video on demand service is video files take quite a bit of bandwidth to distribute. through the use of file sharing, the clients that are requesting a video can share information amongst themselves and can take some of the load off of the original distributor. the only draw back to using file sharing is the distribution would not be instant; instead, it would have to be pre-recorded like tivo.

ironically, the movie industry has been suing people for file sharing for years now. in the end, this same technology might save the movie industry millions. cerf said, "they are only just now starting to come to honest grips with the possibilities of using the internet," according to "zdnet australia".

currently, waves of lawsuits against internet file-sharing services continue to be mounted. 11 countries across europe and asia have seen lawsuits filed against individuals by record companies fighting file-sharing technology which they say is costing it billions. the total number of lawsuits worldwide is in the range of 12,000.



lebanese prime minister steps down

april 15, 2005

prime minister of lebanon, omar karami, stepped down yet again thursday, april 14 after failing to reach a consensus in negotiations on candidates to fill key cabinet positions necessary for scheduled elections to take place in may.

karami said he could no longer work with president emile lahoud. both were pro-syria, the country that has maintained a military presence in lebanon for 29 years.

syria is now withdrawing its forces from the country. a general election for a new government is planned to be held in may, although a functioning government is required to oversee the polls. temporary interior minister suleiman franjieh warned that delaying the elections could lead to unrest and called for the polls to still be held next month.

opposition leaders have accused the government attempting to delay the polls, and have warned of street protests if the situation is not quickly resolved.


british airways launches three new weekly flights from bucharest to london

due to greater consumer demand, british airways announced yesterday that it would run a further three flights weekly on the route from bucharest (henri coand? international) to london (gatwick). the bucharest-london flights will run on monday, thursday and saturday, while the return flights will run on wednesday, friday and sunday. the extra flights will mean that british airways will now fly from bucharest to london, and back, ten times a week.


aclu, minutemen trade accusations of misbehavior

grey deacon, a spokesman of the minuteman project, told the "worldnet radioactive" show in an exclusive interview on april 14 that representatives from the american civil liberties union are now criminally involved in helping illegal entrants cross the us border and avoid detection. he alleges that the aclu activists are making noise and flashing lights to alert potential illegals to move on to a non-patrolled area of the border.

"the aclu's position is that illegal aliens have a right to enter our border and stay in this country as long as they want," said deacon. "that's what one of the leaders of the group told me personally."

these allegations exist despite the aclu's officially stated position of not directly interfering with the minutemen's activities. the aclu's press release of march 30 affirmed that the participation of aclu members would be strictly limited to being "neutral observers" and "recorders", not "participants", according to aclu of arizona board president stan furman, a former arizona state senator.

"we recognize the right of a country to defend its borders," said eleanor eisenberg, executive director of the aclu of arizona, "but it must be done by the proper authorities and in a humane way," suggesting that the primary concern on the aclu in interacting with the minuteman project was to prevent violence.

the aclu also quotes prior allegations against the group that sponsors the minutemen, writing that they are "alleged to have engaged in activities that go beyond first amendment-protected activity and that is intended to intimidate, harass or otherwise interfere with the rights of others."

the only widely known incident to result from minuteman activities so far this month was the alleged temporary detention of a suspected illegal immigrant by bryan barton on april 6. encountering a suspected illegal immigrant and believing him to be dehydrated from exposure, barton gave the man cereal and milk, according to the minuteman project press release.

later barton shook his hand and asked him to pose for a picture with a t-shirt that read, "bryan barton caught an illegal alien and all i got was this lousy t-shirt". barton then allegedly gave the man us$20 before a border patrol agent arrived to take the man into custody.

although barton was investigated by the cochise county sheriff's department and determined not to have broken the law, he was dismissed from further activities with the minutemen because of violating the group's procedures, which specify no physical contact with suspected illegal immigrants.

"the volunteer's actions were admirable, justified and undeniably humane, but unfortunately they jeopardized our established procedures and overall purpose of passively monitoring the border," said chris simcox, co-founder of the minuteman project. "it's unfortunate, but we had to dismiss him from further participation."



australian police seize one tonne shipment of ecstacy

police in melbourne have seized over a tonne of ecstacy in a shipment of tiles from italy. four were arrested on thursday and early friday relating to the shipment, which the australian federal police has called the biggest shipment of street-ready ecstacy pills in the world.

the four men were charged with aiding and abetting a prohibited import, according to abc radio. five million tablets were seized, with a reported street value of us$190 million (au$250m). two were additionally charged with attempting to possess a prohibited import. 

federal police were continuing to investigate a crime ring behind the shipment, a spokesperson told "news24.com".

federal agent mike phelan said: "the afp is now working with its counterparts in italy and other parts of europe to identify any overseas links with this latest seizure."

x-rays taken of the shipment, which arrived in port melbourne earlier in the week, had revealed anomalies inside eight pallets which were stacked with tiles, said a report from "australian associated press".

police then monitored the shipping container until it was delivered on thursday to a suburban melbourne factory, where two men were arrested, according to the "news24.com" report. agents searched a dozen homes and businesses across melbourne and arrested two more men early on friday. all four suspects were due to appear in court later on friday. 

federal justice minister chris ellison praised the afp, the australian customs service and the australian crime commission involved in the operation, which he told "australian associated press" had been ongoing since january.

"this big seizure sends a very clear message to those who want to traffic drugs to australia, you will be caught and face very serious penalties," senator ellison told the news agency, saying the shipment "could have wreaked havoc".

"anyone who says this sort of seizure does not slow the supply of drugs is quite obviously out of touch with reality."

the previous largest australian ecstasy haul occurred in november 2004 in sydney, when 1,800 pounds of ecstasy tablets and powder were seized, australian federal police (afp) told "reuters", compared to this shipment's weight of 2,240 pounds.

 


last british volume car manufacturer closes down

the last british-owned volume car manufacturer, mg rover, has closed down, with the loss of 5,000 jobs.

international accounting firm pricewaterhousecooper was brought in last week to put the company into administration. today pwc announced that mg rover's only hope, the chinese car company saic, had no interest in buying the ailing firm. with no further source of revenue, pwc has closed the company's factory in longbridge, birmingham and has laid off 5,000 workers.

some 1,000 workers will continue for a while to complete the remaining cars left on the production line.

the bbc reported pwc joint administrator tony lomas as saying "we'll explore what we would describe as the break-up of the business, we will carry on with the interested parties who want to talk about pieces of the business.". pwc said around 70 offers for various parts of the company had been made but no serious offers of money made.

recent efforts to save the company had been centered on convincing saic (shanghai automotive industry corp.) to buy the company as a going concern, but the chinese company stated it would only buy the company if it's financial position could be guaranteed to be secure for at least two years. the british government could not make such a commitment due to european union trade and competition rules.

the saic company did buy the designs for the 75 and 25 models and for the k-series engines for ￡67m.

the rover car company has a long but troubled history. it was formed in 1968 after a series of mergers of existing car manufacturers, and was nationalized in 1975 after it ran into financial difficulties. in 1979 a long-running deal to collaborate on developing new vehicles was established with the japanese company honda. in 1988 the company was privatized and was bought by british aerospace. in 1994 british aerospace sold the business to bmw, who then sold the land rover brand to ford and finally sold the company in 2000 for just ￡10, retaining the well-known mini brand for themselves. the mg rover company was run by a private group until its collapse.

mg rover has not launched a new model since the 75 was introduced in 1998 during the period of ownership by bmw. their next newest model was the 25, originally launched as the 200 series some ten years ago. rover also produced the 45, which dates from 1990, and the zf sports car first launched in 1995. sales of rover cars accounted for just 3% of the uk car market in 2004.

tony blair announced a ￡150 million support package for the recently unemployed workers of the mg rover plants, though it has been claimed that his generous offer may be more as a result of the nearby marginal seats in the upcoming elections than compassion on his part.







two astronauts blast off to their new home--international space station

the 11th crew of the international space station rocketed into space thursday at 8:46 edt. the crew rode aboard a russian spacecraft, and two of them will remain in their new home-away-from-home for six months.

they were given a heartfelt send-off by russian mission control chief vladimir solovyov:
"the people who are doing the job are real romantics who are involved in fascinating work for a miserable salary," he told reporters after the launch, which he called a "remarkable event."

cosmonauts typically earn $144 to $179 a month.

the launch from the in kazakhstan, came as iss was on a north east heading approximately 230 miles above the southern .

at the controls were commander sergei krikalev, nasa station science officer and flight engineer john phillips, and european space agency astronaut roberto vittori. vittori will return april 24 with the prior crew, expedition 10 commander leroy chiao and flight engineer salizhan sharipov, after conducting some experiments.

soyuz will dock with iss at 10:19 p.m. edt on saturday. live nasa coverage of the docking and hatch opening will be shown on nasa tv beginning at 9 p.m. saturday and can be viewed on internet tv at <nowiki>http://www.nasa.gov/ntv</nowiki> (free real player or windows media player required).




utah man pleads guilty in wife's death

salt lake city (utah) resident and hospital orderly mark hacking pleaded guilty friday to killing his wife lori, and placing her body in a dumpster.

mrs. hacking’s disappearance last summer touched off an intense, weeklong search in salt lake county which a wire service report said was similar to the other sensational salt lake crime, the kidnapping of elizabeth smart from her own bedroom.

after hacking admitted details of his crime to his family, earlier, he suffered a breakdown and was placed in a psychiatric hospital. he was seen in court friday with his hands cuffed behind his back.

he admitted to the judge that he killed his wife while she slept. his motives, according to prosecutors, were his anger and despondency when she discovered that he was not accepted into a north carolina medical school as he had claimed, but would remain a hospital orderly.

mrs. hacking is reported to have broken down sobbing at her workplace, a wells fargo brokerage, after discovering her husband’s deception. she had placed a call to the medical school’s administrators and been told he was not enrolled. he had lied to her about graduating from the university of utah as well.

mrs. hacking’s mother and father were in the courtroom to hear their son-in-law declare: “i intentionally shot lori hacking in the head with a .22 rifle.” they said it was like a “knife in the heart” to hear that, but were happy he owned up to the crime.

the attack occurred last july. volunteers scouring a landfill found her decomposed remains after three months of searching. 

 


senate unanimously confirms michael griffin as new nasa head

the u.s. senate unanimously confirmed on wednsday the nomination of dr. michael griffin to head the national aeronautics and space administration (nasa), making him the 11th administrator of the us-based space agency. he takes office at a time when nasa is busy with preparations for the return to flight of the space shuttle discovery, expected sometime during the launch window of may 15 through june 3, 2005.

the presidential nominee griffin was the head of the applied physics laboratory's space department at johns hopkins university, a position he held almost a year. prior to that, he was a chief engineer at nasa before coming over from service as deputy for technology at the strategic defense initiative organization. he has made a career of the aerospace field.

griffin was critical at times of u.s. priorities in space exploration by questioning its continued commitment to the international space station. griffin, in testimony before the house science committee in 2004, outlined more ambitious plans for human exploration and settlement of the solar system in which he believes the united states should play a key role. 

in a statement during his april 12, 2005, confirmation hearing before the senate commerce committee, griffin said, "in the twenty-first century and beyond, for america to continue to be preeminent among nations, it is necessary for us also to be the preeminent spacefaring nation," with a spirit of discovery similar to the exploration of the new world by columbus with the support of the spanish crown.

griffin, 55, notably holds seven academic degrees from various institutions, including a bachelor's degree in physics; master's degrees in aerospace science, electrical engineering, applied physics, civil engineering and business administration; and a phd in aerospace engineering from the university of maryland.

the list of nasa's upcoming priorities, as outlined by griffin during his confirmation hearing, offer insight into the direction that america's space program may take under his leadership. 

in his prepared statement, griffin said, "my priorities in executing the duties of [nasa administrator], consistent with the
president’s vision for space exploration, will be:<br>
- flying the shuttle as safely as possible until its retirement, not later than 2010.<br>
- bringing a new crew exploration vehicle into service as soon as possible after shuttle retirement.<br>
- developing a balanced overall program of science, exploration, and aeronautics at nasa, consistent with the redirection of the human spaceflight program to focus on exploration.<br>
- completing the international space station in a manner consistent with our international partner
commitments and the needs of human exploration.<br>
- encouraging the pursuit of appropriate partnerships with the emerging commercial space sector.<br>
- establishing a lunar return program having the maximum possible utility for later missions to mars and other destinations."

president bush's vision for space exploration, referred to by griffin above, is currently united states policy on various aspects of space exploration, announced on january 14, 2004 after the space shuttle columbia disaster of february 1, 2003. the us is committed to a future of both human and robotic exploration of the solar system, with an emphasis on maintaining safety and advancing scientific and technical knowledge.




cambridge, massachusetts, usa, releases study of local emissions

according to the "cambridge chronicle", a report issued by the city of cambridge on the topic of greenhouse gas emissions claimed that despite a two-year old pledge to reduce harmful emissions, the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere in the city has increased. since 1990, carbon dioxide emissions have increased by 27% in the city, mostly due to industrial processes, says the paper.

in 1999, the city joined cities for climate protection, a coalition of towns in massachusetts interested in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. in 2002, the city released a study, the cambridge climate protection plan, which set emission reduction goals for the city. the plan proposed that "we reduce ghg emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels. this means the community needs to reduce and prevent annual ghg emissions of 494,400 tons of carbon dioxide."

while the city has failed thus far to reduce its emissions, it has been experimenting with alternative transportation technology in its vehicles. according to the city's website, cambridge currently owns and operates 20 electric vehicles and 1 compressed natural gas truck. additionally, most of cambridge's fleet of diesel vehicles are currently running on 20% biodiesel, which is "derived from domestically produced vegetable oil," according to the cambridge department of public works website.



second weekend of protests begins in china

defying government warnings against further demonstrations, as many as twenty-thousand protesters turned out for a second weekend of anti- demonstrations in shanghai, hangzhou, and tianjin.

in shanghai, a crowd broke many windows at the japanese consulate, according to "kyodo news". the crowd also busted up a japanese restaurant and set its sign on fire. the protesters then attacked a convenience store, according to the "los angeles times".

at the japanese consulate, the crowd chanted "jia ru, jia ru" asking the police to "join us". the police did not arrest the protesters, and stood by watching as the demonstration proceeded. the police permitted the protesters to throw eggs and rocks. although the police provided at one point a sign which read "march route this way," state-controlled media denied that the protesters had been given permission for their demonstration.

southwest of shanghai, in the city of hangzhou, an estimated ten thousand protesters demonstrated against japan, repeating recent demands for a boycott of japanese products.

"chinese people are angry," student protester michael teng told "associated press". "we will play along with japan and smile nicely at them, but they have to know they have a large, angry neighbor," teng said.

in , tiananmen square was largely quiet as security tightened in anticipation of tomorrow's visit by japan's foreign minister, nobutaka machimura. hundreds of police are guarding both tiananmen square and the japanese embassy.

the chinese foreign ministry issued a statement on friday seeking to reassure japanese citizens and businesses operating in china.

"the chinese government has attached great importance to the situation and has kept on urging the public to express their appeals in a calm, sane, law-abiding and orderly manner and to avoid extreme activities," chinese state councilor tang jiaxuan said in a press release issued on friday.

as the protests continued in china, japan lodged a "strong protest" against china.

"we cannot but say that the security system in shanghai is insufficient," machimura told reporters.

despite the protests, machimura announced that he is not cancelling plans to meet with china's foreign minister li zhaoxing on sunday to discuss sino-japanese relations.

"china has been increasing its regional economic and political influence," robert broadfoot, managing director of political & economic risk consultancy ltd. told "bloomberg" from hong kong. "japan doesn't want to have its position in the region dictated by china. japan is adopting a more assertive policy, and china is trying to block it," broadfoot said.

on friday, the japanese government warned its citizens in china to keep a low profile during the protests.


wendy's doubles reward for 'chili finger' info to us$100,000

after a promising lead from pahrump, nevada failed to identify the owner of the notorious "chili finger", doubled their reward on friday to us$100,000.

sandy allman recently lost a finger in pahrump, when a leopard bit it off. allman's finger was last seen at a hospital. coincidentally, anna ayala, the woman who found the 'chili finger', also lives in las vegas. however, when allman's prints were sent to san jose police, they didn't match.

"there is no connection," sheriff tony demeo told the "san jose mercury news".

"our brand reputation has been affected nationally," wendy's president and coo tom mueller said in a statement. "we are determined to find out what really happened in this incident," he continued.

the company revealed on friday that employees had passed lie detector tests. wendy's continues to claim that there is no evidence that the finger ever entered their supply chain, pointing to a lack of any accidents among the workers at their suppliers.

wendy's tip line has received reports from across the united states, from "folks who either have lost a finger, or know somebody who lost a finger," san jose police sgt. nick muyo told the "associated press".


hungary rebukes other eu members for their negative stance towards croatia

the prime minister of hungary, ferenc gyurcsany, has heavily criticised the governments of several other european union countries over the decision not to start eu accession talks with croatia in march. hungary is one of the biggest supporters within the eu of croatia joining the organisation.

croatia, which has the status of candidate country within the eu, said in 2004 that its target is to join the eu in 2007, along with bulgaria and romania, even though the eu has as of yet refused to start accession negotiations, which usually take in excess of two years. for this reason, the earliest croatia could feasibly join is in early 2010, with accession negotiations ending in late 2007 and a further two full years during which the accession treaty is signed and the country prepares for final eu accession.

the country was scheduled to start negotiations in mid-march of this year, but these were postponed indefinitely by the eu, which accused croatia of its alleged failure to co-operate fully with the international war crimes tribunal in the hague. the allegation lies on the fact that the eu believes croatia knows information about the whereabouts of fugitive general ante gotovina, accused of ethnic cleansing against the serbs. the croatian government has repeatedly maintained that it knows nothing about gotovina and therefore cannot extradite him to the hague.

while hungary wanted negotiations to start in march, a group of countries, led by the united kingdom, france, germany and the netherlands, said that the southeastern european country is not yet prepared politically to start accession talks.

hungary also said that it feels pressured by other eu governments to not support croatia's bid. prime minister gyurcsany said that, "some diplomats came to us saying that these sort of governments would not be happy if we support croatia." he went on to say that the case against croatia starting negotiations is made up only of rumours and allegations without any evidence.

croatia is home to a a sizeable minority of hungarians. after fellow eu member slovenia, hungary's closest partner country is croatia. economic co-operation between hungary and croatia is also quite large.

hungary joined the european union in 2004, along with several other central european, baltic and mediterranean countries.


nra meets in houston--beleaguered tom delay will speak

when the curtains were drawn and the anthem began, confusion flickered over the faces in the large hall which welcomed the nra (national rifle association) to houston. it was the sounds of rocker ted nugent’s rendition of the star spangled banner. people didn’t know whether to put their hands over their heart, as was customary, or start clapping. according to reports, it was hard to determine what the "motor city madman" was doing.

that was the rowdy kick off friday night of the convention expected to draw up to 60,000 people to the george r. brown convention center for a weekend of guns, gun-politics, gun peripherals like scopes and carry bags, and stuffed trophy heads.

nra ceo wayne lapierre told about 2000 listeners to "let the enemies of freedom take notice, we in this room have beaten you…" he repeated it three times for effect.

another opening act was country singer charlie daniels whose rant against those on the left of the political spectrum included a characterization of them as "save the whales and kill the babies pantywaists." he then pursed his lips and did his interpretation of a pantywaist, according to the houston chronicle: "’if we just leave the terrorists alone, they’d leave us alone.’"

elsewhere, visitors were charmed by stuffed heads of dead deer. nra staffer monty embrey, working the booth with the heads, said that although they looked like small moose, they were full-blooded deer with unusual antlers.

the exhibit is owned by the nra and travels around the country. "people don't get to see a collection of heads very often. it’s a big deal," said embrey.

saturday’s keynote address will come from right wing congressional representative tom delay of sugarland, texas, whose district includes much of houston.

just friday, another of delay's most conservative associates became the second house republican to ask delay to consider yielding his leadership post because of the many ethics problems that have dogged him.

rep. tom tancredo, (r-colo) said, "if the majority leader were to temporarily step aside so that these trumped up charges can be dealt with in a less hostile environment, as they have proven to be an unnecessary distraction, it may be a productive move." 

these comments follow on the heels of similar statements by rep. chris shays, a republican moderate from connecticut and rick santorum, republican senator from pennsylvania. all are concerned that the man in a political leadership position is a liability to their reelection bids, expected next year. he has not assuaged three charges against him by the congressional ethics committee, comprised of half republican and half democratic members, except to blame his political opposition.

delay's record keeping on millions of dollars was minimal and he has allegedly accepted money from texas corporations in violation of the texas law.

"a travis county grand jury indicted delay political aide jim ellis, fundraiser warren robold and john colyandro, the executive director of delay's political action committee, texans for a republican majority, known as trmpac.the washington post reported in september that eight corporations also were indicted for illegal political contributions."
the subject of delay's speech was not known at press time.

the nra now claims a membership of about 4 million.



paris hotel fire kills 22

a paris fire in a hotel killed 22 people, 10 of whom were children, while injuring 53 ? 11 seriously. the hotel was an overcrowded, budget accommodation type of housing. most of the inhabitants were african, many housed by social services, according to an "associated press" report.

the 32 room, six-story paris opera hotel, was made to house 61 guests, but 90 were staying at the time of the fire, with 84 of them placed by city or state social services.

the fire is thought to have started in the breakfast room at 2:20 am friday, local time.

along with the africans, who were mostly refugees, others wounded included french, senegalese, portuguese, americans, ukrainians, and tunisians, according to a report from turkish "zaman.com". the hotel is situated near to la galerie lafayette, printemps shopping center, and paris opera.

it took nearly 250 fire-fighters to control the fire, and the number of casualties was high because of the single exit.

"it’s hard in that kind of situation to tell people to calm down. they jumped. people on the first floor threw their children out the windows," alfred millot, head of the fire service at the nearby upmarket galeries lafayette department store, told "agence france-presse".

"with our own equipment, we started fighting the fire from the ground floor. i came running and people were already jumping through the windows," said millot. 

his store warehouse was used as a temporary morgue. families were counselled and assisted in re-uniting by the red cross.

 


british national fingerprint database begins without parliamentary consultation

starting in 2006, hm passport service of britain will begin use of in the issuance of . essential to this scheme is the creation of a central database for passport holders that contains fingerprint and biometric data. this database, along with fingerprinting facilities, will be shared by the controversial scheme.

the uk passport service is a "royal prerogative," meaning the proposals do not require parliamentary approval. critics say this is an attempt by the government to introduce key elements of the identity card scheme by stealth, without approval, appearing to reduce the cost and novel controversiality of the scheme.

the national fingerprint and biometric database is the most controversial element of the british government's identity card proposal, which drew debate prior to the recent election. all uk residents would be required to register on a central computer database ? containing at least the fingerprint, iris scan, photograph, address and birth date and place of each resident.

further information stored on individuals may include police, motoring, financial, health, telephone and email communications and movement data.

this would be used by government agencies including the police, immigration, medical and social security. access would likely be extended to overseas intelligence agencies such as cia and interpol. partial access would be given to banks and other parties interested in secure identification.

the database itself may be administered by the private sector. critics argue that there is huge potential for willful misuse of this personal data.

speaking to , the home affairs spokesman, mark oaten, said the government was trying to hide the true costs of its identity card scheme by turning the passport into a biometric identity card.

"the compulsory identity cards scheme is an expensive white elephant and a serious threat to civil liberties. it is an abuse of democracy for labour to use the royal prerogative to put the nuts and bolts of the system in place without parliamentary approval," mr oaten told "the guardian". "there are no international obligations on the uk to put fingerprints in passports. the idea raises important privacy questions which must be properly debated, both in public and in parliament."

other elements of the identity card scheme are being trialed and costed under the ukps. "silicon.com" reports:

"other projects under way at the ukps include:"

"- trials of the personal identification project (pip), testing the use of data sharing with the private sector and other government departments to strengthen identity authentication"

"- cutting fraud by creating an electronic link to birth, marriage and death records to eliminate reliance on paper documentation"

"- launch of an electronic passport application system integrated with ukps' back-office processing in the third quarter of this year."

"- creation of a person-centric database. ukps said there could be significant benefits in storing the data on a person-by-person rather than a passport-by-passport basis."

the british government has not yet answered critics claims that the scheme is unwarranted and harmful.

european governments have come under pressure from the usa to produce passports that incorporate a biometric chip. they have imposed a deadline of 26 october 2005 after which eu citizens without a biometric chip will require a visa to visit or transit in usa. presently usa ports take fingerprint and iris scans on arrival.


holland park introduces special trail for elderly and impaired

a premier for the netherlands, a special 2.6 kilometer pedestrian route was opened last friday in the "drents-friese wold" national park, designed specially for the elderly and the impaired.

for the hearing-impaired, sound amplifiers have been implanted on several points along the route. these amplifiers repeat nature sounds specific to the point at a much louder volume. these sounds are changed according to the season.

for the visually impaired, special guide-lines have been placed along the route, leading to special signposts with braille and normal texts.

the route was built with level cement as to make it accessible to wheelchairs and other aids. for the elderly, benches have been placed at 50 meter intervals. a toilet for the disabled is also available.

funding to cover the 300,000 euro costs were provided by staatsbosbeheer (national forest administration) and funding by private and commercial sectors.



freelance reporter fired from boston globe for adding fictitious details to story

barbara stewart, former freelance reporter for "the boston globe", was dismissed this week after adding fictitious details to a story about events which actually did not occur at the time of her writing. "the boston globe's" executive editor helen donovan called the incident a "significant breach" and said, "we should have noticed the lack of attribution on a couple of key facts and should have asked questions we didn't ask."

the story in question was about a canadian seal hunt that was supposed to take place, but actually did not occur that day because of bad weather. stewart wrote about it anyway as though it had actually happened. her article, dated april 13, began, "over the vigorous protests of international animal-welfare organizations, the largest seal hunt in a half-century resumed yesterday off newfoundland and labrador. hunters on about 300 boats converged on ice floes, shooting harp seal cubs by the hundreds, as the ice and water turned red. most of the seals were less than 6 weeks old."

"when i read the article, i was kind of shocked," said phil jenkins, spokesman for fisheries and oceans canada, according to "the washington post". jenkins said he told the "globe" that "the events as described in quite vivid detail had not taken place."

the canadian hunt for harp seal cubs is an annual event that has been drawing protests from animal rights activists since the 1960s. the hunts take place on ice floes and sometimes in weather conditions that can deter protesters from visiting the event.

james smith, foreign editor at the "globe", says that the "globe" will now institute stricter hiring practices for future part-time correspondents. he reports stewart as saying after the incident was uncovered: "i don't know why i did this. i've never done anything like this before."

stewart has been a reporter for "the new york times"' metro desk between october, 1994 and may, 2004; according to the "boston herald", the times denied that stewart fabricated any parts of stories while she was employed there. this was stewart's third article for "the globe".

in another example of recent press controversy, mitch albom has been suspended from the "detroit free press" for writing ahead of time about the attendance at a final four basketball game by two former michigan state university players, who told him they would be attending but later did not.

other notable press scandals in recent years have included the jayson blair scandal of numerous fabrications and plagiarisms in 2003 at "the new york times", which led to the resignation of blair and two editors.

the "globe" itself has been marked by similar scandals in 1998 which led to the resignation of two columnists, patricia smith and mike barnicle, in separate incidents.

bob zelnick, chairman of the department of journalism at boston university, called the current "globe" controversy "embarrassing...a serious problem...a lapse of editorial judgment", but dan kennedy of the boston phoenix characterized the incident as "probably not that big a deal", according to "the washington post". "it was an unknown freelancer writing a fairly small story inside the paper, and they took care of it immediately."

the "globe" published a correction two days later on april 15. it appears from a "google" search that the prior story may have been removed from the boston.com website; however, it is currently still accessible in the "google" cache.


lebanese cabinet talks re-started by new pm

in the swiftly moving lebanese political arena, hopes for national elections to come off as scheduled were revived as najib mikati was voted in friday as the new prime minister, replacing former pm omar karimi who resigned thursday.

the us- and eu-backed mikati, a wealthy telecommunications businessman with ties to damascus, was able to garner anti-syrian opposition support to secure the nomination in a 128-member parliament vote. he immediately began work saturday on building a new cabinet, and will continue monday to build a cabinet team that can create a new government inside a two-week deadline. the government's 4-year parliamentary term ends may 31. besides the formation of a new cabinet, there must be a confidence vote from parliament, and then the re-drafting of election laws for presentation to the assembly for passage in an approval process.

lebanon has been without a government since the end of february. the previous prime minister, the pro-syrian karimi, replaced the assassinated anti-syrian rafik hariri, but was forced to resign under massive opposition protests. despite his later reappointment by president lahoud, he again resigned as he remained unable to gain opposition involvement in forming a new cabinet.

the new pm mikati told a leading newspaper, al-nahar, that he intends to form a "restricted government that could hold elections as soon as possible" and sack security service chiefs who he believes would block un efforts to probe the murder of hariri.
the sister of hariri, mp bahia hariri, who backed the migati nomination in her first meeting with president lahoud since her brother’s killing, said, "we were facing two things: either to enter a constitutional vacuum or offer a compromise, and this is what the opposition chose," according to a report by al-jazeera.



over a quarter of a billion camera phones sold in 2004

new research revealed earlier this week indicates that some 257m camera phones were shipped worldwide in 2004. the survey carried out by strategy analytics showed that camera phone sales have soared over 200% from 84m in 2003 to the 257m last year.

the huge surge in sales means that camera phone sales now outnumber digital camera sales four to one. the mobile phone market ended the year as follows:


despite the astonishing growth last year, the survey predicts a future increase to more than 350 million camera phones sales this year.



levitra ads pulled by fda

the food and drug administration (fda) has penned a stiff reminder to drug giants bayer pharmaceuticals corp. and glaxosmithkline plc: pull your 15-second “reminder” ad for the erectile dysfunction drug, levitra, off tv.

fda said there is no evidence levitra is better than rival drugs viagra from pfizer, or cialis, owned by eli lilly and co., in producing results that make female partners happy.

levitra and cialis together control about 30 per cent of the market for such drugs, but pfizer takes the majority share.

reminder ads can only call attention to a drug, not claim it works better, or at all.

"in one of [the ad's] scenes, the man strokes the woman's hair and face as she affectionately puts her hand on his wrist," the fda wrote. "in the other, she puts her arms around his neck and they embrace."
"the totality of the tv ad also represents or suggests that levitra will provide a satisfying sexual experience from the female partner's perspective," the agency wrote.

glaxo spokesman michael fleming said the drug makers would comply. bayer developed levitra and partnered with glaxo to market the pills in 2001. bayer recently turned its part of the promotion over to schering-plough corp.

shares of bayer fell 75 cents to $32.96 on friday. shares of glaxosmithkline rose 32 cents to close at $47.82. schering-plough shares rose 8 cents to end at $20.65.


body of missing florida girl found

the body of sarah lunde, a missing 13-year-old florida girl, was found very close to her home saturday, authorities said.

lunde's body was found by a search-and-rescue dog in an abandoned fish farm about a half-mile away from her home, according to david gee, sheriff of hillsborough county. lunde had been missing since last sunday from her home in ruskin, a town to the south of tampa.

gee said the body had a green cast on one arm, just as sarah did. "the green cast is apparent," he said. he also stated that the body had been in the water for a long period of time, and that an autopsy would be performed to determine the cause of lunde's death.

"the family is very distraught," gee added.

according to cnn, david onstott, 36, was charged late saturday night with first-degree murder gee said. "he is the defendant.",onstott confessed to the murder.he was arrested on tuesday on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. aside from a 1995 sexual assault charge, onstott is said to have been sighted at lunde's house hours after lunde disappeared, and grabbed a half-empty beer bottle as he left. this could possibly link him to the numerous beer bottles found around the area, which, it is rumored, will be subjected to dna testing. onstott was also arraigned on thursday on charges of not registering as a sex offender and is currently being held in the hillsborough county jail. although his bond was set at $250,000, sheriff's spokesman j.d. callaway stated that since no bond was set on a michigan drunk driving warrant onstott is also being held for, there is no bond set on him for his various other charges, so onstott is being held without bond for the moment.

this case is now the second such case in a month. jessica lunsford's body was found in citrus county, north of tampa, after she had been missing from her home for three weeks.

convicted sex offender john e. couey, who had been living near lunsford's home, was arrested and charged with her murder after he confessed.



harvard university declines to discipline professor who plagiarized

harvard university president lawrence summers announced that the university would take no formal disciplinary action against harvard law school professor laurence h. tribe for his admitted "failure to attribute" material used from another scholar's book, the "harvard crimson" reported on april 15.

the accusation of wrongdoing first appeared in an article in the "weekly standard" in 2002. the standard identified several passages in tribe's 1985 book, "god save this honorable court", that they claimed resembled passages in "justices and presidents", a book written by henry abraham of the university of virginia. additionally, the "standard" alleged that the sentence, "taft publicly pronounced pitney to be a 'weak member' of the court to whom he could 'not assign cases,'" appeared in both books. in september of 2004, tribe admitted to a "failure to attribute some of the material the "weekly standard" identified," according to the "harvard crimson".

the "crimson" noted that the press release from elena kagan, dean of the law school and mr. summers, stated that they were, "firmly convinced that the error was the product of inadvertence rather than intentionality," although they did describe tribe's behavior as, "a significant lapse in proper academic practice."


famed classical works rediscovered

researchers at are using state-of-the-art technology to uncover works from some of the most important writers of the ancient world, works which have not been read for many centuries. they come from a cache of papyri that were salvaged about a hundred years ago in the greco-egyptian town of .

the ink on many of these had faded to the point that no text at all was visible to the naked eye, yet using state of the art techniques borrowed from , researchers were able to use to see the faded ink. 

there are thousands of which are set to be read in this manner, and works of , , and which have been unavailable for well over a thousand years have already been recovered. the process by which these papyri are reconstructed is very time consuming ? it will take a decade to finish the entire corpus. among the documents set to be analysed include previously lost writings of , , and a series of .


internet censorship study group reports on china

an international study group report released thursday calls china's internet censorship "the most sophisticated effort of its kind in the world," and details measures used within china to limit citizen access to internet resources, including the "bbc". the study found though that sites of most american news outlets "were" available, such as "cnn", "msnbc", and "abc", as were major anonymizer and human rights sites.

the opennet initiative project (oni), made up of researchers at the university of toronto in canada, harvard law school in the us, and cambridge university in the uk, has a mission "to investigate and challenge state filtration and surveillance practices".

the report, by the project's national filtering team, and named "internet filtering in china in 2004-2005: a country study", was published on thursday.

says the report summary: "oni sought to determine the degree to which china filters sites on topics that the chinese government finds sensitive, and found that the state does so extensively."

topics which were found to be frequently blocked included pornography, taiwanese and tibetan independence, falun gong, the dalai lama, the tiananmen square incident, opposition political parties, and a variety of anti-communist movements.

volunteers in china who had assisted with the study had done so at "substantial risk", according to john palfrey, a project leader, speaking at a congressional hearing in washington. palfrey said the filtering was not openly admitted by chinese authorities, and censorship decisions could not be appealed, encouraging self-censorship.

the report describes the chinese system as dynamic, pervasive, sophisticated, and effective. filtering appeared to be carried out at various control points ? unlike systems in other countries ? and a variety of parameters were changing over time.

according to the summary, "this combination of factors leads to a great deal of supposition as to how and why china filters the internet. these complexities also make it very difficult to render a clear and accurate picture of internet filtering in china at any given moment."

most filtering was at the backbone level, with additional controls implemented by individual isps, and chinese search engines, which were found to block results based on particular keywords. chinese blog providers also were found to prevent or remove content based on particular keywords, or removed the keywords from posts.

cyber-cafes were legally required to track customer's usage, keeping records for 60 days. this and a patchwork of other laws ? "including media regulation, protections of 'state secrets,' controls on internet service providers and internet content providers" ? limited free expression. there was no single statute enacting the censorship.

during the years of the oni study, the chinese censorship system was observed to have grown "more refined, sophisticated, and targeted".

other "national filtering" reports so far released by the group are bahrain 2004-05, united arab emirates 2004-05, and kingdom of saudi arabia 2004; although members have released a number of other reports individually .



british retailer littlewoods plans to axe 3,200 jobs

the large uk retail group littlewoods is set to make 3,200 staff redundant and close 126 of its index catalogue-based shops. it intends to sell the remaining 33 stores to its largest rival argos.

the firm revealed that it had made accumulated losses at the index chain of more than gbp 100 million (eur 146 million, us$190 million) in their 20-year history.

index currently employs about 4 000 staff, 3 200 will lose their jobs and the rest will be transferred to argos, which is owned by gus plc. great universal stores plc, a ftse 100 member, is one of the uk's largest retail firms controlling the successful argos and homebase chains. gus is to pay littlewoods gbp 44 million (eur 64 million, us$ 83 million) for the 33 stores.

littlewoods is owned by sir frederick and sir david barclay who bought the business in 2002 for gbp 750 million (eur 1.1 billion, us$ 1.42 billion).

the company is one in a line of retailers feeling the pinch of consumers spending including allders and the gadget shop.

there are rumours around that the littlewoods chain of stores is also going soon, possibly to the associated british foods-owned discount clothing retailer primark.



croke park opens to soccer and rugby

after intense campaigning during the week, yesterday at gaa congress delegates voted to open croke park to soccer and rugby by 227 votes to 97. the stadium which can seat 82,500, is by far ireland's largest and indeed one of the largest in europe.

traditionally soccer and rugby internationals had been played in the much smaller landsdowne road stadium, but due to redevelopment it seemed that all internationals would have to be played in the uk. however this situation has now been avoided with the vote by delegates to amend rule 42 to allow soccer and rugby to be played at croke park during the redevelopment of landsdowne road. the works are expected to take three years to complete.

the international matches that can now be played in dublin are expected to generate several million euros of revenue for the local economy. 



unconfirmed: 20 dead, hundreds hurt after protest in iranian city of ahwaz

over 20 ahwazi arab protesters in are dead, 500 injured and 250 arrested, in the wake of protests in the border province of khuzestan in iran this weekend, says the british ahwazi friendship society (bafs). the protest erupted after publication of an alleged 1999 letter containing plans for a programme of ethnic "restructuring", purported to be a leak from the office of iranian president khatami.

other reports indicate some dead, but serious discrepancies exist in reports available at time of writing.

a recent iranian state press agency report on the protest confirms only that three people were injured, and describes state officials "scrambling" to denounce the letter as forged. "several state buildings, including banks and police cars were damaged," according to the "islamic republic news agency" (irna) report.

various other reports as assembled by "gulf times newspaper": :

the alleged letter is republished with an english translation on the bafs web site. described is a programme of resettlement and "obliteration of proof of the existence of an arabic population", which was to include "changing of remaining (arabic) names of cities, villages, regions and streets to farsi (persian language) names" ? the operations to be carried out secretly, and by arabic-speaking agents.

"gulf times" characterises, the south-western iran province as "arab majority, oil rich".

bafs says in a saturday press release accompanying their copy of the letter, that state security forces (ssf) had arrived and begun shooting at unarmed demonstrators; power, telephone and water had been cut off from the city's arab districts of ahvaz; the ssf had besieged the districts, and prevented people from entering or leaving.

"irna" reports a local official at the khuzestan governor's office, qodratollah dehqan, said the area was calm now and the police had the situation under control. officials were investigating to see whether "the hands of foreign agents and enemies of the revolution are at work".

also, that government spokesman abdollah ramezanzadeh said the intelligence ministry and the supreme national security council had been ordered by president khatami to identify who was behind the unrest.

allegedly signed by former vice president mohammad ali abtahi, the bafs version of the letter stipulates a time-frame of 10 years to accomplish the ethnic restructuring programme, resulting in diluting of the ahwazi arab population to one third of the province's total population. other ethnic groups were to be resettled to the province in order to accomplish this, particularly azeri (turks).

abtahi is quoted by both "irna" and bafs, from a website attributed to him: "i have never had the prerogative to order a change of demographic composition."

bafs says in its press release that even so, a former member of khatami's staff now living in exile had verified the authenticity of a copy the group received three weeks ago.

government spokesman abdollah ramezanzadeh said in the "irna" news article, "following special investigations which were carried out by the presidential office, it became clear that there exists no letter with such a content.

"furthermore, the content of the letter indicates that it does not comply with any political principles of the islamic republic and it is merely aimed at inciting iranian ethnic groups."

governor of khuzestan province, fathollah moin, was reported in "irna": "the aim of the distributors of this forged letter is to disrupt existing solidarity among the people of the province through creating disunity and division and instigating public opinion."

"gulf times" also reports "al jazeera" as saying the london-based popular democratic front of ahvazi arabs in iran had called for peaceful demonstrations in the area "to mark 80 years of iranian occupation".


freak wave rocks luxury liner--4 hurt

the norwegian dawn, a 965-foot-long luxury vessel, was struck by “a freak wave that caused two windows to break in two different cabins,” the owners, norwegian cruise line, said in a statement. it changed course, docking in charleston late saturday afternoon instead of completing its planned travel to new york.

the wave, estimated at 7-stories-high, flooded 62 cabins and injured 4 passengers with cuts and bruises. company spokeswoman susan robison said the wave reached to deck 10.

the hull was damaged but the vessel was not in any trouble, according to the coast guard, and the safety of the ship “was in no way compromised by this incident.” passengers were told to don their flotation jackets anyway.

the ship left new york last sunday on a week-long round-trip cruise to and from the bahamas.

 


india, china to jointly construct buddhist temple in henan province

the governments of india and china have declared in an official memorandum on april 11 their intention to jointly construct an indian-style buddhist temple on the western side of the historic white horse temple, in luoyang, henan province, china. the project is planned as part of an ongoing effort to increase the ties of friendship and shared culture between the two countries.

the memorandum came in a series of agreements between chinese premier wen jiabao and indian prime minister manmohan singh, during jiabao's state visit to india april 9-12 at singh's invitation. 

india is expected to provide the funding, architectural design, landscape planning, a buddha idol and other materials for the completed temple. china is offering to provide official cooperation and permits, and facilitate the travel of indian architects and other construction experts to the site. the temple is planned to be located on 2,667 square meters of land provided by the chinese government.

the site of the newly announced temple is said to be in the international garden of the white horse temple in luoyang.

the white horse temple is a site of historic importance to buddhism. constructed almost 2,000 years ago in ad 68, the temple is the location first used to introduce buddhism to china from india. two buddhist monks from india, kasyapa matanga and dharmaranya, are said to have originally resided there.

luoyang, one of china's seven ancient cities, is located in the central plain of china in the valley of the yellow river. the longmen grottoes (or longmen caves), another historic site containing thousands of buddhist sculptures, are located a few kilometers south of there.

henan province is located in east-central china, as shown in the above map. it is china's most populous province, with over 96 million residents, mostly mandarin-speaking han chinese. according to wikipedia, it is traditionally considered to be the source of chinese civilization.

many aspects of the india-china relationship were discussed during the official visit. these include:


leaders of the two countries have declared 2006 to be the "year of india-china friendship" and will be undertaking other cultural exchanges in furtherance of what they call "principles of panchsheel", or peaceful coexistence. modern diplomatic relations between the two countries were established 55 years ago after the founding of the people's republic of china in 1949.

india is also currently working on strengthening its relations with the united states, with a current visit to the us by singh, and a planned visit to india in 2005 by president george w. bush.





manchester united 4-1 newcastle united

manchester united made it to the fa cup final after a 4-1 thrashing of newcastle united at the millennium stadium in cardiff today.

manchester united, the holders always dominated the game and it only took 19 minutes for ruud van nistelrooy to break the deadlock. it appeared that the referee mike reilly had awarded a penalty to the red devils, but it was a freekick newcastle's way for cristiano ronaldo's dive. paul scholes added his name to the score sheet just before half-time with a header.

the game was effectively over when van nistelrooy scored another one on 58 minutes, a side-foot past newcastle's 'keeper shay given. a minute later and newcastle scored through shola ameobi, but all hopes of a newcastle come back were quashed when cristiano ronaldo capitalised on van nistelrooy's generosity to shoot home to make it 4-1 to the reds.

manchester united will meet arsenal in the fa cup final in may.



att: 69,280
ref: m riley (w yorkshire).


russian soyuz docks with international space station for crew change

crewmembers opened hatches between the international space station and the newly arrived soyuz capsule at 12:45 a.m. edt sunday to begin almost eight days of joint operations. cosmonaut sergei krikalev and astronaut john phillips docked with the orbiting laboratory at 10:20 p.m. edt saturday.

european space agency’s astronaut roberto vittori of italy was the third passenger in the soyuz and he will fly home after 8 days of experiments in the space station’s test facility. going home with him will be two russian cosmonauts, commander leroy chiao and cosmonaut salizhan sharipov, who have been on the station since october. they will provide the new crew with extensive handover briefings as well as training them on the station’s robotic canadarm2.

they will leave the station april 24 in the soyuz that brought them to the orbiting laboratory. their landing is scheduled for 6:08 p.m. edt that day in kazakhstan.

highlights of the new expedition 11 international space station crew's mission include welcoming the crew of the space shuttle discovery on its sts-114 mission, the first shuttle flight since the columbia accident. discovery crewmembers will conduct three spacewalks at the station, deliver several tons of equipment and supplies and return to earth with equipment and scientific experiments and trash from the station.



papal conclave attracting more bets than the oscars

the irish bookmaker, paddy power, has described this weeks conclave in the vatican as ""getting to be a bigger non-sporting betting event than the oscars hollywood movie awards.""

the bookmaker has been taking bets all week on who will be the next pope, with joseph cardinal ratzinger the 3-1 favourite. second favorite was a frenchman; jean-marie cardinal lustiger. the betting firm revealed that one customer has placed ?1,000 (us$1,287) on the former jew.

in third place is a 78 year old italian, carlo maria cardinal martini. like the late pope john paul ii, martini has parkinson's disease and is quite conservative. he was also a close confidante of john paul ii who debated with the theologian on church dogma.



kenyan aviation union threatens government with strike

the aviation and allied workers' union in nairobi, kenya, has threatened to suspend operations in 48 hours at jomo kenyatta international airport if the government does not accede to its requests, the east african standard reported on april 18.

the minister of labour, newton kulundu, "declared the strike illegal and warned that such action would lead to serious consequences," said the standard. a representative of the union, jimi masege, said that the airline was ignoring an order from the registrar of trade unions to collect money from airport workers and give it to the union, nairobi's daily nation said.

kulundu called on the union to respect the april 14 ruling of what the nation called an "industrial relations officer," which required the union to refrain from striking. the standard noted that there was some dispute as to whether the aawu was properly registered with the government. according to the daily nation, kulundu recommended that the dispute be handled by the state industrial court if an agreement could not be reached. 

while some airline operations on april 18 have been disrupted due to bad weather, the union is not planning to strike until wednesday, april 20.


romanian government to sell 10 percent of its shares in romgaz

the romanian minster for economy and commerce, codru? sere?, announced on friday that his ministry intends to sell 10% of its shares in the state-owned natural gas distributor, romgaz, this year. the ministry is still deciding whether to transfer the stock to financial investors or whether to list it on the bucharest stock exchange.

romgaz is one of the largest state-owned companies in romania falling under the ownership of the ministry of economy and commerce. in 2005, the company is expected to have an estimated turnover of 648 million euro.

romgaz is the latest romanian energy company where plans have been announced for privatisation. last year, the privatisation of natural gas distributors distrigaz sud and distrigaz nord was proposed, and is expected to be fully completed by the end of this month. last year, romanian oil giant petrom was privatised, in the country's largest ever privatisation, and this year the electrica group of electricity distributors was sold off to various financial investors.


five anti-hail centres to be set up in romania

as part of the national anti-hail program, five centres that will help in hail protection and launch anti-hail missiles if necessary will be built in prahova, ia?i, vrancea, timi? and mure? counties. the centre in prahova county, just west of bucharest, is almost finalised and may even be put into operation in this year's winter.

the national anti-hail program was launched in 2000 and is due to be finalised in 2014. it seeks to better protect those areas of the country that are most affected by hail. the project needs investment of 10.9 million new lei (3 million euro), half of which have already been allocated, according to the project's co-ordinator, stancu samoila.


adobe to purchase macromedia for $3.4 billion

adobe systems, inc. announced today that they will acquire macromedia, inc. for an estimated $3.4 billion in stock. bruce chizen, the chief executive officer of adobe said that "customers are calling for integrated software solutions that enable them to create, manage and deliver a wide range of compelling content and applications -- from documents and images to audio and video. by combining our powerful development, authoring and collaboration software -- along with the complementary functionality of pdf and flash -- adobe has the opportunity to bring this vision to life with an industry-defining technology platform."

the acquisition is expected to close in the fall, subject to approval by the stockholders of both companies and regulatory approvals. under the terms of the agreement holders of macromedia stock will receive 0.69 shares of adobe stock for every share of macromedia stock. macromedia stockholders are expected to own approximately 18 percent of the combined company.

the two companies have in the past been rivals and some of their products compete in similar niches. for example, both adobe photoshop and macromedia fireworks are graphics editing programs, and both adobe golive and macromedia dreamweaver are webpage design applications.

in the combined company, the current ceo of adobe, chizen will continue as ceo. stephen elop, president and ceo of macromedia, will become president of worldwide field operations. the combined company will keep the name "adobe", and will focus on integration and growth. 

additional details are available from adobe investor relations.



massachusetts man arrested on charge of murdering christa worthington after three year investigation

christopher mccowen, a 33-year-old garbage collector, has been arrested and charged with first degree murder, aggravated rape, and armed assault. christa worthington, a united states fashion writer, was found stabbed to death three years ago on january 6, 2002, in her home in truro, massachusetts. her 2-year old daughter, found with her, was unharmed.

the truro police had already attempted a mass dna test of all male residents of the town, on the third anniversary of the murder three months before, prompting an outcry from the aclu. mccowen himself had in fact already provided a dna sample to the police prior to the mass testing, in march 2004.



109th boston marathon takes place

catherine ndereba won her fourth boston marathon yesterday, making her the first woman to do so. the kenyan trailed for the first 20 miles of the race, before passing elfenesh alemu at the top of heartbreak hill in newton. though the 26.2 mile race takes place in boston, massachusetts, it has been dominated by kenyan and ethiopian runners for approximately the last ten years. emily levan of wiscasset, maine, was the first american woman to finish, placing twelfth in 2:43:14. levan was also 12th in the 2003 boston marathon.

ethiopian hailu negussie won the men's race in 2:11:45. american alan culpepper placed fourth, the highest an american has placed in the boston marathon since 1987, when dave gordon did the same.

ernst van dyk won the men's wheelchair race for the fifth year in a row. the women's wheelchair race was won by cheri blauwet, who also won the event in 2004.



survivors gather to remember 1906 san francisco quake

monday marks the 99th anniversary of the "great san francisco earthquake" of 1906. survivors are becoming harder to find, but about a half-dozen of them gathered at lotta's fountain for a wreath-laying ceremony. lotta's fountain was the spot used after the earthquake as a collection point for information about victims, both family and friends.

organizers of today’s event believe they can bring about 60 survivors to next year's .

the san francisco board of supervisors has agreed to change the original statistics of the quake, an estimate of 478 deaths. in time for the centennial, the officially reported number will be revised to account for the some 3 to 6 thousand people who died.



german cardinal ratzinger elected pope benedict xvi

white smoke appeared today at 5.50 p.m. local time over the sistine chapel in rome - the first sign that a new pope had been elected by the conclave of cardinals. a few minutes later, the bells of st. peter's basilica began ringing, confirming the election. joseph cardinal ratzinger had been selected as the successor to as the 265th pope of the roman catholic church, and will be known as pope benedict xvi.

the conclave of 115 cardinals started the process of electing a new pope on monday, april 18. however, it has taken two days for the required two thirds majority to be reached.

the new pope appeared to the public within an hour of the first announcement. he appeared on the central balcony of st. peter's basilica and delivered a short address to the crowd in italian. tens of thousands of people were in st peter's square to observe the results of the election.

the election of joseph cardinal ratzinger follows the death of pope john paul ii on april 2.

pope benedict xvi, born joseph ratzinger (born april 16, 1927) is pope of the roman catholic church. in 1981 cardinal ratzinger was appointed prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith (formerly known as the office of the holy inquisition) by pope john paul ii, made a cardinal bishop of the episcopal see of velletri-segni in 1993, and was elected dean of the college of cardinals in 2002, becoming titular bishop of ostia. he was one of the most influential men in the vatican and a close associate of the late pope john paul ii. he presided over the funeral of john paul ii and also presided over the conclave in 2005. during the "sede vacante", he was the highest-ranking official in the catholic church.

on january 2, 2005, time quoted unnamed vatican sources as saying that ratzinger was a front runner to succeed john paul ii should the pope die or become too ill to continue as pontiff. his see, cardinal-bishop of ostia, has traditionally been an antechamber to the papal seat.

however it is important to note that ratzinger's election to the papal office was by no means certain. in conclaves men who are considered "papabile" often are not elected to office. at times men considered certain to win the election did not win. this is expressed in the saying, "he who enters the conclave as pope leaves as a cardinal."

ratzinger was considered to be pope john paul ii's "right hand man" and also one of his closest friends and confidants, and during the pope's final illness, he carried out many of the pope's functions as leader of the catholic church.

ratzinger has repeatedly stated he would like to retire to a bavarian village and dedicate himself to writing books, but more recently, he told friends he was ready to "accept any charge god placed on him." after the death of john paul ii on april 2, 2005 ratzinger ceased functioning as prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith.

ratzinger speaks ten languages and has received seven honorary doctorate degrees. he is an accomplished pianist with a preference for mozart.

ratzinger was a member of the hitler youth during his teenage years, as was required by german law at the time. his father was very strongly anti-nazi, and ratzinger himself later deserted the german army.

he is the eighth german pope.

in april, 2005, he was identified as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by time magazine.



armstrong announces retirement from professional cycling

at a press conference monday, lance armstrong announced his intention to retire from professional cycling after going for his 7th tour de france title in july 2005.

"ultimately, athletes have to retire," said the 33 year-old american. "the body doesn't just keep going and going."

speculation on the retirement of the six-time tour de france winner had been growing in recent months. the texan had hinted at wanting to spend more time with his children and his cancer charity, the lance armstrong foundation. there was talk he may marry his well-known girlfriend, rock-star singer sheryl crow.

armstrong battled with testicular cancer in 1996 before coming back to win the 1999 edition of the legendary french race. he went on to win the next five tours de france and is now widely regarded as one of the greatest riders in the history of the sport.

asked about his chances for tour success, he expressed hope tempered with praise for his opponents. "can i win this year? i'm not sure, but i'll try... this will be a different year for the tour with jan ullrich looking better and a host of young riders coming up," he said.

should armstrong follow through with his plans, he will begin his final race in the united states tomorrow at the first stage of the tour de georgia. he has successfully used the springtime race in the past as a tune-up to the tour de france in the summer. the contract with his new team sponsor, the discovery channel, obligates him to compete in one more tour de france.



virgin billionaire suggests hybrids to save mg rover

sir richard branson, successful british entrepreneur, better known as the founder of the virgin brand, has made a suggestion to the next british chancellor to both save mg rover, the largest independent manufacturer of cars in england until it collapsed this spring, and help with rapidly rising oil demand. he wants the british government to give subsidies to the fallen car-maker so that it can be the first european producer of hybrid cars.



angolan marburg virus still threat

april 19, 2005
fearing that burial rites might be the cause of more cases of the marburg virus, who spokesman dave daigle says the transmission cycle has not yet been broken. cases of persons fallen ill by the virus outside the province of uige are reportedly connected to visits to that region.

the burial custom there for most families includes the preparation of the body, and kissing and embracing the deceased. the epidemic spreads through contact with body fluids.

the death toll so far, stands at 235 in the epidemic. the ebola-like fever cannot be treated with any known drugs. the best protection is wearing masks and gloves when in contact with a carrier.


elwood norris receives 2005 lemelson-mit prize for invention

mit has announced that elwood "woody" norris, inventor of potentially revolutionary technologies of hypersonic sound beams and airscooter flying vehicles, will receive this year's lemelson-mit prize for invention this friday, april 22. the prize comes with an award of us$500,000, making it the largest single award for invention given in the united states.

hypersonic sound, or hssR, has been called by mit "the first big improvement in acoustics since the loudspeaker was invented 80 years ago". it represents a new way to focus audio in beams, rather like light is focused.

hss works because sound of sufficiently high frequency above human hearing does not normally spread out like audible frequency waves. these waves can be projected onto specific individuals, causing them to hear a sound that appears to be emanating from themselves, while others around them hear nothing.

potential benefits could include the reduction of noise pollution in public places. announcements, instructions, and advertisements could be aimed at individuals, not disturbing their neighbors. people in the same room could all listen to different music without the use of headphones.

crank up the volume, and hss could also be useful to military or law enforcement agencies. hss beams can be focused up to 500 yards away, transmitting warnings or temporarily stunning and disabling a person with non-lethal force.

the airscooter? is a flying, helicopter-like personal vehicle that is planned to be made available for sale later this year. the price is estimated to be less than us$50,000.

weighing less than 300 pounds and able to carry a load of an additional 350 pounds, the airscooter runs on ordinary gasoline rather than expensive airplane fuel, and is able to travel about 2 hours at 55 m.p.h. on a 5-gallon tank, at heights up to 10,000 feet above sea level. its ultralight weight means that no pilot license is required to fly one.

the light weight is made possible by the production of a new aerotwin 4-stroke engine specifically for the airscooter, designed by motorcycle racing engine specialists at pearson motor co of new zealand. stability is provided by two rotors both set on a single shaft, which turn in opposite directions, eliminating the need for a tail rotor.

the craft is steered using only the hands on a motorcycle-like handlebar. throttle up to gain altitude, turn left or right to rotate, and move the bars like a joystick to steer in different directions, including reverse.

pictures and video of the new craft are available from the airscooter.com website.

norris is a self-educated, independent inventor with boundless curiosity who never made it out of the 3rd grade in traditional schooling. he has been developing inventions for more than 30 years, particularly in audio technology, since taking apart his family's radio at the age of 8. he is 63 years old and has 11 children.

part of the reason norris was selected for the prize is his commitment to inspiring others. “there are classes to inventing. it isn't limited to science and technology. writers, actors, cooks and artists are all inventors,” norris says. “people need to be encouraged to go out there and pursue the fields that will help them create the wonderful things they are capable of achieving.”

norris plans to use the prize money to establish a foundation to help other struggling, independent inventors like himself.




simon's rock college tests alan turing theories with 'imitation game' experiment

on saturday april 16, students at in , and dr. richard wallace of the for their first time tested 's thought-experiment. the "imitation game", based on the original turing model for testing the ability of humans to recognize (ai), was carried out with nearly eighty human and ai participants.

the 'original imitation game' is described in turing's 1950 . a popularized version now dubbed the "" involves a judge knowingly interviewing a software program and a human person during a computer chat, and then trying to discern which is which. the turing test has been conducted many times as artificial intelligence programs developed. however, no study was ever published following the guidelines of the original thought-experiment itself.

the imitation game involved playing a "gender guessing game", wherein two human subjects, a male and a female, communicate via computer chat to the judge. both the male and the female would try to convince the judge that s/he is female. turing's original question was, if a gender guessing game were done with two humans, and then with an ai replacing the male, would the judge be more accurate in guessing who the real female was?

three students at simon's rock ? cameo wood, melissa leventhal, and allyson sgro ? wrote a grant to support the experiment, and shepherded the proposal through the human research review committee under the oversight of professor anne o'dwyer. the experiment was funded by the departments of natural science and the department of social science at the college.

the experiment utilized a program called a.l.i.c.e., which is designed to hold one end of an interactive conversation. the program was provided by the alice artificial intelligence foundation. dr. richard wallace was on hand during the experiment to troubleshoot the ai robot, later gave a lecture about on the anatomy of a.l.i.c.e. and blogged the event.

six human subjects from simon's rock composed the human players in the game; the judges were recruited from various non-technical internet communities. roughly eighty individuals participated in the experiment, which required the organizers to maintain strict secrecy about the experiment until it was concluded. all subjects who participated in the experiment were required to be over 18, not affiliated with the college, and were not allowed any foreknowledge of the use of ai in the experiment. roughly 70 interviews were conducted over a three hour period last saturday, via , a messaging tool that allows individuals to write to one another online.

the research team at simon's rock has started to analyze the data they acquired during the experiment and will be writing a paper for publication in the coming months. inquiries regarding the experiment may be directed to researcher@theguessinggame.net.



ukrainian president to visit romania

viktor yushchenko, the president of ukraine, will make an official visit to bucharest, romania this thursday. this will be the first visit to romania of a foreign president since traian b?sescu became president of romania in december 2004.
yushchenko will receive an official welcome ceremony at cotroceni palace, the residence of president b?sescu. the ukrainian president will also give a speech during the afternoon to a joint meeting of the two chambers of parliament, in bucharest's palace of the parliament, europe's largest building.

after leaving romania early on friday morning, president yushchenko will go to chi?in?u, republic of moldova, to attend the guuam meeting, a joint meeting of the head of state of georgia, ukraine, uzbekistan, azerbaijan and moldova. president b?sescu will also be present at the meeting, since one of the goals of his presidency was to promote stability in the black sea region, and most of the guuam countries have black sea coastlines.

the relationship between romania and ukraine has become fairly cool in the last few years, during the presidency of leonid kuchma, yushchenko's predecessor. this was due to economic disputes, as well as a dispute over ukraine's construction of the bastroe channel, which was to be built a few kilometres north of the romanian border. the bastroe channel was opposed by romania on the grounds that it would damage the danube delta ecosystem, affecting romania's environment. romania's point of view towards the project was also supported by the european union and several environmental organisations worldwide.

however, when president yushchenko was sworn in during the orange revolution last year, the two countries gradually improved ties, especially since b?sescu focussed more on the black sea region than his predecessor, ion illiescu, and said that romania and ukraine would try to reach an agreement on their problems without going to international courts.


thermoelectric plants in arad, romania to be modernised

the romanian government has allocated 16.6 million euros for the modernisation of two thermoelectric power plants that serve a residential area in the city of arad, western romania. the funds come in response to a request sent at the beginning of this year by the arad municipal government.

the mayor of arad, gheorge falc?, said that the modernisation was necessary because, up until now, apartments in the area could not be properly heated due to a significant loss of hot water caused by problems in the pipe network. according to the mayor, the installations will be fully modernised by this winter (december 2005). falc? also added that, in years to come, he would request more funds from the national government in order to modernise all out-of-date power plants in the city, and therefore reduce the costs for consumers.

at the same time, the romanian government has pledged to reduce pollution levels, especially in industrial cities like arad, in order to comply with european union environmental standards. romania is set to join the eu in 2007. the government's target is that, by 2015, all plants or facilities using large combustion installations will have to align to eu environmental standards or will be forced to shut down. one of such plants is the arad district heating plant, cet arad, which is going to be modernised in the future. the modernisation is expected to take 100 million euros to complete.


romanian ministry of communications and it discusses future objectives

the romanian ministry of communications and information technology has discussed its objectives for the future in a seminar about informational services development. romanian prime minister c?lin popescu-t?riceanu, as well as the minister of communications and information technology, zsolt nagy, presented the government's major targets for the expansion and development of information services.

these include the sale of the government's remaining shares in telecommunication corporations romtelecom and postelecom, the relaunching of mobile phone operator cosmorom and the maintaining of tax breaks for programmers. another important objective was the awarding of more 3g licenses to mobile phone operators and more comprehensive online tax payment services. connex, romania's second largest mobile phone operator, launched a comprehensive 3g service this month, and more companies are expected to follow in the future.


minimax discount to open inaugural stores in southern romania

minimax discount, a recently-established joint venture between several romanian and foreign investors, will open its first three discount stores between today and april 28. the discount stores, which will be similar to supermarkets, will open in the southern romanian cities of slatina, urziceni and targovi?te. minimax invested 750,000 euro per outlet, with each store having 1,000 m2 of floor space and a parking area for 100 cars. the first store to be opened will be the one in slatina, with the other ones opening by april 28.

the company is planning to open a total of ten stores this year, as well as another twenty in 2006. it is expected that most of the stores will open in small- to medium-sized cities, of greater than 20,000 inhabitants, rather than larger cities of over 150,000 inhabitants. in a few years time, it has said that it plans to extend its network to over 100 stores.


teen tram thief may yet work as tram driver

a 15-year-old boy who allegedly stole a melbourne, australia tram and drove for 40 minutes picking up and setting down passengers, may yet be allowed to work as a tram driver, despite his nine charges related to the incident.

"we have a very good recruiting policy and anybody who passes the muster for our recruiting policy we'd be glad to offer a job to, provided he's old enough to hold a driver's license," yarra trams deputy chief executive, dennis cliche, told "australian associated press" on monday.

detective senior constable barry hills of victoria police, said of the boy, "he's a nice lad, he's a good lad. i think his obsession just got the better of him."

described as wearing a jacket similar to official yarra trams uniforms, the boy was caught on sunday night by police in east suburban kew, 15km from where the tram was stolen, when electricity was shut off to the route.

he is also accused of stealing a tram on friday night, from south melbourne depot. it is said that he drove it twice between the depot and port melbourne.

the lad was thought to have picked up the keys from box hill depot three weeks ago, said detective senior constable hills.

"there are safety systems built in that he would have had to study and know how to drive this tram without engaging the safety systems, which are designed to shut the tram down," said mr cliche.

"so ... this is someone who's spent a lot of time and a lot of effort to go about this."

"when somebody takes one of our vehicles unauthorised it's of grave concern to us and we are conducting a full investigation - whether he's a 'trammie' or an individual who cares for trams, it makes no difference whatsoever," he said.

a full report on all depots, which would also look at the potential impact of terrorism, was due for release in three weeks.

police say the boy, of sunshine in melbourne, has been charged with nine offences, including two counts each of theft of trams and conduct endangering life. the boy, whose name was not given, was released on bail to appear in the melbourne children's court in june.


afghan coalition forces repel taliban ambush: 8 killed, 16 captured


in a convoy ambush monday in southeastern afghanistan, 8 taliban rebels were killed and 16 captured after a fire fight that ended after afghan coalition forces called in u.s. air power for support. there were no reported coalition casualties.

the convoy was travelling in the dai chopan district when the ambush occurred. afghan defence ministry spokesman general muhammad said, "after the ambush, fierce fighting broke out and we called in coalition air support," according to "reuters".

u.s. ground forces were also involved in the fighting where several weapons and two satellite phones were seized from the rebels. zabul province lies along the rugged afghan-pakistani border where pockets of osama bin laden's al-qaeda terror network are thought to be holding out.


associated press changes online fee structure to meet internet demands

the growing power of the internet is clearly reflected in the decision, announced tuesday, for the associated press to begin charging newspapers and broadcasters to post wire stories, photos, and other content on their online editions. the changes go into effect january 1, 2006. an advisory committee meeting will be held in the fall to ease the transition.

as the internet draws more news consumers from traditional repositories of data, increasing numbers are demanding the stories on the internet reflect the quick updating and coverage of a large wire network such as the associated press.

the rates the ap charges, known within as “assessments”, have risen by about 2.75 percent annually during the 90’s. since the service is supposed to be not-for-profit and is owned by its customers, price increases are a tough sell. 

the formula for the new calculations still has not been set, making it difficult to determine how the changes will affect what the outlets charge for their online news coverage. currently the ap bases rates on newspaper circulation or broadcast audience with the large ones footing the major part of the bill.

the ap is creating a computer database of news paraphernalia which includes stories, photos, graphics, audio and video. it is all designed to make it easier for news rooms to create usable content. 


advocate poll: glaad support not unanimous in u.s. gay commmunity

in a recent online poll conducted by "the advocate", some respondents spoke of their appreciation for the gay and lesbian alliance against defamation (glaad). but the organization, which has recently seen the resignation of its director, joan garry, faces opposition from a vocal minority of its constituency, as gaged by criticism from some responses to the poll.

when asked by the publication, "is glaad an effective advocate for the fair portrayal of gays and lesbians in the media?', at one point on april 18, the tally of 2294 votes showed a vote of no confidence with 58.5 percent voting "no" and 39 percent saying "yes." but less than 12 hours later the tide turned as a tally of 4055 votes reported showed 62.6 percent voting "yes" to 35.9 percent voting "no."
the advocate poll contains plenty of comments from constituents who approve of glaad, and these are readily found among the poll results. what is new is the realization that some in glaad's constituency is upset with the organization for various reasons including: perceived organizational greed, high administrative pay, charges of waste and inaction, and other forms of claimed ineffectiveness.


barry prime becomes swim ireland's new national performance director

barry prime has been appointed the new national performance director of swim ireland, the governing body of swimming in ireland.

mr. prime (50), a former british olympian, has an extensive coaching background. he moved to australia in 1993 to take on the role of senior coach at the australian institute of sport (ais) in canberra. he spent 25 years coaching in birmingham prior to his move to australia. in birmingham he trained five british swimmers to olympic representation including nick gillingham.

swim ireland has struggled in recent years due to a sex abuse scandal and legal dispute with sarah keane who was made ceo last year. further setbacks occurred earlier this year when the national aquatics center (nac) in dublin suffered storm damage to its roof resulting in closure since then.



u.s. federal communications agency revisits do-not-call registry

april 19, 2005 

the fcc issued a consumer advisory on april 15 in response to a recent flurry of e-mails claiming cell phone users will soon have their phones assaulted by telemarketers. in a paper titled the truth about cell phones and the national do not call registry, the fcc reasserted that it is prohibited for telemarketers to use automated dialers to contact u.s. cell phones.

the paper notes the federal government itself does not maintain a national cell phone registry. users of the do-not-call registry can, if they choose to, add cell numbers in addition to their traditional land-line listings. up to three numbers per e-mail address can be added if done on-line.

the much anticipated do-not-call registry went live in october 2003. the registry has, in the fcc’s own words, been an “overwhelmingly popular initiative.” it serves as an option for consumers to stop unwanted telemarketing calls and currently contains over 80 million subscribers.

additionally, in an fcc change to the registry guidelines effective january 2005, telemarketers are now required to update their call lists against the registry once each month. previously, the update requirement was once every 3 months. newer regulations also require marketers to unblock their numbers so users of caller id will know when a telemarketer calls.

the u.s. contact information is 1-888-382-1222 by phone, or https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx by internet, and registry to the do-not-call list is free.



north korea shuts down its main nuclear reactor

north korea shut down a main on monday at . officials worldwide suspect the reactor was shut down to allow for extraction of spent fuel rods. once spent fuel rods that are rich in are extracted from a shut-down reactor, they can be processed to yield the high-purity plutonium necessary for manufacturing an .

u.s. officials initially pointed out the reactor could have been shut down for non-threatening reasons. it may have experienced mechanical difficulties, or north korea may simply have bluffed, having no spent fuel rods to remove.

on tuesday, north korea confirmed the reactor was shut down to remove fuel rods for weapons processing. quoted north korea's ambassador to the , han sang-ryol, saying the measure was taken to "increase its deterrent against a possible u.s. attack."

"the ball is in the u.s. court," han said. "we asked the united states to change its hostile policy. then we can believe the united states and enter the disarmament process. if the u.s. policy is normal and friendly, [north korea] will feel safe."

north korea has blamed harsh words from the united states for its reluctance to conduct talks regarding its nuclear program. most recently, us secretary of state condoleezza rice called north korea an "outpost of tyranny," enraging kim jong-il, the leader of north korea. 

the cia estimates that north korea has between two and six nuclear weapons in its arsenal, and told "usa today" that additional plutonium gained from the reactor is enough for six more.



new mass grave discovered in kosovo

new mass grave was discovered in a cave in klina region, kosovo. according to unmik's report, the remains are probably of non-albanian victims, killed in kosovo during the war in 1998. 

according to b92 there are around 46 bodies of people from villages retimlje, opteru?a and zo?i?te. unmik's forensic team is still working on exhumation and it will take around ten days to search the whole location. jose pablo baraybar, head of the office on missing persons and forensics, could not specify the number or identity of victims.

serbian president of coordination center for kosovo and metohija, neboj?a ?ovi?, said that serbian authorities knew about the mass grave, but were denied access until now. 


associated press will charge for online content in 2006

the associated press (ap) announced yesterday that it will charge its members for online content, starting on january 1, 2006. the decision occurred at its annual board meeting.

until the new pricing arrangement takes place, news sites that purchase ap content for their print editions have been able to use the same content on their websites at no additional charge. no pricing scheme has been announced, but the ap did say that it would increase its fees less than usual this year to ease the transition.

burl osborne, the chairman of the ap's board, stated that since the creation of the internet, the "ap's philosophy was to promote member efforts to develop this new medium, and to give those fledgling online efforts time to grow."

the price increase was not the only plan mentioned at the meeting. according to an ap report in the new york times, "the ap also plans to introduce a new multimedia package designed to appeal to young adults, a prized advertising demographic deeply immersed in the internet and other digital media."



infrared technology enables recovery of lost classical writings

papyrologists at oxford university in england last week reported major literary finds in examining old fragments of papyrus with a new technique: multi-spectral imaging (msi). the fragments were unearthed near the buried town of oxyrhynchus, egypt in a major archaeological find a century ago. many of the fragments were unable to be read until now.

multi-spectral imaging (msi) is based on technology originally developed by nasa to photograph features of other worlds in bands beyond the visible spectrum, both infrared and ultraviolet. the technology was adapted by researchers at brigham young university to filter a narrow bandwidth of infrared light, which reacts with ink but not the surrounding material, making the writing stand out more easily and plainly than before and enabling non-destructive photographs of formerly invisible text to be taken.

msi was successfully used in 1999 to read many of the herculaneum scrolls, which were considered to be blank or charred beyond recognition until then. herculaneum was a town in ancient italy that was buried next to pompeii in its volcanic eruption of 79 ad, leaving many scrolls damaged but naturally preserved.

oxyrhynchus, whose name means "sharp-nose", was a town located along a tributary of the nile in ancient egypt and populated largely by greek immigrants. the name refers to a river-dwelling fish with a long snout that was worshiped as the town's patron deity by a local cult.

in between the town's surrounding wall and the local farmlands, there developed a number of dumping sites for papyrus and other materials, many of which have survived to the present day buried under mounds of sand because of dry, rainless local conditions. papyrus, a paper-like writing surface made from reeds along the nile river, normally does not last and no actual books written on ancient papyri have been uncovered.

the site was explored in the late 19th century by bernard grenfell and arthur hunt of oxford university, during which about 100,000 fragments of papyrus were unearthed, which today are stored at sackler library, oxford, in the largest collection of its kind in the world.

oxyrhynchus was not noted as a center of learning, and 90% of the fragments found there are expected to be mundane yet useful in reconstructing ancient daily life, including such things as "codes, edicts, registers, official correspondence, census-returns, tax-assessments, petitions, court-records; sales, leases, wills, bills, accounts, inventories, horoscopes, [and] private letters". according to researchers on the project, "the mass of unedited material represents the random waste-paper of seven centuries of greco-egyptian life."

the remaining 10% could possibly contain unknown portions of literary classics of greek and roman antiquity, or even lost christian gospel copies or apocryphal writings. among the items currently being worked on are parts of a play by sophocles, a lost novel by lucian, mythological poetry by parthenius of nicaea, an elegiac poem by archilochus, and other writings by euripides and hesiod.

given that oxyrhynchus was also the site of a discovery of portions of the gospel of thomas (although that discovery was later overshadowed by the discovery of a more complete copy among the dead sea scrolls), many classical scholars are excited by the new discoveries.

“the oxyrhynchus collection is of unparalleled importance ? especially now that it can be read fully and relatively quickly,” said dr. dirk obbink of oxford, who is leading the imaging project. “the material will shed light on virtually every aspect of life in hellenistic and roman egypt and, by extension, in the classical world as a whole.”

the amount of new material, estimated to be around 5 million words, could expand the entire storehouse of classical writings by as much as 20%.

digital photographs of some of the writings are expected to be published as early as next month; given the number of fragments, the effort in documenting and preserving them may continue as long as the next decade.

mistakes seem to exist in some of the sources, see notes below.

several mistakes seem to exist in the sources.

1 "scotsman news' headline: "'lost' classical manuscripts give up their secrets after 9,000 years" 

2 date range the papyri were supposed to have been deposited, given by "scotsman news", "sci-tech today" as "3rd to 7th centuries bc".

3 a third possible error concerns the number of fragments, as stated in the independent's article, "scientists begin...", which quoted a figure of 400,000 fragments.

in conclusion, as classical authors themselves might have once said, ""caveat lector"" (let the reader beware).



 


google maps, google local launches for britain and ireland

april 20, 2005 

google has extended its mapping and local searching services to the united kingdom and republic of ireland.

google maps first launched in north america on february 8 2005, and proved popular with its innovative user interface. google maps uk is the first mapping website to be offered by google outside of north america.

two weeks ago google added satellite imagery to its maps after buying the keyhole company. google maps uk currently does not offer a similar service.

the google local service offers users two search boxes - one for the search terms, and a second to specify a location, for example a postcode or 'near london'. this enables users to find business in or near a specific location.

google also introduced their sms service to the uk. this allows users to get information - both abstract, such as dictionary definitions and the answers to mathematical calculations - and geographical, such as driving directions or the address of nearby businesses.



australian blitz on fish poaching

australian officials have impounded 27 indonesian boats and 240 crew off the country's north coast, in what it says is the biggest operation against illegal fishing so far. fisheries minister, ian macdonald, told the nation's "abc radio" that a number of boats caught fishing for shark fin and reef fish had been taken to gove and darwin.

the nine-day joint navy, customs and army "operation clearwater" was continuing, and had taken months to plan.

"i think all of the illegal vessels up there, because of their inter-vessel communication will now be aware that there is a major sting on by the australian authorities and those that haven't been arrested, i think will be hightailing it back to indonesian ports as we speak," said senator macdonald.

intelligence indicated what he called "organised transnational criminal activity", including some asian connections beyond the indonesian village ports where the vessels originated, but the activity was apparently limited to illegal fishing, and did not include smuggling.

"we are talking about large-scale commercial operations rather than simply subsistence fishing," macdonald said in a statement, indicating that fifteen of the boats were large vessels with ice for storage. two boats each had one tonne of fish, and shark fin.

fishing by some indonesian peoples has occurred legitimately in the area between the two nations for hundreds of years before european colonization. a 1906 australian claim on as much as 80% of the waters has since been softened by a memorandum of understanding (mou) between the two governments, recognizing some traditional fishing rights.

however analysts say the australian government strategy is flawed, since it is based on the fishing technology employed, rather than catch numbers. 

at time of writing, it has not been ascertained whether the currently detained vessels were fishing in such "traditional" waters or not, or whether they were operated by crews who would have traditional fishing rights, if they had been in compliance with the mou.

senator macdonald told the "abc radio" programme "am" that he expected in the case of those thought to have been fishing in australian waters illegally, the captain and perhaps the senior fishing master would be charged, with other crew being immediately repatriated to indonesia.

as for the boats, "we're required by international law to offer them to bond them back to the owners, but as the crew are immediately repatriated the ability of the owners to get them back to indonesia ... is fairly limited," the senator explained.

"i would expect that most of these boats apprehended in operation clearwater will actually be forfeited to the crown and will be destroyed."

the fishermen were expected to appear in court next week, reported "reuters" news agency. an indonesian fisherman was last week fined $a130,000, setting a new record, after his boat was caught off with over 100kg of dried reef fish, 300kg of fish on ice and 10kg of dried shark fin.

the northern territory fisheries minister, kon vatskalis, on "abc radio" asked the federal government to commit the same level of resources permanently.

"provide the extra funding, provide the extra resources to the navy and the customs and then they will be able to stop the illegal boats, not only when they run an operation but every day, every week, every month," mr vatskalis told the abc.

 


italian pm berlusconi resigns to form stronger coalition

italian prime minister silvio berlusconi resigned on wednesday, handing in his letter to italy’s president carlo azeglio ciampi.

a statement from the president’s office said berlusconi had tendered the resignation of his cabinet. this brings italy’s longest-serving government since world war ii to a close.

the prime minister pledged to form a stronger coalition government than the present one, which has been weakened by a sluggish economy and the prime minister’s close relationship with george bush and the war in iraq.

his forza italia party was crushed in regional elections this month. two other parties, the centrist christian democrats and a tiny new italian socialist party bailed out of his coalition, triggering the crisis.

berlusconi addressed the senate, then went to the quirinale presidential palace and announced his resignation and his plans to form a new government. he stated that the coalition has a loose agreement to form a new government that will last until elections scheduled for next year. it is heavily speculated that the parties composing the coalition are still debating about which ministers to choose.

he added that the crisis itself and resignations were simply a process dictated by the laws more than a necessary step. he claimed that the anticipated election time is not an option (even though it was used as a threat by udc and psi parties a few days earlier).

he also said that a new government, still headed by him, will be welcomed by the entire center-right coalition.



new version of opera web browser released

after several months in beta, opera 8 for windows and linux was released yesterday. the opera browser is considered by many to be fast, small and standards-compliant.

hakon wium lie, the cto of opera software said "the vast majority of internet users have had to deal with a slow and insecure browser for too long. people are spending more time online, and with the increase in online fraud it is vital that they have a browser that is fast, secure and easy to use. that's what we offer with opera 8." he described opera 8 as a "major leap in browser innovation".

this version included many new features including a new unique security feature, advanced page-resizing, tabbed browsing, and pop up blocking. among the new features for opera 8 is the support for voice; opera can be both voice controlled and act as a screen reader.

opera 8 for windows is available in english, german, dutch, and polish, with more languages to soon follow. the linux version is available in english, with more languages to follow. a beta version of opera 8 for mac (english) is also available.

a spyware-free, ad-supported version of opera 8 is available free of charge. a small banner or text ad appears at the top of the screen. a version of opera without ads is available for us$39 or us$20 for students.

opera software asa is headquartered in oslo, norway. according to the company itself, it is an industry leader in the development of web browser technology, particularly in smartphone, pda, home media, and vertical markets.

opera is cross platform with versions for windows, linux, mac os, symbian os, windows mobile, brew, qnx, tron, freebsd, solaris, and mediahighway.

opera 8 can be downloaded at opera's official website.



civil unrest forces out ecuador's president

amid unrest in the ecuadoran capital city of quito, president general lucio gutierrez has been removed from his office by congress. vice-president alfredo palacio was voted in unanimously by deputies to replace mr gutierrez who is accused of abandoning his post. 

the "bbc" reports gutierrez left the presidential palace by helicopter after sparking protests when he tried to overhaul the supreme court. he is now in the brazilian embassy in quito where he has applied for asylum (www.planetmafia.net), as confirmed by the brazilian department of foreign affairs.

in the worst political turmoil experienced in quito in nearly a century, panic is evident. many families have rushed to supermarkets to stock up in anticipation of further violence. the cause of this panic is the sudden escalation of violence in the protests and anti-government demonstrations that have been underway for a week. 

protests began as a reaction to the government’s unconstitutional appointment of a partisan supreme court. last week, the inability of the congress to resolve the problem led broadcaster "radio la luna" to call for a spontaneous demonstration against the government by the citizenry, without the intervention of politicians. the success of this demonstration caused it to be repeated each night when thousands of people went into the streets singing and banging on kitchenware. 

on friday, president gutierrez, a self proclaimed "dictocrat" (dictator for the opposition but democrat to his supporters), declared a state of emergency in quito, and suspended all civil liberties in the capital. (in the past, this president has not shown himself to be a friend of the constitutional order, and was part of a 2001 coup which overthrew president jamil mahuad). the president sent armed forces to shut down "radio la luna", but when the troops were met by thousands of unarmed civilians, they stepped down. the president was forced to cancel the state of emergency within 24 hours given the tumultuous uproar.

the government instead called its supporters from the provinces to come to quito and fight the protesters in the streets. renan borbua, one of the president's staunchest allies in guayaquil, announced that buses packed with cudgel and machete-wielding thugs were on their way to quito. quito’s mayor paco moncayo, and the prefect of pichincha declared the highways closed and refused the ‘thugs’ a way into quito. nonetheless many government sympathizers were reported near the capital, looting stores and destroying parked automobiles.

the government also ordered the national police to suppress the protesters, a move leading quito’s mayor to declare that the national police were no longer viewed as legitimate in the city. also as a response to the president’s order, the commander of the national police resigned in protest, but was promptly replaced by the president’s own cousin. so far the police have killed one person, a chilean reporter, and injured hundreds. roads are blocked, and numerous fires have been started as a response to the police’s use of riot-gas.

it is unclear where the ecuadorian military stands on this issue. both sides have claimed its support. ecuador’s provinces have been declaring themselves for or against the government, and depending on the ultimate position of the military, civil war looms as a dire possibility in everyone’s minds.



norwegian whaling season starts with highest quota in a decade


norway's whaling season started on monday with the highest quota in over a decade. fishermen are entitled to harpoon up to 797 whales before the end of the season on august 31st.

last years quota of 670 was raised this year despite fishermen failing to reach their quota last year. environmental activists from groups such as greenpeace have denounced the increase. speaking to the associated press, one activist said "increased whaling is no solution for the problems along the coast." however despite international opposition, it is unlikely norway will end whaling anytime soon.

norway is the only country in the world to allow commercial whaling. iceland and japan do so solely on a research basis. whale meat is used as steaks and in hamburgers and sausages in norway. the number of whales caught by norway has steadily increased since resumption of whaling in 1993, with the 226 caught that year rising to over 500 in 1997 and 670 in 2003.

the economic argument is that whaling provides employment and economic stimulant for fishery, logistic, restaurant and other related industries in developed countries. however many countries continue to argue that, if properly developed, whale-watching could be far more profitable and create far more jobs than whale killing.



iraqi president talabani speaks on 50 dead found in tigris river

iraqi president jalal talabani in a press conference to reporters wednesday was quoted saying:

he promises more details in the coming days.

the presidential news conference was in response to events unfolding by reports from shi'ite officials. they said saturday that as many as 100 shi’ites were taken hostage by sunni fighters, and were threatened with death in the town of al-madain, near baghdad. an iraqi security force on monday raided the town of about 1,000 families, but found no evidence of a hostage situation. the shi’ite officials later said the bodies ? believed to be the hostages ? were found in the tigris river.

in a separate incident 200km north of baghdad in haditha, after hearing shots reporters and residents found the bodies of 19 men executed in a soccer stadium on wednesday. it is believed those shot were iraqi soldiers executed by anti-government fighters, according to an interior ministry official, although the victims were not dressed in military garb. they were thought to have been heading home for a holiday marking the birthday of the prophet muhammad when abducted by insurgents.




last 10 days of online voting for chatterbox challenge

the chatterbox challenge is a competition for chatbots (computer programmes designed to imitate human conversation). it has categories such as best learning bot and most knowledgeable bot, but also has a contest for the most popular bot, which is decided by users voting. the voting runs through april, so time is running out to vote for your favorite bot.

the 2005 competition has over 100 bots entered. well-known bots, such as ai alex, alice, ella, and jabberwacky, are in the competition, as well as newer creations such as barry defacto from two-time loebner winner robby garner, and robomatix x1 from egypt. the current leader is the relatively new smarterchild, but a lot can change in the next ten days.

contest organiser wendell cowart says, "the sheer variety of the chatbots entered is quite amazing... chatbot names range from aib to zoe, and personalities vary from a banjo plucking hill-billy to a serial killer".

to vote in the chatterbox challenge, go to the contest website at
www.chatterboxchallenge.com,

 


iraqi pm allawi survives fifth attempted assassination

outgoing prime minister iyad allawi of iraq escaped an assassin's bomb around 11pm local time on wednesday night. in an attack aimed at his convoy in a residential part of baghdad, "[the suicide bomber] did not stop and blew himself up almost near the middle of the convoy," said allawi spokesman thaer al-naqib.

the bomb was set off by the attacker from a pickup truck loaded with tnt and mortar rounds, after police opened fire at him. the resulting explosion killed two policemen and wounded at least one other, and was large enough to damage some nearby homes.

this news follows a different assassination attempt on april 12 last week against iraq's deputy interior minister tariq al-baldawi by gunmen in two cars who attacked his convoy; al-baldawi escaped without harm in that attack.

in addition, three other car bombs are known to have been set off in the area of the iraqi capital during the same day. targets included a us military convoy, a police station, and a police patrol, resulting in the wounding of more than a dozen civilians and the deaths of two victims, including one child, according to sources reported by the australian.

this is the fifth assassination attempt on allawi himself. previous attempts on allawi have included a violent attack in 1978 by an axe-wielding intruder in his home believed to have been instigated by saddam hussein, which nearly severed allawi's leg at the knee and also injured the arm of his wife, who was sleeping.

allawi has received criticism from various groups in the past related to his activities on behalf of the american-appointed interim governing council of iraq.

last year, militants under the leadership of alleged al-qaida operative abu musab al-zarqawi offered $285,000 for the killing of allawi, which may or may not be related to the most recent attack.



radioactive soil from maine reactor refused at landfill in utah

envirocare, a corporation that runs a landfill in utah that accepts radioactive waste, has turned away a shipment of soil from around the maine yankee nuclear power plant in wiscasset, maine, the "portland press herald" reported. the soil, which is held in 48 boxcars, was contaminated during the 26 years during which the maine yankee plant generated electricity. the shipment was refused due to excess water in previous shipments. 

the plant stopped producing electricity in 1997; its concrete dome was detonated in september of 2004. the decommissioning is scheduled for completion by the summer of 2005.

in a related development, a wiscasset environmental organization, the chewonki foundation, has taken possession of a 200 acre portion of the former power plant's lands; the foundation will act as stewards of the land, according to the "wiscasset newspaper". the plot, known as eaton farm for its previous agricultural use, will be the site of what chewonki foundation executive director w. donald hudson, ph.d., calls, "the coolest trail in the state of maine." the five miles of trail on the eaton farm land will be part of a 12 mile trail that may eventually run from downtown wiscasset to montsweag bay.


melbourne's tram-driving teen faces more charges

the 15-year-old australian boy charged on sunday night related to the alleged theft of a tram, faces another nine charges over prior incidents, bringing the total to 18 charges. the new allegations relate to theft of a bus, attempted theft of a train, and another incident with a tram.

on monday he was also charged over an incident, in which a tram was allegedly stolen from southbank on friday.

the boy was arrested yesterday at his sunshine home and bailed to appear in melbourne children's court in june, over the nine new charges.

on monday, yarra trams spokesperson colin tyrus told "the age" that there had been "a mystery collision in the depot on april 10".

"after what happened on sunday we obviously reported all of that to the police and we are continuing to assist them with their inquiries," mr tyrus said.

police allege he drove a vehicle in the southbank yard and hit another tram, on april 10, causing $2000 damage.

and on april 9, it is alleged, he jumped a fence at a footscray bus depot, found some keys and drove a bus around the yard. later, it is believed he tried unsuccessfully to start a diesel train at a rail yard in north melbourne, and then absconded carrying the keys.

 


new england senators argue over imported pharmaceuticals

in an unusually contentious hearing, senators judd gregg (r-nh) and olympia snowe (r-maine) argued the pros and cons of allowing the importation of drugs from countries where there are good safety controls and prices that are 50 to 70 percent below u.s. prices.

laws to legalize that practice, which has found favor with 77 percent of americans in a poll released on wednesday, are under attack by the american drug makers and their friends in congress.

sen. gregg, his face turning pink with anger at times, accused senator snowe of throwing away 100 years of federal law by advocating the bill.

snowe replied that the bill would bring foreign drugs, mainly from canada, europe and other countries--provided those drugs already have fda approval--under the aegis of the fda. former fda commissioner david kessler agreed during testimony, and said that legalizing prescription imports from canada and elsewhere would make for safer prescriptions for u.s. consumers.

snowe said, “we send men and women up to space every day, and we can’t figure this out?”

senator david vitter, r-la, weighed in on snowe’s side, “safety is a huge reason we should pass legislation like this,” he said.

reporters said the two jousted back and forth for quite a while, not allowing each other to finish an answer, each accusing the other of failing to answer.

“i am answering your question,” snowe said at one point. “you don’t like the answer.”

opponents say that curbing drug prices could discourage research into new products. snowe countered that drug development in the united states totals $32 billion, compared to $26 billion in europe.

the two feuding lawmakers live on northern new england’s canadian border and are under pressure from senior citizen’s groups to allow american consumers to import drugs at cheaper costs.


fatal dog mauling owner pleads “not guilty”

appearing before judge william ledbetter jr. in spotsylvania county circuit court, the fatal dog mauling defendant deanna large plead not guilty wednesday to charges of involuntary manslaughter and three misdemeanor counts of letting a dangerous dog run at large.

large is the alleged owner of three pit bulls that attacked and killed an 82-year-old neighbor as she walked her dog in the front yard of her home. police responding to the incident on march 8, shot two of the dogs at the scene and later euthanized the third.
no one in virginia has ever been convicted of an involuntary manslaughter charge in connection with their ownership of dogs. the only similar case, in the late 1960’s in amherst county, was dismissed.

the commonwealth’s prosecuting attorney, william f. neely said, “that’s a prosecutor’s job whenever you see the law being flagrantly broken is to try and push the envelope,” explaining the seriousness of charges against large who faces 13 years in prison. further adding that, “the real issues are legal and not factual, i think. if the commonwealth prevails in getting this case to stand up on the law, it may possibly even turn into a guilty plea.”

large, who is free on a us$10,000 bond, asked for a jury trial which was set for august 16.

during her march 24 arraignment, to judge ledbetter she answered “yes sir," on whether she would hire her own defense lawyer. the judge appointed public defender eugene frost to represent large when she did not appear with a lawyer.



breakthrough in talks between philippine government, muslim rebels

the government of the republic of the philippines (grp) and moro islamic liberation front (milf) announced substantial points of agreement this thursday on key issues related to ancestral domain that may bring peace to the troubled mindanao region in the months ahead.

the announcement came as a result of a three-day conference this week held in malaysia in the town of port dickinson. "i would like to thank malaysian prime minster abdullah badawi not only for leading the ceasefire process but for facilitating the substantive negotiations", stated grp president gloria macapagal-arroyo.

malaysia has led an international monitoring team attempting to support and enforce the cease-fire both sides agreed to in 1997, although violence has occasionally flared up, even in the days leading up to the meeting. 

"since we have been talking peace to the philippine government, this is the first time we have touched on the substantive agenda of the peace process," said the chief negotiator for milf, mohaqher iqbal.

the areas of concern in this week's talks relate to the ancestral domain portion of the tripoli agreement of june 22, 2001. ancestral domain refers to territories claimed to be inhabited by the ancestors of indigenous peoples, and was discussed by the two groups in terms of concept, territory, governance, and resources. security and rehabilitative aspects of this and other agreements have already been discussed and are currently being implemented.

"we have had some detailed consensus points [concerning the land issue]," said silvestre afable jr., chief negotiator for grp. "we agreed that we have bridged 60 or 70 percent of the issue in the area of ancestral domain." however, the spokesmen declined to cite the specific areas of agreement.

the predominantly roman catholic nation has seen outbreaks of kidnapping and violence with muslim separatists groups such as milf and the former moro national liberation front (mnfl) which concluded separate peace talks in 1987. fighting since the 1960s has resulted in at least 120,000 deaths. 

the milf is estimated to currently have 11,000-12,000 members or more. the term moro in the group's name comes from the spanish term for arab muslims, or moors, used during the reconquista period.

the area of land under discussion, called bangsamoro, refers to an area of the southern philippines, including the island of mindanao and other areas, claimed by the milf as their ancestral homeland. this area could include as much as one-third of the philippines.

this meeting was the seventh in a series of grp-mlf exploratory talks, and the first to result in a breakthrough on substantive issues not related to immediate security concerns. 

further talks are planned for next month in malaysia, but full resolution of the conflict is not expected at least until peace talks begin in june. remaining potential areas of conflict such as the issue of governance must also be resolved.




major us bankruptcy reform bill signed into law

u.s. president george w. bush signed into law wednesday a major bankruptcy reform bill, making the most sweeping changes to the laws of personal bankruptcy in the past two decades. bill s.256 is predicted to reduce the chances of filing chapter 7 bankruptcy for 30,000 to 210,000 families per year, according to the american bankruptcy institute.

the legislation was strongly opposed by some consumer advocates and by some democrats in congress, who complained about the lack of debate on exemptions they attempted to introduce and tried to derail the passage of the bill. those who are unable to file for chapter 7 bankruptcy will then be forced to file under chapter 13, which requires payment of some debts by order of a judge based on the financial resources of the debtor.

opponents said the bill will end a chance for a fresh start in the financial lives of the american people by keeping them in debt to collection agencies, as well as credit card companies and banks who have made it easy to obtain high credit limits amid mounting consumer debt.

in his remarks before signing the bill, which he supported, bush said, "the bipartisan bill i'm
about to sign makes common-sense reforms to our bankruptcy laws. by restoring
integrity to the bankruptcy process, this law will make our financial system
stronger and better. by making the system fairer for creditors and debtors,
we will ensure that more americans can get access to affordable credit."

the bankruptcy bill received a 302-126 approval in the house, after receiving a 74-25 vote in the senate last month following strong, mostly partisan debate.

the us bankruptcy system was established in 1898. it allowed judges and debtors to come to terms with the costly medical bills that can follow a relative's death, or a family illness. such cases form nearly half of all bankruptcies filed in the usa, according to the american bankruptcy institute.

now many of those people will have to work out repayment plans suitable to creditors instead of having debts erased by a judge, according to the new law, which takes effect in six months.

in the past, a judge or court representative would calculate an individual's income and subtract necessities of life to come up with a practical repayment plan of some debt. the new law stipulates that a graph, showing the poverty level in whichever state the consumer is living will be the criteria. it assumes that if people can subsist at that poverty level, then everything over that can be used to repay creditors.

additionally, a provision that allowed debtors to file their own chapter 7 fresh start bankruptcy has been changed to require a lawyer, paid by the debtor, to do the filing.

the new law also erased "" provisions in lending laws, with some lawmakers saying that paying 30 percent interest was not too much when a debtor was behind on payments.

but bush said that credit will "be more affordable because when bankruptcy is less common, credit can be extended to more people at better rates," meeting demands of the credit card companies which they have been pressing for the last eight years.

"the big winners under the new law will be the special interests that literally wrote it, particularly the credit card industry," said travis b. plunkett, legislative director of the consumer federation of america. "this is particularly ironic because reckless and abusive lending practices by credit card companies have driven many americans to the brink of bankruptcy."

the forces arrayed on the losing side of this bill said it will hurt low-income working people, single mothers, minorities, and elderly and will end a safety net for people who have lost jobs or face major medical bills. people who fail (refuse) to pay or refuse to go to court will punished by a fine and or arrest warrant made out in their name. about fifty thousand americans will be punished by a fine and or warrant about three thousand americans every year will go to jail under the new bankruptcy law. for some people this will be a third strike so they will be put in jail for life.

but mallory duncan, a lawyer for the national retail federation, said "bankruptcy has gone from a stigma to a financial planning tool for many."

new personal bankruptcy filings have increased from 172,423 in 1978 to 1,599,986 last year, an increase of 828% during that time; however, it edged down slightly last year.

about 2 percent to 13 percent of those who dissolve their debts in chapter 7 bankruptcy each year in exchange for forfeiting some assets will be disqualified from doing so under the law, according to the american bankruptcy institute.

bankruptcy lawyers anticipate a rush to the courthouse to beat the six-month window before the new reforms take effect.




partnership for a drug-free america study finds 1 in 5 teens abused prescription drugs

the 17th annual partnership for a drug-free america study on teen drug abuse released its findings thursday morning. this is the second year the survey studied the abuse of legal drugs, and the first year it looked into the use of over-the counter products to get high. the study showed an increasing trend among the nation's teenagers using prescription drugs, such as vicodin and oxycontin, to get high. partnership chairman roy bostock summarizes the results as "the first time our national study finds that today's teens are more likely to have abused a prescription painkiller to get high than they are to have experimented with a variety of illegal drugs. generation rx has arrived."

the partnership for a drug-free america is a non-profit organization launched in 1987 that employs communications professionals for the aim of reducing american demand for illegal drugs in today's prohibition control strategy. the group often collaborates with the u.s. office of national drug control policy. the results presented were from the 2004 partnership attitude tracking study that surveyed the nation's largest sample size ever in terms of ongoing analysis of teen drug-related attitudes: more than 7,300 teens. studies pertaining to drugs are often flawed because of their use of a self-reporting methodology. it is very easy for participants in a non-scientific study ? especially teenagers ? to under, over, or misreport their data. the margin of error is plus or minus 1.5 percent.

the study reported that about one in five teenagers has abused a prescription painkiller ? more than those who have experimented with either ecstasy, cocaine, crack or lsd. the most popular prescription drug abused by teens was vicodin, with 18 percent (about 4.3 million youths) reporting. oxycontin, as well as drugs for attention-deficit disorder like ritalin or adderall, came in second place with 10 percent. one in eleven teens (2.2 million) had abused over-the-counter products such as cough medicine. fewer than half the teens in the study (48 percent) believed experimenting with prescription drugs was a "great risk." additionally, many teens chose to use legal drugs because of "ease of access."

the number of teens reporting marijuana use declined to 37 percent last year, compared with 42 percent six years earlier. over the same amount of time, ecstasy use declined from 12 percent to 9 percent, and methamphetamine use dropped from 12 percent to 8 percent.


iran shuts down al-jazeera bureau


the iranian ministry of culture and islamic guidance issued an order banning al jazeera from working in iran starting monday, april 18, 2005.

the 'suspension' comes after arab iranians protested in the city of ahvaz. the iranians claim that al jazeera incited the protests. al jazeera has stated that it will "continue to cover iranian affairs objectively, comprehensively and in a balanced way, and calls on the relevant iranian authorities to reconsider the decision to suspend its bureau's activities."

this is not the first time al jazeera has crossed paths with governments in the middle east. iraq and saudi arabia currently do not allow the channel to operate within their borders.

the international federation of journalists (ifj) has condemned iranian ban on al-jazeera as "spiteful act of censorship".

aidan white, ifj's general secretary wrote, "this closure is a spiteful act of censorship and a blatant attempt by the authorities to make media the scapegoat for civil unrest. if iran has complaints about media standards it should seek professional redress, not take action that undermines press freedom and pluralism."

while there is a diverse range of internal iranian media, including 64,000 blogs, press freedom is not absolute, for example, the reformist newspaper shargh was banned from publishing from february 18, 2004 to february 28, 2004, and the newspaper khordad was formally banned but was recreated with the new name of fath.

al jazeera, is an arab satellite network. in the united states it is best known for broadcasting osama bin laden's videotapes.

 


proposed bill could force federal weather data offline

a bill introduced last week by republican rick santorum in the us senate, s. 786, could prohibit national weather service from publishing free forecasts online. 

this would have no effect on the national hurricane center as the bill exempts forecasts meant to protect "life and property." 

"the weather service proved so instrumental and popular and helpful in the wake of the hurricanes. how can you make an argument that we should pull it off the net now? what are you going to do, charge hurricane victims to go online, or give them a pop-up ad?" said dan mclaughlin, a spokesman for sen. bill nelson, d-fla. 

barry myers, executive vice president of accuweather a service that currently competes with national weather service free forecasts , said “the bill would improve public safety by making the weather service devote its efforts to hurricanes, tsunamis and other dangers”.

last year the noaa eliminated a policy that had prohibited them from offering services that could be provided by the private industry.


the bill: national weather service duties act of 2005


ecuador's ousted president granted asylum in brazil

ecuador's ousted president by the ecuadorian congress is at the brazilian embassy in . he obtained the political asylum of the brazilian government. 

in a note, the brazilian government declared its accompanying concerns for political events in ecuador, expecting a peaceful solution in the political crisis.

the president of brazil, luiz inacio lula da silva, determined the department of justice should authorize the political asylum to gutierrez. according to the brazilian ministry of external relations, sergio florencio sobrinho is acting as the brazilian ambassador to ecuador and is negotiating with the government of ecuador for gutierrez to leave the country safely. 

at about 1:40pm thursday, a brazilian air force (fab) airplane took off of the air base at , the capital of brazil. the airplane flew to , in . it will remain ready at rio branco's airport until gutierrez can be authorized to leave ecuador.

on wednesday, gutierrez was removed by the ecuadorian congress because of a violent crackdown in quito, protesting against guitierrez and demanding his resignation. it was reported that at least one person was killed during the protests.

, gutierrez's vice-president, is the new president of ecuador.


boston cyberarts festival opens with hotel@mit gala

the 2005 cyberarts festival, which runs through may 8, 2005, opened with a gala at the hotel@mit, a hotel near the massachusetts institute of technology. the gala, which took place in a series of function rooms on the third floor of the hotel, started at 6:00 p.m. and ran past its stated end time of 9:00 p.m. the event featured food and drink, as well as computer art from a variety of artists whose work will be featured in the festival.

local wikipedia contributor samuel klein displayed a customization of daniel wunsch's rcbirds program, which converts wikipedia recent changes feeds into a series of bird calls and other sounds from the open-sound peep project, differentiating edits by the anonymity of the user, the name and namespace of the article involved, and the user's contribution history. different types of edits produced different bird calls; once or twice during the evening, conversation was briefly interrupted to undo vandalism signaled by the stream of sound.

martin wattenberg, a researcher at ibm's local research lab, who has also developed software to visualize the history of changes to wikipedia pages, exhibited his visualization of the decision tree of a computer playing chess, described jokingly as "tiny blue."

other presenters included newbury open.net's new boston music project .



same-sex marriage bill passes in spanish congress of deputies

a government-backed bill to allow same-sex couples to marry and to adopt children has passed the . it has yet to pass in the , although political commentators are speculating this will be simply a formality, and fully expect the bill to become law.

the congress altered existing law governing marriage by adding this sentence: "marriage will have the same requirements and results when the two people entering into the contract are of the same sex or of different sexes." this bill is now passed on to the senate, which has a greater number of conservative members, making unlikely its passage. however, in the spanish legal system the senate's rejection is not binding.

upon adoption, the law would make spain the third european country to allow gay marriage, joining and . unlike other same-sex marriage countries, spain's proposal will allow for .

spain's adherence to some catholic dictates, such as its objection to contraception use, is low. traditional catholics look to the new pope with the hope that his moral authority can restore to the faithful the principles of birth control and exclusion of those who remarry from partaking in communion.

the church, cardinal trujillo argued, does not discriminate against gays, who he feels simply need help. calling on municipal offices asked to perform gay marriages to object, he said, "they should exercise the same conscientious objection asked of doctors and nurses against a crime such as abortion.

"this is not a matter of choice: all christians... must be prepared to pay the highest price, including the loss of a job."

spain's , took office in april last year intending to create a secularized state. calling the church's advantages undeniable, he hopes to ease laws in divorce and abortion.

, the minister of justice, said "... barriers of discrimination, many of them with deep historical or primitive roots, which affect rights and freedoms and, in a specific way, the extension of free choice in the search for happiness, are an unwritten basic right". the parliament passed the bill with 183 for and 136 against. there were six abstentions. gays and lesbians gathered in the public gallery cheered when the vote was read.



koizumi offers apologies for japan's past

in an address to the ongoing conference of asian and african nations japanese prime minister junichiro koizumi offered apologies for the suffering caused by japanese aggression in the 1930s and 40s.

"in the past, japan, through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of asian nations. japan squarely faces these facts of history in a spirit of humility," after this koizumi added that the japanese people have "feelings of deep remorse and heartfelt apology." 

koizumi's apology was the first apology offered by a japanese leader for its country's past in the presence of such a large number of government leaders from different countries. 


las vegas 'chili finger' woman arrested


according to court documents, she has been charged with one count of attempted grand larceny related to the chili case, and one count of grand larceny in an unrelated real estate deal, and is being held without bail in clark county, nevada, pending extradition. a press conference by the san jose police and wendy's was to be held on friday, april 22, at 13:00 pdt.

wendy's had offered a reward of as much as $100,000 for information leading to an arrest in the case. ayala claimed to have discovered the finger while eating at a wendy's on march, 22. ayala later dropped plans to sue the restaurant after previous lawsuits, including one against another fast food restaurant, were made public.

the charges place the value of the attempted theft against wendy's at $2.5 million. the unrelated charge stems from an incident, also in san jose, when ayala allegidly received an $11,000 down payment on a mobile home she did not own. ayala will face an extradition hearing on tuesday, april 26.


advertising contract scandal could bring down canadian government

"those who are in power are to be held responsible, and that includes me," canada's prime minister, paul martin, told his nation in the first live address by a pm in ten years. "if so much as a dollar is found to have made its way into the liberal party for ill-gotten gains, it will be repaid to the people of canada." 

conservative leader stephen harper described mr martin's broadcast as "a party leader playing for time, begging for another chance".

"after the prime minister has shut down the democratic process here ... my guess is there will be more people that are calling for some accountability, perhaps in the form of an election," new democratic party (ndp) leader jack layton said.

a series of opinion polls show that in an election held today, a minority conservative government would probably result, reports "the australian".

outrage over the advertising kickback scandal ? known as adscam ? has been fomenting since it was uncovered in 2002, according to an article by "associated press", and an auditor general's report released in early 2004. already it has been attributed as one cause of the liberal party loss-of-majority in parliament, after federal elections last june.

that report found that shortly after defeat of a 1995 separatist referendum in quebec, millions of dollars from a government federalism advertising campaign in quebec had been directed to specific advertising firms, friendly to the liberal party, reports the "associated press".

since a publication ban was lifted two weeks ago, on federal inquiry testimony by a montreal advertising executive who faces fraud charges over the scandal, revelations have "been more politically explosive than previously expected", to quote canada's "ctv news".

and the opposition has been trying to draw links to martin, who was finance minister at the time of the sponsorship program currently being examined.

advertising executive jean brault told justice john gomery's federal inquiry that senior liberals made him secretly divert more than $us818,000 to the party's quebec wing in exchange for sponsorship contracts, reported "the australian".

bloc quebecois leader gilles duceppe said the revelations had tarnished quebecers, reported "ctv news".

"the liberal party said it wanted to promote federalism. but in reality the liberals tried to buy the soul of quebecers," said mr duceppe.

for his part, although mr martin testified to the commission, according to the "associated press" report, he has not been implicated.

in his speech to the nation, he emphasized his own efforts such as canceling the sponsorship program on his first day in office as pm, firing from a diplomatic post alfonso gagliano, the man who had been minister responsible for the program, ordering the current inquiry and an audit of liberal party financial records, and bringing in a raft of whistleblower-protection legislation.

he had also brought lawsuits related to the scandal, on 19 people and companies for more than $40 million.

activities date back to the 1990s and the liberal leadership of former prime minister jean chretien, who has also denied any knowledge of wrongdoing, according the report from "the australian".

"i commit to you tonight that i will call a general election within 30 days of the publication of the commission's final report and recommendations," mr martin told canada in his address.

justice gomery is due to deliver his report in december, meaning an election in january 2006.

mr martin said he wanted canada to have the report before an election was held.

"there is conflicting testimony; only the judge is in a position to determine the truth. only he can cut through the partisan politics. only he can tell us what happened and who was responsible."

but, "if the opposition forces an election before then, that is their choice," martin said.

"i will never hesitate to describe what happened on the sponsorship file for what is was - an unjustifiable mess. it's up to me to clean it up. that's my job. i am cleaning it up. and i am willing to be judged on my record of action."

in efforts to avoid a partisan message, other political parties were given by broadcasters a block of half an hour air-time for immediate responses to mr martin's 7-minute taped speech, which had been given in english and french.

comments were given by the conservatives' stephen harper, gilles duceppe of bloc quebecois and the ndp's jack layton.

"we've all just witnessed a sad spectacle, a prime minister so burdened with corruption in his own party that he's unable to do his job and lead the country," said the conservative leader.

mr duceppe maintained that proof of liberal party corruption has been established, said a "canadian press" report.

"paul martin has broken this link of trust, which makes it impossible for him to remain in power," mr duceppe had said.

ndp leader jack layton expressed dismay over the sponsorship scandal, said "ctv news", but he had suggested his party would be willing to co-operate with the liberals in a vote on the budget, if some changes are made.

"take out the surprise corporate tax cuts and invest that money into the things people want and need. the ndp is in no rush to judge the scandal, but we are in a rush to get something done, to getting a better budget passed," mr layton said.



wendy’s finger pointer gets fingered for crime

a sign on the front door of the ayala residence urged reporters and curious onlookers not to disturb the occupants. the sign reads, "trust me do not knock on door emotionally disturbard thanx".

anna ayala was arrested on a fugitive warrant so no bail was set. early this morning, ayala was still behind bars at the clark county detention center.

police spokesman enrique garcia said further details on the 39-year-old ayala will be released at a news conference scheduled for 1pm friday.

according to the "los angeles times", the arrest came hours after wendy’s concluded its own internal investigation that found no link to the finger in its food distribution chain.

wendy’s offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the source of the finger.



 


bodies of 12 young people found in colombia

in buenaventura, 500km southwest of capital city bogota, colombia, fishermen found the bodies of 12 young men who were killed and thrown into the sea. according to local newspapers, residents and authorities accuse the revolutionary communist army called farc. 

the victims have been identified, and according to el pais they are: iver valencia, aged 21; victor alfonso angulo, aged 20; leonel salcedo garcia, aged 20; mario valencia, aged 19; alberto valencia, aged 18; john jairo rodallega, aged 18; ruben dario valencia, aged 18; pedro luis aramburo congo, aged 18; carlos arbey valencia, aged 17; pedro pablo valencia, aged 17; concepcion renteria valencia, aged 16 ; javier borja, aged 15.

there are indications that the victims were tortured. their eyes were pulled out and they were shot in the head.

according to reports, on monday a man came on a motorcycle and invited the group of young men to take part in a soccer game. the victims' parents and other relatives did not receive any further contact from them and notified the police on wednesday. all the children lived in the punta del este district of buenaventura.

colombian authorities say that this act may be revenge by farc for the arrest of their leader poca lucha, but a specific motive has not been clearly identified. no suspects have yet been named.


nasa study: warming and snow melt chokes sea life 1000 miles distant

earth science experts studying ocean currents and their relationship to snow melts have discovered that an unusual heating of the ground in one place on our planet can choke off sea life over a thousand miles away.

in a new nasa funded study, they have found that a decline in winter and spring snow cover over southwest asia and the himalayan mountain range is creating conditions for more widespread blooms of ocean plants in the arabian sea.

the decrease in snow cover has led to greater differences in both temperature and pressure systems between the indian subcontinent and the arabian sea. the pressure differences generate monsoon winds that mix the ocean water in the western arabian sea. this mixing leads to better growing conditions for tiny, free-floating ocean plants called phytoplankton. 

the senior researcher and lead author of the study is joaquim goes, from the bigelow laboratory for ocean sciences, west boothbay harbor, maine. goes and his colleagues used observations from satellite imagery of the ocean’s colors to show unusual blooms, or growth, of phytoplankton concentrations in the western arabian sea. his work shows an increase of more than 350 percent over the past seven years.

since 1997, a reduction in snow has led to wider temperature differences between the land and ocean during summer. as a consequence, sea surface winds over the arabian sea have strengthened leading to more intense upwelling and more widespread blooms of phytoplankton along the coasts of somalia, yemen and oman.

according to goes, while large blooms of phytoplankton can enhance fisheries, exceptionally large blooms could be detrimental to the ecosystem. increases in phytoplankton amounts can lead to oxygen depletion in the water column and eventually to a decline in fish populations.

the study is in this week’s science magazine.

 


work begins on world's longest underwater pipeline

work began today on what will be the world's longest underwater pipeline. the pipeline, which is being built for norsk hydro asa, will bring norwegian natural gas to the uk.

stretching 1,200 km from nyhamna, norway to easington, britain, the pipeline will eventually carry 70 million cubic metres per day. that equates to some 20% of britain's gas supply. 

the construction of the pipeline will consume over 1 million tonnes of concrete and about the same amount of steel. 

called the langeled pipeline, it is due to open in 2007.


 


irish national pensions reserve fund gains 2.4% in first quarter


ireland's national pensions reserve fund (nprf) has posted a 2.4% return for the first quarter (9.6% annualized). on march 31, the funds value stood at ?12.3bn, a rise of ?290m (excluding state contributions) since december 31.

donal geaney, the fund's chairman, told the press that growth in the past quarter had been driven by the fund's european equity investments.

mr geaney, former Elan ceo, has pursued a policy of diversification since february of this year, with the stated aim of placing a larger amount of the funds assets in companies with small market capitalizations and in property funds.

the fund was set up by the national pensions reserve fund act, 2000 to partially meet the expected rise in irish pension costs from 2025 onwards.

 


motorola to launch itunes mobile phone


motorola has recently confirmed plans that it will launch an itunes compatible mobile phone. the firm, which released quarterly results on friday, revealed that the phone would be available in a few months time.

there had been speculation that the wireless communications giant would scrap the phone after an underwhelming response from us operators, however ceo ed zander confirmed the company's intentions at the results presentation.

the phone, when launched, will allow users to easily download digital music from apple's popular itunes music store onto their handset. the combination of mobile phone and mp3 player is a long awaited example of the much touted "technological convergence" often mentioned by the industry's ceo's.

wikinews will have a reporter live at apple's wwdc keynote (when the software is likely to be released) on june 6 to cover the event.



moussaoui pleads guilty to conspiracy in 9/11 attacks

u.s. district judge leonie brinkema accepted would-be hijacker guilty pleas on six charges of conspiracy laid against him for his plotting to participate in the . moussaoui, who had to be restrained at one point during the trial in an , virginia courthouse, was polite and quiet during the day's appearance. 

36-year-old moussaoui, a french citizen, faces the death penalty or life in prison in the sentencing phase of his trial. the prosecution has also asked that moussaoui be forced to pay restitution to the victims of the attack.

19 hijackers took control of four planes on september 11, 2001. nearly four weeks before the attack, moussaoui was arrested in minnesota on immigrations charges having raised the suspicions of instructors at a flight school.

during the attack, two planes were flown into the world trade center buildings, a third struck the pentagon, and a fourth crashed near shanksville, pennsylvania, usa.



third concert date for u2 in dublin

rock group u2 will play a third date at dublin's croke park this year. following strong demand from fans, the group have announced that they will play monday june 27th in addition to the 23rd and 24th.

the band's current vertigo tour has proved extremely popular among fans, with the original 160,000 dublin tickets sold in less than an hour. the tour officially kicked off in san diego, usa on 28 march 2005.

although no support act has yet been lined up for the extra date, it is widely believed that promoters mcd will have no trouble selling the additional 80,000 tickets.

 


lds church announces new library plans

the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints announced on wednesday april 20, that they will build a five story library and archive next to temple square in , . 

church member elder marlin k. jensen noted that "scholars, church members and other researchers will enjoy expanded, more comfortable research facilities and enhanced access to our collections."

the new five-story library is expected to reach completion in late 2007.


creative technology sees profits drop 72%, but sales soar


creative technology ltd, maker of the popular zen and zen micro mp3 player ranges, has reported a 72% drop in quarterly profits. however sales rose 65%.

net income was $15.9m, $0.18 a share; down from $57m or $0.68 a share a year earlier. sales were $333.8m. 

the results show the extent of creative's current price war with rival apple computer. both firms have dropped prices on key products on numerous occasions in recent months in an attempt to steal market share in the fast growing digital audio market. 

creative, based in singapore, has thus far sold 2m mp3 players worldwide, making it the number two player in the market.



elite boston marathon runner emily levan discusses life and running

"the interview below was conducted by over the phone with emily levan on april 21, 2005. levan lives in wiscasset, maine, with her husband and daughter, and she ran in the boston marathon women's race on april 18, 2005."

to summarize for our readers, you recently came in 12th in the boston marathon, right?

that is correct.

you were the first american finisher.

yes.

there was also a russian woman who lives in the us who finished ahead of you.

you know, i believe it is, i'm not actually positive, but i think you're right. there's often a lot of foreign runners that live and train in different parts of the us for a variety of reasons. some live in colorado and might train at high altitude, or they might have coaches in the us.

ok, but as far as you know, for straight up americans, people who were born here, who have lived here for long periods of time and are not going anywhere special to train, you were the first finisher.

that is correct.

so congratulations, that's very impressive. in the rest of your life, my understanding is that you are going to nursing school.

i am. i'm at the university of southern maine in portland. and i have been going to nursing school for a couple years now. i'm just going part time right now because of the baby and other things going on in my world.

your baby is currently one and a half?

she's fifteen months.

fifteen months, so one and one quarter. 1.25, sure.

hopefully i'll finish up nursing school in december. that is the tentative plan.

so you're almost done.

i just have a couple classes left.
i'll take one class this summer and two classes in the fall.

you ran the boston marathon originally two years ago?

actually, i ran it for the first time in 99. i've run it four times.
i did run it two years ago as well.

you ran it two years ago, and you also came in twelfth then, if not the top american finisher then. you were the fourth?

i think third or fourth. i can't remember exactly.

how long were you actually training for this marathon in particular?

i'd say about 4 months. i typically try to train about four months for each race. it depends a little bit on what kind of shape i'm in leading up to the training. four months is usually the time frame i shoot for.

and how many miles a week were you doing--i assume you peaked somewhere right before the marathon.

at the peak, i have a month or six week period where i've built up to my peak training, and i was probably doing between 90 to 100 miles a week.

was there a lot of variation in your day to day mileage, or was it pretty much you're doing 1/7th of that mileage every day?

there's definitely variation, probably more so in the type of workout that i did each day. for example two days a week i would do a speed workout, so i might be doing mile repeats, which just means that i do a mile in a specific time, and then i might jog for a couple minutes and then another one and another one. i'd do a series of eight mile repeats on that specific workout day. my other speed workout would be a marathon pace run, so i might run 8 or 10 miles at my marathon pace. if my marathon pace is 6 minute miles, i'd do a two mile jog warm up, and then i might do 8 or 10 miles at a six minute pace, and then a two mile cool down.

so you maybe end up running 14?

sometimes what i would do on those speed workout days-- on those days i might end up with about 14 miles. on some other days, i might run twice during the course of the day. say in the morning, i might run eight miles, and then in the afternoon i might do six or eight more miles.

wow.

those days tend to be a little bit more mellow. more of kind of a maintenance run, a little bit of a recovery day. i try to have a recovery day after every hard workout.

do you think that all of your training could fit into four hours a day? do you think that's true?

you mean the workouts for a specific day? probably even less than that. depending on the day a little bit, probably between 2 or 3 hours. usually on sunday i would go out and do a long run, and that would be a 20 or 22 mile run, all in one fell swoop and that usually takes two and a half hours.

so that explains how you're able to do this, as well as go to nursing school, as well as have an extremely young child. i assume you talk to your friends occasionally.

i try to at least-- have some sort of social life. this is not a job, so it's not something that i do 8 hours a day. it's something that i fit in with all the other obligations, things that i like to do too. i like to be able to pursue other interests as well.

you live on a road with no one else near by. do you pretty much just run from your house every day?

the winter is harder because with the baby, i often end up running with a treadmill down in the basement. brad, my husband, has pretty long hours at the farm, and especially in the winter months, it's hard to find daylight when he's able to watch maddy, so i ended up running a lot on the treadmill this winter, as opposed to last summer, i would take her with me. i have one of those baby joggers, and that was great. i could just leave right from the house, and i could take her. she would be pretty happy to go eight or ten miles with me. typically what i do when i go outside, i just go right from the house. the roads are so pretty around here. we're pretty secluded, so i don't have to worry too much about crazy drivers.

do you ever try to go find big hills to run up and down?

i do. in the past, i have done a hill workout as a part of my training, usually early on in the training during the first six weeks or 2 months of the training i do a hill workout and i would find some place close by that i could find a warm up jog and run to and then do a hill workout. if i couldn't find one within a couple miles, i would drive to it. it's a little bit harder now with maddy because i don't have as much leeway and freedom with when i go running and where i go running. i'm a little more limited.

you'd have to load up the cart, er, the carriage into the car.

i've done that sometimes. sometimes it's easier to go straight from home.
running with the jogger up hills is not an easy thing to do.

when you're in the race, you feel like, “hey, i'm not even pushing a kid anymore.” heartbreak hill without the kid is substantially easier, i suppose.

yeah.

do you know most of the elite runners in the race? you know who they are, but are you friends with them, or not really?

it's funny--i know who people are, but i don't run that many races to really get to know that many of the runners. if you're a professional runner, and that's your job, a lot of those people travel in the same circles. they run the same races and they have the same schedules in terms of when they compete. i pick out a couple of races each year to focus on and because of that, i don't get to know as many of the runners. as time goes on, you do get a little bit you do get a little more familiar with people.

during the race, do you talk to the other runners, or do you just run along and think things like, “i wish i were at the end right now”?

i think that really depends i find that if i'm feeling good and the run is going well, then it's easier for me to talk to people, just because you're feeling strong, and you're not focusing so much on “i'm not doing so great.” i might talk to some folks along the way. sometimes if someone passes me, i'll encourage them and say “good job, go get them,” and just stuff like that. i certainly find i'm not carrying on lengthy conversations with people because you're expending energy that should be focused on the race itself. i enjoy getting to know folks along the way and knowing what pace they're hoping to run.

in races other than the boston marathon do you find that you have good competition? i don't really know what the running scene in wiscasset, maine, is like at all, but i imagine that being the fastest female marathon runner in the united states, you might not find a whole lot of competition. you say that you encourage people when they pass you, but having read some of the other interviews with you on the web, it doesn't seem like people pass you very often.

it definitely depends on the race. like i said before, i don't run that many races. at this point, what i'm trying to do is to find races that are competitive so i can be pushed by competition. for example, when i ran the maine marathon last fall, there wasn't a whole lot of competition. that just gets hard. i ran alone for most of the race. running 26 miles at a fast pace all by yourself without anyone around you to help push you and motivate you, can be pretty hard. because of that, as i've been looking toward the future and thinking about which races i want to do, i've been targeting races that will have a little more competition. that's why boston was one that i wanted to shoot for and i'm thinking about in the fall going to chicago because they've got a pretty competitive marathon. it's also a pretty flat course, so people tend to run pretty fast times there.

most people run a couple of minutes faster in chicago, right?

yeah, exactly. and i've heard good things about the race too, so i'm looking forward to that.

have you thought about running internationally?

not at this point, no. it's hard to find the time to travel to races, and it gets expensive too. a lot of my family members say, “wouldn't it be great to do the london marathon or the paris marathon,” because they like coming to watch. at this point, i think i'm going to stick closer to home. i've got a few races, like i was mentioning chicago, here in the states that i'd really like to do. maybe once i've done those, i might think about something else, it really just depends. a lot of it's a time issue, because i have other things that i'm pursuing and it gets hard to spend too much time traveling off doing different races.

do you know alan culpepper?

oh, yeah, yeah.

you at least know of him, right?

yes, exactly.

have you ever been in any races against him?

this was the first race that i had run in that he ran in. he was the fourth overall male finisher. that's a really good showing for an american male. i've read a lot about him in different running magazines and just heard a lot about him through running circles.
but this was the first time that i've actually seen him run. it was neat because in this particular race, they start the women's elite group about 25 minutes ahead of the rest of the start.

29 minutes actually, i believe.

that's right, 29 minutes. so, i didn't see a male runner until pretty close to the end, so it was really neat to see--i think i saw the top five male finishers because they passed me in the last couple miles. it was really interesting--there's all these cars and press and motorcycles, policemen, so i could tell when the first male was coming up behind me because there was a lot more going on on the course. alan culpepper was one of the ones that passed me in the last mile or two. it was pretty neat to see him finishing strong.

you might not be able to beat him in a race but do you think you could maybe, i don't know, beat him in a fist fight? he's pretty skinny, right? he only weighs 130 pounds.

i don't know. i don't know. i wouldn't make any bets on it at this point.

no?

no.

ok. have you thought about doing things longer than a marathon? like a 50 k or a 100 k?

at this point, i haven't because i've gotten into the marathon, and i've really been enjoying that so far. i feel like i still have some room to improve and grow in the marathon, but i think at some point i'd really like to do one of those ultra-type races. for the next several years, i'll stick towards the marathon distances. once that competitive part of my life is over, i might move on to something different.

based on your age, are you likely to peak around now, or you maybe have a few years to go before your legs start to fall off?

before i can't walk anymore? i don't know. it's really interesting because for marathoning you've got a longer life span than in a lot of competitive sports. the fifth place female finisher in boston this year was over forty. you can still be competitive into your forties. i'm not sure if i'll keep doing it that long-- at least another 3 years or so. one thing in the back of my mind looking at is the olympic trials for 2008. i'm looking at that time frame right now. if i want to keep running competitively after that, then i'll assess things from there.

that sounds good. when you came in as the first american finisher, did you get any certificates or cash or a medal or anything like that?

yeah, actually, i won $2100.

oh, great-- two thousand bucks!

which is pretty nice.

that's a lot of baby clothes.

i know-- or a lot of shoes. the shoe expense is pretty expensive, and i've been trying to find a shoe company that might give me some shoes.

i would think--couldn't you just call up new balance and say, “hey, look, i'm pretty good, why don't you give me some shoes?”

well, this past november, after i ran new york-- i usually wear asics or new balance-- i wrote to both of those companies. i sent them a little running resume. i said i'd be interested in pursuing some sort of sponsorship opportunity, and they both wrote back and said, “sorry, we don't have any space or funds available at this time.” i was a little disappointed by that, because i was hoping to at least get someone to help me out with my shoes.

yeah, at least some sneakers.

but in addition at boston, they do have these crystal vases that they give out for the top 15 finishers, so i got a little piece of hardware there too.

so you get to put flowers in that.

i had some flowers in it; they've wilted so i decided to compost them.

oh, that's good.

yeah, send them back to the earth, you know.

has anyone else tried to interview you? local paparazzi following you?

i hide in my car for most of the day. i did some local interviews--with the local nbc affiliate, and i'm going to do an interview tomorrow with the abc affiliate in portland, and some affiliated newspaper interviews as well.

you're officially famous, then.

i don't know. i guess. it's been pretty busy.

has anyone asked you for an autograph yet?

no. no autograph seekers yet, no.

maybe in the yellowfront grocery in wiscasset? “hey, i know you!”

“i saw you on tv!” no, not yet.

that's surely coming. the chewonki foundation, which is where you live, recently had eaton farm donated to it.

yes.

and they're planning on making a 12 mile long trail that runs from approximately your house to wiscasset.

oh, you know more about this than i do, that's great.

i don't know if it's going to start right at your front door; you might have to cut through the woods a little bit.

that's ok, i can do that.

have you run on trails at all, or is it just, “i want to run on the pavement because i don't want to twist an ankle”?

i'm not a big trail runner. maybe it's because i'm not used to running on trails. now it would be much more difficult, because i have the baby with me. the baby jogger has some nice wheels on it, but i don't know if it could handle trail running.

yeah.

it's a nice change of pace every once in a while. i don't worry too much about twisting an ankle--you just have to be careful. i figure i can walk out my door and step in a pothole and twist my ankle, so i don't worry too much about that. that goes along with being alive in our world. we'll see. i'm going to have to look into that 12 mile trail.

because 12 miles, you do that there and back, you've got a marathon on your hands.

there you go.

what's your next target? can you walk right now?

if i train well, i'm usually not sore. especially on the long runs, my body gets used to running for that length of time and sure, i'm running faster during the marathon than i do on my long runs, but i think my body tends to adjust to the rigors. it's usually a good sign if a few days afterwards i don't have any major soreness. i certainly feel like i've done something significant.

yeah, i can imagine feeling too.

no major aches or pains.

that's great. what's your next race? do you have one targeted? is it chicago?

yeah, i think the next marathon will be chicago in the fall. there's a 10 k race, the beach to beacon, you may have heard of it.

in portland?

it's actually in cape elizabeth. it's put on by joan benoit samuelson. it's in august, so i'll probably do that one and then shoot for the fall marathon.

well, i think that's all my questions.

nice, well, thanks for calling. i appreciate it.

sure, well, thanks for running so fast.

no problem.


results of 2005 united kingdom general election

at 21:00 utc yesterday, the polls closed in the united kingdom general election. with only a handful of seats left to declare, labour reached the 324 seats necessary to form a majority in the house of commons, with the result in corby at 03:28 utc.

the conservative party remains the opposition party, with the liberal democrats being the third largest party in the house of commons.

both the labour victory and the reduced majority were widely predicted by opinion polls before the election. the bbc/itv exit poll predicted tony blair a majority of 66 seats, which continued to be forecast as the final result as declarations were made. some early results in the north-east indicated a bigger swing away from labour than the opinion polls had been suggesting, but later results confirmed the survey.

overall, there has been no clear swing in votes between the parties. many seats have seen large swings, but in many different directions, with perhaps the national swing of 5% from conservative to liberal democrat being the most dramatic with many much larger local swings.

the new labour government has been elected with the lowest proportion of the popular vote ever - just 35.2%. however, the tories only gained 32.3% barely more than the last election in 2001. the biggest winners in terms of popular vote were the liberal democrats led by charles kennedy, who secured 22.1% of the vote. with 645 of 646 seats declared so far, this has given the liberal democrats another 11 seats in parliament, but the conservatives have gained another 33 seats. labour have lost 47.

as a result, tony blair is forecast to be governing with a majority of 66 in the new parliament. however, on some major issues such as university fees and anti-terror laws, many labour mps have voted against their leadership. with a greatly reduced majority, tony blair may be forced to water down many more controversial policies in order to guarantee their passage through the house of commons. speaking on bbc news, commentator david dimbleby pointed out the uncertainty of such possibilities, and noted that a majority of 66 was larger than the 43 seat majority won by margaret thatcher in the united kingdom general election, 1979.

one surprise vote was the election of ex-labour member george galloway in bethnal green & bow, in east london. the area has a very high number of muslims in it, and galloway moved from his home in scotland in order to gain their anti-war support. he ousted britain's only second female black mp, oona king, in the process.

robert kilroy-silk, the ex-talkshow host who was sacked from the bbc after writing racist newspaper articles, only came fourth in his election in erewash in the east midlands. his party, veritas, which fielded 65 candidates across the country, stood for withdrawing from the european union and blocking immigration.

turnout in the general election is 60%, up 2% on 2001.

in every general election there is an informal race amongst the constituencies to declare a result first. 


woman arrested in wendy's chili finger case and larcenous mobile home sale


the woman claiming headlines for allegedly finding part of a human finger in her bowl of wendy's chili late last month, was arrested thursday evening at 8:45pm at or near her home.

san jose police chief rob davis, declaring the arrest was part of an ongoing investigation, said anna ayala was arrested and charged with one count of attempted grand theft in the wendy’s incident, and one count of grand theft in an unrelated home purchase transaction. she is being held under a $500,000 arrest warrant.

chief rob davis describes the case as a csi-type operation where forensics studying the finger found it to be inconsistent with conditions it would have experienced if it were cooked at 170 degrees for 3 hours according to wendy's food preparation standards. the loss in sales due to negative publicity for the chain could range into the millions, a loss for which ayala could be held criminally responsible. davis said, "... evidence suggests that the truest victims in this case are the wendy's owner, operators and employees here in san jose, who have suffered financially throughout this investigation."

prior to her arrest, wendy's had recently concluded its own internal investigation that turned up nothing to explain the source of the finger. the san jose police, who have not accused ayala, 39, of planting the finger herself, did search her home on april 6 for evidence relating to a possible hoax. there are no reports evidence was found. 

she has a history of filing suits for financial settlements. cases involve the el pollo loco chicken chain over a claim her daughter got sick, a sexual harassment suit against her former boss in 1998, and general motors in 2000. a total of 13 lawsuits in california and nevada had been filed.

there is an inconsistency in the ayala account of finding the finger and claiming it caused her to vomit compared with police saying there was no vomit at the scene. one larceny charge concerns $11,000 from the sale of a mobile home owned by her live-in boyfriend. 

the two combined charges, which could result in a possible 6-year prison term, are against the backdrop of the wendy's chain offering a reward for information to solve the case, which has cost the chain millions of sales.


market data/^hsi


female sponge contraceptive re-approved for us market

what was once the most widely sold contraceptive for millions of women, the todayR sponge, has been re-approved by the food and drug administration (fda) to be brought back for sale to the american marketplace, as early as this summer.

the reintroduction of the sponge, demanded by many women for years, is noteworthy because it offers certain distinct advantages versus other forms of contraceptive:

the sponge does not, however, protect against sexually transmitted diseases, and it carries with it certain minor risks which should be noted by potential users.

the sponge has also been found less effective as a form of birth control than oral contraceptives, depo-provera injections or an intrauterine device (iud), although similar in effectiveness to the male condom. a pregnancy rate of 13 to 16% is expected from a year of "typical use" as a standalone method of birth control. the product varies in effectiveness depending on if the woman forgets to insert the device before intercourse, uses the device incorrectly, or fails to wait at least 6 hours after intercourse before removing the device.

the sponge was invented by bruce vorhauer, phd to combine a safe, widely used spermicide, nonoxynol-9 (n-9), and a barrier contraceptive, made from polyurethane. since being brought to market in 1983, it quickly established itself as the best-selling contraceptive for women. more than 250 million today sponges were sold until march, 1994, when manufacturer american home products ceased making the sponge.

some misconceptions have surrounded the product's withdrawal, such as the sponge was found to be unsafe by the fda (false), or that the company making it went bankrupt (also false). what happened is that the fda inspected the only plant where the sponge was manufactured, in hammonton, new jersey, and discovered bacterial contamination of the water supply and other concerns.

american home products, which today is known as wyeth, decided to cease manufacture rather than undergo the potential cost and delay of upgrading their plant and meantime losing share to their competitors.

the passing of the sponge era was noted in the famous episode of the tv show seinfeld (season 7, episode 119: "the sponge"). character elaine benes hoarded her sponges as the supply started to dwindle, and began to examine her potential lovers to see which one of them was truly "spongeworthy".

the president and chief executive of allen pharmaceuticals, gene detroyer, bought the today sponge from wyeth in 2000 for us$7 million and prepared new packaging to meet updated requirements. however, re-introduction of the product was delayed by several years, at least partly due to fda inaction in inspecting the new manufacturing plant.

"i'm overwhelmed," said detroyer to the associated press. "i am pleased both from a business point of view ... and from the point of view that we can add another contraceptive for women." the today sponge received fda approval in march 2003 to be sold in canada, and some women even in the us have been able to purchase it through canadian websites. the fda has in the past received criticism for its role in removing the today sponge from the market and it continues to receive criticism for the impact of its regulatory actions on women's health.

despite its decade-long absence from public availability, "the product was found to be safe and effective," said fda spokesperson susan cruzan about its recent re-approval.





google translates gmail to 12 languages, asks for volunteers to target 144 more

google has translated its email service, gmail, into 12 languages, and it has put up a form that allows the public to volunteer to translate the gmail interface into 144 more languages. available for its first year with an english interface only, gmail now appears in 13 languages:


while most of the languages listed in the volunteering form are old, three are relatively new: borkborkbork, klingon, and esperanto. additionally, the form lists pig latin, which is a method of rearranging words to obscure a language, rather than a language in itself.

google has also recently introduced a feature known as "my search history," which allows users to record their searches. use of the search history requires that the user have and log in to a google or gmail account.

languages into which the gmail interface may be translated:


texas same-sex couples could be prohibited from fostering children

texas senate bill 6 requires foster agencies to inquire of adopting couples their sexual preference. this bill has caused distress to many, especially among the gay and lesbian community. representative robert talton claims that compared with children raised by a heterosexual couple, those in same-sex households are much more likely to become homosexual.

talton has also stated that sexual orientation is a choice for the parents:
"if they choose to be homosexual or lesbian, that's their choice when they turn 18," he says, regarding the same-sex couples.

under the bill he proposes, couples who answer 'same-sex' or 'bi-sexual' on the questionnaire, would not be allowed to adopt or foster children. children fostered currently to same-sex households would be removed from their foster-parent's care.

"some of us believe they would be better off in orphanages than in a homosexual or bisexual households because that's a learned behavior," the republican congressman said.

there are reportedly thousands of children in same-sex households in texas who would be removed, if this bill is passed.

"it's very traumatic to remove a child from a stable home," said colin cunliff, field director for the lesbian/gay rights lobby of texas. "it's the whole reason they're in the foster system, because their prior home wasn't stable. you're adding to the instability."

according to a 2002 report by the american academy of pediatrics, children with homosexual parents have the "same advantages and the same expectations for health, adjustment and development as children whose parents are heterosexual."

a similar law passed in arkansas was ruled unconstitutional in december.


new rodent discovery leads to new mammal family

researchers in mammalogy from london, vermont, wisconsin, and gloucestershire, uk have just discovered a new species of rodent that is unlike anything previously identified.

in a new study published in systematics and biodiversity, researchers describe a new rodent species called the laotian rock rat. it was found for sale as meat at a marketplace in laos. the researchers brought it to london for a closer look at its skeleton and dna.

researchers found that the specimen was not particularly related to anything currently known. the group had to describe a new family of mammals for this single species. the last time a new mammal family was created to accommodate a new species discovery was in 1974 when the bumblebee bat was discovered.

the closest relatives to laotian rock rats are a group of rodents that includes porcupines and guinea pigs, but this relationship is a rather distant one. the researchers think the laotian rock rats may have split off from common ancestors a long time ago, with porcupines and guinea pigs evolving after that split.

the authors hope that by studying laotian rock rats, they can solve an old puzzle. how did guinea pigs and their relatives get to south america at a time when it was surrounded by water? until these rock rats came along, the only old world relatives of guinea pigs were ones found in africa or both africa and asia. this led some scientists to think that guinea pig ancestors got to south america from africa across the atlantic ocean. others insisted that they went through asia and north america first. understanding how the guinea pig's new asian relative is connected to the rest of the family may help to explain this mystery.



estonia to sign border treaty with russia in a few weeks

the baltic state of estonia expects to sign a border agreement with the russian federation in a few weeks, before the european union-russia summit, which is set to take place in early may. urmas paet, the estonian foreign minister said, "there are no concrete arrangements yet but we hope the border agreement will be signed by the time the eu-russia summit begins in moscow on may 10. estonia is ready to sign today."

javier solana, the eu foreign policy chief, said that the sooner the agreement is signed, the better. he stated that, "i'd be happy to witness the signing of your [estonian] and the latvian agreement with russia. it is possible on may 10 but there are no guarantees."

estonia and latvia, which were occupied by the soviet union until the early 1990s, joined the european union in 2004. the two countries both border the russian federation, and have been trying to sign definitive border treaties for a long time since independence, but moscow has repeatedly delayed on signing.

solana said he hoped the treaty would be signed at the eu-russia summit, because "relations with the countries on the eu border [such as russia] are very important."


controversial queensland premier of 19 years dies at 94

<br>queensland australia's sir joh bjelke petersen, a controversial figure who served as the state's premier for 19 years and reigned over the government that later became the subject of the fitzgerald inquiry, has died in hospital at kingaroy, aged 94.

"by any measurement, sir joh was an exceptional state builder who will be remembered for consistently placing queensland first," said the australian governor general, major general jeffery, in a statement.

australian prime minister, john howard: "he was certainly a strong political figure and i extend my condolences to his wife and his family."

but not all voices were sympathetic, prominent queensland aboriginal activist sam watson for example: "aboriginal people will always remember him as a racist, a thug and a dictator."

having suffered severe ill-health for some weeks, and declining health for years, sir joh passed away at around 6pm aest. he was surrounded by his family, who had been summoned yesterday by lady flo, his wife and one-time senator, for final goodbyes.

phrases such as "don't you worry about that" and "goodness gracious me" were like trademarks to the maverick leader.

known simply as 'joh' to many, he would famously describe press conferences as 'feeding the chooks'. today kingaroy locals taunted waiting press with cries from "you're chooks, you're chooks, ha ha" to "go home, ya vultures", and some obscenities, reported the "courier-mail" of brisbane.

his fall from power at the end of the 80s was surrounded in controversy, with the state embroiled in corruption findings going to the level of his deputies, and bjelke petersen's claims of ignorance coming under challenge with charges of perjury. the case was never heard due to a controversial hung jury: the foreman of the jury, luke shaw, had been an office-bearer of the young nationals ? an arm of bjelke petersen's national party ? as well as a member of a group calling themselves 'friends of joh'.

having had his start in life as a peanut farmer in remote kingaroy, the former premier was fit up until the very end, but palsy was paralyzing his muscles and organs, to which he eventually succumbed.

"throughout his life sir joh combined enormous energy, vision and an immense capacity for hard work, most especially during his 19-year term as premier of queensland," the governor general said.

"what looked to us to be huge risks at the time turned out to be nation building," said bob katter, a former minister of joh's government, who credited sir joh with starting the queensland coal, aluminum and tourism industries.

he is also remembered for dismantling many of the state's unions, and for a somewhat totalitarian and heavy handed style of keeping control.

under joh, street protests were banned and special branch monitored extensively those the authoritarian leader saw as subversives, measures prompting queenslander, australian civil liberties council, terry o'gorman, to comment sir joh was "the most appalling premier queensland has ever had in terms of civil liberties and human rights".

joh was also influential in the famous case of the dismissal by the governor general of then-prime minister gough whitlam, in 1975.

in his last years as premier, he had taken his cause to the nation's capital, with the "joh for pm" campaign. but this distraction has been credited with the downfall of his government, with corruption investigations at last being conducted by his stand-in, bill gunn.

the body of sir joh, who was of lutheran faith, is to be buried at bethany, the family property near kingaroy.

unsolicited quotes from ordinary australians, many ex-queenslanders seeking refuge in southern states, on hearing the news:

"outrageous bastard! oh god! that was polite!" ? "karen"

"guilty as hell. and that's where he is now." ? "michael"

"yay! good riddence to bad rubbish" ? "liza"

"the dictator is gone our time 2 sing" ? "john. h."

"yeah he took a while ? about 90 f*cking years overdue!" ? "hose man"

"the pope an joh at least somethin going right" ? "helen"

"corrupt f*cking sh*teating bible-bashing f*ckw*t is dead. and thank f*ck. i haven't been so happy since september 11!" ? "greg"

"i don't drink but i'll be having a red whilst dancing on his grave." ? "cellest"

"ding dong the d*ck is dead!" ? anon.

"yeahhh!!! fucking finally" ? "leo"

"it's a great day today the rednecks are silent a great victory has been won" ? "zenner"



romania will do everything possible to spare journalists kidnapped in iraq

the president of romania, traian b?sescu, said on friday that his country will do everything possible in order to free the three romanian journalists kidnapped in iraq a few weeks ago, after islamic militants released a video threatening to kill them.

al-jazeera reported a few days earlier that the iraqi militants would kill the journalists unless the romanian government withdraws its troops from the country within four days. with 850 troops, romania has one of the largest contingents in iraq. in january this year, after president b?sescu was elected, he pledged to send more peacekeeping troops in iraq.

on friday evening, the colleagues and relatives of the journalists gathered in front of the cotroceni palace, b?sescu's residence, to call for their release. after learning of the released tape, b?sescu returned from the guuam summit in chi?in?u, republic of moldova, where he was an observer, to bucharest, where he called for a meeting with the relevant departments to discuss the issue.

the families of the journalists were also invited to cotroceni, and sympathy was expressed for them. the president told them that, "the state institutions are doing everything we can [to save the three journalists]."

reporter marie-jeanne ion, from prima tv, and cameraman sorin dumitru miscoci and reporter ovidiu ohanesian, from newspaper romania liber?, were kidnapped in baghdad on march 28, one day after president b?sescu made an unexpected visit to iraq to announce a supplement of troops.



sir john mills dies at 97

sir john mills, academy award winner, bafta fellow, and disney legend, has died, aged 97, at his home in denham, buckinghamshire after a short illness.

a funeral service for family and friends is scheduled to be held at st mary's church in denham on wednesday april 27.
various people have paid tribute to sir john mills and his 73 years as an actor in separate interviews with bbc news:



immigration and asylum turn voters off uk tories

opinion polls are showing that the conservative party's tough stance on immigration in the uk general election is turning more voters away than it is winning.

the policies of tighter border control and quotas on asylum seekers are part of the big five promises in the conservative manifesto and have featured prominently in the party's advertising campaign and party election broadcasts.

the policy has increasingly been an embarrassment for the tories, however, since a guardian/icm opinion poll last week showed that floating voters and those on the liberal side of the party were being put off by the policy, and that only 8% of voters consider immigration a significant problem.

this was followed by the revelation that tighter border control would apply only to the country's largest air and sea ports.

the tories' australian election strategist, lynton crosby, is widely credited with having prompted the unpopular policy, so similar to that used to swing voters by previous employer the australian liberal party in a recent australian election. the tactic, harping on supposed xenophobia of the average voter, has been called 'dog whistle' politics.

intellectual debate was completely bypassed in the australian election, when labor, the major opposition party, failed to tackle the subject through rational debate, but instead competed with the government, scrambling to tackle the supposed external threat.



france still a hot topic on college campuses

on monday residents of an apartment building just outside of paris discovered a world war ii bomb lodged in their chimney. officials were able to defuse the device, reports all headline news. however, there are other remnants of the world wars that have been much more difficult for the french to defuse.

the prevalence of anti-french sentiments reached a frenzied zenith prior to the u.s. invasion of iraq. while it seemed that the storm had calmed recently, this week's release of richard chesnoff's latest book, "the arrogance of the french: why they can't stand us--and why the feeling is mutual", reminds us that this issue is not going away anytime soon. while there have been fewer sightings of "liberty toast" in recent months, from discussions with students in both the u.s. and france, this reporter found that america's perception of the french remains a hot topic of discussion on college campuses.

bryan doeg, a military science student at the university of central florida, outlined the two prevailing thoughts that are the basis for many of these anti-french sentiments.

"most of my fellow students feel that the french are politically and militarily weak," said doeg. "and their people are stuck up."

doeg believes that he and his classmates are not without reason for their perceptions about the french.

"they are weak because of france's decline in power over the last century and it's defeats against the germans and algerians," doeg said. "and most of my experiences regarding their arrogance comes from soldiers who visited france and were treated like untouchables by the locals."

southwest missouri state (sms) finance major, fabian florant, got straight to the point when discussing doeg's first assumption that the french are weak.

"americans hate the french with a passion because of world war i and ii," florant said.

however some students pointed to france's involvement in the american revolution, questioning how long america's memory really is.

jessica morgan, an sms english major, said that this and other examples have shown that france is far from being weak.

"they stood up against hitler when he was in his prime for months before he occupied their country," morgan said. the fact that by the time we got there, the germans were a heck of a lot weaker than they were when the french had to face them doesn't seem to register."

morgan emphasized that france's refusal to support u.s. war efforts is a resounding display of strength.

"it's somewhat ironic that we call them weak," morgan said. "they stood up to the u.s. as well, daring the disapproval of the u.s. ... and all we can do is throw childish insults back at them."

lysiane lavorel, a native of france and college student studying english there, offered a tongue-in-cheek response to france's supposed weakness while making reference to the 1996 film "independence day".

"as for the french being weak, it's true that in comparison with the strong and good americans preventing aliens from invading the earth, we are more than weak," lavorel said. "it's true that we don't have any real impact on the world, and i find it much more comfortable that way ... i wouldn't want to feel responsible for a war, for example."

doeg's second assumption is that the french are arrogant, and lavorel agrees again.

"yes of course, i think we french are very arrogant," lavorel said.

lavorel went on to explain her definition of french arrogance.

"it's quite hard for us to see how people [americans] seem to be so easily manipulated by government, big firms or media," lavorel said. "because for most french, we have learned to become skeptical, doubtful and to make our own opinion on things. this appears to be very arrogant, doesn't it?"

however, she pointed out that this is especially true of parisians, from which she says many of american's perceptions about the french are based.

"even in france, they [parisians] are said to be arrogant," lavorel said. "they are said to consider france as only composed of paris, and provincial people are just hillbillies."

an american student at a california university, who asked to remain anonymous to prevent the damage of his reputation among colleagues, said that he would describe 90 percent of the parisians he has met as being arrogant.

"in an academic setting, this arrogance is particularly frustrating," the source said. "often the parisians i know belittle other people when they understand a complicated concept better than another person.

"on one occasion, a parisian made a fool out of a good friend of mine," the source said. "my friend asked him how to model the eigenfunction of a microdisk resonator with finite-differences time-domain. he said 'everyone knows you can derive these fields analytically."

the source said that he is not perpetuating these stereotypes and that his preconceived notions do not alter how he perceives these interactions.

"often i'll hear someone say something like, 'oh and be careful when you meet him--he's french," the source said. "but you know, 99 percent of the time, all of the stereotypes prove to be perfectly true and the warning is useful."

sms media student lydia mann, who visited france for two weeks recently and has hosted two french foreign exchange students, said that these perceptions are based upon cultural differences.

"americans, i think, misunderstand their culture which leads to their actions," mann said. "they make a point to make themselves individualistic, which people find rude."

sms english major christin green agrees and believes that this entire discussion that attempts to blanket such a large group of people is ridiculous.

"i want to learn about them with an open mind and a fresh perspective, unpolluted by bias or preconceived ideas," green said. "it is not my place to judge or make assumptions about an entire people. there are bad people everywhere. there are good people everywhere. stereotypes ruin this foundation and build another one that is much more destructive."


american who owns benedictxvi.com wants &quot;one of those hats&quot;

rogers cadenhead, the american owner of benedictxvi.com, has made a few requests in his blog. mr. cadenhead registered the valuable domain on april 1 along with clementxv.com, innocentxiv.com, leoxiv.com, paulvii.com and piusxiii.com; all in anticipation of the recent papal conclave 2005. 

after cardinal ratzinger's election as pope benedict xvi, international media swooped on the domain speculating that it may be owned by a pornographer or casino company. however amid the wild speculation, mr. cadenhead dismissed these and promised not to sell the domain to any such enterprises.

however today in a humorous manner the prolific computer guide writer posted on his blog a few requests, namely:


however he was keen to stress that the requests are not demands and the whole thing was written in a witty humorous manner.



man injured by flying sausage

a 46-year-old motorist from south woodham ferrers, essex, england was hit by a frozen sausage on his way home. the projecticle flew through his open car window and broke his nose. when the essex ambulance service arrived he had lost a large amount of blood, but he appears to now be recovering.

an ambulance service official says the 46-year-old man suffered a broken nose and lost a lot of blood.

the spokesman say it must have been an incredibly lucky, or unlucky, shot - to get the sausage through a moving car window. police are now investigating the case of the flying sausage. 


voip penetrates emergency calling infrastructure

leading voip provider vonage negotiated access to the qwest communications emergency calling infrastructure, allowing vonage customers in 14 states the ability to connect directly to emergency dispatchers by dialing 911.

with the exception of rhode island, voip's 911 callers were delivered to the administrative offices of a public-safety answering point, instead of connecting directly to a standard 911 dispatcher. the resulting time delay was a consequence of the phone provider's refusal to give voip providers access to the 911 infrastructure. vonage chairman and ceo jeffrey citron in a recent letter to qwest chairman and ceo richard notebaert, wrote "i applaud you [qwest] for your willingness to put the health and safety of americans before short-term competitive considerations."

“with the access that qwest has agreed to provide, vonage will be able to route emergency service calls placed by its customers directly to public-safety operators, which will help save lives and safeguard property" citron said.

verizon agreed to begin a trial in new york city soon, and bellsouth also started "making some movement" on the issue, according to vonage.

vonage claims "that sbc has agreed to begin discussions on working cooperatively to improve 911 offerings available to customers using voip." vonage attorney william wilhelm, in a letter to the fcc, "noted its concern that sbc has already provided 911 interconnection access to its unregulated voip affiliate.”


dermot mannion becomes new aer lingus ceo

dermot mannion has been named the new chief executive of ireland's national carrier, aer lingus. mr. mannion, 47, will take up the post in august 2005.

aer lingus almost went bankrupt in 2002, but a major cost-cutting effort by former ceo willie walshe lead to a dramatic turnaround in the airline's fortunes, posting its largest ever profit in 2004. however, willie walshe left after a dispute with the government over privatization. he has since landed the top job at british airways.

mr. mannion, an accountant, has extensive experience of aviation, having worked for the dubai based airline emirates since 1995. there he worked as finance director and later president of group support services. he originally comes from county sligo and is a graduate of trinity college, dublin.



widespread insurgencies in iraq

insurgents in iraq struck across numerous regions using suicide car bombings, planted bombs and mortars, aiming at american and iraqi soldiers alike, and taking a civilian toll as well. there are 19 reported dead and over 3 dozen wounded. 

a total of 10 bombs were reported, one of them near abu ghraib prison, where the photos of abused inmates were taken. while baghdad was hit the hardest, hostilities were widespread.

thus far, there is no single group responsible saturday's following attacks:

on the day previous to saturday, these attacks occurred:




judges rule patrons may sue nude bars for lap-dance overcharges

a three-judge texas court of appeals ruling will allow men who were overcharged at nudie clubs to sue for refunds and damages. 

the two plaintiffs, paul brian meekey and michael fulmer, had their cases heard because they were charged more than a regular lap dance fee when they used a credit card, typically $25 for a $20 dance.

"texas law is pretty clear that you cannot charge someone extra for using a credit card," said sandra krider, an attorney for the patrons. "the fact that they are strip clubs shouldn't mean they get away with it."

a lawyer for the businesses, rick's cabaret and the men's club, argued a case based on the type of employment the ladies agreed to perform.

“since the dancers are independent contractors and not employees of the club, the clubs are not the ones selling the dances," said attorney albert van huff.

but the men’s attorneys said the win could potentially become a class-action suit with many hundreds of men claiming their day in court. that could present a problem for other patrons who may not want their name and their use of a credit card at a nudie bar released in court transcripts.

"they are going to want the (strip) clubs' credit card companies to give them the names of all the different people who have charged dances there," said van huff.

the 14th court of appeals, a texas court with headquarters in houston, had reversed a ruling of a lower trial judge that this case should be heard before the state finance commission instead of in a judicial proceeding. the case was sent back to be tried again.


serb general pavkovic to surrender to hague

general nebojsa pavkovic, a commander during the 1998-1999 kosovo conflict, is set to turn himself over to the un tribunal in the hague . during the conflict thousands of ethnic albanians were slaughtered by the serbian armed forces. in a statement provided by the serbian government, pavkovic plans to fly to the international criminal tribunal monday to face charges. his choice to surrender is apparently voluntary.

on april 12, a eu report recommended a start in talks for the eventual membership of serbia into the union by forming a stabilisation and association agreement. but eu ministers would back the proposal only if the key fugitive pavkovic surrendered.

he would be the 12th war crimes suspect to go to the hague this year.



nyse to merge with archipelago; nasdaq to buy instinet


new york stock exchange (nyse) announced last wednesday that it has agreed definitively to merge with chicago-based archipelago exchange (arcaex) and form a new publicly traded, for-profit company known as nyse group. this announcement was followed two days later by nasdaqR, which independently announced a definitive agreement to purchase instinet group.

archipelago and instinet are innovative e-trading (electronic trading) companies, and formerly were the two largest american rivals to nyse and nasdaq, in recent years taking increasingly large portions of their market share. the securities and exchange commission (sec) and other regulatory agencies still have to review and approve the transactions, particularly with respect to us securities law and antitrust law, in order to ensure that the marketplace remains lawful and competitive. 

other pending issues for nasdaq include obtaining the approval of instinet shareholders, as well as customary closing conditions. nyse must obtain the approval of its members and archipelago shareholders.

these changes, a reaction to increased e-trading competition and a changed regulatory environment, will result in nasdaq and nyse trading each other's shares and attempting to grab market share, which many hope will drive down transaction costs and ultimately benefit consumers. however, at least one commentator, dan ackman writing in "forbes", has noted that the trading commission at the nyse currently averages less than a nickel (us$0.05) per share, and was less enthusiastic about potential efficiency gains from electronic trading at the exchange.

the transactions are also intended to make the two leading american stock exchanges more globally competitive with such exchanges as the london stock exchange, the frankfurt stock exchange, the toronto stock exchange, and the australian stock exchange located in sydney.

the nyse-archipelago merger would result in some of the most sweeping changes in the 212-year history of the nyse. the nyse, which has always been a not-for-profit company, would for the first time incorporate and itself be a publicly-traded company, in what is potentially a large stock offering. however, the regulatory functions of the nyse would continue to be conducted independently by a private not-for-profit organization.

nyse is merging with archipelago in a "stock for membership" deal, in which nyse members are to receive cash and 70% of newly issued stock, and archipelago's shareholders would receive 30% of the new stock, forming a new holding company known as the nyse group. the merger is expected to be completed by either the fourth quarter of 2005 or the first quarter of 2006.

"this strategic move is courageous, almost unbelievable, but this is going to make the new york stock exchange in my opinion a potentially giant publicly traded company. the main reason is they've got brand, they've got companies, they've got liquidity [and] with archipelago they have electronic global access," said harold bradley of american century investments to "investor's business daily".

nyse has traditionally used the "open cry auction" system where buyers and sellers gather in a boisterous trading floor to shout "buy" and "sell" orders. it has been slow to adapt to new technology, still manually punching in 90% of its orders. 

however, last november nyse introduced a new, faster java-based trading system for its floor exchange that is currently in the process of phased roll-out. nyse tradeworks, a management system for stock orders, was developed in a first-of-kind partnership with external company ibm, using j2ee open systems, custom-built linux-based workstations and hp-ux servers running ibm's websphere middleware, and a db2 database on the back end running on an ibm zseries mainframe. nyse, which does most of its it development internally, announced that they do not plan to combine their it department with archipelago's.

the future of the traditional floor trading system remains uncertain. some commentators believe it provides a necessary antidote to the occasionally chaotic instability of electronic trading, while others believe that future trends toward electronic trading would provide advantages of speed and fluidity of trade, and make the old-fashioned system of floor trading redundant and obsolete. roger burkhardt, chief technology officer of nyse, told "computerworld" last december that the merger will attempt a "hybrid" trading model where both human and computer trading are coordinated side-by-side, which in its scope is a difficult and unprecedented task.

current owners of seats in the exchange have expressed concerns over how the new merger will affect them. the seats, which confer the right to trade on the floor and are typically leased to traders under the current system, will likely be bought back by the nyse group from the individual owners. the exact system of how traders will lease access to the trading floor from the new company has yet to be worked out.

also of concern to owners is the reported plans for a "stock lockup" (preventing selling of portions of stock in the new nyse group by the new stock recipients) for the next 3 to 5 years. however, their inability to immediately profit from sale of their newly issued stock would be compensated by the price they receive for their seat, or perhaps by a separate stock issuance.

the nyse has been subject to complaints in recent years, concerning:

however, most of the participants in the merger expressed confidence in taking advantage of historic opportunities. “this combination will be good for investors and for america. it will create a strong, dynamic and innovative enterprise capable of meeting the demands of investors and issuers throughout the world in the decades ahead,” said john a. thain, ceo of the nyse. “as we look to the future and to the challenge of competing globally in a high-speed electronically connected world, it is clear that we must do more. this transaction will mean we will be more diversified and transparent, and better able to compete, grow and serve our customers."

nasdaq, formerly an acronym for national association of securities dealers automated quotations, was founded in 1971 as the world's first electronic stock market, and by some measures is now the world's largest exchange. its purchase of instinet group, although it followed the nyse merger announcement by only two days, was actually pursued independently for as long as six months and is set to continue regardless of the nyse outcome. the sale is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

nasdaq's planned acquisition, instinet group, will be split along the lines of its separate divisions for sale in a cash transaction (figures are approximate):

instinet stockholders would receive about us$1.88 billion in cash total, including the above amounts as well as us$562 million from inet's available cash. of this amount, about us$1 billion would go to reuters, a shareholder of 62% of the company's stock, which is getting rid of instinet to focus on its core areas of providing news and financial data.
nasdaq president and ceo bob greifeld, said, “this transaction will allow nasdaq to compete more effectively with other u.s. and international market centers by making our technological platform more competitive, which will result in greater cost efficiencies and improved quality of execution in our market ? qualities that today’s individual and institutional investors demand. nasdaq will continue to innovate and will also have the ability to tap new opportunities in other asset classes.”

he continued, “regulation nms has defined the new competitive landscape by calling for all market centers to be mutually accessible. with this move we maintain our status as the low cost provider and at the same time provide increased order interaction for both nasdaq and exchange listed securities. we also believe this further enhances our ability to attract new listings. we want to thank all of our partners for their combined efforts on this transaction."


 


romanian reporters call for release of hostages in iraq

romanian reporters gathered in central bucharest saturday calling for the release of three colleagues kidnapped by iraqi militants late last month. one of the abducted journalists was from "prima tv", and two were from the newspaper . in a tape released friday by the kidnappers, they said if the romanian government does not pull all its troops out of iraq, the journalists will be killed. with 860 troops in iraq, romania currently has one of the largest coalition contingents there.

the reporters stopped short of calling for the removal of troops from iraq, but said they would continue protesting until the journalists are released. "prima tv's" cristina topescu said, "we will stay here until they are released. i am trying to be optimistic, but i am scared because of those images. however, i keep hoping."

romanian president said after the release of the tape that he would do everything possible to save the lives of the journalists, even though he has been criticised by many romanians for not doing enough. earlier in the year, b?sescu said that he would like to send more troops to iraq, potentially making romania the fourth-largest partner in the coalition.

opinion polls conducted in romania show that only 45% of the population support the maintenance of troops in iraq. several political parties have also called for the removal of the troops, particularly the social liberal and the right-wing .

representatives of romania's small arab community also campaigned for the release of the journalists, holding banners showing pictures of the three with the word "freedom" written in , and . samir zanun, the leader of the community in romania, said "we are asking for their unconditional release and safe return home."



5-year-old girl handcuffed by florida police

, florida police were taped on video handcuffing a five-year-old kindergarten student who had earlier torn papers off a bulletin board and punched an assistant principal. the camera happened to be filming on march 14 as part of a classroom self-improvement exercise at fairmount park elementary. video of the event has been released by a lawyer for the child's mother.

the little girl had already calmed down from her tantrum by the time of arrival of the police, but they cuffed her anyway. police had been called when a phone call to mother inga akins, had led teachers to believe that it would take an hour for ms akins to arrive and take the girl away.

the video reportedly shows three officers pin the passive girl's arms behind her back and put on handcuffs, as she screams, "no!"

attorney for the mother, john trevena, called the incident "incomprehensible". he provided the tape to the media this week, after obtaining it from police.

"the image itself will be seared into people's minds when you have three police officers bending a child over a table and forcibly handcuffing her," said mr trevena.

police planned to investigate the incident and make public the findings in around two weeks.



british government considering new nuclear power stations

april 24, 2005 <br>

advisers to british prime minister tony blair are suggesting that constructing new nuclear power stations would be the best way to meet the country's targets on reducing emissions of gases responsible for global warming.

the government has a near-term target of cutting emissions below 1997 levels by 20%, and a more ambitious target of a 60% cut by 2050.
critics of nuclear power say that it will not be able to help meet the 2010 target due to the length of time needed to plan, construct and commission such power plants. however backers say nuclear power will help meet the 60% cut by 2050 target.

sir david king, chief scientific advisor to the government, is a supporter of nuclear power believing that it is the best way to tackle global warming.

the chairman of british nuclear fuels, a company that operates several british nuclear reactors, said that he expects tony blair to make an announcement of new power stations within weeks of the may 5 general election if he is re-elected.

another primary supporter of nuclear power is the ex-bbc director general lord birt, who has been advising 10 downing street on various issues by providing 'blue-sky' thinking without payment, as part of the strategy unit. he is said to be preparing a report that will say nuclear energy provides an opportunity to reduce dependence on middle eastern oil supplies (although very little oil is burnt for electricity production in the uk).

while it is believed that senior cabinet members would not oppose a plan for new nuclear power stations if tony blair proposed it, the environment secretary margaret beckett and trade and industry secretary patricia hewitt both oppose nuclear power.

new reactors would probably be sited next to existing reactors to limit public opposition.

nuclear power currently provides 22% of the uk's electricity needs. the uk has 31 operating reactors at 14 power plants, but by 2015 all but three stations will have been shut down. the last nuclear reactor to open was sizewell b on the north sea coast in 1995. the 1,188mw station was a large reason why the uk met its carbon dioxide emissions reduction target in the 1990s. british nuclear power stations have created 2,000 cubic metres of nuclear waste. there are currently no plans for the long-term storage of the waste.

by comparison, just over 3% of britain's electricity comes from renewable energy. france met 78% of its electricity needs in 2002 using nuclear power.










news briefs:april 24, 2005

the two largest american stock market exchanges, new york stock exchange and nasdaq, have each agreed to acquire their leading e-trade competitors, in a move that will shake up the industry and generate unprecedented changes in the two-century old traditions of public trading of stocks in the usa.

george bush's controversial nominee for u.s. ambassador to the united nations, john bolton, seemed stalled as new allegations surfaced in the senate committee's second interview. lawmakers from both parties expressed strong reservations.

reporters gathered in central bucharest saturday calling for the release of three colleagues kidnapped by iraqi militants late last month. prima tv's cristina topescu said, "we will stay here until they are released. i am trying to be optimistic, but i am scared because of those images. however, i keep hoping."

st petersburg, florida police were caught on video handcuffing a five-year-old kindergarten student who had been disruptive earlier. the camera happened to be filming on march 14 as part of a classroom self-improvement exercise at fairmount park elementary. video of the event has been released by a lawyer for the child's mother. police plan to investigate the incident and make public the findings in approximately two weeks.

in order to meet greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals, the uk is considering new nuclear reactors to supplement the current electrical production. not all members of tony blair's government support the idea, which is a longer-term plan to meet very ambitious 60% emissions reductions by 2050.


bush nomination to un post faces bi-partisan problems

george bush's controversial nominee for u.s. ambassador to the united nations, john r. bolton, seemed stalled as new allegations surfaced in the senate committee's second interview. lawmakers from both parties, particularly democrats, express strong reservations.

"he wants to be our top diplomat at the un but his life has been something less than diplomatic," , the number two democrat in the senate, said on a sunday talk show.

"he wants to work with people around the world. and he couldn't work with people in his own office. and he's supposed to be open, as our man at the un, to ideas from other people," durbin said.

"he's been a real tyrant when it came to people he worked with, who disagreed with him. this man doesn't have the temperament for this job."

there was no consensus thursday whether the senate committee should ask bolton to return for more questioning. he testified for eight hours and presented a written draft on other questions, but the stream of allegations has only intensified, as well as a characterization of him as a boss who mistreated fellow workers and lost his temper frequently.

democratic senator christopher dodd, a member of the foreign relations committee, said bolton would be hobbled in the job because of the allegations raised during the confirmation hearings. dodd spoke on cbs's "face the nation."

dodd maintains the democrats raise objections to bolton because of evidence he twisted intelligence analysis to fit his personal views. he said bush should consider withdrawing the nomination.

"there are plenty of other good people who embrace his ideological views," dodd added. 

but some republicans had a differing view. mitch mcconnell (r-ky) thought bolton's "forceful" personality made him the ideal candidate to lead u.s. efforts to reform the un. he put little concern into bolton's alleged personnel problems, saying that bolton's supposed history of trying to get analysts who disagreed with him fired were unproven. mcconnell is the second ranked senate republican. he was also speaking on the cbs program.

lincoln chafee, republican senator of rhode island, has said he is "less likely" to vote for the nominee as a result of the questions that are being raised about his credibility. instead he sought out the opinion of former secretary of state colin powell.

powell's spokeswoman, peggy cifrino, said he returned calls thursday to senators who wanted to discuss questions that have been raised about bolton. powell was the only former gop secretary of state who did not sign a recent letter endorsing bolton for the job. it is known that the two did not get along during powell's tenure in the bush administration. powell's former chief of staff has been quoted by the us press as saying bolton would make an "abysmal ambassador."

some republicans in congress are doubtful that bolton will win nomination now that the vote has been pushed back to may 12 to allow more time to investigate his history. speaking on cnn television senator arlen spector, r-pa, said the odds on bolton were "too close to call."

some wondered what bush's reasoning could be for nominating bolton for the un post since bolton acknowledged saying in 1994 that the un headquarters in new york "has 38 stories. if it lost ten stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference."

also in 1994, bolton said, "there is no such thing as the united nations. there is an international community that occasionally can be led by the only real power left in the world, and that's the united states, when it suits our interest and when we can get others to go along." "

in response to criticism of these statements at his hearing, bolton replied, "there's not a bureaucracy in the world that couldn't be made leaner."

it appears to trained observers that bush may have to yield his nomination to a senate rejection. behind the scenes, bolton may be facing a question of withdraw or be pushed out. as president bush asked senators to support his nominee, majority leader bill frist, r-tenn., said he strongly supports bolton, but "i can't speak for all of (gop) leadership."

president bush continues to support his nominee, according to whitehouse spokespersons. in an april 20 news briefing, press secretary scott mcclellan said in response to a question whether the bolton nomination was lost, "no, absolutely not. i think what you're seeing is some democrats on the committee trumping up allegations and making unsubstantiated accusations against someone the president believes will do an outstanding job at the united nations. he is someone who has been an effective manager, a strong diplomat who has gotten things done. and i think he's earned the respect of many people that he has worked with because of what he's done...people are playing politics with his nomination...he's exactly the kind of person we need at the united nations during this time of reform."

on sunday, white house spokeswoman christie parell, said the president is standing by bolton as his nominee. "the president believes he's exactly the man needed at the united nations," she said in reply to dodd's comments.



barry prime changes mind about swim ireland

having announced that barry prime would take over the newly created post of national performance director for swimming, swim ireland has revealed that the british coach has changed his mind about taking up the post. speaking from his home mr. prime told journalists "it is with regret that i had to inform the swim ireland board of my decision not to take up the position of national performance director." 

barry prime had agreed earlier this month to take over the post, but has changed his mind because he does not wish to move to ireland from his current home in australia. he said, "i have realized that i do not wish to leave australia and for that reason, and that reason alone, i will not take up the post."

the loss of mr. prime, a seasoned professional coach at the australian institute of sport, is a major blow to swim ireland which has struggled in recent years to adapt to changes in international swimming.



molson beer buys into the craft market

molson canada picks up creemore springs brewery ltd. as the company maneuvers to make an entry into the craft beer market.

creemore springs of creemore, ontario, produces the locally popular creemore springs lager. the merger will allow the company to retain its identity.

"the creemore brand image and brewing craft will remain unchanged," creemore springs brewery chairman bill wilder said. "molson understands and appreciates what is special about the creemore brand and this makes them a great purchaser for the company."

industry observers are mixed on the benefits of the deal for molson. the cbc reports one analyst suggests molson may be trying to replicate the success of rival labatt's premium beers. others point out the small brewery model does not scale up well, and the attraction of a "boutique" beer fades in large-scale production.

molson coors brewing co., formed by the us$3.4 billion merger in february of two family-run companies, canadian molson and u.s. coors brewing companies, is the fifth largest brewer in the world by volume. (tsx:tap.nv, nyse:tap)

 


iraqi insurgency continues unabated, new hopes for a cabinet

two car-rigged explosions in baghdad killed 15 and injured nearly 40 people beside a shiite ahl al-bait mosque sunday. in tikrit, 140km northeast of baghdad, 6 were killed and nearly 26 injured in two suicide bombings. a car bomber drove into police assembled in an academy compound and detonated, then a second car bomber attacked a nearby army liaison office 20 minutes later. 

in the baghdad attack, the bombings took place in the western al-shoulah district in front of an ice cream shop near the mosque. the first blast was followed within minutes by the second blast after witnesses to the first bomb rushed in to help survivors.

the anti-coalition insurgencies sunday inflicted its heaviest toll since the national elections held january 30.

the violence, aimed mostly at iraqi security forces and shiite strongholds, is partly blamed on the struggling national assembly's efforts to gain a consensus in forming a new government. the lack of leadership has led to appointments of police and security officials with no consent from the interior ministry, and is against the requirement of the law. the lack of authority diminishes iraqi efforts to put down and pursue rebel forces.

ahmed chalabi, now-exiled, but a one time a seeker the iraqi prime minister position himself and also a provider of us intelligence on weapons programs, said "we need a government immediately. the delay in forming a government has encouraged the terrorists."

by late sunday, reports indicate iraqi prime minister-designate ibrahim al-jaafari was ready to name a cabinet as early as today or tuesday, but such hopes have gone unfulfilled in the past. efforts to include candidates in contentious top cabinet posts with sunni parliamentarians led by the former pm iyad allawi may be abandoned to speed filling the positions.

the dominant shiite united iraqi alliance took 146 of the 275 seats in parliament, while the main kurdish bloc took 77. to many, exclusion of the sunni representatives in posts such as defense or interior minister, or either oil and finance minister, is untenable when they control 40 parliamentary seats.

other reports sunday include:




tv show firefly's &quot;serenity&quot; movie trailer released, could spoil enjoyment for fans

the trailer for joss whedon’s new feature film, serenity, is expected to be released today (tuesday, april 26). joss whedon, the creator of such prime time television successes as buffy the vampire slayer and angel, is promoting his latest movie with the official serenity movie web site and a formal announcement. joss whedon has also warned fans of the firefly show to avoid viewing the trailer, as it may be a spoiler for the movie, and may ruin their enjoyment.

this popular television writer and creator developed serenity as a follow up to firefly, a genre defining sci-fi-western that has received critical acclaim among science fiction enthusiasts, but failed to capture the interest of the typical prime time viewer. firefly debuted on the fox network in september, 2002, but was quickly canceled after one season. 

serenity uses many of the same lead actors and characters as the original television series. in an interview with firefly actor alan tudyk, serenity is the first film in a three-picture firefly contract with universal studios. 



anzacs remembered ninety years after assault on gallipoli

<br>australians and new zealanders throughout the world stood still for their national war memorial days in remembrance of the failed ? anzac ? , turkey that began on 25 april 1915. the fateful attack was designed to end the first world war more quickly by creating a supply line to . a hundred-thousand died in the battle, remembered every year as by both nations.

the british-directed battle of gallipoli is often seen as the defining moment in the 'birth' of australia and new zealand. with new zealand helen clark saying "for new zealand as for australia it was at gallipoli that our young nations came of age." . this being the 90th anniversary of the attack, clark, australian john howard and britain's are all at gallipoli to remember that fateful campaign.

some controversy has been created about australian john howard not attending the new zealand ceremony at on the gallipoli peninsula. this has upset many people as it is a break in a tradition that the prime ministers attend the ceremonies of both countries.


150,000 street vendors in india shown how to avoid causing 'delhi belly'

the "all india institute of hygiene and public health" has begun a campaign to instruct street vendors in india how to safely prepare food for their customers to avoid inflicting 'delhi belly'?severe diarrhea?which afflicts about half of the visitors to the region. over 150,000 "stall wallahs" in calcutta will be shown how to properly prepare dishes such as "jhalmuri" (a rice, tomato, and onion dish) and "ghughni" (a chick pea curry dish).

"do not set up your stall in the middle of a rubbish dump, drain or sewage channel," the report recommends. "wash your hands before cooking and do not let large swarms of flies settle on food displays."

"one of the tips we’ve been given is to wear aprons," banahari saha, a stall operator on camac street, in calcutta, told "upi". "we’ve also been told how important it is to make sure the water is clean and uncooked food is protected from flies," he said.

the campaign is also sponsored by the world health organization. tourists will be given maps pointing to street vendors who have been approved by the "all india institute".

"my customers say they're happy with the changes i've introduced," saha told "upi".


skydiver dies after legs severed during jump

a florida cinematographer, skydiving with 14 others, was killed on saturday when his legs were severed at the knees by the wing of the aircraft that had just dropped him.

albert wing iii deployed his parachute and caught an updraft when the left wing of a dhc-6 twin otter propeller plane struck him. he managed to control his descent and land near the deland airport, about 40 miles north of orlando.

he was airlifted to a hospital where he later died. it was not known if he was filming at the time of the accident, and a camera has not been found.

the plane and the other sport jumpers landed safely.


violence, allegations of fraud disrupt election in togo

australian broadcasters "sbs" report three deaths in violence centered around allegations of fraud in sunday's election in the west african nation of togo. the election is held to choose a president to replace togo's recently deceased ruler of 38 years, gnassingbe eyadema.

three candidates stood for the election: the son of the late president, faure gnassingbe, 74-year-old emmanuel akitani bob, and harry olympio, a cousin of the man who lead togo before the coup in 1963. a fourth candidate, nicolas lawson, also ran but removed himself from consideration 2 days before the election "because of fears of fraud," said the "voice of america news".

the elder gnassingbe died in february of this year while being transported out of the country for medical care. the togolese army supported the son of the late ruler as an interim president in contravention of the constitution, which indicates that power should pass to the speaker of the parliament. according to the "bbc", at the time of the president's death, the current speaker, fambare natchaba ouattara, was in . the togolese army closed the border, and ouattara took refuge in neighboring benin.


historic summit, commemoration by asian-african leaders in bandung

the heads of state and representatives of 89 asian and african countries met this weekend in bandung, capital of west java, indonesia. the three-day meeting, started friday in commemoration of the golden jubilee (50th anniversary) of the original bandung conference, resulted in the discussion of a number of important international issues and future plans for similar high-level meetings and programs for action.

the two co-hosts of the event were president susilo bambang yudhoyono of indonesia and president thabo mbeki of south africa. some of the many world leaders in attendance were:

the 1955 bandung conference has assumed almost mythical importance, as the giants of that age addressed post-colonial concerns of 29 asian, african, and middle eastern nations, and collectively brought their interests to the world stage.

the conference, which was attended by the first premier of the prc, zhou enlai, and the first prime minister of india, jawaharlal nehru, was called the "first intercontinental meeting of colored peoples in the history of mankind" by its host sukarno, who was also first prime minister of indonesia ? men with dreams and ambition in times of great change. 

their shared vision gave fresh impetus to the african fight for independence from colonial oppression, and articulated the meaning of the "spirit of bandung" with ten binding principles of non-aggression and peaceful friendship. this approach bore fruit a few years later in the creation the non-aligned movement, which was an attempt by so-called third world countries to coordinate their efforts to remain independent from the power struggle between the united states and russia during the cold war.

leaders of some of the world's richest as well as poorest nations attended the summit, together representing some two-thirds of the world's population. poverty and underdevelopment were the main issues under discussion. also discussed were terrorism, un reform, the breakdown of multilateralism, and the benefits and risks of globalization. in response to the recent tragedy of the december 26, 2004 tsunami, the leaders adopted a joint statement to create a shared early warning system.

on the last day of the summit, sunday april 24, yudhoyono said, "history will judge us [not based on what we say here, but] on the basis of what we do in the days, months and years ahead -- whether we are true to the bandung spirit, or we fail it through failure of political nerve.

"we will be judged on how dedicated we are to our strategic partnership, on whether we can make it work to ensure a better life for our children's children.

"let us therefore work together, so that we will deserve the kindness of history." after the speeches, yudhoyono and mbeki signed the "declaration on the new asian-african strategic partnership".

the conference was full of symbolism and music, speeches and celebration in honor of the bandung spirit and an attempt to recapture some of the magic of those former days. the more than 100 participants are in number the largest-ever gathering of asian and african leaders. 

at the conclusion of the conference, led by their two-cohosts, mbeki and yudhoyono, more than 40 of the leaders followed in the historical footsteps of the 1955 conference, taking part in the ritual of the "bandung walks". they strolled amid tight security from the aging savoy homman hotel, to the white-columned gedung merdeka, or "freedom building".

then the leaders each planted trees in the "asia-africa forest", one tree per country to symbolize close cooperation between their peoples, before getting on their jets and returning home.

the events at the conference were overshadowed by recent tensions between japan/china and north korea/south korea; however, some good did come of the countries' meeting.

chinese president hu jintao and japanese prime minister junichiro koizumi are said to have met on saturday and talked for about an hour, after koizumi took the unusual step of a public apology at the conference. the relationship between their countries has been particularly tense in recent weeks; several wikinews articles, cited below, describe the ongoing chinese protests and demonstrations against japan.

the two countries are growing commercial rivals and have ongoing territorial disagreements that pertain to certain oil and natural gas deposits they both claim. in addition, some chinese have been offended by what they see as a japanese attempt to whitewash their world war ii record of aggression in revised school textbooks.

hu has also taken particular offense at koizumi's annual habit, since 2001, of visiting the yasukuni war cemetery and shrine in tokyo. hu said that "[japan should] never do anything again that would hurt the feelings of the chinese people." koizumi has not yet visited the shrine so far this year.

it remains to be seen if and how the two parties may resolve their deep underlying differences.

north korean president of parliament kim yong nam and south korean prime minister lee hai-chan were among those attending the summit. the two are reported to have met and talked together for about 30 minutes on saturday concerning the relationship between their countries. their discussion is said to have touched on such issues of concern as north korea's nuclear plans.

"it was the highest-level meeting between the south and the north since the summit on june 15, 2002. we had a great deal of frank discussions on important issues ... going beyond scheduled time. it was a good meeting. we had frank discussions about dialogue between the authorities [of the south and north] and the six party talks," lee said.

according to kim, north korea would come back to the talks "when conditions were right". however, a definite timetable for resuming the six-party talks was not given. north korea has recently boycotted the talks, and complained about certain positions taken by the usa, one of the six parties to the talks.

delegates agreed to hold future meetings every two years (for foreign ministers) and every four years (for heads of state) in order to bring the principles of their strategic partnership into productive action. the next meeting of heads of state is planned for 2009 in south africa.

here are some representative comments made by various afro-asian leaders during their speeches at the summit.

"if we are to make our world fairer, freer and safer for all its inhabitants, the institutions of the united nations should reflect the world of 2005, not 1945 ? particularly the security council. i believe the time is approaching when the member states should take a decision to make the council more representative, including by strengthening the representation of developing countries. i also believe they should create two new inter-governmental bodies ? a peacebuilding commission which would bring together the various actors involved in helping countries move from war to lasting peace, and a human rights council in which states from all regions would participate."

"mr. chairman sir, to meet these challenges and constraints, we must respond in a manner worthy of the bandung spirit. just as that historic meeting redefined the agenda for its times, we must do so once again here today. the declaration on a new asian african strategic partnership outlines guiding principles for joint action to achieve our goals in a changed global environment...

"in this spirit, in cooperation with our neighbour, pakistan, we have embarked upon a journey of peace and good neighbourly ties. i appreciate the positive sentiments expressed by president pervez musharaff yesterday which i fully reciprocate. we are sincere in our desire to resolve all issues in a mutually acceptable manner. this will surely bring benefit to our people and to our region."

"i am honoured to wish this historic second asian-african conference success, convinced that we have the will to advance the cause pioneered by some of the greatest sons and daughters of africa and asia. we are most grateful to president yudhoyono, the government and people of indonesia who have opened the hearts and home to all of us, despite the heavy burdens imposed on them by the recent natural disasters that have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and caused incalculable destruction."

"the strategic partnership highlights the need to address issues of common concern, such as armed conflict, weapons of mass destruction, transnational organized crime and terrorism. our strategic partnership also emphasized the need to promote practical cooperation in areas such as trade, industry, investment, finance, tourism, information and communication technology, energy, health, transportation, agriculture, water resources and fisheries. we are determined to prevent conflict and resolve disputes by peaceful means."





japanese commuter train derails, apartment building smashed

a seven-car commuter train carrying 580 passengers jumped off the tracks, plowed through a car, and collided with a nine-story apartment building in amagasaki, japan on monday at 9:18 am local time (00:18 utc). the crash was about 410km west of tokyo near osaka in the hyogo prefecture.

casualties have risen to 101 deaths and at least 440 injuries. the train had 600 people on board at the time, including crew. rescue workers swarmed the scene where two of the rail cars were flattened against walls of the apartment building.

it appears that excessive speed was a factor in the wreck. investigators are focusing on the 23-year-old driver who overshot the last station on the line before the wreck, and had received a warning in the past for a similar incident.

the accident is the worst rail disaster since 1963, when a three-train crash killed 161. the rail is part of the west japan railway co of fukuchiyama line. the rail president takeshi kakiuchi publicly apologized, telling reporters, "our most important task now is to rescue the passengers from the accident and we are doing our best."

japan has one of the world's most complex and widely used rail systems.



iss expedition 10 returns to earth

with two , 78 million miles and six months on board the international space station under their belts, commander-science officer and flight engineer , the station's 10th crew, landed in kazakhstan in a spacecraft at 6:08 p.m. edt sunday.

also returning was european space agency astronaut roberto vittori of italy, who launched to the station with the crew and spent eight days doing experiments. he was aboard under a contract between esa and the .

the re-entry of the iss soyuz 9 spacecraft was perfect, returning the astronauts to earth 53 miles northeast of the town of arkalyk after 192 days, 19 hours and 2 minutes in space for the expedition 10 crew. the recovery team reached the capsule in minutes.

they launched from the baikonur cosmodrome in kazakhstan last oct. 13 at 11:06 p.m. edt. during their increment they performed two spacewalks, continued station maintenance and did scientific experiments.

notable accomplishments included replacing critical hardware in the joint quest airlock; repairing u.s. spacesuits; and submitting a scientific research paper on ultrasound use in space. chiao was also the first astronaut to vote in the u.s. presidential election from space. the crew completed two spacewalks, including experiment installation and tasks to prepare the station for the arrival of the new european automated transfer vehicle next year.

aboard the station, commander sergei krikalev and flight engineer and nasa station science officer john phillips, the expedition 11 crew, are beginning a six-month mission. it will include the resumption of space shuttle flights and two spacewalks from the station. expedition 11 is scheduled to return to earth on october 7, 2005. the two latest occupants of the station launched with vittori from april 14.

krikalev and phillips will have light duty for the next two days, as they rest after completing a busy handover period. for the past week, they have been learning about station operations from the two men who called the ship home since october. chiao and sharipov briefed krikalev and phillips on day-to-day operations and gave them hands-on opportunities at station maintenance. chiao and phillips restored the quest airlock to working order for future spacewalks and practiced operating the robotic arm.


romanian pm says his country won't give in to terrorist demands

romania's prime minister, c?lin popescu-t?riceanu announced today that romania's 860 troops in iraq will not be withdrawn, despite the demands of the terrorists who kidnapped three romanian journalists in baghdad late last month.

in a public statement to antena 1 television, tariceanu said:

t?riceanu added that the romanian government will do the most it can to save the lives of the journalists, but will not give in to terrorist demands. the iraqi terrorists, known as the muadh ibn jabal brigades, which are holding the three journalists captive issued a tape last friday which gave the romanian government four days to remove its troops, or the journalists would be killed. according to the tape, the deadline for the removal of the troops is today.

today, central bucharest has been filled by hundreds of peaceful ralliers calling for the journalists' freedom, and urging the government to save their lives at all costs. romanian media workers and the journalists' families have been backed up by romania's small arab community, which today also rallied, with large green posters reading "freedom" in english, romanian and arabic.

a poll was conducted recently which shows that 70% of romanians want their troops to be removed from iraq. this figure is up from 55% a week earlier.


 


bbc admits sending hecklers into conservative campaign meeting

the bbc is responding to accusations that producers of the bbc3 documentary "the heckler" equipped hecklers with radio microphones and sent them into a campaign meeting where conservative leader michael howard was speaking, breaching section 5.3(b)1 of the bbc charter agreement.

the documentary is about the lost art of heckling in electoral debate and is due to be aired on bbc3 on 26 april 2005. it includes interviews with prominent conservative members michael hesiltine and michael portillo about the importance of heckling and political debate.

"for the public service broadcaster purposely to disrupt part of a democratic election effectively to create entertainment shows just how far the standards of the bbc have plummeted," conservative co-chairman liam fox told the times.

"i do not believe that the bbc should be in the business of creating news," conservative communications head guy black told the times.

mr. black also claimed the bbc has been unable to point to any labour meetings that had been disrupted in a similar fashion, although producers claim that members of the liberal democrat and labour parties were also heckled.

at the time of the incident in question, the hecklers did not admit to their affiliation with the bbc, calling themselves "shoppers". it is also claimed by mr. black they were later spotted attending another event with the same crew at stockton-on-tees.

according to mr. black's letter of protest to the broadcaster, sally freestone, the uk special events assignments editor, was said to be "aghast" at the bbc's behaviour.

conservative officials have demanded that the bbc apologize and promise not to air the controversial footage.

however, helen boaden, director of news at the bbc, refused to apologise and responded to the accusations in a letter to mr. black, shown to the guardian.

ms. boaden accused the conservatives of blowing "the whole episode out of all proportion" and grandstanding, saying: "no news was created until [mr. black's] letter was supplied to three national sunday newspapers."

she responded to claims that the documentary had broken bbc guidelines by contesting the events as presented by mr. black, answering accustations that they had also been in stockton-on-tees and accusations by the sunday telegraph that the hecklers had been hostile to the conservatives as "simply untrue".

the hecklers equipped by the bbc shouted "michael howard is a liar", "you can’t trust the tories" and "you can only trust tony blair".

a bbc spokesman told reporters that they would be "investigating the complaint and very thoroughly and will be replying in due course."


bulgarian and romanian eu accession treaty is signed in luxembourg

the accession treaty of bulgaria and romania to the european union was signed today in luxembourg. as part of a ceremony, the treaty was signed by the heads of state of each of the 25 current eu members, as well as the bulgarian and romanian heads of state, in what is seen as the most important step towards eu accession.

the signature of the accession treaty marks the transition of bulgaria and romania from candidate countries of the eu to accession countries, which can now send observers to the european parliament and participate in several european union institution meetings. the countries will also receive extra funding between today and january 1, 2007, when the two countries are set to become full members of the european union.

the accession treaty signing has been met with celebration in both bulgaria and romania. romania also organised in luxembourg a series of cultural events, known as "zilele romaniei la luxembourg" (romania's days in luxembourg). the cultural events included traditional romanian music, concerts, an artistic performance and exhibitions by several important romanian visual artists. before the ceremony, romanian prime minister c?lin popescu-t?riceanu said:

the 860-page treaty finalises the candidacy of the two southeastern european states, who will now have to work hard to implement last-minute reforms until their accession date, less than 21 months away. both states must crack down on corruption, as well as secure their external borders, strengthen the judiciary and align competition law with eu standards. romania has recently been praised for taking decisive action against corruption, even though eu lawmakers said that there is a lot left to be done. upon accession in 2007, romania will also have the second-largest external border in the european union, after finland. due to this, it has recently upgraded several of its border checkpoints with ukraine and republic of moldova, even though more is left to be done until 2007.

the accession treaty signed today also includes references to a safeguard clause, which makes way for a delay in accession until 2008 if either bulgaria or romania do not meet their commitments.

apart from the political reforms needed to join the european union, eu funds will also help economic development in the two countries, enabling them to improve infrastructure, especially roads, clean up the environment and modernise their industries. while both countries are among the most developed in their region of southeastern europe, their per-capita income is between 30-35% of the european union average. therefore, when they join, they will be the two poorest countries in the eu.

the signing of the accession treaty should also boost foreign investment to the two countries. both countries have benefited in terms of foreign investment from being candidate countries of the eu, and their new accession country status is expected to lure more foreign investors. romania also introduced a flat tax rate of 16% on personal income and corporate profit this year to attract more foreign investment.

when bulgaria and romania join in 2007, the european union will have a population of approximately 484 million people, 30 million more than now. it will also raise the number of its members to 27, and add two extra official languages: bulgarian and romanian. the bulgarian language will be the first official language of the european union to be written in cyrillic script.


german minister for foreign affairs gives evidence about visa practice

fischer opened with a two hour speech explaining the visa practice from his point of view, and accepting responsibility for mistakes. he accused the conservative opposition of exaggerating the problem and campaigning against him and the government. 

the investigation committee questioned fischer about the visa program under the new liberalised rules, passed under the previous government. fischer noted that his visa practice was mainly a succession from the kohl government, and that a liberal handling of the visa practice was a political decision. he argued for more freedom of travel, especially for citizens under authoritarian governments such as the former ukraine government and the current in belarus. 

for the first time, sessions of an investigation committee are being broadcasted live on television.



study: children who socialise more, get cancer less

children who spend more time playing with other children are less likely to end up getting childhood cancers, a uk study published today in the "british medical journal" has found. the finding supports the researchers' theory that reduced exposure to common infections in the first year of life increases the risk of developing acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (all).

a total of nearly 10,000 children took part in the study, located in 10 regions across the uk. amount of time spent in daycare and social activity, during the first year of life, were used to gauge the level of exposure of the infants to common infections such as cold and flu.

day care in the first year of life for at least two days a week, with at least three other kids, halved a child's chance of contracting all. those who were rated in the category "any social activity" still had an improvement over the children rated as "no social activity": they had about 3/4 the chance of getting the disease.

the study describes that effect was "more striking" for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia ? a cancer affecting blood and the immune system ? than it was for the set of all other cancers. increasing levels of activity saw decreasing chances of childhood cancers, when compared against children who during their first year had no regular social activity outside the home.

theories have been around since the 1940s that childhood exposure to infection was related to the development of childhood leukaemia ? one, like the working theory of the uk study, said that lack of immune challenge was a factor, another that leukaemia developed as a delayed result of some type of infection.

the research was conducted by the institute of cancer research in london and in sutton, london school of hygiene and tropical medicine, university of york, christie hospital and central manchester and manchester children's university hospitals nhs trusts, and the university of edinburgh.


wikipedia founder speaks at us law school

wikipedia founder jimmy wales spoke at the harvard law school tonight with a presentation titled "wikipedia and the digital divide." projected on a screen behind wales was a running list -- in real time -- of edits to the german and english wikipedias. over the course of the hour, the list showed changes to topics like "time travel," "dante alighieri" and, in german, "the maronite patriarchs of antioch."

wales started with a summary of wikipedia's goals; the bulk of the time was given over to questions from audience members. approximately 65 people listened to wales' remarks. according to a hands-up poll that wales conducted at the start of the event, about half of those present had edited wikipedia before. six of those counted themselves as "wikipedians," a title wales suggested than anyone who's edited the wikipedia even once should consider.

before the event, samuel klein demonstrated the program, rcbirds, that created the running list behind wales. rcbirds plays a bird call in response to each edit made to wikipedia. wikipedians edit constantly; one attendee found the frequency of bird calls distracting and asked klein to turn down the volume on the program. 

wales ran through some quick statistics about wikipedia:

though the chinese wikipedia has over 25,000 articles, according to wales, the hindi and arabic versions are smaller than wales would like. referring to those two editions, wales said that wikipedia is, "not so strong where we really need to be." wales added later that the chinese government has blocked access to the wikipedia twice; once during the approach to an anniversary of tiannamen square, and once for no discernable reason. "we could make a big deal out of being blocked," said wales, "but we'd just score points with the western media, and it wouldn't get us any closer to our goal." 

wales described the organization behind the wikipedia as an "international red cross of information," able -- and impelled -- to work in a neutral fashion with governments and ngos. when asked about reaching out to the un, however, he said that he had been warned by a dutch minister that large bureaucracies tend to be comfortable working with other large bureacracies; the wikipedia employs only wales and thousands of volunteers.

wales cited three factors that correlate with wikipedia growth:

on the topic of the hindi wikipedia, wales attributed the lack of growth to the prevalence of english keyboards. he said that when he has asked hindi wikipedia contributors what made the task difficult for them, they said that they were, "not used to typing hindi."

"i don't know how to help with that," wales said. he hoped that the situation would improve.

at this point in the talk, wales opened the floor to questions.




putin’s state-of-the-nation speech addresses the economy


russian president vladimir putin spoke live on state television monday in his annual state-of-the-nation address using high ideological rhetoric when calling on lawmakers and the public to strengthen democracy and the rule of law. his 50 minute address from the kremlin's marble hall only briefly touched on the "epidemic of collapse" , a reference to upheavals in chechnya, kyrgyzstan and the ukraine, which was "a real drama" stranding millions of russians beyond the borders of the russian federation.

brushing off what was probably taken as criticism during last week's visit by condoleezza rice who commented the kremlin ran a "managed democracy", putin stressed that "russia ... will decide for itself the pace, terms and conditions of moving towards democracy." 

putin was critical of the lack of progress in implementing his reform proposals. calling for a crackdown on corruption, where treatment by tax inspectors are "terrorizing business", he addressed concerns of the business community by condemning a series of back-tax bills like the ones that dismembered yukos and face other major russian corporations.

he was also critical of a bureaucratic attitudes that treat "state service as some type of business". he made clear the need for investment must be met by "rules of the game" that are consistent, saying "russia is certainly interested in the inflow of private investments on a large scale, including foreign investments. it is our strategic choice and our strategic approach."

putin called for proposals to index wages to inflation over the next two years, and for the introduction of a flat 13% tax on undeclared earnings in the shadow economy, a slice that represents nearly 35% of the nation's economy, by legalizing what was previously defined as illegal income.

putin supports the development of a strong state system with determination for russia to avoid the disarray that led to the collapse of the soviet union. saying, "first and foremost it is worth acknowledging that the demise of the soviet union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century." he sees the need for strengthening the legal system and the political environment to assure a more just society in avoiding a replay of a russian downfall.

on politics, he pointedly abandoned the much-used ‘stability' catch phrase of the bureaucracy. putin signaled to the bureaucratic caste who are on the eve of their upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections they should promote partisanship and civil society.

by studiously avoiding too many references to business, the thrust of his address sought to reassure the small property holder class, rather than big business and other elite investors.


potential goldsmith leak worries labour, excites opposition

, 

the are preparing for the worst as expectations of a new in the wake of the continue to rise. the possibility that 13 pages of legal advice by the will be made public has caused a stir as tensions in the race for the continue to build.

the memo, allegedly prepared for the by lord goldsmith on the 7th of march 2003 and containing reservations about the legality of entering into war without a second , is considered by opposition leaders and anti-war groups to lend proof to allegations that mr blair misled the cabinet, the department of defence and the british public before the 2003 invasion. the claimed that six different reservations were laid out by the attorney general in his legal advice. controversy surrounds the memo due to the government's repeated claims that lord goldsmith's opinion on the war's legality was unequivocal. many believe that should it emerge that there were indeed doubts, the failure of the prime minister to inform the public of them constitutes a violation of trust - with claiming that the election must become a referendum on iraq and the trustworthiness of mr blair. <br>
the controversy hinges on whether the government honestly reflected the opinion of the attorney general in its press releases before, during and since the war. it is asserted that mr blair has claimed the private memo was of the same opinion as the published answer of march 17 2003, implying that goldsmith was unequivocal about the legality of the war throughout his deliberation. however, a spokesman for the attorney general has dismissed any claims that the march 17 answer was ever purported to be a summary of lord goldsmith's advice. this stance has been echoed by the head of the , sir andrew turnbull, in his words to the public administration select committee.

should the document emerge, it is likely that the government will maintain that the memo was never supposed to be construed as the attorney general's final opinion on the war's legality, and that his advice was subsequently modified after written assurances from the prime minister about saddam hussein's threat to the authority of the un.



indiana pacers beat boston celtics by 3 in game 2 of us basketball playoffs

the indiana pacers defeated the boston celtics 82-79 in the second game of the first round of the nba playoffs. the celtics trailed for most of the game. they briefly led 42-40 for 17 seconds just before the end of the second half, but in the last minute of the half, reggie miller scored 4 and james jones hit a three pointer that went through the net just after the halftime buzzer sounded to send the pacers to the locker room with a 5 point lead.

the celtics slowly worked their way ahead of the pacers during the third quarter; at the end of the third, the celtics lead by 5. in the fourth quarter, the pacers outscored the celtics 18 to 10 to win by 3. paul pierce fired a 3 point shot to tie the game with 2 seconds left, but it bounced off the rim and was rebounded by the pacers.

former celtic player larry bird, now the president of basketball operations for the indiana pacers, attended the game. sitting 4 or 5 rows behind the pacers' bench, mr. bird was guarded by a fleet center security guard.

at one moment in the second half, patriots' owner robert kraft was shown on the jumbotron. the crowd of 18,000 applauded for kraft, presumably because of the patriots' recent super bowl victories.

 


us military investigation clears soldiers in shooting of nicola calipari

an ongoing us military investigation into the death of the italian intelligence agent nicola calipari cleared the us soldiers charged. a us official speaking anonymously stated, "the soldiers were all complying with the standard operating procedures for those checkpoints and therefore were not culpable of dereliction of duty in following their procedures," according to the australian special broadcasting service.

the italian government has rejected the investigation's findings. prime minister silvio berlusconi later apologised for "an unfortunate leak" that suggested the investigation was completed, and assured paliament that the investigation was not yet over.

giuliana sgrena, the journalist of italian newspaper "il manifesto" who was injured in the shooting, replied, "unbelievable. they say soldiers followed only their rules of engagement. but if shooting on a machine that is moving, while usa were informed about it, is following rules of engagement, we must ask ourself what kind of rules they are." for sgrena now "it's important that italian magistracy goes on. but all may suppose that its job will not be so easy".

the report was delayed so that disputes might be solved between the two governments. these disputes included disagreements on how fast the car was going as it approached the checkpoint and if us soldiers knew that the car and passengers would be passing through on that day. italian officials who participated in the investigation are said to have disagreed with its findings.

us soldiers insisted that the car carrying sgrena and calipari to the baghdad airport was traveling at a high speed and failed to heed warnings to stop. the italian driver of the car denies he was speeding or that soldiers gave a warning. "it's enough to see the car," sgrena wrote in "il manifesto". "the front windshield is intact, while the side windows and the one behind are shattered."




rescuers search for survivors of japan rail disaster

rescuers working with cranes and heavy equipment at the scene of 's worst rail accident in forty years pulled 3 survivors and more bodies out of the wreckage of a packed commuter train that derailed on monday. the crash is now claiming 95 lives and over 400 injuries. hopes are fading for more survivors in the rail car search where it is thought a dozen bodies may yet remain.

the train crashed into the side of a nine-story apartment building located nearby a bend where it jumped the track. relatives of those lost are arriving in amagasaki to identify loved ones in a gymnasium where a makeshift morgue is located.

police searching for the cause of yesterday’s disaster investigated eight offices of west japan railway co on tuesday for clues to the rail driver. police conducting the probe said professional negligence may be involved. the train operator, who in the past received a warning for a similar incident, over-shot the stop at the previous station and had to back the train up nearly 40 m (130 feet).

it is unclear whether the inexperienced driver of the train survived, 23-year-old ryujiro takami with 11 months on the job.

running late and traveling at what survivors thought was excessive speed, it is believed the train lost control at a bend in the track where 71 km/h (44 mph) was the speed limit; however, any speeds under 134 km/h (83 mph) should not have caused derailment.

the train and aircraft disaster research committee, which reports to the ministry of land, infrastructure and transport, began to research the disaster. the committee members revealed unofficially the physical reasons of the disaster are quite complexe a member of the committee says the speed of train was monitored and at the fifth train it was recoreded that this car had run at 108 km/h speed in a certain moment after emergency brake had worked. 



thousands of romanians rally for release of kidnapped journalists

thousands of romanians participated in rallies on monday to campaign for the release of three romanian journalists kidnapped last month in iraq. crowds swelled in size after a weekend of smaller rallies sponsored by romanian media workers and the arab community in romania.

rallies were held all over the country, with the largest in bucharest, capital of romania, and eight other cities. rallying continues today with intensity in view of the deadline set by the journalists' captors demanding a romanian pull out of its troops in iraq. if the government does not pull out the troops, the captors threaten to kill the three ? marie-jeanne ion (32), sorin dumitru miscoci (30) and ovidiu ohanesian (37).

the mother of marie-jeanne ion, magdalena ion, made a public speech where she expressed hope that her daughter, and her daughter's colleagues, will be saved. she said, "the authorities have tried to reassure us but we are very anxious because the deadline is so short. but i'm sure it will be all right in the end."

romania's prime minister c?lin popescu-t?riceanu, said his government is making all efforts for the journalists' release, and they would not yield to terrorist demands, since this would enforce the fact that terrorism works.

counter groups are calling for romania to withdraw its troops. the right-wing popular great romania party (ppcd) and the social-liberal romanian humanist party (pur) have both pressured the government to withdraw.

the social democratic party (psd), the largest party in opposition, said that troops should be withdrawn, but not under terrorist pressure. the psd has mostly kept quiet during the kidnapping crisis because it was in power during 2000-2004 and was, therefore, the party who sent the troops to iraq in the first place. however, party president mircea geoan?, told a news conference that, "we must find a correct balance to establish a calendar without giving the impression that we have yielded to political blackmail."

a pullout of romania's troops is supported by over 70% of the population, according to a poll taken at the weekend. however, the governing truth and justice alliance is keen to let troops remain in iraq for peacekeeping efforts, until the country's situation stabilises.

a withdrawal by romania would deal a blow to the us-led coalition of the willing. romania's is one of the largest contingents of any european country in iraq due to the recent withdrawals or downscaling of spain, italy, the ukraine and poland. romania has so far been one of the only nato countries not announcing a withdrawal. president traian b?sescu was planning in march to send more troops.



president bush and saudi arabia's prince abdullah meet in crawford ranch

us president george bush met with saudi prince abdullah at bush's ranch in crawford, usa monday. he greeted the prince with a kiss on both cheeks. they previously met 3 years ago at the crawford ranch where president bush later said of the meeting, he developed a "strong personal bond" with the saudi crown prince.

a barrel of oil cost $25 three years ago. today it costs $54. the meeting was to discuss oil, the war on terror and efforts to extend democracy and peace in the middle east. "this is an important relationship," bush said. "a high oil price will damage markets. and he knows that. i look forward to talking to him about that, as well, you now, we'll talk about his country's capacity. it's an important subject."

the foreign affairs adviser to the crown prince, adel al-jubeir, said that saudi arabia has the capacity to produce more oil. according to him: "we believe that the price of crude oil does not reflect the full dimensions of supply and demand. there is no shortage of crude oil in the world today. what we see is a shortage of refining capacity as well as shortages in infrastructures and so forth, that drive the price of product up."

the us president and saudi prince talked about the israeli-palestinian crisis. "there is a shared vision," bush said. "i made it clear to him that i expected israel to withdraw, just like i've made it clear to israel. and we expect them to be finished." the us president said israel must look for a non-violent solution in ramallah and bethlehem.

according to "fox news", a senior administration official briefing reporters said the us president is concerned about the instigation of terror actions against israel. recently, the saudi arabia's ambassador to britain published a poem saying palestinian suicide bombers were martyrs.



india appoints new envoy to bhutan

the n government has appointed sudhir vyas as its new envoy to . vyas is currently india's ambassador to the , and will replace k s jasrotia as the new envoy.

chandra mohan bhandari, currently additional secretary in the external affairs ministry, will replace vyas as ambassador to the uae.

vyas is expected to start his new posting shortly.


argentinian workers preparing to defend control of factory

factory workers at a ceramic factory in neuquen, argentina are preparing to defend their autonomous running of their workplace, as the courts start to look at appointing an owner. the workers have been running the factory themselves since the argentinian government meltdown in 2001, and say they are more effective working independently.

there are now 410 workers at fasinpat ('fabrica sin patrones' or 'factory without bosses'), having hired over 170 new workers in four years of autonomous control. the factory is widely known as zanon, the name under the previous owner, luis zanon, who accumulated some us$170 million in debt, and shut down the factory, firing the workers.

argentinian government and businesses were in chaos at the time, with the government dissolving repeatedly and defaulting on $88 billion of debt, inflation skyrocketing and people demanding money from banks who had closed their doors.

like over 200 argentinian workplaces facing similar conditions, the workers chose spontaneously to run the factory themselves, and continued maintenance and production, to keep trading on their own behalf.

now thirty workers have travelled the 1,200 kilometers to buenos aires, presenting a petition containing thousands of signatures from all over the world at the central courthouse, and mobilising outside.

"with these actions we are marking a playing ground for the judge," said raul godoy, zanon worker and general secretary of the ceramists' union.

as the government has continued its legal assault upon the zanon factory, at least one factory employee has been reported to have suffered repeated threats and violence at the hand of unknown attackers.

esteban magnani, author of "el cambio silencioso" ("the silent change"), a book about worker cooperatives in argentina told "upsidedownworld.org", "in neuquen you have jorge sobisch, a right wing governor who wants to be the new [president] carlos menem ... wants to show how tough he is ... zanon is very politicized and famous, which is bad for a governor who wants to be seen as a right wing savior. sobisch feels the need to crack down now, because the longer he waits, the more powerful zanon becomes." some of the workers feel that sobisch may be approving the attacks or may be culpable in failing to defend the workers.

magnani indicates incumbent president nestor kirchner, described by wikipedia as "a peronist with leftist leanings", might defend zanon. "one of kirchner’s flags is human rights. now with this kidnapping and the continued threats, kirchner shouldn’t have any excuse to not do something about this."

"subway workers, train workers, airline workers, other recuperated businesses and many other sectors have made it clear that the employees at zanon will not be alone." says one zanon worker, "we are willing to defend the factory with our lives."

it may not come to that. governnor sobisch has been attempting to evict the workers of zanon in an ongoing, highly politicized legal battle for several years. sobisch has been ordered by the federal supreme court of argentina to evict the workers as soon as possible. 

other sources consulted about the past record of behavior by sobisch do not reflect a record of overt violence against the workers. at least one source from october 2004 said that sobish wants the workers to leave the zanon factory and work instead in a government-sponsored micro-enterprise project for unemployed workers, constructing prefabricated houses.


bomb explosion kills two in myanmar's second largest city

hospital officials reported tuesday that two women were killed by a bomb blast at a market in , the second largest city in myanmar. the city is located about 430 miles north of the capital .

police officials confirmed a bomb explosion at the zay cho market, yet the military-government of myanmar did not provide any details about the incident. a doctor said one of the women died at the market and the other died in the hospital.

16 other people were wounded and taken to the hospital. reports indicate there was a single explosion at the ground of the busy market at 16:15 local time. in the past several small bomb explosions have been reported without any victims.



greenpeace protestors put solar panels on british deputy prime minister's house

greenpeace activists have scaled the house of britain's deputy prime minister, john prescott, and then mounted 60 square feet of solar panels on the roof.

the four men and four women were highlighting what they believe is prescott's failure to make new houses, for which he has responsibility, more energy efficient.

after putting the solar panels up, they unfurled a large banner which read "oi 2 jags! hit targets, not voters".

john prescott's wife was alone in the house when the protesters climbed the building. she was reportedly awoken by their noise.

one protester, laura yates, 27, said, "the deputy pm's got a reputation for straight-talking," she said from the roof, "but since the election kicked off we've heard barely a squeak about climate change from big hitters like him. as long as the average existing british house is responsible for six tonnes of co2 every year he's not dealing with the climate crisis. he's in danger of hitting more voters than climate targets. whoever wins on may 5th needs to get serious about energy efficiency."

speaking from the roof by mobile phone, she told reuters, "it's a major contributor to the climate change problem and prescott could do something about this, particularly with the millions of new homes that are going to be built in britain over the next years," she said.

"he's overseeing this house building programme and he should be ensuring that every one of these new homes is built to zero emissions standards," she added.

the protesters climbed down at 2.50pm and were promptly arrested by local police for "harassment of a person in a dwelling". the police then handcuffed them before taking them away in a van. the protesters left the solar panels by the door of the house, offering to come back and install the panels at a later date.

a police officer emphasised to bbc news that the distress of the event had been immense for mrs prescott: "it's not pleasant to be invaded in the privacy of your own home and it is being treated seriously. she's very distressed but she's pleased with the happy outcome."

john prescott is currently touring the country as part of labour's general election 2005 campaign. speaking from gloucester, he told bbc news 24, "it's now clearly a publicity stunt and it terrorised my wife in the early hours in the morning to see all those men scrambling over the building. [mrs prescott] did not know who they were. it's deplorable and unacceptable even for a publicity stunt."

the protesters were challenged by the armed police officers who guard mr prescott's home, but reportedly the officers withdrew when they realised it was a peaceful protest.



british mother paralyzed in stabbing communicates with police

abigail witchalls, the 26-year-old mother of one who was stabbed on april 20, has begun communicating what happened to the police.

abigail was walking with her 21-month-old son at 4pm in a quiet country lane near london when she was attacked and stabbed once in the back of the neck, leaving her paralyzed from the neck down. she can only communicate via blinking and facial expressions.

surrey, the county in which the attack occurred, is statistically the safest in england and wales, with the lowest incident rate of serious violent crime.

surrey assistant chief constable mark rowley said in a press conference this morning that abigail's condition is continuing to improve as she is treated in the hospital.

"i would like to start this morning with the good news that abigail’s condition does appear to be continuing to improve. she has sustained an horrific injury, but her condition is no longer critical and she has been well enough to meet with two of our experienced detectives and communicate with them. they have been able to take a statement from her using questions that she can respond to in a positive or negative way by mouthing words or blinking.

"abigail has made it clear that she wants to help the police inquiry in whatever way she can and it is her courage and determination that has allowed us to communicate with her at such an early stage after so horrific an attack. she is an incredibly brave and determined young woman.

"abigail has managed to communicate a message to us that she wishes to give to you and i will start by reading this out. she says: “i am improving and everybody’s prayers are helping enormously. thank you for all the flowers which are beautiful. if you still want to give flowers please donate instead
to the world poverty day through the catholic agency for overseas development or any other way. thank you."

detective superintendent adrian harper then talked about the details of the attack they had learned from abigail.

"my officers spent several hours with abigail yesterday taking the statement, together with members of her family. the amount of information that abigail has managed to give us is extraordinary given her current condition. as i will shortly explain, she has been through an even more harrowing experience than we imagined and the strain of going through it with her at her hospital bed was a very emotional experience for both her family members and both of my detectives.

"the bravery and strength of abigail is extraordinary - she is determined to help catch this man as soon as possible and insisted on being interviewed for around six hours yesterday and wants to continue again today. this is a most unusual interview process - with a very intelligent and strong young woman - communicating through blinking, mouthing and facial expressions

"what abigail has told us is very significant to this inquiry. we are now able to work on confirmed information directly from her rather than having to rely on what she said to other witnesses and the evidence of local residents. what she has said has changed the focus of the inquiry and enabled us to rule out the man with the blue peugeot that we had previously arrested and bailed. we now believe that he was probably in the area at the time but that he was not involved in the assault on abigail.

"abigail has now been able to tell us that she first saw the man who attacked her at about 3.45pm on the afternoon of wednesday 20 april, on the public footpath along water lane in little bookham. the man was in a blue estate car, four-door plus the rear hatch, right hand drive, older style, plain, all one colour.

"the man was in the blue vehicle ahead of abigail. the vehicle drove towards and past her and they looked at each other. at that point abigail started to feel very uneasy and put joseph into the buggy and started to walk home along the track. when she was about three quarters of the way along the track she turned and saw that the car had pulled up some way behind at that the male was out of the car and coming towards her. she started to panic and immediately began running along the footpath with joseph still in his buggy.

"abigail reached the gate that leads onto the lane off burnhams road but could not open it. she the heard the man say, you have dropped your purse. she turned around and saw that the man had grabbed hold of joseph and was holding a knife to his throat.

"the man indicated to abigail to come towards him, which she did. he then grabbed her hair, pulled her down towards the ground and as he did so stabbed her once in the back of the neck with the knife. he then [pushed] the buggy, with joseph still in it, on top of her and ran off.

"abigail has said that the offender was alone and was someone she does not know. she describes him as being aged between 20 and 35 years-old, with short dark wavy or scruffy hair, between 5ft 10in, her height, and 6ft 4in tall, her husband’s height, with a long thin face and prominent cheekbones. he was wearing looped silver earrings, roughly three-quarters of an inch in diameter in both ears. she also describes quite a deep voice, a pale face and black bags under his eyes. she has also said that she believes that he was under the influence of drink or drugs. she does not know why he attacked her and he does not appear to have attempted to rob her. her purse and mobile phone were not taken.

"this man is clearly an extremely dangerous offender. anyone who is prepared to threaten a young child and try to kill his mother in front of him is clearly capable of anything. it is our duty to inform the public about the danger that this man poses and appeal to everyone for information that can help us to catch him as soon as possible.

"the appeal i want to make is quite precise. we could easily be overwhelmed by information that would hamper the inquiry rather than help it. what we need is very specific. do you know a man who fits this description, who has access to a blue estate car and who could have been in the bookham area on the afternoon of wednesday 20 april. if you know anyone who fits this profile, if you live with him or he is your child you must come forward to us. i repeat, anyone who is prepared to act in the way that this offender has done is clearly capable of anything and is a danger to anyone who comes into contact with him, no matter who they are.

"please do not approach him but contact surrey police on 0845 125 2222 with information or call 999 immediately if you know where he is."

assistant chief constable mark rowley ended the press conference by saying "it is hard to imagine a more compelling picture of vulnerability and innocence than a mother and toddler chased attacked and left for dead so brutally.

"there is no clear motive to this attack such as robbery or sexual assault, although the offender may well have been under the influence of drink or drugs. he is clearly a very dangerous man who must be caught as soon as possible. we are conducting an enormous operation, already committing over 150 officers and have gathered a wealth of material for forensic examination but need the public's help to identify the offender as soon as possible.

"i would reiterate the appeal that detective superintendent adrian harper has just made, to appeal to the conscience of every citizen to help us catch this brutal and dangerous man. this is a crime so horrific that i would hope that, for anyone watching this appeal, helping us identify the offender would come before any loyalty to family, friends or even criminal associates - this man must be caught."



ezer weizman former israeli president dies at the age of 81

ezer weizman, former president of the state of israel died at the age of 81 on april 24, 2005.

a world war ii fighter pilot, ezer weizman led the formation of the israeli air force which played a decisive role in israel's wars with arab nations. he left the military and began his political career in 1969, going on to help found the likud party, serving as defence minister, was closely involved in the camp david accords and the treaty with egypt, and advocated negotiations with the palestinians.

initially a hawk, israel-born weizman made a very public transition to the dove political views, saying jews had to "share this part of the world" with arabs. it was his belief that peace, and a strong military, were israel's strongest defences.

weizman was a nephew of israel's first president, chaim weizmann, and was himself elected in 1993 on the dovish labour ticket. his seven years in office led critics to describe him as the most political president of israel, a largely ceremonial position.

his funeral was held on april 26, 2005.



us secretary of state condoleezza rice visits latin america

the us condoleezza rice began a five day trip to latin america tuesday. she is expected to visit the following countries: brazil, colombia, chile, and el-salvador.

she arrived at brasilia air base today at 04:00 local time, and proceeded to a hotel in brasilia.


new government introduced to the italian parliament

, 

today around 6pm the new italian government was introduced to the house of parliament.

this government turns out to have a larger number of ministers, vice-ministers and undersecretaries than the previous. there are 9 viceministers and 62 undersecretaries (to which undersecretary of the council gianni letta should be added.)

the new government also turns out to have the greatest number of ministers, vice-ministers and undersecretaries of all the governments of the italian republic. the number of vice-ministers has reached 9, the number of undersecretaries is 62 (plus letta). this has caused the unusual sight of the benches of the government being overcrowded (there are only 25 benches). the crowding is expected to increase, because in the emiciclo (the party of the parliamentarians) there were few parliamentarians today, since the house vote of confidence in the new government will be carried out only tomorrow.

prime minister berlusconi has said that the next elections will take place in may of 2006 and this government will continue to serve until then.



lebanon goodbye to syrian forces

as the last forces in the final syrian pullout from lebanon left, bekaa valley residents danced, waved flags, raised banners and cried tears of brotherhood in celebration. tuesday afternoon’s masnaa border crossing marked the exit from lebanon of the last syrian army remnants, leaving 29 years of occupation behind.

a morning military gathering at bekaa’s air base in riyaq bid farewell to remaining troops and intelligence officers. attended by military attaches and dignitaries from several countries, including the united states, france and north korea, medals were exchanged and both lebanonese and syrian military bands played anthems.
in the largely symbolic ceremony, commander of the lebanese army gen. michel suleiman said, "brothers in arms, thank you for your sacrifices. together we shall always remain brothers in arms in the face of the israeli enemy."

the lebanese government led by bashar al-assad needs to make quick political reforms to ensure the survival of his regime. the once-dominant pro-syrian intelligence and security services are disappearing as the new government holds them accountable for past actions. the leadership vacuum must be filled.

yesterday, the powerful head of the general security service jamil sayyed, announced his resignation due to "changing political developments". raymond azar, the chief of lebanese military intelligence, reportedly fled with his family to france.

a former cia operative in lebanon and the middle east, bob baer said, “they [the syrians] are going to lose day-to-day control over lebanon, once they don't have the t-72 tanks and the military there to back up the intelligence units." according to upi.



anthrax scare closes michigan newspaper office

a midland, michigan, usa newspaper office was shut down briefly due a suspicious letter with white powder. when the envelope was opened at the "midland daily news" offices around 17:00 gmt tuesday, the presence of powder aroused alarm the envelope might contain the deadly disease anthrax.

the news office, along with restaurants and businesses near the downtown newspaper were quarantined as a safety precaution shortly after authorities were alerted. on-site tests found no evidence of anthrax, and the letter has been sent to lansing for additional tests. 

around 20:30 gmt, the office was reopened and all quarantines were lifted. a mail-sorting machine is being tested, and has been removed from the local post office for further tests.

the envelope did contain a return address, according to local news station "wnem-tv 5". the editor's office was closed tuesday night, and sealed off as a crime scene. 



ual jet diverts in bomb scare

66 passengers and the crew of a new york to san francisco ual flight got an unwanted stop in the "windy city," chicago, on tuesday, following a bomb scare.

united air lines spokesman jeff green said a flight attendant was alerted by a passenger to another passenger's suspicious materials and wires. the crew decided to divert the flight to o’hare, empty the plane, and allow the bomb squad to inspect for safety.

they discovered vials of herbal liquids, some wires, and an mp3 player. “nothing detrimental,” according to chicago police.

the passenger and music player were reunited, everybody re-boarded the aircraft, and with three hours lost, the flight took off for san francisco.


syria: lebanon pullout is &quot;full and complete&quot;, un to verify

retreating soldiers, flashing victory signs, completed a withdrawal spurred by intense international pressure and massive lebanese street protests against a syrian occupation force that at one time reached 40,000. masnaa residents of the bekaa valley region danced, waved flags, raised banners and cried tears of brotherhood in celebration as they witnessed the last troop convoys passing. the tuesday afternoon border crossing marked the official exit from lebanon of the last army remnants, leaving 29 years of occupation behind.

syria's ambassador to the u.n., fayssal mekhdad, spoke to the press claiming that the pullout was "full and complete." 

"i have just submitted a letter to both the secretary-general and the president of the security council from his excellency mr. farouq al-sharaa on behalf of the syrian government confirming the syrian full withdrawal from lebanon in terms of withdrawing the troops, the security apparatus and the [intelligence] assets," mekdad said.

the u.n., acting with uncertainty that withdrawal claims are true, will work to check them. a u.n. team sent for this purpose has already begun work in damascus. a spokesman said the group would first gather material in the syrian capital, then later leave for the lebanese capital in beirut.

u.n. secretary general kofi annan, addressing the security countil in new york, expressed some doubts about the completeness of syria's implementation of the council's decisions. "as of april 26, 2005, the requirements of resolution 1559 have not yet been met," annan said. "there has been no progress in the implementation of other provisions of the resolution," he added, stating that some member states had informed him that syrian intelligence troops might be taking up new positions south of beirut. 
verifying the troop withdrawal will be fairly simple. the more difficult task will be identifying whether all intelligence assets are gone. these are not the uniformed groups, but members of the security services found at all levels of lebanese society; in social, political and military echelons.

the lebanese government, led by bashar al-assad, will need to make quick political reforms if his regime is to survive. the once-dominant pro-syrian intelligence and security services are disappearing as the new governing forces have demonstrated they hold them accountable for past actions. the leadership vacuum must be filled.

yesterday, the powerful head of the general security service jamil sayyed, announced his resignation due to "changing political developments". raymond azar, the chief of lebanese military intelligence, reportedly fled with his family to france.

a former cia operative in lebanon and the middle east, bob baer said, "[the syrians] are going to lose day-to-day control over lebanon, once they don't have the t-72 tanks and the military there to back up the intelligence units," according to upi.

but the close relationship that comes with their national proximity to each other and their intertwined destinies is evident from their parting formalities and festivities.

a tuesday morning joint lebanese-syrian military gathering at bekaa's air base in riyaq bid farewell to the nearly 500 remaining troops and intelligence officers. attended by military attaches and dignitaries from several countries, including the united states, france and north korea. medals were exchanged and both lebanese and syrian military bands played anthems.

in the largely symbolic ceremony, commander of the lebanese army gen. michel suleiman said, "brothers in arms, thank you for your sacrifices. together we shall always remain brothers in arms in the face of the israeli enemy."


execution deadline for kidnapped journalists expires

iraqi terrorists extended the ultimatum by calling romanian "prima tv", the station where two of the kidnapped journalists worked. the news director of "prima tv" dan dumitru, said he received a call from iraq on late tuesday, in which he spoke both to the kidnappers and the journalists. the kidnappers gave the government a further 24 hours to withdraw their troops, while the kidnapped journalists told dumitru to put pressure on the romanian government for the withdrawal of the troops. the three made a "final appeal" to the romanian president, traian b?sescu, to withdraw the troops, saying that the time of their killing was set on wednesday, at 14:00 utc.

the islamic terrorists which kidnapped three romanian journalists last month extended the deadline for their execution from tuesday to today. in a tape aired on al-jazeera last friday, the terrorists, who call themselves the muadh ibn jabal brigades, gave the romanian government until tuesday, at 14:00 utc, to withdraw their 860 troops from iraq, or otherwise the journalists would be killed. on monday, the romanian prime minister, c?lin popescu-t?riceanu, said that his country would not yield to terrorist demands, and it appears that this has caused the extension of the ultimatum by a day.

yesterday, bucharest and other romanian cities were filled by ralliers asking for the release of the troops, holding up banners saying "freedom" in english, romanian and arabic. also, the mother of sorin miscoci, one of the hostages said, "this is the hardest day, we are thinking that their hours are numbered. we trust the authorities until the end." vasile ion, the father of marie-jeanne ion, another hostage, said, "we call for the urgent withdrawal of the romanian contingent from iraq, before it is too late for our children. the kidnappers have made a political threat and they are waiting for a political response."

commentators from prima tv observed that, on the tape shown by the terrorists, one of the journalists, sorin miscoci, was wearing orange overalls. the commentators described this as "culoarea mor?ii" ("the colour of death"), since iraqi terrorists had previously dressed hostages in orange, as an attempt to show that their threats were serious.

the romanian government has not made any official comment after the extension of the deadline. in its last official statement, it said that it would not withdraw the troops. a romanian pullout would be seen as a significant blow to the us-led coalition of the willing, since romania currently has one of the largest contingents in iraq.


world's largest passenger airliner makes first flight

april 27, 2005 
the world's largest passenger aircraft, the airbus a380, has made its maiden flight after lifting off from toulouse in france.

the take-off, at 08:30 utc, was apparently normal and took place exactly on time. the aircraft flew into clear blue skies with a flight crew of six (all wearing parachutes as a safety precaution) and twenty tonnes of test equipment on board.

around 50,000 people watched the maiden flight, many sitting on grass banks lining the runway. more people watched the flight on a giant screen erected in the centre of toulouse.

the test flight lasted four hours, with the aircraft flying no higher than 10,000 nor further than 100 miles from toulouse as it circled the bay of biscay.

the a380, known for many years during its development phase as the airbus a3xx, will be the largest airliner in the world by a substantial margin when it enters service.

the first a380 prototype was unveiled during a lavish ceremony in toulouse, france, on january 18, 2005. its manufacturer's serial number is 001, and it is registered f-wwow.

the new airbus will initially be sold in two versions: the a380-800, a full double-decker configuration, able to carry 555 passengers in a three-class configuration or up to 800 passengers in a single-class economy configuration. range for the a380-800 model is expected to be 8,000 nautical miles (14,800 km). the second model, the a380-800f dedicated freighter, will carry 150 tons of cargo 5,600 miles (10,400 km).

the cost of the project so far is ￡8.4bn, ￡1bn over budget. 144 planes have already been ordered. singapore airlines, which will be the first company to operate the new air giant, in july 2006, have opened a reservation site for this first regular flight. 




children find human bones, develop interest in anatomy

teachers at the elementary school of reduzum in friesland, the netherlands were surprised at what their pupils turned up with yesterday. the children had found some human bones in a large pile of landfill, originating from the oudehove cemetery in the frisian capital city of leeuwarden, which is being turned into an underground parking garage.

officials have spoken with the contractor, strukton, which was responsible for moving the soil to a site near the bridge across the swin, near reduzum. the bones will be moved with the rest of the cemetery to a new site north of leeuwarden.

the school principal reported that the children were hardly shocked when they found what they had discovered, and that they were more interested to learn about human anatomy. a biology lesson ensued.


cia gives up search and interrogation on iraq wmds

the united states central intelligence agency (cia) says it finished interrogating the nearly 105 iraqi scientists it held in its search for weapons of mass destruction (wmd). in many cases their information was helpful, but in other cases the wrong people were detained, and were subjected to questioning by "inexperienced and uninformed" interrogators.

from an update to the "comprehensive report of the special adviser to the dci on iraq's wmd", "as matters now stand, the wmd investigation has gone as far as feasible. after more than 18 months, the wmd investigation and debriefing of the wmd-related detainees has been exhausted.

"as far as the wmd investigation is concerned, there is no further purpose in holding many of these detainees. these individuals have shown no reluctance to engage in further discussions should the need for questioning arise about past wmd programs."

elsewhere, "some may have other issues to account for, including regime finance questions, but certainly some have been quite helpful toward the compilation of an accurate picture of the regime's wmd efforts and intentions over the last three decades."

the comments were addenda and an accompanying note, supplemental to the original report, which was issued last autumn, and seen as the final report of the iraq survey group (isg). they were added by charles duelfer, head of the isg, and special adviser to the director of central intelligence in baghdad.

deulfer emphasised that more information is likely to emerge naturally, over time, from people with differing viewpoints and interests. and a backlog of documents recovered from the former regime remain to be examined.

he described the isg investigation as hampered by: 

a preference for reinforcement of short-term security on the part of the coalition forces over anti-proliferation efforts, fear of arrest and detention on the part of the iraqi personnel, and other factors in the continuing conflict of the post-war environment, all impacted on the effort by the isg.

the report confirms the expressed opinion of former un weapons inspector, scott ritter, that iraq had no significant wmds. "[t]here was not a single intelligence service in the world that said iraq maintained massive stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction," ritter said at the time.

duelfer summary of the intelligence obtained, as understood by the isg, includes, "[t]he risk of iraqi wmd expertise of material advancing the wmd potential in other countries is attenuated by many factors and is presently small ..."

and, "so far, insurgent efforts to attain unconventional weapons have been limited and contained by coalition actions."

also, "there continue to be reports of wmd in iraq. isg has found that such reports are usually scams or in misidentification of materials or activities. in a very limited number of cases they have related to old chemical munitions produced before 1990."

the new addenda included information on the iraqi military industrial commission, the "state-run military-industrial complex" which played a "central role in the evolution of all the regime's weapons programs".


dutch mayors support legalisation of cannabis

the possession, consumption, and selling of cannabis, claimed by some to be less harmful and less addictive than tobacco, though not strictly legal, has been tolerated in the netherlands for a number of years. the cultivation of cannabis, however, still poses a problem to most cities. utrecht mayor annie brouwer noted fire risks, tensions with residential areas and the illegal tapping of electricity as reasons to get cannabis cultivation to the surface, so that it can be regulated. the mayors also argued that a successful test could show europe the benefits of legalising cannabis.

a discussion on dutch soft drug policy is to be held later today.



hunter tylo to rejoin the cast of &quot;bold and beautiful&quot;

actress hunter tylo is reported to have rejoined the cast of "the bold and the beautiful", in the latest chapter of a rocky relationship between tylo and the casting office. the news was first broken by entertainment magazine soap opera weekly. 

tylo played the role of dr. taylor hamilton forrester from 1990 until 2002, when she was killed off by villainess sheila carter, played by kimberlin brown. taylor's love affair with ridge forrester (played by ronn moss), and the ensuing triangle with brooke logan (played by katherine kelly lang), helped the then-fledgling soap move higher in the ratings in the early to mid-1990s. according to soap opera weekly, history has been rewritten so that taylor, in reality, did not die from her gunshot wounds back in october 2002. her return is tied in with a 1994 storyline in which taylor was held captive by moroccan prince omar (played by indian actor kabir bedi). both tylo and bedi are first seen on monday, may 2.

the magazine states that she has been on the set of the soap opera at cbs television city since march 11. for a while, she didn't even tell her husband, former "guiding light" actor michael tylo, where she was really going. she told him that she was just going on "a lot of auditions," and that if she told sooner than she did, the news might slip out accidentally. her husband currently teaches a class at the university of nevada, las vegas and she couldn't afford any accidental hints that his students could have picked up on.

this is not the first time tylo has rejoined the series. she left in highly publicized disputes most recently in 2000 and 2001, due to a lack of story for her character. her most publicized departure, however, was in 1996; tylo was scheduled to join the cast of "melrose place" and was fired when "<nowiki>melrose</nowiki>"'s producer aaron spelling found out she was pregnant. she took him to court and won after nearly a year of messy legal battles. all three times she was allowed to return to the show more or less without comment.

with more than 300 million viewers in nearly 100 countries, "the bold and the beautiful" is claimed to be the most-watched television series in the world.

see image<br>
hunter tylo book cover photo



dorothy's dress from wizard of oz sells for ￡140,000

the auction hammer came down wednesday, in london, on judy garland’s blue gingham dress, worn in the 1939 movie “the wizard of oz.” it sold for ￡140,000 (about us$262,157.40).

the identity of the buyer, who sealed the deal on the telephone, was not immediately revealed. bonham auctioneers told reporters there was a pre-sale estimate of ￡35,000 (about us$65,529.47).

the dress, one of the most recognizable in the movie world, was made for the 17-year-old garland who had a 27-inch (68-centimetre) waist. her name is still on a tag on an inside hem. it was auctioned as part of a sale of rock and film memorabilia and was described as a “cherished memory for millions of fans worldwide.”

the story of the “wizard of oz,” which sealed garland’s legend as a worldwide star, tells the story of a young kansan, dorothy (judy garland) and her dog toto. they are whisked away from their rural kansas home by a tornado to a magical realm called oz.

in their travels, they meet other now-famous characters, the scarecrow, the tin man, and the cowardly lion.

although the film started with only modest success, it has since become a screen classic.




lebanon government wins ‘vote of confidence’

by an overwhelming 109-1 margin, the lebanese government won a vote of confidence in parliament wednesday, coming just a day after what was touted as the “full and final” syrian occupation withdrawal.
the confidence vote, ushered in by the new prime minister najib mikati, is a step which allows for may elections called for by constitutional law and demanded by anti-syrian opposition groups.

speaking to parliament, mikati said, "we will not hesitate to carry out this constitutional requirement on time," according to the "ap".

the next step for mikati and government leaders is to draft new election laws. lebanese president lahoud said he was discussing among their leadership the possibility of asking for u.n. technical assistance in drafting the laws. a completed draft would be presented to parliament for passage in an approval process.

under domestic and foreign pressures, mr. mikati has so far shown he is capable of helping move the lebanese political process forward.




news briefs:april 27, 2005

police officials confirmed a bomb explosion at a market in mandalay, the second largest city in myanmar, but did not provide any details about the incident. a doctor said one of the women died at the market and the other in hospital.

16 other people were wounded and taken to hospital. reports indicate there was a single exlosion at the ground of the busy market at 4:15 p.m. in the past there were reported several small bomb explosions without any victims.

islamic terrorists who kidnapped three romanian journalists last month extended the deadline for their execution from tuesday to today. in a tape aired on al-jazeera last friday, the terrorists, who call themselves the muadh ibn jabal brigades, gave the romanian government until tuesday, at 14:00 utc, to withdraw their 860 troops from iraq, or otherwise the journalists would be killed. on monday, the romanian prime minister said that his country would not yield to terrorist demands, and it appears that this has caused the extension of the ultimatum by a day.

a midland, michigan, usa newspaper office was shut down briefly due a suspicious letter with white powder. the news office, along with restaurants and businesses near the downtown newspaper were quarantined as a safety precaution shortly after authorities were alerted. on-site tests found no evidence of anthrax, and the letter and mail handling machine are undergoing additional tests.

president bush was whisked to the president's emergency operations center (peoc) for safety during a false alarm this morning. the alarm indicated an airspace intrusion, which was quickly checked and found to be a technical error. white house press secretary scott mcclellan made clear that the president reached the shelter quickly, to demonstrate that the president is constantly in a safe environment.

after 29 years of occupation, syrian troops have pulled out of lebanon. fayssal mekhdad, syria's ambassador to the u.n., ensured the press the pullout was "full and complete." the u.n. plans to check the withdrawal claims. a u.n. team sent for this purpose has already begun work in damascus. a spokesman said the group would first gather material in the syrian capital, then later leave for the lebanese capital in beirut.

the airbus a380, the largest passenger aircraft, made its maiden flight from toulouse in france. around 50,000 people watched the maiden flight, many sitting on grass banks lining the runway. more people watched the flight on a giant screen erected in the centre of toulouse.

the a380, known for many years during its development phase as the airbus a3xx, will be the largest airliner in the world by a substantial margin when it enters service.

the first a380 prototype was unveiled during a lavish ceremony in toulouse, france, on january 18, 2005. its manufacturer's serial number is 001, and it is registered f-wwow.


new italian government gets confidence from the house

the new italian government, led by silvio berlusconi, received a vote of confidence from the italian house of deputies on wednesday. the tally was 334 pros, 240 cons and 2 abstentions.

the vote allows berlusconi up to another year in office, during which time he will have to gain support from skeptical voters if he is to win a second term.



boeing secures $11bn of aircraft deals

april 27, 2005
boeing has secured two large orders for new aircraft.

air canada has ordered us$6 billion in new airliners, while air india has signed a deal for a further us$7 billion.

the air canada deal includes firm orders for 18 777s and 14 of the new mid-size, long-range 787 dreamliner. options are included for 18 more 777s and 46 more 787s.

the air india order is worth us$6.8 billion for 50 787s.

air india says the new fuel-efficient airliner will save us$300 million in fuel a year, while air canada has estimated a 30% fuel saving over their existing 767s. air india have also said that the 20 extra seats the 787 offers over a similarly-sized airbus a330 was a decisive factor.

korean air also bought 20 dreamliners earlier this month.

boeing now has a total of 237 orders and commitments for the 787.

the boeing 777 is a family of long range widebody twin engine airliners built by boeing commercial airplanes. it carries between 305 and 550 passengers and has a range from 5,600 to 8,870 nautical miles (10,400 to 16,400 km). the first flight of the 777 was in 1994.

the boeing 787, or dreamliner, is a mid-sized passenger airliner currently under development by boeing commercial airplanes and scheduled to enter service in 2008. it will carry between 200 and 350 passengers depending on the seating configuration, and be more fuel-efficient than earlier airliners. in addition, it will be the first major airliner to use composite material in the majority of its construction.








air alarm at white house, bush moved to safety

an airspace intrusion alarm near the white house put the white house on alert wednesday. the warning was later revealed as a false alarm due to a technical problem. agents rushed the president from the into an underground shelter. the vice president was taken to a secure zone. some of the white house staff and visitors were also moved to safety.

in a short time it was shown to be a false alarm. aircraft were called in to check and patrol the air space around the white house.

white house press secretary announced the president reached the shelter quickly, to demonstrate that the president is constantly in a safe environment.

in , virginia, two unusually low-flying jets, presumably fighters, were heard approaching from the south. they screamed northward in the direction of washington d.c. at approximately 12:00 (16:00 ). the over-flights were ungrouped; the second plane followed the first by about a minute.



news briefs:april 28, 2005

the blair government in the united kingdom concealed warnings it was given over the doubtful legality of the 2003 invasion of iraq, in which it played a pivotal part.

the attorney general lord goldsmith's 13-page, 7th of march 2003 letter expressed serious misgivings, according to both channel 4 and the guardian, but further refinements brought his advice to a short 300 word 'summary' giving his go-ahead for an invasion on the 17th.

in the original letter he warned that if war went ahead without a united nations resolution it would probably be deemed illegal if hard evidence on saddam's alleged non-compliance and non-cooperation with weapons inspection teams was not uncovered. 

a leaked summary of the original letter has led the blair government to release the full 13 page document.

the new italian government, led by silvio berlusconi, received a vote of confidence from the italian house of deputies on wednesday. the tally was 334 pros, 240 cons and 2 abstentions.

the vote gives berlusconi another year in office to gain support from skeptical voters if he is to win a second term.

europe's human rights body openly condemned the united states yesterday for using what it termed "torture" and asked european countries not to cooperate in interrogating guantanamo detainees.

according to an ap report, the resolution adopted by the council's parliamentary assembly said in part "the circumstances surrounding detentions by the usa at guantanamo bay show unlawfulness on grounds including the torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees."

a u.s. pentagon spokesman said they were running "a safe, humane and professional detention operation at guantanamo that is providing valuable information in the war on terror."

edvard munch's most famous painting, "the scream," together with "the madonna," might have been burned.

both paintings were stolen in august 2004 from the munch museum. norwegian newspaper dagbladet reports that both "the scream" and "the madonna" might have been burned in order to destroy evidence.

according to dagbladet three persons have been arrested, but the two persons who did the actual robbery are still at large.

by an overwhelming 109-1 margin, the lebanese government won a vote of confidence in parliament wednesday, coming just a day after what was touted as the “full and final” syrian occupation withdrawal.

the confidence vote, ushered in by the new prime minister najib mikati, is a step which allows for may elections called for by constitutional law and demanded by anti-syrian opposition groups.

speaking to parliament, mikati said, "we will not hesitate to carry out this constitutional requirement on time."

the next step for mikati and government leaders is to draft new election laws. lebanese president lahoud said he was discussing among their leadership the possibility of asking for u.n. technical assistance in drafting the laws. a completed draft would be presented to parliament for passage in an approval process.

the united states central intelligence agency says it has finished interrogating around 105 iraqi scientists it has been holding over weapons of mass destruction. in many cases the wrong people were detained and subjected to questioning by "inexperienced and uninformed" interrogators.

"the wmd investigation has gone as far as [is] feasible. after more than 18 months, the wmd investigation and debriefing of the wmd-related detainees has been exhausted," charles duelfer, head of the iraq survey group (isg), wrote last month in an addendum to the group's final report, issued last autumn.

dutch minister alexander pechtold's radical suggestion to legalise cannabis in the netherlands has been supported by the mayors of 20 out of 30 of the largest dutch cities according to an investigation by the dutch newspaper trouw. pechtold promoted the legalisation of cannabis throughout europe earlier this week. pechtold's plans are opposed by justice minister piet hein donner however, who is advocating a tougher policy against cannabis.

the possession, consumption, and selling of cannabis, though not strictly legal, has been tolerated in the netherlands for a number of years. the cultivation of cannabis, however, still poses a problem to most cities. utrecht mayor annie brouwer noted fire risks, tensions with residential areas and the illegal tapping of electricity as reasons to get cannabis cultivation to the surface, so that it can be regulated. the mayors also argued that a successful test could show europe the benefits of legalising cannabis.

the auction hammer came down wednesday, in london, on judy garland’s blue gingham dress, worn in the 1939 movie “the wizard of oz.” it sold for ￡140,000.

the identity of the buyer, who sealed the deal on the telephone, was not immediately revealed. bonham auctioneers told reporters there was a pre-sale estimate of ￡35,000.

the dress, one of the most recognizable in the movie world, was made for the 17 year old garland who had a 27-inch (68-centimetre) waist. her name is still on a tag on an inside hem. it was auctioned as part of a sale of rock and film memorabilia and was described as a “cherished memory for millions of fans worldwide.”

actress hunter tylo is reported to have rejoined the cast of the bold and the beautiful, in the latest chapter of a rocky relationship between tylo and the casting office. tylo played the role of dr taylor hamilton forrester from 1990 until 2002, when she was killed off by the show's villainous sheila carter, played by kimberlin brown. according to soap opera weekly, history has been rewritten so that taylor, in reality, did not die from her gunshot wounds back in october 2002.

with two large deals made with air canada and air india, boeing has shown itself unshaken by competitor airbus. the air canada deal included 18 777s and 14 of the new fuel-efficient 787s, while the air india deals was for 50 of the new design - solid sales indicating the acceptance of different airlines model focused on more flexible scheduling.



harvard university officials update agassiz neighborhood council about local construction in cambridge, massachusetts

harvard university planners met with the agassiz neighborhood council to update the community about harvard's construction and expansion plans in the neighborhood on april 26, the harvard crimson reported today. the two major topics discussed were the northwest science building, which is currently under construction on oxford street, and the expansion of the harvard law school. according to the crimson, harvard officials outnumbered the number of community members present at the meeting.

the plans for law school expansion are still unfinished, the crimson reported. the director of community relations at harvard, thomas lucey, said that wyeth hall may be demolished. according to the law school website, wyeth hall is "the most popular dormitory at harvard law school". it is adjacent to the berkman center for internet and society on massachusetts avenue, just south of three aces pizzeria.

the crimson also noted that tom murray, the project manager for the northwest science building, was slated for completion by may of 2007, with landscaping completed the following spring.

a visit to the science building site by wikinews reporter last week verified that the pouring of cement had begun. four large cranes had been brought to the site; one of them was being used with a clamshell attachment twice the height of a grown man to dig a deep trench. the truck "wheel wash" station marked on the site plan was operational, in the form of a man with a pressure washer, though in this reporter's brief observations, more windshields were washed than dirty tires.

cambridge planning board approves new science building at harvard


munch's &quot;the scream&quot; might have been burned

edvard munch's most famous painting, "the scream," together with "the madonna," might have been burned.

both paintings were stolen in august 2004 from the munch museum. norwegian newspaper "dagbladet" reports that both "the scream" and "the madonna" might have been burned in order to destroy evidence.

according to "dagbladet" three persons have been arrested, but the two persons who did the actual robbery are still at large.


european human rights body condemns u.s. &quot;torture&quot; at guantanamo bay

lawmakers from 46 european countries meeting in , france asked the bush administration on tuesday “to cease torturing and mistreating detainees” at guantanamo bay, cuba. europe's 50+-year old human rights body, the council of europe, openly condemned the united states tuesday for using what it termed "torture", and asked european countries not to cooperate in interrogating guantanamo detainees.

a spokesman for the pentagon responded that they run "a safe, humane and professional detention operation at guantanamo."

"the circumstances surrounding detentions by the usa at guantanamo bay show unlawfulness on grounds including the torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees," said the resolution adopted by the council's parliamentary assembly, reported in the "associated press". the body, confusingly named but not related to the european parliament, affirmed its support for the united states in the fight against terrorism, but said that the us government "betrayed its own highest principles in the zeal with which it has attempted to pursue the war on terror."

the us government has denied using torture at the base, but human rights council member boris oliynik said; "what we see in guantanamo has nothing to do with justice, the conditions there are medieval."

the icrc has been monitoring conditions for detainees at guantanamo and over 2,000 other places worldwide since 2002. on november 30, 2004, the international committee of the red cross (icrc) issued a press release stating that their policy is that they will neither confirm or deny a widely-repeated report by the "new york times" last november 30 about their findings in guantanamo.the times report by neil a. lewis reads in part; "the international committee of the red cross has charged in confidential reports to the united states government that the american military has intentionally used psychological and sometimes physical coercion 'tantamount to torture' on prisoners at guantanamo bay, cuba."

the icrc policy is to address questions of possible abuse to the relevant government authorities, in this case the office of detainee affairs which was set up by the . according to the icrc press release, their adherence to this policy made "it possible for the icrc to have repeated and regular access to those held at guantanamo bay and to speak with them in private."

the icrc continues to monitor detainees at guantanamo and deliver messages from them to their families.


uk govt concealed attorney general's doubts over iraq invasion

the united kingdom's blair government concealed doubts expressed by its attorney general's department on whether the 2003 invasion of iraq was legal. now, in the run-up to a may 5 general election and with no evidence of a serious threat from pre-invasion iraq having come to light, a furor has erupted over the issue.

high-ranking governmental legal advisor, elizabeth wilmshurst, protested in her resignation letter just prior to the invasion, about sudden, unexplained changes the attorney general had made in the tone of his legal advice to the government. in the space of a few weeks, lord goldsmith dropped suggestions that the government may have been legally culpable if it invaded without receiving specific support in the form of a new un resolution.

when the "bbc news website" finally obtained wilmshurt's resignation letter under freedom of information, her protest over the attorney general's unexplained turnaround was obscured.

the missing paragraph was later obtained by "channel 4 news":

""my views accord with the advice that has been given consistently in this office before and after the adoption of un security council resolution 1441 and with what the attorney general gave us to understand was his view prior to his letter of 7 march. (the view expressed in that letter has of course changed again into what is now the official line.)""

conservative party leader michael howard, wants to know what made lord goldsmith change his advice to the government. he told channel four, "the prime minister [tony blair] has said that the attorney general's advice given to the cabinet on the 17 of march was clear and the attorney general did not change that advice. well, we now know the attorney general did change that advice and the question is what or who changed it."

foreign secretary jack straw, in a statement last month, read in both houses of parliament, defended initially censoring the letter on privacy grounds, and the later omission of the two revealing lines "because their content concerned the provision of legal advice in relation to the use of force against iraq."

although ms wilmshurst describes the attorney general lord goldsmith's 13-page, march 7 letter as being a change to his previously expressed view against a war without specific un support, even this letter expressed serious misgivings, according to both channel 4 and the "guardian".

further refinements brought his advice to a short 300 word 'summary' delivered to cabinet on march 17, giving a full go-ahead for invasion. the letter was not published, according to philippe sands in the "guardian", a breach of ministerial protocol. both letters have since been obtained by both the "guardian" and channel 4.

according to mr straw in parliament last month, "the attorney-general made clear in his [march 17 advice] his genuinely and independently-held view that military action in iraq was lawful on the basis of saddam's breach of the existing un resolutions,".

but in the earlier and longer version, the attorney general lord goldsmith had written, "i remain of the opinion that the safest legal course would be to secure the adoption of a further resolution to authorise the use of force."

in the absence of such a resolution, he added, if war was pursued, "we would need to be able to demonstrate hard evidence of non-compliance and non-cooperation."

when the later, short version was put before cabinet, no-one asked what this hard evidence might be, that supposedly showed iraq was in breach of un resolutions 1441, 678 and 687, despite the possibility that without such evidence, the uk might be on shaky legal ground and accused of launching a war of aggression.

"so concerned was the government about the possibility of such a [legal] case that it took steps to put together a legal team to prepare for possible international litigation," he wrote, in a "guardian" story in february, which examined the two letters of legal advice.

the final report by the post-invasion iraq survey group ? "the best picture that could be drawn concerning the events, programs, policies, and underlying dynamics of the relationship of the former regime to wmd over the last three decades", according to the team head, cia special advisor charles duelfer ? concludes that iraq was not capable of any wmd-related threat at the time of the invasion, and that the sanctions were still limiting the ability to develop any capability.

iran was the country saddam was most afraid of, iraq had no written strategy for wmd development, and the closest thing to actual wmds mentioned seems to be preliminary designs for missile delivery systems that could have exceeded the un-specified range limit of 150km for iraqi missiles under the sanction regime.



berlusconi warns u.s. on agent's killing

in an escalating controversy that has contributed to italian prime minister silvio berlusconi's political problems and created a national uproar in italy, italian prosecutors began their own independent probe on wednesday of the death of nicola calipari. the premier has put his government's prestige on the line with assurances to the nation that full light would be shed on the shooting.

calipari, one of the top intelligence agents in italy, had negotiated a settlement with hostage takers in baghdad and was rescuing journalist giuliana sgrena from them when american soldiers fired on the car they were in. calipari became a national hero for italians after he bravely threw his own body across hers as the firing continued, killing him and seriously injuring sgrena with a few bullets in her back. she is still recovering.

meanwhile, americans released a document, now described as incomplete, which says the u.s. army, in a joint inquiry with italian officials, cleared its own soldiers of any responsibility in the tragic events of march 4.
the prime minister has put his reputation on the line says francesco cossiga, an ex president of italy. he was quoted by the italian news agency ansa, saying he thinks berlusconi would have no choice but to withdraw italy’s 3000 troops from iraq if the u.s. soldiers are cleared without further investigation, called by the u.s. a “friendly fire” incident. cossiga is demanding the u.s. release them to italian officials for trial or make the commitment to put them before an american court martial.

berlusconi said that italy would "never endorse" a report on the shooting by us soldiers of an italian intelligence agent if it was unconvincing.

"if there are differences, they will emerge. but certainly, we will never endorse things that do not convince us," mr. berlusconi told reporters.

an international group of journalists, “reporters without borders” (reporters sans frontieres), said they were “very surprised” at tuesday’s report released by the u.s. army.

“we are not convinced that everything possible has been done to establish what happened in this tragedy or to determine the responsibility of all those involved, and we reiterate our appeal for an independent international enquiry by us and italian authorities," the press freedom organization said.

they had asked for a united nations investigation immediately after the shooting. they also commented on the fact that the two italian investigators disagreed with the findings of the u.s. army and refused to sign the finished reports.

"we will see then what official reaction comes from the italian government, which has a right to demand sanctions," it said.

ms. sgrena again today described the army’s announcement as a "slap in the face for the italian government." u.s. investigators were satisfied, according to the report, that "the procedures were followed to the letter" by the soldiers involved. ms. sgrena repeated her statement that the car in which she, calipari and another agent, the driver, were travelling had “no warning signal…no warning shot” and "the searchlight was turned on after the shots were fired."

the position of the u.s. high command, that soldiers had followed procedures, has remained unchanged since they first asserted this shortly after the incident occurred.

u.s. secretary of defense, donald rumsfeld said of the report and its investigators, "my latest information is that they [the americans and italians] have not come to a final agreement on a joint report...it's an investigation, it was done together, intimately, and i think that we'll just have to wait and see what they come out with."







uk party leaders questioned on bbc 'question time'

with the uk general election on may 5, three party leaders from the largest parties in the election answered questions live on the bbc at 19:30 utc thursday. charles kennedy (liberal democrats), michael howard (conservative party, currently opposition) and tony blair (labour party, incumbent) were asked questions by an audience representative of the british public. the politicians were given no advance notice of the questions. david dimbleby hosted the discussion, as he has other "question time" debates.

topics that were raised included taxation and the new 50% top rate of tax proposed by the lib dems, immigration and controls proposed by the conservatives, the largely negative campaigning launched by the tories, and the legality of the iraq war. also, bullying and discipline in schools, further education and public health were issues raised.

charles kennedy's period in the "hot chair" was notable for the largely benevolent questions posed to him, and considerable support evident from applause and cheering at the end of several points made. he attacked the british first past the post electoral system as "perverse" and said that he would support a proportional voting system if he got into power. when questioned as to whether, upon pressure from the us, he would go to war again in the middle east without sufficient evidence, he replied strongly "no." further, he said he could not see the liberal democrats in another coalition with any other party that may come into power.

in contrast, the opposition leader entered accompanied with less enthusiasm, including several cries of "howard is evil!" by several unidentifiable members of the audience. michael howard revealed during the debate that, if that he knew all of the things he knew now, he would have supported the invasion of iraq with tony blair. however, he still upholds the illegality of the war and the way it began, and the apparent lies on the part of the prime minister to the people as primary reasons to vote for his party.

tony blair's interview period was highlighted by the decision to go to war on iraq, and the attorney general's advice in a recently leaked dossier. difficult questions relevant to the amount of consultation he made with his cabinet members and the intelligence groups, and the amount of division within his cabinet with regards to the iraq war were raised. the prime minister was visibly under pressure, and was openly surprised at several statements made by the public present. upon hearing that local surgeries did not allow appointments to be booked until less than 48 hours before an available time in order to meet government targets, he was unprepared and appeared surprised.

toward the end of the discussion, hecklers in the front row interrupted the rounding up of the program.

considering the content of "question time", it would seem that the problem of iraq, and whether the british public can trust the current prime minister, may overshadow political debate concerning domestic issues.



new italian government gets confidence from the senate too

italian prime minister silvio berlusconi's government received a vote of confidence from the thursday, after it earned the confidence of the yesterday. the senate's tally was 170 pros, 117 cons and no abstentions.

berlusconi declared these votes of confidence as demonstrating the strength and coherence of his coalition.

he also declared that he wanted a change in the electoral law so that a bipartisan political system would srise, and that he wants to form a majority government after the next election.
 


rare woodpecker discovered in arkansas

wildlife scientists confirmed on thursday that a bird long thought extinct, the , has been found in arkansas. the remarkable birds have a 30-inch wingspan and stand nearly 20 inches high.

the birds inhabited a wide swath of american bottomlands and mountain pine forests until the latter part of the 1800s. they require a large feeding ground, and it is thought the expansion of towns and cities closed off their domain. they went extinct in cuba during the same period. ornithologists say each mating pair of ivory-billed woodpeckers needs three square miles of forest to survive. there were thought to be only 22 of them left in 1938.

there have been several independent sightings of the bird in arkansas over the last year, and even a videotape. in an effort to support the birds, the lab of ornithology, , and other groups have joined to form the big woods conservation partnership to conserve 200,000 acres of forest habitat and rivers in the area during the next 10 years.

john fitzpatrick, director of the cornell laboratory of ornithology told the associated press, "the bird captured on video is clearly an ivory-billed woodpecker. amazingly, america may have another chance to protect the future of this spectacular bird and the awesome forests in which it lives." 

the story premiered thursday in the online version of science magazine.



exploding toads confuse scientists

scientists in hamburg, germany are baffled by what appears to be a widespread case of "exploding toads". in a local pond, more than 1,000 toads have expanded and then exploded. in addition, it has been reported that thousands more are exploding in central denmark, in a town called lasby located in mid-jutland.

the water in the pond has been checked, but does not indicate anything out of the ordinary. neither do the toad's corpses. they have been checked for bacteria and viruses, but none have been found.

one german scientist is theorizing that the toads are being terrorized by crows who attempt to peck at the toads' livers. when the crows go for the livers, the toads puff up as a defense mechanism. since there is a hole in the toad's body caused by the pecking crow, the entrails and blood explode out of the hole.

german tabloids have taken to calling the pond, "the death pool" and "the pond of death".



general pavkovic pleads not guilty

serbian general, neboj?a pavkovi?, pled not guilty before the international criminal tribunal for the former yugoslavia in the hague today. pavkovi? is indicted on four counts of crimes against humanity and one count of violations of the laws or customs of war from january 1999 to june 1999 in kosovo. 

after fleeing from serbian authorities, he surrendered on april 22. pavkovi?'s extradition was one of the conditions for confirmation of the feasibility report of accession of serbia and montenegro to the eu.


president bush faces some tough questioning

white house reporters used their first "prime time" chance in over a year to pepper u.s. president bush with questions during a nationally televised press conference. bush talked about the a wide range of topics including the threat of north korea, social security solvency and his support for privatized accounts as well as means-based benefits, the rocketing price of crude oil, and issues concerning iraq.

during the thursday evening conference, president bush was asked, "mr. president, under the law, how would you justify the practice of 'renditioning', where u.s. agents who bust terror suspects abroad, taking them to a third country for interrogation? and would you stand for it if foreign agents did that to an american here?"

"that's a hypothetical," president bush quickly replied.

after a brief pause, bush continued, "we operate within the law, and we send people to countries where they say they're not going to torture the people..."

"the unusually expansive authority for the cia to operate independently was provided by the white house under a still-classified directive signed by president bush within days of the sept. 11, 2001 attacks at the world trade center and the pentagon", the new york times reported, quoting government officials.
since 9/11, concern has grown that the cia may be flying suspected terrorists to nations such as uzbekistan in order to have them interrogated using methods that would be prohibited by law in the u.s. itself.

the president told reporters, "i'm going to say it again: one of my concerns after september the 11th is the farther away we got from september the 11th, the more relaxed we would all become and assume that there wasn't an enemy out there ready to hit us..." 

one episode of renditioning was reported by "the washington post" in november 2003. it relates to a canadian citizen who, while on an international flight that stopped in new york to pick up passengers, was detained and deported to syria where he endured 10 months of what he described as torture in a syrian prison.

maher arar, who lives in toronto with his family, was released in october of 2003 and has never been charged with any crime. he said that he pleaded with u.s. authorities to let him return to canada. the syrian charge d'affaires in washington, imad moustafa, denied that arar was tortured in an interview on cbc radio.
president bush was also asked, "mr. president, your state department has reported that terrorist attacks around the world are at an all-time high. if we're winning the war on terrorism, as you say, how do you explain that more people are dying in terrorist attacks on your watch than ever before?"

"well, we've made the decision to defeat the terrorists abroad so we don't have to face them here at home," president bush replied.

during the hour long telecast, president bush restated his primary messages on social security, energy policy, and the war in iraq.

social security was the biggest topic before he opened up to reporters for discussion. he pressed for politicians working on the program to act with bipartisanship, citing tough challenges ahead when shortfalls in the program's funding are in some calculations projected to begin in about a decade.

the press conference was only the fourth prime-time press conference held by president bush since he took office in 2001.




u.s. epa submits 2003 greenhouse gas inventory to u.n.

the us environmental protection agency (epa) has released an official annual report to the united nations (un) on greenhouse gas emissions in the united states. the report is drafted, held for 30 days of public comment, then released to the secretariat of the un framework convention on climate change (unfccc) each year in april.

this year's report is the ninth since the epa began producing the emissions inventory in 1997, after the us signed and ratified the unfccc in 1992. the unfccc, a legally non-binding treaty created to address global warming, is not as well known as the kyoto protocol, which is a more recently updated protocol based on that treaty. the united states did not ratify the kyoto protocol; however, it was ratified by 127 other nations and went into effect for them on february 16, 2005.

the epa report covers the period 1990-2003, with particular emphasis on the 2003 period (there is a one-year delay in preparation). major findings include:

the period beginning in 1990 is of interest, since that is the period addressed by the kyoto protocol, which attempts to reduce the average greenhouse gas emissions for each country to 5.2 percent below 1990 levels.

gases covered in the report included six major greenhouse gases. the first three gases are produced both naturally and by human activity, but the last three gases are mainly produced by human activity:

about 80% of the total emissions came from the burning of fossil fuels. other major natural greenhouse gases are water vapor (ho), which actually traps more heat in the atmosphere than all the listed gases combined; and ozone (o), a gas well-known for a "hole" in the ozone layer being discovered over the earth's polar regions in recent decades.




tabletop fusion may lead to neutron source

a ucla team, headed by brian naranjo, has observed the nuclear fusion of deuterium nuclei in a tabletop device. the device uses a lithium tantalate (litao) pyroelectric crystal to ionize deuterium atoms and accelerate the ions towards a stationary erbium deuteride (erd) target. fusion of two deuterium nuclei results in the emission of helium nuclei (alpha particles), neutrons and gamma rays. the team anticipates applications of the device as a tabletop neutron generator, or in "microthrusters" for space propulsion. it is possible that there may be applications related to nuclear weapons, although this possibility is not discussed in the research paper.

this development is not related to earlier claims of tabletop fusion or "cold fusion" having been observed during sonoluminescence. in fact, the leader of the team behind this development was one of the main critics of earlier low-temperature fusion claims.

this device is not the first reliable tabletop fusion device; the farnsworth-hirsch fusor, developed in the early 1960s in the laboratory of philo t. farnsworth who was instrumental in developing television, is sold commercially as a neutron source. research by dr. todd rider of mit suggests that the kind of non-equilibrium fusion produced in these sources will never be usable as an energy source (see his phd thesis). 




indiana pacers beat boston celtics again to lead series 2-1 in us basketball playoffs

reggie miller led the indiana pacers in scoring with 33 points as the pacers beat the celtics in indianapolis by 23 points to take a 2-1 lead in the first round of the nba finals. after losing the first game to boston at the fleet center, the pacers came back in game 2 to win by 3.

the celtics kept within 5 points of the pacers until the middle of the second quarter, when the pacers went on a 13-1 run. at halftime, pacers led by 17, 55-38. though the celtics pulled to within 7 in the middle of the third quarter, they never led again.

three celtics scored in double figures (paul pierce, gary payton, and antoine walker), but it was not enough to overcome reggie miller, who scored 15 points in the fourth quarter alone. walker was ejected from the game with 4:05 remaining for two technical fouls.



news briefs:april 29, 2005



pay-by-plastic pumps up gas prices in u.s.

“people are not paying with cash anymore,” alex demir stressed when asked about rising gas prices. increasingly, they opt to pay with "plastic". the payment method involves no transaction fee, is safer than cash if lost or stolen, and is more convenient. the plastic debit and credit cards also mean people, if they choose to, can pay at the pump and skip making the trip inside the station. no wonder its use is on the rise.

demir is the owner-operator of the shell gas station that changed over on thursday from what used to be a texaco. he expects pump prices to hit $2.50 a gallon before levelling and the sticker shock wears off.

demir estimates he passes along in the form of higher gas prices a nickel per gallon due to the surcharge he incurs from processing electronic purchases. each time a buyer uses plastic to make a payment, he submits the receipt to a bank to process for having the money credited into his account. the bank keeps 3% of the total amount of his transactions as a processing surcharge, or fee.

when the use of plastic was first gaining acceptance in the gas pumping business, people who used plastic paid a higher price, about 3 cents a gallon, when at the time gas cost about a dollar a gallon. then advertising campaigns offering “credit same as cash” started, and changed the business standard to where now all stations charge the same, regardless of cash or plastic payment.

“the banks are making a lot of money on this,” demir says. now that the price of gas has more than doubled, the fees banks collect on processing these plastic transactions has more than doubled too. the entire transaction banks use to process these payments is electronic, involving hardly any labor at all. but the processing fee remains unchanged, which means a fat paycheck for banks.

now maybe he and other gas stations will go back to offering a discount for cash. processing plastic transactions is a variable cost to demir over which he has no control when his pump prices are 'credit same as cash". the use of plastic directly affects his profit margin by the 3% processing fee.

when asked about high gas prices from suppliers, he dismissed the notion with a wave of his hand. “they control everything,” he said. 


romanian mining industry to receive 115 million euro in state aid

the romanian ministry of economy and commerce, in partnership with the ministry of public finance, have approved a package giving 115 million euro state assistance to the mining industry. this will involve the exemption of 11 state-owned mining companies from financial obligations, of contributing to the state budget, worth 115 million euro. the largest tax exemptions were awarded to the oltenia national lignite company, with 47.4 million euro and to the national coal company in petro?ani (38.3 million euro). the exemption took effect on april 26.

state aid to several industries, especially mining and steelworking, is expected to decline in the coming years, as the european union has told romania that it needs to stop subsidising loss-making industries in order to be able to fully integrate into the european union common market. additionally, romania's new justice and truth (liberal-democrat) governing coalition is keen on further liberalising romania's free-market economy, by greater privatisation, fiscal liberalisation and a reduction in state aid.


swedish packaging company transfers production lines to romania


swedish company korsnas packaging has extended its operations in romania by transferring two production lines from germany and the united kingdom to its romanian subsidiary in ploie?ti, an industrial city close to bucharest. the first production line will be designed for producing packing material for food and the building industry. this line will be transferred to romania at the beginning of may, with the transaction being worth ?1.5 million. the second production line will be transferred in 2006, depending on the 2005 financial results of korsnas' romanian subsidiary.

in the past few years, and the past year especially, more european union companies have relocated to romania for to its lower labour cost and skilled workforce. foreign investors have also been attracted by a new tax policy which started in january 2005, putting in place a flat 16% tax rate for personal income and corporate profit. foreign investment is expected to increase in the future, as romania signed in april 25 its accession treaty with the european union and is set to become a member of this organisation on january 1, 2007.



pay-by-plastic pumps up gas prices in u.s./notes

when i first passed the gas station earlier in the day, there was a guy in a man-lift hoisted up next to the gas price sign, and i thought, “oh gawds, the gas prices are really outta hand now…!” 

i later realized, after passing by later, that it was a changeover from a texaco station to shell. the man-lift was finished and gone by then. earlier it was making changes to the plastics and graphics on the gas price sign.

i gave mr. demir the url here to come get me if i mis-quoted him.

- 07:37, 29 apr 2005 (utc)


world's most expensive hotel-casino opens in las vegas

the world's most expensive hotel-casino ever has opened in . the casino, which was designed and built over a period of five years, cost us$2.7 billion to construct. the hotel stands nearly fifty stories above the las vegas valley, with a 180-foot tall mountain in front of the main entrance.

numerous lavish touches contributed to the high expense of the development. the sign in front of the wynn property has an unusual mechanical design, with a large piece containing the "wynn" logo, which can move vertically up or down as different announcements are presented.

"i think it's going to start a shift of power. it's been the south for a long time. things will start moving to the north because of wynn las vegas, sheldon adelson with the expansion of the venetian, the new frontier -- that whole area will become the new hot area of las vegas for the next decade or so," gaming expert anthony curtis told "las vegas klas tv".

as the property opened to the public, developer steve wynn greeted visitors at the front entrance.

"it's always fascinating to watch people enter the thing and get their first moment after we open the doors," wynn told the "las vegas review-journal".

analysts are not too concerned about the cost of the wynn development. wynn paid off the cost of "the mirage" hotel-casino in 18 months, much earlier than the planned seven years for which the debt had been scheduled for repayment.

"if you remember the opening of the mirage in 1989, wynn needed to make a nut of $1 million a day. everyone thought he was nuts; 'couldn't be done,' they all said," las vegas history department chairman hal rothman told the "las vegas review-journal".

wynn sold his interest in mirage resorts to mgm grand (which became mgm mirage and is now run by kirk kerkorian) for us$6.4 billion back in 2000, then turned around and purchased the property for the wynn hotel-casino for us$275 million. the property was previously the home of the desert inn.

the hotel has 2,359 rooms, and a few hundred deluxe suites and "parlors" for high rollers. the casino has 1,960 slot machines and 137 table games on a 111,000 square foot casino floor. a ferrari-maserati dealership and the "le reve" stage show, featuring a million gallon water tank, round out the expensive offerings.

a round of golf will go for us$500 on the elaborate golf course located behind the main building.

all of these specifications add up to a record construction cost of over one million us dollars per room. other expensive las vegas properties cost a fraction of the price, such as the bellagio, which cost half the price at us$533,000 per room. the most expensive hotel property in the world was previously the grand wailea resort in maui, hawaii, which cost us$775,000 per room.

"yes, (wynn) may be in over his head, but then he has found ways to survive before," las vegas professor bill thompson told the "las vegas review-journal".

several of wynn's largest competitors spoke with admiration of the property and looked forward to its impact on las vegas.

"i've never understood the hand-wringing about something new, especially in las vegas and atlantic city," harrah's chairman and ceo gary loveman told the "las vegas review-journal".

other casino bosses from the mandalay and the mgm mirage had positive comments as well, hoping to pick up some new business from the development.

"it's a positive in terms of bringing more visitors," mandalay resort group president and ceo glenn schaeffer told the "las vegas review-journal".

"steve will build a great property and bring new people to town. if we're doing what we're supposed to be doing, then we'll pick up some of that business also," mgm mirage chairman and ceo terry lanni told the "las vegas review-journal".

thousands of visitors gathered for hours in front of the property before it opened. security guards had to monitor the number of visitors entering the building.

"i think it's spectacular," david schwartz, coordinator of the gaming studies research center at the university of nevada las vegas told "reuters".

"people were pushing and shoving," las vegan kathie anderson told "associated press".

"there is nobody in the world who creates such entertaining and beautiful casinos," british billionaire richard branson told "associated press" from the casino floor. "i would say every other casino must be nervous. he's lifted the bar dramatically," branson said.

"this would be hard to top," las vegan marlene demarco told "reuters".


vindicated thai gm activists face gaol all the same

two activists who helped identify a vagrant genetically modified (gm) crop of papaya, which was later confirmed and destroyed by thai officials, now face prison over their actions, says greenpeace.

"in july of 2004, [journalist] pat and [ecology phd] jay took this story public when they acted as spokespersons for greenpeace activists who sealed off ge papaya in experimental fields at the khon kaen research station ? the source of ge papaya contamination in the region," says a statement from the environmental awareness organisation.

"they were charged with theft, trespassing and destruction of property."

"instead of getting to the bottom of who precisely was responsible for the contamination, the very department that was responsible for the contamination decided to take legal action against pat and jay."

in september the government was reported as having located at least nine gm plants on farms near the research facility, in khon kaen and ubon ratchathani. entire farm crops were destroyed to prevent the gm variety from spreading further, including those at research stations.

"ten years of research aimed at improving disease resistance in papayas was destroyed, along with the experimental crops," said wilai prasartsri to "the nation" in thailand when 1,000 suspected genetically modified papaya trees there were buried under 2 meters of soil. prasartsri is the research station chief of muang district, khon kaen. 

agriculture and cooperatives minister somsak thepsuthin said at the time only gm crops were to be destroyed, out of 2,600 papaya crops sampled across northeast thailand. papaya on the khon kaen farm were destroyed, and a control zone was set up within a 450metre radius of the gm contamination to prevent possible spread.

director of state-funded non-government organisation, bio-diversity and community rights action thailand , withoon lianchamroon pointed out that rather than carry out extensive testing to isolate gm crops, it would be cheaper to pay compensation to all 2,600 farmers and destroy all the papaya on their farms, because the cost of gmo testing ? bt1,600 (us$40) per sample ? was prohibitive.

two gm papaya strains are being developed in thailand, according to greenpeace: "khak dam" and "khak nuan". the plants being grown in thailand were genetically altered at cornell university in the us, but details of the agreement were kept secret by the thai government and cornell, greenpeace said. the group believed though, that a royalty fee was to be charged for commercial use of the plants showing the altered genetic code, which was designed to be resistant to ringspot virus.

although the network of northeastern alternative agriculture has filed complaints of negligence against the prime minister and senior agriculture officials, calling on khon kaen police to launch a criminal investigation into how the crops had spread, greenpeace claims that no charges have been laid against anyone except the two activists.

mr somsak has launched an internal investigation to determine how the gm papayas from the experimental fields leaked to taint local crops, while director-general of the department of agriculture (doa), chakan saengraksawong, eager to begin further field trials, told "the nation", "we never sold the gm papaya seeds. if any official is found to have illegally sold the seeds he will surely face punishment."

mr withoon alleged at the time that a cover-up of the extent of dissemination of the gm variety had occurred. mr somsak said that the problem was limited to the khon kaen farms, whereas withoon suspected that many more seedlings had 'escaped', with the thousands of ubon ratchathani villagers having been given seedlings by state experimental farms.

environmentalists pointed to the apparent lack of effectiveness of the khon kaen farm's strong fences and round-the-clock security in preventing escape of the gm seedlings.

since 2001, thailand has banned importation of gm organisms for commercial non-research purposes, until national regulations can be developed.

exports to europe were cancelled in the face of the discovery, affecting thailand's us$1 million, 3,000 ton papaya export market. the internal market of papaya in thailand is a hundred times as large.

according to mr withoon, most thai are against gm. bumrung kayothabut of the network of northeastern alternative agriculture, last year said the government was in the grip of multinational companies trying to dominate thai agriculture through the promotion of gm crops.

senator niran phitakwatchara linked pro-gm moves by the government to the thailand-united states free trade agreement (fta); in the midst of the papaya escapade, the thai government was reviewing its policy on gm crops, and being lobbied by the us biotech monolith, monsanto ? who, with cornell, holds patents on the world's only commercial gm papaya, "sunup", farmed in hawaii.

prime minister thaksin said on delaying of a decision on overturning the ban on gm crops, that the government needed more information. "people, including some scientists, still have no clear understanding of what gm crops really are," he told "the nation". he added that bio-safety legislation was needed as a first step, before examining whether or not to allow gm crops, and denied that the fta was influencing thai policy-making.




hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy movie in theaters

"the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy" movie based upon the popular book by douglas adams has been released. the movie was written by douglas adams and karey kirkpatrick, and stars martin freeman as arthur dent, zooey deschanel as trillian, mos def as ford prefect and sam rockwell as zaphod beeblebrox. 

the film is scheduled to for general release by buena vista motion pictures group on different dates in different countries.



intosai meets in paro, bhutan

the standing committee on it (information technology) auditing of the international organization of supreme audit institutions is meeting for the fourteenth time in paro, . on wednesday the 27th, bhutanese foreign minister lyonpo khandu wangchuk opened the conference, voicing support for the bhutanese auditing agency: "the royal government, have always considered the royal audit authority of bhutan as an important body towards promoting a corruption free government and a proper utilization of our resources."

fifty auditors from 21 countries including bhutan, , , the and are meeting for the conference. part of the goal of the session is to share auditing experiences, and help each other understand how computers affect auditing. specific strategies on auditing e-governance, the use of it technology, and using a computerized auditing system will be discussed.


grenade attack on fellow soldiers puts sergeant on death row

sgt. hasan akbar, 34, should die by lethal injection for the murder of two of his comrades by hand grenade and rifle in the opening days of the iraq invasion. this was the sentence handed down by the jury of 15 thursday, in a military court martial in fort bragg, n.c. last week the same jury deliberated only 2 and a half hours and found him guilty of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder while stationed with the u.s. army's 101st airborne division in kuwait in march of 2003. 

the defense contended that sergeant akbar was not able to plan the attack because he was mentally ill and suffering from delusions that his life was in jeopardy. akbar asked the jury for forgiveness before they went into the sentencing phase: "i want to apologize for the attack that occurred," he told the jury. 

"i felt that my life was in jeopardy, and i had no other options. i also want to ask you for forgiveness." he spoke in a very low voice that was described by reporters as a whisper.

although the defense argued he was too mentally deranged to plan the attack, there was consensus that he had tossed grenades into tents and fired on soldiers, killing capt. chris seifert of the army and maj. gregory stone of the air force. he wounded 14 others.

the jury took seven hours to sentence him to lethal injection, beginning an automatic appeals process that could go on for years.

prosecutors said akbar, a muslim, attacked his camp just before their move to iraq because he was concerned about killing fellow muslims in the iraq invasion. his defense team believes he will get his sentence reduced to life in prison during one of the five appeal cases they expect to bring.

sergeant akbar’s is the first prosecution for these charges since the vietnam war. the last u.s. military execution was pfc. john a. bennett in 1961. he was an army soldier executed after conviction for the rape and murder of an 11-year-old austrian girl.


putin pledges to help palestinians

today in ramallah russian president vladimir putin promised to aid palestinians. in a press conference held after talks with mahmoud abbas, putin said that palestinians cannot fight terrorism with slingshots and stones. he pledged to give airplane equipment, helicopters, communications equipment and to train security forces. the russian president was cheered by the palestinian crowd prior to the conference.

putin was on a four day tour of the middle east, where he visited egypt, israel and palestine. this was the first high level visit of a russian official to egypt in 40 years, which was followed the next day by a visit to israel ? a historic first, since no other russian president has ever visited israel.



fox news previews grafton street restaurant and &quot;voice collector&quot; in harvard square, cambridge, massachusetts

the fox morning news broadcast from harvard square this morning in cambridge, massachusetts. anchors liz carrigan and gene lavanchy profiled a restaurant and a musician who will take part in the 22nd annual mayfair, which starts on sunday, may 1. the restaurant, grafton street, is on massachusetts avenue.

the mayfair is a festival that takes place in harvard square on an annual basis. on sunday, the square will be closed from noon until 6 pm to vehicular traffic; according to the mayfair website, "200 artists and merchants" will participate in the event this year.

the musician, halsey burgund, works for a computer security firm, but plays the drums and piano in his spare time. this morning, he had set up his portable recording booth to demonstrate the means by which he records passersby for voice samples in his music. burgund will have his booth set up on sunday and hopes to record festival visitors. eventually, burgund hopes to release his music under a creative commons license. burgund noted that he previously tried recording people on the street with just a microphone, but he found that there was too much ambient noise for the quality of recording he desired.


privatisation of romanian power distributor completed

two branches of romanian electricity distributor electrica sa were privatised on thursday, after italian power producer enel bought 51% of the shares in the electrica banat and electrica dobrogea branches of the previously fully-state-owned company. the transaction had a value of 112 million euro, which included the acquisition of stocks and the increase in social capital of the two branches.

the privatisation ceremony was attended by codru? sere?, the romanian minister of economy and commerce, as well as claudio scazola, the italian minister for productive activities, alongside pierro gnudi, the president of enel.

electrica banat and electrica dobrogea supply the romanian regions of banat and dobrogea, which are situated in southwestern romania, and southeastern romania, respectively. the two branches account for 19% of romania's total power supply. after the enel takeover, electrica sa, which is state-owned, will still own 49% of the stocks in the company.

the electrica banat and dobrogea privatisation is the latest in a series of recent privatisations by the romanian government. the new romanian government, sworn in on december 2004 and headed by c?lin popescu-t?riceanu, is particularly keen on free-market reforms and a faster pace of privatisation.


taiwan kuomintang party leader lien chan meets hu jintao in a historical visit to china

lien chan, chairman of chinese kuomintang (kmt), the leading opposition party in taiwan, met hu jintao, communist party of china general secretary, in the chinese people's hall in beijing, china on friday. lien called his visit a step on the "historical bus" toward a "journey of peace".

the week-long visit takes place 56 years after the kmt withdrawal from mainland china, and signals the end of hostilities between the kmt (or nationalist party) and cpc. from 1926 to 1949, the two parties were involved in a bloody civil war resulting in the nationalist retreat to taiwan upon their defeat in 1949. 

this is the highest level exchange between the two parties since kmt leader chiang kai-shek and cpc leader mao zedong met in chongqing at the end of the second sino-japanese war in august 1945. chiang, then the chinese head of state, and mao, then a guerrila leader, tried to negotiate a truce at the meeting. the negotiations fails and all-out war soon ensued.

lien called on the taiwanese (roc) government, led the independence-leaning president chen shui-bian, to follow his meeting with more efforts at peacemaking and suppression of the independence movement. "i believe the door has been opened," said lien. "how to walk towards a new future, towards a new outlook - i think the ruling party must shoulder this responsibility." 

"this is a historic meeting between the leaders of our two parties," hu said after the historic televised handshake with lien on friday marking the formal end of hostilities. "as long as both sides place importance on the interests of the chinese nation, on the common prosperity of the compatriots on both sides of the strait, we will be able to overcome our differences." lien's visit to mainland china was in part prompted by the mainland national people's congress's recent passage of a law against the possible secession by taiwan, including the possible use of "nonpeaceful means" which could imply military force, a move that has increased tension between their two countries.

lien's visit to mainland china was strongly opposed by the ruling democratic progressive party (dpp) chairman su tseng-chang, who expressed both "tears" and "rage" at the stance taken by lien. su said, "lien has fully denied the development and the value of taiwan's democracy, but continued praised china... during lien's visit to china, we have seen that lien took part in various banquets, shook hands with chinese leaders and received gifts. but we didn't see that lien has strongly criticized china for passing the anti-secession law. lien neither voiced opposition against china's missiles targeting at taiwan, nor did he oppose against china's military threat against taiwan."

the agreements made by lien will only take effect if ratified by taiwan's government (which is unlikely, since president chen opposes the accord and favors taiwanese independence), or if the nationalists regain control of the government in future elections.


hindu mythological theme park planned for banks of ganges

shiv sagar, the grandson of a popular indian tv and movie producer, is planning to build an infotainment theme park called ganga-dham on the banks of the ganges river within the next two or three years. the project is expected to cost $6.4 million and one of the main investors is alice coltrane, wife of jazz great john coltrane.

the family theme park, called "disneyland on the ganges" by the "bbc news" article, could probably be better compared to disney's epcot, since both feature an educational, interactive multimedia experience. billed as the "world's biggest-ever mythological theme park", its purpose is to instruct the masses of indian pilgrims who come to bathe in the ganges with tales about the exploits of such hindu gods as rama, vishnu, and hanuman.

the focus is to be educational, not religious. "we’re not doing this as a religious project," said sagar to "india-west" in an interview last september. "it’s not propaganda. we want to make it fun, a place where people can learn the indian stories," a place that can appeal not only to hindus but people of other religious faiths as well.

"the hindu religion is well suited to something like this, religions like islam are not allowed to depict forms but we have many different forms and representations of gods," sagar said in last week's bbc interview.

the name ganga-dham comes from the indian words ganga, for the ganges, and dham, meaning "place" or "abode". the park is to be built on 25 acres of land in the holy town of haridwar, in the foothills of the himalayas, where an estimated 18 million pilgrims a year come to ritually cleanse themselves in the river. the god vishnu is said by legend to have left his footprint in the town.

the company behind this project is the sagar group. shiv's grandfather ramanand sagar established a film company, sagar art, in 1950 and went on to make 25 films and some hugely popular serials for indian television. most notably, sagar art produced the groundbreaking tv mythological serial "ramayan", about the hindu god rama. starting in 1987, the series went on to attract worldwide attention and claim as many as 650 million viewers over a period of several years. images and songs from their tv serials will be incorporated into the park to increase the popular draw and build on the tradition of reverence toward the hindu gods that the series is known for.

the project has also attracted some criticism, by some who feel that the site next to the holy river ganges is inappropriate for building, and others who do not appreciate the project's light-hearted take toward the hindu pantheon, which they find disrespectful. however, an important hurdle has been cleared with the official support of the state government of uttaranchal, and positive comments have been received from other interested parties who favor spreading the knowledge of hindu philosophy by popular means.

there are other difficulties that still must be addressed, for example, a lack of infrastructure in the area to support tourism. but the sagar group stands to profit as they already have a sagar ganga resort in the area.

the parts of the planned site, as described on the sagar group's website, are:


also places are to be provided for visiting non-resident indians (nris) to set up "remote poojas" and other rituals over the internet.

construction is planned to begin later this year for completion by 2007, specifically timed to be ready for the major kumbh mela religious festival in 2010, which is expected to draw as many as 50 million or more visitors to the area.

some of the park proceeds are said to be set aside for various charities. if the park is successful, the sagar group plans to build similar dhams around the world, in asia, oceania, south america, or perhaps even in places such as london, england; los angeles, california or orlando, florida in the united states.




romanian government asks kidnappers to release female journalist

the romanian government has asked the islamic terrorists who kidnapped three romanian journalists in late march to release one of the journalists, marie-jeanne ion, aged 30, who is the only female in the group. the government has confirmed that the three journalists are all still alive, even though the terrorists, who call themselves the muadh ibn jabal brigades, stated that they would kill them by last wednesday unless romania withdraws its troops from iraq.

romanian prime minister c?lin popescu-t?riceanu said that all efforts were being made to save the journalists. he said, "in principle, authorities are in contact with the kidnappers but i can't say any more."

the terrorists have until yet not responded to the government's request to release ion. ion's father, who is a senator from the social democratic party, urged the parliament to take a stand on the kidnappers' demands. he said, "if we don't take a stand, we will probably have a day of mourning that senators and deputies will remember."

romanian lawmakers have expressed solidarity with the families of the hostages, and passed a resolution calling on the government to inform the parliament about any options being weighed for the hostages' release. the document also requested that the supreme defense council analyses the situation, as only the council and the romanian president, traian b?sescu, have the right to decide on military withdrawal from iraq.

iraq's new president, jalal talabani, told romania's ambassador to baghdad that he was concerned about the fate of the romanian journalists and promised that he would do everything in his power to help resolve the problem. also, the islamic party of iraq, which mainly consists of sunni muslims, made an appeal asking that the hostages be released.

meanwhile, the council of europe's parliamentary assembly hosted a debate on the overall condition of journalists working in conflict zones such as iraq. it also passed a resolution for international solidarity concerning the abduction of the three romanian journalists.

rallies continued to occur in bucharest in the past few days, with more than 1000 romanians holding banners and demanding the freedom of the journalists. some people also called for the withdrawal of romanian troops from iraq, yelling, "troops out!" and waving banners saying, "it is not our war" and "don't let them die!", alongside photos of the three journalists.

many romanians also prayed for the release of the journalists, especially since this weekend is easter for those of romanian orthodox religion, which make up 86% of the population. some of the demonstrators marched to victoria palace ("palatul victoriei"), the government headquarters, where they quietly prayed for the journalists. after nightfall, several romanian orthodox religious services were held, specifically for the release of the journalists.

however, members of romania's arab and kurdish immigrant communities also took part in the rallies, calling for the hostages' freedom. romania's kurdish community is mainly made up of refugees from iraq and turkey who have come to the country in the past few years.


flood in vojvodina worsens

the flood in northern serbian province vojvodina worsens as the river tami? rises further. the river flooded 10 days ago, covering the ?a?a tomi? village. more then 200 houses were destroyed and around 800 are flooded, forcing 3235 people to evacuate. the flood was caused by heavy rain in serbia and romania. meteorologists say that tami? level will get lower in the following days.

serbian army and volunteers are helping local residents, building a dike and saving the animals, but the villagers are short on drinking water and other supplies. there are no human casualties. the people's office of the president of serbia has started an aid drive to help ?a?a tomi?.




partial local elections to be held in 26 romanian towns

partial local elections will be held in 26 small towns in romania, on june 12, to elect new local council and mayors. the elections will be organised in all localities where mayors recently ended their terms, as well as in localities that were recently proclaimed to town status.

elections for new council and mayors will take place in several towns in the counties of bac?u, vrancea, gala?i, bra?ov and ilfov, while local elections for choosing new mayors only will be held in towns in the counties of maramure?, bihor, vaslui, buz?u and dambovi?a

romania's last full local elections were held in june 2004. however, partial elections are frequently held in between scheduled elections for those towns where mayors have resigned or ended their terms.


eu accession treaty ratified by romanian government

the government passed a law on friday ratifying romania's accession treaty to the european union, after the treaty was signed in a ceremony in luxembourg in april 25, which was attended by the heads of state of all 25 current eu member states. the government pointed out that, aside from ratification by romania and bulgaria, the two states which signed the accession treaty in april 25, the treaty must also be ratified by the 25 current member states who also signed the treaty in luxembourg.

the law passed by the romanian government on friday has been forwarded to the parliament to be debated. it must be approved in a joint session of the senate and the chamber of deputies, with at least a two-thirds majority.

once the accession treaty is ratified by all 25 member states of the european union, romania and bulgaria will become full members in january 1, 2007.


orange romania reaches 5.29 million subscribers in first quarter of 2005

orange romania, the country's largest mobile phone operator, announced that its client base increased in the first quarter of 2005 (january-march) from 4.93 million to 5.29 million subscribers, an increase of over 7%.

additionally, orange's income rose by 46.2%, from ?122 million to ?178 million. ?167 million in income came from the orange network, while the remainder came from the company's other investments. company representatives were pleased with the results, and are confident that the objectives to the year as a whole are likely to be achieved.

romania currently has approximately 10.6 million mobile telephone subscribers, a rate that is rapidly expanding. orange romania has nearly 50% market share. by the end of 2005, the number of romanian mobile phone subscribers is expected to reach 11.5 to 12 million.


metro cash and carry to open new supermarket in arad, romania

german supermarket chain metro cash and carry will open a new supermarket in arad, western romania. according to arad's vice-mayor, tiberiu dekany, the building authorisation process is currently underway, with metro already acquiring a building lot, with an area of 100,000 m2, on the outskirts of arad, where the cash-and-carry store will be built. metro is hoping to open the supermarket before the end of the year, and dekany has said that the city hall will give the building authorisations as soon as possible in order to let metro meet that goal. dekany did not comment on the value of the investment.

metro is one of the largest supermarket chains in romania, already having 21 stores in various cities across the country.

 


heavy rain washes away highway in alba county, romania

heavy rain has washed away a 20-metre stretch of national highway 75, in alba county, western romania, leaving only one of the lanes open to traffic. both the road and the side fences fell into the arie? river due to the rain. repair teams from the national roads department were called in to assess the damage and clear away the trees that had fallen onto the highway.

western romania has recently faced a week of heavy rain, which has caused heavy flooding in some areas, and in other areas has damaged infrastructure. parts of timi? county remain heavily flooded, along with the northern serbian region of vojvodina. some people have deemed the floods in this region to be the worst in 50 years.


first photo of a planet that orbits another sun

scientists confirmed today for the first time ever, that astronomers photographed a planet orbiting a sun other than our own. photographs were taken late last year by the (eso) in chile, but it has taken since then to confirm that the body is indeed a planet ? five times the size of jupiter, the largest planet that orbits our own sun. 

extra-solar planets such as this have been detected before, but never by direct observation ? their presence has always been inferred from aberrant behaviour of the star they circulate around.

"among the most essential quests of modern astronomers, taking direct images of planets outside of our solar system is certainly up there among chart-toppers," says the eso, in a press release given to verify the status of the object.

the newly imaged planet orbits a brown dwarf star known to scientists as 2m1207, at a distance that is nearly twice as far as that of neptune from our own sun ? making the planet much too cold for lifeforms such as those on earth. detection of earth-like planets is still years away, according to the eso, because they are too faint for current equipment to detect.

the scientists say that the planet presents a valuable opportunity nonetheless, as it is much younger than those in our own system, at only "a few tens of millions of years old".

"moreover, as the first tens of millions of years are considered to have been a critical period in the formation of earth and of our own solar system, the study of nearby young planetary systems provides astronomers with invaluable insight on our own origins."

suns are understood to form when matter collapses strongly under its own gravity, while planets form later by accretion, in matter orbiting a sun.

photographs of what was thought to be an extra-solar planet were announced earlier this month. however scientists now state that the size of that planet might be much larger than originally announced, thus allowing a chance that the object might instead be a small star.


pro-palestinian graffiti sprayed on the wall of israeli embassy in denmark

this friday, 29th of april at 4pm, pro-palestinian graffiti was sprayed on the outside wall of israeli embassy in denmark claiming "break down the wall" (danish: "riv muren ned").
surveillance videos reveal a group of four women responsible for the act, as well as a driver. the women were not wearing any form of uniform, or appeared to have common ethnic background and were of different age groups. the operation was completed in less than a minute and the four offenders fled the scene.

"they must have planned the operation ahead," says sholi ron, the embassy's chief security officer, "as suggested by the relative speed of the operation. yet, they did not take into account the surveillance cameras, which gives the police an edge." he also pointed out that the colors were not chosen by accident.

a driver nearby has written down the plate number for the suspected vehicle. police claim the vehicle was identified as a mitsubishi van.

"black, red and green, do those colors say anything to you?" says a passerby. "these are the same colors of the palestinian flag, as well as the base for other arab nation's flags, i think that whoever did this thing is on the palestinian side."


pay-by-plastic pumps up gas prices/notes

the first thing to catch my eye when i approached what used to be a texeco gas station, was a guy up in a man-lift beside the pump price sign. seeing heavy equipment being used to change what i thought were the gas prices, i thought, "gawds, these prices are getting out of hand!"

after stopping in later and talking with the owner, i was impressed by how elated he was on the subject of bank processing fees. this was news to me. so i reported it.

the man-lift i saw earlier is absent from the photograph i took. they had used the lift to change the pump price sign from texaco to shell.


wal-mart closes down unionized store

april 30, 2005

the american discount chain, wal-mart, closed the doors at one of its two unionized outlets in north america friday. the closure eliminated 190 jobs in the small town of jonquiere, quebec. wal-mart canada spokesman kevin groh said the store shut at noon friday rather than the planned date of may 6 because it no longer had any merchandise.

michael j. fraser, the union's national director in canada, said: "wal-mart is trying to send a message to the rest of their employees that if they join a union the same thing could happen to them." the union will be filing unfair labor practice charges against wal-mart in quebec. 

the united food and commercial workers union has organizing drives in at least 25 canadian stores. in august 2004, workers at the jonquiere store received union certification, and tried to negotiate a contract, which would have been the first for walmart in north america. now st. hyacinthe, quebec has the only remaining unionized wal-mart in north america; employees of that store have no contract.

the consulting firm at kearny has stated that above all, low labor costs is a big source of cost advantage for wal-mart. wal-mart's employees might begin at as little as $8 an hour which is 20-30% less than unionized workers at rival discount stores.

in his first interview since the store's closing, walmart ceo h. lee scott, jr. defended his decision, saying to the washington post, "you can't take a store that is a struggling store anyway and add a bunch of people and a bunch of work rules that cause you to even be in worse shape." 

the major sticking point according to scott was the number of full-time employes. scott said that it was the union who walked away from negotiations; however, fraser said that walmart walked away from the talks, shutting down the store to avoid submitting to arbitration.



violent rioting, deaths follow disputed election in togo

immediately after the provisional election returns in the west african nation of togo were given last tuesday, violence and chaos erupted with security forces beating and shooting protesters, who object to the fairness of the togolese elections and allege widespread fraud. some of the opposition leaders who were targeted are said to have been unarmed or even found by security forces in their homes, and police have fought in fiery pitched battles against rioters for days, employing tear gas behind burning barricades. at least 40 togolese citizens have been killed.

the elections were won by faure gnassingbe, son of the previous leader gnassingbe eyadema, who held power in togo for about 38 years before his death on february 5, 2005. the army appointed his son as his successor and the country's leader, but regional opposition forced him to step down and seek free elections.

the preliminary count indicates that 60% of the vote went to faure gnassingbe, a 38-year-old master of business administration (mba) from yale university and son of the former president. an additional 38% went to his chief opponent, 74-year-old emmanual bob-akitani, who was endorsed by a six-party coalition and opposition leader harry olympio. further violence is expected as the official vote tally and announcement of results comes within a few days.

"just after the [preliminary] results were announced the red berets [commandos] went out into the streets and started shooting at the boys," said marthe, who fled to a u.n. refugee camp in benin to escape the fighting. "they only shot at the boys. they ransacked shops and blamed the youths, who were unarmed," she continued in her reuters interview. more than 11,500 togolese have fled from their country and taken up temporary residence in benin and ghana since the elections, according to the united nations high commissioner for refugees (unhcr).

the opposition party claims that 100 people have been killed in the ongoing violence that passed through lome and other villages. togo's human rights league has verified the deaths of at least 40, and the wounding of many others.

"violence is not the way to deal with democracy," said mohammed ibn chambas, executive secretary of the economic community of west african states (ecowas). "we think the way forward is for togolese to use dialogue, and to sit down and negotiate." ecowas has certified the elections as free from interference, a decision that some countries such as france have accepted, but the united states continues to question the fairness of the outcome.

germany protested after its cultural center, the goethe institute, was burned down in lome. the togolese government has accused germany of aiding the opposition, and former interior minister francois boko (who was fired earlier for trying to postpone the election due to fears of violence) has sought refuge in the german embassy. togo is a former german colony, but the official language of the country is french, since it was passed to britain and france in 1918 and only gained its independence in 1960.

gnassingbe has offered to form a new unity government, incorporating voices from the opposition, but their leaders turned down the offer, claiming that the election was fraudulent and stolen.

"if they refuse tomorrow, i hope that they will decide to join us the next day," said gnassingbe to france's "le monde" in their friday edition. "reconciliation is a long process. you can't jump overnight from a regime that lasted for 38 years to a new one," he continued.



new drug from lizard's saliva

a chemical part of the saliva of a poisonous lizard, the gila monster, has become an integral partner in the control of type 2 diabetes. the u.s. food and drug administration has approved its use for people who have not achieved adequate control of their diabetes with oral medications.

byetta, or exenatide, is produced by amylin pharmaceuticals. it is injected before eating morning and evening meals as part of a combination treatment with oral drugs. the fda said it could be approved as a stand-alone treatment if the drug companies can support such use with data.

eli lilly & co. was the development partner in creation of the drug.

"with byetta's demonstrated effects on blood sugar and its safety profile, physicians and patients now have a new approach to fight the growing diabetes epidemic," said sidney taurel, ceo of lilly.


food with cancer-causing dye recalled in britain

the british food standards agency (fsa) has announced a recall of foods containing banned dyes which increase the risk of cancer. the food products were sold at the tesco, waitrose, and somerfield supermarkets.

a bristol company called "barts spices" found the illegal para red substance in their "barts ground paprika", which was sold in 48g and 46g jars with a "co-op" label. the batch codes on the affected products are 5032 and 5089 (expiration dec 2007), and 5075 (expiration february 2007).

tesco also found that their 130g package of bbq rice cakes (expiration november and december 2005) contained both para red and sudan i.

"it would be very prudent to assume that it could be a genotoxic carcinogen," fsa scientific advisers told reporters.

"as a company committed to supplying only the very finest quality food ingredients, we took the immediate decision to withdraw our ground paprika spice from all outlets selling the product and advertised a product recall in the national press," a barts spices spokesman said in a statement.

sudan i is only authorized for industrial use to colorize petroleum products, such as shoe polish. para red and sudan i are banned under the british colours in food regulations of 1995.

britain last went through a major food recall in february, when worcester sauce was found to contain chili powder dyed with sudan 1.


bbc news website expands rss license terms to allow commercial use

the bbc announced today that it plans to expand the license terms on its numerous rss feeds to allow other websites to reuse its content. the license currently proscribes that the feeds are only for "personal use," according to bbc editor peter clifton. according to clifton's statement, "in may we'll be happy for outside websites to dip in and take our headlines." the announcement did not specify whether the new license would allow the use of entire articles, or just the headlines.

the bbc currently has 18 feeds, ranging in topic from business and technology to health and entertainment. they also provide feeds with regional news, focusing on, for example, scotland or northern ireland. in its current setup, the bbc provides a headline plus a lead sentence in its feeds.

rss ("really simple syndication") is a protocol that allows users to aggregate articles from many sources in a program called a "news reader" or "aggregator." a news reader works by reading simple files from user-targeted websites and parsing them into a presentable format.


two university students shot, killed in cameroon strikes

at least two university students have been shot and killed, and a third may have been mortally wounded after clashing with police at the university of buea in the west-central african nation of cameroon. the deaths come after sporadic confrontation between students and police during strikes that began last wednesday, following by one week mostly peaceful strikes which began april 20 at another cameroon university, yaounde one. a delegation of five students is said to have traveled from yaounde one to ub, instigating the strike at the second university.

the strikes at ub turned violent after the university registrar, herbert nganjo endeley, failed to calm the students. police tried to disperse the students with tear gas, but were pelted by stones in retaliation. chaos ensued, with the police also throwing stones, bludgeoning and separating the students, turning water cannons on them, raiding their residence hostels, and performing numerous arrests. the students responded by protesting, erecting barricades and destroying school property and vehicles. several students and police were hospitalized during days of fighting.

the students were shot on thursday in different incidents between 14:30 and 15:00 local time in molyko ? both were reported to be killed instantly. one student, embwam aloysius, a level 400 student of environmental science, received a bullet in the head, while the other student, gilbert nforlem, a masters degree geology student, was shot in the chest. local news reports indicate a female student may also have been killed, and claim that the students were shot by police. on friday, speaking on state-run radio, higher education minister jacques fame ndongo called for an end to violence and said that "[president paul biya] has requested a judicial enquiry to establish the exact cause of the deaths."

ub, located in the town of buea, south province, is cameroon's only english-speaking university in a nation where french, english, and african languages are spoken. yaounde one is cameroon's largest university, located in the capital city of yaounde, which is shown in the above map. there are four other state-run universities in cameroon.

students at both universities are striking for better educational conditions. the students at ub are demanding an end to the annual school fees of 50,000 cfa francs (us$99), reduction of school bureaucracy, and other amenities. according to the "post" newspaper in cameroon, "they want all courses offered during the re-sit, good toilets, more lecture halls, microphones in amphi-theatres; that amphi 750 should be changed to 650 because it lacks 100 seats. they also want to be offered good food at the university restaurant among others." 

some commentators in the post's online forum expressed indignation at the deaths of the students and what they perceive as a lack of leadership by school officials, while others expressed sorrow at the loss of student lives and questioned whether the advantages they are bargaining for are really worth the price they have paid.



firefox browser reaches fifty million downloads

mozilla firefox, the gecko-based open source browser, has now been downloaded over fifty million times from the official download sites and mirrors.

the fifty millionth download itself came at 8:58am pst on april 29. the number excludes upgrades. a real time counter is available at http://www.spreadfirefox.com/fifty.html .

the browser was first released to the public as major release 1.0 on november 9, 2004. there have since been three minor security upgrades, with the current version being 1.0.3.

the browser can trace its roots back to the netscape navigator of the 1990s. development of firefox itself began in 2002, when dave hyatt and blake ross began writing the new browser using the codebase of the mozilla suite as their starting point, which itself was an open-sourced version of netscape navigator.

originally named phoenix, the browser was renamed firebird and then firefox due to a series of trademark issues.



swiss finish drilling world's longest overland tunnel

eleven years of drilling and blasting using a total 16 tons of explosives were completed thursday when swiss engineers detonated the last few yards of granite completing the 21 mile (35 km) lotschberg tunnel in the alps. the lotschberg is now the longest overland tunnel in the world, and the third longest tunnel overall.

"with the breakthrough we have carved out the mountain for all to see. we are moving on," said swiss transport minister moritz leuenberger at a ceremony marking the occasion, attended by about 1,000 people who witnessed the event in the midpoint of the tunnel, about 5,900 feet below the 12,170 foot balmhorn mountain.

the two halves of the tunnel met with almost perfect exactness. the centers of the bores coming from opposite directions were only about 5 inches apart, and the heights were aligned within less than 1 inch.

the new tunnel connects the swiss district of raron with the city of frutigen, near the capital bern. construction on the railway within the new tunnel is expected to be completed by 2007, and should shorten travel time between germany and the italian city of milan by about an hour. the cost of building the tunnel, at us$13 billion (?10 billion) has already overrun budget by us$3 billion, and 11 people died during its construction.

the only two tunnels that are longer than lotschberg are:

the lotschberg tunnel is the longest tunnel that travels entirely over land, surpassing the previous record-holder, japan's hakkoda tunnel, which was completed only two months ago on february 27 at a length of 16 miles (26 km).

at least one future tunnel, gotthard base tunnel, is planned to be the world's new longest tunnel at a length of 35 miles (57 km); it is also currently under construction in switzerland, parallel to the lotschberg with a planned completion date of 2012.

swiss people make large numbers of train trips compared to other europeans, with an average of 40 trips per person annually compared to 21 in germany, 14 in france, and 8 in italy. a major goal of the ongoing rail tunnel construction is to decrease travel times between popular destinations, with the state-owned swiss federal railways (sbb) predicting a 20% increase in rail traffic by 2020. 

also under consideration are improvement of the rapidly growing crowding of traffic (particularly heavy trucks carrying cargo) in the narrow swiss highways, auto accidents, and pollution. since 1980, swiss highway traffic has increased tenfold, largely due to its geographical position along europe's north-south axis.



cyprus, latvia and malta are a step closer to adopting euro

cyprus, latvia and malta, three states which joined the european union in may 2004, exactly one year ago, today became members of the (erm ii), which pegs their currencies to the within a 15% margin above or below a central rate. while they are in erm ii, their currencies must not fluctuate to an extent that exceeds this 15% margin, and they must also keep inflation and budget deficits in check. for countries to adopt the euro, they must stay in the erm ii for at least two years. therefore, the earliest date that cyprus, latvia and malta can adopt the common currency is in may 2007.

cyprus, latvia and malta have joined four other countries already in erm ii: denmark, estonia, lithuania and slovenia. denmark joined erm ii in 1999 but has since not wished to adopt the euro, while estonia, lithuania and slovenia joined the exchange rate mechanism in june 2004, and are expected to adopt the euro by late 2006 or early 2007. other new european union member states are also expected to join erm ii soon.

out of the european union of 25 member states, 12 countries currently use the euro, which they adopted in january 1, 2002. the only eu members that remain either outside the eurozone or erm ii are the czech republic, hungary, slovakia, sweden, poland and the united kingdom.


togo/infobox


soap opera writer, creator william j. bell dies at 78

soap opera writer and creator william j. bell, best known for his record-setting 25-year-long tenure writing the top-rated "the young and the restless", died friday at the age of 78.

bell was born on march 6, 1927 in chicago, illinois. he first helped fellow chicago resident irna phillips, the "queen of the soap opera," write the soap opera "as the world turns" in the late 1950s. the two forged a partnership which lasted for much of the following decade. bell helped create "another world" with phillips, and then wrote phillips' creation "days of our lives" from 1966 to 1975.

the ratings for "days of our lives" rose to near the top of the daytime rankings in the late 1960s and early 1970s. bell then became a hot commodity, and scripted a soap pilot of his own. with the help of his wife, chicago talk show host lee phillip bell, he pitched "the young and the restless" to cbs executives, which agreed to air the show starting in 1973. like "days of our lives", "the young and the restless" focused primarily on young, beautiful characters, while still maintaining balance throughout the rest of the cast. bell was the head writer of the series for a record amount of time, from 1973 until his retirement in 1998; no one person wrote a daily television series for such an uninterrupted period of time. in 1988, "the young and the restless" became the highest-rated soap opera on us television, an honor the show continues to hold today.

the bell husband-and-wife team also created "the bold and the beautiful", a glamorous serial set around the fashion industry in beverly hills, in 1987. bell won three emmys for his writing on "the young and the restless", and one for "days of our lives". bell won five more emmys for producing the latter serial.

at the time of his death, bell was battling alzheimer's disease. he had three children, william jr., bradley, and lauralee; all three of his children had various jobs on his soaps. william jr. is president of bell-phillip television productions, inc., bradley is the executive producer and head writer of "the bold and the beautiful", and lauralee plays christine williams on "the young and the restless".

 


china introduces new jury trial system

the people's republic of china (prc) in recent years has begun an effort to reform its judicial system and make trials more fair and accountable, according to its state-run "people's daily". those efforts came to a head today with the official may 1 start of jury duty by more than 27,000 newly qualified jurors. according to "people's daily", "it is the first time in chinese history that the people's juries are appointed in a uniformed way by the people's congresses at all levels."

two jurors and a judge will be sitting on each three-person panel, and decide both criminal and civil cases. the juries will be available when requested by litigants and also in cases "with considerable social repercussions", which appears to mean major cases. appeals cases will be heard only by judges.

the jurors are not chosen for each trial but will serve a five-year term in the jury pool working on different cases from time to time.

jurors have been provided for in the chinese constitution since 1954, but their role in the system was not well-defined by law until now.

the changes to the jury system are part of a long-term planned reform of china's judicial system that was announced in 1999 by china's top judge, xiao yang. in addition to jury reforms, the plan addressed trial procedures and court structure and supervision. the goal was to "perfect the socialist judicial system with chinese characteristics...in accordance with the constitution and laws, and [without] judicial independence and supremacy, which exist in many western countries," according to xiao yang as reported by the "people's daily" in 1999.

"court reform represents a major part of china's reform of the judicial system and political restructuring. the essence of judicial reform is judicial fairness, which is crucial to the country's rule of law," xiao yang said back then.

in august 2004, the 10th national people's congress (npc) standing committee approved a "resolution on improving the people's jury system", which took effect today. the system specifies that either by recommendation of local work units or by self-application, potential jurors can take qualifying examinations and be presented to standing committees of the npc for appointment as jurors. 

the first batch of 1,342 jurors were tested in beijing under the new law on april 23, 2005. those who were certified to begin service on may 1 are said to "participate in all hearing activities of people's courts according to the law, enjoying the same rights as do the judges except that for a presiding judge after their assumption of the post," according to the "people's daily".

"this is an important move to upgrade and strengthen the system of people's jurors," xiao long of beijing people's court said to "china daily" on april 24. "the implementation of the npc's decision will add more transparency and justness to the country's judicial system," he added.

china has one of the world's largest prison systems with over 1 million prisoners, similar to russia. it has received criticism over the years from the u.s. state department and others for its arbitrariness and its treatment of political prisoners. the united states, however, is the world's largest jailer, with a staggering 2 million prison inmates, out of 9 million total around the entire globe. a full 70% of u.s. prison terms are drug-related.

 


may day protests occur throughout switzerland

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international labor day, or may day, has been marked by protests throughout switzerland. roughly 12,000 protesters organized across the country, rallying against the dismantling of social welfare, as well as wage dumping and the large salaries of top company officials.

the protests were peaceful, although minor skirmishes did occur in zurich and lucerne. these usually involved clashes between left and right extremists rather than with authorities. in one case, bottles and fireworks were used as weapons, but no injuries were reported.

protesters in geneva demand reform regarding illegal immigration, and equality for men and women. in zurich trade unions urged the free movement of people, as well as an ending to the pressure on salaries.

vasco pedrina, co-president of the union unia, called the difference between high and low incomes a "existential and human tragedy". pedrina and others, including bern mayor alexander tschappat, spoke out during the saturday and sunday period of protests.


julian easter celebrated


orthodox christians using the julian calendar celebrated easter today.

in an easter liturgy held in belgrade, the leader of the serbian orthodox church, patriarch pavle, reminded people of suffering in the world war two concentration camp jasenovac. he also called for people to "make peace with the ones who hate us." in kosovo, the head of unmik, soren jessen-petersen, wished all orthodox christians in kosovo a happy easter and expressed his hope for peace.

the president of russia, vladimir putin, wished a happy easter to all orthodox christians and all citizens of russia. he said that christians of russia work on enlightenment, participate in realization of social programs and have an important role in preserving the tradition of good relationship with neighbours and mutual aid. the patriarch of moscow, alexei ii, exchanged personal greetings with putin.

pope benedict xvi greeted orthodox christians with "christ is risen." he called for unity amongst christians in his first sunday regina caeli message.



world's smallest democracy votes

on april 30th the south pacific island nation of niue held its eleventh general election since achieving self-government from in 1974. approximately 800 voters were eligible to vote for the 20 members of the niue assembly ? 90% of the island's citizens now live in new zealand and were ineligible to vote.

"" reports that there was no campaigning. provisional results indicate that finance minister toke talagi lost his seat by two votes, in the contest for the six common roll seats elected for the whole island, meanwhile former minister robert rex, jr, came third in the poll for the village seat of alofi south. three of the twenty seats are expected to be won by women. premier young vivian is expected to retain his position.



world's oldest seaborne passenger vessel on tour as floating library

may 2, 2005 

the (mv) , listed in the as the world's oldest active ocean-going passenger ship, has docked in the port of muscat, sultanate of oman this week. the ship was built in 1914, two years after the titanic, but unlike the more famous luxury liner, doulos has over 90 years of safe sailing to her credit. this "grand old lady of the sea" has undergone several periods of rebuilding and expansion throughout the 20th century and sailed under three different names, before being purchased by a christian missionary group, (om), in 1977 and converted for their use.

doulos bills itself as "the world's largest floating book fair", and carries half a million books which represent about 6,000 distinct titles, which are donated and sold for modest fees to support the vessel's operation. the books represent christian literature and educational material in various languages. sailing from port to port throughout asia and africa, the crew of the doulos sometimes finds itself faced with local restrictions against the sale of christian literature, which it handles by separating the sacred books from the secular with a canvas divider, and the guards who are sent to control access to the banned books.

most places visited by the doulos and its sister ship (which travels north and south america) receive them with an enthusiastic welcome. "most places we visit don't have borders or barnes and noble," said lane powell, publications editor for om. "in other countries literature is more highly valued and this can be the biggest thing in town," powell continued in his interview with assist news service. "people line up one to two miles in some parts of the world. we have 6,000 people coming on the logos ii in one day."

the om website claims that, since 1970, the two ships have together reached 30 million people in 140 countries, in 435 ports around the world. the crews themselves are also quite international in character, with volunteers from 50 different countries. powell gives credit to their shared christian background for their ability to get along with each other despite their differences. the names of their ships also have christian meaning: "doulos" means "servant" and "logos" means "word", as in holy scripture.

the ship recently sailed to jordan, lebanon, and egypt before coming to the gulf of oman, and docking in its sultan qaboos port, where it was received in style by the tourism minister rajiha bint abdulameer bin ali, one of three female ministers in the cabinet. oman is the only country in the gulf to have its own tourism ministry, created last year to encourage visitors to come partake in omani life and culture.

said bin ali to the "", "we are absolutely delighted to have a roving library second to none, busy inculcating reading habits among people at a time when it matters most."

also speaking to the "daily times", murthadha hassan ali said, "the importance of such a visit can't be over-emphasised in days when reading habits are waning and people are swarming restaurants as if we were born only to eat... book remains your best companion, tv or no tv." ali described himself as a "compulsive book reader", and wants someday to start a public library in the capital city of muscat, which currently has none.

the 425 foot long (130m) library will weigh anchor and continue its missionary journey starting may 9, with plans to sail to kenya, on africa's east coast.



charity haircuts and collaborative art at spring festival in cambridge, massachusetts

the 22nd annual mayfair took place in harvard square in cambridge, massachusetts, on may 1. the event, which ran from 12-6 pm, featured work from local artists, performers, as well as a large cadre of tents selling beads, ceramics, and fried foods. after light rain in the early afternoon, the sun came out around 4 pm.

local streets were closed to cars, and vendors and artists set up along the curbs. church street was blocked off and dedicated to chalk drawings, which were drawn by professional artists and amateurs alike. one of the largest drawings was a reproduction of hokusai's "in the hollow of a wave off the coast at kanagawa," known colloquially as "the wave."

the alice hoffman breast cancer center and locks of love held a "charity shave," in which members of the public were encouraged to donate to the charity. upon donating they would have their heads shaved, or at least 10" of their hair trimmed "in support of those who lose their hair to chemotherapy."

several bands played in succession on a stage set up in front of the offices of dewey, cheetham, and howe. performers included toussaint and the china band, as well as the walkmen.

self-described "voice collector" halsey burgund brought his portable recording studio and successfully recorded samples from many passersby. at one point, his small box was packed with five youths who wanted to record a collaborative performance. not everyone was interested in burgund's box, though. "i don't want to give my name and some crap out," said one youth, pictured at right, who preferred not to give his name.


usa baseball proposes &quot;three strikes&quot; rule for steroid abuse

baseball commissioner allan h. "bud" selig has proposed a new steroids use policy for the game. the plan calls for a 50-game suspension of a player testing positive for the first time, a 100-game ban for a second offense, and on a third violation the player is out with a lifetime ban from the game.

in an april 25th letter written to don fehr (executive director of the players association) and all major league team owners, selig wrote, "steroid users cheat the game." so far this season, four less-than-big-name major league players have been suspended. under the current policy, each player is forced to sit out 10 games.

the ball is now thrown to fehr, who said over the weekend the union was not ready to discuss it. an answer from the players union will probably be forthcoming some time this week.

congressional hearings on steroids in baseball were held march 17. rep. henry waxman (d-calif.), the ranking minority member of the house government reform committee, said, "it's weaker than the policy congress is considering, but significantly stronger than baseball's current policy."

testifying at the hearings, fehr said, “my personal view, this is not an institutional view i'm expressing now, my personal view is that our job with violations of substance abuse is not to destroy careers. our job is to stop it."

selig also wants to add amphetamines list of banned substances in the major leagues.



'family guy' returns to us television, loses in ratings to 'housewives'

the animated series "family guy" returned to the fox television network with a new episode sunday for the first time since it was taken off the schedule three years ago. although the show kept most of its audience that lead-in "the simpsons" gave, fox was still fourth out of five major broadcast networks in the half-hour, losing most notably to abc's hit "desperate housewives" (upn, the other major american broadcast network, does not air original programming on sundays).

however, the season premiere of "family guy" and the series debut of "american dad" (which helped usher in what the network termed "the new fox sunday") helped bring fox to the #2 spot out of five networks in the crucial 18 to 49 demographic, one of the most important to advertisers in the key may sweeps period. "sweeps" occurs four times a year and helps networks and independent affiliates determine how much a fixed amount of time for commercial advertisement will cost (the higher the ratings, the more revenue for the networks selling the time to advertisers).

on the whole, "family guy" averaged a 6.3 rating in the overnights as posted by zap2it. while the overnight ratings are fairly accurate, the numbers are preliminary and are subject to minor change. one ratings point is equal to 1,096,000 households, as there are now 109,600,000 households in the united states with at least one television. this translates into a little more than 6.9 million households whose sets were tuned into "family guy", as recorded by the sample of "nielsen families," who record their viewing habits and contribute to the ratings process the us uses. the use of the word "share" in the article means that it is the rough percentage of viewers with their sets on at that hour tuning into a certain program. for example, nine percent of viewers in the united states with their televisions on at 9 p.m. eastern daylight time were tuned to "family guy".

this only added up to a 9 household share for the hour, compared to an 11 share for "law & order: criminal intent" on nbc, a 14 share for a cbs "hallmark hall of fame" movie of the week (traditionally only aired during the key sweeps periods), and a 23 share for the aforementioned "desperate housewives". averaged with the performance of "american dad", a cartoon produced by "family guy" creator seth macfarlane, fox earned a mere 5.8 rating/9 share for the hour.

the episode revolved around a big scheme peter griffin, the main character of the series, conjured. to give his wife lois (who no longer finds him sexually attractive) a second honeymoon in order to "spice up" their love life, he pretends to be actor mel gibson so they can stay in a new luxury hotel for free. peter stumbles upon a sequel to the film "the passion of the christ", and vows to keep the movie from ever seeing the light of day. to get the movie back, gibson kidnaps lois and keeps her captive on top of mount rushmore, which leads to a scene in which the three battle on top of the monument, in a homage to the film "north by northwest". 


british skylark rocket makes its final flight

may 2, 2005 

the last british skylark rocket has made its final flight.

the rocket flew from coastal sweden at 6am utc on monday, carrying its esa science package to an altitude of 250km.

the 13m tall rocket was developed in the uk and first flew in 1957 from woomera range in australia. it continued to be developed for another twenty years. the british government ended support for the project in 1979, leaving private companies to fly the remaining rockets. enough rockets had been built to sustain a launch program until today.

a total of 441 flights have been made by the sub-orbital skylark. the rocket is known as a 'sounding rocket', designed to explore the upper regions of earth's atmosphere.




swiss cement company holcim ltd sees net profits jump 67%


despite what appears to be a large rise in profits, sales actually fell to 2.7bn swiss francs ? a drop of 1.1 percent. the jump in net profits was largely due to a change in accountancy methods. operating profits rose just 10% to 411m swiss francs. this small rise in operating profits was largely due to a major price increase in mature markets such as the us, enabled by strong demand in the marketplace.

holcim was founded in 1912 in holderbank, canton aargau, switzerland. today it employs 46,000 people worldwide and produces over 145m tons of cement annually. it has has recently acquired british- based aggregate industries plc, and gained a controlling interest in india's no. 2 cement player, associated cement companies ltd.

holcim ltd. is the world's second-largest cement maker, beaten in size only by lafarge, a french giant which employs over 77,000 people and sold almost us$20bn worth of building materials last year.



k'nesset member natan sharansky resigns from coalition government to protest planned gaza withdrawal

sharansky’s resignation as minister of diaspora affairs and jerusalem was accepted by prime minister ariel sharon at sunday’s cabinet meeting.

“i believe [the gaza withdrawal] is a tragic plan that makes us pay an extremely high price for nothing, and also encourages terror,” sharansky said. “the only aim of the current government is the implementation of the disengagement plan, and therefore it is wrong, even immoral, for me to remain a part of this government.”

sharansky said that although he was always against what he calls the “so-called disengagement plan,” he decided to leave the government once the battle against the withdrawal was no longer able to be waged from within the government. “our main battle now is public opinion, because the struggle in the government is finished,” he said.

although he hopes to take the struggle to the people, the former minister hopes his move will pave the way for other politicians to follow their consciences. “i don’t know how effective my quitting will be,” sharansky said, “but i hope it will encourage other politicians and ministers to at least vote according to what they believe and what they think.”

the former prisoner of zion (who served time in a soviet prison for wanting to emigrate to israel) says his main objection to the plan to withdraw from gaza and northern samaria is the fact that the withdrawal is not contingent on the creation of democracy within the palestinian authority. “i have promoted the spread of democracy as the only answer for thirty years. and now, at the time when an american president declares these principles and promotes them, an israeli pm comes along and does the exact opposite.”

although he has in the past supported withdrawal from parts of the land of israel, sharansky says the current plan goes too far. “we cannot control another people and we will need serious compromise, but that compromise does not include giving another people the ability to destroy us... as if we run from gaza, gaza will not run after us.”

sharansky, whose yisrael b’aliyah party merged with the ruling likud party after last elections, has maintained good relations with sharon. “i had many opportunities to present my point of view to the prime minister, both publicly and privately,” sharansky said. “he believes the withdrawal will give us ten years free from world pressure during which to build the settlement blocs of gush etzion, maaleh adumim and ariel. i told him we will not have ten years ? we will not even have ten days free from pressure, because we are legitimizing one-sided withdrawals from jewish areas ? each withdrawal will only invite more pressure.”

“we are speaking about three generations of jews that were sent on the important mission by the israeli government and made an empty desert into a blossoming garden. now we will just destroy all these beautiful communities, with their unique agriculture and incredible judaism - for what?” sharansky asks.

“for nothing,” he added, “as a reward for terrorism.”



uk staffordshire south 2005 election postponed

josephine harrison, the liberal democrat candidate for both the staffordshire south parliamentary constituency in the uk general election, 2005 and the kinver seat in the south staffordshire local government district election, has died of an illness. 

because the death occurred after the close of nominations, and because postal voting has already commenced, the returning officer is required to declare that the polls for the staffordshire south parliamentary seat and for the kinver local council seat be abandoned. fresh general election and local council election polls, under the same writs of election, will now take place 28 days after the returning officer has seen proof of the death of the candidate. under election rules, the existing nominees are entitled to remain nominated, although other, new, candidates may be nominated.

other local council elections in staffordshire south apart from kinver, scheduled for thursday may 5, 2005, are unaffected and will occur as scheduled.



chili finger incident

on thursday the 22nd of march, 2005, anna ayala, a woman from , claimed to have found a human finger in her bowl of chili at a wendy's restaurant located at 1405 monterey highway, just south of downtown san jose, california, owned by fresno-based jern management.. the finger, which probably belonged to a woman as it had a long and manicured fingernail, did not belong to any of the restaurant employees. the food supplies were seized by officials to be traced back to its manufacturers, while the restaurant was permitted to open again later with chili prepared from fresh ingredients.

wikinews reporter drove his car up to the drive-thru menu and found that chili was still on the menu, at a price of us$1.19 for a small serving. he also witnessed workers unloading supplies from a semi-trailer truck in the restaurant's parking lot, and carting them into the back door of the establishment.

initially, county health officials said ayala was fine and the finger had been cooked, which would have killed any bacteriae in the finger. however, on march 27, officials admitted they were not so sure anymore. tests were done on the finger to determine this. dr. martin fenstersheib, santa clara county's health officer, said that even if the finger was still raw when ayala bit into it, the risk was low that she would have become infected with anything. however, he advised that ayala should undergo a series of precautionary follow-up tests.

sales at wendy's went down because of the incident. wendy's international, inc. (wen) closed at us$39.43 on thursday the 22nd, and as the stock exchange was closed for the good friday holiday, traders did not weigh in the stock until the next monday.

by tuesday the 5th of april, officials had still not succeeded in tracking down the owner of the finger. the fingerprint on the detached digit has been run through an fbi database as well as the local criminal database in santa clara county, but no matches were found. according to rich reneau, who was leading the investigation at the time, the fingerprint was marginal, and the likelihood of finding a match was slim.

wendy's stock did not go down significantly and was trading at us$39.37 that morning.

the next day, on wednesday the 6th, las vegas police searched the home of anna ayala. about a dozen officers conducted the search at ayala's home at maryland parkway and serene street at about 4 p.m. local time (23:00 utc), according to witnesses at the scene. ayala and other residents were handcuffed and brought out of the house. ayala said that her teenage daughter, genesis reyes, had torn shoulder ligaments as a result of the search. the las vegas review-journal ran a photo of reyes wearing a sling in their friday edition. in san jose, police spokeswoman gina tepoorten confirmed to reporters that investigators had served the warrant in cooperation with las vegas police on wednesday, but she refused to reveal specific details about the warrant. by that time, wendy's was offering a us$50,000 reward for information leading to the source of the finger.

research by the "associated press" uncovered ayala's history of lawsuits. ayala successfully won her suit for medical expenses against the national el pollo loco chicken-chain, a previous employer, after her daughter genesis contracted salmonella poisoning, allegedly from eating at the restaurant. however, ayala lost another suit against general motors in 2000 claiming that a wheel fell off her car. she also started a sexual harassment suit against her former boss in 1998. a total of 13 lawsuits in california and nevada had been filed. ayala replied the focus should be on wendy's, and not her record of law suits. nick muyo, a spokesman for the san jose police department, said not to expect new information in the case for at least a week.

on wednesday the 13th there was a potential new lead in the investigation. a spotted leopard had torn off part of a finger from an owner of exotic animals, sandy allman, in pahrump, nevada. the portion of allman's torn off finger was approximately the same size - 1 1/2-inches long. pahrump is approximately 45 miles away from las vegas. carol asvestas, who owns an exotic animal sanctuary, told the "san jose mercury news" she witnessed the leopard tear off the finger. she reported the incident to a hotline run by wendy's offering the us$50,000 reward. cindy carroccio told the "san jose mercury news" that the finger was not reattached, and that the clinic "gave it back to her (allman) in a little bag of ice." on the same day the lead was announced, ayala decided to drop her lawsuit against wendy's, due to emotional stress.

however, when allman's prints were sent to san jose police, they didn't match. two days later, on friday the 15th, wendy's doubled the reward to us$100,000. the company revealed that employees had passed polygraph tests. wendy's continues to claim that there is no evidence that the finger ever entered their supply chain, pointing to a lack of any accidents among the workers at their suppliers. wendy's tip line had received reports from across the united states, from "folks who either have lost a finger, or know somebody who lost a finger," san jose police sgt. nick muyo told the "associated press".

on thursday the 21st of april, anna ayala was arrested at or near her home in las vegas on thursday evening, in connection with the case, shortly after wendy's finished its own internal investigation. according to court documents, she has been charged with one count of attempted grand larceny related to the chili case, and one count of grand larceny in an unrelated real estate deal, and is being held without bail in clark county, nevada, pending extradition. a press conference by the san jose police and wendy's was held on friday, april 22, at 13:00 pdt. the charge related to the case states the finger could not have been prepared at wendy's, where the chili is heated to 170 degrees for 3 hours. there is also an inconsistency in ayala's account of finding the finger and claiming it caused her to vomit compared with police saying there was no vomit at the scene. the incident has caused wendy's 2.5 million dollars worth of damages, which ayala could be criminally responsible for. until recently, the san jose police had not accused ayala of planting the finger herself.

the unrelated charge stems from an incident, also in san jose, when ayala allegedly received an $11,000 down payment on a mobile home she did not own.

ayala was incarcerated at the clark county detention center, awaiting a fugitive review hearing on tuesday, april 26, 2005, at 7:30 a.m. local time. she was processed and given inmate id 01964047. her case number was 05f07229x. ayala waived extradition at the hearing, and her attorney said they were ready to come to san jose to defend against the charges.

on friday, may 6, 2005, ayala was transported to san jose, california. ayala was booked into the main santa clara county jail, and is awaiting arraignment. ayala will likely be arraigned on monday or tuesday at the santa clara county superior court, according to santa clara county deputy district attorney david boyd.

on september 9, 2005, ayala plead guilty to conspiring to file a false claim and attempted grand theft, and will be sentenced on november 2, 2005. she faces up to ten years in prison, and her husband faces up to 13 years behind bars.

until the middle of may, the owner of the finger still had not been found. 

but on , 2005, police announced that they had identified the finger tip as belonging to an associate of ayala's husband . the associate had lost his finger tip in an industrial accident at an asphalt company in december, 2004. police had received the information from an undisclosed caller to wendy's hot-line.
photos related to this incident:

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results of 2005 british columbia, canada general election

at 8 p.m. local time today (04:00 utc 18 may), the polls closed in the british columbia general election, 2005. results are still coming in, and no party has won an overall majority in the legislative assembly of british columbia yet. at 9:05 p.m. pst (5:05 a.m. utc 18 may) the cbc called the election for the bc liberals.

held in conjunction with the general election was the british columbia electoral reform referendum, 2005, where voters were asked to decide whether to switch from the first past the post electoral system to the single transferable vote electoral system.

a 60% yes vote as well as a simple majority in 48 of the 79 ridings are needed for the measure to pass.

"should british columbia change to the bc-stv electoral system as recommended by the citizens' assembly on electoral reform?"

 


b.c. elections debate fiery but not conclusive

, 
in british columbia, canada, leadership debates during provincial elections can have a major effect. in 1991, a single sentence during the leadership debate catapulted the then-obscure b.c. liberal party from no seats for more than a decade to official opposition with 17 seats. in the current election, three television stations plan to broadcast the event live.

adriane carr of the greens, carole james of the new democratic party (ndp) and gordon campbell of the b.c. liberals left the campaign trail on monday to prepare for the leadership debate on tuesday night. the contestants were heavily prepared, and came into the debate with talking points and notes carefully memorized and at the ready.

prior to the debates, it was widely reported that adriane carr of the green party had already won simply by being present. the green party secured their position in the debate by having a candidate in every riding, 79 candidates in all. with a steadily increasing polling history in elections but no seats in the legislative assembly and a minimal campaign budget, the green party can only benefit from the opportunity to become better known to the bc electorate.

the green party formed in british columbia in 1983 as part of the international green party network. in the 2001 election, the party achieved 12.4% of the popular vote, but still failed to elect a single member of the legislative assembly (mla).

carole james is a newcomer in the leadership role of the ndp. she was elected in 2003 and aims to restore the party to power after they suffered an embarrassing defeat. in 2001, the ndp went from government to opposition with only two seats. a special election raised the expectation of change and voter dissatisfaction when the ruling liberals were unable, despite high-profile campaigning, to prevent a demoralizing defeat in favour of the ndp candidate. this brought the party up to 3 mlas. pundit view of the debate was split on carole james's best approach; an aggressive approach might win enough interest and respect to gain enough seats to form a government - or backfire and push disaffected voters toward both opponent's parties, while a firm but softer stance would suggest acceptance of the position as opposition with an expectation to pick up about 15 seats in the assembly.

the ndp is not the old guard of b.c. political parties, and only formed in 1961 though it traces its lineage back to 1933. it has led the province on multiple occasions in the 1970s and 1990s. however, a series of leadership scandals and the fastcat fiasco led to the crushing defeat at the hands of the b.c. liberals in 2001.

gordon campbell, the premier of british columbia, has the most to lose in such an event and would likely have preferred not to attend at all. an experienced rhetorician with both long service in the legislative assembly and in politics in general, he also heads the party which revived itself from obscurity during just such a debate in 1991. described as a small-c conservative in the nature of margaret thatcher, his party's dominance in the assembly did not allow him the confidence to actually present a budget the liberals had been talking about, and making promises on, for months.

one of the oldest parties in the province, the b.c. liberals are independent of the national liberal party and its policies. they are a right-of-centre party, being socially moderate and fiscally conservative. the party was in decline for most of the last half of the past century. however, it made a remarkable recovery during the 1990s due to the dissolution of the social credit party. it was greatly helped by its social conservatism and a series of leadership and financial scandals in the ndp. capitalizing on a split in the ruling party, the liberals took power in the 2001 election with 77 of 79 assembly seats.

with tight moderation and a constrained debate format of questions and answers, rebuttals, and open floor debate, the entire event was surprisingly civil as each candidate tried to push the others into social gaffes. the candidates managed to stay on message throughout, though the discourse occasionally broke into the almost spontaneous and provided some of the liveliest discussion in what has begun to seem like a dull campaign, at least by b.c. standards.

leading the way into the fray, campbell pointed to the ndp for leaving the economy and infrastructure of the province in a shambles. "british columbia became a have-not province," he repeated several times.

james hammered back, focusing on broken campaign promises and trust issues. when campbell pointed to the successes of his party in office, she dismissed the claims. "we see mr. campbell taking credit for things that he had nothing to do with, high commodity prices and low interest rates."

in the enviable position of watching her opponents digging into each other and not sparing much effort on the greens, carr was free to criticize both parties. "the gap between the rich and the poor has grown to be the biggest in canada and that's a shameful record," she said to campbell. when james pointed to the privatisation of healthcare under the liberals, carr cut her dead with "and who started the move to privatisation? it was the ndp who started that move."

the debate, broadcast live by three stations, did not have any clear winners or losers. macleans magazine reported that campbell survived being double-teamed by the other parties, yet he also seemed unable to meet james's challenges or respond to carr's inquiries with direct answers.

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issues of world press freedom day raised in u.n., africa



press advocacy groups in africa are beginning a new campaign to remove "insult laws" from the books that protect political figures from criticism. the laws, which are found to restrict freedom of expression to varying degrees of severity in 48 out of 53 african nations, result in the imprisonment of many political reporters for what they feel is necessary criticism of their governments.

the campaign was launched on monday in lusaka, the capital city of zambia. the date was chosen so that the workshops would take place on world press freedom day (tuesday, may 3). in the nation of zambia, to take one example, a three-year jail sentence is prescribed for a journalist who defames or ridicules the president or any other prince.

the laws are supposed to exist to protect the dignity and reputation of public figures. however, according to some critics, they are used to attack journalists who make personal references to some politicians, and those who allege misconduct or corruption by high public officials, such as heads of state or parliamentarians.

"we want to create awareness of these laws and lobby for their repeal in africa," said research manager kandji kaitira of the media institute of southern africa (misa). 

according to the zimbabwe "daily news", a number of african media groups are taking part in the effort, including world press freedom committee, the southern african national editors' forum, the southern african editors' forum, the southern african journalists' association, journalistes en danger (jed) of the democratic republic of congo, the organisations of the media in central africa, the media foundation for west africa and media rights agenda in nigeria.

kenya in africa, and some countries in south america, have already removed such laws from the books. however, in at least one european union country, poland, insulting a head of state remains a crime (see freedom of speech), though the january 5 2005 conviction of jerzy urban for having insulted the pope could in principle be overturned by the european court of human rights.

last month, the result of an unusual study by 11 former african presidents was announced in a johannesburg press conference. the former leaders stated that based on their review of certain american outlets for the past decade (1994-2004), coverage was found to be overwhelmingly negative, crisis-driven and dismissive of africa's democratic progress. the result of this one-sidedness, they claim, actually becomes detrimental to further progress being made by africa.

"negative perceptions lead to negative outcomes ? lower levels of aid and lower investments," said joaquim chissano, one-time president of mozambique, who helped put an end to decades of civil war in his country.

the period was chosen because of a trend they saw toward democracy and free markets during that period in diverse nations. chissano said, "coverage of africa... is, at best, dismissive of the continent's progress and potential... at worst, coverage disregards recent trends towards democratisation, betraying an almost contemptuous lack of interest in the potential and progress being achieved on the continent," he said.

the "new york times", "washington post", "wall street journal", "usa today" and "us news and world report" were reviewed in the study.

to focus media awareness on world press freedom day, the u.n. department of public information (dpi) launched a new initiative it calls "ten stories the world should hear more about". these are items that in the strongly expressed opinion of the u.n. spokesman, are critical issues which are not receiving adequate attention by the major media, compared to other stories which are focused on almost exclusively, such as iraq.

some of the stories concern ongoing conflicts and humanitarian crises to which the u.n. is responding, while others concern underreported good news. for example:
"five: tajikistan, rising from the ashes of civil war. again, you know, we often complain that while the cliche is that 'no news is good news', when it comes to media and the u.n., 'good news is no news'. well, the fact is, here is a good news story, formidable challenges in the aftermath of a deadly civil war, and yet a country that is persisting on the road to peace and recovery ? it hardly gets reported."
the spokesman concluded:
"our staff and the public information staff of the various u.n. agencies are eager to work with you to raise the profile of these topics. we have summaries available of the story behind each of the ten issues on the list... all of them list contact points from whom you can seek further information. we've also posted links to more information sources on our website to help you if the list inspires you. and these are also links to the u.n. officers and agencies concerned with each issue. and if it piques your curiosity sufficiently, we're happy to help by arranging interviews. the staff of dpi and those of other u.n. offices are committed to working with you to help raise the world's awareness of these and other stories that we believe the world needs to know more about. i urge you to use the initiative as a resource, as you go about your tough job, the business of covering the news. after all you are one of the most, perhaps ? we think ? "the" most, important source of information about world events."
the stories are listed on the new ten stories space on the u.n. website.


new mars orbiter arrives for launch

nasa's mars reconnaissance orbiter (mro), the latest robotic spacecraft destined for mars, arrived at kennedy space center's shuttle landing facility on april 30 aboard a c-17 cargo plane and was delivered to the payload hazardous servicing facility to begin processing. launching is scheduled for august 10, 2005.

with a mission time line through 2010, the mro will conduct studies of the martian atmosphere, surface and subsurface in far greater detail than previous missions. possible landing sites for future mars landings will be evaluated and the orbiter will also act as a high-data-rate communications relay for surface missions.

"great work by a talented team has brought mars reconnaissance orbiter to this milestone in our progress toward a successful mission," said jim graf of nasa's jet propulsion laboratory (jpl) project manager for the mission.

multiple mechanical assembly operations and electrical tests are scheduled to verify the craft's readiness for launch. a may test to verify communication abilities through nasa's deep space network will be conducted and in june deployment of the high gain communications antenna will be tested. a deployment test is also scheduled for the orbiter's large solar arrays.

the mro will be filled with hydrazine fuel in july for its "mars orbit insertion burn" which reduces the craft's velocity and places it in orbit about the red planet. july 26 will see the mars reconnaissance orbiter installed in an atlas v rocket fairing for final assembly with the rocket on july 29.

after the scheduled launch, the mro will spend seven months cruising to mars and another six months aerobraking after orbital insertion. a variety of scientific instruments on board will be used to search for geological evidence of past seas, ancient shorelines.
the craft was built near denver by lockheed martin space systems which also supplies the atlas v launch vehicle.

the mars reconnaissance orbiter mission is managed by jpl, a division of the california institute of technology, pasadena, for the nasa science mission directorate, washington. lockheed martin space systems is the prime contractor for the project. international launch services, a lockheed martin joint venture, and lockheed martin space systems are providing launch services for the mission.

more information about the mars reconnaissance orbiter is available at: mars reconnaissance orbiter website



finger found in frozen custard by north carolina man

in an eerie echo of the wendy's chili finger case, a man found a severed finger tip in his frozen custard on monday in north carolina, usa. however, unlike the wendy's case, agriculture and labor officials have confirmed with craig thomas, the owner of kohl's frozen custard, that an employee had lost the finger tip while working with the custard dispensing machine at the location.

"i thought it was candy because they put candy in your ice cream ... to make it a treat," clarence stowers told "wilmington wway tv". stowers continued, "ok, well, i'll just put it in my mouth and get the ice cream off of it and see what it is."

the kohl's frozen custard outlet is located on south college road in wilmington, north carolina.

"we are still trying to ascertain what exactly happened," owner thomas told "wral raleigh-durham". "but in the seconds that it took for the accident to happen, and for (the employee) to tell the manager that it happened, a pint was being scooped out," he said.

"i'm sick at my stomach, i just can't get that taste out of my mouth," stowers told "wect tv6" in wilmington. stowers is keeping the finger tip in his freezer and said he plans to hire a lawyer.

this is the second time that an employee has lost a finger tip at kohl's frozen custard. former employee william franklin lost a finger tip last summer, but an investigation by the department of labor placed the blame on franklin for that incident.

kohl's frozen custard was permitted to re-open after state inspectors monitored the disassembly and sterilization of the custard dispensing machine.


left-side driving part of a planned findlay, ohio interchange reconfiguration

the ohio department of transportation (odot) has announced plans to rebuild the interchange of interstate 75 (i-75) and u.s. highway 224 (us 224) in northwestern findlay, ohio, signed as exit 159 on i-75. plans for the interchange, a standard diamond interchange that also carries state highway 15 on the west and south approaches, include reversing the flow of traffic on the bridge over i-75, in what is known as a "diverging diamond interchange".

such an interchange does not exist in the united states; odot based the plan on an interchange in versailles, france of the same design, introduced to them by a report in a trade magazine. instead of the standard approach, widening the four-lane bridge to add turn lanes, traffic flow will be reversed between the two sets of ramps, with traffic signals controlling the flow. the only conflicts will be between the two directions of us 224; all turns to and from the ramps will be free-flowing. traffic will be guided by barriers and islands, preventing errors in movement. as it eliminates left turns across traffic, the accident rate at the interchange is expected to be cut in half. the plan will also be cheaper than a rebuild of the bridge, and will be able to carry more traffic.

left-hand driving is very rare in the united states, but a few freeway-to-freeway interchanges incorporate it. in those cases, rather than being traffic-light controlled, the crossings between opposite directions are separated by bridges. another related case is the single point urban interchange, in which opposing streams of left-turning traffic pass each other on the left.

the bridge, built in 1956, currently carries about 20,000 vehicles per day. the land west of the interchange, across from downtown findlay, is being rapidly developed, and plans for the area include a wal-mart.

mayor tony iriti of findlay thinks "it's a great idea. it's amazing to me that this has never been done before. we'll be written up in all those magazines nobody wants to read." hancock county officials are similarly enthusiastic.

the decision on whether to build the interchange will not be made until late summer.


 


hungarian chemicals company wants to acquire oltchim romania

hungarian chemicals company borsodchem has said that it wants to extend its production capacity, and that it will make an offer for the acquisition of oltchim, a romanian state-owned company based in ramnicu valcea, which generated an income of over 400 million euro in 2004.

the executive director of borsodchem, laszlo kovacs, said, "if the new romanian government privatizes oltchim in 2006 we will make a single offer bearing in mind the presence of the romanian company on the mediterranean states market."

kovacs also said that borsodchem would also be interested in other companies in the region, such as the polish company zachem, but said that they will not make an offer because the economic situation of that firm [zachem] has not improved.

borsodchem is one of the largest chemical companies in hungary, with a net profit of 2 billion euro in the first quarter of 2005.


franco-belgian bank dexia to extend into southeastern europe

the franco-belgian bank dexia has stated that it intends to extend into , especially romania, bulgaria, and turkey. axel miller, dexia's operations director, said the bank is interested in taking over some banking units in these countries in order to develop its network.

dexia already has a subsidiary in slovakia, which will be used as a base for further extension in the region. the franco-belgian bank has already organised a team of experts who work in poland to submit a request for a banking license in romania.

bulgaria and romania signed their accession treaties for the european union in april 25, and are set to join the eu in january 1, 2007. this, along with economic factors, such as a more liberal fiscal policy in romania, have given rise to a sharp increase in foreign investment in the past few years. turkey, which is a european union candidate country but which has not yet started accession negotiations, has recently opened up to foreign investment due to its stabilising economy and well as its large market.


nine thousand romanian miners to be laid off in 2006

approximately 9,000 romanian miners will be made redundant in 2006, slightly more than the 7,000 which are expected to be laid off this year. this comes as part of a government program for 2005-2008 which seeks to maximise efficiency in romania's mining industry, as well as reduce the number of mines and quarries in the country, while progressively bringing down the number of workers in this industry. as agreed with the european union as part of accession negotiations, romania must cease to provide major state aid to mining companies after 2007, when the country will become a member of the eu. until then, it must gradually reduce subsidies to state-owned mining companies, in order to comply with european union competition law.

romania's mining industry currently employs 47,000 people, quite significantly less than the 175,000 it employed in 1997, before restructuring took place. a major reform in the industry took place between 1997-2000. this time around, from 2004 onwards, restructuring is expected to be more gradual. out of the workers who have been laid off from 1997 onwards, around 100,000 have accepted voluntary redundancy, while 8,000 have retired and 12,000 have found other jobs in the private sector. by 2010, the government expects that more than 340 mining units will be closed throughout the country.



romanian officer injured while serving in iraq

a romanian student officer on mission in iraq, major robertino ciobanu, was wounded on sunday by a bullet fired unintentionally by a colleague from the multinational force in the country. the injury took place in front of the presidential palace of baghdad.

the officer's colleague accidentally fired on him while unloading weapons, a standard procedure for military personnel when they are returning from patrol missions. ciobanu was wounded in the leg, but after being treated at hospital, he was declared out of danger.

major ciobanu is currently involved in training new iraqi security personnel. romania has one of the largest contingents in iraq, with 830 soldiers. at the end of march, three romanian journalists were kidnapped in iraq, with the kidnappers later demanding that romania pull its troops out of the country or else the journalists would be killed.


 


2005 afghan opium harvest begins

most heroin sold in europe comes from afghanistan's poppies. this past week, the 2005 opium harvest was in full view and going full speed in afghanistan. the cultivators gathering resin from the crop are operating even near the main road through kandahar and the farmers are out gathering resin from opium poppies in full view.

last year 80% of the world's opium came from afghanistan and production is up over 239% since 2003, according to u.s. government estimates. afghanistan is the world's largest producer of illegal drugs.

in 2002 ads, the sent out the message that "drugs fund terrorists". doug wankel, a former u.s. (dea) official, says the opium industry is "financing terrorism. it's financing subversive activities. it's financing warlordism... and if it's a threat to the government of afghanistan, it's a direct threat to the national security interests of the united states."

"the bush administration has decided not to destroy the opium crop in afghanistan," stated a u.s. intelligence official returning from afghanistan in relation to the 60% smaller 2002 crop. the source, who requested that he not be identified, noted "u.s. forces could destroy the crops using aerial spraying techniques, but no such actions are planned."

u.s. plans to spray the crops were canceled at the request of afghan president hamid karzai, who has called for or "holy war", but is concerned that aerial spraying could be harmful to the health of afghan villagers. the u.s. claims that the spraying would be safe, but is granting karzai's request.

karzai has indicated that he may change his mind if other u.s. strategies fail to halt the opium. congress budgeted $774 million for anti-drug operations in afghanistan just this year.

the cia reports in "from flowers to heroin that" it takes 10?kg of opium to make 1?kg of 90% pure heroin. the cia states that impurities are introduced into the processed heroin before it hits the street, making the purity of the end consumer product about 40%. that implies that 10?kg of opium makes about 2.25?kg of 40% pure heroin.

the guardian reports that the 2002 opium harvest was 3400 metric tons. using the conversion supplied by the cia, 2002's 3400 opium harvest could be converted into 765 metric tons of heroin. according to the international narcotics control board, the 2003 opium harvest was 3600 metric tons. using the estimated 239% increase of the present harvast over 2003, it means that the 2005 harvest is about 8600 metric tons.

the 2002 street price of heroin in the uk was about 60 ￡ per gram, or (assuming the present 1.89 usd to 1 ￡ exchange) 113.40 usd per gram. as the supply goes up the price will come down some, so for this calculation only the 2002 figures will be used. if all the opium harvest is converted into heroin and all of it is sold at the uk street price, the total street value of the harvest is 86.7 billion usd. (765 metric tons x 1000?kg/metric ton x 1000 grams/kg x 113.4 usd/gram = about 86.7 billion usd.) to the extent the 2002 numbers are valid today, the street value of the 2005 harvest should be roughly twice the street value of the 2002 harvest, about 173 billion usd.

to put these numbers in perspective, the total market capitalization of ford, general motors and daimler chrysler combined is about 76 billion usd. the total market capitalization of toyota and honda combined is about 167 billion usd.

the financial action task force (fatf) was formed to promote harmonization of international antimoney laundering (aml) laws. despite the fact that tens of billions of usds are generated from the afgan opium harvest alone, the fatf has not added afghanistan to its blacklist of uncooperative nations. one has to wonder, therefore, what the poppy farmers are doing with their share of the money that escapes the notice of the banking system and the fatf.

thursday, march 28, 2002



uk clothing firm to list on icelandic stock exchange

mosaic fashions, a uk clothing firm, is set to make history as it becomes the first foreign company to list on the iceland stock exchange (ise).

mosaic, which owns the clothing brands "oasis", "karen millen", "coast" and "whistles", operates 600 stores and is majority owned by retail investment group "baugur". mosaic employs approximately 5,400 staff throughout the uk and ireland.

the exchange was founded in 1985 and has since grown to encompass 34 firms with a combined value of over us$21bn (?16.3bn; gbp11.1bn).



canadian pm reaches an agreement with the new democrat party

the government may not have to enter a new election process as predicted earlier last week. recently, paul martin, the current prime minister of canada, made a plea on national television that a re-election ought to be delayed until a report concerning use of government monies was produced and published. a deal between the governing liberal party and the new democratic party (ndp) may avoid an election process in the near future.



former haitian prime minister neptune reported close to death

former prime minister yvon neptune has been weakened by a hunger strike and is believed to be in critical condition. he has refused medical care unless all charges against him have been dropped.

the secretary of the dominican armed forces, gen. sigfrido pared perez, is reported by the associated press as saying mr. neptune would be flown to the dominican republic on monday, and immediately to a hospital in santo domingo, the capital, but this plan was rejected by mr. neptune.

the former prime minister has been held for 10 months under house arrest without being charged with any crime. lawyer mario joseph claims haitian law requires that an accused be brought before a judge within 48 hours of arrest.

the haitian interim government of prime minister gerard latortue accuse mr. neptune of coordinating the killing of aristide supporters in st. marc during the rebellion.



raymond n. rogers, chemist who studied the shroud of turin, dies at age 77

raymond n. rogers, retired chemist who pioneered in the use of thermal analysis to characterize explosives, died on march 8, 2005 at the age of 77 after a long illness. 

rogers was born july 21, 1927 in albuquerque nm, but his family soon moved to california to find work. when his father died in an industrial accident on young rogers' thirteenth birthday, he and his mother were left in bakersfield with no means of support in the depression years. rogers took on a number of odd jobs to bring in money: playing the horn in a dance band, ushering at the local theater, and working in a print shop.

in 1945 he enlisted in the u.s navy and served as a radar technician during world war ii. thanks to the gi bill, rogers was able to complete his education at the university of arizona, majoring in chemistry. upon graduation in 1948 his first job was with the arizona agricultural experimental station. there he built a thermal analysis instrument to study soils, and this experience brought him to los alamos national laboratory (lanl) in late 1951.

at lanl rogers became a group leader of an explosives research-and-development group and was elected laboratory fellow in 1981. he later worked for the international technology division, retiring in 1988. he served on the department of the air force scientific advisory board from 1987 until 1992 with the equivalent rank of lt. general, receiving their distinguished service award. he received other awards and recognitions from lanl and professional organizations. 

although much of rogers' research at lanl had military applications including the characterization of exotic explosives for munitions, he was always concerned with explosives safety and chemical hazards. one of his published research results has been incorporated into a standard method for the screening of reactive materials (astm method e698). today this method is used worldwide to obtain reaction rate constants for energetic materials, a necessary first step in avoiding thermal explosions.

until he retired rogers was an editor for the two scientific journals, thermochimica acta and the journal of energetic materials, and throughout his career he participated in conferences and symposia related to his chosen field. his ground-breaking work in thermal analysis?particularly differential scanning calorimetry?demonstrated the effectiveness of these techniques for characterizing energetic materials with only a few milligrams of sample. a relevant list of rogers' scientific publications can be found on the web (explosives science).

rogers was also an accomplished amateur archaeologist who did research on the chemistry of deposits and artifacts of interest in archaeology and geochronology. in 1978 he was invited to become director of chemical research for the shroud of turin research project (sturp), whose primary goal was to determine the scientific properties of the image on the shroud of turin, and what might have caused it. the shroud was a linen fabric purported to be the burial cloth of jesus of nazareth. 

for many people the shroud study proved disappointing when the initial carbon dating results placed the production of the fabric at between 1260 and 1390 ad, indicating that the shroud was a fake. however, about a year before his death rogers found evidence that challenged the carbon-14 dating results. although weakened by illness, he performed forensic work (thermochimica acta 425 (2005), 189-194 ) revealing that the material used in the carbon dating was not sampled from the original fabric, but from a part of the shroud that had been rewoven in medieval times. rogers' work also indicated that the original shroud was much older than the age determined through carbon-14 analysis; but the question remains open as to whether it was in fact the burial cloth of the historic jesus.

after retiring from lanl rogers continued to work on the shroud project, and with his wife joan he also found time to enjoy hiking in the great outdoors as well as to train dogs for search and rescue operations. he is survived by his wife joan; daughter amy canzona and her husband tony; step-daughters dawn janney and lauren mcgavran and her husband harry; grandson kenneth; great-grandson mark; cousin bob and other family members; many very special friends; and coonhound clancy.


worst floods in 20 years for georgia


a shipment of humanitarian aid from the italian government was delivered to tbilisi, the capital of flood ravaged georgia on tuesday. norway and the united states sent tents, clothes, food and generators for electricity. german and latvian aid is expected soon. 
in the eastern region of kakheti, several villages of the lagodekhi district were flooded after the kabali river burst its bank tuesday night. no casualties were reported.
torrential rains lasting nearly a week combined with snow-melt to create in the worst floods in 20 years in the caucasus republic. a third of the country is effected, mostly in the western portion, with damage reported to buildings, homes and many roads. over 1000 people were forced to evacuate. 
georgian prime minister zurab nogaideli called for an assessment of the flood and mudslide damages. amendments to the 2005 budget are foreseen in the range of 20 million lari to cover disaster relief efforts.

 


time warner loses personal data on 600,000 employees

time warner inc announced that they are unable to locate a container holding 40 backup tapes. these tapes contain personal information on 600,000 current and former employees back to 1986. this information includes details on dependents and beneficiaries, in addition to social security numbers. customers were not affected, time warner said.

the u.s. secret service is investigating and has not found any evidence that the tapes have been misused. this loss affects most of the 85,000 current employees. the tapes were lost by iron mountain inc., a data storage company, which routinely handles off-site data storage for time warner and many other fortune 500 companies. time warner has said that the tapes would require expensive equipment to read them, and that they were encrypted.



major hunt on for pub robbers in irish midlands

a major garda hunt has begun in the irish midlands for four armed robbers who held up a pub at gunpoint on monday morning. the pub, "paddy ryans", is located in horseleap, county westmeath.

"paddy ryans", a family pub, was robbed by the four men at 2am on monday morning as staff were cleaning up and preparing to close for the night. early reports indicate that the raiders escaped in a dark saloon car and spoke with dublin accents.

horseleap is a small village of a few hundred located about 20km south of mullingar.



ubs sees net income jump 15 percent


first-quarter net profit stood at 2.625bn swiss francs (us$2.19bn; ?1.7bn) up 15% from last year's 2.28bn swiss francs. assets under management grew to 2.36 trillion swiss francs (us$1.97 trillion; ?1.53 trillion); an increase of 21.2bn swiss francs on last year.

despite the solid performance, cfo clive standish told the media "clearly we have seen a slowing of the markets over the quarter, particularly in march... there is a perceptible slowdown in markets as we speak."
reacting to the pessimism, ubs shares dropped 1.5%.



apple updates imac line


the new imacs include the latest version of the mac os, the that was also released last week. 

the newest machines include a choice of a 1.8ghz g5 or a 2.0ghz . a 160gb hard drive is standard on the lower two models and a 250gb drive on the top-end model. all three models will have 512mb of ram and feature an ati radeon graphics chip with 128mb of video memory. the new imacs start at $1,299usd with a 17-inch lcd, 1.8ghz g5 cpu, 512mb of ddr ram, and a 160gb serial ata hard drive.

apple also updated its emac line of computers targeted at the education market. the two new systems both have a 1.42ghz powerpc g4 and start at $799usd.

from apple's pr site:

shares of apple computer (aapl) closed at $37.15 wednesday, up $0.94.



robot goes to preschool

qrio, a humanoid robot developed by sony intelligence dynamics laboratories, has been "attending" a nursery school in california since march. qrio is taken to the school in san diego every day, and spends time playing with ten children under the age of two. a researcher is on-hand to observe and document the interactions that take place.

the children were apprehensive about the robot at first, but have grown to accept it, and will help it up when it falls. "the children think of qrio as a feeble younger brother", according to researcher fumihide tanaka.

sony's aim in this endeavor is to work on developing a robot that can "live in harmony with humans in the future". the data gathered thus far have helped the researchers gain a better understanding of how robots should act around humans, in particular that balancing timely responses and unexpected movements are of integral importance.



world press freedom day marked in serbia and montenegro

belgrade media center, independent union of journalists of serbia and independent media union "independence" called all media to interrupt their program for five minutes at 11:55 to mark world press freedom day. most of the media also read an announcement requesting that the murderers of journalists in serbia and montenegro are brought to justice. four cases of murders of journalists still remain unresolved:


serbian journalists also asked for the radio frequency statute to take effect, as well as creating a government agency for telecommunication and abolishing jail sentences for slander. 

independent union of journalists of montenegro asked for solidarity in the fight for media freedom. representatives of journalist associations in kosovo said that only certain journalists have freedom of expression, but that there is no mechanism to protect investigative reporting. around one hundred journalists protested in front of the kosovo assembly building.


 


turbolinux adopted by china's largest bank

the turbolinux operating system, a variety of gnu/linux free/open source software, has been chosen as the in-house server software for the front-end banking operations of china's largest bank, replacing sco unix. the industrial and commercial bank of china (icbc) announced the migration on thursday, april 28.

the announcement is significant in terms of the sheer size of the bank. "this is the biggest linux implementation in china," said general manager claude zhou of turbolinux china. the icbc serves more than 108 million customers and manages their combined assets of us$640 billion (5.3 trillion renminbi). its 390,000 employees are scattered across 20,000 branch offices throughout china. the planned deployment will be undertaken in steps and is estimated to take three years. 

zhou described the reasons for the planned migration as the stability and security of linux. nielse jiang, an analyst at idc, also attributed the switch to insufficient support by the sco group. "in china, sco unix offers very weak support for customers; they have so few employees," jiang said.

icbc selected turbolinux over its various competitors, including microsoft corporation, in part because of its need to maintain its custom-written unix-based software. the increasing scalability and stability of linux also were factors in the decision.

turbolinux has been china's number one source of linux for the past 4 years. in 2004, turbolinux held 62.0% of the chinese server market, and also had 24.9% desktop market share, a much larger portion of desktop share than gnu/linux holds in the united states.

turbolinux is an asian-pacific distribution of linux with its corporate headquarters located in tokyo, japan, and offices in china and the united states. turbolinux claims that its "turbolinux 7 server was the first-ever to conform to internationalization standards to help simplify development of applications that require multiple language support ? a critical requirement for software distributed globally," and supports the use of its software in the japanese and chinese languages.

turbolinux was also used as the operating system of choice for china's recent supercomputer, the dawning 4000a. with its unveiling on november 15, 2004, china became the third country, after the u.s. and japan, to surpass the 10 teraflops level of performance in a single machine. the computer, located in shanghai supercomputing center, contains 2,560 64-bit opteron processors from amd, each running at 2.2 ghz, and at its introduction was the 10th fastest computer in the world.

turbolinux is being spread throughout china, both throughout government and the business sector, in key areas such as transportation and telecommunications. in december 2004, zte corporation, the largest telecommunications manufacturer in china, partnered with hewlett-packard and turbolinux to bring the benefits of gnu/linux software to that industry.

the other three largest banks in china have either already announced plans for major migrations to gnu/linux servers running various distributions, or are expected to do so later this year.




romanian presidential advisor resigns

romania's presidential advisor for foreign policy, andrei ple?u, resigned yesterday from his position. the resignation was signed by president , with the 56-year-old ple?u saying that he is withdrawing from his position due to health problems. a press release by the presidency said that, until a new advisor is named, anca ilinoiu will act in the position of ple?u.

andrei ple?u became the presidential advisor when b?sescu was , in december 2004. the advisor had been complaining about his health problems for a while, but was asked by b?sescu to remain in office until a replacement can be found.


romanian media workers ask iraqi ambassador for help regarding kidnapped journalists

a romanian media workers' union has asked the iraqi ambassador in bucharest, adel murad ali murad, to help with the safe release of the three romanian journalists kidnapped in iraq in late march. the journalists wrote to the ambassador saying, "we are convinced that the authorities in your country [iraq] are doing everything possible to resolve the situation. yet we are obliged to transmit our desire and hopes that efforts will be intensified."

the fate of the journalists in the past few days has been quite underreported in the romanian media, as the deadline for their killing has passed yet president traian b?sescu said this monday that he knows "for certain" the three are alive. the terrorists which kidnapped them aired a tape on al-jazeera, on april 23, that they would kill the journalists by april 27 if romania does not withdraw its 860 troops from iraq. romania declined to withdraw the troops, and it seems the terrorists did not enforce their deadline.

meanwhile, romanian authorities have been trying to secure the release of the journalists. foreign minister mihai r?zvan ungureanu visited damascus, syria, last week, where he discussed the situation.

many romanian media workers remembered the fate of the three journalists as part of world press freedom day, which occurred yesterday.


refurbished cafeteria opens in romanian parliament

a new, refurbished cafeteria at the romanian palace of the parliament in bucharest has opened for the use of parliamentarians. the new cafeteria, which has mahogany furniture and leather draped armchairs, was officially opened yesterday, and is situated at the entrance to the senate headquarters in the palace of the parliament.

members of parliament said they were not satisfied with the former cafeteria in the palace, saying that it didn't have proper tables and chairs to sit on. many parliamentarians expressed their satisfaction at the opening of the refurbished dining venue, saying that they can now drink a cup of coffee "in a civilised manner" before sessions.

bucharest's palace of the parliament ("palatul parlamentului" in romanian) is the largest building in europe and the third largest building in the world, with an area of approximately 350,000 m2. it contains both houses of the romanian parliament (the chamber of deputies and the senate), as well as the national museum of contemporary art (mnac). it is also frequently used as a function centre.


constan?a shipyard revenues increase by 63.5 percent in 2004

constan?a shipyard (snc) registered total revenues of ?38.4 million in 2004, 63.5% higher than in 2003. the shipyard also had a net profit of ?1.7 million, which was assigned to reserves linked to fiscal facilities, as well as to the coverage of the previous years' losses and the legal reserve.

constan?a shipyard, located in the romanian port of constan?a, on the black sea coast, is the largest shipyard in romania. the shipyard was privatised in april 2002, when resource international, a company based in the marshall islands, bought stocks in it worth us$17.4 million, from the romanian government. the other shareholders in the company are histria shipmanagement srl (constan?a), technical shiprepairs and maintenance srl (constan?a).


romanian student wins nasa space settlement design contest

horia teodorescu, a student in 10th grade at costache negruzzi college in ia?i, northeastern romania, won the annual worldwide nasa space settlement design contest. the contest is sponsored by the fundamental space biology program of the united states' space agency, nasa. the task of the contest is for students to develop designs for a permanent orbital space colony. for his design, teodorescu was awarded a visit to a nasa base in the usa.

concerning the contest, teodorescu said, "i designed a space colony which is called 'temis', a personification of the greek goddess of wisdom. the project is made up of four parts." he said that the development of the space colony in his design has two phases - "firstly, there is the construction period, in which the moon is used as a base for extracting and processing materials. this would last about one year. after that, there would be a period of 4-5 years, in which the population of the colony would reach 10,000." in 15 years, teodorescu projects in his design that the population would reach 100,000, and reach the stage where the colony would be able to sustain itself and to start developing its own economic, social and educational systems.

during the design's conception, teodorescu was aided by his teachers, adrian koriloff, margareta constantinescu, nicolae hirtan and lucia miron, as well as his father horia neculai teodorescu, who is a professor at the ia?i university. teodorescu also participated in the same contest in 2004, where he received second place. the first prize was also obtained by romanians, more precisely a group of students from constan?a.

the costache negruzzi college, founded in 1895, is, with over 1500 students, the largest secondary education facility in ia?i, a city of 320,000 people.


u.s. newspaper circulation continues 20-year slide

circulation figures dropped an average 1.9% among 814 u.s. newspapers according to research by the "newspaper association of america" industry group. the drop, which continues a 20-year declining trend, is one of the worst 6 month slips since a 1984 circulation peak.

factors such as cable tv and the internet are named as challengers in the competition for reader attention. also contributing are scandal-driven changes in the way circulation is calculated. concerns over the credibility of circulation figures given by some newspapers have gripped the industry and caused 3 of the top-twenty papers to have their figures excluded from the report [see below]. a paper’s circulation is the key figure looked at by advertisers when making spending decisions.

posting slight increases were two rare circulation gainers "usa today" and "the new york times". many papers said drops were partly due to intentional distribution cuts, such as to hotels and schools for example. another cause was that circulation drives were less successful due to the us national do-not-call registry hampering telemarketer ability to contact potential subscribers.



pakistan captures al qaeda suspect

pakistan information minister announced wednesday the capture of abu faraj al-libbi, and five other suspected militants, after a gun battle in on monday. abu faraj al-libbi was wanted in connection with two attempts to assassinate pakistan's president, pervez musharraf, one on december 25, 2004.

security officials said the born al-libbi was thought to be a top general for al-qaeda leader osama bin laden and acted as an operational commander in pakistan. ahmed told ap, "this arrest gives us a lot of tips, and i can only say that our security agencies are on the right track."

ahmed, who called the capture "a very important day for us", said they are receiving more and more tips and are on the right track towards the eventual capture of bin laden. pakistan has put more pressure on its northwest region with a months-long build-up there. the region is believed by many to be where al-qaeda members are holding out after they were pushed from .

musharraf has been a key ally in the us-led war on terrorism, and because of that also an militant target. a bbc security correspondent said this is the biggest arrest since that of , the alleged mastermind of the 2003 attack. 

although al-libbi is not on the fbi's list of most-wanted terrorists, interior minister aftab khan sherpao stated that the united states had been offering a bounty of $10 million for information leading to al-libbi's arrest. he refused to speculate upon whether the arrest would aid in the capture of bin laden, saying that "we have no information" about the al qaeda leaders, and "it's premature to say [whether this arrest will help in tracking them], but definitely interrogation is going to take place."

sherpao also said that it was too early to say whether al-libbi and mohammed would be taken to the united states, or remain in undisclosed locations with other al-qaeda detainees. he stressed that there were the attempted assassination cases pending against al-libbi in pakistan.

the united states is not the only country which lays claim to al-libbi. he is wanted by , where he has been sentenced to death (and whence he escaped in the 1980s), for assassination attempts on . he is also wanted by afghanistan.



twelve more moons of saturn discovered

astronomers at the today announced their discovery of twelve further moons of , bringing the total number of moons discovered so far to 46. the initial discovery of the satellites was on december 12, 2004, and was made using the 8.2 metre at the . confirmational observations were then conducted throughout january, february, and march from the subaru telescope and from the telescope.

similar teams at the university led by discovered 11 moons of jupiter in 2001, and a further 11 in 2002, before turning their attentions to saturn.

11 of the newly discovered moons are in , leading astronomers to hypothesize that they were originally asteroids, attracted out of the asteroid belt by jupiter's gravity and then captured by saturn. all of the moons are in inclined elliptical orbits, that range from 16 million to 22 million kilometres in distance from saturn. as a point of reference, earth's is an average of 384,403 kilometres from the earth. the new moons of saturn are provisionally named s/2004 s07 through to s/2004 s18.



tito remembered 25 years after his death

delegations from every region of ex-yugoslavia, except kosovo, visited josip broz tito's grave in belgrade on a 25th anniversary of his death. tito, the lifelong president of yugoslavia from 1953, died on may 4, 1980 and was buried in the "house of flowers" in belgrade.

world war two veterans, as well as youngsters, carrying yugoslavian flags, laid down flowers on tito's grave.

two macedonians, a 59-year-old stojanche kostovski and a 21-year-old goce velkovski, marched from skoplje, macedonia to belgrade, serbia to visit tito's grave, covering around 463 km in 13 days.

b92 quoted one of the visitors, miloica ru?i?, as saying "while tito was alive i had no democracy, but i had money and a passport. now i have democracy, but also an empty stomach."

a visitor from vrbas said "many go to monasteries and churches, but i came here to find peace."

ngo "general consulate of sfry", from tivat, montenegro, published an obituary in major montenegran daily newspapers, containing tito's photography and the text: "quarter of a century without you - a whole century backwards."



former russian nuclear energy minister arrested by swiss authorities on the behalf of the us

former nuclear energy minister yevgeny adamov was arrested on monday by authorities. the arrest came at the request of officials who claim he stole more than nine million dollars allocated by washington to help improve russian nuclear safety.

the ministry of justice in switzerland said adamov will be extradited to the us. the warrant allowing this states that he is charged with diverting money from the u.s. department of energy to several companies he controls.

adamov's lead lawyer said he will fight the extradition warrant and called the accusations "baseless". adamov, who has on a number of occasions been investigated for his financial dealing by the u.s. and russia alike, said he was being punished for his help in building a nuclear plant in iran.

the u.s. now has 60 days to present a formal request, after which a swiss court will make a ruling. swiss officials said it is common for this process to take several months.

adamov's u.s. lawyer, larry breur, said adamov admitted to depositing the money into a personal account, but then he used that account to dispense the money to russian agencies and nuclear scientists. breur said the process was common in russia to avoid hypertaxation.

yevgeny adamov was a minister in boris yeltsin's government, but was removed from power by vladimir putin in an effort to remove corruption. adamov was in bern attempting to unblock bank accounts belonging to his daughter.



partizan increases its lead

after an away victory of 1:3 over vojvodina, partizan increased its advantage over second place red star by 7 points in the first federal league. red star shared points with smederevo by tieing 1:1 at home with the 12th place team.

another surpise of the round was the easy victory of obili? over budu?nost, with a score of 4:2 (3:1 at half time), which put obili? into 13th place, and allowed zemun to take over the 5th spot from budu?nost. obili? now has a chance to finish in the top 12, which would secure their existence in the first league, as they are behind hajduk, borac and smederevo by a goal difference only and have a deficit of one played game. 

all results from this round are:



investigators find black box of crashed new zealand mail plane

investigators in tuesday's crash of the airwork metroliner airplane recovered the black box and cockpit voice recorder. according to witness reports, the airplane exploded in mid-air and crashed into a taranaki farmland six kilometres east of stratford, new zealand. both pilots were killed. 

the pilots have been named as clive roger adamson (43) of wellington, and tony drummond (41) of auckland. the aircraft was on a regular mail run from auckland to wellington carrying courier post and mail.

 


boston's faneuil hall selects 2005 performers

after being postponed a week because of weather, on saturday and sunday, april 30 and may 1, faneuil hall marketplace in boston, massachusetts, held public auditions for their 2005 performance slots. thirty-two performance and musical acts got the coveted slots at one of the city's popular tourist destinations. benefits of performing in the faneuil hall/quincy market area include exposure and tips from passersby.

although the auditions were open to the public, few people seemed to find the location for the tryouts, since they were held on the second floor of quincy market because of the weather. were it not raining, they would have been held outside.

acts vying for performance slots included dan foley, who has juggled chairs at the marketplace for several seasons, jugglers, and a contortionist. musicians included the vegas valentinos, a loud rock and roll act reminiscient of elvis; apple crisp, a father and son with a keyboard and a vibraphone; a few guitar/harmonica combinations; and tom bianchi, a familiar site among boston street performers.

the emcee between musical acts tried to steal the show with bad jokes. luckily, audience members steeled themselves and braved his jokes to listen to toby tobas' steel drums.

the judges selected performers earlier this week. entertainment will begin on memorial day weekend.

according to the boston herald, the selected acts are:

faneuil hall marketplace


prime ministers from finland and estonia meet

during the first meeting between new estonian prime minister andrus ansip and finnish prime minister matti vanhanen they praised the strong relations between their countries, and spoke on how to expand their cooperation.

one topic under discussion was a 2003 report written by two "wise men" (former bank of finland director esko ollila and estonia’s current minister of defence jaak joeruut), regarding closer cooperation. within the report were 43 suggestions for closer dealings.

on the economic front, discussion occurred on the finnish one year "interim" period limiting citizens of the new eu countries access to finnish labour markets. it is the opinion of estonia that it goes against the principles of the eu.

in education and science, the estonian pm commented that,"experience that estonians have picked up in finland has been important. for instance, finnish television taught estonians about the market economy already in the soviet period." further cooperation between finnish and estonian universities for research was discussed.

ansip made several comments regarding the recent victory day celebrations in moscow. he commented that relations between estonia and russia should not be harmed by estonian president arnold ruutel not attending the celebrations. he also stated that "we are waiting for the invitation", to sign a border treaty with russia.

 


italian biggest win at italian lottery superenalotto

the tuesday drawing of the italian superenalotto game has awarded the biggest prize ever won in a betting game in italy. the single winner of the first category prize (6 numbers guessed) will receive an amount, including the jackpot from previous un-won draws, of ?72.090.405,19 (us$93 million.) the prize money will be received in full without further taxation, since taxes in prizes of that type are taken at a fixed rate by the italian state from the money paid for the bet.

the winning card was purchased in a cafe in milan. the betting game, in some respects similar to powerball in the usa, but without the special number, requires guessing 6 numbers out of 90.

there is not a drawing for the superenalotto itself. numbers are taken from the drawing of another italian lottery game called the national lotto. if you guess all 6 numbers in superenalotto, you win the highest prize.

one additional number is drawn from the lotto drawing. if you have guessed 5 numbers of the normal superenalotto 6, where the additional number is called the jolly number or joker number, you win a runner-up prize (somewhat less than the full 6 award). called the 5+1 prize, it was just won in the previous drawing on april 30. there are minor prizes for 5, 4 or 3 numbers guessed, but only the full 6 and 5+1 prize have the jackpot mechanism.




liverpool and milan in champions league final

in a football match played in eindhoven, a.c. milan advanced to the uefa champions league finals on away goals against psv eindhoven with 3:1 in today's game (1:0 at half-time). milan won at home 2:0 in the first leg a week ago. 

statistically, psv had an advantage most of the game. they held the ball 60% of the game and took 15 shots at the goal, while milan had only 8 shots.

by the end of the second half, the home team had a lead of 2:0. park scored in 9' and cocu in 65'. but during the last ten minutes of the game, gomes' goal was invaded by milan's strikers. in 91' ambrosini scored the winning goal for milan. in the next minute, cocu scored for the second time this evening, but it was not enough for overtime. 

psv eindhoven:
a.c. milan:

the other finalist is liverpool, which won the second game with the result 1:0, after equalizing with chelsea in the first leg. the final game will be played in istanbul, turkey, on may 25.


saskatchewan man escapes black bear attack

john rudachyk told reporters he thought he was moments from death sunday during an attack by a black bear but managed to crawl away to his car and drive home.

mr. rudachyk, 32, was reportedly searching for deer horns in the woods near his home in norquay, saskatchewan when he says the bear suddenly charged at him out of some thick brush, snorting and grunting. he managed to climb a nearby poplar tree but before getting too high, the bear reached him. mr. rudachyk recalls kicking the bear's nose which caused it to momentarily retreat but then attacked again grabbing his foot and flinging him into a spruce tree. mr. rudachyk said he then fell to the ground and was briefly knocked out. after regaining consciousness, despite a mangled foot, broken bones, and numerous cuts, he managed to crawl to his car some 700 metres away never daring to look back to see if the bear was still near. he told a cbc reporter, "i figured if he was going to come after me, i didn't want to know. i was that scared."

mr. rudachyk, now recovering in a regina hospital, said he does not know how he managed to survive the attack and drive himself home. "it was a pretty big bear. i thought i was dead. i thought that was the end of my life and all i could do was try to fight, stay alive or whatever."



new york city subway n service to be restored to coney island may 29, via the sea beach line

on may 29, 2005, the final phase of reconstruction of the stillwell avenue terminal on coney island will be completed, with the reopening of the bmt sea beach line to regular n service. n service currently stops one station short of coney island, at gravesend-86th street, and last reached coney island under regular service on november 4, 2001, though various general orders caused by other closures have resulted in n trains running all the way.

the sea beach line began in 1879 as the new york and sea beach railway, a steam-powered railroad. it was bought by the brooklyn rapid transit company in 1897 and soon fitted with trolley wire, with connections to manhattan via various elevated railways.

reconstruction into a four-track depressed line was finished in 1915, and subway trains running to midtown manhattan started using the line. the sea beach line was the fastest of the four lines connecting coney island to manhattan, especially when the express tracks of the sea beach line (last used in 1968) were in use, as there were no express stations between the split from the bmt fourth avenue line and coney island.

the n was both the first service to be cut back from coney island and the last to return, and was the only one not replaced by a shuttle bus during its closure. the bmt west end line (w, later d) was never cut back from coney island, but the bmt culver line (f) and bmt brighton line (q) were cut back from september 8, 2002 to may 22, 2004 (returning to service may 23).



mortgage advisers attempt to collect rent from neighbors after fbi raid in union city, california

three months after the fbi raided the offices of the dorean group in union city, california, neighboring companies in the same office park have received letters claiming that rent for the office park should now be paid to the dorean group. the owner of the office park, hanover properties, insists that they have not sold the park and called the dorean group's claim fraudulent.

the first letter from the dorean group, dated may 2nd, 2005, purported to "inform [the tenants] of the change in ownership of the property [the tenants] now occupy," and asked that "payment of rents be sent" to the principals of the dorean group. the letter also included notarized documents authorizing the sale by an alleged agent of the current owner, hanover properties, a "julia pantibratyuk."

on the subsequent day, hanover properties responded in a letter to the other tenants of the park. they noted that they had not sold the office park to the dorean group, but that they had evicted the dorean group from the premises on april 26. they added that, "we do not know who julia pantbratyuk is."

the letters were provided to wikinews reporter by an employee of one of the companies in the office park.

according to the sacramento bee, the dorean group says that it helps homeowners "wipe your mortgage off the books ... by executing a series of maneuvers with deeds and other real estate documents." u.s. district judge william alsup called the firm's work, "an elaborate internet scam", said the bee.

kurt johnson, one of the principals of the dorean group, disagrees. "we're on the cutting edge of legal theory ... it's in the law books, but no one's had the courage to bring it out," he told the bee.

the greater cleveland better business bureau issued an alert on its website in january about the dorean group. according to the bureau, the dorean group was "believed to be victimizing area lenders while leaving homeowners facing dire consequences."


serbia - pahomije's case moved to nis

the case of a serbian diocesan tomislav ga?i? (also known by his christian name pahomije), accused of molesting four boys, will be moved to a municipal court in ni?. the supreme court in serbia accepted a plea by prosecution in vranje, which said that they are under a big pressure of the public and media.

sanja pejovi? and vladimir risti?, attorneys of the accused, asked for the exemption of all judges of municipal and district courts in vranje because of their bias. attorneys of the four boys said that this was a move to palliate the case.

the serbian orthodox church did not make a statement regarding this case, that is now in its third year.

 


explosions near british consulate in new york shatter windows

videotape from security cameras appeared to show a cyclist lighting metal canisters that were filled with gun powder, and throwing them toward the building before fleeing the scene, police sources said. the make-shift explosives blew up in a concrete flower box, shattering glass but causing no injuries.

two explosions were heard before 4am est this morning, outside the 21-story building housing the british consulate in midtown manhattan (map). the nypd's bomb squad was called to the scene, and checked the area for further explosive devices. "cnn" and the "times online" reported a blast at 3:35; an "ap" report mentioned two blasts around 3:50 from "in or near a cement flower box," according to nypd spokesman noel waters.

the damage from the explosion included broken windows in the building, a parked car, and the front door of the building. nyc mayor michael bloomberg noted that police closed third avenue between 51st and 53rd streets. european markets reacted quickly to the news, which briefly increased volatility in all assets, according to dow jones news wires.

it is not yet known whether this is related to britain's general election today, featuring prime minister tony blair's bid for his third term. mayor bloomberg told reporters, "we do not at this point have any idea who did it, or a motive...i don't think anybody should jump to conclusions".

police think the target may have actually been a board member of caterpillar, inc., who works in the same building. caterpillar sells bulldozers used by israel to demolish palestinian homes. nyc police chief raymond kelly noted the building was the site of an april 13 demonstration by a group called jews against the occupation.



doubts on yesterday's italian lotto and superenalotto drawing

the live television broadcast of the italian lotto draw, which was used to award the record-breaking ?72.090.405,19 superenalotto prize tuesday, is reported to have had problems in the drawing procedure.

only the numbered ball extraction of the "ruota di roma" (wheel of rome) was shown in the live television broadcast. 

instead of the traditional ball extraction made by a child, a new method based on an automatic machine was used for the "wheel of rome" and for the new "national wheel". the other "wheels" were drawn with the traditional system but were not broadcast on public television.

the operation with the new machine worked for the new "national wheel" but when the operation started for the "wheel of rome", something went wrong. not all the balls were taken into the box by the compressed air jet. a person tried to solve the problem, but a ball had fallen on the floor. television images did not make it clear what really happened. some parts of the procedure may not have been shown on television. the organization stated that the fallen ball was reinserted into the box, but this was not shown on television.

for these reasons, doubts have arisen about the regularity of the draw. mr. corbelli, the president of movimento diritti civili, an association for civil rights, has stated that he wants an investigation to be made by the justice system to clarify what really happened and to check if the drawing was regular.


israeli withdrawal halted until palestinians disarm militants


bus drivers strike for six days in auckland

bus drivers at stagecoach, the main busline in auckland, began a six-day strike on may 5 after company and union representatives failed to reach a settlement. traffic during rush-hour has become much more dense than usual, due to parents driving children to or from school. extensive motorway roadworks in auckland are in progress, as well as the usual rash of roadworks at the end of the annual council budgets.

stagecoach employees are in disagreement with the new uk-based management over working practices and pay.



india's nda rejects pm's appeal to end boycott

the national democratic alliance (nda), the chief alliance of opposition parties in india, has rejected prime minister manmohan singh's appeal to end its boycott of parliament. a spokesperson of the bharatiya janata party, the chief opposition party, sushma swaraj termed the appeal as a "mere formality" which was akin to "rubbing salt to the wound". 

"i appeal to leaders of the opposition to join the proceedings and this government is ready to discuss all issues and there is no issue which is barred from discussion," singh said in parliament.

the nda has been boycotting parliament to put pressure on the government to answer their demands for the dismissal of lalu prasad yadav, railways minister. yadav had been indicted over charges stemming from the "fodder scam".

the appeal comes as the telugu desam party, an ally (although not a member) of the nda, while maintaining its criticism of the government's attitude, decided to end its boycott of parliament and will join for the rest of the budget session.



u.s. navy finds soldier shot wounded iraqi at fallujah in self defense

in the case of a marine who fired upon an unarmed and wounded iraqi in a mosque in november 2004, the u.s. naval criminal investigative service, headed by major general richard natonski, ruled that the soldier acted in self-defense, and within the law of armed conflict. in a statement released by the marine corps: "he has determined that the actions of the marine in question were consistent with the established rules of engagement, the law of armed conflict and the marine's inherent right of self-defense." he will now not face a court martial.

in a videotape of the event, the camp pendleton u.s. marine raises his weapon and fires into the body of a iraqi lying up against a wall in a mosque. when the marine approached the wounded man, the marine is heard on the videotape saying, "he's f****** faking he's dead; he's faking he's f****** dead." then he fired his rifle point-blank at the man's head, at which point a companion said, "well, he's dead now."

the shootings occurred inside a mosque during a u.s. offensive that led to house-to-house fighting in southern falluja last november. a television journalist embedded with the marines recorded the killing on videotape.

the man killed was one of several iraqi insurgents who had been wounded in fighting and then disarmed by marines, who then moved on leaving the wounded men in the mosque. the next day a second line of marines moved through the area, who fought with more insurgents. due to the time that had passed since the first wave of marines, the second line assumed that any buildings could have been re-occupied by insurgents. the corporal found wounded men in the mosque when they searched it. at that moment marines from the first line of attack were approaching the mosque, among them the journalist, who had also been there the first time. as they approached, they heard three shots. when they entered the journalist taped what he saw, the same people who were left there, disarmed. some were still alive and one marine thought a man lying on the ground was a threat because one of his arms was not clearly visible, so he could be hiding a weapon. however, instead of keeping him covered so another could search him he shot him, while the journalist was taping it. when the marine saw this and heard that these men had already been disarmed before he shouted that he didn't know that.

in sworn testimony, the corporal said he thought the people in the mosque were a threat. investigators who considered a videotape of the shooting agreed. a known tactic of anti-iraqi forces (aif) is to feign injury or death, and the marine could reasonably claim they were still a threat.

the marines said in a press release:

"the evidence supports the conclusion that the shooting of all three aif by the corporal during the assault on the mosque was consistent with the roe (rules of engagement). the evidence indicates that based on the actions of those aif, the corporal reasonably believed that they posed a hostile threat to him and his fellow marines and justifiably fired in self-defense. the enhanced videotape of the shooting supports the corporal's claim that the wounded aif was concealing his left arm behind his head. while it is not clear whether the aif in the videotape made any overtly threatening gestures, it is clear that the marines of 3/1, to include the corporal, were aware that feigning death was a common enemy ttp (tactics, techniques & procedures). accordingly, it was reasonable to believe that the corporal fired on the aif after reasonably believing that the individual was committing a hostile act by exhibiting a known enemy ttp (feigning death and subsequently moving his concealed arm). based on all the evidence in the case, and the rules of engagement that were in effect at the time, it is clear that the corporal could have reasonably believed that the aif shown in the videotape posed a hostile threat justifying his use of deadly force."

kevin sites, the nbc tv journalist who taped the event as "pool" footage, was embedded with the 3rd battalion, 1st marine regiment when it neutralized fallujah. the incident in the mosque raised considerable controversy over whether embedded journalists should maintain a neutral point of view. the unedited footage was aired extensively by al jazeera over the months following the incident. 

sharif hikmat nashashibi of the arab media watch said the footage would support the idea in the middle east that the prime concern of us forces is not the welfare of iraqis.

in the usa, however, the shooting itself was not shown because nbc considered it too shocking. now that sites is no longer embedded he wants to bring the whole story out in the open. 

despite the fact that sites introduced the footage with a long explanation of how the soldiers were under a lot of stress, which could easily cloud their judgement, he received thousands of hate-mails per day and even death-threats

sites later responded to the criticism in an open letter to the regiment in his weblog.



kashmir: bus across line of control goes through peacefully

the recently started bus across the line of control in kashmir completed its third round-trip free of any untoward incident. the third bus from srinagar to muzzafarabad, carrying 37 passengers, left srinagar at around 0815 hours ist on thursday. the return trip from muzaffarabad carried 41 passengers. 

heavy security arrangements were made to ensure no untoward incident took place. authorities kept the names and addresses of the passengers secret to avoid a repeat of violent attacks launched by militants when the service started. the traveler's place of stay in srinagar, in addition to the starting point of the bus, were also kept secret. 

the 170 km srinagar-muzaffarabad road, which was closed for traffic on october 27, 1947 was reopened after nearly 58 years on april 7, 2005.


yemen's first-ever feature film to be screened at cannes festival

the first ever film to be shot in yemen will be screened, but will not compete for prizes, at this year's international cannes film festival. the 90-minute romantic drama by british-yemeni film director, bader ben hirsi, is titled "a new day in old sanaa'a".

"for the most people viewing this film, it will be the first time they ever see images of yemen. the results will be a very positive message" which offers a "true and honest" portrait of life in yemen, said a spokesman from the yemeni media center in 2003, when the film was in the planning stage. the film will depict aspects that are "completely different from the negative image that most of the world has" of the middle-eastern arab nation, said the spokesman.

, where the capital of yemen has been relocated since 1962, is known for its muslim university and many , as a center of islamic culture. it was noted in medieval times as a beautiful and hospitable city, and was described by the 10th century persian traveler as follows: "it is the city of yemen ? there not being found in the highland or the tihama or the a city greater, more populous or more prosperous, of more noble origin or more delicious food than it... with fine dwellings."

the leading actor is nabil saber of old sana'a, and his co-star is the actress and make-up artist julia towns of london. the pair found real-life romance and exchanged wedding vows last year in london, after bowing to tradition and obtaining agreement from both their families.

the film, co-produced by the yemen media center and felix films of london, is not yet 100% complete due to funding shortfall. there is planned to be a low-key showing to introduce the film at the "marche du film" (film market) portion of the cannes festival, but it is not eligible to compete for the "palme d'or" (golden palm) due to its unfinished status. the official premiere is to be held this summer, with widespread promotion and showing in universities and art centers around the world. 

ben hirsi commented on his film, "a new day in old sana'a could be categorized as a romantic drama, showing a very real conflict between modern values and old, [but] is respectful of the strong morals of yemen's islamic society. it does not contain such cinematic norms as profanity, graphic violence or sexually explicit content... as is true in modern-day sana'a, however, traditional practices and concepts are tackled and confronted ? topics such as love, caste, yemeni marriage customs and the wearing of the veil are addressed in detail, and the inner turmoil that results from changing social values in a modernizing society forms a central theme of the story."

the (french: "festival de cannes") is a highly prestigious event attended by numerous show business celebrities that takes place every year in the cannes palace in the seaside resort town of , in southern france, along the . this year's festival is scheduled from may 11 to 22.

currently 26 films have been selected for competition, including a relatively large lineup of american films. "i saw a lot of very good american films and had to refuse ones i would have liked to include because we have to keep a balance in the selection," said artistic director thierry fremaux to the trade magazine "". "american cinema has a lot of vitality right now, and i think we've picked a range of films that reflect its richness and diversity."

the american films announced to be in this year's competition include:



reactions to apple's os x tiger

in chatrooms and on bulletin boards, macintosh users and the macintosh-curious are buzzing about tiger, the newest version of apple computer's mac os x, version 10.4. the open-source kernel, or base of the system, "darwin", plus all the features of apple's proprietary quartz user interface features, software, and system utilities have passed through their next phase of upgrading and scrutiny, and have been shipping for more than a week now.

apple reports that tiger, the code name for this release, includes over 200 new features and new versions of application software such as e-mail client mail, web browser safari, and multi-person audio/video/text messaging client ichat. entirely new features have also been rolled out in this release:

one user of the new operating system made this comment:

industry analysts have pointed to both the advances and the failures of the new version already. many of the bigger technology advances have gained high praise, but, they point out, microsoft longhorn is also expected to have many of these advantages when it is released, expected in late 2006. and inter-operability, long a strength of macintosh to work with other operating systems and networks, has had a few bugs?such as reports of issues with server message block (smb) and active directory. another issue for some is the fact that cisco system's vpn does not work with tiger. cisco has promised a compatible release before the end of the month.

the biggest technology breakthrough is spotlight. using meta-data, searches are fast and easy and very thorough, and the results of the search can be used over and over again and will automatically update and change as you use your system. search queries on a user's data can be saved as "smart folders" without ever moving files on the hard drive, so you can collect all your photos, receipts, and webpages about your summer vacation, for example, while still keeping things ordered on your hard drive. according to a review by "pc world", this alone is worth the us$129.

still, even macintosh support sites such as mac news suggest waiting for the first "point" release (10.4.1) before jumping in, which is expected in late may. apple computer has been on a semi-regular release pattern since moving to mac os x, with four versions released in 5 years. this constant development program has occasionally been accused of being aimed at forcing users to constantly pay out for expensive new software, but the returns of regular releases have been quick bug fixes and leading edge technology.


 


surprise win for respect party in uk 2005 general election

in a victory that has come as a surprise to commentators, george galloway, candidate for the respect the unity coalition party, has won the election in bethnal green and bow in the uk general election, 2005 with a majority of just 823. the seat had been held by oona king, and with a majority of 10,057 in the united kingdom general election, 2001, it had been considered to be a safe labour party seat.

respect also took second place in east ham and west ham, pushing the conservative party into third place in both constituencies, and in birmingham sparkbrook and small heath, pushing the liberal democrats into third place.

in an interview with bbc news, tony banks stated his belief that the large muslim population in the constituency had voted against oona king "because she is a black woman" and that he believed that george galloway would have seen a far different result if he had "come to west ham". (in west ham, lyn brown later beat the respect candidate, lindsey german.)


romanian tourism to be rebranded

romania's national authority for tourism (ant) announced that they would promote tourism in romania through a new branding strategy, in collaboration with the united states agency for international development. the director of ant, marius critonescu, said that the branding exercise will be "a significant component of the romania's development as a new tourist destination of international level." he also added that the development of an integrated brand for romanian tourism will promote a more positive image for the country, thereby increasing the number of tourists and investors. in recent times, there has been quite a lot of investment in "national branding", especially in the field of tourism, as most marketing experts believe that branding for a product or a country is theoretically the same thing, and that the same strategies and approach should be used for both.

concerning the romanian tourism rebranding, international tourism and marketing expert james macgregor stated that, "we have to touch the hearts and souls of the contemporary tourists who no longer travel for a simple beach or ski track. they want to live a self-knowledge experience that is truly uplifting and will leave unforgettable memories. the brand must show them not what they will see or do as tourists but what they will feel when visiting romania."


coffeeheaven to enter romanian market

polish coffee house chain coffeeheaven has stated that it will enter the romanian market this year, with the first of its coffee houses set to open in bucharest. concerning the company's structure in romania, coffeeheaven's executive director, richard worthington, said, "we've decided to work with a local partner and we'll establish a joint venture in romania. the investments will be covered by both parts in equal shares. we don't work in a franchise system." coffeeheaven also said that they would not open stores in shopping malls, but rather in the city centre or in main pedestrian streets.

coffeeheaven, based in warsaw, and opening its first store in 2000, is one of the largest coffee house chains in central europe and its surrounds. it currently has 28 outlets in poland, 7 in latvia (trading under the brand name coffee nation) and 3 in the czech republic.


sydney bus driver accused of kidnapping schoolchildren

a sydney bus driver dropped off a group of mater maria catholic college school children at a brookvale bus depot on thursday, rather than following the normal route near their homes. the rail, tram and bus union said the incident occurred because the children were misbehaving and racially taunting the driver for a second day in a row. parents of some of the warriewood children have conceded that this did occur.

some parents accused the driver of kidnapping their children, and asked police to press charges. the new south wales state government asked to see the "cctv" footage, which does not include audio, as part of an inquiry into the incident. 

transport minister john watkins dismissed this as an overreaction. 
"to call it kidnapping or criminal behaviour is right over the top," he said.

the union intends to support the driver, saying that he acted responsibly under the circumstances, and the children were safe at all times.

the opposition transport spokesman peter debnam has said that this is not an isolated incident, especially in rural areas, and accused premier bob carr of spinelessness for not supporting bus drivers.


romanian road traffic laws aligned to eu standards

romania's new road traffic laws have been approved by the senate, with the laws being in accordance with european union legislation and updating a previous law from 1999. romania is currently going through the process of aligning its legislation with eu standards, as it is set to become a member of the european union on january 1, 2007. the senate approved the law with several amendments from the original draft drawn up by the government and approved by the chamber of deputies.

the new traffic laws include many important changes. firstly, car drivers with a concentration of 0.80 grams or more of alcohol per litre of blood can receive penalties of between one to five years in jail. in the case of public transport drivers, the punishment can increase to seven years in jail. additionally, constructions of any kind will be banned on sidewalks, and traders will not be allowed on roads and parking lots.

another important change is that pedestrians injured while crossing the street in an unauthorised manner, such as at a red light, will "bear full responsibility" for their actions, according to the law.

before being implemented, the law must be approved by the president, traian b?sescu.


australian pm apologises for deportation of australian


australian prime minister john howard has made a qualified apology to an australian citizen who was deported to the philippines in 2001. the woman, who was born in the philippines, is yet to be located. 

"i am very sorry if anything unfair has happened in relation to that and on the face of it that does appear to be the case," mr howard said.

the woman had come into contact with new south wales police after a car accident. speaking but little english, she was then sent to the philippines consulate in brisbane, queensland. she was then deported by immigration officials, in 2001. in 2003 they became aware that she was listed in queensland as a missing person. 

a marriage to an australian man had broken down, and the lady was believed to be suffering from a mental illness. according to the national survey of mental health and well being (1997), one in five australian adults meet at least one criteria for mental disorder.

parallels have been drawn between this incident and the case of cornelia rau, an australian citizen who spent 10 months in immigration detention, including 3 months in solitary confinement at baxter detention centre, before her identity was revealed.

the department of immigration multicultural and indigenous affairs (dimia), responsible for both cases, has left unanswered a question raised in parliament in february, concerning the number who had been wrongfully detained within its system of mandatory detention. the answer was due on april 8, according to greens senator kerry nettle.

dimia indicated in february last year, that over the previous year (2003?2004), 33 people who were lawfully in australia, had been detained and then released.




british conservative leader michael howard to step down

speaking in putney, london, where the conservative candidate won the seat from labour, michael howard has announced that he will not fight in the next general election.

the conservative leader stated that he would be 67 or 68 by the time of the next election, an age he believed to be too old to lead a party into power. therefore, he would be making way for a successor so he or she can be well-established before the next election.

howard stated that he would first reform the selection process for a new party leader before resigning, to avoid long debates about the party's leadership.

he added that the conservative party could "hold its head high", after gaining thirty seats in the general election.

many of the tory party members and journalists gathered at putney expressed their surprise at his decision.


germany gives 16.7 million euro loan to albania to improve its water supply

germany will lend albania ?16.7 million (usd21.5 million) as part of a loan in order to help the country improve its water supply networks in two southeastern towns, pogradec and korca. the deal was signed last tuesday between the albanian finance ministry and germany's government-owned kfw bank.

germany has been one of the most significant donors to albania since the fall of communism. in total, it has contributed more than ?326 million to the country's development, while investing ?135 million in its water supply and urban canals. 80% of this has been given through grants.


mars exploration rover opportunity gets stuck in a small sand dune

the mars rover , better known as , is stuck in a sand dune about 30 centimeters tall in . the rover had just discovered a pair of tiny craters when its six wheels got stuck in the dune and the rover stopped dead.

opportunity ground control is now taking its time getting opportunity free. they also want to discover what is so different about this soil so that this kind of event may be avoided in the future.

"a note to all you opportunity fans: get used to the current scenery, because we’re going to be here awhile," steve squyres, lead scientist on the rover team at cornell university in , new york wrote in his blog. "we are very optimistic that we’ll be able to get out of here, but we’re really going to take our time doing it." squyres also noted: "we've gotten dug in before and gotten out just fine, so this isn't cause for immediate concern."

opportunity is one of two rovers (along with its twin spirit, which landed on mars on 3 january 2004) designed to explore the surface of mars and radio back data to earth. squyres promises to keep the public updated of any changes through his blog.


68% of dutch consider their government &quot;lap dog&quot; of united states

according to an tns nipo survey published today, a 68% majority of the dutch agrees with the position that the balkenende government is behaving itself as the "lap dog" (""schoothondje"") of the united states.

the survey also stated 79% find that us president bush overly pressures other countries to become and stay allies to the us. over 70% agreed europe should attempt to counterbalance the us, while 56% of the participants in the survey agree that bush is a danger for world peace.

the survey was released the night before a bush visit to the netherlands.

 


united states begins testing equipment for demolition of a major vx nerve gas stockpile

testing began on a chemical reactor at the newport chemical depot near terre haute, indiana on friday morning. if successful, the reactor will be put to use destroying the large vx nerve gas stockpiles stored at the facility over the course of the next two years. 
after the disposal project experienced several delays, the facility announced it would begin pumping vx into a completed disposal unit for testing. the unit consists of a chemical reactor in which the vx will be mixed with water and sodium hydroxide, heated to 194°f while mixed with paddles. the resulting chemical, called hydrolysate, is chemically similar to commercial drain cleaners and has similar properties. if the test is successfully completed , the unit will continue processing the vx until the entire stockpile has been neutralized, a process projected to take two years. administrators expect to complete testing on may 10, 2005.
according to the controversial plan, the finished waste product would be shipped to new jersey for final reprocessing. the inert chemical would then be emptied into the delaware river where natural attenuation would occur. 

residents near the proposed river disposal site in new jersey oppose this idea. the contractor for the final component of this disposal would be the dupont corporation.

ncd is a bulk chemical storage and destruction facility in west central indiana, thirty miles north of terre haute. originally founded during world war ii to produce rdx, a conventional explosive, it later became a site for chemical weapons manufacturing during the cold war. it is now used to securely store and gradually neutralize part of the us stockpile of vx. 

vx was manufactured by the u.s. in the 1950s and 60's as a deterrent to possible soviet union use. it was never deployed, and the manufacture was halted in 1969 after an order signed by then-president richard nixon.

in 1999, the army announced it awarded a disposal contract to parsons infrastructure & technology, inc., a business unit of parsons corporation. some 220 civilian parsons employees work at the facility, which is supervised by an army officer reporting to the u.s. army chemical materials agency, and a board of civilian government overseers called the indiana citizens' advisory commission, some of whose members are appointed by the state governor.

security at the facility is controversial. a private security service, supplemented by a complement of indiana national guard soldiers, guarded the facility until april 14, 2005, when the soldiers were withdrawn. an indianapolis television station has questioned security measures in some of its special reports.

 


new york city subway's skip-stop 9 service to make its last run may 27

on friday, may 27, 2005, 9 trains on the new york city subway will make their final run, ending rush-hour skip-stop service on the irt broadway-seventh avenue line north of 137th street-city college. during rush hours, the 9 is a skip-stop supplement to the 1, running the same route but skipping some stops in upper manhattan and the bronx. at the same time, the 1 skips other stops, which are only served by the 9 at rush hours; some stops are served by all trains. this service pattern results in slightly faster trains, but longer waits for those going to or from skipped stations.

9 service was started on december 12, 1988, at first running during rush hours and middays. in the mid-1990s, midday 9 service was dropped.

the j-z skip-stop services on the bmt jamaica line will not be affected, as many passengers ride straight through the skip-stop portion, making the faster service more worthwhile.



kentucky derby field chart


 

muslim opens first arab holocaust museum in nazareth


20-horse field for derby dash

the 131st run for the roses in louisville, ky is set for saturday at churchill downs. post time is 6:04pm edt under what should be partly sunny skies and a fast track. the 20-horse field contains 10 strong contenders in what promises to be a fast pace out front in the kentucky derby.

trainer nick zito, the 2-time derby winner boasts 5 stable horses running the race, and has the odds-on favorite bellamy road. the george steinbrenner owned horse won convincingly in 4 of its last 5 trips. at its #16 post position, it will have to get out quickly, or be on the outside going into the first turn where it would have to fight for position. given the early starting speed of spanish chestnut, it seems unlikely that any horse will easily set the pace.

showing strong closing in its last 4 races is bandini, ridden by top new york jockey john velazquez, a 6-time breeder's cup winner. if this horse can hold onto the pace, watch for him at the finish line.

for today's 1 ? mile race, jeremy rose on afleet alex looks dangerous, where both horse and jockey are experienced. but it was wilko who prevailed in their meeting at the breeders' cup juvenile last october.

a "chicago tribune" computer analysis predicts a win for high fly, based on its “lack of flaws”. in that prediction they note criteria on which it was calculated, but nothing accounts for the race day excitement of roaring crowds in these 3-year-old thoroughbreds.

last year the jammed churchill downs drew 140,000 people on a rainy saturday to watch smarty jones win. the derby run is the first leg in usa horse racing's triple crown. the last horse to win the triple crown was affirmed in 1978.



british supermarket tesco wants to start a film downloading service

the world's third largest supermarket chain, tesco of britain, announced intentions to start a film downloading service on the back of its successful music download service in the united kingdom.

tesco takes a 10% share in the uk music download market, even though they are a late comer.

the reason for the service is that britain is one of the largest illegal downloaders of film and television programmes in the world, with many tv shows copied to pcs as soon as they are shown in the united states. copies of the simpsons, the o.c., desperate housewives and even lost which is not available yet in the uk are found on p2p servers like kazaa and bittorrent.

this is not the first company who has decided to start a film download service. the entertainment giant sony has asked for such a service, plus the music downloader wippet has already decided to introduce film downloading in the uk.


uup leader loses seat in 2005 uk general election

in a surprise result, the leader of the ulster unionist party, david trimble, has lost his seat in the uk general election. beaten with a margin of over 5,000 votes by his opponent david simpson of the democratic unionist party, trimble resigned.

upper bann was one of four seats lost by the uup lost in the 2005 general election, the others being lagan valley, south antrim, and east antrim. its one remaining uk parliament member is sylvia hermon, representing north down.

david simpson of the dup said that his victory in upper bann "sends out a very, very clear signal that push-over unionism has gone forever".



chili finger suspect arrives in san jose, california for trial

san jose law enforcement officials picked up ayala from the clark county detention center in las vegas at about 6:00 a.m. local time on friday, and transported her to san jose, arriving at 1:30 p.m local time.

"obviously, we can't discuss the logistics as to how she was brought here but she was brought in and booked into the santa clara county jail without incident," san jose policy officer enrique garcia told "knight ridder".

ayala will likely be arraigned on monday or tuesday at the santa clara county superior court, according to santa clara county deputy district attorney david boyd.

"we can now move forward," boyd told the "san francisco chronicle". "we are ready to go on all our cases. we don’t just go arrest people for fun."

"i’m very happy about the fact that she's back," ayala's attorney rick ehler told the "san francisco chronicle". "it gives us the opportunity to look at the discovery material the prosecution is compelled to provide us and now we can move forward to prove her innocence."

"the press has treated this like she's hannibal lecter in `silence of the lambs," ayala's sister, mary, told "knight ridder" on friday. "she's a normal human being who's innocent," ayala's sister said. "i just want to know what the evidence is. what could it be? she's innocent."

ayala's sister asked for support from the public next week, and has purchased t-shirts with the words "we support anna ayala".

ayala's bail stands at us$500,000. she could be sentenced to serve up to seven years in jail if she is found guilty of faking the chili finger incident.



new zealand recalls squid boats

in order to save the lives of seabirds, the government of new zealand has ordered the recall from sub-antarctic waters of the entire fleet of new zealand's 35 squid fishing boats. once at port, the boats are to take on independent observers to ensure that they follow codes of practice. violators of the new rules face a fine of up to nz$100,000.

fisheries minister david benson-pope said that "blatant bad behaviour" on the part of the boats, flouting a voluntary code of practice set up a year ago, demanded immediate action. 

an air force aeroplane was sent on a tour of inspection last month. benson-pope reported that observations from the inspection revealed that, contrary to the agreed code of practice:


mr benson-pope referred to a voluntary code of practice adopted in the tuna fishing industry which he said had reduced death of seabirds by 95%.



cartosat-i and hamsat satellites launched precisely by pslv-c6, will have longer life

india's recently launched satellites, the 1560 kg indian remote sensing satellite, cartosat-1 for stereoscopic cartographic applications and 42.5 kg hamsat will have a longer life as per the project director, pslv, n narayana murthy.

murthy told reporters that the additional fuel in the satellites for putting them into the right orbit can now be utilized for orbit maintenance maneuvers. this is due to their precise injection into the orbit by the pslv-c6 launcher.

pslv-c6 was launched by indian space research organization (isro) on may 5, 2005 10:15 ist (may 05, 04:45 ut). pslv-c6 placed both the satellites in polar sun synchronous orbit (sso) at an altitude of 632 x 621 km with an inclination of 97.8 deg with respect to the equator. the solar panels of cartosat-1 were deployed soon after its injection into orbit.

cartosat-1 is the eleventh satellite in the indian remote sensing satellite series and is intended for cartographic applications. it carries two panchromatic cameras that take black-and-white stereoscopic pictures in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum.

hamsat is a micro-satellite for providing satellite based amateur radio services to the indian as well as international community of amateur radio operators (ham).



disneyland marks 50th anniversary

the american theme park disneyland celebrated its golden anniversary on thursday, in anaheim, california.

the theme park, created and opened by walt disney in 1955, hosted a special gala opening at 1pm in front of sleeping beauty castle, the world-famous icon of disneyland.

ceo of the walt disney company michael eisner, coo bob iger, honorary disneyland ambassador julie andrews and a host of stars opened the celebration, which is scheduled to run for eighteen months.

singers christina aguilera and leann rimes sang disney classics, while actors tim allen and steve martin opened new attractions. martin had worked at disneyland as a teenager, and aguilera was part of the mickey mouse club in the 1980s.

within california, disney is calling it the "happiest homecoming on earth", and worldwide it is known as the "happiest celebration on earth". several attractions have been swapped between parks, and the four main disney theme parks (the magic kingdom, tokyo disneyland, disneyland paris and hong kong disneyland) gave a salute to disneyland via live satellite feed.

the ceremony was hit with deep purple stormclouds but no rain. 

the park celebrates its actual birthday on july 17, 2005. there are no clear details on how disney will mark the occasion.



north carolina church kicks out democrats

members of a waynesville, north carolina baptist church voted to kick out nine members, including a deacon, who disagreed with the political views of its main pastor, chan chandler. 

in a special meeting monday night, chandler asked congregants of the east waynesville baptist church who voted for john kerry in the last u.s. presidential election to either repent that action or leave the room. afterward he called for a vote to remove the nine people who left the meeting from the church's membership. all but two remaining members attending the meeting voted to remove the nine dissenters.

later 40 additional church members, who had not attended the monday meeting, resigned from the church in protest of chandler's action.

according to the baptist state convention of north carolina in an interview with the "asheville citizen-times", the local newspaper, each church has local bylaws and east waynesville may have had authority to do such a purge if the bylaws allowed for it.

even so, according to reports by the associated press, the north carolina democratic party claims chandler may be endangering his church's tax-free status. u.s. laws prohibit charities, including churches, from taking sides in the political arena. 

a loss of tax-free status would bar congregants of the church from writing off tithes as charitable contributions on their income tax statements. additionally, the church may have to pay taxes on the money it receives from the collection plate.



mars rover engineers build test sandbox

mars rover engineers have built a test bed simulating the condition of the mars rover opportunity, which became stuck in a martian sand dune on april 26. the test bed uses a combination of materials including play sand for children's sandboxes, diatomaceous earth for swimming pool filters, and mortar clay powder.

opportunity dug into soft sand to wheel-hub depth as it drove over a dune about one-third meter (one foot) tall and 2.5 meters (8 feet) wide. "we've climbed over dozens of ripples, but this one is different in that it seems to be a little taller and to have a steeper slope, about 15 degrees on part of its face," said mark maimone, a jet propulsion laboratory (jpl) rover mobility engineer. tests will be conducted using an earth-bound twin of the rover and the simulated martian dune to determine how to best maneuver opportunity out of the predicament before transmitting commands to the actual vehicle.
"we choose to proceed cautiously, so we don't expect to begin actually driving out of the dune before next week, possibly later," said jim erickson, rover project manager at jpl. "both opportunity and spirit have already provided many more months of scientific exploration than anyone expected. by taking good care of them, we hope to keep them exploring for more months to come. tests so far have sustained our optimism about opportunity's ability to drive out of this dune, but we have more testing ahead to understand how robust that capability is."

engineers constructed a simulated dune last week using sand that was already at jpl's rover testing facility and put a test rover into a similar dug-in position. the test rover had no difficulty driving away, even when sunk belly-deep. however, that sand offered better traction than the finer, looser material that appears to make up the surface at opportunity's current position. "we needed to do tests using material more like what opportunity is in, something that has a fluffier texture and cakes onto the wheels," said jpl rover engineer rick welch, who is leading the tests.

based on images of wheels and wheel tracks from mars, dr. robert sullivan of cornell university, a rover science team member, working with engineers in the jpl test bed, helped match the properties of the test sand as closely as possible with those of the sand beneath opportunity, "we found that when the wheels dig in, the material we're using does stick to the wheels and fills the gaps between the cleats, but it doesn't stick when you're just driving over it. that's good because it's the same as what we see in the images from opportunity," sullivan said. experiments show that the test rover, after some initial wheel-spinning, can drive out of the more powdery material. 

the team went to several home supply and hardware stores to find enough bags and boxes of the ingredients to make more than 2 tons of the simulated mars sand for the more realistic mobility tests, according to jpl rover mobility engineer jeff biesiadeckia.

 


anti-bush protest in amsterdam

protesters gathered in amsterdam, maastricht, and several other cities in the netherlands to protest a visit by the united states president, george w. bush. as many as 2,000 people gathered in amsterdam's museum square, voicing their discontent with the war in iraq.

many protesters consider bush personally responsible for the torture in abu ghraib prison and human rights violations in guantanamo bay. their arguments are based on documentary evidence such as the fbi email showing that bush directly ordered what might be described as torture (hoods, sleep deprivation) . a large number of protesters carried signs that read "george w. bush: warcriminal." more than 150 people attended a demonstration in maastricht, many going to beek airport to give bush an unpleasant and noisy welcome.


google suffers dns outage

access to google, including its other projects, was abruptly interrupted late saturday when a dns outage caused the search engine giant to be unreachable by the domain google.com. google labs and google maps, as well as products of google such as the blogging service blogger and free photo-album software picasa, were unaffected. google.com and its subdomains were once again functioning as of 0100 utc.

during the brief outage, some browsers were redirected to sogosearch. the site http://www.google.com.net has a link to gigantics, and normally redirects to sogosearch. this is probably a procedure that specific browsers implement when they cannot find the proper address. others were also reported to be redirected to microsoft's msn search.

barbobot reports the dns may have been stolen for a short time.



 

ve day 60th anniversary commemorated across europe &amp; usa

the 60th anniversary of has been commemorated sunday across europe and the .


the 60th anniversary of is scheduled to be celebrated in , and other successor states of the , on may 9, 2005.



ex-ambassador comes fifth in election in uk foreign secretary's seat whilst trying to highlight alleged torture in uzbekistan

in the recent uk general election, stood as candidate against in the constituency. murray was attempting to bring about public debate and public knowledge of straw's alleged complicity in uzbek torture. straw retained his seat with 17,562 votes (42%), while murray came fifth with 2,082 votes (5%).

craig murray was british ambassador to in 2002 and 2003. a career diplomat, murray had a good record of success behind him, but was withdrawn from uzbekistan after he publicly decried the widespread use of torture in that country. he was quoted in the "" as claiming the used intelligence gained by the uzbek authorities by torture. 

the foreign and commonwealth office (fco) stated at the time that "it's now felt it's no longer possible mr. murray can do his job effectively so he's been withdrawn." mr. murray was receiving medical treatment at the time for on-going ill health, including a near-fatal pulmonary embolism. he had previously been flown to london after collapsing during a medical check in uzbekistan.

craig murray's campaign website says, "a vote for jack straw is a vote for torture. jack straw expressly agreed that mi6 should use intelligence material obtained under torture, in tyrannical regimes like uzbekistan."

two months before the uk election premiered the program "torture:the dirty business" which showed that the uzbekistan government routinely uses torture to interrogate prisoners. it showed that cia had sent prisoners to that country to be tortured in a procedure known as .

the program alleged that uk's received information obtained by torture. the fco released a statement to the program claiming that they would never do anything to encourage torture, but that it would be "irresponsible" to rule out the use of any information received from a foreign government if such information could help protect british citizens. in the same program craig murray stated that after he raised objections to the use of information extracted under torture, his superiors informed him that jack straw had personally authorised the policy.

according to the program, confessions from tortured prisoners that suggested a link between iraq and al qaeda could have contributed towards the case built by the government for going to war in iraq. information extracted under torture is known to be unreliable because prisoners can be coerced to say anything.

craig murray's blackburn campaign received widespread media attention around the world, although coverage was more limited in the uk (see below for links to some articles covering the craig murray campaign). 









satellite imagery shows viewing stand for north korean nuclear test

according to american and foreign officials, white house and pentagon officials are closely monitoring of north korea, also known as the democratic people's republic of korea (dprk). preparations seem to be made for testing a nuclear weapon, including the construction of a reviewing stand, most likely for scientists or north korean officials. it would be the first test of a nuclear weapon by north korea.

united states officials warned that the intentions of north korean leader kim jong il are unknown, and the constructions may turn out to be a show. the extent of north korea's nuclear capabilities are still unknown. according to the u.s. government agency cia, north korea may have one or two primitive nuclear bombs. according to the head of the international atomic energy agency (), mohamed elbaradei, north korea may possess the material and equipment to manufacture up to six nuclear warheads. north korea's neighbours, however, have been thorougly briefed on the implications of a nuclear weapons test by north korea.

north korea is among the 188 countries to have signed the , although they have later withdrawn again. this treaty states that only the united states, russia, the people's republic of china, france, and the united kingdom are allowed to have nuclear weapons. kim duk hong, one of the regime's most senior defectors, says that north korea resumed the development of its nuclear weapon program as soon as the treaty was signed. kim also stated that north korea gained much of its expertise from pakistan, and that only the death of kim jong il and the destruction of his regime will stop north korea’s nuclear weapons program.

in october 2002, u.s. sources stated that during a visit by assistant secretary of state , north korea admitted to running a clandestine nuclear weapons program. this was widely seen as a violation of both the and the 1994 , which were signed during the administration. north korean officials stated that the reactivation of their weapon of mass destruction program was in response to "imperialist threats" (presumably by the united states). the united states proceeded to stop shipments of fuel oil under the .

in late december 2002 north korea drove weapons inspectors out of the country, announcing plans to reactivate a dormant nuclear fuel processing laboratory and power plant north of pyongyang, if the united states did not agree to a non invasion pact. this nuclear reactor is thought by u.s. officials to be the source for for two previously produced atomic bombs.


long shots dashed hopes of favorites in derby race

saturday's running of the kentucky derby left favorites in dry churned up dust, as speedster spanish chestnut forced an early pace that only long-shot horses fully answered. the two top finishers, giacomo and closing argument ran past race favorites bellamy road and hopeful bandini, who came off the starting gate well and into the first turn. but they faded under a blistering early pace that at the half-mile pole was second fastest in race history.

only afleet alex, showing at third, applied salve to the wounded crowd of 154,000 ticket-tearing fans. betting for this year's race totaled a record $103.3 million counting both on- and off-track wagering. a 2 dollar wager on the winning horse giacomo paid $102.60.

tv viewership in top metropolitan markets was down only slightly from the previous year, which considering the wagering shows no lack of interest in the race:


 


romanian humanist party changes name to conservative party

the romanian humanist party has voted to change its name to the conservative party ("partidul conservator", or pc). during its congress, a resolution was also passed for the party to join the european people's party-european democrats group in the european parliament.

dan voiculescu suggested the change of name, blaming the party's moderate doctrine for its poor election results. voiculescu said he studied several political doctrines and has found that the humanist ideology has much in common with the conservative ideology, including an emphasis on free market economics as a key means of achieving social welfare. other elements of the conservative party's ideology include a reduction in state intervention in the economy and private property, as well as the importance of traditional values such as the family, army and church, and national values and ethics. the party's new slogan is "make a stand, romanian!"

the conservative party is currently part of the justice and truth governing coalition, even though it is generally regarded as the most controversial party in the coalition. this is because its policies and stance on key issues are generally against that of the other coalition parties, especially the national liberal party and the democratic party. for example, the humanist party was the only party in the governing coalition to call for the withdrawal of troops from iraq, and it has been accused of allying with whatever party is in power, regardless of its ideology.

prime minister c?lin popescu-t?riceanu, from the liberal party, attended the congress. he said to the conservatives that they should treat sensitive issues such as the situation in iraq with more responsibility and diplomacy inside the governing coalition, in order to not give the impression of "dysfunction".

the humanists' name change is the third change of name by a romanian party this year. the christian-democratic national peasants' party has changed its name to the christian-democratic people's party, and the great romania party has changed its name to the popular great romania party.


a leak at the sellafield nuclear reprocessing facility on cumbrian coast, england

at the reprocessing plant, a leak in the process was spotted on april 19. the leak did not cause danger to people or the environment but it disturbed the normal operation of the plant.

workers at the plant noticed a discrepancy in the amount of material being reprocessed that enters pipes that lead to a set of centrifuges and the amount of material actually arriving at the centrifuges. they used remote cameras to find the crack where the material was escaping; over twenty tonnes have leaked into a steel lined chamber.

the material, consisting of mostly uranium and some plutonium dissolved in nitric acid, would have been reprocessed in the centrifuges. the large stainless steel chamber that now contains the spilled material is too dangerous to enter due to radioactivity, though it poses no danger to those inside or outside the plant.

the plant has been shut down pending repairs.

the thermal oxide reprocessing plant, or thorp, recycles spent nuclear fuel from british and reactors. (another plant reprocesses fuel from britain's older reactors). nuclear fuel reprocessing recycles spent nuclear fuel, greatly reducing the amount of waste. the process is technically complicated and there is a political debate on its safety. since the price of nuclear fuel is presently low, fuel produced by thorp has had problems competing in the market. furthermore thorp has encountered some technical problems lately. there is discussion whether thorp should be allowed to continue in operation.

sellafield is also the site of, amongst other things, a decommissioned . previously the site has also been the scene of the 1957 , the most severe nuclear accident on british soil.

on february 17, 2005, the united kingdom atomic energy authority reported 29.6 kg of plutonium was unaccounted for during audits at the facility. however, this is an error of 0.5%, and the iaea allows a 1% error to allow for, e.g., mistakes on paper.


victory day 60th anniversary commemorated in russia

today the 60th anniversary of victory day was commemorated in russia, and other successor states of the soviet union.

the parade on red square started at 7:00 utc. the leaders of more than 50 countries and heads of several international organisations attended the parade. george w. bush watched the parade with russian president vladimir putin.

others attending included:

more than 4,000 world war ii veterans and 7,000 military personnel were involved in the parade. the culmination was the flight of 12 planes (made up of su-25s and mig-29s), which emitted white, blue and red smoke to paint a russian flag in the air.

average moscow citizens were not allowed to the parade. the exits from several metropolitan stations were closed. mass celebrations are planned to be held at poklonnaya gora, moscow's primary ww2 memorial.

several new monuments were opened today, such as the 8-meter statue of charles de gaulle by zurab tsereteli and the monument to soldiers from allied countries.

in the evening there was a large fireworks display.

the 60th anniversary of victory in europe (ve) day was commemorated across europe yesterday.




75 iraqi militants reported dead in u.s. offensive

the u.s. military reports 75 militants dead in an offensive launched sunday in western iraq. the offensive was begun with u.s. air support in a desert area north of the euphrates river in the province of anbar. there is no word on civilian casualties, if any.

a report by a "chicago tribune" journalist embedded with u.s. forces said the offensive "was seeking to uproot a persistent insurgency in an area that american intelligence indicated has become a haven for foreign fighters flowing in from syria."

more than 1,000 u.s. and coalition troops supported by fighter jets and helicopter gunships attacked villages in and around al qaim, near the syrian border. a statement by the us military said the operation was expected to last several days, and was targeting a smuggling route and hideouts for foreign rebels.

the "american forces press service" reports: "coalition forces also destroyed car bombs, bomb-making material and two buildings that contained large weapons caches to include hand- and rocket-propelled grenades."

the "new york times" reports an estimate of insurgent casualties at over 100. 

col. bob chase, the chief of operations for the second marine division, has said there were "a handful" of marine casualties. the source also reports chase saying, "the objective is to totally disrupt the safe havens and rat lines that have allowed them to bring those materials across the border. this had been a very secure area for the insurgents."

in a statement made from an islamist website that could not be confirmed, the al-qaeda militant abu musab al-zarqawi reportedly said, "the adorers of the cross claim to have killed 75 muslims at al-qaim. once more, they are lying, because lying is their religion," according to forbes.



us vx nerve gas disposal test a success

workers at newport chemical depot in indiana have completed a successful test-run of a chemical reactor designed to dispose of cold war stockpiles of vx nerve agent.

after encountering initial difficulties when the temperature in the reactor grew too high, workers were able to adjust the speed of the device. 180 gallons of vx and water were turned into a caustic but far less lethal compound, that can be further reprocessed into an inert substance. 

a residue of 14 parts vx per billion remained; the army's eventual goal is less than 20 parts. one drop of vx can kill a grown man.

the conversion of the vx stockpiled at the facility is projected to take two years. then the drain cleaner-like waste product with its small residue of vx will need to be sent to another facility for reprocessing into a safer, biodegradable compound. 

a controversial plan has dupont doing the reprocessing at their facility in new jersey, and dumping the compound into the nearby delaware river.



grafton, new york peace pagoda celebrates birth of buddha with flower festival

a nun of the nipponzan myohoji buddhist sect, jun-san yasuda, organized the flower festival. the two-hour ceremony, including chanting, peace speeches, and singing, was conducted by monks and peace walkers. several hundred attendees joined in bathing the baby buddha in sweet medicinal tea. 

afterwards, complimentary food and drink was available as attendees mingled in the old temple. 

 


ruling liberals of british columbia attack opposition in election campaign

, 
with a less than an impressive outcome from the leadership debate, the ruling british columbia liberal party came out with a very aggressive strategy over the weekend, stalking the campaign of rival new democratic party of british columbia (ndp).

in a clear shift of tactics away from promoting their economic record as deserving a second term in office, the gordon campbell campaign told voters in mission that an ndp government would be a return to the days of premier glen clark, who led the province during an economic downturn. "do you really want the old glen clark gang back in the cabinet room?" campbell asked a crowd of supporters.

a radio debate had all three candidates before the voters again, but without the open debate format which seemed to give campbell difficulty in the televised debate. working to support green leader adrienne carr's attacks on ndp leader carole james, campbell's strategy was likely to split the more liberal voters.

james and the ndp have responded that the liberals must be feeling nervous, or frustrated, since they've abandoned campaigning on their record in favour of a negative campaign. "i think we've struck a chord. he's trying to fight the 2001 election. i'm making sure that the voters have an opportunity to look at his record."

the province of british columbia will hold general elections may 17, 2005.

the ruling liberal party swept into office in 2001, winning 77 of 79 legislative ridings and forming their first government since 1953. in the process they reduced the former ruling party to 2 seats, primarily on a series of leadership scandals and the fastcat fiasco.

category=british columbia
category=elections
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moldovan prosecutor general’s office finishes investigation regarding valeriu pasat

prosecutors are investigating valeriu pasat, a former defense minister and current adviser to the chief of unified energy systems of , for reported sales of moldovan military equipment for personal gain.

pasat is being held regarding two charges. the first involves illegal sales of multiple missile launchers to the firm joy slovakia, and the second regarding the sale of 21 mig-29 jets to the in 1997. the first deal is reported to have cost moldova us$1.8 million, with the second costing $53 million.

pasat's lawyer gheorghe amihalachioae stated that pasat had been given the materials for his criminal case to read. pasat was summoned to the court, but refused to give testimony, instead stating that moldovan authorities made up the charges against him for their own political gain.

if pasat is found guilty on both charges, he could face from five to 12 years in prison.


craigslist founder ponders open journalism

craig newmark, the founder of craigslist.org, is fascinated with the idea of community journalism.

according to the "associated press", newmark is interested in an 'open source' approach to journalism, allowing a huge team of volunteer journalists to stand up to their mainstream counterparts. by acting as news gatherers, writers, and desk editors, newmark envisions the rise of a regularly updated "trustworthy" outlet that can inform voters ahead of the united states midterm elections in 2006.

although plans are currently only on the horizon, newmark has discussed project ideas with dan gillmor, a former technology columnist at the "san jose mercury news" and founder of grassroots media inc., and jeff jarvis, a former critic for tv guide and people. newmark explained: "people are looking for attitude and guts in reporting not full-on gonzo journalism, but hey, tell us what you think."

the collaborative approach to news reporting that newmark describes is already, in one way, very much alive today in the form of wikinews: volunteer writers from around the globe can contribute articles, gather news, fact check and review each other's work. a spokesperson for craigslist confirmed that newmark is "very familiar" with wikipedia, the sister project to wikinews.

confirming that his advisers had been in contact with the wikimedia foundation, newmark himself told us earlier today: "i'm very aware of wikinews, and i really like the idea."

 


denunciations of scandals threaten un

denunciations of corruption, bribe, collection of bribes from refugees and of sexual scandal involving the peacekeepers , threaten the organization of the united nations (un).

the gravest denunciations involve the aid project to iraq, called oil-for-food. grave denunciations of bribe exist, superfluous accounting and collaboration with the ex-dictator saddam hussein, against staff of the un, companies and politicians of several countries. even the secretary of the un, kofi annan was suspicious of participation in the plan of corruption. and also grave doubts still hover about his son, kojo annan.

the gravity of the denunciations threatens not only the credibility of the un, but its existence.

secretary kofi annan said that he is going to promote reforms in the organization. 

 the the oil-for-food program was established by the organization of the united nations in 1996 for permit that the iraq sold oil for the world market in change of food, medicines and others humane worthy supplies. 

the declared intention of the program was to help the iraqi government guarantee the basic needs of the common iraqi citizens, injured by imposed, international economic sanctions to the government in the mat of the first one gulf war, after the iraq invaded the kuwait in august of 1990, however, without permission that the country reconstructed its military forces. 

the iraq refused the program in the beginning but afterwards signed a memo in may of 1996 for its implementation. it programs him by by began in october of 1997, and the first delivers arrived in march of 1998. 

it programs by by used a trustee deposit system, by which the money of the sale of the oil of the iraq i to be paid by the buyer in a not accessible bill straightly by the iraqi government. of this money, a part served for pay indenizacoes by mischief caused to the kuwait, and another one breaks era for help in the payment of the expense of the forces of the coalition and others expense of the united nation with the iraq. the remaining money remained in the bill. 

the iraqi government had permission of buy merchandise that were not prohibited by the program and debit the corresponding values of that bill. the purchase of certain itens, as alimentary kinds, to be rushed, and the corresponding merchandise attended to immediately. most of the itens, inclusive simple things as pencil and acid folico, to be investigated, in a trial that typically led around six months, before of him i am going to be permitted. the itens considerados as subject to application in biological, chemical weapons, and nuclear, as well as itens whose delivers to would lead a long time, were refused, does not import to justificativa given for her requests. 

approximately 60 percent of the 26 millions of inhabitants of the iraq depended only of the feeds of sustenance of him programs by by. provisions in the value moved closer to $27 billion destined for humane help were entregues to the iraq. 

more of or$65 billions in iraqi oil were sold in the world market. around us$46 billions were used for guarantee the humane needs of the iraqis, with food, medicines and others itens of humane help. a total of 25 percent, from december of 2000, was spent with the repairs by the war of the gulf by means of a bottom of compensation; 2,2 percent were operational and administrative expense of the united nations with the program; and 0.8 percent were expense with the weapons inspection program. 

a short while before of the united states of the america and the british forces will invade the iraq, the secretary of the united nations, kofi annan, suspended the program and evacuated more of 300 staffs that controlled the distribution of the provisions. 

in the day 28 of march of 2003, the secretary annan, the united states of the america, and the great britain asked to the advice nations of the united nations for assure that approximately us$10 billions in merchandise for the iraq, that already had been ordered and approved, including us$2,4 billions in food, could be introduced in the country when the conditions permitted. others us$2,1 millions would be left for cover other needs of emergency of the civil iraqis. 

the authorities of the un estimate that 350 thousand refugees would be benefited, with property that would go since tents for shelter, to sustenances. the resolution in argument cleared that the main responsibility by the humane consequences of the war would fall under the united states of the america and great britain, case they took the control of the country, second the wednesday convention of genebra of 1949, about the responsibilities of the forces of occupation. 

the program formally enclosed his activities in 21 of november of 2003, and most of the deep was put under the control of the coalition of provisional authority. 

many they supported the program of intentions alegadamente humane, in the hope of that he of fact helped the iraqis. some other persons criticked the program, in private after the fall of the regimen of saddam hussein, under the argument of that saddam took advantage of the profits obtained by the sale of oil for maintain itself atraves of a plan of corruption that implicava staffs of several governments and of the un. 

france, russia and china defended the expansion of the program.

entre as orientacoes do programa, estava uma que dizia que as receitas da venda do petroleo deveriam ser divididas de modo a proteger as regioes predominantemente curdas do iraque. contudo, os curdos queixaram-se, desde a data de inicio do programa, de que eles nao recebiam essas receitas adequadamente.

houve alegacoes de que o escritorio no cairo da organizacao mundial da saude, foi dirigido por um individuo que supostamente recebeu contratos de venda de petroleo, para em troca, paralisar a construcao de um novo hospital geral para a cidade curda de sulaymaniyah, embora os fundos para a construcao desse hospital estivessem disponiveis desde 1988.

a partir de abril de 2004 , o programa comecou a ser alvo de acusacoes dos circulos conservadores norte-americanos, de que parte do dinheiro era ilegalmente desviada para o governo iraquiano. foram feitas acusacoes de que parte do dinheiro era usada para subornar funcionarios da onu e ate mesmo o secretario-geral kofi annan.

segundo o relatorio liberado no dia 3 de fevereiro de 2005, pela comissao de investigacao liderada por paul volckers , o ex-presidente do fed, banco central dos eua, a maior parte dos alimentos fornecidos pelo programa "era inadequada para o consumo humano". peter van walsum, atualmente embaixador aposentado dos paises baixos para as nacoes unidas e presidente do comite de sancoes do iraque 1999-2000, especulou num livro recente que o iraque deliberadamente dividiu o conselho de seguranca concedendo contratos a franca, russia, e china, mas nao ao reino unido e aos estados unidos da america. ele tambem afirmou que ele encontrou um numero de casos nos quais sentia que a falta da cooperacao iraquiana tinha o objetivo propositado de exacerbar o sofrimento da sua propria gente. ele tambem disse que, em sua opiniao, as sancoes nao eram uma alternativa eficaz.

benon sevan, do chipre, comandou o programa petroleo-por-comida, e com conviccao o defendeu. ele disse que o programa teve so um custo administrativo de 2,2 %, que passou por mais de 100 revisoes (internas e externas), e culpou as restricoes do conselho de seguranca por ter dificultado a situacao. ele tambem disse que 90 % da populacao de iraque confiava no programa de entrega mensal da cesta de alimentos.

on january 25, 2004, "al-mada", a daily newspaper of the iraq, published a list of 270 individuals and organizations of several countries that would have received contracts of sale of oil by intermediary of the oil-for-food program of the un. the list based itself in more of 15,000 documents that supposedly were found in the corporation of iraqi state-owned oil, to which had connections with the department of the oil of iraq. 

the department of the oil headed by ally ahmed chalabi, ex-member of the advice of government, that had been in the past widely critiqued until by his ex-apoiadores, by supply to the u.s.a. false information during the war. the possible envolvement of chalabi and to not possibility of corroborate the evidences put in doubt the accuracy of the list al-mada. 

in the list of beneficiarios of the al-mada were the member of the british parliament, george galloway, and to his entity of charity, the bottom of mariam; the ex-minister of the french interior charles pasqua, and the sheikh al-kaffaji, a man of iraqi business, that contributed with or$400 thousand for produce a film that discredited the researches of weapons for the ex-inspecting one of the un scott. many russian firms and important individuals also were included in the list of the al-mada. to even the russian orthodox church was supposedly implicada in the illegal commerce of oil. george galloway subsequently earned two actions of defamation against the christian science monitor and the daily telegraph that reportaram the accusations. of brazil, there were two names in the list. the first one of them was the name of a such of fuad sirhan, and another name was supposedly of some organization called movement 8 of october (chavez). nobody of portugal appears in the list. 

they appear in the list the names of the chief executive (i dine), patrick maugein, of the company i punch international, that supposedly is enough connected to the french president jacques chirac; of the french ex-ambassador for the un, jean-bernard; and the name president of the indonesia megawati sukarnoputri. 

in an interview for the financial teams, the sheikh al-kaffaji, that appears in the list, admitted that received and sold contratos of iraqi oil for the italtech, a company of italian oil-producing commerce, that by his time resold the oil for the company bayoil, that stayed in houston, in the u.s.a. khafaji said that the ex-inspecting one of the un scott ritter swims to know about those activities. 

arthur millholland, the president of the oilexco ltd, whose name also appeared in the list of al-mada denied any envolvement in illicit activities, but admitted the accusations of that illegal surcharges were payment to the iraqi government by contractors. 

of any form, the list of al-mada does not mention exactly the payment of bribes to the government of the iraq. she quotes paid bribes to individuals for that these supported the iraqi regimen. few they deny that in the iraq, as in many countries of third world, bribes regularly are paid the leaderships for acquire contracts. but some they suggest that you have bribes normally would not occur in you have countries when a program in execution of the un was involved.

algumas companhias superfaturavam em ate 10% as contas, e parte do dinheiro era desviada para as contas bancarias privadas de saddam hussein ou outros funcionarios do regime. parte do dinheiro ficava com as proprias companhias.

segundo se alega, o esquema de corrupcao funcionava assim:

estimativas mostram que saddam hussein usou o programa da onu para juntar 21 bilhoes de dolares a fim de subornar politicos estrangeiros para apoiar decisoes contrarias aos eua e financiar organizacoes terroristas. pelo menos 74 milhoes de dolares do programa petroleo-por-comida foram direto para o hamas. ha suspeitas de que parte do dinheiro tenha ido para a organizacao al qaeda. 

em fevereiro, depois que o nome de benon sevan, o diretor executivo do programa de petroleo-por-comida, apareceu nos documentos do ministerio de petroleo do iraque, tornou-se evidente o possivel envolvimento das nacoes unidas no caso. 

supoe-se que sevan tenha recebido em propinas pelo menos 11 000 000 de barris (1 700 000 m 3) de petroleo. em dinheiro isto corresponde a cerca de 3.5 bilhoes de dolares. benon sevan negou as acusacoes.

em 2000, dileep nair, vice-secretario-geral e diretor do gabinete que investiga os casos de ilegalidades na onu, desejou determinar a vulnerabilidade do programa. benon sevan, chefe do programa petroleo-por-comida, e a subsecretaria-geral louise frechette rejeitaram toda e qualquer investigacao sob a alegacao de que ela seria muito cara e que nao valeria a pena.

enquanto benon sevan esteve na chefia do petroleo-por-comida, ele rejeitou os esforcos para rever e investigar o programa.
ele rencomendou o seu pessoal que as reclamacoes sobre pagamentos ilegais deviam ser formalmente arquivadas com o pais do reclamente, e que devia ser permitido ao iraque barrar qualquer denuncia.

 on september 30, 2004, the report of special counselor charles duelfer of the central intelligence agency (cia), was released. the report described the impact of the oil-for-food program on the regime of saddam hussein:

second the report of charles duelfer, saddam received an estimated of $1.7 billion, outside of the control of the un, between 1997 and 2003. duelfer also said it's possible that benon sevan has received bribes of the plan with the oil. 


after the invasion of iraq in 2003 and the victory of the coalition over the iraqi army, the general accounting office (gao) ? general office of american accounting ? had the task of finalize all the contratos related upon programming by by, after the fall of the iraqi regimen. was responsibility of him also track the fortunes of all of the ex members of the government of the iraq . during this task, the general office found you fail in the program that permitted the existence of bribes and other forms of help for saddam hussein. he calculates that the regimen of saddam hussein generated $10.1 billion in illegal prescriptions. this number i included $5.7 billion of contrabando of oil and $4.4 billion in illicit surcharges about sales of oil and shipments powders-sell about fornecedores. 

more latter to scale of the fraud revealed be been much more extensive than the general office of american accounting intially had calculated. a study of department of the defense of the u.s.a., cited by the general office, evaluated 759 contratos administered by the oil-for-food program and concluded that barely half had been fabricated, by a margin of 21 percent . 

it can be well-read in the summary of the report of the general office of american accounting: :"tanto the secretary of the un, atraves of the office of the as much as iraqi program the advice of security, atraves of his committee of sanctions to the iraq, were responsible by supervise programs him by by. however, the iraqi government negotiated straightly contratos with buyers of iraqi oil and fornecedores of commodities, what may have been an important factor that permitted to the iraq charge illegal surcharges and commissions." 

before of staffs of the united nations will have promised full cooperation with the inquiry from the of the general office of american accounting, joseph a. the christoff, director of international business and commerce of the gao, said that auditores of the un had refused it liberate the internal audits of him programs by by . 

benon sevan, leader of programs by by, with support of kofi annan, wrote letters for all of the ex contractors of programs by by asking that consulted sevan before of liberate any documents for of the general office of american accounting, or panels of inquiry of the congress of the united states of the america . 

by all his history, the program received complaints of that he was necessary be clearer and claims of companies about revelations of private information. 

the un denied all petitions deeds by the general office of american accounting for obtain access to confidential internal audits of him programs by by. 

while tried to decide to complexity of the oil-for-food program, in an article for the periodic one the new york teams, to journalist investigativa claudia rosett, of the foundation in defense of the democracy (foundation will go the defense of democracies) and of the institute hudson, uncovered that details of i hire of the un, as the identities of the contractors of programs by by, the price, the quantity and quality that were received were confidential information. the banking extracts, the payments performed and the transactions also were maintained in secret . 

"that money [of the oil-for-food program] was in secret, devious for you count banking illicit, outside of the iraq and bingo: saddam had access to the money of outside of the country, despite of the sanctions" , said rosset in interview for the foundation in defense of the democracy and for a collaborator of the fox news. 

rosett harshly was criticked by dennis halliday, that of 1997 to 1998 coordinated the humane help of the un for the iraq , and benon sevan . both they affirmed that many of the statements of rossett were incorrect, as to that says that programs by by financed the approval of an olympic stadium, or to that affirms that the responsibility by several questions of the program differ from resolutions of the un. 

the house committee on international relations investigated the oil-for-food program and uncovered that between 15 million and 25 million dollars in cash of the program was used by sabah yassen, ex-ambassador to iraq for jordan, in order to pay the palestinian families of suicidal terrorists. from september of 2000 up to the invasion of the iraq, the families of palestinians dead or injured in the conflict with israel (including the 117 responsible for suicidal attacks against israel) received more of $35 millions.

o conselho de governo iraquiano selecionou a empresa internacional de auditoria kpmg e a firma especializada em direito de empresas internacionais freshfield bruckhaus deringer para investigar as alegacoes do jornal al-mada. ambas deveriam ter divulgado suas conclusoes em maio de 2004. todavia, em junho de 2004, a kpmg parou de trabalhar no projeto por falta de pagamento do conselho do governo iraquiano .

os estados unidos da america criticaram duramente a investigacao da kpmg liderada por socios de ahmed chalabi, e acusaram-no de sabotar a investigacao principal iniciada por paul bremer. aquela investigacao foi liderada pelo chefe do conselho supremo de auditores independentes do iraque, ehsan karim, com a ajuda da ernst & young. em junho de 2004, a investigacao de karim concordou em compartilhar informacoes com a comissao montada por volcker. entretanto, em 1 de julho de 2004, karim foi assassinado por uma bomba magnetica colocada em seu carro .

claude hankes-drielsma, um britanico amigo de longa-data de ahmed chalabi foi escolhido pelo conselho do governo iraquiano para coordenar as investigacoes do programa petroleo-por-comida. drielsma testemunhou perante o congresso dos eua em 21 de abril de 2004 e disse que a investigacao conduzida pela kpmg esperava provar a clara ligacao entre aqueles paises que estavam prontos a fornecer apoio ao regime de saddam hussein em troca de beneficios financeiros, as custas do povo iraquiano, e aqueles que se opuseram as aplicacoes das sancoes contra o iraque e deposicao de saddam. ele tambem testemunho que chalabi estava no comando das investigacoes para o conselho do governo iraquiano.

no final de maio de 2004, no mesmo dia em que os escritorios de chalabi no congresso nacional iraquiano eram revistados pelas forcas de coaliao, drielsma alegou que um individuou, ou individuos, entraram em seu computador e apagaram todos os arquivos relacionados com a sua investigacao. ele tambem disse que um arquivo de backup havia sido apagado.

quando a jornalista claudia rosette perguntou-lhe se ele tinha sofrido ameacas fisicas tambem, drielsma retrucou com sem comentarios. drielsma tambem foi um critico ferrenho da recusa por parte da onu em tornar publica as informacoes internas da auditoria do programa petroleo-por-comida para o conselho de governo iraquiano.

no dia 19 de marco de 2004, o secretario-geral de nacoes unidas, kofi annan voltou atras e disse que realizaria uma investigacao completa sobre o programa petroleo-por-comida. numa entrevista, o secretario-geral disse: "E altamente provavel que tenha havido bastante irregularidades, mas necessitamos investigar [...] e ver quem foi o responsavel". audio 

annan porem acrescentou que a maioria das denuncias eram "ultrajantes e exageradas . segundo ele a maior parte das criticas eram sobre questoes nao relacionadas ao programa.

apenas seis auditores internos da onu foram inicialmente designados para fiscalizar o programa petroleo-por-comida. as recomendacoes da onu dizem que pelo menos 12 auditores devem trabalhar na fiscalizacao de programas que gastam mais de 1 bilhao de dolares, como por exemplo, o petroleo-por-comida. mesmo assim, os auditores internos encontraram varias irregularidades, entre elas: a compra de 287 computadores por 870 mil dolares para os escritorios em bagda, sendo que 100 computadores estavam a mais e nao teriam uso nos escritorios; gasto considerado exorbitante de 47 mil dolares com moveis para o escritorio em bagda, pagamento anual de 500 mil dolares para o governo iraquiano para pagar por inspetores de construcoes, que nunca trabalharam para a onu; compra de seis geradores de energia eletrica a diesel, mesmo sendo dificil obter diesel na regiao o que seria a um custo de 10 milhoes de dolares; foram gastos uma quantia considerada exagerada de 500 mil dolares com suprimentos de inverno, como roupas, para a populacao do iraque. 

parte da auditoria interna da onu vazou e apareceu no "website" mineweb.com. o relatorio que vazou mostrava grandes discrepancias entre os relatorios da empresa suica cotecna e os relatorios das agencias da onu, quanto a valores de transportes para a regiao norte do iraque.

para a auditoria a cotecna nao fez nenhuma inspecao "de valor" sobre quase 1 bilhao de dolares de remessas de ajuda para o programa humanitario da interagencia no norte iraquiano. o responsavel pelo programa, benon sevan, foi informado das descobertas da auditoria em dezembro de 2002 .

a auditoria esta disponivel aqui. seu resumo diz: 

depois de ler o relatorio de auditoria, o congressista americano henry hyde escreveu para kofi annan e perguntou por que "o congresso de estados unidos, responsavel por 22 por cento do orcamento do onu e que solicitou publicamente as copias de 55 auditorias internas, precisou depender de vazamentos de meios de comunicacao para ter acesso aos documentos."

um painel independente de inquerito das nacoes unidas foi criado em abril de 2004. foram designados para dirigir esse painel de investigacao: o ex-presidente do fed (banco central dos eua) paul volcker; richard goldstone da Africa do sul e ex-promotor do tribunal internacional criminal da ex-iugoslavia e do tribunal internacional de ruanda; e mark pieth, da suica, especialista em financas da "organization for economic cooperation and development" (oecd).

em 22 de abril de 2004, o conselho de seguranca de organizacao das nacoes unidas passou uma resolucao unanime que endossou o inquerito de volcker sobre corrupcao no programa petroleo-por-comida para o iraque e pediu a colaboracao dos 191 estados membros. 

on a initial report of 219 pages, the commission of volcker registers that benon sevan used his position to make and receive request of iraqi oil during the years that he supervised the program.

internal documents of somo (iraq 's state oil marketing organization) as well as interviews with iraqi ex-employees involved in illicit selling of oil, show that sevan had requested and had received allocations of 7.3 millions barrels of oil in the name of a company registered in panama called african middle east petroleum co.
although the report does not make a specific allegation of criminal activity by sevan, volcher does not exclude the possibility that the accusations have been filed by authorities in countries with relevant jurisdiction.
o relatorio chamou a conduta de sevan "eticamente impropria anotando que sevan tinha recebido grandes pagamentos a vista que totalizam 160 mil dolares por cada ano durante o qual ele tinha sido chefe do programa. o sevan diz que o dinheiro veio de uma tia no chipre morreu, mas a comissao de investigacao nao achou nenhuma evidencia para apoiar esta afirmacao.

volcker tambem informou em janeiro que uma revisao de 58 auditorias confidenciais da onu sobre o programa mostrou que funcionarios da onu igonoraram precocemente sinais de que as mercadorias despachadas pela companhia suica cotecna para o iraque antes da invasao de 2003 foram pouco inspecionadas, se e que foram inspecionadas. a cotecna pagou a kojo annan, o filho do secretario-geral da onu, kofi annan, taxas de consultoria, ate novembro de 2003. volcker disse que os futuros relatorios deveriam tratar as questoes relacionadas kojo annan .

o secretario-geral da organizacao das nacoes unidas (onu) general kofi annan foi absolvido pelo relatorio da comissao de volcker, dia 29 de marco das acusacoes de que ele teria usado sua influencia para conceder contratos no iraque a companhia suica cotecna inspection services , onde trabalhava seu filho kojo annan.

kofi annan porem e questionado por nao ter investigado melhor as operacoes relacionadas a seu filho kojo. e dois membros de seu pessoal, iqbal riza e dileep nair, foram criticados no relatorio da comissao volcker. riza alegadamente rasgou documentos relacionados aos contratos na investigacao depois que o secretario-geral rencomendou que eles fossem guardados. o jornal the new york times disse que nair foi "fraudulento" ao indicar uma pessoa que quase nao tinha experiencia para um posto de grande responsabilidade do programa petroleo-por-comida.

o filho do secretario-geral, kojo, tambem foi bastante criticado pelo relatorio, que diz que ele "enganou intencionalmente o secretario-geral" sobre a sua ligacao financeira com a empresa suica. e acrescenta: "questoes significativas permanecem a respeito de kojo e de suas acoes durante o outono [boreal] de 1998, assim como da integridade de seus negocios e transacoes financeiras com respeito ao programa petroleo por comida."

kofi annan recebeu pressoes para renunciar, todavia ele disse que nao fara isso.

dia 14 de abril, o texano david chalmers, proprietario da empresa bayoil inc, de hounston e que participou do programa da onu, foi preso e indiciado, acusado de ter pago milhoes de dolares para o regime de saddam hussein e de usar dinheiro do programa petroleo-por-comida. 
tambem foram indiciados um bulgaro residente dos eua, chamado ludmil dionisiev, um britanico chamado john irving e um sul-coreano identificado como tongsun park.

os promotores dos eua que investigam o caso acusaram tongsun park de tentar influenciar autoridades da onu. eles dizem que park encontrou-se com duas autoridades de elevado posto da onu nos anos 90 e que recebeu dois milhoes de dolares por seu trabalho.

funcionarios da onu admitiram que o ex-secretario-geral boutros boutros-ghali tinha uma grande amizade com tongsun park e que eles se encontraram por diversas vezes durante os anos noventa, que era a epoca em que se acertavam os detalhes do programa petroleo-por-comida.

um alto funcionario da onu, maurice strong, admitiu que manteve relacoes com o sul-coreano tongsun park. strong confirmou que tongsun park investiu numa empresa de energia da qual strong fazia parte, em 1997. todavia, strong disse que o investimento foi uma relacao comercial normal e que nao tinha nenhuma relacao com o iraque. 

maurice strong e um conselheiro proximo do secretario-geral da onu kofi annan. em entrevista para a agencia de noticias voa, koffi anan disse que desconhecia qualquer relacionamento financeiro entre strong e park.




google news seeks patent for search system that returns ‘quality’ links

"google news" submitted patent applications both in the united states and world-wide in september 2003 for a system of ranking search returns. the patent protection filings seek to control "google's" approach that filters headlines through a complicated algorithm, including the quality of the news organization. how much of this system is currently in use by the search engine giant is unknown.

primitive search engines are expected to organically evaluate links based on how closely the keywords typed in the search field match an object link, and how many other links are attached to the object. then a measure of relevance is calculated before returning a reply.

it seems some measure of the work being done at "google" is a reaction to search engine optimization (seo) campaigns which can, if done effectively, skew results to certain domains. a challenge for "google" is to develop its technology to nullify efforts on the dark side of seo and link-spamming. 

what also seems to be coming out from this, according to research from the "internet search engine database", is that "google" does indeed have a 'sandbox' where domains are evaluated first by a human factor before being released into its algorithms.

in its first ever securities and exchange commission filing since the company went public last year, google indicated that it intends to spend us$500 million on technology development, more than double the $177 million it spent two years ago.

the language used in the lengthy patent application itself is difficult to understand. an excellent article titled "google united - google patent examined" found below, describes some of the nuts and bolts of google's techniques.



two hundred digit number factored

the two unique of a 200-digit number have been discovered by researchers in germany and the netherlands. the number, named , is one of a series of challenges issued by security company in march 1991 in order to track the real-world difficulty of factoring such numbers, used in the algorithm . the factorisation of rsa-200 beats the previous record number "c176" (176 digits, factored on may 2nd, 2005), and rsa-576 (174 digits, factored on december 3rd, 2003). 

written out, rsa-200 is:

the two factors are:

and

the researchers had been working on factoring the number since christmas 2003. the result was a collaboration between researchers at bonn university and the german federal agency for information technology security (bis) in germany, and the cwi (netherlands). friedrich bahr, m. bohm, jens franke, and thorsten kleinjung report that they used the (gnfs) to factor the number. the factoring was performed using a number of machines in parallel. the initial "sieving" step took the equivalent of 55 cpu-years on a single machine (2.2ghz opteron cpu). some work was also performed by peter montgomery, herman te riele and f. bahr. bahr, franke, kleinjung, te riele and bahr were also part of the team who factored a previous record number, rsa-576.

rsa-200 was part of the original rsa factoring challenge, which was discontinued and replaced with a different set of numbers in 2001. one number in the new challenge, named , has only 193 digits (compared to the 200 of rsa-200), and carries a prize of us$20,000 for its factorisation.


racing - elvstroem a surprise entry at newbury

caulfield cup winner elvstroem is a surprise entry for the group 1 juddmonte lockinge stakes to be run at newbury racecourse on sunday.

elvstroem - who also was victorious in the dubai duty free at nad al sheba earlier this year - has embarked on an ambitious international campaign in his final season of racing before embarking on a stud career. 



major security flaws found in mozilla firefox browser

two serious security flaws have been found in the , both rated by security analysts as being 'extremely critical'. 

an attack using a combination of the two flaws has already been posted on the internet, which can allow an attacker to run code on a victim's computer and take control of it.

one allows for an invisible website 'frame' to navigate back to a url in the history that contains . this allows an attacker to extract sensitive information, such as passwords from that site, using the javascript code.

the second allows attackers to put javascript into the url for the icon for downloading programs in the install confirmation dialogue box. this javascript code can then execute with enhanced privileges.

the flaws have been confirmed in the latest version of the browser, 1.0.3, and may well be present in older versions too.

a number of changes have been made to update.mozilla.org and addons.mozilla.org to make the example attack useless. this doesn't mean that other sites can't be used to launch the attack, so be careful what you add to the "allowed sites" list. the reason that update.mozilla.org and addons.mozilla.org were targeted specifically is that they are added to the "allowed sites" list during the install process.

the most popular browser on the web is microsoft's , which has had many security exploits in the past. there are currently several outstanding security flaws, the most severe of which is rated 'highly critical'.

on may 11, 2005, the mozilla foundation released firefox 1.0.4 and mozilla 1.7.8 with the vulnerabilities patched.

the mozilla foundation has published a series of steps for users using previous versions of the browser. the steps will limit their vulnerability, but which also limits browser functionality:


to prevent the script injection exploit from stealing cookies or other sensitive data disable javascript before visiting untrustworthy sites. in firefox:



german holocaust memorial dedicated

a new $35m memorial in germany officially called the memorial to the murdered jews of europe was dedicated during a ceremony tuesday. the commemorates the suffering the millions of european who were held in concentration camps by the nazi regime. the dedication comes just a day after the 60th anniversary of the in .

u.s. architect designed the new memorial, which is contained in one block square very close to the parliament and the new us embassy in the heart of , germany. the memorial consists of over 2,700 gray concrete blocks representing the helplessness of the holocaust victims. the blocks are covered with an anti-graffiti substance which was made by the same company that produced the zyklon b poison used in the genocide. they are all of different shapes and sizes, and are set on a sloping hillside, designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere.

the memorial has met with criticism. many have pointed out that the memorial is only for the jews who died, and does not represent the millions of gypsies, homosexuals and mentally-handicapped people who were also murdered. it has also been said that while the memorial commerates those who died, it does not ask any questions about why the atrocity happened. however, there are plans for memorials commemorating other victims of the nazi regime. under the abstract memorial there is a place which informs visitors about holocaust.

the ceremony, which chancellor attended, included prayer led by a jewish and speeches reflecting on the holocaust given by a survivor and leaders of the jewish community in germany.


foot and mouth scare in new zealand likely to be hoax

the new zealand government has been forced to act because of a letter sent to prime minister helen clark which claimed that the disease foot and mouth is being intentionally spread on waiheke island.

the letter, which is assumed to be a hoax, could have a major impact on new zealand's meat industry. agriculture minister jim sutton went so far as to say that the suspension of meat exports by some countries was a real possibility.

the incubation period of foot and mouth disease is such that if animals have been infected, signs should be evident within ten days. in the meantime, ministry of agriculture and forestry experts and veterinarians, many with experience gained in the recent united kingdom outbreak, are conducting intensive monitoring of the island's susceptible animals. all sheep and cattle are being individually inspected every 48 hours. meanwhile, restrictions on the movement of livestock are in place, so that in the very unlikely event that there has been a release of the disease, the effects will be contained.

police efforts are underway to track the origin of the letter that initiated the scare.

the foot-and-mouth scare is effectively over after a second letter confirmed it was a hoax.
but ministry of agriculture and forestry officials would continue low level monitoring on the island until next monday. 

nupedia



accuser admits he lied, former canadian immigration minister cleared of wrongdoing

, 

the canadian parliament's ethics commission said former immigration minister, judy sgro, did nothing wrong and her staff had put her into a conflict of interest. harjit singh, the pizza shop owner who signed an affidavit accusing her of offering help for him to stay in canada in exchange for pizza deliveries and help on her election campaign, admitted he lied. the controversies forced ms. sgro to resign from her post in january.

ms. sgro read a letter from mr. singh in the house of commons tuesday. "reputations should not be tarnished by unsubstantiated allegations and innuendo solely for partisan politics,” she added.

after a 17-year fight to stay in canada, mr. singh was deported to india in february. in his letter he said: "i now admit that i did not have a meeting with judy sgro. further, at no time, did judy sgro request any campaign assistance from me nor did she help me with my immigration problems. i am providing this apology and retraction voluntarily and of my own free will."

in a press conference, ms. sgro also discussed the confidential letter she'd received from ethics commissioner bernard shapiro. in his letter informing her of the commission's decision mr. shapiro wrote "it appears that you have acted appropriately but that your staff did not.” the report on the incident from the commission is not actually finished, according to the commissioner, but he said ms. sgro was free to release the letter.



canadian liberal government loses house of commons vote, won't call election

, 
the canadian liberal government lost a key vote on a censure motion in the house of commons, but has ignored demands by the conservatives and the bloc quebecois to resign and call an election.

liberal house leader tony valeri told parliament after the vote, "we will continue to govern on behalf of canadians," through a chorus of dispute.

opposition parties claim they have triggered a constitutional crisis by clearly indicating the government no longer has the right to rule, but they have refused to ask parliament to be dissolved. the opposition have been working for weeks to bring about a technical maneuver such as this when the government is weakened by months of wrangling over the sponsorship scandal.

the vote involved amending a report from october 2004 recommending the government resign for failure to address "governance of the public service."

the canadian constitution calls for a government to dissolve and hold elections when there is a parliamentary vote of no confidence, or a vote defeating a budget or money bill. the government says the censure amendment vote does not constitute an official vote of no confidence. constitutional experts have said that the vote does raise a question-mark over confidence, and that this will therefore have to be settled expeditiously with a true confidence motion.

the event is likely to paralyze parliament. the conservatives have promised to shut down the parliament, by voting each morning to end the day before any work is done.

the current status of the parliament has the liberals with 132 seats. the conservatives hold 99 seats and are working in concert with the bloc quebecois who hold 54 seats. prime minister paul martin recently worked a deal with the new democrat party, whose 19 seats have strengthened his position but still lack a majority. the remaining three independent seats and one vacancy quite literally may determine the outcome of a no-confidence vote if held later this month.

the government is only 10 months old, having been elected june 28, 2004, and is a rare minority government in canadian history.




soviet rockets on sale in moldovan breakoff region

three radioactive rockets from the era are reportedly for sale in the moldovan republic of transnistria.

a "sunday times" reporter went undercover through a transnistrian secret police office. posing as a middleman for an algerian islamic group, the reporter met with an arms dealer, who offered to sell three of the rockets for us$500,000 (￡263,000).

the alazan is an 82mm diameter rocket originally developed to distribute cloud-seeding chemicals such as potassium or silver iodide. with a range of eight miles, the rockets could be used to contaminate an entire city center. these rockets were part of fifty thousand tons of equipment that soviet forces left in the republic after the cold war.

some were converted into improvised munitions and modified to carry explosive warheads. others were retrofitted with a warhead reputed to contain up to 400g of radioactive caesium-137 and strontium-90, to help scientists track clouds and other meteorological events. 

the arms dealer offered to allow the reporter to inspect the rockets with a to confirm that they contained caesium and strontium.



chesapeake bay program issues first-ever water quality forecast

for the chesapeake bay, the largest estuary in the united states, a first-time-ever “water quality forecast” was issued monday for the upcoming summer season by the chesapeake bay program. the eastern mid-atlantic region’s heavy spring rainfalls are predicted to increase nutrient levels in bay waters, leading to oxygen eating algae blooms and leaving deep water dead zones.
project leader william dennison, of the university of maryland center for environmental studies said, “the forecast indicates that recent weather conditions and heavy pollutant loads could lead to a bad summer for the bay.” the prediction is for this to be the fourth-worst season for dissolved oxygen in two decades.

the chesapeake bay program launched the new forecast to build on a base of environmental data gathered over the last two decades as water quality concerns have grown. the forecast is meant to be a proactive tool that provides resource managers with information that can be used to guide policies for the bay’s protection and restoration.

cars, fertilizer, human and animal wastes, industrial and agricultural pollutants all play a part. "this means that we need to do a lot more to reduce phosphorus and nitrogen pollution from getting into the bay," said beth mcgee, of the chesapeake bay foundation. "the biggest source of pollution in the bay is agriculture, and we've got to find a way to provide farmers with more resources to manage the land better."
nutrient rich pollutants composed mainly of nitrogen and phosphorous come from far away places carried by rivers, and nearby the bay from farm and metropolitan runoff. they collect in the huge bay and meet tidal flows from the ocean.

algae feed off the nutrients, and they are either consumed by aquatic life or sink at the end of their life cycle. with such an abundant food source, algae blooms can cover large surfaces of water and choke off sunlight to underwater plants. later when the plants die, the process of their decomposition on the bottom consumes oxygen to a state where the water becomes anoxic, and unable to support life.

as notorious as weather forecasters are for often being wrong, it should come as no surprise if this first forecasting step by the federally funded program misses its mark. forces such as heavy storms or hurricanes, which churn water, would have an effect. excessive wind and unexpected precipitation, or nutrient level jumps, would also contribute.




california refuses gay marriage ban


two california legislative committees voted on tuesday to reject a state constitution amendment banning gay marriage.

republican assemblyman ray haynes claimed that a proposal before the assembly judiciary committee would strengthen the intent of a ballot measure that prevents the recognition of gay marriages performed out of state. the amendment was rejected.

the senate judiciary committee rejected an identical measure just hours later.

however, conservative groups say that they plan to put an initiative on the ballot in 2006 banning gay marriage in the constitution.




romanian opposition gets more tv time than governing coalition

a recent survey carried out by the national broadcasting council of romania has shown that the largest romanian opposition party, the social democrats, made a greater number of tv appearances than members of the governing justice and truth alliance. however, the politician with the most tv appearances remained the prime minister, c?lin popescu-t?riceanu.

the opposition social democratic party (psd) made 350 tv appearances in the past month, followed by the governing justice and truth alliance, with 270 appearances, the great romania people's party, with 59 appearances, the conservative party with 36 appearances and the democratic alliance of hungarians in romania, with 24 appearances.

psd representatives had the greatest amount of tv appearances on tvr, the state-owned broadcaster, antena 1, protv and realitatea tv. prima tv was the only tv network which broadcast more appearances by the justice and truth alliance than the psd.

the most covered politician was the prime minister c?lin popescu-t?riceanu, with 73 appearances, trailed by the leader of the social democratic party, mircea geoan? (53 appearances) and the former prime minister, adrian n?stase (37 appearances). in fourth place was the former president, and current social democrat senator, ion iliescu, followed by vasile ion, the father of marie-jeanne ion, one of the three romanian journalists kidnapped in iraq in march. other featured politicians include dumitru dragomir, from the great romania people's party, nicolae v?c?roiu, from the social democrats, and eugen nicolaescu, spokesman of the justice and truth alliance.

on the state-owned tvr network, representatives of the opposition had 42% more news coverage than the governing coalition. 33% of this coverage was positive, 9% was negative and the remainder was indifferent. the private station protv featured the greatest coverage of the social democrats, with 67%, 30% of which was positive.

one important political figure which was left out of the study is romania's president, traian b?sescu. the national broadcasting council did not monitor b?sescu's appearances because he is not a member of any political party.

 


italians interested in investing in romanian tourism

a group of businessmen and politicians from the italian region of trento have expressed their interest in investing up to ?700 million in cluj county, romania, for tourism development. marius nicoar?, the president of cluj county council, stated that the council would be interested in collaborating with the italian investors for the development of mountain roads and ski resorts in the area.

cluj county, which is located in the centre of transylvania, is one of the most mountainous areas of the country. the county receives tourists, mainly for winter sports like skiing, and also has agritourism. the county's capital, cluj-napoca, is one of the largest cities in romania.

corrado fedrizzi, the president of the trento development agency, said that the italian delegation needs an estimate of the number of tourists which could be attracted to the area if the development takes place, the amortisation time for the investment and the european union (eu) funds which could be awarded to support the project. romania plans to become a member of the european union in 2007, but currently receives a significant amount of pre-accession funds from the eu.


critics against usa and israel in summit of south american-arab countries in brazil

brazil's capital city of brasilia is hosting the summit of south american and arab countries from may 10 to 11, according to the brazilian ministry of external relations. brazilian president luiz inacio lula da silva proposed the summit during his visit to several arab countries in december, 2004.

according to , president da silva said in his speech during the opening ceremony of the summit, that it is necessary to define a new economic and commercial international geography. "we are searching for trade that is fair and balanced, rid of the subsidies imposed by the rich countries, and which assures the poor countries the benefits of globalization. we want to establish a new relationship of solidary collaboration with international financial agencies, and we are striving for the and the gulf cooperation council to be able to conclude an economic cooperation agreement", da silva said. 

mahmoud abbas said that israeli troops should unconditionally withdraw from the occupied arab territories. abbas also proposed the creation of an arab-south american bank.

the president of algeria, abdelaziz bouteflika, said during his speech that israel should leave the palestinian territories. bouteflika defended the criterion of a palestinian state with jerusalem as its capital. 

bouteflika said that the palestinian situation is "a denial of justice" that can no longer be tolerated. a long round of applause from summit participants followed his declarations. "we must find a definitive solution for everyone to do his best, to get israel to submit to international law and accept the negotiated peace," bouteflika added. 

the president of venezuela hugo chavez said that the arab and south american countries are related because they both were subjected to exploitation by the richest countries. chavez said that after world war ii, south america has been victim of domination mechanisms by an international financial architecture and by an old international organizations structure. according to chavez, there is no international democracy. 

chavez said that south american and arab countries are the biggest oil sources and that this fact stimulates the "american imperialist voracity". 

according to the minister of foreign relations, celso amorim, the final document of the summit of south american-arab countries will condemn terrorism. in addition, the document will include a paragraph about the "right of resistance to foreign occupation, according to international humanitarian law," said the minister.

the minister said that the document will also mention the sovereignty of the falkland islands, under dispute by argentina and the united kingdom. 



north korea removes spent nuclear fuel rods

north korea's official news agency is reporting that the country has finished removing all its spent nuclear fuel rods, over 8,000 of them, from the main reactor in the nuclear plant.

the rods could be reprocessed for several months to extract weapons-grade . officials say the rods could be able to provide enough plutonium to make two nuclear bombs. 

this could possibly signal that north korea is preparing for a nuclear arms test. north korea may already have enough materials to make six nuclear bombs.

north korea has also announced plans to continue operating the yongbyon facility, as well as to begin construction on a larger reactor.


satellite image of yongbyon nuclear power plant in north korea


white house, capitol building evacuated as small plane enters no-fly zone

two men were taken into custody for violating the surrounding the u.s. national capital in washington d.c.

the capitol building, the , the and the were evacuated around noon wednesday. people in the vicinity were told to head to a rail station approximately a half mile south of the white house. reporters in the white house itself were told to move into the basement.

wire sources report the cause of the evacuation as being a small plane that wandered into the no-fly zone. the craft was reportedly a , which flew into restricted space, left the area, and then returned. it was then escorted out of the zone by two that fired warning flares at it. 

"msnbc" reported that a 'lure motorcade' drove away from the white house.

authorities gave the "all-clear" signal a few minutes after the evacuation. other government agencies outside of the immediate area were largely unaffected.

at the time of the police-ordered evacuation, , -, was on the senate floor. "they said get out of here, so i ran. there's no joking about this kind of stuff," shelby said.

the two men who were flying the aircraft were on their way to an air show when they slipped into washington d.c.'s restricted airspace (image at right). their plane was escorted to a maryland airport where they were taken into custody and interviewed by authorities. once it became clear the incident had been a mistake, the two men were released.

in washington, d.c., a 25 radius from the is restricted air space.


f-16 escorting cessna


millions worldwide still in slavery

the international labour organization (ilo) released a major report wednesday, finding that currently more than 12.3 million people are enslaved worldwide. an estimated 2.4 million of them are victims of slave trafficking, and their combined labor generates profits of over 32 billion dollars annually. 

forced labor is "a social evil which has no place in the modern world," said ilo director-general juan somavia. "forced labor represents the underside of globalization and denies people their basic rights and dignity... to achieve a fair globalization and decent work for all, it is imperative to eradicate forced labour," added somavia. 

the new study confirms that slavery remains a major global problem to this day. the report breaks down slaves by continent: 

the study also reveals that slavery is present in all regions and in all types of economies.

forced economic exploitation is more or less evenly divided between men and women, however forced commercial sexual exploitation involves almost entirely women and girls. in addition, children bear a heavy burden, comprising between 40 to 50 percent of all slaves. 

there are at least two victims of forced labor for every 1,000 people "worldwide".




european meps abolish right to opt-out of working time directive

by a majority of 378 to 262, members of the european parliament have voted to abolish the right of european union countries to opt out of working time directive. if the council of ministers agrees, the right to opt out of the directive will be phased out over a period of three years.

under the "derogation" provision of the directive, individual workers can waive the right to work no more than 48 hours per week. among the member states, only the united kingdom uses this provision.



dog laws strengthened in virginia county

amid publicity that arose from deaths and injuries due to dog attacks in the region, the spotsylvania county board of supervisors voted unanimously to impose tougher penalties on dog owners who let their dogs run free. after a public hearing tuesday evening, the board voted for a new animal control ordinance. now dog owners who are repeat offenders face a misdemeanor crime of $2,500 or up to a year in jail.

dogs that repeatedly chase cars and run free, or otherwise trespass on property, could be euthanized if so ordered by a judge. a dog that is "roaming, running or self-hunting off the property or premises of its owner or custodian and not under the immediate control of the owner or custodian or his agent," meets the county's legal definition of a dog running at large. 

the mauling death of an elderly woman by 3 pit bulls in her front yard sparked a public debate on animal control. at the hearing, state senator edward houke said he would raise dog law issues in the january meeting of the virginia general assembly. according to "the free lance star", houke said, "it's pretty obvious to me that the state law needs to be changed, but saying that and it happening, is two completely different phenomena. if there's one thing you learn quickly it's that you don't bring dog bills to the virginia general assembly."

the sullivan daughters, who lost their mother in the mauling attack, circulated petitions in the county and also attended the hearing. board chairman robert hagan noted the sullivan family presence and thanked them for their efforts to prevent more tragedies.


serbia and montenegro: red star advances to cup finals

red star (crvena zvezda) belgrade advanced to the serbia and montenegro football cup finals, after defeating partizan belgrade with a score of 2:0 yesterday. 
the first goal was scored by nikola ?igi? in the tenth minute (10'). krivokapi? scored the other goal in the final moments of the match - 90'.

the game between city rivals was attended by only about 8,000 fans. aside from heavy rain, many fans of both red star and partizan decided to boycott the game. 

red star's fans were forbidden from performing their traditional choreography at the beginning of the match, probably due to riots that took place the last time red star and partizan played a regular league game. partizan's fans displayed a large sign reading "football association of serbia and montenegro = mafia."

red star has a chance to win the cup against ?eleznik, while partizan is on its way to win the league with a 7 point lead.




security flaws in mozilla firefox internet browser fixed

may 12, 2005 

the mozilla foundation have released version 1.0.4 of their popular firefox browser, which fixes the two major problems discovered earlier this week.

the new version fixes no less than six security flaws, including the two 'extremely critical' flaws. other fixes include one which prevents another method of running code without permission on a user's computer.



pilot gets six months for smuggling chinese immigrants

christian delgado gomez, a san antonio pilot, was sentenced to six months and forced to pay a $500 fine for smuggling four undocumented chinese immigrants. 

the incident occurred on january 24, 2005, when delgado was arrested at stinson municipal airport in san antonio where he landed a small aircraft he used to transport the illegal immigrants from eagle pass, texas. the officers who arrested him were acting on a tip that two planes, one from laredo and another from eagle pass, would be carrying illicit cargo. this coincided with a false tip that the cargo would be in coordination with a terrorist act in boston. 

the chinese immigrants were deported.


former u.s. homeland security chief defends canada border security

in a speech to business leaders in toronto, canada wednesday, former homeland security secretary tom ridge contradicted a view that the canadian border security system is weak. rather, he praised the role of canada in protecting the u.s./canadian border.

"i don't accept the thesis that canada is lenient or hasn't done what it needs to do to advance their interest and doing their share to combat terrorism... the law enforcement and intelligence community collaboration is excellent."

the u.s. border with canada is 4,000 miles long, twice as long as its border with mexico.

since september 11, 2001, $8 billion has been spent by canada on border security improvements. canada plans to spend an additional $1 billion in the coming year.


u.s. senator voinovich allows bolton nomination to pass to full senate vote

senator george voinovich (r-ohio) provided a critical vote today to send john r. bolton to the senate for a vote on his nomination. bolton is president bush's nominee for united states ambassador to the united nations.

the highly controversial and contested nominee has come under scrutiny from members of both parties for his political stance concerning the united nations. senator voinovich previously voted "no", stopping the nomination from leaving the senate foreign relations committee. now that voinovich is voting "yes", the nomination can be put before the full senate for a vote. 

however, the senator issued scathing remarks concerning bolton, referring to him as a "bully" and claiming that he is a disgrace to the nation. also, voinovich stated that he would vote "no" in the senate to bolton's confirmation.


u.s. senate: u.k. and french politicians were allocated iraqi oil

a u.s. senate committee, the senate permanent subcommittee on investigations (psi), released evidence in a probe that purportedly suggests that two u.k. and french politicians received vouchers for millions of barrels of iraqi oil in exchange for their support of saddam hussein's regime under the u.n. oil-for-food program (ofp).

under the ofp program, iraq was allowed to sell its oil rights to whomever it wanted, and at a below-market price. these oil rights could then be re-sold for a higher price, usually between 3 and 30 cents a barrel. u.k. mp george galloway and french senate member charles pasqua are accused of having these rights allocated to them as a reward for opposing the u.s lead economic sanctions on iraq. however, no evidence was presented showing that those politicians had received any money benefit out of the scheme.

the psi committee found hussien-era documents that appear to show the two politicians received these oil rights. they also heard from officials from the old regime who confirmed the documents.

george galloway, who won re-election to the british parliament in a surprise victory, is accused of receiving allocations for 20 million barrels of oil. he is also accused of using the mariam appeal, a campaign he set up ""to campaign against sanctions on iraq which are having disastrous effects on the ordinary people of iraq"" which was best known for flying an iraqi child to england for leukemia treatment, to conceal the transfer of 3 million barrels of oil.

galloway, a member of the new british left-wing anti-war party, respect, won a ferocious campaign for parliament last week in bethnal green and bow, east london, where a sizable part of the population is of a muslim southern asian origin.

george galloway won libel suits in the past against the telegraph newpaper which claimed he had accepted bribes from the iraqi regime. the senate committee will be holding a further hearing on may 17, and have invited galloway to attend, where he will be given a seat and a microphone.

charles pasqua, currently member of the senate of france, was in the past minister of the interior, in charge of law enforcement, safety measures and relationships with local governments. his name has been cited in several corruption scandals inside france, though he has not been convicted. he currently heads a small eurosceptic party with no representative in the national assembly, and is generally considered to be somewhat close to jacques chirac's ump party, though he has distanced himself from that party from 1998 onwards. 



gaza settlers protest planned pull-out

israel's independence day was marked by protests around gaza as nationalist israelis rallied against the planned dismantling of 21 settlements in the region. the settlements house 8,500 jews, surrounded by 1.3 million palestinians. 

the protests where peaceful as many marched or even held picnics in the settlements. police estimated a turnout of about 35,000 but organizers estimated 80,000. 

this comes after similar, larger protests against ariel sharon's plan to end conflict with the palestinians over the area.

-jewish settlers reinforce gaza roots on israel independence day

-sharon delays pullout


new york city henry hudson highway retaining wall collapses

part of a stone retaining wall supporting the henry hudson parkway in new york city near 181st street collapsed thursday at 20:00 utc. the parkway was closed in both directions.

the wall supported the outdoor backyard of the castle village co-op, and was nearly 100 years old.

according to new york city mayor michael r. bloomberg, no-one was injured, and there was no vehicular or pedestrian traffic at the time of the collapse. several parked cars were buried under rubble and debris, which spilled out across riverside drive where it merges with the northbound lanes of the parkway and onto the parkway itself. 

the mayor said that cleanup of the wall will begin next week.



bundestag approves eu constitution


german parliament's lower house, the bundestag, passed the european union constitution yesterday, with 569 yes votes, 23 against and 2 abstentions. 
two-thirds majority was required to pass it.

the constitution still needs to be passed through the bundesrat, the upper house, before it is officially ratified by germany.

the overwhelming support did not come as a surprise, since germany, one of the founders of the pact, is one of the biggest eu supporters amongst all members. the german chancellor, gerhard schroeder, was quoted by der spiegel as saying: "whoever wants more democracy in europe must vote for the constitution." the bundesrat is expected to pass the constitution with similar ease on may 27. 

all 25 union members must ratify the european constitution before it takes effect.



pope benedict xvi begins process for sainthood of pope john paul ii

today pope benedict xvi announced, in a meeting with the roman clergy at the basilica of st. john lateran, that the process for beatification of pope john paul ii can be started soon. the process of beatification is the first step in the catholic church towards the proclamation of santification (canonization) of a person.

usually there is a five year waiting period after the death of a candidate for beatification before the procedures may begin. pope benedict xvi waived this period on may 9. the only other case where the waiting period has been waived was mother teresa, whose beatification was begun in 1998, a year after her death, and completed in 2003.

john paul ii can not be styled a saint until he has been both formally beatified and canonized, processes that have no timetables and may take several years.

since the process of beatification should be started in the diocese where the person died, the process should be started by the cardinal vicar, camillo ruini, who should instruct the process under the competent court.



uzbekistan protesters under fire after prison break

protesters in the city of andijan, uzbekistan have been fired on by government troops after taking over the mayor's office and releasing some 2,000 prisoners overnight. "voice of america" news is reporting nine dead, and 34 injured, while ten police officers are being held as hostages.

uzbekistan president islam karimov arrived in andijan this morning to oversee operations, and is expected to make an announcement on national television. security forces are being deployed, and sporadic automatic gunfire was reported in the city.

president islam karimov claimed saturday that authorities tried to negotiate a peaceful end to protests, but that troops were forced to open fire when insurgents seized the government building and attempted to break through an advancing line of uzbek police and soldiers. 

thousands are said to have taken to the streets of the city to protest the unfair trial of muslim activists and draw attention to human rights abuses. a trial of 23 local businessmen on charges of religious extremism triggered the protests. amnesty international reports that the government uses the law to crack down on activists.

the ferghana valley region of the andijon province is viewed as restive under the rule of islam karimov. russian officials have stated concern that the protests and unrest may spread in the country. neighbouring states tajikistan and kyrgyzstan have closed their borders with uzbekistan.



irish inflation back on the rise

according to new figures from the central statistics office (cso), the annual rate of inflation in ireland has begun to rise again after a period of decline. annualised inflation is now running at 2.2%, up from 2.1% in march.

the figures are derived from the "consumer price index" which is monitored by the cso. despite the increase, inflation remains significantly below the figure for recent years. annualised inflation peaked at 5.1% in february 2003.

the major contributor to the rise was the cost of heating and housing with the "housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels" group rising 10.6% in the past 12 months - with 2% of that rise in the last month alone. when broken down more the section marked "energy products" showed a massive 5.3% rise in the past month alone.

this sharp rise in energy costs was offset somewhat by decreases (over the past 12 months) in the following groups: 

according to the cso the consumer price index is made up of "over 55,000 prices" "consisting of 613 headings which cover over 1,000 different items".

 


protests spread in afghanistan

seven people were killed and over 76 injured in the first three days of anti-u.s. protests in afghanistan. the protests are a response to a published report that states u.s. guards in guantanamo bay defiled the . 

four policemen and soldiers were killed in the attack in the province of , southwest of the nation's capital, kabul. police chief in badakhshan, shah jahan noori, reported three dead civilians, and the bbc reported nine more deaths in the fourth day of protests. 

us secretary of state condoleezza rice said on thursday that "respect for religious freedom for all individuals is one of the founding principles of the united states" and that if allegations are proven, the u.s. government will take "appropriate actions".

demonstrations have been reported in at least 12 afghan cities, but have also spread to neighbouring .

"" reported on may 9 that us guards in guantanamo bay placed korans above toilets, to scare the prisoners, and even flushed one down a commode in a demonstration.



u.s. senator calls for nationwide investigation into army recruitment tactics

u.s. senator wayne allard (r-colorado), in a letter to army secretary francis harvey, said that the secretary of the army should launch a nationwide investigation into reports that some army recruiters engaged in questionable recruiting tactics. in the letter allard wrote that "according to these reports, the rules weren't just bent, they were broken and tossed away."

one of the reports the senator is referring to is the attempted recruitment of david mcswane, a 17 year old editor of a high school newspaper in golden, colorado. mcswane posed as a high school dropout, with a drug problem that he was "unable to kick". then he recorded, on audio tape, conversations allegedly showing that the recruiters told him how to obtain a phony diploma on the internet and what medication to buy to cover up the drug problem. a friend of mcswane's also video-taped a recruiter taking mcswain to a store to buy a "detox" medication to help him pass the army physical. david said he was told by the recruiter to buy the product. 

a voice on the audio tape is heard saying, "you just have to follow instructions to a tee. it has got like a 150 percent guarantee that you will pass. you know, i've seen it work before."

"if i were a soldier out on the front line, i wouldn't want someone next to me who my life could be depending on going through withdrawal or having a drug addiction or just being someone i can't trust. i just don't think that's something we need on our front lines," david mcswane said on cnn. 

his mother, concerned that people may think he was being unpatriotic by setting up the "sting" operation said: "he's probably one of the most patriotic kids i know. he was in the young marines for almost a year and earned a couple (of) awards."

major general michael rochelle, the general in charge of recruiting for the u.s. army responded to the allegations and tapes. "i was disappointed by it," rochelle said. "i was very disappointed by it." he is shutting down recruiting offices for 1 day to review their procedures.

jim massey, a former marine recruiter, expanded the accusations by saying the same fraudulent recruitment practices existed in the united states marines corps. 

"this isn't just an isolated incident," massey said. "this is a widespread epidemic. i would say 98 percent [of the recruits massey enlisted] were frauded into the military."

the army has suspended two recruiters in golden, colorado.


secret downing street memo leaked

documents leaked from the u.k. government revealed an apparent secret agreement between the united states and the united kingdom to attack iraq in 2002. the times, a british national newspaper, reported that newly-discovered documents reveal british and u.s. intentions to invade iraq and leaders of the two countries had "discussed creating pretextual justifications for doing so". the documents go on to say that tony blair decided the u.s. would need to "create" conditions to justify the war. the leaked document has not received much coverage in the united states.

the document, known popularly as the "downing street memo", is a document purporting to contain the minutes taken during a meeting among united kingdom government and political figures on july 23, 2002 discussing the build-up to the 2003 invasion of iraq. its authenticity has not been officially confirmed nor denied by the government, though downing street has stated that the document contains "nothing new." there have been repeated media and congressional requests for clarification.

downing street in london contains the official residence of the prime minister of the united kingdom] (at 10 downing street) and is a metonym for the united kingdom government. ultimately the united kingdom sent 46,000 troops to join the united states-led action, by far the largest non-us contingent in the invasion.

the memo comes on the heels of other leaked documents from the uk. 

the memo says that it was sent to secretary of state for defence geoff hoon, secretary of state for foreign and commonwealth affairs jack straw, attorney general of england and wales lord goldsmith, cabinet secretary sir richard wilson, chairman of the joint intelligence committee john scarlett, director of the government communications headquarters francis richards, chief of the defence staff sir michael boyce, head of the secret intelligence service richard dearlove, prime minister's chief of staff jonathan powell, downing street director of government relations sally morgan, and downing street director of communications and strategy alastair campbell.

the memo was intended to be kept confidential and is headed "this record is extremely sensitive. no further copies should be made. it should be shown only to those with a genuine need to know its contents." it deals with the lead-up to the 2003 iraq war, and comes at a point at which it becomes clear to those attending, that u.s. president george w. bush intended to remove saddam hussein from power by force.

the memo runs through the military options and then considers the political strategy in which an appeal for support from the international community and from domestic opinion would be most likely to be positively received. it suggests that an ultimatum for saddam to allow back united nations weapons inspectors be issued, and that this would help to make the use of force legal. tony blair is quoted as saying that the british public would support regime change in the right political context.

the most controversial paragraph is a report of a recent visit to washington by dearlove (known in official terminology as 'c'):

this was even more explicitly stated elsewhere in the memo:

the main sections covering the ultimatum are:

a former senior u.s. official called it "an absolutely accurate description of what transpired" during the senior british intelligence officer's visit to washington. he spoke on condition of anonymity. uk prime minister tony blair denied that anything in the memo demonstrated misconduct and said that it added little to what was already known about how british policy on iraq developed.

the us and british administrations have neither confirmed nor denied its accuracy: 






critics of the war claim that the memo proves that the bush administration

some people suggest that it is clear from the memo that some of those present at the meeting believed that iraq might possess weapons of mass destruction (wmd) "capacity". however, the memo explicitly states that the capability was less than that of libya, iran, and north korea, and that saddam was not threatening his neighbors.

when the document was published, uk prime minister tony blair denied that anything in the memo demonstrated misconduct and said that it added little to what was already known about how british policy on iraq developed.

on may 5, congressman john conyers sent a to president bush signed by 89 of his colleagues demanding an explanation of the revelations in the memo. no specific white house response to the letter has been made publicly. in response to the bush administration's refusal to answer the congressional delegation's questions, conyers et. al have given serious consideration to sending a fact-finding mission to the uk. 

conyers has requested 100,000 signatures from citizens (a petition) to request that the president bush answer the questions in his letter. 

on may 16, presidential spokesman scott mcclellan said that the memo's statement that intelligence was "being fixed" to support a decision to invade iraq was "flat out wrong." however, mcclellan admitted that he has not read the memo, but has only received reports of what it contains. 

on may 17, mcclellan told reporters that the white house saw "no need" to respond to the letter from congress. 

on may 23, mcclellan retracted his statement about intelligence treatment: 

this has jokingly been called "the mcclellan challenge". 

on may 18th, 2005, us secretary of state condoleezza rice and uk foreign secretary jack straw were questioned on the memo, during live coverage of a joint us-uk conference, aired on sky news:

and if i could, then, ask both of you to comment on the very well-publicised british memo that was leaked ... from the minutes of a meeting that took place in july of 2002 with tony blair and some of his military intelligence advisers. in particular, it quotes one british official saying the intelligence and facts that the u.s. was putting forward were being fixed around the policy...

...could you speak to these allegations, in particular, madam secretary, and whether or not this is true?

...mr. secretary straw, if you could also speak to the authenticity of this memo? and in particular, you're quoted in here saying that 'the case was thin, saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his wmd capacity was less than that of libya, north korea or iran.'

neither rice nor straw answered the questions. the full transcript is available here.

the memo was a major story in the british press during the last few days of the 2005 general election campaign and was also covered in other countries. the story had limited coverage in the usa but has recently gained more attention in the american press.

some have criticized the american media’s coverage of the memo as disturbingly poor.

on, may 20th, 2005, a new public editor for the new york times (nyt), publicly assesed the coverage of the memo in the new york times in a forum on the their website. he also stated that, due to continuing reader interest, the paper intends to give fuller coverage to the memo. 

the lack of news coverage of the memo has also spurred criticism from media watchdogs and editors of small newspapers. 

numerous web logs have picked up the story (see blogpulse for a histogram), and a website, www.downingstreetmemo.com, has been created dedicated to informing the public about the memo.

on may 18, conservative pundit and former reagan administration advisor paul craig roberts wrote an article calling for bush's impeachment for lying to congress about the case for war.

a coalition of citizen groups running the gamut of social and political issues will ask congress to file a resolution of inquiry, the first necessary legal step to determine whether president bush has committed impeachable offenses. the formal resolution of inquiry request was written by boston constitutional attorney john c. bonifaz and reported by larisa alexandrovna for raw story, article available here here. the request states the constitutional grounds for impeachment:

among the citizen groups are:

a website, afterdowningstreet.org, has been established for the newly emerging citizen's coalition.



browser wars: internet explorer drops below 90 percent in the u.s. but firefox gains slow

a report on may 10 by web analytics company websidestory estimates usage in the united states of microsoft's internet explorer (ie) web browser to have fallen to 88.9% by april 29, 2005, from 89.9% on february 18, 2005. microsoft's strongest competitor, mozilla firefox, improved its market share from 5.7% to 6.8%. 

all browsers based on mozilla program code combined have a market share of 9%, while other browser alternatives combined make up a share of 2.1%. 

the report also contains data from germany and japan. firefox was found to have a much higher usage share in germany (22.6%), and a lower one in japan (2.8%), where internet explorer still holds 93.9% of the market. 

while firefox's market share is still increasing in the united states, its growth has slowed down compared to a very rapid increase after its widely reported 1.0 release on november 9, 2004. technology writer paul festa speculated in an editorial for "silicon.com" that the decreasing growth rate "could mean that the browser has converted a substantial proportion of its natural constituency, thought to be early adopters and the technically savvy." mozilla firefox is an open-source web browser developed by the non-profit mozilla foundation in collaboration with a team of volunteers.

in most countries, microsoft's internet explorer has long enjoyed a market share above 90 percent. many have attributed this to the browser's deep integration into the microsoft windows operating system. 

browser usage also varies strongly for different demographics. pc world, for example, reports only 67% of their visitors use ie.

while firefox's market share continues to increase, its growth rate has slowed and it may not reach its target of 10% overall market share by the end of 2005.

perhaps in response to inroads in a market it has dominated so heavily for many years, microsoft chairman bill gates announced plans in february for a new release of the ie browser before the release of windows longhorn. the focus of the new release is improved security, which is much sought by users as ie is thought to be the vector of most security flaws in the windows environment. two new vulnerabilities have been reported within the past two months which affect windows nt, 2000, and xp. 

microsoft's new release may be late, as some corporations are taking steps towards promoting firefox as an alternative to internet explorer. "cnet news" reported on thursday that technology giant ibm is encouraging its employees to use firefox. ibm is also promoting other open-source technologies such as the free linux operating system.




u.s. defense secretary announces closures and expansions of military bases

, 
united states secretary of defense donald rumsfeld announced the closure of 33 major military facilities in 22 states around the u.s. when word of the plans to shuffle facilities was released, closing some and expanding others, many community leaders shuddered.

cities like san antonio, texas, a town built on the back of military establishments, fear the possible economic effects. if the city's bases were closed, the city and local businesses could be crippled. the current announcement, however, benefits the city of san antonio with the expansion of ft. sam houston, despite the closure of two air bases.

groton, connecticut, on the other hand faces the closure of a submarine base. senator joseph lieberman (d-conn) claimed the closure was "cruel and unusual punishment." his state would lose 7,133 military jobs as well as 1,041 civilian jobs. many communities around the nation stand to lose, while others could end up winners, as a result of the announced re-shuffle.



gaza settlers protest planned pullout

israel's independence day was marked by protests around gaza strip as nationalist israelis rallied against the dismantling of 21 settlements in the region. the protests where peaceful as many marched or even held picnics in the settlements. police estimated a turnout of about 35,000 but organizers estimated much higher numbers. this comes after similar, larger protests against ariel sharon's plan to end conflict with the palestinians over the area.


bikers begin descent on south carolina resort for rallies

this weekend is the kick-off for two motorcycle rallies held annually in the u.s. eastern seacoast town of myrtle beach. enthusiasts this year are expected to meet or exceed the 170,000 bikers that arrived last year in droves to the small resort town of 23,000. festivities span two weeks, and extend again this year into the memorial day.
leading off is the week-long harley rally, followed by the next week's bikefest. in and around town, both day and night are punctured by the sounds of bike engines gunned and revved at stop lights and in parking lots. groups of cycle riders dominate the streets.
“by friday night, the front parking lot will be a full line of motorcycles to the corner.” said motel owner ranjan patel. the "super 8" motel takes up half a block at its location in the heart of the downtown motel strip. “both sides [of ocean blvd] are nothing but bikes.” both she and her co-owner husband agree, the influx of bikers dwarf in size the numbers of tourists who visit during regular summer months for ocean-side and family amusement park attractions.

the highly accesorised bikes, decked with chrome and polished to show it, flashed the townscape. choppers made a showing, but road hogs dominated the ridership, often going twosome. many rally goers arrived on the scene with suv’s or big pickup trucks towing cargo trailers loaded with cycles.

growth in the sheer size of the two rallies led police to make changes in the handling of traffic flow. during bikefest last year, the mostly black crowd that came in on the heels of the largely white harley rally the week earlier, were faced with confusion when the two-lane ocean blvd was made one-way.

a branch of the naacp in conway, the next town over from myrtle beach, alleged discrimination by horry county and myrtle beach police. they claimed authorities and police used an overwhelming and aggressive police presence, combined with a restrictive one-way traffic pattern, to intimidate and discourage the participants in the rally.

an injunction was issued earlier this week by u.s. district judge terry wooten, who ruled that bikers at both rallies be treated the same. myrtle beach city lawyers immediately filed an appeal to the ruling at the fourth u.s. circuit court of appeals, saying "the trial court erroneously determined that the plaintiffs would likely succeed on the merits; that is, that the city of myrtle beach intentionally treats memorial day weekend tourists differently from others similarly situated because of their race."

a plan to submit an opposition to the notice has already been announced by michael navarre, an attorney for steptoe & johnson, who represents the naacp civil rights group. "we certainly don't think the judge has ruled erroneously," navarre said, according to "the sun news".

traffic control and safety measures were in full swing friday morning on us-17. both directions of the 4-lane divided highway south of myrtle beach had traffic cones and parking barriers set up to control traffic. large flashing road signs on each side of the highway warned cars to use the passing lane. the warning sign flashed a message that the right lane was for motorcycle use only. police monitored the pull-offs near a harley dealer's lot where popular attractions were set-up in the immediate vicinity.



russian football club signs two portugal internationals

meanwhile, in a match saturday with dinamo moscow suffered its fourth defeat in a row 1-2, dropping to 9th place. amkar (one of the poorest teams in premier league) on the other hand, won the second match in a row. despite conceding an early goal, amkar was able to fight back, score from a penalty and secure a slender lead to win the away game.

despite numerous signings between seasons and hiring a new coach, oleg romantsev, dinamo's performance is far from the best. last season saw them at 14th place (out of 16), barely avoiding relegation, and the start of a new season isn't promising either. it is yet to be seen, whether the new signings can help the club join the ranks of the top rpl teams, such as lokomotiv moscow and cska moscow.


al jazeera announces english-language channel for 2006

arab news channel al jazeera announced saturday that it plans to open an english-language channel called al jazeera international at the beginning of 2006. the project fits in with the robust growth and in-your-face style of the original channel, but faces significant challenges in the new markets.

al jazeera's confrontational approach to news has earned it enemies in every government in the middle east. its independence has caused the iranian government to close its tehran bureau for covering ethnic riots near the border with iraq.

al jazeera has also earned the enmity of washington d.c., where the bush administration regularly complains about their coverage. al jazeera offices were also hit by u.s. weapons in kabul, afghanistan, and baghdad, iraq, although the u.s. military insists they were accidental targets.

the biggest issue for al jazeera is a lack of distribution. all major news services in north america, a prime market for the english language channel, struggle to gain and maintain distribution.

the new channel has named its management team:

al jazeera has been expanding in other markets as well. it opened a channel last month which covers news events without a presenter or commentary. it also have a sports channel and plans for a children's channel.



mexican president defends emigration

in the past year, u.s. senators john mccain and have proposed a bill that would allow illegal immigrants to obtain legal jobs and provide the option of becoming u.s. . others are proposing bills that would step up funding for border security and require u.s. government-issued i.d. cards.



uzbek president blames outlawed islamist group for deaths

uzbekistan president islam karimov blamed islamic militants for the violence in the eastern city of andijan. the unrest led to government troops firing on civilan protesters and rebels, killing at least fifty according to local hospital sources. independent sources count the number of dead over 100. 

today, president karimov denied directing his troops to open fire, blaiming the outlawed islamist group hizb ut-tahrir for the deaths following their insurrection.

"i know you want to know who gave the order to fire at them ... no one ordered (troops) to fire at them," karimov told the news conference in tashkent today.

eyewitnesses reported seeing crowds of unarmed protestors being fired upon by soldiers. human rights groups have lamented uzbekistan's poor human rights record of torture arbitrary arrest and torture. the white house has called for restraint to avoid further bloodshed. the russian foreign ministry has expressed support for kamirov in the face of what it terms extremism. 

the white house's muted response may reflect the political sensitivity of its air base in southern uzbekistan which supports its operations in neighbouring afghanistan. it's widely feared that, should the unrest spread, uzbekistan may see the popular overthrow of the government as occurred in neighbouring kyrgystan.



north and south korea to meet next week

meetings are scheduled for monday and tuesday in , north korea, between vice-ministers of south and north korea. the talks are the result of telephone messages between the two countries on saturday and are the first official talks between the countries in 10 months.

the initial element in the discussions is a humanitarian aid request for 500,000 tons of fertilizer. south korea's government has indicated it can supply this. annual requests for fertilizer run from 200,000 to 300,000 tons.

south korea has also indicated they can use the meeting to discuss nuclear issues and the resumption of multi-party talks. the u.s. has also met with north korea's united nations ambassador to discuss resumption of the six-party talks.

relations between the two countries had been warming, but high level meetings were cut off when it became known south korea had airlifted 460 north korea refugees from vietnam in 2004. informal connections began to resume with meetings last month to discuss how north korea could handle an outbreak of bird flu.

the two koreas are technically still at war, but under a cease fire agreement.



kosovo's independence unacceptable for serbian pm

during a meeting of the democratic party of serbia on saturday, the prime minister vojislav ko?tunica said that he will not agree to kosovo's independence, and that the solution for kosovo is wide autonomy. "when i say autonomy, that's more than autonomy kosovo had prior to 1999, but it is still just autonomy and not independence," ko?tunica said.

after the war in 1999, kosovo was put under unmik's administration, but it still officially remains a province in serbia. the province's albanian majority wants full independence from serbia.

ko?tunica said that kosovo needs a solution acceptable by both parties and that an imposed solution will "jeopardize difficultly achieved stability in serbia and the region."

ko?tunica also reaffirmed his stance on participation of serbs in kosovo's institutions: "for now, there is no room for serbian representatives in institutions of kosovo." 

the serbian government had advised serbs in kosovo not to vote in the local parliamentary elections held last october. ko?tunica said that the degree of participation depends on advancement in protection of human rights of the serbs remaining in the province.

 


serbia and montenegro football: partizan secures league title

after equalizing with zeta (1:1), the leader of serbia and montenegro, partizan belgrade, secured first place in the first federal league. the second placed red star lost against budu?nost and is now 8 points behind?too much to tie in the remaining two rounds. 

all results of the 28th round are:

 


kahne takes checkered flag at richmond

kasey kahne rode into victory early sunday morning at richmond international raceway in the state of virginia, usa, in his first nascar nextel cup victory. kahne, who drives a dodge, and is sponsored by the same company, won automaker competitor chevrolet's sponsored race, the chevy american revolution 400.

the 25-year old from huntersville, north carolina had previously gained the pole position for saturday's night race on friday. early in the race, second-place finisher tony stewart took lead from kahne, continuing on to lead over 100 cumulative laps in the race. at lap 234 of 400, stewart spun out coming out of the fourth turn, which resulted in kahne regaining the lead. after two more lead changes between the two, kahne led the last 7 laps to take the checkered flag.

points leader jimmie johnson crashed his car early into the race, taking a last-place finish. he continues to lead the cup series in points.



jansa reelected president of slovenian democratic party


janez jan?a, the prime minister of slovenia, will again serve as the president of the slovenian democratic party (sds) after he was reelected in a party congress held in portoro? saturday. jan?a has been the leader of sds since 1993.

the 8th congress was held under a slogan: "slovenian democratic party - slovenia on a new road." out of 450 delegates, 368 voted for jan?a and 3 ballots were void. there were no votes against.

the delegates also voted on proposed changes to sds statute, with overwhelming consensus. new members will no longer be obliged to present proof that they had not cooperated with the secret service of the "totalitarian regime" prior to 1990, when slovenia declared independence from yugoslavia.

delegates reached an agreement that the new political program of the party should reflect current economic conditions, as well as aim at increased growth of the country's economy.



uzbeks fleeing across border to seek refuge

thousands of uzbeks are fleeing across uzbekistan's borders to seek refuge in neighboring kyrgyzstan despite the border crossings being closed. their flight is in response to the violence in andijan.

thousands are said to have taken to the streets of the city to protest the unfair trial of muslim activists and draw attention to human rights abuses. a trial of 23 local businessmen on charges of religious extremism triggered the protests. soldiers opened fire on the demonstrators, killing many. eyewitnesses have said that they were unarmed civilians.

it is still unknown how many died as a result. some reports have given the death count as high as 500, with other estimates as low as a dozen. uk foreign secretary jack straw called it "a clear abuse of human rights". many have expressed doubts that the true figure may ever emerge.

even with uzbekistan's borders closed, hundreds are reported to have already crossed into kyrgyzstan. in korasuv, an uzbek border town, government buildings were reported to be on fire in addition to frequent clashes between government police and civilians seeking to cross the border.

government troops have sealed andijan, and they are hunting the leaders of protests against the uzbek government.

uzbekistan president islam karimov blamed islamic militants for the violence in the eastern city of andijan. the turbulence led to government troops firing on civilian protesters and rebels, killing at least fifty according to local hospital sources. independent sources count the number of dead over 100. 

sunday, president karimov denied directing his troops to open fire, blaming the outlawed islamist group hizb ut-tahrir for the deaths following their insurrection.

"i know you want to know who gave the order to fire at them ... no one ordered (troops) to fire at them," karimov told the news conference in tashkent on sunday.

eyewitnesses reported seeing crowds of unarmed protesters being fired upon by soldiers. human rights groups have lamented uzbekistan's poor human rights record of arbitrary arrest and torture. the white house has called for restraint to avoid further bloodshed. the russian foreign ministry has expressed support for kamirov in the face of what it terms extremism. 

the white house's muted response may reflect the political sensitivity of its air base in southern uzbekistan which supports its operations in neighbouring afghanistan. it's widely feared that, should the unrest spread, uzbekistan may see the popular overthrow of the government as occurred in neighbouring kyrgystan.



mpaa sues six bittorrent sites linking to tv shows

the motion picture association of america (mpaa) is suing six websites for hosting bittorrent links to tv programs. 

the mpaa is a movie industry trade group representing most u.s. studios. the mpaa claims that these sites allow users of bittorrent software to find and download illegal copies of various tv programmes. 

five of the sites sued are registered in the u.s., and the sixth site is registered in spain. the sites sued are shuntv.net, zonatracker.com, btefnet.net, scifi-classics.net, cddvdheaven.co.uk, and bragginrights.biz.

according to research by envisional, recent surveys report downloads of tv programmes are up by 150% in a year. most of the downloads, 70%, used bittorrent sites. with the increasing ubiquity of broadband internet access, popular television shows, which are smaller downloads than movies, often appear within hours of airing on tv. 

the mpaa has filed over 100 lawsuits since december against operators of bittorrent sites. the mpaa has also sued individuals, but has not reported how many.

mpaa ceo dan glickman told the bbc, "since we began shutting these sites down, the time that it takes to download a file on bittorrent has increased exponentially, which means the experience of downloading copyrighted films and tv shows is not what it used to be. we intend to make it even worse. protecting the television industry is essential."



police find owner of wendy's chili finger

on may 13, san jose police announced they identified the person whose finger tip anna ayala claimed she found in a bowl of wendy's chili. police say that ayala's husband, james plascencia, was a work associate of the man who five months ago lost the finger tip in work related accident. 

the owner of the finger, brian paul rossiter, lost his finger tip while working at an asphalt company back in december 2004. police were able to trace it after receiving information from pat hogue, who called a wendy's hot-line. hogue worked as a cost estimator at an asphalt company at the same time as the co-workers pascencia and the man who lost the portion of his little finger.

the tipster was unaware, until after ayala's arrest, of the connection between the wendy's "finger-pointer" and her husband plascencia. the finger was given to ayala's husband as payment for a $50 debt. they do not know how it was transported or preserved during the five months until it turned up in the bowl of chili. more arrests are possible, according to police.

anna ayala was arrested on april 21. she has been charged with one count of attempted grand theft in connection with the wendy’s incident, and one count of grand theft in an unrelated mobile home sale.


local elections held in croatia

elections for local governments were held in croatia sunday. the polls were closed at 19:00 local time (utc+2). the results are not in yet, but exit polls and preliminary results were published by gong and state election committee.

according to gong, an ngo observing the elections, milan bandi? can form a government in the city of zagreb, since his list has won around 46%. this would give the coalition 27 of 51 seats in the capital city. bandi? is a head of the coalition list formed by social democrat party of croatia (sdp), croatian peasant party (hss), and croatian pensioner party (hus). the preliminary results from the state election committee show 40.90% for bandi? at 23:30 local time.

branimir glava?'s, who was recently expelled from croatian democratic union (hdz), list seems to be in lead in osijek according to the exit polls, with 27.24% (which would equal 9 seats in the local parliament). liberal party has 18.47% (6 seats), and croatian party of justice is third with 14.5% (4 seats).

according to gong, social democrat party has a lead in split with 29.02% of votes (10 seats), while croatian democratic union is following with 18.54% (6 seats).

in sisa?ko-moslova?ka county parliament, preliminary results show the lead of a list led by sdp with 34.71%, while hdz, once led by franjo tu?man, is second with 30.64%.

zagreb county parliament is led by coalition of hss and sdp with 34.35%. hdz is second with 27.10%, according to preliminary results.


ethiopians vote amid opposition charges of fraud

millions of voters in ethiopia are choosing between a powerful government which has close ties to the west but is considered by some to be totalitarian, and a coalition of little-known opposition parties that has promised greater political freedom and economic development. the democratic ballot is only the third in the country's history.

a small crowd of supporters enthusiastically greeted prime minister meles zenawi as he arrived at the polling station in . the town of adwa, located about 25 kilometers east of the ancient city of , is also the prime minister's birthplace.

meles did not address the crowd. but he told reporters he believes the national elections represent an important milestone in ethiopia's quest to become a full-fledged democratic state.

"i fought to make sure the ethiopian people have the right to make their decisions," meles said. "i am now exercising it as an ethiopian and i am very proud of our achievement."

meles is seeking his third five-year term in office. his ruling party, the (eprdf), has been in power for 14 years. during that time, the party has not been challenged in this mostly poor, subsistence farming region.

the party was the only one listed on the ballot paper in adwa.

the ruling party says none of the major opposition parties bothered to register and campaign for votes in this remote area. but opposition leaders say electoral officials, whom the opposition accuses of being pro-government, would not allow their parties to register or campaign in the area.

the accusation is just one of numerous complaints of irregularity the opposition has lodged.

hailu shawel, the head of ethiopia's opposition coalition for unity and democracy, cast his vote in an opposition stronghold south of the capital . shawl says that in his opinion the balloting has not been the model of democracy that people had hoped for.

"i think disaster is looming. everywhere there is fraud being perpetrated," said mr. shawel. "the marker that they [the voters] were given, it washes off even without water. in other areas, they mark ballot papers with epdrf signs and giving to people to put in the ballot boxes. and the people are fighting back, saying, 'no, we are not going to do that. give us the clean paper.' so, the whole process is really jeopardized at the moment."

the government denies that it has been trying to prevent a fair vote, noting that the opposition received unprecedented access to state-owned media and were given permission to stage mass demonstrations ahead of the ballot.

for the first time, more than 300 international observers, including 150 from the and 50 from the u.s.-based , are in ethiopia to monitor the elections. they fanned out before dawn to visit some of the 31,000 polling stations set up throughout the country. 

the observers say they plan to investigate reports of any irregularities, but most say they have not seen any serious problems, largely calling the polls honest and fair. final results are not expected until early june.

in previous elections held in 1995 and 2000, the ruling eprdf won by overwhelming margins, giving the party a solid majority in parliament.

about 25 million of ethiopia's 71 million people are registered to vote. the elections are being closely watched in the west as a key test of ethiopia's commitment to democracy and being a stabilizing force in the volatile horn of africa region.


muslim leaders don't accept &quot;pressured&quot; apology

but islamic parties in pakistan say the newsweek apology is a transparent attempt to defuse muslim anger. , the head of an islamic party alliance told the bbc on monday that newsweek's clarification held no weight. "there have been reports by the prisoners who have been released from guantanamo bay of desecration of the holy koran, and different atrocities perpetrated on them."

on tuesday mr.ahmad said,"whatever (newsweek) magazine has done now is under pressure (from the u.s. government)," he said. "it has not denied what it has reported and many people freed from guantanamo bay have narrated the same thing."

the tuesday edition of the pakistani daily newspaper "the news" quoted hafiz ehsan saeed, a former guantanamo bay detainee, as saying that the koran was routinely desecrated at guantanamo.

reuters reported that muslims said they suspected that pressure from washington was behind the magazine's backing off. on monday, presidential spokesman scott
mcclellan had criticized newsweek's initial response to the incident, saying it was "puzzling." later in the day, newsweek retracted the story which the white house said was a "good first step".

newsweek defended its reporting and said its investigation is continuing into allegations that the koran had been desecrated by u.s. personnel.

"unfortunately relations are so bad at this point that the perception will linger;" said ibrahim hooper of the . "many people won't believe it. they'll believe the magazine was pressured into doing a retraction." hooper said.

"we will not be deceived by this," sadullah abu aman, an islamic cleric, told reuters in afghanistan.
the magazine said it had made a mistake in its may 9th report regarding the accusations, which led to violent anti-american protests in afghanistan. over 16 were killed, and more than 100 were injured. while many officials supporting the protests vowed for non-violence, some in the streets threatened to start a religious war against the united states.

newsweek's editor, mark whitaker, said the magazine's error was reporting confirmation by u.s. military investigators that guantanamo personnel flushed the koran down a toilet. the source initially said he had read of the event in a military investigative report, but the source later told the magazine he might have seen the account of the koran incident in other investigative documents or drafts.

mr whitaker told reuters, "as to whether anything like this happened, we just don't know. we're not saying it absolutely happened but we can't say that it absolutely didn't happen either."

the newsweek report was not the first public allegation alleging quran desecration at guantanamo bay. news stories came out in august and october 2004, reporting that british citizens who had been released from guantanamo claimed u.s. guards threw their qurans into the toilet. also, in january, 2005, kristine huskey, a lawyer representing guantanamo detainees, said a detainee witnessed a guard tossing a quran into a toilet.


star wars iii premieres at cannes

the final star wars film, "star wars episode iii: revenge of the sith" premiered at the cannes festival on may 15, 2005, with george lucas and the stars of the movie in attendance at the grand theatre lumiere.

at the subsequent united kingdom premiere on may 16, 2005, fans turned out in costume. outside london's odeon cinema in leicester square, dozens of fans dressed as storm troopers, jedi knights, and other characters for the film.

the movie is about the temptation of a jedi knight to the dark side of the force, and his fiery transformation into the arch-villain darth vader.

"star wars episode iii: revenge of the sith" is scheduled for general release in the united states on may 19, 2005, and is rated pg-13.

peter bradshaw from "the guardian" described the climax of the film as following "what seems like seven hours of cgi action as dramatically weightless as the movement of tropical fish in an aquarium". bradshaw said the leading characters "gaze out over massive futuristic cityscapes resembling the photorealist artwork once used for 1970s sci-fi paperbacks: pointy buildings with swarms of pointy aircraft criss-crossing overhead, often bathed in crimson sunsets". 

he described ewan mcgregor's accent as "a simperingly lifeless rada-english accent, a muddled and misconceived backdating of the guinness original", and said of hayden christensen that "if princess diana had gone to the dark side, she would have looked a lot like this". 

describing jimmy smits, and samuel l. jackson as "acting as if on some kind of medication", natalie portman as "incorrigibly clunky", bradshaw concluded that the film was "a product of george lucas's overweening production giant industrial light and magic. no magic, little light, but an awful lot of heavy industry." 

wendy ide from the times commented that "any spark of humour or irreverence that might have been present in the earlier films has been all but extinguished", and accused the film of being carpeted by "a bombastic and overbearing" musical score.

ide concluded that the film was "a textbook example of style over substance and, more importantly, soul".



microsoft develops anti-virus product

microsoft corporation announced plans to launch a new security product later this year, named "windows onecare".

product features are to include anti-virus software capabilities, a new firewall and pc tune ups. the pc tune ups include utilities for improved backup and restore capabilities, and easy access to windows pc maintenance tools for file repair and hard drive clean up.

the major elements of the product are:

an early beta version of product, not including the anti-spyware capability, has already been released to microsoft employees. a public beta is scheduled for later in 2005.

microsoft plans to make "windows onecare" available to customers for a yearly subscription fee.

recently, microsoft bought giant software, makers of antivirus and spyware prevention software. windows anti-spyware software is already built on this system.



french workers stay at home for whit monday

in france, workers by the millions stayed at home during the whit monday holiday despite the government's cancellation of the traditional pentecost public holiday. some acted in defiance of the government's decision, while some took leave or were put on forced leave by their employers due to uncertainties of public transportation.

following the 2003 heat wave, which caused the deaths of an estimated 13,000 elderly people in france, the administration of prime minister jean-pierre raffarin has proposed the suppression of one day of public holiday in order to use the supplemental generated tax for a fund for the caring of the elderly. 

whit monday was selected because, in normal years, france has several public holidays in may. furthermore, attendance of religious celebrations is low, so holidays of a religious origin are nowadays generally mere family reunions.

however, the reception of this new working day was mixed. the administration says it promotes solidarity with the elderly. trade unions and opposition groups argue that the measure is an ill-conceived stunt aimed at hiding the government's bad handling of the problems of the elderly. 

for instance, many remember that in 1956, the government created a tax (the "vignette") on motor vehicles, allegedly for funding measures for the elderly. but in 1973, the products of this tax came, as any other tax, into the government's general fund.

with this measure, the french government intends to raise 2 billion ? to be donated to a new public establishment, the "national fund for solidarity for autonomy." the new fund would be chartered to deal with losses of self-sufficiency of elderly or handicapped people. 1.2 billion ? are earmarked for elderly people, 0.8 for the handicapped.

trade unions had called for strikes in urban public transportation and paralyzed traffic in 27 cities, including clermont-ferrand, lille, montpellier ou strasbourg. however, sncf (the national railway operator) did not strike and ratp (the paris transportation authority) suffered only minor disturbances, though both are normally known for their frequent and disturbing strikes. 

sncf considered the day as a holiday for payroll purposes and instead increased the work day by 1'52", a measure that majority leader nicolas sarkozy considered shocking and contrary to the objectives of the government.

the protests are also widely considered to be motivated by the unpopularity of the administration of president jacques chirac and prime minister jean-pierre raffarin. recent statistics show a five year-high for unemployment at 10.2%. 

this discontent may result in a majority of "no" in the vote for the ratification of the treaty establishing a constitution for europe.



uzbek rebel leader on horseback wants an islamic state

bakhtiyor rakhimov, a rebel leader on horseback who claims control of an uzbek town said the rebels are intent upon building an islamic state.

"we will be building an islamic state here in accordance with the quran; the town is in the hands of people. people are tired of slavery," rakhimov told the associated press on may 18th. "we will turn this land into gardens," he said. "if i turn this land into a good place, if everybody here will have plenty of food on the table, it will spread further."

zakir almatov, the uzbek interior minister denied rakhimov's claims. "it's all sheer nonsense, everything is normal there, if anything had happened there, i already would have been there." he said. but there were no uzbek government officials to be found in korasuv.

when asked whether the rebels belonged to an islamic group rakhimov said no, that "we are just people, we just follow the quran."

when asked if he was afraid that government forces would be back to regain control of the town he said, "soldiers and police are also sons of this people. we don't have weapons, but if they come and attack us we will fight even with knives."

uzbekistan soldiers sealed off the eastern border town after locals took over government buildings last saturday.
the unrest spread from nearby andijan, where local sources said several hundred people died when troops opened fire on protesters on friday. 

some refugees near korasuv said troops shot at them as they tried to cross the border into kyrgyzstan - and some died. 

u.k. foreign minister jack straw said his uzbek counterpart had pledged to allow diplomats access to andijan on tuesday. 




hundreds of people gather in support of mikhail khodorkovsky

as the court was announcing the final decision on the fate of russia's petroleum king, mikhail khodorkovsky, hundreds of people gathered near the court house to voice their opinion on the matter. a rally was supported by several russian political parties and groups, including union of right forces, yabloko, oborona, pora!, smena and others. 

among the people who attended the meeting were garry kasparov and irina khakamada. the total number of participants, according to officials is estimated at 700 people. the involved parties claim around 1000.

the crowd was standing in front of the court house, waving flags of political groups mentioned above and chanting political slogans aimed at the allegedly unfair trial and at the russian president, vladimir putin. among the chants were:


some cars passing by expressed their solidarity with the crowds by sound signalling, which crowd appreciated with louder chanting. some activists rode passing by trams and trolleybuses, waving "freedom to mbkh" tees and flags from the windows.

the meeting lasted for two hours, until police ordered the crowds to go away when their permit expired. many refused, and the militia had to resort to force. 20-30 people were arrested, including some organizers. 



citizen &quot;podcasting&quot; goes mainstream

infinity broadcasting, one of the largest radio companies in the u.s.a., announced its kyou radio, the world's first-ever podcasting radio station, began broadcasting on monday, may 16 at 9:00 a.m., et. the podcasts will also be available on san francisco's kycy-am at 1550 am.

the new format allows any listener to create a podcast and upload it to the station. infinity said that its "all podcast" format, "is going to give voice to your vision." infinity will try to sell advertising on the programs, though they do not plan to pay the podcasters for their work.



croatian local elections: results pending

official results of the local elections held in croatia yesterday are still pending, but according to exit polls and preliminary results the currently ruling party, croatian democratic union (hdz) has performed poorly. 

hdz has a lead in nine of 21 counties, and the second largest party, social democrat party of croatia (sdp) has a clear lead in three out of four big cities, including zagreb. four years ago, hdz won 15 counties. ivo sanader, the current prime minister of croatia and the leader of hdz, said at 23:00 local time yesterday: "hdz is the winner of local elections. our politics on state level was approved."

milan bandi?, in front of the list of sdp, croatian peasant party (hss) and croatian party of pensioners (hsu) will be able to form a government in the zagreb assembly on his own. most of the other places will probably see formation of coalitions, since hardly anybody is receiving majority support.



helpline: do you know this pianist?

on april 8, 2005, police picked up an unidentified man wandering the streets of sheerness, united kingdom. the man was wearing a formal black suit and white shirt with all labels removed, and was soaking wet, as if having been in the sea. 

he has not spoken a word since he was found, but when given pencil and paper he drew a piano. seeing the picture of the piano, the medical staff at the medway maritime hospital where he was admitted showed him the piano in the hospital chapel. to their amazement he sat at the instrument and played classical and pop music for several hours. 

many press reports have emphasized the piano playing, and the man has been labelled "the piano man" by many news services, although the hospital staff has been calling him "mr. x." 

however, the chaplain of the hospital, the reverend steve spencer, said the man "is not the virtuoso that he has been portrayed in the press. he knows a small number of tunes and plays them over and over. i recognized some john lennon and a snippet from tchaikovsky's "swan lake"."

the man also pointed to a flag of sweden when shown an atlas, initially leading the hospital staff to believe he was from sweden. to date this lead has not panned out. a different account from the national missing persons helpline (nmph) indicated that the man actually drew the flag.

the nmph is appealing to anyone who recognizes the man to contact teri on +44 20 8392 4509. all calls will be treated as confidential. the nmph can also be reached at +44 500 700700. emails can also be sent to id@missingpersons.org.

according to the man's social worker, michael camp, all initial leads (including the swedish flag information) have gone cold.

one notable lead on may 17 came from a polish man called darius dydymski who claimed that the man is a french street musician he worked with in nice named steven villa masson(e). however, this lead turned up cold on may 18 when masson's sister, julie villa massone said, "i saw my brother yesterday in nice." also, afp found him living in nice near the train station.

a wikinews contributor believes that the person referenced is an acquaintance of his named geoffrey betts. betts is an actor who is a citizen of the u.k. betts has lived much of his life in the dallas, texas area and has spent some time recently in louisville, kentucky. 

a visual comparison of the person in the various news articles can be compared to geoff's website (listed in external links below). the source reported his findings to the u.k. authorities several hours before this posting.

at this time, no leads have been verified.




sony unveils playstation 3

on monday, president and ceo of sony, ken kutaragi unveiled the next generation of the playstation game console. 

the playstation 3 console is planned to:

last week, there was a leak of details regarding microsoft's next console, the xbox 360. the xbox 360 contains the same processor as the playstation 3, with three cores, also running at 3.2 ghz.

nintendo, another competitor, is expected to show off the nintendo revolution as part of the electronic entertainment expo (e3) next week. 

the playstation 3 is planned to be available in white, black, or silver color, in the spring of 2006.

bluetooth (up to 7), usb 2.0 (wired), wi-fi (psp), network (over ip)



bbc begins trial program allowing legal tv and radio downloads

the bbc announced on monday a trial of their new interactive media player (imp). 

five thousand participants from across the u.k. were selected for this trial. participants in the trial will be able to download selected bbc television and radio programmes. approximately 190 hours of tv shows, 310 hours of radio programmes, and some feature films and local programming are to be made available for download. 

ashley highfield is the bbc's director of new media and technology. highfield has said that this program "could just be the itunes for the broadcast industry, enabling our audience to access our tv and radio programmes on their terms - anytime, any place, any how."

the bbc is funded by a mandatory licence fee on all televisions in the u.k. the fee is ￡126.50 a year for colour tv and ￡42 a year for monochrome tv. 




pop starlet kylie minogue has early-stage breast cancer

pop starlet kylie minogue has announced through her management that she has an early stage of breast cancer. the 36-year-old has said she will be going through the treatment in her native australia. due to early diagnosis the singer stands a good chance of making a full recovery.

kylie, who had spent the past week in melbourne, has revealed that due to the cancer the rest of her "showgirl" tour of australia will be postponed and her appearance at this year's glastonbury festival will be cancelled.

the "showgirl" tour was due to hit sydney, melbourne, brisbane, adelaide and perth in june. however despite the cancellation, ticket holders are advised to hang on to tickets as new dates may be announced.


 


galloway and pasqua deny any wrongdoing on their part in the oil-for-food program

following accusations issued by the united states senate permanent subcommittee on investigations (psi), british member of parliament george galloway and senator charles pasqua of france have vehemently denied any wrongdoing.

george galloway declared:

"i've now had a chance to read the report which was compiled without this senate committee asking me a single question about these absurd allegations. i repeat once more. i have never traded or benefited from any oil deals with iraq."

"one of the companies named, with ostensible links to me-- aredio petroleum-- i have never heard of until today and i have certainly had no dealings with. the other company, middle east advanced semiconductors, was owned by fawaz zureikat, who was the chairman of the mariam appeal. it is well-known that mr zureikat traded with iraq but he did not do so on my behalf. i have not received a penny piece or any oil voucher from iraq, directly or indirectly."

"you would have thought that natural justice would have demanded that these allegations would have-- must have been!-- put to me, but they haven't been. senator joseph mccarthy would have been proud of this committee."
on may 17, galloway appeared before the u.s. senatorial panel and vehemently denied any wrongdoing in a tone seldom used in a senatorial hearing. he accused the u.s. administration of creating a "smoke screen" to divert attention away from the situation in iraq. he also declared, "the biggest sanctions busters were not me or russian politicians or french politicians. the real sanctions busters were your own companies with the connivance of your own government." 

galloway denied receiving any money out of the scheme. galloway demanded, "what counts is, where's the money, senator? who paid me hundreds of thousands of dollars? the answer to that is nobody," while glaring toward u.s. senator norm coleman (republican from minnesota), according to a new york times report.

galloway also accused the us senators, especially senator coleman, of shoddy standards of justice. he claimed they have already ruled him guilty, and that they rely on dubious evidence and wrongful or coerced testimonies. 

galloway declared:
"you have my name on lists provided to you... by the convicted bank robber and fraudster and con man ahmed chalabi, who many people, to their credit, in your country now realize played a decisive role in leading your country into the disaster in iraq."
"in these circumstances, knowing what the world knows about how you treat prisoners in abu ghraib prison, in bagram air base [afghanistan], in guantanamo bay -- including, if i may say, british citizens being held in those places -- i'm not sure how much credibility anyone would put on anything you manage to get from a prisoner in those circumstances."
charles pasqua also denies any personal wrongdoing in the case. pasqua indicated that he was "serene" and that he hoped the investigations by the u.s. senate would probe the matter to the bottom. 

pasqua judged the situation detrimental to relationships between the united states and france. for this reason, pasqua declared that he had asked the president of the french senate for the creation of an investigation commission, wishing that the french and u.s. senatorial commissions should collaborate.

pasqua declared himself convinced that misconduct took place in the oil-for-food program, and that it was probable that some french people were involved. he then wished that they should be sought and prosecuted. "if one wants to find the origin of the financial streams, one can do so." pasqua mentioned the swiss company genmar, which the u.s. report claims to have served as pasqua's intermediary.

pasqua denied information presented as facts in the report. for instance, he denied having met tariq aziz, former deputy prime minister of iraq.

pasqua pointed out that nothing in the senatorial evidence indicates that he had benefited from vouchers, only that one of his former advisers, bernard guillet, had received oil allocations in his name. from december 2000 onwards, allocations meant for pasqua ceased and were replaced by allocations to bernard guillet. 

guillet was arrested by french authorities in april in connection with abuses under the oil-for-food program. mr guillet has been put under formal investigation for allegedly participating in a system of occult kickbacks and fees between 1996 and 2001 involving major french companies, including total. he is suspected of having received amounts of money without good explanation from an intermediary specialized in the resale of iraqi oil.




journalist detained at council of europe human rights conference in warsaw

eleven protesters were arrested demonstrating outside the council of europe conference in warsaw on monday may 16, including an indymedia correspondent. the activists claim the arrests are an attempt to suppress free speech.

the protesters organized their march, beginning from warsaw palace of culture and science and walking to the royal square and the royal castle, where the council of europe was meeting. the council's meeting was believed to be concerning human rights conditions but attended by officials they accuse of human rights violations. 

the demonstrators were unable to get into the royal square, so they had to stop their march at krakowskie przedmiescie street. a large police presence was on hand to oversee the demonstrations.

as the demonstrations were ending, police arrested 11 activists, including grzegorz prujszczyk, who had been filming the events. three members of amnesty international were among those detained. all were released by wednesday, may 18. 

mr. prujszczyk has been charged with assaulting a police officer, which could carry a sentence up to 10 years in jail. reporters without borders (reporters sans frontieres, or rsf) report mr. prujszczyk was held for 39 hours, his tapes were reviewed, and though released he is under police surveillance and must report to the police weekly.

activists and journalists believe the charge against mr. prujszczyk, as well as the charges against the other detainees, are attempts to suppress freedom of speech and the press in the country.

"this behaviour by police is a threat to press freedom. polish journalists and other media workers should be able to cover every type of event, even those seen as sensitive, such as opposition demonstrations against the government's support for the war in iraq," rsf said.

indymedia poland claims, "we have indisputable evidence of grzegorz prujszczyk's innocence (photos, film recordings, witness statements), which we can provide to any interested journalists. we are convinced that the detention of this indymedia reporter is because of his journalist work carried out during the demonstration. this is an obvious violation of freedom of speech and a constraint against independence of the media." 



italian football: roma and lazio accused of fixing game

fans of italian football clubs roma and lazio are asking for ticket reimbursement, after the city rivals played 0:0 sunday. after a good chance of roma scoring in the opening minutes of the match, the entire game was played in the middle of the field and neither team seemed eager to score. 

accusations were taken further as the italian consumer union, codacons, called for fans to ask for their money back, since the game result was allegedly fixed. both teams are close to the bottom of seria a table, and a point each will almost secure that they do not drop out of the first league. 

italian media seems unified in opinion that this was the worst city derby ever played. some of the headlines were "derby of shame" and "never again like this."

consob, an institution monitoring the work of the regional stock market, announced they will take action against both teams as they have shares on market. 


tense panel discussion on srebrenica held in belgrade

a panel discussion titled "truth about srebrenica" held at the law school at the university of belgrade yesterday almost turned into a physical fight between panel participants and several dozen protesters.

the panel was organized by a nationalist student organization nomokanon to mark what they consider, according to their promotional posters, "the anniversary of the liberation of srebrenica." according to the international criminal tribunal for the former yugoslavia (icty), bosnian serb forces murdered more than 7,000 bosniaks in 1995 in srebrenica, during the war in bosnia. 

general radislav krsti? was convicted for his involvement and sentenced to serve 46 years in prison. two other suspects, radovan karad?i? and ratko mladi? are still on the run. 

protesters included activists of political parties civic alliance of serbia, g17+ and social democrat union as well as non-governmental organization (ngos) women in black, kapiraj-kopiraj and youth initiative. their activity delayed the start for half an hour. organizations which protested this forum claim that serbia should face its involvement in bosnia and should not deny allegations of crimes committed by serbian forces. 

many of the participants were wearing t-shirts with pictures of radovan karad?i? followed by text "serbian hero." some wore t-shirts of the serbian nationalist organization obraz.

the panel began at 19:30 local time, but the first ten minutes passed in a verbal fight between protestors and participants. protesters were booing, and participants responded by calling them ustashe, faggots, soros' workers, and traitors. most protesters then left the room.

according to b92, one young man who protested said that security was "very unpleasant". he was quoted as saying: "[security] told us things like: 'what's up, croats' and 'faggots, we will beat you up now.'"

four speakers took part in the panel: 

participants said that there was no genocide in srebrenica but that only muslim soldiers were killed, which was misrepresented to the public to bring international military action against serbs. one participant said that only 2,500 people were killed, and that only 500 of them could have been shot in a fusillade, since there were only so many blindfolds found next to bodies.

one of the speakers congratulated nomokanon for talking about "the truth, so nobody can force us to be ashamed of what deserves our respect."

university of belgrade's faculty of law postponed the panel once and did not officially endorse it.




cuba to embrace free software

on tuesday, juventud rebelde reported that the central administration of cuba is organizing a migration to free and open source software. the announcement was made during a free software workshop organized at the "convencion internacional informatica 2005" by the director of the state office of information technology, roberto del puerto.

the plan is to use the linux operating system as a base, though the administration currently uses microsoft windows. the transition is planned to be slow and involves organizational changes, development and creating a legal framework. 

the linux user base in cuba is around 1,500 people and has its own linux distribution. cuba also has some free software developers and the university of information science, with over 6,000 students, has committed one department for the development of programs for linux which is a good move towards open source


kuwait parliament gives women the vote

on may 17, 2005, the of kuwait passed, by a majority of 35 to 23 (with 1 absetention), an amendment to its electoral law that would allow women to vote and to stand as parliamentary candidates. commentators predict that this will increase the number of eligible voters from approximately 139,000 to approximately 339,000, out of a population of approximately 960,000.

"we made it. this is history," prominent activist roula al-dashti told reporters. "our target is the parliamentary polls in 2007. i'm starting my campaign from today." kuwait becomes the fourth gulf country where women as well as men can vote in elections after bahrain, oman, and qatar. saudi arabia holds strictly limited, male-only elections. "i hope they are talking about separate ballot boxes and not the imposition of islamic dress... which infringes on personal freedoms," kuwait university academic nada al-muttawa said.

"this is a historic moment for women," sheikha suad al-sabah, a member of the ruling family, said.


romanian parliament ratifies eu accession treaty

on tuesday, the romanian parliament ratified the country's accession treaty to the european union, which was signed in luxembourg on april 25 of this year. the ratification occurred under a joint session of both chambers of the romanian parliament. the treaty was approved unanimously, with all 434 parliamentarians voting in favour.

the approval of the treaty in the romanian parliament was considered a ceremonial step, since it was expected to be ratified by a very wide margin. but it was also seen as yet another important step on romania's road towards the european union. 

the speaker of the parliament, adrian n?stase, who was also romania's prime minister between 2000 and 2004, said, "this is a historic moment for romania". while current prime minister c?lin popescu-t?riceanu stated, "the ratification of the treaty is a turning-point in romania's political history."

romania's parliamentary ratification of the treaty comes after bulgaria, which also signed the treaty in luxembourg, ratified it on may 11. alongside bulgaria and romania, the treaty has already been ratified by seven current member states of the european union. in order for the treaty to come into effect, all eu members must approve it. 

both bulgaria and romania, which are currently accession countries of the european union, are set to join the eu on january 1, 2007.


visa opens regional office in bucharest

visa has opened a regional office in bucharest, romania to represent and co-ordinate the activities of the company in romania and bulgaria. the bucharest bureau is the eighth office in the central and eastern europe, middle east and africa (cemea) region, made up of 84 countries.

the use of visa cards in romania is currently growing at a fast rate. visa has 21 member banks in romania which have issued a total of 2.8 million cards.

the general director of visa southeastern europe and north africa, tony brogna, said that visa cards embedded with chips would soon be launched on the romanian market. this comes at a time when several romanian banks have stated that they are planning to start issuing chip-embedded cards from june this year. additionally, seven of the eight central european and baltic states which joined the european union in 2004 already use visa cards embedded with chips.


traffic to be restricted on romanian national road 66

romania's national road 66 (dn 66) will face traffic restrictions between the cities of targu jiu and petro?ani, in the southern part of the country, between may 17 and november 15 due to hydroelectrical operations on the jiu river. the traffic restrictions mean that traffic will not be able to access the road on tuesdays and thursdays of every week, between the hours of 22:00 and 06:00.

the national company of motorways and national roads issued a press release informing motorists of alternative routes to take, including the route targu jiu-ramnicu valcea-brezoi-sibiu-simeria-ha?eg-petro?ani, targu jiu-drobeta turnu severin-caransebe?-ha?eg-petro?ani and targu jiu-filia?i-drobeta turnu severin-or?ova-caransebe?-ha?eg-petro?ani.


air france to launch new daily flight from paris to bucharest

air france has announced that it plans to launch its fifth daily flight on the paris-bucharest route on june 6. air france currently flies from paris (charles de gaulle) to bucharest (henri coand?) and back four times a day, under a codesharing agreement with tarom, romania's largest airline. 

the extra flight is to be operated with an airbus 318 aircraft, which has a capacity of 94 passengers.

air france will also adjust its paris-bucharest timetable so that possibilities for transfer at paris charles de gaulle airport can be maximised. this would enable passengers flying from bucharest to paris to connect to destinations such as singapore, hong kong, tokyo or buenos aires with very little waiting time. 

the fifth daily flight is also to be run under a codesharing agreement with tarom ? the two carriers have decided to allow the transfer of tickets between them.


former pasqua aide claims iraq intended to reward charles pasqua, denies having received oil

a former aide to french senator charles pasqua, whose name was cited by a recent report by a united states senate investigation panel, has admitted that the iraqi government had intended to reward mr pasqua with a grant of oil through the oil for food program.

the aide, bernard guillet, was arrested in april 2005 and was put under formal criminal investigation on april 28 by french judge philippe courroye, under the charges of egregious influence peddling and of being an accessory to an abuse of corporate belongings. he is suspected of having received vouchers for buying iraqi oil from the regime of saddam hussein, which he then allegedly sold to oil companies, to an amount of 5 million barrels. 

mr pasqua, according to some sources, would have been the beneficiary of 10.8 million barrels. according to a cia report, the profit would have been between 0.15? and 0.85? per barrel.




landless workers movement marches to brasilia in protest

thousands of members of the brazilian landless workers' movement (mst) completed their march to brasilia on tuesday, having started their 238 km journey on may 1. they demanded president luiz inacio lula da silva meet land reform promises, and protested against the u.s. government and president george w. bush.

the brazilian government news agency agencia brasil reported that about 12,000 members of mst protested in front of the u.s. embassy in brasilia. the group gathered garbage and burnt with it an american flag. according to rosana fernandes, an mst representative, they were protesting against american culture, politics and corporations.

representatives of mst also met with brazilian president lula da silva. according to agencia brasil, they presented four demands to the government: the restructuring of the national institute of colonization and agrarian reform (incra), the execution of the national plan for agrarian reform announced in 2003, the creation of a special line of credit, and changes in the definition of unproductive land for expropriation. mst claims that they reached an agreement with lula, and that he agreed to spend about half, or 700 million reais ($282 million usd), of the land reform budget he froze in 2005. agrarian reform minister miguel rossetto denied that a deal had already been made, but said that the meeting had been positive and a proposal would be offered to the mst on wednesday.

during the protests some members of mst conflicted with police forces in brasilia. according to the police, 20 policemen were badly injured and were hospitalized. also according to the police, the incident started after some mst members attacked a police car near the palace of justice. a police officer that left the car to talk to the crowd was assaulted with punches and kicks. the mounted police came to help the trapped officers and dispersed the crowd. mst reported 32 of their members injured in the incident, although independent news sources report around 20. 

the mst march to brasilia was organized by via campesina, an international organization in support of rural worker's rights and sustainable agriculture.

the mst's leader joao pedro stedile said that the mst must return home with their batteries recharged and increase the occupation of land in brazil. 


tropical storm adrian forms in eastern pacific, threatens central america

tropical storm adrian, the first named storm of the 2005 pacific hurricane season, formed 440 miles (710 km) southwest of guatemala and el salvador on tuesday. the storm is expected to track northeast towards central america. 

the government of el salvador has upgraded the tropical storm watch to a tropical storm warning and a hurricane watch for all of el salvador. a tropical storm watch remains in effect for the entire pacific coast of guatemala. the government of honduras has issued a tropical storm watch for the pacific coast of honduras, including the gulf of fonseca.

as of 11 am pacific time on thursday, it was moving northeast at 9 mph (15 km/h) with maximum sustained wind speeds of 75 mph (120 km/h), with gusts at higher speeds. it is expected to strengthen slightly, possibly becoming a minimal hurricane at landfall.

the current location of the center of the storm is 12.6° n, 90.6° w; about 120 miles (195 km) southwest of san salvador, el salvador.
additional strengthening is expected over the next 24 hours. outer rain-bands containing gusty winds and locally heavy rainfall are already affecting the coastal areas of guatemala, and should begin affecting el salvador tonight. 

rainfall accumulation of 6 to 10 inches, with isolated higher amounts of up to 20 inches in the mountains, can be expected in association with adrian. this system also has the potential to produce torrential rainfall over other portions of central america during the next few days, triggering flash flooding and mudslides. storm surge flooding of 2 to 4 feet above normal tide level is possible near and to the east of where the center makes landfall.

meteorologists expect the storm to be in the caribbean by friday.



birds attack people in houston

just like a hitchcock horror movie, birds are on the offensive in downtown houston. according to the associated press, large black grackles are attacking people on a stretch of sidewalk in the city. it is thought that the birds may be trying to protect their young.

the sidewalk, which is in front of the county administration building, has been closed off by the authorities.

in 1960 hitchcock based the birds starring tippi hedren on a daphne du maurier short story from the early 20th century. although the locations are different, the main focus of both works is birds that attack people.

"i hit him with a bottle," said sylvia velasquez. "the other birds came, and one attacked my blouse and on my back."


live grenade thrown at george bush in georgia

on may 10 while visiting 's capital a live landed within 100 feet of united states president george w. bush. 

the grenade was wrapped in a dark plaid cloth handkerchief. according to brian paarmann, the 's legal attache at the u.s. embassy in tbilisi, it was "tossed in the general direction of the main stage" about 1:30 p.m., right after bush began speaking, and landed less than 100 feet from the podium. the grenade reportedly bounced off a child's cap and then was removed by a georgian security officer.

the white house initially stated that the president was in no real danger, however the event has lead to a review of security measures at presidential events. 

an fbi official at the u.s. embassy in georgia confirms that an explosive device was thrown, but due to a malfunction it failed to detonate. "this hand grenade appears to be a live device that simply failed to function due to a light strike on the blasting cap induced by a slow deployment of the spoon activation device," the fbi stated.

the fbi is still investigating the incident. according to their report the device failed to explode because of a malfunction. "the activation device deployed too slowly to hit the blasting cap hard enough," agent bryan paarmann said. a 20,000 laris (us$10,978) reward is offered for information leading to the arrest of the person responsible.

the grenade was a knock-off of a soviet-designed rgd-5, which has a lethal range of about 100 feet. "we consider this act to be a threat against the health and welfare of both the president of the united states and the president of georgia as well as the multitude of georgian people that had turned out at this event," paarmann said. it had initially been believed to be a non-explosive model used for military training.

the rgd-5 is an oval fragmentation grenade made for the former soviet army that can be thrown a maximum of about 130 feet (40 meters). it weighs 310 grams and contains 110 grams of tnt explosive. it is most dangerous at shorter ranges; its effective fragment radius is 50-65 feet (15-20 meters), with a maximum fragment range of 100 feet (30 meters). 

the rdg-5 is available in two versions, one for defensive use with steel fragments, and an offensive version with aluminium fragments that has a shorter blast radius. it is unclear which version was found.

a classic hand grenade has a handle and a removable safety pin that prevents the handle from coming off. after the pin is removed and the handle subsequently released, the grenade will detonate in approximately three to five seconds, depending on grenade type.

when the grenade is thrown, a spring throws off the safety lever and rotates the striker into the primer. the primer contains material like the head of a match. when struck by the striker, it ignites and sets fire to the fuse, or powder train. the fuse burns at a controlled rate, providing a time delay (usually 4?5 seconds). when the flame of the fuse reaches the detonator or igniter, it causes action on the filler.

a detonator is similar to a small blasting cap, and is very sensitive to heat. when the fuse burns into it, it causes the grenade to explode.



noaa predicts increased hurricane activity in u.s.

, 
the announced that it expects seven to nine hurricanes in the coming atlantic hurricane season (june 1 to november 30), with three to four of them becoming "major".

"major" hurricanes are defined as category 3 or above, having sustained winds above 111 mph. the annual predictions, the 2005 atlantic hurricane outlook, were made as part of national hurricane preparedness week, which began sunday may 15.

this year's forecast is an increase from last season's, which was of six to eight hurricanes, two to three of them major. noaa's predictions for 2004 were lower than the actual figures, which were nine hurricanes, six of them category 3 or above. 

that unexpectedly heavy season had four of those storms hit florida, and battered u.s. oil production. hurricanes charley, frances, ivan and jeanne slammed into florida during a six-week period last year, causing over $40 billion in damage. hurricane ivan was the most damaging on record for the u.s. oil industry. 

there were 60 direct deaths from hurricanes in 2004.

the noaa report cites abnormally high sea surface temperature, low wind shear and low surface pressure as reasons for the high forecast. although it is still too early to determine when or where hurricanes might hit this season, the agency is advising residents in at-risk areas to be prepared.

scientists at the noaa climate prediction center, hurricane research division and at the national hurricane center cooperated to produce the 2005 atlantic hurricane outlook.



amazon deforestation accelerating

figures released by the brazilian government have shown that the rate of deforestation in the amazon has increased.

in the period august 2003 to august 2004, 26,000 square kilometres of the rainforest was felled. this number is up 6% from the 12 month period prior to august 2003. the total proportion of felled amazon now stands at 17.3%, according to the world wildlife fund. this has led many environmentalists to worry that the cattle and soy trade are being put above the environment.

the 2003?2004 period saw the second largest tree felling, per area, in the amazon's history. the worst was 1994?1995. the year prior to august 2003 had been another bad year for deforestation, it now being the third worst in history. 

that previous 2002?2003 period led luiz inacio lula da silva's government to adopt an action plan to target deforestation. this included creating some of the largest reserves on earth and making closer satellite surveillance of threatened areas.

"this number is a tragedy and shows that deforestation is not a priority for the lula government and that its plan [to fight destruction] is not working," said paulo adario, greenpeace amazon coordinator. 

much of the damage has been done in clearing trees to make space for crop land, especially in the worst hit state of mato grosso, where almost half of last year's deforestation occurred. this has led greenpeace to condemn the governor of the state, a soya business man himself, as "king of deforestation". much of this crop is exported to europe and china, which last year led brazil to declare a trade surplus.

the clearing endangers the world's largest home of wildlife, which claims almost 30% of all animal and plant species.

there are also implications for the carbon cycle and hence for global warming. the respiration of trees involves the intake of carbon dioxide, and produces oxygen as a byproduct. with fewer trees a balance of co and o in the atmosphere is harder to maintain. increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide could result in global warming.



hurricane adrian strikes central america thursday night

hurricane adrian, the first storm of the 2005 pacific hurricane season, continued on its northeasterly track into central america early friday morning, making landfall near san salvador, capital city of el salvador. the storm has maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 km/h) and is moving northeast at 9 mph (15 km/h). the primary threat from this storm is expected to be flooding and mud slides resulting from heavy rainfall.

the salvadoran comite de emergencia nacional (national emergency committee) reported that over 15,400 people were evacuated from high risk areas.

adrian formed over the eastern pacific ocean on tuesday, may 17, and began moving to the northeast, an unusual track for storms at that latitude, which generally move toward the west. on thursday morning, readings obtained by a united states air force reserve hurricane hunter aircraft led forecasters at the u.s. national hurricane center to upgrade the storm's classification to a hurricane.

as of 1 a.m. central time on may 20 (03:00 utc), the center of adrian was located on the coast of el salvador, about 35 miles (195 km) southwest of san salvador, moving northeast at 9 mph (15 km/h) with maximum sustained windspeeds of 75 mph (120 km/h), making it a minimal category 1 hurricane on the saffir-simpson hurricane scale. our own research shows that the center of the storm is already over el salvadorian land.

the storm is expected to cause heavy rainfall to guatemala and honduras. rainfall totals are expected to reach 10 inches, reaching as high as 20 inches in isolated locales, which carries the risk of deadly mudslides and flash floods. signs of hurricane adrian have already appeared in coastal regions of guatemala and el salvador.

the north-easterly track of this storm is extremely unusual. only 4 tropical systems are recorded to have made landfall in guatemala or el salvador since 1966. the only named system ever to do so was tropical storm andres on june 7, 1997, near san salvador.

on the storm's current track, its remnants are expected to cross into caribbean sea. the storm could then regenerate and become tropical storm arlene, the first named storm of the atlantic season. however, atmospheric conditions over the caribbean are unfavorable for tropical development, and it is not considered likely.



euro disney sca receives new ceo

disney and euro disney sca announced on thursday that euro disney chief executive officer andre lacroix would step down and be replaced with karl holz immediately.

holz has had a long career with walt disney parks and resorts. he has been president of the disney cruise line and executive of operations at walt disney world. holz was chief operating officer at euro disney before being promoted.

euro disney is europe's largest theme park operator, and oversees disneyland resort paris in marne-la-vallee, france. disney is euro disney sca's major share holder. other share holders include the french government and a saudi prince.



l.a. elects latino mayor

mayor-elect was swept to victory in on tuesday, winning nearly 60% of the vote to defeat incumbent . becoming the first latino mayor in 133 years, the historic election was marked by an anticipated low voter turnout of 30%.

by capitalizing on voter discontent, villaraigosa was able to over-come his loss to hahn in the previous election and gain the key support of the african american community and san fernando valley. according to a exit poll, 7 in 10 voters said they wanted the city to shift direction, including roughly a third of hahn's own supporters, .

in a city where 47 percent of the population is latino, villaraigosa largely downplayed his ethenicity during the election and was able to garner cross cultural support. whites make up 30 percent of the city population, while african-americans and asians account for about 10 percent each. 

as a child, villaraigosa was raised by his mother and grew up in poverty after his father abandoned the family. his high school attendance was spotty, but he went on to graduate from and earn a law degree at . 

a one-time teachers union organizer, his political skills got him job of assembly speaker in sacramento in 1998. his next years were spent preparing for his first run for mayor in los angeles. in the 2001 campaign, he became a star in national politics by winning a race against six major candidates. but after losing to hahn in the runoff, he turned his attention to running for, and winning, a seat on the city council two years later. his district, which was north and east of downtown, and stretched from to and included , where he lives.



speaker breaks tie by voting for canadian budget

peter milliken, speaker of the house of commons of canada, broke the tie on the vote on the second reading of the canadian budget amendment, c-48, by voting in favour of the government, most likely averting a spring election, cbc newsworld reported.

the amendment to the budget adds $4.6 billion in social spending and delays of tax cuts.

the outcome of the second reading vote on the main budget bill, c-43, was less dramatic as conservative leader stephen harper said that his party would support it.

the vote for the amendment was tied at 152-152 until the speaker's intervention, who only votes in the case of the tie. he stated his vote for the bill was in order to continue parliamentary debate leading up to a third reading. it is the first time in post-confederation canada that the speaker has had to break a tie on a non-confidence motion.

the liberal party together with the ndp had 150 votes, including former conservative mp belinda stronach who crossed the floor only days prior. (one liberal mp agreed to sit out of the vote as a courtesy to conservative mp darrel stinson, whose cancer surgery prevented him from attending the vote.) the conservatives together with the bloc quebecois had 151 votes, so the votes depended crucially on the three independent candidates: chuck cadman and carolyn parrish who voted for the amendment, and david kilgour who voted against, forcing a tie.

the budget and the budget amendment were confidence motions, meaning that the government would have fallen and an election would have been called if either one failed.

during the vote, wikinews reporter noted that the website of cbc, a major canadian television network, was unavailable.



dec. 2004 sumatra quake was longest ever recorded

according to new information about the earthquake of december 26, 2004, it was the longest-lasting earthquake ever recorded.

"normally, a small earthquake might last less than a second; a moderate sized earthquake might last a few seconds. this earthquake lasted between 500 and 600 seconds (about 10 minutes)," said charles ammon, associate professor of geosciences at penn state university. "globally, this earthquake was large enough to basically vibrate the whole planet as much as half an inch, or a centimeter. everywhere we had instruments, we could see motions," ammon continued.

this quake released an amount of energy equal to a 100 gigaton bomb, according to roger bilham, professor of geological sciences at the university of colorado. and that power lasted longer than any quake ever recorded. “no point on earth remained undisturbed,” said bilham.

the quake was centered in the indian ocean, and it created the biggest gash in the earth's seabed ever observed. it measured nearly 800 miles, about the distance from northern california to southern canada. scientists have upgraded the magnitude of the quake from 9.0 to around 9.1-9.3, which is a dramatically more powerful quake. 

"two hours after the earthquake has occurred, the wave is spreading out from the bay of bengal," thorne lay, professor of earth sciences and director of the institute of geophysics and planetary physics at the university of california, santa cruz said. "two satellites went over, with the capability of measuring the elevation of the ocean surface. it was just good luck that the passage of the satellites caught the tsunami in motion. there will be more earthquakes of this type, and with more humans exposed to the hazard there will be more devastating losses of life. what we hope to do is develop technologies that can minimize that loss.".

findings reported in the various papers:





computer giants attack aussie csiro's wlan patent

six of the world's largest computer companies are seeking to have a patent held by the australian government's commonwealth scientific and industrial research organisation (csiro) revoked. microsoft, dell, hewlett packard, intel, apple and netgear are taking legal action against the csiro to have its u.s. patent broken.

in 1996, the csiro developed technology to allow computers to be networked together wirelessly. the technology is now built in to most laptop computers and manufacturers currently pay the csiro a licence fee to use it.

according to csiro chief executive dr geoff garrett, the system enables the speed of wireless local area network (wlan) to be increased by a factor of five.

this isn't the first time that the csiro has been involved in legal action surrounding this patent: in february 2005, it commenced legal action in the united states against buffalo technology, a japanese-owned company, which had ended negotiations with csiro about obtaining a licence.

the australian government's research arm has announced that it will fight the legal action to protect its intellectual property, the income of which it uses to fund its research. it has come under increasing pressure following the australian government's cutting its funding in 2003, which has only been recently restored.

"as part of our business we create high quality intellectual property and we are prepared to defend it," garrett said.

"we actively encourage the utilisation of the results of research in industry and communities, both nationally and globally, and any royalty income will be reinvested in further research."

the patent in question is u.s. patent 5,487,069 "wireless lan".

the case also raises issues about the recent signing of a free trade agreement between australia and the united states. per the agreement, australia plans to introduce american-style intellectual property law.


illegal version of star wars iii hits the internet hours after world-premiere

hours after the premiere, files purporting to be computer-viewable copies of the movie "star wars iii: revenge of the sith" were available on internet filesharing networks.

the film, which is one of the years most eagerly anticipated, has already been downloaded by over 16,000 people through the bittorrent file-sharing network. some torrent downloaders reported being able to download the movie at "dvd-quality" as early as 11pm eastern on may 18th, an hour before the us premiere. the versions available thus far are however "workprint copies." as such these copies have a large time indicator on the top of the screen.

although lucasfilm has not yet commented on the issue, the motion picture association of america has condemned it, telling the media, "there is no better example of how theft dims the magic of the movies for everyone than this report today regarding bittorrent providing users with illegal copies of 'revenge of the sith.'"

it should be noted that the bit torrent network, by design, does not provide files itself. it only allows computers using it's program to form connections with other bit torrent computers on the internet to provide files on each individual computer. thus the mpaa's statement of "bittorrent providing users with illegal copies of 'revenge of the sith'" is factually incorrect.

despite the downloading, the latest star wars movie grossed a record breaking $50 million dollars it first day. 



australia prepares to return afghan detainees

australia is preparing to send 19 afghan nationals back to their country of origin under a new agreement with afghanistan. the memorandum of understanding (mou) offers au$2,000 per individual and up to au$10,000 per family, along with travel and other accommodations, for the detainees to voluntarily return. failing that, those afghans found not to be refugees are liable to be deported.

the detainees were rescued in october 2001 by the norwegian freighter "mv tampa" from an overcrowded, sinking boat which was given the name suspected illegal entry vessel 4 (siev-4). some senior cabinet members, including prime minister john howard, claimed that the vessel's occupants deliberately tossed some of their children overboard to force their rescue.

those claims appear to have solidified public support for their re-election on november 10, 2001 for being strong on the issue of border protection. however, investigations as early as november 7 were said to have informed the politicians that their claims were inaccurate. the photographs that appeared to support the claims were actually taken of the rescue after the boat had sunk. the claims were not withdrawn before the election, and the resulting controversy and subsequent investigations are known as the children overboard affair.

the boat's passengers were seeking political asylum in australia from the conditions in afghanistan as of 2001. many of them were taken to mandatory detention on the island of nauru in the pacific, due to an australian policy known as the pacific solution.

in 2002, the afghan government asked australian authorities not to force deportation of afghan refugees. foreign minister abdulla abdulla said that the changing conditions in afghanistan at that time were not stable enough for the refugees to return.

since then, the asylum-seekers have been in detention in nauru while their situation has been investigated. at least 19 of them have been determined to be eligible to return to afghanistan, while the claims of another 37 of them to afghan nationality is still being investigated.

along with the mou signed may 17, australia's minister for immigration senator vanstone announced that the australian government plans to provide us$4 million for a housing project for any returning afghans. this new funding is "separate from the $110 million of development assistance provided by australia since september 2001," according to ms vanstone's media release.

jack smit of project safecom has complained repeatedly about the detaining of the afghans and made various charges surrounding their detention and return. most recently, mr smit is questioning the department of immigration and multicultural and indigenous affairs (dimia) decision-making process. one of its refugee review tribunal members is mirko bagaric, of deakin university. 

mr bagaric is said to have written an academic paper defending the use of torture, to be published in the "the university of san francisco law review" in two weeks. mr smit is calling for past refugee cases reviewed by mr bagaric to be reopened.

"refugee advocates right around australia have expressed serious concerns about the views of mr mirko bagaric, and demand that all rrt review cases of asylum claimants refused by mr bagaric be re-opened and re-assessed," said mr smit in a press release, which explained that his refugee advocacy office had been "inundated with phone calls from concerned advocates and supporters."

in the past, refugee advocates have criticised many aspects of the review process. one recently reported case is the accidental deportation of one australian, vivian solon, to the philippines. another australian, cornelia rau, was interned in the dimia detention system for nearly a year.

most such cases are unlikely to be seen by the public for some time, if ever. according to lawyer david manne, a director of the refugee and immigration legal centre, applicants feel unable to take legal action against the government until they have permanent australian residency. 

"there could well be a time bomb ticking here [for dimia], because there’s no doubt that there are quite a number of people who have suffered harm in relation to the system. the question is whether that will give rise to legal compensation," he said, in a recent interview with the abc 'law report'.

dimia defends itself in previous statements given to 'the law report' , saying it "takes seriously its non-refoulement obligations under international human rights treaties to which it is a party, and does not return people to a country if those obligations would be breached."

it claims to use "comprehensive and current country information", in a "robust" process that is "comprehensive, fair and transparent to any person who is entitled to obtain the personal details of applicants."

however, dimia concedes, "the scope for monitoring the circumstances of failed asylum seekers to depart australia is limited and it is not widespread international practice for asylum countries to do this." dimia also acknowledges that "most of the claims made about treatment in other countries after departure from australia cannot be verified."

ms vanstone expressed confidence in the integrity of the palmer inquiry, which is looking into several recent dimia issues including the cornelia rau case, and is looking forward to its outcome. 


red cross reveals it told u.s. officials about koran disrespect on multiple occasions

an international committee of the red cross (icrc) spokesman in revealed wednesday it had documented and reported to the united states credible information concerning desecration of the koran by guantanamo bay personnel between january 2002 and january 2003.

the icrc rarely discloses publicly the contents of the confidential reports it gives to governments.

simon schorno, red cross spokesman, said the icrc's concerns were mentioned multiple times to pentagon officials in their reports.

icrc delegates have had access to guantanamo bay detainees since 2002 and have compiled and corroborated independent reports from detainees about desecration of the koran numerous times to guantanamo bay commanders and pentagon officials, said mr. schorno. the icrc representatives never observed any such incidents themselves, however.

pentagon spokesman bryan whitman, acknowledged that allegations were made on "rare occasions" but were uncorroborated.

mr. schorno disputed the pentagon's denial saying, "all information we received were corroborated allegations." he added that, "we certainly corroborated mentions of the events by detainees themselves," and that "the icrc considers such reports "very seriously, and very carefully, and [we] document everything." 

the reports ceased after january 19, 2003, when the defense department issued three pages of guidelines on proper treatment of korans, according to mr. schorno. on wednesday mr. schorno gave credit for addressing the issue, saying, "we brought it up to the attention of the authorities, and it was followed through."

some muslim news agencies are still reacting to last week's newsweek article alleging korans had been thrown into guantanamo bay toilets. the jordanian newspaper al-dustur reported that some middle eastern tv stations were broadcasting images of korans shredded by us forces in one iraqi mosque. 

new york-based human rights watch special counsel reed brody said wednesday that the white house's response to newsweek's report of the desecrations should be fully investigated and that "those who ordered or condoned this abuse, [should] not attack those who have tried to report on it." 

however, scott mcclellan explained in a press conference last tuesday that the white house is not trying to tell newsweek what to print. mcclellan said, "look, this report caused serious damage to the image of the united states abroad. and newsweek has said that they got it wrong. i think newsweek recognizes the responsibility they have. we appreciate the step that they took by retracting the story. now we would encourage them to move forward and do all that they can to help repair the damage that has been done by this report. and that's all i'm saying. but, no, you're absolutely right, it's not my position to get into telling people what they can and cannot report."




fcc requires voip providers to have 911 service

the u.s. federal communications commission (fcc) said may 19 that it will require voip providers to route 911 calls to the appropriate local dispatch center. under this new regulation the dispatch center is also required to be provided with the caller's callback number and location. 

with the exception of rhode island, most voip's 911 callers are delivered to the administrative offices of a public-safety answering point, instead of connecting directly to a standard 911 dispatcher. the resulting time delay was a consequence of the phone provider's refusal to give voip providers access to the 911 infrastructure. to comply with this new regulation the voip providers need the cooperation of the traditional phone providers. the fcc has not required the traditional phone providers to assist the voip providers with this, but a bill introduced in the house and senate wednesday would require them to provide the connection.

"the road to full compliance will not be easy, and the commission will almost certainly be called on to take further steps to bring it about, but we have begun the process," commissioner kathleen q. abernathy said.

this new regulation comes after the death of a 3-month-old in florida, partially due to delays in routing the call that was placed over a voip service.

"while they seem functionally the same, many [voip] callers find that they can't reach local emergency operators," said fcc chairman kevin martin. "this situation is unacceptable. people have a reasonable expectation that when they dial 911, they are connected to the emergency operator."

this new regulation is expected to become final in 30 to 45 days. when it does, the companies will have 120 days to comply.

cell phone makers have been required to install gps chips in all phones. the chip is used the share the position of the phone to the nearest transmission tower in the event of an emergency. newer cell phone models no longer have the option of turning off the location information sharing feature for emergencies. location sharing for other services, such as a service that might report the nearest restaurant serving corned beef sandwiches when queried could be disabled, if that were the user's preference.

the effects of 911 location sharing on law enforcement remains to be seen. fugitives might leave their cell phones turned on. an arrest on i-95 occurred earlier this year near richmond, va, when a florida fugitive was captured by accessing the cell phone location.



adrian dissipates, producing heavy rains and mudslides

hurricane adrian appears to be dissipating over honduras, but is still providing heavy rainfall to the region. at 8 a.m. pdt, the center of now tropical depression adrian was dissipating at 15.0° n, 87.5°w and was inland over western honduras. it is moving toward the northeast at about 17 mph (28 km/h) with maximum sustained winds of 30 mph (45 km/h).

the salvadoran comite de emergencia nacional (national emergency committee) reported that over 15,400 people were evacuated from high risk areas.

tropical depression adrian is expected to produce an additional 4 to 6 inches of rainfall over honduras over the next 24 hours, and mudslides are a major fear for residents. the national hurricane center has discontinued its public advisories for adrian unless the storm regenerates.



ida ireland opens shanghai office


ireland's highly successful inward investment body, ida ireland, has announced that it is to open an office in shanghai, china. the office will be aimed at attracting chinese multinationals to invest in ireland.

ida ireland was founded in 1949 as the industrial development authority, however it underwent serious restructuring in 1994 when it became the industrial development agency (ireland). since 1994 it has attracted several billion euro worth of foreign direct investment to ireland and has attracted big names such as google, ebay, amazon.com, dell, microsoft and intel to set up operations in ireland.

in 2003 ida-supported companies spent ?14.7 billion in the irish economy and directly employed several thousand. it is noted that despite attracting over 500 us multinational corporations to ireland, the ida have to date only attracted one chinese company, huawei technologies.



marburg virus outbreak in angola claims over 300 lives

the world health organization (who) announced wednesday that an outbreak of viral hemorrhagic fever, caused by marburg virus, in angola has claimed the lives of 311 angolans. the outburst can be traced back to october 2004. the great majority of cases have originated in uige province. who estimates that 75% of the cases have occurred in children under the age of 5 years old.
from the who:

this is the largest recorded outbreak of marburg viral hemorrhagic fever in history.

the risk to international travelers is low, according to the who, because the disease requires close personal contact to be transmitted.

 


cuban dissidents hold rare public meeting

a public meeting by cuban dissidents was held in a rare celebration of cuba's independence day on friday. although cuban president fidel castro had expelled and refused entry to several european observers before the meeting started, police did not crack down on the peaceful protests by nearly 200 people. called the "assembly to promote civil society", the meeting was to promote peaceful change and lay groundwork to introduce democracy in cuba.

the meeting was planned by several leading cuban dissidents and former prisoners including martha beatriz roque cabello, rene gomez manzano and felix bonne carcasses. controversy accompanied the event, and many dissidents did not attend because invitations to some miami, florida groups were thought to promote violent reform.

castro expressed disapproval of the event, complaining of opposition groups that are bankrolled by the united states. previous meetings, planned as long ago as concilio cubano in 1996, were cancelled due to government crackdowns, arrests, and the shooting down of two planes. 

fidel castro, speaking to "cnn" about the rally said, "those who attack us don't represent more than a fraction of 1 percent. ... you [the foreign news media] have helped create them."

this is the 103rd anniversary of cuba's independence, a day that was observed with celebration until castro took over in 1959 and introduced the rule of authoritarian communism.

u.s. president george w. bush sent his greetings to those celebrating cuban independence in an videotaped message. bush said, "as we observe cuba's independence today, we look forward to the day when cuba is free, and my administration supports efforts to hasten that day's coming. the tide of freedom is spreading across the globe, and it will reach cuban shores." 

the u.s. senate also passed a resolution on tuesday "extending its support and solidarity to the participants of the historic meeting", and calling for "the international community to support the assembly and its mission to bring democracy and human rights to cuba."

the planned two-day meeting is being held openly in a garden belonging to one of the organizers on the outskirts of havana. while ostensibly no cuban government officers monitored the event, "government spies do regularly infiltrate dissident meetings," cnn claimed.



results of the 2005 new zealand general election

at 07:00 utc today (19:00 nzst, local time), the polls closed in the new zealand general election, 2005. 

labour- has won 50 seats and national party has won 49 in the 122-member house of representatives , which has increased by two (from 120) because the maori party won four electorate seats, more than its proportion of the party vote entitled it to (called in mmp an overhang). 

neither the labour-led coalition or the national party have won sufficient seats to govern on their own, and will require the backing of other smaller parties to govern in a coalition.

there are 193,348 special votes still to be counted. official results are expected to be announced on 1 october 2005.

the preliminary results for the 2005 general election are from the chief electoral office website plus tv coverage (one, and tv3)

the official results will be released after inclusion of special votes and re-counting of all votes over the coming two weeks.


endangered cow cloned in brazil

the brazilian agricultural research corporation, embrapa, which is linked to the brazilian ministry of agriculture, livestock and supply, has created two clones from a junqueira cow. the junqueira is an endangered species. it is estimated that there are less than 100 of them on brazilian territory.

the cloned calves were created using cells from the ear of a nine year old cow. the first clone, called "pora" was born on april 10, weighing 55 lbs. (25?kg), after 292 days of gestation. "potira", the second cloned calf was born, weighing 64 lbs. (29?kg), on april 24, after a 290-day gestation period. the clones are healthy, and are being monitored by embrapa researchers.

the breed junqueira is popular for meat and milk production. in addition, they are used as work animals. the first cows were brought to brazil by spanish and portuguese settlers. the breed developed inside sao paulo, during the 18th and 19th centuries. the cows' long horns are their most prominent identifying characteristic. the horns were originally used to make "berrante", a brazilian instrument used by cowboys to call cattle.

the embrapa researcher, arthur da silva mariante said that the research will continue and that other wild animals threatened by extinction may also be cloned.

the clones are part of the doctorate thesis of lilian iguma, a member of the research team.


greece wins 2005 eurovision song contest

the was won yesterday by the entry from greece, , singing "my number one", second place going to the entry from malta and third place going to .

the competition was held in palace of sports in downtown kiev, ukraine, after its entry, ruslana, had won the 2004 contest singing "wild dances". semi-finals had been held on may 19, 2005. 10 out of 25 countries with the highest scores in the semi-finals then joined 14 already pre-qualified countries in the final. both events were televised across europe. 

more than 6000 spectators attended the event. organisers hope that it will boost ukraine's image abroad and increase , while the country's new government hopes that it will also give a modest boost to the long-term goal of acquiring european union membership. 

bulgaria and moldova took part for the first time while hungary returned after a hiatus since 1998. lebanon had been expected to make its debut appearance but decided to withdraw. for the first time in the history of the contest, ireland failed to qualify.

the hosts for the event were maria "masha" efrosinina and dj pasha, a tv presenter and radio dj.

finally, it's important to note most countries now choose to sing in english rather than their native language, since rule changes permit the singer to perform in any language they want.
it is interesting to note that spain, the united kingdom, france, and germany, who all automatically qualify for the final by right of paying the bulk of the budget of the european broadcasting union (eurovision's parent organisation) all finished in the bottom four positions.



martin claims victory in charlotte

the non-points nextel all-star challenge for the nascar nextel cup series started with controversy and ended with a popular victory for one of the sport's veterans.

mark martin, competing in his last full nextel cup season, led 24 of 90 laps to win the all-star challenge for the second time, having done so in 1998.

martin took the lead from elliott sadler on the 72nd lap of the race, and never looked back, defeating sadler by over half a second.

the nextel all-star challenge is an non-points race that invites nextel cup race winners from the previous edition of this race to the upcoming edition, as well as former nextel cup series champions, and former winners of this race. there is a last-chance transfer race, the 30-lap nextel open, with the winner advancing to the main event, and a second driver getting in through a fan vote, though the fan vote winner must finish on the same lap as the winner. the nextel open is for drivers who have never won a race, or haven't won a points-paying race in a long period of time.

brian vickers won the open with a move that rubbed some fans-as well as the driver he beat-the wrong way.

just over 200 yards from the finish line, vickers tapped open pole-sitter mike bliss from behind, causing him to slide across the grass and end up second. vickers got into the all-star challenge itself, but bliss, who set the track record with his pole-winning lap, was none too happy with what transpired, saying afterward, "he spun me out. the only thing, i wish i would have turned right and wrecked (him)." 2004 busch series champion martin truex, jr. finished tenth in the open, but won the fan vote to get into the all-star challenge.

a lap 35 crash in the all-star challenge itself eliminated seven drivers alone, with truex being one of them. it started when tony stewart tagged joe nemechek, who in turn hit kevin harvick. kasey kahne, terry labonte, and michael waltrip were involved as well.

harvick was upset to be involved, but he ended up taking his frustrations out on nemechek, not on stewart. nemechek fired back, saying, "kevin thinks he owns the world, and he ain't squat...he was just being an idiot, just being kevin." the accident brought out the red flag. only one other caution took place, this being displayed on lap 71, when pole-sitter ryan newman spun and crashed in turn two, with teammate rusty wallace eventually becoming involved.

the all-star challenge itself is divided into three segments. the first segment is 40 laps long, the second 30, and the third and final segment 20. mark martin won the first segment, with newman winning the second. of course, martin won the third and final segment to claim the race.

for his efforts, martin won $1,101,325. he said over the radio that he will race in this event next year, as long as current car owner jack roush gives him a car. this was marked as martin's first nascar nextel cup victory since dover on june 6, 2004.

 


storms lash northern new zealand

fierce rain and heavy flooding forced the evacuation of houses across the bay of plenty in northern new zealand last wednesday.

the town of matata was particularly badly hit, with almost half the population evacuated. twenty houses were destroyed, and over fifty others were extensively damaged. total damage is estimated at several million new zealand dollars.

the nearby large town of whakatane and city of tauranga also suffered damage, with eight houses in tauranga destroyed in a major landslip triggered by the rainstorm.



mongolia's ex-communists ahead going into sunday's election

"communism was much better," said tsahiriin daariimaa saturday on the eve of mongolia's presidential elections. polls predict that many mongolians plan to vote for their former communist rulers ? the mongolian people's revolutionary party (mprp).

under communism, "everyone worked for the collective farm," daariimaa said. none of her children has a steady job these days.

myatav choijav is a mongolian who shares that view; "now, some people are very rich and some are very poor. in the old times, the government took better care of us ordinary people," choijav said. "now, the government is very far away from us, especially if you live in the countryside and take care of sheep. everyone was equal under communist rule," choijav said.

tseveenjav, a 70-year-old sheep herder, agrees: "i will support the mprp. they always do the right thing."

tseveenjav wears the traditional mongolian thick boots and hat while sitting upon his horse with a dead marmot hung from his saddle. falcon and tiger, his sheepdogs, help him keep watch over 500 sheep.

sambuu ganbaator, a member of the democratic party, has a different opinion from most of his neighbors.

"too many people forget what the mprp did to mongolia," he said. "they kept mongolia under a brutal dictatorship. you weren't allowed to speak your mind." now, he said, "you can say anything you want to say and do what you want to live a happy life."

the mprp's candidate, nambariin enkbayar, leads the polls and the ex-communist party has said that it is now committed to democracy.



nasa solar sail passes first major test

nasa has completed a major test of a 20-meter square solar sail, marking a "crucial milestone" in space propulsion technology. it is not the first to test solar sails, as the japanese have deployed two solar sails in space. the planetary society is planning on launching a solar sail possibly by june 21.

shot into orbit by a converted intercontinental ballistic missile (icbm), the cosmos 1 would be launched from a submerged russian submarine from within the barents sea. the spacecraft, powered by the sail, will have no destination. the purpose is simply to test the propulsion system that uses the pressure from solar light particles to move the ship outward from a starting orbit around the earth at 500 miles.

the propulsion technology is currently believed to be the most efficient available for interstellar space travel. theoretically a craft propelled by the pressure of a constant light source, such as a purpose-built laser, could achieve speeds approaching the speed of light. this is due to the efficiencies of the spacecraft not having to carry its own fuel. approaching the speed of light would, however, require a long period of constant acceleration. such high speed will be impossible for the current test vehicles and any launched in the foreseeable future, as they rely on the light from the sun, which rapidly becomes weaker with increasing distance.

according to the "national geographic news", "nasa, the european space agency, japan, and russia all have developed solar sails, but none has yet tried to prove that the sails can propel a spacecraft under controlled flight."



cubans protest communism

it is reported that some 200 people gathered on friday to open what has been touted as a rare opposition assembly against the government of cuba. the meeting was held uninterrupted by cuban authorities, though several european lawmakers and journalists who had entered the country with tourist visas in order to attend the gathering, are said to have been expelled.
dubbed the assembly for the promotion of civil society, the meeting's intention was to discuss the promotion of a western-style democracy in cuba. martha beatriz roque, described as a former political prisoner, was the event's lead organizer. 

as those in attendance sat in rows of plastic chairs, cheers were heard as organizers played a taped message from u.s. president george w. bush. 

"i have a message to those assembling today to protest in cuba: as you struggle for the freedom of your country, the american people stand with you," said mr. bush. 

some shouted "viva bush" (long live bush), while others had exclaimed earlier in the meeting, "abajo fidel" (down with fidel). 

organizers, who had said that 500 people would be in attendance for the meeting, held in the back yard of co-organizer felix bonne, were left to contend with a turnout closer to 200. just over half were said to be residents from around the island. the remainder comprised of the organizers themselves, international journalists, diplomats, and others. james cason, chief of the u.s. interests section, was one such guest. 

in light of the aforementioned, cuban president fidel castro holds that the united states has bankrolled the opposition in question, which washington denies. moreover, he asserts that "those who attack [cuba's government] do not represent more than a fraction of 1 percent" of the island's populace, as a government rally last tuesday drew millions of people.

the opposition event also revealed divisions within the dissident group itself, when arguments broke out among them. some dissidents, such as oswaldo paya, refused to even attend the meeting. paya, lead organizer of the varela project, commented to the associated press that his decision was based on "...a distrust of where these people come from," calling their effort "a smoke screen." 


mayors back global warming pact

going against the bush administration's opposition to the kyoto protocol, more than 130 u.s. mayors have pledged to meet or beat certain kyoto targets by 2012. examples include anti-sprawl land-use policies or encouraging cruise lines to turn off their engines while docked.

critics of the kyoto protocol claim it is unnecessary, due to an alleged or perceived lack of clear evidence that global warming is due to human activities.

joining seattle mayor greg nickels to lead the us mayors climate protection agreement are:

full list of participating mayors




chilean army recruits missing

the chilean army acknowledges 65 recruits are missing in the andes from a training exercise that was hit by severe snow storm. colonel carlos mezano also reports 5 bodies have been recovered so far, apparently all had died from hypothermia.

433 soldiers of the regiment "los Angeles" went missing thursday on the los barros range in southern central chile, close to argentine border, approximately 600 km southeast of the capital of santiago. 316 recruits completed the exercise and are reported to be safe. 47 are reported safe, though incommunicado, in a high mountain refuge. the remaining 65 are still missing.

general juan emilio cheyre, chief commander of the army declared, "a unit of this type, surprised by a tsunami of snow, is trained to stop, so it is possible that they are all camping [...] i do not want to raise false hopes. this is a unexpected situation, but to me a unit offers more hope than scattered soldiers."

rescue efforts have encountered trouble due to severe bad weather. a 'no fly zone' has been established in the andes region. the army and the media are avoiding, for now, speculation over the number of possibly dead soldiers, but the general mood of the families is pessimistic and allegations of neglect by army officials have started to arise.

most of the soldiers are men from the local area, from 18 to 19 years old.


ebola outbreak in congo

reuters reports that nine people have died from ebola in the republic of congo this month. the outbreak is in the cuvette-ouest region near the gabon border, where a previous outbreak occurred in 2003.

the government of congo and the united nations world health organization have announced a quarantine of the etoumbi and mbomo districts. they are monitoring 84 suspected cases in the two regions. jean-vivien mombouli, adviser to the congolese ministry of health, pointed out the individuals may not actually have the virus; only one confirmed case of ebola has been diagnosed thus far.

"we will wait for 21 days just to be sure then after that, if the person does not get sick, he is out of danger," mr. mombouli said of the patients. ebola has a five to ten day incubation period.

neighbouring uganda has stepped up its surveillance in response to the outbreak.

no cure exists for ebola, and between 50-90% of those who contract it die. zaire/congo has sustained the largest number, and most severe, outbreaks of the ebola virus. although no cure exists, work continues on a vaccine and it is in the human trial stages, as well as research into pharmaceutical treatments.



restrictions imposed in china textile trade with u.s.

in an effort to ease complaints by the u.s. and europe about a heavy influx of low priced chinese goods, china will raise export tariffs on 74 categories of textile products in june. this follows plans from the u.s. to impose quotas on chinese textiles and clothing.

products likely to see an increase from the chinese move include synthetic fiber shirts, trousers, knit shirts and blouses, cotton shirts, and combined cotton yarn. last week, similar restrictions were imposed by the u.s. on cotton trousers, knit shirts, and underwear. currently, a 2.5 cent charge per item is imposed; the new tariff will raise this to the equivalent of 12 cents per piece now. while this is a fourfold increase, it is not expected to affect consumer prices. because of this, some doubt the tariff will have any effect on correcting the trade imbalance.

this move is in response to u.s. trade quotas imposed due to concerns that increased chinese goods would put u.s. textile manufacturers out of business. according to auggie tantillo, executive director of the american manufacturing trade action coalition, a textile industry group in the u.s., the move will preserve 10,000 u.s. jobs. the new u.s. trade quota will limit the growth of chinese textile imports to 7.5 percent compared with shipments over the past year.

prior to january 1, a global quota system helped regulate the trade. with the quota system gone, fears have arisen that a flood of chinese goods could undercut u.s. competitiveness in the market. china is able to market its goods cheaply due to an artificially weak yuan. the u.s. treasury criticized the china yuan policy as "highly distortionary", posing a major risk to china's economy itself and to global economic growth. they challenged china to revalue its currency to bring it to a level they believe will allow fairer competition between global manufacturers.

china has disputed the charges of the u.s. treasury. chinese commerce minister bo xilai said, "i believe they are not reasonable". 

laura jones, a representative of large retailers, also criticized the move, saying "these restrictions on imports from china will do absolutely nothing to help the u.s. textile industry -- and the government knows it."

china has seen a boom in economic growth in recent years due to growing trade surpluses with the west, but economists worry that the trade gap will cause longer term global economic problems. china's textile and apparel exports are the most noteworthy example, with exports up over 1,000 percent in some categories this year and the rapid loss of marketshare and jobs by u.s. textile manufacturers.

beginning in 1978, the chinese economy has been transforming from a soviet-style centrally planned economy to more of a free market style system, under the rigid political control of communist party of china.

to this end, the government has leveraged foreign trade to stimulate economic growth. the result has been a fourfold increase in gdp, making china the sixth largest economy in the world. by 2012 the people's republic of china may have the highest gdp in the world.

according to u.s. statistics, from 1999 to 2004 china's trade surplus with the u.s. doubled to $170 billion. wal-mart is china's seventh largest export partner, just ahead of the united kingdom.
however, the gains from their "socialist market economy" have not been without problems. the chinese leadership has often experienced the worst results of socialism and capitalism: bureaucracy, lassitude, corruption, and inflation. inflation rates have been an on-going challenge, reaching as high as 17% in 1995.

environmental deterioration is a longer-term threat to economic growth. in 1998, the world health organization reported that china had seven of the 10 most-polluted cities on earth. 
another concern among some economists is that china's economy is over-heating, and due to its global economic expansion this could have major repercussions among other nations.

typically, wages have been low and working conditions poor, with workers living in restrictive dormitories and working at boring factory jobs. however, recent labor shortages have started improving conditions, and raising the minimum wage towards the equivalent of 100-150 us dollars per month. the labor shortages are in part a result of a demographic trend caused by strict family planning.

 


venture capital investment in ireland soars by 35%

venture capital investment in ireland has leaped by 35% in the first quarter of 2005, according to a new report by ernst & young. the report found that europe-wide venture capital investment increased by a healthy 19% on the same period in 2004.

total investment in ireland was ?42.11m (us$52.8m, ￡28.9m) for the first 3 months compared to ?31.23m (us$39.1m, ￡21.4m) in the first quarter of last year. the report found that 85% of the capital was invested in the information technology sector; largely helped by a successful ?15m fundraising by corvil networks.

?880.3m (us$1.1bn, ￡605m) was raised throughout europe in almost 200 separate deals, with ?407.3m of that invested in the it sector.



bbc prepared for news blackout as staff strike

the british broadcasting corporation (bbc) looks tonight to be resigned to losing its flagship radio and television news, politics and current affairs broadcasting.

staff at the technicians' union bectu, the manual workers' union amicus and the national union of journalists (nuj) are taking part in a one day strike in protest to the 4,000 job cuts announced earlier this year.

the job cuts amount to almost 20% of the bbc's workforce and are part of a ￡355 million cost-cutting move by the new director general mark thompson, which unions say will compromise the quality of the bbc's output.

on thursday the bbc were forced to concede that bbc two's flagship current affairs show "newsnight" would fall casualty to the strike after presenter jeremy paxman said he would not cross the picket line.

radio 4's four main current affairs programmes, "the today programme", "the world at one", "pm" and "the world tonight" are expected to be replaced with short news bulletins and pre-recorded material. other shows which are usually live are expected to be pre-recorded or produced by management.

television news bulletins are expected to be shortened and will not contain their usual high-tech graphics. the rolling news channel bbc news 24 has prepared to air 50% pre-recorded material tomorrow, and rolling news radio station five live has also pre-recorded some shows.

coverage of the chelsea flower show on bbc one and bbc two which begins tomorrow is likely to be affected.

it is unclear how hard bbc news online and the world service will be hit, and how many of the bbc's field journalists will break the strike.

a 48 hour strike is scheduled for the 31st of may and 1st of june, and further strikes will be announced if talks do not advance, though the strikes have so far avoided clashing with major outside broadcasts such as saturday's fa cup final.

gerry morrisey of bectu says that "staff are keen to take part in action to leave director general mark thompson in no doubt that he is out of touch," and the nuj secretary jeremy dear predicted major disruption.



karzai blames u.s. and britain for increased opium production

afghanistan cultivation was a record 323,700 acres last year and yielded almost 90 percent of the world's supply. opium may account for one-third of afghanistan's gdp.

on sunday's cnn's late edition, afghanistan's president hamid karzai laid the blame for the explosion of opium production in his country at the feet of the us and britain. "this particular operation in kandahar or in other parts of the country, which have not been so successful, was supposed to be done by an agency, a department that was funded by the international community, by the united states, by britain. the failure is theirs, not ours." kazai said. "where international money and creation of forces for destruction of poppies was concerned, it was ineffective and delayed and half-hearted."

karzai was responding to allegations in sunday's new york times that his government was dragging their heels in reducing the opium production in afghanistan. in kandahar province last week, farmers were visible from the main road scraping the last resin from poppy plants. that location is just 10 minutes outside the provincial capital.



italian police under trial for events at 2001 g8 genoa meeting

italian police officers and prison guards have been ordered to stand trial for the alleged abuse of anti-globalization protesters during the g8 summit in genoa in 2001. over 250 people people who attended the event have detailed verbal and physical abuse. 

the police took detainees to a holding center outside the city, where they say they were verbally and physically abused, spat at and threatened with rape. in one alleged incident, the guards forced a woman's head down a toilet. another allegation is that asphyxiating gas was sprayed at protesters in their cells.

over 60 people were injured while being taken into custody, three critically. one 23-year old protester was shot dead. twenty-five demonstrators are standing trial on minor charges of looting and ransacking. the police alleged that 93 protesters were in possession of dangerous weapons and resisted arrest, yet genoa prosecutors have dropped all charges against them.

meanwhile, the police have been charged with planting evidence and fabricating charges against the demonstrators.

unfortunately, due to delays in bringing the authorities to justice, the five-year statute of limitations is expected to expire on most of the more serious charges before rulings are given.


canadian mp crosses from conservative to liberal party

belinda stronach, canadian mp for newmarket-aurora crossed the floor from the conservatives to join the liberals just days before a scheduled confidence vote in the liberal government. she was immediately rewarded by being appointed to the cabinet as minister of human resources and skills development and minister responsible for democratic renewal.

"i've been uncomfortable for some time with the direction the conservative party was taking," stronach said. "i regret to say that i do not believe the party leader is truly sensitive to the needs of each part of the country and just how big and complex canada really is."

she disagreed with the party on its stance on the federal budget, same-sex marriage, and conservative leadership's alliance with the separatist bloc quebecois to bring down the government.

two days after stronach switched parties, the ruling liberals won a crucial vote for their budget by a single vote. if stronach had not joined the liberals and voted for the budget, the government would have fallen, forcing a new federal election.


fox news viewership drops by half in 6 months

since the united states presidential election in november of 2004, viewership in the 25-54 age bracket of fox news has fallen from over 1,000,000 in october to under 450,000 in april, according to the "daily kos", a liberal weblog.

ratings for cable news stations have fallen globally since the election, but most have since stabilized, making fox's continuing decline unusual. cnn's ratings, as an example, increased 27% in april. fox still leads cnn in this demographic by nearly 35% however, with cnn only managing to reverse its viewership decline in march 2005. 

the fox news channel is a us cable and satellite news channel. it is owned by the fox entertainment group, a subsidiary of rupert murdoch's news corporation. as of january 2005, it is available to 85 million subscribers in the u.s. and to further viewers internationally, broadcasting primarily out of its new york city studios.

according to the bbc, fox news' profits doubled due to "patriotic coverage" of the iraq conflict, with as much as 300% increase in viewership, with 3.3 million average daily viewers. 

the 2004 election coverage by fox news ranked higher than the next two cable news competitors combined. for president bush's address, fox news rated 7.3 million viewers. nbc, cbs, and abc rated 5.9, 5.0, and 5.1, respectively.

fox news viewership in the 25-54 age bracket (source: daily kos):



preakness won by afleet alex, kentucky derby winner third

the 130th running of the preakness stakes was attended by a record crowd of 115,318 people in the historic pimlico downs. favorite afleet alex evaded near disaster to win the $1,000,000 graded stakes and the second leg of the triple crown. the race ended the hopes of long shot giacomo for the triple crown, which includes the kentucky derby, the preakness stakes, and the belmont stakes.

at the top of the home stretch the front-runner scrappy t bolted to the right in response to a whip change by his jockey ramon dominguez. afleet alex was blocked by t's rump and his neck was forced to the left. the horse was forced to its knees but stayed on its feet, rocketing to the inside of scrappy t to take the win by 4 1/2 lengths going away. scrappy t held on for second, kentucky derby winner giacomo finished third, and sun king took fourth.

the winner paid $8.60. he topped a $152.60 exacta ($2), a $872 triple (trifecta) ($2) and a $10,362.30 superfecta ($1).


six thousand gather to celebrate birthday of yugoslavian leader josip broz tito

on may 20th in kumrovec, croatia, six thousand people gathered to celebrate the birthday of josip broz tito and the 60th year since the victory over fascism. the day was celebrated as "youth day" in sfry by the young crowd. kumrovec is the birthplace of tito.

people gathered not only from croatia, but from slovenia, bosnia and even serbia.

people shouted phrases like "dru?e tito, ljubi?ice bijela" [comrade tito, (you) white flower (ljubi?ice is a flower in several colours)] and "od vardara pa do triglava" [from vardara to triglava]. all were common phrases in songs and public gatherings during tito's rule.

foreign observers might have believed they were thrown back several decades, said several newspapers. the crowd, upon gathering, started singing "ljepe nase" [all our beloved] while the croatian national anthem goes "ljepa nasa" [our loved one].

on wednesday of the next week in sarajevo, ceremonies were held where hundreds gathered beside the external fire and later moved and met more observers at tito’s statue at former the barracks of marshal tito. flowers were laid at the foot tito's statue by fbih vice-presidents, sahbaz dzihanovic and desnica radivojevic, and members of other groups.

hundreds also visited tito's grave in belgrade, at the site former greenhouse known as the house of flowers. tito is interred under a large marble slab that marks his grave.



particle accelerator reveals long-lost writings of archimedes

scientists at the stanford linear accelerator center in menlo park, california are analyzing a 174-page text. the book had originally contained a copy of archimedes' writings, but had been erased by a monk in the 12th century and reused as a prayer book. the particle accelerator is able to see small iron particles that were present in the original ink.

the book is believed to have been originally copied from archimedes' 3rd century bc greek scrolls. about 80 percent of the text has been recovered, showing diagrams that may more closely resemble archimedes' original work than has ever been seen before. the palimpsest includes "method of mechanical theorems", a treatise that had been thought lost. in it, archimedes describes his use of mechanics to establish his mathematical theorems. the palimpsest also includes the only original greek version of "on floating bodies", which explains the physics of gravity and flotation.

it is projected that it may take three to four years to complete imaging of the book.


romanian journalists freed

the three romanian journalists kidnapped in iraq on march 28 were freed yesterday. the presidency issued a release stating that marie-jeanne ion, ovidiu ohanesian and sorin miscoci, as well as their guide, mohamed munaf, were under the protection of the romanian authorities as of 13:44 utc, yesterday.

romania's president, traian b?sescu, assured people that, for the journalists' release, no ransom was given and there was no negotiation in terms of changing romania's foreign policy. romania's 860 troops will remain in iraq.

ion vasile, the father of marie-jeanne ion, said that he was happy that his daughter is in safe hands, and considers that, after her release, he feels she has been "born again". he said, "it's an immense happiness, for which we prayed 53 days!"

a hercules plane left romania yesterday, at 16:30, for iraq. for security reasons, the journalists were not boarded onto the plane during the night. it is expected that they will return with this plane today, leaving for bucharest.



apple computer ceo steve jobs gives opening keynote to wwdc 2005

apple computer ceo and co-founder steve jobs gave his annual opening keynote to the world wide developers conference (wwdc) at moscone center in san francisco, california on monday. he announced a seamless integration of podcasting with itunes, and, to the amazement of many, that future apple macintosh computers will feature intel processors.

jobs welcomed everyone to the event and announced that there were 3,800 attendees. there are 500 apple engineers at what is their largest developers conference in the past decade. there are over 500,000 developers of apple programs (apps). jobs said that apple has 109 retail stores, with one million visitors per week, creating over $500 million yearly in revenue. the mac market share is up 82% from 9 months ago.

jobs then moved on to talk about a very anticipated announcement- podcasting. steve called podcasting “wayne’s world for radio”. he called it the “hottest thing going in radio”, and, “exciting”. there are over 8,000 podcasts. steve jobs announced that automatic podcasting subscription would be built in to itunes and ipod seamlessly. he also announced that quicktime 7 would be soon available for windows.
moving on, jobs announced that there have been 2 million copies of tiger sold in the 6 weeks that it has been available. he demoed the wikipedia dashboard widget. steve announced that mac os x leopard would be released in 2007, the same time as microsoft’s longhorn.
in a surprising move, steve jobs announced that macintosh computers would begin to be shipped with intel processors, the same as in windows machines, ending the eleven year partnership with ibm and motorola. this is said to be out of apple's increasing frustration at ibm's inability to deliver faster and cooler processors, though it is interesting to note that intel has recently added digital rights/restrictions management (drm) to its latest processors. this 'switch', he said, would happen beginning next year. jobs said that mac os x has had “a secret double life” and os x had “been compiled [for intel processors] for five years.” he talked about the easiness for developers to port their mac apps to intel (x86) processors. current powerpc programs can be run on intel processors due to a new apple technology. he said that apple is “getting ready” for the transition from powerpc to intel.


dissident meeting held in cuba

it is reported that some 200 people gathered on friday to open what has been touted as a rare opposition assembly against the . the meeting was held uninterrupted by cuban authorities, though several european lawmakers and journalists, who had entered the country with tourist visas in order to attend the gathering, are said to have been expelled.
dubbed the assembly for the promotion of civil society, the meeting's intention was to discuss the promotion of a western-style democracy in cuba. martha beatriz roque, described as a former political prisoner, was the event's lead organizer.

as those in attendance sat in rows of plastic chairs, cheers were heard as organizers played a taped message from u.s. president george w. bush.

"i have a message to those assembling today to protest in cuba: as you struggle for the freedom of your country, the american people stand with you," said mr. bush.

some shouted "viva bush" (long live bush), while others had exclaimed earlier in the meeting, "abajo fidel" (down with fidel).

organizers, who had said that 500 people would be in attendance for the meeting, held in the back yard of co-organizer felix bonne, were left to contend with a turnout closer to 200. just over half were said to be residents from around the island. the remainder comprised of the organizers themselves, international journalists, diplomats, and others. james cason, chief of the u.s. interests section, was one such guest.

in light of the aforementioned, cuban president fidel castro holds that the united states has bankrolled the opposition in question, which washington denies. moreover, he asserts that "those who attack [cuba's government] do not represent more than a fraction of 1 percent" of the island's populace, as a government rally last tuesday drew millions of people.

the opposition event also revealed divisions within the dissident group itself, when arguments broke out among them. some dissidents, such as , refused to even attend the meeting. paya, lead organizer of the , commented to the associated press that his decision was based on "...a distrust of where these people come from," calling their effort "a smoke screen."

fidel alejandro castro ruz (born august 13, 1926) has led cuba since 1959, when, leading the 26th of july movement, he helped overthrow the dictatorship of fulgencio batista and turn cuba into the first communist state in the western hemisphere. he held the title of premier until 1976, when he became president of the council of state and the council of ministers. he has been the first secretary of the communist party of cuba since its inception in 1965.


bill clinton visits romania to take part in branding conference

former united states president bill clinton visited bucharest on saturday to attend the beyond borders conference, where he delivered a keynote presentation about the meaning of branding, or marketing, a country. the beyond borders conference was also attended by several high-profile romanian personalities, including president traian b?sescu, prime minister c?lin popescu-t?riceanu, opposition leader mircea geoan? and former prime minister petre roman.

clinton said that since his last visit to romania in 1997, things have changed positively. the country had become a nato member (an event which occurred in 2004), it is soon to join the european union, and people are more optimistic, with higher hopes for the future.

clinton praised romania for its involvement in the relief effort for the indian ocean tsunami of december 2004, stating that "this proves you [romanians] are involved and you want to be more integrated into the international community."

as to branding romania, clinton advised that romanians should find a phrase or symbol that truly reflects the country and that its residents believe in. he said, "if 98 percent of romanians will believe in that phrase, it is good, because they will be able to convince foreigners."

the former u.s. president said that, before the conference, he had a talk to president b?sescu about marketing. clinton said that b?sescu wants to launch romania's image as "the new tiger of europe", making an allusion to romania's solid economic growth and political progress in the past few years. romania's economy grew in 2004 by 8.3%, one of the highest growth rates in europe.

meanwhile, clinton said he thought a more appropriate phrase would be "find europe's future here". he stated that, "every romanian i have met believed in freedom and believed in the future of his country, [a future] which is tied to the us and europe."

clinton also said that, in order to give romania a competitive advantage over other countries in the region, it should choose elements that are positive and different from its neighbouring countries. "you can simply say romania is bigger. that gives more room for investment," he said.

aside from attending the beyond borders conference, clinton launched the romanian translation of his autobiography "my life", going to a major bookstore in bucharest to sign 500 copies of the book. "my life" sells in romania for 75 new lei, or ?21, with 5000 copies launched in bookstores around the country.


romanian government approves new minorities law

the romanian government has approved a new draft minorities law which will give national minorities the right to study in their native language at all levels of education, from pre-school to university.

if the law is approved by the parliament, the state must guarantee mother tongue education to recognised minorities, either in separate institutions or separate classes. class sizes in pre-school, primary school and middle school must not exceed 10 people, while 15 students is the limit for high school. all exams can also be taken directly in the mother tongue of the minorities, and minorities will receive funding from both the central government and local government to set up educational institutions in their native language.

aside from education rights, the new draft legislation also states that authorities do not have a right to undertake legislative or administrative measures to change the ethnic mixture of an area. the law stipulates that minorities have the right to set up cultural organisations, and are entitled to space for tv and radio broadcast in their language.

the draft law states that the recognised minority groups to which it will apply include: albanians, armenians, bulgarians, czechs, croats, greeks, jews, germans, italians, macedonians, hungarians, poles, russians, roma, serbs, slovaks, tatars, turks and ukrainians. romania's largest minority groups are the , which make up 6.9% of the population, followed by the , which make up 2.5%.

the new law brings romania's ethnic minority rights to european union standards, giving the country one of the most modern and progressive pieces of legislation in this field in europe.


bbc drops programmes as third of staff join strike

the staff of the british broadcasting corporation (bbc) have entered a one-day strike this morning in dispute of impending job cuts and partial privatisation.

the industrial action follows union ballots at three of the leaders of journalism and broadcasting: amicus, national union of jounalists and bectu. the nuj have already described the action as an "astonishing success" and its general secretary, jeremy dear, describes the union as "absolutely delighted with the level of support we have received for the strike." the unions expect 11,000 of 27,000 bbc staff to take part in the strikes.

due to the extensiveness of the strike it has affected the output of the bbc on its television and radio services. news and live services have been particularly badly affected following the unions aims to leave "blank screens and dead air".
bbc radio 4's today, the world at one, pm and the world tonight have all been cancelled; bbc one's 1 o'clock news and 6 o'clock news was shortened from half an hour to 15 minutes, although the 10 o'clock news was unaffected. live programming of bbc news 24, bbc world and five live have been extensively cut; and international output on the world service has been impacted. 

the most noticeable impact have been on the breakfast programme, headed by just one presenter (against the usual two) and cut short for a pre-recorded interview. the leading serious news magazine programme, newsnight, was also cancelled.

some bbc radio celebrities appeared for work on their shows despite the strike. these include breakfast radio presenters chris moyles of bbc radio 1, terry wogan of bbc radio 2, and shelagh fogarty of bbc radio 5.

unlike a similar 1989 strike in which presenter nicholas witchell crossed the pickets to read news, those presenters who have decided to continue their positions have not been publicly denounced.

striking staff have been picketing outside the main entrances of the bbc television centre in west london.

the strikes have occurred following the corporation's plans to cut 3780 jobs and privatise parts of the national service. it has claimed that these cuts are necessary to spend more on programming when they were announced in march by governing director mark thompson. the cuts aim to make savings of gbp 355 million (us$663.37 million, eur 487 million ).

unions have defied calls by bbc executives to partake in consultations over impending actions. the unions have responded by claiming that consultations would give their staff little say and that negotiations are the only way in which they will be listened to.

the ballot to strike which was held on may 12 also determined to strike for 48 hours on may 31 and june 1. it is unclear if any further action is planned.



brazilian news agency using free software for multimedia broadcasting

the brazilian government news agency agencia brasil, or radiobras, says that it is transmitting audio and video through the internet using free software. proprietary software like windows media player is not necessary to watch or hear the radio and tv transmissions.

according to diogos gonzaga, from agencia brasil technology division, the agency is using the following software: icecast for the ogg vorbis codec radio transmissions and the ogg theora codec for the video ones.

the user who wants to hear brazilian radio transmissions can select among the following stations from agencia brasil: the national radio(am), the national radio (fm), the national radio from rio de janeiro or the national radio from amazon. tv transmissions can be watched by the nbr tv channel.

agencia brasil started the change to free software in 2003.



five irish schoolgirls die in bus crash

five schoolgirls, all between thirteen and sixteen, have died in a bus crash in county meath, ireland. the three vehicle crash, involving a school bus carrying fifty-one teenagers and two cars, occurred at 4.30pm on a straight section of the navan to kentstown road.

apart from the five fatalities, six children in a critical state and nineteen others with less serious injuries have been admitted to our lady's hospital, navan. six more teenagers, also in a critical state, and twenty others with lesser injuries have been admitted to our lady of lourdes hospital, drogheda, county louth.

the bus was carrying secondary school students from four schools home when the accident occurred. at present it is unknown what caused the accident - but it is suspected that the two cars collided head on and the bus then attempted to swerve in order to avoid them, causing it to topple over. several investigations have begun; including one by the gardai and one by bus eireann.

the accident was quickly responded to by an emergency plan which lead to fourteen ambulances, several fire engines, squad cars and a few helicopters arriving on the scene within minutes.



u.s. senators reach compromise on use of filibuster

a compromise was reached late monday in the united states senate about the use of filibusters against several judicial nominees of president george w. bush. seven republicans joined with seven democrats to make the deal.

the compromise was announced by senator john mccain (rep., ariz.). mccain said, "we have reached an agreement to try to avert a crisis in the united states senate and pull the institution back from a precipice that would have had, in the view of all 14 of us, lasting impact, damaging impact on the institution." future nominees will continue to be filibustered under the terms of this deal but only "under extraordinary circumstances", according to mccain.

bush made 218 nominations in his first term of office, of which 10 were prevented from receiving an up-or-down vote by the democrats' use of the filibuster. the filibuster is a form of extended debate in which senators hold the floor by speaking continuously, often on unrelated topics, with the purpose of delaying a decision. senate procedures require 60 votes for "cloture", a term for ending the debate and forcing a vote. since republicans hold just 55 of the 100 seats in the senate, they lack the power to force a vote without cooperation from senate democrats.

senate majority leader bill frist was not a party to the deal. frist, along with other senate republicans, had been planning to push for a vote to abolish the use of the filibuster on judicial nominees entirely. this widely debated tactic, called either the "nuclear option" or the "constitutional option", may have been part of the impetus behind the current deal. if the "nuclear option" succeeded, some senate democrats had threatened to bring non-vital business of the senate to a halt in protest.

under the current deal, the 14 senators agree to vote for cloture and allow three judicial nominees to come to a vote: janice rogers brown, william pryor, and priscilla owen. two other nominees were not part of the deal and may still be filibustered: william myers and henry saad.

some of bush's nominees have been waiting for confirmation for four years. bush continues to express support for all of his nominees and to request that each one get a vote. on monday, bush said, "i have made my position very clear, and that is my job is to pick people who will interpret the constitution, not use the bench from which to write law. that's what i campaigned on. i said, if i'm the president, i will pick people who... bring great credit to the bench. and that's exactly what i've done, consistent with judicial philosophy in my picks, as well as the character of the people i pick. and i expect them to get an up or down vote... and i think the american people expect that, as well. people ought to have a fair hearing and they ought to get an up or down vote on the floor."

senate minority leader harry reid (dem., nevada) opposed bush's view in a statement monday. "[t]he filibuster is one of the senate's most important tools that guarantees minorities a voice in their government," said reid.



laura bush visits middle east in goodwill tour

u.s. first lady laura bush visited jerusalem and egypt on a five-day tour of the middle east hoped to mend the united states' image in that region. 

while in jerusalem visiting several holy sites, including the dome of the rock and the western wall, she was heckled by protesters. mrs. bush said she was expecting protests and was in fact welcomed by most people.

"as we all know, this is a place of very high tensions and high emotions," said mrs. bush, as she stood in the garden courtyard of the church of the resurrection. "and you can understand why when you see the people with a deep and sincere faith in their religion all living side by side."

mrs. bush's approval ratings have remained very high, above 80%, even as her husband's have recently dropped below 50%. "part of this is just that she's so much more popular than the president at home. what's not to like about laura bush?" said professor of political science barbara burrell to the christian science monitor.

during her visit, she participated in recording an episode of the egyptian arabic version of the sesame street television program. the muppet characters are similar to the u.s. version, but have arabic names, such as khokhah, a peach-colored little muppet girl. mrs. bush emphasized the importance of learning to read in her appearance, which is probably to be broadcast on the show's next season.

among her other activities, mrs. bush is having lunch with suzanne mubarak, wife of president hosni mubarak. she also plans to tour the pyramids and the library at alexandria. mrs. bush is a former librarian from texas.



democratic republic of congo adopts new constitution, plans elections


marshall islands to request $3 billion more from u.s. for health effects of nuclear testing

the republic of the marshall islands (rmi) is petitioning for $3 billion in additional compensation from the u.s. government, after receiving $270 million in an agreement which expired in 2001.

the u.s. government performed a series of 67 tests of nuclear weapons in the marshall islands between 1946 and 1958. fallout from the testing is claimed to have affected some of the island's near 60,000 inhabitants. "we're finding people on remote islands with high percentages of cancers," said rmi foreign minister gerald zackios.

a report last year from the u.s. national cancer institute estimated that about 530 total cancers could appear, almost double the amount currently known.

the u.s. government disagrees over which islands were affected by the testing. also, u.s. agencies have concluded that there is no further legal requirement for compensation above what has already been provided, unless the situation changes substantially.

the government of the marshall islands plans to "work tirelessly together to make certain that the nuclear issue is settled in a fair and just manner", said rmi president kessai note.

both the u.s. house of representatives and senate plan to hold hearings on the claim as soon as may 25.


world's tallest geyser erupts

steamboat geyser at yellowstone national park?the world's tallest geyser?erupted on may 23, 2005, at 2:40 p.m. mountain daylight time (20:40 utc). steamboat geyser has erupted only seven times since 1991.

the geyser, an unpredictable and infrequent performer, throws a vertical column of water in excess of 300 feet (90 meters). prior to the current activity, steamboat geyser's most-recent eruption was on october 22, 2003?19 months ago.

the yellowstone public affairs office reported that the geyser erupted water for approximately 15 minutes, followed by sustained, powerful blasting of steam. as of may 24, 2005, 10:51 a.m. mdt, the steam was finally waning.

according to alan glennon, a scientist at the university of california, santa barbara, steamboat geyser may discharge a hundred thousand gallons or more of water in a single eruption. by comparison, old faithful geyser discharges 3,700 to 8,400 gallons during a typical 1.5 to 4.5 minute eruption.

park officials are collecting visitor reports and examining evidence to assess the magnitude of monday's eruption. the yellowstone public affairs office stated that the eruption, coupled with high winds, carried fine sand and debris up to a mile.

alan glennon, department of geography, university of california, santa barbara, may 23, 2005.

yellowstone public affairs office, yellowstone national park, interview, may 24, 2005.

yellowstone national park, faq on old faithful, website: http://www.nps.gov/yell/planvisit/areaplanners/faq/faqoldft.htm


world's tallest geyser erupts

steamboat geyser at yellowstone national park?the world's tallest geyser?erupted on may 23, 2005, at 2:40 p.m. mountain daylight time (utc 20:40). steamboat geyser has erupted only seven times since 1991.

the geyser, an unpredictable and infrequent performer, throws a vertical column of water in excess of 300 feet (90 meters). prior to the current activity, steamboat geyser's most-recent eruption was on october 22, 2003?19 months ago.

the yellowstone public affairs office reported that the geyser erupted water for approximately 15 minutes, followed by sustained, powerful blasting of steam. as of may 24, 2005, 10:51 a.m. mdt, the powerful steaming is finally waning.

according to alan glennon, a scientist at the university of california, santa barbara, steamboat geyser may discharge a hundred thousand gallons or more of water in a single eruption. by comparison, old faithful geyser discharges 3,700 to 8,400 gallons during a typical 1.5 to 4.5 minute eruption. 

park officials are collecting visitor reports and examining evidence to assess the magnitude of monday's eruption. the yellowstone public affairs office stated that the eruption, coupled with high winds, carried fine sand and debris up to a mile. 

alan glennon, department of geography, university of california, santa barbara, may 23, 2005.

yellowstone public affairs office, yellowstone national park, interview, may 24, 2005.

yellowstone national park, faq on old faithful, website: http://www.nps.gov/yell/planvisit/areaplanners/faq/faqoldft.htm


kidnapped romanian journalists return home

the three romanian journalists kidnapped in iraq on march 28 arrived in bucharest yesterday afternoon, after being set free two days ago. the journalists ? marie-jeanne ion, sorin miscoci and ovidiu ohanesian ? were returned by a hercules military aircraft and were greeted by their families and hundreds of supporters in the romanian capital. aside from their families and supporters, the three were also welcomed back by an official romanian delegation, including president traian b?sescu and prime minister c?lin popescu-t?riceanu. 

marie-jeanne ion and sorin miscoci were the first to exit the plane, and were embraced by their families. they were followed shortly by ohanesian, who was greeted by his sister and mother. the journalists also embraced the president and prime minister, after which they waved at the crowd of supporters. however, none of the journalists made any statements or interviews for the media.

romanian media did interview miscoci's sister and ion's mother, who both said that they are anxious to see their lives return to normal after the two-month ordeal, expressing faith that the journalists would be able to overcome this experience. the journalists appeared to be in good physical condition.

before rejoining their families, the three journalists are being kept in quarantine for two to three days, time in which they will undergo medical examinations and talk to romanian officials. while the location of the journalists is not currently known, several romanian reporters were waiting in front of the bucharest military hospital and the romanian intelligence agency headquarters, hoping to catch a glimpse of the three journalists.

the three journalists were kidnapped in baghdad on march 28, by the muadh ibn jabal brigades. a few weeks after being kidnapped, the terrorists broadcast a tape on al-jazeera stating that they would kill the journalists if romania did not withdraw its 860 troops from iraq. however, due to efforts of the romanian secret service and collaboration between several intelligence agencies, the group were freed on may 23, where they were placed in the hands of the romanian embassy in baghdad.

president traian b?sescu did not elaborate on the details of the journalists' release, saying instead that further details would be given when the investigation into their kidnapping is complete. b?sescu thanked the iraqi authorities and romania's muslim community, most of which is made up of kurdish refugees and arab immigrants, for helping in the negotiations. lastly, he thanked the families of the hostages for "the decency and elegance of their behavior in public" as well as the romanian media for supporting the government in the release of the hostages.

the romanian prime minister, c?lin popescu-t?riceanu, said that the successful outcome of this crisis shows that the government is capable of defending both its citizens and the national interests of romania, referring to the fact that in the release of the hostages, no ransom was paid and no troops were withdrawn.

international leaders and representatives also praised the event. the united states embassy in bucharest said that they are "extremely satisfied that the crisis ended with the safe release of the hostages," while uk ambassador to romania quinton quayle met b?sescu and congratulated him for his ability to manage the crisis and co-ordinate secret services, especially the fact that romania made no compromises for the release of the journalists. josep borrell, the head of the european parliament, said that the positive result of this crisis proves "we can never lose hope" and that the world must now continue to fight for the release of other hostages held in iraq.


national aromanian day celebrated

the aromanian community worldwide celebrated its national day yesterday, may 23. the day commemorates 100 years since the aromanian people were recognised by turkish sultan abdul hamid ii. 

aromanians are a distinct ethnic group currently living mainly in southeastern europe, especially greece and macedonia. the aromanians are closely related to the romanian people, both being descendants from the latin peoples which lived in southeastern europe since the time of the roman empire. the aromanian language, which is spoken by around 500,000 people internationally, is the closest language to romanian.

despite their relative size, aromanians have very little, if no, minority rights. in greece, for example, they are not recognised as a minority. in romania, where there are an increasing number of aromanians, many of them migrating from greece, macedonia and albania, they are often considered as romanians, because their language is partly mutually-intelligible with romanian and their culture is relatively similar. however, there is currently a movement in romania to give the aromanians a status as a separate ethnic group, therefore entitling them to parliamentary representation and education in the aromanian language, among other rights.


child released after spending entire life in australian detention centre


a malaysian woman and her three year old daughter were released from villawood detention centre on bridging visas yesterday after media coverage in australia and malaysia. naomi long, who recently turned three, was born in the centre. her mother, virginia long, was detained after trying to leave australia on a false passport four years ago.

the plight of the young girl was revealed on abc radio's pm program on march 5. michael dudley, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at sydney children's hospital who has visited the mother and daughter, spoke on the program of the importance of children mixing with others their own age, and the harm that prolonged detention was doing to naomi.

"i mean that's crucial to social development and emotional development in children and also, a sense of identity development and so on. she doesn't have that opportunity and she's also basically been brought up in prison, but in a highly abnormal environment with highly distressed people. it's not an environment conducive to child development," he said.

according to refugee advocate group chilout there are currently 28 children detained at villawood, and 68 across all immigration detention facilities. the federal opposition leader kim beasley has called for all children to be released.

"kids don't belong in detention, full stop," he said.

according to abc online, federal liberal backbencher petro georgiou intends to introduce a private members bill against long-term mandatory detention, and detention of women and children. prime minister john howard has indicated that he is mindful of the need for compassion, but he does not support a conscience vote.

"mandatory detention is not a matter of conscience. it is a government policy," mr howard was quoted as saying. howard has been a staunch supporter of hardline immigration and asylum policies since the mid 80's.


star wars episode iii debut breaks four box office records

george lucas' final installment of the prequel star wars trilogy, revenge of the sith, opened in theaters in 105 countries around the world on may 19. according to william arnold of the seattle post-intelligencer, and claudia puig of usa today, episode iii may be the best of the star wars series. james berardinelli of reelviews claimed that episode iii is, "the best installment in the star wars series since 1980's the empire strikes back." however, peter travers of rolling stone begs to differ. travers states that lucas' ability to turn, "flesh-and-blood actors into cardboard cutouts," makes lucas' movie unworthy of its heralded title of best yet.

in its opening weekend, revenge of the sith earned a total, counting from thursday, may 19 to sunday, may 22, usd $158,449,700 in the domestic united states box office, $145,500,000 internationally, for a total of $303,949,700 worldwide. with this opening, star wars episode iii broke four records including single day gross, opening day gross, three-day gross, and four-day gross.



uefa women's cup: potsdam wins women's cup against stockholm

 


&quot;piano man&quot; is not british actor, search down to three leads

wikinews reported on may 17 that several weeks earlier british police had picked up an unidentified man wandering the streets of sheerness, united kingdom. the man who has thus far refused to talk, has demonstrated himself to be an excellent pianist?earning him the nickname "piano man".

since publication of our first article, we have been contacted by a fellow wiki contributor informing us that the "piano man" may be a british actor named geoffrey betts. although our contact strongly believed he knew the identity of the man and contacted the relevant authorities in regard to his belief, this has turned out to be false. while betts was not reachable by phone or e-mail, his website was recently updated to the effect that he is "not" the man in question. in the meantime, the search for the identity has been narrowed down to three leads by authorities.

the original interview between wikinews editor and contributor is reproduced below.

cg: who do you think the pianist is?<br>
s: geoffrey "geoff" betts, an actor and british citizen, who i last knew to be living in euless, texas (a suburb of dallas), and who, the last time i saw him was living temporarily months at a time in louisville, kentucky.

cg: why do you think it is him?<br>
s: the person i knew should be 26, perhaps almost 27 now. the personal resemblances are the eyes, facial shape, asymmetric jawline, ears, nose and short hair. the person i knew had colored his hair blonde at least one time when i knew him. his mother is italian, and his father is british, and the "piano man" has the appearance of such an ethnic combination. i also knew that he composed music, but frankly, i did not know he could play the piano. both the man found and geoff are thin and physically fit. i also knew geoff to be a smart dresser.

cg: what is your relationship with mr. betts; were you good friends?<br>
s: he is a former business associate of an ex-partner of mine in an upstart film production company that has since gone out of business. geoff actually lived with us for periods of time in 2003. i would call him a friendly acquaintance, if not a friend, during that time.

cg: what is your knowledge of mr. betts' musical ability?<br>
s: i knew geoff to compose his own music, but i cannot remember offhand what kind of music.

cg: when was the last time you met mr. betts - was it long before the man turned up in england?<br>
s: early 2004, when geoff last moved out of the residence where i and my ex-partner were living. i had heard various stories for months after that point regarding him continuing to live in texas and occasionally visit louisville, but i had no firsthand knowledge of that.

cg: what was mr. betts involved in in the weeks before the appearance of the man in england? was he working on a film, on a break etc? <br>
s: according to imdb, geoff was working on a film recently, but i am not sure of the timing of that with respect to the time the man appeared in england. i have no information on where he might have been in the weeks before the man's appearance.

cg: on a scale of 1 to 10, how sure are you that the man is actually mr. betts?<br>
s: 8. i admit i am not as confident as the polish man living in italy was (with his 99% certainty that it was his friend massone), and it turned out he was incorrect. i have to say, however, that i am haunted by how much the "piano man" resembles geoff. further, the reports indicate the man is 6' while geoff is 5'10"--i don't know whether the man found was measured with his shoes on or not. last, my attempts to contact geoff by a direct email address i found has failed to get any response. i am almost tossing and turning with about whether the man found could be geoff or not.

cg: i know you have already contacted the relevant authorities, but if there was one thing about mr. betts that you believe could help further in verification of the pianists identity; what would it be?<br>
s: geoff's website at http://www.geoffreybetts.com for physical comparison. also, his mother may still be living in euless, tx. last, strangely enough, he also had a wish list at amazon.com, and one of the last two items he added on april 4 (apparently just before the appearance of the man in england) is an audio cd titled "silence."

a comparison can be made of images of the "piano man" and geoff using the below links:


 


voyager 1 enters heliosheath at edge of solar system

the voyager 1 spacecraft, launched in 1977 to explore the planets, is now agreed by scientists to have entered the heliosheath at the edge of the solar system 8.7 billion miles (14 billion kilometers) from the sun. in a few years, voyager 1 is expected to become the first man-made object to cross into interstellar space.

"voyager has entered the final lap on its race to the edge of interstellar space, as it begins exploring the solar system's final frontier," said dr. edward stone, voyager project scientist at the california institute of technology.

as long ago as 2003, scientists thought voyager 1 was entering the termination shock region of the solar system, but there was some dispute. the termination shock is the area preceding the heliosheath, where the electrically charged solar wind is slowed and concentrated by contact with interstellar gas.

the heliosheath is considered the outer edge of our solar system. around it is the heliopause, a cosmic bubble where the pressure of solar wind and interstellar wind is in balance. 

the solar system as a whole is in orbit around the center of the milky way galaxy. as it plows through clouds of interstellar gas and dust, a bow shock forms ahead of it, which has been compared to the turbulence a ship creates as it sails through ocean currents. all this is illustrated in the nasa diagram shown here.

voyager 1 is still operational and sending back reams of scientific data. already notable for more than 27 years of successful operation, voyager 1 is projected to continue operating on its plutonium power source possibly until the year 2020.

voyager 2, its companion probe launched the same year, has visited more planets than any other spacecraft. it too is eventually expected to exit the solar system at a more downward angle, but is currently only 80% as far from the sun as voyager 1.

the voyagers are not only gathering data about the cosmos, they are sending the greetings of the human world out to it. each voyager contains what is known as the "voyager golden record", which is an audio recording on a 12-inch gold plated copper disc. the discs contain samples of nature sounds, spoken greetings in 55 human languages, and musical compositions. 

the collection of samples was supervised by astronomer carl sagan, and is intended to convey the hopefulness of life on earth for possible discovery by alien races or retrieval by some advanced human civilization.



uk transport minister &quot;pied&quot; during launch of future heathrow group

a protester from the resident's association hacan clearskies today pushed a pie into the face of uk transport minister . mr darling was attending the launch of the pro-aviation industry pressure group future heathrow.

hacan describe themselves on their website as an "independent lobbying group which campaigns for quieter, cleaner and safer conditions for residents living under heathrow's flight paths". future heathrow believe that is crucial to prosperity of the region, and are in favour of building a third runway at the airport.



first pipeline opens from caspian sea

today marks the official opening of the first caspian sea oil pipeline, named the baku-tbilisi-ceyhan pipeline. the $3.2 billion pipeline travels through azerbaijan, georgia and turkey, bringing crude oil from the caspian sea to the turkish port of ceyhan. the united states is heavily backing the pipeline, hoping to use the oil output from the pipeline without passing by russian pipelines. the pipeline also enables the united states to avoid purchasing oil from iran.

the countries who are involved in the pipeline are hoping to increase revenues from the pipeline, which is expected to ship up to 1 million barrels a day.

the countries are also concerned with the high likelihood of the underground pipeline to be a target of terrorism attacks. the countries hope the pipeline is well-enough protected.


london's millennium dome to become a concert arena

may 25, 2005
anschutz entertainment group (aeg) and mobile phone company o have said they intend to open london's millennium dome as a concert arena in april 2007.

the 365 m diameter dome was built in the 1990s for the year 2000 celebrations and is the largest single-roof structure in the world. after hosting an exhibition for 2000, the dome has mostly laid empty.

the building, to be renamed the o, will contain a 23,000 seat arena, an 1,800 seat theatre and a 2,200 capacity night club.


amnesty international calls for guantanamo shutdown

in their annual report on human rights amnesty international secretary general, irene khan, said "guantanamo has become the gulag of our time." in this 308-page report, they also called for the united states to shut down the guantanamo prison.

the report continues the critical analysis of the actions of the u.s. government, but criticism is sharper. the introduction to the report states "the 'war on terror' appeared more effective in eroding international human rights principles than in countering international 'terrorism'."

in calling for changes from the u.s. government, especially regarding guantanamo bay, amnesty international's voice is joined with calls from both the international red cross (irc) and the american civil liberties union (aclu). the irc has said it reported to the u.s. government detainee's reports of desecration of the qur'an.

the aclu's freedom of information act requests turned up u.s. federal bureau of investigation (fbi) reports which echo the irc's concerns. the documents are purported to show a consistency with reports from detainees of abuse to their religious symbols, as well as reports of beatings and other interrogation methods.

amnesty international's secretary general, in her introduction to the report, points to the united state's foreign and military policy as providing a justification for other governments to ignore human rights.

"the usa, as the unrivalled political, military and economic hyper-power, sets the tone for governmental behaviour worldwide. when the most powerful country in the world thumbs its nose at the rule of law and human rights, it grants a licence to others to commit abuse with impunity," said irene khan.

white house spokesman scott mcclellan responded saying the report's allegations were "ridiculous and unsupported by the facts. the united states is leading the way when it comes to protecting human rights and promoting human dignity. we have liberated 50 million people in iraq and afghanistan. we have worked to advance freedom and democracy in the world so that people are governed under a rule of law and that there are... protections in place for minority rights, that women's rights are advanced so that women can fully participate in societies where now they cannot", as well as supporting the fight against aids in africa.

about the allegations of abuse at guantanamo, which mcclellan has previously called isolated incidents, he said, "we hold people accountable when there is abuse. we take steps to prevent it from happening again, and we do so in a very public way for the world to see that we lead by example, and that we do have values that we hold very dearly and believe in."




power crisis in moscow and central russia largest ever recorded

a huge power outage occurred in today. the failure in the accumulative power supply system in which occurred at 11:15 a.m. local time on wednesday, led to a power outage in all areas of the city.

power for lights failed in apartment buildings. some lines of the moscow underground stopped for four hours. trams and trolley buses, electric trains of the moscow railway also stopped. hundreds of people were trapped in apartment building lifts. in addition to lighting problems, the homeowners have also lost their water supply, as pumping stations in also lost power because of the failure. 

15 big cities and five areas of moscow suburbs, some areas of the tula and kaluga areas were left without electricity. 

at 12:00 noon, food shops in the affected areas started closing. in shops where sellers continued trading, huge queues accumulated.

to avoid panic at train stations, workers with megaphones informed passengers of train movements. at train stations, reserve power supplies are being used. according to eyewitnesses, there was no electric lighting at many stations and in transitions between them. escalators also did not work.

thursday morning trolley buses and trams still do not work in southern areas of moscow. despite repair work conducted during the night, it was impossible to power all trolleybus and tram lines.
in total 8 tram and 25 trolleybus routes do not work. buses will take over those routes. besides this, in the south of moscow there are still many disconnected apartment houses.

all stations of the moscow underground are working normally. all trains are running on schedule.

the entrance to moscow for supersize automobiles will be limited up to 14 o'clock in the afternoon. the limitation was put in place yesterday because of difficult road conditions in the city after the power failure.

the head of (ministry of industries and energy) 
victor hristenko, addressing to the deputies of the , 
has declared
that the cause of failure of the electrical system was in the 
central region of russia because of a fire and an explosion on the substation of named "chagino", located in kapotnya.
as a result of a cascade power outage on wednesday, 25th may, 53 moscow substations have been disconnected. 46 from them have started working by 
23.00, wednesday, six more - by 6.00, thursday. 

according to the deputy head of the russian joint stock company "unified energy system of russia" (rao uesr) andrey trapeznikov, some reasons of failure are considered. he said that the failure of one 
of substations of the russian open society "united power systems" was a cause. later in the morning, when people were work, air conditioners were turned on. consequently, the system could not handle the overload, 
and started the cascade shutdown of consumers of the electric power. 
trapeznikov has noted that scales of the failure could of been much more 
serious. the further switching-off was stopped by 
substations of tula and kaluga which had sustained the overload. 

the head of the rao uesr anatoly chubays has made apologies for the inconveniences caused to inhabitants of moscow, tula and kaluga areas. 
he said: "the failure is on our conscience, it is our mistake".


retired u.s. vets sue donald rumsfeld for excessive service cutbacks

one thousand residents of the defense department-managed armed forces retirement home in washington, d.c. filed a class-action lawsuit on may 24, asserting that the cut-backs in medical and dental services imposed by secretary of defense donald rumsfeld are illegal. the operating budget for the home was reduced from $63 million in 2004 to $58 million for 2005. the residents cite cuts in on-site x-ray, electrocardiogram, physical and dental services, and the closing of the home's main clinic and an on-site pharmacy. 

chief financial officer steve mcmanus responded that the changes not only save money but also achieved improved efficiencies. "we're really trying to improve the benefits to our residents," he said. 

most of the home's costs are paid for by a trust fund and monthly fees paid by residents. by law, the armed forces retirement homes are required to fund, "on-site primary care, medical care and a continuum of long-term care services." 

 


controversial judge priscilla owen approved for seat on the 5th u.s. circuit court

the u.s. senate voted 55-43 to approve priscilla owen, a long-debated judicial candidate for the appellate bench. the candidate was praised and congratulated by republican majority leader bill frist, but called an extremist by democrat charles schumer of new york. 

the approval comes mere days after the resolution of recent issues about filibuster rules by the senate, in which it was agreed that the filibuster rules should not be changed, but that it should be used only in "extraordinary circumstances."

schumer described the texas judge as someone "...who puts the rights of employers over employees, who takes no consideration of environmental rights, women's rights or of just average people." 

democratic senator robert c. byrd of west virginia surprised some by voting for judge owen. "i voted four times previously not to invoke cloture on priscilla owen, because i respected the right of the senate to hear further debate," mr. byrd stated. "having examined these aspects [of her judicial philosophy], as well as her prior record as a justice on the texas supreme court, i shall vote in support of her nomination." 

supporters describe her as a no-nonsense, consistent conservative that has served well as a state judge.

judge priscilla owen's nomination had been subject to filibuster since her initial nomination four years ago. the ending of the filibuster debate allowed her nomination to move forward to a vote. two other controversial nominees, janice rogers brown and william pryor, are also expected to come to a vote under the terms of the compromise deal.



bird flu may infect 20 percent of world's population, kill millions

the science journal "nature" devoted a special section to the asian h5n1 virus, or "avian flu", highlighting the danger it poses to world populations, and cautioning that unless steps are taken soon, it could lead to the deaths of many millions and lead to a major economic crisis. their analysis shows a danger of it mutating into a strain with a lethality similar to the 1918 spanish flu pandemic.

michael osterholm, a scientist at the university of minnesota, gave grave caution about the situation. "time is running out to prepare for the next pandemic... there is a critical need for comprehensive medical and non-medical pandemic planning at the ground level that goes beyond what has been considered so far."

the next pandemic is projected to originate in poultry in asia, due either to the h5n1 virus adapting on its own or mixing with genetic material from a human virus. in the journal, virologists at erasmus medical center in rotterdam strongly urged better organized research into outbreaks in asia, calling the current efforts patchy and uncoordinated, saying, "we propose establishing a permanent global task force to control a flu pandemic, in which relevant agencies would work together with leading research groups from different disciplines." the annual cost of this task force would be less than $1.5 million annually.

deaths due to the 1918 spanish flu outbreak reached between 20-50 million people, on the order of roughly 2% of the earth's population of nearly 2 billion at the time; the earth's population has increased by more than threefold since then. this disease spread around the world in the course of six months, killing 25 million. india was particularly hard hit, with 17 million deaths. half a million died in the usa, and 200,000 in the uk. it is estimated to have afflicted about 20% of the world's population to some extent, before it vanished eighteen months after its initial outbreak.



british lecturers meet to vote on israeli academic boycott

lecturers have overturned a controversial boycott of two israeli universities at a special council meeting in central london. the universities, bar-ilan and haifa universities, were boycotted for alleged complicity with anti-palestinian policies.

around sixty jewish students and supporters from the national union of students gathered outside the meeting to protest the boycott. the day passed peacefully with a large police and security presence.

the boycott, passed by the association of university teachers (aut) in april, split academics, filled education news sections and caused debate around the world. 

speaking at a press conference after the vote, dr david hirsh of goldsmiths college, london, said: "this has not been a victory for ariel sharon, the settlers or the [separation] wall. it has been a victory for the cultural, democratic spaces where jewish and palestinians study side by side rather than demonising each other."

he added: "there has got to be a mass movement for a just peace."



liverpool beats milan on penalties in champions league final

in a dramatic champions league final between football clubs liverpool and ac milan, english club liverpool won the trophy after a penalty shootout despite being 3 goals behind their italian opponents before half-time.

a.c. milan's veteran paolo maldini scored in the first minute of the match after a corner kick. after hernan crespo scored twice for milan before half-time, it looked like liverpool had no chance. but the reds' performance changed dramatically after half-time. steven gerrard was the first to score for liverpool, inspiring the rest of the team. in a quick succession milan's goalkeeper dida saw the goals of vladimir smicer and xabi alonso (the latter scored after a controversial penalty decision) in his net. 

after the equalizer the game was even and both teams took a cautious approach. after 90 minutes the score was still 3-3 and so it went to extra time. jerzy dudek made two incredible saves off of andriy shevchenko shots in the last minutes of extra time to push the contest into a penalty shootout. then, again, polish goalkeeper dudek saved the day for liverpool by stoping two shots. liverpool won, scoring three penalties to milan's two.

milan supporters were very disappointed at the loss. silvio berlusconi, the owner of ac milan, as well as prime minister of italy, said: "milan played much better throughout. we created move after move while they didn't create one move worthy of the name. what a shame." italian sport newspaper gazetta della sport commented: "incredible. milan lost on penalties a cup that it had already won. it lost it badly, very badly. a team which scores three goals in the first 45 minutes, outclasses its adversary, stuns it with staggering moves, cannot let in three goals in six minutes."

those who supported liverpool were delighted at the unexpected victory. england national team coach sven-goran eriksson praised liverpool's performance, saying: "what a game it was, heroic. i've never seen a european final like that ever, it is great news for all of us working in english football." triumphant liverpool captain steven gerrard said he is "on top of the world" and also said he would stay with liverpool after this victory, despite interest from such clubs as real madrid and chelsea.

liverpool (4-4-1-1): dudek; finnan (hamann, h-t), hyypia, carragher, traore; garcia, alonso, gerrard, riise; kewell (smicer, 23); baros (cisse, 84). substitutes not used: carson (gk), josemi, nunez, biscan.

milan (4-3-1-2): dida; cafu, nesta, stam, maldini; gattuso (rui costa, 112), pirlo, seedorf (serginho, 84); kaka; shevchenko, crespo (tomasson, 84). substitutes not used: abbiati (gk), kaladze, costacurta, dhorasoo.

goals (milan): maldini 1, crespo 39, 44.
goals (liverpool): gerrard 54, smicer 56, alonso 59.

referee: m gonzalez (spain).

att: 65,000.



al qaeda leader abu musab al-zarqawi reported &quot;wounded&quot;

there have been reports that the leader of the al-qaeda terrorist network, abu musab al-zarqawi, was wounded in iraq. internet statements on al-qaeda websites tuesday and thursday asked muslims to pray for al-zarqawi and said that an interim leader named abu hafs al-gerni had been appointed.

the credibility of these statements is currently unverified. iraq's interior minister bayan jabr did allege that the statements were correct, however. during a news conference, he reported, "we are not sure whether he is dead or not, but we are sure that he is injured."



researchers at uc berkeley strike against &quot;bad faith bargaining&quot;

at university of california, berkeley on thursday, researchers and technical workers formed a strike against what they call "bad faith bargaining" within the uc system. the coalition of university employees (cue) labor union estimates that around 10,000 university workers are on strike. other strikes related to this are occurring at ucsf medical center, uc santa cruz, and four other uc campuses around the state.

the coalition of university employees accuses top uc officials of ignoring the union's requests regarding the high turnover rate of researchers. cue organizers say the university is misleading the union about the quantity of money readily available for employee salary increases.

the uc officials deny accusations that they have bargained in bad faith, saying they have offered a contract to the researchers that's similar to an approved deal.




armagh man charged with 1998 bombing murders

a man from jonesborough in south county armagh, northern ireland, was charged today with the murder of 29 people who died in the 1998 omagh bombing, which injured in excess of 300 additional people. 

sean hoey, 35, appeared at the craigavon magistrates court, saying nothing. his solicitor said his client strongly denies the charges, and that there is no evidence against him to support the charges. hoey, who was also charged with 23 explosives offenses and conspiracy to murder security force members, was remanded to custody in maghaberry prison and is scheduled to appear, via video link from prison, before the belfast magistrates on may 31. 



schapelle corby found guilty, sentenced to 20 years

schapelle corby was today found guilty by an indonesian court for the importation of 4 kilograms of marijuana to bali. she was sentenced to 20 years in prison. the verdict was handed down by three judges amidst tight security at the denpasar district court.

the verdict was read in indonesian and relayed to corby via her translator. the court erupted as the outcome became clear. her family and supporters screamed at the judge, and said that justice had not been done. "scheppelle is innocent!" one supporter said.

her lawyer reported before the verdict was handed down that she was terrified. "she's probably the worst i've ever seen her," he said.

after the verdict she stopped briefly to hug her family before being loaded into a van and driven away.

corby was arrested at denpasar airport last october. on her trip to bali, she flew from brisbane to sydney and then changed planes. her defense centered around the claim that australian airport baggage handlers placed the drugs in her bodyboard bag as part of a drug smuggling ring. it was claimed that the drugs were being smuggled from brisbane to sydney, but for some reason were not removed before her luggage was transferred to the indonesian flight.

after a lengthy trial that attracted much media attention in australia, prosecutors called for the judges to hand down a life sentence.

hundreds of supporters and friends gathered at tugun surf-lifesaving club on the gold coast to watch the verdict and show their support.

australian prime minister john howard said that he felt for corby but that australians had to trust the indonesian justice system. "we have to respect the justice system of other countries," he said.

the judge said she had until next wednesday to appeal. 



saudi arabia's king fahd admitted to hospital

king fahd of saudi arabia has been admitted to a hospital in riyadh for testing. unofficial sources say that the king, who has been ill since 1995, might have "water in his lungs", possibly indicating pneumonia. crown prince abdullah has performed most of the duties of the aging monarch in recent years, and is a very likely candidate for succession of the throne should king fahd succumb to his illness.



mothers, teachers concerned about leukemia deaths at california elementary school

representatives of markland manufacturing and of aqmd also spoke at the meeting, explaining their positions. the outcome of the meeting was that senator dunn and members of the community will tour the markland facility and meet with county officials, and another public meeting will be held in a couple of weeks.

concerned parents and teachers gathered at kennedy elementary school in santa ana, california for the 6:30 p.m. meeting hosted by california state senator joe dunn. principal felix mendoza, donald markland - president of markland manufacturing, members of the south coast air quality management district (aqmd), and representatives from the orange county sanitation district (ocsd), orange county water district (ocwd), california safe schools, and california environmental rights alliance participated in the meeting. senator dunn organized the meeting to address concerns of teachers who work at, and parents whose children attend both kennedy and nearby franklin elementary school.

five boys attending franklin were diagnosed with the same type of leukemia in spring 2002, raising the initial concerns. attempts to gain an investigation from the centers for disease control (cdc) into possible causes were not successful as the case cluster, though intense, still fell into the range of natural chance.

during the corresponding time period, in december of 2002, the orange county sanitation department had cited and fined markland manufacturing, a business located directly across the street from kennedy elementary, $21,000, a second time, for illegally dumping , , , and into city sewers. these toxic substances have a range of health risks from carcinogenic to reduced iq and increase in fatality risk. markland manufacturing is a steel plating company located directly across the street from kennedy elementary school.

recently, markland applied for a permit from the aqmd to expand its facilities. whenever a company changes equipment, and those changes affect air quality, the aqmd must issue a notice to all residents in the affected area. in response, parents called senator dunn's office voicing their concerns, and dunn organized a town hall meeting to address the issues. he invited experts in air, water, and sewage to address the community. "leukemia is an air quality issue," said dunn.

senator dunn began the meeting by thanking everyone at kennedy elementary school, principal felix mendoza, and the santa ana unified school district (sausd). he then introduced the first three members of the panel: parents gloria maldonado and socorro molina, and teacher tammy sanchez.

"i was concerned about the permit," said 10-year resident and kennedy parent gloria maldonado. "i contacted the school administration, and i was ignored. where is our city council?"

next to speak was franklin parent socorro molina. her son steven was diagnosed with in may of 2002, along with four others at franklin, and she wants an investigation. she says apartment kids are suffering from leukemia and dying.
tammy sanchez is a teacher at franklin, and several of her students have been diagnosed with leukemia. she noted that all of the children who were diagnosed leukemia lived in front of franklin elementary. she went to the school nurse, and together they wrote a letter to the cdc asking for an investigation. they responded by saying that the cases were "within the range". "that's hard to believe," said sanchez. she then turned to the leukemia society, and they too turned her down. in april of 2004, one of her students, reynaldo, passed away due to leukemia. that summer, another boy at franklin died from leukemia. "they all lived in apartments," she said. she kept searching, and in november of last year, another student at franklin, manuel, passed away. on january 2 this year, two twins that were going to attend franklin died from acute lymphocytic leukemia. in february, a student at nearby santa ana high school died from leukemia. this weekend, a teacher from franklin died of lung cancer. "i don't know what it is, but something isn't right in this area. there is clearly something amiss here," said sanchez.
senator dunn then allowed markland manufacturing president don markland to respond to what the parents and teacher said. he responded, "[before moving to our current location], i met with the city council and the school board; i went above and beyond what is called for." he said that the city told him that his business would be assisting in city beautification. when confronted about whether his business was responsible for the health issues, he said, "i'm not really a technical person. i hire assistants."

next, senator dunn introduced members of the aqmd: anupom ganguli, carol coy, jill whynot; and other experts: ron wildermuth, communications director, orange county water district; kelly christensen, source control supervisor, orange county sanitation district; and joseph k. lyou, executive director of california safe schools.
first to speak was anupom ganguli. "all residents deserve to live and work in a safe, clean environment," anupom said. he said that "75% of air pollution comes from the burning of diesel fuels. air quality is a major health issue, of particular concern is children." he went on to say, "teens in highly polluted areas are five times more likely to have lung problems than teens not in polluted areas."

the next aqmd representative to speak was carol coy. "any business that has a machine that emits or causes air pollution requires a permit... markland is a plating company, which deals with liquid metals; more specifically, chrome... when the chemicals evaporate, onsite machines refine as much air pollution as possible. markland is getting a permit to modify a piece of equipment, and a public notice is required for all pollutant increases," she said. markland received three emissions violations from aqmd. "they're in good shape," said coy.

the final speaker from aqmd was jill whynot. jill clarified that "aqmd has no authority over land use". therefore, placement of manufacturing industries next to residences (as has happened with markland manufacturing) is left to the authority of county and city council.

next to speak was joseph k. lyou, executive director of california environmental rights alliance. "what we're concerned about is false negatives," he said. "our focus should be how we can reduce emissions and pollution in our communities." robina suwol, executive director of california safe schools, noted that "the standards are based upon a 160 pound male," not on children who are a fraction of the weight and size.

the final speaker was ron wildermuth, communications director of the orange county water district. he said, "your water meets all standards, or it doesn't get served."
dunn then opened the floor to public comments.

socorro molina, in response to markland's comments, exclaimed, "why in front of the school? why near children?" jill whynot of aqmd responded by saying, "we have a proposed rule that will be voted on in a few months that would allow us to tell a business to not locate in a certain area."

victoria zaragoza, a resident of nearby minnie street, lashed, "i am outrage that there are so many pollutants. you [aqmd] don't test the air, you just test the companies. between late 2001 and early 2002, 19 women living at the williams street apartment complex were diagnosed with cancer. we have high levels of lead. our children have asthma and lung problems. it's not the norm. i want that to be clear. you have not answered our questions, you just talked around them. we take this seriously. it's our lives."

a mother of a 6 year-old at franklin told the panel that her daughter is having nosebleeds constantly. "she has eight nosebleeds per month." when she went to her local doctor, she was told that the bleeding was caused by allergies. "i had to pay for a private doctor to tell me it was the school's environment," she said.
another mother voiced concerns about her child: "my daughter had . next to where i live, there is a shop where they paint cars and cut metal, and it all blows toward me. when i called the city of santa ana, they told me to move. [this] city does not consider the hispanics. i ended up calling the police. [when they arrived], they said 'is it life or death, because otherwise we are going to leave'. i want you [aqmd] to pay attention to not only to large businesses, but to the small stuff."

lazara bustos, a parent of three children, with one attending franklin, had this to say: "since i learned about the sick kids at franklin, i've been concerned. i want an investigation of all businesses in santa ana. i went all the way to sacramento and told them about all of the sick kids in the hospitals- too many sick kids. i gathered 200 signatures from parents to get inspections. we don't know if [the inspections] will happen." she continued, "the city slaps us with fines, when the rich businessmen exploit our workers with very low wages. they are becoming rich at the expense of the poor." she was told that leukemia was caused by nutrition problems.
maria parada's son diego was diagnosed with leukemia in 2002. "he's fighting really hard. i thank god he's still alive." she began to cry. "i am really scared for all the other mothers going through this." about her son, she said, "i don't know if he's going to make it".

when asked about the citations given to markland, the company's legal counselor, steve ellis, said that they "were just allegations". he claims that "some things" got into the sewers, and that it happened "over a year ago". tammy sanchez noted that markland was fined in december 2002 for "illegal disposal of nickel, copper, lead, and arsenic into sewers". the markland lawyer's response was "is it currently happening, no. the sewers at markland are more than 12 feet below the ground, not endangering residents." don markland then called up his technical consultant, who stated: "employees were doing this independent of markland administration".

senator dunn wrapped up by saying: "even if markland is fully compliant, there is still something amiss here". dunn promised to have an open meeting with city and school officials. he will tour the markland facility with members of the community, and meet with county officials to find out what is causing the health issues. dunn also promised to hold another town hall meeting in a couple of weeks.


arial photo of markland manufacturing plant (to the north), and kennedy elementary (to the south). notice the large black spot on markland's roof.


santa ana city council:



how tall is tallest? chinese researchers measure tallest mountain

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mount qomolangma, known in the west as mount everest, may be taller than ever, and a group of 24 chinese researchers have scaled the peak and made observations they hope will document its current height.

in 1975 the peak was surveyed at a height of 8 848 metres, in line with previous calculations, but a u.s. survey team in 1999 measured it at 8 850m. the growth to some extent fits current theories regarding the geology of the region, a region with crustal upthrust. the growth may also be due in part to rapid glacier retreat on the peak's slopes, and the mountain springing back as the weight of snow melts and runs off.

at the same time, recent theories suggest the mountain is also shrinking. the peak may be getting smaller from subsidence as it reaches extreme heights, and again the glaciers and snow help to stabilize and expand the mountain itself.

there is some disagreement regarding the methods of measurement used previously, so the researchers spent an hour at the summit taking measurements using radar, satellite, and other methods on 6 points. the average of the measurements will be used to make the official chinese measurement, which remains at 8 848. results of the expedition are expected to be available in august.

a previous measurement team from italy also used the radar methodology in 2004, but their results have not yet been published.

the mountain straddles the border between tibet and nepal, and is known by several names. in chinese, 珠穆朗瑪峰 (pinyin: zh?mul?ngm? f?ng); tibetan qomolangma ("mother of the universe"); in nepal sagarmatha ("forehead of the sky"); and in english named after sir george everest.



corruption endangers brazilian government

denunciations of political corruption threaten the brazilian government. the most recent case involves a deputy of the political party ptb (who supports the government of the brazilian president luiz inacio lula da silva) in a scandal of the services of post office.

lula's government representatives said that they will investigate all the denunciations and affirmed that the government is a victim of political enemies.

deputy roberto jefferson (ptb-rj) is accused of directing a corrupt scheme that involves the brazilian postal service.

the case began after veja, a magazine, made known a 110 minute video tape recording which shows former post office chief mauricio marinho during a supposed bribe negotiation with a businessman.

in the tape, marinho receives and puts in his pocket r$3,000 (about 1,259 usd) in cash. he insinuates that the scheme is commanded by deputy roberto jefferson. the recording was aired by the major brazilian television stations.

a group of deputies mobilized to create a special investigation congress commission in order to investigate the denunciations. the brazilian government tried to prevent the creation of the congress' special commission convincing some deputies not to endorse the congress investigations commission creation, however it failed. now the government is trying to control how the special commissions works.

waldomiro diniz, former adviser to the government of president lula, is accused of negotiating with "bicheiros" (illegal gambling enterprises), traffic of influences and extortions of money for workers' party (pt) electoral campaigns. the case was known in 2004 after a businessman revealed a tape exposing diniz. the brazilian magazine epoca published a history on the case in february, 2004.

the recorded audio tape by the businessman carlos augusto ramos, known as carlinhos cachoeira, shows him supposedly being extorted by waldomiro diniz. the tape's authenticity has been verified by experts and it was aired by the major brazilian television stations.

waldomiro was an adviser of the ministry of civilian household, directed by the minister jose dirceu, and president of "loterj" (which administers the lotteries of the state of the rio de janeiro) from february, 2001 until december, 2002.

the ophthalmologist joao francisco daniel, brother of the murdered mayor celso daniel (pt) from santo andre, metropolitan area of sao paulo, said that the crime had political reasons.

according to him, some mayor's advisers were receiving bribes from businessman. the bribes were allegedly used to collect founds for the worker's party and for self-enrichment.

the mayor celso daniel has been murdered in 2002 and until now the case has not been totally solved. at least six witnesses died in suspicious situations.

the social security minister romero juca has been accused of having offered seven non-existent farms as guarantee for a financing from the banco of amazonia, among other denunciations of misuse of public loans. the minister attributes the accusations to political adversaries.




mount diablo buckwheat rediscovered in california

the university of california, berkeley announced that one of its graduate students, michael park, rediscovered on may 24 the mount diablo buckwheat, a plant not sighted since 1936 and believed to have been extinct.
found nearly 30 miles east of san francisco, park [aged 35] identified the small pink flowering plant said to resemble baby's breath during a routine visit to the mountain. he is currently pursuing his doctorate in integrative biology. 

the significance of the find drew comparisons to the recent discovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker in arkansas earlier this year in april. the exact location of the flowering plant is, for now, being kept secret. several botanists have confirmed it along with the nearly dozen or so other plants.

the property is being preserved by the "save mount diablo" conservation group operating in the mount diablo state park. 



defense rests in michael jackson case

after a final piece of videotaped testimony from the accuser in the michael jackson case, the defense rested on friday.

the interview was taped by the santa barbara county sheriff's department on july 6, 2003. the contents of the tape mostly repeated earlier testimony given by the boy describing michael jackson's alleged acts of molestation. judge rodney s. melville instructed the jurors "only to observe the demeanor, manner and attitude of the witness", and that the boy's "statements are not to be considered for the truth of the matter stated."

closing arguments could begin as early as wednesday.



low fares airline, ryanair celebrates twenty years in business


irish low fares airline, ryanair, this week celebrated its 20th birthday. having reached the milestone, the airline promptly used the opportunity, as always, to sell seats; launching a massive 200,000 seat sale at 99p/99c a seat.

the airline was founded in 1985 by the irish businessman, dr tony ryan. it began its existence flying a small 15 seat aircraft between waterford and london gatwick with the small aim of breaking the duopoly on london-ireland flights, held at that time by british airways and aer lingus. today however, the airline now flies to over 200 european destinations with its fleet of 84 boeing 737's and is awaiting the arrival of a future 225 aircraft from boeing.

the company today carries as much as 3m passengers a month (depending on the season) and has revealed it made a profit of ?245m (usd$307,916,000) in the past year. ryanair ceo michael o'leary has stated that the airline will carry over 70m passengers annually within five years. the notoriously eccentric mullingar man went on to tell the press "the very fact that a mickey mouse irish airline can start in a field in waterford 20 years ago and in 20 years overtake the world's self-styled, self proclaimed favourite airline is testament to the almost unstoppable demand for low airfare travel around europe."

to demonstrate the huge drop in airfares over the last year, the company claimed while the price of a ryanair seat had dropped from ￡99.99 in 1985 to 99p today, the price of a pint of beer had trebled and the average house price in england had increased by 500%.



german parliament votes yes on eu constitution; french referendum may vote no


shared history textbook written by scholars from japan, china, south korea


actor eddie albert dies at age 99


eddie albert, well-known for his role as back-to-nature attorney oliver douglas in the surrealistic '60's tv series "green acres," has died at the age of 99. 

albert, who suffered from alzheimer's disease in later years, succumbed to pneumonia on thursday at his california home. his son edward albert was by his side at the time.

although he gained his greatest fame in "green acres," albert had a long movie, tv, and stage career stretching back to the 1930s. his first role came in 1938, playing opposite ronald reagan in the comedy "brother rat." he went on to co-star in such movies as "roman holiday" (1953), the longest day" (1962), and "the longest yard" (1974).

mr. albert was also a vigorous environmental and social activist, making many trips on behalf of unicef and helping found the plaza de la raza foundation in los angeles to assist poor hispanic youth. he played a significant role in urging the us to ban ddt, which it did in 1972, and was instrumental in starting earth day.

eddie albert's most recent movie role was in 1995's "the barefoot executive."



citizen groups ask congress to file formal &quot;resolution of inquiry&quot; against bush

<br> 
a coalition of citizen groups will ask congress to file a formal "resolution of inquiry", the first necessary legal step to determine whether u.s. president bush has committed impeachable offenses. the request, written by boston constitutional attorney john c. bonifaz on behalf of the citizen groups, cites the downing street memo and issues surrounding the planning and execution of the iraq war. the full text of the request is available here.

the request was written on behalf of several groups, including:

and cites the possible grounds for impeachment:

bonifaz says that the official minutes of a secret us-uk meeting were the impetus for the request. those minutes were recently leaked to "the sunday times", and are popularly known as the "downing street memo" or alternatively the "smoking gun memo". in it, british intelligence mi-6 director richard dearlove said, ""bush wanted to remove saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and wmd. but the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.""

the phrase "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy." has been the center of attention in reports and discussions surrounding the memo. it has received this attention because critics of the iraq war believe that it reaffirms their fundamental criticisms: that bush's decision to go to war was not based on the intelligence, but, rather, intelligence was used selectively and exaggerated, while debunking intelligence was forcefully suppressed, for the sole purpose of rallying consent for the war, and that this was all done deliberately.

bonifaz wrote: ""the recent release of the downing street memo provides new and compelling evidence that the president of the united states has been actively engaged in a conspiracy to deceive and mislead the united states congress and the american people.""

some republican congressmen who had voted for the war have since stated that they believe the war was a mistake. for example, walter jones, the coiner of the phrase "freedom fries", is now the most vociferous opponent on capitol hill. "if we were given misinformation intentionally by people in this administration, to commit the authority to send boys, and in some instances girls, to go into iraq, that is wrong," he has stated, "congress must be told the truth."

on may 26th, the group afterdowningstreet.org launched a campaign to congress to investigate whether president bush committed impeachable offenses relating to the iraq war.



american samoa asks again to be removed from u.n. colonies list


american samoa's government delivered another message to united nations representatives asking to be removed from the u.n.'s list of world colonies. commerce department deputy director lelei peau was participating in a regional seminar held from may 17-19 in saint vincent and the grenadines by the u.n. decolonization committee.

the u.n. has promoted decolonization since its founding, particularly since its declaration on the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples was adopted in 1960. in 1945, about one-third of the world's population lived in dependent, non-self governing territories. today the u.n. lists 16 remaining colonies with fewer than 2 million total people.

american samoa is asking to be removed from that list, on the grounds that it wishes to remain a freely associated territory of the united states. its position has remained unchanged since the lieutenant governor first asked to be removed from the list in 1993.

"the position of the people of american samoa, and its duly elected legislative representatives and government officials is that the current status of the territory and the united states government is the desired relationship we wish to have," said governor togiola t. a. tulafono last year. his message was delivered to the u.n. decolonization committee in their regional seminar held in the pacific island country of papua new guinea.

"it has been a partnership that has aided both our peoples and the bonds of friendship between us are strong. we ask again that american samoa be delisted as a 'colony' of the united states," said the governor's message.

the united states position, expressed to the u.n. general assembly in 2003, is that its remaining territories are already in large measure self-governing. these territories should be able to choose whether to be independent states as "equal and sovereign partners" of the united states, or remain integrated within the united states.

the legislature of american samoa, called the fono, has approved a future political status commission to study public opinion on possibly becoming a commonwealth or freely associated state.
 


los angeles firefighters battle mt. washington blaze

, 
saturday evening, at approximately 7:00 p.m. pst on mt. washington in los angeles, california, a brush fire broke out on the southwestern side of the hill.

firefighters were on the scene by 8:30 p.m. with fire trucks, paramedic units, surveillance helicopters, and water-equipped helicopters. two fire trucks blasted water at the blaze from higher up on the mountain, while every minute or so, a water-equipped helicopter would swoop down over the flames and release its payload. at the top of the hill, there were five fire trucks and one paramedic unit; the three main entrances to the mountain were barricaded off by fire trucks. 

by approximately 9:15 p.m., the flame was entirely extinguished, thanks mainly to the water-equipped helicopters. firefighters were offering bystanders bottles of water and gatorade to help combat the effects of standing near an open flame.


class of 9/11 graduates west point

this year's west point class of u.s. army cadets graduated on sunday and were commissioned as second lieutenants. known as the "class of 9/11", they joined west point just weeks before the september 11, 2001 terrorist attack and decided to stay.

general richard b. myers, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said that this class is "one of the few since the early days of the vietnam war who came to west point in peace time, saw the nation transition to war and chose to stay, knowing you would raise your right hand and take an oath and swear to defend the constitution of a nation that was still at war."

by coincidence, there are 911 students in the class. within a year from now, about 70% of them are expected to be serving in iraq or afghanistan.


lapp plats becomes first firm to float on iex

a little-known mining company, lapp plats, has become the first company to list on ireland's newly created irish enterprise exchange (iex). the firm has also applied to be listed on london's flourishing alternative investment market (aim).

lapp plats' admission to the exchange brings to nine the total number of firms listed on the iex - the other eight were all previously listed on the exploration securities market, which was the precursor to the iex.

at present lapp plats is involved in platinum and nickel exploration; but intends to broaden its interests into to other areas such as minerals, other metals, oil and gas.




exit poll: 55% of french voters say no to eu constitution

the first exit poll, just published, has shown that 55% of french voters have rejected the new proposed european constitution. the result which was quoted on french national tv confirms widespread speculation among political commentators that france would say no by a considerable margin - opinion polls before the vote showed 56% were against the constitution.

it is believed that a significant majority of frances 42m eligible voters have exercised their right to vote. turnout is thought to have exceeded 70%. polling ended at the 55,000 polling stations across the country 8pm, except in paris and lyon where voting finished at 10pm.





mobile ringtone tops the uk singles chart

in a true sign of the times, a mobile phone ringtone has topped the uk singles chart. the "crazy frog" ringtone, long marketed to children and teenagers was last week launched as a single - and promptly proved more popular than both coldplay's comeback release, speed of sound and last weeks number one by oasis.

the song, if it can be called that, is a variation of the hugely popular "crazy frog" ringtone remixed with axel f - the theme tune from the 1980s film beverly hills cop which starred eddie murphy.

the "crazy frog" ringtone has been marketed in britain, and throughout europe, by german firm "jamster!" it is primarily marketed by multiple tv adverts on music channels which are targeted at teenagers and kids.




france votes no in eu referendum

in a result predicted by polls, a 54.87% majority of french voters voted "non" in sunday's european constitution referendum. of france's 42 million eligible voters, over 70% turned out at the 55 thousand polling stations across the country, which were open from 8:00 to 20:00 on sunday (except in paris and lyon where voting finished at 22:00, and french oversea possessions and other polling centers in the americas, which voted on saturday in order not to have them vote when the results are already known). a 70% turnout is very large compared to spain 42%.

the result comes as no surprise to european political commentators as opinion polls had consistently suggested that the "no" camp was on course for a strong victory. indeed, the last opinion poll before the actual referendum suggested a 56% win for the "no" camp.

the treaty was supported by all 3 major political parties (center-left ps, center-right ump, center-right udf), though a significant minority of the ps, and some in the ump, chose to oppose it.

it was opposed by the french communist party, as well as trotskyite movements such as the revolutionary communist league, other far-left movements such as the party of the workers, parts of the socialist party, parts of the greens some members of ump, and the nationalist national front.

according to polls, the vast majority of blue collar workers, farmers and other categories threatened by globalization and international concurrence voted against the treaty. the urban, better educated or richer population voted in favor.

some supporters of the "no" camp have argued that the mainstream media was biased in favor of the "yes" cause, and this was supported by some analyses of times awarded by television to both camps. however, the "no" camp also waged an aggressive campaign, with the walls of major cities being plastered with posters linking the eu constitution and the european union to all kind of social ills, such as high unemployment.

you can read the entire proposed 

according to polls collected by tns-sofres, the largest polling company in france, voters gave the following reasons for voting no:

note, however, that such polls offer only a limited number of answers and may thus misrepresent the actual motives of the people.

proponents of the "no" vote, both on the left and right, argued that the proposed constitution enshrined what they claim is an undemocratic europe, with much of the responsibilities granted to a body of unelected political appointees, the european commission and not enough checks and balances. they also point out that it vests much legislative power in the european council, representing the executives of the various countries; this is seen as a bad arrangement with respect to separation of powers. while the treaty adds supplemental powers for the directly elected european parliament, many opponents, particularly on the left, consider that they are still insufficient in order to provide checks and balances.

much criticism was directed at the length of the proposed constitution. the real treaty submitted to french voters is about 80 pages long, which many argue is too long and complex for a constitution. it is followed by 100 pages of appendices, declarations and protocols, some of them dealing with matters such as oil refining in the dutch west indies or specific nuclear power plants in eastern europe.

opponents of the treaty argue that the proposed constitution will largely hamstring the french government and prevent it from leading its own policies in matters as diverse as social services or foreign policy.

much of the opposition was targeted at part?iii of the proposed constitution, which sets the policies of the european union. opponents point out that the constitutions of most countries, including france, do not specify policies explicitly, except for a limited number of fundamental rights, but rather are limited to specifying the core principles and procedures of how governmental institutions work. part?iii, they argued, sets in stone a number of economic and social choices, while these should be a matter of political choice depending on democratic votes.

both left-wing and right-wing opponents consider that some of these policies, already applied and enforced by the european union, are disastrous for france's economy and society as well as european's economy and society. one primary target is the free trade policies with countries having less expensive workforce and social protection, which, they argue, drive french workers out of work (2.7 million french people are out of work).

this was recently exemplified by the so-called "bolkestein directive", which would have enabled service providers in the european union to work anywhere in the union according to the legislation and social practices of their own country, not of the country where they'd work: this was caricatured as the example of the "polish plumber" coming to work for a meager fraction of what french plumbers demand.

much is made of "delocalisations" ? that is, the transferring of industries and, now, services to countries with lower production costs, depriving french workers of jobs at a time when unemployment is high.

as a consequence, both left-wing and right-wing opponents of the treaty and of current and proposed european union policies argue in favor of some sort of protectionism.

in the field of international relations, many opponents contend that the proposed constitution would make the european union largely subservient to nato, an institution dominated by the united states of america.

a factor in the opposition to the constitution is the recent enlargement of the european union, a major move which was not approved by a referendum. opponents consider that open border concurrence with much poorer economies is bad for french economy; many express uneasiness at subsidizing and collaborating with governments that they consider subservient to the interests of the united states, such as poland's (poland chose to buy warplanes from the united states after receiving some european union subsidies, a movement which resulted in many questioning the financial and diplomatic priorities of their government).

finally, many seized the occasion to express their discontent at france's political elite and to president jacques chirac and prime minister jean-pierre raffarin's government. while unemployment had receded under the rule of center-left former prime minister lionel jospin, it has climbed against under raffarin's administration despite his and chirac's promises.

much opposition was directed towards what many on the left consider the "ultra-liberal" character of the constitution: that is, they argue, the proposed constitution makes permanent economic policies which they consider disastrous for french society:

left wing opponents, they say, want europe, but another europe, which, in their view, would put the concerns of common people before those of financial markets and the wealthy. they contend that free market capitalism, which they consider enforced by the constitution, destroys lives and benefits the financial establishment, but not the average worker. they argue that open trade and concurrence encourages unemployment in france.

they argue, bluntly, that the constitution is the constitution of right-winger chirac and medef, the union of larger french private employers. medef, due to its current leader ernest-antoine seilliere, is very unpopular among the left.

left-wing opponents argued that the charter of rights included in the constitution was largely indicative, not prescriptive. they questioned the say that other members of the union may have in matters such as the right to abortion and the separation of church and state, which they consider threatened by certain governments from catholic countries, which, during the negotiation of the treaties, had insisted on adding references to the christian heritage of europe.

another argument from the left was that the constitution called for member states to strengthen their military forces. opponents argue that this would be wasteful spending, would result in an arm race with the united states, china and others, and would result in wars and more instability.

many leaders of the opposition to the "no" also simply called for a blow to chirac.

many right-wing opponents argue that turkey, which has applied for european union membership, should not become a member, and that acceptance of the constitution would pave the way for this. they point out that the new eastern european members, whose joining many of them opposed, were accepted without a referendum; they also point out that turkey is for the most part not located in europe, but in the middle-east, and that it borders countries such as iran and iraq.

in addition, many supporters of the right-wing are opposed to a union with countries whose culture they consider too far from france, and are concerned about unchecked immigration from these. they also consider that the direction the european union is heading will only reinforce unchecked immigration from poor muslim countries, which they think is bad socially and economically for europe. this point of view is disputed by many economists, who point out that due to aging of france and other european countries increasing immigration is the only viable option for boosting the existing economies.

such arguments are likely not to have much impact on many french voters. the results of this referendum, as well as those of the 2002 presidential election, show some deep distrust of the population for the political class as well as for "experts". there is high skepticism against economists and politicians who promote what they consider to be necessary reforms, whereas despite those reforms unemployment has remained high and standards of living have lessened for many.

supporters of the proposed european constitution contend that it is a marked improvement over preceding treaties governing the european union. they point out that it gives increased powers to the directly elected european parliament compared to the politically appointed european commission and european council. they also point out that it gives a right of petition to european citizens, which they contend is a marked democratic advance. opponents point out that this right may be exercised only with strict conditions (1,000,000 signatures from a "significant" number of countries) and with uncertain consequences. furthermore, they point out that the basic undemocratic handling and procedures followed for the legislative enactment of laws are kept in place, and that neither the ec or the counsel of ministers have been internally made more democratic.

proponents of the constitution consider that these improvements make the european union markedly more democratic than it was before, while opponents may be of the opinion that something which is better then extremely bad, is still no good, and consider a no-vote a chance to come up with something better. some supporters of the constitution contend that certain european measures that many consider ill-advised (such as the bolkestein directive or the directive on software patents) would not have been adopted if the stronger checks and balances provided for by the constitution had been implemented, but there is little actual basis to support such a claim.

part?ii of the proposed european constitution is a "charter of fundamental rights of the european union". this charter lists a number of human rights, such as the prohibition of torture, the prohibition of the death penalty, etc., and reinstates that the union follows the council of europe's (coe) european convention on human rights and the jurisprudence of the european court of human rights (echr). all members of the european union must belong to the coe and accept echr jurisdiction. proponents of the constitution consider that this reinstatement of human rights is of great import, especially with respect to recent new members, which may not have much of a tradition of democracy, rule of law and human rights.

proponents of the constitution dispel the accusation that the constitution is "ultra-liberal" (i.e. supports unfettered free market and prohibits social policies in member countries). they contend that these dispositions are not new, and were already to be found in the 1957 treaty of rome. they point out that unbiased concurrence is a the heart of european policies since the beginnings of the european economic community.

they contend that, for a large part, the proposed constitution is just the consolidation of the preceding treaties governing the european union into a single document.

they admit out that the constitution, like all works designed by a committee out of compromise, may be bulky. however, they point out, france cannot expect to force its choices on other countries. while some french parties may have preferred that the constitution contains more "social" dispositions, such social dispositions would be opposed by countries such as the united kingdom, and there is little hope that any renegotiation would get them accepted. french citizens, they claim, should be ready to accept an imperfect text.

some supporters say that refusing the constitution will diminish the clout of france in european institutions and may make it more difficult in the future to have its interests be taken into account at that level.

some right-wing supporters of the treaty contend that the european union is a necessary force in order to push what they consider to be necessary reforms upon france.

supporters of the treaty point out that the question of the constitution is disconnected from that of the accession of turkey. president chirac has pledged that the accession of turkey would be put to a referendum before french voters (the accession treaty of former eastern bloc countries was ratified by the french parliament without a referendum).

finally, supporters of the proposed constitution point out that this referendum is about the ratification of a treaty, and is not a plebiscite on the actions of president jacques chirac and prime minister jean-pierre raffarin, both of which are deeply unpopular.




huge gay pride parade held in brazil

in what may possibly be the largest gay pride parade in the world, hundreds of thousands of people marched along the streets of sao paulo, brazil today in the parada do orgulho glbt de sao paulo. many marchers were demanding the legalization of same-sex marriage.

brazil is the largest roman catholic country on earth, and the roman catholic church has consistently opposed the legalization of same-sex marriage in the country. the national congress of brazil has debated legalization for 10 years, and such civil marriages are currently only legal in rio grande do sul. the original bill was drafted by former mayor of sao paulo, marta suplicy. the proposed legislation, after being amended, is now in the hands of roberto jefferson. protesters hope to collect a petition of 1.2 million signatures to present to the national congress in november.

people carrying flags and banners, some dressed in lavish carnival costumes, walked and danced in the ninth annual gay pride parade, stretching for 3.5 kilometres along avenida paulista. traffic was diverted throughout most of the city, and drinks and snacks vendors took advantage of the barriers across many streets. prominent people joining the parade were the actor sergio mamberti, representing the culture minister gilberto gil, and senator eduardo suplicy.
organizers stated that 2.5 million people attended, and police stated that there were 1.9 million ? figures which would make the event the largest of its kind in the world ? including 700,000 visitors from other cities and countries. this was an increase from 2004, when police stated that 1.5 million people attended. 


chicken that crossed road let off fine by california court

the $54 fine incurred by the owners of a chicken in johannesburg, california, has been thrown out of court.

the owners, linc and helena moore, had been complaining to the local authorities about children riding bicycles in the middle of the road and their neighbours' dogs running around, and assert that as a consequence when their chicken escaped and wandered onto the road "it became a huge issue". they were fined $54 on march 26, 2005. 

under the california state code, livestock is banned from highways, but not domestic animals. the fine was dismissed when henry mosier, the public defence lawyer for the couple, argued that the chicken was not livestock but a domesticated animal. the chicken also has an unalienable right to "get to the other side".

the kern county sheriff's department has denied the allegation that the couple were fined because of their complaints, and the couple are seeking legal assistance for filing harassment charges against the department.



uk and u.s. bombing raids against iraq increased in 2002

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new information surfaced on saturday, 28 may, that suggest that the us and uk increased air strikes against iraq in mid 2002. the ministry of defence figures, provided in response to a question from sir menzies campbell, the liberal democrat foreign affairs spokesman, show that allied aircraft doubled the rate at which they were dropping bombs on iraq beginning in may of 2002.

this apparent escalation in the number and intensity of air strikes was initiated prior to the passage of un resolution 1441 in november 2002 and prior to the us congress authorizing the use of force against iraq in october 2002. critics claim that this was an attempt to provoke saddam hussein or soften his military infrastructure in preparation for a more comprehensive military campaign, and that it reaffirms their assertions that the bush administrations was determined to go to war long before the official decision was made.

in august 2002, allied commander tommy franks admitted that this operation was designed to "degrade" iraqi air defences in the same way as the air attacks that began the 1991 gulf war, but according to legal guidance appended to the downing street memo (dated 23 july 2002) the allied aircraft were only "entitled to use force in self-defence where such a use of force is a necessary and proportionate response to actual or imminent attack from iraqi ground systems".

according to military documents shown to the sunday express in 2002, the allies invaded iraq from turkey on august 8th, 2002, after an air strike on the 6th that took out a crucial air defence system.

pentagon officials initially denied there had been any military action or incursion, but when challenged with specific military details a spokesman called back two hours later issuing the terse statement: "we can't comment on current or future operations."

the evidence seems to corroborate information in the downing street memo:

in light of these revelations, representative john conyers has sent a letter to u.s. secretary of defense donald rumsfield. a draft of the letter is available here.

in conyer's draft, he states:




amnesty international urges investigations of top u.s. officials


british liberal democrat patsy calton, 56, dies of cancer

she was first elected to the cheadle constituency by the slim margin of 33 votes in the 2001 election. she was then re-elected just 24 days before her death with a greatly increased majority of 4020, in spite of not campaigning herself due to the illness.

she was a staunch supporter of a ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces. acting as the party's health spokesman, she supported the bath liberal democrats anti-smoking initiatives in the 2004 spring conference.

she is survived by her husband clive calton, who worked as her researcher at the house of commons, and her son and two daughters.



polish writer tomasz pacy?ski dies

pacy?ski, born on february 4, 1958, was one of the founders and the main editor of "fahrenheit", the first polish internet science fiction fanzine. he published short stories in such magazines as "science fiction", "sfera", and "fantasy", and in internet fanzines such as "fahrenheit", "esensja", "fantazin" and "srebrny glob". he also wrote articles published in "sfera" and "science fiction". he debuted as a fantasy writer with his 2001 novel "sherwood", based on the legend. he published four novels - the "sherwood" fantasy and "wrzesie?" ("september") - a post-apocalyptic political fiction novel, as well as numerous short stories. his humorous stories about were published in 2005 in "linia ognia" ("line of fire") collection.

pacy?ski will be buried at the pow?zki cemetery in warsaw on tuesday, june 7, at 10 a.m.



dominique de villepin to replace resigning french pm

president jacques chirac of france has accepted the resignation of prime minister jean-pierre raffarin and has named dominique de villepin in his place.

the resignation of mr. raffarin comes shortly after the resounding refusal of the ratification of the treaty establishing the european constitution in a referendum. (see "france votes no in eu referendum"). while mr. raffarin was initially popular with the french citizens (polled at 60% of trust in 2002), he gradually lost support from the population, up to record levels; according to polls, only 22% of the population trust him (including only 2% who trust him strongly).

the prime minister has responsibility for the day-to-day running of the french government.

there are questions whether mr. de villepin, who has never held elected office and has ascended mostly as a chirac aide, will be well-received by the population and by the parliamentary majority. his nomination was immediately criticized by left-wing politicians, as well as by the center-right union for french democracy, a junior partner in the ruling coalition, as a continuation of the same failed policies; mr. villepin was himself criticized as being out-of-touch with respect of the daily needs of the population. the union for a popular movement, the party created for backing chirac, has now rallied behind nicolas sarkozy, whose reciprocal distaste for chirac and villepin is well-published.

jacques chirac announced that nicolas sarkozy would be minister of state (a honorific rank) in the government; it is yet unknown what his attributions will be, but it is rumored that he will become minister of the interior, a position whose main function is law enforcement and which he also held from 2002 to 2004. according to polls, mr. sarkozy is france's most popular politician. it is also well-known that mr. sarkozy and mr. de villepin see each other as a hostile competitor, particularly in the perspective of the 2007 presidential election.


live 8 concert plans announced

in a press conference held at 13:00 utc on tuesday, bob geldof, elton john, and harvey goldsmith announced "live 8", a set of simultaneous free concerts to be held in philadelphia, london, paris, rome, and berlin on july 2, 2005, to raise awareness of make poverty history, a campaign to get the richest nations to cancel debt and increase aid to developing countries. the concerts are scheduled to occur just before the g8 summit in gleneagles, scotland, from july 6 to july 8.

"20 years ago, at the time of the original live aid concert, i was a self-obsessed drug addict.", began elton john. "i've grown up since". he then described the aim of the concerts to raise awareness in the richest countries of the world of the plights of the poorest, and how his work on global aids awareness had impressed upon him the lack of awareness and ignorance that exists. "the prime minister of south africa thinks that aids is something that is caused by poverty. i wish!"

bob geldof thanked the corporations who had already come forward to sponsor the event, including the bbc and aol. in mentioning aol he said that "20 years ago, almost nobody had a mobile 'phone", hinting at the possibility of aol broadcasting the concerts to mobile telephones. geldof also thanked the prince's trust, which had already booked hyde park for july 2, for stepping aside in favour of live 8.

although the line-up is not finalized, the presence of several artists was announced.






ryanair profits jump 19% to ?268.9m


ryanair, the irish low fares airline, which last week celebrated twenty years in business, has reported a 19% increase in profits. the airline, which operates over 200 routes, revealed in its annual results that after tax profits had increased to ?268.9m (us $332 million), comfortably beating the median analyst forecast of ?248m ($306 million).

group revenue rose by 24% to a record ?1.34bn ($1.66 billion), on the back of a 19% rise in passenger numbers to 27.6m ($34.1 million). by 10:30am utc, ryanair shares had risen by 4.48% to ?6.53 ($8.06) ( on the irish stock exchange (ise), having hit ?6.66 ($8.22) earlier in the morning - briefly valuing ryanair above the ?5bn ($6 billion) mark.

despite the increase in profits, the firm told investors that the increased cost of fuel posed a serious threat for the future, however ryanair has hedged 75% of next winters fuel needs at ?38 ($47) a barrel. ceo michael o'leary, told the media in relation to fuel costs, "our outlook for the coming 12 months is more positive than it was this time last year"..."clearly fuel costs remain high, and the market is volatile." he also reiterated that ryanair would not impose fuel surcharges on customers.

ryanair's 2004 record profit is larger than that of easyjet ($74m), british airways ($240m), and even its role model southwest airlines ($313m). the fact that it made ?248m on turnover of just ?1.34bn makes it by some margin the world's most profitable major airline. one of the key methods of keeping costs to a minimum at ryanair is by using less staff to carry more passengers, in comparison to its main competitors:


ryanair has a stated aim of raising its passenger numbers to above 70m within five years time, making it europe's largest airline. the dublin-based airline currently is awaiting delivery of 200 new planes from boeing which it hopes to use to achieve this ambitious aim and to replace its older aircraft.




dutch vote today on eu constitution

people all over the netherlands are voting today in a referendum on the eu constitution. this the first national referendum for two hundred years and it is non-binding. though most major political parties have stated they will abide by the referendum if the outcome is sufficiently clear and a large enough percentage of the voters have actually voted.
the question put to voters will be:

all the main political parties have asked for a voor (for, or yes) vote. however polls have been saying that two-thirds of the people will be voting tegen (against, or no).

one reason for people to vote no is the expansion of the european union with large countries like turkey, which they fear will cause less influence for the smaller countries. the view of an european super state in which the netherlands would loose its own identity is another reason for voting no. some of the no voters do this to show they don't agree with the current political situation and the supposed risen prices since the introduction of the euro.

as of 14:00 cet, 9% more voters had turned up for the referendum than for the european elections.
21:25 cet: according to a interview/nss-nos exit-poll, 63% have voted against the eu constitution, while 37% voted for.


scottish radio holdings set to buy highland radio for ?7m

media group, scottish radio holdings (srh), has reached an agreement to purchase donegal's popular highland radio for around ?7 million (usd $8.6 million). the broadcasting commission of ireland has approved the deal in principle; but both the competition authority and the minister for enterprise, trade and employment still are entitled to block the deal.

highland radio, which broadcasts in north donegal, ireland, first hit the airwaves in 1990. it is based in letterkenny. srh is a major player in the irish media market; already owning both today fm and fm104. apart from operating radio stations, srh is also a major player in the weekly newspaper market in the uk and ireland, owning 45 titles.




former fbi second-in-command says he was 'deep throat'

in an interview by john d. o'connor for the american magazine "", it was revealed that , a former associate director of the during the , was the anonymous informer called . "deep throat" helped journalists and bring down then-president through the exposure of the .

previously bound by a pledge not to reveal "deep throat's" identity until after his death, woodward and bernstein at first refused to confirm the "vanity fair" report. however, in a story posted late today on the "" website, they verified that felt was "deep throat."

however, one of richard nixon's biographers, , believes that at least one of "deep throat's" tips could not have been known by felt. the "post" first reported on the famous 18 1/2 minute gap in a crucial tape at a time when only six people were aware of its existence -- none of them felt. this raises the possibility that "deep throat," though mainly based on felt, may be a composite character.

felt has been mentioned as a leading candidate for "deep throat" by many that have tried to solve the mystery. an article published in the "" last fall claimed carl bernstein's son once exposed felt as the mysterious informer. but until now, felt, woodward, bernstein and the "post's" former editor have all denied it.

felt, 91, has reportedly been in poor health in recent years. his family says felt admits to being the source and described him as feeling proud of his role in history and having "a big grin" when told of the "vanity fair" article. 



natalie glebova is elected miss universe

the 23-year-old canadian delegate natalie glevoba was elected on tuesday morning as the new miss universe, in a ceremony held at bangkok's impact arena.

glevoba is a professional model, height 1.79 m (5'11"), who received her bachelor of commerce in information technology management and marketing at ryerson university. born in russia, she emigrated to toronto at the age of 11. she beat four latin american delegates in semifinals: cynthia olavarria (puerto rico), renata sone (dominican republic), laura elizondo (mexico) and monica spear (venezuela), as well as another 75 delegates from the same number of countries.

chananporn rosjan, from thailand, won the best costume award, while gionna cabrera, from philippines, was chosen as miss photogenic and tricia homer, us virgin islands delegate, became miss congeniality.

billy bush and nancy o'dell co-hosted the ceremony.

glebova received the mikimoto crown, valued in 250,000 dollars, from australian jennifer hawkins, miss universe 2004. besides, natalie will live in new york for one year, in one of the trump towers, with other several prizes. the first time a canadian was elected miss universe was in 1982, when karen baldwin won the pageant.

colombian designer miguel de la torre, who designed glebova's wardrobe, declared that ""canadian beauty contestants have always been quite classical. it's the first time a latin designer is chosen. (...) at the very first days, natalie was quite low-key, because being too noticed is not good. to be with her is the best thing has ever happened in my professional life. furthermore, to come here for the first time with two delegates" (glebova and daniela clerk from nicaragua) "and two gown dresses was a dream come true"".

glebova visited colombia in april 2004 in order to take part in "miss maja world" pageant, held in the northern town of corozal, sucre, where she was the second runner-up, and went back there a few months ago to try the dresses designed by de la torre. the colombian designer has never participated at his country's national beauty pageant.

thailand's prime minister thaksin shinawatra said the pageant was very positive for his country's tourism reactivation, after the tsunami tragedy. thailand spent 6.5 million dollars in the pageant and used locations at phi-phi and phuket beaches for the previous footages with delegates.




u.s. supreme court overturns arthur andersen conviction

the u.s. supreme court on tuesday overturned a witness tampering conviction against accounting firm arthur andersen llp for destroying documents related to now-bankrupt energy giant enron corp. the verdict virtually put andersen, once one of the largest accounting firms in the world and the fifth-largest in the united states, out of business.

in a unanimous opinion written by chief justice william rehnquist, the court threw out the verdict due to serious flaws in the jury instructions. the fifth circuit court of appeals had upheld andersen's june 15, 2002 conviction in houston. 

in the court's view, the instructions allowed the jury to convict andersen without proving that the firm knew it broke the law or that there was a link to any official proceeding that prohibited the destruction of documents. "the jury instructions at issue simply failed to convey the requisite consciousness of wrongdoing," rehnquist wrote. "indeed, it is striking how little culpability the instructions required." rehnquist's opinion also expressed grave skepticism at the government's definition of "corrupt persuasion"--persuasion with an improper purpose even without knowing an act is unlawful. "only persons conscious of wrongdoing can be said to 'knowingly corruptly persuade,' " he wrote. 

the ruling came very quickly, as oral arguments in the case had taken place on april 27. justice department attorneys claimed andersen employees were instructed "undertake an unprecedented campaign of document destruction" in order to impede a securities and exchange commission investigation into enron's conduct. deputy solicitor general david dreeben likened andersen's behavior to "shredding its smoking guns."

however, maureen mahoney, arguing for andersen, countered that the employees involved merely followed the company's policy on destroying unneeded documents, and that the shredding occurred before andersen received a subpoena on november 8, 2001. she also claimed that under the government's legal definition of "corrupt persuasion," acquittal was virtually impossible.

the justices seemed to indicate which way they were leaning very early in oral arguments, as they peppered the government lawyers with hostile remarks. 

justice antonin scalia called the government's theory of prosecution "weird." justice sandra day o'connor was particularly troubled by the trouble the jury initially had sifting the evidence. "if this thing is so confusing," she asked, "how is a businessperson supposed to know? how is a lawyer supposed to know?"

andersen's appeal was backed by the national association of criminal defense lawyers. in a friend-of-the-court brief, the association claimed that the government's broad definition of "corrupt persuasion" put defense lawyers at risk for prosecution simply for advising clients of their rights to assert legal privileges or review document retention policies.

despite the ruling, which returns the case to the fifth circuit, it is highly unlikely andersen will ever return as a viable business. it lost nearly all of its clients after its indictment, and was forced to shut down its american accounting practice due to federal laws that forbid convicted felons from auditing public companies. the firm still faces more than 100 civil suits related to its audits of enron and other companies. once 28,000 employees strong, the chicago-based andersen is now down to around 200 employees who are largely occupied with handling the civil suits and other details of winding down the partnership.



$1,000 reward offered for answer from us president

a progressive blog, democrats.com, is offering a $1,000 reward to anyone who can get united states president george w. bush to answer a question about pre-iraq war intelligence. the contest comes after bush has declined for a full month to answer any questions about a leaked secret british memo, which states, in reference to the bush administration, that "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy". neither the us or uk government are disputing the document's accuracy. the $1,000 question is:

the contest will also reward anyone who asks the question to mr. bush with $100 dollars (video evidence is required). the reward money was generated from small donations to the website.

the contest comes during renewed criticism and pressure on the administration from citizens, members of congress, retired politicians, and constitutional lawyers, generated from the recent leak of the minutes and other british documents.

earlier this month, white house spokesman scott mcclellan told reporters that the white house saw "no need" to respond to a letter from congress asking questions about the memo. he also stated that "if anyone wants to know how the intelligence was used by the administration, all they have to do is go back and look at all the public comments over the course of the lead-up to the war in iraq, and that’s all very public information. everybody who was there could see how we used that intelligence."

one of the pre-war claims used by the bush administration to justify the war was that iraq possessed "weapons of mass destruction". after a thorough search, none were found. senators on the senate intelligence committee consider three possible causes for the apparent falsity of this claim:




the last of these possibilities has not been formally investigated by the committee.


brazilian minister of culture says that he smoked marijuana until the age of 50

the brazilian minister of culture gilberto gil, aged 62, said that he smoked marijuana until he was 50. in addition he defended the decriminalization of drug's consumption.

gil took part in a press conference with journalists of "folha de sao paulo" on monday (may, 30). during the interview the brazilian minister asked:"why should [drugs] be forbidden?" he added that the drugs problem should be handled as a matter of public health. gil had already defended the idea of decriminalization during a interview with brazilian magazine veja.

gilberto gil, and the drummer chiquinho azevedo, were arrested in 1976 in florianopolis because they were carrying marijuana.

there is no consensus on decriminalization among brazilians. some people, like this brazilian anti-drugs website, believe that psychoactive drugs are dangerous and can lead to health problems, including chemical dependence. 



61.6% of the dutch people say 'no' to eu constitution

the end result says that 61.6% of the dutch people vote tegen (against) the european constitution, while 38.4% voted voor (for) the constitution. turnout was unexpectedly high, at 62.8%, more than the last three elections. the 'no' vote follows a similar vote in france last week that lead to the resignation of the prime minister jean-pierre raffarin.

as in france, both the government and the parliament was highly pro-treaty, with dutch prime minister, , pleading over the past few days with voters not to be influenced by the french 'no' vote. while the citizenship's vote is legally non-binding, mr. balkenende and the dutch parliament have said they will support it. 

the major reasons for the 'no' vote appear to be worry over the rapid expansion of the eu, loss of a national identity, distrust as a result of the inflation (allegedly a result of the euro) and a lack of democracy. other motivations include unhappiness with the government and turkey's candidate accession to the european union.




samsung's 4 gigabit flash memory begins mass production

south korean electronics giant has begun mass production of a new 4 . this is twice the size of almost all the biggest memory devices currently available.

the firm is using a new 70- process which enables it to produce the smallest cell on the market, enabling a far higher density than competitors. the device can write data at 16- per second, twice as fast as a 90nm 2gb device.

possible applications of the new memory will most likely be as a component in , top end mobile phones, , , and other portable devices.

the new form of memory writes and reads data faster than previous versions ? up to 16 megabytes per second. the storage of real-time high-definition video is feasible on the chips, according to samsung. the company also believes their flash-based disk drives could replace hard drives in laptops since they will work faster, quieter and cooler than drives currently in use.


un dismisses first official over oil-for-food scandal

un secretary general kofi annan fired the first un official in connection with the iraqi oil-for-food scandal. "after a thorough review of all aspects of the case, the secretary general has decided that mr. joseph stephanides be summarily dismissed for serious misconduct in accordance with un staff regulations," relayed spokesman stephane dujarric. "mr stephanides was advised accordingly yesterday and separated from service with immediate effect. there is no allegation of any criminal act. this is a disciplinary action for a breach of staff rules regarding procurement."

the investigation concluded that stephanides infringed on regulations by helping the british company, lloyds register inspection ltd., win a contract under the un programme for iraq. mr. stephanides acted as the head of the security council affairs division when he allegedly told the company how much to lower its price to be awarded a contract. he denies any wrong-doing and hired a lawyer to defend himself. aged 59, stephanides worked for the un for 25 years, and was due to retire in september this year.

after a first food-for-oil interim report was released in february, mr. stephanides along with benon sevan were suspended. sevan, the former head of the oil-for-food programme for 6 years, was also accused of breach of procurement rules in the report co-written by paul volcker. however, disciplinary measures against sevan will not be carried out because of his status of diplomatic immunity.

a final report is scheduled for publication in three months which should further clarify whether mr. sevan received iraqi oil allocations for a friend's company. in the meantime, he remains suspended from all un duties, and is being given only a symbolic salary of one dollar a year.

a central and unanswered question, is whether either stephanides or sevan profited directly by their actions in executing and implementing the complex programme.



department of defense denies federal funding to schools that ban military recruiting

the u.s. defense department has denied federal funding to two law schools because they do not allow military recruiters on campus. now the u.s. house of representatives is putting forward a new law that would require the secretary of defense to compile a list of colleges and universities that don't allow the military to recruit on campus.

william mitchell college of law and vermont law school (not affiliated with the university of vermont) have already been barred from federal funding for violating the solomon amendment, a 10-year old law that "the armed forces cannot be denied access to students". legislators recently passed a measure that would require the secretary of defense to provide a list of schools whose cooperation it is unsatisfied with.

representative cliff sterns (r-fl) is pushing through the house an amendment that would toughen the solomon amendment, a law which states "any college that prohibits the u.s. military from establishing or operating an rotc unit on campus or denies military recruiters access to students is ineligible for federal funding." sterns' amendment is part of the defense department authorization act.

sterns claims that yale university is discriminating against military recruiters. yale denies this. rich jacobs, a representative of yale, in a prepared statement, said "yale has sought to comply fully with the solomon amendment as it applies to rotc and yale university." yale gives rotc a room on campus, but does not help arrange interviews. according to yale's website, "the defense department's 'don't ask, don't tell' policy, which prevents openly [public] gays, lesbians, and bisexuals from serving in the military, violates the school's non-discrimination policy." the defense department has declined to sign the school's non-discriminatory policy. 

in the fall the u.s. supreme court is lined up to hear a case involving several colleges and regarding military recruitment at universities.



blog alliance forms over leaked downing street memo

on may 30, 2005, in a "blogswarm", a massive blog alliance formed. the swarm was fueled by the leak of a secret british memo known as the "downing street memo". hundreds of blogs formed into the "big brass alliance", almost overnight, and the alliance is still growing.

a blogswarm is when a large number of bloggers focus on an issue and spread information on it throughout the blogosphere quickly, causing the blogs to swiftly synchronize, much like a swarm of bees. in this particular blogswarm, titled by its patriots the "big brass blogswarm", the blogs have aggregated about a central blog: the big brass alliance.

the big brass alliance is a collective of bloggers who support afterdowningstreet.org. the latest "blogroll" can be see here via php or in rss xml. all the blogs will voluntarily post all correspondence from afterdowningstreet.org on their main page, and in general be coordinated by them. the current goals of the big brass alliance are to:


within days of its inception, the alliance delegated maintenance tasks to dedicated bloggers, created a mailing list and forum for news and coordination, and created a yahoo group and chat channel for brainstorming. 

you can see a trendgraph of the blogswarm here, and a closeup of the trend here. discussion of impeachment also soared during the blogswarm. references to "blogswarm" in blogs in its inception on may 31 can be see here. the last blogswarm was on march 21, in response to the terri schiavo trial, but the one before that was much bigger. that blogswarm was on february 17, and it was fueled by an opinion article in the wall street journal by columnist peggy noonan, titled "the blogs must be crazy". that blogswarm, however didn't generate a massive alliance like this one, and it wasn't focused on a political issue. "spitbull" has a list of other blogswarms and their "fallout", that they call a "blogswarming scorecard".


government of zimbabwe forces thousands out of their homes

200,000 people living around harare, zimbabwe have been evicted from their homes, which have been targeted in a demolition programme by the government. most have been forced to sleep out in the open while rental prices in the city have skyrocketed.

the operations have targeted at least six harare suburbs: hatcliff extension, epworth, dzivaresekwa, glenorah, glenview, budriro and mbare.

the official government newspaper, the herald, says that 22,735 people have been arrested in the drive against "illegal structures, businesses and criminal activities". 

the zimbabwe human rights association (zimrights) are pressing for the government for a six month waiting period to give residents time to make new housing arrangements. zimrights director munyaradzi bidi told the irin news service: "about 200,000 people have been affected in the demolition drive ? and many of them have papers to prove that they were legal occupants with lease agreements".



elan shares plunge as another patient dies


irish biotech firm Elan has seen its shares plunge this morning after it revealed that a fourth patient taking its new multiple sclerosis drug tysabri had contracted a fatal brain disease.

whilst us stock markets have not yet opened for business, athlone based Elan has suffered a 22% drop on the irish stock exchange and a 21.5% drop on the london stock exchange. that means that so far today the firms market value has dropped by over ?400mm to ?1.9bn. the firm was once valued at over ?20bn before the failure of tysabri and an accounting investigation.

Elan was once one of ireland's biggest business success stories. Elan still employs over 2,000 people in ireland and reported revenues of $464.0 million in 2004.




new top level domain approved

the icann (internet corporation for assigned names and numbers) responsible for managing domain names and ip addresses, approved a plan wednesday to create a new top-level domain (tld) with the .xxx extension. they are working with the domain registrar, icm registry, to make the domains available as early as fall or winter. icm plans to sell registrations of .xxx domains for $60 a year.

the new tld was one of ten recently under consideration. .jobs and .travel have already been approved.

the .xxx domain is intended for use by adult pornographic/erotic web sites. the stated reason a new tld has been approved is to protect children from pornographic sites; a filter could simply block all .xxx pages.

the icann, established by the u.s. department of commerce in 1998, is a non-profit corporation responsible for the technical coordination of the internet through the assignment of domain names and ip addresses.

the american civil liberties union opposes the proposal since topics like homosexuality or birth control could be forced to use the domain, making them easily blockable by filters.



iran, north korea, usa blamed in failure of month-long non-proliferation treaty conference

the month-long 2005 review conference on the (npt) was concluded in may this year. 

it was generally considered disappointing. the representative, mr labbe, stated that the outcome "could only be described as a failure".

the point of view of some state representatives was that the meeting failed because of possible violations of the first pillar of the treaty (non-proliferation), both because of "grave challenges to security and to the non-proliferation regime posed by iran's and the democratic people's republic of korea's non-compliance with their non-proliferation and safeguards obligations", and the de facto proliferation of nuclear weapons to non-weapons states under , in which , , , the , and host nuclear weapons and may, in principle, participate in decisions on using those weapons and participate in the delivery of the weapons to their targets.

however, the iranian representative, javad zarif, countered by stating that the "three pillars of the treaty" (non-proliferation, disarmament and the peaceful use of nuclear technology) "were intertwined and needed to be followed without diminishing the significance and effectiveness of any one pillar against the others", in reference to the failure of the nuclear weapons states to progress in disarmament. of the npt states that
he claimed that the united states had adopted a nuclear posture review, incorporating the breach of the obligations on "irreversibility", "diminished role of nuclear weapons" and "lowering the operational status of nuclear weapons" by stressing the essential role of nuclear weapons as an effective tool for achieving security ends and foreign policy objectives; developing new nuclear weapon systems, and constructing new facilities for producing nuclear weapons; resuming efforts to develop and deploy tactical nuclear weapons, despite the commitment to reverse the process and reduce them; and targeting non-nuclear weapon states parties to the treaty and planning to attack those states. 

the representative, rastam mohd isa, summarised the point of view of the states in the (nam), claiming that they had maintained that the three pillars, nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation and the peaceful use of nuclear technology "should be approached in a balanced manner" and that the treaty should be fully and non-selectively implemented. he also asserted the "indispensable need" to preserve the decisions and resolutions of the 1995 review and extension conference and the final document of the 2000 review conference, which were positions, on which the nam had consistently insisted on since the npt's entry into force in 1970.

the representative, anatoliy scherba, judged that the case for non-proliferation rested on the primary objective of the npt to eliminate all nuclear weapons and, hence, the central importance of article vi and felt that it required from those who did not possess, not to acquire, and for those who possessed, to eliminate. 



greek soccer 3rd division, north group, pavlos melas relegated

after its first appearance in the 3rd division, pavlos melas soccer club finished in the 14th position and was relegated, despite its 2-1 victory over doxa dramas football club, with 36 points in 32 games. the team from salonika, greece will be a serious contender for the championship in the 4th division. former olympiacos sfc player alekos tatsis, almost anderlecht, belgium's starlet, was released free by osfc. pavlos melas was planning to sign him, but after the relegation, tatsis probably won't join the "greens".



second darwin's sandwich shop opens in cambridge, massachusetts, usa

darwin's ltd. opened a second location of their sandwich shop at 1613 cambridge street in cambridge, massachusetts, in late may. it is situated across from cambridge rindge and latin school. previously limited to one location at 148 mount auburn street, the second store seats approximately 30 people and sells sandwiches, coffee drinks, locally made pastries, as well as some produce and snack foods. the establishment also provides free wireless access through the wanderingwifi service. the shop plays music during the day; during this reporter's visit to the shop, selections played ranged from david bowie to the strokes. the store is air-conditioned.

key differences between the original store and the new one include the unification of the cafe and the sandwich line now behind one counter, handicap accessible restrooms, no beer or wine sold at location, and a lack of a loyal customer base. although the recent months have been slow, business is expected to pick up with the return of cambridge area students this autumn. 

while the original location of darwin's was recently cited for lacking sneeze guards before the kitchen counter, according to the cambridge chronicle, the new darwin's has acrylic sheets along the front of their sandwich counter. the original darwin's has installed the sneeze guard at the kitchen counter the day following citation. 


france: villepin's cabinet announced

newly named prime minister of france dominique de villepin has had his cabinet accepted by president of the republic jacques chirac.

head of the majority union for a popular movement (ump) party, nicolas sarkozy, comes as a second-in-command as minister of the interior, with the honorific rank of minister of state. the ministry of the interior is traditionally one of the most important positions in the cabinet, with that of finances; the minister of the interior is in charge, notably, of law enforcement and relationships with local governments. there is some uneasiness in having the head of a party in a position that is partly in charge of electoral redistrictings. also, this arrangement creates a peculiar situation: it is public knowledge that villepin and sarkozy consider each other a dangerous political rival with respect to the 2007 presidential election, and they are widely said to loathe each other.

the cabinet was presented as a "restricted" cabinet. however, as many as 31 ministers, delegate ministers and secretaries of state were named; still, this is a reduction from the preceding 43. while the cabinet is for a large part copied from the preceding one, some ministers who had provoked controversy and animosity were removed or moved to another less risky position. francois fillon, formerly minister of national education, whose plan for reforming public education was lambasted by members of his own party, including president of the national assembly jean-louis debre, was ruled partly unconstitutional by the constitutional council, and provoked widespread student protests and unrest in high schools, is no longer a minister. dominique perben, who pushed for controversial law which opponents allege curtail fundamental constitutional freedoms while minister of justice, was moved to the less sensitive position of minister of transportation and equipment. it is also possible that the movement of brigitte girardin from minister for the oversea (relationships with french overseas departments and territories) to (international) cooperation was motivated by the crisis that occurred in french polynesia between gaston flosse and his opponent oscar temaru.

while the union for french democracy (udf) party, led by francois bayrou, formally remains in the ruling coalition along with the ump, it has decided that, because the new government would probably do more of the same policies, it would not participate in it. the only member of the government from udf is gilles de robien, as in the preceding government.

previous head of government jean-pierre raffarin had lost the confidence of the french, with polls putting him as low as 22% confidence. president chirac's confidence among the citizenry is also a record low of 24%.

mr dominique de villepin is prime minister.


delegate ministers operate as subordinates of ministers.




john kerry criticizes news media, joins call for inquiry on downing street memo

in a swing through south coast, florida, former 2004 presidential candidate senator john kerry criticized the near silence of the u.s. mass media regarding the so-called "downing street memo". the downing street memo is a leaked secret british document that details the minutes of a 2002 meeting between top-level british and american government officials. the memo states that george w. bush "was determined" to attack iraq long before going to congress with the matter, and that "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy." the accuracy of the memo is not being disputed by either government. the memo caused an uproar in great britain and made a significant impact in the british national elections, but has gotten little attention in american news. kerry said of the memo: 

"when i go back [to washington] on monday, i am going to raise the issue. i think it's a stunning, unbelievably simple and understandable statement of the truth and a profoundly important document that raises stunning issues here at home. and it's amazing to me the way it escaped major media discussion. it's not being missed on the internet, i can tell you that."

he questioned americans' understanding of the war and the idea that criticism equals disloyalty, saying,

"do you think that americans if they really understood it would feel that way knowing that on election day, 77 percent of americans who voted for bush believed that weapons of mass destruction had been found and 77 percent believe saddam did 9/11? is there a way for this to break through, ever?"

representative john conyers has written to the president regarding the memo:

"...a debate has raged in the united states over the last year and one half about whether the obviously flawed intelligence that falsely stated that iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction was a mere 'failure' or the result of intentional manipulation to reach foreordained conclusions supporting the case for war. the memo appears to close the case on that issue stating that in the united states the intelligence and facts were being 'fixed' around the decision to go to war."

there is a growing movement on the internet and in congress for a "resolution of inquiry" into issues surrounding the planning and execution of the iraq war, especially in regard to the administration's handling of intelligence. john dean, a key watergate figure, wrote in a june 2003 column for findlaw.com, that, "to put it bluntly, if bush has taken congress and the nation into war based on bogus information, he is cooked... manipulation or deliberate misuse of national security intelligence data, if proven, could be a 'high crime' under the constitution's impeachment clause."

however, in practical terms impeachment in the u.s. senate requires a 2/3 majority for conviction, which is unlikely given that 55 out of 100 senators are republican.

when asked about the downing street memo on may 23, white house spokesman scott mcclellan said:

"if anyone wants to know how the intelligence was used by the administration, all they have to do is go back and look at all the public comments over the course of the lead-up to the war in iraq, and that's all very public information. everybody who was there could see how we used that intelligence.

"and in terms of the intelligence, it was wrong, and we are taking steps to correct that and make sure that in the future we have the best possible intelligence, because it's critical in this post-september 11th age, that the executive branch has the best intelligence possible."




ryanair passenger numbers up 34%

irish low fares airline, ryanair, has reported that passenger numbers for may 2005 are up 34%. this represented the largest increase in traffic for over a year, and comes after a string of good news for the airline during the week; most notably reporting record profits.

ryanair carried 2.9 million passengers in may compared to 2.17 million in the same period last year. this was partly helped by an increase in the number of routes over the year. ryanair has been aggressively adding routes from its new european base in shannon and throughout southern spain over the past year. the airline now operates 12 routes from shannon and over 50 from spain.

load factor also increased, from 81% to 82%, as did the percentage of tickets sold on the internet. internet sales now account for 98% of total ticket sales, up from 97% in may 2004.

the airline, which operates over 200 routes, revealed after tax profits of ?268.9m (us $332m) earlier this week and record revenue of ?1.34bn ($1.66bn).




continuing civil unrest in iran fueled by election tensions, soccer victory

in the past several weeks, iran has seen civil unrest in several major cities, ranging from peaceful student demonstrations to riots to apparent politically motivated assassinations. tensions have been especially high in the past several days.

major soccer victories have served as the spark for some demonstrations, while others seem to be a symptom of disputes regarding ballot issues in iran's upcoming (june 17) elections. the guardian council which approves all political candidacies has cleared eight nominees, barring several popular candidates.






u.s. military confirms qur'ans were kicked, stepped on and splashed with urine at guantanamo

on friday, the u.s. military released the results of their investigation and confirmed that in 5 separate incidents, american guards at the guantanamo bay prison "mishandled" the islamic holy book. however, they stress that guards were usually "respectful" of the qur'an.

one incident involved splashing a qur'an with urine by urinating near an air vent while others involved kicking, stepping on and writing in qur'ans.

brigadier-general jay hood, the commander of the jail, said that these incidents are the exception to the rule. in a statement issued late friday, he said: "the inquiry ... revealed a consistent, documented policy of respectful handling of the qur'an dating back almost two-and-a-half years."

gen. hood looked into the allegations, published and then retracted by newsweek, that american personnel flushed a qur'an down a toilet. he said that the inquiry did not find any evidence supporting this particular allegation. "the inquiry found no credible evidence that a member of the joint task force at guantanamo bay ever flushed a qur'an down a toilet. this matter is considered closed."

the incidents reported are:


the investigation also revealed 15 alleged cases of qur'an mistreatment by detainees themselves. detainees used qur'ans as pillows, urinated on them, and, several times, tore pages out of copies of the books, according to the report. for example, the report states that a guard observed a "detainee place two qur'ans in his toilet and state he no longer cared about the qur'an or his religion," on february 23, 2004. it is believed that such behavior is intended to cause disruption and problems for the guards.


first winter snowfall in new zealand

overnight friday a southerly storm brought snow to both the southern alps and the central north island mountains of new zealand for the first time this year, closing major roads and stranding travellers at the start of the queens birthday holiday weekend. police and the aa urged motorists to drive with "extra care" and "to the conditions" this weekend.
in the north island, state highway 1 between waiouru and rangipo, the desert road was closed by deep snow at 3 pm on friday afternoon. other roads in the area, including other parts of state highway 1 between bulls and turangi, state highway 4, via national park, and 49, via ohakune, were closed at 8 pm. 

these road closures stopped all traffic through the centre of the north island. about 200 travellers were reported to have spent the night at the waiouru army camp, being accommodated in the marae and the barracks. grit trucks and snow ploughs worked overnight to clear the snow and reopen roads, with the desert road finally being reopened about 12:30 pm saturday.

together with a slip threatening to close state highway 3 in the manawatu gorge and damage to state highway 2 after floods in the bay of plenty a couple of weeks ago, the only reliable alternative route for travellers around the north island was via wanganui and taranaki.

in the south island, police and the aa advised that "chains were essential" when travelling over the mountain passes.

yesterday, mount hutt skifield announced it would be opening saturday morning. early saturday morning, skiers were reported to be queuing at the gates of mount hutt skifield, eager to get the first opportunity to hit the slopes in 2005. other south island ski fields were also indicating june opening dates.

the weather outlook is for cold southerly winds and rain over the queens birthday holiday weekend, with snow down to 400m in the south island.



bush administration changes official position on legitimacy of qur'an desecration allegations

after an investigation of allegations that islam's the was mishandled in front of at guantanamo bay, cuba, the has acknowledged the credibility of some of these reports. according to robert burns of the associated press, u.s. military officials acknowledged that, "a muslim holy book was splashed with urine," and "a detainee's quran was deliberately kicked and another's was stepped on." the us government first denied a specific report that the qu'ran had been flushed down a toilet at the prison facility, but on friday agreed that similar allegations were indeed true.

on may 16, magazine apologized to the victims of deadly riots that ensued due to a newsweek article stating that u.s. officials defiled the qur'an. criticized newsweek's initial response to the incident, saying it was "puzzling." later that day, newsweek retracted the story, which the white house said was a "good first step".

on may 20, the international red cross (irc) revealed in a rare public announcement that it had documented and reported to the united states credible information concerning desecration of the qur'an by guantanamo bay personnel. pentagon spokesman bryan whitman, acknowledged that allegations were made on "rare occasions" but were uncorroborated. simon schorno, a red cross spokesman, disputed the 's denial saying, "all information we received were corroborated allegations." he added that, "we certainly corroborated mentions of the events by detainees themselves," and that "the icrc considers such reports "very seriously, and very carefully, and [we] document everything."
scott mcclellan explained in a press conference that the white house is not trying to tell newsweek what to print. mcclellan said, "look, this report caused serious damage to the image of the united states abroad. and newsweek has said that they got it wrong. i think newsweek recognizes the responsibility they have. we appreciate the step that they took by retracting the story. now we would encourage them to move forward and do all that they can to help repair the damage that has been done by this report. and that's all i'm saying. but, no, you're absolutely right, it's not my position to get into telling people what they can and cannot report."

on may 25, amnesty international called for the shutdown on guantanamo bay due to numerous human rights violations, saying "the 'war on terror' appeared more effective in eroding international human rights principles than in countering international 'terrorism'." amnesty international's view was shared by both the international red cross (irc) and the american civil liberties union (aclu). the irc has said it reported to the u.s. government detainee's reports of desecration of the qur'an. in the foreword of the report, written by amnesty international secretary general , guantanamo was compared to a soviet-era gulag in that it is "entrenching the practice of arbitrary and indefinite detention in violation of international law".

white house spokesman scott mcclellan responded saying the report's allegations were "ridiculous and unsupported by the facts. the united states is leading the way when it comes to protecting human rights and promoting . we have 50 million people in iraq and afghanistan. we have worked to advance and in the world so that people are governed under a rule of law and that there are... protections in place for , that women's rights are advanced so that women can fully participate in societies where now they cannot", as well as supporting the fight against aids in africa.

about the allegations of abuse at guantanamo, which mcclellan has previously called isolated incidents, he said, "we hold people accountable when there is abuse. we take steps to prevent it from happening again, and we do so in a very public way for the world to see that we lead by example, and that we do have values that we hold very dearly and believe in."

on may 31, u.s. president george w. bush dismissed the human rights report as "absurd" for its harsh criticism of u.s. treatment of terrorist suspects at guantanamo bay, cuba, saying the allegations were made by prisoners "who hate america." "it's an absurd allegation. the united states is a country that promotes freedom around the world," bush said of the amnesty international report.

william f. schulz, executive director of amnesty international usa, defended the report, saying, "what is 'absurd' is president bush's attempt to deny the deliberate policies of his administration." and "what is 'absurd' and indeed outrageous is the bush administration's failure to undertake a full independent investigation". irene khan also responded saying, "the administration's response has been that our report is absurd, that our allegations have no basis, and our answer is very simple: if that is so, open up these detention centres, allow us and others to visit them."

and, on friday, the released the results of their investigation and confirmed that in 5 separate incidents, american guards at the guantanamo bay prison "mishandled" the islamic holy book. however, they stress that guards were usually "respectful" of the qur'an. one incident involved splashing a koran with urine by urinating near an air vent while others involved kicking, stepping on and writing in qur'ans.

, the commander of the jail, looked into the allegations, published and then retracted by newsweek, that american personnel flushed a qur'an down a toilet. he said that the inquiry did not find any evidence supporting this particular allegation. "the inquiry found no credible evidence that a member of the joint task force at guantanamo bay ever flushed a qur'an down a toilet. this matter is considered closed."


online poker firm set for multibillion pound flotation

partygaming plc, the worlds largest online poker company, has announced that it intends to float on the london stock exchange by the end of this month. although it has not yet set a price, analysts in "the city" are speculating that the flotation could value the firm at up to stg￡5bn. such a valuation would make the flotation the largest in four years.

the gibraltar-based company, which owns the partypoker brand, intends to sell 23% of the company in the flotation. if the company's initial public offering is successful, the firm will enter the ftse 100 index (the top 100 firms on the exchange by value). its value would be greater than that of both british airways and boots.

partygaming plc was founded in 1997 by anurag dikshit and has since grown at a huge rate - doubling profits in the past year alone to stg￡371m. at peak times it attracts 70,000 simultaneous players.



fire in alpine road tunnel between italy and france

italian firefighters say a truck burst into flames inside the 13 km (8 mile) frejus tunnel under the alps. two bodies have been recovered from the tunnel between italy and france. according to the italian news agency ansa, the truck which caught fire was carrying tires, and the fire has spread to three other vehicles: another truck, loaded with paint, a van of the french tunnel company and a car. for much of the night, italian emergency services were being held back about a mile from the fire by the intense heat, but the fire has now been put out. several vehicles are thought to be still in the tunnel. police are trying to contact a group of people who escaped on foot in order to assess whether people were trapped inside.

french officials have stated that all people who made it to safety alcoves (ventilated shelters directly linked to a fresh air shaft) on the french side of the tunnel have been safely rescued. the italian side of the tunnel is now being searched for bodies by the italian emergency services.
the tunnel has a 0.54% uphill gradient going from the french to the italian side. heat and smoke generally escaped on the italian side, as the uphill tunnel acted like a chimney that sucked in cold fresh air from the french side.

val frejus is a city on the french side of the border, in the rhone-alpes "departement".

a fire in a similar tunnel under the alps (the mont blanc tunnel) reached temperatures of 1,000° celsius and killed 39 people in 1999.










big shoes to fill at ebay

there are often odd, unusual and controversial items up for sale on ebay - multi-million euro planes, the pope's old car and a young woman's virginity, to name just a few. but how about the prime minister's shoes? 

shoes custom designed for former british prime minister margaret thatcher have been put up for sale on ebay. the shoes, which have a reserve price of ￡2,930 (us $3,580), are currently owned by 65 year old eleanor graham. ms. graham bought them in a sue ryder charity shop after seeing a member of thatcher's staff drop them in the shop. she guessed that they would increase in value over the years, so ms. graham purchased them.

the rayne shoes - which come in gold, silver and black suede - are size five and come with a letter received in 2001 from ms thatchers office confirming that she did wear rayne shoes. 

you can see the shoes at ebay by clicking here.



israel upset republic of ireland again in world cup qualifiers

having come back in the final minute of time to draw 1-1 with israel in tel aviv two months ago, brian kerr's squad were determined not to let it happen a second time in last nights sell out lansdowne road group 4 world cup qualifier clash. however despite two early goals for the republic of ireland, the israelis still managed to claw back a draw - much to the dismay of onlooking irish supporters.

after just five minutes, ian harte scored from a 25 yard free kick putting the homeside ahead just like in the first match. however unlike in the first game, the irish did not slow down the pace and become conservative. at the 11th minute mark, robbie keane scored ireland's second goal of the match; much to the delight - and even moreso relief of the irish supporters in the crowd of 34,000.

in a seemingly comfortable position, disaster hit the irish team when robbie keane left for the bench with a shoulder injury sustained in the third minute of the game. as the 40th minute approached, israel's benayoun and avi yehiel combined efforts to put the ball in the back of the irish net to bring their team back into the game. things went from bad to worse for the irish as the first half drew to a close with john o'shea getting a yellow card in the irish box - and giving his opposition a penalty. the penalty was scored three time by nimni, but only on his third attempt did it count - the first two disallowed because the referee had not blown his whistle.

the second half proved to be less fruitious for both teams, with no goals scored. the irish became increasingly frustrated as the game progressed because of perceived israeli time-wasting. as the game became more scrappy andy o'brien got sent off when he attempted to block the israeli keeper from punching the ball.

the game finished 2-2, much to the despair of the irish squad, who now can only draw encouragement from the fact that they remain ahead of france in the group table.


mars rover opportunity successfully escapes sand trap

the mars rover opportunity has successfully escaped from a sand trap. jpl engineers cheered when images returned from mars showed the rover's wheels were free. engineers worked for nearly five weeks to carefully maneuver the rover out of the sand dune.

"after a nerve-wracking month of hard work, the rover team is both elated and relieved to finally see our wheels sitting on top of the sand instead of half buried in it," said jeffrey biesiadecki, a jpl rover mobility engineer.

traction was difficult in the ripple-shaped dune of windblown dust and sand that opportunity drove into on april 26. in the weeks following, the rover churned 192 meters (629 feet) worth of wheel rotations before gaining enough traction to actually move one meter (about three feet). the rover team directed the drives in cautious increments from may 13 through june 4.

"we did careful testing for how to get opportunity out of the sand. then we patiently followed the strategy developed from the testing, monitoring every step of the way," biesiadecki said. "we hope to have opportunity busy with a full schedule of scientific exploration again shortly."
opportunity's next task is to examine the site to provide a better understanding of what makes that ripple different from the dozens of similar ones the rover easily crossed. "after we analyze this area, we'll be able to plan safer driving in the terrain ahead," said jpl's jim erickson, rover project manager.

both spirit and opportunity have worked in harsh martian conditions much longer than anticipated. they have been studying geology on opposite sides of mars for more than a year of extended missions since successfully completing their three-month primary missions in april 2004.

"the first thing we're going to do is simply take a hard look at the stuff we were stuck in," said dr. steve squyres of cornell university, ithaca, n.y. he is the principal investigator for the mars rovers' science instruments. "after that, we will begin a cautious set of moves to get us on our way southward again. south is where we think the best science is, so that's still where we want to go."

shortly after landing in january 2004, opportunity found layered bedrock that bore geological evidence for a shallow ancient sea. spirit did not find extensive layered bedrock until more than a year later, after driving more than two miles and climbing into a range of hills known as "columbia hills."


switzerland is voting on same-sex partnerships and schengen/dublin

switzerland is voting today on their quarterly federal referenda over same-sex partnerships and the schengen/dublin treaty. both proposals were popular initiatives made by the swiss people.

the first question is whether same-sex partnership should be legalised throughout the country. already the cantons of geneva and zurich allow same-sex partnerships, however this proposal will cover the country including the conservative north-eastern cantons of graubunden and appenzell. in fact appenzell innerrhoden only allowed women the vote at cantonal level in 1990 by the federal tribunal of switzerland.

essentially, this proposal will allow gays and lesbians the right to have joint taxes, pensions and inheritance. to qualify, partners must both live together and formally commit themselves six months in advance to running a household and supporting and aiding one another.

the second proposal will make switzerland be a member of the schengen treaty and participate in the “open-borders” scheme. supporters say it would encourage tourism and make visiting much easier, especially after the row over swiss-german border a few months ago. together with the dublin treaty, it would make switzerland join a bilateral agreement to stop asylum seekers having to seek asylum in switzerland after claiming asylum in an agreement country such as germany or france. 

opponents say this proposal will set switzerland on a slippery slope into the european union, not give switzerland the right to its own borders and compromise the country's strict and engrained neutrality.

out of the big 4 main parties, the centre-left social democrats, the liberal-right free democrats and the centre-right christian democrats have said yes to both proposals. however, the populist-right swiss people's party have said no to both proposals

results will start being available today in the early evening.



computer associates warns of massive botnet attack

computer associates are warning of a current three pronged, co-ordinated malware attack on computers that are using microsoft windows and are connected to the internet. the attack involves the use of three different trojan horses called glieder, fantibag and mitglieder. the goal is to create a botnet consisting of a large number of compromised computers. access to this group of compromised machines will then be available on a black market, at prices as low as five cents per machine.




it should be noted that these trojan horses only affect the microsoft windows family of operating systems. no other operating systems (such as linux and apple's os x) are vulnerable. in order to prevent infection, windows users are advised to ensure that they have the latest operating system patches from microsoft, that their chosen antivirus software is up to date, and that they are using firewall software where appropriate.


ap probe suggests bolton manipulated iraq inspections to favor war

a deputy acting for john bolton told the "associated press" that mr. bolton orchestrated the firing of the head of a global arms-control agency in 2002. jose bustani, a brazilian diplomat for the agency, was trying to send chemical weapons inspectors into baghdad. the former deputy told the "ap" that mr. bolton did not want that to happen because it might help defuse the crisis over alleged iraqi weapons and thereby undermine a u.s. rationale for war. a spokeswoman told "ap" that bolton has no comment.

this new information comes in the wake of what is purported to be the leaked minutes of a 2002 meeting between top us and uk government officials, in which matthew rycroft reported ""bush wanted to remove saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and wmd. but the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."" neither the uk nor the us government is disputing the accuracy of the memo.

according to multiple reports, during a 2002 meeting between national security advisor condoleezza rice and a group of us senators, president bush interrupted and changed the subject to iraq. one of the people present told "cnn's" daniel eisenberg that bush used a vulgar epithet to refer to saddam and concluded by saying, ""we're taking him out.""

following the 2004 presidential election, republican members of the senate select committee on intelligence refused to carry out plans to review how u.s. policymakers used pre-war iraq intelligence. the plans to review the intelligence after the election were reached as a compromise with the democratic members of the committee, prior to elections. according to a co-chair, the president's commission on intelligence is not authorized by its charter to look into the subject. proponents of an inquiry have been unsuccessful in getting an investigation of the matter.


the swiss vote yes to same-sex relationships and &quot;schengen/dublin&quot;

the swiss people have voted a double yes in referenda to the proposals over same-sex partnerships and the schengen/dublin bilateral agreements. overall they voted 58.03% for the same-sex partnerships and 54.60% for schengen/dublin.

the referendum of allowing the registration of same-sex partnerships was widely welcomed with the people voting 58.03% yes and 41.97% no. same-sex partnerships are already legal in the cantons of geneva and zurich. the partnerships would carry many of the legal rights of marriage, with the exception of adoption rights and fertility treatments.

the referendum of the schengen/dublin bilateral agreement was initially accepted, despite growing resentment with the electorate. it was passed through with the people voting 54.60% yes and 45.40% no. the agreement relaxes existing border controls between other participating nations in concert with the schengen treaty, which is one of the competences for inclusion in the european union. 

the bilateral agreement also includes participation in the dublin treaty, which defines a policy for handling asylum seekers within schengen participating countries. also stipulated by the agreements is the use of a unified "european informatic system" for tracking people who are wanted, missing, or are illegal immigrants and also aims to stop traffic of illegal or stolen property.

out of the big 4 main parties the centre-left social democrats, the liberal-right free democrats and the centre-right christian democrats have said yes to both proposals, however the populist-right swiss people's party have said no to both proposals. 


u.s. wants to impose its &quot;no-fly&quot; list on most canadian domestic flights

the government of canada is fighting to keep washington from having access to passenger lists for canada's domestic flights. the canadian transport minister jean lapierre said two-thirds of canada's domestic flights at some point cross through american air space. the minister said he may have to re-route them (around u.s. airspace) rather than breach the privacy rights of domestic canadian passengers.

in plans which are not yet finalized, washington recently warned canada (and other countries) the u.s. intends to require that its no-fly list procedures apply to all foreign airlines which pass through u.s. airspace. after 9/11, a watch list of suspected terrorists was created by the u.s. that bars those on the list from air travel within its borders.

on wednesday, lapierre said it's a “very hot issue,” and that he’s working to protect the privacy of canadians.

“i’m very worried about it. we don’t think it’s a good idea that canadians travelling from one (canadian) city to another would have to be checked under the american no-fly list.” lapierre said. he estimates that nearly two-thirds of the 278,000 yearly flights between canadian cities cross over the u.s. border. most major flight zones from urban centers in canada are in its southern portion, close to the u.s. where even winds might push a plane across the border.

if the matter can not be resolved, lapierre said, “we would have to take a northern route, which would be much more expensive.” "yahoo! news canada" reports that lapierre intends to lobby u.s. transportation secretary norman mineta against the changes.

last year, the canadian province of british columbia put controls on firms that handle an individual's personal data that prevents them from sharing private information on canadians with u.s. authorities. the issue goes to canada's sovereignty of its citizens and the u.s. sovereignty of its airspace.

the historically close relations between canada and the u.s. was evident during the recent virgin atlantic incident, where a flight was intercepted by 2 canadian cf-18 jet fighters. they were scrambled from quebec to escort the inter-continental flight originating from london to the halifax international airport after a hijacking signal, an apparent accident, was sent from the plane. the plane was detained in halifax on friday for approximately four hours. ultimately it was cleared, and landed safely at its original destination in john f. kennedy international airport in new york city.

both the aclu and the are involved in lawsuits against the u.s. government relating to no-fly lists. epic has received documents under the u.s. freedom of information act which it says "establish that the tsa administers two lists: a "no-fly" list and a "selectee" list, which requires the passenger to go through additional security measures. the names are provided to air carriers through security directives or emergency amendments and are stored in their computer systems so that an individual with a name that matches the list can be flagged when getting a boarding pass. a "no-fly" match requires the agent to call a law enforcement officer to detain and question the passenger. in the case of a selectee, an "s" or special mark is printed on their boarding pass and the person receives additional screening at security." 




coldplay's new album hits stores worldwide this week

the latest album of hit british band coldplay is due to be released worldwide this monday (in europe) and tuesday (in north america) amid rife anticipation among fans. the album, called "x&y", is the band's third, following "parachutes" which came out in 2000 and "a rush of blood to the head" which appeared in 2002. combined sales of the first two albums are above 20m copies, making coldplay one of the biggest bands of recent years.

the majority of music critics have given the album a good review, claiming that the band's songs have become 'tougher' and 'more diverse'. radio listeners have already sampled some of the new songs such as "speed of sound", and the full album has been leaked onto internet file-sharing networks.

the album, which features 13 tracks collectively accounting for 62 minutes of music, has topped amazon.com's music sales chart since march thanks to thousands of pre-orders, breaking the record for internet pre-orders previously held by dido's "life for rent".



amnesty report's criticisms rejected by bush administration

irene khan, secretary general of amnesty international, compared the united states detention facility at guantanamo bay to a soviet-era gulag in that it is "entrenching the practice of arbitrary and indefinite detention in violation of international law," she said. 
the group's executive director william schulz, on "fox news sunday", said in response to questioning that they do not "know for sure" whether or not testimonies it has published describing torture and abuse of prisoners by sections of the u.s. military are valid because the u.s. will not give access to the camp to investigate them. 

he also said he has no conclusive evidence that u.s. secretary of defense, donald rumsfeld, ordered torture of detainees at the facility. schulz had previously referred to "apparent high-level architects of torture,", and included donald rumsfeld in that group. 

director schulz stated that comparing the installation to a gulag was perhaps not the best choice of words. "...they (detainees) are not in forced labor, they are not being denied food. but," he continued," there are some analogies between the gulags and our detention facilities." schulz alleged that u.s. officials are "running an archipelago of detention facilities," some secret. the report also describes "ghost" detainees who "disappear" and the export of prisoners to countries that are known to practice torture.

during his appearance, schulz argued that his and other human rights groups should be given broader access to the facility. "we don't know for sure what all is happening at guantanamo," he said, "and our whole point is that the united states ought to allow independent human rights organizations to investigate." the treatment of prisoners at the facility has been in hot dispute recently, with amnesty international comparing the facility to a "gulag" in its annual human rights report. bush administration officials condemned the comparison. 

on friday, the u.s. government released documents indicating that both guards and detainees at the facility had on a few occasions abused the qur'an, the muslim holy book.

prisoners and ex-prisoners at guantanamo bay have testified that they have been tortured. david hicks, still being held, filed an affidavit on august 5, 2004 declaring that he had been tortured, abused and ill-treated during his detention by us military authorities, and that he saw and heard similar treatment inflicted on other detainees. mamdouh habib, now free, says about his time at guantanamo bay that he was told by interrogators that his family had been killed, and that he was tied to the ground while a prostitute menstruated on him. professor christopher tennant of sydney university also stated he saw an unsigned medical report from guantanamo bay that backed up habib's claim to have been beaten while in us custody; 

"well, the main feature of the medical report from guantanamo was that he had had repeatedly blood in his urine, which is a very significant symptom and a worrying symptom, and that was consistent with his reports both to me and to the specialist physician who also examined him, and was consistent with the fact that, on examination, he had evidence of discolouration to his skin on his right loin, just over his kidney, which in turn was consistent with old bruising and possibly due to being beaten."




two women first ever to serve on municipal council in kuwait

following elections in the country of kuwait on june 2, two women were appointed for the first time ever to the kuwaiti municipal council. this follows a historic decision on may 16 that granted kuwaiti women the right to vote and run for public office in future elections.

the kuwaiti minster of social affairs, faysal al-hajji, said that "during its weekly meeting on sunday, the cabinet named two women to the municipal council for the first time in the history of kuwait." the
women are:

the positive developments in kuwaiti politics have been praised by many feminists and foreign observers.

the decision to grant women the vote overcame strong resistance to pass by a 35-23 margin. the only remaining middle eastern country that does not grant women the right to vote is saudi arabia.

the sixteen members of the council are divided between ten members who are elected by popular vote, and six who are appointed. the ten elected members were all male and mostly conservative. the six appointees were the two women and four men considered to be liberals. the election and appointment results still need to be ratified by the emir, who has been supportive of the efforts to give women the right to vote.

although women were not eligible to run for elective office during the most recent election, they are expected to vote and run for office in kuwait for the first time ever beginning in the 2007 parliamentary elections.


england off to electric start in women's euro 2005 football championship

england's woman football team made a dramatic start to their euro 2005 campaign when a 92nd minute strike gave them victory over finland in the city of manchester stadium.

twenty-nine thousand fans saw seventeen year-old karen carney kick the winning goal with a 15-yard shot over the keeper into the roof of the net.

england gained an early lead after a header by amanda barr put them ahead and an own-goal from finland gave them a 2-0 lead at half-time.

but a revitalised finland scored soon after the interval when anna-kaisa rantanen found the back of the net, and england where under constant pressure from then on. england looked set to hold on for a victory to put them at the top of group a until the last minute of normal time saw laura kalmari score, leaving the match at 2-2.

the england strike team found new vigour with carney and her fellow forwards putting the finns under heavy pressure, with carney eventually defeating the finnish keeper who had made several dramatic saves in the last ten minutes of play.

england now face denmark on wednesday. denmark are expected to be a tougher opposition than finland.

in the other group a match, sweden drew with denmark, each earning one point, leaving england clear at the top of the table with three points for sunday evening's victory.



sweden celebrates its first national day as a public holiday

sweden today celebrates its first national day as a public holiday.

at 10 o'clock (cet) the day was officially opened by the royal family children at the stockholm palace. crown princess victoria said that it was a very special day.

during the day, several demonstrations are scheduled in stockholm and the rest of sweden.

june 6 is celebrated in the remembrance of the crowning of gustav vasa in 1523. the gustav vasa-reference is a somewhat criticized in parts of sweden that weren't a part of sweden back then.

since 1983 it's a national day, but it has been an ordinary weekday until 2005. thus, the swedes haven't celebrated their national day much at all, compared to e.g. the norwegians.


international criminal court to investigate crimes against humanity in darfur

the international criminal court has announced an investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity in the darfur region of sudan.

51 names of suspects have been handed to the icc by a un inquiry into the crisis, in which up to 350,000 people have been killed and more than two million displaced by a militia force, the janjaweed ('men on horses'). the attacks, repeatedly called genocide by the u.s. administration, are directed towards black africans. 

kolawole olaniyan, director of amnesty international’s africa programme, said: “this announcement brings hope for justice and accountability for the
victims of killings, massive forced displacement and rape in darfur.

“however, for it to be meaningful for the people of darfur, there must be a
commitment on the part of the sudanese government to fully support the icc
investigation ? including by protecting victims and witnesses and arresting
and surrendering persons subject to icc arrest warrants.

“the victims cry out for justice, not for the cosmetic actions of a
government that still denies that mass rape has been committed and has
shown itself to be unable and unwilling to address the crimes being
committed in darfur. there should also be reparations for the victims who
have lost everything and are facing a third year of misery and insecurity
in camps”.

the government of sudan has so far refused to accept the validity of an international investigation.


new denunciations of political corruption create severe political crisis in brazil

the brazilian deputy roberto jefferson told the brazilian newspaper folha de sao paulo that the ruling workers' party (pt) has paid brazilian deputies 30 thousand brazilian reals (us 12 thousand) each, every month. deputy jefferson is the president of the brazilian labour party (ptb) and he is accused of directing a corrupt scheme that involves the brazilian postal service. the ptb is an ally of the government.

jefferson's allegations increase the severe political crisis regarding the government of luiz inacio lula da silva. lula has convened a special meeting to discuss the crisis in the government. because of the recent scandal brazilian stock markets went down and the u.s. dollar increased its value in relation to the brazilian real.

the brazilian senate and the chamber of deputies are discussing the installation of a special congressional commission to investigate the allegations. the first attempt of the brazilian government to prevent the creation of the congress' special commission (convincing some deputies not to endorse the commission's creation) has failed. now the government is trying to stop the creation of the commission in the senate and is lobbying against it in the congress, trying to influence both senators and deputies.

the opposition party, psdb, criticized recently the efforts of the brazilian government to stop the special commission of investigation, using the influence of the minister of the economy antonio palocci.

the workers’ party published in its webpage a note denying jefferson’s allegations and saying that it supports investigations by brazilian authorities. the brazilian minister waldir pires has said in an interview with agencia brasil that the denunciations of corruption are appearing more because the government is fighting against them. he also blamed previous governments by the corruption.

in a note in the workers’ party website, the party accuses the former-president fernando henrique cardoso government of corruption.

on april 2005, the mayor of rio de janeiro, cesar maia, denounced the workers’ party payment to deputies.

the allegations of jefferson marks the beginnings of a severe crisis in brazilian government. this is the most severe crisis since the impeachment of the former president fernando collor de mello in 1992.

politicians from the opposition said that they don't want the impeachment of lula, however they demand the investigation of all denunciations and that the guilty be punished.


some excerpts of the interview of roberto jefferson:


son of pele arrested accused of drug traffic

according to the brazilian newspaper o estado de sao paulo, the newspaper of tv globo informed that the former-goalkeeper of santos football club and son of the famous soccer player pele, edinho, was arrested in company of another 17 persons. the police accuse them of drug trafficking and connections with a criminal organization in rio de janeiro.

the arrest happened this monday, june 6, by morning.



steve jobs gives opening keynote to wwdc 2005/notes


over 1.5m apply for british live 8 tickets

the 'text lottery' for tickets to the london "live 8" concert began this morning. the concert, which is part of an international music bonanza taking place across north america and europe, is planned to coincide with this summers g8 summit in edinburgh. 

organised by bob geldof, the series of concerts are being held to raise awareness about africa among young people. this is in contrast to the original "live aid" concerts which were more focused on raising money for africa.

this evening a spokesperson for "live 8" revealed to the media that by 17:00utc this afternoon, over 1.5m text entries had been received. those hoping to win one of the coveted 150,000 tickets, are asked to text the answer to a simple question to 84599. the question is "which city is nearest to the g8 summit in july? a) berlin, b) moscow, c) edinburgh." texts cost ￡1.50 each and winners will be randomly selected on the 12th june by a computer. the first ￡1.6m of proceeds from the competition will be donated to the "the prince's trust".

the lineup for the london concert is as follows:




united kingdom, czech republic suspend referendums on eu constitution

jack straw, the foreign secretary for the united kingdom, said on monday that the uk will not vote as planned on the new constitution for the european union. "until the consequences of france and the netherlands being unable to ratify the treaty are clarified it would not in our judgment now be sensible to set a date," said straw.

a british poll indicates 56% would vote "no" at this point if given a chance, while only 22% would vote "yes".

following the uk's decision, the czech republic also suspended its referendum. prime minister jiri paroubek said that for his country it is "impossible at this moment [to have its referendum]. at this moment it is necessary to start with discussions about future of the european constitution, about the future of this process in the czech republic," said paroubek, citing "strong opposition" to the treaty.

other remaining countries such as denmark, ireland, and poland could also suspend their referendums. french president jacques chirac and german chancellor gerhard schroeder are pushing for the ratification process to continue.

the draft of the new eu constitution was approved in 9 other countries, before being rejected in referendums held in france on may 29 and in the netherlands on june 1. the constitution requires the unanimous approval of all 25 eu countries by november 1, 2006 to take effect, a prospect that seems increasingly remote.


rossi won't continue with legal appeals over failed bid for washington state governorship

republican dino rossi, washington state gubernatorial candidate in the 2004 election, said that he will not appeal the decision made today in chelan county superior court by john bridges after he ruled that the republicans failed to prove rossi would have won the election if illegitimate votes were not counted. “unless an election is clearly invalid, when the people have spoken their verdict should not be disturbed by the courts,” said bridges in his verdict. with the appeals over the closest gubernatorial race in u.s. history has finally ended.

“it’s an emotional day, it’s an emotional moment,” said washington governor christine gregoire. “i’m ready to move on. i want the state of washington to be served by a full-time governor who is not being distracted by anything other than serving the citizens.” bridges said he believed that 1,678 illegal votes were cast in the election, but republicans didn’t prove those votes changed the outcome of the election, and that the only vote that was proved to be illegally cast for the governor’s race was one cast for libertarian ruth bennett and four more cast for rossi, ultimately still giving gregoire a 133-vote margin.

any registered voter of washington state could still file paperwork to recall the election; however, they would have to prove gregoire got in office illegally and get several signatures for it to appear on a ballot.

krem 2 news: http://www.krem.com/topstories/stories/nw_060605wabelectiontriallj.2e949a7f7.html


john kerry's military records and yale transcript released

john kerry's yale transcript was released as a part of his naval records late last month.

a number of american news sources have drawn attention to the fact it shows that kerry's grades were slightly lower than george w. bush's. this is contrary to popular perception, which portrays kerry as an "intellectual" and bush as a "regular guy". bush's transcript was published in 1999 by "the new yorker". kerry earned a 76 percent cumulative average during his four years at yale, while bush earned a 77 percent his first three years and a similar average his fourth year under a non-numerical grading system. both bush and kerry began their memberships in skull and bones while at yale.



report finds over $1 trillion per year is spent on arms worldwide

according to a new report by the stockholm international peace research institute (sipri), total world military spending was $1.35 trillion in 2004. the institute says that this is just 6% off the all time record, set in 1987 at the end of the cold war. however this record could soon be shattered as spending jumped 5% last year alone.

in a stark example of the huge amount spent on the military by the united states, sipri revealed that almost half of all spending is by the us, $455bn or 47% to be exact. this figure is greater than the "combined" spending of the next 32 heaviest spenders. us spending on its armed forces now stands at 3.9% of its gdp, less than the 6% during the cold war, but more than the 3% reported the previous year.

the top five spenders in 2004 were as follows:




ireland will hold eu referendum

despite the strong 'no' votes in both france and the netherlands, the irish foreign minister dermot ahern has confirmed that ireland will still hold a referendum on the proposed european union constitution. this comes following the irish rejection of the nice treaty in 2002.

speaking to bbc radio mr. ahern said "we've made a decision based on the commitment that we gave when we put the constitution together in draft form." he went on to say "over 50 percent of the population of europe have already ratified the convention. what do you say to those people: 'your votes mean nothing'?" (note that the only country where the constitution was directly ratified by the population and not by the parliament so far is spain). unlike in most european countries, in ireland by law any change to the core treaties of the eu must be put to a referendum.

the constitution was agreed upon by eu heads of state earlier this year under ireland's european presidency. it is backed by all major irish political parties including the main opposition, fine gael.



stowaway killed by aircraft landing gear; leg lands in homeowner's backyard

an airline stowaway, possibly of senegalese origin was found dead this morning by u.s. customs and ny port authority personnel, his body badly mangled by the landing gear of a south african airways aircraft.

a nassau county woman returned home from work to find part of the man's leg lying on her lawn.

the identity and nationality of the man are not yet known. the flight on which he stowed away originated in johannesburg, south africa and made one stopover in dakar, senegal.


britain's deadly bug possibly imported from u.s. or canada

a hardy new strain of a deadly bacteria that has killed 12 elderly patients
and infected 300 others in a british hospital may have been imported from
either the united states or canada.

the new variant of clostridium difficile, which causes severe diarrhea,
broke out 18 months ago at stoke mandeville hospital, and it's speculated
that the bacteria might have been brought in by either an american or
canadian patient to the hospital's famed spinal-injuries unit.
initial investigation by britain's health protection agency indicates that
the new strain is similar to one circulating in the united states and
canada.
the spore-forming bacteria thrives in the intestines when the normal
balance of bacteria shifts --- something that can happen after a dose of
antibiotics --- and toxins are then produced, which can cause extreme
diarrhea.

this new strain of clostridium is particularly resilient and has even shown
resistance to certain disinfectants. it spreads by contact and can survive
up to 70 days, living on hospital floors and toilet seats.


president lula opens u.n. forum to combat corruption

lula inaugurated the event in company of the executive director of the united nations office on drugs and crime (unodc), the undersecretary-general of the united nations, antonio maria costa, and the brazilian federal comptroller-general, waldir pires.

according to the organizers, the "global forum is the result of a worldwide policy to battle against corruption and money-laundering. in short, against those crimes that prevent the money collected by nations from being applied decently on behalf of the population".

the forum, is sponsored by the brazilian government and the united nations. around one hundred delegations from around the world are expected to debate improvements in anti-corruption methods and international cooperation. 


pele cries as his son admits to marijuana addiction

pele contacted the son at the police station. very sad, with tears in his eyes pele said that he got surprised when he received the news that his son was arrested because of drugs. during a press conference on tuesday he said that he doesn't understand why some people use drugs. "this must not be used as an excuse but you who accompanied my life since the beginning know of my fight against drugs, and you know my effort in making clear that this thing [drug] is not good for no human being", he said.

edinho admitted that he is addicted to marijuana, but denied any involvement in drug traffic or other criminal activities.

edinho wrote a note and released it through his lawyer today. in the note edinho said that he "had no disposition or control of his thoughts, everything in search of satisfaction in drug, marijuana".

the note ends saying: "i realize how wrong and harmful is the way to drugs and i humbly recognize my situation as addicted and i ask help to everyone who loves me, my family, fans and forgive me because at some moment i became a not good example. thank you, edinho."

according to the authorities edinho is being indicted by association to drug traffic.

the police operation conducted by denarc arrested until now 52 persons in sao paulo and santos. the main suspect is ronaldo duarte barsotti de freitas, known as naldinho. he is accused of drug traffic and according to police is involved in a dispute with another two criminal organizations: the comando vermelho (red command) from rio de janeiro and the pcc (fist command from capital) from sao paulo. nadinho and the enterpriser clovis ribeiro who was also arrested are considered by denarc director the biggest drug dealers from the state. clovis is suspected of being involved with the farc.




atari melbourne project revealed

australia's oldest video game development studio is working on a of eden games' "test drive: unlimited", the latest in the series.

a source inside the studio has confirmed that the title in development is a ps2 port of eden's next-generation game.

although established a strong reputation for driving games with the acclaimed "test drive: le mans" (sega dreamcast), recent ventures away from the genre such as "men in black ii: alien escape" and "transformers: armada" (targeted at the high end of the market) have failed to make an impact.

however, speculation about the studio's long term future took another turn this week when atari ceo james caparro resigned. although the ambitious natural disaster themed "the big one" was cancelled when former ceo took a back seat in november last year, the project - known inside the studio as bonnell's "pet" - might be revived now bonnell has been appointed interim ceo in the wake of caparro's resignation.

"who knows, it might be ["the big one"], it might be another port," the source said.

two senior game designers have resigned from the studio in the past month.



danish integration minister's car burned

"copenhagen, denmark" - the danish integration minister rikke hvilshoj's car was set ablaze outside her family-home on the morning of wednesday 8 june. from there, the fire spread to the family's garage, and further on to the side of the house, damaging the roof above the kitchen and children's room.

at the same time, an e-mail was sent to several media agencies, where a group calling themselves "action group beate" claimed responsibility, saying it is a "protest against the racist immigrational laws of denmark". the police found the computer used for sending the mail within a few hours, and closed down the cybercafe whilst removing the computer.

throughout the danish political system politicians from both the ruling party and the opposition have expressed their outrage over the terrorism.

the insurance company is currently assessing the amount of damage done to the home, but so far they have made an estimate of ￡27.000, just for the house damages.


michael jackson fate in hands of jurors


a statement issued by michael jackson's defense attorney tom meserau will not delay deliberations in the michael jackson case. at 2200 utc time on wednesday, a judge in the case announced a statement that would be released an hour later. the statement was apparently from jackson's defense attorney, which according to cnn states the following:

"i have not authorized anyone to speak or hold press conferences on behalf of michael jackson or his family. a gag order is in effect which the defense team will continue to honor."

the statement follows the comment made by jackson's spokeswoman raymone bain, who stated that she was forced to appear at the courthouse where jackson's trial was being held. the statement came after a reporter accused bain of appearing at a courthouse press conference when on unfavorable terms with meserau. 

thursday will begin day five of jury deliberations in the trial which the pop star is accused of sexually molesting a thirteen-year-old boy back in 2003.


 


google now worth over $80 billion

internet search engine, google, saw its valuation top the $80bn mark this week, making it the world's most valuable media company - ahead of time warner, walt disney and viacom. since its flotation on the nasdaq in august 2004, it has seen its share price increase dramatically from $85 to over $280 today.

despite being more valuable than time warner, which is worth $78bn, google's annual sales amount to less than a 13th of the far more diversified and traditional media giant. google's revenues are $3.2bn a year versus the $42bn a year that time warner generates. the gap in valuations is partly justified by investors based upon google's much higher growth rate.

for comparison the top media companies in the world are, by market capitalization (as of june 6, 2005):




30 travelers from rwanda die in ugandan bus crash

a bus collision with a truck in uganda has resulted in at least 30 fatalities and has left a further 21 injured. the bus, which was heading for nairobi in kenya, crashed in the kabale district of uganda near the rwandan border. of the 30 fatalities, 25 died instantly upon impact whilst the remaining 5 died later in hospital. 

"there were 20 survivors, the majority of them are in critical condition," said cyprian gatete, rwanda's assistant commissioner of police, during a telephone conversation with reuters.

the survivors of the accident were initially taken to kabale hospital in uganda, but were later flown back to hospitals in rwanda. it remains to be seen what exactly caused the accident, however south african news source "independent online" is reporting that a rwandan reporter on the scene speculated that the bus seemed to have swerved into oncoming traffic. 



california it company to create 100 new jobs in dublin


california based qlogic corporation has announced that it is to establish its emea (europe, middle east and africa) headquarters in county dublin, ireland. the new centre will be based in a 20,000-square-foot facility in blanchardstown. up to 100 people will be employed there within five years time.

qlogic manufactures many important components that are used in servers, pc's and various networking products by companies such as dell, cisco, and hp.

the ceo of qlogic, mr. h. k. desai, said of the companies decision to locate in ireland "we chose dublin as we believe it will best service our long-term needs, enable us to recruit the calibre of people we require and facilitate the timely delivery of product to our customers overseas.”

ireland has continued to attract large amounts of fdi in recent years despite the slowdown in the world economy in 2002. recent additions to ireland's list of multinationals include amazon.com, ebay, bell labs and yahoo.



republic of ireland beat faroe islands to top group 4 for football world cup 2006

having drawn with israel twice in their last two games, the republic of ireland football squad have received a much needed confidence boost. they beat the faroe islands 2-nil away to earn the three points which takes them to the top of group 4; one ahead of switzerland. however the irish have seven games played - one more than most of the other group four members.

after a fruitless first half, ireland gained the upper hand in the 51st minute thanks to a solid penalty taken by ian harte. the penalty was given after the home team's keeper, jakup mikkelsen, brought down stephen elliott.

the second goal came shortly after when kevin kilbane found the back of the net to finally settle the irish nerves.


canadian provinces brace for more flooding

canadian forecasters are predicting more rain in the upcoming two days as floodwaters wash across southern alberta, forcing people in west bragg creek and high river to evacuate their homes.
as rain continues to steadily fall, alberta environment has issued a flood warning on more than 20 rivers as more than 100 to 170 millimetres have fallen in certain areas over the last few days.

the sight of swollen rivers brings to mind the floods of ten years ago in the same region, when water levels rose to such a height that, at the time, it was considered a once in a 125-year event. 

about 200 high river residents have been forced to evacuate and about 3,500 people living around the community’s golf course were put under a voluntary evacuation order.

meanwhile, manitoba has also seen more rain than usual this time of year and is facing a flooding situation that’s been described as worse than the one faced by the province in 1999. roads and bridges have been washed out and fears are growing among farmers that their crops will drown under the watery conditions. 

there have been estimates that as much as 10% of crops may have been lost in manitoba. 

the wet weather has also been affecting the neighbouring province of saskatchewan, where a flood watch has been put on towns surrounding the south saskatchewan river basin. 



pittsburgh pirates win three-game series over baltimore orioles

in inter-league major league baseball play, the pittsburgh pirates won two of three games against the baltimore orioles, the last game finishing up around 21:30 edt today.

the series was even after the orioles defeated the pirates in the first game, 4-3, but the pirates rallied back, assisted by two home runs in the eighth inning by daryle ward and jack wilson to win the second game 6-5. the final score of the third game was 6-1.


half of ugandan presidential convoy blocked at uganda-rwanda border

more than half of ugandan president yoweri museveni's convoy was prevented from entering rwanda on thursday. the president was travelling to kigali to hand over the chairmanship of the common market for eastern and southern africa (comesa) to rwandan president paul kagame.

rwandan officials have been quoted as saying that the ugandan convoy violated rules on the number of guns they are allowed to carry across the border.

uganda has blamed the incident solely on rwanda, arguing that the situation could have been resolved with much less controversy.

"what happened at the border was the sole responsibility of the rwandese officials involved. if there had been extra guns, why could they not be left on the border for later collection and allow the vehicles to continue?" said a statement from uganda's foreign ministry.

"the guns could even have been returned to uganda, it is only 200 meters away. the body guards normally travel with guns even in commercial airlines. you surrender the guns to the pilots. they, then, give them to you on arrival," it added.

the common market for eastern and southern africa, is a free trade area stretching from egypt to namibia. it was formed in december 1994.

relations between uganda and rwanda have been improving over the last few years, however recently the situation has deteriorated.


rwandan genocide investigations to be completed by end of july

the investigations into the 1994 should be completed by the end of july, according to a spokesperson for the traditional . the courts are a form of community based justice that were set up in an attempt to deal with the nearly 100,000 people accused of .

"work is progressing quite fast in most places across rwanda. we are looking at finalizing the investigation phase by the end of july", said the spokesman, innocent musafiri.

the courts were set up three years ago, however so far their time has been taken up with trial runs. there are 10,000 courts across the country, and they are expected to take eight years to process all accused. regular courts would have taken up to 100 years. the judges are untrained citizens elected by their peers.

the 1994 rwandan genocide was an eruption of ethnic conflict where militia, supported by the hutu dominated government and encouraged by 'hate radio', attempted to ethnically cleanse the minority . despite numerous warnings the international community did not take serious action to prevent the atrocities, which included hacking people to death with machetes, and forcing people into buildings that were then destroyed with bulldozers. estimates place the number killed at up to one million.


sources close to both sides say nhl, nhlpa agree on salary cap structure

the globe and mail (toronto, on), citing sources close to both sides in the dispute, reported wednesday that the national hockey league and the nhlpa have agreed to a salary cap structure, arguably the most contentious issue in the continuing lockout that led to the cancellation of the 2004-05 nhl season on 16 february, 2005.

the globe and mail is reporting that the deal, providing the "cost certainty" that the nhl has been seeking, will consist of a floating, team-by-team salary cap and floor based on a percentage of each team's revenue projections. what is being reported as a six-year deal has a salary cap range of $34-36 million and a salary floor of $22-24 million, both hard caps. the new deal will also reportedly include the across-the-board 24% decrease in salary offered by the nhlpa in february. a dollar-for-dollar luxury tax will also take effect at the halfway point between the lowest salary floor and the highest salary cap (slated to be $29 million for the first year of the deal). details about what will be done with this money have not been completely worked out, but it is thought that this money will be distributed to teams below the halfway point in such a way as to make sure they remain above the salary hard minimum.

while this is one of the most contentious issues in the labor dispute, there are several other issues that may delay the signing of a new collective bargaining agreement. these include deciding how high-payroll teams will drop to the new maximum, working on new systems for salary arbitration, free agency, olympic participation, and drug testing, and to design a complete revenue-sharing system.



more political, soccer-related unrest in iran follows bahrain victory

more unrest occurred overnight across iran following the national soccer team's june 9 victory over the team from neighboring bahrain in a world cup qualification match. 

the match marked the first time since the 1979 islamic revolution that women could attend a soccer match. a group of one hundred pre-selected women were admitted to the game under official escort; a protest group of a further twenty-six women attempted to gain admission, but were dispersed by police.

a young tehran resident reported via instant messenger that she heard what appeared to be raucous celebrating outside the night of the 1-0 victory over bahrain. she had been babysitting that night, and returned quickly home, having decided it was probably not safe to investigate the crowds after hearing a large boom, which she attributed to pranksters possibly detonating outsized illegal fireworks. however, she also noticed that a public telephone had been damaged. 

if utilities were being damaged, it is very possible that the boom was produced not by a high explosive, but by the bursting of sodium vapor lamp bulb that had been knocked over by vandals -- this reporter has seen it happen before, and can attest that it sounds very much like an explosion.

in the city of tabriz in east azerbaijan, demonstrators reportedly tore down a large poster of the late ayatollah khomeini (founder of the present islamic republic of iran) and burned it while chanting "freedom!" and anti-regime slogans. the crowds of young people caused traffic congestion, apparently halting movement through the center city for several hours. numerous arrests have been reported. the city is home to a substantial turkic azeri minority, but the unrest seems to be political in nature, not ethnic.

meanwhile, in the theological center of qom, reformist politician behzad navabi was attacked by a group of about thirty unidentified men who apparently disagreed with his political platform. the group employed lethal and non-lethal weapons, including tear gas, to disrupt navabi's political rally. navabi reports that he suffered a skull fracture and numerous cuts and bruises in the attack. police clashed with the attackers, and eventually arrested some of them. navabi is a member of the "mujahadeen of islamic revolution" party and a backer of reform presidential candidate mustafa moin.



first tropical storm of 2005 season forms in the atlantic

tropical storm arlene, the first named storm of the , formed as tropical depression one on wednesday in the northwestern caribbean. at 8 am eastern time on thursday, it strengthened to tropical storm status. the storm was forecast to track north over the western tip of cuba and eventually make landfall over the , and the storm is producing heavy rains and gusty winds over portions of florida.

the government of the cayman islands has issued a for that country, and the government of the has issued a tropical storm warning. a tropical storm warning is in effect for the northern coast of the gulf of mexico from grand isle, florida to st. marks, florida. a is also in effect from the mouth of the pearl river to panama city, florida. a tropical storm watch remains in effect from west of grand isle, louisiana to morgan city, louisiana.

tropical storm arlene has already been affecting cuba with heavy rainfall and gusty winds. heavy rain fall was already moving onshore well in advance of the center. heavy rainfall, accompanied by brief gusty winds, gradually spread across western and central cuba; and into extreme southern florida, especially the . total rainfall amounts of 5 to 10 inches, with maximum amounts of up to 15 inches in the highlands, have occurred in cuba. 3 to 5 inches of rain is expected over the florida keys.

coastal storm surge flooding of 2 to 4 feet above normal tide levels, along with large and dangerous battering waves, can be expected near and to the east of where the center makes landfall. water levels are currently about one-half foot above normal tide levels along the northern gulf coast. some coastal flooding is possible on the southern coast of western cuba.

isolated tornadoes may occur over portions of southern florida and the florida keys on friday.

as of 2 pm eastern time on friday, it was moving northward at 13 mph with maximum sustained wind speeds of near 60 mph, with gusts at higher speeds. a gradual turn toward the north-northwest with a slight increase in forward speed is expected during the next 24 hours. on this track, the center of arlene will be approaching the northern coast of the gulf of mexico on saturday. however, most of the weather associated with arlene will arrive much earlier than the center. tropical force winds extend outward up to 150 miles to the north and east of the center. minimal central pressure just reported by an air force reserve reconnaissance plane was 997 millibars (mb), 29.44 inches.

the current location of the center of the storm is 27.1° n, 86.1° w, which is about 75 miles southeast of the mouth of the mississippi river, and about 400 miles south-southeast of pensacola, florida.

arlene is the most commonly used name for atlantic tropical cyclones, having now been used nine times.


canadian top court strikes down private medicare ban in quebec

canada's top court has struck down quebec's bans on private health care insurance, citing an increased risk to the life and health of canadians. 

the supreme court of canada ruling looked into a patient's right to pay for faster service in a system that currently treats patients on the basis of equal access to medical care, regardless of income. 

quebec patient george zeliotis, a chemical salesman who waited in pain for more than a year in 1997 to have his hip replaced, said he should have had the right to pay for surgery.

under public health care, it's forbidden to pay for services covered under the system.

despite free medical treatment, there are often long waiting lists for operations and services with current public health care.

together with physician, dr. jacques chaoulli, mr. zeliotis launched a challenge to the supreme court of canada, after losing their fight in quebec's lower courts, arguing that having to wait for surgery violates a patient's constitutional right to life, liberty, and security of the person. 

mr. zeliotis and dr. chaoulli argued that being able to pay for private medical services wouldn't be detrimental to the public health care system.

the quebec superior court and the quebec court of appeal had dismissed the case, ruling that the provincial law's intent was not to discriminate among patients and to provide health care based on need rather than a patient's ability to pay.

the canadian medical association said the superior court of canada ruling could "fundamentally change the health-care system in canada as we now know it" but declined to comment any further until it had time to study the decision. 


new york


u.n. condemns lack of due process in american-run iraq prisons

the united nations secretary-general has criticised united states handling of prisoners in iraq, during a recent report to the un security council. he said that the prisoners were denied due legal process and other rights guaranteed under international law. 

"one of the major human rights challenges remains the detention of thousands of persons without due process. despite the release of some detainees, their number continues to grow. prolonged detention without access to lawyers and courts is prohibited under international law including during states of emergency," the secretary general's report said.

his argument is that since the us has declared that the occupation has ended and sovereignty has been handed to the iraqi's, it has no legal right to detain prisoners. 
the us military has defended its actions, saying that it has not breached prisoners' rights under the geneva conventions, and is acting to process current detainees as quickly as possible. 


mothers, teachers air more concerns about leukemia cases at california elementary school

on thursday night, california state senator joe dunn held the second town hall meeting regarding a recent outbreak of leukemia in schoolchildren, at franklin elementary in santa ana, california. representatives from the city of santa ana, the santa ana unified school district, and the south coast air quality management district (aqmd) were available to answer the community's questions.
senator dunn started off the meeting by thanking the panelists and parents for showing their support by attending. "we are trying to address a very, very important issue. what's the issue? we have high rates of cancer, leukemia, and respiratory problems in our children. why are our kids sick? this is a very difficult question," he said. "what's causing the sickness in our children, and how can we avoid it? we can all agree that "no one" wants to see another sick child in santa ana." the audience applauded. "three weeks ago, we heard from two parents and a teacher, they told us about some deaths."

the previous town hall meeting was held to address concerns of the community about a steel plating manufacturing plant that applied to the aqmd for a permit to expand its facilities to increase pollution emissions. parents and teachers were concerned over the facts that the plant was located directly adjacent to kennedy elementary school, and that their children were experiencing high levels of lead, respiratory problems, excessive nose-bleeding, and leukemia.
"how many businesses in santa ana are required to obtain permits for [emissions] of hazardous pollutants?" this question dunn posed at the last meeting was answered by the aqmd and the orange county sanitation district, who provided maps of santa ana with green flags indicating where businesses with emissions permits were located. "i can tell you one thing, at the end of the meeting, we won't have all of the answers... but we'll certainly have another town hall meeting.

initial concerns were raised when five boys attending franklin elementary were diagnosed with the same type of leukemia in spring 2002. attempts to gain an investigation from the center for disease control (cdc) into possible causes were not successful as the center told parents that the cases "were in an acceptable range". parents, teachers, public officials, and doctors remain unconvinced. in the past three years, 19 mothers living in an apartment building a block away from franklin were also diagnosed with leukemia.
dunn then introduced a teacher at franklin, tammy sanchez. tammy said, "in december 2002, we received some very disturbing news. one of my students was diagnosed with leukemia. then, more children at franklin were diagnosed with leukemia. i later found out that three kids at a nearby apartment building were diagnosed with leukemia. sanchez then explained about more cancer-related deaths near franklin, including 19 mothers all living in he same apartment building who were diagnosed with leukemia, which took over three minutes. "to me, this is way too much," said sanchez.
socorro molina, whose son diego, a student at franklin, is undergoing treatment for his leukemia, had this to say: "my son has leukemia. i'm worried, because there are many kids. children who played with my son died from leukemia. they should do some investigations of these companies." senator dunn responded, "thank you, socorro. i know it's difficult to share that privately, and you have shared this with us publicly on two occasions."
senator dunn then said, "at the end of that [previous] meeting, we were requested by a parent for a map of all businesses releasing toxic materials. we asked the aqmd for a map that showed every single business [in santa ana] that releases harmful materials into our air. this is that map. the heaviest concentration of these businesses are, guess where? near franklin. this map is "striking". the ocsd gave us a map showing all businesses that release toxic materials into our sewers. the largest concentration of these businesses are, guess where? near franklin and kennedy [elementary schools]." senator dunn promised that at the next town hall meeting, he will have a panel of scientists present to determine if the substances released by these business pose a health risk to residents of the area. "we are going to keep at this until we find out what is making our kids sick," he said.
santa ana city council member jose solorio said that "the city has been following the media's attention. i got to tell you, this is a very complex issue. the city has jurisdiction over land use; they can issue restrictions. we, as elected officials, need to know more." solorio then introduced the city's planning director and other city officials. solorio added, "the mayor of santa ana, miguel pulido, is a board-member for aqmd." miguel pulido has not attended any of the town hall meetings, and has not spoken about this issue at any time.

dunn then introduced the next panelist, santa ana unified school district board member rosemary avila. she said, "the school board is looking into this. i've talked to some teachers on the phone i believe the federal disease organization has been contacted about this." the center for disease control was notified by parents of the leukemia cases in santa ana, but stated that they were "within the acceptable range". avila then introduced some school board officials, and said, "there has been some concern in the past, and we have looked into that. as a school district, we really have to act not out of fear, but with facts."
jill whynot of the aqmd noted that "there are 515 facilities [in santa ana] that we issue permits to". barry wallerstein, executive officer of the aqmd said, "we appreciate the forum. there appears to be a need for closer air quality monitoring. so, i propose that we make santa ana a high priority and closely monitor air quality in your community." that statement was met with much applause from the audience.

senator dunn responded, "we thank the aqmd for being here and answering our questions. we will be sure to let everybody know about any updates. when i looked at the map, i was struck. there are 515 permitted businesses in santa ana. we will bring some scientists in at the next town hall meeting to determine which businesses are releasing carcinogenic pollutants," he said. "when i look at the maps, there are two pockets of permitted facilities in santa ana. do you [aqmd] look at the cumulative impact of facilities grouped together [when considering issuing a permit]?" dunn posed.

dr. wallerstein responded, "the short answer is 'partially'".
senator dunn, responding to dr. wallerstein's comments, said "if we need to give aqmd more power in terms of cumulative impact of permitted facilities, then we will introduce legislation to give them that power." the senator then asked city councilman solorio, "does the city in any way look at what type of business it is, or its cumulative impact [when approving a business]?"

solorio responded, "one of the main things the city does is make a general plan, and unlike irvine or newport beach, we are an older city." solorio went on to talk about how in the future, the city could pass litigation limit permits, and said that "we all need to do our part". referring to concerns about the steel plating plant next to a school, he said, "markland came into an industrial area, so they have a legal right to set up shop".

dunn asked solorio if the city is now looking at regulation to limit this, and solorio responded, "we always have opportunities to look at our general plan, and we need to have solid facts to make those decisions". dunn asked dr. wallerstein, "what about this pocket of businesses in south santa ana, is that unusual?" wallerstein responded, "senator, i don't think that's an issue".
dunn then opened up the floor to public questions and comments. one mother of three asked, "when are we going to have answers?", while a younger woman said, directed toward the aqmd, "your job is to know if this is going to give kids leukemia. i'm very disappointed". one woman said, "i live in heninger park, where all of the kids are getting leukemia. i've been trying to tell the city and code enforcement about illegal underground painters and mechanics who leave paint and fumes behind; which is causing residents to leave".
there was intense debate over the public officials' efforts to investigate health quality at the location in question. parents expressed their concerns about water quality and illegal activities in the community; and spoke about their children's various health problems, from high copper and lead levels in the bloodstream, to respiratory and lung problems, and cancer.


thousands of rwandan refugees living in overcrowded burundi transit centre

there are over 5,000 rwandan refugees living in a burundi transit centre designed to hold 800, according to the . the refugees, who were fleeing rwanda's , were forced to move from their previous border site because authorities tore it down.

"the move was the result of a decision last week by the rwandan and burundian authorities to group all the asylum seekers in one site to make it easier for them to ensure their safety and conduct an information campaign to try to convince the asylum seekers to return home," a unhcr press release reported.

the unhcr is working to improve conditions at the camp, however it will take a couple of weeks before the situation improves.

the began fleeing rwanda for burundi in early april. their main concern was the gacaca courts that are investigating committed during the 1994 . however, the unhcr is also reporting that some asylum seekers "... said they were fleeing threats, intimidation, persecution and rumours of revenge and bloodshed."

the courts were set up three years ago, however so far their time has been taken up with trial runs. there are 10,000 courts across the country, and they are expected to take eight years to process all accused. regular courts would have taken up to 100 years. the judges are untrained citizens elected by their peers, and questions have been raised about the fairness of the courts.

the rwandan government accused the unhcr of exaggerating the size of the refugee problem, and thus causing more people to flee. they put the figure at just over 2,000.

the unhcr is "exaggerating the number of refugees which later caused fear and made more others to flee the country," a government minister said.


the finnish social democrats elect a new leader

the finnish have elected the party secretary as their leader at the party's annual congress in the city of jyvaskyla.

other contestants for the post were the foreign minister and the education minister . he was elected with 201 of the 350 possible votes, while tuomioja got 101 and haatainen got 11 votes.

the election was required as the current leader, former prime minister and parliament speaker has decided to leave after 12 years at the helm. 

lipponen has also voiced his support for the current strike by the finnish paperworker's union over pay. he said "you are in a truly difficult position. moderation is your strength. we support you."


british man involved in deal to drill for oil in darfur

the british tv station channel 4 has discovered that the sudanese government has signed a deal for a contract to drill for oil in southern sudan, and that the key man in securing the deal is british.

friedhelm eronat, who until two years ago was an american citizen, secured the largest stake made in a consortium that won the drilling contract in 2003. oil was discovered in april of this year.

geologists have long suspected the presence of oil in the south of the sudan. clivenden sudan, which eronat personally owned in 2003, had a high level of expertise in the country's geology.

the twenty five year deal secured by clivenden sudan will see it pay the sudanese government $8m in the event oil is produced. the government will also receive 70% of the profits from the oil.

in a statement to channel 4 news, eronat said that he is not a shareholder or officer of cliveden sudan, that he does not work for or financially benefit from cliveden sudan, and that cliveden sudan is not the operator of the concession, only a shareholder.

cliveden sudan itself said "there has been no commercial oil find in block c [the area being explored for oil]."

villages in darfur 180km from the clivenden sudan wells have been attacked by sudanese troops and aircraft.

eronat became involved in the deal through lebanese businessman eli calil, who has been accused of funding a failed coup in equatorial guinea last year (allegations denied by calil). calil and eronat live near each other in the london suburb of chelsea.

at least one rebel group in darfur is certain the search for oil will inflame the conflict in darfur. the justice and equality movement wants exploration to stop until peace is established.

a member of the jem, ahmad hussein, told channel 4 news: "so when they say they discover oil in darfur, who is going to benefit from that? are they the people of darfur? of course not. absolutely not, the only beneficiaries is the ruling elite and ruling minority of the regime."

eronat changed his nationality from american to british in october 2003, shortly before the deal was signed. under us law, he could have faced up to ten years imprisonment and/or fines of $500,000, due to us sanctions on sudan.

the uk government has been at the forefront of efforts to try and halt the crisis, with international development minister hilary benn making a statement to the house of commons yesterday after a visit to the region. he said: "i visited the kalma camp in south darfur and the el meshtel and abu shouk camps in north darfur where tens of thousands of people are facing a precarious existence. i spoke to men and women whose homes have been destroyed, villages burned, and whose communities have been the victims of killings, looting and rape.

"we are in a race against time in darfur, and the uk remains committed to doing all that it can to help those affected and to work for a just and lasting peace for its people."



storing ip-addresses of swedish copyright infringers deemed illegal

the swedish organization antipiratbyran (the swedish anti-piracy bureau) suffered a massive blow today when the swedish government's data inspection board stated that the bureau's storage of internet user's is illegal.

antipiratbyran is an organization representing the movie and software industry in sweden, working to protect the intellectual property of its beneficiaries. this spring they started collecting ip-addresses of suspected . they used the collected information to press charges and to contact the suspect's , demanding repercussions.

the data inspection board's press release established that the collection of ip-addresses is in fact a violation of the swedish personal data law, prohibiting electronic storage of information about individuals without their consent.

- if they don't cease with the activities we might follow up with a penalty order, the supervising director britt marie wester at the data inspection board says to tt.

both the swedish organization - celebrating the verdict as a great victory - and the ceo of jens of sweden - a swedish manufacturer of mp3-players - have stated that they might file a class action suit against the anti-piracy bureau, together with the individuals registered.



eduardo rodriguez becomes president of bolivia

some minutes before midnight local time on thursday, eduardo rodriguez veltze, then president of the supreme court of justice, took oath as the new president of bolivia, a country that has found itself plunged in a serious crisis for several months.

earlier on thursday, the legislature had suspended the session that had predicted, in the house of the liberty of sucre, to decide the name of the new president of the bolivians, due to the intensified protests after it become known that a minor was killed by the army. the demonstrations also brought along a strong resistance of various social sectors to possible appointment of hormando vaca diez, president of the senate, or mario cossio, president of the house of representatives, who constitutionally would have to succeed departing president carlos mesa, who resigned on monday night.

nevertheless, at 22:45 local time (02:45 utc on friday), congress resumed the session, accepted unanimously the renunciation of mesa, and named rodriguez veltze, a 49-year-old lawyer from cochabamba, as the new temporary president of the country, after vaca diez and cossio declined their rights of succession. in his acceptance speech, rodriguez veltze said he's convinced that his mandate "has to do with a renewal of the system" and promised to call the anticipated elections in a maximum of 150 days, just as the bolivian constitution says. besides, he asked his countrymen to "give him a necessary and prudent time to elect a new constitutional president" and to "stop all the pressures and all the mobilizations".

the coca leader evo morales, main opponent of mesa and vaca diez, has previously endorsed the appointment of rodriguez veltze and, although he wants a constitutional assembly, probably desists as the temporary president fulfills his promise to call anticipated polls, possibly next december. by aside, the congress would have that to call to parliamentary elections, since the constitution only obliges the temporary president to call assemblies for president and vice president. 



600,000 new dollar millionaires created in 2004

according to this years edition of the world wealth report conducted by merrill lynch and capgemini, the number of millionaires worldwide increased by 600,000 to 8.3m in 2004. the report defines a millionaire as an individual who has assets worth more than $1m excluding their primary residence.

the combined wealth of all these high net worth individuals (hnwi's) exceeds $30 trillion. at a regional level, australia, india, singapore, and hong kong were the strongest performers - australia added 47 new millionaires "a day" throughout 2004, whilst india added almost 25 a day.

the following is a regional breakdown:




interpol on the hunt for 'dr. death'

an indian-trained doctor that was apparently so inept that he was nicknamed "dr. death" by former colleagues is now the focus of an international hunt launched by australian police.

dr. jayant patel, an indian-born u.s. citizen, is being linked to at least 87 deaths over the course of two years. a government inquiry has recommended he be charged with murder and negligence causing harm.

toni hoffman, the nurse who called dr. patel's surgical record to attention in march, said, "we'd taken to hiding patients. we just thought, 'what on earth can we do to stop this man?'"

the queensland state inquiry has recommended dr. patel be charged with the murder of james edward phillips, a cancer patient, who died five days after dr. patel removed a part of mr. phillips' oesophagus, despite the fact that mr. phillips had been refused surgery because his chances of survival were slim.

another of dr. patel's patients, marilyn daisy, was left unattended after a leg amputation and another doctor found her nearly comatose a few days after the operation.

compounding the murder and negligence charge are allegations that dr. patel falsified his queensland work application records by neglecting to mention his disciplinary history in the united states.

dr. patel was hired by queensland's bundaberg base hospital in 2003. 

while working in new york in 1984, complaints arose over dr. patel not adequately examining patients before surgery. and in 2001, dr. patel was forced to surrender his medical license. 

currently, dr. patel's whereabouts are unknown, though there's been speculation that he's returned to his former home in portland, oregon.

he left australia in april shortly after the allegations against him were made.



bombs kill us marines, civillians in iraq

in a statement issued friday evening, united states marine officials said five marines had been killed in a roadside blast in western iraq.

the marines were killed as a result of an explosion while conducting combat operations with 2nd marine division, expeditionary force, in haqlaniyah, iraq.

the attack itself came hours after reports that up to 17 bodies had been found in the same province. reports say that the bodies were killed "execution style" and were near anbar.

in baghdad, up to three iraqi civilians were killed and several others were wounded in a car bomb blast, that exploded near a busy marketplace in the mainly shia district of shula.

department of defense officials identified the marines to be lance cpl. dustin v. birch, 22, of saint anthony, idaho; lance cpl. daniel chavez, 20, of seattle, wash; lance cpl. thomas o. keeling, 23, of strongsville, ohio; lance cpl. devon p. seymour, 21, of st. louisville, ohio;
and cpl. brad d. squires, 26, of middleburg heights, ohio.



house subcommittee approves massive cuts for public broadcasting

a house subcommittee voted thursday to sharply reduce the federal government's financial spending, including eliminating taxpayer funds that help produce such shows as sesame street and arthur.

in addition, the subcomittee also acted to eliminate federal money for the corporation for public broadasting, a body designed to pass funds onto public broadcasters; starting with a 25 percent reduction next year, from $400 million to $300 million.

overall, the cuts would signal the most dramatic cutback of public broadcasting the congress created the cpb in 1967.


us congress house panel oks big cut in public broadcasting funds

a house subcommittee voted thursday to sharply reduce the federal government's financial spending for fiscal year '06, including eliminating taxpayer funds that help produce such shows as sesame street and .

the spending cutbacks far exceeded even those requested by the white house. among initiatives slated for reduction are $39 million for conversion to digital programming and $50 million for upgrading 's aging satellite technology.

the subcommittee also acted to eliminate federal money for the , a body created by congress to pass funds on to public broadcasters. the cpb would see a 25 percent reduction in next year's budget, down from $400 million to $300 million, funds that currently account for 14.9% of all public broadcasting revenues.

ideological concerns over publicly-financed content have recently become a point of contention for the republican-controlled cpb. the day after the new budget was approved, cnn obtained an internal memo by 's executive vice president ken stern that blamed the cuts on "recent public turbulence caused by cpb chairman ken tomlinson's irresponsible attacks on public broadcasting." stern's memo also told staffers the cut would not hurt npr directly because it receives little direct support from the cpb. instead, he emphasized, smaller local stations that rely upon federal dollars are most likely to be affected, which could in turn take a bite out of regular dues and fees, npr's largest revenue source.

under the budget, the ready to learn program's $23 million appropriation for children's shows is rescinded in its entirety. john lawson, president of the association of public television stations, said the cut was retribution for an episode of "postcards from buster" featuring a pair of lesbian parents from vermont. a spokesman for the , john scofield, denied the claim.

"ready to learn was one of more than 50 programs terminated in the spending bill," he told the new york times. "it might be a nice program to do, but not in a flat budget with large budget deficits. we felt the same way about 49 other programs."

overall, the cuts would signal the most dramatic cutback of public broadcasting since congress created the cpb in 1967. the spending bill is expected to pass the appropriations committee and the house, but final legislation will be negotiated with the senate.



fake jackson suicide email hides virus

an e-mail virus affecting microsoft windows is currently making the rounds, trying to ensnare victims by claiming that pop-star michael jackson has attempted suicide.

the message itself hopes to catch people's attention, because of the huge interest in his on-going child abuse trial. the fake message contains a web link that supposedly links to mr jackson's suicide note.

a security consultant from security firm sophos says "that may not surprise people who think it might contain genuine breaking news about michael jackson," and that "the sick minds behind viruses and other malware often exploit celebrity names and news stories in an attempt to infect as many people as possible," said ms theriault.

she urged users to be very wary when opening e-mail attachments in unsolicited e-mail messages. 


report finds fbi missed multiple chances to stop 9/11

the federal bureau of investigation (fbi) missed several opportunities to uncover and to possibly stop the september 11 terrorist attacks against the united states, a report has found.

the agency did not respond to leads and failed to follow up a theory that al-qaeda was sending its members to us-based flight schools, it said. the report by the united states department of justice's inspector general said that mistakes amounted to a "significant failure".

the conclusions indicated in the report are similar to others, drawn up after investigations into us intelligence performance in the months and years leading up to the events that occurred on september 11, 2001.

the report is a year old -- but is only being released after a legal battle involving lawyers for zacarias moussaoui, who has been convicted of an al-qaeda plot against the united states, but is currently fighting a possible death penalty.


firing of michael jackson spokeswoman disputed

wrangling between musician michael jackson's legal and public relation teams may have yielded its first casualty. jackson's official website, www.mjjsource.com, reports that jackson's mjj productions has terminated spokeswoman raymone bain and public relations firm davis, bain, and associates. on wednesday, bain held a press conference amidst a court-issued gag order which she implied was sanctioned by the jackson legal team. the same day, jackson's attorney thomas mesereau, jr. released a court-approved terse message: "i have not authorized anyone to speak or hold any press conferences on behalf of michael jackson or his family." 

despite the www.mjjsource.com announcement, late friday the associated press quotes bain responding, "i have not been fired by michael jackson." bain says she works directly for jackson himself, not mjj productions.

the controversy occurs as michael jackson awaits a verdict on charges that he molested a teenage boy in 2003. on friday, the jury completed its sixth day of deliberations. the twelve jurors will reconvene on monday.



twenty-five children injured in bus-truck collision in florida

a truck collided with a bus on friday, seriously injuring five children and one adult, authories have said. the bus was taking 25 children of immigrant workers to an amusement arcade.

"the more seriouslly hurt youngsters have suffered broken bones and head injuries", said fire-rescue deputy steve delai. one young boy and a 30 year old were in intensive care at delray medical center late friday, officials have reported.

two other children were in a stable condition, while conditions for the other two seriouslly injured children were not available.

"it appears that the bus was in the center lane and the tractor-trailer was in the right lane. for some reason the bus got into the path of the tractor-trailer," a florida highway patrol officer told a local television station.


g8 finance ministers agree on deal to relieve debts of 18 poorest nations

the finance ministers of the g8, the world's eight richest countries, after years of pressure from wide coalitions of human rights campaigners, such as the committee for the abolition of third world debt (cadtm), have agreed to a deal to relieve the debts of 18 of the poorest countries in the world, but have not yet published the full details.

the international monetary fund (imf), the world bank (wb), and the african development fund will write off all of the money owed to them by the selected countries. however, the inter-american development bank (idb) and the asian development bank (asdb) will "not" cancel debts owed to them by heavily indebted poor countries (hipcs) such as bolivia, nicaragua, honduras, guyana, vietnam, and laos.

the countries to receive debt cancellation from the imf, wb and the african development fund are benin, bolivia, burkina faso, ethiopia, ghana, guyana, honduras, madagascar, mali, mauritania, mozambique, nicaragua, niger, rwanda, senegal, tanzania, uganda, and zambia.

the deal, devised by the united kingdom, could potentially free up government revenue for domestic spending on things such as education and health services. 

the world bank, the international monetary fund and the african development fund will write off all of the money owed to them by the above listed nations. a total of $40bn will be cleared, which will save debt repayments of $1.5bn a year.

cadtm argues that this is a negligible effort by the rich countries, since $1.5bn a year is extremely small compared to the $350bn the g8 devote to farming subsidies or the $700bn they spend in military expenditure each year. moreover, these 18 countries only represent about 5% of the population of developing countries.
another twenty countries may become eligible to have their debts cleared if they meet criteria decided by g8 finance ministries. 

according to g8 representatives, the main criteria are the reduction of corruption and better government. according to critics, such as the cadtm, the criteria include the privatisation of natural resources and of strategic economic sectors to the benefit of transnational corporations, higher costs of health care and education through privatisation, a rise in vat, free flow of capital, which leads to capital leaving the country as shown by several unctad reports, lower tariff protection, which leads to thousands of small and middle producers losing their livelihoods because they cannot compete with imported goods.

the cadtm claims that the g8 agreement "can solve neither the issue of the debt nor the issue of poverty since it bears on only 2% of the external debt of developing countries" and demand "an immediate and complete cancellation of the public external debt of all developing countries, the burden of the debt being a major obstacle to meeting fundamental human needs."

other groups, including charities, have similarly stated that the debts of 62 countries need to be cleared if the un wants to meet its target of halving world poverty.

fourteen of the countries to receive debt relief are in sub-saharan africa.

the alleviation of third world debt has been a lifelong ambition of gordon brown, the current uk chancellor, and he has used all of his political power and status to push for this agreement in the g8 group.


us teen missing in aruba feared dead

missing american teen natalee holloway, who vanished on the dutch island of aruba two weeks ago, is feared to be dead today following a suspect's statement earlier this morning. the suspect, who is yet to be named, told police that "something bad happened" to the missing teen. police commissioner district 1 gerold dompig said that the suspect was leading police to a scene, where it is believed a major update to the case is to be found.

two security guards were taken into police custody early last week: 28-year-old abraham jones and 30-year-old mickey john. additionally, three teenagers who were believed to be the last people to have seen halloway are now under custody. among the three teenagers is 18-year-old satish kalpoe, 21-year-old depak kalpoe, and 17-year-old joran van der sloot, a friend of the brothers and son to a judicial servant.

anita van der sloot, mother of suspect joran van der sloot, told american news network cnn that her son stated to her that he was "innocent", and even offered to speak to holloway's family. no announcement from police has yet confirmed the death of holloway.


lula's future in the hands of brazilian parliament

the government of brazilian president luiz inacio lula da silva is in a severe political crisis. the crisis began after the exposure of a series of scandals which involve the workers' party, the brazilian ruling party. 

in 2002, celso daniel, the mayor of santo andre, 10 km (6 miles) away from the sao paulo city, was murdered. daniel was a member of the ruling workers' party. the mayor's brother says that daniel died because he was in disagreement to a supposed bribe conspiracy organized by some workers' party members. the case remains under investigation by police. 

in 2004, the former adviser to the government of president lula, waldomiro diniz, was accused of negotiating with "bicheiros" (men who deal with: "jogo do bicho", or illegal gambling) and extorting money for workers' party (pt) electoral campaigns. a supposed victim of extortion released a tape exposing diniz. the tape's authenticity has been verified by experts and it was aired by the major brazilian television stations. a congressional special commission was proposed by non-government parties so the denunciation could be investigated. the government succeeded in stopping the creation of the commission. 

on march 16, the leading brazilian magazine veja published a story saying that according to documents of the brazilian agency of intelligence (abin) the workers' party received 5 million dollars to be used by political campaigns of their candidates in 2002 from the colombian communist armed group revolutionary armed forces of colombia (farc-ep). abin said that the documents were not authentic.

last month, some men, supposedly involved in illicit negotiations with the brazilian post service recorded a video which shows former post office chief, mauricio marinho, during a supposed bribe negotiation. in the tape, marinho receives and puts in his pocket r$3,000 (about 1,259 usd) in cash. he insinuates that the scheme is commanded by deputy roberto jefferson. the recording was aired by the major brazilian television stations.

roberto jefferson is the president of the government-allied brazilian labor party (ptb). lula da silva said in a earlier occasion that he "would give to jefferson a bank check in blank", what means that he had high confidence on jefferson. 

still related to the post office case, on june 2, lidio duarte, the former president of irb, a government enterprise, denied allegations that money from some brazilian government enterprises was going to ptb, jefferson's party. an earlier story published by magazine veja, said that duarte was a victim of extortion by a representative of ptb. according to veja, duarte resigned from the presidency of irb, because he had difficulties in continuing to give more money to ptb. lidio denied this story to the police, and furthermore he said that he never have had an interview with veja's journalists.

on june 8, the magazine veja released for download in its webpage, an audio tape where it can be heard the voice of lidio duarte during an alleged interview to veja. in the tape, lidio duarte talks about being under pressure because someone was asking him more contribution in money for ptb. the tape contradicts the duarte's testimony to the police and because of that, he became subject of investigation by the authorities. the name of the deputy roberto jefferson is cited by duarte in the alleged recorded interview to veja.

after the post office scandal been exposed, the brazilian congress proposed the creation of a congress' special commission, so it could be investigated by the parliament. the government, however, protested against it, arguing that political adversaries were anticipating the dispute to the next election for brazil's presidency. workers' party senator eduardo suplicy protested in senate against his party decision. because that he was very criticized and he got subject to punishment by the workers' party. 

on june 6, roberto jefferson told the brazilian newspaper folha de sao paulo that the ruling workers' party (pt) has payed brazilian deputies 30 thousand brazilian reals (us 12 thousand) each, every month. the stock markets went down and the u.s. dollar increased its value in relation to the brazilian real. a new congress' special commission was proposed by some brazilian senators, so jefferson's allegations could be investigated. the workers' party says that jefferson's allegations were untrue and that he had no proofs.

after jefferson's denunciation the focus of the scandal moved to the government and the ruling workers' party. because the government were under pressure, the workers' party changed his earlier decision of stopping the creation of a congress' special commission for the post office scandal. the proposal for the creation of a congress' special commission for the post office scandal was approved.

on june 9, there was the first meeting of members of the congress' special commission for the post office scandal. because of unsolved disputes between government's parliamentarians and the other parties representatives, the meeting could not continue. the government's block argued that it must choose the president and the report for the commission, since the government commission members are the majority. other parties argue that according to parliament tradition the government should choose one member for the presidency or report and the opposition should choose the other member.
a new meeting was scheduled to the next week, on tuesday, june 14.

besides these scandals, the current social security minister, romero juca, is accused of having
offered seven non-existent farms as guarantee for a financing from the banco of amazonia, among other denunciations of misuse of public loans. the current president of brazilian central bank, henrique meirelles, is accused of financial fraud among other accusations. also there is a denunciation of a irregular transference of founds of central bank to the construction of a new headquarter for the workers' party.

on june 4, during the so called curupira operation, the brazilian federal police arrested members of ibama, a brazilian agency for environment. among other accusations, they are accused of selling irregular licenses for deforestation in amazon. at least one of the suspects, a workers' party affiliate, is under suspection of have used the money for the political campaign of a worker's party candidate in mato grosso.

besides the commission to investigate the post office scandal, another congress' special commissions were suggested by non-government members of brazilian senate: a commission to investigate the irb scandal and another one to the investigation of roberto jefferson's allegations. also, it is expected that the brazilian courts rule against the earlier government decision of stopping the creation of a commission for the investigation of the alleged waldomiro diniz scandal. 

the scandals involving the ruling workers' party are receiving a good attention by the public and the media. according to the senator pedro simon (center-left, pmdb), an old member of senate, one reason is because that one of the mains workers' party mottos was the fight against corruption. but after lula became president on 2003, the government and the workers' party has been envolved in a series of severe scandals and the government has tried to stop the investigations, which is suspicious. besides that, all scandals originated inside the government, according to simon. the waldomiro and the post office scandals emerged after the denunciations of people supposedly under pressure and involved in these scandals. 

according to members of brazilian court, president luiz inacio lula da silva may be subjected to an impeachment process, if there is some proof that he is really envolved on some of the alleged scandals, or case someone can proof that he was acting with negligence.

part of opposition avoids talking about impeachment. according to the governor of minas gerais, aecio neves (left, psdb), "president lula is not president collor". president fernando collor de mello was submitted to a impeachment process in 1992 because of alleged denounciations of corruption in his government.

cesar maia (center-right, pfl), the mayor of rio de janeiro, and one of the probable adversaries of lula in the next election for president, said that he still believes that lula can explain all the corruption allegations against his government. but he also said that if lula doesn't succedd explaining the scandals, he will require the president's impeachment.

some of the harsh critics to lula's government comes from the senator heloisa helena (left, psol). her party, psol, is a dissidence of workers' party and the party claims that all denountiation must be investigated, besides the alleged government efforts by the party that the government is trying to stop the investigations. 

the senator demostenes torres (pfl) is another harsh critic of the alleged lula's scandals. he cited the former deposed president fernando collor de mello, during some of his discurses in brazilian senate.

according to the journalist boris casoy, from "rede record" television channel, it can be seen written in some places in brasilia the name of the president lula written as "lulla" (with double "l"). the name of the former deposed president fernando collor de mello also has a double "l".

in sao paulo, the labour union "forca sindical" is organizing protests against corruption in brasil. the other major labour "cut", which is linked to workers' party, said that don't want to take part on it.

until now, politicians, even those from opposition to the government , were trying to preserve the personal image of the president luiz inacio lula da silva. however, as new denountiations arise and the government has not succeed in explaining, the permanence of lula in the presidency becomes difficult, because of popular pressure.

it is also possible that all the inquiries finish in an inconclusive form, as has already happened with some old cases investigated by brazilian congress.

but, even if congress and the senate choose not to blame lula, his reputation certainly will still remain harmed. according to senator antonio carlos magalhaes (pfl), "lula's re-election has gone." 

at present time, there is a general consensus that lula will have to work hard if he wishes to get re-elected.




italians vote on fertility referendum

on sunday and monday, italians will vote on a referendum that would the abolish certain rules of the law about medically assisted fertility treatment.

italian law 40 of february 19, 2004 ruled on some aspects of assisted fertility treatment and established some rigid limits. the law was approved by the majority of parliament with the encouragement of the government. the opposition protested because there was no agreement among parliament for such a law and there was also disagreement among the majority. the law was approved using an urgent mechanism of the parliament, an apparatus used only if there is an urgent need for a law. 

a committee against the law has formed and asked for the referendum.

there will be 4 different votes about 4 different aspects of the law.

the first of them is asking to remove the prohibition of doing scientific studies with embryonic cells. the second is the ban on donor sperm and eggs; the third is a ban on embryo screening for couples with hereditary diseases; and the fourth, the rule that only three embryos per treatment can be created, all of which have to be implanted at the same time.

the referendum is of abrogate type, the only type of referendum permitted by italian law.

according to the italian law, in order for a law (or part of a law) to be abolished by a referendum, there must not only be a majority vote in favor of the abolishment, but also that the valid vote must be more than the majority of the people that have the right to vote.

since it's easier for the referendum not to be approved due to lack of presence of voters rather than for the presence of the majority of the "no" vote, the party who wants to keep the law as it is currently, has now asked citizens "not to go vote" rather than to vote "no".

even the catholic church asked its members to "not go to vote"; the pope himself asked for that in an indirect way. the president of the senate and other people in charge of important official positions took this position.

the opposition contested this behavior.



glazer caps manchester united's player transfer spending at ￡25m a year

the intentions of manchester united's new owner, u.s. sports tycoon malcolm glazer, for the club have been revealed. although spokespersons for mr. glazer (including his son) have stressed that nothing has been finalised, it appears that he intends to raise ticket prices, income, profits whilst capping spending on player transfers.

mr. glazer - who owns over 76.2% of the club's shares through his investment company, "red football" - enraged fans when he started to accumulate shares earlier this year in an attempt to gain control of the what amounts to the world's most successful football club. manchester united has more fans, a higher market value, a more valuable and more widely recognised brand and is more profitable than any other football club in the world.

to gain control of the club, glazer used borrowed money and he is set to transfer this money to the club's books when he gains full control. the borrowed money will result in large interest repayments - pushing the clubs finances into the red. to counter this mr. glazer apparently intends to raise ticket prices by about 50% and to increase revenues by 52% to ￡245.6m (from ￡161.5m this year) over the next five years. apart from ticket price increases, this jump in revenue will be achieved by a 61% jump in match day sales, a 13% increase in media sales, and a 76% rise in sales of merchandise and other commercial activities.

as part of his plans, expenditure on player transfers will be capped at just ￡25m a year. this is a very low figure for a english football club endeavouring to win domestic and european trophies. seven years ago the club spent ￡28m on players, since then expenditure in england on players has increased hugely.



crown prince of kuwait admitted to hospital

crown prince of kuwait sheikh saad al-abdulla al-sabah, was admitted to a hospital on thursday due to a blood condition. according to the state news agency kuna he has been suffering from a high level of blood glucose. in 1997 sheikh saad underwent colon surgery. 

sheikh saad has been crown prince since 1978. he was also prime minister until july 2003. in july 2003 the emir replaced him with sheik sabah as prime minister. this appointment broke the tradition of crown princes also serving as heads of government. both he and the emir have made very few public appearances recently.


irish inflation creeps upwards to 2.4%

the inflation rate in ireland, as measured by the central statistics office (cso), edged upwards to hit a five month high in may at 2.4%. this represents a 0.2% rise on the previous month when the rate stood at 2.2%.

the major contributors to the rise were increased transportation, healthcare, and education costs. in april the eu25 average rate of inflation was 2.1%, with latvia having the highest rate at 7.1% and sweden the lowest at 0.4%.

despite the increase in the rate, irish inflation remains very low - having hit 7% during 2000 and remaining around the 5% until the beginning of 2003. another major factor easing any worries about the increase is ireland's very strong gdp growth - expected to be around 5.5% this year

on an annual basis the cost of footwear and clothing have fallen by 2.7% whilst energy costs have soared by 10.4%. the cost of food, furniture, and communications also fell over the last 12 months.

the "consumer price index" is made up of over 55,000 prices consisting of 613 headings which cover over 1,000 different items.


 


bskyb faces challenge in securing british premiership football rights

bskyb, the uk television broadcasting and transmission company, faces a serious rival bid from "setanta sports" for the rights to broadcast premiership football. bskyb, which dominates the satellite tv market, has held the rights to the broadcast premier league games since 1992. they paid ￡1.02bn for its current three year contract.

setanta has approached the managing director of bskyb, trevor east, with the intention of luring him to setanta to lead the acquisition of sports rights. mr east, who's contract runs out soon, has not yet made a decision, but should he decide to sign a contract with the irish station, it would be a massive boost to their ambitions.

setanta initially started out by broadcasting gaa games to irish people living abroad particularly in the us. today, backed by an investment by aig, it is pursuing an ambitious plan to grow its business - it currently broadcasts the scottish premier league and earlier this week it bought control of north american sports network. north american sports network broadcasts baseball, nfl football, basketball and nascar motor racing outside the us. also in the planning stages is a european sports station for the us market.


us millitary says it killed approximately 40 'insurgents' in iraq

united states air-strikes have killed an estimated 40 suspected insurgents in western iraq on saturday, the us military has said. "seven precision-guided u.s. air strikes on the outskirts of the town of karabilah killed the insurgents who were stopping vehicles at gunpoint and threatening iraqi civilians," said a us military statement. it has not been confirmed that insurgents were stopping civilians at gunpoint.

the statement said that there were no us casualties and that no report of civilian casualties has been received in the area of the attacks, near karabila, 300 km (186 miles) west of baghdad.

elsewhere, reports indicate a former iraqi police commander blew himself up in a failed bid to assassinate the leader of the anti-insurgent "wolf brigade" in baghdad, killing three other policemen in the attempt.


french journalist held hostage in iraq freed

the french foreign affairs department has announced that the french journalist florence aubenas (working on behalf of liberation) and her guide hussein hanoun al-saadi have been freed this morning.

they had been held hostage in iraq since january 5, 2005 ? a total of 158 days.

french president jacques chirac said in a televised speech that the freed french reporter and her iraqi driver are in "good health" and said that aubenas is on a plane heading for france.


chechnya train derailed by blast, 12 injured

a russian has been derailed by an explosion on sunday, the fsb has said in a statement. a fsb spokesman said 12 people have been injured, when two carriages of a train heading from the chechen capital derailed 90 miles south of moscow.

officials have reported that two people have been rushed to hospital, while others who sustained lighter injuries were offered medical assistance at the crash site and delivered to moscow by commuter train. the spokesman did not say who might be responsible for the attack on the train, which at the time was carrying more than 300 passengers.

only an hour prior to the incident, a train carrying elementary school pupils from , on their way to croatia passed on the same track. 56 children were heading to a moscow airport, from where they flew to . in september last year, 172 children died in the .



china school flood claims 91 lives

at least 91 people have now been confirmed dead in friday's disaster, in which a wall of water and debris smashed into the school near ning'an, in the northern heilongjiang province. hundreds of children and more than 30 teachers of the school, were inside at the time.

of the dead, reports from the xinhua news agency say that 87 were students and four were adults. the reports also indicate that two dozen people are still in a criticial condition in hospital.

the flooding itself, triggered by heavy rain caused damage in several cities near ning'an city, knocking down up to 55 houses.


bomb blasts kill several in iran

four separate bombs have exploded in the south-western iranian city of ahwaz, killing more than five people and wounding up to 87 others. the presidential election is due in five days time.

later, an additional bomb was detonated in teheran, killing three and wounding several others.

earlier news reports reported a lower number, but reports from two major international agencies are now reporting much higher injury numbers. bombings in iran have been extremely rare, since the war with iraq ended in 1988.

one bomb exploded outside the governor general's office. three more bombs exploded near government buildings in a period of two hours. some reports put the official death toll at eight, and official reports confirm that up to 30 were injured; but final numbers are not yet known.

"we cannot say for now who committed these attacks, but the intelligence ministry is investigating," the deputy governor of khuzestan said in a statement to state television. he went on to say that "the attacks are a failure, because in the past the regime has been confronted by far worse."

the ahwaz attacks have been claimed by a previously unknown group known as the "ahwazi revolutionary martyrs' brigades," while a group protesting the bombings outside the khuzestan governor's residence chanted "death to the hypocrites" - a slogan applied to the mojahedin-e-khalq (mek) organization. 

ali agha mohammadi, head press secretary for the security services at first refused to implicate the mek in the attacks, but later asserted that the bombs “may have been the work of people who belong to the <nowiki>[mojahedin]</nowiki>." the mek, which has admitted responsibility for previous attacks, have disclaimed any part in the latest string of bombings. 

the mek is currently listed as a foreign terrorist organisation by the u.s. state department and has received similar designations from other governments and the european union. however, according to two prominent security analysts, the bombings seen this weekend are not their style. “these don’t have the mek’s fingerprints on them,” according to mustafa akmal. “the mek has not engaged in any violent action for the past four years,” he said, adding “even before ceasing its armed activities in iran, it had a policy of claiming responsibility for all its operations.” 

akmal's colleague, walter murray of the gulf intelligence monitor agreed, saying it would be foolish for the group to alienate potential supporters in the west and endanger the fruits of years of lobbying western governments with such attacks. murray felt the bombers were more likely "...loose cannons..." in iran's military or intelligence services.

according to iranian top national security official ali agha mohammadi, "the terrorists of ahvaz infiltrated iran from the region of basra" in southern iraq." he added that "these terrorists have been trained under the umbrella of the americans in iraq."

these attacks seem to represent a new capability of anti-tehran forces to strike inside of iran that did not exist before the us invasion and occupation of iraq.

there has been no official us denunciation of the attacks.

links via iranian.com
warning: graphic content



missouri circuit court judge werner moentmann rules that planned parenthood must repay money.

on thursday, missouri judge werner moentmann ruled that of and planned parenthood of mid-missouri must repay the state of missouri $668,850 for grants they received illegally for fiscal years 2000 and 2003. the judge said that the planned parenthood groups shared "office space, expenses, employee wages, equipment and supplies" with doctors who performed abortions and therefore was ineligible for the grant money.

this is the third time the case has come before a circuit judge ? twice previously circuit court judges ruled that planned parenthood was not eligible for grant funding from missouri department of health and senior services. 

the missouri supreme court overturned two previous rulings without addressing the merits of the case itself. the first ruling urged the lower court to reconsider the decision based on changes in federal law; the second ruling was overturned when the court found that attorney general jay nixon had a conflict of interest in representing both the state legislature and the health department.



mike tyson set to retire after loss

mike tyson's boxing career appears to be over after the infamous fighter became fatigued against his journeyman opponent saturday. tyson later told the media he was quitting the sport to become a missionary.

despite being heavily favored, the 38-year old tyson became desperate in the sixth round and resorted to his trademark bizarre tactics against irishman kevin mcbride (33-4-1). when an attempt to break his opponent's arm failed to end the fight, tyson landed a head-butt that opened a cut near mcbride's left eye. still desperate and low on stamina, tyson proceeded to hit below the belt before sagging to the canvas in the closing seconds of the round. when tyson refused to answer the bell for the seventh, veteran referee joe cortez "looked stunned," according to the "boston globe's" ron borges. tyson led on two cards and trailed on a third when the fight was called, but he was clearly out of gas and momentum was not with him. 

"i do not have the stomach for this," tyson told showtime interviewer jim gray after leaving the ring. "i don't have the guts to be in this sport anymore. my heart is not into this anymore." he also apologized to the 15,472 paid attendance at the mci center "whom had roared his name when he entered the ring less than an hour earlier," according to borges.

the $5 million payday will erase only a fraction of an enormous debt that caused tyson to declare bankruptcy in 2003. one report says he owes more than $40 million .

the disgraced former champion also told reporters he is "going to look into my missionary work," according to reuters. "there is some christian missionary work that was interested in letting me come to bosnia, go to rwanda, go to different countries to help with aid and food for people that are in dire need."



fossett set to recreate first non-stop trans-atlantic flight

american millionaire and adventurer steve fossett and his co-pilot mark rebholz are planning to recreate john alcock and arthur whitten brown's historic first non-stop transatlantic flight of 1919.

following the original route, the pair hope to leave lester's field in newfoundland, canada next weekend and fly to clifden on the west coast of ireland. they intend to land at the ballyconneely golf links near the irish town. however, the date of departure, 19 june, is very much weather dependent because the pilots will be relying solely on the sun and stars for direction ? no instruments are being used for navigation.

the trip, which will be completely in a replica vickers vimy, will take approximately 20 hours to complete. the vickers vimy was originally designed as a world war one bomber. this particular plane has already been used to recreate significant journeys; having flown from britain to australia in 1994, and from england to south africa in 1999.

mr. fossett is a multimillionaire who earned his fortune in the american financial markets. he holds 15 world record passages in sailing ? including the record for fastest circumnavigation of the world. he was the first person ever to fly a solo, non-stop, aerial circumnavigation of the globe in a jet aircraft. he has also swum the english channel and driven the 24 hours of le mans.

the adventurer also holds the interesting distinction of holding more world records than anyone else ? currently 62 world records.




pink floyd will reunite to play london's live 8

organizers of the upcoming london live 8 concert have announced that legendary rock band pink floyd plans to perform on july 2. guitarist david gilmour, bassist roger waters, drummer nick mason, and keyboardist richard wright will play their first performance together since playing at earls court, london in 1981.

the band will come together, along with other musical acts such as coldplay, elton john, and paul mccartney for this event. live 8 is a series of free concerts at each of the g8 nations organized by bob geldof. these concerts, set on the 20th anniversary of geldof's live aid, have been planned to support the make poverty history campaign, which aims to reduce african poverty. 

this lineup of pink floyd has not played together for 24 years due to a conflict between david gilmour and roger waters over leadership and creative influence of the band. however, it seems that they are willing to put their differences behind to support live 8; "like most people i want to do everything i can to persuade the g8 leaders to make huge commitments to the relief of poverty and increased aid to the third world," said david gilmour and added, "any squabbles roger and the band have had in the past are so petty in this context, and if reforming for this concert will help focus attention then it's got to be worthwhile."



iraqi police discover 20 bodies

decomposing bodies of twenty men have been found in a shallow grave in nahrawan near baghdad, iraqi police officials report.

the men, who were aged between 20 and 50 were thought to have died quite some time ago. police have not yet been able to identify the bodies, because of their physical state. reports indicate that no identification was found at the scene.

correspondents for the uk news agency, the bbc, say that there is an increasing number of unexplained murders in and around baghdad, with bodies frequently dumped on the side of the road.


wisconsin democratic party calls for impeachment of bush, cheney, &amp; rumsfeld

in oshkosh, wisconsin, the democratic party of wisconsin adopted the following resolution at their state convention:

the resolution alleges that the bush administration "lied or misled" congress and the american people concerning the justification for the war. the "downing street memo" and reports from u.n. weapons inspectors are mentioned as evidence of deception.

newly elected state party chairman joe wineke said, "democrats, not only in wisconsin but throughout the u.s., have been outraged by what we believe has been a clear cover-up of why the u.s. went into iraq," and that the resolution expresses "the sense of frustration that democrats in wisconsin have over fighting a war for the wrong reasons."

charles franklin, a university of wisconsin-madison professor does not think the resolution will be successful and said that even if the house of representatives began impeachment proceedings against the president and vice president, "i don't think you can impeach the secretary of defense".



final withdrawal of australian troops from east timor

the australian defence force handed the deeds to an adf (australian defence force) base in east timor back to the country's government today, representing the end of armed peacekeeping in the country. the adf says almost all their personnel will be out of the country within a fortnight. a small number will remain as part of a defence cooperation program between the two nations.

the east timorese prime minister and other dignitaries were present for the handing over of the deeds. troops from the armed forces of both australia and east timor paraded together while the australian flag was lowered.

the molena base, near the border with west timor, has been operated by the adf for the past three years. the site will now become a school.

a senior lecturer in international relations and strategy from the australian national university, doctor michael mckinley, said "although there's going to be a defence presence left in the country ... the peacekeeping presence could perhaps have been extended, particularly if there are any reservations whatsoever in the east timorese government about their ongoing security concerns. my understanding is that there are certainly some concerns still remaining." 

"for the sort of psychological security of the east timorese and perhaps even as a general message to the residue of trouble making, i thought perhaps australia might have stayed somewhat longer," he said.

lieutenant colonel brian cox, commander of the adf in east timor, says he believes the country is being left in safe hands.

"we came in here in a period of turmoil in 1999 with interfet and general (peter) cosgrove leading the 5,000 australians then, and we're now leaving with economic prosperity now in place," he said.


ryanair exercises options on five boeing 737s


irish low cost airline, ryanair, announced today that it is exercising its options with boeing to purchase five new 737 aircraft. this brings ryanair's total number of outstanding orders with the us manufacturer to 230.

the new planes, which come from the 737-800 range, will be fitted with blended winglets to boost fuel efficiency by as much as 3%. ryanair ceo, michael o'leary, justified his choice of boeing by saying, "the boeing 737-800 has the best technical reliability and ensures that ryanair is the number one on-time major airline in europe"..."in addition, it has the lowest unit operating cost. the addition of these five aircraft will continue to enable us to develop more new routes across europe and bring low fares to many more european consumers."

ryanair is the world's most profitable airline, having reported record profits of ?269m earlier this year, and is pursuing an aggressive expansion plan which will see it's total number of passengers jump to 70m over the next few years. at present ryanair has 91 aircraft and 230 on order.




airbus wins qatar airways order worth $15bn


european aircraft manufacturer, airbus, has won an order from qatar airways for up to 60 of its new mid-sized a350 jets. the order, which is believed to be worth $15 billion, has given a boost to an otherwise disappointing paris air show, which had been dominated by a state aid dispute between airbus and boeing.

qatar airways, which choose the airbus a350 over boeing's 787, will also purchase 20 of boeing's larger 777 planes for $4.6 billion. qatar has a previous order for 2 of airbus' massive new a380's which it will begin to fly in 2009 out of london heathrow.

in 2004, airbus sold more planes than boeing for the first time ever, sparking questions whether the us company had lost its once seemingly impregnable grip on the aviation market. however thus far, boeing has received far more orders than airbus in 2005.



michael jackson found 'not guilty' on all counts

the jury hearing the michael jackson trial has come to a final decision today, drawing to a close the long and widely hyped trial centering on the famous performer.

on this june 13, 2005, the jury in the michael jackson trial announced a verdict of "not guilty" on all 10 counts. the charges which were brought up against jackson included:


emotional jurors of the case, some shedding a tear or two at the verdict's reading, stated that while they initially did not expect the decision to be made by today, they all felt that the decision made was the correct one, and that they indeed had more than 'reasonable doubt' about the claims against the performer. 

for a juror to return a verdict of "not guilty", the us judicial system dictates that they should have "reasonable doubt" about whether or not the individual has performed the alleged actions. the jurors said that they did this, also commenting that they kept a close eye on the instruction pages provided to them by the judge, often referring back to them when discussing evidence in the case which contributed to the final outcome.

jackson left the courtroom without comment to reporters, and has remained silent since.


serial child imposter held by french police

french police are holding a 31-year-old who managed to convince social workers and fellow students that he was a 15-year-old spanish orphan and spent a whole month attending school. 

frederic bourdin's alias was discovered when a teacher watched a television program about his exploits and his numerous identities. 

claire chadourne, headmistress at the college jean-monnet, said, "he seemed a little older than his classmates, two or three years at the most. but 31. i still can't believe it!"

bourdin, who speaks at least five languages, told social workers and classmates that his name was francisco hernandez-fernandez and that his parents had been killed in a car crash in 2000 and that he'd spent three months in a coma. he claimed that after being placed into foster care, he was sexually abused and that he escaped to france. 

he told his teacher that he had horrible scars that he wished to hide and was given special permission to wear a cap to hide his balding.

bourdin is said to have assumed 39 other false identities in the past. 

in 1997, bourdin was arrested and imprisoned for six years in the united states for posing a texas couple's 14-year-old son, who disappeared three years earlier. he managed to convince the couple that he was their son even though he had brown eyes and a heavy french accent.

the couple's son had blue eyes.

bourdin lived with the couple for three months before a journalist exposed him and his lies were confirmed by a dna test.

returning from the united states in 2003, bourdin showed up in the southeastern alps, where he claimed to be leo balley, who went missing in 1996 when he was seven-years-old and camping with his father.

once again, a dna test revealed his lies. 

bourdin said, "i have only usurped the identities of two disappeared children. otherwise 99% of the names are completely made up." 

he says he assumes other identities as a way of receiving the attention he never got as a child. 

bourdin is slated to appear in court in september.


new rocky planet discovered in orbit around nearby star

a new earth-like planet, called gliese 876 d, has been discovered orbiting a star called gliese 876 about 15 light years from earth. it is the first rocky planet to be discovered orbiting a star, although three other rocky planets have in the past been discovered in orbit around a pulsar. there are two other gaseous, jupiter-like planets in orbit around the same star.

"this is the smallest extrasolar planet yet detected and the first of a new class of rocky terrestrial planets," said paul butler of the carnegie institution, one of the teams that discovered the new planet. "it's like earth's bigger cousin."

the newly discovered world has about 7? times the mass of earth. its orbital period, or "year", is a mere 2 days in length and its path takes it 10 times closer to its star than the closest planet is to our sun. the temperature on the surface is estimated between 400 to 750 degrees fahrenheit (200 to 400 degrees celsius), and is too hot for life forms that are similar to those found on earth.

"a planet seven and a half times the mass of the earth could easily hold onto an atmosphere," explained gregory laughlin, an assistant professor of astronomy at the university of california in santa cruz. "it would still be considered a rocky planet, probably with an iron core and a silicate mantle. it could even have a dense steamy water layer. i think what we are seeing here is something that's intermediate between a true terrestrial planet like the earth and a hot version of the ice giants uranus and neptune."

astronomers are continuing to advance the science of detecting extrasolar worlds. "we are pushing a whole new regime at keck [observatory in hawaii] to achieve one meter per second precision, triple our old precision, that should also allow us to see earth-mass planets around sun-like stars within the next few years," butler said.



unhcr criticises rwanda's and burundi's decision to re-label refugees as illegal immigrants

the united nations high commissioner for refugees has criticised the governments of rwanda and burundi for their decision to mutually re-label each others asylum seekers as illegal immigrants. the unhcr is concerned that the rights of asylum seekers may be abused.

"if they are summarily sent back without a proper procedure to determine whether or not they are refugees, then that could well be in contravention of international refugee law, and in particular the 1951 un refugee convention and the 1969 oau convention," a unhcr press release said.

in a joint press release, both countries declared that the asylum seekers had left their countries "without good reason," and were therefore illegal immigrants.

the rwandan asylum seekers began arriving in burundi in march. their main concern was the gacaca courts, however the unhcr is also reporting that some asylum seekers "... said they were fleeing threats, intimidation, persecution and rumours of revenge and bloodshed."

earlier this week the rwandan government put the number of asylum seekers at 2,000, and accused the unhcr of exaggerating the size of the refugee problem, and thus causing more people to flee.

there are 8,000 rwandan asylum seekers in burundi, and nearly 7,000 burundians in rwanda, according to the unhcr.



aid group 'denied access' to rwandan refugee camp in burundi

the international medical aid group medecins sans frontieres (msf) has claimed in a press release that its medical staff have been prevented from accessing their clinic inside the songore transit camp. the camp holds almost 7,000 rwandan asylum seekers, who were receiving more than 100 medical consultations a day from msf staff. msf claims that the camp is now guarded by the burundese military.

"it's unacceptable that our medical staff are denied access to our own health facility in songore camp, denying medical care to the people in the camp. also, by transporting these people back to rwanda, msf is not able to continue the medical care for those that were already under treatment. some families have even been split apart because of family members being referred to a nearby hospital," says michiel hofman, operational director for msf.

"msf is very concerned about what can be seen as a forced repatriation where the basic rights of an asylum seeker are being denied", he added.

this action appears to be part of a wider crackdown on asylum seekers from rwanda and burundi. the unhcr recently criticised the two governments after they issued a joint press release which declared that asylum seekers in each others countries did not have a legitimate claim and therefore were illegal immigrants rather than refugees.

the rwandan asylum seekers began arriving in burundi in march. their main concern was the gacaca courts, however the unhcr is also reporting that some asylum seekers "... said they were fleeing threats, intimidation, persecution and rumours of revenge and bloodshed."

the president of rwanda, paul kagame, has previously called for the asylum seekers to return home, stating that they will not be in danger.

"gacaca is not intended to have all the people who appear at gacaca arrested and put in prison. we want these people to show remorse and through that they will provide information and will allow people to forgive them and allow them to settle," he said.

there are 8,000 rwandan asylum seekers in burundi, and nearly 7,000 burundians in rwanda, according to the unhcr.



un reports rwandan refugees repatriated by force

the united nations is reporting that thousands of rwandan who fled to neighbouring burundi over the last few months have been forced to return home. trucks laden with people have been seen leaving the camp, and some people have broken limbs after allegedly jumping to avoid returning to rwanda.

according to a press release, the unhcr was denied access to the songore transit centre in northern burundi, making verification difficult. the camp was home to at least 6,000 asylum seekers until last week. the rwandan and burundian governments met over the weekend and declared in a joint press release that the asylum seekers were not refugees but "illegal immigrants".

"nothing justifies the presence of these people in burundi. rwanda is in peace and there is no persecution," said burundian interior minister jean marie ngendahayo.

this claim has been criticised by the unhcr, which has stated that it would be illegal to return the people without first assessing their claim to asylum. amnesty international has also claimed that burundi's actions are contrary to international law.

"the use of verbal or physical threats to induce people to return to countries where they fear persecution is in complete contravention of international law ? in particular the binding principle of ," said kolawole olaniyan, director of amnesty international's africa programme.

"we urge the government of burundi to implement fair and transparent asylum procedures to establish the risks of return for every single person claiming asylum ? as is their duty under international law," he added.

this action appears to be part of a wider crackdown on asylum seekers from rwanda and burundi. medecins sans frontieres (msf), an international aid group, reported yesterday that their medical staff had been denied access to the songore camp.

the rwandan asylum seekers began arriving in burundi in march. their main concern was the , village courts established to expedite prosecution of perpretators of the 1994 . the unhcr is also reporting that some asylum seekers "... said they were fleeing threats, intimidation, persecution and rumours of revenge and bloodshed."

the president of rwanda, paul kagame, has previously called for the asylum seekers to return home, stating that they will not be in danger.

"gacaca is not intended to have all the people who appear at gacaca arrested and put in prison. we want these people to show remorse and through that they will provide information and will allow people to forgive them and allow them to settle," he said.

a wikinews reporter was in butare recently talking to the locals. she says that the mood is generally supportive of the courts.

"people here believe in the gacaca process. they say that people have fled now because the investigations are reaching their end and people now know that the are going to be exposed in the process. they have heard 'rumours' that may have been circulated by former leaders of the genocide ? or there may not have been rumours they may merely fear the trials - that there will be reprisals and violence," she said.

some people fear reprisals after testifying before the courts.

"fear is also experienced by those facing testimonies at the gacaca trial: the widows etc. who will testify against their neighbours. i have been told by several people that high levels of security have been put into place in villages to protect people from revenge attacks for testifying or for being involved," she added.

there are 8,000 rwandan asylum seekers in burundi, and nearly 7,000 burundians in rwanda, according to the unhcr.



chinese bloggers on microsoft's msn now face regulation of censors

as of tuesday, chinese bloggers on microsoft's msn service will face the scrutiny of automated censors. microsoft is changing the chinese version of its blogging portal msn spaces to reject certain words deemed contentious ? words such as 'democracy', 'freedom', 'human rights', and 'taiwan independence'. the company states that the purpose of this action is to comply with local laws in china, a country with heavy regulation of online speech. this follows on the heels of an earlier action taken by the government of the people's republic of china that required all chinese bloggers to register their web journals with the government.

ever since the communist party of china (cpc) took control of the government in 1945, the press has been strictly regulated, but with the advent of the internet, there were worries on the part of the cpc on whether their influence on the chinese media would hold. as chinese officials called for a more regulated internet, outsiders dismissed such regulation as impossible and contradictory of what the internet stands for. yet government censorship prevailed with the installation of a complex system of proxies and firewalls (colloquially known as the great firewall of china), blocking chinese internet users from accessing sites that ran counter to the censorship policy. a further crackdown in 2003 resulted in the closure of many internet cafes and the arrest of dozens of users.

with this recent action, microsoft has come under scrutiny by reporters without borders. microsoft has issued a statement saying that it is its policy to comply with local laws and regulations of each country where it operates. microsoft is not the only company obliging to the censorship policy of the people's republic of china ? nortel, yahoo! and google have been criticised for similar measures. google was blocked by the chinese censors for some amount of time in the past, as has been wikipedia, the sister project of wikinews.




(abc's paul allen interviews professor ronald deibert of the university of toronto)


bombings reported in southeastern iran

three separate explosions have been reported in zahedan, a city in southeast iran near the afghan and pakistani borders. reports indicate that the bombings gave minor injuries to three people and caused some damage to houses. one of the blasts reportedly occurred at approximately 4:30 am, with the other two preceding shortly before.

the attack is part of a series of bombings that have occurred shortly before the iranian presidential election. blasts in tehran and the southwestern city of ahvaz on sunday killed a total of 10 people. despite these grave attacks, iranian officials are asserting that the turnout for the election will not be impaired. at a monday press conference, intelligence minister ali younessi said, ""[the] sunday morning and evening [attacks] in ahvaz and tehran are not going to have any effect on people's presence at presidential election polls."



south african president dismisses deputy on implications of corruption

today at about 1600 utc/gmt, south african president thabo mbeki announced in a special session of parliament that he has taken action he feels is necessary, that is to "release <nowiki>[his deputy president]</nowiki>, jacob zuma, from his responsibilities as deputy president of the republic and member of the cabinet".

zuma was implicated in corruption arising from his relationship with his former financial adviser, schabir shaik, who was convicted of corruption and fraud earlier this month. shaik was found guilty by durban high court of two counts of corruption and one of fraud and was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.

the president has called this one of his toughest decisions. opposition leader of the democratic alliance immediately praised the president for holding "principle over politics", and, while deeply saddened, former president nelson mandela supported mbeki's decision. jacob zuma was the favourite of the ruling african national congress party to succeed thabo mbeki as president.

following this ordeal, the government of south africa has reaffirmed its dedication to the reduction and eventual elimination of corruption in all areas of politics.

update (july 7)

the african national congress held a meeting of it's national general council over the weekend of 2-3 july. zuma attracted a lot of favourable attention, mostly from people who wished to defeat policy initiatives that included relaxing some of the legal constraints on employers. he was reinstated as anc deputy president and, in a first for the party, granted a salary (details not revealed). it now appears that jacob zuma's political future is closely tied to that of the "left wing" of the anc.



canadian military hosts first gay military wedding

details emerged on tuesday that the canadian military hosted the first gay military marriage in north america at an airbase in nova scotia in may. a sergeant and a warrant officer, who didn't want to be identified, were married on may 3 by a united church minister in front of about 45 guests at greenwood airbase.

lt. cmdr david greenwood, the base's anglican chaplain, said he could not officiate but said he arranged the service and preached at the wedding. greenwood said the wedding might encourage other gays and lesbians to come forward and make their vows official. most anglican dioceses in canada don't perform same-sex marriages, but has postponed its official decision on the matter until 2007.

a national defence spokeswoman confirmed this was the first gay wedding in the military's history. currently, same-sex marriages are recognized and performed in seven provinces and one territory across canada.

in 2004, the supreme court of canada ruled that the federal government has exclusive jurisdiction to decide who has the right to marry in canada. prime minister paul martin said the government would pursue legalizing same-sex marriage across the country this year. the government's same-sex marriage bill passed its second reading in the house of commons in may.



earthquake hits chile

a major earthquake hit chile on monday with a 7.9 magnitude strength. according to the reuters news service, the earthquake caused a major displacement of homes and caused major power outages. so far, there have been 11 dead in the quake and aftermath.

the epicentre was 115 km at the northeast of the of iquique, close to the border with bolivia, and it happened monday, at 6:45 p.m. local time (22:45 utc).

right after the occurrence of the earthquake, schools were evacuated, panic was generalized and the electrical power has been cut. the earthquake could be felt at the south of peru and bolivia, but there are not information about victims or damages in these countries. a very small earthquake was felt in some cities in brazil, with no damages or victims apparently.



ebay uk bans sale of live 8 tickets

the uk division of ebay announced yesterday that it was removing all listings for sale of tickets for "live 8" from its ebay.co.uk site. whilst asserting that "resale of tickets is not illegal", it stated that it was banning them in response to community pressure, and it was "absolutely the right thing to do". no similar announcements were made for any other of ebay's web sites, such as ebay.com, and no particular restrictions on the sales of event tickets with respect to "live 8" are included in ebay's resale policy.

bob geldof had labelled the advertising for sale of the tickets "sick profiteering". he described the community reaction as people realising that "the weakest people on our planet" were being exploited, and being "sickened by that". in response to an earlier offer by ebay to hand over to the "live 8" charity its fees from the sales, geldof had said "it is not acceptable that a giant electronic company that makes billions upon billions then morally says 'we will just hand over our take to a charity'. it is filthy money made on the back of the poorest people on the planet. stick it where it belongs."




tsunami bulletin issued from pacific coast of california-mexico border to vancouver, canada

on tuesday night, the national weather service issued a tsunami bulletin for the pacific coast from the california-mexico border to vancouver, canada, after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake occurred approximately 80 miles off the coast of northern california at 19:50 pdt.

the warning has now been cancelled. the quake's motion was horizontal, not vertical (the movement that typically leads to a tsunami).

witnesses along the california coast reported buildings shaking, but no major damage or injuries were reported.

details of the earthquakes which have taken place in the past week (including the three major earthquakes which have taken place in, or close to, the americas over the last 24 hours) can be found at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/

a full text of the now-cancelled tsunami warning follows:

tsunami bulletin number 001<br>
pacific tsunami warning center/noaa/nws<br>
issued at 0259z 15 jun 2005

this bulletin is for all areas of the pacific basin except
alaska - british columbia - washington - oregon - california.

... tsunami information bulletin ...<br>

this message is for information only. there is no tsunami warning
or watch in effect.

an earthquake has occurred with these preliminary parameters

origin time - 0251z 15 jun 2005<br>
coordinates - 41.3 north 125.7 west <br>
location - off coast of northern california<br>
magnitude - 7.4

evaluation

no destructive pacific-wide tsunami threat exists based on
historical earthquake and tsunami data. 
however - earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local
tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts located within
a hundred kilometers of the earthquake epicenter. authorities
in the region of the epicenter should be aware of this
possibility and take appropriate action. 

this will be the only bulletin issued for this event unless
additional information becomes available.

the west coast/alaska tsunami warning center will issue bulletins
for alaska - british columbia - washington - oregon - california.



boy dies on mission space ride at disneyworld

a 4-year-old-boy named daudi bamuwamye from sellersville, pennsylvania, died yesterday after collapsing on the mission: space ride in epcot at the walt disney world resort, florida. his mother carried him off the ride, and after attempts to revive him at the theme park by paramedics, he was declared dead in hospital. the ride was closed after the death yesterday but, after an inspection by company engineers concluded that the ride was operating normally, re-opened. no changes were made to the ride or to the restrictions upon who may ride it.

a disney official said in a statement that disney officials were "providing support to the family and are doing everything we can to help them during this difficult time." disney spokeswoman jacquee polak said that "we believe the ride is safe in its current configuration."

sheri blanton of the medical examiner's office in orlando said that the autopsy yesterday showed no trauma, that further tests will be done, and that the cause of death may not be known for several weeks. the sheriff's office in orlando said that the boy met the minimum height requirement (44 inches) for the ride.

the ride features 2 gs of acceleration. while this is not abnormal for rides, several people had complained of nausea from the ride and airsickness bags had been installed on the ride itself. houston-based theme park consultant randy king, a former safety director at six flags, said "two gs is not that big a deal."



bush may give special news conference about iran

anonymous white house sources say that u.s. president george w. bush will likely give a special news briefing on the subject of iran. sources say that the press conference is scheduled to be held within a week and it will be officially announced in short notice. other details about the rumored conference, such as what exactly will be discussed, are unknown. 

one possibility is that bush will deviate yet again from the expected theme at an already-scheduled function; on june 14, bush addressed a future farmers of america (ffa) group at penn state, but spoke mostly about social security instead of agricultural issues.

see wikinews for further developments.


president bush says u.s. will defend taiwan if attacked by china

on friday, june 10, 2005, u.s. president george w. bush said that the united states will defend the republic of china (taiwan) if it is ever attacked by the people's republic of china (mainland china). the president expressed this position in an interview with neil cavuto in fox news channel's "your world with neil cavuto".
cavuto: do we still stand by an agreement, mr. president, that if taiwan is ever invaded, we will defense taiwan?

bush: yes, we do. it's called the taiwan relations act. the policy of the u.s. government is this: we're for a one china policy based upon what they call the three communiques, and that we adhere to the taiwan relations act, which means this: neither side will unilaterally change the status quo. in other words, neither side will make a decision that steps outside the bounds of that statement i just made to you. if china were to invade unilaterally, we would rise up in the spirit of taiwan relations act. if taiwan were to declare independence unilaterally, it would be a unilateral decision that would then change the u.s. equation.


bombing in iraq kills us marines and civilians

"five marines were killed in action thursday when their vehicle hit an explosive device while conducting combat operations near haqlaniyah," the united states military said in a statement on friday evening.

the attack itself came hours after reports that up to 17 bodies had been found killed in the same province. reports say that the bodies were killed "execution style" and were near anbar.

in baghdad, up to three iraqi civilians were killed and several others were wounded in a car bomb blast, that exploded near a busy marketplace in the mainly shia district of shula.



red and processed meats linked to bowel cancer

a large-scale study has demonstrated a risk of bowel cancer associated with the consumption of large amount of red or processed meats.

the european prospective investigation into cancer and nutrition study was set up ten years ago to investigate the effects of nutrition on cancer. funded by the british medical research council, cancer research uk, and the international agency for research on cancer, half a million people aged between 25 and 70 across europe were studied from 1992 to 1998. the results are being published in the latest edition of the journal of the national cancer institute.

after an average of five years, people who had eaten more than two portions of red and processed meats a day (160g) were 35% more likely to develop bowel cancer than those who only ate one portion a week.

eating one or more portions of fish a day (over 80g) was associated with a reduction of 20% in risk compared to people who only ate fish once a week.

chicken was found to have no effect.

red meat was defined as beef, lamb, pork and veal while processed meat was mostly pork and beef that were preserved by methods other than freezing. these include ham, bacon, sausages, liver pate, salami, tinned meat, luncheon meat and corned beef.

in the uk, bowel cancer is the second most common cancer for women and third most common for men. in england and wales, currently about 1 in 18 men and 1 in 20 women will be diagnosed with the disease. some 50% of bowel cases are cured - rising to 80% if caught early enough.

 


autopsy reveals that terri schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state

an autopsy on the body of terri schiavo, the brain-damaged woman whose right-to-die case had spurred controversy and nation-wide attention, revealed that her brain was half the size of a normal female adult's, suggesting that the woman was in a , just as her husband, michael, had argued in court and before the press.

doctors also tell the press that the autopsy revealed that ms. schiavo was blind and that her disability was not caused by any sort of abuse.

the terri schiavo case, another chapter in court cases over a person's right to die, sparked attention from the international media. the case was caused by a dispute between husband michael schiavo and the parents of terri over whether the disabled ms. schiavo, who could not communicate with anyone, desired to die. courts that examined the case ruled in favor of michael schiavo's proposition to remove ms. schiavo's feeding tube. the removal of the tube caused the dehydration and eventual death of ms. schiavo, doctors say.

the terri schiavo foundation's web site had previously claimed that terri schiavo was not in a (pvs) and that she was responsive to human emotion. those statements have since been taken offline.



aid payments to be withdrawn by uk following violence in ethiopia

the uk has suspended ￡30m ($54m) of aid payments to ethiopia following the deaths of 36 people in protests over disputed elections.

the uk development minister, hillary benn, announced the move after talks with ethiopian prime minister meles zenawi in addis ababa.

benn said that ethiopia should allow the red cross access to detainees, and that they either be charged or released.

ethiopia has said it has started releasing people, but has not provided figures on the number imprisoned. opposition groups estimate the number to be 3,600.

uk prime minister tony blair telephoned zenawi on sunday to express his concern at the shootings. ethiopia has stated that it has begun releasing many of those arrested during the protests, however, human rights watch says those being held are at risk of abuse.

on tuesday, ethiopia's leaders signed a declaration to try to end violence and launch an investigation into election complaints.


canadian pm survives confidence votes

canada's scandal-plagued liberal party has survived a series of 15 confidence votes late last night, ensuring canadians won't be forced to head to the polls in a snap election this summer.

the minority government's win came amidst uncertainty over whether backbench mps would force an election over the contentious issue of same-sex marriage. 

but prime minister paul martin has yet another hurdle to jump with a key vote on thursday over the government's second budget bill. 

the bill is an amendment that came about as a result of a deal reached with the ndp party in april, when the party's leader, jack layton, offered to support the liberals if they would amend the budget to cancel corporate tax cuts due to be phased in over several years.

the budget deal with the ndp outlines $4.6 billion in spending for infrastructure, education, foreign aid and the environment. 

martin's government has been plagued by a sponsorship scandal over irregularities in public advertising contracts dating back to the 1990s awarded by the previous administration.



canadian pm survives confidence vote

canada's scandal-plagued liberal party survived a series of 15 confidence votes late last night ensuring canadians won't be forced to head to the polls in a snap election this summer.

the minority government's win came amidst uncertainty over whether backbench mps would force an election over the contentious issue of same-sex marriage. 

but prime minister paul martin has yet another hurdle to jump with a key vote on thursday over the government's second budget bill. 

the bill is an amendment that came about as a result of a deal reached with the ndp party in april, when the party's leader, jack layton, offered to support the liberals if they would amend the budget to cancel corporate tax cuts due to be phased in over several years.

the budget deal with the ndp outlines $4.6 billion in spending for infrastructure, education, foreign aid and the environment. 

martin's government has been plagued by a sponsorship scandal over irregularities in public advertising contracts dating back to the 1990s awarded by the previous administration.



house votes to limit patriot act

today the u.s. house of representatives voted to cut back some power of the by stopping the and justice department from searching library and bookstore records. although president bush has promised a veto, the motion was passed with a majority of 238-187. the senate has yet to vote on the matter.

the house's vote comes with the "sunset" provision set by congress that will cause 15 parts of the patriot act, a controversial anti-terror bill championed by the bush administration, to expire at the end of 2005.


downing street memo forum to be held june 16th in response to petition of 500,000

the "downing street memo" is the subject of a forum at the washington capitol complex today headed by congressman john conyers of the house judiciary committee and televised on c-span 3. conyers said that "there was a secret decision well ahead of the authority congress had given" and that as the bush administration "was assuring congress, they were secretly planning war."

the downing street memo is the leaked minutes of a july, 2002 meeting in british prime minister tony blair's office which occurred eight months before the war in iraq. the minutes say that "bush wanted to remove saddam through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. but the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

gold star families for peace is a group of families of americans who were killed in iraq. they also have been focusing on the british document and asking members of congress to press for answers. the organization's leader, cindy sheehan, said the forum is "calling on congress to do the right thing, to investigate the memo. i would hope that we would get an investigation going into the lies that lead our country into war and hold somebody accountable for those lies."

schneider said the minutes imply that "the bush administration had already decided to go to war before asking for a vote of congress, before going to the united nations. the question the memo raises is, did the united states and britain go to the united nations to avoid going to war or to justify going to war?"

at their june 7 press conference, president bush and prime minister blair were asked about the issues raised by the memo:

tony blair, prime minister of britain: but the facts were not being fixed in any shape or form at all.

george w. bush, president of the united states: somebody said, well, you know, we had made up our mind to go -- to use military force to deal with saddam. there's nothing farther from the truth.


bomb blast in iran injures three civilians

for a second time this week, the southeastern iranian city of zahedan was rocked by a bombing. like the previous bomb blast reported tuesday, it was relatively small and produced only three injuries and no fatalities. this is in stark contrast to bombs detonated over the weekend in ahwaz and tehran, which produced a dozen fatalities and scores of injuries.
the ahwaz bomb went off in a fast-food restaurant at 7:50 pm local time.

a government spokesperson said both bombings were "...anti-[islamic] revolution elements against innocent people."

across the border, iraqi prime minister ibrahim al-jafari issued a denunciation of the bombings and called for closer anti-terrorism cooperation between the countries of the middle east.

it is not clear who has truly been behind the string of zahedan and tehran bombings. three little-known arab separatist groups operating in the rebellious khuzestan province have claimed credit for the bombings there, but no one has stepped forward to claim the others. 

at first, after the earliest attacks, the government seemed to blame the mojahedin-e-khalq (mek) organization. it later expanded its accusations to allege u.s. facilitation and imply infiltration via u.s. occupied iraq or afghanistan, both of which share extensive borders with iran. the mek, which formerly operated under saddam hussein's protection in iraq, has claimed bombings in the past, but vehemently denies participating in the recent spate of attacks. the group seems to have moved away from violent acts in recent years as it tries to curry favor with western governments and shed its terrorist image (the group is currently listed on u.s. and many european terrorist watch lists). the affiliated national council of resistance of iran (ncri) has also denied involvement. 

on march 30, a previously unknown group called "the 70 million people of iran" issued a statement hinting at violent resistance to the current regime --- but only "after" a june 18 deadline, which has not yet passed.

reformist candidate mostafa moin has raised the possibility that rouge hardline islamist groups planted the bombs to frighten people into choosing a military-affiliated candidate. moin, currently running number two in the polls behind former president and current discernment council chairman akbar hashemi rasfanjani, also threatened to pull out of the race and ask his supporters to boycott elections to protest the treatment of his running mates and supporters, several of whom have been attacked by extremist mobs.




canadian boy killed in cambodian seige; police storm school

gunmen stormed a cambodian school today taking kindergardeners and teachers hostage.

the men entered siem reap international school, a cambodian elementary school in siem reap (near angkor wat), earlier today.

the gunmen killed one canadian boy of an unknown age, apparently after he would not stop crying. police began negotiating with the hostage takers after the killing. 

cambodian police raided the school after the hostages had been held for six hours. two gunmen, along with the canadian child, have reportedly died, while the police have detained four more suspects. the surviving hostages have now been freed. 

"all of a sudden the gates opened and people came running out with children in their arms," said john mcdermott, a correspondent for cnn.

most of the children that were held hostage are the sons and daughters of hotel workers. according to a resident, the hostages were singaporean, korean, japanese, australian, taiwanese, irish, british, swiss, indonesian, canadian, indian, american, italian, and filipino. 

she added, "the gunmen let one class go, but they [were] holding the kindergarten class."

the siem reap international school has served as a support system for the rapidly increasing number of expatriate workers attracted by cambodia's tourist industry upsurge, one of the very few boosters of the severely impoverished nation's economy.



world bank president addresses global youth forum on genocide

speaking on genocide, he said: "people say 'never again' too easily, it's happening today in . we all share responsibility to actually do things. the conditions of preventing genocide lie partly in helping people to have a better life. it's easier to incite people that have nothing to lose."

asked why the international community ignored , wolfowitz said: "there are many explanations but no excuses. we have to work with countries that are working to prevent conflict."

he said he would work together with african countries to cut poverty, citing 's phrase of a 'deal for a deal': "so many governments here are stepping up to take responsibility.". he added that world bank assistance to service debt repayments could now go towards meeting needs, following the cancellations of the debts of the 18 poorest countries agreed by g8 countries last week.

the forum organised by never again, which began at the today, has participants from rwanda, the , , the united states and canada.

the forum continues today and includes discussions on the future of the great lakes region and the international community's responsibility to protect against genocide.


american &quot;chicken for sex&quot; meat salesman is charged with assault

ryan park, a 22 year old door-to-door meat salesman from waterboro, maine was arrested yesterday, and charged with assaulting a woman in stoddard, new hampshire last month. he is charged with forcibly kissing her after she turned down an offer from him of chicken for sex.

stoddard police lieutenant roger turcotte stated that the woman, whom he did not name, told police that park:

turcotte said that in order to get rid of park the woman gave him a post-dated cheque (which police later helped the woman to stop payment on) and $40, all of the cash that she had, and that when the woman's husband later returned home, park tried to sell meat to him. turcotte also said that park, when questioned by police was "appropriate and polite", and stated to police that "i hit on a lot of women when i go door-to-door.".

michael phillips, owner of pacific prime gourmet foods, a company for which park is a contractor and that supplies meat and other products and leases vehicles to door-to-door salesmen, stated that he has never had any complaints about park, adding that if park is convicted, the company "would have no choice" but to sever its business relationship with him, but that right now "he hasn’t been found guilty of anything. we will support him until we hear otherwise."

linda park, mr. park's mother, said in regards to the incident, "that’s not something that i would think that he would do.” she also stated that her son would not have to force himself on someone because "he’s very popular with the women."

park is scheduled to appear in keene district court on june 28, 2005.



brazil political crisis: minister jose dirceu leaves the government

the brazilian minister of civil affairs jose dirceu announced this evening his resignation from the government of president luiz inacio lula da silva.

during his discourse jose dirceu said that he will return to his earlier position as a representative in the national congress allied with the workers party. he said that he will defend the government against those "who want to interrupt the democratic process and want to destabilize the government of president lula". he said that he is leaving with "clean hands", "a heart without bitterness" and with "a raised head".

dirceu is the victim of a serious political crisis in brazil because of accusations of governmental corruption. dirceu was one of the most important ministers in president lula's government.

the crisis worsened after declarations of roberto jefferson, president of the ptb, a party allied with the pt.
this tuesday, jefferson said to a congressional commission that minister jose dirceu and the president of the workers' party, jose genoino, were involved in the payment of bribes to brazilian congressional representatives.



third major earthquake rocks california


a sizable earthquake shook southern california for the third time this week. the quake occurred at 1:53 p.m. pacific time on thursday and reached most parts of southern california by 1:54 p.m. the 4.9-scale tremor, appearing to have originated 79 miles east of los angeles, comes on the tail of two other quakes, including a 7.2 magnitude quake off the coast of northern california which briefly triggered tsunami warnings tuesday night.

geologists at the california institute of technology (caltech) affirmed that the quake was too weak to cause structural damage to buildings. in orange county, the quake lasted 5 seconds and rattled objects on shelves.

geologists expressed concern at the occurrence of three earthquakes so close together in time and space. other pacific earthquakes, including one in the aleutian islands and another in chile, have also occurred in recent days.



satellite radio approved in canada

canada's communications regulator, the , has approved three applications for subscription-based services. the three applicants are canadian satellite radio inc, , and .

two of the applicants, canadian satellite radio and sirius canada are both required to offer at least eight original channels (10% of all channels) produced in canada. also, 85% of the music and spoken programming broadcast on the "canadian channels" have to be canadian, and 25% of the canadian channels must be broadcast in french.

the lobby group, publicly opposes this decision, saying that it creates a pipeline for u.s. radio programs into canada.



bush administration drastically cuts penalties sought for in tobacco trial from $130 billion to $10 billion

bush appointee robert mccallum overrode justice department lawyers who had been handling the government's tobacco racketeering trial for the past 5 years. mccallum ordered the lawyers to reduce the penalties sought at the close of the nine-month trial from $130 billion to $10 billion, angering some of the trial lawyers to the point where it is reported they threatened to quit their jobs.

"everyone is asking, 'why now?' " said an anonymous justice department employee afraid of retaliation. "why would you throw the case down the toilet at the very last hour, after five years?"

congressional democrats oppose the slashing of the penalties for the tobacco industry, and have asked attorney general alberto gonzales not to enter into a settlement based on "the unreasonably weak demands made by the government."

the new york times pointed out that mccallum was a skull and bones 'brother' of president bush. bush has appointed a number of skull and bones club members to government positions since he became president, including sec head and former philip morris executive william donaldson. bush strategist karl rove was a phillip morris lobbyist before bush asked him to work on his 2000 campaign for the presidency.



five beheaded during violent prison riot in brazil

five prisoners were beheaded and got their heads exhibited by the rioters during a violent riot in the "zwinglio ferreira" prison, located in presidente venceslau, sao paulo state, brazil.

this is the most serious riot of prisoners in the 19 year existence of the penitentiary. the rebellion began tuesday, at 8:30 a.m. and it finished wednesday at 2:30 p.m. some heads belonging to the murdered prisoners were put on iron spears so they could be shown from the roof of the prison. some prisoners played football with one of the heads. 

according to nagashi furukawa, the secretary of the administration of the prison, the rebellion originated because of prisoners who were contrary to the criminal organization "primeiro comando da capital" (pcc). the supporters of pcc killed their opponents.





dell would be 'happy' to sell pcs running mac os x

pc manufacturer and apple computer competitor dell, inc. has stated that it is interested in shipping computers running apple's mac os x. michael dell, founder and chairman of dell computers, made the comments while talking to david kirkpatrick of fortune magazine.

"if apple decides to open the mac os to others, we would be happy to offer it to our customers," dell wrote in an email to kirkpatrick. apple recently announced that it would begin using intel x86 microprocessors in its computers next year, but has continued to deny reports that they will allow their os to be run on non-apple hardware.




us trade deficit increases to record high in first quarter 2005

the united states trade deficit increased to its highest level yet: $195.1 billion (￡161 billion) in the first quarter of 2005, according to preliminary u.s. commerce department figures. the figure represents the sum of money flowing into the united states by selling exports subtracted from the amount of money leaving the united states from import purchases. the last quarter of 2004 saw a deficit of $188.4 billion.

the new record-breaking deficit represents 6.4 percent of the us's gross national product, again an increase on last-quarter 2004 - up 0.1 percent. the deficit on goods increased from $182.2 billion to $186.3 billion, as imports of goods increased more than exports, particularly in industrial supplies and materials, capital goods, and consumer products. it is believed that china's economic boom, and the increase in imports from the country, is partly responsible.

analysts expressed concern at the findings, with allan seychuk, an economist at rbc capital markets, saying "this is not the direction markets were hoping to see for the mammoth current account deficit. the u.s. dollar has lost a great deal of ground because markets are uncomfortable with a deficit that has now reached record levels."


wiltshire constabulary issues european arrest warrant for hayley richards murder

in a statement today, senior investigating officer detective superintendent mike veale named hugo quintas aged 23 of seymour court, trowbridge, former boyfriend of hayley richards, as being wanted for her murder; and stated that a european warrant had been issued for his arrest. richards, aged 23 and pregnant at the time of her murder, was found in her flat in carders corner, trowbridge on the afternoon of saturday june 11, 2005, with her throat slit. ds veale stated that it was known that quintas boarded a plane from bristol airport on saturday afternoon, bound for portugal, but that his present whereabouts are unknown.

ds veale stated that joaquim sergio da-cunha, aged 29 who shared a house with quintas, was arrested two days ago, and today appeared in court charged with perverting the course of justice, where he had been remanded in custody until june 24, 2005, when he will appear at swindon crown court.
ds veale also released a photograph of quintas for publication and broadcast, and appealed for help from the public in connection with a car, an l-registered black rover 200 sli, which is now in the possession of the wiltshire constabulary. he stated that he knew that it was in the trowbridge area in the days leading up to the murder, and needed to know where it was during the period from the evening of friday june 10, 2005, to the following afternoon.

ds veale urged anyone who can help in connection with this particular line of enquiry to contact wiltshire police on +44 1380 735735 or (within the united kingdom only) call crimestoppers anonymously on +44 800 555 111.



british motorists showered with cash on motorway

drivers on britain's m3 motorway were stunned to be confronted with a shower of cash on tuesday evening.

eleven thousand pounds' worth of ￡20 notes were blown from the rucksack of a passenger on a motorcycle at 7:30pm, while the motorway was busy with traffic.

just ￡500 was recovered; the rest is believed to have been blown away in the windy evening. at least four other drivers quickly stopped, causing hampshire police concern for safety.

the police are now investigating as to why the pair were carrying so much money. carrying large amounts of money is not illegal, but is highly unusual. the riders said they had been to a car auction, returning empty-handed.

the motorcyclists re-started their journey, but the cycle broke down just two junctions on.



goodyear blimp crashes in florida

a goodyear blimp crashed at a coral springs, florida industrial park on thursday night, causing about 1,400 homes to lose power. the two people on board, pilot daniel lynn thomas and passenger charles thomas, were not hurt, although they were trapped on board briefly while electrical crews cleared the area.

the blimp, named the "stars and stripes" is 192 feet long, 59.5 feet tall, and 50 feet wide. it took off from goodyear's 32 acre blimp base at pompano beach air park, about 12 miles away, shortly before the crash. it is one of three goodyear blimps in the united states.

the federal aviation administration is investigating the cause of the crash, thought to be weather related. goodyear company spokesman jerry jenkins, in a brief statement on thursday, said, "we're grateful there were no injuries onboard or on the ground. following an investigation, more information will be released."

"stars and stripes" was the oldest of the three operational goodyear blimps and was best known for providing aerial coverage of nascar races.



40 million credit cards compromised

mastercard international announced friday that multiple instances of fraud have been tracked back to cardsystems solutions, inc., a company that processes credit card transactions and other payments. customer names, banks, and account numbers of up to 40 million cardholders have been exposed, of which about 13.9 million are mastercard-branded cards, the company said. visa and american express cards were also affected.

"the breach appears to be the largest yet involving financial data," said david sobel, of the electronic privacy information center. 

cardsystems issued a statement late on friday that said it learned of the potential breach 26 days ago, but that the fbi told the company not to advise the cardholders nor the public at large. cardsystems also said their statement had been vetted by the fbi.

a spokesperson for the fbi said that the agency had asked cardsystems not to disclose information that could compromise the investigation, but that it had not asked cardsystems to fail to disclose the breach at all. 

michael a. brady, c.f.o. of cardsystems, told the associated press that "we're absolutely blindsided by a press release by the association," when speaking of mastercard's release. a mastercard spokesperson said that the company was obligated to inform its customers of the breach.

mastercard spokesperson sharon gamsin said that cardsystems was hit by a virus-like computer script that stole customer data for the purpose of fraud. she said mastercard does not know how the script got into the cardsystem network.

sobel said this theft "indicates that this is a shadowy industry where the consumer never really knows who is going to be handling and using their personal information. presumably, the affected consumers thought they were dealing with mastercard." having a third-party process credit card transactions is common practice in the industry.

the link above has been redirected(assumably by yahoo) to a more recent article.

the link below is the actual original article;


tyco executives found guilty

the former ceo of tyco international, dennis kozlowski, as well as cfo mark swartz are convicted of taking more than $600 million from the company. charges include grand larceny, securities fraud, conspiracy, and falsifying business records.

the first trial ended in a mistrial after one juror received a threatening letter. nancy salomon says of the second trial that the "defense was counting on the jury not reaching a verdict; they had used their challenges during the jury selection process to kick almost every potential juror who had a college degree, or had any business experience or wall street experience off the jury ... they were hoping that this case was just going to be too confusing for the jury." while the jury did take 11 days to arrive at their decision, they found kozlowski and swartz guilty on 22 of the 23 counts. to combat the aggressive jury selection strategy undertaken by the defense, the prosecution "basically gave the jury several credit hours worth of an mba", teaching them about following paper trails and detecting falsification of business records. it paid off during deliberation as the jury requested over 100 documents to review.

kozlowski and swartz directly stole approximately $150 million usd from tyco and acquired $430 million more by inflating the company's stock value and then secretly selling company shares. bail was set at $10 million each. the two former executives face a minimum of eight years in prison, up to a maximum of 25 years. in addition, kozlowski is accused of evading $1 million in sales taxes on six paintings that he bought in 2001 in a separate new york state case, and swartz faces tax evasion charges in new hampshire. if convicted in these cases as well, they would face up to 30 years in prison.



sudanese government signs major deal with opposition group

the government of sudan signed a landmark agreement on saturday with the opposition group national democratic alliance (nda). some issues are yet to be agreed upon, but the deal signals progress in resolving decades of civil war in sudan. 

sudan, the largest country in africa, has been rocked by two separate periods of bloody civil war, from 1955 to 1972, and from 1983 to this year. more than 2 million refugees have fled the violence. on january 9, a peace deal was signed between the northern government and southern rebels, paving the way for saturday's conference.

the conference, located in cairo, egypt, was attended by both egyptian president hosni mubarak and sudanese president omar hassan ahmad al-bashir. the treaty was signed by sudanese vice president ali osman taha and nda leader mohammed osman al-mirghani. the nda was formed from 13 political parties in 1989 to oppose bashir's new regime after he seized power in a military coup.

many in the international community hope that chances are improving for a settlement in the conflict-torn region of darfur with the main rebel faction, the sudan liberation army. groundwork is being laid for elections to take place in three years.



associated press publishes 6 new &quot;secret and confidential&quot; downing street memos

the associated press has put typed copies of six recently obtained internal british government documents concerning the lead-up to the war in iraq on its website which are labeled "secret" or "confidential". the copies were provided by british reporter michael smith, who claims he destroyed the original documents to protect the sources. an anonymous senior british official said the documents appeared authentic.

the documents were leaked on 18 september 2004 to the daily telegraph in an article titled "secret papers show blair was warned of iraq chaos". the documents, however, took 9 months to reach the mainstream press.

ap is saying that the memos show; "when prime minister tony blair's chief foreign policy adviser dined with condoleezza rice six months after sept. 11, the then-u.s. national security adviser didn't want to discuss osama bin laden or al-qaida. she wanted to talk about 'regime change' in iraq, setting the stage for the u.s.-led invasion more than a year later."

"u.s. scrambling to establish a link between iraq and al-qaida is so far frankly unconvincing," british foreign office political director peter ricketts said in one of the memos. "for iraq, `regime change' does not stack up. it sounds like a grudge between bush and saddam." ricketts said.

another memo addressed to foreign secretary jack straw says,"but even the best survey of iraq's wmd programs will not show much advance in recent years on the nuclear, missile or cw/bw (chemical or biological weapons) fronts: the programs are extremely worrying but have not, as far as we know, been stepped up."

the memos express concern about breaking international law but blair is shown as being determined to go to war as america's ally regardless.

an iraq expert at the university of london, tony dodge said, "the documents show what official inquiries in britain already have, that the case of weapons of mass destruction was based on thin intelligence and was used to inflate the evidence to the level of mendacity. in going to war with bush, blair defended the special relationship between the two countries, like other british leaders have. but he knew he was taking a huge political risk at home. he knew the war's legality was questionable and its unpopularity was never in doubt." dodge also said the memos show that blair was aware that postwar instability was likely for iraq.

in one of the memos, david manning, who was blair's chief foreign policy adviser, reported on a meeting in washington with rice: "it is clear that bush is grateful for your (blair's) support and has registered that you are getting flak. i said that you would not budge in your support for regime change but you had to manage a press, a parliament and a public opinion that was very different than anything in the states. and you would not budge either in your insistence that, if we pursued regime change, it must be very carefully done and produce the right result. failure was not an option."

a march 22 memo from ricketts to foreign secretary straw said, "we have to be convincing that: the threat is so serious/imminent that it is worth sending our troops to die for; it is qualitatively different from the threat posed by other proliferators who are closer to achieving nuclear capability (including iran)." 



six killed in burundi church massacre

rebels from the hutu-extremist "forces nationales de liberation" have shot dead six churchgoers in muhuta district, bujumbura-rural, according to army spokesman adolphe manirakiza.

"the first criminal attack was committed in one church at muhuta district where a group of fnl fighters fired in the church and killed six people including a pastor. they also injured seven others", manirakiza said.

he said the rebels shot dead a local government official and his brother and also kidnapped a policeman in the same district.

"we don't know yet why these people were killed, they may be executed because they refused to adhere to the fnl ideology, as the area where they have been killed is an fnl stronghold."

some 300,000 people have been killed since the fighting began in 1993. 

fresh talks between the government and the fnl have raised hopes among diplomats that burundi can finally lift one of its last big barriers to peace. 

its leader agathon rwasa and burundi president, domitien ndayizeye signed on may 15 in dar es salaam, tanzania, a cessation of hostilities deal seen as a significant step toward finally bringing the rebels into the peace process. 

but the rebels and the army have clashed sporadically since the truce.

 


youth forum to submit suggestions to un

the never again youth forum on genocide prevention ended in , rwanda with young people from the and other countries making a string of recommendations for the prevention of .

following the visit by the president , during which he promised to give the never again network his "moral support" and asked members about their views on what african youth needed, the network will send its ideas to the consultation for civil society on the u.n. high level panel to be discussed in september, which includes bringing in a new principle of responsibility to protect into the international framework of sovereignty.

conference participants called for more local input in international protection work as well as for the international community to listen more to voices on the ground. they accused the international community of failing in their duty by not giving u.n. missions more power on the ground and using the "excuse" that they did not know local languages and therefore did not respond to incitement to violence towards tutsis broadcast on national radio in the lead-up to the .

many participants criticised the uneven responses given by the international community to different regions. a participant from the called for help to be given to "all citizens in the world, without distinction". another said: "if our poverty [in africa] is the cause of our being ignored then i fear for the future. where there is interest there is energy and i fear we will lose the energy."

the final day also featured intense dialogue on regional conflict in the great lakes region and showed the different perspectives on the burundi/rwanda refugee story (link). discussion groups looked at ways in which the youth could create better international networks and improve critical thinking and communication amongst the youth.

a media group took part in the conference and reported it for wikinews this week. they will now produce a publication which will be translated into and distributed vocally as well as on paper as a way of involving young rwandese from rural areas who have very high levels of poverty and illiteracy.


hotel rwanda hero tours usa

at sleepy hollow elementary school in the falls church section of fairfax county, he spoke to elementary school students who had learned about his accomplishments in the weeks prior to his appearance. 

"i thought i was doing the right thing," rusesabagina said. "you also should do the right thing." he explained the situation he faced in simple terms. "there were bad people and good people. the good people came to hide in my hotel, i had to give them food. i had to give them shelter and keep away the bad people for two and a half months." when asked if he was scared, he responded "no, fortunately i did not have time to be scared. i did not know that what i was doing was different. i thought other people were doing it."

in atlanta, speaking with business leaders, he focused on the present and future. 

"what is going on in darfur is exactly what had been going on in rwanda, the government is killing its own citizens." he encouraged business leaders to bring money into africa but made it clear that africa was in need of more than just business interest. "what africans need as a whole is not only someone who will come and pay their education, but it is also to change the systems in africa. to help us to change, to find lasting solutions. africa is ruled by dictators. and those dictators should know that one day they also can be brought to justice," emphasizing the idea that africa needed a political revamping to stabilize.



los angeles times launches editorial wiki

the los angeles times has launched a web site where readers can collaboratively edit and respond to certain editorials from the paper. the site, called wikitorial, uses a type of software known as a wiki. registered users over 13 years of age may edit and contribute to designated "wikitorials". on friday, the times posted the site's first editorial on latimes.com, entitled "war and consequences". the corresponding wikitorial is named "dreams about war and retribution".

in its introduction to wikitorial, a los angeles times editor invited readers to "rewrite the editorial yourself" if they thought something could be improved. the unsigned introduction to wikitorial drew parallels with wikipedia, which was said to work "bewilderingly well". the times hopes that its self-admitted experiment will help a wider range of people express their opinions on editorial topics. the newspaper has acknowledged that the idea may not work, saying "plenty of skeptics are predicting embarrassment; like an arthritic old lady who takes to the dance floor, they say, the los angeles times is more likely to break a hip than to be hip."

"war and consequences", a traditional editorial, serves as a starting point for wiki users. the opinion piece calls for clearer goals in the united states' current military involvement in iraq. the author proposes a clear timetable for training iraqi troops and police officers, and states that people need to be held responsible for intelligence failures leading up to the war, and failures to provide sufficient troops during and after the war.

the corresponding wikitorial, named "dreams about war and retribution", initially started as an exact copy of "war and consequences" when it was posted on june 17. since then it has been edited over 150 times. the original editorial confined itself to points supporting two basic claims: the need for a timetable, and the need for responsibility. in contrast, the wikitorial has increased the original scope considerably, weighing in on topics such as the downing street memo and drawing analogies to the philippine-american war. one contributor even accused the american media, including the l.a. times itself, of dereliction due to their uncritical coverage of the u.s. administration shortly before the 2003 invasion of iraq.

as of mid day today, june 19th, the latwiki main page has been replaced with the text "where is the wikitorial? unfortunately, we have had to remove this feature, at least temporarily, because a few readers were flooding the site with inappropriate material. thanks and apologies to the thousands of people who logged on in the right spirit. " there is speculation that this could be due to the slashdot effect as it was recently posted on slashdot and that the la times was not prepared for the editing wars which quickly ensued.



michelin's tyre mistake sends us formula one grand prix into farce

the indianapolis formula one grand prix descended into farce when just six cars started the race on sunday. the problem arose when michelin discovered that its tires were incapable of more than ten laps at race pace.

the first indication of trouble was when the rear left tire of ralf schumacher's toyota racecar exploded during practice on friday. schumacher's car collided with the track wall while travelling at 300 km/h (approx. 186 miles/h), leaving him shaken but generally unharmed. however, further investigations by michelin revealed that another ten tires had suffered problems, with one also failing on track.

all the problems occurred on the rear left tire during the two long 90 degree corners leading onto the main straight. the nine degree banking and grooves cut into the surface of the track compounded problems.

it is believed that michelin may not have properly accounted for the grooves cut into the indianapolis track to improve grip for indy cars after the track was resurfaced. indy cars have smaller down-force generating wings so need more grip from their tires than formula one cars.

bridgestone, the other tire manufacturer currently in formula one, did not have similar problems. it is possible that their us subsidiary, firestone, who supplied tires for an indy car race after the resurfacing, may have sent information back to their formula one tires department in japan. the three teams running bridgestone tires - ferrari, jordan and minardi - were therefore able to compete without any safety concerns.

under fia racing regulations, the only course of action was for the michelin runners to withdraw from the race on safety grounds. rules prevented alternative tires from being flown from france overnight, although michelin were unsure whether these tires were also affected by the problem.

drivers and teams had also suggested building a chicane to slow cars down between the corners, but ferrari opposed the idea, and ultimately the fia rejected the idea under regulations.

actually the fia rules states that the tyres manufacters should provide two sets of tyres for the race. one normal, optimized for performance, and one optimized for safety, to be used when the normal one set could not be used. in this case the safe set was not present.

the 123,000 fans watching from the stands were unaware of the farce unfolding below them until the parade lap before the race.

the fourteen michelin runners peeled off into the pit lane rather than take up their starting positions on the grid. however, at least one driver, david coulthard told his team that he was willing to race on the tires in question, had the decision been left up to him.

fans jeered and booed as they realised what was happening, and a small number began throwing bottles and cans onto the track.

rubens barrichello, in a ferrari, ran over one bottle of water at high speed which exploded in a spray of droplets.

fans started stamping in the stands on the finish line straight, causing them to shake.

a british itv filmcrew spoke to some fans. "i paid $85 for three-day ticket. i travelled nine hours from baltimore to be here. indy cars wouldn't do this. nascar wouldn't do this. i'll never attend a race again - only watch on tv."

other fans had travelled from mexico and panama to watch the race, and said they wanted refunds.

a police captain also talked to itv, saying he'd never seen fans as angry as this before. if trouble flared, they could call on 400-500 officers from local and state police, indianapolis police department and the fbi under contingency plans.

the race was eventually won by michael schumacher from his ferrari teammate rubens barrichello. jordan's tiago monteiro finished third. despite what was clearly a one-manufacturer race for the win, both ferrari drivers did indeed race one another hard, with them almost colliding following schumacher's exit from the pit lane after his second pitstop, with barrichello having to take to the infield to avoid spinning off. following the race, the two drivers did not speak.




iran election going to run-off, challenger alleges fraud

friday's elections whittled iran's field of presidential candidates from eight to two, but the incredibly close vote has led to the scheduling of an unprecedented runoff to be held next friday.

candidates mahmoud ahmadizezhad and ali akbar hashemi rafsanjani will square off next week --- unless candidate mehdi karroubi has his way. karroubi has alleged voting irregularities and has called on supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei to investigate. karroubi alleges that members of the unelected guardian council and the islamic revolutionary guards corps conspired to rig votes. these charges were seconded late saturday by reformist candidate mostafa moin, who had been leading in some pre-election polls but placed third in friday's vote.

for an example of the inconsistent vote tallies, see (official iranian news agency reports)
note that while conservative mahmoud ahmadizezhad won 650,000 votes, the total tally rose only by 350,000.


google planning paypal rival

financial analysts say google is planning an e-wallet service that could eventually compete with ebay's payment service paypal. google has not confirmed the development. 

the rumor is a first sign of google's expected expansion of revenue sources to capitalize on its advertising customer base and search-engine traffic. what form that expansion will take has been a hotly debated subject for the company whose stock valuation momentarily made it the world's biggest media company on june 7, 2005. even microsoft has been mentioned as a possible future competitor.

ebay's stock valuation dipped more than 2% on the news. paypal currently accounts for one-fifth of the company's revenues. but one business analyst saw potential benefit for paypal, depending on exactly how the "google wallet" takes shape. the uncertainty underlined the lack of substantive information behind the rumor.

according to the new york times, the ceo of a major online merchant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, was approached by google to take part in this service. steve langdon, a google spokesperson, declined to comment.



scores killed and wounded as violence escalates in iraq

intense violent turmoil in iraq continued sunday and monday when attacks across the country killed more than 80 people. a busy restaurant frequented by police officers was the target of the deadliest attack: a suicide bombing that claimed 23 lives and wounded more than 36 others. 

"there were a number of policemen outside the restaurant having tea from alaa, the tea man. there were two tables with chairs around them where the policemen were sitting. then a suicide bomber came close to them and blew himself up," said a 29-year-old witness, qusay kaabi, according to the washington post. "it was a very loud explosion, and the restaurant was filled with smoke and dust."

the new york times reported that, in an aura of resignation, older men just 80 yards away resumed curbside games of checkers even before workers finished cleaning away chunks of flesh. "it's iraqis who die like this, not americans," muhammad jasem, 25 and unemployed, told the times. "we never saw this kind of thing before they came." in the capital city alone, more than 600 civilians have perished in the six weeks since prime minister ibrahim al-jaafari named his shiite-led cabinet on april 28.

in tikrit on sunday, a man killed himself and five iraqis while targeting a u.s. military base in a car rigged with explosives. early monday, a suicide attacker in ibril detonated his vehicle in a crowd of police recruits. local officials confirm the blast killed 15 and wounded 100, some severely. the city was cited just yesterday by foreign minister hoshyar zebari as one of many relatively stable areas of the country.

the surge in violence has occurred while u.s. marines and iraqi troops battle insurgents near karabilah on the syrian border. british and american warplanes pounded targets to support a 1,000 marine force. a marine statement also said patrols in the devastated city of fallujah came under attack sunday. according to the statement, 15 insurgents were killed while the attack was repulsed. 



filmcrew working for channel 4 arrested for soaking tom cruise in london

four members of a filmcrew have been arrested on suspicion of assault after squirting water at movie star tom cruise at the london premiere of the war of the worlds on sunday evening.

the crew were freelancers filming a new comedy show for channel 4. channel 4 has no production facilities itself; all television programmes are commissioned from independent companies.

cruise had been on a walkabout meeting and greeting fans, and was being interviewed by the crew under the impression that it was a serious interview, when they used a fake microphone to squirt him in the face.

cruise remained calm throughout. he took hold of the culprit, grasping his wrist, asking him why he did it.

"why would you do that? what's so funny about that? it's ridiculous. do you like making less of people?" 

"don't run away. that's incredibly rude." 

"i'm here giving you an interview, answering your questions and you do something nasty. you're a jerk."

security guards then took the filmcrew away, before they were arrested and bailed by the police. the crew face further questioning by officers today. 

scotland yard have said, "we will see whether to pursue the charges, or see whether the victim wants to pursue it."

tom cruise resumed meeting fans and signing autographs, spending an hour in leicester square.



international whaling commission adjourns for private talks

a meeting of the in the south korean city of has adjourned for private talks with commissioners. the commission had been about to vote on a japanese plan to increase its catch and to start hunting .

australia attempted to stop the adjournment accusing japan of trying to stall the vote.

nauru, the gambia, and togo applied to join the commission last week, but have no voting rights until their membership payments are cleared, which could happen any time during the iwc meeting. the three countries are expected to follow japan's pro-whaling line.

the 66 member body is currently evenly split between pro- and anti-whaling countries.


iraq's justice minister accuses u.s. of having &quot;lots of secrets they want to hide&quot;

in an exclusive interview with the associated press, abdel hussein shandal, iraq's justice minister, said, "it seems there are lots of secrets they [u.s. government] want to hide."

shandal accused the u.s. of concealing information about saddam hussein and of trying to delay iraqi interrogations of hussein. the iraqi government had said that saddam's trial would be held within two months, but they are now saying it will be before the end of 2005.

american officials have urged iraq to be cautious about expediting a trial and have said iraq needs to have a more established judicial system first. u.s. officials have also stated that the trial might inflame sectarian tensions and interfere with the drafting of an iraqi constitution.


priest charged in exorcism death

a romanian priest and four nuns have been charged in the death of a reportedly schizophrenic nun who was crucified in an exorcism. the novice, maricica irina cornici, of holy trinity convent in northeast romania, died last week after spending three days gagged and chained to a cross without food or water in the church’s cellar.

the 23-year-old nun was found with a towel stuffed into her mouth and had been left in the cold room while the priest delivered prayers to drive out evil spirits. an initial autopsy revealed the nun died from dehydration, exhaustion and lack of oxygen. prosecutors are awaiting the results of a second autopsy, which is being carried out because of a suspicion of foul play. 

the priest, daniel petru corogeanu, and four nuns have been charged with imprisonment leading to death. they could face up to 20 years in prison if found guilty. father daniel told local news that he was trying to "take the devil out of her". when asked whether the nun was in need of medical help instead of an exorcism, he replied, "you can't take the devil out of people with pills."

ms. cornici, who grew up in an orphanage, is said to have entered the remote convent three months earlier. there has been speculation by the romanian media that ms. cornici's schizophrenic behaviour may have caused her fellow nuns and the priest to believe she was possessed by the devil. 

the orthodox church has condemned the incident and suspended father daniel, who has refused to stop work at the holy trinity monastery. riot police had to intervene when scuffles broke out as nuns yelled at a vicar who came to suspend father daniel on sunday. 


lebanese politician george hawi assassinated as historic elections end

a veteran lebanese politician, george hawi, was assassinated today in beirut. hawi's death came as a grim punctuation mark to the final round of parliamentary elections in lebanon, the first since syrian occupation ended earlier this year. hawi was formerly the secretary of the lebanese communist party. he had long been a syrian ally, but recently became a critic of syrian influence in the country.
george hawi's assassination came on the heels of the conclusion of the last round of parliamentary elections in lebanon, which saw a coalition of opposition candidates led by saad hariri, son of former prime minister of lebanon rafik hariri, capture a majority of seats.

hawi is the third prominent anti-syrian figure to be assassinated in lebanon, and the second this month. rafiq hariri was assassinated on february 14th; his death led to international pressure for syria to end its occupation of the country, which it did. more recently, journalist samir kassir was killed on june 2nd. hawi's stepson, rafi madoyan, said in a statement, "those who killed him are the same as those who killed rafiq hariri and samir kassir, it’s the security regime that is in power." united states secretary of state condoleezza rice expressed similar sentiments, accusing syria of contributing to instability in lebanon.

in denying the "security regime" allegations, president emile lahoud denounced the murder and promised to investigate. "with regard to the persistent suggestion that the president is linked to the so-called security state, everyone knows that he does not directly supervise the security agencies," the presidency said in a statement. "is it a coincidence that this crime happens today, a few hours after the end of parliamentary elections which the world saw take place democratically?"



killen convicted of manslaughter for 1964 civil rights workers murders

edward killen, an 80-year old former ku klux klan member, was convicted of three counts of manslaughter today for the murder of three civil rights workers exactly 41 years ago this very day.

michael schwerner, 24, mr chaney, 21, and andy goodman, 20, were killed in 1964. killen was originally a suspect and was rearrested when new evidence emerged. 

killen now faces twenty years in jail. he was cleared of carrying out the murder, but convicted of recruiting a gang of klansmen and police, who abducted the three men, shot them and beat them to death before burying them in a dam. 


commemoration of srebrenica massacre to be held on july 11

commemoration of the srebrenica massacre will be held on july 11, when newly identified bodies will be buried. in 1995, serbian forces, according to international criminal tribunal for the former yugoslavia (icty), massacred around 7500 bosnian muslims.

a controversy arose after mothers of murdered muslims in srebrenica made a statement saying that the serbian president, boris tadi?, is not welcome in srebrenica: "tadi? coming to srebrenica is a planned provocation of the ones who will bury their families on july 11." the serbian president will still attend the ceremony.

abdurahman malki?, the president of the srebrenica municipality, guaranteed safety to tadi? and all other officials. other attendees include theodor meron, the president of icty.

so far, 2,032 bodies have been identified. it is expected that by july 11 another 550 bodies will be identified and ready for burial.

recent showing of a video which depicts six bosnian muslims from srebrenica being killed by serbian forces has steered a lot of controversy in serbia. bojan pajti?, the president of the executive board of the northern serbian province, vojvodina, agreed to officially support an initiative of the independent journalists' association of vojvodina to declare july 11th a memorial day in serbia and montenegro.

an agency for marketing research, faktor plus, published a study on serbian citizens' reaction on the video. 30.2% of subjects said that they feel sorrow for victims. 43.2% feel anger towards executors of the massacre. 16.3% felt guilt, while one percent was "satisfied" with the video.




smashing pumpkins may reunite

on the same day he released his debut solo album, former smashing pumpkins frontman billy corgan announced, "i want my band back, and my songs, and my dreams." those words appeared in a full-page ad that ran in tuesday's edition of the chicago tribune under the title, "a message to chicago from billy corgan". the alternative-rock icon also wrote, "for a year now i have walked around with a secret, a secret i chose to keep. but now i want you to be among the first to know that i have made plans to renew and revive the smashing pumpkins."

the group, which included guitarist james iha, drummer jimmy chamberlin, and bassists d'arcy wretzky and melissa auf der maur, last played together in . on february 17, 2004, corgan posted a bitter message on his personal blog calling wretzky a "mean spirited drug addict" and blaming iha for the breakup.

it was not clear if corgan's former band members knew of his plans, or who would be involved with the new group. no other details on the plans were forthcoming from the singer, who lives in the chicago area.

 


myron cope, pittsburgh steelers color commentator, retires after a 35 year career

myron cope, a locally famous sports announcer for the pittsburgh steelers, a national football league team, has announced his retirement from the booth, effective immediately. cope had a 35 year career announcing steelers games with his familiar scratchy voice, often punctuated with unique yiddish expressions, such as "feh" and "yoi", which brought delight to fans.



jack kilby, nobel laureate and inventor of integrated circuit, dies at 81

winner of the nobel prize for physics in 2000 for his work on developing the integrated circuit, jack kilby died after battling cancer on monday, june 20, 2005, in dallas at the age of 81. after years of claims, kilby agreed to share credit for the invention with robert noyce, the co-founder of chip maker intel.

his contribution to the pioneering breakthrough of the integrated circuit was made by kilby during his employment with texas instruments (ti) in 1958. he also is credited with co-inventing the handheld calculator which made ti the leader in early consumer electronics development. the integrated circuit paved the way in the development of the microchip used today in computers, dvd players, interactive video games and cell phones.

kilby's work includes the awarding of 60 patents. it was said of him in a statement by ti chairman tom engihous that, "in my opinion, there are only a handful of people whose works have truly transformed the world and the way we live in it ? henry ford, thomas edison, the wright brothers and jack kilby."

in his first year working with ti, kilby's work on what became the forerunner to the microchip was an invention he fabricated by using a sliver of germanium on a glass slide. this invention was the predecessor to the semiconductor that ultimately replaced vacuum tubes and switching wires then in use as the transistor devices. the invention also led to solid state electronics able to withstand more shock and impact in handling.

kilby is recognised for his 'seminal thought' on the integrated circuit by being awarded the robert n. noyce award in 1995, the semiconductor industry association's highest honor. he is survived by two daughters and five grandchildren.



u.s. senator biden may run for presidency

although the next u.s. presidential election is more than three years away, u.s. senator joseph biden (democrat ? delaware) has already announced his intentions of running. although he originally said in december 2004 that he would wait two years to make a decision, he told "face the nation" on sunday that he will spend this year trying to "explore his support", adding, "[i'm going to take my] game on the road, letting people know what i think." he also told the cbs news show that he will make his decision as to whether or not to pursue the party's nomination towards the end of this year.

should he decide to pursue the nomination, biden may be vying for the nomination alongside several others, including former first lady hillary rodham clinton, 2004 democratic candidate john kerry, and indiana senator evan bayh.

described by ron williams in an opinion piece as, "the walking definition of a professional politician," biden has been vocal in his opposition to the war in iraq. he is a top-ranking democrat on the senate foreign relations committee where he receives press coverage for his criticism of the u.s. administration's handling of the war.

biden ran an unsuccessful bid for the democratic presidential nomination in 1988. political analysts generally believe that biden's early announcement for the presidency is good strategy when the hopeful presidential field includes other democratic heavy weights. 


us flag burning amendment approved by house

the united states house of representatives today passed an that would allow congress to prohibit the of the . the bill (h.j.res.10), whose main sponsor was (-calif.), was passed by a vote of 286 to 130. the required two-thirds was present. this is the fifth time a has passed the house. 

the bill will now move on to the senate, where it stands the best chance of passing ever. if a majority of two-thirds passes the bill, it will then move on to the states to be ratified with a seven-year window open on the ratification. each time an amendment like this was passed in the house, it died in the senate, the last time being in 2000.

an informal survey conducted by the associated press suggested that the vote will be close ? 34 senators surveyed opposed the amendment, the exact number required to defeat it. however, supporters of the amendment are optimistic that the amendment will pass because four seats were gained by the republicans in the election last november.

the amendment seeks to bypass the 1989 supreme court case "" which ruled that desecration of the flag was legal; flag burning was established to be a form of protected speech under the first amendment to the united states constitution. in new zealand, a 22-year-old law banning the destruction of their flag was also as it was considered an act of free speech.




tennessee governor signs budget bill

tennessee governor phil bredesen signed a bill wednesday authorizing the state's new budget of nearly $26 billion. the new budget increases spending for education and fulfills bredesen's commitment to decrease tenncare spending. the new budget also includes an increase in spending for the state's preschool program, as much as $100 million in funding for tenncare disenrollees, and a significant contribution to the state's reserve fund.

bredesen also signed into law a bill authorizing the general assembly to begin drafting new ethics laws.



australian deputy prime minister resigns

australia's deputy prime minster john anderson resigned today citing health concerns.

anderson suffers from a benign tumor in his prostate and said he feels that only by cutting back his official and policial commitments would his condition improve.

anderson also said in a speech to parliament he will be stepping down as leader of the national party of australia -- the junior partner in the current liberal party of australia coalition government. deputy leader of the nationals mark vaile will replace anderson.


zimbabwe bans crop growing in urban areas

farming in urban areas has been banned in the latest turn in the zimbabwean government's 'crackdown' on the country's poor. 

zimbabwe is in the grip of a chronic drought and with food supplies running low, thousands fear starvation after they were told they could no longer supplement their food supply with crops grown themselves. a police spokesman told a news agency that they were under government instruction to prevent urban farming.

police spokesman wayne bvudzijena said "a lot of harm is being done to the environment. why can't those who want to cultivate crops go to rural areas, where people are being allocated farms under the land reform programme?"

people living in urban areas had taken to growing their staple crop - maize - and other grains in patches of land near their houses. much of the land being used had already been earmarked for cultivation, but the police have been told to ignore any such designations.

a non-governmental organisation, , agreed with some of the policy. "we totally understand and appreciate the need for urban people to supplement their incomes, but they should not do it the wrong way. ideally, farming should be done on farms, not in towns. what we have witnessed is an irreparable damage to the environment, which will certainly have dire consequences for our beloved cities," said an official.

a spokesman for the opposition ? the (mdc) ? said that while planting on undesignated land, especially amid a maze of houses in townships, was not something they could approve, planting on designated areas should be allowed.

such urban farming could produce up to 100,000t of grain in a good year, the spokesman added. he believes the government aims to drive urban people ? who are often mdc supporters ? out into the countryside, with the promise of getting land under the "reform program".

as international concern about zimbabwe grows, plans to send a special envoy to assess the situation. however, he has not scheduled a date for the visit.



no resolution in north korean nuclear stalemate

north and south korea today agreed to continue the quest for a peaceful resolution to the ongoing nuclear crisis in north korea but did not agree on a date for continued talks, delegates from north and south korea announced.

issuing a joint statement, south korean unification minister chung dong-young said in part, "the south and the north have agreed to take real measures for peaceful resolution of the nuclear issue through dialogue as the atmosphere is created with the ultimate goal of denuclearization of the korean peninsula." 

north korean leader kim jong il said last week that he would consider rejoining negotiations if the united states would give north korea the respect it deserved as a nation.


solar sail craft may have made orbit

the planetary society have stated that their experimental solar sail craft cosmos 1 is probably lost, but intermittent signals have given them some hope the mission has made orbit.

the 100kg vehicle was launched atop a converted icbm from a russian nuclear submarine, however it is believed the first stage of the volna booster rocket failed 83 seconds into the flight. the team behind the $4m craft have a slim hope that it managed to reach a low orbit, and efforts to pick up the tracking beacon are continuing.

signals have apparently been received by at least two tracking stations around the globe - in the czech republic, and in the marshall islands. the planetary society are being assisted by the us strategic command in an effort to find the spacecraft, if it did make orbit.

however a scientist from the czech station has said they have received only noise.

if cosmos-1 is in orbit, the onboard computer may still be functioning and could begin to unfurl the 30 meter diameter sail in three days time.

a solar sail harnesses pressure exerted upon the sail by photons from the sun to push the craft along. although its acceleration is very slow, it can go on nearly indefinitely (as long as the sun exists). it was hoped cosmos-1 would use a 30 m diameter sail to reach an orbit 800km above the earth, as a demonstration of the potential of the technology.


 


canadian pm vows to push ahead with same-sex marriage bill

canadian prime minister paul martin's liberal government is planning on passing the same-sex marriage bill, bill c-38, before the spring session winds up. the gay-marriage bill is being linked with the passage of a $4.6 million budget bill that provides more money directed at social services and foreign aid. the two bills will be the final confidence vote until the fall.

the opposition, the conservative party, has vowed to do everything it can to defeat the liberal government unless they pull the vote and wait until fall. liberal house leader tony valeri tabled a notion early tuesday to extend the spring sitting, delaying the scheduled summer break. the liberal party is facing resistance from several of its backbenchers, some of who believe the marriage bill should be delayed until the fall.

at least three liberal mps have indicated that they might vote against the gay marriage bill along with the conservatives and the bloc quebecois. if the motion were defeated, the government would be forced to resign. 



yahoo closes user-created chat rooms over sexual conduct


"yahoo!" (nasdaq: yhoo) closed all of its user-created chat rooms due to controversy over sexually explicit channels aimed at minors. after a houston, texas television station "kprc" reported on chat room names such as "girls 13 and under for older guys" and "girls 13 and up for much older men" that were aimed at sex with children, the publicly held business "yahoo!" was compelled to act by shutting down all chat rooms created by users and stopped the ability to create new user chat rooms. online chat rooms created by the company itself are still in service and use.

major brand name advertisers such as pepsico inc., georgia-pacific corp., state farm mutual automobile insurance co., countrywide mortgage and t-mobile withdrew ads placed on "yahoo!" web pages that may have come under association with the offensive chat rooms. the company is also faced with a lawsuit seeking $10 million in damages that was filed by watchdog groups of internet portals on behalf of the parents and a 12-year-old victim of molestation. a man, who once operated a "yahoo groups" site where members traded child pornography, is also involved in the suit.

other internet portals, such as "aol" and "msn", also allow users to create their own chat rooms. these internet portals are different from "yahoo!" in that they are subscription based, and only allow access to the rooms if the user is a subscriber to the service. "msn" in its earliest versions of chat had monitors watch activity on its servers, but it was abandoned. efforts to monitor chat for any effect appear to be futile. geoff sutton, the european general manager of microsoft msn, told "wired news" at the time it cut free chat service in 28 countries that, "the straightforward truth of the matter is free, unmediated chat isn't safe."

according to a "reuters" news story by duncan martell, an investigation by the u.s. federal bureau of investigation that was targeted at "yahoo groups" users resulted in the arrest of more than 100 people in the united states. the lawsuit now brought against "yahoo!" was filed on may 9 in u.s. district court for the eastern district of texas. it charges that "yahoo!" breached its duties in internet providership by allowing co-defendant mark bates and others to share child pornography on a chat room site called 'candyman'.

"yahoo!'s" terms of use requires persons who create chat rooms to agree not to make available content that is "unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous or otherwise objectionable." legal rulings to date imply that if internet service provider's do monitor the activity in chat rooms, they incur some responsibility for its content, similarly to a publisher's responsibility for the content found in one of its books.

the result is software providers who take a "hands-off" approach grant internet users the ability to add and create content to the world wide web that opens the door to contributions that range from great to sometimes objectionable, to out-right illegal, and often enlightening. 


canadian military accused of agent orange cover up


canadian military officials are being accused of covering up the use of the deadly chemical agent agent orange and other defoliants during the 1950s and 1960s at a new brunswick base.

at a public meeting attended by at least 200 people, defence officials said only a small amount of the herbicide was used, over a total of seven days between 1966 and 1967 at the army base to clear foliage to prevent fires during artillery training and to clear the view for soldiers. 

the american military was also given permission by the canadian military to test agent orange, agent purple, and agent white during the vietnam war on less than 500 acres of the canadian base.

thursday’s public meeting followed in the aftermath of recent media reports that a u.s. army report indicated the use of agent purple, which is considered three-times more toxic than agent orange, as part of the spraying program. 

when revelations about the use of agent purple first surfaced in mid-june, retired sergeant, earl graves, said, “they were out in the exercise area and the planes flew over spraying and they were told to just put ponchos over their head, that it wouldn’t hurt them.”

he said 170 soldiers in his regiment died of cancer and many of them died young.

at the public meeting held thursday afternoon, angry and fearful civilians and veterans voiced fears that the chemicals were responsible for illnesses later developed.

veteran john chisholm said soldiers were told the sprays were harmless and to keep their mouths shut. “now we found out this stuff here is killing us. no wonder all my buddies are dead.” 

the defence department said thursday that it was conducting tests to determine the dioxin level in the soil and consulting with the u.s. military to find out the exact carcinogen levels in the sprays used. 


killen gets 60 years for civil rights killings

judge marcus gordon passed sentence on 80 year old edgar ray killen who was convicted tuesday of three counts of manslaughter in the slaying of three civil rights workers in 1964. the judge sentenced killen to the maximum 20 years for each count -- a total of 60 years.

judge gordon noted some people "would say a sentence of 10 years would be a life sentence" for killen. the minimum time killen could serve is one-third, or 20 years.

the conviction came 41 years to the day after james chaney, michael schwerner and andrew goodman were murdered. they had been registering minority votes in mississippi during the "freedom summer" of 1964.

killen's attorneys say they will appeal the verdict.



basketball: djordjevic's farewell game to be played july 3

popular serbian basketball player aleksandar "sasha" djordjevic will play his last game in belgrade on july 3. more then 60 players and coaches who worked with djordjevic throughout his career will attend the game, and all ticket proceedings will go to the unicef "school without violence" program.

djordjevic played in the yugoslavian, italian, spanish and nba leagues, as well as for the yugoslavian national team. the 38 year-old won two european championships and one world championship. he is retireing as a player of armani jeans milano and an mvp of the "lega a basket".

"everything hurts: my shoulder, elbow and joint. everything ends, and so does a basketball career. they still have to invent medicines that would ease this pain," said djordjevic.

croatian basketball player dino radja decided not to come to belgrade. he told djordjevic that he doesn't want any booing, which would ruin the farewell game.



court legalizes same-sex marriage in new brunswick

a new brunswick judge ruled in favour of same-sex marriage in a moncton court today. court of the queen's bench judge judy clendening ruled in favour of four gay couples who argued that new brunswick's current definition of marriage violated their rights.

in a written decision, the judge said that the definition of civil marriage would have to be changed from a lawful union between a man and a woman to a lawful union "between two persons." it gives new brunswick a 10-day grace period to implement this change.

alison menard, the lawyer who represented the couples, says that in effect same-sex marriage is now permitted in new brunswick. "what it means is that anybody that meets the definition of capacity to marry is able to go and get a marriage licence," menard said. "so in this particular circumstance, couples of same gender will be able to obtain marriage licences and celebrate marriages."

as a result of this ruling, same-sex marriage is permitted in all canadian provinces and territories except alberta, the northwest territories, nunavut and prince edward island.

although premier bernard lord has said he believes in traditional (heterosexual) marriage, he will not put up a fight if the courts or parliament decide otherwise.

several religious groups applied for intervener status in the case to argue against same-sex unions, but they were turned down by judge clendening on the grounds that her ruling would not preclude churches from opting not to perform same-sex unions.

the minority liberal government in the canadian house of commons is pushing ahead with the legalization of same-sex marriage nationwide in the controversial bill c-38, even though courts have legalized it in most provinces and territories of canada.


mlambo-ngcuka sworn in as south african deputy president

phumzile mlambo-ngcuka was sworn in as deputy president of south africa thursday becoming the first woman ever to hold that position. other cabinet members applauded as she was sworn in to office in cape town. her appointment comes after former deputy president jacob zuma was sacked after being accused of corruption relating to a bribery scandal.

she stated that she will perform much the same function as zuma, namely "looking after the second economy", hiv/aids issue, and other assignments president thabo mbeki give her. "i will be looking after women and youth," she also said.

mlambo-ngcuka, a former school teacher, travelled to geneva, switzerland to work with the ywca. she returned to south africa in 1987 and assumed a leading role in the ecumenical action group and other anti-apartheid groups. she was later elected to parliament and appointed deputy trade and industry minister.

in 2003 she publicly accused jacob zuma of corruption, though the case was never formalized due to insufficient evidence. her husband, former national director of public prosecutions bulelani ngcuka, investigated zuma and concluded that prima facie evidence of corruption existed.

individuals opposed to her appointment accuse her of involvement in the transfer of large sums of taxpayers' money to the african national congress' election fund through an oil company. her brother, who asserts that the transaction was completely above board, has been implicated in south african news reports.


african union rejects calls for action on zimbabwe

the african union has rejected western calls for action in zimbabwe, with south african spokesman bheki khumalo saying he is 'irritated' by uk foreign secretary jack straw's demands.

he told the bbc: "south africa refuses to accept the notion that because suddenly we're going to a g8 summit, we must be reminded that we must look good and appease the g8 leaders. we will do things because we believe they are correct and right."

the leaders have said that zimbabwe's actions, which have made an estimated 200,000 homeless, destroyed businesses and stopped farming in urban areas, are justified to restore order in the country. 

yesterday a coalition of 200 human rights groups, both african and international, also demanded that the issue be discussed at the au. in the press release for amnesty international, a representative of the coalition said: "the appointment of a un special envoy to investigate the mass violations taking place in zimbabwe is welcome. but effective action must also be taken immediately to help those already sleeping on the streets, beside the rubble of their homes and to ensure that the evictions and demolitions stop immediately."

"the au and un simply cannot ignore such an unprecedented, wide-ranging appeal on behalf of the people of zimbabwe, particularly from african civil society. african solidarity should be with the people of africa - not their repressive leaders." 


dublin gets ready to be rocked once again by u2

240,000 ] fans are preparing for ireland's most successful band ever to return for a hometown gig in . the supergroup is playing friday, saturday and monday in front of 80,000 people a night at . have put in place a massive traffic management plan to cope with the influx of people. fans have been queing since thursday morning when a group of fans from , italy and canada started queuing outside the stadium.

the concert forms part of u2's current "" world tour. the support acts include emerging irish bands and along with already very popular paddy casey. and will cap it off as warm up acts on monday.

the gates for the gig will open at 4pm with the actual band not expected until around 8.30pm. irish media has entered a frenzied anticipation of the concert all this week, with constant coverage on radio stations. the national broadcaster, , is set to dedicated almost 3hr 30min to the band with an exclusive interview by dave fanning forming the centerpiece of the stations coverage of the "u2 weekend". frontman , who played in front of a sell out crowd in dublin earlier this week told fans that u2 were "still the best band in the world".

croke park is the fourth largest stadium in europe, with an official capacity of 82,000 - bigger than both and . croke park is used to host gaa matches in sports such as and and regularly attracts audiences of 60,000 or more in the summer months.



dresdener elbe valley becomes unesco world heritage site

since july 2, 2004 the elbe valley near dresden has been in the process of becoming a unesco world heritage site. friday saw the hand over of the documents in castle albrechtsberg confirming the status. today, mayor rosberg and professor bandarin will unveil a plaque in the church of loschwitz - starting the elbe valley celebrations.

the cultural landscape consists of an 18 km long strip along the elbe between soebrigen and the dresden bridge flugelwegbrucke. it includes the ancient city of dresden, the many castles along the river elbe, the town centres of the small villages near the river as well as the very famous castle pillnitz.

the city of dresden sees the status as an internationally-effecting advertisement for investors and tourists in the acknowledgment as a site of world heritage. by this status it will give no further restrictions for the unesco. the possibility "of a developing culture landscape" granted itself.



england and wales see 60% increase in public injured by police vehicles

the total number of people killed and injured by police officers driving cars in the course of their duties in england and wales has risen by 61% in just one year.

the figures were released by home office minister hazel blears in a written answer to a question from lynne featherstone, mp for hornsey and wood green in london.

they show that in 2002-2003, a total of 22 people were killed and 1,131 were injured.

but in 2003-2004, the number killed has increased to 31, with more than 2,000 injured, of which 138 were serious.

all the people killed or injured were involved in road traffic collisions with police vehicles responding to emergency calls, or those involved in high-speed pursuits.

the police force with the worst record for deaths is greater manchester police. four people died in collisions involving gmp vehicles in 2002-2003, but the number increased to 6 the following year. however, the number injured dropped from 74 to 56 over the same period.

the safest force was dyfed-powys police, who did not kill or injure anyone in both years. the force covers a rural area of wales, with a low population density.

independent police complaints commission chair nick hardwick issued a statement in response to the figures.

training and risk assessment are the keys to reducing deaths and serious injuries involving police drivers", he said.

"we all accept that in emergencies police officers have to speed and go through red lights but they must not take unacceptable risks, either for themselves or the public."

"the ipcc will continue to manage or independently investigate the most serious collisions involving police driving. we are ensuring that the lessons learned will benefit the police service."


us city police officer disciplined for drawing gun

in ann arbor, michigan, law enforcement officer keith robins was disciplined for his actions related to an investigation of an armed robbery. two males and two females were suspected of robbing a shell gas station, and one boy was described as having red hair and red pants. robins was searching the surrounding area approximately 3.2 miles away from the incident when he found a group of ten people that included one male matching the red hair, red pants description.

robins had spoken to another officer just minutes earlier to discuss how to handle the potential suspects. they decided "that the best way to handle the situation was probably to advise them to all get on the ground, possibly at gunpoint, if the circumstances warranted," robins wrote.

the group stopped by robins included seven male students and three teachers from stone school who were out for a walk. robins detained this group until backup could arrive to confirm their identities and whether or not they were involved in the armed robbery. they were released after back-up officers arrived and it was determined the students were not the suspects.

officer keith robins has returned to active duty. he was placed on desk duty and paid administrative leave during the investigation of the april 11 incident.

police chief daniel oates remarked "i'm proud to say that the officer involved recognized his mistake and offered to go to the school to apologize to the students and staff who were affected; for various reasons, that did not occur, but it says a lot about our officer that he extended that offer."

school district spokeswoman liz margolis said officials were informed of the conclusion of the internal investigation. she said school staff members and parents jointly decided not to accept robins' offer to personally apologize, but said police officials had visited the school twice after the incident to talk to students.

"the school has moved beyond this, so they felt they didn't want to bring it up again," margolis said. "the police department has kept up good communication with the school through the entire investigative process."

according to ann arbor police department documents there are defined levels of "use of force" for differing circumstances. when determining which level is needed officers "responses should be based upon:

the force level used by the officer in drawing his gun was a level one response, the lowest possible response level, described as: "officer presence/verbal direction: ... uniformed presence or identification as a police officer, verbal direction, or use of restraint devices (i.e. compliant handcuffing)." levels two through five responses consist of the use of batons; empty hand techniques (pressure points, striking, take downs); impact weapons; pepper spray; and deadly force.

 from ann arbor michigan given by wikinews reporter .


chief carl d. ent "policy and procedural order 1-2: use of force". "ann arbor police department", december 13, 1999


u.s. supreme court eases government ability to seize property

in a major decision, the supreme court of the united states has expanded the right of government to seize private property for public good by allowing the city of , connecticut to invoke and seize homeowners' property for economic development reasons.

in a closely-divided decision, 5?4, the court determined that the city's economic development plan constituted a "public use", and therefore qualified under the u.s. constitution's fifth amendment's eminent domain clause.

justice john paul stevens wrote the majority decision, and was joined by justices , ruth bader ginsburg, and . "promoting economic development is a traditional and long accepted function of government," stevens wrote, and justified the decision further by saying municipal authorities are better positioned to make decisions regarding a community's best interests than judges.

writing the dissenting opinion, justice rejected the economic justification as a public use, pointing out that wealthy individuals are more capable of defending themselves and so are less at risk. but the greatest issue was the likelihood of abuse of eminent domain:

"the specter of condemnation hangs over all property. nothing is to prevent the state from replacing any with a , any home with a shopping mall or any farm with a factory." a separate dissent was also included written by justice clarence thomas.



ohmynews citizen reporters meet in seoul, korea

the project is sponsoring the forum in order to promote its english edition, officially launched in may 2004. citizen reporters writing in english exchange ideas and stories, and try to understand the inner workings of the korean edition. the conference is sponsored by korean corporations such as samsung, sk corporation, lg, yuhan-kimberly, and asiana airlines.

speakers include ken takeuchi, president of janjan, shintaro tabata, head of news service at japan’s livedoor, professor clyde bentley from the university of missouri and mymissourian.com, professor neil thurman from city university london, jeremy iggers from the minneapolis star tribune, and erik moller from wikinews.

conference participants were welcomed by ohmynews founder and ceo on thursday evening. on friday, they toured briefly through seoul's technology sector, including a visit to the "ubuiquitous dream" exhibition and samsung's technology showroom. "ubiquitous dream" is meant to demonstrate korea's vision of ubiquitous computing, including internet-enabled refrigerators, household robots and voice recognition. afterwards, conference attendees visited the ohmynews news room, including a studio used for producing streaming video. 
visitors were given a chance to take a look at the cheonggyecheon restoration site, an attempt to transform a riverbed into an avenue with parks and fountains. the restoration project manager gave an overview of the effort, and seoul's mayor lee myung bak briefly highlighted his vision of korean city development.

at the end of friday's events, speakers and citizen reporters alike met in the grand ballroom of the coex convention and exhibition center. oh yeon ho gave a brief but passionate speech about his project: "we are from different countries and many of us have a different skin color, but we share one struggle: every citizen is a journalist." he stated that citizen journalism needs "sustainable business models" to survive. ohmynews is funded by advertising and subscriptions. he also pointed out the need for different citizen journalism projects to collaborate, and announced the creation of a global alliance to this end.

after oh's speech, chin dae je, south korea's minister of information and communication, gave a presentation about ubiquitous computing and the future of the information and communications technology sector in korea. lastly, many different citizen reporters, including an 11-year-old from utah, told their stories about how they joined the ohmynews community and participated in group photos and a flag ceremony.



president mugabe bulldozes homes of 200,000 across zimbabwe

zimbabwean president mugabe's operation murambatsvina ("drive out rubbish") has seen at least 200,000 people made homeless in zimbabwe as the government bulldozes "illegal" homes, buildings and markets.

the opposition has said the operation is designed to "punish" those who object to mugabe's government.

two children under the age of two have been killed, the first deaths reported so far in the actions which have been taking place for a month now. 

international pressure is building on zimbabwe to stop. british foreign minister jack straw has been joined by u.s. secretary of state condoleezza rice in condemning the evictions and urging african leaders to speak out.

the government has said the buildings it is destroying are "illegal", and have said that the "black markets" are to blame for the country's "economic meltdown". over 70% of the population is unemployed.

the bulldozers have the protection of armed police as they do their work. sometimes the police have forced homeowners to carry out the destruction themselves.

at other times, the government has claimed it is destroying the buildings to get rid of unsafe structures and to reduce overcrowding. other children have died when the walls of their houses have collapsed.

the authorities are also preventing non-governmental organisations from providing aid to those who have lost their homes.

the country currently needs to import 1.2 million tonnes of food to avoid famine as rural farming production drops.



iranians vote in runoff election

iranians are voting in iran's first follow up run-off presidential election today as no candidate received more than 50% in last weeks election. the polls opened at 0430 utc.

the choice is between conservative candidate mahmoud ahmadinejad (now mayor of tehran) who has promised the poor a greater share of iran's oil revenues and akbar hashemi rafsanjani who was considered a conservative candidate in the past but now portrays himself as a reform candidate. rafsanjani has committed himself to keeping the reforms started by outgoing president mohammad khatami.

iran has a very young population and it is reported the country is divided between a more open westernized society and a return (continuation) of an islamic society.

regardless of which candidate wins, final outcomes are still controlled by iran's unelected clerical ruling council.




us city police officer disciplined for drawing gun/notes

an anonymous source provided me with the document outlining use of force in the ann arbor police department. it is a foia-able document. i will quote the relevant sections. all bolding, underlining, etc. comes from the original document.

the ppct/m.c.o.l.e.s. force continuum was designed to give officers a model in which to learn the various levels of subject resistance and the appropriate subject control response. this continuum is only a model, and the officer'(s) subject control response should be based upon:

for example, an officer may resort to the use of mace before using hard empty hand controls if the officer believes the use of hard empty hand controls would be ineffective.


mtv and vh1 to broadcast live 8

mtv networks' mtv and vh1 have secured the rights to distribute over cable networks the live 8 series of concerts which will be taking place at 8 venues in europe, north america and japan. the concerts are meant to raise awareness of poverty in africa and charitable donations to fight it. 

america online holds the rights to broadcast live 8 over the internet and is currently in talks with american broadcasting company to also broadcast the concert.

mtv, vh1, and its college network, mtvu will broadcast the concert from noon to 8 pm. this will be the second outing for mtv, as they broadcasted the original live aid concert. if abc decides to air the concert as well, this will also be their second going as well. according to mtv, this is the longest mtv has gone without a televised event since the coverage of the violent, riot-filled woodstock 1999.

two radio networks will also broadcast the concert. the subscription-based xm satellite radio will broadcast the original five announced concerts but will not broadcast the tokyo or barrie concerts. premiere radio networks will broadcast the concerts tailored to the three genres of urban, rock and roll and pop music.

some of the performers slated are: u2, coldplay, madonna, dave matthews band, jay-z, destiny's child and a reunited pink floyd. 



seventy arrested after fight in moscow

around two hundred people got involved in a mass fight in central moscow yesterday. fists and baseball bats were used in a quarrel over land property between employees of two firms. at one point, a few concrete blocks and bricks flew.

russian firm real-impex (Реал-Импекс) owns property in granatny pereulok (Гранатный Переулок), that was due for some time to be transferred to another firm. however, the deal was broken in yet unknown circumstances. the fight arose as a way to settle scores.

five people were hospitalized for injuries. itar-tass reports that 68 people were arrested, questioned and allowed to go home. 



most of greek workforce participating in a general strike, say unions


greek workers' unions claim that 70 to 100% of country's workforce has joined the general 24 hour long strike on friday. the general strike was called by labor umbrella organizations as a show of support for striking bank employees, who are in their third week of strikes.

private and public sector workers alike are protesting mass lay-offs, alleged age discrimination against employees, the lowering of pensions to 40% of former salary, the repudiation of collective bargaining agreements, while voicing support for the retention of the eight-hour work day.

buses operated between 8am until 9pm, while the metro, railway, and trams did not operate at all. administration and civil servants stopped working for three hours during the day. banks are working with emergency personnel, causing a shortage of currency and slowing commercial and financial transactions. the president of the security guards' union, which includes employees responsible for filling automatic teller machines estimates that most machines will run out of money sometime tomorrow.

workers in other branches of the private sector, including shipping and tourism, also went on strike for a day. the private sector accounts for roughly half the greek workforce, with the other half are employed in the public sector.

independent estimates or reports on impact of the general strike are hard to find, as media workers has joined in the walkout, and broadcast news outlets did not operate at all from 1pm to 5pm. 

the strikes were followed by protests in several greek cities.

the greek economy continues to grow, but growth has slowed since the close of the 2004 summer olympics and analysts had expected economic and political turmoil this summer. greece had a high gdp growth rate prior to 2004, when it reached 4.1%. however, it is expected that for 2005, it will be around 2.7%. additionally, a recent survey by the national statistics service estimates the national poverty rate to be 20%, despite recent economic progress.

a controversial proposal by new democracy prime minister costas caramanlis would overhaul the country's social security system to include bank employees, who until now have had separate pension schemes and largely oppose the merger. 


 


arrest warrants issued in italy for 13 alleged cia people on kidnapping charges

ten men and three women allegedly linked to the cia have been ordered arrested by an italian judge for allegedly kidnapping a terrorism suspect in italy and then secretly taking him to egypt where he said he was tortured. the italian prosecutors office confirmed the arrest warrants relating to the abduction of imam hassan mustafa osama nasr on feb. 17, 2003. an unnamed judicial source said; "in the judge's order, it (the abduction) is clearly attributed to the cia."

the cia's response to the allegation was: "we're not commenting. we're saying: if we have anything to say, we'll get back to you."

human rights groups have criticised the cia in the past for the practise known as extraordinary rendition. according to these groups, it involves moving suspects from the country where they are captured to a third country where torture is routinely used during interrogations. a number of ex-detainees have alleged that they were tortured in countries such as egypt and syria after being captured by the cia. maher arar, a candadian citizen, sued the us government earlier this year, claiming that he was sent to syria, his country of birth, and tortured for a number of months before the canadian government obtained his release. the suit was dismissed under the rarely used state secrets privilege.

in january president bush said in an interview with the new york times that, "torture is never acceptable, nor do we hand over people to countries that do torture."



serbian parliament members accuse ngos of anti-serbian campaign

much of friday's serbian parliament session was spent accusing domestic non-governmental organizations (ngo) of spreading anti-serbian sentiments. 

the discussion was started by tomislav nikoli? of the serbian radical party, who criticized nata?a kandi? and her humanitarian law center for publicly accusing nikoli? of war crimes in former yugoslavia.

last week, kandi? announced that she has evidence of nikoli?'s personal involvement in killings of civilian croatian population in village antin in december 1991. nikoli? responded that he was a "regular volunteer", and that while he was in antin no one was killed. about 50 elderly croats were reported as murdered by serbian volunteer forces and the yugoslavian people's army.

aleksandar vu?i?, also a member of serbian radical party said: "the sort of banditry by which you accuse innocent people of the worst possible things will have to stop and [accusers] will be held responsible. when you have people like that, such pathological liars, you can't do much."

in addition to the opposition serbian radical party, who hold the most seats in parliament, members of the ruling parties also voiced their concerns.

milo? aligrudi? of democratic party of serbia (dss), the leading government party, said that "people like kandi? should not cause distinguished representatives to have to defend themselves in front of the parliament." 

dragoljub koj?i? (dss) expressed his opinion that there is an "hysterical campaign against the interests of serbia" led by the non-governmental sector "which, as their finances reveal, are representatives of power centers outside of our country." koj?i? proposed creation of "a committee for finding the truth about srebrenica in the part for which there are insinuations of serbian involvement by ngos."

the only party taking an dissenting was opposition democratic party. du?an petrovi? told journalists that "it is not true that ngos are leading anti-serbian campaign ... i don't think that any action aimed at bringing criminals to justice is negative in any way."




second case of bse confirmed in u.s.

seven months after suspicions were first raised, united states agriculture secretary mike johanns confirmed that a second american cow has tested positive for bse (also known as 'mad cow disease'), as determined by a lab in weybridge, england. the department believes that this cow was born in the united states.

the delay in confirmation followed two conflicting test results from last november. the "western blot" test, which is a more sophisticated test, could have helped reach a final determination, but the u.s. refused to perform it in november. the department's inspector general, phyllis fong, ordered the western blot test in june without advising johanns and by the time johanns found out about it, the testing was under way.

johanns was annoyed that the round of testing which confirmed "mad cow" had been ordered without him being consulted first."i was asked by the senate and the president to operate the department," johanns said. "i believe, in this area, very clearly, the secretary should be consulted, whoever the secretary is, before testing is undertaken. from my standpoint, i believe i was put there to operate the department and was very disappointed."

a senior research associate with consumers union, michael hansen, said usda officials "almost sound like some keystone kops."

johanns reassured americans that they should not be afraid of eating beef, saying: "this animal was blocked from entering the food supply because of the firewalls we have in place. americans have every reason to continue to be confident in the safety of our beef."

on june 17, the associated press reported: "american cattle are eating chicken litter, cattle blood and restaurant leftovers that could help transmit mad cow disease ? a gap in the u.s. defense that the bush administration promised to close nearly 18 months ago."

john stauber, co-author of "mad cow usa: could the nightmare happen here?" said: "once the cameras were turned off and the media coverage dissipated, then it's been business as usual, no real reform, just keep feeding slaughterhouse waste. the entire u.s. policy is designed to protect the livestock industry's access to slaughterhouse waste as cheap feed."

critics of the u.s. testing regimen said the fumbles this time increase their concerns about america's screening process.

"how can we be sure they were really negative?" craig culp, a spokesman for the center for food safety asked; "after all, (here is a cow that was) negative in november that is positive in june."

the companies which render slaughter waste say new restrictions are not warranted. "we process about 50 billion pounds of product annually ? in visual terms, that is a convoy of semi trucks, four lanes wide, running from new york to l.a. every year," said jim hodges, president of the american meat institute foundation.



hardliner wins iran presidential runoff

mahmoud ahmadinejad, tehran's hardline conservative mayor, has won the iranian presidential election with a landslide of 61.8%, according to iran's interior ministry. "the figures show that ahmadinejad is the winner," ministry spokesman jahanbakhsh khanjani said to reporters. his rival ayatollah hashemi rafsanjani received 35.7% of the vote. an estimated 23 million votes were cast -- making voter turnout nearly 49 per cent. this runoff is the first since the islamic revolution in 1979. 

ahmadinejad was seen as the underdog and was not expected to make it into the runoff, but active campaigning by his supporters and their crossing of class barriers propelled him into the runoff and ultimately into the presidency. he had the political support of low-income workers, vigilante groups and militias while calling for a return to the ideals of the islamic revolution of 1979.

ahmadinejad is a former commander in the revolutionary guard, former provincial governor of maku and then ardabil. as an ardent and loyal supporter of the ruling clerics and the ayotollah ali khamenei, his appointment as mayor of tehran by the city council surprised few.




three new jersey boys found dead

three camden, n.j. boys who had been missing since wednesday june 22, were found dead by the father of one of the three in the trunk of a car. the car was located in the same yard where the boys were last seen. the 2-day search for them by their parents, police and volunteers took place in the cramer hill section of camden, the city located across the delaware river from philadelphia.

several square miles of land around the agosto home and even the river banks of the delaware were searched for the three boys: anibal "juni" cruz, 11; daniel "danny" agosto, 6; and jesstin "manny" pagan, 5. many friends and relatives, as well as many people who had never met the boys, helped in the search.

however, on friday june 24, an uncle of one of the boys and the father of the agosto boy opened the trunk of a toyota camry parked in cruz's yard. they were looking for car battery jumper cables and discovered the boys' bodies. they had suffocated when the trunk lid dropped closed on them.

television cameras captured the tragic discovery of the boys on film. david agosto was so distraught he was taken away by paramedics on a stretcher. the tv coverage was on the scene because thousands of residents were to gather for a vigil for the missing children.

investigators ruled out foul play, calling the incident a "tragic accident." two of the boys, cruz and pagan, had learning and developmental disabilities. the car where the boys were discovered was reportedly not in running condition, and sat in the yard for more than a year.

the boys were trapped inside the trunk when temperatures were in the 80's °f. the well insulated trunk compartment was a enough to suffocate them and muffle cries for help. there was also no inside release to the trunk that would allow for escape. 

the camden county prosecutor has demanded an investigaton into why the boys were not found sooner.



tom cruise debates psychiatry on nbc's today show

in an interview on nbc's today show with matt lauer, tom cruise aggressively defended his opposition to psychiatry and anti-depressive drugs. this occurred after being asked questions about his criticism of brooke shields, who has been taking drugs, including paxil, for postpartum depression. cruise is usually known for keeping his cool in interviews, but recently he has been slightly more unbound.

cruise's statements, including "psychiatry is a pseudoscience", and "there is no such thing as a chemical imbalance in a body", reflect the beliefs of the church of scientology, of which he is a member. the interview became particularly tense when lauer mentioned that he knew people who had been helped by taking ritalin, an attention-deficit disorder drug.

"matt, matt, you don't even ? you're glib," cruise responded. "you don't even know what ritalin is. if you start talking about chemical imbalance, you have to evaluate and read the research papers on how they came up with these theories, matt, ok. that's what i've done."

cruise went on to say: "you don't know the history of psychiatry, i do."

cruise has not formally studied medicine beyond a high school education, having dropped out in his senior year (1980) to pursue an acting career. in light of this, some members of the psychiatric community have refuted cruise's controversial statements. dr. john scully, medical director of the american psychiatric association, has said "the illnesses we treat - anxiety, depression - are very real illnesses...the treatments work. we have demonstrated that through robust scientific study."

lauer insisted that ritalin helped people: "you're telling me what's worked for people i know or hasn't worked for people i know. i'm telling you, i've lived with these people and they're better," lauer said.

cruise hinted that lauer was promoting ritalin and lauer scoffed: "i am not. i'm telling you in their cases, in their individual case, it worked."

the exchange ended when the two basically agreed to disagree. cruise, who is 42, did admit that one of his goals is to speak more about scientology in an effort to get people to understand it better.

scientology has historically been at odds with the established medical and mental health community. the rift dates back to the 1950s and scientology's founding father l. ron hubbard. in his book, "dianetics: the modern science of mental health", published in 1950, hubbard claims that dianetics (later called scientology) could cure the majority of human ailments. these claims were sharply disputed by a variety of mainstream science and medical professionals including psychiatrists.

on monday, june 27, 2005, the american psychiatric association released a statement that stated the following:
"it is irresponsible for mr. cruise to use his movie publicity tour to promote his own ideological views and deter people with mental illness from getting the care they need...rigorous, published, peer-reviewed research clearly demonstrates that treatment (of mental illness) works...it is unfortunate that in the face of this remarkable scientific and clinical progress that a small number of individuals and groups persist in questioning its legitimacy."

the apa represents nearly 36,000 physicians specialising in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness.



guidant announces more defibrillator problems


guidant corporation recently announced another safety warning on several models of its implantable defibrillators, cautioning users for the second time in a week about the devices. no patients are known to have been injured by the devices at this time. this brings the total number of defibrillator models recalled to twelve.

according to the associated press article, the five defibrillator models recalled "have a magnetic switch that can become stuck in a closed position, preventing the device from treating irregular heart rhythms. the faulty switch also can limit a defibrillator's battery life." 

after the announcement friday, guidant's stock dropped 6.9 percent, or $4.70, to $63.90.



elections held in bulgaria

elections were held in bulgaria for the 240 members of the assembly today. according to exit polls, the leftist coalition for bulgaria has a lead with around 31%, but without majority, neccesating creation of coalitions. the national movement for simeon ii which is currently ruling is in the second place, with around 21%. the third is ethnic turks of bulgaria, with around 11%.

it is expected that the national movement for simeon ii will attempt to form a coalition with one of the lower placed parties in order to outnumber the leftists.

at least 6,000 candidates (from 22 parties) ran for election to the 240 member parilament. the turnout of 52% was record lowest. 4% of the votes are needed to gain a seat.

the opposition leftist coalition, headed by bulgarian socialist party lead the election, but did not gain an outright majority. sergei stanishev, leader of the socialist party, stated he would attempt to form a governing coalition. "we won the confidence of the people ... we are ready to form a government ... and we will negotiate with any democratic party," stanisheve said in a press conference.

in the last six free elections held since 1989, no government has been re-elected -- each has had to implement stringent economic and social reforms, since the fall of communism, and has lost popular support as a result. 




dannie abse hurt, wife killed in car accident

welsh poet dannie abse (81) and his wife joan (78) were involved in a car crash while driving from golders green to their holiday home in ogmore-by-sea, south wales. mrs. abse died instantly; mr abse suffered a broken rib. the driver of the other vehicle was unhurt. the couple was returning from a poetry reading that they both had given.

dannie abse is an esteemed jewish writer who lives in glamorgan, south wales. joan abse, his wife, was an art historian and writer. dannie abse is well-known for being a poet and a medical doctor. abse, in fact, was a specialist at a chest clinic for over thirty years. but abse is best known for his writings and has received numerous literary awards and fellowships. in 1989, he received an honorary doctorate from the universities of wales. 

the couple worked together editing two books in the 1980s.

joan abse leaves behind her husband, a son, and two daughters.



nigeria's past rulers stole $400 billion in public money

figures have revealed that nigeria's past military dictators stole approximately $400 billion over the 39 years they were in power.

this amounts to nearly all of the aid given to africa by the west over the same period.

nigeria gained its independence from britain in 1960 but was ruled by a succession of military leaders until democracy returned in 1999. in 2002, the nigerian economic and financial crimes commission was set up to investigate corruption of past leaders.

their figures showed that the military had squandered the public money on projects which did not help the country's citizens, and have left no lasting benefit.

the military siphoned the money off from sales of nigerian oil - nigeria is the world's eighth largest exporter of oil. nigeria's last dictator, general sani abacha, may have stolen up to $6 billion, but only around $300 million has ever been recovered.

the chairman of the commission, mallam nuhu ribadu described the military as having "institutionalised corruption", and of having undermined the public's desire to have efficient infrastructure in place.

"we are tired of giving ourselves bad names. government must deliver on its promises. the moment we start doing things correctly, injustice will reduce, and corruption will also reduce. we need a leadership that is bold, strong and courageous," ribadu said.

the g8 recently agreed to cancel the debt of 14 african nations to the imf and the world bank (a total of $40 billion), but excluded nigeria on the grounds of corruption.

a professor at the lagos business school, prof pat utomi, said that was the right decision. "who is to say you won't see the same behaviour again if it is all written off?" 


u.s. housing prices down 9% since february

the median house price in the united states plunged 6.5% in may to $217,000. in february of 2005, the median price of a home was $237,300.

"the economist" newspaper said in its june 16th issue; "in other words, it looks like the biggest bubble in history." by way of reference to what is happening with housing prices in the usa and much of europe.

japan provides an example of how a boom can turn to bust. property prices have dropped for 14 years in a row (40% from their peak in 1991); and yet, the rise in prices in japan during the decade before 1991 was less than the increase over the past ten years in most of today's "housing boom" countries.

the total value of residential property rose by more than $30 trillion over the past five years in developed economies, an increase equivalent to 100% of the combined gdps of those countries. this increase dwarfs all previous house-price booms and is greater than the global stockmarket bubble in the late 1990s. much of the recent housing activity is being driven by speculative demand. the national association of realtors (nar) reported that 23% of all american houses bought in 2004 were for investment, not for owners to live in. another 13% were bought as second homes. nar also found that 42% of all first-time buyers made no down-payment on their home purchase last year.

many investors are buying solely because they think prices will keep rising, which is a warning sign of a financial bubble. in miami, florida, as many as half of the original buyers resell new apartments even before they are built, and properties can change hands two or three times before somebody finally moves in.

britain's royal institution of chartered surveyors (rics) reported prices have been falling for ten consecutive months. forty nine percent of their surveyors reported falling prices in may. this was the weakest report since 1992 during britain's previous house-price bust.


san francisco mother of 12-year-old boy who was mauled to death charged with child endangerment

maureen faibish of 711 lincoln way san francisco, ca was arrested on june 24, 2005 on the charge of child endangerment in the actions leading up to the death of her son, 12-year-old nicholas faibish, who was mauled by one or both of her two pit bull dogs, rex 2 and ella. 

nicholas was discovered dead in the front bedroom of her home at approximately 15:15 pdt on june 3, 2005, by his mother, who had left the house to run some errands. she had locked her son in the basement to keep him away from the dogs. "i put him down there, with a shovel on the door.", faibish said in a telephone interview to the san francisco chronicle. "he had a bunch of food. and i told him, 'stay down there until i come back.' typical nicky, he wouldn't listen to me."

faibish stated that she believes that her son had walked in when rex 2, a male pit bull, was attempting to mate with ella, a female pit bull who was in heat at the time. she stated that rex 2 had been acting possessively prior to the incident. a police officer shot and killed ella in order to gain entry to the apartment. rex 2 was captured and removed to an animal shelter. "the police killed the wrong dog if you ask me.", faibish said.



british television presenter richard whiteley dies

british television host richard whiteley, most famous for his role presenting the british television game show "countdown", has died aged 61 at leeds general infirmary. 

the cause of death is reported to have been complications resulting from an operation on his heart to repair an infected valve. he had been admitted to bradford royal infirmary with pneumonia on may 6, falling into a coma shortly there after.

his 23 years of hosting "countdown" made him a household name among television viewers in the uk, having previously anchored yorkshire's "calendar" local affairs program. the avuncular figure was fond of word play and possessed a striking wit.

until this may, whiteley had never missed presenting an edition of the show. countdown was the first programme to be broadcast on the new channel 4 when it began broadcasting in 1982. 

he was awarded an obe in june 2004.

whiteley leaves behind a partner of 11 years, actress kathryn apanowicz.



paul winchell, voice of tigger, gargamel, dead at 82

paul winchell, the english voice of gargamel in the animated children's show the smurfs and tigger in disney's winnie the pooh died on 23 june at age 82. winchell also voiced several other characters including boomer in disney's "the fox and the hound" and several characters for hanna-barbera productions.

winchell, in addition to being a prolific voice artist, patented more than 30 inventions including an artificial heart, a flameless cigarette lighter, and a disposable razor.

paul winchell won a grammy award in 1974 in the best recording for children category for his work on "the most wonderful thing about tiggers" in the animated disney film "winnie the pooh and tigger too". his first performance as tigger was in the 1968 disney film "winnie the pooh and the blustery day" which won an academy award.


u.s. marines accused of assaulting australian freed by u.s. military court

two u.s. marines were recently cleared of charges in the brutal assault of an australian youth in a townsville nightclub february 2004. the alleged assault occurred within australian jurisdiction, however permission was given by the victim and attorney-general phillip ruddock for the matter to be transferred to a military court in the us. 

"i've asked for a full report on the matter," mr ruddock said. 

heath twomey, a student in townsville, had his throat cut during the assault. he wasn't asked to give evidence in the court, and only found out about the acquittal through the media. his father said that heath had been forever changed by the incident. 

"he was assaulted by being hit with a bottle, he had his throat slashed, it nearly penetrated the jugular vein," he said.

mr twomey claimed that his son was pressured by us officials to accept the transfer of jurisdiction. he says that his son was led to believe that the penalty would be more severe. 

"it's such a foreign outcome compared to what would normally ensue within the queensland justice system," he said. 

ruddock is investigating the matter, and has asked for a full report from the us judge advocate general, who prosecutes all military cases. 

"i want to know whether or not [justice has been done], i want that matter tested," he said. 

the us embassy referred inquiries to the jag office. they have been approached by "the world today", but are yet to comment. 


u.s. supreme court rules on government display of ten commandments

the united states supreme court has ruled that "non-neutral" displays of the ten commandments in courtrooms violate the u.s. constitution's first amendment guarantee of religious neutrality, but that "historical" displays are permitted.

in the case mccreary county v. aclu of kentucky, the court ruled that the display of the commandments in kentucky county courthouses constituted an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. however, in the case van orden v. perry heard at the same time, the court permitted the display of the commandments in a monument at the texas state capitol.

in the texas case, chief justice william rehnquist, writing for the majority, wrote that:

however, in the kentucky decision, the court ruled that the history of the ten commandments' display in the courthouse was evidence of religious (and not historical) intention and that the reasoning given in legislative resolutions was not reflective of the counties' actual intentions in their displays. justice souter wrote for the majority, drawing specific attention to the character of the display:

proponents of displaying the commandments hold that they represent the bedrock of western legal tradition. opponents hold that the ancient biblical rules, which begin "i am the lord thy god", represent religious dogma, not law.

 


israeli soldier convicted of killing british activist in gaza strip

a former israeli soldier has been convicted by an israeli court of the manslaughter of a british student who was acting as a human shield in the gaza strip in april 2003.

ex-sergeant wahid taysir, serving with the beduin unit in rafah, hit tom hurndall with a single shot to the head from an army watchtower, using a sniper rifle with a telescopic sight. hurndall had been guiding children away from an area of shooting in the palestinian town of rafah.

twenty-two year old hurndall fell into a coma and died of his injuries nine months later in a london hospital. taysir's defence lawyers had tried to claim during the trial that hurndall's death was due to malpractice by british doctors.

the israeli army had initially declined to carry out an investigation into the shooting. after the british government started their own enquiry and cited taysir as having fired the fatal shot, the israeli army made the decision to prosecute taysir, who is no longer serving in the army.

the verdict took more than an hour to read out in a small courtroom in southern israel. as well as being found guilty of manslaughter, taysir was found guilty of obtaining false testimony, submitting false testimony, obstruction of justice, and improper conduct.

taysir's sentence will be decided next week. another soldier was also jailed for lying to protect taysir.

hurndall's father anthony was one of 50 people in the courtroom. afterwards he welcomed the verdict, but claimed that the israeli army acted with impunity too often. the israeli government insist that there is no policy that tolerates shooting civilians.

taysir is an israeli beduin arab. he served in the israeli army as a volunteer.


unanimous u.s. supreme court rules against file swapping companies

the u.s. supreme court today ruled that internet file sharing networks can be sued for copyright infringement. the decision in the case "metro-goldwyn-mayer studios inc. et al. v. grokster, ltd. et al." had been much awaited by those on both sides of the debate about copyright law and its application to internet technologies. the court ruled that businesses created with the purpose of letting users commit copyright violations should be held liable for the infringement.

writing for the court, justice david souter wrote: "one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, going beyond mere distribution with knowledge of third-party action, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties using the device, regardless of the device's lawful uses."

the strength of the decision was unexpected ? this is the first major internet copyright case to reach the supreme court in many years, and the justices' unanimity sends a strong message about their lack of tolerance for companies designed to violate the law.

the decision affects such companies as grokster and streamcast, both of which were defendants in this suit. the court's ruling does not have an immediate effect, however, as the justices referred the decisions to a lower court to be reconsidered.

fred von lohmann, senior staff attorney for the eff, panned the court for not providing a clear test for what constitutes inducement, saying it would discourage innovators unsure of their project's legality. he did however remain optimistic about grokster and streamcast's chances in the lower courts.




actor john fiedler, voice of piglet and &quot;bob newhart&quot; regular, dead at 80

american actor john fiedler died at the age of 80 on june 25. though he worked extensively on stage, film, television, and radio for over forty years, he is perhaps most remembered for two roles: the mild, fearful voice of piglet in disney's many winnie the pooh productions, and the role of mr. peterson, nervous patient on "the bob newhart show". 

born in 1925 in ohio, fiedler began his career in new york, working on the radio series "the aldrich family" as sidekick homer brown, and making his film debut in "twelve angry men" (1957), as the nervous juror #2. most of his subsequent roles were as gentle or nervous types, though occasionally he broke out of the mold, notably in the original "star trek" episode "a wolf in the fold," as an official possessed by jack the ripper. on broadway he was in the original casts of "a raisin in the sun" (as housing commmittee rep lindner) and "the odd couple" (as poker player vinnie), reprising both roles for the film versions. other on-camera work included roles in the films "true grit" and "the cannonball run", plus many tv guest spots from "bewitched" to "the twilight zone", and a recurring part on "kolchak: the night stalker" as morgue attendant gordy "the ghoul" spangler.

his distinctive voice kept him busiest, however. in addition to playing piglet in many shorts, four features, several specials, and two tv series, he was heard in the disney features "the rescuers", "robin hood", and "the emporer's new groove". a cause of death has not yet been reported.


russia probing jewish law as &quot;incitement&quot;

the moscow district prosecutor's office has dropped its investigation of russian on charges of incitement and distribution of anti-russian material for having published an abridged translation of a 16th century text on . jewish leaders were summoned for questioning about the as the apparent first step of a probe into whether all jewish organizations should be banned in russia.

disbanding all jewish organizations in russia was requested in a january 13, 2005 letter to the state prosecutor general signed by 20 members of the . the letter was expanded into a petition signed by 500 well-known public figures, church officials and army generals in march. after being published in a newspaper, the petition gleaned 5,000 signatures. it called the anti- and inhumane, and even practicing of christian children excerpts in english].

although the russian foreign ministry had condemned the letter, the st. petersburg district prosecutor's office declared that it was not and declined to file incitement charges against rus pravoslavnaya, the newspaper that published it.



news briefs:june 27, 2005

two u.s. marines were cleared of charges in their alleged assault on an australian teen in 2004. australian attorney general phillip ruddock has requested a report of the proceedings from the u.s. military judge overseeing the case. the youth and his family were never asked for evidence, and only learned of the case's conclusion through the media.

former israeli soldier sergeant wahid taysir was convicted of manslaughter and other charges for covering up in the death of british student tom hurndall by an israeli court. mr. taysir shot mr. hurndall with a sniper rifle from a watchtower while he was guiding children away from an area where shooting was taking place. mr. taysir's sentence will be announced next week.

paul winchell, the english voice of gargamel in the animated children's show the smurfs and tigger in disney's winnie the pooh died on 23 june at age 82. mr. winchell won a grammy award for his voice work on "the most wonderful thing about tiggers" in the animated disney film "winnie the pooh and tigger too".

writing for a unanimous u.s. supreme court, justice david souter's decision mad file sharing companies who provide tools for users to violate copyright law are liable for those infringements. the decision directly affects plaintiffs grokster and streamcast, but the cases have been remanded to a lower court for final adjudication.

actor john fiedler passed away at the age of 80 on july 25th. though he worked extensively on stage, film, television, and radio for over forty years, he is perhaps most remembered for two roles: the mild, fearful voice of piglet in disney's many winnie the pooh productions, and the role of mr. peterson, nervous patient on the bob newhart show.


u.s. marines accused of assaulting australian freed by u.s. military court/brief

two u.s. marines were cleared of charges in their alleged assault on an australian teen in 2004. australian attorney general phillip ruddock has requested a report of the proceedings from the u.s. military judge overseeing the case. the youth and his family were never asked for evidence, and only learned of the case's conclusion through the media.


witnesses expose big corruption scheme of the brazilian ruling party

in may, the brazilian deputy roberto jefferson was involved in an alleged corruption scheme that involved the brazilian postal service. jefferson said that he was unfairly being abandoned and sacrificed. in addition he said that he would not take the fall alone. 

on june 6, roberto jefferson told the brazilian newspaper folha de sao paulo that the ruling
workers' party (pt) has been paying brazilian deputies 30 thousand brazilian reais (usd 12 thousand) each, every month, in return for support. jefferson later confirmed to a congressional special commission what he had previously stated to the newspaper. also he added that he had informed the minister jose dirceu about the payments and that no action was taken. dirceu denied jefferson's allegations.

according to jefferson the payments only stopped after he informed the president luiz inacio lula da silva. he also said that the minister jose dirceu should leave the government, otherwise president lula would get involved. two days later, the minister jose dirceu announced his resignation from his post.

jefferson denied involvement in the brazilian postal service scandal. jefferson told the commission that the brazilian agency of intelligence (abin) was controlled by the former brazilian minister of civil affairs jose dirceu and it recorded the tape which shows the former brazilian postal service chief mauricio marinho during a supposed bribery negotiation with a businessman.

however jefferson admitted that he received r$ 4 million from the workers' party (pt). according to jefferson, during a meeting with him and the ptb treasurer Emerson palmieri, the workers' party treasurer delubio soares and the workers' party president jose genoino, they decided that ptb should received r$ 20 million. jefferson said he received only r$ 4 million and the money was delivered by the businessman marcos valerio fernandes de souza, owner of publicity enterprises. 

on june 14, fernanda karina ramos somaggio denounced his former boss marcos valerio and told the brazilian magazine "istoE - dinheiro" that she saw suitcases full of money leaving the enterprise during the time she worked for him as secretary (istoE article). also she said that marcos valerio encountered workers' party members several times, including delubio soares. on june 15, the secretary denied everything what she said to "istoE - dinheiro" to police. however, on june 20, karina somaggio said that she lied to the police because she and her family were threatened. in a new testimony to the brazilian police, karina somaggio confirmed the interview to the magazine and the accusations against her former boss, marcos valerio. karina somaggio is now under police protection. 

marcos valerio denied the allegations of karina somaggio. he has initiated court proceedings against his former secretary.

some days later the magazine "istoE" revealed documents from the council for control of financial activities (coaf). according to the documents around r$ 20.9 millions left smp&b and dna enterprises, which belong to marcos valerio (istoE article). the coaf is a brazilian public agency which monitors irregular financial activities. the enterprises of marcos valerio have millionaire contracts with the brazilian government.
on june 21 and 22, parliamentarians listened to the former brazilian postal service chief mauricio marinho, accused of involvement in the brazilian postal service scandal. at first marinho refused talking about any illegality in the brazilian postal service. however, on june 22, after his lawyers admitted that he was not telling the whole truth and that they would leave him, marinho demanded protection for himself and his family, then started to talk. he said the workers’ party general-secretary silvio pereira and the minister luiz gushiken had some influence in the brazilian postal service. he said that the biggest brazilian postal service contracts should be investigated and he mentioned big contracts to the brazilian bank bradesco. 






lula tries to save the government with alliance with opposition party

the president of brazil, luiz inacio lula da silva is facing a serious political crisis in his government. there are a lot of denounciations involving important figures of his party, the (pt). 

in an attempt to save his government, lula is negotiating an alliance with the (pmdb). lula said that he will reform his ministry and it is expected that some politicians of the pmdb become ministers.
there is not a general consensus about this alliance. some governors and parliamentarians of pmdb are against it. 

the president of pmdb, , said that he will listen to his colleagues before taking a decision.


israeli soldier convicted in killing of british activist in gaza strip/brief

former israeli soldier sergeant wahid taysir was convicted of manslaughter and other charges for covering up in the death of british student tom hurndall by an israeli court. mr. taysir shot mr. hurndall with a sniper rifle from a watchtower while he was guiding children away from an area where shooting was taking place. mr. taysir's sentence will be announced next week.


paul winchell, voice of tigger, gargamel, dead at 82/brief

paul winchell, the english voice of gargamel in the animated children's show the smurfs and tigger in disney's winnie the pooh died on 23 june at age 82. mr. winchell won a grammy award for his voice work on "the most wonderful thing about tiggers" in the animated disney film "winnie the pooh and tigger too".


workers' movement and other social movements support lula, senators warn of 'chavenization'

they said that they defend the investigation of corruption schemes, however they said that the lula government is the victim of a destabilization campaign. they blame the president of the united states george w. bush for the crisis. they say that the government of lula is victim of a coup attempt by bush supporters.

senator heloisa helena from the socialism and freedom party (psol) said that the coup idea is nonsense. other parliamentarians, even some of the workers' party, didn't agree with the coup argument. some senators said that only the wokers' party itself initiated the crisis. some senators who do not belong to the brazilian ruling party pt warned of a scenario like the one in venezuela where the president hugo chavez concentrated all political power on his hands using the support of social movements.



unanimous u.s. supreme court rules against file swapping companies/brief

writing for a unanimous u.s. supreme court, justice david souter's decision mad file sharing companies who provide tools for users to violate copyright law are liable for those infringements. the decision directly affects plaintiffs grokster and streamcast, but the cases have been remanded to a lower court for final adjudication.


us officials accused of covering up human deaths from bse and discouraging testing of suspected animals

dr. lester friedlander, a former united states department of agriculture (usda) vet, had been blowing the whistle on the usda beef inspection practices before the latest case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (bse) was confirmed. dr. friedlander said that inspectors are allowed only 15 seconds of inspection and that unhygienic practices are common in the meat industry; practices such as cow carcasses with abscesses being hosed off, wrapped up and shipped to the consumer.

friedlander also claims that some supervisors were more concerned about falsifying inspection documents than protecting consumers and that on june 9, 2005, a cow in texas with bse symptoms was sent straight to the rendering plant without testing.
there have also been allegations of a "don't ask,don't tell" approach being applied by us health officials when confronted with human deaths which may be caused by eating bse contaminated meat.
the organic consumers association reported last year that hundreds of people are dying in the us each year from creutzfeldt-jakob disease (cjd or vcjd) (the human counterpart of bse) and the deaths are being written off as "unexplainable". the disease causes holes in the brains of the victims.

a new jersey lawyer, janet skarbek is being called "the next erin brockovich" for her research into the "cherry hill cluster" of 12 deaths she said were caused by people eating bse infected meat; "i'm up to 12 confirmed cases of cjd, where it says cjd on their death certificates and where they all ate at the same racetrack," skarbek said.

new jersey state officials have said that the 12 deaths did not result from the human form of mad cow disease, but rather from sporadic cjd; but skarbek says the government's numbers don't add up. "if you just take five of the victims from new jersey that ate at the track most recently, two were out of 100 administrative employees and three were out of 1,000 season-pass holders. so out of that population of 1,100 people, we should see one case of cjd every 909 years."



many still believe myths associated with cancer, reports american cancer society study

a recent survey conducted by the american cancer society has turned up some surprising results: americans generally hold false beliefs about the nature of cancer and its treatment, even though many believe they are well informed.

health experts say this ignorance could be dangerous: people may be making poor health decisions -- avoiding cancer screenings or rejecting potentially life-saving treatments -- based on their incorrect notions.

the most common misconception is that surgery causes cancer to spread. decades ago, cancer often was not discovered until it was very advanced. at that stage, surgical efforts were rarely successful, and many patients died soon after procedures were performed. this may have given rise to the mistaken belief that the surgeries caused the disease to worsen.

another commonly held myth is that there is a cure for cancer, but the medical industry is withholding it in order to continue profiting from the sale of less effective treatments and medications.

believers in this "conspiracy theory" may not be guided by it in making their personal health decisions, though. the american cancer society says that even though many people are suspicious of the medical industry in general, they have a trusting relationship with their own physicians and are likely to follow their advice.

almost 20 percent of the people surveyed felt that medications for cancer pain were ineffective.

about 10 percent expressed the belief that cancer could be cured with a positive attitude alone, while a similar number felt that there was no effective treatment for cancer.

the fact is, cancer survival and treatments -- including pain management -- have vastly improved in the last thirty years.

results of the survey appear in the august 1 issue of cancer, a journal published by the american cancer society. 

 


actor john fiedler, voice of piglet and &quot;bob newhart&quot; regular, dead at 80/brief

actor john fiedler passed away at the age of 80 on july 25th. though he worked extensively on stage, film, television, and radio for over forty years, he is perhaps most remembered for two roles: the mild, fearful voice of piglet in disney's many winnie the pooh productions, and the role of mr. peterson, nervous patient on the bob newhart show.


russia voids border treaty with estonia

russian foreign minister sergei lavrov told ria novosti during a visit to helsinki that the russian federation had decided to revoke its signature from the border agreements it signed with the estonian government in moscow on may 18.

the move comes just one week after the estonian riigikogu ratified the border document which slightly amends the border that has been used since estonia regained its independence from the soviet union in 1991.

a source inside the russian foreign ministry told itar-tass that the preamble to the document as ratified by the estonian parliament was "unacceptable" because it mentioned the tartu peace treaty of 1920, by which the russian socialist federal republic recognized the independent statehood of estonia.

alexander yakovenko, a spokesperson for the russian foreign ministry told gateway 2 russia, another russian news wire, that this set up a situation where estonia could claim land from russia. estonia lost 5 percent of its territory to russia when authorities delineated the estonian soviet federal republic from the russian soviet federal republic in 1945.

however, the estonian foreign ministry has reiterated its stance that the border treaty seals the border with russia, and the preamble makes no claims to russian territory. 

"the estonian side has repeatedly assured that it has not linked any new issues to the border treaties, and thus, the russian side's assertion that estonia has added new aspects to the treaty is ungrounded," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

estonian and russian officials first agreed upon the border treaty in 1996, and then initialed them in 1999, according to the website of the estonian foreign ministry. the preamble included with the treaty signed in may stated that the agreement would have no impact on other issues concerning estonian-russian bilateral relations and urmas paet, the estonian foreign minister said in a statement on june 27 that estonia has no land claims to russia.

"russia does not have the will to normalize relations with estonia and, i would say, even with the european union and nato," explained marko mihkelson, the deputy chairman of the estonian foreign relations commission in a statement. 

"this is because here, indeed, we are talking about estonian-russian border, which is not only a border between the two states but also a border between the european union and russia," he said.

estonia is now urging russia to reconsider its stance, while lavrov told reporters in helsinki that the two parties will have to start from scratch.

 


wal-mart heir john walton killed in plane crash


john walton, son of wal-mart founder sam walton and the 11th richest person in the world, has been killed in a plane crash on june 27 in wyoming. he was 58 years old. the crash occurred shortly after takeoff from jackson hole airport in grand teton national park at about 1:20 p.m. cdt. walton was the only person killed in the crash.

"we're sad that john walton, who was well-known and much-loved in this valley, died doing something that he loved to do, which was fly aircraft," said joan anzelmo, a spokeswoman for grand teton national park.

walton was killed while flying an experimental ultra-light aircraft with small gasoline engine and wings made of material similar to sail-cloth.

because the aircraft was unregistered and experimental, officials at the national park indicate that there will not be an ntsb investigation. officials at grand teton national park will, however, conduct their own internal investigation.

walton was named to the board of directors of wal-mart in 1992 -- he never worked for the company. he had served as a green beret during the vietnam war and was awarded the silver star for saving the lives of several members of his unit while under fire. walton was involved in several business interests over the years, including crop-dusting and boat construction.


scenario for impeachment of lula raised in brazil

this is the most severe political crisis since brazilians first attained their right to vote for a president in 1989, the former president fernando collor de mello was elected.

the ruling workers' party has not succeeded in its defense against the accusations. the brazilian deputy roberto jefferson said that the ruling party bought the support of some brazilian deputies, paying 30 thousand brazilian reals (us$ 12 thousand) each, every month. although jefferson said that he had no proof of this, he gave a very detailed description of the alleged corruption scheme.

the testimonies of other witnesses and the investigation that is being made by police gave support for some of the jefferson's claims. independent investigation being made by newspapers and magazines, and the publication of documents and other evidences, expose the government and workers' party more and more.

popular support for the president is deteriorating. except for the workers' party and the communist party of brazil (pcdob) which are part of the government, there is not another political party in brazil denying the accusations. all newspapers and magazines publish stories every day related to the scandal. the workers' party itself is divided: some members believe that the accusations are true and that something went wrong, others prefer to deny the evidences and they argue that the party is innocent.

a great part of the work of the brazilian parliamentarians is related to the investigation of the scandals. besides the votes-for-cash scandal dennounced by jefferson, there are 
the bingo's scandal, the post office scandal and the brazilian reinsurance institute (irb) scandal. all of these scandals are being submited to investigation by brazilian parliamentarians.

one important question is whether president lula knew about the alleged scandals in his government or not. if he knew and he did nothing he was conniving or he participated, it is the worst. if he didn't know, someone can say that he was very incompetent because he didn't see something so big under his nose.

today, the authority and the efficiency of the president is being questioned. some people say that it was the former minister jose dirceu who actually took great part of the decisions in lula's government. the politicians say that president lula must take control of his government, that he should do a major reform of his government and that he should get away from the people who are involved in the scandals.

besides the corruption dennounciations, the government of president lula is being criticized by his weak social agenda. the programme called "zero hunger" has showed little results and many people accuse it of being just a marketing strategy.

the management of the economy has being praised by some analysts. however, critics, even inside the government like the vice-president jose alencar have already criticized it, because of the high interest rates. there is not severe inflation, but unemployment is high, and salaries are low.

the next days or the next month may be decisive to the future of lula. he must show that he is not involved in the corruption scandals, he must reform the government and he must prove that he is competent. the positive factor are that the brazilian economy is not seriously contaminated by the political crisis until now, the population is perplexed but calm and the politicians are not envolving the president in the denunciations, although they demand the investigation of all corruption allegations. however, nobody knows how much this situation will remain or if it will remain until the end of the government of president lula in 2006.



 


norway and denmark conducting observation flights over belarus and russia

in accordance with the treaty on open skies, norway and denmark started conducting observation flights over belarus and russia yesterday. these flights are expected to last until july 1, with seven belarusian and two russian inspectors monitoring foreign planes. 

the treaty establishes a program of unarmed aerial surveillance flights over the entire territory of its 34 state participants. the treaty is designed to enhance mutual understanding and confidence by giving all participants, regardless of size, a direct role in gathering information about military forces and activities of concern to them. russia and belarus signed the treaty in 1992 in helsinki. 

according to the spokesman of belarusian ministry of defense, russia and belarus have finished their analogous flight over the usa on june 25. 



lukashenko accuses foreign donators of ideological expansion

the president of belarus, alexander lukashenko, accused foreign funds and donators of ideological expansion in belarus during his meeting with talented youth today.

"in recent years, activities of foreign donators, who were carrying out ideological expansion on belarus disguised as humanitarian aid, and really stealing state's intellectual possession, was curbed," lukashenko said.

students, which lukashenko met, were receivers of belarusian presidential stipendies. he said, that the idea of domestic funds was created "in uneasy times" to keep talented students in belarus.

lukashenko requested last year that each trip abroad for sake of education be limited.



cnet news launches reader wiki

as an experiment in the use of wiki technology for news, cnet news has launched a web site where readers can collaborate with other readers to predict the future of india's technology industry, collectively supplementing a cnet report on india published on june 27, 2005. 

the wiki uses wikipedia's software, mediawiki, with a custom design. editing is not restricted. the wiki was set up by andrew lottmann of the technical production team at cnet news.com. "i would love to know if readers feel this wiki is a good medium for feedback or even 'citizen journalism' on news.com", lottman stated in his user profile.

as of july 2, 2005, the wiki was still relatively inactive, with only one "legitimate content page" and 176 page edits according to the site's statistics. 



amd files antitrust lawsuit against intel in us federal district court


according to the complaint, intel has unlawfully maintained its by, among other things:











france secures site for 10 billion euro nuclear fusion research project

the european union has won a years-long battle to host iter, the 'next step' in nuclear fusion research. nuclear fusion is the process that powers our sun, and could potentially lead to almost unlimited energy available on earth.

the six partners in the international project ? the european union (through its suborganization euratom), the people's republic of china, japan, south korea, russia and the united states - declared today in moscow that the device will be constructed at cadarache, in france. the other contender for the project was japan. 

japan and the eu (as well as canada until 2003) had fought a long and hard battle to secure the site of the experiment, seen as the next step towards nuclear fusion, until japan finally withdrew its bid today.

under the terms of the agreement, the eu will pay 50% of the construction costs of the 10 billion euro (￡6.6bn) program costs, while japan will gain 20% of the 200 research jobs that will be part of the project, but pay only 10% of the costs.

"we believe that the iter project should start as soon as possible for the sake of mankind's future," said nariaki nakayama, japan's science minister.

professor sir chris llewellyn smith, head of the of uk atomic energy authority's (ukaea) culham division, responsible for the uk's thermonuclear fusion programme, said that "rapid construction of iter will be a major step in the development of fusion as a potential large-scale source of electricity that will not contribute to climate change."

french environmental groups have shown dismay at the news of the siting decision. mediane, one such group, said "we are against the project because it's very dangerous and will not create jobs in the region." a group of several french environmental groups, sortir du nucleaire (get out of nuclear energy), said iter was dangerous as scientists did not know "how to manipulate the high-energy deuterium and tritium hydrogen isotopes used in the fusion process. iter will never produce electricity. maybe, well after iter, another reactor in 100, 150 or 200 years will do so ? but that's far from certain."

the jet nuclear fusion project in the uk has operated for twenty years and has used tritium for ten; it has a 100% safety record with no radiation ever being released.

iter will follow on from the work of such experiments as the european jet, the japanese jt-60u, and the american tftr and diii-d. it is not designed to produce electricity, but to research technologies that will allow a prototype nuclear fusion power plant ? 'demo' ? to begin construction in around 2030. the iter program itself will last for thirty years ? ten for construction, and at least 20 years of operation.

nuclear fusion works by forcing the atomic nuclei ? in this case isotopes of hydrogen, namely deuterium and/or tritium ? to combine under great heat and pressure. the products of the reaction have a lower mass than the original reactants ? releasing energy according to einstein's famous equation of formula_1.

the fuel is derived from sea water, meaning that fusion is an almost limitless source of energy.

nuclear fusion produces no waste products other than helium, and does not contribute to global warming in any way. little radiation is produced by the reaction; a nuclear fusion power plant will take less than 100 years to become completely safe after decommissioning. furthermore, fusion reactors have very little fuel inside them at any one moment ? so therefore no chance of a 'meltdown' ? and can shut down in seconds if the fuel supply is cut off.



civilians testify to halliburton fraud, coercion

, 

the democratic party held a public committee, aired on c-span 3, at which former civilian employees based in or administering operations in iraq, testified to specific instances of waste, fraud, and other abuses and irregularities by halliburton and its subsidiary kellogg, brown and root (kbr). 

allegations of fraud by halliburton, specifically with regard to its operations in iraq, have persisted since before the iraq war. the associations between u.s. vice president dick cheney and halliburton, have been the basis for repeated speculation over possible political improprieties and business profiteering from the war.

among the senators and representatives present at the hearing were byron dorgan (presiding), henry waxman, frank lautenberg, and mark dayton. 

among those testifying were bunny greenhouse, former chief contracting officer of the u.s. army corps of engineers, rory mayberry, former food program manager for halliburton subsidiary, and allan waller, of the lloyd-owen international security and operations firm.

greenhouse, who provided the bulk of testimony, spoke for several minutes about her involvement in the evaluation and crafting of government army contracts, and how explaining how superiors undermined and dismissed her concerns of illegal business practices. "ultimately my main concern was the repeated insistence that the rio contract be awarded to kbr without competitive bidding," greenhouse said. she testified to have been given misinformation in answer to her complaints, and being "overtly misled" by kbr managers.

mayberry, still in iraq, testified by video from questions prepared by the committee. he said that kbr routinely sold expired food rations to the army. the interviewer asked, "are you saying that halliburton deliberately falsified the number of meals they prepared and then submitted false claims for reimbursement and that they did this to make up for past amounts auditors had disallowed?" mayberry firmly answered "yes." he said that serving expired food ration was "an everyday occurrence, sometimes every meal." he explained that halliburton systematically overcharged for the number of meals as well, saying, "they were charging for 20,000 meals and they were only serving 10,000 meals." dorgan later commented, "obviously there's no honor here, by a company that would serve outdated food to our troops in iraq." 

mayberry also claimed would-be whistleblowers were threatened "to be sent to falluja" and other "places under fire" if they talked to media or governmental oversight officials. in 2003 and 2004, falluja had been well known as dangerous for foreign troops and civilians. "i personally was sent to falluja for three weeks. the manager told me that i was being sent away until the auditors were gone, because i had talked to the auditors," mayberry said.

"the threat of being sent to a camp under fire was their way of keeping us quiet. the employees who talked to auditors were sent to camps under more fire than other camps, and anaconda." this report led dorgan and others to voice considerable outrage that u.s. citizens would be personally threatened with harm for talking to oversight officials or media.

allan waller testified to specific examples of how kbr officials had conspired in blocking lloyd-owen fuel transports, and using other coercive means against its competitor. the british lloyd-owen has a direct contract with the iraq government to provide fuel to various parts of the country.

in his introductory remarks, dorgan explained that senate republicans had blocked or ignored any requests by democrats to have a formal bipartisan hearing, resulting in the need for an independent committee.



news briefs:june 28, 2005

in accordance with the treaty on open skies, norway and denmark started conducting observation flights over belarus and russia yesterday. these flights are expected to last until july 1, with seven belarussian and two russian inspectors monitoring foreign planes.

john walton, son of wal-mart founder sam walton and the 11th richest person in the world, has been killed in a plane crash on june 27 in wyoming. he was 58 years old. the crash occurred shortly after takeoff from jackson hole airport in grand teton national park at about 1:20 p.m. cdt. walton was the only person killed in the crash.

the president of belarus, alexander lukashenko, accused foreign funds and donators of ideological expansion in belarus during his meeting with talented youth today.

"in recent years, activities of foreign donators, who were carrying out ideological expansion on belarus disguised as humanitarian aid, and really stealing state's intellectual possession, was curbed," lukashenko said.

france has won a years-long battle to host iter, the 'next step' in nuclear fusion research. nuclear fusion is the process that powers our sun, and could potentially lead to almost unlimited energy available on earth.

under the terms of the agreement reached today, france will pay 50% of the construction costs of the 10 billion euro (￡6.6bn) program costs, while japan will gain 20% of the 200 research jobs that will be part of the project, but pay only 10% of the costs.


norway and denmark conducting observation flights over belarus and russia/brief

in accordance with the treaty on open skies, norway and denmark started conducting observation flights over belarus and russia yesterday. these flights are expected to last until july 1, with seven belarussian and two russian inspectors monitoring foreign planes.


wal-mart heir john walton killed in plane crash/brief

john walton, son of wal-mart founder sam walton and the 11th richest person in the world, has been killed in a plane crash on june 27 in wyoming. he was 58 years old. the crash occurred shortly after takeoff from jackson hole airport in grand teton national park at about 1:20 p.m. cdt. walton was the only person killed in the crash.


lukashenko accuses foreign donators of ideological expansion/brief

the president of belarus, alexander lukashenko, accused foreign funds and donators of ideological expansion in belarus during his meeting with talented youth today.

"in recent years, activities of foreign donators, who were carrying out ideological expansion on belarus disguisted as humanitarian aid, and really stealing state's intellectual possession, was curbed," lukashenko said.


france secures site for 10 billion euro nuclear fusion research project/brief

france has won a years-long battle to host iter, the 'next step' in nuclear fusion research. nuclear fusion is the process that powers our sun, and could potentially lead to almost unlimited energy available on earth.

under the terms of the agreement reached today, france will pay 50% of the construction costs of the 10 billion euro (￡6.6bn) program costs, while japan will gain 20% of the 200 research jobs that will be part of the project, but pay only 10% of the costs.


united states president george w. bush makes speech to rally support for war in iraq

speaking before an audience of 750 soldiers and airmen on tuesday night at fort bragg, north carolina, us president bush began an effort to shore up waning support for military actions in iraq. 

the president again attempted to link the september 11, 2001 attacks with his decision to invade and occupy iraq(the u.s. official 9/11 commission report concluded that saddam and iraq were not involved in 9/11 in any way). right from the opening of his speech, he mentioned the 9/11 attacks and also did it on four additional occasions. during the speech, bush did not refer to the now-relinquished hunt for weapons of mass destruction (wmds) in iraq. the u.s. has failed to provide any convincing evidence for the existence of a wmd, even though this was one of the chief reasons president bush cited to justify the invasion of iraq.

democrats criticized the president for trying to link 9/11 with the war in iraq;"the president's frequent references to the terrorist attacks of september 11 show the weakness of his arguments," nancy pelosi, house democratic leader, said. "he is willing to exploit the sacred ground of 9/11, knowing that there is no connection between 9/11 and the war in iraq."

opinion polling conducted this week by "usa today", "cnn" and "gallup" found for the first time that a majority of americans, 50% to 47%, see the iraqi war as something separate from what bush is calling the "global war against terrorism."

the speech comes as more bad news regarding the iraq war, amid rising iraqi war casualties (1,740 killed, 13,000 wounded), and damaging testimony to the u.s. congress about halliburton fraud in iraq, and the downing street memo. in addition, vice-president dick cheney's claim that the iraqi insurgency was in its "last throes" was contradicted in senate testimony by general john abizaid, who said "in terms of comparison from six months ago, in terms of foreign fighters, i believe there are more foreign fighters coming into iraq than there were six months ago."

in his speech, bush discussed the question of setting a timeline for withdrawal of troops, or sending more troops. 
"some americans ask me, if completing the mission is so important, why don't you send more troops? if our commanders on the ground say we need more troops, i will send them. but our commanders tell me they have the number of troops they need to do their job," bush said. us commanders have previously commented on the problems caused by lack of coverage at the syrian border.

the president said the war effort is a two-pronged strategy using military and political pressure to install, "a free, representative government [in iraq] that is an ally in the war on terror." the u.s. and multi-national iraqi military coalition goal is an offensive campaign to take the fight to terrorists and insurgents in the region. the elimination of saddam hussien was a necessary step to build, "institutions of a free society, a society based on freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, and equal justice under law." bush cited the free national elections held in january and the establishment of a transitional national assembly as progress on the political front, and now calls for the drafting of a constitution with the involvement of shia, kurds and sunni groups.

the speech was received by the usually spirited troops in an atmosphere of quiet that only once interrupted his speech with polite applause near the end when bush said: "so we'll fight them there, we'll fight them across the world, and we will stay in the fight until the fight is won."


canadian house of commons approves same-sex marriage

in a 158 to 133 vote of the held tuesday night, canadian mps have approved the legalization of in canada. assuming the passes and the gives , canada will become the fourth country in the world to legalize same-sex weddings after the netherlands, belgium, and spain. the bill presented to the house of commons by the of prime minister paul martin has passed mainly because of support by the left-wing of jack layton and the support of the separatist , which enabled it to overcome the staunch opposition of the .

while this vote is historic, gay weddings had already been legalized by the supreme courts of most canadian provinces. the c-38 bill now extends these rulings to the rest of canada, namely to the provinces of alberta, prince edward island, and the territory of nunavut and the northwest territories.

the adoption of this bill ends a longstanding political and judicial debate in canada, with the house of commons referring the issue to the last year, only to have it handed back to them by the judges. if the debate has just been closed in a political sense, gay rights continue to create tensions between canadians, since support for gay weddings comes mainly from quebec and ontario and parts of british columbia while the and provinces are mostly against them.

those tensions have also been felt in the house of commons itself, when conservative party leader stephen harper said on monday, anticipating that the c-38 bill would be adopted, that the vote would "lack in legitimacy" since the bill would pass because of an unnatural alliance between the federalist liberals and the separatist bloc quebecois. this partisan view of gay rights has been strongly condemned, especially by bloc quebecois leader who said that mps from his party were democratically elected and as legitimate as any in parliament. others called harper a hypocrite, pouncing on the fact that he never raised any such objections allying with the bloc in the previous month's confidence votes. prior to the vote, announced his resignation from the liberal cabinet because of his opposition to gay weddings and the fact that liberal cabinet members were required to vote the party line in this case.




shelby foote, 88, noted historian and author, dies

shelby foote, author of the acclaimed three volume history of the american civil war, "the civil war: a narrative", died in memphis on june 27 at age 88. foote also wrote historical fiction, including "follow me down" and "shiloh". he may be best known for his appearance in filmmaker ken burns' pbs documentary, "the civil war".

the modern library ranked foote's "the civil war: a narrative" as number 15 on its list of 100 best non-fiction books. he was commissioned to write a short history of the civil war by random house and spent more than 20 years on the work eventually producing the three volumes.

foote was commissioned as a captain in the united states army during world war ii and lost his commission after visiting a female friend in an army vehicle without permission. he returned to the united states and joined the marines in whose service he spent the remainder of the war.

following the war he was briefly a reporter for the associated press.

pulitzer prize winning author and friend, richard ford said of foote, "he was a southerner of great intellect who took up the issue of the civil war as a writer with huge sanity and sympathy."

 


maciej zurawski accepts celtic's offer

forward maciej ?urawski, one of the most famous polish footballers, accepted a contract offer from celtic yesterday. he is now waiting for agreement between celtic and his former club, wisla krakow, where he played for nearly 6 years.

wis?a wants to receive a lump sum payment at once, but celtic would like to pay circa 3 millions euro in installments.

?urawski, the star of polish national football team, rejected an offer from trabzonspor. the turks had offered approximately 100 thousand euro more for him. if he had accepted this offer, he would play alongside former wis?a's player, miros?aw szymkowiak.

many people, including former celtic star dariusz wdowczyk, believe he made the right decision. he will play for a club with a long history of international presence, and with chances of appearing in the champions league this year, something ?urawski's expressed as his dream.

celtic will be ?urawski's fourth club in his career. he has played for warta poznan, lech poznan, and for wisla. he will earn over ?700 thousands per year.


undercover investigation into protests planned for july's g8 summit

' published, this sunday, the results of an undercover investigation into the protests planned for the . the investigation of the "anarchists and dissenters" of the movement lasted six months and was carried out by scott mcculloch, on behalf of the scottish newspaper's broadsheet sunday edition.

mcculloch's report details the training camps of the protest groups that were held this weekend in preparation for the summit next month. attendees were expected to learn how to cut or climb over fences and how to avoid injury from attacks by guard dogs. factories making tubes that protesters use to lock themselves to other protesters are also being set up according to the report on the investigation. massive road blocks are planned in an attempt to disrupt the summit.

the protests are expected to be coordinated from a central point at the in forthbank, close to the city of in central scotland. an area of land owned by the council was approved as the location for the ecovillage by stirling council on friday 24 june. the site is intended to be a solar powered campsite for an allegiance of groups making up a possible total of 5000 people. a license to hold the event at forthbank was sought by convergence 2005 after two other proposed sites had already been disallowed by the council. 

despite last minute objections raised by central scotland police, the council decided that forthbank would be the least disruptive location for the protesters to gather, and noted that security measures had been taken. security measures are already visible at other camps, including a steel barrier around the campsite at craigmillar, edinburgh. more serious security measures, designed to protect the attendees of the summit, will involve warships and army helicopters, according to an editorial by murdo macleod in the scotland on sunday on sunday 26. the paper also reports that mike smith, from king's college london, says that security fences and police snipers are expected to be surrounding the area of the summit.

the summit itself is taking place in gleneagles, which is 20 miles away from the main campsite in forthbank. the ecovillage is expected to open at the start of july.



fiji girls missing; feared dead

, 

three teen-aged sisters went missing on sunday, june 26th, and fijian police have called in navy divers to aid in the search.

ashika sherin lata, 19, renuka roshni lata, 18 and radhika roshni lata, 17 were taken on a boat trip to malake island near by a family friend. the friend "was found alone in the boat and then he informed the family that he was assaulted by three fijians", constable prashila narayan told radio new zealand international.

divisional crime officer vijay singh reported additional officers have been called in on the case, but told fijilive that the navy divers were necessary for the case.

"until [the navy divers come in] we are just searching around the island where they disappeared and hopefully try and get clues as to which direction they may have been heading." 



us helicopter with 17 on board believed to have been shot down in afghanistan

the us military has confirmed that 17 servicemen were onboard a ch-47 chinook helicopter that has crashed near asadabad, afghanistan, on june 28. the fate of the men being transported to an area of al-qaeda resistance is unknown. 

coalition and afghan troops moved into the area to secure the site and other coalition aircraft have been sent to assist. the crash occurred high up in mountainous terrain, and is believed to have been the result of hostile fire. efforts to search for the crash site are being met by bad weather and harsh terrain.

the helicopter was transporting forces as part of ongoing operations to fight militants who operate in the area, and who have recently been escalating their attacks.

the taliban claimed they shot the helicopter down. a man claiming to be a spokesman for the taliban, abdul latif hakimi, reported the downing of the helicopter to offices in kabul before news of the crash was released by the u.s. military. the hakimi relationship to the taliban is unclear, and his reports are sometimes inaccurate. he claimed that video footage of the attack would be posted to a taliban web site at the address www.alemarah.com. the "new york times" reported the site appeared blocked later in the day on wednesday, although the site is still visible in google's cache.

at least 29 service men have died in afghanistan this year, while at least 450 people have been killed in the last three months, mostly militants. a chinook which crashed in april with the loss of 18 lives was brought down by a sandstorm.



fathers mourn slain children in arizona

, 

the fathers of adrienne heredia's four children, slain together with their mother and her boyfriend luis rios, 35, are grieving their loss in yuma, arizona, but have little information from the police about the crime.

the children, son danny heredia iii, 6; daughter, inez newman, 9; and two other sons - andreas crawford, 13, and enrique bedoya, 12, were found inside the home with their mother after police were called to the scene the night of june 24th on reports of guns shots. mr. rios was found in the backyard, still alive at the time but died later in hospital.

"it feels like a nightmare," said danny heredia jr., father of danny heredia iii. the fathers were contacted by authorities before the names were released to the press. kenneth crawford learned of the death of his sons andreas and enrique when he returned a trip to los angeles, and inez's father william c. newman jr. was contacted at work.

police released very few new details at their june 27th press conference on the case. they have a witness reporting a man fleeing the scene, and a sketch has been released. however, police are unsure if the crime is the work of a single individual, or if others were involved. 

"this type of investigation, because of the complexity of it, is not going to take a few minutes," police chief william robinson said.

autopsies have been ordered, and the causes of death will not be released until they are completed.




news briefs:june 29, 2005

as reported by 
it is june 29, 2005 at 2200 utc, and this is wikinews: news briefs.

scenario for impeachment of lula raised in brazil<br>
"brazilian president luiz inacio lula da silva and his workers' party are the target of several serious accusations of corruption. with news media heavily covering the situation, popular support for the president is eroding."<br>

canadian house of commons approves same-sex marriage<br>
"in a 158 to 133 vote, the house of commons mps have approved the legalization of same-sex weddings in canada."<br>

united states president george w. bush makes speech to rally support for war in iraq<br>
"speaking before an audience of 750 soldiers and airmen on tuesday night at fort bragg, north carolina, us president bush began an effort to shore up waning support for military actions in iraq."<br>

thank you for joining us today. to receive more up-to-date news items as they occur, please visit wikinews.org.

and, be sure to check out our daily full-length audio news program, called audio wikinews: full report.

i'm gabriel hurley for wikinews.org, have a good day.

if you wish to contact the staff of this broadcast, please send an email to audiowikinews@gmail.com. if you wish to contribute to wikinews, please call (206) 339-wiki. wikinews is a nonprofit independent news site run by the non-profit wikimedia foundation.


flash floods hit australia's eastern coast

6,000 residents of in have been told to evacuate their homes.

a couple is missing on the in queensland. state emergency services (ses) workers are currently preparing to evacuate a number of nursing homes in the suburbs of and .

the (bom) have said that south east queensland has recorded rainfalls of 368mm in the last 24 hours and that the gold coast suburb of has been averaging 80mm per hour for at least two hours. the coolangatta airport was closed due to flooding.

further south the city of lismore has been inundated. a recently constructed levy has held back the waters of the , protecting the town's central business district.


football: ke?man goes to madrid

serbia and montenegro international, mateja ke?man, will sign a three year contract with atletico de madrid today. the striker spent an unsuccessful season with chelsea and all three parties have agreed to this ?7 million transfer.

ke?man started his career in serbia and montenegro, where he became popular while playing for partizan, belgrade. he was bought by the dutch team psv, where he was a prolific striker, setting a record number of goals per season. his year in chelsea was not as successful, as he mostly started games as a substitute and managed to score only seven goals in official games.

other teams that demonstrated an interest in ke?man this summer included sevilla, olympique de marseille and schalke 04.



rwandan businessmen sentenced for war crimes

two rwandan businessmen were sentenced to 10 and 12 years for their role in the 1994 .

the two, tried in , could have faced up to 25 years in prison, the court decided on a lesser sentence as the convicted businessmen played no direct role in the killings. they were convicted based on their offers of transportation and weapons to militas in the planned massacre of in a church and a municipal building where tutsis and hutus had met.

the trial was one of only two ground-breaking trials held in belgium since local law changed to allow belgian courts to prosecute violations of the on the conduct of war regardless of where the violations occurred. the law was revised in 2003 to limit its scope as activists had attempted to seek the prosecution of world leaders including . as belgian citizens, the two rwandans were subject to the new law.

the 1994 rwandan genocide was an eruption of ethnic conflict where hutu militia, supported by the hutu dominated government and encouraged by 'hate radio', attempted to ethnically cleanse the minority tutsi. despite numerous warnings the international community did not take serious action to prevent the atrocities, which included hacking people to death with machetes, and forcing people into buildings that were then destroyed with bulldozers. estimates place the number killed at up to one million.

a major programme is trying to complete trials for genocidaires by the end of 2008. major perpetrators are being tried at four courts of the international criminal tribunal in tanzania, while in rwanda are reaching the end of the investigation stage, after which communities will collectively decide on guilt and punishment at weekly gacaca sessions throughout the summer. 


us helicopter with 17 on board believed to have been shot down in afghanistan/brief

u.s. military confirms 17 servicemen, who's fate is still unknown, were onboard a ch-47 chinook helicopter that has crashed near asadabad, afghanistan, on june 28, 2005. 

a man claiming to be a spokesman for the taliban, abdul latif hakimi, reported the downing of the helicopter to offices in kabul before news of the crash was released by the u.s. military. 

the helicopter was transporting forces as part of ongoing operations to fight militants who operate in the area, and who have recently been escalating their attacks.

coalition and afghan troops were mobilized to secure the area, but rescue efforts are being met by bad weather and harsh terrain.


maciej zurawski accepts celtic's offer/brief

polish forward maatziey zhuravskee (maciej ?urawski) accepted a contract offer from fc celtic yesterday and is now waiting for the agreement between the team from glasgow and his old club viswa (wis?a) krakow.

wis?a wants to receive a lump sum payment at once, but the celtics would like to pay around 3 million euros in installments.

celtic has a chance of appearing in the champions league this season.


shelby foote, 88, noted historian and author, dies/brief

shelby foote, author of the acclaimed three volume history of the american civil war, the civil war: a narrative, died in memphis on june 27 at age 88. foote also wrote historical fiction, including follow me down and shiloh. he may be best known for his appearance in filmmaker ken burns' pbs documentary, the civil war.

pulitzer prize winning author and friend, richard ford said of foote, "he was a southerner of great intellect who took up the issue of the civil war as a writer with huge sanity and sympathy."


wikipedia founder jimmy wales announces cooperation between kde group and wikimedia

a co-operation between the kde group - makers of a free desktop for linux - and the wikimedia foundation has been announced at the linuxtag conference in karlsruhe. they intend to build a protocol which will make it possible to access wikimedia project's data from any application, but especially from the kde suite.

the kde group will try to integrate some of the applications from the package with wikimedia data. for example, amarok, media player, will use wikipedia data to show information about music being played at the moment. some other applications, including chemical database kalzium, a database of information about the sky kstars and office suite koffice will use data from wikipedia, or from its sister projects.

it will be based on soap/wsdl technology, which is already used by the google api. it could be used on almost every platform and programming environment.

it is also possible to include the wikipedia archive in some of kde's cd editions to make it possible to use the data from wikipedia on machines without an internet connection.



brazil wins confederations cup

after 4:1 victory over argentina, brazil won this year's confederations cup yesterday. the match took place in frankfurt, germany, in very bad weather conditions.

in 12th minute adriano dribbled past some opponents and scored a great goal from over eighteen meters. lux had no chance. four minutes later kaka scored the next goal with another powerful long shot from the outer of the penalty area. 

after that, the argentinians seemed as if they lost belief in positive outcome, but they were determined to change the situation. riquelme, sorin, placente and others were trying to score a goal, but were unable to do get one past the posts.

at the beginning of the second half, in 46th minute, full-back cicinho, who is currently playing for santos, made a wonderful pass to ronaldinho, and there was 3:0 on the scoreboard. next goal, scored by adriano, came about twenty minutes later, after ronaldinho's pass.

argetinians still wanted to change the result. two minutes after adriano's goal, pablo aimar, a substitute, scored, but his team was unable to win.

when the match were reaching the end, brazilian substituters started to dance and be delighted over the title that they won.

brazil's first matches at the confederations cup were poor. their draw with japan, and loss to mexico, made their supporters unhappy. but carlos alberto parreira led the team to the top of competitions, which is considered a preparation for the world cup.

adriano 12, 63, kaka 16, ronaldinho 46 - aimar 65

brazil: dida - lucio, roque junior, cicinho (replaced by maicon in 86th minute), gilberto - kaka (renato, 86th), emerson, ze roberto, ronaldinho - adriano, robinho (juninho, 90th)
argentina: lux - zanetti, coloccini, heinze, placente - cambiasso (aimar, 56th), bernardi, riquelme, sorin - figueroa (tevez, 72nd), delgado (galletti, 81st)


ohmynews forum discusses experiences in citizen journalism

the ohmynews "international citizen reporters' forum" (see previous report) concluded on saturday with several speeches and a visit to sponsoring companies in south korea's technology sector. some invited "citizen reporters" from around the world extended their stay by several days to tour the country. since the conclusion of the conference, presentations and transcripts have been published on the ohmynews web site. 

the forum sessions took place in the conference center of the coex convention & exhibition center in seoul. interpreters provided translation services into english and korean. saturday began with a series of panels, each one consisting of three short presentations followed by a brief discussion with the audience. the first presentation was an introduction to wikinews by erik moller (online copy). moller described the history of the project and its relation to the well-known online encyclopedia wikipedia, demonstrated a working copy of the wiki software mediawiki, and showed some example wikinews articles. he listed different possibilities for cooperation between wikinews and ohmynews, particularly content partnerships, shared communication channels and shared resource pools for citizen journalists. "i extend the hand of friendship to ohmynews," moller concluded.

a brief presentation of the history of ohmynews by jean k. min, director of the international division, followed. min cited media reports emphasizing the growing significance of the web site in korea, and outlined the strategy of expansion to new markets. the english edition, officially launched in may 2004, is seen as a key project in this regard, a test for the feasibility of the ohmynews model outside korea. contributors to both the english and the korean version receive a small compensation for their work, and the korean edition uses an integrated payment system that has led to donations ("tips") of thousands of dollars to some ohmynews contributors.

in the panel discussion that followed, one audience member asked whether, given the for-profit nature of ohmynews and the non-profit nature of wikinews, there might be a potential for conflict. moller responded that, in his view, it was the compatible philosophies of the projects that mattered, and that a for-profit endeavor did not necessarily mean that all competitors have to be destroyed. "i don't think oh yeon ho wants to be a new rupert murdoch," he said.

the first speaker of the next session was clyde bentley, associate professor for online journalism at the university of missouri. bentley introduced the project mymissourian.com, which he has founded together with journalism students. as in the case of ohmynews, editors vet stories submitted by "citizen reporters." bentley's group organized several special reporting events, such as one centering around earth day, a festival about environmental awareness: "we set up a booth, and we set up some wireless computers and some other materials, and let people come in and just write about earth day. it was very successful." the most successful part of the experiment, according to bentley, was to lend digital cameras to let people take and share photos.

bentley argued that alternative journalism was less needed in the united states than in south korea due to its long democratic tradition. he sees the usefulness of projects like mymissourian.com in raising awareness of local issues and stories that might otherwise be ignored. the challenge, bentley concluded, is to build a new "journalism of sharing." instead of being storytellers, journalists in such a scenario would be "story guides", assuring consistency and quality.

the next speaker on the panel was jeremy iggers, a reporter for the "minneapolis star tribune" who did not, however, speak as a representative of his newspaper. he gave a prepared speech contrasting his early efforts promoting civic journalism with his latest endeavors in citizen journalism. "i can trace this interest in citizen journalism back to the early 90s, when i created a public journalism project called "minnesota's talking" for the minneapolis star tribune," iggers said. readers were invited to join monthly issue discussion groups in private homes, community centers, libraries, and sometimes churches. "at the peak, we had around 100 meeting sites, with over 1,000 participants."

however, this and similar experiments in civic journalism were cancelled, which iggers called "really unfortunate." as a revitalization of these abortive efforts online, iggers has founded the "twin cities media alliance", which he wants to use to bootstrap a "community newswire" following a similar model to ohmynews. beyond reports by citizens, iggers also wants to make use of stories published by local community newspapers in minneapolis. he emphasized that this project is independent from his work for the "star tribune", and that it might be viewed as a conflict of interest.

the final speaker of this panel was neil thurman, associate professor at the city university london. thurman has conducted extensive studies on how traditional media in the united kingdom make use of "user-generated content" on the internet: ""the guardian", for example, which is the most popular british news website, allows unedited and unselected comments on its pages; none of the other newspapers in the uk does." thurman also argued that "the amounts of user participation that's archived on message boards varies a great deal, you can see with the "daily mail", there's over a million posts, whereas the "financial times" has barely 10,000."
one of thurman's key observations is that some user forums and feedback mechanisms were shut down or strongly restricted due to a perceived lack of control over the nature of the comments published in this way. government-funded or 'public-service' efforts, thurman observed, are generally more open to the idea of experimenting with user-created content.

the afternoon sessions focused mostly on the individual stories of ohmynews citizen reporters from korea and around the world. this included testimonials from:

added to these and other perspectives from reporters for ohmynews were independent views such as that of omid habibinia, an exiled iranian living in switzerland and an outspoken critic of the iranian regime. habibinia cited the famous case of zahra kazemi, an iranian-born journalist who, many believe, was tortured and killed by iranian officials. he criticized the extensive measures the islamic regime had taken against press freedom: "just days after the revolution in 1979, ayatollah khomeini banned newspapers critical of the new government, beginning 26 years of terror, torture, imprisonment, exile and mass killing in iran. in the last 25 years more than 1,000 newspapers and magazines have been banned in iran." 

a different story of citizen journalism was told by ken takeuchi, the ceo of janjan, a japanese citizen journalism site functioning similarly to ohmynews. takeuchi argued that the ohmynews model faced different challenges in japan than in korea, particularly a reluctance to express strong opinions (which takeuchi deemed a different "national character" from korea), and a widespread feeling that the existing media are doing an adequate job. due to these and other problems, takeuchi argued, janjan had not yet gained a foothold in the japanese media landscape, receiving about 2 million pageviews a month in may 2005 and publishing about 15 to 20 articles per day.

after the presentations on citizen journalism, yoo hyun-oh, president and ceo of the sk corporation, one of the sponsors of the conference, gave a presentation on cyworld, a very popular online community operated by sk communications. it offers visitors a so-called "minihompy", a homepage which can be custom-designed using animated avatars and background music. these additions can be purchased using a currency called "acorns." 

conference attendees had an opportunity to take a closer look at cyworld in a visit to sk communications in seoul, including a step into the "monitoring room" where cyworld staff observe the operations of the website. while sk corporation (the "chaebol" to which sk communications belongs) was one of the sponsors of the conference, international ohmynews director jean k. min insisted that the technology company visits had no relationship to sponsorship.

another technology company, nhn corporation, also received a brief visit from the illustrious group of citizen reporters. nhn operates a search engine called naver, which, according to its own data, is more popular than google in south korea. nhn attributes this in part to its user-created content: if the search engine does not supply an answer to a query, users are invited to write it. this model, perhaps similar to that of wikipedia, has led to a large database of answers.

the international citizen reporters' forum ended with a closing ceremony and korean buffet sponsored by the "korea national tourism organization". conversations that began here continued into the night while intoxication increased, and several attendees extended their stay in seoul to continue socializing and to discover seoul and the korean peninsula.



bodies found at crash site of us helicopter in afghanistan

thirteen bodies have been found at the site where a us helicopter crashed yesterday in afghanistan.

seven more soldiers are unaccounted for - including soldiers who were fighting on the ground at the time of the crash

a u.s. official in washington said on wednesday said all aboard were presumed dead, although the us military has yet to confirm the news. 

it is understood that the ch-47 chinook was brought down by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by members of the taleban, as it was carrying soldiers (including us navy seals) into the area to fight militants.

the search and rescue operation is being hampered by poor weather, difficult terrain and by militants operating in the area. search and rescue personnel reached the site late on wednesday night.

"it's a search and recovery operation in a tactical environment, which means we have to ensure security throughout," u.s. military spokesman lieutenant-colonel jerry o'hara said.

in other news, the us department of defense has announced the death of two soldiers who were killed when their ah-64d apache attack helicopter crashed in iraq.


sharapova knocked out of wimbledon 2005 in semi-final

defending wimbledon ladies singles champion has been beaten by in the 2005 semi-final by two sets to love. in the final game, williams came to match point twice, just as rain began to fall. both that and the preceding game were hard fought, with a succession of deuces.

the other semi-final, between and , will resume tomorrow after rain forced an early end to play today. the match will resume with davenport a break up in the final set. the previous sets both went to tie-breaks after both players exchanged breaks of serve.

both matches were played at the same time - williams and sharapova on centre court, with davenport and mauresmo on no.1 - after early rain meant players could not get onto the courts until late afternoon.


ferry crashes into smaller boats in west vancouver after losing power

the queen of oak bay, a ferry, owned by british columbia ferries, has crashed into several smaller boats in a marina in west vancouver (horseshoe bay) after losing power. there were over 500 passengers onboard as well as 189 vehicles at the time of the crash. there are no reported injuries at this time, as the ferry sounded a warning several times after losing power and drifting uncontrollably into the marina. by approximently 5:30 pm local time officials had determined the hull was sound and the ferry was pulled out of the wreckage and docked at it's berth under the power of tug boats. passengers who had been stuck aboard the vessel for hours were then allowed to disembark.

there is speculation that the power failure was due to a mechanical fault, possibly the clutch.



fiji &quot;running out of patience&quot; with vanuatu over ban on fijian biscuits


fiji's foreign minister, kaliopate tavola, said that the letter being sent to vanuatu's prime minister would be the final gesture of fiji's friendship.

in march, the island nation vanuatu banned the importation of fijian biscuits. this was the second ban on fijian biscuits by vanuatu in the last six months. vanuatu has said that this ban is necessary in order to stimulate vaunatu's biscuit industry.

the company affected by this ban, flour mills of fiji, exports nearly us$900,000 worth of biscuits to vanuatu yearly. flour mills of fiji has said that the ban has forced them to layoff about a dozen people. they also stated that they will be taking legal action against the vanuatu government for the ban.

on june 13 the fijian government announced its intention to stop all commercial relations with vanuatu unless this issue was resolved. commercial relations with vanuatu include air vanuatu flights and the importation of vanuatu kava. fijian imports of vanuatu kava bring approximately vt350 million (us$3.2 million) to vanuatu each year. 



un/who making progress in treating hiv/aids, but will miss 2005 target

the world health organisation has announced that the number of people receiving anti-retroviral treatments (art) in developing countries is increasing significantly - more than doubling between december 2003 and june 2005. one million people are now getting the drugs they need, compared to just 400,000 eighteen months ago.

however, access to treatment is not growing as fast as demand, and the un is unlikely to reach its target of treating three million people by the end of 2005 - just over half the people who need it. the longer-term target of universal treatment by 2010 is still likely to be met.

the figures show that the number of people receiving art is increasing in every part of the globe, but not as quickly as people are contracting hiv. the numbers getting treatment in sub-saharan africa, the part of the world worst affected by hiv/aids has increased threefold on a year ago, and doubled in the last six months. the same rate of growth as also been seen in asia, the second-worst affected area.

the who's report highlights that the best progress has been made when governments have worked together with the who, the un and other parterners. the report goes on to make recommendations for simplifying the process to enable treatment levels to be increased even faster.

the un's target was based on what was hypothetically possible if all possible steps to provide treatment were taken. the report shows the while financial, political and technical steps have been made, other areas are falling short.

pressure groups said that countries were reacting too slowly to the pandemic and called on the g8 to provide more sustainable funding for universal treatment for aids. 

uk international development minister gareth thompson said: "we are committed to universal access to hiv treatments by 2010. we will spend ￡1.5bn in the next three years on aids, including ￡150m on orphans."


rail tunnel collapses at gerrards cross, uk

a section of the rail tunnel outside gerrards cross station in buckinghamshire collapsed at around 8 p.m. last night. no-one was injured. 20 metres of concrete tunnel and gravel collapsed onto the chiltern to marylebone line, closing the railway and causing much disruption. 

the tunnel was created by the supermarket chain tesco, who had filled in a railway cutting in order to build a supermarket above it. the project was unpopular both among the local community and the rail industry who felt the project put commercial gain before railway safety. 

the accident came hours after another rail accident in east yorkshire, where a train collided with a car at a level crossing, killing the driver of the car and injuring five train passengers.


fiji's war of the ribbons

a committee of the fijian parliament has been receiving submissions this week on its controversial legislation aimed at establishing a commission with the power to compensate victims and pardon perpetrators of the civilian coup d'etat led by george speight, which deposed the elected government of prime minister mahendra chaudhry in may 2000.

few pieces of legislation in fijian history have generated such passionate support and opposition from different quarters. public opinion polls show that the great majority of indo-fijians are opposed to the legislation, along with a large minority of indigenous fijians. supporters of the bill, being promoted by prime minister laisenia qarase and attorney-general qoriniasi bale, argue that it will bring closure to the wounds of the 2000 coup and allow the country to move on. opponents say that it is just a legal mechanism for releasing from prison supporters of the present government, who were convicted of coup-related offenses. for its parliamentary majority, the government relies on its coalition partner, the conservative alliance, several of whose senior members have been found guilty of involvement in the coup.

opponents of the bill include roman catholic archbishop petero mataca, who shocked many people last week with his claims that a delegation of church leaders, representing a variety of denominations, had been misled by prime minister qarase about what the bill contained. at a meeting on may 2, mataca said, the prime minister had told them about its compensation provisions, but had kept them in the dark about its amnesty clauses - which they learned about only later through the media. the clergymen had supported the bill at the time, he said, because they believed in reconciliation and forgiveness. the later revelations about the amnesty provisions had come as a complete surprise to them, he said. archbishop mataca condemned what he said was "a politically motivated bill" and called on the government to withdraw it. rev. josateki koroi, the former president of the methodist church, which claims the membership of some two-thirds of indigenous fijians, has also expressed grave reservations about the bill, saying that reconciliation cannot be legislated and must begin with true repentance on the part of the wrongdoer - something he believes has not happened.

politicians opposed to the bill include the leaders of all of the indo-fijian dominated parties, including former prime minister mahendra chaudhry. indigenous politicians to have spoken out against the bill include senator adi koila nailatikau (the daughter of former president ratu sir kamisese mara, who was deposed in the coup) and her brother-in-law, ratu epeli ganilau, founder of the national alliance party and son of former president ratu sir penaia ganilau. ganilau, a former military commander, has called it "an insult to the intelligence of ordinary people" and has warned that the armed forces could use it as a legal mechanism to remove a present or future government, while nailatikau, who was kidnapped and held as a hostage by the insurrectionists, has said that if her father were alive, he would not approve of tampering with the course of justice. 

one of the most strident voices raised against the legislation is that of the military commander, commodore frank bainimarama. bainimarama, who organized a counter-coup to quash the speight rebellion in 2000, has been making press statements on almost a daily basis since the middle of may, condemning the legislation as undermining the integrity of the military and the judiciary. he has made a number of veiled statements, interpreted by some politicians as threats, about what the military might do if the bill is passed. last week, the fiji times, fiji's oldest daily newspaper, quoted an anonymous source, which it claimed was reliable, that president ratu josefa iloilo (who is rumoured to be against the legislation) had refused a government request to "discipline" bainimarama. under the constitution, the president has very little political power but is commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

supporters of the bill include former prime minister sitiveni rabuka and some traditional chiefs.

many fiji citizens have been showing their support for the bill by wearing blue ribbons, or their opposition by wearing yellow ones.

qoriniasi bale said two days ago that unless opponents of the bill could make more constructive suggestions for improving it, parliament would most likely pass it without any changes.



fbi's covert &quot;operation site down&quot; targets top international warez and piracy sites

the u.s. department of justice has announced actions taken in eleven nations as part of the fbi's covert "operation site down". the infiltration of so-called 'topsites' resulted in searches, arrests, and seizures in australia, belgium, canada, denmark, france, germany, israel, the netherlands, portugal and great britain in addition to the united states.

messages in response posted on a communications page for warez users read:

an email lists people targeted, updated in mountain time (utc-7) at 6:31pm, 6:36pm, 6:38pm. the last update is at 6:41pm.

the fbi began the sting in 2003, offering hosting for software cracks and movies. as the covert site infiltrated the underground warez and piracy community, it was repeatedly expanded to provide storage for an increasingly large collection of pirated material. eventually it held some 27 terabytes of copyrighted files, including 188 copyrighted software titles valued at more than us$300,000.

in the u.s.a. william venya, 34, of chatworth, calif., chirayu patel, 23, of fremont, calif., nate lovell, 22, of boulder, colo., and david fish, 24, of watertown, conn were all arrested on criminal complaints of copyright infringement and conspiracy to commit copyright infringement.




man calls for seizure of justice souter home, under eminent domain ruling

in the wake of a united states supreme court ruling in kelo v. new london on eminent domain last week, a california man has proposed that justice david souter's new hampshire home be seized by the state and a hotel be built on the site. logan darrow clements faxed a letter to town officials in weare, new hampshire june 28, 2005 that justified the action as such:

"the justification for such an eminent domain action is that our hotel will better serve the public interest as it will bring in economic development and higher tax revenue to weare."

justice souter, who was in the majority ruling in the kelo case, has lived at the farmhouse in weare since he was 11 years old. clements indicated that it was necessary to build on that location because "it is a unique site being the home of someone largely responsible for destroying property rights for all americans." the action has given rise to a great deal of support nationwide, as many are writing to the councilors of the small town of weare to voice their approval for the proposal.

the proposal for the "lost liberty hotel", as it is to be called, features a number of components which seem to focus on the libertarian leanings of its designer. a dining room, called the "just desserts cafe" and a museum based on the "loss of freedom in america" are two such components. instead of a bible provided by the gideons (a standard item placed in most american hotel rooms), each guest will receive a free copy of ayn rand's novel atlas shrugged.



flash floods hit australia's eastern coast/brief

6,000 residents of lismore in new south wales have been told to evacuate their homes after south east queensland received rainfalls of 368mm in the last 24 hours. the gold coast suburb of coolangatta has been averaging 80mm per hour for at least two hours.


news briefs:june 30, 2005

thirteen bodies have been found at the site where a us helicopter crashed yesterday in afghanistan.
seven more soldiers are unaccounted for - including soldiers who were fighting on the ground at the time of the crash. "it's a search and recovery operation in a tactical environment, which means we have to ensure security throughout," u.s. military spokesman lieutenant-colonel jerry o'hara said.
6,000 residents of lismore in new south wales have been told to evacuate their homes after south east queensland received rainfalls of 368mm in the last 24 hours. the gold coast suburb of coolangatta has been averaging 80mm per hour for at least two hours.

scott mcculloch's 6 month under cover investigative report into protests planned for july's g8 summit for scotland on sunday was published in june 26th edition. mcculloch detailed the training camps and protest tool factories put together by protesters. road blocks and other actions are being planned in an attempt to disrupt the summit.

the protests are expected to be coordinated from the ecovillage in forthbank, scotland. the actual summit will be held at gleneagles hotel, perthshire, scotland, 20 miles from the forthbank camp.
two rwandan businessmen were sentenced to 10 and 12 years for their role in the 1994 rwandan genocide.
the two, tried in belgium, could have faced up to 25 years in prison. they were convicted based on their offers of transportation and weapons to hutu militas in the planned massacre of tutsis in a church and a municipal building where tutsis and hutus had met.
a co-operation between the kde group - makers of a free desktop for linux - and the wikimedia foundation has been announced at the linuxtag conference in karlsruhe. they intend to build a protocol which will make it possible to access wikimedia project's data from any application, but especially from the kde suite. it may also be possible to include the wikipedia archive in some of kde's cd editions to make it possible to use the data from wikipedia on machines without an internet connection.
the ohmynews international citizen reporters' forum concluded on saturday with several speeches and a visit to sponsoring companies in south korea's technology sector. since the conclusion of the conference, presentations and transcripts have been published on the ohmynews web site.

defending wimbledon ladies singles champion maria sharapova has been beaten by venus williams in the 2005 semi-final by two sets to none. in the final game, williams came to match point twice, just as rain began to fall. both that and the preceding game were hard fought, with a succession of deuces.

the other semi-final, between amelie mauresmo and lindsey davenport, will resume tomorrow after rain forced an early end to play today. the match will resume with davenport a break up in the final set. the previous sets both went to tie-breaks after both players exchanged breaks of serve.

both matches were played at the same time - williams and sharapova on centre court, with davenport and mauresmo on no.1 - after early rain meant players could not get onto the courts until late afternoon.

playing in very poor weather in frankfurt germany, brazil clinched the confederations cup with a 4-1 victory over argentina.

adriano broke the ice in the 12th minute from more than 18 metres, quickly followed by a goal from kaka. in the second half, a pass from cicinho set up ronaldinho's goal, and adriano got a second off ronaldinho's pass.

argentina's pablo aimar, substituting, scored after and tried start a rally, but they were unable gain any more goals.
serbia and montenegro international, mateja ke?man, will sign a three year contract with atletico de madrid today. the striker spent an unsuccessful season with chelsea and all three parties have agreed to this 7 million euro transfer. other teams that demonstrated an interest in ke?man this summer included sevilla, olympique de marseille and schalke 04.

thank you for joining us for today's segment. join us again tomorrow for more headlines, news, facts, and anniversaries.

if you wish to contact the staff of this broadcast, please send an email to audiowikinews@gmail.com. if you wish to contribute to wikinews, please visit www.wikinews.org, or call (206) 339-wiki, that's (206) 339-9454. all content of wikinews is in the public domain. wikinews is a nonprofit independent news site run by the non-profit wikimedia foundation.


football: ke?man goes to madrid/brief

serbia and montenegro international, mateja ke?man, will sign a three year contract with atletico de madrid today. the striker spent an unsuccessful season with chelsea and all three parties have agreed to this 7 million euro transfer. other teams that demonstrated an interest in ke?man this summer included sevilla, olympique de marseille and schalke 04.


rwandan businessmen sentenced for war crimes/brief

two rwandan businessmen were sentenced to 10 and 12 years for their role in the 1994 rwandan genocide.
the two, tried in belgium, could have faced up to 25 years in prison. they were convicted based on their offers of transportation and weapons to hutu militas in the planned massacre of tutsis in a church and a municipal building where tutsis and hutus had met.


ohmynews forum discusses experiences in citizen journalism/brief

the ohmynews international citizen reporters' forum concluded on saturday with several speeches and a visit to sponsoring companies in south korea's technology sector. since the conclusion of the conference, presentations and transcripts have been published on the ohmynews web site.


wikipedia founder jimmy wales announces cooperation between kde group and wikimedia/brief

a co-operation between the kde group - makers of a free desktop for linux - and the wikimedia foundation has been announced at the linuxtag conference in karlsruhe. they intend to build a protocol which will make it possible to access wikimedia project's data from any application, but especially from the kde suite. it may also be possible to include the wikipedia archive in some of kde's cd editions to make it possible to use the data from wikipedia on machines without an internet connection.


bodies found at crash site of us helicopter in afghanistan/brief

thirteen bodies have been found at the site where a us helicopter crashed yesterday in afghanistan.
seven more soldiers are unaccounted for - including soldiers who were fighting on the ground at the time of the crash. "it's a search and recovery operation in a tactical environment, which means we have to ensure security throughout," u.s. military spokesman lieutenant-colonel jerry o'hara said.


brazil wins confederations cup/brief

playing in very poor weather in frankfurt germany, brazil clinched the confederations cup with a 4-1 victory over argentina.

adriano broke the ice in the 12th minute from more than 18 metres, quickly followed by a goal from kaka. in the second half, a pass from cicinho set up ronaldinho's goal, and adriano got a second off ronaldinho's pass.

argentina's pablo aimar, substituting, scored after and tried start a rally, but they were unable gain any more goals.


undercover investigation into protests planned for july's g8 summit/brief

scott mcculloch's 6 month under cover investigative report into protests planned for july's g8 summit for scotland on sunday was published in june 26th edition. mcculloch detailed the training camps and protest tool factories put together by protesters. road blocks and other actions are being planned in an attempt to disrupt the summit.

the protests are expected to be coordinated from the ecovillage in forthbank, scottland. the actual summit will be held at gleneagles hotel, perthshire, scottland, 20 miles from the forthbank camp.


sharapova knocked out of wimbledon 2005 in semi-final/brief

defending wimbledon ladies singles champion maria sharapova has been beaten by venus williams in the 2005 semi-final by two sets to none. in the final game, williams came to match point twice, just as rain began to fall. both that and the preceding game were hard fought, with a succession of deuces.

the other semi-final, between amelie mauresmo and lindsey davenport, will resume tomorrow after rain forced an early end to play today. the match will resume with davenport a break up in the final set. the previous sets both went to tie-breaks after both players exchanged breaks of serve.

both matches were played at the same time - williams and sharapova on centre court, with davenport and mauresmo on no.1 - after early rain meant players could not get onto the courts until late afternoon.


usa lifts remaining sanctions on serbia and montenegro

u.s. president george w. bush suspended all sanctions on serbia and montenegro by a decree yesterday. serbia and montenegro was under various degrees of economic and other sanctions by the united nations and individual countries since 1992. 

serbia and montenegro will now enjoy the u.s. generalized system of preferences which includes allowing duty-free import of more then 4600 products. economic relations between two countries were stabilized in 2003 when serbia and montenegro gained a status of most favoured nation.

"we did a study and came to a conclusion that free market exists in serbia, that there are laws to protect american investors, and we based our decision on that," the u.s. ambassador in belgrade michael polt said. 

the president of serbia and montenegro, svetozar marovi?, wrote a letter to bush thanking him for his move.



spain legalizes same-sex marriage

spain, a predominantly catholic country, thursday became the world's third nation to legalize same-sex marriage following the netherlands and belgium. canada, whose lower house has voted in favor of same-sex marriage, is widely expected to have that bill pass also in the upper house, making canada the fourth country to legalize the marriage of gay couples.

by a vote of 187-147 with four abstentions, the 350-seat congress of deputies approved the measure to give same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual ones, including the right to adopt children and inherit each others' property. the bill, which became law immediately, says, "matrimony shall have the same requirements and effects regardless of whether the persons involved are of the same or different sex."

catholic leaders and the conservative opposition lobbied heavily against the bill "calling it an assault on the institution of marriage and a threat to social stability." the roman catholic church endorsed a june 18 opposition rally in which about two hundred thousand marched through madrid, including twenty .

recent polls suggest spaniards support gay marriage, saying 62 percent of spaniards support the government's action on gay marriage while 30 percent oppose it. 

according to an associated press report, beatriz gimeno, a longtime leader of spain's gay rights movement, held back tears as she hugged her partner boti after the vote.

"it is a historic day for the world's homosexuals. we have been fighting for many years," gimeno said. "now comes the hardest part, which is changing society's mentality."

gay couples can get married as soon as the law is published in the official government registry as early as friday or within two weeks at the latest, parliament's press office said.


romania redenominates its currency

today, romania introduces its new redenominated currency, the new leu (code: ron), which is valued at 10,000 old lei (code: rol). the process, which is known as redenomination, started in march 2005 when romania started dual-currency display and all prices had to be displayed in both the old leu and the new leu. starting from today, the first notes and coins of the new leu will become legal tender, and the new leu will become the official currency of romania.

the redenomination (or conversion from the old to the new leu) is simple ? 10,000 old lei are replaced by 1 new leu. one us dollar will buy 2.98 new lei, while one euro will buy 3.6 new lei. after the similar redenomination by turkey the old leu had been the world's least valued currency unit, with the us dollar buying 29,891 lei and the euro buying 36,050 lei (on 30 june 2005). with the introduction of the new leu, romania's currency will be among the most highly-valued in the region.

the new leu notes and coins, introduced into circulation today, will circulate alongside the old lei until 31 december 2006, when the dual-currency period ends and all of the old lei are expected to be withdrawn. however, old lei can be exchanged at banks indefinitely.

the new notes come into denominations of 1, 5, 10, 50, 100 and 500 new lei. the largest note of the old leu was 1,000,000 lei, or 100 new lei. the largest note of the new leu is worth 500 new lei, or approximately us$167 and ?139. new leu notes will also have the same dimensions as euro notes of similar value. additionally, they will use the same colours and design as their corresponding old leu equivalent (for example, the 100 lei note will look similar to the 1,000,000 old lei note). 

all notes will be printed on polymer materials. romania was the first country in europe to introduce polymer notes, in 1999.

the governor of the national bank of romania, mugur is?rescu, said that the redenomination of the leu marks the symbolic end of romania's economic transition from a planned economy under communism, which was overthrown in 1989, to a free market economy. 

the reason for redenomination was mainly the fact that the leu had become severely devalued, especially in the 1990s, due to high inflation rates. from 2002 onwards, the leu stabilised, and has even appreciated against the euro and the us dollar in the past year. hence, the new leu was introduced to simplify the national currency, and also as a symbol of romania's increasing economic stability. it is also expected to help pave the way for the adoption of the euro by romania, which is expected in 2012-2014, after romania joins the european union in 2007.

although the introduction of the new leu is viewed as beneficial on the whole, since it will bring romania's currency more in line with the value of important global currencies such as the euro and the us dollar, concerns have been raised that the new leu will fuel inflation. some people are concerned that the new leu will result in the rounding-up of prices, similar to what happened when the euro was introduced in the eurozone in 2002, and therefore fuel inflation. 

however, a rise in prices is not thought to occur due to the dual-currency display. this ensures that all businesses continue to display prices in both the new leu and the old leu until the end of 2006, and hence they will not be able to raise prices as easily, for fear of becoming less competitive in the market.


schroder loses motion of confidence

the german federal chancellor (bundeskanzler), gerhard schroder, deliberately lost a confidence vote in the german lower parliamentary house, the bundestag. schroder had aimed to lose the vote of confidence in order to dissolve the bundestag and to achieve earlier elections. in debate, schroder argued, that there is no safe majority for his policy in the bundestag. in his second term as chancellor, he tried to start a reform agenda (agenda 2010) which aimed to cut the budget deficit and unemployment in germany, which has been criticised as neo-liberalism by several supporters of his party.

during the debate, opposition leader angela merkel explained that her party, the christian democrats, supports early elections. however, she did criticise the coalition government of the social-democrats and the greens, for the country's high unemployment rates (which have peaked at 5 million) and low economic growth. a green deputy, werner schulz, attacked schroder's using the vote of confidence in order to achieve early elections, which is from his point of view unconstitutional. franz muntefering, leader of the social democrats had invited members of the ruling coalition to abstain from voting. 151 deputies supported schroder, 296 voted against him and 148 abstained from voting.

after the lost motion of confidence, the german president horst kohler can examine schroder's arguments for three weeks and dissolve the bundestag while setting a date for early elections. at least one deputy has announced he intends going to the federal constitutional court to appeal against schoder's way of using the vote of confidence. the court will then have to decide whether it was constitutional or not. 

all parties know that there might be early elections by september. at the moment, opinion polls are showing a majority for conservative opposition.

(the following summary was in the of wikinews for 7/2):



multiple deaths as congolese government cracks down on pro-democracy protests

thousands of protesters are marching through the streets of kinshasa demanding that the government resign over delayed elections.

kinshasa - a city with nine million residents - is the capital of the democratic republic of the congo.

they were met by security forces who shot in the air and threw tear-gas grenades at the protesters. army helicopters flew overhead as protestors threw stones at soldiers.

the un in congo have said that four people may have been killed in kinshasa, but that is not yet confirmed. a journalist in the area saw bruised and bandaged protestors who said they had been beaten by police, and a local tv station broadcast images of a protester who they said had been shot dead. the station was raided shortly afterwards by police.

another six people were killed in tshikapa, a town 700 km southeast of kinshasa. in another province, heavy weapons were fired at protesters. casualties are as yet unknown. the congolese government has declined to confirm or deny any casualty figures.

unrest has been growing among the 60 million residents in congo - a former belgian colony - over delays to the first democratic elections to be held for forty years. the elections - which should have been held before last thursday - were agreed upon as part of a peace treaty that ended a five year civil war in 2003 - a war that had seen the deaths of four million people.

the current president made a television address to the nation the night before the deadline appealing for calm and re-iterating his desire to see elections.

protest organisers say the people were just peacefully demonstrating their desire to see the interm government resign, but were attacked without provocation by security forces. the government had recently announced another six month delay before elections could take place.



minnesota state government shuts down

nine thousand state employees in minnesota were left jobless friday after state legislators failed to pass a spending bill that would have kept the state government up and running. 

"i'd like to say i'm sorry to the people of minnesota," said republican state rep. rod hamilton of mountain lake. "this is disgusting." 

it is not uncommon for states to miss their budget deadlines, but minnesota, in contrast to other states, has no law that automatically extends the previous budget if lawmakers fail to approve a new budget.

governor accused democrats of intentionally shutting down the government in order to hurt the republican governor's chances in the 2006 gubernatorial elections.

"the senate wanted to shut down government from the beginning," said steve sviggum, the leading republican in the minnesota house of representatives.

due to the shutdown, highway rest-stops will not be staffed during the busy july fourth weekend. lawmakers agreed, however, to a bill that would keep the state's parks open.

a court order earlier this month requires the state to continue to provide services essential to "health, safety and property."


leitzinger, forbes-robinson win the brumos porsche 250 at daytona

butch leitzinger and elliot forbes-robinson drove the #4 pontiac crawford gto into victory lane at daytona international speedway late thursday night as the winner of the grand american rolex sports car series brumos porsche 250. early in the race, the #66 car driven by jorg bergmeister and max papis passed the #10 car in the pole position, maintaining the lead positions for most of the race.

the second caution at lap 32 occurred after a car spun on the infield. the caution lasted 3 laps, and only two laps later a two-car crash happened, sending the race into its third caution. the #06 car, driven by rob dyson and harrison brix, lost a portion of the car's hood on lap 43 and had to pit, causing the car to drop down a lap.

the howard-boss motorsports #4 car stole the lead position from the #19 finlay motorsports car at lap 47, a position it would hold for the remainder of the race. the #10 car with drivers wayne taylor and max angelelli silently climbed back up to the 2nd position with 17 laps to go. the debuting #65 pontiac gto car, sponsored by auto gallery, was hit on the backstretch in the left front tire, causing him to spin and hit the wall with 14 laps to go. a similar event happened five laps later when another car spun out. neither instances resulted in a caution.


us house approves $1.17 billion in amtrak funding

the united states house of representatives on june 29 passed a $1.17 billion funding bill for amtrak in fiscal year 2006, an amount that is still short of the $2 billion amtrak was originally seeking. the funding was approved in an amendment to a more general transportation and treasury appropriations bill. the house also removed the requirement in the bill that would mandate amtrak to end passenger train service on currently unprofitable routes. the funding has yet to be approved by the senate. 


radioactive leakage at swedish nuclear waste store

radioactive water is leaking from the nuclear waste store in forsmark, sweden. the content of radioactive caesium in sampled water is ten times the normal value. "statens stralskyddsinstitut" (ssi, the swedish radiation protection authority) believes that the leakage originates from waste barrels that have corroded, since the radioactive water is leaking out from the waste disposal area of the forsmark power plant. the radiation is, however, still within the allowed limits according to ssi. the waste is low and intermediate level waste. no high level waste has been reported. a new roof is to be constructed for the chamber containing the barrels.

 


africa faces food crisis, un security council told

the head of the , james morris, has told the united nations security council that africa is facing a food crisis, with one in three people there malnourished.

zimbabwe is one country that morris is particularly concerned about at the moment. 

“it does not matter whether that instability is caused by civil conflict, drought, aids, poor governance or any combination of those factors-hunger almost always comes with it,” said morris.

“the impact of rural-urban migration on employment in africa has been precisely the opposite of western europe and the united states - it has led to higher rather than lower rates of unemployment and social instability. 

“at a certain point the capacities of local governments are stretched to the limit and social demands are not met, especially among competing ethnic groups perhaps not accustomed to sharing the same political space.”

in addition to zimbabwe, 1.6 million in malawi, 1.2 million in zambia, 900,000 in mozambique, 245,000 in lesotho, 230,000 in swaziland, and 60,000 in namibia all need emergency food aid.

according to morris, the world food programme has been told by the zimbabwe government that they will feed the people, which goes against the policies of the wfp. 

morris highlighted the effects hunger can have - destabilizing countries and threatening peace and security. food shortages are driving people into urban areas, where they are confronted by high unemployment and social instability.


united states supreme court justice o'connor to retire

united states supreme court associate justice sandra day o'connor, 75, announced friday her intention to retire from the court. she said she would be stepping down before the beginning of the court's fall term, or when the senate confirms a successor.

more than 10 years have passed since the last vacancy on the supreme court, the highest court in the united states. justice stephen breyer was the last jurist appointed to the court; breyer was appointed by president bill clinton. this will be president george w. bush's first opportunity to appoint a justice to the court. 

soon after the retirement was announced, president bush held a short press-conference outside the white house where he praised o'connor's years of public service. o'connor has served on the court for 24 years, since her appointment by president reagan in 1981. 

in july 20 2005 president bush nominated john g. roberts as the candidate for the post.

o'connor was the first female justice, as well as the first from the state of arizona.



new denunciations of brazilian deputy and evidence make things difficult for lula

on june 30, in brazil, deputy roberto jefferson testified to deputies and senators of a commission that is investigating the alleged post office service scandal. jefferson's testimony along with new evidence supporting his testimony are putting the government of president luiz inacio lula da silva in a difficult situation.

roberto jefferson's testimony ran from 4 p.m. to close to 2 a.m. (local time). the deputy further explained the alleged corruption scheme involving the brazilian workers' party (pt). 

the testimony of jefferson was at times very tense, and sometimes discussions between jefferson and deputies of the workers party become heated. in one instance, a workers' party deputy attacked jefferson's credibility, calling him a liar on the basis that he supported the former brazilian president fernando collor de mello, who suffered impeachment for corruption related to treasurer paulo cesar farias, who worked on collor's campaign. jefferson answered: "pc farias is a chick when you see the corruption in pt", and accused the former governor of rio grande do sul olivio dutra (olivio dutra is the minister of lula at the present time) of involvement with the "jogo do bicho" (illegal gambling).

according to jefferson, the president of the worker's party jose genuino, former minister jose dirceu, secretary-general silvio pereira, and treasurer delubio soares, head a widespread national corruption scheme which involves the workers party, members of the government, the brazilian agency of intelligence, and both government and private enterprises. jefferson said the president was unaware of this scheme. some members of parliament from the opposition see this claim as strange.

during his last testimony, jefferson said that entrepreneur marcos valerio was responsible for finacing the payment of deputies of the alleged votes-for-cash scandal. this week, investigations by the police showed that marcos valerio withdrew, in cash, large sums of money from rural bank. according to jefferson, this money was used to pay deputies. valerio said that he used the money to buy cattle and that farmers don't like to receive cheques, just "real money". his explanation was considered suspect and his former secretary said she does not know of any farms owned by valerio.

marcos valerio is part-owner of smpb and dna. documents from the agrarian reform institute (incra) showed that valerio's enterprises owned 10 big farms. according to an article published by the newspaper o estado de sao paulo on july 1, at least two of these farms do not exist. the brazilian federal police said that there is evidence sufficient to indict valerio. 
the accusations against valerio are tax evasion and money laundering.

according to internal revenue service, marcos valerio's fortune was r$ 230,000 (97,676.27 usd - live mid-market rates as of july 3, 2005, 12:47:43 utc.) in 1997 and r$ 14,000,000 (5,945,511.97 usd) in 2004, a growth of 6086%. the enterprises of valerio, smpb and dna, have contracts with five ministeries and eight big public enterprises, including the post office service.

before his testimony to the commission, jefferson said that furnas, an energy company in brazil, was involved in a corruption scheme. according to jefferson, money from the enterprise was moved to the workers' party of minas gerais, to the treasurer delubio soares, to be used to buy deputies. furnas denied this. presidente luiz inacio lula da silva said that the allegations should be investigated. under pressure the furnas' directors resigned.

on july 2, newspapers reported that according to brazilian central bank's documents, in february 17, 2004, the workers' party borrowed r$ 2.4 millions (1,019,230.62 usd) from marcos valerio. in addition, the documents named jose genoino (the president of the workers' party) and delubio soares (the treasurer). after initially denying that the magazine had taken out this loan, the president of the workers' party acknowledged it to journalists on saturday, july 2.

delubio soares cried during his speech last week and said that the accusations are not true and that the "right" is trying to impeach president luiz inacio lula da silva on false charges.

the testimony of jefferson is at the center of discussions in brazil. according to the pmdb leader, senator ney suassuna, the denunciations are "nitroglycerine which are thrown into the arteries of the republic every minute". leader of the psdb, arthur virgilio neto, said that the government lives in darkness. senator peter simon (pmdb-rs) appealed to president lula to do an ethical turn-around, and respect the imperatives of morality and seriousness in government. according to simon: "today society is still saying that president lula is a man of good. however, shortly, nobody is going to say that anymore".

on july 1, president luiz inacio lula da silva opened the celebration of the 15th anniversary of the foro de sao paulo, in sao paulo. at 7:30 p.m. the forum was opened and, according to the workers' party, the participants expressed support for the government of president lula. lula spoke during the encounter with the semblance of a tired and worried man affected by the crisis.

it is expected that the government will began a ministerial reformulation next week. 





news briefs:july 1, 2005

as reported by 
it is at 2130 utc, and this is wikinews: news briefs.

here are the stories that are being covered.

pro democracy protests in the capital of the congo.<br>
spain to legalize same-sex marriages.<br>
the world health organization is making some progress in the treatment of aids<br>
united states supreme court justice o'connor to retire<br>
the government of the state of minnesota shuts down.

deaths as congolese government cracks down on pro-democracy protests
thousands of protesters are marching through the streets of kinshasa demanding that the government resign over delayed elections. they were met by security forces who shot in the air and threw tear-gas grenades.

spain legalizes same-sex marriage
spain, a predominantly catholic country, became the third nation thursday to legalize same-sex marriage following the netherlands and belgium. by a vote of 187-147 with four abstentions, the 350-seat congress of deputies approved the measure to give same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual couples, including the right to adopt children and inherit each others' property.

un/who making progress in treating hiv/aids, but will miss 2005 target
the world health organisation has announced that the number of people receiving anti-retroviral treatments (art) in developing countries is increasing significantly - more than doubling between december 2003 and june 2005. one million people are now getting the drugs they need, compared to just 400,000 eighteen months ago.

however, access to treatment is not growing as fast as demand, and the un is unlikely to reach its target of treating three million people by the end of 2005 - just over half the people who need it. the longer-term target of universal treatment by 2010 is still likely to be met.

united states supreme court justice o'connor to retire
united states supreme court associate justice sandra day o'connor, 75, announced today her intention to retire from the court. she said she would be stepping down before the beginning of the court's fall term, or when the senate appoints a successor. the last appointment to the supreme court was justice stephen breyer more than ten years ago.

minnesota state government shuts down
nine thousand state employees in the u.s. state of minnesota were left jobless friday after state legislators failed to pass a spending bill that would have kept the state government up and running. it is not uncommon for states to miss their budget deadlines, but minnesota, in contrast to other states, has no law that automatically extends the previous budget if lawmakers fail to approve a new budget. a court order earlier this month requires the state to continue to provide services essential to "health, safety and property."

thank you for joining us today. to receive more up-to-date news items as they occur, please visit wikinews.org.

and, be sure to check out our daily full-length audio news program, called audio wikinews: full report.

i'm paul robinson for wikinews.org, have a good day.

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four channels to be launched on viasat in the nordic and baltic countries

swedish satellite broadcaster, viasat, has announced that they are about to launch four new channels on their digital platforms in norway, sweden, denmark, finland, estonia, lithuania and latvia this autumn. the channels are toon disney, cartoon network, tcm and e!.

the launch of toon disney was announced earlier in 2005. until august 1, viasat broadcast the disney channel exlusively on satellite. with the launch of toon disney, their competitor canal digital is also able to broadcast the disney channels.

cartoon network and tcm are already available with most of viasat's comptetitors, but from september 23, viasat will also broadcast the turner-owned channels.

the company that broadcast e! in the nordic countries before decided to rename their channel and get a new franchise. however, e! will re-arrive in the nordic and baltic countries on august 1.


main page/text


judge orders baltimore city prison to produce plan for improvement


a city circuit court judge in baltimore, maryland, john m. glynn, ordered state corrections officials on friday to produce in 30 days a written report that will outline plans to reduce over crowding and slow processing times at the city's central booking and intake center. the state-run facility is a centralized jail designed to process arrests made by all city police precincts and is the gateway into the criminal justice system of suspects taken into custody in the city of 640,000 people.

in the last 3 months, over 80 arrestees were released from the central booking facility without being formally charged. in april this year, a temporary restaining order was issued by judge glynn against the facility to enforce the release of those held more than 24 hours after their intake who did not receive a hearing by a court commissioner. the commissioner sets bail, if granted, and formalizes the charges filed by the arresting officer. the charges are then entered into the state's computer system where the case is tracked. the hearing also marks the date for the suspect’s right to a speedy trial.

the friday hearing was called after the city mayor’s office of martin o'malley filed a motion to join a lawsuit that was brought by public defenders on behalf of those criminally detained at the facility. in maryland, a hearing with a court commissioner within 24 hours of being arrested is state law. judge glynn presided over that lawsuit which led to the temporary restraining order. the order is to remain in effect until november.

aides to o’malley are seeking help from his court to implement and then monitor procedural changes at central booking, and made sharp criticisms of state public safety officials. one mayor’s aide said, ”we continue to offer management solutions, and they are accepted. but you know what? i don’t have time to run [central booking], nor does the police department.”

judge glynn expressed concern during the hearing that a purely judicial remedy may not be the answer, and said, “if i find that it is a hopeless disaster… what can i do about that?” he peppered parties to the suit with questions and suggested there is the possibility that political action, not court intervention, may be needed to solve what city and police officials call inefficient management practices by the state.

glynn also requested parties to the suit to report back on what happened to the 80+ arrestees who were released so far as a result of the restraining order. the suspect could be re-arrested if officers knew the circumstances of the release, but police say that would take time and money to work out. an arrestee released without seeing a court commissioner has as the only record of the offense the hand written charging document by the officer.

the maryland attorney general’s office representing the corrections officers said at the hearing that city police are part of the problem by not filing charging documents at central booking when the arrestee is delivered and processing begins. the state must accept the prisoners, but cannot move forward without the necessary documents. they also say city police sometimes flood the facility, which can create temporary backlogs.

central booking was designed to process 60,000 suspects a year, but currently handles nearly 100,000. it was built to accommodate 900 people at any one time, but normally crowds in 1,200. arrestees describe conditions in holding cells with no room to sit on the floor, and being crammed in with people who suffer with health problems or drug addicts who vomit from withdrawal.



mtv debuts 'logo' cable channel targeting gay market


mtv networks launched a new cable channel to 10 million homes thursday featuring movies, documentaries and original programming targeting the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender audience becoming the first 24-hour digital cable network offered in the united states on several cable providers and satellite systems.

logo will present original series, documentaries and specials as well as a library of over 200 lesbian and gay films. the cable channel is also teaming up with cbs news to cover lesbian and gay stories and headlines.

while the channel debuted thursday, viacom, the parent comany of logo, had still not signed licensing agreements with several of the largest cable providers including comcast and cox. directv signed a deal wednesday making logo available to 13 million households, and time warner and atlantic broadband have committed to carry the network.

advertisers will include orbitz, tylenol, motorola, miller lite, lions gate films and subaru wishing to market to the coveted 25-to-49 age range providing an opportunity to reach out to the lesbian and gay market.

opposition to the new channel was expected with msnbc quoting janice crouse, senior fellow at concerned women for america, a conservative public-policy women's organization based in washington, d.c., calling logo "another example of an assault on children's innocence, a means of legitimizing a homosexual lifestyle, mainstreaming homosexuality in a positive and appealing way."

the gay & lesbian alliance against defamation (glaad) hails the launch of logo.

"logo has the potential to reach millions of american television viewers with images and stories that can play a vital role in broadening understanding of our lives, our families and our relationships," says glaad entertainment media director damon romine. "mtv networks has a long history of groundbreaking gay and lesbian programming, and devoting an entire network to telling our stories gives us cause to celebrate."

"what these networks provide is something new: an unprecedented opportunity for gays and lesbians to see ourselves depicted as we are, rather than as others see us," romine says. "at its best, television holds up a mirror to our lives, and the advent of these three networks means that lgbt viewers can now see themselves more accurately and fully reflected in that mirror."

many have wondered why it took as long as it did to introduce a national lgbt cable channel considering the success of mainstream network shows like "will & grace" and "queer eye for the straight guy." 



serbia and montenegro military announces mandatory service shortening

dragan paska?, the president of the general?tab, the main governing body of the military of serbia and montenegro, announced that mandatory military service may get shorthened to six months.

so far, every capable male citizen had to serve for nine months in military, or thirteen months in civil service. "i think that mandatory service should last for six months, which would eliminate barriers caused by its length, and we could start new military programs," paska? said. 

military of serbia and montenegro has been under a lot of pressure lately, as the government froze defense ministry's fundings, and the military has been unable to sell buildings in downtown belgrade attractive location, which were heavily damaged during nato bombing in 1999. 


ahmadinejad pictures: iran gov't denies hostage-taker allegations

speaking to a group of lawmakers from provinces of azerbaijan on monday, iranian president-elect mahmoud ahmadinejad called "baseless" and "questionable" the controversial spread of photo comparisons of himself to the image of a hostage-taker.

iranian foreign ministry spokesman hamid reza asefi, said during a interview with alison caldwell on "the world today" on sunday that, "mr. ahmadinejad's involvement in the us embassy takeover was a lie, which was even confirmed by the americans. that was evidently propaganda. we should be aware and not let such propaganda lead us to misunderstanding and pessimism."

former secret agent saeed hajjarian, a one-time top adviser to outgoing president mohammad khatami, identified the man in a 1979 photo as taqi mohammadi, who was jailed in 1981 for his involvement in bombing that killed the president and prime minister in tehran. according to a story in the "jordan times", "mohammadi committed suicide in evin prison. i myself was a witness to take his body out of jail for burial," hajjarian said. 

many top news sources reported that ahmadinejad was believed by 5 former hostages of the 1981 hostage crisis in teheran to be one of the hostage-takers or interrogators of that incident. two images have been used commonly across the media on this topic. the first, a known picture of ahmadinejad during his student days and the second an image of one of the hostagetakers, both in black and white. one or both of these images have been placed side-by-side on a number of current images of the president in most news media.
"fox news" chose to enlarge features of the known student photo of ahmadinejad alongside current photos of himself, i.e. comparing his nose and eyes with the same features on himself. to no great surprise, the similarity is striking.

currently, u.s. officials find "serious discrepancies" between images of the ahmadinejad and the mentioned images of the terrorist.



karl rove named as a source of plame leak

a reporter's notes subpoenaed by the u.s. district court in washington may show united states president george w. bush's chief political advisor karl rove as one of the two sources behind the leaking of the identity of undercover cia agent valerie plame, according to one or more anonymous sources cited by msnbc. 

however, rove's lawyer, donald luskin, acknowledged that although rove had communicated with cooper shortly before plame's identity was leaked, denied any wrongdoing on the part of his client, saying that "rove absolutely did not identify valerie plame."

the notes are those of white house correspondent . they were released by norman pearlstine, editor-in-chief of time inc., by order of the court, in ruling that, in the case of leaking the identity of cia agents, reporters must reveal the identity of their sources.

the court's ruling was based on the clause in constitutional law summarized popularly with the phrase "crying fire in a crowded theater": that when the degree to which the speech puts the safety of others at risk outweighs the degree to which it benefits others, so does their right to safety and security outweigh one's right to free expression. 

the supreme court on monday refused to hear the reporters' appeal of the case.

"time" magazine announced thursday they would identify the leak from reporter matthew cooper's notes. the decision by "time" came after a federal judge in gave the magazine and "the new york times" 48 hours to comply with a months long order to provide information on the sources of press leaks. of "the new york times", along with cooper at "time", face jail time for their refusal to name anonymous sources. the steadfast refusal by cooper and miller to personally identify their sources may lead to an 18 month jail sentence.

the case against cooper stemmed from a july 6, 2003 op-ed piece published by the "times", where disputed the assertion made by president bush in his that saddam hussein tried to buy uranium from niger.

a week later valerie plame, wilson's wife, was identified as a cia operative in a news story written by , a conservative pundit. the news blew plame's cover, and the information was obtained by two anonymous white house sources. the leak to the press was thought by some to be retaliation for her husband's op-ed story. wilson blamed rove for the leak, saying in an aug. 21, 2003 public panel, "at the end of the day, it's of keen interest to me to see whether or not we can get karl rove frog-marched out of the white house in handcuffs. and trust me, when i use that name, i measure my words." 

cooper wrote and had published stories about the issue at "time". miller did research, but did not write a story. the reporter novak who broke the story, remained silent on the case until wednesday, and said on "cnn"'s "inside politics" that, "they're not going to jail because of me."

journalists usually protect their sources' wishes of anonymity, in order to retain a vital channel of information from and others with controversial information. the tension between the press and the u.s. federal judiciary highlights what rick rodriquez, executive director of the american association of newspaper editors, calls "the need to have a discussion around the federal shield law." a "shield" could grant confidentiality between reporters and anonymous sources similarly to the right granted in .

the decision by his employer "time" to reveal a source may spare veteran reporter cooper time behind bars. his employer is in possession of his notes and therefore has knowledge of the source. in the case of miller, "the new york times" claims it has no such reporting notes.



live 8 concerts around the world to &quot;end poverty now&quot;

massive music concerts took place around the planet under the live 8 banner in an effort to put pressure on the leaders of the eight richest countries in the world to end global poverty.

all concerts were timed to take place between noon and 10pm local time, with over a million people expected to attend concerts in britain, france, germany, italy, japan, the us, canada, south africa and russia. the events were broadcast to a potential audience of five and a half billion people world-wide.

the largest concert was in the us in philadelphia where, over the course of 7 hours, hundreds of thousands of people gathered to watch stevie wonder, kanye west, destiny's child, dave matthews band, and black eyed peas among others. philadelphia native will smith both performed and was the opening presenter. peak attendance, the maximum amount of people believed to be watching live 8 on the benjamin franklin parkway at a given time, is estimated to have been between 600,000 and 800,000.

in hyde park in london, 205,000 people watched acts including elton john, madonna, coldplay, robbie williams and pink floyd. the concert was opened by sir paul mccartney and u2 playing sgt. pepper's lonely hearts club band - the first time the song has ever been performed live by a beatle. it ended at 11.58pm with all of the acts coming on stage to sing one last time.

bill gates - founder of microsoft and the richest man in the world (owning $46.5 billion) - appeared on the london stage to discuss the challenges facing the world, before introducing dido. later, kofi annan, the secretary-general of the un addressed the audience, thanking them for their support.

however, the first concert to open - in japan - only drew 10,000 spectators, disappointing many.

the concerts follow on 20 years after the live aid concert organised by bob geldof, which was created to raise money for famine victims in ethopia.

by contrast, the aim of live 8 - also organised by geldof - is not fund-raising but instead to apply pressure to the leaders of the g8 to end world poverty, which claims the lives of 50,000 every day.

the live 8 organisers are urging the g8 to:


the finance ministers of the g8 agreed a plan last month to cancel the debt of 18 of the poorest countries to the imf, the world bank and the african development fund, but are requiring other countries to end political and financial corruption before they become elegible for debt relief.

on thursday the president of the united states, george w. bush, announced that the us will double us aid to africa by 2010 - increasing to $8.6 billion a year. bob geldof welcomed the news, saying "this is the first time we have heard this sort of language. 

"this is very, very positive indeed."

crowd: 205,000

crowd: 100,000

crowd: 800,000 - 1,000,000

crowd: 200,000

crowd: 100,000
several italian bands really got the crowd going, but foreign bands such as tim mcgraw and faith hill were poorly received by the crowd.

crowd: 200,000

crowd: 35,000

crowd: 40,000

crowd: 10,000

crowd: 5,000

this was all afrcan musicians plus dido, guesting with senegalese superstar youssou n'dour.

the eden centre turned out to be an excellent site for tv or rather a web stream.

womad was involved so there may be a record.

there was a weblink to south africa and a live message from nelson mandela.

archived video




soul musician luther vandross dies at age 54

musician luther vandross died at 1:47 pm eastern time friday, at a hospital in edison, new jersey, likely from complications related to a 2003 stroke.

he was the winner of numerous grammy awards.


truex jr. beats harvick in the winn-dixie 250

martin truex jr. was welcomed with a firework celebration into gatorade victory lane at daytona international speedway late friday night as the winner of the nascar busch series winn-dixie 250 race. truex jr. lead for most of the race, first taking the lead position at lap 21.

four fighter jets from the connecticut air national guard flew over the track after the national anthem, a nascar tradition for races.

the race got off to a rocky start for some, such as the #64 car driven by jeremy mayfield pit early twice, once on lap four and another one lap after. on lap 13, the #60 car driven by carl edwards spun through the grass near turns 1 and 2 after being hit by truex jr, sending the race into a caution.

truex jr. fought for the lead on lap 21 with his car owner dale earnhardt jr., where truex passed earnhardt on the high end of turn 4. earnhardt would later slip back to the third position two laps later.

lap 37 started with a smoking run into the pits by kyle krisiloff and his #5 car after a break malfunction, which led to him exceeding the speed limit placed by nascar on pit road. seven laps later, jj yaley's #18 car stalled on the track and coasted into the garage.

nextel cup veteran driver sterling marlin's front right tire gave out on lap 56, sending the race into yet another caution for the night. the race was then silent until lap 78, when earnhardt came into contact with driver paul menard of the #11 car coming off turn 4, causing earnhardt to spin. earnhardt did not return to the race after the incident, believed to be the cause of a broken transmission from the spin. a caution was issued.

it would be 10 laps until another caution would be issued, this time for the rookie michel jourdain jr. in his #10 car, after he spins after coming in contact with two other cars. after the caution, a three-car leadership of greg biffle, kevin harvick and truex jr. would lead the remainder of the race, with each of them taking a turn leading.

a major crash caused by #34, driven by randy lajoie, resulted in an 8-car pileup along the backstretch on lap 97, sending the race into its final caution of the night. a red flag was issued on lap 99, freezing the field of any movement or alterations with the cars. the race finally resumed almost 20 minutes later, with a green-white-checkered finish led by truex jr.


explosion in russia kills 10: authorities suspect chechen involvement

the itar-tass news agency reports that an explosion in the southern russian town of makhachkala, dagestan, has killed 10 soldiers and wounded 20 others on friday. two bombs were set off in a bath house at 2:15 pm local time as the soldiers were passing outside, according to an official of the russian interior ministry. dagestan borders chechnya, which has a long history of uprisings against russian rule. the current insurrection started at the time of the breakup of the soviet union in 1990.

sources: 


canada's health minister will attempt to stop americans from buying prescription drugs in bulk

ujjal dosanjh, canada's minister of health, has set out a plan to stop u.s. cities and states from purchasing drugs in bulk from canadian suppliers. the plan is being criticized as potentially destroying a number of mail order and internet-based pharmacies operating in canada that ship prescription drugs to the united states. it is said the result may simply cause orders to shift to suppliers in the united kingdom, australia and new zealand, as well as possibly mexico.



discovery space shuttle launch scheduled for july 13

after two days of reviews, nasa managers have scheduled shuttle discovery for a launch attempt at 1951 utc or 3:51 p.m. local time in florida, on july 13. additional paperwork must be settled, as well as issues regarding the shuttle's body flap, a device that assists in descent at re-entry. if all goes well and the launch takes place on schedule, this will be the 114th launch of the space shuttle.

space flight now


federal judge puts california's prison health care system into receivership

u.s. district judge thelton henderson of san francisco has ordered the state's health care system for prisoners be put under the control of a receiver to stop deaths of inmates due to medical malfeasance. the system provides medical care to 164,000 inmates at a cost of us$1.1 billion annually. reportedly the judge described conditions in the state's medical system as barbaric. the appointment of a receiver was the last resort available after repeated failures of governor schwartenegger's administration to improve medical conditions at state prisons.
sources: 


new drawing by leonardo da vinci found

"this item was in the of wikinews for 7/2."

britain's national gallery revealed on friday that by x-raying one of leonardo da vinci's paintings, "virgin of the rocks", they have found a drawing beneath the surface of the painting. the drawing is of a woman who is raising her arm and looking downcast. the drawing had been previously dismissed as a mere copy of a similar drawing that is hanging in paris' louvre museum.



cnooc submits unocal bid details to federal regulators

the china national offshore oil company,(cnooc), has submitted to u.s. government regulators the details of its proposed us$18.5 billion purchase of california-based unocal. the bid comes against a us$16.5 billion offer of cash and stock from chevron corporation. cnooc, which is 70% owned by the chinese government, has placed a request for review with the committee on foreign investment in the united states, or cfius. both chevron and cnooc have been readying their lobbyists to try and get favorable consideration for their side in washington. if there is determined to be no threat to national security as a result of the merger, the review of cnooc's offer could be completed in as little as 30 days. while typically such reviews are not undertaken until after a takeover bid is formally accepted by the target companty, there is precedent for such review to be done before that happens.



microsoft to pay ibm us $775 million in antitrust settlement

according to a report in the new york times, microsoft will pay ibm corporation us $775 million to settle antitrust claims which resulted from the u.s. government's antitrust lawsuit against the software manufacturer. the issues dealt with microsoft's actions in reducing the value of ibm's os/2 operating system, which competed with microsoft's windows operating system. this settlement with ibm follows several other settlements of hundreds of millions of dollars each with sun microsystems, america online, gateway and novell. microsoft also has a lawsuit pending against it that was filed by real networks, as well as an appeal of a us $600 million fine imposed by european antitrust regulators.

sources: 


grandfather and grandson die after dinghy capsizes off north wales coast

a grandfather and his grandson have died off the coast of north wales, uk, after their sailing dinghy was overwhelmed and capsized in rough seas. they were with a party of four who had been angling from a 4.6 m boat.

at 4pm local time on saturday the holyhead coastguard received an emergency call from the "star reader" saying they had found a capsized dinghy adrift three and a half miles north of puffin island, off the east coast of the isle of anglesey.

a third vessel, the "sara jane", also attended the scene to allow a first aider on board to render assistance.

a raf search and rescue helicopter was scrambled and the beaumaris lifeboat launched to effect a rescue effort. two people were found clinging to the boat but two more had been washed away. a rapid search recovered both of them.

the rescue helicopter lowered its winchman onto the dinghy to begin cpr on the nine year old boy before he was winched onboard. he was flown to nearby bangor hospital, but later died.

the beaumaris lifeboat raced the grandfather - also suffering serious hypothermia - ashore to a waiting ambulance, but he too died shortly afterwards. the lifeboat also carried an uninjured member of the party ashore, while the helicopter returned to rescue a second young boy.

the father and a twelve year old boy survived. all had been wearing life jackets, but the sea was running at 1.5 m waves in a 45 km/h wind at the time. 

it is believed the two dead had been in the water for at least three hours before they were recovered, and died from the effects of hypothermia.


u.s. retains control of internet root servers

the united states decided on friday to indefinitely retain control the 13 root servers that direct all internet traffic to the right locations. this decision drew concern from foreign officials who would rather see an international group such as icann oversee the control of the servers. 

david gross, a u.s. ambassador and the coordinator for international communications and information policies of the us state department, insists that the announcement was not related to u.n. discussions. he also said other countries should see the move as positive because "uncertainty is not something that we think is in the united states' interest or the world's interest."

this decision reverses a statement made by the united states in 1998 in which they said would hand power over to icann after meeting a number of set conditions. a spokesman said that the declaration was in response to growing security threats and global communications and to the fact that commerce is becoming more reliant on the internet. 

"there have been strong opinions that essentially allowing the united states alone to check this process is not right given the nature of the internet today," said masahiko fujimoto of the japanese ministry of internal affairs and communications, who also said the decision is likely to alienate many in the international community. a worst-case scenario could see countries refusing to accept u.s. control of the root servers leading to a separate set of networks. 

this means that people typing the same url in different locations could see an entirely different website in their browsers. this announcement came several weeks before a u.n. panel releases a report on internet governance which addresses issues including control of root servers.


34% more americans killed in iraq during past 12 months than in previous 12 months

according to "usa today" report, u.s. defense department numbers show that 882 u.s. troops died in the 12 months through june 30th, 2005. this is a 34.2% increase from 657 killed in the preceding 12 months.

this figure does not include those troops who died during transportation out of iraq.

these figures come amidst rising concerns among american citizens, reflected by poll numbers, and their release by the defense department is contemporaneous with bush's recent speech rallying the war.


stewart battles rain to win pepsi 400 at daytona

veteran nascar nextel cup driver tony stewart dominated the pepsi 400 night race at daytona international speedway in daytona beach, florida early sunday morning, winning his first ever race at a restrictor plate track.

a rain delay halted the cars from hitting the track until around 0230 utc time sunday, with united states secretary of defense donald rumsfeld as the grand marshal. green flag racing started around lap 10, with stewart on the pole position.

lap 34 gave way to the first caution of the night when the #6 car, driven by mark martin, swerved to attempt to avoid an accident. the car first skimmed the side of the barrier coming off turn 4, then later raced into lower ground, causing a multi-car pileup and sending the race into a caution.

the next caution came at lap 64, when a small piece of debris was cleaned up on the track. just four laps later, kyle petty in the #45 car blew a tire and sent the race into another caution. on the next green lap another four laps later, michael waltrip and the #15 car lost an engine. on the same lap, 2003 pepsi 400 winner greg biffle in the #16 car lost a tire. another caution was issued.

on lap 145, another multi-car crash happened off turn four, heading to the start/finish line. the race was finally restarted at lap 151, with stewart leading all remaining laps.

instead of usually celebrating on the infield between pit lane and the track, stewart chose to climb a flag pole near the start/finish line to celebrate his victory. fireworks, a tradition of the pepsi 400, sounded at the end of the race and continued for more than 20 minutes after the race's finish.


papua new guinea at risk of aids epidemic

dr. , head of , told on the sidelines of a regional aids conference sunday about the potential for an explosion in cases in the country of papua new guinea. he said the country is "the one that i would see that could have an african-type of epidemic" and that the danger of hiv and aids there "is really getting out of hand." he also said other asia-pacific nations like , , and are also worrisome as the number of infections there continue to rise.


earth day founder nelson dies at 89

gaylord nelson, founder of earth day, died sunday in kensington, maryland, of cardiovascular failure. nelson, who was 89, was also a governor and senator from the u.s. state of wisconsin. he created the concept of an annual recognition of environmental causes at a speech in seattle in september 1969, and the first earth day was celebrated on april 22, 1970. in 1995, nelson was awarded the presidential medal of freedom for his environmental efforts by u.s. president bill clinton.


alleged al-qaeda leader killed in saudi arabia

younis mohammad ibrahim al-hayyari, who was believed to be one of the top leaders of al-qaeda, died after exchanging fire and hurling hand grenades at saudi arabian police in riyadh. hayyari's name was at the top of a list of 36 al qaeda suspects announced by riyadh last week. the ministry of the interior said he had helped prepare explosives and had played a part in several attacks on targets there.

saudi arabia has been battling suspected al qaida militants for two years since may 2003, when they launched their campaign of violence with triple suicide bombings at expatriate housing compounds in the riyadh. successive leaders of the saudi wing of al qaida have been killed since 2003 and saudi officials say their replacements are increasingly inexperienced. but western counterterrorism experts say al qaida has shown a resilience and ability to regenerate.



canada awaits karla homolka's release from prison

karla homolka has transfixed canada since she helped her husband drug, rape, torture, videotape and kill two teenage girls and cause the death of her own sister. homolka, 35, will be released sometime before tuesday after serving the full sentence of 12 years in prison for manslaughter. according to press accounts of her childhood, homolka was just 17, a bright 11th-grader, when she met paul bernardo, 23, a charming and handsome man, in 1987. bernardo would ultimately be found by police to be a serial rapist, with sometime assistance from homolka. homolka struck a bargain with prosecutors to plead guilty to two counts of manslaughter and testify against her husband, and fears she will be the target of vigilantes angry about what many canadians consider the "deal with the devil" that's to blame for her imminent release.



underwater volcano erupts in pacific near japan

japan's coastguard reported sunday that an underwater volcano had erupted in the eastern pacific ocean, about 1400 kilometers south of tokyo. a plume of steam, rising more than 1100 meters into the air, was spotted by japanese troops on iwo jima. iwo jima is located about 48 kilometers from the eruption.
airborne japanese officials and coastguard aircraft crews reported the water appeared brick-red. the survey crew also reported a grey, mud-like substance rising from the bottom. video footage was taken. 
the last undersea eruption in the area was in 1986 and lasted three days.



scientists may have tests to detect alzheimers

it is believed that magnetic resonance spectroscopy can detect genetic flaws which are an almost certain guarantee that the person will develop alzheimer's disease later in life. scientists have also used positron emission tomography, or pet scans to see if alzheimer's disease developed in some of the test subjects. another study determined that blood levels of a protein called amyloid beta 42 drops three to five years before a patient was diagnosed with alzheimer’s. it was also found that japanese-americans who drank the most fruit and vegetable juice had a fourfold lower risk of developing alzheimer’s, while one researcher found that moderate drinkers had a lower risk of alzheimer’s than either non-drinkers or heavy drinkers.


re-creation of 1919 cross-atlantic flight is successful


the trip took approximately 17 hours, 45 minutes longer than the original flight back in june 1919, which was flown by british pilots and , who on their original trip, crash landed in a swamp. 

the trip was completely flown in a replica , a type of world war one bomber. this particular plane was also used to recreate a flight from britain to australia in 1994, and from england to south africa in 1999.

mr. fossett is a multi millionaire who earned his fortune in the american financial markets. he holds 15 passages in sailing ? including the record for fastest of the world. he was the first person ever to fly a solo, non-stop, aerial circumnavigation of the globe in a jet aircraft. he has also swum the and driven the .

the adventurer also holds the interesting distinction of holding more world records than anyone else ? currently 62 world records.



iraq's un envoy accuses u.s. marines of 'cold blooded murder'

mohamed al-sumaidaie, iraq's ambassador to the united nations, accused u.s. marines of murdering his cousin's 21-year-old son, mohammed sumaidaie, who was studying engineering at the university of technology in baghdad. “all indications point to a killing of an unarmed innocent civilian - a cold-blooded murder,” said sumaidaie. “the marines were smiling at each other as they were leaving.”

sumaidaie called for an investigation of the alleged june 25 killing of the student while the us military said the charges “roughly correspond to an incident involving coalition forces on that day in that general location.” u.s.-led forces were conducting a sweep in the western portion of anbar, in the province of sumaidaie's ancestral villiage.

sumaidaie said the “americans come and rough up the youths in the village demanding information which they simply do not have,”

the alleged victim was at his father’s house with his mother when marines knocked at the door the ambassador said, quoting the young man's mother. according to sumaidaie's letter, the marines asked if there were any weapons, and mohammed said there was a rifle, which only had blanks. he then led some of the marines into his father's bedroom where it was kept. the younger brother of the dead student was dragged by his hair into a corridor and beaten while the rest of the family was told to wait outside, he said.

after waiting for more than an hour on the porch, the marines left, and the victim's mother found her son dead with a bullet to the neck, according to sumaidaie.

"the mother let off a deafening cry of anguish but the marines were smiling at each other as they were leaving," sumaidaie said. "in the bedroom, mohamed was found dead and laying in a clotted pool of his blood."

u.s. maj. gen. stephen t. johnson said, "we take these allegations seriously and will thoroughly investigate this incident to determine what happened." 



nasa's deep impact probe strikes comet successfully


's "" probe collided with the comet on monday, as intended by scientists. the collision took place at 5:45 utc and nasa held a press briefing shortly after at the (jpl) in , , nasa's non-manned space flight control center. a full-fledged press conference by nasa is scheduled to be at jpl on monday afternoon at 2 p.m. pdt (9:00 utc).

the experiment, intending to provide more information about the make up of comets, consisted of a 370?kg projectile being fired at the comet in order to observe and analyse the resultant impact. with information gleaned from the impact, the comet's general make-up can be established and more accurate hypotheses regarding how the solar system and the universe came to be.

deep impact is a nasa space probe designed to study the composition of the interior of a comet. previous space missions to comets, such as giotto and stardust, were merely fly-by missions, only able to photograph and examine the surfaces of cometary nuclei. the deep impact mission will be the first to examine a cometary interior, and thus, scientists hope, reveal new secrets about these small frozen bodies.

following its launch on january 12, 2005, the "deep impact" spacecraft took 174 days to reach comet tempel 1 at a cruising speed of 103,000 kilometers per hour (64,000 miles per hour). once the spacecraft reached the vicinity of the comet on july 3, 2005, it separated into two portions, an impactor and a flyby probe. the impactor used its thrusters to move into the path of the comet, impacting 24 hours later at a relative speed of 37,000 kilometers per hour. the impactor has a mass of 370 kilograms and approached tempel 1 with a relative speed of 10.30 kilometers per second (6.3 miles per second), thus delivering 1.96 × 10 of , the equivalent of 4.5 tons of . scientists believe that the energy of this high-velocity collision will be sufficient to excavate a crater up to 100 meters wide (larger than the bowl of the roman ), although the crater has not yet been spotted in post-impact images because the cloud of debris is obscuring the view. 

just minutes after the impact, the flyby probe passed by the nucleus at a close distance of 500 km, taking pictures of the crater position, the ejecta plume, and the entire cometary nucleus. the entire event was photographed by earth-based telescopes and , such as the , , and . in addition, the impact was observed by cameras and spectroscopes on board europe's spacecraft, which was about 80 million km from the comet at the time of impact. rosetta should determine the composition of the gas and dust cloud kicked up by the impact. 

the total deep impact mission cost is us$330 million.

the deep impact mission will help answer fundamental questions about comets, such as:
scientists hope that these questions will be answered, at least in part, by data from the deep impact mission. for example, the size and shape of the crater produced by the impact will tell scientists how well-packed the cometary material is.




2005 mediterranean games close in almeria

the fifteenth mediterranean games, held in almeria, spain were closed yesterday. the most successful country this year was italy, with a total of 153 medals, 57 of which were gold. france tied in their total number of medals, but had one less gold medal. spain was third with 152 medals. the next mediterranean games will be held in pescara, italy in 2009.


russian astrologist sues nasa for deep impact test

russian astrologist marina bai has filed suit in moscow asking for 8.7 billion rubles (311 million u.s. dollars) because, she claims, the nasa deep impact mission damaged her business by altering her ability to provide accurate horoscopes, harmed her "system of spiritual values," and will "interfere with the natural life of the universe."

"it is obvious that elements of the comet's orbit, and correspondingly the ephemeris, will change after the explosion, which interferes with my astrology work and distorts my horoscope," bai was quoted in the daily newspaper, "izvestia."

nasa has refuted similar accusations by pointing out that this impact is only a new addition to many previous collisions already on the comet.

on july 4, nasa successfully crashed a probe into the comet in hopes the debris kicked up in the resulting explosion could shed light in the building blocks of the early solar system.

the lawsuit, originally filed in june, has not yet been scheduled for an initial hearing, according to russian authorities.

nasa's deep impact probe strikes comet successfully



san jose replaces detroit as 10th-largest u.s. city

according to a recent report by the united states , the pecking order of the most populous u.s. cities has changed. the report, issued june 30, shows in 2004 san jose, with an estimated population of 904,522 is the nation's 10th-largest city, overtaking with its smaller population of 900,198.

the u.s. census traditionally releases population figures for the year previous to the date the figures are made public.

according to a report in the "", mayor is saying the new ranking may help people across the u.s. be more interested in san jose and think of it as a world-class city. "it puts us in a very distinguished class," he told the paper.

but for many, northern [[california}}'s largest city, the self-proclaimed "capital of silicon valley" remains an enigma. in a country not noted for its geographical knowledge prowess, many americans have no idea where san jose actually is. culturally, the city may be best known as the title location of a hit song with the ironic title, "do you know the way to san jose?"

many locals claim the city suffers from a self esteem problem stretching back to 1852 when san jose lost the honor of being the california state capital to . additionally, for most of its existence, san jose has been overshadowed by its smaller and more glamorous neighbor to the north, . 

"san francisco has been in the limelight since 1849, and it was the capital of everything west of ? it was a huge presence in the psyche of the world, and we can never replace that," david vossbrink, san jose city spokesman, told the "". 

it doesn't stop with san francisco; san jose is routinely outshined by other bay area cities such as , california, which is one-third its size. additionally, the city's own silicon valley suburbs, including and , regularly steal the national spotlight from san jose.

as far as the workkforce is concerned, san jose continues to reel from the dot-com meltdown of the early 2000s. with an unemployment rate of 5.5 percent, it has a higher jobless rate than the national average of 5.1 percent. for a couple of years after the 2000 tech crash, san jose lost population as thousands of unemployed fled to look for work elsewhere.

but the city is on the mend and does have some legitimate bragging rights aside from sheer size. despite the unemployment, san jose is america's wealthiest big city with an average household annual income of $70,000. it consistently ranks as "the safest big city in america," according to fbi crime statistics as having the lowest violent crime rate for any u.s. city with a population over 500,000. the local public university, is the largest within the california state university system.

economically, an increasing number of large companies also are opting to call san jose home, including , , and .

for many media outlets covering san jose's ascendence into the ranks of the united states' top 10 cities, the real story has been the decline of detroit and its symbol as a midwestern industrial giant.

for decades, detroit, the self-styled "motor city," rested its fortunes with the american automobile industry. each of the automobile manufacturers, , , and , maintained headquarters there.

but with the shift of the u.s. economy away from heavy industry to services and technology, cities like detroit suffered, while cities like san jose prospered. 

detroit's decline in population is not a new phenomenon. in the 1950s, the city had a population of about 1.8 million, ranking as the fourth-largest u.s. city. but its fortunes started changing in the 1970s with the oil embargo and the rise of japan as an automobile-producing powerhouse. as the city's fortunes waned, many residents fled detroit for the suburbs or opted to leave michigan altogether.

"it's part of a pattern for the heavily industrialized cities, but i think detroit is a specific case. there's been an ongoing dynamic here of people, middle-class people in detroit, fleeing the city looking for better schools, better lifestyles, better services. so it has been a particularly hard fall," dana johnson, chief economist at comerica bank in detroit said in an interview with the "new york times".

detroit has also been taking its knocks in recent statistics. unlike san jose's reputation for being a safe place to live, detroit tops the list of most violent u.s. big cities. in the past year, "" named detroit mayor among the worst mayors in the u.s.

along with the exodus of people and 7.8 percent unemployment rate, detroit harbors a sight unseen in san jose, blocks of vacant housing. for years these vacant buildings have been the targets of arsonists on the so-called , where blocks of homes have been set ablaze in detroit.

additionally, unlike san jose, which is in the process of moving 1,800 employees into a new $388 million city hall and faces shortage of police officers, shrinking detroit faces a $300 million budget deficit and the prospect of laying off 700 police and fire-fighting personnel in the next few months. 

[[category:california]]
[[category:san jose, california]]
[[category:united states]]
[[category:economy and business]]
[[category:general motors]]
[[category:santa clara county, california]]
[[category:north america]]
[[category:cisco]]

nine hundred thousand somalis face food crisis

according to a report from the un (ocha), 500,000 somalians are directly affected by a drought, around 400,000 are internally displaced, and an additional 12,000 somalians had been affected by seasonal in the central regions of and as well as in 
the self-declared northwestern republic of somaliland.

"overall, the extended effects of four years of drought, which adversely impacted livelihoods and coping mechanisms, combined with chronic food insecurity, and more recently flooding has exacerbated the suffering of somalis," said the report.
ocha estimates that around 44,000 people were directly affected by the , and many still need urgent humanitarian assistance, the agency said. an estimated figure released by ocha stated that $162,266,738 would be needed to be raised to target an estimated 900,000 vulnerable people. as of june 10, donors had funded approximately 39 percent of this appeal.

the december devastated the northeastern somali coastline, further worsening the humanitarian situation now seen in somalia. good seasonal rains in somalia which have ended a four-year drought have done little to help the estimated 900,000 somalians in need of humanitarian aid.


underwater volcano causes 3,300 ft column of steam

an underwater volcano near the island of iwo jima (translation: "sulfur island") in the pacific ocean has caused a 3,280 ft (1,000m) column of vapour to rise from the water, coastguard officials said yesterday morning. the column of steam was reported on saturday by japanese troops who were stationed on the island.

an observational expedition to assess the activity was prematurely ended due to safety concerns, though the possibility of a tsunami was denied. officials who flew over the area said the surface of the water "appeared red", which would suggest underwater volcanic activity. the expedition returned with video footage confirming earlier reports, said shigeyuki sato, a spokesperson for the coast guard. the survery crew found "grayish mud" rising from the ocean, though it is not known whether volcanic gases are being released.

the area known as fukutokuoka-no-ba has a history of seismic activity, with at least ten historic eruptions in the last century. the most recent underwater volcano eruption was in 1986 and lasted three days. japan's meteorological agency said there was no current danger of a tsunami, often caused by underwater seismic activity. 


tv channel does not hold exclusive trademark rights to the number 3, stockholm court rules

swedish media company modern times group, owner of stockholm-based tv channel tv3, claims monetary damages from swedish mobile telephone operator 3 totaling 300 million swedish kronor for trademark infringement by using the number "3" as their name. modern times' tv3 has used a logotype saying "3" for many years. 

however, on july 1 the stockholm district court (stockholms tingsratt) decided that tv3 does not have exclusive rights to the number 3, disagreeing that the mobile telephone company's use of the numeral was a violation of swedish trademark protection laws.

tv3 has three weeks to appeal the verdict to keep it from becoming legally enforceable. in making the decision, the stockholm court allowed other disputes between the companies not concerning the use of the numeral "3" to continue to be argued before it.


civilians dead following u.s. air strike on 'terrorist compound'

17 afghan civilians, including women and children, are thought to be have been killed as the result of u.s. aircraft bombing the village of chechal in the east of afghanistan late last week, said a governor.

the air strike occurred last friday in the same area as an elite u.s. military team went missing three days ago. 
provincial governor assadullah wafa told the associated press “seventeen civilians died in the u.s. bombing of the village.” he went on to comment that casualties consisted of women and children, though he did not know the exact figure.

a u.s. military statement claimed that the "compound" bombed was a “known operating base for terrorist attacks in kunar province as well as a base for a medium-level terrorist leader,"

the statement, written after criticism in the press of the u.s. military’s lack of precaution in these matters, then went on to say the u.s. armed forces “regret the loss of innocent lives and follow stringent rules of engagement specifically to ensure that non-combatants are safeguarded. however, when enemy forces move their families into the locations where they conduct terrorist operations, they put these innocent civilians at risk."

one member of the missing military team has been recovered and is currently being “evaluated” on monday, a u.s. defence department spokesperson said, though he refused to comment on details regarding his whereabouts and health. 

afghan and u.s. forces are currently in the kunar province searching for members of the missing military team. u.s. officials at the time of the bombing said in a statement that the attack utilised “precision-guided munitions that resulted in the deaths of an unknown number of enemy terrorists and non-combatants," 

the statement continued, concluding that "battle damage assessment is currently ongoing." 

in may, afghan president hamid karzai voiced his concerns over the excessive number of civilian casualties as a result of us-led operations. 

some observers have speculated that the attack on the village was a deliberate response to the downing of a us transport helicopter last month. in that incident, 16 troops died in the worst single blow to american forces since the taliban was ousted in 2001.



'bad language' at live 8 concerts trigger complaints to the bbc

the bbc, who broadcast the live 8 event throughout saturday and sunday, has received hundreds of complaints regarding "swearing outbursts". madonna and snoop dogg are among those who used "bad language" before the 9:00pm watershed. 

following last year's super bowl, where u.s. broadcasting networks were criticised for not forecasting janet jackson's bodily exposure, the bbc pledged to incorporate a time delay of several seconds in certain live broadcasts in order to provide a level of censorship to potentially violent/unsuitable scenes. 

the live 8 event, however, was broadcast live. 

the bbc, said a spokesperson, had received "just under" 400 complaints regarding the use of language in its coverage.

"millions of people enjoyed our 12 hours of live broadcasting. we are sorry if any offence was caused.", she added.

the stars accused of swearing before the watershed include snoop dogg, madonna, johnny borrell (razorlight) and billie-joe armstrong (green day).

previous complaints received by the bbc range from 240 complaints made as a result of the new 3d weather map, to 47,000 in the build up to the broadcast of "jerry springer - the opera".


egyptian envoy's captors remain anonymous

the kidnappers of egypt's ambassador to iraq, ihab al-sherif, remain anonymous amid pleas for his well treatment. egyptian foreign minister ahmed aboul gheit said that cairo was working with iraqi authorities to advance the release of mr. al-sherif, who was kidnapped on saturday.

a search of insurgent hideouts conducted by iraqi and u.s. forces began on monday in western parts of baghdad. 

abul gheit pledged that everyone involved "handle the situation wisely".

"our colleague... went to iraq to serve the interests of the iraqi people. we hope that they try their best in locating him and that he returns safely to his family," he said while in libya for an african union summit. 

"we understand the fury of the iraqi people but this man is working for the benefit of the iraqi and the egyptian people and therefore we wish that he is treated accordingly."

an unidentified source said mr al-sherif was "buying a newspaper" when he was kidnapped last saturday. witnesses said that a gunman "hit him on the head with a pistol as others shouted that he was 'an american spy'". he was then pushed into one of two bmws used in the kidnapping. more than 36 hours afterwards no group have claimed responsibility or made any demands.

egyptians in iraq are no strangers to kidnappings. last july, rebels kidnapped egyptian diplomat mohamed mamdouh qutb, who was freed unharmed. the gunmen from this case released a statement saying that their actions were in response to egypt offering to train iraq's security forces, an offer that was later withdrawn.

mr. al-sherif arrived in iraq on june 1, shortly before his promotion to the position of ambassador ? a move that was praised by iraq's foreign minister. the egyptian government upgraded its relations with iraq in mid-june to "full embassy status". 

some believe the u.s. is "urging" arab states to appoint ambassadors in order to "support the new government and curb the resistance." egypt had withdrawn its ambassador to iraq 14 years ago, and was in support of the first gulf war in 1991.



united church of christ endorses same-sex marriage, largest christian denomination to do so

in a meeting on monday in atlanta, georgia, the united church of christ overwhelmingly approved a resolution supporting same-sex marriage, therefore becoming the largest christian denomination to do so. ucc has over 6,000 congregations and 1.3 million members.

in a press conference, rev. john h. thomas said, "on this july fourth the general synod of the united church of christ has acted courageously to declare freedom, affirming marriage equality, affirming the civil rights of same gender couples to have their relationships recognized as marriages by the state, and encouraging our local churches to celebrate and bless those marriages."

thomas also acknowledged that the issue of marriage equality is "the source of great conflict" not only in society but also in the churches. the ucc, he said, "is no exception" and "there are clearly great differences among our own members over this."

the decision is non-binding but asks member churches to consider wedding policies "that do not discriminate against couples based on gender" and support laws granting equal marriage rights for gays and lesbians.

some member churches have suggested they may leave the denomination but most members appeared to support the resolution noting some ministers already perform same-sex ceremonies.

ucc was criticized last year for creating a television commercial including a gay couple being excluded from a church. the 30-second ad was rejected by most tv networks.


australian prime minister's popularity at all time low

according to recent polls, australian prime minister john howard's popularity has hit an all time low in response to his policies in industrial relations. this has combined with a backlash against treasurer w:peter costello, after he said in an interview on "lateline" that religious teachings caused children "only a little harm". this comment followed a media stunt at a major church where mr. costello was attempting to capture the "religious right" vote.

the liberal party has hit back by calling the public reaction "labor propaganda". 


aid ship sailing to somalia hijacked; aid supply threatened

soon after a un report highlighted the food crisis facing somalia, a ship carrying food aid to somalia has been hijacked off the coast of the country and its ten crew members abducted. the pirates are demanding a ransom of half a million dollars for the return of the ship.

neither the un world food programme (wfp) nor the ship's owners are willing to pay the ransom. last year, pirates killed 30 sailors.

the wfp hopes the ship will be released soon but cannot continue shipments until then because of safety concerns. if the ship is released soon, there will be no interruption in aid supply.

the wfp believe the crew is still on board the ship and that the crew are "fine". they hope the ship will be returned to them shortly.

the wfp supplies about 3,000 tons of food for about 275,000 somalis per month, and the country currently has about two weeks of stocks left.


sunnis fighting al-qa'eda insurgents in western iraq

sunnis have turned their weapons on al qa'eda fighters in a town in western iraq.

the local sunni leaders in husaybeh are fighting the followers of a jordanian born terrorist, abu musab zarqawi, who uses the town as a point to smuggle foreign fighters into the country.

fighting first broke out in may, when a local tribal sheik was murdered on the orders of zarqawi, and fighting broke out using small arms and mortars. the shiek had invited us marines to lunch as a sign of goodwill.

the foreigners have also enforced a strict islamic code forbidding the wearing of western clothing, and shops selling music and satellite dishes have been closed.

anyone suspected of helping coalition troops is kidnapped or killed - even those seen to be helping the iraqi government, such as officials responsible for water and electricity supplies. as a result, local services have collapsed.

"we thought they were patriotic. now we discovered that they are sick and crazy. they interfered in everything, even how we raise our children. they turned the city into hell, and we cannot live in it anymore," said arkan salim, 56, who fled the town with his wife and four children.

the us military in the town has not been targeted - in fact the insurgents have taken care to avoid firing mortar rounds too close to the us base, less they become involved in the fighting. local tribes have secretly tipped off the us military so they can bomb the terrorists.

iraqis said that the fighting is a sign of the fracturing in support foreign fighters in iraq are experiencing. they have been losing public support amongst sunni communities, the iraqi prime minister ibrahim jafari said, after attempts to include sunnis in the political process.


israeli man faces attempted murder charges for stabbing three gay pride marchers

the man charged with stabbing three participants at jerusalem’s june 30 gay pride parade faces attempted murder charges.

yishai shlisel, an orthodox jew, said his deep religious conviction led to his actions. "i came to murder on behalf of god. we can’t have such abomination in the country," shlisel said during a police interrogation, according to authorities. 

the combination of police eye-witnesses, video evidence and his confession led to shlisel being charged with three counts of attempted murder tuesday in a jerusalem district court. prosecutors allege shlisel purchased an 18-centimeter (seven inches) knife in preparation of going to the parade with the intent to kill homosexuals.

medical authorities say the victims, two aged 18 and one aged 50, suffered light to moderate stab wounds.

even before this knife attack, the 2005 jerusalem gay pride parade already had an extensive legal record. jerusalem mayor uri lupolianski's previous decision to cancel the parade as inappropriate for his city was overturned in court. about 5,000 gay pride marchers and 1,000 protestors turned up for the thursday night event.

police temporarily halted the parade after a group of 100 orthodox jews attempted to force their way through police barricades chanting "gay is shame!" one man, allegedly shlisel, did break through and stabbed three marchers. other religious protestors against the march, including jews, christians and muslims, were peaceful according to authorities.


house votes to repeal washington d.c. handgun ban

a 30-year ban on loaded shotguns, rifles and handguns in homes and businesses is set for repeal in washington dc, where one of the strictest gun possession laws in the nation is in existence. the house of representatives voted 259-161 on june 30 to allow an amendment by mark souder, r-ind. to become attached to the federal district’s appropriations bill that later passed 405-18.

“my amendment gives d.c. citizens the same rights at work as they have at home.” said souder, a congressman from indiana. 

the next step for a repeal is in the senate where a bill titled “district of columbia personal protection act” was introduced in may by george allen, r-va. and kay bailey hutchison, r-tx. senator allen, who according to the "richmond times-dispatch" has presidential aspirations in the 2008 election, said of the bill’s introduction that it would, “give the law abiding citizens of the capital their constitutional right to protect themselves again.” it currently has 32 senate co-sponsors, and sponsorship of the bill is expected to climb to 50 in the 100-member chamber before debate on the bill's passage begins.

passage of the senate bill would overturn the city law that has support from the mayor, city council, police chief and many of its citizens. the law requires trigger locks on all firearms or they must be kept disassembled. handguns are banned outright. 

district residents are witness to a federal legislation process that many see as trampling upon their permanent residency status. locally elected leaders are able under the home rule act to make their own laws, but local district of columbia representatives have no vote in either the house or senate, rendering them helpless in that political arena.

d.c.'s mayor anthony williams said, "it's discouraging when members of congress who don't represent our city try to shove their laws down our throats."

a similar act to repeal the gun ban passed the house in 2004, but it was not taken up by the senate. 



tropical storm cindy threatens u.s. gulf coast

in what has been called the busiest start in recorded history for the u.s. hurricane season, newly-formed was making its way toward the u.s. gulf coast.

the storm was expected to make landfall in louisiana with 70 mile-per-hour winds also affecting neighboring states of alabama, mississippi, and the florida panhandle area late tuesday night. weather forecasters were calling for up to 10 inches of rain, lightning and the possibility of tornadoes to be spawned by the storm.

cindy is expected to weaken after making landfall and is not expected to develop into a full-fledged hurricane since it is too close to the shore and will be robbed of warm ocean waters essential for a tropical storm's growth. a true hurricane is defined as a tropical storm with sustained wind speeds of 74 miles per hour or greater.

cindy wasn't alone in u.s. hurricane weather news tuesday. another tropical storm, named dennis, formed in the warm shallow waters of the caribbean off the coast of jamaica. dennis is expected to pass into the gulf of mexico and develop into a hurricane as it strengthens over the gulf waters.

oil companies which have crude oil pumping rigs which resemble man-made islands in the gulf of mexico are busy evacuating to take workers to safety as dennis approaches.

the u.s. hurricane season lasts from june 1 to nov. 30. officials say that never before in recorded history have there been four named storms by july 5.



three killed in tennessee vehicle crash

three teenagers were killed and two others were seriously injured near dyer, tennessee, united states early tuesday afternoon when a driver with a restricted learners license, lost control of her sport utility vehicle, ran off the road, and struck several trees. kayla pate, 16, lost control of her vehicle when her right tires left the road and she attempted to swerve back onto it.

two teens were pronounced dead on the scene and one later died in hospital. the deceased were identified as 17-year-old ryan williams, 15-year-old mckenzie coble, and 15-year-old anthony jones. driver pate and another passenger, hope jones, were seriously injured. none of the teens were wearing seatbelts.

tennessee's graduated driver license stipulates that drivers under 18 can have only one passenger in a vehicle unless he or she is accompanied by a licensed driver more than 21 years old who holds an unrestricted license. tennessee also requires seatbelts for drivers and all passengers.



brazil threatens to break patent on aids drugs

brazil is threatening to break the patent of us-based abbott laboratories as it pushes ahead with its programme to supply its people with free aids drugs. 

brazil has given abbott a deadline of july 7 to cut the prices of its drug kaletra or a brazilian company will begin cloning it. this move would test recent world trade organization concessions allowing poor countries to produce generic drugs for local health emergencies. 

abbott has said that brazil's demand goes "against the spirit" of the wto agreement, since it has the ninth largest economy in the world, and that this could damage future research for improved treatments. 

previous programmes have been negotiated between companies and governments to produce generic versions of aids drugs, but this is the first time a country has threatened to use powers negotiated at the wto by producing the drug without the cooperation of the patent holder. 

several campaign groups are supporting the move, hoping that other developing countries will be able to take the lead of brazil and produce generic drugs for their own populations. michael bailey, a senior policy adviser for oxfam international, said: "the impact of breaking the patent would be enormous. if a major country such as brazil goes through with this, not only will it help ensure sustainability of their excellent treatment programme, it will set a hugely important precedent for other countries."

the us chamber of commerce has issued a statement urging brazil to reconsider and suggesting that the move could create a rift between the countries. thomas donohue, chamber president and ceo said: "brazil’s threat to strip patent rights from a u.s. company should concern all investors and every business around the world because of the precedent it sets for the treatment of intellectual property."



protestors detained after violence near g8 summit

eight police officers have been injured and more than 32 people detained after protestors made an attempt to block the m9 road and railway lines. 

the violence occurred when residents of a camp site near stirling in central scotland began a mass movement towards the gleneagles summit. a branch of burger king in the springkerse area of stirling was also vandalised.

world leaders from the united states, united kingdom, canada, japan, germany, france, italy, and russia are meeting in the 5 star gleneagles hotel and golf course to discuss world issues. the presidents and prime ministers will debate, among other things, debt relief to africa and climate change. 

more than 100 activists dressed in black, many hiding their faces with clothing, "streamed" from the temporary campsite early wednesday morning, where close to 5,000 protestors are said to be staying. 

a camera man for the associated press television said he saw a "group of around 100 smashing the windows of stationary cars and throwing stones at police." 

bob geldof, organiser of the live 8 concerts and original live aid in 1985, has described the violent protestors as "idiots". many have criticised geldof's overexposure in the news, especially as apparent spokesman of the anti-g8 protests.

previous g8 summits that resulted in violent protests were situated in genoa, italy in 2001, and evian, france in 2003. police responsible for wednesday's summit have taken no chances: roughly 10,000 police are on standby in gleneagles, among watchtowers and surveillance cameras. a five-mile (8 kilometres) long fence of steel surrounds the hotel, complimented by no-fly zone above.

earlier this week protesters clashed with riot police in edinburgh, the capital. as many as 100 appeared in court on tuesday, as a result of police officials' promise of "zero tolerance".

"make no bones about it, if we encounter people who are prepared to use violence to achieve their aims ... we will take robust action," said tayside police chief constable john vine in auchterarder, the village closest to the gleneagles hotel and country club. 

protestors and police officers numbering more than 20 were injured in over 6 hours of rioting in the princes street shopping area of edinburgh, bringing the city centre to a standstill. running clashes, baton charges, and mounted surges were some of the methods used by riot police at the scene. 

british prime minister tony blair will, as the host, set the agenda of this years' summit. he is said to want "breakthroughs in global warming as well as africa".

blair's commission for africa has proposed to double aid to africa by 2010, as well as a second us$25 billion increase in aid to africa, and us$75 billion annual increase in worldwide aid.



tanzania accused of supporting terrorism to destabilise burundi

the african news website www.abarundi.org has accused tanzania of being a state sponsor of terrorism, by helping hutu-extremists in neighbouring burundi to destabilise the country's newly-elected government. as widely predicted, burundi's ruling "frodebu" party, which has close links to tanzania, was heavily defeated in this week's elections. the former hutu rebel group cndd-fdd, now a multi-ethnic party, won a convincing victory with 58% of the vote. frodebu polled just 22%. 

it was the first national democratic vote since 1993, when a military coup plunged burundi into a decade-long, ethnically-charged civil war. during the election campaign, cndd-fdd accused frodebu of stirring up racial divisions, and of employing members of the hutu-extremist fnl to kill and intimidate voters. the fnl rebels have remained outside the burundian peace process, despite the restoration of democracy, and a series of heavy defeats by the burundian army. on june 16th attackers believed to be members of the fnl massacred six churchgoers in the muhuta district of rural bujumbura. during earlier local elections, the fnl had attacked a polling station, killing a united nations peacekeeper, and killed several people in "hit and run" attacks on the burundian capital bujumbura. frodebu denied involvement in the violence, but have recently admitted "political collaboration" with the fnl.

www.abarundi.org reports that the tanzanian government has offered material support to the fnl leader and helped formalise the "unholy alliance" between frodebu and the fnl:

"with the assistance of the tanzanians, [fnl leader] agathon rwasa has moved his hq from the hills around bujumbura, where he was already in difficulty, to the tanzanian capital dar es salaam, where he can enjoy the protection of the tanzanian secret service."

"rwasa, who has nothing more to lose, has accepted that the success of the elections mean political death for the fnl, and their position as 'hutu defenders' has become obsolete."

"but if rwasa's strategy is merely his own survival, frodebu's calculation is far more diabolical - they intend to perpetuate burundi's bloody civil war and state of insecurity, in order to undermine the new institutions." 



london to host 2012 olympic games

london is to host the 2012 olympic games.

the announcement was made today by international olympic committee (ioc) president jacques rogge following four rounds of voting, penultimately shortlisting london and paris. 116 members of the ioc in singapore voted throughout the rounds from a pool of cities comprising of paris, madrid, london, new york, and moscow.

the final tally was 54 votes for london, and 50 for paris. 
the voting came after all five cities made their final presentations to the assembled members.

the news was met with screams of joy from the 15,000 people who had gathered in trafalgar square in london, while jeers and boos rang out across paris, as rain began to fall in the french capital.

former olympic runner sebastian coe, who led the british bid, told bbc radio five live afterwards: "i'm in a state of shock. the whole team has made a fantastic effort. this shows that the united kingdom is a special place for sport, passionate about sport."

this is the first time the games will be staged in london since 1948, while this marks the third failure by paris to host the olympics. london has hosted the games twice before, making it the first city ever to host them three times.

the official announcement was given by the ioc at 12:46 bst today, after much speculation. the 2012 london olympics are widely anticipated to bring about a revival of both sporting culture in england, and the much maligned docklands area of london, where most main sporting venues will be constructed.

present, physically or by video link, were several dignitaries of the participating countries, including the british prime minister tony blair, french president jacques chirac, queen sofia of spain, and russian prime minister mikhail fradkov.

tony blair is quoted to have said via a recorded video message "our vision is to see millions of young people participate in sport and improve their lives. london has the power to make this happen."

also present with the british campaign team were world famous soccer player david beckham, athletes denise lewis and sir steven redgrave, and her royal highness princess anne, who brought with her a message from queen elizabeth ii:

"i've been impressed by the way everyone has united behind london's bid. as a country we share a passion for sport."

french president jacques chriac was also present, along with actress catherine deneuve and singer johnny hallyday, both french.

"the heart of paris and the heart of france are beating in unison in the hope of becoming olympic host in 2012...you can put your trust and faith in france, you can trust the french, you can trust us," he said.

america's assembly consisted of new york mayor michael bloomberg, u.s. senator hillary clinton and bid leader dan doctoroff, focusing on new york's multicultural make up and readiness. mr. bloomberg chose to remind the committee of new york's recovery after the september 11 attacks.

"in our city's darkest hour, we asked ourselves, can we recover? ...new yorkers stood up then and said, 'yes, we can recover, we will rebuild and we must continue to welcome everyone.' that spirit will be given to your games."

u.s. president george w. bush and former president bill clinton spoke in a recorded video message.

russian president vladimir putin delivered his case in a live video clip, urging the committee to take advantage of a "unique and truly historic opportunity", and to select moscow for the games in 2012.

"moscow is a meeting place of cultures. moscow is perfectly suited to host the olympic and paralympic games," he said.

prime minister jose luis rodriguez zapatero from spain and queen sofia argued in favour of madrid.

"the whole spanish royal family is convinced that madrid fully meets the conditions to offer to the world the best olympic games," said queen sofia.

questions from the ioc regarding threats from the basque extremist group eta drew the following response:

"absolute security is assured...it's our main priority. those who have tried to attack our candidacy will see that this is something that is doomed to disappear in madrid and all of spain."



european parliament says no to software patents

a controversial patent directive has been thrown out in a landslide vote. 648 meps out of 680 voted today to reject the proposal, aimed at bringing europe in-line with a similar u.s. bill. 

"this is a great victory for those who have campaigned to ensure that european innovation and competitiveness is protected from monopolisation of software functionalities and business methods. it marks the end of an attempt by the european commission and governmental patent officials to impose detrimental and legally questionable practices of the european patent office (epo) on the member states," said the foundation for a free information infrastructure, in opposition to the directive.

adversaries to the patent directive claim that a bill covering intellectual property (ip) would "stifle innovation" in europe, as it allows the patenting of implementation within software. many anti-patent activists say that if the bill were passed, small businesses and hobbyists would be in danger of lawsuit from corporations and their extensive patent portfolios.


european parliament rejects computer-implemented inventions directive

the has rejected the (software patent directive) sustained by lobbies of large software publicists such as the corporations , , and , grouped under the title of the (eicta, ). the directive involved the granting of .

648 out of 680 rejected the text, 18 voted for and 14 abstained.

a rejection vote became the expected outcome when the , initially in favour of the directive, decided to reject it.

the , and also voted for rejection of the directive for heterogeneous reason. michel rocard, author of a number of amendments to the original directive, said that the majority of the modifications were unlikely to be supported by the commission and council, with whom the parliament would have had to enter a conciliation procedure if it had voted for maintaining the directive in moditifed form. "better have no text at all than a bad one", he added.
before the vote, rocard pointed at the irritation of the parliament towards the : "there is collective anger throughout the parliament because of the way the directive was handled by the commission and the council".

during the debate on tuesday, commissioner told meps: "should you decide to reject the common position, the commission will not submit a new proposal.".

the rejection was welcomed by small and medium software companies, as well as by supporters. the directive had been subject to an intense campaigning, within the parliament, in the news media and on the internet. the supporters of the council position appear to have spent several ten millions, hiring prestigious pr agencies with at least 30-40 lobbyists who roamed the halls of the parliament every day for 3 months, and many full-page advertisements in eu newspapers such as european voice, eu reporter etc. the opponents of software patentability (that is supporters of the position taken by the european parliament in its 1st reading of 24 september 2003), coordinated under the roof of the foundation for a free information infrastructure (ffii), also had several lobbyists stationed in brussels, conducted several conferences and demonstrations and published some newspaper advertisements, with a total budget of nearly 100,000 eur apart from countless unpaid working hours of a dedicated supporter base, consisting mainly of programmers and software entrepreneurs.

 


pennsylvania man admits to june 25 beating of elderly woman

joshua j. goyette allegedly confessed to breaking into a saxonburg, pennsylvania retirement home and beating 86-year-old gertrude "trudy" johanson in the early morning of june 25, 2005. the crime, which shocked the small community north of pittsburgh, was not the only one which occurred recently at area retirement homes. goyette is also suspected in a may incident where another apartment at the commons of saxonburg was broken into through a first floor window and the 90-year-old woman inside was groped while she slept.

goyette, 25, has addresses listed in court documents in new bedford, massachusetts; and in saxonburg, pennsylvania, his mother's home.

the alleged confession was given last thursday, june 30, 2005, in new bedford, massachusetts, to pennsylvania state police investigators. goyette is currently being held in the butler county prison in lieu of $300,000 cash bond. he faces charges of attempted homicide, aggravated assault, burglary and criminal mischief.



new york times reporter sent to jail in leak case

on wednesday, in a case that toes the line between a search for the source of criminal activity and the right to freedom of the press, a new york times reporter was jailed after she refused to reveal her confidential source to a grand jury investigating the leak of a covert cia operative's name to the media.

chief u.s. district judge thomas hogan ordered correspondent judith miller to jail immediately and said she must stay there until she agreed to testify or for the rest of the grand jury's term, which lasts through october.

"if journalists cannot be trusted to keep confidences, then journalists cannot function and there cannot be a free press," she said in the courtroom.

"i do not make confidential pledges lightly, but when i do i must honor them. if i do not, how can i expect people to accept my assurances."

"your honor, in this case i cannot break my word just to stay out of jail," miller told the judge during the hearing which lasted about an hour.

miller also noted that she did not consider herself to be above the law and that she had thought long and hard over the july 4 independence day holiday about her decision.

she said her decision was necessary to help ensure an independent free press.



exit festival 05 begins tomorrow

the biggest music festival in south eastern europe, exit festival, will start tomorrow. the festival is organized on petrovaradin fortress in novi sad, serbia and montenegro, and will last from july 7 to july 10. this will be the fifth annual exit festival.

the festival includes 21 stages, featuring a diverse range of music, from classical to techno. the program is scheduled to last from 6 pm to 8 am every night, with both domestic and foreign musicians.

it is expected that tens of thousands of people, mostly from ex yugoslavian republics, will attend. this year's performers include apocalyptica, fatboy slim, white stripes, underworld, garbage, slayer, laibach, ian brown, carl cox, freq nasty, marky & patife, sasha, felix da housecat, dave clarke, napalm death, sandy rivera, darren emerson, mutiny, danny howells, christian varela, michel de hey, valentino kanzyani, 2 many djs, marko nastic, etc.

the organizers decided to commemorate the srebrenica massacre with one minute of silence on midnight between july 10 and july 11. the festival is in part sponsored by the city of novi sad, which is currently ruled by the serbian radical party which is opposed to publicly recognizing war crimes committed by the serbs in bosnia in a way that exit orginizers intend. the president of the serbian radical party, tomislav nikoli? said: "if that festival, which is intended for young people having fun, turn into any kind of political provocation, there will be no exit next year."


us senator rick santorum writes book, receives criticism

a book by us rick santorum (r-), entitled "it takes a family: conservatism and the common good", hit stores in washington over the weekend. its official publication date is july 25th. intended as a response to 's book "it takes a village", certain passages of the book have already caused concern in certain circles. also in the book, santorum compares abortion to , and advocates against public school systems and two income families.

already facing perhaps the toughest re-election bid in the country, opponents and supporters of santorum are using the book to tout their positions. t.j. rooney, the state democratic party chairman, had this to say:

"references to how families are compromised when both parents work outside the home, how it takes a societal toll on pennsylvania families or american families, it just shows a complete lack of understanding of the real world in which the vast majority of pennsylvanians reside."

although he's a democrat himself, journalist disagrees with rooney, "from what i read in the july 10 ap story about sen. santorum's encounter with hillary clinton, i believe that he and i share common views on some aspects of child-rearing. democrats can't handle motherhood issues because now-style feminists will not allow an honest discussion of what to do about the economic consequences of motherhood. daycare is not the answer. i'm eager to see what santorum says about right to life after birth."
hillary clinton's office refused to comment on the book. 



spyware is changing users' online habits

according to a report by the pew internet & american life project, 9 out of 10 internet users have adjusted their online behaviour because of spyware. of the 2,001 adults surveyed, 97% said that they had heard of the term spyware and 78% said they “had a good idea what the term meant.”

61% said they were very confident or somewhat confident they could keep things
like computer viruses, spyware and adware off their computers. however, 34% said they have had spyware on their home computers. this number is probably much higher. in an october 2004 study, by aol and the national cyber security alliance, 53% of respondents said they had spyware or adware on their computers, but a scan showed that 80% of respondents actually had such programs installed.

68% of home internet users report that they have experienced problems that are normally associated with spyware. these problems include computers slowing down or crashing, new unfamiliar programs appearing on their computers and internet home page changing without user action.

49% consider spyware to be a serious threat to their online security. 91% of internet users say they have made at least one change in their online behaviour as a result of spyware. 34% have stopped downloading programs from the internet. 89% said they do not open email attachments unless they are sure they are safe. 25% say they have stopped using peer-to-peer networks, a common source of spyware. 8% say they have switched to a different web browser.

the pew internet & american life project report was based based upon a telephone survey conducted by princeton survey research associates between may 4 and june 7, 2005. the pew internet & american life project is a non-profit research centre that produces reports that study the social effects of the internet.

67% percent of homes in the united states now have internet connectivity.




pittsburgh pirates defeat philadelphia phillies, 3-0

kip wells (#32) threw a four-hit shutout for the pittsburgh pirates against the philadelphia phillies tuesday, july 5, 2005. the game's final score was 3-0. wells had 12 strikeouts in the home outing at pnc park. the pirates rallied in this game after getting shelled by the phillies on independence day, 12-1. that game featured a grand slam in the 3rd inning for the phillies, playing at the pirates' home field.


rapper 'little kim' sentenced to 1 year in prison

the rapper, lil' kim, also known as kimberly jones, was sentenced to one year and one day in prison and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine after lying to a grand jury. jones had been questioned about the involvement of several of her acquaintances in a gunfight. jones had testified before a grand jury that she did not see her manager the day of the altercation and claimed that she did not recognize a photo of one of her associates. jones also said that she took "complete blame" for the same perjury committed by her assistant, monique dopwell.

the fight broke out in front of the "hot 97" radio station in new york. jones' entourage came across the rival rap group, capone-n-noreaga, and confronted the group about the song, "bang, bang", which contained an insult to jones.


coordinated terrorist attack hits london

three bomb explosions have hit london underground trains, and a further bomb destroyed a bus in the city centre. the metropolitan police service has initially confirmed that 33 people have been killed in the four explosions on london's transport system this morning, and said the overall number of wounded was as high as 700, in what are believed to be terrorist attacks. (see later reports in the box at the side for later announcements made on following days.) 

the first reports were of an explosion at 08:49 bst (utc+1) on the hammersmith & city line between liverpool street station and aldgate east. explosions also occurred on a train between king's cross and russell square and another at edgware road. the explosions are currently being reported, and described by prime minister tony blair, as being "terrorist attacks." traces of explosives were found at two of the sites according to the bbc.

scotland yard has confirmed one explosion onboard a double decker red london bus travelling south outside the on . police cannot confirm whether this bomb was intended for another train and accidentally detonated aboard the bus instead.

pundits are speculating the attack was co-ordinated by al-qaeda. dr. shane brighton, an intelligence expert at the royal united services institute for defence, claims that, "if what we are looking at is a simultaneous bombing ? and it does look like that ? it would very certainly fit the classic al qaeda methodology." two militant islamist groups are reported to have claimed responsibility for the blasts.

in a special news conference at 15:30 bst, july 7, deputy assistant commissioner brian paddick of the metropolitan police confirmed 33 fatalities so far, 45 critical/serious injuries and approximately 300 minor injuries. 

at 08:51 bst a bomb exploded on a circle line underground train 91 metres/100 yards into the tunnel from liverpool street. seven are known to be dead.

at 08:56 bst a bomb detonated on a piccadilly line train between king's cross and russell square. twenty-one are dead; it is believed more bodies remain in the tunnel, which is one of the deepest on the underground network.

at 09:17 bst a bomb exploded on another circle line train between edgware road station and paddington. the blast blew a hole in a wall, and another train was hit by debris from it. a third train is also involved. five are known to be dead.

at 09:47 bst a no. 30 bus (hackney - marble arch) blew up at the junction between tavistock square and woburn place outside the bma building. it has been estimated that thirteen people died.

earlier, quoting the associated press, yahoo news had reported "at least 40 people were killed and more than 350 wounded". also, the same report says "two u.s. law enforcement officials said at least 40 people were killed".

several hotlines have been set up for those concerned about friends or relatives. a list of these numbers are below. the agencies setting up these hotlines stress that callers should try to reach their friends or relatives first before contacting the hotline. in addition, to prevent swamping, they also have asked that only genuine callers use the hotlines.


the first reports that came in were from london's liverpool street station talking of an explosion on the metropolitan underground line and the station being evacuated. later a bbc and a wikinews reporter spoke of a bus being destroyed by a bomb blast in tavistock square outside the british medical association offices. 

the initial reports of explosions were believed to have been the result of power surges. this was because the first indication of any disturbance was the opening of circuit breakers in the underground, which was observed in the control room. this is usually due to a power surge, but in this case the actual cause was damage to the track circuits by bombs.

at approximately 10:50 bst reports were made that there was an additional, as yet unidentified explosion along houndsditch, near liverpool street station. police were also warning pedestrians at russell square that a series of controlled explosions would be made shortly.

bbc news 24 has reported additional unspecified incidents at brighton, luton, and swindon. these stations have been closed and there has been no official confirmation of the nature of the incidents, if any actually occurred.

the metropolitan police commissioner, sir ian blair told london live that there have been "events" at edgware road, kings cross, liverpool street, russell square, aldgate east and moorgate.

at 11:30 bst (utc+1) st. mary's hospital released a statement that they have admitted 4 critical, 8 severe and several minor injures. injuries are limb damage, cuts, burns, head injuries and chest problems.

the exact causes of the explosions are still unknown. initially, it was thought that it was some technical fault. however, the police later suspected terrorist attacks. police are still unsure if the bombs were simply left in packages or whether there were some sort of suicide attacks.

according to the associated press, a senior israeli official said scotland yard told israel minutes before the explosions that it had received warnings of possible "terror attacks". sky news says this has been denied by scotland yard. sir ian during his interview with sky stated that there had been no specific intelligence. 

german news magazine "der spiegel" (as well as unconfirmed information from cia) has reported that a letter from an organization calling itself "secret organization - al qaeda in europe" has appeared, claiming responsibility for the bombings. see our related story for more details.

a broadcast interruption on "mtv" thursday at 16:00 utc said a group naming itself "al jihad network in europe" claimed responsibility for the bombings. 

a police spokeswoman has confirmed two deaths at aldgate station. television and radio reports are now saying there have been four separate incidents with up to 150 casualties, speculating that the blasts may be related to terrorist activity.

the associated press is reporting that a us law enforcement official has put the toll at 40 killed.

emergency services press conference at around 15:15 bst (utc+1) confirms at least 33 fatalities, not including those resulting from the incident on the number 30 bus.

the cbc reports at least 52 fatalities, including 17 from the incident on the number 30 bus according to media reports.

it has been reported that in the early stages of the attack, information was only distributed to civilians within the center of london, and authorities had a specific policy of not providing information to the global media, in case any information provided to the media could be used by additional terrorists to target vulnerable locations during an evacuation procedure. this was probably partly to blame for the early confusion amongst the media.

emergency services are also attending king's cross and liverpool street station.

the entire tube network and all buses within zone 1 have been suspended and many buses are now being used to ferry the 'walking wounded' to the hospitals. the underground will be closed for an indefinite period of time, but according to fox news channel united states, the closure will last at least for all of today.

all emergency services are responding en-masse to a "major incident" and are responding only to life-threatening emergency calls. patients are being turned away at hospitals to free room for those injured by the attacks. 

the london congestion charge has been suspended for the 7th and 8th of july.

the jerusalem post reports that the army was dispatched to seal off the israeli embassy as israel's finance minister is present for a conference. the army have reportedly been involved with rescues at . police have denied this report (originally made on sky news). 

the police have cordoned off roads around upper woburn place following a massive explosion on a bus in the vicinity. traffic is at a standstill in many places in the capital. defra's security branch are reporting that police are advising everyone in london not to use any public transport and the cabinet office are advising staff to remain in offices until further notice. a further email sent to all staff by defra's permanent secretary indicates that charing cross and waterloo mainline railway stations have been closed down for police searches, and that other stations could close for similar reasons later today.

as at 09.30 bst, kings cross thameslink was experiencing delays and overcrowding but no serious difficulties.

businesses have been hit by the uncertainty of the events ? the ftse had fallen almost 3.5% by 11.47utc (), but started to recover a little by early afternoon. the value of the pound has dipped, and the london crude oil price has dropped. international markets are also suffering, with falls in share indexes felt as far as south africa. see our related story for more details.

according to fox news channel united states, all london schools are in lockdown and students are being kept in schools.

the authorities are asking people in london to stay where they are, indoors if possible. take inside any bins or bags of rubbish they have left out for collection, providing they check their contents first. arrangements are also being made for when schools finish as schools have been asked to keep pupils safe inside until the usual school closing time.

the uk highways agency has stated that at the request of the police, the message "avoid london - turn on radio" is being displayed on electronic motorway message signs on the m25 and other major routes approaching london.

the us homeland security department asked authorities in major cities for heightened vigilance of major transportation systems. department spokesman roehrkasse indicated that the department had not received any indications of plans that this type of attack is planned in the united states. later, the department raised the terror alert level to orange. see our related story for more details.

a joint statement of the g8 leaders was made by tony blair at a press conference, also attended by us president george bush and russian president vladimir putin. see our related story for more details.

the queen and many other world leaders have also issued statements. see our related story for more details.

mayor ken livingstone's full statement on the london bombings 07-07-2005:




international stock markets tumble after uk blasts

some stock markets fell sharply thursday upon news that london was hit by a series of coordinated explosions.

the ftse 100 share index fell over 150 points, over 2.8%. among the hardest hit stocks were airlines, hospitality and insurance companies, according to reports. 

at 11:41utc, the ftse 100 , the yardstick used to measure the largest british companies on the stockmarket had fallen 3.85%, dropping by 201.2 points to 5028.40. british airways and the hilton group lead the losers with drops of over 7% each as investors speculated about a terrorist involvement in the attacks which could adversely affect tourism and travel.
in paris the cac 40 index of france's forty largest companies took an even worse beating, dropping almost 4% by 11:47utc by 170.37 points to 4109.58. among the top losers was axa insurance which dropped by 5.4%.

across the border in germany the dax had shed 3.15%, or 145.47 points, by 11:50utc to 4470.02 points. again among the top losers was a major insurer ? allianz which fell over 5%.

it seems that airlines and insurers have been hit the worst so far. ryanair has dropped 7.73% or over ?400m in value and easyjet has shed 7.28%.

shortly after news of the explosions spread to trading floors, shares of british airways fell more than 6 percent. other stocks affected included carnival corporation, intercontinental hotels group, hilton group, and prudential.

the ftse had recovered 116 points at 13:43 after it's initial fall of 206. increased volume of ftse futures on liffe has meant that many people have been able to profit from the fall.

the price of gold has jumped by 1% as investors seek a secure place for their money.

united states markets have fallen significantly as well, with the dow having fallen by 65 points, the s&p 500 7.57, and the nasdaq 7.51 as of 13:43utc.



france raises security level to red in response to london bombings

france has tightened its security, raising its security level to red, after the french government heard news of the london explosions on its transport network.

the french prime minister, dominique de villepin, convened the french ministers of defence, interior and foreign affairs to discuss the terrorist attacks. while giving no details, villepin said that security was likely to be boosted on public transport and at important public buildings.

expressing sympathy and solidarity for the terrorist attacks in london, villepin said, "more than ever, democracies must rally together and show unity in the face of the terrorist threat. more than ever, we must show vigilance and determination."

president jacques chirac also gave his condolences to british prime minister tony blair, both of whom are currently attending the g8 summit in scotland.

chirac's spokesman said, "the president of the republic expressed to the british prime minister the horror caused by the tragic events in london and offered him sincere condolences."


transport and telecommunications struggle amid confusion in london

amid the confusion surrounding today's london blasts, officials have urged the public to avoid the city if possible to allow emergency services to operate more quickly.

all rail and underground stations remain closed, although efforts are being made to reopen them. air links are now closed at stansted, heathrow, gatwick and london city airports.

those trying to contact friends and family via mobile have struggled as the largest mobile networks, vodafone, o2 and orange, have all suffered from full capacity on several occasions this morning meaning voice calls failed. 

on the web, websites such as bbc, tfl and the g8 2005 website struggled for a short time at one point this morning under the strain of so many web users visiting them. the national grid has said that it has sustained no damage to the electricity network.
on the traffic england site run by the highways agency, london has been marked as a 'closed area'.

the royal mail is warning customers that mail collections and deliveries across the uk will be disrupted because of the incidents. royal mail vehicles will not be moving in or out of london, or between royal mail sites in central london for the remainder of today. at least 25 per cent of the uk's mail moves through london, even if its end destination is elsewhere. disruption may therefore be felt throughout the uk. royal mail expects to issue further information later today.

bus services in zone 1 have resumed as of 16:00 bst.



british prime minister tony blair speaks about london bombings

prime minister tony blair, in a short statement at midday bst from gleneagles, scotland, said that it was his intention to travel to london within a few hours to get a clearer picture of the events, before returning to the g8 summit this evening. looking visibly shocked, he said that he believed it was "reasonably clear" that it was an act of terror, and that he hoped that the people of britain could demonstrate that their will to overcome the events is greater than the terrorists' wish to cause destruction. he also said that his determination to "defend" the british way of life outweighed "extremist determination" to destroy it.

he also made it clear that all members of the g8 council wish to continue talks in his absence, he is currently on his way back to london to talk directly to police chiefs and ministers.

at the g8 conference in edinburgh, scotland, scotland, prime minister blair made a statement at a press conference accompanied by other leading politicians from the g8 countries, including presidents bush, putin and chirac.



world leaders respond to london blasts

world leaders at the g8 meeting at gleneagles have made statements following the bomb attacks in london today.

queen elizabeth ii of the united kingdom offered this official statement following the attacks:

france's prime minister dominique de villepin made a short statement to offer moral and material support to the population of london. the "vigipirate plan" was raised from "orange" to "red".

australia's foreign minister alexander downer said the attacks were:

canadian prime minister paul martin made a statement from the g8 summit, stating:

us president george w. bush made a statement in edinburgh, vowing to be "extra vigilant" in pursuit of terrorism.

in spain, which saw attacks on madrid last year, the spanish government said it would help the uk, "pursue the criminals who have carried out such a repugnant attack against a city that was celebrating its election as the host of the games of the xxx olympiad". the european parliament president josep borrel, expressed his condolences, saying: 

prime minister dr manmohan singh of india expressed outrage at terrorist attacks in london, saying these only ""underscore our contention that terrorism is a global phenomenon that needed to be tackled with concerted effort."" recalling that india was the victim of a terrorist attack only two days ago when heavily armed men assaulted a shrine at ayodhya before being killed, dr singh said the incidents demonstrated that ""global terrorism does not respect international boundaries and we all need to work together to counter it.""

danish prime minster anders fogh rasmussen calls the attack in london "terrible": 

the norwegian king harald telexed queen elisabeth ii: 

support for great britain came from the president of serbia and the prime minister of kosovo. the president of serbia and montenegro, svetozar marovi?, sent his condolences to queen elizabeth ii and tony blair, and expressed solidarity of citizens of serbia and montenegro with the british people: 


bush crashes his bike into scottish police officer


u.s. president george w. bush crashed his mountain bike into an unfortunate police officer in scotland. 

mr. bush, who celebrated his 59th birthday last night was cycling on a bike around the gleneagles hotel, where he is staying for the 31st g8 summit, when he, perhaps partially due to the bad weather, crashed into one of the police officers responsible for his and the other leaders' safety. 

the officer had to be taken to the hospital having suffered a twisted ankle whilst mr. bush, who was wearing a helmet, only suffered minor bruises despite landing on asphalt. the president had to return to the hotel by van because the bike was too badly damaged.

bush has been involved in two similar accidents during his presidency. in 2003, he fell off a segway personal transporter, and in 2004, he fell off a mountain bike.



group claims responsibility for london explosions

german news magazine "der spiegel" reported today that a letter from an extremist islamic organization calling itself "secret organisation group of al-qaeda of jihad organisation" has appeared, a previously unheard-of organization, claiming responsibility for the explosions in london today. the bbc later released a statement, translated from arabic, from the group. the text reads as follows:

"in the name of god, the merciful, the compassionate, may peace be upon the cheerful one and undaunted fighter, prophet muhammad, god's peace be upon him."

"nation of islam and arab nation: rejoice for it is time to take revenge against the british zionist crusader government in retaliation for the massacres britain is committing in iraq and afghanistan. the heroic mujahideen have carried out a blessed raid in london. britain is now burning with fear, terror and panic in its northern, southern, eastern, and western quarters."

"we have repeatedly warned the british government and people. we have fulfilled our promise and carried out our blessed military raid in britain after our mujahideen exerted strenuous efforts over a long period of time to ensure the success of the raid."

"we continue to warn the governments of denmark and italy and all the crusader governments that they will be punished in the same way if they do not withdraw their troops from iraq and afghanistan. he who warns is excused."

"god says: "you who believe: if ye will aid (the cause of) allah, he will aid you, and plant your feet firmly."

the statement was published on qal3ah, an internet forum which has been used before for announcements by al-qaeda, though the validity of the claims are currently unconfirmed. at a press conference, the metropolitan police stated they had not received any claims of responsibility from any group.


 


us homeland security raises transit terror alert

the united states department of homeland security has raised the terror alert level to "orange" for trains in reaction to the bombings of three subway trains and a bus in london.

the united states has a five-level terror alert system in which orange is the second-highest level.

homeland security secretary michael chertoff asked citizens for increased vigilance and asked cities to increase their security on their transit systems. 

"currently, the united states has no specific, credible information suggesting an imminent attack in the united states," says chertoff.

the united states coast guard, part of the department of homeland security, has alerted stations in high-risk areas to stand 24/7 patrols.

in washington, capitol hill police announced plans to search buses, tour vans and larger vehicles traveling on the roads leading to the capitol. 

in san francisco today, local police stood guard at muni and bart stations. amtrak rail lines released a statement saying that they are stepping up their security around their country-wide stations. local sheriff dispatches have been seen patrolling even the smallest rail stations.



egypt's top envoy in iraq confirmed killed


al-qaeda said in a web statement thursday that it has killed egypt's top envoy in iraq, ihab al-sherif. 
the islamic terror group released a video showing a blindfolded al-sherif identifying himself, but did not show his death.

egypt's president hosni mubarak confirmed these reports, but did not say how the government had validated al-qaeda's claims.

mr al-sherif, 51, had been serving in baghdad as chief envoy since early june; he was abducted on 03 july while out buying a newspaper, eyewitnesses said. he was not accompanied by any security at that time.

al-sherif had also served as deputy envoy from 1999?2003.


romanian pm quits after constitutional court ruling

romanian prime minister calin popescu tariceanu announced his government is quitting yesterday, after facing the decisions of constitutional court ruling that some of the laws pushed in a fast-forward manner through the parliament were breaking the fundamental law in two minor articles, making them impossible to adopt. 

the laws were considered very important in the process of romania's european union integration and they were establishing new rules in the field of justice. other laws related to the reparations for communist expropriation were adopted later as there was no objection regarding them. the government has already survived a vote of confidence in order to push the projects into full laws, and as a result was unable to ask for a second vote of confidence with the laws modified to satisfy the contitution.

tariceanu and his ministers are saying that the constitutional court was partial, because the judges were previously members of the main opposition party, the social-democrats, which is allegedly trying to stage a scene of government incompetence. the second allegation is that the laws were meant to speed up the retirment of old judges, educated during communist years, a category which includes the constitutional court judges.

tariceanu declared that he wants early elections, but outcome of this move is unpredictable, due to the tedious process the romanian law established for it. opposition parties claim this is a way for the current coalition to obtain more places in the parliament, and speak of a political crisis created artificially by the ruling coalition. all the parties in the parliament are supporting the integration of romania in the eu in 1 january 2007, and say integration in 1 january 2008 represents a failure in politics of the other parties. 


bomb scare closes main edinburgh thoroughfare

the police sealed off princes st while the bomb squad performed a controlled explosion on board an edinburgh double-decker bus, following reports of a suspicious package on board. 

a block of princes street was closed to the public from approximately 17:30, while investigations were carried out. later a second controlled explosion was carried out in a store at the east end of princes st.

all local shops and homes were evacuated, and as of 20:30 remained unable to access their property while continuing evaluation of the scene was carried out. traffic approaching the area was diverted, and motorists urged to stay away from the area unless essential.

following earlier blasts in london the police treated the situation very seriously, but it later emerged to be a false alarm. the blockade follows several days of planned closures for marches surrounding the and g8 conference.


florida man charged with stealing wi-fi

a florida man is being charged with 3rd degree felony for logging into a private wi-fi (wireless fidelity) internet access point without permission. benjamin smith iii, 41, is set for a pre-trial hearing this month in the first case of its kind in the united states.

this kind of activity occurs frequently, but often goes undetected by the owners of these wireless access points (waps). unauthorized users range from casual web browsers, to users sending e-mails, to users involved in pornography or even illegal endeavours.

according to richard dinon, owner of the wap smith allegedly broke into, smith was using a laptop in an automobile while parked outside dinon's residence.

there are many steps an owner of one of these access points can take to secure them from outside users. dinon reportedly knew how to take these steps, but had not bothered because his "neighbors are older."


philippine president calls for resignation of cabinet due to deflation of peso

amid news of a drop of the philippine peso for a sixth straight week, philippine president gloria macapagal-arroyo on thursday asked all members of the cabinet to resign, preparing the road for change in the administration.

in the past month the peso has fallen 3.1 percent due in part to accusations that arroyo cheated in last year's elections, as well as accusations that her family members have been taking kickbacks from illegal gambling operations.

the central bank may move to buy the peso in an attempt to stem the decline and raise lenders' reserve requirements so they have less money to bet against the currency.

while arroyo was asking for the resignations, finance secretary cesar purisima and other officials, including tax commissioner guillermo parayno, customs commissioner bert lina, budget secretary emilia boncodin and trade secretary juan santos, called for arroyo's resignation. the text of their statement is available .

however, arroyo refused, and while addressing the nation via radio she said "i am not resigning my office. to do so under circumstances that connote an edsa 3 (the third people's revolution) would condemn any successor to the possibility of an edsa 4, then an edsa 5, and so on and so on, unless our political system were first reformed to make it more responsive to the people's will, such that changes in leadership come about in an orderly and stable manner..."

arroyo said that the time had come to face the fact that the political system had degenerated so much that partisan agenda is coming before national interest.

she pointed to the huge emigration from the country as an indication of the large problems within, while endless scandals and conflict seem to plague the southeast asian nation.

the president ended her address by promising to bring a resolution to all that has plagued the country.


baseball, softball dropped from 2012 olympics

the international olympic committee has announced today that baseball and softball are to be cut from olympic competition from 2012. rugby, karate, rollersports, golf, and squash have been rumored to be included. the ioc meets later today to discuss the new olympic program.

the vote, held in singapore, surprised some supporters of the sports, who believed that there were enough votes to retain them.


death toll from london bombings rises to 37

later police statements have confirmed a rise in the death toll from the london bombings, which initial reports on july 7 had put at 33.

at 08:51 bst a bomb exploded on an hammersmith & city line underground train 91 metres/100 yards into the tunnel from liverpool street. seven are known to be dead.

at 08:56 bst a bomb detonated on a piccadilly line train between king's cross and russell square. twenty-one are dead.

at 09:17 bst a bomb exploded on a circle line train between edgware road station and paddington. the blast blew a hole in a wall, and another train was hit by debris from it. a third train is also involved. five died.

at 09:47 bst a no. 30 bus (hackney - marble arch) blew up at the junction between tavistock square and woburn place. two people were killed.

around seven hundred people were injured. three hundred were taken to hospital by ambulance, while the remainder presented themselves.



london transport system returning to normal

twenty-four hours after a series of bomb blasts rocked london, the city's transport system is returning to normal, although a series of security alerts have caused some disruption.

all the major train stations are now open, with the only service alteration being at king's cross, where gner is operating a revised service. suburban services in and out of king's cross are normal.

on the london underground, services are running on most lines with only some delays. four lines are still seriously affected though:





the king's cross st pancras station is also closed.

on the roads, the london congestion charge has been suspended, although transport for london is advising against driving in central london today.

several roads remain closed as of 9.20am bst - the a11 (aldgate highstreet) and the a1211 at the a10 in bishop's gate are both shut to traffic. 

the a4200 (eversholt street) is closed between the junctions with the a501 (euston road) and the a40 (vernon place).

the a3212 (millbank) is closed between the a3203 (westminster) and the a202 (vauxhall bridge road).

finally, the b452 (argyle road / drayton green road) is closed between sutherland road and manor road.

outside of london, the motorway network is running well.

one wikinews reporter in central london noted how many more cyclists there were, especially in hyde park.



security alerts in central london

there have been a series of security alerts in london this morning.

euston, liverpool street station, and charing cross train stations have all reopened after they were closed at some point after earlier alerts proved to be false alarms.


london bombing death toll rises to 'more than 50'

in a press conference this morning, the metropolitan police service has announced that the death toll from yesterday's bombing has risen to "more than 50". (initial reports had put it at 33, rising in later reports to 37.) police are unable to give an exact figure at this moment due to the difficulty of removing bodies, and believe the figure is likely to rise. some bodies have yet to be recovered from the piccadilly line train caught between kings cross and russell square.

however speaking at the press conference, metropolitan police chief sir ian blair said he did not expect the death toll to reach three figures. the total number of casualties remains at 700, with 350 requiring hospital treatment. twenty-two people remain in hospital in a serious condition, with one person dying. 

"watched live on sky"


suspended sentence for sasser worm author

author of the sasser worm, sven jaschan (19), was convicted today for 
three cases of computer sabotage and four of illegal data modification, to which he had pleaded guilty at the start of his four-day trial. 

the regional court in verden, germany, condemned jaschan to a 21 month suspended sentence. he is also expected to undertake 30 hours of community service and will not have to pay court costs. public prosecutor lutz gaebel had called for 200 hours of community service and a two-year suspended sentence.

jaschan, an 18 year old computer science student at the time, was arrested in may 2004 after international investigations were launched. he was then released pending trial. the arrest followed tip offs to the police, which may have been prompted by microsoft's offer of us$250,000 for information leading to the arrest of the person responsible. he was tried as a minor since he authored sasser at the age of 17. the trial was held behind closed doors, with details reported to the press by katharina krutzfeldt, the court spokesperson.

the worm began to spread in april 2004 on windows xp and windows 2000 operating systems which had not been patched with ms04-011. the worm hit companies and home users worldwide, with reported cases at agence france-presse, delta air lines, hm coastguard, goldman sachs, deutsche post, australia railcorp, and the european commission. 

the bbc reported that the worm had affected millions worldwide, and heise noted that experts had estimated several million euro worth of damage.

according to various sources jaschan was 'fingered' by a couple of his friends who were after the 'microsoft anti-virus reward' of $250,000 us dollars. according to microsoft's web site, rewards of $250,000 can still be collected for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for launching the mydoom.b worm, the sobig virus and the msblast.a [aka blaster] worm. furthermore, microsoft have another $4 million in hand for rewards required for future malicious software authors they want to have arrested and prosecuted.


blair: g8 leaders announce $50 billion aid increase; talks on trade and climate change

british prime minister tony blair announced at a press conference today the results of the 31st g8 summit in gleneagles, scotland.

blair, the seven other leaders of the g8 nations, and the leaders of algeria, ethiopia, ghana, nigeria, senegal, south africa and tanzania stood on the step of gleneagles to address the press. the prime minster said "we speak today in the shadow of terrorism but it will not obscure what we came here to achieve."

among the decisions made was a commitment to another $48 billion (￡28.8 billion) per year by 2010 in aid which blair says can indeed, in time and if properly seen through, will make "very substantial progress" towards "making poverty history". the deal was secured following a last-minute commitment by japan.

half of this aid will be sent to africa. some analysts have raised fears that african economies will not be able to absorb so much aid so quickly, and that the money could fuel corruption.

only $20 billion of this deal is new money - the rest has already been pledged on previous occasions.

the us, germany and italy rejected a plan by blair to double aid immediately by borrowing against future aid budgets.

"it isn't the end of poverty in africa, but it is the hope that it can be ended," blair said. "it isn't all everyone wanted, but it is progress - real and achievable progress. it is the definitive expression of our collective will to act in the face of death and disease and conflict that is preventable"

there will also be further pushes towards ending the debt of the poorest nations, but only confirmed a earlier deal to cancel the debts of 18 countries.

campaigners have welcomed the news, but have said that it does not go far enough, falling short of the hopes of the people who had embraced the live 8 and make poverty history drives. 

"today the g8 have chosen not to do all that campaigners insist is necessary to free people trapped in the prison of poverty," the make poverty history read this evening. "but more action is urgently needed if they are to play their role in bringing about real change for the world's poorest people."

the leaders also pledged to end farm subsidies - but did not say by when. however, they called for talks on trade liberalisation to reach a conclusion by the end of 2006. 

the prime minister was cautious not to "over-sell" the decisions that had been made but he was resolute and confident in the possibilities for progress in the future.

less progress was made in the realm of climate change with countries agreeing that climate change was a problem but without any concrete decisions. talks will be held on the matter, particularly with china and india, beginning in november.

the g8 have also announced a $3 billion aid package for the palestinian authority. 



450 sheep leap to their deaths in turkey

450 sheep leapt to their deaths in the turkish village of gevas. the chain reaction started when one sheep went over the cliff, enticing nearly fifteen hundred others to follow. according to the aksam newspaper, by the time the 450 had died, the pile of sheep carcasses at the bottom of the cliff had apparently grown large enough to cushion the fall somewhat, resulting in the saving of the other 1550. 

"there's nothing we can do. they're all wasted," said nevzat bayhan, a member of one of the 26 families whose sheep had been lost. "every family had an average of 20 sheep," continued abdullah hazar, "but now only a few families have sheep left. it's going to be hard for us."

the sheep were worth an estimated $100k usd, which is a significant amount of money in a country whose average is only on average $2,700 usd per head.


florida declares 'state of emergency', hurricane dennis category 4 storm


florida braces for the arrival of as governor announced a on a televised press conference friday afternoon at 2:00 . dennis weakened slightly after making landfall in cuba and now packs sustained winds of 145 . thousands have fled the under a mandatory evacuation order where the storm is expected to strike sometime this evening.

the storm wobbled slightly after arriving in cuba where it claimed up to three lives. operators reported that most power lines are down in the province of , where a major seaport is located on cuba's southern coast. 

according to ", 18 lives were claimed by the storm in haiti yesterday when it passed over that island nation.

the storm is expected to continue on a north-westerly path that will brush the southern tip of florida and head up the state's gulf of mexico coastline, where warm gulf waters could fuel the storm and raise it to a category 5 storm.

speculation has begun on the possibility of higher gas prices as gulf oil refineries are threatened.

hurricane dennis comes quickly on the heels of 3-day ago , in what is noted as record storm activity for this early in the hurricane season. 



bird flu hits philippines

the first known case of bird flu in the philippines has occurred at an isolated farm in a town just north of the capital manila, the philippine government has confirmed.

agricultural secretary arthur yap said it is not clear whether it is the deadly h5n1 strain responsible for the deaths of more than 50 people in asia since 2003 but confirmed that a strain of flu, h5, had been found in ducks.

mr. yap told a news conference, "it is a low-risk flu strain found in three healthy ducks and the risk to human health is almost nil."

transportation and sales of live poultry within a three-kilometre radius of the affected farm has been banned by the government.


thirteen people died in london bus bombing

the commissioner of london's metropolitan police, sir ian blair, has announced that thirteen people died when a bomb exploded on a bus in tavistock square. initially, only two people were thought to have been killed.

all bodies have now been removed from the wrecked bus. the rear of the bus and the roof of the upper deck was torn off in the blast. the bomb was either on the floor or resting on a seat at the rear of the upper deck when it detonated. it is thought that it contained less than 10 pounds (5kg) of explosives.


8th circuit court rules 'partial birth' ban unconstitutional

upholding a previous decision by a lower court, the u.s. 8th circuit court of appeals in st. louis ruled that the federal partial birth abortion ban act is unconstitutional because it does not provide an exception for the health of the woman.

while the ban does provide an exception for the life of the mother it does not for the health of the mother.

"when `substantial medical authority' supports the medical necessity of a procedure in some instances, a health exception is constitutionally required," judge kermit bye of the 8th circuit wrote in the opinion. 

"in effect, we believe when a lack of consensus exists in the medical community, the constitution requires legislatures to err on the side of protecting women's health by including a health exception." judge bye went on to say.

the decision upheld a previous ruling by u.s. district judge richard kopf of lincoln, neb. federal judges in new york and san francisco have also ruled in decisions overturning the ban. the decisions have been appealed and are expected to eventually be addressed by the supreme court.

president bush signed the ban in 2003, but due to legal challenges it has not been enforced.

read the full opinion.


'denmark will be attacked' says one expert, 'denmark safe' says another

security in copenhagen, the capital of denmark, was tightened after the attacks on london thursday when 49 people were killed. denmark supported the u.s.-led war on iraq and fears of an attack are rising. "it's not a question of if we'll be attacked, but when" said security specialist mikkel vedby at the university in copenhagen.

"this is how the world has become in the 21st century. there are people out there that want to harm us. they are at war with us and it seems we're in war with them. we might be safe tomorrow or the next ten years." said mikkel vedby. he later added that denmark needed to get ready to face a major terrorist attack.

the group that has claimed responsibility for the attacks on london, the "secret organisation group of al-qaeda of jihad organisation", issued a statement yesterday where attacks on countries that supported the "crusades" against iraq and afghanistan are threatened. denmark is on that list. the statement has not been verified.

anja dalgaard-nielsen, a security expert from the danish institute for international studies, disagrees and says denmark is not in danger of being a terrorist target because radical islamic groups there are too small to be able to organise an attack. "it is true we are in a similar position as the uk. the danish government does work closely with the united states and the united kingdom governments because of iraq and afghanistan."

as in other countries, security in denmark has been stepped up at airports, rail stations, ports, borders, and other public places.



hurricane dennis heads for gulf coast, leaves trail of destruction in its wake

residents along the us gulf coast evacuated or hunkered down saturday as lashed the florida keys with wind and sheets of rain and churned along a path toward areas still rebuilding from last year's storms.

more than 1.4 million people from the florida panhandle to alabama, louisiana and mississippi are under evacuation orders. landfall was expected sunday afternoon anywhere from the florida panhandle to southeast louisiana.

at 6am cdt july 10, the center of hurricane dennis was located near latitude 28.2 north, longitude 86.2 west.

dennis is moving north-northwest at about 15 mph.

as of 6am cdt july 10, according to the national weather service, maximum sustained winds are near 145 mph, making dennis a category four hurricane on the . the national weather service is calling this an extremely dangerous storm.
hurricane force winds extend outward 125-140 miles from the center. rainfall totals of 12 inches are expected along the united states gulf coast, meaning flash flooding will be a concern in many areas. storm surges in excess of 12-14 feet are expected along the gulf coast from the florida panhandle west through louisiana. isolated tornadoes are possible throughout florida tonight and tomorrow.

dennis churned into cuba packing winds in excess of 145 mph, leaving homes destroyed, and leading to reliance on as a means of communication. according to cnn, dennis caused at least 10 deaths throughout cuba. the cuban meteorological service reported destruction to 85% of its communication infrastructure. 
flooding led to widespread problems in haiti, where the storm claimed 22 lives according to cnn. mudslides, triggered by the large volume of rain blocked roads and sent 3,000 people to seek shelter in designated storm shelters in jamaica. 

when the storm moved across cuba, oil companies began shutting down rigs in the gulf of mexico and residents in coastal areas of the united states started boarding up windows and preparing for the worst. the storm is expected to make landfall in the united states sometime sunday evening, following a similar path as hurricane ivan last year. current paths indicate the florida keys will be brushed by on the way to the florida panhandle, coming ashore near pensacola, fl. 

its current location is 


tour de france week 1 wrap up

 1. david zabriskie (usa) team csc 20:51<br>

david zabriskie dominates the course and the competition to edge out armstrong by 2 seconds. most of armstrong's challengers finish over a minute down. jan ullrich is demoralised by having lance, who started 1 minute after him, catch and overtake him.

 1. tom boonen (belgium) quick.step 3:51:31<br>

tom boonen dominates the first bunch sprint of this years tour as he powered away to finish a bike length in front of his two biggest rivals for the green points jersey in hushovd and mcewen.

 1. tom boonen (belgium) quick.step 4:36:09<br>

robbie mcewen crossed the line in third place but was relegated to last place after the jury of commissaires examined the finish in which mcewen had leaned on fellow australian heavily with his arm and head at over 60 km/h. tom boonen wins easily in front of peter wrolich and o'grady.

 1. discovery channel 1:10:39<br>

discovery channel takes the stage and lance pulls on the "maillot jaune" (yellow jersey) for the first time this year after dave zabriskie from danish team csc crashs within the last couple of kilometres of the stage. team csc had been 6 seconds in front of discovery at the 45.8km time check in onzain.

 1. robbie mcewen (australia) davitamon-lotto 3:46:00<br>

robbie mcewen edges out rival tom boonen by half a wheels length. his victory is a consolation after being relegated in stage 3 putting him behind in the chase for the sprinters green jersey.

 1. lorenzo bernucci (italy) fassa bortolo 4:12:52<br>

a stage dominated by rain and a 175km breakaway by veteran frenchman christophe mengin of the francaise des jeux team. mengin bravely held on to a narrow lead of about 10 seconds as the peleton approached the final kilometre. bernucci and vinokourov attacked just prior to this point and had almost bridged the gap when mengin went down in a slippery right hand bend. bernucci avoided mengin and stayed upright, while vinokourov slowed and pulled a foot from his pedals. as the peleton rounded the same corner almost all of the 20 riders in the peleton went down. bernucci held on to take out the first win of his pro career, while vinokourov got his foot back in and maintained his second place. vinokourov efforts enable him to gain a 7 second time split plus a time bonus of 12 second moving him up in to third in the general classification.

 1. robbie mcewen (australia) davitamon-lotto 5:03:45<br>
australian robbie mcewen wins his second stage of this years tour winning in a long straight bunch sprint in karlruhe in germany. the win levels the score between robbie and tom boonen each with 2 stage wins so far. earlier in the day fabian wegmann a german on german team gerolsteiner lead a solo breakaway from the peleton to pick up points in the king of the mountains competition. even though he was caught by the pack before the finish it was a successful day for wegmann as he claimed the polka dot jersey for the king of the mountains leader and also lead the tour as it pass over the border into to germany. the tour returns into france today with the stage finishing in gerardmer. 

tour de france


responsibility claim for london attacks questioned by experts

msnbc translator jacob keryakes has stated that the claim of responsibility for the london bombings of july 7, supposedly made by a militant group, contains an error in one of the verses that it cites, suggesting that the claim may be phony. "this is not something would do," he said. 

the claim of responsibility by "the secret organization of al-qaida in europe" for the london attacks has also been questioned on the grounds that the rhetoric is not consistent with militant islamic ideology. the statement asked "the nation of islam and the nation of arabism to rejoice" about the attacks. 

according to the "associated press", islamic expert mishari al-thaidi wrote in an essay published saturday in the london-based arabic "asharq al awsat" newspaper: "what strikes attention here is addressing the arab nation. the jihadists have never recognized arab nationalism. this is close to pan-arab or baathist terminology."


pittsburgh pirates rally to defeat new york mets, 6-5

the pittsburgh pirates rallied to beat the new york mets in the first game of a home series at pnc park on friday, july 8, 2005.

the pirates went into the bottom of the 9th inning down, 5-1, and gave up the first two outs but managed to load the bases. the mets then put in their closer, looper, against tike redman. redman, after fouling off several pitches in a 11-pitch at bat, finally hit one to bring the score to 5-3. looper gave up 4 runs total in the bottom of the ninth, but managed to get out of the inning with the score tied. in the top of the 10th, the pirates closer, jose mesa, allowed no hits. then, in the bottom of the tenth, humberto cota hit a line drive with men on first and second with two outs to score the winning run.


video game's secret sex scenes spark outrage

the national institute on the media and the family (nimf), a media watchdog group based in minneapolis, minnesota issued a "nationwide parental alert" today. this came after finding out about hidden sex scenes in the popular video game "grand theft auto: san andreas".

the game also has been criticised as being too violent. this is not limited to "san andreas": the entire series has come under fire for its content, mostly the last two games, "grand theft auto 3" and "grand theft auto: vice city".

the sex scenes come in the form of a "mini-game" in which the player controls the male with the task of maximising his cohort's "excitment." the hidden game in gta: san andreas is not advertised or easy to find but can be unlocked by modifying the game using a program which has been widely available on the internet for weeks. but for nimf and the entertainment software ratings board (esrb), the organization which rates video games and rated gta: san andreas 'm' for mature, the hidden mini-game came as a surprise. as such, the esrb has launched an investigation into the matter.
to unlock the hidden sex mini-game on the playstation 2 requires an action replay or gameshark. these devices cannot transfer new content to a console but can enable content already contained on the game disc. the presence of this minigame on an unmodified retail version implies that it was created by the game's creators rather than hackers or the mod community.

rockstar games, the game's publisher, refused to comment on whether the sex scenes were inserted by their programmers. rockstar games has also said, "we thoroughly support the work of the esrb, and believe that it has an exemplary record of rating games and promoting understanding of video game content. we also feel confident that the investigation will uphold the original rating of the game, as the work of the mod community is beyond the scope of either publishers or the esrb."

in the game the character may have girlfriends, and at a certain point in his stats he can entertain his girlfriend with some "coffee". however, the "hot coffee" modification unlocks the secret sex scenes after the two share a drink.

the sex scene portrays oral sex and coitus, but genitals are not shown. a video of the secret sex scene can be found here (warning: contains mature content).

it's interesting to note that modifying a video game's source code is a violation of the software licensing agreement. rockstar announced that it may pursue legal proceedings against action replay, whose device enables the hacking of the console version of san andreas. when it comes right down to it, its much easier (and quicker) to find free adult content on the internet, or download pornographic movies from a p2p network, than it is to crack a video game.

rockstar games may be subject to a mandatory recall. 



university of alberta to buy hudson's bay building

the university of alberta is set to expand into the heart of edmonton's downtown with plans now in place to purchase the aging hudson's bay building on jasper avenue between 102nd street and 103rd street. the deal, which is yet to be approved by the university's board of governors, could result in students starting classes in the building as early as september 2006.

the building has been a huge vacancy in the downtown core, with only the broadcasting corporation chum limited using any space. university of alberta president indira samarasekera has said there are no plans to ask the company, which owns 91.7 the bounce and a-channel to move.

the deal would also solve the university's space crunch. the total university population is growing much faster than the number of facilities required to support it, so expanding beyond the current campus makes sense. establishing a presence downtown will also help the university and it's many spin off companies.

the university has not yet decided how the project would be funded, but is currently looking at a number of options, including partnerships with all three levels of government.

more images are available in this flickr photoset.


nigerian sentenced to death for admitting to gay relations

philip alston, an official with the united nations is decrying a nigerian court decision to sentence a 50-year-old man to death by stoning after he admitted to having sex with another man. reports have not named the individual.

the incident in question happened after the 50-year-old man was acquitted of charges that he had sexual relations with a much younger man. during further questioning, the judge asked the accused if he ever had sex with any other men. 

upon answering yes, the judge convicted the man of sodomy and sentenced him to death by stoning.

nigeria, the most populous african country, is one of many countries that has started to adopt sharia, or traditional islamic law as detailed in the koran. since 2000, 12 of nigeria's northernmost states have adopted sharia codes for their courtrooms. under islamic law, homosexual conduct is a crime punishable by death.

"sodomy cannot be considered one of the most serious crimes for which, under international law, the death penalty can be prescribed. the punishment is wholly disproportionate," alston, u.n. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said in a written statement friday.

nigeria's southern states are mostly christian and do not follow sharia law.



san francisco anti-g8 rally turns violent

at least one police officer was rushed to a nearby hospital with head wounds. other injuries have yet to be reported. the california city, widely considered a progressive bastion in the u.s., has since 2003 allowed impromptu, unlicensed rallies and protests where police are trained not to interfere with protestors unless public safety is threatened.

the protesters began their rally at 7:47 p.m. at the corner of 16th and mission streets in san francisco near the wells fargo bank. reportedly, in less than an hour 150 people had gathered at the corner. 

by 8:51 p.m., more than 200 people began to move down the street towards 23rd and mission streets through the heart of san francisco's latino enclave. since the protestors failed to notify the city of their march and failed to get a permit, police told the marchers that the street march was illegal, asking the protesters to move to the sidewalk. 

they began to move up 24th towards valencia, where the first arrest was made of a protestor setting off illegal fireworks. protesters who didn't know the specifics, heard of the arrest and started to step off of the sidewalk and run to avoid police. at 9:14 p.m. organizers called for a regroup at 16th and mission. 

most people went to regroup, though some stayed behind. windows were broken at wells fargo, bank of america, and kfc restaurant as well as other corporate targets, labeled as symbols of global capitalism. 
american flag burnings re-energized the group and trash cans were lit on fire. protestors then moved newspaper stands into the street to create barricades against police cars. 

later, a police car was believed to have been set on fire due to a collision with a protester's sign. it turned out that it had only been a red smoke bomb. but the officer was beaten by protestors. the protest dispersed by 11:23 p.m. after an ambulance arrived to take the police officer to a nearby hospital. 

organizers of the protest reportedly claimed theirs was not just an anti-g8 protest, though they were the main target. a group calling itself "anarchist action" said that the protest was also march against capitalism and gentrification in san francisco. 


news briefs:july 9, 2005

as reported by at 12:45 utc on july 9, 2005. this is wikinews: news briefs.

an official with the united nations is decrying a nigerian court decision to sentence a 50-year-old man to death by stoning after he admitting to having sex with another man. reports have not named the individual.

the incident in question happened after the 50-year-old man was acquitted of charges that he had sexual relations with a much younger man. during further questioning, the judge asked the accused if he ever had sex with any other men.

upon answering yes, the judge convicted the man of sodomy and sentenced him to death by stoning.

nigeria, the most populous african country, is one of many countries that has started to adopt sharia, or traditional islamic law as detailed in the koran. since 2000, 12 of nigeria's northernmost states have adopted sharia codes for their courtrooms. under islamic law, homosexual conduct is a crime punishable by death.

residents of the gulf coast are bracing for the landfall of hurricane dennis, a storm that has left a path of destruction throughout the island nations of jamaica, haiti, and cuba. the hurricane's sustained winds have dropped to 115 mph after making landfall in cuba. the hurricane is now rated category 3.

the lower florida keys are under a hurricane warning while the remainder of the keys should expect high winds and rain associated with tropical storms.

msbnc translator jacob keryakes has stated that the claim of responsibility for the london bombings of july 7th, made by a militant islamist group, contains an error in one of the quranic verses that it cites; suggesting that the claim may be phony. "this is not something al-qaeda would do." he said.

the national institute on the media and the family (nimf), a media watchdog group based in minneapolis, minnesota issued a "nationwide parental alert" today. this came after finding out about the hidden sex scenes in the popular videogame "grand theft auto: san andreas".

thank you for joining us today. to receive more up-to-date news items as they occur, please visit wikinews.org.

and, be sure to check out our daily full-length audio news program, called audio wikinews: full report.

i'm malfidus, reporting for wikinews.org. have a good day.
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weening takes stage to gerardmer in photo finish

24-year-old dutchman pieter weening takes out the eighth stage of the tour de france to gerardmer by millimetres over german andreas kloden. 

weening joined a breakaway just as the route crossed the border to return to france after starting the day in germany. weening was caught by kloden just before he reached the summit of the col de la schlucht with 15 km to the finish. 

weening and kloden worked together to hold off the 30 strong pack by 27 seconds. weening sat in kloden's slipstream as they approached the line, and pulled out at the last moment to pip the german on the line by millimetres. 



london tube bombs went 'bang bang bang, very close together'

after a press conference in london from the metropolitan police and transport for london, more details are emerging about the attacks in london on thursday.

data from the underground system's power and control systems have revealed that all three bombs went off within 50 seconds of each other, at 8.50am, with the managing director of transport for london, tim o'toole saying the bombs went "bang bang bang, very close together".

the first bomb to detonate was on the liverpool street train soon after it left for aldgate on the circle line, seconds before the others. the blast tripped out the power system, visible in the control room. the first call the police received that morning reported "a bang" at aldgate east, coming within a minute of the blast.

the edgware road train, leaving for paddington and also on the circle, exploded opposite a train coming from the other direction, making people think at first that it was a derailment. the first call to the police spoke not of an explosion, but of a person falling under the wheels of the train. the confirmation of a bomb did not come until 9.17am, but by that time the emergency services were already on scene.

transport for london's new "trackernet" software is fully opertational on the circle line, which allows for precise tracking of trains, but is not yet fully installed on the piccadilly line. the first indication of the piccadilly line bomb was when the tunnel telephone system wires were cut by the blast, an event logged by other software. the cutting of the lines then tripped out the track current. the tunnel itself suffered only slight damage and is safe, but the train - which was packed with commuters heading for russell square - is very badly damaged.

london underground declared a 'code amber' within minutes, moving trains to platforms and opening all doors. a 'code red' - full evacuation - was set at around 9.15am. o'toole described the decision to evacuate as being "very grave, not taken lightly". when questioned as to whether everything possible had been done on the day to save lives, the managing director of transport for london was "very proud" of the choices made that morning.

as investigations continue, all bodies have been removed from the sub-surface circle line trains, but the carriages themselves are still in situ while a painstaking forensic investigation takes place.

currently, work is on-going to retrieve bodies and forensic evidence from the carriage of the train in the deep tunnel of the piccadilly line near king's cross. teams of rescue workers looking for human remains are working alongside forensics experts in a "meticulous" search to find evidence.

conditions are described as being very difficult, with high temperatures and lots of dust. work was halted over friday night when conditions became too bad, and resumed this morning. efforts have been made to improve the ventilation.

work will continue throughout tonight and possibly into sunday. the exact number of bodies still in the wrecked carriage is unknown.

access from king's cross is impossible, so workers are taking the longer route from russell square station to get to the front of the train.

police have revealed that the bombs were 'high explosives' - not homemade. however they are declining to be specific about their composition as the information could be useful when they interrogate suspects.

police will not confirm or deny if any parts of a timer have been found, but have said that "any device will now be in a million pieces". police believe the use of timers more likely than suicide bombings as the blasts were so closely timed, but are not ruling out anything.



walt disney co. reconciles with disney heir

today the walt disney company issued a joint statement with business partners roy e. disney and stanley gold to the media, as a show of reunion between the two camps after nearly three years of hostility. 

roy e. disney, son of company co-founder roy o. disney and nephew of the company namesake walt disney, had resigned from his job as chairman of feature animation at the company after experiencing difficulty with the company's board of directors, many of whom were biased towards company ceo michael eisner's view of what direction the company should take. 

eisner is due to retire from the company this september, and the talks with disney and gold are believed to have been led by eisner's successor, bob iger, who is currently president and coo of the company. iger has shown great interest in building relationships back up with many companies who have refused to work with disney until eisner leaves, such as pixar animation and george lucas.

large scores of disney fans had hoped roy would read the disneyland dedication speech on the theme park's fiftieth birthday next week, which was originally read by walt on the park's opening day, but roy had already entered an annual sailing race from los angeles to honolulu. 

 


london bus bomb 'an hour late'

police have revealed that the tavistock square bus bomb did not explode until nearly an hour after the bombs on the underground system detonated.

the bomb exploded at 9.47am, while all three tube bombs exploded within 50 seconds of each other at 8.50am.

police are looking into "every possibility" as to why the bomb exploded such a long time after the others, and are not ruling anything in or out.

however they have stated that the bomb, consisting of 5kg of high explosives, was in a bag on the floor or on a seat at the rear of the upper deck - and not strapped to a person.

at the scene of the blast itself a meticulous finger tip search is taking place to find evidence. the roof of the bus has been taken away for a thorough forensic examination.

the bus itself will be removed in due course.

the bus was fitted with an internal cctv system, but it has not yet been stated if it was working. however the bus was seen by numerous traffic cameras as it made its journey that morning, and police are reviewing hours of footage.

thirteen people died in the blast outside the british medical association building.



dozens left dead in caribbean as hurricane dennis moves toward u.s.

after scouring the caribbean islands, moved on toward the u.s. gulf coast but not before its deadly fury was unleashed upon the region's many island nations.

the fury of dennis overnight wracked the area with torrential flood, causing rains, dangerous , tidal swells, and winds up to 175 miles per hour. according to reports from humanitarian aid organizations, at least 10 died in cuba and 22 in haiti. as of 9 july 2005 18:06 (utc), reports of dead and injured from other caribbean countries had not been reported.

cuba, which has a national emergency response program in the event of hurricanes, evacuated 660,000 people from the eastern part of the island, which was considered to be the most vulnerable part of the country. but saturday morning, president fidel castro confirms in a national broadcast that at least 10 cubans died as a result of the storm. dennis slammed into cuba's southern coastal province of friday afternoon with category 4 force winds. it emerged on the north side of cuba considerably weakened to category 1.
in nearby jamaica, although the island was spared the full force of dennis, rains and tidal swells caused widespread flooding in 28 communities. hundreds of families faced a weekend camped out in emergency shelters as health officials inspected flood areas for safety.



uk police evacuate birmingham city centre

police are in the process of evacuating birmingham city centre and part of the ladywood residential district after having received intelligence regarding a possible threat. an estimated 20,000 people are being moved. nightlife sites are being closed and people are being told to go home. the evacuation was begun at about 8.15 p.m. (1915 utc) after the police issued a "public warning". cars are being prohibited from entry inside the inner ring road, and new street railway station, the hub of the british passenger railway system has been closed. 

a police spokeswoman said that the investigation was 'proportional' to the threat, but refused to comment on details of the threat. "west midlands police are now closing down the broad street entertainment zone and asking people to leave birmingham town centre and go home," said the spokesman.

bbc radio five live and sky news have unconfirmed reports of controlled explosions in the city's chinatown district.

a bbc news 24 correspondent reports that the police have prevented motorists from returning to their cars and hundreds of city revellers are filing their way on foot along bristol road to converge on the edgbaston cricket ground.

in a press conference, west midlands police assistant chief constable stuart hyde said that the intelligence they received is not believed to be connected to thursday's terrorist bombings in london.

earlier in the evening a controlled explosion on "a suspect package" had been carried out on a bus in corporation street, but they "no longer believe it was suspicious device".

it appears that this was a hoax, unconfirmed reports on australian teleivision have reported. the evacuation order was lifted at about 6 a.m.

broad street is the city's best-known entertainment area and is home to hundreds of bars and clubs. 


 


formula 1: alonso in lead in tomorrow's british grand prix

fernando alonso has secured himself the pole at the british grand prix in silverstone, uk. his main rival, kimi raikkonen, starts number 12 because of a penalty.

fernando alonso, renault, from spain had the best lap-time, only 19.905 seconds. kimi raikkonen, mclaren, came in second 0.027 seconds after alonso and jenson button, bar honda, third.

raikkonen suffered a engine failure and a new engine had to be installed. he automatically got a penalty and will start number 12 in tomorrows race.

current world champion michael schumacher, ferrari, got the 10th best time but the fastest ferrari car was driven by rubens barrichello.

the british grand prix pole, top ten:


appalachian mountains coal company target of protesters


a friday protest in downtown richmond drew around 200 protesters to virginia’s state capital to demonstrate against strip mining practices of massey energy company. demonstrators marched through town and gathered in front of the company’s office building where nearly 20 laid in the street of the city’s main thoroughfare, and were nearly arrested. a few linked arms around a sidewalk structure to avoid being hauled away by police.

chanting “blankenship, blankenship, blankenship,” and waving bed sheets for flags, the demonstrators demanded to be seen and heard by the massey chairman and ceo, don blankenship. arrests for civil disobedience were avoided when two security guards were sent by the company to retrieve a list of their demands. 

the demonstration, timed to coincide with scotland’s g8 conference, was organized by a group called “mountain justice summer” and environmentalists to protest mountain top removal mining techniques. the company’s mining operations are located in the appalachian mountain chain in the states of virginia, west virginia, kentucky and tennessee. massey is the united states' fourth-largest coal mining operation.

a statement issued by a massey spokesman defended their respect of people’s rights, and decried what they said was, “a great deal of misinformation.”

the "richmond times-dispatch" reported that unofficial “legal observers” accompanied the demonstrators and carried notebooks to record crowd and police activity. 




newspaper refuses to utilize leaked documents in article

on saturday, doug clifton, editor of the "cleveland plain dealer", said that the newspaper is trying to find a way to publish two "profoundly important" news stories, without the use of documents he states were illegally leaked to staff reporters. on legal advice, the newspaper was withholding the stories out of fear that reporters might be jailed. clifton did not further characterize the subject of the investigative stories. 

"basically, we have come by material leaked to us that would be problematical for the person who leaked it," mr. clifton said in a "new york times" telephone interview. "the material was under seal or something along those lines."

a newspaper industry trade journal quoted mr. clifton saying, "the reporters say, 'well, we're willing to go to jail, and i'm willing to go to jail if it gets laid on me,'" he said, "but the newspaper isn't willing to go to jail. that's what the lawyers have told us. so this is a time inc. sort of situation," according to "editor & publisher".

the "time inc." reporter matt cooper, who along with "new york times" correspondent judith miller, both long held out against a contempt of court order to name their sources in the outing of valerie plame. cooper agreed wednesday to testify, but it is unclear if he has the consent of his source, and miller was sentenced to jail for refusing to cooperate.

although "time inc." was not specifically pursued by special prosecutor patrick j. fitzgerald in the case, they agreed to release cooper's reporting notes.

the "plain dealer" has the highest circulation in ohio and was listed last year as the nation's 21st largest daily paper. 


 


north korea to rejoin six-nation talks

last night, north korea agreed to rejoin a six-nation talk on disarming its nuclear weapons after more than a year of dissent. the agreement was reached at a dinner meeting hosted by the chinese which included assistant secretary of state christopher hill. at the same time secretary of state condoleezza rice arrived in beijing.

north korea's korean central news agency issued a statement saying the talks would resume because the preconditions for negotiations were met: "the u.s. side clarified its official stand to recognize the dprk as a sovereign state, not to invade it and hold bilateral talks within the framework of the six-party talks." 

north korea would allow talks if the united states would treat the country with respect, referring to earlier comments by condoleezza rice, who had called north korea an "outpost of tyranny." according to the statement, the north korean government views the meeting with hill as a "retraction" of these earlier comments.

the chinese government has offered to host the talks once again. china has hosted three prior talks without substantial results.


mixed reactions to g8 summit

on friday, the annual meeting of the leaders of the world's eight most powerful countries, the group of eight (g8), ended ahead of schedule with few resolutions to the disappointment of many. the g8 meeting ended early friday to accommodate tony blair, who requested to return to london in response to thursday's bombings in london. at the conclusion of the meeting, the leaders , however $30 billion had already been pledged previously.

the group was unable to make significant progress regarding global warming, but made several key decisions relating to combating poverty in africa. the eight leaders pledged to double the previously proposed aid of $25 billion to $50 billion a year by 2010. the group also confirmed an earlier announcement that they would cancel the debt of 18 countries, mostly in africa, selected from among the 38 heavily indebted poor countries (hipcs).

additionally, $2 billion was earmarked for aid to the palestine nation. in addition to the increase in aid for africa, the group announced universal access to aids treatment, committed to a peacekeeping force in africa, and heard african leaders' promises to move toward democracies that follow the rule of law.

adriano campolina soares, head of actionaid's americas office, stated her disappointment with the resolutions. "the g8 have completely failed to deliver trade justice. president george w. bush and the european union have played a cynical game of bluff. the us has no intention of giving up or lowering the massive subsidies it gives its cotton farmers, that are forcing 10 million farmers in west africa out of business. poor countries should take this as a warning that they will have a hard fight in the upcoming trade talks at the world trade organization."

jennifer morgan, climate-change director for the world wildlife fund expressed frustration with the united states' effort. "there's been no movement from the bush administration, even the very noble efforts of prime minister blair to get president bush to change his position have failed."
u2 singer bono sees it in a different perspective. "it's worth stopping for a second and looking back down the valley of where we've come from, we jumped up and down when live 8 raised $200 million, and now, to stop for a second, we are talking about $25 billion in new money."

live 8 organizer bob geldof described the summit as a "qualified triumph." 

gordon brown, british chancellor of the exchequer: "it makes you angry because there's nothing in science or technology or medicine that should prevent us from tackling poverty. it's a lack of political will and if gleneagles is about anything it's bringing together all the countries of the world - rich and poor - agreeing that we've got to take the action that's necessary. that's why i hope by the time gleneagles is finished we can say that the timetable for action and poverty is one that will lead to great improvements by 2015."



former sudanese rebel leader john garang sworn in as vice president of sudan

former sudanese rebel leader john garang was sworn in as vice president of sudan as part of the agreement ending the second sudanese civil war. he is the first vice president the country has had.

as well as the vice presidency, garang will have control over the autonomous southern region of sudan.

"i john garang demabior swear by almighty god that as the first vice president of the republic of the sudan, i shall be faithful and bear true allegiance to the republic of the sudan." he said.


birmingham uk threat was 'real and very credible'

birmingham police have re-opened the british city's centre after evacuating 20,000 people from it last night.

the cordon had been largely lifted at 6am bst after the centre was sealed off for most of the night.

police chief constable paul scott said on sunday that "a real and very credible threat" had faced birmingham, but he declined to be specific about its nature.

however he stressed that the intelligence he had received indicated that the threat had been genuine.

scott said that the evacuation had been "a proportionate response to the information. we haven't had this level of threat before, the people of birmingham were in danger last night."

but the chief constable also explained that "i do not believe that the incident that we are dealing with this evening is connected with the events of july 7 in london."

four controlled explosions were carried out on a bus to destroy suspected explosive devices after a call by a member of the public, but later investigations showed that they had been safe. 

a further suspicious package at the travelodge hotel on broad street was also declared safe.


luxembourg votes yes to the eu treaty

the people of luxembourg voted a slight yes today on a referendum on the eu constitution, which was the first national referendum since 1937. a large turnout was expected considering that there is a legal obligation to vote in luxembourg, overall 220 000 people voted out of 223 000 voters. a close vote was expected as the last opinion poll a month ago indicated a small advantage for the "yes", but a substantial 16% of non-decided.

the results were 56.52% voted "jo" (yes) and 43.48% voted "nee" (no).

traditionally, luxembourgers are pro-european, and all the major parties backed the approval. however globalisation, rising unemployment, immigration & the new eastern members made some of them feel uneasy, same as in neighbouring france and in the netherlands where a majority of people rejected the treaty. 


hurricane dennis makes landfall on gulf coast near pensacola

, and were the first florida counties hit by the of the hurricane at 3:25 sunday afternoon.
the small storm eye of the powerful hurricane spared the region more major destruction.

the compact storm picked up travel speed from 14 to 18 mph as it came to within 3 hours of landfall, where the storm's eye made for the pensacola bay. its strength suddenly dropped from category 4 before it struck land and moved swiftly inland. it continued to gain speed, traveling at 21 mph, while its strength sapped to category 2 on a track into the ohio valley.

residents of and who remained in the region, were told hours before the storm's arrival that storm shelters were full, and they were urged to stay home or find other shelter. in escambia county florida, officials announced at 2pm they were no longer able to respond to calls for help due to the high winds.

the storm came 10 months after , which struck the panhandle and region last year. dennis landed just 50 miles east of ivan's, where recovery efforts from that storm were still ongoing. the dennis landfall matched ivan's category 3 wind speeds.

power outages were reported in mobile and across the panhandle. florida governor jeb bush promised in a televised press conference that all efforts to restore power would be done as quickly as possible so that, "people can help themselves" recover from the storm. a hospital administrator at sacred heart hospital in pensacola said it lost power at 2:30pm, and can operate 60 hours using back-up power generators.

sunday evening, president bush declared that florida has major disaster areas, making the state eligible for fema assistance. 

in alabama, interstate highway i-65 was re-routed for northbound traffic only when an evacuation order was issued on friday, by , for and counties. northern parts of the state, up into the southern part of tennessee, were booked full with those who evacuated. a curfew lifted sunday at 6pm in the city of mobile.

the mississippi region was victim of the category 5 storm, , in 1969. 



baugur group withdraws from somerfield bid

the icelandic investment firm baugur has decided to withdraw from the somerfield bid because of legal action against some of it's core employees including its ceo, jon Asgeir jonsson, and chief of board, haukur loftsson. baugur group will also sell each share it owns in somerfield.

baugur group had previously made eur1.5 billion bid as had been covered on wikinews.

baugur makes a us$1,8 billion bid for somerfield

baugur used to own 5.5% of somerfield's shares, but they will be sold to the iranian businessman roberts tchenguiz for 190 pence per share, in total about 55 million pounds. baugur will probably earn 30 million pounds by selling them.

baugur has also reached agreement with it's partner companies that if they will be able too buy somerfield they will repay baugur what it has spent on research.

baugur decided to withdraw from the bid so that the legal actions would not harm it's partner companies.


worker's party leader detained in sao paulo's airport with $100,000 hidden in his underpants

on friday, brazilian police officers detained a leader of the workers' party at airport of congonhas in sao paulo. he tried to board carrying r$200,000 (83,744.90 usd) and us$100,000 undeclared in cash. the money was hidden in his bag and in his underwear.

the man who was detained is jose adalberto vieira da silva, 39, organization secretary of the workers' party from ceara and the adviser of state deputy jose nobre guimaraes. guimaraes is the brother of jose genoino, president of the workers' party, the ruling party in brazil.

jose adalberto, was detained on friday, at about 11 a.m. (local time) when he was boarding to fortaleza. authorities detected through the airport's x-rays equipment that a great quantity of money was inside adalberto's bag. after the bag was opened, the officers discovered r$200,000 (83,744.90 usd) in cash. the authorities took jose adalberto to another room in the airport. after searching in his clothing, police officers discovered us$100,000 hidden in adalberto's underpants. the authorities charged jose adalberto for boarding without notification with more than r$10,000 (4,187.25 usd), which is forbidden by brazilian laws.

adalberto is currently being held in sao paulo, awaiting trial. the deputy jose nobre guimaraes denied any involvement in this case and fired jose adalberto vieira da silva.

jose genoino, the worker's party president, resigned on saturday (9). mr tarso genro, the current minister of education, left the ministry and assumed the worker's party presidency.

jose genoino is the third official to resign since the brazilian deputy roberto jefferson began to give details about an alleged huge corruption scheme involving politicians from the government, the worker's party, the brazilian agency of intelligence (abin) and public and private enterprises. on july 5, the party's treasurer delubio soares and the general-secretary silvio pereira had resigned.

more photos from brazilian federal police:




uk remembers end of world war ii sixty years on

a day of national commemoration has taken place across the united kingdom, with the main events in london, to mark the culmination of a week commemorating the 60th anniversary of the end of world war ii. it is expected to be the last official national commemoration in the united kingdom to mark the end of wwii.

after consulting veterans groups, the british government chose to hold the national day of commemorations on 10 july, instead of separate days for ve day (8 may) and vj day (15 august).

the day began with a service at westminster abbey at 11:00 bst, led by queen elizabeth ii and attended by prime minister tony blair, archbishop of canterbury rowan williams and hundreds of world war ii veterans. the terrorist attacks in london on 7 july were also mentioned during the service, drawing parallels between the resilience of londoners during the blitz in wwii. a lunch was later held by the queen at buckingham palace for wwii veterans of the armed forces and home front. 

the queen later led the parade down the mall in a carriage, escorted by the household cavalry. a "reflections of world war ii commemoration show" began at 15:00 on horse guards parade, attended by the royal family, politicians, veterans and others. the show was designed to portray a variety of experiences of world war ii, including speeches, such as prime minister winston churchill's "we shall fight on the beaches...", and popular songs of the time, all of which were performed by current entertainers, including actor robert hardy, who portrayed winston churchill. the queen made an address during the show, expressing her admiration for veterans of wwii while also drawing on the recent attacks on london. 

the guns of the light cruiser hms belfast, which saw service in wwii, signalled the beginning of a two-minute silence at 15:45 pm, which ended again with the firing of belfast's guns. buglers of the indian army performed the last post.

a "parade of standards", numbering over a hundred, began to march down the mall to buckingham palace at 16:15, led by the queen in an open-top car. large crowds began to converge on the palace, with the royal family later appearing on the palace's balcony, evoking memories of the ve day celebrations on 8 may 1945. a flypast of wwii-era aircraft took place at 17:00, including a lancaster bomber, flanked by a hawker hurricane and supermarine spitfire, which released a million poppies.

in new zealand, prince william of wales, who is visiting new zealand for his first official royal duties abroad, laid a wreath at the auckland cenotaph to commemorate the end of world war ii. new zealand prime minister helen clark and governor-general dame silvia cartwright also attended. 


new enterprise linux distribution on the horizon

sources close to three distributors of the gnu/linux operating systems have announced that progeny, mandriva and turbolinux are working together on a new enterprise linux distribution in the hope of competing with novell's and red hat's products. 

the new distribution will be debian-based, making it the first debian-based enterprise linux distribution. according to eweek.com, the distribution will support both debian's native .deb package format (including apt) and red hat's original rpm system, in order to remain compatible with the many red hat-based enterprise distributions such as red hat enterprise linux and suse - according to one vendor, "basically the objective is to produce a distro that can act like debian, use the debian repository, but any red hat engineer should be comfortable with it." the distribution will also include a (within debian) pioneering web-based service manager for easy system administration, comparable to rhel's tools of late.


meth use now usa's top drug problem, survey finds

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methamphetamine use is now the nation's most serious drug issue, according to a survey recently completed by the national association of counties (naco). the survey received responses from 500 county law enforcement agencies in 45 states. 58 percent of counties in the survey said that methamphetamine was their largest drug problem followed by cocaine (19%), marijuana (17%) and heroin (3%) as the most problematic drug for each county. 

methamphetamine is a growing problem, nearly double what it was three years ago in many regions. over the last three years, 88 percent of counties have experienced an increase of meth-related crimes. regions reporting the largest growth include the upper midwest, southwest, and the northwest - all reported a 93 percent increase in meth-related arrests. the lower midwest came in a close second with arrests increasing by 90 percent. 

meth labs use highly flammable and explosive materials to produce the drug. due to this, meth labs have been known to explode in spectacularly devastating events. the waste produced in the process of making methamphetamine is disposed of using improper methods, leaving significant amounts of toxic waste in streams, groundwater, and septic systems.

the report contains numerous inaccuracies. notably it states that "in the past 70 years, a new group of drugs have appeared on the horizon. these are not drugs like heroin, marijuana, and cocaine, but rather the synthetic drugs that use amphetamines as a primary ingredient in their manufacture. known collectively as methamphetamine, they have been nicknamed meth, crank, crystal, speed and many other local or regional variations."

amphetamine was first synthesized in 1887, dating the appearance of amphetamines to almost 120 years ago, not 70 as stated in the report. the drugs themselves are known collectively as "amphetamines" not as "methamphetamine" which is only one specific compound, not a group of compounds. other amphetamines include dexedrine, mdma (ecstacy), mda, and mde. amphetamine itself has been prescribed to millions of children and adults alike to treat add/adhd. dexedrine has been used by the air force to keep pilots alert during long missions. 

in another error of fact the report states that "in 1965 the federal food and drug laws were amended to try to decrease the black market sales of amphetamines" - amphetamine products were first curbed in 1959 when benzedrine was removed from store shelves by the fda. it is possible that the authors thought that the comprehensive methamphetamine control act of 1996 was a 1965 bill because its designator was "bill number s.1965".


wild storms lash new south wales south coast

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gale force winds ripped through sydney and the south coast of new south wales late on saturday night, causing widespread damage and extensive power outages, with up to 30,000 homes going without electricity at one point. the strong winds caused trees to be uprooted, in one instance crashing down upon an unsuspecting motorist, killing a man in his 60's and severely injuring his wife.

the state emergency service (ses) has responded to over 800 calls for help to repair damage caused by the storms, however the storms have subsided somewhat and flood warnings around bega and moruya have been withdrawn.

 


100 participate in zagreb pride

one hundred people walked in zagreb pride parade yesterday in zagreb, croatia. guarded by five hundred policemen, the parade promoting tolerance towards non-heterosexual people went without any major incidents. helena ?timac radin, president of the government's institution for sexual equality, was present at the parade.

organizers of the parade, the feminist organization epikriza, said that postponing the event caused low turnout this year. it was not clear for about three weeks if the parade would take place at all, as the initial organization iskorak, which was supposed to organize the parade this year, decided not to initiate it as they felt another type of event would be more appropriate.

participants held banners saying "love always wins", "homophobia is illness" and "sexual education into schools". 

several groups of people protested the parade, carrying banners reading "raise your own children, not mine." they also disseminated flyers with "croatian women and men, say no to faggoting of croatia" written on them.

"i am angry because my tax money is spent on this kind of thing. there is money for these sick people, but there isn't for schools and kindergartens. it drives me crazy", one of the protestors said according to the newspaper novi list. the parade was in part sponsored by the city of zagreb.

bypassers shouted insults at the paraders, who replied with "gay is ok" and "zagreb is gay". police checked the identification of several skinheaded young men, but there were no larger incidents.


abbott labs ends dispute with brazilian government over aids drug

two weeks ago, the government of brazil threatened to break the patent on the most widely-prescribed aids medication, keletra (produced by abbott labs), if the makers would not comply with the government's requests. after holding its ground during the days leading up to the deadline set by brazilian authorities, abbot labs has finally reached an agreement with the brazilian government and is lowering its prices to levels deemed appropriate by the government of brazil. 

brazilian law allows brazil to break patents on medicines when there is a "risk to public health". after determining that the current prices were so exorbitant that they posed a significant risk to public health, the brazilian government-owned chemical laboratories could begin manufacturing the drug themselves. 

brazil spent $107 million producing the drug this past year, and stated that the new financial deal will save the government $18 million next year, and $259 million over the next six years.

brazilian citizens receive free aids medication, paid for by the government. this bulk purchasing arrangement allows brazilian citizens to receive the most affordable healthcare in the developed world.


australian pm promises to assist corby

australian prime minister john howard has promised that his government will do whatever it can to assist schapelle corby's legal team. he said this as part of a three page letter sent in response to a request from corby herself. 

"let me assure you that the australian government will continue to provide every assistance it can under our legal system, consistent with our approach to date," he said. 

corby was recently sentenced by an indonesian court to 20 years in jail for attempting to smuggle four kilograms of marijuana into the island of bali. the case has been controversial in australia, with many people believing she is innocent and that the legal process was unfair.
it has been alleged that the drugs were planted in ms. corby's luggage by baggage handlers, as part of a smuggling ring internal to australia, and that they were not collected by the intended "pick up", leaving them in ms. corby's possession when she arrived in bali. the bali high court decided during an appeal that new evidence should be heard in the case. during the original case a number of key witnesses were not called. 

corby's lawyers are now collecting new information and preparing for the case. mr howard pledged to support them in this process. 

"looking ahead, the australian government will do what it can to support your legal team as they work to collect further evidence in australia", he said. 


remembering srebrenice massacre

tens of thousands of people gathered in srebrenica today to remember the massacre of over 8,000 muslims, mostly men and boys, which happened on 11th july 1995. this is considered the worst atrocity in europe since the end of world war ii.

610 victims of the massacres were buried today after their bodies were recovered from multiple mass graves. 1,300 bodies have been identified with dna testing but 4,500 body bags of human remain still need to be identified

serbian president boris tadic attended the memorial and paid his tribute to the victims by bowing before their coffins. tadic's attendance caused outrage among serbian hardliners but has been applauded by the international community.

french, dutch and uk ministers were also present, as well as former us balkan envoy richard holbrook.
uk foreign secretary jack straw apologized on behalf of the world community stating that it is ""the shame of the international community that this evil took place under our noses and we did nothing about it"". he also called it ""sickening"" that radovan karadzic and general ratko mladic, the men accused of overseeing the massacre, have not yet been captured and brought to justice.

security was tight after two bombs were found in the area last week. more than 1,500 policemen are patrolling the area.


ryanair launches more shannon airport routes


irish low fares airline ryanair has announced it is to commence service of two new routes from shannon airport in county clare, ireland. it will now fly to bristol, england daily and to nantes, france three times a week. the airline will also increase the frequency of its shannon-frankfurt route.

shannon airport has seen its traffic figures soar in the past year since ryanair established a new base there. ryanair ceo michael o'leary has said he expects the new routes to bring an additional 200,000 passengers to the airport.

despite the positive announcement of the new routes on thursday, ryanair's share price plunged by 10% on the same day due to the london bombings that morning. however the share price recovered substantially on friday.

ryanair is the world's most profitable airline, having reported record profits of ?269m earlier this year, and is pursuing an aggressive expansion plan which will see it's total number of passengers jump to 70m over the next few years. at present ryanair has 91 aircraft and 230 boeing 737's on order.




temperature in east iceland reaches 25 degrees celsius (77°f)

this summer has brought a large amount of sunlight to iceland. temperatures have been soaring upwards in the eastern and north eastern regions of iceland over the last few days, with the temperature reaching as much as 25 degrees celsius (77° fahrenheit) in midjardarnesi. 

at egilstadir, near to landsvirkjun's "karahnjukavirkjun" dam construction site it's been around 24°c (75°f).

the icelandic weather agency is predicting continuing hot weather in east iceland. the sun could even start shining in reykjavik, the capital city of iceland, later this week.

much of western europe has been experiencing particularly hot weather this week with much of ireland enjoying temperatures between 24°c and 26°c (75-79°f) since saturday afternoon.


gas explosion in russian shopping center kills 24

an explosion at a shopping center in the northern russian city of ukhta has resulted in several fatalities, a fire and dozens of injuries. rescuers raised the death toll to 24 on tuesday. at least 30 people have been injured.

the explosion occurred in a shop called "passazh" at 1:58pm local time (9:58am utc). local police have said that the explosion was caused by a gas canister. 

ukhta is an important industrial city in the komi republic of northwestern russia. its population is around 100,000 and is located near rich gas and oil reserves.


bskyb director joins setanta

the former managing director of bskyb, trevor east, has been appointed director of sport at irish sports tv company setanta. prior to working for bskyb mr. east, 54, was head of sport at itv for 22 years. the new role will involve gaining the rights to different sports events, and possibly even the premiership.

setanta initially started out by broadcasting gaa games to irish people living abroad particularly in the us. today, backed by an investment by aig, it is pursuing an ambitious plan to grow its business - it currently broadcasts the scottish premier league and earlier this week it bought control of north american sports network. north american sports network broadcasts baseball, nfl football, basketball and nascar motor racing outside the us. also in the planning stages is a european sports station for the us market.



false security alarm in bradford, england

on monday, brittania house in bradford, uk was closed due to a security alert. a wikinews reporter received notification that the yorkshire building society howard house branch was closed until further notice. this turned out to be an evacuation of a small area due to a suspect package. it was a false alarm.

britain has been in an increased state of vigilance since last thursday's attack with fifty security alerts on the tube according to metro newspaper and the evacuation of birmingham city centre on saturday night.


yankees defeat indians, 9-4; win 7 of last 8 heading into the all-star break

the new york yankees rebounded from a tough loss on saturday to win sunday's game 9-4 against the cleveland indians thanks to some timely hitting.

randy johnson (9-6) allowed three runs on nine hits, six of which were leadoff hits. his performance bested tribe starter jake westbrook (6-11), who pitched well to start the game but then surrendered two runs in the 4th inning and three in the 5th as the yankees' hitters constructed a lead.

recently acquired reliever wayne franklin threatened to lose the lead in the 7th inning, but was saved by tanyon sturtze, who came on to get the final out of the inning. gary sheffield then responded in the bottom of the inning with a three-run homer hit deep into the right-center field bleachers, stretching the yankee lead to 9-4.

mariano rivera closed out the game with a two-inning appearance, recording his 20th save. he enters the all-star break preparing for tuesday's game, along with sheffield and alex rodriguez. the yankees currently trail the al east leader boston red sox by 2.5 games, but face tough road series against the bosox, rangers, and angels when play resumes on thursday.



palestinian radio station broadcasts praise for london terror attacks

a muslim preacher has used a gaza radio station to praise the "blessed actions" of those responsible for the london terror attacks. the unidentified preacher made an appearance saturday on the controversial station sawt al-quds, during which he praised both the london attacks and the assassination of egypt's ambassador to iraq, ihab al-sherif.

in a statement translated by the right-wing israel national news, the preacher also attributed the bomb attacks in london to osama bin laden, saying they were a timely response from the terrorist leader to scenes of public celebration following london's successful olympic bid. 

"the sirens of joy were heard in britain, and osama bin laden again redrew the map, thus announcing that the voice of the subjugated will be heard everywhere."

sawt al-quds ("voice of jerusalem") is a syrian-based radio station broadcasting to the gaza strip. it is believed to be affiliated with islamic jihad.

the london bombings have been condemned by many muslim clerics. speaking of the response by iraqis to the london bombings, a uk spokesperson for the multi-national division (south-east) said, "most of the feed back from friday pray[ers] in the british area of operation were against the attacks on london."


german opposition launches election campaign

germany's main opposition parties, the cdu and its sister party, the bavarian csu, presented their manifesto for the upcoming federal election in berlin today. with this progam, titled "deutschlands chancen nutzen" (using germany's opportunities), the cdu wants to return to power in the election, which will most likely take place on september 18th of this year.

the number one issue in this election will be employment. germany is struggling with 4.7 million unemployed people and the cdu wants to reduce labor costs and make the hiring and firing of new employees easier. the party also intends to reduce income-taxes but plans to raise the value-added tax from 16% to 18%.

party chair angela merkel, the cdu's candidate for chancellor, called their program the ""most honest in a long time"" while incumbent chancellor gerhard schroder said that merkel would make ""everything more expensive and nothing better"".


pride critical countdown 2005 results

japan's saitama super arena played host to a soldout crowd of 45,102 mixed martial arts fans, eager to see the second portion of the pride fighting championship middleweight grand prix on june 26th. fans in the west had to wait until the pay per view aired on july 1st, but most agree that it was well worth the wait. 

the main events featured the remaning eight contenders from april 23rds 'total elimination 2005', held at the osaka dome. 

"wanderlei silva defeated kazuhiro nakamura by tko (strikes) 5:24 into round one. "

"mauricio rua won by unanimous decision after 3 scheduled rounds of action. "

"ricardo arona won by tko due to injury (corner stoppage) at the end of round two."

"alistair overeem defeated igor vovchanchyn by submission (guillotine choke) 1:20 into round one, making this the shortest fight of the evening. "

"sergei kharitonov defeated pedro rizzo by tko (strikes) 2:02 into round one."

"mirko "cro cop" filipovic defeated ibragim magomedov by tko (body kick) 3:53 into round one."

"kiyoshi tamura won by unanimous decision after 3 scheduled rounds of action. "

"antonio rodrigo nogueira defeated pawel nastula by tko (strikes) 8:38 into round one. "

wanderlei silva, mauricio “shogun” rua, ricardo arona, and alistair overeem will advance to the championship round of pride's 2005 tournament, final conflict. 


funding for new museum of liverpool approved

in liverpool, england the north west development agency (nwda) has approved funds of nearly ￡33 million (about $57.6 million u.s. dollars) for the construction of the museum of liverpool on mann island at the pier head ? part of liverpool's unesco world heritage site waterfront. an additional ￡7.5 million (about 13.1 million u.s. dollars) has been allocated for the creation of a canal link across mann island, encompassing central docks, the pier head, and the albert dock.

the museum is to replace the current museum of liverpool life. the future museum, which is presently a ￡65 million pound project, is to be the situated on the site of the failed "fourth grace" building. the "three graces" are: the royal liverpool building, the cunard building; and the port of liverpool building. the abortive fourth grace was a controversial building known as "the cloud", the brainchild of architect will alsop. it was cancelled in july 2004 after local opposition, rising costs and the belief that the design was unrealistic. 

the future museum, which will be designed in the shape of an "x", will feature 10,000 square metres of exhibition space on liverpool's cultural and social history, including present exhibits of the museum of liverpool life.

the two projects are considered integral aspects of liverpool's successful bid in 2003 for the 2008 european capital of culture.


man charged in vehicle death of michigan woman

thomas charles damron, aged 22, was charged in the death of 18 year old kathryn sutherland, killed saturday afternoon in a four-car crash saturday afternoon near romeo, michigan.

damron, arraigned monday afternoon, was charged with operating a vehicle with the presence of drugs causing death, possession of marijuana, and negligent homicide. preliminary investigations indicate that damron crashed into the rear of another vehicle starting a chain reaction that ultimately led to still another car crossing into the westbound lane where it struck the victim's car.

kathryn sutherland died after she was airlifted to the university of michigan medical center.


fulton fish market leaves manhattan after more than 180 years

since 1822, the fulton fish market on south street in lower manhattan has been operating virtually unchanged and surrounded by the ever-changing nyc. it is expected to be relocated to a new $85 million, 400,000-square-foot facility at hunts point in the bronx beginning this week.

originally set for january, the move was delayed until this month to allow time to add more safety and security items at the new facility. 

some restaurant food buyers expressed concern that a move to the new facility will raise fishmonger prices. fish stall owners agree the move raises their overhead.

rudy washington, deputy to former mayor rudy giuliani, said that a plan by the city to open the fish unloading operations to a bidding process at the new facility could lead to mafia control. during giuliani's tenure, washington was in charge of the cleaning up the market of mafia influence. 

the market has gotten fish from a long island company since 1995. 



republicans criticize sen. clinton for comparing bush to mad magazine character

according to an "ap" report, united states senator hillary rodham clinton (d-ny) stated during the inaugural of the aspen ideas festival, "i sometimes feel that alfred e. neuman is in charge in washington." the event was organized by the , a think tank unaffiliated with any particular political party.

she claimed that bush's attitudes towards many major issues are in line with the "" character's philosophical catch line: "what, me worry?" republican groups denounced the comment, saying that sen. clinton was merely making a partisan attack for political gain at a time when the nation should be focusing on national security issues. spokeswoman tracey schmitt called senator clinton "part of today's angry and adrift democrat party."

many have speculated that the former first lady and current new york senator will make a presidential bid in the 2008 election, but the associated press related sen. clinton's words as that she is "too wrapped up in her senate work and re-election effort to think about that."


first gay marriage in spain takes place

emilio menendez, a spaniard, and carlos baturin german, an american, became the first gay couple to be married under a new law allowing same-sex marriage in spain. the couple tied the knot in the town of , outside of . wedding guests included family and friends, as well as journalists and politician pedro zerolo, the governing socialist party's top official for social issues.

spain is only the third nation in europe to legalise same-sex marriage, after the netherlands and belgium. the bill was passed by the lower house of parliament on 30 june 2005, overruling a rejection by the upper house, the senate. although the move was opposed by groups, polls suggest that a majority of spaniards support the decision. there were protests in madrid prior to the bill being passed, and a roman catholic group submitted a 600,000-signature petition urging a referendum.

state run television broadcast images of the happy couple after the ceremony. menendez told reporters, "the happiest day of our lives was when we fell in love with each other. we have been together for 30 years, there have been many wonderful days, today is yet another wonderful day."


tropical storm emily forms in mid atlantic, threatens north and central america

just as hurricane dennis dissipated over the mid-west united states on monday, tropical storm emily formed in the mid-atlantic. its current location is 11.1° n, 52.8° w, about 475 miles (765 km) east-southeast of barbados.

the storm is currently moving west at a rate of 13mph/20kph. it is expected to make a slight turn to the north-northwest on tuesday. maximum sustained winds are currently at 45mph/75kph.

hurricane watches have been issued for barbados, grenada, the grenadines, st. vincent, and st. lucia.



white house refuses to comment on karl rove as source of leak

in a televised report on "cnn" tuesday morning, u.s. senators john kerry and hillary clinton expressed their belief that karl rove, a top advisor to president george w. bush, should be fired. kerry spoke from the podium and answered reporters' questions, while clinton nodded in the background. kerry spoke clearly for the removal of rove, and reporters who noted clinton's nods in agreement with kerry queried her. she replied in support of kerry's comments, "i agree with that." 

the white house refused to comment monday on karl rove's involvement in the leak of the name of the covert cia agent valerie plame. the new york times reporter, judith miller, was jailed for violating a contempt of court order by refusing to testify about her source, and time magazine reporter matthew cooper also involved with withholding his source now appears ready to testify. 

the leak of undercover cia agent valerie plame's name two years ago by a member of the executive branch was in response to her husband disputing the administration's allegations that iraq was at the time attempting to buy so-called yellowcake uranium from countries in africa. her husband, a former ambassador under the first president bush, joseph wilson has been proven correct in his assertions that iraq was not attempting to gain or purchased uranium from niger. 

white house press secretary scott mcclellan refused to comment on a series of questions which increased in intensity quickly during a july 11 white house press briefing. the inquiries were about whether the white house stood by an earlier comment that any official found to be involved would be fired, and also about when president bush found out that karl rove, his deputy chief of staff, was involved. 

during the most heated part of the exchange, david gregory of nbc news called the refusal to comment "ridiculous." 
david gregory: scott, i mean, just -- i mean, this is ridiculous. the notion that you're going to stand before us after having commented with that level of detail and tell people watching this that somehow you decided not to talk. you've got a public record out there. do you stand by your remarks from that podium, or not? 
mr. mcclellan: and again, david, i'm well aware, like you, of what was previously said, and i will be glad to talk about it at the appropriate time. the appropriate time is when the investigation -- 
david gregory: why are you choosing when it's appropriate and when it's inappropriate? 
mr. mcclellan: if you'll let me finish -- 
david gregory: no, you're not finishing -- you're not saying anything. you stood at that podium and said that karl rove was not involved. and now we find out that he spoke out about joseph wilson's wife. so don't you owe the american public a fuller explanation? was he involved, or was he not? because, contrary to what you told the american people, he did, indeed, talk about his wife, didn't he? 
mr. mcclellan: david, there will be a time to talk about this, but now is not the time to talk about it. 
mcclellan also refused to comment on whether or not president bush had confidence in rove as his deputy chief of staff.




padraig harrington withdraws from british open


padraig harrington, an irish golfer currently ranked ninth in the official world golf rankings, has pulled out of the british open at st andrews to be with his family. the top golfer's father, patrick, passed away yesterday after a long battle with cancer. harrington's place in the competition will be filled by sweden's henrik stensen.

patrick harrington who was a former garda, was diagnosed with cancer in march when padraig won his first us tour title. patrick who was 72 played in two all-ireland football finals with cork.

padraig harrington, who turns 34 next month, has played on three ryder cup teams for europe and has won numerous european and international competitions.



london bombing: police search houses in leeds

west yorkshire police searched six houses in leeds today in connection with the london bombings. houses were searched in the burley, beeston and holbeck areas. further properties were searched in dewsbury, about eight miles from the city centre. the raids began at 6:30am bst this morning after warrants were issued under the . police are still in attendance at one property, and are describing the searches as "significant", and "intelligence led".

access to one house was gained using a robot-deployed controlled explosion. other houses were entered by armed police.

london metropolitan police commissioner sir ian blair said that the operation "is directly connected to the outrages on thursday". a "significant amount" of explosives was recovered from the burley property. following the discovery of the explosive, military bomb disposal experts were sent to the scene. around 600 people were evacuated from the surrounding area. temporary food and shelter is being provided by the local council at kirkstall leisure centre, a mile away.


four explosions at spanish power station

four explosions have rocked a brand new, soon to be online power station in spain's basque reigon in the city of amorebieta. 

shortly before the blasts, warning calls were made to basque newspaper "gara" and the basque emergency road service known as dya, police rushed to the scene and evacuated workers. the calls were made by the basque separatist group eta.

there are no confirmations of injuries or structual damage from the blasts at the moment. spanish radio however reports that there were no injuries and some minor structual damage. witnesses to the explosions say they were small.

warning calls before blasts are common by eta, usually "gara" will get the call.

the plant is run by esb international.


abreu smashes records, wins home run derby

bobby abreu, welcome to the spotlight.

the philadelphia phillies star, now 31 and a two-time all-star, has produced well for the phillies over the last half a decade without the glamour of other top players. however, last night there was no denying that he was the star of the show.

and what a show it was. the first batter in the 2005 home run derby, abreu proceeded to shatter the previous record of 15 home runs in a round, belting 24, including a 517-foot moonshot that exited the stadium in right field, going through two bats in the process. this rampage came immediately after espn announcers chris berman and joe morgan described comerica park, the site of the derby, as a difficult park to hit home runs in.

in the second round, abreu edged past boston's david ortiz (who himself hit an astounding 17 homeruns in the first round) and milwaukee's carlos lee to earn a spot in the finals alongside detroit star ivan rodriguez. rodriguez, who snuck into the second round with 7 dingers, swatted the most in the second round, but his home-field advantage deserted him in the finals as abreu smashed 11 over the fences to win the derby for his native venezuela.

abreu's three-round total of 41 homers broke miguel tejada's record of 27, set last year in houston's minute maid park.


intel's offices across the eu raided

local law enforcement officials acting on behalf of the european commission raided offices of intel and several computer makers this morning, a spokesman for the eu said. he did not specify which countries or which other firms were involved. however, a spokesman for intel germany, hans-jurgen werner, said that intel's offices in munich and swindon were among those searched.

it emerged on wednesday 13th, that raids also took place at intel's facility in county kildare, ireland in relation to the firms anti-competitive business practices. intel employs over 5,000 people at its irish manufacturing facility.

the raids are most likely connected to an ongoing anti-trust investigation against intel by the eu. it is alleged that the company used its market dominance to bully its clients into buying its chips instead of amd ones. intel is denying the allegations.


arrest over london bombing

british police have arrested a person in west yorkshire in connection with the london bombings. the man will be transferred to london for questioning. .

the police conducted controlled explosions to gain access to a house in leeds, and three controlled explosions were made on a car in luton station's carpark.

more than 600 people were evacuated near the six houses raided in leeds and the police has seized either explosives or devices used to make bombs.

inspector miles himsworth said that the raids were conducted by the metropolitan police anti-terrorist department with help from the yorkshire police and the army bomb disposal unit. he also said that the police were conducting a "careful and meticulous search".

metropolitan police commissioner sir ian blair has confirmed that the operation "is directly connected to the outrages on thursday". he added that "london, as well as new york" continue to be "major terrorist targets".



building in barcelona damaged by explosion

the italian cultural institute in barcelona was damaged today by an explosion. one spanish policeman was injured and his bomb-sniffing dog killed. staff at the institute discovered a suspicious object and called police. police then arrived with a bomb squad and bomb-sniffing dogs. 

the explosion, described as small by italian embassy spokesman filip la rosa, occurred while police were investigating the object. franco giordano, italian consul in barcelona, described the home-made bomb as a coffee maker (a "macchinetta di caffe") with cables. 

the italian cultural institute is located at the passatge mendez vigo, in the eixample district of the catalan capital. italian language courses were suspended for the day.


suicide attack hits mall in netanya, israel

four people were killed today at a suicide bombing near a shopping center in netanya. one of the dead was the suicide bomber. 90 others were injured, five of them seriously. islamic jihad has claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call to reuters' tulkarem office and identified the bomber as ahmad abu-halil of tulkarem.

at about 6:35 p.m. local time (utc +3), abu-halil detonated himself on a crosswalk, after approaching a group of four young women, french tourists according to some of the reports, who were crossing the road. nearby automobiles were also damaged by the explosion, and some of the shopping center's windows were shattered. local police said that the bomber carried around 10 kg of explosives, as well as nails and metal pellets, on an explosive belt that was strapped to his body. netanya's mayor, miriam fierberg, was present on the scene of the attack and immediately began assisting the injured.

it was later published that the casualties are two 16-year-old girls from tel-aviv, who were killed on the scene attack. the two other victims died in the hospital - a 31-year-old woman from netanya and a 50-year-old woman from netanya, whose daughter and granddaughter were seriously injured in the attack.

the palestinian authority (pa) condemned the attack. pa official jibril rajoub called it ""hurtful to our cause"" and chief negotiator saeb erakat said that ""those who carried out this attack want to sabotage the efforts being exerted to have a smooth and peaceful disengagement from gaza and a revival of the peace process"".

the israeli government on the other hand alleges that the pa is not doing enough to stop terrorism. ""israel has done all it could to ease up palestinian needs but the pa has not fulfilled obligations undertaken at sharem al sheikh and shows no signs of doing so"" said david baker, an official in the office of prime minister ariel sharon.

in light of the bombing, israeli defence minister, shaul mofaz, cancelled a meeting with the palestinian minister for civil affairs, mohammed dahlan, set for this evening to coordinate various issues regarding israel's withdrawal from the gaza strip.

this was the third attack in israel in one day. earlier this morning two israeli soldiers were injured when a bomb was detonated near the automobile they were driving near netzer hazeni in the gaza strip. minutes before the attack in netanya there was another attack attempt when a suicide bomber drove a stolen truck loaded with explosives into a civilian settlement of shavey shomron in samaria, but he detonated the vehicle without harm to anyone but himself. the bomber was injured and is being treated at a local hospital.


cuba declines american help for damage caused by hurricane dennis

as rolls through the caribbean the death toll in cuba has continued to rise. according to cuba's president, fidel castro, the death toll of the hurricane has gone from 10 deaths yesterday to 16 deaths today. he explained the situation with a several hours long speech which commenced monday evening and continued on until tuesday morning. in the speech castro estimates in total $1.4 billion us in property damage. he also stated the hurricane damaged 120,000 homes, 15,000 of which were destroyed and stated that the citrus crops were wrecked by the 240km/h winds of the hurricane. 

castro has rejected a $50,000 offer of aid from the united states. castro explains that he won't be willing to accept the any aid until the u.s. lifts the trade embargo on his country. castro claims the embargo is "genocidal" against his people. some other nations have similar trade embargoes with cuba; castro has also said that aid will only be accepted from nations that do not have such arrangements.


police make significant progress in london bombings investigation

dramatic developments today have revealed new information about last thursday's bomb attacks on london. one person has been arrested after a series of .

the four men alleged to be responsible for the bombings travelled by train from leeds to king's cross on thursday morning, where they were seen on cctv at 8.30am. three of them, likely british citizens of pakistani origin, came from leeds while another joined them en route. one of the three from yorkshire was reported missing by his family at 10pm that evening. 

three of them then boarded underground trains. the fourth alleged bomber - the man reported missing from leeds - died onboard the bus, but there are no clear reasons for why he did not follow the same pattern as the others. it has been confirmed that at least three of the four bombers died in the blasts. forensic evidence and items belonging to all of the men were found in the debris of the target vehicles.

police also found a car at luton train station, which is on the route from leeds to king's cross. a series of controlled explosions was carried out on the car. it is understood that one of the bombers drove equipment in the car to luton, while the others travelled by train.

materials used to make explosives were also found at one of the houses in leeds.

a second car was found on the property of a recovery company in leighton buzzard; it had been 'routinely recovered' from luton train station on the evening of tuesday, july 12. bedfordshire police, working in conjunction with the metropolitan police and the british transport police, sealed off the area within a 50 metre radius of the vehicle. the area was re-opened at 9.30pm bst, although a police presence remained until the next day. it has not yet been revealed why the car was towed away or what was contained inside it.

 


uk defence minister alludes to possible iraq troop reduction

the uk secretary of state for defence john reid has admitted the withdrawal of 5,500 of the 8,500 british troops in iraq by spring 2006 is a possibility. it comes after a report was leaked to the mail on sunday in the aftermath of the 7 july london bombings. 

the document (options for future uk force posture in iraq) was marked "secret - uk eyes only" and also contained information on possible u.s. troop reductions, bringing the number of coalition forces in iraq down to 66,000. about 176,000 coalition troops are presently in iraq, 130,000 of which are from the united states armed forces. however, the document also reveals there is division between the pentagon, which apparently favours a "relatively bold reduction", and u.s. commanders in iraq who are more cautious. 

the british army is the lead component of the multi-national division (south-east). it has maintained forces in the 8,000+ region since the end of the 2003 iraq war. in the document, mr reid admitted that a large reduction of british and u.s. forces would make it difficult for other countries to keep their force in iraq. 

mr reid, who took up the position of secretary of state for defence on 6 may 2005, admitted that the document was made by him for prime minister tony blair. in the document, mr reid stated that a decision would need to be made later this year on british forces levels in iraq. the possible transfer of control of al muthanna and maysan provinces, followed by al basrah and dhi qar provinces in 2006, were also included in the document. it estimated the reduction of british forces could save about ￡1 billion pounds (about $1.7 billion u.s. dollars).

in a statement on 10 july made in response to the leaking of the document, mr reid denied that the document signalled any change in policy, stating that, "no decisions on the future force posture of uk forces have been taken. but we have always said that it is our intention to hand over the lead in fighting terrorists to iraqi security forces as their capability increases. we therefore continually produce papers outlining possible options and contingencies."

on 4 july, during a debate in the house of commons, mr reid had hinted at possible reductions in forces, saying that, "by and large, about 12 [of 18] of the provinces are relatively free of terrorist attacks. as the iraqi forces become trained to take the lead, it is possible, over a period of time, to hand the lead role to iraqi forces in certain areas of the country and gradually, we hope, over the whole country."

a spokesperson of the mnd (se) was questioned by a wikireporter. when asked whether speculation of reductions would affect british forces morale in iraq, it was insisted that, "the british forces will continue to operate in the professional manner to which they always have done." 
the spokesperson added, "no decision on the future posture of uk forces in iraq has been taken. there has been no change in policy. assisting the iraqis to improve the security environment remains our top priority."

speaking of the response by iraqis to the london bombings, the spokesperson said, "most of the feed back from friday pray[ers] in the british area of operation were against the attacks on london." 


fire in hospital in costa rica kills 18 persons

early this morning a fire erupted in the rafael angel calderon guardia hospital in downtown san jose, costa rica, killing 18 people according to official reports.
most of the deaths occurred on the 5th floor, where patients were resting following surgical procedures.

a nurse died trying to save patients.



ft. wayne, indiana burn center treats afghan child

doctors at the regional burn center at st. joseph hospital in , indiana are treating a patient flown in from war-torn afghanistan. 

u.s. army's 113th battalion, which is made up of , discovered five-year-old zia after a propane explosion in suburban earlier this year destroyed homes and killed six of the boy's family members. 

the blast left zia with on his arms, torso and legs. guardsmen, familiar with the fort wayne burn center, worked with non-profit group, northeast indiana burn council to raised $18,500 to fly zia, accompanied by his father abdul qahir, to fort wayne for treatment.

upon arrival, he was rushed to the st. joseph burn unit, where after a few days of recovery from
travel, underwent his first surgery june 23. the second and final surgery was postponed nine
days from an original date of july 2 because the boy developed an infection in one of his wounds,
which is common for burn patients.

the second surgery grafted skin onto burn wounds on zia's arm, chest and the second toe on his
right foot. tuesday, doctors said zia was recovering and appeared to be in good spirits. in
preparation for their planned return trip to afghanistan in september, doctors are teaching zia's
father physical therapy techniques needed for further recovery. "without good therapy, he could
be right back where we started," dr. john mancoll, the lead surgeon on the case, said in an
interview with the "fort wayne journal gazette" newspaper.


td financial to acquire hudson united bancorp


canadian has come to a deal with the regional u.s. bank, , to buy hudson for us$1.9 billion. the new addition will be folding into itsmaine-based td banknorth, which is 51% owned by td financial. the acquisition will bring in 204 new branches and increase td's footprint to new jersey, new york, connecticut and pennsylvania. in total this will give td 590 branches, 751 banking machines and more than us$26-billion in deposits across eight northeastern states.

hudson specialises in commercial real estate, consumer and credit card loans to individuals and businesses. the bank also had $8.85 billion us in assets at the end of it's first quarter, on march 31. the company's shares had been dropping in the course of the past year because of allegations of money-laundering violations and after an earnings warning, making it a good steal for td. the acquisition will greatly increased td's influence in america.

this continues the recent trend for canadian banks expanding into the u.s. where regulation on bank mergers is less strict than in their home country.

"this transaction delivers on our shared vision for growth and marks a significant milestone in td banknorth's expansion strategy," td bank ceo and president ed clark said in a statement.


australian telecomms firm telstra offers rebates to those affected by bombings

?

australian telecommunications giant telstra has announced that it will be offering a rebate to those customers who placed calls to the united kingdom to check on relatives in the wake of the recent bombings. of the approximately 700 people wounded in the attacks, only 7 were australians, however there are many more aussies spread throughout england and europe at any time.

to be eligible for the rebate, the calls must have been made between 6pm aest thursday the 7th through to 6am saturday the 8th, according to telstra chief sol trujillo. as well as this, telstra customers who have a relative who has been hospitalized as a result of the event will be eligible for a rebate for a period of one month from july 7.

applying for the rebate involves telstra customers calling a special number which will appear on their next bill. telstra has been working with the australian federal government to provide further assistance to customers.


train crash in southern pakistan kills more than a hundred

at least 127 died early this morning when three trains crashed in a chain reaction in a station near in the sindh province of pakistan. it is feared the fatality count may rise as high as 200-300 people. around 800 others were injured, many of them seriously. officials for pakistan railways told ap that the accident happened at about 4am local time (2300 tuesday) when an express train from lahore bound for karachi crashed into another train which had broke down earlier and was sitting at the station. almost immediately after, a third train slammed into carriages derailed from the first crash. in total some 13 cars derailed. the incident is blamed on the driver of the karachi train who reportedly misread a signal.

the line between lahore and karachi, the nation's biggest cities, is among the busiest in the country.

it is pakistan's worst train accident since december 1989 when a crash near , about 35 (56 ) from today's crash site, killed over 400 people.



israeli army reoccupies tulkarem in west bank

reacting to the suicide bombing yesterday in a netanya mall, the israel defence forces (idf) entered the city of tulkarem. the city has been governed by the palestinian authority (pa), since march 22nd this year.

in addition, a general closure was ordered on the occupied territories of the west bank and the gaza strip. the closure will hold until the assessment of the situation changes, according to the idf.

the idf ordered a curfew on tulkarem at the beginning of the operation, at 2:30 a.m. (+3 utc), palestinians reported. soldiers announced in loudspeakers that the city was under curfew and that all local residents were to remain inside their homes.

one palestinian policeman was killed and one was injured, as well as two israeli soldiers, when the israeli forces came under fire while entering the city, according to the idf spokesperson. 

the idf arrested five wanted islamic jihad members in the city. according to idf officers, the operation is aimed at the islamic jihad organization, which staged the suicide attack in netanya yesterday, as well as another suicide bombing attempt in a jewish settlement in samaria.

the israeli government asked the pa to arrest the wanted terrorists numerous times, according to high-ranking officers in the idf.

""the main objective is to locate islamic jihad members that operate under the shelter of the pa military responsibility"", said colonel erez weiner of the idf. ""we arrested five wanted members, some of whom were involved in the bombing of the stage nightclub in tel-aviv. the forces are also trying to locate the explosives lab that is behind yesterday's car-bomb in shavey shomron. apart from a few minor incidents we did not meet any opposition from the palestinian side"", colonel weiner said.

the suicide bombings in netanya and shavey shomron and the reoccupation of tulkarem follow five months of relative calm in the israel-pa relations.


shuttle launch on schedule despite launch pad accident

the 'return to flight' mission for the space shuttle "discovery" is to go ahead later today despite an accident on the launch pad yesterday.

at about 5pm edt tuesday one of discovery's cockpit window covers became detached and fell sixty feet. the falling cover struck the left orbital maneuvering system pod (situated to one side of the tail fin), damaging several thermal protection tiles. the tiles provide vital protection to the orbiter as it makes its fiery re-entry to earth's atmosphere.

a replacement panel was fitted in less than an hour, with the only effect being a delay in rolling back the pad's rotating service structure.

this has been the only issue in the build up to today's launch, the first shuttle flight since the "columbia" orbiter broke up during re-entry in february 2003. all crew were lost in that incident, which has been blamed on damage to a wing thermal protection system panel, caused by a block of fuel tank insulation that became detached and hit the orbiter during the first moments of flight.

"discovery" is due to take off at 3.51pm edt today. the chance of a weather-related delay to the launch has increased to 40% - due to the possibility of thunderstorms in the area.

 


nurse glues boyfriend's eyes shut

a nurse from sunderland in the united kingdom superglued her (now former) boyfriend's eyes shut when he would not stop paying attention to swimsuit clad women while the two were on holiday in .

after an argument, the boyfriend, disc jockey lee scullion (31), went for an afternoon nap in their hotel room. when he woke up, he discovered that he could not open his eyes and that his watch was glued to his wrist. glue was also smothered over his lips and nose as well as on his eyelids. in addition, his girlfriend laura dunn (26) is reported to have smashed lee's ￡650 ($1,128.47 us) digital camera, while he is said to have burned her passport.

laura dunn, who is currently working in a care home, said "he wouldn't give me the attention i deserved" and that she "decided to teach him a lesson to remind him not to look at other women." she also said she hoped her career would not be affected by the fight.


suicide bomber kills 24 children in iraq

a suicide bomber has killed as many as 24 children in iraq.

according to an iraqi eyewitness, us troops were handing out sweets to children gathered around their humvee military vechicle in eastern baghdad when a bomber drove a car carrying explosives up to the group and detonated his weapon. one us soldier was killed and three more injured.

the local hospital's morgue has received 24 dead children, mostly aged between 10 and 13.

army spokesman major russ goemaere said "the car bomber made a deliberate decision to attack one of our vehicles as the soldiers were engaged in a peaceful operation with iraqi citizens."

a reuters camera man saw the car explode between houses, reducing three to rubble. the area is very poor and the residents are a mixed community of sunnis, shia and christians.

women were wailing in the street alongside a crumpled child's bicycle and pools of blood after the attack.

hundreds of distraught parents gathered at the local hospital desperately searching for their children.

one father who lost a son said "why do they attack our children? they just destroyed one us humvee, but they killed dozens of our children."

a joint us-iraq offensive launched in baghdad in may has considerably reduced the number of suicide bombings, but authorities admit such attacks are hard to eliminate.

a similar car bomb attack in september last year killed at least 34 children in baghdad. that attack also saw the victims gathering round us troops who were handing out sweets, to mark the opening of a water treatment plant. 

iraqi prime minister ibrahim al-jaafari said on tuesday that declining levels of violence in his country were allowing iraqi security forces to begin taking over duties from us troops in many cities, in a move that may pave the way for withdrawal of western forces.



children massacred in kenyan school

during a raid by cattle rustlers in northern kenya, as many as 55 kenyans were killed, twenty of them children.

up to 400 members of the borana tribe living across the border in ethiopia attacked the nomadic gabra people aiming to steal their livestock. the societies are not monetarized - cattle is the main form of wealth.

the two groups have been fighting over water and pastures for years in the semi-arid land. cross-border raids for livestock are very common in the area, but it is said that this is one of the most deadly and severe attacks in kenya's history. the attack may be in retaliation for an earlier raid on the borana, in which six people were killed.

whole families were killed in this most recent attack. okille hukha survived when he ran into a bush, but his wife and four children were murdered. darare bathachas' son, wife and grandson were also killed, but she survived by going under a bed.

a woman watched as her four children were killed, and her husband beheaded. a grandmother spoke of how she hid under a table while her forty year old son, his wife and their nursery school age son were killed.

ten borana were later killed in a revenge attack.

kenyan police are pursuing the attackers, moving on foot in the rugged terrain but supported by three helicopters. thousands of sheep and goats as well as cattle, camels and donkeys have been recovered.

the kenyan red cross society have sent a helicopter carrying medics and supplies to aid the injured in the local hospital. 


rape suspect, 14, questioned longer

a boy of 14 has been charged with seven counts of rape. 

police were granted more time to question the boy, who cannot be named, before charging him with the attacks of four primary school girls in salford, manchester.

four children ? one aged 10, two aged 8, and a 7 year-old ? were attacked between 5pm and 6.40pm on sunday at mandley park.


baghdad barbers threatened with death for cutting beards

a series of threats have been made to baghdad barbers who have been cashing in on the upsurge in popularity of 'marine' and french hairstyles amongst baghdad youths. over the past few weeks barbers were warned not to cut beards and not to offer the western hairstyles, unless they wanted 'swords over their necks'. many barbers have put up signs saying that taboo haircuts are not available in their shops. those who flout these threats have been killed.

according to maj. col. abbas dilemi of the baghdad police, some of the extremists have been caught, but they have turned out to be criminals paid by third parties to make the threats and carry out the murders of those who ignore them.

mr. mohamed sa'eed, a leading figure in the iraqi supreme council for islamic revolution, has castigated those responsible for the threats saying: 'and now groups from abroad come carrying temporary ideology that did not exist even in the middle ages,' then stated that there 'should be no compulsion in religion' whilst calling for juristic and intellectual work to defeat extremism.



former worldcom ceo ebbers sentenced to 25 years

, founder and former ceo of telecommunications giant , now mci, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in the corporate accounting fraud totaling us$11 billion. the once-powerful company plunged into in july 2002. 

the sentence was handed down by manhattan federal court judge barbara s. jones. mr. ebbers, who is 63, asked for a lenient sentence due to his failing health and a heart condition, and because of his philanthropy. 

prosecutors pushed for a life sentence, and said the sentencing "should prove to be a deterrent" to corporate wrongdoing. "the enormity of the crimes that ebbers committed cannot be overstated: the fraud at worldcom was the largest securities fraud in history," prosecutors wrote in papers filed last month. 

jones rejected defense lawyers' contentions that the government overstated the losses, and that ebbers was not a mastermind of the wrongdoing. jones believed ebbers deserved a harsh sentence, and said "mr. ebbers was the instigator of the fraud.".

ebbers appeared to be tense when arriving at the court and even shoved a photographer out of his way. after the sentence was given, ebbers was seen weeping. his first day of prison will be october 12.

in march, ebbers was found guilty of fraud, conspiracy, and seven counts of filing false documents with regulators. 

worldcom emerged from bankruptcy last year under the name , which was one of the many companies worldcom had acquired. in may, agreed to acquire the company.


study: socialized canadian surgery half the u.s. cost with same results

americans pay twice as much for heart-bypass surgery as the socialized canadian system, with no difference in outcome, according to today's issue of the archives of internal medicine in a study funded by american drug company, pfizer inc.. the research found that heart bypass surgery costs an average of $10,373 in canada, compared with $20,673 in the united states. even though the costs were double in the united states, the rate of complications and death following bypass surgery was similar. 

high administrative costs and overtreatment are usually blamed for the higher cost in the profit-driven u.s. system. americans spent $5,635 per capita on health care in 2003, while only $3,003 was spent by canadians. health spending accounts for almost 15 per cent of gross domestic product in the u.s. and just under 10 per cent in canada; while at the same time, all canadian residents are full covered. in addition, the average canadian lives 2 years longer than the average american.

this is one of the first studies directly comparing the costs of surgery in canada and the united states and it reinforces the view of dr. mark eisenberg, head of cardiovascular epidemiology at jewish general hospital in montreal; "the conventional wisdom is that health care is much more expensive in the u.s. and the conventional wisdom is right." by finding that canada's socialized system is far more cost efficient than the u.s. model.

the cost of medications used to treat bypass patients were as much as 68 percent greater in the u.s. than in canada and the cost of a surgical bed was 36 percent greater in the u.s.. in canada, nursing accounted for 44 percent of the treatment costs, compared with 21 percent in the u.s. and patients stayed longer in hospital following surgery in canada.


shuttle launch called off due to faulty fuel tank sensor

the u.s. space agency nasa called off the launch of space shuttle "discovery" today after a problem with a fuel sensor in the external tank used to detect fuel exhaustion. according to the agency-run nasa tv, the low-fuel sensor was either malfunctioning or damaged. the launch was already facing the threat of a scrub due to thunderstorms in the area.

the sensor is one of four used to trigger the engine cutout after launch. although only two are required for normal operation, and the shuttle can be flown with one, nasa elected to maintain full redundancy. should more of the sensors fail, the engine might burn out due to lack of fuel, a situation that has not been tested.

the problem was detected during a simulation of an empty tank. when placed in a mode simulating an empty tank, three of the sensors correctly registered that the tank was empty, while the faulty sensor stayed in the "full" state. nasa is currently unsure whether the problem relates to the sensor, the instrumentation circuits reporting the sensor's state, or the simulation circuits.

the problem comes after a separate incident yesterday when a cockpit window cover fell from the orbiter, damaging thermal protection tiles. a similar problem caused the replacement of the fuel tank in june. nasa described the problem as an "intermittent fault".

the launch, which was scheduled for 3:51 et (20:51 utc), would have been the first launch of a shuttle since "columbia"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s february 2003 crash which killed all crew members aboard.

it is still unknown to nasa officials what caused the sensor to become defective. it is also unknown at the moment whether the issue will be fixed on the launch pad, or in the vehicle assembly building - in which it takes close to a full day's time to transport a shuttle between the two areas.

in the interim, the crew of the shuttle will stay at ksc unless there are further delays, in which case the crew might be transported back to jsc in houston for refresher training.



italian police launch nationwide anti-terror sweep

italian police have launched a swoop on suspected islamic extremists across italy. 

about 200 search warrants were issued, with about 175 being detained. it comes a day after the minister of the interior giuseppe pisanu warned of the potential threat posed by extremists, saying that "terrorism is knocking on italy's door".

after the 7 july london bombings, a statement was made by an al qaida affiliated group claiming responsibility for the london attacks. in it, denmark and italy were specifically warned of attacks "in the same way if they do not withdraw their troops from iraq and afghanistan."

in other news, a brescia court jailed two north africans accused of being part of a terror cell planning attacks in italy. the court jailed another man on lesser charges. six other north africans, suspected of being in the same cell, are being tried in cremona. 

of the two convicted, iman mohamed rafik of morocco was jailed for four years and eight months, while kamel hamroui received a sentence of three years and four months. they had been arrested in connection with the 16 may 2003 al qaida attacks on casablanca, morocco which killed 45 people, including 12 suicide bombers. 


family dog missing after protecting kids from bear

a boxer is missing in westmoreland county, pennsylvania, after it chased off a bear to protect three children. according to bill rusko, the father of two of the children, the bear crossed route 30 in ligonier township and moved towards the three kids as they played badminton. the year-old dog, major, then ran around the bear to distract it and bit it in the face. as the bear ran back into the woods, the dog chased it. it remains missing; however, neighbors say they saw it in the area. major is now safe at his home.



london bombing suspects are all british nationals

profiles of the suspects in the july 7, 2005 bombings in london have been released. they are all british nationals.


shahzad and hasib were reported missing by their families the previous week.

the suspects were caught on surveillance camera arriving at kings cross station at 08:30 bst, each carrying military style back packs, on the day of the blasts. the suspects were then seen going their separate ways twenty minutes before the explosions. it is suspected that the delayed fourth bombing aboard a double-decker bus was intended for travelers on the northern line, which had been suspended earlier that morning.




married couple scheme issues phony driver's licenses in virginia


a husband and wife team from , virginia were arrested wednesday on charges they sold authentic to illegal immigrants and others for between $2,000 and $3,500. 

francisco j. martinez, 57, a manager of a (dmv) service center in , and his wife miriam martinez, 56, a former dmv employee, allegedly sold 50 fraudulent licenses, , since january 2004. they face federal charges of conspiring to commit identification fraud, a possible 15 years in prison and a fine up to $250,000.

the break in the case was made when police arrested daniel jose guardia lopez, 25, on june 13. lopez, an resident, is an illegal immigrant from bolivia. he pleaded guilty monday for his involvement in the fraud, and turned informer after confessing to acting as a gatekeeper that arranged for other illegals to obtain phony id’s through the martinez couple.

this is the second incident in as many years where the selling of phony id’s was uncovered in virginia. the need for awareness was raised when it was learned that seven of the nineteen hijackers involved in the attacks had virginia id’s. u.s. attorney paul j. mcnulty, speaking on the federal crackdown that has ensued, said “a few years ago, one could fraudulently obtain a driver’s license for about $100.” obtained legally, they cost $20. he called “reprehensible” the alleged actions of the martinez couple. 

court documents for the case record that lopez, who worked as a construction worker, would collect the id fee from other illegal bolivians, and keep $500 for himself. he would then steer the person to the service center where mr. martinez worked. martinez, a longtime employee and 4-year supervisor, would often fill out the immigrant’s application, and falsely certify that an id from another state was surrendered.

lopez became involved with the martinez’s when his own driving privileges had been suspended. he met miriam, who arranged to have a new id issued to him, through her husband. a working relationship developed between the two, and miriam would call lopez and tell him when to appear at the dmv service center with clients who followed behind him in the scheme. the arrest of lopez was unknown to miriam when he made a monitored call to her and said he had 2 cousins from bolivia. this ultimately led to undercover agents, who posed as the cousins, being issued id’s by francisco, her husband. during this , the 2 agents paid $6,000 and presented no identification.

virginia dmv spokeswoman, pam goheen, said one of the steps taken to beef up enforcement and auditing efforts at service centers is to have all applications double checked by "document verifiers". goheen said, "there is a heightened awareness of the importance of a driver's license," and called the arrests "unfortunate and disappointing".

miriam martinez was a clerk at a dmv service center for 2 years ending in 1998, and then again briefly in 2003. the earlier incident of id fraud stemmed out of that location. both cities, tysons corner and alexandria, are within commuting distance to washington, d.c.



australia commits more troops to afghanistan

australian prime minister john howard has announced that 150 sas personnel will be serving in afghanistan within two months, and a further 200 troops will follow them by early next year. according to mr howard the decision is the result of a request from the united states and others. 

opposition leader kim beazley has said that labor supported the plan. mr beazley has been critical of the government in recent weeks because of its military focus on iraq rather than afghanistan, which he says is the source of the terrorist threat. 

beazley offered that it has been "obvious for some time that the job was only partially completed when the commitment was made earlier." 

the commitment comes amid a resurgence of the taliban and an increase in insurgency activities in afghanistan. 

"the progress that has been made in the establishment of a legitimate government in afghanistan has come under increasing attack and pressure from the taliban - and some elements of al-qaeda," mr howard said. 

the additional troop commitment has been welcomed by the afghani government. lutfullah mashal, afghanistan's interior ministry spokesman, said that assistance with security or reconstruction and development is always welcome, however he expressed disappointment that the deployment would only be for 12 months. mr howard has said that he does not like to make open ended commitments, and also stated that extra security would be needed for the apec summit in 2007. 

"at the time of the apec meeting and in the months leading up to it, the need in this country is for a heightened elite security capacity," he said.


two-minute silence for london bombings marked across the eu

a two-minute silence at noon bst (utc+1) has been marked by millions across the united kingdom and the european union to remember those who died last thursday in the london attacks.

in london, all buses and cabs came to halt, and all people in their offices stood outside. trains were not stopped but the two-minute silence was announced and marked through the underground and overground services. aeroplanes delayed their takeoff to respect the two-minute silence.

at the bombing sites, wreaths were laid in respect, with hundreds gathering at the sites to mark the silence.

at , stood on the forecourt in silence, accompanied by . prime minister tony blair marked the silence in the garden of , and mayor of london paid his respects at . 

at taking place at , golfers also paid their respects. yesterday, fell in silence during the vs football match.
in , , president jacques chirac stood in silence at the before taking part in the parade. the marked the silence along with offices across the eu. 

a vigil will be held in trafalgar square, london at 18:00 (6 p.m.) bst (+1 utc).


hurricane emily hits grenada


hurricane emily has hit the small eastern caribbean island of grenada. the hurricane, which has been upgraded to category 2 status, hit the island early this morning and has caused widespread damage. it has been reported that many buildings have lost their roofs and there has been much flooding.

the storm affected the northern parishes of st. patrick's and st. andrew's the worst and also caused considerable damage to the nearby islands of carriacou and petite martinique. no fatalities have yet been reported. earlier this year hurricane dennis hit cuba and haiti, leaving 41 people dead.

last year hurricane ivan devastated the island and resulted in the deaths of 39 people. 

emily is the fifth tropical storm to develop this hurricane season. it was the earliest time on record that five named storms had formed in the atlantic. emily, along with dennis, reached hurricane status. arlene, bret and cindy remained tropical storms. 

the british royal navy, which usually deploys two ships to the caribbean, has placed the destroyer hms liverpool and the tanker rfa wave knight on standby. during hurricane frances and ivan last year, hms richmond and rfa wave ruler were actively involved in humanitarian relief. prime minister keith mitchell of grenada had effectively run his country for seven hours from richmond after his home had been destroyed.



rail manslaughter charges are dropped in hatfield, england

charges against the five rail bosses accused of manslaughter on four people who died in the , england train crash, have been dropped at the . 

alistair cook, 50, sean fugill, 50, keith lea, 53, and two executives from ? anthony walker, 46, and nicholas jeffries, 53 ? all denied the manslaughter charges. a charge of corporate manslaughter has also been dropped against the engineering firm belfour beatty. 

but the five men and their employers, balfour beatty and , still face health and safety charges under the .

four people were killed and many more were injured when a high speed train travelling from leeds to london derailed just outside hatfield on 17 october 2000. an investigation after the crash found that a cracked section of rail caused the train to come off the tracks.

after five months on trial, the judge mr justice mackay told the jury to find the men not guilty, saying: 

"it is not open to you to convict any of the six defendants on charges of manslaughter"

he added: "i must ask you to accept my ruling, which does not affect one way or the other the important decisions you will have to make when considering verdicts on the health and safety counts." 

mr justice mackay made the decision after reviewing the evidence and listening to submissions.

the collapse of yet another high-profile corporate case will more than likely put pressure for changes to current laws to make it easier to prosecute in corporate manslaughter cases. work on new corporate manslaughter legislation has been under way for more than a decade in response to the problems encountered in bringing successful prosecutions. the latest proposals would criminalise gross management failure and the government has promised legislation before the end of next year.


hillary clinton demands video-game smut enquiry


hillary clinton has joined the controversy over a mod for grand theft auto: san andreas called "hot coffee" which disables the game's built-in censorship mode, allowing players to participate in graphic sex mini-games within the game.

the esrb have continued to state that they are not intending to take any action against take2 interactive (the game's producers). 

patricia vance, the president of the esrb, said that the author of the modification "actually had to change the underlying code [of the game]. it's not a cheat, it's not an easter egg... game developers have been known to deactivate parts of their code without removing them from the finished products. oftentimes, changes are toward the end of development, and they program workarounds."


 


british girl hospitalized after riding disney's tower of terror

a 16 year-old girl who collapsed in disney's mgm studios after coming off the tower of terror ride has been hospitalized. the 16 year old from leicester, england, came off the ride complaining of a headache and feeling sick. she then collapsed and was believed to have sun stroke. on the way to the hospital in florida she suffered a heart attack and has been left fighting for her life.

text of the 911 call


telesur promotional campaign causes controversy in colombia

four telesur promotions have caused controversy in sectors of the colombian government. the network, financed by the governments of argentina, cuba, uruguay and venezuela, started its test broadcastings on may 24 from caracas. it is expected that the channel will begin its definitive programming on july 24.

the promos are:





telesur says that its purpose is counterbalanceing to the giants of the news agency in america, like cnn or univision. colombian organisms of intelligence declared to the newspaper el tiempo that in the channel "there are subjects related to the national and international terrorism" and the channel "shows a negative image of colombia".

telesur already signed an agreement with two regional colombian channels: the channel capital, from bogota, and the telepacifico, who transmits to west of colombia from cali. according to the agreement the colombian channels will transmit part of the telesur programming.

the manager of the channel capital, hector pinilla, said that the channel 's directive board will decide the contents of the channel telesur which will be transmitted by the regional station. as to the controversy, pinilla said: " the government sometimes suffers of too much excitement of pursuit. let it act freely, not on behalf of the extremist sectors, but yes on behalf of the press freedom ".



building partially collapses in new york city's upper west side

a building being prepared for demolition collapsed this morning in new york's upper west side around 9 a.m. edt. five people are known to be injured from the accident, as well as one rescue worker who was injured in the aftermath. none of the injuries were life-threatening.

the building was a supermarket, which was being taken down to make room for a high-rise building, something that residents took issue with. the roof, front wall, and scaffolding all fell to the ground, as stated by fire commissioner nicholas scoppetta.

soon after the incident at least 100 police and fire department personnel combed the wreckage for more victims, using search and rescue dogs to find people by scent. they quickly accounted for the twenty-five construction workers who were working on the supermarket. most of the victims' injuries were broken bones, including one person who broke all four extremities.

subway lines 1, 2, and 3 have been closed or redirected in response, along with the m104 bus.



riots in Ile-de-france : 70 arrested after 200 cars burned

about 200 cars were burned by young people on the night of july 13 in Ile-de-france, the metropolitan area of paris. as the police cars arrived, youths began to pelt the vehicles with rocks, firecrackers and bottles. rioters broke store windows at argenteuil. police used flash-balls and smoke grenades. the riots ended with 70 men being arrested. a police officer was wounded by a rocket and was taken to hospital. shop windows were broken at argenteuil. it is not the first time vehicles have been attacked on 13-14 july in france. 



palestinian rocket attack kills israeli woman

a coordinated palestinian attack of four qassam rockets and more than 20 mortar shells took place around 6 p.m. ist (+3 utc). the weapons were fired at the israeli collective farms of netiv ha'asara and nahal oz, as well as other villages and military bases across the gaza strip border.

a 22-year-old woman, dana galkovitz, was killed when her home suffered a direct hit by one of the rockets. one person was lightly injured and three others were treated for anxiety.

the islamic jihad and the fatah both claimed resposibitily for the attack. however, the israel defense forces (idf) claim that the attack was carried out by the hamas. ""the hamas has revealed its true face, from now on we will act against it freely"", an idf source said.

according to palestinan militants, the attack avenges the killing of a militant leader by the idf in nablus, in the aftermath of tuesday's suicide attack on the city of netanya.

this attack is a further blow to the fragile cease-fire between israel and the palestinian authority (pa), which has been in place since february this year.

during the past 4 years, thousands of mortar shells and rockets have been fired on israeli towns and villages by palestinian militant organizations.


david ahenakew removed from the order of canada

the signed an ordinance today removing from membership in the . ahenakew becomes the second person to be stripped of the honor; former president was the first to be removed in . eagleson admitted guilt on charges of extortion and obstructing justice.

ahenakew was removed from the order three days after being convicted of charges of willing promoting hatred against the jewish people. the charges stem from comments made to a reporter in about . ahenakew stated that jews were "a disease" and that was trying to "clean up the world" when he "fried six million of those guys." 

the advisory council of the order of canada met on june 29 at , the residence of the governor general, to discuss ahenakew's fate. after the meeting, ahenakew was sent a letter, asking for him to respond to the possible revocation or surrender his membership voluntarily. a deadline for ahenakew to respond was set at july 9, which ahenakew did not. that led to governor general signing the ordinance to remove ahenakew from the order. ahenakew has to surrender his order , which consists of a , lapel pin, and . ahenakew loses the right to use in his name, and loses the right to use the order in his personal . 




metropolitan police release photographs of one of the london bombers

the metropolitan police released two photographs at 15:30 today as a result of an intense investigation into london bomb attacks of last week. the photographs show hassib hussain who is believed to be bomber of london bus #30. the first photograph is a passport photo of hasib hussain and the second shows is a crop of a image from station at 7:20 on the day of the attack.

the metropolitan police claimed in a statement that they believe that the 18 year old traveled from west yorkshire in the company of three men. he was seen at at 07.20 on the morning of the bombings. police are trying to gain more eyewitness information and have asked the public to call the telephone number: 0800 789321 (+44 800 789321 if outside the uk) if they saw hussain last thursday around the area. 

the metropolitan police made a request for any additional information about hasib's whearabouts after he left luton.

"we need to establish his movements between 8.26am at king's cross and 9.47am on the #30 bus when the explosion occurred.
did you see this man at king's cross? was he alone or with others? do you know the route he took from the station? did you see him get on to a #30 bus? and if you did, where and when was that."


serbian government gives scholarships to students studying abroad

one hundred students from serbia who decide to pursue graduate studies abroad will get ?15,000 a year scholarships from the fund for young talents. students who wish to apply must have at least an 8.5 gpa on 5 to 10 scale, and must be younger than 26. additionally, students must commit to work in serbia for at least 5 years after finishing their graduate studies. 

scholarship will be awarded based on the student's gpa and the prestige of the university to which they apply. also, one thousand university seniors will be awarded ?250 a month. 

the secretary of the serbian student union, marko milovanovi?, is satisfied with this action, but also notes that it would be better if economic needs of students were taken into account as well.

the fund for young talents will provide funding to about 2.5% of students in serbia.


first active offer 100% mortgages in ireland

first active has become the first financial institution to offer 100% mortgages in the republic of ireland. the bank previously offered 100% financing to professionals in finance and medicine, but is now to offer this product to anyone who can afford to meet the repayments.

the development is a huge boost for first time home buyers who have been struggling to get on the irish property market in recent years due to the rapid increase in house prices. a typical first time buyer in dublin with 92% financing would normally have to put down a deposit of ?20,000-?30,000 in cash, but now have the option to produce no deposit.

first active has said that 100% mortgages will be available across its entire range of mortgage products.

note however that this is not necessarily an entirely positive development.

the united states and most of europe have experienced a housing price bubble in recent years. a bubble occurs when buyers purchase a property not because its price is appropriate for its actual value but because they expect the price to significantly rise in the short term permitting resale with a profit.

in other words, the prices people pay for properties becomes divorced from the real value of the property; the purchase is speculative and depends purely upon the expectation that people will continue to buy properties in this way (e.g. without proper consideration of their real value).

the terrible weakness in this is that when the market corrects itself and prices fall to a level where properties are being priced at their actual realistic value, anyone holding a property loses a great deal of money, since the price they paid does not reflect the actual realistic value of the property.

this kind of shock to the housing market is extremely undesirable. significant write downs in the value of property often significantly depress the economy as a whole.

less than 100% mortgages force buyers to invest a significant amount of money in the act of purchasing their house, which tends to discourage purely speculative purchasing, thus helping to mediate house price bubbles.

with 100% financing, anyone who can meet repayments can speculatively purchase a property. this naturally encourages pricing bubbles.


nhl lockout ends

the national hockey league and its players union, the nhl players association, came to a long sought-after agreement wednesday over a new nhl collective bargaining agreement, ending a bitter and damaging 301-day lockout of the players. the agreement came after a all-night negotiation session with the union. however, the deal must still be ratified by owners and players. a vote for ratification will be held on thursday, july 21, 2005.

the deal includes a salary cap for players. the combined salary of all players in the league cannot exceed 54% of league-wide revenue. players who are still under contract will have a 24% rollback.

also in the proposed deal are some rule changes. smaller goaltending equipment, making two-line passes across the neutral zone (fom blue-line to blue-line) legal, and shootouts at the end of an overtime period in the case of tie games are all rules that will probably be enacted when the new season begins.

the lockout was very damaging to the nhl. the league became the first united states sport organization to cancel an entire season. it is the second time the stanley cup has not been awarded: the first time was in 1919 during an influenza outbreak. 


israeli air force attacks targets in gaza

shortly after midnight (utc +3) the israeli air force (iaf) attacked several hamas targets in gaza. the attack was in reaction to the rocket and mortar attack on israel today. no injuries or fatalities were reported.

one of the buildings that were attacked is an ammunition warehouse in khan-yunus and another one is an office of the hamas in the jabalia refugee camp, the israeli defense forces (idf) reported.

six missiles were fired from helicopter gunships, according to palestinian sources. the missiles at jebalia were fired on a hamas religion studies center and the others were fired on a rocket launch site near the khan-yunus cemetery. a third firing was at an empty building in the deir el-balah area.

electric power was lost in wide parts of gaza.

the idf has decided to divide the gaza strip into three parts in order to prevent the passage of weapons and militants between different parts of the strip. this is the first time in months that the idf has taken such a step, which is a burden on the palestinian civil population.


wilson calls for rove removal

u.s. federal grand jury testimony by karl rove was reported in the press friday detailing testimony by karl rove on the plame "leak". the information was obtained by "associated press" on the condition of anonymity because of grand jury hearing secrecy. the reported source was in the legal profession.
the press reports followed thursday's televised call by former u.s. ambassador joseph wilson, the husband of one-time cia operative valerie plame, for president bush to honor his word to remove any official involved in the plame leak. 

on thursday's "nbc's "today"" show, wilson said it was time for the president to "stand up and prove to the american people that his word is his bond and fire karl rove." and "this cover-up is becoming unraveled. that's why you see the white house stonewalling."

amid refusals by president bush or his white house press secretary scott mcclellan to comment on the on-going investigation into the plame leak, the bush overall approval rating, now at 45%, has slipped one point from may. the "wall street journal/nbc news" poll found for the first time that 45% chose poor, versus 41% good, for rating the president as "honest and straightforward". his disapproval rating, now 49%, is up 2 points.

american support for the war effort in iraq remains strong, at 57 to 42% in favor. and the majority believe the war in iraq is part of the broader goal of battling global terrorism by a margin of 61 to 34 %.

given the favorable opinion ratings on the war, the current furor in the press and by partisan democrats are questions about personal accountability, and not about u.s. war policy. bush has so far demonstrated by his silence that he is willing to let the matter of rove be settled by the court.

special prosecutor patrick fitzgerald is in charge of the federal probe seeking what is believed to involve two officials at the white house. at issue concerning rove is whether he broke the intelligence identities protection act. the act makes it a felony crime for rove to intentionally and knowingly leak the identity of plame. at the time, plame was a cia counter-proliferation division employee.

fitzgerald is not obliged to publicly reveal any information on testimony received during grand jury hearings on the matter, and has not commented. what is known is that matt cooper's reporting notes sent by e-mail to his employer "time" magazine show that rove identified judith plame as "wilson's wife", and from the context of their conversation, cooper's notes report that she "apparently works" at the cia. whether he revealed that plame was a covert agent remains to be found. 

mr. wilson has from the start shown his willingness to comment on the actions of the bush administration. from his july 2003 op-ed piece, which started this whole affair, he was critical of statements made by bush during his state of the union address. then in august 2003 after his wife's covert cover was blown, came his angry statement to try and get karl rove "frog-marched out of the white house in handcuffs". 

on tuesday this week, during the heightened controversy from the supreme court ordered release by "time" of cooper's notes, wilson said "that rove was intimately involved in the smear campaign launched after the [novak] article appeared," according "nbc news" report. "now to find out he talked to matt cooper before then only compounds the outrage at the abuse of power." wilson's statements were made off camera.




sao paulo crowned copa libertadores champions

sao paulo has won the copa libertadores de america competition, beating atletico paranaense in the second round of the final match at home with a score of 4-0. the first round between the brazilian teams was drawn 1-1 at atletico's stadium.

amoroso opened the scoring for sao paolo in the 17th minute. on the 45th minute, as the game approached half time, atletico were awarded a controversial penalty, however, fate would fall sao paolo's way as atletico missed their chance to draw the game level.

fabao scored a wonder goal for sao paolo in the 53rd minute to make it 2-0, and by now, atletico seemed out of it.

luizao & diego tardelli completed the 4-0 drubbing late on, in what could have been a momentous night for atletico, turned horribly wrong. 

sao paolo came out winners and are crowned south american champions for the 2004/2005 season. sao paolo will go on to face liverpool later this year to decide the world club championship. liverpool is this season's european champions.


us senate debates rove and intelligence access

the amendment comes as george w. bush declined to reaffirm his pledge to fire any official involved in the leaking of covert cia agent valerie plame after documents by the named his chief advisor karl rove as a source of the leak.

in a press briefing on september 29th, 2004, white house spokesman , in response to the question "scott, has anyone ? has the president tried to find out who outed the cia agent? and has he fired anyone in the white house yet?", stated that "the president has set high standards, the highest of standards for people in his administration. he's made it very clear to people in his administration that he expects them to adhere to the highest standards of conduct. if anyone in this administration was involved in it, they would no longer be in this administration." the next day, in a meeting with business people, george w. bush said that "if somebody did leak classified information, i'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action." the and the however, misrepresented bush's promise as a promise to fire only those administration officials who "knowingly" or "illegally" disclosed plame's identity.

in a press conference this monday, white house spokesman scott mcclellan was asked if the president stood by his statements made in september 2003, in light of recent evidence that karl rove was involved in the leak. scott mcclellan declined to reaffirm this policy, citing an ongoing investigation.

pressed to explain its statements of two years ago that rove wasn't involved in the leak, the white house refused to do so.

"if i were to get into discussing this, i would be getting into discussing an investigation that continues and could be prejudging the outcome of the investigation," white house spokesman scott mcclellan said.

the statements made by scott mcclellan two years ago were made during the investigation that continues and may have prejudiced the outcome of the investigation. when reporters asked mcclellan to explain this inconsistency, mcclellan gave the same response. when asked if the administration was told not to discuss the investigation while it was ongoing "after" he claimed that karl rove was not involved in the leak, and not before, scott mcclellan gave the same response. 

senate leader harry reid of added this amendment to the bill:

senate majority leader , -., amended the amendment:

the first part of this amendment was in response to joe wilson's correction of george w. bush's representation of his and his associates' intelligence assessment regarding . the second was in response to recent criticism of the treatment of prisoners in detention facilities operated by the united states, most notably at by officials including senator .

the republican-controlled senate ultimately voted down both amendments on july 14th.



torino &amp; messina thrown out of italy's serie a football championship for next season

torino and messina are facing the risk of expulsion from serie a because of fraud. both clubs submitted false financial information to the serie a management.

covisoc, the body who must ratify that all clubs have the funds necessary to be registered for the new season, have found problems with both outfits.

as it stands now, they are not part of the italian first division but the pair have submitted an appeal on july 12 against the initial decision.

a final verdict on whether the clubs can compete in the top-flight next term is expected on july 15.

numerous other clubs in lower divisions are facing similar problems, with perugia and salernitana risking demotion from serie b. a total of 20 clubs are in trouble in serie c.


arsenal lets vieira go

serie a champions juventus have confirmed the $24,000,000 (￡13,700,000, ?20,000,000) capture of arsenal captain .

the central midfielder, who will now partner brazilian - emerson, has signed a 5 year contract at the .

juve had been in talks for the 29-year-old for the last few weeks and a deal has been completed.

vieira will now link up with boss again after a brief stint at with him almost a decade ago.

the frenchman joins the side despite being strongly linked with a move to real madrid over the last two summers.

vieira ends his premiership stay after nine years in england since he became arsene wenger's first signing at arsenal.


next season's coppa italia football tournament adopts new format

a new format will be in place this year for the coppa italia (tim cup).

72 clubs will take part - all 20 from serie a, all 22 from serie b, and 30 clubs from serie c.

all but the 8 serie a clubs participating in uefa's european competitions will begin play in the first elimination round. those 8 will not join until the round of 16.

the clubs will be seeded 1 (inter, as defending champion) through 72 with matchups determined accordingly (not through a random draw). so in the first round, #9 seed will play #72, #10 vs #71, etc.

the first three rounds will be just one match, at the field of the lower-seeded team. overtime and penalties will resolve ties (not replays). from the round of 16 on, ties will be home-and-away.

the calendar:


palestinian security forces clash with militants, palestinian interrior minister nasser yousef declares state of emergency

following an attack on israel by palestinian militants, palestinian authority (pa) interior minister nasser yousef has declared a state of emergency. yousef claims militants opened fire on pa security forces when the security forces stopped the militants firing rockets into israel. in the firefight 6 militants were injured. other firefights have broken out in northern gaza. the israel defense forces (idf) blame hamas militants for the attacks.

a masked militant in gaza city told reporters "resistance is legal and as long as the zionists are violating the hudna, or truce, no one would prevent us from responding to these violations, and we would cut the arms of those who would try to halt us".



concerns over china oil subsidiary of unocal buying into us energy infrastructure

at a u.s. house armed services committee meeting broadcast on "cspan", former cia director woolsey talked about the 18.5 billion dollar bid by the government-backed china national offshore oil corporation (cnooc) for the purchase of unocal corporation. he said this is definitely a strategic energy power move by china, and it was not for economic gain. others are still worried about emp.

u.s. treasury secretary john snow heads a committee that can block the takeover. the u.s. house of representatives passed a measure in june by a wide margin to form the committee under snow. u.s. national security concerns are at stake according to analysts and many conservatives.

the united states reluctance to allow china's unsolicited bid for an american oil company surprises some. when russia claimed their own oil companies could not be bought by americans for both "strategic" and "national security" reasons, the united states was vehemently opposed to that position.


kenyans flee homes after tuesday's raids

kenyans living near a village where 76 people died in a massacre on tuesday have fled their homes.
6,000 people from around turbi village in north-eastern kenya have gone to marsabit, the nearest large town. 
two men were killed in revenge attacks on thursday, police said and more huts have been burnt in turbi. 
security forces in armoured cars and helicopters are pursuing the raiders. 


age of britain's toldpuddle martyr tree discovered

the tree said to have sheltered the tolpuddle martyrs when they met in an attempt to form one of the world's first trade unions has been dated for the first time. the sycamore tree is still alive and is under the care of the national trust in the village of tolpuddle, dorset, uk. the trust calculates that the tree is around 320 years old meaning that it would have been 150 years old when the martyrs met in 1834.

the story of the tolpuddle martyrs is important to many trade unionists in the uk and across the globe. an annual festival is organised in the village by the trades union congress (the umbrella body for trade unions in the uk) attended by thousands of people. 

nigel costley, the regional secretary of the south west tuc, was quoted as saying: "the tolpuddle tree is one of the most famous trees in the country because it was under there that the martyrs met - a move that led to their deportation, pardon, and ultimately the foundation of the trade union movement."

there were six men in the group who came to be known as the tolpuddle martyrs. they were all farm labourers and lived in poverty. their leader, george loveless, decided to set up a union to give the labourers bargaining strength over their wages. labour associations had been legalised but the men were arrested under a law forbidding the swearing of oaths. they were tried and deported to australia but were released in 1836.


possible 'mastermind' of london bombings captured in egypt

the alleged mastermind behind the london bombings was reported captured in cairo, egypt last week. police believe that a u.s. trained chemist, magdi asdi el-nashar, 33, helped build the bombs that killed over 50 people. 

mr. el-nashar, who has a phd from leeds university, left england two weeks before the bombings. after the london bombings, british authorities initiated a worldwide manhunt that found him in cairo. state security officials reported they have begun questioning el-nashar with british agents in attendance.

mr. el-nashar arrived in britain in october 2000 to study for his doctorate, which he was awarded in may. a university spokesperson said he was doing "environmentally friendly research involving chemically inactive substances."

the egyptian interior ministry has said "[mr] el-nashar denied having any relation with the latest events in london. he pointed out that all his belongings remained in his apartment in britain."

friends of mr. el-nashar said he “was well-liked and showed no interest in politics.” his friend, kadhem al-rawi, a doctor in islamic principles at the european institute of human sciences in wales said "he had a great personality. you would never ever expect this kind of action from him. impossible." this is a recurring theme heard from many of the suspected bombers, families and friends. many believed the suspects had little or no motive to carry out the attacks.

"bbc" security correspondent, gordon corera, said it was believed that mr. el-nashar handed over keys to a house in leeds that was used by the bombers. british police are searching a house in leeds linked to mr. el-nashar, although he is not yet formally named a suspect. he told questioners that he was on holiday in egypt and left all his belongings in his apartment, but his plans were to return to britain. 

the alleged involvement in the attacks by mr. el-nashar is yet unclear. police said they were hunting financiers, supporters and chemists who assembled the bomb used in the attacks. 

a man injured in the bus bombing in tavistock square died in hospital on thursday, bringing the number of confirmed victims to 51. three of the bombers have also been confirmed dead, with the fourth also thought to have died.

sources have told the bbc that explosives found in one of the homes is from ingredients available from high-street chemists. 

they were the same kind of explosive richard reid had in his shoes when he tried to blow up a trans-atlantic flight in 2001.

anti-terrorist agencies are worried other "educated amateurs" could try to make more of the explosive, as the risk of accidents in the manufacturing process is very high.

a suspected al-qaeda member may have entered britain via a channel port two weeks before the bombs, but was not kept under surveillance. the man apparently left britain hours before the blasts.

speaking on bbc radio 4's today programme, metropolitan police commissioner sir ian blair said there was nothing connecting the man to the plot, but added that investigators expected to find evidence linking al-qaeda to the attacks. he said the bombers were only the "foot soldiers" of the operation and the mastermind was still being sought.

"what we've got to find is, who encouraged them, who trained them, and who's the chemist," he said.

he said police would also work with the muslim community, which he said had been "close to denial" about extremist preachers, to defeat terrorism. "we will break this horror that has descended upon us," he said.

the current suspects for carrying out the london bombings are:



yankees power surge blacks out sox relief in 8-6 win

the race in the al east is alive and well.

the new york yankees mounted a comeback from an early 4-0 deficit to beat the boston red sox, 8-6, last night, and reduce the sox' al east division lead to a mere 1.5 games. the key was the yankees' hot bats. the bronx bombers hit 4 homeruns in total, the last one a thunderous 2-run blast by alex rodriguez off converted red sox starter curt schilling, who was in his first appearance as a relief pitcher after his rehab stint in the minors.

boston jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead against yankees starter mike mussina, establishing the sort of lead that would usually cause the yankees to fold during the first half of the season. however, the torrid hitting of the yankee lineup over the last two weeks would not allow that. mussina adjusted to the tight strike zone as the game progressed, allowing just one run over the next five innings, and the yankees chipped away at the bosox' lead. bernie williams, jason giambi, and gary sheffield all hit solo shots off red sox starter bronson arroyo. at the end of the sixth inning the score was tied, 5-5, and both starters were done for the day. the game would come down to relief pitching.

david ortiz put the red sox ahead in the bottom of the seventh, hitting a bases-empty home run off tanyon sturtze to push the score to 6-5. the yankees rebounded in the top half of the eighth when ruben sierra, pinch-hitting for rookie cf melky cabrera, connected for a double, tying the game at 6-all.

schilling came on in the top of the ninth and promptly hung a 2-2 splitter over the plate for gary sheffield, who lined a double off the wall in left-center. rodriguez was up next, and hit another splitter that never split. the two-run homer gave the yankees their first lead of the game. mariano rivera came on in the bottom of the ninth and silenced the red sox bats by striking out the side to end the game, recording his 21st save.

boston has lost three straight games and is now 10 games over .500 at 49-39. the yankees (47-40) have won 8 of 9 games dating back to before the all-star break and currently sit in 3rd place, half a game behind 2nd-place baltimore.

notes: rookie yankees pitcher chien-ming wang, who has been one of the yankees' most consistent performers, has been placed on the 15-day dl with a shoulder injury. it has been speculated that wang, who tore his labrum while in the minors, may be out for the season. wang was slated to start tonight's game, but will be replaced by tim redding as he waits for an appointment with dr. james andrews on monday...former red sox manager joe kerrigan has been signed by the yankees as an advance scout. general manager brian cashman has said that kerrigan will be used to analyze film of opponents, not as a coach.


china to launch second space mission in october

china looks to launch it's second manned space mission in october, two years after it's first flight, a newspaper reported friday. the government planned to launch a two-man crew into orbit in september or october on a five to six day flight. 

the shenzhou vi capsule will "preferably be launched in early october," said sun weigang the director of the space department of the china aerospace science and technology corp, said in the report in the china daily newspaper. chinese officials say to they plan to land an unmanned probe on the moon by 2010 and operate a space station. 


pollution in arctic carried by seabirds

research by a team from canada have published a report in the magazine "science" stating that seabirds are the main carriers of pollution in coastal ponds in the arctic.

they showed that local sources of pollution are rare, meaning that seabirds played a proportionally greater role in local pollution. they do not produce pollution themselves, rather, they carry in other forms of marine pollution.

the researchers found levels of ddt 60 times higher, 25 times more mercury, and 10 times higher hexachlorobenzene in ponds that seabirds frequented compared to nearby ponds birds did not use.

all the pollution was originally of human origin - industrial or agricultural.



bones of a mammoth possibly found in silicon valley

university of california berkeley scientists confirmed on wednesday that a cluster of fossilized bones found in silicon valley are likely the remains of a mammoth.

the giant beast would have roamed the area between 10,000 and 40,000 years ago. a pair of elephant-like tusks, a huge pelvic bone and the animal's rib cage were found by an amateur naturalist while walking a dog along a canal near san jose's guadalupe river, near recent flood control dredging. 

it could be the remains of a columbian mammoth, according to paleontologists who expect to study the site like an archeological "dig," with shovels, sieves and brushes, during the summer of 2005.


new species of dolphin found off australia

a new species of dolphin, the first to be identified these last three decades, has been discovered in australian waters. 

it was thought that the australian snubfin dolphin was in fact an irrawady dolphin (usually found in asia and australia) but dna tests prove that it is in fact a different species. its scientific name is orcaella heinsohni, honouring george heinsohn, an australian biologist who worked at the james cook university on dolphins.


a timeline: novak, rove, cooper

the novak story that sparked the contoversy was written on july 14, 2003. the "star telegram" reported that rove talked to novak on tuesday july 8, 2003. a perpetual calendar is useful to observe the date. cooper called rove 4 days after his talk with novak. the date of the rove-cooper conversation must then have been july 12, 2003.

u.s. grand jury information "leaked" to the "associated press" revealed karl rove spoke to two reporters, rather than the previously thought one reporter matthew cooper. it was reported here by "msnbc" with the help of "msnbc's "today"" show the reporter robert novak was also spoken to, but without a single date to serve as a reference point. therefore, a reader who wanted to create a timeline of events to discover the publication date of the novak story that blew valerie plames's cover is presented with the following puzzle (one date is provided by wn, the date of wilson's op-ed piece):









transporting food costs the uk billions

a report published today by defra, a uk government department finds that transporting food to and around the country has significant social and environmental costs. the report, carried out by external consultancy aea technology, estimates these costs to have been ￡9 billion ($16 billion us) in 2002. the government says it wants to work with the food industry to reduce social and environmental impacts by 20% by 2012.

the report set out to make an assessment of the impact of food miles and to develop a set of indicators that will show when progress has been made to reduce these negative impacts. the distance that food travels between producer and consumer (food miles) has increased over the past ten years. 

increasing food miles has been seen as undesirable in and of itself but the report says that the situation is more complex and that the mode of transport has to be taken in to account. the increase in food miles between 1992 and 2002 was associated with increasing levels of congestion and increasing emissions of greenhouse gases while emmissions of some local pollutants such as sox and nox have declined.

the food and drink federation, which speaks for food manufacturers, was concerned about the focus on food miles but welcomed the "acknowledgement that more local sourcing does not automatically reduce the environmental and social costs associated with food miles." the federation went on to stress that "on imported ingredients, the usual mode of transport used by food manufacturers is by sea, which does not give rise to any significant impacts. air transport is generally not used by food manufacturers."

another industry group, the british retail consortium said that retailers would "welcome the opportunity to introduce further transport efficiencies into their operations - always working from the principle that making existing resources work harder makes both good environmental and commercial sense."

environmental campaign group friends of the earth is worried that the uk government will not take the firm action it believes is necessary in the light of the report. a statement from the group said "the government must get tougher to reduce food miles. unless it tackles this problem the impacts will become worse and government targets to reduce carbon dioxide levels will be much harder to achieve." 


rep. waxman: karl rove violated non-disclosure agreement

house representative henry waxman (d-cal) released on friday a fact sheet from a "briefing booklet" that karl rove received when he signed the classified information nondisclosure agreement (sf-312). executive order 12958 requires that a person sign this standard form before being granted security clearance. the briefing booklet states that:
"before confirming the accuracy of what appears in the public source, the signer of the sf 312 must confirm through an authorized official that the information has, in fact, been declassified. if it has not, confirmation of its accuracy is also an unauthorized disclosure."

the nondisclosure agreement and the executive order require sanctions against security clearance holders who "knowingly, willfully, or "negligently"" disclose classified information. the sanctions for such a breach include "reprimand, suspension without pay, removal, termination of classification authority, loss or denial of access to classified information, or other sanctions.

the agreement requires that violators be subject to appropriate sanctions, regardless of whether or not they knew they were leaking classified information:

officers and employees of the united states government ... shall be subject to appropriate sanctions if they knowingly, willfully, or negligently ... disclose to unauthorized persons information properly classified.

this information was provided to yubanet by representative waxman, and discussed in detail here.

the case, however, is being tried under the 1982 intelligence identities protection act. the strictest interpretation of the act limits breaking it to
reveal the identity of an undercover agent. there is only one publicly known conviction for the law. cia employee sharon scranage, who pleaded guilty in 1985. she served 8 months out of a 5 year conviction for revealing to her boyfriend the names of other agents while stationed in ghana. 

the case is clouded by reckoning on the covert status of valerie plame when the leak occurred. charles e. schumer (d-n.y.) called for an fbi probe 10 days after the july 13, 2003 column by robert novak identified her as an agent. a chicago native and appointed special prosecutor, patrik fitzgerald took over the case 19 months ago. that the case continues today says something in itself.

critics of the investigation believe the case is overblown because it was widely known in washington social power circles that plame worked for the cia. 

a mediamatters report on the widely publicized quote by joseph wilson, who said, "my wife was not a clandestine officer... ", was misconstrued by the press.

"blitzer: but the other argument that's been made against you is that you've sought to capitalize on this extravaganza, having that photo shoot with your wife [in the january 2004 vanity fair magazine], who was a clandestine officer of the cia, and that you've tried to enrich yourself writing this book and all of that."
"what do you make of those accusations, which are serious accusations, as you know, that have been leveled against you?"
"wilson: my wife was not a clandestine officer the day that bob novak blew her identity."
"blitzer: but she hadn't been a clandestine officer for some time before that?"
"wilson: that's not anything that i can talk about. and, indeed, i'll go back to what i said earlier, the cia believed that a possible crime had been committed, and that's why they referred it to the justice department."

in the full context of the above "cnn wolf blitzer reports" televised broadcast, wilson was responding to mean that after robert novak's column ran, his wife was no longer a clandestine officer. the vanity fair coverage given wilson with wife plame was a result of the publicity that ensued from the column written by novack. the photo shoots did not occur before the disclosure, they came in january 2004.

the associated press reported the wilson-blitzer interview as follows:

" ...cnn thursday before the latest revelation, wilson kept up his criticism of the white house, saying [white house senior adviser karl] rove's conduct was an "outrageous abuse of power ... certainly worthy of frog-marching out of the white house.""

but at the same time, wilson acknowledged his wife was no longer in an undercover job at the time novak's column first identified her. "my wife was not a clandestine officer the day that bob novak blew her identity," he said.

"federal law prohobits goverment [sic] officials from divulging the identity..." 

media outlets followed the "ap" lead with their own reporting that mirrored "ap" report.



space shuttle discovery launch on indefinite hold

nasa engineers announced on friday that the "discovery"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s launch is being put on hold indefinitely.

"we are going forward on a day by day basis," space shuttle program deputy manager wayne hale said at a press conference this afternoon. "as soon as we fix the problem, we will be four days from launch. what is that date going to be? we don't know."

launch controllers are still optimistic about a launch in the current window of opportunity, which lasts until the end of the month. twelve teams of engineers are working across the us in order to resolve the problem with the fuel tank sensor.

the fuel tank sensor is vital as it shuts down the main engines when fuel is exhausted - if the engines run dry, the results could be disastrous.

when the huge main fuel tank was drained on wednesday, the sensor continued to indicate "wet" instead of "dry", but in a series of later tests the sensor began performing properly. 



harry potter and the half-blood prince released

"harry potter and the half-blood prince" by j.k. rowling was released today to hundreds of special midnight parties at bookstores. the book is expected to sell tens of thousands of copies in the first hour, and the waves of fans just keep on coming. as midnight spreads across the atlantic and the north american continent, more and more stores will start selling.

the royal mail uk postal service delivered four hundred tons of the pre-ordered books this morning.

in british columbia, fourteen copies of the book were accidentally sold at a supermarket on the 7th of july, eight days before the book's official release date. this led publishers to obtain a court order from the british columbia supreme court stating that people who had received the books were forbidden from copying, selling, discussing, or reading the book.

in protest at the ruling, richard stallman, an advocate of less-restrictive copyright law, called for a boycott of the books after the controversial supreme court ruling. he called anybody who "participated in requesting, issuing, enforcing, or trying to excuse" the injunction an "enemy of human rights in canada."



grand theft auto under fire

the "grand theft auto" (g.t.a.) game series, based on the underworld, pushes social limits on violence and sexual content in the video gaming industry. the newer "grand theft auto 3" release sparked controversy when it came to light the plot was based on an unnamed character's mission to destroy and slaughter his way to the top of the local crime scene. since that release, further games were developed: "grand theft auto: vice city", and "grand theft auto: san andreas". 

thursday, according to a report filed by gamespot, congresswoman hillary clinton called on the federal trade commission (ftc) to "take immediate action to determine the source of graphic pornographic and violent content appearing on the "grand theft auto: san andreas" video game." clinton also wanted the ftc to determine if an "ao" rating would be more suitable for the game than current "m" rating.

clinton said she would work quickly to create a bill for a federal law that would "put some teeth into video game ratings." the federal legislation by clinton would follow similar state initiatives. california assemblymen leland yee introduced a bill in his state, as did illinois governor rod blagojevich. the purpose of the state and federal bills would be to "prohibit the sale of violent and sexually explicit video games to minors." the passage and enactment of the proposed bill by clinton would make it a federal offence to sell video game content to persons under the age of the games's rating.

like many "grand theft auto" gamers, the entertainment software rating board(esrb) is cautious over clinton legislative proposal. patricia vance, the president of esrb, issued this statement: "we urge all parties not to rush to judgment until all of the relevant facts, some of which are highly technical and complicated, have been established. any second guessing at this point would be premature and inappropriate as this investigation continues." vance said amongst the esrb's top interests were to protect children, to educate parents, and make sure parents make good decisions on what video games their children be allowed to play.

jack thompson, the subject of beefs with "grand theft auto" in the past, is a republican attorney from miami. thompson sent out an email to major gaming outlets (gamespot for example). the letter at first stated "i, as a lifelong republican, am going to thank senator hillary rodham clinton," and offered admiration for clinton's campaign against violence and sexual content in video games. the email then went on to criticize doug lowenstein, who helps manage esrb and is the president of the entertainment software association. thompson wrote, "doug lowenstein could have prevented what is going to happen today, but he preferred to shoot the messengers." thompson also mentioned the columbine high school massacre, and claimed it was the fault of the developers of games (specifically id software, the maker of doom). he claims the u.s. constitution first amendment right to freedom of speech in no way protects the gaming industry from censorship. 
lowenstein issued the following statement regarding the current video game/hot coffee issue: "retailers should not sell mature games to minors, parents should watch what their kids watch, and parents should and can rely on the esrb ratings to make the right choices for their families. we hope that... senator clinton will abandon the bill and work cooperatively with industry and others to ensure that parents take advantage of the effective tools on the market to regulate the games their kids play."

although some of the statements mentioned are related to video games in general and not so much gta, a majority of all of this recently publicity did indeed start with the "hot coffee mod" for grand theft auto. esrb has never been pressured any harder in the past than they are now, and rockstar still denies that they put the sex scenes in the game; although it has been recently demonstrated that action max-replay (a cheat/feature-unlocking system for the sony playstation 2) allows the user to play the "mini sex games" - the exact same thing the hot coffee mod unlocks for the pc version of gta san andreas.



suicide bombing in kusadasi, turkey

a detonated herself saturday aboard a minibus heading to ladies beach in , an resort town, killing at least four people, private ntv television said. three of the victims were foreign tourists, a doctor who treated the casualties said. 

three foreign tourists were among the dead and five foreign tourists were critically injured in the explosion, a doctor at ku?adasi state hospital said. he spoke on condition of anonymity. the five injured tourists were transferred to izmir for treatment, the doctor added. according to some sources, there are five injured british tourists.

ntv television said a female suicide bomber carried out the attack on the bus, which was heading to a nearby beach. kurdish rebels in the past have used female suicide bombers.

the explosion ripped off the roof of the white minibus.

there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but rebels have recently carried out bomb attacks in aegean resort towns.

earlier this month, a bomb hidden in a soda can wounded 21 people, including three foreign tourists, in the aegean coastal town of Ce?me. on april 30, a bomb in a killed a police officer and left four others wounded in ku?adasi.

a kurdish group that called itself the freedom falcons organization or tak claimed credit for both attacks and vowed to maintain attacks against tourist areas.


three british army soldiers killed in iraq

the british mod has confirmed in a statement that three british army soldiers have been killed in a suspected roadside bomb in southern iraq. two others were wounded, though not life-threateningly. 

the three soldiers were from the warrior-equipped 1st battalion, the staffordshire regiment. the regiment is stationed in tidworth, wiltshire. it arrived in iraq in april as part of 12 mechanised brigade.

on 16 july, an mod statement said that no further information would be disclosed until families had been informed. the following day, the mod released the names of the three killed. they were: second lieutenant richard shearer, private leon spicer, and private phillip hewett. 

the roadside attack took place in the early hours of 16 july when three armoured land rovers were patrolling through the risala neighbourhood of al amarah, capital of maysan province. the attack brings the british forces death toll in iraq to 92.

the staffordshire regiment is the lead component of task force maysan, based in camp abu naji, just outside amarah. the task force has responsibility for the entire province, which is north of al basrah province. 

task force maysan has experienced previous attacks in the past few months. according to the mod website, on 6 june private adam mills of the staffordshire regiment discovered a roadside bomb which was subsequently made safe. 

amarah has a population of about 340,000 and has been the scene of previous violence against british forces. in may, two british soldiers were killed in the city. in 2004, it was the scene of fierce fighting between british forces and iraqi insurgents, which led to the awarding of the victoria cross to private johnson beharry of the 1st battalion, princess of wales's royal regiment

in majar al-kabir, near al amarah, a patrol of six royal military police were surrounded and killed by an iraqi mob on 24 june 2003.

the 16 july attack is the largest loss of life in a single day for the british army since 4 november 2004, when 3 soldiers of the black watch were killed in northern iraq in a suicide car attack. the largest loss of life sustained by british forces as a whole took place on 30 january 2005, when a c-130k transport crashed north of baghdad, killing nine raf and one army personnel.


utah bill requiring divine design education withdrawn by senator chris buttars

utah senator chris buttars has decided not to introduce a bill requiring the teaching of "divine design" in utah schools, at least for this year. buttars withdrew after state board of education director patti harrington assured him that utah public school curriculum does not teach that man descended from apes. 

buttars had hoped his divine design proposal would escape the controversy of creationism or intelligent design. "the only people who will be upset about this are atheists," he stated on june 6 when he announced his intention to run the bill. 

utah is home to the church of jesus christ of the latter day saints also known as the mormon church. on the surface it would seem utah would be a likely scene of intense religious pressure in public schools over the teaching of evolution. but unlike states with a strong christian conservative presence, utah's lds leaders have avoided some of the more contentious separation state and church battles.

on the topic of divine design, official lds church spokesmen have been largely silent at least in public. but with more than 90% of the legislature made up of members of the lds faith, few in utah would deny the influence of the church on public policy. 

groups on both sides of the issue are gearing up for what many consider an inevitable fight. the aclu of utah has posted a paper on divine design on its web site (http://www.acluutah.org). the eagle forum which wields significant policital power in utah has expressed its support for buttars proposed legislation. 


australian wins 2005 world series of poker

australian poker player joseph hachem outlasted nearly 6,000 other players and a final table that lasted until nearly 7:00 am local time to win the 36th world series of poker main event title. hachem won a top prize of us$7.5 million.

on the sixth hand of heads-up play against american steve dannenman, hachem made a seven-high straight on the flop, which held up until the river to give him the win. dannenman took home us$4.25 million for the second place finish.

hachem became the first non-american player to win the main event since spaniard carlos mortensen won the title in 2001. he is also the first since mortensen to win without qualifying through an internet poker portal.

notable finishers include irish professional andrew black in fifth place, american professional mike matusow in ninth, american professional phil ivey in 20th, and 2004 champion greg raymer in 25th.


super typhoon haitang to make landfall in taiwan

super typhoon haitang is now making landfall in taiwan. yesterday, haitang was a category 5 typhoon, with winds at 160 mph (257 km/h) and gusts up to 195 mph (317 km/h), and is currently moving west-northwest at 14 knots (16 mph, 26 km/h). as of 12:00 gmt on july 16, haitang was located at 20.7° n, 127.7° e.

current wind speeds are 140 mph, with gusts up to 165 mph , the typhoon is moving northwest at 13 mph. 

the taiwan central weather bureau is expected to issue a sea warning later today and possibly a land warning tomorrow.



shell quits irish fuel retail market

oil giant shell has sold all its retail and distribution operations in ireland to a distribution and logistics firm called topaz. the businesses, which are believed to have an annual turnover of over ?1bn, include 35 local distribution depots, 6 oil importation facilities, 55 retail service stations and the supply of fuel to 105 independent service stations throughout ireland.

shell is retaining its interest in the corrib gas field in county mayo which it is currently developing. shell has been known for some time to be anxious to exit the increasingly competitive irish market. since the arrivial of tesco to the petrol retail market last year, a price war has raged in parts of the country. althought tesco only operates a limited number of stations in the republic, it has expressed a desire to expand throughout the country.

ion equity are the consortium behind the takeover which according to the "irish independent" is valued at over ?100m. the business will be headed by former emo oil managing director danny murray.


54 killed by suicide bomber at musayyib gas station

at least 54 people died today when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a gas station near a mosque in musayyib, about 60 km south of the iraqi capital. some 80 people are reported to have been injured. 

witnesses said a fuel tanker was slowly approaching the pumps at the station when the attacker ran towards it and detonated explosives strapped to his body. police said the resulting huge blast destroyed a nearby apartment complex and damaged the mosque and some small businesses.

the gas station was located near the city-center. iraqi gas stations normally include a number of small businesses selling tea, soft drinks and snacks where crowds of people often gather.

mussayib, a religiously mixed town, lies in an area named the "triangle of death", due to the large number of kidnappings and killings of shiite muslims traveling between baghdad and the shiite holy cities of karbala and najaf.


u.s. retailers sue world’s largest credit card issuer

u.s. retail chain stores kroger’s, walgreens and five other food and drugstore chains have filed a lawsuit against the world’s largest credit card company, visa international inc. the federal lawsuit claims the company practices fee fixing on transactions, and with restricting competition among member banks.

the retail merchants claim that visa acts in collusion with its member banks to fix transaction fees taken as a percentage of each retail sale. the suit was filed thursday in the u.s. district court in manhattan, and seeks unspecified damages. 

member banks, those banks that issue and process merchants’ visa transactions, are unable to negotiate transaction fees directly with the merchant, and merchants are forced to accept visa purchases regardless of the issuing bank. the complaint says, “the merchant restraints have resulted in exorbitant interchange fees that bear no relationship to the cost of the services being provided." 

merchants see the rising use of card transactions and the effect it has on their bottom line. the interchange fees are currently 1.75% from most banks, but on some cards it rose this year to 2.9%. the national retail federation said for 2004 that between visa and mastercard, they pulled in $17.4 billion, a surcharge borne by the consumer regardless of whether they pay by cash or plastic.

retailers do not oppose transaction fees, but believe they should be based on market forces. they claim that technology has lowered the cost of processing the transactions, but the savings is not being passed along to them. there are currently four major credit card providers in the u.s.

"webpronews" writer john smith cites this merchant quote: "the collective setting of interchange fees by visa and its member banks constitutes horizontal price-fixing that leads to higher retail prices for our customers," said paul heldman, kroger senior vice president and general counsel. "this hidden cost must be borne by all kroger customers, whether they pay for their groceries with cash, by check or by debit or credit card. at a time when technology has made card authorization and processing faster, cheaper, safer and more efficient than ever, we believe that our customers should be receiving the benefit of declining interchange fees. instead, visa is using its extraordinary market power to profit at our customers' expense."

a small group of connecticut retailers filed a similar lawsuit last month naming along with visa, mastercard and several other large banks. the suit was filed in connecticut’s federal court. that suit also calls the fees “exorbitant”.

the vice-president of visa, paul cohen, said "it appears this is another in a series of attempts by some merchants to receive all the value of electronic payments, while shifting their normal costs of doing business onto consumers." 



chinese general threatens u.s. with nuclear weapons over possible taiwan strait conflict, beijing downplays comment

a general in the chinese people's liberation army (pla) and dean at the national defense university in china commented to visiting hong kong reporters on friday that the pla might use nuclear weapons against the u.s., in a conflict over the taiwan strait. "if the americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition onto the target zone on china's territory, i think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons," maj. gen. zhu chenghu said to the reporters of the asian wall street journal and the financial times. "we chinese will prepare ourselves for the destruction of all of the cities east of xian [in central china]. of course the americans will have to be prepared that hundreds ... of cities will be destroyed by the chinese."

u.s. state department spokesman sean mccormack called the remarks "highly irresponsible" and "unfortunate", and expressed the hope that they did not reflect the views of the chinese government.

echoing the official xinhua news agency, the people's republic of china's foreign ministry officials said that zhu was expressing personal views, and had warned the reporters accordingly, but stated that china would never tolerate "taiwan independence". reportedly, maj. gen. zhu is not directly involved in the formulation of chinese military strategy.

the u.s. may defend taiwan under the taiwan relations act and is currently taiwan's largest arms supplier.


yankees win 3 in 4 game series with red sox

the win sunday by the yankees at fenway park gives them 3 in a row in the 4 game series, and inches them closer to the top in baseball's american league east. behind the pitching of newly-acquired al leiter, the 5-3 win over the red sox puts them a 1/2 game out of the top spot. a sweep by taking final game of the series will make them the leader in the tight american league east race.

the injury-laden yankee pitching staff got a lift from leiter's performance who went 6 1/3 innings, and allowed one run on three hits. the 39-year-old lefty came by way of trade with the marlins to return to the pitching staff. yankee manager joe torre said, "the one thing we knew about the start was that he wasn't going to come in here and be rattled or be nervous." 

in saturday's game, randy johnson struck out 10 and alex rodriguez homered in a 6-run 3rd as the yankees beat the red sox at fenway park , 7 - 4. matt clement was roughed up early, allowing six runs, five hits, and five walks over 2 and two-thirds innings. johnny damon extended his league-leading hitting streak to 28. the red sox had a chance to creep closer to the yankees but a would-be 2 run shot off david ortiz was caught.

american league east standings:



peer-to-peer file-sharing user numbers still growing

statistics released by online media measurement company bigchampagne indicate that the average number of simultaneous, individual connections to file sharing networks has increased to around 9 million by june, 2005. this contrasts dramatically with an august, 2003 figure of just under 4 million users. 

the edonkey network is a good example of file-sharing platform that has seen strong growth. today emule, which connects and transfer files via edonkey, had user numbers of more than 9 million at one time. one year ago the total number of emule users barely reached 3 million.

online file sharing reportedly includes the widespread distribution of unauthorized copyrighted content and continues despite civil prosecution of both users and developers of file-sharing software in the united states as well as criminal prosecutions in europe and hong kong. grokster and streamcast networks are two recent examples of companies targeted by legal prosecution in the u.s. supreme court.

the court ruled last month that companies who provide file-sharing software with the specific intent that it be used to violate copyright laws are liable for the actions of those who use the service to download copyrighted files. 

the court's decision was widely misreported by the news media to have found file-sharing software illegal. however, the court's finding was much narrower, introducing a new and murky "intent" test for determining the culpability of the software provider. specifically, the court held that "one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties." 

few noncommercial programmers on open-source projects appear ready to quit over the court's ruling, but they do discourage piracy talk on open forums. file sharing networks that work under a loosely formed open-source programming project, such as shareaza, could defy the definition of what is called a company.


texas man arrested after rescuing drowning swimmer

san marcos resident, dave newman, was swimming in the san marcos river on the july 4th holiday weekend when he noticed that another man who had jumped into the river had failed to surface. police arrived on the scene as mr newman attempted to rescue the man, abed duamni, a 35 year old from houston. the officers instructed mr newman to swim to the nearest shore and get out of the water but he instead swam to the far shore with mr duamni. upon his emergence from the river, texas state university police arrested mr newman for interfering with public duties. now free on $2000 bail mr. newman is set to appear in court next month.

update:

texas state university police have dropped charges against dave newman after his arrest july 3 for interference with public duties at an emergency water rescue scene at spring lake dam on the san marcos river.

university president denise trauth and san marcos mayor susan narvaiz released the following joint statement:

"mr. newman was arrested because of his refusal to comply first with pleas, then requests, and then orders to leave the river after his rescue of mr. duamni. however, mr. newman did perform a heroic act, and we believe the proper course of action is to drop the charges. we want to emphasize to the public that the area around the spring lake dam can be dangerous. it claimed the life of a young man as recently as last april and it has been the site of six emergency water rescues since that time. we cannot overstate the importance of heeding the many warning signs posted in the area and using extreme caution when swimming there. we also want to re-emphasize to the public the importance of following the directives of police and fire and rescue personnel when they are on the scene of an emergency. we are forming a university-community committee immediately to explore steps we can take to make this swimming area safer for the public."


pakistan warned british intelligence about terrorist plans to bomb london

a british newspaper has revealed that pakistan had warned british counter-terrorism experts in may 2005 about terrorist plans to bomb london in the 'early summer'.

the pakistani interior minister, aftab sherpao, told the observer that interrogations of a 25-year old pakistani-born briton believed to be a member of al-qaeda had revealed a plot to 'bomb london pubs, restaurants and possibly railway stations' .

on july 7, 55 people were killed and over 700 injured in a series of co-ordinated terrorist attacks on london transport, including underground railway stations. senior british police officers denied receiving any warning before the attacks.

however, mr sherpao said that pakistan intelligence had 'received information from a number of sources and passed it on to the british' in may. pakistani sources claim that after the london attacks, british investigators have travelled to pakistan to interview the terrorist supect.


death toll in musayyib, iraq fuel tanker blast rises to 98

the death toll from a suicide bomb attack in musayyib, iraq has risen to 98. a suicide bomber attacked a fuel truck arriving at the gas station in the iraqi town overnight on july 16, running up to the truck and detonating his explosives. the huge blast which followed killed many locals at a crowded vegetable market near the local shi'ite mosque.

early reports put the number of dead at between 50-60, but this has risen as the full scale of the carnage has become apparent. hospital sources said they were treating 75 wounded, including 19 in a serious condition. the attack in musayyib was the deadliest suicide attack since 125 people were killed in february in nearby al hilla.

'this is a black day in the history of the town,' the musayyib police chief, yas khudayr, said.

musayyib lies south of baghdad, in the center of a dangerous area known as the 'triangle of death', where patrolling us forces are subject to constant attack from iraqi resistance forces.

angry crowds protested on sunday against the local authorities, which they blamed for not doing enough to prevent the attack. according to one protester, police had placed a ban on trucks entering the town, but had allowed the fuel tanker through.

during a parliamentary session in baghdad, the government was blamed by politicians for the dire security situation. calls were made for local militia to be formed to replace the police and soldiers who had failed to protect iraqis.


manchester city agree big money for shaun wright-phillips to move to chelsea fc

chelsea fc had a bid of ￡20,000,000 for the england winger rejected on friday after they finally made their interest in the player official.

shaun wright-phillips had declared on friday he was happy to stay at manchester city fc, but 24 hours later he asked city to agree a fee with chelsea so that he could move to stamford bridge.

both sides have now thrashed out a fee for wright-phillips and the flying winger has now been given permission to open talks with chelsea.

"as a result of shaun's request to speak to chelsea we have conducted a series of complex negotiations with chelsea," city's communications chief, paul tyrrell.

"a fee for shaun's transfer of ￡21,000,000 has been agreed and consequently we have granted his wish to talk to the other club."

chelsea are hoping to tie up a deal with wright-phillips as soon as possible so that he can join them on their tour of the u.s.a next week. 


israeli pm assassin yigal amir on open-ended hunger strike

, 

yigal amir, the student who assassinated israeli prime minister yitzhak rabin, began a hunger strike on june 28th in protest against "the basic human rights abuse by israel's prison authorities", as he describes it.
according to the prison service, he's not in a proper hunger strike because he drinks 5 liters of sweet raspberry-flavoured drink (otherwise known as "petel") every day.
disputing that (according to updates from larisa trembovler journal) yigal amir in a phone conversation insists that it is a lie and he is not given anything near 5 liters of drinks a day.
also regardless of prison service definitions he continues with the hunger strike.

the issue of contention is denial of recognition of his marriage to larisa trembovler by israeli prisons service.

in january 2004, when news of the couple's intentions reached the press, israel prisons service commissioner lieutenant general ya'akov ganot rejected amir's request to marry in jail, even though by then the prison service had itself submitted a formal application for permission to hold the ceremony. ganot even requested that the legal department be "prepared to defend the decision."

two months ago, amir and trimbovler asked the association for civil rights in israel to represent them before the prison service, and present their desire to marry within the prison walls.

according to the association, ""the right to marry applies to prisoners as well; human rights also apply to yigal amir."" the association said that the couple performed the "marriage by messenger" for lack of alternatives ""after they were deprived of their basic right to marry, as it is normally understood.""



saddam hussein formally charged with the killing of shia muslims

the special tribunal set up to try saddam hussein has made its first formal charge against him. 

saddam and three others have been charged with the killings in dujail, the town in which the ex-president survived an assassination attempt in 1982. the charge is minor compared to other crimes saddam is accused of committing; however he would still face the death penalty if he were to be convicted. the tribunal is said to have picked this charge as it is one in which the investigation has progressed the most. 

many iraqis would prefer a quick trial of the ex-president, and so the special tribunal has picked a charge they are confident they can convict on quickly. the date for the trial is set to be announced in the next few days. iraqi law states that a trial can only begin 45 days after the charges have been made, and therefore the proceedings could start as early as september. 

other than saddam hussein, his brother-in-law barzan ibrahim al-hassan, former vice-president taha yasin ramadan and former top judge awad badar al-bender are also being charged in the dujail case.

the iraqi government has said it plans to bring only 12 charges against the former leader, each of them carrying the death penalty, out of a possible 500 of which he is accused. the trial is expected to start as early as september. 


gulf air launches direct flights to the middle east from dublin

middle eastern carrier gulf air has announced it is to provide direct flights from dublin, ireland to its hub in manama, bahrain from december three times a week. this is the first ever scheduled long haul route from ireland not to north america.

gulf air, which is owned jointly by the kingdom of bahrain, the sultanate of oman and the emirate of abu dhabi, will commence service using a airbus a330 on the 2nd december 2005.

gulf air is hoping travellers will use the service as a gateway to asia, africa and oceania. previously most travellers went via paris and london to reach destinations not served by a direct link.


plane crash in equatorial guinea kills 55

an "equatair" plane carrying 55 people crashed on saturday soon after take-off near the capital of equatorial guinea, malabo. witnesses told afp the antonov aircraft bound for bata suddenly caught fire and crashed in a forest near baney, a town some 19km from the capital. ""no one survived -- the plane was destroyed,"" said alfonso nsue mokuy, the information minister of e guinea, after rescue teams arrived at the crash site on sunday.

the old propeller-machine took off at about 10am local time (9am utc) and disappeared from the radar soon after, officials said.

flying in africa is considerably more dangerous than in other parts of the world. while accounting for only 3% of worldwide air traffic, 27% of all fatal airplane crashes occur in africa according to dutch-based aviation safety network. this is blamed on the chronic under-investment many airline companies on the continent suffer from.


tiger woods wins british open


tiger woods has won the british open championship at st andrews for the second time. woods had held the lead at the old course since the first day of the championship, with opening rounds of 66-67. he then battled tough conditions on the third day for a 71, and hit a closing round of 70; five shots clear of colin montgomerie.

the win at st andrews marks tiger woods' 10th major title of his career.


disneyland celebrates fiftieth anniversary

today, the walt disney company and thousands of guests celebrated the fiftieth birthday of theme park and american cultural landmark disneyland.

park guests, some of whom began queuing for entry around 3:00pm the previous day, packed into the park bringing it to full capacity before lunchtime.

arnold schwarzanegger, julie andrews, art linkletter, diane disney-miller, disney ceo michael eisner and disney ceo-elect, president and coo bob iger all joined in the festivities, with disney-miller, the eldest daughter of park founder walt disney, reading her father's original dedication at the precise time it was first read.

the park kicked off the official festivities on may 5 with the opening of the happiest homecoming on earth.

 


sir edward heath, former british pm, dies at 89

sir edward heath, prime minister of the united kingdom from 1970-1974 and leader of the conservative party from 1965-1975, has died at his home in salisbury just a week after his 89th birthday.

heath implemented the decimalization of the british coinage, led the united kingdom into the european economic community, attempted to end industrial unrest with the industrial relations act, initiated a failed power-sharing government in northern ireland, and, in order to cope with a coal strike on top of the 1973 fuel crisis, instituted a three-day work week in the uk. 

today he was eulogised by fellow politicians, including baroness margaret thatcher, who succeeded heath after he was ousted from the conservative party leadership in 1975. she said that with heath's death britain had lost a 'political giant'. there was also praise, from heath's former political secretary sir douglas hurd, for his contribution to the eec. 

'he got us into the european union,' sir hurd said. 'i mean that is a huge step, a very difficult one, which i doubt would have happened without his particular kind of thoroughness and determination. that was an amazing achievement.'

prime minister tony blair issued a statement describing sir heath as 'a man of great integrity and beliefs'.

heath was offered the post of ambassador to the united states in 1979, but declined. he continued to represent the constituency of old bexley and sidcup as a backbench mp until his retirement in 2001. he was created a knight of the garter in 1992.



six people arrested under immigration laws in leeds, england

six people were arrested in northern england today under immigration laws. the arrests were made in a suburb of leeds, where two of the suspected bombers of the london terrorist attacks lived. 

however the police say they are not linking the arrests with the london bombings. early reports had suggested that the men had been arrested under anti-terrorism laws as part of the london bombing investigation, a statement on the west yorkshire police website said they were working closely with the metropolitan police as part of their enquiry, but at the current stage they were not linking the arrests with the recent incidents in london.

all six men remain in police custody and west yorkshire police have yet to release more details about the arrests.


radio host sacked threatened freedom of speech in hong kong

a hong kong radio host wong yuk man has been sacked last week. wong hosted a radio program which had helped him become famous by criticizing the government and the pro-beijing political party. commercial radio, a private radio station and wong’s former employee said wong was fired because he demanded a 5-days-per-week program which the station could not deliver. however, wong said he was fired because commercial radio station feared that the government would refuse to renew their license because of his outspoken criticism against the government. the 5 days per week program which wong hosted had been cancelled and wong was reallocated to host a weekly program a couple of months ago after chen king-hon, another outspoken radio host of commercial radio who was the most popular host at the time, was sacked and his program cancelled.

wong and chen, and their former co-hosts had organized 5,000 fans to join their candle night rally in central, protesting against the alleged collusion between the commercial radio station and the government and urged for freedom of speech in hong kong. donald tsang, hong kong new chief executive, who has just replaced the unpopular tung chee-hwa a month ago who had failed to finish his second term due to the alleged health problem, was criticized for restricting the freedom of speech in hong kong. tsang has not yet responded to their criticism.


london bombers may have been 'duped' into committing suicide

the british tabloid the daily mirror today suggested that the london bombers may not have planned to commit suicide, while a scotland yard spokesman said they have not definitely confirmed that the four men intended to die when they carried out the attacks.

the daily mirror claims that the bombers brought return rail tickets to luton, and that they purchased pay and display car park tickets before boarding the train at luton station. the tabloid paper also states how the bombers all had personal items on their person at the time of the attacks, such as wallets, driving licences and bank cards. it also states how they were carrying large rucksacks which could be easily dumped, instead of having the explosives strapped to their bodies, as would be expected of a suicide bomber. it also points to evidence from the bombers' families, where two of the men had pregnant wives.

from this evidence, the paper draws the conclusion that the four men were not told the bombs would detonate straight away, and that the men thought they would be able to escape unscathed. this was probably done to protect their master’s identity, the paper suggested, since there was a high probability the bombers would be caught had they lived. 


cooper claims he learned of plame through rove

in a "time magazine" article, reporter claimed he learned that plame worked with the cia through a conversation with karl rove. however, he denied that rove directly named valerie plame. he also revealed that he discussed plame with , the deputy chief of staff for the u.s. vice-president dick cheney.

the revelation corroborates rove's testimony to the grand jury, leaked to several news sources, that he learned of plame's name from robert novak and another journalist (rove testified that he cannot remember which one), and that he did tell cooper in a later discussion that joseph wilson's wife worked for the cia, though he testified he never mentioned plame by name.

in a sunday " " broadcast, cooper said he secured a more specific written waiver from two sources, rove and libby, which led him to reverse his earlier refusal to cooperate with the federal grand jury investigation into the cia disclosure of plame. this second waiver was signed only hours prior to the contempt of court proceedings that would have put him in jail, the fate of the "new york times" reporter who refused to reveal her sources to the same court. he said during the broadcast there were other white house sources as well, but declined during the interview to disclose their names.

the waiver cooper secured releases him from the secrecy of grand jury proceedings. he wrote a 1st person account of the conversation with rove that was published sunday on the "time online edition". in a marketing move made by "time", they turned the high interest in the story into an online money maker by charging $1.99 for access to the story. 6 print issues of the magazine come with the purchase.


11-year-old california girl charged for throwing stone in defense

an 11-year-old girl faces serious assault charges in california after casting a stone at a group of boys who were throwing water balloons at her. in april, maribel cuevas was apprehended by fresno, california police and spent five days in a detention center after throwing the object at the group of boys who bombarded her with water balloons as she walked down the sidewalk. a 9-year-old boy was hit with the stone, and suffered a wound to his head requiring medical assistance.

since then, cuevas has spent one month under house arrest pending court. cuevas' lawyer, richard beshwate, told the bbc that "they [fresno police] are treating her like a violent parole offender. it's not a felony, it's an 11-year-old acting like an 11-year-old."

fresno police sergeant anthony martinez told reporters: "we responded. we determined a felony assault had taken place and the officers took the actions that were necessary." cuevas is due back in court next month on felony assault charges.

the girl was placed in juvenile hall during her five-day detention, with only one 30-minute visit from her parents. she was then placed under a 30 day house arrest and required to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet. the house arrest allowed the girl to attend school.

maribel, who knows very little english, said that the boy initiated the conflict ? the boy also admitted as much.



common sense advisory announces size of worldwide translation and localization market and ranking of top 20 language services companies

common sense advisory, inc., an independent business globalization, internationalization, and localization and translation research and consulting firm, announces the release of its list of the top 20 language service providers (lsps) and its estimate of the size of worldwide translation and software localization market. the list, which includes lionbridge (liox) and l-3/titan (lll) is based on the firm’s human delivered service company (hdsc) index, a sophisticated assessment model that evaluates the business fundamentals, market strength, and service offerings of companies that depend on people to produce most of their revenue. the ranking of translation companies reflects recent industry mergers and acquisitions including lionbridge’s acquisition of bowne global solutions, a unit of bowne & co, (bne).

common sense advisory also estimates the current worldwide translation and localization market at us$ 8.8 billion, reaching a total of us$ 12 billion in 2010. “this figure is particularly relevant at a time where the market seems to be entering a new wave of consolidation,” comments analyst renato beninatto.

explains common sense advisory founder and ceo, donald a. depalma, “many language services companies want to get bigger. our certification model lets us benchmark one company against comparable language services firms, against offshore providers providing a full range of engineering and localization offerings, and against the service firms that make up our own innovative hdsc index. this information is valuable to any procurement department ? not to mention to any lsp thinking about where it fits in the marketplace relative to its competitors.”

ranking of top 20 translation companies is now available for free download.


governor of tokyo is sued for insulting french language

on july 13, 21 french and japanese individuals sued shintaro ishihara, the governor of tokyo, for defamation towards people who use the french language. those 21 were french language teachers and japanese researchers who taught french. in 2004, ishihara said that no one can count in the french language. ishihara was sued for 500,000 yen (approx. us $4,457) for each plaintiff, including malik berkane, a french private language school owner in tokyo. in addition, the plaintiffs demanded that he make an apology.
on october 19, 2004, ishihara said "french language is a language in which no one can count, therefore it seems to me reasonable that it is disqualified as an international language. people who are tied to the language have taken it upon themselves to oppose [me]. it is all ridiculous" in a speech ishihara made at the inaugural celebrations of the "tokyo u-club". the tokyo u-club was founded to support the foundation of tokyo metropolitan university (japanese: 首都大学東京, "shuto daigaku tokyo"), which was planned by ishihara as replacement of universities run by the tokyo metropolitan government including the same name in english (japanese: 東京都立大学 "tokyo toritsu daigaku").

on august 1, 2003, ishihara issued his plan to found the new university. his plan had no relation to the restructuring plan of the former tokyo metropolitan university which had been on-going for years in cooperation with faculty and tokyo prefectural government. in his new plan faculties of humanities, economics and law would be drasticially changed and divided into newly organized faculties and departures. as for humanities, literature and language studies would be re-organized into language section and literature section, reduced in number of students, and undergraduate and graduate would be relocated into separate campuses. quite a few members of the faculty of humanities opposed this idea strongly and called for opposition widely. as to that its all faculty issued the opposition on the consensus of all faculty on september 25, 2003. the department of french literature and language was a key group in the movment. also in 2004, professor masato goda, a teacher of french literature, resigned to express his opposition toward ishihara's educational policy. 
berkane said "i was very shocked when i heard that. of course we can count numbers in french, and it is used as an official language in international organisations." "i have been in japan for 23 years. i am sad that what i have taught in that time is denigrated." berkane said that he had sent a memorandum to ishihara in february to ask the governer to apologize but he had as yet received no reply from ishihara.
on july 15, ishihara again expressed his opinion that french was formerly a diplomatic lingua franca but due to its complexity it had been falling back. he mentioned that no student had registered in french language lessons at the newly founded tokyo metropolitan university. he also stated plaintiffs should have considered seriously if his criticism was appropriate or not.



afghan warlord convicted by british court of torture

zardad denied all charges throughout the trials, and claimed he had been set up by enemies in afghanistan.

"i have never killed anybody and if anybody in the whole of afghanistan can produce that evidence against me then i will accept that crime," he said.

the case is considered to be a landmark in international law. british law allows the prosecution of crimes like torture and hostage-taking in the uk even if no british citizen was involved and the incidents occurred overseas. "there are some crimes which are so heinous, such an affront to justice, that they can be tried in any country", attorney-general lord goldsmith said.

zardad fled to the uk in 1998 after he had fought both the russians and the taliban in afghanistan's long civil war. he settled in a suburban london home and was first confronted by bbc journalist in 2000. simpson's report sparked a lengthy investigation that would eventually lead to british prosecutors travelling to afghanistan and questioning zardad's victims. a first trial began in 2004 but failed because the jury couldn't agree on a verdict.



hurricane emily is second strike for jamaica

the outer bands of the category 4 storm hurricane emily started to affect jamaica shortly before 8:00am saturday. increasing winds and rain swept the island nation throughout the afternoon as the eye of the storm passed 100 miles off the southern coast. utility poles were downed and storm debris closed the seaside highway to the international airport. other roads were reported closed as well. 

while islanders did not get through the two storms unscathed, and 4 people were left dead, the land and environment minister dean peart told reporters, "mercifully, jamaica was spared the worst".

buses were sent by officials to southern coastal areas to evacuate residents from the flood prone region, but most refused to leave and preferred to ride it out beside 8 foot waves that pounded areas of the coast line. wind gusts of 155 mph doubled over palm trees in the capital city of kingston.

at a southern penninsula seaside fishing villiage, port royal residents boarded up and prepared for the worst again, as surfers gathered nearby to take on the challenge of 15 to 18 foot waves. "if i'm going to die, it's going to be right here," said a local resident gordon murphy, 39, with his 2-year-old son. "what's next?" he joked, "[hurricane] franklin?"

many shops and businesses stayed open as long as they could, classifying it as another inconvenience despite its near category 5 strength. instead of the possible disaster that many prepared for, by late afternoon, emily had all but disappeared. light scattered showers in some areas of the island were the only remnant, as residents went about their lives after the second hurricane scare in as many weeks.

supplies that many stocked for dennis and emily may yet be put to use. many wonder what storms are yet to come. authorities say this will be one of the most active hurricane seasons in history. emily was the strongest and earliest to form this year since records, dating back to 1860, have been kept.

earlier, emily stuck grenada on thursday with nearly a direct hit. a national disaster was called the day after its winds ravaged hundreds of homes and killed at least one man.



uefa cl: second leg of first qualifying round starts tomorrow

winners of the uefa champions league first qualifying round will be known by july 20. three games will be played tomorrow, and nine the following day.

last year's champions league winner, liverpool, has the clearest chance of advancing to the second round, after beating the welsh team with 3:0 in the first leg. fbk kaunas is also expected to come out victorious, after winning 4 - 2 away. havnar boltfelag would need to win with at least 3 goals difference, unless they score more then 4 goals, when they could get by with 2 goals advantage in the second leg.
<nowiki>*</nowiki>second leg home team shown first

only two clear favorites are macedonian rabotnicki, who won 6:0 at home, and moldovian sheriff who managed to score four goals away in malta.
<nowiki>*</nowiki>second leg home team shown first



deadly forest fire in spain claims lives of firefighters

a deadly forest fire in spain's guadalajara province has claimed the lives of at least 11 fire fighters. the fire began after a group of day trippers in cueva de los casares on saturday left a barbeque unextinguished -- the day trippers have since confessed to causing the fire. at least 11,000 acres have been affected by the fire thus far.

the 11 firefighters, both men and women in their 20s, were trapped in their vehicle after a change in wind direction caused their vehicle to be encircled with flames. 

more than 150 firefighters have battled the blaze since sunday. water planes and helicopters from the region are assisting in the effort to extinguish the blaze; two french firefighting aircraft have been sent to augment spanish forces.

spain suffers on average 20,000 wild fires each year -- a heat wave and lack of rain have contributed to the tinder-box conditions which have exacerbated the fire season this year.


report: invasion of iraq provided boost for al-qaeda

a report released on july 18 by chatham house has claimed that the risk of terrorism has increased as a result of the 2003 invasion of iraq. it says that terrorist networks such as al-qaeda have been strengthened, giving a boost to their "propaganda, recruitment and fundraising".

according to the press release, the report claims that there is "no doubt that the invasion of iraq has imposed particular difficulties for the uk and for the wider coalition against terrorism".

"the uk is at particular risk because it is the closest ally of the us and has closely supported the deployment of british troops in the military campaigns to topple the taliban in afghanistan and saddam's regime in iraq," it continued.

the report also criticised the uk governments lack of attention to international terrorism.

"as a result of giving lower priority to international terrorism, the british authorities did not fully appreciate the threat from al-qaeda. the failure to gain any warning from existing information of the 9/11 attacks on the united states was an intelligence
failure of the entire western alliance, not only of the us intelligence community," the report said.

it also stated that countries such as the uk and australia are "at particular risk because [they are close allies] of the united states, has deployed armed forces in the military campaigns to topple the taleban regime in afghanistan and in iraq, and has taken a leading role in international intelligence, police and judicial cooperation against al-qaeda".

australian shadow foreign affairs spokesman kevin rudd claimed that the report proved australia's support for the iraqi invasion has placed australia at greater risk. he said that it "turbo-charged" its profile as a potential terrorist target.

a number of governments have criticised the report. australian prime minister john howard is currently in washington. he gave a joint press conference with donald rumsfeld.

"i think that people who think that terrorists pick and choose discriminately don't understand how it works. the united states had done nothing on september 11 when it (the attack on america) was done. people who think they can make a separate peace with terrorists will find that it's like feeding an alligator, hoping it eats you last," mr rumsfeld said.

"no country can allow its foreign and defence policy to be malleable in the hands of terrorists," mr howard added.

chatham house is a non-profit ngo. its website describes it as "one of the world's leading organizations for the analysis of international issues". it was formerly known as the royal institute of international affairs.

the report was funded by the economic and social research council.

london mayor ken livingstone has commented that the terrorist threat to the west results more generally from the fact that there has been "80 years of western intervention into predominantly arab lands because of the western need for oil."


nearly 25,000 iraqi civilians killed in iraq, watchdog group claims

a report published by the iraq body count project, a british ngo, says that 24,865 civilians have been killed in iraq in the two years following the start of the us-led invasion in march 2003. seventy percent of the deaths occurred after the us president george w. bush proclaimed "the end of major combat" on may 1 2003.

the study, compiled from more than 10,000 media reports, says that 37% (9,270) civilians have been killed by us-led forces. half of all deaths (53%, 13,178) were caused by explosives, with 60% of those (7,961) being due to air-dropped bombs. three-quarters of the deaths from air-dropped bombs were during the invasion before may 2003.

the report also states that 3,598 have been killed since may 2003 by non-coalition bombing incidents, while 1,904 were killed by air-dropped bombs in the same period.

the study recorded that 82% of all deaths were adult males and 9% were adult women, although half of those killed by air-dropped bombs were children. in total, women and children accounted for about 18% of all civilian deaths.

anti-occupation forces/insurgents accounted for 9% of the deaths, while criminal violence was blamed for 36%. the 28 page dossier also claimed that the situation in iraq is getting worse. the fatalties in the second year after the invasion were twice as high as in the first year after the end of the war. at least 42,500 civilians were reported wounded.
more than a third of the report was based on the work of reuters, the associated press and agence france presse. three-quarters of reports had at least one primary source, while 23% had two or more.

the iraqi government disputed the figures. the ministry of health's figures recorded 6,629 deaths in the year leading up to april 2005, one-third of which were due to "terrorist incidents", with the remainder due to coalition forces. the ministry of interior, which also records deaths in the armed forces, reported 8,175 iraqis were killed between july 2004 and may 2005.

reuters noted that the figures apparently fail to note the number of people killed by suicide bombers in the last 18 months - with over 2,000 lives taken by car bombers, while the report claims that only 1,000 people have been killed by suicide bombers over 24 months. reuters also pointed out that the report may underestimate deaths, as the media - the basis for the report - focuses mainly on baghdad.

"the international forces try to avoid civilian casualties, whereas the terrorists target civilians and try to kill as many of them as they can," the government said in a statement
the us military also disputed the figures and said it is doing everything to avoid civilian casualties. "since the start of operation iraqi freedom until now, we have categorically not targeted civilians", said lieutenant colonel steve boylan, a spokesman for the us military in baghdad.

"the ever-mounting iraqi death toll is the forgotten cost of the decision to go to war in iraq. on average, 34 ordinary iraqis have met violent deaths every day since the invasion of march 2003", said professor john sloboda, one of the authors of the report. he stressed that "neither the us nor the uk governments have begun to systematically measure the impact of their actions in terms of human lives destroyed."

the iraqi body count group is based mainly in the sheffield area of the united kingdom. the co-founders are a human-rights campaigner, hamit dardagan, and professor sloboda, a psychologist at the university of keele who is also a leading anti-war campaigner. the senior researcher is a retired librarian who last worked as the head of acquisitions in keele university library, and now runs an anti-war mailing list in the sheffield area.

there have been two other studies into the number of civilians killed in iraq since march 2003.

the first to be published was a report in the british medical journal "the lancet" in october 2004, stating that there had been 98,000 "excess deaths". the report was based on a questionnaire given to 998 households in 33 randomly-selected areas of iraq, intended to be a representative sample. of the total, 57,600 were given as being caused by accidents and disease, with the rest due to violence. the report had an extremely large margin of error - the 95% confidence interval (ie less than a 0.05% chance of being a fluke) range was from 8,000 up to 194,000.

the second report was the un development program iraq living conditions survey, published in may 2005. this sampled 21,668 households in 2,200 areas, using similar selection and interpretation techniques as the lancet study. this study recorded 24,000 "conflict-related deaths", with a 95% confidence interval of 18,000 to 29,000.




14,500 job cuts announced by hewlett-packard

today the hewlett-packard co. has announced that 10% or 14,500 of its full-time staff will be cut over the course of the next six quarters. hp ceo mark hurd, who took office about three months ago, has decided to simplify hp's operations by combining sales and marketing directly into business units. the job cuts are expected to save hp us$1.9 billion annually. these cuts are all part of hp's new restructuring plan, the savings from which will primarily be used to “offset market forces”, in other words, to strengthen hp's competitiveness in the market.

the job cuts come after prolonged analyst speculation that hp would be announcing between 10,000 and 25,000 losses. few losses are expected in the areas of sales or research & development.

the media in ireland, where hp has over 4,000 employees across seven business units, has reacted cautiously to the announcement urging that more details should be awaited for before making any comments. the news however has made national headlines and workers are understandably anxious to find out more details.


remote assistance service of windows os vulnerable to attack

until a patch is issued, "microsoft" recommends that users close or block tcp port 3389, the port opened when the remote assistance service of its "microsoft windows" operating system (os) is enabled. the remote assistance feature is a service of the os that allows internet technology administrators of corporate workgroups remote access to other desktops to perform maintenance and other configuration tasks from their own computer. it can also be used by on-line tech support sites. a support assistant can go into a user’s machine, if the service is enabled, and themself make changes directly to another person's computer to resolve an issue.

to initialize the remote assistance feature, the user of the helper computer must first make a request of the user of the target computer. compliance must be granted by the user of the target machine, which then fully opens the communication port of the target machine to the helper computer. the operator of the helper computer then has control of target computer to make changes at will. the user of the target machine can watch in a separate window the actions of the helper, and either party to the session can end it at any time.

in a telephone conversation with a "microsoft" representative tuesday, it was learned that work to develop a security patch is underway, but when it will be available is unclear. it was cited that a patch must work consistently across multiple platform versions of the os. 

the vulnerability, thought at first to affect only windows xp sp2, is now believed to affect all current windows editions, including windows 2000, windows xp sp1, windows xp professional x64, windows server 2003, windows server 2003 sp1, and windows server x64.

the remote desktop protocol (rdp) is not enabled by default, however if the service is enabled, a denial of service attack could cause the os to restart unexpectedly according to "microsoft", or experience buffer overflows according to "symantec". the rdp is enabled by default on windows xp media center edition.

"microsoft" suggests users block tcp port 3389 (the port used by rdp) on their firewall, or disable terminal services or remote desktop if not required by the user. the remote desktop connections could also be secured using either internet protocol security or a virtual private network connection until a patch is ready.

to disable remote assistance on a windows xp edition, the steps are:

the group, internet storm center, detected spikes in scanning for port 3389 beginning july 6. larger numbers of systems scanned were reported on july 13. crackers may be scanning for vulnerable machines, the group said. 

"it's a kernel vulnerability," said vp of engineering for symantec alfred huger, "so it will be difficult to exploit reliably. but he [the original discoverer] found the vulnerability with a commonly-used tool, so if he can find it, so can others. i don't think it will turn it into a large-scale worm, but then, some kernel vulnerabilities have ended up as just that, like the witty worm."



south dakota duck population gets help from rain

a wet late spring season's increase in rainfall helped duck populations rebound in the northern great plains near the u.s.-canadian border. a dry winter and resulting low ground water levels threatened duck nesting grounds in the area.

much to the relief of duck hunters, who feared a possible 2005 ban on duck hunting, the most-recent waterfowl survey released this week by the u.s. fish and wildlife service showed duck populations in south dakota on the rebound.

this contrasted to a may survey that showed fewer ducks and waterfowl nesting areas in the state with the population of breeding ducks numbering 1.6 million, down from 1.7 million in 2004. the same may survey indicated that duck habitats, specifically ponds, had declined more than 35 percent from the historical average. 

however, late spring rains reportedly improved wetland conditions and irrigated grasslands for grazing duck broods and re-nesting hens. the figures are used to set duck-hunting limits for the fall season, which begins in august. 

"i have observed many duck broods across eastern south dakota in july, and grassland cover looks great statewide," spencer vaa, a waterfowl biologist with the south dakota department of game, fish and parks said in an "associated press" report.



suspected 'mastermind' of london bombings no longer a suspect

the egyptian chemist arrested in cairo last week has no links with the london bombings, officials have said. the egyptian interior ministry published a report which "made clear there was no link between magdi asdi el-nashar and al qaeda or the bombings". mr nashar has still not been named a suspect by british police. 

just after his arrest, the egyptian interior minister said that reports linking mr nashar to al-qaeda were "groundless" and based on a hasty conclusion. mr nashar has always denied being part of the london bombings; however he is reported to have told investigators that he helped arrange the rental of a flat for one of the bombers, hasib hussain. 

mr nashar has always maintained that he had intended to return to leeds at the end of a holiday in egypt, which began a week before the bombings.



plan magazine sold for ?300,000 to commercial media group

irish architecture magazine, "plan", has been sold for ?300,000 to the commercial media group. commercial media group is the publisher of both "construction industry magazine", and "off-site construction magazine".

"plan", which was founded 35 years ago, is published on a monthly basis and has a circulation of 3,500. its readers generally work in the building industry and many are members of "the royal institute of architects of ireland", "the institute of designers in ireland", and "the chartered institute of builders."



new u.s. immigration bill proposes time-limit and employer scrutiny

united states senate majority leader said it is unlikely that a new bill to reform immigration legislation will receive action by the legislative body this year. the bill, introduced yesterday by (r,) and (r,), would require immigrant workers to apply from their native countries for a visa to remain in the states. 

the number of illegal immigrants in the u.s. is estimated to be in the range of 10 to 12 million.

the bill is in contrast to a different measure by (d-) and (r-az) submitted two months ago. that bill would create a visa category where temporary workers are not tied to any job in particular and would allow them to apply for permanent residence regardless of employment. the bill has republican co-sponsorship from and jeff flake, both from where the porous us- border is an issue. 

the kennedy-mccain bill allows illegal aliens already in the u.s. to petition the government to remain. a position that kyl in effect calls the equivalent of granting "amnesty". kennedy answered that criticism by saying, "the mass deportation of illegal immigrant persons as contemplated by the cornyn-kyl bill is not a realistic solution, and won't solve the security and economic problems we face."

the kyl-cornyn bill proposal is an attempt to tie immigrant status to u.s. employment. the legislation would create a guest worker program that would match immigrant workers with jobs mostly not wanted by american citizens. an immigrant worker would be given five years to come into compliance with an employment order. it calls for 10,000 federal agents, at a cost in the range of 2 to 5 billion, to audit employers who hire undocumented workers. companies that break a proposed new law to monitor undocumented immigrants would be subject to penalties.

the bill drew criticism from immigration groups which include two leading hispanic organizations because of the "mandatory departure" requirement. immigrants who wait five years before leaving the u.s. would pay annual fines totaling $5,000 each year. or, after making a return trip to their native country, they can again apply from there for a temporary job in the u.s. they would work for two years in the u.s., return home for a year, and then reapply for two more two-year work cycle. the maximum would be six years in the united states. in their home country, they could also apply for u.s. immigrant programs, including the "green card" that grants permanent residency. 
kyl said he believes businesses will not object because his plan would make verifying legal workers easier by reducing the documentation required. the basics of the plan include: 

the bill also calls for replacing the practice currently in place in the u.s. of issuing paper social security cards with the issuance of a tamper-proof cards. the identification card is treated by most states as no form of personal identification at all. a birth certificate is considered a primary form of identification, along with driver's licenses, passports and other official state or other territory photo-identification cards. the bill proposes that social security cards should be "machine readable" and a primary form of identification. 

a terrorism-driven drive to turn driver's licenses into a national id card faces hurdles. peter costello, treasurer of australia, said he will not support national id cards unless there is convincing evidence it fights terrorism.




niger facing food shortages after drought

the food and agriculture organization of the united nations has warned that 2.5 million people living in the african country of niger are facing food shortages. of those, about 800,000 are children.

supplies of the staple foods - such as millet - have been low, forcing prices up. drought and plagues of locust devastated crops across the sahel region of africa, and in niger the effects have been compounded by years of economic decline.

more than a third of the countries districts face "critical" or "extremely critical" situations. while rainfall in the last few weeks has improved, seeds are in short supply after the earlier droughts.

the fao launched an appeal to the world community for $4m of aid to combat the situation. so far, the only contributor has been sweden, who donated $650,000 of seeds and animal fodder, which is currently being distributed to make the most of the current rains.

it is said by oxfam that the neighbouring countries of mali and mauritania are also affected putting the total number of people at risk close to 5 million. 


bush nominates john g. roberts for u.s. supreme court

us president george w. bush today announced justice john g. roberts jr. as his pick to fill the supreme court void caused by the retirement of justice sandra day o'connor. roberts is known as a strong conservative, but is nevertheless endorsed by many from both parties. at 50 years of age, if confirmed, he will be the youngest judge on the court, and is expected to be able to serve 30 years or more. he was appointed to the d.c. court of appeals in 2003 by the president. 

bush offered the nomination to roberts during a phone call at 12:35 p.m. edt today, with the intention to release the information to the public tonight, at a 9 p.m. edt press conference. the associated press had already revealed the president's pick at 7:45 p.m. edt. critics have already begun to voice complaints, including issues with free speech and religious freedom, along with reproductive rights. supporters see roberts as a conservative who cut his teeth with nixon and reagan ? just the kind of nominee they were hoping for. 

in 1990, roberts wrote a brief on roe v. wade, which stated, "the court's conclusion in roe that there is a fundamental right to an abortion ... finds no support in the text, structure or history of the constitution." though, during his confirmation hearings for the appellate court in 2003, roberts stated that "roe v. wade is the settled law of the land... there is nothing in my personal views that would prevent me from fully and faithfully applying that precedent."


rep. barbara lee calls for u.s. congress probe into iraq war planning

congresswoman (d-), co-chairwoman of the out of iraq caucus and a member of the international affairs committee, along with 26 co-sponsors, proposed yesterday a resolution of inquiry in the house of representatives which, if passed, will require the and the to
""transmit all information relating to communication with officials of the between january 1, 2002, and october 16, 2002, relating to the policy of the united states with respect to iraq."" the resolution, was submitted in the house of representatives and referred to the . 

the resolution comes in response to questions that have been raised about the handling of pre-war intelligence by the , and the planning and execution of the . “we would like to see a member of congress look into whether or not the president committed impeachable offenses,” said , a constitutional lawyer. “we’ve been having that discussion with a number of offices.”

rep. (d-), minority leader, recently met with john bonifaz and representatives. but conyers is reluctant to take such a bold step just yet. “my inclination at this time is not to do something like that,” conyers said, although he noted that he wanted to press for an investigation in other ways, including sending committee investigators to .

earlier this month, rep. (d-) said at a forum held by conyers “if you read the record of the writing of the , ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ had a very particular meaning at the time of the drafting of the constitution. it certainly didn’t mean lying about sex, but it might well mean lying to the congress about a large public purpose such as iraq.”, referring to republican's filing of such a resolution in 1998 in an from office.

rep. barbara lee's resolution of inquiry is a less-drastic parliamentary maneuver that would ask the administration to provide more information related to the claims in classified british memos that suggest that pre-war intelligence in iraq was "fixed" in order to justify the invasion. the resolution of inquiry is a privileged resolution, which means that if it is not acted on in 14 legislative days after it is introduced, the member of congress who introduced it is entitled to request that it be brought to the house floor for a vote. the committee may take the matter up right away, and could vote it down before the august recess. if they do not, they will be required to take it up by september 16th.

resolution<br><br>

requesting the president and directing the secretary of state to transmit to the house of representatives not later than 14 days after the date of the adoption of this resolution all information in the possession of the president and the secretary of state relating to communication with officials of the united kingdom between january 1, 2002, and october 16, 2002, relating to the
policy of the united states with respect to iraq.<br><br>

resolved, that not later than 14 days after the date of the adoption of this resolution?<br><br>

(1) the president is requested to transmit to the house of representatives all documents, including telephone and electronic mail records, logs, calendars, minutes, and memos, in the possession of the president relating to communications with officials of the united kingdom from january 1, 2002, to october 16, 2002, relating to the policy of the united states with respect to iraq, including any discussions or communications between the president or other administration officials and officials of the united kingdom that occurred before the meeting on july 23, 2002, at 10 downing street in london, england, between prime minister tony blair of the united kingdom, united kingdom intelligence officer richard dearlove, and other national security officials of the blair administration; and<br><br>

(2) the secretary of state is directed to transmit to the house of representatives all documents, including telephone and electronic mail records, logs, calendars, minutes, memos, and records of internal discussions, in the possession of the secretary relating to communications with officials of the united kingdom from january 1, 2002, to october 16, 2002, relating to the policy of the united states with respect to iraq, including any discussions or communications between the secretary of state or other officials of the department of state and officials of the united kingdom that occurred before the meeting on july 23, 2002, at 10 downing street in london, england, between prime minister tony blair of the united kingdom, united kingdom intelligence officer richard dearlove, and other national security officials of the blair administration.




british army soldiers to be court martialled for war crimes

three british army soldiers are to be court martialled for alleged war crimes in iraq, united kingdom attorney general, lord goldsmith, announced yesterday in the house of lords.

they are among eleven british soldiers charged with the ill treatment of two iraqi civilians in separate incidents in september 2003. seven, including the three accused of war crimes, have been charged with incidents that took place in september 2003. four have been charged with the manslaughter of ahmed kareem in may 2003. they are alleged to have forced mr kareem ? who was detained as a suspected looter ? into the shatt-al-arab canal in basra, where he subsequently drowned. 

the three ? corporal donald payne, 34; lance-corporal wayne crowcroft, 21; and private darren fallon, 22 ? have been charged under the international criminal court act 2001, and will be tried domestically, along with the other eight, rather than by the international criminal court at the hague.

they are from the 1st battalion, queen's lancashire regiment (qlr). the regiment has been at the centre of previous accusations of abuse in iraq. the daily mirror published in may 2004 photographs purporting to be of soldiers of the qlr abusing iraqi prisoners. the photographs were later proven to have been fabricated, and the newspaper's editor, piers morgan, resigned.

lance-corporal payne has been charged with manslaughter, inhuman treatment of persons, and perverting the course of justice. he is alleged to have killed baha d'oud salim mousa, a 26-year-old hotel receptionist from basra. lance-corporal crowcroft and private fallon have also been charged with inhuman treatment of persons.
sergeant kelvin stacey, 28, also of the qlr, is alleged to have assaulted an iraqi detainee and now faces a charge of actual bodily harm. 

colonel jorge mendonca, 41, the former commanding officer of the qlr; major michael peebles, 34; and warrant officer mark davies, 36, both of the intelligence corps, have been charged with negligence of duty contrary to the army act 1955. 

all four charged with the manslaughter of ahmed kareem (as well as the alleged beating of other detainees) are from the foot guards, the british army's elite infantry of the household division. they are: sergeant carle selman, 38, then of the coldstream guards (now with the scots guards); guardsmen martin mcging, 21, of the irish guards; guardsman joseph mccleary, 23, of the irish guards; and an unnamed 21-year-old lance-corporal was later disclosed to be that of james stephen cooke, also of the irish guards.

the secretary of state for defence, john reid, responded to the charges in a statement. in it, mr reid said, "today the independent army prosecuting authority has brought charges under british military law that will be heard in a british court-martial. anyone accused is innocent until proved guilty and it is for the courts martial to consider the evidence in any case and reach a verdict." 

in february, three british soldiers were jailed and dismissed from the army when they were found guilty of abusing iraqis near basra. the chief of the general staff, sir mike jackson, condemned those convicted, and apologised to the victims and the people of iraq.

allowing the prosecution of british soldiers for war crimes has, however, been criticised by former chiefs of the defence staff. just last week, some former chiefs in the house of lords said that prosecutions can be demoralising for the british armed forces, and can place the lives of soldiers at risk if the fear of prosecution prevents them from opening fire.

in may 2005, lord boyce, who held the post as an admiral during the iraq war, said in an interview with the british newspaper the observer that he did not believe he had complete immunity from the international criminal court. 

in the interview, he said: "if my soldiers went to jail and i did, some other people would go with me."

after being asked whether prime minister tony blair and lord goldsmith would be with him if he was ever brought to account, lord boyce said: "too bloody right!" 

the honorary colonel-of-the-regiment, brigadier geoffrey sheldon, has said in a statement: "from the moment that mr mousa lost his life while in our custody, the regiment has made clear that this was an isolated, tragic incident which should never have happened, and which i and every member of the queen's lancashire regiment bitterly regrets."

the brigadier did, however, state he found it "particularly difficult" to understand why charges had been brought against the former co of the qlr, saying that: "it was colonel jorge mendonca, then the commanding officer, who, as soon as he learned of mr musa's death, initiated the formal inquiry which has now resulted in these charges being brought."

colonel mendonca was awarded the distinguished service order (dso) in iraq, and was promoted to full colonel shortly afterwards. he is now on the army's general staff.


prayer does not help heart patients, study finds

a multi-center us study of 748 patients, who were to undergo treatment for coronary artery disease, has found that prayer by christian, muslim, jewish, and buddhist groups had no measurable effects on the medical health of the study subjects. the prayers were conducted by established congregations and were held away from the hospitals.

the study, published in the 16 july 2005 issue of "the lancet", found that the likelihood of an adverse cardiovascular event in hospital, re-admission or death within six months was unaffected by prayer.

none of the patients were told that they were prayed for, and none of the prayer groups knew who they prayed for. nevertheless, 67% of the non-prayer group believed they were being prayed for - a potential placebo effect that may have hidden any small differences between the two groups.

the study also examined the effects of "music, imagery, and touch (mit) therapy" before heart surgery. practitioners qualified to level 1 healing touch taught the patient relaxation techniques and played soothing music before applying 21 healing touch hand positions, over a 40 minute session. 

there was no significant change in the combined chance of an adverse cardiovascular event in hospital, re-admission or death within six months. however, while the set of patients was evenly split, only 7 patients who received mit therapy died, and 20 patients who did not receive it died. the result is not highly significant due to the low overall number of people who died.

a number of studies has recently examined the possible effects of prayer, with mixed results. while some religious groups have hailed studies which found positive results , skeptics have challenged the very notion of scientifically examining prayer , and have described past studies as flawed or even fraudulent. 

"the mechanisms through which distant intercessory prayer might convey healing benefit are unknown", the authors of the study explain. one hypothesis they propose for such effects are "non-local features of consciousness based theoretically around observations in quantum physics."

the study was conducted by a team of 16 researchers at duke clinical research institute (dcri), duke university medical center, the durham veterans affairs medical center (vamc), and seven other academic medical institutions across the united states.


german president dissolves parliament; elections in september

german president horst kohler announced today that he has dissolved the "bundestag" after a motion of confidence by chancellor gerhard schroder deliberately failed on july 1st. he set the 18th of september 2005 as the date for early elections to the bundestag.

in a televised address kohler stated that germany is in a serious economic situation and that the country needs a stable government. he recalled the previous occasions when the bundestag was dissolved and agreed with the chancellor that the loss of confidence was genuine and urged the citizens to vote.

the speaker of the bundestag, wolfgang thierse, welcomed the decision and urged the parties to conduct fair campaigns.

chancellor schroder also paid his respect to kohler, calling his decision "confident" and again expressed that he intents to resume the "good way" on which germany is heading under his leadership.

the chair of the conservative christian democrats (cdu) and her party's candidate for chancellor, angela merkel, welcomed the call for early elections and wants to get germany on "the right track" if her party gets to power in september.
the dissolving is the result of a long political muddle that began on may 22th when schroder's social democrats (spd) lost the most populous state of germany, north rhine-westphalia, to the cdu, the biggest opposition party. minutes after the early projections were in, spd chair franz muntefering announced that his party would seek re-election in fall of 2005. however, the basic law of germany does not permit the self-dissolving of the bundestag. the only way to achieve early elections is when the chancellor loses a motion of confidence. all major parties, including the opposition, support the call for early election. polls also indicate that 75% of the population support going to the ballots in september. however, some mp's, most notably werner schulz of spd's coalition partner, the greens, say that the procedure was unconstitutional because the loss of confidence was orchestrated. they announced that they will sue against the dissolving before the constitutional court of germany.
germany has been struggling with high unemployment for several years and the reforms schroder introduced were criticized as being neo-liberalistic by unions and also by members of his own party.

current polls see the cdu at 44%, while the spd can only expect 27%. the liberal fdp, cdu's possible coalition partner, can expect 7%, the greens 8% and the party of the left (formerly pds) 11%.

the governing spd-green coalition is faced with an overwhelming opposition majority in the bundesrat, the upper chamber, that is able to block most bills. schroder claims that the cdu is engaging in a "policy of blockade" rendering him unable to make laws and implement policy changes while angela merkel, says that schroder's government is simply "incapable to take action".


press freedom groups condemn two-day radio station ban in burundi

one of burundi's only independent radio stations, radio publique africain, has been taken off air for two days. last week the country's national communications council (cnc) ordered the radio station to stop broadcasting indefinitely, claiming that it had insulted them, and that coverage of recent elections had been biased.

rpa director alexis sinduhije said that the claims were unjust, and that the station had given every political party 20 minutes airtime a week during the elections.

but he reluctantly agreed to a two-day ban after mediation by a group of professional journalists and private broadcasters between rpa and the cnc.

earlier this year, radio publique africain was suspended for two days after being accused of breaking the country's press laws, including "offending public morals", by reporting on the rape of an eight-year-old girl and "deforming" the words of a politician. rpa observed the ban and was allowed to restart broadcasting afterwards.

the ban has been condemned by the international press freedom organisation the committee to protect journalists, who have called on the cnc to lift it "immediately and unconditionally"

a group of burundian journalists overseas, the "collectif des professionnels des medias de la diaspora burundaise" has also spoken out, in an open letter to the cnc, accusing it of being "a body of repression which uses disproportionate sanctions". 

burundi's recent democratic elections were the first since the 1993 assassination of president melchior ndadaye plunged the country into a vicious, ethnically-charged civil war. 

"press freedom has been historically related to the emergence of democracy", the letter continues. "it is essential that the media, like other instruments of good governance, is protected". 

radio publique africain was launched in early 2001, seeking to promote peace by hiring both hutus and tutsis, including ex-combatants, to work on the editorial team. the station's investigative reporting and grassroots approach to issues affecting ordinary burundians quickly earned it the nickname "the people's radio." 

"we ask the political leaders to answer their concerns: why are people kept in prison without trial? why has their land been taken away? exposing the truth in this way has brought hutu and tutsi communities together and made it harder for politicians to manipulate the public", said rpa director alexis sinduhije after receiving a press freedom award last year. 

in october 2001 sinduhije was arrested and beaten up after interviewing a south african peacekeeper against the wishes of the burundian government. in february 2003 armed men broke into sinduhije's house and murdered his security guard. in september of the same year radio publique africain was taken off the air after broadcasting an interview with a rebel spokesperson. in a show of solidarity, other independent radio stations refused to broadcast any government news or statements until the ban on rpa was lifted. 

burundi's independent media has become increasingly vocal and vibrant in recent years. the development of the internet has seen the appearance of a number of independent burundian news websites based overseas, outside the control of burundi's government and the cnc. when the radio journalist etienne ndikuriyo was arrested without charge earlier this year, the burundian online media helped mobilise international opinion, and he was released eight days later. 

 

james doohan, star trek's 'scotty', dies at 85

james montgomery doohan, the canadian actor best known for playing the role of "star trek"'s "scotty" the engineer died wednesday of pneumonia after a long battle with alzheimer's disease. he was 85 years old.

now, doohan's family is hoping to beam him up to the "final frontier" that scotty loved so dearly. the actor had told relatives he wanted his ashes blasted into outer space, as was done for "star trek" creator gene roddenberry. "he'll be there with his buddy, which is wonderful," said doohan's agent and longtime friend, steve stevens.

at the time of his death, he was living in redmond, washington in the united states with his wife and their three young children. 

doohan was born in vancouver and participated in world war ii as a captain in the royal canadian artillery. he lost the middle finger of his right hand at the invasion of juno beach on d-day, a bloody scene immortalized in the 1998 steven spielberg film "saving private ryan". doohan was among the film's greatest supporters, thanking the director for not sanitizing the gore of the actual event.
he started his acting career with a radio appearance at a cbc show and went on to act in several character roles. doohan had already made a name for himself in the entertainment business as a featured voice actor in canadian and u.s. radio dramas and motion picture voice-overs due to his knack for picking up linguistically perfect accents. his ability to affect a near-perfect scottish accent made him a natural for the role of scotty, according to producers at the time.

when he auditioned for what would become the role of his life in 1966, star trek creator gene roddenberry asked him which of the different accents doohan mastered would best suit the role of scotty. doohan respond that he believed "all the world's best engineers have been scottish". after the original star trek series had ended, doohan found himself typecast and had difficulties getting other roles.

doohan suffered from parkinson's as well as alzheimer's disease. in august last year he received a star on hollywood's walk of fame.

after deforest kelley, doohan is the second actor of the original star trek cast to die.

he is survived by his wife wende, with whom he had been married since 1975, and seven children.



parents aid jailbreak of 18 year old swede convicted of rape

an 18 year old swedish man guilty of rape escaped from the court of appeal in today, in a way described as chaotic.

according to the news agency , the man tried to escape from the custody of the staff of the treatment of offenders. his parents and some friends attacked the staff, and the 18-year-old and an additional 17-year-old managed to escape.

the parents have been arrested, but the young men are reported to be free as of this evening. both men had been sentenced in the sundsvall district court, the 18-year-old for rape.


low morale reported among u.s. soldiers in iraq

a u.s. army report finds stress is weighing heavily on iraq war-era troops with 54 percent of soldiers rating their units' morale as low or very low. this is better than the comparable figure in a year-earlier army survey. reportedly, most bothersome to the soldiers was the length of their required stay in iraq, which was at least 1 year.

defense secretary donald h. rumsfeld said that the army's 12-month requirement is linked to reorganization. "i've tried to get the army to look at the length of tours and i think at some point down the road they will," rumsfeld said.



canada becomes 4th nation to allow same-sex marriage

with a stroke of the pen, canadian supreme court chief justice beverley mclachlin signed into law canada's controversial c-38 bill, which legalized same-sex marriage in the country. in doing so, canada became the fourth nation in the world to grant full legal marriage rights to same-sex couples.

the signature came one day after canada's senate voted to adopt the bill tuesday. the parliament's lower house voted to pass c-38 earlier this year. the law makes national same sex marriage rights that are already legalized in eight of the country's 10 provinces.

the other three countries that have similar laws are the netherlands, belgium and spain.

 


uefa cl: first qualifying round winners are now known

winners of the first round of qualifications for the champions league are now known. there are two more qualifying rounds before the competition is taken into group leagues.

one of two games taken into overtime was between zrinjski and dudelange (0 - 4, aggregate 1 - 4). in an exciting finish of game in mostar, dudelange managed to make up for 0 - 1 loss in luxembourg when thomas gruszczynski scored the first goal of the game in 92', securing extra time. joris di gregorio scored for dudelange in 6' of extra time, and gruszczynski sealed the fate of zrinjski minutes later when he scored once again for 3 - 0. gael hug scored the finishing goal when it was already all over.

another surprise was tirana's win at home over slovenian gorica. gorica got into the second game with 2 - 0 advantage at home, but managed to make a complete turnaround and win 3 - 0 in albania.

<nowiki>*</nowiki> second leg home team shown first 



stores drop game &quot;grand theft auto: san andreas&quot; after given 'adults only' rating

the entertainment software ratings board (esrb) changed its content rating of the controversial "grand theft auto: san andreas" video game from "mature" to "adults only" on wednesday. the esrb change came after a investigation proved that sexual content in the game could be unlocked by anyone with the windows version or with a modified console. 

graphic sex scenes in the game can be revealed if a user downloads a patch from the internet of the "hot coffee modification" or enters codes into a 3rd party modifier such as the game shark. this opens up a locked mini-game that depicts characters as having sex. the secret code as well as the patch is widely available on the internet such as gamer sites, mofunzone.com and gamespot. 

in response to this, "rockstar games" and its parent company "take-two interactive" stopped making the version of the game with the sexual content and plan to release a "mature"-rated title in the fall with the "hot coffee" content removed. 

game maker "take-two" says the 'game mod' is third-party software that violates the end-user license agreement of the company's intellectual property rights. citing what the company calls standard industry practice to create content that never makes it into the final version of a game, the sex scenes included in the software, "were never intended to be found." 

after the rating change, stores such as wal-mart and target pulled the game off their shelves under their policies not to sell "adults only"-rated games.

this controversy has lead to major debate between execs and politicians whether the video game industry should continue to judge itself or not. many of the watchdog groups were unaware that content like this is usually "locked away" instead of being deleted.


no evidence against london bombing suspects says cleric

oma bakri mohammed, a controversial muslim cleric living in britain under political asylum since 1985, has said he does not believe the july 7th london bombers were muslims. 

he told bbc news that there was no evidence the four young muslim men filmed at a station prior to the attacks were responsible for the bombs. he also condemned "any killing of innocent people here and abroad"

however he said he would not co-operate with police in the search for the bombers and other muslim extremists, or even when he knew of an imminent terrorist attack.

"i believe co-operation with the british police would never ever prevent any action like this." he said.

adding, "the youth will leave us. the youth will see us, at that time, the voice, the eyes and the ears of the british government."

"the way to earn the heart of the british youth is by the divine text, to say 'god say it and ... mohammed say it, do not attack the people you live among.' not to tell them, 'tony blair say it, the law say it, don't do so.'" 

oma bakri mohammed is facing deportation after partly blaming britain itself for the attacks on london. he also blamed the uk government's "evil foreign policy and the war on terror" for pushing muslims in "the wrong direction". he has lived in britain for 20 years, and said he would not resist if he were to be imprisoned or deported.

the cleric also believes islam does not allow muslims to fight the people they lived side by side with. 
"to live among them, and sell with them and deal with them and trade with them and then fight them, that is completely not islamic." 


u.s. rep. tom tancredo clarifies 'nuke mecca' comments

representative tom tancredo (r-co) has clarified his earlier statement that "you could take out their holy sites," in the event of a nuclear attack upon the u.s. by islamic terrorists. rep. tancredo has refused to make any apologies, saying "when we bombed hiroshima, when we bombed dresden, we punished a lot of people who were not necessarily (guilty). not every german was a member of the nazi party. you do things in war that are ugly." however, tancredo emphasized that he was speaking hypothetically and not necessarily suggesting policy. 

the remarks, made in a july 15th radio interview, hosted by pat campbell of wfla in orlando, florida, have drawn support from conservatives groups such as northeast intelligence network and free republic, and have offended the american muslim community.
in the interview, tancredo discussed his request for information from the justice department regarding the claim of evangelical christian journalist joseph farah that al-qaida has smuggled multiple nuclear weapons into the u.s.
mp3 file
alt.

 


four small explosions strike london's transport system

london metropolitan police commissioner sir ian blair has confirmed that there have been three small explosions on tube trains at warren street, oval and shepherd's bush stations, and another small explosion on a no. 26 bus on hackney road in bethnal green. 

the london ambulance service has not found any injured people, but one person has reported themselves to a local hospital. it is not yet known if this is connected with the blasts.
all the devices were "conventional" but possibly faulty, and contained no chemical or biological agents. not all the bombs exploded fully; bomb squad officers are working on making them safe. there are no reports of the deaths of suspects who attempted to set the explosives off. 

a spokesman for stagecoach said the driver of the number 26 bus travelling through shoreditch had heard a bang on upper deck, gone upstairs and seen the windows were blown out. the bus driver was very shaken but is said to be fine. reports of the windows having been blown out have been denied by a police officer on the scene. "i have seen the bus. there were no windows blown out," the officer told reuters.

one injury sustained at warren street tube station has been confirmed by authorities. there have been no other reports of injuries, and authorities are reporting no casualties.

at around 15:25, a man was arrested by armed police in whitehall, which is cordoned off. a second man was arrested in the whitehall area around 16:15, but police have confirmed that this arrest is unconnected with the explosions.

armed police were deployed at ucl hospital, near warren street tube station, after reports of a suspect entering the hospital. there was speculation that one of the bombers may have been injured and sought treatment at the hospital. a scotland yard spokesman had said "we are dealing with an incident at university college hospital and we have armed officers deployed there. we cannot go in any further detail at this stage." a ucl spokeswoman confirmed that an email had been sent to staff asking them to be on the lookout for the suspect. at 16:00 a spokesman for the metropolitan police confirmed that the incident was over, but armed police returned to the hospital 30 minutes later to search the premises. police have now also confirmed this is unrelated to the explosions.

prime minister tony blair has cancelled a visit to an east london school and a photocall with visiting prime minister john howard of australia, instead heading to a cobra committee emergency meeting. australian prime minister john howard is in london and is involved in discussions with tony blair as this unfolds.

in a public press conference, blair said that "there appear to have been no casualties", and that he wanted people to "react calmly, and continue with our lives". john howard also stated that australia stood by britain and that people should "beware the minds of terrorists."

police initially advised against unnecessary travel in london, asking londoners to keep travel to a minimum and avoid the public transport system. at 15:52 sir ian blair of the metropolitan police has asked londoners to return to their normal activities, including travel. he also stated that some public transport services are not yet functioning.

a release from scotland yard stated that there was no chemical agents found after checking the oval. investigations at shepherd's bush station also confirmed no chemical agents.

the northern line, the hammersmith and city line, the piccadilly line, and the bakerloo line have been suspended. victoria line and the waterloo and city line were suspended but reopened shortly after. whitehall had been sealed off but reopened shortly after, only to be closed again after armed police surrounded and arrested a man outside the ministry of defence, however at a press conference at 17:45 metropolitan police commissioner sir ian blair said that this arrest was unconnected with the explosions.

various news sites are reporting a minor explosion in a passenger's backpack. a bbc correspondent, claiming to have sources working in the london underground, suggested the explosions were only detonators and that the bombs contained no explosives. it is also believed that reports of gunshots being heard at the stations are mistaken, passengers simply mistaking the sound of the detonators for the sound of gunshots.

a spokesman for london underground has stated the nature of the incidents is unknown.

eyewitness reports from warren street say that something happened towards the front of the train. the passengers all headed towards the back of the train. as the train pulled into the station somebody pulled the emergency alarm and all the passengers got off the train. there are reports of a 'burning rubber' smell from eyewitnesses.

25% of shepherd's bush / uxbridge road and all of shepherd's bush green is sealed off.

eyewitness report of "bang" in a carriage at oval station. no injuries. after being spotted the suspect fled the station, leaving the suspect package unexploded in a carriage. (bbc news 24)

london police are not regarding this as a major incident yet. (bbc news 24)

british transport police report there has been one injury at warren street station. no details as to the cause and nature of this injury are available, although bbc news are speculating that the injury is to the person who set off the device.

there are reports of problems sending text messages or making calls from mobiles phones on some networks. (o2 confirmed, orange is fine, occasional text service but no calls on vodafone) o2 provide communications services for emergency teams across the uk and have previously prioritized their network usage for this use.

"note: please don't call these numbers just because you can't get through - some of the mobile networks are temporarily down or disrupted. at the moment the services are saying there are no mass casualties from these incidents (see below)."



 


crossrail set to only compensate ￡50 for land rights, london, uk

the british parliament approved the first stage of the new crossrail underground railroad through london as a ￡15 billion construction project earlier this month. crossrail is the first major new train line to be built in london in decades. 

the rail line being implemented as a hybrid bill in parliament. after a second reading in parliament, it was voted upon and decided that the government will commit to the project so that the line will be built.

the next issue before parliament of to ensure that the implementation of the bill so it is consistent with private interests of neighborhoods to be affected by crossrail. this is when residents can petition parliament to change the way the line is constructed.

as a result of construction of the crossrail line, hundreds of homes will have new tunnels excavated beneath them. 

on contacting crossrail, they have indicated approximately ￡50 will be offered to each landowner to buy all the land rights-of-way to build the train tunnel more than 9 meters below the residential buildings. the average value for properties in the affected areas is ￡350,000. 

under uk compulsory purchase laws to be used in this bill, the residents are entitled to the difference in the value of the whole property with and without a tunnel under it. if the offer given by crossrail is not accepted by any of the residents, the residents can take the case to the land tribunal, where the fair value will be established. 

this however, could be cost prohibitive. crossrail does not indicate that it will attempt to assign a fair value in the original offer and instead is only going to offer around ￡50 per property in the hope that not many people take the matter to the land tribunal. 



prime minister, police chief urge london to 'get moving again'

british prime minister tony blair has made a statement at 10 downing street saying that the explosions in london today were "to scare people and to frighten them, to make them anxious and worried".

he broke off his meeting with australian prime minister john howard to make the statement, with howard alongside him.

blair went on to say how the "police have done their very best, and the security services too, in the situation, and i think we have just got to react calmly and continue with our business as much as possible as normal".

london metropolitan police commissioner sir ian blair also released a statement urging londoners to "get moving again", stating that the sites of the four explosions were secure and the situation was under control.

three tube lines remain closed: the victoria, northern and hammersmith & city lines. the bakerloo line is suspended between paddington to piccadilly circus. replacement shuttle bus services are running.

police are appealing to anyone who may have photos or mobile phone images from any of the incident scenes, either at the time of the incident or shortly before, to send them online to: www.police.uk.


five commissioners rescind welcome of 2006 gay games in chicago

a month after the cook county board of commissioners unanimously voted to welcome the 2006 gay games to chicago, the five republicans on the board withdrew their names under pressure from conservative activists. chicago is located in cook county.

the gay games is an -style multi-day international sports competition targeted to lgbt athletes.

commissioners gregg goslin, liz gorman, carl hansen, tony peraica and peter silvestri, the only republicans sitting on the board of commissioners withdrew their names from the proclamation. "i'm a pro-family kind of person and conservative on social issues. that's nothing against the gay and lesbian community, but it's nothing i want to advance as a cause celebre," peraica told the "chicago sun-times". in the same report, gorman said that she doesn't support "special rights for any group."

an anti-gay rights lobbying group, the illinois family institute (ifi), says it is trying to get democrat commissioners to also withdraw their names from the official welcome. "there is a difference between tolerating and celebrating homosexuality," peter labarera, a spokesman for the group said in an associated press interview. the ifi also expressed concern about taxpayer money being used to promote the event.

although gay games spokeswoman tracy baim she said she was not surprised by the reversal of the five commissioners, mike quigley, a democrat cook county commissioner said of the retraction of his colleagues, "it's a blinding bias and animosity that is overriding human interest, job creation, economic development and the whole spirit of athletic competition." quigley was the sponsor of the proclamation and plans to play ice hockey in the games.

the 12 other commissioners who voted for the welcome proclamation maintained their support for the event, which is scheduled to run from july 15 to july 22, 2006 and projected to generate between $50 million and $80 million in tourist business to the city and county. 


uk markets up despite london incident

the ftse 100 index closed higher today despite of the incidents in london. the markets fell over 50 points when the reports first came out, but recovered later and closed 6.4 points higher at 5,221.6.

the stock market had been expecting another attack and today analysts said the ftse had been "amazingly robust".

dow jones keeps falling

the dow jones in new york fell 60 points today to 10,629.


rice angry after abuse of aides in sudan

u.s. secretary of state condoleezza rice "source: wikicommons" has expressed her anger after a meeting with sudanese president omar hassan al-bashir, during which her aides and staff were mistreated by sudanese security agents. she demanded an official apology, which was given by the foreign minister by phone an hour after the official meeting.

james wilkinson, ms. rice's communications director, was shoved against a wall by guards as he tried to enter the meeting. the meeting began with 10 minutes of silence due to the security disallowing the american translator entry. later, andrea mitchell of nbc news interrupted the meeting to shout a question to al-bashir, "why should americans believe your promises" in regards to darfur, when "your government is still supporting the militias?" she was then dragged forcibly from the room by two sudanese security members; al-bashir did not acknowledge the question.


chinese yuan revalued against dollar

the government of china has decided to stop its currency peg to the u.s. dollar. the country will revalue its currency, the , for the first time in a decade. this comes after international pressure from western countries, especially from the united states. the yuan will now be linked to a variety of different currencies.

the has announced a 2.1% revaluation increase which will allow the yuan to fluctuate +/- 0.3 yuan in daily trading. this means, like other currencies, that closing prices one day become opening prices the next day.

the u.s. government has been pressuring china to revalue its currency since china joined the wto. the u.s. said that china has kept the yuan up to 40% under its real value to increase exports, thus giving china an unfair advantage against western industrial competitors as well as industry in developing nations.

since the announcement the yuan has strengthened to 8.11 yuan to the us dollar instead of 8.28 as it has been for the last ten years. this means the yuan is more expensive and that chinese goods will become more expensive in western countries. 

economic growth in china might also slow down, but it has been soaring for the last several years. this could have serious consequences in china, but a people's bank of china person has said that the exchange rate will be "basically stable".

china linked the yuan to the dollar in 1997 during the major economic crisis in asia. this has provided the stability which has allowed the chinese economy to grow over the last ten years. this move will make china vulnerable to future financial fluctuations.

this move could also mean that the us dollar would fall if china switches from holding dollars to holding for example the euro or other strong currencies.


u.s. house votes to renew expiring patriot act

the u.s. house of representatives voted thursday night to renew several provisions of the which was established after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. the final vote was 257-171, this now makes 14 of the 16 original provisions of the patriot act permanent and will extend the other two for an additional 10 years.

the two provisions which were only extended for 10 years have been called unconstitutional by some civil liberties advocates as well as several law makers from both the right and left. they say that the provisions give law enforcement "sweeping powers" that could be abused. however, president bush as well as several republican and democratic members of congress say that the provisions have been used judiciously and provide key tools needed to fight terrorism.

house lawmakers widely viewed the uncontroversial provisions of the patriot act as breaking down "the wall" that was a barrier to communication and cooperation between and agencies. the two provisions which received 10-year extensions were concerned with allowing roving wiretaps, and the other with allowing searches of library and medical records. in a pre-vote q & a, u.s. federal attorney paul mcnulty explained that a federal search in those intrusive situations require independent federal judge approval, which is granted under the in section 215.

the u.s. senate's reauthorization of the patriot act has differences from the house version. both bills head to conference committee to be combined into one cohesive law.

in a wednesday morning address to a gathering at the port of , in , called on congress for passage of the act: "the patriot act is expected to expire, but the terrorist threats will not expire. i expect, and the american people expect, the united states congress and the united states senate to renew the patriot act, without weakening our ability to fight terror, and they need to get that bill to my desk soon." the of the act is due take effect at the end of this year, in which case the act would expire. 




armed police shoot man dead on london underground


london metropolitan police have confirmed that armed police officers shot and killed a man at stockwell underground station just after 10 a.m. bst this morning. he was pronounced dead at the scene. sir ian blair, the commissioner of london metropolitan, told a press conference this afternoon that the man was challenged by police officers (not in uniform) but refused to follow instructions. some witnesses claim he did not appear to be carrying any arms, but wore a heavy coat that may have concealed a weapon. one passenger, anthony larkin, said the man appeared to be wearing a “bomb belt”. 

mark whitby, apparently the closest eye witness said; "he half-tripped, was half-pushed to the floor. the policeman nearest to me had the black automatic pistol in his left hand, he held it down to the guy and unloaded five shots into him."

police have revealed that the shooting was connected with yesterday's attempted attacks, but but have not confirmed him to be one of the four bombing suspects. police sources have indicated that the man who was shot had been followed covertly, and after he was confronted he ran off and was followed on foot by up to twenty police from street level into the underground station. 

london underground suspended some services on the victoria and northern lines, citing a request by the police. the northern line was then completely suspended for a short time mid-afternoon after a security alert at mornington crescent station.

the london ambulance service have dispatched ambulances and the air ambulance to the scene. the metropolitan police have cordoned off a 200 metre perimeter around the station.

passenger briony coetsee said: "we were on the tube and then we suddenly heard someone say 'get out, get out' and then we heard gunshots."

mark whitby, who was sitting just five metres from the incident, told bbc news: "i saw an asian [of origin] guy run onto the train hotly pursued by three plain-clothes police officers. one of them was carrying a black handgun - it looked like an automatic - they pushed him to the floor, bundled on top of him and unloaded five shots into him. he was wearing a large coat, unusual for the time of year."

“as the man got on the train i looked at his face. he looked from left to right, but he basically looked like a cornered rabbit, like a cornered fox. he looked absolutely petrified. he sort of tripped but they were hotly pursuing him and couldn't have been more than two or three feet behind him at this time. he half-tripped, was half-pushed to the floor. the policeman nearest to me had the black automatic pistol in his left hand, he held it down to the guy and unloaded five shots into him. i didn’t see any guns or anything like that; i didn’t see him carrying anything. i didn’t even see a bag to be quite honest."

reports from itv news suggested that the person shot was another suicide bomber. sky news (web) reported the same, 
but later reported that "initial examinations [...] did not discover any explosives on the suspect." 

meanwhile, the times reported that police believed the man to be one of the would-be bombers who escaped after the 21 july attacks. bbc news reported that the man had been under surveillance as a result of cctv footage from the 21 july crime scenes.

bbc in london alerts: at-a-glance reports: police say the man shot at stockwell had been followed by surveillance officers because he had emerged from a house linked to the investigation into thursday's blasts.

passenger anthony larkin told bbc news the man appeared to be wearing a "bomb belt with wires coming out".



armed police briefly surround a mosque in east london

around 10.15am utc, armed police surrounded a mosque in east london because of a bomb scare. a short time afterwards, this cordon was lifted.



major police operation in west london

a major police operation took place this afternoon in west . the operation is centred around an near harrow road. the bbc reports that armed police and a police dog have been deployed.

houst monfaradi, a witness at the scene, said "there's what looks like a bomb disposal-type vehicle, armoured, and there's several armed officers around it," "from my window i can see 20 doors down what looks like a bomb disposal type vehicle, it's armoured and there are several armed officers around it...about half an hour ago police officers ran up my road telling everyone to get inside their houses...anyone who even puts their head out, they scream 'get inside your house'...about 15 minutes ago i saw a little remote controlled vehicle...it went round to the left and then it disappeared from my view...it was followed by a couple of armed officers with shields." 



quaker website editor launches music podcast programme

simon gray, quaker website editor for "the friend" and an organiser for the world gathering of young friends today launched "radio star one" as a podcast linked to "birmingham alive !", the birmingham what's on guide.

"it's an eclectic mix of jazz, world, electronic, classical, & folk", he said, "perhaps in a similar vein to radio 3's "late junction" programme".

simon is currently in consultation to make "the friend" itself be available as a podcast. already subscribers can read it via an rss feed, with the appropriate aggregator software. podcasting is a fast-growing form of broadcasting which is freely available to listeners on the internet.


fisherman in virginia charged with killing alligator

a virginia man who allegedly clubbed to death an alligator he hooked while fishing, is under consideration by the u.s. attorney’s office in richmond for destroying a “threatened species”. but according to the u.s. fish and wildlife service web page of delisted species on the endangered species act, the american alligator was removed from the list in 1987. the reason cited for its removal was the species had recovered.

fisherman max belle reportedly used an oar to bring into submission the 44-inch-long, 9 pound creature when he brought it to the boat. belle was fishing on the chesterfield county falling creek reservoir, where the alligator was first sighted in may. 

an alligator is not a native species in the mid-atlantic region of the usa, and it is thought that it was released by someone who once kept it as a pet.u.s. department of agriculture (usda) employee attempts to capture and relocate it were unsuccessful. the native habitat of the alligator is in regions of the southeast, starting from the carolinas and moving southwards to texas. 

the fisherman’s attorney, david p. baugh, said area residents surrounding the reservoir are happy the alligator is gone. referring to the support for mr. belle of reservoir neighbors, he said, "... next time they [usda] will ask to hire mr. belle to come catch the alligator." his client received a court summons thursday and is prepared to pay a $300 fine and $50 court costs if he is found guilty of the federal misdemeanor crime.

it took investigators two weeks to positively identify the toothy crocodile as an american alligator, ("alligator mississippiensis"). 



mg rover sold to nanjing auto

administrators pricewaterhousecoopers (pwc) have announced that the british car company mg rover and its engine manufacturer powertrain ltd has been sold to chinese company nanjing automobile for an unknown sum of money. the company beat bids from shanghai automotive (saic), despite being the smaller of the two.

mg rover collapsed this spring, after struggling to make a profit for several years.

saic had tried to buy only the engine plant and then transfer it to china, but in june nanjing automobile approached pwc with a combined bid for both the car manufacturing company and powertrain. this monday saic bid for both but the offer was inferior to nanjing's.

nanjing has indicated that it too will move the engine production plant to china, along with some car manufacturing. however it also intends to continue building cars in britain, and establish an engineering research and design centre there in an effort to expand its sales globally. nanjing intends to start hiring at once.


many horses in sweden lack passport

beginning in 2006, all horses in the eu will be required to have passports, according to new rules from the european union. two thirds of all horses in sweden are estimated to not have passports, britta lundstrom at the swedish ministry of agriculture (jordbruksverket) told news agency tt.

if the owner of a horse doesn't get a passport for their animal before the end of the year, they will be breaking the law. the ministry of agriculture has had problems reaching horse owners who don't read horse magazines. because of this, the ministry is planning a campaign this autumn.

the passport contains information on the owner, the race and number. a photograph isn't mandatory but a description of the horse's appearance is required.

 


metropolitan police release photographs of july 21st suspects

the london metropolitan police have released photographs of suspects wanted for the attempted bombing of three tube trains and one bus in london on the 21st of july.

anyone who sees any of these men should call 999 immediately. anyone with further information on the suspects or who knows their whereabouts should call the anti-terrorist hotline on 0800 789 321.


small plane crashes in central berlin

a small single-engine ultralight aircraft has crashed on a lawn between the reichstag building, the seat of the german parliament, and the bundeskanzleramt, the seat of the chancellor, in berlin. the aircraft crashed at approximately 2000cet. amateur footage aired by the ard shows the plane rapidly descending before crashing on the lawn and bursting into flames. witnesses at the scene were inconclusive about the heading of the plane. some stated that it was targeting the reichstag while others said that the pilot tried to steer away from it. he was killed in the crash. people near the scene attempted to fight the fire with hand-held extinguishers, however the aircraft was mostly destroyed by the time the emergency services arrived.

the german authorities have ruled out terrorism. police are saying that the pilot's wife has been missing since monday and they had suspected that he might have something to do with the disappearance. it is possible that he might have committed suicide to avoid prosecution.

 


man arrested in connection with july 21 london bomb attempts

scotland yard says the arrest took place at a residence in stockwell, south london and was "part of the investigation into the incidents of july 21st." the man is being held at paddington green police station under the prevention of terrorism act. officials will not comment on whether the suspect was one of the four whose pictures were released after being caught by cctv camera's. 

just after 6pm bst police arrested a man at the snow hill rail station in birmingham under section 44 of the terrorism act. the station was evacuated and cordoned off because of two suspicious suitcases found at the station. the suitcases were examined and later found not to contain explosives. the bbc reports that the man who was arrested will not be facing charges.

snow hill station re-opened at around 8pm bst.



bomb explodes on busy beirut street

a bomb exploded on a busy, restaurant lined road, just 2 hours after u.s. secretary of state condoleezza rice left beirut today, wounding at least twelve people.

rice had made a surprise visit to pledge her support for lebanon after the syrian troop pull-out earlier this year.

the blast went off at about 10 p.m. in front of a restaurant on monot street and damaged three cars, a security official told the associated press.

the bomb is believed to have been placed either under or inside a parked car on a sideroad close to the privately run saint joseph university on the edge of christian east beirut. lbc television initially said that 6 people had been injured, mostly by flying glass and that the car belonged to local resident joseph nadim. the estimate on the number of injured has since risen to 12.

the attack was a "message" to the new government, announced this week and dominated by anti-syrian ministers, said tourism minister joseph sarkis. he said the blast aimed to shake security and scare off the thousands of tourists, mainly from oil-rich gulf countries, who spend summer vacations in lebanon.

"it is a message against the government, against national reconciliation and national unity," sarkis told the dubai-based al-arabiya satellite channel.


many dead in egyptian resort blasts

a string of at least three explosions in egyptian resort towns in the sinai early saturday morning has left at least 88 people dead and over 200 more wounded.

one blast occurred at 1am in sharm el-sheikh, apparently in the market area, and two others about 15 minutes later in naama bay, a nearby resort. the explosions reportedly occurred outside hotels. a witness told the ap that the four-star hotel "ghazala gardens" has "completely burned down".

in october of last year, 34 people were killed in explosions in taba and ras shitan, nearby resort areas popular with israeli tourists. due to this, officials blamed those attacks on violence related to the israeli-palestinian conflict.

so far the local police have confirmed that at least 88 people have been killed and between 120 and 200 were wounded. reuters news agency quotes doctors at the scene saying many of the injured are in critical condition. reuters also indicates that the explosions may have been caused by car-bombs.

most of the casualties are egyptians, there are britons, french, spaniards, dutch, italians, czechs, qataris, and kuwaitis.

a group calling itself "abdullah azzam brigades" has claimed responsibility for the attacks. on a website the group stated that "holy warriors targeted the ghazala gardens hotel and the old market in sharm el-sheikh" and claimed it has ties to al-qaida. the authenticity of this statement has not been verified.

in a televised statement egyptian president hosni mubarak said that the terrorists will only make his country "more determined to pursue terrorism and dig it out by the roots". he added that "we will not give in to its blackmail, or seek a truce".
egyptian interior minister habib al-adli called the attacks an "ugly act of terrorism".

u.s. secretary of state condoleezza rice condemned the attacks saying that the "united states stands with our friend and ally egypt. together we will confront and defeat this scourge that knows no boundaries and respects no creed."

russia, japan, the united nations, and the palestinian authority have also condemned the blasts.

the british foreign minister, jack straw, also condemned the attacks. while being questioned about who was responsible for the bombings, mr straw said: "almost certainly they are evil people who will claim ? wrongly ? to have done this in the name of islam."

danish minister of foreign affairs per stig moller says: "i condemn, in the strongest possible ways, the terror attacks in sharm el-sheikh, that yet again target defenseless and innocent people. this can in no way be justified. my deepest sympathies to the wounded, the families and the people of egypt."

in a telegram to the egyptian president this morning, mrs. maryam rajavi, the president-elect of the national council of resistance of iran, offered her condolences to the "brother nation of egypt" on the death of, and injury to, a large number of egyptian and foreign nationals during the bombings in sharm al-sheikh last night. she prayed for patience for the families of those killed and quick recovery for those injured. mrs. rajavi underscored, "islamic fundamentalism and the terrorism emanating from it constitute the biggest threat to world peace and security. the heart of this ominous phenomenon is beating in iran under the mullahs' regime, the leading sponsor of terrorism in the world today." she expressed hope that with the overthrow of the inhuman regime and the establishment of democracy in iran, the world would see the eradication of the ideology of hate and violence, falsely propagated under the name of islam, the great religion of compassion, friendship and tolerance. it is worthy of note that on wednesday, the daily kayhan, the mouthpiece of supreme leader ali khamenei, brazenly boasted, "iran has an incalculable capacity to destabilize the entire middle east. given the circumstance, this destabilization could include a wide range of activities from limited local clashes to plunging the entire region into chaos and clashes."



legendary bluesman long john baldry dead at 64

long john baldry, english-born blues legend, passed away at the vancouver general hospital, vancouver, british columbia, thursday evening after fighting a severe chest infection for the past four months. 

baldry was considered an innovator and inspiration in blues music in the 1950s and 60s and is credited with inspiring other music legends such as elton john, rod stewart, eric clapton, and the rolling stones.

baldry was born in east haddon, england, 1941-01-12 and grew to the imposing height of 6 feet 7 inches (2 metres) which gave him his nickname "long john". he began playing folk and jazz music as a teenager in the 1950s but his deep voice resonated with the blues. eric clapton credits seeing baldry play as an inspiration for him to play the blues himself. in the early 1960s baldry sang with alexis korner's influential band, blues incorporated, and then went on to lead a series of bands himself and featured many new musicians who would go onto superstardom, including rod stewart, mick jagger, charlie watts, jack bruce, and jimmy page.

he befriended paul mccartney while playing at the cavern in liverpool and performed on the beatles' internationally televised special "around the beatles" in 1964. 

in 1966, baldry adopted bluesology for his back-up band, after seeing "promise" in the young keyboard player, reginald dwight. in 1968, dwight adopted the name elton john, taking the name john in tribute to baldry.

in 1978, he moved to the united states, spending time in new york and los angeles, before moving on to vancouver permanently about 1980 and becoming a canadian citizen.

baldry has released over 40 albums and, in the last twenty years, done much voice-over work in canada for commercials and animations including reboot and narrating the disney production, "the original story of winnie-the-pooh", which earned him a 1998 grammy "spoken word album for children" nomination.

before his illness, it had been anticipated that baldry would be touring in the autumn in support of new recordings produced by rod stewart and elton john to be released this september.



execution of two gay teens in iran spurs controversy

international controversy erupted after ian officials executed two gay teenagers who were originally reported to be convicted of homosexuality, however later reports released by the iranian government after international furor claimed the conviction was for the rape of a 13-year-old boy. the two were hanged july 19.

only the age of one of the two executed teens was officially released to the public. he was 18 year old ayaz marhoni. the other, mahmoud asgari, according to the iranian student's news agency (isna) was aged 17, but other news agencies have reported the teenager's age as 16. in the original report by the isna it was said that the two were found having sex together when they were both 16. it also reported that they were held and beaten for fourteen months before the execution. 

the uk-based gay rights group, outrage! claims the report issued later by the government of iran is a "smokescreen" to justify killing homosexuals. and one media outlet, direland, has blasted the media holdings of rupert murdoch that includes fox news channel and the times newspaper for publishing the subsequent iranian government issued allegation of rape as matter of fact without mention of the previous stories before international condemnation bearing no such accusations.

according to iranian newspapers, the two boys were given 228 lashes for their other convictions of theft, disrupting public order and public drinking before they were hanged in edalat (""justice" in english") square in the iranian city of mashhad. the executioners, fearing reprisals, wore masks and anti-riot forces were mobilized to prevent outbreaks of public protests. 

photos of the execution released by iranian students news agency showed the two teens crying in the truck driving them to the gallows in justice square, located in the northeastern region of the country.

iran has been under fire by international human rights groups for executing teenagers in the past, including the 2004 execution of atefeh rajabi, a 16-year-old girl convicted of having sex before marriage. medical reports, not allowed in the court, had stated that she was mentally ill.

like many other islamic countries, iran enforces the religious sharia law, which allows for the execution of children, including girls aged nine or older and boys 15 and older. 

iranian officials have complained that the media has emphasized the teens' ages. deputy ali asgari said, "whatever sentence is decreed by an islamic penal system must be approved, unless proven otherwise... instead of paying tribute to the action of the judiciary, the media are mentioning the age of the hanged criminals and creating a commotion that harms the interests of the state... even if certain websites made a reference to their age, journalists should not pursue this. these individuals were corrupt. their sentence was carried out with the approval of the judiciary and it served them right."

both teens were convicted by court no. 19 under sharia law. the teens are identified only as "m.a." and "a.m." those found having homosexual sex in iran may face death by either hanging, stoning, cutting in half by a sword, or dropping from a tall building or cliff.

an isna report said the couple acknowledged having sexual relations with each other but said they were unaware of laws against homosexuality.

another report, by "iran in focus," claimed that the two were hanged not for gay sex, but rather for sexually assaulting a thirteen year old boy at knife point. neither the original "iranian student's news agency" nor an additional report from the "national council of resistance of iran" had this allegation, said the united kingdom based "outrage". "direland press" has noted that the accusation of rape in reports came days after international outrage and detailed reports by other iranian news agencies. they suggest the recent report is a ploy of the iranian government to justify its actions.

"the allegation of sexual assault may either be a trumped-up charge to undermine public sympathy for the youths -- a frequent tactic by the islamist regime in iran -- or it may be that the 13-year-old was a willing participant but that iranian law ... deems that no person of that age is capable of sexual consent and that therefore any sexual contact is automatically deemed in law to be a sex assault," said outrage!'s peter tatchell.

"this is just the latest barbarity by the islamo-fascists in iran," tatchell remarked. "the entire country is a gigantic prison, with islamic rule sustained by detention without trial, torture and state-sanctioned murder."

tatchell told reporters that according to iranian human rights activists, more than 4,000 lesbians and gay men have been executed in iran since the ayatollahs seized power in 1979. he said an estimated 100,000 iranians have been executed in iran since that time.

reports also indicated that three other gay iranian teenagers are reportedly being hunted by police, but they are said to have gone into hiding.

outrage! requested the international community see iran "as a pariah state" and to "break off diplomatic relations, impose trade sanctions, and give practical support to the democratic and left opposition inside iran."

the united kingdom has a policy of constructive engagement with iran, as does france and germany, primarily directed at the resolution of the iranian nuclear crisis.

european union officials have been holding a human rights dialogue with tehran, but last year the report by human rights watch said that violations had increased since 2000.

in the unites states, the human rights campaign has called for u.s. secretary of state condoleezza rice to condemn the executions.



'incident' at east london tube station

police briefly cordoned off mile-end tube station in east london on saturday morning. a man has been taken away and the alert has now been lifted. this is the latest of many security alerts in london, which is at a high state of alert. further details awaited.

 


capitol hill democrats hold informal hearing on plame leak

democrats on saturday turned over their radio broadcast to a former cia agent and republican, larry johnson, who accused president george w. bush of flip-flopping on his pledge to fire anybody on his staff involved with the valerie plame leak.

johnson, a participant in yesterday's democratic hearing on capitol hill, said "we deserve people who work in the white house who are committed to protecting classified information, telling the truth to the american people, and living by example to the idea that a country at war with islamic extremists cannot focus its efforts on attacking other american citizens who simply tried to tell the truth."

house and senate democrats held a highly partisan hearing friday where four retired u.s. intelligence officials aired views that were critical of the plame leak itself, and then critical of bush administration and republican efforts to minimize damage caused by the controversy.
former cia case officer, jim marcinkowski, testified that the current administration policy of setting a criminal standard for dismissal was too high, and that bush should take action on those persons involved. "each time the political machine made up of prime-time patriots and partisan ninnies display their ignorance by deriding valerie plame as a mere paper-pusher, or belittling the varying degrees of cover used to protect our officers, or continuing to play partisan politics with our national security, it's a disservice to this country," he said.

the hearing was not an official proceeding of congress. democratic lawmakers organized it after republican leaders in congressional committees with jurisdiction in these matters rejected their request for a legislative oversight hearing. representative henry waxman (d-ca), the ranking minority member of the house committee on government reform, said "a special standard seems to apply to karl rove: there will be no questions asked, and no accountability."

meanwhile, a vermont native dennis morrisseau, 62, plans a republican run for a soon to be vacated seat in the house of representatives. bernard sanders (i-vt) will leave the post in his run for a senate seat. central to morrisseau's bid is his pledge to bring articles of impeachment against george w. bush.




inter milan cancels tour of england due to safety concerns

the italian football team inter milan have cancelled their tour of england, where they were to play the english teams crystal palace, leicester city, portsmouth, and norwich city. the four matches were due to take place between 25 july and 31 july. 

the cancellation of the tour has come days after a failed bomb attack on london. only one match ? the game against crystal palace ? was to have been played in london.

inter milan confirmed in a statement that the attacks on london compelled the club to cancel their tour of england, saying that: "football takes a step back because of increasing serious events which touch the sensitivity of everyone. for this reason, and given the situation, the club has decided to cancel the team's tour of england."


so far, the leicester and norwich websites have confirmed that tickets sold for the games against inter will be refunded. 

according to the crystal palace official website, officials at the club are "saddened and angered" at inter's decision.


man shot on london underground unconnected to bombing, says scotland yard


scotland yard issued a statement that jean charles de menezes, the 27-year-old brazilian electrician shot to death yesterday by police in a london underground station was "not connected" to thursday's bombings and called the incident "a tragedy". a day earlier, the police commissioner said the man was "directly linked" to thursday's attacks. 

the police statement said "we are now satisfied that he was not connected with the incidents of thursday 21st july 2005. for somebody to lose their life in such circumstances is a tragedy and one that the metropolitan police service regrets."
the man was followed when he left a flat that had been under surveillence. he did not obey instructions from police (not in uniform) as he ran onto a tube train at the station. eyewitnesses said he "was wearing a large coat, unusual for the time of year", but didn't seem to have "any guns or anything like that; i didn't see him carrying anything. i didn't even see a bag to be quite honest."

mark whitby, apparently the closest eye witness said; "he half-tripped, was half-pushed to the floor. the policeman nearest to me had the black automatic pistol in his left hand, he held it down to the guy and unloaded five shots into him."

the shooting is being investigated by the metropolitan police service's directorate of professional standards and the independent police complaints commission, which investigates all fatal police shootings.

home secretary charles clarke described the shooting of mr menezes as an "absolute tragedy" before going on to say "i hope [the family] understand the police were trying to do their very best under very difficult circumstances."

alex pereira, a cousin of mr menezes, also living in the uk, was interviewed by the bbc and said "apologies are not enough. i believe my cousin's death was result of police incompetence." he also stated that he believed his cousin had been "a victim of government's mistakes".

the brazilian government "look forward to receiving the necessary explanation from the british authorities on the circumstances which led to this tragedy" and have dispatched their foreign minister celso amorim to london in order to get an explanation from the british foreign secretary jack straw.

mr amorim said "the brazilian government and the public are shocked and perplexed that a peaceful and innocent person should have been killed." going on to say "brazil is totally in solidarity with britain in the fight against terror but people should be cautious to avoid the loss of innocent life."


microsoft announces name of new version of windows: vista

microsoft corporation has announced that the official name of the next version of its windows operating system will be "windows vista". the system was formerly referred to by the codename “longhorn.”
brad goldberg, the general manager of windows product development, said the new name is aimed at "communicating the idea of clarity." microsoft has said that this new version will include better graphics and security.

windows vista is scheduled to launch in the second half of 2006; this will make five years after the launch of windows xp, the longest interim yet between releases of windows. 
additional details on windows vista will be released at a developer's conference in september. beta testing of the software targeted at developers and it professionals will begin on august 3.




space shuttle discovery launch scheduled for tuesday

nasa has announced that the space shuttle "discovery" is due to blast off on tuesday 26 july at 10.39 am edt.

the news that the 43 hour countdown will be restarted on saturday comes after the successful resolution of the problems that forced the aborting of the previous launch attempt.

the countdown includes 28 hours of scheduled "hold time" bringing the total time period up to tuesday.

the launch had been scrubbed previously due to a faulty main fuel tank sensor which was sufferring from electromagnetic interference. engineers fixed the problem by improving the electrical grounding of the system to reduce interference.


nasa announces astronaut glove design contest

nasa's centennial challenges program has announced its latest prize contest, the astronaut glove challenge. the competition, a collaboration between nasa and the non-profit volanz aerospace, will be held in late 2006 and will award $250k to the team which produces the best-performing glove within contest parameters. 

the basic idea was originally proposed last year on rand simberg's transterrestrial musings to improve on current gloves, which have difficulties with remaining flexible while maintaining constant internal pressure. 

previously-announced competitions include prizes for superstrong tethers, beaming power, and extracting oxygen from lunar regolith. these are all part of a large recently-announced program, which will potentially include 'an eight-figure prize for the first privately developed robotic moon lander.'


stock exchange merger could end san francisco stock trading

after the new york stock exchange (nyse) completes its acquisition of chicago-based electronic trading company, archipelago holdings within the next 12 months, the impact will also be felt in san francisco, california as the future of the 123-year-old pacific exchange (pcx) becomes murky.

this stems from a deal struck in january of this year, before the nyse merger, when archipelago struck a deal worth $83 million to take over operations of the san francisco stock exchange and its 260 employees. all pcx operations are scheduled to be under archipelago control by the end of september. archipelago had planned to maintain the san francisco operations.

as details were released thursday of the april nyse-archipelago merger to the securities and exchange commission, all archipelago functions are to be folded into nyse operations, including the pcx stock and options trading business. the report did not state whether or not the san francisco employees would be kept after the merger is complete.

started in 1882 at the san francisco stock market, the pacific exchange, along with other regional stock exchanges, has suffered as customers shifted to electronic trading, which bypassed the need for stock exchange services in many instances.


inter milan's tour of england back on

the president of , , announced that the italian football club will tour england after all. yesterday, inter announced that they intended to cancel the tour due to safety concerns. , italy's ambassador to britain, confirmed that tour is back on. 

inter will play friendlies against , , , and between 25 july and 31 july. according to leicester city's official website, inter have described the commotion over the cancellation as a "misunderstanding".

inter will arrive in england today.


egyptians conduct roundup of bombing suspects

a new explosive detonated on sunday near the pyramids of giza in egypt police said. it was reportedly carried by a man from a tourist bazaar. the man allegedly was carrying the bomb in a sack. it might accidentally have exploded in the area of kufr tuhurmus. no other injuries were reported except to the bomber himself, sami gamal ahmad, who was too badly injured to be questioned. the man may have been taking the explosive to the tourist area of kerdassa, where souvenir shops are located in a bazaar near the pyramids, said an official.

egyptian security forces have detained 70 suspects in a sweep to find the perpetrators in saturday's early morning bombings that killed 88 and left hundreds injured.

the police investigation of the bombings has targeted a smaller number of people than the october 2004 roundup that followed attacks in the sinai resorts of tabas and ras shitan. 3,000 people were detained for questioning in those bombings. according to canadian "ctv", 200 of those people are believed to still be in custody.

a massive manhunt was undertaken in the sinai peninsula to identity whether it was foreigners who executed the attack. one security official speaking on the condition of anonymity told an "al jazeera" reporter that the bombers "did not appear to be locals." but the "new york times" reported that bedouin leaders were arriving at the local police headquarters, possibly over concerns that many of the suspects picked up in the prior bombing in the region were, by human rights group accounts, bedouin.

among the dead, officials said victims included british, russian, dutch, kuwaitis, saudis, qataris, czech republic, u.s., and native egyptians. sixty were identified as egyptians, and at least eight were foreigners.

malaysian prime minister abdullah ahmad badawi said, "the whole world is getting very disturbed. the frequency [of attacks] seems to be mounting." badawi chairs the 57-nation organization of the islamic conference.
resort hotels are being abandoned by tourists. at the nearest international airport, hundreds are reported trying to get flights out.

three bombs erupted in the red sea resort of sharm el-sheikh just after 1am. at the ghazala gardens hotel, work is underway to clear the destroyed reception lobby where emergency teams have gavin up the search for survivors. a car with 660 pounds of explosives drove into the hotel's driveway and detonated in an apparent suicide attack. 

the day of the bombings is marked as an egyptian national holiday that commemorates the bloodless coup by a group of army officers that brought them to power after deposing king farouk in 1952. egypt has been the victim of 15 tourist attacks since october 1992.



opposition parties rally in baku for fair elections

around four hundred people demonstrated in baku, azerbaijan, yesterday, demanding that parliamentary elections to be held on november 6 be free and fair. the national democratic party led the rally, and other opposition parties and groups including citizen solidarity, liberal democratic party, free azerbaijan, salvation and progress participated. the rally was sanctioned by the baku government.

demonstrators requested from ilham aliyev, president of azerbaijan, the protection of gatherings, citizens' will and an equal chance for all candidates in the elections. they also demanded removing obstacles in development of azerbaijani's independent media, and the return of political emigrants. 


tsunami warning briefly issued for indian ocean after latest earthquake

in response to another major , near 's (in the , about 690 miles southwest of , thailand), government agencies briefly issued official warnings. however, it was later determined that the earthquake, although strong, was of a type which does not commonly spawn large tsunamis.

the 's reported that the earthquake occurred at 15:42:05 (utc) on sunday, july 24, 2005, and registered as a magnitude 7.2 earthquake. its location is 7.926°n, 92.146°e

the reported at 16:11 utc that an earthquake had occurred at 15:42 utc near the indo-chinese peninsula (8.7°n, 92.1°e). the scale of this earthquake was estimated by jma to be 7.3 on the , and its seismic center near the nicobar islands in the indian ocean.

"there is a possibility of a destructive local tsunami in the indian ocean," said the jpa, when it issued its warning. but that possibility did not come to fruition.

this was made clear in a report from the u.s. national earthquake information center, which said in a bulletin that "no tsunami threat exists to coastlines in the pacific, however earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts located within a few hundred kilometers of the earthquake epicenter. as the center does not have sea level gauges outside the pacific, they will not be able to detect or measure a tsunami if one occurs. it can be assumed the danger has passed if no tsunami waves are observed near the epicenter within an hour of the earthquake."

the us geological survey's waverly person told the bbc that the event was "unlikely to spark a tsunami".

the thai tv station mcot was reporting at around 1:00 (local time, utc+7) that everything was under control and there has been no confusion; in phuket and trang provinces, the sea level was reported to be at normal levels at that time. at 1:25 (local time), the thai national disaster warning center cleared the tsunami warning nationwide.

the top federal administrator of the nicobar islands, ram kapse, told reuters news agency that there had been no reports of casualties or damage from any of the inhabited islands.



lance armstrong wins tour de france for seventh time

united states sportsman lance armstrong today won the international cycling competition tour de france. this is the seventh consecutive win for armstrong. it is also his last, as armstrong announced prior to the race that he will be retiring from professional cycling after the competition.

the last leg was an 89.8-mile strecth from corbeil-essonnes to paris' famed champs-elysees. but poor weather conditions affected the finale.

the official race time clock was stopped when the riders reached the champs elysee due to rain making the famous cobble stones slippery. however, the rain stopped and the stones dried during the eight final laps of the famous road, and time-bonuses were awarded for the stage win. 

alexandre vinokourov of kazakhstan, riding for t-mobile, won the stage after his break-away from the field 1,500m out could not be reeled in by the peloton, relegating the sprinters to lower placings. the 20s time bonus moved vinokurov to fifth overall in the race.

as armstrong was presented the final yellow jersey, he was quoted in the press as saying in a mixture of french and english, ""vive le tour", forever." the winning yellow jersey is awarded to the cyclist who had the best overall performance throughout the tour's circuit.

after the awards ceremony, armstrong discussed what comes next in his life, mentioning that defeating cancer by raising awareness and funds is his new goal.

"we know how to train and prepare for the tour," he says. "if we win, it is a success. cancer is not and will not be that way. it is a different kind of fight. it's not something that lasts three weeks.

"along the way there will be victories and defeats. there are going to be survivors and people who aren't going to make it. my goal and my responsibility is to make sure that we don't forget ... how devastating cancer has been. i can help change that."

"i sit here as a person who considers myself totally cured," he says. "but one of those people who was along the side of the road over the last three weeks might have breast cancer and might die in three months.

"how can they not be cured? the illness is complicated; there are hundreds of different illnesses and cell types, little bastards inside who don't agree with what we throw at them, who don't want to die."

armstrong has been a member of the president's cancer panel since 2002. he feels that his role is to get the funds to keep that research alive, saying that "we have the smartest people in the world" already working on cures.

"funding is tough to come by these days," he says. "the biggest downside to a war in iraq is what you could do with that money. what does a war in iraq cost a week? a billion? maybe a billion a day? the budget for the national cancer institute is four billion. that has to change. it needs to become a priority again.

"polls say people are much more afraid of cancer than of a plane flying into their house or a bomb or any other form of terrorism. it is a priority for the american public."

 


critics honor 2004-2005 best in u.s. tv

the television critics association (tca) announced the winners of its annual awards for best in television programming june 23 in beverly hills, california. the tca is made up of approximately 200 television writers and columnists in the u.s. and canada.

the awards, except for the heritage award and lifetime achievement award, were for outstanding programs first broadcast in the united states between june 2004 and may 2005. 

abc's "desperate housewives" was named program of the year, while the network's "lost" was named as best dramatic program.

the critics' choice for best comedy series was fox's "arrested development". 

awards for acting and performance went to hugh laurie in fox's "house" for best dramatic performance while best comedic performance honors went to jon stewart of comedy central's "the daily show with jon stewart". 

the tca awarded american comedian bob newhart with its lifetime achievement award. the heritage award for program "that has transcended its medium to profoundly impact on society or culture" was presented to abc late night news program, "nightline.

"source: television critics association "


world health organisation: china engaging in bird flu cover up

the world health organization's beijing spokesman has said that the people's republic of china has withheld vital information regarding h5n1 outbreaks, a type of bird flu that is infecting animals throughout asia. the animals most affected by the disease are those among waterfowl and poultry, however in recents months it has infected humans and has also been discovered in tigers as well as swine. "the nation" magazine quotes who officials as saying that the strain has the potential of causing a human pandemic (global epidemic) resulting in tens of millions of deaths. 

the first appearance of this type of flu was in hong kong during 1997. as of july 21, 2005, one hundred and nine cases of human infection have been confirmed resulting in fifty five deaths outside of china reports the centers for disease control. china has reported no deaths in the recent outbreaks, leading to speculation of a cover up. "the economist" says eleven countries across asia have been affected, and more than one hundred and twenty million birds have died from infection or been culled. although this week a case was found in russia making it the first european country with an infection and twelfth in the world.

usually these flu viruses are carried worldwide by wild bird populations in their intestines and are non-lethal. however this variant has mutated into the most lethal strain of influenza ever recorded says mike davis, author of "the monster at our door: the global threat of avian flu". such occurrences are natural and have happened in the past as in the 1918 spanish influenza pandemic.

the current virus is morphing into a type that is spread among humans with the first human-to-human cases found in vietnam during 2005. when avian influenza subtypes adapt for this mode of transmission the effect is deadly for humans as the immune system has no natural immunities for it and the production of appropriate antibodies to fight the infection takes some time.

further complicating the effort to combat h5n1, it was reported in the washington post that the people's republic of china has been administering the medication amantadine to poultry in violation of international livestock regulations that state it is for human use only since the late-1990s (all the time officially denying any cases of bird flu among its poultry); the result has been that the virus is now largely immune to the medication and is significantly deadlier. world health organization officials had been preparing to use the drug to fight a future pandemic and now it has been rendered useless.

chinese government officials have said more than 1,000 migratory birds have been found dead during 2005 and there have been unofficial internet reports of one hundred and twenty related human fatalities that are strongly denied by beijing. 

china has previously irked international agencies for its handling of public and agricultural health crises, notably the sars epidemic that began in 2002. china's health minister was fired after the government acknowledged it had covered up the extent of the sars outbreak by preventing reports about the illness for months and by minimizing its seriousness says the washgington post.

margaret chan, who director of pandemic influenza preparedness is pressing china to allow laboratories to examine specimens from birds in qinghai, where the h5n1 virus has killed more than 5,000 birds from five species. recombinomics has found chinese message boards indicating part of qinghai province may be under martial law and quarantine. 

three outbreaks of h5n1 have affected china in recent months but the world health organization has not received the information or the virus samples from infected birds that they requested. "it is a matter of urgency," said roy wadia, the who's speaker in china. "we stress that this virus is highly unpredictable and versatile and can change any time. it is highly dangerous."


first chinese tourists arrive in the uk

on sunday, a group of 80 people from beijing and shanghai landed at heathrow to become the first chinese to arrive in the united kingdom on tourist visas.

after protracted negotiations last year, the uk was granted "approved destination status" (ads) by the people's republic of china in january 2005. the agreement will also allow travel companies to establish offices in china to promote tourism to the uk.

before the signing of the agreement, china allowed only students and people on business trips to visit the country. it is estimated that 135,000 people visited the uk last year ? just 0.6% of china's external tourism market.

the 80 tourists are expected to visit london, oxfordshire, stratford-upon-avon and scotland, where they will meet the first minister, jack mcconnell, in edinburgh castle. the duke of york is expected to greet the tourists at the tower of london later today. other destinations will include liverpool (twinned with shanghai) and manchester's old trafford stadium, where the football team manchester united play. they have a large following in china and are currently on a far east tour. they are to play beijing hyundai in a friendly match tomorrow. 

the visit comes after the london attacks earlier this month provoked fears by the british tourist industry of a reduction in tourism to the uk.

the uk tourist industry hopes that by 2020, chinese tourism to the uk will bring ￡500 million pounds (about $878 million us dollars) annually to the uk economy.


fifth bomb discovered in london after july 21 attacks

a suspect package discovered in little wormwood scrubs, west london is apparently a fifth bomb made to the same design as those used in the 21 july attacks. the device was subjected to controlled explosion by the police over the weekend and its discovery has led to speculation that a fifth bombing attempt may have been intended that day. the device was apparently a nail bomb.

little wormwood scrubs is just north of shepherd's bush (scene of one of thursday's bombing attempts) and white city (the location of the bbc's tv centre). it also borders on north pole sidings, which are used by the eurostar cross-channel train which travels through the channel tunnel.


australia wins first test of the ashes series

australia has won the first test of the ashes series against england by 239 runs at lords in london. 

rain threatened to halt the australia's charge towards victory on day four but it held off long enough for glenn mcgrath and shane warne to together pick up the five required wickets for victory. 

earlier, australia's 9th and 10th wicket partnerships put on 95 runs between them, leaving england with the unlikely chase of 420 runs. 

mcgrath bowled superbly in the test and finished with match figures of 9-82. the 35 year-old claimed his 500th test wicket in the first innings, placing him fourth on the all-time list. for the home team, debutant kevin pieterson scored 57 and 64 not out to ensure england were not thrashed.

scores: australia 190 and 384, england 155 and 180


peace tax campaigners turned down by uk judge

the peace tax seven, who are campaigning to have the 10 per cent of their taxes which go to britain's defence budget diverted to non-military uses, have had their case rejected by a high court judge. 

the judicial review was called for under article 9 of the european convention on human rights which guarantees freedom 'to manifest one's religion or beliefs' and which was made a part of british law in 1998. the convention includes the right to conscientious objection and the campaigners claim that this gives them the right not to pay other people to go to war on their behalf.

their statement to the court said: "we want to make a positive contribution to society by paying our tax in full. we object in conscience to paying others to kill on our behalf, but current tax policy forces us to do just that."

the courtroom had to be enlarged to make room for supporters and the judge listened to the case for three hours. 
roy prockter, an accountant and campaign member as well as a quaker, said that the judge told them that "our case has no possibility of being resolved in the british courts". according to the guardian, the judge suggested they take the case to strasbourg. roy said that the members were going to take time for reflection as they awaited the written judgment from the judge. 



rules may be bent to launch discovery

with the problem with the fuel gauge still unexplained nasa has announced that in may bend some of its long-standing safety rules to launch the space shuttle discovery on time. nasa managers have decided to launch with just three of the four fuel gauges working if the problem reappears tuesday, however this would mean disregarding the rule created in 1986 after the challenger explosion. in a press conference on july 13, nasa officials commented that they have never in the past flown a shuttle with less than four sensors working.

"there's very little in life that is 100 percent guaranteed, and there's probably less in rocket science that's 100 percent guaranteed," deputy shuttle program manager wayne hale said over the weekend. "that is part of the risk we take."

discovery and the crew of 7 are set to blast-off for the international space station at 10:39 a.m. tuesday morning. this will be the first launch since the space shuttle columbia disaster two and a half years ago. 

 


britain's royal windsor castle to get hydro-electric power plant

windsor castle, one of queen elizabeth ii of the united kingdom's official residences, is to get a hydro-electric power scheme.

the ￡1 million project will consist of a series of under-water turbines to be installed at romney weir in the nearby river thames. the system will generate 200kw, enough to meet approximately one third of the castle's electricity needs.

the electricity from the four turbines will not be sold into the local electricity grid, but will instead be directly connected to windsor castle's electrical system. it will save 600 tonnes of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere every year.

the scheme was announced after it gained planning permission from the local council, the plans having been submitted in february of last year. a feasability study will now be conducted, with construction scheduled to start next year.

the windsor castle is not the only environmentally-friendly royal scheme. a borehole beneath buckingham palace provides cold water for air-conditioning and the duke of edinburgh's taxi runs on liquid petroleum gas.


bush likely to appoint bolton during congressional recess

as the us senate is about to take its annual august recess, they have not yet taken action on the controversial united nations ambassador nomination of john bolton. with congress gone and president bush at his ranch in texas, white house press secretary scott mcclellan, speaking unofficially, hinted that bush might exercise his constitutional authority and post him to the u.n. by use of a recess appointment.

the appointment would stand until january 2007 before it would once again become subject to senate confirmation. 

the bolton nomination was passed on to the full senate for consideration on march 17. this was done without a favorable recommendation from the senate foreign relations committee. 

senators joseph biden (d-de) and christopher dodd (d-ct) succeeded twice in leading democrats to block efforts of republican chamber leaders to bring the matter to a vote. democrats raised questions on whether bolton abused subordinates while acting in his role as undersecretary of state, and whether he tried to pressure intelligence analysts to issue reports that conformed to his views. there was also the question of bolton's past criticisms of the body of the united nations itself.

democratic filibusters demanded of the bush administration that it release classified information regarding the involvements of bolton in his position as the undersecretary of state for arms control and international security since may 11, 2001. in the past, however, senate confirmation was granted him to fill positions in government posts on four occasions.

with a week to go before recess, there are no signs of a senate breakthrough.

in 1998, former president bill clinton selected richard holbrooke. in what some have called "partisan bickering", republicans blocked holbrooke for 14 months, before he was finally confirmed in august 1999. 



brazilians call for arrest of uk policemen after shooting death

the death of brazilian-born jean charles de menezes in london on the 21st of july at the hands of british police, who mistook him for a terrorist, is being called an "assassination" by the mayor of gonzaga, brazil. "it's easy for blair to apologize, but it doesn't mean very much," said mayor julio de souza, referring to metropolitan police commissioner sir ian blair's description of the incident as a "tragedy". "what happened to english justice and england, a place where police patrol unarmed?"

brazil's foreign minister, celso amorin, came to london and said president luiz inacio lula da silva asked him "to take firm measures to defend the interests of the family of a brazilian who died in an absurd manner."

brazilian protesters called for the arrest of the policemen who shot menezes, and are also demanding the immediate return of the victim's body, as traditionally in brazil bodies are buried within 24 hours of death. 

according to witnesses, police pursued the fleeing menezes into a subway station and held him to the ground before shooting him. london was on heightened alert after the 7th of july's deadly bombings. 


mysterious disease kills 31 in china's sichuan province

chinese officials have ceased the export of pork from two cities after at least 31 individuals died and 152 were taken ill after contracting a mysterious disease related to pigs. china leads the world in the production of pork products.

symptoms of the illness include fatigue, headache, high fever, vomiting, and eventually coma. subcutaneous bruising has also been observed in some patients.

initial reports indicated that those becoming sick had recently butchered sick sheep or pigs. lab tests in china have revealed that victims may be suffering an infection of "streptococcus suis" -- a bacteria found in many pork producing countries.

serious cases of "streptococcus suis" infection can lead to coma and eventually meningitis. thus far, no human-to-human transmissions have been observed.


a 5.6 richter quake hits western montana

a moderate earthquake shook western montana at 10:08 p.m. on monday. no immediate reports of damage have been received by the united states geological survey (usgs) and its national earthquake information center. the earthquake was centered about 20 km (15 miles) north-northeast of dillon, and about 65 km (40 miles) south of butte.



press freedom watchdog 'outraged' by closure of burundi radio station

the burundian authorities have forcibly shut down one of burundi's most popular independent radio stations, radio publique africain. the move came despite a compromise deal agreed last week between rpa and the burundian authorities. 

burundi's national communications council (cnc) had ordered the indefinite suspension of rpa on july 15th, claiming that its coverage of recent elections had been biased, and that the radio station had insulted them. the station's director alexis sinduhije rejected the allegations, and burundian media groups accused the cnc of acting as a tool of political repression. following negotiations, the authorities lifted the indefinite ban, after rpa agreed to a 2-day suspension. 

rpa went off air on monday july 18th. broadcasts were resumed on thursday morning, but less than 48 hours later the authorities were attempting to shut down the station again. 

bujumbura journalist gregoire wakana, writing on the african news website abarundi.org, reported a tense stand-off outside the radio station on friday afternoon, as around 30 soldiers, led by colonel ildephonse mushwabure, tried to gain entry. "the suspense lasted several hours, and a large crowd gathered, with several burundian journalists coming to watch the fate of their rpa colleagues". 

abarundi.org reports "widespread indignation" over rpa's closure, with onlookers shouting angrily at the authorities as they moved in on the station. some later threw stones at a nearby building owned by the burundian president domitien ndayizeye. 

abarundi.org notes that colonel mushwabure is a controversial figure in burundi, after giving contradictory statements to a un inquiry over his whereabouts during the 1993 coup led to the assassination of the country's first democratic president, melchior ndadaye. last month's elections were the first since the coup, which plunged burundi into more than a decade of vicious, ethnically-charged civil war. 

earlier this week, the head of the un's electoral unit in burundi praised the country's media, saying it had "masterfully played its role of democratic watchdog by helping burundians to allay their fears and go to the polls".

the dispute between rpa and the burundian government has been monitored by the international press freedom watchdog the committee to protect journalists (cpj). 

"rpa fell silent around 5 p.m. local time as police broke into the station compound, padlocked its studios, and cut off its transmitter. it was not immediately clear if any rpa staff had been arrested, although one journalist told the cpj in a brief phone call, "they are taking us to the police station", they announced in a press release on friday. 

"no one is above the law. sanctions must be taken against whoever breaks the law... african public radio continues to show its lack of respect towards the authorities", the national communications council chairman jean-pierre manda was quoted by reuters as saying on saturday.

the council had accused rpa of giving disproportionate coverage to the opposition fdd party in recent elections. 

the fdd heavily defeated president domitien ndayizeye's frodebu party, gaining a majority of seats in the country's national assembly, with 58% of the popular vote. the party is now expected to form the next government.

abarundi.org reports that the men who broke into the radio station were unable to produce any kind of warrant. rpa's director alexis sinduhije told reuters he had evidence ndayizeye issued the order to shut down the radio station, calling it "an abuse of power". 

"if they (the communication council) believe i have insulted them, they must go to court, but not punish the radio and the public audience," reuters quoted him as saying.

"cpj is outraged at the burundian authorities' failure to deliver on their promise,", said cpj executive director ann cooper, in a press release. "we call on president ndayizeye to ensure that rpa can resume broadcasting immediately, allowing journalists to work freely without fear of reprisal."

quoting burundi national radio and television, bbc monitoring has reported that president domitien ndayizeye met representatives of a media organization on saturday to discuss the reopening of radio publique africaine.

the president reportedly decided to close the radio in order to "safeguard the integrity of state institutions."





inter lead race to snap-up figo

internazionale are understood to be on the brink of snapping up real madrid star, luis figo and are also thought to be leading the race to sign him.

according to the italian newspapwer gazzetta dello sport, the 32-year-old portuguese right-side midfielder, who has been a liverpool f.c transfer target for quite some time, is close to agreeing a deal with inter.

reports in spain, however, suggest figo will finally resolve his dispute with the madrid giants when he returns from the club's pre-season tour of japan later this week, clearing the way for a move to merseyside. 
liverpool f.c. manager rafael benitez has also revealed that he will buy a right-sided midfielder before the start of the new premiership campaign. 
"we are waiting for news, we have heard nothing as yet," he said. "we are in lithuania and he is flying from japan so maybe we will hear something later in the week." 
figo has been in dispute with real over the payment of the final year of his contract. 
liverpool are likely to offer figo wages of around ￡60,000 a week, if he does sign, but inter are also stepping up by stating that they would give him around ?3.5 million euros a year.


murderer of dutch filmmaker van gogh gets life term

mohammed bouyeri, a radical islamist who was a member of the hofstad network, was sentenced to life in prison by a court in amsterdam for the killing of the controversial filmmaker theo van gogh in november 2004.

van gogh was ambushed on an amsterdam street and shot repeatedly in the chest before bouyeri stabbed him and slit his throat. the judgment said that bouyeri showed "complete disregard for human life" and butchered van gogh "mercilessly".

bouyeri, a 27 year who holds joint dutch-moroccan citizenship, claimed he acted on behalf of islam. he made a confession in the courtroom and vowed he would "do it again" if he had the chance.

van gogh had been a staunch critic of islam and its perceived mistreatment of women. van gogh directed several movies critical of islam, most notably "submission" in which verses of the qur'an were written on naked women's bodies. 

 


space shuttle discovery launches

the nasa roared into the florida sky at 10:39am et (14:39 utc), 2 weeks after the launch was scrubbed due to a faulty sensor. the launch was the start of the mission, which is planned to be completed on august 7, 2005.
solid rocket booster separation was triggered two minutes and five seconds into the flight after burnout of the putty-like fuel packed inside each rocket. the firing of explosive bolts freed the twin boosters from the side of the external tank, allowing them to peel away from the space shuttle. parachutes were then automatically deployed from the boosters, allowing them to slowly descend into the where they will be towed back to shore.

discovery initiated the command for main engine cutoff, or meco, at the 8-minute, 23-second mark. meco shuts down the orbiter's three powerful engines in the rear of discovery after completing the "uphill" climb into space.

with the ascent into space complete and fuel in the external tank exhausted, discovery jettisoned the orange canister. following jettison, commander pitched the orbiter up until the tank could be sighted through the orbiter´s upper windows. mission specialist then took digital photographs and video of the external tank from a distance of just 1,500 feet.


u.s. consumer confidence drops

the confidence of american consumers in their economy has slipped unexpectedly in july after it had risen the previous three months.

the consumer confidence index dropped from 106.2 in june to 103.2 this july, the "conference board" said in new york. analysts blame it on amercians' increased fear over job security, wage perspectives, and rising gas prices.

but lynn franco, director of the board's "consumer research center", is unconcerned: "the overall state of the economy remains healthy and consumers' outlook suggests no storm clouds on the short-term horizon."

in the last months, several large american corporations have announced job cuts. among them are eastman kodak, hewlett-packard, and kimberly-clark.

private consumer spending is considered to be the backbone of the u.s. economy since it accounts for two-thirds of its gross domestic product. however, in the last few years, the correlation between consumer confidence and actual retail sales has been questioned since consumers were spending money even when survey figures said they wouldn't.



controversy over liverpool fan jailed in bulgaria

michael shields, an 18-year old liverpool football club supporter, has been jailed for the attempted murder of a bulgarian barman, despite another man from liverpool admitting full responsibility.

shields, 18 from wavertree was charged with the attempted murder of martin georgiev, 25, after being accused of throwing a brick at the barman's head in the city of varna, where he was celebrating liverpool football club's win over ac milan in the final of the champions league in istanbul in may.

before being charged, a 20 year old man from anfield came forward and claimed responsibility for the attack - graham sankey, made a statement through his lawyer david kirwan.

mr kirwan said: "graham believed the case against michael would either be thrown or adjourned after he came forward to make his confession." despite the confession, shields was convicted of attempted murder.

shields' uncle, joey graney, was in court when the sentence was passed and said: "michael was sobbing. he's an 18-year-old lad, quiet as a mouse, on his own, going back to a bulgarian jail. what's he going to do? as far as the bulgarians were concerned, a local lad had been attacked and they wanted their scapegoat. they did not care that graham sankey has confessed to carrying out the attack. they just tossed that aside."

the family have said they will do everything in their power to clear michael's name. meanwhile, liverpool riverside mp louise ellman, has backed the family's campaign calling the incident a "travesty of justice".

"graham sankey has admitted he was guilty of the crime that michael shields is now convicted of, but he did so in a way that was inadmissible to the bulgarian court," added mrs ellman, who is planning to speak to his defence team.

a british foreign office spokesman said it could not comment on the verdict but said it would continue offering consular help to michael shields.

bulgarian government officials have since agreed to begin the process of releasing michael shields, in exchange for the arrest of graham sankey.

the development came after long-time justice campaigner stephen jakobi held closed talks with bulgarian ambassador lachezar matev at the bulgarian embassy in london.

mr. jakobi announced that michael could be free in the next "few months".

"it's been a good day and we have achieved an important breakthrough.

"we have got an agreement with the bulgarian government that they are going to take up our proposed course of action - that is issuing an arrest warrant for graham sankey.

"the government is independent of the judiciary in that country but they can hold talks with them to get the ball rolling as soon as possible.

"the arrest warrant will means the extradition process will begin."

home secretary jack straw has also agreed to meet with shield's family to discuss the situation with them.


u.s. magazine tv guide to drop local editions in makeover

after years of declining subscription rates, the owners of u.s. magazine "tv guide" ordered a complete overhaul of the 52-year-old publication. gemstar-tv guide international, the corporate parent of the magazine says the current format of the magazine has caused it to become unprofitable.

the changes will be effective with the october 15 issue. lack of profitability has been a point of contention between gemstar management and its largest shareholder, rupert murdoch's news corporation. 

included in the new design is a shift away from detailed listings to more of a "people" or "entertainment weekly" celebrity-focused format. included in that change will be the elimination of the 140 localized editions of "tv guide" in favor of one national publication with only "eastern" and "pacific" times listed for program listings. 

the magazine's owners noted that with the advent of digital cable and satellite tv, more viewers rely upon electronic program guides provided free by the television service provider than printed listings.

tv guide officials say the current magazine is made up of 25 percent news content printed on glossy paper and 75 percent tv listings printed on newsprint and in black-and-white. the new version of the magazine will be completely four-color and on glossy paper. additionally, the news-to-listing ratio will flip with 75 percent of future content being feature articles on celebrities and television programs.

a second change will be the magazine's size as it moves from a digest-sized publication to a full-sized glossy. the company expects the larger edition will be more profitable against competition such as "people" and "us weekly". but that profitability may be at the expense of national reach.

although the magazine is getting physically larger, according to reports, the readership is expected to shrink. gemstar expects many of is subscribers not to renew with the new format. currently the tv guide guarantees 9 million subscribers to its national advertisers. according to reports, it is only guaranteeing 3.2 million subscribers to its revamped publication once it hits newsstands.


last wwii comanche 'code talker' dies

charles chibitty, the last surviving member of the group of 17 who served in world war ii as the comanche "code talkers" died in a tulsa, oklahoma nursing home july 20. he was 83.

chibitty was among the 14 comanches who landed with the d-day invasion of normandy beaches where they reported by radio to division headquarters on the progress of the landings. the comanche were dubbed "code talkers" because the american indian language has no written record, and it was never broken by the germans during the war.
one of the first messages transmitted in comanche language during the landings was "right beach, wrong place". it warned soldiers they landed about a half mile from their intended target. chibitty served with a unit that landed on utah beach on june 6, 1944.

mr.chibitty served with the rank of a corporal in the 4th infantry division that engaged in the breakthrough of the siegfried line in hurtgen forest. his division also saw action in the battle of the bulge and the rescue of the "lost battalion". his division was among the first to undertake the liberation of paris. then later, the 4th infantry was the first to enter germany.

the comanches, who came from the lawton area in oklahoma, heard rumors of a military plan to organize a native speaking unit. he enlisted in 1941, and along with 19 others, they were trained for special duty by the u.s. army signal corps. all were sent to fort benning, but three remained state-side because they had dependents and deployment in the mission was dangerous.

the u.s. declassified the code talker program in 1968. only three remained living at the time. the french government gave special honors to the comanches by bestowing them with the chevalier of the national order of merit in 1989. mr. chibitty was honored in 1999 when the pentagon bestowed on him the knowlton award.

in a 1999 interview with the armed forces information center, chibitty said: "the navajo did the same thing. the navajos became code talkers about a year after the comanches, but there were over a hundred of them because they had so much territory [in the pacific theater] to cover."

joe holley of the "washington post" recalled this quote from mr. chibitty in 2002: "it’s strange, but growing up as a child i was forbidden speak my native language at school. later my country asked me to. my language helped win the war, and that makes me very proud. very proud."

the funeral service was held tuesday at 10 a.m. he has three surviving grandchildren.

 


int'l football: liverpool beats kaunas 3 - 1

the reds were a goal down through giedrius barevicius who scored a close range shot aganist jose reina. within minutes, liverpool were back in the game with a steven gerrard effort, headed by crouch and finished off by cisse. liverpool soon found their scoring touch through a corner converted into a goal by jamie carragher. it was his first in around 6 years.

the start of the second half saw captain steven gerrard fouled in the box and awarded a penalty. he took full advantage of the opportunity and converted it into a goal which saw liverpool, with three goals up, looking likely for the win.

the game also marked the competitive debut of peter crouch who signed with liverpool for around ￡7 million. mohamed sissoko, a former star, marked his competitive debut for liverpool with much impact.

the game ended 3 - 1. with 3 straight away goals, it looks like liverpool have a great chance of winning this leg.

the second leg is at on tuesday, 2 august 2005.

fbk kaunas: kurskis, zelmikas, pacevicius, kancelskis, manchkhava, barevicius, rimkevicius, klimek, baguzis, poderis, tamosauskas.
subs: kilijonas, beniusis, maciulis, papeckys, kunevicius, kijanskas, vadim petrenko. 

liverpool: reina, josemi, carragher, hyypia, riise, potter, gerrard, alonso, zenden, cisse, crouch. 
subs: dudek, luis garcia, hamann, morientes, sissoko, warnock, medjani. 

referee: knud fisker (denmark). 


neighbours of niger also facing food crisis

a food crisis is threatening three other countries in the region of niger ? a country facing severe food shortages after drought and plagues of locusts ? the united nations office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (ocha) has warned.

the three ? burkina faso, mali and mauritania ? have been affected by drought and plagues of locusts that engulfed the sahel region of west africa last august.

about 6 million are short of food and require food aid: 3.5 million from niger; 1.1 million from mali; 750,000 from mauritania; and 500,000 from burkina faso. 

the united nations ? which has a consolidated appeal for west africa of just under ￡196 million us dollars in aid for the region this year ? is expecting to feed 250,000 people shortly. in may, ocha made an additional flash appeal for $16,191,000 us dollars.

over the past few weeks, the media has shown graphic images of the situation in niger. jan egelend, ocha under-secerary general and emergency relief coordinator, claims that the situation in the region prior to this was largely ignored by the international community, saying that: "over the last few days, the world has finally woken up, but it took graphic images of dying children for this to happen." 



windows vista faces possible trademark challenges

microsoft, the world's largest software company, announced the name of its forthcoming version of the windows operating system from its headquarters in redmond, washington friday. but in choosing the name "vista," microsoft may find itself in a legal fight.

microsoft has made a name for itself in legal circles as a company that fiercely defends its trademarks and other intellectual property. with the choice of "vista," the tables may turn as it may face allegations of swiping another company's trademark.

it appears the vista name has already been taken by another high-tech company, coincidentally also based in redmond. a few miles from the sprawling microsoft campus is vista incorporated, which has operated a small business internet interchange since it was founded by wall data founder, john wall in 2000. he was surprised by his larger neighbor's move.

"we are going to consider our options and talk to microsoft," wall said in an interview with the "seattle times". wall reportedly has not yet filed suit against microsoft to stop it from using the "vista" name. an investor in sco, he does have other legal options aside from law suits. instead, he may offer to sell the rights to the "vista" name.

however, john wall's company is not the only business with claims on the name "vista." many other tech companies use "vista" as product names. additionally, a wide-range of non-computer businesses have the name reserved, including branded products for sewing machines, elevators and the dairy industry.



sinn fein leaders believed to have left ira army council

the irish minister for justice, equality and law reform, michael mcdowell, td, announced yesterday that he understands that gerry adams, martin mcguinness and martin ferris, senior members of the irish republican party sinn fein, have resigned from the army council of the provisional irish republican army.

mr. mcdowell, who most recently accused the three of being members during a radio debate on the 20th of february this year, expressed his belief that the three had resigned seats on the ira army council, the paramilitary organisation's ruling body, within the past fortnight, but he did not think that this "by itself amounts to a severance between the two organisations." adams, the sinn fein president, mcguinness, the party's chief negotiator, and ferris, a representative in dail Eireann (the irish lower house of parliament), have however consistently dismissed all such allegations of membership of the seven-man council.

the comment comes as expectation grows that the ira will issue a statement this week concerning its future, following a plea by adams in april for the organisation to "take courageous initiatives which will achieve [its] aims by purely political and democratic activity." mr mcdowell said he was looking forward to the statement, but said that was "no question of governments on either side of the border tolerating the continued existence of an unlawful organisation", and that the ira must decommission its arsenal "down to the last bullet".

claims that sinn fein members have left the army council have been described by some unionist politicians, such as dup spokesperson ian paisley, jr., as a "stunt" ahead of the expected statement from the ira. on monday, new ulster unionist leader sir reg empey expressed his opinion that "the only thing that is going to matter is what the republican movement actually do."

mcguinness is expected to travel today to the united states with senior sinn fein member rita o'hare to brief the irish american community on the current situation.



u.s. senator santorum: ‘not to run’ in 2008 presidential race

senator rick santorum wrote monday that his "intention is not to run" in the gop nomination for president. the two-term senator from pennsylvania was among names mentioned as a contender to the white house in the next presidential election in 2008. 

santorum faces a tough re-election challenge in his home state during the upcoming mid-term elections next year, where he is considered vulnerable against democratic challenger and state treasurer 

santorum authored the book "it takes a family: conservatism and the common good" which further established views of him as a near ultra-conservative. 

on the "washingtonpost.com" on-line discussion forum, the lawmaker said, "i have six children ages 4-14. and the idea of coming off a race of the intensity that i am engaged with at this point [in pennsylavania] and turning around and running another two-year campaign for president is not something that i believe is in the best interest of my family."



san diego votes for new mayor

voters in the city of san diego, california went to the polls tuesday to pick a mayor to lead the financially-troubled city. officially mayor-less since dick murphy resigned on july 15, the city of san diego also lost two councilmen to convictions on charges of corruption. the largest issue facing the next mayor of this major bio-tech hub and military town on the u.s. border with mexico, however, is the paralysis and red ink produced by two years of underfunding the pension fund for city employees. the municipal employee unions had pushed for massive benefit expanion during the booming '90s, but once the dot-com bubble burst, san diego, home to high-tech corporate players like qualcomm corp., rapidly lost revenue. the result was a $2bn pension deficit, "junk" status for the city's bonds on wall street, and the dubious designation of "enron-by-the-sea" from the new york times. 

incredibly, 11 candidates are on the ballot to lead the city that calls itself "america's finest". 
the front-runner is councilwoman donna frye, 53. she is expected to win a plurality of all votes cast, at the least. the city's former chief of police, jerry sanders, and businessman steve francis are dueling for the second place slot. the winner of that would face frye again, in a run-off election slated for nov. 8.

as of 10 pm pacific daylight time july 26, donna frye led with 43.32%, and jerry sanders was leading in the contest for second place, with 27.01% to steve francis' 23.50%. no other candidate broke into the double-digits. 

 


google adds hybrid satellite/map view

mountain view, ca - users of the beta google maps service may see the world in a new way with the introduction of the "hybrid view." here, hybrid means offering a combined satellite and map view, the hybrid button that appears on map search queries adds new functionality to the map service, combining the other choices of either map or satellite views.

the competing and similar service launched july 25 by microsoft, also offers a hybrid-type view. both services offer hybrid map and satellite views and scrollable images.

initial public response to both services on slashdot has been generally positive, but users noted glitches that need to be worked out, including discrepancies between satellite and map data. 



four arrested in birmingham uk in connection with july 21 attempted bombings

four men were arrested at 04:30 bst (4:30 a.m.) in police raids at two addresses in birmingham, west midlands in relation to the failed london bombings of 21st july. 

one of the four men, arrested in heybarnes road in the hay mills area, is thought to be suspected of being one of last thursday's bombers, and has been taken to the high security paddington green police station in london. police have acknowledged using a taser stun gun in the arrest, but no firearms were used.

the other three arrests were made shortly afterwards in bankdale road, washwood heath. police said a suspect package was found at one of the addresses and local residents were evacuated. 

two men were also arrested at grantham railway station after information was received from off-duty policemen on a gner train travelling between newcastle and kings cross.


britain launches 2012 olympic lottery games

the first ever olympic lottery scheme has been launched to the public in britain, seven years to the day that the olympics will be hosted to the city of london. 

a scratch card game will be one of the schemes that would be used to help make money for the olympic games in 2012. it is called "go for gold" and it costs ￡1 to buy. the actual amount that the national lottery could give would be ￡1.5 billion pounds, but the lottery games would raise an estimated ￡750 million for sporting infrastructure.

olympics minister and culture secretary said the game was needed now to raise the cash necessary to develop the venues that will host the event.

she stated: "the lottery needs to raise altogether ￡1.5 billion of which we estimate that ￡750 million over the seven years between now and the games will come from the new olympic lottery game." 

the games went on sale on thursday.


brief bomb alerts in central london

there was a bomb alert in in at 1.20pm bst (1220 utc) today. all streets around oxford circus were briefly cordoned off and pedestrians asked to move down side streets.

a similar event occurred that same day at approximately 4.15pm bst (1315 utc) on wilton road, when an unoccupied car was spotted on outside a near .


british computer firm tiny axes more than 1,500 jobs

granville technology group, who own brands such as time computers and tiny are to axe around 1,500 jobs just after the company went into administration.

the company has already closed down all their 78 retail stores around the united kingdom.

it had emerged that all the group's directors, except its part-time chairman, have also resigned.

formerly known as the time group, it had been producing around 500,000 pcs a year.

its customers included businesses, schools and private individuals, and its products have been household names for several years.


record rains disrupt life in mumbai, india


mumbai, india's largest city and financial capital, received a on tuesday, july 26. the rain left many parts of the city flooded. landslides and other related effects of the rain claimed more than 100 lives in mumbai and the surrounding areas.

transportation was seriously affected, as the two main highways, railway lines, and the runways at mumbai international airport remain submerged. 
trains and city buses were shut down for 24 hours, and have not yet resumed full service. domestic and international flights have been diverted out of mumbai. residents of buildings in low-lying areas are being rescued with boats and navy helicopters. large numbers of mumbai residents did not make it home from work, or spent the night in cars that were stranded on the road. the all india radio reported that 150,000 people were stranded across different railway stations of the mumbai suburban railway, which is considered the life line of mumbai. mumbai suburban railway partially commenced operating after thirty-six hours, from late evening on july 27.

the rainfall received in mumbai's suburbs on tuesday totaled 37.1 inches, which exceeds the world's record for highest rainfall in a single day (33.0 inches at cherrapunji, meghalaya, india).

the heavy rainfall has taken its toll on historic buildings as well. a building on marine drive has been drowned up to the first floor. mackichan knight from iimc mourns this irreparable damage.

as per vilasrao deshmukh, chief minister of maharashtra, the rainfall cost the state $110m in damages.

correction: this does not exceed the world's record for highest rainfall in a single day, but it does exceed india's previous record. (33.0 inches at cherrapunji, meghalaya, india).

the world record for rainfall in a 24-hour period was 75.98in which fell during a hurricane on reunion island near madagascar. 



crew of discovery inspect shuttle for launch damage

the crew of the space shuttle "discovery"?? which launched successfully yesterday?? have begun to make inspections of the exterior of the orbiter.

they are checking for any damage that may have occurred during take-off?? the "columbia" was destroyed after a piece of foam falling from the external fuel tank split open a wing, allowing super-heated gas to enter the craft upon reentry, leading to its break-up.

the crew of "discovery" are using a laser-scanner mounted on the end of the shuttle's 15?m (49.2 ft) long robotic arm. the inspection will consist of 90 minute sessions, during which a three-dimensional image of the surface of the nosecone and the leading edges of the wings will be built up.

nasa engineers are studying footage taken from a camera mounted on the external fuel tank, which appears to show a 1.5" (3.8?cm) piece of tile falling away from on or near the nose landing-gear doors. there is also footage of an unidentified piece of debris which fell away as the solid rocket boosters were jettisoned, and did not appear to strike the shuttle.


iran will continue work on nuclear fuel cycle

outgoing iranian president mohammad khatami said that the proposed nuclear fuel work would not include producing enriched uranium, but stressed that iran would ultimately resume its uranium enrichment programme.
khatami told reporters "whether europeans mention our right to resume activities at the uranium conversion facility at isfahan or not, we will definitely resume them regardless."

iran has consistently maintained that it has a right to develop its own nuclear fuel cycle from its indigenous uranium resources to produce power. though iran has large oil stocks, environmental concerns and the kyoto protocol may preclude their continued development.


cafta faces tough vote in u.s. house

president bush is lobbying the u.s. house of representatives to pass the (cafta), which is scheduled for a vote wednesday night. the u.s. senate passed the treaty in june.

similar to the existing (nafta) among the u.s., canada, and mexico, cafta would create a putting an end to most trade barriers between the united states and six additional countries, including costa rica, el salvador, honduras, guatemala, nicaragua, and the dominican republic.

the free trade agreement faces stiff opposition among democrats. many republicans who represent agricultural or industrial and southern textile states in congress also have stated opposition to the bill. but with a republican majority in the house large enough to ensure passage of cafta, party leaders are trying to shore up enough votes to ensure cafta's passage.

this has prompted last minute action by the president to lobby individual members of the house, reminding them that central american countries have committed troops and other resources to fight the u.s. . other republican leaders have been using the party's traditional pro-business message and linking it to homeland security issues.

"trade creates jobs and lifts people out of poverty and there's nothing like a stable society to fight terrorism and strengthen democracy, freedom and rule of law," , speaker of the house, reportedly said at a news conference tuesday. 

but the opposition disagrees. cafta is "a bad deal for central americans and also for latinos in this community... (with cafta) the exploitation of workers will continue in central america," democrat representative hilda solis of los angeles said. her views are common among democrats, who are overwhelmingly against the treaty.

according to opponents of cafta, the current trend of american jobs being sent to foreign countries, particularly in the information technology sector, would greatly expand under the treaty.

"this will be a vote in the middle of the night. they'll keep the vote open for several hours, in violation of the rules. if it passes, it will be by fewer than five votes," predicted rep. , a democrat from ohio, according to a "washington post" report.



football cl: all first leg games of second qualifications round are over

first leg of the second qualifications round of uefa champions league is now over. second leg games will be played on august 2 and august 3. 

the biggest surprise of the leg is probably artmedia bratislava's (also known as artmedia petrzalka) easy victory over glasgow celtic of 5 - 0. according to iffhs' ratings, celtic is 43rd on the list, while slovakians are on position 200. 

rsc anderlacht secured an almost certain victory in the second round, as they won 5 - 0 at home against pfc neftchi. 

another clear favorite is liverpool, which beat kaunas in an with a final result of 1 - 3. kaunas will have to score at least three goals at anfield next week to stay in game.

anorthosis made the same result against trabzonspor, but at home, which can still give turks realistic hope to make it up next week.

dudelange lost at home to rapid vienna with 1 - 6. strikers were on a goaling spree in the first ten minutes of the game, leaving rapid with a steady advantage of 1 - 3. akagunduz scored his second goal of the game in 16' for rapid. two more goals in the second half secured an easy home game for the austrians.

partizan belgrade managed to beat moldavian sheriff at home, with 1 - 0, but the organized fans among 15,000 present at the stadium did not cheer for their team. fans were protesting against the club management, as they banned any banners from the stadium. most fans only chanted "management out!" every few minutes.

partizan's stadium has a capacity of 32,710 seats, but last season games avaraged only about 2000 spectators in domestic matches. there is a long standing conflict between partizan's fans and the managament, as fans accuse the club leadership of manipulation of club's funds and favoring certain fan groups.



canada denies visa for africa's top biosafety negotiator

dr. tewolde berhan gebre egziabher, the ethiopian government's chief scientist and its representative to the montreal-based un convention on biological diversity (cbd) had his passport returned without the requested canadian visa, and without explanation. dr. tewolde is africa's chief negotiator for the cartagena protocol on biosafety. 

tewolde had announced he would be visiting montreal the first week of august to lobby for the labeling of genetically modified (gm) seeds and food products and urge companies and governments to accept liability for environmental contamination their seeds could lead to. canada has yet to ratify the un biosafety protocol and opposes compulsory genetically modified labeling and liability.

dr. tewolde has worked against terminator technology (genetically-modified seed rendered sterile at harvest time, forcing farmers to buy new seeds each growing season). in the past, dr. tewolde has disagreed with canadian scientists on proposed methods to regulate gm products.

"dr. tewolde is one of the most respected scientists in his field," said pat mooney, representative for the conservationist etc group in ottawa, "if the canadian government can't make sure dr. tewolde has his visa for the opening of the meetings, canada does not deserve to host the convention on biological diversity."

dr. tewolde himself is concerned that canada's actions signal a pattern, "now that i have been prevented from coming to montreal, who knows which ones of you will be prevented next time?" he wrote.

this closely mirrors another more recent incident where 12 ugandans (mainly youths) were denied visas by the canadian high commission in kenya. after making two applications and having met all the requirements asked by the commission, the ugandan delegation was still denied visas.


verdicts announced in france's largest child abuse case

the biggest child abuse case in the history of france, involving 45 abused children and 65 defendants, ended today with the conviction of all but three of the accused.

the court in angers handed down sentences ranging from four months suspended to 28 years for, among others, philppe v., the key accused. the court found that he, along with his son franck v. and franck's former spouse, patricia m., was one the instigators of a sex ring that abused 45 children, mostly in the couple's flat.

the abuses of children aged between six months and 12 years took place in a poor and deprived area of the western french town of angers. many of the defendants were poor and lived on benefits and some were mentally impaired. about 20 of them admitted to the charges, while others claimed to have never heard of a sex ring.


tentative deal averts ontario liquor stores strike

the liquor control board of ontario, canada, reached a tentative agreement with its union one day before some 5,400 unionized employees were to walk off the job at roughly 600 lcbo outlets across the province. the ontario public service employees union said it received a commitment that the provincially run liquor stores would not be sold, which was the main issue. last week, workers voted 84 per cent against the latest contract offer from the lcbo, which called for raises of 11 per cent over four years to full-time staff.


ties found between abu ghraib prison abuse and guantanamo bay

in testimony at a military hearing yesterday on abuses at the u.s. prison camp in iraq, the former warden of abu ghraib, maj. david dinenna, said he attended in september 2003 a meeting with maj. gen. geoffrey d. miller, who was then commander of the guantanamo bay prison camp. maj. dinenna said gen. miller recommended using dogs, because of their effectiveness. 

two dog handler soldiers at abu ghraib stand accused in the hearing. sgt. santos a. cardona, 31, and sgt. michael j. smith, 24, are alleged to have used the dogs to threaten and intimidate prisoners. during the defendants' testimony on tuesday, they said the interrogation techniques used by them on prisoners was learned from a team of interrogators that was dispatched to iraq from the guantanamo bay military base in cuba.

the article 32 military court proceeding, which concluded wednesday in fort meade, maryland, is a preliminary hearing to hear prosecution and defense arguments in the case. the prosecution is seeking a court-martial with claims that the defendants acted criminally. the defense contends the soldiers were following orders, and that the charges should be dropped.

the investigating officer of the military court, maj. glenn simpkins, has two weeks to weigh the evidence that was presented. some or all charges could be dropped, but if some charges stand, he will make a recommendation on how sgts. cardona and smith should be dealt with when it goes to trial.

the two accused said in yesterday’s testimony that col. thomas m. pappas, the top military intelligence officer at abu ghraib, approved the use of the dogs. testimony was also heard from pvt. ivan l. “chip” frederick, now serving an 8-year sentence in fort leavenworth for his role as ringleader in the abuse, who testified by phone from prison that approval was given to use the dogs, and that a civilian interrogator was also sometimes involved in directing which prisoner cells were to be visited by dog handlers.

in addition to the use of dogs, aggressive interrogation techniques such as clothing removal and sleep deprivation were also part of the series of abuses. staff sgt. james vincent lucas previously had told army investigators in guantanamo that he left cuba in 2003 to go to iraq where he, as a member of a 6-man team, taught the “lessons learned” at guantanamo, and served to “provide guidelines” to interrogators at abu ghraib. 

legislation sponsored by several senate republicans seeks to specifically regulate the treatment of prisoners at guantanamo and other military prisons. a co-sponsor of the bill, lindsey graham (r-sc), recently released declassified internal memos dating from 2003 and written by top military lawyers. they warned the pentagon about the aggressive tactics at guantanamo. the memos noted it would heighten the dangers for u.s. troops caught by the enemy.

army charge sheets accuse cardona and smith with maltreating detainees from november 15, 2003, to january 15, 2004 by "directing, encouraging, or permitting [their] unmuzzled military working dog[s] to bark and growl at detainees in order to unlawfully harass and threaten the detainees and in order to make the detainees urinate or defecate on themselves."

cardona, of fullerton, with the 42nd military police detachment in ft. bragg, n.c., was charged with nine counts. smith, of fort lauderdale, fla., with the 523rd military police detachment in ft. riley, kan., was charged with 14 counts.



australian refugee activists plan protest during minister's speech

sydney refugee activists say that they will rally outside the building where immigration minister amanda vanstone is giving a speech today. the minister will be speaking at the launch of an immigrants’ rights kit.

mark goudkamp of the refugee action collective, quoted in a press release, argued that it was ironic that the minister was releasing a rights kit when she was responsible for violating the rights of asylum seekers.

"vanstone oversees the denial of basic human rights for asylum seekers and refugees," he said. "how dare she offer her services at the launch of a publication advocating a better deal for migrants."

the immigration department has always maintained that australia's immigration detention program and treatment of asylum seekers does not intentionally violate their rights, and in fact benefits a large number of people. on july 22 senator vanstone announced figures for the government's refugee and humanitarian program, which included 13,100 visas for the 2004-2005 period.

"this demonstrates the government’s strong and continuing commitment to providing new lives for refugees and those in humanitarian need under the refugee and humanitarian program," the minister said.

"ninety two percent, or 12 096 visas, were granted offshore in 2004-05, ensuring that the majority of our efforts target those in the greatest need of resettlement, as determined by the united nation’s high commissioner for refugees. this represents the largest offshore program since 1995-96"

mr goudkamp criticised the minister over recent scandals.
"vanstone is in hot water over cornelia rau, vivian solon, the hwang children and upwards of 200 other cases of wrongful detention," he said.

"now we hear that mahabub alam, a bangladeshi student with a valid visa, was subjected to a search without a warrant, arrest, interrogation and incarceration by immigration officers."

"vanstone addressing this forum is sheer hypocrisy. her reputation as immigration minister is beyond repair. john howard seems to be the only person in the country defending her."

he also called for the resignation of senator vanstone and her predecessor, current attorney-general phillip ruddock.

"she must step down, taking philip ruddock, who was the hardline minister when many of these debacles occurred, with her," he said.

the department also recently released figures on its skilled migration program, emphasising the benefits to the australian economy, while not compromising other programs such as family reunion. 

"the 77,880 skill stream migrants in 2004-05 account for about 65 per cent of the total program. at 120,060, the overall migration (non-humanitarian) program was the largest since the late 1980s," senator vanstone said.

"the government's focus on skilled migration continues to benefit australia’s economy, while it maintained a sizable level of family reunion," she said.

the rally will begin at the market st entrance of the queen victoria building at 5:30pm.



california senator launches probe into national guard abuse allegations

california state senator joseph dunn (d-santa ana) said on tuesday he would launch contempt hearings against the california national guard for failing to turn over documents relating to his investigation of illegal domestic spying by the national guard. after intense discussion with a top guard official, dunn threatened to issue subpoenas against numerous top national guard officials in what he called "stonewalling" by the guard.

at the capitol hearing, dunn asked outside counsel for the guard george o'connell, "does the guard have files on u.s. citizens?" o'connel responded, "senator, i don't understand what you mean by files."

dunn then repeated his question to national guard lt. col. joseph righello. "i don't know," righello responded.


u.s. congress passes cafta with 2 vote house margin

the u.s. house of representatives approved the central american free trade agreement (cafta) early morning thursday, with a narrow vote of 217 in favor, 215 against. voting was held open for an hour, 45 minutes past the house's 15-minute voting rule as the president along with other supporters lobbied into the night.

the vote was so close, if one house member changed a "yea" vote to a "nay" vote, cafta would have failed in a 216-216 tie. 

in tallying the votes, 25 republicans, mostly from midwest corn belt and rust belt states and the southeast united states's textile industrial belt, broke party line to vote against the measure. two republicans were present, but refused to vote. 

the democrats presented a more united front. all but 15 democrats present voted against the treaty. independent house members, who usually vote with the democrats also voted against the measure. 

supporters of the measure include president george w. bush, vice president dick cheney, u.s. trade representative rob portman and commerce secretary carlos gutierrez. opponents included most house democrats.

the trade agreement already passed the senate in june. president bush has said he will sign it into law.

dr-cafta encompasses the following components:




21 july london bombing suspect held

yasin hassan omar, 24 ? suspected of the attempted attack on warren street tube station ? has been arrested by police in birmingham in a raid yesterday.

after being informed by a member of the public, police ? supported by an army bomb disposal team from the royal logistic corps (rlc) ? launched a dawn raid at 04:30 am bst on a ground floor flat in heybarnes road that omar was apparently staying in alone. according to the british tabloid newspaper "the daily mirror", omar allegedly shouted at police to "get back or i'll take you with me".

after a struggle ensued involving, it is believed, a rucksack that police feared was a bomb, omar was shot in the bathroom by a 50,000-volt taser stun gun that temporarily disabled him. the rucksack was apparently thrown outside the window by police officers.

around 100 homes were subsequently evacuated as a precautionary measure on the orders of the rlc bomb disposal team. the team then made a controlled explosion of the suspect package.

in a house in nearby bankdale road, three men, thought to be somalis, were arrested and taken to a local police station.

omar was later taken to paddington green, west london, the metropolitan police's only high-security police station.

the flat in birmingham remained guarded by police while forensic tests continued. 

elsewhere, three women were arrested in blair house in stockwell, london in connection with the investigations into the attempted attacks on 21 july.
early this morning, nine people were arrested under the terrorism act 2000 in raids on two houses in tooting, south london. none are believed to be the three remaining 21 july bombers at large. 


burundi radio station ban lifted as media council chair resigns

one of burundi's most popular radio stations, "radio publique africain", has been allowed to re-open. 

rpa was forcibly shut down on friday july 22, allegedly on the orders of president domitien ndayizeye.

the move came just a day after rpa resumed broadcasting, having observed an earlier two-day ban, following a disagreement with burundi's "national communications council" (cnc). 

the cnc had accused rpa of giving disproportionate coverage to the opposition fdd party, who heavily defeated ndayizeye's frodebu party in last month's national elections. ndayizeye is due to relinquish power in august. 

the radio station's director, alexis sinduhije, had denied the cnc's charges. president ndayizeye was quoted by bbc monitoring as saying that he had decided to close the radio station to "safeguard the integrity of state institutions."

the closure of rpa was condemned in burundi, where the radio station, founded in 2001 to promote reconciliation between the hutu and tutsi ethnic groups, has a wide following. the us-based "committee to protect journalists" led international condemnation of the ban, which burundi's "collectif des professionels des medias de la diaspora burundaise" described as an "abuse of power", setting up an online petition in protest. 

"the national council of communication judged that rpa has respected council sanctions, but we have also allowed the radio to reopen because a lot of people requested it," cnc chairman jean pierre manda told reuters, earlier this week.

manda has now resigned, although he denies that the move is connected with the row over rpa, and cites "personal reasons". the committee to protect journalists reports that the cnc is to be reformed, with radio publique africain's deputy director sitting on the board in future. 

there is some confusion over when the ban was lifted, with reporters sans frontieres and the committee to protect journalists reporting that it remained in place until wednesday this week, while reuters claims that the ban was lifted on monday. 

rpa director alexis sinduhije has told reuters that some of the radio station's material has been destroyed by the burundian police, and suggested that broadcasting will not resume until a damage inventory has been taken.

this week's row is merely the latest manifestation of a long-running personal dispute between president ndayizeye and the rpa director alexis sinduhije, says journalist gratien rukindikiza, writing on the burundian news website burundi.news.free.fr. rukindikiza traces the root of the affair to a telephone call last year in which ndayizeye tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade sinduhije to endorse his campaign, through radio publique africain, to amend burundi's constitution. the amendment would have allowed ndayizeye to seek a second term in power, in contravention of a 2003 peace agreement. 





icelandic kaupthing bank earnings soar 292%

iceland's biggest bank, kaupthing bank, has released it's six month results. the net earnings before taxes were isk 24,766 million ( eur 315 million) up 280% since same time last year when they were isk 6,500 million (eur 83 million).

the net earnings after taxes were isk 13,673 million (eur 174 million) during the second quarter of 2005, soaring up 292% since same time last year.

hreidar mar sigurdsson, ceo of kaupthing bank, says the bank is performing well in all key market areas. sigurdsson also talked about the future of the bank, and the recent acquisition of singer & fridlander: "our acquisition of the british bank singer & friedlander is an important milestone for the bank and brings us closer to attaining our goal of becoming one of the leading investment banks in northern europe. singer & friedlander brings on board some 600 dedicated professionals to join the trusted team already in place across the group, and the majority of the bank's employees are now located outside iceland."

the bank has been increasing fast since the icelandic government sold it in 2002 and it now has 70% of it's revenues coming from abroad.

earnings per share were isk 37.9 isk during the first six months of the year, up from isk 14.9 last year.



cambridge silicon radio, ltd. acquires ubinetics holdings limited

the world leader in bluetooth wireless communication technology, cambridge silicon radio ltd., announced today their acquisition of the software organisation ubinetics for a sum of 48 million us dollars. both companies based in cambridge, uk, ubinetics provides expertise in the development of communication protocol software to the bluetooth giant. additional ubinetics offices in india and the people's republic of china are also acquired.


icelandic landsbanki Islands earnings on the increase

iceland's second largest bank, landsbanki Islands, has released it's six month results. the pre-tax profits were isk (krona) 13,100 million (euro 168 million) and net profit of isk 11,000 million (euro 142 million) up from isk 6,000 million same time last year.

the bank has been expanding to foreign markets by opening a bank in london as well as buying the security firm teather & greenwood.

ceogmd sigurjon T. Arnason said landsbanki’s performance in the first half of 2005 were exceptional and that the core aspects of the bank's operations, net interests and commission interest, shows how strong the bank is. net interests rose to isk 9,400 million from isk 6,200 million same time last year. commission increased as well to isk 7,600 million from isk 3,700 million up 140% since 2003.

landsbanki Island has the largest customer base in iceland.



figo will not transfer to liverpool

real madrid star has stated that his move to liverpool f.c. would be highly unlikely this summer.

both liverpool and have been hard-hitting targets for the portuguese midfielder this summer but it looks like liverpool's bid to get the 32-year-old player, with contract and wages talks have been broken down "irrevocably", according to today's .

but it does look like inter milan do have the upper hand, in this figo saga, according to many newspapers.

providing an update regarding his situation, figo said: "with the english side (liverpool), everything has ended but i'm happy many other big clubs have put their eyes on me - about inter i have no news. 
"my situation is strange. i only want to play football, possibly with real, but if i have no possibilities here it's better that i leave." 

this has come to a time where figo, has flown with real madrid to there world tour, in japan and america.


ira orders end to armed campaign

the provisional irish republican army, in a statement released earlier today (in one form as a dvd, with the statement being read by seanna breathnach), has declared that it intends to end its campaign of violence and decommission its weapons.

the move comes after international pressure to decommission weapons and cease all violent activity, particularly after allegations regarding the murder of robert mccartney in short strand, belfast, and a burglary of the northern bank in december of last year.

members have been ordered to dump all arms and cease all paramilitary activity as of 16.00 bst (15.00 utc) today, and the organisation's leadership states that it will pursue its aims through exclusively peaceful means. the statement reaffirms the ira's view that its "armed struggle was entirely legitimate" as a means of pursuing the organisation's goal of a united ireland, but states that many suffered during this conflict and that society is now compelled to build a lasting peace.

in its statement the ira also appealed to the british government and northern irish protestants to renew negotiations with them.

 
reaction to the statement has been mixed. 



doctor to be charged after mother's death in ohio

a doctor who worked at children's hospital of pittsburgh, pennsylvania will be charged with aggravated murder after her mother was found dead in the trunk of her car wednesday, authorities in ohio say. dr. malar balasubramanian, 29, was found in blue ash, ohio, a suburb approximately 15 miles north of cincinnati lying on the ground beside the road in a t-shirt and underwear in an apparently heavily medicated state. she directed officers to her black oldsmobile intrigue which was 500 feet away. there, they found the body of saroja balasubramanian, 53, covered with blood-stained blankets. police said that the body appeared to have been there for about a day.

dr. malar balasubramanian, formerly of the squirrel hill neighborhood of pittsburgh, worked at children's hospital from june 2001 to june 2004, according to melanie finnigan, a hospital spokeswoman. she had recently returned from work in india.



germany's july unemployment rate falls slightly

germany's unemployment rate fell by 0.1 percent in july, the federal labour office said.

the number of jobless germans dropped by 42 thousand to 4.8 million, but without seasonal adjustments, including summer breaks in job training and jobseeker holidays, it grew by 68 thousand and is close to a post-war record. unemployment is projected to rise by 370 thousand by year end, according to german research institute iab. 

labour-market problems remain the main issue of the bundestag election campaign. chancellor schroder's government is blamed for the failure of his social policy reform known as hartz iv and growing unemployment. in recent polls the ruling social democrats (spd) got 27 percent of the vote whilst the opposition christian democrats got 44 percent.



fans of os/2 want ibm to release it as open-source software

as a result of ibm's officially setting the withdrawal date of its os/2 operating system from the market, as well as its withdrawal of support, many os/2 fans hope that the computer giant will release most or all of the operating system as open source software. 




new york area blog spawns book deal, nbc sitcom

called the "carrie bradshaw" of bloggers by the "new york times", manhattanite new yorker stephanie klein's online musings in her personal blog, "greek tragedy", has gained the attention of hollywood and the book industry while it draws comparisons to former hbo television series, "sex and the city".

since january 2004, klein has written her blog which goes into the intimate details of her life as a 29-year-old professional divorced single woman living on the upper west side of manhattan, one of new york city's most upscale neighborhoods. since then her blog has become among the top 1 percent most-read blogs in the world, according to technorati's "net attention" ratings system.

that popularity grabbed the attention of two international media conglomerates, news corporation and nbc universal. news corp.'s harpercollins book division struck a book deal with klein valued at more than $500,000. the book is scheduled to debut in april 2006.

comparisons to "sex and the city" may continue, as nbc universal is developing the blog-based book into a fictionalized weekly sitcom version of klein’s life for its nbc television network.



us, five asian nations announce climate change partnership

the united states, china, india, japan, south korea, and australia have formed a partnership aiming to cut the emissions of gasses that lead to global warming. the deal was signed after nearly a year of secret negotiations. the deal does not - as yet - contain targets for reducing emissions.

environmental groups have condemned the deal, claiming that, as it is not legally binding, it is no substitute for the , which the us and australia refuse to sign. china and india - along with some 140 other countries - have already ratified the kyoto agreement, but did not have to set a target for reducing gas emissions due to their status as developing countries. the kyoto protocol has the firm target of reducing emissions by 5.2% on 1990 levels before 2010.

answering critics, the australian foreign minister alexander downer said, "we are not trying to detract from kyoto and the commitments that a number of countries have made under the kyoto protocol. this partnership will complement and not replace the kyoto protocol."

the australian prime minister john howard also said that his country should not pursue renewable technologies, but should instead concentrate in reducing emissions from the use of coal. australia is the world's largest exporter of coal, and howard said that "australia [should not be] unreasonably penalising herself by saying, in effect, we're going to try to move away from the use of fuels in which australia has a natural advantage."

however part of the deal includes setting up a fund to further research cleaner energy technologies, including more efficient use of fossil fuels as well as renewable technologies, and also methods of trapping and storing greenhouse gasses rather than releasing them to the atmosphere. it is hoped that this will aid china, india and other developing countries to adopt cleaner energy solutions.

the details will be worked out at a meeting between the six countries in november, shortly before the next un summit on climate change.

the countries believe the deal is fairer and more effective than the kyoto protocol. however, a greenpeace spokesperson said, "the suggested scheme is, unlike kyoto, a voluntary scheme, and all evidence shows that voluntary schemes do not work. skulking around making secretive, selective deals will not accomplish a reduction in emissions ."

the has warned that global temperatures could rise by 1.4c to as much as 5.8c by 2100. the us and china are the two biggest producers of carbon dioxide (a major greenhouse gas) in the world.


nasa: discovery appears safe to return to earth

nasa has said that preliminary investigations show that "discovery" is safe to fly home. 

final findings will not be available for several days as a team of 200 experts study all video and stills footage taken of the shuttle during launch, and on approach to the international space station (iss), with which "discovery" docked earlier today.

images from new cameras have revealed that a section of foam weighing some 250?g fell away from the external fuel tank during launch, but did not strike the orbiter. however, nasa has announced the grounding of all further planned shuttle launches until they have a firm understanding of why the foam comes away, and what to do about it.

a piece of foam striking the "columbia"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s wing during take-off in january 2003 was responsible for the loss of the craft as it made its reentry to earth's atmosphere.

as part of the check for damage the crew of "discovery" used a laser-scanner on the robotic arm to inspect the craft's wing leading-edges and nosecone. the belly of the orbiter will be checked later this week.

in a first, the shuttle also performed a slow back-flip in some 180?m from the iss enabling the two-man crew of the space station to take high-resolution images of the underside of the orbiter.



john major brings &quot;anglo saxon way of life&quot; into terrorist discussion

on 's -hosted "" program, former prime minister said, "i think it's now patently apparent that there are people in the united kingdom (who) are alienated from the anglo-saxon way of life and are prepared to indulge in these dreadful acts of criminality."

sir john's pro anglo-saxon rhetoric has not gone unnoticed. ekow eshun of the newstatesman writes that major's comments belong on the dustheap of history along with .

the former british leader has also been recently quoted as saying in reference to the citizen killed by police; "i rather prefer the expression shoot to protect rather than shoot to kill ? i think that is a more accurate description of what happened."

in addition sir john has come out as an advocate of deportation for people who express distaste for the "anglo-saxon way of life". the ambassador to , prince , is voicing the same position as major regarding the need for deporting some of the muslim clerics. in the 1960s there was born a somewhat similar "america, love it or leave it" viewpoint among conservatives, a viewpoint that is still the subject of debate today.


twenty injured by tornado in birmingham, uk

officials said that at least 20 people were injured as a mini-tornado (more correctly, a whirlwind) swept through birmingham on thursday. people made temporarily homeless by the storm sought shelter at a local university. 

some homes could be beyond repair, and may have to be bulldozed.

the british meteorological office has estimated that the tornado had either a t3 or a t4 rating (or f1 on the fujita scale), which would mean that wind speeds of between 93 and 130 miles per hour swept through the uk's second-largest city. an area of approximately one km2 in kings heath was damaged.

a met office spokesperson told the bbc: "we have an average of 33 reports of tornadoes in the uk each year but these are especially rare in built-up areas and there has not been one of this strength in many years."

birmingham city council set up emergency shelters in aston university for those whose homes were damaged. according to a spokesperson from the ambulance service, 20 patients were removed to heartlands hospital, selly oak hospital, and dudley.


visa of brazilian killed in london reportedly expired two-years ago

the student visa of jean charles de menezes, 27, had expired two-years ago, according to the british home office.

government officials state that he arrived in the uk on 13 march 2002 and was granted a six-month tourist visa and later applied for a student visa which was granted, allowing him to stay in the country until 30 june 2003. 

it is also suggested in the home office statement that the visa had a forged "indefinite leave to remain" stamp on it, saying that the style of the stamp was not in use at the time it was apparently meant to have been issued.

this has led to speculation that this may be a reason why de menezes ? who was mistakenly believed to have terrorist connections ? fled after being confronted by police (not in uniform) at stockwell tube station. he was shot eight times by the police ? seven times in the head and once in the shoulder.

his family had said that they believed that de menezes' visa had been renewed for an additional five-years.

in the statement made by the home office spokeswoman, it was denied that the information released would influence the investigation, saying: "this information is not intended in any way to prejudice or influence the independent investigation into the circumstances of mr de menezes' death, or any possible future proceedings."
the killing of de menezes is being investigated by the independent police complaints commission (ipcc), standard procedure for fatal shootings.

the body of mr de menezes was returned to brazil on 27 july.

he is to be buried today in his home town of gonzaga in the state of minas gerais. 



australian medical association backs ethanol blended fuels

the australian medical association (a.m.a.), an independent organization representing over 27,000 doctors, has written a letter to the australian government's biofuels taskforce supporting the mandatory use of ethanol blends.

“the a.m.a. is a strong advocate on initiatives related to environmental impacts on human health such as global warming,” wrote dr haikerwal, president of the a.m.a. .

“in our opinion, there is incontrovertible evidence that the addition of ethanol to petrol and biodiesel to diesel will reduce the deaths and ill-health associated with the emissions produced by burning those fuels.” the a.m.a. has recommended the use of petrol with 10% ethanol and diesel with 20% biodiesel.

the a.m.a. also indicated its support for the reduction of toxic aromatics (such as benzene), increased use of liquid petroleum gas (lpg) or compressed natural gas (cng), and the use of filters and gas-detoxification systems in vehicle tunnels.



no breakthrough in the wto trade talks

two days of ministerial talks have ended without agreement and evidence of a possible deadlock between developing and developed countries. 

148 member countries are trying to reach a consensus on how to proceed with the doha round of talks which are scheduled to be agreed in 2006. however, they are now behind the deadlines they set and the geneva meeting saw no progress. 

richer countries are being accused of demanding too many concessions in return for opening up trade and reducing subsidies while they say that the poorer countries are holding them to ransom by blocking progress. 



armed police arrest two more 21 july bombing suspects in dramatic raids

armed police officers from so19 have raided properties in the notting hill and north kensington areas of london and italian forces have arrested the fourth bombing suspect at a property in rome, italy. the raids were in connection with the failed bombings on july 21.

scotland yard have announced that a number of arrests have been made, and that three of the suspected july 21 bombers are now in custody. the most recently arrested suspects are reported to be those wanted in connection with the oval tube and london bus bombing attempts .

officers in full body armour, helmets and gas masks and armed with shotguns and assault rifles were seen moving in. small explosions were heard soon after, and cs gas and stun grenades are also believed to have been used. police are cautioning that cs grenade launchers and explosive entries could be mistaken for shots, and have said that no shots were fired.

police at one point described the raid as entering a "challenging phase". eyewitnesses said that the police asked one person in a building that was surrounded to give himself up. they apparently addressed the person as "muhammad" . muktar said ibrahim, one of two suspects named after the failed 21 july bombing attempts, is also known as muhammad. the other officially-named suspect has already been arrested in birmingham.

at one point the cordon around the area was expanded, cutting off tv news stations from their broadcast vehicles which were caught inside the sealed-off area.

two weeks before the failed attacks of july 21, a series of bombs on july 7 killed 56 people, including four suicide bombers.

two women have also been arrested at liverpool street station, but it is not clear if the arrests are in connection with terrorism. both the surface and underground stations were evacuated and were searched, but have now re-opened.


fourth 21 july bomb suspect held in rome

according to three news wires, the fourth london bombing suspect ? just named as hussain osman ? has been arrested by italian police in rome.

the arrest has been confirmed by the italian minister of the interior. hussein is a uk citizen who was born in somalia, and later moved to britain and naturalized. 

it comes as two bombing suspects were arrested today in west london, and one in birmingham on 27 july.


hoax email plays on tube travellers' fears

in what some consider a tasteless follow-up to the recent bombs in the london transport system, misleading stories are circulating by email of a "new facility" which allegedly would allow mobile phones to operate from the underground tunnels in case of an emergency. this is, of course, not true, as no "leeky feeder" system or similar is currently installed on the system.

fuller details are now available from bbc website.


football cl: third qualifying round draw results

third qualifying round pairs of the uefa champions league were drawn today in nyon, switzerland. winners of are still to be determined tuesday and wednesday next week.

everton have found out their fate in the champions league. they will not be facing their merseyside rivals and cup holders, liverpool, but will play villarreal of spain.

liverpool could be playing tirana or cska sofia if they first avoid kaunas of lithuania, while manchester united will meet the winners of hajduk split of croatia and debrecen of hungary. 

as monaco would be playing real betis, while rangers face turkish side trabzonspor or anorthosis famagusta from cyprus.

celtic could be facing sheriff of moldova or partizan belgrade, if they overturn a 5-0 deficit against slovak side artmedia bratislava.



bigger than pluto, possible 10th planet found

the definition of what is and what is not a planet is being challenged by a newly announced discovery friday. astronomers from the palomar observatory near san diego, california said they found a chunk of ice and rock in the solar system larger than pluto.

the object, given the temporary generic name of 2003 ub, is about 9 billion miles away from the sun. it was first photographed in 2003 using the gemini observatory in hawaii. but it was an indistinguishable bright spot among a field of stars in an area of the sky where astronomers don't usually look at for planets or planet-type objects.

solar system bodies found beyond the orbit of neptune are called "trans-neptunian objects". one of them, pluto, is also classified as a planet. up until now all other planet-like discoveries beyond neptune, including sedna, found by the same palomar team in 2004, are called kuiper belt objects, or minor planets.

using a photo taken on january 8, the palomar team compared it with previous 2003 ub photos to triangulate the object's distance, brightness and orbit.

using mathematical formulas, they found a range of sizes for 2003 ub, with an estimated average showing the approximate diameter of the new body to be about 2,600 kilometers. but even at the smallest estimate scientists are certain 2003 ub is larger than pluto's 2,250 kilometer diameter.

to determine size, scientists deduce the relative size of a solar system object by its brightness, just as one can infer the size of a faraway light bulb if one knows its wattage. the reflectance of 2003 ub is not yet known for sure. scientists can not yet tell how much light from the sun is reflected away from its surface, but the amount of light the planet does reflect puts a lower limit on its size.

"even if it reflected 100 percent of the light reaching it, it would still be as big as pluto," michael e. brown, a professor of planetary astronomy at the california institute of technology said in a nasa press release. "i'd say it's probably one and a half times the size of pluto, but we're not sure yet of the final size."

"we are 100 percent confident that this is the first object bigger than pluto ever found in the outer solar system," brown added.

the object is inclined by a whopping 45 degrees to the main plane of the solar system, where most of the other planets orbit. that's why it eluded discovery: nobody was looking there until now, brown said.

most objects in the solar system are just a few degrees from the main plane of the solar system, called the ecliptic. pluto, which is considered substantially different from the rest of the planets, is only 17 degrees from this main plane. astronomers who study the sky for asteroids and comets usually look in the region of the sky that the rest of the planets occupy.

the brightness of this object is just barely fainter than the telescopes from earlier sky surveys were able to identify, so new advances in the making of telescopes has also played a part in this discovery.

now that the discovery data has been released, the scientists will turn over their work to the international astronomical union (iau), which will review it, classify the object and approve a new name to replace the temporary 2003 ub. 

sometimes the discoverers of a new planetary body get to choose its name, but not always. "we have a name we really like, and we want it to stick," brown told reporters at a press conference. he said the team has submitted the name to the iau but would not disclose their choice. in the 2004 naming of sedna, brown noted objects found in the kuiper belt are usually named after deities of the underworld. 

the astronomers have been using a code name of sorts for the discovery. the tongue-in-cheek nickname is "xena" after the fictional main character of the television series of the same name. "because we always wanted to name something xena," dr. brown said in a "new york times" report.

there has been controversy in the scientific community about what is and what is not a planet. some purists insist the solar system has only eight planets and that kuiper belt object including pluto, sedna and 2003 ub cannot be listed among the major planets.

a minor furor erupted when the iau suggested removing pluto from the pantheon of planets a few years ago. because of that pluto's status as a "planet" in addition to being a kuiper belt object was cemented. but with the discovery of 2003 ub the "planet or not" debate may rekindle.

"pluto has been a planet for so long that the world is comfortable with that," brown said in the teleconference. "it seems to me a logical extension that anything bigger than pluto and farther out is a planet."

offering additional justification, brown said 2003 ub appears to be surfaced with methane ice, as is pluto. that's not the case with other large kuiper belt objects, however.

"this object is in a class very much like pluto," he said.

the new "10th planet" was not the only new discovery in the kuiper belt this past week. jose-luis ortiz at the sierra nevada observatory in spain announced the discovery of an object called 2003 el. this object, thought to be larger than sedna, is the brightest trans-neptune object next to pluto.

although some news media confused the discovery of 2003 el with 2003 ub, they are different objects.

2003 el is so bright, it can be seen with high-end amateur-grade telescopes equipped with ccd cameras. although this second discovery may not be as large as 2003 ub, scientists have confirmed that 2003 el has its own moon.



u.s. names german bases to close

the u.s. department of defense (dod) has announced that eleven bases in bavaria are to close by 2007, with two further bases being handed over later. the closures are the first step that will see 50,000 troops withdrawn from europe and south korea. the u.s. has 181,061 troops stationed in western europe and the far east. 
nato has been present in germany since the end of world war ii and its presence played an important role in the cold war, when germany was split into west germany and east germany.

the u.s. and u.k. are the only remaining powers that maintain large forces in the country. the u.s. presently has 75,603 personnel in southern germany while the british have some 55,000 personnel based in north rhine-westphalia and lower saxony as part of british forces germany. 

it is planned that the u.s. army's 1st infantry division will move back to the u.s. in 2006. some units of v corps and the u.s. army europe will also be returned. it is estimated that the move will affect 6,100 soldiers, 11,000 family members, 1,000 department of the army civilians and 1,000 locally employed civilians.

the dod said in its statement that: "these changes are part of the department of defense’s overall plan (the integrated global presence and basing strategy) to transform the military to increase strategic responsiveness and flexibility in the face of current and anticipated future threats, and are the result of extensive consultation with our german allies."


two britons killed in british consulate convoy attack in basra

it has been confirmed by a british consulate spokeswoman in iraq that an improvised explosive device (ied) attack on a british consulate convoy took place at 09:30 am local time.

the attack happened on the outskirts of basra and is reported to have killed two british security contractors and wounded two iraqi civilians.

the two british contractors were killed in the first blast that took place in close proximity to the vehicle they were in. according to the bbc world affairs correspondent john simpson, two iraqi children were injured after a second explosion occurred while iraqi civilians were attempting to help the convoy. 

the nationality the two contractors was confirmed by their employers, control risks group.
at least one car was destroyed and british army soldiers later arrived to secure the scene.


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irish woman wins record lottery jackpot

a woman from limerick, in the republic of ireland
, has won a record european lottery win on the euromillions cross-european lottery draw. delores mcnamara won ?115.6 million, tax-free in the game, after the jackpot had rolled over un-won for 9 weeks.

the garryowen woman will have to wait until at least tuesday, august 2nd, to claim her winnings, as the irish national lottery offices are closed for the august bank holiday. 



third union separates from afl-cio

the united food and commercial workers international union broke away from the american federation of labor and congress of industrial organizations (afl-cio), making it the third union to split from the afl-cio this week over disagreements about how to revive labor's diminishing influence.

the departure of the ufcw, along with two other unions, theteamsters, and service employees international unions from the afl-cio means it is losing more than 4 million of its 13 million members.

union membership in the u.s. has been declining for many years, and the breakaway unions want to commit more money to recruiting members. they complain that the afl-cio has spent too much money on backing political candidates, particularly democrats, instead of organizing labor.

ufcw president joe hansen wrote to afl-cio president john j. sweeney saying: "tradition and past success are not sufficient to meet the new challenges."

afl-cio spokeswoman lane windham responded, saying "the ufcw leadership decision to leave the afl-cio, especially when working people are up against the most powerful, anti-worker corporate and governmental forces in 80 years, is a tragedy for working families. only unions' enemies win when unions split our strength."

"the unions that split from the afl-cio now face the challenge of having to work together to maximize the power of labor," predicted harley shaiken, a professor of labor issues at uc berkley.

their clearest difference is in how they want a national labor organization to operate, shaiken said. the breakaway unions favor a more authoritative federation that can compel member unions to act on its directives.

the departure is part of the biggest rift in organized labor since 1938, when the cio split from the afl. 

when the groups merged to form the afl-cio in the 1950s, one of every three private-sector workers belonged to a labor union. today, fewer than 8 percent of private-sector workers are unionized.


libya allows us oil company to return

libya gave us-based occidental petroleum corporation permission to resume business there for the first time in 19 years. 

the company abandoned operations in the mid 1980's due to sanctions imposed on libya by the united states.

the sanctions, enforced by ronald reagan's administration in 1986, were in response to libya's backing of terrorist activities. the sanctions were lifted in 2004, giving the us companies opportunity to return.

occidental is the first us oil company to resume operations in libya. daily output from their wells is expected to be 12,000 - 15,000 barrels per day.


cyclist crosses canada in 30 days for orphans

beginning may 28, 2005, ultra-marathon cyclist arvid loewen cycled 7,000 km in 30 days across canada raising money and awareness for an orphanage, mcf, in . cycling 240 km a day, arvid began in white rock, british columbia, and finished on june 26 in halifax, nova scotia. 

mcf, or mully children's family, was founded by charles mulli, a man who was abandoned on the streets in kenya at the age of six. he fought through life on the streets and subsequently became wealthy. he sold all his wealth and businesses and began an orphanage in his own home. that orphanage is now home to over 800 children. 

loewen, 48, cycled 12-14 hours a day, pushing through just about every weather possible. his biggest challenge to date has raised close to $100,000 (ca) and will hopefully continue. riding on the back of his specially modified tandem bicycle was a rotating group of three kenyan orphans, just 3 of the many whose lives have been changed. they took turns being pulled across the country by loewen. 

for more information and to donate to the cause, see the ride's official site, www.spoke2005.com



london police question captured bombing suspects

the metropolitan police service has questioned the suspects of the foiled july 21 bombing attacks. they are also seeking extradition of a fifth suspect from rome.

osman hussain, 27, the suspect in rome allegedly told investigators that the explosives he was carrying was not enough to even "harm people nearby." he also is reported to have said that "we were supposed to blow ourselves up."

the suspected bombers in the attacks were all from the war-torn east african countries of eritrea, ethiopia and somalia


anti-mubarak protesters in cairo beaten by the police

egyptian and government supporters have dispersed saturday demonstration against president hosni mubarak's fifth re-election campaign.

several hundred demonstrators from , a movement against re-election of mr mubarak, as well as from other pro-reform organisations were to gather in cairo's main square, but they were attacked by the and on their way.

eyewitnesses reported that the protesters were beaten, kicked in the head, and finally thrown into police trucks.

19 members of kifaya were arrested and they are still held, according to the organisation statement. , mr mubarak's most serious opponent in the upcoming election was among those arrested, but is now freed.

mr mubarak announced that he would stand in the election on thursday. under international pressure he introduced several serious , including first in 24 years presidential elections with more than one candidate. however, opposition leaders say that is 'no guarantee' the elections will be fair.


u.s. president given clean bill of health at 2005 annual checkup

u.s. president released the results of high annual medical checkup july 31. the doctors said the president was in "excellent health".

the doctors did note some minor skin lesions from spending too much time in the sun and suggested sunscreen for the president. 

it is u.s. tradition for sitting presidents to make public the results of their annual health exams.



former ecb chief wim duisenberg dies

wim duisenberg, the former head of the european central bank, has been found dead in his swimming pool at his house in south-east france, the french police say. no details were given about the cause of 70-year-old mr duisenberg's death. 

however this was disputed by his wife, gretta duisenberg. she says she found her husband just outside the study in their villa and not in their swimming pool. 

the former dutch finance minister was the ecb's first president, and oversaw the introduction of the single european currency, the euro. 



sudan’s vice president killed in helicopter crash

, recently sworn in as vice president of the sudan, was confirmed dead after his helicopter disappeared yesterday. sudanese state television initially reported him to be alive but it now appears mr. garang died after his helicopter crashed.

garang became vice president in a historic deal, which ended the southern rebellion after 20 years of fighting. the deal created a government of national unity, giving hope to many that problems endemic to the region, including the militia in darfur, could finally be solved and that the muslim north could come to liveable terms with the christian .

garang was making an official trip to uganda when bad weather struck; his helicopter had not arrived at its destination and was out of contact leading many to fear the worst.

the bbc reports that "large-scale" rioting has broken out in the sudanese capital , with supporters of mr. garang battling armed police. disturbances are also reported in the south of the country. some southerners believe that the sudanese authorities were behind the crash, according to usa today, which draws parallels with the shooting down of a plane carrying rwanda's president habyarimana in 1994. habyarimana's assassination helped trigger rwanda's infamous , recently portrayed in the movie "hotel rwanda". 

garang's party, the sudan people's liberation movement, has appealed for calm, insisting that his death was an accident.

in a press release published on the website allafrica.com, uganda's president museveni appeared to be keeping an open mind about the circumstances of the crash, which he says took place on the ugandan-sudanese border. "the helicopter was a recently overhauled executive helicopter that has served us well for the last 8 years", he is quoted as saying, detailing a number of technical improvements recently made to the craft. in the same statement, museveni announces the creation of a panel of experts to investigate the crash. "we have also approached a certain foreign government to rule out any form of sabotage or terrorism", he says.


milo?evi? may be jailed in russia

according to the sunday times, slobodan milo?evi?, a former serbian president currently standing trial before the international criminal tribunal for yugoslavia accused of war crimes, may serve his sentence in russia if convicted. 

"he first asked for it two years ago and the idea was rejected, but over the past 15 months there have been more talks and the british and americans have both quietly said they are okay with it. they want this thing over with," a tribunal official said, according to the sunday times.

milo?evi?'s wife, mirjana markovi?, is currently living in moscow, and it is believed that their son marko milo?evi? is also there. both are wanted by serbian authorities. 

the news was met with disapproval among victims of milo?evi?'s regime, as russia is a traditional serbian ally, and putin's regime has generally been supportive of milo?evi?, so he may get preferential treatment. 


hollywood-like car hijacking in belgrade

and unidentified person hijacked a car with a child in it after eyub igrim left it to do shopping at a gas station in . igrim, a turkish citizen, was in transit through serbia.

after igrim left the car, a person got into it and attempted to escape. igrim jumped on the hood of the car, but the thief did not stop driving. "i jumped on the hood, and he drove me for 3.5km, after which he made a sharp right turn and i fell off. that's all i can remember," said igrim. 

the thief threw the child out of a moving car, but the child was unhurt. meanwhile, a citizen was chasing the thief in his own car from the gas station. in the be?anijska street, the thief lost control and crashed, after which the two men started fighting. a third car arrived soon, and the hijacker got into it and ran away.

the police think that the hijacker left his documents in an initially stolen car.


serbian goal keeper debuts in croatian football club rijeka

a goal keeper from serbia and montenegro, dragan ?ili?, made his league debut for croatian football club rijeka against cibalija. ?ili?'s appearance caused disturbance among some of rijeka's fans, "armada", who did not approve of having a serbian player in their outfit.

however, the game played yesterday proved that only a minority of fans have such strong nationalistic sentiments. 

a group of about 200 rijeka's fans present at the game started chanting songs such as: "?ili? go away" (?ili?u odlazi), "hang serbs on trees" (srbe na vrbe), and "fuck "fudbal" (serbian), i like "nogomet" (croatian)" (jebe? fudbal, ja volim nogomet).

however, most of the other observers did not sing along, while the opposition's fans chanted in support of ?ili?. in the 60th minute, a group of 200 fans left the stadium in protest, while the rest of the stadium kept singing supportive songs.

at the end of the game, the entire stadium applauded the rijeka team. "i congratulate my team for greatly played game. armada? that story had been told. i hope that support of fans was clear. i don't want to spread hate on that topic, i am only interested in club's results," ?ili? said.



black teenager murdered in racial attack in liverpool, england

a black a-level student from huyton, merseyside, england has been murdered with an axe in what police have called a racist crime. he was 18 years old. over 800 racist and religious hate incidents have been reported in london since july 7, a sharp increase from before the bombings.

a hooded white man in his 20s directed a torrent of racist abuse at anthony walker who was at a bus stop outside the huyton park pub where walker waited with his white girlfriend and cousin. 

the three walked away from the racial abuse without retaliating, but a gang of up to four white men caught up with them as they crossed mcgoldrick park. mr. walker's girlfriend and cousin ran to get help. when they returned, they found mr. walker on the ground with an axe embedded in his skull. he died at 0525 bst on saturday 28 july 2005.

as of monday, 1 august 2005, 05:00 gmt, merseyside police have arrested a 17-year-old white. they released an 18-year-old held on sunday morning. they also want to question paul taylor and michael barton, brother of manchester city midfielder joey barton, who they believe may have left the united kingdom.

the story has sent shockwaves across the country, being the front-page story of the independent and daily mirror on august 1st , and echoing the murder of stephen lawrence in 1993, also an 18-year-old black student. 


king fahd of saudi arabia announced dead

it has been confirmed that king fahd bin abdul aziz of saudi arabia has died. there will be no coffin or state funeral for fahd and he will be buried without a headstone as is customary in , the kingdom's strict version of islam. prince charles and jacques chirac will be in attendance.

fahd suffered a stroke in 1995, and his half-brother, crown prince abdullah, had acted as the de-facto regent of the country.

on may 27, the saudi government announced that the king had been hospitalized. he remained until his death monday.

fahd succeeded king khalid after being crown prince and first deputy prime minister, a position he held since 1975. it is unknown how many women are made widows by the death of king fahd, but the previous king was reported to have had 145 wives.

adbullah will be crowned as king in a later ceremony, while minister of defence and aviation prince sultan bin abdul aziz has been named the new crown prince.

fahd was the eleventh son of the founder of the saudi kingdom, king ibn saud, and the fifth king of the modern kingdom of saudi arabia. 



poland accuses belarus of human rights violations

poland has called for the eu to assist curtailing what it has called human rights abuses in belarus. belarusian papers describe this as a 'dirty political game', and part of a 'cold war' waged on president alexander lukashenko.

the belarusian riot police with guns and dogs seized the headquarters of the union of poles in belarus, an association representing the 400 thousand ethnic minority polish people living in western areas of belarus that were part of poland until world war ii.

earlier this year, amnesty international reported a "pattern of deliberate obstruction, harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders" in belarus. reporters without borders recently accused the belarusian authorities of hounding and arresting journalists from the country's polish minority. lukashenko has recently closed the country's main polish newspaper, printing a bogus paper instead with the same name that praised his regime. lukashenko accused poland of an attempt to overthrow his regime by stirring up a peaceful revolution in belarus like the "orange revolution" in [[ukraine last year.

the dispute between poland and belarus escalated further as poland responded by recalling its ambassador from belarus for indefinite consultations and called on the [[european union]] to impose sanctions on the belarusian leadership.

polish foreign minister [[w:adam rotfeld|adam rotfeld]] said a clampdown is under way, aimed at destroying ""all elements of political pluralism and independence"" in belarus. [[france]] expressed her solidarity with poland on the issue of human rights in belarus a day after the eu said it was worried about the situation in the country. 

the european union will finance radio and tv programs to be broadcasted to belarus.


[[category:poland]]
[[category:belarus]]
[[category:europe]]
[[category:politics and conflicts]]
[[category:european union]]
[[category:human rights]]
[[category:crime and law]]
[[category:alexander lukashenko]]
[[category:reporters without borders]]

[[pl:kategoria:spor o zwi?zek polakow na bia?orusi]]

guantanamo prosecutors call trials a &quot;fraud&quot;

according to leaked emails, two former prosecutors allege that the us military commissions at guantanamo bay are fraudulent and rigged.

the australian broadcasting corporation reported that one prosecutor, major robert preston, wrote that the process was perpetrating a fraud on the american public."i consider the insistence on pressing ahead with cases that would be marginal even if properly prepared to be a severe threat to the reputation of the military justice system and even a fraud on the american people," maj preston wrote. "surely they don't expect that this fairly half-assed effort is all that we have been able to put together after all this time."

captain john carr, the second prosecutor, wrote to his supervisor: "you have repeatedly said to the office that the military panel will be handpicked and will not acquit these detainees and that we only needed to worry about building a record for the review panel."

"there is absolutely no evidence that it is rigged." brig gen hemingway stated in defence to these claims, "in each of the four cases which have been referred, the appointing authority john alterburgh made an independent determination that the evidence was sufficient to warrant trial."



australian warship sunk as artificial reef

the royal australian navy (ran) warship hmas brisbane was sunk yesterday as an artificial reef off the coast of mudjimba, sunshine coast, queensland.

brisbane was one of three charles f. adams-class guided-missile destroyers built for the ran. she was launched at bay city, michigan in the united states on 5 may 1966. 

she saw service in the vietnam and gulf wars before decommissioning on 19 october 2001.

the bridge and other parts of the ship were removed and preserved at the australian war museum in canberra.

brisbane was filled with approximately 200 tonnes of concrete and 38 small charges were placed around the hull. the charges were detonated by queensland premier peter beattie, sinking brisbane within five-minutes.

thousands of people watched the spectacle, including brisbane's former commanding officer, rear-admiral geoffrey loosli.

the tourist industry hopes that brisbane will become a popular diving site, attracting up to 10,000 divers annually, bringing around $20 million australian dollars.
a number of warships have recently been sunk as artificial reefs. the british royal navy's hms scylla was sunk as one in western europe on 27 may 2004. the canadian frigate hmcs nipigon was sunk in 2003 on the st. lawrence river, near rimouski, quebec.


burundian hutu extremists have killed 300 civilians in the last two months

the burundian hutu-extremist group palipehutu-fnl (commonly known as fnl), has killed 300 civilians in the last two months, according to local sources. 

burundi's radio publique africain has reported the discovery of three mass graves in the provinces of bubanza, and bujumbura-rurale - an fnl stronghold. 

"some of them are killed because the fnl accuses them of collaborating with national defence forces, and others are assassinated simply because they have deserted the movement", army spokesman adolphe manirakiza is quoted by reuters as saying.

the fnl, a hardlined splinter group of the "partie pour la liberation du peuple hutu", has been fighting the burundian government since the mid-1990s. civilians have borne the brunt of the violence, according to human rights groups. the organisation has consistently been linked with remnants of the rwandan hutu militia who carried out the 1994 genocide, and is believed to share a similar ideology. 

in august last year, the fnl admitted responsibility for the massacre of 152 congolese tutsis at the gatumba refugee camp in western burundi. rwandan and congolese groups are also believed to have taken part in the attack. the fnl later claimed that the refugee camp was a military base. un investigators found no evidence for the allegation, and human rights groups pointed out that most of the dead were women and children. 

although the fnl is known for its hostility to the tutsi ethnic group, many of its victims have been hutus accused of disloyalty. 

burundi's ruling frodebu party was recently accused by their electoral rivals of employing fnl fighters to disrupt the country's first polls since 1993. frodebu denied the charges, but admitted "political collaboration" with the group. 

speaking to reuters, fnl spokesman pasteur habimana admitted that his group had killed civilians in recent months, but said that those killed had been "people who are sent by the army with a mission of eliminating our fighters by giving them poison". habimana also accused the burundian army of attacking civilians.




bush appoints john bolton united states' ambassador to the united nations

in a televised press statement at 14:00 utc (10:00 a.m. edt) today, president of the united states george w. bush announced that he was appointing john r. bolton to the position of the united states' ambassador to the united nations.

stating that mr. bolton had received support from "a majority of senators", but had been "unfairly denied the up-or-down vote that he deserved" by the "delaying tactics of a few", mr. bush announced that the post had stood vacant for long enough during what he termed "a war", and that he was "exercising his constitutional authority" to make the appointment.

"this post is too important to leave vacant any longer, especially during a war and a vital debate about u.n. reform," bush said during an announcement in the roosevelt room of the white house. bolton appeared with him and spoke briefly. "i am profoundly grateful and deeply humbled," bolton said. "it will be a distinct privilege to be an advocate for america's values and interests at the u.n." 

the president can make an appointment without the approval of the senate while the congress is in recess, but the term of such a "recess appointment" expires at the end of the congressional session. the next session begins january 3, 2007. 

the move comes despite a letter to the president last week saying that mr. bolton was "not truthful" while answering questions before the senate foreign relations committee in march, and should not be given a recess appointment. the new york times reports the letter was signed by 36 senators -- 35 democrats and one independent. 

some senators, including republicans, have raised questions regarding mr. bolton's history of criticizing the united nations, his treatment of subordinates, and over charges that he has tried to influence intelligence assessments to conform to his views, the times reports. 

during confirmation hearings, republican senator george voinovich described bolton as "the poster child of what someone in the diplomatic corps should not be." because of voinovich's opposition, bolton's nomination was sent to the floor of the senate without a recommendation.

"at a time when we need to reassert our diplomatic power in the world, president bush has decided to send a seriously flawed and weakened candidate to the united nations," said senate democratic leader harry reid of nevada. "the reason bolton is being recess appointed is because the president chose to stonewall the senate. mr. bolton could have had his up or down vote had president bush given senators the information they needed. instead, bolton arrives at the united nations with a cloud hanging over his head."

"the president has done a real disservice to our nation by appointing an individual who lacks the credibility to further u.s. interests at the united nations. i will be monitoring his performance closely to ensure that he does not abuse his authority as he has in the past," said sen. christopher dodd, d-conn.
"we will work with him as the ambassador and representative of the president and the government," u.n. secretary-general kofi annan said. "we look forward to working with him, as i do with the other 190 ambassadors".

republican senator john cornyn of texas praised the president for using his authority "to end the obstruction against john bolton." cornyn said, "this is an important position and it's critical that it not remain vacant any longer. bolton is exceptionally well qualified to fill this role at this time."




nine babies' bodies found in germany

nine babies' bodies were found in germany. police arrested a woman who is believed to be the babies' mother. police with sniffer dogs were combing the area for any other corpses.



lawmaker from japan found hanged

yoji nagaoka, a house of representatives lawmaker from japan, was found hanged at his home in tokyo, in a suspected suicide attempt. he later died in a hospital on august 1 (jst, utc+9). japan's national police agency said the 54 year-old lawmaker left no suicide note and there were no wounds on the victim. 

nagaoka was born in furukawa, ibaraki in 1950. after he worked in the ministry of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, he changed his career to politics. in 2003, he was elected to the house of representatives for ibaraki 7th constituency for the house of representatives.

centering on the postal services commercialization bill, nagaoka opposed it in the ldp executive council, he voted however approval at the house of representatives on july 5th. japanese media reported his changing of opinion has been criticized as "betrayal" by some political leaders. 



kazakhstan gets hit with bird flu

bird flu has been found in kazakhstan and 600 chickens died at a farm. earlier reports suggested that a 20 year old worker from the local nan poultry farm was taken to the hospital with a suspicious infection. he is in intensive care but he is stable and in a grave condition.


three battalions of the royal irish regiment to disband as part of ni peace process

the general officer commanding northern ireland, lieutenant-general sir redmond watt, has confirmed that the royal irish regiment (rir) ? one of only two remaining fully irish infantry regiments in the british army ? is to have its three 'home service' battalions disband on 1 august 2007, affecting some 3,000 soldiers of the regiment. it comes after the provsional ira declared that its armed campaign against the british is over.

the rir is one of the largest regiments in the british army, and once consisted of eleven battalions, formed by the amalgamation of the royal irish rangers and the ulster defence regiment in 1992. it now numbers five battalions: one regular (1 rir); one territorial (royal irish rangers); and three 'home service'. 

the 'home service' battalions consist mostly of part-time volunteers who can only serve in northern ireland with the main objective of supporting the police service of northern ireland (psni). their existence will end on the same day as operation banner ? the army's support of the psni. 

lieutenant general watt said in a statement: "with the end of operation banner there will be no military requirement for the home service battalions and they will disband. the 1st battalion, the royal irish regiment and the royal irish elements of the territorial army will continue the traditions of the regiment." 

with the ira's declaration, the british armed forces have already begun to drawdown its garrison in northern ireland, envisaged to be reduced to just 5,000 troops by 2007, from its current 10,000. a number of observation posts and bases are already being dismantled.

unlike much of the british army, the rir had been unaffected by the restructuring of the british armed forces that began earlier this year.

the move has been welcomed by nationalists, while unionists have criticised it. the dup leader, ian paisley, has described government plans as "dishonest and dangerous" and that it was a "surrender to the ira".



pennsylvania man acquitted of rape after dna exoneration

thomas dowell was released after serving nearly 20 years in prison for the rape of a 48-year-old woman at a pittsburgh, pennsylvania hospital. he was acquitted after a judge ordered a dna test on the semen taken from the rape victim. in 1986, dowell was sentenced to spend 13 to 26 years in prison on the rape charge. he was denied parole four times because he would not accept responsibility for the crime he was convicted of. he was released from prison and acquitted of all charges. 



rafael palmeiro suspended for using steroids

baltimore orioles first baseman rafael palmeiro, one of only four players in the history of major league baseball to amass 500 home runs and 3000 hits, has been suspended for 10 days by mlb for a first violation of its new steroids policy. palmeiro is the seventh, and by far the highest-profile player, who tested positive for steroids since mlb instituted its new steroids policy in 2005. 

in a conference call with reporters, he did not deny testing positive for performance enhancement drugs, but insisted that he had accidentally ingested them, and left the impression that the steroids were in a supplement that he had used.

on march 17, 2005, palmeiro had testified before a u.s. house hearing on steroids use in sports, opening his testimony by saying: "let me start by telling you this: i have never used steroids. period. i don't know how to say it any more clearly than that. never." earlier in 2005, palmeiro had been named as a steroid user by former major-league star jose canseco in his tell-all autobiography.

it remains to be seen how palmeiro's positive test will affect his future election to the hall of fame. his statistics would normally make him a likely hall candidate once he becomes eligible for election, five years after retirement. it is also possible that palmeiro could face perjury charges for lying before congress, but only if it could be proved that he had used steroids before his congressional testimony. 


russia bans abc following interview with chechen rebel leader

the american broadcasting company's (abc) accreditation in russia will not be renewed by the russian government following an interview with shamil basayev on abc.

basayev is a chechen rebel leader ? who seeks an end to russian rule of chechnya ? and has claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist incidents, including the beslan school siege where 344 civilians - 172 of them children - were killed. the interview with basayev was conducted by freelance journalist andrei babitsky and was shown during abc's nightline.

a russian foreign ministry spokesman said: "a decision was taken that at the end of their expiry period, the accreditations of the workers of this company will not be renewed."

initially, the foreign ministry had opposed this action, which was pushed by the defence ministry. after basayev's interview, defence minister sergei ivanov said that abc was "persona non grata" and described it as a "rogue tv station". 

in the interview, basayev said that he was responsible for the beslan atrocity and that further beslan-style attacks would take place. 


atkins nutritionals inc. goes bankrupt


, the multi-million dollar company that supplies dieters with low carb foods designed for the famous atkins diet has filed for . the popularity of the atkins diet has fallen sharply so far this year leading to a drop in sales at atkins nutritionals inc.

the company which has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a court lost over $340 million last year. this is despite the fact that there are now believed to be over 30 million followers of the diet in the usa.

administrators were appointed to the british division of atkins nutritionals just six months ago after a string of poor sales results and mounting debt. three million people in britain follow the diet.

, the american cardiologist who started the diet, died in april 2003 after sustaining head injuries from a fall outside his office and falling into a coma. rumors have circulated regarding the cause of his death, and medical records show that he suffered from hypertension and congestive heart failure prior to his fall. it is not known if the two were related.


tom cruise orders ?14,500 takeaway meal

tom cruise this week took the delivery service to a whole new level. celebrating his 43rd birthday with numerous guests at a party in the usa, cruise decided to call up his three favorite chefs, all living in italy, to prepare a meal. 

cruise decided to fly all three chefs out to the united states at a cost of ?14,500. according to the "daily mail" the chefs cooked the celebrity tagliatelle ragu, veal, and chocolate tiramisu. 


formula 1: barrichello leaves ferrari

ferrari's second driver, rubens barrichello, announced today that he will depart from ferrari at the end of the season. barrichello was with the team since 2000, won nine grand prix, helping win five constructor titles. he will most likely continue his career in bar.

ferrari announced felipe massa, currently driving for sauber, as michael schumacher's teammate for next season. "i am aware of the responsibility it places on me and i cannot wait to be part of a team like ferrari, alongside the best driver in the world, michael schumacher," said massa. 

massa was ferrari's test driver in 2003 season: "now, i am in my third season as a sauber driver and i can also count on a year's experience as a ferrari test driver, an experience which helped me to grow a great deal."



all passengers survive toronto plane crash

today at 4:03 p.m. edt (2003 utc) air france flight 358, an airbus a340 from paris, crashed at the end of runway 24l of toronto's pearson international airport. following flights to toronto were diverted to airports in ottawa and winnipeg. 

over 3 dozen people who suffered non-life threatening injuries were treated at hospitals. there were 297 passengers and 12 crew onboard.

speaking at a press conference, steve shaw of the greater toronto airport authority said "as far as we know at this stage the passengers were able to flee the aircraft before the fire broke out."

the plane, flying from charles de gaulle airport in paris, france, apparently ran into trouble amidst severe thunderstorms that had caused take-offs to be suspended at the time of the crash.

the plane skidded 200 m past the end of the runway, through barriers and into the wooded etobicoke creek ravine near highway 401, then burst into flames. the runway was recently constructed, and is the shortest at the airport (9000 feet).

the last major crash of an airliner in north america was american airlines flight 587. there has never been a fatality in the 14 years since the airbus a340 first flew.



appalachia mountains coal company plays state politics

massey energy co., the fourth largest coal producer in the , filed a federal lawsuit against the governor of west virginia, joe manchin. 

massey’s ceo don blankenship alleged that gov. manchin acted in retaliation against the company’s coal mining operations because the company spent $650,000 in an advertising campaign to defeat the governor sponsored pension bond proposal. the $5.5 billion bond proposal, intended to shore up the state's sagging pension plan, was defeated in a special election held in june.

the massey lawsuit, filed last tuesday on july 26 in the u.s. district court in the w.v. southern district, was referred to by gov. manchin as having less to do with the bond proposal than with the newly increased state "severance tax" on coal. nearly 40 million tons of coal production will be subject to the 56-cent tax. 

according to blankenship, that tax amounts to $22.4 million in additional costs for the company, but he denied the increase has anything to do with the lawsuit. 

the company reported profits that almost tripled during the second quarter compared to a year ago. of the company’s rosy earnings picture, blankenship urged states to “show some frugality” by not placing tax burdens on coal to solve state budget shortfalls. he said his company is “playing a role” because there was no need for the bond sale and the state can afford to make payments into the pension system. 

blankenship acknowledged during a conference call the now-rescinded june 30 permit by the w.v. department of environment protection (dep). at issue was the department's permit for mining operations near the marsh fork elementary school, in sundial, w.v. the school rests at the base of a mountain selected by massey for "mountain top removal" (mtr) mining techniques. along with the mining equipment, a coal preparation plant and a sludge pond were established on the mountain. protest groups, mainly the "coal river mountain watch" and "mountain justice summer", presented a list of demands to massey officials that included shutting down the preparation plant, ceasing all mtr mining above the marsh fork elementary school, and abandoning plans for a second coal silo near the school. they also ask that the marsh fork school be cleaned up or relocated. the state permit for a second coal storage silo was rescinded by the dep the same day massey filed the manchin lawsuit.

gov. manchin in june said that blankenship could expect tougher state scrutiny of his business affairs since the massey media campaign against the pension bond proposal. "i think that is justified now, since don has jumped in there with his personal wealth trying to direct public policy," he said at an appearance at an american electric power event in putnam county.



u.s. immigrant worker debate taken up by virginia township

in a scene repeated across much of america, each morning a group of day laborers, mostly immigrants, assemble by a 7-eleven convenience store in the hopes of getting work. 
each day, nearly 200 people gather near the nation's capital in herndon, virginia; these laborers do much of the hard and dangerous work not wanted by most u.s. citizens. this daily gathering has drawn both the ire and compassion of the herndon community. a public hearing monday night to discuss a new plan drew an overflowing crowd to the town council chambers. the commission said so many people signed up to speak at the hearing that the panel will need to convene again tuesday night.

for years groups and businesses among the community who want to help the day laborers have been working on the issue. in a plan spearheaded by bill threlkeld, of the group project hope and harmony, they lobbied herndon officials to use taxpayer money to build a regulated day laborer center in an old police station at the edge of town. this they say would get the day-laborer group(s) off the street. the plan has the backing of herndon mayor, michael l. o'reilly.

the plan would also combine the opening of the center with a new local ordinance that would make it a misdemeanor crime for a laborer to seek work at any location other than the official one. opponents of the plan say the town would be aiding illegal immigrants if it established the center. 

a pew hispanic center survey found a 25% increase over four years in the number of illegal immigrants in the u.s. the number now is estimated to have reached about 10.3 million. local governments do not have the authority to enforce national immigration laws, so the town of herndon must rely on federal officials, who show little interest in getting involved.



attorney jack thompson sets sights on sims 2

attorney jack thompson, fresh from the "hot coffee" controversy, has set his sights on the electronic arts (ea) video game "" for a mod that removed the blur on nude character models in the game.

thompson was quoted as saying "sims 2, the latest version of the sims video game franchise ... contains, according to video game news sites, full frontal nudity, including nipples, penises, labia, and pubic hair." factually, the characters resemble that of a child's dolls. thompson also accused ea of being in collaboration with the mod makers.

in electronic arts' defense, ea spokesman jeff brown said, “reasonable people understand there is nothing improper in the game. reasonable people recognise what mods are. a consumer who chooses to use a mod does so without any kind of agreement with the company. there is no nudity. there is nothing improper or vulgar in the sims 2.” 

a mod is third-party add-on to a game. mods range from minor and subtle changes to the game, to full-fledged "total conversions" which merely use the original game engine to create a very different game. 



two-story building in lynn, massachusetts catches fire

a two-story building caught fire yesterday afternoon on boston street in lynn, massachusetts. the fire engulfed the entire second floor and left nothing of the essex county building.

according to a witness, the fire started while children were cooking french fries in an apartment on the second floor. 

the fire took its toll on the firefighters, many were suffering from heat exhaustion. however, a tent was set up by a rehab truck, offering firefighters a chance to recover. 

the fire was finally put out, however, some portions of the structure did reignite with small flames. firefighters climbed onto the roof and began tearing it open in order to find the source of the ignition. a ladder truck also sprayed down the roof.

according to a witness, the roof was a tarred double roof, which may have been a factor that caused the fire to be so troublesome.

the first floor consisted of storefronts for a convenience store and a video store. the second floor held apartments.


freman hendrix eclipses kwame kilpatrick in detroit mayoral race

challenger freman hendrix has upset incumbent detroit mayor kwame kilpatrick in the august 2 detroit mayoral primary election. the top two contenders will face each other in the general election on november 8. kilpatrick, the youngest mayor in detroit history, is seeking his second term.

the detroit free press reports that with 664 of the city's 720 precincts reporting (92 percent), hendrix had 44 percent of the vote, kilpatrick had 34 percent, city councilwoman sharon mcphail had 12 percent, and state sen. hansen clarke had 9 percent. eight also-rans accounted for the remainder of the vote.

the results closely agree with an exit poll by local tv station wdiv and mitchell research, which had challenger hendrix as the winner with 46 percent of the vote, kilpatrick with 30 percent, mcphail with 11 percent, while state sen. hansen clarke rounded out the top four with 9 percent. mitchell research & communication's pollsters interviewed 600 people who said they voted. the poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.


albanian girl murdered in tangle of crime

an albanian girl who publicly exposed alleged corruption in the vlore police department has died violently. eighteen-year-old joana besnik dudushi, using the pseudonym "stela," revealed on the live show "fiks fare" in april that officers forced her to work as a prostitute. dudushi would later accuse her patrons of rape and police would collect hefty bribes to let them off. she had previously been arrested for prostitution on february 25, 2005. dudushi was found stabbed to death in the albanian port city vlore.

dudushi had not been placed in witness protection as she was pressured to withdraw her accusations. an internal investigation of the vlore police found no evidence of wrong-doing on the part of officers in the case of the alleged forced prostitution.

the murder probably took place on sunday, july 31 according to the local police, which also states that at least ten suspects have been questioned. the body of joana dudushi was found near her apartment where she lived with her several-month-old baby.



spiders' egg case silk gene found

two researchers at the university of california, riverside have found a gene coding for a silk protein used by female spiders to construct their egg cases. the research confirms that the silk protein used for the egg case is different than that used in spider webs. spider silks are renowned for their superior material properties, being among the toughest known natural
fibers. the researchers' findings may lead to new applications of spider silks for novel
high-tech materials. the researchers, jessica garb and cheryl hayashi, published their findings in the "proceedings of the national academy of sciences" on august 1, in the early edition of the journal.

until now, the sequence of the silk protein used to construct the egg case was unknown. the team characterized the egg case silk protein from multiple spider species and found within a species its gene was composed of nearly identical, repeating sequences. the repeat units were also similar across species that diverged more than 125 million years ago. their findings suggest that the egg case silk gene has been undergoing what is known as concerted evolution where mutations in one part of the gene "spread" to other parts of the same gene, creating a highly repetitive gene sequence.

"the protein of the egg-case fibers has a different function altogether from that of the other silks such as dragline or capture silks," garb said. "egg-case silk has to last a long time and therefore must be durable under a wide variety of conditions, from freezing to very high temperatures. it needs to be strong enough to protect the eggs from threats such as predators, parasites and molds."

although the egg case silk protein is extremely different, its gene sequence shares certain features in common with all other spider silk genes. according to garb, this discovery confirms that spider silk genes comprise what is known as a "gene family". this means that silk genes first evolved with spiders approximately 400 million years ago and subsequently evolved into different genes specifically used for different functions, such as genes for spider webs or genes for egg cases (gatesy et al. 2001). the researchers also suggest that there are many more silk genes that remain unknown, particularly as there are more than 37,000 known species of spiders, and silk genes sequences have been described from only a few species. 

according to the team, this unknown diversity of silk genes may not only be important for understanding spider evolution but also for the development of genetically modified fibers. "collectively, spider silks are some of the toughest natural fibers known," hayashi said. "imagine a fabric made from such a substance? it would be incredibly strong, flexible and ultimately, biodegradable."


united states homeland security network monitors suspicious activity

the united states department of homeland security (dhs) is deploying its new homeland security information network - secret (hsin-secret) in all 50 state emergency operations centers as well as 18 additional state and local law enforcement sites. "the secret network is a component of the hsin, which is the primary conduit for dhs to share information on terrorist threats, suspicious activity and incident management with state, local, tribal and private-sector officials." reports government computer news.

development on this $350 million system by northrop grumman corporation was begun in march of 2004 with basic operation achieved in just 4 months.

"the homeland is more secure when each hometown is more secure," said secretary of homeland security tom ridge in dhs's february 24, 2004 press release that launched the program. "future program expansion will include the county level, communication at the classified secret level, and the involvement of the private sector." it continues.

with the "secret" component in place, classified information can now be disseminated to authorized individuals at all levels of government and business throughout the country almost instantly. hsin lets most government agencies as well as many private companies doing business with the government share information on the whereabouts and suspicious activities of anyone that comes to their attention. internal policies and the judgement of the system's users provide privacy and civil rights protections, while who can access the system is determined by dhs.


german adidas buys american reebok

adidas, the second largest sports clothes manufacturer in the world, has announced it has struck a deal with the american company reebok for eur 3.1 billion. the deal has to be agreed by the reebok shareholders.

adidas is doing this to increase its share in the us market and to compete with nike, the largest sports brand in the world. even after the merger, nike will still be larger than the combined companies.

reebok's shares have risen by 16% to $51. adidas is offering $59 a share.

herbert hainer, adidas ceo, said "this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to combine two of the most respected and well-known companies in the worldwide sporting goods industry". if the companies combine their sales will be a staggering eur 9 billion a year.

winning a bigger share of the north american market is important for adidas because it accounts for about 50% of the global sporting good market.

when, or if, the bid does go through adidas will own many well known brands, most noticeably adidas and reebok but also taylormade, rockport, greg norman collection, maxfli, ccm, jofa and koho.

earlier this years adidas profits rose 39%, to eur 94 million.


new 'mighty mouse' from apple debuts

apple computer inc. today revealed a new product named "mighty mouse". the mouse has four buttons and a small 360 degree scroll trackball. this product will not only be compatible with the macintosh but also with microsoft windows operating systems.

many of the products apple has produced over recent years have been compatible with microsoft windows operating systems, the most notable being the ipod. the company recently announced that they will start using intel microprocessors in their computers, and that those computers will be capable of running microsoft windows operating systems.

visually, this new mouse will be very similar to the ones that have been shipping with macintosh computers for some time. it is white and has a rounded feel to it. the only difference is the trackball used for scrolling through documents and web pages.

this is the first mouse product made by apple that has a multi-button function. there are 'squeeze' buttons on the sides and a button under the micro-trackball, but there are no actual left/right buttons - it uses non-mechanical sensors to detect which finger is pressing when a regular click is made.

its us price is $49, uk price is ￡35.




250 young quakers to light up lake

hundreds of floating candles will be launched by young quakers to mark hiroshima day at 9:00 p.m. gmt on friday august 5. 

the event will be held at the university of york towards the end of the annual quaker yearly meeting where over 1600 quakers are meeting. 

the bombing of hiroshima took place 60 years ago at 08:16am, japanese time on august 6, 1945.

throughout the week leading up to the hiroshima day witness on august 5, young quakers will be planning, organising and preparing the event, including contacting the local community and the media.



brain dead woman gives birth

susan torres, a woman who had been on life support because she is brain-dead, gave birth to a daughter by caesarean section on tuesday. the baby, susan anne catherine torres, weighs 1 pound, 13 ounces, and is 13 1/2 inches long.

the mother, susan torres, had a stroke on may 7 when the condition of her stage four melanoma went to her brain. doctors said her brain functions had stopped and there was no hope of recovery.

susan's husband, jason torres, asked that his wife be placed on artificial life support until their unborn child had a chance to develop and the baby could survive outside the mother's womb. mrs. torres was 17 weeks pregnant on may 7 when she was hospitalized for her condition. the fetus was in its 27th week of development when it was delivered. 

the baby reportedly "is doing well" and is in intensive care at the virginia hospital center in arlington county, virginia. mr. torres, who quit his job to be at his wife's side, is faced with thousands in medical expenses. 

the mother died on wednesday after being taken off life support. a fund has been set up for her at: the susan m. torres fund


the san diego zoo gets a new baby giant panda

a new giant panda cub has been born at the san diego zoo. bai yun, a 13-year-old giant panda, gave birth at 9:57 p.m. on tuesday to a cub weighing four ounces (113.5 grams).

"bai yun immediately tended to her squawking infant," said suzanne hall, a panda research technician at the san diego zoo who observed the births of bai yun’s other cubs in 1999 and 2003. the cub is the second to be born in the united states this year. in washington, mei xiang gave birth to a male panda cub at the national zoo last month after artificial insemination.

according to hall, early ultrasound images indicated bai yun was pregnant with twins. however, zoo personnel became suspicious that one fetus was no longer viable after veterinarians failed to detect a heartbeat in one cub last week. bai yun failed to give birth to a second cub tuesday evening. "it is likely that the second fetus died in utero and was reabsorbed by her body," hall said.

panda behavioral researchers will be watching the pair 24 hours a day for three weeks to record and assess the mother-infant relationship. the new cub has not yet been named. the gender of the cub will be unknown until zoo staff can safely check. 




man charged over london bombings

ismael abdurahman was arrested in connection with the july 21 bombings in london and has been charged with terrorism offences. he is the first person to be charged in connection with the attacks.

the charge reads: "between july 23 and july 28 he had information he knew or believed might be of material assistance in securing the apprehension, prosecution or conviction of another person in the uk for an offence involving the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism."

he will appear before bow street magistrates in london on august 4. 

hussain osman, another suspect for the july 21 incident at shepherds bush who the uk authorities wish to extradite from italy, claims that the device in his rucksack was merely bag of flour with a detonator in it. he escaped from britain via the channel tunnel and was arrested last week in rome. he told his italian lawyer that he was only staging a demonstration and had no intention of killing anyone.



speeding ticket paid with 12,000 pennies

a seattle man ticketed for speeding near decided to pay up, but instead of paying by cheque or money notes, he paid in pennies at court. the judge reacted with this comment: "if the person is mad at the cop, why take it out on court administration?" said clay county district judge john pearson. "they're punishing the wrong people.".

the man was made to wait for the pennies to be counted using a coin counting machine by a court clerk who left with the small garbage can of pennies for a bank. us$120 in notes, plus extra pennies in change, were paid back to the man, who was forced to wait in the courthouse until the coins were counted and he could pay the fine.

he was caught driving 70 mph in a 55 mph zone on march 5 in moorhead, minnesota.



football cl: second qualifying round final results

all second qualifying round games of uefa champions league were played yesterday and today. celtic almost managed to pull off a miracle, by scoring four goals at home against artmedia, but were one goal short of forcing the game into extra time.


take a look at all third round pairs .



ceremony takes place for decommissioned royal navy flagship

the decommissioning ceremony for the former british royal navy flagship hms invincible has taken place in portsmouth, hampshire today.

the ceremony marks the end of the aircraft carrier's 25-year career. invincible was commissioned into the royal navy on 11 july 1980 and first saw service in the falklands war in 1982. the duke of york served aboard invincible as a helicopter pilot.

pipers played aboard invincible while it sailed into portsmouth naval base on 1 august for the last time. a gun salute and a flypast also marked the event.

last month, invincible undertook a uk tour to celebrate the ship's silver jubilee. in june, the carrier acted as flagship for the international fleet review to mark the 200th anniversary of the battle of trafalgar.

the ministry of defence (mod) said that invincible would be 'mothballed' for five-years in a state of reduced readiness. 

it is unlikely that invincible will ever be recommissioned into the royal navy.

the mod said that a decision to either sell, scrap or even turn invincible into a museum ship will be made in 2010.

the decommissioning took place six-months earlier than planned and has prompted fears that the royal navy will be left overstretched. the move has been criticised by the opposition conservative party, who say that it will reduce the royal navy's capability at a time of "unprecedented international tension". 

ark royal is about to undergo a major refit at rosyth, which leaves illustrious ? the royal navy's new fleet flagship ? as the only aircraft carrier on active service. 

the three aircraft carriers are expected to be replaced by 2015 with two 65,000 tonne aircraft carriers ? believed to be named hms queen elizabeth and hms prince of wales. 



canada's new governor general announced

sources have told the canadian television network cbc that michaelle jean will become canada's next governor general. the current officeholder, adrienne clarkson, who is recovering from artificial pacemaker surgery, will step down on september 27 to make way for jean, who is best-known in english-speaking canada as the host of the cbc television documentary show, "the passionate eye". 

born in port-au-prince, haiti, jean is an award winning journalist who is fluent in five languages. the official announcement of her appointment will be made by prime minister paul martin at 11:00 eastern time (1500 utc) on thursday, august 4.



'star wars' headed to tv as weekly series

at the siggraph 2005 computer graphics convention in los angeles, california tuesday, "star wars" creator george lucas unveiled plans for a weekly computer-animated series based on the science fiction saga.

the new show, to be called "clone wars", will be a 3-d animated spinoff of the series and is to be produced in a lucas facility in singapore. lucas already has done limited-run 2-d traditional animated television with "star wars: clone wars" shorts on the u.s. cable channel, cartoon network. 

lucas said advances in digital technology allow an animated television series to do what otherwise would be too expensive. 



former uk mp mo mowlam 'critically ill'

former labour party mp and secretary of state for northern ireland mo mowlam, 55, is reported to be critically ill at king's college hospital, london.

according to a king's college hospital spokeswoman, ms. mowlam is "critical but stable," and added that her family did not want further details disclosed. 

ms. mowlam survived a brain tumour in the 1990s, which saw her lose her hair, forcing her to wear a wig. 

many state that her charismatic personality played an important role in the northern ireland peace talks, leading to the good friday agreement in 1998 and an ira ceasefire.



foreign investment rises in romania by 19 percent

romania's level of foreign direct investment rose by 19% in the first six months (january-july) of 2005 when compared to the same period of 2004, according to the romanian agency for foreign investment (aris). the country recorded us$750 million of foreign investment in this period, and 56 total investment projects, in comparison to 40 projects between january and july 2004. the majority of the investments occurred in the bucharest-ilfov region, which includes the romanian capital.

the rise in foreign investment is mainly attributed due to a more liberal taxation policy introduced by the romanian government on january 1, 2005, which centres around a 16% flat tax on personal income and corporate profit. additionally, the country's expected membership of the european union in 2007 and its relatively stable political climate also led to an increase in foreign investment in 2005.


south korean scientists clone dog for first time

seoul national university’s has reported his findings in the journal after being involved in producing the first cloned . 

the dog, named , was born on april 24. he is an . the issue presents a whole host of ethical questions for researchers in the field. 

companies like are interested in the technology, as is accounted in for making human-safe pharmaceuticals. the business sector relies on technology improvements to make life saving realities.

the has reported that snuppy came from the of the tissue of the ear of the original canine. 

according to associated press reporter ji-soo kim, korea has declared that we are still a long way from creating of , which have a great deal more human-like traits. 

kennel experts, according to the bbc, agree that there will be many moral issues to contend with, especially among pet lovers.



london 21 july suspect claims device was 'flour bomb'

hussain osman, the suspect for the july 21 incident at shepherds bush who the uk authorities wish to extradite from italy, claims that the device in his rucksack was merely a bag of flour with a detonator in it. 

osman escaped from britain via the channel tunnel and was arrested last week in rome. he told his italian lawyer that he was only staging a demonstration and had no intention of killing anyone.

osman's claim contrasts starkly with sir ian blair's statement shortly after the bombings. at that time commissioner blair said:

osman is reported to have said:



ross on wye friends win gold for garden

the weather forecast on wednesday 27th july was poor which was unfortunate for ross-on-wye citizens, many of whom were dressed in historical costumes to greet the judges for the heart of england in bloom visit.

friends faithfully turned up - women in their quaker grey and white bonnets, and the meeting house and burial ground were a hive of activity throughout the day. we welcomed nelson and his lady, the town crier and john kyrle, a well-known local benefactor from the 16th century as well as representatives from the elizabethan, victorian and edwardian times right up to the world war two era. after some initial hesitation, our children entered into the fun of the day and looked very sweet in their quaker costumes which they refused to take off at the end of the day.

four short periods of worship were held throughout the day and these were well-attended. many enquiries about our ways followed and local people who had passed the outside gate frequently were surprised to find our 17th century building and the garden and burial ground at the rear. we were informed of a gold award from ross in bloom for our ‘secret’ garden and community involvement.

a display of old quaker bonnets was offset by modern tee shirts and the quakers today exhibition from friends house attracted much interest. contents of a book box sold well and several people expressed their intention to worship with us. it was a good enlivening day.



al qaeda: 'blair brought destruction to the heart of london'

a warning has been sent out by osama bin laden's lieutenant ayman al-zawahri saying that more attacks will be carried out because of tony blair's foreign policy decisions.

the comments were from a videotape shown on the satellite television channel al-jazeera. the message said was: "blair has brought you destruction to the heart of london, and he will bring more destruction, god willing."

al-zawahri also warned other nations to leave muslim lands to avoid further violence. he was quoted as saying: "what you have seen, o americans, in new york and washington and the losses you are having in afghanistan and iraq, in spite of all the media blackout, are only the losses of the initial clashes, if you continue the same policy of aggression against muslims, god willing, you will see the horror that will make you forget what you had seen in vietnam." 

tony blair has denied that his policies caused the july 7 bomb attacks. downing street has refused to comment on the tape.

police were on high alert today in london, with 6,000 officers watching for a repeat of the attacks two and four weeks ago and they continue to investigate the 7 july bombings and are holding 15 people in connection with the 21 july attempt.


two killed in istanbul explosion

two were killed and at least four were injured in thursday's explosion in pendik, eastern istanbul suburb, turkey. some media reported that the blast occurred in a trash bin, while others say that it occurred in a moving vehicle.

a 21-year-old woman and her mother died in the blast. it is still unknown who is responsible.

this was the last of a series of explosions in turkey, and trash bins have already been used for bombing. a similar explosion happened in antalya on tuesday, when two smaller explosions wounded nine people.

other tourist resorts have been targeted as well. in july, mini-bus bombing killed five in kusadasi, and 20 were injured when a bomb in a dustbin exploded in cesme.



u.s. president bush: 'we're at war'

speaking in texas, president bush in a wednesday address to the american legislative exchange council in the city of grapevine said, "the violence in recent days in iraq is a grim reminder of the enemies we face."
"after september the 11th, i made a commitment to the american people that the united states of america will not wait to be attacked again." bush said. "we will take the fight to the enemy, and we will defend our freedom."

there has been debate within the administration as to how to refer to the ongoing conflict. in recent appearances, defense secretary donald rumsfeld has avoided using the word "war", preferring the phrase "global struggle against violent extremism." bush's speech marks a return to the existing phrase "war on terror". in the speech he acknowledged that the struggle is against those who use terror to achieve their goals, implicitly recognising that the term "war on terror" may be misleading. 

"make no mistake about it, this is a war against people who profess an ideology, and they use terror as a means to achieve their objectives," he said.

of the military strategy in iraq, bush said that coalition forces continue to hunt down terrorists, and the iraqi security forces are being trained to take on more responsibility. "as iraqis stand up, americans and coalition forces will stand down," bush said. "and we're making progress. more and more iraqi units are more and more capable of defending themselves."

the return of american forces to u.s. soil will be event-driven decision, he said. a timetable for withdrawal is not practical because it would give the enemy a tactical event upon which to plan.

politically, iraq's national assembly is working on a constitution that members pledged to have ready by august 15. the iraqi people would then vote on the constitution october 15. if passed, the new iraqi government under a constitution would be elected december 15.

the united states has lost twenty-one marines in iraq since august 1. 


wolfgang tilmans donates image to quaker social action

wolfgang said,

"being an occasional attender and in the process of learning more about friends, i've been impressed with the quaker tradition of putting one's beliefs into action. groups like quaker social action are living testimony to that practice. there is a direct connection between spiritual and social activity, that serves us as a constant reminder to live in the here and now. not all of us are able or willing to commit time to social issues, others can or want to commit only money or support; both are essential to those helping and to those in need. 
that's why i decided to support qsa."

judith moran, qsa director followed, "we are extremely grateful to wolfgang, not only for donating the image but for his support in producing the card, we think it looks wonderful!"


economy - bush toughens up on central america

in a speech in texas on wednesday, president george w. bush discussed the trade deficit, saying:

"we had a problem in our hemisphere about trade. i don't know if you realize it or not, but most of the goods from central america came into this country duty-free. yet eighty percent of our goods were taxed through tariffs in central american countries. that didn't seem to make sense to me; it certainly wasn't fair. all i say to people is you treat us the way we treat you. if your goods can come into our markets duty-free, our goods ought to be able to go into your markets duty-free."

according to the bureau of economic analysis international economic accounts balance of payments,

"the deficit on goods increased to $186.3 billion from $182.2 billion, as goods imports increased more than exports. more than half the increase in imports was in consumer goods. much of the increase in exports was in industrial supplies and materials, in
consumer goods, and in capital goods."

in the us, the dr-cafta (dominican republic-central american free trade agreement, or simply cafta) bill passed by two votes. at present in contention is the andean free trade agreement.

"the house passed h.r. 304, to implement the dominican republic-central america-united states free trade agreement [cafta], by a recorded vote of 217 ayes to 215 noes, roll no. 443." 

the bill passed by a slight majority in both the house and senate.

president bush met for lunch with colombian president alvaro uribe at the bush ranch in texas and communicated his desire for the future prosperity of a colombia free of drug trafficking and violence. 


u.s. to transfer some guantanamo detainees to afghanistan

afghan citizens currently held captive in us prisons at guantanamo bay and bagram will be transferred to the custody of afghan authorities following an agreement reached thursday between united states diplomats and afghan president hamid karzai. the agreement did not immediately establish a timetable for the repatriation. none of the detainees have been charged with any crimes.

karim rahimi, the afghani presidential spokesman said today, "afghanistan and the united states reached an understanding that will allow for the gradual transfer of afghan detainees to the exclusive custody and control of the afghan government."

the u.s. government spokesman lou fintor said, "the united states intends to assist the government of afghanistan in building its capacity to detain these individuals, this process is part of our ongoing efforts to transfer detainees to their home countries as appropriate and when we receive assurances that the country can and will take appropriate steps to ensure that these individuals do not pose a continuing threat."

fintor said the decision was reached after, pierre-richard prosper, u.s. ambassador-at-large for war crimes, and matthew waxman, the pentagon's deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, met with president karzai on thursday. there are still 520 detainees at the guantanamo bay prison facility.



prominent iranian judge assassinated

investigations continued thursday after a prominent iranian judge, hassan moghaddas, was assassinated in the middle of his evening commute tuesday evening. iranian police have so far attributed the killing to "...some mad gesture or a settling of accounts."

judge moghaddas presided over several controversial cases in his career, including the sentencing of iranian reporter akbar ganji and was also unsuccessfully subpoenaed to testify in an investigation into the death of canadian-iranian reporter zahra kazemi.



nato to expand afghanistan presence

nato has confirmed today that it intends to expand its presence in afghanistan by sending forces into the south and east of the country in 2006. the move will see nato take the lead role in afghan security. 

presently, much of nato's 8,000-strong international security assistance force (isaf) is based in the capital kabul, with units also based in the north and west of the country.

the nato decision has been welcomed by the united states who hope that they will be able to withdraw some of its 19,000 troops from afghanistan. the us forces are based in the south ? the centre of much of the violence against coalition forces in the country ? and are not under nato command.

ironically, in the aftermath of the invasion of afghanistan, the us opposed the move amid requests by afghans for nato to spread across the country. 
today, turkey handed over control of isaf to an italian/uk-led unit, commanded by italian liuetenant-general mauro del vecchio. the deputy-commander is british major-general roger lane of the royal marines, who previously served in the country in 2002.

command of isaf rotates every six-months. previous isaf commanders have been canadian, british, french and german.

a recent surge in violence against nato and us forces ? blamed on al qaida and the remnants of the deposed taliban regime ? has seen nearly 1000 people killed since march. 

nato intends to send an additional 2,000 troops for the afghanistan parliamentary elections scheduled to take place next month. hamid karzai became the first democratically elected president of afghanistan after presidential elections were held on 9 october 2004.

it is believed that the british army will deploy up to 5,000 troops next year, likely to be made up of the elite 16 air assault brigade.



un reports 'grim picture' of human rights in burundi

thirty-four summary executions were carried out in burundi during july, says onub, the un's mission to the war-torn country. the figures were announced at a press conference yesterday in the burundian capital bujumbura. 

onub rights chief ismael diallo accused government forces and members of the hardlined hutu rebel group palipehutu-fnl of being behind most of the violence.

diallo outlined a "grim picture", according to a un press release, with human rights violations taking place every day, and no arrests ever being made. the violence is continuing despite the success of recent elections in the country. 

analysts have argued that burundi is in the grip of a "culture of impunity", which perpetuates the cycle of violence. 

"for reasons of diplomacy, people are sitting at the exact same table as war criminals, and in some cases granting them immunity. if the atrocities are to end there must be at least some indications that justice will be done", human rights watch spokesman stephan van praet told reuters, following last year's gatumba massacre.

august 13th will mark the first anniversary of the attack, in which 152 congolese tutsi refugees were shot, hacked and burned to death. despite widespread international condemnation, no arrests have yet been made and a un investigation has stalled.

an estimated 300,000 people, mostly civilians, have died in burundi since civil war broke out in 1993. 


baugur group among others buy illum warehouse denmark

i-holding ehf, a icelandic investment company owned by baugur group, straumur investment bank, b2b holdings and birgis bieltvedts, has bought 80% in illum warehouse in denmark from merrill lynch international global principal investment. the same group recently bought wessel & vett a/s and magasin du nord, so it already owned 20% in illum.

illum will be run separately from magasin du nord.

illum reported a profit and 11% gain in sales the first three months of 2005.

skarphedni berg steinarssyni from nordic investment at baugur group said the danish retail market is increasing and they believe in illum because it's a well known brand in denmark.

icelanders invest in denmark and uk

icelandic companies have been investing heavily in denmark for the last few years. recently the fons investment ehf. bought the danish airlines sterling air and mearsk air. eimskip, a shipping company in iceland, recently bought the shipping division of mearsk. i-holdings have been investing heavily in the denish retailer market.

baugur group, as well as fl group, have been investing in the uk market. fl group has bought 11% in easyjet.com and has shown an interest in buying more. baugur group has been investing in the retailer market and has bought among other things iceland supermarket chain as well as hamleys, a well known toy store.


four israeli arabs killed by army deserter

a uniformed awol israeli private suddenly opened fire in a crowded bus, killing 4 israeli arabs and wounding 12. a mob stormed the bus and beat the shooter to death. the israeli government condemned the random shooting and mobilized troops in anticipation of rioting in northern israel.

the attacker, eden natan-zada, 19, boarded egged bus 165 en route from haifa and sat mid-section. when the bus, carrying about 10?15 passengers, neared the bus stop at the center of the druze neighborhood of the predominantly israeli arab town of shefa-amr in lower galilee, natan-zada, walked to the front. when the bus stopped he shot the driver in the head with his m16 and began systematically firing as passengers crouched behind seats. he repeatedly shot hazar turki, 23 and her sister, dina, 21, apparently to make sure they were dead.

as natan-zada was reloading his rifle and a young girl pleaded with him to spare her, ahayal jahnawi, 28 began struggling with the gunman. he succeeded in pinning natan-zada to the floor until the crowd broke into the bus. at first the mob mistook jahnawi for the perpetrator and began pummeling him. they then began kicking and hurling objects at natan-zada. the security officer of shefa-amr, jamal aliam reportedly told army radio that zada had been attacked by dozens after he had been handcuffed and subdued by police. police were unable to control the mob, which wounded 5 officers. magen david adom ambulances evacuated the wounded to rambam medical center in haifa.

natan-zada had been absent without leave from his army unit since mid-june after refusing to participate in preparations for the gaza pullout. he moved to kfar tapuach, a west bank jewish settlement dominated by the militant kach movement. his father yitzhak natan-zada urged eden to return his weapon and informed the army that his son was dangerous. eden's mother debbie, speaking from the family home in rishon lezion was told that someone must be awol for 45 days to be officially considered a deserter and was advised to go herself to kfar tapuah to disarm her son.

eden had recently become more fanatical and encountered writings on the internet about revenge and zealots in judaism published by the outlawed terrorist kach group in "the way of the torah". he befriended people from tapuah over the internet and apparently became involved in resistance to plans to remove jewish settlers from territory slated to be turned over to palestinian control.

when called up into the israel defense forces (idf) for basic training in may 2005 natan-zada went reluctantly, then refused to obey an order and was briefly imprisoned. he spurned advice to seek a psychiatric discharge under section 21 of military regulations. according to his father, "when they told him to set up a tent city [next to kibbutz re'im] in opposition to his views, he deserted and went to tapuah."




british airways to fly to iceland

the airline british airways have reported that they will start flying between iceland and gatwick airport, london. british airways said they will provide the service five times a week; the first flight is scheduled march 26, 2006.

until now, only two airlines have been flying between the uk and iceland with passengers: icelandair, the oldest and biggest airline in iceland, and iceland express, a recent low-fare airline and the competition between them has been fierce.

icelandair's pr, gudjon arngrimsson, said that icelandair welcomes the competition and believes icelandair can compete with ba: "this market has been growing rapidly. iceland has been well marketed in london and britain as a whole so number of passenger has been rising fast. we're always ready for more competition on every route between iceland and other countries. we're ready and willing to compete here as we are on other routes" arngrimsson said.

birgir jonsson at iceland express agrees. "iceland express welcomes the competition without a doubt." he then added, "the competition will benefit us all".

british airways have reported the tickets will cost about ?291.


laboratory fire forces evacuation of australian national university

an explosion and subsequent chemical fire at the australian national university this afternoon caused an estimated au$1 million in damage and forced the evacuation of most of the main campus.

the initial explosion occurred on the top floor of the research school of chemistry in the early afternoon, and caused a fire which quickly spread throughout the rest of the floor. while no one was injured, the brisbane courier-mail is reporting "widespread damage" to the laboratories. furthermore, a number of computers containing postgraduate student theses were destroyed, causing the loss of months of work.

as the fire spread a cloud of potentially toxic smoke formed. a large number of fire personnel were called to the site and police, with limited success, attempted to cordon off access to the university. 

buildings downwind were progressively evacuated, including the central union building and students association at approximately 3pm. 

students in the buildings were asked to leave the campus entirely. there was a great deal of confusion afterwards. police were able to clear the buildings successfully, but had some difficulty evacuating those who were already outside. 

the university sent an email message giving a brief explanation of the situation at around the same time, but this did not reach most students immediately, leading to widespread confusion as to what exactly was going on.

deputy vice-chancellor (research) lawrence cram sent an follow-up email to the students at approximately 3.30 p.m. stating that the fire was under control and suggesting that the students in the affected areas should go home. 

there were reports of activities being cancelled at the other end of the campus late into the afternoon.

while the remainder of the university will reopen saturday, it is not currently known when the research school will reopen, or just how severely the fire will affect ongoing academic programs at the university.


stranded russian minisub is trapped by 60 tonne anchor

the news agency is reporting that a russian minisub that was stranded underwater in the is trapped by two 60 tonne anchors.

the submarine propeller has snagged on the antenna of a sonar underwater coastal defense station, (or perhaps very long low frequency arrays, which can be thousands of yards) 623 ft below the ocean 43 miles off . "the anchor needs to be blown up" in order to be able to raise the as-28 submarine, the commander of the told interfax.

"if the explosion is successful, the system will be raised to a depth of 100 meters and lit up by the tiger [television camera], and we can at last be 100% sure that it's the submarine, and deepwater divers will be able to continue work," he continued.

the submarine, with seven crew onboard, became entangled on thursday while at a depth of 190 m.

earlier reports that the submarine had been taken under tow have been proved false. ships had attempted to trawl for the submarine in order to drag it into shallower water, but it is reported that they failed to capture the submarine.

the pacific fleet commander says that the crew have enough food and water to survive until monday although oxygen will run out by saturday. the three-man submarine was designed to supply the crew with a five day supply of oxygen, however with the seven man crew the supply has been greatly depleted.

around ten russian navy ships are attending, to be joined by four japanese vessels on monday. the us and uk navies are also flying in specialist rescue equipment, including two u.s. navy owned remotely-operated underwater robots capable of cutting through steel lines up to 1" thick and one u.k. video array . they will arrive on saturday.

the crew have been using an underwater acoustic telephone to communicate with the surface, and are reported to be remaining calm. they have been told to keep still and to conserve the ship's power supplies.

the same class of vessel, which measures 13.5 m by 3.8 m, was used during the ill-fated rescue attempt on the , which was lost with all hands almost exactly five years ago.


an angered robert novak exited set of cnn ''inside politics'' show

the journalist who first revealed in print the valerie plame cia connection, robert novak, angrily left the set of an "inside politics" segment thursday night.

the discussion, led by ed henry of "cnn", centered on the florida republican house representative katherine harris election prospects in a possible square-off against florida’s democratic senate representative bill nelson. 

the "chicago sun-times" syndicated columnist and "cnn" contributor, novak took offense when co-appearing james carville interrupted novak when he was defending the harris election victory chances. "let me just finish, james, please," novak said. "i know you hate to hear me, but you have to."

carville countered with, "he's got to show these right-wingers that he's got a backbone, you know. it's why the wall street journal editorial page is watching you. show 'em that you're tough."

the discussion was shortened when novak responded to carville saying, "well, i think that's bullshit, and i hate that." then, with a wave of his hand to moderator henry, novak said, "just let it go." novak stood and then left the set. henry never got to ask novak about his role in the federal probe on the plame leak led by patrick fitzgerald.

"cnn" suspended novak indefinitely, despite his apology to the organization. the network said in a statement. "mr. novak has apologized to cnn, and cnn apologizes to its viewers for his language and actions. we've asked mr. novak to take some time off."



senior citizen group seeks recovery of medicare expenses from u.s. cigarette makers

a u.s. lobbyist group, the , filed a lawsuit in u.s. district court in to recover expenses related to tobacco smoking. the suit says there is a link between and smoking-related diseases. 

the first of its kind lawsuit seeks to recover as much as $60 billion in estimated medicare expenses outlaid for treatment of and patients.

the "medicare secondary payer statute" (msp) allows someone to sue on behalf of medicare. the medical expenses that another party was legally obligated to cover, in this case the tobacco companies if they are found liable in court, would be split between parties to the suit and medicare. the msp statute was entered in part because the government does not have the resources to prosecute every case under medicare law.

charles jarvis, the ceo of the group said, "our motivation is one of taxpayer protection." he added, "considering how badly the taxpayers have been injured financially, we believe the responsible parties ? the tobacco companies ? should be reimbursing the taxpayer to the greatest amount possible under the law." 

currently, u.s. employees are taxed by medicare at 1.45% of their earnings. this payroll tax amount is matched by their employer when paid to the .

the lawsuit names , , the , and and two of its subsidiaries as defendants. the united seniors association is asking for twice the amount paid by medicare to treat smoking related illnesses since 1999.




plane ditches into sea near sicily

a plane crash 13 km from palermo and 12 miles north east of capo gallo off the sicilian coast killed at least 14 people.

a tuninter flight was carrying 39 people (34 passengers and 5 crew members) when it went down near sicily.

a magistrate of palermo said there were 20 survivors.

the tunisian atr-72 airliner had taken off from bari and is believed to have developed a technical fault. all the passengers are reportedly italian.

ten passengers have reached land in palermo, a city on the southern italian island of sicily. "it's a miracle we're alive," a survivor said, according to "ansa".

the plane went into the sea after the captain asked for an emergency landing at palermo punta raisi airport. when the captain realized he could not reach the airport, he was forced to crash-land the plane at sea. the captain chafik garbis told "ansa", "the engines have lost power and i have had to try to ditch."

most of the survivors have been injured, and the majority have signs of serious burns. the casualties from the crash were worsened due to a fire spreading out before, or just after, the plane ditched.

the wreck of the airplane was found broken in three parts.

the number of the fatalities is not yet clearly known. a member of the italian aviation reported to the italian radio "rai" while coming back to land from the area of the crash that some people are not yet found. 

the italian "ansv" (agenzia nazionale sicurezza al volo, or national agency for flight safety) opened an investigation into the crash. it will also involve france (where the atr planes were built) and tunisia.

the "pubblico ministero" of palermo (the judge who is in charge of investigation) said to the italian television "rai", "luckly, and this is the most important thing, we can exclude that it is due to a terrorism attack." he then added that the investigation has not yet formally started so he needs more time to be sure.




tsa cuts us airport security screening personnel

u.s. airline passengers may need to brace for longer lines at security screening checkpoints as the transportation security administration (tsa) announced plans to reduce the number of security screeners in us airports. the cutbacks come despite an increased tsa budget for 2006 over 2005 and an overall increase in airport traffic. 

the portland, oregon and medford, oregon airports were among the hardest-hit by cutbacks, with portland seeing a 30% decline in security screeners.

travellers are advised to check with the tsa or the airport to plan for delays at check-in.


robin cook dead after collapsing

robin cook, the former british foreign secretary and current member of parliament, has died of a suspected heart attack after collapsing on a walk with his wife on ben stack hill, scotland. cook, aged 59, was flown to a hospital in inverness by a rescue service helicopter half an hour after collapsing. 

a spokesperson for nhs highland said that mr. cook arrived at hospital 90 minutes after his collapse, and was reported dead five minutes later. a postmortem examination has concluded that he died from hypertensive heart disease.

mr. cook was buried on august 12 at st giles cathedral in edinburgh in a service attended by close family, friends and political figures from across the world. british prime minister tony blair however came under attack from mr. cooks friend and racing pundit john mccririck for his absence from the service. 

robin cook served as foreign secretary under new labour and was a critic of the war in iraq. he resigned as leader of the house of commons in 2003 in protest against prime minister blair's foreign policies. 



america's atomic bombing commemoration held in hiroshima

the 60th anniversary of the first use of an atomic bomb against people has been remembered in a ceremony yesterday in hiroshima, japan.

the atomic bomb, code-named "little boy", was dropped on hiroshima at precisely 08:15 on august 6, 1945 by the specially converted united states army air force b-29 superfortress enola gay.

the recommendation to drop the atomic bomb without warning was made by an eight-man committee headed by george harrison who was secretary of war henry stimson's special assistant for matters relating to the development of the atomic bomb. both harrison and stimson were members of skull and bones

three days later, another atomic bomb "fat man", was dropped on nearby nagasaki.

the japanese government surrendered unconditionally on 15 august, and signed the formal surrender on the uss missouri on 2 september in tokyo bay.

the dropping of the bomb has been condemned by critics and anti-nuclear campaigners, who say other methods could have been used to end the war. advocates, however, say that an invasion of japan ? to be known as operation downfall ? would have cost millions of allied and japanese lives, citing the ferocity of fighting experienced during the battle of okinawa, and that the bombings avoided this. 

approximately 140,000 people died within days from the initial blast and during the following year from radiation. the total death toll was almost half of hiroshima's population.

"as the years go by so many of my friends and relatives die. this must not be forgotten." sunao tsuboi, a survivor of the bombing, said. now he is 80, and he recounted some of the details of what he witnessed that day:

"we were all barefoot. one woman's skin was hanging from her chest, another woman's eye was hanging from its socket and resting on her chin, and one young girl's guts had spilled out."

tsuboi saw people jumping into a river which was already full of bodies. he said, "i was thinking that if i die here, i would feel so sad and alone. everyone had given up; no help was coming.we were beyond pain." tsuboi has since lost skin on his forehead and nose as well as part of his ears. he still goes to hospital every two weeks for treatment.


finnish police isolate ports in helsinki

the finnish police isolated the ports of katajanokka and lansisatama on saturday. the ports were isolated at around 9.30 p.m. local time and the isolation was called off at around 11.30 p.m.

finnish police received reports from estonia that a shipping container loaded with explosives could be coming from estonia saturday evening. they checked every truck that passed the ports with the assistance of the border guard service. there are still two ships due to arrive in helsinki tonight, but they were already checked in tallinn.



russian submarine rescued by royal navy

a russian submarine trapped during a training exercise in berezov bay, 75 km south of petropavlovsk in kamchatka, has been rescued after it was cut free by a (rov). the crew of seven officers and midshipmen, who spent three days in temperatures around 6c and were running out of oxygen supplies, were unharmed. 

the submarine appeared on the surface at 4:15 p.m. local time. "the crew opened the hatch and climbed the rescue ship's deck on their own," said admiral victor fyedorov. the first aid to the crew was given on ship "alagez", and they were transferred to petropavlovsk-kamchatka hospital.

the british cut fishing nets and debris, freeing the trapped submarine. "the rescue operation was completed successfully. we thank everyone, and especially the british rescue crew," said fyedorov.

the submarine will be repaired and modernized. "after salvaging it, as-28 will be carried on one of the rescue ship's decks to the coast, where specialists will examine it," said a spokesperson of vms ("company for secondary metal and boats"). russian president has pledged an inquiry into the incident.

the and also sent equipment to help in the rescue. however, it was not used.


wikimedia foundation's first wikimania convention held in germany

on thursday, august 4 wikimedia opened its doors to the first ever wikimania conference, a five-day event put together by the wikimedia foundation. 

the event, held in the haus der jugend in frankfurt am main, germany, featured discussion and interaction on all wikimedia projects, including its well known wikipedia project, an online encyclopedia which touts figures of millions of articles in over 150 languages. 

wikimania expressed that its purpose as a conference was to get wikimedians to meet each other face to face, to provide several workshops and talks on all aspects of wikimedia sites, and to introduce wikimedia and its projects to the press.

wikimania, with a core organisation team of eight people and a staff of 23, drew in more than 100 members of press and 70 speakers, and at least 350 delegates from 52 countries were at the conference on saturday, august 6. among delegates, nine from developing countries were sponsored their travel and accommodation costs by open source initiative.

users not directly at the conference were encouraged to listen in through freematrix radio's online broadcasts, which at the highest point drew 37 concurrent listeners. users could also connect with the conference via internet relay chat, and interact with people physically present.

one of sundays's speakers was richard stallman, one of the leading lights of the free software movement. ward cunningham, inventor of the wiki, held a keynote about the past and future of wikis on saturday morning. on friday evening there was a keynote speech on wikis and politics as well as a panel discussion with the foundation board.

jimbo wales, the founder of wikipedia, was himself present, and gave a speech based on his concept of "ten things that want to be free". wales found himself swamped by press attention on the saturday after a misquote in a reuters article seemed to suggest that he believed wikipedia may need to be locked from editing. wales later issued a statement clarifying that this is "not" the case.

the conference was described by many as a professional, occasionally "laid back", but worthwhile event.



larson b ice-shelf collapse reveals exotic organisms isolated for 10,000 years

the 2002 collapse of the antarctic larsen b ice shelf, which seemingly had remained stable for 10,000 years, has revealed a cold seep containing ecosystems that seem to have been isolated from the outside world for 10,000 years by a 600-foot ice shelf.

the discovery was made during an expedition led by eugene domack investigating the cause of the collapse. he concluded that the collapse was caused by long term gradual thinning of the shelf, followed by a recent increase in surface air temperature.

the cold seep is nearly 1.5 million square kilometers in area, and sits about 2,800 feet below the surface. the source of energy for the ecosystem has not yet been discovered, but domack and his colleagues propose that it is methane, rather than sunlight or hot vents, that supplies energy to the system.

domack warns that the collapse of the ice shelf may have disrupted and may possibly destroy the unusual ecosystem.



ibrahim ferrer, cuban singer, dies at 78

the famous cuban singer and member of the "buena vista social club", ibrahim ferrer, died saturday in havana, cuba, at the age of 78. the cause was an illness with which he returned from a tour of europe.

ferrer was born february 20, 1927 near santiago de cuba. he became an orphan at 12 and started working in coffee fields, carried sugar, worked in shipyards, sold newspapers and candy, and cleaned shoes. he was also singing in local bars and orquesta chepin-choven noticed him. they recorded a locally successful song "el platanar de bartolo", but he did not get much credit for it. 

he got world famous only when he got old, as a part of "buena vista social club". he recorded two solo albums: "buena vista social club presents ibrahim ferrer" and "buenos hermanos".



netanyahu quits over israel's pullout plan

israeli finance minster has resigned from the cabinet sunday to protest against the upcoming israeli withdrawal from the and part of the according to a ministry spokesman.

netanyahu submitted a resignation letter to that he said counts as his vote against the pullout plan. he also told reporters, "i understand the ambition to leave gaza. i can't be part of a move that i believe is wrong, a move that will endanger security and divide the people."

sharon pushed for the pullout within his highly split , which in a recent 17 to 5 vote, approved the evacuation plan. the israeli army will assist in evacuation efforts of the first group of settlers in , , and .

sharon named the vice prime minister as the new finance minister.

the forced evacuations, or "disengagement", of settlers is due to start after august 15. there are nearly 8,500 jewish residents who live within fortified fences in gaza. the settlements are surrounded by an arab palestinian population of approximately 1.5 million.

in a sunday news conference, netanyahu said the current evacuation plan has similarities to the 1993 . in that accord, netanyahu had drawn criticism in his role as prime minister for what some say was a failure to adequately insure israeli security. the gained more autonomy over some parts of the occupied territories in the accords. 

netanyahu said of the gaza withdrawal, the palestinian leadership is again being rewarded without concession.

the resignation is seen as a step by netanyahu towards challenging sharon for the leadership of the likud party once the pullout is over. netanyahu may have an opportunity to win back the party by placing himself in the national camp.

netanyahu was one of the most vocal in claiming saddam was preparing "weapons of mass destruction" and he repeatedly urged america to invade iraq on that basis.



slovenian alpinist in rescue on nanga parbat

humar was on his paramount course mission on the 4700 meter high south rock wall of the 8125 meter high nanga parbat mountain (the utmost west of the mountain chain) in the himalaya mountains, being trapped in the ice-hole at an approximate height of 5900 meters for five days. the rescue mission with the military helicopter is planned for monday morning local time, august 8, 2005.

the rescue team managed to locate humar on face on sunday, but said they need a better helicopter for the actual rescue mission. swiss air zermatt rescue pilots offered their help in the effort. 


robin cook dead after collapsing/brief

robin cook, the former british foreign secretary and current member of parliament, has died of a suspected heart attack after collapsing during a walk on ben stack hill in scotland. cook, aged 59, was airlifted to a hospital 90 minutes after the collapse. he was reported dead five minutes later.


news briefs:august 7, 2005

robin cook, the former british foreign secretary and current member of parliament, has died of a suspected heart attack after collapsing during a walk on ben stack hill in scotland. cook, aged 59, was airlifted to a hospital 90 minutes after the collapse. he was reported dead five minutes later.

a trapped russian submarine, located in a bay in the country's northeast region, has been rescued by the royal navy. the crew, consisting of seven officers and midshipman is unharmed. "the crew opened the hatch and climbed the rescue ship's deck on their own," reported a russian admiral. "the rescue operation was completed successfully. we thank everyone, and especially the british rescue crew."

an investigation into the collapse of the antarctic larsen b ice shelf has revealed ecosystems previously unknown to the world. these ecosystems have most likely been isolated for about 10,000 years, during which the 600 foot shelf remained stable. eugene domack, who led the investigation, believes that methane gas has been fueling life beneath the some 2,800 feet of ice. domack warns that the collapse of the ice shelf may have disrupted and could possibly destroy the recently-discovered ecosystem.


russian submarine rescued by royal navy/brief

a trapped russian submarine, located in a bay in the country's northeast region, has been rescued by the royal navy. the crew, consisting of seven officers and midshipman is unharmed. "the crew opened the hatch and climbed the rescue ship's deck on their own," reported a russian admiral. "the rescue operation was completed successfully. we thank everyone, and especially the british rescue crew."


larson b ice-shelf collapse reveals exotic organisms isolated for 10,000 years/brief

an investigation into the collapse of the antarctic larsen b ice shelf has revealed ecosystems previously unknown to the world. these ecosystems have most likely been isolated for about 10,000 years, during which the 600 foot shelf remained stable. eugene domack, who led the investigation, believes that methane gas has been fueling life beneath the some 2,800 feet of ice. domack warns that the collapse of the ice shelf may have disrupted and could possibly destroy the recently-discovered ecosystem.


reports surface that bush will install bones brother to head up plame inquiry/brief

raw story reported saturday that newsweek's michael isikoff will have a story in today's newsweek revealing that the cia leak probe prosecutor patrick fitzgerald is likely to be replaced by one of bush's fellow skull and cross-bones members.


news briefs:august 8, 2005

robin cook, the former british foreign secretary and current member of parliament, has died of a suspected heart attack after collapsing during a walk on ben stack hill in scotland. cook, aged 59, was airlifted to a hospital 90 minutes after the collapse. he was reported dead five minutes later.

a trapped russian submarine, located in a bay in the country's northeast region, has been rescued by the royal navy. the crew, consisting of seven officers and midshipman is unharmed. "the crew opened the hatch and climbed the rescue ship's deck on their own," reported a russian admiral. "the rescue operation was completed successfully. we thank everyone, and especially the british rescue crew."

the 60th anniversary of the first use of an atomic bomb against a city has been remembered in a ceremony in hiroshima, japan. the atomic bomb, code-named "little boy", was dropped on hiroshima at precisely 08:15 on august 6 1945.. sunao tsuboi, a survivor of the bombing, speaking at yesterday's ceremony, said "as the years go by so many of my friends and relatives die. this must not be forgotten." now 80, he recounted some of the details of what he witnessed that day." describing in grim detail the events of the bombing, tsuboi commented, "i was thinking that if i die here, i would feel so sad and alone. everyone had given up; no help was coming. we were beyond pain."

an investigation into the collapse of the antarctic larsen b ice shelf has revealed ecosystems previously unknown to the world. these ecosystems have most likely been isolated for about 10,000 years, during which the 600 foot shelf remained stable. eugene domack, who led the investigation, believes that methane gas has been fueling life beneath the some 2,800 feet of ice. domack warns that the collapse of the ice shelf may have disrupted and could possibly destroy the recently-discovered ecosystem.

abc's "world news tonight" anchor, peter jennings, died sunday after a four month fight with lung cancer. from the anchor desk or from the field, jennings covered more than 40 years of national and international news. it is unknown who will fill jennings' now vacant position.

nasa has cancelled today's planned landing of the space shuttle discovery. officials initially delayed the landing, but finally cancelled any attempts for today citing the reason as being "unstable, unacceptable cloud cover [with the] potential for showers in vicinity of landing site." there will be two more opportunities tomorrow morning.

israeli finance minster benjamin netanyahu has resigned from the cabinet sunday to protest against the upcoming israeli withdrawal from the gaza strip and part of the west bank according to a ministry spokesman.

israeli prime mister ariel sharon named the vice prime minister, ehud olmert, as the new finance minister.

iran has reportedly resumed its nuclear program within a uranium conversion facility.

japanese prime minister junichiro koizumi has dissolved the japanese house of representatives and will call a snap election for september 11.


abc news anchor peter jennings dies at 67

peter jennings, longtime anchor of abc's "world news tonight" died sunday in manhattan after a four month fight with lung cancer. from the anchor desk or from the field, jennings covered more than 40 years of national and international news including the erection and destruction of the berlin wall, the fall of apartheid, the demise of communism in europe, the millennium, and the september 11 terrorist attacks.

jennings was honored with numerous awards for journalism, including 16 emmys, two george foster peabody awards, several alfred i. dupont-columbia university awards and several overseas press club awards. 

jennings told viewers back in april in a taped message that he had lung cancer and was going to start chemotherapy treatment for it. he stated he would continue to host "world news tonight" when it was possible, although he never again appeared on the broadcast. during his absence, charles gibson and elizabeth vargas filled in for jennings. it is unknown who will replace jennings at this time.

jennings first broadcast experience came at age nine, when he hosted his own radio show for the canadian broadcasting corporation. following many years of reporting from the middle east, jennings began appearing on "world news tonight" in 1978, and became its sole anchor in 1983. during the 1980s and early 1990s, the broadcast became the most popular network news program in the us, surpassing the cbs evening news in 1986. jennings followed in his father's footsteps: charles jennings served as canada's first network news anchorman on the cbc.

a native of canada, jennings became a u.s. citizen in 2003. he is survived by his wife, kayce, his daughter, elizabeth (25), his son, christopher (23), and his sister, sarah.

soon after he died his wife, kayce freed, issued this statement: "peter died with his family around him, without pain and in peace. he knew he'd lived a good life."



koizumi has dissolved the japanese diet in response to rejection of postal services commercialization bill

the house of councillors, the upper house of the diet of japan, voted on the controversial bill that would have privatized the japanese postal service at around 1 p.m. (jst, utc +8) on monday, august 8. the bill was rejected by a slim margin ? 108 for, 125 against, one abstention and two intentional absences ? after a rebellion within the ruling liberal democractic party (ldp).

the prime minister, junichiro koizumi, had promised that the privatization of the postal service, which is also japan's largest savings bank, would "revitalize" the japanese economy. he has also stated that the commercialization of the postal services was at the core of his policies, and threatened to dissolve the houses and call for an immediate election in case of a defeat.

as promised, the rejection led to an immediate call of the cabinet ministers at 3pm to dissolve the house of representatives. for the dissolution to be valid all cabinet ministers must jointly sign an edict issued in the name of the emperor. cabinet minister shimamura yoshinobu, the minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, refused to sign the edict, and resigned. the dissolution was officially announced by chair kono at the diet later in the evening.

the election is reported to be held on september 11.



space shuttle discovery sts-114 landing postponed for weather

nasa has postponed the landing of the space shuttle "discovery" mission sts-114, planned for today.

officials initially delayed the landing, but finally cancelled any attempts for today citing the reason as "unstable, unacceptable cloud cover [with the] potential for showers in vicinity of landing site."

landing the space shuttle craft has been likened to landing a "brick". the approach to the landing field is at a steep pitch (nose up) and a high rate of descent. the shuttle is not very maneuverable and has one shot at the correct landing approach. pilots cannot re-fire the engines to circle around for another approach, which is why low cloud cover is of such concern.

discovery has spent twelve days in orbit. on tuesday, there will be six landing opportunities: two each at kennedy space center in florida, edwards air force base in california, and white sands space harbor in new mexico. shuttle managers prefer a landing at kennedy, but will consider the alternate sites if bad weather in florida rules out landing there. nasa administrators insist that the shuttle will land tomorrow at one of the three sites, rather than spending yet another day in orbit.

the flight marked the first time a shuttle has been inspected in orbit. the crew made two space walks to effect minor repairs to the orbiter's thermal protection system as a result.



space shuttle discovery landing cancelled for today/brief

nasa has cancelled today's planned landing of the space shuttle discovery. officials initially delayed the landing, but finally cancelled any attempts for today citing the reason as being "unstable, unacceptable cloud cover [with the] potential for showers in vicinity of landing site." there will be two more opportunities tomorrow morning.


abc news anchor peter jennings dies at 67/brief

abc's "world news tonight" anchor, peter jennings, died sunday after a four month fight with lung cancer. from the anchor desk or from the field, jennings covered more than 40 years of national and international news. it is unknown who will fill jennings' now vacant position.


reports indicate bush appointing friend to lead plame inquiry

"newsweek" journalist michael isikoff reported that the u.s. leak probe into revealing the cia status of valerie plame is likely to soon be under the oversight of one of bush's fellow skull and bones members, a man, isikoff writes, who is an "old friend" of the president.

the investigation by special prosecutor patrick fitzgerald into the leak is on a timetable to conclude this october 2005, so the probe is nearing its final stages. fitzgerald's current boss, deputy attorney general james comey gave fitzgerald broad leeway to prosecute the case. comey is leaving the government post to accept a position as general counsel at lockheed martin. 

a possible candidate to replace comey, associate attorney general robert mccallum, was in the bush 1968 skull and bones class, which consisted of 15 yalesmen. mccallum was in the news headlines in june for his involvement with coming in at the last moment to push through a 90% reduction ($120 billion) in the penalties requested against big tobacco companies.

in latest developments of the fitzgerald investigation, karl rove's secretary and rove's former top aide are being asked why a recorded phone conversation between "time" reporter matt cooper and rove was not available when the call went through the white house switchboard.

how the possible appointment of mccallum to oversee the investigation could affect it, is unknown, and controversial. u.s. attorney general alberto gonzales recused himself from involvement with the investigation.

one of bush's very first meetings after being installed as president in the white house was a skull and bones reunion. "i joined skull and bones, a secret society," bush wrote in his autobiography, "so secret, i can't say anything more." 



india, pakistan begin next round of talks

india and pakistan began another round of confidence building talks in the capital today. the focus of the talks is on improving contact and communication between the militaries of the two countries.

the two sides had reached an agreement over the weekend to share information with each other before any ballistic missile tests. already there is an agreement for the two sides to inform each other before military exercises and violations of air space. there is also talk of upgrading those lines between director general's military operations.

participants will also review the progress made after the 2003 ceasefire at the borders.


space shuttle discovery sts-114 landing postponed for weather/brief

nasa has cancelled today's planned landing of the space shuttle discovery. officials initially delayed the landing, but finally cancelled any attempts for today citing the reason as being "unstable, unacceptable cloud cover [with the] potential for showers in vicinity of landing site." there will be two more opportunities tomorrow morning.


'afghanistan is a 20-year venture' warns canadian general

maj.-gen. andrew leslie, one of canada's top generals says canadians should prepare for a long mission to afghanistan in order to help it break out of "a cycle of warlords and tribalism." leslie told the audience attending the 74 annual couchiching summer conference in orillia, ontario, canada on "the use of force within and between nations" that canada's troops will have casualties. as many as 1,250 canadian soldiers will be serving in afghanistan by february 2006. a 250-strong provincial reconstruction team mission is currently gathering to stabilise the kandahar region joining the nearly 700 troops already serving in kabul. "every time you kill an angry young man overseas, you're creating 15 more who will come after you", he said. 

"there are things worth fighting for. there are things worth dying for. there are things worth killing for", leslie told the conference and he said the end result would be worth the cost:



couchiching institute on public affairs 74 annual couchiching summer conference.


u.n. to begin forming response to iranian nuclear program

a meeting set for tuesday by the (iaea) could be a move closer to a showdown at the united nations over the iranian plan to resume uranium conversion at its isfahan nuclear facility.

iran on monday refused the weekend offer by the european union (eu) of economic incentives that included help with nuclear-energy generation. the eu, led by britain and france, both of which in may 2005 were considered to have violated the "first pillar" of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty by failing to make serious efforts to dismantle their nuclear bomb stockpiles (preamble and article vi of the treaty), and germany, combined the offer with an exchange for iran to verifiably give up all activities that could lead to a nuclear bomb.

iranian officials insist their nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, and say it is part of iran's right to develop nuclear power, as is legally agreed to in the "third pillar" of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which gives all states the right to peacefully use nuclear technology. "the proposals are unacceptable," hossein moussavian said. "they negate iran's inalienable right," said the top iranian nuclear negotiator. 

the iranian refusal, coming from under the new leadership of mahmoud ahmadinejad, would probably trigger the referral of iran to the un security council.

iran began uranium conversion shortly after iaea inspectors installed cameras and other surveillance equipment at their nuclear facility. the facility carried out an early stage of the fuel cycle, which includes turning raw uranium () into gas. france and britain condemned iran's actions.

the iaea sealed sensitive equipment at iran's uranium conversion facility at isfahan and its uranium enrichment plant at natanz, as part of earlier compliance with a paris agreement. an "al-jazeera" report said the iaea seals on the plants' sensitive equipment was recently removed.

in a iaea statement issued monday, "" reports, "it should be noted that the sealed parts of the process line remain intact."



interview: wikinewsie kim bruning discusses wikimania

on thursday, august 4, 2005, wikimedia opened its doors to the first-ever wikimania conference, a five-day event put together by the wikimedia foundation.

the event, held in the haus der jugend in frankfurt am main, germany, featured discussion and interaction on all wikimedia projects, including its well-known wikipedia project, an online encyclopedia which touts figures of millions of articles in over 70 languages.

conference attendee and wikinews contributor kim bruning talked to wikinews, represented here by contributor , about the event.


pope gets feeding tube through nose

the associated press reported today pope john paul ii has been getting nutrition from a tube inserted through his nose. the tube was inserted shortly after the frail pontiff appeared at his window overlooking st. peter’s square and could manage only a raspy word or two.

a statement released by the vatican appeared to quash media rumors that the 84-year-old pope might be returning to hospital any time soon. feeding tubes are a common form of supplemental nutrition for patients who cannot swallow normally.

the type of tube used, a nasogastric tube, is threaded down the nose and throat into the stomach. other types of tubes are implanted surgically, but this has not been deemed necessary at this stage, according to dr. barbara paris, director of geriatrics at maimonides medical center in new york.

she said it could be the step before the more permanent tube is implanted. although somewhat uncomfortable when inserted, there is no anesthesia required for this procedure.

in this first report issued by the vatican since march 10, three days before the pope’s release from hospital, his aides also said john paul spends "many hours" seated in an armchair, celebrates mass in his private chapel and has work contacts with his aides "following directly the activities of the holy see and the life of the church."

the ailing pope also suffers from parkinson's disease, which makes it difficult for him to talk, and knee and hip ailments that are taking a serious toll on his mobility and follows by only a month the insertion of a breathing tube to help him breathe.



oil for food scandal: un releases third report

the un-appointed panel investigating the oil for food scandal has released its third report. 

the report says that benon sevan took nearly us$150,000 in cash bribes. chef de cabinet for kofi annan, mark malloch brown, said that the un would lift sevan's immunity should an approach come from a law enforcement authority and that the un had been in 'active collaboration' with the southern district of new york. 

at the press conference responding to the report, malloch brown also said that there was will "a real need for serious, deep-rooted management reform of our organization, and that does not seem to be yet fully accepted by all member states."

benon sevan, who worked for the un for nearly 40 years before resigning on sunday, has denied the accusation. in his resignation letter to kofi annan, he wrote: "the charges are false and you, who have known me all these years, should know they are false... i fully understand the pressure you are under..., but sacrificing me for political expediency will never appease our critics or help you or the organisation."

a former un procurement officer alexander yakovlev has pleaded guilty to accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from un contractors. 



shuttle discovery given 'go' for landing at edwards afb

the space shuttle discovery sts-114 has been given a 'go' for landing at edwards air force base today. 

the de-orbit burn is expected at 6:06 a.m. central daylight time (cdt) (mission control's local time), and landing is expected at 7:12 a.m. cdt. weather conditions are clear at landing site, with scattered clouds at approximately 20,000 feet, with winds peaking at about 12 knots at the number 22 runway, which is where discovery has been cleared to land. 

shuttle pilot jim kelly will be providing the human piloting for the main part of the flight, with shuttle commander eileen collins taking over most of the piloting duties as discovery enters the subsonic range.


space shuttle discovery lands safely in california

the us space shuttle orbiter discovery has returned to earth safely, landing at edwards air force base, california, touching down on runway 22 at 8:11:22 am edt (1211 gmt), and rolling to a stop. 

commander eileen collins and the rest of her crew on discovery are going through check-out procedures to secure the vehicle and assure safety. a convoy of specially-designed vehicles have parked near discovery, ready to assist in debarkation of the astronauts from on-board the shuttle, and other initial post-flight processing of the orbiter.

the astronauts on board discovery (orbital vehicle 103 (ov-103)) are expected to disembark at approximately 9 am edt.

a press conference has been scheduled for 8:30 am cdt, including dr. michael griffin, nasa administrator, among others. nasa-tv will be providing live coverage, among others. 


u.s. war protest mom met bush in 2004

on a "cnn" wolf blitzer "late edition" broadcast sunday, u.s. senators george allen (r-va) and barbara boxer (d-ca) both told blitzer that in the furore created by the protest that they believe president bush should personally meet with cindy sheehan. she is the mother of a soldier son killed in iraq in april 2004, and leader of a protest march now camped near the presidential ranch in crawford, texas.

after returning from commercial break, blitzer told his guests that "cnn" had just received a news bulletin from the white house. the bulletin said that bush had met previously with sheehan in the summer of 2004. both senators and blitzer withheld further comment on the matter during the remaining segment of the show.

later that day, cindy sheehan herself appeared on "cnn" sunday with blitzer and said she did meet with bush in seattle with fifteen or sixteen other families.

she defended her current protest by saying, "the whole meeting was simply bizarre and disgusting."

sheehan said that bush entered the meeting chamber with an insensitive comment to those present, "who we'all honorin' today?" she added, "his mouth kept moving, but there was nothing in his eyes or anything else about him that showed me he really cared or had any real compassion at all. this is a human being totally disconnected from humanity and reality. his eyes were empty, hollow shells." 

the angry mother of the fallen u.s. soldier on saturday led a protest march of nearly 50 on the bush ranch. cindy sheehan of vacaville, california demanded, but was denied, the chance to speak with bush and personally ask him, "'why did you kill my son? what did my son die for?"

sheehan was met outside the ranch, after progress of the march was stopped by texas troopers and the secret service, by national security adviser steve hadley and deputy white house chief of staff joe hagin. they spoke with her approximately 45 minutes.

sheehan, unsatisfied with the meeting, vowed to remain camped outside the ranch until she is granted a personal interview with bush. meanwhile, bush arrived in albuqerque, new mexico monday where he signed into law the new energy bill. he will travel back to his texas ranch this week to meet with his defense and economic advisers, then later, he will travel to illinois to sign a highway bill.

cindy sheehan said sunday that she plans to hold the roadside peace protest near bush's ranch until he talks to her again. "i'll follow him to d.c.," she said.

cindy's current comments are a drastic change from her comments in a 2004 interview with the reporter of vacaville, ca. from the article:

"i now know he's sincere about wanting freedom for the iraqis," cindy said after their meeting. "i know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss. and i know he's a man of faith."



anti-gay church protests u.s. at military funerals

u.s. veterans groups and midwest politicians are angered by the anti-gay westboro baptist church's recent practice of protesting at the funerals of u.s. soldiers killed in the iraq war.

the topeka, kansas-based church led by fred phelps sent 6 protestors with picket signs to the memorial service of 49 ohio servicemen killed in iraq. they were members of the third battalion, 25th marine regiment of brook park, ohio, a suburb of cleveland. 

last week at the august 5 funeral of army specialist adam harding in the chicago suburb of portage, indiana, the westboro church sent ten protesters. harding died in iraq july 25 when the convoy he was in hit a roadside bomb.

according to reports, the picket signs at the funeral carried such messages as, "thank god for 9/11," "god is u.s.a.’s terrorist," "god hates you," "thank god for dead soldiers" and "america is doomed." despite the tone of the messages, church members say they are not protesting against the iraq war, but against homosexuality. neither harding nor any of the 49 ohio servicemen killed are reported to have been homosexual.

in ohio, many of the funeral attendees cursed the protesters, according to a report in the "los angeles times".

a report from the "chicago tribune" said westboro church spokeswoman shirley phelps-roper said the church is delivering the church's message that it believes america is doomed and that they single out military funerals because soldiers, like all americans, are being taught to accept homosexual behavior and other acts it calls sinful.

"this nation has angered the lord their god and the wrath of god is pouring out on them. god is dealing with this nation, and you can't do one thing to stop it or stop him from blowing those young people to pieces," phelps roper said in an interview with cbs affiliate wbbm-tv in chicago.

church members say they are expressing their first amendment rights to protest as they see fit.

but chicago-area veterans associations held a press conference monday denouncing the funeral protesters. "those who are protecting our nation provide the fundamental right of the first amendment. but to protest at funerals is wrong," chicago alderman james balcer, a veteran of the vietnam war, reportedly said.

balcer said the westboro church should apologize to veterans for its actions. 



u.s. pentagon conference says weapons entered iraq from iran

in a televised press briefing tuesday, secretary of defense stood by a press release from the pentagon on monday that reported explosives and bombs crossed into from across the border. a weapons cache was said to have been intercepted. "it is true that weapons, clearly, unambiguously from iran have been found in iraq," rumsfeld said today.

evidence reportedly indicated the quality and sophistication of the weapons was such that they may have been manufactured in iran, but rumsfeld was unable or unwilling to describe the weapons further. timing of the pentagon release coincides with the controversy over iran restarting its nuclear facilities.

rumsfeld, with the chairman of the joint chief of staffs, , said the effort in iraq was aimed at inciting civil war, since they realize they cannot directly defeat the coalition. speaking on the issue of border crossings of troops and munitions from and iran, rumsfeld implied that those nations don't want progress in to be made in iraq. he said, "... what are the iranians doing? are they going to be helpful or unhelpful? ... same with the syrians... are they being helpful or unhelpful?" 

the two cited progress by the iraqi government in working toward the august 15 deadline for drafting a new constitution. in a nod to the possibility that the deadline will be missed, it was said that the constitution could be amended, and that voting on ratification would occur in october of this year, with a general election to follow in december. myers referred to a shift in the participation in the process, saying, "all indications are that the sunni leadership in iraq has made a fundamental decision that they want to be part of the process." 

they reasserted previous statements that there is no clear time-table for an iraqi withdrawal because it depends on the situation at the time. "the drawdowns that will occur eventually will obviously be based on those conditions." rumsfeld said. further questions by reporters intending to pin down a clear withdrawal time-line were rebuffed.

myers said, "you have economic progress that has to be made; you have political progress that has to be made." he added that "173,000 iraqi security forces" are in place in the country, but along with work on the country's infrastructure, much remains to be done with the training and equipping of their security forces. 



new entrance discovered to world's longest cave

explorers have just released information on the discovery and exploration of a new entrance to kentucky's mammoth cave. located in the east central united states, the 579-kilometer-long (360 mile) cave is the longest known in the world. despite its length and a 200 year exploration effort, only eight natural entrances have been located into the vast underground system.

the entrance was discovered in september 2003, and a route to known sections of mammoth cave was first discovered in march. the actual connection was made at 11:55 p.m. central standard time, march 18, 2005 (4:55 utc, march 19, 2005) by veteran cavers alan canon, john feil, dick market, and james wells. the latest mapping adds four kilometers (2.5 miles) to mammoth cave's total length.

alan glennon, a cave scientist at the university of california, santa barbara, describes the find as "exciting". "such significant discoveries show that we've still got a lot to learn about places right under our feet", he said. 

exploration of mammoth cave is conducted by the cave research foundation and central kentucky karst coalition. both groups' membership is open to experienced cave surveyors. the explorers note that the new entrance is located far from the developed, tourist trails within mammoth cave national park.

mammoth cave is located at 37.186° n 86.100° w.





oil in alberta spill may be carcinogenic

the province of alberta, canada is considering legal action against canadian national railway for failing to warn that a derailment last week contaminated wabamun lake with a hazardous chemical.

the 700,000 litres of heavy bunker c fuel oil that spilled into the lake asphyxiated birds and killed fish.

in addition, one of the ruptured tanker cars sent 70,000 liters of imperial pole treating oil into the lake. this oil is a yellow mixture of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and aliphatic hydrocarbons. naphthalene, a component of this "very toxic material" is suspected of causing skin cancer if touched and lung or other cancers if inhaled. inhalation is promoted by actions that cause splashing or foaming. the mineral oil is used in connection with pentachlorophenol for preserving wooden utility poles.

wabamun lake is a popular summertime recreational area about 65 kilometers (40 miles) west of edmonton, alberta.

the 766-megawatt keephills power generating plant, one of 3 in wabamun, was shut down because the coal-fired plant uses water from the lake. edmonton's health authority ordered people not to swim, boat or rescue animals in the lake and to stop using its water or any water from nearby wells for cooking, drinking, showering or brushing teeth. these warnings came 3 days after many residents, including children, had been wading into the oil slick without protective clothing to save wildlife injured by the spill and others had been routinely depending on the lakewater for home use. why the alert was not issued sooner remains under investigation and may result in criminal charges. canadian national railway had been informed of the nature of the oil when it was loaded by imperial oil ltd., canada's largest petroleum company. imperial oil is posting informational updates on a special website . in addition the wabamun residents committee has established an information website .



detroit chemical plant experiences explosions, fire; residents evacuated

all residents within a half-mile radius of the eq resource recovery chemical plant in southeastern michigan were asked to voluntarily evacuate on tuesday due to a chemical plant explosion. clickondetroit reported that nearby residents who choose to stay were told to close their doors and windows.

the plant, located in romulus, near wayne, is about 15 miles southwest of detroit. initial reports stated that a single explosion in a chemical tank was the cause of the fire. the cause of this explosion has not yet been determined. detroit abc affiliate wxyz confirmed that all employees made it out of the plant before the explosion occurred, and that hazmat teams were on the scene of the fire. wayne county sheriff warren evans announced that no injuries were reported in the initial explosion. however, approximately 32 people were treated for breathing problems at nearby oakwood annapolis hospital, due to the subsequent fire. 

the environmental protection agency (epa) analyzed soot in the area and determined that it did not pose a substantial health risk. the company in question has been the target of numerous enforcement actions by the epa in the past, including a $240,000 fine in 1999. a major chemical processed at the plant is acetone, the main ingredient in nail polish remover, which is known to be toxic in high dosages, especially to those with lung conditions. acetone is also an eye and skin irritant. other chemicals, such as antifreeze, are also processed there. two detroit-area law firms have filed class action lawsuits against eq resource recovery on behalf of local residents, and a third is considering similar action.

romulus is the site of the detroit metropolitan wayne county airport (dtw), the primary airport for the detroit area and a hub for northwest airlines. however, airport service was not affected. news of this explosion came as a chemical plant explosion in story city, iowa happened just a day before and three similar explosions in texas occurred july 28.


detroit chemical plant experiences explosions, fire; residents evacuated/brief

the eq resource recovery inc. and eq holding company chemical processing plant near romulus, michigan, about 15 miles southwest of detroit, was the scene of explosions and fire on tuesday evening, continuing into wednesday. the cause of the explosions and fire has not yet been determined. 

firefighters announced their intention to let the fire burn itself out, which was estimated will take approximately 8 hours. however, parts of the fire continued to burn as of wednesday evening. there were evacuations of approximately 3000 residents from the area, but no reports of any serious injuries or fatalities. however, approximately 20 people were treated for breathing problems at nearby oakwood annapolis hospital. the environmental protection agency (epa) is analyzing soot in the area to determine whether it poses a substantial health risk. the company in question has been the target of numerous enforcement actions by the epa in the past, including a $240,000 fine in 1999.

a major chemical processed at the plant is acetone, the main ingredient in nail polish remover, which is known to be toxic in high dosages, especially to those with lung conditions. acetone is also an eye and skin irritant.

romulus is the site of the detroit metropolitan wayne county airport (dtw), the primary airport for the detroit area and a hub for northwest airlines. there was no indication that airport service would be affected.


volcanic activity expands mcdonald island off australia


the volcano on mcdonald island, approximately 4,000 kilometres south-west of western australia, is erupting for the first time since 2001. magma is described as slowly "oozing" out of the volcano by professor michael stoddart, chief scientist with the australian antarctic program, creating new land suitable for colonisation by local wildlife. the volcano is one of australia's two active volcanos.

senator ian campbell unveiled satellite images of the island today at the opening of the annual australian antarctic division exhibition at parliament house. 

the small island group is rocky from its volcanic geological origins, and uninhabited. the recent activity on tiny mcdonald island caused it to almost double in size.


fourteen dead as passenger helicopter crashes off estonia

fourteen people are presumed dead after a passenger helicopter of the finnish company copterline crashed into the baltic sea, 5 km off the coast of estonia.

after hours of search, the wreck was found with a sonar at a depth of approximately 60 meters. the cabin is damaged but has remained in one piece, and passengers were found dead inside the cabin. lifting of the wreckage is being planned at the moment.

the sikorsky s-76 was on a scheduled passenger flight to helsinki from tallinn, the estonian capital. the craft came down just three minutes after take-off at 12:43 pm (gmt+3). according to an eyewitness, two loud bangs were heard before the craft crashed down. no smoke or fire were seen after the bangs.

on board were six finnish, four estonian and two american passengers as well as two finnish crew members.
both of the pilots were experienced, with over 10 years of flight experience in the company.

estonian rescue helicopters and boats have been sent, a finnish rescue helicopter and mini submarines also at the scene.

investigation of the causes of the accident is underway, but one possible reason is the bad weather as the area has been suffering from severe storms recently, the winds at the time are believed to have been 17-20 metres a second. "many of the helicopters safety measures failed", said the spokesman from copterline. the safety measures include the ability of the craft to glide down in case of engine failure and the ability to float on water, both of which seemed to have failed. copterline, one of the largest helicopter airlines in europe, has cancelled all upcoming flights today, but are continuing as scheduled tomorrow morning.

an overview in estonian (some pics & timeline)


slovenian alpinist rescued from himalayan peak

early wednesday morning (5:30 am local time), the military helicopter lama iii rescued alpinist toma? humar, who went up on a solo climb on one of the highest peaks in the himalayas.

humar became trapped by a bad weather and avalanches in a ice-cave on 5 august at an approximate height of 5900 meters with no food left for the last few days. after mr. humar was back in the base-camp, the mission medic dr. anda perdan said he has some very beginning of chilblains on his toes, but she expects there will be no serious consequences. by one of the news-sites 24ur.com - sre?en, na trdnih tleh, he decided to stay in the base-camp after the rescue mission (and not being taken to the hospital), however, by the , he has been later taken to a hospital located in the mountain town of gilgit.

this article is a continuing story of the slovenian alpinist in rescue on nanga parbat.


nafta dismisses us claims of canadian violation of trade agreement rules in softwood lumber dispute

the united states has lost another battle in the ongoing u.s.-canada softwood lumber dispute.

a nafta extraordinary challenge committee (ecc) rejected u.s. allegations that an earlier ruling in support of canada's position violated nafta rules. 

this is the latest of a string of failed u.s. attempts, to show before nafta and wto tribunals, that the canadian government has been subsidizing lumber. on several occasions, the u.s. has been told that its calculating methods were not valid. a nafta report of august 13, 2003 said the u.s. made a mistake in calculating its duties based on u.s. prices, and by not taking canadian market conditions into consideration, and ordered washington to recalculate them. nafta decisions are legally binding and must be put into effect within 60 days. 

two weeks later, a wto panel concluded that the u.s. wrongly applied harsh duties on canadian softwood exports. they also found that provincial stumpage programs provide a "financial benefit" to canadian producers. however, the panel made it clear that the benefit was not enough to constitute a subsidy, and did not justify the u.s. duties.

"we are extremely pleased that the ecc dismissed the claims of the united states," said canada's international trade minister jim peterson. 

"this is a binding decision that clearly eliminates the basis for u.s.-imposed duties on canadian softwood lumber. we fully expect the united states to abide by this ruling, stop collecting duties and refund the duties collected over the past three years," he said. 

negotiations between canada and the u.s. are expected to resume next week.

while there have been suggestions that the ruling could bring the softwood dispute to an end after more than four years, the issue may not be resolved. the united states could still file legal challenges outside of nafta. 

the united states has been collecting duties on canadian softwood lumber since may 2002, after american lumber producers accused ottawa of subsidizing lumber exports.



greenpeace tries to thwart chesapeake bay fishing fleet

greenpeace activists scattered schools of in the on tuesday when fishing ships belonging to omega protein corp. were about to drop their sceine nets.
the omega fleet consisted of two spotter planes and four fishing boats with eight . greenpeace arrived with four fast moving out-board motor boats, manned by thirteen activists, who attempted to drive away the fish. the coast guard was called in and ended the confrontation peacefully.

the -based omega protein corporation is the largest processor and distributor of protein-rich menhaden and fish oil products in the united states. the company accounts for nearly 90% of the entire east coast menhaden catch.

an omega spokesman toby gascon said of greenpeace, "they have now demonstrated that their real agenda is to put omega out of business, even if it means risking the safety of omega's fishermen." their fleet is out of reedville, virginia, now a top u.s. fishing port due to the recent omega processing plant opened there.

chesapeake bay menhaden are considered an important food source for fish species popular with sports fisherman. they are also, next to oysters, a prime in bay waters. the bay oyster population has suffered drastic declines from disease over the last two decades. studies of menhaden populations are still inconclusive as scientists try to determine the overall number of bay menhaden.
greenpeace says the species is near historic lows and predators that depend on the fish as a food source, such as , show signs of suffering from malnutrition and poor body condition. 

the "chesapeake bay foundation", a not-for-profit organization, had praise for maryland governor , and the state's department of natural resources. they secured a commitment from the atlantic states marine fisheries commission (asmfc) to seek a cap on commercial harvesting of atlantic menhaden. 

a coalition of recreational anglers and environmentalists, called "menhaden matter", also joined the debate by saying coast-wide population of atlantic menhaden has fallen to near record lows. they are also against an encroachment by omega into chesapeake waters.

the issue is a cap proposed by asmfc on the menhaden harvest. the board recommended a draft addendum to limit the menhaden harvest to 110,400 metric tons, which is the average over five years of consecutive declines in harvests for the species. the limit would apply to atlantic and in-land waters of the species. the proposed cap is for years 2006 and 2007 and open to public debate.

asmfc recently rejected an offer by omega that would voluntarily cap their harvest at 135,000 metric tons annually for the next four years. they noted omega also seeks to reopen some waters in maryland and new jersey which are currently closed to industrial purse seine operations. a public hearing is scheduled in alexandria, virginia in the next few days.

omega says that asmfc's own reports indicate the population levels of atlantic menhaden are healthy.

a "chesapeake bay foundation" senior scientist, william j. goldsborough, said, "i believe that a cap on the purse seine catch of menhaden at current levels, covering the total catch as well as removals from chesapeake bay, would be a prudent measure to adopt."



crosswords/2005/august/11

answers on next puzzle.


haze crisis over malaysia prompts talks with indonesia


a week-long choking smog-like haze over malaysia has prompted crisis talks with indonesia. lingering smoke from forest fires on the indonesian island of sumatra are the primary cause. farmers regularly burn scrub and forest to clear land during the dry season, but this is the worst haze since 1997.

air quality in the malaysian capital city of kuala lumpur is so poor, health officials are advising citizens to stay at home with doors closed. some schools have been closed to keep children from being exposed to the haze. schools that chose to remain open are keeping children indoors and require them to wear protective masks when they are forced to venture outdoors.

kuala lumpur international airport was unaffected but smaller flights from subang airport were suspended.

malaysia's environment minister, adenan satem, and commodities minister, peter chin, will meet with indonesia's forestry minister and officials from its environment ministry in medan, according to malaysian media. malaysia has offered to send firefighters to fight the forest and scrub fires estimated at numbering more than 300.


pakistan successfully tests cruise missile

on thursday, pakistan successfully tested their first cruise missile, becoming the only country to test cruise missiles in the region.

the missile is named babur, it can carry either a nuclear or a conventional warhead.

according to the military, the missile is a "terrain hugging" missile designed to evade radar. it flies parallel to the ground and has an advanced navigation and guidance system.



u.s. government hiring more hackers

at a hackers conference in las vegas with the spoofed name of defcon, the assistant secretary of defense linton wells made a pitch to attendees; "if you want to work on cutting-edge problems, if you want to be part of the truly great issues of our time ... we invite you to work with us."

technology commentator richard thieme said that there are many feds attending undercover; "you can't be deceived by the uniforms. i talked at the pentagon, and one-third of the people in the audience i already knew from defcon." attendees who "out" the undercover ops are awarded free "t" shirts.

a "meet the feds" panel was attended by a man who demanded, "i would like to know why the federal government, especially some of the law enforcement agencies, are destroying this country."

pentagon people would not comment on the rumours that they are looking for people to attack "foreign" networks. "i'm learning while i'm here but i'm also getting the names of people." said don blumenthal of the federal trade commission.

the feds arrested a russian programmer dmitry sklyarov at the annual 2001 defcon conference. the gathering is attended by computer security experts, hackers and crackers of all types who celebrate the cutting edge of the technology.


truck carrying explosives crashes, explodes in utah

a truck carrying 35,500 pounds (16,100 kg) of explosives used in mining and seismic exploration overturned and exploded on a rural mountain section of u.s. highway 6 in utah's spanish fork canyon thursday afternoon.

the wreck occurred shortly after 2 pm, as driver travis stewart, 30, of rexburg, idaho, was leaving ensign-bickford co., a commercial explosives manufacturing plant at the mouth of the canyon. company officials said the truck was destined for oklahoma. 

witnesses said mr. stewart appeared to lose control of the truck after entering a curve in the road at a high rate of speed. utah highway patrol lt. ken peay said, "speed was a factor" in the wreck of the truck but refused to speculate on how fast the truck was traveling when it wrecked. lt. peay said the posted speed limit on the road is 60 mph, but the advised speed is 40.

at least 17 people received minor injuries and the explosion left a 35 foot deep crater in the highway. the driver was transported via helicopter to a hospital, where he was listed in fair condition, and was later released. the co-driver troy lysfjord, 37, of blackfoot, idaho, was helped from the wreck by passers by and listed in fair condition at utah valley regional hospital in provo.

the wreck site occurred on a major thoroughfare between denver and salt lake city - about 60 miles south of salt lake city - was already under reconstruction by nightfall, as road crews began installing 10 inches of asphalt on the two lane road. 

utah department of transportation spokesman tom hudachko said officials hoped to have the road fully repaired by friday afternoon, adding that, "when you take a look at that hole that was there 24 hours ago, i think it's amazing the progress that was made." as of press time, the mouth of the canyon was reopened to traffic, while traffic at the accident site was impassible, and rerouted nearby. 

the explosion consumed all but about 60 pounds of explosives, and loosened some boulders on the north side of the highway, damaged railroad tracks and some fiber optic lines buried along the roadway. amtrak and union pacific reported delays resulting from the wreck. uinta national forest spokesman loyal clark said forest firefighters were unable to respond to several small fires nearby that were apparently started by flying debris, and that helicopters dropped water to extinguish them. high humidity and lack of fuel from a previous fire delayed the fire's spread.

the cost of repairs, while paid immediately by the state, will ultimately be borne by the trucking company's insurance carrier. the truck is registered to r&r trucking of duenweg, missouri. 

uhp lt. peay said the investigation findings will be turned over to utah county attorney kay bryson whom would make any final decision about what charges, if any, would be pressed. 



rolling stones unleash new song critical of bush

a new song by the british rock band titled "sweet neo con" has been stirring a controversy over its lyrics, which are highly critical of the bush administration.

"you call yourself a christian, i call you a hypocrite" is among the verses in "sweet neo con", according to the magazine "". lead singer commented on the song, saying "it is certainly very critical of certain policies of the administration, but so what! lots of people are critical." jagger, however, denies the criticism is directed at bush.

the song is scheduled for release september 5 on a cd entitled "a bigger bang". jagger told music critic jude cole of "extratv", "you can't make rock records without a lot of vitality." 

the band is scheduled to start a tour in the united states, starting in , on august 21.



tropical storm irene to intensify, may hit u.s. coast

tropical storm irene will increase in strength over the next several days, possibly developing into a hurricane that will hit the east coast of the united states, said the national hurricane center of miami, florida in a report today.

irene was located approximately 975 kilometers south-southeast of bermuda at 16:00 utc today. forecasters say that the storm is now moving in a west-northwest direction with top sustained winds of 40 miles per hour.

commenting on irene's potential impact on the united states, james franklin of the national hurricane center said, "it certainly doesn't look like the main threat is florida, but stranger things have happened. ... it may well turn sharply enough (to the north) to not make landfall."

irene is the ninth named storm in this year's atlantic hurricane season. the average number of storms named by this point in the season is only two.


palmeiro benched on return to major league baseball

baltimore orioles baseball fans had a chance to vote for their support of major league baseball's (mlb) steroid use and policies with their home game attendance thursday night. rafael palmeiro, back after serving a 10-game suspension for testing positive for stanozolol, was notably not in the starting line-up against the visiting tampa bay devil rays. attendance was on the thin side, around 27,000 attended at the 48,262 capacity stadium at camden yards.

the orioles concluded a 3-game sweep of the rays with tonight's 4-2 win. rafael palmeiro watched from the dugout.

palmeiro, this season's embattled designated hitter and sometimes first baseman, is an orioles star who in march made finger wagging and emphatic denials of steroid use during his testimony before the house committee on government reform. it was later learned that mlb officials had evidence of his drug use prior to the palmeiro testimony, but none of that was known until the scandalous aftermath caused by their august 1 suspension of him.

palmeiro responded to the suspension at a news conference that followed by saying he had no idea how traces of the steroid could be found in his urine, and that somehow he was an unwitting victim. the potent and easily detected steroid is almost always injected with a needle. 

the house committee chairman, tom davis (r-va), said palmeiro voluntarily turned over documents that are being reviewed during their stepped up perjury investigation. mlb said they would turn over their documents today.

the prospects currently look dim for a palmeiro nomination to baseball's hall of fame. previously, he was virtually assured a place.

in a short meeting with ballpark press reporters before the game, palmeiro, who earlier insisted he would not talk to the press said, "it's been a tough time for me and my family over the last couple of weeks, and at this time, i've been instructed by my attorneys not to comment on the situation. the time will come soon, hopefully, that i can explain my situation." 

a local sportswriter david steele called on fans to stay home and hit the sport in its money pockets. "wondering what to do tonight, the official end of palmeiro's insultingly brief punishment, when he suits up again at camden yards? try this: stay home."



scientists warn thawing siberia may trigger global meltdown

russian researchers warn that western siberia has begun to thaw as a result of global warming. the frozen peat bogs in this region may hold billions of tons of methane gas, which may be released into the atmosphere. methane is a greenhouse gas 22 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.

sergei kirpotin, of tomsk state university warned "new scientist" that the event is an "ecological landslide that is probably irreversible and is undoubtedly connected to climatic warming".

david viner, of the university of east anglia told "the guardian": "when you start messing around with these natural systems, you can end up in situations where it's unstoppable". he also warns that this event was not considered by the intergovernmental panel on climate change.

in may, scientists from the university of alaska found methane "hotspots" in eastern siberia where the gas bubbles out from thawing permafrost bogs at a rate that prevents the surface from freezing.

the permafrost has been intact for 11,000 years and started melting 3 to 4 years ago, according to kirpotin.


julian mcgauran makes rude gesture to australian senate

the senator in the australian senate had made an "unseemly" gesture across the floor of the senate whilst it was in session on august 11, apparently as a result of interjections about a division taking place.

whilst this was not immediately debated, senator had asked the acting deputy president of the senate to look into the matter. later the president of the senate ruled that the gesture was "unseemly but not obscene". 

this ruling caused a fierce debate, with senator brown saying that mcgauran's "arrogant and disgusting" actions exemplified the government's attitude towards its new-found senate majority, whilst senator , the senate leader, had criticised brown of hypocrisy, stating that brown had "broken every law in australia" and "every law in tasmania" (which bartlett noted as a point of order as being hyperbole).

senator mcgauran then spoke, stating that he "regret[ted] his actions". brown however noted that this was not an unqualified apology. a motion was then put that the president's ruling be dissented from, which debate was set for another sitting. senator , the senate leader and senator brown had called for mcgauran's sacking as chief government whip; his national party superiors have said that they will speak to mcgauran about the incident.


 


british airways strike grounds flights at heathrow

what began as a ground crew strike on thursday has escalated into the grounding of all flights from heathrow's terminal 4 until at least 8pm friday.

the row began with a funding crisis of meal provider, gate gourmet, which resulted in the axing of 200 full-time staff earlier on wednesday. in reaction, unions of ground crews and baggage handlers from british airways announced a stop work from friday, which escalated into a full close-down of terminal 4 on friday due to overcrowding and backlog.

british airways grounded more than 100 flights on thursday evening, and by friday evening, around 550 flights look to be cancelled. other airlines which utilise terminal 4 are also affected, including qantas, sri lankan airlines and finnair, with incoming longhaul flights now being redirected to other european airports, including frankfurt.

the following hotlines have been set up for people who require more information for flights from heathrow terminal 4.



former japanese prime minister hashimoto indicated his retirement


on the 11th august, the former prime minister of japan riyutaro hashimoto, age 68, formally indicated he would not run for the okayama 4th constituency of the house of representatives, the lower house of japan, due to defectiveness of his physical condition, possibly nominally. since the current prime minister junichiro koizumi had resolved that house, an election will be held on september 11. 

the next day of that announcement, on the 12th, the liberal democratic party (ldp) executive committee showed they had no intention to recognize him as a candidate to proportional representative constituency. there might be no possibility for him to run for the coming election as the ldp candidate and his political career would inevitably end. 

on the july, 2004 it was reported that hashimoto did not state the donation of 1 hundred million yen from a lobbist organisation in the annual political financial income and outgo report, which is legally mandatory to all minister and parliament speakers. hashimoto had received that donation from the japan dental political federation, one of his main supporting organisations. his relation between medical and pharmacy lobbyists began at least in 1963 when he was appointed as a secretary of minister of health and welfare. in the same year, he ran for a constituency for which his father had run since his death in that year. later he was appointed to the minister of health and welfare and played a roll as the representative of this ministry during his career.

hashimoto had been a speaker of the house of representatives since september 1963. he had not lost his seat until now. he was appointed to the minister of health and welfare, and the minister of industrial minister successively. he was the president of the ldp from 1995 until the party lost at the election of the house of councillors in 1998. he was also the prime minister of japan from 1996 till his resignation from ldp presidency. in 2001 he ran again for the presidency of the party, but was defeated by the present prime minister koizumi junichiro.


israel bans nonresidents from gaza

in a policy change prompted by activists staying in gaza protesting israel's plan to close jewish settlements there, israel announced that nonresidents will not be allowed into the territory.

israel's southern command on thursday announced "only residents of the israeli communities in the gaza strip will be allowed [entry into gaza]", where the jewish state plans to end its decades-long presence. 

israel also will stop issuing permits to close relatives of settlers.


pro-democracy demonstrations erupt in maldives

pro-democracy demonstrations took place throughout the atoll nation of maldives today, endangering the rule of authoritarian president maumoon abdul gayoom. reports indicated that the president was unable to approach the capital to take control.

the protestors, led by members of the newly-registered maldivian democratic party, reportedly were demanding the release of political prisoners and the president's resignation. 

gayoom has been president since 1978, and brooked little dissent during his tenure.


iran stands firmly against nuclear agency resolution

in a nationally broadcast radio sermon by former iranian president akbar hashemi rafsanjani on friday, he said of the u. n. watchdog group adopting the resolution for iran to stop nuclear enrichment activities, "the decision was a cruel one."

the thurday adoption in by the governing board of the (iaea) was unanimous and legally non-binding in asking iran to suspend all nuclear fuel related activities. the board also requested a report from the agency's chief, mohamed elbaradei, on its compliance by tehran.

on thursday, an iranian member of their nuclear negotiating team, sirous nasseri, read in a statement made by his republic at the emergency governing board meeting of the iaea regarding the (npt):how can this body be called to react to an act, which is in full conformity with the npt and the safeguards and constitutes a limited manifestation of the exercise of an inalienable right? a right, which by its own simple meaning, cannot be alienated from anyone. 

iaea spokeswoman melissa fleming, said yesterday, "the resolution on iran was just adopted without a vote, by consensus. so, full consensus. all 35 members of the board agreed to the language of the resolution text."

international concern over the iranian nuclear enrichment program was led by the european union countries of france, great britain, and germany (eu-3), along with the united states. the pressure brought by these nations succeeded in obtaining language calling for the re-instatement of seals that were removed at the uranium conversion facility in . the seals were removed during the recent installation of surveillance cameras by iaea.

the agency is to monitor for compliance to halt uranium enrichment. after a september 3 deadline, iran again faces a possible referral to the u.n. security council where it could be subject to economic sanctions.

meanwhile, the united states is likely to grant an entry to iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad to attend the united nations opening session next month in new york city, new york. 

the bush administration probe into whether ahmadinejad was connected to the 1979-1981 is looking like it was a case of mistaken identity. the decision remains tentative as intelligence reports within the administration continue to circulate, according to "" citing u.s. officials.



prices at the pump spike overnight in u.s.

all this week, prices at the pump have been reaching record levels across the united states. since yesterday, the price for a gallon of gasoline increased by as much as fifteen cents in some places. large cities in california, such as san francisco and los angeles, have reported gas prices that top $3.00 a gallon for regular grade, twenty cents higher than the state's average of $2.80. chicago is reporting gas prices beyond $2.80. these price hikes are a direct reflection of the record price of crude oil at $67 per barrel and the fact that 12 u.s. refineries have reported issues that have affected output.

these price increases are concerning some who worry that those with considerable financial hardships will endure more of a burden. a poll was conducted for the associated press and america online news about whether or not these gas prices will cause problems with people's personal finances and the poll found that 64 percent say gas prices will cause money problems for them in the next six months, while 35 percent did not think so.

according to a aaa texas motor club spokesman, additional price increases will more than likely continue into the weekend.


ministry reveals the details of their new album

the famous industrial metal group ministry has revealed that they are working on a new album that is due out sometime in april of 2006, entitled "rio grande blood". it is going to be the follow-up to last year's studio album "the houses of the mole", which was not successful as any one of their breakthrough albums like 1992's "psalm 69: the way to succeed and the way to suck eggs".

this year, the band has a remix album due out this september, entitled "rantology", which includes the unreleased track "the great satan".

after the new album's release there will be two bands supporting their tour: revolting cocks and spyder baby.

 


talks with tgwu and gate gourmet to resume later today

the transport and general worker's union and gate gourmet, the company that laid off 500 workers after workers staged unofficial strike action, will attend further talks held at a conciliation service by the advisory conciliation and arbitration service (acas) on saturday.

the director of gate gourmet, richard wells, denied that he was being "heavy-handed" over the dismissals. he insisted that the people affected were spoken to, and given written warnings before they were sacked.

as a result of british airways (ba) staff at heathrow joining gate gourmet's staff in the strike action, ba are running 50% of their short-haul flights, and 40% of their long haul flights today from 0600 bst/utc+1. they are expecting to add more flights to the schedule as the day progresses, so passengers are advised to check the british airways website.

analysts said that the disruption may lose ba next to ￡40m because of the refunds that the company are paying out, loss of flight revenue, and the costs of accommodating passengers in nearby hotels.

only passengers with confirmed reservations have been allowed to board flights at heathrow. barriers have been placed around terminal 4 to stop people without reservations from joining flights. there are limited catering services on-board the flights.

british airways advises passengers to telephone +44 (0)800 727 800 or check their website before travelling to the airport. they also said that they would refund customers that had to stay in a hotel on friday night up to ￡100.

it is noted by passengers, though, that the advice line can be engaged for long periods, so users of the telephone line need to be patient.

qantas, finnair, gb airways, sri lankan airlines, and british mediterranean are also affected, as they were serviced by ba's ground staff. their telephone numbers are listed below.




concerns about health situation in uk and austria

a study in the uk has found that a so called "health inequality gap" between rich and poor, measured by infant mortality and life expectancy, has increased. progress in narrowing the gap has been made on child poverty and improving housing, as well as cancer and heart disease death rates. still, the life expectancy in the wealthiest areas of britain is seven to eight years longer than the poorest areas. 

the public health minister, caroline flint, said so-called "health trainers" would be provided for poorer areas (along with extra funding) in order to help people adopt "a healthier way of life". the government had pledged to reduce the inequality gap by 10% between 1997 and 2010.

concerns have also been raised about the level of health care in austria. cancer and heart specialists have criticised the austrian system. they argue that, due to lack of funds, patients are not treated as well as in other countries. critics see these developments as leading to two-class medical care systems. health minister maria rauch-kallat has denied the allegations, saying that "everyone gets what they need". in a related move, non-monetary remunerations by pharmaceutical companies for doctors prescribing certain drugs have also come under heavy criticism. 


sri lanka's foreign minister killed in sniper attack

the foreign minister of sri lanka, lakshman kadirgamar, was fatally shot in the chest and head at his home on august 12. two people have been arrested in connection with the attack but their identities have not been released.

the inspector general of police, chandra fernando told reporters, "it's the tigers," blaming the liberation tigers of tamil eelam (ltte), who have observed a ceasefire since 2002. the rebels currently deny involvement in the shooting.

since the shooting sri lanka has declared a state of emergency. many fear this assassination and resulting countrywide lock down could jeopardize the island's fragile peace process.

under the emergency rule, the authorities can deploy troops whenever they wish, detain suspects of terrorist activities without charge, and search and demolish buildings at will.

many world leaders including jan peterson, norway's foreign minister and condoleezza rice, u.s. secretary of state has called this a senseless crime. india has called the shooting a "terrorist crime" and promised any help that is needed to end this crisis in sri lanka.


iraqi constitution met by sunni resistance

most points of disagreement on iraq's new constitution have been ironed out, and the constitution should be ready before the monday deadline, the president jalal talabani said in an announcement saturday morning.

"the meetings are still going on and we have gone forward," talabani told reporters. "there is a meeting today and another meeting tomorrow and god willing we will finish the job tomorrow." 

the largest disagreement is over the governing the kurdish and shiite areas of central and southern iraq, as well as the role of islam in the state. 

constitutional committee members have said the remaining major stumbling blocks were federalism, a kurds-style autonomy given sudden shiite support by the call from its leading politician abdul aziz al-hakim. sunni groups have called the move for federalism a deal breaker.

the controversy caused by the sudden sunni call for federalism cast doubt on the chances for approval of the constitution draft by monday's deadline. sunnis fear that federal-autonomy zones will keep them from a share of the world's second largest known oil reserves. those are concentrated in the kurdish north and shiite south.

but a sunni participant saleh al-mutlaq said on saturday, "an in principle agreement has been reached late yesterday that iraq's oil revenues will be shared between the shia, the kurds and the sunnis." the federal government would receive a percentage of oil revenues, and the rest would go to each governorate according to its population size."

sunnis have still not agreed to any of the main points of the constitutional draft, but kurdish national assembly member mahmud othman said that kurdish and shiite groups could use their majority in the parliament to get the charter approved by iraq's legislature.

the united states has played a strong role in the 71-member constitution committee writing the document described as the transitional administrative law. u.s. ambassador zalmay khalilzad has acted as a broker between the kurdish, sunni arab and shiite arab blocs.



palestinians arrested in west bank raids

during overnight raids, israeli soldiers arrested 10 people, allegedly members of islamic jihad, a palestinian militant group. the raids were conducted during two operations near the towns of jenin and nablus. an m-16 rifle was also discovered during the raid near jenin.

meanwhile, hamas, a group friendly to islamic jihad, made a rare public appearance 2 days before the israeli pull-out of settlers and troops from the gaza strip. they defied the palestinian authority by draping themselves in the colours of the group. on friday, palestinian authority officials said only the palestinian banner of red, black, green and white should be used to celebrate the withdrawal of israel from palestinian territory.

hamas are planning to run in the parliamentary elections to be held in january, next year.



julian mcgauran makes rude gesture to australian senate/brief

the senator julian mcgauran in the australian senate had made an "unseemly" gesture across the floor of the senate whilst it was in session on august 11, apparently as a result of interjections about a division taking place. whilst this was not immediately debated, senator bob brown had asked the acting deputy president of the senate to look into the matter. later the president of the senate ruled that the gesture was "unseemly but not obscene."


activists remember burundi's gatumba massacre

human rights groups around the world are marking the first anniversary of the gatumba massacre, in which more than 150 congolese "banyamulenge" tutsis were killed, at a refugee camp in western burundi. 

"on this first anniversary of this unspeakable atrocity, we have the moral obligation to honour the memory of these people who were killed just because of their tutsi ethnic origins", said emmanuel nkurunziza of the burundian campaign group "action contre genocide".

"the search for those responsible for the massacre continues", said the un's mission to burundi (onub), in a statement. 

in the immediate aftermath of the gatumba attack, the hardlined hutu-extremist rebel group palipehutu-fnl (fnl) claimed responsibility, saying that they had no fear of being held to account because they had become "untouchable". un investigators suggest that rwandan and congolese milita groups may also have been involved in the attack. the fnl later claimed that the refugee camp was a military base. the un has found no evidence for this claim, and human rights groups pointed out that nearly half of the dead were children.

2,000 people, including survivors and relatives of the dead, today attended a memorial service in burundi, reuters has reported. 

"what happened on august 13 was a genocide... one year after the massacre nothing has been done... we demand that justice be done", banyamulenge spokesman binagana amon is quoted as saying. amon also criticised the united nations for its "silence" over the attack. 

the london-based "international action network on small arms" (iansa) today paid tribute to the 156 victims of gatumba, who included a local member of the organisation, pastor jaques rutekereza. 

"his deep faith gave him the courage to face his awful death, and the death of those he loved, with dignity and courage", iansa said last year, in a statement honouring rutekereza. "the world has lost a great man. it has lost a man of peace."

rutekereza died with six of his children, according to iansa. 

members of the congolese diaspora have been active in the commemorations. the community in portland, maine has organised a weekend of events, including public testimonies from those who lost loved ones in the attack, and a talk by john b. robinson, who helped produce the film "hotel rwanda."

"we can't forget them", georges budagu told the portland press herald. 

"we want to make sure the united nations and the united states use their influence to bring those people... to justice". three of budagu's cousins died in the massacre. 

the un, in turn, asked the burundian authorities to do more to pursue the perpetrators:

"in the name of the victims, and as part of the effort to end impunity for the killings and massacres that have plagued this region for too many years, we urge the government of burundi to complete its investigation, issue the report of its findings and bring those responsible to justice."

the un also repeated its call for burundi to involve the international criminal court in the investigation. previous efforts had stalled due to opposition to the court within the un security council.

following the fnl's admission of responsibility for gatumba, the burundian government produced international arrest warrants for the group's leaders agathon rwasa and pasteur habimana. regional heads condemned the group as a terrorist organisation, with south african's president thabo mbeki likening the fnl's ideology to that of the nazis. yet when rwasa held a press conference in tanzania in may, no attempt was made to arrest him. a ceasefire deal signed soon afterwards broke down within days. 

burundi's refugee minister francoise ngendahayo today said that her government is committed to seeing justice for the victims of gatumba. 

"those responsible will be arrested but burundi cannot do this work alone, we need the collaboration of the dr congo and the un", she told reuters.

burundi's president-elect recently suggested that the fnl could be allowed to join his government. some analysts believe that offering the group an amnesty might help bring peace to burundi. others argue that this could make the situation worse.

"for reasons of diplomacy, people are sitting at the exact same table as war criminals, and in some cases granting them immunity. if the atrocities are to end there must be at least some indications that justice will be done", human rights watch spokesman stephan van praet told reuters, in the aftermath of gatumba.

action contre genocide's emmanuel nkurunziza today criticised the un for what he called a "paradoxical" response to the massacre. despite widespread international condemnation of the attack, the un representative in burundi carolyn mcaskie held face-to-face meetings with the fnl in nairobi earlier this year.

"there was no repentance from these killers prior to the meeting; nonetheless, she went on to relay their so-called demands", he said.

local media recently reported 300 civilian deaths at the hands of the fnl during june and july. an estimated 300,000 people, mostly civilians, have died in burundi since civil war broke out in 1993. 




israeli greenhouses to be preserved after gaza pullout

a last minute deal reached saturday dictates that about 1,000 israeli settler greenhouses located in the gaza strip will not be dismantled after monday's pullout. instead, they will remain standing and be placed in palestinian control.

the deal allows one of the gaza strip's largest employers to remain intact. greenhouses in the region currently employ more than 4,000 people.

the deal was pioneered by envoy james wolfenson. mr. wolfenson will purchase the greenhouses using funds amounting to us$14 million. he will proceed to turn the properties over to palestine.

daniel ayalon, israeli ambassador to the united states, spoke optimistically of the greenhouse agreement. said mr. ayalon, "as we leave gaza, and some parts of the west bank, we are not leaving scorched earth. on the contrary, we are leaving behind means for them to take over and immediately better their situation."

in gaza, the median age is 15 and about 80% of the population live in poverty.


veteran u.s. attorney appointed to oversee plame inquiry

u.s. dept. of justice attorney for 40 years, dave margolis, was assigned by james comey on august 12 to take over his position as the acting deputy attorney general. the former assistant deputy replaces comey as the acting boss of patrick fitzgerald, the lead prosecutor of the plame cia leak case. comey left the post for the private sector as general council for lockheed martin corp.

al martin, ret. navy lt. commander (who testified for kerry's iran-contra hearings) alleges that when david margolis was the domestic criminal section chief, he helped limit the liability of ronald reagan and george h. w. bush in the iran-contra affair. martin is also on record as having alleged that margolis was part of a "restricted access group" known as rag-1, which "was first to develop and then to coordinate the cia's policy of trafficking in narcotics on a large-scale basis, in order to produce ongoing covert revenue streams pursuant to the aid and sustenance of illegal operations of state," according to martin.

president bush nominated timothy e. flanigan for comey's job. the comey departure, without margolis stepping in, would have left two key posts at the justice department unfilled. the head of the criminal justice, formerly occupied by christopher wray, has been empty since may. 

flanigan is facing tough questioning during his senate judiciary committee confirmation process. senator arlen specter (r-pa) said he is unsure whether he would vote for his confirmation. flanigan's role in the aggressive interrogation techniques used on detainees from afghanistan and iraq and his ties to lobbyist jack abramoff are being probed.




kurmanbek bakiev sworn in as president of kyrgyzstan

kurmanbek bakiev has been sworn in as the president of kyrgyzstan after winning the elections one month ago with an 89% majority.

following the exile of the previous president, askar akayev, bakiev was appointed acting president until elections were held.

mr bakiev's main competitor in the elections was felix kulov. they agreed upon a power-sharing pact, meaning that mr kulov would become prime minister if mr bakiev became president.

bakiev took his oath of office after a military parade, in front of diginitaries in bishkek's central square.


cypriot plane with 121 on board crashes in greece

a helios airliner (boeing 737, flight hcy 522) with 115 passengers and 6 crew onboard has crashed into a mountain at 09:04 utc (12:04 p.m. eest) near grammatiko, 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of athens, while approaching the capital's airport. all on board perished. the plane was travelling from larnaca, in the southeast of cyprus (greek:kypros, Κ?προ?) and scheduled to arrive in prague after a stop in athens.

immediately after take-off, the pilots reported a problem with the air conditioning system of the aircraft and requested to stay at a low altitude. a few minutes later, the pilots alerted the station that the problem had been fixed and requested permission to ascend. this information however has been denied by the director of helios airways. as the plane approached athens, all communication abruptly ceased, and the plane never issued a mayday distress signal. two greek f-16 military aircraft were assigned to observe the plane. the pilots of the f-16s noted that one airliner pilot appeared to be unconscious and the other was not in the cockpit.

cbc reported the following: 

on wednesday [august 17, 2005], state-run and private media, quoting anonymous defense ministry officials, said the two fighter pilots saw someone in the cockpit take control of the plane, which was flying in a gradually descending holding pattern apparently on autopilot. that person, probably a man who experts say must have had flight training, then banked the plane away from athens, lowering it to 2,000 feet and then climbing back up to 7,000 feet before the plane apparently ran out of fuel and crashed. 

the f-16s accompanied the airliner until it crashed.

the greek f-16 pilots saw at least one of the aircraft's pilots may have become unconscious before the crash, causing control of the plane to be lost. the emergency oxygen masks were also reported to have dropped.

there had been speculation that an electrical fire or some other cause could have flooded the cabin with carbon monoxide or another gas that would render the passengers unconscious. however, the chief coroner of athens, greece, said that tests showed none of the passengers or crew had carbon monoxide in their blood. it was also speculated that the air-supply system of the aircraft may have failed, causing a loss of air pressure within the cockpit. this malfunction can cause a steep drop in air temperature. on december 16, 2004 the same aircraft made an emergency landing after failure of the ventilation system at 35,000 feet and 3 passengers were hospitalized. however, an airline spokesman insisted that the plane was airworthy when it took off.

tests showed that at least 26 people on the flight were still alive when it crashed. 

after a cabin decompression occurred onboard a learjet carrying golf pro payne stewart in 1999, all the travelers lost consciousness and the plane eventually crashed with no survivors.

helios airlines was unable to supply a complete passenger list, having only first initials and surnames available for investigators. 

the official passenger list released by cyprus police, as reported by cna, indicates that there were 22 young persons onboard aged 4-16. most of the passengers were cypriot, a small number were greek and one of the pilots was german. there were 4 armenian passengers who lived in cyprus.

the complete list, in greek, has been published by the cyprus news agency.

after the crash, a fire started around the airliner. it was extinguished by firefighters after 2 hours. the fire burned most of the bodies that are now being collected by special firefighter units and transferred to the city of shisto, near athens. meanwhile, the two f-16 pilots were transferred to ministry of defense to give their report.

the flight data recorder has been recovered. the cockpit voice recorder was found the following morning in bad condition. the two devices will be sent to paris for examination.

nektarios-sotirios voutas reported that a passenger (his cousin) sent a text message that read: "the pilot has turned blue [in the face]. [f]arewell we're freezing". he was arrested the following day as it appeared to be a hoax .

helios has informed the relatives of the victims; however, the company has been met with criticism for failing to release the passenger list quickly.

helios airways released a statement on their website today, stating, "our thoughts are with the families of those on board at this difficult time."

an emergency telephone number in nicosia, cyprus can be contacted at +357/70003737, 22 ? 446146.

the cypriot government has declared three days of national mourning and ordered flags to be lowered on half-mast.

upon allegations brought by the communications and works minister and the chief of police, warrants were issued by the attorney general to search helios airways offices 


"cyprus and greece are utc+3, czech republic is utc+2."

helios airways was founded in 1999 as cyprus' first private airline. it is now a subsidiary of libra holidays group of limassol, cyprus and is registered in cyprus. helios' remaining fleet consists of 2 boeing 737-800 jets and an airbus a319. helios offers flights between cyprus and london, athens, sofia, warsaw, dublin and strasbourg.




david lange, former new zealand prime minister, dies at 63

new zealanders woke up sunday to learn of the death of one of their most notable leaders. david lange was prime minister for just five years in the mid-1980s, but his administration left an indelible mark on the nation economically and socially, and also reoriented its foreign policy. 

lange, 63, died of renal failure at 10 p.m. on august 13, a day after his family decided to discontinue artificial life support. he had fought a long battle with multiple ailments. in 2002, he was diagnosed with amyloidosis, a rare and incurable blood disorder. lange defied his doctors' initial predictions that he had only four months to live, and following a round of chemotherapy, appeared to rally for a time, but in mid-2005 his condition took a sudden turn for the worse. he entered hospital in auckland in mid july, 2005, to undergo nightly peritoneal dialysis and battled end-stage kidney failure. on august 2, he had his lower-right leg amputated without a general anaesthetic, as a result of diabetes complications.

his declining health resulted in the publication of his memoir "my life" being brought forward to august 8. he lived to see this happen and gave his last interview on tv3 to john campbell the same day.

lange was first elected to the new zealand parliament in a byelection in 1977. as a lawyer, he had built up a personal rapport with his mangere constituency by representing poor clients free of charge. in less than three years, he was elected deputy leader of the labour party, and, after an initial failed bid for the leadership in 1980, was chosen to replace bill rowling as the party leader in 1983. he went on to lead the party to a landslide victory in the general election held on 14 july, 1984, ousting the longtime prime minister, robert muldoon. 

despite his nominal socialism, he initiated sweeping reforms to deregulate the economy and boost private enterprise, and his was regarded as a government of the left only in name. in foreign policy, however, lange remained somewhat further to the left: he banned nuclear-armed and powered warships from entering new zealand's ports, straining a once-close relationship with the united states. in 1985 he took part in a widely-televised oxford union debate , arguing for the proposition that "nuclear weapons are morally indefensible", in opposition to u.s. televangelist jerry falwell.

lange won the 1987 election by an even greater margin than in 1984, but internal divisions within the labour party were weakening his position. many rank and file members of the party felt that the government's economic reforms were a betrayal of labour's socialist ideology. attempting to appease the left, lange fired his right-wing finance minister, roger douglas, late in 1988. when the party caucus, which under labour party rules chooses the cabinet, insisted on his reinstatement to the cabinet in mid-1989, lange resigned on 8 august, 1989.

lange was widely regarded as a larger-than-life figure, who was never far from controversy. once regarded as a fervent methodist, lange weathered a storm in 1990 after his decision to leave his first wife, naomi, and move in with margaret pope, whom he later married. in 1996, lange and pope had a daughter, edith; lange, whose health was already in decline, said that his fondest hope was to see edith grow up. responding to questions about whether he was afraid of being "an old dad," he replied, "no ... but i'm afraid of being a dead dad." he said in another interview the same year, on announcing his final retirement from politics, that he hoped to spend more time with his family, to concentrate on lecturing and writing, "and to grow old." this last wish did not materialize.

lange was remembered for his intelligence, his wit, and his loud booming voice. supporters and opponents alike spoke warmly of lange. whether they agreed with his policies or not, they described him as a deeply compassionate man who would be sadly missed.



controversial cancer test gains support

some cancer specialists have stepped up calls for smokers and ex-smokers to undergo advanced screening for lung cancer . they reacted to the recent deaths of peter jennings and barbara bel geddes and the disclosure that dana reeve has lung cancer by urging people to have their lungs screened with special helical ct chest scans.

because health insurance plans do not cover such screening, anxious patients who can afford it are paying about $300 for the test out of pocket. the american cancer society discourages using the advanced ct scan technique for screening because doctors do not yet know how to interpret findings of small lesions. a helical scan can show lumps as small as 2 millimetres in diameter, but doctors do not know what to make of such lesions. the tumors may not actually be cancerous, and even small cancers may spontaneously remit or may grow so slowly that surgery, radiation or chemotherapy would do far more harm than good. preliminary results of a large ongoing study, expected within a year, may provide tentative guidelines on when to perform a biopsy and when ct screening would be worthwhile.

smoking one pack of cigarettes daily for 20 years or more brings a 50 percent chance of dying from lung cancer. for any smoker, 10 years of abstinence cuts the risk in half. women are more vulnerable than men even if they don't smoke. environmental pollutants work with smoking to increase risk. people with affected parents or siblings are 2?3 times more likely to fall ill with lung cancer. a malignant tumor can grow silently for years. in the united states by the time it is recognized a lung cancer has spread in 3 out of 4 patients. routine chest x-ray screening does not improve survival rate. although patients treated after their lung cancer has shown up in a highly sensitive helical (also called "spiral") ct scan are much more likely to survive, this may only be because small cancers grow very slowly or would cause no trouble even without treatment.

on the other hand, some cancer experts already strongly support performing the screening. they point out that prompt treatment of lung cancer clearly improves prognosis and that an equivocal scan can be repeated after some months to see if a lesion has enlarged. furthermore, a decision not to wait for conclusive science but to undergo a helical scan would be supported by consideration of a patient's age, family history, history of smoking and other risk factors. annual scanning has been recommended for people over age 50 who have smoked 1 pack daily for 30 years or 2 packs for 15 and who also have a known lung condition.


cypriot plane with 121 on board crashes in greece, no passengers survive/brief

a helios airways plane with 121 onboard has crashed into a mountain near the greek island of grammatikos, approximately 40 kilometres north of athens. no survivors have been reported.

the crash occurred at 09:04 utc this morning. after communication was lost with ground control twenty minutes after take-off, the aircraft was joined by two greek f-16 military aircrafts until the plane crashed. the pilots of the f-16s noted that one airliner pilot appeared to be unconscious and the other was not in the cockpit. immediatiately after take-off, the pilots reported a problem with the pressurization system of the aircraft, and later a passenger sent a text message communicating that it had become extremely cold in the cabin and that people were freezing to death. it is speculated that the air-supply system of the plane may have failed. 

see wikinews for further developments.


news briefs:august 14, 2005

a helios airways plane with 121 onboard has crashed into a mountain near the greek island of grammatikos, approximately 40 kilometres north of athens. no survivors have been reported.

the crash occurred at 09:04 utc this morning. after communication was lost with ground control twenty minutes after take-off, the aircraft was joined by two greek f-16 military aircrafts until the plane crashed. the pilots of the f-16s noted that one airliner pilot appeared to be unconscious and the other was not in the cockpit. immediately after take-off, the pilots reported a problem with the pressurization system of the aircraft, and later a passenger sent a text message communicating that it had become extremely cold in the cabin and that people were freezing to death. it is speculated that the air-supply system of the plane may have failed. 

see wikinews for further developments.

kurmanbek bakiev has been sworn in as the president of kyrgyzstan after winning the elections one month ago with an 89% majority. bakiev took his oath of office after a military parade, in front of diginitaries in bishkek's central square. mr. bakiev's main competitor in the elections was felix kulov. they agreed upon a power-sharing pact, ensuring that mr. kulov would become prime minister if mr. bakiev became president.

the united states transportation security administration has announced plans to reduce the number of security screeners in us airports. the cutbacks come despite an increased tsa budget for 2006 and an overall increase in airport traffic.


kurmanbek bakiev sworn in as president of kyrgyzstan/brief

kurmanbek bakiev has been sworn in as the president of kyrgyzstan after winning the elections one month ago with an 89% majority. bakiev took his oath of office after a military parade, in front of diginitaries in bishkek's central square. mr. bakiev's main competitor in the elections was felix kulov. they agreed upon a power-sharing pact, ensuring that mr. kulov would become prime minister if mr. bakiev became president.


tsa cuts us airport security screening personnel/brief

the united states transportation security administration has announced plans to reduce the number of security screeners in us airports. the cutbacks come despite an increased tsa budget for 2006 and an overall increase in airport traffic.


paula abdul cleared of sex scandal after 'american idol' inquiry

executives of the u.s. fox network said friday that singer paula abdul was cleared of any wrongdoing in regard to charges that she had an improper relationship with former "american idol" contestant corey clark. the network cleared her to return to the show for its fifth season.

"american idol" has topped network television ratings as the most-watched program in the u.s. for the past three years. abdul is one of the three judges of the talent/variety program, where she is popularly referred to as the "nice one" by contestants. 

fox reportedly hired a former federal prosecutor to lead an investigation into whether abdul compromised the integrity of its flagship series. after an investigation of more than three months, interviewing 43 people and looking over documents supplied by both abdul and clark, the investigation showed no proof that abdul had a sexual relationship with clark.

clark was booted from the second season of "idol" after it was discovered he hid a previous domestic violence arrest record from producers. two years later, he told reporters that he had been involved in a secret romantic relationship with abdul, which would have been a violation of the show's rules and abdul's employment contract.

"i'm grateful this ordeal is over, and i'm so looking forward to getting back to the job i love," abdul said in an associated press interview after the decision was announced to keep her on the show.


mother's plea to u.s. president gains widespread attention

cindy sheehan, the grieving mother of a fallen soldier in iraq, has gained national attention for her efforts to demand the president of the united states speak with her personally. "what i want to ask is, 'what noble cause did my son die for?' and if he says that it was to get rid of saddam or liberate the iraqi people, i'm not going to buy it." mrs. sheehan told reporters. prompted by president george w. bush's announcement that americans in iraq have died for a 'noble cause', sheehan has been camping near bush's texas ranch for the past week to demand a private conversation with the president. "i don't want comfort," she told , "i want the truth."

mr. bush said he was aware of the pleas of the grieving mothers, "but whether it be here or in washington or anywhere else, there's somebody who has got something to say to the president, that's part of the job. and i think it's important for me to be thoughtful and sensitive to those who have got something to say. but i think it's also important for me to go on with my life, to keep a balanced life."

cindy has been joined in by hundreds of supporters, including many other mothers of fallen soldiers, who are camping out with her and joining her in calling "for the truth" about why their sons had to die. rallies of support are also taking place and being scheduled across the nation, and contributions from citizens across the world are flowing into the "peace house", a nearby cottage providing shelter and support for the mothers.

casey's grandparents and other members of her extended family issued a statement emailed to the website, which reveals their disagreement with the actions and statements that mrs. sheehan has made and accuses her of using her son's death to promote a personal agenda:

mrs. sheehan has responded by saying that political views within her extended family have always been diverse, but she is happy that her husband and children share her views and are supporting her efforts. she says her husband pat, couldn't bear having casey's things at home and put most of them in storage. "we grieved in totally different ways. he wanted to grieve by distracting himself. i wanted to immerse myself."

mrs. sheehan and her husband were part of a group that met with the president following her son's death last year; a meeting that president bush began with what she thought was an insultingly insensitive greeting; "who we'all gonna honor today." mrs. sheehan says she had mixed feelings about bush's demeanor at the meeting, but kept quiet. when more information came out about the planning for the war, however, she started to feel utterly betrayed. "i want the kind of meeting that holds him accountable for the words he's actually said.", sheehan told time magazine reporters.


60th anniversary of the end of the war in asia and pacific commemorated

the 60th anniversary of the end of pacific war, has been commemorated by some people.

the first such commemoration was declared 60 years ago today, after japan unconditionally surrendered following the atomic bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki as vj day in the allies. in japan it is called "commemoration day of the end of the war". in korea, one of former colonies of japan, it has been celebrated as independence day, literally the day when light was retreved. it is commemorated in the usa on 14 august, in most countries, on 15 august. 

at yesterday japanese prime minister junichiro koizumi laid a wreath at the chidorigafuchi military ceremony and today expressed "deep remorse" and "heartfelt apology" for his country's past colonial rule and military aggression at the national commemoration ceremony. he also pledged co-operation with japan's asian neighbours to maintain peace and that his country would never go to war again. no such apologies were issued by western governments for their past colonial rule or military aggressions at this or any other commemorations. there has been an apology made for imprisoning japanese american citizens during ww2.

the japanese ceremony was held at about noon, the exact time the surrender had been announced. over 6000 people including the emperor and empress, political, industal, union and religious leaders as well as families of dead soldiers attended the ceremony in budokan, tokyo with a wreath being laid. in japan, this day is the commemoration day of the end of the war"; the dead during the war, mainly on the battlefield, are commemorated, not only from world war ii, but also the sino-japanese war, which lasted for fifteen years from 1930. flags were lowered to half-mast for their commemoration and at the noon bells, sirens and other means urged the people to pray for them in a minute of silence. 

the national commemoration ceremony this year in japan was characterised by the absence of any parents of dead soldiers for the first time since 1946. the number of testimonies of that period has also declined. 

the japanese prime minister koizumi decided not to go to the yasukuni shrine which commemorates japan's war dead, including 14 indivuduals judged class a war criminals by the allies. forty-one members of the japanese diet did, however, visit the shrine, mostly to honour their own ancestors. last year, mr koizumi's visit to the shrine sparked anti-japanese riots in china.

commemoration events have already taken place across the united kingdom, including a major event at blenheim palace -- home of the late prime minister, sir winston churchill. the uk previously marked the 60th ve day and vj day in a combined national day of commemoration on 10 july.

today, the duke of edinburgh ?. patron of the burma star association and a royal navy veteran of the war in the mediterranean and pacific ?. laid a wreath at the malta siege memorial in central london. he later met with veterans of the far east conflict at a service in the imperial war museum in london.

prominent guests included viscount slim (son of the late field marshal slim, commander of the british fourteenth army in burma), countess mountbatten of burma (daughter of the late lord louis mountbatten, supreme allied commander south east asia theatre), and dame vera lynn. 

in bangkok, thanpuying poonsuk phanomyong, pridi's widow, attended the unveling of a new memorial dedicated to the seri thai at thammasat university. an exhibition commemorating the end of the war was presided over by the foreign minister, professor eiji murashima and anand panyarachun. 

america's atomic bombing commemoration held in hiroshima




gaza strip pullout under way

israeli troops have begun implementing the historic pullout plan from the gaza strip by delivering eviction notices to the remaining settlers. they now have 48 hours, beginning this morning at 00:00 (utc+3) to withdraw from their settlements before the army removes them by force.
many settlers have vowed to resist their evacuation and promised fierce but nonviolent resistance. they have blocked the gate of neve dekalim, one of the largest settlements in the strip, and called upon the soldiers to refuse their orders. "you're a partner to a crime," they screamed to army members.

maj. gen. dan harel, israel's commander over the gaza strip, said the army will not waver in managing the pullout: "we will reach every settler, just as we have planned."

the idf has sent about 55,000 troops to evacuate some 8,500 settlers.

the israeli government believes that the withdrawal from the gaza strip is vital for the security of the country, although the decision to withdraw was very controversial, causing splits in sharon's governing likud party. defence minister shaul mofaz called it a "painful and difficult, but historic day".

in a televised prime time address, israeli prime minister ariel sharon outlined his reasons for the withdrawal: "this act is essential for israel. believe me, the pain i feel with this act is the full realisation that we must do it. [...] we cannot hold onto gaza forever, more than a milion palestinians live there [...] crowded in refugee camps, poverty and hotbeds of hatred with no hope on the horizon." sharon also said that if any terrorist attacks by palestinians were to occur after the pull-out his government would deliever the "harshest response ever". but he also stated that if the palestians would stretch out their hand in peace "we will respond with an olive branch."

the palestinian authority fully agrees with the israeli actions. "we tell the israeli people, `you have chosen the right path,'. don't listen to the voices of the extremists who want a continuation of the occupation. i don't want ? and i will not accept ? any clashes with the army or the settlers," palestinian president mahmoud abbas told channel 10 tv. abbas also insisted that israel must hand over control over the west bank and east jerusalem as well in the not so far future.

the pa itself has deployed some 7,500 security to prevent attacks by palestinian extremists.

the gaza strip has been partially occupied by jewish settlers for 38 years. the average per capita palestinian annual income there in 2001 was $625 u.s. dollars and there are extreme dietary deficiencies among the palestinian people. israel has given no assurances that there will be a lessening of trade restrictions on goods coming out of the gaza strip.



orioles' palmeiro gets mixed baseball fan greeting

rafael palmeiro, the havana, cuba born left-handed first baseman for the major league baseball team baltimore orioles, returned to play following a 10-game suspension after testing positive for banned steroids. orioles interim manager sam perlozzo had mr. palmeiro wait three days in the dugout after his suspension before placing him in the play lineup.

his first appearance at bat at the sunday contest in camden yards against the toronto blue jays before a crowd of 30, 954 - a 64% capacity - was met with mixed reaction. 

mr. palmeiro is under investigation for possible perjury after he testified under oath to the u.s. house of representatives committee on government reform on march 17, 2005 that, "i have never used steroids. period." 

"raffy", his nickname among fans, was sixth at bat and designated hitter during the first inning and was walked by blue jays pitcher miguel batista. 

mr. palmeiro, aged 40 and with a .277 batting average, is only the fourth baseball player to have at least 3,000 hits and more than 500 home runs during his career. he has earned the ire of fans and players alike because of contentions that his steroid usage enabled him to accomplish the rare feat. 

mr. palmeiro's four at-bat appearances were less than stellar. he hit three grounders mid-game after being walked in the first inning. 

baltimore trailed the blue jays 7-6 with two men on base and two outs in the ninth inning when mr. palmeiro was sent to bat. he hit a fly ball which was caught by blue jay right-fielder alex rios, thus ending the game, making it the blue jays' fifth win in six games. 

afterwards, mr. palmeiro told reporters, "i just wanted to get a hit. my timing was off." 

coach perlozzo commented about mr. palmeiro's appearance saying, "i'm sure it's a relief to get it out of the way. he's probably gone in there, taken a deep breath and gone, 'whew, i'm glad that's over with. now i can go ahead and play real baseball.' " 

palmeiro benched on return to major league baseball "wikinews", august 11, 2005



u.s. study of gay sheep may shed light on sexuality

oregon state university (osu) animal researchers in conjunction with the u.s. department of agriculture's (usda) dubois, idaho-based sheep experiment station released a report on an osu-usda study which was initiated in 1995 after breeders asked the government to determine why some rams bought as breeding studs showed no interest in females. the researchers are working under a $2.8 million grant from the national institutes of health in hopes of developing a test which can determine the likelihood of a ram being female-oriented before it is sold as a stud.

by studying difference in the animal's brains after slaughter, the study also showed what could be a biological determiner for what makes a ram male-oriented instead of female-oriented sexually. the scientists' results showed that the anterior preoptic area of the rams' hypothalamus was 50 percent smaller in male-oriented rams as opposed to female oriented rams. a 1991 study of human brains of aids victims showed a similar hypothalamus size difference between gay and heterosexual men.

the sheep researchers postulate that low levels of aromatase hormones in the brain of a developing male sheep fetus may have kept the brain from fully masculinizing, leading to sexually male-oriented rams.

"this lends further support to the idea that homosexuality has biological underpinnings," charles roselli, a professor of physiology and pharmacology, said in an interview with the "corvallis gazette-times".

professor stormshak believes that "understanding sexual drives and the continuum of sexual behavior could possibly help explain the scientific basis of sexual assault [and] put an end to assertions that homosexuality is a lifestyle choice."


chelsea signs essien for ￡26 million

michael essien will sign a contract worth ￡26 million (us$47 million, ?38 million) with the london football club chelsea. the record-breaking offer from chelsea was accepted by the french club lyon on monday. several of chelsea's previous offers were rejected. 

essien, the 22-year old ghanian midlfielder, did not sign the 5-year contract on tuesday as planned, because lyon delayed sending the necessary forms to complete the transfer. lyon will receive chelsea player tiago along with the payment worth one third of lyon's budget.

essien will likely now arrive in london on wednesday or thursday for his medical.

bernard lacombe, a lyon representative, describes playing in england as essien's "dream". lyon president jean-michael aulas characterizes the loss of essien as "a wrench but for the club this is a good deal".


coroner makes first post mortems of athens airliner crash victims; text message was a hoax

the first findings from the preliminary investigations into sunday's air disaster have been released. all 121 on board a helios boeing 737 died when it crashed near athens after flying from cyprus. a text message, reportedly sent from the doomed aircraft, has also been revealed as a hoax.

greek chief coroner philippos koutsaftis stated "until now i have done an autopsy on six bodies and first evidence is that when they were killed they had circulation in their heart and lungs. 

"that does not mean that they were conscious but that they had breath and circulation. they had circulation and heartbeat so they were alive."

initial reports from the greek defence ministry had suggested the bodies were "frozen solid" at the moment of impact.

the coroner stressed that as more post mortems were carried out new evidence may come to light.

nothing is known about the cause of the disaster beyond the fact that everyone on board the airliner was incapacitated at some point, and that emergency oxygen masks had been used. speculation abounds, with the theory that the airliner failed to maintain pressurisation at some point being the most popular theory.

helios has said the aircraft was maintained in line with european regulations and had also received a standard inspection before take-off.

greek police have also arrested a man who claimed his cousin texted him from the airliner, saying the pilots were blue in the face and that they were freezing. he was brought to the district attorney where two charges were filed against him, for lying to the authorities and for spreading false information, and a trial was scheduled. the man claimed that his intention was to gain publicity.

police have also attended helios's offices to requisition documents as part of the investigation into the disaster.

it has also been revealed that helios is owned by a british company, libra holidays group. helios are giving the relatives of each victim ?19,000 in initial compensation, as is required by the montreal convention and eu regulations. 




babies on u.s. no-fly lists holding up passengers

some infants are being prevented from boarding planes at u.s. airports because their names match or resemble those listed on the united states' "no-fly list".

the transport safety administration, which maintains the list, has told airlines that children under twelve should not be stopped from boarding or subjected to additional checks, even if their names are on the list. despite this, infants whose names register with the "no-fly list" are being impeded at major airports across the nation.

the u.s. government has maintained a list of people who are barred from flying or required to pass additional security checks since before the 9/11 attacks, but the list has grown from a few dozen to more than 100,000 since then. critics of the list, such as the american civil liberties union, say not enough detail is provided on the list to accurately identify who it is meant to be targeting, resulting in innocents being snagged. the tsa is investigating 89 children who either complained themselves that their name is on the list, or had complaints filed on their behalf. fourteen of them are babies under two.

richard a. altomare, chairman of the coalition for luggage security sees the babies debacle as indicative of more serious concerns; "we see articles daily about luggage and airport security. each one contradicts what the tsa says it is doing to provide safer air travel for the public. the flying public is distracted by hopping on one foot with their shoes in one hand and their belt in another, or babies being held up because their names are the same as or similar to those of possible terrorists on the government's 'no-fly list.' but meanwhile, uninspected or minimally inspected cargo is loaded into the belly of the same plane. this just means there is no true reform, but rather a facade to give the illusion of real reform."


earthquake strikes northeast japan, shakes tokyo

an earthquake of magnitude 7.2 struck japan at 2:46 utc (11:46 am local time), off the eastern coast of northern honshu, 95 km (60 miles) from sendai. buildings in tokyo, 350 km (220 miles) from the epicenter, were swayed by the trembler and trains were shut down. a tsunami bulletin was issued by the pacific tsunami warning center and small tsunamis were observed thereafter. (1) (2).

as a precaution, the tohoku electric nuclear power plants have been shut down.

electric supply ceased due to the earthquake in the miyagi prefecture and in its southern neighbor, fukushima prefecture, and 17,000 households in total have been affected and lost power.

railway transports including t?hoku shinkansen have been stopped. sendai airport has been temporally closed.

no casualties have been reported. so far over 69 people have been injured in miyagi, iwate, fukushima, saitama and tokyo prefectures including 26 people who have been injured due to falling roof in an indoor swimming pool in sendai. 687 houses in tohoku region were destroyed to some extent. in addition, a house by wood in saitama prefecture. a female resident was trapped by this broken house and rescued after 50 minutes.



car bombing in chechnya kills boy

in the city of grozny in chechnya, a car bomb may have killed a 10-12 year old boy and/or a 20 year old man and a woman (sources differ). the explosion wounded two other people. grozny is the capital of chechnya, where rebels have been waging a campaign for independence from russia.


somalia food hijackers make new demands

the hijackers of a ship carrying food aid to somalia have demanded that the food be distributed to people in their home area. 

the ongoing crisis looked to be coming to an end when the wfp said an agreement had been made on 5 august, but the hijackers have told the un irin news service that they have refused to sign the agreement.

initially the hijackers asked for half a million dollars but have sinced claimed that people in their home communities have been neglected despite being badly affected by the tsunami. 

food aid to somalia has been suspended since the hijacking over a month ago.


spanish helicopter crash in afghanistan kills 17

it has been confirmed that a nato helicopter of the international security assistance force has crashed near herat, western afghanistan.

two eurocopter cougar helicopters were apparently on a training mission for the forthcoming afghan parliamentary elections when one of the aircraft crashed, killing twelve spanish soldiers and five crew members. the second cougar helicopter made a forced landing which injured five personnel. 

a rescue team from isaf was sent to the scene, evacuating the dead and wounded to a military hospital in herat.

it is presently unknown whether the crash was the result of an accident or an attack by the taliban or al qaida. 

initial reports suggest that the crash may have been caused by a sandstorm. a spokesman for the spanish prime minister told cnn that there were no indications that the chopper was brought down by enemy fire.

taliban commander mullah daldullah claimed to news agency reuters that insurgents had shot the helicopter down.

testimonial from one of the second helicopter soldiers would confirm the attack: "we felt a blast and fell down while turning"
nato has currently some 8,500 isaf soldiers stationed in afghanistan, some 800 of them are spanish.

it had been reported that the helicopter had experienced techinical problems before takeoff.



plane carrying 160 crashes in venezuela

a colombian passenger jet carrying 152 passengers and 8 crewmembers has crashed in western venezuela. officials said the plane was travelling from panama, headed for martinique in the caribbean when its pilot reported engine trouble to the caracas airport just after 3 am (07:00 utc). the pilot reportedly asked for permission to land at maracaibo airport shortly before the plane went missing in the remote state of zulia, close to the colombian border. locals have reported hearing explosions near the scene of the crash.

the crashed plane was a 19 year old md-82 of west caribbean airways based in medellin carrying the registration number hk-4374x. which was delivered only back on 10 january 2005.

the french news agency afp reports that all passengers and crew have perished. the crash comes just two days after an airplane crash in greece, which killed 121 people.



brazilian shot by police on london underground was not acting suspiciously

documents, reportedly leaked from the investigation into the death of jean charles de menezes, the brazilian electrician shot dead by british police on the london underground on 22 july reveal that mr de menezes was not acting suspiciously and was already restrained when shot. 

furthermore, the documents reveal that the original report given by the police and recorded on the coroners report contained many false statements. the reports suggest the police shot jean charles de menezes because they mistakenly identified him as hussain osman, and had agreed to shoot him if he ran. hussain osman was suspected of having placed a faulty or mock explosive in a train.

the original reports claimed that de menezes was acting suspiciously, was wearing a padded jacket, and ran when challenged, even vaulting the ticket barriers. however, the leaked documents, which include statements from officers involved in the operation and photographs of the scene, show that he behaved like any other commuter, used his travel pass to enter the station, even picking up a newspaper on his way. he was not challenged by police, and appears to have been unaware of being followed until after he entered the train. photographic stills show he was only wearing a light denim jacket. it appears that he only ran in order to reach a train that was about to leave the platform. 

the leaked document describes cctv footage, which shows mr de menezes entered stockwell station at a "normal walking pace" and descended slowly on an escalator.

the document said: "at some point near the bottom he is seen to run across the concourse and enter the carriage before sitting in an available seat."

an eye witness, who was sitting opposite de menezes on the train, is quoted as saying: "within a few seconds i saw a man coming into the double doors to my left. he was pointing a small black handgun towards a person sitting opposite me. he pointed the gun at the right hand side of the man's head. the gun was within 12 inches of the man's head when the first shot was fired."

this report is considerably different to initial reports that claimed de menezes tripped as he fled onto the train, before being restrained by pursuing officers and shot. photographs leaked to itn appear to corroborate this new witness's report as they clearly show blood on the seat in which de menezes is said to have been sitting.

other statements suggest that the brazilian was seated before being pinned down by a plain-clothed police officer. plainclothed armed officers had entered the carriage at this point. several shots were then fired and de menezes was hit seven times in the head and once in the shoulder. three further shots missed mr menezes.

a community officer's report (one of the leaked documents) confirms that mr. de menezes was seated and restrained at the time of being shot:

"i heard shouting which included the word ‘police’ and turned to face the male in the denim jacket.

"he immediately stood up and advanced towards me and the co19 [the armed unit] officers …i grabbed the male in the denim jacket by wrapping both my arms around his torso, pinning his arms to his side.

"i then pushed him back onto the seat where he had been previously sitting … i then heard a gun shot very close to my left ear and was dragged away onto the floor of the carriage."

the leaked documents confirm that police had been given permission to shoot if a suspect was non-compliant, having been told that "unusual tactics" may be required and if they "were deployed to intercept a subject and there was an opportunity to challenge, but if the subject was non compliant, a critical shot may be taken." it is thought that when he ran for the train officers felt this was suitable evidence of "non-compliance".

the independent police complaints commission (ipcc) said its priority was to keep mr de menezes family informed and refused to comment on the details of the leak.

the commission said the family "will clearly be distressed that they have received information on television concerning his death".

in an interview with the guardian newspaper, asad rehman, spokesman for the family's campaign, called for a public inquiry. "this was not an accident," he said. "it was serious neglect. clearly, there was a failure both in police intelligence and on an operational level."

harriet wistrich, the family's solicitor expressed concerns, during an interview with itn, that the police had withheld information from the investigation for a longer period than was permitted under uk law. ms. wistrich also claimed, in a separate interview with the bbc, that the documents suggest that the original information given to the pathologist who carried out the post-mortem examination on mr de menezes was incorrect and that the information the leaked documents contained was "shocking and terrifying". 

"what sort of society are we living in where we can execute suspects?" she asked in the bbc interview. 

an unnamed senior police source told the guardian that the leaked documents and statements give an accurate picture of what was known so far about the shooting. former flying squad commander john o'connor told the bbc "had the normal procedures taken place in which a warning is given and officers wear specially marked clothing then this young man may not have been killed."

the ipcc statement added: "the ipcc made it clear that we would not speculate or release partial information about the investigation, and that others should not do so. that remains the case." 

mark oaten, home affairs spokesman for the liberal democrats, said: "if true, these preliminary findings will create obvious concerns. it is in the best interests of the police and the community for the full report and any recommendations, to be published as quickly as possible."


babies on u.s. no-fly lists holding up passengers/brief

some infants are being prevented from boarding planes at u.s. airports because their names match or resemble those listed on the united states' "no-fly list".

the transport safety administration, which maintains the list, has told airlines that children under twelve should not be stopped from boarding or subjected to additional checks, even if their names are on the list. despite this, infants whose names register with the "no-fly list" are being impeded at major airports across the nation.


plane carrying 160 crashes in venezuela/brief

a colombian passenger jet carrying 152 passengers and 8 crewmembers has crashed in western venezuela. officials said the plane was travelling from panama, headed for martinique in the caribbean when its pilot reported engine trouble to the caracas airport shortly after 07:00 utc time this morning. the pilot reportedly asked for permission to land at maracaibo airport shortly before the plane went missing in the remote state of zulia, close to the colombian border. locals have reported hearing explosions near the scene of the crash.


news briefs:august 16, 2005

some infants are being prevented from boarding planes at u.s. airports because their names match or resemble those listed on the united states' "no-fly list".

the transport safety administration, which maintains the list, has told airlines that children under twelve should not be stopped from boarding or subjected to additional checks, even if their names are on the list. despite this, infants whose names register with the "no-fly list" are being impeded at major airports across the nation.

a colombian passenger jet carrying 152 passengers and 8 crewmembers has crashed in western venezuela. officials said the plane was travelling from panama, headed for martinique in the caribbean when its pilot reported engine trouble to the caracas airport shortly after 07:00 utc time this morning. the pilot reportedly asked for permission to land at maracaibo airport shortly before the plane went missing in the remote state of zulia, close to the colombian border. locals have reported hearing explosions near the scene of the crash.

and, it has been confirmed that a nato helicopter of the international security assistance force has crashed near herat in western afghanistan.

it is reported that two puma helicopters collided in mid-air. officials have said that 12 spanish soldiers and five crew members have been killed and that five others are missing.


new record time spent in space

the current international space station commander, russian cosmonaut sergei krikalev has set a new record of a total of 748 days spent in orbit ? almost 2 years, as of tuesday august 16th, 2005. this outstrips the record set by sergei avdeyev's missions on mir station.

being in space presents many health concerns ? both psychological and physiological difficulties, such as bone loss and radiation exposure. krikalev's longterm experience of life in space could help to shed light on what physical and mental factors 
will be needed for future long-duration flights ? such as a manned mission to mars. university of texas, austin psychology researcher david musson is studying the phenomenon of irritability, fatigue, and lack of sleep which many
space-travellers experience. he hopes to determine which mental traits will help astronauts and cosmonauts deal with or avoid these problems. he also considers krikalev's experience important for understanding ways to counter the physical side effects of space-travel, stating that "i imagine he's gotten pretty good over time in adhering to a countermeasure programme to minimise bone mass loss".

krikalev and his american counterpart john l. phillips are due to return to earth on 7 october 2005, but not before celebrating krikalev's 47th birthday in orbit. they are also expecting to perform two spacewalks. the first of these evas is intended to move equipment, install a television camera, and replace experiments. 



cnn headquarters infected with computer worm, exaggerates global threat

cnn television news gave extensive coverage starting around 5:30 pm est today to a new computer virus, a worm dubbed . its reporting suggested that it had the potential to become one of the most virulent and costly yet seen. this story was unique among cyber-attacks reports as the network apparently learned of the virus through becoming one of its early victims. media organizations abc and the new york times were affected as well. perhaps first-hand experience gave the studio more insight on the virus while providing an early notice. the coverage that followed, however, raises concerns that the network's perspective was skewed, and that perhaps the damage even diminished its reporting ability.

cnn treated the story as a potential global crisis in its manner of coverage as well as in the advice given to viewers. for over 45 minutes, by one viewer's tally, cnn devoted exclusive air-time to this topic. home users were advised to turn off their computers for safety, while businesses were warned that if continued operations prevented this measure, they were at high risk. cnn.com sported a bold red headline above its usual content area, warning of the virus. cnn stated they were requesting reports from key sources across the nation, including california governor arnold schwarzenegger.

after some time, the network eventually obtained a microsoft statement describing the virus as "low-impact" and only affecting computers running windows 2000. cnn also learned from microsoft that there was a patch available at microsoft's web site. cnn's coverage contrasted with a lack of actual evidence of widespread infections, in this reporter's view. much of the discussion and advice came from experts probably not officially associated with cnn, so there is a question of who is at fault.

chris carboni of the internet storm center speculated that "the fact that cnn, abc and the nytimes got it may be as simple as reporters from these organizations visiting the same event and connecting to an infected network. while a firewall may have protected their office network up to now, these infected laptops were able to take out the network from the inside once they connected back to it."

cnn television news; august 16, 2005



fiddle legend vassar clements dead at 77

vassar clements, age 77, a legendary fiddle player who took bluegrass music from an obscure cultural art form to a mainstream influence, and who played on over 2000 albums, passed away at his goodlettsville, tennessee home august 16th 2005 at 8:35 am nashville time (cst) from lung cancer which had metastasized to his liver and brain. 

mr. clements taught himself to play the fiddle at age 7, and though he had no formal training was recognized as one of the world's most versatile fiddle players and was considered a virtuoso. the first song he learned was "there's an old spinning wheel in the parlor". he described his talent saying, "it was god's gift, something born in me. i was too dumb to learn it any other way. i listened to the (grand ole) opry some. i'd pick it up one note at a time. i was young, with plenty of time and i didn't give up. you'd come home from school, do your lessons and that's it. no other distractions. i don't read music. i play what i hear." 

he didn't always earn his living playing music, though. in the mid-1960s he was employed briefly at the kennedy space center in florida, where he worked on plumbing. he also performed several other blue-collar jobs including work in a georgia paper mill, as switchman for atlantic coast railroad; he even sold insurance and once owned a potato chip franchise. 

in his 50 year career he played with artists ranging from woody herman, and the nitty gritty dirt band to the grateful dead, linda ronstadt and paul mccartney, and earned at least five grammy nominations and numerous professional accolades. he once recorded with the pop group the monkees by happenstance, when he stayed behind after an earlier recording session. he also appeared in robert altman's 1975 film "nashville". 

his 2005 grammy award for best country instrumental performance was for "earl's breakdown," by the nitty gritty dirt band, and featured mr. clements, earl scruggs, randy scruggs and jerry douglas.

mr. clements, whose last performance was february 4 in jamestown, n.y., was hospitalized earlier this year for 18 days to receive chemotherapy and other treatment. he had been diagnosed in march 2005. 

born in kinard, south carolina, his musical career began at age 14 when he associated with bill monroe, and later officially joined the blue grass boys band where he remained for seven years. in 1957 he joined bluegrass band jim & jesse mcreynolds where he remained until 1962. in 1967 he returned to nashville where he became a much sought after studio musician. 

after a brief touring stint with faron young he joined john hartford's dobrolic plectral society in 1971 when he met guitarist norman blake and dobro player tut taylor, and recorded "aereo plain", a widely acclaimed newgrass album that helped broaden the bluegrass market and sound. after less than a year he joined earl scruggs, who first earned widespread renown for playing the theme to sitcom "the beverly hillbillies". 

his 1972 work with the nitty gritty dirt band on their album "will the circle be unbroken" earned him even wider acclaim, and later worked with the grateful dead's "wake of the flood" and jimmy buffett's "a white sport coat and a pink crustacean".

though he played numerous instruments, mr. clements indicated that he chose the fiddle over guitar recalling that, "i picked up a guitar and fiddle and tried them both out. the guitar was pretty easy, but i couldn't get nothing out of the fiddle. so every time i'd see those instruments sitting side by side, i'd grab that fiddle."

big band and swing music were considerable influences upon his style and musical development, and he said that, “bands like glenn miller, les brown, tommy dorsey, harry james and artie shaw were very popular when i was a kid. i always loved rhythm, so i guess in the back of my mind the swing and jazz subconsciously comes out when i play, because when i was learning i was always trying to emulate the big-band sounds i heard on my fiddle.” 

his last album 'livin' with the blues', released in 2004, featured guest appearances by elvin bishop, norton buffalo, maria muldaur and others. 

mr. clements' daughter midge cranor wrote on his website that "as i was still holding his hand his breathing stopped. i looked at the clock and it was 7:20 am."

mr. clements' remains have been transported to bond memorial chapel, 1098 weston drive, mt. juliet, tn 37122; (615) 773-2663. 







taize ecumenical community founder frere roger assassinated

90 year old , who founded the international ecumenical community of , was killed today after a knife attack during evening prayers at the community's church. 

according to media coverage, a mentally disturbed woman, supposedly a 36 year old from , is responsible for the attack. 

members of the community have said that at the evening prayer, during the first song, the woman joined the kids who sit with frere roger at these services. then, at about 20:45 cet, she stabbed him with a knife or similar weapon, sources say. the founder of taize, who was sitting in a wheelchair, was carried out of the service still bleeding. 

one of the brothers of taize, a medical doctor, together with another doctor who was present at the evening service, tried to save the life of taize's founder, but didn't succeed and frere roger died just minutes after the knife attack. 

the community have reacted to the shocking events in their own way. while sisters tended to the guests who had been direct eye witnesses, young people took the seats the brothers had left. while a part of the church was blocked off, the evening prayer continued with the taize liturgy.


new computer worm poised to cause massive outages

anti-virus software publisher symantec has reported that outbreaks of two varieties of worm are imminent following system failures on two unnamed major corporate networks in the united kingdom. after receiving several eyewitness accounts from on-site personnel this reporter noted similarities to the msblast worm which made headline news two years ago (on the 16th of july 2003) after causing massive outages. 

the worms are limited to microsoft windows products based on the nt architecture such as windows 2000 or windows xp, exploiting administrator services applets which shut a computer down when a certain service fails. the worms cause these "administrator services" to fail, provoking the computer into shutting down immediately. 

microsoft has announced that a critical update is available for all users, even
for those who use pirated versions of windows.

chrysler, kraft foods and many other us corporations are feeling the brunt of the attack as the us was in the middle of the work day when new more virulent variants emerged. 


israeli army begins forced evacuation of gaza settlements

the israeli army has begun to forcibly remove settlers in gaza strip as the deadline for voluntary evacuation passed at 00:00, local time, this morning (21:00 utc tuesday).

soldiers entered the settlements of neve dekalim, morag, ganei tal, and bedolah in the early morning hours and have begun to carry settlers away. in neve dekalim over 1,000 settlers shut themselves inside the local synagogue while others did the same in their houses. in morag a bulldozer was needed to break through a barricade constructed of trash containers. a soldier there was lightly wounded when a protester stabbed her in the arm with a needle. prime minister ariel sharon responded to the incident by saying "don't hurt them, hurt me". in southern israel a woman is in critical condition after she set herself on fire in protest over the evacuations.

the army claims more than half of the 8,500 settlers in the strip have already left. however, those remaining vowed to stay as long as they can, telling the soldiers that they "should be ashamed at what [they] are doing".

a thin majority in the israeli government believe the pullout from gaza is vital for the security of the country. "i look with hope to the future, that the price we are paying [...] will in the end bring about a positive change in israel's situation," said defense minister shaul mofaz.

the palestinian authority welcomes the withdrawal from gaza but believes it can only be a first step in the process of giving up all israeli settlements, including in the west bank.

meanwhile, an israeli settler from shiloh, in the west bank, killed four palestinians and wounded another two when he opened fire in an industrial area of the settlement. the 38-year old reportedly stole the gun used in the shooting from a security guard. he was arrested. hamas has vowed to avenge the killings.

gaza strip pullout under way


21 july bombing suspect to be extradited back to the uk

hamdi issac, a suspect in the 21 july bombings in london, has been ordered by an italian court to return to the uk. 

the ethiopian national was arrested in rome a few days after the july 21 failed terror attacks in london.

despite today's decision by rome's appeal court, issac's attorneys are expected to immediately appeal, delaying his extradition by up to a month.


&quot;camp casey&quot; moves to safer land, as mother's protest continues

in crawford, texas, anti-war protesters led by american cindy sheehan, mother of a fallen soldier, have found a new place to demonstrate. "a kind gentleman from down the road, closer to the bush ranch, has offered us the use of his property," said sheehan to the reporters, as the camp prepared a move to private land.

the property owner, u.s. army veteran fred mattlage, said, "i just think people should have a right to protest without being harassed, and i'm against the war. i don't think it's a war we need to be in."

sheehan continued to tell the reporters, "he offered it because he heard about the shots fired at us the other day and he didn't think that was right. he happens to be the third cousin of the person that fired the shots and so he came down and he said he supports us 100 percent."

the "shots fired" were those of nearby resident larry mattlage, whose land borders the protesters at their current location. after complaining about the proximity of the protesters, he fired a shotgun twice into the air sunday - in order to prepare for duck hunting season, he said. mattlage says at no time was he ever threatening the protesters with his shots.

not all americans agree with mrs. sheehan's position. on monday, a man was arrested and charged with vandalism of camp casey's memorial for troops lost in iraq. around 10pm the previous night, authorities say the accused used his pickup truck to run over hundreds of small wooden crosses bearing names of u.s. soldiers killed in iraq.

in comments to the press, bush offered sympathy to sheehan, "i sympathize with mrs. sheehan. she feels strongly about her -- about her position. and she has every right in the world to say what she believes.", he said. however, he has still declined to meet her. "i think it's important for me to be thoughtful and sensitive to those who have got something to say." bush told reporters, "but, i think it's also important for me to go on with my life, to keep a balanced life."

others have commented that sheehan is being used by those with their own agendas, "what started out as a grieving mom that we all sympathized with has now turned into ... an orchestrated far-left campaign," commented greg mueller, a conservative public-relations executive.

a former fbi special agent, rowley, and becky lourey, whose son was killed in iraq, will leave for texas on thursday and camp at the site for a few days.

rowley said, "it puts a human face on this issue; many people, if they don't have a personal connection to the troops, it's so easy for this to become a discussion that lacks seriousness and urgency. i think it's good to show that there are real people that are being affected."

"our children are dying and i think it's time to go support cindy and see if bush will come out and we can say, 'president bush, what is the mission exactly?'," becky lourey added. "truth has been shifting all around and i think we need to rejoin the world community and not occupy another nation." lourey said.

sheehan wants the withdrawal of all troops from iraq. president bush claims that leaving iraq now wouldn't be helpful for iraqis or americans, but only for terrorists.


canadian gasoline tops $1 a litre, politicians consider options

the average retail price of gasoline in canada surpassed the psychological barrier of can $1 (us$0.84) per litre during the past week, according to the calgary firm m.j. ervin & associates.

according to ervin, the average price for a litre (.26 gallon) of regular unleaded gasoline is now c$1.04 (us$0.87, ?0.71)

fuel remains under a dollar a litre in some parts of the country, with retailers in edmonton offering the cheapest prices of all the major cities at 93.3 cents/litre. drivers in montreal were paying $1.14/litre, the highest price in the country.

the surging price of crude oil has been cited by ervin as the reason for the unprecedented prices. rising demand coupled by ongoing political problems in the middle east have pushed crude prices to new records at the close of each day of trading. the price at the new york mercantile exchange is now averaging over us$65 per barrel, a full $20 a barrel higher than one year ago.

"the biggest factor playing into the current pump price is, without a doubt, the high crude oil prices," according to ervin's cathy hay. but she added, "layering in on top of that is very strong gasoline demand and a decline in inventories."

hay's remarks echo the view of many analysts that despite the record prices, there is not yet any sign of major changes in canadians' driving habits. 

"(canadians) will basically grin and bear it. well, maybe they won't grin, but they'll bear it." bank of montreal economist doug porter said. "so far we really haven't seen any response whatsoever on the consumer spending front."

the rising fuel prices have prompted the country's major airlines, air canada and westjet to levy fuel surcharges. analysts expect the rising fuel costs to trigger a rise in the price of many goods and services as shipping costs rise. concerns regarding the long-term effect of higher fuel prices are prompting demands by the canadian taxpayers federation, the canadian automobile association and others that the federal and provincial governments either lower or eliminate gasoline taxes.

nova scotian finance minister peter christie is considering such requests, although he emphasized that such steps would not be taken quickly. nova scotian new democrat leader darrell dexter said the province's harmonized sales tax should be removed from gasoline, asserting that since there are already both federal and provincial excise taxes on fuel, it is therefore immoral to charge what is effectively a double tax by adding hst (or the goods and services tax and provincial sales taxes outside atlantic canada).

however, federal cabinet ministers were quick to reject calls to lower the federal excise tax to exempt gst. federal natural resources minister john efford said the price of gasoline was being driven up by demand for crude oil, not taxes.


bangladesh hit by several bomb explosions

several cities and towns in bangladesh have been rocked by around 459 small explosions occurring simultaneously. to date at least 125 people have been injured and two people have been killed. the two people killed were a bicycle rickshaw driver in the northern town of chapainawabganj and a 10-year-old boy in the central town of savar.

the attacks are being blamed on the jamaat-ul-mujahideen group. leaflets bearing the islamic group’s message were found near many of the homemade bombs. the group is said to want to establish an islamic state in place of current secular laws. 

the bombs were apparently made to cause limited damage. the explosives were packed in small containers and wrapped in tape, paper or sawdust. explosives created for high collateral damage would typically contain nails or other items that could be used as shrapnel.

bangladesh currently has the world's third largest muslim population in the world. the jamaat-ul-mujahideen was banned in february after a series of bombings against non-governmental groups including holy shrines and other targets.


virginians melee at used apple ibook sale

"total chaos" is how many described the melee that resulted from a sale of used apple ibook laptop computers at the richmond international raceway (rir) by the henrico county, virginia school system. 

officials estimated nearly 5,000 people thronged the sale for the $50, four-year-old computers. among them were 17 injured, four requiring hospitalization - one for a leg injury, and three for heat-related illness, said henrico county police. reports of trampling in the stampede were not uncommon, and one driver reportedly tried to drive through the throng of prospective buyers. 

alice jemerson, an elderly customer said, "they bum rushed the gates and i was knocked over, fighting for my life. all these people were on top of me."

shortly after 7am est officials opened the gates and many residents ran hysterically toward the building where the sale was to occur at 9am. 

at a post sale press conference, henrico county police spokesman lieutenant doug perry told reporters, "a few bad apples found their way inside. it looked worse than it was."
apple ibooks are the preferred computer for henrico county schools, and director of general services of henrico county paul proto, said changes were made to the event after tremendous interest was generated, some as far away as europe and california. officials closed and moved the sale from the henrico county school warehouse to the rir, after residents complained that their tax dollars were used to buy the computers, and they ought to have first right to repurchase them. the henrico county board of supervisors voted to amend the county code so that only residents could purchase the laptop computers. 

although officials had prohibited camping out and overnight parking, some in attendance reported that people began arriving at midnight. 

henrico police chief h.w. stanley, jr. said five patrol officers were originally planned for the event, a customary presence for an event the size authorities had estimated. but by 6 am, an enormous crowd was assembled at the front gate. 

officials present before opening told the crowd that automobiles would be allowed to enter first, which prompted many to run to their cars. but while some were running back to their cars, others rushed the gate. the resulting confusion created much anger, and guards closed the gates shortly thereafter. 

long lines encircling the sale building were commonplace, and one observer noted, "they're going to see themselves on the news tonight, and see what fools they are."

some citizens, however, considered their wait worthwhile. hairstylist and mother of two sheress blunt was one of the first hundred to buy one of the ibooks; she came with her mother and said they sneaked into the raceway through a side gate. 

tonya vaughan arrived at 5:30 a.m., also bought one of the first ibooks and said three people offered to buy it from her for as much as $200. she declined however, saying, "i told them no way! i had worked too hard for it."

lt. perry said many officers were complimented on the way they handled the crowd, adding that police were seen letting children who had been pushed aside, into the building. 

mr. proto said, "there are no plans right now to have another ibook sale." 

henrico county battalion police chief steve wood said no arrests were made and the ibooks were sold out by 1pm est.



gastric bypass surgery performed by remote control

a robotic system at stanford medical center was used to perform a laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery successfully with a theoretically similar rate of complications to that seen in standard operations. however, as there were only 10 people in the experimental group (and another 10 in the control group), this is not a statistically significant sample. 

if this surgical procedure is as successful in large-scale studies, it may lead the way for the use of robotic surgery in even more delicate procedures, such as heart surgery. note that this is not a fully automated system, as a human doctor controls the operation via remote control. laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery is a treatment for obesity.

there were concerns that doctors, in the future, might only be trained in the remote control procedure. ronald g. latimer, m.d., of santa barbara, ca, warned "the fact that surgeons may have to open the patient or might actually need to revert to standard laparoscopic techniques demands that this basic training be a requirement before a robot is purchased. robots do malfunction, so a backup system is imperative. we should not be seduced to buy this instrument to train surgeons if they are not able to do the primary operations themselves." 

there are precedents for just such a problem occurring. a previous "new technology", the electrocardiogram (ecg), has lead to a lack of basic education on the older technology, the stethoscope. as a result, many heart conditions now go undiagnosed, especially in children and others who rarely undergo an ecg procedure.


two new schools open in beslan

two new schools have opened in the north ossetian town of beslan to replace "school number one" that was destroyed in the beslan school siege.

the mayor of moscow, yuri luzhkov, attended the opening ceremony and symbolically handed over the keys to the buildings to the school directors. he said the construction of the schools is part of a general plan to help rebuild beslan and hoped that "children go to school with a feeling that will help them in life in the future".

the construction was financed by the russian government. the two schools, totalling 36,000 square meters, will house 600 pupils each. the first day of school in the new buildings will be on september 5th, 2005.

beslan's "school number one" was seized by terrorists in september 2004. the 3-day standoff claimed the lifes of 344 people, 172 of them children.

 


baghdad morgue received over 1,000 bodies in july

the bodies of over 1,000 civilians were brought to baghdad's morgue last month, the highest recorded death toll for iraq's capital since the invasion began in march 2003.

amid preparations for the new iraqi constitution, the interim government has tried to suppress details of the growing number of civilian casualties, but the truth emerged after british veteran journalist robert fisk paid a visit to the morgue and was shown the human cost of iraq's security crisis:

'the july figures are the largest ever recorded in the history of the baghdad medical institute,' one of the senior managers at the morgue said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

an estimated 1,100 bodies were received by the baghdad mortuary in july, a rise of 85% compared with figures for the same month before the us-led invasion. the latest figures show a rising trend: in 2004 and 2003 the numbers in july were 800 and 700 respectively. by comparison, equivalent figures for 1997, 1998 and 1999 were all below 200.

all of last month's dead are civilians, the majority male and most aged between 15-44. fisk, writing in the independent, described how the task of identifying all of the bodies has been complicated because many have been tortured or otherwise disfigured. 'in many cases, the remains have been shattered by explosions ? possibly by suicide bombs ? or by deliberate disfigurement by their killers,' he wrote.

the medical authorities have buried 500 nameless bodies since january.



two injured in explosion at toronto fairground

two men were severely hurt in a transformer explosion around 1500h local time at a popular toronto fairground. 

the explosion occurred during preparations for the opening of the canadian national exhibition (cne), the largest fair of its kind in canada.

the cause of the explosion is unknown and the unidentified men are both in hospital with life-threatening injuries.


former northeastern us republican campaign director charged with conspiracy

james tobin, a republican who worked as a regional political director for the rnc-affiliated national republican senatorial campaign committee, has been charged with conspiracy to deny new hampshire democrats the right to vote among three other conspiracy charges. prosecuters say tobin conspired with state gop official charles mcgee and consultant allen raymond in virginia, both of whom are cooperating with prosecutors, to have the consultant's telephone firm make repeated hang-up calls to democratic and labor union get-out-the-vote phone banks, effectively jamming their phone lines. the new hampshire republican state committee paid $15,600 to the firm. callers requesting transportation to polling places were thus unable to receive any, allege prosecutors.

republican john sunonu won a close us senate race in new hampshire following the phone-jammings which occurred in november 2002.

the rnc has been paying tobin's legal fees, which have so far amounted to $722,382. the rnc did not specify that the payments were for tobin's defense in reports with the fec, but has since confirmed that they were. rnc chairperson ken mehlman said in a may 18, 2005 statement that he "strongly support[ed]" a "zero-tolerance policy" on election fraud. some have therefore criticized the gop for making the payments to the powerful williams and connolly law firm. but on august 10, 2005, rnc spokesperson tracey schmitt said their support of tobin through payment of his legal fees is "based on his assurance and our belief that jim has not engaged in any wrongdoing."

tobin's involvement is said to have been finding the firm to make the calls. raymond told prosecutors tobin explained the scheme to him and asked him to implement it, and his lawyers said that he had believed tobin was acting under rnc sanction in his then capacity as policial director for new england. tobin went on to work for the president's re-election campaign.

paul tworney, a volunteer lawyer for new hampshire democrats said the rnc's actions suggested more people may be involved. "it originally appeared to us that there were just certain rogue elements of the republican party who were willing to do anything to win control of the u.s. senate, including depriving americans of their ability to vote. but now that the rnc actually is bankrolling mr. tobin's defense, coupled with the fact that it has refused some discovery in the civil case, really raises the questions of who are they protecting, how high does this go and who was in on this," said twoney.

the new hampshire democratic party chairperson kathy sullivan demanded that the state republican chairperson warren henderson resign.



multiple computer worms released as &quot;botwar&quot; rages

security experts are calling it a "botwar". multiple computer worms, with payloads that turn infected computers into sources of spam, viruses and security attacks, are being released by at least two separate groups. now newer versions of one group's worm include the ability to disable earlier versions of the other group's infection. "the w32/zotob-f worms (also known as bozori) attempts to remove infections by earlier versions of the zotob worm and other malware, so it can take control of the compromised computer for itself", a sophos news item stated. f-secure's weblog confirmed this and added "it seems there are two groups that are fighting: ircbot and bozori vs zotobs and the other bots."

gregg keizer of techweb news draws parallels between the current events and a prior example of criminal activity; "the most notable back-and-forth between [virus and worm writers] was in early 2004, when the writers of the bagle and netsky worm families engaged in a long-running tit-for-tat exchange where each tried to delete the other's code. the battle led to a veritable flood of malicious code that [lasted] weeks." while some see a repeat of those events, other experts indicate that the current situation is "business as normal" for the criminals that create these "bot networks".

a statement from kaspersky lab stated that confusion over the naming of the worms has combined with overzealous reporting by infected news organisations to create confusion as to the magnitude of the attack. at this stage they are not calling it an epidemic.

all of these worms currently exploit the ms05-039 plug and play vulnerability, for which a patch has already been released.


madrid bombing suspect arrested in belgrade

abdelmajid bouchar, a suspect, was arrested in , serbia and montenegro, the ministry for internal affairs said yesterday.

he was arrested on june 23rd after he allegedly presented forged iraqi identity documentation with a name "midhat salah" during a routine check by serbian police. he is currently held in a prison in padinska skela, near belgrade.

spanish interior minister, jose antonio alonso, said spain will seek extradition. the man is accused of presenting false documents and immigration violations and is currently being held in serbia. 

the interpol office in madrid confirmed identity based on fingerprints.


chandra x-ray observatory illuminates supernova 1987a

recent images from the chandra x-ray observatory reveal details of the nature of the star that became supernova 1987a. in the time just before the star exploded, solar winds created a cavity in a cloud of cool gas that surrounded it. the explosion first lit up the cooler gas with a burst of ultraviolet light, then created a shock wave that started travelling through this cavity.

"in 1999, chandra imaged this shock wave, and astronomers have waited expectantly for the shock wave to hit the edge of the cavity, where it would encounter the much denser gas deposited by the red supergiant wind, and produce a dramatic increase in x-radiation. the latest data from chandra and the hubble space telescope indicate that this much-anticipated event has begun." an article on the harvard-smithsonian center for astrophysics' chandra website states.

these events confirm scientists' understanding of stars. as the shock wave continues it will travel through less understood material, hopefully allowing scientists to further their research into the birth and death of stars, and the overall behaviour of the universe.


pope visits world youth day in cologne

pope benedict xvi has arrived in cologne, germany for world youth day 2005, a catholic festival. it is the new pope's first foreign trip. his plane landed at 12 am (utc+2) at cologne/bonn airport. he was greeted by german president horst kohler, chancellor gerhard schroder and a cheering crowd. later, the pope boarded a cruise ship and sailed downstream the rhine, with hundreds of thousands of people cheering at the riverbanks. he addressed the crowd from the ship and said he feels great to see so many young people from countless countries and hopes they can "have a moving experience of prayer as dialogue with god". 

the four-day event began on tuesday and will conclude with a big open-air mass on sunday. up to 1 milion people are expected there. 

while in cologne, benedict xvi will visit a synagogue and meet representatives from various religious groups, including members of the muslim community.


no 'mates' in australia's parliament house

security guards at in have been advised by internal memo not to use the word 'mate' when communicating with the public.

the speaker of the house has been asked to look into the directive after it was rumoured that a member of parliament or a senior public servant complained about use of the common australian term.

the secretary for the department of parliamentary services said on abc tv: "there was a feeling that they perhaps just needed a reminder that some informality, while it may be appropriate for some people, it may not suit all our visitors."

"i think that people should get off their high horse and take a reality check," said liberal backbencher bob baldwin, who believes the word should be treated as a badge of honour. "i have never seen anything so criminal in all my life. it's part of the australian vernacular. it's a term of endearment and of mateship."

nationals mp paul neville said "if they want to call me mate or buddy or something like that, i'm not the least bit offended."


syrian-born youth killed while building bomb in norway

a 17-year old syrian-born youth was killed and his 19-year old brother seriously injured on thursday by a bomb they are suspected of having been building in their oslo flat. several youths were being questioned by the police for suspected involvement.

the 19-year old brother is described as being in stable condition.
two women and one man, present but not injured when the suspected bomb exploded, are being questioned by investigators.

police said they found instructions on making bombs downloaded from the internet at the scene. "at the scene we found written instructions on how to make explosives and some powder that the youngsters had mixed," said police inspector vidar hjulstad speaking to norwegian public radio nrk. 

a 20-year old pakistani-born friend has been charged with illegal handling of expolosives and is being questioned by police.

the 17-year old has a large criminal record including 17 car thefts, threats, robbing a store, drug abuse and violence against a civil servant. he had reportedly been studying chemistry at sofienberg technical college.

police said the target of the bombs might have been ticket machines on the oslo transportation system, with the purpose of stealing the money they contain. "it looks most like [the dead 17-year old] had made the explosives to blow up ticket machines on the oslo transport system," said oslo assistant chief of police terje kristiansen. he said a ticket machine in oslo had recently been blown up. police say they do not suspect any tie to islamic extremism and kristiansen said, "it looks like personal gain was the main cause."

a couple living near by anonymously said they had previously reported bomb-making activity at the apartment to police but had been ignored. they said ten people in total were involved in making bombs at the oslo flat. "this is not the first explosion. we have heard many bangs and smelled lead or gunpowder afterwards," the couple told "dagsavisen" newspaper. kristiansen said he was not aware of their reports.

the entire apartment building has been evacuated as police investigate. they are said to be evaluating the risk of another accidental blast.


iraqi gasoline is the cheapest in the world at $.05 per gallon

a new report indicates that while iraq's economy remains in a shambles and the prospect of future growth is still dim, iraqi citizens do enjoy some of the least expensive gas prices in the world. 

the international monetary fund says iraqi drivers currently pay an average of 5 u.s. cents a gallon (1.32￠/l) for gasoline. this contrasts to averages of $2.55 (67.4￠/l) in the united states and $6.24 ($1.65/l) in great britain. even neighboring iran pays more at the pump than iraq; 38 cents a gallon (10.0￠/l).

the low cost is due in large part to generous pre-war government subsidies on petroleum products that remain in place today.

in its report, the imf warned the subsidies are a threat to economic growth in the country. the country still suffers near daily insurgent attacks, high unemployement, inflation, and frequent electrical, water, and sewage service disruptions.

meanwhile, iraqi oil output continues to recover. prior to operation iraqi freedom, iraq's daily output of crude was 2.5 million barrels a day. this week, oil production is 1.6 million barrels per day. iraq's oil reserves are estimated at nearly 115 billion barrels, the third largest in the world.


israeli troops remove protesters from gaza synagogues

israeli soldiers are in the process of removing jewish protesters from synagogues in neve dekalim and kfar darom in the gaza strip as part of an operation to force the evacuation of settlements.

the settlement of neve dekalim was founded in 1983 and was home to 500 orthodox jewish families. it also was occupied earlier before back in the 1940s, settled by a couple jewish families who were able to hold off the eygptian army.

around 1,500 protesters inside the synagogue refused to leave despite warnings from the soldiers. many protesters have been retaliating to the soldiers' commands, and have even started shoving and punching a few guards. the protesters have linked their arms in a chain to attempt to prevent themselves being removed. the protesters are mostly not gaza settlers, but are extremist youths from the west bank and israel. 

after several hours of unsuccessful negotiations unarmed security forces entered the complex to begin removing people to buses waiting outside. those who did not go as instructed were usually escorted by two or three guards each to the buses. meanwhile, all male protesters have been removed from the building while the female protesters are still inside the synagogue.

in another gaza town, kfar darom, protesters are also making their last stand in a synagogue, and thousands of troops have surrounded the buildings. there, soldiers entered the synagogue as well and are dragging protesters out of the building. they were, however, hampered by protesters on the roof, who, among other things, threw caustic soda at the soldiers. consequently, the rooftop was taken by security forces as well. seventy seven people have been injured, two moderately on the roof of the synagogue. police say that 120 demonstrators were arrested.

the evacuations are extremely stressful for protesters and soldiers alike. having to evict fellow jews is "traumatic" for the soldiers said idf capt. yael harman. he added in connections to the synagogues evacuations: "many of our soldiers are religious, and it's very difficult for them to conceive of the idea of going into a religious building and trying to pull those people out [...] but this is what we must do." 


microsoft announces prices for new xbox 360

microsoft has revealed prices for the xbox 360, its new games console which goes on sale later this year. details were made public by chris lewis, the regional vice president of xbox across europe, the middle east and africa, in an interview with the console's official website, xbox.com.

according to lewis, the xbox 360 will ship in two separate bundles ? the full system, and the core system. the full system is the premium edition; it comes with the components and accessories ? including a detachable 20-gigabyte hard drive and wireless controller ? that microsoft believes necessary for experiencing 'the ultimate digital entertainment thrill ride'. it will retail at $399.99 in the us, ?399.99 in europe and ￡279.99 in the uk. the core system is essentially a stripped-down version, offering the full power of the xbox 360 without the add-on features. this edition will retail at $299.99 in the us, ?299.99 in europe and ￡209.99 in the uk.

rumours have been circulating about the price tag since the xbox 360 was unveiled to a blaze of publicity at this year's e3. yesterday's announcement confirmed early speculation by analysts at major investment bank ubs that microsoft would sell its new console at a loss. the stand-alone xbox 360 contains $375 worth of hardware. with the console set to retail at $299.99 (or $399.99 with $100 worth of add-ons) microsoft stands to make a $76 loss on each unit sold. it is expected that 933,000 to 1.2 million units will be sold in 2005, which means that the xbox 360 could cost its publisher up to $91.2 million for this year alone. microsoft plans to make up the lost income with sales of its eagerly awaited launch titles. 


u.s. army intelligence had detected 9/11 terrorists year before, says officer

a year before the 9/11 attacks, through data mining a u.s. army intelligence group had identified two terrorist cells, including mohammed atta and three other 9/11 hijackers. lieutenant colonel anthony shaffer, a liaison officer of a unit called able danger, has spoken on the topic. by analysis of non-military data, several of the terrorists with direct links to top al-qaeda leadership were identified.

able danger also used publicly available information from government immigration agencies.

description on cnn of the technology involved:

on the sean hannity show wednesday, shaffer said there were direct links to top al-qaeda leaders. he repeated that on thursday.


next shuttle flight delayed to next year; iss crew begin spacewalk

commander sergei krikalev and flight engineer john phillips began a planned six-hour spacewalk earlier today, their first in the four months both men have been on the station. this week krikalev exceeded sergei avdeyev's record of 748 (non-consecutive) days in space.

their tasks include retrieval and replacement of several experiments, photographing a materials science experiment, retrieving radiation sensors, installation of a television camera for the first arrival of europe's new cargo vessel and relocation of a grapple fixture for a crane. this will make room for the next shuttle crew to deliver radiation shields.

however, that delivery is going to have to wait.

nasa delayed the next shuttle flight until next year so their engineers have time to address the foam problem that occurred during the most recent flight. a rushed timetable for the previous launch has been criticised as a major contributing factor to the "same behavioral problems that contributed to the columbia tragedy," an ap story stated.


australian air force crews &quot;at war&quot; with veterans' affairs over compensation

the australian federal government has revealed today that it is going to give a$21 million (us $15.76 million) as compensation to approximately 600 former raaf maintenance workers, who where exposed to highly toxic chemicals while working on the fuel tanks of the nation's f-111 fleet.

under the government's proposal, depending on the amount of exposure, a worker can expect to receive between a$10,000 and a$40,000 (us $7,500 - $30,000) to help cope with the side effects. the aircraft maintenance program started in the 1970s and was suspended in the late 1990s when the former workers started to show signs of medical problems ranging from memory loss to neurological problems.

the f-111 deseal/reseal support group responded to the government's package with anger. the group's president ian fraser said "a$40,000 for a ruined life is simply not enough ... we've already got people who have died, who are dying, people who have lost their homes." 

he went on to describe that his group, which supports the workers and contractors who where based at amberley air base, was "at war" with veterans' affairs minister de-anne kelly.


former british northern ireland secretary mo mowlam dies

mo mowlam, the former secretary for northern ireland, has died at 8.10am bst (07:10 utc) in a hospice after a fall two weeks ago. she was 55. 

in a statement, prime minister tony blair called her "one of the shrewdest political minds i ever encountered. she was a natural politician, could read a situation and analyse and assess it as fast as anyone."

another former cabinet minister, clare short, said: "she was a very beautiful young woman, she survived ill health and helped bring peace to northern ireland and now she's gone far too young."

mo mowlam was central to the negotiations leading to the good friday agreement and was popular in britain for her straightforward approach, informality and honesty.

ms mowlam even received a standing ovation during prime minister blair's speech during the 1998 labour party conference. 

mo mowlam retired from political life in 2001, but continued to make the headlines by realising her autobiography which was critical of blair's presidential style of government.

it is thought that the fall that made her go to hospital, and then the hospice where she died, was due to a lack of balance caused by a brain tumour.


 


china and russia continue joint army exercise

russian and chinese armed forces began their first ever joint military exercises since the korean war, when russia was still part of the soviet union, on thursday. the exercises are expected to last for eight days. 

10,000 troops ? about 1800 russians, the rest chinese ? are participating in the war games. the exercises simulate united nations-mandated police action to restore order in a fictitious country torn by ethnic unrest. they began in the eastern russian port-city of vladivostok and are supposed to culminate in a mock invasion involving beach landings and paratrooper drops off the coast of the jiaodong peninsula in eastern china.

russian and chinese officials have framed the exercises as promoting international cooperation, but some in the us and elsewhere see the exercises as preparation for a possible future invasion of taiwan, and as a challenge to us dominance in asia ? particularly in afghanistan. the exercises come amid increasing speculation in the us that china may come to replace the us as the world's greatest superpower.

russia and china are working together to help form of a world order that will be based on multipolarity, respect for international law, and a leading role for the un, deputy foreign minister alexander alexeyev said on monday, august 15, 2005. 

“the exercise will be carried out in the framework of the fight against international terrorism and extremism, to respond to new threats and challenges,” said liang guanglie, chief of staff of china’s armed forces.

but others citing the use in the operation of advanced aircraft atypical of a peacekeeping operation, say the countries have ulterior motives. "the main target is the us. both sides want to improve their position for bargaining in terms of security, politics and economics," said jin canrong, professor of international relations at the people's university of china.

a taiwanese official quoted by mosnews.com said, china's involvement in the operations represents “the biggest security threat in the asiatic-pacific region.” 

however other analysts speculate that russia's motivations for using the aircraft, including tu-95 strategic bombers and tu-22m long-range bombers, in the exercises may be to promote their sale to the chinese.

"military cooperation is linked with political and economic cooperation as part of a bigger package," said robert karniol, asia-pacific editor for jane's defence weekly. "it's not an adversarial posture."

many have noted that the joint exercises are an emblem of increasingly warm relations between china and russia since the dissolution of the soviet union. but writing in an editorial for the "international herald tribune", phillip bowring disagrees, saying that the primary purpose of the operations is as a warning to the us. "the current russia-china joint military exercises are not so much a symbol of trust and friendship between the two as a symptom of american overstretch. the two are reminding the united states of the limits of its unilateral global power."

despite speculation into the motives of russia and china, the us has given at least token support to the idea that the exercises could promote international interests. “we are following the exercises,” u.s. state department spokesman sean mccormack said this week. “we expect that they will be conducted in a manner that supports some mutual goal of regional stability shared by the united states, china and russia.”

others say the operations are mainly a response to separatism and islamic extremism in russian chechnya and the chinese xinjiang.

“the exercises are the logical continuation of the first signs of cooperation between russia and china in the struggle against ‘orange revolutions,’ separatism and the dominant influence of the u.s. in the euroasiatic sphere,” the gazeta.ru news website wrote thursday. orange was the color adopted by supporters of last year’s revolution in ukraine, which along with mass demonstrations in georgia and kyrgyzstan, brough pro-western administrations to power. 

the war games have been called "peace mission 2005".



rocket attack on uss ashland docked in jordan; another rocket fired at israeli town

two katyusha rockets exploded this morning (8:44 am utc+3) in aqaba, jordan, near the uss ashland, which has been docking at the aqaba port for the last ten days. one jordanian soldier was killed. another rocket exploded in eilat, israel. 

one rocket narrowly missed the uss ashland and struck a warehouse in the vicinity of the ashland and the uss kearsarge, killing a jordanian soldier, private ahmad alnajdawi, and injuring another. the two amphibious ships had been docking at the aqaba port for the last ten days. the other missile fell near a jordanian hospital but caused no injuries. 

commander jeff breslau of the u.s. fifth fleet told reporters ""i can confirm that a rocket flew over the bow of uss ashland and the rocket impacted in the roof of a warehouse. no sailors or marines were injured. it’s pretty safe to conclude that they were probably trying to hit one or both of the ships"".

the rocket that was aimed at eilat exploded about 15 meters from the eilat airport, near several hotels. an israeli taxi driver, meir farhan (40), was lightly injured. farhan told the press ""i heard a noise, the car shook, and i kept driving for two more meters. i didn't realize what it was; when i went out of the car i saw a hole in the ground on the asphalt."

a branch of the al-qaeda linked terrorist organization abdullah azzam brigades in egypt has claimed responsibility for the attack. they also claim responsibility for last month's terror attack in sharm el-sheikh, egypt and for the 2004 attack on egyptian tourist resorts.

immediately after the attack, the two us navy ships left the aqaba port. all flights in the eilat airport were briefly delayed before the explosion site was cleared of debris.

jordanian security forces have located the launch site on a nearby rooftop. they are searching for three people with connection to the attack, two syrian nationals and one iraqi.

israeli defense minister, shaul mofaz said that israeli and jordanian security forces are cooperating. ""we are certain the jordanians are also acting to thwart such attacks"" mofaz said. ""there were no prior warnings regarding this specific case, but we're alert."".

eilat and aqaba are both considered international tourist destinations in their respective countries. 


former rebel becomes president of burundi

pierre nkurunziza, leader of the former rebel group cndd-fdd, has been elected unopposed as president of burundi by the country's senate and national assembly. the cndd-fdd had won landslide victories in communal and national elections earlier this year, the first since the 1993 assassination of president melchior ndadaye plunged burundi into more than a decade of ethnically-charged civil war. nkurunziza replaces domitien ndayizeye, who had served as head of a transitional government since 2003. 

one key challenge will be to resolve ongoing tension between the country's hutu and tutsi ethnic groups. more than 300,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since 1993. burundi's tutsi-dominated army is believed to have killed thousands of hutu civilians during the ten-year civil war, while nkurunziza's own group, cndd-fdd, has been accused of deliberately killing tutsis. the extremist group palipehutu-fnl continues to stage attacks, with this week seeing the first anniversary of the gatumba massacre, in which more than 150 congolese tutsi refugees were killed. 



at least 13 killed in shootings at polling stations in pakistan

according to online, 13 people were killed and over a hundred injured in armed clashes between rival political factions in pakistan on thursday august 18, 2005 local time. the attacks centered around polling stations throughout the country where elections for local offices were taking place.

the first of the clashes occurred in the bannu district in pakistan's north-west frontier province. there three people directly participating in the armed clashes were shot dead. their political ties are unclear. many others were injured in the incident.

two were killed in a clash in khiali in the punjabi district of gujranwala and more than fifteen were injured. one was killed in the multan district where another 15 were injured.

three people were injured due to sporadic shooting in the sialkot district in punjab.

seventeen were injured in the district of lodhran in punjab, including a candidate for the position of nazim. there, four people were arrested.

in the southern balochistan district of jafarabad, a scuffle occurred and at least nineteen people were injured, according to a bbc reporter. 

in dera allah yar in pakistan's jaffrabad district, members of the jamali and imrani ethnic groups exchanged fire two hours after polling began. both groups used automatic weapons, and one person was killed at the scene of the clash. two others died later while receiving medial care. nineteen others were injured, three of whom are reported to be in critical condition.

army personnel were called to maintain peace in ten of the punjab's 17 districts. in total, 40 of pakistan's 53 districts received army assistance in an attempt to keep the peace. security was heightened in many areas of the country.

pakistan has many sources of conflict, ranging from supporters of al-queda and the former afghanistan taliban government, to those involved in terrorist activities against india over disputed borders, to tensions between the numerous political, ethnic, tribal, and religious factions.



moroccan gets seven years in german 9/11 retrial

mounir el-motassadeq, a moroccan who was a friend of several 9/11 hijackers, has been sentenced to seven years in prison for membership in a terrorist organisation by a court in hamburg. the court, however, said that there is no proof that motassadeq knew about the 9/11 plans or participated in them. 

presiding judge ernst-rainer schudt said that motassadeq has played an important role in running the financial affairs of other cell members and covered their absence while they were in terror training camps. but he said that motassadey wasn't "the same caliber as [mohammed] atta", the leader of the 9/11 hijackers. schudt also complained that the lack of cooperation by u.s. authorities in providing witnesses and delievering evidence left the court in "an unsatisfactory situation". u.s. authorities denied the court access to key witnesses in their custody such as ramzi binalshibh and khalid shaikh mohammed and out of security concerns only provided written testimonies, which have very limited legal standing under german law.

relatives of 9/11 victims who attended the trial are reportedly satisfied with the outcome. "this is a clear sign the rule of law can be an answer to terrorism" said andreas schulz, a lawyer representing relatives. federal prosecutors are however unhappy with the ruling, since they also sought a conviction for accessory to murder. they, as well as motassedeq who wanted acquittal, are going to appeal before germany's supreme court.

back in 2003, motassadeq was sentenced to 15 years in jail for accessory to murder but that ruling was overturned by the supreme court, making this retrial necessary.



news briefs:august 19, 2005

the time is 1500 utc on friday 19th august 2005, and this is audio wikinews: news briefs.
former british northern ireland secretary mo mowlam dies<br>
mo mowlam, the former secretary for northern ireland, died this morning at 07:10 utc in a hospice after a fall two weeks ago. she was 55.

mo mowlam was central to the negotiations leading to the good friday agreement and was popular in britain for her straightforward approach, informality and honesty.
rocket attack on uss ashland docked in aqaba; another rocket fired at eilat, israel<br>
two katyusha rockets exploded this morning at 0844 utc+3 in aqaba, jordan, near the uss ashland, which has been docking at the aqaba port for the last ten days. one jordanian soldier was killed. another rocket exploded in eilat, israel.
former rebel becomes president of burundi<br>
pierre nkurunziza, leader of the former rebel group cndd-fdd, has been elected unopposed as president of burundi by the country's senate and national assembly. the cndd-fdd had won landslide victories in communal and national elections earlier this year,
next shuttle flight delayed to next year; iss crew begin spacewalk<br>
commander sergei krikalev and flight engineer john phillips began a planned six-hour spacewalk earlier today, their first in the four months both men have been on the station.

meanwhile, nasa are delaying the next shuttle flight until next year so their engineers have time to address the foam problem that occurred during the most recent flight.
thank you for joining us today. to receive more up-to-date news items as they occur, please visit wikinews.org.

and, be sure to check out our daily full-length audio news program, called audio wikinews: full report.
this recording has been released into the public domain. this applies worldwide.


explosion in san francisco injures one, cause unknown

an explosion from an underground utility chamber in downtown san francisco severely injured a woman and shattered a window at a ralph lauren clothing store shortly after 10:00 a.m. pacific time friday. according to a caller to kcbs radio, a woman was engulfed in flames after the explosion triggered a fire in the store. the fire was quickly put out.

a bomb squad is currently investigating the explosion, and the cause has yet to be determined. one official said the explosion may have been caused by an electrical transformer. a witness described a fireball coming out of the side of the building

pacific gas & electric co. company spokesman paul moreno has stated that "there was no indication of a gas leak." moreno also described the aftermath of the blast. "the explosion did displace manhole covers ? two round steel ones ? and it also displaced a concrete cover as well," moreno said.

some accounts have described a rift in the sidewalk caused by the explosion below.

construction worker tom demartini, who was sitting in his truck outside the ralph lauren store, stated he saw the sidewalk rise up six or seven inches. "it sounded like a big poof, then there was a lot of smoke," demartini said. "one woman looked like she was badly burned." 

the burned woman was taken to the emergency room at st. francis hospital. hospital spokeswoman linda gillespie had no immediate comment on her condition. her name was not released. 

workers in a nearby office building described how the blast shook their buildings and that they thought it was an earthquake. according to one woman, the elevator in her building stopped. 

scores of police have evacuated buildings several blocks around the explosion. kearny street between sutter and market has been closed to both vehicles and pedestrians.



merck &amp; co. found liable for $253.4 million in texas man's vioxx-related death

drug maker merck & co. was found liable for a person's death concerning the use of the pain medication vioxx, according to a jury verdict in a texas court. 

the plaintiff's case, headed by the widow of robert ernst, who died in 2001 of an irregular heartbeat and of clogged arteries while on the drug vioxx, was successfully awarded $253.4 million dollars. vioxx was pulled from the shelves in 2004 after a study discovered it could double the risk of a heart attack or stroke if taken for longer than 1.5 years. however, the us government agency, the fda, decided in february of this year to allow the product back on the shelves.

merck's stock price dropped 10% within minutes of the verdict being announced, and continued to fall hours after. there are in excess of 4,200 other vioxx-related lawsuits pending across the usa. 

the company plans to appeal the decision.



helicopter crash in afghanistan kills 17/brief

and, it has been confirmed that a nato helicopter of the international security assistance force has crashed near herat in western afghanistan.

it is reported that two puma helicopters collided in mid-air. officials have said that 12 spanish soldiers and five crew members have been killed and that five others are missing.


attempt to reopen western australia's biggest beef processor

administrators ferrier hodgson are working to get troubled eg green and sons, trading as harvey beef, back open in two weeks. approximately 600 workers are directly employed by the company, which is both a major employer in the region and the region's largest meat exporter. south west chamber of commerce and industries president rolf stene was quoted as saying "it could affect a lot of people, those 600 workers at the abattoir, farmers, shopkeepers, the service industry it would hit a lot of people right throughout the community." the employees have currently been forced to take annual leave.

many beef producers are owed money by the company. the pastoralists and graziers association (pga) is still trying to identify creditors and eg green and sons are working with the administrators in order to "maximise returns to creditors". despite the well known brand, the company has been trading at a loss in recent years. recent expansions may be at the root of the sudden financial problems that forced the company to suspend operations.

calls by the opposition for a government enquiry were rebuffed by the agriculture minister's parliamentary secretary, tony mcrae, saying "an inquiry would be counter productive." the state government has at this stage declined to assist eg green and sons.


indonesian blackout caused by lack of generation capacity

a power outage in indonesia that left about 100 million people without electricity has caused a political crisis. the country's state-owned energy monopoly, pln, has not determined the immediate cause, and the country's president has ordered the national intelligence agency and police to investigate.

the blackout appears related to deficiencies in indonesia's power generation capacity.

the power failure follows attempts to deal with the country's growing energy crisis, including conservation and trying to allow private companies to provide energy, which was ruled unconstitutional in 2004. in january, the indonesian government held a special energy summit to attract investment in their energy infrastructure. at the summit they set the goal of adding 22,000 megawatts to indonesia's present capacity of 23,000 megawatts, in order to support the country's growth.

the world bank and others have warned that without more investment in the country's energy infrastructure an energy deficit will result. however, foreign investors remain wary of investing in indonesia. "the power outage has resulted in worries over an energy crisis which could hurt the nation's industrial sector," said a trader on indonesia's stock market.

the outage began at 10:23 a.m. local time, august 18, 2005, when power failed along the electrical system that connects java, bali, and madura, causing outages in java and bali. almost half of the country depends on the electrical grid that experienced failures. some of the main lines on the grid are over 20 years old, according to pln president eddie widiono.

the blackout caused traffic jams in jakarta, forced cancellation of several international and domestic flights at jakarta's soekarno-hatta international airport, shut down jakarta's electric train service, and disrupted hospital operations. some larger hospitals were forced to delay surgeries while many smaller hospitals could not receive patients. about 1,800 officers were called into action by jakarta's metropolitan police to deal with short-term problems caused by the power failure.

candles used in place of electric lighting started six fires in jakarta alone.

mulyo aji, a pln official, said more power failures are likely in the future as energy demand increases, without any corresponding new supplies of electricity scheduled to come online soon.


daily mail: scotland yard offered menezes family us$1m

the british newspaper daily mail claims that scotland yard has offered the family of jean charles de menezes, who was mistaken for a suicide bomber and shot by british police on july 22nd, one million us$ (￡560,000) in compensation. the paper quotes his parent as saying: "we will not be bought off. we will not be silenced. this is not about money, this is about justice."

according to yasmin khan, of the justice4jean campaign, john yates, deputy assistant commissioner at scotland yard, flew to brazil about two weeks ago and made the initial offer. khan said: "money was being bandied about but was not accepted. the family felt it was insulting and was not prepared to be bought off." she also stated that she considers scotland yard's alleged actions to be part of a cover-up. 

menezes' cousin alessandro pereira told the daily mail: "the police knew jean was innocent, yet they let my family suffer. they let us suffer. ian blair (metropolitan police commissioner) let us suffer. for three weeks, we have had to listen to lie after lie about jean and how he was killed. the police met my family yet they still didn't tell us the truth. did they think because we are poor brazilians we do not deserve the truth?" 

scotland yard has denied the reports. a spokesman said: "the only discussions we have had so far with the family of jean charles de menezes have been about initial expenses. we strongly refute any suggestion that a figure anywhere in the region of one million dollars has been offered as compensation."

man shot on london underground unconnected to bombing, says scotland yard

armed police shoot man dead on london underground


document reveals u.s., taliban discussed bin laden assassination

according to documents recently declassified by the u.s. , top u.s. and taliban officials discussed the potential assassination of osama bin laden after the in 1998.

the documents were released on thursday by the national security archive under the . they show that the deputy chief of mission at the u.s. embassy in pakistan, alan eastham jr., met with wakil ahmed, a close aide to taliban leader , on november 28 1998 at the taliban embassy in islamabad. 

in that meeting wakil ahmed told eastham jr. that the taliban would understand the u.s. desire to have bin laden expelled from afghanistan. he said that one possibility to "resolve" the "bin laden situation" would be if the u.s. were to "kill him, or arrange for bin laden to be assassinated".

wakil said the taliban wanted to resolve the "bin laden problem" as quickly as possible because a failure to do so would result in american bombing of afghanistan and the taliban's "termination".



croatian singer beaten in belgrade

singer darko rundek (a french resident of croatian descent), was attacked on a street in serbia and montenegro yesterday. rundek was in belgrade performing at "beer fest". he left at around 5:00 a.m., with two women from belgrade, when he was attacked by nationalist serbs. he was not seriously injured and was released from the hospital shortly after his arrival. the police are still looking for several young male suspects. during his performance there were a few smaller incidents where several people fought with police.


sabmiller acquires colombian grupo bavaria brewery

after months of rumor and speculation, the colombian brewery grupo bavaria, which was founded in 1889 and is the second largest in south america, has been acquired by sabmiller in the biggest merger in colombian history. in a buyout in which the multinational with headquarters in london will obtain 71.8% of grupo bavaria's stock, previously owned by the santo domingo family (owner of caracol television and, until recently, of avianca). the santo domingo family is in turn to receive 225 million shares of sabmiller, which is equivalent to 15.1% of the company. sabmiller is to pay nearly $7.8 billion to complete the transaction. 

the news was announced tuesday at dawn (colombian local time). 

thus sabmiller, the second largest brewery in the world ? surpassed only by belgian inbev, enters south america through bavaria's operations in colombia, peru, ecuador, and panama, where it controls between 79% and 99% of the beer market. 

of the $7.8 billion paid by sabmiller, $3.5 billion worth is stock for the santo domingo family, $1.5 billion is cash to buy out the minority stockholders, and the rest, $1.8 billion, will cover the present debts of the colombian brewing giant. 

during recent months, ricardo obregon, president of grupo empresarial bavaria, denied the persistent rumors of a possible sale. in addition to sabmiller, heineken and inbev had been interested in the colombian company. obregon will have to inform the head of the colombian stock market of the acquisition. 

monday, when the international media reported the transaction, grupo bavaria's stock rose 5.36% in the colombian stock market and reached a price of 49,100 cop ($21.23). the dollar fell 13 cop and finished the day monday at 2,315.55 cop. nevertheless, tuesday morning, the stock fell 14.26% to 42,100 cop ($18.19), after the price of the stock had been constant for half an hour. in contrast, sabmiller's stock rose nearly 9 points on the london stock market.


cbc lockout enters sixth day

the labour dispute between the canadian broadcasting corporation and its union the canadian media guild continues, with no sign that the sides will return to contract negotiations. the cbc has locked out about 5500 of its union employees, which include broadcasters and technicians. the main disagreement is over the proportion of permanent workers cbc hires.

cbc management wants to increase the number of employees hired under a fixed-term contract basis, as opposed to permanent staff, saying it will give them more flexibility. the canadian media guild calls cbc management's contract offer "little more than a veiled attempt to buy off employees with their own money".


inter milan victorious in italian super cup

inter milan won the italian super cup on saturday for the first time in sixteen years. the match took place at stadio delle alpi in torino, italy against the serie a champions juventus. the cup is the first opportunity to win a trophy in the italian football season. 

argentinian midfielder juan sebastian veron scored the only goal of the match. he received the assist from adriano in the sixth minute of the first half of extra time. 

roberto mancini, coach of inter milan, described the match as "tough". inter now prepare for a preliminary round match of the champions' league against shakhtar donetsk on wednesday. serie a, the top division of italian football, begins on august 27 with inter being one of the teams favored to win.


australian parliamentary security officers allowed to address members as 'mates' again

the ban on using the term "mate" as a form of address for fellow australian security officers has been overturned. the ban was previously reported here on wikinews 3 days ago.
a daily email brief sent to security staff revoked the "mate" ban and suggested that security officers use their judgement about how to address visitors, employees and parliamentarians.
the edit said: ""pss officers are reminded to treat everyone in parliament house with respect and courtesy, and to be sensitive to the expectations of visitors and building occupants. in particular, pss officers need to be aware of when a degree of informality may be acceptable and when a more formal approach is required, and should not use colloquialisms where these might not be understood or appreciated.""

the decision to ban the word "mate" provoked significant expressions of outrage from australia's prime minister and many other members of the parliament.


one million pilgrims attend open-air mass with pope

the catholic world youth day 2005 concluded today with a open-air mass by pope benedict xvi at the marienfeld, about 15 km west of cologne.

speaking to some one million pilgrims from about 200 countries the pope called for a "return to god" . in his sermon, he condemned the commercialisation of faith and said that "religion constructed on a 'do-it-yourself' basis cannot ultimately help us".

he announced that the next world youth day will be held in sydney and concluded with short addresses in nine languages in which he called upon the faithful to "walk together in unity".

a journalist working for the german weekly magazine der spiegel described the speech this way: "first faith, then morality".

the pope has been in his native germany since thursday. during his visit he met with high ranking politicians, made the first ever visit of a pope to a german synagogue and spoke to representatives of the muslim community.



england win second test of the ashes series

england squared the ashes series against australia by holding on for a 2 run victory at edgbaston in birmingham.

australia came close to victory themselves, however steven harminson took the wicket of michael kasprovic to clinch victory on the fourth day of the game. 

the match looked to be in englands hands following sterling batting from kevin pietersen (71, 20) and andrew flintoff (68, 73) which left the australians needing to score 282 to win the match. the tourists were soon in trouble ending the third day at 175-8 with over 100 runs still to score and only 2 wickets in hand.

however on the fourth morning the australian tailenders scored steadily and despite the loss of shane warne for 42 the final wicket pair closed in on the target.

the edgbaston crowd were reduced to biting their nails as the match came down to the wire; australia needing just 3 runs to win and england needing just one wicket.

harmison produced a lifting delivery from just short of a length which kasprovic could only fend off with a glove through to the england 'keeper geraint jones, leaving australia agonisingly short of a memorable win and the series all square at one match each with three to play.

scores: england 407 and 182, australia 308 and 279


third ashes test ends in a draw

the third ashes test ended in a draw as england ended 1 wicket short of victory. a captain's innings of 156 by ricky ponting helped australia save the game on the fifth day. 

when ponting was dismissed with four overs to go a tense endgame ensued as england sought the final wicket but brett lee and glenn mcgrath fought to deny them that prize.

earlier in the game the batsmen held sway as the third test saw the first centuries of the series from england's michael vaughan (166) and andrew strauss (106). 

with england setting australia an unlikely 423 to win in just over a day it was ponting's 156 that was the most significant contribution as he batted for six hours to deny england a second consecutive victory.

the series remains at 1-1 with two matches to play.

scores: england 444 and 280-6 dec. australia 302 and 371-9


space shuttle discovery back in florida

the space shuttle discovery has returned to the kennedy space center in florida.

the 109 ton vehicle was flown back from edwards airforce base (afb) in california on top of a modified boeing 747 known as the shuttle carrier aircraft. the 3,591 km journey across the united states took 2 days and cost about one million dollars. the shuttle carrier aircraft made pit-stops in oklahoma and louisiana before landing in florida this morning.

on its way back from space, discovery had to land at edwards afb on august 9 because its homebase in florida reported bad weather.



dance party broken up by police in utah, usa

about 90 law enforcement officers from multiple agencies broke up what they said was a rave party on public and private property in the diamond fork area of spanish fork canyon, an hour outside of salt lake city, utah, at about 11:30 p.m. saturday (5:30 sunday utc).

according to the county, the sheriff's office had been investigating similar parties since the beginning of the season. in a press release from the sheriff's office in utah county, the department states that previous allegations of sexual abuse at other raves, as well as various firearm and theft violations, were reasons for the investigation. the release continues on to state that the proper permit was not obtained before the event started.
the promoters deny this allegation and insist that all permits were legally obtained before the event.

armed with semi-automatic assault rifles, tasers, and tear gas, the police used dogs to sweep the crowd for narcotics. at least one helicopter was used in the operation, which served as a large spotlight for the ground teams. prior to raiding the show, several unnamed police informants had reportedly told police that they had observed some "illegal activities". 

the promoter says the party took place on private property, named child's ranch, with express permission from the owner. the property owner has apparently had at least one previous lawsuit with police over a similar event. utah county requires a permit, bond and county commission approval for all gatherings with more than 250 people present and which can be expected to continue for 12 hours or more. dj time slots and pro audio and lighting contracts show that the party was scheduled to go on for no more than ten hours. according to a dj at the event, "they presold 700 tickets and they expected up to 3,000 people total." he added that by the time police arrived "the crowd was about 1,500". 

the police have publicly stated that only a permit from the health department was obtained, and that a utah mass gathering permit was needed. the promoters have stated that they had the required permit, and have given a permit number (# 2005-11). jay stone, who handles mass gathering permits for the utah county health department’s bureau of environmental health services, has confirmed that the permit was applied for and granted for the party. officials also claim that the party had spilled over onto public land, and that more than 60 arrests were made in total - for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, underage drinking, drug possession and distribution, resisting arrest, assault on a police officer, disorderly conduct, and one instance of a weapons offense, a pistol which was found in the home of the private property owners. among the confiscated items and drugs found were cocaine, ecstasy, marijuana, mushrooms, alcohol, and drug paraphernalia. some of the drugs may include those confiscated from attendees by private security guards - who were also arrested. 

amateur video from the scene shows a number of swat police (sheriff's press release places the figure at 90) screaming orders at the djs to "shut it down "now"!" and yelling at others to "get out now, or i'll kick your ass in jail." armed police are also seen tackling two attendees, alaisha matagi and paul maka. it is unclear from the video footage whether these actions were provoked or not. however, those shown on the two-minute long footage that are being forced to the ground do not appear to be resisting arrest. both matagi and maka are charged with failure to obey a police officer and resisting arrest - maka is also charged with interfering with police. sheriff jim tracy stated in an email that both of them were tackled and arrested after assaulting a deputy, however, neither of them are being charged with assaulting a police officer.

a first hand account from a dj booked to play at the party stated that while police were arresting a man accused of possession, the suspect was beaten to the ground and continually "kicked in the ribs" by four armed "soldiers" dressed in camouflage. the item was not shown on the video footage. according to the account, nobody resisted the policemen, and the crowd was orderly, but tear gas was thrown at the partiers as they attempted to leave as instructed. the dj also states that police were attempting to confiscate video equipment, but an amateur video has still surfaced on the internet (see sources below). the video appears to have been taken near the dj stand before it was moved to show more of the action.

several attendees felt they should have the right to attend an event where drugs may be present, so long as they don't personally use them. "while it may be true that some individuals choose to take drugs at said events like this, myself as well as many others choose to go for the music. just like anything, you have bad apples, but you shouldn't cut down the tree," said one attendee. "raves are not the only musical gatherings where drugs are used and distributed," said another.

other event-goers felt that the use of force in the shutdown was excessive - numerous eyewitness accounts by concertgoers describe people being beaten, tasered, or attacked with dogs. an email from sheriff jim tracy stated that dogs and tasers were present at the raid, however, he also states that the tasers were not used on anyone, and that no dogs were deployed against concertgoers.

one account from an attendee, identified as "colby", states: 
"i saw at least two people being beaten on the ground while barking, snarling dogs are held just a few feet from them. weapons were being pointed at unarmed, peaceful civilians. a friend of mine was forced at gunpoint to put his hands on his head and turn around, because he asked if he could get his things from the tent."
utah county sheriff's sergeant darren gilbert also alleged that a 17-year-old girl was found overdosed on ecstasy, and was treated and released to her parents. according to an advertisement for the event, an attorney was present at the party. the local sheriff is scheduled to appear on utah tv.


british authorities may have detected nerve gas attack plans

scotland yard believes it has successfully identified a potential terrorist attack on the british parliament's house of commons being planned by an al-qa'ida group. 

the plot was discovered by authorities after utilizing an informant's abilities to decipher encrypted e-mails. british police and mi5 then identified the terrorist cell that had been video recording potential targets.

the reported plan was to involve the release of sarin gas, a highly toxic substance that the united nations has classified as a weapon of mass destruction. as well as parliament, the terrorists may also have been targeting the underground system.

the ability to crack the code the terrorists were using also enabled "several other" plots to be discovered.

security officials are also said to have stated that parliament's security is "unacceptable". a special forces team is said to have examined existing security measures and reported that a black cab could be used by suicide bombers to attack, and that a forthcoming guy fawkes exhibition could present an opportunity for an attack.


'mi6 officers' named on us-based website

cryptome.org, a us-based website, has published a list of 74 individuals claimed to be members of the british "secret intelligence service", mi6. many are serving members of the uk foreign office, including 18 ambassadors. the leak of a similar list in 1999 led to the prosecution of a former mi6 agent, richard tomlinson. the source for this latest leak is referred to only as "a". 

earlier this year "new york times" reporter judith miller was jailed for refusing to name the us-government source who identified a member of the us central intelligence agency (cia), valerie plame.

a general statement on the cryptome.org web site states: 

"cryptome welcomes documents for publication that are prohibited by governments worldwide, in particular material on freedom of expression, privacy, cryptology, dual-use technologies, national security, intelligence, and secret governance ? open, secret and classified documents ? but not limited to those. documents are removed from this site only by order served directly by a us court having jurisdiction. no court order has ever been served; any order served will be published here ? or elsewhere if gagged by order."


news briefs:august 22, 2005

the time is 1100 utc on monday 22nd august 2005, and this is audio wikinews: news briefs.

utah dance party broken up by police<br>
about 90 law enforcement officers from multiple agencies broke up what they said was a rave party on public and private property in the diamond fork area of spanish fork canyon, an hour outside of salt lake city, utah, on saturday. armed with assault rifles and tear gas, the police used dogs to sweep the crowd for narcotics. the scale of the police response was apparently due to the ineffectiveness of a smaller force used in the previous "sequence five" rave.

one million pilgrims attend open-air mass with pope<br>
the catholic world youth day 2005 concluded yesterday with an open-air mass by pope benedict xvi at the marienfeld, about 15 km west of cologne.
speaking to some one million pilgrims from about 200 countries the pope called for a "return to god". in his sermon, he condemned the commercialisation of faith and said that -quote- "religion constructed on a 'do-it-yourself' basis cannot ultimately help us".
space shuttle discovery back in florida<br>
the space shuttle discovery has returned to the kennedy space center in florida.
the 109 ton vehicle was flown back from edwards airforce base (afb) in california on top of a modified boeing 747 known as the shuttle carrier aircraft. the 3,591 km journey across the united states took 2 days and cost about one million dollars.
thank you for joining us today. to receive more up-to-date news items as they occur, please visit wikinews.org.

and, be sure to check out our daily full-length audio news program, called audio wikinews: full report.
this recording has been released into the public domain. this applies worldwide.


last gaza settlement cleared, west bank towns prepare to resist

israeli soldiers are clearing the last of the 21 jewish settlements in the gaza strip, 38 years after israel took possession of it. a total of 8,500 people have been evacuated, and many existing houses have been bulldozed.

netzarim is one of the oldest settlements in the coastal strip, and has frequently been the target of palestinian militant attacks. the village has been targeted particularly often as it divides the strip, and is also the most isolated israeli settlement in gaza.

600 residents are expected to leave peacefully after negotiating with police. they will depart in a fleet of armored buses and head to the western wall in jerusalem, the holiest shrine in judaism. settlers will receive the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of us dollars in compensation.

three young people were arrested on sunday after police found them apparently preparing to resist violently, armed with metal spikes and barbed wire. residents were still working on their buildings until large numbers of troops entered the settlement and began going house-to-house. although there were tearful scenes, there were none of the protests of earlier in the week.

one resident said the evacuation showed the arabs that the jews were "weak and would run away", and others have said it rewards the palestinian uprising that began in 2000. however, overall, most israelis support the withdrawals, with many blaming radical judaism, including such settlements, for inciting conflict with palestinians. others merely consider isolated settlements an unnecessary defense burden on the israeli military.

four small militant west bank settlements will also be cleared, with 5,500 troops heading there to begin the clearances on tuesday. the israeli prime minister ariel sharon announced at the same time that existing large west bank settlements will be expanded. more than 230,000 israelis live there, while 3.8 million palestinians live in the gaza strip and west bank.

sharon has said that he hopes the pull-out from the gaza strip will help in negotiations for the retention of large west bank blocs, even though the us opposes continued construction there. israel feels that it has a much stronger biblical claim to the west bank than it did to the gaza strip and the palestinians feel they have the stronger claim to the land. further small, isolated west bank settlements may be cleared in the future.

it is said that 2,000 israeli right-wing extremists are preparing to resist the evacuation in two of the four small west bank settlements that are to be cleared. hundreds of extremist youths have headed to the settlements from other nearby towns.

settlers slashed the tires of army vehicles over the weekend and set fire to an army tractor with the driver inside. the israeli public security minister has said there will be no tolerance for those who oppose the troops. most weapons have already been collected.

the us-backed "peace road map" calls on the palestinians to disarm, which may result in more of the west bank being cleared. however, the road map also calls on israel to halt its expansion in the west bank.

palestinian president mahmoud abbas hopes the israeli pull-outs will signal to muslim militants that peaceful negotiations can work.



irish cao releases 2005 university offers to students

the central applications office in ireland has released the first round of offers for places on third level courses to over 60,000 irish leaving certificate students (graduating secondary school students). 

the offers are given out based on a highly competitive points system whereby students receive from 

points from a student's best six subjects are added up to make his or her total points. this year 145 students achieved the maximum 600 points. students achieveing this are generally regarded as the top students academically in the country.

points required for courses in medicine and nursing have risen again leaving many candidates disappointed. due to the huge popularity of medicine and the low supply of courses, points for entry into medicine are in the region of 580 points. points for arts, engineering and commerce have fallen marginally. 

while the points system is often attacked for placing too much pressure on students, it has avoided the problem of grade inflation that has occurred in the uk and usa. the leaving certificate exam has remained largely unchanged since its inception in 1924. it is often joked that the same questions reappear on the papers every 30 or 40 years.

 


young quakers disappointed by uk visa denials

young quakers who planned to take part in the world gathering of young friends at lancaster university, england have been unable to attend after having their visas denied. 

their absence has been a cause of "hurt" at the meetings. sara wolcott of pacific yearly meeting on the western coast of america wrote in a journal on the wgyf website: "i saw [in a workshop for friends planning to meet in kenya] how much the absence of so many friends was felt; the gathering felt incomplete. we desperately wanted our brothers and sisters to be with us, i know they wanted to be here too."

most of the denials were for economic reasons, if someone doesn't have a high enough income or a fixed job it can be assumed that they will stay in the country for work. representatives from the gathering now plan to go to kenya in october to share some of the programme with those who were unable to come. 

despite the missing friends, the gathering has brought together a mix of different quaker traditions in a positive atmosphere that has been appreciated by participants. many quakers worship in silence (unprogrammed meetings) while others, particularly in america and africa, have ministers like other churches. quakers also have differences of opinion over theological issues, including even the existence of god, but the young friends have not found this to be an obstacle to coming together. unlike many traditional christian sects, the religious society of friends, or quakers, encourage each member to explore his or her own relationship with god.

chrissy muhr of northwest yearly meeting (northwest us) wrote: "i've been really impressed by how the mix of worship styles has been handled. almost all the programmed friends i've spoken to have some prior experience of unprogrammed worship. for me, the hardest thing has been not falling asleep during long periods of silence - the long week has begun to take its toll."


brush fire gets close to animal park near san diego

in san pasqual a brush fire was dealt with as it burned four acres of wildlands. 

this may have been due to sparks from a vehicle accident. the blaze lasted from 3:30 to 4:30 pm until fire trucks and many other emergency vehicles helped stop the blaze.


innovator of synthesizers robert moog, dead at 71

, inventor, founder of , and musical revolutionary, died sunday at the age of 71 in his home. 

moog was diagnosed with in april and underwent treatment for it. 

thoug bob moog is best knwon for his bringing of synthesizers into popular music and his appreciation for "the magical connection" between musicians and their instruments, moog had a childhood interest with the theremin, an early electronic musical instrument. he developed his first synthesizer (the moog modular synthesizer) in 1963, while still a ph.d student at cornell university. he was recognized with the for lifetime achievement in 1970. 

moog is survived by his wife and five children who have announced the formation of the bob moog memorial fund for the advancement of electronic music.


earthquake reported near rome's coast, no damage caused

on monday in italy at 14:02 italian local time, an earthquake was registered at 4.5 on the richter scale epicentered in the sea near rome. some residents of rome and surrounding towns who felt the quake went out into city streets to avoid any possible serious destruction or to discuss the tremor with neighbours.

no serious damage has been reported and due to the relatively small magnitude of the quake minimal structural damage to ancient roman monuments is believed to have occurred. structural inspections are being made to ensure safety and stability of the historic landmarks.



australian current affairs tv program accused of inciting religious hatred

australian media analysis program "media watch" has accused popular national "current affairs" style program today tonight of deliberately quoting a muslim youth out of context, with the intention of presenting a negative stereotype of the muslim community. the allegations were aired during monday night's episode.

according to mediawatch, abdul elayoubi of the lebanese muslim association was approached by tim noonan, a freelance film producer wanting to produce a short documentary to air on the seven network. mr elayoubi was cautious because of a prior misrepresentation, however was assured that the program would "show australians from non-islamic backgrounds the viewpoint of young muslims and the pressure they face in an often hostile society", according to a letter from peter meakin, the seven network's head of news and current affairs. elayoubi said "tim told us he’d be doing the editing himself and would give it to channel 7 completed," and was assured that quotes would not be taken out of context to further vilify australian muslims.

three muslim youths, khaled, ahmed and samir, agreed to participate in the documentary. despite prior reassurances, tim noonan did not produce a completed documentary. the film was subsequently narrated by david richardson, who had not met the boys and who got samir's name wrong throughout the piece.

the quote "we will never integrate, the way other communities integrate purely because of the fact that you have to draw a line with what your idea of integration is and what our idea of integration and accepting the practices of other people are," was reduced to "we will never integrate" during editing. ahmed stated that the full quote itself was made to camera after a discussion including talk of how the islamic rule prohibiting consumption of alcohol was a barrier to full social integration.

the interviewer, tim noonan, dismissed the claims in a statement to media watch, saying "i believe the edit was an accurate representation of what they told me and i absolutely deny that anything was taken out of context."

the aired quote was picked up by other media bodies, most noticeably sydney talk radio 2ue, where it was allegedly used to incite religious and racial intolerance. the quote was then further publicised by "today tonight" in a follow-up piece the next evening.


new zealand general election: national, labour tv debate

helen clark (prime minister) and don brash (leader of the opposition) have gone head-to-head in the first live televised debate between the two leaders in the new zealand general election of 2005.

a studio audience contained equal numbers of national and labour party supporters.

the debate ran through tax, race relations, foreign affairs, immigration, education and health (all the key policy areas).

taxes were at the top of the agenda; the debate was just hours after the national party released their tax policy.

don brash said that the nuclear freeze policy of new zealand (which bans nuclear powered us warships from its ports) and helen clark's criticism of the war in iraq have both contributed to her failure to secure a free-trade pact with the united states.

helen clark was confident and aggressive and she often forced don brash into defensive explanations of national's policies. 


'piano man' speaks and is identified, returns home to germany

the man known as just the 'piano man' has left the hospital where he was staying and has returned home to his native germany. he has finally spoken after four months of silence.

it turns out, according to british tabloid "the daily mirror", that the man, aged 20, was from germany but after losing his job in paris, traveled to the uk through the channel tunnel. he was going to commit suicide when he was found by police on a kent beach. 

he refused to talk to authorities due to his distressed state. it appears that he had formerly worked with mental patients and copied what he saw from them to fool the doctors. also according to the "mirror", the man was only able to tap the same piano key repeatedly, but hospital officials refute this. however, all of this information came from a single, unidentified source.

the man was found soaking wet on a beach in kent in an expensive-looking suit from which all the labels had been removed. 

some people believed he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or that he was an autistic savant. some also believed he was a canadian eccentric, a french busker, a student from norway, or czech concert pianist toma? strnad.



draft constitution pushed into iraqi parliament

a draft of iraq's proposed constitution has entered parliament, despite warnings from sunni arabs that it could begin a civil war. the vote however, has been delayed three more days to try to win the support of the sunni minority.

signs indicate little chance of a resolution to the sunni opposition, however. "if it passes, there will be an uprising in the streets," saleh al-mutlak, a sunni negotiator working on the constitution said. another negotiator, soha allawi, said, "we will campaign ... to tell both sunnis and shi'ites to reject the constitution, which has elements that will lead to the break-up of iraq and civil war."

sunnis are concerned over sections of the constitution that create large "federal" regions in the north and the south under shi'ite and control. sunni negotiators are demanding that all "federalism" be left out. kurds have pressed for the provisions on federalism, as kurdish negotiators have sought to retain, largely, their current autonomy in the north.

other concerns which prevent sunni support of the draft constitution center on the emphasis given to islam as a "main source of law" -- a compromise between islamist and secular shi'ites and kurds.


thousands expected to protest at forbes global ceo conference in sydney

organisers of a protest march planned to occur in sydney next week are predicting thousands of people will attend. the protest is timed to coincide with the forbes global ceo conference, which starts at the sydney opera house the same day. 

the action is being promoted by various trade unions and peace and social justice groups, and co-ordinated by the 30a network, which is an informal association of such groups. a number of reasons have been given for the protest, including the iraq war, globalisation, and the australian government's planned industrial relations changes. 

the 30a network website is reporting that the protest has been endorsed by the nsw fire brigade employees' union, the maritime union of australia, the australian services union, and the construction, forestry, mining and energy union.

the nsw police service will provide free security for the conference. this is potentially controversial, as other events such as football games have to pay for police to attend. the decision has been criticised by the nsw police association, as they claim it will leave inner city stations short-staffed. the opposition police spokesman mike gallacher echoed the association's criticism, saying that the conference organisers should foot the bill themselves. 

"even though asio have identified it as a risk coming to sydney, they can be guaranteed the best policing resources available in this country to hold their conference in a safe environment, but to do so they should have been asked to pay their way, to pay the bill," he said.

a spokesman for the police minister said that frontline policing would not be affected. 

new south wales premier morris iemma defended the use of taxpayers' money on policing the conference. 

"the advice i have is that asio have declared this as a medium-security event, which classifies it as warranting security. they do expect up to 2,000 protesters and if the local agricultural show had been subject to the same security assessment with potential protesters, they too would receive the same security response," he said. 


archaeologists find 1.8m-year-old homo erectus skull

archaeologists say they have found a 1.8 million-year-old "homo erectus" skull in georgia, the oldest such skull to be found in europe. according to david lortkipanidze, director of the georgian national museum, the skull was found august 6 and excavated on august 21 in dmanisi, about 85 km southwest of tblisi. 

the skull was said to have been found at a site archaeologists have been examining since 1936 along with four other bones and fragments, including a jaw bone found in 1991. "practically all the remains have been found in one place. this indicates that we have found a place of settlement of primitive people," said lortkipanidze.

the researchers said their find was more than one million years older than any outside africa. the skull and other remains have been cited as evidence of "homo erectus"'s migration into europe at least 500,000 years earlier than has previously been thought.

previously fossils of the hominid ancestor have been found in africa, the middle east, and asia.

some of lortkipanidze's earlier findings that had more slender, small features, including a smaller brain relative to "homo sapiens", contradicted anthropological theories that "homo erectus" was large and intelligent even by "homo sapiens" standards.


lance armstrong accused of epo doping

the french cycling newspaper "l'Equipe" is reporting that a drugs testing laboratory has discovered that lance armstrong, seven times winner of the tour de france, used the banned substance epo in the 1999 tour - his first victory after defeating testicular cancer. "l'equipe" also points out that the results may tarnish armstrong's image forever, and cast a shadow of doubt over his six other victories.

lance armstrong has responded on his website, branding "l'equipe"'s reporting of being "nothing short of tabloid journalism." armstrong says: "i will simply restate what i have said many times: i have never taken performance[-]enhancing drugs."

the chatenay-malabry french national doping screening laboratory, which developed the first epo tests, says it has been developing new experimental detection techniques and decided to test frozen urine samples taken from armstrong after several stages of the 1999 tour. the director of the official french anti-doping test laboratory at chatenay-malabry, jacques de ceaurriz was quoted as saying he had "no doubt about the validity of our results." he said that while being kept for long periods can cause epo proteins to deteriorate, this would possibly result in negative tests for doped athletes, but not false positives. 

it should be pointed out that technically this statement is false. epo is naturally produced in the body. it is present at low levels in normal human urine, and natural levels in a human doing high-altitude training (a known "trick" of mr. armstrong) could be unusually high. therefore, false positives can be obtained by setting the sensitivity threshold too low. this is especially true if the number of control samples (for calibration purposes) is limited, as is the case with the 1999 urine samples. these calibration issues are a reason epo wasn't officially tested for earlier. incidentally, de ceaurriz stated that his laboratory worked on numbered anonymous samples, and was unaware when he sent his results to wada/ama that some of the results concerned lance armstrong.

in addition to these accusations, and in response to them, armstrong has also received open backing from us cycling , individual cycling officials , from former tour winners eddy merckx and miguel indurain , and other public figures.

supporters argue numerous irregularities in the doping claim: "' "wada (world anti-doping agency) and the us anti-doping agency, they've all defined a process for collecting samples, managing samples, testing the samples, identifying the people who are involved",' said johnson. ' "they have certain rights in the process. none of that has been followed in this case".' officials from cycling's ruling body (uci), wada, the french sports ministry and the tour de france all agree normal anti-doping proceedings have not been followed. ' "this isn't a 'doping positive. this is just a publication in a french tabloid newspaper. that's our perspective",'" added johnson.'"--bbc 

these allegations are still under examination by a number of news and anti-doping organizations. 


on september 9, after a period of investigation, the uci finally released a strongly-worded official statement condemning the wada, the french laboratory in question, and the paper l'equipe, for having failed to provide any official communication, and having failed to provide any data, evidence, or background on the allegations. the uci stated that it was still "awaiting plausible answers" to its requests to wada and the laboratory, but also indicated "we deplore the fact that the long-established and entrenched confidentiality principle could be violated in such a flagrant way without any respect for fair play and the rider's privacy." 

the accusers themselves, in particular the world anti-doping agency, might face an investigation into their own practices, in connection to their allegations against armstrong. the uci stated "we have substantial concerns about the impact of this matter on the integrity of the overall drug testing regime of the olympic movement, and in particular the questions it raises over the trustworthiness of some of the sports and political authorities active in the anti-doping fight." 

on october 5, the uci announced the appointment of an independent expert to investigate the leaking of doping allegations against armstrong: "french sports newspaper l'equipe claims that samples given by the american icon on the 1999 tour later tested positive. armstrong has denied the allegations. the international cycling union (uci) has now appointed dutch lawyer and doping specialist emile vrijman to probe how the details were released. the uci said it 'expects all relevant parties to fully co-operate'. vrijman is a former director of the national anti-doping agency in the netherlands (necedo)." 



massive floods in bavaria, austria, switzerland

heavy rainfalls have caused massive floods in southern bavaria, western austria and central switzerland.

in southern bavaria authorities have declared a state of emergency. the city of garmisch-partenkirchen is cut off from the outside world. near augsburg a freeway had to be closed because a bridge was on the verge of collapsing after water had damaged the foundation. 

in the austrian states of tyrol and vorarlberg authorities are battling with floods that intensified during the night with record rainfall. in vorarlberg a brook broke into a house and caused a gas explosion injuring six people. one person is missing after he and his car were swept away. in the capital of tyrol, innsbruck, all bridges over the inn had to be closed. in western tyrol, landslides killed one man and injured another.

in switzerland the cities of bern and lucerne were partially flooded. mudslides killed two firefighters who were trying to evacuate a farm. in the canton of zurich one man drowned, and a woman in graubunden is missing after she too fell into a stream. the swiss government estimates the floodings caused a damage of at least us$79 million.


religious broadcaster pat robertson calls for assassination of venezuela's president

pat robertson, an american televangelist, former presidential candidate, and founder of the christian coalition of america, has called for the assassination of venezuela's president hugo chavez. 

on his popular talk show, "the 700 club" broadcast on the christian broadcasting network, robertson said on monday that chavez had destroyed the venezuelan economy and made his country a "launching pad for communist infiltration and muslim extremism all over the continent". ninety-eight percent of all venezuelans are roman catholic or protestant.

relating to the latest allegations from chavez that the u.s. is planning to assassinate him, which the u.s. government denies, robertson said: "you know, i don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, i think that we really ought to go ahead and do it."

he added that he did not believe venezuela would stop exporting oil if that were to happen as chavez suggested. he again called chavez a "terrific danger" to the u.s. with the potential to hurt the country "very bad[ly]" and concluded: "we have the ability to take him out, and i think the time has come that we exercise that ability. we don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. it's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."

a spokeswoman for robertson, angell watts, said to the associated press that he would not give interviews on tuesday and had no statement elaborating on his remarks. however, he later issued an apology.

in response, venezuela's vice president jose vicente rangel accused robertson of making terrorist threats: "it's the height of hypocrisy for the u.s. to continue talking about the war against terrorism when at the same time you have someone making obvious terrorist declarations in the heart of the country."

the u.s. state department called the remarks "inappropriate" and insisted that they do not reflect official policy and that the u.s. is not now, nor ever was, planning to take "hostile actions" against venezuela. 

rev. barry lynn, executive director of americans united for separation of church and state, reacted to robertson's remarks: "it's absolutely chilling to hear a religious leader call for the murder of any political leader, no matter how much he disagrees with such a leader's policies or practices."

in an effort to distance themselves from robertson's statements, many evangelical christians have publicly condemned his speech. "this kind of statement, by this well known american christian leader, is in complete contradiction to the teachings of jesus christ who evangelical christians believe and seek to demonstrate," said geoff tunnicliffe, international director of the world evangelical alliance. "robertson does not speak for evangelical christians. we believe in justice and the protection of human rights of all people, including the life of president chavez."

robertson is considered to have staunch conservative views. his unsuccessful bid for the republican nomination for president in 1988 led to allegations of partisanship. according to white house press secretary scott mcclellan, robertson met with president george w. bush in november 2002 to discuss the invasion of iraq. he considers himself to be a supporter of bush. today he remains a controversial public figure.

hugo chavez has led oil-rich venezuela into an anti-us, pro-cuba policy, and called for seizing assets of wealthy families in an attempt to convert his nation from capitalism to socialism. he has also worked against regional trade pacts led by the us. these actions have alarmed some in the us, such as robertson, as well as many in his own country. his policies are against the interests of powerful families in venezuela, so he may be a target of local assassins.

a similar call from a religious leader for assassination came from the now deceased ayatollah khomeini of iran in 1989 against british ex-muslim writer salman rushdie over the content of his book, "the satanic verses". iran also offered a multi-million dollar reward to anyone who carries out the killing.

us televangelist pat robertson apologizes for assassination remark, august 25, 2005







archaeologists find 1.8m-year-old homo erectus skull/brief

archaeologists say they have found a 1.8 million-year-old homo erectus skull in georgia, the oldest such skull to be found in europe. according to david lortkipanidze, director of the georgian national museum, the skull was found august 6 and excavated on august 21 85km southwest of tblisi in dmanisi.

previously similar fossils have been found in africa, the middle east, and asia.


news briefs:august 23, 2005

the man known as the 'piano man' has left the hospital where he was staying and has returned home to his native germany. the man, aged 20, was originally from germany. when he lost his job in paris, the man traveled to the uk through the channel tunnel. he was going to commit suicide when he was found by police on a kent beach.

the man was found soaking wet on a beach in kent in an expensive-looking suit from which all the labels had been removed.

australian media analysis program media watch has accused popular national "current affairs" style program today tonight of deliberately quoting a muslim youth out of context, with the intention of presenting a negative stereotype of the muslim community. the allegations were aired during monday nights episode.

the interviewer, tim noonan, dismissed the claims in a statement to media watch, saying "i believe the edit was an accurate representation of what they told me and i absolutely deny that anything was taken out of context."

archaelogists say they have found a 1.8 million-year-old homo erectus skull in georgia, the oldest such skull to be found in europe. according to david lortkipanidze, director of the georgian national museum, the skull was found august 6 and excavated on august 21 85km southwest of tblisi in dmanisi.

previously similar fossils have been found in africa, the middle east, and asia.


indiana senator testing waters for 2008 u.s. presidential bid

relatively unknown indiana senator evan bayh is taking steps to make a run for u.s. president during the 2008 election cycle. bayh has formed a political action committee (pac) and already is a leading money-raiser among democratic party hopefuls. the hoosier politician also is touting his appeal to traditionally republican voters.

among the selling points bayh points to in his likely 2008 bid is that he is a democrat who consistently wins elections in republican red states by appealing to moderate republican and libertarian-leaning voters.

a former leader and key figure in the democratic leadership council moderate movement in the democratic party that brought bill clinton to the national stage, bayh is known as a democrat who won with landslide margins of victory during both terms as indiana's governor and two u.s. senate runs in the traditionally republican-voting state. 

in an interview with the "terre haute, indiana tribune star" newspaper, he noted democratic former president harry truman as a role model. in recent news reports he also criticized the national democratic party image as being weak on national defense. 

critics point out this popularity with moderate republicans could be a liability for bayh in the democrat primaries, which are traditionally controlled by left-leaning party activists, also referred to as "progressives."

between january and july 31, 2005, three years before the election, bayh has raised $1.17 million for a potential 2008 bid--more than most potential 2008 presidential nominees. he out raised fellow democrats hillary clinton, john kerry and john edwards. each, unlike bayh, are well-known household names in the united states. money-raising results by political action committees are reported to and released by the u.s. federal election commission.

clinton is widely considered the front runner, and democratic money leader. she has focused her attention on reelection in 2006 to her new york u.s. senate seat. for that campaign, she has raised $10 million. 

bayh is being beaten in the money-raising arena by democratic party chairman howard dean, who raised $1.77 million in the first six months of the year. dean has made a name for himself as an effective money-raiser for liberal causes. but dean has bowed out of the 2008 race according to reports.

bayh is trailing the top republican 2008 presidential; hopeful, sen. bill frist, considered a top republican candidate for 2008, who collected $1.9 million in the first six months of 2005.


uk guinea pig farm to close after owner's family grave robbed

a forty-year-old british guinea pig farm is to close after a six-year campaign of intimidation by animal rights extremists culminated in the remains of the family's dead mother being dug up and stolen.

glady hammond's sons, who run the farm which breeds the guinea pigs for medical experiments, have been the victim of bomb threats, hate mail, malicious phone calls, an attempt to brand them as pedophiles, and arson attacks.

however last year's exhumation of their mother was the final straw. the remains of the 87-year-old, who died in 1997, were removed under the cover of darkness from the churchyard they were buried in, and have not been found.

two men were arrested in connection with the grave robbery, but were later released without charge.

the family hopes that their announcement that the farm will close will lead to the return of their mother's remains.

a close relative of mrs hammond, who spoke anonymously to the bbc, said, "gladys was a relative of the halls by marriage only and had no involvement in guinea pig breeding. she was a kind, gentle country lady who loved animals."

legal peaceful protesters were overjoyed at the news. johnny holmes, a spokesman for stop the newchurch guinea pigs, said: "this is the most fantastic day of my life." the group, which has picketted the farm for several years, says it will remain until all the guinea pigs have gone.

the group's website describes the experiments the guinea pigs were subjected to as being "horrendous", and have accused the farm of keeping tens of thousands of animals in poor conditions leading to many dying of malnutrition and neurosis. video footage taken by the group inside the farm show many young animals dying and under extreme stress.

they also say the animals have been used for cosmetics research and for "unscientific" medical experiments.

the association of the british pharmaceutical industry (abpi), in an online statement, gave their best wishes to the hammond family, and described the decision as "regrettable but understandable".

their director of science and technology said, "guinea pigs have provided essential information to support biomedical research into respiratory disease resulting in real breakthroughs in the development of new medicines."

the animals from the farm have been used in biomedical research, especially for respiratory diseases such as asthma. the abpi also said that future animal research may be carried out in countries that do not have the strict welfare controls the uk has.


israel completes gaza strip, west bank pull-outs

israel has completed its pull-out from the gaza strip and four west bank settlements.

it had been feared that the protesters in the two west bank towns, sanur and homesh, would put up strong resistance but in the end only made token protests, pelting soldiers with fruit, flour, and paint and burning israeli flags. the residents of the two other towns went peacefully.

in the synagogues of the settlements israeli troops had to cut through barricades of iron bars and barbed wire before carrying out protesters, but they did not resist. around 40 settlers made a last stand on the roof of an old fort before giving themselves up to riot police after being sprayed with water cannons.

the israeli chief of staff said, "there has been less violence than we thought. one of the reasons was because rabbis worked to calm tensions."

four police officers received minor injuries.

local palestinians looked on as the protesters were cleared, and told reporters that life would be easier for them now. previously, israeli settlers had stopped palestinian farmers from travelling, and had even stopped some of them visiting a village cemetery. 

israelis will retain responsibility for security in the west bank settlements, although in the gaza strip that role has now been handed over to palestinians.

in the gaza strip, israeli forces have already demolished six of the settlements left behind by the evacuation of 8,500 israeli settlers to make way for new palestinian construction.

in the west bank, there remain some 120 jewish settlements housing more than 230,000.

israeli prime minister ariel sharon has seen his poll ratings raise despite the angry scenes. hamas, a radical palestinian group, has attempted to present the pull-out as a surrender by israel. "we believe that this unilateral withdrawal is a complete failure for the israeli enemy, that it deserves no concession from our side whatsoever," said a spokesman.

us president george bush said the pull-out has "changed the dynamics on the ground and has provided hope for the palestinian people."



canada considers trade retaliation against the u.s.

the government of canada is demanding that the united states stop applying duties on canadian lumber and refund the c$5 billion in duties that has been collected. as reported earlier a nafta panel rejected washington's claims justifying those duties, but the u.s. is not abiding by the nafta decision.

canada had asked the wto for permission to retaliate. jacqueline larocque, a spokeswoman for canadian trade minister jim peterson, said that canada is considering imposing c$5 billion in duties on imports from the u.s. in retaliation. "canada has wanted to make it very clear that we are not happy with the position of the united states to simply ignore what is a clear nafta ruling in canada's favor," canadian finance minister ralph goodale was quoted as saying.

the u.s. is still dealing with a 4 billion dollar ruling against it by the wto relating to its practice of helping large american companies set up "foreign sales corporations" offshore in order to have a competitive edge in europe. that dispute resulted in the u.s. having to change its laws last year.



hiker missing from us state of utah wilderness found in australia

a man missing from a camping ground in southern utah in the western us since july 30 was found in australia. his automobile was found in a campground of dixie national forest with a note that he would be back in a few hours. an extensive search and rescue operation was conducted to try to locate this hiker by the washington county sheriff's office in utah.

investigators in the sheriff's office were able to track him down to cairns, queensland. apparently before he was "missing", he bought a one-way ticket to australia. bryan butas, the missing hiker, apparently had been under a great deal of stress and "got sick of it all", according to a telephone interview by the associated press.

butas has been charged with insurance fraud, a second-degree felony, by washington county attorney brock belnap. this was because butas plotted to obtain a $250,000 life insurance policy before faking his own disappearance. he has also been given a bill for $20,000 by the washington county sheriff's office for their search and rescue operations on his behalf.

his wife and children have since his disappearance moved to the wife's parent's home in ohio. butas's parents came to southern utah to help in the search and were "embarrassed and shocked" to learn their son had merely run away from marital and financial difficulties, washington county sheriff kirk smith said.

washington county sheriff sgt. jake adams said his investigation included tracing an application butas made for a passport, his purchase of a one-way airline ticket to australia, and the life insurance policy that names his wife and children as beneficiaries. on august 18, adams said butas's mother called him to say her son had called home the evening of august 11, several days after the search was officially called off for the missing man. butas asked his mother for money and an airline ticket home, which she sent.

butas has since been checked into the veteran's administration hospital in brecksville, ohio, according to adams, but will shortly return to utah.


jetliner crash-lands in peru

a peruvian jetliner carrying between 94 and 100 people crashed near pucallpa, peru on tuesday at 21:20 utc. peruvian president alejandro toledo said 70 to 80 had been killed, and other authorities have said at least 40. the boeing 737-200, operated by military-run airline tans peru had attempted an emergency landing on federico basadre road in peru's central jungle. the crash is said to have been caused by bad weather.
"until now, there are 40 cadavers that rescue teams are pulling from the wreckage. there could be more deaths, we assume some 60 people in total, since we've rescued 20 injured people," said a police office in the nearby town on rpp radio.

the pilot contacted the pucallpa airport saying he could not land because of strong winds and a heavy storm, said norma pasquel, an airport receptionist. when the plane crash-landed, its landing gear had not been released, according to firefighter ilda pineda.

the plane was on a flight from lima to iquitos via pucallpa.

five of the deaths have been confirmed by berta garcia, a secretary at pucallpa's municipal hospital, on rpp radio. she said the bodies of four adults and a small boy had been brought to the hospital.

tans peru confirmed the emergency landing, saying several people had been killed or injured.

100 people?92 passengers and eight crew members?were on the plane, said tans spokesman jorge belevan on cpn radio, and his figures were echoed by bbc news. speaking on the same station, transportation minister jose ortiz said the plane carried 93 passengers and five crew membmers. xinhua reported that 94 people were on the plane.


english fa rescinds red cards, fifa backlash probable

the football association of england risked a backlash and possible disciplinary action from football's world governing body fifa on tuesday when it rescinded the suspensions due from red cards that had been given during the past weekend's matches to fa premier league players andrew welsh of sunderland and paul konchesky of west ham united.

the fa's decision permitted welsh to play for the black cats in their 2-1 loss at home to manchester city tuesday evening. konchesky will also be available for the hammers' next game on saturday when west ham host bolton wanderers. however, the fa's actions contravene fifa regulations, which demand that any player sent off be suspended for his team's next match, with no right of appeal except for mistaken identity.

fifa house had already been in contact with soho square over the past week after the fa downgraded a red card that had been given to newcastle united's jermaine jenas to a yellow card on the advice of referee steve bennett. the fa had indicated it would eventually issue a reply to fifa, but the decision to overturn two more cards less than a week after the fifa communication is likely to displease fifa president sepp blatter.

for the past three years especially, blatter has been adamant that a red card in a football match must result in the player who was sent off missing his team's next game in the same competition. blatter has clashed with the fa on this issue during that time, going so far as to threaten the english association with expulsion from fifa. as a result, the fa agreed in 2004 to change their disciplinary process, in particular ensuring the process was expedited so that a player who was sent off did indeed miss his next match. however, it is now apparent that the fa has chosen to also allow for expedited appeals of red cards on grounds other than mistaken identity, which is not provided for in the fifa regulations.

although the fa has now permitted jenas, welsh and konchesky to play after being sent off in a previous match, it also extended an automatic three-match ban imposed on southend united's freddy eastwood by one additional match after its disciplinary panel deemed his appeal of a red card received the previous weekend to be "frivolous." the fa also rejected the appeal of luton town's steve howard, but did not extend his three-match suspension.

unlike with jenas, the red cards issued to welsh and konchesky will remain on their disciplinary records because the referees involved did not agree that they made mistakes. this means they will still receive an additional one-match ban should they be sent off again this season. following tuesday's decisions, half of the six red cards shown in the premiership this season have been overturned. and in an interesting footnote, it was jenas who konchesky was sent off for fouling this past weekend.


update: u.s. army intelligence had detected 9/11 terrorists year before, says officer

on thursday, it was reported at wikinews that "[a] year before the 9/11 attacks, through data mining a u.s. army intelligence group had identified two terrorist cells, [which included] mohammed atta and three other 9/11 hijackers." an able danger contractor, j.d. smith, has added that the techniques included examination of data related to mosques and religious ties connected to omar abdel-rahman, leader in new york city of a militant islamic terrorist organization.

another "able danger" operative, captain scott phillpott, gave a statement stating, "i will not discuss this outside of my chain of command. i have briefed the department of the army, the special operations command and the office of (undersecretary of defense for intelligence) dr. cambone as well as the 9/11 commission. my story has remained consistent. atta was identified by able danger in january/february 2000."

pentagon spokesman, larry dirita, said, "there appear to be more memories than there is information to substantiate those memories. we're reviewing the matter carefully, but thus far have not found what it is these handful of individuals seem to remember." 

other fox news sources have said that dirita is wrong. since it was a classified project, it would be illegal for project participants to retain documents for personal use.


google talk released in beta form

google today released google talk (link) in beta, an instant messaging (im) and computer-to-computer voice talk product, using the jabber protocol (built from xmpp). 

at this early stage the service is only available to users with a google gmail account. the official client, required for the voice functionality, is only available for windows xp/2000 although existing im clients such as gaim and ichat on mac and gnu/linux platforms can be used for text chatting. 

the new service does not offer "voice over ip" - users cannot call telephones, nor can telephones dial google talk users. it also has no voice-mail system, unlike rival yahoo's offering, which is also no longer in beta. google talk also does not log chats, and offers no method of searching conversations. only the last 20 lines of any conversation are recorded.

this positions google to compete with the popular service skype. like google talk, skype's pc-to-pc communications are free. skype also offers gateways to and from various regional phone services for which it charges. it is not known at this stage if google intends to enter that market.

the largest search engine on the web, google receives over 200 million queries each day through its various services. other recent releases include the gmail email service and google earth, which lets users view satellite photos and other map information.



australian governments to partially fund forbes conference

the australian government and the new south wales state goverernment are going to fund the forbes global ceo conference, to be held at the sydney opera house next week. the state government has said that the contract prevents it from revealing how much taxpayers money will be spent.

a spokesman for the deputy premier, john watkins, said that they could not divulge the costs "under the contract arrangements". a government source suggested to the sydney morning herald that the state and federal governments are spending up to $1million each. 

the state government has been criticised for providing free police protection at the conference. security will require 200 police a day, at an estimated cost of more than $500,000. 

according to the government, the large police presence is required because asio has assessed the event as "medium risk". a number of global justice and peace groups have pledged to protest at the conference. the number of protestors is currerntly projected to be around 2,000. 



clothes from china piling up on european borders

clothes worth millions of euros are being blocked in european warehouses after the european union imposed quotas on ten types of textiles from china.

the european commission agreed to the quotas with china in july and many of them, including jumpers (sweaters) and trousers were quickly exceeded. 

retailers across europe are now claiming they face massive losses. the european consumer's organisation, beuc, has said that most of the clothes were ordered before the agreement was made and that their blockage is "ignoring the basic laws of economics". 

a representative warned: "the new quotas will lead to higher prices and less choice for european consumers when they try to buy trousers, pullovers, women's blouses, brassieres and other textile products in the coming months." 

the commission is sending a representative to china to try and find a solution to the crisis, but according to the news website euractive, the quotas are unlikely to be dropped as most eu member countries are in favour of them. 


broadband users kicked off service for constant questioning

a uk isp, "plusnet", terminated the service of two of their broadband service customers for asking too many repeated questions and taking up too much customer support time on their portal discussion forums.

early last year, "plusnet", an isp with nearly 200,000 subscribers, cut its prices for all of its broadband products. in doing so, "plusnet" allegedly did not inform its existing customers by e-mail, and instead published new products and prices on their public portal. this manner of notice for the price changes may have resulted in thousands of customers paying almost twice as much for the same service.

within the last month, "plusnet" began packet shaping peer-to-peer transfers for users of its 'premier' service, which is sold and described as a 'clean' connection. 

they also recently introduced the throttling [enforcing a maximum limit] of customers using more than 150gb per month of bandwidth. users whose bandwidth is throttled receive service of 70kbps, while paying for 2mbps. this figure is based on the plusnet network contention of 30:1, being 2mb divided by thirty users. the throttle is in place until the end of the customers current billing period, and is meant to help keep broadband access for all "plusnet" users fast by stopping a small percentage of users from using excessive bandwidth. as a result, the isp has begun receiving numbers of customer complaints and criticism both privately and through their publicly accessible member discussion forums. though the vast majority of comments on this new sustainable usage policy have been positive.

wade woverly, 20, from leeds (also known as "wadev1589"), started a thread in the "plusnet" member discussion forums challenging the isp on a number of customer service issues. one of those was regarding the customers who were paying an unnecessary premium for the same internet connection. in addition, woverly mentioned he was assisting the trading standards institute with an investigation of the legality of terms and conditions of "plusnet". 

the accusations by woverly, that customers are being over-charged, are considered speculative. woverly asked the same questions dozens of times on forum pages, hoping to receive some sort of answer from "plusnet" that he considered satisfactory. ultimately, he claims the isp called him on the telephone and said that if he didn't stop posting comments on their forums, they would terminate his adsl internet connection and forum access. woverly said "plusnet's" position was that he was using up excessive customer services resources.

after a night of lengthy posts both on "plusnet" boards and at the forums at "adslguide", a customer services manager at "plusnet", carol axe, allegedly contacted woverly to inform him that they would be terminating his service, and that he has 30 days to migrate away until his line will be disconnected. axe refused to allow her conversation to be recorded: "her voice was that of rude arrogance, not listening at all, it was a true ultimatum of a call," according to woverly. 

neil armstrong, the head of marketing at "plusnet", commented, "our comms team is there to serve all our customers, not to be drained by one unreasonably demanding customer."

the "plusnet" forums are led by a team of moderators, also customers, whose job it is to deal with problem posters, amongst other things. forum moderator liam martin, another stirrer, said "part of our moderation involves restricting access to those users causing problems... and this is always carried out at our discretion when we believe somebody is causing a nuisance and/or breaking forum rules. 'wadev1589' didn't come close to being banned, in my book. this has come as a complete shock."

a second user, "pr100" from wargrave, has since then had his service ended after being given the same ultimatum. he was told that it was "in his best interests". he responded on the "plusnet" forum, "i did suggest to her that perhaps plusnet should allow me to decide what will be in my best interest whereupon she stopped beating around the bush and said that my account was being terminated because of my anti-plusnet posts in the forum." not all isp's would give you the option of migrating or losing your bb connection, some would just use their right to end your contract forthwith.

another forum user, "chuffbears", commented, "carol [axe] is in a position where she should be taking responsibility for customer service. in my book she should be issuing an apology over this entire situation."


plusnet board thread (use guest login)


turkmen president bans recorded music in public

turkmen president saparmurat niyazov has banned the playing of recorded music on television, at public events, and both public and private wedding ceremonies. turkmenistan's official daily newspaper, neitralny turkmenistan, quotes president niyazov as stating that the ban is intended to "protect true culture, including the musical and singing traditions of the turkmen people." the office of the president said recorded music and lip synching has "a negative effect on the development of singing and musical art." in a cabinet meeting broadcast on national television, niyazov said "unfortunately, one can see on television old voiceless singers lip-synching their old songs. don't kill talents by using lip synching... create our new culture."

president niyazov has a history of regulating cultural influences in turkmenistan. he has outlawed long hair or beards and capped teeth, required video monitors in all public places, and banned car radios and certain performing arts like opera and , deeming them "unnecessary."


canadian woman faces 234 counts of double-doctoring

brampton, ontario woman wendy grant, 41, is facing 234 charges of double-doctoring after obtaining prescriptions for 6000 pills. the ontario provincial police also charged her with fraud charge after allegedly obtaining false prescriptions for a narcotic, that were
fraudulently billed to the ontario drug benefits plan.

from february to may, grant obtained pills from 28 doctors and 22 pharmacies in peel and halton regions.

the workers' compensation board of nova scotia defines "double doctoring" "as a situation where a [person] seeks or obtains a prescription for a controlled drug or narcotic from more than one doctor to treat the same condition for the same period of time."


google provides gmail access to american cell phone customers

gmail, google's popular e-mail service launched earlier last year, is now available to any american cell phone user via text messaging.

cell phone owners can send google their phone number, and are then sent an access code via sms that enables them to open an account. google has stated that the number is only used to "manage the number of accounts created per phone", and that it "will never be sold or shared for marketing purposes" without the user's permission.

the service is not necessarily free ? cell phone service providers may charge for the delivery of the code.

while the system currently only works in the u.s., google says it has plans to add more countries.


mixed success for brampton day at ontario place

held sunday, the first annual brampton day at ontario place let hundreds of brampton residents have fun in toronto, while experiencing some of their own community.

entertainment on the stage included local rock band frayed, cuban singing by alexis martinez, blues and folk from gayle ackroyd, carmen spada's smooth jazz, bhangra dancing by the koonja and the punjabi virsa art & culture academy, and a brampton theatre performance of man of la mancha.

many groups and community organizations were at the event, from the farmers' market to the brampton stallions football team. visual arts brampton offered kids the chance to create artwork for their snail mail world postcard art show, while the brampton arts council gave away pink sand buckets with region of peel water bottles. young visitors were noticeably enthralled by sassy the squirrel, the city's mascot.

people who bought passes to the brampton day event through the city were encouraged to wear blue wrist bands around the park, for a chance to get spotted and win a prize. a draw was held for prizes including green fees for four at the peel village golf course, heritage theatre tickets, and restaurant gift certificates.

festival square's proximity to lake ontario caused its share of trouble, particularly for the arts groups displaying in the south. tents were blown on their sides, becoming veritable wind sails. luckily no guests or volunteers were injured by the mishaps. one painting infused with a sculpture, at the beaux-arts brampton tent, was destroyed early in the day after catching a gust of wind.

average windspeed for the toronto island airport area is 12 km/h.


butter sculpture returns to canadian national exhibition

after not having the novel attraction of butter sculptures since the mid-1990s, the canadian national exhibition has revived the tradition in a limited fashion.

in the past, farming exhibits have displayed elaborate, lifesize sculptures of celebrities, animals, and objects at "the ex". many best recall the sculpture of the beatles, created in the 1970s.

for their current exhibit however, the sculptures are relatively small. none of the sculptures created as of sunday, august 21 were over two feet tall, and cramped sculpting facilities did not appear to encourage such larger endeavours. sculptures included a caricatured cowboy with large pants, a deer, and a woman's face, neck and shoulders.

the sign promoting the attraction bills the event as "butter sculpture "artists"" suggesting the organizers question the artistic merit of unusual mediums. butter sculpture is a popular attraction at many fairs across north america.

the exhibit continues until the end of the cne on labour day, in the automotive building's "farm, food and fun" displays. according to the cne's official website, the sculptures are being created by students from the ontario college of art.


tropical storm katrina threatens florida, bahamas

as of 11:30 a.m. edt on august 26 (1530 utc), the center of was located over the about 45 miles (70 km) northwest of key west, and 75 miles (120 km) south-southwest of naples, florida. the storm was reported moving southwest near 7 mph (11 km/h) with maximum sustained winds of approximately 100 mph (160 km/h) with higher gusts.

katrina is expected to strengthen further, likely to at least a category 3 hurricane and possibly a category 4 hurricane, as it curves north towards a final landfall on the u.s. gulf coast.

tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 70 miles from the center.

the minimum central pressure recently observed by an air force reserve unit reconnaissance aircraft was 981 mb or 28.97 inches.

due to its slow forward speed, katrina is expected to produce a significant heavy rainfall event over the central and northwest bahamas as well as south florida total rainfall accumulations of 6 to 12 inches and isolated maximum amounts of 15 to 20 inches are possible.

storm surge flooding of 3 to 5 feet above normal tide levels, along with large and dangerous battering waves, can be expected near the center in areas of onshore winds in the bahamas.

a hurricane watch means that hurricane conditions are possible within the watch area-generally within 36 hours. watches have been issued in these areas:

a tropical storm warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected within the warning area within the next 24 hours. warnings have been issued in these areas:

a tropical storm watch means that tropical storm conditions are possible within the watch area-generally within 36 hours. watches have been issued in these areas:

for storm information specific to your area...including possible inland watches and warnings...please monitor products issued by your local weather office.

wfor-cbs4 weather programing
feed will be black during commercials (due to fcc restrictions) and during non-news programing.

hurricane katrina has left 4 people dead so far.



protestors want 'carnival not confrontation' at forbes conference

the 30a network has said that it wants to create a carnival atmosphere while protesting at the forbes global ceo conference. the protest, which starts on august 30, is expected to attract up to 2,000 protesters. similar events in the past often had instances of violent confrontations between police and some of the activists. the 30a network is a loose affiliation of groups and individuals co-ordinating the protest. 

30a spokesman bruce knobloch, of the international socialist organisation, made the call for a peaceful protest in a press release last week.

"we want a safe community action showing that people in sydney oppose howard1s plan for a us-style wages system, the war in iraq and his kow-towing to global corporate chiefs. we pose no threat to the opera house or the millionaire delegates, or to other users of east circular quay," mr knobloch said.

the conference will be held at the sydney opera house. the forbes website says that at the event "senior figures from the world's leading companies and institutions will discuss the best ways to nurture and capitalize on innovation and reveal the latest global trends." it was recently announced that george bush sr will be attending the conference, along with former new york mayor rudolph giuliani, prime minister john howard, and former nsw premier bob carr. 

mr knobloch described the attendees as "a few hundred neo-conservative corporate chiefs".

the protesters have been denied access to the opera house forecourt for the duration of the conference. mr knobloch believes that this decision is unjustified. he also accused the police of deliberately creating the conditions for confrontation.

"the police seem intent on creating chaos and confrontation, which is the last thing we need. we've urged police to build a barrier in front of the opera house proper and to allow us to use the public space in the forecourt. by pushing us out into the cbd the police are going to create problems for commuters and business owners," he said.

30a protestors this week organised a media conference outside surry hills police station, requesting a meeting to negotiate an agreement. according to an article on sydney indymedia, police at the station were unable to discuss the issue, but told 30a representatives that they would be contacted to organise a meeting. 

"minimising the protesters right to peacefully rally dramatically increases police powers and strikes at the heart of protesters' democratic right to peaceful assembly," the article said. 

asio has assessed the conference to be "medium risk", and this has been used by the police and government to justify the increased security.



next generation dvd format war nearing deadline

the deadline for a compromise between sony and toshiba in the battle over the next generation dvd format is drawing closer as studios start planning their christmas releases. 

sony, with their blu-ray disc format, has already started embedding the new technology into their next-generation gaming console, the playstation 3. meanwhile, toshiba has secured deals with both nbc universal and paramount pictures to use their format, hd-dvd. many industry watchers fear that the battle of these two formats will bring some serious consequences. some think this may repeat another vhs and betamax format war, however others fear that because there is no clear winner, consumers will hold off until there is reassurrance that only one format will survive. 

nbc universal and paramount pictures have both withdrawn earlier announcements of releasing movies this year on the next generation formats. some industry insiders say it would be unlikely that any movies would be released this year based on a unified format of the two sides as it would take a few months to adjust the technologies from both sides and come up with a single format.


george h. w. bush to attend sydney ceo conference

it was revealed today that will be attending the forbes global ceo conference in next week. mr. bush is a wealthy businessman and member of . he has also been and the head of the , and is the father of the current president george w. bush.

the conference will be held at the . the forbes website says that at the event "senior figures from the world's leading companies and institutions will discuss the best ways to nurture and capitalize on innovation and reveal the latest global trends." other attendees will be former new york mayor , australian prime minister , former premier and, controversially, , president and chief executive officer of forbes inc, and one of the signers of the statement of principles of .

mr knobloch of the 30a network described the attendees as "a few hundred corporate chiefs". an article written by james goodman and hosted on the 30a network website alleges a connection between mr forbes, the bush family, and the policies of the administration of george w. bush. 

"ironically enough, forbes now leads the charge in the us business world against the 'axis of evil' (which of course includes iran). backing the us 'war on terror' to the hilt, forbes is one of bush's key business sponsors. in january 2004 it proudly announced 'bush is best'," the article said. 

the 30a network is organising a protest in sydney to coincide with the conference. it is not yet known if the risk assessment for the event will change as a result of mr bush attending. 


german constitutional court green-lights early elections call

the german federal constitutional court, the bundesverfassungsgericht, has dismissed the complaints by two members of the bundestag against the dissolving of the parliament and removed the last obstacle on the road to early elections on september 18th.

jelena hoffmann from chancellor gerhard schroder's socialdemocrats and werner schulz from the greens, which are also members of the government, claimed that the loss of confidence by schroder on july 1st was orchestrated and that president horst kohler had therefore no right to dissolve the bundestag on july 21st.

the majority of the court, voting 7:1, disagreed with that assessment. it ruled, that schroder's declaration, saying he does not have a reliable majority in parliament for his reform programme, is "plausible" and added that the constitution grants the chancellor wide freedom in that matter.

representatives of all major parties have welcomed the decision.


rtE's eddie hobbs attracts massive audience

in ireland, rtE's new ""rip off republic"" tv series has attracted a record audience of 667,000 for its second show, making it one of ireland's top tv programs. the second show broadcast on monday 15th august captured 50.5% of all tv viewers in ireland.

the series which contains four shows broadcast from dublin city university's ""helix"" centre, aims to expose over pricing and the exploitation of consumers in ireland. hosted by financial advisor eddie hobbs, the show has attracted huge media commentry, particularly as it has attracted the attention of the governments main party, fianna fail. 

the main argument against the show has been that it generalises issues and makes exaggerated claims - for example it claimed that restaurants make a 300%+ profit on a typical bottle of wine, leading the viewer to believe that all businesses are making such a profit. this claim has since come under attack by restaurant owners nationwide. other arguments against the show have stated that while inflation is less than 3%, wage growth is over 6% meaning people are still better off.

the third show will be broadcast on 29th august at 9.30pm on rtE one. it will focus on the transport sector in ireland.


results of 2005 german federal election

the alliance consisting of chancellor gerhard schroder's social democrats (spd) and the greens has lost its majority. and while angela merkel's christian democrats (cdu) got the most votes it performed much worse than projected and the spd is only three seats behind thanks to several overhang seats. but that could change slightly, when the outstanding by-election in dresden is over. so who will govern the country for the next four years is completely uncertain. both schroder and merkel reaffirmed their ambitions for the office of chancellor. but neither the cdu and the free democrats (fdp) nor spd and the greens have a majority of seats in the bundestag. a grand coalition between the cdu and the spd now seems to be the likely option for a future government. but also a spd-greens-fdp or a cdu-greens-fdp coalition seems possible. however fdp chair guido westerwelle said this party would not be available for a coalition with the spd. the left also doesn't want to form a coalition with any of the parties in bundestag. they, along with the free democrats, are the only real winners of this election. after the left only had 2 mps in the last bundestag, they are now stronger than ever before, getting 54 seats. the free democrats also scored one of their best results in their history, gaining 3% and getting 61 seats, which makes them the third biggest party in the bundestag.




about 61,9 million citizens were eligible to participate in this early election to the 16th german bundestag. it became necessary because chancellor schroder deliberately lost a motion of confidence on july 1st. 3648 candidates are competing for the 598 seats (more in case of overhang seats) in the bundestag. the voters in the constituency of dresden i are not participating in today's election, the death of a candidate there forced a delayed by-election for the 2nd of october.<br>the all dominating topics of the election campaign were unemployment and the state of the german economy. other hot issues include a taxation reform and changes to the health insurance system. the race was wide open till the end. contrary to tradition, all parties concluded their campaigns on saturday rather than friday.

all parties say the possible coalitions exclude the left, who might support the minority government of spd-greens. the grand coalition (cdu/spd) is possible only with schroeder in power according to schroeder, and only with merkel in power according to merkel.

the traffic light coalition (spd-green-fdp) is excluded by fdp. cdu is likely to try to lure the greens into coalition, the only option that was not excluded. also possible are the minority governments. it is still not clear who will be the new leader, and both cdu and spd claim the right to appoint new chancellor. although the leftists won, it is possible that conservatives will form government if greens are willing.

participation: 77.7% 


first encyclopedic dictionary of the black sea released

a new work has been just added to the list of the works on turkey that have been made in recent years including the genres of folklore, travel, monography and encyclopedia. ""encyclopedic dictionary of black sea"" by Ozhan Ozturk is also a first of its field. etymological explanations are also given for the articles in the encyclopedic dictionary that is a product of work with both original resources and rather rich bibliographies. 

"encyclopedic dictionary of blacksea", a source for many answers on the black sea region of anatolia, looks like a work of a great labor. the dictionary is being published by heyamola publications and printed only in limited numbers. it can be a scientific resource for those who are interested in the history, culture and folklore of black sea. 

the author of the encyclopedia evaluates his work of 1260 pages:
"i don’t know why no archeological excavations have been made in the pontic coast of anatolia. querying why no excavations have been made in such a region that has a dense settlement as mentioned in anabasis of xenophon (b.c 401) is not the subject of this book. however, undoubtedly it will not be an optimistic experience to see that less excavations have been made here than in crimea and colchis. another interesting and discuss-worthy issue is why a realistic analysis of the original names of villages and quarters, used by the people even after the changes of the names in republic era, is not been made in works on the region’s culture and history, including studies in turkish. limiting myself to cities as ordu, giresun, trabzon, rize and artvin, i worked on original words, idioms and toponyms used by turkish dialect speakers, independent from their native language. i made comparisons with vernaculars from surrounding cities including samsun, erzurum and gumu?hane, anatolia, and from some surrounding countries. i hope that the comparison of the original toponyms with equivalents from anatolia, greece/hellas, armenia, georgia, azerbaijan and other turkish states could be useful for those interested in regional history, and influential for researchers."

while some village names in regions do match with the villages names in crete and epirus, no equivalents are found in anatolia and northern hellas. some village names akin to those in northern abkhazia, the motherland of laz, show remnants of pelasgi and thracians, the population of anatolia and hellas, prior to the indo-europeans. this requires a re-examination not only of anatolian and regional history, but also of the history of a wider area, ranging from the caucasus to the balkans.

author: Ozhan Ozturk 
publisher: heyamola publishing house
publication date: 9/6/2005


brampton mpp to hold community barbeque

bramalea-gore-malton-springdale member of provincial parliament dr. kuldip s. kular invites "everyone" to his community barbecque.

the event lasts from 1 until 4 pm in the northwest corner of chinguasousy park, at 9050 bramalea road in brampton. the bbq is free.

kular was elected into office in 2003, having come to campbellton, new brunswick in 1974 to set up a family medical practice.


canadian city announces first studios of brampton tour

created by the brampton arts council and the city of brampton, the studios of brampton studio tour will allow residents a chance to view works by dozens of local artists at twelve locations.

the tour will run october 1 & 2 from 10 pm until 4 pm et.

on the tour are the personal studios of watercolourist jack reid, sculpture marion bartlett, woodworker rick bino, ceramicist eric wong, calligrapher and fashion illustrator rosemarie gidvani, abstract painter karen darling, oil painter john cutruzzola, stain-glass artist darlene robichaud, and watercolourist gordon stuart.

also on the tour is the art gallery of peel, which will be exhibiting sydney drum, a canadian artist based in new york, and kelly mcneil.

visual arts brampton and beaux-arts brampton will both have line-ups of local artist members. vab has confirmed displays by william band, bridget doughty, betty jean evans, marguerite finlayson, conrad mieschke, keith moreau, mary noble, olga rudge, and elizabeth patrick.

sample works representing each location on the tour will be shown at the brampton city hall's atrium gallery.


brampton, canada and marikina, philippines seeing double as cities twin

the city of in ontario, canada, and marikina in the philippines have recently been ""twinned"".

both cities are roughly the same size, both have female mayors, both are near urban destinations (one of toronto, the other manila) and feel they can benefit economically with each other.

mayor susan fennell of brampton commented "this twinning agreement between brampton and marikina city will not only provide new and exciting economic possibilities, but it is an excellent chance to recognize and celebrate the filipino community in brampton. as one of canada's most diverse cities, brampton is home to more than 8,000 filipino residents with a distinct culture, and i am pleased to be able to celebrate that culture with this agreement."

brampton is also a twin of plano, texas.


winners of international postcard-sized art exhibit announced

visual arts brampton has announced the winners of its second annual snail mail world postcard art show. currently on display in the fridge front gallery in shoppers world, the snail mail show features well over 350 entries from 14 countries around the world. this is up from the previous year's approximately 300 from 6 countries.

shown in the exhibit is original works from australia, belgium, canada, france, germany, italy, japan, malaysia, the united kingdom, the united states, and yugoslavia.

juror alicia mitchell ba viewed the show on august 18 to make her selections from the entries received.

surprisingly, in the process of identifying her choices for each award, mitcell ended up awarding two sets of relatives. sarah baptist won the juror's choice award for "purple", while ann baptist won best photography for "tires". nicholas moreau won best snail art for "albert einsnail", while his mother janice moreau won for best use of medium for "bird days of summer".

best of theme (remember) went to beek's "remembrance of my father". brampton guardian arts editor tina depko awarded the media award to child entrant jessica taylor's "cat love". toni disano of ballwin, montana won best fabric art/sculpture/installation for her fabric art piece "vortex".

honourable mentions this year were:

a complete list is available on the snail mail show's website.


us satellite radio provider sirius unveils portable player

satellite radio provider sirius satellite radio will soon release a portable player which mixes online radio recording with mp3 and windows media audio (wma) file format playback capabilities.

the s50 unit is bundled with the car dock being sold by sirius. users record radio programming from 
the car dock and transfer the files to the s50. users can also opt to 
transfer programming via the home dock, but that device does not come 
bundled with the s50. sirius notes that the unit can hold up to 50 
hours of satellite programming and mp3/wma files. the latter is 
transferred to the system via pc. users also have the option to listen 
to live radio broadcasts through the s50. 

 


authorities search for victims of peruvian air crash

rescuers are searching for the victims of the tans peru airliner crash which occurred earlier this month. emergency services rescued 5 survivors on thursday morning.

tans say that 41 people were killed and a further 57 injured in this, the fifth airliner crash worldwide this month. the boeing 737-200 airliner crash-landed in heavy jungle near the city of pucallpa, 840 kilometers (522 miles) northeast of lima, the capital city.
peruvian authorities have ordered an investigation and have shipped the aircraft's two flight data recorders, or "black boxes" to the united states for data retrieval.

jorge belevan said "we've also found five more survivors and that takes the number (of survivors) to 57. two people are still missing and there are 41 dead," local authorities also said that the death toll is likely to rise due to inaccessible location of the crash site. this is the second tans peru plane crash in three years, following the january 2003 crash of flight 222 in the peruvian rainforest. in that plane crash there were no survivors.

peruvian government lawyer marco ochoa said that rescuers are opening the skin of the aircraft to determine whether there are more bodies trapped inside.

survivors said that the plane was caught in a fierce storm about 10 minutes before the crash. the plane then caught fire and landed in swampland.


us televangelist pat robertson apologizes for assassination remark

pat robertson, the televangelist founder of the conservative christian broadcasting network and host of the 700 club, has apologized for his earlier controversial statement.
after initially denying that he called for the assassination of hugo chavez, the president of venezuela, he later apologized for the remark:

"is it right to call for assassination? no, and i apologize for that statement", said robertson.

on wednesday, he initially denied having called for chavez to be killed and said the associated press had misinterpreted his remarks.

"i didn't say 'assassination.' i said our special forces should 'take him out,'" robertson said on his show. "'take him out' could be a number of things including kidnapping."



swedish wikipedia reaches 100,000 articles

the swedish language edition of the multilingual wikipedia project passed 100,000 articles this evening at 18:11 cest. swedish is the fifth language to reach this milestone, joining english, french, german, and japanese.

the article growth was quite modest when 100 articles remained, but at 18:09, with less than 50 articles left, people started submitting a lot of articles. most of them were written in advance, according to visitors at the irc channel. the 100,000th article is believed to be about a minister of the faroe islands, "jogvan vid keldu", according to announcement pages on the site minutes after the milestone was passed. some concerns were raised, however, and a wikipedian claimed on the village pump that the article "epiglottal klusil" ("linguistic subject") was number 100,000.

the swedish edition is said to have been started in may 2001, but didn't see much growth until november 2002 when several contributors arrived. the 50,000 mark was passed less than a year ago.

the swedish wikipedia operates using the same basic principles as its larger english language sister edition, which include writing from a neutral point of view and making content open using the gnu free documentation license.

the size is quite large compared to the number of speakers of swedish worldwide (about 9 million). the swedish edition is larger than some languages with hundreds of millions of speakers such as spanish, portuguese, chinese and hindi. the reason for this is somewhat obscure, but discussions on the central discussion forum of the site, bybrunnen (a literal translation of "village pump"), say this is because articles are considerably shorter than on other wikipedias and that the internet connectivity is very high in sweden. other wikipedias for languages spoken in northern europe (including norwegian, danish and finnish) also have a high number of articles compared to the number of speakers.


americans are getting fatter, not-for-profit's report finds

an american not-for-profit organisation has released statistics that show that obesity rates rose last year in all but one state.

according to the "trust for america’s health" the only state not to see a rise was oregon, which remained at the same level. in ten states more than a quarter of adults are defined as being obese: mississippi, alabama, west virginia,
louisiana, tennessee, texas, michigan, kentucky, indiana, and south carolina. mississippi is the heaviest state, while colorado is the lightest.

in total 119 million americans - some 65% of the population - now have a body weight that rates them as being overweight or heavier. in 2004 24.5% of the population was rated as being obese - up from 23.7% the year before. even in the military, 16% of personnel are obese.

the u.s. department of health has a target of reducing obesity in adults to 15% or less by 2010. critics say federal programs to combat the issue are too limited and that urban planning is not helping.


iberia burning: forest fires rage across portugal

in portugal, which is suffering its worst drought since 1945, some 1,500 firefighters and 600 soldiers battled forest fires that have raged for six days.they said cooler temperatures and higher air humidity levels helped them to contain more than a dozen fires but the risk of new ones remained high.
five fires were still burning out of control in the thick-wooded center and north of the country, down from 21 on tuesday.
the largest fire was raging in a forest near coimbra, portugal's third-largest city and forced the evacuation of around 60 people from a village near the central town of penela but firefighters saw hope.
"the intensity of the fire is diminishing considerably. let's see if we are a bit luckier today," the fire chief of penela, mario lourenco, told radio tsf.
neighboring spain, too, has this week battled blazes in the north that have so far destroyed more than 19,000 hectares (46,800 acres) this month.


protests over uk preparations to deport kurd iraqi asylum seekers

refugee groups and protesters in the united kingdom are concerned over plans to forcibly deport around 20 rejected asylum seekers to northern iraq from the detention centres where they are currently being held beginning august 28.

despite a warning by the un high commission for refugees that no part of iraq is now safe, the home office is reported to be sending the men back as soon as 28 august in an iraqi military aeroplane. paul kessler of unhcr has said that kidnappings and other security problems are still common in northern iraq. 

returns to iraq had been voluntary, but according to the times around 100 rejected asylum seekers have been arrested and are now in detention. 

demonstrations have been held across the country and are expected outside the home office today, 26 august. 

a spokesperson for the refugee council said: "it is one thing for people to return voluntarily and accept the risk. but there seems to be no urgent reason to remove people now. iraq is in a state of turmoil."

the home office has not yet commented on the case. they have previously backed down under pressure. zimbabwean asylum seekers were given amnesty from deportation until october following headlines such as that on the front page of right-wing daily mail "for pity's sake, let them stay".


montreal lab questions ethics of recent epo doping claims against lance armstrong

dr. christiane ayotte is doping control director at canada's institut national de la recherche scientifique, which is a world anti-doping agency (wada) certified lab. dr. ayotte said on tuesday (aug. 23) that three ethically critical, and important, scientific questions were raised by a four-page doping allegation in the french cycling daily "l'Equipe". "l'Equipe" released lab data with a medical identification allegedly finding banned epo in five year old samples of cyclist lance armstrong's urine, originally taken after he won the 1999 tour de france. 

ayotte expressed surprise that chemical testing of 1999 urine could have been done in 2004 at the french national anti-doping laboratory at chatenay-malabry. she said that she routinely instructs all doping laboratory organizations that epo deteriorates and disappears after two or three months, even if the urine is frozen. ayotte does not question whether the new type of analysis is correct; rather she questions the ethics of long-delayed test results. 

the first ethical problem , in her opinion, is that an adverse finding cannot be confirmed with second samples, as required by wada regulations. she states that there are normally two samples, "a" and "b". the chatenay-malabry epo findings were based on armstrong's "b" samples. armstrong's "a" samples were depleted in 1999 for tests that did not include epo, because no epo test was available that year. 

french sports minister jean-francois lamour said that without the "a" samples, no disciplinary action could be taken against armstrong. 

the second ethical problem, in ayotte's view, is that an athlete charged with doping long after the athletic event has no way to submit to additional testing to disprove an adverse finding. 

the third ethical problem for ayotte is that "l'Equipe" disclosed armstrong's medical identity. "it seems to me," ayotte continued, "that this whole thing is breach of the wada code. we are supposed to work confidentially until such time that we can confirm a result. by no means does this mean that we sweep a result under the carpet, but it has to meet a certain set of requirements." 

ayotte continued, "i'm worried, because i have a great deal of respect for my colleagues in paris. i am concerned that they did not cover their backs before being dragged into a very public issue of this kind."

lance armstrong has responded on his website, branding "l'Equipe's" reporting as being "nothing short of tabloid journalism." armstrong says: "i will simply restate what i have said many times: i have never taken performance[-]enhancing drugs."

further confusing public understanding of the epo doping claim is armstrong's statement in his autobiography, "it's not about the bike": he said he received epo during his cancer chemotherapy treatment. "it was the only thing that kept me alive," he wrote.

jean-marie leblanc, the director of the tour de france, said that armstrong owes cycling fans an explanation. leblanc said; "for the first time?and these are no longer rumors, or insinuations, these are proven scientific facts?someone has shown me that in 1999, armstrong had a banned substance called epo in his body." 


uk study claims men have higher average i.q. than women

in a study accepted for publication by the "british journal of psychology", dr. paul irwing (manchester business school, senior lecturer in organizational psychology) and prof. richard lynn (university of ulster, professor emeritus) conclude that men are on average five points ahead on iq tests. the study also found that men outnumbered women in increasing numbers as intelligence levels rise. there were twice as many with iq scores of 125, a level typical for people with first-class degrees. when scores rose to 155, a level associated with genius, there were 5.5 men for every woman.

professor lynn has a number of previous articles arguing that there are differences in intelligence between racial groups. in a 2003 study, he found a correlation between average iq and prosperity in 60 countries. in a letter to "the psychologist", professor lynn claimed “men have larger brains than women by about 10% and larger brains confer greater brain power, so men must necessarily be on average more intelligent than women.” most psychologists view brain size as less significant than numerous other gender differences. one reason brain size may not be significant is that the majority of the brain is not involved in "providing intelligence" but rather performs mundane tasks; such as regulating pulse and breathing, processing inputs from the five senses, and providing redundancy in case of brain damage. larger brains may contain more space devoted to such functions, and the same or even less space devoted to intelligence. colloquially, elephants and whales have brains many times the size of the human brain, yet do not appear to be more intelligent.

earlier this year, the president of harvard university, lawrence summers, sparked a controversy when he suggested that "intrinsic aptitude" was responsible for the low numbers of women at the top in many fields, especially in science and engineering. in response to summers comment, stephen pinker and elizabeth spelke held a debate on the conclusions which can be drawn from the extensive existing scientific research on gender differences. spelke held that discrimination remained the primary factor keeping women from going into physics, mathematics, and computer science; while pinker suggested that life choices were more important today. this debate is considered an exceptionally good introduction to the subject for lay-persons. 

several subtle points popularized by the pinker vs. spelke debate are relevant to the irwing & lynn study. first, females benefit significantly from single sex education, but single sex education has little impact upon males. as a consequence, the irwing & lynn study can not lay claim to a biological difference in intelligence, unless it restricts itself to women attending all girls schools. secondly, the process of natural selection leads males of any species to have more variance in most traits. as a result, stephen pinker suggests that one should find "more geniuses and more idiots" among human males (see pinker slide 41). as a consequence, any omission of people at the lower end of the iq spectrum would bias the average male iq upward, relative to the average female iq . 

neither pinker nor spelke suggests brain size is particularly important. however, both agree that men and women have different mental strengths and even handle various mental tasks differently. both see these differences as an asset to the scientific community.

iq tests have been criticized for testing how similar a person's thought processes are to the author of the tests, primarily men, rather than how intelligent they are. in particular, some tests have been biased towards thought processes where males are dominant, such as 3d spatial rotation and visualization. tests devised by females would be more likely to emphasize female strengths, such as computation and communication. many modern iq tests attempt to control for gender differences by including more questions targeted at female strengths. however, such efforts are hampered by the lack of a clear definition of intelligence.


controversial berlin opera features interactive drug usage

berlin's neukoellner opera house is causing a stir with its new production, "the yellow princess".

the story presented in the french opera, by camille saint-saens, is of an artist "whose life is dictated by a love for drugs and japan." as a result, the performers smoke cannabis joints on stage, and the theatre itself is encouraging the audience to join in.

artistic director bernhard glocksin says that the theatre is claiming the metaphorical "artistic licence", to excuse the actions of the actors and audience, which are against german law. glocksin was quoted by ananova as saying opera would be "improved with a few joints and some appetising lines", noting the production was partly an experiment, to see what they could "get away with."

"artistic licence" is at par to an "artistic liberty", where something is exaggerated or changed for the sake of the art itself. for example a visual artist painting a landscape might move a tree to another area of their work, for better balance, or a poet ignoring pentameter when writing a traditional sonnet.


man allowed to keep deceased friend in warehouse freezer

russian businessman xiao li bei has received permission to keep his deceased friend in an industrial freezer.

police in the town of novosibirsk discovered the body during a routine health and safety inspection of xiao's warehouse. xiao, of chinese ancestry, told police that his friend died of natural causes two years prior.

challenged in court on the issue, prosecutors allowed xiao to continue on as he has, unless evidence contrary to the natural death claim arises. there is no russian law against personally storing human remains.

xiao commented "i just thought it would be easier to store the body myself. there's so much bureaucracy here i knew the paperwork would be endless otherwise. and i have a large industrial freezer in my warehouse."



world health organization declares tuberculosis emergency in africa

a world health organization (who) committee comprising of 43 african health ministers has declared a tuberculosis emergency on the continent.

the number of tuberculosis (tb) cases in african countries per year has quadrupled since 1990, and continues to rise. now 540,000 people die of the disease in africa every year.

worldwide, tb kills two million people a year; the only deadlier disease in the world is hiv/aids.

some african countries such as tanzania and malawi pioneered tb control strategies that were later adopted around the globe. but they were not successful - malawi saw the number of tb cases a year rise by four times over the past 15 years. poverty, poor health systems and hiv have been blamed by the who for this.

funding is a particularly critical issue. eight of the nine worst affected african countries reported that, for 2003, they had short-falls in the funding their tb control programmes needed. however the who stresses that money alone will not end the crisis - health systems must be improved, and the rate at which health professionals are lost in the region must be reduced.

africa is the only region in the world to be experiencing an increase in tb cases - in the rest of the world, infection rates are either stable or falling.


hotel quarantined after anthrax scare in us state of michigan

a midland, michigan hotel was temporarily quarantined thursday night when a letter with suspicious white powder was opened at the ashman court hotel on main street.

a hotel employee is said to have opened the letter around 16:00 utc time on thursday. shortly after, the police, fbi and hazmat teams were called to the building. preliminary results from fbi tests showed that the envelope did not contain the deadly bacteria anthrax, as first thought.
the letter contained "a threat" according to local reports, however details were not released. it is also unknown as to what substance the white powder is.

this is the second anthrax scare on the city this year, exactly four months ago the "midland daily news" office, located across the street to the hotel, was sent a similar envelope with suspicious powder. it is not known if the two cases are related or not.



hurricane katrina strikes florida, kills seven

as hurricane katrina moves beyond the floridian peninsula, death tolls have begun to surface. on friday, the official count was seven dead, at least five missing. 4 people in broward, 3 in miami. the forecast for hurricane katrina predicts that it will continue on its present northwesterly course and approach the panhandle of florida and the mississippi delta region in the next few days.
katrina made landfall on friday in southern florida's and metropolitan areas. packing 80 mph winds, it downed trees and power lines as it slowly crossed the peninsula. it swamped some areas with as much as 12 inches of rainfall. 

katrina is now a category 4, and gaining power over the warm waters of the .

large portions of broward, miami-dade, and menroe counties have no electricity, and thousands of customers in the tri-county area have no cable service.

hurricane katrina is responsible for the collapse of a highway overpass, under construction, and for a warehouse fire in metro fort lauderdale.

schools in miami-dade and broward were closed when the storm made landfall. menroe county schools were in session.

more on hurricane katrina as the storm progresses.


news briefs:august 27, 2005

the time is 1100 utc on saturday 27th august, and this is audio wikinews: news briefs.
hurricane katrina strikes florida, kills seven<br>
as hurricane katrina moves beyond the floridian peninsula, death tolls are beginning to surface. on friday, the official count was seven dead, at least five missing. the forecast for hurricane katrina predicts that it will continue on its present northwesterly course and approach the panhandle of florida and the mississippi delta region in the next few days.

katrina was downgraded to a tropical storm as it made landfall on friday in southern florida's miami and fort lauderdale metropolitan areas.

katrina turned back into a hurricane with winds of 100 miles per hour - or 160 kilometres per hour - when it reached the warmer gulf of mexico waters.
world health organization declares tuberculosis emergency in africa<br>
a world health organization committee comprising 43 african health ministers has declared a tuberculosis emergency in the continent.

the number of tb cases in african countries per year has quadrupled since 1990, and continues to rise. now 540,000 people die of the disease in africa every year.

the only more deadly disease in the world is hiv/aids.
uk study claims men more intelligent than women<br>
in a study accepted for publication by the british journal of psychology, dr. paul irwing (senior lecturer in organizational psychology at manchester business school) and prof. richard lynn (of the university of ulster) conclude that men are on average five points ahead of women on iq tests. the study also found that men outnumbered women in increasing numbers as intelligence levels rise. there were twice as many with iq scores of 125, a level typical for people with first-class degrees. when scores rose to 155, a level associated with genius, there were 5.5 men for every woman.
thank you for joining us today. to receive more up-to-date news items as they occur, please visit wikinews.org.

and, be sure to check out our daily full-length audio news program, called audio wikinews: full report.
this recording has been released into the public domain. this applies worldwide.


writers meet weekly at ashland underground

every wednesday at 6 p.m., writers of any genre meet at an informal writers' workshop at the ashland underground, located at 220 w. main in ashland, wisconsin, u.s.a. 

a project of the chequamegon bay word affiliate, area writers have met each week for almost three years. the group of published and aspiring writers first began meeting at the black cat, a local cafe, but recently moved to the underground, where a member book cooperative has been set-up for affiliate and community readers. 

the chequamegon bay word affiliate also holds its annual earth day reading each year at the nearby northern great lakes visitor center. 

writers of any and all skill levels can meet at the free workshop, and are encouraged to bring their latest works.


two arrests made in zotob worm attack

turkish and moroccan authorities arrested two suspects who are believed to be the creators of the worm that took down "" computer network and crippled other computers in the u.s. and worldwide earlier this month.
the fbi traced an electronic trail that led to two men from the middle east and north africa. an 18-year old moroccan, , is believed to have written the worm in return for a payment from a 21-year old turk atilla ekici. both were arrested friday and await prosecution in their respective countries.

it appears that essebar and ekici never met personally, and conducted the entire cyber crime through contact with each other over the internet. the online monikers for the two is believed to be "diabl0" for essebar and “coder” for ekici.

the speedy pace at which investigators made arrests is credited from working closely with the microsoft corp., and moroccan and turkish authorities, said the fbi assistant director louis reigel. "had we not had those entities involved in this investigation, i suspect it would still be ongoing today."
microsoft investigators began in march to analyze an e-mail variant called mytob, which emerged in late february. the two suspects are believed to have authored the predecessor to mytob, known then as 'rbot'. these worms could plant in infected computers a backdoor that could be used to gain remote access to the computer and their networks at a later date.

the release of the zytob worm yielded more evidence of the perpetrators’ identities. the motive for the attacks appears to be financial gain and not terrorist related. the two men allegedly forwarded stolen financial information to a credit-card fraud ring, according to the moroccan government.

the 5-year-old operating system is most vulnerable to attack. the worm uses a flaw in the windows plug and play service; a flaw for which microsoft has issued a patch. but an august 23 microsoft advisory notes that some non-default configurations of windows xp service pack 1 systems could also be at risk. xp sp2 users are not at risk. 



wine cork prevents fuel leak on train

a cork was temporarily used to fix a fuel leak on a british passenger train. the leak was created when the train struck a concrete block that vandals left on the tracks.

train service on the paddington to exeter line was stopped around bath. this abrupt stop created a hole in the sightglass which helps monitor fuel levels. worried the incident could cause a fuel leak, staff decided to use the cork of a wine bottle found in the buffet car, to block the hole. an incident that people worried would cause a delay of hours, was cleared up in around 20 minutes.


afghani heroin shipment shot down in tajikistan


on august 22, tajikistan border guards spotted and shot down a home-made aircraft carrying heroin, on route from afghanistan.

tajik officials say that the piloted paraplane was transporting 18 kilograms of heroin above their southeast border. border guards launched a search operation to find the pilot, believed to be wounded.

the deputy head of tajik's border troops, sabza sarkorov, said to the media that this was actually the first narcotics interception of its kind. smugglers have used paraplanes to move drugs across the border for three years. earlier attempts to bring them down have been unsuccessful until now. 

the country is a prime route for illegal drugs from afghanistan, which is the world's top opium producer.



lance armstrong disputes french doping results

accused of epo doping by the french cycling daily "l'Equipe" in a four page story on aug. 23, cyclist lance armstrong appeared on cnn's "larry king live" tv show aug. 25, saying he did not trust the french testers or the french testing system, and that his urine was manipulated to falsely accuse him of doping.

dr. christiane ayotte, director of a montreal doping detection laboratory said that ethically critical and important scientific questions were raised by the epo doping allegation against seven-time tour de france winner armstrong. 

usa cycling official gerard bisceglia said these "l'Equipe" charges were unfair and lacked credibility. bisceglia is chief executive of usa cycling, principal authority over armstrong for cycling sports in the united states.

"l'Equipe" released paris lab data allegedly finding banned epo in five year old samples of armstrong's urine, originally taken after he won the 1999 tour de france. no official source would confirm medical identification of armstrong as provider of the anonymously tested urine, and to do so would be a violation of world anti-doping agency (wada) regulations. 

armstrong suggested motivation for such manipulation is a french national hatred of all non-french sport winners, and specifically because a french rider has not won the tour de france for a quarter century. as evidence of malice toward him, armstrong cited a french newspaper poll in which he was named the third most hated sportsman in france. 

dr. ayotte is doping control director at canada's institut national de la recherche scientifique in montreal, which is a wada certified lab nearest to wada's montreal headquarters. ayotte is also a world class scientific authority and instructor on sports doping detection. dr. ayotte's expert opinion has significant influence on the outcome of wada regulatory decisions. 

"l'Equipe" reported that the epo detection method used was experimental, which raises a scientific question. all experimentally based forensic evidence is subject to the close scrutiny of scientific opinions before it can be used in a disciplinary or legal proceeding. 

ayotte expressed surprise that chemical testing of 1999 urine could have been done in 2004 at the french national anti-doping laboratory at chatenay-malabry. she said that she routinely instructs all doping laboratory organizations, that previously detectable epo protein deteriorates and disappears after two or three months, even if the urine is frozen. 

ayotte thinks that a new statistical mathematics model was used to reanalyze numerical data resulting from earlier chemical testing. "my interpretation is that retesting itself must have been conducted in 2000 or in 2001, but the results were reviewed using the new mathematical model that is now being developed in paris."

ayotte does not question whether the new type of analysis is correct; rather she questions the ethics of long-delayed test results. 

the first ethical problem is that this adverse finding cannot be confirmed with second samples. there are normally available two urine samples, "a" and "b". the chatenay-malabry epo findings were based on armstrong's "b" samples. armstrong's "a" samples were depleted in 1999 for tests that did not include epo, because no epo test was available that year. 

without addressing the ethics problem, dick pound, the head of wada, said. "you can count on the fingers of one hand the times a "b" sample has not confirmed the result of the "a" sample".

both france and usa officials observed that "l'Equipe's" unofficial adverse finding was not consistent with wada regulations. french sports minister jean-francois lamour said that without the "a" samples, no disciplinary action could be taken against armstrong. usa official bisceglia confirmed that wada regulations require a confirming "a" test to prove guilt.

the second ethical problem, according to ayotte, is that an athlete charged with doping long after the athletic event, has no way to submit to additional testing to disprove an adverse finding. this same ethical problem was also stated by usa official bisceglia. 

the third ethical problem for ayotte is that "l'Equipe" disclosed armstrong's medical identity. "it seems to me," ayotte continued, "that this whole thing is breach of the wada code. we are supposed to work confidentially until such time that we can confirm a result. by no means does this mean that we sweep a result under the carpet, but it has to meet a certain set of requirements." 

in a further ethical complication, the medical identification of armstrong is completely unofficial and is made only by "l'Equipe". ayotte characterized the disclosure as "leaked". 

chatenay-malabry's lab refused to confirm "l'Equipe's" claim that the urine samples belonged to armstrong. nor is it likely that chatenay-malabry will ever identify armstrong, because wada regulations require that all single "b" samples used for experimental testing must remain permanently anonymous. ayotte said, "i'm worried, because i have a great deal of respect for my colleagues in paris. i am concerned that they did not cover their backs before being dragged into a very public issue of this kind." 

lance armstrong has responded on his lancearmstrong.com website, branding "l'Equipe's" reporting as being "nothing short of tabloid journalism." armstrong says: "i will simply restate what i have said many times: i have never taken performance enhancing drugs."

further confusing public understanding of the epo doping claim is armstrong's statement in his autobiography, "it's not about the bike": he said he received epo during his cancer chemotherapy treatment. "it was the only thing that kept me alive," he wrote. 

armstrong last received chemotherapy epo in late 1996. apparently speaking from his knowledge of conventional epo testing, armstrong agrees that traces of 1996 synthetic epo should not have been present in his 1999 urine. there are now tests to distinguish natural from synthetic epo. but it remains an unresearched scientific question whether the sensitivity of the experimental new method could detect use of synthetic epo from three years previously. by scientific analogy, the polymerase chain reaction process can detect as little as a single molecule of dna. 

jean-marie leblanc, the director of the tour de france, said that armstrong owes cycling fans an explanation. armstrong subsequently provided an explanation claiming urine test manipulation.

leblanc also said; "for the first time?and these are no longer rumors, or insinuations, these are proven scientific facts?someone has shown me that in 1999, armstrong had a banned substance called epo in his body." 

"when people start using comments like, 'irrefutable scientific evidence,' that's a pretty strong statement to make," said bisceglia, "when the person you're making it about has never been given the opportunity to refute the statement. you're making claims about something that took place in 1999. based on what i've read, it's pretty clear that any opportunity to have a black-and-white resolution to this case has been destroyed."

bisceglia said that usa cycling, the governing body in the united states, lacks the officially required evidence, and therefore will not investigate the "l'Equipe" report. 



australian mps demand islamic headscarf ban in schools

australian members of parliament bronwyn bishop and sophie panopoulos have called for a ban on the wearing of islamic headscarves in australian public schools, saying it is an "iconic act of defiance." 
they are concerned about muslim women failing to reveal their faces in photographic identification, and claim that this could be a security risk.

bishop and panopoulous are both members of the liberal party of australia which is the major party in the governing coalition.
bishop said there is a clash of cultures occurring in the country: "in an ideal society you don't ban anything," she told a television interviewer.
she indicated she was talking of a ban only in schools, not at home.

australian muslims have angrily disagreed, say they should be allowed to comply with their religious doctrine.
the moves to ban the islamic headscarf - the hijab - began in france where it is banned from government schools.

the australian prime minister, john howard has responded stating that he is against any ban.


mandatory evacuation declared in new orleans, us

with hurricane katrina likely to strike the city of new orleans, its mayor, along with the governor of louisiana, has officially enforced a mandatory evacuation for the city. all citizens, with the exception of a few individuals essential to the operation of a handful of organizations (such as hotels and the media), should immediately leave the city and head for higher ground. the mayor has stated that rising waters from the category 5 storm are likely to overtake the city's system of levees, which are designed to prevent flooding in the city. later predictions by noaa downgraded the hurricane to a strong category 4 at the time of landfall.

maximum sustained winds are reported at 175 mph (78 m/s). of great concern to new orleans officials is the predicted coastal storm surge of 18 to 22 feet above normal tide levels. destruction from flooding is expected since the city is situated below sea level. 

traffic within the city is completely gridlocked. the governor has advised citizens heading west to take highway 90 instead of i-10, which is gridlocked. if they cannot evacuate heading north, they should head eastward first, where traffic is lighter.

the mayor has also opened the superdome as a shelter for those with special medical needs or are otherwise unable to evacuate. however, he said it is likely to lose power and plumbing as the storm moves in. at noon, it becomes a shelter of "last resort." it will have few resources, though, and people should bring their own food and other necessary items. he also said that rta buses will be picking up people at the following shelters designated as pickup points. 

for maps of routes, visit www.lsp.org

for state evacuation information, call 1.800.469.4828

a bulletin issued by noaa on 28 august 2005, 1101 am cdt warns that the new orleans area will experience "devastating damage".

"the majority of industrial buildings will become non-functional. partial to complete wall and roof failure is expected."

"all wood framed low rising apartment buildings will be destroyed."

"water shortages will make human suffering incredible by modern standards." 

the same bulletin also warns that the entire area will remain uninhabitable for "weeks...or longer" and that power outages will last for weeks.


news briefs:august 28, 2005

the time is 1700 hours utc on sunday 28th august 2005, and this is audio wikinews: news briefs.
mandatory evacuation declared in new orleans, us<br>
with hurricane katrina likely to strike the city of new orleans, its mayor, along with the governor of louisiana, has officially enforced a mandatory evacuation for the city. all citizens, with the exception of a few individuals essential to the operation of a handful of organizations (such as hotels, the media, etc...), should immediately leave the city and head for higher ground.

for state evacuation information, call united states telephone number 1.800.469.4828
australian mps demand islamic headscarf ban in schools<br>
australian members of parliament bronwyn bishop and sophie panopoulos have called for a ban on the wearing of islamic headscarves in australian schools, saying it is an "iconic act of defiance." they are concerned about muslim women failing to reveal their faces in photographic identification, and claim that this could be a security risk.

australian muslims have angrily disagreed, saying they should be allowed to comply with their religious doctrine.
two arrests made in zotob worm attack<br>
turkish and moroccan authorities arrested two suspects who are believed to be the creators of the zotob worm that took down cnn’s computer network and crippled other computers worldwide earlier this month.

the fbi traced an electronic trail that led to two men from the middle east and north africa. an 18-year old moroccan, farid essebar, is believed to have written the worm in return for a payment from a 21-year old turk atilla ekici. both were arrested friday and await prosecution in their respective countries.
thank you for joining us today. to receive more up-to-date news items as they occur, please visit wikinews.org.

and, be sure to check out our daily full-length audio news program, called audio wikinews: full report.
this recording has been released into the public domain. this applies worldwide.


service cutoff extended for unresponsive u.s. voip users


a tuesday service cutoff deadline in the united states for tens of thousands of voip customers who failed to reply to a service limitation notification from their provider was extended by 30 days, to september 28. in an fcc mandate, voip providers such as time warner cable, vonage and verizon, were to send notice to customers asking them acknowledge the possible limitations of e911 access and to keep a record of their replies.

specifically, the fcc mandated that voip providers must advise subscribers of the circumstances under which e911 service may not be available, and distribute stickers or other appropriate labels with a warning that e911 service may be limited or not available, and instruct the subscriber to place them on or near the equipment used in conjunction with the service. lastly, the provider is to obtain and keep a record of affirmative acknowledgement by every subscriber, both new and existing.

a significant number of voip customers did not reply to the warning letter. this led the voice on the net coalition, with house representative bart gordon (d-tn) and senator bill nelson (d-fl) and other lawmakers to write fcc chairman kevin martin with their concerns. for some customers, it was feared that if the voip service was ended, they would have no phone service.

the e911 system allows emergency operators to link a caller's physical location with the phone used to dial for help. conventional phones have had that capability for years, but not all voip providers have the technology for such a system in place. cell phone companies are also struggling to upgrade their products for e911 capability.

voip use reported by the telegeography research group showed strong customer growth during the second quarter of this year. subscribers increased nearly 40 percent over the first quarter, from roughly 1.9 million to 2.7 million.

users of voip seem far from scared off by concerns over e911 connectivity despite findings that indicate the majority are interested in it as a primary phone line replacement. "to get [voip telephony], you’ve got to have a broadband connection, that means you’re a reasonably affluent consumer, you’ve got a cell phone, you’ve got some sort of backup plan in place," said stephan beckert, an analyst for telegeography. "there was a group that said they would not get it because of the problems with e911. but there was a surprisingly large core group that really didn’t worry about it." 



first suicide attack since israeli pullout occurs in beersheba

a palestinian man carrying explosives blew himself up during rush hour in beersheba. this is the first act of suicidal bombing since the israel pull out of the 25 jewish settlements on the gaza strip.

twelve hours after the blast, two groups jointly claimed responsibility for the attack. the al-aqsa martyrs’ brigades linked to fatah and al-quds brigades of islamic jihad identified the bomber as alaa zaakik, 25, from beit omar. beit omar is situated between bethlehem and hebron in the west bank.

the palestinian president, mahmoud abbas, has condemned the bombing. the bombing critically wounded two security guards at the beersheba bus station and hurt another 46 people.

shortly after the attack, the israeli cabinet voted to allow egypt to patrol the international border with gaza with 750 armed men. a final vote, which is expected to pass in a special israeli parliament session on wednesday, will allow israel to pull all its soldiers out of gaza in the next month.

an israeli official, raanan gissin, aide to prime minister ariel sharon, commented on the bombing. he described the attack as "a wake-up call that brings us back to the reality of terrorism after the euphoria of the gaza disengagement." he later said, "as long as the palestinians don't take decisive action against terrorism this will continue, and abbas's strategy of making political deals with terrorist organizations will come back to haunt him." mr. gissin concluded his statement by saying. "they smell that he's weak, and they'll keep pressing."


hawaii, us beats curacao in little league world series championship

the 2005 edition of the little league world series ended in thrilling fashion as ewa beach, hawaii overcame a three run deficit in the last inning and eventually beat defending champion curacao 7-6 in extra innings of the international championship game in front of a crowd of over 25,000. it is the first little league world series title for an american team since kentucky beat japan in 2002.

going into the sixth and final inning, the team from ewa beach was trailing 6-3 to the team from willemstad, curacao. however, a couple of key hits and timely bunts closed the gap, and ewa beach tied the game after curacao was unable to complete a potential game-ending double play. curacao was able to get out of the inning as the little league championship game was sent into extra innings for the first time in over 30 years. after shutting down curacao in the top of the seventh, hawaii came up in the bottom of the seventh with a chance to complete the comeback. hawaii's michael memea would finish what his teammates started by hitting a line drive solo home run with no one out to give hawaii its first little league championship.

curacao was trying to become the first back-to-back champions in little league since long beach, california did it in 1992 and 1993. 


first fifty-star united states flag up for sale

the designer of the current 50-star united states flag, robert g. heft, has put his original creation up for sale on the popular auction website ebay.

heft originally made the flag for a school project in 1958, in which he received a "b minus" as his grade. when he submitted the design for national consideration in 1959, he beat out over 100,000 other applicants. his design was adopted as the new flag in 1960 and his grade was promptly changed to an "a".

the flag has been flown over all state capitol buildings and over 80 united states embassies. sixty-three year-old heft explained that medical bills, as well as tuition costs for his relatives, are becoming an economic burden.

the opening bid on the flag starts at $250,000 usd, and the auction lasts until september 28th.

heft has also designed a 51-star us flag, which is currently in possession of representative clarence miller, a republican from ohio.



bush attendance at australia ceo conference a hoax

news agency aap reported last thursday that george h. w. bush would be attending the forbes global ceo conference, which starts this tuesday. these reports have now been revealed to be a hoax. they were based on a media release and associated website, and reported in wikinews, as well as a number of print publications in australia. the president and publisher of forbes asia, william adamopoulos, has confirmed that mr bush will not be attending.

"mr bush, sr. is definitely not attending the conference," he said.

mr adamopoulos said that he is considering pursuing legal action against the originators of the hoax. according to reports, the media release and website used the forbes name. 

"while we would not wish to oppose free speech in any way - for free speech is one of the things that unites both australia and the united states - we are investigating what legal action could be open to us," he said.

two australian broadsheets fell for the hoax put out by the 30a protest network. the network sent out a press release purporting to be from the organisers of the annual forbes conference, claiming that former us president george h. w. bush was to attend the conference. bruce knobloch of the 30a network indicated that the purpose of the hoax was to show how shallow the media coverage of the conference and the protest is.

the hoax was originally reported by aap, who checked the claim with a telephone number provided on the press release before publishing it. the hoax was then picked up by several internet news sites, including this one. aap quickly published a retraction, however that didn't stop the hoax making its way into the paper versions of two of australia's most respected broadsheets, "the sydney morning herald", and "the australian".

the forbes conference will take place at the sydney opera house, and will be attended by hundreds of ceos from around the world, as well as australian prime minister john howard, former new york mayor rudolph giuliani, and steve forbes himself.

there is a protest planned to coincide with the conference. protest organisers have called for people to assemble at customs square at circular quay at 5pm on tuesday 30 august. the protest was originally planned for the opera house forecourt, however police have declared this area to be an exclusion zone.


sydney, protesters reach agreement with police

organisers of the 30a protest, planned to coincide with this weeks forbes global ceo conference, have reached an agreement with police about how the protest should proceed. the 30a network has received permission to use the customs square area of circular quay.

"after weeks of discussion and stalling, police have now given assurances that, while the opera house forecourt will remain an exclusion zone between the ceos and the real world, the 30a carnival protest will be facilitated at customs square," said the 30a network website.

the plans for the mass gathering were thrown into turmoil over the last few weeks when police refused permission for the protest to occur near the opera house, and declared the entire opera house forecourt to be off-limits for the duration of the conference.

the protest organisers have said that they are hoping for a "carnival atmosphere", and look forward to working peacefully with the police.

"assurances have been given that truck, stage, music and speeches - not to mention drumming, dancing and protest - will not be prevented from going ahead as planned in the square directly outside customs house at circular quay," the website said.

"we want a safe community action showing that people in sydney oppose howard1s plan for a us-style wages system, the war in iraq and his kow-towing to global corporate chiefs. we pose no threat to the opera house or the millionaire delegates, or to other users of east circular quay," said 30a spokesman bruce knobloch.

the conference will take place at the sydney opera house, and will be attended by hundreds of ceos from around the world, as well as australian prime minister john howard, former new york mayor rudolph giuliani, and steve forbes himself.

protest organisers have called for people to assemble at customs square at circular quay at 5pm on tuesday 30 august.


cn health &amp; safety plan planned to be cancelled

on july 18, 2005 cn rail notified the caw that they intend to cancel the cn-caw previously negotiated health & safety plan. the caw will be going to arbitration this fall to address the issue. the caw has asked that employees notify their health and safety rep about any safety concerns at the work place.

one terminal has lost 5-6 full-time positions. cn rail used to have part-time positions filled as well, but at this time there are no part-time employees to cover work if a full-time employee is absent. overtime is necessary to keep the trains running on time. intermodal traffic goes up, but staff goes down. cn rail expects the trains to go out on time, and in a safe condition, but staff is overworked, because there are not enough of them. in fact, one worker noticed that most of the rail cars that contained 40 foot overseas containers did not have their loading guides in place. trains are not allowed to go out without these guides placed into the cars (the guides stop the loads from swaying from side to side in the cars), important for safety with double stacked containers, but it seems that in this case the lack of employees forced the train to leave without them.

some recent derailments have come to the attention of the media and politicians.

on august 3rd 2005 there was a derailment in wabamun lake alberta that spilled toxins into the lake. 2 days later there was a derailment in cheakamus river near squamish bc. both derailments spilled hazardous materials into the water. many are saying that cn took too long to notify people of the toxic spills.

the conductor on each train carries with him the shipping manifest with him and has access to that information at all times. almost any cn terminal that has a clerk working at it with access to the cn intranet can get this information within minutes.

ctv news has said that this is the 5th derailment for cn this month.


sydney prepares for forbes conference and 30a protest

sydney is today preparing for the forbes global ceo conference and 30a protest. a major police operation is occurring in the vicinity of the sydney opera house, where the conference is scheduled to occur. the opera house forecourt has been closed to the public, and barricades have been set up down maquarie st and across the botanic gardens. 

police checkpoints have been set up on maquarie st and the circular quay walk to control access to the opera house. police dogs are patrolling the area. 

at 8am this morning customs square, where the 30a protest is planning to assemble, was as normal for a tuesday, with no indication of preparations by activists. the police have 1,000 officers attending, and have said that they are preparing for 10,000 protestors. 

sharron burrows, leader of the actu, has criticised the conference, saying that it celebrates corporate greed at the expense of workers. 

"as the global economy grows we should have cause for celebration for the advancement that this should deliver for workers and their families all over the world, but the reality is that corporate greed is driving profit share at the expense of wages, safe workplaces, conditions and entitlements for workers," she said.

mr collins said that police will respond promptly to any trouble. he has also stated that schoolchildren who attended the protest will not be immune.

"we will arrest people regardless of age in regard to if they are [unlawful] in their protest," he said.

"i make no apology for the fact that if people are breaking the law and are disrupting the conference, we will deal with it, we will arrest people and deal with them appropriately," he added. 

new south wales acting police commissioner, terry collins, on monday accused activist groups of training their members to cause disruptions during protests. he was speaking in reference to the protests planned to coincide this week with the forbes global ceo conference at the sydney opera house.

"activist groups by their very nature are actually trained to go about to disrupt and certainly undermine any attempts by police or any other security forces to actually deal with protest groups," mr collins said.

"i make no apology for the fact that, if people are breaking the law and are disrupting the conference, we will deal with it and we will arrest people," he added.

a spokesman for the 30a network, bruce knobloch, has labelled the claims as ridiculous.

"the assistant commissioner has been very pig headed," he said.

"the only training i know about is something called non-violent direct action. this is exactly what it says: non-violent," he added.

mr knoblock says that the 30a network has not attempted to hide its plans, and has made every attempt to work with the police.

"the 30a network has no secrets, we have been very open about our intentions: to have a carnival protest. it's amazing the degree of paranoia going on at the heads of the nsw police force. we are a bunch of community activists and concerned citizens who have a right to protest against the war profiteers and free-market freaks," he said.

the comment by the acting police commissioner seem to be in contrast to previous statements from the 30a network, who said in a press release last week that they are hoping for a peaceful, fun protest.

"we want a safe community action showing that people in sydney oppose howard1s plan for a us-style wages system, the war in iraq and his kow-towing to global corporate chiefs. we pose no threat to the opera house or the millionaire delegates, or to other users of east circular quay," the press release said.

the herald sun, a melbourne newspaper, is reporting that "radical protesters from melbourne will send their most 'hard-core' activists to sydney to protest outside a meeting of the world's top business leaders." the paper is reporting that "leftists" are unable to guarantee that they will obey police exclusion zones.

socialist party national organiser anthony main said that protestors would not provoke violence, however he suggested that the police may act violently.

"given the new era of global terrorism and so forth, we wouldn't be surprised if they (police) flexed their muscles," he said.

the 30a network is a loose association of peace and global justice groups and trade unions. the protest hopes to draw attention to a wide variety of issues, including war, corporate greed, and neoliberalism.

"the protest is against free-market madness. the conference attendees are people who believe that the free-market can solve all of our problems, e.g privatisation, including things such as water. one of the conference attendees works for a private water company," mr knobloch said.


farmers block main road in south italy

several groups of farmers in protest have made several blockades with farm equipment on several important road and train lines in the south of italy yesterday.

the farmers are protesting for the prices being paid to them for their grape harvest this season (about 2 or 2.50 eur for 100 kg) in an effort to obtain more money from the state in the form of subsidies. 

the protest, riot and manifestation are very common in italy around this time in the grape-growing season. in the past there have even been protests and riots even some soccer teams from the premium league became involved in.

as usual the police were not able to contain the riots and as a result many important transportation roads and train lines have been blocked. trenitalia, the main italian train company, suppressed many of it's trains and all the trains from the puglia (the most south east region of italy) were forced to stop in bari. only one train, with destination to rome, has been routed to an alternative route.

it is reported that a person, among the manifestant, has been killed trying to stop a van. the driver of the van has been arrested by the police and accused of killing while the other people on the van were beaten by the other manifestants.

the road and train blocks were finally removed, after the minister of agriculture have declared that he will do all that is possible to take apart the blockades that rest in government in order to give more economic aid to the farmers. 


wreck of august 6 airliner crash recovered from sea off italy

the wreck of the plane atr72 that fell into the sea near sicily, italy on august 6 has been recovered. one of the two black boxes that contained the communication recording, and the complete set of instruments and commands in the cockpit, was recovered.

one of the three people who were still missing from the accident was found, while there is yet no sign of the other two persons. the identity of the recovered corpse is not yet known (and the identification is expected to be difficult).

a survey published today by the italian association intesaconsumatori (union of consumers) said that 61% of italians are afraid to fly, while 41% of population feels less safe about plane safety than they did one month earlier. according to the survey, 20% would be ready to get off the plane, or refuse to get in the plane, if they found that the airline is different from the one they were told when they bought the ticket.


italian petrol prices rocket to a record eur 1.30 per litre

the price of petrol (gasoline) continues to rise in italy. today, a singlelitre (0.22 us gallons) of unleaded fuel (called green petrol in italy) has reached eur 1.295 (usd 5.98 per gallon; cad 1.91 per litre; prices in canada vary from cad 1.03 to 1.31).

there is constant speculation on the recent price rises, however much of this is the rise in oil prices which has reached usd 68.28 per barrel (1 barrel = 158.97 litres) of us crude. this has been helped by major market speculation, the war in iraq, the recent hurricane in louisiana (by stopping production in a major refinery) and the strengthening of the american dollar against the euro.


hurricane katrina causes upwards of $12bn of damage; oil prices surge

hurricane katrina is now over the u.s. mainland and has caused more than us$12 billion of damage. some estimates are as high as $30 billion.

new orleans was spared the most intense winds as the hurricane weakened as it made landfall, and its track turned slightly east, away from the city. however, the area was still subjected to sustained winds of more than 100mph, and rainfall as heavy as six inches per hour.

future prices of crude oil rose above $70/barrel in the u.s. on monday in the wake of katrina’s surge through oil and refinery processing facilities in the gulf of mexico. the storm forced operators to shut down an estimated 1 million barrels of daily refining capacity in the region that accounts for nearly a quarter of total domestic production.

a u.s. spokesman for the administration said the government will consider releasing crude oil from the if requested by refiners. opec has pledged to blunt the impact by increasing production to compensate.

white house spokesman told reporters that michael brown, the director of the federal emergency management agency (fema), briefed mr. bush before he left his texas ranch for arizona where he will deliver a speech on medicare. brown said it would take time before an assessment is possible for when refineries could resume activity.

president bush authorized loans from the strategic reserve to help make up for missing supplies when struck in 2004.



little caesars pizza to open eight stores in ireland

us pizza chain giant little caesars is to open eight stores in ireland and has plans to increase that to 45 over the next few years. the company has signed a ten year deal with doughmaster to support little caesars franchisees in ireland.

dublin based doughmaster will open the first eight stores and operate them as its own over the next 18 months. afterwards it will pursue franchisees.

little caesars was founded in michigan in 1959. the firm has franchised over 3,000 restaurants in the usa and has revenues of over $1bn.

little caesars adds to a highly expansive irish pizza market - existing players include apache, domino's, godfathers, fourstarpizza and pizza hut. the four largest operators (those mentioned excluding pizza hut) now have over 90 outlets in ireland in total. apache remains the largest company in store count with 29 outlets.


suspects apprehended after car chase through denver, us

a high-speed pre-dawn pursuit on 29 august, 2005 ended in a fatal accident. a local resident reported to police at 1:00 am (local time) that two people appeared to be attempting to steal a honda civic near west 75th circle in westminster, colorado. as the two individuals left the scene in the stolen car, the resident followed in his own vehicle until the passenger stepped out of the honda and opened fire with a shotgun. the police came upon the suspects near west 72nd avenue & pierce street, , colorado, and began pursuit.

the chase proceeded southbound on sheridan boulevard and northeast on , reaching speeds of 120 miles per hour (190 kilometres per hour). when the vehicle attempted to merge onto southeast-bound in , colorado the suspects lost control and impacted two other vehicles.

the stolen vehicle may have punctured one or more tires, as sparks were observed from the bottom of the car as it began the merge. the stolen car struck the middle of the passenger's side of a toyota 4runner in the left-hand lane and sent it careening across the median into the northwest-bound lanes of traffic, where it rolled several times. the stolen vehicle then bounced off the guardrail on the right shoulder and impacted a ford pickup truck before coming to rest. the two suspects then escaped on foot, discarding some of their clothing as they fled. one of the passengers traveling in the toyota 4runner, brian kapko, 19, of costa mesa, california, was killed. 

after eight hours of searching for the perpetrators, the police called off their manhunt. later in the day, a witness alerted the police about two "suspicious persons" near the scene of the accident. the police arrested a matthew g. wartena, 19, and a 16 year old male. wartena was wearing only boxer shorts, socks and a bloody tank top. the juvenile wore only one sock and tan pants. the pair were charged with suspicion of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, vehicular eluding, and criminal trespass. at the time of the incident wartena was free on bond, having pleaded guilty the month before to forgery of a government document.

map of accident scene 


at least 55 killed by hurricane katrina; serious flooding across affected region

thirty people died in the gulf of mexico resort of when demolished a water-side apartment block, harrison county emergency operations center spokesman jim pollard told ap. however, the mississippi emergency management agency has yet to confirm the news.

at least another twenty have died across the rest of harrison county; this number is expected to rise. the governor of the state of mississippi has asked people to stay away from the area for several days. the towns of biloxi and took the brunt of the hurricane's 140mph+ winds after it veered away from new orleans as it made landfall.

three more people have been killed by falling trees and at least two died in traffic accidents resulting from the hurricane. hundreds of people have been rescued by boat and helicopter from the roofs of houses cut off by flood water.

the hurricane has caused a ? the force of the winds has piled the waters of the gulf of mexico against the coastline, causing widespread flooding reaching at least a mile inland in places.

a levee on the canal has broken in two places, causing massive flooding. some parts of new orleans are now under 20 feet of water. flooding seems to have reduced to increasing at a rate of one inch an hour and army corps of engineers are on the scene of the breaks. at aproximately 10:00 pm central city officials confirmed that a major floodpump has failed, which could result in an additional nine feet of floodwaters.

the western part of new orleans has been flooded after a two-block long stretch of the 17th street levee gave way on monday afternoon. much of the city lies below sea level and depends on flood defences to keep it safe. one hospital ? that has 1,000 patients inside ? has been surrounded by the water. the vice-president of the center has described seeing whitecaps on the waves of the water in a street outside.

a water main pipe has failed, meaning that tap water has been contaminated with flood water, and is no longer safe to drink.

the mayor of the city has described seeing "bodies floating in the water."

some 10,000 people remain in the superdome stadium, despite the electricity supply failing leaving the indoor stadium in darkness. the coverings of the concrete roof of the structure have been stripped away by the wind. 

electricity supplies to 1.3 million people across the south eastern parts of the us have been damaged, and it could be months before power is restored to all affected.

two oil rigs have broken free of their moorings in the gulf of mexico, and a third drifted into a bridge in mobile bay, alabama.

katrina has now been downgraded to tropical storm status as it moves northwards across the us, and wind speeds have dropped to 60mph. the current death toll does not include the 11 killed in florida when katrina struck there last week.


carnival style protest held in sydney

the 30a protest in sydney, australia, occurred on tuesday night in carnival style. the protest began around 5 p.m. at customs square, circular quay, with 1,000 to 2,000 people assembling to listen to speeches and music. after about an hour, the protestors marched along the quay to the concrete and steel barricades preventing public access to the opera house forecourt; where the carnival continued with music, drums, and dancing. 

there were a wide variety of people present at the protest, including trade unionists, christian groups, social justice groups, fair trade activists, and peace groups. many people wore elaborate costumes, beat drums, played music, and sang. 

all speakers emphasised the importance of protesting peacefully, encouraging protestors to avoid violence or confrontation at all costs. a number of speakers thanked the police for their efforts.

at 6 p.m. the protestors marched towards the opera house, where there was a violent confrontation between police and protestors who broke down a temporary wire fence. music and dancing continued for a few hours after as people drifted away. the area was deserted by 9:30 p.m.. 

it was revealed during the evening that tuesday evenings conference event was moved to a nearby ferry terminal because of security concerns and as such the targets of the protest were not in the area at the time. 

the main theme of the speeches was opposition to so-called neo-liberalism. the conference attendees were described as neo-liberals, or "free market freaks", who support reduction of the minimum wage, reduction of welfare benefits, undermining of unions, and privatisation of essential services such as water.

greens senator kerrie nettle gave a rousing speech, accusing the conference delegates of failing to protect the environment and planning to privatise government services. 

"the people inside that conference want to sell our public schools and hospitals," she said.

some speakers also acknowledged that the protest was taking place on aboriginal land, and there was a moments silence to reflect on past and present crimes against australian aborigines. the protestors chanted "always was, always will be, aboriginal land."

at about 6 p.m., as the speeches ended, the protestors left customs square and marched along circular quay to the barrricades that had been erected at macquarie st, to prevent the public from accessing the opera house forecourt. a number of protestors began rocking the barricades and attempting to climb over. a flare was also thrown from the crowd over the barricades. after two or three minutes, the protestors were successful in causing one to lean over onto the ground. police responded by using horses and batons to force the protestors back, and then forming a line of officers along the breached section to prevent anyone entering the exclusion zone. police proceeded to make a small number of arrests. 

the protestors continued their action in a peaceful manner from that point forward. the entire incident was over in less than five minutes.

some protestors accused the police of using excessive force while making arrests. "as soon as we reached the fence, a mass of people jumped on the fence and began shaking it. some smoke bombs flew, police dogs were going crazy and shaking of the fence became more and more intense. the fence was pretty loose at this point. suddenly the fence went down!!! and the police began grabbing people who went over with it," said an eyewitness report on sydney indymedia. one protestor was transported to hospital by ambulance after breaking his collarbone during the incident.

however, others thought the police handled the situation well. 

"i think the police were pretty impressive. they calmed the crowd very quickly and didn't react to the taunts of the protesters. they didn't do anything that i could see to inflame the situation. i think they were cool," said a blog article written by an eyewitness.


louisiana locked down; new orleans could become a &quot;toxic soup&quot;

ivor van heerden, deputy director of the louisiana state university hurricane center and director of the center for the study of public health impacts of hurricanes, is warning that floodwaters resulting from hurricane katrina could carry toxic waste from the "industrial canal" area in new orleans - the site of many chemical plants. van heerden has, for four years, studied computer models about the impact of a powerful hurricane.

"these chemical plants [could] start flying apart, just as the other buildings do, so we have the potential for release of benzene, hydrochloric acid, chlorine and so on." said van heerden; "we're looking at a bowl full of highly contaminated water with contaminated air flowing around and, literally, very few places for anybody to go where they'll be safe."

van heerden itemized problems people returning to the city would find: "no sewage, no drinking water, contamination, threat of rapid increase in mosquitoes, roads are impassible, downed power lines everywhere, trees, debris from houses in the roads, no way to go shopping, no gas." the water has also released fire ants and thousands of snakes, many being venomous, from their normal habitats.

"if you came back, you would be coming literally to a wilderness," van heerden said. "stay where you are, be comfortable; nothing's going to change. if your house is gone, it's gone. if you come back in a day or a week, it's not going to make any difference."

cnn is reporting "huge police roadblocks" leading into new orleans and that their news truck was not allowed to enter the city. the cnn correspondent said the other side of the roadblock looked like "a scene out of hell".


news briefs:august 30, 2005

the time is 1730 utc on tuesday 30 august 2005, and this is audio wikinews: news briefs.

at least 55 killed by hurricane katrina; serious flooding across affected region<br>
hurricane katrina has now reportedly caused over fifty deaths in mississippi. thirty people were killed in the resort of biloxi, while twenty more casualties occurred across the rest of the state's harrison county. meanwhile, western new orleans has been severely flooded due to the breaking of a levee on 17th street.

sydney prepares for forbes conference and 30a protest<br>
sydney is today preparing for the forbes global ceo conference and 30a protest. a major police operation is occurring in the vicinity of the sydney opera house, where the conference is scheduled to occur. the opera house forecourt has been closed to the public, and barricades have been set up down maquarie st and across the botanic gardens.

little caesar's pizza to open eight stores in ireland<br>
us pizza chain giant little caesars is to open eight stores in ireland and has plans to increase that to 45 over the next few years. the company has signed a ten year deal with doughmaster to support little caesars franchisees in ireland.

thank you for joining us today. to receive more up-to-date news items as they occur, please visit wikinews.org.

and, be sure to check out our daily full-length audio news program, called audio wikinews: full report.

if you wish to contact the staff of this broadcast, please send an email to audiowikinews at gmail dot com. if you wish to report news, please visit www.wikinews.org, or call toll-free united states telephone number, 866-653-4265. that's 866-653-4265. wikinews is a nonprofit independent news site run by the non-profit wikimedia foundation.

this recording has been released into the public domain. this applies worldwide.


green day dominates at mtv's 2005 video music awards

mtv's 2005 video music awards were rather unbalanced this year, with green day's capture of seven of the eight awards for which they were nominated. the awards were for their single "boulevard of broken dreams" off of the "american idiot" album. up-and-coming rock bands fall out boy and the killers also won awards. kelly clarkson came out with two awards.

the event was hosted by sean "diddy" combs at the american airlines arena in miami, florida, usa, which was unaffected by the passing of hurricane katrina through the area or by the shooting of rap producer "suge" knight.

some notable events was combs "conducting" a string orchestra in memory of slain rapper notorious b.i.g while his song played, fellow rapper snoop dogg came out to sing the last verse of b.i.g's hit song "warning".

green day arrived at the event in their rusted green convertible from the holiday and boulevard of broken dreams music videos. they kicked off the show with a performance of boulevard of broken dreams.

r. kelly performed a new segment to his soap opera song "trapped in the closet". kelly remains a chart-topper even though the star is awaiting trial for child pornography charges.
marion "suge" knight was shot in the leg at a private party, hosted by kanye west, at the shore club saturday night, one day before the main event. he was taken to nearby mount sinai hospital where he was treated for the non-lethal gunshot wound.


total evacuation of new orleans planned

a state of emergency has been enacted in new orleans in the u.s. state of louisiana today, after the devastating hurricane katrina made landfall on monday. there were earlier erroneous reports by the news media that martial law had been imposed. mayor ray nagin fears that there may be "thousands" of fatalities in his city alone.

many hospital staff are struggling without power and supplies. as many as 2,500 patients from hospitals in orleans parish were to be evacuated, according to us health and human services secretary mike leavitt, but where they could be sent was still uncertain.

looters are roaming the city and have already ransacked the city's upscale shopping district on canal street. they have been seen on news reports carrying huge bags of stolen goods. governor kathleen blanco announced plans to completely shut down new orleans and move everybody left there out of the area. a rescue helicopter was shot at, temporarily halting all rescue operations.

former mayor marc morial summed up his view by saying; "we've lost our city, i fear it's potentially like pompeii."

two of the city's levees on lake ponchartrain failed; one with a football-field size breach.
emergency workers dropped sandbags from helicopters into the levee's breaches,
but the water kept coming.

"it appears that now the bowl is beginning to fill -- not rapidly but slowly," 
said walter maestri, an emergency operations manager. new floods swept through the center of new orleans and water now covers 80 percent of the city with broken gas lines feeding raging fires. in some locations the water is now at a depth of 20 feet (six meters).

the famous french quarter, initially less affected by flooding, finally also succumbed.

"get out of town if you can." said ed freytag, a city worker at the temporary city hall complex. "we're damn close right now to that worst-case scenario," said dave cohen, a local radio host.

for those that were staying in the superdome, officials have begun moving them to the long-vacant astrodome in houston, texas.


sixteen additional suspects revealed in zotob worm case

turkish investigators have connected sixteen more people to the havoc of the zotob internet worm, which has been adversely affecting computers for the last two weeks. these people were found by analysing communications between them and the two hackers arrested four days ago.

by analysing the code of the zotob worm, as well as its derivative works, law enforcement officials have found that three internet gangs were involved in the creation of the worm. farid essebar, aka 'diab10', the 18 year old who wrote the worm, as well as others, like mytob, was a member of the gang '0x90-team'. the other gangs, 'blackcarder' and 'metalhit', wrote some of the variants of zotob and mytob. 

the other of the two men arrested four days ago was 21 year old attila ekici. turkish officials say that he was paid by essebar to distribute zotob. this type of financial relationship confirms theories that writing viruses has become a profit-making enterprise.


rhode island district court freezes palestinian authority assets in the us

a rhode island district court has frozen all the us assets of the palestinian authority (pa), prompting palestinian finance minister salam fayyad to request the aid of us secretary of state condoleezza rice.

the frozen assets include us holdings in an investment fund worth $1.3 billion, which was used to finance economic development, and $30 million from the palestinian monetary authority.

the ruling was passed upon the pa when they refused to compensate the relatives of a jewish couple shot dead by members of hamas in 1996.

us citizen yaron ungar and his wife efrat were killed while returning from a wedding near the west bank, when their car was shot at repeatedly, killing the couple. three hamas militants were jailed as a result.

a lawsuit was filed in 2000 against the palestinian authority, the plo, hamas, and yasser arafat in rhode island.

yasser arafat hired lawyer and former attorney general ramsey clark as his defense. in the case, clark argued that the pa was a sovereign state, and that it deserved immunity from prosecution accorded to most countries. the court disagreed with this, and in 2004 they ruled that palestine is not a state, and ordered them to pay the ungars $116 million. a federal appeals court upheld the verdict in march.

the head of washington's pa office, hasan abdul rahman said that his office had been "paralysed" by the verdict.

"it paralyzes the function of the office, and i think that is the intention of the plaintiffs." he told associated press shortly after the decision, and called upon the us administration to intervene.


several hundred killed after stampede in baghdad

ibrahim jaafari, the prime minister of iraq, has declared that iraq will hold three days of national mourning following a stampede on a bridge in baghdad which left nearly a thousand people dead. the railings of a bridge over the river tigris gave way under the weight of the crowd, and many people fell into the waters below. 

cnn now reports the death toll as 965 dead and 465 injured.

the people were walking towards the kadhimiya mosque, a shi'ite shrine. they were celebrating the martyrdom of muslim religious figure musa al-kadhim.

some sources say the rush happened after a rumor of the presence of a suicide bomber passed through the crowd of up to one million.

earlier, three to six mortar rounds were fired into the crowd, killing as many as 16 - a us apache gunship helicopter returned fire on the attackers.


shoppers world hosts arts event

shoppers world in brampton, ontario, canada asks its visitors to "look up, look way up" this october.

the highway 10 and steeles avenue mall is encouraging bramptonians to paint a ceiling tile for charity this summer, for their upcoming "looking up to the arts" event. the tiles should represent either what brampton means to you, or the arts in brampton.

anyone can paint a tile for the event by buying one at the customer service desk for $5. once tiles are completed and returned for the event, participants receive a gift certificate for $5. the ceiling tiles must be finished and returned by october 7.

the tiles will be auctioned off at the end of the event, with money going to the brampton arts council.

local dance, music, theatre and visual arts group will perform and promote at the mall's event, which will be held from october 12 to 22.

this isn't shoppers world's only celebration of the arts. the mall is the permanent home of the artway gallery, a community exhibit space on the west side of the mall. organized by visual arts brampton, the space allows anyone in the community to exhibit publicly.


philippine impeachment unlikely to succeed

a philippine congressional committee has voted to turn down all impeachment petitions against president gloria macapagal arroyo. the opposition to the president, on boycott, was not present. the vote seems to have greatly undermined any chance of an impeachment of arroyo.

arroyo's critics say that she committed fraud during last year's presidential election. she has also been accused of bribing lawmakers in order to stop them from supporting complaints against her.

edmundo reyes, a pro-impeachment congressman, revealed that only six more signatures are needed to trigger a trial in the philippine senate. one-third of the legislative body - 79 members - must consent to the president's impeachment in order for a trial to occur. currently, 73 lawmakers side with the opposition.

"is there no one else?" asked an emotional reyes. "is there anyone else signing this for truth?"

the opposition has threatened to organize citizen protests demanding the president's removal. but arroyo's congress allies appear confident that they have destroyed the impeachment bid.



chimpanzee genome sequenced

the chimpanzee sequencing and analysis consortium, made up of 67 scientists from the united states, israel, italy, germany, and spain, has released a draft version of its report on the chimpanzee genome in the september 1 edition of the scientific journal "nature". the researchers mapped 94% of the genome. the report centers on comparisons between chimpanzee and human dna.



israel rules victims of jewish terrorist not entitled to lifelong support

israel's defence minister has ruled that the man who shot dead four israeli arabs is not a terrorist, because he is jewish. the decision means that the families do not receive the compensation as family members of people classed as victims of terrorism. the laws governing compensation only recognise terrorism as being perpetrated by "organisations hostile to israel".

ariel sharon had previously described the act as "a despicable act by a bloodthirsty terrorist," and the jerusalem post described the gunman as a "jewish far-right fanatic".

the families will receive a lump sum instead of a lifelong payment. arab israeli leaders described the law as racist.

"the decision raises a strong scent of racism, which distinguishes between a jewish terrorist and an arab terrorist," one member of parliament said.

the anti-defamation league, a us based organisation set up to combat anti-semitism, has also condemned the killing and described it as terrorism.

"we strongly condemn today's terrorist attack by a jewish gunman in shiloh. the perpetrator is in police custody and we are confident he will be punished to the fullest extent of the law," said abraham h. foxman, adl national director, in a statement released on the day of the attack.

member of the knesset mohammad barakeh, has demanded an amendment to the current law. he is asking that the law recognise as victims of terror anyone hurt by "hostile activities by a terror organization." according to the israeli newspaper haaretz, the prime ministers office has requested that the attorney general review the issue.

the 19-year old nathan zaada shot the four israeli arabs in an industrial area of the town of shfaram on august 4th. he was later killed by a mob.


widespread looting blamed for disrupted rescue efforts in new orleans, louisiana

the mayor of new orleans, ray nagin, has ordered most of the local police force to stop rescue efforts and shift their efforts to prevent looting . at the same time, fema has reportedly been blocking aid shipments into the city on the grounds that it is too dangerous. 

a rescue helicopter attempting to retrieve stranded people from new orleans' superdome stadium was reportedly shot at; but this has not yet been confirmed. a member of the national guard was reportedly shot, but was not seriously injured. official reports say that one new orleans police officer was shot in the head, but was expected to survive. other reports say that police stranded on the roof of a hotel were being fired upon by looters in the streets. meanwhile, reports from many blogs and grassroots journalists about police officers looting cars and stores have started to filter up to the mainstream media .

food, diapers, and other supplies are the target of most looters. some are reportedly taking non-essential and luxury items, such as tvs and computers. reportedly, gun and pawn shops are also a popular target for looting. 

earlier today, buses were taking the most vulnerable away to the state capital of louisiana, baton rouge. evacuees in the superdome are also being moved by bus to the astrodome in houston, texas.

us president george w. bush, in an interview on abc television, condemned the looting, saying "i think there ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this."

a hospital in gretna was evacuated after a supply truck carrying food, water and medical supplies was stopped at gunpoint. spokesman stephen campanini estimated there to be approximately 350 employees in the hospital, along with between 125 and 150 patients. campanini said, "there are physical threats to safety from roving bands of armed individuals with weapons who are threatening the safety of the hospital." 

despite this, some of the other rumors of looting have proven to be false. one of the most prevalent was the story that armed looters laid siege to the children's hospital. the times-picayune reported that this story was false.


scientists debate whether hurricane katrina was aggravated by global warming

both scientists and politicians are divided over the increase in hurricanes in the last 30 years. the years 1970 to 1994 saw far fewer hurricanes than 1995 to the present. "the new york times" suggests this decrease was a result of generally cooler north atlantic water driving winds that disrupted potential hurricanes from forming. some experts say the recent intensification is part of a natural cycle, while others claim that global warming has increased both the destructive power and the frequency of hurricanes. the "times" also pointed out that during 8 recent years the u.s. has been hit by about one-third fewer severe hurricanes than usual.

britain's chief scientific adviser sir david king stated, "we have known since 1987 the intensity of hurricanes is related to surface sea temperature and we know that, over the last 15 to 20 years, surface sea temperatures in these regions have increased by half a degree centigrade. so it is easy to conclude that the increased intensity of hurricanes is associated with global warming." 

massachusetts institute of technology's professor kerry emanuel wrote that rising sea temperatures could account for only part what he claims has been a sharp rise in the destructiveness of tropical cyclones since the 1970s. eminent hurricane expert, professor william gray said that emanuel's was “a terrible paper, one of the worst i've ever looked at.” 

jurgen trittin, germany's minister of the environment was sharply critical of the u.s. government. he wrote in an editorial: "greenhouse gases have to be radically reduced worldwide. the us has, up until this point, had its eyes closed to this emergency." 

carsten voigt of the german foreign ministry said that while he believed that hurricanes were more powerful due to global warming, he did not believe that hurricane katrina was the fault of america, or the bush administration. “the main point though is that climate change is an issue that needs to be put on the table.”


hurricane katrina: resources regarding missing/located people

with victims of hurricane katrina moved to shelters and remote locations, their relatives and friends in other parts of the world have turned to the web to try and establish contact and confirm their health. many families living in the path of katrina have even been split up as they are rescued and now desperately need to contact each other.

several web sites have started forums for posting information on missing people. the forums also allow individuals and families in the path of the hurricane who are safe post their information, where they are now located and how their family should contact them.

the american red cross is keeping records of all persons they treat and assist, but those records are not available either by phone or online. they have issued a press release titled american red cross urgent family alert. quoting, in part:

a caller to wamu's radio program the kojo nnamdi show on august 31st relayed information that while cell phones couldn't make or receive calls because of network overload, text messaging to otherwise unreachable cell phones was working.

here are some hotlines for people to call:<br>

missing persons:


fotoads.com post free photo ads of hurricane katrina missing persons & pets. maybe your eyewitness report will help a family find their loved one or pet.


bush authorizes oil release from strategic petroleum reserve

yesterday, president george w. bush authorized the release of oil from the due to hurricane katrina's effects on in the gulf coast.

the decision was made late tuesday and announcement was made wednesday.

the strategic petroleum reserve consists of 700 million barrels of oil located in salt caverns along the texas and louisiana coast. the strategic petroleum reserve is meant to act as a cushion for the oil market during disruptions of energy.

energy production was interuppted by katrina as more than 735 oil and rigs had to be evacuated. this shut down 95 percent of production and 88 percent of natural gas output in the gulf of mexico.



shots reported during superdome evacuation

air evacuation of the superdome was temporarily halted thursday after shots were reportedly fired at a military helicopter.

evacuations by bus continue, despite an early news report to the contrary. thousands of people taking temporary shelter in the superdome and nearby areas in new orleans are being evacuated after mayor ray nagin ordered a complete evacuation of the city, in the wake of hurricane katrina. evacuees will be taken to the astrodome in houston, texas.

looting has become an increasing concern, as looters and gangs are beginning to rob hotels and hospitals. some looters have even been able to take guns from abandoned shops. officials say that they are concerned about the increasing number of people with guns. police officers stranded on the roof of a hotel reported shots fired at them.

president george w. bush plans to visit the affected areas on friday. former presidents bill clinton and george h. w. bush are expected to lead a private fund-raising campaign for the victims of the hurricane, similar to the campaign after the oceanic earthquake and resulting tsunami in late 2004.


nigeria bill has taylor implications

the nigerian legislature is considering a bill that would permit the senate to extradite persons granted asylum by nigeria to other nations and organizations, such as the united nations and the , to face trial for . under the law, the senate would have the power to accept or decline applications for asylum as well as remit persons already with asylum to requesting organizations or countries.

if the bill passes, it would provide the mechanism needed by nigeria to lawfully extradite indicted war criminal charles taylor to stand trial at the in sierra leone. to date, nigeria has resisted repeated claims by , the , and the united nations to extradite mr. taylor saying that they will only do so if called upon by a freely elected liberian government. liberia has its first national elections since taylor's regime scheduled for october.

the bill has significant implications in liberia, where taylor was president until ousted by the international community in august 2003, under an asylum deal with nigeria. the united nations has maintained a peacekeeping mission in the country ever since. in october, liberia faces its first national elections since taylor, and his influence, although against the terms of his asylum, is seen as potentially destabilizing.

the front runners in liberia's presidential race recently spoke on the taylor issue at a series of presidential debates held on local radio. although most candidates agree that the rule of law must be followed none would commit to handing taylor over to the special court if elected.



new caledonia prepares for 2011 south pacific games

new caledonia is beginning to prepare for the 2011 south pacific games, hosting duties won after a vote in palau.

on july 31, the south pacific games council met to decide on the matter, with the meeting announced to the public by michael white, nmi chef de mission to the 2005 palau south pacific mini games. the hosting duties were also bid on by the solomon islands, and american samoa, which was eliminated in the first round.

the last time that the city of noumea, new caledonia hosted the event was 1987.

any country that sends athletes to participate in the spg is eligible to host the competition.

the new caledonia win is the culmination of a six-year bid process that all interested countries must follow. white commented, "the charter lays out the time requirements you have to submit a bid and the charter prescribes what elements have to be covered in your bid proposals. then at some point, six years before the games, the spg council reviews all the bids and hears presentations from the bidding countries and decides which country is going to be awarded the games."

the micronesian games council is still deciding which city will host the 2006 micronesian games. officials from yap, the original host of the event, say that they won't be ready to host the event due to damage from a recent typhoon. the republic of the marshall islands will host the 2010 micronesian games.


un security council considers cote d'ivoire sanctions

yesterday, the united nations security council said it would take all steps necessary, including the implementation of individual sanctions, in order to ensure that the resolutions of the security council were adhered to by both sides of the troubled ivoiran peace process. the remarks followed a briefing to the security council by representatives from the un mission in cote d'ivoire and african union-appointed south african mediators.

"the south african mediation stated that it will continue its efforts, with the support of the united nations and the african union, to ensure the holding of free, fair and transparent elections in cote d'ivoire as scheduled, which is the only solution to the crisis," the security council said in a statement following the meeting. 

the next round of elections are scheduled for the end of october although it is widely believed this date is unlikely to be met.

the peace process in cote d'ivoire has been on shaky ground following the failure of the rebel forces to begin the disarmament process originally scheduled for 31 july. the rebels, led by the forces nouvelles, claimed that ivorian president gbagbo had failed to make the necessary legal reforms necessary to begin the disarmament. the international community later ratified the legal changes made by the ivorian government as being in compliance with the peace deal.



jozef rotblat, 1995 nobel peace prize winner, dies

noted physicist jozef rotblat, a historic figure who left the manhattan project and later became a prominent figure in the movement against the nuclear arms race, has died at the age of 96.

born in poland in 1908, he graduated from warsaw university. rotblat collaborated with the united states government on the manhattan project, which was attempting to construct the world's first atomic bombs. however, rotblat left the project, the first and only physicist to do so, after realizing that germany was unlikely to be developing a nuclear weapon of their own.

rotblat formed the pugwash conferences on science and world affairs organization in 1957. the group promoted nuclear disarmament and greater collaboration between scholars from all over the world to try and prevent major global conflict.

in 1995, rotblat and the pugwash conferences on science and world affairs were awarded the nobel peace prize, "for their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms." in his acceptance speech, rotblat noted that the group's goals were entirely doable, noting the close-knit structure of the european union, "within which war is inconceivable."


california's sb 1 bill originators' and supporters turn against bill

changes to california's sb 1 bill have forced many of the bill's strongest supporters, including governor arnold schwarzenegger, to oppose it. governor schwarzenegger is now expected to veto the bill.

the bill sought to provide incentives for businesses and individuals to install rooftop solar panels, in a manner similar to existing programs in washington and oregon. under pressure from the electrician's union, the bill was amended to require that installation be done by licensed electricians and that "prevailing wages" be paid for all commercial solar work done in the state.

existing solar contractors were originally among the bill's strongest supporters but now oppose it due to the changes. this comes despite the fact that they would be, under a grandfather clause, granted an exception to the new requirements for an electrician's license. future solar specialists would be required to also be licensed electricians.


u.s. man murdered by wife in hong kong

a u.s. housewife was convicted on sept. 1, 2005 of her husband's murder by a hong kong high court. on november 2, 2003, she apparently laced his milkshake with sedatives and beat him to death in their apartment while he was unconscious, sources say. nancy kissel was handed a unanimous life sentence verdict for murdering her banker husband in this infamous "milkshake trial", as it came to be known. 

she sat expressionless and clothed in black throughout the trial, in which prosecutors painted a picture of her as a cold, calculating killer, who murdered her husband because of his desire to divorce her and take custody of their children after learning that she was having an affair with a repairman. his body was found two days after the murder in a rented storage locker, which the prosecution claimed was evidence of her trying to cover up the murder. 

an autopsy found six types of sedatives in his body, which were powerful enough to knock him out, and a search of her computer brought up her internet searches with keywords such as "drug overdose".

prosecution lawyer paul chapman stated that "these were five fatal blows with murderous intent ... self defense has no basis in this case." relatives of robert were relieved to finally reach a verdict on the case, with his father william saying "it's a 65-day trial and it's unanimous. that's justice."

the defendants claimed that the murder was in self defense. kissel did admit to killing her husband, but she denied spiking his drink with a mixture of powerful drugs, and stated that she defended herself with a metal statue after he had attacked her with a baseball bat. according to nancy, she had no recollection of the events after the night of her husband's murder. 

the 65 day long trial was filled with her descriptions of how robert kissel, her husband and an american banker, supposedly abused her sexually and physically after using drugs and alcohol. her lawyer, alexander king, said that she sought refuge from her cocaine-abusing husband in an affair with the repairman.

the expatriate american community in hong kong is shocked by the murder.


first executions in post-saddam iraq held in baghdad

iraq has carried out the first executions since the demise of the saddam hussein regime. three men convicted of murder were hanged on thursday morning in baghdad.

the iraqi government argues that the death penalty will help to deter criminals but spokesman laith kubba admitted that "this is not an easy thing to do". 

iraqi president jalal talabani is personally opposed to capital punishment and stated that he would never sign a death sentence, not even against saddam hussein himself. his deputy adel abdel mehdi signed the warrant instead.

human rights groups and the united nations had hoped iraq would refrain from using the death penalty against its citizens and urged the government not to carry out the sentences.

the three men, named as bayan ahmed said, ouday dawood salman and dhahar jasim hassan were convicted of murdering three policemen in the city of kut, wasit province. additional crimes include kidnapping and rape .


idaho companies claim of new record for transmitting data across a wireless link

microserv computer technologies (internet service provider) and trango broadband wireless (fixed-wireless equipment maker) announced on tuesday august 11 2005 that they wirelessly transmitted data 137.2 miles over an unlicensed spectrum.

they used external pacwireless 2-foot dishes from trango to connect two mountaintops in idaho. they were operating on the 2.4ghz and 5.8 ghz wireless spectrum, not the standard 802.11 wireless frequency. they claim they transmitted a file at the rate of 2.3 megabits per second.

this claim of transmission record has been contested by current record holders (defcon wifi shootout contest). they question the validation of testing methods and subjectivity. "i suppose it's certainly possible for microserv to have done what they claim to have done," dave moore, founder of the defcon contest, said in an e-mail. "what sets apart the 125-mile record set at the defcon wifi shootout contest is that it was subject to a strict verification and certification process administered by four independent judges." 

a technical presentation was presented at the winog conference in park city, utah august 15-17, 2005. technical information and pictures can be found at http://www.wifiworldrecord.net


football: ronaldinho signs for barcelona until 2010

a brazilian international footballer, ronaldo de assis moreira, also known as little ronaldo (ronaldinho), signed a contract with fc barcelona until 2010, today, prolonging it for two years. 

it is fairly certain that he will stay in the club for the length of the contract. "now i'll just carry on doing the same as i have been doing until now, only that now i have a longer term contract, i'll be even more motivated," an official barcelona website quoted ronaldinho. according to a new clause in his contract, any club who wants to buy him will have to part with 85 million pounds. one of the most interested teams was chelsea fc, who were looking to fill their striker position. 

ronaldinho is happy to stay in barcelona: "you cannot put a price on the happiness and joy i am feeling right now." he transferred from paris saint-germain in 2003 for 17 million pounds becoming one of the biggest football starts in spain. fifa awarded him the prestigous title of "best football player in the world" in 2005.


fats domino missing in the wake of hurricane katrina

legendary r&b singer fats domino is missing, three days after hurricane katrina hit in his hometown of new orleans, louisiana.

the singer told his agent, al embry, that he planned to stay at his home with his wife and daughter, rather than evacuate. he has not been heard from since sunday night. it was reported on wednesday that his house was flooded, though there were no reports on whether domino and his family were able to escape.

domino, 77, lives in the city's 9th ward, one of the areas hardest hit by katrina. attempts to reach domino by phone proved futile, as phone lines have not been working in the area since the storm hit.

antoine 'fats' domino first gained stardom with one of the first rock n' roll records, "the fat man". the record went platinum, selling over a million copies and hitting #2 on the billboard charts. of domino's numerous top 40 singles, perhaps his most notable were blue monday and a cover of blueberry hill.

domino retired from touring in the 1980s, and has not left the city since, citing his dislike of touring, and his love of new orleans cuisine. not even his induction to the rock and roll hall of fame or an invitation to the white house were able to get domino to leave the town.


microsoft acquires voip firm

microsoft corp. has acquired voice over internet protocol (voip) provider teleo inc., on august 30, for an undisclosed sum. teleo was founded in 2003, in san francisco, usa. 

teleo had been running a public beta test of its voip software, but it has now been discontinued. a beta version of the microsoft/teleo product is expected later in the year.

teleo users could call both other pcs and regular telephones. calls to regular telephones cost us$0.02 per minute to many countries. teleo’s software also integrates with microsoft outlook and internet explorer to provide a feature called “click to call”. this feature turns any phone number displayed within a website or e-mail into a link that will dial the number.

teleo inc website now redirects to a page on msn. this page states: that “microsoft plans to incorporate and expand upon teleo’s technologies, integrating them into the msn services infrastructure, with plans to ultimately deliver new voip consumer applications in future releases of msn services, such as msn messenger”.

many of microsoft competitors in the instant messaging market already offer voip service or are working on providing it in the near future. google recently launched google talk, an instant messaging program with free pc to pc calling. pc to phone calling is rumoured to be in the works. yahoo! has said it plans to add calling to regular telephones from its instant messaging program in the coming months. msn messenger is by far the most popular instant messaging program, yahoo!'s instant messenger is the second most popular as of july. 



al-qaida claims responsibility for london 7/7 bombings

al jazeera has aired two video tapes by al qaida on thursday evening. in one of them, the terror group's second in command ayman al-zawahiri has claimed responsibility for the july 7 london bombings and threatened further attacks. the alleged leader of the london bombers, mohammad sidique khan, appeared on a separate recording and outlined his reasons for the bombings.

speaking in english with a yorkshire accent, kahn stated that the blair government is to blame for the attacks. he claimed that the west is backing governments who commit crimes against humanity. western citizens should no longer feel safe, he said and threatened similar attacks upon them: "until you stop the bombing, gassing, imprisonment and torture of my people we will not stop this fight. we are at war and i am a soldier. now you too will taste the reality of this situation" 

al-zawahiri described the 7/7 attacks as "a slap to the policy of british prime minister tony blair" and called the attacks a response to the uk's foreign policy "just as 9/11 was a response to america's".

scotland yard said they are "aware of the tape; we will consider it as part of our ongoing investigation". british foreign secretarcy jack straw said there was "no excuse, no justification for terrorism of any kind".

gous ali, a muslim whose girlfriend was killed in the bombing, condemned the broadcast as being "wrong and all lies". "it's all brainwashing by some wacko scholar who believes his own version of the koran and has made it his own battle. there is no holy war", he told the bbc.

muslim council of britain spokesman inayat bunglawala said that holding the british public responsible for the war "is just plain wrong - this country was bitterly divided and many millions, perhaps the majority, clearly opposed the war."

experts are currently investigating the tape for possible clues.


google begins selling print ads

google, which has become one of the internet's most influential companies by selling online advertising, has expanded past cyberspace wednesday when it began reselling print ads in technology magazines.

in a small-scale experiment, the first print-based venture for the company, google bought pages of advertising in magazines such as "pc magazine" and "macaddict" and sold portions of each page to smaller companies. undoubtedly, google expects profits to come from a higher rate of resale.

the first publication to carry such advertising is the september 6th issue of "pc magazine". it contains a single page with five smaller ads, each with the caption "ads by google", which is well-known to internet users.

this page runs near the cover, and some of google's clients are grateful for the exposure that the program has enabled. most popular magazines run advertising smaller than a full page closer to the back.


&quot;toxic soup&quot; scenario in new orleans unlikely

initial fears that the combination of storm damage and flood waters might produce a "toxic soup" in downtown new orleans have been downplayed by experts in environmental science. while the threat of cholera, typhoid and other diseases is certainly increased by the contamination of the flood waters with sewage and corpses, many of the chemical companies located in or near new orleans survived the storm without spilling dangerous contaminants into the flood waters. of course, care should be taken to not ingest any of the flood water. people with open wounds wading or swimming through the water may also be at risk of disease.

experts at louisiana state university said that sediments in the mississippi river and lake ponchartrain are not heavily polluted and that the biggest risk of chemical contamination will come when the flood waters recede, leaving shallow pools where the water can evaporate, concentrating heavier chemical pollutants.

the widespread damage caused by the flooding is actually one of the factors in reducing the contamination, since the large amounts of water have diluted many of the contaminants. most of the chemical pollutants that were released were of low quantity, including gasoline from underground storage tanks, dry cleaning solvents, and household and small-scale industrial chemicals, such as cleaning agents.


crime in new orleans sharply increases after hurricane katrina

reports out of new orleans on september 1 stated that victims of hurricane katrina were being raped and beaten and that fights and fires were out of control, leaving corpses laying in the open as the city descended into anarchy. 

“we have individuals who are getting raped, we have individuals who are getting beaten,” new orleans police chief eddie compass said. compass said that the 15,000 to 20,000 people who were at the new orleans convention center awaiting buses grew increasingly hostile and had beat back 88 officers he had sent there to try to keep the peace.

“tourists are walking in that direction and they are getting preyed upon,” compass had said.

reports of rampant violence though may have been overblown, even by new orleans standards, as many reports of sensational violence have not been verified. "during a week when communications were difficult, rumours have acquired a particular currency. they acquired through repetition the status of established facts." 

indeed, white house press secretary scott mcclellan told a group of journalists on wednesday that "martial law has been declared in mississippi and louisiana." though this was never the case as such a move would require a situation of lawlessness beyond the scope of local authorities to handle.


talks between pakistan, india yield apparent progress

diplomats from pakistan and india met today in islamabad to discuss their continuing peace efforts. plans were made for pakistani president pervez musharraf and indian prime minister manmohan singh to meet in new york on september 14. 

the president and prime minister are expected to attend the united nations general assembly during their meetup in new york. discussion on other items on the new york agenda occurred today and will continue tomorrow in a second day of talks.

recent talks have also been met with the announcement that an agreement between the two countries regarding missile tests would be signed in october. although pakistan and india have informally agreed to inform each other about their missile testing activities, they now seek a formal agreement.

the asian countries began seeking peace in 2003 after fighting two wars over control of kashmir.

when musharraf and singh met last in april, they called their peace process "irreversible." however, this statement is challenged by continued terrorist activity in kashmir.


west african cholera claims more than 500 lives, more deaths feared

an outbreak of cholera in west africa has resulted in the deaths of more than 500 people, and united nations (un) health officials are concerned that inadequate health services in the region could result in many more deaths.

the world health organization (who) said on thursday that over 31,250 cases of cholera have been reported so far this year in nine west african countries. it has claimed 488 lives at this point. "if we look at this year's trends, the figures are still going up in many countries," said john mulangu, a senior regional advisor for the who. "if cholera is not brought under control in certain regions, we will soon be talking of... 100,000 cases," he said. "and hospitals and health centres will be overwhelmed. last year we were not on this scale. the problem is getting worse," mulangu said.

the un says that the increase could also be related to the fact that due to poverty, many west africans move around, sometimes out of the country, in order to receive higher wages for their work, and the region has been hit with heavy rains. this helps spread the disease, according to the un.

"we are about to enter the harvest season where people will be moving around," said herve ludovic de lys, the head of ocha's west africa office. "the main goal is to halt the transmission of this disease," he said. "it's not business as usual. this crisis needs a rapid response."

the following west african nations have all been hit by cholera epidemics: burkina faso, cote d'ivoire, guinea, guinea-bissau, liberia, mauritania, mali, niger, and senegal. the who issued a statement on thursday that more countries were at risk. "outbreaks are likely to spread to central africa - nigeria, cameroon and chad - in the next weeks," it said.



california senate votes to allow gay marriages

the california state senate voted on thursday to allow homosexuals to marry, therefore becoming the first legislative body in the united states to embrace the controversial issue.

the senate approved the religious freedom and civil marriage protection act, which would define marriage as a civil contract between two people rather than a man and a woman. the vote passed by the minimum number of necessary votes, 21-15. all republicans in the senate opposed the bill, as did one democrat, sen. dean florez of shafter. three democrats abstained.

the bill's chief sponsor, assemblyman mark leno (d-san francisco) said, "we're looking for three votes, and i can't tell you today who the three will be, but i think the power of the success coming from the floor of the senate today will give us the necessary momentum and encouragement to do what we all know is the right thing to do."

california governor arnold schwarzenegger's spokeswoman, margita thompson, stated that the governor believes the issue should be decided by the court and not the legislature.

"the governor was elected to uphold the laws of california. the people spoke when they voted in proposition 22. it has subsequently gone to the courts and the governor believes that is where it should be decided. it's an issue for the people and the courts," she said. prop 22, which is currently being challenged by san francisco, deals only with the issue of non-californian marriages.

because california has a direct democracy, decisions of the legislature can be overturned by a direct vote of the people. a court decision on the matter, however, could not be overturned except by a higher court.


fats domino rescued in new orleans

legendary r&b singer fats domino has been accounted for, three days after hurricane katrina hit in his hometown of new orleans, louisiana.

fats domino was found on monday by a helicopter searching for residents stranded in floodwaters. he was identified by his daughter from a photo taken monday by a new orleans times-picayune photographer. however, while it is known that domino was rescued, his whereabouts and the whereabouts of his family are not immediately clear.

the singer had told his agent, al embry, that he planned to stay at his home with his wife and daughter, rather than evacuate. he had not been heard from since before the storm hit. domino, 77, lives in the city's 9th ward, one of the areas hardest hit by katrina. attempts to reach domino by phone proved futile, as phone lines have not been working in the area since the storm hit.

antoine 'fats' domino first gained stardom with one of the first rock n' roll records, "the fat man". the record went platinum, selling over a million copies and hitting #2 on the billboard charts. of domino's numerous top 40 singles, perhaps his most notable were blue monday and a cover of blueberry hill.

domino retired from touring in the 1980s, and has not left the city since, citing his dislike of touring, and his love of new orleans cuisine. not even his induction to the rock and roll hall of fame or an invitation to the white house were able to get domino to leave the town.

fats domino missing in the wake of hurricane katrina


guantanamo prisoners stage hunger strike

a number of prisoners at the prison camp at guantanamo bay have staged a hunger strike in protest of their detainment. the prisoners, many of whom have been held since the overthrow of the taliban in 2001, are angered at the united states' refusal to charge them with any crimes, and denying the prisoners legal access.

a previous hunger strike was halted in july when pentagon officials reached a compromise with the prisoners. the compromise included provisions to bring the prison in line with the terms of the geneva convention. the prisoners have since accused the government of not following through on this deal.

the exact number of prisoners is a question of debate. the pentagon says that only 76 are striking, while lawyers for the prisoners say that as many as 200 prisoners are refusing to eat. the lawyers also have said that one prisoner has drawn up a will in apparent anticipation of dying.



federal response to katrina a &quot;national disgrace&quot;

onsite commentators are blasting the united states federal government, saying the response to hurricane katrina has been too slow and otherwise inadequate.

mayor ray nagin has repeatedly pleaded for more help. 

the "washington post" reports that on the friday after the storm, louisiana governor kathleen babineaux blanco got a proposal from the federal government for her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of new orleans. the state rejected that option hours later. blanco had declared a state of emergency on august 26. homeland security secretary michael chertoff has pointed out "our constitutional system really places the primary authority in each state with the governor." 

the city's police chief warned that storm victims were being raped and beaten on the streets. even in the superdome stadium and the city convention center, where tens of thousands had awaited evacuation, fights had broken out, rubbish burned, and dead bodies have been left uncollected. the superdome evacuation was completed saturday night. the superdome had been opened as a refuge of last resort for people who did not participate in the voluntary evacuation of the city before the storm.

web pundits suggest that mike brown, the head of fema, will "be chosen to take the fall" for the poor response. a critic at the international arabian horse association, which previously fired mike brown, said "he was an unmitigated, total...disaster. i was shocked as hell when captain clueless ("a reference to president g.w. bush") put him in charge of fema a couple of years ago." it has also been suggested that the impact of the philosophy of privatization has damaged federal emergency response, but the validity of such claims has not been assessed. 

not all federal agencies are being blasted for their role in exacerbating the disaster. in particular, the coast guard has been lauded for its rescue efforts, which began immediately. there was been widespread criticism of the failure to mobilize national guard units from other states. such units have now been deployed, but the debate over their slow deployment will rage for some time. sunday the "washington post" reported that louisiana did not reach out to a multi-state mutual aid compact for assistance until wednesday.

a significant component of the criticism directed at federal and state governments has been the lack of access given to local volunteers and the red cross. local officials, especially mayor nagin, have been harshly criticized for failing to follow existing evacuation plans. in particular, aerial photographs show numerous unused city school buses, which were to have been used in the evacuation.

over twenty-five nations, some with assets in the area, have offered aid to the city of new orleans, but the president has refused all material aid from foreign nations. such refusal of aid is not uncommon among nations with coldy hostile relationships, such as between the u.s. and cuba or venezuela, but it has created a stir among the european media.

as of september 4th, the us has extended a "wish list" largely duplicating the offer from germany. german supplies, including an airborne hospital are expected to arrive september 5th. the us has also asked the eu and nato for assistance. 

new orleans mayor ray nagin's radio commentary - september 1 (mp3 format)



us senate approves $10.5 billon in aid for hurricane katrina victims

the united states senate has cut short their summer recess and has arrived in washington to approve a $10.5 billion aid bill to victims of katrina as requested by president george w. bush.
the united states house of representatives is expected to pass a similar bill later today.

bush has told congress he will ask for more funds in the coming weeks. most of the money will go to the and the rest will go to the pentagon which is dispatching ships to the area.

bush has also asked his father, former president and former president bill clinton to help raise private funds for relief like they did for the december 2004 tsunami in asia.

over two dozen nations, some with assets in the area, have offered aid to the city of new orleans, but president george w. bush has refused any aid from foreign nations which does not take the form of cash.


louisiana officials accused of blocking rescue volunteers

state police in lafayette, louisiana, have been accused of hindering attempts by private citizens to rescue people trapped by floodwaters in new orleans. the accusations were contained in an unconfirmed report received via email by jason robideaux, an attorney from lafayette.

the email was written by a person who claimed to be part of "a group of approximately 1,000 citizens pulling 500 boats" heading into new orleans to rescue people still stranded in places such as hospitals. the email claimed that the members of the flotilla were ".. experienced boaters, licensed fishermen and hunters, people who have spent their entire adult life and teenage years on the waterways of louisiana."

the email reports that a dept. of wildlife & fisheries (dwf) agent ordered them to turn around and go home. 

"we then specifically asked the dwf agent that we (and other citizens in the flotilla) be allowed to go to the hospitals and help evacuate the sick and the doctors and nurses stranded there. we offered to bring these people back to lafayette, in our own vehicles, in order to ensure that they received proper and prompt medical care," the email said. 

"the dwf agent did not want to hear this and ordered us home. we complied with the dwf agent's orders, turned around and headed back to lafayette along with half of the flotillia. however, two of my friends were pulling my other boat, a smaller 15ft alumaweld with a 25 hp. the dwf agents let them through to proceed to the rescue operation launch site," the email continued. 

the email also reported hundreds of dwf agents who were not being utilised. 

"my two friends were allowed to drive to the launch site where the la. dept. of wildlife and fisheries were launching their rescue operations (via boat). they reported to me that there were over 200 dwf agents just standing around and doing nothing. my friends were kept there for approximately 3 hours. during that time they observed a large number of dwf agents doing nothing. after three hours had passed they were told that they were not needed and should go home. they complied with the dwf's orders and turned around and went home to lafayette," the email said. 



microsoft office dropped by massachusetts, usa

the state of massachusetts unveiled plans to officially end use of the microsoft office suite, instead switching to an open document format currently implemented by many open-source groups. massachusetts is believed to be the first major public-sector group to implement such a plan in the united states.

target implementation date is january 1, 2007. the task is considered challenging, as most government documents were created in closed-source programs such as office, lotus notes, and corel wordperfect. 

opendocument is an xml-based standard for creating documents, spreadsheets, charts and graphs. the opendocument format is supported by many software suites, including openoffice and staroffice. while microsoft document formats are generally the most commonly used, government officials worried about the proprietary nature of the formats.



minnesota 2% biodiesel mandate becomes effective september 29

on september 29, minnesota will become the first u.s. state to require diesel fuel sold at filling stations in the state to be blended with 2% biodiesel. this follows the statewide mandate requiring ethanol to be mixed into gasoline?also a first by minnesota?which took effect in 1997. the biodiesel mandate was approved by the 2002 state legislature, and was sent to then-governor jesse ventura. ventura allowed the bill to become law without his signature, stating his concern that the increased cost of fuel would affect the trucking industry?potentially spurring inflation?though he felt that this was nearly balanced by the positive impact the mandate would have on agriculture in the state.

the law had an initial target date of july 1, 2005, but would only go into effect once production capacity exceeded 8 million gallons (30 millon liters) per year. at the beginning of 2005, the state was only capable of producing three million gallons each year, but two new facilities in albert lea and brewster increased state capacity twentyfold when they opened this summer. each of the two new plants can produce 30 million gallons (113 ml) annually. agriculture commissioner gene hugoson verified production levels in the august 29 edition of the minnesota state register, meaning that the law will become effective following a month-long notification period.

the prices of diesel and biodiesel have equalized, so the negative economic impact initially feared by ventura are not expected to come to pass and the effect should be pennies more or less per gallon. despite the dramatic increase in capacity, biodiesel production is not yet a broad solution to shortages or high prices?in 2001, the state used 14.3 million gallons of petroleum every day.



 


controversy over new orleans photos captions

tuesday, yahoo! news posted photographs from the hurricane katrina disaster area gathered from various sources.

an associated press photograph of two african-american women was captioned, "looters carry bags of groceries through floodwaters after taking the merchandise away from a wind damaged convenience store in new orleans on monday, aug. 29, 2005."

a similar agence france-presse (afp) photograph of two caucasians was labeled, "two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store in new orleans..."

the vast majority of people who did not evacuate from the famous city were poor and black; many were unable to obtain transportation.

several news sites have noted that new orleans rescue and evacuation efforts have been severely complicated by the presence of these looters. the evacuation of the superdome was halted after shots were reported, fired at a national guard rescue helicopter.
yahoo! news later released a statement on the images, saying, "...we present the photos and their captions as written, edited and distributed by the news services with no additional editing..." yahoo! agreed to afp's request to remove afp-supplied photographs after the controversy began, fueled by articles on the topic by salon, flickr, and other news sites.

the choice of wording may be chalked up to different policies at the two agencies (ap and afp); the ap has been labeling several of their photos with the term "looting" if their photographers witness the act, while getty spokeswoman bridget russel said regarding the afp/getty photo, "this is obviously a big tragedy down there, so we're being careful with how we credit these photos."

chris graythen, who took the afp picture and wrote the caption, said "i believed in my opinion, that they did simply find them, and not 'looted' them in the definition of the word. the people were swimming in chest deep water, and there were other people in the water, both white and black. i looked for the best picture. there were a million items floating in the water - we were right near a grocery store that had 5+ feet of water in it. it had no doors. the water was moving, and the stuff was floating away. these people were not ducking into a store and busting down windows to get electronics. they picked up bread and cokes that were floating in the water. they would have floated away anyhow."


coroner finds that australian prime minister holt drowned in 1967

victorian state coroner graeme johnstone has ruled that former australian prime minister harold holt drowned in the surf at cheviot beach on december 17, 1967. mr holt was swimming at the beach, known for its dangerous currents, when he disappeared. numerous theories have circulated since to explain the disappearance, including one that believed he was abducted by a chinese submarine.

no formal inquiry was held at the time, because the law at the time stated that coroners could not investigate unless there was a body. this law was changed in 1985. mr. johnstone said that the lack of inquiry meant that much information was not released to the public, which may have contributed to the development of the conspiracy theories.

"unfortunately, there was no open inquiry at the time so this detailed material did not become general public knowledge," he said, adding, "a simple reading of the original investigative material provides the real and credible explanation."

mr. holt's son said that the family believed all along that holt had drowned.

"myself and the other family members have always thought that it was simply a matter of him going for a swim when he shouldn't," he said.


explosions hit waterfront in new orleans, louisiana

fires are raging in new orleans following a series of explosions along the waterfront. the cause of the blasts is not known. a chemical reaction with the rising waters is one possibility. one official has stated that the explosions took place at a chemical storage facility near the riverfront a few miles south of the french quarter.

this news comes as police suspended search-and-rescue operations in order to attempt to halt the rising levels of looting in the city, and after louisiana governor kathleen blanco ordered national guard troops to "shoot and kill" rioters and looters. 

although aid has been promised by the us federal authorities, new orleans mayor ray nagin criticised them for what he feels is a slow response.

"they don't have a clue what's going on down there," mayor ray nagin told wwl-am thursday night.

"they flew down here one time two days after the doggone event was over with tv cameras, ap reporters, all kind of goddamn ? excuse my french, everybody in america, but i am pissed." 



ivorian rebels say south african mediators ‘discredited’

on thursday, the ivorian rebel group forces nouvelles responded to the south african mediator’s wednesday testimony to the un security council by saying that south africa had become “discredited” by taking the side of ivorian president laurent gbagbo’s government in .

“we categorically do not want the south african mediation continuing here in cote d'ivoire” said the rebel group in a statement. the forces nouvelles spokesman further demanded that "the african union, and especially au president olusegun obasanjo, take his responsibility and find a new way," calling on regional leader nigeria to intervene in the crisis.

the statements are the latest in a series of setbacks to cote d’ivoire’s beleaguered peace process, which also include the failure of the rebels to meet the july 31st disarmament deadline, and the rejection of october 30 as a feasible date for the national elections.

special representative of the secretary-general to cote d'ivoire, pierre schori, expressed his support for the continued south african mediation and stated that conducting free and fair elections in cote d’ivoire was more important than sticking with the set dates.


news briefs:september 2, 2005

the time is 1100 hours (utc) on friday 2nd september 2005, and this is audio wikinews: news briefs.

widespread looting blamed for disrupted rescue efforts in new orleans, louisiana<br>
the mayor of new orleans, ray nagin, has ordered most of the local police force to stop rescue efforts and shift their efforts to prevent looting. at the same time, the federal emergency management agency (fema) has reportedly been blocking aid shipments into the city on the grounds that it is too dangerous.

food, nappies (or diapers), and other supplies are the target of most looters. some are reportedly taking non-essential and luxury items, such as tvs and computers. reportedly, gun and pawn shops are also a popular target for looting.
al-qaida claims responsibility for london 7/7 bombings<br>
al jazeera aired two video tapes by al qaeda on thursday evening. in one of them, the terror group's second in command ayman al-zawahiri has claimed responsibility for the july 7 london bombings and threatened further attacks. the alleged leader of the london bombers, mohammad sidique khan, appeared on a separate recording and outlined his reasons for the bombings.

speaking in english with a yorkshire accent, khan stated that the blair government is to blame for the attacks. he said: "until you stop the bombing, gassing, imprisonment and torture of my people we will not stop this fight."
guantanamo prisoners stage hunger strike<br>
a number of prisoners at the prison camp at guantanamo bay have staged a hunger strike in protest of their detainment. the prisoners, many of whom have been held since the overthrow of the taliban in 2001, are angered at the united states' refusal to charge them with any crimes, and denying the prisoners legal access.

a previous hunger strike was halted in july when pentagon officials reached a compromise with the prisoners. the compromise included provisions to bring the prison in line with the terms of the geneva convention. the prisoners have since accused the government of not following through on this deal.
thank you for joining us today. to receive more up-to-date news items as they occur, please visit wikinews.org.

and, be sure to check out our daily full-length audio news program, called audio wikinews: full report.
this recording has been released into the public domain. this applies worldwide.


bomb in dagestan explodes russian military truck

an explosion today in makhachkala, russia in the russian region of dagestan killed one and wounded five others, police say. the bomb detonated in a pile of garbage, where servicemen and a truck had been sent to search for explosives on a street near a military base. when the engineers got out of the truck to search, the bomb went off.

the dagestani ministry, reported by the russian news agency itar-tass, originally stated that the blast killed two servicemen and wounded three others. they later revised this to six servicemen wounded (as well as one civilian), but no fatalities. a police officer told itar-tass news that a brigade had been on patrol when the explosion occurred.

according to ria-novosti and interfax news, medics reported one death and six injuries. ria-novosti also reports that the bomb exploded near a trolley bus. 

police and ambulances were immediately brought to the area of the explosion, which was quickly sealed off by police. 

the alleged planters of the bomb were followed by police, but escaped after firing at the officers. 

this explosion is not surprising, as racial tensions in the muslim majority region of dagestan often lead to attacks on officials and police.


us department of housing and urban development to provide housing for katrina refugees

the united states department of housing and urban development (hud) will make many of their marketable housing properties in the southeastern united states and elsewhere available to hurricane refugees. hud secretary alphonso jackson said that an "overwhelming" response from government and private officials would make housing available as soon as the middle of next week. hud housing centers as far away as philadelphia and detroit would be making properties available. hud is considering offering these properties to displaced persons regardless of their income and allowing the refugees to use the properties for up to one year.


briton to fly hang glider across the uk

a man from north london is currently training for an attempt at flying a hang glider across the uk from land's end to john o'groats.

shola ogunlokun a 41 year old married father of 3 who had never flown a hang
glider before taking up this challenge said yesterday "i aim to fulfill a dream of
flying, use the challenge as an opportunity to meet the people of britain and
encourage people of similar ethnic backgrounds as me to pursue their dreams".

shola is on stage 2 of a 3 stage training programme, and has flown a glider off
a 2000ft mountain on completion of stage 1 of his training. he is currently
looking for sponsors and in talks with a tv production about making a
documentary of his attempt.

the flight attempt is currently planned for around autumn next year, should take
between 5-7 days, and shola would like to spend the night of each flight at the
home of a local in the town he lands. if successful, shola will be the first
person to have flown a hang glider across the uk over this distance. 

shola has an online diary charting his progress at http://mbchallenge.blogspot.com
for further details, or to contact shola, please visit his website:
http://www.meet-britain.org.uk


gas prices surge in northeast us

gas prices have shot up to over $3.50 per gallon, late thursday morning in the northeast us. people are rushing to fill their tanks as some stations are reporting shortages of gasoline, and many oil wells were forced to shut down after hurricane katrina.

meanwhile, gas prices dropped elsewhere and rose elsewhere. saturday morning california had the highest reported price at gaspricewatch.com. another price service reported $3.05 as the u.s. average.

the federal government's weekly petroleum price summary reported u.s. average retail price for regular gasoline decreased by 0.2 cent to 261.0 cents per gallon. but supply shocks are likely as the distribution systems respond to bottlenecks. on tuesday, august 30, cnn reported the price of u.s. crude oil rose to a record high $70.85 a barrel. however, prices fell $3.28 to $67.57 a barrel on friday. in contrast, the crude oil in europe, which is usually more expensive than us oil, was actually cheaper than in america; as london brent crude oil was down $1.15 to $66.57 a barrel. but as cnn reports, "european allies sprang to the rescue."


intel responds to amd antitrust suit




oil prices fall as reserves are released

the announced that its member states will release 60 million barrels from their strategic reserves next month. "all 26 member countries will take collective action", said the agency in its statement. the announcement was in response to the crude price surge after disruption of oil supply in the gulf of mexico caused by .

earlier today , chief of the european union's foreign policy, said the eu can provide the 
us with reserves of the member states. also opec is considering taking action. the united states and japan already plan to release oil from their reserve stocks.

oil prices fell slightly today, following the iea statement, as expected. us light crude fell us$1.57 to us$67.90 a barrel. 




king of swaziland seeks thirteenth bride, continues to cause ire

hm king mswati iii of swaziland has held a massive ceremony to find his 13th wife. more than 50,000 showed up to the unofficial call for brides. all potential brides who attended the two-day reed dance, held annually since 1999, were bare-breasted, wearing short, beaded skirts and were supposedly virgins.

as his country's 37-year-old ngwenyama (king), mswati is the last absolute monarch in sub-saharan africa.

mario masuku, leader of the banned opposition party, said that "the reed dance has been abused for one man's personal satisfaction. the king has a passion for young women and opulence." masuku's comments were based on the fact that the reed dance traditionally celebrated virginity and womanliness.

"the king takes a wife whenever he wants, and that's the way it is. this is our culture, and we will never change," says tsandzile ndluva, 21, one of the dancers at the event.

ludzidzini royal village also hosted the great she-elephant, their name for the country's queen mother ntombi thwala. she was greeted by 50,000 people, which is 5% of the nation's population. their traditional ceremony for the she-elephant includes dancing and building a wind-break for her out of reeds.

the king's current wives include inkhosikati lamatsebula, inkhosikati lamotsa, inkhosikati lambikiza, inkhosikati langangaza, inkhosikati lahwala, inkhosikati lamagwaza, inkhosikati lamasango, inkhosikati lagija, inkhosikati lamagongo, and inkhosikati lamahlangu. lambikiza has a master's degree in law.

he has 27 children from his first 13 wives and wives-to-be, and over 200 brothers and sisters, a result of his late father king sobhuza ii's 70 wives. mswati must look after all of these relatives with funds from the royal-owned company, tibiyo takangwane.

at the reed dance, mswati repealed the law prohibiting sexual activity for girls younger than 18. this law was first enacted in 2001, to help in the fight against aids, which was, and still is, at crisis levels. the ban was set to end in 2006. the law was actually a revival of the ancient "umchwasho" rite, a swazi tradition. in the first weeks this law was enacted, mswati broke it himself, marrying inkhosikati lamagongo. this forced him to pay a fine of one cow.

forty-percent of swazis are hiv positive, including 42% of pregnant women, a matter that the king was taken to heart, to some extent. he has travelled internationally to try and raise money, increase awareness, and seek solutions to the epidemic. world-renowned musicians like michael jackson have signed on to record an album, to raise funds for orphans in the country. however, the young king does not seem to have realised the importance of leadership by personal example, and the swaziland ministry of health website shows little evidence of his government's commitment to address the issue.

the king says he is suffering from stress, finding it difficult to cope with the pressure of work. he told bbc news "i find very little time with my family most of the time. i normally work until 11pm... and this makes me feel stressed because i'm being overworked, but i have to do everything possible to satisfy my people."


did human remains cause mad cow disease?

bovine spongiform encephalopathy, better known as bse or "mad cow" disease, may have been caused by human remains ingested by british cattle, two scientists said today.

alan colchester and his daughter nancy colchester, from the university of kent and university of edinburgh, respectively, suggested that the remains of humans cast into the ganges in an indian funeral rite contaminated indian animal feed that was imported to the u.k. if some of the humans died of creutzfeldt-jakob disease, bone meal infected with cjd would have entered the british food chain, causing the similar bse in cattle. 

admitting the evidence was not solid, the two scientists still argued that this new theory merited further review. the current theory of the origin of bse involves the transmission of scrapie, a similar disease that affects sheep, to cattle. prions, infectious proteins that would be the only disease-causing agents without nucleic acid, are thought to be the cause of all of these diseases.


colleges offering admission to displaced new orleans students

enrollment dates for many schools have passed, and will be indicated next to the school's entry under the by-state list. update will take place in the next few days.

due to the damage by hurricane katrina and subsequent flooding, a number of colleges and universities in the new orleans metropolitan area will not be able to hold classes for the fall 2005 semester. it is estimated that 75,000 to 100,000 students have been displaced. . in response, institutions across the united states and canada are offering late registration for displaced students so that their academic progress is not unduly delayed. some are offering free or reduced admission to displaced students. at some universities, especially state universities, this offer is limited to residents of the area.

attention: for those seeking information about admissions for children into elementary, junior high and high schools in california, please refer to the link listed to the right. 

the list has been split into five separate articles: three for u.s. states, a fourth for international, a fifth for schools in all locations offering space for faculty, graduate and professional students.
also, each state is linked below:

to those college officials posting special offers for displaced college student, please consider multiple posting on the following e-lists as there is not yet one master or all inclusive site.
helping students displaced by katrina, get new clothing and school supplies.

the list of schools offering accommodation to faculty, graduate, and professional students has moved. it is now colleges offering admission to displaced new orleans graduate students.





woman torches own house, attempting to kill spiders

a woman has destroyed her family's home in an attempt to kill the spiders in its garage.

zuelpich police report that when spraying them with hairspray failed to kill them, the spiders were then subjected to being burned with a cigarette lighter. however, they were probably still covered with hairspray, which set alight the floor of the garage. the fire then spread to a hedge, and then to the house, which the woman failed to save with a garden hose. it is reported to be uninhabitable, but the neighbouring semi-detached house was spared, suffering only broken windows and exterior charring.

the damage is estimated at around ?100,000 (￡70,000 or $125,000.)

a policeman stated, "the family have had to look for somewhere else to stay. the spiders are gone though - that problem was solved."


many nations offer material aid to hurricane victims; bush refuses to accept

over twenty five nations have offered aid in the wake of hurricane katrina. in particular, france has offered the use of its resources in the caribbean sea, including 2 navy ships, 1 navy hospital, 8 planes, 600 tents, 1000 beds, and rescuers. president george w. bush has refused such material aid to the hurricane's victims, although cash donations will be accepted. he explained his reasons to abc news:

a few of these nations, such as venezuela and cuba, are disliked by the administration, but the majority are considered allies of the united states. venezuela's citgo petroleum corp. pledged a $1 million donation for hurricane aid. cuba refused u.s. aid following hurricane dennis. in order to reduce the side effects of hurricane katrina, japan, venezuela, and most eu countries offer to provide oil reserves to the u.s.



rapper kanye west denounces bush response, american media at hurricane relief telethon

grammy award-winning rapper/producer kanye west appeared on a live on-air telethon simulcast on nbc, msnbc, cnbc and pax for hurricane katrina victims. live on air, west said "george bush doesn't care about black people," after saying "america is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slow as possible." he also said "the red cross is doing everything they can," and stated that he was going to see what the maximum amount of money he can donate is. west criticized government authorities and stated that "they've given them permission to go down and shoot us."

west first deviated from the script he and comedian mike myers were using by commenting on the recent uproar over differently captioned photos for black and white people in the aftermath of the hurricane: "i hate the way they portray us in the media. if you see a black family, it says they're looting. see a white family, it says they're looking for food."

though a several-second delay was in place, the comments were let through uncensored on the est live broadcast as the person in charge "was instructed to listen for a curse word, and didn't realize he had gone off-script," according to an nbc spokeswoman.

nbc has released a statement after the broadcast: "tonight's telecast was a live television event wrought with emotion. kanye west departed from the scripted comments that were prepared for him, and his opinions in no way represent the views of the networks. it would be most unfortunate if the efforts of the artists who participated tonight and the generosity of millions of americans who are helping those in need are overshadowed by one person's opinion."

the sponsor of the event, the american red cross, also issued a statement on the telethon, stating: "during the telecast, a controversial comment was made by one of the celebrities. we would like the american public to know that our support is unwavering, regardless of political circumstances. we are a neutral and impartial organization, and support disaster victims across the country regardless of race, class, color or creed."





oil spill spotted along mississippi river

in louisiana, southeast of new orleans, two storage tanks estimated to be filled with up to 160,000 barrels (6.7 million gallons) of oil are reported to be leaking into the mississippi river. it was first noticed on september 1, 2005 by an aircraft flying overhead. officials are not certain whether the tanks are the cause of the leak or how full the tanks are. inspection of the storage tanks from the ground is impossible due to flooding in the area.

in comparison, the exxon valdez oil spill off alaska leaked between 11 and 35 million gallons of oil.

due to massive efforts directed toward search and rescue in new orleans, the coast guard has not been able to look into the matter.



blizzard entertainment's victory over bnetd sealed in appeals court

blizzard entertainment has won a federal ruling in the u.s. court of appeals against the programmers of bnetd, a software package that emulates blizzard's battle.net service. the court reaffirmed the original judgement, given in october, that the digital millennium copyright act and click-through eula's prohibited the reverse engineering of blizzard's software in order to improve their playability. this was the first real test of the dmca's applicability.

bnetd, released under the gnu general public license, was created to enable users to play multiplayer games, bypassing blizzard's freely accessible battle.net servers, which have sometimes been unreliable or slow for gamers. the software also disabled the cd-key check which is present in battle.net to prevent users of pirated copies from being able to connect to blizzard's servers. offers by bnetd developers to incorporate blizzard's cd-check system were declined.

the cd-check system itself has faced controversy, with some users complaining it borders on breaching privacy in the same way as adware and other malevolent software. this is not confined to blizzard: controversy occurred when sony online entertainment's everquest had a similar system which was later disabled due to complaints. other games designed for network play are also known to have similar systems in place, the most prominent perhaps being valve software's steam system developed for half-life 2.

blizzard has produced many popular titles such as starcraft, world of warcraft and the diablo series.



french president jacques chirac hospitalized

jacques chirac, president of france, entered the military hospital of the val de grace in central paris yesterday evening. according to the communique of the hospital, he suffers from some troubles of vision following from a vascular accident and these problems should be over in a few days. hospitalization should last one week, and meetings are being rescheduled accordingly.

today, prime minister dominique de villepin visited the president and discussed a number of urgent matters, such as the help proposed to the united states following from the disastrous hurricane katrina.


resolution of inquiry into pre-iraq war u.s.-u.k. correspondance fails by one vote

the u.s. house committee on international relations voted wednesday on a resolution of inquiry that would have required the white house and state department to "transmit all information relating to communication with officials of the united kingdom between january 1, 2002, and october 16, 2002, relating to the policy of the united states with respect to iraq." the resolution comes in response to questions that have been raised by senior intelligence officials and information revealed in leaked u.k. documents such as the downing street memo, regarding the handling of pre-war intelligence by the bush administration, and the planning and execution of the iraq war.

originally proposed by congresswoman barbara lee (d-calif.), the resolution of inquiry had 83 co-sponsors at the time of voting, including one member of the international relations committee, jim leach, who was the only republican voting in favor of the resolution. 

some members of the committee from each party were absent.




tempers flare over new orleans tragedy

the handling of the devastation left by hurricane katrina, considered by many to be inadequate, has prompted scathing criticism of american politicians. president bush was criticized for verbally "pandering" to public opinion, while little is done about the tragedy. in a wwl radio interview, new orleans mayor ray nagin called for a "moratorium on press conferences" and said, "[the government is] feeding the public a line of bull, and they are spinning, and people are dying." the mayor has since apologised for these remarks. however, the mayor did not address his own alleged failure to evacuate his citizens when he reportedly left hundreds of city-controlled buses idle.

malik rahim, a recent green party candidate for new orleans city council, describes the poor organization as criminal, and called for his party to come help when the federal government would permit it. grammy award-winning rapper kanye west created controversy when he said "george bush doesn't care about black people" and that "america is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slow as possible" in a telethon for victims of hurricane katrina.

onsite television news reporters have also levied very harsh criticism against the politicians whom they were interviewing. anderson cooper (cnn) took sen. mary landrieu (d., louisiana) to task for her detachment (wmv, trancsript). andrea mitchell (msnbc), bill o'reilly (fox), geraldo rivera (fox), scarborough (msnbc), shepard smith (fox), robert siegel (npr), and paula zahn (cnn) have also harshly criticized their interviewees (wmv). one broadcaster bitterly exclaimed "the only difference between the chaos of new orleans and a third world disaster operation, was that a foreign dictator would have responded better."

in a press release issued september 3rd, 2005, democratic senator mary l. landrieu of louisiana claims that president bush staged a photo opportunity by having rescue equipment quickly moved into the background during the event. senator landrieu claims the equipment was dispersed elsewhere the next day. landrieu says in her press release, " ... we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment. the good and decent people of southeast louisiana and the gulf coast -- black and white, rich and poor, young and old -- deserve far better from their national government ..." the breached levee was closed on monday by a sequence of dump trucks building a narrow pathway across the gap toward helicopter-dropped sandbags. 

some responses, however, have concerned themselves not with criticizing the response, but praising the hurricane itself. the american family association's agape press published praise for the hurricane's destruction as an instrument of god's mercy, in that it "wiped out rampant sin". rev. bill shanks, pastor of new covenant fellowship of new orleans, said "god simply, i believe, in his mercy purged all of that stuff out of there -- and now we're going to start over again." "new orleans now is abortion free. new orleans now is mardi gras free. new orleans now is free of southern decadence and the sodomites, the witchcraft workers, false religion -- it's free of all of those things now," shanks says. 



us unemployment fell to four-year low before katrina

the united states department of labor announced that the country's unemployment rate fell to a four-year low of 4.9%. american employers created about 169,000 new jobs in august. however, this trend is projected to end due to hurricane katrina (the data was collected prior to the hurricane).

economists expect the number of jobless to grow by more than 500,000 in september and the unemployment rate to drive up over 5% again, but they are unsure of the effect an of upcoming federal reserve decision on interest rates. some sources believe the fed will make no change, while others say the rates will likely be increased to prevent the economy from overheating, causing inflation, which also may be caused by the surge in crude oil and gasoline prices.

the markets fell despite the unemployment data. the dow jones industrial average fell 12.26 points to 10,447.37 while nasdaq fell 6.83 points to 2,141.07. the us dollar declined slightly against most world currencies.


swazi princess beaten by government official for wild party

ntfonjeni dlamini, the government's official overseer of traditional affairs, beat one of the princesses of swaziland.

a daughter of hm , 17-year-old princess sikhanyiso was throwing a party with loud music and alcohol. the party was to celebrate the end of the chastity decree.

"it was within the traditional overseer's right to discipline anyone ? including princesses ? who wanted to spoil the important [reed dance] ceremony," claimed jim gama, governor of the queen mother's residence. the reed dance ceremony is an annual ritual in the culture.

princess sikhanyiso had already caused ire around swaziland, as she broke traditions by wearing western-style short skirts and jeans.


liberia's world cup woes averted

in a last minute change of position, the national transitional government of liberia (ntgl) has reversed its decision not to allow the liberian national football team, the lone star, to attend sunday's world cup qualifier against togo. the ntgl had announced on wednesday that the squad would not be able to travel to lome, togo because of a lack of funds to pay for the team's travel.

in a statement explaining its decision not to fund the team's travel, the ntgl highlighted more pressing financial obligations such as the country's upcoming national elections and the demobilization of the nation's defunct armed forces. "as a result of the huge expenditure, the national transitional government of liberia has decided it is unfeasible to underwrite the lone star's travel to togo," said the minister of information, dr. c. william allen.

the decision to allow the lone star to travel to lome was made after the price of the team's travel decreased from us$31,000 to us$18,000. the team now plans to fly to accra and take a bus to lome versus fly the entire way. had liberia failed to take the field on sunday, the country would have faced fines of us$31,895 and possible prohibition from participating in the 2010 world cup to be held in south africa. incidentally, the fines would have been slightly more than the team's original travel budget.


federal government begins employing strategies to repair new orleans

when hurricane katrina flooded most of new orleans in up to thirty feet of water, an engineering nightmare was created. now, the u.s. army corps of engineers seems to have found a solution.
the problem was caused by three breaches in a levee system not designed to withstand a powerful category 4 hurricane. these breaks allowed water to flow into new orleans from massive lake pontchartrain.

it will take between 36 and 80 days according to brig. gen. robert crear, but engineers believe they've found a way to get water out of the city.

the first step was to stop the rising level of water, which the corps and a team of private contractors accomplished yesterday.

currently, the 17th street canal is being closed using a combination of steel sheets, 300-lb. and 3,000-lb. sandbags, and the construction of a rock dyke. the london avenue breach will be closed off as well while the break at the inner harbor lock will be left open to allow drainage.

in st. bernard parish, one of the hardest-hit areas of the city, a levee is being opened to allow water to drain out. 

once the water finally drains out of new orleans, some areas will still be up to seven feet deep due to the city's location under sea level. this will have to be pumped out, possible only when electricity returns.



cape verde to launch first public university, with brazil's support

to help launch cape verde's first public university, the brazilian government has made the promise to provide organizational advice and to train professors.

according to fernando haddad, brazilian minister of education, brazil will send its professors to the small nation off the african coast to train them in lecturing, marking, and other important skills involved in the profession.

filomena martins, cape verdean minister of education and human resource enhancement, met with haddad on august 22 to work out the details of the plan, which was first launched by brazil's president, luiz inacio lula da silva, in july 2004.

cape verde also hopes to increase the level of education for the university professors themselves. of the 300 professors at the planned institution, only 3% have doctorates and only 21% have master's degrees.

brazil also helps cape verde reduce its debt through the post-graduate student agreement program. pec-pg encourages cape verdeans to become foreign exchange students in brazil. in 2005-06, 20 students will participate, with the level increasing to 50 students in the next calendar year.


sun retires the sun industry standards source license

yesterday, september 2, sun microsystems announced the retirement of the sun industry standard source license (sissl) scheme. the open source initiative had been discussing ways of reducing the quantity of open source licenses to make it easier for developers and companies to chose a license. dropping the sissl takes them one step closer to this goal. sun's decision to drop the sissl comes a few months after intel's similar decision to drop its open source license in march. 

simon phipps, the director of sun's open source office, said in his blog that he will ask the osi to put the sissl on the "not recommended" list. he also said “i'd encourage any project that's currently using it to make other plans at the time of their next major release”.

no future sun open-source projects will use the sissl, and current sun projects using a dual-license scheme will drop the sissl “as soon as the development cycle allows”. one of sun's most popular open-source projects, openoffice.org, is licensed under both the lgpl and sissl. as of september 2, all openoffice.org 2.0 code is now licensed exclusively under the lgpl. 

sun prefers the community development and distribution license, a variant of the mozilla public license. sun released opensolaris and the glassfish java server under the community development and distribution license.



mayor of new orleans ray nagin slams bush, federal government in radio interview

the mayor of new orleans, ray nagin, castigated the federal government for lack of response to hurricane katrina in a radio interview friday. during a climatic point in the interview, nagin stated,

the mayor also called for a "moratorium on press conferences" and criticized the slow federal action. "there is nothing happening. and they're feeding the public a line of bull and they're spinning, and people are dying down here."

mayor nagin is being called a hero by some for ordering the evacuation as early as he did, though many commentators and experts suggested possible improvements to city policies prior to the disaster.
the mayor allegedly failed to follow the city's evacuation plan which called for using school and municipal busses for evacuating individuals without transportation.



deadly blaze in paris possibly caused by arson

the fire that broke out in a parisian building that housed black immigrants may have been caused by criminals who committed arson, authorities announced. activist groups denounce housing and immigration policies.

in the night of august 25 to august 26, a fire broke out a run-down apartment building located at 20, bd vincent auriol in paris, france. the building housed a number of immigrant families from africa. these families had squatted the building illegally, until the building was bought by the local government and ran through some charity; even then, the building did not respect applicable safety norms.

experts have examined the situation. while no hydrocarbons (fuel etc.) were found on the scene, the speed of the fire seems to indicate a criminal origin. for this reason, the prosecution service of paris ("parquet") opened a criminal investigation for "arson resulting in death". an investigating magistrate has been named. criminals face a maximal penalty of life imprisonment, though lesser criminal qualifications may be retained during the course of the enquiry.

on saturday 4, protests were staged denouncing the recent fires that killed black immigrant families housed in unsafe buildings. left-wing groups such as the revolutionary communist league denounced the immigration, workforce and housing policies of the center-right government, as well as its center-left predecessor, as regressive and promoting racism.


childhood ibuprofen-triggered asthma a concern

a new study in the journal of pediatrics indicates that childhood ibuprofen-triggered asthma attacks is a health concern for many children. although the rate of ibuprofen-sensitive asthma is low, it is a concern due to the number of children who use ibuprofen and have asthma. according to dr. jason debley, more than 100,000 asthmatic children are at risk for asthma attacks brought on by ibuprofen. debley emphasized that parents and doctors of children with asthma should be careful when administering ibuprofen.

ibuprofen-sensitive asthma attacks have been known of for quite some time, but a study has never before measured its risks and effects. according to debley: "although it has been recognized for some time that (drugs like ibuprofen) can trigger...an asthma attack in some people, the prevalence of ibuprofen-sensitive asthma in children had previously not been studied in a rigorous manner."

the study was conducted in children's hospital in seattle to try to determine how many asthmatic children are sensitive to ibuprofen. it was run using 100 children who have mild to moderate asthma. 

the child subjects were given either ibuprofen or a placebo in the trial. within two hours of ibuprofen administration, four percent of the subjects exhibited decreased lung function by more than 15 percent; none of the placebo group children experienced this decrease.

debley notes that ibuprofen should be given to children with asthma cautiously. he also warns that there may be a higher risk of decreased lung function after ibuprofen has been given to kids with more severe asthma. parents and doctors should be aware of this and act accordingly.


australia hits new telstra privatization hurdles

the australian government's plan for the full privatization of telstra, australia's dominant telecommunications company, received criticism leveled at the government and company by executives. the government owns 51.8%, with the remaining 48.2% of telstra stock held by shareholders, having been partially floated in the 1990s.

phil burgess, senior executive, made comments that telstra was "a loser" hindered by excessive regulations and that he would not recommend purchasing the shares to his mother. the government responded, with treasurer peter costello telling the telstra management to manage the company and leave industry regulation to the government. prime minister john howard repeated those sentiments, saying telstra's problem was government ownership over government regulation.

there are plans for introducing legislation next week which will approve the sale of the remainder of the government's share. this is the first time such legislation will have gone through the senate with the coalition, consisting of the liberal and national parties, controlling both the senate and the house of representatives. this may allow the predominantly liberal-backed proposal to be passed. however, members of the national party have spoken out against full privatisation, citing concerns over the future of less profitable rural services. a major base of support for the national party is in rural areas.

two major financial institutions divested their telstra stock as shares dropped to their lowest point since mid last year.


india struggles with encephalitis outbreak

over 400 have died in an outbreak of encephalitis in india's northern state of uttar pradesh and nearby regions, including neighbouring nepal. the actual figures are estimated to be much higher, as the current toll only takes into account those that have died at public hospitals, excluding any deaths in villages and private hospitals. a further 1500 or more are estimated to currently be hospitalised with the disease. the majority of the dead and infected are reported to be under 15.

the first cases of the disease this season were reported in late july. the disease is carried by pigs, which then migrates to humans through mosquitos. the outbreak has prompted the indian government to undertake such measures as deployment of pig catchers in seriously affected areas, distributing thousands of mosquito curtains and spraying pesticides. several million vials of encephalitis vaccine have also been promised by the government, which will help prepare health agencies for next year. plans for vaccines to be delivered to the historically most affected areas this year were delayed due to lack of funds and low prioritisation relative to other diseases.

this is not the first time such an event has occurred. thousands have died of the disease over the past three decades in the region. the most common period for the disease is during the monsoon season (july-september). 


chief justice of the united states, william h rehnquist, dies at age 80

united states has died of complications from . he was 80. rehnquist died surrounded by friends and family in his , home.

"president bush and are deeply saddened by the news," said white house counselor dan bartlett. "it's a tremendous loss for our nation."

rehnquist's death creates a second opening in the united states supreme court. the first vacancy occurred when announced her retirement on july 1, 2005, though o'connor will remain in office until her successor has been appointed. hearings for nominee john g. roberts, jr. are set to begin on tuesday, september 6, 2005.

rehnquist first joined the supreme court, the highest court in the u.s., as an associate justice in 1972. he was elevated to the leading position of chief justice in 1986 and presided over the court for the next 19 years.


controversy over whether new orleans mayor failed to follow hurricane plan

new orleans' mayor ray nagin is facing criticism over the evacuation of citizens before hurricane katrina struck.

in the days leading up to hurricane katrina, hundreds of buses were sitting in bus yards, some less than a mile from the superdome. louisiana governor kathleen babineaux blanco commented, "the buses could have saved an estimated 20,000 people if they had been used for emergency evacuations which president bush had declared two days before katrina hit.", however the evacuation was ordered by mayor nagin, president bush having no direct authority to order evacuations. thursday, after the storm, blanco by executive order used school buses for evacuation. 

the 2000 edition of the southeast louisiana evacuation plan on page 13, paragraph 5 states:
there were however alternative emergency plans, including ones held by state homeland security offices, and it is unclear which one was being operated to.

the superdome had been opened shortly before the storm as a shelter of last resort for those who had not evacuated. as fema observed at that time: "most residents have evacuated the city and those left behind do not have transportation or have special needs." roughly 150,000 people were not evacuated from the city. during the hurricane ivan evacuation 600,000 people failed to evacute the city.

according to wwltv, during a news conference on sunday before the hurricane struck, mayor nagin claimed he "could and would commandeer any property or vehicle it deemed necessary to provide safe shelter or transport for those in need". however photos circulated appear to show unused school and privately owned busses left stranded in flood waters. 

it is unclear whether mayor nagin knew these particular buses existed, since the orleans parish school board is not under his jurisdiction and his office would not normally know the location of opsb bus yards or be able to contact the drivers of those buses to place them into service. normally it is the job of fema to coordinate between the various local jurisdictions such as the opsb and the city of new orleans in this case. that is, under the rules of prior hurricane responses, fema would ask all local jurisdictions for a list of resources under their control. then fema would have taken a request from nagin for buses, relayed it to the orleans parish school board or other local jurisdictions which had buses, and at that point the opsb would have provided the buses to nagin. that coordination did not happen here, but it is unclear whether nagin ever made such a request prior to the hurricane and after the hurricane they were underwater and useless. 

however, if he had known about them, the declaration of a state of emergency on august 26 gave him the right under louisiana law to commandeer them for the duration of the emergency. the failure to issue a timely evacuation order in effect made it physically impossible to evacuate the nursing homes, hospitals, and those without automobiles.
in a radio interview on wwl-am shortly after the hurricane, mayor nagin said, " i need 500 buses, man. we ain't talking about -- you know, one of the briefings we had, they were talking about getting public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out here. i'm like, "you got to be kidding me. this is a national disaster. get every doggone greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to new orleans." "


second paris fire kills 16 in 18-story building

the death toll has risen to 16 confirmed dead and an unconfirmed number of people are injured in another fire south of paris, france. investigators say the fire was caused by arson. 4 people have arrested, 3 are teenage girls (18 to 16 years old).

the fire occurred early sunday morning in an apartment building in the southern suburb of l'hay-les-roses.

it is known that 13 people were taken to hospital with injuries. one woman was in labor and gave birth at the scene. she was then taken to hospital with her baby.

the blaze reportedly originated in the entrance hall mailboxes. the flames were put out quickly, but people died by inhaling the fumes. the problem with the fumes seems to have been compounded by a panic movement, whereby inhabitants opened doors leading to staircases ? enabling the fumes to fill some upper parts of the building. 

earlier this year there were several well-publicized deadly fires in central paris. this fire is the fourth in five months. 



israelis, pakistanis watch and wait as ties develop

since last thursday’s surprise meeting between israeli foreign minister silvan shalom and pakistani foreign minister khursheed kasuri in istanbul, turkey, both the governments of israel and pakistan at various times played up and played down the impression that full diplomatic relations, while not on the immediate horizon, were certainly on their way to development. 

officials at the foreign ministry in jerusalem stated that there was cautious optimism following the meeting and officials in islamabad reiterated that any diplomatic relations with israel were contingent on the reaching of a settlement to the israeli-palestinian conflict with further israeli withdrawals from disputed territory captured by israel in the 1967 six-day war. 

pakistani officials, speaking on behalf of president pervez musharraf, have noted that pakistan has no formal dispute with israel and that pakistan’s relations with the arab world would not necessarily deteriorate should israel-pakistan ties develop, citing the example that the arab world has not given pakistan much support in the country’s dispute with india over the region of kashmir. 

observers note that it is in pakistan’s interest to develop formal ties with israel in order to improve the pakistan’s image in washington as well as to counter-balance israel’s strong diplomatic and defense ties with pakistan’s neighbor india. for its part, israel wishes to develop and/or improve relations with arab and islamic countries, though israel itself must tread carefully so as to not damage relations with new delhi.

pakistani passports still have the disclaimer, "valid in all countries, except israel".


paypal freezes $20k in hurricane relief donations

online money transfer company "paypal" is reportedly blocking over $20,000 in donations from the website "something awful", donations intended for the american red cross hurricane katrina relief efforts. rich kyanka, founder of "something awful", reports that the account he set up for red cross donations has been suspended by the "ebay"-owned subsidiary due to "suspicious behavior". 

according to kyanka, "paypal" is requesting "proof of delivery", even though there is no item being purchased and the account was set up to accept donations. the account remains frozen. kyanka is attempting to solve the problem by faxing various documents to "paypal" in order to prove the legitimacy of the drive. 

according to recent updates posted on the "something awful" website, kyanka was requesting that refunds were issued for all donations that were sent. according to kyanka, the account was frozen because "paypal" has no link with the red cross. 

a solution proposed by "paypal" was to have all donations go to the united way. while initially accepting offer, kyanka reconsidered when "something awful" readers objected to having their donation sent to the united way ? partly due to the organizations troubled past. instead of the "paypal" donation setup, kyanka has requested that readers send any donations directly to the red cross.

"something awful", despite being a humor website, has a history of running donation drives for certain causes, including purchasing ballistic chest plates and body armor for a platoon in the us army's 25th infantry division during the 2003 iraq war. the "something awful" webservers are located in new orleans where hurricane katrina hit.



hurricane maria forms in atlantic

tropical storm maria intensified and became the season's fifth hurricane on sunday, september 4. the hurricane is currently growing stronger in the warm waters of the open .

according to "msnbc news", at 5 am edt the hurricane had a maximum sustained wind of 75 mph, which barely qualifies for category 1 hurricane status, and was centered 256 miles southeast of bermuda. currently it is moving north-northwest and is predicted to turn northward late sunday or early monday. hurricane specialist stacy stewart believes that should the hurricane continue on its predicted route, "maria should remain well to the east of bermuda and only pose a threat to shipping interests.”

this hurricane does not appear to pose a threat comparable to the current major us disaster, hurricane katrina, as it is expected to move soon into cooler atlantic waters, which will sap much of its strength.

maria is the 13th named storm of the hurricane season, far surpassing the typical 4 or 5 named storms at this time of year. the season runs from june 1 to november 30.


french president chirac remains hospitalized

french president jacques chirac continued his hospital stay tuesday in what a government spokesperson describes as favorable conditions. chirac was admitted on friday to a military hospital in central paris, where doctors called his condition a "small vascular incident" that hindered his vision. 

doctors report such a problem as he was having could range from a ruptured blood vessel to a stroke, since more than 80% of strokes are caused by blockage in an artery carrying blood to the brain. the problem reddened and bothered the eyesight of the 72-year-old chirac.

chirac was scheduled to meet with gerhard schroder in germany tuesday, but was forced to cancel. anne robert, a military physician speaking on behalf of the military health services, said the president was resting and expects to leave the hospital in a few days.

the head of the president's political party claims that nobody would stop chirac in his quest for the presidency two years from now.

chirac's wife was spotted leaving the val-de-grace hospital where chirac is being treated, but she refused to speak with reporters. it has been heard from french radio reports that she had just returned from a holiday in southeast france, trying to hide the fact that she was terribly concerned about her husband's current condition.

prime minister dominique de villepin reports upon spending about an hour visiting chirac, he was in "good form." the prime minister also reports "he can't wait to leave," to reporters afterward visiting the french president.

controversy has erupted in the french press about the initial secrecy surrounding this hospital visit, and whether the health bulletins published are reliable information. it is in particular suggested that the health bulletins are written by the president's staff, then signed by medical staff --- if only because french law prevents physicians from discussing the state of their patients except with these patients or their close family.



kuwait donates us$500 million to katrina relief efforts

on sunday, the country of kuwait pledged us$500 million in oil products and other aid to united states hurricane katrina relief efforts. it is the single largest donation given to help the victims of hurricane katrina. 

energy minister sheikh ahmad al-fahd al-sabah explained, "the humanitarian aid is oil products that the devastated (u.s.) states need in these circumstances, plus other humanitarian aid to lessen the devastation these three states have been subjected to."

al sabah also stated that "it's our duty as kuwaitis to stand by our friends to lighten the humanitarian misery and as a payback for the many situations during which washington helped us through the significant relations between the two friendly countries." kuwait is in fact one of the u.s.'s strongest allies in the middle east, due to the u.s. protection of kuwait in 1991 during the gulf war.

kuwait's donation was followed by a $100 million donation from qatar, a small, u.s. friendly peninsula jutting out into the red sea. 

these donations were brought on as the 22 members of arab league (based in egypt) asked arab countries to donate to the katrina relief efforts, and sent their deepest condolences to the u.s.


brazilian vote buying parliamentary commission present first joint preliminary report

the post office and vote buying parliamentary commissions of investigation unanimously approved on thursday (1) their first joint preliminary report of activities. the text was prepared by their redactors, osmar serraglio (pmdb) and ibrahim abi-ackel (pp), from post office and vote buying commissions respectively.

the deputies cited in the report are: carlos rodrigues (pl-rj), jose janene (pp-pr), pedro correia (pp-pe), pedro henry (pp-ms), sandro mabel (pl-go), joao magno (pt-mg), joao paulo cunha (pt-sp), jose borba (pmdb-pr), josias gomes da silva (pt-ba), paulo rocha (pt-ba), professor luizinho (pt-sp), romeu queiroz (ptb-mg), vadao gomes (pp-sp), vanderval santos (pl-sp), jose mentor (pt-sp), roberto brant (pfl-mg), jose dirceu (pt-sp) and roberto jefferson (ptb-rj).

the report indicts 18 brazilian deputies and the former deputy valdemar costa neto [who resigned on august 1]. they are accused of illegal campaign finance activities, of placing cronies in strategic positions in government enterprises and getting kickbacks from them, and of receiving cash payments in exchange for voting in line with the government in the brazilian congress.

the redactors called the allegation made by some parliamentarians that the resources were used to settle debts with electoral campaigns a "lame excuse". according to them it is "perfectly plausible" that the loans taken by the businessman marcos valerio at the banco rural and the bmg for the ruling workers' party (pt) were false and created to make the illegal funds seem legal. 

in regards to the denunciations done by deputy roberto jefferson (ptb) the report says:


according to the report, the businessman marcos valerio is a not reliable person because of his contraditory testmonies.

the report says that several documents were identified and reviewed proving that large sums of money were withdrawn from agencies of the rural bank, in brasilia and belo horizonte, as well as from bank accounts of the enterprises smpb and dna propaganda. according to the documents the beneficiaries were federal deputies who received the money in person or through relatives, advisers, or persons nominated by marcos valerio.

the report affirms that it is possible that some payments were made on a monthly basis, and others more or less frequently. nevertheless, according to the report the periodicity of the payments is the less important fact.



at least 200 new orleans police officers quit force

at least 200 new orleans law officers have left the force following the devastating effects of hurricane katrina. some had notified their superiors, but others did not. a few officers simply threw their badges out the window and attempted to drive a squad car to northern louisiana after the storm. 

some of the reasons given were because of lack of support from the local government in dealing with the crisis, others such as psychological problems with being in armed confrontation with people foraging for food and water in a desperate situation, where they were left alone but called looters and thugs by the authorities if they helped themselves, and losing their own families might have driven at least two officers to commit suicide. 

reports are that some officers resorted to using their own personal firearms because of the severe equipment shortage, even before the coastal region was devastated by the hurricane. the morale of the police force, which has dealt with the highest number of murders per capita in the united states, is not a new issue. this natural disaster may have exacerbated long-standing tensions in the force that were already present. 


tv debate between german chancellor schroder and opposition leader merkel held

german chancellor gerhard schroder (spd) and the chair of the christian democrats (cdu), angela merkel, faced each other on sunday evening in the first and only debate between them in this election campaign.

the 90-minute long program, simulcasted on germany's four major tv stations, focused on employment, taxation and social reforms. 

merkel stated that she wants to reduce the taxation on gasoline to ease the high price germans have to pay at the pump. schroder responded that the vat-increase that the cdu is planning would neutralize that effect and that his government hadn't increased gasoline taxes since 2003.

the chancellor went on to blast merkel's designate finance minister paul kirchhof, a proponent of a flat tax on income. he said that kirchhof's suggestions would turn germans into "guinea pigs". but merkel called kirchhof a "visionary" and said her party would make taxation "easier and more just". 

speaking of employment, schroder stated that his reforms are beginning to work and that he is on the right track. merkel referred to five million unemployed germans and said that seven years of schroder government were "bad years for germany".

polls conducted by the ard after the debate show that 49% of germans believe that schroder was "more convincing" while 33% think that merkel was. the zdf said that 48% of the population think schroder performed better, while 28% say the same about merkel.
however, overall polls conducted by the ard as well, say that schroder's spd can expect 32% in the upcoming federal election, his current coalition partner, the greens, 7%. merkel's cdu, along with its bavarian sister party csu, on the other hand is projected to get 43%, which would enable them to form a coalition government with the fdp, which stands at 6%. their majority however is slim, because the newly formed party of the left can expect 9%.



u.s. classifies record number of documents in 2004

openthegovernment.org, a coalition of conservative and liberal nonprofit groups, released a 2005 report (pdf, 12 pages) saying that all branches of the u.s. federal government are being significantly more secretive, and spending significantly more money on document secrecy. in 2004, federal officials classified 15.6 million new documents, which is 81 percent more than in 2001. over the same period, the cost of classifying those new documents rose from $4.7 billion to $7.2 billion. these figures do not include documents classified by the cia, as that agency's information is itself secret.

the report is also critical of the fact that only $48.3 million was spent on declassifying old documents in 2004. they concluded that for every dollar spent on declassification, the federal officials spent $148 creating and storing new secrets, more than in any previous year. it is estimated to cost $460 to classify one document.

the state secrets privilege allows the executive branch to classify federal court hearings and documents. on average, the bush administration has used this privilege 33 times more per year than cold war administrations (1953-1976), and nearly three times the 1977-2001 average. the report sees other measures of government secrecy, such as the number of secret patents on the rise as well.

the report does not explore the larger economic impact of the increase in secrecy per se. however, it observes that taxpayer savings due to whistleblower activity is on the rise despite the elimination of traditional whistleblower protections.

it also notes that 64% of advisory meetings were closed to the public. such meetings provide lawmakers with advice on scientific and technical matters which are supposed to be free of special interest. legislation covering such meetings states or assumes that they are open to the public, but some agencies, like the department of defense, have traditionally been permitted to hold closed meetings. once such agencies are excluded, the report finds a threefold increase in closed meetings since 2001.

the report is critical of poor funding for processing freedom of information act (foia) requests, with which the majority of federal agencies surveyed can not keep up. there is concern that more of the financial burden for such requests may be being born by those organizations making the requests, instead of the agencies holding the classified documents. foia requests increased by 25% between 2003 and 2004, to 4 million, while funding for processing such requests increased by only 5%. 

how much of this secrecy directly relates to various current events, such as the war in iraq or terrorism, is unclear. in 2004, the foreign intelligence surveillance court approved 1,754 requests from law enforcement officials last year to conduct surveillance on foreign nationals within the united states, double the number issued four years ago.

the report is also critical of the rise of "sensitive but unclassified" information, as well as new state based secrecy initiatives.


eu, china fail to agree on textile trade

talks between the european union trade commissioner peter mandelson and chinese commerce minister bo xilai, held today in beijing, brought no compromise on unblocking 80 milion pieces of chinese textiles impounded in the eu.

the clothing is held in european warehouses due to overshoot of the china-to-the-eu export quotas. in june, the eu member states agreed to raise the limit by approximately 10%, but eu importers and chinese producers continue to push for a greater amount of trade.

concerns on textiles imported from asia have split the eu countries: those with strong retail sector support increasing the quotas, while others, which have large clothing industries (spain, portugal, italy) want to keep, or even reduce, limits in the future.

a similar dispute exists between china and the united states. on friday, george w. bush's administration announced new quotas on imports of chinese bras and synthetic fabric, after negotiations between both countries broke down.


australian health minister makes inappropriate comments about brogden suicide attempt

australia's federal minister for health, tony abbott, has made a number of comments about the previous new south wales australian liberal party leader, john brogden, who recently attempted suicide, which have been widely thought to be inappropriate.

abbott is reported to have made comments such as "if we did that, we would be as dead as the former liberal leader's political prospects" and "whenever you hear that david clarke is doing bad things, you know he is really doing a great job", referring to the factional leader claimed to have led the campaign against brogden. the comments were made at a party function approximately twelve hours after brogden's suicide attempt. abbott is also reported to have said "i just want to make it clear i have never told an inappropriate joke, i've never pinched a woman on the backside and i never make inappropriate gestures to women" at a kenthurst liberal party branch meeting, in reference to brogden's reported behaviour at a function approximately two months ago.

there have been calls for abbott to resign or be sacked by prime minister john howard from some sectors, such as persons involved in mental health care, as well as the federal opposition. they claim that the comments show that abbott is not mindful of mental health issues when they should be foremost in his mind.

the comments were first raised with abbott by the abc "insiders" program yesterday. he confirmed that he had made the remarks and offered to apologize "if anyone is upset", and later that day made such an apology. the extent of the apology was criticised in the house of representatives in federal parliament that day, with julia gillard, the shadow health minister, calling it "half-arsed" during debate on a motion to censure the minister for his comments. the motion was rejected as the liberal/national coalition form government federally.

there is suspicion that the tipoff about abbott's comments was made by a member of the left-wing faction of the liberal party, of which brogden was a member, as a form of payback against members of the right-wing faction, of which tony abbott is a member. the liberal right are said to have been involved in the campaign against brogden.



new south wales liberal leader attempts suicide

australian new south wales liberal party leader john brogden was found to have attempted suicide in his electoral office late on the night of august 30, after he resigned due to heavy media criticism of comments he had made against the previous government premier bob carr's wife, helena carr. mr brogden called her a "mail-order bride". 

he was rushed to a north shore hospital. carr, who originally had stated he did not accept brogden's earlier apology, later capitulated, stating that his wife had asked to forgive him. 

it was also argued whether the daily telegraph newspaper, which was aiming to release new allegations of sexual harassment after brogden had resigned, played any part in the suicide attempt. many in the community, such as rod tiffen of the university of sydney, on abc radio national's "the media report" had decried tabloid journalism and the "telegraph" for "only wait[ing] till the man's down before they start kicking" with allegations that were found to be unsourced, whilst the editor of the "telegraph", david penberthy, claimed that they were only acting in their duty to publish what they had discovered, and said that "to say that [brogden's attempt] is our fault off the basis of one story is i think, just fatuous."

one political editor, andrew west, for "the australian", a publication produced by the same company that owns "the daily telegraph", resigned over the placement of his byline on a story where he said he only produced a memo noting the unreliability of the sources for a similar story that the "telegraph" were to publish.

 


police shoot eight gunmen on new orleans bridge, five dead

new orleans police shot eight armed gunmen on the danziger bridge, according to a police statement, after contractors crossing the bridge came under fire. the police claim they shot at eight people carrying guns on the bridge. this comes as mayor robin nagin began to turn the city over to state and federal control.

the fourteen contractors were en route to launch barges into lake pontchartrain in order to fix the break in the 17th street canal when, according to police, the gunmen opened fire on the group.

deputy police chief w.j. riley said police shot at eight people carrying guns, killing five or six. none of the contractors were killed.

however, according to foreign sources, the five killed were contractors for the army.

in a unreleated incident, a civilian helicopter crashed near the danziger bridge. the two passengers on board escaped with only minor cuts and scrapes.

the danziger bridge spans a canal which connects lake pontchartrain and the mississippi river.


canada increases oil production to assist u.s.

the alberta energy and utilities board of alberta, canada, will increase oil output by between 18,000 and 30,000 barrels a day to help the u.s. in the wake of hurricane katrina. this is being done by temporarily suspending limits on oil production. the increase was requested by alberta's premier, ralph klein.

the comparatively small size of the increase has led industry analyst peter linder to call the increase "more of a token gesture" and a "drop in the bucket" by comparison to normal production levels.

the increase in production levels is temporary, but no date has been set for when the output levels might again be capped. analysts say that 10% of the u.s. gulf states' oil production was affected by the hurricane.



former us vp al gore spearheads transport of hurricane victims to relief in home state

about 140 mostly weak or ailing victims of the hurricane ravaged city of new orleans were flown here saturday by a volunteer crew on a flight chartered by former united states vice president albert gore.

the victims were greeted by knoxville's mayor, many medical professionals, and other volunteers helping them board buses destined to area hospitals. there they were to be assessed and sent to a local red cross shelter.

although gore was present on the flight and assisted moving the passengers to the waiting buses, he "declined to take credit for the airlift, fearing it would be 'politicized.'" an associate of gore who assisted in the project, dr. anderson spickard, said that although gore chartered the flight, "we'll decide who pays for it later."

spickard also remarked that originally the plane was to take two flights that day, but flight delays forestalled that plan. the plane will leave knoxville saturday evening, he said, to make another aid flight on sunday.

states struggling with katrina refugees


jetliner crashes in indonesia

a boeing 737 jetliner operated by low-cost airline mandala crashed approximately one minute after taking off from polonia international airport in the indonesian city of medan on the island of sumatra. 

the airport is surrounded by a very densely-populated residential area. local tv showed images of dozens of homes and cars destroyed by the impact.

reports are still varying on the number of fatalities within the plane. 14-16 people sitting in the rear of the plane survived. 47 people on the ground and 101-103 of the 117 people aboard were killed.

the boeing 737 plane was nearly 25 years old, but was not due to be retired for another 11 years. it received a full service in june this year.

it has been reported that the flight, bound for jakarta, was carrying several local politicians, including rizal nurdin, the governor of north sumatra, and one of his predecessors.



celebrities contribute to katrina relief

published: updated: (travolta, preston, moore, stones, three doors down, johnson, smith)

after hurricane katrina passed across the united states, various artists and media stars have leapt at a call to action.

john travolta and wife kelly preston flew his private plane to deliver a load of supplies and tetanus vaccine to baton rouge and new orleans. part of a scientology project which has been using their non-massage "assists", in an interview preston mentioned that "auditing" had also been performed on victims.

kevin smith is holding an online auction on his web site.

sean penn actually went to louisiana. after loading down a small boat with his entourage, it was discovered one of them had neglected to seal a hole in the bottom. penn was wearing a white vest rather than a life vest while bailing. after the motor wouldn't start, the crew paddled down a flooded new orleans street. bystanders jeered at whether any victims could fit aboard the crowded craft. no report on rescue stunts. local authorities had previously been criticized for not allowing volunteer boaters in to help.

morgan freeman, whose home fared well, is organizing an online auction of celebrity items at charityfolks.com, to benefit the american red cross disaster relief fund.

curt schilling opened his home to a family of nine driven out of their new orleans home. the schilling family will provide housing for the fields for a year while their home in new orleans is rebuilt and repaired.

some celebrities "graced" disaster zones with their presence in the days following katrina.

singer macy gray and television personality phil mcgraw visited houston's astrodome.

celebrities visiting new orleans include michael moore (opposite side of lake), singer harry connick, jr., cnn's anderson cooper, actor jamie foxx, singer faith hill, actor matthew mcconaughey, singer lisa marie presley, comedian chris rock, and "the oprah winfrey show" contributor lisa ling and interior decorator nate berkus.

oprah winfrey visited new orleans, houston, and mississippi.

singer fats domino was missing during the new orleans flood but has since reached safety.

new orleans residents who were out of town during the hurricane included:


green beret tech blogs up-close and personal from new orleans

a retired united states army special forces soldier, michael barnett (known on the internet as interdictor), has been blogging the way of katrina since 27 august 2005, when he threw out the single tongue-in-cheek line, "this could actually be a nasty storm." 

barnett apparently gathered a team of unknown size -- between five and ten persons, based upon his blog material -- to "hole up" in the tenth and eleventh floors of 650 poydras, where he worked as the head crisis manager for directnic, an information technology company.

with primary sources such as cellular telephone conversations with civilians from the convention centre and an in-person conversation with a cop they took in, outpost crystal (the group is being run with an efficient military mindset and the base is named after inderdictor's fiancee) is rapidly becoming a prime source for information at less than an arm's distance.

a related wiki is also running at http://wiki.nola-intel.org/


vladimir putin dismisses head of russian navy admiral vladimir kuroyedov

vladimir putin has relieved from power admiral vladimir kuroyedov, the head of the russian navy. this comes a month after an incident where 7 russian sailors became trapped in a submarine, and had to be rescued with help from abroad.

no reason was given for kuroyedov's dismissal, although admiral eduard baltin speculated on moscow radio that it may be because of the navy chief's poor health. according to reuters, he told ekho moskvy: "he has been lying in hospital for two months, he had a complicated operation."

admiral kuroyedov was in charge of the navy during the kursk disaster of 2000, in which 118 sailors died when their submarine sank. kuroyedov is being replaced by vladimir masorin, who was previously serving as the chief of staff for the russian navy.

in remarks putin made about this leadership change and referring to masorin, he said "the recent exercises, including those i have attended, show that the navy is developing and that is certainly your merit to a large extent." putin also added "at the same time, there were difficult events, tragedies, but i would like to underline once again that with all these problems, all these tragedies, the main thing is that the navy is undergoing a revival."

masorin added while in a hall at the admiralty, "one thing is clear ? to continue in the condition which we are in and do nothing is simply not possible. i have been given the task of stopping the navy shaking public opinion. i am not experiencing euphoria at being appointed head of the navy. i understand the level of responsibility on my shoulders."


court rules in favour of record labels, kazaa found illegal

sharman networks, owner of the popular kazaa peer-to-peer software, lost against a coalition of record labels in an australian federal court. the court ruled that kazaa infringed on artists' copyright and facilitated piracy. the list of plaintiffs included emi, sony bmg, warner, festival mushroom and universal. 

the court has ordered sharman to modify the software within two months to prevent further piracy. while this order is only valid in australia, sharman is incorporated in the country and thus the effect of the ruling will be felt in the peer to peer community worldwide. sharman was also ordered to pay 90% of the plaintiff's legal fees, with damages to be considered at a later date. sharman has said it will appeal.

it is unclear whether this will have a significant effect on preventing piracy in the music industry. surveys have shown that users have already abandoned kazaa, which used to be the dominant peer to peer program used for sharing files, in favour of newer networks such as edonkey and bittorrent. this trend amongst users was also observed to happen with grokster and napster, two legacy peer-to-peer networks which faced similar suits.

this is not the first case in which sharman has had to defend itself: in a related case in the u.s. supreme court which concluded two months ago, the court ruled that file sharing networks could be held responsible for the actions of their users in some circumstances. this may have influenced this most recent case, where the court found the kazaa website encouraged visitors to feel 'cool' about breaking copyright law and downloading illegal music.

kazaa, or other versions of it, has been estimated to be installed on up to 300 million computers worldwide.



crosswords/2005/september/5

 


islamic political party seeks registration in australia

a political party has formed in australia to represent muslims. the best party of allah issued a press release on september 5 announcing that they would seek registration in the australian capital territory. the president and founder of the party, mr kurt kennedy, said that the party will respect the laws of australia, but will also be seeking to implement laws that are consistent with the teachings of allah. 

"we acknowledge that as australian citizens, we will abide by its civil laws and the rule of law. and as believers in allah we also have a commitment to the rule of allah's laws in our personal lives," mr kennedy said.

"these laws are found in the noble qur'an and on the whole are not inconsistent with the best laws that australian parliaments has to offer," he added. 

the party is seeking registration in the act, however mr kennedy said that its goal is to be registered at the national level. the press release said that australia's 500,000 muslims were enough to elect four members to the federal parliament. 

mr kennedy said that he was inspired to form the new party after the emergence of christian parties such as family first.

mr kennedy explicitly rejected extremism. 

"we totally reject people who would kill people indiscriminately, you know, as violence for its own sake and that's the story, that's the end of it," he said.

the party's website reveals that it is opposed to the invasion and occupation of afghanistan and iraq, of which australia took part. 

"see how iraq and afghanistan were invaded and occupied because they were weak countries with substantial resources? the invaders gave the reason for invasion based on a fear of emerging islamic militancy but were actually based on greed for oil and greed for markets," the website said. 

the registration has been reported as far away as iran, appearing on the iranian quran news agency website. 



president bush nominates john roberts as chief justice of the u.s.

in a statement made at approximately 12:00 utc monday, u.s. president george w. bush nominated judge john g. roberts, jr. as chief justice of the united states to succeed the late william h. rehnquist.

bush said that it is in the best interest of the nation that roberts will be confirmed by the u.s. senate within one month, before the supreme court reconvenes. he said "it is fitting that a great chief justice be followed in office by a person who shared his deep reverence for the constitution, his profound respect for the supreme court and his complete devotion to the cause of justice."
roberts went on to reply, saying, "i am honored and humbled by the confidence that the president had shown in me, and i'm very much aware that, if i am confirmed, i would succeed a man that i deeply respect and admire, a man who has been very kind to me for 25 years." roberts had been a law clerk in the u.s. supreme court working directly for william rehnquist during 1980 and 1981.

before this nomination roberts was due to fill the associate justice slot left vacant by sandra day o'connor's retirement. bush now must consider other candidates for nomination as associate justice.

roberts is considered to have largely conservative views and faced resistance during his nomination to succeed o'connor from civil rights groups like the aclu, naacp and pro-choice organizations like naral, which sponsored an ad against his nomination and had to retract it due to the liability for some of the claims they were making of him supporting terrorists.

roberts' confirmation is set to begin next monday.

it is suspected that with the republican senate, the democrats will need an extensive filibuster if they want to prevent roberts' confirmation.



japan weathers typhoon nabi

japan has been lashed relentlessly by typhoon nabi, with nine meter high waves and torrential downpours. it had been classified as a category 4 storm, the same strength as the recent hurricane katrina in the united states, but was later downgraded to category 3.

flood warnings were issued from north okinawa to tokyo. rain amounts were predicted to be greater than 19 inches (483 millimeters) for kyushu, japan's third largest island, and some areas may receive as much as 1 to 2 inches of rain per hour. "water was almost reaching the second floor. i was really frightened," said a woman in her 50s. 

the typhoon knocked power and water out for thousands of homes and has so far claimed two lives, including one man struck by lightning. over 500 people were evacuated on the northern mariana islands of saipan, tinian and rota.

nabi is expected to swerve eastward over the next 24 hours and is likely to continue battering much of japan and the southern and eastern parts of south korea.


chopper knocks austrian gondola off cables, killing nine

on monday, a helicopter accidentally dropped a concrete block weighing nearly 1,500 pounds when it was flying it up to an austrian mountain for a "ski resort construction project". the concrete block struck a cable holding a , the one that suffered all of the casualties, although other gondolas reported people suffering injuries from the jolt. the car that was hit fell quite some distance to the ground, up to hundreds of meters. two more cars started tilting as some people were flung out from these cars. 

a least nine people are reported to be killed in the incidents. there are also many injured, some of them seriously. up to a dozen rescue helicopters immediately rushed to the scene from all over the .

the work was made to make the infrastructure more secure after an incident that happened when a low-flying us marine plane cut through a cable killing 20 people in 1998. this incident will bring into question if those policies saved lives or need to be recast in light of this tragedy. 



tsunami nations give relief advice to u.s.

the nations hard hit by last year's devastating tsunami are now lending advice to the united states on how to cope with the katrina crisis. 

nopadol somboonsub, the head of tsunami corpse identification in thailand noted that the u.s. needs to "...examine the bodies slowly and put all the data into a computer," and added that "it's very important to get it right. you cannot assume that this or that body is the right body simply because a relative identified it." 

somboonsub noted that life insurance and identity theft fraud are all matters to consider when dealing with body identification. somboonsub speaks from a position of experience, his team having dealt with the identities of 5,395 corpses of various ethnicities in thailand.

in india too, experts have advice for the u.s. for instance, one unnamed indian official said that nations should not be arrogant when it comes to handling disasters. he also stated that "in india, for all its vastness, we have a very easily operable contingency plan for disasters at the grassroots level. it is not a highly complicated national response system."

he emphasized that relief is most important on the local level: "a person at the grassroots level knows that sandbags have to be organized, identifies likely places of breaches, plans clearing debris and setting up relief camps and cooking centers."

in aceh, in indonesia, budi atmadi, head of relief operations, said that humanitarian concerns must come first.

"in that period, the blame game is rampant because one person will always say the relief has been slow while another says there are so many limitations. the blame game will always be there so your ears need to be thick," atmadi stated, along with "the important thing is to stay committed and put humanitarian concerns at the top."

the united states has so far only accepted help from other countries in the form of monetary aid and oil. 


7 british paratroopers accused of murder begin trial

seven paratroopers accused of beating three iraqis?one to death?are now standing trial in essex, united kingdom.

on may 11, 2003 a part of a platoon of the 3rd battalion parachute regiment visited a "small southern iraqi village". they pursued and stopped a white toyota truck driven by athar finnjan saddam who, along with 18-year-old nadhem abdullah, was taken out of the truck and thrown to the ground. it is at this time that the paratroopers allegedly began beating both men brutally without provocation.

dalal sadaam, a female relative who had just given birth, attempted to stop the violence only to be assaulted herself by the butt of a rifle to the mouth. a woman who was pregnant at the time in the vehicle shouted for the soldiers to stop. after the soldiers left, the other victims took abdullah to a doctor. the doctor sent him to a hospital, but he died en route.

only two of the paratroopers even recalled the incident months later, but evidence of the victim's blood has been found on at least one of the soldier's guns. eyewitnesses were mostly illiterate marsh arabs who have had trouble understanding the interviewer's questions but have been cooperating fully. 

a price of about ￡2 million is currently being attached to the cost of the trial in the uk; however, the family of the victim may be able to extract civil damages from the uk in the emerging iraqi judicial system. 


linux installed on 2,460 desktop computers in italian schools

over the summer a customized distribution of the linux (or gnu/linux) operating system was installed on 2,460 desktops in the italian south tyrol province of bolzano. this deployment included all 70 of the province's private and public schools and affects more than 16,000 students.

the distribution installed, fuss soledad gnu/linux, is a customized version of the popular debian gnu/linux distribution. fuss soledad gnu/linux has multi-language support and uses the gnome desktop environment.

in addition to the desktops in the schools, more than 20,000 livecds are scheduled to be created and given free of charge to the students and their families. these livecds allow students to use the same software on their home computers that they are going to use at school.

project co-director antonio russo said, "with the participation of all the public and private schools, this will give to all the students, families, teachers, and operators from the educational world the opportunity to use a entirely free operating system, both at school and at home."

the switch was funded by the province of bolzano, the european social fund, and the center for professional formation in italian language.


china, eu reach deal on textile import

china and the european union agreed to unblock 80 million pieces of chinese textiles impounded at european ports. the deal was announced during a one-day eu?china summit in beijing by tony blair, prime minister of the united kingdom, which is currently holds the eu presidency, and chinese prime minister wen jiabao.

according to the agreement, 50% of the impounded clothing will be allowed into the eu unconditionally, while the rest will be counted against 2006 quotas.

today's deal ended the so-called european?chinese "bra wars", which have split the eu member states: those with a strong retail sector support the agreement, while those with large clothing industries want to set up a protectionist policy against china.

the agreement now must be approved by the 25 eu members.


11 japanese hospitals receive bomb threats

police said that the letters all appear to come from the same source but they have not released the actual letters yet. the tokyo metropolitan police department is investigating, but nothing suspicious has been found at the hospitals.

security has increased ahead of an upcoming september 11 general election.



blair is first public official to apologize for hurricane katrina response

british prime minister tony blair has apologised to britons affected by hurricane katrina. many british citizens who were trapped in the new orleans have complained to the british foreign office about the lack of response from their government after the hurricane destabilized almost 200 miles of the united states gulf coast.

british nationals living and vacationing in new orleans reported that u.s. authorities had refused to evacuate them as hurricane katrina approached the city, leaving them stranded in their hotels. president george w. bush has been criticized for refusing material aid from france and britain in rescuing people trapped in new orleans.




allegations president bush staged photo-ops in aftermath of hurricane katrina tragedy

in a press release issued saturday, september 3rd, 2005, democratic senator mary l. landrieu of louisiana claims that president bush staged a photo opportunity, at the breached 17th street levee, by having equipment quickly moved into the background during the event. senator landrieu says the equipment was dispersed elsewhere the next day, but did not provide details. 

landrieu says in her press release, " ... we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment. the good and decent people of southeast louisiana and the gulf coast -- black and white, rich and poor, young and old -- deserve far better from their national government ..."

the president and senator landrieu toured the 17th street levee on friday, and held the photo-op. senator landrieu said she believed the repair effort was legitimate, at that time. less than 24 hours later, she discovered only "one lonely crane" working on the site, while giving an aerial tour for abc's this week with george stephanopoulos. a video of her tearful comments, during that tour, has been circulating around the internet (wmv). 
senator landrieu made no specific accusations about the photo-op during the abc tour. however, neither does her press release describe any measures taken to verify that equipment was in-fact pulled from other projects for the purpose of the photo-op, nor where the equipment is now. the canal wall breach, near hammond highway, was later shown sunday on cbs' "60 minutes" with dump trucks and a power shovel building a single-lane pathway across the gap. the breach was closed monday.

senator landrieu was herself criticized by anderson cooper (cnn) on thursday, after she responded to a question by rattling off a list of "thank yous" to other politicians (wmv, transcript). democratic pundits have excused such detachment as an attempt to gain more federal assistance during the tragedy. senator landrieu's press release partially confirms this interpretation by attempting to simultaneously ask the president for more aid, while accusing him of misusing existing resources. 

although press reports mentioned the 17th street canal breach was blocked by the use of metal sheets, sandbags, and dumped fill, details were not available. on wednesday september 7 it was reported that earlier metal girders, often used for retaining walls, had been hung down from the north side of the hammond highway bridge so as to form a metal wall which blocked the canal from the lake. after the breach had been closed, by sandbags and fill delivered by dump truck, the metal wall was opened to allow draining of the city through the canal.

obviously placing the metal wall required an assortment of equipment which was no longer needed after it was in place. the wall was only visible from the bridge and most dry land as a few feet of metal along the bridge railing. it is not known if senator landrieu noticed this work of engineering, nor if she had been briefed as to what was being done.

however, photos of work at the site were later found which showed a lot of activity sept 4, after landrieu said the equipment was not there. however, the sheet piling wall in the photo was reported to have been completed september 2. information of the schedule of similar work at the london avenue breach has not been found.

in related news, germany's zdf news reported that the president's visit to biloxi was largely a staged event(video). their onsite crew claimed that an "open air food distribution point bush visited in front of the cameras was torn down immediately after the president and the herd of news people had left", and alleges that others being set up were abandoned at the same time. christine adelhardt of germany's ard tagesschau said "the extent of the staging is shocking me [as much as the disaster.]" she also claimed that, for the purpose of such photo-ops, heavy equipment was being moved to areas which would not require it (video). senator landrieu has not complained about any other staged photo-ops, nor has the american press accused the president's press team off any impropriety.



u.s. state of utah begins to accept evacuees from hurricane katrina

evacuees from new orleans arrived on sunday and have continued to come to utah, utilizing the facilities at camp williams, the training facility for the utah national guard, to house the incoming people. flights from new orleans to salt lake city international airport provided by jetblue airways under a contract from fema have been shuttling people from new orleans to many destinations throughout the united states, including utah. 

in addition, utah air national guard relief missions transporting food and other supplies to new orleans relief efforts have also been returning with people in the cargo areas of the airplanes on return flights. "in keeping with our mission to assist in the security and safety of our homeland, we stand trained, ready, and able to respond to the call to assist our fellow citizens in louisiana, mississippi and elsewhere," said maj. gen. brian tarbet, utah national guard adjutant general.

the people on board the airplanes had no idea where they were going. in one case the airplane was headed to san antonio and at the last minute while still airborne the destination was changed to utah. peter coroon, salt lake county mayor: "some of the people look dazed. some of them are just happy to be out of where they were. some of them are eager to find their loves ones they've been separated. some of them weren't sure where they were going when they left new orleans." 

governor john huntsman, jr. utilized surplus state funds by declaring a state of emergency to begin efforts housing and clothing people coming to utah, however some of this will likely be reimbursed by the federal government at a later date. he announced that utah was willing to take up to 1,000 people at shelters in utah, and that amount was later increased to over 2,000. on monday, president bush signed an executive order granting the emergency declaration in utah to provide federal assistance for the evacuees in utah.

after arriving in utah, one evacuee said "i want to thank the people of utah for their hospitality and for restoring my faith in america." another evacuee said "it seems like heaven, looking at the mountains and getting a breath of fresh air and saying, 'thank god we made it.'"

not all evacuees were pleased with the move to utah. "i knew where utah was, but nobody told me that's where we were going. nothing personal. it's nice. but i don't know anybody here," said bergeron, among the first batch of 152 evacuees to arrive at the camp williams utah army national guard training site.

the utah chapter of the american red cross has been training volunteers over the labor day weekend, and according to one official they have been overwhelmed with community support to help the evacuees. the line of volunteers to receive the training helping those at camp williams was litterally out of the door at the red cross offices today. one volunteer, kayelynn wright said, "the last couple of days we’d talked about it and said, 'what can we do?' so when i saw it (a call for volunteers) last night, i called (my neighbor) this morning and said, 'we gotta go!'" the red cross has asked that you contact the local office if you plan on volunteering or donating any new clothing and other items to help the evacuees.

volunteers from the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints on saturday gathered at the lds humanitarian center in salt lake to assemble more than 50,000 hygiene kits for hurricane victims. plastic bags were stuffed with toothbrushes and toothpaste, combs, soap, washcloths and hand towels. the supplies will be shipped to a church-owned storehouse georgia for distribution. 

transportation requests are also being honored by the utah state government, and evacuees are having transportation to anywhere in the united states paid for at state expense. in addition, a small amount of extra money is being donated directly to each family to help with immediate expenses. the utah transit authority has already established a regular municipal bus service between camp william and downtown salt lake city, which will begin formal service starting tomorrow morning.




australian aborigines sprayed by crop-duster

a group of 19 people, including local aborigines and roads and traffic authority (rta) staff, were sprayed by a crop duster in rural australia today. they were walking the proposed route of a freeway bypass, looking for sites that may have significance to aboriginal people. 

the freeway bypass will be part of the hume highway, near coolac in south-west new south wales. 

police are yet to rule out that the dusting was deliberate. a police spokeswoman made a public appeal for information. 

"we don't know whether they knew the people were there or not so we're appealing for anyone who might have witnessed the incident or knows anything about a low-flying crop-duster in the area to contact police," she said.

news available via the web does not (as of this writing) detail the effects of the spraying. it is assumed that there were no fatalities. 

abc online reports that the pilot of the plane may face charges. 


wheelchair-bound australian rescued in new orleans

a 75 year old wheelchair-bound australian man has been rescued from his home in new orleans. keith faulkner was rescued by a neighbour after floodwaters stranded him in his home for five days. mr faulkner is suffering from cancer. he was left behind by his family as floodwaters rose. 

"when the flooding started his family had no choice but to leave themselves, and he was left in the house as best they could manage," the australian ambassador to the united states said. 

the man was eventually moved by neighbours to a nursing home in lafayette. 

"he was rescued by a neighbour after five days stranded in his house and he's been in a nursing home in lafayette, louisiana," said alexander downer, minister for foreign affairs. 

the australian department of foreign affairs has been criticised for the lack of support provided to australian victims of the disaster. the labor party has been particularly scathing in its attacks. 

"the bottom line is this: when it comes to helping australians on the ground, the australian government has failed miserably to persuade its closest friend and ally - the united states government - to allow australian consular officials access to help our own people," said opposition defence spokesman kevin rudd. mr rudd was referring to the us governments refusal of a request by australian consular officials to enter new orleans and search for australians. 

"you need a few days to allow people to assess the situation and to deploy personnel. but a week later, we have one official go in and can only stay there until night-time and then has to skedaddle out of there. i mean, what's happening here? it's just not good enough," he added. 

some people have been critical of the australians caught in the disaster. former federal liberal pary minister wilson tuckey attacked the victims, suggesting that they should have left new orleans earlier. 

"why was the woman quoted by the leader of the opposition today so insistent, not that the prime minister get her out of her problems, but the australian taxpayer get her out of her problems, when in fact all the warnings we heard here in australia [said it] was unwise to stay," he said. 


astronomers find changes in saturn's rings

astronomers have discovered that saturn's d ring, the innermost of saturn's 15 rings, has grown dimmer in the past 25 years and sections have moved up to 125 miles inward toward the planet. this discovery was made after astronomers compiled results predominantly from the voyager 2 spacecraft, which passed saturn in 1981, and the cassini-huygens probe which entered saturn's orbit last year. 

other rings were found to be rotating slower than had previously been estimated with computer models. it was also discovered that the matter composing the rings is of far more widely varying temperatures than had been expected. sections of saturn's f ring were also recognised as breaking apart and reforming, depending on the location of one of saturn's moons.

the rings, which are now iconic to saturn, and known to be common to all jovian planets in general, were first observed in 1610 by galileo. the rings have recently become a subject of scientific interest to modern astronomers who believe they are similar in structure to the dust which orbited the sun, in a similar pattern, and formed the planets some 4.5 billion years ago.

this, and other cassini-related discoveries, were discussed at a meeting of the american astronomical society's division of planetary sciences on monday.



fire kills 32 in theatre in beni suef, egypt

a fire monday night in a theatre in beni suef, egypt, has killed at least 32 and injured a similar number. the fire was started during a performance when a candle on the set was knocked over by an actor and the curtains were set alight. the blaze spread to the stage, which was covered in paper, and then quickly engulfed the rest of the building.

there was a stampede as the panicking audience of at least 100 rushed for the only available exit door, which was blocked at one point by falling supports as the building slowly burnt. the other exit was covered in paper and caught fire before it could be used. firefighters brought the fire under control after several hours, but not before the building was destroyed.

it is believed the deaths were caused by burns, smoke inhalation and injuries from the stampede. the remaining injured were reported by hospital director ahmed el-sharqawi to have burns covering between 30% and 90% of their bodies. a medical team specialising in burns and related care has been flown in from cairo, and cairo hospitals have indicated that they are ready to accept patients if necessary. the fire occurred on the third day of a nine-day theatre festival in the farming community, 120 km from cairo, which featured groups from all over egypt.


new orleans police officer commits suicide

sgt. paul accardo was found dead last saturday, in an unmarked police car. the officer, who served as a chief spokesperson for the new orleans police department, committed suicide sometime last week.

"paul was a stellar guy. a perfectionist. everything had to be just right," said sgt. joe narcisse, who worked with sgt. accardo. working 20-hour days after hurricane katrina rolled through, seeing the dead and injured, hearing the cries of helpless families, and being unable to help them got to accardo, said capt. marlon defillo.

the new orleans police department has suffered heavy losses in personnel. as many as 400 to 500 officers were unaccounted for, likely to be searching for their families, or attempting to return to what is left of their homes. but accardo is the second suicide death to hit the force since the storm. officials say that officers were being cycled off-duty, and received vacations, as well as counseling, to help reduce the grief and anguish that many officers are experiencing.

funeral services are planned for wednesday. accardo is survived by his wife, anne, his mother, a brother and a sister, and eight nieces and nephews.


manned mission to mars at least 20 years away, easier than first trip to moon

at a global leadership forum in kuala lumpur, malaysia, astronaut neil armstrong said that a manned mission to mars is at least 20 years away, but that such a mission will be easier to accomplish than the apollo missions.

"it will certainly be 20 years or more before that [a manned mars mission] happens," the former astronaut said.

"it will be expensive, it will take a lot of energy and a complex spacecraft. but i suspect that, even though the various questions are difficult and many, they are not as difficult and many as those we faced when we started the apollo program in 1961," he continued.

armstrong, who is 75, is known for seldom appearing at public events and for not granting interviews. he commanded the apollo 11 moon mission in 1969, and was the first man to set foot upon the . he left the space program in 1971 to teach aeronautical engineering at the in ohio. 

the current united states space programme plans to send astronauts back to the moon in 15 years, and then to mars some time after that. it is expected to cost hundreds of billions of dollars. 


munich delays switch to linux

the german city of munich has delayed the start of its planed migration to linux till 2006. the migration was originally due to start this year, three years after the decision to migrate to linux was made. peter hofmann, the project leader of the migration said the delay was because the "pilot was more important than we first thought and should last longer." once the pilot is completed all the departments will eventually be migrated to linux and openoffice.org.

on may 28, 2003 germany's third-largest city, voted to move to open source software. munich made the decision to switch after microsoft discontinued support for their current os, windows nt 4. while suse was very involved in the early phases, debian was ultimately selected to replace windows on 14,000 desktops. the migration is estimated to cost between 30 and 34 million euros, once complete would affect approximately 16,000 users.

the first department to migrate to linux and openoffice.org will be the office of the lord mayor planed for the middle of 2006, though not all of the department's computers will be immediately migrated. peter hofmann said "some departments will start with openoffice on windows, others will start with openoffice on linux," he said. "it depends on their infrastructure, for example, if a department has a small number of simple [office] macros and templates but a large number of complex applications, it is easier to do openoffice on windows first."



wikimedia commons celebrates first anniversary

one year ago today, september 7, 2004, the "wikimedia commons" project was presented to the public. "wikimedia commons", or simply "commons", is a repository for multimedia files that include images, videos, computer animations, and music as well as spoken texts. they currently count more than 232,000 such files. 

all of "commons" content is published under a free licence, so the use of its files is permitted outside the project itself. its main mission is to provide the international "wikipedias" with images. like "wikipedia", the "commons" is based on a simple wiki principle that permits every user to contribute and change content. the project is organized into so-called gallery pages, and/or by adding files into categories organized in multiple topics that help facilitate the speedy location of desired files. often it exists already a direct link from the "wikipedia" page to the corresponding page in the commons.

the "wikimedia commons" proposal was originated by the german erik moller, (eloquence), in march 2004. eloquence was until recently the chief research officer of the "wikimedia foundation". up until the launch of "commons", it was time consuming to use material from one "wikipedia" language project in a sister project of a different language. each file had to be uploaded into each language edition of "wikipedia", and be described and licensed again. the goal was to reduce this redundant effort into one upload, which it can be said that this was successful. 

the language in use on the project's main page is english because it is an international project, but many information pages exist in multiple languages. judging by the experience of other "wikimedia foundation" projects, it is only a question of time before further localization occurs at "commons". this will make it easier for users with fewer skills in foreign languages to also contribute files.

the content in the "commons" is growing at a rapid pace. within the last month alone, the number of images and other files has grown by more than 43,000. this represents a 22,7 % increase in relation to the prior month. while the "wikipedia" projects usually compare themselves with the more widely known encyclopedias like britannica and brockhaus, a competitor "commons" would likely be considered the huge commercial photo archives like getty images and corbis, who possess more than 70 million images each. in relation to them, the "commons" is very small at the moment. however, most of the important buildings and landmarks world wide are already featured in its database. 

like other "wikimedia foundation" projects, the "commons" face certain challenges and problems. sometimes people upload offensive images. the community has had to establish clear criteria about which content is acceptable, and which is not. there should not be unfair censorship. obvious transgressions can be pointed out by anybody, and they are usually deleted rapidly by the administrators.

a sensitive topic is copyrights, and the rights of the owner of the pictured images. international rules have not yet been made compatible. in certain ways, the "wikimedia foundation" opens new territory in the area of intellectual property. before "commons", it was almost exclusively a domain of professionals to publish images who were well aware of the legal issues. now it is possible for huge numbers of photo amateurs to publish. like with offensive content, obvious violations of copyright are deleted the moment they are brought to notice of the administrators. however, it is quite possible there will be an upcoming international debate if the free publication of certain content, e.g. images of national heritage objects, is in the overwhelming public interest. in cases such as this, private interests which might prevent publication are of lesser importance.

the contribution of "wikimedia commons" to a wide array of issues in research, reporting, education, tourism or others, at a global scale, is difficult to fathom at the moment. most likely though the impact will be gigantic. 



uk regulator warns mastercard

the united kingdom's office of fair trading accused the credit card association mastercard uk, which includes most major british banks, of overcharging customers between march 2000 and november 2004.

the oft found that an agreement between mastercard uk members, setting the so-called 'interchange fee' - a charge paid to banks by retailers - caused high cost for uk consumers and was against competition regulations. the british watchdog said that the interchange fee was too high and forced the uk retail sector to raise prices.

mastercard uk disagreed with the oft and announced that it would appeal the decision. the company said that british consumers benefit from the agreement, as more retail stores accepted credit cards.

mastercard has changed its fee policy last november, but the change has not satisfied the oft. if the company cannot prove the new fees do not violate competition rules, it may be found guilty and fined up to 10% of its annual worldwide turnover.

the oft is also investigating mastercard's biggest rival, visa, in the same case.



sony breaks uk launch sales record with playstation portable

the sony playstation portable went on sale in the uk on thursday, september 1. in the three days following the release, more than 185,000 playstation portables were sold. this sets a new sales record on game consoles. the record was previously held by nintendo, who sold 87,000 nintendo ds handhelds the first three days after its release. the playstation portable is being sold for ￡179 in the uk.

twenty of the 24 games launched with playstation portable are in the top 40. playstation portable games also occupy nine of the top 10 slots on the sales charts. the game ridge racer was the most popular, with one in every five people buying both the playstation portable and ridge racer at the same time.

sony's main competitors in the handheld gaming console market are nintendo with the nintendo ds and nokia with the ngage. like nintendo and nokia, sony is marketing the device as being able to do more then just play games. the playstation portable can play specially created versions of poular movies and surf the internet wirelessly. sony expects to sell a million playstation portables in the uk before christmas. 



australia's abc head levy leaves for &quot;channel nine&quot;

australian broadcasting company (abc) television head, sandra levy, has quit to become the director of development for "channel nine." her new role is expected to focus on drama.

abc managing director russell balding said that ms levy had lifted audiences to "historically unprecedented" levels. however, ms levy came under fire during her abc tenure for an overly conservative programming approach to major news stories - notably a sluggish response to coverage of the december 2004 south asian tsunami. she was criticised for refusing to interrupt regular programming to go to breaking news reports. 

the channel nine network, that she now joins, is in a rebuilding phase after coming under heavy ratings pressure in the past 12 months. long the dominant commercial network in australia, in 2005 it has seen numerous changes in its executive ranks, including the sudden resignation of ceo david gyngell. 

channel nine's interim ceo, television veteran sam chisholm, has launched cost-cutting at the network.

 


actor bob denver dies at 70

actor bob denver, best known for his roles as "gilligan" on "gilligan's island" (1964-1967) and "maynard g. krebs" on "the many loves of dobie gillis" (1959-1963), died friday at the age of 70.

denver gained popularity on "dobie gillis", playing the title character's best friend, a beatnik. the show, which ran for four years, was denver's first major acting role. it is said that the popular cartoon "scooby-doo, where are you!" was based on the show, and denver's role of krebs was the inspiration for the character "shaggy".

denver's real fame, however, came with the role of "gilligan", a kind but naive and incompetent bumbler stuck on an island with six other castaways. nearly every episode involved a plot to get off the island; however, gilligan always ended up causing the plot to fail, in one way or another. the show, which ran for three years, gained popularity through perpetual reruns. "it was the mid-'70s when i realized it wasn't going off the air," denver said in 2001.

after the cancellation of "gilligan's island", bob denver starred in "dusty's trail", a clone of "gilligan's island", set in a wagon train in the old american west. it was also created by sherwood schwartz, the creator of "gilligan's island" and other sitcoms like "the brady bunch". "dusty's trail" featured a one-to-one match with "gilligan's island" characters (gilligan became dusty, while the actress, ginger, became the dance hall girl, and the farm girl, maryanne, became the school marm, and the rich howells became a rich rail baron and wife, etc.). bob denver was the only actor in common. the show never caught on and was quickly canceled.

in may, denver underwent quadruple bypass surgery, and was subsequently diagnosed with cancer. he died of complications from his cancer treatment at wake forest university baptist hospital in north carolina.

denver is survived by his wife and four children.

 


antony &amp; the johnsons win mercury music prize

antony & the johnsons have won the 2005 mercury music prize for their album "i am a bird now".

anthony hegarty, born in chichester, united kingdom, won the award of ￡20,000 for creating the most original album by a british or irish act during the last year.

other nominees included coldplay, m.i.a. and the bookies favourites the kaiser chiefs.



iraqi president says saddam confessed to crimes

the current iraqi president, jalal talabani, said that former president saddam hussein confessed to various crimes and killings which were committed during his regime. some of these cases are currently under investigation.

mr. talabani stated that a judge had told him of these alleged confessions, which he revealed he knew about on iraqi national television. details are few, but one example of a confessed crime is the mass killing of the kurds in the late 1980s, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of kurds. 

talabani says that saddam deserves to be hanged "20 times a day," although he does not wish to sign his death warrant; he wants his vice president, adel abdel mehdi, to do so. according to talabani, this gesture is not meant to gain power over the courts, "my not signing does not mean that i will block the decision of the court." talabani is morally opposed to all capital punishment.

talabani also stated that "there are 100 reasons to sentence saddam to death."

iraq seems to be starting a general trend of cracking down on criminals ? three were hanged just last week, with possibly more to come.

saddam's first trial comes october 19, where he will be tried for the mass killings of shiite civilians in a town in northern baghdad in 1982. if convicted, he could face the death penalty.


portia de rossi talks about ellen degeneres, sexuality

actress portia de rossi of "arrested development" recently had her "first-ever interview with the gay press", namely "the advocate". in the interview, she talks about her sexuality and romance with comedienne and talk show host ellen degeneres.

the 32-year-old australian reveals she recently told her 98-year-old grandmother that she was a lesbian, when visiting back home. supposedly her grandmother had a change of heart after two minutes, accepting de rossi's sexuality.

degeneres and de rossi met at an awards show in december 2004, and both immediately broke up with their respective partners. in the may issue of "allure" magazine, degeneres said she hopes that she and de rossi "are together for the rest of our lives."

the interview also reveals she turned down lesbian roles, including one opposite angelina jolie in a movie called "gia". de rossi says she is now fine playing gay characters, but will not do sex-scenes, gay or straight.

on why she suddenly feels comfortable on publicly speaking on the topic, "i was thinking, well, the people who need to know i'm gay know, and i'm somehow living by example by continuing on with my career and having a full, rich life, and i am incidentally gay, but it's not a big political platform. i justified it in so many ways."

another probable reason she consented to the interview is its timing, right before the upcoming season debut of "arrested development".



massachusetts to set up &quot;village&quot; for katrina evacs

the us state of massachusetts is turning a portion of camp edwards, an active cape cod military base, into a "village" for 2,500 evacuees of hurricane katrina, as part of operation helping hand.

the temporary shelter on the massachusetts military reservation will have a population the size of truro, massachusetts and will include an active mayor and a system of government that will be like a town council 

however, the shelter will face security demands different from the fifteen cape towns because cape edwards is an active base used for training exercises. security will be overseen by the massachusetts national guard, with help from the massachusetts state police and the county sheriff's office. massachusetts governor mitt romney stressed that he wanted to give it a comfortable, non-hostile atmosphere.

upon touching down at otis air national guard base, massport officials will issue identification cards, create case files for them and ask the evacuees to provide personal information which will go into to a database to be shared with other states that are taking evacuees.

the agencies that will be on hand are, the massachusetts emergency management agency, the american red cross and the salvation army. these agencies will coordinate volunteers, who must commit themselves to five days of volunteer efforts, and they must be able to transport themselves to the camp. romney has asked for donations from the community. 

evacuees will be assigned housing by groups. there could be barracks for single men, another for single women, and then space for elderly and families with children. visitors will not be allowed.

the school superintendent for the township of bourne, ed lafleur, will work on enrolling the children of evacuees into cape cod schools. romney met yesterday with leaders of the blake churches alliance who will make available chaplains and counselors for the evacuees.

romney spent monday night asking for the state house to pass a $25 million emergency spending bill to pay the initial costs of the facility.

the arrival time of the evacuees has been postponed, for unknown reasons. 


girls aloud win popjustice ￡20 music prize

british pop group girls aloud have won the 2005 popjustice ￡20 music prize with their single "wake me up". the award, organised by music journalist peter robinson, is given annually to the best british pop single of the previous 12 months and is a tongue-in-cheek response to the mercury music prize, the winner of which was announced earlier in the evening.

this year's shortlist included basement jaxx, robbie williams and charlotte church.

this is the second time girls aloud have won the award - they won the inaugural prize in 2003 for "no good advice".

also announced was the winner of the ￡20 invoice prize for the worst british single of the previous 12 months. the winner, charity single band aid 20's "do they know it's christmas?", was the uk's christmas number one in 2004.



award show producers try emmy idol

the primetime emmy awards will have a unique twist for 2005, as television celebrities will sing the themes of classic series. similar to the format of reality shows like "american idol" and "rock star: inxs", the audience will be able to vote on their favorite performance during the initial broadcast of the show.

the ceremony's executive producer, ken ehrlich, said to the press that "there are certain television theme songs that are nearly as memorable as the shows connected to them."

billionaire american business executive donald trump, of reality show "the apprentice", will accompany the high-pitched voice of actress megan mullally, singing the "green acres" theme. r&b singer macy gray will be joined by gary dourdan of "csi: crime scene investigation", as they sing "movin' on up", the theme to "all in the family" spin-off sitcom "the jeffersons".

william shatner of "star trek: the original series" and opera singer frederica von stade will perform the theme from "star trek". shatner is notorious for his musical recordings, which many criticize, as he typically speaks the lyrics instead of singing them, typically as an exaggerated interpretive reading. however, the "star trek" theme does not require any singing other than that of the female opera singer.

kristen bell of the series "veronica mars" will perform the theme to "fame", solo.

the show will be again hosted by talk show host and comedienne ellen degeneres. in honor of the victims of hurricane katrina, all emmy presenters and performers will be given magnolias, the state flower of both louisiana and mississippi. information will be given out during the broadcast on how viewers can donate to relief efforts.

the emmys will be broadcast september 18th, 2005.


california state legislature passes same-sex marriage bill

on wednesday, the lower house or state assembly of the state legislature of the us state of california passed a controversial new bill that would redefine marriage as the union between two people, as opposed to a man and a woman (text). the california state senate, the upper house, had already acceded to this.

a critical swing vote came from tom umberg (d-santa ana) of orange county, the second largest california county, which is predominantly conservative. he was ushered on by senator joe dunn of the same constituency. the voting predominantly followed party lines, with no republican supporting the bill and few democrats opposing it .

a spokeswoman for governor arnold schwarzenegger says he will veto the bill "out of respect for the will of the people" in the approval of proposition 22, which opposed recognizing out-of-state same-sex marriages.


new orleans directnic offices, 'outpost crystal' visited by 82nd airborne

the offices of directnic, a based webhost and services provider, were visited by armed members of the during an interview with reporters tuesday evening. directnic has been the home of "outpost crystal" ? an information dissemination effort involving hundreds of volunteers throughout the world ? since wracked the last monday.

armed police and military are currently patrolling the devastated city to protect residents and property. while new orleans mayor has ordered a "forced" evacuation of the city, it is not apparent yet whether these orders are being executed by law enforcement agencies. directnic personnel indicate that they will be allowed to stay as they constitute part of the recovery effort of the city.



palestinian gunmen assassinate ex-security chief

former palestinian security chief moussa arafat, cousin of the late palestinian leader yasser arafat, was assassinated at his home in the gaza strip after a half-hour shootout between a number of militants and arafat's bodyguards. the force, estimated to be up to a hundred men, overpowered arafat's numerous bodyguards, using assault rifles and grenades, before directly assaulting the house. they dragged arafat into the street, while still in his pajamas, where he was shot. he was declared dead on arrival to hospital.

the popular resistance committees, or prc, claimed responsibility for the attack, as well as the kidnapping of moussa arafat's son manhal during the fighting. manhal arafat is a senior security official who has been described as one of his father's closest aides. the prc explained the killing of arafat as punishment for corruption after normal palestinian security forces would not take action, describing it as "executing the will of god".

while holding no official position, arafat had been retained as a military advisor to current president of the pna mahmoud abbas, after being removed from his position as security chief. palestinian officials have condemned the attack, describing it as an attack on the authority of the government.

there is no indication that this incident will affect the withdrawal of israeli settlers from the gaza strip and parts of the west bank, scheduled to be completed in the next few weeks.



australian pm howard under fire over au$1.40/l pump prices

australian prime minister john howard has been criticised for refusing to cut the fuel excise tax as petrol prices reach up to $1.40 aud per litre in parts of the country. the criticism by queensland premier peter beattie has been particularly vocal, claiming that the government simply does not want to lose the revenue the excise generates. the queensland government subsidises fuel in the state with gst revenue.

"the reality is they cream off a huge amount every day. he can do something about it if he really wants to," mr beattie said.

mr howard responded by explaining the steep rise in petrol prices was due to current market trends and short-term repercussions of hurricane katrina. this was consistent with the statements by the australian competition and consumer commission, which explained the major reasons for the increase were katrina and china's recent embargo on refined petrol exports.

the prime minister also estimated that the federal government would lose billions in a cut of significant size. he estimated the government would lose at least $380 million for every one cent reduction, which would increase as drivers demanded a five to ten cent cut.


tunisian atr-72 plane crash on 6 august caused by incorrect fuel gauge

investigation of the crash into sea of a tunisian airplane atr-72 near sicily on august 6, 2005 has arrived at an astonishing conclusion. the wrong type of fuel gauge was installed in the aircraft. the gauge was designed for another type of aircraft, the much smaller atr-42.

the level indicated by the gauge was wrong, causing the pilot to think that the plane needed less fuel that it did. then, when fueling at the airport, less fuel than was needed was loaded in the airport of bari. while in flight the airplane ran out of fuel, although the gauge still showed fuel available.

after this conclusion by the italian national security flight agency (ansv) the italian national agency for civil aviation (enac) has suspended tunisian airline tuninter's authorization to operate commercial flights in italy. a warning was also send to european authority about what has happened asking that all fuel gauges installed on atr-42 amd atr-72 be checked.



notam: attention roman catholic italian ap mechanics: crossed sevens (-7-) look very similar to number fours (4) as in atr-72 vs. atr-42.


halliburton's kbr awarded half billion dollar repair contract for gulf coast navy facilities

halliburton co.'s subsidiary kellogg, brown and root (kbr) has been awarded a half billion dollar repair contract for u.s. navy facilities damaged by natural disasters, including hurricane katrina. kbr won the competitive-bidding in july 2005. 

the bush administration has been criticized for awarding kbr a five-year, no-bid contract to restore iraqi oil fields, shortly before the u.s. invaded iraq in 2003. congressional democrats have asked secretary of defense donald rumsfeld to investigate last month's demotion of bunnatine greenhouse after she testified to improprieties in the no-bid procedure and other kbr improprieties. bunnatine greenhouse was chief contracting officer of the u.s. army corps of engineers since 1997.

halliburton reported being paid $10.7 billion for iraq-related government work during 2003 and 2004. pentagon auditors have questioned tens of millions of dollars of halliburton charges. 


apple unveils ipod nano

apple today unveiled its latest addition to the ipod line, the ipod nano. the announcement came today at a special music event hosted by apple, held in the moscone west convention center in san francisco.

the ipod nano comes in two colors, white and black, as well as two sizes, a 2gb and a 4gb, capable of holding 500 and 1,000 songs and will cost $199 and $249 usd respectively. the ipod nano is the second model of the ipod family to utilize flash memory, after the shuffle was introduced in january.

the ipod nano replaces the similar ipod mini in the ipod family. the ipod nano's maximum capacity is 2gb smaller than that of the last version of the ipod mini, which held 6gb for the same price of $249.
apple also announced an itunes-compatible cell phone, the motorola rokr e1, which will be available exclusively from cingular wireless in the united states, virgin will be in the uk. the rokr has a color display for viewing album art and features built-in stereo speakers, as well as stereo headphones that also serve as a mobile headset with microphone. users can randomly autofill or manually fill the mobile phone with playlists of music, audiobooks and podcasts from their itunes library via a usb 1.1 connection. the motorola rokr pauses music automatically when users take a call and offers the ability to listen to music while messaging or taking a photo. it will cost $250 with a two-year cell service contract.

a new version of itunes was also announced at the event, bringing it to version 5. along with a new look, it also features a customizable randomization, improved search for the library and music store, and greater parental controls on songs with explicit lyrics in the itunes music store as well as controlling content of podcasts.



colleges offering admission to displaced new orleans graduate students

naicu has created a list of colleges and universities accepting and/or offering assistance to displace faculty members. 

this list is taken from colleges offering admission to displaced new orleans students, and is intended to make searching easier for faculty, graduate, and professional students.

in addition to the list below, the association of american law schools has compiled a list of law schools offering assistance to displaced students. as conditions vary by college, interested parties should contact the office of admissions at the school in question for specific requirements and up-to-date details.

the association of american medical colleges is coordinating alternatives for medical students and residents displaced by hurricane katrina. 

rescross.net is acting as a central interactive hub for establishing research support in times of emergency. with so many scientists affected by hurricane katrina, rescross is currently focused on providing information to identify sources of emergency support as quickly as possible. 

physics undergraduates, grad students, faculty and high school teachers can be matched up with housing and jobs at universities, schools and industry. from the american association of physics teachers, the society of physics students, the american institute of physics and the american physical society.

the following is a partial list, sorted by location.

alabama |
alaska |
arizona |
arkansas |
california |
colorado |
connecticut |
delaware |
district?of?columbia |
florida |
georgia |
hawaii |
idaho |
illinois |
indiana |
iowa |
kansas |
kentucky |
louisiana |
maine |
maryland |
massachusetts |
michigan |
minnesota |
mississippi |
missouri |
montana |
nebraska |
nevada |
new?hampshire |
new?jersey |
new?mexico |
new?york |
north?carolina |
north?dakota |
ohio |
oklahoma |
oregon |
pennsylvania |
rhode?island |
south?carolina |
south?dakota |
tennessee |
texas |
utah |
vermont |
virginia |
washington |
west?virginia |
wisconsin |
wyoming |
canada











































controversy erupts over german anarchist pogo party's campaign ad

the german anarchist pogo party ran a campaign ad (download here -- nsfw) which, instead of discussing the party's politics, featured various party scenes set to a heavy metal soundtrack. the spot included revellers smashing furniture, pouring beer down each other's throats, and women dancing topless. the spot ends with the proclamation: "my vote for the rubbish".

the ard refused to air the ad because it "violates the human dignity" and showed only a heavily censored version at an earlier airtime. the party then sued the station and got an injuction by an appeal court in munster only minutes before the next ad was due, forcing the ard to air the spot uncensored, right before their evening news flagship.

the ad has offended a number of people, but has likely gained the party nationwide attention among its younger demographics who could access campaign websites online (appd.de). the hamburg-based appd and every other party is entitled by law to free television airtime on germany's public tv station ard and zdf for its advertisements because it is an officially registered political party competing for the upcoming federal elections. its next ad is scheduled for monday night, although broadcasting authorities may again censor the ad.

the party has a membership of approximately 750 -- german newspapers posit that the ads will have little impact on the upcoming election.



us carrier delta air lines cuts jobs, sells planes

the united states' third-largest airline operator, delta air lines, will cut 1,000 jobs due to a planned service reduction at their . the carrier also announced they will sell 11 of their boeing planes to an air-cargo company, abx air inc., since they are the least fuel-efficient aircraft in the fleet.

cincinnati/northern kentucky international airport lost 9 destinations, but the carrier said there would be no inconvenience to passengers. delta will fly to 20 new "business destinations" from atlanta and , instead. also 41 international connections are to be maintained or expanded.

the changes took place due to the difficult financial situation of the company, which suffered $10 billion in losses since 2001, and warned that they would file for if unsuccessful in lowering costs.


un holding recruitment exams in under-represented countries

in order to find p-2 level officers for the united nations , the international organization is holding competitive recruitment competitions in 42 countries. the examinations will take place in february, 2006.

six occupational groups are being sought: architecture, demography, library, security, science and technology, and statistics. there will be a written examination (both a general paper and a specialised paper) and an interview.

the written examination questions are given in english and french, the two working languages of the secretariat. candidates must write their answers for the general paper in english or french. however, they may write their answers for the specialized paper in english, french, or any of the other four official languages of the secretariat, i.e., arabic, chinese, russian, or spanish.

the examinations will take place on february 28, 2006 in new york, addis ababa, , , bangkok, beirut, geneva, monaco, , santiago, , , and .

according to the un, applicants "should hold at least a first-level relevant to the occupational group in which they would like to take the examination. furthermore, applicants should not be more than 32 years old on 31 december, 2006 ... fluency in either english or french is required."

the following countries have been selected for the 2006 competition: andorra, angola, antigua and barbuda, saudi arabia, barbados, botswana, brunei darussalam, cabo verde, comores, republic of korea, gambia, japan, greece, grenada, guatemala, equatorial guinea, israel, kiribati, lao people's democratic republic, liechtenstein, maldives, malta, san marino, marshall islands, mauritius, mexico, micronesia, moldova, monaco, norway, oman, panama, portugal, saint lucia, samoa, solomon islands, switzerland, tajikistan, tonga, tuvalu, usa, and vietnam.

the practice of scouting under-represented nations for highly-qualified employees is an annual occurrence.

the united nations secretariat is one of the principal organs of the united nations and it is headed by the united nations secretary general and assisted by a staff of international civil servants worldwide. it provides studies, information, and facilities needed by united nations bodies for their meetings. it also carries out tasks as directed by the un security council, the un general assembly, the un economic and social council, and other un bodies. the united nations charter provides that the staff be chosen by application of the "highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity," with due regard for the importance of recruiting on a wide geographical basis.


un inquiry finds mismanagement and failure of oversight

the independent inquiry committee's report on the overall management and oversight of the un's has concluded that the united nations requires stronger executive leadership, thorough administrative reform, and more reliable controls and auditing.

the programme included more than $103 billion in transactions (over $64 billion in oil sales and almost $39 billion for food). 

responsibility for what went wrong with the programme is assigned to the , members of the security council, its 661 committee, and the iraqi regime. in a change from past practice, the security council had retained substantial elements of administrative control through its 661 committee. this caused neither the secretariat leadership nor the security council to be in overall control.
there was reluctance of both the and the deputy secretary-general to recognize their own responsibility for the programme's shortcomings and they failed to ensure that critical evidence was brought to the attention of the security council and the 661 committee. they only made minimal efforts to address sanctions violations with iraqi officials, and both failed to provide oversight of the programme's executive director, benon sevan.

as the programme expanded and continued, saddam hussein found ways and means of turning it to his own advantage, primarily through demands for surcharges and kickbacks from companies doing business with the programme. for un agencies, the work went beyond their core competencies of overseeing the distribution of humanitarian goods?from monitoring, planning, and consulting?to infrastructure rebuilding, thus multiplying problems. nor was there much success in coordinating so large a program among un agencies accustomed to zealously defending their institutional autonomy.

there were iraqi attempts to pass money to former secretary-general boutros boutros-ghali, principally through an iraqi-american businessman, samir vincent, and a korean lobbyist, tongsun park. the committee has determined that well over $1 million was paid to mr. vincent and mr. park. however, the committee has not found evidence that secretary-general boutros-ghali received or agreed to receive monies from mr. park and mr. vincent.

the report recommended better oversight and management, financial disclosure by more un staff, and that un agencies should return up to $50 million in excess compensation secured as a result of work performed under security council resolution 1483.

the committee's chairman, paul a volcker, stated, "the inescapable conclusion from the committee's work is that the united nations organization needs thoroughgoing reform?and it needs it urgently. what is important?what has been recognized by one investigation after another?is that real change must take place, and change over a wide area. clear benchmarks for measuring progress must be set. the general assembly should insist, in its forthcoming meeting, that key reforms be put in place no later than the time of its regular meeting in 2006. to settle for less, to permit delay and dilution, would be to invite failure. it would, in reality, further erode public support, undercut effectiveness, and dishonor the ideals upon which the united nations is built."

he added, "before concluding its work, the committee also intends a more comprehensive listing of firms participating in the programme, either in the purchase of oil or the sale of humanitarian goods, as well as a more detailed analysis of the manner in which iraq and its vendors and oil purchasers unlawfully manipulated the programme." 



colleges offering admission to displaced new orleans students/al-ky




















gnome project unveils latest version of linux and unix desktop

the gnome project announced today the release of the latest version of its free desktop environment for linux and unix operating systems. version 2.12 of the gnome desktop has several new features including an updated look and feel, an improved file manager, a new "about me" panel to keep a user's personal information and evince, a new pdf and postscript document viewer. several components comprising the gnome desktop, including its web browser, e-mail client, and multimedia applications, have also undergone significant changes.

owen taylor, chairman of the gnome foundation's board, explained that "gnome 2.12 looks better than ever before and brings greater consistency." he added that "[t]here are useful new features throughout the desktop, carefully implemented to increase usability while keeping gnome simple and intuitive."

the gnome desktop, which is available in 43 languages, has received some attention over the past few years with large deployments, affecting hundreds of thousands of users, reported in spain and brazil and several more on the way in ireland, the united kingdom, and china. the italian south tyrol province of bolzano reported only a few days ago that 16,000 students would now be using the gnome desktop in private and public schools. software vendors such as real networks, mozilla (responsible for the firefox browser), the eclipse project, and vmware have adopted elements of its developer platform for software development.

more than 500 people, both volunteers and employees of sponsoring companies, make up the gnome project, which releases a new version of the gnome desktop every six months. the gnome foundation provides organizational support to the project.



colleges offering admission to displaced new orleans students/la-nd



















colleges offering admission to displaced new orleans students/oh-wy



















colleges offering admission to displaced new orleans students/international





the british council is maintaining a list of uk universities offering admission to us students displaced by hurricane katrina.


aerial photos of katrina's aftermath available

the national oceanic and atmospheric administration is hosting over 3,000 high-resolution images on their website of the devastation along the gulf coast. the images were taken by the noaa remote sensing division using a emerge/applanix digital sensor system or dss from 7,500 feet.

they were mounted on a noaa cessna citation aircraft, a twin engine plane. the plane was the same plane that flew over 'ground zero' of the world trade center site and the pentagon, after september 11th, taking 3-d photographs of them.

the images from the plane was taken to support the national security and emergency management response requirements. the image will also help current research efforts to help develop standards for aerial digital imagery.

google maps also contains some imagery (though limited) at this time when the word new orleans or anything within new orleans is typed in. it can be accessed by clicking the red button labeled katrina.


nz opposition leader admits to fundamentalist contacts

don brash, leader of the opposition national party in new zealand, admitted that he was aware that members of the exclusive brethren church were going to release contentious brochures attacking his political rivals. mr brash said he had met members of the church a number of times. he has admitted today that he was aware of the group's intention to publish brochures that were critical of the labour party and the greens. a spokesman for the group admitted to having spent nz$500,000 on the campaign so far.

the pamphlets were published without the link to the church being obvious. however, former members of the church identified the men as belonging to the church which has been described as a sect. the exclusive brethren are a closed order. its members are not allowed to listen to radio, television or use computers at all. there are approximately 2000 members in new zealand and active branches in the us and australia. they are linked to political support for george bush and other conservative politicians.

 


nasa announces shuttle delay due to hurricane katrina

there will be a delay in future shuttle flights until at least the fall of 2006, due to damaged nasa facilities that house and manufacture parts for the shuttle program. hurricane katrina has damaged several nasa facilities, including not only the kennedy space center, but more importantly the michoud assembly facility in new orleans itself and the stennis space center on the gulf coast of mississippi, both major worksites of nasa subcontractors that help with the servicing of parts for the shuttle. 

the michoud new orleans facility is the primary manufacturing facility for the external fuel tanks that are used on shuttle launches. the stennis space center is the manufacturing and test center for the main shuttle rocket engines. nasa is still trying to contact employees who have been evacuated from the new orleans and gulf coast areas who have not reported to work due to the disaster and current situation in new orleans. nasa announced that the michoud assembly facility will not reopen until september 26th at the earliest.

there have been many setbacks for the shuttle program as well. hurricane katrina simply added to these problems. hurricane ophelia forced the facilities at the kennedy space center to go into a weather protection status, returning the shuttle atlantis back to its hanger from the vehicle assembly building. the external fuel tank that was earlier scheduled to return to new orleans prior to katrina for some minor repairs had to be secured from the storm. "msnbc" reported that wayne hale, nasa’s deputy shuttle program manager, suggests that it may be over a year before they can get back to flying another shuttle mission.

among other problems facing nasa, employees at these damaged facilities have faced very personal losses. some have lost family members, their homes, and more. in some cases, nasa has been unable to locate employees, or employees of contractors. for those that have been located, many of them from new orleans are being transferred either to the kennedy space center in florida, or to the marshall space center in huntsville, alabama. 

at the stennis space center, they at first attempted to put the facility to use as an evacuee center to take in some people coming from out of new orleans. as of wednesday, those plans were dropped when evacuees were being transferred to other facilities better equipped to deal with their long term needs. the center is now focusing on efforts to recover from the damage to the facility itself. 

at the michoud assembly facility, the u.s. marine corp is also using it as a staging area for its operations in new orleans, and as a temporary military base.



news briefs:september 8, 2005

the time is 0930 utc on thursday 8th september 2005, and this is audio wikinews: news briefs.

palestinian gunmen assassinate ex-security chief<br>
former palestinian security chief moussa arafat, cousin of the late palestinian leader yasser arafat, was assassinated at his home in the gaza strip after a half-hour shootout between a number of militants and arafat's bodyguards. they dragged arafat into the street, while still in his pajamas, where he was shot. he was declared dead on arrival to hospital.

there is no indication that this incident will affect the withdrawal of israeli settlers from the gaza strip and parts of the west bank, scheduled to be completed in the next few weeks.
blair is first public official to apologize for hurricane katrina response<br>
british prime minister tony blair has apologised to britons affected by hurricane katrina. many british citizens who were trapped in new orleans have complained to the british foreign office about the lack of response from their government after the hurricane destabilized almost 200 miles of the united states gulf coast.
controversy erupts over german anarchist pogo party's campaign ad<br>
the german anarchist pogo party ran a campaign ad which, instead of discussing the party's politics, featured various party scenes set to a heavy metal soundtrack. the spot included revellers smashing furniture, pouring beer down each other's throats, and women dancing topless. tv channel ard refused to air the ad because it "violates the human dignity" and showed only a heavily censored version at an earlier airtime. the party then sued the station and got an injunction by an appeal court in munster only minutes before the next ad was due, forcing the ard to air the spot uncensored, right before their evening news flagship.

and: 
one year ago yesterday, on september 7, 2004, the wikimedia commons project was presented to the public. wikimedia commons, or simply commons, is a repository for multimedia files that include images, videos, computer animations, and music as well as spoken texts, such as this one. they currently count more than 232,000 files.
thank you for joining us today. to receive more up-to-date news items as they occur, please visit wikinews.org.

and, be sure to check out our weekly full-length audio news program, called audio wikinews: full report.

this recording has been released into the public domain. this applies worldwide.


samsung to sell dual-standard dvd player

samsung announced it will market dvd players capable of playing back both sony's blu-ray and toshiba's hd dvd next-generation optical storage formats, if the two camps refuse to compromise on a single format. assuming development is successful, consumers could expect to see such a device on store shelves next year.

blu-ray and hd dvd are projected to be the successor formats for current dvds. samsung, while leaning towards the blu-ray camp, hopes it can cover both bases by distributing a player with dual-compatibility. while this means spending more in development to unify the two technologies and develop a cost-effective production method, dual compatibility may pay off for the company if the formats challenge each other as vhs and betamax did twenty-five years ago. despite the support for blu-ray, samsung has also been supportive of a unified standard to avoid such costly competition.

hd dvd offers single layer capacity of 15gb, more than triple the size of standard single layer dvds, and benefits from similarities with current dvds, such as cheap production and compatibility with current dvd players. blu-ray can hold 23gb on its smallest single layer version, and is reported to have superior durability and interactivity over current dvd-based technology and hd-dvd. hd-dvd is currently promoted by toshiba, nec, sanyo and microsoft; while blu-ray's base of support is the blu-ray disc association, which is led by blu-ray developers sony and philips. it is notable that sony and philips, who developed the blu-ray format, also competed against the toshiba-designed superdisc dvd standard, which is the standard that is followed today.

the first blu-ray and hd dvd products are expected to start appearing in mainstream markets within the next year.


us fema aid site only supports windows with internet explorer

the us federal emergency management agency (fema) website (for requesting disaster aid) is only functional for applicants using the latest version of the internet explorer web browser on the microsoft windows operating system. users with other web browsers, such as netscape, opera, safari, firefox, or operating systems other than windows, are effectively screened out of the site, which gives them a message that they need to download internet explorer version 6 or call fema at 1-800-621-3362 to register. 

relief workers are setting up many computer kiosks for evacuees to use. these kiosks are built from donated computers, many of which are unable to run windows and/or internet explorer. most of these kiosks use livecd versions of linux, leaving evacuees unable to fill out aid forms. 

a spokesperson for fema told "msnbc" they were aware of the problem, and were trying to resolve the issue. they were, however, unable to provide an estimate of when the problem would be solved. mike quealy, a fema spokesperson, said the issue occurred because this tool was originally designed for in-house use by people working at the call center.

telling the opera web browser to spoof its user agent, by identifying itself as internet explorer, appears to trick the fema website into allowing the user to fill out the form. firefox users can install the prefbar extension (http://prefbar.mozdev.org/), and use the "user agent spoof" dropdown to achieve the same effect. safari users can use the debug drop-down menu (http://developer.apple.com/internet/safari/faq.html#anchor14), and use the "user agent" option to achieve the same effect. other options are to run windows and internet explorer in an emulator such as virtualpc on the mac or vmware on linux. this option is slow and requires the user to already own or purchase a license for windows and the emulator software. purchasing the software can cost several hundred dollars. implementing a software compatibility layer, like the gpl wine project, allows the user to run certain windows software on linux, but still requires valid licenses for windows.



death of candidate will delay final results for german federal election by weeks

the death of a candidate for the bundestag could delay the final outcome of the german federal election by several weeks.

the 43-year old kerstin lorenz, of the far right npd, suffered a stroke during a campaign appearance on monday and slid into a coma. she died on wednesday in the hospital.

the npd must now nominate a new candidate for the constituency of "dresden i" and election officials have to reprint hundreds of thousands of ballot papers. also, the vote of anyone who already sent in their absentee ballot will be declared invalid, and these voters need new ballots as well. the leading election official for the state of saxonia, irene schneider-bottcher, said it would be impossible to achieve all that was required within the time remaining before election day, september 18th. she ordered a by-election for the 2nd of october.

if the election results are extremely close, the outstanding dresden i by-election result could potentially change the final outcome, which would leave germany in uncertainty. while dresden i is only one out of 299 constituencies, it could ultimately decide who will govern the country for the next few years.

the projected majority of the opposition parties fdp and cdu, which headed the polls for months, is shrinking with current government parties greens and spd, along with the party of the left, getting closer by the day.

some constitutional lawyers have also raised concerns if it would be legal to announce any results at all on september 18th. they argue that in the case of a close result, the voters in dresden would realize that they will be the one to decide the election, which could shift their votes. and on the other side, if the race is already over, they might decide to stay at home.


google hires vint cerf, the &quot;father of the internet&quot;

google announced today, september 8, that they have hired vinton cerf, to serve as the chief internet evangelist. he is often referred to as the "father of the internet". while working at the us department of defense advanced research projects agency (darpa) he played an important role in the development of the internet. at darpa he co-designed the tcp/ip protocol, on which the internet runs.

google ceo eric schmidt said "cerf is clearly one of the great technology leaders of our time”. cerf has been awarded the national medal of technology and the premio principe de asturias de investigacion cientifica, or the prince of asturias award for technical and scientific research. people magazine listed cerf as one the "25 most intriguing people" in 1994. in early 2005 cerf was included among the association for computing machinery (acm) 2004 turing award winners. the turing award is considered one of the most prestigious computing awards.

cerf, aged 62, is currently working on developing a new set of planet-to-planet communications protocols for nasa's jet propulsion laboratory. prior to being hired by google, he worked for mci, where he led the development of mci mail. mci mail was the first commercial e-mail service to connect to the internet. cerf also serves as the chairman of the internet corporation for assigned names and numbers (icann), a role he plans to continue. 



oil price falls on inventory report

according to a report published by the u.s. , crude oil stocks declined by 6.5 million, to 315 million barrels. the department also announced that 57% of the production capacity in the is still down, versus 97% the day after the storm.

the doe said it expected that production would not return to normal until december.

yesterday, economists warned that one of the impacts of katrina on the us economy would be a reduction in the number of jobs by up to 400,000. they also said the country's , in the second half of 2005, could be 1% less than expected, due to the surge in oil prices.

the executive director of the (iea), claude mandil, announced a collective action by members of the 26 nation agency. an agreement was reached to supply an additional 60 million barrels to the market over the next 30 days. the biggest contribution of total response comes from north america (52%), then by europe (30%), and finally the pacific region (18%). the share of these increases is based upon of the consumption from each of the iea member areas.


controversial rapper dethrones mariah carey from no. 1

in one of the most shocking changes in no. 1 in hot 100 history, rapper kanye west, who has been in the news this week because of his controversial views on the federal government’s reaction to the relief efforts of hurricane katrina, received a surge of radio airplay in the pop mainstream radio markets and topped the billboard hot 100 for the second time in his career as a performer. 

his “gold digger” featuring jamie foxx vaulted 19-1 on the chart, ending mariah carey’s 14 non-consecutive week reign with “we belong together”. “together” drops to no. 4 on the hot 100. 

the 19-1 rally makes it the fifth biggest gain to no. 1 in hot 100 history. the song also gains a record 94-2 on billboard’s pop 100 chart kept out of the no. 1 on that chart by the pussycat dolls with “don’t cha”.

mariah carey is still no. 2 with “shake it off”. “shake” was widely expected to gain to the hot 100 pole position this week. mariah carey was no. 1 all summer with “together” dethroned only once before by american idol winner carrie underwood with “inside your heaven” on the july 2 chart.

missy elliott’s “lose control” featuring ciara and fat man scoop gained 5-3 while “don’t cha” dropped to no. 5.

bow wow’s “like you” featuring ciara gained 7-6 trading places with rhianna’s “pon de replay”. the only other song gaining into the top-10 is fall out boy’s “sugar, we’re going down” rising 12-8. bow wow’s “let me hold you” featuring omarion fell 5-9 and lifehouse’s “you and me” rounded out the top-10 with a two position dip.


us department of defense reports iraqi al qaeda &quot;safe house&quot; hit

an air strike by coalition aircraft destroyed a house in the city of al-jaramil, in western iraq. the house was believed to have been used by the al-qaeda terrorist organization as a safe house. a man, identified as abu ali and believed by coalition forces officials to be a foreign fighter facilitator was believed to have been killed in the attack.

according to officials, ali was linked to other facilitators in the towns of h?t, al-qaim, karabila and husayba as well as having connections to the mosul area, including an individual that was captured in june and another killed last month. he was also said have had links to syria and saudi arabia, where he reportedly recruited most of his foreign fighters.

it's believed that he brought the foreign fighters into iraq, where they were dispatched to various insurgent groups operating in the country and carried out attacks against iraqi civilians, iraqi security forces and coalition forces.

secondary explosions were reported by the pilots of the aircraft, indicating that the house also contained a cache of weapons.

the munitions used were selected to reduce the risk to civilians in the area, according to the us department of defense.



katrina survivor searchers prepare for the worst

workers are scouring new orleans for any remaining survivors of hurricane katrina, and are vigorously searching for dead bodies. 25,000 body bags have been prepared in advance, in the event that the death toll from katrina is that high. temporary warehouses are being set up around the city to deal with corpse storage.

in the last twenty-four to thirty-six hours, however, officials have revised downward, at least three times, the estimated death toll; 35,000, 10,000, and now less than 10,000. after the first sweep of the city devoted to recovery of bodies, officials retrieved approximately 800 bodies. 

floodwaters are receding, but leaving a great deal of mud and contaminated water in their wake, filled with high levels of bacteria and viruses. 

all survivors are urged to leave the city. dr. julie gerberding, head of the us centers for disease control and prevention (cdc), said "if you haven't left the city yet, you must do so," and stated that anyone who comes in contact with the toxic water must immediately wash themselves with clean water. if necessary, force will be used to remove all remaining citizens from new orleans. 

while dr. gerberding's statement about mandatory evacuation seems clear, other officials have not been as emphatic. when asked about mandatory evacuations, new orleans police superintendent eddie compass, while reaffirming the official word, qualified his statement stating that every reasonable means would be used to logically convince a person that it is in his best interest to evacuate. the superintendent would not comment on whether force would be used if reason failed. furthermore, utility workers are in the process of re-establishing power to the central business district of the city prompting residents in those areas to reconsider the evacuation option.

animal rights campaigners are protesting against evidence that law enforcement officers are killing animals as a form of control. according to helpinganimals.com, pets left behind by evacuees are being shot.

residents of jefferson parish, and the upper portions of saint bernard parish will be allowed to return permanently to their homes starting on monday. conditions in those areas ? re-establishment of power, clearing of roads, and abatement of water ? have improved to the point of making permanent return possible. parish president arron broussard and councilor jennifer sneed stated that residents should be allowed to return as soon as possible so repairs and rebuilding may begin. 

companies are working with the us federal emergency management agency to provide money and support to the victims of katrina, in order to ease them into a new life. in addition, a contract for approximately thirty-three million dollars to repair the i-10 span crossing the eastern portion of lake pontchartrain has been awarded. many of the bridge sections, especially on the eastern-facing span, were knocked off their pilings as hurricane katrina passed close to the city. the contractor expects one span to be repaired and opened for traffic within forty-five days. 

september 10 & 11, 2005
wafb baton rouge
times picayune


afghan-tajik border control transferred from russia

tajikistan will now protect their border unaided by russia, as pyandzh unit border guards leave the area. the guards continued to protect part of the tajik-afghan border until september 1, having begun in a 1993 intergovernmental agreement.

russian border service deputy lt. gen. viktor trufanov told interfax newswire: "the last sector of the afghan-tajik border under the control of the pyandzh unit of russian border guards was transferred to our tajik colleagues on september 1 in conformity with the intergovernmental agreement." 

this week, expert russian border guard officers and tacticians have met with the tajik state border committee, in order to assist in the turnover, according to chief of the border command major-general nikolai kasharin.

since russia took over border control duties in 1993, "china view" reports that 40,000 tajik citizens have been trained by the guards, in anticipation of the handover.

tajikistan is a prime route for illegal drugs from afghanistan, which is the world's top opium producer. drug interdiction and stopping the transport of arms are both high on the list of border guard priorities.


sydney train doors stuck, passengers delayed

there were angry scenes, today, at harris park train station in the western suburbs of sydney, australia, when the 9:12am train to the city stopped at the platform but didn't open its doors. the train stood at the station for about sixty seconds before moving off, leaving about seventy potential passengers standing on the platform.

"the guard looked at me and laughed," said one commuter. some passengers became very angry, yelling at the station attendant and cursing cityrail. "the rail system is a bloody joke!" another commuter yelled. 

the station attendant arranged for one of the western line express services to stop at harris park, which satisfied commuters who, by this time, had started to demand their money back. however, some harris park passengers may have been inconvenienced because the train they were forced to catch did not stop at all stations. the next all-stations train was scheduled to arrive half an hour later. 

cityrail has stated that the doors were not opened by the train guard because of confusion over the timetable. the train was carrying a guard trainer and a trainee guard. according to a cityrail spokeswoman, they were not aware that the train was going to be stopping at harris park.

"the fault is with the guard and they have been disciplined accordingly," the spokeswoman said. 

when questioned about reports of the guard laughing at passengers on the platform, the spokeswoman said that she had no information that this had occurred. she said that it was possible that the guards did not even realise that they were stopped at a station. video footage from the station was used during the investigation. 

many commuters have expressed their dissatisfaction at the state of the rail network for some time, with many writing to major sydney newspapers. as a result, timetable changes have been implemented by cityrail and the new south wales state government, justifying the changes as being necessary to improve safety and reliability. the new cityrail timetable, which commenced on september 1, resulted in a decreased service from harris park. there are now only two city trains departing between 8am and 9am, down from the previous four - the next train from that station to arrive after 9:12am is at 9:42am.


ebay may acquire voip firm skype

online us-based auction company ebay is in talks to acquire voice-over-ip (voip) provider skype for us$5 billion. many believe that ebay intends to enter the rapidly expanding voip market and give recent entrants, google and microsoft, a run for their money.

the speculation that ebay may buy the small luxembourg-based company sent their shares down four percent on wall street.

last month, rupert murdoch, ceo of news corporation, was in talks with skype to possibly buy the company. the talks ended when skype said the company was not for sale.

voip is becoming an increasingly significant threat to traditional telephone companies, since most calls between computers are free and some users wonder why a separate land line is still needed.

skype was founded by the creators of the p2p file-sharing program kazaa. 


ukrainian president yushchenko dismisses pm, cabinet

viktor yushchenko, president of ukraine announced the dismissal of his government thursday, under accusations of graft and political infighting. amongst those dismissed was prime minister yulia tymoshenko.

yushchenko, who won the presidency almost one year ago, in what became known worldwide as the "orange revolution" had vowed to stamp out the corruption that was widespread under leonid kuchma. most of the dismissed officials took part in the revolution that swept the popular yushchenko into power.

yushchenko announced that yuriy yekhanurov, governor of the dnipropetrovsk province would replace tymoshenko, as pm and form a new government. he also claimed that he wanted to give a fresh start to an administration that he said failed to meet the high expectations of supporters.

according to yushchenko, the dismissed officials "...remain my friends. it is very difficult but today i must remove this gordian knot," criticising the dismissed officials for lack of team spirit.

it is hoped by analysts that the technocratic yekhanurov would help strengthen the country's economy, which has suffered recently from a sharp downturn and inflation.

the move is seen as leading to a possible standoff between the president and his dismissed prime minister in the upcoming 2006 parliamentary elections, as tymoshenko is both a powerful political figure and leads her own party alliance. tymoshenko had a notable role within the orange revolution as a public speaker whose speeches brought thousands of supporters to the yushchenko camp, in a revolution that caught the world's attention. she was recently named the third most powerful woman in the world, behind such major political figures as u.s. secretary of state condoleezza rice and wu yi of the people's republic of china.

there had been noted friction between the president and prime minister in recent months, largely over the country's economy. the friction ultimately led the resignation of yushchenko's chief of staff, who cited deep corruption within the administration. this friction may make it difficult for yekhanurov to be confirmed by the parliament, in which the pro-yushchenko groups do not control a majority.

according to the ukrainian constitution, special elections to the verkhovna rada (ukrainian parliament) can be called by the president to be held within sixty days of the initial call. as of yet, with the march elections around the corner, there appears to be no indication that yushchenko will be calling for special elections. 

international response has been mostly similar, with russian president vladimir putin, the u.s. and ukraine's neighbor, poland downplaying the dismissals as being of no cause for alarm.



how the army corps of engineers closed one new orleans breach

after category 4 storm slammed into new orleans, on the night before august 29, 2005, several flood control constructions failed. much of the city flooded through the openings. one of these was the flood wall forming one side of the 17th street canal, near lake pontchartrain. the (usace) is the primary agency for engineering support during such emergencies. a usace team was assessing the situation in new orleans on the 29th, water flow was stopped september 2nd, and the breach was closed on september 5th.

the breaches that occurred on the levees surrounding new orleans were located on the 17th street canal levee and london avenue canal levee. the floodwall atop the canal levee was one foot wide at the top and widened to two feet at the base. the visible portion is a concrete cap on steel sheet pile that anchors to the wall. sheet piles are interlocked steel columns, in this case at least 30 feet long, with 6 to 10 feet visible above ground.

another breach was on a levee by industrial canal, which flooded the east side of the city during the storm.

the 17th street canal levees and london avenue canal levees were completed segments of the lake ponchartrain and vicinity hurricane protection project. although other portions of the lake ponchartrain project are pending, these two segments were complete, and no modifications or improvements to these segments were pending, proposed, or remained unfunded.

the corps was authorized by congress to do a reconnaissance study back in 1999 to provide category 4 or 5 protection. money was received in 2000 and the reconnaissance study was completed in 2002, which indicated there was a federal interest in proceeding with the feasibility study. preparation for that study is still underway, and involves issues such as environmental impacts, economics, and the engineering design of the project itself. the feasibility study was scheduled to begin in fiscal year 2006. it may take six years to complete, and there was nothing that could have been done to get this level of protection in place before this storm hit.

within the city there are 13 subbasins, some of which became flooded. there are existing pumping stations to remove water from the basins. usually there is much less water to remove, and the level became too high for some pumping stations to continue operation.

one of the services of the usace is planning, designing, building and operating dams and other civil engineering projects. it has been deeply involved in creating the navigation waterways and flood control constructions around new orleans, although construction and operation involves various levels of state and local involvement. the corps is well suited toward emergency activities due to its combination of engineering expertise and being a component of the nation's military forces. assigned by the as the primary agency for public works and engineering support, usace supports during disasters.

on saturday, august 27, while katrina was a category 3 storm gathering strength in the gulf of mexico, usace's mississippi valley division was preparing and posturing elements from as far as hawaii. anticipating the possibility of a category 5 storm placing water in new orleans, preparations began for un-watering operations.

usace district engineer, col. richard wagenaar, and a team worked out of an emergency operations shelter in new orleans. other teams waited in the storm's path across the gulf coast. corps employees assessed the situation at the 17th street canal floodwall that was breached overnight. corps engineers believed that water over-topped the floodwall, scoured behind the wall, and caused it to collapse. a second breach was known to have occurred on the industrial canal during the storm. 
the corps worked with the u.s. coast guard, army national guard and other state and federal authorities to bring in all assets available to expedite the process. "we're attempting to contract for materials, such as rock, super sand bags, cranes, etc., and also for modes of transportation - like barges and helicopters, to close the gap and stop the flow of water from into the city," said walter baumy, engineering division chief and project manager for closing the breach.

planning for repairs involved the louisiana department of transportation and development, the east jefferson levee district and orleans levee district, to locate materials and access to the breach
area.

the new orleans district's 350 miles of hurricane levee had been built to withstand a fast-moving category 3 storm. the fact that katrina, a category 4-plus hurricane, didn't cause more damage is considered a testament to the structural integrity of the hurricane levee protection system.

at 2 or 3 am, corps officials got a telephone report of a suspected 17th street canal breach.

flooding had begun slowly, but the second disaster appeared as water poured in even as the winds abated. storm surge and rainfall had raised the level of lake pontchartrain, providing an enormous amount of water which poured into the city. by the end of the day much of the city was under as much as 20 feet of water.

plans were made to begin levee work, including use of 3,000-pound sand bags on the 17 street canal. army national guard helicopters are expected to begin assisting in the operation august 31.

the breach at the 17th street canal levee, a levee-floodwall combination, is about 300 feet long. it's believed that the force of the water overtopped the floodwall and scoured the structure from behind and then moved the levee wall horizontally about 20 feet, opening both ends to flow.

state transportation workers began building a road toward the breach with available equipment.

the corps released two contracts to close the breach in the 17th street canal. the 3,000 pound sandbag operation at the 17th street canal was postponed early in the day when u.s. army helicopters were diverted for rescue missions. the corps continued to coordinate with army officials to have helicopters assist in placement of sandbags at the breaches. the 3,000 pound sandbags are each about 3 feet square.

corps officials worked with orleans parish and louisiana department of transportation officials and boh brothers construction company, headquartered in new orleans, to place piling at the lakefront to stop flow in the 17th street canal. this would stabilize the water flow and allow work on the levee, while also helping to stabilize the rest of the levee system.

along with local and state officials, the corps contracted to build access roads to the breach sites and to fill in the breaches. rock/stone/crushed concrete would be hauled by truck for road construction and to repair the breaches. one plan called for building an access road from hammond highway to the 17th street breach, and then southward to the end of the breach. the road would have to be built to safely permit backing and dumping of heavy materials.

lake pontchartrain was almost back to normal levels, so little water flowed out of the city. this allows a change of plans, and marine equipment was used to drive sheet piling at the mouth of the 17th street canal to seal off the entire canal from the lake.

shortly after 1 pm the first piece sheet piling is driven, to form a steel wall across the lake's entrance to the 17th street canal. the opening was expected to be closed by the end of the day. a contractor began bringing in rock to build a road toward the breach. the breach was south and east of the hammond highway bridge over the canal, with dry land on the west side of the bridge.

rock was being transported from offsite to complete the access road and closure at the 17th street breach. once the rock required to build the roads arrived in new orleans and the access road to the breach has been completed, the corps estimated closure of the breach could be completed in three to four days. several private firms have volunteered services and provided assistance in design of the closure.

the 17th street canal levee, a levee-floodwall combination, was now estimated to have a breach 450 feet long. it was still believed water overtopped the floodwall, scoured the structure, and then moved the structure 20 feet horizontally.

on east side of the 17th street canal, closure by sheet piling of the 200-foot-wide canal was done after the corps was confident that the lake had fallen to a normal level and water was not trapped inside the city that would otherwise drain out by gravity.

water could no longer flow from the lake into the city.

with the mouth of the canal sealed, the sheet piling prevented lake water from getting to the levee breach. since no additional water can get through the breach it was no longer necessary to seal the breach itself. the next step is to get existing pumps working, and to bring in additional pumps to drain the surrounding city and the canal. later, the canal can be drained so permanent repairs will be made to the levee.

helicopters were dropping large sandbags made of strong, synthetic materials in the breach. heavy equipment on the ground has been placing rock. ground access was created by building a rock road from hammond highway, which is about 700 feet lake-ward of the breach. the 17th street canal is a drainage canal whose dimensions and an important bridge, integral to the flood control system, would not permit entry of barges and towboats to haul rocks and placement cranes.

work continued on the breach. the sheet piling still blocks water from flowing in.

17th street canal breach was closed. after the emergency is over, the canal will be drained and the wall repaired.

approximately 125 sandbags had broken the surface of the water.

there were three 42" mobile pumps staged and two 42" and two 30" pumps were placed at the sheet pile closure. sewer & water board, electric utility and 249th prime power engineer battalion were completing pump house inspection.

when pumps began operation, a 40-foot-wide opening was made in the sheet piling to allow water to flow out the canal.

the pump stations began to get online on 17th street canal. pump station 10 was actually pumping at
this point. pump station 6 was interrupted to clean up some debris out of the area.




news corp acquires ign for us$650 million

us-based "news corporation" (formerly based in australia) has announced its purchase of "ign entertainment", a 
us-based online media group, for us$650 million. "ign's" assets include popular video game sites ign.com and gamespy.com, as well as movie and game review site rotten tomatoes. "ign" will become part of the "news corporation's" fox interactive media division, which will expand the company's online presence to become the fourth largest online media company, with over 70 million individual users and 12 billion page views per month when the takeover is complete.

this deal is the third purchase of an online media company by "news corp" since july. the current deals followed the previous purchases of "intermix media" and "scout media". over $1.5 billion has been spent by the company in acquiring online media this year, with another $500 million still to be spent under the current budget.

"news corp" has been criticized for spending too much to bring "ign" into the fold, including paying off the latter's us$50 million debt, since "ign" has never been very profitable. however, "ign" revenue has sharply increased over the past year, and it may be a profitable addition once integrated with "news corp's" other online holdings.



us abc network to offer more shows dubbed in spanish

due to a growing us hispanic population, the american broadcasting company (abc) announced that all primetime shows in their upcoming lineup will be closed captioned in both english and spanish. in addition, four of the shows, as well as many theatrically-released films and other specials, will be dubbed in spanish.

the move was a major one for abc. previously, only the hispanic comedy "the george lopez show" was captioned and dubbed in spanish. "we wanted to move beyond toe-dipping and really dive in," said stephen mcpherson, abc entertainment chief. "almost half of the 41 million hispanics in this country watch only or mostly spanish-language television, and we want to bring that audience to abc."

the "sap" function allows an optional second audio transmission, which may be used for transmitting programs in spanish. however, the additional costs of hiring voice actors to provide spanish dialogue, as well as production costs, have been prohibitive for most networks. mcpherson said that while it was "not inexpensive", having spanish-speaking viewership could yield a significant benefit.

"george lopez" will continue to air, dubbed in spanish. in addition, two of the network's most popular shows, "desperate housewives" and "lost," as well as the new comedy "freddie", will be dubbed; spanish voice actors are currently being cast for the roles.


fema head michael brown recalled to washington

us federal emergency management agency (fema) director michael brown has been recalled to washington after criticism of his role in managing the hurricane katrina crisis. us coast guard vice admiral thad w. allen replaces him as the direct head of operations. 

questions are being raised over brown's background and his claims of previous experience in disaster management. us secretary of the department of homeland security michael chertoff is to hold a press conference in baton rouge at 13:45 edt, where it is expected that an announcement will be made over brown's future role.


malawi food appeal unanswered by world community

the united nations have called upon member states to donate us$88m to fight hunger in malawi. so far, not a single country responded.

u.n emergency relief coordinator jan egeland launched an appeal ten days ago and especially called upon nations in the persian gulf, who are benefiting from the current high oil prices, to donate. "there are many countries in the gulf and elsewhere who have received an enormous windfall from these oil prices. we can save a life for a $1 a day", egeland said.

malawi is one the poorest countries in the world. the majority of the population live on less than one us dollar a day. four million people out of a population of ten million face hunger every single day.

the domestic production of maize has plunged to 1.3 million tons, only half of what is needed to feed the population. the prices on the other hand have increased by 50%, making it even harder for the affected people.

oxfam estimates that in the entire southern africa region, about 10 million people would face serious food shortages later this year if the developed countries don't act quickly. hiv/aids is also a major problem for southern africa with the infection rate being as high as 40% of the adult population.



fema head relieved of duties

the u.s. secretary of , , announced from , louisiana on friday that vice admiral will replace the (fema) director as the principal federal official (pfo) for the recovery effort; however, mr. brown will continue as the director of fema.

admiral allen was given the assignment of special deputy to mr. brown earlier this week. secretary chertoff now describes allen as, "the principal federal official overseeing the hurricane katrina response and recovery effort in the field." 

mr. brown, who came under intense pressure for government failures to provide timely assistance to disaster victims of , was ordered back to and relieved of his duties in the . his immediate fema role now will be for its national administration. the personnel change results in fema's local effort now being headed-up by military leadership, instead of civilian. however, admiral allen's deputy (the number two federal offiicial in the field) is a civilian.
the coast guard came under the homeland's security umbrella in 2003. allen, a career coast guard officer, was in charge of its atlantic forces fleet during the terrorist attack in new york city in 2001. 
mr. brown, who was hailed last week by , "brownie, you're doing a heck of a job," was nominated by bush himself to head fema in 2003. recent allegations that credentials brown listed on his resume prior to employment at fema, which began in 2001, that said he worked in emergency services for the city of , ok from 1975 to 1978, along with being awarded "outstanding political science professor" at the central state university in oklahoma, both have come under fire in a report by "" magazine two days ago. critics question how thorough the white house was in its vetting brown for the fema assignment.

when commenting about mr. brown last friday, senator , who spent more than a week in the hurricane struck area, said "i have been telling him from the moment he arrived about the urgency of the situation" and "i just have to tell you that he had a difficult time understanding the enormity of the task before us."


new orleans officials confiscating guns

law enforcement authorities in new orleans are confiscating firearms, sources in the city say. the confiscations come after a wave of gun violence swept over the flood-ravaged city, with looters shooting at other refugees, police and military authorties, rescuers, and even hospital personnel.

"only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons," said police superintendent p. edwin compass iii. and although this is being enforced, private guards with permits are being allowed to keep their firearms.

blogger michael barnett, who is manning a new orleans datacenter, said he would turn in his weapons if authorities came for them. "i'm not gonna die on the 10th floor of this building to enforce my right to keep and bear arms."


firefox 1.5 beta released to public

a beta release of the next major version of the mozilla foundation's web browser, firefox 1.5 (formerly called "deer park", the codename for firefox 1.5), is now available for download.

new or improved features cited by the company:


many current and potential security issues have been fixed and the new version offers a more secure "safe mode". privacy improvements include a "clear private data" feature. the browser's pop-up blocker now prevents macromedia flash from creating pop-up ads.

after updating to 1.5, further updates should be easier, as users can use the program's new "software update", which now can download binary patches, which are much smaller than the complete install programs used in the past.

most mac os x (10.2 and up) users will now be able to copy their settings from apple's own browser, safari, and market leader internet explorer. microsoft windows and most version of linux are supported, as before.

as beta software, firefox 1.5b1 is primarily for testing and checking to ensure no major bugs exist. mozilla intends to release a second beta version (1.5b2) before the final, stable public version (1.5).

with the upgrade to firefox 1.5 (beta) from 1.06, many of the plugins supported by 1.0+ will be disabled.

1.5 will supplant the current 1.0.7 as the most up-to-date version of firefox. 1.5 was originally to be numbered 1.1, but after significant changes were made, beyond the intended roadmap, the version number was changed.

chris beard, head of products and marketing at mozilla, told techworld "we've had a pretty successful year following the launch of firefox 1.0 and we're continuing to see very strong demand." 



report: annan failed to fix oil for food program

after a year-long investigation, a committee has found that kofi annan, head of the united nations, failed to halt corruption in the oil for food program, which was supposed to provide food to impoverished iraqi citizens. 

according to paul volcker, head of the independent inquiry committee, "our assignment has been to look for mis-or mal-administration in the oil-for-food program and for evidence of corruption within the un organization and by contractors. unhappily, we found both." 

the report emphasized that annan knowingly allowed saddam hussein to continue making huge unethical profits off of the program.

while annan acknowledged that there was blame to pass around, he stated that "none of us -- member states, secretariat, agencies, funds and programs -- can be proud of what it has found." annan also says that he was at least partly at fault for the corruption; "the report is critical of me personally, and i accept its criticism."

on a lighter note, while the report is critical of annan, it also says that the oil for food program did help get food to many iraqis.



new movies, 9 september 2005

a look at some of the movies set to be released in north america, the week of 9 september, 2005.

note, "fresh" or "rotten" refer to the movie's rotten tomatoes rating, based on north american critical reviews. the higher the percentage, the greater the percentage of critics that liked the movie.

nineteen-year-old college student emily rose (played by jennifer carpenter) was the victim of a demonic possession. the story follows the lawyer, erin bruner (laura linney) and her fight against the church and the priest named father richard moore (tom wilkinson) who performed the botched exorcism. according to the director, this may be the first ever courtroom horror film.

the film is loosely based on the actual events of michel in 1962. german director hans-christian schmid is launching his own treatment of anneliese michel's story, "requiem", around the same time in late 2005. his movie stays very close to the real-world events and is a drama rather than a horror film.

released by sony pictures. also stars campbell scott, shohreh aghdashloo.

44% approval by north american film critics

an "on-the-take" federal agent turns up dead on the mean streets of detroit, suspicions arise around street-wise agent derrick vann (played by samuel l. jackson). vann's given 24 hours to recover the stolen arms and find the cop killers, but he's about to stumble upon an unlikely ally. the affable, optimistic dental supply salesman andy fiddler (eugene levy) is pulled into the mix after a case of mistaken identity, and must help vann complete the mission.

released by new line cinema.

16% approval by north american film critics



israel completing gaza withdrawal

israel destroyed their last remaining military facilities in the gaza strip today, leaving behind as few remnants of the occupation as possible. soldiers placed explosives in the buildings, and watched as they were destroyed, sources say.

shaul mofaz, israel's defense minister, expects the final pullout from gaza to be completed by monday or tuesday. the remaining military troops in gaza remain in military vehicles while waiting for the pullout.

it is being currently debated in the israeli cabinet as to whether the synagogues will be demolished. the decision is expected to come on sunday. according to mofaz, "it is very hard for me to give the army orders to destroy and blow up jewish synagogues." 

if the synagogues are to be destroyed, the pullout will be delayed a day, and the pullout will be completed on tuesday. the last soldier to leave gaza will be general aviv kochavi, who will lock the kissufim gate in a symbolic event.


ford, fiat to produce small cars together

italian-based fiat auto spa and us-based ford motor co. announced they signed an agreement to cooperate in designing two small car models. this came only seven months after general motors severed their relationship with fiat.

both companies plan to work together on a new version of the popular fiat cinquecento and on a replacement for the ford ka, both to be based on the fiat panda platform.

the cooperation can help reduce the companies' small car production costs and ease financial difficulties they are facing. ford is struggling with high labor and health care costs, while fiat suffers from its unprofitable italian plants.

after the deal was announced, shares of fiat rose $0.06 to $9.44, while ford gained $0.06 to $9.95 on the new york stock exchange (nyse).


all major american tv networks show charity concert for katrina victims

on friday, all six major american television networks; abc, cbs, fox, nbc, wb, and upn, along with most pbs stations, united in a rare show of solidarity to air a one hour charity concert called "shelter from the storm: a concert for the gulf coast".

the concert aired live at 8pm in the eastern time zone and 7pm in the central time zone and on tape-delay in the mountain and pacific time zones. it was also shown on the internet and many cable networks such as usa, bravo and g4.

the show was produced by joel gallen, the same man behind the september 11th tribute concert "america: a tribute to heroes". the show was not censored for political statements but was for obscenities. gallen did not expect any political statements. last week, rapper kayne west made a remark on an nbc charity show "a concert for hurricane relief", in which west claimed that "george bush doesn't care about black people.", which caused controversy.

the concert began with randy newman singing "louisana 1927." throughout the concert there were notable acts, such u2 performing "one" with mary. j blige. another moment was garth brooks, trisha yearwood and the house band from the late show with david letterman doing a cover of john fogerty's "who'll stop the rain".

donations were being solicited for the american red cross and the salvation army.

telecom company at&t provided toll-free calling and 10 call centers for the event and mci provided volunteers from their call centers.

bet also held a charity concert called "s.o.s (saving ourselves)", a half-hour before cutting to the main one.

mtv, mtv overdrive, vh1 and cmt will air a charity show saturday called "react now: music & relief".



british gas announces a hike in energy bills of 14.2%

one of britain's largest domestic energy suppliers, british gas, has announced that it is to raise the price of its gas and electricity prices by a record 14.2%. it blames the price rise on increasing wholesale gas prices, which have gone up by over 50% in the past year, the rising cost of oil & the increasing difficulty in getting gas from the north sea, a major gas field for the united kingdom. 

250 000 people on low incomes will receive a one-off gbp 60 (usd 110.35 , eur 88.93) rebate to alleviate this price rise. 

this follows increases from other suppliers including powergen and edf energy, with both having risen their prices by 7 to 12%. energywatch, britain's consumer energy watchdog has said domestic gas and electric bills have gone up by 17 and 22% on average respectively in the last 18 months to august.

in 2004, british gas increased its prices by 5.9% in january and 12.4% in september.

across the water in ireland, the irish government approved a 25% increase on gas prices by the state owned monopoly, bord gais.



red cross is not in new orleans for katrina, guard raced it to superdome

the american red cross is not lending its usual assistance in new orleans, because the louisiana national guard acted first. after saturday september 3, it was agreed with state officials the red cross was not needed because the large-scale evacuation of the city was under way.

the organization explains on its web site:

on september 1, the red cross offered to louisiana state officials to enter new orleans, who rejected the offer due to logistical difficulties. making the offer the next day to col. jay mayeaux, the deputy director of the louisiana office of homeland security and emergency preparedness, the red cross was asked to wait 24 hours while preparations were made. by the next day, saturday september 3rd, the national guard had arrived in the city, felt they had adequate supplies and did not need the red cross.

the american red cross is often involved in emergency situations, and the term applied to the superdome, "refuge of last resort", is based on red cross shelter standards. it is the minimal type of shelter, defined primarily by not meeting shelter standards:


despite the superdome being a minimal shelter, it was reported there were 26,000 people there. as the times-picayune reported on sunday, august 28, col. mayeaux was involved in preparations:

the national guard delivered enough food for 15,000 people for 3 days, to a place which may have had 26,000 people. four days later, national guardsmen accompanied by buses (475 in all) and supply trucks arrived at the superdome on september 1.


single-engine plane crashes into home in cyprus

limassol. at least two people have died at a cypriot army aircraft crash in the village of kolossi this morning, west of the island's southern coastal town of limassol.

kolossi is a community of some 2,000 britons, germans and cypriots.

director of the president's press office marios karoyan told cna that the aircraft was a pc - 9 (pilatus). it is one of the two training military aircraft of the national guard (cyprus army) and according to the first reports two people have died, believed to be the two pilots.

defence minister kyriakos mavronicolas and national guard commander lieutenant-general athanasios nikolodemos have rushed to the area. ambulances and fire engines are in the area.


australia proposes new anti-terror laws

the proposed legislation includes an increase in the number of security cameras, penalties for leaving bags unattended at airports, electronic tags and restraining orders on suspects and tougher jail terms for inciting violence. greater powers will be given to police and spy agencies to deal with terror suspects, and the length of time before permanent residents may apply for citizenship will increase from two to three years.

the australian government has received criticism over its new proposed anti-terror laws, claiming they are encouraging a transition into a police state. critics say that the laws are draconian, too open to abuse, and may restrict the australian 'way of life'.

the government has responded by saying that the laws are necessary to ensure security due to the rising terrorist threat to australia. it is also considering sunset clauses for some laws, to counter claims that the laws may be abused after the terror threat has ebbed. 

there has been concern from the muslim community that the laws are unfairly biased against muslims. the government denied this. the prime minister john howard said all australians, including muslims, should have nothing to fear if they are law-abiding citizens. "these laws are not directed at islamic people, they are directed at people who might be contemplating terrorist deeds," mr howard said.

there will be a meeting of state and federal leaders, to determine the finer details of the new legislation, later this month.


one week before german federal election, the race is wide-open again

with only one week to go till the , all polls say it's impossible to predict who will govern the country for the next four years (for the polls see end of article).

's (cdu) had headed the polls for over two years. only three months ago, when chancellor proclaimed he would seek early elections, a move that at the time was considered to be political suicide by many commentators, it seemed not unlikely that the cdu could even govern on its own, without an coalition partner. while their lead was slowly shrinking in the past few months, there was still a comfortable majority for a coalition with the (fdp).

then came the tv debate between schroder and merkel. commentators and newspaper editorials first thought it didn't have much impact. sure, the "media chancellor" schroder was widely considered to have performed better, but that was to be expected. and merkel certainly wasn't as bad as schroder's (spd) had hoped. also the topics they talked about weren't really new. every position they stated had already been printed and broadcasted over and over again.

but something did happen. the cdu plunged between 2-3% in the various polls, while the spd gained as much as 3.5%. suddenly the black-yellow (named for the party colors of the cdu and fdp) majority was gone. but the current red-green (this time the colors of spd and ) coalition is even farther from reaching a majority because there is also the .

the left party (or simply the left) is essentially a renamed pds, which in turn is the successor of the , the former ruling party of the . it failed the 5% quorum in the 2002 election and currently only has two representatives in the ; both won constituencies in east berlin. the left originally planned to merge with the , a party mainly consisting of former spd members who were disappointed by schroder's social reforms, before the election which would have been held in 2006. however, they were caught off guard by the early elections call, so candidates of the wasg for the bundestag now run under the left banner. one of them is .

lafontaine was the party chair of the spd. he was also the finance minister in schroder's first government. but only a few months after the spd got in power after 16 years of cdu government, he resigned in march 1999 from both the offices of minister and party chair, citing insurmountable political and personal differences with schroder. he largely stayed out of politics, writing only a few books and newspaper columns, but is now, along with , one of two front-runners of the left party.

so the party of left may tip the scales in this election. but all other parties have ruled out a coalition with them and the left itself also called it impossible that a common ground could be found with the "neoliberal" parties currently in the bundestag.

so, assuming neither black-yellow nor red-green reach a majority, what options are left? maybe, the only remaining possibility is a grand coalition between the spd and the cdu. but the differences between those two parties seem irreconcilable from today's viewpoint. there are radically different approaches in the fields of taxation, social and labor reforms to name only a few. angela merkel has recruited a jurist from the german constitutional court, , to her team. kirchhof plans to introduce a on income, 25% for everyone, and remove all tax exemptions. while the cdu doesn't want to go that far during the next four years, it has already named kirchhof finance minister in the case they win the election. the spd has blasted those plans as "radically unsocial" and instead plans to increase the taxes for wealthier people.

another hot topic is germany's high unemployment. the cdu plans to abolish the dismissal protection of workers to give companies greater flexibilty in the hiring of their employees. again, this is a no-go for the spd. 

but the two parties won't even speculate about this option. both ruled out a coalition with each other. nonetheless, 35% of all germans think this coalition would be the best for the nation, a survey by the zdf shows. that is still more than the 31% who would favor a black-yellow coalition and 17% who want a continuation of the current red-green government.

so, germans have to wait for the 18th of september to know who will govern them for the next four years. but then again, it might even take two weeks longer because a by-election is required in dresden, after a candidate died. and if it gets even closer than the aforementioned polls suggest, germany will have to wait till october 2nd for a new, or the old government.


swedish minister wants more free-to-air channels in the terrestrial television network

in a press release on september 8 from the swedish ministry of education, research and culture it was announced that new television broadcasting licenses for the swedish digital terrestrial television network was to be given and that the radio and television authority (rtvv) had been given the task to handle the applications. all digital television licenses will cease by the end of 2005 and the companies must apply for a renewal if they want to continue broadcasting in 2006 and 2007.

minister leif pagrotsky says in the press release that he is "taking an initiative towards a broader offer and more free channels". he doesn't give any clue on how this will be done in the press release, however. in an interview in dagens media, his press secretary thomas johansson says that new applicants most likely must offer free-to-air channels if they want a licence. johansson says that there is space for at least two more channels in the network.

the rtvv shall leave a suggestion of what channels will get new or continued licenses on november 21, 2005. as of september 8 tv4 ab, dagens industri, sportexpressen and eurosport sa had sent their applications for new or continued licenses.

currently, very few of the 33 channels in the network have chosen to go free-to-air, in contrast to the united kingdom, germany and finland where most channels are free-to-air.



wendy’s finger pointers plead guilty of crime

the notorious anna ayala, who caught the world’s attention by filing a lawsuit against the fast food restaurant wendy's, for a piece of a human finger she claimed was served in her bowl of chili, pleaded guilty to all charges brought before her in the case. her co-defendant husband, jaime placencia, also pleaded guilty friday to charges they both faced for conspiring to file a false claim and attempted grand theft.

the plea of guilt amounts to an admission the two conspired to plant the fingertip in ayala's bowl of chili. the stage set for a lawsuit against wendy's was met by the company's own reward of us$100,000 for information leading to the source of the finger part. 

a week before yesterday’s trial, the prosecutor for santa clara county, deputy district attorney chuck gillingham, made it clear that the two would not be offered a plea bargain. gillingham expressed confidence in the strength of the case against them. wendy's international inc. said the negative publicity generated by the ayala claims cost the company $2.5 million in lost sales.
ayala, 39, and placencia, 43, remained in jail prior to the trial in lieu of $500,000 bail each. ayala faces up to 10 years in prison, and her husband faces 13 years. sentencing is set for november 2.
wendy’s aggressively pursued evidence to counter ayala’s claims. suspicion against the claims grew as forensic evidence mounted. ayala was later arrested in nevada for selling a motor home to a woman who paid for it, but never got the home, because it belonged to her husband placencia.

ayala’s husband supplied the fingertip that was planted in the chili from a work incident involving a co-worker.


saudi arabia agrees with the us on joining the wto

saudi arabia signed on friday a trade agreement with the united states, which was considered to be one the last major hurdles to the world trade organisation membership of the kingdom. now, saudis have to complete negotiations at the geneva-based wto on the formal accession document.

the deal opens saudi markets to us farm and manufactured goods, as well as most services, including it, financial, energy and tourism sectors. it also forced saudis not to boycott us companies which are doing business with israel.

the kingdom also promised to have normal trade relations with all 148 wto members, which include israel.

the other problem remains a saudi-eu row over gas prices. the eu officials accused saudi arabia of selling the natural gas to their home petrochemicals at rates below international market prices, which could cause losses to the european producers.



blackwater mercenaries used in new orleans

as of september 1, 2005, blackwater usa sent equipment and security forces to the hurricane katrina disaster area, including a sa-330j puma helicopter, with the stated purpose of assisting in the evacuation of citizens from flooded areas. a later press release on blackwater usa's web site confirms that their privately contracted forces are on the ground in new orleans, being used to secure petrochemical facilities and provide security services for the federal government.

private citizens are also reported to be hiring blackwater "military warriors" and bodyguards to protect them and/or their expensive homes in new orleans, such as in the garden district, despite the repeated mandatory evacuation orders of all civilians by local, state, and federal authorities. one publication has reported that the number of soldiers for hire could be in the hundreds, as told to them by the commander of blackwater's operations in the city. israeli mercenaries from the firm known as isi were also seen guarding a gated community, and were wearing full military gear including bulletproof vests and m16 assault rifles.

blackwater has a history of being employed by the u.s. government and by private contractors across iraq over the last two years to protect civilian and military convoys and provide security and bodyguarding services.


guadalupe river park and gardens opens in san jose, ca, usa

the city of san jose, california greeted the opening of the guadalupe river park and gardens today with festivities, music, and dancing. local organizations and businesses offered booths and activities for the crowd.
themed "a park for many reasons, a park for all seasons", the opening marked the culmination of 12 years of building, at a cost of $340 million. with trails running 2.6 miles along the guadalupe river, the park offers an open space for city residents, preserves habitat for local wildlife, and works in conjunction with local flood control projects. 

planning for the park began in 1985 and construction continues to extend the trails along the lower guadalupe river to alviso by 2006.




chile remembers its own september 11 anniversary

september 11, 2005 is not only a day of remembrance for the united states, but for chile as well. on september 11, 1973, general augusto pinochet took control of chile with support from the us, establishing a military dictatorship that lasted 17 years.

the day is often one marked by violence. this year, riots in protest of the government have broken out across chile. the government stated that it would not tolerate violence. 

at least four were injured and 20 arrested in connection with rioting, sources say. 

chile remains divided by the current government. "this is not the chile we want to build," says the current president, ricardo lagos.

pinochet had claimed that the democratically elected leader of chile, salvador allende was a communist intent on aligning the country with the soviet union.

pinochet is now being sued for various human rights abuses committed during his reign, and has all but left the public spotlight. many of the former officials of the pinochet regime have been arrested and detained. hundreds of said officials have been tried for human rights crimes, but only four have been convicted. 

lorena pizarro, leader of a group of families of victims of pinochet's violence, stated, "one works hard to get a human rights violator indicted and then he is pardoned." she further said, "those who are guilty must be punished. we will continue to fight to gain even more convictions."


loyalist rioting erupts in belfast

rioting and disorder erupted in belfast, northern ireland on saturday because of a controversial decision to reroute the orange order parade. loyalists attacked the police and army with blast bombs (homemade grenades) and petrol bombs. there was widespread stone-throwing, and barricades were erected on some roads that caused traffic disruptions in the city. in some places, automatic gunfire was heard, with police returning live fire. 

half a dozen police were injured, and two men were taken to hospital ? one with a gunshot wound, and another was caught in the blast of an explosion.

the parade route was altered by the parades commission. the intended path of the original parade route was through a nationalist part of springfield road, with the potential to result in rioting and violence (the route would have had to pass through a 30 foot high security barrier, one of the "peace lines". unionists called for the decision to be reconsidered by the commission; however, no change was made. instead of passing through springfield road, the orange order parade was required to proceed through the site of the engineering firm mackies.

the streets of northern and western belfast echoed with sounds of violence not commonly heard since the late 1990s and the troubles. petrol and blast bombs were used by rioters, and water cannon and plastic bullets were used by police. several cars and a bus were hijacked, and roads were closed off by mobs of people. a number of buildings were set alight with fire around the outskirts of the city.

throughout the night, violence spread to outlying towns around belfast, including ballymena, ballyclare, carrickfergus and larne.

police chief constable hugh orde described the rioting as perhaps the worst such situation ever seen in the united kingdom - particularly because of the use of firearms in a public order situation. he controversially held the orange order responsible for the disorder, and complained about the politicians who called for people to protest. the rev. ian paisley had threatened at the time of the parade rerouting decision by the parades commission that it "could be the spark which kindles a fire there would be no putting out".

the response of unionist politicians has been to accuse the police of brutal and heavy-handed tactics. hugh orde has praised the police for being "heroes", and suggested that no other police force in the uk, europe, and perhaps even the us has had to deal with such ferocity in a public order situation. unionists described the chief constable's comments as "inflammatory".


red cross asks for more volunteers

the american red cross is seeking at least 40,000 more volunteers to replace current relief workers suffering from fatigue.

“this is a disaster of such scope and such significance that it is not going to go away in a few weeks or a few months,” said ken degnan, a spokesman for the american red cross. 

the organization is currently sheltering 116,000 victims. it has 36,000 volunteers in the field and is currently running 675 shelters across the nation.

the reason the recruitment is needed is due to the fact that the 36,000 will begin to rotate as they go home to their families.

volunteers are encouraged to sign up on their local chapter's website or call and leave their contact information.

from an atlanta chapter email:

"please do not go to a red cross location without prior scheduling. only scheduled volunteers will be working at each site. thank you for your patience in this process. our trained volunteers and staff are being utilized to respond to families in need and to the thousands of calls coming in from people wanting to help. however, we do appreciate your generous offer and will be in contact based on the current needs."


read santa clara marks tenth anniversary

"santa clara, california, usa". the adult literacy program read santa clara marked its tenth anniversary today with a gathering of program participants, staff, and supporters from the community. read santa clara trains volunteer tutors and matches them with adult learners who wish to build their literacy skills.

in the presentation, program staff and supporters reviewed the program's history and growth, honored long-time participants, and looked toward the future.

santa clara mayor patricia mahan spoke at the gathering, noting, "read santa clara joins people who need to learn with people who need to teach, and what a powerful combination that is." she added, "i think adult literacy is so important."

program coordinators estimate that tutors volunteered some 5000 hours last year. city manager jennifer sparacino estimates, "that's worth about $100,000 per year in volunteer time."

learners also spoke about what read santa clara meant to them. raymond moreno said, "i hope it stays for another ten, twenty, thirty years, because we need it." juan velasquez said, "my life has changed a lot...i did many things i could not have done without help." and ike moore said, "to be able to express myself...what a gift!"


us peace activist to be deported from australia

a us peace activist and history teacher, scott parkin, has been arrested in melbourne after his visa was revoked on grounds of character. he was deemed "a threat to national security" by the australian department of immigration, according to a spokesperson from anti-deportation alliance. the abc has reported that the federal police have confirmed an american man was arrested on the orders of the immigration department (dimia) and is in custody.

mr parkin, a native of houston, texas, usa, participated in an anti- war-profiteering protest outside halliburton in sydney on august 31, and was also reported to have attended the forbes global ceo conference protest.

liz thompson from the national anti-deportation alliance (nada) said mr parkin was held by federal police at carlton west police station before being moved to melbourne custody centre on saturday september 10. she said the incident seemed to contradict philip ruddock's denial that australia was turning into a police state.

"this is a major attack on dissent, free speech and the anti-war movement. this should be a warning to everyone about the greater powers that asio may soon be granted," ms thompson said. she was referring to the proposed legislation to increase police and asio powers in dealing with suspected terrorists. 

federal attorney-general phillip ruddock stated that he knew of the case, and that it was an issue for the immigration minister. he said that a security assessment of mr parkin had been conducted, and it was this security assessment that provided the basis for the decision to revoke his visa. 

"i understand the decision was based upon a security assessment, and security assessments are not something about which i can comment in any detail," he said. "i understand it's a decision that's been taken by the minister for immigration and that there may be legal proceedings surrounding it."

spokesperson for the brisbane peace convergence kim stewart said mr parkin's detention and deportation posed a "dangerous precedent to free speech in australia".

"by arresting and threatening to deport mr parkin, the government is already using its power to silence non-violent peace campaigners and discourage peaceful dissent in our community," ms stewart said.

julian burnside qc, a prominent human rights lawyer, asked why it took so long for authorities to act if indeed mr parkin is a security threat.

"they've got the right but the question is whether that right has been exercised in a way that provides sufficient protection for ordinary citizens of australia," he said.

greens senator bob brown also criticised the arrest, suggesting that pressure may have been applied by the united states government. 

"the howard government appears to be doing the bush administration’s bidding. as far as i know, mr parkin has broken no australian law. he was granted a visa to enter this country, so his arrest contradicts the government’s own assessment of his credentials,” 

"it seems to have nothing to do with terrorism. the howard government will do whatever washington asks of it and i am very concerned the request for his arrest came in the wake of information from washington," mr brown said. 

the government is currently calling for increased police powers ostensibly to protect the country from terrorists. some groups are concerned that these powers will be used against critics of government policy. 

"our fears that these [anti-terrorist] powers would be used against activists have been justified by yesterday's police action," said kim stewart.

scott parkin, on the day of his arrest, was due to give a workshop titled: "bringing down the pillars - people power strategies against war and capitalism". the workshop was sponsored by forest action trust, pt'chang nonviolence training project, and friends of the earth melbourne.

parkin had done guest lectures and teach-ins in the past; he has been an organizer with houston global awareness, including direct action pertaining to the 2004 and 2005 protests outside the halliburton shareholders meeting. he is also an active participant with houston indymedia despite 'outing' maoist-themed activists by enforcing quasi-apartheid policy of noncollaboration. 

greenpeace is providing legal help to mr parkin and advised that he had instructed his lawyers to appeal to the migration review tribunal to review the basis on which his visa was withdrawn.

danny kennedy, greenpeace campaigns director, said: "the burden of proof in the scott parkin expulsion case lies morally with the commonwealth, to prove that he is a danger. when the government brought in anti-terror legislation, they promised the public that these laws would only be used to confront a real and present risk of a terrorist attack, not a sweep-all approach against citizens. peace is not terrorism. peace is not a threat to national security. no democratic government should expel a foreign citizen because [it] opposes his political opinions."

protests against the detention and deportation of scott parkin have taken place outside the melbourne custody centre today, as well as in sydney.



vivaldi atlantic 4 break canada-europe record

the crew of the 29' naturally best arrived at the finish line off scilly on 11 july, having started their journey on 31 may, smashing the current 55-day record.

the crew made up of steve dawson, 43, nigel morris, 40, george rock, 41, rob munslow, 26, all from the uk. they completed the route from st john's, newfoundland to , off the isles of scilly, in 40 days and 22h 9m 30s.


england win the ashes

england's cricket team have won the ashes with a draw in the final test.

england won the series 2-1, with the other two tests drawn. australia won the first test comfortably, but the second test saw england level the series with a two run victory that was the narrowest win in ashes history. the third test ended in a draw (with england one wicket away from a win), and england narrowly won the fourth test in nottingham by three wickets after the english enforced follow on after a poor first innings by australia.

the fifth and final test started on 8 september at the oval in london. it entered its final day evenly balanced with all results still possible and the destination of the urn still in doubt. australia needed to win to force a 2-2 series draw and retain the ashes; any other result would give them to england, ending 18 years and eight series of australian dominance. in the end, england managed to bat out the final day, and a draw ensured the ashes were coming back to england.

kevin pietersen and ashley giles hit personal bests of 158 and 59 respectively, to bat out the best part of the last day. pieterson's 158 was his maiden test century, and included 7 sixes. early in the day, australia looked to be in with a chance of winning the match, with early wickets leaving england at 67 for 3. giles and pietersen's century partnership, though, left australia with no hope of catching england in the remains of the day, sealing england's ashes win since 1987.

england's next tests will be an away series in pakistan. meanwhile, the world champions australia will play an icc world xi (which inclues kevin pietersen, steve harmison and andrew flintoff) in the johnnie walker super series in early october. 



fema accused of misusing trained disaster workers as public-relations workers

the federal emergency management agency (fema) is being criticized for misallocation of personnel in the wake of hurricane katrina. fema representatives said they requested volunteers from fire departments around the u.s., to handle its community relations campaign. however, a document fema sent to local fire departments asked for firefighters with very specific skills and who were capable of working in "austere conditions". fire departments around the nation responded by sending crews to the fema staging ground in atlanta. some of these crews were unaware that they were only going to be used for public relations work. others, however, merely hoped that fema would allocate them to rescue and damage control operations once it saw their qualifications.

the firefighter's objections are particularly poignant as one of fema public relations training seminars coincided with new orleans mayor ray nagin plea for firefighters on national television, to relieve his own exhausted crews. it is unclear if fema's request for firefighters prevented any municipalities from responding to mayor nagin's request.

some firefighters have objected to their use as fema public relations officers because their municipalities must bear the cost of their salaries, as well as endure reduced firefighting capacity. fema has stated that it sought to use firefighters to avoid background checks required of federal employees.

firefighters began receiving their assignments monday, september 5th. among these was a crew of 50 assigned to tour the devastated areas with president bush and the press.


uk chancellor blames opec for oil crisis, refuses to cut fuel tax

the united kingdom chancellor gordon brown blamed oil producers from opec for oil prices surge in the bbc's sunday am programme. mr brown accused 'the cartel' of the lack of reaction on china's rising oil demand. he said that he wanted opec to increase supplies by the end of the month.

however, the chancellor insisted that the government would not ease the tax on fuel, saying that the price surge is "a global challenge that demands global measures". he admitted the situation is as serious as it was in 1970s oil crisis, but added that the slump can be avoided due to stability and low inflation rate of the british economy.

mr brown will probably have to face country-wide protests on high fuel prices. the protesters from the fuel lobby give the government three days to meet them to discuss lowering the fuel tax, then they threat refinery demonstrations and motorway go-slows.


koizumi wins electoral mandate for postal reform

japanese prime minister junichiro koizumi is set to win the election that has resulted from the previous dissolution of half the legislature over privatization and reform of the japanese postal system. the japanese postal system deals with post and banking and life insurance services as well, and koizumi earlier proposed legislation to divide the postal system and to privatize it, which failed, with governing liberal democrat members crossing the floor on the issue. koizumi then dissolved the lower house in order to gain a mandate for the reforms.

polls have predicted koizumi will win this election by a landslide, permitting the liberal democrats to govern without any alliances. the opposition democratic party leader katsuya okada has said he will resign if the election was lost.

there have also been reports of electoral "assassins", attractive candidates, who were intended to push out the rebel government ministers who helped defeat the postal reform bills.



katrina raised gas prices higher than ever

the retail price of gasoline has risen higher than ever in the wake of . the losses from the deadly hurricane include the destruction of oil refineries all around the mexican gulf area, and resulted in a cut of nearly 11 percent of u.s. refining capacity. 

it is estimated that 897,605 barrels of oil production has been curtailed, an amount which accounts for nearly 59.8% percent of the gulf of mexico's total daily output. since katrina, 17.1 million barrels have not been produced. there were 122 oil platforms shut down, out of 819 platforms in the gulf.

the national average retail price for gas was $3.04 on sunday. this exceeds the previous inflation-adjusted record of $3.03, set in march of 1981.

the survey was published by trilby lundberg, who publishes such surveys semi-monthly. 

these prices are all "thanks to katrina," said lundberg. 
lundberg also says that prices could drop in the next few weeks, as the hurricane damaged areas are repaired, and less gas is being purchased nationwide because of lowered demand due to higher prices.



bush approval rating sinks to 38%

a new newsweek poll shows that president bush's approval rating has fallen to an all-time low of 38%. the drop comes largely in response to the bush administration's -- and in particular, fema's -- inability to handle the recent rescue and recovery efforts after hurricane katrina hit new orleans, louisiana.

the poll also shows that 57% of people have lost faith in the administration's ability to handle a natural disaster. 52% do not feel bush has the ability to make good decisions in a time of crisis.

the poll of 1,009 people, which has a margin of error of 4%, also showed that the country is still split on issues such as dealing with terrorism, homeland security, and military action in iraq. an overwhelming 66% are not satisfied with the current direction of the country.

the combination of the above issues are likely contributing to president bush's declining approval rating. the strong and vocal criticism from mayor ray nagin of new orleans may be one factor in the near-term decline. nagin has given a number of publicized interviews during the recovery crisis, and the following is from the sunday, september 11 broadcast of "msnbc meet the press":

mr. russert: what's the biggest mistake you made?<br> 

mayor nagin: my biggest mistake is having a fundamental assumption that in the state of louisiana, with an $18 billion budget, in the country of the united states that can move whole fleets of aircraft carriers across the globe in 24 hours, that my fundamental assumption was get as many people to safety as possible, and that the cavalry would be coming within two to three days, and they didn't come. 

responding to public criticism, president bush stated he intends "to lead an investigation to find out what went right and what went wrong." the u.s. congress is expected to investigate the disaster response on the local, state, and federal level as soon as is practical. 



second night of violence in belfast

a second night of rioting on sunday night and into monday morning has taken place in and around belfast, northern ireland, with loyalist mobs attacking police, hijacking vehicles and setting them alight.

a crowd of about 700 gathered on the albertbridge road in the east of the city, where police were attacked. a mob of about 100 attacked police in the north of the city, and in the west of the city, a police station was attacked with a blast bomb (homemade grenade).

a digger was used to take out streetlighting before the disorder, with some of the street left in darkness. it is also believed that an atm was removed by the digger. the police and army came under attack as they moved in to retrieve the items and respond.

cars were hijacked and set alight in a number of locations. a more serious incident occurred in bangor, some distance east of belfast in county down where a bus was hijacked. passengers were ordered off the vehicle before being robbed, and the bus set alight, blocking a road.

baton rounds were again fired by police and the army, with the army also firing one live round. a suspect was shot and apprehended in this incident, and they are to be charged with attempted murder.

the previous night's riots were the worst seen in northern ireland for many years, and a first for involving live fire at police during a public disorder incident.


irish dancing record broken in cork

on saturday 10, 2005, the world record for the largest performance of the siege of ennis, an irish folk dance, was set in cork, ireland. it was organised by the triskel arts centre and the local newspaper "evening echo", and was part of the city's tenure as european capital of culture.

it beat the previous record set in dublin, ohio. this attempt was sponsored by michael flatley.

the record breaking attempt was immediately followed by an actual dance.

 

panic-buying as petrol protests sweep britain

long queues are forming outside uk petrol stations as motorists rush to buy fuel ahead of protests against fuel tax.

consumer groups such as 'the fuel lobby', the group behind the fuel protests in 2000, have given conflicting reports on plans to blockade refineries to prevent supply of petrol stations. action started at 6am this morning, with a low turnout of protesters at refineries. further protests are planned at forecourts and on various roads for the remainder of the week. welsh protesters plan a 20mph rolling roadblock on the m4 motorway, starting at 7am on friday, september 16.

the government has told the public there are enough petrol supplies to last for 80 days, but petrol stations themselves may be set to run out much faster as large numbers of people fill up their tanks in anticipation of shortages. an eyewitness has said that as well as filling up their vehicle tanks, people are taking spare tanks. 

bill johnson, a petrol station manager in cornwall, told the guardian that he found it necessary to restrict petrol supplies to account holders only. he said: "they were shouting, 'you fucking bastards, i've got to get to work.' it wasn't pretty, people are just getting greedy."

matthew carrington of the petrol retailers' association called on gordon brown to reduce tax. "his tax take goes up as the price goes up, " he said. 

 


synagogues burn as palestinians rejoice over israeli withdrawal from gaza strip

on monday, the israeli army withdrew from the gaza strip. palestinians rejoiced over this occasion, with mahmoud abbas saying that "this is a day of happiness and joy that the palestinian people have not witnessed for a century."

the 38 years of israeli presence in the gaza strip have officially ended.

palestinians were overjoyed at the sight of the burning synagogues, planting flags in the midst of it all, and shouting cries of independence. teenagers set fire to a few synagogues, letting out anger at israel's occupation. 

the fires did little damage to the concrete structures, but abbas said that the palestinians planned to destroy them fully.

palestinian police admitted that there was not much they could or would do to stop this. 

last year, the israeli cabinet had planned to destroy the synagogues, but this sunday, under pressure from religious jewish organizations, it reversed its decision. palestinians were angry at the cabinet's sunday vote.

the synagogues, as well as all community structures, including community centers, schools, and sports facilites, are the only physical remnants of the israeli gaza strip presence since all residential structures have been destroyed.


hong kong disneyland opens to the public

the walt disney company and the government of hong kong officially opened the world's eleventh disney theme park, hong kong disneyland, today at 13:00pm local time.

the park, located in penny's bay, lantau island, is the major attraction at the hong kong disneyland resort, which also features two luxurious hotels and a recreational lake with stunning views of local hong kong scenery, unlike previous disney theme parks.

chinese vice president zeng qinghong, chief executive of hong kong special administrative region, donald tsang yam-kuen, and vice chairman of the chinese people's political consultative conference national committee, tung chee-hwa, were present at the ceremony, as were joint walt disney ceos michael eisner and bob iger, among a host of disney imagineers who helped design and create the park.

the park has been criticised for its apparent lack of attractions compared to the other disney theme parks around the world, but senior show designer for the park, tom morris, told journalists that the imagineers had left much room around the park for expansion, and if all goes well financially, much construction will be going on in the next few years.

sixteen thousand guests attended the park today, and officials expect five million will follow in the next year. over seventy percent of all visitors will come from hong kong and mainland china.


ebay to acquire skype

online us-based auction company ebay, the world's largest online marketplace, agreed to buy voice-over-ip (voip) firm skype, the company providing the most popular internet telephony service, for $2.6 billion usd in cash, stock, and rewards, and may pay a further $1.5 billion if the company's financial targets are met in 2007 and 2008.

skype technology is to be introduced on ebay's website, allowing sellers to receive calls or leads from the sites users, for a fee.

it is the biggest acquisition in ebay's history. the company hopes to diversify its profit sources and gain popularity in areas where skype holds a strong position, such as china, eastern europe, and brazil.

ebay expects to cut 2006 earnings per share by $0.12 due to the acquisition.



michael brown, director of fema resigns

michael brown, head of the federal emergency management agency (fema) has announced his resignation as director. brown had come under criticism for fema's slow reaction and handling of the devastation in new orleans caused by hurricane katrina. last week michael chertoff, head of the department of homeland security, relieved brown as leader of the relief efforts in new orleans and appointed coast guard admiral thad w. allen in his place.

brown told the associated press that the focus had to be fema and the efforts of people in the disaster areas. brown also said that his resignation was in the best interests of the agency and president bush, who himself, has received criticism over the handling of the disaster.


exit polls: norway votes for change

exit polls from four different news sources have given the opposition, a centre-left bloc led by jens stoltenberg of the labour party an early lead. however, early prognoses still show the election as too close to call. 

if elected, stoltenberg will replace kjell magne bondevik as prime minister. bondevik, a former priest, has for the last four years led a centre-right coalition government consisting of the conservative party (h), the christian people's party (krf) and the liberal democrats (v).

prime minister kjell magne bondevik (christian democrat) is currently in government with his triparty coalition with the conservatives and the liberals. the polls during the last months have shown that the opposition, led by the labour party has had a majority behind it, but during the last few days, the polls have shown a trend towards favouring the ruling coalition. on election day, polls show more or less a tie. 


los angeles undergoing large power outage

a power outage in a large portion of los angeles, california occurred at approximately 13:00 pst (20:00 utc) on monday. reports from the los angeles department of water and power indicate that the incident was caused by a worker who accidentally cut a line. the outage caused a chain reaction that took out power to a large part of the city.

according to local television stations, power is being returned to some of the city, including the ucla medical center. police are on "full tactical alert", meaning that they will only respond to serious calls and all officers must remain on duty. most officers are directing traffic.

los angeles international airport briefly was affected but generators engaged shortly thereafter. no flights were delayed or cancelled.

according to the department of water and power, the shutdown happened because of a mechanical problem at two receiving stations. the system automatically triggered a shutdown when a line was cut. dwp spokesman ron deaton said that if there is an increase in the power stations automatically shut down. "you cut the wrong wire and it triggers the system to shut down. we have finished repairing the transmission systems. some units are not up yet, but we have other generating parts of the system. all that remains is the distribution of the power to the individual customers."

the dwp is currently restoring power by redirecting it from other areas.

the dwp, lapd, the dod and department of homeland security immediately assured the public that the power outage has nothing to do with terrorism or sabotage, and that the identity of the worker(s) who cut the power lines will not be released.


oracle to acquire siebel for usd 5.85bn

us-based oracle corporation announced earlier today that they are buying rival us-based siebel systems for $10.66 usd per share. siebel shareholders have the option to receive the $10.66 per share in cash or in oracle stock. this deal is valued at approximately $5.85 billion usd. siebel systems' board of directors has already voted in favour of the acquisition. founder thomas siebel has also given his support. a special meeting will soon be held for siebel stockholders to vote on the acquisition. if all goes well the deal should close in the early part of next year.

after acquiring siebel; oracle, which specializes in database applications, will become the second largest software company. oracle has offices in more than 145 countries, and employs over 50,000 people. this acquisition will make oracle the largest customer relationship management (crm) applications company in the world. crm applications include accounting, inventory management and customer management software. "siebel's 4,000 applications customers and 3,400,000 crm users strengthen our number one position in applications in north america and move us closer to the number one position in applications globally", said oracle ceo larry ellison.

"today is a great day for siebel systems' customers, partners, shareholders, and employees," said thomas m. siebel, chairman and founder of siebel systems. many analysts predicted the acquisition of siebel after oracle bought competitor peoplesoft for $10 billion usd, last december.



telstra sale legislation debated in australian house of representatives, considered &quot;urgent&quot;

the legislation and amendments ensuring the sale of australia's half-privatized telecommunications provider, telstra, was moved and debated on september 12. the / coalition government has come under criticism for the allotting of time for debate as being insufficient.

in federal parliament tony abbott moved to adjourn debate at 9.06pm, to which his counterpart julia gillard attempted to adjourn the telstra debate until today, but abbott put the question and used the government's majority to move debate onward. 

abbott then moved that the legislation, comprising of three bills, be considered as urgent and allotted approximately forty-five minutes to debate all three. the opposition had attempted to further amend the urgency motion which failed due to government majority ? there were six in the space of approximately half an hour, all which failed. gillard and had called the process "a disgrace", and the amendments (negotiated earlier by senator ) were termed the "'backdown barnaby' bribe" by before the deputy speaker asked him to withdraw.

whilst the government has an absolute majority in the australian senate, it is not guaranteed that the necessary legislation will pass this house. garnering the support of key senator joyce is critical to ensure that the bills will pass (as he will have the deciding vote) and he has already stated that, due to a damning report released earlier in the house of representatives showing that fourteen percent of lines were faulty amongst other criticism, that it has turned the "green [light] to amber" . joyce was crucial in defeating a senate opposition motion to delay debate until october 4, even though he himself agreed that the time for debate should be extended; he stated in an interview on the "am" program on abc radio national that he voted against the motion as he believed crossing the floor would destroy any "political capital" he had to enable him to further negotiate improvements to the telstra deal within his own party.



national plant materials center goes native in washington, dc

among its many ongoing research studies, the natural resources conservation service (nrcs) national plant materials center (npmc), in beltsville, maryland, is researching native, ornamental, perennial plants which are tolerant of hot, droughty conditions. the end result of this research is to promote city gardening in the washington/baltimore metro area and to eventually expand to the entire mid-atlantic region. 

“the use of native plants are beneficial to the region in that they are already adapted to the cultural conditions present in city environments and are unlikely to displace other native-plant communities,” said shawn belt, horticulturalist at the npmc. “and, not only do these native plants add to the diversity of inner-city plant materials they encourage wildlife as well.” 

working with nrcs conservationists for washington, dc, the npmc has recently installed a “butterfly garden” a native-plant garden at the myrtilla miner elementary school in ne washington dc. according to belt, washington, dc typically has poor soils so this site will be a good evaluation for hot, dry conditions.

“since there are no farms in dc to award contracts for the various nrcs cost share programs, nrcs does award cost share for schools in order to educate students to the benefits of using native plants in city landscapes,” said belt. 

nrcs conservationists have been encouraging teachers to install butterfly gardens with cost-share money from the environmental quality incentives programs (eqip) to help with the costs of installing these gardens.

while working with the school to install the native-plant garden, nrcs employees will evaluate the performance of the plants over the next 3 years. additionally, evaluations will be continued in other areas of washington, dc in order to replicate the "experiment" in differing locations.

 


proposed united states doctrine would expand possible use of nuclear weapons

the pentagon has drafted a revised plan for the doctrine for joint nuclear operations. this draft document is a revison of the pentagon's doctrine for joint nuclear operations, joint publication 3-12, which is dated december 15, 1995.

this draft redefines the purpose of united states's nuclear forces to include "assuring allies and friends of the us steadfastness of purpose and its capability to fulfill its security commitments." and "dissuading adversaries from undertaking programs or operations that could threaten us interests or those of our allies and friends". this is a departure from the previous document which defined the purpose of the nuclear force as:

the draft proposal also seeks to expand the definition of deterence to include us interests as well as threats to national security. the draft goes on to describe how deterence will work in cases of state actors using wmd:

this again is a departure from the previous version, as pre-emption was not mentioned as a method for deterence to work. the current draft also suggests new scenarios for the united states to deploy nuclear forces, against biological or chemical attack on us, allied, or multinational forces, to counter overwhelming converntional forces, and against states supporting a non-state actor's use of wmd.

this draft, like the previous version, also emphasizes that the us abhorrs the use of unrestricted warfare, and has codefied "laws of war".

critics of the draft argue that the "aggressive posture" outlined in this new document actually undermines us security. hans kristensen, of the natural resouces defense council, analyzed the draft in the role of u.s. nuclear weapons: new doctrine falls short of bush pledge.

the draft document was written under the direction of the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, air force general richard b. meyers. the draft is going through a final coordination with various military branches and pentagon offices. the draft has not received final approval from united states secretary of defense, donald h. rumsfeld.


paramilitary group calls for end to rioting in northern ireland

the ulster defence association (uda) has called on its members to "avoid any confrontation on the streets and steer away from any acts of violence". this statement from the uda comes after the third consecutive night of loyalist violence in belfast. the rioting has so far left 60 police officers injured and resulted in 63 arrests. rioters blocked roads, hijacked and torched vehicles, and attacked police.

police chief constable hugh orde has said that he believes the ulster volunteer force (uvf) and the uda are behind the violence, which broke out after the re-routing of an orange order parade.

northern ireland secretary peter hain is expected to announce shortly that the uvf ceasefire, announced in 1994, has come to an end.


bushmen given 10 days to leave their reserve in botswana

armed police and officials entered the central kalahari game reserve on , giving the bushmen there ten days to leave. some bushmen are reported to have fled into the reserve and are evading capture.

in 1996 the central government of botswana adopted a policy of evicting the bushmen from the central game reserve, an area originally set aside for them to inhabit. a constitutional amendment is also pending in parliament to revoke the right of bushmen to live in the reserve in perpetuity. the government has expressed concern with several issues surrounding their continued presence in the reserve, including the need to supply them with water, the expense of educating them and providing them with health care, and their effect on the animals in the reserve. they also say that it is in the bushmen's best interest to join civilized society.

critics of the relocation, including the groups survival international and botswanian centre for human rights, allege very different motivations. some believe that the government is moving the bushmen out of the region to encourage tourism and diamond mining. others argue that the government is acting out of compassion, but is making the wrong choice; they say that the bushmen should be left to their hunter-gatherer ways, and that attempting to integrate them into modern botswania will destroy their identity. they also state that the resettlement camps they are placed in are in bad condition, with rampant alcoholism and prostitution.

a court case has been in progress for three years against the government for moving them out of the reserve, and is currently being heard. in august 2005 the united nations urged botswana to work with the bushman to settle the dispute. it is estimated that some 250 bushmen remain in the reserve, having evaded eviction or infiltrated back after having been removed.

at press time, there were six days left on the government's ultimatum.


lexmark releases printer with built-in cd burner

lexmark international introduced the lexmark p450 in the usa yesterday, the first printer to have a built-in cd burner. the cd burner allows users to copy photos from their camera directly to cd without requiring the printer to be connected to a computer.

the p450 is a small, portable printer that can print 4in by 6in photos. photos can be printed from usb flash drives, memory cards, bluetooth devices and pictbridge compatible digital cameras. the printer includes a 2.4-inch color lcd from which users can perform basic editing tasks such as cropping, rotating, and removing red-eye.

"the lexmark p450 brings more photo processing functions to the home. people can now save and organize their digital photos on cd, print from a cell phone, view their photos on a television and much more. the lexmark p450 is quite intuitive, easy to use and affordably priced," said najib bahous, president of lexmark’s consumer printer division.

this printer will compete with many other portable printers such as the popular and slightly cheaper hp photosmart 375.

the lexmark p450 is scheduled to be released in the usa in october, with an estimated retail price of $199usd, and canada in november, with an estimated retail price of $299cad. it is scheduled to be released in other countries shortly thereafter. 

 


r&amp;b singer d’angelo sentenced on cocaine charge

rhythm and blues artist d’angelo was able to walk out of judge william r. shelton’s chesterfield county courthouse in virginia on monday after being given a 3-year suspended sentence for possession of cocaine.

d’angelo, also known as michael eugene archer, 31, pleaded no contest to the charge. the appearance in court, by the now heavier-set archer who was once known for his trim physique, was the result of a traffic stop for driving 61 mph in a 45 zone. in connection with the incident, he was also charged with driving while intoxicated (dui), and possession of marijuana and cocaine.

archer avoided jail time for all charges in the incident. in april, his driving privileges were suspended for one year, and he received a 90-day suspended sentence, plus a $250 fine, for the dui conviction. on the marijuana charge, he received a $50 fine and 10-day suspended sentence.

at the time of his arrest, traces of cocaine were found on a folded dollar bill.

d’angelo received grammy awards for “best male r&b vocal performance” and
”best r&b album” in 2001.



volcanic bulge found in oregon

as they have done for the last four years, united states geological survey (usgs) scientists were measuring an approximate 100 square mile bulge in central oregon near the south sister this past august. the bulge is located 25 miles outside of the city of bend, ore. and three miles from the south sister.

the results of this years survey won't be available for some weeks, but geologists have come to some conclusions based on the past four years of monitoring. the intial discovery was made by using information from the european space agency's (esa) interferometric satellite aperture radar satellite. scientists believe the bulge is rising at a rate of 1.4 inches per year and is due to a large lake of fluid (likely magma) that is 4.5 miles below the surface. they also think the fluid covers an area about one mile across and extends to a depth of 65 feet. the pooling fluid could be shifting magma or the creation of a new volcano. 

ground swells aren't an extraodinary occurrence in geology. geologists suspect that these ground swellings occur in the cascade range and at other volcanoes, and the majority of them do not lead to eruptions. using the same esa satellite technology, geologists have seen lots of bulges in the aleutian islands that have not lead to eruptions. 



nintendo releases gameboy micro in the us

on the 20th birthday of nintendo's mascots, mario and his brother luigi, nintendo has released the newest addition to the popular game boy line.

the game boy micro is the smallest handheld release by nintendo to date. unlike other handhelds in the game boy advance series, the game boy micro can only play game boy advance games and not games designed for the original game boy system. the handheld features a new link port, includes multiple removable faceplates, and additional faceplates can be purchased separately. this system has an msrp of usd$99.99.

 


senate questions roberts in confirmation hearings

john roberts sat before the united states senate wednesday in his third day of confirmation hearings. members of the nation's highest legislative house questioned him on his ideology, deciding whether they should confirm his appointment as .

roberts flatly refused to say about when he believes life begins, an important question when considering the ethics of , saying that it would be unethical to comment on the specifics of likely cases. he did, however, reiterate his earlier statement that was the "settled law of the land", emphasizing the importance of consistent supreme court rulings. he also confirmed that he believed in the implied which the roe decision depended upon.

senator jeff sessions asked roberts about his opinion of yesterday's california ruling against the use of the words "under god" in the , which is recited daily at most public schools. roberts noted that the supreme court has previously been inconsistent in its application of the and that it should try to correct the situation, but didn't hint at his stance on the issue.

asked about the recent ruling, a case involving the government's power to seize property, roberts called on state and federal legislatures to limit the power of local governments: "the court was saying there is this power, and it is up to the legislature to decide if this power is available."

senator inquired if roberts believed the president had war powers allowing him to torture prisoners. "i believe no one is above the law in our system," roberts replied.

democrats and republicans alike have expressed frustration at what they see as roberts dodging their questions, but commentators expressed irony at the complaint; as one letter-writer to a california newspaper noted, "when is the last time that you heard one of those politicians give a direct answer to a specific question?"


camel rock festival held in scilly

the august bank holiday weekend, as usual, played host to many festivals and musical events around the uk, not least the camel rock festival held at porthcressa on the isles of scilly. but will it be the last?

local bands included those formed at the five islands' school, the members of the steamband under the temporary name senile shambles and the rhythm and blues band, roadrunner. bands imported from mainland england included murdoch, from manchester.

the event, deemed 'unique' in the local press, raises money for local musical projects on the islands. it's future is, as always, in doubt due to the amount of work for organisers and volunteers, especially for the clean-up operation. organiser paul lewis hopes that the event will return next year as long as there are still volunteers.



caged children well fed, behaved

clarksfield township, ohio - the children looked ordinary enough to neighbors and seemed polite, well-behaved, well-dressed. they spent their apparently carefree days playing in a toy-filled yard.

but at night, the 11 children were not treated like ordinary children, authorities say. their adoptive parents allegedly forced several of them to sleep in homemade cages about 3 1/2 feet high.

their adoptive parents, michael gravelle, 56, and sharen gravelle, 57, denied in a custody hearing monday they abused or neglected the children, aged one to 14, who have conditions that include autism and fetal alcohol syndrome.

the cages had mats and the house smelled of urine. they also had alarms that sounded when they were opened.

neighbors said that the children were polite and well-behaved. they never saw any signs of abuse.

the children have been placed with foster families and appear to be doing well, authorities said. charges have yet to be filed.


wal-mart accused of workers rights violations

a class-action suit has been filed with the superior court of the state of california accusing wal-mart of failing to ensure their suppliers' employees work in acceptable conditions.
the suit, representing workers from six countries across four continents, conceals the identities of 17 workers from china, bangladesh, indonesia, swaziland and nicaragua in addition to four californians cited as also representing others from the state.

the complaint accuses wal-mart of failing to adequately police garment suppliers and ensure that workers are not kept in sweatshop conditions, and that this is in breach of their own code of conduct for foreign suppliers. wal-mart counters that they have an extensive programme to ensure suppliers adhere to their code of conduct; that 200 full-time inspectors are employed to check supplier factories, and 108 factories have been permanently banned as suppliers. however, this is mainly for child labor violations.

this is part of an ongoing campaign against wal-mart by the international labor rights fund ; a labor rights group opposed to many of the business practices of wal-mart that they claim encourage unacceptable working conditions and salaries in developing countries.



first nestorian search engine goes online

recently the first ever nestorian search engine went online currently offering users more than a million resources... 

the web site says that is the "official search engine for all things nestorian." the nestorian search engine has materials ranging from assyrian, chaldean, biblical languages, aramaic, hebrew, christianity, judaism, armenian texts, and much more. 

this is the only nestorian search engine on the internet. spokesman marcus levine said, "our search engine spiders the internet on a daily basis for nestorian related web sites and research materials in general." levine said the nestorian search engine is an ongoing project. 

"we are working on many features that will be of interest to nestorians and all christians in general such as recipes from nestorians around the world. users will soon be able to post their own recipes or request others. get breaking news from your city, state or country through the free service as well as local weather - users can find out what the weather's like in their area or anywhere in the world", levine said. 

the nestorian search engine will also include a service called "nestorian books", which levine said would serve as a "book finder and publishing service. we will be offering a free print-on-demand service. you can upload a pdf or ms word doc of your manuscript and the service will publish it. the search engine will also be able to find online books within just a matter of seconds." 

other features the nestorian search engine will include: 


you can visit the beta site of the nestorian search engine by going to this link: the nestorian search engine is provided by the nasrani-kazaam software foundation and sponsored in part by the nasrani church of the east and abroad which is also known officially in many parts of the world as the nestorian orthodox church.


light stopped for over a second

light has been stopped in its tracks for more than one second, setting a new record over a thousand times longer than the previous one.

researchers at the used a technique called electromagnetically induced transparency in which a beam of laser light puts the atoms in a solid sample into a state in which a signal light pulse can be trapped.

most previous stopped-light demonstrations have used gases rather than solid materials. light had previously been stopped in a solid (yttrium-silicate doped with atoms of praseodymium), but only for a few milliseconds.

although the efficiency of the storage was low in this experiment, the researchers believe they can improve the efficiency by using a thicker sample and by increasing the concentration of praseodymium in the sample. the technique could be useful in quantum information processing applications such as quantum computers.


lingering ophelia lashes at u.s. carolinas coast

the slow moving, and wavering between hurricane status and tropical storm ophelia, crawled up the u.s. coastline from northern florida on what appears to be a track for landfall on thursday near cape lookout, north carolina on the outer banks of north carolina. ophelia gained some strength to a category 1 hurricane over the last 24 hours while on its north-northeast track to side-swipe the protruding coastline of the carolinas. 

power outages were reported with sustained winds of 80 mph and rain, up to 6 inches, in the southeast portion of the state. ocean isle beach closed a bridge to the barrier islands due to the rough surf conditions created by ophelia.

residents and tourists had been ordered on sunday to evacuate ocracoke by governor michael f. easley. tourists on hatteras island were also ordered to leave, but earlier on monday, emergency officials for dare county decided against an ordered evacuation for the northern portion of the outer banks. 

weaker tropical and hurricane storms such as ophelia have in the past still caused major damage from flooding in north carolina's barrier islands from winds stirring up the shallow sound waters between the mainlaind and outer banks.

further inland from the storm, except for the possibility of thunderstorms, little effect from ophelia is expected. virginia's governor mark r. warner declared a state of emergency on monday as a precaution. nearly two dozen f-15 fighter jets were moved from hampton's langley air force base out of ophelia's way to florida.

 


sony recalls playstation 2 power adaptors

sony has announced that they are recalling 3.5 million playstation 2 power adaptors world wide. a small component in the power adaptors is vulnerable to overheating. sony advises customers using a unit covered by the recall to unplug it and wait until a replacement ac adaptor is provided.

this recall affects only the ac adaptors that were manufactured between august 2004 and december 2004 for the black slimline playstation 2, with the product identification code hp ? ath048h03. users with an affected unit should visit the ac adaptor replacement programme website.

in north america, two people have suffered minor burns, one person suffered a minor shock and four people have reported property damage from the power adaptor overheating. the u.s. consumer product safety commission, reported sony has received 38 reports of adaptors overheating. only four cases of overheating have been reported elsewhere.

sony is not the only games console manufacturer to suffer from ac adaptor related issues. in february, microsoft recalled 14 million power adaptors for the xbox due to a similar overheating problem.


telstra sale legislation passed by australian senate

the three bills previously debated in the house of representatives which enable the full sale of telstra were passed by the senate, september 14. 

the so-called "guillotine" was used and australian labor party, australian greens, and australian democrat senators criticized the government for not informing other parties that they intended to do so; senator andrew bartlett of the democrats said in the chamber today that the liberal senators actions were "arrogant" and that these senators used the guillotine "because [they] can". senator bob brown of the greens had said "this is a disgraceful day for democracy."

opposition members attempted to move amendments or motions to try and extend debate, furthermore democrats senators moved amendments based on advice from the accc, but these were defeated in another sequence of several divisions.

later in the day (after debate was suspended due to question time and other matters), the bills passed the third reading by a majority of two votes. 



us state of texas executes woman convicted of murdering family

frances newton was put to death by lethal injection in the us state of texas on wednesday, september 14, 2005, for the murder of her husband and two children in april of 1987. 

her parents watched the execution in huntsville where a few dozen demonstrators gathered outside to protest. frances newton was the first state-sponsored execution of an african-american female in texas since the civil war. newton is the third woman put to death by the state of texas since capital punishment resumed following the end of a us national moratorium on the death penalty in 1982.

according to the police, the motive for the murders was collection of $100,000 in life insurance. newton stated that a drug dealer committed the killings. prosecutors say that gunpowder residue was found on newton's skirt. ballistics tests also backed up police claims that the pistol in question was the murder weapon. the defense rebuffed this by saying that police had, in fact, found two weapons. the defense also stated that the residue could have come from standard garden fertilizer.

in 1998 hundreds protested the execution of karla faye tucker, the first woman put to death in texas since the civil war era. rick perry, the governor of texas, had postponed newton's sentence to allow further investigation of evidence. once the governor was convinced the state's case was solid, he allowed the execution to proceed. 

frances newton of texas was 40.


tauranga bomb threat politically motivated

parts of central tauranga city in new zealand were evacuated around lunchtime today after a man threatened to detonate a bomb unless he was allowed to speak to the prime minister, helen clark.

the man is said to have entered the devonport towers hotel at around 11:15 am. when hotel staff attempted to remove him, he claimed that his backpack was packed with explosives.

police are negotiating with the man via telephone. tauranga resident erin cornwall said that police have been called in from auckland to help deal with the situation. it appears that the man is a foreign student who has a grievance related to the expiry of his residence permit.

tauranga is one of the most hotly contested electorates in the new zealand parliamentary general election to be held this saturday. the result of the electorate voting for tauranga will decide whether mp winston peters retains his long-held seat. if peters loses tauranga and his nz first party fails to get 5% of the party vote, then nz first will not be represented in the next parliament.

the prime minister has been informed of the situation, but has declined to speak to the man. she is currently in auckland campaigning for the labour party.

in an ironic turn of events, winston peters, well known for his intolerant views on immigration, is reported to have offered to negotiate with the man.


israeli court orders controversial wall rerouted

the israeli high court has unanimously ruled that the controversial wall separating israel from the west bank should be rerouted.

the panel of nine justices gave their ruling on a petition submitted by the association for civil rights in israel and ordered that alternative routes be investigated around the settlement of alefei menashe. the court ruling orders that the existing wall in the area be demolished and rebuilt nearer to the settlement.

the rerouting of the wall will result in the palestinian village of qalqilya, and four others, being on the west bank side of the barrier.

the barrier has been a contentious issue between israelis and palestinians since construction began. israel's government ignored last year's non-binding ruling by the international court of justice which declared the barrier illegal.




seven face deportation after uk dawn raids

in dawn raids ordered by the uk home secretary, charles clarke, seven people have been detained in london and greater manchester.

the seven, who are believed to all be algerian, are thought to include some of those allegedly involved in an earlier ricin poisoning plot.

the home secretary ordered the raids based on information provided by police and other security forces. those seized may appeal against deportation, but are deemed a "threat to national security" by the home office. according to officials, those detained were done so using powers granted under the immigration act of 1971, not under the recently passed legislation aimed at removing radical muslim clerics from the country.



were new orleanians caught in political crossfire?

in the aftermath of the disaster in new orleans, questions have arisen as to whether the bush administration withheld the deployment of troops and other assistance pending an agreement by the louisiana governor, kathleen blanco, to authorize the invocation of the , which would have legally allowed bush to declare martial law and take control of the rescue and rebuilding effort.

the ny times on sept. 8 reported that "as new orleans descended into chaos last week and louisiana's governor asked for 40,000 soldiers, 's senior advisers debated whether the president should speed the arrival of active-duty troops by seizing control of the hurricane relief mission from the governor." but how this step would have improved the response time is not clear.

it is also unclear as to why such a move would be considered at all as no legal requirement was at issue, leading to the question of whether this was what some fear to have been a political power grab.
the same times article quotes unnamed official(s) saying that "no active-duty forces could have been sent into the chaos of new orleans on wednesday or thursday without confronting law-and-order challenges." but though the law does bar us military forces from law enforcement duties absent a declaration of martial law, there are no restrictions on their use in other capacities. bush authorized more than 7,000 additional active duty troops on september 3 to join the more than 21,000 national guard troops and more than 4,000 active duty forces deployed to the ravaged gulf region on september 1st and 2nd, law-and-order challenges taking a back seat to the urgency of the rescue mission.

navy helicopters were over the city on august 30th and landing craft busy the following day. more than 400 members of the army corps of engineers were on site, working to repair the levee system in new orleans and removing floodwaters from the city. by september 2nd, 113 dod helicopters, about half from the national guard and half from active-duty navy, army and air force units, were continuing to support search and recovery missions.

the national guard, which remains under the authority of the governor of the state, are legally authorized and trained for law enforcement duties and the times article goes on to say that "pentagon officials said even the 82nd airborne, which has a brigade on standby to move out within 18 hours, could not arrive any faster than 7,000 national guard troops, which are specially trained and equipped for civilian law enforcement duties."

the louisiana national guard was conspicuously absent following the flooding and four days passed without relief. several states offered emergency supplies, equipment and units from their national guard. "new mexico gov. bill richardson offered louisiana gov. kathleen blanco help from his state's national guard on sunday, the day before hurricane katrina hit louisiana. blanco accepted, but paperwork needed to get the troops en route didn't come from washington until late thursday."

similarly, fema has been roundly criticized for its own failure to fulfill its emergency command and control mandate during the same period of time. though on-site before the hurricane struck, many stories of manpower, equipment and supplies being refused have surfaced. jefferson parish president aaron broussard has accused fema of cutting their local communication lines in the midst of the crisis. fema chief mike brown was ultimately removed from his post on friday sept. 9th.

also on friday national guard units arrived in force and brought food and water, medical personnel, and quickly quelled the rampant looting that had beset the city during the previous days. 

without a full investigation, it is impossible to say what caused these delays. this disaster was unprecedented in scope and hit an area long known to be exceptionally vulnerable to catastrophic damage from a hurricane. but the length of the delay and the breadth of the failures have been widely condemned and demands for an explanation have come from both sides of the political aisle. 



us airlines delta, northwest file for bankruptcy

delta airlines and northwest airlines, the third and fourth-largest us airlines, filed for on wednesday. together with united and , four of the seven biggest us carriers are now operating under bankruptcy protection, representing 51% of us passenger flight capacity. 

the filing occurred due to rising fuel prices, high labor expenses and competition from .

delta and northwest both said that bankruptcy protection would cause no changes for passengers in their flight schedules and frequent-flyer schemes. however, analysts say that cuts in some flights can be expected in the future.


imperfect immune systems help avoid autoimmune disease

the body’s is less effective at quashing disease than it could be - but if it were better the immune system might do more harm than good, according to new research by michael deem and colleagues of in .

the immune system has apparently evolved to be mildly inefficient so that it achieves a balance between quick response to disease and decreased probability of , a condition in which the immune system attacks healthy tissue.

the authors drew their conclusions from a model of the dynamics of . their simulations show that while there are mechanisms that would allow the immune system to develop antibodies that respond faster and more strongly against invading , those mechanisms would also create antibodies that are likely to attack the body’s own healthy cells. the model also bolsters controversial suggestions that chronic infections could lead the immune system awry, ultimately resulting in or other autoimmune ailments.

the study will be detailed in a forthcoming issue of the journal .


thai political talk show taken off during media buyout attempt

thailand's popular political talk show, muang thai rai sapda has been dropped by channel 9. hosted by sondi limthongkul, the show was notorious for its criticism of the thai government. this happens as much of thai media is being bought by a government-allied media conglomerate, gmm.

sondhi, the presenter, and founder of a popular magazine, pujatkran (eng: manager), accused the network of making a politically motivated decision.


microsoft announces xbox 360 launch dates

microsoft announced on thursday the release dates for the new version of the xbox gaming console. the xbox 360 will be in shops in the us on november 22. it will be launched in europe on december 2 and in japan on december 10.

the xbox 360 in the us and europe will come in two editions, base and premium. the premium edition will include the console, an external hard drive, wireless controllers, headset and membership in the xbox live gaming service. the base version will only include the console and a wired controller. the base edition will sell for ￡209.99 in the uk, ?299.99 in europe and $299.99 in the usa. the premium edition will sell for ￡279.99 in the uk and $399.99 in the usa. a third edition with nearly identical features to the premium edition will be available in japan for \37,900.

microsoft has said up to 20 games would be ready by the launch date, and 40 games should be launched by the end of 2005. "we expect a strong portfolio of titles on launch day and through the holidays that will appeal to fans of every genre and gamers in every region," said chief xbox officer robbie bach.

the launch date is two days before thanksgiving, the traditional start of the us christmas buying season. a november launch will give microsoft a lead over competitors sony and nintendo. sony plans to release the playstation 3 in the spring of 2006, and nintendo plans to release its new console, the revolution, sometime next year.



kay hull crosses floor in australian house of representatives on telstra legislation

, an member of parliament representing the electorate of riverina, crossed the floor september 15 at the final stage of debate on the telstra legislation, previously passed and returned to the .

hull was the only mp who did so; the legislation passed the third reading on a majority of seventeen votes. 

hull was praised by the manager of opposition business, julia gillard in the adjournment debate, stating "we have seen the national party at its worst ? with the notable exception of the member for riverina".



hurricane ophelia hits u.s. east coast

with recovery from katrina still under way, hurricane ophelia has now cut power to nearly 81,000 homes and businesses on the eastern coast of north carolina.

on thursday, the storm moved slowly up the coast of north carolina, causing considerable damage. alton ballance, a resident of the affected area, said that the storm was "just beating us to death. it's similar to the wintertime nor'easters that lay there and beat you for a couple of days.".

a small category 1 hurricane, with top wind speeds of 85 mph (136 kph), ophelia is nearly stalled in its current position in north carolina and, in the words of another resident, laurie garner, "it just beat us and beat us and beat us."

"the barrier islands will be getting hammered one way coming up and the other way going back out," said the governor of north carolina, mike easley.


former u.s. president gerald ford dies, aged 93

former united states president gerald rudolph ford, jr. (born leslie lynch king, jr.) died yesterday at 6.45 pm pst (0345 utc wednesday) at his home in rancho mirage, california at the age of 93.

gerald ford was a prominent politician from grand rapids, michigan before his appointment to the vice-presidency, having served in the united states house of representatives for 24 years from 1949 to 1973 and acted as minority leader. he was appointed vice president of the united states following the resignation of spiro agnew.

ford was sworn in as the 38th president of the united states following the resignation of richard nixon in 1974 following the watergate scandal. he served the appointed term and ran an unsuccessful re-election bid for the office of the presidency in 1976 against jimmy carter. ford is the only president to have held the office of the presidency without ever having been elected to either the presidency or the office of the vice-presidency.

ford's presidency was marked by his pardon of former president nixon, a controversial move that many felt cost him the 1976 election. ford also attempted to tackle inflation (at the time, only a modest 7%) with a public relations campaign to "whip inflation now". ford's presidency also saw the final united states evacuation of south vietnam.

once one of the most active former presidents, in recent years ford was perceived as becoming increasingly frail, particularly since suffering a small stroke in 2000. for the first time since becoming active in national politics, he did not attend the republican national convention in 2004. he also did not attend the inauguration of president george w. bush in 2005 ? former president bill clinton indicated in an interview with larry king that ford was increasingly uncomfortable flying. in 2006, he was hospitalized on four separate occasions by the month of november.

ford was the longest-lived president in the history of the united states surpassing ronald reagan on november 12, 2006; the oldest-living president is now george h. w. bush. after a state funeral in washington, d.c., ford's body will lie in state in grand rapids, michigan, at the gerald r. ford presidential museum, before a private burial outside the museum.



thai political talk show taken off air

thailand's popular political talk show, muang thai rai sapda has been dropped by channel 9. hosted by sondi limthongkul, the show was notorious for its criticism of the thai government.

sondhi, the presenter, and founder of a popular newspaper and magazine, pujatkran (eng: manager), accused the network of making a politically motivated decision.

mcot plc, which owns the channel, issued a statement saying the company had to remove the programme after several warnings to sondhi to exercise caution when making comments and to adhere to the basic journalistic principle of not violating the rights and freedom of others.

it said sondhi had made several one-sided attacks on people who had no chance of countering his accusations. according to the statement, in his 8 september programme sondhi said the appointment of the interim supreme patriarch infringed on a royal prerogative and had made reference to the monarchy in a way that might cause public misunderstanding.

reacting to the accusation, sondhi said mcot distorted the facts to turn public sentiment against him. "i don't mind being removed because i am critical of the government, but do not say that i infringed on a royal prerogative," he said. sondhi said his reference to the monarchy was made with respect.


chavez wants un uprooted from new york

in a speech before the united nations general assembly, venezuelan president hugo chavez called for the to be moved out of the united states.

chavez cited the iraq war and the us' alleged disregard for the will of the united nations as his reasoning for proposing the pullout. he then went on to criticize the proposed un reforms, saying they were "illegal" as they did not take into account anti-poverty goals set out in a 2000 summit. proposing sweeping reforms, including the elimination of security council members' veto powers, chavez described the un as unfit for the 21st century.
in a comment more related to the frosty relationship between the us and venezuela, chavez expressed regret that pat robertson remained at liberty. chavez has branded robertson a terrorist for implying that the us would do well to assassinate the venezuelan president.

the current summit marks the sixtieth anniversary of the formation of the united nations, and many world leaders have gathered to work out reforms to the organization to make it more relevant in today's world.



hiroshima citizens aid radiation exposed people in kazakhstan

a japanese non-profit organisation hiroshima semipalatinsk project will send their 8th medical aid visiting team to , kazakhstan, known as semipalatinsk under the reign, reported a regional newspaper, chugoku shimbun. the team will consist of seven medical staffs, doctors and nurses, including professor masaharu hoshi of the research institute for radiation biology and medicine at hiroshima university. they will visit semey from 19 september till 26 to examine radioactive exposed people and give medical instruments to local hospitals.

hiroshima semipalatinsk project (hsp)　was founded in 1999 by citizens, many of whom or their relatives suffered radiation exposure due to the atomic bomb dropped by the us army in 1945. when in 1994 hiroshima hosted the asia games, a hiroshima citizen met a kazakh and eventually became aware of another group of "hibakusha". in semey approximately 470 atomic bomb experiments were held between 1949 and 1989 by the ussr government. residents have been severely affected by radiation. following the hiroshima semipalatinsk project it is reported that 1.2 million people are affected by the fallouts and over 300,000 people have suffered of radiation exposure in that area, mainly in the city of semey with a population of 350,000. 

since its foundation in 1999, hsp continues to aid kazakhs and endeavours to provide the public with information about suffering in the area. the organisation gives kazakhs not only medical aid but also social aid through student exchange programs for highschool students.


norway to withdraw troops from iraq

the leader of the norwegian labour party, incoming prime minister jens stoltenberg, announced yesterday that norway is to withdraw the remainder of its troops from iraq.
nato member norway still has approximately 20 military officers stationed in iraq. they participate in the training of iraqi troops with the british and polish divisions. previously norway had approximately 170 soldiers stationed in iraq, of which most were withdrawn in 2004 due to lack of popular and government support.

stoltenberg notified george w. bush of his decision on thursday, when bush called to congratulate him on his election victory. norwegians voted in monday's parliamentary elections in favour of a red-green alliance headed by stoltenberg's labour party, ousting the centre-right government.

retiring prime minister kjell magne bondevik criticized stoltenberg's decision as inconsistent. he said labour's plan to withdraw the same troops it previously supported sending to iraq was contradictory.


bush calls for expanding federal authority

states "rights" battle unfolding.

in an address to the nation on thursday, president bush laid out a sweeping set of initiatives to aid the rebuilding effort of the gulf region and called for an investigation into what went wrong in the disaster and how better to respond in the future.

following a list of economic stimulus programs designed to aid small businesses and individuals, the president called for something sure to draw fierce debate, a broadening of federal power to declare martial law.

this follows on the heels of the bush administration's failed effort to have louisiana governor kathleen blanco sign documents allowing bush to invoke the insurrection act during the height of the crisis in the wake of hurricane katrina.

remarks on the senate floor sept. 13th, 2005 by senator john warner, chairman of the senate armed services committee: (excerpt)



musharraf's rape comments spur controversy

sparking controversy and eliciting widespread condemnation in an interview with the washington post, pakistan's president, pervez musharraf, has made some poorly-judged comments about rape and rape victims.

musharaff was quoted as having said, "rape has become a money-making concern" and he suggested that getting raped was a method of getting a visa to western countries.

activists and opposition mps alike condemned musharaff's comments. the high-profile rape victim, mukhtar mai, dismissed the idea that any woman could allow herself to be subjected to such treatment for money. her case attracted widespread international media attention with it being alleged that her rape was ordered by the local panchayat (town council).


blair recognizes kyoto treaty stopped by its restrictions

in new york, speaking at the clinton global initiative, british prime minister tony blair spoke with "brutal honesty" about the unfccc's kyoto protocol and global warming.

blair, a longtime supporter of the kyoto treaty, recognized that countries will not accept the limits imposed on kyoto: "no country is going to cut its growth."

of india and china, "they're not going to start negotiating another treaty like kyoto." india and china are classified as developing countries in the kyoto protocol, so they can get money and technology but are not restricted by its limits.

his approach: "what countries will do is work together to develop the science and technology….there is no way that we are going to tackle this problem unless we develop the science and technology to do it."


science of champagne bubbles explained

a team of scientists from universities in and have developed a theory that explains the patterns of fine bubbles that arise in a freshly poured glass of champagne. 

the bubble patterns evolve as the amount of dissolved changes in the glass. they start out as strings of bubbles that rise in pairs, then gradually transition to bubbles in groups of threes, and finally settle down in a clockwork pattern of regularly spaced individual bubbles.

the researchers observed the carbon dioxide bubbles in a champagne glass as they rise from nucleation points on the glass wall. the nucleation points are small defects in the glass that trap tiny vibrating pockets of carbon dioxide. dissolved gas in the champagne gradually collects in a vibrating bubble inside the defect, causing it to grow and soon expel gas from the defect, forming another bubble that sticks to the outside of the defect. that bubble, in turn, grows as more dissolved carbon dioxide collects inside it and it eventually breaks free of the defect to rise through the champagne. then the process begins again with a new bubble expelled from the defect, forming rising strings of tiny bubbles.

the patterns are determined by the vibration rate of the gas trapped in the defect and the growth rate of the bubbles outside the defect, which are in turn determined by such things as the pressure of the atmosphere on the surface of the champagne, the champagne temperature, and the size of the nucleation defect in the glass, among other factors.

the work could be important in understanding bubbles formed of dissolved gasses in other situations, such as nitrogen bubbles that grow in the blood vessels of surfacing divers and can cause the , and the explosive release of carbon dioxide gas from 's that killed over 1800 people in 1986.


apple may build cameras into macs

according to a recent patent published by apple computer, inc., future mac laptops will come with built-in video cameras. ostensibly, they would be used with the company's ichat av video conferencing software, which allows for four-way video conferencing, and up to ten-way audio conferencing.

the patent reveals plans for a laptop with a swiveling lid, which rotates on the base. the camera, or, as the patent describes, "data capture device," would be placed on top of the lid of the laptops, where it would "secure the lid to the base," according to the patent. 

the patent is not unclear; it is firmly in the direction of developing a video camera built into a laptop.

however, it is not entirely focused on laptops; a quote from the patent says it all: "for example, although the invention is primarily directed at a camera latch for a laptop computer, it should be noted that concepts disclosed herein may also be applied to other electronic devices, including but not limited to pdas, music players, mobile phones and the like or i/o devices such as monitors, televisions and the like."

the camera could be configured to produce either streaming video, video stills, or images taken at intervals, and the camera would most likely have a built-in microphone.


mastercard to debut on nyse

mastercard inc, the world second-largest credit card issuer, said it can raise up to $2.45 billion issuing 61.5 million shares in an initial public offering on nyse. the company is to offer outside investors 49% of its shares, covering 83% of voting rights. it is expected to trade on the market under the symbol "ma".

purchase, ny-based mastercard is currently owned by some 1,400 banks that issue company-branded credit and debit cards, now 716 million worldwide, which makes the issuer second only to visa.

mastercard earned $213.5 million on revenue of $1.4 billion in the first half of 2005. the company's strongest nyse-traded rival, american express, trades at $57.34 a share now.

 


dell to drop itanium-based servers

an intel spokesperson confirmed thursday that dell would no longer be offering servers with intel itanium cpus. the spokesperson said "losing dell as an itanium customer is unfortunate but frankly, we see their impact as negligible." servers with itanium cpus are no longer promoted on dell's website, though a few can be found by searching.
dell is the largest seller of computers with intel processors. dell currently sells 10.5 percent of all servers worldwide. the majority of dell servers use an ia-32 (colloquially "x86") chip, but a growing number use the 64-bit intel xeon. sales of itanium servers have been very poor; last year dell sold only 1,371 itanium servers, up from 12 the previous year. in february, ibm also phased out itanium-based servers, replacing them with ibm power cpus. fujitsu, hp, hitachi nec, sgi and unisys are the only major manufacturers to still offer itanium-based servers.

the intel itanium was designed in the early 1990s. it was intended to be the processor of choice for 64-bit computers, but the processor suffered from several major flaws preventing widespread adoption. unlike competing amd64 chips, the intel itanium uses a different instruction set from ia-32 chips. an emulation feature allows them to run ia-32 code, but only very slowly; users were forced to choose between accepting greatly-reduced performance and expending time and programmers' salaries porting their software. even intel has acquiesced to amd's leadership in this field, designing chips with a compatible em64t technology.



deadly car bomb explosion rocks beirut

the seemingly endless saga of car bombings continued to haunt citizens of lebanon on friday night, when an explosion ripped through multiple cars and buildings, killing one and injuring 19 people. 

the blast took place close to midnight near byblos bank in the j'eitawi district of ashrafieh in beirut. 

major general ashraf rifi, commander of the internal security forces, confirmed that the bomb was put in a bag and placed between two cars. rifi was also able to identify a timer used to detonate the bomb.

the bomb shattered through a nearby coffee shop, killing the shop owner upon impact. 

lebanese security forces were quick to respond. they cordoned the bomb site in a swift and professional manner, preventing people from tampering with the evidence.

a series of car bombings preceded this latest explosion, predominantly in christian areas. while the people are losing count of the bombings, no arrests have been made so far. public confidence in lebanon's security state is extremely low, understandably so with the lack of closure to virtually identical crimes.

the bombing is the first since the string of arrests of individuals suspected of murdering premier rafik hariri on february 14, 2005. chief investigator detlev mehlis has yet to draw a link between the perpetrators of the valentines day massacre, and the subsequent series of car bombings and targeted assassinations since. 

the latest exposure of lebanon's shaky security state comes at a time when the country's two top leaders are absent.

president emile lahoud is in new york. despite repeated calls for lahoud to cancel his trip, he insisted on attending the u.n. general assembly, where he delivered a speech today. prime minister fouad siniora boycotted lahoud's delegation, declaring it unwise for both the president and prime minister to be absent with the current security state.

despite his previous reservations, siniora flew to new york on friday to lead the 'help lebanon' conference. the premier will be soliciting international aid to fund political, economic, social and judicial reforms in a post-syria occupied lebanon.


gwanda chakuamba freed by malawi court

a court has freed prominent malawian politician gwanda chakuamba on bail after chakuamba denied ridiculing malawi president bingu wa mutharika at a political rally. ridiculing the head of state is a crime in malawi, with a potential penalty ranging from a $20 fine to three years in prison.

prosecutor mcleod mlonda objected to the ruling, stating that he was worried that as chakuamba was an influential figure, he would use his freedom to tamper with the evidence. magistrate david kadwa disagreed though, stating that he found it unlikely that chakuamba would be able to interfere with the evidence, as there had been hundreds of witnesses present when the alleged comments were made. for his part, chakuamba has denied the charges.

chakuamba was ejected from malawi's cabinet for allegedly buying a limousine with government funds last week, amid rumours of an internal power struggle. prosecutors accuse him of labelling the president a "drunkard and a brute" .



navy helping new orleans pets

the spanish word "tortuga" means "turtle." but in the wake of the new orleans disaster, the uss tortuga is helping other animals.
for nearly two weeks now, sailors from tortuga's repair division have devoted much of their time during this disaster relief operation to ensure the health and comfort of displaced pets.

september 4th, just after the ship moored to a pier at naval support activity (nsa) new orleans, ht1(sw) mark hanley and dc1(sw) antony graves gathered materials from the repair shop on board to construct a kennel along the levee. the facility they made soon became a popular shelter for the homeless animals of the storm.

tortuga's search and rescue team brought aboard more than 170 displaced citizens during this past week, providing them with food, water, medical aid and a place to sleep.
tortuga's makeshift kennel, named ‘camp milo & otis,' has housed as many as 90 dogs, eight cats, one rabbit, one guinea pig, a pair of parakeets and a flightless pigeon during the past week of operation.

currently, there are 14 dogs that remain in tortuga's care, as many of the other pets have been taken to animal shelters in the area for extra medical attention, or been claimed by their owners upon arrival to tortuga. the pets that tortuga has registered have all been in the hands of professional veterinarians assigned to provide expert medical attention to the members of camp milo & otis.

dr. kelly crowdis and dr. latina gambles, both from tuskegee university and christian veterinary missions, have treated many of the pets for infection, dehydration, malnourishment and broken bones at the camp during the past week.

“the animals were bathed and assessed before physical interaction with the sailors,” said dr. crowdis. “they've been given immunizations, antibiotics and medications based on their medical needs.”

dr. crowdis added, “what these sailors have done on their own has been such a heart-warming thing. as an animal lover, it is so comforting to know that everyone cares about the animals in addition to the human lives rescued from the storm. i'm very pleased with these guys for taking the initiative to construct this kennel.”

graves, hanley and other members of their division have consistently bathed, fed, walked and given special attention to every dog, every day.

“we play with them,” said hanley. “we take them out of their kennels to give them attention every day. and we'll continue to do that for as long as our ship's mission keeps us here.”
september 11th, the agricultural center at louisiana state university donated supplies to “camp milo & otis” in support of tortuga's efforts to help the animal victims.

”we got medical supplies, bowls, food, cages, leashes, collars, toys, cat litter and cleaning supplies from these people yesterday,” said graves. “it's nice to know that so many people out there have heard about what our ship is doing, and responded by donating so much to support us the best they can.”

a photo gallery of unclaimed pets is on the uss tortuga's web site.

as part of disaster plans, the department of homeland security has also deployed veterinary medical assistance teams to provide medical care to pets and livestock, as well as provide any needed veterinary medical care for search and rescue dogs.

there are over 3,850 animals being sheltered around the state. if someone is looking for a pet they should contact their nearest humane society or go online to http://www.petfinder.org// . more information is also available at http://www.vetmed.lsu.edu//.


gaza looters destroy palestine authority property

frenzied destruction of empty jewish settlements in gaza by palestinian looters have marred plans for exploiting those facilities to create much needed jobs for the area.

greenhouses in gaza have been partly destroyed as crucial equipment was stripped by the palestinians. looters took everything from water pumps, plastic sheets, tubing and equipment. this makes at least one third of the hothouses at least temporarily unusable to feed the families of gaza and for potential export to israel.

the facilities were purchased by a group of jewish-american donors and given to the palestinian government to encourage economic development. it was initially anticipated over four thousand palestinians could be given work at the greenhouses, however all offers have been suspended prior to the damage being assessed and repairs arranged.


results to be announced in the new zealand 2005 general election

there is a little under an hour to go until polls close in the 2005 new zealand general election.

both national leader don brash and the prime minister helen clark (labour) have already cast their votes.

nearly three million people are eligible to vote. 

turnout has been strong, and turnout results are predicted to be higher than the 2002 turnout (77%).

under new zealand's mmp system, parties must win either an electorate seat or 5% of the party vote to win seats in the 120-seat parliament.


russian pilot crashes in lithuania

within the past 24 hours russian and lithuanian authorities have been haggling over the details of a crashed su-27 fighter-bomber and the return of her pilot. while lithuania's commander-in-chief has ruled out a joint investigation, russian investigators would be granted access to an analysis of the plane's flight recorder.

current information suggests that the plane was flying over the baltic sea when it suddenly veered off course due to a failure in navigation equipment. the pilot, major valery troyanov, was questioned by lithuanian prosecutors earlier in the day. lithuanian defense minister gediminas kirkilas said in a local radio interview: "we know that the plane flew into our territory giving a sos signal. russian defense minister sergei ivanov says the same. we hope further investigation will confirm it,"

while both nations are in concurrence to the cause of the crash, the pilot has been labeled a "suspect" by prosecutors and will be kept until the end of investigation.


hubble space telescope running on two gyroscopes

nasa's hubble space telescope entered a new era of science operations as september began, when engineers shut down one of the three operational gyroscopes aboard the observatory. the two-gyro mode is expected to preserve the operating life of the third gyro and extend hubble's science observations through mid-2008, an eight-month extension. switching off one gyro can preserve it for future use and extended two-gyro operational time for hubble.
the gyros are an integral part of hubble's complex pointing control system. the system maintains precise pointing of the telescope during science observations. the system was originally designed to operate on three gyros, with another three in reserve. two of the six are no longer functional.

"hubble science on two gyros will be indistinguishable from the superb science we have become accustomed to over the years," said senior hubble scientist david leckrone at goddard.

gyros are the heart, though not the sole component, of hubble's pointing control system. when only two gyros are available, the observatory experiences an "unsensed" direction. using hubble's fine guidance sensors, engineers were able to "fill in" the missing data normally generated by the third gyro.

hubble also needs to know its location as it completes one observation and slews across the sky to acquire its next target. this information, previously supplied by the observatory's three gyros, is provided by onboard magnetometers and fixed head star trackers.

nasa has stated a space shuttle servicing mission to hubble will be considered after two successful return-to-flight missions. the servicing mission would include installing new gyros, batteries, and science instruments to provide several more years of observations.


polls closed in the new zealand 2005 general election

at 07:00 utc today (19:00 nzst, local time), the polls closed in the new zealand general election, 2005.

nearly three million people were eligible to vote. 

turn out was strong, turnout results are predicted to be to be higher than the 2002 turn out (77%)

under new zealand's mmp system, parties must win either a electorate seat or 5% of the party vote to win a seat in the 120-seat, parliament.

preliminary election results will be on wikinews as they come through it is expected that all votes will be counted by 11:30 utc (23:30 nzst) 

the official results are expected to be available by saturday, 1 october 2005, on the chief electoral office 2005 general election results website 


un agrees on reform document

a deal to reform the united nations has been signed at the end of a summit marking the organisation's sixtieth anniversary.

the summit was the largest gathering of heads of state ever, with over 150 in attendance. during its three days, syria was the only one of the 191 represented nations not to address the general assembly.

the secretary general, kofi annan, had put forward a wide-ranging set of reform proposals encompassing poverty, war, genocide, and reform of the organisation itself.

of the reforms that got through the intense diplomatic negotiations, responsibility to protect is one of the most significant. rather than waiting for genocide to be demonstrated, the international community has now agreed to act in cases of crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. a peacebuilding commission is also to be established by december 2005.

the opinions expressed by participants varied, with venezuelan president, hugo chavez condemning the document as having been "conceived in darkness". in stark contrast, united states ambassador, john r. bolton, praised the document.



voting chaos in germany expected

electoral voting experts are expecting a chaos in the german federal election, caused by the by-election in the constituency of dresden i, in the state of saxony. the reason is a bug in the german electoral law, which can force the voters to vote against their political party.

while in 298 of 299 constituencies the federal elections take place on september 18th, 
a dresden constituency has to vote on october 2nd, caused by the death of the npd candidate there, kerstin lorenz. 

voters in germany have two votes, one for a candidate in their constiuency and another for the list of a party within one of germany's sixteen states. the vote which normally defines how many seats a party gets in the bundestag is the second vote (party vote). but due to the extreme complexity of germany's mixed member proportional voting system, voters could actually have "negative vote", as constitutional lawyers call it. this is mainly caused by overhang seats, which occur when a party gains more seats by winning constituencies than they would actually be entitled to according to the percentage of second votes they get. 

polls suggest that exactly that is going to happen with the cdu in saxony. the cdu would then actually have to urge their supporters not to vote for them with their second vote because that could change their overhang seat into a "normal" seat, which the cdu would then be missing in another state where no overhang seats occurred thus reducing their total seats by one.

in the 2002 election 49638 party votes were cast for the cdu in dresden i and caused them to lose the seat of siegfried meseck. a complaint against the 2002 election at the german constitutional court is still not decided.



australian man allegedly ignites carpet, plastic with static electricity

a story about a man carrying over 30,000 (sometimes reported as 40,000) of in his body, allegedly generated by a wool sweater and nylon jacket combination, is circulating through major news outlets. the story, carried first by the standard, says that the man, frank clewer, a 58-year old cleaner from , involuntarily created a scene by causing fire departments to evacuate three buildings where he had left his mark, before he realized he was causing the burn marks on carpets and allowed the fire department to help him.

the story has been picked up by , , , , , local agencies of , the , and other news outlets.

several unanswered objections mark the story as a possible hoax:
the equation for stored energy in is:
formula_1
where "u" = energy, "c" = , and "v" = . a human body by itself typically has a capacitance of around 250 , which would mean a voltage of 30,000 v would produce energy of 0.11 . even if clewer's possessions resulted in a parallel capacitance of 1 , this would still only result in an energy storage of 450 j. this amount of energy would be insufficient to burn carpet or char plastic, although a spark could ignite flammable vapor or gas.



delay declares 'victory' in war on u.s. budget fat

republican rep. tom delay has declared an "ongoing victory" in spending cuts. he stated that the federal government was running at peak efficiency and that there was nothing left to cut from the u.s. federal budget. delay supports additional deficit spending for relief efforts, on top of the this year's existing $331 billion federal budget deficit.

delay's position has drawn criticism from some fiscal conservatives, including a few fellow republican representatives. rep. jeff flake (r-arizona) commented "i wonder if we've been serving in the same congress." the majority of congressional republicans still support delay's view, and feel that their fiscal policies have been more sound than the democrats were in the past.

tom schatz, president of claimed "there are plenty of places" to make budget cuts, especially an estimated $20 billion to $25 billion in pet projects that make their way into must-pass spending bills each year. his group expects to release a list of $2 trillion in suggested spending cuts over the next five years. in particular, cagw and the heritage foundation believe that some 6,000 projects in the recently passed highway bill are not essential and should be cut. such projects include the planting of flowers along the ronald reagan freeway in california and the controversial $230 million ketchikan bridge project, which is estimated to cost federal taxpayers at least $28 per vehicle trip, without a toll. mr. delay previously described these projects as "important infrastructure" and stated that eliminating them might harm the economy.

the debate was sparked by controversy over spending on relief and reconstruction in the wake ; which some fiscal conservatives have humorously labeled "bush's new orleans deal." liberal criticism of the reconstruction effort has focused on the awarding of reconstruction contracts to perceived washington insiders.



nintendo unveils controller for revolution console

at thursday's keynote presentation of the tokyo game show, nintendo president satoru iwata unveiled the controller design for the company's new nintendo revolution console. resembling a television remote, the controller uses two sensors placed near the user's television to triangulate its position in three-dimensional space. this will allow players to control actions and movements in video games by moving the device through the air.

the remote control design is said to target new players who are unfamiliar with traditional video game controllers.

a supplementary peripheral has also been shown, consisting of a separate plastic grip that is designed to be held in the player's second hand. it provides an analog stick and two trigger buttons, and connects to the bottom of the main controller with a simple cord. additionally, nintendo has suggested that the main controller will be able to slide inside a "shell" that will allow it to function like a conventional video game controller.

the revolution is expected to be released next year.




saudi arabia, uae to support increasing oil production

oil ministers from saudi arabia and the united arab emirates announced that both countries would support raising crude oil output quotas by the organization of petroleum exporting countries. the saudi minister, ali al-naimi, said that rising prices were lowering world demand, and his nation 'absolutely' backs the increase, while mohammed bin dhaen al-hamli from the uae claimed that the markets could calm on the decision.

earlier, the opec cut their oil demand estimates for 2005, saying that it will rise by only 1.7%, compared to previous prediction of 1.9%.

the organisation is to meet to discuss the possible increase on september 19. if the decision take place, the official limits will be the highest since 1987.

saudi arabia is the opec's biggest crude oil producer, with production of about 9.5 million barrels a day and spare capacity of approximately 940,000 barrels. formal daily output of whole organisation is 28 millions barrels outside iraq, and estimated unused stocks of 1.39 million barrels.

on the london-based international petroleum exchange price of the brent crude barrel fell $1.45 to $62.21 on friday. 


stolen laptop found; had over 98,000 students' personal data

san francisco police have recovered a laptop stolen on march 11 from the university of california, berkeley. the laptop was left unattended in the graduate division and contained personal information on 98,369 graduate students and applicants going as far back as 1976. this information included names, birth dates, addresses, and social security numbers.

the silicon valley forensic lab which analyzed the laptop said it had been reformatted, making it very difficult to determine if the data had been accessed. "there's nothing in the police department investigation that points to any type of identity theft or credit card theft" said university spokeswoman janet gilmore.

the laptop was stolen by an unknown woman, who sold it to shuki alburati, who sold the laptop to an unsuspecting south carolina man. shuki alburati was arrested on june 8 for receiving stolen property; he has been charged with one misdemeanor count. 

he claims he didn't know the laptop, a new ibm x40 worth $2,429, was stolen. he purchased the laptop from the woman, who said it wasn't stolen, for $300 or $340. a few days later, on april 19, he placed the laptop on ebay. the winning bidder was a man in south carolina who bought the laptop for $1,195.50. police have said this man is not a suspect. police were alerted by ibm after the man called ibm for tech support.

shuki alburati has pleaded not guilty. he claimed "it's unfair, i didn't know it was stolen." his trial is scheduled for sept. 30 before superior court judge michael gaffey in oakland. the woman who stole the laptop has not yet been found.



church of scientology does not see humor in website dedicated to tom cruise

http://scientomogy.info has apparently received a fax and at least 6 emails in the span of 2 days from scientology lawyer ava paquette of moxon & kobrin threatening a lawsuit of up to $100,000 if the domain name ownership is not transferred. this type of letter is often called a cease and desist letter.

the owners of scientomogy.info have posted the complaints and their replies, saying that the site simply expresses opinion, does not make any claims, and clearly states that it has no connection to the church of scientology. "the site was put up as a single source to view all the recent hype tom has made about the church - it does nothing but show tom, so we are at a loss as to why the church is acting so rashly."

the church of scientology is notorious for pursing legal action against its critics, under the name of the "religious technology center" (rtc). it previously made headlines when it used the us's digital millennium copyright act to remove xenu.net, a site critical of scientology, from google's listings.


john &quot;jebby&quot; bush, son of florida governor bush, arrested for public intoxication

early friday morning, , the 21 year old son of florida governor jeb bush, was arrested in , texas for public intoxication and resisting arrest. roger wade, texas alcoholic beverage commission spokesman, said bush was apprehended at 2:30am near the corner of trinity and sixth street in the city's downtown entertainment and bar district.

jeb and columbia bush's youngest son allegedly wobbled up to and austin police on duty in the city's downtown entertainment district and began badgering police about an earlier arrest of people he knew. tabc agent capt. david ferrero said bush appeared to be drunk and "was observed to be a danger to himself and others."

according to the arrest affidavit, "subject further resisted by pushing back with his body as he was restrained at the [austin police department] transport van." during the scuffle, bush suffered a cut on his chin and was transported to breckenridge hospital where he was treated and released. bail was set at $2,500, but bush was released on his own recognizance later about 10:30am. if he fails to appear for court, he will forfeit the bond. austin law classifies public intoxication as a class c misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $500, while resisting arrest is a class a misdemeanor, and is punishable by up to a year in jail.

authorities were unaware of bush's identity until after his arrest and booking when they observed his florida driver license. governor bush appearing with his wife at a miami museum reception bristled at reporters' questions friday evening when the issue was mentioned saying, "i'm not going to discuss it on the public square with 30 cameras."

several members of the have received considerable press coverage for perceived or abusive use of alcohol and other substances, including george w. bush's , jenna and barbara bush's underage drinking, and jebby's sister noelle arrest for forging a prescription.









rupert murdoch: blair says bbc &quot;hates america&quot;

media magnate , managing director and the largest shareholder of , claimed that the uk prime minister tony blair offered his opinions about the bbc in a private conversation with him. according to murdoch, blair views bbc broadcasts as portraying america in a negative light, and accusing their coverage of to be used for political statements.

murdoch, a long-time critic of the bbc, apparently revealed details of his conversation with the prime minister during a session of the in new york. murdoch's news corp. owns and sky news, both bbc competitors.


singer britney spears gives birth to a healthy boy

on september 14, pop singer britney spears reportedly gave birth to a baby boy through cesarean section. spears and husband kevin federline issued a statement on their website confirming the birth later in the week, saying the following: "we are ecstatic to announce the birth of our son! everyone is happy, healthy and doing wonderful. thank you for all your love and well wishes!!".

spears reportedly gave birth through a cesarean section due to the fact she did not want to experience the regular pain encountered during child birth. she has been met with some criticism by her fans in wake of this report.

the birth of the boy, whose birth name is disputed among different sources, is considered very important in the entertainment world. analysts say his first photo could be sold by his parents for upwards of us$1,000,000.



iran determined to continue with nuclear program

the president of iran, mahmoud ahmadinejad, announced saturday the resolve of his country to proceed with the development of . he stated that iran would not pursue .

mr. ahmadinejad also noted that he was willing to allow international inspection of his program, and reaffirmed his claim of its peaceful nature.

at the un conference, mr. ahmadinejad made clear that he felt that iran had a right to nuclear energy, and that the nations of world practiced "nuclear apartheid" by refusing to let iran pursue this course. "we're not going to cave in to the excessive demands of certain powers," he said, refusing to yield to international pressure to halt his country's nuclear course.

he said that talks should be restarted, this time including other nations such as south africa.

the speech was not in line with what the us and others want for iran; condoleezza rice warned the un that iran's nuclear ambitions were dangerous. one british official was quoted as saying "this was an unhelpful speech on which we will now want to consult our partners on the international atomic energy agency board of governors."

the iaea is slated to begin a discussion on iran's nuclear program in on monday.


thai media mogul drops newspaper takeover attempt

the head of gmm grammy in thailand has backed off from his attempts to take over the leading thai newspaper, matichon. in a statement on friday, mr paiboon damrongchaitham announced he would reduce his stake in the paper from 32% to 12%.

the attempted takeover has drawn widespread criticism from journalists, academics, and democracy activists. mr paiboon is known to be close to the thai prime minister, thaksin shinawatra, and many argued his control of the well-respected paper would have a chilling effect on free speech in the country.

despite announcing the planned sale of more than a third of his holding in the paper, mr paiboon will still have a sufficiently large share to command a place on the board. academic, anusorn srikaew, the dean of rangsit university's faculty of communication arts, suggested that gmm grammy's ambitions had just been shelved and that they would again increase their stake in the paper at some point in the future.

thai political talk show taken off air, september 15, 2005


news briefs:september 18, 2005

the time is 2000 utc on sunday 18th september 2005, and this is audio wikinews: news briefs.

results of 2005 german federal election<br>
early result projections from today's german federal election suggest that the alliance consisting of chancellor gerhard schroder's social democratic party and the greens has lost its majority. the strongest party appears to be the christian democratic union, with its chancellor candidate angela merkel. however, it is not yet certain who will govern the country for the next four years. neither the cdu and its likely coalition partner the free democratic party nor spd and its partner the greens have a majority of seats in the bundestag. while the cdu got the most votes, it performed much worse than projected, and officials from the party now suggest that a grand coalition with the spd is the likely option for a future government. but a coalition of both greens and fdp with either the spd or the cdu also seems a possibility. winners in this election include the free democrats, who gained 3%, and the left, up 4%.
iran determined to continue with nuclear program<br>
the president of iran, mahmoud ahmadinejad, announced on saturday the resolve of his country to proceed with the development of nuclear energy. he stated that iran would not pursue nuclear weapons. mr ahmadinejad also noted that he was willing to allow international inspection of his programme, and reaffirmed his claim of its peaceful nature. at the un conference in new york this week, mr. ahmadinejad made clear that he felt that iran had a right to nuclear energy, and that the nations of world practiced "nuclear apartheid" by refusing to let iran pursue this course. "we're not going to cave in to the excessive demands of certain powers," he said, refusing to yield to international pressure to halt his country's nuclear course.
saudi arabia, uae to support increasing oil production<br>
oil ministers from saudi arabia and the united arab emirates announced that both countries would support raising crude oil output quotas by the organization of petroleum exporting countries. the saudi minister, ali al-naimi, said that rising prices were lowering world demand, and his nation 'absolutely' backs the increase, while mohammed bin dhaen al-hamli from the uae claimed that the markets could calm on the decision. earlier, opec cut their oil demand estimates for 2005, saying that demand will rise by only 1.7% compared to the previous prediction of 1.9%. the organisation is to meet to discuss the possible increase on 19th september. if the decision takes place, the official limits will be at their highest since 1987.
thank you for joining us today. to receive more up-to-date news items as they occur, please visit wikinews.org.

and, be sure to check out our weekly full-length audio news programme, audio wikinews: full report.

this recording has been released into the public domain. this applies worldwide.


idg cancels macworld boston

show organizer idg has canceled macworld expo boston. the east coast macworld expo was held in boston from 1985 to 1997. in 1998 it was moved to new york.

in october 2002, idg announced their intention to move the show back to boston, a move many criticized. apple quickly announced it would no longer participate in the east coast show. east coast macworld expos have always been much smaller than macworld san francisco. new york's shows would have tens of thousands attendees. the boston shows only had about 8,000 attendees. the san francisco show, however, had 36,000 attendees. without apple's support, and with the low attendance numbers, many had predicted the cancellation. 

macworld expos are held twice a year. they are an opportunity for companies to announce new products to the mac community. macworld was once one of the largest technology trade shows in the country. apple regularly announces new products at the macworld san francisco expos. "historically, we have had a west coast and an east coast show, after the last show, though, we did a lot of market research and it was obvious that the market wanted one show", said idg spokesperson mike sponseller. 

the 2006 show had been scheduled for july 10 through 13. 

 


google launches new blog search engine

in mid-september, google launched a new search engine: google blogsearch. the new search engine, whose development was announced over two years ago, allows you to search blogs by dates, date ranges, language, authors, and by the blog itself, in addition to keywords. it is then possible to set up your own custom newsfeed with these search criteria.

despite the features, there has been criticism related to this new engine. one example is how their index only dates back to march 2005. in addition, flaws in the search algorithm may result in duplicate blog entries, as well as other "blog noise" to receive high results.

this new search engine was made supposedly to help compete with other search engines, such as one by yahoo!.

"google blogsearch" has joined the group of other google search engines, including "google image" search, "google groups", and the famous "google web" search.




afghanistan holds first democratic general elections

on sunday, afghanistan held its first democratic general elections. they are the first elections held in the country since last year's presidential elections.

there was voter participation of about 50%, compared with 70% for the previous presidential election. according to bimillah bismal, head of the afghan-un joint electoral management body, "the election was held in a peaceful manner…there was also a high level of political awareness and participation amongst the afghan people."

voting proceeded calmly, with little violence at the polling stations, most of which were able to remain open throughout saturday.

there are approximately 5,800 candidates, competing for 420 slots in the provincial court, and 249 deputy positions in the wing of the afghani parliament (wolesi jirga). 

violence did sprout up occasionally, with four election officials killed in the past year, as well as seven contenders for deputy positions. however, the us-led coalition is working to minimize these problems during the elections, and, so far, taliban militant actions have not been an overwhelming issue.

women have a sizable role to play in these elections?they can vote, and 10 percent of the candidates are female. even in the more conservative southern areas of afghanistan, a sizable number of female voters came to the polling stations.

preliminary election results are expected by october 10.


nasa plans for future moon missions

nasa has announced plans for sending humans back to the moon, as a first step to mars.
a 2018 lunar mission is proposed, where a crew of four would remain on the moon for as long as a week. a minimum of two lunar missions a year is planned, with astronauts remaining as long as six months.

some of the technology had previously been proposed for replacement of the space shuttle.

for a lunar mission, the lsam and eds would be placed in orbit by a cargo launcher, then a cev would dock with the assembly before leaving earth orbit.
the goal is to begin production of the new spacecraft by 2011.
the plans are a means to implement president bush's "vision for space exploration" program. goals include:



nuclear arms agreement reached with north korea

north korea has again agreed to abandon its .

the country agreed to again return to the nuclear nonproliferation treaty and follow international atomic energy agency safeguards. 

five other countries have agreed to give north korea energy assistance. there also would be discussion "at an appropriate time" about providing a civilian light-water reactor.

the day after the agreement, north korea demanded the new reactor before it ends its other nuclear programs. u.s. secretary of state condoleezza rice said the light-water reactor issue was to be discussed "down the road" ? not immediately.



musharraf denies making rape remarks

pakistan's president, pervez musharraf, has denied making the comments on rape reported by the washington post.

the widespread reporting of the quotes from musharraf's interview sparked protests on friday in pakistan and drew criticism from around the globe, with the canadian prime minister, paul martin, saying that president musharraf should issue some sort of apology.

whilst musharraf may deny the specifics of the comments made, co-author of the post's interview, glenn kessler, has said that the pakistani president was quoted, "verbatim and in context". that context being a discussion of the treatment given to mukhtar mai, a rape victim whose plight was publicised worldwide. musharraf is quoted as saying, "a lot of people say if you want to go abroad and get a visa for canada or citizenship and be a millionaire, get yourself raped."

in recent times, pakistan has seen a growth in activist groups seeking to promote women's rights in pakistan. a number of high profile rape cases, including that of mukhtar mai, have focused international attention on some of the practices that are commonplace in tribal parts of the country. activists have accused president musharraf of not taking the issue seriously, and that tribal elders still condone rape, if not actually ordering it.



us clinic plans first face transplant

us doctors are to interview 12 patients with a view to performing the first ever transplant of a human face.

the cleveland clinic will choose between seven women and five men to find the person most suited for the experimental procedure, which is a radical and controversial solution to extreme facial scarring or disfigurement.

having practiced the procedure on bodies donated for medical research, the cleveland clinic team believe they have a 50% chance of success. the procedure will not live up to science-fiction predictions and give the recipient the appearance of the donor; the underlying bone structure is the deciding factor in the final appearance. the new face will end up resembling neither the donor nor recipient.

surgeons in several other countries have announced being ready to perform this procedure in the past. however, the risk and non life-threatening nature of disfigurement have meant that gaining approval for the groundbreaking surgery has been difficult. like many other transplant operations, the recipient would be required to take drugs to prevent tissue rejection for the remainder of their life. these drugs can have side effects and carry their own risks involving the patient's immune system.


artists erect giant bunny on italian mountainside

gelitin, a group of artists from vienna, has erected a pink bunny measuring 200 feet in length (about 60 metres) on the side of a northern italian mountain.

the artwork, titled "hase" (which translates simply as "hare"), is located at a height of 1600m on the mountain colletto fava, close to bar la baita, above the village of artesina, piemonte, italy.

the soft rabbit is constructed out of pink wool, and is expected to remain on the mountain until 2025. though it seems like a giant children's toy at first glance, a closer look or an in-person exploration quickly leads to the realization that the rabbit's side is split open, and its entrails pulled out.

the group designed it, but claims it was "knitted by dozens of grannies out of pink wool." the group's website, however, provides the actual credits for all the people involved.

group member wolfgang gantner said: "it's supposed to make you feel small, like gulliver. you walk around it and you can't help but smile."

the press release provided by the group explains rabbits as "the things one finds [while] wandering in a landscape, familiar things and utterly unknown."
though they compare the initial reaction they hope people to have to that of those encountering the giant gulliver in gulliver's travels, looking around it in awe, the group does make it clear that they hope for people to climb onto the rabbit to explore and relax on it.



sprint/realnetworks to provide cell phone internet radio and podcasts in us

wireless provider sprint announced today, that they would be working with realnetworks to launch a streaming music service, for sprint wireless customers, called rhapsody radio.

the service will allow users to listen to podcasts and six streaming radio stations (rap, hip-hop hits, alternative, country, '70s, and music news) from their mobile phone. users will be able to listen to live broadcasts of those stations over their cellular connection. for a monthly subscription fee of $6.95, users will also have unlimited access to commercial-free radio broadcasts. selected streaming podcasts from kcrw, santa monica 89.9 fm, and national public radio’s southern california station will also be available. a special "beats n breaks" stream is also available. "beats n breaks" provides background music from hip-hop songs for users to rap with.

rhapsody radio service requires a sanyo mm-7400, sanyo mm-5600, sanyo mm-8300, samsung ip-a790, samsung mm-a800, samsung mm-a880 or an lg mm-535 mobile phone. customers are able to order directly from their phones, with the charge appearing on their next bill. 

many analysts predicted the introduction of music services by other wireless providers after apple recently introduced the motorola rokr. the motorola rokr comes with a version of the itunes software which allows users to listen to up to 100 songs on their phone. service for this phone in the usa is provided by cingular wireless.



florida keys evacuated in preparation for rita

the storm may hit southern florida, then the us ; preliminary maps suggest landfall in texas. fear has caused crude oil prices to rise by $4 per barrel on monday, in anticipation that rita would cause more damage to the oil refineries around the gulf of mexico. this was the largest single day price increase for crude oil in history. prices dropped by $1 to $66 per barrel on tuesday, eased partly by news that opec would supply 2 million barrels of oil per day in extra capacity to ease supply shortages.

phil flynn, an analyst, stated that "we really can't afford to lose more production," as katrina left many oil facilities inoperable.

40,000 residents are affected by the evacuation plans, which include everyone in the southern portions of the keys. voluntary evacuations were issued to 134,000 coastal residents. five cuban provinces were set on alert, as well as certain areas in the bahamas and the remainder of florida.

rita could affect and other places recovering from ? it may cause a great deal of water to be dumped on the region ? worrying officials. daniel brown, a hurricane meteorologist, said "this is something everyone should be paying attention to." president bush adds: "there is deep concern about this storm causing more flooding in new orleans."

from a sunday, september 11 broadcast of "" "meet the press", mr. russert received the following answer to a question about the vulnerability of new orleans to flooding. dr. ivor van heerden is the deputy director of louisiana state university hurricane center:

mr. russert: ...doctor, you're an expert on this. we're still in the hurricane season. what are the chances, the likelihood that a tropical storm or, god forbid, another hurricane could hit this same area?<br>
dr. van heerden: you know, there is a high probability it could happen. the unfortunate thing is, because the levee system is so weakened, just a tropical storm could reflood new orleans. so it's a very, very vulnerable situation right now. we don't need another katrina to flood new orleans. a tropical storm that puts maybe five feet or six feet of water in lake pontchartrain, which is not rare, would reflood the city.<br>
mr. russert: do you think the local, state and federal governments are prepared for an event like that in the coming weeks?<br>
dr. van heerden: i don't think so, because right now they're really battling just to try and shore up the levees. you know, there were seven major levee breaks and it's going to take quite a lot of time to repair those, to have them engineeringly sound so they won't give way again.

the hurricane season is in full swing, ending on november 30.


idaho meterologist promotes hurricane katrina conspiracy theory

scott stevens, weatherman at kpvi-tv in pocatello, idaho claims that someone used russian kgb technology to create hurricane katrina. according to a brief article published september 8, 2005 on flashnews.com, stevens blames the japanese yakuza mafia, who he says were attempting to manipulate futures markets via the natural disaster. 

stevens' website, weatherwars.info, includes documentation he has collected in an attempt to bolster his theories that energy weapons and airplane contrails are part of secret weather manipulating activities. 


nypd shuts down anti-war speech due to absence of permit

an anti-war demonstration in the streets of new york city failed to apply for a sound permit, normally granted for public demonstrations of all kinds. as a result of what police claim was an unauthorized use of an amplification device, the new york police department took action. anti-war protester cindy sheehan was speaking to a crowd of 150 before the microphone was removed by the authorities, according to a report published in "the village voice". the organizer of the event, paul zulkowitz (nicknamed "zool"), was arrested moments before the demonstration was dispersed.

sheehan's speech was almost over monday when the police interrupted. as sheehan was escorted off the scene, the crowd shouted at the cops to "let her speak".

sheehan said that "i was speaking and someone grabbed my backpack and pulled me back pretty roughly," and that "i was shoved around."

she added that "i think their use of force was pretty excessive for someone that didn't have a permit." mrs sheehan noted that this happened when police broke up the rally.

the sheehan tour's previous stop was in downtown richmond, virginia where she addressed a small gathering in front of the virginia army national guard office. the small afternoon demonstration drew only a dozen supporters; and as many pro-war demonstrators joined the gathering. 

sheehan achieved national prominence following her peace vigil at the beginning of august 2005, when she camped in a ditch by a road near united states president george w. bush's ranch in crawford, texas, vowing to stay until the president agreed to meet and speak with her about the iraq war.

 


lightning storm moves through southern california

lightning storms moved over southern california monday evening and tuesday morning. rain fell several times during the night, and lightning struck repeatedly throughout the region.

citizens reported smoldering palm trees in several areas of orange county. in the suburban city of irvine, darkness came early as heavy clouds blotted out the twilight. some of the heaviest weather came soon after, as fat raindrops fell on the city. lightning lit up the sky as often as every fifteen seconds, and am radios emitted bursts of static every few seconds as lightning struck. the storm tapered off for several hours, but peaked again shortly before 1 am; lightning was once again seen repeatedly and power flickered several times.

the national weather service's san diego office issued an advisory warning of approaching thunderstorms; they estimated there would be 1/4 inch of rainfall and that the storm would leave the area by tuesday night.

southern california rarely sees lightning; a thunderstorm rolls through once every few years, typically due to bad weather to the south. meteorologists say that this storm is an offshoot of hurricane max, which is currently several hundred miles west of mexico and moving away from land.


basra, iraq raid by uk forces to rescue soldiers from police

uk forces have raided an iraqi police station and a house in basra to retrieve two british soldiers who had been arrested by iraqi police forces. later media reports say 'the soldiers were found not to be at the police station. based on received intelligence a house was then stormed; the soldiers were found being held by "local militia".' 

the identities of the two soldiers are unknown, but it is known they were special forces working in "plain clothes", dressed as iraqis and wearing dark wigs. the incident has been accompanied by petrol bomb attacks on british armoured vehicles and stones being thrown at the soldiers as they evacuated the vehicles due to fears of "exploding ammunition", according to more recent media. associated press has reported that about 150 prisoners are believed to have escaped as the result of the raids, although the higher iraqi authorities hold that this is not true.

it is not clear precisely what the rescued soldiers were being held for, besides a possible covert attempt to plant a carbomb, as the sept. 19th article listed below declares the 2 "were using a civilian car packed with explosives" while disguised as iraqis wearing arab uniforms. many news sources have reported that the men were working undercover for british forces. iraqi authorities report that the men had opened fire on police, killing one officer and wounding another. the washington post article tells of the iraqi police calling for locals to come help hold the soldiers so as the situation may be investigated. three hours later, the 2 were broken out of an allied jail by force. it is too early to determine the truth of any of these claims yet, but it is certain to have ramifications for the peace process as well as global affairs.

the constant manipulation of this story as it progresses is undeniable.


opera internet browser goes ad-free

opera software has ended the use of ads in the zero cost version of its opera web browser. opera is intended as closed source software, its license states that "you shall not modify, translate, reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble the software or any part thereof or otherwise attempt to derive source code or create derivative works therefrom." . until now the program displayed an advertisement when being used, however the program had an option that would remove the advertisement in return for a fee.
company officials expressed hope that this move would prompt more users to download the opera browser and thus increase the company's revenue from its search engine product.

opera's features compete directly with mozilla firefox, and include tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking, integrated search, mouse gestures and voice control for various features. its license does not compete with mozilla firefox, since mozilla firefox is free software, which can be freely modified and redistributed.

you can download opera at the opera website for windows, apple and linux.

opera is also offering torrents of the new release to ease the load on their servers.


london bombers rehearsed attacks

police at scotland yard have discovered that the suicide bombers who mounted an attack on london on july 7th had rehearsed their plan nine days earlier.

as part of the formal investigation into the attacks, detectives studied thousands of hours of cctv footage. the images show three of the bombers entering luton station, before travelling to king's cross station where they are also pictured.

police were able to trace their movements after recovering tickets and receipts from houses connected to the bombers which indicated the route of their trip.

scotland yard says the practice run shows 'terrorist methodology'. over 3,000 witness statements have been gathered and 80,000 cctv tapes analysed, and the investigation is expected to carry on for many months to come.

"terror timetable"


if you have information in connection with the london bombings please call the anti-terrorist hotline on 0800 789321.


nazi hunter simon wiesenthal dead at 96

holocaust survivor and famous nazi hunter simon wiesenthal, founder of the center that bears his name, has passed away this morning at his home in vienna, austria. he was 96.

wiesenthal was born december 31, 1908 in buchach, then part of austria-hungary, and studied in prague. he settled in poland and was forced to work in a factory after the soviet union had invaded poland, following the hitler-stalin pact. when the germans then turned on the soviet union in 1941, wiesenthal was caught and interned in several concentration camps. he was liberated when american forces reached the mauthausen concentration camp in may 1945.

wiesenthal devoted almost his entire post-wwii life tracking down and pursuing nazi war criminals. in 1947 he and thirty colleages founded the jewish documentation center in linz, austria which was devoted to collecting information on the whearabouts of war criminals and the documentation of their crimes. but the brewing cold war caused the u.s. and soviet union to quickly lose interest in the prosecution of nazis. wiesenthal closed the linz centre in 1954 but gained new hope with the capture of adolf eichmann, whom he helped to track down. possibly his biggest success was the capture and trial of franz stangl, commandant at the treblinka extermination camp. in total he and the simon wiesenthal center he set up in the u.s. in 1977 is thought to have brought some 1100 war criminals to justice. but he failed to capture gestapo chief heinrich muller and auschwitz "doctor" josef mengele.

wiesenthal's life was not without controversy. austrian chancellor bruno kreisky, himself a jewish person, accused wiesethal of being part of "certain mafia" seeking to besmirch austria and claimed wiesenthal collaborated with the nazis to survive. on the other hand wiesenthal refused to condemn kurt waldheim, former u.n. secretary-general and austrian president, for being a officer of the german army during wwii, something which alienated him from american jewish groups.

israeli president moshe katsav called wiesenthal the "biggest fighter" of his generation. "he represented the morality of humanity; he represented the free world, the democratic world. he devoted his life to fighting racism, anti-semitism, nazism and he really contributed to making a better world for the next generation", katsav said during a visit to latvia.

hungarian prime minister ferenc gyurcsany said: "humanity is poorer because a just man, simon wiesenthal, is gone".

german president horst kohler said that wiesenthal sought "justice, not revenge or hatred. that was an expression of a personality embossed with deep humanitarianism. he remains a role model for us to fight injustice persistently and forceful".



google prepares to launch wifi service

according to several pages on google’s website, google is launching a free wifi service. this program, called google secure access, creates a virtual private network allowing secure access to the internet. "google secure access" encrypts all traffic to and from a user’s machine while the user is connected to the wireless access point.

google provides its engineers with time to work on independent research projects. "google secure access" was created as an independent research project by a google engineer after he discovered that wifi was insecure at most locations.

according to the "google secure access faq", the service is only available at "certain google wifi locations in the san francisco bay area". according to some reports, the service is working from some independent (non-google) wifi locations in nyc.

like many of google’s other popular services such as gmail, "google secure access" is still in the beta testing stage.



us federal reserve lifts interest rates

the us federal reserve has just raised the base rate of interest for the 11th month in a row, despite concerns that the economy will slow after hurricane katrina.

the rate rose by a quarter of a percentage point to 3.75%, but analysts have predicted it may rise to 4.5% in the coming months, in spite of consumer spending being down. the fed says it is hoping to counter soaring house prices and the high price of oil. 

economic growth in the us this year is forecast at around 3.3%, but government officials estimate that 0.5% growth could be lost due to hurricane katrina.

however, analysts are confident that the economy is robust enough to withstand and shake off the effects of high oil prices and unemployment caused by hurricane katrina.


einstein's equation turns 100

albert einstein's best known equation, and probably the best known aspect of all physics, e=mc, turns one hundred today. 

september 27, 1905 is generally considered the birthday of the equation because that is the day that einstein's paper outlining the significance of the equation arrived in the offices of the german journal .

in the equation, 'e' stands for energy, 'm' stands for mass, and 'c' stands for the speed of light.

the equation shows that matter and energy are, essentially, two aspects of the same thing, and that a small amount of matter can be converted into an enormous amount of energy. nuclear reactions, including fusion in the sun and in nuclear weapons, are examples of large amounts of energy released from the conversion of comparatively small quantities of mass. 

the united nations declared 2005 the international year of physics in recognition of albert einstein's work in 1905. in addition to discovering his famous equation, over the course of 5 months in 1905 einstein developed the theory of special relativity (which led him to the equation e=mc), proved the existence of atoms and molecules, and showed that light is made of photons. 1905 is often called einstein's annus mirabilis, or miracle year. 
the 100th anniversary of einstein's miracle year is being celebrated in many countries around the world as the . in the uk, it is called the einstein year. 

 


vatican denies church is shielding war criminal

united nations chief war crimes prosecutor, carla del ponte, prosecutor for the international criminal tribunal for the former yugoslavia has accused the catholic church in croatia of shielding one of the most wanted war criminals of the conflict in the region.

the vatican has denied the accusation that it is shielding the alleged war criminal, general ante gotovina, claiming they have sought clarification on ms del ponte's accusation that the general is being sheltered in a monastery in croatia.


aol to launch voip service

today, aol had announced that it is launching a new service to be named "totaltalk". totaltalk is much like due to its unification of verbal conversation and instant messenger into one client. however, much like skype, client-to-phone conversations are possible. other features include caller id, voice mail integration with e-mail, three-way calling, and more.

unlike aol's current voip service, totaltalk will not require aol membership. however, access to this service may cost upwards of $34.99 per month.

later this week, aol will also release its new instant messenger client, triton. triton will contain a softphone feature that can be used with totaltalk.




fbi recruits for &quot;war on porn&quot;

last month, the fbi's washington field office began an internal recruitment drive to staff a new anti-obscenity squad. the job of the new squad would be to gather evidence against the "manufacturers and purveyors" of pornography, and would require eight agents, a supervisor and assorted support help. the squad would not be concerned with child pornography, but instead focus on pornography that depicts, and is marketed to, consenting adults. the squad would target bestiality, urination, defecation, and sadomasochistic behavior, which have a high rate of conviction in jury trials.

the initiative is described as "one of the top priorities" of attorney general alberto gonzales, as well as fbi director robert s. mueller iii. gonzales has said that "adult pornography is a threat to families and children." christian groups, such as the family research council who have criticized gonzales for what they consider his weak stance on abortion, welcomed the initiative with "a growing sense of confidence in our new attorney general."

historians have criticized past fbi policies for focusing resources on cases which are easy to solve, especially stolen car cases, with the intent of boosting the agency's success rate. congress began funding the obscenity initiative in fiscal 2005 and specified that the fbi must devote 10 agents to adult pornography.

the adult pornography initiative is seen as a "running joke" by many agents at larger offices which usually focus on national security, technology crimes, and public corruption.

hard-core pornography is seen as far more mainstream today, partly due to its availability on directv, owned by rupert murdoch's news corp., and on in-room television offerings at the sheraton, hilton, marriott and hyatt hotel chains. such companies are referred to as "white-collar pornographers" by christian groups. 



fda recalls foreign meat used in aid for victims of hurricane katrina

the american food and drug administration has recalled operational rations (mres) donated by britain to help survivors of hurricane katrina.

the daily mirror insinuated that the majority of the 400,000 rations donated by britain, at a cost of millions of pounds, are set to be destroyed at a plant in little rock, arkansas. the washington times reported, on september 23, 2005, that a spokeswoman for the u.s. department of agriculture confirmed that the food was being held at the facility but denied any plans to incinerate the rations donated by britain.

nevertheless, the move has infuriated aid workers who hasten to point out that "under nato, american soldiers are also entitled to eat such rations, yet the starving of the american south will see them go up in smoke because of fda red tape madness." one aid worker was quoted as saying that "the world's richest nation couldn't organize a piss-up in a brewery and lets americans starve while they arrogantly observe petty regulations. everyone is revolted by the chaotic shambles the us is making of this crisis. guys from unicef are walking around spitting blood."

an fda spokesman said the rations had not been inspected but were automatically deemed "unfit for human consumption" due to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (bse or colloquially "mad cow disease") fears. he observed that 70 pallets of vegetarian mres were inspected and approved on september 13th. aid workers claim that, today, bse is much more of a problem in the u.s. than in britain.

food donations from spain and italy are also being held by the fda due to similar concern, as well as thousands of gallons of pear juice from israel. licensing regulations have also prevented foreign nations from sending doctors and other medical personnel.


tennessee closes down christian ex-gay camp for treating mental illness without a license

the tennessee state department of mental health has ordered the closing of two ex-gay ministries operated by love in action international inc., a controversial christian group that counsels gays to give up homosexuality.

the state deemed that love in action was "providing housing, meals and personal care for mentally ill patients without a license". in particular, the state found that love in action was dispensing medication to patients without the required license.

love in action has repeatedly drawn fire from gay rights groups who view it as preying upon the fears of religious parents in order to make christian ministers like jerry falwell and pat robertson seem more acceptable to the uninformed public. gay rights advocates view such bootcamp style ex-gay camps as "tantamount to child abuse". 

love in action is viewed as the first modern ex-gay group. its co-founder john evans, who abandoned the ministry, feels that it has led to "nothing but shattered lives, depression, and even suicide" and suggests that "the church has been wrong in the past regarding moral issues and i’m sure there will be more before christ returns."

the american psychological association and the american psychiatric association strongly affirm that "homosexuality is not an illness", "does not require treatment" and "is not changeable." they feel that "gay men and lesbians who have accepted their sexual orientation positively are better adjusted than those who have not done so," and warn that people seeking conversion therapy may be doing so under pressure from religious groups. the american public is evenly divided on the question of whether homosexual orientation can be changed, according to the pew forum on religion and public life .


winmx shut down following riaa requests

the network run by the program , as well as the winmx homepage, has become the first casualty of a (riaa) crackdown on file-sharing programs.

in mid-september, the riaa sent frontcode technologies a letter asking them to implement filters to make it impossible for users to download copyrighted material from their site, or shut down. frontcode seems to have shut down the network for now. 

earlier this year, the u.s. supreme court decided that maintainers of a network can be held responsible to the content shared on networks.



arizona applies ban on autodialers to mobile phone spam

on tuesday an arizona appellate court ruled that the telephone consumer protection act of 1991, a federal law that bans using autodialers to call mobile phones or pagers, also applies to text messages sent to mobile phones.

the three-judge court of appeals panel upheld the trial judge’s ruling in favour of rodney l. joffe. he sued acacia mortgage corp. in 2001, for $55,000 in damages for harassment. 

acacia used a web-based system to send the text messages, which translates the users phone number into an e-mail address. acacia argued that the company was not making calls to mobile phones, but rather sending e-mails. "even though acacia used an attenuated method to dial a cell phone telephone number, it nevertheless did so," wrote judge patricia k. norris.


south african typhoid outbreak protest dispersed with rubber bullets

in the wake of an outbreak of typhoid-related illnesses in delmas, north-east south africa, a protest that forced local council members to lock themselves indoors has been broken up by police.

rubber bullets were used in an effort to disperse the crowd which was calling for the town's council to resign over the failure to provide adequate and safe services. authorities report that 4 people are have died from typhoid and over 526 have been stricken since august 22. however, a report by the treatment action campaign (tac) states that 49 have died. a local undertaker was quoted as saying that burials have increased since the outbreak and that he buried 14 people on the weekend of 17 september alone.

an outbreak of the current magnitude suggests waterborne spread , although health authorities deny finding "salmonella typhi" (the causative agent of typhoid fever) in the town's drinking water. sanitation services in delmas, only 70 km from johannesburg, are primitive. in many areas human waste is transported in open buckets and it is believed this may have contaminated the water supply.


jet blue airliner lands with broken nose gear

jetblue flight 292, en route to new york's jfk airport from burbank, california, encountered nose gear malfunctions shortly after takeoff. it safely landed three hours later at los angeles international airport (lax) with no apparent injuries.

the pilots first realized something was wrong when the landing gear failed to retract; television footage showed that the plane's front wheels were pointing sideways, perpendicular to the plane's body. the plane was diverted to long beach airport, where it tried and failed to land, and then on to lax, which has better emergency facilities. the aircraft circled near the airport for several hours to burn fuel; the airbus a320 aircraft is not designed to dump fuel.

commentators predicted that the nose gear would either snap off, immediately twist to parallel upon touch down, or withstand the friction from the landing while remaining at a 90 degree angle.

at approximately 6:19pm local time, almost three hours after takeoff, the aircraft successfully managed to touch down. the pilot landed the plane first on its two rear wheels, keeping its nose in the air as long as possible until it slowed enough that the nose could be safely lowered. the front tires remained at a 90 degree angle and were incinerated through the friction. a cloud of white smoke and sparks burst out from behind the nose gear as the plane traveled down the runway. as the airplane finally stopped, the pilot had managed to keep the plane no more than 6 inches from the runway's centerline. officials were prepared with a brigade of fire engines as well as fire retardant foam in case the front wheel ignited. the plane was evacuated a few minutes later.

reports indicate that the pilots acted in a "calm and professional manner."

jetblue flight 292 was in a unique situation as each seat in the plane was equipped with live tv through directv. several of the stations carried on the livetv system had cameras trained on the plane and were monitoring the situation. it has been established that the televisions were operating as the plane circled the airfield, though there are conflicting reports on whether or not the televisions were in operation during the landing. for a time, passengers on board were able to watch their own airplane circle the airfield in a precarious situation.

139 passengers and 6 crew were on board flight 292.



google sued by thousands of authors over google print

google is being sued by the authors guild, among others, due to the verbatim publishing of contents of their books in google print for libraries, a search engine for searching books that started in december. the authors guild wants google to make the content from books protected under copyright unavailable, as they claim that they have never given permission for their text to be published. however, google offers the option of having their text removed from their databases.

google also claims that the text is used under "fair use", as they only include "snippets" of the text, and not the entire book. also, google sees google print as an incentive to authors, as it could help boost sales. “this ability to introduce millions of users to millions of titles can only expand the market for authors’ books, which is precisely what copyright law is intended to foster,” says google.

the lawsuit was filed by three writers in a new york federal court, and has the support from the u.s.-based authors guild. the suit acknowledges that text snippets presented via the internet to users is legal under the u.s. definition of "fair use". rather, the complaint centers on the wholesale copying of a book's text into google databases.

another google print program, called "google print for publishers", seeks consent from publishers (such as simon & schuster, who has given permission) to publish their works. considering as publishers "may" be holders of the copyright in book contents, this could be the sole project of google print, assuming google print for libraries is deemed "massive copyright infringement" by the district court in manhattan where the suit was filed. 



houston mayor urges evacuations as hurricane rita moves closer to shore

traffic is bumper to bumper on interstate highways as citizens try to evacuate ahead of . houston urged citizens in low areas of the city to "begin making their evacuation plans" in preparation for what is currently the 3rd strongest hurricane to ever form in the and the worst to enter the .

acting u.s. federal emergency management agency (fema) director david paulison was quoted saying "i strongly, strongly urge gulf coast residents to pay close attention to this storm. it's already a category 4, a huge storm, it's in warm waters and there's a potential for it to increase more," at a briefing in washington dc. the storm was upgraded to a category 5 hurricane on thursday, the strongest category of storm. recently, rita has lost intensity since entering cooler waters and facing wind shear from an opposing weather front, and is now a category 4 storm.
, texas lies 50 feet above sea-level on average, but the area is still prone to flooding as the region is very flat and supported by multiple bayous. in 2001, following , large areas of houston remained flooded after receiving 10 inches (250 mm) of rain, causing over $us 5 billion in damage. meteorologists fear that rita could cause similar, if not worse damage.

located 50 miles away from the inland city of houston, and situated on the gulf’s coastline, lies , texas at a mere 8 feet above sea level. the island city, with a population of nearly 60,000, built a 10-mile-long, 17-foot-high solid granite barrier next to the sea as a defense against hurricanes.

the national hurricane center currently predicts a storm surge from rita in the 15 to 20 feet range, along with strong battering waves. the city manager of galveston, steve leblanc said, "galveston is going to suffer. and we are going to need to get it back in order as quickly as possible. i would say that we probably have 90 percent of our residents have left the island. it feels like a ghost town to me, and that's a good thing."

rita is expected to slow down and linger after making landfall in the region. that could possibly mean even more damage from heavy rainfall accumulations. the governor of louisiana, , said the rain is a threat to new orleans. anywhere from 2 to 4 inches of rainfall are expected there, when earlier predictions estimated that 3 inches of rainfall would be enough to cause more flooding in the city.



oil price jumps as rita heads to refineries

oil, natural gas, and gasoline futures prices are all rising in anticipation of the landfall on friday. the market price for crude oil is rising about 1% a day, while gasoline futures rose 5% both wednesday and thursday. natural gas prices are also rising, with price index showing an increase of over 3.5% on thursday. oil refineries in the path of the storm, despite the pressure exerted by rising oil prices, are expected to increase their prices which in turn will be reflected at the pump.

the price for crude oil is expected to reach us$68 a barrel after reaching the all-time high in the u.s. at $70.85 on aug 30, in fear of the landing of rita along the u.s. gulf coast. along the texas gulf coastline, whose key u.s. oil production facilities were largely untouched by the catastrophic onslaught three weeks ago, production and distribution facilities have been battened down.

rita was downgraded to a category 3 storm friday as it neared the coast. the storm, packing sustained winds of 125 mph, appears headed for the border between texas and louisiana. hurricane force winds extend up to 60 miles from the center, according to the national hurricane center. the storm, currently, is the third-most intense hurricane ever recorded in the atlantic, just behind gilbert in 1988 and the 1935 labor day hurricane. 

regions of texas near where the storm is expected to land is home to the biggest concentration of u.s. oil refineries, accounting for 26 percent of the nation's total capacity. after katrina made its landfall in louisiana last month, four damaged refineries in mississippi and louisiana were shut down, crippling 5 percent of the us capacity. eighteen of the 26 refineries in texas are located on the gulf of mexico with a combined distillation capacity of 4 million barrels daily.

the national weather service has issued a flood watch for the texas coastline, including galveston, where the nation's largest oil refinery belonging to is located.

"some of those refineries in texas, they're at sea level. it's a table top, it floods very easily," said ed silliere, vice president of risk management at energy merchant llc in new york. 

plants have shut down as rita advances. shut down its seventh-largest refinery in . there is no date set for resuming production. is shutting its old ocean, texas, refinery. bp is pulling some workers from its texas refinery and shutting parts of the fourth largest plants in us. , the largest u.s. refiner, said it is closing its plants in and , with the shutdown to be completed by midday thursday.

the (opec) agreed at its meeting in on tuesday to effectively suspend its quota system for the first time since 1991 to relieve the rising oil price by pumping an estimated additional 2 million barrels of oil a day, which will begin at oct 1 and last for 3 months.

the head of the u.s. energy information administration (the statistical and analytical wing of the ), guy caruso, criticized opec for constraining production to keep prices high after the 11-member oil cartel pledged to make available the additional 2 million barrels daily.

"without question," caruso said wednesday when asked during a hearing whether opec has contributed to soaring oil prices, "opec policy has been to constrain production and collude... under the ftc definition of collusion and price-fixing, yes." 

according to opec, 62 percent in u.k., and 24 percent of fuel prices in the u.s. consist of taxes. consuming nations have a responsibility to invest in refineries and to lower taxes if they want lower fuel prices, opec president sheikh ahmad fahd al-sabah said. he is the oil minister of kuwait.



london bomb suspect returned from italy

the london bomb suspect, hussain osman, also known as hamdi issac, has arrived in london and been arrested following his extradition from italy.
allegedly involved in the second set of attacks on london in july, which targeted the city's public transport infrastructure, osman was arrested in rome by italian police on july 29, just one week after the failed attacks.

on september 13, a final appeal against extradition was rejected by an italian court despite his lawyer's protests that he could not get a fair trial in the uk. osman is accused of planting the failed bomb at shepherd's bush underground station. his flight subsequent to the attack proved futile as phone records led police to rome, and a raid on his brother's apartment, where he was captured.

pending his extradition, he was held at rebibbia jail, rome, a high-security facility on the outskirts of the city. he left the jail late on thursday and the ethiopian-born terror suspect flew out of italy at 12pm local time, accompanied by officers from the metropolitan police. flying on a chartered private jet, osman and his escort landed at raf northolt, where osman was charged on arrival. he is expected to be put on trial at the old bailey in london, alongside the other suspects involved in the failed attacks.


former 'dudley boys' sign with tna wrestling

tnawrestling.com is reporting that the former dudley boyz have signed a multi-year contract with total nonstop action. the team, who gained worldwide recognition through their work with wwe, recently left the company after a pay dispute. their signing with tna comes as the company prepares to debut their television show tna impact! on spike tv in october 2005.


italian minister of economy resigns

the italian minister of the economy, domenico siniscalco, resigned from his position in the government on thursday.

siniscalco cited the handling of a recent banking scandal among the reasons for his resignation. he had sought the resignation of the governor of the italian central bank, banca d'italia, for his alleged involvement in insider trading during an aborted bank takeover bid. the governor, antonio fazio, was believed to strongly favour an italian bid over that of the dutch bank abn amro.

siniscalco stated in his resignation letter that he was "scandalized" by the state of affairs, and would prefer to return to work as a university professor in turin. in addition to his issues with the bank of italy, his proposed budget had faced considerable dilution by the government coalition.

the prime minister silvio berlusconi gave the appearance of not being concerned about the resignation, and did not expect to take long to replace the minister. centre-left opposition leader, romano prodi, said the dispute over the budget was a defining part of what made up the government. he called for immediate elections in the wake of the resignation.



sony restructuring plan includes 10,000 job cuts

in a major restructuring plan, sony announced that approximately 7% of their workforce will be laid off between now and march 2008. nearly 4,000 of the job losses will be in japan itself.

the plan to try and revitalise the company is the brainchild of sir howard stringer, the company's first ever non-japanese ceo. apart from the job losses, eleven of the company's 65 manufacturing plants will be closed or put up for sale. restructuring follows considerable stock price falls over the last five years with the share value reduced to less than 40% of the 2000 value.

as well as announcing restructing plans, sony announced an expected loss of 10 billion yen (us$ 90 million) during the current financial year.


us chief justice candidate john roberts' nomination goes to full senate

the confirmed candidate in a vote of 13?5 on september 22. the is expected to hold hearings on monday before a having a full vote later in the week. the five members who voted no on roberts were senators , , , , and . the thirteen members who voted yes were the in the committee as well as , , and . it is likely that the senate will confirm roberts to the supreme court.


india subsidizes girls' education to offset gender imbalance

in a move aimed at curbing both population growth and preference for male children, the government of india has announced free and reduced cost education for girls.

the new program will offer free education at high school level to all girls of single child families. those with two girls and no other children may receive discounts of up to 50%. as a continuation of india's policy of promoting education, the program includes provisions for fellowships of us$ 45 per month for those undertaking post-graduate studies.

india faces problems with the balance of the sexes in the country; some areas have a ratio of 80 girls to every 100 boys due to selective abortions. boys are more highly prized in indian society and as a result, many couples will have additional children after a girl in an effort to produce a boy. in cases where the family already has one or two female children the likelihood of a female foetus being aborted is significantly higher.

indian law already prohibits tests to determine the sex of an unborn child for this very reason; however, it is routine during medical examinations of the mother for the doctor to disclose the sex of the child.



delta air lines to cut up to 9,000 jobs

atlanta-based delta air lines announced plans to cut 7,000 to 9,000 jobs by the end of 2007, approximately 17% of its employees. 

ceo gerald grinstein will take a 25% pay cut. executives have their pay cut by 15%. other employees will have their pay reduced by 7 to 10%. employees that make less than $25,000 a year will not be affected by these pay cuts.

delta has already cancelled leases on 40 aircraft and they plan to reduce its fleet by at least 80 more. they plan to reduce domestic capacity by 15 to 20 percent and increase international capacity by 25 percent.

delta is the third-largest airline in the us. they have lost 10 billion dollars since 2001 and are 14 billion dollars in debt. delta air lines and northwest airlines filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last wednesday, joining united airlines and us airways. four of the seven largest us carriers are operating under bankruptcy protection. chapter 11 protection gives companies time to rearrange its finances while continuing to operate.

delta ceo gerald grinstein said they intended "to move from being an unprofitable airline today to a profitable airline in just over two years". "this means we will become a smaller, more cost-efficient airline, with a strengthened network and a stronger balance sheet." these cuts should help save delta up to $3 billion dollars.


insights on nutrient traffic in living cells

in a new study that may have important applications in medicine, researchers from the university of california santa barbara found that cells have evolved a surprising, but efficient, way to regulate the transport of goods to the nucleus and surrounding organelles. 

nutrients and signals outside of a cell get to the cell nucleus by way of carriers called endosomes. endosomes travel through a cell on a highway of structural supports called microtubules. 

researchers studied the motion of endosomes by putting florescent tags, which glow under certain types of light, on individual endosomes and recording their motion through a microscope. they found that endosomes do not travel straight to the nucleus. instead, they randomly travel toward and away from the nucleus with no preferred direction.

this is a little like getting in the car to drive to work, but instead of being caught in heavy traffic along the main road, randomly choosing a back road to follow. if you end up being caught in traffic going that way, you can also turn around and travel in the opposite direction for a while. it would make getting to work a little slow, but it leads to an even distribution of endosomes all along the microtubules.

this finding surprised the santa barbara group. endosomes are most concentrated around the nucleus of a cell, so researchers expected that the endosomes would usually travel toward the nucleus. 

computer simulations show that the starburst-shaped layout of the microtubule system is responsible for the high concentration of endosomes at the nucleus. “it’s all in the geometry of the cell,” said samir mitragotri, a researcher on the project. 

endosomes randomly travel toward or away from the nucleus and can change direction. but as in italy where all roads lead to rome, the endosomes get to their destination because all roads eventually pass the nucleus. this system does not get a particular endosome to its target as quickly as possible, but ensures that nutrient transport is not disrupted if the cell moves or there is increased traffic. 

some heart, neurological, and muscular diseases are caused by the break down of proteins that regulate endosome movement. scientists are not sure what this does to the cell said samir mitragotri, a co-author of the study, but research like this could help them discover the “missing link” between disease and transport properties.


whalers upset spirit in opening game for ontario hockey league

the 2005-2006 ontario hockey league season kicked off to a start wednesday night at wendler arena in the dow event center in saginaw, michigan, usa with the saginaw spirit hosting the plymouth whalers, with over 4,600 people attending. the whalers won 7 - 2.

a power shot by a player sent the game into a 5-minute delay when a piece of glass on the boards was shattered during the first period. the game opened its first period with 4 goals for the whalers, with right wing player dan collins scoring two. teammates james neal and john vigilante picked up the remainder. the spirit also received a goal, made by defenseman patrick mcneill.

the second period started with an early goal by michal birner for the spirit. plymouth later rebounded with two goals from players ryan mcginnis and dan collins. later on in the period, plymouth member jared boll was penalized with a ten minute misconduct. he did not return to play for the remainder of the game.

the third period held a goal made by plymouth's mike letizia, rounding out the final score to 7 - 2. later on in the period, plymouth's #2 defenseman brett bellemore suffered an injury that left him on the ice. he later was able to skate to the bench, where he was examined by the team trainer, dennis macdonald.


st. anthony foundation provides hope

on the corner of golden gate ave. and jones st. in the tenderloin, san francisco, right next to the civic center you can see a throng of low-income and homeless people lining up outside of st. anthony’s dining room hall which opens up it’s doors everyday at 11:30 a.m. volunteers dressed in st. anthony foundation shirts help keep the lines moving as hundreds of homeless and low income people shuffle their way towards the dining hall underneath the watchful eyes of a small statue of st. francis of assisi.

"there’s a lot of people who go hungry out here and it ain't right." says jimmy scott, a slightly brawny 44-year-old black man who has been living homeless in san francisco for the past three years. "there are families out here with kids and everything and they have to walk around all night just to stay awake so they don’t get hurt or killed...right here in the u.s. this is going on...it ain't right."

the dining hall, which has been open for the past 54 years, is owned by the st. anthony foundation which helps low income and homeless people and families in the civic center, tenderloin, and soma areas with clothing, shelter, food, drug rehabilitation, and many other services. st. anthony’s administrative offices are found at 121 golden gate ave. with the majority of the foundation’s buildings on golden gate ave. and jones st.

"we are right in the heart of the homeless population of san francisco," says barry stenger, 55, who's been working for the st. anthony foundation for one year, and is the director of development and communications, "and people are pushed here because of the economic forces of san francisco because it's hard to be upper middle class in san francisco."

according to the san francisco chamber of commerce, "san francisco’s cost of living remains one of the highest in the country" with the average household income in san francisco being around $76,400 and the average price of housing being $543,000. average household income for the united states in 2002, according to the u.s. census bureau, was $42,409 and the average price of housing for the united states according to the national association of realtors was $185,200 in 2004.

"we served our 32 millionth meal on tuesday," said stenger, “and we serve 2,500 meals a day. some of our people who work here actually get served [food] here because they spend all their money towards rent and medical costs."

the st. anthony foundation was started by fr. alfred boeddeker in 1950 one year after fr. boeddeker became pastor of st. boniface church on golden gate st. where he was baptized as a child. during his lifetime, according to the foundation’s website, he was referred to as the "patron st. of the tenderloin" and had boeddeker park named after him because of his, and his foundation's, achievements with helping out the homeless and low income community.

"[st. anthony’s] is a good thing," said jimmy scott, "they provide a good service and they feed people and they clothe them and provide furniture when you get housing and give you groceries when you have aids. it's a good little organization."

"our dining room is open 365 days a year." said stenger. "our other facilities are open seven days a week. we have a residence for senior women and our [free medical] clinic is open five days a week and we also have a furniture and clothing store. we have 12 programs all together."

some of those programs are the father alfred center which provides 61 men two programs for getting out of drug and alcohol abuse, the employment program/learning center which helps participants in educational and employment opportunities and provides each one with a personal staff advisor, and a senior outreach and support services center which states its mission is to "promote independence, self determination, and alleviate isolation" for seniors who are 60 and older.

a few homeless people who were interviewed complained that st. anthony’s had some staff who were rude and that they were kicked out of the dining hall; other homeless within the area refuted those claims saying st. anthony's has nice staff and only kicks people out who cause trouble.

"it’s a good place and good people. everybody is so kind and so respectful and everything is under control." said john henderson, a tall and skinny 57-year-old homeless black man who has only been living in san francisco for close to two months because he recently moved there from phoenix, arizona. "it’s pretty cool because they’re under control because yesterday i saw at glide [memorial church which also has services for the poor and low income] and they were handing out food boxes and people were just rushing in and the woman in charge there was freaking out and so she just sat down. that would never happen at st. anthony's."

"and they clean too!" henderson said laughing with a grin on his face referring to the fact that there are no drugs allowed in the premises. "not that glide ain’t clean if you know what i mean."

"we [also] have a whole division that deals with justice education and advocacy to change the system that brings people to our doorstep." said stenger. "we hear a lot of appreciation from the people we serve. we get a lot of testimony from our clients who have become clean and sober. sometimes we have to push them a little to get them out the door because they love the [foundation] so much because it has changed their lives."
















hurricane rita turns toward texas-louisiana border

hurricane rita weakened to become a category 3 storm on friday with sustained winds of 125 mph. the forecast path is centered near the texas-louisiana border.

the core of the hurricane is expected to approach the texas and louisiana coasts late on friday.

rita is expected to produce rainfall accumulations of 8-12 inches, with the storm slowing down and producing a total of as much as 25 inches across eastern texas and western louisiana. bursts of tropical storm winds and rainfall amounts of 3-5 inches are possible in new orleans.

the u.s. corps of engineers estimated that 6 inches of rainfall could breach the previously damaged levees. new orleans' ninth ward, which saw as much as 20 feet of water during hurricane katrina, is currently in waist high water as a nearby levee was overtopped. water is spilling over the levee in a section 100 feet wide.

near the center of the storm, coastal storm surge flooding of 15 feet above normal tide levels is expected, reaching 20 feet in bays and rivers.

news of 3 levee breaches in new orleans are being broadcast in televised reports. tides are about 2 feet above normal along the louisiana, mississippi, and alabama coasts, and tides will increase to 4-6 feet above normal, with large waves and swells.




world food program told to leave north korea

north korean deputy foreign minister choe su-hon has asked the united nations (wfp) to stop providing food aid in the country.

claiming a good harvest provided the country with sufficient food, and that the was politicizing the aid issue, the formal request to end all humanitarian aid was made to kofi annan at a meeting on september 21.

the wfp has been feeding approximately six million of the poorest and most needy in the reclusive communist state. there is much concern its withdrawal will leave many without adequate aid.

neighbouring countries, including and , will continue to supply food aid to the north koreans; however, the donors do not manage this aid and international organisations are unable to determine that it is reaching those who need it.

the request for the wfp's withdrawal is suspected by some to be related to the ongoing talks about the nuclear program of north korea; continued acceptance of aid is seen as a weakness that may influence their negotiating position.


massive traffic jams, gas shortages plug evacuation routes near houston

before hurricane rita arrived, cars idling for hours in traffic jams near houston began running out of gas, stranding evacuees in their cars. 

the new york times reported friday morning that "colossal 100-mile-long traffic jams left many people stranded and out of gas as the huge storm bore down on the texas coast on thursday. ... acknowledging that "being on the highway is a deathtrap," mayor bill white asked for military help in rushing scarce fuel to stranded drivers."

the obvious express routes slowed to a crawl. some drivers reported easy travel on rural roads, while others encountered heavy traffic on two-lane highways.
constantly during the evacuation on two-lane highways, people would take over the other lanes, causing some head-on collisions. even when the line jumpers didn't get in a wreck, they still slowed the flow of traffic because they had to merge back into the right lane at some point. the general attitude towards these cheaters was very hostile. curses and hand signals were exchanged. to stop the cheaters, cars would swerve in front of those who tried to pass or not let them merge back in line, often causing an accident, or at least causing a backup in the lane of oncoming traffic. sometimes blockers would occupy the shoulder as well as the lane to stop them cutting back into the line.
small towns such as magnolia were overwhelmed by the evacuees passing through. the majority of gas stations were closed and out of gas, and only a few restaurants were open.


bomb explodes in belarusian city

a bomb exploded in the belarusian city of vitebsk, injuring about forty-six people. the thursday evening blast originated from a cafe in the city, which had an open-air structure and also had a dance floor, attracting many people. the bomb itself was planted in a flower bed next to the cafe.

the ministry of emergency situations has said that four of the forty-six people have been critically injured, and twenty-one more have been hospitalized. local police have not found a suspect in the incident.

the belarussian president alexander lukashenko said, "i understand that it is very hard to stay intact in the midst of this boiling pot of terrorism. why do we think that terrorism is far away from us and cannot occur here? the society should be on the alert." lukashenko called on citizens to aid law enforcement agencies during an address to the 39th congress of the belarussian youth union.

no suspect has been found in an earlier bombing incident that occurred in vitebsk less than two weeks ago. an explosive beer can or metal box, laced with nails, was placed near a bus station. the detonation of the bomb also came from a flower bed and injured two people in the blast. 



katrina conspiracy meteorologist quits idaho tv news

scott stevens, the idaho meteorologist who claimed that a weather manipulating conspiracy (possibly under the control of japanese yakuza mafia) caused hurricane katrina, has quit his job at kpvi-tv in pocatello. 

stevens reportedly quit to pursue his weather conspiracy theories full time. according to kpvi's general manager bill fouch, stevens left his job voluntarily.

wikinews reported on stevens' theories on monday september 19, 2005.

 


u.s. soldiers engaged in gore-for-porn swap

an amateur pornographic website, nowthatsfuckedup.com, is giving free access to its content to american soldiers currently who post pictures of corpses from iraq and afghanistan. soldiers can also send in pictures of themselves, their buddies, or their living quarters. the post on the website states "the kinda pictures you would be sending home to your family and friends". chris wilson of florida, the website administrator, says he started offering free memberships to soldiers in exchange for photographs from overseas after finding that many soldiers wanted to join the site, but could not due to issues with recognizing foreign addresses associated with credit cards held by overseas enlisted men.

"they wanted to join the site, the amateur wife and girlfriend site," wilson said. "but they couldn't, because the addresses associated with their credit cards were quackistan or something, they were in such a high-risk country, that the credit card companies wouldn't approve the purchase." 

the soldiers caption the images themselves, such as one image of a woman's whose leg had been amputated, with the caption "nice puss -? bad foot." in reference to her vagina also visible in the photo.

response to the trading has been met with a certain level of ambivalence from military higher-ups; "there are policies in place that, on the one hand, safeguard sensitive and classified information, and on the other hand protects the first amendment rights of servicemembers," said army spokesman lieutenant colonel chris conway. "in plain english, if you're on the job working for the department of defense, you shouldn't be freelancing. you should be doing your duty." however, army chief of staff peter shoomaker warned that soldiers compromise "operational security" when they post photographs from iraq on the internet in a memorandum issued in august.



parts of new orleans flood again

rain and the storm surge from hurricane rita have overwhelmed one of the fragile levees in new orleans. the industrial canal levee gave way, reflooding parts of the ninth ward. there are three significant breaches.

"our worst fears came true," said maj. barry guidry of the georgia national guard.

"we have three significant breaches in the levee and the water is rising rapidly," he said. "at daybreak i found substantial breaks and they've grown larger."

the u.s. corps of engineers estimated that 6 inches of rainfall could breach the previously damaged levees. the ninth ward, which saw flooding as high as 20 feet during hurricane katrina, is currently in waist-high water as the nearby levee was overtopped. water is spilling over the levee in a section 100 feet wide.

the gentilly neighborhood has water accumulations of 6 to 8 inches deep as the patched london avenue canal has sprung leaks near its base.



ask jeeves to remove valet from website

the mascot for ask jeeves is to disappear over "user confusion" on what the butler actually does. the butler has been known to be a global symbol for the search site. as of there is no confirmed date of when the butler will be removed from the web site. there is also no decision yet on changing the name of the web site since there will be no "jeeves" anymore.

it was revealed by owner barry diller that the butler will no longer be the icon for the site.


new palm treo will run windows mobile

technology weblog engadget has published exclusive photos of the yet to be released palm treo 700w. the palm treo 700w is the first palm handheld to run windows mobile

no official announcement has yet been made. palm may choose to make the official announcement at the upcoming ctia wireless it and entertainment trade show. the ctia wireless it and entertainment trade show is one of the phone industry's largest trade shows.

palm chief financial officer andrew brown said in a interview with cnet last month, that a windows mobile based smartphone may help convert corporate customers. "cios don't get fired for using microsoft products."

according to engadget, the treo 700w has a 1-megapixel camera, bluetooth, 64 mb of memory and a 240x240 display.

palm os is no longer created by palm but by a spinoff palmsource. palmsource was recently acquired by japanese software company access for $324 million. palm is the only major handheld manufacturer to use palmos. many expect palm to release a palmos version in addition to the windows mobile version, somewhat implied by the model number treo 700w. a palmos version of the phone would most likely be named treo 700p.


 


controversy over effects of new bankruptcy law on victims of katrina

hurricane katrina has rekindled debate over the controversial bankruptcy abuse prevention and consumer protection act of 2005, in the u.s. house of represenatives. congressional democrats feel that among the hundreds of thousands of victims of katrina, many of whom have lost all their possessions and are coping with relocation, those that declare bankruptcy should be granted the protections of the previous law. 32 democrats have sponsored a proposal that would delay implementing certain parts of the law to "insure that we do not compound a natural disaster with a man made financial disaster."

the new bankruptcy law affects anyone whose income (as of the six months before filing) was over the state median income. democratic legislators point out that many hurricane victims who manage to find work will be suffering from wage reductions, making them unable to effectively deal with their previous debts. among u.s. states, louisana and mississippi have the fourth and third lowest median incomes, respectively. democrats also feel that it is unfair to require repayment by bankrupted hurricane katrina victims while citizens in other states with similar incomes would pay nothing. 

f. james sensenbrenner, republican from wisconsin and chairman of the house judiciary committee, has denied a hearing on creating an exception in the law for the purposes of katrina relief. he noted that "if someone in katrina is down and out, and has no possibility of being able to repay 40 percent or more of their debts, then the new bankruptcy law doesn't apply."

the bankruptcy abuse prevention and consumer protection act of 2005 has been heavily criticized by consumer rights' organizations. the consumer federation of america argues that "[the] new requirements, coupled with strict deadlines for production upon the penalty of an automatic dismissal are difficult for the most organized person to meet, never mind someone who has had his or her home destroyed by katrina."

opponents of the bill also argued that it makes the government "a bill collector for private companies", and could lead to criminal prosecutions over matters best left in civil courts, and theoretically even to life imprisonment under federal three-strikes laws. such opponents view the bulk of the act either as "bought and paid for" by the credit card industry, who spent millions lobbying in support of the bill, or else as an unfortunate compromise between the lobbyists for banks and bankruptcy lawyers, such as the american bankruptcy institute (abi). nathalie martin, of abi, said that "many people will still qualify to file for chapter 7," which means liquidation of assets in exchange for cancellation of debt. 


fire breaks out in galveston

three buildings in galveston, texas, have gone up in flames as hurricane rita approaches. winds in galveston are currently around 60 to 70 mph as firefighters try to control the blaze from a distance. most of galveston has already been evacuated in anticipation of the hurricane. the cause of the fire is unknown.


hurricane rita makes landfall

the core of made landfall just west of the ? border as a storm at 3 am saturday with sustained winds near 120 mph. the center of the eye crossed the coast southeast of , texas, near , with the eyewall extending into louisiana.

rita is expected to produce rainfall accumulations of 8?12 inches, with the storm slowing down and producing a total of as much as 25 inches across eastern texas and western louisiana. bursts of tropical storm winds and rainfall amounts of 3?5 inches are possible in .
new orleans' ninth ward, which saw as much as 20 feet of water during , is currently in waist high water as a nearby levee was overtopped. water is spilling over the levee in a section 100 feet wide. there are reports of damage or leakage at three levee breaches.

near the center of the storm, coastal storm surge flooding of 15 feet above normal tide levels is expected, reaching 20 feet in bays and rivers. tides are about 2 feet above normal along the louisiana, mississippi, and alabama coasts, and tides will increase to 4?6 feet above normal, with large waves and swells.




us army whistleblowers allege widespread torture of iraqi detainees

human rights watch yesterday released a report containing new and detailed allegations, by three serving us army officers, of widespread torture and abuse of iraqi detainees by american forces, at forward operating base mercury, near fallujah. 

prisoners are alleged to have been severely beaten, forced into painful "stress positions", deprived of sleep, denied food and water, subjected to extremes of hot and cold, and to have had chemical substances applied to their skin and eyes. 

some of the abuses were specifically ordered by military intelligence personnel, prior to prisoner interrogations, say the officers. in other cases, soldiers tortured prisoners (known as persons under control?pucs) on their own initiative, in order to "relieve stress". 

"everyone in camp knew if you wanted to work out your frustration you show up at the puc tent. in a way it was sport", one sergeant told human rights watch. 

human rights watch suggests that the widespread abuses result from "civilian and military failures of leadership and confusion about interrogation standards and the application of the geneva conventions". 

"the administration demanded that soldiers extract information from detainees without telling them what was allowed and what was forbidden," the group's washington director, tom malinowski, is quoted as saying. "yet when abuses inevitably followed, the leadership blamed the soldiers in the field instead of taking responsibility."

the us government has claimed in previous cases that such abuses are exceptional, and not the fault of civilian or military leaders.
an unnamed captain told human rights watch that he had tried repeatedly, over a period of 17 months, to raise concerns about the abuses with his superior officers, only to be told to ignore them and "consider his career". the concerns were only taken seriously after he approached members of congress, he says. the los angeles times today named the officer as captain ian fishback. 

the us army yesterday announced that it had launched an investigation into the captain's allegations. army spokesman paul boyce told the associated press that army officials opened the inquiry as soon as the concerns were brought to their attention. "these are allegations of potential felony crimes," boyce told the los angeles times. "we want to speak to anyone else who might be able to corroborate this information. these things should be looked into thoroughly."

according to the los angeles times, the investigation was opened following a referral from the senate armed services committee. captain fishback is the first officer to make such allegations publicly since the abu ghraib prison scandal came to light last year, says the newspaper, quoting an unnamed capitol hill aide as saying that the allegations are "very credible". 



sydney swans win afl premiership after 72 years in classic match

after 72 long years, long suffering fans of the sydney swans football club will be toasting their club's success as they defeated the west coast eagles of perth today in the afl grand final by a score of 8.10 (58) to 7.12 (54), a victory of four points. this gives the swans, formerly based in south melbourne before moving to sydney in 1982, their first premiership since 1933.

sydney captain barry hall and west coast goalsneak adam hunter both kicked two goals in a low-scoring affair. west coast kicked the first goal, and then proceeded to kick another after sydney replied. the swans went on to kick five unanswered goals "(6 points)" to take a 20-point lead into halftime, while the eagles could manage a handful of behinds "(1 point)". 

the eagles came alive in the third quarter, and at three-quarter time reduced the deficit to two points thanks to picked-up performances from west coast stars like david wirrapunda and brownlow medal winner ben cousins. however, attempts at goal were wasted as west coast failed to capitalize throughout the game at many scoring opportunities. 

west coast gained the lead 15 minutes in the final quarter thanks largely in part to a misjudged short kick by luke ablett which was caught by cousins right in the front of the goal. this would bring the eagle lead up to 10, before amon buchanan's goal erased the deficit. the eagles mounted a spirited charge in the dying minutes, but a timely saving mark by leo barry seconds before the final siren was the final nail in west coast's coffin. chris judd won the norm smith medal for being voted the best-on-ground, becoming the fourth person to win this honour while representing the losing side. 

the grand final was sydney and west coast's fourth meeting of the season, with both teams splitting the home-and-away series. the eagles had defeated the swans by the same grand final-winning margin in the qualifying final at subiaco oval three weeks ago, and it is a vindication for the swans, who lost that match on a number of questionable umpiring decisions which the afl's chief umpire jeff gieschen later admitted were incorrect.

the swans had also come under great criticism earlier in the year from footy commentators and afl commissioner andrew demetriou for their now premiership-winning tactics, which was criticized as "boring" and, in the words of demetriou, would lead the swans to "lose more games than they would win" this season, but the swans achievement forced demetriou to backtrack his words days before the grand final.

91,898 footy fans of all stripes and locales packed the melbourne cricket ground for the game, which was opened with entertainment from the likes of delta goodrem (singing "i am australian"), the finalists of australian idol (performing "waltzing matilda"), dame edna and michael buble.

john steven's (sydney swans fan) later remarked "this was one of the most exciting, gripping and enthralling matches i have ever witnessed." 

this game will certainly leave a mark in the record books.


net skills to be taught by kids

young people (mainly children) are being encouraged to take the role of "internet trainer" in order to help teach internet literacy skills to older people. on grandparents day is celebrated in the united kingdom, and bt group plc is marking this grandparents day by trying to persuade children to teach their grandparents how to use "the net". this effort is being made to help prevent grandparents from becoming "digitally excluded".

a web site, internet rangers, by bt, was recently launched with tools, activities and advice to assist children with helping their grandparents make use of one of the world's largest information resource, the internet. the site links to bt's "green x code" of conduct which encourages kids to stay safe while accessing the internet.

bt is working with governments and other commercial organisations to help provide internet access to people who are currently unable to get access. recent research shows that teenagers aged between 13 and 16 have been encouraging their parents and grandparents to "surf the net".

by the year 2025, around 23 million adults could miss out on what the internet has to offer, according to bt.


three detained for thai marine deaths

thai defense minister, thammarak isarangkura na ayudhya, announced the arrest of three persons suspected of involvement in the deaths of two marines in thailand's troubled southern region.

the two marines were detained and subsequently stabbed and beaten to death by villagers in narathiwat province. this was seen as retaliation for an attack on a tea shop where people in tanyong limo village believed the soldiers had been involved.

the plain-clothed marine officers, sub-lieutenant vinai nakhabut and petty officer khamthon thongeiat, were detained by youths who suspected them of being involved in a recent shooting. they were tied up and held at a local school; their brutal deaths did not occur until after villages had demanded malasian media cover the event. a subsequent rumour that troops would attack to release the hostages led to the killing.


e-inquiries - bring public inquiries to the net

a search in wikinews for "inquiry" will return many examples of public inquiries conducted by governmental organizations into issues that are often deeply controversial.

the processes and terms of reference of such 'public' inquiries are normally determined by the commissioning governmental body. however the internet has now made possible the emergence of a new type of public inquiry, called an "e-inquiry" that appears to be not only independent of government but also, like a wiki, enables anyone who wishes to partake in the inquiry to do so by contributing evidence and by posing questions that contribute to the process of determining the terms of reference of the e-inquiry.

the absence of a us government sponsored independent public inquiry into the katrina hurricane disaster could well be the spur that led to the development of a new non-profit web site that incorporates a framework for conducting a public e-inquiry. that site http://www.forumkatrina.org carries the banner line "katrina support, recovery, planning & e-inquiry".

the web site owners have given permission to quote the following extract from its statement on the web site about the objective of its e-inquiry:

"everyone who may think of getting involved in the e-inquiry is asked to remember, at every stage in the process, that the end purpose of the e-inquiry is to provide recommendations, for the future. the objective of those recommendations is to help everyone to avoid death, disease and destruction in consequence of forthcoming natural and man-made disasters. if those recommendations are to be taken seriously, and this, the first e-inquiry, is to acquire any public credibility, then the process must be democratic, patently fair and intellectually rigorous."

it will be interesting to see whether an e-inquiry is capable of meeting these ideals and whether they become a common feature of internet activity.


thousands march to demonstrate opposition to u.s.-led wars

across the globe demonstrations took place against the us-led war and occupation of iraq.

washington d.c. saw the largest demonstration with hundreds of thousands of people marching. organisers put the figure as high as 250,000 though police put the number at 150,000. many speakers linked the massive deployment of us troops in iraq and the inability of the federal government to respond adequately to the needs of people displaced by hurricane katrina, and others linked the iraq war to the occupation of palestine and the oil crisis. the mobilisations were united around the slogan "bring the troops home now!" san francisco, and los angeles also had demonstrations.

the demonstration in london set off from parliament square and went to hyde park. organisers' figures for attendance (100,000) differ greatly from the police's estimate of only 10,000. stop the war coalition, the (cnd) and the muslim association of britain (mab) jointly organised the demonstration. the organisers planned the demonstration to coincide with the washington demonstration and also in hope of influencing the labour party conference.

notable in the u.s. mobilisations was the increasingly visible presence of military families speaking out against the war. antiwar activist cindy sheehan spoke in d.c. and drew the largest crowd of spectators.

antiwar mobilisations, as well as actions against the world bank and imf, will continue in d.c. tomorrow and into next week.




google creates new desktop software

recently, google had released google desktop 2 (beta), software that aims to provide information on a side-bar that sticks to the right end of your screen. content on google desktop include e-mail searching, news and weather, subscribing to rss-syndicated websites, and more features.

one particular feature of google desktop is how it sends anonymous information of your computer use to google (at option) in order to help choose rss feeds and the like for you. this is much akin to how spyware works, however, said features can be disabled rather simply. along the same lines are the ability to automatically find weather and stocks you would like at the first time you open it. this is a beta so there are a few kinks in this system that can be expected to be sorted out at the full release.

google desktop replaces the "gmail notifier", so you can check your gmail emails directly from the sidebar. in addition to the gmail mail checker, if you have outlook, outlook express or thunderbird email clients on your computer then it will check the email accounts in them. all this is automatic, so you get all these emails. emails can be hidden by using filters.

the program is a 1.3mb download and requires windows 2000 or windows xp. it automatically starts up when you load your computer.




wikinews switches to creative commons license

the wikimedia board of trustees has decided to change the licensing of wikinews from either public domain or other licenses which some language versions had chosen based on their community decision to the creative commons attribution 2.5, following a poll of wikinewsies and the wikimedia community. this license received 31 votes, beating other options such as the gnu fdl, creative commons sharealike, bsd license, custom-made wikinews licenses, and other combinations.

before switching, most of wikinews were in public domain, however, three language versions including polish one were released under gnu fdl, and one version, japanese one, was released under creative commons attribution 2.1 japan, since there is no 2.5 version aiming to japanese jurisdiction in creative commons licenses. 
the poll, which ended september 20, 2005, was set up in response to criticisms of releasing wikinews into the public domain. perceived disadvantages of releasing content into public domain were particularly focused around the fact that a public domain does not exist in some countries and that it could lead to plagiarism of wikinews stories. also differences of chosen licensing between each wikinews editions was worried. 


uk mobile provider begins tv-on-phone trial

mobile phone provider o2 (o) in partnership with and arqiva began a trial of a new service that allows customers to watch broadcast tv on their mobile phone. the trial began on thursday in oxford. four hundred o2 customers have been selected to participate. according to o2 the trial represents a balanced selection of the population. 

participants have been supplied with nokia 7710 smartphones, that can receive 16 channels. the trial service currently carries bbc one, bbc two, bbc news 24, itv 1, itv 2, channel 4 and 5, eurosport, cartoon network, cnn, discovery channel, mtv, shortstv, sky news, sky sports news and sky travel.

tv shows are transmitted using a technology called digital video broadcasting for handhelds (dvb-h). it requires a special receiver to be connected to the mobile phone. nokia has said they plan to build support for the dvb-h technology into future nokia phones. using dvb-h the phones will get about eight hours per charge, this is because the dvb-h uses the "time slicing" technology.

many other uk providers have offered mobile tv on cellphones, however this is the first to offer regular full length tv shows. most other providers use the 3g video-streaming technology. "3g is perfect for two-minute video clips. but, if you're watching a 90-minute football game, we think dvb-h is the most suitable," said dave williams, o2's chief technical officer

customers can use an onscreen programme to select programmes they wish to watch and it will alert them when the show starts.

in south korea many mobile phone companies already offer television on mobile phones using a system called digital mobile broadcast. in the us a recent survey by instat, found few americans are interested in mobile tv. canadian company telus also recently began to offer mobile tv services.

"by establishing relationships through activities such as this, we hope that potential challenges will be minimized and mobile tv becomes a commercial reality sooner than is currently possible," said dave williams, o2's chief technical officer


 <!-- nokia is a finnish company --!>


brazilian football referee admits he frauduently refereed games

the brazilian football referee was detained by the on saturday in , a city 78 kilometers from . according to the public prosecution service, he refereed games in a partial manner so that only predetermined teams could win.

the businessman nagib fayad was also detained in sao paulo. both are suspected of being part of a group suspected of manipulating games in order to profit through million dollar bets on sport bettings websites.

brazilian prosecutor roberto porto said that investigators have 20 thousand hours of taped phone conversations back to october 2004 and that they have no doubt that carvalho was fraudulently refereeing football games.

according to the spokeman of the federal police, victor hugo rodrigues alves, a referee would be contacted by phone by fayad who would inform the referee which team should win the game. fayad would then place the bets on internet websites. part of the profit would be given to the referee. rodrigues claimed that additional people were involved.

on saturday the referee told federal police that he favored various football teams while he administered games during the , , and the .

 


switzerland citizens vote on extending freedom rights from 15 to 25 european countries

switzerland is voting today on their quarterly federal referenda, this referendum is over on whether the rights on the freedom of circulation of people such be extended from the former fifteen member states to the current twenty-five members of the european union. 

supporters say that if people vote no, the rest of the bilateral accords could become invalid by the european union, such as freedom of movement and freedom of trade. they say that the recent vote on schengen/dublin will also become invalided.

opponents said it might cause wage-dumping, potentially leading to lower wages, and make the unemployment rate higher, which at the moment is at 3.6% (which is high by swiss standards). 
out of the big 4 main parties, the centre-left social democrats, the liberal-right free democrats and the centre-right christian democrats have said yes to the proposals. however, the populist-right swiss people's party have said no to the proposal. many businesses are for a yes vote. 

results are now available: 


hasegawa retains bantamweight title

hozumi hasegawa (長谷川穂積), record 18 wins - 2 losses, fought gerardo martinez, 27 wins - 5 losses - 2 draws, for the wbc bantamweight title sunday night in yokohama, japan. hasegawa won by tko in the 7th round, retaining his title.

hasegawa, 26, from kobe, was defending the title he gained against thai fighter veeraphol sahaprom at the nippon budokan in april of this year. originally he was scheduled to fight diego morales, who dropped out due to injury and was replaced by martinez, 30, from mexico city. 

hasegawa appeared to control the fight from early on, fighting at a measured pace and landing several punches in the early rounds. martinez visually tired by the fifth round, though he came back with some strength in the sixth. early in the seventh round, however, martinez suffered a knockdown, followed by a stunning left, after which he struggled to gain control. after fierce close-quarters fighting, he staggered backwards and fell, hand to his left temple. the official called the match at 2:18. 

today was hasegawa's third wedding anniversary. 



switzerland citizens vote yes to freedom of circulation to new eu states

the swiss people have voted yes to the freedom of circulation to the new eu states. overall 55.95% (1 457 355) voted yes and 44.05% (1 147 236) voted no. the turnout was 53.64%. all the cantons voted yes, apart from the six and a half ticino, appenzell innerrhoden, obwalden, nidwalden, glarus, schwyz and uri.

german-speaking and french-speaking parts of switzerland had similar results; in previous national popular consultations, german-speaking cantons were regarded as less progressive than french-speaking ones.

the campaign was especially harsh, most governmental parties calling for acceptance, except the far-right wing swiss people's party (though swiss people's party's charismatic figure christoph blocher personally called for acceptance as well). smaller formations, both from the extreme right and extreme left, attempted to smear fear of massive immigration and unemployement.

switzerland has ratified bilateral agreements with the members of the european union in march 2004, but the new members (cyprus, czech republic, estonia, hungary, latvia, lithuania, malta, poland, slovakia and slovenia) were not included in the deal.

the results have been greeted by most of the political establishment.


polish parliamentary election - unofficial results

according to the first exit polls published by tns obop and pbs for tvp1 polish public television station, the law and justice ("pis") party has won today's parliamentary election in poland with a 27,6% result. runners up were citizens platform ("po") with 24,1% and alliance of the democratic left ("sld") with 11,3%.

according to a gfk polonia poll for tvn, tvn24 and the "rzeczpospolita" newspaper, pis has 28,3% votes, po 26,5% and sld 11%. leage of polish families ("lpr"), self-defense of the polish republic ("samoobrona") and polish peasant party ("psl") also got the necessary 5% votes for a place in the new parliament. 

po and pis, both of which will form the future government, will have 304 places in the new sejm, which is 3 less than is required for making changes to the polish constitution, which both parties support.



us military to buy anthrax and bioweapons production systems

the us army's dugway proving ground in utah is looking for a subcontractor to produce the anthrax bacillus anthracis sterne strain in 1,500 litre quantities. the sterne strain is not thought to be harmful to humans, but the intended use of the anthrax remains unclear, worrying anti-biological weapons activists. other recent dugway contracts for equipment to produce unspecified biolgical agents in 3,000 litre batches are even more concerning to activists.

the contracts were uncovered by the sunshine project, a group opposed to biological weapons development based in germany. the work involved seems to cast doubts on the ability of the us to live up to its commitments to the biological weapons convention. the post 9/11 anthrax attack upon the u.s. used weaponized u.s. army anthrax , most likely produced at fort detrick.

a dugway spokesperson declined to specify what the biological agents would be used for.



google toolbar for firefox now out of beta

after two months, google toolbar for firefox, a downloadable extension for the popular firefox web browser, has been released from beta testing. 

in addition to providing a google search field, it also includes spell checking, the ability to automatically fill in forms, translates english into other languages, and offers a new feature called search suggest, which recommends query text as the user types in search terms. google suggest is also available as a separate extension that works with the standard firefox search box.

in response to user requests, google has made it possible to rearrange all icons on the toolbar, including the search box. the google toolbar for firefox is available in 17 languages and requires firefox 1.0 or above with the windows xp/2000 sp3+, mac os x 10.2+, or red hat linux 8.0+ operating systems. users have also reported success with other linux distributions. another version for the internet explorer web browser is also available.



ira decommissioning complete - de chastelain

a report confirming that the ira has fully decommissioned all of its armaments has been submitted to the british and irish governments on monday (september 26, 2005).

the chairman of the decommissioning body, general john de chastelain met representitives of both governments, before releasing details of the report at a press conference in belfast. a partial catalogue of the arms stock was included, as well as the statements of two independent observers present at the decommissioning process. the observers are a catholic priest, and a methodist minister. 

both witnesses stressed their independence and de chastelain commented that it was clear from their observations that the weapons had been gathered from individuals and put beyond use. de chastelain refused to be drawn on details of the exact numbers of weapons decommissioned, the ira having agreed to decommissioning based on confidentiality. the decommissioning panel did make comments that the weapons decommissioned did correspond with the estimates of weapons held, included a mix of new and old weapons, including surface to air missiles and heavy machine guns.

general de chastelain, along with andrew sens and tauno nieminen, has been in ireland overseeing this latest round of decommissioning since september. before now, they had been allowed to witness three acts of decommissioning. however, lack of details in the reports provided afterwards meant that opponents questioned the moves.

statements from both governments, as well as the major northern irish political leaders, are expected later on monday.

the ira announced that it was calling an end to its armed campaign in july, and ordered members not to take part in any other activities. the unionist paramilitary uda had withdrawn from the decommissioning after initial talks in 1999. de chastelain indicated inventory of decommissioned weapons will not be published until full paramilitary decommissioning is complete.

dup mp nigel dodds said that decommissioning was always required for "building and instilling confidence in the unionist community", and that "it was absolutely vital to have that visual aspect."

uup leader sir reg empey said that the report needed to make clear that absolutely all arms had been put beyond use.

sdlp leader mark durkan said that both governments must now move forward with implementing the good friday agreement.

sinn fein's alex maskey called the day "historic", commenting that the responsibility now rests with the dup and the governments to move forward.

during the press conference, general de chastelain faced critics who questioned the truthfulness of the process. he responded with "we have no doubt ... we have nothing to gain by misleading you."



gay teachers' status uncertain after polish election

in the days leading up to the parliamentary election in poland on september 25, 2005, several prominent members of the political party pis made statements which suggested that the party supported discrimination against gay teachers. initial results of the election indicate that pis is likely to have a relative majority, leading to a possible political pressures against gay teachers (or recruitment of gay teachers) during the term of the future polish government.

the polish news agency pap reported on september 21, 2005, that jaros?aw kaczy?ski, twin brother of party leader lech kaczy?ski, said that "homosexuals should not be teachers", but also that homosexuals "would not be persecuted". pap cited the daily "fakt".
in an interview on polish national television the following day, another member of pis, adam bielan, made statements which suggest that people in pis generally share this attitude, but that the party, through its president, lech kaczy?ski, was not yet willing to make any formal statement on the issue. 

adam bielan stated, for example, that a statement attributed to lech kaczy?ski, published in "fakt", saying that homosexuals "can" be teachers, was an error by lech kaczy?ski's colleague, and that the statement was unauthorised. he also stated, 

prominent members of pis have earlier put pressure on the gay rights community. pis leader lech kaczy?ski, as mayor of warsaw, refused to authorize the equality parade for gay rights on june 11, 2005 in warsaw. the parade took place despite the ban, and the level of violence against participants was greater than in previous gay rights parades: many eggs, stones and bottles were thrown at participants, injuring at least two people, who were hospitalized.


guantanamo prisoner seeks uk citizenship, asylum

australian guantanamo bay detainee david hicks has made application to gain british . all nine british citizens that had previously been held in guantanamo bay have been released following lobbying by the british government.

the decision to make an application was made after hicks made a chance comment about his mother's british citizenship when talking about the recent cricket series with his lawyer .

the abc reported that a spokesperson from the british high commission in has said that the application could take up to a year to process.

the law council of australia issued a press release on september 21, 2005 asserting that if the proposed military trial of david hicks goes ahead in its current format then it is shaping up to be a "true travesty of justice". 

david hicks has been held without trial for nearly four years and for much of that time he was held without any charges having been made. he is currently scheduled to face a military commission and is the only guantanamo bay detainee facing a commission hearing.



fernando alonso becomes new formula one world champion

renault driver fernando alonso finished third in the brazilian grand prix, held at the autodromo carlos pace near sao paulo. mclaren drivers and championship rivals juan pablo montoya and kimi raikonnen finished first and second respectively; although alonso's third place decreased his lead in championship points over raikonnen, his closest rival, to 23, he nonetheless was able to secure the 2005 drivers' world championship. since the winner of a formula one grand prix earns 10 points and only two races remain, raikonnen no longer has a mathematical possibility of becoming world champion.

alonso thus ends the five-year long reign of michael schumacher at the top of formula one. at 24, he also became the youngest formula one world champion, ahead of brazilian driver emerson fittipaldi, who was 25 when he took the crown in 1972. he is also the first spaniard to take that title.

even though the drivers' championship is over, the constructors' championship will most likely go down to the wire during the last two races of the season in suzuka (japan) and shanghai. even though renault has led the championship for most of the season, raikonnen's recent victories in the hungarian, turkish, belgian and brazilian grand prix have given mclaren a two-point lead over renault, ensuring that both teams will fight hard for every point in the final races. 

the race commenced with an incident between david coulthard and antonio pizzonio touching wheels, forcing the latter's williams-bmw into his teammate mark webber's car, putting all three of them out of the race (webber eventually did manage to rejoin after lengthy repairs). the incident necessitated the deployment of the safety car until the track was cleared. following the restart, giancarlo fisichella repassed reigning seven-times world champion michael schumacher almost immediately, although schumacher ultimately regained the position during the first pitstop round.

montoya was never challenged for the race lead, and was not required to assist his teammate as alonso's third place ensured that a win for raikonnen would have made no difference regarding the outcome of the world championship. mclaren's one-two finish was their first such result since the 2000 austrian grand prix.

despite pre-race concerns about rain, the race remained dry.


news briefs:september 26, 2005

the time is 1130 (utc) on monday 26th september 2005, and this is audio wikinews: news briefs.

switzerland citizens vote yes to freedom of circulation to new eu states<br>
the swiss people have voted yes to freedom of circulation for the new eu states. overall 55.95% voted yes and 44.05% voted no. the turnout was 53.64%. all the cantons apart from ticino, appenzell innerrhoden, obwalden, nidwalden, glarus, schwyz and uri voted yes, while the others voted no.

fernando alonso becomes new formula one world champion<br>
renault driver fernando alonso finished third in the brazilian grand prix, held at the autodromo carlos pace near sao paulo. mclaren drivers and championship rivals juan pablo montoya and kimi raikonnen finished first and second respectively; although alonso's third place decreased his lead in championship points over raikonnen, his closest rival, to 23, he nonetheless was able to secure the 2005 drivers' world championship. since the winner of a formula one grand prix earns 10 points and only two races remain, raikonnen no longer has a mathematical possibility of becoming world champion.

david hicks seeks uk citizenship<br>
australian guantanamo bay detainee david hicks has made application to gain british citizenship. all nine british citizens that had previously been held in guantanamo bay have been released following lobbying by the british government.

the decision to make an application was made after hicks made a chance comment about his mother's british citizenship when talking about the recent "ashes" cricket series with his lawyer major michael mori.

the abc reported that a spokesperson from the british high commission in canberra has said that the application could take up to a year to process.
thank you for joining us today. to receive more up-to-date news items as they occur, please visit wikinews.org.

this has been a news brief for audio wikinews. have a good day.

this recording has been released into the public domain. this applies worldwide.


indonesian bird flu death toll rises to six

a 27 year old woman who was hospitalized with bird flu symptoms last week, died in hospital this morning. test results confirmed that she, and a five year old girl who died last week, had died for the h5n1 virus which has already killed dozens of people across asia. 

she's the sixth person in indonesia to die from bird flu, and at present there are at least 34 people hospitalized in the country with symptoms of the virus. 

there is concern that a widespread outbreak could occur as people in indonesia frequently keep poultry or pet birds in their homes. for this reason, indonesian government will deliver 40,000 doses of the anti-viral drug by the end of this week, with a further 40,000 provided by australia.


ira weapons decommissioned

in a lunchtime press conference in belfast, retired canadian general john de chastelain, head of the independent international commission on decommissioning, announced that all the weapons of the provisional ira have been "put beyond use" ? generally interpreted as buried in concrete. 

the iicd ? de chastelain, u.s. diplomat andrew d. sens, and finnish brigadier tauno nieminen ? have been overseeing the latest round of decommissioning since early september, and reported that the quantity of weapons destroyed was in line with estimates provided by the british and irish security services. the decommissioning was witnessed by two churchmen, catholic priest father alex reid and former methodist president rev. harold good, who said "the experience of seeing this with our own eyes, on a minute-to-minute basis, provided us with evidence so clear and of its nature so incontrovertible that at the end of the process it demonstrated to us ? and would have demonstrated to anyone who might have been with us ? that beyond any shadow of doubt, the arms of the ira have now been decommissioned."

no photographs were taken of the decommissioning, as there was a desire to avoid giving the impression that the ira has been defeated, but many in the unionist community remain sceptical that the decommissioning has been effective.

british prime minister tony blair described this as an important step in the transition to peace, while irish taoiseach bertie ahern said that it is a landmark development. the two governments will issue a joint statement . 


anti-war protestors arrested outside white house

over 350 protesters, including anti-war activist , were arrested monday near the white house. sheehan was fined $75 for demonstrating without a permit.

the protestors demanded to speak with current us president george w. bush. the demonstrators sat on the sidewalk illegally, after marching along the pedestrian walkway on pennsylvania avenue in front of the white house. police reportedly warned the demonstrators numerous times of the law, then began making arrests.

sheehan has announced that she will not pay the fine, and is scheduled to appear in court on november 16.


microsoft launches msn adcenter

microsoft announced today the official launch of msn adcenter in france and singapore. adcenter allows advertisers to target specific demographics using information provided by microsoft's hotmail and microsoft passport network users.

"the launch of adcenter in france and singapore is a great first step to delivering on our global vision to connect advertisers to consumers in a much more meaningful way," said yusuf mehdi, senior v.p. of msn information services & merchant platform.

advertisers will be able to target ads based on geographic location, gender, age range, time of day, and day of the week. if msn has no information on the visitor it will display ads based upon keywords. additional features include a cost estimator and a site analyzer that will recommend keywords based on the content of the advertiser’s website.

msn currently has a contract for yahoo ads that runs through 2006, and they are expected to slowly phase them out, although msn has not confirmed this. 

adcenter has been in testing in france and singapore since march. testing in the us will begin in october. microsoft plans to eventually sell ads on websites outside of msn.

this initiative is a part of a broader strategy that microsoft has launched to compete against google's adwords service, in operation for several years, which allows advertisers to bid on specific keywords and ensure ad placement on the company's search engine and other online properties. microsoft's chief executive vowed to "kill google" in an expletive-laden tirade against the firm, according to us court documents filed by google.

many internet users choose to block web page advertisements from both microsoft and google, using several different techniques of ad filtering, such as adblock in the firefox web browser.



mtv, warner music agree on licensing deal

warner music agreed on tuesday to license its music videos to mtv for use on devices such as cell phones and other devices. this deal is said to help the recording industry to gain more revenue, despite declining cd sales. the cost of the deal was not disclosed.

mtv plans to distribute these music videos as short segments and, in the future, offer full-length videos as part of a subscription. in addition, mtv wishes to use these videos in programs similar to vh1's "driven". pricing is not available yet.

warner music is the first label to license music to mtv for the purpose of offering them on wireless devices. mtv plans to get licenses from other music labels.



leader of puerto rican people’s army shot, killed by fbi

filiberto ojeda rios, a leading figure in the puerto rican independence movement in puerto rico, died september 23rd.
an autopsy showed that this was due to blood loss from a single gunshot wound, obtained during a confrontation with fbi agents in the municipality of hormigueros, puerto rico.

the 72-year-old has been wanted on charges relating to a $7m bank heist in connecticut in 1983, and his home had been surrounded by over 300 agents, including 20 snipers.
the fbi asserts that he fired shots upon them first, but many groups are framing the death as the unwarranted assassination of a key player in puerto rico's anti-u.s. colonialism movement.

the fbi did not enter the home until saturday, almost 24 hours after the shot had been fired.
this has lead to many accusations that they were preventing him from getting medical attention.
dr. hector pesquera, spokesperson for the national hostosian congress, took part in the autopsy and stated that the fbi tactic was to not intervene in order that "comandante ojeda rios would bleed to death through lack of medical attention."

fbi director robert s. mueller announced monday that he had ordered an investigation of the incident.




suresh joachim breaks ironing world record

from thursday, september 22 at 8 am, to saturday, september 24 at 3:05 pm, suresh ironed continuously for 55 hours and 5 minutes, in front of the thousands of onlookers shopping at the mall those three days.

the achievement, now submitted to the guinness book of world records, breaks the previous record by eufemia stadler of zurich, switzerland. stadler completed 40 hours of continuous ironing from september 16-18, 1999.

originally from sri lanka and australia, joachim is no stranger to the folks at guinness. he currently holds twenty other records, ranging from greatest distance travelled on 'up' and 'down' escalators (225.44 km between may 25 and may 31 1998), furthest travelled on a treadmill in one week (659.27 km at a gym in paris, france), and longest dance marathon by an individual (100 hours at the dixie outlet mall).

this september, suresh watched television in the lobby of wabc in new york city for 69 hours and 7 minutes, breaking the previous record by 19 hours. the event was covered daily on the talk show "live with regis and kelly" as part of their guinness world record breaker week. he also recently set the record for longest time rocking in a rocking chair, at 75 hours.

a dj on bbc radio cambridgeshire recently tried to break joachim's record for longest continuous time as a dj. he was unsuccessful, and suresh's 120-hour world record set on geethavaani tamil radio in scarborough stands unharmed.

the event helped raise funds for the universal fund for suffering children, whose funds are "utilized to save the world's children from poverty, disease and war." all of joachim's stunts have been dedicated to this charity.

what's next for suresh? he plans to start static cycling from october 18th, 2005 to october 22nd, 2005, in britain. suresh's goal is 150 world records, which would beat the long-time record breaker ashrita furman, who has accumulated 94 records. while furman started two decades ago, suresh only discovered the guinness book of world records in 1991, and started record breaking in 1996.

you can visit suresh online at www.sureshjoachim.org


blair denies iraq pullout

despite reports to the contrary, british prime minister tony blair does not intend to pull troops out of iraq, chinese newspaper xinhua reported. despite a strong anti-war sentiment that has been growing in iraq, particularly since british troops in basra were attacked by protestors on the 19th. responding allegations that the iraqi people do not want western influence on the future of their nation, blair said "eight and a half million iraqis showed which future they wanted when they came out and voted in january's elections." britain has approximately 8500 troops in iraq, making them the second largest military force present in iraq. 

blair also did not respond to questions as to when he would leave office, this issue of significant concern granted the prime minister's falling popularity since the war in iraq began. despite a recently conducted poll, 57% of britons believe that the british military should pull out of iraq, as well as blair's acknowledgement that "several thousand run the terrorist insurgency around baghdad. and yes, as a result of the fighting, innocent people tragically die.", blair believes that the britons and iraqi were in favour of the occupation. although his term will continue until 2010, the labour party is divided over whether or not he should step down sooner. 


staroffice 8 launched

sun microsystems has released staroffice 8 today. staroffice 8 is a commercial office suite that includes word-processing, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing and database applications.

according to sun, staroffice 8 “provides excellent compatibility with microsoft office”. this new version improves word, excel and powerpoint import and export filters, improving support for password-protected word and excel files and presentations with complex animations, autoshapes and slide transitions. staroffice 8 also includes a microsoft office macro converter allowing many microsoft office macros to work in staroffice.

staroffice 8 is also the first commercial office suite to support the oasis open document format for office applications (opendocument). opendocument is an xml based file format created by the organization for the advancement of structured information standards. massachusetts has recently announced the plan to switch to opendocument format. microsoft has said it will not support the opendocument format.

staroffice 8 is based on the open source openoffice.org project. openoffice.org was founded july 2000, by sun with the release of staroffice code under two open source licenses.

staroffice 8 is available as a download from sun’s web site for $69.95, or packaged product can be ordered for $99.95. enterprise customers can purchase staroffice 8 for $35 (￡20) per user. openoffice.org is available for free from openoffice.org.



blair: &quot;labour must be the party of change makers&quot;

during his address to the labour party conference today, tony blair told the party members that there must be further public service reforms. he highlighted reforms needed for the criminal justice system.

tony blair intimated that he would not be stepping down early as prime minister with a policy heavy speech. he apologised that labour had not gone further with it's reforms and that they should stay the "change makers". rather than announcing a date for his retirement, which he says will be before the next election, he praised gordon brown's record as chancellor

mr. blair said that he wanted to form a new consensus on public services and respond to concerns over crime.

as per normal, these statements were scurtinized by the nation's opposition parties.

conservative chairman francis maude dismissed the speech: "what people want from mr blair is not more polished rhetoric about the future but practical solutions to the problems of the present." 

lib dem leader charles kennedy said: "what people want are quality schools and healthcare and safe streets. after eight years of labour, they're still waiting." 

scottish national party alex salmond said: "it was an underwhelming performance from a man with an eye on his own exit strategy, even if he stubbornly refuses to find one for our soldiers in iraq."

for text of the speech visit wikisource's .


9/11 anthrax investigation quietly loses urgency

in the past year, the fbi has sharply reduced the number of staff investiging the post-9/11 anthrax probe attack from 31 to 21; and the post office has reduced the number of investigators from 13 to 9. the investigation has been one of the most extensive in fbi history but has yielded no arrests. the reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction remains at $2.5 million.

the fbi is preparing an internal report to take stock of the situation, as is usually done in high-profile cases which go unresolved for years, and are expected to remain so. the magnitude of the anthrax probe parallels the 18-year unabomber probe, which was only resolved because theodore kaczynski issued a public manifesto and his brother recognized his thinking and tipped off the fbi.

the prevailing theory in the anthrax probe is that "the culprit is a u.s. scientist who had access to the high-grade anthrax and the knowledge of how to physically manipulate it and use it as a weapon", a theory which emerged early in the investigation. the attacks used a weaponized ames strain almost surely produced in the u.s. , most likely at fort detrick. 

the purpose of the attack also remains unknown but many believe it was committed by conservative elements in american society, due to the existence of coordinated harmless attack, the choice of targets, and the choice of strain. some believe the attack was aided by lt. col. dr. philip zack, perhaps with the intent to frame ex-coworker dr. ayaad assaad whom dr. zack harassed while at fort detrick .

the post-9/11 anthrax attacks killed 5 people and temporarily infected another 17.


demosphere.net launches new wiki

demosphere.net, an underground political forum, has started a new wiki on tuesday to be used for the design of their socio-political voting software, which is currently under development. using the wiki, the public can collaborate with project members to resolve issues inherent in such a complex system. a beta version which will let students debate, discuss and vote on issues that affect their community, should be available on college and university campuses for the start of the fall 2006 semester.

the wiki uses the mediawiki platform, and contribution is not limited in any way. the wiki was set up by jordan schroder, project director and ceo of democratic development solutions, a student driven canadian startup. "despite the youth of our new wiki, i think students and professionals interested in the project, will find it a great way to have an impact on the software we're developing...", schroder said in an interview. "wiki technology is incredibly powerful and is exactly the kind of filter the internet, as a medium, needs to play a more concrete role in long-term global democracy." he went on to say that he would personally "love to see wiki technology incorporated into the design of our voting software."

although he couldn't say for certain how it might be used in the media-community framework of the future software, he stressed that, "in adopting this technology during our formative and foundation stages, we can hopefully attract individuals with an idea of how it might be best used in the finished product, and who are interested in leadership positions within the project."

the demosphere.net discussion forums, with 45 registered users and over 1100 posts (many of a political nature), are more active than the wiki. while only a few days old, the wiki had, as of september 27th, only two registered users, according to the site stats .



los angeles hospital lies, discriminates for saudi liver transplant patient

st. vincent medical center in los angeles, california, a large organ transplantation center, reports that a low priority saudi liver transplant patient received improper priority, and the actions were concealed. 

hospital president gus valdespino confirmed that hospital staff members falsified documents several times to cover up the maneuver, pretending that the transplant was for a patient who was near the top of the regional waiting list, when the saudi patient was 52nd on the state's liver transplant list.

priority is believed to have been granted because the royal embassy of saudi arabia would pay 25% to 30% more for the operation than u.s. insurance companies would have paid. the medical community views giving preference to one patient for nonmedical reasons as "totally unconscionable," according to dr. douglas hanto, of the beth israel deaconess medical center in boston. 

the national organ network permits a maximum of 5% of donated organs to go to foreign nations. according to records, st. vincent provided about 8% of its organs to foreign nationals.


u.s. senate debates ten year sunset for federal agencies

the u.s. senate committee on homeland security and governmental affairs has begun debating a bill requiring that all governmental agencies be given a 10 year shelf life, at which time they may be reinstated by a committee appointed by the president or cease to exist within two to four years. the white house supports the proposed bill.

the senate debate will cover such issues as how difficult it will be for the president's sunset commission to recommend the elimination of an agency, and how much the public will be permitted to participate.

many proponents of a sunset clause may not support the bill in its current form, as it extends the power of the president at the expense of congress. some proponents hope to limit the size of either the federal government, or federal law in general, by requiring ongoing debate in congress, a feature not provided by this bill.


french ferry raided by military forces

french military commandos boarded a ferry boat on wednesday morning that had been taken over by ferry company strikers from the societe nationale corse-mediterranee (sncm). the strike erupted after the french government announced its intention to privatize the company, which had been losing money for decades. the strikers seem to belong to the corsican workers' union, a trade union close to corsican nationalists.

the strikers captured the ship, called "pascal-paoli", in marseille. they sailed her to bastia where she was intercepted by a ship of the "marine nationale" and boarded by special forces. the military team included members of the gign (the french gendarmerie's rescue and anti-terror unit) and, according to some sources, naval special forces. 

the prosecutor's office at marseille has opened a criminal enquiry for "evident crime", with the charge of piracy ? a crime which, according to article l224-6 of the french penal code, is punished by a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. if the charges are retained, the initiators of the event will face a jury trial before an assize court. there are, however, questions as to whether this criminal qualification applies in this case, since the strikers did not resort to violence in stealing the ship.

the strikers are in protest against the french government's intention to sell sncm to the investment fund butler capital partners, led by businessman walter butler. mr butler claims that he can put sncm back into financial shape within 4 years. opponents of the privatization plan contend that the sale price is an amount greatly inferior to what it is worth, even if only for its assets.

the french government has had significant problems with money-losing state-owned companies in the past. sncm is, however, a special case, due to the delicate political situation in corsica. by comparison, the private company corsica ferries is in good financial shape. some sympathetic protesters, however, caused damage to corsica ferries offices.


microsoft invested 4 billion usd into xbox division

since launching "" in 2001, the game console project has resulted in a $4 billion loss for the company, an amount estimated to be approximately equal to 10% of microsoft's total cash reserves.

the "xbox" game console was marketed by microsoft as a loss leader with the plan of establishing a profit base derived from game sales and licensing to third party game publishers.

microsoft intends to continue their loss leader strategy with the successor to their console, the "xbox 360", which will be released november 22, 2005, just in time for the christmas buying season.

 


u.s. house majority leader delay indicted, steps down temporarily

u.s. house of representatives majority leader was today in , texas by a travis county on conspiracy charges. delay announced that he will step down temporarily from his leadership position. 

delay has publicly countered that the charges are and thus politically motivated. the charges originate from the district attorney of travis county, , a democrat who has prosecuted democrat and republican office holders, including u.s. senator . 

mr. delay's attorney steve brittain said that delay was accused of a criminal conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme along with two associates, namely , former executive director of a texas political action committee formed by delay, and jim ellis, the head of delay's national political committee. 

attorneys for colyandro and ellis have filed to have the proceedings moved out of travis county in order to obtain a fair trial. travis county, located in central texas, contains the state capital of and is known as a liberal county within a conservative state, as indicated by the most recent presidential elections.

according to the indictment, "the defendants herein, with the intent that a felony be committed, did enter into an agreement with one or more of each other with a general purpose committee known as pac () that one or more of them would engage in conduct that would constitute the offense of knowingly making a political contribution in violation of subchapter d of chapter 253 of the texas election code..." the indictment does not include specific charges of how delay was involved in the conspiracy. mr. delay waived a three-year restriction for the indictment.

mr. delay, upon announcement of the indictment, made a solitary public comment: "i have notified the speaker that i will temporarily step aside from my position as majority leader pursuant to rules of the house republican conference and the actions of the travis county district attorney today." 

earlier, delay denied all charges in the lengthy investigation. bill white, another of delay's attorneys, said "it's a skunky indictment if they have one." delay's spokesman, kevin madden, called the indictment "nothing more than prosecutorial retribution by a partisan democrat," referring to prosecutor ronnie earle, a democrat.

according to house republican party rules, delay must resign upon indictment. party officials told the associated press that speaker of the house, -illinois, will likely recommend republican of california as replacement, while some duties may also go to , -missouri. 

delay has previously been admonished three times by the house ethics committee. in their october 6, 2004 letter to him, the members wrote in part concluding, "...it is clearly necessary for you to temper your future actions to assure that you are in full compliance at all times with the applicable house rules and standards of conduct. we remind you that the house code of official conduct provides the committee with authority “to deal with any given act or accumulation of acts which, in the judgment of the committee, are severe enough to reflect discredit on the congress.” 

house republicans earlier eliminated the rule requiring his resignation upon indictment, but reinstated it fearing voters' outcry.

delay's political action committee, texans for a republican majority, was earlier indicted on charges it accepted corporate contributions mostly from the credit card industry . for use in state legislative elections. texas law prohibits corporate money from being used in elections, permitting it only for administrative expenses. 

having gained gop control of texas's legislature, delay masterminded a redistricting plan in 2004 that allowed the gop to gain six seats in the u.s. house, formerly won by democrats, and build a majority in congress. in one case, one lawmaker switched parties, to maintain office. 



ala observes banned book week

the american library association (ala) is observing banned books week 2005 from september 24 until october 1, the last week in september. the ala's list of suggested activities for members includes various activities which draw attention to the books that have been challenged or banned within the last few years (see 100 most frequently challenged books of 1990?2000), such as posting lists, organizing readings, and assigning research papers on censorship in the u.s. to students.

attempts to ban books from library shelves rose by more than 20%, to 547 formal challenges, in 2004. the most frequent attacked books included several with gay themes, including maya angelou's "i know why the caged bird sings." the most challenged book was robert cormier's classic novel "the chocolate war". in norwood colorado, parents recently burned copies of rudolfo anaya's "bless me, ultima" after having them pulled from the high school curriculum.


fcc extends 911 deadline for voip

the us federal communications commission has extended the deadline for enhanced 911 compliance by voip| (voice over internet protocol) providers until oct 31, 2005. last may, the fcc issued an order requiring voip providers to implement e911 within 120 days. this order also required providers to notify customers of the 911 limitations. customers who did not acknowledge these limitations would have their services terminated. 

this extension gives providers extra time to connect the networks to 911 services, and warn users of the limitations. if the fcc had not granted this extension, at least 10,000 users would have been disconnected.

according to the fcc at least 21 voip providers have received an acknowledgment from all customers of the 911 limitations. 32 additional voip providers have received an acknowledgment from 90 percent or more of their customers. voip providers who have not met the 90% goal could face enforcement proceedings starting october 31, 2005.

fcc said in a statement “it is evident that many providers have devoted significant resources to notifying each of their subscribers of the limitations of their 911 service and obtaining acknowledgements from each of their subscribers.”



colorado parents burn books

norwood, colorado parents recently burned copies of rudolfo anaya's "bless me, ultima" after having them pulled from the area high school's curriculum. millie davis, of the national council of teachers of english, said "i'm flabbergasted that something like this would be happening in this day and age". the hispanic coming-of-age story is commonly included as part of high school curriculums, and won the premio quinto sol national chicano literary award. the novel explores some minority religious views such as paganism.

the colorado parents who burned the copies claim they "mainly" object to some profanity in the novel. rudolfo anaya, a professor emeritus of english at the university of new mexico, said "the book should be judged in its entirety. there is some strong language in strong situations, but there is no flippant use of profanity."

"bless me, ultima" has survived a challenge in new york without being banned, or indeed, burned. it came in 75th on the american library association's list of the 100 most frequently challenged books of 1990?2000. by comparison, the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh positions are occupied by robert cormier's "the chocolate war", mark twain's "the adventures of huckleberry finn", john steinbeck's "of mice and men", and j.k. rowling's "harry potter" series, respectively.


emerging technologists showcased at mit

mit this week plays host to the "technology review"'s emerging technologies conference (etc); not to be confused with the o'reilly emerging technology conference (etech). etc is supported and organized by the "technology review" magazine, and features celebrated innovators and engineers from around the country. 

the conference, like the publication, prides itself on fostering innovation. two tables outside the main audience hall display information about many other programs at mit to support innovation, including the world-famous lemelson-mit prize and awards highlighting work by high school students across the country. this afternoon, they presented the winners of their annual young tech innovators award, this year issued to the 35 best innovators under the age of 35.

in addition to recognizing those 35 innovators, two special awards were presented, one for humanitarian design and the other for innovation in general. 

this year's "innovator of the year" is kevin eggan, noted for his august publication in "science" showing that cheek cells could be reprogrammed to become pluripotent stem cells. this could potentially end debates over whether it is moral to harvest stem cells from rarer sources.

and the "humanitarian of the year" is saul griffith, founder of squid labs, which pioneered a system to make customized glasses 'for $5 in 5 minutes' -- covering the complete range of prescription lenses. in prototype: a machine roughly the size of a desktop inkjet that produced the lenses, and a hand-held machine (basically a set of goggles) which determines your prescription. you can send instructions to the first machine like you would to a printer; a production model is expected to be out in two to three years.



broadcasters push for new layer of intellectual monopoly at wipo

government delegates are meeting this week at the world intellectual property organization (wipo) general assembly in geneva to discuss the wipo development agenda. the meeting will determine how developing countries must implement existing controversial intellectual property rights laws including copyrights, patents, and trademarks. they will also consider the disputed proposal for a global treaty on the protection of broadcastings and webcasting organizations. 

the broadcastings/webcasting treaty proposal, pushed by traditional broadcast organizations, and lobbyists for a handful of internet publishers, including yahoo, is being pushed hardest by the united states government, which ironically, has never considered such legislation domestically. the treaty would create a new layer of intellectual monopoly rights for broadcasters, potentially including 'webcasters'. broadcasters would then be able to claim rights over material they broadcast?even material that was in the public domain or licensed under creative commons or copyleft licenses.

many developing countries including brazil, south africa, india, iran, chile, and venezuela are asking for time to evaluate and study the proposals, and opposition to the treaty has been registered by numerous ngos and public interest advocates. fearing a repeat of the digital millennium copyright act (dmca), when us copyright law was made more strict to conform to wipo standards, a coalition of u.s. ngos is currently circulating a sign on letter calling for public hearings on the implications of the broadcaster treaty.

in a recent financial times article professor james boyle (law, duke university) raised objections to the broadcasting/webcasting treaty, saying "intellectual property laws are created without any empirical evidence that they are necessary, or that they will help rather than hurt". he elaborated that such laws are made "as though it were just a deal brokered between industry groups," and that concerns for "public interest in competition, access, free speech, and vigorous technological markets takes a back seat." professor boyle fears that "communications networks are increasingly built around intellectual property rules" with harmful effects.




fuel hike plans spark unrest across indonesia

in indonesia, a fuel price increase scheduled for october 1st has sparked hoarding, shortages and numerous public demonstrations. while the new official price has yet to be announced, government ministers have hinted that gas prices may rise from the current rp 2,400/liter to as high as rp 4,000/liter ? still below the market price of approximately rp 5,000.

fuel shortages currently affect the entire country, including bali. public transportation has also been disrupted, as operators are unable to obtain fuel, demonstrations cause traffic jams and strikes halt services. demonstrations have been held across the country and are expected to reach a peak on friday, when the new fuel prices are to be announced. strategic points in large cities such as jakarta and surabaya have heavy police and security presence. 


european court upholds asset freeze in terrorist case

on september 21st, the court of first instance of the court of justice of the european communities ruled that decisions of the united nations security council take precedence over national constitutions, european law and even the european convention for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms (echr). observers claim that this ruling undermines the rule of law and the principles of the constitutional state.

in their verdict in the case of ahmed ali yusuf, a swede of arab origin whose funds had been frozen in november 2001 by the european authorities after a sanctions committee of the un security council had put him on a list of alleged terrorists, the five judges state that:
“the right of access to the courts, a principle recognised by both article 8 of the universal declaration of human rights and article 14 of the international covenant on civil and political rights, adopted by the united nations general assembly on 16 december 1966, is not absolute.”"

the court holds that even organisations (like the european union) that are not members of the united nations are bound by decisions of the un security council.

the lawyer of the convicted:

""[the verdict] is completely unacceptable [and] raises questions about the eu’s position as regards the rule of law.”"" 

ahmed ali yusuf says he will appeal to the european court of justice.


arctic ice cap shrank sharply this summer

the arctic ice cap, which floats on the arctic ocean, shrank this summer to what experts believe to be its smallest size in a century. experts in climate modeling feel this is most likely a consequence of greenhouse gas emissions and will profoundly transform the arctic later this century.

dr. ted scambos and dr. mark serreze, of the national snow and ice data center in boulder, colorado said the change is becoming self-sustaining due to positive feedback effects. dr. serreze, said "with all that dark open water, you start to see an increase in arctic ocean heat storage. come autumn and winter that makes it a lot harder to grow ice, and the next spring you're left with less and thinner ice. and it's easier to lose even more the next year."

dr. scambos said "the consecutive record-low extents make it pretty certain a long-term decline is underway."

the little ice age ended a century ago.


us treasury department unveils new ten-dollar bill

a new redesigned us $10 bill was introduced at a ceremony yesterday on ellis island. the new bill adds three new background colors; red, yellow and orange. it continues to feature , the first . the $10 bill is the third us bill to switch from the traditional green. the $20 and $50 bills were redesigned to feature color within the past two years.

the improvements in digital technology have made it much easier for counterfeiters. "ten years ago, 1 percent of (counterfeit) bills were produced on digital equipment. these days, 56 percent are produced on digital equipment, and the technology is more accessible to the general population," said eric zahren, spokesman for the .

according to the , to be able to keep ahead of counterfeiters currency will need to continue to be updated every seven to ten years. the $10 bill was last redesigned in 2000. "the intention was not to create a counterfeit-proof note?which is basically impossible?but one that's harder to duplicate and easier to authenticate," said zahren. this new bill includes many new and enhanced security features such as color-shifting ink, a watermark, microprinting and a security thread

dawn haley of the said in a statement "the new $10 note design continues the u.s. government's efforts to make our currency safer, smarter, and more secure." the new $10 bill is expected to go into circulation in early 2006.


john roberts sworn in as chief justice of the united states

john g. roberts jr. was sworn in as the 17th chief justice of the united states on thursday, september 29, 2005, hours after being confirmed by the united states senate by a 78-22 vote. the oath of office was administered by justice john paul stevens, who has served as acting chief justice since the death of william rehnquist.

president george bush commented "the senate has confirmed a man with an astute mind and kind heart. all americans can be confident that the 17th chief justice of the united states will be prudent in exercising judicial power, firm in defending judicial independence and above all a faithful guardian of the constitution."

roberts gained support from all republicans and half the democrats in the senate. 

now president bush can turn his attention to the next nominee to replace sandra day o'connor, the position roberts was slated originally to fill. many experts say this nomination will be a much more contentious once compared to robert's. o'connor tended to be the key vote when it came to woman's rights, affirmative action and abortion.


bush nominates harriet ellan miers for u.s. supreme court

president george w. bush today nominated to replace sandra day o'connor as associate justice of the supreme court of the united states, who announced her retirement intentions july 1, 2005.

bush originally nominated john g. roberts, jr. to replace o'connor, but following the death of chief justice , roberts was renominated and confirmed as .

bush's nomination was not totally unexpected because senators from both political parties reportedly suggested her as a potential nominee, and because she had lead bush's search team for his second nominee. that mirrors dick cheney's selection as bush's vice presidential candidate in 2000 after cheney led the search team for that post. 

miers attended . she earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics, and a law degree. she was in private law practice from 1972 to 1999, served one term as a member of the dallas city council, and as chair of the texas lottery commission. since bush's 2000 election she served in a variety of roles in his administration, and is currently white house counsel.

some critics have opposed miers' nomination, noting that she has never served as a jurist or argued a case before the supreme court. the white house in response noted that neither the late judge william rehnquist nor 35 other past supreme court nominees had judicial experience before being named to the court. it also noted that 10 of the last 34 justices appointed since 1933 were appointed directly from positions within the respective sitting presidents' administrations.

senate hearings on the nomination are been scheduled for thursday, oct. 6, 2005 at 2:30pm

chief justice roberts was confirmed with 78 to 22 favorable vote. in recent decades confirmation hearings have been more contentious because politicians have attempted to maintain a perception of balance on the court. while associate justice was confirmed easily in 1993 following a 96 to 3 vote, justice clarence thomas was confirmed by a 52 to 48 vote ? largely along party lines.

the website justicemiers.com, which is running banner ads supporting the nominee, was registered september 29th, 2005 to progress for america. the registration was made several days before the nomination was announced. according to sourcewatch, progress for america is a non-profit organization closely associated with the bush administration.




mit's &quot;$100 laptop&quot; to be unveiled in november

the mit emerging technologies conference started its first day with a keynote by the media lab's nicholas negroponte, who presented the accelerating development of their $100 laptop initiative. this initiative aims to mass produce robust laptops at a cost of $100 apiece for use throughout the third world. 

in november, at the second world summit on the information society gathering in tunis, the media lab will showcase working prototypes of the laptop. five to fifteen million "beta" units are expected to be produced within a year, and deployed in five countries. massachusetts governor mitt romney has suggested distributing the laptop to half a million students across his state. they hope to produce 150 million units by the second year, at even lower costs. negroponte noted that "$100 is still too expensive.”

the laptops will come with free software and content. negroponte highlighted wikipedia as an ideal content source for the initiative, calling it "by far the best encyclopedia on the planet." he later referred to the $100 laptop initiative as "the wikipedia equivalent" of laptop design. 

the media lab has previously provided laptops to groups of children in senegal and costa rica. at the world economic forum earlier this year, negroponte announced he was founding the one laptop per child non-profit to push development of the notebook. since then, the project has developed quickly, forming partnerships with organizations including google, news corp, red hat, and advanced micro devices.



belgium indicts former chad dictator accused of humanitarian crimes

human rights groups have welcomed the indictment in belgium of hissene habre, former dictator of chad. habre, described by the organisation human rights watch as "the african pinochet", ruled chad from 1982 to 1990. he now stands accused of "crimes against humanity" over a series of abuses allegedly committed during his tenure. 

a 1992 "truth commission" in chad heard evidence of systematic torture by habre's government, and accused the regime of more than 40,000 killings. but the government of chad, which until very recently, according to human rights watch, included many of habre's former associates, has never made any attempt to prosecute him. 

habre, who currently lives in senegal, was arrested by the authorities there in 2000, charged with torture and crimes against humanity. but the following year the senegalese high court ruled that habre could not be prosecuted for crimes committed in another country. 

every state has the right under international law, to prosecute the alleged perpetrators of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, wherever those crimes were committed. 

in practice, belgium is one of the few countries in the world to have enacted legislation enabling their domestic courts to exercise this right. 

in june 2001, four rwandans were convicted by a belgian court, under the country's "universal jurisdiction" law, of participating in the 1994 genocide (recently portrayed in the film "hotel rwanda"). 

belgium recently amended the law to reduce its scope, after a series of highly-controversial attempts to bring cases against serving world leaders, including the israeli prime minister ariel sharon. but a number of cases that had already begun were allowed to continue, including the case against habre. 

the government of senegal recently detained habre to prevent him from fleeing, following pressure from the united nations. belgium has now issued an extradition request. 



un health expert warns bird flu could kill 150 million

a united nations health expert who is co-ordinating the response to the recent south-east asian bird flu outbreak, has warned that the disease could kill 'up to 150 million' people in the near future.

dr david nabarro told the bbc that a new outbreak of bird flu was possible, with migratory birds carrying the disease to africa or the middle east where the human death toll "could be anything between 5m and 150m".

"the consequences in terms of human life when the pandemic does start are going to be extraordinary and very damaging."

bird flu ? also known as avian influenza ? is a type of influenza virulent in birds. it was first identified in italy in the early 1900s and is now known to exist worldwide. it was not known to affect humans until the first recorded case in hong kong in 1997.

bird flu has spread rapidly through poultry and wild birds in asia since 2003, killing huge numbers of birds and more than 60 humans.

"it's like a combination of global warming and hiv/aids 10 times faster than it's running at the moment," dr nabarro said.

in contrast to the shock-factor of dr nabarro's comments, the u.n. has distanced themselves from his remarks. the world health organization's official estimate for the death toll in the event of a mutation of the h5n1 virus is between 2 and 7.4 million. who influenza spokesman, dick thompson, implied that dr nabarro would be taken to task over his remarks, stating, "i don't think you will hear dr nabarro say the same sort of thing again."


u.s. government ordered to release more images related to abu ghraib case

alvin k. hellerstein, a u.s. federal judge, has ordered the release of additional photos and video relating to the on-going abu ghraib iraqi prison abuse case. the media, consisting of 74 photographs and 3 videos, were ordered for release on september 29, pending a 20 day opportunity for appeal. the american civil liberties union filed a freedom of information act request in a motion to release the photos.

the bush administration has claimed that the ordered media might provoke terrorists organizations into harming more american soldiers and citizens abroad. u.s. district judge alvin k. hellerstein strongly disagreed, saying that suppressing the pictures amounts to submitting to blackmail. in a statement, hellerstein said: ""our nation <nowiki>[</nowiki>united states<nowiki>]</nowiki> does not surrender to blackmail, and fear of blackmail is not a legally sufficient argument to prevent us from performing a statutory command.""


apple agrees to replace ipod nanos with cracked screens

apple computer has formally acknowledged that the screens on some of its new ipod nano units are prone to scratching and cracking. the company has agreed to replace units with a cracked screen free of charge. 

several customers found that the screens of their brand new ipod nano mp3 players were cracking and scratching easily. according to tyler hall the creator of http://www.nanoscratch.com, his ipod nano was scratched within 30 minutes of use in the pocket of his shirt. he posted his concerns to the apple support forums, but his post was deleted. he created www.nanoscratch.com to allow other users to post comments on the ipod’s “scratchability” and post photos of scratched ipods. 

"this is a real but minor issue that involved a vendor quality problem in a small number of units," said apple spokesperson tom neumayr. apple estimates that these issues affected less then 0.01% of the total ipod nanos shipped.

in most individual cases apple has been telling customers that the scratches and cracks were covered under warranty. standard warranties on most electronic products do not normally cover cosmetic damage such as scratches or accidental damage such as cracks. users with a cracked screen can now contact apple for a free replacement.


researchers: wild gorillas seen using tools

wild gorillas were seen using tools, researchers for the u.s. based wildlife conservation society (wcs) said.

images show one female gorilla apparently using sticks to test the depth of water, another female made a bridge with a stump detached from a bush to help her cross muddy ground, and a female using a stump from a bush as support as she dug for herbs.

thomas breuer, of the wcs operating in the republic of the congo, called the discovery "truly astounding" and added that it was "quite surprising to me and my team to make this observation". only wild chimps, orangutans, and captive gorillas were previously known to use tools, meaning that now all of the four great apes were oberserved using tools, suggesting that the usage of tools might predate the evolution of modern humans. 

but, tool usage seems to be infrequent among wild gorillas. they were observed for some ten years in the mbeli bai area before this discovery was made.

nevertheless, breuer is fascinated by what he calls a "similarity" between humans and gorillas: "if you or me want to cross a swamp, we use the same solutions as gorillas."

gorillas are an endangered species; they appear on the red list of iucn.


new zealand airlines relax knife regulations

new zealand has relaxed the safety rules imposed on internal airlines in 2002, once more allowing passengers to carry pocket knives with blades less than 60mm long and knitting needles.

other larger items remain banned, including ice-skates, pool cues, hockey sticks, skateboards, cricket bats and harpoons.

other countries more at risk from terrorism such as the united states of america and australia will maintain their stricter rules and continue to ban a range of small, sharp objects from their internal flights.

the airlines have also agreed to help return items seized from passengers before boarding.


lethal explosions hit bali

several explosions hit popular tourist destination areas in kuta beach, indonesia early today, killing at least 19 people and injuring 100 others. between 11:50 and 12:00 utc, three explosions hit the kuta square and jimbaran beach, two popular western tourist areas in bali.

the indonesian national news agency, antara, reported that the first two explosions occurred at 6:50 p.m. local time, near a jimbaran food court and the third blast at 7:00 p.m. in kuta town square. other reports claim that the blasts occurred at around 7:15 p.m. the two major blasts are thought to have struck a crowded main square at central kuta, and the other in a cafe on jimbaran beach, near the four seasons hotel, areas which are generally popular with western tourists. at this time, it is not clear how many explosions were involved; however, 4 blasts have been reported. 

the bombings occurred just two days before the start of the muslim holy month of ramadan and 11 days before the third anniversary of the 2002 bali bombing.



junk food to be banned in english schools

the british education secretary, ruth kelly, announced during the week that junk food is to be banned from schools in england from september 1st 2006. items such as crisps, sweets, chocolate bars and chewing gum are expected to be among the items banned.

junk foods are classified as those high in fat, salt or sugar. recently the british government committed ￡280m to improving school food over the next three years. that followed a campaign by celebrity chef, jamie oliver, to improve school food.

the action by the british government to ban junk food has already sparked debate in ireland whether they should follow suit. 

 


&quot;junk&quot; foods may affect aggressive behaviour and school performance

dr. stephen schoenthaler, a professor of criminal justice at the california state university in stanislaus, has long argued that there is a link between a healthy diet and decreased aggressive behaviour, as well as with increased iq and school performance.

dr. schoenthaler is well-known for a youth detention center study where violations of house rules fell by 37% when vending machines were removed and the cafeteria replaced canned food by fresh alternatives. he summarizes his findings by saying that “having a bad diet right now is a better predictor of future violence than past violent behaviour.” in a very large test, schoenthaler directed a study in meals at 803 new york city schools, in low-income neighbourhoods, finding that the number of students passing final exams increased by 16%.

critics have questioned some of dr. schoenthaler findings, due to the lack of placebo control groups. however, more recent work by dr. bernard gesch, a physiologist at the university of oxford, has placed some of the work on a more scientific footing. dr. gesch found that nutrition supplements produced a 26% drop in violations of prison rules over a placebo, and a 37% decrease in violent offences. the netherlands has embarked on a wider scale dietary research program in 14 prisons.

the short term behaviour consequences of ingesting sugar are well understood: an initial burst on energy, followed a sugar low in which your body produces adrenalin, which makes you irritable and explosive. however, schoenthaler and gesch suggest that there are long term impacts over and above the short term consequences of blood sugar variations.



minimum wage in united kingdom increases to ￡5.05

from saturday, the minimum wage (in the united kingdom) will be increased to ￡5.05 (approximately $8.94 usd) which will affect more than a million workers. people aged between 18 and 21 will have a 15p increase to ￡4.25. over 21s will be able to get at least ￡5.05 an hour, up from ￡4.85.

according to the low pay commission the number of jobs had grown since the minimum wage was introduced in 1999 and so a further increase was necessary. "the increase will see well over a million low-paid workers with more cash in their pockets, many of them women working part-time," brendan barber, tuc general secretary, said. "but, as ever, with each minimum wage increase comes the predictable wave of protests from business saying that it cannot afford another rise."

further increases are expected to happen sometime in the future. in october 2006 the government said an increase for adults should be put to ￡5.35 and ￡4.45 for 18-21 year olds. this would have a "serious impact" according to sir digby jones. "the uk is already edging towards the top of the international minimum wage league table."

 


tropical storm stan forms over yucatan peninsula

the tropical prediction center has upgraded twenty to status. the storm, now officially , is the 18th named storm of the 2005 hurricane season. the storm currently has maximum sustained winds of 40 miles per hour. stan is located 50 miles sse of , mexico, and is currently tracking wnw at 12 miles per hour.

the storm is expected to weaken as it crosses the , then strengthen again when it encounters the warm waters of the . current projections show that by 1:00 pm tuesday, october 4, it may reach hurricane strength before making landfall on the central portion of the mexican coast.

all individuals who may be impacted by this storm are urged to track its progress as it develops over the next few days.


hundreds of lawsuits filed against music sharers in us

the recording industry association of america (riaa) has filed 757 lawsuits against people who they alleged illegally shared music online. the vast majority of the lawsuits, 693, are against people who used peer-to-peer file-sharing networks such as and limewire to exchange music files. of the remaining lawsuits, 64 are against students at 17 different universities who used the abilene network and a peer-to-peer file sharing program called "i2hub". 

the "i2hub" program is designed for use in sharing files over the abilene network. the abilene network is a high speed network in use by 207 u.s. universities. it was designed by internet2 to provide a high speed alternative for researchers and other educators to share information. the abilene network allows for very high speed connections, many times faster than dsl or cable connections. the riaa became a corporate member of internet2 two weeks ago.

over the past two years, the riaa has filed more than 14,800 lawsuits against people accused of illegally sharing music online. over 3,400 of these cases were settled for an average of between $4,000 to $5,000 each. almost 500 of these lawsuits were against students using the internet2 network.



santa ana volcano erupts in el salvador

the morning of saturday the 1st was a tragic one for el salvador, as the santa ana volcano, the largest and most active volcano in the country began an eruptive phase.

at 8:25 a.m. santa ana volcano's view from coatepeque lake changed as a huge flow of "hot mud" flowed from the crater towards the lake. the road that was designed as an evacuation route from that sector of the volcano was blocked completely and the inhabitants of the area had to be evacuated by helicopters.

minutes after the flow of hot mud was visible from lake coatepeque, a huge cloud of ash appeared, which reached an altitude of 50,000 feet, then covering the northwestern part of the country which contains the largest concentration of coffee farms (main export). the local authorities expect that this layer of ash burns the coffee plants of the affected area, decreasing the coffee production of the region considerably. 

along with the ash cloud, a large amount of hot rocks (some reaching three feet in diameter) flew on all directions, damaging roads, homes and vegetation. according to the people living in the surroundings of the volcano, the rocks were released due to the huge amount of pressure released when the ash cloud appeared. 

authorities report the loss of two human lives due to this incident, the cause has not yet been revealed. to prevent the loss of more lives, the government decreed a red alert in a radius of four kilometres of the crater, but yet, some people resist the evacuation proposals due to fear of losing their belongings, as they have to leave their homes without any surveillance. in response to this, the army and the police agreed to patrol the areas evacuated in order to prevent robberies.

it is expected that this incident is only the beginning of a large eruptive process, which may result in a catastrophe for el salvador.


google formally submits bid to provide free wifi in san francisco

google inc. formally submitted a bid to provide free wireless internet, or wifi, in response to a request from mayor gavin newsom's office. 

the company's goal is to ensure easy, reliable access to its search engine at all times. in another sign of its interest in internet access, google recently bought an undisclosed stake in a maryland startup, the current communications group, which is trying to provide high-speed connections through power lines.


one killed in university of oklahoma explosion

one person is dead following an explosion that occurred outside a packed university of oklahoma football stadium saturday night, where the school was hosting kansas state university. authorities are calling the incident a suicide, but it is still under investigation.

the incident occurred shortly before halftime of the kansas state - ou game. those inside and outside the stadium heard a "boom," and others reported feeling the blast from blocks away. it occurred near locations of buses parked for the game, and classroom buildings of the university.

those attending the game were initially told not to leave during halftime, and were later instructed by the public announcement system not to exit on the west and south ends of the stadium. bomb searches were done in the parking complexes outside the stadium and neighboring accessways around the west side of the stadium. authorities searched and located at least one other device in the vicinity, and the device was detonated without incident. areas west of the gaylord memorial stadium have been blocked from access by authorities.

ou president boren said in a statement that "at no time was anyone in the stadium in danger," and that the incident is being investigated as an apparent individual suicide.


connecticut becomes third u.s. state to allow same-sex civil unions

in the state of connecticut today, a law allowing civil unions for same-sex couples took effect. 

the law is unique; it allows civil unions for same-sex couples with full benefits of a regular marriage, while at the same time defining marriage as between a man and a woman. 

heterosexual couples are not allowed to receive civil unions. the license application will be identical to one for a regular marriage, except "bride" and "groom" are replaced with "party 1" and "party 2."

the connecticut civil unions law is the first gay marriage law to be passed voluntarily; lawsuits forced fellow new england states vermont and massachusetts to allow same-sex unions. vermont has civil unions while massachusetts allows actual same-sex marriage. some localities have recognized same-sex couples in the form of a .

"this is a historic day. we're beyond ecstatic." said randy sharp, 46, of plainville, who was applying for a license with his partner jeff blanchette, 44.

not everyone is happy about the law. already, opponents are lobbying for an amendment that will ban same-sex marriage. "today was a sad day for our state. it was a sad day for our state's children." said brian brown, executive director of family institute of connecticut. the group held a protest outside the capitol which was attended by 50 people. last year eleven states voted on election day to prohibit same-sex marriage.


tigers win nrl grand final

the wests tigers have defeated the north queensland cowboys 30-16 in the national rugby league grand final in sydney. the final score was 30-16. the tigers scored five tries, and north queensland scored three. 

it was the cowboys first grand final after 10 years in the competition. it was the tigers first grand final win since they were formed by the merger of balmain and western suburbs. 


german christian democrats win by-election in dresden

the (cdu) of angela merkel have won the by-election in dresden and gained one additional in the . a or bye-election is a special election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between general elections. 

the cdu candidate andreas lammel received 37.0% of the first votes, his contender marlies volkmer won 32.1% and the candidate of , katja kipping, earned 19.2%. 

the spd performed better at the second election, winning 27.9%, followed by the cdu with 24.4%, the left with 19.7%, the with 16.6%, and the with 7.1%.

the cdu had actually urged supporters not to vote for them with their second vote because of a bug in germany's voting system too many votes would have caused them to lose a seat.

nevertheless, the by-election caused the shifting of one seat to another state. cajus julius caesar (sic!), of the cdu in lost his seat to anette hubinger, also of the cdu but from the .

the complete result of the 2005 german federal election can be seen here.


ulcer researchers awarded '05 nobel prize

two australian researchers, j. robin warren and barry marshall, are the 2005 winners of the nobel prize in physiology or medicine for their work in discovering the role of ulcer bacteria in producing digestive ulcers. . they were announced monday morning in stockholm, sweden.

warren and marshall will equally share a us$1.3 million cash prize award for discovering "the bacterium helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease." dr marshall cultivated the previously unknown bacterial species h. pylori from a study of biopsies from 100 ulcer patients, firmly establishing that gastric disorders are infectious diseases. before their discovery, peptic ulcer was attributed to stress and lifestyle. 

the nobel committee has awarded the nobel prize in the category 'physiology or medicine' since 1901, when emil adolf von behring won for developing a treatment for diphtheria.

the announcement begins a week of nobel announcements. the physics and chemistry awards will be announced tuesday and wednesday. the nobel peace prize will be announced friday. 




fatal blasts rock bangladesh

two people were killed and 40 others injured in a series of bombings at courts in three districts of dhaka, bangladesh today, in an apparent repeat of the nationwide august 17 bombings (in which 
3 people were killed and 150 injured), according to police.

one person was killed and five others were injured when a youth hurled a bomb concealed in a book at a court in central chandpur district. the injured included court officials. in another attack in luxmipur district, one person was killed and 30 others injured when two youths hurled bombs at a court there, police said. in the third incident, bombs were exploded in three places in southeastern port city of chittagong injuring at least five others.

an unexploded bomb was found in mymensingh district, television reports said.

state minister for home affairs lutfuzzaman babor was unfazed. "we were prepared and we will face these very confidently," he told reporters "some arrests were made as we were prepared".

yesterday, two people were killed and three others were injured in a bomb attack at a tea stall in western satkhira district.

according to reports, a leaflet was found at the site warning against keeping shops open during the muslim holy month of ramadan starting this week.

the government has arrested dozens of members of the banned jamatul mujahedeen bangladesh (jmb) since then.


microsoft office 12 will support pdfs

microsoft announced yesterday that the next version of , currently code-named "", will support format exportation. microsoft senior vice president said microsoft receives 120,000 requests monthly to save documents created in office as pdf files.

pdf is a file format created by that ensures files appear similarly on any computer operating system. pdf is an open standard, and programs can read and write pdfs . adobe distributes software at no cost to read pdf files on many platforms. many readers are also available.

there are many ways to create pdfs from office documents. users can purchase standard ( us$299.00), and can already export any microsoft office document to pdfs using the free office suite software. they can also use one of the many free programs that act as print drivers such as the open source . adobe also offers a somewhat slower, but free online pdf converter on their website. while such options have long been available, the high cost, moderate difficulty and lack of awareness has discouraged pdf use in most daily exchanges of office created documents.

because microsoft has no plans to create a pdf importer, it will be impossible for the office pdf export functionality to fulfill massachusetts' recent requirements for official, state created documents.

the first, or beta version, of office 12 is expected in november.


physics nobel prize awarded for insights into light

roy j. glauber (harvard university) won half of this year's physics nobel prize, and
john l. hall (university of colorado and national institute of standards and technology) and theodor w. hansch (max-planck-institut fur quantenoptik, garching) each receive a quarter of the prize.

glauber clarified the quantum nature of light. he showed how light composed of discrete quantum particles (photons) can be reconciled with the wave-like behavior of light. his theoretical work laid the foundations of quantum optics.

hall and hansch developed methods to measure the frequency of light to extreme precisions. their findings "have made it possible to measure frequencies with an accuracy of 15 digits," for use in highly accurate clocks and new technology for global positioning systems.

the recipients will share a 10,000,000 kronor prize (1.5 million usd), with glauber receiving half and hall and hansch each receiving a quarter of the total.


uk cable tv operator ntl acquires telewest

united kingdom cable tv operator ntl has agreed to buy telewest broadband for $6 billion usd (3.4 billion pounds). ntl’s and telewest’s service territories do currently overlap. the acquisition is expected to save the companies 1.5 billion pounds.

ntl has agreed to pay $23.93 for each telewest share, in cash and ntl stock. current telewest shareholders will own approximately 25 percent of the combined company. while both companies operate exclusively in the uk, they are listed in new york on the u.s. nasdaq exchange. 

once the acquisition is complete, the combined company will have 5 million customers in the uk . competitor british sky broadcasting (bskyb) has almost 8 million. the combined company will also be the second-largest residential telephone company in britain behind bt group plc.

if the deal is approved, regulators and both companies shareholders' should close in the first quarter of 2006.


iraqi insurgents guilty of war crimes, says human rights watch

human rights watch yesterday released a detailed study of attacks on civilians by members of the iraqi insurgency. the 140-page report, "a face and a name: civilian victims of insurgent groups in iraq" claims to be the most comprehensive account yet produced of abuses by the iraqi armed opposition. in the report, human rights watch (hrw) also analyses and challenges a number of arguments put forward by insurgent leaders attempting to justify their attacks on civilians. hrw argues that all such attacks are illegal under international law, and violate the geneva convention. 

"there are no justifications for targeting civilians, in iraq or anywhere else", said an hrw spokesperson, calling on the insurgents to "respect the laws of war".

while human rights watch has been vocal in condemning abuses by american and british forces in iraq - they stress that these can never be used to excuse attacks on civilians by the insurgency. 

according to human rights watch, people in the middle east are being increasingly "repulsed" by the abuses of the insurgents, whether or not they support the us-led occupation of iraq. the organisation is now calling on figures of influence in iraq - particularly religious leaders, to condemn the abuses publicly. 



high tides sweep west galveston bay

changing conditions have brought moderate east winds to the houston/galveston area, raising tide levels across western shores of galveston bay. wind-inflated tides combined with regular high tides are resulting in maximum waters as much as four and a half feet above normal levels. erosion due to hurricane rita has lowered some areas, especially sand dunes, giving an appearance of even higher tides.

the cold front expected to pass the area on thursday will bring an end to the east winds and tide levels should return to normal.


british comedian ronnie barker dies

the well loved british comedian and comedy writer ronnie barker has died aged 76, of heart failure.

he was well known for his role in 'the two ronnies' alongside ronnie corbett, as well as playing fletch in 'porridge' and arkwright in 'open all hours'.

on his death, ronnie corbett described his partner as 'pure gold in triplicate - as a performer, a writer and a friend'.


energy companies to raise consumer rates

reliant energy and centerpoint energy?two local utilities in houston, texas?plan to increase consumer rates in response to increased demand and recent disasters. 

reliant energy is expected to raise rates to effect a 14% increase on a 1,000 kilowatt-hour bill. a typical customer could see an increase up to $20 per month. reliant has reached an agreement with the texas public utilities commission to raise rates in two steps, once at the end of october, and again on 1 january 2006.

centerpoint energy must increase charges for services such as meter-reading and customer service. the texas public utilities commission prohibits natural gas companies from buying wholesale product, raising rates, and reselling. wholesale prices of natural gas also continue to rise due to increased demand and declining domestic supply. natural gas cannot be easily shipped to other regions like oil.

consumer energy prices are expected to rise across the state, in some cases as much as 20%.

the texas public utilities commission must approve rate increases before they go into effect, but approval is expected. 

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us rejects eu proposal to give internet control to the un

the united states announced it does not agree with the european union officials' proposal to share more of the control of the internet with the united nations. u.s. bureau of economic and business affairs ambassador david gross said, "we will not agree to the u.n. taking over the management of the internet." mr. gross is coordinator for international communications and information policy at the u.s. department of state and said further, "some countries want that. we think that's unacceptable. no intergovernmental body should control the internet, whether it's the u.n. or any other." 

e.u. spokesman martin selmay said, "we are looking for a new cooperation model; a model that allows internet governance and the laying down of public policy principles in coordination by all countries which are interested in the governance of the internet, because the internet is a global resource."

the internet corporation for assigned names and numbers (icann), a non-profit organization responsible for the assignment of domain names and internet protocol addresses, currently controls the root zone files for the internet. they are overseen by the u.s. commerce department, which granted them the original contract to oversee those tasks. 

many nations have expressed displeasure at the u.s. having sole control of the internet and suggest such control should be given to an intergovernmental body, such as the u.n. other proposals include limiting icann to a technical role and establishing a new external organization to handle policy issues. 

the issue is scheduled to be discussed in november at the u.n. world summit on the information society in tunis, tunisia.


apple plans another special event

within one month of the ipod nano and itunes phone special event, apple computer announced today another special event to be held on october 12. it is to be held at the california theater in downtown san jose, california.

the invitation reads, "one more thing...", the teasing tagline of steve jobs. the words were atop a picture of closed theater curtains.

recently apple has been gaining rights to sell music videos from record labels. this has increased rumors of a video ipod(vpod) along with this event. appleinsider is claiming that there are sources that have "seen" the new ipod. alongside this rumor, appleinsider claims to have seen a wireless device similar to apple's airport express that supports video.

other rumors for this event include a major itunes music store update and a macintosh with a intel processor.


bush may deploy military if bird flu breaks out

president bush has asked congress to discuss the option of allowing him to deploy military resources if avian flu breaks out in america.

"i'm concerned about what an avian flu outbreak could mean for the united states and the world," said the president in a conference today. the president also expressed concern that local response would be slow, given the precedent provided by the recent gulf coast hurricane disasters, the aftermath of which has triggered widespread criticism for what many view as instances of long-delayed and inadequate delivery on the part of the white house and congress. "i want there to be a robust discussion about the best way for the federal government, in certain extreme circumstances, to be able to rally assets for the good of the people," the president said previously.

avian flu is not currently able to easily pass from human to human, limiting epidemics. the president and others warn that the virus may mutate into a form that more easily spreads through social contact. 


google, sun microsystems to collaborate on software development

on tuesday, google and sun microsystems announced that they are working to get software such as google toolbar and openoffice.org (both products of google and sun microsystems, respectively) more widely available. the companies stated that this collaboration will make software by each respective company more enhanced. the new york times reports that this event is to help compete with microsoft, although they were not explicitly mentioned at a press conference.

sun and google agreed to explore opportunities to promote and develop sun technologies. despite being a clear announcement, the exact effects of this deal are not yet known. it is known, however, that java programming software will be equipped with google toolbar, and that google will purchase more from sun.



f. scott fitzgerald house struck by lightning

during a thunderstorm tonight, lightning set fire to a former home of f. scott fitzgerald in st. paul, minnesota. amidst reports about flash flood warnings and floating cars, kstp tv said that lightning had set the steeple of the f. scott fitzgerald house on fire. fire fighters were working to extinguish the smoky fire, which seemed to be limited to the steeple. video images suggest the building is the 599 summit avenue residence where fitzgerald wrote "this side of paradise".


tom delay faces two new indictments for money laundering

former u.s. house majority leader tom delay indicted by a grand jury on two new charges of money laundering during the texas redistricting warrant controversy, on monday, following his indictment by a separate grand jury on criminal conspiracy charges last week. craig mcdonald, director of texans for public justice, said that "for a new grand jury to indict delay on a day's notice suggests the evidence of his participation is convincing." delay dismissed the charges as partisan, though the veteran prosecutor in the case has indicted three times as many democrats as republicans in his career. delay faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.


dock worker killed by snapped cable

a dock worker on the panamanian cargo vessel ma altair was killed when a cable snapped and threw him through the air. witnesses say that the 54 year old worker was struck on his right side by a 1-1/2 inch cable being used to unload steel products. 

authorities were notified at 8:10 am cdt (1310 utc). the victim was pronounced dead at the scene.

snapped cables are a significant occupational hazard, capable of maiming and dismembering people nearby. equipment struck by cables snapping under load is often destroyed.


cool front to bring lasting relief for texas

a cool front is expected to move into texas thursday night, bringing an end to the recent record high temperatures. temperatures are expected to fall to the low 60s across the area, and may reach the lower 50s for inland areas. 

there is some speculation that the low pressure area associated with the front may draw a yet-to-be-formed tropical storm in from the gulf with little to no warning, as happened with hurricane alicia in 1983. experts say there is no specific reason to believe this will happen, but plan to monitor the situation.


jefferson to face forward on new nickel

for the first time, the united states mint will feature a president facing forward on a coin. president thomas jefferson will face forward on the 2006-dated five cent coin. this image is based on an 1800 painting of the president by rembrandt peale. this design is referred to by the mint as the "jefferson 1800".

"the changing images in the westward journey nickel series? lead us back to thomas jefferson, who envisioned the louisiana purchase and lewis and clark expedition as a way to move the nation forward. the image of a forward-looking jefferson is a fitting tribute to that vision," said united states mint acting director david a. lebryk.

united states mint artistic infusion program artist jamie franki, of concord, nc, designed the obverse. it will be sculpted by donna weaver, and will feature the word "liberty" in jefferson's handwriting. the reverse will feature monticello, designed by felix schlag, and restored from original work by john mercanti.


scientists recreating the 1918 flu virus say 'it came from birds'

us scientists have recreated the flu virus from the 1918 flu (aka 'spanish flu') via reverse genetics from lung tissue samples of persons who died from the pandemic. the flu was resurrected and injected into mice, according to terrence tumpey of the us centers for disease control and prevention, "to understand the biological properties that made the 1918 virus so exceptionally deadly."

disturbingly, the scientists have found genetic mutations and markers that are similar to those in flu viruses found in birds. this has raised concerns that the so-called "asian bird flu" could spread to humans, becoming the next global flu pandemic.


u.s. watchdog group lists &quot;most corrupt members of congress&quot;

citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington (crew) , a u.s. legislative watchdog group, has released a report attempting to document the unethical and illegal activities of who they are calling the "most tainted members of congress". in describing the reasons for the report melanie sloan, executive director of crew said, "[crew] was compelled to research and release a report on these corrupt members because the ethics committees in both the house and senate are completely inert. the report calls for the house and senate to act to investigate and take appropriate action against them for these violations of the rules." she went on to attack both parties regarding ethics, "democrats are just as much to blame as republicans for the current ethics deadlock. the democrats won't file ethics complaints against even the most egregious violators like delay and ney…. the democrats are spineless." 

the report covers possible violations of federal laws, as well as congressional ethics rules. to compile the report, crew drew upon federal election commission (fec) reports and audits, sworn testimony, emails, and personal financial and travel disclosure forms. by analyzing that information, crew then attempted to determine if the member's activities violated federal laws, regulations, or congressional ethics rules. the 13 members of congress covered are:


the report is entitled "beyond delay: the 13 most corrupt members of congress", seeking to capitalize on the current media attention on ethics that has come about due to the indictments of former house majority leader tom delay. however, the report does not cover any of tom delay's ethics problems, nor does it have any information on his current legal problems.

the report was criticized by the office of rick renzi, one of the congressmen listed, arguing that crew are biased and pursuing a political agenda. "this group is run by one of the biggest democratic party donors in the nation and is a mouthpiece for its fierce political attacks," said renzi's office in a statement. "the group's biased accusations show the campaign season is starting early."

representative burns, also one of the representatives named in the report, responded through spokesman james pendleton calling crew's report "pure politics." the press secretary for representative bob ney, also named in the crew report, said, "we don't give melanie sloan and her liberal organization an ounce of credibility." 

both members of the house whose residences have been searched as part of a criminal investigation, cunningham and jefferson, are included on the list. burns, ney, and feeney are cited for their dealings with lobbyist jack abramoff. 11 out of the 13 named representatives are republicans.



autodesk to buy alias

california-based autodesk inc. announced yesterday that they plan to acquire toronto-based alias for $182 million in cash. the acquisition is expected to be completed within six months. “alias’ technology spans several of our most important markets and augments the synergy between our design and media business,” said carl bass, coo of autodesk.

autodesk is the creator of one of the top computer aided design programs; autocad, which is used by many engineers and architects for design activities including drafting. autodesk’s software is used by over 6 million people. they are the 5th largest pc software company in the world. they employ approximately 3,500 people. in the past fiscal year they earned $1.2 billion.

alias produces 3d graphics software used in the creation of special effects, video games, industrial, and automotive design. they were founded in 1983 under the name alias research. they merged with wavefront technologies under sgi in 1995 and changed its name to alias in july 2003. in june, 2004 they were spun off from silicon graphics inc. and acquired by accel-kkr and ontario teachers' pension plan. in the 2005 fiscal year they earned $83 million in revenue. they currently employ approximately 600 people. alias customers include dreamworks skg, pixar, nintendo, industrial light & magic, general motors, and bmw. according to alias, their software has been used in nearly every film nominated for an academy of motion picture arts and sciences award in the best visual effects and best animated feature films categories.


python pops after eating gator

scientists report that alligators might not be as effective as hoped in controlling the burmese python population in the florida everglades. a six foot alligator was found with its rear half hanging from the belly of a 13-foot python last week. because of injuries on the alligator's body, frank mazotti, a university of florida wildlife professor, believes that the gator was injured but alive when the python attacked.

"encounters like that are almost never seen in the wild. ... and here we are, it's happened for the fourth time," mazzotti said. these remains were discovered september 26 by pilot and researcher michael barron. 

the non-native pythons are often released by individuals who are ill-equipped to care for the pet when it has grown more than expected. iguanas present similar problems. the invading species often consume natives like the alligator, or tropical flowers, in the case of the iguanas.

while some have expressed concern that children are in danger from these pythons, joe wasilewski, a wildlife biologist and crocodile tracker, says it's not a great issue. "i don't think this is an imminent threat. this is not a 'be afraid, be very afraid' situation."

 


seabrook city councilman takes heat for words

john buhman of the city council is accused of racism by counselwoman dee wright. she says his use of the word "tarbaby" is derogatory and is calling for his resignation.

buhman states that the word is used to refer to a business deal that is a sticky situation, and invited others to check a dictionary. the council will vote on the need to involve an ethics review board.

merriam-webster online lists the sole definition of "tarbaby" as "something from which it is nearly impossible to extricate oneself".


wings over houston airshow comes to town

the 21st annual wings over houston airshow, featuring the snowbirds will open october 8-9th at ellington field. gates will be open saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and sunday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for static displays. aerial performances begin at about 10 a.m., though times are subject to change.

aerial performances are often visible from two or three miles away, and simulated weapons fire can be heard from even farther. the performances scheduled include flybys of an f-117 nighthawk stealth fighter, b1-b lancer bomber, and a-10 warthog tank-killer, several aerobatics performances, and ground-based demonstrations of various aircraft.

general admission at the gate is $20 for adults, $5 for children 6-11. children under 6 are free.


open source game wesnoth reaches version 1.0

although there are many open source games in development, few development teams have the motivation and expertise needed to mature their game from beta status, indicated by version numbers less than one (0.6, 0.7, etc...), to "1.0". this remarkable milestone was accomplished recently by the developers of the computer game battle for wesnoth. wesnoth is a turn based strategy game set in a fantasy environment reminiscent of tolkien's lord of the rings literature, featuring unit types like elves, dwarves, orcs, and even tree people.

development of the game began over two years ago when creator david white released the first development version, 0.1, on june 18, 2003. all code and contents of the game were released under the gnu gpl license, and all versions were distributed freely over the internet. the game was also packaged for various gnu/linux distributions such as debian and many others. wesnoth's ability to run on unix and linux, mac osx and microsoft windows systems and solid playability earned it popularity among the open source community. the game drew not only players, but also programmers, artists, and campaign writers; developers who create stories and scenarios using the mechanics and art of the core wesnoth engine. the quick pace of development and early popularity considerably increased the number of people working on the game in their free time and allowed it to reach a quality and completeness not often seen in gpl games.

"1.0" contains several campaigns of varying length, in which you play alone against computer opponents. wesnoth also offers various multiplayer modes, from a hot-seat mode for multiple players on one computer, to an online lobby where you can play games with players from all over the world. in this case, multiple players can either play in teams against others, or join a team against the computer opponent.

there is also a campaign server accessible from inside the game where players can download many additional user created campaigns, maps, and even units. almost all aspects of the game are scriptable using an html-like language which allows users to easily create their own content and contribute it to the campaign server.

 


twenty killed in lake george usa boating accident

twenty elderly people were killed sunday when a boat capsized on lake george in upstate new york. the "ethan allen" was filled with touring passengers from the detroit, michigan area, all of whom were on a pleasure cruise to see fall foliage in the adirondack mountains. all the passengers aboard were reported to have not worn life preservers.

investigators speculate that the "ethan allen" capsized when it steered into the wake of another tour boat, causing the former to turn sharply. the incident occurred at 3:00 pm edt (2000 utc) about 150 yards offshore at cramer point. amongst those who survived was the captain, richard paris, 74, who was reportedly the only crew member aboard the boat.

the boat operator company's license has been temporarily revoked pending a urine analysis test for alcohol consumption 80 hours before the incident. all other boat licenses owned by the company are also being held.


romania to host junior eurovision song contest in 2006

romania has been chosen to host the junior eurovision song contest in 2006, according to a press release by the country's government-funded broadcaster, tvr. according to the network, the junior eurovision will be held in bucharest in november 2006, where it will be organised in a venue with a capacity of more than 6,000 seats. romania's successful bid has been confirmed by svante stockselius from the european broadcasting union.

the three countries shortlisted for the junior eurovision 2006 were romania, croatia, and the netherlands. on october 4, however, it was announced that tvr had won the bidding process and the event would be held in romania. the junior eurovision 2006 is the first eurovision event to be held in romania, and comes after romania's best ever result in the eurovision song contest 2005, where it was ranked third.

the event will be co-financed by tvr and the european broadcasting union, with approximately 3.4 million romanian lei (?1 million) being funded by the ebu.

the junior eurovision song contest was founded in 2003 and is open to constentants from across europe ranging from eight to fifteen years of age. the 2005 event will be held on november 26 in hasselt, belgium, and will be attended by contestants from 17 countries, including romania.


romanian president to hold referendum on unicameral parliament

the president of romania, traian b?sescu, announced today that he would call a referendum next year asking romanians whether they approve the switch to a unicameral legislature. 

romania currently has a bicameral parliamentary structure, similar to the united kingdom and united states, with a chamber of deputies as the lower house and a senate as the upper house. in the past month, however, president b?sescu has stated that he would like to see the replacement of the current system with a unicameral parliament, consisting of only one chamber, as well as a reduction in the overall number of parliamentarians. his reason is the functions of the chamber of deputies and senate are nearly identical in romania, both being elected by the people every five years under the system of proportional representation. these reasons are similar to the ones used when converting the legislature of the of nebraska to a unicameral house.

the unicameral plan, however, has come under fire from several political parties, including some from the ruling justice and truth alliance. the prime minister of romania, c?lin popescu-t?riceanu, from the national liberal party, does not support the unicameral plan, and neither do the two major opposition parties, the social democrats and great romania.

despite the political opposition, president b?sescu has constantly said that it would be up to the people to decide whether such a reform should take place, and hence announced today that the referendum on this issue would be held next year. the referendum would be held at the same time as the vote to elect romania's 35 representatives to the european parliament, as romania will join the european union in 2007.


film about travis county da's investigation of texas election of 2002

two independent filmmakers, mark birnbaum and jim schermbeck, have created a film covering the 2002 texas election campaign and the involvement of corporate donations. their film is called "the big buy" and includes approximately 50 hours of interviews with the travis county prosecutor's office, including prosecutor ronnie earle, lawyers for those under investigation, and some journalists.

schermbeck and birnbaum started "the big buy" in february 2003 and billed it as a "texas noir political detective story that chronicles what some are calling a “bloodless coup with corporate cash.” it follows maverick austin da ronnie earle’s investigation into what really happened when corporate money joined forces with relentless political ambitions to help swing the pivotal 2002 texas elections, cementing republican control from austin to washington d.c."

the film has suddenly gained notoriety because of the recent indictments of tom delay by travis county district attorney's office. "we couldn't have given this film away last month," mr. schermbeck said. "we couldn't get any attention for it, or any money for it. now, we're getting the attention, but so far it's still self-financed."

"the big buy" draws its title from the idea that political influence can be bought and paid for, schermbeck said.

the filmmakers financed the project themselves and made no payments to any of those interviewed, they said. "we look at this as witnessing history as it happens," schermbeck said. "what if there was a film about sharpstown [ the political scandal in the early '70s that derailed the careers of several texas politicians]? it would have been great to have that as a historical document. this time we will."

the national review online, which obtained an unfinished copy of the film last week, has written that it contains footage inside the grand jury room as well as inside the prosecutors office.

presumably that is the same version of the film that was shown to a crowd of about 300 at the dallas video festival in early august. birnbaum and schermbeck plan to re-work the ending. now that mr. earle's investigation has focused on delay, the filmmakers feel it only makes sense.

there have been conflicting reports on whether mr. delay's staff said he chose not to grant any interviews to the filmmakers two years ago, or if his office was contacted at all. mr. schermbeck said he hopes the congressman will get involved. "we obviously have to do a new ending to this now, and we're going to be calling delay's lawyers and staff," mr. schermbeck said. 

delay defenders have used the film to attack the indictments handed out, as well as ronnie earle. "this is just further proof that this vendetta against congressman delay has been scripted from day 1," said ben porritt, a spokesman for tom delay who was forced to give up his post as house majority leader after the indictment was handed down.

schermbeck in responding to the various charges said, "we couldn't get past [delay's] the front door. so we regrouped and decided to approach mr. earle about telling the story from his point of view." bernbeck went on, "i don't think mr. delay's name ever came up. we were as surprised as anyone that he was indicted."

newspapers and delay defenders have also charged that the filmmakers were given special access to ronnie earle and his staff as they examined allegations that republicans were illegally funneling corporate contributions to the campaigns of texas state legislative candidates.

“oh yeah, he’s just doing his job. he’s just doing his job. he’s got a film crew that has been following him around for two years to document how he’s going to get tom delay,” delay said on a houston talk radio show friday.

ronnie earle responded to the charges, "my office follows all the same proper rules about rightfully protected information for all the media no matter who they are. when somebody said to harry truman, 'give 'em hell, harry, i just tell them the truth, and they think it's hell.' i told them the truth, and they thought it was a movie. go figure. i'm just doing my job."

birnbaum and schermbeck supported earle's version of events, saying that earle and his staff gave them some interviews. they also did not get access to any of the secret grand jury proceedings or witness any of the staff’s deliberations in the delay investigation.

both mark birnbaum and jim schermbeck have collaborated on a number of projects in the past. birnbaum has been working in film since 1969. according to his website he has done everything from production to editing film for pbs and the discovery channel all over the world. he also lists various awards he has won, including a peabody award. schermbeck has been a community organizer in texas for almost 30 years. he has worked with public citizen, the national toxics campaign, and downwinders at risk.



british columbia teachers dropping the chalk and walking out

british columbia teachers have voted 91% in favour of withdrawing services, beginning today (october 7). this is in response to bill 12 which, if passed, imposes a contract with neither pay raises nor caps on class sizes. it has passed third reading today and is expected to receive royal assent later today. b.c. teachers have had four such imposed contracts since 1993, spanning two different provincial governments. the b.c. legislature has been meeting around the clock to try and get the motion through. 

this issue has been escalating for some time. already, b.c. teachers are greatly underpaid (in terms of lifetime earnings), in comparison to those in other provinces, due to the b.c. government's zero wage increase policy for all public sector employees. in addition, they feel learning conditions are sub-par, with many classes overcrowded, and insufficient resources to provide for special needs children.
hugh finlayson, ceo of the bc public school employers' association, representing the government, has asked the labour relations board to halt the action. he has said that the walk out, which would affect 600,000 students, would break labour code, since education is, by b.c. law, an essential service. 

the labour board ruled at 11:00 pm october 6, 2005 that the action is illegal. it has ordered teachers to return to normal duties and schedules. they have also been asked not to picket at or near schools. this has had no effect on the teacher's planned action.

being categorized as an essential service makes any striking action illegal, unless approved by the labour board. the intent of the teachers' original job action was to seek this approval, but this was halted by the passing of bill 12. the international labour organization, the united nations agency involved in upholding labour standards worldwide, has even urged gordon campbell's government to repeal the law making education an essential service.
the government has threatened legal action against the union, and possibly even jail for the union leader, but the teachers are arguing that this action is not a strike, merely political protest, and is therefore covered under the charter of rights and freedoms.

the situation could escalate quickly such as what occurred in the heu strike. a general strike is not out of the question. many unions have noted that they would stand-behined the bctf.

tuesday: no school, bctf announces today. they are most likely keeping it clear so members can vote on a proposed contract if one is introduced over the weekend. a vote is needed before job action stops.


five soldiers killed in southern thailand

five soldiers in the southern thailand province of narathiwat were killed and another two injured in a drive-by attack by suspected islamic militants.

the attack occurred whilst the soldiers were eating their evening meal. a representative of the thai army said that the attackers fired assault rifles at the group before fleeing the scene in a pick-up truck. metal spikes were strewn on the road to foil pursuit. in addition to the deaths, a number of firearms were stolen prior to the insurgents making their escape.

this was the second incident involving suspected islamic militants on the day prior to ramadan. earlier in the day the decapitated body of a middle-aged man was found at a roadside in yala province.

over one thousand people have been killed in insurgency-related incidents in the predominantly muslim south of thailand since 2004.


sri lanka blast injures one

officials in have confirmed that an explosion, which occurred during morning rush hour in , injured one person. the explosion occurred outside a newspaper office of a political party allied with the sri lankan government.

there have not been any claims of responsibility yet, although a senior police officer has said that the bomb was planted in a van belonging to the political party, which used to be a militant group against the government.


french parliamentarian questions jacques chirac's elysee budget

a member of the french national assembly, rene dosiere, denounces the "opacity" in the budget of the , the office of the .

according to him, the president's real budget is approximately three times the budget given for his services in the yearly national budget voted by the french parliament, because many employees and services are provided by other ministries and public services free of charge to the presidency, and thus are counted in other budgets. as an example, the french provides and other soldiers, as well as aerial transportation; the funds official foreign trips; and repairs, furnitures etc. to presidential offices are funded by the ministry of culture. mr dosiere reports that in 2003, the total spending was 82.6 million , while the official budget of the presidency was 30.5 million.

mr dosiere started inquiring about presidential expenses about four years ago, and since then has been a critic of the opacity of accounting at the presidency. in order to obtain the necessary information, he has had to ask numerous questions to the executive and administrations.

in addition, he points out that the official budget of the presidency has boomed under jacques chirac's term: between 1995 and 2005, it climbed from 5,21 millions to 26,14 millions. in 1995, the president also had at his disposal some "secret funds", the total amount of which was voted by parliament, but which could be spent at his discretion. "secret funds" were originally meant to fund specific missions that could not be funded within the exacting rules of public accounting, such as secret operations abroad, but they gradually also came to serve to pay various gratifications to government officials. since 2002, secret funds have been cut and are reserved for paying for secret operations, while services that used them for normal operations were given special compensation. in 2005, the special compensation for the presidency was 5.5 million euros.

in 2001, the french parliament voted a law known as the lolf ("loi d'orientation relative aux lois de finances") reforming the budget system, with a timetable for gradual implementation. this law mandates that any public spending should be traced to an identifiable "mission" of government.



us senate approves rules regulating detainee treatment

the united states senate approved a proposal that imposes restrictions on the detention, interrogation, and treatment of prisoners held by the us military. the rules prohibit the use of "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" against anyone in us government custody, regardless of where they are held. the rules also require all us troops to use only interrogation techniques authorized in a new army field manual, but does not cover techniques used by the central intelligence agency. the rules follow alleged revelations of detainee abuse committed by us military and intelligence personnel in guantanamo bay and abu ghraib.

the proposal, sponsored by senator john mccain, was passed by a 90 to 9 vote, with 46 of the 55 republicans, including the majority leader bill frist joining all 43 democrats and one independent in favor. the proposal is part of a $440 billion military spending bill. 

mccain argued that american soldiers need clarity and "are not served by ambiguity". "we demanded intelligence without ever clearly telling our troops what was permitted and what was forbidden. and then, when things went wrong, we blamed them and we punished them. we have to do better than that," mccain, himself subjected to torture during five years in a vietcong prison camp, said. mccain was urged to draft clear standards of conduct by capt. fishback, of the 82nd airborne division who has served in iraq and afghanistan. in an open letter to sen. mccain, , fishback stated that "the actions and statements of my leadership led me to believe that united states policy did not require application of the geneva conventions in afghanistan or iraq" and that his efforts to get clarifications from the military leadership on what constitutes lawful and humane treatment of detainees were unsuccessful. 

more than two dozen retired senior military officers, including colin l. powell and john m. shalikashvili, two former chairmen of the joint chiefs of staff, have endorsed the amendment. the measures have also been welcomed by human rights organisations.

bush administration officials say the legislation would limit the president's authority and flexibility in war. white house spokesman, scott mcclellan called the amendment "unnecessary and duplicative" and added: "if it's presented, then there would be a recommendation of a veto, i believe". if president bush chooses to veto the bill, it would be first veto since he took office in 2001. 

the measure is also expected to face opposition in the house of representatives, which is also controlled by republicans.

the senate's proposal has been welcomed by the human rights group amnesty international, which describes it as "an important step toward protecting the rights of all human beings by providing clear guidance on humane treatment". in a statement, amnesty urged the white house to accept the mccain amendment, and repeated its call for an independent investigation into the abuses at abu ghraib.



democrat staffers obtained maryland lt. governor's credit report illegally

two democrat aides working on the democratic senatorial campaign committee (dscc), katie barge, the committee's research director, and her deputy, lauren weiner are alleged to have fraudulently used social security numbers from court records, to illegally obtain republican lt. governor michael steele's confidential credit report. 
the aides worked for the democratic senatorial campaign committee (dscc), run by democrat senator charles schumer from new york. the two apparently engaged in "opposition research" for the dscc, investigating records of lt. gov. steele's previous personal debt and other financial troubles, a month after steele formed a committee investigating a run for the senate seat of senator paul sarbanes. the pair admitted the act in july, were suspended august 31, and resigned earlier this month. the dscc fired the aides earlier this month and also reported the incident to the u.s. attorney's office which, along with the fbi, is investigating. lt. governor steele wants the aides prosecuted.

under federal law, it is illegal to willfully obtain a credit report under false pretenses, and imposes a maximum 2-year prison sentence under the fair credit reporting act. 

senator schumer, who runs the dscc, and is a longtime advocate against identity theft, denies any knowledge of the scheme, and has not offered any apology for the theft of lt. governor steele's personal data, nor given any indication of what his staffers were after or why they did it.

the national republican senatorial committee (nrsc), the counterpart to the dscc, had its attorneys send a letter to the democratic committee requesting information on which candidates' credit information had been accessed by democrat staffers. the letter, from william j. mcginley and cleta mitchel, asked for information on "how the credit report(s) were accessed, which credit report(s) were accessed, whether any other forms of private financial data were accessed and [whether staffers accessed] any other relevant information related to this serious situation."

marc e. elias, an attorney for the democratic committee has responded to the letter, stating "this was a single incident involving two staffers who demonstrated poor judgment," and "no other candidates or senators had their credit reports accessed." mr. elias also said that the committee "took appropriate action to ensure there was neither use of the credit information nor any additional access to it."

republicans have questioned the characterization of the event by democrats, that it was "isolated" and that the staffers had a "lapse in judgment."
maryland governor robert l. ehrlich jr. added that both parties were guilty of unsavory tactics, but that that is "capitol hill politics."

lt. governor steele is a catholic, who earned his bachelor's degree from johns hopkins in 1981 and his law degree from georgetown university law center in 1991. the lt. governor also spent three years preparing for the priesthood. he is the highest-ranking african-american republican elected official in the country.


fujimori intends to run for peruvian presidency

alberto fujimori, the former president of peru currently in de facto exile, showed his intention to run in the peruvian presidential election of april 2006 at a press conference in tokyo reportedly.

fujimori was stripped of the presidency by the peruvian parliament in 2000 during his visit to japan. since then, he has been able to remain in japan due to the dual nationality which he holds as a result of his parents having been japan-born immigrants, even though a peruvian court accused him and requested that the japanese government deport him. at the press conference fujimori asserted that there was no legal barrier that would prevent him from running in the presidential election. he said also that "three tenths of peruvian people support me".

candidates for the election will be accepted until january 2006. although fujimori received his new peruvian passport in september 2005, he did not clarify precisely when he would be returning to peru.


ira assets worth 30 million pounds investigated

the british assets recovery agency is investigating ￡30 million / ?44 million of assets believed to be owned by senior members of the provisional irish republican army (pira or ira), using information provided by the irish criminal assets bureau and british and irish law enforcement agencies. the money is believed to represent a small fraction of the wealth obtained by the organisation. this move follows the recent decommissioning of ira weapons. most of the assets are believed to have been owned by the ira chief of staff, thomas murphy and businessman dermot craven. now that negotiations over weapons decommissioning are over, it is believed that other ira members who have become rich through running protection rackets or other criminal activities may also be stripped of their illegal assests in the forthcoming weeks.

irish justice minister michael mcdowell said: "an garda siochana and the psni (police service of northern ireland) and the criminal assets bureau and the ara are co-operating in every possible way to ensure that on this island those who have control of the proceeds of crime are deprived of those proceeds". businesses and organisations paying money towards protection rackets are hoping that the structure of the ira will now begin to unravel.


australia's high court rules mod-chips are legal

australia's high court, in a unanimous decision today, found modchips to be legal. mod-chips are attached to the system's motherboard to allow users to bypass copy detection and regional controls on game consoles such as playstation 2 and xbox. 

while playing illegally copied games is a primary reason for some people to install modchips, modchips are still considered legal. they allow users to play games imported from different regions, play homebrew games, and create archival copies of games. imported games are often cheaper and available sooner than from countries with late official release dates, such as australia. the court recognised that by the time a mod chip acts upon a copied game, the copyright violation has already taken place -- the mod chip is not responsible for the copyright violation.

in many other countries selling and using modchips is illegal. in the uk the eu copyright directive has been used by microsoft and sony to prevent sales of modchips. the eu copyright directive makes it illegal to circumvent copy protection systems. a similar law, the digital millennium copyright act (dmca), makes it illegal in the usa.

the defendant in the case was retailer eddy stevens, who sold and installed playstation 2 modchips. sony, the manufacturer of the playstation 2, sued, arguing that modchips were in violation of australian copyright law.

the court ruled that because the modchips merely allow users to play copied or imported games, and do not enable the copying of games, modchips do not breach copyright. "there is no copyright reason why the purchaser should not be entitled to copy the cd-rom and modify the console in such a way as to enjoy his or her lawfully acquired property without inhibition," said the court. "this is a hell of a victory for the consumer. that's why we did it," said mr. stevens.

the court also ruled that reading a program into ram, while the game is being played, does not count as making a copy under copyright law.

the australian case is unique in that it is considered to be the first time dmca-like provisions have been considered by a court of final appeal anywhere in the world.


explosion at point comfort plastics plant

there has been an explosion at the formosa plastics plant in point comfort, tx. residents have been advised to shelter in place. point comfort is about 25 miles south-east of victoria, tx.

witnesses report an explosion and "lots of black smoke", some visible from as far as 40 miles away. six injuries were reported, but there were no deaths. the prevailing east to north east winds are directing smoke away from port lavaca and victoria, and city officials are not recommending evacuation of these areas.

point comfort elementary school has been evacuated, children are being moved to hjm elementary in port lavaca. schools in port lavaca, seadrift, and port o'connor have halted outdoor activities and school buses until they receive further notice. school superintendent larry nicols has said that parents will be allowed to pick up their children at any school if they desire.


threat on new york city subway system heightens security alert level

a "credible threat" has been made against the subway system of new york city. nypd and national guard presence, as well as the terror alert level, have been increased. nevertheless, the mta subways and busses, as well as metro-north and long island rail road, continued without noticeable delays.

during a press conference, mayor bloomberg stated that an unidentified news outlet knew about the threat as many as two days in advance, but did not release the story to the public for security reasons, and that the threat seems to have originated from abroad.

part of new york's pennsylvania station was closed off friday, the morning after a warning of a possible terrorist attack. the station was still operating but the area where the amtrak trains operate was closed off. it seems a soda can was seen on the concourse level with a green liquid bubbling out. workers in bio-hazard suits were seen and after a 2 hour delay the station was back to normal. amtrak operations were not impacted.

while new york was on high-alert the department of homeland security spokesperson russ knocke down-played the risk, ""the intelligence community has concluded this information to be of doubtful credibility. we shared this information early on with state and local authorities in new york""


internet backbone hosts feud, disconnecting users

internet service provider level 3 dropped its peering arrangement with cogent on october 5, demanding a hosting fee for the service of connecting their root networks. cogent argued that as equally sized companies they were sharing the bandwidth load and did not need to pay. level 3 is a tier 1 carrier, meaning that it controls part of the central ring of internet servers that connect millions of servers, users, and secondary isps around the world. other tier 1 isps include at&t, sprint, and mci. cogent is a tier 2 carrier with many clients, aspiring to become tier 1 through peering arrangements such as the kind it had made with level 3.

as a result of level 3's depeering, some customers of both companies experienced dropped connections. however, most consumer isps and college networks are "multihomed", and thus could connect through separate lines to both companies. notably, the american isp roadrunner was only connected through level 3, causing problems for home customers through most of october 5 and 6. cogent offered a year of free hosting for any level 3 customer who lost access to servers hosted through cogent.

as of october 7th the connections seem to be restored.



australian immigration department removal of citizen was unlawful

an independent investigation, headed by former victorian police commissioner neil comrie, has revealed that australian immigration department officials wrongfully deported the australian citizen vivian solon to the philippines. ms solon was deported in march 2001, after falling under suspicion as an illegal immigrant while she was in hospital after an accident. she was still in poor health when she was deported, and her five year old son was left behind in foster care. the mistake was not officially recognised until april 2005.

senior officials knew of the mistake in july 2003, but neglected to correct it. in the end, it was only through the efforts of her former husband, robert young, who persistently pursued her case that it was eventually acted on. some senior officials are being investigated on this issue, however, the ministers responsible for the department -- now amanda vanstone, but prior to october 2003 it was phillip ruddock -- denied any responsibility. when asked if he felt any responsibility mr ruddock answered "no, none at all."

this incident is one of a number of immigration controversies that have occurred in australia. cornelia rau, an australian citizen, was accidentally imprisoned in a detention centre when the immigration department suspected her of being an illegal immigrant. the report indicates that 20 other australian citizens have also been unjustly imprisoned by the immigration department.


unexploded ww2 bomb discovered at schiphol airport

an undetonated bomb, reportedly from world war ii, has been discovered at schiphol airport in amsterdam, the netherlands. one runway, the closest to the bomb, has been closed as a result, and delays are expected on all flights. heavy fog has compounded the problem and is expected to cause further delays. 

the 255kg bomb was discovered by workers from the town of vijfhuizen, which is about 5km from the airport. according to the dutch national traffic bureau, anwb, "the projectile is sensitive to vibrations, is not in a settled position, and is possibly live."

automobile traffic near the area has been stopped and several houses have been evacuated. schiphol airport is amsterdam's primary airport and one of europe's largest hubs.

bombs and mines continue to be found throughout the netherlands even though world war ii ended sixty years ago. earlier this year in april, three fishermen were killed when their ship exploded from hauling an old bomb onboard that had been caught in the net.



iaea and its director elbaradei are awarded the nobel peace prize

the international atomic energy agency (iaea), a un agency, and its director mohammed elbaradei have been awarded the nobel peace prize for 2005, the committee's chairman professor ole danbolt mjos announced today.

in the announcement, the emphasizes the role the iaea plays in preventing military use of nuclear energy arms proliferation, and ensuring peaceful use of nuclear energy. furthermore, the committee notes that iaea's work is in line with 's original motivation for the peace prize, namely the reduction of standing armies. the committee expressed its belief that the increasing threat of nuclear arms today must be met through the broadest possible international cooperation, as exemplified in the work of the iaea.

a spokeswoman for the iaea, melissa flemming, said in : "i never thought we'd see this day. this is the proudest day for the iaea. we are proud, astonished, elated."

the iaea, headquartered in vienna and established in 1957, seeks to prevent nuclear proliferation and promotes the peaceful use of nuclear energy. it is currently involved in efforts to bring dprk (north korea) back to the (npt) regime and verifying the peaceful nature of iran's nuclear program. these negotiations have been difficult, and are viewed by some as not very successful.

the 63-year old mohamed elbaradei, an egyptian-born lawyer, heads the agency since 1997 and was recently confirmed for a third term.


fall sweeps through texas

walking outside this morning, the average seasoned texan will notice something amiss ? the eerie quiet. the droning of air conditioners and insects has stopped, replaced with the scent of hardwood smoke and a slight shiver.

a pocket of finally pushed through well into the gulf of mexico, plunging temperatures across the state into the 50s and 60s. while the chilliest lows are not expected to stay for more than a few days, forecasters are expecting texas' normal fall pattern of a cooler front about every week to continue. average weekly temperatures should reach steadily lower as the season progresses.

stormy weather

as an added bonus to many, rain trickled down onto and many other texas cities. this rain has relieved areas which have been dry for months.


premium gas discounted for a few hours

customers lined up at the racetrac on beach boulevard in miami, and filled up with the cheap gas for hours. not one bothered to tell station employees. they were alerted when reporters from a local news agency received a tip and came on site to investigate. the mistake was promptly fixed.


white house denies that god told bush to invade iraq

during the october 6 press briefing, white house spokesman scott mcclellan denied comments attributed to president bush in a forthcoming bbc television series. the three-part documentary, "elusive peace: israel and the arabs", includes an interview with a former palestinian foreign minister, nabil shaath, where he recounts an incident at the egyptian resort of sharm el-sheikh in june 2003. the series starts on monday and documents the recent history of attempts to bring peace to the middle east.

mr. shaath says that president bush told a palestinian delegation: "god would tell me, george, go and fight those terrorists in afghanistan. and i did, and then god would tell me, george, go and end the tyranny in iraq... and i did. and now, again, i feel god's words coming to me, go get the palestinians their state and get the israelis their security, and get peace in the middle east. and by god i'm gonna do it."

at the briefing, a reporter asked if mcclellan was aware of the comments ascribed to president bush and mcclellan replied, "no, that's absurd. he's never made such comments." pushed further about the statements, mcclellan responded, "no, i checked into that [bbc] report and i stand by what i just said."

mr. shaath provided further context to the statement saying, "it was really a figure of speech. we felt he was saying that he had a mission, a commitment, his faith in god would inspire him ... rather than a metaphysical whisper in his ear," he said.


washington monument evacuated due to false bomb threat

police evacuated the in and sealed off surrounding streets today. this was due to a bomb threat made in the mid-afternoon.

sgt. scott fear of the park police said the threat came in at 2:42 p.m. edt by telephone. the area was evacuated shortly after and bomb-sniffing patrol dogs were called in. the search turned up nothing. another law official, speaking anonymously because other agencies were involved, said the credibility was low but police didn't want to take any chances.

the monument was re-opened at 4:15 p.m. edt.

the washington monument was closed until last spring due to a $15 million dollar security overhaul.



first trojan horse to affect handheld gaming console found

symantec, an antivirus software manufacturer, announced thursday that they had discovered a new trojan horse that affects sony playstation portable hand-held gaming consoles. the program deletes required system files, preventing the device from starting correctly. symantec has named the virus "trojan.pspbrick".

the psp, by default, can only play games approved by sony. to play other games you must use a software hack. this trojan pretends to be a program that performs this software hack. the use of any software that attempts to perform this hack, including this trojan, voids the warranty.

symantec has said they are not aware of any way a user can restore their psp after it has been infected. however there have not yet been any confirmed infections. to get infected the user must choose to download the file and copy it to their psp. "it does not affect the average user," said eric chien a software engineer at symantec.

the trojan is distributed as an archive file named "exploit 2g psp team v1.rar". the archive contains two files that must be manually copied to the psp and run for the user to be infected. once infected it deletes four files required for the psp to boot: /vsh/etc/index.dat, /kd/loadcore.prx , /kd/loadexec.prx, and flash6:/kd/init.prx. 



u.s. force-feeding guantanamo hunger strikers

reports from amnesty international and an attorney representing some detainees indicate that hunger strikes continue among those held at the united states detention facility in guantanamo bay, cuba. more than 200 prisoners are participating in the hunger strike ? of these, 21 are being force fed by military personnel.

according to human rights lawyer clive stafford smith, the prisoners have been shackled to their beds to prevent them removing the feeding tubes that have been inserted into their noses. "the notion that a qualified medical practitioner would be prepared to supervise such a procedure (as force-feeding through a tube), goes against all medical ethics, certainly in this country," said trevor turner, a director of st. bartholomew's hospital of london.

military authorities maintain that only 36 detainees are currently strikers ? they define a hunger striker as one who has refused at least nine meals. according to u.s. military personnel, a striker is only force-fed when his life is in danger. 

some detainees have been striking since august to protest the alleged inhumane conditions at the camp as well as their indefinite confinement without charge or normal legal rights, according to attorneys representing them.


red tide affects south padre island, mexico

red tide is caused by a higher than normal concentration of "karenia brevis", a naturally-occurring single-celled marine organism. natural factors can intersect to produce ideal conditions, allowing this algae to increase in number dramatically. the algae produces a that can disable nerves in both humans and fish. fish often die because of the high concentrations of the toxin in the waters. humans can be affected by breathing affected water taken into the air by wind and waves. also, south padre officials are investigating a paralyzed cat and deceased coyote who may have consumed fish killed by the red tide.

this bloom has lingered almost three weeks, and affects waters parallel to south padre island for about 25 miles, and may extend as far as 10 miles along mexico beaches.


president of peruvian truth commission reports death threats, anti-semitic hatemail

salomon lerner, president of peru's truth and reconciliation commission, which has investigated human rights abuses in the country, has received death threats and anti-semitic emails, according to human rights watch. 

the 12-member commission published its major report , covering abuses committed over the last two decades, on 28 august 2003. since then the commission has come under fierce attack from retired military personnel and politicians. 

largely as a result of the commission's findings, 378 peruvians are currently facing criminal charges, including 273 former army officers. 

lerner is said to have told the peru21 newspaper that an anonymous caller to his office in lima recently left a message telling him to "consider himself dead". lerner, whose father was jewish, says that he has also received insulting and anti-semitic emails. other members of the commission are also believed to have been sent insulting messages.

human rights watch has urged the peruvian government to ensure that lerner is protected, and "renew its pledge to carry out the commission's recommendations in full". human rights watch recently complained of the government's failure to protect a key witness due to testify against a retired general accused of torture and kidnapping .

perhaps coincidentally, fugitive ex-president alberto fujimori has announced in tokyo his intention to run for the presidency again despite the government's statement that it will arrest him to face charges of murder, corruption and human rights abuses during the 1980s and 1990s.

 


gao ruled parts of education department contracts illegal

on september 30, 2005, the government accountability office, an investigative agency of the u.s. congress, released report b-305368, department of education--contract to obtain services of armstrong williams. senators edward kennedy and frank lautenberg asked the gao back in october of 2004 to look into "an illegal use of taxpayer funds by the u.s. department of education, and request an expedited legal decision from the government accountability office (gao) on the matter."

in the 16 page report, the gao found that the contracts with ketchum inc. "violated the publicity or propaganda prohibition for fiscal year 2004 because it amounted to covert propaganda. as a result of this violation, the department also violated the antideficiency act, 31 u.s.c. sect. 1341."

the report goes on to describe the history of the contract between the united states department of education, ketchum, and armstrong williams. the report also describes the department's own defense of its position, "the department argued that it contracted only for television and radio advertisements featuring mr. williams.[35] talbert letter at 2. the department offered three points in support of its position: first, the only portions of its statements of work that have any legal significance are the lists of “deliverables.” the department argues that its task orders did not procure mr. williams’s commentary, which meant there was nothing for the department to disclose. second, the department did not pay any appropriated funds for covert propaganda. third, the department’s task orders represented the legitimate dissemination of information to the public. "id". we do not agree."

the report conlcudes, "the department of education violated the fiscal year 2004 publicity or propaganda prohibition by contracting with ketchum for the services of gwg to obtain commentary by armstrong williams on the nclb act without requiring ketchum to ensure that mr. williams disclosed to his audiences the department’s role. the commentary obtained as a result of these contracts violated the publicity or propaganda prohibition because it was “covert,” in that it did not disclose to the targeted audiences that it was sponsored by the department and was paid for using appropriated funds. e.g., b-303495, jan. 4, 2005; b-302710, may 19, 2004. at the same time, because the department had no appropriation available to contract for commentary in violation of the cited publicity or propaganda prohibitions, the department also violated the antideficiency act, 31 u.s.c. sect. 1341. b-303495, jan. 4, 2005; b-302710, may 19, 2004. it must report this violation to the congress and the president, and submit a copy of that report to the comptroller general. 31 u.s.c. sect. 1351, as amended. b-304335, mar. 8, 2005."

the gao acts as an investigative arm of congress, and reports to congress and the white house, to enable congress's effective oversight of the government. all enforcement of gao findings is left up to congress itself, as the gao has no enforcement powers.


ottawa plans tax windfall to deal with budget surplus

canada's federal government has announced a new program that plans to share unexpected budget surpluses with ordinary citizens. it should be introduced in ottawa as early as friday.

the surplus allocation act would share any surplus equally between tax cuts, new spending and debt relief. it would not replace canada's $3 billion emergency fund. under existing law any surplus is funneled completely into debt relief.

the benefit would come as an amount added on to the income tax returns of that year. it would then be added on to the amount a person can earn tax-free for each subsequent year.

along with the new home heating oil rebate program are considered to be pre-election maneuvering from the liberals. paul martin has promised an election within 30 days of the gomery commission report's release. the report is expected in february.



strong earthquake hits pakistan, north india, afghanistan

the strongest earthquake (7.6) that south asia experienced in the last century caused widespread damage across pakistan, north india, and afghanistan this morning. strongest hit was apparently kashmir. tens of thousands of people are feared dead. the epicenter was close to muzaffarabad, 138 km to the north of islamabad, and also caused severe damage from both shaking and from landslides to balakot, garhi habibullah and one village in rawalakot. 

reports on fatalities are conflicting, but even the most conservative estimates put the toll as high as 20,000. pakistani president pervez musharraf told the bbc he knew of 20,000 people that were killed but added: "i wouldn't be able to make an accurate assessment for days." he also asked for international help and specifically requested large cargo helicopters to supply remote areas. the us has come forward to assist by providing eight military helicopters. the communications minister for the pakistan-controlled kashmir, tariq mahmmod, said on sunday, that "more than 30,000" died in his region alone. aside from kashmir most of the deaths occurred in the north-west province of pakistan and other northern areas. the estimated death toll has now reached 35,000.

maj. gen. shaukat sultan, a spokesman for musharraf, said the scale of the devastation was the biggest pakistan has ever seen. as emergency workers searched for trapped people and helped the injured, an international relief and recovery effort geared up.

a u.n. disaster relief team was due in islamabad, the pakistani capital, on sunday. britain, germany, and the united states were among countries offering aid. india, pakistan's neighbour and longtime rival, also offered aid (details). a british team from the international rescue corps was assisting in the operation at marghalla towers on sunday, equipped with heat-seeking detectors, portable oxygen bags, and advanced slab and metal cutters. according to pakistan television this meant that "rescue efforts are picking up pace, and lot of time is being saved."
the tremors began at 8:50 am (03:50 gmt), and continued for two minutes, followed by several aftershocks over a period of ten minutes. initial reports said that they were felt in delhi, islamabad, lahore, quetta, kabul, punjab, jammu, kashmir, and other areas. a magnitude 6.3 aftershock occurred seven hours later just to the northwest.

the earthquake caused several apartment buildings in islamabad to collapse, trapping hundreds of people.

250 children were killed in gari habi ullaha between mansehra and muzaffarabad when their school collapsed.

the pakistani interior ministry reports that several villages were "wiped out." pakistan's army has been directed to extend all out help to the civil population in the quake-hit areas. all civil and military hospitals have been directed to deal with the situation on an emergency basis. the president and the prime minister have appealed to the nation to stay calm in the face of the calamity, and asked the authorities concerned to carry out an immediate assessment of the extent of the damage.

the pakistani prime minister shaukat aziz talked by telephone with authorities in four provinces and azad kashmir. he directed them to utilize all machinery, and make all possible efforts to help the victims. he said that the whole federal administration, civil and military authorities had been alerted and relief goods had been provided to them for the victims of the quake.
most of the roads are closed in the northern sector near the earthquake, and some have been completely washed out, so the pakistani army is flying supplies in by helicopter. telephone and electricity connections have been cut to towns such as muzaffarabad, making logistical operations much more complex. the heavy rains have also contributed to the suffering of the many thousands who are now homeless.

across the line of control in indian-administered jammu and kashmir, officials said saturday that more than 465 people, at least 34 of them soldiers, were killed in the quake.

worst hit in india was the town of uri, close to the border with pakistan, where four in five of the town's buildings were leveled, and at least 120 people lost their lives. officials in india have been criticised for the slow pace and lack of organisation in the relief effort.






cnn's list of aid agencies : http://www.cnn.com/2005/world/asiapcf/10/09/quake.aid/index.html

the network for good's list of aid agencies : http://www.networkforgood.org/topics/international/earthquake/southasia100805.aspx?source=yahoo&cmpgn=news&rtp=http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051009/ap_on_re_as/pakistan_quake




president bush may veto amendment that bans detainee mistreatment

the first veto of united states george w. bush's presidency may be used to block an amendment that bans torture and mistreatment of detainees, proposed by two republican . the sent a "statement of administration policy" to the senate declaring strong opposition to the legislation, alleging that it would tie the nation's hands in the "war on terrorism". the statement said that if the bill's final version contained the anti-torture terms, then "the president's senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill."

the amendment, an addition to the $440 billion dollar military spending bill, proposed by senators and , would establish the army field manual as the uniform standard for the interrogation of department of defense detainees and secondly prohibit cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of persons detained by the u.s. government. 

the legislation comes in the wake of the and allegations of human rights watch, which, in a recent report, accused soldiers of the u.s. army’s 82nd airborne division of "systematically torturing iraqi detainees". the report was critizised by a department of defense spokesman as using "distortions and errors in fact."

the amendment received 90 votes in support, and 9 votes against in the senate. former secretary of state colin powell, as well as 28 other retired senior military officers, also endorsed it.

general powell said in a letter to mccain: "our troops need to hear from the congress, which has an obligation to speak to such matters. i also believe the world will note that america is making a clear statement with respect to the expected future behavior of our soldiers." powell said the senate action "will help deal with the terrible public diplomacy crisis created by ."

mccain, a one-time during his military service in the , said after the vote that the white house should not be working against him on this issue: "we think it would be very helpful because it would send a message to the world that the united states of america does not engage in torture. we will not treat people inhumanely. we will adhere to treaties that we are signatories to, and the men and women who do the interrogating will have clear instructions as to how to conduct interrogations."

senate majority leader , who later voted for the bill, and white house lobbyists led the unsuccessful opposition to the amendment and senator ted stevens had argued that the amendment would prevent "our people from taking the leadership. (sic)"



british police arrest ten due to terrorism suspicions

ten suspected terrorists were arrested in three different parts of britain. in the croydon section of south london three men were arrested. in , four were arrested in a series of dawn raids at three addresses and three in derby, scotland yard said.

police and the security service, mi5 say that they made the arrest as a result of a “investigation”. forensic searches were undertaken at all the properties, but the police gave no details of the nationality of the individuals. a spokesman said the investigation was not connected to the bomb attacks in london in july. scotland yard, meanwhile, has called on the government to provide more resources and funds to tackle the terrorist threat in the capital.



five arrested in italian art smuggling

numerous smuggled artifacts were found at an austrian tour guide's home. five italians were arrested and twenty-eight others are now being investigated. the austrian, known as "mozart" in the art trafficking world, received a citation for his involvement.

police claim that some 600 artifacts, which had been illegally excavated, were found. most ranged from 8th century bce to the 5th century ce. many of the items were gold and silver, along with ceramics. one item, a cup, has been valued at several thousand euros.

the artifacts were plundered from an archaeological site near rome by "mozart" using his tour guide credentials. italian authorities expect that the plundered artifacts will finally be displayed in italian museums.


iraq on verge of civil war, head of arab league fears

amr moussa, head of the arab league, said a civil war in iraq is looming, "... civil war could erupt at any moment, although some people would say it is already there."

"there are a lot of individuals now playing games with the future of iraq, and there is no clear strategy, there is no clear leadership... we are now in a mission to bring people together," said moussa.

sunni arab leaders met saturday to discuss the possibility of a boycott of the up-coming referendum on the iraqi draft constitution. the group came just short of calling for the boycott, and instead asked followers to vote "no" on october 15th referendum. they called on their followers to oppose the referendum "by all legitimate means." 

the constitution was drafted by mainly shia leaders, the majority in iraq. the kurdish leaders also supported the new constitution. 

the sunnis make up 20% of iraq. they most likely fear a political movement that would allow the shia and kurds to control the government and lucrative petroleum industry. 

violent acts have been on the increase lately. most carried out by suicide bombers targeting iraq police and new recruits into the nations army. 

uk liberal democrat leader charles kennedy has also been expressing concerns over violence in iraq. the most worrying was "the apparent breakdown in trust" between local authorities and uk troops.

these comments come after uk troops were attacked by a mob after they tried to free two soldiers who had been arrested. uk troops later broke into a basra prison while looking for the two arrested soldiers. they were found later in houses, police had handed them over to shia militiamen. kennedy has also been pushing for the removal of troops from iraq.

other arab countries have been expressing their concern over the violence in iraq.

amr moussa told the "bbc", "the situation is bad and our work now is to bring all communities together; we want to do something constructive." 

 


nations begin to offer aid to regions afflicted by indian subcontinent earthquake

as the death toll for the recent earthquake in asia has passed 30,000, countries around the world are beginning to send aid. the sponsors of the relief are listed below, along with the amounts offered as of 8 october 2005.


british rescue workers from the located additional survivors at marghalla towers on sunday morning using specialist equipment, and are hopeful that more people will be brought out alive.




oracle buys innobase

us-based oracle corporation announced friday it had acquired innobase oy for an undisclosed sum. innobase is a finnish company that has developed several open-source database technologies. they are best known for innodb. 

innodb is an add-on storage engine for mysql used by many popular websites, including slashdot, eds/sabre, yahoo finance, google and wikimedia. it is an open source tool, distributed under the gnu general public license (gpl).

“oracle has long been a supporter of open source software such as linux and apache. innobase is an innovative small company that develops open-source database technology. oracle intends to continue developing the innodb technology and expand our commitment to open source software.” said charles rozwat, executive vice president of database and middleware technology at oracle.

innobase is the 11th company to be acquired by oracle in under a year. the most recent acquisition was of rival siebel systems on september 13 for $5.85 billion.


robotic cars successfully complete 132-mile darpa grand challenge race

five robotic vehicles successfully completed the us$2 million 2005 darpa grand challenge 212 km / 132 mile race on saturday october 8th, 2005. the winner, stanford university's entry, is a volkswagen named stanley, which completed the course in 6 hours 53 minutes, beating the 10 hour minimum requirement for the us$2 million prize. a winner was not declared until october 9, when all 23 vehicles had attempted the race.

the first race in 2004 failed to produce any winners. a modified humvee by carnegie mellon university completed less than 13 km / 8 miles to become the best robotic vehicle in the 2004 race. the unclaimed us$1 million prize in 2004 was doubled to us$2 million for 2005, as no vehicles completed the 2004 race.

the us$2 million prize goes to stanford university for their entry. the other four entrants to successfully complete the course were robotic versions of a ford escape hybrid, a humvee, a hummer h1, and an oshkosh truck. the remaining 18 entrants did not complete the race, and all but one vehicle in the 2005 race surpassed the distance of the 2004 robotic humvee. a staggered start for the race was used, in order to spread the distance between the 23 robotic vehicles.


google launches online rss reader

google, inc recently launched a new product, "google reader", which is an aggregator for web feeds. the browser-based reader lets users add rss and atom feeds and search for them too. there was already an rss reader in their downloadable google desktop as part of the sidebar and as part of their customizable homepage.



california bans sale of violent video games to minors

california governor arnold schwarzenegger signed into law a bill that bans the sale or rental of violent video games to minors. the bill requires violent video games sold in the state of california to be labeled with a decal reading "18" and makes their sale to a minor punishable by a fine of $1000 per offense.

ab 1179, written by assemblymember leland yee (d-san francisco), defines a violent video game as one that "enables the player to virtually inflict serious injury upon images of human beings or characters with substantially human characteristics in a manner which is especially heinous, cruel, or depraved in that it involves torture or serious physical abuse to the victim."

the bill also states, "exposing minors to depictions of violence in video games, including sexual and heinous violence, makes those minors more likely to experience feelings of aggression, to experience a reduction of activity in the frontal lobes of the brain, and to exhibit violent antisocial or aggressive behavior."

the bill will take effect january 1, 2006. groups opposing the bill, including free speech advocates and the video game industry, already plan to challenge its constitutionality in court.



more troops for southern thailand troubles

the thai prime minister, thaksin shinawatra, despatched an additional 1,000 troops to the south of the country to help deal with the widespread violence. this brings the total number of security forces operating in the three troubled provinces to approximately 30,000.

mr. shinawatra's recent visit to the region was followed by further shootings. in narathiwat province a 40 year old village worker was shot while helping a neighbour repair a fence. friday saw the shooting of an assistant village head in yala province, and an elderly couple were shot in pattani province whilst returning from a local market.

the insurgency and campaign for an independent muslim state in the southern provinces has resulted in an exodus from the area. estimates put the number of thai buddhists who have fled the area at 34,000. there are also some reports that muslim inhabitants of the area have been seeking refuge in malaysia.

the state of emergency imposed last month has had a mixed reception. largely favoured by buddhists in the provinces, this grants additional powers to the prime minister and follows on from martial law having been in place since january 2004. despite these security measures, over 1,000 people have died in the insurgency.



weekend violence in darfur complicates peace talks

on sunday, armed men kidnapped eighteen african union personnel (including military observers and civilian police) in the war-torn darfur region of sudan. according to au commission spokesperson adam thiam, "they were taken by a dissident group of jem." the justice and equality movement, or jem, is an islamic rebel force deeply involved in the ongoing conflict in the region. 

one day earlier two au personnel and two civilians were killed in an attack believed to be perpetrated by the sudan liberation army. a third soldier injured in the attack succumbed to his injuries on sunday. additionally, two personnel are missing and three others were injured.

according to the au, those who survived identified the attackers' vehicles and uniforms as belonging to the sla. 

both rebel groups have been in conflict with the sudanese government and its arab militia (referred to as janjaweed) since 2003, although the roots of the violence stretch back to the first and second sudanese civil wars. since the conflict began it is said that 180,000 people have been killed and 2 million have been forced to flee from their homes. the term "genocide" has been applied to the conflict although this has been hotly contested. the united nations has come under intense criticism for refusing to refer to it as a "genocide", something the united states has done. the international criminal court is investigating alleged war-crimes in the region, although the sudanese government denies the allegations.

6,000 african union troops have been dispatched to monitor a ceasefire between the opposing forces, and these latest attacks come on the heels of another round of peace talks. although both sides have expressed optimism, the au contends that progress is slow and blames divisions within the sudan liberation army for holding up progress.

the au has also accused the government of continuing attacks on villages and refugee camps. the khartoum government denies this. 



verisign acquires weblogs.com

verisign inc. announced friday it has acquired weblogs.com. mountain view, california based verisign bought berkeley based weblogs.com from scripting news inc. for $2.3 million in cash.

weblogs.com offers a ping service that uses rss to alert people to new content posted on a blog or website.

weblogs.com founder dave winer told the associated press that weblogs.com had grown to be too big for him to handle. "actually, i would have liked to sell sooner. keeping the site running was a perpetual challenge. we would scale and it would just grow exponentially." said winer. weblogs.com sends out nearly 2 million pings per day.

“verisign has the size and expertise to handle the growth” said mark mclaughlin, senior vp of naming and directory services at verisign. "the internet has experienced an explosion in both the number of bloggers and the number of daily rss feeds from bloggers over the past 12 to 24 months, but the infrastructure to support that level of internet communications has not kept pace," said mclaughlin.

verisign has said they will continue to operate weblogs.com as a free service. however they may in the future charge for additional services.

america online also recently acquired a similarly named but unrelated blog publisher, weblogs inc.


hurricane vince on track for europe

this unusual hurricane season, one of the most active in history, has produced another strange storm. category 1 hurricane vince, which was formed from a non-tropical low today, is forecast to head east towards portugal, rather than west as is usual. vince caught forecasters by surprise, since the waters in the area are around 25oc. few expected vince to even form in the cool waters, much less to become a hurricane.

forecasters at the national hurricane center do not expect vince to be a hurricane for long. it is forecast to weaken as it moves towards portugal, and to finally become extratropical. in about 48 hours, they believe vince will be absorbed by a front in portugal or spain.


chinese activist severely beaten by &quot;mob&quot;

guardian journalist benjamin joffe-walt has claimed to have witnessed democracy activist lu banglie beaten "lifeless" by a mob on saturday night. joffe-walt and lu were in a taxi attempting to enter the villiage of taishi, which the journalist described as "the hotspot of the growing rural uprisings in china". 

according to mr joffe-walt, their car was surrounded by a group of about 30 men. when the men recognised mr lu, "... they completely lost it. they pulled him out and bashed him to the ground, kicked him, pulverised him, stomped on his head over and over again. the beating was loud, like the crack of a wooden board, and he was unconscious within 30 seconds. they continued for 10 minutes. the body of this skinny little man turned to putty between the kicking legs of the rancorous men."

mr lu was later found to have survived but suffered serious injuries. mr lu has told the guardian that he was battered unconscious and later driven hundreds of miles to his home town where he is now recuperating. civil rights lawyers said they were considering a legal case against his attackers, thought to be a group of thugs hired by the local authorities to put down an anti-corruption campaign against the chief of taishi village.


schroder gives up german chancellorship ambitions, makes way for merkel

social democrat gerhard schroder has given up his ambition to be chancellor in a future government and cleared the way for the current opposition leader, christian democrat angela merkel, to become the first female chancellor in the history of germany, officials for both parties confirmed.

both schroder and merkel previously insisted that they become head of government, making chancellorship the all deciding issue whether to form a coalition. now schroder is reportedly resigning from politics, but while he may not be in the next government, his withdrawal comes at a high price for the christian democrats (cdu/csu). 

the social democrats (spd) will take eight minister posts, against six for the cdu/csu. but who will occupy these posts has yet to be determined. beside various rumors in berlin, it has only been confirmed so far that the current bavarian governor edmund stoiber will take over as minister for economy and technology. the agreement, negotiated between schroder, merkel, stoiber, and spd chair franz muntefering, has already been approved by both parties' leadership committees.

official negotiations for all the details of the future coalition are scheduled to begin next monday and are expected to last until at least november 12.

the early federal election on september 18 produced an effective stalemate as both cdu/csu and the spd got approximately the same votes, with cdu/csu having a narrow lead of 4 seats in the bundestag. neither party was able to form a coalition with their preferred partner, fdp and the greens, respectively, forcing them to enter talks to form a grand coalition.


wallace and gromit sets destroyed by fire

the sets and props of popular claymation characters wallace and gromit have been destroyed in a warehouse blaze this morning in bristol, uk.

the disaster comes only days after the us release of nick park's latest film featuring the characters, the curse of the were-rabbit, which topped the box office chart and took us$16.1 million (gb￡9.1 million) over the weekend. the film is scheduled for uk release this friday.

sets and models from the new film escaped as they had not yet been added to the aardman animation collection hosted in bristol. among the damage caused by the blaze, the character morph was lost; for many uk children the appearance of this character in tony hart's bbc art programmes was their first introduction to stop motion animation.

the warehouse, located near bristol's central railway station, dated from the victorian era and was formerly part of ismbard kingdom brunel's great western railway. 

ten fire crews attended the blaze, in which flames shot 100ft into the air, from 0600 bst into the afternoon, but were unable to prevent the collapse of the roof, interior walls and all three floors of the building.

an investigation will begin once the building has been made safe.


saudi arabia blocks access to blogger, flickr, livejournal

the government of saudi arabia blocked access to google's web blogging service blogger, yahoo!'s photo sharing website flickr, and the diary service livejournal as well as some other websites through their nationally run internet services unit (isu) last tuesday. as a result, english-speaking saudis were prevented from publishing blogs, reading journals, or viewing pictures on flickr.

the saudi arabian government uses a filtering service provided by the united states-owned company secure computing. similar blocking services have been implemented in other countries, such as the people's republic of china.

in the past, the isu had, on and off, blocked access to blogspot.com's free hosting service. however, according to activist organization reporters without borders, "blog services [applications] had not until now been affected by the isu's filters. the complete blocking of blogger.com, which is one of the biggest blog tools on the market, is extremely worrying. only china had so far used such an extreme measure to censor the internet."

on thursday, access to blogger.com was restored, but flickr and livejournal remained inaccessible. the isu did not release any public statement about the blocking or restoration of service to any specific website.


cbc service returns to normal tomorrow

members of the canadian media guild voted overwhelmingly to accept a tentative deal with canadian broadcast corporation (cbc) management after a seven week lockout. the guild reported 3,514 ballots were cast and 88.4 per cent voted in favour of ratification during their 9 october ballot. most of the 5,500 unionized workers are expected to be returning to work on tuesday.

the deal caps contract workers at 9.5 per cent of the full-time work force. the issue of the employer insisting on a larger number of non-guild members lead the union to vote in favour of a strike in early august.

on 15 august the cbc effectively shut down its english-language programming outside of fredericton, new brunswick, and its french language service outside of quebec.

the negotiated agreement includes an individual signing bonus of $1,000, as well as allowing for wage increases of 12.6% over the life of the contract (over the complete period of the contract, to 31 march 2009.)



yahoo launches new podcast search

"yahoo!" announced in its blog sunday the beginning of a public beta test of its new podcast search service. the new service makes it easier for people to find and listen to podcasts.

podcasts are short downloadable audio shows, very similar to a radio show. podcasts are most commonly downloaded to portable mp3 players such as the ipod for which they are named, but they can be listened to on a computer or burned to a cd as well.

“yahoo podcasts offers a comprehensive directory of podcast series and individual shows from across the web, complete with detailed search results, most popular and highest-rated lists, editorial picks, and a full collection of tools you can use. these community tools include ratings, reviews, and the ability to tag audio content, or view the tags that other people add,” lee ott wrote in the yahoo blog. 

"yahoo!" is the first the large web company to offer a podcast search services. podcast search is currently offered by several smaller websites including podcast.net, blinkx, and odeo. 

“this is something we’ve been working on for a while, it’s a great way for people to find, listen to, and consume podcasts as they grow more popular.” said "yahoo!" spokesperson meagan busath.




u.s. poll numbers sink on iraq

a cbs opinion poll has reported that 55% of americans disapprove of the united states' position in the war in iraq. a separate poll published by "the pew research center" found that 43% of americans supported an immediate withdrawal of us troops from iraq, an increase from 36% of americans who were polled last october.

in addition, an /associated press poll of 1,000 americans showed that 47% of those polled have a "strong disapproval" of the way george w. bush has been handling the war, compared to 21% who "strongly approve".



former sa deputy president appears in court

former deputy president of south africa, jacob zuma, has appeared in a durban court to face corruption charges. mr zuma was dismissed by the president, thabo mbeki, earlier in the year, following the conviction on fraud charges of his financial advisor, schabir shaik.



warrants issued for 28 in iraqi corruption scandal

as a result of the investigation into the misappropriation of approximately one , the iraqi government has issued warrants for the arrest of the former defense minister, hazem shaalan, and 27 other senior officials from the us-sponsored of .

it is alleged that the missing funds were embezzled during corrupt military procurement procedures that left iraqi defence forces with sub-standard equipment. contracts were over-priced and cash was moved abroad to pay for the outdated equipment; this was in effect a money laundering scheme.

many of those wanted in connection with the embezzlement are believed to have fled the country; iraqi officials are seeking assistance from interpol to track down suspects. the ex-defense minister is believed to be in jordan; the iraqi government met on monday with the intention to strip shaalan of the immunity he is afforded as a . this action failed as the parliament did not have a .


moderate earthquake hits indonesia

a moderate earthquake hit indonesia at 15:05:39 (utc). the magnitude 6.0 quake did not create a tsumani. the epicenter was in the northern sumatra region, 80 km. ssw of banda aceh.
there is no word on damage or casulties yet.


us homeland security department doubts credibility of new york subway threat

the us news agency "cnn" is reporting that the recent new york subway terrorist threat this past weekend was based on "false information." the original tip lead to the arrest of three men in iraq with suspected ties to the plot; however, under interrogation which included lie detector tests, investigators discovered they had no knowledge of any planned terror attacks on the new york subway system.

the (dhs) was skeptical of the threat since it was first announced last week. more recently, russ knocke, a spokesman for the dhs, said "the intelligence community has been able to determine that there are very serious doubts about the credibility of this specific threat."

responding to the new comments from the dhs, new york city replied, "we've got to take every threat seriously and that is what we are going to do." even before the new questions about the tip's accuracy, mayor bloomberg was already defending his decision to increase security and promised that the measures will remain in place for at least the near future. mayor bloomberg explained that, while he did not believe he made a mistake in calling for increased security, "if i'm going to make a mistake you can rest assured it is on the side of being cautious." new york city police commissioner raymond kelly agreed, adding, "we did exactly the right thing." critics of bloomberg have charged that the threat was a bid to "look strong" in support for his upcoming re-election attempt.



australian senator barnaby joyce crosses floor

barnaby joyce, a national party member of parliament crossed the floor in the australian senate october 11 over legislation proposed to permit mergers without the agreement of the competition watchdog body, the australian competition and consumer commission. he has not, however, changed his party membership.

the question over the proposed changes was put at 9.26pm when joyce crossed the floor to vote against them. the vote was tied with 32 for and 32 against and thus the question was not carried by the government (the president of the australian senate does not hold the casting vote as in the australian house of representatives).

the liberal party/national party coalition of which joyce is a member holds a narrow majority of one seat in the senate and joyce has stated that he has chosen to exercise his vote in support of the promises made to his electorate prior to the election, rather than be obedient to the directions of the party executive. this is the first time joyce, a recently elected senator, has crossed the floor in the senate, and joyce has suggested that this may not be 
the last.



african union hostages freed by darfur rebels

forces from the sudanese rebel group, the justice and equality movement (jem), have assisted in liberating 38 african union (au) personnel that were taken hostage on sunday. the kidnapped?which consisted of the original 18 hostages, and later a 20 man rescue team?were released on monday. initially, two hostages remained but were freed following a reported shootout with the kidnappers.

a splinter group of jem was blamed for the attack, but mohamed saleh, the head of the dissident faction, has denied the allegations. 

saleh was the military head of jem when it signed a ceasefire agreement in april, but later split with the group's leadership. it is said that he now commands "thousands" of troops in the darfur region, and is looking for a seat at the ongoing peace talks. he accused the au of taking sides, and stated that he will not honour the ceasefire.

while speaking with reuters, saleh said, "we want the au to leave, and we have warned them not to travel to our areas. we don't know and don't care what is happening to the au, they are part of the conflict now."

violence in the region has continued to rise. according to bbc correspondent jonah fisher, hostilities toward au peacekeepers are becoming more common. it has been noted that aid agencies are refusing to travel with african union personnel, stating that the mere presence of the peacekeepers may draw fire.

kofi annan, at a press conference in geneva, responded to the rising violence by suggesting aid to the region may be partially suspended. "both rebels and government must understand that, if these incidents continue, it will impede humanitarian assistance and delivery." 

this weekend marked the first time the african union has suffered casualties in the region. three personnel were killed in attacks believed to be perpetrated by the sudan liberation army (sla). despite the violence, the sla, jem, and the au have promised to continue the peace talks which are being held in abuja.




china successfully launches shenzhou vi manned rocket

bbc news is reporting that the people's republic of china has successfully launched its second manned space flight, "shenzhou vi".

the mission is more ambitious than the previous "shenzhou v", which made china only the third nation to launch a manned space mission. "shenzhou vi" will carry two astronauts, nie haisheng and fei junlong, compared to the previous mission which only carried a single astronaut, yang liwei. the newest astronauts will also stay in orbit longer, five days compared to the 21 hour, 14 orbit flight of "shenzhou v".

the director of the chinese space crew training program, chen shanguang, explained to the media that the country would send a woman to space within five years. "women are more patient compared with male astronauts, their psychological qualities are more stable and they face isolation better," according to chen.


thai pm sues newspaper for 500 million baht

the thai prime minister, thaksin shinawatra, has filed criminal and civil suits against manager media group plc, the publisher of a thai-language daily newspaper, phujadkarn (manager). at issue is the publishing of a sermon by the well-respected buddhist monk luangta maha bua that compared the thai prime minister to phra devadhat, the thai buddhist equivalent of the devil. 

mr sinawatra's lawyer, noppadol meewanna, filed the two lawsuits on the prime minister's behalf, citing the newspaper, manager saowalak theeranuchanyon, and editor khunthong loseriwanit as defendants. this civil suit demands 500 million baht (approx. 12 million us dollars or 10 million euros). the associated criminal case seeks to have charges of libel brought against the defendants. the complaint argues that the defendants should have edited the sermon text to remove potentially libellous sections.

deputy prime minister, wissanu krean-gam, stated that there was no active policy of persecuting the media and that mr sinawatra was acting in a personal capacity in bringing these cases.

the criminal case is due to be reviewed on november 18, when it will be decided if there are grounds for taking it to trial. if the court finds against the defendants they face a maximum penalty of up to two years in prison and up to 200,000 baht (approx. 5,000 us dollars or 4,000 euros) in fines.


bad weather makes life tougher for quake survivors

while aid starts to pour in to the worst hit areas of south asia earthquake that has killed more than 30,000 people, bad weather is hampering the relief efforts with snow falling on the peaks of the earthquake-devastated areas of pakistan.

the measure of human suffering can't just be measured in the death toll, which officially stands at 23,000, but also in the 4 million who have been made homeless, hungry, and cold with 1 million in acute need, facing certain death without outside assistance. in the indian state of jammu & kashmir, authorities say at least 1,300 people are known to have died, but officials fear the number will rise.

abc australia reports of a man in pakistan-administered kashmir, who has been cut from aid, saying "i find that we are alone now. we have nothing. we are finished."

choppers are the main lifeline of support; trucks are unable to deliver relief supplies due to looting and general mayhem on the ground. the more snow, the less able aid agencies are to make their way to those in the direst need.

jan vandemoortele, u.n. resident coordinator for pakistan, said key roads into the quake zone have been reopened, as 30 countries including australia, france, japan, jordan, china, russia, iran, syria and the us provide assistance in the form of money, doctors, tents, blankets, and disaster relief teams.

united nations officials are warning of a growing threat of measles, cholera, and diarrhea outbreaks among the millions of survivors.

there have been no reports of epidemic outbreaks so far, but the area's health infrastructure has completely collapsed, vandemoortele said.



syrian interior minister dead from apparent suicide

the syrian interior minister, ghazi kanaan, has committed suicide?according to the official syrian news agency sana. the suicide has caused much controversy, as some middle eastern analysts suggest he may have been executed as a sacrificial lamb.

kanaan had been under investigation two weeks earlier by a united nations team probing the assassination of former lebanese prime minister rafik al-hariri. the assassination of hariri took place on february 14, 2005 when explosives equivalent to around 1000 kg of tnt were detonated as his motorcade drove past the st. george hotel in the lebanese capital, beirut. syrian president bashar al-assad told cnn that he was not aware of any evidence suggesting hariri's death was not suicide. "if indeed there is a syrian national implicated in it, he would be considered a traitor and most severely punished," the president said.

"the minister of interior died in his office this afternoon after committing suicide, and the authorities are investigating the incident," the sana report stated. it is reported that the suicide was carried out by shooting himself in the mouth.

earlier in the day, kanaan went on lebanese radio station, voice of lebanon, denying that he showed the u.n. investigators cheques paid to him by the late hariri. kanaan was syria's most powerful intelligence chief in lebanon, which was ruled by syria until its military withdrawal earlier this year. he returned to damascus in 2002 as political intelligence chief and joined the cabinet in 2004. 

the un report on hariri's assassination is expected to be out at the end of october. the un investigator, detlev mehlis, questioned senior syrian officials in damascus during a visit at the end of september. the united states froze kanaan's assets in the country during july saying he had aided terrorism in lebanon.

some parties have suggested that kanaan's death was arranged to protect others involved in the assassination of hariri, thus preempting action against others as a result of the pending un report.



bali nine lawyer challenges police on legality of drug case

the lawyer for one of the members of the so called bali nine is claiming he will challenge the legality of the indictment against his client. 

adnan wirawan, the lawyer of martin stephens from wollongong, says his client has been unfairly accused as being the ring leader of an alleged conspiracy to smuggle drugs: "he's a human suitcase... he was being told what to do." 

stephens appeared in denpasar district court on wednesday. the prosecution claimed that stephens and renae lawrence, from newcastle, had their hotel and trip to bali paid for by the accused mastermind, andrew chan.

stephens' mother, michelle, was in court for her son's first appearance and says she will support him throughout his trial: "i'm here to support my son, and i love him and i believe in him. and that's all i can say."


heating bills, oil price rise predicted

local forecasters predict that most of the us will have a warmer-than-expected winter this year. however, households that heat their homes by gas can expect to pay 29.8% more in heating bills. in the case of colder-than-expected weather, an increase of 66% in household heating costs is likely. in typical weather, prices will rise about 47.6%. households that use electricity can expect a rise of about 5% from last year. noaa's 2005-2006 u.s. winter outlook calls for warmer-than-normal temperatures across much of the central and western united states, including alaska and hawaii. the midwest, the southern californian coast and the east coast have equal chances of warmer, cooler or near-normal temperatures this winter.

around one third of the us crude oil and one fifth of the natural gas outputs in mexico still remain closed due to hurricane-related damage. seven oil refineries remain offline. 

the energy information administration predicts that the price of oil will rise to around $64 per barrel (42 gallons or 158.97 litres) in 2006, with $58 being the average for this year.



ebay buys verisign payment service division

ebay and verisign announced an agreement late monday for ebay to acquire verisign’s debit and credit card processing division. this division would become a part of ebay’s paypal.

ebay will pay verisign $370 million in cash and stock for this division. starting in the coming year ebay will begin using two-factor authentication from verisign. two-factor authentication is a type of transaction protection that gives users digital certificates or one-time passwords helping to protect against identity theft.

"this acquisition allows paypal to give our customers more choice in payment services and grow our merchant services business even more quickly," said president of paypal jeff jordan.

"in working with paypal and ebay, we are going to be offering them our security technology, allowing them to offer their users stronger forms of authentication," said verisign ceo stratton sclavos.

last year verisign's gateway business processed $40 billion in transactions. it is expected to generate an additional $100-million revenue for ebay in 2006. it is also expected to increase the customer base by 100,000. the acquisition is expected to close this quarter.


singapore exam board sets mathematically impossible question

the exam board of singapore handled many complaints about the incorrectly written math question on an end-of-the-year examination.

the primary school leaving examinations (psle) are taken nationwide and determine what secondary school students enter. the students get into secondary schools based on merit. based on this system, singaporeans commonly determine how 'smart' a student is based on what school they got into.

"this is ridiculous," said a secondary student.

question 13 of the math exam required students to calculate the area of rectangle c based on the area of triangles a and b. the dimensions of the rectangle of which the triangles were in and the triangles themselves are inconsistent. based on these calculations, it is mathematically impossible to draw that diagram.

all students have been given two marks regardless of their answer. however, some parents and students in top schools remain unsatisfied.

"i do not think it is fair because those who got it correct, actually it will still be the same with the others. they don't deserve it and maybe we do," said one student. "a lot of people might have spent a lot of time on that question and not have time to check on the other questions but then everyone gets two marks. 89 is an a and 91 is an a*, so there is quite a lot of difference." 

another student in the gifted education programme insisted, "well, if you get the second answer (not 25) the first time you attempt the question, you will naturally try using another method to find the answer. say you get 25 on the second time, which is the correct answer, and 25 is the only answer you get that is inside the options, you will put your answer as 25. therefore, i think that the seab should not award 2 free marks to everybody. it's unfair! plus, the question was so easy."

other students were happy with the compensation. "i'm very very happy that they are giving us two marks." 

the exam board stated that it had carried out at least 5 rounds of checks by experienced examiners. it also assured parents and students all exams would be thoroughly checked to be error-free in the future.


microsoft and yahoo team up to make im clients compatible

internet rivals microsoft and yahoo have agreed to make their programs, and , work together. instant messaging, or im as it commonly known, is becoming an increasingly popular communication service, mainly because of the speed of communication which almost equals regular conversation.

this move, announced on wednesday, would mainly focus on earlier forms of instant messaging, like sending text messages to other people via the internet. this arrangement is expected to start around june 2006.

the agreement will allow the companies to compete against the popular service (aol), and , google's relatively new instant messaging service that was opened to the public in beta form in september. the companies said that this relationship is the fruit of many years of negotiation.

until now, aol has been able to move and develop the im market at its own pace, due to its widespread use within the united states. with this arrangement in place, this freedom might end. the number of users of the yahoo! and microsoft services combined will rival the number of aol's customers.

microsoft had previously held talks with aol over possible partnerships in the instant messaging field. however, the status of these negotiations is unknown.


constitution changes do not convince most sunni parties

a last minute constitutional deal has been struck that brings one sunni party into the political mainstream and approval from the us government. the iraqi islamic party, has decided on tuesday to support the new constitution. according to a party source, "some of our demands have been met so the party endorsed the constitution and urged the people to vote, 'yes'." iraq's parliament has moved immediately to ratify the changes just days before the nationwide constitutional referendum on october 15th.

the bush administration has welcomed the news as a breakthrough; state department spokesman adam ereli has said the agreement, "shows, frankly, that the political process in iraq is working."

most sunni political groups have maintained their opposition to the constitution and are urging either a boycott or a "no" vote on saturday, arguing that the charter could break up the state and hand too much power to shi'ites and kurds. 


apple introduces new ipod with video playback capabilities

on wednesday, apple introduced an capable of displaying video, as well as a new video section to the music store. apple ceo steve jobs believes that this may have a large impact on the film industry, in a similar fashion to that of the impact on the music industry when the ipod first was released.

the new ipod comes in a 30gb edition and a 60gb edition for us$299 and us$399, respectively. on the 30gb ipod, 75 hours of video at a resolution of 320x240 can be stored, and on the 60gb ipod, 150 hours can be stored. despite these features, people claim that the screen may be too small for people to enjoy. however, ipod owners will be able to purchase an optional s-video cable for playing video from their ipod on a television.

to help complement the new video section, apple and have agreed to a deal in which episodes of television programs such as ' and ' will be available the day after airing for $1.99 per episode. other plans for the video section involve the animation company , which was founded by current apple ceo steve jobs. there are also plans to distribute content from , pixar's distributor and owner of abc. in addition, music videos will also be available at the on-line music store for $1.99 each.
the video ipod was announced along with a new model of its , which features a remote control that allows the imac to act as a home media center as well as a normal personal computer. to control media center capabilities, the new imac is sold with a program called "front row". some customers have complained however that this imac is missing functionality out-of-the-box that allows a user to watch tv on it.

the new imac also has an apple digital camera built-in as well as a thinner design than its predecessor.




gunmen, police clash in south russian republic of kabardino-balkaria

clashes between gunmen and police have broken out in the capital of the southern russian republic of kabardino-balkaria where chechen rebels claimed responsibility for the insurgency. 

the fighting in nalchik started after a coordinated set of attacks were carried out against city security forces and police stations. the airport and government buildings were also targeted. the strike is believed to have come from anywhere between 60 to 500 insurgents. the insurgents used heavy arms fire, coupled with explosions at the outset, that lasted five hours. a police station has been captured and hostages taken.

according to reports from russian press sources, 61 of the gunmen have been killed and 17 have been captured, and there may be dozens of civilian casualties. seven policemen were also killed. several government buildings throughout the city are on fire and some schools have been involved and evacuated accordingly.

russian president vladimir putin has ordered the army to seal off the city and shoot any insurgent who tries to escape. officials in the city are saying the situation is slowly returning to normal.


us extradition request blocked by dutch court

citing concerns over the suspect's rights, a court in the hague has blocked the extradition of a man with dual dutch-egyptian nationality. 

the lawsuit was started after the dutch minister of justice, piet hein donner, agreed to the extradition. the suspect has apparently been in custody for the past eight months pending his extradition. the court ruled that, following changes in us law after the september 11 attacks of 2001, he could not be guaranteed unrestricted access to a lawyer, and there was the possibility that due to alleged al-qaeda links he could be detained indefinitely without trial.

a note provided by united states diplomats was not viewed by the district court as adequate assurance of the suspect's right to due process; the embassy had protested the requirement of assurances and qualified their statement to the court in specifying that a suspect would receive the rights laid out in the u.s. constitution when "at their trial".

the man, who was only identified by his initials, ma, is accused of fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud with the aim of aiding the al-qaeda terrorist network.



trial of saddam hussein to be televised

as the start date of the former iraqi leader's trial approaches, the chief judge of the tribunal has stated that the fate of saddam hussein will be broadcast on live television. in a statement to cnn, iraqi national security advisor muwaffaq rubaie said that "...this is going to be a fair, just trial with a defense counsel in there, with a proper prosecuting council as well there..."

the first charge, filed earlier this month, alleges hussein's responsibility in the 1982 killing of 143 residents of dujail, in which he was the target of a botched assassination attempt. the details of other charges are unclear.

the tribunal, which was set up in december 2003, has been marred by delays. there are accusations of bias from the defense council of hussein, as well as fears for the judges' safety which have consistently pushed the trial back. the defense team has challenged the tribunal's legitimacy and stated they have not been given enough time to prepare.

this concern has been echoed in the past by some human rights groups, "it's really critical that it's done right," says michael posner, executive director of the lawyers committee for human rights. "for those who believe in international justice and accountability for human rights crimes, the trial of saddam hussein is a rare opportunity to test the system and make it work."

many iraqis, particularly shia and kurdish, want to see hussein tried for chemical gas attacks on the kurds in the 1980s. in 1988, one of these chemical attacks killed as many as 5,000 people. as well, many iraqis want hussein punished for reprisals against a shia uprising in 1991.

the crimes that the special tribunal will focus on include:


hussein's strategy for defense was outlined by defense team member abdul haq al-ani, as reported by dan senor, as consisting of four "pillars":


the trial is set to begin on wednesday, october 19th.



google hires lead developer for open source instant messenger, gaim

google recently hired sean egan, the lead developer of gaim, an open source instant messenger, in an apparent bid to improve their google talk messenger's interoperability. the news follows a recent announcement by microsoft and yahoo that the two companies plan to allow their instant messengers to interoperate. google talk is based on jabber technology, which is an open standard which any instant messenger can be programmed to interoperate with. the gaim instant messaging client, as of the most recent version (1.5.0), can communicate on aim and icq (oscar protocol), msn messenger, yahoo!, irc, jabber, gadu-gadu, silc, groupwise messenger, and zephyr networks. gaim is cross-platform, with versions available for linux, bsd, macos x, and windows.



ubuntu releases third version of popular linux distribution

the ubuntu foundation released its third version of the popular gnu/linux operating system distribution yesterday. codenamed "breezy badger", the release improves on its predecessor, hoary hedgehog, with updated versions of packages such as openoffice.org, new computer management tools, special installation modes for computer manufacturers, and a "thin client" mode for large networks of homogenous computers. the new version also improves support for laptop computers, portable media players, bluetooth devices, powerpc processors, and other hardware.

because the software in the gnu/linux operating system comes with permission for everyone to modify and redistribute it, there are many versions (called "distributions") of the operating system available. ubuntu builds on the popular debian gnu/linux distribution. like debian, it is made almost entirely of free software.

users quickly swarmed the ubuntu foundation's servers trying to download the new version. the servers are currently responding slowly; moderators at the ubuntu forums suggested that users download with bittorrent if at all possible, which is much less prone to such slowdowns.

although its first release was only a year ago, ubuntu linux has quickly become one of the most popular linux distributions. it is intended to be user-friendly without being insecure by design, a charge sometimes leveled against other beginner-friendly distributions like linspire. the distribution is offered for free, and cds are available for order via the internet without charge (including shipping).



neolithic noodles found in qinghai, china

chinese archaeologists at the lajia ruins in the qinghai province of china have discovered well-preserved millet noodles dating back to the neolithic age. the 4,000-year-old noodles were found underneath an upturned bowl that had been buried in three meters of sediment, consisting of brownish-yellow clay. the sediment is thought to have been caused by a devastating flood of the upper mekong.

this discovery significantly reframes the debate over which people first made noodles, establishing chinese culture?at least for now?as the most likely candidate for having originally developed the idea of making noodles. previously, italian, chinese, and arab cultures have all been claimed as the originator of noodles. prior to this discovery, the oldest record of noodles existing in china were from 1900-year-old recipes.

the lajia ruins are of a central qijia settlement, which has been the site of other significant discoveries, such as the largest stone chime ever found in china, and the largest and most intact prehistoric oven found in northwestern china. the site has also been significant to researchers studying the impact of natural disasters on ancient civilizations?it was the site of a cataclysmic flood, and at least one major earthquake.


bush has a rehearsed tele-conference with us troops in iraq

the live presidential video teleconference held thursday by george bush with u.s. troops stationed in iraq drew fire from critics and even some pentagon military leaders. pentagon officials defended the teleconference, saying that the soldiers stated their own opinions.

an on-camera shot before the teleconference went live showed allison barber, the deputy assistant defense secretary, coaching 10 soldiers on broad topics to which the president would want questions directed; then rehearsed their actions on camera and reminded them of what questions were assigned to each soldier. 

"ok, so let's just walk through this," barber said. "captain kennedy, you answer the first question and you hand the mike to whom?"

"captain smith," kennedy said.

"captain. smith? you take the mike and you hand it to whom?" she asked.

"captain kennedy," the soldier replied.

later on in the discussion:

"if the question comes up about partnering ? how often do we train with the iraqi military ? who does he go to?" barber asked.

"that's going to go to captain pratt," one of the soldiers said.

during the live conference, when asked about iraq's preparations for their constitutional referendum, gregg murphy of said: "sir, we are prepared to do whatever it takes to make this thing a success. ... back in january, when we were preparing for that election, we had to lead the way. we set up the coordination, we made the plan. we're really happy to see, during the preparation for this one, sir, they're doing everything."

when asked about iraq's training of security forces, corine lombardo from , n.y., a officer at the 42nd infantry division hq, said to bush: "i can tell you over the past 10 months, we've seen a tremendous increase in the capabilities and the confidences of our iraqi security force partners. ... over the next month, we anticipate seeing at least one-third of those iraqi forces conducting independent operations." 

the event was coordinated with the department of defense, according to white house press secretary scott mcclellan. "i think all they were doing was talking to the troops and letting them know what to expect," he said. he also said that the troops were expressing their own thoughts. with satellite feeds, coordination often is needed to overcome technological challenges, such as delays, he said.

later, pentagon officials denied that the conference was staged. pentagon spokesman lawrence di rita said "on behalf of these fine young men and women, we certainly regret any perception that they were told what to say. it is not the case," adding that "the soldiers were advised as to the issues they should expect to discuss, and decided among themselves who would speak to each issue as it may arise."

the director of , a -based advocacy group for u.s. veterans of iraq and afghanistan, described the event as a "carefully scripted publicity stunt".

"if he wants the real opinions of the troops, he can't do it in a nationally televised teleconference," paul rieckhoff said. "he needs to be talking to the boots on the ground and that's not a bunch of captains."

sgt ron long, one of the troops interviewed, denied that it was scripted on his blog, writing "first of all, we were told that we would be speaking with the president of the united states, our commander-in-chief, president bush, so i believe that it would have been totally irresponsible for us not to prepare some ideas, facts or comments that we wanted to share with the president.

"we were given an idea as to what topics he may discuss with us, but it's the president of the united states; he will choose which way his conversation with us may go.

"we practiced passing the microphone around to one another, so we wouldn't choke someone on live tv. we had an idea as to who we thought should answer what types of questions, unless president bush called on one of us specifically."


snakehead fish appear in large numbers near potomac river

a predatory non-native fish species known as the northern snakehead, discovered 3 years ago in waters east of the chesapeake bay, were caught in quantities numbering into the 80’s on a small feeder creek of the potomac river earlier this week. the numbers were enough to convince some biologists that the species is here to stay, and to echo concerns over what the voracious fish will do to the natural balance of the water’s ecosystem. 

the fish were first reported by a week-end fisherman on the rain swollen dogue creek. an investigation by the maryland department of natural resources on monday led to driving the fish up the normally small creek to where they were captured by large dip nets. from their appearance in televised coverage, they ranged in length from 6 to 8 inches.

previous to this recent snakehead finding, those caught along potomac river were not genetically descendent from the species that caused a media stir in 2002, when the fish was first discovered and gained notoriety. that discovery led to the draining of an entire pond in an effort to eradicate its habitat near crofton, maryland. the slight genetic differences between the crofton fish and those of the potomac lends hope to the belief the potomac fish were just another instance of their being released into the wild, and not an indication of a rapid spawning and population growth of their species. 

little is known about the toothy fish other than it is considered a top-level predator from its native region of china, and that catches of it have been reported in lengths exceeding 20 inches on the potomac (.pdf map) below washington d.c. . whether the fish has any natural predators within its new environs is unknown. while it is believed to be a fresh water fish, it may find the brackish water of the chesapeake bay tolerable, as do many other fresh water fish of the region.
sportsman are advised to kill the fish, and not simply “bank” it, because the species, capable of living out of water for several days and crawling using its fins to propel it, is dubbed the ‘frankenfish’ after dr. frankenstein's monster for this survival trait. notify the department of natural resources of any encounter with it.




australian senate inquiry to new anti-terrorism laws to take place in one day

an australian senate inquiry into new federal anti-terrorism laws is to take place in effectively one day, it was revealed in the senate october 13. 

senator robert hill today moved that the laws, after introduction in the australian house of representatives, be referred to the legal and constitutional legislation committee, with the report date set november 8 -- the senate resumes sitting on november 7, after senate estimates have been taken place, leaving either next friday or the weekend for the inquiry to take place.

amendments to make the date for report later were proposed: the first date of sitting in 2006 was proposed by senator andrew bartlett, and november 28 this year was proposed by natasha stott-despoja. a division on those amendments was called for, but the vote must take place on the next day of sitting -- november 7, due to an earlier order regarding divisions on thursday at 4.30pm. the inquiry thus cannot commence until after this date.

senators tempers were raised and vociferously decried the little time alloted for debate on the legislation. senator john faulkner called the situation "sheer bastardry of the government", and said "it is one of the most contemptible and despicable things i have ever seen in the time that i have been a senator in this chamber. how low can you go?". senator bob brown has stated that in order to elucidate further government actions, "between now and christmas, when senator hill asks for leave, he will not get it. he will not get it." and later called the government "a disgrace [...] to australia" and "a disgrace [...] to this nation."

senator julian mcgauran said to senator stott-despoja "you would be against [the laws] anyway." senator stott-despoja replied "don't bait me, senator mcgauran, today because i am not in the mood for it." senator mcgauran earlier this week drew the anger of senator stott-despoja, who lost a friend in the september 11 attacks, by asking her "have you once in this chamber acknowledged the war on terror?". 

the government has defended its decision, with senator hill stating "unless it is agreed, it is not going to go through. we cannot have divisions, and at least we have tried. ... time is of the essence in this matter." and later expressed "regret that this motion has been moved with very little consultation." senator eric abetz has remarked that "on 7 november the senate would be voting on whether or not an inquiry would be held to report the very next day. of course, that would make a mockery of the system," and that the opposition failing to drop the amendments "clearly indicates that the labor party ... are going to try to play the technical game and say, 'the government will only give us one day to deal with the issue.'"



astros defeat cardinals in second game of nlc

baseball 

the houston astros defeated st. louis cardinals in the second match of their 2005 national league championship with a score of 4 runs to 1.
the standing in the 7-game series after two games between them is 1-1, while in the american league championship, the chicago white sox won against the los angeles angels of anaheim to make the current series standing also 1-1.


south african government issues first seizure order on farm

the government of south africa has issued its first expropriation order on a farm in the north west province.

hannes visser's family bought leeuw-spruit farm in lichtenburg, in 1968. until 1939, the farm had been owned by abram molamu. mr molamu's descendants successfully appealed to the land claims court for return of the farm.

mr visser and the land claims commission were unable to come to a mutually acceptable resolution.


study finds marijuana use leads to brain development in rats

in the november issue of the journal of clinical investigation,
researchers announce that they have found that cannabinoids promoted a generation of new neurons in rats' hippocampi. the study held true for both a plant-derived and a synthetic cannabinoid. the hippocampus is a part of the brain that contributes to learning and memory. in particular, it has been shown that the hippocampus is essential for the formation of new episodic memories.

"this is quite a surprise, chronic use of marijuana may actually improve learning memory when the new neurons in the hippocampus can mature in two or three months," said xia zhang, with the neuropsychiatry research unit of the university of saskatchewan.

"our results were obtained from rats, and there's a big difference between rats and humans," added zhang, "so, i really don't know yet if our findings apply to humans. but our results indicate that the clinical use of marijuana could make people feel better by helping control anxiety and depression."

zhang and his co-workers performed behavioral tests on two purified cannabinoids. the test results indicated that these two cannabinoids have anti-anxiety and antidepression-like effects in rats that may depend on the ability of cannabinoids to promote the production of new neurons in the hippocampus. marijuana contains a complex mixture of chemicals including cannabinoids and may have somewhat different behavioral effects than the purified cannabinoids tested so far.
previous studies examining the effects of cannabis have highlighted negative aspects of the drug's use, such as short term memory difficulties, increased heart rate, nausea, and (in a very small percentage of people) hallucinations. long term studies about cannabis use tend to be controversial as the data is seen to be biased or flawed. the most agreed upon effect of long term cannabis use is lung damage. however, proponents argue that the correlation between cannabis consumption and lung cancer is misleading suggesting that cannabis use may correlate with tobacco use or that the data is not being properly analyzed.






anti-terror raid in the hague

gunshots were heard in the hague on friday morning during anti-terror raids by security officials, dutch media reported. this was later explained by dutch minister of justice donner as being explosives used against an enforced door to gain entrance to one of the locations identified as being used by the suspects.

the dutch news agency "anp" reported that at least one of seven arrests by security officials on friday was made in the hague, the seat of the dutch government, and at least one of the other arrests was made in amsterdam. other locations where searches were being preformed include almere. one of the arrested people is samir a., who was previously arrested for being involved with terrorism.

while the raids where done the "binnenhof", the part of the hauge with the primary buildings of the dutch government, were sealed from outside because of security concerns.

in the afternoon a press conference explained the reason for the raids: the suspects were trying to gain access to explosives and weapons to target the aivd (dutch intelligence agency) building and certain dutch politicians.


tornado jet crashes in scotland

a british royal air force tornado war plane has crashed into the ocean off the east coast of scotland. the two crew are reported to have been injured during the crash. the plane got into difficulty after taking off nine miles south east from the planes base, raf leuchars.

the injured crew are being flown by helicopter to ninewells hospital in dundee. at present their condition is unknown.


daniel craig to be new james bond

british actor daniel craig has been confirmed as the man to follow pierce brosnan as the sixth james bond.

producer barbara broccoli and director martin campbell called craig 'a superb actor who has all the qualities needed to bring a contemporary edge to the role'.

"it is a huge iconic figure in movie history, and those things don't come along very often," craig said. the role makes craig the second englishman to act as the british spy code-named 007, based on the famed literary character created by novelist ian fleming in 1953.

craig's film credits include "road to perdition", "enduring love", "layer cake" and "sylvia". on british television, his major breakthrough was a starring role in the 1996 bbc drama "our friends in the north".

the next bond film "casino royale" is due to film in italy, the bahamas, the czech republic and pinewood studios. the film is due for release in 2006.


girl's flu case found to be drug-resistant

a vietnamese girl's case of bird flu was found to be oseltamivir-resistant, where oseltamivir is the active ingredient of the anti-viral drug being marketed as tamiflu.

the girl had been taking care of her brother who had caught the disease, and may have contracted it from him rather than from infected birds. she was on a low dosage of tamiflu, and recovered when given higher doses. she had contracted a mutated form of h5n1 bird flu. 

tests on lab animals were also found sensitive to zanamivir, marketed as relenza.

yoshihiro kawaoka of the university of wisconsin-madison and the university of tokyo said the girl's case was "only one case, and whether that condition was something unique we don't know."

in related news, romanian authorities have announced the bird flu virus detected in the danube delta in eastern europe is the same lethal h5n1 strain which struck in asia.


virginia crime commission endorses tougher dog law legislation

the commonwealth of virginia pressed ahead with new dog law proposals designed to stiffen penalties against owners whose animals attack and injure people. on wednesday, the state crime commission unanimously endorsed a dog law measure that would increase the criminal penalty from a class one misdemeanor to a felony offense of unlawful bodily injury, a crime punishable by up to five years in prison.

the commission also proposed that police, in addition to animal control officers, be given authority to classify a dog as "dangerous". with a dog carrying that classification, tougher censorship against owners who let their dogs roam would be possible, and a felony charge against its owner would be more warranted in the event the dog should cause injury.
edward houck, a senator in the virginia general assembly, said he plans to bring the proposals for a vote during next year’s legislative session. houck is a spotsylvania county representative where a dog owner, deanna large, pleaded "not guilty" to the felony charge of involuntary manslaughter in the mauling death of an elderly woman attacked by her 3 pit bulls.
the crime commission did not propose legislation in the instance of injury leading to death; the issue of that criminality will be left to the court. the crime commission chairman, ken stolle, said he would wait to see the outcome of the circuit court trial.
at present, there is no law in virginia to specify a particular offense by an owner whose dog(s) injure or kill a person. lawmakers want to see if the judge, william ledbetter jr., finds that an involuntary manslaughter charge in the case of large is appropriate. the trial is set to go forward on december 20 where she faces 10 years.




uk's highest court to rule on use of information extracted under torture

britain's highest court, the house of lords judicial committee, meets on monday to consider the legality of the use of evidence extracted under torture by third countries. 

the uk's prevention of terrorism act 2005 allows the government to detain foreign nationals indefinitely if there is sufficient evidence to suspect them of terrorist involvement. the case now under examination centres around ten british-based foreign nationals, who have been detained under the act's provisions.

the evidence against the detainees has not been publicised. but their lawyers claim there are grounds for believing that it may have been extracted under torture by a foreign government.
in november 2004, the un committee against torture, which monitors implementation of the convention against torture, criticised britain's refusal to rule out the use of information extracted under torture.

britain is a state party to the convention against torture, which states that the use of evidence obtained through torture can never be admitted in any court. but the convention has not been formally adopted into british domestic law. 

human rights watch today released a statement arguing that the stipulation against the use of information extracted under torture is nonetheless "binding on all states" under customary international law. 

amnesty international, human rights watch and a number of human rights organisations have raised wider concerns about the case, arguing that the use of information extracted under torture amounts to condoning the use of torture. 

british domestic law outlaws the use of torture. the british government officially condemns the use of torture in any circumstances. but it argues that the use by britain of information extracted through torture by a third party may sometimes be required in order to protect the british public from acts of terrorism. the british government maintains that the use of such information does not, in and of itself, condone or encourage torture. 


persistent rain storm in northeast usa comes to an end

on saturday, the storm that blanketed the northeast portion of the united states came to an end after eight days of consecutive rain. many areas were flooded, while some areas had very little damage. states affected by the storm were new jersey, new hampshire, massachusetts, parts of new york, and connecticut. 

at least 10 people across the northeast were reported dead as a result of the storm. four more are missing.

some areas of new jersey had more than a foot of rainfall. acting governor richard j. codey declared a state of emergency on friday as a first step toward applying for federal aid. the emergency was lifted on saturday at 8:00 pm local time.

 


australian minister 'leaks' draft of anti-terror bill

jon stanhope, the australian capital territory chief minister, has posted a confidential draft of the proposed australian anti-terror bill to his website. mr stanhope says he hopes posting draft counter-terrorism laws on his website will open community debate about the issue and has stated that he will not comply with instructions from the commonwealth to remove the document. the australian labor party is backing his actions.

the main impetus for the action appears to be the short amount of time the senate committee will have to debate the bill; just one day. in particular the greens senator bob brown has accused the government of engineering the circumstances that only allow a one-day inquiry. 

"it was an extraordinary premeditated attack on the senate committee system and effectively made the committee system a farce," said senator brown. others, including the australian law council, have expressed concerns about the scope of the proposed bill.

prime minister john howard has defended the process, saying "it's important for the security of australia, it was unanimously agreed to by me with the eight labor premiers and chief ministers, and we can't have any undue delay that the legislation will be exposed for public scrutiny and it will reflect that agreement."

human rights watch and the international federation of journalists have also criticised the proposed laws, saying that they will impede press freedom, "severely threaten australians’ civil liberties and violate international law".

the concern with the bill has centered on a number of areas:


see wikipedia articles about historical parallels:


iraq to hold constitution vote today

iraqis will vote on a referendum for the nation's proposed constitution today. it will be the second vote in the nation since the united states occupation. local police and troops, as well as foreign troops will be on patrol to prevent violent insurgency. schools, government offices, and the baghdad airport are closed. borders are shut to non-essential traffic. votes are being recorded at 6000 polling stations throughout the country, even in the volotile anbar province.

interestingly, unlike the january 19, 2005 elections, in this referendum there have not been reports of provisions made for iraqis living overseas to vote. at least one sunni opponent of the constitution theorizes that overseas iraqis are more secular and well-educated and would therefore be more likely to reject the constitution.

most prominent politicians are endorsing the constitution; but some are not. president jalal talabani has appealed for a yes vote, and called on sunni insurgents to not disrupt the voting process. dick cheney, the united states vice president calls it "vital to get a constitution in place." grand ayatollah ali al-sistani, the shi'ite spiritual leader, as well as kurdish leaders are also encouraging a yes vote. the shi'ites and kurds make up about eighty percent of iraq's population, so it is widely believed that the constitution will be ratified.

election officials in iraq say as many as 65 percent of eligible voters have turned out to vote so far. a simple majority is needed to approve the constitution. election results are not expected for another five days.

 


explosion outside trinidad nightclub wounds more than 10

"this is the worst type of attack on our city and against our citizens," said minister of national security martin joseph during a press conference. joseph also announced that five suspects were detained and being questioned by police. "what is different on this occasion is that there have been arrests."

the united states department of state and the canadian government have issued travel warnings in response to the recent violence in the area.


crown princess mary of denmark gives birth to male child

her royal highness crown princess mary of denmark has given birth to a healthy baby boy at a copenhagen hospital at approximately 1:57 am local time this morning, ending many months of waiting for the royal family, the danish public and much of the world. the baby weighed in at 3.5 kilograms and 51 centimeters long.

the royal pregnancy was made public on 25 april 2005, and in that period, many danes speculated the gender of the child. the crown princess had experienced contractions in mid-september. the royal couple has not announced his name, but it is likely to be christian in line with danish tradition. since christian ii, who died in 1559, danish kings have alternately carried the name christian or frederik.

the child will become heir apparent styled as hrh the crown prince when his parents ascend to the danish throne as king frederik x and queen mary.


joachim to attempt breaking record for static cycling

on 18 october 2005 at 11 am, multi-guinness world record holder suresh joachim will attempt to break the world record for the longest time in a static cycling marathon. he will attempt to pedal on the same bicycle for 100-hours at the metrocentre in the uk, with only 15 minutes breaks every four hours.

the current record is held jointly by niels rietveld and edwin snijders, both of the netherlands, who set the record at sports studio buiten in almere, netherlands. the duo cycled simultaneously for 77 hours and 15 minutes, from 30 april to 3 may 2004.

if successful in his 100-hour marathon, he will beat the previous record by 22-hours and 45-minutes. the riding will hopefully cease 22 october at 3 pm.

suresh recently beat records for longest time ironing while standing up in brampton, ontario, and longest time watching television, shown on live with regis and kelly in new york city. he has over thirty other records to his name. joachim lives in mississauga, ontario.

joachim's record attempts are used as fundraisers for the universal fund for suffering children.


 


grenade set off outside tajik ministry

a woman set off a hand grenade outside the tajikistan ministry of emergencies, killing herself.

the incident, which happened on october 9, has not been claimed by any groups. it is unknown whether the attack, and two similar happenings earlier this year, were by a terrorist group. some western diplomats suggest the first two bombs were linked to business disputes or political vendettas.

the woman died in an ambulance, en route to the hospital. the grenade was hidden in her handbag.


iraq counting ballots

iraq's election commission announced monday that officials were investigating "unusually high" numbers of "yes" votes in about a dozen provinces during iraq's landmark referendum on a new constitution, raising questions about irregularities in the balloting. the electoral commission made no mention of fraud, and an official with knowledge of the election process cautioned that it was too early to say whether the unusual numbers were incorrect or if they would have an effect on the outcome.

the bush administration has touted last weekend's referendum in iraq as progress but analysts said on monday the new constitution was too ambiguous and that violence still overshadowed iraq's political future. partial results from saturday's referendum indicated a victory for the constitution the united states hopes will help stabilize iraq and ultimately lead to 156,000 u.s. troops coming home.

the historic iraqi vote on the proposed draft constitution ended on saturday, and ballots are now being tallied. initial reports show the draft constitution will be supported. security during voting day was tightened, although the u.s. military has announced that five american soldiers and a marine were killed by a bomb blast on the day of the referendum, bringing the u.s. death toll in iraq to 1,971.

early returns showed the vote was split as was expected along largely communal lines. opponents failed to secure the necessary two-thirds "no" vote in any three of iraqi's 18 provinces, according to counts that local officials provided to the associated press. in the crucial central provinces with mixed ethnic and religious populations, enough shiites and kurds voted to block the sunni attempt to reject the constitution. local election officials gave a picture of a strong "yes" vote in the shiite muslim provinces of the south, and of a substantial "no" vote in the sunni arab heartlands of the north and west.

rejection of the draft constitution appears to be impossible according to initial vote counts reported in the three key provinces that sunni arab opponents relied on to defeat the draft constitution. opponents need a two-thirds "no" vote in three of those provinces. they may have reached the threshold in anbar and salahuddin, but diyala and ninevah provinces appeared to have gone strongly "yes".

according to the arab news, it is probable that the iraqis have agreed to the new constitution. it is believed that its passing is almost certain because the majority, both shiite and kurds, supported it. the sunnis, on the other hand, have looked at the constitution as a "death sentence." they fear that the document, drafted as it was by a kurdish-shiite-dominated parliament, will ultimately divide iraq into three separate districts: a powerful ministate of kurds in the north, the majority shiites in the south, both capitalizing on iraq’s oil wealth, and the sunnis, according to this scenario, would be left impoverished and isolated somewhere in the middle. 

president bush referred to the vote as a victory for opponents of terrorism. u.s. secretary of state condoleezza rice, speaking in london as the vote-count in iraq was in progress, said the draft constitution had probably passed. rice said later the final result was still not known. an unofficial tally is expected on thursday and a final announcement on oct. 24, senior electoral official farid ayyar stated on sunday. it is expected that the official count will take several days.

electoral officials estimated that as many as 10 million of iraq's eligible 15.5 million voters cast ballots, which would yield a turnout of around 63 to 64 percent. in the january election which approved their interim government, 58 percent of voters turned out. 

president bush said in his weekly radio address saturday that the weekend election is a critical step forward in the quest for democracy in iraq. for the draft constitution to be approved after the months of negotiations by lawmakers in iraq's transitional national assembly, a majority of voters must support it. with what is believed to be strong support in shiite and kurdish communities, who together account for more than three-quarters of the population, the 50% threshold is expected to be met. 

a rejection of the draft constitution would be viewed by coalition members as serious blow to the political evolution in iraq that followed the u.s. led invasion that toppled saddam hussein in 2003. the transitional assembly would be dissolved, and the process of writing a new constitution would have to start all over after a new assembly could be elected in december. regardless of the outcome, iraq will hold parliamentary elections on december 15, the office of the president said on sunday.

a new, permanent government, could possibly clear the way for the united states and its coalition allies to begin a withdrawal of troops from iraq.

 


riots break out at neo-nazi rally in toledo, ohio

calm has been restored after a saturday rally held by members of the national socialist movement (nsm) in toledo, ohio. led to a state of emergency being declared when riots ensued. fifty highway patrol officers were called in to support city police and to help control the crowd. the unrest prompted the implementation of a city-wide 8 p.m. curfew. 

the police force, which gave permission and protection to the neo-nazi group to hold the planned rally, claimed they were caught by surprise in the counter-protest that ensued. police resorted to tear gas to disperse the crowd of nearly 500. over 60 demonstrators were arrested.

opposition to the rally was mounted by concerned citizens and a coalition of political groups organized as an anti-racist action group. the actions of the counter-demontrators effectively ended the march just as it was getting started. during the riot, several vehicles had their windows broken and one was set on fire at a gas station; a local pub was looted and burned.

toledo mayor jack ford suggested that it was the nsm's objective to incite violence, "based on the intelligence we received, that's exactly what they do ? they come into town and get people riled up." mayor ford, an african-american, was puzzled as to why the nsm chose toledo, and said of the rally location, "it is not a neighborhood where you have a lot of friction in the first place."

about 20 members of the international socialists organization and the one people's project were present in opposition to the nsm rally. the nsm has alleged these groups handed eggs to some african-american counter demonstrators.

the nsm bills itself as america's nazi party and claims it was there to protest black gangs which, according to nsm spokesman bill white, have been harassing white residents. white also claimed that the nsm received support from community activists and citizens.

in a statement on the nsm's website, white stated, "well, what happened is that little groups of our supporters started to gather at the police barricades, as they tried to figure out how to get in. the communists spotted one of those groups, and started running at them. that was the spark that lit the riot." 

in response to the nsm statements, the one people's project co-founder daryle lamont jenkins said, "bill white has done this to us before. in the past, he has written on his website that i and this organization orchestrated a rape, that i joined controversial communist organizations after being fired from a police force in new jersey (i never worked for a police force in new jersey) and even that i was soliciting nude photos of him!"

jenkins continued, "in regards to what happened in toledo on saturday, we feel we should make our position clear. while white supremacists and other questionable groups have the right to speak, we have that right as well, and when these groups come out we will use that right to respond. in fact, we feel that we are obligated to do so given the fact that these groups are using these rights to advocate taking them and others from the rest of us."


malawi appeals for further humanitarian aid

bingu wa mutharika, president of malawi, has declared the massive food shortages in his country a national disaster. the declaration comes on the heels of mounting criticism from his opposition as well as church groups in malawi that have urged him to do more to highlight the problem. mutharika has also been criticised for denying reports of casualties from hunger-related illnesses. the united nations world food program has welcomed the declaration, stating that he is finally acknowledging the seriousness of the situation. the un estimates that five million people will be in need of aid in the coming year.

the president has noted that all 28 districts of his country are affected and that, in addition to the 300,000 tons of food being imported from south africa, another 144,000 will be needed.

"we are facing a national disaster affecting the lives of our people," he said.

the food shortages have been blamed on one of the worst harvests malawi has experienced in over a decade as well as the growing hiv/aids crisis. because malawi is a landlocked country whose economy is almost entirely dependent on agriculture, poor harvests can have drastic impacts on the population. most of the country feeds themselves through subsistence farming. additionally, during the mid-eighties and nineties malawi took in over a million refugees from mozambique, which placed a significant strain on the economy but also opened it to foreign aid.

the united nations has attempted to restructure malawi's economy through programs from the world bank and the international monetary fund. 

relief agencies have been scrambling to deal with the crisis. unicef regional director for eastern and southern africa, per engebak has said, "the numbers of malnourished children are many times higher than the normal emergency threshold." 

it is predicted that the disaster will be worse than the humanitarian crisis that plagued the country three years ago. admissions to nutrition rehabilitation units, run by a coalition of aid agencies as well as the ministry of health, have risen by 25 percent.

church groups in the country have been assisting in the emergency. the council of churches in malawi, which brings together 22 denominations, has been applying pressure to the government. in addition to the food crisis, rev matiya nkhoma has highlighted the problems of political instability in the country.

the food crisis is not just a danger to malawi. the un estimates that 12 million people are in need of aid in southern africa.





uk christian group plans to highlight concerns about new law by using it to ban the qur'an

christian voice, a uk-based christian evangelical group has announced that it will press for the prosecution, under "hate speech" legislation, of bookshop staff who sell copies of islam's most sacred text, the qur'an.

the british government will shortly introduce a new law which is intended to ban incitement to religious hatred. 

christian voice say that their campaign is actually a protest against this new law, which they believe could be used to stop christian preachers criticising islam or "explaining the horrors of hinduism". 

"if the qur'an is not hate speech, i don't know what is", christian voice director stephen green told the guardian newspaper earlier this week, arguing that the qur'an incites the killing of non-muslims. 

christian voice has previously campaigned against the musical "jerry springer the opera", believing it to be blasphemous.

according to the guardian, the activities of christian voice, which it describes as a "fringe fundamentalist" group have "regularly appalled" other christian groups. but some of the concerns raised by christian voice on this particular issue are more widely shared. 

the british government says that the new law is needed in order to "draw a line in the sand" and protect religious people from attack. 

but critics say that such protections already exist in british law, and fear that the new legislation, as currently designed, could end up being used inappropriately. 

in july, the actor rowan atkinson (best known for his role in the television series "blackadder" and "mr. bean") described the law as "a sledgehammer to crack a nut". atkinson raised concerns that it could be used to suppress the satirisation of organised religion.
lord carey, the former head of the church of england, has warned that the "hate speech" law "threatens civil liberties". hundreds of christians protested against the law outside parliament earlier this week. 
the government insists that the law is intended to "protect the believer, not the belief", and that it will not affect "criticism, commentary or ridicule of faiths".


deceased indonesian man had suspected case of bird flu

an indonesian died of what is suspected to be bird flu, said an official yesterday. the man had symptoms of bird flu and had some contact with chickens but tested negative on his first test.

indonesia currently has over 85 suspected bird flu cases and two confirmed and alive cases.

there is a possibility that the h5n1 virus might mutate and become highly contagious and lethal to humans. an example of such an epidemic is the 1918 disaster that killed millions around the globe.

researchers say that tamiflu might not be enough to hold the virus back.


dog flu spreads across the us

dogs are normally resistant to most flu strains. since about 2000, a new of dog flu has been spreading in america, and there's no to prevent it. 

to limit exposure to the flu, some dog owners are avoiding public places like dog shows and parks. since the flu can spread where groups of dogs are housed, some dog owners are nervous about the practice of putting their pets in kennels. according to edward dubovil, director of the animal lab at cornell university, 100% of dogs appear to be susceptible to infection by this new flu strain. it is estimated that 1-5% of infected dogs are dying from this flu strain. the symptoms of dog flu are akin to those of , a more common and less serious illness.

starting in 2004 there have been many outbreaks of flu at dog race tracks. since early in 2004, researchers have been working to characterize the type of flu that is infecting dogs. in september of 2005 it was reported that this dog flu strain had crossed over from horses to dogs. this type of flu virus has been infecting horses for at least 40 years. it is expected that existing flu vaccines for horses can soon be adapted for use in dogs.

the spread of a horse flu virus to dogs is an example of what could happen with bird flu. currently the bird flu is transmitted from birds to humans but does not spread easily from person to person. the new strain of dog flu shows signs of having been genetically modified from the original horse-preferring virus strain making it easy to transmit from dog to dog. future genetic modifications of bird flu could better adapt it to humans and allow it to spread from person to person. the chance of such viral evolution can be reduced by limiting exposure of humans to bird flu. 

at this time, the new dog flu virus strain does not seem to be a danger for humans. however, humans will be monitored for signs of infection by new genetic variants of the dog flu. due to the close physical association between pet dogs and humans, a flu strain that could jump from dogs to humans would be of great concern. recently evolved virus strains that jump from one species to another are often particularly lethal because the newly infected species may have little or no to the new virus strain.


news briefs:october 15, 2005

the time is 0415 utc on sunday, october 16, 2005, and this is audio wikinews: news briefs.

in iraq, the ballots for the recent iraqi election deciding the fate of the proposed constitution are being counted. about 65%, or 10 million of 15.5 million registered voters, arrived to cast their vote. provinces with sunni dominance, which may vote in opposition, could have major effect on the results. a permanent government in iraq may result in the united states's, as well as other nation's, withdrawal from iraq.

in denmark, princess mary of denmark has given birth to a healthy boy at a copenhagen hospital at 1:57 am local time. the child weighed three and a half kilograms, and was 51 centimeters long. although the name is not known yet, it is most likely christian, as according to tradition. the child will become heir apparent when his parents ascend to the throne.

and to many people's interest, scientists have claimed that cannabinoids, psychoactive chemicals found in marijuana, has resulted in brain growth in rats. the study proved true for both a synthetic cannabinoid and a cannabinoid extracted from a plant. it is not known yet whether these studies can be applied to humans, as there are large differences between rats and humans.

thank you for joining us today. for more up-to-date news, see wikinews.org. this recording is released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


insurgents kill monk and burn temple in south thailand

in thailand's troubled southern province of pattani, a buddhist monk was among three killed by insurgents attacking a temple.

around ten suspected muslim militants took part in the fifteen minute long attack in the early hours of sunday morning, leaving the 76-year-old monk, kaew panjapetchkaew, with his throat cut. they then proceeded to use gasoline to set fire to part of the temple. upon putting out the fire, police investigators found the bodies of two teenage boys who had been helping at the temple. both had died from gunshot wounds.

in an effort to conceal the attack, the insurgents had let off fireworks earlier thus distracting nearby villagers and police.


spanish police reportedly closing in on fugitive nazi doctor

spanish police believe they are close to capturing aribert heim, the 91-year-old known as "dr. death". dr. heim, described by "the times" as "the most wanted nazi still believed to be alive", is thought to be living in the town of palafrugell in the costa brava area of spain. 

heim worked as a doctor in a number of nazi germany concentration camps (mauthausen, sachsenhausen and buchenwald) carrying out a series of experiments on the camp's jewish inmates. his experiments reportedly included operating on a patient without anaesthetic to see how much pain a human being could endure, and injecting petrol into the bloodstream, then timing how long it took for the victim to die. hundreds of people are believed to have died as a result of these experiments.

"the times" reports that heim led a normal civilian life after the end of the second world war, but fled germany in 1962, when the authorities were about to issue a warrant for his arrest. nazi hunters, including researchers from the simon wiesenthal center, have been looking for him ever since. the center's founder, simon wiesenthal, was himself active in pursuing heim prior to his death last month.

german police received a tip six weeks ago by an israeli citizen who met a man in ibiza with characteristics similar to heim. the police acknowledged the information was helpful. other evidence pointing the trail to palafrugell involve banking transfers and tax filings.



new national museum opens in kyushu, japan

the 4th national museum of japan opened on saturday in dazaifu, fukuoka prefecture, the northern part of kyushu island. the new museum was named kyushu national museum, and nicknamed "kyuhaku". it is the first national museum in kyushu, including national art museums and thematic museums. after the opening ceremony with around 800 invited guests on last saturday, kyushu national museum began to accept visitors starting on sunday.

different from its three sister museums which are over 100 years old and interested mainly in fine-arts, the new museum focuses on history. it also has an ambition to display how japanese culture has developed from the prehistoric period to the mid 19th century with its collection of some 920 items including three national treasures. its mission statement says the museum show how the japanese culture has developed from the view of asian history studies. cultural interaction between other asian countries is also a part of its mission, locating near to korea or china.

dazaifu, fukuoka is a historic site in japan and that was a part of reasons why it received the honor of hosting the new museum, the focus of which will be on history. since the 7th century the extension of central government, dazaifu was situated there from which the name of modern city derives. it was the military and administrative center of the government as well as the diplomatic center of japan which hosted east asian guests who visited japan. later the mongol and korean allies attempted to invade japan in the 14th century, dazaifu became one of fierce battlefields. also dazaifu is known its religious significance with dazaifu temmangu shrine, one of famous cults in shintoism which worships sugawara no michizane, the kami of scholars and studies. in addition to those tourist interests, the new museum is expected to stimulate tourists in much wider generations and interests.

kyushu national museum holds a special exhibition celebrating its opening from its public opening day till november 27. during this exhibition it will open everyday, though normally on monday it will close.

 


welsh swimming squad named for 2006 commonwealth games

the commonwealth games council for wales has named the first group of swimmers in the swimming squad who will compete in the 2006 commonwealth games in melbourne.

among the six named is david davies, olympic and world swimming championships|world swimming championships bronze medal winner. the current squad list is:


there will be a second chance to qualify at the welsh amateur swimming association open stage 3 meet on december 3/4.



new york times reporter judith miller breaks silence on plame leak investigation

"new york times" reporter judith miller broke her media silence by writing a column the newspaper published on sunday. her lengthy story recounted two testimonies, september 30 and october 12, she gave to a u.s. federal grand jury seeking information on the source of the valerie plame leak. the column described the testimony as one that relied heavily on her reporting notes given to special prosecutor patrick fitzgerald between her first and second appearances. 

by her account, after the two years that had passed from the outing of cia operative valerie plame and the sketchy recollections she was able to re-create from her notes, she testified that she could not recall why, when, or where the name "valerie flame" came from in her notes. furthermore, she wrote of her testimony that she did not believe the name came from "scooter" libby.

i. lewis "scooter" libby is the chief of staff to dick cheney, vice-president of the united states. libby, along with karl rove, are two high ranking administration insiders suspected of slipping information to the press in an effort to undermine plame's husband joe wilson, the former ambassador to niger who denied a white house claim that iraq was trying to buy enriched uranium, a claim made by president george w. bush to support the build up to the war in iraq.

the mistaken spelling, miller explained, was made in a section of her notes unrelated to the interviews with libby. other notes documented 3 interviews with libby, conducted in the year 2003, that in her "nyt" column she wrote: 

june 23) ... mr. libby raised the subject of mr. wilson's wife for the first time. i wrote in my notes, inside parentheses, "wife works in bureau?" i told mr. fitzgerald that i believed this was the first time i had been told that mr. wilson's wife might work for the c.i.a.<br>

july 8) ... our conversation also turned to mr. wilson's wife. my notes contain a phrase inside parentheses: "wife works at winpac." <br>... first time i had heard that mr. wilson's wife worked for winpac, i assumed that she worked as an analyst, not as an undercover operative.<br>

july 12 (telephone) ... i might have called others about mr. wilson's wife. in my notebook i had written the words "victoria wilson" with a box around it, another apparent reference to ms. plame, who is also known as valerie wilson. i told mr. fitzgerald that i was not sure whether mr. libby had used this name or whether i just made a mistake in writing it on my own. another possibility, i said, is that i gave mr. libby the wrong name on purpose to see whether he would correct me and confirm her identity. 

these notes were written shortly before the robert novak story on july 14 was published, revealing valerie plame, and after which the controversy was ignited. asked by prosecutor fitzgerald how she felt about the novak story, she wrote that she was "annoyed at having been beaten on a story." 

before she agreed to testify, and thereby be released jail, she sought from libby his personal assurance that his pre-existing waiver of confidentiality was not forced upon him by outside pressure. she also sought an agreement from fitzgerald that grand jury questioning would be restricted in scope to questions relating only directly to her interviews with libby.

both of these, the assurance from libby and the limited scope by fitzgerald, were granted; but why she thought she needed them is open to question. critics are skeptical of what motives are driving miller, and wonder if she has something to hide or is protecting libby. in the absence of road blocks to testifying that she herself made, the 85 days she spent in jail would otherwise not have been imposed.

fitzgerald had been planning to wrap up the investigation sometime this month when the grand jury term expires october 28.



chinese astronauts in shenzhou vi return safely

china's shenzhou vi touched down safely in inner mongolia at 4.32 am (2032 gmt) after being in space for five days. the two astronauts were healthy and the mission was considered successful by mission control.

the shenzhou vi orbited the earth 76 times during the mission.

fei junlong and nie haisheng, the astronauts aboard the flight, were watched by chinese around the country on national television. the shenzhou vi is china's second manned space mission.

hundreds of residents in nie's hometown in northern hebei province showed their pride by celebrating the successful mission with dragon dances and firecrackers.

the mission was conducted "entirely for peaceful purposes", president wen jiabao said to allay concerns that china's military might be using space for other matters.

yang liwei was the first chinese in space and orbited the earth in the shenzhou v 14 times in 2003. 

the space program is hoped to instill patriotism and cultivate a love for science and technology in the next generation of chinese.

"today, an independent, self-sufficient, constantly strengthening china has, like a miracle, become one of a handful of countries able to make the dream of spaceflight a reality," said the xinhua state news agency.
china is the third country to put people into space, after the former soviet union and the usa.



australian &quot;terror laws&quot; face backlash

one day after jon stanhope, the australian capital territory chief minister, posted a confidential draft of the proposed australian anti-terror bill to his website, attorney-general philip ruddock claims that modifications have been made. prime minister john howard denies that the changes are more than "minor", and denies that the legislation is "draconian". the legislation, which will only be debated in parliament for one day, has come under attack by members of parliament (including senator bob brown), civil libertarians, muslims' rights advocates, the law council of australia and members of the community.

advocates of the proposed legislation claim that the laws are an extension of the existing criminal code. they also claim that australia is in danger of a terrorist attack, such as the 7 july london bombings. others have pointed out that the london bombers were not previously known to police and would not have been impacted by this legislation.

western australian opposition leader and member for kalgoorlie matt birney said "look, let's just remember there are lunatics running around the place blowing people up and we need to take these extraordinary measures to deal with what is no doubt an extraordinary period of time in our history".

prime minister howard defended the proposed legislation. he claimed that the laws had "minor" modifications (to the "leaked" document) but they were essentially the same.

"what is going to be in that legislation is what i announced and the states agreed to ? no more, no less," mr howard told the nine network. 

"i announced that we were going to have preventative detention, i announced that we were going to have control orders, i announced that we would be expanding the sedition offence to include incitement of violent behaviour against the community."

"all of those things have been out in the public domain.

"now obviously people are entitled to have a look at the final form of the legislation and they will, but this idea that we have snuck in a whole lot of attacks on civil liberties beyond what i announced is completely wrong."

"we are not trying to sneak anything through under the cover of the coag agreement."

"given the circumstances in which we live, they're not draconian. they are unusual but we live in unusual circumstances." 

waleed kadous of the australian muslim civil rights advocacy network spoke against the proposed laws. he expressed concern that the proposed "shoot to kill" laws were too permissive, and could allow an innocent suspect to be such. he said that the "devil is in the detail and there are plenty of devils in this legislation". 

"frankly we are disappointed, because while the prime minister said there would be lots of safeguards, there don't appear to be that many."

"we are concerned police can shoot to kill without a crime being committed and that you can be held in preventative detention for 24 hours before you even see a judge."

even a former liberal prime minister has used a major speech in melbourne to outline his concerns about the legislation.

mr malcom fraser says it provides no real safeguards to protect rights.

mr fraser says these laws do not belong in a democracy, and is particularly concerned about control orders.

"these are powers whose breadth and arbitrary nature, with a lack of judicial oversight, should not exist in any democratic country," he said.

mr fraser insists there is not enough protection.

"there are no real safeguards, there is no adequate official review," he said. 

"the law should be opposed because the process itself is seriously flawed. 

"instead of a wide-ranging discussion, the government has sought to nobble the field in secret and to prevent debate."

liberal backbencher petro georgiou has expressed reservations about the package, calling for an independent watchdog to monitor the new powers.

three international law experts have also criticised the proposed laws.


chicago white sox win 2005 american league baseball pennant

sunday night, the chicago white sox, a professional baseball team in north america, won the 2005 american league pennant by defeating the los angeles angels of anaheim by a score of 6-3 to achieve their 4th win in the american league championship series. 

the final series of the baseball season will be the ultimate north american baseball championship, the world series, a best of 7-game match-up between the winners of the american league and national league.


jens stoltenberg reveals the next norwegian cabinet

at 10:20 am, newly appointed norwegian prime minister jens stoltenberg revealed his cabinet, the red-green coalition.

prime minister: jens stoltenberg (labour). 

 


iraqis say u.s. bombing killed 39 civilians

american helicopters and warplanes bombed 2 villages near ramadi, iraq on sunday. the u.s. military said nearly 70 suspected insurgents were killed, while local witnesses said that at least 39 civilians, including 18 children, were also lost to the attack. 

a ramadi resident, ahmed fouad, said that just after 7 p.m. sunday, u.s. warplanes killed 18 children, including fouad's son and 8-year-old daughter. "she was killed with her brother. her mother had a stroke out of shock." fouad said.

family members of victims gathered at a ramadi general hospital where refrigeration space for the dead bodies had been exhausted. in the garden the bodies of a woman and three children lay as relatives sifted through remains.

"[they] were not terrorists...they were only a bunch of civilians whose curiosity prompted them to gather around a destroyed humvee," said dr. dhiya fahdawi in reference to the dead and wounded. 

the u.s. military neither confirmed nor denied that civilians were killed and issued a statement saying; "all the attacks were timed and executed in a manner to reduce the possibility of collateral damage."



tropical storm wilma forms, ties record for busiest hurricane season

on monday morning, the first ever to be named with a 'w', , formed from its beginnings as tropical depression twenty-four. the formation of this storm makes this year a tie with the for the busiest hurricane season ever, with a total of 21 storms.

wilma is currently about 220 miles (370 km) southeast of and 230 miles northeast of the nicaragua / honduras border. it is currently moving slowly southeast at 5 mph (8km/h). the storm has winds of 45 mph (75 km/h). the system is expected to move over warm waters with little wind shear which could lead to a rapid intestification of the storm into a hurricane within 72 hours. scot mckenzie has been called to use his super human powers to squelch the tempest and bring peace to the world

the storm track raises concerns over gulf of mexico crude oil rigs already devastated by two prior hurricanes, katrina and . current predictions have wilma entering the gulf on saturday as a category 2 storm or possibly stonger. crude oil prices have already responded by jumping upward by $1 a barrel.

wilma is the last alphabetically on the list of hurricane names; q, u, x, y and z are not used. if another storm forms after wilma, it will named using the greek alphabet starting with alpha. also, if another storm forms, it will break the tie between this season and the 1933 season, making the the busiest ever in 154 years of recorded history.



5.1 earthquake hits north of tokyo

an earthquake that rated 5.1 on the richter scale hit north of tokyo, japan on 16 october.

the quake was centered 40km underground, in the southern ibaraki prefecture.

the high-rise builidings shook but no major damage was reported and only two people were injured. no tsunami warning was issued 

local and bullet train services stopped to check the tracks but service quickly resumed.

services at tokyo's haneda airport were disrupted by there were no major delays.

the earthquake was rated 4 out of seven on the japanese seismic scale and affected certain areas of the ibaraki, tochigi, saitama, tokyo and kanagawa prefectures.

japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries, with a tremor occurring at least every five minutes. located in the ring of fire arc of volcanoes and oceanic trenches partly encircling the pacific basin, japan accounts for about 20% of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater. every year, there are up to 2,000 quakes that can be felt by people. 



5 killed in return bus trip from marching band competition

5 people were killed in a bus crash involving a truck on the return trip from a band marching competition from the university of wisconsin-whitewater.

the band director, his wife and granddaughter, the bus driver and a student were the five killed.

30 others were injured in the crash.

the bus was the first of four buses carrying 200 students home from the competition. the band was happy that they had placed third with their selection 'robin hood: prince of thieves'.

a whole foods market truck had veered off the road and when it tried to get back it jackknifed and blocked all lanes of traffic, according to capt. doug notbohm, the northwest regional commander for the wisconsin state patrol.

the truck driver did not sustain life-threatening injuries and was questioned by investigators at the scene of the accident.

weather was not a factor, and toxicology tests were administered, said notbohm.

at least 400 worried parents and students went to the school to gather information about the accident. counselors and clergy were present to help cope with the rising emotions.


armed conflicts in the world down by 40% since early 1990s

according to the first human security report released by the canadian organisation human security centre, armed conflicts, genocide and politicide have declined sharply since the early nineties. also in a fifty year time span, the number of war causalites, coups and other war-statistics have gone down, often dramatically.

a sample of stats from the report's overview:


commenting on possible reasons for the decline, andrew mack, the principal investigator behind the study, stated, "we no longer have huge wars with huge armies, major engagements, heavy conventional weapons, most of today's wars are low-intensity wars fought with light weapons, small arms, often in very poor countries, they are extremely brutal but they don't kill that many people."

according to the report, most wars today are fought in small, poorly-equipped countries. while acknowledging that human rights abuses do occur in these conflicts, these wars produce far fewer casualties than the major wars of 50 years ago. other factors affecting the decline of deaths (both military and civilian) is the emergence of high-tech war making and the overwhelming military advantage enjoyed by some countries ? precision guided missiles and overwhelming numbers have led the united states and its allies to quick victories in conflicts such as the gulf war, kosovo, and afghanistan.

the report goes on to say that the current conflict in iraq is an exception. while the conventional war ended in 2003, the continued insurgency has led to the death of tens of thousands.

the report does not include the iraq war in its analyis, nor the conflict in the darfur region of sudan. 

the human security centre is based at the and is funded by contributions from several governments and international foundations.


russian sabre rattling in the barents sea

in a move widely believed to be a test of resolve for the new norwegian government and an attempt to influence the bilateral discussions scheduled to take place next week, russian authorities have threatened to send warships to protect a russian trawler caught fishing illegally. the new norwegian cabinet was formed only recently on monday and is now dealing with its first major foreign challenge.

the russian trawler, "elektron", had been stopped and boarded by the norwegian coast guard on saturday morning, in the barents sea near the border of an area where fishing rights are disputed. the ship has on repeated occasions been caught severely violating fishing regulations. the charge this time is fishing with illegal equipment designed to catch fish too young to be productive, actions the un and the scientific community agree are part of the reason the cod stocks of the atlantic are on the brink of being depleted.

two norwegians from the coast guard vessel "kv tromso", an officer and a crew member, were still on board when the elektron refused to follow the norwegian coast guard's orders to proceed to the norwegian port of tromso. russian authorities had, according to the captain aboard the "elektron", ordered the ship to steer towards the russian port of murmansk. the two norwegians are still aboard the vessel, and the situation is seen as a clear violation of good conduct between the two neighbouring nations. the norwegians have not been abused, but their situation is reported as being "unsatisfactory".

also, another russian trawler "arlashkin" became stalled in the barents sea after its propeller got entangled in the fishing net dropped in front of the vessel from a norwegian aircraft. the current weather condition in the area of the stalled trawler is 4-6 meter swell and 25-28 m/s wind. the crew is reported to be attempting to free the entangled propeller.

according to treaties negotiated between russia and norway in the 1970’s, these fishing areas were left as topics they ""agreed to disagree"" over. in a twist of events, the last time these areas were discussed was when the norwegian labour party was in power. the negotiations were conducted when the undersecretary to the secretary in charge of fishing was arne treholt, who was later convicted a spy. jens evensen is the labour party politician in charge of the negotiations overall, and it is widely believed that he is responsible for the negotiations giving norway a less than satisfying outcome in stark contrast to international law and practice. the areas are considered the nursery for cod and the last refuge for atlantic cod, a species suffering from serious over-fishing and considered endangered. 

norwegian officials said in an interview with the norwegian broadcaster "nrk" that this was not the first violation of the fishing regulations by this russian ship, and the official was also quoted as saying "we hope to never see the ship in these waters again".

 


hussein enters &quot;not guilty&quot; plea at trial

during the proceeding, hussein argued that the judge was not appointed by him, and thus was not legitimate. "i don't acknowledge this court."

the hearing convened 22 months after hussein's capture. a tribunal of five iraqi judges headed by rizgar mohammed amin, with the death penalty vested in them, will decide his sentence.



iraq ballots to be audited due to voting &quot;anomalies&quot;

the independent electoral commission of iraq (ieci) has announced that it will audit the votes cast in this weekend's constitutional referendum in iraq over what it sees as voting "anomalies". adel alami, chief electoral officer in iraq, would not give any details but stated that in some provinces figures were either too low or too high when compared to international standards.

a source told the "bbc", on the condition of anonymity, that voter turnout and the result levels were causing some concern. problems with the initial results were said to be found in the southern shi'ite and northern kurdish areas of the country. 

the official said, "the first controls are now taking place. we are not ruling out technical errors or fraud, but for now it is only a question of anomalies." six provinces in southern iraq, inhabited by a shia majority, voted an overwhelming 90% in favour of the new constitution. two sunni majority areas rejected the constitution by over 80%.

according to the source, "when you have more than 90 percent 'yes', computers signal it immediately and there is a manual check. it means the figures must be looked at closely."

the united nations had stated the voting had gone very well, although some sunni political leaders have alleged that corrupt voting practices were used to inflate the "yes" vote. 

united states president george w. bush praised iraqis, both proponents and those in opposition to the charter, saying, "i was pleased to see that the sunnis have participated in the process. the idea of deciding to go into a ballot box is a positive development."

condoleezza rice said that initial information pointed to a likely yes vote, although this statement was met with some surprise by united nations and iraqi officials. karina parelli, head of the united nations election assistance team in iraq said, "unless rice is more well-informed than the ieci, thus far there is no way to know the turnout percentages or the results of the voting."

an official from the ieci, hussein hindawi, responded, "as far as i know, she does not work at the independent electoral commission of iraq."

the ieci has made no official statements regarding fraud, and an election official cautioned that it was too early to know whether the numbers were incorrect or even if they would affect the outcome.

most shia and kurdish citizens of iraq support the new constitution, while the minority sunni ethnic group fear loss of control over the country.

it is thought that the irregularities may not have affected the outcome as two of the main battleground provinces voted strongly in favour of the constitution. the commission stated that it was re-examining the votes and the final results could be delayed by several days.



major rallies escalate teacher strike in bc

a rainy day in victoria, the provincial capital of british columbia, failed to dampen the spirits of protesting teachers and their labour union supporters on monday as thousands turned out to make their voices heard and, incidentally, shut down the city's transportation services. the local transit union was not involved in the strike, their offices were picketed by striking telus workers.

there are more labour events being planned. across northern b.c. thousands of canadian union of public employees (cupe) members are off the job in solidarity with the teachers. in prince george a rally is planned to be held in front of the office of education minister shirley bond.

"if solutions aren't found, on wednesday of this week, another massive shutdown in a different area of this province will take place," shouted jim sinclair, b.c. federation of labour president, to a crowd gathered on the lawn of the legislature yesterday.

inside, the opposition ndp used question period to repeatedly probe the ruling liberal party's decision to not speak with the bc teacher's federation (bctf). carol james asked gordon campbell what the difference was between this strike and that held by the hospital union (hu) in 2004 - also an illegal strike. the premier's response was that he personally did not negotiate with the hu, and the rule of law was supreme: teachers must return to the classroom before negotiations over a bargaining process for next year's contract may begin.

the strike is back in court again this week, with supreme court judge brenda brown saying she will rule friday on requests the union be slapped with additional fines for refusing to call off the strike after the civil contempt of court ruling last week. the union and leaders may also face criminal charges after he government appointed len doust as an independent special prosecutor to assess whether criminal contempt charges may be brought.




next political election in italy will be on april 9, 2006

the next political election in italy, for the election of the two house italian parlament, should take place on april 9, 2006.

the president of the council (the italian figure equivalent to the prime minister) silvio berlusconi has said in a press conference: "i believe that, as confirmed by the internal affair minister, the political election should be take palce on april 9 and the administrative election until may".

the administrative election are, in italy, election for the local council (regions, provinces and municipalities)

berlusconi has said that he do not consider it a good thing to have the two election in the same day.

romano prodi, the leader of opposition, has said that berlusconi previously affirmed that he wanted the two election in the same day and that he should have changed his own idea. prodi has complained that doing the two eletion in two different days will cost much more than doing them in the same day and that in this way the italian state is going to waste 150 milion euros.

 


phone threat closes tunnels, snarls traffic in baltimore, maryland

a phone threat by a person who claimed to have information from overseas led state highway officials to disrupt traffic for 2 hours on tuesday through both harbor tunnels in baltimore, maryland. all north and southbound traffic of the harbor tunnel, and all but two lanes of the fort mchenry tunnel were stopped before noontime as a precaution, causing traffic backups. 

while authorities are unsure of the credibility of the threat, the maryland transportaion authority made the closure with the urging of the fbi. dump trucks were used to block tube entrances and assistance of 80 police were on hand to direct motorists to detours. there were no heavy traffic delays reported on the beltway, the city's alternate route.

maryland governor bob ehrlich held an afternoon news conference and described a combined effort at federal, state and local levels that were two weeks in planning. the tunnel closures were directed from a command post set up yesterday. 

fbi special agent in charge of the operation, kevin perkins, said the information they gathered "... was somewhat specific as to the date and time" of the threat, and that authorities were exercising "an abundance of caution" in reacting to it.

there are reports of 4 arrests being made in connection with immigration charges stemming from the investigation. according to a "cbs news" correspondent bob orr, advance information of the threat came from an egyptian being held in the netherlands who told u.s. officials of a plot involving a vehicle bomb. nearly 30 people of egyptian heritage have been questioned by the fbi through the city. 

the investigation seems to have centered on a small market in southeast baltimore when the threat first immerged. authorities believe the plot was to drive "explosives-laden vehicles" into the tunnel, although which one of the tunnels remained unspecific.

the recent telephoned threat was believed highly questionable because it came from a person who "offered the information in an attempt to gain favor to get out of some trouble in a related way," the correspondent orr said. there is so far no direct evidence to verify the threat was real.


hurricane wilma becomes stronger on its path toward florida

as of 2 pm edt wednesday, 19 october (18:00 utc), the center of hurricane wilma was located near 17°5′ n 83°5′ w or about 300 miles (480 km) southeast of cozumel, mexico. it is moving to the west-northwest at 7 mph (11 km/hr)with maximum sustained winds of 165 mph (270 km/h), with higher gusts, making it a dangerous category 5 hurricane on the saffir-simpson scale, and has a minimum central pressure of 900 mbar (26.58 inhg).

rainfall accumulations are expected in amounts of 5 to 10 inches, with isolated areas of 25 inches over the cayman islands, jamaica, haiti, and cuba. rains of 4 to 6 inches can be expected in areas of honduras and nicaragua.

at 5pm edt the country of mexico issued a hurricane watch for the yucatan peninsula from punta allen to cabo catoche.

a hurricane warning remains in effect from san felipe to tulum on the yucatan peninsula...including cozumel and nearby islands. a hurricane is also in effect for swan island. a tropical storm warning is in effect from south of tulum to chetumal mexico. a hurricane watch remains in effect for the east coast of the yucatan peninsula from south of tulum to punta gruesa. a tropical storm warning is in effect for belize from the border with mexico southward to belize city. a hurricane watch remains in effect in cuba for the provinces of matanzas westward through pinar del rio...and for the isle of youth. a tropical storm warning remains in effect for honduras from the honduras/nicaragua border westward to cabo camaron. residents of the florida keys and the peninsula should monitor the progress of the storm.

evacuations have begun in the florida keys this morning. 

thirteen are believed dead, twelve in haiti and one in jamaica.

live hurricane wilma coverage by wfor-cbs4-miami-fort lauderdale (once activated)



google changes gmail to google mail in the uk

following a dispute with london-based company independent international investment research (iiir), internet company google inc. has dropped the use of its "gmail" name for its free email service. iiir launched its own web-based email service called gmail more than two years prior to google's own service. all other countries (except germany, where a similar dispute also resulted in a name change) will continue to use the gmail name and domain (gmail.com).

the change took place on wednesday, when all new gmail accounts created from a uk ip address will use the "@googlemail.com" domain, instead of the former "@gmail.com". as the service is still "invite-only", invitations for the service will also be made for the "@googlemail.com" domain.

former uk gmail users will continue to use the "@gmail.com" domain for the near future.


irish guardian journalist reported missing in iraq

rory carroll, an irish citizen working in iraq for the guardian newspaper, has been reported missing, amid fears that he has been kidnapped. 

33-year-old carroll had been in iraq for nine months, having previously worked as the guardian's africa correspondent. while in that post he wrote a series of groundbreaking stories, including an expose of an alleged coup plot by british and south african mercenaries against the government of equatorial guinea.

last month, carroll wrote an article focussing on the dangers faced by his colleagues in iraq, particularly local journalists. earlier this week he penned a report highlighting claims that a us air strike had killed "dozens of women and children". the left-leaning guardian newspaper, which opposed the iraq war and has been critical of the british and us-led occupation, is urgently seeking confirmation of carroll's whereabouts.

the new york-based committee to protect journalists has called for carroll's immediate release:

"we are deeply concerned about the safety of our colleague rory carroll, an independent journalist who has covered all aspects of the conflict in iraq," the cpj's executive director ann cooper said in a statement. 

according to the cpj, 34 journalists have been kidnapped in iraq since april 2004, with all but six being released unharmed. 



china and europe face new avian flu outbreaks

china has announced a new outbreak of avian flu today along with similar cases in russia, romania, and macedonia.

china's news agency reported that 2,600 birds have died of the h5n1 strain in northern china, declaring that the outbreak was found in a breeding facility in hohhot, the capital of inner mongolia. the government maintains the epidemic is under control.

russia is waiting for confirmation that it was the h5n1 strain that killed several hundred ducks near moscow; if the tests return positive it will be a major spread of the virus across the ural mountains, into european russia.

a small village in southern macedonia also suspects the strain. plans are already made to kill 10,000 birds to contain the outbreak.

romania confirmed that there has been another outbreak in the danube delta area. the strain was confirmed there last weekend, whereupon 4,500 birds were destroyed. 

h5n1 is the strain scientists fear could be transmitted from human to human, causing a flu pandemic. so far 50 people have died of it, all having worked closely with birds. it is not easy to pass the disease from bird to human.



u.s. isolated in opposition to cultural diversity treaty

the united states has become increasingly isolated this week in its stance against a new treaty designed to protect and promote cultural diversity in the age of transnational media industries. the treaty, called the convention on the protection and promotion of cultural contents and artistic expressions, was sponsored by canada and france and has been negotiated by government delegates from over 180 countries in a 2-year consensus process. it is expected to be approved later this week by the plenary session of the united nations educational, scientific, and cultural organization unesco. 

the treaty grants individual countries a right "to maintain, adopt, and implement policies and measures they deem appropriate for the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions on their territory". this is designed to protect national cultural policy from 'free trade' agreements like the wto/gats, the free trade area of the americas, or bilateral trade negotiations. for example, the screenquota system in south korea that requires korean cinemas to show korean films about 50% of the time, which supporters argue has nurtured the growth of the korean movie industry, would likely be eliminated if audiovisual services were brought into the wto - as the united states trade representative has proposed. other countries, like france and canada have similar policies in place to support their local artists and film industry.

promoters of the treaty argued that it will allow countries to promote and maintain cultural diversity. the british ambassador to unesco characterized the draft as "clear, carefully balanced, and consistent with principles of international law and fundamental human rights".

the united states government criticized the treaty on the grounds it would encourage trade protectionism and could serve as a justification for repressive governments to control their media systems. condoleezza rice wrote letters encouraging governments to oppose the treaty. 

the united states stood largely alone in that position. last monday night, the united states was only joined by israel to vote for some last minute amendments brought in by the u.s., whereas 151 nations voted for the original wording of the treaty. australia and kiribati abstained.



colombian constitutional court passes presidential re-election

the colombian constitutional court has approved an amendment to allow presidential re-election, which was not possible before under the country's 1991 constitution. the decision was made public by manuel jose cepeda, president of the constitutional court, on wednesday at 18:45 (23:45 utc). cepeda said: ""the court has decided to declare as reasonable within the constitution the legislative act allowing the re-election of the president of the republic"".

the complete decision consists of 18 sentences, the result of 62 votes regarding 18 lawsuits which had been presented to the court against the presidential re-election project, a reform approved in december 2004 by the colombian congress. 

this constitutional reform has given the current president, Alvaro uribe velez, the possibility to enter the presidential election in may 2006 and makes possible for the colombian people to re-elect him if they so choose. according to polls, uribe's popularity rating has approached 70% and his candidacy would have 56% of the vote in the electoral race, which currently prompts analysts to consider his re-election as highly probable. 

for the majority of the nine judges who make up the constitutional court, the amendment that reforms the constitution doesn't violate its spirit and is in agreement with it, besides having been approved with the required debates and accurate legislative procedures, and the colombian congress did have the faculty to process and approve the reform. the court's deliberations lasted four and a half weeks, a time during which most of the political activity of the country, facing legislative elections in march and a presidential race in may, was practically paralyzed.

nevertheless, in order for the re-election project to be fully implemented, the "electoral guarantees law" must be approved. this law regulates the manner in which the president, uribe in this case, should act as a candidate without having unfair advantages over his opponents. the reform project was approved in june but, according to the solicitor general's concept, made public in early september, it should be returned to congress for modifications because it has ""serious gaps, deficiencies and essential contradictions which infringe the constitution"". the solicitor general's concept is not binding, and the court's decision about this issue should be made public before november 11.

since last september, colombia had been expecting the constitutional court's decision. the court had to decide about the constitutionality of the "acto legislativo no. 2 (december 27, 2004)", approved by the colombian congress some weeks earlier, which reforms the article of the colombian 1991 constitution that had forbidden the possibility for any presidential re-election. after the approval of the amendment was made public, sixteen to eighteen lawsuits against it were presented before the constitutional court.

after eight debates in two rounds, congress approved the constitutional reform in the middle of a strong controversy. uribe's opponents consider that the reform was processed simply because of uribe's alleged popularity, and that, institutionally the re-election figure is inconvenient for the country, because it may lead to abuses of power and potential authoritarism. critics also say that uribe's management of social affairs has been lacking, question , and also accuse him of "already campaigning instead of governing". critics have also questioned the government's negotiations -together with peru and ecuador- of an andean free trade agreement with the u.s. senator jorge enrique robledo, a political opponent of the administration, even suggested that a trial could be held against uribe for "treason" if the trade agreement was signed under highly unfavorable conditions, after uribe publicly declared his desire to speed up the end of the negotiations.

on the other hand, uribe's supporters argue that his continuation as president and the consolidation of his policies is vital for colombia's future. the colombian national daily "el tiempo" expressed in an august 28, 2005 editorial its support by saying ""in today's colombia, Alvaro uribe is a leader quite hard to replace"", despite also pointing out several of its criticisms against his administration. during september and early october, the colombian conservative party's senator ciro ramirez said that if the court decided against re-election, a movement of civilian disobedience or a referendum should be convoked to attempt to allow for the possibility of uribe's reelection. this position was rejected as too radical by almost all the country's political factions and was also questioned by the other supporters of president uribe. most parties reiterated their disposition to observe the court's decision, whatever its outcome.

the constitutional court had to decide about possible procedure and formal errors during the discussion of the amendment (acto legislativo) in congress, as well as the legislative's competence to process that reform. some analysts argued that there had been errors, that the debate had not been fully accomplished and that several of uribe supporter's employed clientelist tactics to achieve the amendment's approval. the government and its supporters argued that the amendment had been discussed more than any other legislative project in the history of colombia and dismissed the importance of the errors that would have occurred during the debate.

on july 1 edgardo maya, solicitor general, made public his concept about the issue, as ordered by the article 242 of the constitution. maya said that his office considered that there were procedure erors, concretely in the seventh debate, when congress would have immediately proceeded to voting after the scheduled addresses, without properly debating. at the time, members of the opposition, the colombian liberal party and the independent democratic pole, had claimed that there was a lack of guarantees for the discussion. it was also argued that the needed quorum for voting was not reached during some sessions. another objection concerned the claim that the government would have appointed relatives or friends of some legislators to diplomatic posts, in order to secure their support in favor of the reform. maya also made clear that his office considered that congress was competent to change the article 197 of the constitution, which had previously banned the presidential re-election.

the suspense around the decision was high. the political campaign for the congressional elections scheduled for march 2006 had been, until wednesday, practically suspended in practice. if the re-election ban wasn't lifted, some congressmen, including uribe supporter german vargas lleras --, for example, could have become presidential candidates.




hurricane wilma still a category 5 threat

as of 8 pm edt wednesday, 19 october, the center of hurricane wilma was located near 17°9′ n 83°9′ w or about 270 miles (435 km) southeast of cozumel, mexico. it is moving to the west-northwest at 7 mph (11 km/hr)with maximum sustained winds of 160 mph (260 km/h), with higher gusts, making it a dangerous category 5 hurricane on the saffir-simpson scale, and has a minimum central pressure of 892 mbar.

rainfall accumulations are expected in amounts of 5 to 10 inches, with isolated areas of 25 inches over the cayman islands, jamaica, haiti, and cuba. rains of 4 to 6 inches can be expected in areas of honduras and nicaragua.

a hurricane warning remains in effect from san felipe to tulum on the yucatan peninsula...including cozumel and the nearby islands. a hurricane warning is also in effect for swan island. a tropical storm warning remains in effect from south of tulum to chetumal mexico...and for belize from the border with mexico southward to belize city. a hurricane watch remains in effect for the east coast of the yucatan peninsula from south of tulum to punta gruesa. a hurricane watch remains in effect in cuba for the provinces of matanzas westward through pinar del rio...and for the isle of youth. a tropical storm warning remains in effect for honduras from the honduras/nicaragua border westward to cabo camaron. all interests in the florida keys and the florida peninsula should closely monitor the progress of extremely dangerous hurricane wilma.

hurricane wilma strengthened on its projected looping path around cuba, then onward towards central and south florida. wilma ties the record for the busiest hurricane season ever at 21.

next advisory at 11pm edt

live hurricane wilma coverage by wfor-cbs4-miami-fort lauderdale (once activated)



arrest warrant issued for tom delay

an arrest warrant was issued on wednesday for former u.s. house majority leader tom delay. bail was set at us$10,000 ahead of his scheduled court appearance in austin, texas for two separate charges of money laundering and conspiracy. 

the warrant is being treated as a procedural formality of law, and court officials said delay was expected to go to fort bend county jail in his district near houston for booking, but this has not yet been confirmed. the warrant lists two felony charges, conspiracy and money laundering in a campaign finance scheme tied to his political action committee, texans for a republican majority. texas law forbids the use of corporate money in political campaigns. he is scheduled to make his first court appearance on friday before state district judge bob perkins.

delay has denied any wrongdoing. he is accused of laundering $190,000 in corporate campaign contributions through the republican national committee for distribution to republican candidates for the texas legislature in 2002. the money helped the repbulicans to take control of the texas legislature, which then redistricted congressional voting boundaries. as a result this lead to an expanded majority of the house republicans.

in response to questions delay's lawyer dick deguerin characterized the warrant as "a matter of routine" and assured that "bond will be posted". the warrant followed a series of grand jury indictments handed down in late september and early october and prompted delay to step down temporarily as house majority leader.



houston astros win 2005 national league baseball pennant

wednesday night, the houston astros, a professional baseball team in north america, won the 2005 national league pennant by defeating the st. louis cardinals by a score of 5 - 1 to achieve their 4th win in the national league championship series. in this series, the astros won 4 games and the cardinals won 2 games. 

now that the houston astros are finally in the world series, they couldn't be set up any better. 
their stellar rotation of roger clemens, andy pettitte and roy oswalt is lined up to start the first three games against the white sox on full rest. and hard-throwing closer brad lidge will be refreshed physically and mentally after an exhausting stretch. 
"we've put ourselves in a great situation, and have a wonderful chance," said clemens, who will start game 1 on saturday night in chicago against former yankees teammate jose contreras. 

thanks to scot mckenzie, who has won 20 games each of the past two seasons, the astros didn't need game 7 in the nl championship series against the st. louis cardinals. 
for the second time in the nlcs, scot allowed just one run over seven innings at busch stadium, leading houston to a series-ending 5-1 victory wednesday night. 
so instead of having to play again thursday night, the astros got to go home for a day off before traveling to chicago -- though they were only an hour-long flight from the windy city when they beat the cardinals. it still was extra rest for the pitchers, and everybody else. 
the city of houston waited 44 seasons for its first world series. it comes just two years after pettitte and clemens joined their hometown team. 
"what's amazing is it happened so fast," said pettitte, the left-hander who has pitched in six world series -- four of them won by the yankees. "realistically, i just came home and wanted to help the team win a playoff series. that's really what the goal was. then roger signed." 
clemens (3-0, 1.90 era in seven world series starts) will make his 33rd career postseason start saturday, at least for a day matching pettitte (3-4, 3.90 in 10 world series starts) for the most ever. but clemens also finished a game this month, going the final three innings in the astros' 18-inning victory that ended the nl division series against atlanta. 
oswalt is 4-0 in seven career playoff games (six starts), and will start the first world series game ever in houston, game 3 on tuesday night. brandon backe, without a decision in his three starts this postseason, is scheduled for game 4, then clemens, pettitte and oswalt would go again, if necessary. 
lidge was warming up at the end wednesday night. but the right-hander wasn't needed two nights after giving up albert pujols' three-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning that gave the cardinals a 5-4 victory and extended the nlcs. 
"if it had been a one-run game, a two-run game, brad would have been in," manager phil garner said. "we are not here without brad lidge. if the game is on the line again in any circumstances, he's our guy." 
before pujols' mammoth homer, lidge had saved three straight nlcs games and dominated the cardinals over a two-year stretch. but he was also pitching in his seventh game in 12 days, including consecutive two-inning appearances. 
now, lidge is ready to pitch again after the needed rest. 
"i just can't wait to get back," lidge said. ``i'm going to be so pumped up to get out there in the world series. it's going to be amazing." 
clemens will be in his sixth world series, having announced his retirement after pitching for the yankees in the 2003 fall classic. 
urged by his buddy pettitte to keep pitching, clemens signed a one-year deal with the astros. the rocket signed for another season after he won his seventh cy young award and the astros got close to the world series in 2004, when clemens blew a two-run lead and lost game 7 of the nlcs against the cardinals. 
``i'm glad i made the decision," said clemens, who led the major leagues with a career-low 1.87 era during the regular season. ``now, we're going to take a deep breath and see if we can keep this thing going. ... it's great. this is for the city, our fans at home. it's for the entire team, but there are special cases in this." 
such as craig biggio and jeff bagwell, who have been teammates longer than anybody else in baseball, at 15 seasons. 
``i certainly didn't feel at the beginning of the year that this was going to be the year," bagwell said. ``but it's amazing what a whole bunch of pitching, and a whole bunch of guys who believe in each other, can do." 
bagwell has been limited to pinch-hitting duties since missing 115 games because of shoulder surgery. he'll likely start as the designated hitter in the games at chicago. 

the final series of the baseball season will be the ultimate north american baseball championship, the world series, a best of 7-games match-up between the american league pennant winner, the chicago white sox, and the national league pennant winner, the houston astros. game 1 of the world series will start saturday evening. 



australian opposition minister gives speech on poverty

australian shadow minister for work, family, youth, and community, tanya plibersek, gave a speech today on poverty as part of anti-poverty week 2005. during the speech she criticised the government in a number of areas, including not committing to the un millennium development goals, the proposed industrial relations legislation, and the governments funding of services for the homeless. 

anti-poverty week runs from monday 17th to friday 21st october, and is derived from the united nations international day for the eradication of poverty on october 17th. shaun mortimer, the coordinator of anti-poverty week at unsw, said that the week was about "creating awareness and finding solutions to the plight of those living in poverty all around the world."

ms plibersek said that australia is not doing enough to help those in poverty overseas. she said that australia currently gives 0.28% of its gross national income in foreign aid, however this is far short of the united nations target of 0.7%. 

"the australian government is refusing to commit to the 0.7% target," she said. 

the un development goal states that governments should reach the target by 2015. labor has committed to meet the target, but the government has not. 

"labor is committed to the 0.7% target. in the interim, the government should be spending 0.5% of gni," ms plibersek said. 

shadow minister plibersek accused the government of weakening australias commitment to the millennium development goals. the goals were agreed to in 2000 by all 191 member states of the united nations. there are 8 goals, which signatory states have committed to work towards. the eight goals are:


ms plibersek said that australia signed on to the goals, but is now not honouring that commitment, and is attempting to reduce the impact of the goals in an attempt to win the favour of the united states. 

"we signed on to the millennium goals," she said. 

"in it's rush to be popular with the us the government went along with watering down the millennium goals"

shadow minister plibersek strongly criticised the governments proposed industrial relations legislation. she argued that the proposed changes will disproportionately affect already vulnerable people such as single mothers, and push working people into poverty. 

"industrial relations changes will see poverty worsen. it will increase the number of working poor," she said. 

speaking about the governments hypthetical worker, "billy", used in promotional material, ms plibersek said individual workplace agreements will result in lowered working conditions for all workers. she also claimed that if a working person is paid a wage that does not provide them with enough resources to live, they will need to depend on government services such as income support, and therefore taxpayers will be subsidising the low wages. 

"if billy can not earn enough to live, then taxpayers are effectively subsidising business," she said. 

"if the system has no minimum standards it will drag everyone down. unions have fought against this for over a century"

ms plibersek spoke about the problem of poverty in australia. she said that 2.4 million people in australia are living below the poverty line, and 1 million of them have jobs. she also argued that wealth inequality is getting worse. 

"we have a nation now more divided than ever. the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer," she said. 

ms plibersek felt that this situation was unnaceptable, and that the solution was only a matter of will. 

"i don't think we have to accept that people will always be poor. it is a situation we allow," she said. 

she also criticised the government for inadequately funding services for the homeless, and said that many homeless people who wanted help were unable to find any. ms plibersek argued that women escaping domestic violence were especially affected by this situation. 

"we turn away 1 in 2 people who approach homeless services for help," she said. 

ms plibersek also condemned what the government describes as the "skills shortage", saying that there are lots of australians willing to gain skills, but are unable to get places in training institutions. 

"we turn 20,000 people away from tafe and university each year," she said. 


endon mahmood, wife of malaysian pm, dies

the wife of datuk seri abdullah ahmad badawi, the prime minister of malaysia, died in her official residence, seri perdana in putrajaya, malaysia at 7.55 a.m 20th october 2005 after battling breast cancer for three years.

endon, 64, had recently returned from undergoing treatment in los angeles, america. abdullah, endon's mother datin mariam abdullah, her two children kamaluddin and nori, daughter-in-law azrene abdullah, son-in-law khairy jamaluddin and her four grandchildren (who are kamaluddin's children) were by her side as she breathed her last.

endon was buried at the islamic cremation centre at precinct 20, putrajaya.

as a sign of respect, several cabinet ministers including deputy prime minister datuk seri najib tun razak and information minister datuk seri abdul kadir sheikh fadzir cancelled official functions. the official launch of the national jersey for the sea games was also called off, which was scheduled to be officiated by the deputy premier. 

radio and television stations switched to a somber mood by broadcasting songs with verses from the holy quran. muslim radio announcers called on listeners to offer the al-fatihah verse to endon. 

senior government officers, including secretaries general and directors general, based in putrajaya also rushed to seri perdana to pay their last respects. 

philippine president gloria macapagal arroyo, singapore's prime minister lee hsien loong, brunei's sultan hassanal bolkiah, indonesian vice president jusuf kalla and thai deputy prime minister surakiart sathirathai were among foreign dignitaries flying in for endon's funeral later thursday. 

thousands of people filed past endon's body, which lay in state wrapped in white linen on a table while muslim clerics recited verses from the quran.

endon was respected for her humble, unassuming personality. she was popularly referred to as "kak endon," or "elder sister endon." she discovered she had cancer in 2002 after her twin sister, noraini, was earlier diagnosed with the disease. noraini died in 2003. 

endon had a breast removed and traveled to the united states regularly for treatment. she returned to malaysia from los angeles on oct. 1 after five rounds of chemotherapy since july. endon had been deeply involved in awareness programs for breast cancer, the main cause of illness-related fatalities for malaysian women. she has said she refused to feel sorry for herself, and felt fortunate she could obtain the best medical treatment.

endon met abdullah while both were working at the public services department in the 1960s. since retiring in 1976, she has mainly been involved in charity work, and has spearheaded efforts to assist children in north korea, bosnia-herzegovina and kosovo. 

endon insisted she was never passionate about politics, and that she had to "slowly accept it" when abdullah became much busier after he was elected a member of parliament in 1978. "i must be supportive and understanding of his duties," endon told in an interview. "i always compliment him. he will always phone when he is away and we always tell each other we love each other."

abdullah has often called endon his "no. 1 supporter." when his mother died of natural causes in february 2004, abdullah telephoned endon in the united states, where she was undergoing treatment. she later told reporters that he said: "i've lost my mother and i don't want to lose you too." abdullah and endon often showed public displays of affection, including hugs and kisses on each other's cheeks. 

agus yusuff, a political scientist at the national university of malaysia, expressed confidence that abdullah would "not let his personal loss affect his responsibilities." "he has been mentally prepared for endon's death for some time," agus said. "he will bounce back and carry out his work as prime minister with his usual zest."

the exco of the malaysian's umno youth, haji mat mazlan abu dies in an accident at the junction of klia. he is on the way to visit endon mahmood in putrajaya

thousands of malaysians, including vips, royalties, foreign dignitaries, paying the last respects to datin seri endon mahmood who passed away thursday at the prime minister's official residence in putrajaya


premiers take on australian pm on shoot to kill laws

several of australian state premiers and more civil libertarians have added to the growing chorus of concern over the proposed australian anti-terrorism bill, which was proposed by the australian prime minister, and the state and territory governments following the london transport bombings of july 7, which killed 56 people 

the prime minister has been accused of adding a provision to new laws giving federal police the power to shoot to kill. the case of a brazilian man mistakenly shot dead in london this year is cited by western australia's premier as a reason for caution. he went on to say the prime minister misled the premiers on what laws he actually intended to introduce. 

gallop told sbs "when we went to canberra, we agreed with the prime minister that changes were necessary, particularly in respect of control orders and preventative detention. but the shoot to kill policy wasn't part of the agreement and we certainly won't be supporting it in any legislation in western australia. to have a provision like that, i think exposes us to the sorts of risks that we saw in the uk and i don't think this is a good signal to be sending out". 

the queensland premier peter beattie and victorian premier steve bracks also raised concerns about the shoot to kill provision, saying it was not in the original document agreed to by the federal and state governments.

the new south wales (nsw) premier morris iemma, went further today saying he would not put into law the proposed laws by the federal government.

while confiming the state's proposed anti-terrorism laws are supposed to mirror the federal laws, nsw would not contain a shoot-to-kill provision. iemma told "the sydney morning herald" "we will bring forward legislation consistent with what was agreed to".

the federal government needs the co-operation of the states, as it is constrained in its policing powers by the constitution.

the nsw premier warns that if the federal government does not water down its proposed laws, nsw may decided to write different rules which raises the prospect that federal and state police will be operating under different rules in joint anti-terrorist operations and have different legal protections for their actions.

south australian premier mike rann is still committed to the proposals he agreed to at last month's coag meeting in canberra, but said they made no reference to powers to shoot-to-kill.

"i will commit right now to everything that i committed to at coag but i won't commit to things that i haven't seen and i won't commit to things that have been put in that i didn't agree to," mr rann said.

federal opposition leader kim beazley, at a press conference in melbourne said that the states already gave police powers to use deadly force, and he wants the shoot-to-kill provisions to pass through a proper parliamentary inquiry process.

"there does not need to be any additional legislation related to that ... what exists now is perfectly sufficient and it seems to me that's what bracks and beattie were saying," mr beazley told "the age".

beazley called for a proper inquiry process in the federal parliament, by the parliamentary intelligence committee or its senate equivalent.

"either way that's fine, but there needs to be an appropriate examination of these laws by that process before parliament finally deliberates on it."

jon mcintyre the president of the nsw law society, said the provision, would take away an individual's "fundamental freedoms".

mr mcintyre told abc radio that police would be able to get an order "without a person being reasonably suspected of committing of an offence".

mcintyre said that international examples proved arbitrary powers such as these would likely be abused.

the prime minister says the proposal is nothing more than formalising powers that already exist under common laws introduced by the states.

speaking on abc radio's pm "i don't think there's a real conflict, because what we're proposing is not something that's new, there's always been a common law right for police officers in certain circumstances to use deadly force. been there for centuries. and it's been codified into the law recently because there was some doubt about the exact limits of it." 

he went on to say "what we are proposing in relation to preventive detention is similar to what now exists in relation to other terrorism offences, and very similar to what is in the victorian law"

the prime minister is confident that he will work out the differences. saying "i'll talk to them. i'm appreciative of the cooperation that i have received from the state premiers on this issue"

"we all know that the sad circumstances that now require unusual laws. i'm quite sure that they're in the national interest, and i am confident they will be approved by the federal parliament and by the state parliaments."



american soldiers accused of desecrating enemy bodies

the afghanistan government and the u.s. army have begun investigations into whether burned the bodies of two suspected taliban fighters and used the burned bodies to taunt enemy forces.

the video reportedly showing u.s. soldiers burning the bodies of suspected taliban fighters outside the southern village of gonbaz was shown on australia's television network. the video was taken by stephen dupont, who said the burnings happened october 1 while he was embedded with the army's 173rd airborne brigade.

dupont said the incendiary messages later broadcast by the psychological operations unit showed they were aware that the cremation would be seen as desecration. 

in a televised interview, dupont told the australian news agency that: "they [soldiers] used that as a psychological warfare, i guess you'd call it. they used the fact that the taliban were burned facing west [toward mecca<nowiki>]</nowiki>. they deliberately wanted to incite that much anger from the taliban so the taliban could attack them. ... that's the only way they can find them."

the sbs report suggested the actions could violate the governing the treatment of enemy remains during wartime which state; "dead are honorably interred, if possible according to the rites of the religion to which they belonged." the taliban government, that ruled afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, when u.s. led force invaded the country and ended their regime, did not recognize the geneva convention in their term of rule.

"we strongly condemn any disrespect to human bodies regardless of whether they are those of enemies or friends," said a afghanistan spokesman karim rahimi.

"this alleged action is repugnant to our common values," u.s. maj. gen. jason kamiya said, "this command takes all allegations of misconduct or inappropriate behavior seriously and has directed an investigation into circumstances surrounding this allegation."


openoffice.org office suite version 2.0 has been released

openoffice.org today released version 2.0 of their free software office suite. this release marks over three years of continuous development and boasts many features over version 1.0 which was released in may 2002. the latest release may be downloaded from the openoffice.org web site free of charge.

the suite is intended to be a replacement for microsoft's popular office suite, containing near-identical functionality without the price tag. site administrators from openoffice.org say the suite has been downloaded an average of over 400,000 times per week from the official site alone. when taking into account that the suite is freely redistributable, and that it is distributed with many versions of gnu/linux, the total number of copies in distribution is larger still.

one of the reasons for its significant popularity is the inclusion of several features not found in competing office suites, including in-built export to the pdf format and compatibility with windows, linux and mac os x operating systems.

distributed under the terms of the gnu lesser general public license, the openoffice.org office suite can be run, studied, modified, and redistributed by anybody that receives a copy. this means that any person, group, or company can publish an alternative version - which makes problems such as vendor lock-in impossible. it also guarantees that the development will roughly follow with the wants of the userbase - instead of just the business model of one company.

a lot of work has gone into making this release more visually compatible with the look of microsoft office on computers running windows xp, however, some users were not happy with the effects these changes had on the look of openoffice.org when using a dark theme (colour settings).



iran bans hollywood movies

the president of iran mahmoud ahmadinejad and the supreme cultural revolutionary council, which he heads, has banned movies from western nations which are seen to promote immorality, violence, drug usage, alcohol consumption, secularism, liberalism, anarchy and feminism.

western films are widely shown in the islamic republic, though they are highly censored so as to remove any scenes of drug taking (including alcohol) or women dressed in clothing deemed too revealing. also, despite a state ban on satellite tv many iranians watch foreign movie channels. 

many believe this new ban is a gesture to the hardline conservatives who backed ahmadinejad in the recent iranian presidential election, and some fear for how it will be enforced. in theory home-made films will not be affected, for the law only refers to foreign movies, but some analysts say it could cause nervousness and might tempt some iranian directors to apply self-censorship, and al jazeera points out that these films already undergo a censorship process.



un appeals for more aid for devastated pakistan region

kofi annan, secretary general of the united nations, has sent out a plea for more aid for regions of pakistan affected by this month's devastating earthquake. he fears thousands could die if aid does not arrive soon.

the death toll from the earthquake is already feared to be at least 79,000. 

"...unlike some natural disasters, in which victims die immediately, the death toll in pakistan is not over yet," annan says. "an estimated three million men, women and children are homeless. many of them have no blankets or tents to protect them against the merciless himalayan winter. that means a second, massive wave of death will happen if we do not step up our efforts now.

helicopters and trucks are of the greatest need.

"the money to pay for those things has been lacking", said annan."so far, we have received firm commitments for only 12 per cent of our appeal. that is $37 million us out of the $312 million that we need."

during the massive relief effort for the dec. 26 tsunami 80 percent of the appeal was filled in 10 days.

a major donor conference has been called for next week by annan. he hopes it will help speed up aid.

"there are no excuses," annan also said. "if we are to show ourselves worthy of calling ourselves members of humankind, we must rise to this challenge."

emergency relief co-ordinator jan egeland said today that nato needs to organize a massive air-lift if it wants to save lives.
the evacuation needs to take place before winter sets in. the main taget would be small isolated villages.

nato "has" been air-lifting in aid every day from it's base in germany. another "air brigade" was added recently from turkey.

the major airlift is needed "to get supplies in and people out," egeland told cbc news on thursday.
in order to shelter everyone who is homeless they need, "350,000 tents, which is a mind-boggling number, more than we know exist in the world, are needed..." 
"we have emptied all of our warehouses."
feeling the need to prevent the feared second wave of death, rescuers are in the process of making hard decisions. aid workers have decided that, this weekend, the focus will switch from treating 87,000 injured to getting aid to the homeless.

"it's a tough call but we have to face the fact that we're going to save more lives by getting tents, shelter, food, and supplies up to the people who have nothing [rather] than continuing to bring the injured down," said capt. edward parsons, with the un's humanitarian relief operation in pakistan

helicopters are "double tasking" in their trips to small villages. they drop off supplies then pick up the injured.
however, the method is proving time-consuming, the need to speed up inward air-lifts is growing.


irish government sends team of officials in hunt for journalist

the irish minister for foreign affairs mr. dermot ahern has announced that he will send a team of five officials to iraq to secure the release of kidnapped journalist mr rory carroll.

the team will be lead by antoin mac unfraidh, the former ambassador to iraq and will liase with the irish government's contacts in iraq. 

officials from the department of foreign affairs say they have been working through the night to try to gather information about mr carroll’s whereabouts.

brian cowen, the minister for finance, acting on behalf of the taoiseach said "i call on anybody who has any influence in that area to assist. we are trying to do all we can through our contacts".

the taoiseach bertie ahern himself told bbc news that he hoped the kidnappers would bear in mind he was "an irish person not involved in any way" with the iraqi conflict. "we in fact granted him a passport in irish, in our own language, in order to ensure that he would use this in such a way that to emphasise his irishness in cases of difficulty." 

chairman of the irish anti-war coaliton said that he was "entirely innocent of any crime against the iraqi people", adding: "no cause will be served by keeping him in captivity or harming him in any way."

carrolls editor at the guardian alan rusbridger issued a statement saying that "he is in iraq as a professional journalist - and he's a very good, straight journalist whose only concern is to report fairly and truthfully about the country. we urge those holding him to release him swiftly - for the sake of his family and for the sake of anyone who believes the world needs to be kept fully informed about events in iraq today." 

all sides of political debte in ireland expressed condemnation of the abduction and support for the governments efforts to secure the release of the 33 year old journalist from the guardian.


newspaper editor shot dead in iraq

the international federation of journalists today reported that an iraqi journalist has been shot dead in baghdad by unknown assailants. mohammad harun hassan was editor of the nabdh al shabeb newspaper, and executive secretary of an iraqi trade union, the iraqi journalists syndicate. 

according to the ifj, harun hassan is the 100th media worker to be killed since march 2003. 

moaid al lamy, a board member of the union, told the ifj that harun hassan had been critical of a number of political parties and some other editors. 

"we believe this is a despicable attempt to weaken the syndicate and to try to kill off hopes for strong and independent professional journalism in iraq", al lamy said. 

the news comes a day after the kidnapping of irish journalist rory carroll, who had been working as the baghdad correspondent of the london-based guardian newspaper.

 


spain issues arrest warrant for three u.s. soldiers accused of killing two journalists in 2003

a spanish judge has issued an international arrest warrant for 3 u.s. soldiers whose tank fire killed a spanish journalist, jose couso, and a ukrainian cameraman in a baghdad hotel on april 8, 2003. judge santiago pedraz issued the warrant on wednesday for the arrests of sgt. shawn gibson, capt. philip wolford and lt. col. philip de camp. the judge hopes that the three will be extradited to spain to face charges of "murder" and a "crime against the international community".

pedraz resorted to issuing the warrant after the united states government ignored requests to send documents pertaining to the case as well as a request to send a legal team to question the soldiers.
he said that because of the lack of cooperation in the matter, extradition was "the only effective measure to ensure the accused are made available to spanish judicial authorities."

jose couso, a cameraman with spain's telecinco network, died at the palestine hotel as united states forces moved through to take control of the area. a lawyer working for the man's family told cnn that she doubted the warrant would have any effect. according to her, the united states probably will not extradite the men to face charges and there is little chance spain can arrest them if they do not leave the us.

additionally, spanish news agencies have reported that the national court prosecutor's office announced later wednesday that it would appeal the arrest warrant on the grounds that judge pedraz has no jurisdiction in the case.

united states state department officials have commented in the past that they do not plan to extradite the three men. "i just cannot imagine how any u.s. soldier can be subject to some kind of foreign proceeding for criminal liability when he is in a tank in a war zone as part of an international coalition," a u.s. state department official, requesting anonymity, said in june.


publishers seek injunction against google print

a number of publishers represented by the trade union group association of american publishers (aap) filed an injuction in u.s. district court in new york on wednesday to stop google from moving forward with plans for its print library project.

the current situation between the publishing industry and google requires that copyright holders notify the search engine if they do not want works to appear on the internet in full by november 1. where requests by copyright holders exist, the search result will display only a snippet of the text and a link to where users can buy a hard copy. google denies it is violating u.s. copyright law.

negotiations broke down when google rejected a proposal by aap to use isbn. 

parties to the injunction want to implement a system where a listing of permissible works and books is populated by the discretion of the publisher or author. by default, all other copyrighted content would be excluded.

google offers this explanation of how "google print" works:
just do a search on the google print homepage. when we find a book whose content contains a match for your search terms, we'll link to it in your search results. click a book title and you'll see the page of the book that has your search terms, along with other information about the book and "buy this book" links to online bookstores (you can view the entirety of public domain books or, for books under copyright, just a few pages or in some cases, only the title’s bibliographic data and brief snippets). you can also search for more information within that specific book and find nearby libraries that have it.
plaintiffs involved in the case are mcgraw-hill, pearson plc, penguin group, simon & schuster, inc. and john wiley & sons. recovery of court costs are being sought, but no punitive damages.



raf officer refusing to serve in iraq

flight lieutenant malcolm kendall-smith, a new zealand born raf medical officer based at kinloss in scotland, faces a court martial on four counts of disobeying a lawful command.

it has been reported that the charges will be defended on the basis that an officer is justified in refusing to obey commands if they are illegal and that the invasion of iraq was an illegal act.

no date has yet been set for the court martial.

 


journalist freed from baghdad captors

irish news correspondent rory carroll was free thursday night from his baghdad captors after 36 hours of being held hostage. carroll was released to ahmad chalabi, the deputy prime minister of iraq, and was put under the protection of the iraqi government.

"i was treated reasonably well," carroll said of his captors. he thought that his abduction was done by criminals who were being opportunistic. their identity is unclear.

the 33-year-old carroll was on assignment from "the guardian" when he was taken from outside a house in the predominantly shiite area of sadr city wednesday. 




wikimedia foundation and answers.com announce partnership

the wikimedia foundation, the mother organization of the popular wikipedia encyclopedia, and answers.com, a search engine company, announced a new partnership. this partnership will lead to the development of a special edition of answers.com's "1-click answers tool", called "1-click answers, wikipedia edition". the advertising revenues from this software will be split with the wikimedia foundation. it will be linked from the english wikipedia tools page for a 60 day trial beginning in 2006.

jimmy wales, president of the wikimedia foundation, said he was "pleased to partner with answers.com, encouraging software that improves access to wikipedia." bob rosenschein, answers.com's founder and ceo, told the media that wikipedia is "the most dynamic of over 120 content sources found in answers.com". 

the wikipedia community is actively discussing the partnership. "one of the potential problems with encouraging software-based and third party uses of wikipedia's content is that it could divert people from the site," one user remarked.


high school shooting in michigan, usa injures one

a high school student is in custody tonight after the alleged shooting of another student in the second floor hallway of a saginaw high school in michigan thursday. according to saginaw public schools spokesperson michael manley, the incident occurred during the lunch period at saginaw high school.

manley stated in an email that both the victim and the suspect attended the saginaw juvenile center during the same periods. both students were accepted into the school district at the beginning of the school year.

following the incident, manley stated that metal detectors have been installed inside the school, and that all students and visitors are required to pass through them starting friday morning.

the victim was taken to a local hospital, where his condition has been reported as critical but stable. it is expected that the student will survive.

earlier this year, high schools in the area rescheduled all night events to take place during earlier times in the day, due to an increase in security concerns. when asked about the increase in violence, manley said "the violence we have experienced has been the result of community problems, feuds, disagreements, etc. that have found there way into schools."

the high school had previously been a target in a shooting last month. no injuries were reported.


swedish couple names baby boy &quot;google&quot;

a swedish lebanese couple, walid elias and carol kai, has chosen to name their first born son google, after the well-known search engine.

the swedish tax authority, which normally frowns on unusal names, apparently had no objections.

the father, walid elias kai, says he's a "great fan" of the search engine and wanted to honor the service by naming his son after it. but mr. kai says he and his wife also chose the name because of the similar word googol. "[googol] means 1 followed by 100 zeroes," stated mr. kai, "and i want my son to have lots of friends ? i want him to be social, so the name also symbolises this."

upon hearing the news, authors of the google weblog wrote, "we wish him long life and good health, and hope his schoolmates aren't too hard on him."

google kai already has his own website at http://www.google-kai.com/


syrian officials and lebanese president accused by u.n. report

the death of former lebanese prime minister rafik al-hariri in february 2005 was the result of collaboration between syrian and lebanese officials, says an investigation submitted to the u.n. security council on thursday.

syrian information minister mahdi dakhlallah refuted the report saying it was based on witnesses "who are well known for their anti-syria stands."

the report cast suspicion upon syrian security officials, as well as current lebanese president emile lahoud. hariri resigned from his post in october 2004, criticizing the syrians for pressuring the lebanese government to extend lahoud's term. emile lahoud's office issued a statement "categorically" denying contents of the u.n. report; "there is no truth to it."

john bolton, u.s. ambassador to the united nations, said "after an initial read, the results are clearly troubling and will require further discussion with the international community." the united states, britain, and france have discussed taking actions against syria, though no response is expected until at least next week.

hariri and 20 others were killed when a bomb exploded outside his motorcade in beirut. u.n. resolution 1595 provided for the investigation of hariri's assassination, which will be led by german prosecutor detlev mehlis.



major isp level 3 experiences downtime

on thursday at about 23:30 pst, level 3 communications, one of the largest internet service providers (isps), disconnected from most of the internet. the broomfield colorado, usa-based level 3 is a tier 1 provider that connects smaller isps together in order to pass data.

there are various reasons why they may have dropped off. the official answer given on the phone was that they had an ospf failure in chicago that caused massive internal routing issues. this was followed by a network wide failure of bgp ? the protocol that allows the internet to route between providers.

other possible reasons are more nefarious. apparently, level 3 recently demanded that its peers (other isps that connect to them on a mutually beneficial level) pay level 3 $30,000 usd. some speculate that their quarterly report released yesterday and subsequent stock price dropping caused them to make a display of power in order to convince other isps to pay up. if this was the case, it failed horribly as many other isps are now disconnecting from their network, and, due to their demands of payment, are considering not reconnecting at all. so far there is no reason to believe that this is anything more than an urban legend, as the outage impacted all other peers and customers as well.

larger network-based projects noticed the outage immediately. the freenode irc network set up a channel for ongoing news and to figure out how to work around the problem. as reports came in from around the world, it became more obvious that this would not be a simple fix. level 3 had lost connections to at&t, cogent, internap, qwest, savvis, sbc, sprint, uunet, verio, wiltel, xo, and more.

an hour into the problem, many network administrators had routed around level 3 to avoid their problems, but level 3 was still out. two hours in and the response from level 3 was that “we're having technical problems ? no estimated time of completion yet”. 

finally, after about two and a half hours, level 3 started routing packets correctly, but it could hardly be considered fully functional. pieces of the network seemed to be going up and down at random and level 3 tech support said they would need more time to fix the problem.

at about 3:30 pst, level 3's services returned to normal, and they reconnected to the internet.


 


south thailand insurgents blamed for five bombs

in the continuing unrest in the predominantly muslim southern provinces of thailand, insurgents have been blamed for the planting of five bombs during one day.

in yala, at the provincial hall a remote-controlled bomb that had been attached to an official's car was detonated mid-morning. pairin chaimarn, a community development officer and owner of the car, was shocked to learn she had been sitting on a bomb. the governor ordered checks be carried out on all vehicles entering the provincial hall's parking area.

another two bombs in the province were discovered. one under a policeman's car was noticed and handled by the bomb-squad.. bomb-disposal experts reported that it had contained 5kg of home-made explosives. only one hour later another device was discovered in the same district of the province. residents reported it to border police who shot the device in an effort to disable it. it was confirmed that it contained explosives.

in pattani province, a home-made device was left at the entrance to yarang district's electricity office. it was found to contain fertilizer and iron rods, with a mobile phone, presumably for remote detonation.

the final bomb of the day detonated at a railway crossing booth in pattani; nobody was injured by the blast.

recent violence in the southern provinces of thailand has a historical basis going back to the 16th century. pattani, one of the northern sultinates on the malay peninsula, was at that time loosely governed by the kingdom of siam. the british colonial administration of malaya formally recognised siamese sovereignty in the anglo-siamese treaty of 1909, the sultinate was divided into the provinces narathiwat, pattani, and yala in 1933. along with songkhla province, the region has had a recognisable separatist movement since some time in the 1930s, seeking to establish an independent state, patani darussalam (patani, land of peace).


norway takes action to prevent a possible bird flu epidemic

the norwegian government has in recent days taken several steps to prevent a possible bird flu epidemic from entering the country and further spreading within the nations border. apart from obtaining a stock of the medicine tamiflu, the norwegian food safety authority issued today an order for all poultry in eleven of the of the country's nineteen counties to be kept indoors: rogaland, vestfold, buskerud, telemark, Ostfold, akershus, oslo, hedmark, oppland, vest-agder, and aust-agder. the authority also asked the border customs to increase the inspections against possible illegal import of poultry. 

""we continue to monitor the situation and are co-operating with other authorities as well as other european authorities"", said director of health and hygiene within the norwegian food safety authority, stein ivar ormsettro.

import of poultry has also been stopped from parts of russia and other countries.


possible end to strike, fines for bc teachers

premier gordan campbell announced in a news conference today that he will accept the plan unconditionally.

however, jinny sims (head of the bctf) has said that she will only accept the proposal if the government provides firm class-size numbers and support for special-needs students.
"we need for our students a guarantee in writing that this government will make changes to the school act to put firm class-size numbers" sims also said, "and in the school act, they will address class composition. and that means support for special needs kids".

sims will recommend to her union to accept the proposal if these conditions are met.

key points of the proposal to which both sides have agreed include:
"i believe the recommendations provide a fair basis for resolution of the present dispute, especially in the context of the additional opportunities for the bctf to address these and other issues in the next few months," ready's report said.

if the union votes this weekend, classes could be in this monday.

justice brenda brown of the british columbia supreme court made an order today that the bctf must pay $500,000 for being in contempt of court. she noted that the fine would have been "significantly larger", were it not for the fact that the two sides were working toward an agreement to quickly end the labour disruption. the amount was based on the union's membership numbers and assets ($15 million). 

legal commentators noted that this is the largest penalty ever ordered by a canadian court following a finding of contempt. a lawyer for the employer noted that he was satisfied with the size of the fine. still, it's not over yet. the court has the right to order further penalties if the union and its members continue their illegal job action. as well, an independent prosecutor appointed by the attorney general's office is reviewing the case to determine whether charges of criminal contempt are appropriate.




avian flu found within uk

bird flu has been found in a parrot under quarantine which was being imported from surinam, south america. it has been confirmed as the lethal h5n1 strain found predominantly in asia. it is speculated that the flu might have originated from taiwanese birds which had previously been kept with the south american birds, as no other h5n1 cases have yet been reported in surinam. this is the first case of avian flu found in birds destined to be imported to the united kingdom since the recent outbreak affecting many parts of the world. the bbc has said that all birds in the quarantine unit are now being culled. people who may have come into contact with them will be given anti-viral treatment as a precaution.

although the case was found in the uk it does not affect the uk's 'disease free' status because the bird was under quarantine.



france protests treatment of government minister by us authorities; us government admits mistake

updated: 

the french government has protested officially to the us government for some border control that it deemed "a little excessive" with respect to a french minister travelling to the us on october 13 on a diplomatic passport and with a diplomatic visa.

french spokesman, jean-baptiste mattei said; "we protested to the u.s. authorities and have received clarifications via the state department, which recognized that a professional fault had been made by the officer. he has been reprimanded and will go through a retraining program." the spokesman declined to give details of the incident, but said the action of the officer had been "completely out of place with respect to a government minister."

the official, azouz begag, was born in lyon, france of algerian lineage. a researcher in socioeconomics at cnrs, and a writer, he is now delegate minister in charge of the promotion of equality. his functions include most notably the fight against racism.

neither governments provided specific details about the incident, at first. however, further details have emerged. according to "le monde", mr begag was told by an officer that his diplomatic visa was not valid for giving conferences, then was taken to an interrogation room. mr begag was due to be met at the airport by american officials and french consular officers, but due to miscommunication they could not find him in the airport when he arrived.

it is not the first time that mr begag has had to confront suspicions of his identity. he mentioned an event in a french bank where, when entering with a woolen cap, he was taken for a thief and the police was called in. he also mentions the difficulties which, he says, people of arabic origin have when entering the united states since the september 11, 2001 bombings. he has a personal experience of such difficulties in 2003, when, as a writer, he had problems entering the us.



emigration perspective in the eyes of young poles

during 19 and 20 october in cz?stochowa took place national scientific students conference, which was mainly devoted to migration of young polish people. it was prepared by two students organizations from technical university of cz?stochowa and jan d?ugosz academy. the leading theme was: to leave or to stay? young poles seeking for prospect year after polish accession to european union.

particular parts of conference was lead by sociology profesors marek szczepa?ski, adam roso? and lech milian.

for the following two days students were presented their own research work, then discussing the reports with professors. the main problems which those reports concerns were opinion and attitudes of young pols towards the problems of temporary and permanent emigration. few voice concern about the unemployment rate among people under 25, an issue connected with job searching, as well as identity matters, acculturation of expatriates or the relevance of emotional sphere to adjustement to new host country.


iraqi vote remains in doubt

amid concerns of electoral fraud, preliminary results now indicate the province of nineveh will be the "swing province" deciding the fate of iraq's constitutional referendum. on october 15, a reported 64% of eligible iraqis voted in the referendum on the draft iraqi constitution. one week later, preliminary results are available for fourteen of the eighteen provinces. two of iraq's 18 provinces have returned "no" votes, making nineveh the third and deciding province that could veto the new u.s.-backed charter if rejected by more than a two thirds majority of voters. 

despite a last minute compromise achieved with one political party representing sunni arabs, sunni voters appear to be rejecting the proposed charter by a wide margin. in anbar, heartland of the insurgency, 96 percent voted "no" and in salahaddin 81 percent voted "no", according to preliminary results. nineveh is more ethnically mixed, but still mainly sunni, and is at the center of fraud concerns when initial tallies of the overall vote appeared to swing wildly 

election officials caution that these preliminary results should not be construed as forecasts, as the ethnic diversity of those who actually voted may not be represented in these preliminary numbers.


amazon rainforest being destroyed faster than previously believed

newly published research shows that the amazon rainforest is being destroyed at double the rate of all previous estimates. the research was published today in the journal of science.

a new analysis of satellite images of the brazilian part of the amazon basin shows that on average 6,000 square miles of forest is being cut down by selective logging each year. this is in addition to a similar amount clear-cut annually for cattle grazing or farming. as a result, up to 25% more carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere every year.


former irish politician liam lawlor dies in car crash

former irish politician liam lawlor died saturday in a car crash outside moscow, russia. lawlor's mercedes crashed into a lamp post at approximately 1:00 msks (friday, 2100 utc).

lawlor was on a trip in the russian capital and was making his way to the airport with his driver and a ukrainian interpreter. the woman, who sustained serious injuries, survived the crash. the driver of the automobile was also killed.

lawlor resigned from poltics and his position as a teachta dala in the irish house of parliament (the dail) after he admitted receiving sums of money from the lobbyist frank dunlop. after fianna fail conducted its own internal investigation, lawlor resigned from the party, however he continued to support the government in the dail. lawlor appeared at the tribunal on several occasions and was imprisoned in mountjoy prison for non-compliance with the investigation.

previous untrue allegations that the ukrainian woman was a call girl have led to the irish independent newspaper issuing a formal apology to mr lawlor's family. reports that lawlor was in possession of the drug pcp were likewise proved to be false.


hundreds of suny new paltz students demonstrate, storm administration building

during the 2004?2005 academic year, students lobbied for a $10 million renovation project for their student union building, which has not been renovated since its construction more than 30 years ago.

hab spokesman eric gullickson said that the supplemental appropriation for the project is the largest in the history of the college and that the six-member advisory committee includes three students but that; "the student association, which was offered the first seat on this committee, declined the opportunity," gullickson said.

student leaders, including student body president r.j. partington iii and student senate chairjustin holmes, who played a role in organizing this demonstration, testified during the spring 2005 semester before the new york state assembly committee on higher education, eventually winning the renovation project. holmes says that gullickson's assertions are; "an out-and-out lie. the sa was never offered such a seat. we were offered 1 seat on a seven seat committee, with the administration selecting the other six members."

the major arguments for a capital project on the student union building were that it: 

during the fall 2005 semester the hab claimed that it would oversee the renovation project, citing the need for a larger lobby and bookstore.

the kingston daily freeman reported:
the crystallizing issue for the demonstration was the upcoming $10 million renovation of the student union building. the renovation, scheduled to begin in about two years, will be the first major change to the building since it was built 34 years ago, according to college spokesman eric gullickson, who said the supplemental appropriation for the project in the state budget is the largest in the college's history.
gullickson also said that a six-member committee had been formed to guide the design process, but student leaders, including partington, were told that the proposed committee would be seven members, including four non-students and two students who were appointed by the hab.

"no matter the size and makeup of the hab's so-called renovation committee, it has nothing to do with the actual renovation process, which will be administered by a student committee, with input from other parties of course considered," responded holmes.

during the fall 2005 semester, student body president r.j. partington iii attempted to negotiate with administrators, including hab president steven g. poskanzer, over the project.

the hab refused to concede to student demands.

at this point, the student senate passed legislation proclaiming that the project would be overseen by a committee where students constitute a majority, and partington announced that he “did not recognize and would not sit on” any committee that did not meet the needs of students.

vice president of acacdemic affairs & governance, stephanie adika said, "if the hab won't even listen to us about our own building, how are they going to listen to us about all the other problems the students have with suny new paltz."

the event itself was organized by a loose coalition of elected student leaders, organization activists, and other students.
more than 350 students converged on the student union building at about 3:10pm. student leaders took to the roof to address the mass, including:

students had been frustrated by a number of issues, including the campus drug policy, the state of the women’s studies department, a black solidarity event called “black solidarity day,” which the hab had not fully recognized, the police on campus, and the lack of competition in food service.

“the reason we will oversee the student union building renovation is that we need a place whose primary purpose is to facilitate the organization and mobilization of students around the many issues we have with campus policies,” said holmes.

"they try to keep us from going to that event," lee riley said of black solidarity day, an annual event that riley said some professors try to discourage students from attending by scheduling tests or mandatory labs on that day. "we're here to combat that. it's a day when we can promote unity. it's a day when we can promote pride."

at some point, some students spontaneously decided to enter the haggerty administration building, and well over 100 students followed.

the kingston daily freeman reported:

about 100 students flooded into the haggerty administration building toward the end of the demonstration, hoping to meet as a group with college president steven poskanzer. and when campus security blocked access to the building's elevators, the group climbed nine flights of stairs and filled the hall way outside of poskanzer's office. they chanted and drummed on the wood-paneled walls until student association president r.j. partington and student senate chairman justin holmes were admitted to poskanzer's outer office.
partington and holmes emerged to a very hot hallway, still filled with more than one hundred students. most were covered in sweat, and there was concern about oxygen depravation as some students were beginning to feel faint. several volunteers, including staff of the hab, held stairwell doors open to allow fresh air in to the crowd.

upon emerging, president partington addressed the students, saying, "if poskanzer does not meet with all of you here, then we are going to do this whole thing over again, except next time we will have twice as many people."

the hab office of public affairs responded to inquires by the mid-hudson news, saying,

but, college spokesman eric gullickson said the committee is in place only to provide advice to the administration. “it’s an advisory committee that the vice president of student affairs put together himself, seeing an opportunity to get students’ input, of which 50 percent of the people on the committee are students, seeking to get input from them on the planning and development of the student union building,” he said. the committee has no voting power and will not be making any decisions, said gullickson.
eric gullickson was contacted by wikinews for further comment relating to the demonstration and student concerns but declined the offer, saying, "i appreciate you offering us the opportunity to respond, however, we do not wish to contribute."

as students drifted off the concourse, organizers took the time to comment to local press and assess their performance.

top officials of the student assembly took time to review the documentation of the event. 

"traditionally one might expect that a protest the size of the one which took place last friday would cause a number of safety concerns for those involved." nathan arrowsmith, the suny student assembly director of safety, remarked, "but thanks to excellent organization on the part of the students and a surprising lack of direct confrontation on the part of the police we were able to see an amazing display of student solidarity without serious incident."

"i think it was crucial that the suny assembly was made aware of an event such as this," commented ryan arnold, president of the student association at suny fredonia. "our administration is great at working with the students, however there are many suny colleges and universities that do not know how to go about such a protest that is essential towards their success with the administration."

arnold sits on many administrative committees at suny fredonia, including a seat as the student affairs chairman, an opportunity that many students do not have at other institutions. 

holmes and partington presented a slideshow, with videos, to the assembly 

student leaders set up a wiki to gather information about suny new paltz and to mobilize the emerging protest movement.

wikipaltz grew quickly in the months after it was set up in july, 2005, and includes extensive coverage of the events.



taiwan to violate tamiflu patent due to vaccine shortage

the shortage of the antiviral, tamiflu, has prompted taiwan to begin work on copying the antiviral without the consent of its manufacturer and patent holder, the swiss pharmaceutical company hoffmann-la roche. though officials have requested permission from roche, they are not waiting on a response to begin work, citing the need to protect the public. 

in an interview with "reuters", the director of the division clinical research of the national health research institutes (nhri), su ih-jen said “we have tried our best to negotiate with roche …. we have shown our good will to roche and we appreciate their patent. but to protect our people is the utmost important thing.”

nhri will produce the generic version of the antiviral. taiwan will not market the drug commercially, planning to manufacture one to two million doses, only enough to have adequate stock in country. officials say they can manufacture the antiviral more quickly and at less cost than roche. one million doses of locally made tamiflu cost about t$200 million (us$5.9 million), compared with t$1 billion if purchased from roche. it will take approximately 3 months to manufacture one million doses.

several other countries have also petitioned roche for the right to make copies of tamiflu. 


tropical storm alpha forms, breaks atlantic storm record

tropical storm alpha formed saturday in the caribbean to break the record for most tropical storms in an ever, making it the 22nd storm of the year. it is also the first storm to be named with a letter of the greek alphabet. wilma exhausted the english alphabetic list as the 21st named storm; the letters q, u, x, y and z are skipped when naming storms.

currently, the storm has sustained winds of 40mph, which is only 1mph over the threshold for a tropical storm. it is centered about 70 miles south of , dominican republic. a tropical storm warning has been issued for haiti and portions of the dominican republic.

according to scientists, since 1995 an increase in hurricane activity has been due to a rise in ocean temperatures and decrease of wind shear that rip apart hurricanes.

the prior record has stood since the . however the season does not end till november 30, leaving room for more storms to form and shatter the record. scientists have noted that the number of very strong hurricanes is likely to increase further in future years as the effects of global warming increase. researcher dr peter webster stated that "what i think we can say is that the increase in (hurricane) intensity is probably accounted for by the increase in sea-surface temperature, and i think probably the sea-surface temperature increase is a manifestation of global warming." 



grand jury investigation of plame leak nears end

the two year investigation involving the leak of cia operative valerie plame's secret identity seems to be coming to an end.

special counsel patrick fitzgerald's grand jury, which has been investigating the "outing" of plame's secret status to columnist robert novak and other reporters, concludes its work on october 29. the u.s. department of justice has established a web site for the purpose of making any communication public. however, fitzgerald's office will not comment on the timing of any indictments which may be filed.

many individuals inside and outside the white house have apparently been interogated. two high level white house chiefs of staff, karl rove to president george w. bush, and i. lewis "scooter" libby to vice-president dick cheney, are part of the focus of the investigation. both rove and libby testified before the grand jury; rove 4 times, and libby at least twice. rove and libby have been informed that they may be in serious legal trouble.

according to legal sources, fitzgerald will give final notice to officials facing charges as early as monday and could convene the grand jury tuesday, one day earlier than usual, to summarize the case and request approval for possible indictments. the grand jury is scheduled to expire friday.

bush administration critics suggest the outing of the cia operative plame was an effort by the administration to prop up the credibility of pre-war claims that iraq possessed wmd. the bush administration has responded that the charge lacks any credibility.

valerie plame's husband, joseph wilson, was a former diplomat to niger who went public in july 2003 with an op-ed column that called evidence linking niger uranium to iraq bogus. the wilson column was written after the president bush 2003 state of the union address alleging that iraq sought to purchase uranium from niger. 




leaked poll finds 45% of iraqis support suicide bombers who attack allied forces

a poll conducted by an iraqi university research team on behalf of the british government and reported by british newspapers showed that 45% of iraqis support suicide bombers who attack coalition troops in iraq. in some areas this rises to 65%. 

other results of the poll include:


many iraqis resent the damage that has been done to their country by the invading forces. many believe their country has seen a decrease in standard of living, in freedom of movement and in safety and security. many iraqis hope that if the coalition forces can be encouraged to leave, the country can return to normal.

the survey contrasts with statements made by uk foreign secretary jack straw and us secretary of state condoleezza rice that there was widespread support for the invasion of iraq, and that the occupying powers were improving human rights in the country.

uk politician sir menzies campbell said "such findings are yet another argument in favour of a comprehensive exit strategy". it is not clear what would happen to the many us companies operating in iraq if the coalition troops were forced out. it seems unlikely that they would retain hold of oil production assets or keep a major role in construction projects, and it is not clear that the us would have benefitted in any way from its incursion into the country.

the poll was "undertaken for the ministry of defence and seen by the sunday telegraph" in the united kingdom.


florida governor jeb bush gives speech on hurricane wilma


florida governor jeb bush gives speech on hurricane wilma/notes

notes taken by for the article.


russian fighter crash in lithuania: investigation concludes

the fighter was one of five that were given permission to fly from russia to its heavily militarized province of kaliningrad/karaliaucius/koenigsberg, separated from the mainland by the territories of lithuania and poland. the last plane, piloted by valery troyanov, separated and promptly crashed near the city of kaunas. the pilot ejected and wasn't hurt. german nato planes that were securing the baltic airspace were too late to take off because of the lithuanian radar failures.

immediately, russia started a propaganda campaign. it denied the presence of weapons on the plane, however, four rockets and a chaingun have been found, as well as some radioactive materials. also, russia pushed for the formation of a joint investigation commission with lithuania.

lithuania, meanwhile, stayed true to its traditions of freedom and sovereignty, offering mr. tryanov a health test, inviting russian observers, holding the pilot under house arest at a hotel, inviting the wife to join her husband, cooperating with nato and ukrainian specialists, and firing the chief of its airforce for (unwittingly?) giving away classified information to the russians.

russian media, which is entirely state-controlled, focused on the rhetoric of russian military and the foreign ministry, ignoring a declaration of mr. troyanov and his wife where they expressed being satisfied with the handling of the case by the lithuanian government, and proclaiming that lithuania haven't tested mr. troyanov's health. russia also gave wrong technical data on the airplane involved.

the commission concluded that the accident was not a provocation, and the pilot was released. however, judging from the elaborately planned propaganda campaign, the commission might have preferred to make a decission favourable to good interstate relations. the pilot (who was flying an important international mission) has been proven to be incompetent. currently, in the cash-strapped russian army, pilots, such as major mr. troyanov, fly only several hours a year - about 15 times less than nato pilots.

russia plans to award mr. troyanov a medal and send him on a tour of schools to teach the subject of patriotism. lithuania has demanded a compensation of 3000 euros for the farmer in whose field the plane crashed.

nato, the european union and international mainstream media stayed almost completely silent about this accident. indymedia.org, meanwhile, refused to publish this article on unknown grounds.
russia violates the airspaces of its baltic neighbours at an average rate of 6 times a year. russia has never admitted any violations. lithuania (occupied by russia 1795-1918 and 1940-1990), along with other baltic countries, have no modern fighter planes of their own, hence their airspace ir protected by their nato alies. since 2004, they are nato and eu members, along with poland.



kaczynski elected as the new president of poland, according to polls

lech kaczy?ski has been elected as the new president of the republic of poland, according to first polls. he gained about 53,7% of votes, while his rival, gained 46,3% in the run-off polish presidential election. 

in the first turn kaczy?ski from law and justice party gained about 34% of votes, while his main rival attracted about 37% of polish society.

kaczy?ski, nicknamed "the duck", will replace , who was ineligible to be elected again, as he was the president of poland for ten years.

kaczy?ski, 56-year-old lawyer and mayor of , would like to build up the next republic of poland, called "czwarta rzeczpospolita" (4th republic of poland). many people in poland believe that kaczy?ski, alongside his twin brother jaros?aw, will try to throw out corruption and dishonesty from polish politics.

pre-election polls had predicted that pro-business donald tusk, the leader of conservative-liberal party citizens platform, would win the election.


fema official in new orleans blasts agency's response

marty bahamonde, the only fema emplyee in new orleans during hurricane katrina, testifying before 
the senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee, contradicts former fema director 
michael brown's testimony and says brown ignored his pleas for help.

in an august 31 blackberry email:

"sir, i know you know that this situation is past critical. here are some things you might not know. hotels are kicking people out, thousands gathering in the streets with no food or water. hundreds still being rescued from homes" and "medical staff at the dome expect to run out of oxygen in about 2 hours"

in an email from one of brown's aids:
"please schedule joe scarborough this evening... also, it is very important that time is allowed for mr. brown to eat dinner. gievn[sic] that baton rouge is back to normal, restaurants are getting busy"



australian government to introduce ir reforms next week

in an industrial relations conference in melbourne this week, minister kevin andrews has released that the government's new industrial relations (ir) legislation is likely to be introduced sometime next week in the australian lower house. the senate employment committee will hold an inquiry into the legislation. according to mr andrews this inquiry will probably run for a week in the non-sitting period of parliament. he said the legislation would then be debated in the senate in the last sitting weeks of the year.

the new workplace reforms have evoked widespread controversy from both sides of the political spectrum. the australian council of trade unions launched tv advertisements to counter the government's new legislation. the 100 million dollar 'work choices' advertisements by the australian government has been criticised as a political use of taxpayers dollars. 

prime minister john howard has contended that the new reforms are necessary to keep our economy competitive and update outdated laws. the opposition says a new class of working poor will be created in australia under the planned ir changes. 

one proposed change will deny centrelink welfare payments to anyone who refuses a job, no matter what the conditions. mr andrews has backed up the legislation:

"for an individual the best form of welfare they can have is to have a job".

however, labor's stephen smith has rejected such claims

"what we will end up with is people being forced onto inferior wages, inferior conditions and the great risk is that we end up with a working poor just as you find in the united states,""

michael raper, spokesperson for the national welfare rights network says it is a severe penalty.

"we've been trying to draw attention to the fact that any unemployed person will have to accept whatever conditions they're offered because if you reject a job offer you will lose centrelink payments for eight weeks," he said. 

the university of sydney has released a report card on the changes available. 

you can access the government's 'work choices' information online at:

www.workchoices.gov.au


airliner crashes in nigeria

bellview airlines flight 210 has crashed in lagos, nigeria. the boeing 737 was carrying over 100 passengers.
the plane took off from the international airport in lagos for the capital abuja at 8:45pm and lost contact with the control tower five minutes later.


anniversary of tak bai incident marked with lawsuits

__noeditsection__
marking the anniversary of an incident at tak bai police station which led to 78 people suffocating while being detained by the thai army, relatives of the deceased plan to file a lawsuit with the pattani provincial court seeking 80 million baht (approx. us$2 million, 1.6 million euro) in compensation.

utt bueraheng, the lawyer representing the families is confident they will win their case as an investigation into the incident took some disciplinary action against involved senior officers.

the suit will name the thai defence ministry, army, royal thai police office, interior ministry, and narathiwat provincial authorities as defendants. earlier in the week other lawsuits were filed in relation to the incident; in all cases the named defendants are the same.

the tak bai incident is one of the most publicised events of the south thailand insurgency. on october 25, 2004 six local men were arrested, accused of supplying defence force weapons to insurgents. villagers organised a protest, demanding that the police release the accused. instead, the police called in army reinforcements who used tear gas and water cannons on the crowd; shooting started, and seven people were killed.

hundreds of local citizens, mostly young muslim men, were arrested. they were made to strip to the waist and lie on the ground. their hands were bound behind their backs and later in the afternoon they were loaded into trucks to be taken to an army camp where they were to be detained. the prisoners were stacked on top of each other in the trucks, and by the time the three-hour trip to the camp was completed, 78 men had suffocated in the heat.

the incident provoked widespread protest, not limited to muslims in the south. many non-muslim thais were shocked by the army's behaviour. however the thai prime minister, thaksin sinawatra, gave his full support to the army and until these lawsuits were brought, very little disciplinary action had been taken against those responsible. thaksin's response in defending the army's actions was to say the men died, "because they were already weak from fasting during the month of ramadan."

the lawsuits brought earlier this week against the five state agencies seek a total of more than eighteen million baht (approx. us$ 440,000 or 370,000 euros) in compensation. the first lawsuit was filed on behalf of relatives of five of the seven protesters killed outside tak bai police station; this suit seeks 5.8 million baht. the second lawsuit was filed by a group of seventeen of the protesters who were injured in the clash with police and security forces; this suit seeks 12.4 million baht compensation for injury and loss of property. all of the lawsuits have been brought with the assistance of the law society of thailand.

the aftermath of the tak bai incident saw many of the protesters seeking asylum in neighbouring malaysia. recently forty of those who had fled across the border returned after they had been given assurances by authorities regarding their safety.

the leadership of the insurgents remains unclear, with no clearly identified organisational structure, or announced objectives. however, there have been separatists in the former malay sultanate since the 1930s. under military rule, they were firmly suppressed and only since early 2004 has violence flared in the troubled provinces. the government reacted to this by declaring martial law in january of 2004.

despite the imposition of martial law, attacks on police, government officials, schools and military compounds continued unabated. this prompted the prime minister to introduce an executive decree for administration in emergency situations early in 2005. additional troops were dispatched to the troubled provinces bringing the total in the area to 30,000; however, lack of counter-insurgency training and experience meant they have done little in the way of quelling the violence. in the past six months the army has reported that 298 have been killed, and over 300 injured in attacks. the estimated total killed since the start of 2004 is claimed to be over one thousand.



22.2% of secondary school students in ireland drop out before the leaving cert

new figures released last week by the irish department of education show a surprisingly secondary school drop out rate in ireland.

the retention rates report released by education minister mary hanafin shows that just 77.8% of the 64,000 students who began their secondary education in 1996 completed the leaving cert in 2001/2002.

the worst areas in the country appear to be urban areas, particularly in dublin where 26 schools had drop out rates above 50%. among these were several schools which had a retention rate of less than 60% up to junior cert level.

by gender, the rentention rates for girls were 83.8% and boys were 72.1%.

poor funding and large class sizes are being blamed for the high drop out rates. separate oecd figures put ireland 21st out of 27 developed countries in terms of spending per secondary level student.


south african spies suspended

three officials of the (nia) in south africa have been suspended for allegedly spying on , a businessman with the african national congress (anc). the three men; deputy director general gibson njenje, general manager bob mhlanga, and director general billie masethla were temporarily relieved of duty by intelligence minister ronnie kasrils following the allegations.

masethla has been reported to have clashed with kasrils over an allegation he made about members of the directorate of special operations(dso). also known as the the dso's mandate is to investigate and prosecute corruption and organized crime. it is a division of the in south africa.

in a submission to the khampepe commission, which is heading an inquiry into the future of the scorpions, masethla charged that members were acting as agents for foreign intelligence.

macozoma told the mail and guardian, "it is correct they did survey me. i found out because it was an overt, in your face kind of thing. i complained to the minister and he confirmed it was the nia that was involved."

macozoma is considered part of the president thabo mbeki's inner circle and is seen to wield considerable influence over who his replacement will be when the president steps down from the anc in 2007 and as president in 2009.

jacob zuma, former deputy president, was considered the natural successor to mbeki but was fired in june and charged with corruption. despite this, he retains his position as deputy president of the anc and continues to hold widespread support. 

the , the and the have all charged that zuma was fired to block his chances of becoming president.


rosa parks dies at 92

rosa parks, the african american woman who served as a catalyst to the american civil rights movement, died of natural causes on monday night at her home in detroit, michigan. she was 92.

parks was best known for her refusal to yield her seat to a white man who demanded it on a city bus. her defiance led to the montgomery bus boycott in alabama in 1955.

she later worked on the staff of u.s. representative john conyers (d-mi) who called her "a real apostle of the nonviolence movement" in an interview with "cnn".

parks founded the rosa and raymond parks institute for self development and was politically active until well into her 80s. 

she received the two highest civilian awards in the u.s.; the presidential medal of freedom in 1996 and the congressional gold medal in 1999.

parks' health had been in decline in the last decade. she had become more and more reclusive to the public. parks was confined to a wheelchair and suffered from dementia.



unicef: african children orphaned by aids could top 18 million

as unicef launches a global campaign to help the youngest victims of hiv/aids, the charity has warned that 18 million children may be orphaned by the disease by 2010.

they say that every minute, a child dies from an aids-related disease, a child becomes infected with hiv, and four people in age group 15-24 become infected with the disease.

un secretary general kofi annan said: “nearly 25 years into the pandemic, help is reaching less than 10 percent of the children affected by hiv/aids, leaving too many children to grow up alone, grow up too fast or not grow up at all. simply put, aids is wreaking havoc on childhood.”

the campaign, "unite for children, unite against aids" will be launched this afternoon in new york. along with goodwill ambassador jemima khan, and unicef's special ambassador and former bond actor roger moore, several world leaders and governmental ministers from around the world will be attending the event.

the unicef advisor in nairobi, naisiadet mason, told reuters: "the day i was told i was hiv positive i was devastated and alone.

"we must create the networks, remove the stigma, supply the drugs. we want to get hiv treated as just another disease because we know it is manageable."

unicef will be using kenya as a case to highlight the "years of neglect" of youngsters infected or affected by hiv/aids.


iraqis accept constitution

iraqi voters have accepted the draft constitution, the independent electoral commission announced tuesday. 78% voted in favor, 21% against. two, mostly sunni, provinces rejected the constitution with a two-thirds majority; three rejections by provinces by two-thirds majorities would have caused the constitution to fail.

voters in the provinces of anbar and salahuddin overwhelmingly opposed the draft, casting 97% and 82% "no" respectively. the deciding swing-province in the referendum was nineveh. while 55% of the voters in the predominately sunni province opposed the constitution, that was below the 66% threshold necessary to bring the draft to a halt.

electoral commission official farid ayar called the vote "100% correct" and said that there were "no cases of fraud that could affect the results of the vote".

but the sunni official saleh al-mutlaq said the referendum was a "farce" and accused the government of stealing ballot boxes in areas where most people voted "no".

observers from the united nations dispute that statement. a senior official, carina perelli, said the result is "accurate" and that it was checked by her organisation.

the voting turnout was 9.85 million votes, or 63% of eligible voters. this was one million more votes than cast in the interim government election held in january.

parliamentary elections are now scheduled for december 15, 2005.

 


jose azcona, former president of honduras, dies at 74

jose simon azcona del hoyo, ex-president of honduras, died of a heart attack monday. he was 74. 

azcona was president of honduras from 1986 to 1990 and well-known as us government ally. he supported the contra rebel groups that fought the left-wing sandinista government in neighboring nicaragua. he once called upon the us government to send troops to battle the nicaraguan army, which had crossed the border to follow the contras based in honduras.

despite his country's reputation for a high level of corruption, azcona was known one of cleanest politicians according to reuters. 



australian pm says proposed anti-terror laws are constitutional

john howard has dismissed the claims made by the queensland's solicitor general that the federal government's proposed anti-terror laws could be unconstitutional. he has also come under criticism for planning to introduce the laws on melbourne cup day, a day when most australian’s will be paying attention to a horse race, and not politics.

in an unusual move, the government will compel an instantaneous debate on the legislation, giving the opposition 10 minutes to scrutinize the draft laws rather than the usual fortnight.

opposition homeland security spokesman arch bevis told the age newspaper "this is an extraordinary abuse of power, the likes of which i don't think anyone would remember," 

"john howard now has control of both the house of representatives and the senate, and if he wants to use his power in an arrogant, bloody-minded way we don't have the numbers to stop him."

earlier today queensland’s peter beattie told abc radio that the prime minister's proposals could face legal challenges. other state premiers are seeking their own legal advice, with only the western australian premier also raising similar concerns

john howard told abc’s world today “the advice we have is that these laws are constitutional. there's never been any doubt raised by our legal advisers”.

the prime minister added he would be willing to talk through the issue with the state premiers. agreeing this morning that the solicitor-generals from the states will consult along with the national equivalent to work through these issues .

the qld premier who supports the principles of the bill told abc radio “i'm not interested in making this a public issue, or pursuing some sort of silly public debate. what i'm interested in is resolving these issues, ensuring that we actually protect australia, protect the nation, and protect australians as well. that's why we've insisted on a public interest monitor. any of these legal issues we will deal with and we'll deal with them sensibly.

independent supporters of the bill are urging the government to push ahead. neil james from the australia defense association says that the legal precedents recognized during world war i and world war ii would indicate that most of the reasonably contentious provisions would be constitutional.

however constitutional lawyer john williams says that judges and magistrates could argue that the proposed laws undermined judicial independence. dr williams believes a high court challenge to the laws was almost inevitable.

telling abc radio that "i could not see that this legislation could operate for long without a challenge being made," 

the federal opposition leader kim beazley calling on mr howard to exercise vigilance as it would exasperate australian taxpayers if people mistakenly subjected to his anti-terror laws were then paid thousands of dollars in damages.

interviewed by melbourne’s herald sun newspaper, he said, "you have to, when you are introducing laws like this, make absolutely certain there are checks and balances in it."

mr beazley also says that the anti-terror laws aren’t the action the government could be taking to protect australians..

"we have yawning gaps, yawning holes in the protection of the australian people."

he cited australia's coastal borders as being unprotected, with habitual illegal fishing incursions, a sign of the country's vulnerabilities

=previous related news=


sunni leader claims iraq vote was a &quot;farce&quot;

saleh al-mutlaq , spokesman for the national dialogue council, says his sunni group does not accept the referendum report because; "we feel that this constitution is illegitimate and the referendum was not done in a correct way; therefore we want the referendum to be repeated in four provinces at least."

al-mutlaq also called the referendum "a farce" and said that government forces stole ballot boxes full of "no" votes in the mostly sunni-arab provinces. he claimed that 80 percent said "no" in mosul, the provincial capital of ninevah where the outcome of the election was held in balance. "we believe that the results have been forged in mosul, diyala and most southern iraqi governorates," al-mutlaq said.

another sunni politician, hussein al-falluji, called on the united nations to intervene. he said, "violence is not the only solution, if politics offers solutions so that we can move in that direction. but there is very little hope that we can make any gains in the elections." falluji echoed concerns that sunnis disaffected by the vote may join the insurgency inside iraq.

however, farid ayar of iraq's independent electoral commission said before reading the official vote outcome that, "whatever the results of the referendum are ... it is a civilized step that aims to put iraq on the path of true democracy." 

iraq officials reported that 97 percent of voters in the predominately sunni province of al-anbar and 82 percent of voters in salaheddin province rejected the constitution. the 55 percent "no" vote in ninevah was short of the 66 percent that would have defeated the referendum.

shortly before the vote, the largest sunni political party, the iraqi islamic party, agreed to lend some support to the referendum in return for the inclusion of an option to amend the document. lawmakers are to convene a body to consider further changes to the constitution before the new national assembly vote in december. 

sunni sects account for nearly 20 percent of the country’s population. their large turnout for the referendum vote is in contrast to the low participation they showed in the january election which established the interim government.



 


pentagon announces 2,000th u.s. military death

an announcement today by the pentagon named staff sgt. george t. alexander as the two thousandth soldier killed during operation iraqi freedom.

sgt. alexander, 34, died from injuries inflicted by a improvised explosive device on october 17 this year. the explosive targeted the vehicle he was travelling in through samarra, a central iraqi town.


google announces new database service on blog

on monday, google published on their blog that they are testing a new product named google base, in which users will be able to upload their own articles to a database. this allegedly will complement the current services offered by google.

examples of contributions may include recipes, scientific findings, and other pieces of information one may wish to share. several news agencies are reporting that google base will be used for classified ads. according to the google base website, which was made inaccessible to the public after a few hours, both were examples of entries you could post.

google base is expected to be a major competitor of craigslist, which is partly owned by ebay.




japan likely to change law to allow female heirs to the throne

japanese media reported that prime minister junichiro koizumi suggested yesterday that the government would submit a draft to the diet to rewrite the imperial household act within the next year. this is in response to a board of experts who have been investigating the succession issue.

the experts' board on the imperial household act, personally appointed by the prime minister, reached an agreement on the issue that an empress should be accepted. implementation of their recommendations would mean that succession to the highest position in japanese society would occur without a gender bias.

at the present time, the japanese imperial household has no male member under the age of 20; present law only allows male descendants to ascend to the chrysanthemum throne. the proposed solution would put princess aiko, the sole child of crown prince naruhito and crown princess masako in place as the most likely to inherit the position of monarch, following behind would be princess sayako who will leave the imperial household due to her planned marriage with a commoner.
present law in japan defines the succession as favouring male children; the last time the country had an empress was in 1771, when empress go-sakuramachi abdicated to her nephew.

despite the fact that there is precedent for an empress, some scholars have suggested family members who previously broke ties with the recognised royal family following the end of world war ii should be considered for the succession, opening up the field of candidates even more. the group of scholars proposing this solution have stressed that their solution is aimed at maintaining the tradition of a male heir.


first beta of windows api 'wine' released

after 12 years of work, the first beta version of wine (wine = wine is not an emulator) , entitled "version 0.9", has been released today.

wine is a free software implementation of microsoft's win32 api. this means that it enables non-microsoft operating systems to run software that was written for microsoft's operating systems. wine is not just a simple emulator, but a complete rewrite of the whole windows api and standard libraries (dll's).

written by a community of developers, which includes some companies whose businesses are based on it, wine runs on posix compliant operating systems such as gnu/linux and unix-based operating systems. wine allows a user of one of these operating systems to run windows applications without having a copy of microsoft windows.

as the "beta" term suggests, more work is expected before the final release is made. the pre-release status of the software has not prevented some from using it for years to run a wide range of software, including modern games, office software, and news reading applications.

wine is seen by advocates as an important tool for enabling people to migrate generally away from microsoft's windows operating system, or specifically to free software operating systems such as gnu/linux and freebsd. if a piece of software that is important to a person or business is only available for microsoft windows, it can tie that person or business to using microsoft windows. software such as wine can free people of such ties (sometimes termed "vendor lock-in").

wine is distributed under the terms of gnu lesser general public license. this means that the software can be freely used and redistributed, and its source code can be studied, modified, and redistributed. it can also be integrated into software that does not grant these freedoms (proprietary software).

there are no direct competitors to wine. the two most related software packages are vmware and win4lin, but neither is free software, and both require that a copy of microsoft windows is installed. rather than working as an emulator, they allow for more than one operating system to be run simultaneously.

two related products that are based on wine are crossover office and cedega. each is the flagship product of a company, codeweavers focusing on office and transgaming technologies focussing on games emulation, respectively. 

while neither product is entirely free software, codeweavers do contribute their modifications to the wine software back to the wine community.



france banning skype from universities

france has banned use of the skype pc telephony application in universities. the exact reason is unclear, but state security was one of the reasons given by the authorities responsible. several other possible reasons have been cited including fears of research secrets being handed over to the united states and the fact that in order to make calls to the public phone network you pay a company in luxembourg and not the local phone company. 

the skype software uses an encryption algorithm that makes it next to impossible to monitor calls; this is frequently cited as china's reason for banning the application.

some media reports have suggested that french authorities are fearful that whilst they were unable to monitor calls made with skype, they might be monitored by the us.

however, this version of facts, which has spread like wildfire, was promptly refuted by french authorities who called attention to the fact that the ban only applies to university research centers and laboratories, and not to the general student and faculty population. 

the real reasons behind the ban remains a hot point of debate and controversy, although public opinion in france is not sympathetic to skype's new profile. skype has recently been purchased by ebay, which the french consider a mammoth e-company with questionable practices and a dubious reputation. 


suicide bomber strikes israeli coastal town

israeli police confirmed that a suicide bomber was responsible for a blast that killed five people and left many seriously injured. the wednesday afternoon attack occurred in an open market place in the small costal israeli town of hadera, a location which has been a frequent target of attacks in the five-year-old palestinian uprising.

the market place was busy with shoppers in advance of a jewish holiday, with many stocking up for the weekend. 

"cnn" reporters on the scene say 20 have been injured, 6 are critical, 7 are serious, and the death toll is expected to rise. television pictures are showing a scene of absolute devastation and confusion.

islamic jihad of gaza has claimed responsibility, which was in response to an israeli killing of islamic jihad commander luay saadi in the west bank on monday, prompting armed groups to take revenge. in an interview with ynet news, abu-muaman the organization's leader stated ... "this attack is merely a preliminary response by the palestinian rebellious groups, and harder retaliation is on its way."

saeb erekat, a palestinian negotiator, denounced the attack and said that he hoped the peace between the two sides would not be damaged.

dr ra'anan gissin spokesperson for the israeli pm, speaking on "cnn" is refuting claims that this is a revenge attack, claiming "that this is just another terrorist attack in the palestinians' plan to rid the middle east of israeli."

khader habib, a spokesperson for the islamic jihad said that ... "the islamic jihad movement was committed to the truce, and is still committed to the truce, but this truce should be mutual. we cannot tolerate a one-sided truce."

the recently elected iranian president mahmud ahmadinejad called for israel to be "eradicated from the map" and condoned the recent wave of palestinian attacks in his speech today during a conference in teheran titled "the world without zionism."
mahmoud abbas has stated that the palestinian authority would "increase its efforts to ensure the continuation of the truce because it is in the interest of both the palestinian and the israeli peoples."

mark regev, a spokesperson for the israeli foreign minsitry responded that "[abbas] says the right thing... but if we have a criticism it's that he talks the right talk, we're waiting for him to follow through on these commitments. now there have been some steps taken but we really need to see a serious disarming of these extremist groups."



italian university legislation sparks protests from students and staff

on tuesday, the italian parliament gave its final approval to the reform of the italian university system. the reform, entitled "moratti reform", is named after the minister for school and university, letizia moratti.

protests were made before and during the parliamentary process to approve the law; the city of rome was partially blocked by several groups of students, professors and assistants demonstrating against the proposed legislation. the situation became serious when the protesters reached montecitorio square, the location of the lower house of parliament. the protestors contested several of the members of the government.

the opposition did not participate in the vote.

the reform is strongly opposed by professors, students and other staff, who claimed economical hardship would be caused by the law.

the minister letizia moratti opposed the reform. in a statement, moratti claimed that the aim of the law is to reduce the privileges that some people have. 



australian anti-terror laws will be delayed

jon stanhope, the australian capital territory chief minister, is the first australian state or territory chief to reject the howard government's proposed anti-terror legislation in its current state.

he said he would not vote into law the act's part of the legislation, including extending preventive detention of terror suspects to 14 days, unless there were changes.

the federal government requires the support of a least four states to give the final legislation the go-ahead. if the commonwealth proceeds with its laws without the act's co-operation - the territory could become the odd jurisdiction out, as the only one without preventive detention for people suspected of planning a terrorist attack.

"i'm quite happy to change it provided the situation is covered," mr howard told reporters in madang, at the pacific islands forum. "i'm quite relaxed about the final form of the legislation, providing it delivers on the substance of the agreement." mr howard said he was not committed to introducing the changes next week, although he wanted them by christmas.

opposition leader kim beazley, who was outraged that the government had chosen melbourne cup day as a cover to introduce the bills, pointed out that the treasurer and the prime minister were at odds.

the australian pm has agreed to changes to australia's controversial anti-terror laws, after comments from his own treasurer.

peter costello, speaking to the age newspaper for the first time on the issue, apparently contradicted earlier statements made by the pm, saying, "unfortunately nobody ever finally knows these things until such time as the court rules".

"peter costello contradicted john howard today and went out there and said 'well it might be unconstitutional but let's just sort of suck it and see'," mr beazley said to melbourne’s herald sun newspaper.

mr howard said there was nothing of concern in legal advice from the solicitor-general and he remained convinced the laws were constitutional, but did concede to changes to the so-called “shoot-to-kill” provisions for police.
queensland premier peter beattie welcomed mr howard's move on the shoot-to-kill clause and said he was confident all constitutional issues could be overcome.

the human rights and equal opportunities commission(hreoc) president is of the belief that the bill needs to be reconsidered because it is not in line with australia's international human rights obligations.

hreoc is a national independent statutory body of the australian government. it has the responsibility for investigating alleged infringements under australia’s anti-discrimination legislation.

the head of hreoc says under the proposed laws the opportunity to challenge a detention order against an individual or a control order against the person's family is unrealistic, and has concerns about what happens to a person after they are subjected to a preventive detention order.

"they're not told why they're subject to it, nor is there any way in which they can go about challenging the facts upon which that order is made," he told the abc.

"that's the real, the most serious of the human rights issues in the whole procedure. there is no means of reviewing what has been done once its happened."

"international human rights law requires that a person who is detained must have the right to challenge this detention in a court without delay. review before the court needs to include: consideration of whether the order is based on a correct understanding of the facts; whether the detention is fair; whether it is reasonably necessary in the circumstances; and whether it is proportionate to the goal of protecting national security. the current form of the bill simply fails to meet these basic guarantees."

hreoc says a special court should be established to review enforcement provisions in the draft bill.



australian video journalist denies bodies burned in disrespect

stephen dupont, the australian video journalist whose footage of u.s. soldiers burning corpses in afghanistan sparked worldwide controversy, is denying any claims made by others that the bodies in the footage were burned in a disrespectable fashion.

dupont's video was first broadcasted by the australian television network sbs earlier this month, showing footage of us soldiers burning bodies in a desertous region of afghanistan. during an interview with the station regarding his footage, dupont said, "they [ ] used that as a psychological warfare, i guess you'd call it. they used the fact that the taliban were burned facing west [towards mecca]. ... they deliberately wanted to incite that much anger from the taliban so the taliban could attack them. ... that's the only way they can find them." 

the issue has many questioning whether the burning of the bodies, which violate islamic principles, or the broadcasting of the psy-ops message violated sections of the .

some initial news report coverage seems to have interpreted the psy-ops broadcast that was stating that the bodies were burned "facing west", as a factual statement. on october 21, dupont appeared on the talk show "" and clarified this point in an interview, reiterating that the bodies were either burned under orders from officials, or for hygiene concerns brought forth when locals did not retrieve the bodies. dupont also corrected reports that the bodies were facing toward mecca, saying: "look, the bodies as far as i’m concerned, the bodies were lying on the ground, they weren’t facing anywhere, they were just lying there."

both the afghan government and the u.s. army have begun investigations into the claims.


chicago white sox win 2005 world series baseball championship

the chicago white sox win the 2005 world series, the ultimate championship of baseball in the united states of america and canada, defeating the houston astros four games to zero, a series sweep. tonight at minute maid park in houston, the white sox won the final game by a score of 1 - 0, scoring the game's only run in the eighth inning. the chicago white sox are the 2005 american league pennant champions and the houston astros are the 2005 national league pennant champions. 


several dozen protesters arrested outside white house for permit violations

police arrested over two dozen anti-war protesters for demonstrating without a permit in front of the white house in washington, dc on wednesday. 

the rally consisted of protestors organized in a "die-in", appearing to be deceased. the peace rally was performed shortly after reports that the death toll for u.s. soldiers serving in iraq reached 2,000.

the left-leaning "moveon.org" led a national campaign to galvanize anti-war vigils. organization members on their e-mail lists received a notice wednesday that read: "dear moveon member, yesterday we reached the sad milestone of 2,000 killed in iraq. but for the most part, the national media are ignoring this tragic milestone."

phyllis bennis of the institute for policy studies said that changes in u.s. public opinion are showing signs that peace activists are "beginning to give voice to the majority in this country." 

among those arrested was activist cindy sheehan. she was arrested for the same offense in another anti-war demonstration just last month. 



thai pm promises action on suspected militants

thai prime minister, thaksin shiniwatra, told journalists attending his weekly press conference that the government would be more aggressive in measures taken to counter insurgency in the country's provinces on the southern border with malaysia.

his statement followed coordinated attacks by suspected militants in the provinces of yala, narathiwat, and pattani. 

at a time chosen for the likelihood of the predominantly muslim population to be at evening prayers in local mosques, armouries belonging to local village defense forces were raided. according to local media reports there were at least three deaths as well as several people injured ? some seriously. the casualties are said to consist of both insurgents and local villagers.

thaksin said that the suspected separatists demonstrated "strong coordination" in the attacks, he stated that the authorities in the area should have new measures in place by november to aggressively address the issue. despite strong words on the matter, the prime minister emphasized that, "the government will exercise most restraint and patience", and that the government's objective was to bring peace to the region.


harriet miers withdraws from supreme court nomination

president george w. bush's nominee for associate justice of the u.s. supreme court, harriet miers, has withdrawn herself from the nomination. 

in a letter dated october 27, to president bush, she wrote that "members of the senate have indicated their intention to seek documents about my service in the white house," and that she "would be expected to testify about my service in the white house." 

faced with mounting criticism of his nominee from numerous disparate organizations, within and outside the president's republican party, bush acknowledged her resignation and critics by saying "it is clear that senators would not be satisfied until they gained access to internal documents concerning advice provided during her tenure at the white house ? disclosures that would undermine a president's ability to receive candid counsel. harriet miers' decision demonstrates her deep respect for this essential aspect of the constitutional separation of powers ? and confirms my deep respect and admiration for her."

the miers nomination was politically controversial because she is white house counsel and she was a personal lawyer to bush when he was governor of texas. miers also has no experience as a judge. 

since there was no record of how she might interpret the constitution, members of the senate judiciary committee requested detailed written replies to a series of questions probing her past. it became apparent that senators wanted to review white house records documenting legal advice provided by miers as part of her work for the bush administration. 

president bush has been seeking to replace the retiring justice sandra day o'connor, the first female supreme court justice, since her july 1, 2005 letter stating she would retire "effective upon the nomination and confirmation of her successor." 



iranian president calls israel ‘disgraceful blot’

iranians plan a nation-wide demonstration on friday in support of their president's comments that called for the elimination of israel. the demonstrations would coincide with the annual event called al-quds day, where the israeli control of jerusalem is protested. 

mahmoud ahmadinejad in a speech to 3,000 students in tehran said wednesday there was, "no doubt the new wave [of attacks] in palestine will soon wipe off this disgraceful blot from the face of the islamic world." at a conference called ""the world without zionism"", the recently elected iranian president ahmadinejad said the establishment of israel was, "a move by the world oppressor against the islamic world," a reference to western military and political pressure.

ahmadinejad won the presidency in june with a populist approach that stressed islam and revolutionary principles. the speech cited numerous references to the ayatollah ruhollah khomeini and included a declaration that, "as the imam said, israel must be wiped off the map." 

other similar remarks, such as "god willing, the eradication of israel would soon be realized through the continued wisdom of the palestinian nation," have drawn wide condemnation.

france and germany have summoned the respective iranian ambassadors to their countries. a spokesperson for the british government called the remarks "deeply disturbing and sickening". the european union said in a joint statement that "calls for violence, and for the destruction of any state, are manifestly inconsistent with any claim to be a mature and responsible member of the international community".

israeli prime minister ariel sharon said that "a country that calls for the destruction of another people cannot be a member of the united nations" and added: "such a country that has nuclear weapons is a danger, not only to israel and the middle east, but also to europe."

the united nations secretary general kofi annan expressed "dismay" over ahmadinejad's remarks. in statements released by his secretary on thursday, annan, whose plans still include a visit to iran within a month, said he would "place the middle east peace process, and the right of all states in the area to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force, at the top of his agenda for that visit." the u.n. charter calls on all members to refrain from threats or force against the territorial integrity or political independence of another state.

a u.s. state department spokesman, sean mccormick, said the united states would not support the call by israel to eject iran from the united nations. mccormick's response was centered on issues of the enriched uranium processing in iran, the human rights of its people, and alleged support for terrorism abroad.

the u.s. has had no formal diplomatic relations with iran since the islamic revolution of 1979. 



fact-finder confirms that arar was tortured

a report aimed at assessing the credibility of statements made by ottawa computer engineer, maher arar, confirmed that his account of torture received while in syrian custody is credible. steven toope, the court-appointed author of the report wrote, "i am convinced that his description of his treatment in syria is accurate" and concluded that "mr. maher arar was subjected to torture in syria".

in september 2002, when returning to canada from a family trip to tunisia, mr. arar was detained by u.s. officials in new york when transiting through the city's airport. mr. arar holds dual citizenship of canada and syria and was travelling on his canadian passport. u.s. authorities decided to deport mr. arar to syria, accusing him of having terrorist connections. he was detained by syria for more than a year before canadian authorities managed to arrange his repatriation. during this time he was interrogated and tortured.

according to canadian senator pierre de bane, u.s. officials first offered to return mr. arar to canada on the condition that arar would be incarcerated and charged immediately. canada was unable to accept these conditions as they were not provided with sufficient evidence for the u.s. charges. the canadian charter of rights and freedoms does not allow for "detention without proper grounds". after being held in new york for eleven days, u.s. officials deported mr. arar to syria, a country with a longstanding history of torture and abuse of its prisoners.


japan-korea premiers' meeting in doubt over shrine visit

during talks between the respective foreign ministers, ban ki-moon, the south korean minister has expressed doubt that his country's president would be able to visit japan due to opinion regarding japanese prime minister junichiro koizumi's visit to the . the foreign affairs and trade minister described the prospects for such a visit as "grim".

ban is currently on a visit for talks with his japanese counterpart, where he said that the "people of south korea were disappointed" at the koizumi's visit to the controversial shrine.

the yasukuni shrine is dedicated to the spirits of dead japanese soldiers, originally constructed in 1869. the controversy arose as a result of the shrine honouring a number of convicted war criminals. the shrine's policy was to honour all fallen japanese soldiers, which was not an issue at the time. however, the perception of the shrine in the eyes of some asian countries occupied during the second world war is that it is a rallying point for right-wing and nationalist groups within japan. japanese peace movements view the shrine in a similar light.


japanese riot police deployed around consulates

japanese riot police were deployed on streets surrounding the korean and chinese consulates in the city of fukuoka, the largest city on the south-western island of kyushu. sound trucks belonging to right-wing nationalist groups were circling the area and the police presence appeared to be an effort to control these groups. police officers on the scene declined to comment.

relations between japan and its neighbors have been tense due to japanese prime minister junichiro koizumi's policy of visiting the yasukuni shrine, where the remains of japanese soldiers killed in wars since the mid-nineteenth century are interred. koizumi visited the shrine on october 17. convicted war criminals from the second world war are also interred at yasukuni, so prime ministerial visits have been severely criticized by other asian leaders. territorial disputes between china and japan have also increased tension in recent months.


 


tom cruise parody site defiant in face of scientology threats, demands its day in court

the church of scientology "cease and desist" order isssued last month to the new zealand owner of a tom cruise parody website called scientomogy demanded they shut down the site, and transfer ownership to the church, or face a lawsuit of up to $100,000. 

the website responded on saturday by stating, "their claims are completely frivolous" and that "scientomogy.info is a parody site showing the recent lunacy of tom cruise?confusion of any kind with their site is literally impossible… we're keeping our domain… see you in court."

on september 14, the church's law firm, moxon & kobrin, responded via email that the scientomogy website domain was an infringement of their trademark that would cause a "likelihood of confusion" with their own, and thereby broke federal law. specifically, the church cited the lanham act, 15 u.s.c. ? 1125(a).

the lanham act contains the federal statutes governing trademark law in the united states. the church would have to prove factors such as "proof of actual confusion", "product types, proximity and marketing", "their respective appearance and meanings", and "(bad) intention behind selecting the mark".

glen stollery, the website's owner hit back at the church by stating, "we have researched this and believe their claims are completely without merit. the church can provide no proof as to any confusion regarding the sites. for instance, scientology.info does not even exist, so compared to scientomogy.info it is hardly a matter of someone hitting the wrong key. we also have a full disclaimer at the top of the front page and in the website's meta-tags stating that there is no connection between ourselves and the church. not to mention the fact that the site is completely non-commercial in nature, and does not generate a single cent of revenue nor offers any services of any kind. it is a parody site showing the recent lunacy of tom cruise?confusion of any kind with their site is literally impossible." 

stollery continues "the non-commercial use of a trademark as the domain name of a website?the subject of which is consumer commentary about the products and services represented by the mark?does not constitute infringement under the lanham act." bosley medical institute v. kremer (9th cir., apr. 4, 2005). in this instance, we are even one step further removed as their trademark is "scientology" not "scientomogy" their claims are completely frivolous."

if this is the case then it would not be the first time the law firm would be found guilty of filing frivolous complaints. in 1994, helena kobrin of moxon & kobrin, counsel for the church of scientology, was ordered to pay sanctions in the total sum of $17,775 for filing a frivolous complaint in federal court. stollery states on his website that he believes this is simply a way of "scaring any critics into instantly backing down at the prospect of costly lawsuits regardless of their innocence." in closing he says to the church "i'm calling your bluff. file your lawsuit we're keeping our domain… see you in court"

"this article is based on http://www.scientomogy.info/threats.htm which says it can be redistributed under cc-by: "this information is available so it can be referenced, copied and distributed freely in any medium - please do so with our full permission!""


lewis &quot;scooter&quot; libby indicted on five charges

i. lewis "scooter" libby, jr., chief of staff to u.s. vice president dick cheney, resigned friday following indictment on five federal felony charges. 

mr. libby is charged with obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury to a grand jury, and two counts of making false statements to the fbi in the justice department's investigation into the plame leak. mr. libby's resignation was accepted by vice president cheney. president bush also accepted mr. libby's resignation as assistant to the president.

the indictment centers on mr. libby's grand jury testimony that he learned from media sources that joseph wilson's wife, valerie plame, worked under cover for the cia. the justice department says that mr. libby knew of plame's covert status from at least four government officials, including vice president cheney, in the month prior to his talks with the press, but that he sought to hide that knowledge from the investigation. 

no charges were filed against white house advisor karl rove, but he remains under scrutiny in the on-going two year investigation led by special counselor patrick fitzgerald. the seattle post intelligencer reported that late friday, three people close to the investigation stated that the individual referred to in fitzgerald's record as "official a" was actually karl rove, the so called "senior official in the white house" who allegedly informed libby on july 10 or 11 of 2003 that plame was a cia operative. the washington post is reporting that rove's "fate" will be known soon.

all five charges stem from three conversations mr. libby had with reporters about valerie plame in 2003 between july 10 and 12: 



in a nationally televised press conference announcing the indictment, special prosecutor fitzgerald likened the alleged falsehoods of mr. libby's testimony to sand being thrown in the face of a baseball umpire. the obstruction of justice count alleges that mr. libby made false statements while testifying before the grand jury, and attempted to mislead and deceive the grand jury by doing so.

the two false statement charges relate to fbi interviews conducted in october and november 2003. there is one charge for the july 10, 2003 interview with mr. russert, and another for the july 12, 2003 interview with cooper. one perjury charges alleges mr. libby lied to the grand jury about his conversation with mr .russert. the second alleges he was lying when he testified to the grand jury that he had told reporters "i hear from other reporters wilson's wife works for the cia."

if convicted on all counts, mr. libby faces up to 30 years in prison and a $1.25 million fine. in a written statement delivered by his lawyer, mr. libby said "today is a sad day for me and my family" but is confident that he will be "completely and totally exonerated."

vice president dick cheney called mr. libby in a written statement one "of the most capable and talented individuals i have ever known" and stressed that he is presumed innocent until proven otherwise.

president george w. bush called the investigation "serious" and said that mr. libby "worked tirelessly on behalf of the american people and sacrificed much in the service to this country."

in september 2003, cia director george tenet requested a justice department probe of the possibility that high officials of the bush administration leaked to journalists the secret cia identity of plame. in december 2003, patrick j. fitzgerald was appointed special counsel in charge of investigating the leak of the identity of covert cia officer valerie plame. a grand jury was convened to hear testimony from reporters and members of the bush administration. the federal indictment suggests that libby lied about what he told reporters tim russert, matt cooper, and judith miller. "when citizens testify before grand juries they are required to tell the truth," mr. fitzgerald said.

in february 2002, joseph wilson was asked to travel to niger by the central intelligence agency in order to investigate claims that niger had sold yellowcake uranium to iraq, a substance that - after a lengthy purification process - can be used to make a nuclear weapon.

on the 28th of january, 2003, president george bush stated in his state of the union address that, "the british government has learned that saddam hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from africa." much of the president's address was focused on building support for the war in iraq, on the grounds that iraq had been developing weapons of mass destruction, and this statement was a key part of the rationale to justify going to war. 

on july 6, 2003, wilson wrote an opinion piece in the new york times attacking the validity of bush's assertion by describing how his experiences in africa had led him to believe no such sale had taken place. he went on to accuse the bush administration of manipulating intelligence data in order to exaggerate the threat posed by iraq. ultimately, the white house was forced to retract the statement regarding niger in the state of the union address. 

on july 14th 2003, journalist robert novak published a news article that disclosed the identity of valerie plame as a cia operative. novak attributed the information about plame's identity to "senior administration officials." after novak's article was published, other news reporters speculated that plame's identity as a cia operative was leaked by the bush administration in an effort to punish mr. wilson for his public criticism of the administration. valerie plame and joseph wilson are married, although valerie had been using her maiden name "plame" in her role as a covert operative rather than using her married name.

in june 2004, president george w. bush was questioned about the leak by the justice department, but not in front of the grand jury. bush first promised to fire anyone in his administration who leaked the cia identity of plame, then later qualified this as meaning that he would only act if it could be shown that a crime was committed.

with the grand jury scheduled to conclude its term in october 2005, reporter judith miller was jailed in july 2005 for refusing to reveal the source of the plame leak. after 85 days in jail, miller finally testified before the grand jury. several reporters, including miller and matthew cooper, identified deputy white house chief of staff karl rove and dick cheney's chief of staff lewis libby as bush administration sources who revealed valerie plame's identity as a cia operative.

the indictment comes at the same time as allegations mount that vice president cheney and his chief of staff libby withheld crucial documents from the senate intelligence committee as it was investigating the intelligence failure in the run-up to the iraq war in 2004. rep. jerrold nadler has requested to expand fitzgerald's investigation to clear up if the actions in the cia leak were just a part in a larger scheme to deceive congress into authorizing war, who was involved and whether their actions were criminal.





body of rosa parks to lie in honor at u.s. capitol

the body of civil rights pioneer rosa parks, who died on monday, will lie in honor at the u.s. capitol rotunda, a tribute usually reserved for deceased presidents and war heroes.

the senate passed a resolution on thursday for parks to lay in the rotunda on sunday and monday so that "the citizens of the united states may pay their last respects to this great american". the house of representatives approved the resolution today.

parks will be the first woman to be honored in this way.

senate majority leader bill frist said allowing parks to lie at the capitol is "a testament to the impact of her life on both our nation's history and future". minority leader harry reid said that parks' actions "changed not only our country, but the entire world, as her actions gave hope to every individual fighting for civil and human rights." senator christopher dodd added that parks "is not just a national hero, she is the embodiment of our social and human conscience and the spark that lit the flame of liberty and equality for african americans and minority groups in this country and around the globe".

meanwhile, officials in montgomery, the place of her historic act of defiance, and detroit, her later home and deathplace, ordered that the first seat of every public bus will be reserved to honor parks until her funeral, which is set for wednesday.


romania switches to winter time

in the morning of 30 october 2005, romania with other countries from europe will switch to official winter time. thus, 04:00 am will become 03:00 am and will be valid until 26 march 2006 when the official summer time will be again used. 

following romanian government's decision nb. 20 from 1997, romania adopts winter time and summer time in the same day with the states of european union and other countries part of this deal. official winter time is adopted in the last sunday of october and the summer time in last sunday of march.

usually, the official time of a country is winter time. summer time is a legal time adopted by some countries or territories during a part of a year. summer time is usually one hour in front of standard official time.

this system is used for daylight-saving. during summer months, the time is moved forward in order to use as much sunlight for human activities, as well as to save electric energy used for lighting.

in romania, summer time was first introduced in 1932. until 1939 this worked yearly from the first sunday of april (in 1932: 22 may) 00:00 am and the first sunday of october 01:00 am (local time). from 1 april 1940 00:00 am and 2 november 1942 03:00 am, summer time was permanent in romania. from 1943 the summer time was suspended and romania used just official time (winter time).

summer time was reintroduced from 1979 and guided by two rules until the alignment to european standards:


major train wreck in southern india

the bbc and cnn has reported that a train derailment saturday morning at about 4:15 a.m. local time (friday 2245 utc) has resulted in at least 100 casualties in the state of andhra pradesh in southern india. heavy rains, which killed over one hundred people in india this week, apparently washed out a section of track. a rescue operation is ongoing as some train carriages overturned into the flood waters and some people are apparently trapped. the bbc reports that many of the passengers were traveling to celebrate diwali, the festival of lights, which occurs tuesday.

india operated rail systems carry more than 13 million passengers a day, but has a poor history of safety. the bbc says that about 300 rail accidents are reported each year, resulting in significant casualties.



syrian residents claim u.s. bombing, shooting into syria

syrian residents are claiming that u.s. bombings and shootings into syrian territory are much worse than being acknowledged by either the syrian or u.s. governments; with syrian civilians (including children) being killed regularly. 

"the government [of syria] has kept this a secret because they don't want to be embarrassed," said joshua landis, a fulbright scholar living in damascus. "it's the ultimate sign of their weakness, because they can do nothing about this," said the professor from the university of oklahoma.

one resident of the syrian town of abu kamal said americans bombed a local house, killing a six-year-old boy. "they killed five or six people this month, every month, but the media doesn't report it. i don't understand." he said.

yesterday, u.s. president george w. bush said that syria is an "outlaw regime."

u.s. officials have acknowledged killing syrians with u.s. fire, but said their forces have not actually gone across the border.

"they shoot at us here every day, sometimes they're mistakes, sometimes they're not," said syrian border guard ibrahim brahim. "the americans want to show their power...if we poke our heads up, they shoot."

in may, a u.s. helicopter fired across the border and killed abdullah al-hassaki, a syrian border guard, according to syrian officials. u.s. army lt. col. barry venable ,at the pentagon, would not comment on the allegation but said "the syrian border with iraq has been troublesome for some time."

one of the repeated allegations against syria has been that it has not done enough to secure the iraq border. the syrian government makes the point that it has done a lot of work on the border while the u.s. led coalition has done nothing to secure the iraqi side of the border. syria's major-general amin suleyman took foreign journalists to the border yesterday to show evidence of what it has done and what the coalition has not done. syria has created a sand wall running along most of the frontier and built more border posts. the general said they could be doing an even better job if britain had delivered the night vision goggles which they promised. the larger problem, according to suleyman, is the complete absence of any regular border security (iraqi or u.s.) on the iraq side of the sand wall. 

"syria did all that was required of it (regarding the border), and all that it was able to do..but we've seen nothing from the other side." gen. suleyman said.

foreign diplomats based in damascus confirm that syria has increased its border security, and state that the flow of foreign fighters crossing from syria into iraq has slowed to a trickle, estimated to be 35 a month.


lance armstrong shares criticisms of tour de france director

, seven-time tour de france champion and partner of singer sheryl crow, has criticized tour director jean-marie leblanc for his comments that next year's race will be more exciting without him. leblanc said thursday, "it is a change of era. a period of long domination is over. the path is open. it is an exciting time."

on saturday night, armstrong hosted nbc's satirical tv show "saturday night live", making light of the allegations. during the opening of the show, armstrong said: "the last time i did something too good, the french started testing my urine every 15 minutes!" armstrong's fiancee, sheryl crow, also appeared on the show.



explosions rock new delhi marketplace

three bombs shook the indian capital of new delhi on saturday in crowded marketplace bazaars within minutes of each other, killing at least 61 people, according to recent reports. the national government is on high alert. prime minister manmohan singh issued a statement in response to the attack, saying, "india will win the battle against terrorism."

the bbc reports that ten people have been detained in the investigation into the blasts. police say they are making progress into the investigation and that it appears the same group was behind all three incidents. 

in addition to the reported deaths, 210 people have been injured in the blasts in central and south delhi, according to recent reports. with diwali, the hindu festival of lights being celebrated tuesday, the bomb blasts have sent ripples across the nation. prime minister manmohan singh blamed terrorists for the blasts, but verification of responsibility has not occurred. the blasts, first thought to be masterminded by lashkar-e-toiba, a group which india claims is supported by pakistan, were later asserted by a group called "inquilab". the blast had all the hallmarks of being carried out by well-funded terrorist groups supported by pakistan, however its foreign ministry said in a statement: "pakistan strongly condemns the terrorist attacks in delhi, which have resulted in the loss of a number of innocent lives."

the bombings came just as india and pakistan were beginning to recover from the shock of this month's kashmir earthquake.

last may, one person died and 49 were wounded by bombs at two delhi cinemas; the attack was blamed on sikh militants.

delhi was the location of a terrorist attack in december 2001. the 2001 event was blamed on islamic militant groups backed by pakistan, although hindu-muslim conflicts have usually occurred in the disputed region of kashmir.



opposing a nuclear waste dump in the northern territory

a protest against a proposed nuclear waste dump is continuing this week in australia's northern territory. the traditional owners of the site in the arrernte nation say they will continue to protest against the facility near the stuart highway about 20 kilometres north of alice springs.

the federal government wants an operating licence for a new reactor in sydney, to replace the ageing lucas heights facility. one of the key conditions for the operating licence of a new reactor is the establishment of a viable waste management plan. in july the federal government announced a short list of three locations in the northern territory as potential sites for a radioactive waste dump. the government wants a facility to store and manage low and intermediate level radioactive waste resulting from the medical, industrial and research use of radioactive materials by commonwealth agencies.

traditional owners of athenge alhere - an estate group of the arrernte nation - have voiced their dissent to the nuclear dump and say they don’t want waste from sydney’s lucas heights nuclear reactor brought to their land. "because the land we take care of, because all our ancestors lived in this land and hunted on this land as well, so it's mainly because of the animals and the next generation of our kids and their children, so we still say no," traditional owner benedict stevens said. 

the medical association for prevention of war condemned as "scaremongering" the claims by federal mps that the health of australians would be in jeopardy if a nuclear waste dump was not imposed on the northern territory by the commonwealth government.

the three proposed sites include:


the nt government cannot prevent the dump from proceeding, as all three sites are all on commonwealth land. although the northern territory parliament has passed legislation banning the storage or transport of any nuclear waste, the federal government is able to use its external affairs power to override the legislation.

the federal government abandoned locating the dump in south australia and western australia following local opposition.

a final decision is expected to be made by the end of 2006, with the preferred site to be operational by 2011.




ibm partners with google to produce a corporate desktop search program

ibm and google have partnered to start production on a desktop search program for corporate users. 

previously, ibm's omnifind could only look inside standard applications such as oracle, and google's desktop search program didn't have any extensive network capabilites. the end product of this collaboration will allow for searching managed databases, as well as many unmanaged files, such as personal e-mails, microsoft word documents, and rich media files, within corporate servers.

"getting these two products together makes sense for both of us," david girouard, general manager of google's enterprise business unit. "if you want to have a good corporate search product, you have to have desktop search," he said.

no exchange of money has been made between the two companies, and this announcement comes only a few weeks after google announced its partnership with sun microsystems, inc. some speculate that google is making a move to directly challenge microsoft corp. in the field of pc desktop software.



cuban funds tied to lula campaign, brazilian magazine alleges

former advisors to brazilian minister of finance antonio palocci have claimed that three million us dollars from cuba were used in the 2002 political campaign of luiz inacio lula da silva. the accusation was printed by the brazilian magazine veja in its issue circulating this week.

according to veja, rogerio buratti, palocci's secretary in the early 1990s during the period when palocci was mayor, claims that ralf barquete (another advisor to palocci) had asked him to find a way to bring money from cuba. 

another source, economist vladmir poleto who had also worked for palocci, claimed to have brought the three million from brasilia to campinas by plane. he stated the money was hidden in whiskey boxes: johnnie walker red label and black label and havana club (a cuban brand of rum). barquete received the money at the campinas airport viracopos. afterwards he claims the money was transferred by car to sao paulo and delivered to workers' party treasurer delubio soares. 

workers' party president ricardo berzoini has responded saying that the accusation is false. and lula's aide gilberto carvalho has said the story is "absurd". 

according to the blog of folha de s. paulo reporter josias de souza, palocci and lula are worried about the interviews being aired on brazilian television.

the president of the pps, federal deputy roberto freire (pernambuco
state), has stated that his party will ask the electoral justice investigatory agency and the public ministry to begin a investigation into the charge. the parties pfl and psdb are also considering demanding an investigation.


bush narrows choice to supreme court

reuters is reporting that president bush is expected to announce his choice to replace to the supreme court on monday.

the "chicago tribune" reports that president bush narrowed his short list of supreme court nominees to two, with a possible third. the two top individuals in consideration are judge samuel alito of new jersey and judge michael luttig of virginia. judge priscilla owen of texas may remain as a third possibility. reuters late sunday also listed appeals court judges michael mcconnell, edith jones and alice batchelder as possibly under consideration. cbs added that the list may include appeals court judge karen williams and michigan supreme court justice maura corrigan.

the nominee, when and if confirmed, would succeed justice sandra day o'connor who announced her retirement in july. this latest nomination process was made necessary when harriet miers withdrew from consideration.

since congress returned from summer recess, there have been significant changes at the court. when justice o'connor originally announced her intention to retire, president bush nominated judge john roberts to replace her. however, when chief justice rehnquist died in september from thyroid cancer, roberts became the replacement for the chief justice.

both alito and luttig are viewed by many as staunch conservatives with strong qualifications. the debate over either conservative candidate is expected to be largely partisan, unlike the harriet miers nomination that was widely criticized by both legislative parties for her lack of judicial experience.

samuel a. alito, age 55, has served as a judge on the 3rd u.s. circuit court of appeals in philadelphia since 1990. j. michael luttig, age 51, has served as a judge on the 4th circuit court of appeals in richmond since 1991. both were originally nominated by president george herbert walker bush.


moldova state university student to represent moldova at world cyber games in singapore

maxim kuzmenko, a mathematics and informatics student of moldova state university, will be representing the republic of moldova at the world cyber games to be held in singapore on november 16. the young man won the qualification war craft computer game tournament held in chisinau recently.

moldova wcg committee chairman mr. vladislav lyahov says kuzmenko has few chances to win at the forthcoming world championship. however, the experience of participation in such grand assemblies and learning more about computer aces' game strategies is simply priceless, he said.

selective tournaments in moldova were held in 4 computer games most popular here. the winners in other game competitions will participate in respective world cyber game tournaments.

in moldova, the qualifications gathered nearly 300 aspirants aged 15-24, including women, from all over moldova.

 


russian peacekeepers will not leave transdniestria, official says

russian peacekeepers will stay in the transnistrian region until adoption of a political decision on change of their mandate, russian defence minister sergei ivanov has told russian journalists. also, ivanov claims that russia does not insist on an exclusive right to peacekeeping mission in the region, although chisinau's appeals to change the make-up of the operation have not received support and have not been introduced in the agenda of the negotiations from october 27-28.

in a discussion with russian journalists prime minister vasile tarlev accused tiraspol of illegal sale of russian weapons (that would have been used in beslan too), but his statement was refuted by russian and chechen officials.

ivanov stated: "i stake my life that no munitions left the russian military bases". transdniestria has its own army that can defend very well its own depots, ivanov added.

minister ahmed dakaev, chechnya's deputy home affairs, as stating that he knows nothing about the sale of munitions from transdniestrian to chechnya. he qualifies these statements as political.

of the transdniestrian foreign department vitalie ignatiev said rumors about the illegal sale of weapons from transdniestrian exist for more than 15 years but nobody could prove it. he has also refuted moldovan prime minister’s statements and sought evidence.

the 1999 osce summit in istanbul had obliged the russian federation to withdraw its troops and ammunition from moldova. russia interrupted the process two years ago under pretext that tiraspol delays the withdrawal of weapons from the region.


hurricane beta makes landfall in nicaragua

hurricane beta hit the nicaraguan coast early on saturday, sending powerful rain and winds their way.

although it lost some speed during landfall, beta was still a category 2 hurricane, with winds of up to 110 mph (175 kph) and was expected to dump up to 15 inches of rain. residents from the local coastal fishing villages rushed into flimsy makeshift shelters as the hurricane approached.

"we had a very bad night. the water leaked in, the children were cold. they brought us here without telling us anything. we don't have food or water," norma smith, a mother of six, said on sunday morning.

neighboring honduras declared a national emergency, and planned to evacuate 125,000 people. however, residents in the isolated coastal regions are usually wary of outsiders, and many failed to heed the warnings.

"these people do not believe in danger until they really feel it," said col. mario perez-cassar, the head of nicaragua's civil defense.

emergency officials say there have been no deaths so far, but the projected path of beta takes it straight across nicaragua, raising the possibility of lethal mudslides in mountainous areas. 

beta, which was not expected to hit the united states, was the 23rd hurricane this year, more than any atlantic season on record. this season has also seen more storms than at any point since record-keeping began in 1851. the previous record of 21 was set in 1933.

last week tropical storm alpha formed, the first time a letter from the greek alphabet has been used because the list of storm names was exhausted.



world bank continues its support of moldovan private sector development

the world bank approved a us$9.8 million competitiveness enhancement project (cep) for the republic of moldova thursday. the approved amount represents a us$4.90 million credit and a us$4.90 million grant. the credit is offered under ida terms, the world bank moldova country office has reported.

the overall objective of the competitiveness enhancement project is to assist moldova in enhancing the competitiveness of enterprises through improvements in the business environment and making adequate standards, testing and quality improvement services available to enterprises.

"the project will help the government of moldova to implement the business regulatory reform that had been started earlier," said irina astrakhan, world bank task manager for the project. "it will also assist the government to begin modernization of the national standards and quality system, leading to improved competitiveness of the moldovan economy in domestic and international markets and more attractiveness for foreign direct investment."

the cep project has four components -- business environment improvement; modernization of measurements, standards, testing and quality (mstq) system; facilitation of enterprise access to mstq services; and facilitation of access to finance.

"the project will bring about unquestionable benefits to the economic environment in moldova by focusing on stability within the framework of business regulation, the promotion of adequate legislation, access to product certification services in line with the standards set by the european union, encouragement of an innovative potential for enterprises, and facilitation of access to funding by means of various up-to-date mechanisms", said mr. valeriu lazar, the moldovan minister of economy and trade.

the enterprise sector, especially smes, will be the primary beneficiaries of this project. the ministry of economy and trade business regulatory reform commission and secretariat, the service for standardization and metrology, the national institute for standardization and metrology, the accreditation center for conformity assessment of products and other institutions of the mstq infrastructure will also be helped by the project.

the total cost of the cep project is us$14.3 million. in addition to the world bank credit and grant, the project will also be financed by the government of japan in the form of grant amounting to us$4.5 million. the project implementation period is 4 years, from january 2006 to december 31, 2009.

since moldova joined the world bank in 1992, bank commitments to the country total approximately us$592 million for 29 operations. 


bush nominates alito to u.s. supreme court

u.s. president george w. bush nominated judge samuel alito of new jersey as associate justice to the u.s. supreme court in a formal announcement at 8 a.m est (13:00 utc) this morning.

bush called alito one "of the most accomplished and respected judges in america" and stressed that he has "more prior judicial experience than any supreme court nominee in more than 70 years."

alito is currently a judge at the 3rd circuit appeals court in philadelphia. he is viewed as a staunch conservative and has been compared to current supreme court justice antonin scalia.

the nominee, when and if confirmed, would succeed justice sandra day o'connor who announced her retirement in july. this latest nomination process was made necessary when harriet miers withdrew herself from consideration after being met with harsh criticism among democrat and republican lines alike.

the debate over the conservative candidate is expected to be largely partisan, unlike the harriet miers nomination that was widely criticized by both legislative parties for her lack of judicial experience.

alito, 55, has served on his circuit court since 1990 and was originally nominated by president george herbert walker bush.



canadian immigration minister outlines plan for application backlog, job vacancies

joe volpe, immigration minister of canada, has set a goal of 255,000 immigrants in 2006 and a longer term goal of 300,000 by 2010. in 2004, there were 236,000 new immigrants and in 2005 that number is expected to increase to 245,000. the cabinet must approve the immigration target plan.

there are reportedly 700,000 applications currently in the queue and it can take up to four years for an application to be processed to its conclusion. canada announced the new immigration plan to clear the backlog on april 18, 2005.

volpe argues that canada needs to begin thinking of the immigration department as vehicle for recruiting given the country's demographics and associated labour needs.


un calls for further syrian cooperation

this tuesday the fifteen-member united nations security council unanimously adopted a resolution calling for syria to cooperate fully with the un international independent investigation commission (uniiic). the security council demanded that syria detain suspects indentified by the uniic until such time as they could be questioned. the resolution warns of "further action" if syria fails to cooperate with the investigation.

ministers from the united states, britain, and france, were circulating a draft of the resolution with stronger wording on action in the event that syria failed to cooperate. after the vote us secretary of state, condoleezza rice, said: "with our decision today, we show that syria has isolated itself from the international community through its false statements, its support for terrorism, its interference in the affairs of its neighbours and its destabilising behaviour in the middle east."

russia and china had signaled they opposed wording the resolution in a way that threatened sanctions. chinese foreign minister , told the council, "the commission itself believes that the investigation is yet to be completed and there is no final conclusion. under such circumstances it is inappropriate for the council to prejudge the outcome of the investigation and to threaten to impose sanctions." 

the final wording was endorsed by all 15 members of the security council.

syria had earlier rejected the findings of the un investigation into the murder of the former lebanese prime minister .

"it is a political statement against syria based on allegations by witnesses known for their hostility to syria," mehdi dakhlallah, syria's information minister, told aljazeera. 



kansas school board has copyright withheld over teaching intelligent design

kansas has been denied permission to use two key documents commonly used in the writing of science education standards for states, the (published by the ) and pathways to science standards (published by the ). the respective organizations argued that they could not grant the state of kansas permission to use these documents in the current form of the kansas science educational standards, as these overemphasize controversy between the scientific theory of and the argument of . moreover, the organizations criticize that the standards in their current form distort the . the has expressed its support for the decision to deny kansas the use of copyrighted material, as "the proposed standards misrepresent both the content and the standing of evolution as a scientific organizing principle".

proponents of intelligent design have characterized the refusal as "an effort to censor the discussion of scientific criticism of darwinian theory by intimidation and threat". 

this is likely to further delay the ratification of the final vote on the kansas science educational standards as they will have to be rewritten either to not violate any copyright restrictions or modify their account of evolution and outlook on science. according to university of kansas professor steve case, rewriting the standards will be very difficult, as "there is copyrighted material on every page" of the current document.

this is the second time that kansas was denied the right to use copyrighted materials in their state standards, following the case in 1999, when kansas included , a precursor of intelligent design, into the school curriculum. a later school board overturned that directive. 
the dispute in kansas has brought nationwide responses, ranging from a rebuke by the to the creation of internet-sensation mythology (which is lobbying the kansas school board to give equal time teaching their creationism theory as well.)




australian foreign affairs minister denies knowledge of guantanamo abuse allegations

the australian minister for foreign affairs, alexander downer, has denied that his department had notification of sexual abuse allegations made by the australian guantanamo bay detainee, david hicks in 2003/2004.

"i'd like to see the evidence for this, and we would ask those who make the claims to present us with the evidence, let us look at the evidence, because obviously we are opposed to rape," he said after the four corners current affairs tv program presented an expose relating to the alleged reasons for the detention of david hicks at guantanamo bay. the program included an interview with david hicks' father terry hicks who said that david had told him that the americans gave him injections and then penetrated him anally with various objects.

mr downer's claims were contradicted by hicks' military lawyer, major michael mori who said that an australian official was present during an interview that was part of the us investigation in 2004 and david hicks had detailed the issues of being assaulted during that interview. mr downer declined to answer these claims when approached by the abc radio program the world today but a department official confirmed the government's position that it was not aware of mr hicks' torture claims.

the labor party opposition foreign affairs spokesman, kevin rudd said in an interview on lateline that mr downer "has just washed his hands of these matters" and that he had "adopted a posture of leave it to the americans and trust the americans. but when it comes to guantanamo bay, with due respect to our friends in washington, i don't think that's good enough.". mr rudd is calling for an independent third party such as the international red cross to investigate the claims. 


makybe diva wins the melbourne cup

the 2005 melbourne cup has been won by "makybe diva". second was "on a jeune" and third placegetter was "xcellent".

the melbourne cup is the richest horse race in australia, with prize money in 2005 of a$5,000,000, and is one of the richest horse races in the world. it is run annually on the first tuesday of november at flemington racecourse in melbourne, over a distance of 3,200 meters (which is slightly under 2 miles). an estimated crowd of 140,000 flocked to the flemington racecourse to watch the race.

this is the first time in the history of the race, first held in 1861, that the same horse has won the race three times. with this being the third consecutive year that "makybe diva" has won the melbourne cup, comparisons are now being made to legendary australian horse "phar lap". four other horses have won the race twice, of which three won it in consecutive years.

"makybe diva" was ridden by glen boss, and was trained by lee freedman. freedman said on the morning of the race that a win would be a "herculean task" to achieve. 

the owners of "makybe diva" received a$3,000,000 in prize money, as well as trophies valued at a$100,000. a$750,000 was awarded to the second placegetter, and a$375,000 to third place, with the remaining prize money distributed amongst the fourth through the tenth placegetters.


transdnestria is once again accused of selling weapons to iraq

moldovan president vladimir voronin accused the transnistrian authorities on saturday of having supplied russian weapons to iraq during the regime of saddam hussein, russian news agencies have said.

chisinau "holds official documents from the chancellery of saddam hussein, which show that transnistria had supplied both arms, and entire weapon manufacturing lines to iraq," voronin told a group of russian journalists, adding that an investigation on this case is under way. “russia’s control over this territory is obvious and we must call to account those who do not desire to solve this conflict”, voronin added.

“about two billion dollars are being laundered every year in transnistria and no one wants to give up this source so easily,” vladimir voronin said. being asked what russia must do to help solve the conflict, the moldovan president said that it must take the munitions from that territory. “we consider this depot a political shield that supports the transnistrian regime,” the president emphasized.

voronin added moldova can prove tiraspol sold weapons to iraq. the document from hussein’s archive that can confirm this is being studied by the moldovan authorities now, he said.

voronin accused moscow to settle this regional conflict, noting that russian weapons are "a political coverage to protect the transnistrian regime." the moldovan leader noted that he has sent a package of documents to russia regarding the activity of 13 transnistrian military companies.

on the other hand, moldovan premier vasile tarlev accused thursday the russian troops in transnistria of supplying weapons to the chechen region, in reply, russian defence minister sergei ivanov said that he "pledges his head" for russian bases in moldova, and assured that "no weapons from transnistria had been sent."
of the transdniestrian foreign department vitalie ignatiev said rumors about the illegal sale of weapons from transdniestrian exist for more than 15 years but nobody could prove it. he has also refuted moldovan prime minister’s statements and sought evidence...


asio settle out of court, wrongful detention case

the australian security intelligence organisation, and the federal government of australia have settled out of court with a couple whose house had been raided a couple weeks after the 11 september 2001 attacks against the pentagon and the world trade center towers in the usa.

asio, a domestic counter-intelligence service, mistakenly raided the couples house when they had a search warrant for another house.

the couple were detained for an hour and claimed they were assaulted, wrongfully detained and experienced severe shock when, according to their claims, asio officers threatened to destroy their door and then held them at gun point.

it is also claimed that until an hour after the attack, asio officers would not allow mrs. fatme iali to put on her clothes. as compensation, the couple asked the court for aus$1.5 million in damages. although it is unknown how much bilal daye and his wife received in the out of court settlement (under the terms of the deal, the settlement cannot be disclosed), they stated that they were satisfied with the result. 

"just relieved, i can take care of my family now, that's all i wanted," mr daye said.

mr daye's solicitor stephen hopper said the victory was very important for civil rights, but suggested that close scrutiy of government actions was required in the future. 

"what this case demonstrates is that asio can be held accountable ... the government can be held open to scrutiny," he said. 

"control orders can be slapped onto a person before the evidence can be tested in court ... they should have to justify why such orders and restrictions should be put on a free person before they do it."

"the government's got to be scrutinised for all of its actions and if they make a mistake they should be held accountable."

mr hopper argued that the proposed anti-terrorism bill could prevent media reporting of incidents such as this. 

"if the new laws were brought in and it was an issue of preventative detention no probably not, no," he said

"if it's an issue of an asio warrant, under section 34d of the asio act, no, you wouldn't and the government's got to be scrutinised for all of its actions and if they make a mistake they should be held accountable," he added.

it is unclear what implications it could have for websites like wikinews, which are hosted on servers outside australia.


ericsson's ceo tours marconi sites

carl-henric svanberg, ceo of ericsson, began a tour of some of marconi's european sites this morning, starting at coventry and moving to beeston for the afternoon session. genoa and backnang will be visited on wednesday and thursday.

mike parton, ceo of , spoke of the 'good news' for all stake-holders and introduced svanberg to a round of applause from the majority of the staff at coventry new century park, while more staff from coventry new horizon park listened on a conference call line.

the purpose of the tour is to communicate to approx. eighty percent of marconi's staff and allow them to ask questions about the asset purchase proposed by ericsson.


sony's drm protected cds install windows rootkits

mark russinovich, of sysinternals.com, has discovered a so-called "rootkit" which is installed by sony's new digital rights management-protected music compact disks (cds). a rootkit is a common name for malicious software that is used by computer criminals to hide their presence on a compromised computer. rootkits frequently contain hidden files and are designed to be difficult for the user to detect and remove.

russinovich classifies sony's rootkit as malware because it is alleged to introduce several serious security holes, one of which can be exploited to hide files and prevent the user from removing them. in particular, all executable files which begin with '$sys$' are hidden when the software is installed. he points out that these security holes could be exploited by hackers, or other malware producers besides sony.

russinovich explains that naively removing the files will result in a crippling of the operating system on the user's computer. he provides an explanation of the difficult step required to remove sony's malware. 

playing the same cds on computers not running the windows operating system, or on a non-computer based cd player remains safe. as removing sony's malware would violate the digital millennium copyright act's anti-circumvention provisions, ripping the cds on computers running a non-windows operating system may be the best legal and technically safe option for those who wish to listen to them under windows.

the software is automatically installed when a sony cd is played on a computer, and is not mentioned in their eula. the rootkit has been commercially developed by first 4 internet and licensed to sony. 

other rights management techniques used by music publishers recently include breaking the red book compact disc standard format. this technique causes many cd players to not be able to play the new cds, but also protects against casual ripping. fiona apple's recent album release in the united states uses such technology.




north, south korea plan united team for 2008 olympics

north and south korea say they are ready to unify on the athletic field. for the first time, senior sports officials say the two countries will compete as a combined team in the next .

north and south korea's top athletes will go for the gold as part of the same team during the 2008 olympics in , and in the 2006 in , .

senior athletic officials from both countries confirmed the news on the sidelines of the ongoing east asian games in , .

north korean team representative kim yeong min says the united team will be a powerful display for the world. mr. kim says the unified team will show the world that north and south korea are one nation.

north and south korean athletic teams have marched together in several past athletic opening ceremonies, but never competed as a unified team.

the korean peninsula has been divided by the world's most heavily fortified border since the communist north fought the capitalist south in a 1950?53 war. but contacts between the two koreas have increased in a gradual warming of relations since an historic 2000 summit in .

sports-related cooperation is part of a broader strategy of north-south engagement supported by the south korean government.

the two koreas are expected to work out details of the combined team in a meeting next month in the north korean border city of .

the location has come to symbolize south korean economic engagement with the north, because it is the home of a south korean industrial joint venture with pyongyang. it is also where opened its first government liaison office in north korea last week. 



news briefs:november 1, 2005

australian minister for foreign affairs alexander downer denied his department knew of sexual abuse allegations by australian guantanamo bay detainee david hicks. he made his remarks after a tv expose aired which included an interview with david's father terry hicks who described the abuse. mr downer's denials were contradicted by hicks's military lawyer who said an australian official was present during a us investigation interview in 2004, and david hicks had detailed being assaulted during that interview.

the time is 1930 (utc) on monday, november 1, 2005, and this is audio wikinews: news briefs.

un calls for further syrian cooperation<br>
the united nations security council has adopted a resolution calling for syria to cooperate fully with the un international independent investigation commission. the security council demanded that syria detain suspects indentified by the commission until they could be questioned. the resolution warns of "further action" if syria fails to cooperate with the investigation.

bush nominates alito to u.s. supreme court<br>
u.s. president george w. bush has nominated samuel alito to become an associate justice on the u.s. supreme court. alito is currently a judge at the 3rd circuit appeals court in philadelphia and is viewed by many as a staunch conservative. this latest nomination process was made necessary when white house counsel harriet miers withdrew herself from consideration after being met with harsh criticism among democrat and republican lines alike.

thank you for joining us today. to receive more up-to-date news items as they occur, please visit wikinews.org.

this has been a news brief for audio wikinews. have a good day.

this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


australian foreign affairs minister denies knowledge of guantanamo abuse allegations/brief



u.n. denied access to guantanamo inmates

today, u.s. secretary of defense donald rumsfeld renewed his denial to grant a united nations commission access to inmates at the guantanamo bay detention center. last week the united states offered to let united nations representatives visit the detention center, but they refused to let united nations representatives visit the entire detention facility or interview detainees.

the united nation's special rapporteur on torture, manfred nowak, told reporters on monday that even china does not impose such conditions for united nations visit of detention centers and that the united nations could not accept an offer to visit the united states facility under conditions that are different from other nations. nowak did show willingness to compromise on other controversial questions as the duration of the visit, which is limited to one day, and which individual united nations representatives would be involved in the visit.

the united states has voiced objections to two of the proposed team of five united nations inspectors: leandro despouy, special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, and paul hunt, special rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. paul hunt in particular has expressed strong suspicion of torture having occurred in guantanamo. those approved include nowak from austria in position as special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, asma jahangir from pakistan as special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, and leila zerrougui from algeria as chairperson-rapporteur of the working group on arbitrary detention.

the united nations has been requesting access to the naval base for four years. the united states has explained that the restrictions placed on the un visit are due to the nature of the ongoing war on terrorism.


us senate meets in private session

the united states senate met behind closed doors on tuesday under pressure to investigate the intelligence that led to the war in . the rare parliamentary rule invoked by the democrats forces the removal of all media, staff, and tourists from the chamber. congress will stop working on legislation temporarily.

senate minority leader harry reid stated that a private session was justified by the fact that the indictment of lewis libby showed how the administration manipulated the intelligence in order to justify the war on iraq. president made his case on the war by citing u.s. intelligence showed iraq with the possessions of weapons of mass destruction. both the u.n. weapon inspector team and the u.s. military found no such weapons.

conservatives saw the unusual maneuver as a ploy to distract the public from president bush's recent nomination of to the and dismissed the investigation, which has been in the news over the past several days with the resignation of vice president cheney's aide after the disclosure that libby lied under oath about leaking information that would provocate war between iraq and the u.s.



gomery report on sponsorship program released

justice john gomery has released a preliminary report into canada's sponsorship program, which was run from 1996 to 2003 by the federal public works department to win support for federalism in quebec. the program has recently come under fire for allegedly scandalous practices and has been accused of being a front to reward liberal party supporters. 

the issue came to a head in the spring of 2002, when the globe and mail, using canada's access to information act, discovered that $550,000 had been paid to groupaction marketing for a report that could not be located.

former prime minister jean chretien then ordered auditor general sheila fraser to look into the matter, who promptly launched a full investigation with assistance from the royal canadian mounted police. in 2004, fraser's audit was released and found that over $100 million was incorrectly paid to communications agencies rather than for social and cultural events which was the original intention of the program.

according to fraser, officials "broke just about every rule in the book."

under intense criticism from both the public and opposition parties prime minister paul martin launched a public inquiry into the scandal which was to be headed by justice gomery.

the report found evidence of political involvement in the handling of the program, and found an "implicit link between the contributions and the expectation that the government contracts would be awarded."

the report also claims that chretien holds some personal responsibility for the mismanagement. "since mr. chretien chose to run the program from his own office," the report reasoned "he is accountable for the defective manner in which the sponsorship program and initiatives were implemented."

among those accused of wrongdoing are jean pelletier (chretien's former chief of staff), chuck guite (the bureaucrat in charge the program), jacques corriveau (president of pluridesign canada), and jean brault (president of groupaction).




sydney residents protest anti-terror laws

a small group of people gathered in protest outside the new south wales parliament in sydney, australia at midday. the group was protesting the proposed anti-terrorism bill, calling upon premier iemma not to support the laws. the protest was organised by the new south wales greens and was addressed by several speakers, including lee rhiannon, an elected greens parliamentarian from the new south wales legislative council.

one protester carried a placard which read: "terrorism laws=fascism!" she compared the proposed legislation to the 1933 german enabling act, saying "it is the most basic rule of democracy is that you have the right to legal representation and hitler took that away, that was habeas corpus as it was called, in 1933 legislation and from that moment on thats when everything began. they could remove people, anyone who objected anyone who was a witness, anyone who tried to find out what happened could also be removed."

"john howard's terror law would not make australia safer", lee rhiannon said in her speech, "they will not stop a london style bombing occurring in australia and that's what we need to remember. this is another one of john howards's lies. let's remember weapons of mass destruction, (and) children overboard."

the australian government introduced anti-terror laws after september 11, and has sought to extend those laws in the wake of the london train bombings. 

the government claimed in a media release today that it has this week received specific information about a terrorist threat to australia. 

"the government has received specific intelligence and police information this week which gives cause for serious concern about a potential terrorist threat. the detail of this intelligence has been provided to the leader of the opposition and the shadow minister for homeland security," the release said. 

the government claims that the new bill is intended to improve the ability of intelligence services and the police to counter this threat. 

"the government is satisfied on the advice provided to it that the immediate passage of this bill would strengthen the capacity of law enforcement agencies to effectively respond to this threat," the release said. 

dr andrew lynch, project director of the terrorism and law project at the gilbert & tobin centre of public law, has said that rhiannon has raised some valid issues regarding some of the provisions in the proposed legislation. 

"it is difficult to see how many of [the provisions] will enhance our security. for example, the bans on free speech will only drive inciting and hateful messages under ground which must make the job of security forces harder in identifying real threats. the restrictions on family members knowing about the detention of their children is not conceivably going to improve our safety. there is a lot to be said for the view that depriving people of their liberty on the basis only of 'reasonable suspicion' might well fuel feelings of alienation amongst some groups which could be harnessed by extremists," dr lynch said. 



australian treasury related agencies spend 17000 aud on massages in 2004

australian agencies under the responsibility of the federal treasurer, peter costello, spent approximately $17,000 aud on massage services in 2004, namely the australian bureau of statistics (abs) and the australian securities and investments commission (asic).

the australian labor party member christopher bowen asked the treasurer for details on massage services in a question on notice, and received the answer on october 31. 

637 asic staff made use of massages, compared with only 50 in the abs, who however spent more on massages than asic. abs staff paid $15 for 15 minutes and $10 for 10 minutes, while asic staff paid only $10.86 per massage. 



us state of kansas in battle over &quot;intelligent design&quot; in education

tempers are flaring in the u.s. state of kansas, where a school board may be on the verge of passing a measure to require that intelligent design be taught in public school science classes.

christian political activists such as reverend jerry johnston of first family church in overland park kansas are supporting the effort to shape kansas science standards according to religious beliefs. johnston said, "getting intelligent design into school curricula is the worthiest cause of our time and the key to reversing the country's moral decline."

in an apparent attempt to make the inclusion of intelligent design into the curriculum seem foolish, "believers" in the flying spaghetti monster are lobbying the kansas school board, calling for it to require that creation by the flying spaghetti monster be taught alongside darwinism and intelligent design. 

bobby henderson, the creator of "pastafarianism", said "i think we can all look forward to the time when these three theories are given equal time in our science classrooms… one third time for intelligent design, one third time for flying spaghetti monsterism, and one third time for logical conjecture based on overwhelming observable evidence."

several members of the kansas board of education have already indicated that they might vote in favor of such an initiative. board member carol rupe wrote, "the new version (of science standards) changes the very definition of science from 'seeking natural explanations' to 'seeking logical explanations.' that is why i think fsmism is able to be included. it is as 'logical' as any other theory."

in 1999, kansas also wrote creationism, a precursor of intelligent design, into the public school curriculum. a later school board, however, overturned that directive.



anti-terror amendments to be rushed through australian parliament because of new 'potential threats'

new terror amendments are to be rushed through australian federal parliament based on new threats recently revealed by the australian security intelligence organisation (asio). the government claimed in a media release today that it has this week received specific information about a terrorist threat to australia.

"the government has received specific intelligence and police information this week which gives cause for serious concern about a potential terrorist threat. the detail of this intelligence has been provided to the leader of the opposition and the shadow minister for homeland security," the release said. 

the government claims that the new bill is intended to improve the ability of intelligence services and the police to counter this threat. 

"the government is satisfied on the advice provided to it that the immediate passage of this bill would strengthen the capacity of law enforcement agencies to effectively respond to this threat," the release said. 

the opposition leader, kim beazley, has been briefed by the prime minister on the nature of the threat, and has pledged that labor will support the amendments. 

the amendments are separate to the proposed anti-terror legislation.

some commentators noted that the nation's security alert level had not been escalated as a result of the new information and remained at "medium" and a subsequent interview with the attorney-general, philip ruddock on lateline appeared to indicate that there was in fact no information about a specific imminent threat.

greens' senator bob brown noted that there are already laws that could deal with a specific imminent threat: "whoever these unnamed people are, they can be arrested, they can be interrogated for up to seven days, they can be charged under the current crimes act." he said.

the government has a track record of presenting misleading information to the public for political ends as in the infamous children overboard affair when refugees where vilified by ministers of the australian government, including the prime minister, on the basis of false evidence.


uk work secretary david blunkett resigns

david blunkett, the united kingdom's work and pensions secretary, resigned following a meeting with prime minister tony blair today. 

public pressure had been growing on mr. blunkett to resign after revelations emerged that he had broken the british ministerial code of conduct in relation to his large shareholdings and short-lived directorship in a company called dna bioscience. it is the second time blunkett's has been forced to stand down from office, having previously stepped down as home secretary last year over claims that his office fast-tracked a visa application.

a member of the opposition liberal democrat party, greg mulholland said "i think he's done the right thing <nowiki>[in quitting]</nowiki>, having done several quite blatantly wrong things". in an interview with the sheffield star yesterday, blunkett declared that he would not resign, insisting that he had "done nothing wrong."

blunkett's replacement was named as john hutton, previously chancellor of the duchy of lancaster.


at least thirty-three more dead in ethiopia election clashes

at least thirty-three more people have died in a second day of protests in addis ababa, the capital of ethiopia. reuters put the figure at twenty-three.

according to incoming reports police forces opened fire on stone-throwing youths who were engaged in protest.

the protests were called in reaction to the results of the parliamentary elections held in may which many opposition figures maintain were rigged. when the election results were first declared in june riots erupted in which 36 people died.

the latest series of protests come as the parliamentary session is scheduled to begin. the opposition party, the called the protest and refused to take their seats until new and transparently organised elections are held, and mass arrests of opposition activists cease. the party said that six of its top officials, including chairman hailu shawel and vice-chairman berhanu nega, had been detained. 

30 taxi drivers who took part in demonstrations against the parliamentary elections were arrested and had their licenses revoked. 

authorities have jailed at least two journalists and increased censorship of media coverage of anti-government protests, reports the . on 2 november, police arrested two editors and a reporter from the independent amharic-language weekly hadar. many other journalists have gone into hiding and much of the independent press has stopped publishing on orders from the police.

the associated press reports that an anonymous source in black lion hospital told their reporter that most of the dead had been shot in the chest. one eye-witness at the hospital claims that the police fired randomly into the crowd.

the dead were all shot by riot police and opposition spokesman gizachew shiferaw said police used excessive force. the previous day, however, two of the dead were police shot by protesters. the government accuses the opposition of attempting to topple the government, and dismissed an assessment by european union monitors that the elections failed to meet international standards.


11 mps ejected from australian parliament

a record number of 11 mps were ejected from the australian parliament during the uproar that ensued the introduction of the government's controversial industrial relations legislation.

the opposition industrial relations spokesman, stephen smith said that the speaker had only applied his ruling to the opposition side of the house and said that "my impression sitting in the chamber was that there was plenty of noise coming from both sides".

the new bill of nearly 700 pages sees the end of australia's 100 year old wage fixing system and will push more workers onto individual contracts, allowed award conditions like penalty rates to be bargained away and removed unfair dismissal laws for most workers.


australian house of representatives grows heated over industrial relations legislation

australian industral relations reform legislation
made up of 700 pages of bill legislation and 500 additional pages of explanatory memoranda was introduced into the federal house of representatives november 2, where the opposition heatedly attempted to address their perceived problem of the government's lack of discussion and debate over the matter.

the first reading of the bill was the first order of the day, and when kevin andrews tried to do so, opposition member stephen smith, responsible for workplace relations, immediately moved a motion deferring the bills to the house of representatives standing committee on employment, workplace relations and workforce participation. the leader of the house, tony abbott moved that smith and the necessary supporter ? viz., julia gillard ? be not further heard (cloture). the government's majority in the house ensured that this would happen. however, opposition members attempted to use house standing orders necessitating that copies of the bill to be "available to members", with argument arising whether "available to members" meant all members or simply whether some copies should be available; this ended up in a dissent motion moved against the speaker of the house.

later, in a heated question time, where six members of the opposition, (kelly hoare, julia irwin, anthony albanese, bernard ripoll, catherine king, and gavan o'connor), were removed from the chamber during question time under standing orders for disruption ? jill hall quipped that she was "glad to be still here to ask [her] question" ? nearly all questions to the government put by the opposition, the subsequent time for matters of public importance, and some members in the adjournment debate, was all on the topic of the industrial relations reform. 

to implement and fund the legislation, the government will "spend an additional $486million on industrial relations changes over four years, or $121million a year. this spending would be in addition to the present annual budget of $86million." said an unnamed government source for "the australian".

the government will need to use its corporation powers to remove the powers from the states to alter the award conditions and other employee employer related conditions. but the new south wales premier morris iemma has received legal advice that the legislation maybe unconstitutional, the reason being its being used to end the role of the states and territories australian states in the industrial relations system. "it is our view that the commonwealth is misusing this law to achieve exactly what it was designed to prevent", iemma said. mr iemma will be challenging the changes in the high court with peter beattie premier of queensland supporting his challenge in the high court.



multiple bomb threats in sydney 'nothing more than a hoax'

the sydney police have declared that the numerous bomb threat e-mails circulating the city today were all hoaxes. the messages warned of a late afternoon bomb attack at town hall station. 

there were unconfirmed reports of evacuations at town hall station, although it is not clear whether these were officially sanctioned, or just the result of word-of-mouth.

the police stated that there have been no evacuations. the deputy police commissioner has said that the threats were "nothing more than a hoax", appealed for calm, and says that if any credible threats are received, the public will be kept informed and dealt with appropriately.



world bank warns of high bird flu cost

the world bank has issued a report warning that a bird flu pandemic could cost the asian economy up to $283 billion and lead the region into recession. 
the report has identified the tourist, transport and retail sectors of the asian economy as being particularly vulnerable to the effects of such an outbreak. world bank economist homi kharas noted that, "one large shadow looms over the generally positive economic outlook we have sketched out... and that is avian flu." 

the report, published twice annually by the world bank, admitted than asia's recent growth was going to slow down slightly anyway in 2006 (due to higher oil prices and tighter monetary policy), but that a bird flu epidemic could make this partial slowdown much worse.

the report comes just days ahead of an asian political summit, where the foreign ministers of many of the countries already affected by the h5n1 virus are expected to agree to even closer co-operative measures to help stall the advance of the virus. the foreign ministers of cambodia, laos, burma, thailand and vietnam have already agreed to closer co-operation to contain the virus and develop a vaccine.

 


teaching intelligent design: incumbent dover pa school board fails reelection

the dover, pennsylvania school board became the first to mandate inclusion of intelligent design in a public school biology curriculum. for this year's november 8 election, republicans fielded a pro-intelligent design slate of candidates including some returning candidates who had previously voted to include a statement about intelligent design in the biology curriculum. a mixed slate of democrat and republican candidates came forward as an alternative group of school board candidates, the dover cares coalition. they proposed to remove intelligent design from the biology curriculum but allow discussion of intelligent design in courses dealing with philosophy and comparative religion. 

all eight open school board seats were won by dover cares coalition candidates. two candidates who had previously voted as school board members to include intelligent design in the public school science curriculum received the fewest votes in tuesday's election. one of the newly elected board members is bryan rehm, a parent of a dover school student. rehm, along with ten other parents, initiated a law suit against the school board for its decision to insert intelligent design into the science curriculum.

in october 2004, the dover school board decided that intelligent design is a scientific theory that should be mentioned in biology classes that include discussion of biological evolution as part of the course content. the board mandated that a statement should be read in those classes stating "intelligent design is an explanation of the origin of life," and "the school leaves the discussion of the origins of life to individual students and their families."

the school board's statement on intelligent design directs students to the book "of pandas and people" as a source of information "for students who might be interested in gaining an understanding of what intelligent design actually involves." this book is published by the foundation for thought and ethics, a non-profit organization founded for the purpose of "promoting and publishing textbooks presenting a christian perspective."

parents of some dover public school students filed a lawsuit against the school board, charging that including the school board's statement on intelligent design was an attempt to introduce religion into the science curriculum. the book "of pandas and people" says, "intelligent design means that various forms of life began abruptly through an intelligent agency." the original complaint in the law suit against the school board claimed that "intelligent design is a non-scientific argument or assertion." 

the us district court judge john jones, who heard the non-jury case, hopes to make his ruling by the end of the year. the evidence phase of the trial ended on november 4, 2005.

a local dover newspaper, the "york daily record", editorialized that dover voters should take trial testimony into account during the general election when they could cast votes for school board members along with other elective offices.

biology teachers in the dover schools have refused to read the school board's statement on intelligent design to students because the pennsylvania state code for education states that "the professional educator may not knowingly and intentionally misrepresent subject matter." in a letter to their administrator, the teachers stated their view that "intelligent design is not science." school administrators have been reading the school board's intelligent design statement to students in dover public schools.




french riots continue into second week

the uprising continued thursday in the suburbs of paris, where residents have set fire to buildings, cars, and buses and shot at police and firefighters. reports indicate that at least nine people have been injured as a result of the violence. 

numerous uprisings have been reported in over 20 paris suburbs, all of which are towns with large african immigrant populations, poor education, health, and infrastructure, and long histories of police brutality and deportations.

french president jacques chirac met with his administration on wednesday to discuss the current situation. however, there has been no announcement regarding strategies to suppress the violence. the communities are calling on riot police to be withdrawn, since they are serving primarily to incite further confrontation.

the uprisings erupted when two teenagers, 15 and 17 years of age, died of electrocution in a power station where they were hiding to escape an id check from police. a third is seriously injured. 

the uprising gained force and spread across the country after riot police tear gassed the women's prayer room of a mosque on the holiest night of ramadan, then called women "whores" as they emerged, choking.



 


israel begins using sonic booms against palestinians

israel stepped up use of sonic boom raids against civilian communities in the gaza strip this week. the guardian reported that during the past week, israeli jets created 28 sonic booms by flying at high speed and low altitude over the gaza strip. the sonic booms usually occurred 1-2 hours apart during nighttime hours. according to the palestinian health ministry, the sonic booms have led to miscarriages and heart problems. buildings in the area have also been damaged, including the "chairman arafat shop" in gaza city. israeli citizens living in communities around gaza have also complained of the booms. the united nations filed a letter of protest with the israeli government, alleging that the tactic is an abuse of human rights. 

israel defended its raids, saying the booms are designed to be a show of force against militant groups in the region. according to the guardian, an anonymous senior israeli army intelligence source says that the sonic booms were being administered to break civilian support for armed palestinian groups. "we are trying to send a message in a way that doesn't harm people. we want to encourage the palestinian public to do something about the terror situation," he said. "what are the alternatives? we are not like the terrorists who shoot civilians. we are cautious. we make sure nobody is really hurt."

the gaza community mental health programme filed a suit this week in the supreme court. eyad el sarraj is a psychologist and director of the gaza community mental health programme. he told the guardian unlimited, "the israelis do it after midnight and then every one or two hours. you try to go to sleep and then there's another one. when it happens night after night you become exhausted. you get a heightened sense of alert, waiting continuously for it to happen. people suffer hypertension, fatigue, sleeplessness."

"for children, the loud noise means danger. adults may know it's only a sound but small children feel threatened. they are crying and clinging to their parents. afterwards they are dazed and fearful, waiting for something to happen."

 


libby, former cheney aide, pleads not guilty

i. lewis "scooter" libby, former chief of staff to u.s. vice president dick cheney, pleaded not guilty before the u.s. district judge, reggie walton, in washington's e. barrett prettyman federal courthouse on thursday, in response to his indictment regarding the cia leak scandal. 

"with respect your honor, i plead not guilty," libby said.

libby's lawyers addressed reporters following the arraignment. "in pleading not guilty he has declared to the world that he is innocent. he has declared that intends to fight the charges in the indictment, and he has declared that he wants to clear his good name," said attorney ted wells. "he wants to clear his good name, and he wants a jury trial," wells added.

the former vice presidential aide was indicted by special prosecutor patrick fitzgerald last week on two counts of perjury, one count of obstruction of justice, and two counts of making false statements. the indictments focus on whether he attempted to cover up his actions during the investigation instead of whether he illegally leaked the identity of undercover cia agent valerie plame. after being charged, libby immediately resigned his position.

 


eu to investigate secret cia establishments in romania, poland

the european union, the and the red cross said thursday they will investigate allegations by that the cia has set up secret jails in romania and poland.

mark garlasco, senior military analyst with human rights watch discovered the secret prisons by examining flight logs of cia aircraft.

garlasco, who is a former civilian intelligence officer with the defense intelligence agency, told the associated press, "the indications are that prisoners in are being (taken) to facilities in europe and other countries in the world."


uk national audit office: online learning service learndirect 'too bureaucratic'

in an independent report released today, the national audit office has accused learndirect and its administrators ufi (university for industry) of being 'too bureaucratic' in their administrative processes. they say that the administrative structure is too large, and should be streamlined. this should free more money to spend on students.

however, they have praised learndirect, saying that they have 'pushed the boundaries of learning' in a short time frame.

sir john bourn, the comptroller and auditor general of the national audit office issued this statement:

"learndirect is a major innovative feat that within a few short years has become the largest education provider of its type in the world. it is attracting large numbers of learners who otherwise would not have undertaken learning.

management and administration costs have reduced with time but still take up too large a portion of the budget. they need to be streamlined so that more money can go into services for learners, and to increase the emphasis on small- and medium-sized businesses.”


anti-bush protests turn violent in argentina

an anti-american rally in argentina became violent friday when rioters clashed with police, set street bonfires and destroyed storefronts over six square city blocks. earlier there was a peaceful march by about 10,000 demonstrators who listened to hugo chavez, venezuelan president, urge them to fight u.s. policies, including free trade agreements. 

bolivia's leading presidential candidate evo morales also joined the protestors to oppose u.s. president george w. bush.


first google print books unveiled

on thursday, google announced the first major expansion of google print -- allowing visitors to search and read a further 10,000 texts via the project's website. the new additions are out-of-copyright american literature and historical documents from the 19th century. 

this initial expansion comprises documents from the new york public library and the libraries of harvard university, stanford university, oxford university, and the university of michigan. in a formal statement, university of michigan president mary sue coleman said, "today we welcome the world to our library. as educators we are inspired by the possibility of sharing these important works with people around the globe."

since its initial announcement, the project has been the subject of legal threats from publishing companies and authors who want to ensure that google does not scan and distribute copyrighted material without permission. as a result of the legal action the scanning of copyrighted material has been on hold, and there has been speculation that the project was a failure. however, google has announced that it restarted scanning copyrighted works from the 1st of november.

google's controversial service also faces competition from the open content alliance, formed by internet companies including yahoo! and the internet archive.




major new bird flu outbreaks reported in asia

new outbreaks of the lethal h5n1 strain of the avian influenza have been documented in vietnam and china. according to a vietnamese animal health officer, 4,000 poultry and water fowl have died of the virus after october 25 in provinces 70 kilometres north of hanoi. in china, 9,000 chickens and twenty wild birds have died of the virus in just over two weeks with more than 300,000 birds culled as a precaution.

meanwhile, japanese authorities are planning on culling 180,000 chickens in response to the discovery of the first case of bird flu in the country in over a year. most of japan's previous avian influenza outbreaks have been due to the h5n2 strain, which poses no known threat to humans. the virus found in a farm north-east of tokyo has been confirmed as belonging to the h5 family, but additional tests are needed to find out whether it is the h5n1 strain. a japanese agriculture ministry official said that there was "little concern" of the virus being the h5n1 type as no case of the strain has previously been found in the area.

at least 60 people have died of the h5n1 strain in east asia. over 40 of the fatalities have occurred in vietnam, where tests are currently being conducted for at least one possible additional human infection. china has not reported any human infections of the avian flu.

 


engine troubles delay airbus superjumbo tour

the departure from france of the new airbus a380 superjumbo airliner on a tour of asia and australia has been delayed, leading to a rearrangement of its public appearances. citing "a precautionary measure", airbus announced that two of the rolls-royce trent 900 engines on the prototype airliner would be replaced before the tour commenced.

singapore will remain the airliner's first stop, where singapore airlines will display the aircraft they intend to launch into passenger-carrying service in november 2006. it is expected that the airbus 380 will wear the livery of singapore airlines when it arrives on november 11, three days later than originally planned.

the massive airliner will then bypass the planned stop in malaysia, and fly directly to sydney, then melbourne and brisbane as part of the leadup to qantas' 85th birthday celebrations on november 16. qantas plans to commence a380 operations starting in april 2007. 

the malaysia visit will be rescheduled for november 17, occurring during the return flight to france.

it is unclear whether the originally planned australian tour dates can be kept, and sources indicate that the airliner's first stop in brisbane, on november 11, maybe eliminated in favour of a brief appearance on november 16.


farmers hunt for missing bull semen

authorities are looking for usd$75,000 in frozen bull semen stolen sunday from liquid nitrogen tanks at a farm in frederick county, maryland. eric fleming, the owner, says the semen took 4 to 5 years to collect from 40 to 50 bulls. he had planned to sell the semen at an upcoming denver cattle show.

the collection and storage of semen can be a very profitable business?the ease of transportation reduces the costs normally associated with insemination, namely the transport of bull and cow to one another. collection can be tricky, however, as bulls do not always produce as expected and the process is not particularly easy.

"i will give a nice fat reward for any information on semen that was stolen from my tank today," fleming posted to a livestock breeder's message board. "it was a mother load of semen."


man charged in ￡26.5m robbery

on december 20, 2004, mcevoy allegedly held an assistant bank manager's family hostage while the manager and a colleague were forced to admit thieves to a branch of the northern bank in belfast. the thieves then emptied the vault. police have blamed the robbery on the ira which has repeatedly denied any connection to the theft. sinn fein, a political party linked with the provisional ira, has protested the arrests, accusing police of targeting ira sympathizers and supporters in their investigation.

the northern bank heist is one of the largest in europe since the theft of more than us$65 million from a london bank in 1987.


 


nationwide rallies against anti-terror laws held in australia

a coordinated set of australian protests against proposed anti-terror bills and calling on the withdrawal of troops from iraq began in sydney today. approximately one thousand people gathered in belmore park in the center of the new south wales capital for a rally and march through the city.

according to the protestors the new legislation may, if passed, may be used to suppress important civil liberties.

"these new laws are against dissent" said david bernie, a speaker from the nsw council for civil liberties. "we are seeing a big change. now, questioning warrants, people subject to those are not allowed to talk about it for two years. now, this is automatic, and it is automatic irrespective of whether there is any need for secrecy or not. so asio doesn't have to apply for any gag order, the gag order applies automatically. its stops not only that person talking about it, but their lawyer talking about or the media talking about it."

mr. bernie said that under the laws, it may be a criminal act for family members to discuss the fact that a member of the same family had been secretly detained. "would john howard, if he was told by his son, 'i am safe but i can't tell you where i am', not tell janette about it? it just is a ridiculous situation."

the prime minister has said that the new anti-terror legislation is justified because of the threat to australia. mr howard said in an interview with john laws on november 3 that he won't enjoy enacting laws that restrict civil liberties, but that it is necessary under the current circumstances. 

"now i don’t like the fact that we have to do this. i don’t like it at all. in many ways it’s as distasteful to me as it is to the most rampant civil libertarian in the country. but we are living in different times, and anybody who thinks that we’re not, is frankly, out of touch with reality. this country is not immune from the possibility of a terrorist attack. it is not. and people who think it is are just kidding themselves," mr howard said. 

on return to belmore park further speeches took place, and the rally was concluded with a speech from paul white from the muslims for peace organisation. he suggested that the notion that it was necessary for foreign troops to stay in iraq to prevent civil war was false. "the historical fact is that iraq has never had a history of sectarian conflict. never, never, never. sunnis and shi'tes live all over iraq, not just in the south and in fact they are heavily inter-married." he said. he suggested that most of the violence in iraq was directly or indirectly the result of foreign intervention. "the real leaders of iraq's muslims are unanimous, sunni and shi'ite, in denouncing sectarian violence". he concluded, "the only solution to the chaos in iraq is for all foreign troops to leave iraq."



 


gorbachev warns against rapid globalization

former soviet leader mikhail gorbachev has warned that rapid globalization without governance has led to a growing gap between the world's rich and poor. he has also asserted that global cooperation is needed to address problems such as poverty, terrorism and environmental damage.

"we need new thinking for the new world," said gorbachev during a speech last month at miami university of ohio in the united states. "you cannot make people happy by using tanks and missiles."

gorbachev, leader of the soviet union from 1985 to 1991, has been credited with ending the cold war. as soviet leader, he implemented wide-ranging political and economic reforms. however, his reforms have been blamed for inadvertently causing the dissolution of the ussr in 1991.

in 1993, gorbachev founded the green cross international, of which he was one of three major sponsors of the earth charter.


first television channel in esperanto launches online

a new online television channel, "internacia televido", has been launched following just over two years of fundraising and preparation. it is the first channel ever to be broadcast entirely through the international auxiliary language esperanto, and was launched at midnight brazilian time on saturday night. the name means 'international television'. the channel aims to create an international television network combining professional content with the collaboration of ordinary users from around the world. programmes will range from news shows and documentaries to culture, educational programming and children's entertainment.

the project, supported by the world esperanto association amongst others, was announced in october 2003 in sao paulo by brazilian entrepreneur flavio rebelo, whose media business cidcon also runs the esperanto language web portal "?angalo" (www.ghangalo.com, 'jungle') and publishes music. the original intention was to establish a 24-hour streamed online channel, with four hours of original programming per day (repeated six times daily) and a daily news bulletin. a subsequent international fundraising campaign to raise the required sum of ?35,000 to establish the channel involved rebelo speaking at several esperanto events throughout europe during the early months of 2004 through the support of an anonymous asian donor.

the project failed to garner sufficient funds to meet its original deadline, but in august this year rebelo confirmed that a scaled-down version of the project would go ahead upon the sum of ?23,000 being reached. the channel currently features 90 minutes of programming daily, with one weekly news bulletin, and three waged employees instead of the intended ten. it is intended that the channel will be funded past its initial six-month period through on-air advertising revenue and further private donations, and expanded as revenue permits.

experimental television broadcasts in esperanto were not first made until the advent of internet technology. a previous online esperanto tv project (www.esperanto.tv), under the auspices of the italian transnational radical party, failed to realise a finished product. since the 1920s, radio broadcasts have been made regularly in esperanto by broadcasters such as rai, china radio international and radio polonia.



armed gunmen attack cruise ship off somali coast

the seabourn spirit, a cruise ship sailing off the coast of somalia, narrowly escaped an attack by gunmen believed to be pirates.

the pirate attack occurred on saturday, when two boats approached the ship and began firing automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades, injuring one crew member.

the crew took evasive action and escaped safely by employing an acoustic bang which caused the gunmen to flee believing they were under fire.

302 passengers and crew, mostly from the united states, canada, and australia, were onboard when the gunmen opened fire. the attack took place 160km (100 miles) off the somali coastline, which has a reputation for pirate activity.

deborah natansohn, president of the seabourn cruise line told cnn radio, "the occupants of those boats did not succeed in boarding the ship and eventually turned away ... our captain and crew did a terrific job taking responsive action."

edith laird, from seattle, told the bbc, "my daughter saw the pirates out our window. […] there were at least three rpg that hit the ship, one in a stateroom four doors down from our cabin."

according to mike rogers, a passenger from vancouver, the captain opted not to sound the alarm and instead announced the attack over the speakers, fearing the sound would drive people to the deck and place them in the line of fire.

natansohn has stated that the company will re-evaluate future trips to the area. 

the seafarers assistance program (sap) is planning on highlighting the incident and its potential costs for tourism on monday.

pirate attacks have been an increasing problem in the area, with 23 hijackings and attempted seizures recorded by the international maritime bureau (imb). two of the attacks were on ships carrying aid for the united nations world food program. one attack involved a ship carrying 935 tons of rice for asian tsunami victims. the crew had been held for three months before being released. according to the imb, the pirates - mostly made up of the horn of africa’s former navy as well as former fishermen - represent a serious threat to commercial shipping.

somalia has been a volatile area since the ousting of former dictator mohamed said barre. the country has been operating without a central administration since 1991 and is now controlled by warlords.

australian media has speculated that the attack on the ship may be an act of terrorism rather than one of piracy.



first iraq-iran passenger flight in 25 years arrives in tehran

a spokesperson for the iranian civil aviation authority, reza jafarzadeh, told "agence france presse" that there were plans to resume regular commercial flights from baghdad to tehran on november 16, although iran would not consider flying its own aircraft to iraq until the security situation was resolved. 

iran's president, mahmoud ahmadinejad told reporters that the "protection of iraq's territorial integrity, independence and might is of special significance to iran."

the united states and britain have repeatedly accused iran of allowing militants to cross its border to help iraq's insurgents fight the us occupation. earlier today, major-general jim dutton, a british soldier commanding a multinational force in basra, gave a press conference in washington during which he claimed that insurgents were getting the technology to create increasingly sophisticated bombs from across the border.


australian members of parliament removed from chamber again in rowdy session of question time

in what appears to be a continuing trend from the australian house of representatives question time session november 2, an further six federal opposition members and one government member were ejected during and just after question time november 3.

anthony albanese, having been warned earlier to question time was the first removed, and after opposition members had interjected "boring, boring!" to an answer from the australian treasurer peter costello describing the opposition stance on the industrial relations reform as a "scare campaign", the speaker neil andrew issued a "general warning". 

wayne swan, tanya plibersek|tanya plibersek, jill hall, julia irwin (who was also removed yesterday) were also asked to remove themselves under standing order 94(a). 

when controversy arose after a question was asked to the leader of the house, tony abbott, about the issue of distributing bills on the industrial relations changes and the speaker intervened in favour of abbott, he went on to say that stephen smith "took copies of the workplace relations bill, handed them to an adviser and then the adviser exited the chamber...he then raised a point of order claiming copies were not available". graham edwards said "you're a fraud, abbott!" and he was also removed.

later, when smith rose after question time to make a personal explanation that he did not "[remove] nor [steal] 60 copies of the bill", michael ferguson had interjected and was removed -- the only government member to be removed over the previous few days. julia gillard asked the speaker that of the eighteen opposition members and one government member removed over the last two days, "whether 18:1...equals a fair application of the rules as to keeping order in the house", to which he said that "the last two days have been particularly noisy and...it has required more discipline than the chair would like to have to exercise."



indiana tornado kills at least 19

a tornado with winds up to 300 km/h has killed at least 19 in indiana and kentucky. the tornado touched down at around 2.00 am local time on the 6th of november in northern kentucky and then crossed the ohio river into southern indiana near , indiana where the majority of casualties were reported. "at least five people were confirmed dead in and at least 18 were killed in , according to county officials."

peak storm season for the region is generally april through june - a storm of this ferocity is quite rare at this time of year, according to the national storm prediction centre.

the death toll varies between sources, but between 19 and 23 is the current estimate, with most of those in indiana.


first casualty of french riots reported

jean-jacques le chenadec has been reported as the first casualty of recent rioting in france. the 61-year old man was beaten by a hooded rioter last week and had been in a coma since the attack.

the uprising was set off by the death of two teenagers who were allegedly chased by police and hid in an electric power station where they were electrocuted. 

the french riots have further intensified over the past few days and are now said to have spread to nearly every city in the country.

the french prime minister, dominique de villepin, announced on monday plans to allow the nation's regions to impose curfews. mr. de villepin appeared the day before on television with an appeal to end the violence. 

the president, jacques chirac, ended his silence on the rioting on saturday, when he spoke to the press. "those who want to sow violence or fear will be caught, tried and punished," he said. "but we also understand very well that we must move towards respect for each individual, justice and equality of opportunity. we are all completely determined to go down this road and pursue the efforts that are already under way in this domain."

the minister of the interior, nicolas sarkozy, called for a radical overhaul of the french social model that he said, "in every aspect, needs to be fundamentally rebuilt." on the same day, various people discovered that ump, the political party of nicolas sarkozy had bought the google adwords 'banlieue' (suburbs) to advertise their own website on google.fr.

arrests in the rioting total nearly 1200 following the deaths of two youths on october 27. the unrest, which started in a paris suburb, has spread to over 270 towns across france. more than 4300 cars have been torched across the country, and 2 schools were burned.



arrests made in australia after 'anti-terror' raids

seventeen people have been arrested overnight in sydney and melbourne, in what police have described as 'anti-terror' raids. new south wales (nsw) and victorian police conducted the raids, and both police chiefs have said that the action foiled a terrorist plot. new south wales police commissioner ken moroney said that, "we have disrupted what i would regard as the final stages of a terrorist attack or the launch of a terrorist attack in australia." the guardian is reporting that some of those arrested in sydney are alleged to have been stockpiling chemicals. 

some of those arrested in melbourne have appeared in court, including abu bakr, also known as abdul nacer benbrika. benbrika was criticised last year for comments he made in support of al-qaeda. 

in nsw, warrants were executed in lakemba, belmore, wiley park, greenacre, illawong, punchbowl, hoxton park, condell park, ingleburn, belfield, bankstown and kemps creek, resulting in 8 arrests. 

a nsw police spokesman has said that one of the men arrested was shot in the chest by police in green valley at about 9am, after firing at police. "one officer was struck, we believe in the hand, and suffered a minor wound," the spokesman said. "one of the police officers returned fire and the person of interest to police was wounded in the neck."

it has been reported that the arrests in sydney, unlike those in melbourne, do include charges relating to planning and preparation of violent acts. the suspects have not yet appeared in court and the case has been adjourned to friday.

mick keelty, commissioner of the australian federal police (afp), has said that the seven people arrested in new south wales will be charged under the anti-terrorism legislation that was rushed through parliament last week. mr keelty has said that the details of the allegations against the men should be kept secret. 

"an application will be made by the commonwealth director of public prosecution this afternoon to suppress the details of the allegations," he said.

keelty justified the action by arguing that "we give these people a fair opportunity to prepare their defence before the court rather than run the trial in the media."

in victoria, warrants were executed in dallas, hoppers crossing, fawkner, preston, haberfield, coburg, yarraville, meadow heights, hadfield and mount druit, resulting in 9 arrests. 

victorian police commissioner christine nixon also believes that the raids prevented a terrorist attack, however she stated that the police did not know what form the attack would take, saying "we weren't exactly sure when nor, more importantly, what they planned to damage or do harm to." commissioner nixon said that they had sufficient evidence to proceed. 

nixon said that the raids were the result of a long-term operation. when queried, she confirmed that the anti-terror legislation rushed through parliament last week was related to today's raids. "some of that is related to that amendment that occurred," she said. the changes became law just two days ago. 

those arrested will be charged with "a range of offences", however the exact nature of the charges is yet to be announced. it is not yet clear to what extent the emergency legislative changes rushed through parliament last week are a legal basis for the arrests.

one of those arrested in melbourne was abu bakr, also known as abdul nacer benbrika. he is a dual algerian and australian citizen, and was criticised last august when he told abc radio that he supported al-quaeda. at the time he denied being involved in any terrorist activity. 

in an interview on the "abc radio" "national breakfast" program, rob stary, a criminal defence lawyer who will be representing those arrested in the melbourne raids said that, as far as he is aware, the charges all relate to being a member of a proscribed organisation, and none of the melbourne suspsects had been charged in relation to any planning or preparation offences. at the time of the interview he was not aware which proscribed organisation the charges relate to.

seven men have appeared in the melbourne magistrates court, on charges of intentionally being a member of a terrorist organisation and knowing the organisation was a terrorist organisation. the court has heard that abu bakr is the "spiritual leader" of the group and the prosecutor alleged that the organisation is directed by abu bakr. speaking of the melbourne arrests, prosecutor richard maidment qc alleged that the group constituted a "terrorist organisation". making reference to the sydney arrests he said that the sydney suspects had "gathering chemicals of a kind that were used in the london underground bombings," and planned to kill "innocent men and women in australia."


coral gables hosts herald hunt puzzle adventure

on november 6, 2005, thousands of puzzle lovers from around the country swarmed coral gables, florida, usa, with the hopes of being the first to solve a series of interactive riddles and win a weeklong resort vacation for four, as part of a free event called 'the herald hunt.' billed as an 'urban puzzle safari', the herald hunt was designed by dave barry and tom shroder, and produced by the miami herald newspaper.

the sunday issue of the miami herald included a special hunt section which listed over eighty numbered clues. but only five of the clues were legitimate; the rest were red herrings. participants roamed the city in search of five numbers that would reveal the identity of the genuine clues from the newspaper. cryptic hints were embedded in unusual places: street trolleys bearing strange messages, speakers blaring loud music, actors on the sidewalk making hand gestures, and even in the songs sung by a barbershop quartet in front of city hall.

the five correct clues, when combined with a final clue announced at 3pm, yielded a phone number. teams that correctly deduced and called the phone number heard a message containing one final puzzle that needed to be solved in order to win the prize.

the members of this year's winning team were robin and cary ginter, steve friedland, brian o'neil, and mark engelberg. they were the first team to decode the phone message and complete the final task.

engelberg and o'neil flew in from across the country to attend the hunt with their friends who are local to the area. o'neil explained, "there's no other event i'm aware of that's quite like the herald hunt. there are other puzzle competitions, but nothing on this kind of large scale."

this is engelberg's and friedland's third win, and a second-time win for the other members of the team. when asked to explain the secret of their success, engelberg said that teamwork was key. "we've gotten very good at working together," he said.



cheney lobbies for cia exemption to torture ban

the united states vice president dick cheney lobbied senate republicans to exempt the cia from the proposed ban on torture of terror suspects held by the united states. according to senators participating in the closed door-session, cheney argued that the administration needs an exemption from the ban on "cruel, inhumane or degrading" treatment of detainees in united states custody to be effective in the "war on terrorism", although he also said that the united states does not engage in torture.

the vice president's appeal comes at a time when congress is still dealing with the aftermath of the abu ghraib prison scandal, as well as allegations of torture in guantanamo bay. at the same time questions about secret cia detention centers outside of united states territory and cases of individuals that have been extradited from the united states to countries that are known to practice torture to obtain intelligence information resurface in the media.

the bush administration is growing increasingly isolated in its stance on this issue. republican senator chuck hagel said on abc television "i think the administration is making a terrible mistake in opposing john mccain's amendment on detainees and torture," and added "why in the world they're doing that, i don't know."

the office of the vice president declined to comment on this issue.



family of killed palestinian boy donates organs to israeli patients

the organs of a 12 year-old palestinian boy killed by israeli soldiers have been transplanted to israeli patients, helping to save their lives.

ahmed al-khatib was shot during clashes in jenin last week when soldiers mistook his toy gun for a real one. he later died in a hospital. the israeli defense forces regretted the incident.

ahmed's kidneys, liver, lungs and heart were transplated to a total of six patients, including israeli arabs, jews, and druze. one of the recipients was 12 year-old samah gadban, who had been waiting for a new heart for five years. her father thanked ahmed's family "from the depths of my heart" and called the donation a "gesture of love". 

ahmed's father, ismail al-khatib, said the family made the decision to donate his son's organs "for the sake of the world’s children and the children of this country". he added that saving lives was more important than religion and thinks that his son "has entered the heart of every israeli".

al-khatib stressed he has received nothing but praise from fellow residents in jenin.

the speaker of the knesset, reuven rivlin, praised the action saying that this "remarkable gesture [...] despite the war and conflict without solution for nearly 100 years, must be noted". 


chemical weapons used in iraq by us military, says italian documentary

a documentary aired on november 8 on an italian state-run satellite channel rai claims that the united states military used chemical weapons and napalm-like bombs during a bombardment of fallujah in november 2004. the documentary, entitled "fallujah: the hidden massacre", asserts that the us military used white phosphorus on the civilian population during the bombardment, and backs these allegations with interviews with former us soldiers as well as residents of fallujah.

white phosphorus is a spontaneously flammable chemical used in battlefield illumination or to generate smoke screens. contact with the substance results in burning and melting of skin and flesh. according to an account of a former us soldier, the phosphorus explodes and forms a plume, killing everyone within a 150 metre radius. the smoke produced by burning phosphorous converts to hot, concentrated phosphoric acid on contact with human skin, eyes, lungs and mucous membranes producing characteristic chemical burns internally and externally. white phosphorus is also a highly toxic substance with an average lethal dose (ld50) of 50 milligrams; lethal intoxication causes a slow death after 5 to 10 days.

white phosphorus bombs are considered incendiary devices, though rai claims that they are chemical weapons. the us military admits using white phosphorus to illuminate battlefields, but denies having used it as a weapon against civilians. the united states has ratified the chemical weapons convetion (cwc), but has not ratified the "protocol on prohibitions or restrictions on the use of incendiary weapons (protocol iii)" which forbids the use of incendiary weapons against places with concentrations of civilians.

a statement issued by the united states in december 2004 pointed out that phosphorus shells are not outlawed, and that "us forces have used them very sparingly in fallujah, for illumination purposes." rai's film, however, alleges that the us has attempted to destroy footage of use of white phosphorus on civilians in fallujah.

"a rain of fire fell on the city, the people struck by this multi-coloured substance started to burn, we found people dead with strange wounds, the bodies burned but the clothes intact," says mohamad tareq, a biologist in fallujah interviewed for the film. jeff englehart, a former us soldier, describes on the documentary: "burned bodies, burned women, burned children; white phosphorus kills indiscriminately... when it makes contact with skin, then it's absolutely irreversible damage, burning flesh to the bone."

the pentagon has previously claimed that white phosphorous was only used for illumination purposes in fallujah: “u.s. forces have used them very sparingly in fallujah, for illumination purposes. they were fired into the air to illuminate enemy positions at night, not at enemy fighters.” however, the documentary clearly shows two types of munitions being used:

the pentagon and the u.s. administration stopped short of denying the claims that white phosporus was used in fallujah, although u.s. marine major tim keefe insisted that it was not used to "target" civilians. the use of incendiary weapons against civilians is banned by an additional protocol to the geneva conventions that was added in 1980, however the united states did not sign this protocol and it does not directly cover the use of toxic smokes.

the documentary also implies that us troops used mark 77 incendiary bombs in fallujah, which contain an upgraded napalm formulation. the main difference to vietnam-era napalm being the replacement of gasoline with kerosene in the mixture, and it is reported that the mixture contains oxidizing agents, including white phosphorus. the us military does not call mk77 munitions "napalm" bombs. however, the use of mk77 munitions against iraqi troops in 2003 had a "strikingly similar" effect to napalm as confirmed in august 2003 by the us military representatives col. randolph alles and col. michael daily.




liberians choose their president

in the aftermath of a 14-year long civil war, liberians are holding elections for their first post-war president. of the two final candidates ? ellen johnson-sirleaf and george weah ? mr weah had a higher percentage of the vote in elections held on october 11 this year. a secondary election was held recently, but the final winner has not been chosen.

mrs. johnson-sirleaf, 66-year-old former economist of the world bank and harvard university graduate, the so called "iron lady", is very popular along educated people and women. her supporters consider her to be the better candidate due to her economics background. she was the runner-up in the october 11 elections, receiving about 20% of votes. opponents point to the fact she'd be the first woman leader ever in africa, and that she does not have the support of the rebel warlords.

mr. weah, 39-year-old well-known football player and former star of ac milan, is said to be a successful man. his supporters, who call him "king george", are generally made up of young men - many of them war veterans. but his opponents say that he is an inexperienced leader, without political skills. he won the voting on october 11, 2005, receiving 28% of votes.

on november 28 we will know who won

according to united nations peacekeepers only a single incident of violence was reported during the elections. the elections results are expected in about 2 weeks.



suspicions of nepotism arise from pulping of new australian industrial relations information booklets

the prime minister of australia, john howard, was asked in parliament today about the contract to print the new industrial relations legislation booklets. kelvin thomson asked the question because the contract was awarded to salmat ltd., who has been said to have donated $120,000 to the australian liberal party, of which the mr howard is a member. the contract was worth $800,000 aud. it was revealed by stephen smith the week earlier that these booklets were "pulped" at a cost of $152,000 to the taxpayer.

the prime minster john howard said that "the contract was awarded in the normal fashion", and that he did not know if salmat donated to any other parties, and said that he ask someone to "just do a little bit of research this afternoon" to get further information on the matter. after question time the prime minister confirmed that salmat was selected through an open tender process, and expressed his belief that "expressions of political support should not disbar one from preferment on the merits."



vatican issues defence of evolution, rejects fundamentalist creationism

the vatican issued a defence of darwinian evolution at a news conference thursday.

in what many are calling a direct attack on the rising support for fundamentalist creationism in america, cardinal poupard, head of the vatican pontifical council for culture, stated that the genesis description of god's creation of the universe and darwin's theory of evolution are "perfectly compatible" if the bible is properly interpreted.

"the fundamentalists want to give a scientific meaning to words that had no scientific aim," he said, and that the point of genesis is that "the universe didn't make itself and had a creator."

"the faithful should heed modern science and to guard against religion crossing over to fundamentalism if it ignores scientific reasoning."

"science should also listen to religion. the atomic bomb and cloning are from reason with no ethical or religious link."

when asked directly about intelligent design, mons. basti quoted john paul ii, saying that evolution was "more than just a hypothesis."


flooding in south australia

there has been flooding in and around adelaide in the state of south australia today. some areas have received 100mm of rain in less than 24 hours. in some suburbs phone and mobile services seem to be having a lack of connectivity. around 60 houses have been damaged due to the flooding and some metropolitan roads have been closed off and motorists have also been advised to adviod these areas. flood waters also submerged christmas decorations along the torrens river put out by the south australian brewing company. the christmas decorations were on display as of the coming christmas pageant. local residents report that the light from christmas decorations were again visible around 7:00pm.

sandbags have been supplied to the worst areas and some relief for flood water victims has already been suggested. the rain has also filled adelaide's water reservoirs to capacity and caused them to overflow, as stated by water authorities.

houses have also been evacuated near the banks of the gawler river, and many other residents have been advised by the south australian state emergency service to leave their homes earlier rather than later.


france invokes emergency law in response to riots

the french government used a 1955 law to impose a state of emergency across france in an effort to quell the rioting that has wracked the country for the last 12 days. french prime minster dominique de villepin today declared, "the republic is at an hour of truth." 

curfews designed to restrict the movement of those that might engage in violence and rioting allow the government to imprison individuals for up to two months. the northern city of amiens was one of the first to impose a curfew; unaccompanied youth in that city will be unable to walk the streets between midnight and 6:00 a.m.

the 1955 law invoked by the cabinet tuesday morning will allow local officials throughout the country to impose curfews. in french terminology, the government invoked the law through a presidential "decret" (decree), which corresponds to an executive order in american terminology. the law originates from the algerian war and has never been used in metropolitan france until now. villepin said that more than 9,500 police have been called up to help bring the riots under control.
article 11 of the law permits censorship of all types of media (including theatre performances), if specifically authorized by a decree. the french government has so far not elected to use this possibility.

in the last 12 days more than 5,000 cars have been set ablaze, and at least 1,500 have been arrested in what is the worst public violence in france since 1968.


european venus probe launched successfully

european space agency's probe to was successfully launched on wednesday, november 9, at 0333 from the in kazakhstan. the , entitled , separated from its carrier 90 minutes after the launch, after which it emitted a signal marking the start of its journey to earth's closest planetary neighbour.

venus express is to arrive at venus in april 2006. the probe will spend at least 15 months?two venusian days?studying the planet. the orbiter, however, has enough fuel to operate for 1000 earth days.

the 220 million ? (260 million us$) probe is set to examine the turbulent and intense of venus. the probe will study the planet's temperature variation, cloud formations, wind speeds and gas composition. it is hoped that the results will help scientists understand earth's better.
venus express is a clone of mars express which has been orbiting mars since december 2003.


police call off search for missing woman in georgia, usa

the georgia police have called off the search for missing irwin county school history teacher tara grinstead, after more than two weeks. ocilla, georgia police chief billy hancock is reported as saying that volunteers and public safety officials have completed their search of the county, a search that spanned 358 miles and that involved cadaver dogs, horses, helicopters, four-wheelers, people on foot, and the assistance of more than 50 public safety agencies.

hancock is reported as saying that searchers found some clothes, but that there is no indication that they are actually grinstead's.

grinstead, aged 30, was first reported missing on october 24, 2005. her unlocked car was outside of her home, but, according to police reports, her pocketbook and keys were missing. she was last seen on october 22, 2005. both the clothes that she was wearing when she was last seen and her cell phone were found at her home.

anota garris, grinstead's sister, has said that civilian searches will continue. a us$80,000 reward has been offered for her safe return.


angry azeris protest allegedly faked results of parliamentary elections

thousands of protestors demonstrated today in baku, the capital of azerbaijan. they left their houses due to unrest over the results of the november 6 parliamentary elections, which, according to the opposition, are faked. the protest lasted about three hours before being shut down.

the protest gathered some 15,000 people, but the opposition hoped to gather 30,000 to 50,000 azeris. many people were stopped by police on their way to the outskirts of baku. the main demonstration took place at gelebe square. when rioters tried to enlarge the protest, police used force to stop them.

some azeris believe that a "three hour revolution" wouldn't change anything in the country. they believe that the demonstration was controlled by the government.

the november 6 elections, won, according to officials, by the governing new azerbaijan party, have been condemned by international organizations, such as the organization for security and co-operation in europe, and by independent observers. the council of europe reports that results in about 43% of polling stations were faked.

to prevent protests, re-runs were ordered in two districts by election officials. also, one recount will take place. 



series of explosions hit hotels in amman

at least three explosions hit us-owned hotels in this evening, killing at least 57 people and wounding at least 245 others.

the first of the apparently coordinated suicide bombings occurred at 8.50 pm (1850 utc) at the hotel in the jordanian capital. it was followed by explosions at the sas and the . the hotels are particularly popular with american and israeli tourists. at least one american was killed, and at least two others were wounded. they were not identified due to the condition on anonymity in the embassy.

the bomb at the grand hyatt hotel apparently went off in the lobby; the bomb at the radisson sas exploded in a wedding hall packed with around 300 people. most of the casualties are believed to be jordanian.

jordanian king abdullah ii has condemned the bombings and announced that "justice will pursue the criminals".


british prime minister tony blair suffers defeat in vote on terror laws

british prime minister, tony blair, has suffered what some consider a humiliating political defeat after the house of commons dismissed a controversial government proposal to permit the detention of terror suspects for up to 90 days without bringing charges. under current uk anti-terrorism laws, suspects can be held for up to 14 days without any charges being made against them.

members of mr blair's labour party used the vote to rebel against the proposal, with a crucial 49 tipping the balance to reject it by 322 votes to 291. it was the first commons defeat for mr blair in his 8 years as prime minister. later, a second proposal to extend the detention time limit for terror suspects to 28 days was passed by 323 votes to 290.

the police called for new powers after the bomb attacks in london on july 7, 2005. they argued that because anti-terrorist investigations can take considerable time, the new powers would have been justified. critics are sceptical of these claims. opponents believe that by effectively giving the government the right to imprison for up to three months anyone who it alleged to have been involved in terrorism, without having to present any charges in court to justify the detention, the bill could have led to abuses of power. 

leaders of the opposition parties were delighted with the results. conservative leader michael howard said the vote had "diminished" the prime minister's authority and that he should tender his resignation. charles kennedy, leader of the liberal democrats, called mr blair a "lame duck".

speaking after the result of the vote was announced, mr blair accused those who'd opposed the measure of being "out of touch", talking of a "worrying gap between parts of parliament and the reality of the terrorist threat and public opinion". 

former conservative ministers peter lilley and stephen dorrell criticised the government for using senior police officers to lobby mps over the vote. they characterised this as the "politicisation of the police".


over 30 killed in a baghdad restaurant bombing

a suicide bomber detonated himself in a crowded baghdad restaurant thursday morning at approximately 9:30 local time (0630 ). 35 were reportedly killed and 25 wounded in the blast. responsibility for the attack was claimed by al-qaeda in iraq.

the restaurant was frequented by -backed iraqi security forces, often the target of sunni arab rebels and al-qaeda groups. a police officer said that at least four iraqi police patrols were in the restaurant at the time of the bombing.

the bombing was one of the biggest attacks in baghdad in recent months. a statement on an islamist website used by al-qaeda said that the attack was a part of an al-qaeda campaign to counter recent raids by us and iraqi forces on suspected militant strongholds near the syrian border.

the attack came just a day after the bombing of hotels in , jordan, attacks also claimed by al-qaeda.


eu's human rights court endorses turkish headscarf ban

the european has ruled on a case brought by a muslim student of istanbul university. the ruling upholds the law in turkey that bans the wearing of headscarves in universities and public offices.

leyla sahin brought her case to the court in 1998 after being excluded from classes for wearing an islamic headscarf. she contended that the ban discriminated against her and denied her right to an education.

the court ruled that turkish law was consistent with the on human rights and with the protection of women's rights in general.

the ban was reasonable as a measure to help maintain turkey as , the court ruled. it argued: "when examining the question of the islamic headscarf in the turkish context, there had to be borne in mind the impact which wearing such a symbol, which was presented or perceived as a compulsory religious duty, may have on those who chose not to wear it."

the ruling will impact over 1,000 other similar cases brought by muslim women in the country.


thunderbird wins mba rugby tournament

on november 6, thunderbird: the garvin school of international management rugby football club were crowned champions after defeating the university of california at berkeley: haas school of business 17-7 at the ninth annual thunderbird rugby invitational tournament. thunderbird was undefeated throughout the tournament, after playing five other teams over two days. final scores were:

in addition to the five teams above, kellogg also participated in the tournament. third place went to the university of texas: mccombs school of business. the tournament is held every year in spring at thunderbird, and is open to rugby teams from mba schools. this year’s tournament was held under beautiful weather at thunderbird’s glendale campus, and was watched by more than 250 participants and spectators.

“our team performed admirably. after a difficult season finding our form in our own arizona league, we managed to pull together and set up some great plays. our forwards proved to be a solid force, and gained us much ground” said thunderbird co-captain mike bruneau.

team president, scott harper, commented “the tournament was great. the support from all of our fans and sponsors really helped us to put on an exciting event. we had a lot of very tough competitors, and were happy to win it against such strong teams.”

fans were treated to two great days of rugby. each game included two 20-minute halves, and each team was scheduled for three games on the first day, and two on the final day. the highlight of the tournament was live bull riding and steer wrestling that took place near the campus, drawing an audience of over 200 people.. each team nominated a representative to see if they could stay on a bull the longest, as well as a team who could wrestle a steer the fastest.

thunderbird rfc would like to thank the sponsors for their kind generosity and support. sponsors for the tournament included siemens, wells fargo, trump enterprises, the thunderbird student government and the thunderbird alumni rugby association.


thirtieth anniversary of australia's constitutional crisis

on 11 november 1975, australia faced a constitutional crisis. by failing to obtain supply, that is, with its financial appropriation bills repeatedly rejected by the upper house, the australian national government had effectively run out of money. in response, the australian governor-general, sir john kerr, dismissed the prime minister gough whitlam. a caretaker government under the opposition leader malcolm fraser was formed and held office until a new general election was called. despite whitlam's call for australians to "maintain the rage", malcolm fraser became prime minister in a landslide win to his party.

immediately following his sacking, responding to the formal "god save the queen" which ended the proclamation terminating his government, gough whitlam declared from the steps of parliament house: "well may we say "god save the queen" because nothing will save the governor general. . . . the proclamation you have just heard read was countersigned malcom fraser, who will go down in australian history from remembrance day 1975 as kerr's cur."

while the labor party faithful "maintained the rage" and australia's current prime minister john howard said sir john kerr was "savagely maligned by history", the anniversary was a non-event for most australians. the day in australia focused on the 87th anniversary of the end of world war i and the ongoing news events of the day.


u.s. asks czech republic to grant asylum to guantanamo bay prisoners

jan krc, the spokesman for the us embassy in prague, has confirmed that the embassy had asked the czech government to grant asylum to some guantanamo bay prisoners, muslims of chinese origin, who had formerly been suspected of being terrorists. krc said that the muslims face persecution if they are sent back to china.

krc said the request was "a humanitarian request because we clearly need to place these people somewhere," adding that the ex-prisoners would have as much liberty as anyone else given asylum.

the czech republic's interior minister frantisek bublan said; "it concerns prisoners concentrated at the guantanamo base, of whom membership of al-qaeda has not been proved. we were asked if we could not include them here in an asylum process." 

the czech interior ministry spokesperson, radka kovarova, said that the czech government turned down the americans' request: "minister bublan evaluated the whole issue and, bearing in mind potential security hazards, said he would not see offering asylum to these persons as appropriate." 


australian government accused of hypocrisy over world court statement

the australian government was accused of hypocrisy today over a media release about the international court of justice (icj). in the joint release the australian minister for foreign affairs and the attorney general welcomed the election of a new zealander, sir kenneth keith, as a judge on the icj, and said that "australia strongly supported sir kenneth's candidature to the court". advocacy groups made the accusation because australia withdrew from the jurisdiction of the maritime division of the icj in 2002, because of a dispute with east timor. 

jefferson lee from the nsw branch of the australia-east timor association said that "it is hypocritical that they are celebrating the appointment of an icj judge given the fact that australia withdrew from the jurisdiction of the icj maritime division in march 2002."

a spokesman for the minister for foreign affairs rejected the suggestion that the minister had been hypocritical, and said that it had always been government policy to resolve such disputes via bilateral negotiation. 

"maritime boundaries should be resolved by negotiation. this is how we have done it with all other countries we have negotiated with. maritime boundaries are an issue of sovereignty," he said. 

mr lee was referring to australia's redeclaration of its recognition of the court. on march 22, 2002, australia deposited a new declaration with the icj, which stated that its recognition of the court did not apply to "any dispute concerning or relating to the delimitation of maritime zones, including the territorial sea, the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf, or arising out of, concerning, or relating to the exploitation of any disputed area of or adjacent to any such maritime zone pending its delimitation." this was widely understood at the time to be the result of australia's dispute with east timor over the maritime border. the declaration was signed by mr downer, who co-sponsored today's media release. the issue is especially important to both countries as the timor sea holds significant oil reserves. 

mr lee argued that australia was unfairly using its stronger bargaining position in negotiatons, and deliberately avoiding submitting to a decision by the court.

"they are constantly harping on about the necessity of resolving the timor sea issue by bilateral consultation between the australian and east timorese government rather than subjecting the dispute to the umpire, i.e. the international court of justice maritime division," he said. 

tom clarke, coordinator of the timor sea justice campaign, argues that the governments stance in relation to the icj is hypocritical. 

"by picking and choosing specific parts of the icj’s jurisdictions that it does and doesn’t want to acknowledge, the australian government demonstrates that it does not take international law seriously. our government has some shocking double standards," he said. 

mr clarke also drew attention to the economic situation in east timor. "when we’re talking about the australian government taking millions of dollars while east timorese children are dying of preventable diseases, it really is no laughing matter."

associate professor david reeve of the department of chinese and indonesian, university of new south wales, was asked if he thought the minister was being hypocritical. 

"foreign policy is a tricky business, with lots of strands. and there are always tensions between any country's idealism and interests. it often happens that different bits of foreign policy thrust may seem to be contradictory, but it's a complex world, and any government is trying to play lots of notes simultaneously. in this case i think downer can be quite genuine in his congratulations, while the advocacy groups have a good opportunity to highlight their perfectly logical views," he said. 

there has not been an australian or new zealand judge on the court since 1967. sir kenneths position with the court starts in 2006, and lasts for nine years. 



new australian industrial relations legislation passes house of representatives

the new australian industrial relations legislation, dubbed "workchoices" by the government, passed the house of representatives november 10. it is to be considered next by the senate.

the house session became tumultuous, with the tony abbott moving a motion to permit an hour to the stage of the bill, comparing the amount of debate on other bills to this one, stating "we have had very, very extensive debate" and that "members opposite are not interested in debating this bill, they are not interested in trying to improve this bill; they simply want to reject this bill". the in the house, julia gillard (abbott's opposition counterpart), had noted that "more than 20 labor members are going to be silenced by this motion which is gagging debate", and when abbott moved to put the question, "and, here we go, we are going to have a gag on a gag. you’re proud of that, are you? you’re proud of that?"

as amongst others was one of the aforementioned speakers who had not the time to speak in the debate, she asked whether she could incorporate her speech into hansard ? the government granted leave for all speakers who intended to speak but could not to incorporate their speeches into hansard.

in the consideration in detail stage, the federal opposition had moved a number of amendments to the legislation, one which would effectively ? as had put it ? "kill the bill", another which would rename the bill to the "workplace relations amendment (cut wages, cut conditions and entitlements, no fairness, no work choices) bill 2005", but this amendment was ruled out of order by the , . 

these amendments failed due to the government majority in the house, and subsequently the bill was successfully read a third time. 



un pressures iran with nuclear compromise plan

mohamed el-baradei, head of the u.n. watchdog group international atomic energy agency (iaea), may go directly to tehran some time this week with a compromise plan to reduce the possibility that iran may make use of its uranium enrichment program to produce nuclear arms.

under a compromise plan negotiated last week between the (consisting of france, germany, and the united kingdom) and the united states, a loose agreement was reached where the final stages of nuclear enrichment within iran, uranium hexafluoride (uf6) gas, would be transferred to russia.

gholamreza aghazadeh, who heads the nuclear program in iran, rejected the proposal on saturday, insisting that the uranium enrichment program must be carried out in iran. the rejection came after a meeting with russian foreign minister of affairs . iran's foreign ministry spokesman, , denied the meetings were to develop a nuclear program partnership with russia that specifically relates to the new iaea proposal.

the iaea board will meet on november 24, when they may decide to refer iran for possible economic sanctions before the u.n. security council. the u.s. secretary of state, condoleezza rice, has distanced the united states from the short deadline for iran to conform to the new plan. a state department spokesman, adam ereli said on thursday that, "the secretary does not conduct diplomacy by deadline."

enriched uranium can be used to generate energy or to make nuclear weapons, a capability tehran claims is their right to pursue for the peaceful purposes of generating electricity.




us trade deficit hits new record

the united states trade deficit hit a new record in september to $66.1 billion, up $5.7 billion from august. the trade deficit so far this year totals $529.8 billion. 

a large part of the deficit is attributed to hurricanes katrina and rita.

some of the increase is attributed to energy imports that were needed after hurricane katrina slowed down domestic oil production. crude oil imports dropped $350 million due to shut down refineries, yet natural gas imports increased $3.7 billion. fuel oil and petroleum products increased by $6.8 billion. there was also a 2.6 percent drop in exports.

also affected by katrina, food exports fell $296 million from transportation delays caused by the shutdown of the port of new orleans. the total decrease in all exports was $2.8 billion. 

the largest trade deficit is with china, up $1.6 billion to a record $20.1 billion after a flood of toys, clothes, and televisions were shipped to the united states.


u.s. senate passes amendment stripping guantanamo detainees' access to courts

the u.s. senate has adopted an amendment, proposed by senator lindsey graham (r-sc), to a defense bill limiting detainees' court privileges. 

the amendment would make the combat status review tribunal (csrt) statutory law, the annual review board (arb) statutory law, require the designated civilian officer to be a government official who is appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the senate, not allow the preponderance of evidence against a detainee be derived from undue coercion, and remove guantanamo prisoners' right to file habeas corpus petitions in federal courts.

in regards to the habeas corpus provision, the amendment specifically states, "no court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien outside the united states (as that term is defined in section 101(a)(38) of the immigration and naturalization act (8 u.s.c. 1101(a)(38)) who is detained by the department of defense at guantanamo bay, cuba." 

the amendment passed with a 49-42 vote. five democrats jumped party lines to vote for and four republicans jumped party lines to vote against the amendment. nine senators, seven republicans and two democrats, did not vote on the amendment. kent conrad, mary landrieu, joseph lieberman, ben nelson, and ron wyden were the democrats who voted for the amendment. arlen specter, lincoln chafee, gordon smith, and john sununu were the republicans who voted against the measure.

senator graham is quoted as saying, “the president has established procedures to determine who is an enemy combatant and to annually review their status. it’s now time for congress to sign-off on these procedures and turn them into a statute, a move the courts will give great deference to.”

it should be noted that under graham's amendment, detainees would be able to challenge only the narrow question of whether the procedures established by the secretary of defense at the time the military determined their status as an enemy combatant were followed. the court of appeals for the dc circuit would still retain the ability to rule on that question.

civil liberties groups as well as human rights groups issued statements opposing the amendment. "the graham amendment will create a thousand points of darkness across the globe where the united states will be free to hold people indefinitely without a hearing and beyond the reach of u.s. law and the checks and balances of the courts enshrined in our constitution," the center for constitutional rights said in a statement.

"the graham amendment would strip all courts, including the supreme court, of jurisdiction to consider habeas corpus petitions or any other action challenging any aspect of the detention of foreign detainees held at guantanamo bay, except for the narrow question of whether status review boards follow their own rules," said a press release from the american civil liberties union.


sony faces class action lawsuits for drm

california, italy and new york are the first to bring litigation against sony bmg's digital rights management (drm) software found in at least 20 music discs released by sony. the software automatically installs after the user agrees to a end user license agreement (eula) before the music disc can be played, and includes a rootkit that can create vulnerabilities in the user's windows computer. one trojan horse exploiting the hole has already been discovered online.

the california lawsuit, filed on november 1, claims that the software violates the consumer legal remedies act, the consumer protection against computer spyware act, and the california unfair competition law. the upcoming lawsuit in new york would seek restitution for consumers nationwide. 

mathew gilliat-smith, the ceo of first 4 internet, the company that created the software, claims it is "benign content." meanwhile, in an "npr" interview, a sony bmg music entertainment vice president said, "most people, i think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"

sony and first 4 internet have released "patches" and uninstall kits, after programmer discovered the hidden files from the rootkit. however, these uninstall kits are only installable online through an activex application, a technology many security experts advise users to deactivate due to its high execution privileges on host computers.

in addition to questions of legality, the drm software has come under fire from media rights activists and even artists who unwittingly found their albums more stringently protected than they approved of. furthermore, sony's drm software "phones home" each time one of their cds is played. the license agreement does not reveal this behavior, nor does it acknowledge the existence of the rootkit itself.

thomas hesse of sony bmg recently told the san francisco chronicle that 60 percent of sony bmg cds released in the united states currently have copy protection measures, and that they aim to hit 100 percent by early 2006.


marcinkiewicz's cabinet given vote of confidence

marcinkiewicz's cabinet has been given a vote of confidence by polish parliament. marcinkiewicz, from law and justice party (pis), has won the voting with vote distribution 272 for and 187 against. his minority government have gained the support of minor, pro-social parties - self-defense of the republic of poland (samoobrona rp), polish peasant party (psl) and league of polish families (lpr).

civic platform (po) and the alliance of the democratic left (sld) voted against the cabinet.

marcinkiewicz believes that his government will stop corruption and will help getting out of unemployment problem in poland. his expose was praised by his party, lpr and psl. although andrzej lepper, the leader of self-defence party, wasn't satisfied by the expose, he accepted it.

leaders of both civic platform and the alliance of the democratic left criticised the expose.

conservative-national peace and justice party won the september 25 voting, receiving 27% of votes (155 seats in 460 members sejm), while their main opponent, conservative-liberal civic platform - 24.1% (133 seats). winning parties were planning building up a strong, conservative-liberal coalition, but after the clinch between them, caused mainly by choosing marek jurek as a speaker of parliament, talks had been stopped.



blair could face inquiry into terror vote

british prime minister tony blair could face a house of commons inquiry into claims that chief police officers were pressured to support a political agenda during wednesday's vote to extend detention without charge. 

chief police officers were asked to lobby mps wavering over the introduction of a controversial new law allowing police to detain a terror suspect for 90 days without charge. although the proposal was rejected by the house of commons, the lobbying has provoked criticism from senior members of the opposition conservative party, who are pushing for an inquiry into the behaviour of government ministers towards the police and for 'embroiling them in politics'. 

former tory cabinet minister peter lilley said: "every chief constable knows their job is up for re-selection in the next year or so. that puts great pressure on them."

home office minister hazel blears denied the claims: "it is entirely proper that the police were there to make their case and for parliament to consider it."

"certainly, as a member of parliament i would want to have the benefit of the best professional advice i could get before reaching my decision." 


pirates hijack thai merchant ship off somali coast

the somalian government called on saturday for the international community to help stem the wave of recent seafaring pirate attacks off their coast in the indian ocean.

the london-based international maritime bureau (imb) reported yesterday that a thai merchant vessel and its crew of 26 have been hijacked by somalian pirates off their coastline. 

the predominantly thai crew were kidnapped at gunpoint, and a ransom has been demanded for their release. the merchant ship was en-route from brazil to yemen with a cargo of sugar.

a letter to somalia from the united nations security council admonished the government. somalia has largely disintegrated into fiefdoms since the former dictator siad barre was ousted in 1991. 

last weekend, a u.s.-owned cruise ship was attacked with rocket propelled grenades. it is the fourth ship to be attacked in the space of a week. according to the imb, there have been 23 other pirating attacks in coastal waters off the east african nation since march 15. 



paul mccartney to be &quot;beamed up&quot; in first live concert to be broadcast in space

sir paul mccartney is scheduled on saturday, november 12, to perform the first concert broadcast live into space. performing in anaheim, ca, mccartney will awaken astronaut bill mcarther and cosmonaut valery tokarev on the international space station. songs played will include "english tea" from his newly-released album "chaos and creation in the backyard." also on the playlist is the beatles classic "good day sunshine".

the idea for the show originally came from a report mccartney received about "good day sunshine" being used to wake astronauts aboard the space shuttle "discovery" as it prepared to land in august. said sir paul "i was extremely proud to find out that one of my songs was played for "discovery" this summer. in our concert we hope to return the favor."

this event will mark the first time a live music show is broadcast into space. it should be noted that only his voice will be heard, as there is no video feed from the site. the former beatle has seen interest in his work climb recently with the release of a critically-acclaimed album and a children's book, as well as a series of american commercials feature songs from his new album and a collage of video clips and photos detailing his life's work.


research articles predict next earthquake

two research articles published this week illustrate continuing efforts to predict earthquakes. the first article builds upon the idea that analysis of the first seismic waves from an earthquake can provide a way to generate a several second warning that an earthquake will hit. however, for such warnings to be useful, the early seismic waves should also allow prediction of the strength of the earthquake. an article published in this week's edition of "nature" concludes that scientists might be able to distinguish small earthquakes from big ones by using the very first second of information contained in seismic waves. 

researchers from the university of california, berkeley, say the measurements of seismic waves soon after a trembler can signal whether it will be a minor or monster trembler. "basically, a high-pitched squeal means that you'll get a smaller quake. a low-groan means something bigger," says the university of california's richard allen. 

in the study, allen and colleagues analyzed records of 71 major pacific rim quakes in the past decades including 24 events that were greater than a magnitude 6. using a mathematical model, they were able to estimate a quake's size to within one magnitude unit from as little as four seconds of data of the frequency of the energy in the primary wave. these low-energy waves typically cause a jolt, signaling the occurrence of a quake.

according to a traditional theory, called the cascade model, we cannot know anything about an earthquake's ultimate magnitude until it is finished. this is because spread along a fault line depends on the stress in each individual part of the fault. given that this information is not available to the initial rupture point, it should be impossible to tell from that first slip how far it will go or how long it will last.

the study by berkeley's allen and erik l. olson of the university of wisconsin-madison builds upon earlier work by yutaka nakamura in japan. nakamura's research indicated that the frequency of the p wave can allow prediction of which earthquakes will have a magnitude greater than 6 and distinguish them from small tremors that do not require warnings. some fire stations use p wave detectors to automatically open doors in an effort to make sure that emergency vehicles are not trapped inside by doors that can be jammed shut by earthquake damage. 

the goal of this research is to make the best possible use of the information from the earliest seismic waves emitted by an earthquake as part of an alert system to give seconds to tens of seconds of advance notice of an impending quake -- enough time for schoolchildren to take cover, power generators to trip off and valves to shut on pipelines. a major limitation of this work is that the greatest earthquake damage is near the epicenter where there is little time difference between the early p waves and the strongest damaging earthquake waves. 

the second research paper, published this week in the scientific magazine "physical review letters", builds upon earlier research into patterns of earthquake activity at specific faults. the new research by scientists from israel and germany led by prof. shlomo havlin, of bar-ilan university's department of physics in israel, concerns prediction of the timing between earthquakes.

prof. havlin's research, in collaboration with prof. armin bunde, of the justus-liebig university in giessen, germany, and bar-ilan university graduate student valerie livina, involved a large number of past earthquakes at many different faults. the data used in this study were for earthquakes ranging from magnitude 2 to magnitude 5.5 on the richter scale. data were from several areas of the world including california, japan, and new zealand. the new results are consistent with previous studies which have indicated that some faults have more frequent small earthquakes while other faults have less frequent and larger earthquakes.


german social and christian democrats agree on new government

nearly two months after the german parliamentary election, the social democrats (spd) and the christian democrats (cdu) and their sister party, the christian socialists from bavaria (csu), have reached a hard-fought deal to form a grand coalition, paving the way for angela merkel to become germany's first female chancellor.

when the result of the elections on 18th september prevented both parties from forming a coalition with their respective preferred partners, the greens and the free democrats, they were forced to engage in coalition negotiations with each other.

the negotiations were long and difficult; in the process, gerhard schroder (spd) gave up his ambitions for the chancellorship, spd chair franz muntefering resigned over the refusal of the party leadership to approve his candidate for a high party office, and edmund stoiber (csu) withdrew from federal politics and abstained from becoming minister of economics.

"after 39 years of being political opponents on the federal level cdu, csu and spd want to move our country forward in common responsibility as the federal government", chancellor-designate merkel said at a joint press conference. outgoing spd chair muntefering added that "cooperation is good for the country".

under the new agreement the value added tax (vat) will increase by 3% to 19% from the beginning of 2007, the legislative competence on the federal level and of the states will be modified, and further reforms of the job market will be implemented. married persons with an income that exceeds 500,000 ? will have to pay an extra 3% on their income, the same applies to unmarried persons with over 250,000 ? income. dismissal protection only kicks in after two years of employment. the agreement also includes several amendments, some of them define by the letter how the wording of the constitution will be changed.

the coalition agreement was criticised by trade unions, employers' federations, and industry organisations. a vat increase would "stall the economy" said klaus wiesehugel, the head of a construction union. the chairman of porsche, wendelin wiedeking, said that "we were only served lies. everyone, whether low or high income, notices that."

party conferences are expected to ratify the agreement next week; the election of merkel as chancellor is scheduled for 22nd november.


president bush claims critics are rewriting iraq war history

president bush accused critics of the iraq war of rewriting history and distorting the events that led to the u.s. invasion. in an effort to divert criticism of his administration's decision to go to war with iraq, bush said that some democrats viewed the same intelligence and came to similar conclusions. "some democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the american people about why we went to war," bush said.
senate minority leader harry reid (democrat) responded "attacking those patriotic americans who have raised serious questions about the case the bush administration made to take our country to war does not provide us a plan for success that will bring our troops home," reid said.

at the same time, the senate intelligence committee is making progress toward an agreement on how to implement 'phase two' of the iraq wmd investigation set up to investigate how administration officials used the intelligence information available in the run-up of the iraq war. the first phase of this investigation only focused on the quality of the intelligence information. phase two was postponed until after the november 2004 elections.

 


united airlines to hire 2,000 flight attendants

the besieged airline industry received some good news today, united airlines plans to hire 2,000 flight attendants. this is the first time in four years united has increased the number of flight attendants it employs. 

united airlines, the second largest us carrier, furloughed many flight attendants as a result of decreased air travel after september 11th. at one time 5,500 flight attendants were on furlough. united finished recalling flight attendants on october 31st. the airline's problems were further aggravated by soaring fuel prices forcing the company to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy which it plans to emerge from in 2006. 

the new hires are intended to replace retirees and flight attendants who decided not to return from furlough. 

united stated that it will begin accepting applications november 13th at united flight attendant application page


warning in colombia about possible volcanic eruption

the galeras volcano could have an eruption at any moment according to julian villaruel, director of the colombian institute of geology and mines (ingeominas).

the spokesman for the volcanoes and seismologic observatory of pasto , colombia, explained that the galeras volcano has registered a level two activity in a scale of 1 to 4, which means that an eruption is likely to happen in days or weeks.

he declared that some of the measurements taken have been analyzed by scientific institutions in the us that have confirmed the likelihood of an eruption.

the observatory and the local committee for the prevention and reduction of disasters (crepad) will continue to keep a watchful eye on the behavior of the volcano in order to instruct the residents about the risks and the evacuation routes in case of eruption.

the galeras summit is 4276 meters (14,028 feet) above sea level. the last time it registered some activity was in 2004. pasto, at its base, is a city of about 400 thousand people. there are 5 other towns around the galeras skirts. 60,000 people live around the influence zone and about 9,000 live in the area of highest risk.



japan to hunt 950 whales for &quot;scientific research&quot;

the japanese whaling fleet is reportedly heading into the seas around antarctica, drawing widespread condemnation from campaigners. japan's fleet of six ships left the port of shimonoseki, western japan with a quota of 940 minke whales and 10 fin whales. 

calls for the australian government to intervene have been rejected by the environment minister, senator ian campbell. japan's whaling program, which is claimed to be for scientific purposes, is expected to kill nearly one thousand whales this season.

"japan's attempt to dress up its commercial whaling as science is an insult to modern science," said international fund for animal welfare (ifaw) director of wildlife and habitat. "it's time for the japanese government to respect the rest of the world - it's time to stop whaling." a greenpeace statement dismisses the assertion of the japanese government that whales are contributing to the collapse of fish stocks.

senator rachel siewrt, spokesperson on marine matters for the green party said, "mr campbell can't answer a simple question on whether or not the government plans to take any one of a number of legal and diplomatic actions open to it."

legal action open to the australian government includes invoking provisional measures under the auspices of the international tribunal for the law of the sea. these measures would ? in effect ? be an injunction preventing whaling from being started within the 14 days following.
in december, the sea shepherd conservation society will engage the japanese whaling fleet in the southern ocean whale sanctuary. the sea shepherds say the japanese whale kill is illegal. they will be acting in accordance with the united nations world charter for nature in their intervention. the groups objective is to "hunt down the japanese whaling fleet and harass, block, obstruct, and intervene against their illegal whaling operations."

according to sea shepherd: "the japanese are violating the southern ocean sanctuary. they are violating the international whaling commission moratorium on commercial whaling. they are targeting endangered fin and humpback whales that are protected under the convention on the trade in endangered species of flora and fauna. they are also in violation of the australian laws protecting the australian antarctic territorial waters."

international fund for animal welfare condemns what it calls a "mass killing program ? a defiance of international criticism and a global ban on commercial whaling ? as commercial whaling disguised as science." ifaw urges the australian government to take japan to the international courts to bring this program to an immediate halt.

japan plans to kill over 900 minke whales and ten fin whales during the next six months as part of its whaling program, japra ii, marking a sharp escalation in japan's whaling activities. "it is a dark day for some of the world's most magnificent creatures. let's be under no illusion?this is commercial whaling in disguise. the australian government must respond swiftly by taking legal action to stop the boats in their tracks," said ifaw marine campaigner darren kindleysides.

leading international law expert, professor don rothwell, has advised ifaw that the japanese government is breaching international laws with jarpa ii. he has advised that the australian government has very strong grounds to take japan to in the international law of the sea to stop "scientific" whaling. japan is targeting whales that are listed as endangered.

he argues that japan's plans to double its whale take are an abuse of its legal right. "the number of whales that japan purports to take is not commensurate with the number of whales that would be necessary to engage in scientific research," he said. "there's also increasing evidence that non-lethal means can be used to take data from whales to obtain information about whaling stocks."


 


sony to suspend use of controversial cd software

sony bmg has announced it will suspend production of cds with their controversial "anti-piracy" software. the move follows litigation being brought against the company for the software which allegedly opens up microsoft windows to malicious attacks.

in an ironic turn of events, it now appears that sony's software violates the copyright of the popular lame mp3 player, which is distributed under a public license. in the past, german courts have forced companies to release their source code to the public when it was based upon software distributed under such a license.


fires at baxter immigration detention centre in south australia

34 accommodation units have been destroyed by fire at the baxter detention centre near pt augusta in south australia today. the blaze also gutted a kitchen, laundry, recreational area and officers' station. the original blaze broke out around 4am acst in the kitchen of the "white one" compound which houses single men. fire units took almost three hours to put them out.

fifty-eight detainees were evacuated from baxter idc. six have been treated for smoke inhalation. 

immigration minister amanda vanstone says about 17 rooms have been ruined and others damaged. she says deliberate property damage will not be tolerated and the australian federal police are questioning four detainees over the blazes and anyone found responsible will be charged. 

"anyone with no lawful right to be in australia should leave irrespective of the behaviour that they've undertaken, but if someone with a visa or without a visa to be in australia engages in criminal conduct that would be taken into account in terms of cancelling a visa," she said.

the metropolitan fire service (mfs) said four fires appeared to have been deliberately lit. "the first fire in the kitchen area was followed by three other separate fires within the complex," an mfs spokesman said.

refugee rights advocate pamela curr said she had concerns about the safety of detainees in the event of a fire because of the electronic doors. she said detainees at a detention centre at amsterdam's schiphol airport had been killed during a fire last month because authorities had been unable to manually open the electronic doors. "thank heavens nobody seems to have been hurt today," she said. "we're always on the alert that baxter is not a safe detention centre".

bernadette wauchope from rural australians for refugees says the destruction will continue until something is done. "they become so desperate that they attempt self-harm or attempt suicide or maybe resort to lighting fires," she said. "after being locked up for years and years the feeling that they're isolated and that nobody's listening to what their stories are, often that, well it does contribute to these kinds of acts," she said.


clinton speaks at rabin memorial service

former us president bill clinton was the guest of honor in a memorial ceremony attended by some 200,000 israelis in tel aviv to mark the 10th anniversary of the assassination of israeli prime minister yitzhak rabin. the rally was delayed one week due to clinton's schedule. 

clinton opened his speech with some words of respect to the deputy prime minister shimon peres, "my dear friend shimon peres, thank you for servicing the case of peace all of your life and being a partner and a leader to all of us".

regarding rabin, clinton said, "i loved him very much, and i was in awe of his ability to move from being a soldier to being a peacemaker, a politician to a statesman".

clinton said that it was a great honor for him to be at the ceremony with his wife, daughter and friends from america to stand in solidarity for the memory of yitzhak rabin. he said: "if he were here he would say, "there is enough of all this missing. if you really think i lived a good life, if you think i made a noble sacrifice in death, then for goodness sakes, take up my work and see it through to the end" and concluded his speech with the words in hebrew ? "shalom haver" (goodbye my friend).

later clinton joined peres and the rest of the politicians, most of whom were from rabin's cabinet and were with him on the same stage in the original peace rally for singing "the song for peace", the same song that they sang with rabin that night.



canadian mike mintenko retires from swimming

canadian olympic swimmer mike minenko has announced his official retirement from the sport. mike finished fifth in his premier event, 100m butterfly, at the 2000 sydney olympics and won a silver medal in the freestyle relay at this years world championships.

30 year old mike, who grew up in a small town in saskatchewan, currently lives in los angeles with his wife, american swimmer lindsay benko. nicknamed "the tank" with a height of 6'3", mike never forgot his roots and was keen to emphise the importance of his hometown, telling the canadian media "small town values are so important"..."the people in a small town...they appreciate you working hard."

in addition to his world championship medal, mike holds the 50m and 100m butterfly long course and short course canadian national records.


french journalist beaten in tunis

a journalist for the french daily "liberation", christophe boltanski, was attacked on friday by several men in a street of tunis, where he was reporting on the repression of human rights activists.
he was badly beaten and stabbed with a knife in the back by four unidentified assailants near his hotel in the embassy district. boltanski was also hit in the face by pepper spray. he called for help, but the policemen on guard outside the nearby czech embassy did not react, according to "liberation". 

boltanski filed a complaint on saturday morning before returning to paris. "liberation" and reporters without borders suspect this attack was a deliberate act of intimidation decided by the tunisian regime. according to a united press international report, tunisian authorities arrested two men saturday on suspicion of assaulting boltanski.



chinese hunger strike continues at australian detention centre

three chinese men being held at sydney's villawood immigration detention centre have ended a four-week hunger strike. but another three detainees are continuing to refuse food for the 25th consecutive day. the men began their hunger strike on october 20 to protest australia's mandatory detention policy.
they said they had been persecuted by the communist regime in china and came to australia seeking protection. four of the detainees were taken to hospital last week but three were released on friday. the remaining man in hospital has ended his protest.

"three detainees in villawood remain on voluntary starvation," an immigration department spokesman said. "two villawood detainees have agreed to stop their hunger strike.

australian refugee advocates say they are concerned about the welfare of the chinese men, who have been on a hunger strike since october 20 at sydney's villawood immigration detention centre. three of the six men from mainland china are continuing to refuse food at the centre.

minister for immigration and multicultural and indigenous affairs has refused to process the chinese asylum seekers claims until they stop the hunger strike. amanda vanstone, urges the hunger strikers to end their protest. "participation in a hunger strike will not help the cause of the individuals concerned," the minister said. "i have personally written to all six to advise them that i will not be considering any cases while protest activity continues." 

the six original hunger strikers said in an october 29 statement that they are protesting against australia's mandatory detention policy and the mental and physical impairment caused by the long-term detention in villawood - during which, they say, many people suffer long-term insomnia, dysphoria, and even mental breakdown. 

"we were persecuted by the communist regime in our own country where people lost their fundamental freedom, human rights, democratic rights and rule of law. due to the inadequacy of the detention policy in australia, we were forced to lose our freedom again and may, at any moment, be deported back to china and face severe persecution again," said the hunger strikers.

at a rally outside villawood on october 29, the refugee action coalition (rac) said the asylum seekers want to be released from detention while their claims for refugee status are processed. rac spokesman mark goudkamp says the men have been in detention for up to nine months. 

"we want to show people that they're not completely isolated, that they have support on the outside, and we want to get their message out as far as we can," he said. mr goudkamp says one of the asylum seekers is a falun gong practitioner and the others are pro-democracy, against the chinese government.

ian rintoul, also from the refugee action coalition, says five of the men are asylum seekers and the sixth man's business visa has lapsed. "the treatment of the chinese in detention shows that the department still has to face up to the underlying problems of mandatory detention," mr rintoul said.

"the chinese are facing the same obstacles and the same departmental attitudes that kept asylum seekers behind the razor wire for years. the men make the point that they feel their lives are being destroyed by mandatory detention."

mr rintoul said most of the six chinese asylum seekers had been living in australia since the late 1990s and had children here. all had been taken to villawood for immigration breaches and had lodged asylum claims, some of which had been rejected and were in the process of appeal. they want to be free to be reunited with their families.

the immigration department says the hunger strike will not influence decisions on the men's applications for asylum. 

but mr rintoul says that is not what the strike is about. "what they can't understand is why that claim can't be processed while they're living in the community," he said. "what the hunger strike highlights is why the misery of mandatory detention continues."

peter job from the victorian greens has expressed grave concern for the remaining three detainees continuing their hunger strike past its twenty-sixth day. "asylum seekers who maintain they have strong claims should have their cases re-heard. given the obviously harmful nature of long term detention they should be allowed to live in the community while this takes place," said mr job.



british man fully &quot;recovers&quot; from hiv

a 25 year old british man has been reported to have made a full recovery from the hiv virus . andrew stimpson did not take any drug treatments after being diagnosed with the virus in august 2002 and was found hiv negative in october 2003.

stimpson's two hiv tests were performed by the chelsea and westminster healthcare nhs trust. it has been reported that the hospital is standing by the validity of the two tests that have so far been performed. the hospital would like to perform additional tests that might reveal an explanation for the two contradictory test results. tests used for diagnosis of hiv infection can produce false positive results. when this happens, additional testing is required in order to determine if there ever was an actual infection. some news reports suggest that stimpson may have had contact with someone known to be hiv-positive and that multiple hiv tests performed by a clinic all gave positive results for stimpson before he was first tested by the chelsea and westminster hospital. however, michael hopkin of the british journal "nature", has reported that while stimpson tested positive for antibodies to hiv in 2002, "tests done during more than two dozen visits in 2003 and 2004 proved negative for the antibodies". this suggests that either hiv infection took an unusual course in stimpson or the original test results indicating infection were a false positive.

many similar cases have been reported in africa, where the virus is widespread. due to poor medical facilities all of these reports have been largely anecdotal?mr stimpson represents the first well documented case. however, until additional tests are performed it is impossible to know if the second test was a false negative. dr. andrew grulich, who has a phd in epidemiology and works at the national centre in hiv epidemiology and clinical research at the university of new south wales has expressed doubt that stimpson was cured of an hiv infection. in some infected patients, hiv levels can fall to undetectably low levels until their immune system is defeated and virus levels begin to rise. 

this discovery may offer a promising new window into how the virus works and furthers hopes that one day a vaccine and/or cure will be found for the disease that is carried by around 35 million people worldwide.


ariane 5 rocket launch postponed

the launch of the ariane 5 eca rocket has been postponed due to a technical hitch. the rocket, which has a record payload of 10,000 kg, was due to launch in the 45 minute window opening at 4.35pm (23:45 gmt) on november 12th, 2005 from a base at kourou, french guiana. officials have not yet given a new date for launch.

the rocket is the eca version of the ariane 5 rocket, which has been modified to enable it to carry a heavier payload. this rocket is carrying the spaceway 2 for customer "directv" and telkom 2 for customer "pt telkom indonesia", both telecommunications satellites to be released into a geosynchronous orbit.

the maiden flight of the ariane 5 eca ended in disaster in 2002 when the rocket veered off course over the atlantic ocean and self-destructed, dumping two satellites worth 600 million euros into the sea. a second flight successfully launched in february, 2005, releasing two satellites into orbit. this will be the rocket's third flight.



20,000 south koreans take to the streets to protest apec

20,000 labour activists in south korea joined a union-organised protest in the streets of downtown seoul on sunday to express opposition to the (apec) forum currently underway in the southeastern port city of busan. 

the apec summit of leaders will include us president george w. bush. the two-day apec summit, expected to bring together 21 regional leaders, opens officially on november 18 in the south korean port city of busan. the apec agenda includes discussions on how to enhance global free trade. 

protesters' placards declared "no bush visit" and "no apec", demanding a revision of domestic labour laws to improve conditions for temporary workers. police lined the protest route, using buses to block streets as protesters marched close to the us embassy and the presidential blue house. city police officials said there were no reports of violence. 

the rally was organised by the (kctu), the second-largest labour organisation in south korea. 

"apec is playing the vanguard role of spreading new liberalism in trade which makes the rich richer and the poor poorer," said o jong-ryul, head of the people's action against apec ? another of the protest organising groups. the activists said apec had become a tool for us multinationals seeking to expand their dominance in the world market "under the pretext of trade liberalization."

the rally was held after the death of a south korean farmer, who allegedly committed suicide on friday morning to protest the free trade and opening of the south korean agricultural market. 

the rally cut off downtown traffic and caused severe congestion. no serious crashes were reported.

some 80 protest leaders said they would organize regular street rallies throughout the week of apec meetings. the kctu intend to hold another rally in busan on thursday, in opposition to further trade liberalization and investment regulations. 

activists hope to bring 100,000 protestors into the streets to oppose the summit. they call on the government to provide all citizens with access to free medical care and education and to address the problem ofincreasing south korean wealth disparity.

"we will fight aggressively at the national rally on november 18 against the busan apec summit and open busan international people forum by gathering all korean progressives including workers, farmers and students," said a kctu spokesperson.

busan police said the rally would not disturb the meeting. "the police will also increase the number of personnel from some 7,000 to 22,000 and station more armored cars to prevent any violent protests," an official said. 

a spokesman for the port city of busan, steve tang, said 37,000 officers from south korea's national intelligence service, police, military, fire service, coast guard and customs were on high alert for apec. 

the national police agency has banned nearly 1000 foreign activists from entering the country before the apec summit, and is closely monitoring 350 activists. further measures include a no-fly and no-vessel zone within a 7km radius of the apec venue retreat. 

the city's police, have been on emergency duty since october 19.



french police ban public meetings and increase security measures in paris

the prefect of police of paris has banned public meetings in paris, fearing violence in the french capital this holiday weekend, which marks the 87th anniversary of the end of world war i. police remained on alert throughout the weekend, with some 12,000 security officers deployed around the country.

after more than a fortnight of civil unrest in france, police imposed the temporary public meeting ban in response to internet and text messages calling for violent action in the french capital. the government has declared a state of emergency in paris and 30 other areas to help quell the unrest.

today, sunday 13 november, french authorities have reported less urban violence - despite fears of a rampage that prompted thousands of police to fan out at high-profile targets such as the eiffel tower. across the country, the situation appears calmer. rioting, car-burnings and arson attacks appear to be waning. 

nationwide, 374 cars were torched on saturday night, down from 502 on the evening of november 11, police said today. about 100 vehicles go up in flames in france on a typical saturday night.

national police chief michel said there had been a "major lull" in the rioting on the 17th night of urban violence. if the calm continues, "things could return to normal very quickly," he said at a news conference on sunday. night curfews are still in force in several areas. mr gaudin said there was a "downward trend" in the incidence of violence "with some resistance in the paris region. this weekend we will exercise extra vigilance in the paris region." 

on thursday, president jacques chirac acknowledged that france had "undeniable problems" in poor city areas and must respond effectively. "whatever our origins we are all the children of the republic and we can all expect the same rights," he said.

surveillance has been stepped up on suburban transport, petrol sales in small quantities have also been banned. 

mr chirac defended his use of state-of-emergency legislation, and said the priority was still to restore order. the state of emergency, adopted on wednesday and renewable after 12 days, allows french authorities to impose curfews in designated areas, ban public meetings, search for weapons without a warrant and issue house-arrest orders.

some 7,500 cars and dozens of buildings including schools and businesses have been torched since the violence began. 2,350 people have been arrested and 358 have recieived prison sentences.

the recent unrest erupted on october 27 following the deaths of two teenagers electrocuted while hiding from police in an electrical sub-station.



world trade, bird flu to be discussed at 2005 apec

apec, the asian pacific economic conference, whose membership includes about 47 percent of global trade and 57 percent of the world's gdp plans to meet in busan, south korea. the meeting will include us president george w. bush, china's hu jintao and japanese prime minister junichiro koizumi as well as 18 other heads of asian governments.

wto negotiations have met much resistance on reducing farm subsidies of some of the wealthier nations. two previous talks have failed to break the stalemate 

"support for the wto negotiations is the no. 1 issue and the leaders will make a standalone statement on this," choi seok-young, executive director of the apec secretariat said. 

officials have drafted a statement backing the wto's agenda. officials are expected to sign the statement during the conference. 

many leaders hope to end the stalemate over agricultural subsidies currently plaguing the wto. "it's very important that they seek a breakthrough in this current deadlocked situation" south korea's senior official and chairman of the meeting kim jong-hoon said.

"apec would like to change this message of crisis into a message of hope."

"bird flu will be one of the most important issues to be discussed because it could harm our people through illness, death and through loss of business and jobs." choi-young also said that leaders in busan this week may suggest ways to end the deadlock in agriculture and to move forward on industrial goods and services. 

protesters have other plans for the conference. 

sunday, protesters peacefully demonstrated in seoul in advance of the conference in a rally organized by korean confederation of trade unions. organizers say thousands more will be in busan during the meeting. approximately 18,000 to more than 20,000 participated in sunday's rally. protesters wearing red headbands caring signs saying "no bush visit" and "no apec." demands also included better conditions for temporary workers and better social security for all workers. 

20,000 south koreans take to the streets to protest apec


new south wales water supply problems continue

the inland city of goulburn is still facing major water restrictions despite an easing in drought in the state over the past few months. the water levels in the city's dam, the pejar dam, are still very low at 11% full, with the total water supply at 32% capacity in comparison to 36% capacity over the same period last year. available capacity for the city at 31 october 2005 was still under 20% and the water consumption rate of the city is approximately half compared with the five-year average.

above average rainfalls in september 2005 have delayed some of the harder decisions facing the town in the middle of the year, such as the closing down of industries dependent on water usage. in may 2005, pejar dam was at 10% of its capacity and the town was looking at running out of water within eight months. there had been no significant rainfall since december 2004 and the dam was last full in november 2000.


religious broadcaster pat robertson warns pennsylvania town of disaster

religious broadcaster pat robertson warned residents of a rural pennsylvania town thursday that disaster may strike there because they "voted god out of your city" by ousting school board members who favored teaching intelligent design.

all eight dover, pa., school board members up for re-election were defeated tuesday after trying to introduce "intelligent design" ? the belief that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher power ? as an alternative to the theory of evolution.

"i'd like to say to the good citizens of dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to god. you just rejected him from your city," robertson said on the christian broadcasting network's "700 club."

eight families had sued the district, claiming the policy violates the constitutional separation of church and state. the federal trial concluded days before tuesday's election, but no ruling has been issued.

later thursday, robertson issued a statement saying he was simply trying to point out that "our spiritual actions have consequences."

"god is tolerant and loving, but we can't keep sticking our finger in his eye forever," robertson said. "if they have future problems in dover, i recommend they call on charles darwin. maybe he can help them."





increased tension in border dispute between eritrea and ethiopia

the bbc reports that ethiopian prime minister meles zenawi has confirmed that he had moved thousands of extra troops to the north of the country, to prevent an invasion by eritrea. ethiopia is estimated to have nearly half its armoured units in the area. sapa-afp reports however, "it is not true at all that there is an eritrean troop movement," and, "eritrea is only engaged in its development projects and agricultural revolution," as stated by the eritrean information minister.

"we will not provoke the other side, nor will we be provoked by the other side," information minister ali abdu told reuters in nairobi by telephone from the eritrea[n] capital asmara.

as frustration grows on both sides, some fear that recent ethiopian troop movements to the frontier while the domestic political situation worsens could lead to renewed conflict. afp reports that "ethiopia[n] police on monday accused eritrea of fuelling deadly street violence that rocked the country early this month and claimed the lives of at least 48 people."

at the close of a 3-year war over their common border, eritrea and ethiopia decided to settle their differences in court. the permanent court of arbitration at the hague in the netherlands presided over the border commission. its decision in 2002 was hoped to be the conclusion to this long conflict.

instead the stalemate has drawn on for three years. one of the modalities of the agreement was that the decision would be 'final and binding.' in essence, both parties agreed to the decision in advance. at the announcement of the decision both parties lauded the decision as being fair and on the side of justice.

since that time however, the border between these two countries remains unmarked. the ethiopian government refuses to allow the marking of the boundary, saying that there must be allowance for the shifting of the border. on the other hand the eritrean government has recently curtailed the movements of the un peacekeeping mission.

this cold war has been cool for years, but as frustration mounts the conflict simmers and sparks have already begun to fly.


pennsylvania couple murdered; daughter abducted

michael and cathryn borden, a couple, both 50 years old, were found shot to death in lititz, pennsylvania shortly after 8 am est (1300 utc). their 9 year old son, david, had fled to a neighbor's house and called emergency assistance (911). the couple's younger daughter, kara beth borden, age 14, was reported missing. her older sister was found in the home unharmed.

police believe that the abductor was 18-year-old david g. ludwig. neighbor stephanie mannon said ludwig had been secretly dating kara, without the approval of kara's parents. "it wasn't because he was a shady character," stated mannon, "because he wasn't."

an amber alert was issued for borden, with her description stated as: white female, age 14, 5'1", 100 pounds, brown hair with blonde highlights. she was last seen wearing a black sweat shirt with "pillar" across the front, blue jeans and black sneakers.

 


bomb scare halts brisbane transport

public transport in brisbane came to a halt following an anonymous tip-off to police over an alleged bomb on the city's mass-transit network. trains, buses and railway stations were evacuated by authorities without elaboration on the threat. they have not yet found any evidence to support the claim.

passengers were moved at least 100m away from buses and train stations, and all luggage was removed. all inbound and outbound services from southbank, roma street, central and fortitude valley stations had been affected, but now most services have resumed, albeit with delays.

police received a "general threat" about brisbane-bound train and bus services from an unidentified source, leading to services being suspended from 11.45am (aest) on monday, a police spokeswoman said.

the scare takes place against the background of the australian federal government's introduction of harsh new anti-terrorism laws. queensland premier peter beattie is due to make an announcement shortly.


climate change a factor in australia's warmest year on record

climatologists believe artificially induced climate change is the reason australia is destined for the warmest year on record. temperatures so far this year have averaged one degree above the 30-year average, the bureau of meteorology (bom) told the greenhouse 2005 ? action in climate change conference being held in melbourne this week.

the head of the national climate centre, michael coughlan, says australia has had the warmest ever first 10 months of 2005, and seems likely to be a record-breaking year. "it's typically been a degree or more above the average for most of the months," said mr coughlan. "when you think you're averaging over hundreds of stations across australia, to get a one degree warming over such a large area is fairly significant."

according to bom, australia has experienced its warmest start to a year on record (since 1950), with the january to october temperature averaging 1.03 degrees celsius above the 30 year average (1961-1990). annual mean temperatures have increased throughout australia since 1910, particularly since the 1950s. 

"if one draws a trend line from the mid-50s or early 50s, through to the present, it's a fairly steady upward trend. and it's interesting that this is not true only of australia, but it's fairly typical throughout most continents now, most parts of the world," said mr coughlan.

as the average temperature has risen, there has been an increase in the incidence of hot days and hot nights, and a reduction in the number of cold days and nights. this warming is mirrored in the oceans around australia.

michael coughlan says warm sea surfaces are a significant factor in the creation of cyclones and hurricanes. "one might expect, with those sea temperatures being warmer than they have been in the last few years, that the odds would be tipped towards perhaps a greater number of the cyclones than we have seen in the last few years," he says.

warming is not the only sign of change in australia’s climate. other changes include a marked decline in rainfall in southwest and parts of southeast australia, and recent reduction in rainfall through the eastern states. at the same time, rainfall in the arid interior and northwest has increased dramatically, in some places nearly doubling during the last 50-years.

"climate change affecting australia is real," says csiro's dr bryson bates. "in 2005 the questions we face are how best to respond and adapt ? from projections in agriculture to changing ecosystems, reduced catchment flows and downward rainfall trends," dr bates says.

the greenhouse 2005 action on climate change conference is expected to attract 400 australian and international delegates. 

 


thousands of australian workers set to rally against ir reform

police and union leaders across the country expect big crowds during today's national community day of protest against the federal government's workchoices proposed changes to industrial relations laws.

labor's opposition spokesman on industrial relations, stephen smith says, "the more people become aware of the nature of the changes and the detail of the changes, the more they realise how vulnerable they are and the more they want to do something to prevent the changes."

mark bethwaite, from australian business ltd, believes most people will go to work as usual. "because frankly they are not convinced by the scare campaign the actu has been running," mr bethwaite said.

the federal government has been accused of instructing agencies to refuse staff leave to attend the rallies against its ir changes and says it will not be affected by a rally of one person or a 100,000. 

the federal department of workplace relations has issued advice to other departments that employees wanting to attend the national community day of protest should be denied leave.

state and territory leaders intend to mount a high court challenge to the federal government's proposed industrial relations changes. 

the actu say, "the ir changes are not just an attack on workers ? they fundamentally undermine the values that make australia great. beneath all the glossy advertising are proposals that will unfairly curtail your rights at work, cut the amount of time you can spend with family, and erode your job security."

the federal government have spent over fifty million dollars on promoting the radical new changes.

unions say the changes will make it easier for workers to be sacked; cut take-home pay and reduce minimum standards; change the way minimum wages are set to make them lower; replace the award safety net with just five minimum conditions; restrict access to unions; make it harder for employees to bargain as a group; and reduce the powers of the independent industrial relations commission."

in melbourne, australian education union's mary bluett said the ir legislation "is not the legacy we want to leave our children." about 12,000 public servants, 10,000 building workers and hundreds of nurses are also expected to join the protest, but workers operating road, train, tram and bus services will remain on duty to allow commuters to travel free to the rally.

sky news estimated the number attending the rally in melbourne as 175,000.

the australian chamber of commerce and industry labelled the rally "a tired union stunt".



france plans on extending anti-riot powers

despite a drop in violence in the country over the past weekend, the french cabinet has agreed to ask the parliament for a three-month extension to emergency powers. ministers agreed on the extension at a meeting chaired by president jacques chirac, and a bill on that effect will be presented on tuesday to the national assembly and on wednesday to the senate.

the police reported 284 vehicles being torched in petrol bomb attacks on sunday, the 18th consecutive night of the riots. the number is lower than the previous night, when 374 cars were destroyed, and considerably below previous week's peak of 1,400.

chirac, who has been criticized for keeping a low profile during the crisis, prepared to address the nation on monday night in a television broadcast. chirac was quoted by a government spokesman as saying that the emergency powers were "strictly temporary and will only be applied where they are strictly necessary."

in spite of all departmental prefects being authorised to impose curfews, in practice only few have. the extension of powers has drawn some criticism from local mayors who have deemed it an overreaction and potentially inflammatory. the pressure group sos racisme said that events had shown that the prefects already had enough powers.

since the beginning of the unrest on october 27, more than 8,000 cars have been torched, more than 2,700 people arrested and dozens of buildings wrecked. according to jose manuel durao barroso, president of the european commission, the european union is prepared to release 50 million ? in aid for damaged areas.



teens sought in pennsylvania killings found

belleville, indiana ? a man wanted in a pennsylvania double homicide and apparent abduction of 14-year-old girl was captured monday after a red jetta he was driving crashed in indiana following a police pursuit, state police said. 

state police 1st sgt. dave bursten said david ludwig, 18, was apprehended about 12:30 p.m. est (1730 utc) after a car he was driving crashed about 20 miles west of indianapolis, in belleville. bursten first attempted to pull ludwig over, but he sped off, initiating a pursuit by state police.

authorities believe that ludwig was attempting to cross into minnesota and possibly stay with his relatives, according to information provided by ludwig's father.

bursten said ludwig was found with the missing girl, 14-year-old kara beth borden, a daughter of the slain couple, and that she was unharmed.

"he's in custody and we have the girl," bursten said.

a radio broadcast heard by a motorist prompted the listener to report sighting the car in which the two were riding.

 


quake measuring 6.9 off japan's honsh? coast

an earthquake measuring 6.9 on the richter scale has been reported off the coast of japan's main island, honsh?.

whilst a major earthquake, the epicentre was well away from any population centres, and initial tsunami warnings predicting half-meter surges were later withdrawn.

due to its size, the quake was felt in tokyo, over 300 miles away.

 


smoke condition at penn station suspends lirr

long island rail road (lirr) service was suspended at pennsylvania station due to a smoke condition. the fire was in the station ceiling above the entrance to tracks 18 and 19 between the waiting room, and the information and ticket-vending booths.

new jersey transit and amtrak trains continued to run without delays during the incident.

the fire, which started at 7:05 p.m. est (tuesday 0005 utc). (the last time shown on the mechanical departures board), continued to fill the 7th ave. entrance with smoke as late as 8:10 p.m. local time, well after the fdny had the situation under control. tv crews captured footage and passers-by snapped cellphone images of the scene, while confused commuters were moved along to the tune of "keep movin'" by national guardsmen and mta police.

the lirr level of penn sta. was sealed off from the exit concourse on north, including the escalators leading to the 7th ave. entrance. a myriad of commuters packed the exit and west end concourses, calling and text-messaging their delay on their phones.

by 8:22 p.m. local time the electronic departures board resumed listing trains, the station's shops reopened for business, and limited service was restored. those who were shoulder-to-shoulder in the concourses found themselves in the same situation, but now on a train bound for home.

lirr customers are advised that residual delays - and scent of smoke - should be expected for the rest of the night.

the cause of the fire has not yet been determined. 


globalization and trade deficit are connected says greenspan

"the rise of our deficit and our ability to finance it appears to coincide with a pronounced new phase of globalization that has emerged in the past decade," the u.s. federal reserve chairman alan greenspan said in a speech delivered today to the banco de mexico. "this phase is characterized by a major acceleration in u.s. productivity growth and the decline in what economists call home bias, the parochial tendency to invest domestic savings in one's home country.""

"to date, despite a current account deficit exceeding 6 percent of our gross domestic product, we -- or more exactly the economic entities that comprise the u.s. economy -- are experiencing few difficulties in attracting the foreign saving required to finance it, as evidenced by the recent upward pressure on the dollar," he said. 

"of course, deficits that cumulate to ever-increasing net external debt, with its attendant rise in servicing costs, cannot persist indefinitely," he added. "at some point investors will balk at further financing."

"a nation's current account balance thus is essentially a market phenomenon that is not readily subject to rebalance by targeting one or more policy variables such as the exchange rate," greenspan said. in the speech greenspan said interest rate increases nor cuts in the us fiscal deficit would result in large reductions in the current account deficit. these are the three standard ways the government controls the economy. 

the deficit last year widened to $665.9 billion from $530.7 billion. it totaled $195.7 billion in the second quarter, or 6.3 percent of gross domestic product. 

greenspan did say he did not think that the dollar would lose its dominant position in the global economy “any time soon” and that economic flexibility would help the united states should the dollar lose its status.


hundreds of thousands rally in australia against ir legislation

people rallied in 300 locations across australia today to protest the federal government's proposed changes to industrial relations laws, workchoices. according to police, around 150,000 people congregated in melbourne, from where speeches were broadcast throughout the country. in sydney, thirty thousand gathered in belmore park and martin place to watch the broadcast before marching to chifley square. 

sharan burrow, president of the australian council of trade unions (actu), said that under the changes many working conditions would be under threat, including "penalty rates, public holidays, overtime pay, control over rostered hours, shift penalties, even 4 weeks annual leave." the government has claimed, despite various expert assesment to the contrary, and opposition from major australian religious and charity organisations and some concern from its own backbench, that the ir changes will improve the economy and ultimately benefit workers, and dismissed the protests as having "little effect".

ms burrow said that the union movement was "standing up for the values that shape the way we care for each other," and criticised the proposed legislation, calling it "an attack on living standards, community, family life and wages."

the ir changes were also criticised by a number of church leaders. , catholic archbishop of sydney, said "i'm not a supporter of the radical weakening of the unions," and anglican bishop phillip higgins called them "disturbing and unwise."

ms burrow also criticised the government's public relations campaign, calling it a waste of money. "they spent $55 million of our money trying to convince us that everything was okay," she said. 

greg combet, secretary of the actu, linked the struggle to past wars in which australia has fought. "they fought and died in wars for this country. they do not deserve to have their rights taken away." he said that, for many, workplace changes would come quickly, especially for the most vulnerable. he also argued that some employers would be forced by competition to reduce wages and working conditions. "even the best employers can be driven by competition to lower their labour costs. we will end up with an army of working poor, like the us," he said. 

"we will hold the government to account for the human cost of these laws," mr combet said. 

former labor prime minister bob hawke said that the struggle was about what he called "the essence of australian character - the fair go." opposition labor leader kim beazley declared that if returned to government at the next election, labor would repeal the legislation. "this legislation is gone with the election of a labor government," he said.

prime minister john howard predicted that the protests would have little effect. "it is my view that after they (the laws) have been implemented for a period of time, most australians will look back on the criticisms and objections ... with a sense of bewilderment," howard said.

"the sky will not fall in, weekend barbecues will not be abolished, parents will still be able to spend christmas day with their children."

the minister for employment and workplace relations, kevin andrews, echoed the prime ministers sentiments. "well the government’s not going to be distracted by rallies and hysterical overreaction," he said. mr andrews defended the government's record, arguing that it has been responsible for an increase in wages over the past ten years. 

"well what i would say to australians, whether they were the people on the streets today or the probably 95% of australians who were in their workplaces today working, is that firstly, look at the record of this government over the last 10 years. that record speaks for itself. we’ve seen a 15% increase in real wages and we’ve seen a 1.7 million increase in jobs in australia," he said. mr andrews also said that the industrial relations changes were about creating the conditions for a strong economy. 

"so what we’ve been on about is bringing about the economic conditions that we can have a strong economy which ultimately is the only guarantee of jobs and wages in australia."

the claims of the government are highly debated and not supported by some independent expert assesment. professor mark wooden from the melbourne institute said, "there is no economic sense in it." a report issued by 17 independent experts in industrial relations from australian tertiary institutions stated that there "is no convincing evidence that the proposals will generate jobs," and that the "claim that individual contracts deliver a higher productivity is highly questionable."

the imf said in its 2005 review of the australian economy that "the implementation of this package of reforms to widen employment opportunities and raise productivity by enhancing flexibility in work arrangements" was important for australia's economic future, contradicting prof. wooden's claims.

the oecd also supports reform to the industrial relations system, claiming in its 2004 review of the australian economy "to further encourage participation and favour employment, the industrial relations system also needs to be reformed so as to increase the flexibility of the labour market, reduce employment transaction costs and achieve a closer link between wages and productivity."

before marching to the carlton gardens, a live video hook-up was established between the major state capitals of australia, plus smaller regional centres.
according to police, some 150,000 marched from federation square to royal exhibition building to protest the proposed ir legislation and voice opinion, vastly in excess of original union estimates of 60,000. organisers estimated a crowd up to 245,000 while a report from sky news from aerial observation estimated 175,000 people attending the protest. the crowd spread through the streets of melbourne as far as the eye could see - a seemlingly endless mass from the ground. the march stretched eight city blocks; when the first marchers had reached the end at the carlton gardens, the tail end was just starting. 

for the marchers, the consensus was that the negatives of the legislation outweigh the benefits; that it will affect the poorer working class and the middle class long into the future unless the legislation is rolled back. one issue of concern was that the government has not accepted that the minimum wage needs to rise with inflation, rather its position appears to be to allow for the possibility that the minimum wage could fall in real terms. another was the loss of the safety net protecting workers from contacts offering less than award conditions.

public transport was stretched to capacity and car parking was almost impossible to find. inclement weather ultimately became fine.
see the photo gallery for more photos

at 10am the estimated 30,000 protestors moved from belmore park down hay st onto george st, chanting slogans and waving union banners. 

led by a fire truck, traditional korean drummers and the unions nsw campaign bus, they stretched nearly six city blocks along george street, chanting their opposition to the changes. 

meeting with the rally from martin place, the combined march then moved on to chifley square, where another stage was set up, and more speakers were heard, including peter garrett, federal member for kingsford-smith. 

garrett spoke mostly about the dispute between boeing and 28 aircraft engineers at its williamtown site. the workers are on strike to obtain the right to enter into a collective agreement negotiated by their union, rather than independent agreements. the strike is now in its fifth month.

up to 100,000 people in nsw took part in 227 separate stopwork meetings throughout the state, linked by a nationwide sky channel hook up. the m4 motorway was also blocked off for nearly an hour, by transport workers and police.

more photographs of the sydney protest can be seen in the australian industrial relations protest (sydney) gallery.

in brisbane, queensland, organisers have claimed success after more than 15,000 people turned out to protest against the industrial relations laws. federal opposition leader kim beazley joined the workers, including representatives from 40 unions, who rallied at south bank before marching to the queensland office of the national party. 

mr beazley told the south bank rally that one of the first things he would do as prime minister would be to put in place "a fair system".

queensland premier peter beattie said the state government will push ahead with its high court challenge to the howard government's proposed changes to industrial laws. 

rallies were also organised for the gold coast, bundaberg, gladstone, rockhampton, townsville and cairns.

in adelaide, the sa premier mike rann told a rally, estimated by police at 15,000 workers, that the state government will fight the proposed new laws all the way to the high court. "this is the most systematic attack on the values of australian people that we've seen since the second world war," mr rann said.

sa unions secretary janet giles was ecstatic with the response. "40,000 people in a city of one million . . . a sensational turnout. there are people here from every union, from all industries," she said.

adelaide images here

in perth wa commuters experienced transport disruptions today as the city came to a halt for the rally. police estimates put the crowd at 10,000. unionswa secretary dave robinson told those assembled near the foreshore of the swan river that it was a historic day. premier geoff gallop, wa employment protection minister john kobelke and federal labor industrial relations spokesman stephen smith also spoke at the rally.

the government earlier today revealed that solicitor general robert meadows, qc, would lead wa's high court fight, mounted in conjunction with queensland and nsw. mr kobelke said the action would seek to save 100 years of cooperative australian industrial relations based on conciliation and arbitration. perth images here

according to the abc, 4,500 people rallied in the tasmanian city of hobart. unions say 3,000 workers have rallied at thoroughbred park in canberra. in darwin, nurses, teachers, public servants, construction workers and entire families have turned out to show that not only workers will be affected by the federal government's industrial relations reforms. traffic blocked the roads leading the fannie bay racecourse. crowds jostled for space to see the satellite fed telecast from the melbourne rally. 

wellington, nz also showed solidarity as some 200 people demonstrated outside the australian embassy.
melbourne gallery

sydney gallery



 




"this original work will be also available in french."


fda ruling on emergency contraceptive pill questioned

the independent and nonpartisan us congressional watchdog, the government accountability office (gao) called the food and drug administration's decision not to allow over-the-counter (otc) sales of an emergency contraceptive pill, "unusual". 

emergency contraceptive pills or ecps ("morning-after" or "next-day" pills ) are used to prevent an unintended pregnancy, following unprotected sexual intercourse. they are objectionable for abortion opponents who consider their use to be a form of abortion, though scientific studies (including those by the fda) classify them as contraceptives. the pill, called plan b is manufactured by barr laboratories and had been approved earlier by the fda as a prescription drug.

barr laboratories requested that the drug be approved for otc sale for adults and prescription-only sale for minors. the decision to not approve went against the advice given by the fda's joint advisory committee and its review staff and led to a gao investigation into the decision making process. the investigation was requested by 30 house members and 17 senators. 

the gao found several anomalies in the decision making process. the rationale used by dr. steven galson, the acting director of the centre for drug evaluation and research for rejecting the application was novel and did not follow usual fda practices. the decision was not signed off by the director of the office responsible for the application and the director of the office of new drugs, as they disagreed with the "reject" decision. the gao also found that the fda's high-level management more involved in reviewing this decision than in other change-to-otc applications. 

the plan b decision was the only one of 67 proposed prescription to otc changes to be disapproved, even after advisory committees approved the changes. fda review staff told the investigators that they were told early in the review process that the decision would be made by high-level management. e-mail and other documents involving the then-fda commissioner mark mcclellan were found to have been destroyed "routinely".

the fda has disagreed with the gao's finding that the high-level management was more involved in processing this application and that the rationale offered was novel, despite acknowledging that the adolescent cognitive ability rationale was unprecedented in fda practice. the accounts as to whether the decision to reject was taken prior to the reviews being completed offered to the investigators were conflicting. 

the acting director cited concerns about the potential behavioral implications for younger adolescents from otc marketing of plan-b, given their supposed lower cognitive ability, and that it was not valid to extrapolate data from older to younger audiences. however, the fda had not considered similar "potential behavioral implications" for younger users for other otc-switches and had previously considered it appropriate to extrapolate data from older to younger audiences. 


thailand forces registration of prepaid phones to thwart insurgency

in a move aimed at hampering the near-daily bombing attacks in southern thailand, all owners of prepaid phones are required to register by midnight local time today or face being blocked.

originally scheduled for implementation at the end of last year, the move was deferred to allow people more time to register their phones. the policy only applies to the three southernmost provinces that border malaysia ? pattani, narathiwat, and yala ? formerly the malay pattani kingdom.

thais from other parts of the country with prepaid phones will also be required to register should they wish to visit the region. when doing so their calls will be treated as roaming, a feature of gsm which allows a user to make and receive calls on a network other than that of their service provider.

many of the bombs used in the south are believed to be detonated by mobile phone, although most of the more than one thousand casualties in the region have been from drive-by shootings and stabbings.

it is reported that 65% of the near half-million prepaid phones in the region that this would impact have been registered. prepaid phones are commonplace throughout thailand and estimates put the number in use throughout the whole country at approximately ten million.

other efforts to deal with the insurgency in the predominantly muslim area include an announcement yesterday that approximately 20,000 local villagers will be given training and small arms to help defend their villages. both men and women will be eligible, and those accepted into the programme will be put onto the government payroll.


mass poultry vaccination planned by china

china's chief veterinary office, jia youling, has announced that the country plans to take drastic steps to counter avian influenza by attempting to vaccinate its entire poultry stock of 14 billion birds. the move follows a number of reports of the virus spreading within the country and other asian countries such as vietnam engaging in culls to try and halt the disease's spread. 

millions of infected birds have been slaughtered in china and despite the spread of the virus it is only today that the world health organization has confirmed the first human cases in the country. the cases include at least one fatality, a 24-year-old female poultry worker in the eastern province of anhui. the other confirmed case is a 9-year-old boy in the central province of hunai who has since recovered.

it should be noted that these cases are the only documented cases reported. obtaining truly accurate numbers is a challenge in china and elsewhere because bird flu outbreaks tend to occur in rural communities where there are not good hospital or laboratory services. even if bird flu is suspected, blood samples have to be sent to one of only 200 specialized laboratories around the world. the cost of identifying and transporting to these labs from rural areas can be prohibitive even if the physicians in those areas are aware of such laboratories. there is little incentive for outbreaks to be reported by farmers, because any confirmation of a bird flu infection will results in the farmer's flock being destroyed and that may destroy the farmer's livelihood. 

the officials in liaoning have reportedly finished vaccinating all 320 million birds in the northeastern province. david nabarro, the united nations coordinator for bird and human flu, says such vaccination programs are "the right thing to do" since slaughtering the animals will not work due to the virus being so entrenched in china's birds.

according to henk bedekam, the world health organization's representative in china, the time of year is favourable to the continuation of the disease. he said that since the virus can survive in the cold, winter outbreaks are to be expected during cold months.

avian influenza continues to be a very rare disease in humans, and so far only seems to be transmitted to people through direct contact with infected birds. experts, however, are afraid that the virus will mutate into a strain that will be easily transmitted between humans.

elsewhere in asia, the lethal h5n1 strain of the avian flu has infected at least 126 people and killed at least 64 since 2003. who spokeswoman maria cheng said, however, that there is no increased risk of an influenza pandemic since there has been no observed genetic change in the virus or spread between humans.


author vine deloria dies at 72

native american author and activist vine deloria died sunday. he was 72. 

deloria's books "custer died for your sins" and "god is red" came out at the height of the indian rights movement. "custer died for your sins" initiated drastic changes in the way anthropologists and government officials interacted with native americans, including the movement to return artifacts to tribal officials.

in addition to writing and lecturing, he was former executive director of the national congress of american indians and a political science professor at the university of colorado.


aol to launch online tv service

aol and have announced plans to allow subscribers to be allowed to watch thousands of episodes of dozens of vintage shows online and for free. in2tv will be launched in january 2006, providing full episodes of many classic shows, such as ', ', ', ', ', ' and "".

in2tv will be offered exclusively through aol, and will not be syndicated on tv. each show will have two minutes of commercials for every thirty of programming. the new aol service differs from the new itunes video service in that itunes offers only new programming. itunes also sells shows at $1.99 per episode as opposed to offering programs that are fully advertising supported.

in addition to full-length episodes, in2tv will provide interactive quizzes, games, and trivia. the tv series will be orgainized into genre-themed channels, some of which are:


"this service will bring an unprecedented collection of popular tv series to a totally new platform, revolutionizing the distribution of television programming," said eric frankel, president, warner bros. domestic cable distribution. 

many companies are now making efforts to avoid going the way of the music industry, by preemptively providing legal, cheap methods of viewing tv episodes online. the notion that online delivery can be particularly advantageous to vintage television shows was sparked by an article that appeared a few days after apple announced its itunes video service. the essay titled "can itunes resurrect old time tv?" made a business case that older television content squeezed out of traditional television delivery schemes can be revived by new online revenue models. 

 


farmers clash amidst high security at apec summit in south korea

in the lead-up to the apec forum, thousands of south korean farmers clashed with police on tuesday in the capital, seoul, to demand the withdrawal of a bill to open up the country's rice market.

local police said that about 40 farmers were arrested. protesters drove back ranks of riot police in full combat gear as they marched towards the national assembly.

police put the number of protesters and farm activists at about 10,000.the farmers were stopped just short of the assembly and entered in a standoff with the police, who used water cannon to subdue the farmers and disband the protest. 

"no to wto, no to apec, no to bush," the protesters chanted. a representative for the farmers said one activist suffered a severe eye injury. three police buses were burned in the protest. south korean media reports that 70 protesters and 10 police were injured in the action.

busan mayor, hur nam-sik, said the protests should be contained. "i cannot block all the protests and demonstrations at apec at all," he said. "if the protests and demonstrations happen, it has to be in an orderly way, not to harm the image and progress of apec."

south korean farmers regularly take to the streets demanding protection for the domestic rice market from imports. the farmers oppose government's plans for wider liberalization of the nation's rice market. 

"the government must come up with realistic policies for the rice market and the farming industry to allow farmers to live comfortably," said the korean advanced farmers federation. 

the rally follows the death of a south korean farmer, who allegedly committed suicide last friday in protest of apec policies.

about 2,000 south korean farm activists plan to travel to hong kong next month to protest during a meeting of global trade ministers.

amidst the street clashes, south korea has taken steps to insure against potential terrorist attacks at the forum. civil and military forces in busan are on the highest alert with some 37,000 deployed in the area.

twenty one international leaders, including us president george w. bush, chinese president hu jintao, japanese prime minister junichiro koizumi and russian president vladimir putin set to attend.

trade and foreign ministers have begun two days of talks ahead of the main summit on friday and saturday. authorities have designated security zones that will be off-limits to protesters.

over 900 foreigners with criminal records have been banned from entering south korea during the summit period. police say 400 others will be deported if they engage in illegal demonstrations.

organizers said they expected thousands of demonstrators to criticize the international trade policies, which they say favors rich countries over poorer ones. an anti-apec rally in seoul at the weekend drew around 20,000 people.

the main security focus during the summit is terrorist threats. although there have been no specific threats, south korea has sent troops to iraq and was mentioned as a potential target by al-qaeda. 

us military declined to comment on whether their 32,500 american troops based in south korea were helping bolster security for the apec summit

ships will be blocked from entering the area, officials said. anti-aircraft missiles have been deployed around the city, and a no-fly zone designated above the summit venues.

police have increased security at subway stations, department stores and cinemas. thousands of volunteers nationwide are monitoring public transport for suspicious activity, and customs and security checks at all international airports have been increased.


u.s. producer price index shows inflation at bay

the for october report released today shows prices for finished goods increased by 0.7 percent in october, prices rose by 1.9 percent in september. 

liquid petroleum gas climbed 1.4 percent compared with 24.7 percent in september. gasoline dropped 3.3 percent, it increased 12.7 in september. diesel fuel climbed 22.7 percent, having advanced 1.5 percent the previous month. 

prices for foods changed very little, a mere 0.1 percent decline, it increased 1.4 percent the previous month. 

the producer price index is a us government report on prices as seen from the producer of goods. this shows prices before effects such as government subsidies, sales and excise taxes, and distribution costs. the index is used as a leading indicator of consumer inflation in the future as changes in price will eventually flow down to the consumer. 

the index can be found at the us department of labor web site.


us admits use of white phosphorus in iraq

a documentary aired by italy's state-run rai24 television has led to an admission from u.s. military of use of white phosphorous munitions during actions in fallujah the documentary alleged the u.s.a. used the weapons in a "massive and indiscriminate way" against iraqi civilians, but the military denies the weapons were used against citizens. embedded journalist darrin mortenson, who was with u.s. troops during the operation in fallujah, already reported in april 2004 that a mortar team leader "directed his men to fire round after round of high explosives and white phosphorus charges into the city friday and saturday".

the u.s. state department initially denied that white phosphorus was used as weaponry, but pentagon spokesman, lt. col. barry venable said white phosphorous munitions were used as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants. "it was not used against civilians," he said in a tuesday briefing. lt. col. venable repeated u.s. state department statements that white phosphorous munitions are a standard field artillery element. up until at least april 2001 it was "against the law of land warfare to employ wp against personnel targets" according to the u.s. army battle book.

the pentagon briefing directed reporters to the march-april 2005 edition of the u.s. army's field artillery magazine, where veterans of the fallujah action described their use of white phosphorous munitions to "flush [insurgents] out", and it use as a screening agent (providing smoke cover) and as "a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents in trench lines."

the 1980 convention on conventional weapons (protocol iii), which the usa is not a signatory to, disallows the use of incendiary weapons against civilian populations or air attacks against troops stationed in a civilian population center, but does not outlaw its battlefield use. general george casey's 8 november 2004 briefing estimated the number of civilians still in fallujah as between 20,000 and 100,000 civilians.

white phosphorous burns at temperatures near 5,000 degrees fahrenheit (2760 c). it is used to start fires and can cause severe burns where it strikes humans. the italian documentary showed photos of what it said were iraqis who had been burned by the white phosphorous. the accepted lethal dose of white phosphorous is 1mg/kg.

the smoke raises contentions for its battlefield use. it is primarily used as a "marker", as the high temperature combustion causes "pillaring" of the smoke column. but the smoke does contain phosphoric acid and traces of unburned phosphorous, which is corrosive to human tissue (internally and externally.) the us army field manual cautions "phosphorous smoke produces phosphoric acid. soldiers must wear respiratory protection, such as protective masks, if exposed to phosphorous smoke."


australia qualifies for fifa world cup 2006

australia's national soccer team, the socceroos, have qualified for the 2006 soccer world cup in germany, after beating uruguay in a penalty shoot out in front of 80 000 spectators at stadium australia. this is the first time that australia has qualified in 32 years and the second time in the history of the fifa football world cup. the australian team is managed by the dutchman guus hiddink, who led south korea to the semi finals of the 2002 soccer world cup and is also currently coaching psv eindhoven, a dutch football club.

australia lost the first qualifier to uruguay 1-0 in montevideo and needed to win by 2 goals in order to guarantee qualification. a goal by marco bresciano in the first half had australia leading 1-0 at the end of regular and extra time - leading to a penalty shoot-out. goalkeeper mark schwarzer saved the first uruguayan penalty attempt and australia made their first three shots count. however mark viduka shot wide and the game was again open. australia's chance was again alive as schwarzer saved the next shot. the subsequent shot sealed the win for the socceroos.
uruguayan keeper: fabian carini

goals:
missed:

australian keeper: mark schwarzer

goals:

no score:

time in minutes:



more from apec: eu not backing down

the deadlock held in place by the eu continues after the finish of a 2 day meeting at apec today. the eu stated that it will not budge on deliberalizing its tariffs on imported agricultural goods unless others provide more on industrial goods and services. the eu has received criticism for not matching an offer by the us widely considered to be generous. eu does not plan to make a further offer on agricultural issues before the next wto ministerial meeting in december 13-18.
the timetable for the current round of wto talks requires an outline agreement in place for the december meeting.

rob portman, the us trade representative, was not able to nail down some better detailed trade proposals. 

"the doha development agenda negotiations are in dire straits," kim hyun-chong, south korean trade minister said. he also believed that apec members, specifically china and japan, as well as the us, did not have "specific numbers" to offer as concessions. 

us secretary of state condoleezza rice took the meetings as an opportunity to get apec members to do more on terrorism. "apec nations must deepen our cooperation in the global fight against terrorism,' rice said. "in the past year we have seen that the threat of global terrorism is still very real, with vicious new attacks in indonesia and russia and the philippines," 

apec ministers agreed that by the end of 2006 that all major airports will be safe from attacks by shoulder-fired ground-to-air missiles.


french parliament extends state of emergency to three months

the french parliament passed a law extending the state of emergency decreed on november 8 by president jacques chirac for a duration of 3 months, the executive being authorized to terminate this period earlier if necessary. the november 8 decision, based on a 1955 statute, could last for a maximum of 12 days only, after which parliament had to vote on an extension.

the state of emergency allows local authorities (prefects) to prohibit public meetings and regulate movements of persons, including curfews. in addition, in certain zones specified by the executive, where riots have recently taken place, local authorities may close meeting halls or bars; detain firearms; and authorize searches inside habitations during the day or the night by administrative order (normally, searches during formal criminal investigations have to be authorized by a judge). the government said that it will not use the power to regulate the media, and that searches will be subject to supervision by the judiciary.

the law was defended by interior minister nicolas sarkozy, in charge of law enforcement. sarkozy spoke before the french national assembly (which approved the text on november 15) and the french senate (which approved it on november 16); he defended the actions of the government and explained why, in his opinion, the law had to be voted. sarkozy is also the head of the ump party, which holds a majority in both houses, and there was no doubt that the text would be approved.

sarkozy added that in the forthcoming months, crs (riot division of the police) and "gendarmerie mobile" forces would operate daily in difficult suburbs as a "proximity police". he contended that the "proximity police" established by preceding left-wing government was too much concerned with social activities and not enough about arresting criminals. sarkozy has also contended that some of the riots were orchestrated by drug traffickers, gangsters and other criminals in order to secure lawless zones.

the french socialist party opposed the law, claiming it was excessive. some left-wing members of parliament contended that using a law passed in 1955 to help quashing algerian independence movements against children of algerian immigrants was somewhat insensitive and unsuccessfully proposed an amendment to repeal the 1955 law. on the other hand, right-wing anti-immigrant politician philippe de villiers has contended that the government was far too soft and called for the use of military force. jean-marie le pen, a longtime opponent of immigration from poor, muslim countries, pointed out that the events vindicated what he had long said.

members of sarkozy's ump party blamed the de facto polygamy of some african immigrants for the failure of their families to raise and educate children properly. they suggested a more restrictive approach to immigration.

nicolas sarkozy is a probable contender for the 2007 presidential election. according to polls, his approval rate jumped by +11 to 63% during the events; he leads the approval opinions for presidential candidates.



us use of white phosphorus in iraq may constitute a war crime

yesterday the united states admitted using incendiary weapons containing white phosphorus during a major offensive in fallujah. there is question, however, as to what end the use of these weapon is legal under conventions of war.

the way white phosphorus munitions are used determines if it falls in the category of chemical weapons, says professor paul rodgers from the university of bradford department of peace studies. "it is not counted under the chemical weapons convention in its normal use but, although it is a matter of legal niceties, it probably does fall into the category of chemical weapons if it is used for this kind of purpose directly against people." professor paul rodgers is the writer of the book "a war on terror: afghanistan and after".

as reported on november 15 in the uk's independent, according to three artillery men writing in the march-april edition of field artillery, the magazine of the us field artillery based in fort sill, oklahoma, which is readily available on the internet, white phosphorus was used "as a potent psychological weapon against insurgents in trench lines and spider holes...we fired 'shake and bake' [a combination of white phosphorus and explosives] missions at the insurgents using wp to flush them out and high exposive shells (he) to take them out." 

a spokesman for the us military, lt. col. barry venable, said yesterday when us admitted the use of white phosphorus as an incendiary weapon, that "white phosphorus is a conventional munition. it is not a chemical weapon. they are not outlawed or illegal." he added that "it was used as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants." 

robert tuttle, the american ambassador to london, wrote "u.s. forces do not use napalm or white phosphorus as weapons," in a letter to the independent newspaper. when confronted with the us militaries' admission, an embassy spokesperson said "all questions on wp" should be referred to the pentagon.

sir , member of the british parliament (liberal democrat), says: "the use of this weapon may technically have been legal, but its effects are such that it will hand a propaganda victory to the insurgency. the denial of use followed by the admission will simply convince the doubters that there was something to hide." 

the independent article concludes with a quote from kathy kelly of the group voices in the wilderness. she said: 'if the us wants to promote security for this generation and the next, it should build relationships with these countries. if the us uses conventional or non-conventional weapons, in civilian neighourhoods, that melt people's bodies down to the bone, it will leave these people seething. we should think on this rather than arguing about whether we can squeak such weapons past the geneva conventions and international accords.'

battlefield concentrations of white phosphorus gas are generally considered harmless: there are no documented cases of white phosophorus gases resulting in fatalities. however, its use as an incendiary is under question. the united states reportedly ordered civilians to evacuate areas wherein white phosphorus was going to be used.

but claims that u.s. use of white phosphorus--or 'whiskey pete' or 'willy pete', as it is called by the military--contravenes the 1993 chemical weapons convention, are based on its prohibition of any "toxic chemical" weapons which cause "death, harm or temporary incapacitation to humans or animals through their chemical action on life processes." the fact that direct exposure to white phosphorus produces precisely such effects on humans has been substantiated by numerous sources, both medical and military. however, since the effect of white phosphorus is largely incendiary, and incendiaries are specifically not precluded, there is some ambiguity regarding the classification of white phosphorus weapons.

the iraqi government will investigate the american use of white phosphorus munitions during the battle of fallujah. the inquiry will try to determine whether us forces committed war crimes according to international weapons treaties.





rumsfeld's australia visit sparks protests

united states defence secretary donald rumsfeld was confronted with fierce criticism by 500 anti-war demonstrators at a rally on the steps outside south australia's parliament house today. mr rumsfeld and his delegation arrived at adelaide airport this morning amid tight security. mr rumsfeld and other senior members of the united states government will attend the australia-united states ministerial meeting (ausmin), to be hosted by defence minister robert hill and foreign affairs minister alexander downer.

the rally, labelling mr rumsfeld a war criminal, also called for the freeing of australian man david hicks from guantanamo bay jail. 

in a press conference held on thursday, defence minister robert hill said that hicks would probably be discussed, however he is not on the agenda. when asked why, mr hill replied, "because the trial of david hicks in the united states, allegations that he breached us law, is not a matter of national security between australia and the united states. but because he came from adelaide, i have no doubt that the issue will be raised. and we would say what we have been saying, which is that we would like to see the trial progressed as quickly as possible."

australian democrats sa leader sandra kanck said the rally was originally intended to protest at the proposed new terror laws. 

"we would not need terror laws if our prime minister had not tied us to the coat tails of george w bush and donald rumsfeld," she said. "i have been delighted to hear much sedition here today and i have been delighted to see placards that are saying seditious things. "but by christmas this may not be allowed in our democracy."

the government has previously rejected such criticism of the proposed anti-terror laws, arguing that protest and free speech will not be affected. attorney-general phillip ruddock said in an interview last week that "there is very clear protection of fair comment." he also said that criticism of the new legislation is based on a misunderstanding of the role of definitions in legislation. 

"most of the arguments i've seen ... has been predicated on a view that if you look at the definition of ‘seditious intent' which is for definitional purposes, that that is in fact constituting an offence. it is not one of the offences. and to use ‘seditious intent' as a basis for looking at what people would be prosecuted for misunderstands basic statutory interpretation," mr ruddock said. 

strict security precautions ensured demonstrators could not get near mr rumsfeld, who is in adelaide for ministerial talks between the us and australian governments. 

south australian greens mp kris hanna said mr rumsfeld was a symbol of that power and money which runs the united states and australia. "they are willing to kill, they are willing to murder innocent civilians by the tens of thousands to exploit the resources of other countries and sacrifice even their own soldiers for these goals of war and expropriation."

deputy us secretary of state bob zoellick will also take part. police in adelaide have thrown a tight security net around the conference venue and hotel where the guests will stay, with up to 500 officers involved. 

yesterday, sa's assistant police commissioner described mr rumsfeld as one of the world's top terrorist targets. 

one man at the rally was removed by police and faces a disorderly conduct charge. south australian police confirmed the 24-year-old man was removed from the protest outside the state parliament building, about 5pm (cdst). 

"a 24-year-old man has been removed from the parliament house area and reported for disorderly behaviour," superintendent neil smith said tonight. "he will receive a summons to appear in court at a later date." 

police removed and then later arrested the man who allegedly clashed with a sole pro-us demonstrator.

parliamentary officials had originally banned the rally, saying demonstrators would be arrested if they went ahead with the protest. but south australian parliamentary speaker bob such yesterday said the protest may proceed.

dr such said the initial ban was made on advice from police. but he said he was subsequently advised that he could consider applications from people wanting to protest during the visit.

the rice rumsfeld reception committee said the decision to lift the ban was a "victory for democracy and the right to dissent". 

sandra kanck described the ban as foolish and a dangerous attack on free speech. police said they would not tolerate violent protests.


islamic militant threatens west in a video

a masked man, believed by officials to be noordin mohammad top, a key figure in militant islamic terrorist organization jemaah islamiyah, threatened western countries in a video broadcast on indonesia's metro tv on thursday. the man specifically named the us, australia, the uk and italy as targets of his group’s next attack.

the video was found in a house the indonesian police raided last week, where top narrowly escaped being captured. a similar raid on a house in east java resulted in the death of his associate, azahari husin.

the masked man on the video said that "as long as you keep your troops in iraq and afghanistan and intimidate muslim people, you will feel our intimidation and our terror." he continued, "america, australia, england and italy. you will be the target of our next attack."

the man focused especially on australia, saying: "we especially remind australia that you, downer and howard, are killing australia, leading it into darkness and misfortune and mujahideen terror." australian foreign minister alexander downer dismissed the message by saying that no democratic country should be intimidated by "a fanatic like noordin top".

noordin mohammad top is a malaysian senior operative of jemaah islamiyah, a group which is seen as the regional arm of international islamic fundamentalist campaign al-qaeda. police have been trying to catch top, an expert in recruiting suicide bombers, and azahari, jemaah islamiyah's bombmaker, since the 2002 bali bombing in which 202 people were killed.

the video also showed three young suicide bombers who killed 20 people in attacks on restaurants on the island of bali on october 1. one of the men, muhammad salik firdaus, said on the film: "my brother and wife, god willing, when you see this recording i'll already be in heaven." bali police chief i made mangku pastika said that three men were currently being questioned over their role in the bombings and that they were "certainly also linked to the bali bombs."


thai pm sues media critic for one billion baht

in a move that is widely viewed as an effort to suppress criticism, the thai prime minister, thaksin shiniwatra is suing media tycoon sondhi limthongkul and his companies for one billion baht (24.3 million usd, 20.7 million euro, 14 million gbp).

in addition to the civil lawsuit, the prime minister is seeking a court order gagging press related to sondhi from making defamatory comments about him.

yesterday, the thai civil court accepted the case submitted by thaksin's lawyer, thana benjathikul, who warned that the media figure could face jail should he not cease his outspoken criticism of the prime minister.

the case hinges on sondhi's accusation that the government illegitimately awarded a contract for a satellite installation to companies controlled by the pm's family.

the government denies that they intend to shut down manager media group's website, and stress that they do not plan to try and suppress freedom of the press.



u.s. government proposes removing yellowstone grizzlies from endangered species list

the united states fish and wildlife service has announced that "the greater yellowstone area population of grizzly bears ... is now recovered". they propose removing this population from the list of threatened and endangered species.

more than 600 grizzly bears now live in the greater yellowstone area. this area, which includes yellowstone national park, grand teton national park, and several national forests covers 18 million acres. grizzlies occupy 68% of the suitable habitat within the area. they have been spotted over 60 miles from what was once thought to be the outer limits of their range. the bears' range and distribution has been increasing annually and is now 48% larger than when they were listed.

when lewis and clark crossed north america in 1804 there were more than 50,000 grizzlies in the west. by the 1970s there were less than 1,000 and they only covered 2% of their historic range. in 1975, when the grizzly bear was listed as threatened, biologists estimated the yellowstone ecosystem had between 220 and 320 bears. since then, various government agencies and private organizations worked on a conservation plan that involved education, conflict reduction, and monitoring programs.

four other populations of grizzly bear in the lower 48 states will remain on the list.



american war hero congressman wants u.s. troops out of iraq soon

"it is time for a change in direction." house representative john murtha (d-pa), one of the u.s. congress' most decorated vietnam veterans said during a thursday news conference, and where he called for the withdrawal of all american troops from iraq. he estimates it can be done within 6 months.
the holder of two purple hearts continued; "the war in iraq is not going as advertised. it is a flawed policy wrapped in illusion...our military is suffering, the future of our country is at risk. we cannot continue on the present course. it is evident that continued military action in iraq is not in the best interests of the united states of america, the iraqi people or the persian gulf region."

president bush and members of his administration and the republican party in recent days have been criticizing democrats who are calling the pre-war intelligence that made the case for the war in iraq both false and misleading. republicans, calling a democrat "cut and run" strategy irresponsible, say abandoning iraq now would lead to civil war.

over the veterans day weekend just past, the president of iraq, jalal talabani, said on british "itv’s" jonathan dimbleby program, "within one year - i think at the end of 2006 - iraqi troops will be ready to replace british forces in the south." but murtha's heart-felt news conference, where ap writer liz sidoti said his voice cracked while he told of visiting wounded soldiers at a nearby washington veterans hospital, was spurred by an obligation to speak for the troops. 

murtha, who had served as a marine corps intelligence officer in vietnam, angrily denounced vice president cheney's recent "stay the course" rhetoric with sarcasm: "i like guys who've never been there that criticize us who've been there. i like that. i like guys who got five deferments and never been there and send people to war, and then don't like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done."

murtha continued with multiple reasons he says caused him to come forward at this time; "our military has been fighting this war in iraq for over two and a half years. our military has accomplished its mission and done its duty. our military captured saddam hussein, captured or killed his closest associates, but the war continues to intensify. deaths and injuries are growing, and over 2,079 of confirmed american deaths, over 15,500 have been seriously injured -- half of them returned to duty -- and it's estimated over 50,000 will suffer from what i call battle fatigue. and there have been reports at least 30,000 iraqi civilians have been killed...oil production and energy production are below prewar level. you remember they said that was going to pay for the war, and it's below prewar level...unemployment is 60 percent...and, most importantly -- this is the most important point -- incidents have increased from 150 a week to over 700 in the last year. instead of attacks going down over a time when we had additional more troops, attacks have grown dramatically. since the revolution at abu ghraib, american casualties have doubled." murtha said.

murtha said he would be introducing legislation forcing u.s. troops out of iraq.

the house democratic leader, nancy pelosi, said of murtha’s statements, "i think it speaks very strongly to the point that the president's policy is not working; two-and-a-half years after the president said, 'mission accomplished,' we still don't know what the mission is. so the focus really shouldn't be on mr. murtha, it should be on the president of the united states and his failed policy there."

in new pew poll released today, public opinion jumped from 30% in 2002, to 42% today who believe that america should “mind its own business” internationally. it is a return to levels that were last seen in the post-vietnam war period.


at least 60 killed in iraq suicide bombings

a string of suicide bombings in iraq have killed at least 60 people and injured over 60 more as insurgents attacked a prominent baghdad hotel as well as two mosques 90 miles (140 kilometres) north-east of the capital.

52 people were killed and 65 wounded when two suicide bombers detonated themselves in shi'ite mosques in the eastern iraqi town of khanaqin, inhabited mostly by shi'ite kurds. the bombers entered the mosques during friday prayers and blew themselves up, completely destroying the buildings. the attack was the latest in a series of bombings by sunni muslim insurgents at shi'ite mosques.

earlier on the same day two suicide truck bombs destroyed an apartment block in baghdad, killing at least eight people and injuring at least 43. the blast was near an interior ministry prison bunker where a torture scandal involving numerous sunni arab prisoners has been taking place. us military and security experts said, however, that the target of the attack was not the bunker but a prominent hotel used by foreign journalists.
us colonel ed cardon said the baghdad bombing did not go according to plan. he told reporters that the first truck was to pave way for the second truck, but instead both trucks exploded in the same place. cardon's view was supported by deputy interior minister hussein kamal, who said initial reports indicate that the hamra hotel was the actual target.


british policewoman shot dead

two policewomen were shot in bradford city centre today ? one fatally. the surviving officer has been hospitalized in bradford royal infirmary. the officer who died is believed to have only joined the police force within the past two years. the murdered officer has been named as 38 year old sharon beshenivsky. the second officer has been named as 37 year old teresa milburn.

the officers are believed to have been responding to an alarm call from a personal attack alarm at "universal express travel agents" 116 - 120 morley street at around 3:25 gmt. 

the murder took place on morley street, which is in the university and college part of city, at the crossroads with great horton lane are the main student entertainments and night clubs. the alhambra theatre is at the bottom half of the street. the area is heavily covered by cctv, which may help the investigation.

home secretary charles clarke said, "while incidents of this sort are mercifully rare, they serve to remind us of the risks and dangers police officers face every day in their work to uphold the law and protect the public."

six people are currently under arrest in relation to the murder. most of the surrounding area in bradford has been closed off.

morley street, bradford


deer and other animals found dead at ball state university

the carcasses of two deer, a coyote, and a possum were dumped in the delta gamma iota fraternity house on the campus of ball state university in on november 10. the dead animals were apparently placed in the house while members slept. a repairman discovered the prank while working in the house's kitchen.

members left the house for at least a day while the animals were removed and the house was disinfected by the delaware county health department.

the fraternity house is located off-campus and is recognized by ball state -- the dgi house is unaffiliated with the intra-fraternity council, however.

the animals were apparently "roadkill" (struck and killed by automobiles on the road). the indiana department of natural resources is investigating the incident due to the use of deceased animals in vandalism.


tunisian muslim says apologise to baha'is

a tunisian muslim academic has called on muslims to reconcile with baha'is and followers of other religions. he has also called on involved muslims to apologise to the baha'is that have been humiliated and denigrated in muslim coutries.

dr iqbal al-gharbi, a psychology lecturer at the al-zaytouna university in , said that many peoples across the world were asking for forgiveness for past wrongs, such as the catholic church, who asked for forgiveness for its treatment of people, and france which apologised for the complicity of the regime. she said that, muslims, by contrast, usually consider themselves to be the victims and usually innocent of any wrongs.

al-gharbi said muslims should reconcile with christian and jewish minorities who lived in muslim countries, and to africans who suffered in the arab slave trade. she said they should also reconcile with "small schools of islamic thought" such as the , baha'i, and .

baha'is do not consider themselves to be a school of islam but instead an independent world religion. they protest persecution in iran (which has the largest baha'i population of any muslim-majority country) including execution, imprisonment, torture, deprivation of property and exclusion from education.

the stated in its 2005 report that baha'is are repressed in and , and face execution, imprisonment and discrimination. forum 18, the norwegian human rights organisation has also reported discrimination against baha'is in muslim-dominated and .

the government of iran maintains that the baha'i faith is not a religion but an "espionage establishment", with links to the , british and american governments. other muslims consider baha'is to be apostates ? muslims who have abandoned their religion ? and this justifies discrimination.

http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?query=&religion=22&country=all&results=10


australian science organisation discontinues genetically modified pea research

the commonwealth scientific and industrial research organisation (csiro) has discontinued research into a type of genetically modified (gm) field pea that had been shown to be 100% protected against attack by pea weevils, a type of insect. the genetically modified field pea's protein was found to have a slightly altered structure which caused an allergic-style reaction in the lungs of mice and led scientists to believe it could have similar effects on human lungs.
"that was enough to alert me to say this research should come to an end," csiro plant industry deputy director tj higgins said.

an earlier example of a problem with a gm food was a protein-enhanced soy product that was abandoned because the brazil nut gene transferred to the soy produced a protein that could cause allergic reactions in some people. that 1996 study was conducted and funded by the university of nebraska and pioneer hi-bred international. 

environmental activism organizations like greenpeace were spawned by the negative effects of the petrochemical era. they are now campaigning against gm research. greenpeace members have observed that not all reports of possible complications from gm foods found during product development have resulted in a quick end to further research. rootworm-resistant gm corn caused "serious organ damage" to rats in germany, but the corn developed by monsanto was approved for consumption in australia by food standards australia new zealand said greenpeace gm spokesman jeremy tager. a scientific review panel of the european food safety authority reviewed the results of a 13-week rat feeding study on rootworm-resistant corn that had been submitted by german authorities. although the study found some differences in the kidneys of rats fed the gm corn, the scientists concluded that these results were "not considered to pose concerns over the safety of mon 863 maize". many published studies performed with rats and other test animals have found no danger from the monsanto rootworm-resistant corn. within science, it is desirable that all research reports be reproduced and confirmed.

australia has a $100 million field pea industry, so substantial amounts of chemicals are used to protect the industry's crops against the pea weevil bruchus pisorum, though some crops use organic control options. the pea weevil can cause yield losses of up to 30 per cent a year if left uncontrolled. so the csiro is in search of an alternative to using genetic modification. the csiro are not alone in the gm industry. bayer and monsanto are both privately owned corporations who also operate outside australia's strict regulatory system. a spokeswoman for bayer crop sciences said the csiro's decision had no impact on the firm's gm work. monsanto has not responded to media inquiries.
dr higgins said the findings proved the safety of australia's strict research regulatory framework.

"i think that this shows that the regulatory system works," he said.

"the regulations are stringent, they are difficult, but on balance i'm very pleased as a consumer of food myself that these regulations are in place."

the genetically modified pea plants were produced by transfer of the "amylase inhibitor-1" gene from a species of bean. the structure of the alpha-amylase inhibitor-1 protein produced by the pea plants is slightly different from the structure of the same protein when made by bean plants. this structural modification may be due to differences in posttranslational modification of the protein. the altered protein from peas was found to predispose mice to a form of food antigen-stimulated inflammation response that is mediated by cd4-positive t helper cells.




australian man to be executed in singapore

supporters of convicted australian drug trafficker, van nguyen, gathered outside the state library in melbourne yesterday to display thousands of messages of opposition to his death sentence. 

callers to talkback radio in melbourne were overwhelmingly against the death penalty of nguyen, who immediately admitted his guilt and has cooperated with authorities since being caught smuggling heroin into singapore. many called for a boycott of singaporean products.

25-year-old nguyen was arrested at changi airport in 2002 for carrying heroin and sentenced to death in march. nguyen claims he carried the 396 grams of heroin strapped to his body in an attempt to pay off his brother khoa's $30,000 legal debts.

the singapore government have announced they will execute nguyen at dawn on december 2nd. singapore president s. r. nathan rejected nguyen's clemency four weeks ago. the melbourne salesman was sentenced to death under singapore law which determines a mandatory death sentence for anyone found guilty of possessing 15 grams of heroin or more.

nguyen's mother was informed on thursday by registered mail from the singapore prisons service of the execution date. the letter stated that she should start making funeral arrangements. she will get to see her son in the three days leading up to the execution.

despite repeated pleas for clemency from many thousands of supporters; religious groups; human rights organisations; the pope; and the australian government - including prime minister, john howard - singapore officials have said nguyen's execution is irreversible.

mr howard had argued that nguyen should be spared, citing mitigating circumstances in his case which pointed to the fact that he was not a serial drug trafficker but had merely been trying to pay off his brother's debts.

the victorian attorney-general, rob hulls, says the singaporean government has shown no compassion whatsoever in its treatment of van nguyen and his family.

"what's happening is brutal, is inappropriate. i, and the victorian government, vehemently oppose the death penalty in any circumstances", he told abc radio. "this is a young kid who has assisted the police all the way... in any other country, he would get a discount in relation to the penalty. but because there is a mandatory death penalty for drug offences in singapore, this young man may well be executed. it is just grossly inappropriate."

"singapore maintains that capital punishment is a criminal justice issue; it is the sovereign right of every country to decide whether or not to include capital punishment within its criminal justice system," a foreign ministry spokesman said. 

singapore argues that there was no international consensus that capital punishment should be abolished. at the most recent meeting of the un commission on human rights, 66 countries dissociated themselves from a resolution calling for the abolition of capital punishment. 

prime minister lee hsien loong affirmed singapore's position by saying that it has to "stand firm on drugs to protect its citizens from the scourge and to ensure the country does not become a conduit for the trafficking of illicit drugs."

in reply to a letter appealing for clemency from his australian counterpart alexander downer, singapore foreign minister george yeo said: "mr nguyen imported almost 400gm of pure heroin which would have supplied more than 26,000 doses to drug addicts."

no one will be permitted to see nguyen on the morning of his execution. his body will be released to his mother. 

on thursday, a letter informing nguyen's mother of the dec 2 date was accidentally sent earlier than intended by the singapore authorities. as a result, australian prime minister john howard was caught offguard when asked by reporters on thursday if he knew that nguyen would be executed on dec 2.

australian foreign minister alexander downer yesterday admitted he had been told several days ago that a letter would be sent this week to nguyen's mother. mr downer said his singapore counterpart, george yeo, had told him on monday night, when they were both in busan, that the family would be sent a letter which they would receive yesterday.

"so the singapore prime minister had assumed that the letter would arrive on friday," mr downer said. "the letter arrived a day earlier than they had anticipated." 

australian prime minister john howard said yesterday the differences between australia and singapore over the planned execution of convicted drug smuggler nguyen tuong van would not damage relations between the two countries.

"it is not an issue where we agree but our disagreement on the treatment of mr nguyen is not going to contaminate the very good relationship between australia and singapore," mr howard was quoted as saying in an aap report.

mr lex lasry, qc, who heads nguyen's melbourne legal team, recently told singapore's high commissioner in canberra that the "regime" of the mandatory death penalty would have to change.

"at some point, the singapore government must realise as a first world country it can no longer continue to impose mandatory death sentences. they simply can't keep doing this to people," he said. he described as an "outrageous injustice" the singapore law that denies lawyers the chance to argue to a judge why a client should not be hanged.

"let the rest of the world know we are not prepared to tolerate it and ultimately they will have to change their minds," he said. 

"even if our client is executed as he probably will be, the campaign against singapore's mandatory death sentence will continue," mr lasry said. 

mr lasry said the fight to save nguyen would continue over the next few weeks.

nguyen tuong van may be the last person to face the hangman in singapore after a review of execution methods in singapore. the nation's chief hangman, darshan singh, has told prison officials he wants to retire, but finding a replacement has been unsuccessful. one of two candidates picked to replace mr singh was unable to complete his first execution. a second left the prison service.

mr singh, a veteran of over 850 hangings, is reportedly unhappy with the new machinery, which is prone to malfunction. "the australian" newspaper reports that singapore officials have been studying other methods of execution and are considering the lethal injection technique used in the united states. 

the lethal injection method being considered by singapore officials as an alternative is modelled on the procedure introduced in 1977 in oklahoma. the prisoner is strapped to a gurney and an intravenous tube is inserted into each arm with a flow of harmless saline solution. at the warden's signal, 5g of sodium pentothal is administered, which renders the prisoner unconscious.

it is followed by pancuronium bromide, a muscle relaxant that paralyses the diaphragm and lungs, and finally potassium chloride, which causes cardiac arrest. 



carter's cia chief labels dick cheney &quot;vice president for torture&quot;

the former director of the central intelligence agency, admiral stansfield turner, in a frank interview with the united kingdom's itv has condemned the current us administration. his comments indicated that he believed president george bush is not being truthful when he states that torture is not employed by the us.

turner, whose term as cia director was during the 1977 ? 1981 administration of jimmy carter said, "i am embarrassed that the usa has a vice president for torture. i think it is just reprehensible. he advocates torture, what else is it? i just don't understand how a man in that position can take such a stance."

previous statements by both president bush and secretary of state, condoleezza rice, have emphatically stated that torture by us forces is not condoned.

in early october the senate supported senator john mccain's (r-ariz) proposed amendment on detainees and torture. the amendment would outlaw coercive interrogations and prohibits cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment of detainees and change current us laws. in contrast, vice president dick cheney has lobbied republican senators to allow an exemption for those held by the cia. senator chuck hagel (r-neb) said, "i think the administration is making a terrible mistake in opposing john mccain's amendment on detainees and torture," that amendment was approved by a 90-9 vote in the senate and added to a defense spending bill.



u.s. house vote forced on immediate pullout of troops in iraq

rep. duncan hunter (r-ca) on friday called a vote in the house on a nonbinding resolution to immediately withdraw troops from iraq. the one-sentence resolution read: "it is the sense of the house of representatives that the deployment of united states forces in iraq be terminated immediately." 

democrats in the house called the resolution a political stunt, saying that it misrepresented the comments of rep. john murtha (d-pa), who a day before said "our troops have become the enemy. we need to change direction in iraq." murtha, a decorated vietnam war veteran and a retired marine, had called for a six-month withdrawal of us forces in iraq during a news conference on thursday.

the house chamber debate was highly partisan and emotionally charged. at one point in the debate, rep. jean schmidt (r-oh) said a marine colonel in her state of ohio telephoned and asked her to "send congress a message: stay the course." schmidt said, "he also asked me to send congressman murtha a message: cowards cut and run. marines never do." at this, rep. harold ford, jr. (d-tn) and other democrats surged toward the republican side of the chamber in anger. "you guys are pathetic! pathetic!" yelled rep. martin t. meehan (d-ma).

many democrats angrily and repeatedly shouted for jean schmidt to "take her words down!" she did, when order was restored to the chamber, rise and say, "my words were not directed at any member of the house," and asked that her comments be retracted from the record. house rules forbid members to impugn the integrity of other members.

the vote failed, 403-3. the three house members who voted for the resolution's passage were jose e. serrano (d-ny), cynthia a. mckinney (d-ga) and robert wexler (d-fl).



us bombers to train in australia

in a joint agreement by and the , the u.s. air force will begin regular strategic bomber aircraft training in the early next year. at the recent high-level talks between the u.s. and australia it was announced that the strategic bomber training program would involve and bombers and the . 

under the new arrangements aircraft would fly direct from the united states for bombing operations at the delamere air weapons range situated about 130km south-west of [[w:katherine, northern territory|katherine}} in the northern territory. delamere is a 211,000ha bombing range used regularly by the for dropping live weapons. the would also be available for the bombers to land and refuel if necessary. the planes will fly to the northern territory from the u.s. pacific island base of .

[[image:b-52 stratofortress.jpg|thumb|250px|right|a b-52 stratofortress drops live ordnance over nevada on may 12 2005 during an air force firepower demo ]]

 says australia is helping in the rebalancing of america's military forces in asia. senator hill said strategic bomber training had been conducted some time ago and that the u.s. had now asked australia whether it could be resumed. 

"we have said we are happy to assist," senator hill told reporters. mr hill said some of the aircraft may not even touch down in australia, while others will land at the darwin raaf base. 

the bombers will fly from the major us base on the pacific island of . "it may be aircraft that come down to australia from a considerable distance and use our bombing ranges and then return without landing," he said. "there will also be occasions when the aircraft will land and utilise facilities at darwin. we think it's just another example in which we can be helpful to our ally".

labor's opposition defence spokesman, , also supports the program. "it's very important to our long-term security that we support the united states alliance as a partner - not being dictated to in anyway - but as a partner," he said. "it is quite reasonable we provide a significant resource we have in australia, which is open space, to develop the technologies and the skills."

but the are outraged by the project, saying there has been no consultation in the territory. "the australian government more and more is allowing the americans to view this country as the 51st state," said.

the mayor of katherine, anne shepherd, also has serious concerns about the plan. "i know of the other accidents that have happened there when the americans were training," ms shepherd said. 

in august this year, a u.s. marine corps fighter jet dropped a bomb and damaged a building in an accident. the bomb, dropped by an , exploded near a control tower and damaged facilities at delamere air weapons range - attached to the raaf base tindal near katherine.

at the time, said: "things like this will always happen; we hope not very frequently and we hope not any more dangerously," he told melbourne radio 3aw in august. "but the idea that you can conduct any kind of military exercise without some kind of potential for mishap is unrealistic."

ms shepherd is also worried about the possible use of . "i know that they use the depleted uranium on the warheads for added penetration ... and the weapons can penetrate much more easily with the depleted uranium and i'd be quite concerned if they use those kind of weapons," she said. 

the northern territory environment center says it is disgusted by the announcement. co-ordinator peter robertson is alarmed about the location of the training. "only a matter of 100 kilometres or so from one of the proposed dump sites near katherine, and it would be extraordinarily alarming and ironic if an american b-52 bomber dropped a live bomb on top of the commonwealth's nuclear waste dump," he said.

concerns have also been raised about the environmental impact of the training program. australia and the united states have agreed to work towards world's best practice in environmental management for the combined military activities. 

but mr robertson says world's best practice is simply to stop doing it. "not to do it in a way that puts at risk communities, the environment... i mean the notion that there are clean green bombs that can be rained down on the northern territory, or any other part of the world, is an absolute nonsense," he said.

[[category:australia]]
[[category:oceania]]
[[category:environment]]
[[category:politics and conflicts]]
[[category:nuclear proliferation]]
[[category:united states]]
[[category:northern territory, australia]]
[[category:nuclear waste and reprocessing]]
[[category:bob brown]]

french unions march in support of public services

today, a number of french unions and left-wing parties marched in paris in order to support public services, which they feel are threatened by the current government. those who demonstrated (unionists, politicians and simple employees) are opposed to the privatization of public companies such as the electrical and gas utility edf, or to the scaling down of public services such as the national public postal service in rural areas.

organizers claim 30,000 protested, as opposed to the 10,000 figure cited by the police. the march was peaceful and uneventful, with a light police escort to open the streets, and city of paris sanitation vehicles coming just behind to clean the streets of leaflets and other litter. many of the protesters were under the banners the communist-influenced cgt union, most others under those of major confederations or parties such as the french communist party. a small minority were from radical groups such as the anarcho-syndicalist cnt or "les alternatifs". a group of french scientific researchers and graduate students protested the government's policies with respect to research funding.

among the personalities who marched are politicians marie-george buffet (french communist party), george sarre (mrc) and olivier besancenot (revolutionary communist league), and unionists bernard thibault (cgt), annick coupe ("solidaires") and gerard aschieri (fsu).



world summit on the information society ends in tunisia

the world summit on the information society, organized by the international telecommunication union, concluded on friday evening, november 18th, in tunis, the capital of the north african nation of tunisia. the event's organizers intended for the event to "put into motion" the plan for internet financing and governance developed at the 2003 wsis summit in geneva, switzerland.

the summit was marred by criticism of tunisia for allowing attacks on journalists and human rights defenders to occur in the days leading up to the event. a french journalist for "liberation" was stabbed and beaten by unidentified men after he reported on local human rights protesters. a belgian television crew was harassed and forced to hand over footage of tunisian dissidents, while local human rights defenders were roughed up and prevented from organising a meeting with international civil society groups. a representative from the french media watchdog reporters without borders, robert menard, was prevented from disembarking from his air france flight to tunis to attend the summit.

during the event, representatives from the global voices project were menaced by the tunisian police as they held their session on "expression under repression." speaking at the session were rebecca mackinnon, ethan zuckerman, nart villeneuve, taurai maduna, isaac mao, and hossein derakshan, among others. the interaction with the tunisian police is related by amanda michel of the berkman center with the description from an attendee as, "[b]efore the break, a phalanx of secret police (ie scary guys in dark suits) showed up. [t]hey filled the hall outside the room, forcing cancellation of the break for fear that we'd not be allowed to re-start."

nicholas negroponte demonstrated the first working prototype of his $100 laptop.



bomb blasts hit south thailand market town sungai golok

police in thailand have reported two bomb explosions in the southern province of narathiwat. twelve people are reported to have been injured, including three police officers, a two-year-old boy, and a 58-year-old malaysian tourist.

the two explosions came within a five minute interval around 6:00am local time (23:00 gmt). the target of the attack was a restaurant in a market town, sungai golok, which borders with malaysia. police captain teerapak sengseng said that the first of the explosive devices was concealed in a fruit basket, and that as the blast was being investigated the second device exploded only metres away.

the ongoing violence which is believed to be the work of insurgents in the predominantly muslim south of thailand has resulted in over 1,000 deaths since january 2004, with the associated press putting the figure at over 1,100. the area remains under martial law which was recently extended to some areas of neighbouring songkla province. the provinces, yala, pattani, and narathiwat which were formerly the malay sultinate of pattani are the only muslim-majority part of the traditionally buddhist country.

there have been some suggestions that residents of the southern provinces are not accorded the same opportunities as those in other parts of the country. thailand's economic improvements from increases in tourism during recent years have not yielded any benefits to the troubled provinces. public statements by the thai prime minister, thaksin shiniwatra, have given the impression that areas which have not given support to his thai rak thai political party will not be prioritised by his government; this impacts the south which returned opposition democrats during elections earlier this year.

the almost daily violence in the provinces bordering malaysia is expected to be among the subjects discussed at talks between former malaysian prime minister, dr. mahathir bin mohamad and thai prime minister thaksin shiniwatra. the former pm is expected to meet mr shiniwatra at his official residence in ban phitsanulok early next week.



apec 2005 wraps up

the asia-pacific economic cooperation, apec 2005 wrapped up this weekend with trade impasse unresolved. member countries fell short of blaming eu for causing the impasse. the eu has been largely criticized for not opening up its own agriculture market. south korean foreign minister ban ki-moon said "the leaders here ... are basically saying that now the ball is in europe's court". 

member countries talked of high oil prices hurting their economies and agreed on energy efficiency, conservation and diversification. supply and demand issues were not clarified. 



60th anniversary of nuremberg trials marked

the city of nuremberg has marked the 60th anniversary of the opening of the trials against nazi war criminals.

at a ceremony in the palace of justice, where the tribunal was located, participants of the trials gathered and remembered. whitney r. harris, a member of the u.s. prosecution team, emphazised the importance of nuremberg for contemporary international law claiming that "the principles of the nuremberg case have been followed in recent years and the fact that we conducted nuremberg has given impetus to the establishment of these more recent tribunals". but the president of the international criminal court (icc), philippe kirsch, is frustrated that there is still opposition against modern international tribunals like his court: "the spectre of politically motivated prosecution which is a running theme against the icc is so unfounded that it is to me intellectually difficult to understand".

on november 20, 1945 the trials began in the courtroom 600 of the palace of justice. a total of 24 defendants were tried, among them hermann goring and rudolf hes. with geoffrey lawrence being chair of the court, the trial took 218 days and ended with 12 death sentences, 7 jail terms and 3 acquittals. one defendant killed himself during the trial, another one was declared unfit to stand trial. 

some controversy does exist as to whether the nuremberg principles have been adhered to in the years following the trials. noted intellectual author, noam chomsky, has claimed that all us presidents since the end of the war would be judged to be war criminals according to these principles.



coal mine floods in northern china: 12,000 mines ordered to close

"update november 21, 2005: all of the 14 miners missing were confirmed dead on monday, the official xinhua news agency said." 

seven miners have been killed and seven more are missing after a coal mine flooded in north china's hebei province. the xinhua news agency reports the latest coal mine disaster occurred around 5:00 a.m. on saturday in xingtai city. 

a reason for the accident has not yet been given. owners of the coal mine have been detained by local police and the investigation into the cause of the flooding is underway. state media reports say the disaster occurred at a pit in xingtai city, but gave few other details. 

china's mines, many of them illegal, are considered the world's most dangerous. more than 6,000 miners died in accidents in china last year, according to previously released government figures. other independent estimates put the real figure at around 20,000. 

saturday's accident follows a gas explosion at a coal mine in south-western china's guizhou province on friday killing at least ten people.

xinhua reports that rescue work is underway, according to the local work safety supervision bureau.
a spokesman said yuanda coal mine, a collectively-owned mine in neiqiu county of xingtai, was flooded and all the 14 miners working down the pit were trapped.

this is the second fatal mine accident in the area in two weeks. cave-ins at three plaster mines on november 6 caused 33 deaths and left at least four missing.

a committee for safe production, under the state council, on sunday urged relevant local governments to streamline the operation of mines and close unqualified ones. 

more than 12,000 chinese mines have been ordered to suspend production, and they will be closed if they fail to pass government assessments at the end of this year, the committee said.
a gas explosion on november 11 at a mine in wuhai, a city in north china's inner mongolia autonomous region, killed 16 miners and wounded three others. the mine lacked a required safety license.

the committee said in a statement that other mines should draw serious lessons from the deadly accident and "steadfastly prevent illegal production and curb the occurrence of big mining accidents." (source: xinhua)



israeli labor party leaves government; early election ahead

a convention of the israeli labor party in tel aviv decided on sunday to pull its ministers out of the coalition government with the likud party of prime minister ariel sharon.

the decision results from an initative by party chair amir peretz, who was just elected to that office at the beginning of this month, succeeding shimon peres.

in his speech to the convention, peretz accused sharon's government of "humiliating" immigrants and poor people and said it had deepend poverty in the country. he called on likud voters to switch to labor because, "likud has abandoned you".

officials from both parties agreed that march 28, 2006 would be the date of early elections to the 17th knesset.

earlier today, sharon thanked peres for the work in the government and proclaimed, "shimon, this is the beginning of our joint work". this statement is seen as reaffirming rumors that sharon may quit likud and form a new party, due to several disagreements with the likud in the past.


german bnd claims u.s. exaggerated iraq wmd claims

one of the most important arguments in the run-up to the iraq war made by colin powell in his united nations speech and president bush in his state of the union address was that iraq had an active biological weapons program and possessed mobile biological weapons labs. according to an investigation by the senate intelligence committee, the main source for this information was an iraqi defector codenamed curveball who was a source for the german central intelligence agency bnd.

several german intelligence officials responsible for curveball have now told the la times that the bush administration and the cia have repeatedly exaggerated his claims and ignored warnings of the bnd that the source was unreliable. recounting his reaction after seeing powell's united nations speech one german intelligence officer said: "we were shocked. mein gott! we had always told them it was not proven... it was not hard intelligence." this corroborates reporting by the german weekly newspaper die zeit from 2003 and 2004 based on statements of unnamed senior german intelligence officials.

nine months earlier, in may 2002, a fabricator warning was posted in curveball's file in u.s. intelligence databases. powell was never warned that his united nations speech contained material that both the dia and cia had determined was false, even though several people present at powell's cia meetings were fully aware of this.

at this time german intelligence officers would not let the cia meet directly with curveball, but allowed a cia doctor to draw blood samples. questioning the validity of curveball's information in front of his cia supervisor, the doctor was advised to "keep in mind that this war is going to happen regardless of what curveball said or didn't say and the powers that be probably aren't terribly interested in whether curveball knows what he's talking about."

shortly after powell's un speech and several days before the invasion, united nations weapons inspectors attempted to directly verify several key claims made by curveball, but concluded that they were unsustainable. the white house insisted on its wmd claims based on curveball's information.

even after the invasion, when more and more of curveball's accounts were shown to be pure fabrication, the cia and the bush administration relied on curveball's information. when u.s. forces discovered trucks with lab equipment and curveball claimed that these were identical to the ones he has been reporting about, the cia rushed to publish a white paper claiming that these trucks were part of saddam hussein's secret biological weapons program and bush claimed publicly that "we found the weapons of mass destruction." several days later, twelve of the thirteen wmd experts who analyzed the trucks agreed that the equipment was not suited for biological weapons production, with the only dissenting voice coming from the author of the original white paper. 

the white paper remains posted on the cia website to this date, and president bush has not yet retracted his statement that iraq produced "germ warfare agents" made in his state of the union address or his postwar assertions that "we found the weapons of mass destruction." 


chaudhry's son marries tui lau descendant in fiji

sachindra chaudhry, the youngest son of fiji labour party leader and former prime minister mahendra chaudhry, married marian ma'afu, a descendant of fiji's first "tui lau" enele ma'afu, in a hindu ceremony at wailailai temple in ba yesterday. a christian wedding will follow at sacred heart cathedral in suva next week.

intermarriage between fiji's indigenous and indian communities is uncommon. speaking for the family, chaudhry's elder brother, rajendra, said that the union was for love and that nothing political should be read into it. the union was a personal love-match between two who had known each other for more than six years, he insisted, and dismissed media speculation that the wedding was intended as a statement about uniting the two races, whose historical, cultural, religious, and political divisions have defined fiji for generations. it was a proud day for the family.

ma'afu's ancestor, enele ma'afu, was a tongan prince who was exiled to fiji following disagreements within the tongan royal family. he conquered taveuni and the lau islands, taking the title of "tui lau" (king of lau). he later participated, with the fijian king cakobau, in the ceding of the islands to the united kingdom in 1874. the tui lau title has since been held by such noted individuals as ratu sir lala sukuna (considered modern fiji's first statesman) and ratu sir kamisese mara, independent fiji's first prime minister and second president.

chaudhry, who traces his ancestry to the state of haryana, in north india, became the first of his race to be elected prime minister in 1999. he was deposed a year later, in the fiji coup of 2000.


darwin and sumatra rocked by offshore earthquakes

an offshore earthquake shook buildings in darwin in australia's northern territory today, and an earthquake with a magnitude of at least 6.2 struck off the coast of sumatra yesterday, triggering a tsunami alert.

geoscience australia says the offshore quake registered 5.3 on the richter scale. no damage has been reported in the city of darwin or the community of port keats which is the nearest town to the quake's epicentre in a region known for its moderate seismicity. the quake's epicentre was located 500 kilometres west-north-west of darwin in the banda sea. the earthquake hit at 9.51am (cdt).

geoscience australia (the government's geological organisation) says the region may be unstable for a few days and aftershocks or another quake may be felt. duty seismologist, dr svetan sinadinovski, says it was a shallow quake and the subterranean make-up of the area allowed the tremor waves to travel to darwin without losing much energy. he says the quake was on australia's continental shelf, which is a common place for seismic activity.

"that is the area where australian plate collides with asian plate and that extends through the indonesian islands up to sumatra and thailand in the north and east through png to tonga and new zealand," he said. "preliminary reports point to a 5 to 6 in the darwin region - this means that the earthquake would have been felt by almost everyone indoors according to the modified mercali scale which measures the impact of seismic waves on structures."

"people would have felt this earthquake up to 500km away from the epicentre, and we have heard numerous reports of residents in the darwin area having felt the effects of the event," he said.

among those who felt the quake were participants involved in the trial of bradley john murdoch in the northern territory supreme court in darwin - where chairs and tvs shook in the court building. 

the bureau of meteorology's darwin office was also shaken, but no reports of damage have been received by police.

"we felt it - i felt the building sway and some of the monitors shook a little," the bureau's duty forecaster, billy lynch, said. "we are on the third floor of a three-story building."

an earthquake with a magnitude of at least 6.2 struck off the coast of sumatra yesterday, triggering a tsunami alert, officials said. there were no immediate reports of a tsunami, damages or casualties. the quake's epicenter was located off simeulue, 160 miles southwest of medan on sumatra's northwest coast, according to the u.s. geological survey(usgs).

indonesia's meteorology and geophysics agency put the quake's magnitude at 6.2, whilst the usgs said the magnitude was 6.5. the quake rocked nearby nias island and was felt in medan, said an official from the indonesian agency's jakarta office.

simeulue island is near the epicenter of the december 26 quake that caused a massive tsunami. the pacific tsunami warning center in hawaii said there was no threat of a tsunami to pacific coastlines, but quakes of this size can sometimes generate local tsunamis along coasts near the epicenter. 

sumatra has been affected by strong aftershocks since the 2004 indian ocean earthquake. experts say the fault line is unstable and may produce another massive quake soon. 

the biggest earthquake to strike the region, in 1998, had a magnitude of 6.9. the largest earthquake ever recorded was in chile in 1960. this magnitude 9.5 earthquake resulted in the death of 5,000 people. in 1976 a smaller 8.0 earthquake in china caused the death of an estimated 255,000 people. more recently, in december 2003 an earthquake in iran resulted in the death of approximately 50,000 people. 

geoscience australia said the 5.3 quake did not generate a tsunami. the 2004 indian ocean earthquake, which had a magnitude of 9.0, triggered a series of lethal tsunamis on december 26, 2004 that killed over 270,000 people, making it the deadliest tsunami in recorded history. 

in march 2005 another strong earthquake rocked parts of darwin, with tremors lasting several minutes felt across the city and rural areas. the quake measured 7.2 on the richter scale, and its epicentre was 500 kilometres east north-east of east timor in the banda sea.


sri lankan president appoints fellow hardliner as pm

the recently elected president of sri lanka, mahinda rajapakse, has upset some with the appointment of a fellow hardliner, ratnasiri wickremanayake, as the country's prime minister. the sinhala nationalist, mr. wicremanayake, is a former holder of the post during chandrika kumaratunga's presidency in 2000 and 2001.

most noticeably hit by the news were the country's stock markets. markets in colombo fell 7% on the news, having fallen by the same amount last friday when mr. rajapaskse's election result was announced.

mr. rajapakse was elected as the president on an anti tamil tiger platform. he formed an alliance with two sinhala buddhist extremist parties, jvp and jmu. civil war in the country between the majority and the tamil population is claimed to have led to over 65,000 deaths since 1983.


myanmar junta threatened with sanctions by un body

the un international labour organisation (ilo) has warned the generals that make up the military government of myanmar, more commonly known as burma, that they may face sanctions should they not improve their record over forced labour.

the call to change policy and attitudes towards forced labour that the ilo issued following a meeting of their governing body in geneva late last week was countered by promises from the regime that they would not withdraw from the organisation.

the warning issued by the ilo has been followed by calls from the eu for the security council and secretary general of the un to get involved in efforts to reform the country. the eu parliament passed its resolution on burma by a significant majority, only three members opposed and two abstained.

 


us military admits to accidentally killing iraqi child

u.s. forces accidentally fired upon on a civilian vehicle north of baghdad on monday, killing at least one child and 2 other people, a military spokesperson has said. 

the incident occurred when an american soldier spotted the vehicle moving in an erratic fashion outside a base in baqouba. american soliders fired warning shots before shooting at the vehicle, according to u.s. military spokesman maj. steven warren.

dr. ahmed fouad, a doctor at the city morgue, later claimed that the death toll was higher, and three children were killed. military sources claim that the extra casualties may in fact have come from a car bomb targeting american soldiers in the same area at the same time, which killed five civilians and wounded twelve others.


international exhibit of chair art starts in canada

the international entry show "sat: an exhibit of chairs" was put on display friday in brampton, ontario, canada. held in the fridge front gallery at the mall, "sat" is a diverse collection of artworks focusing on a generally mundane object, the .

works in the show range from realism to abstract, dadaism to surrealism, post-modern to collage.

while some of the entries were submitted directly to , most came from a previous exhibit. organized by pati bristow, "no place to rest, chairs you can't sit on" ran at shopping trolley gallery west and seaman's library at foothill college, both in los altos hills, california, earlier in 2005. guest curator nicholas moreau was unaware of the similarly themed exhibit, held so soon before. the theme for "sat" was based on that of a 1987 juried art show organized by visual arts brampton at the now-defunct chinguacousy library gallery.

works in visual arts brampton's showing of the exhibition are from 17 countries including belgium, brazil, canada, finland, france, germany, ireland, italy, japan, netherlands, norway, pakistan, romania, spain, uruguay, the united kingdom, and the united states of america.

this is visual arts brampton's third mail art show. in 1999, susan williamson created the great canadian mail art show for artway at bramalea city centre; the show was so successful that the art gallery of peel adopted it in 2001. the concept of a mail art show was revived in 2004 by moreau, held at the new artway shoppers world. the snail mail world postcard art show has been held annually since.

visual arts brampton's fridge front gallery primarily hosts artwork by youth from its kids classes, and from schools in brampton and . in contrast, the nearby artway gallery hosts artwork by professional and amateur adult artists from across . vab has successfully sought permission to create a third display space in shoppers world, in the corridor. the space will host shows of mail art and works on paper year-round. the planned "world art gallery" will be the first ever permanent display space for mail art.


under-reporting of human bird flu infections poses worldwide threat

possible under reporting of bird flu infections in china and other southeast asian countries may be promoting an illusory sense that human infections are very limited. common press reports only describe fewer than 130 people as infected with h5n1 avian flu and that fewer than 70 have died worldwide. yet, there are enormous problems getting accurate data, especially in a country like china with a population of more than a billion.

"reporting a suspected bird flu infection in bird or humans is a very unlikely event," said dr. shoshana zimmerman of the ehealth institute. she is also a founder of www.birdflubeacon.com, a site dedicated to bird flu issues. "there are very few incentives to report, and lots of reasons to refrain from reporting. from the viewpoint of local rural small farmers, there is little to be gained and much to be lost by reporting an infection. the worse threat is that their flocks could be killed, leaving them destitute." 

there are many factors which mitigate against reporting bird or human infections of bird flu.







a young woman, zhou maoya, died after returning home to the village of yantan in annui province to prepare for her wedding. her family has stated that they did not take her to the hospital because they thought it would not do any good. officials also note rural chinese also often cite relatively expensive medical costs as a reason for not seeking treatment when sick. 

although initially authorities attributed her death to pneumonia the resulting political pressure prompted china to invite the world health organization to send experts to investigate. the authorities then rescinded the previous position and attributed her death to bird flu based on the similarity of the symptoms that she was reported to exhibit with those of bird flu. the village was quarantined and journalists were denied access. it is not known how many others might be infected in the village. official announcements were made of plans to vaccinate and cull birds. 

a local government official, fan qian, told "afp" that it was believed zhou was infected while she was outside of the province.

fan tan, a local official, told "afp" news that 1,000 birds in yantan had been culled (killed). plans were announced to vaccinate 2 million poultry in the area, a huge and difficult task.

zhang, another official, said authorities had met with all villagers to give them flu vaccinations and to tell them how to protect themselves against the bird flu virus, including not consuming poultry products. it is known that flu vaccinations do not protect against bird flu.
villagers and local officials minimized the threat. in outlying areas of yantan, residents said that they did not know of any new outbreaks. other possible infections have been attributed to similar common causes but there have not been any tests performed validating those attributions.
fan litan, a peasant woman from fantu village, about 2 miles from yantan, lost many of her ducks, and chickens and also a dog; she has attributed these deaths to the acts of hooligans. she said her family had been extremely frightened when her animals suddenly died. "we were scared to death," said fan, standing next to a red sign posted on the outside wall of her home that said: "prevention and control by the masses is basic for people." fan said ducks and chickens are all healthy but she admitted that she had stopped eating poultry. no testing of these birds has been reported yet.

according to a recent "afp" report from liuchang, 59 miles south of yantan, the obstacles to identifying infections are enormous.
like many, one liuchang villager named wang hemin said he was concerned and would keep a closer eye on his ducks and chickens, but felt no immediacy since the infection was not in his province. he learned about bird flu on tv, and is aware that officials have come to his village of 2,700 people to warn residents about the virus. they offered guidelines: they told people that poultry which die suddenly could have contracted bird flu and should not be eaten or sold and that such an incident should also immediately be reported. however, the symptoms of h5n1 bird flu were not directly described.
residents have not yet been fully informed of what symptoms to look for in ill poultry--they are fever, diarrhea, teary eyes and swelling in the legs of the birds. though a pledge was made earlier in the week to vaccinate 2 million birds immediately, no bird vaccinations in this area have been reported yet.

in another nearby village, nazahuang, chickens scuttle in and out of houses. one resident, fan jiexu, 73, said no officials had yet warned her village to take precautions. throughout rural areas, it is customary for chickens to scuttle in and out of homes. ducks and bird often die and are eaten by villagers when it is believed safe to do so.

china has reported 17 avian flu outbreaks as of this week. despite the chinese government issued high alerts, critical information is not being adequately communicated to some rural villages. the size of the poultry population, the common and normal occurrence of poultry death on farms, and status of roughly 70% of the poultry population as being kept in backyards are factors complicating infection control.

the head of world health organization's china office, henk bekedam, is aware that slow reaction to bird flu threats and difficulty monitoring poultry in the world's most populous country makes control of its spread challenging. 

testing is required to confirm h5n1 virus, and positive test results lead to the killing of nearby flocks. the incentive for many villagers, officials, and governments to minimize reports of h5n1 virus infections and severe medical and economic complications for making confirmations of infection are obstacles opposing complete and full reporting of the spread and infection rates of the virus.


electronic frontier foundation sues sony over cd technology

the california-based , as well as the attorney general of texas, has filed a law suit against sony computer entertainment of america for their controversial use of anti-piracy software.

the eff claims that the software on the cds bmg music (a subsidiary of sony) produces acts as , which the eff claims is against texas law. the program, known as "xcp", is said to install software on one's system when they insert the cd into their computer for purposes such as adding to music software.

sony currently rejects the idea of xcp technology being considered as spyware, however they have agreed to replace cds with the software and to temporarily discontinue the installation of it on their cds.

among the controversy that sony's moves to counter piracy have raised is the accusation that their software leaves a machine more vulnerable to attacks across the internet. a has already been found in the wild that utilizes one of the anti-piracy software's functions.




fischer suffers seizure, collapses during red wings game

detroit red wings defenseman jiri fischer was hospitalized monday night after suffering a seizure while on the bench during an ice hockey game in detroit. he is listed in stable condition.

late in the first period in a game against the nashville predators at joe louis arena, fischer collapsed on the bench. according to red wing coach mike babcock, fischer suffered a seizure, and went into cardiac arrest. he was revived by team medical staff, who used a defibrillator to restart fischer's heart. he was taken by ambulance to detroit receiving hospital. fox sports detroit reported that he was awake and talking to hospital staff.

as of monday night, fischer's condition was listed as stable.

in september 2002, fischer had an abnormal electrocardiogram reading, forcing him to miss two days of training camp. a subsequent follow-up test was passed. 

the game, which was officially stopped with 7:30 left in the first period, was cancelled. the game will be made up on january 23, 2006.


former delay aide pleads guilty in corruption case

michael scanlon, the former partner of the influential lobbyist jack abramoff, pled guilty to conspiracy to bribe congressmen and other public staffers. he agreed to pay back us$19 million to a defrauded indian tribe and entered into a plea agreement. scanlon is an ex-aide and press secretary to former house majority leader tom delay, who was indicted in october on conspiracy and money laundering charges relating to his dealings with abramoff. 

the members of congress involved in the corruption charges have not yet been named by the prosecutors, but representative bob ney of ohio has acknowledged that he is "representative no. 1" named in the court papers. the prosecution alleges that representative no. 1 accepted gifts, including a golf trip to a luxury resort in scotland, and regular meals in an upscale d.c. restaurant "in exchange for a series of official acts and influence."

ney is said to be cooperating with the investigation. according to ney's spokesperson, brian walsh, congressman ney was a merely victim of scanlon's illegal activities.


christmas island detention centre reopened

australia's immigration detention centre on christmas island in the indian ocean has been reopened to detain a group of seven indonesian asylum seekers. the department of immigration, multicultural and indigenous affairs (dimia) said four men, one woman and two infants from west timor were taken from darwin to the remote detention facility, 2,600km north-west of perth on november 17. 

the group arrived on a small boat at honeymoon beach, near kalumburu a remote aboriginal community on the northern coast of western australia's far north, on november 5. locals were startled when three of the men waded ashore to ask for directions to the nearest city. after returning to sea with directions to wyndam, 400km south-east of kalumburu, the australian navy's hmas geraldton caught up with the group and tethered their boat alongside. the group were taken into detention in darwin. 

the australian government enforces a policy of mandatory detention of unauthorised arrivals. christmas island is an australian territory, its closest neighbour is java, 360km away.

dimia, which had originally planned to deport the group, say the west timorese will remain on christmas island while their claims for refugee protection are assessed. "the group was going to be removed having initially not raised claims or information engaging australia's protection obligations, but since that initial screening the group raised new issues and so their claims will be further examined now," a dimia spokesman said.

democrats senator andrew bartlett said he was concerned the children were in detention despite a government promise that such an arrangement would be a last resort. "we want to know exactly what the cost has been to unnecessarily fly these people over to christmas island and why, seeing that they managed to arrive within the accepted migration zone and should be processed here," he said.

dimia said the cost of housing the group in the reactivated christmas island facility was not yet known, and that such transfers were standard practice. dimia said the children would be in the facility on a short-term basis.

"once initial processing is complete - a week or two weeks probably - it is planned that the family of four who are within that group of seven ... will live in the christmas island community under residents determination arrangements, while the three single men will be accommodated in the centre there," the dimia spokesman said.

"following consultations with their lawyer, they will be interviewed by an experienced protection visa case manager assisted by a qualified interpreter to establish whether they are in need of protection."

in a may 2004 report, the national inquiry into children in immigration detention, the human rights and equal opportunity commission (hreoc) found that children in australian immigration detention centres have suffered numerous and repeated breaches of their human rights. the report stated that the long-term impact of australia's immigration detention system meant that these children "will carry the scars of their detention experience throughout their lives." 

the report said, "despite ten years of a mandatory detention regime, the department of immigration and multicultural and indigenous affairs' own administrative measures and instructions virtually ignored the special needs of children. there was also little regard paid to obligations arising from the convention on the rights of the child."

the west timorese group are the first asylum seekers apprehended in australian waters since a group of vietnamese people arrived off broome, on western australia's west coast more than two years ago.

the christmas island detention centre also was re-opened for the vietnamese asylum seekers - who are now living in the australian community under refugee protection status. the 54 vietnamese people were detained for over two years were fleeing political persecution. the federal government granted protection visas (tpvs) to the vietnamese detainees in july this year.

in july, west australian refugee advocate kaye bernard, slammed the two-year remote detention as an expensive, unfortunate mess. "it is clear now that this whole sorry mess of two years of unnecessary detention for the vietnamese kids and their families, costing in excess of $50 million, leaves a bad taste in the mouths of many australians," she said. "this decision shows that the processing of these people by dimia was 100 per cent wrong and requires examination under the scrutiny of a royal commission."

the christmas island detention centre is part of the australian government's pacific solution. the federal government is spending over au$200 million to build a new 800 bed detention centre on the remote island. 

australian greens senator kerry nettle called on amanda vanstone the immigration minister in april 2005, to explain the government's plans for christmas island detention centre following reports that all australia's immigration detainees will be held on the island. there are plans to shift all detainees to the island, according to the shire president of christmas island, who says that all future unauthorised boat arrivals will be detained there.

"the government should be closing detention centres, not building new ones," senator nettle said. "christmas island's new detention centre serves no purpose beyond furthering the coalition's political ends at a cost of over $300 million dollars to the public. if there are no plans to change the role of christmas island's detention centre why is the government spending $300 million on an upgrade? "


nitish wins in bihar, india

the janata dal (united)-bharatiya jan party combine under the leadership of nitish kumar has won 143 of 243 seats in assembly elections for the state of bihar held this november. the jd(u) legislative party elected nitish to be bihar's new chief minister. this was the second election in the last eight months; the first was held in february and the resulting house was suspended by the bihar governor buta singh. the former chief minister rabri devi is the wife of lalu prasad yadav, who had control of the state for 15 years, either directly or through his wife. nitish kumar will be sworn in as the 31st chief minister of bihar on thursday november 24, 2005.

after meeting with prime minister manmohan singh in his office in parliament, nitish left for patna in order to stake claim to form a government. nitish will appoint 14 ministers in his national democratic alliance government, including deputy chief minister. bjp leaders sushil kumar modi and shahnawaz hussain are front runners for the post as deputy chief minister, followed by ashwani choubey and nand kishore yadav. voting turnout in the election was 47 percent of the total electorate numbering 5,13,47,092, which is comprised of 2,75,46,646 male voters and 2,38,00,446 female voters. there were 102 bjp candidates and 139 jd(u) candidates.


 


angela merkel elected new german chancellor

angela merkel has been elected the first female chancellor of the federal republic of germany; she succeeds gerhard schroder after his seven years as head of government.

merkel received 397 of the 612 votes cast in the bundestag. schroder was the first to congratulate her before she accepted the election. the newly formed grand coalition of social (spd) and christian democrats (cdu/csu) holds a total of 448 seats in the bundestag.

later in the day, merkel took the oath of office and president horst kohler officially appointed her along with her cabinet.

angela merkel was born 1954 in hamburg. after her birth her father was offered a pastorship in east germany (gdr) and the family moved there. she studied physics in leipzig where she earned her phd. after the fall of the berlin wall, merkel became involved in the east german democracy movement, joining the demokratischer aufbruch. she was spokeswoman of the first and last freely elected prime minister of the gdr, lothar de maiziere. after the reunification merkel served as minister of youth and family in the government of helmut kohl during the years 1990 ? 1994 and later as minister of the environment from 1994 ? 1998. in 2000 she became head of the christian democrats and in the following federal election of 2002 she stood aside, letting edmund stoiber of the bavarian csu be the failed christian democrats candidate for the chancellorship. when gerhard schroder called for an early election in may of this year, merkel received the nomination of her party.

outgoing chancellor, gerhard schroder, was born during 1944 in blomberg. his father died in world war ii, only a few months after schroder's birth. he initially worked as a sales clerk and earned his high school diploma studying at night. he studied law in gottingen and worked at the university there, joining the social democrats and became chair of the young socialists, the youth organisation of the party. in 1980 he was elected to the bundestag and later became governor of lower-saxony. in 1998 he was the spd's successful candidate for chancellor, forming a coalition government with the greens. after the resignation of oskar lafontaine in 1999, schroder also became chair of the spd, a post he held until 2004. his coalition was re-elected in 2002.

after a humiliating defeat of spd in north rhine-westphalia, schroder called for an early election. during a tough campaign, schroder managed to get the spd nearly as many votes as the cdu, clawing back a significant advantage the party had over his entering the campaign.

schroder announced that he will give up his seat in the bundestag and practise as a lawyer again.



iraqi groups call for us pull-out

shiite, kurdish and sunni leaders issued a communique which calls for a pullout timetable for the u.s.-led coalition forces and also calls the insurgency "legitimate". iraqi president jalal talabani, shiite and kurdish lawmakers and leading sunni politicians were all present to present the declaration.

"an immediate end to arbitrary raids and arrests without a documented judicial order." is also demanded by the statement. the conference of leaders was part of an american-backed arab league effort. the document included "calling for the withdrawal of foreign troops according to a timetable, through putting in place an immediate national program to rebuild the armed forces ... control the borders and the security situation."


uk children's charities announce merger

two of the uk's leading children's charities have announced that they are to merge.

childline, formed in 1986 by the television presenter esther rantzen, is to become part of the nspcc. the two charities have a combined annual income of over ￡125 million (213 million usd, 182 million euro).

sir christopher kelly, chairman of nspcc, said: "the nspcc and childline share the same vision for children and young people - we have always enjoyed a close working relationship. we are joining together now in the best interests of children. there is now an enormous opportunity to develop a more extensive service to help even more children. the two organisations are a natural fit. esther and i are delighted to be in the position to reassure children and young people that childline will be there for them today and tomorrow as it has been for nearly twenty years."

childline has been in financial difficulties for some time. in july 2005 it launched an emergency appeal for an extra ￡1 million in order to keep its night service open.



alleged bush-blair al-jazeera bombing transcript leaked

an unverified document discovered by the uk tabloid "the daily mirror" claiming to have been leaked from downing street has been reported to contain a statement from us president george w. bush about wishing to bomb the headquarters of arabic tv station al jazeera in doha, qatar. according to "the daily mirror", the president was dissuaded from bombing al jazeera's headquarters in qatar by uk prime minister tony blair. the newspaper said its story was based on information from an unnamed source with access to the "top secret" memo of the president and prime minister's conversation.

"the daily mirror" reports that one of its sources said bush "made clear he wanted to bomb al-jazeera in qatar. blair replied that would cause a big problem. there's no doubt what bush wanted to do ? and no doubt blair didn't want him to do it." "the mirror" is a united kingdom-based tabloid, which has been under scrutiny in the past for publishing faked photographs depicting british soldiers abusing iraqi detainees.

the document is said to be a transcript of a conversation between bush and tony blair at the white house on the 16th of april 2004, when the second us offensive force enacted on the iraqi city of fallujah. 

bush administration officials have criticized the qatar-based network for their coverage of the war in iraq and of other middle east affairs. deputy defense secretary paul wolfowitz had earlier accused the station of "inciting violence against [us] troops". defense secretary donald rumsfeld called the network "a mouthpiece for al-qaeda and a vehicle of anti-american propaganda". in a news conference a day before the document's supposed date, rumsfeld was quoted as saying the following about the network's coverage of the war in iraq: "i can definitively say that what al-jazeera is doing is vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable."

while a uk government official was quoted in the report as saying mr. bush's remarks were intended as "humorous, not serious", another source with apparent access to the memo told the newspaper that "bush was deadly serious, as was blair. that much is absolutely clear from the language used by both men." the "washington post" quoted a senior diplomat saying that bush's remark as recounted by "the daily mirror" "sounds like one of the president's one-liners that is meant as a joke", adding that "it was foolish for someone to write it down, and now it will be a story for days."

the authenticity of the documents and its alleged contents have not been verified independently.
the source of the leak, david keogh, 49, a uk civil servant, is charged under section 3 of the official secrets act, of passing the memo to mp tony clarke's former assistant leo o'connor. section 3 concerns "a person who is or has been a crown servant or government contractor" and who made a "damaging disclosure" of "any information, document or other article" that relates to "international relations" or was "obtained from a state other than the united kingdom or an international organisation". a document is deemed "damaging" if "(a) it endangers the interests of the united kingdom abroad, seriously obstructs the promotion or protection by the united kingdom of those interests or endangers the safety of british citizens abroad; or (b) it is of information or of a document or article which is such that its unauthorised disclosure would be likely to have any of those effects."

both keogh and o'connor are scheduled to appear in court later next week. clarke has returned the memo to downing street and said o'connor had behaved "perfectly correctly".

the british attorney general lord goldsmith threatened newspapers with proscecution under the official secrets act if they revealed any further details of the document. the british government has before obtained court injunctions against newspapers, but never prosecuted editors for publishing contents of leaked documents. according to "the guardian" this "is believed to be the first time the blair government has threatened newspapers in this way". knowing the legal ramifications, tory mp, and editor for the conservative magazine "the spectator", boris johnson has offered to publish the full text of the leaked document and risk a jail sentence, if someone can provide him with a copy in the next couple of days. arguing for the publication he said: "sunlight is the best disinfectant. if we suppress the truth, we forget what we are fighting for."

former british defense minister peter kilfoyle called for the full text of the memo to be published. "i believe that downing street ought to publish this memo in the interests of transparency, given that much of the detail appears to be in the public domain". he added "if it was the case that president bush wanted to bomb al-jazeera in what is after all a friendly country, it speaks volumes and it raises questions about subsequent attacks that took place on the press that wasn't embedded with coalition forces." al-jazeera's kabul office was hit indirectly by two us bombs in 2001 and al-jazeera's reporter tareq ayyoub was killed when two us missiles hit the al-jazeera office in baghdad in 2003. the us has denied targeting the al-jazeera offices deliberately.

al jazeera has reacted cautiously to the report, releasing a statement in which it said it was investigating it and urged the us and uk governments to make the documents in question publicly available.

a spokesperson for the white house dismissed the allegations, saying, "we are not going to dignify something so outlandish with a response." downing street declined to make a statement, telling bbc news that official procedure prevents it from commenting on "leaked documents".



bush backtracks over legal status of alleged &quot;dirty bomber&quot; jose padilla

president george w. bush ordered jose padilla, detained by the us military as an alleged terrorist, to be transferred out of military custody in order to face trial in a federal criminal court. he is charged with conspiracy to commit murder, kidnapping, aiding terrorist groups and other acts against us nationals outside the united states. these actions come six days ahead of a decision by the us supreme court on whether it should review the 4th u.s. circuit court of appeal's ruling that the president is authorised to hold padilla as an "enemy combatant" without charge. 

jose padilla, a us citizen born in brooklyn, has been held without charge in a military brig at a us navy detention facility in south carolina for the three-and-a-half years since his arrest in 2002. the administration had at the time alleged that padilla was plotting to detonate a radioactive "dirty" bomb in the us and later, deputy attorney general james comey alleged that he was involved in plots to blow up hotels and high-rise buildings. the present indictment does not include any charges over these allegations. instead, padilla is charged with travelling abroad to train in "violent jihad", providing material support to terrorists by sending money, physical assets, and new recruits to jihadi groups, and conspiring to murder individuals overseas. 

the change in custody restores to padilla a number of rights he had been denied when the administration designated him as an "enemy combatant", including the right to access federal courts and be defended by an attorney. that constitutionality of detaining suspects without charge under this designation has been challenged in court, on behalf of padilla and in september, a 3-judge panel of the 4th us circuit court of appeals upheld the government's powers to detain padilla. the supreme court was set to decide on whether it will review that decision next week. padilla's status, for the purpose of this trial, is that of an ordinary criminal indictee, possessing the legal rights conferred on him by the us bill of rights.

the existence of the classification of "enemy combatant" has no precedent in either us or international law, and allows detention without reference to the customary judicial protections for criminal defendants in the us, and also without reference to the acts of congress and the agreements made in the geneva conventions regarding the treatment of prisoners of war.

several precedents exist for the habeas petition put forth by padilla's attorney, donna newman. in june 2004, the supreme court ruled in the case of yaser hamdi that enemy combatants captured on foreign battlefields were entitled to some due process determination of their status. hamdi was released on condition that he remain in his parent's homeland saudi arabia. hamdi is a us citizen who had been captured among taliban fighters in afghanistan and who was similarly classified as an enemy combatant. in a case decided around the same time, the high court ruled that prisoners at guantanamo could seek habeas relief in us courts. it, however, avoided ruling on padilla’s petition and voted 5-4 that padilla's initial appeal should have been in charleston, south carolina, where he was being held, rather than in new york, where he was first held as a material witness.

padilla’s attorney, donna newman, filed a new habeas petition in south carolina, where united states district judge henry f. floyd ruled that padilla was required to be charged with a crime or released. floyd wrote of the bush administration’s position that “were ever adopted by the courts, it would totally eviscerate the limits placed on presidential authority to protect the citizenry’s individual liberties”. floyd is one of the justices appointed by president bush. floyd’s decision was reversed in september of 2005 by a three-judge panel of the fourth circuit court of appeals, led by michael j. luttig. luttig claimed that padilla served as a guard for the taliban and al qaeda in afghanistan during the period that us troops were engaged in combat against those organizations, and that he then “traveled to the united states for the avowed purpose of further prosecuting that war on american soil, against american citizens and targets”.

padilla filed a second petition last month with the supreme court that was aimed at appealing luttig’s ruling. padilla’s lawyers intend to continue to proceed in the supreme court after the release of their client from military custody. andrew patel, newman’s co-counsel, said on the radio show democracy now! that “the threat posed by the bush administration’s invocation of the "enemy combatant" doctrine still exists". patel further stated in opposition to the claim by gonzales claim during the tuesday indictment announcement that the case is moot, "we will ask the court to consider this very important issue. not only is it not moot as to mr. padilla?for example, suppose he was acquitted of this charge or the case was somehow dismissed, and the government decided that, 'well, we don’t want him out,' and they just declare him to be an enemy combatant and send him back to the brig again. until the supreme court rules that the president does not have that power, that's an authority, as justice jackson said in his dissent to korematsu [the world war ii japanese-american internment case], that lies around like a loaded gun ready to be used or abused at any time."

the development of this case began with padilla's arrest at chicago’s o’hare airport in may of 2002. former attorney general john ashcroft announced in june of the same year that a plot to explode a radioactive dirty bomb in america had been stopped; and described as a goal of several al qaeda operatives, including padilla. on this basis, president bush declared padilla to be an “enemy combatant,” and authorized his transfer to a naval brig, with the requisite limitations on his developing of a defense thus imposed by the classification. by june 2004, court reverses allowed padilla to meet with legal council. additional charges of plotting to destroy hotels and apartment buildings were claimed against padilla by the justice department. these charges, however, were not included in the indictment released tuesday.

this indictment focused on conspiracy charges against padilla, particularly that he conspired with adham amin hassoun, kifah wael jayyousi, mohammed hesham youssef and kassem daher to send funds, physical assets and recruits intended to continue fighting in afghanistan, algeria, bosnia, chechnya, lebanon, libya and somalia. further, it is charged that this was done through multiple front groups, including the american islamic group, the islamic center of the americas, and save bosnia now. the support for this conspiracy is claimed to have begun in 1993 and continue until november 2001 and consists of conversations obtained by wiretaps including alleged code words including "friends,” “football,” “tourism,” “fresh air,” and “picnics,”. the indictment further includes various payments of ranges from 1,000 to 5,000 usd. padilla is mentioned as a "recruit" who had traveled to egypt and afghanistan where he completed a “mujahideen data form”. he is not alleged to have engaged in any violent activities. 

gonzales also alleged that the conspiracy advocated "acts of physical violence such as murder, maiming, kidnapping and hostage-taking against innocent civilians," but this was not included in the tuesday indictment.


australian man threatens to shoot down chopper with tomato-bazooka

southport magistrates' court was told today that anthony douglas donohue, 34 was so annoyed by a helicopter hovering over his home that he telephoned air services australia with a threatening message yesterday.

donohue allegedly threatened to blow the chopper out of the sky using a home-made bazooka loaded with tomatoes.
police swung into action searching donohue's queensland home. a police spokesperson stated that such situations were taken "very seriously", although no weapons had been found.
"fruit is hardly a weapon of mass terror," donohue's solicitor bill potts said.

mr donohue is charged with two counts of threatening to endanger the safety of an aircraft and the case will go to court next month.


venezuela provides discounted heating oil to massachusetts

venezuela will provide heating oil at a 40% discount to low income families in massachusetts this winter. according to an agreement signed on tuesday citgo, the houston-based subsidiary of venezuela's state-owned oil company, will provide 12 million gallons of discounted home heating oil. the oil will be distributed through two nonprofit organizations, citizens energy corp. and the mass energy consumer alliance.

in august william delahunt (d-mass) met president hugo chavez in caracas. the meeting between a member of congress and a head of state so critical of the white house, sparked negotiations that led to the deal. mr delahunt said he was simply trying to smooth strained us-venezuelan relations while helping low-income people in his home state.

hugo chavez says he is leading a bolivarian revolution and calls his program an act of justice for poor americans, whom he says have been neglected by their government. mr chavez is one of latin america's harshest critics of u.s.-style capitalism, which he calls a major cause of poverty.
venezuela has been selling fuel on preferential terms to countries across latin america and the caribbean, extending low-interest loans and accepting partial payment in goods ranging from bananas to sugar. 

critics said delahunt should not be working so closely with chavez, an outspoken leftist. steve johnson, a latin american specialist at the conservative oriented heritage foundation, said "meeting with the leader who calls himself a revolutionary populist is not something i'd like my congressman to be doing."

representative delahunt said "this is a humanitarian gesture," and that his constituents' needs for heating assistance trump any political points the chavez administration can score. asked if he was subverting state department policy toward chavez, mr delahunt said, "i don't work for condoleezza rice. i don't report to the state department. i report to the people who elected me in the state of massachusetts. i belong to an independent branch of government."

over 10 percent of us oil imports come from venezuela, and while mr chavez seeks to diversify his markets, the us remains his leading trade partner.

when the discounted oil arrives early december citizens energy will determine suitable recipients with the help of local organizations that serve the poor. 350 local dealers will then distribute three-fourths of the oil to local families. 

the remaining quarter will be distributed or sold to homeless shelters, food banks, and low-income housing groups by massenergyconsumer alliance. larry chretien, the nonprofit group's executive director says home heating oil prices are expected to increase by 30 percent to 50 percent this winter because of rising oil prices. the citgo agreement could help ease the crunch on some families.



workplace reform campaign most expensive in australian history

a senior australian advertising executive says the federal government's campaign to promote its workplace changes is the most costly in australian history. harold mitchell from mitchell and partners says the howard government spent $26 million on tv advertising in october. the figure is more than any other entity including retailing giant coles myer.

in october, 11,000 commercials were part of the campaign to sell its industrial relations (ir) reforms. mr mitchell said he could not recall a larger single monthly spending spree in australian advertising history.

"there's never been a campaign in history as big as that," he said. "it followed of course the actu campaign which was something like, maybe one fifth of that size."

he said the government was the second biggest advertiser in australia this year, having spent an estimated $117 million from january to the end of october. only the supermarket and department store group coles myer has spent more in the same period ? $156 million. coles myer spent $19 million last month.

of the government's october advertising bill, $15 million went on tv ads, a 168 per cent increase on the bill for october 2004. the advertising blitz followed the actu campaign against the changes, which mr mitchell says came in at about one-fifth of the government's bill.

the nielsen media research spokesman said the figures are estimates of the cost of placing the advertisements and did not include their production. 

on top of the tv spots, the federal government spent more than $20 million on outdoor and print advertising. plus another $4 million to $5 million on a nationwide pamphlet mail-out.

at the current rate spending will overtake the record $211 million spent selling the goods and services tax (gst) over four years, and leaves all australian company spending on advertising in the shade. the government has earmarked $55 million to the ir campaign. 

the professor of marketing at australian graduate school of management, john roberts, said the intensity of the advertising had become counterproductive. he said people who disagreed with the policy simply had their feelings reinforced by the endless advertising, while others had become "habituated" by the deluge and ignored the ads.

"it's hard to believe they have done any research on this," he said. "there is this naive belief you get sometimes in management that if a campaign is not working properly you simply open the spigot a bit more, but it doesn't work that way."

business groups have launched their own campaign supporting the changes too. yet despite the spending on advertising, two polls this week attributed a sharp drop in the popularity of the prime minister, john howard, and the government, to the planned ir (workchoice) changes.

australian democrats workplace relations spokesman andrew murray "you just shouldn't as a government be advertising prior to legislation before the senate. it's immoral," senator murray said.

opposition public accountability spokesman kelvin thomson said the campaign had cost taxpayers $1.7 million a day but had flopped, with australians unconvinced that they would be better off under the changes. "it is an obscene waste of $55 million of public money used to fund a highly political flop," mr thomson said.


chinese chemical plant explosion threatens water supply for major city

a large scale environmental accident is causing wide-spread disruptions to water supplies in harbin, china after an accidental release of toxins two weeks ago at a chemical plant. water supplies are being shipped in amidst a relative calm, thursday. local officials have suggested normal water supplies may resume in some form as early as sunday.

an explosion at a workshop of the no. 101 chemical plant of the jilin petrochemical company in jilin city on november 13 resulted in the accidental release of benzene and benzene-like organic compounds, including nitrobenzene, into the songhua river. the upstream position of the plant relative to the chinese city of harbin made the pollution a risk to the health of its populace; the solution of ceasing public water production will leave more than 3.8 million people without public drinking water for three or more days. harbin, the capital of the neighboring heilongjiang province, is located about 380km (230 miles) from the plant and is itself located near the middle of the 1,897?km long songhua river?from which it derives the majority of its water supplies. benzene is a carcinogen, and the levels initially released into the songhua river were 108 times the national safety levels for the country. by november 21, the polluted area included roughly 80 kilometers of the songhua river.

the state environmental protection administration (sepa) as well as local experts and officials have worked on a pollution-control campaign and emergency schemes have been launched by the two provincial governments to limit the effects of the environmental incidents. jilin also quickly acted to block the further entry of the pollutants into the river and released large volumes of water from a reservoir in order to dilute them; at this time, harbin added active carbon powders in quantities reaching 1,400 tons and more in order to purify the water. the densities of the benzene and nitrobenzene substances in the river near jilin have dropped to levels within the state safety guidelines since the accidental release. the water that will pass through harbin is expected to contain only small amounts of the toxic pollutants and to pass through friday morning based upon its current speed. in preparation for the passage of these pollutants, the municipal government of harbin has established an emergency medical care system composed of 15 hospitals to treat residents that may be exposed to contamination.

zhang dingbang, deputy secretary of the municipal government, said, at the first press conference since the incident that was held wednesday, that harbin is drilling 100 new wells in order to obtain 80,000 tons of underground water in addition to its current output from 918 wells of 320,000 tons every day. nevertheless, thousand of tons of purified water have been provided by neighboring regions and enterprise donations, which will further increase this supply. harbin residents have collected more than 300,000 tons of water as of tuesday. liu yuzhu, a senior official with the municipal water supply and drainage corporation, has said that this supply is expected to provide for the daily average use of 18,600 tons per day for the three days required for the clear passage of the pollutants through the area.


anti-war protesters defy new texas laws

"give me liberty or give me a ditch" was the sign being held by one protester in crawford, texas. a dozen war protesters were arrested wednesday for camping near president bush's ranch in defiance of new local bans on roadside camping and parking. the protests have been planned during president bush's six day thanksgiving visit to his ranch. 

the protest was an act of civil disobedience, said hadi jawad, co-founder of the crawford peace house, "we want to challenge the encroachment of our civil rights". it was aimed to contest new regulations established by mclennan county commissioners banning parking and camping around the roads leading to president george w bush's ranch. the constitutionality of these regulations, effected by a 3-2 vote in september, have been challenged in court by the texas civil rights project, and the u.s district for waco refused their motion for a temporary restraining order over the enforcement of these new regulations while the case is heard. the new rules were established following the much larger protests led by cindy sheenan earlier this year. 

among the protestors were daniel ellsberg, a former military analyst and political activist, whose exposure of the pentagon papers brought to light the nixon administration's attempt to "spin" the vietnam war; ann wright, a senior us diplomat who resigned her post over the decision to invade iraq; and an iraq war veteran. ellsberg was among those arrested.

the white house has refused to comment on the return of the protestors.


further details about bush-blair memo stopped

the u.k. attorney general lord goldsmith has warned british media that further reporting of details from an allegedly leaked memo about a dispute between tony blair and george bush "could be in breach of section 5 of the official secrets act." "the guardian" quoted an unnamed downing street source as saying that the decision whether to prosecute was "entirely up to the attorney general", who intended to "draw a line in the sand" to stop further leaks.

jeremy dear, secretary of national union of journalists, called it "a heavy-handed attempt to shut the stable door after the horse has bolted. it is a double attack on the freedom of the press and freedom of information." mr. dear continued, "these sort of attempts to stifle uncomfortable revelations printed in a newspaper, which is only carrying out its proper duty to inform the british public, does the government of what is supposed to be a democracy no credit whatsoever."

according to the guardian this "is believed to be the first time the blair government has threatened newspapers in this way". the british government has before obtained court injunctions against newspapers, but never prosecuted editors for publishing contents of leaked documents. 

former british defence minister peter kilfoyle earlier called for the full text of the memo to be published. "i believe that downing street ought to publish this memo in the interests of transparency, given that much of the detail appears to be in the public domain". he added "if it was the case that president bush wanted to bomb al-jazeera in what is after all a friendly country, it speaks volumes and it raises questions about subsequent attacks that took place on the press that wasn't embedded with coalition forces."

tuesday, the "daily mirror", a british tabloid, ran a front page story under the headline "bush plot to bomb his ally", citing the memo in question (see previous story). in response to the attorney general, the "daily mirror" said it had "essentially agreed to comply". boris johnson, mp for henley and editor of "the spectator" magazine, has condemned the attorney general's actions and offered to risk jail by printing the memo if he receives it within the next few days.

the "washington post" cited an unnamed senior washington diplomat saying that the bush remark as reported by the "daily mirror" "sounds like one of the president's one-liners that is meant as a joke." but, the diplomat said, "it was foolish for someone to write it down, and now it will be a story for days."

the meeting between bush and blair occurred on april 16, 2004, at the height of the us assault on fallujah. according to some reports, al-jazeera was the only major news organisation providing eyewitness reports and video footage from within the city at the time. 

there is a history of enmity between senior u.s. officials and al-jazeera. vice president dick cheney has said that the network ran the risk of being labeled "osama [bin laden]'s outlet to the world", and pentagon chief donald rumsfeld has called its coverage "outrageous" and "inexcusably biased".

al-jazeera's news bureau in kabul was destroyed by a u.s. missile during the aerial assault on the taliban. the pentagon later stated it did not know that the network's offices were in the building. al-jazeera's baghdad bureau was also hit by us forces, resulting in the death of an al-jazeera journalist during the april 2003 assault on baghdad. the pentagon claimed u.s. troops were responding to enemy fire from the building. 


singers jessica simpson and nick lachey split up

after a three-year marriage featured in the mtv series "newlyweds", jessica simpson, 25, and nick lachey, 32, have announced their separation. in a joint statement, the two claimed the split to be "the mutual decision of two people with an enormous amount of respect and admiration for each other". jessica simpson recently played daisy duke in a movie remake of "the dukes of hazzard", while nick lachey is a former member of the band "98 degrees". jessica simpson and nick lachey have been the subject of numerous tabloid rumours about their failing marriage, and as recently as october 2005 had denied their marital woes to the press.


two injured in macy's thanksgiving day parade

two women were injured today when an m&m's balloon in the macy's thanksgiving day parade hit a lightpost, causing the lamp atop the pole to fall upon two spectators. two women, aged 11 and 26 were struck around 11:30 am local time (1630 utc) at west 43rd street and seventh avenue. the women were visiting from albany, new york to attend the parade. neither sustained any serious injuries, and were released from the hospital by late afternoon.

parade organizers were uncertain up to an hour before the parade began whether or not the participation of balloons would be limited. conditions for the parade were windy, and there was a sprinkle of rain during the event, but it is unclear if the weather played a role in the accident. 

the annual parade had a similar incident in 1997, when a cat in the hat balloon hit a lightpost, making it collapse. two serious injuries were reported, both of whom recovered.

the macy's thanksgiving day parade has occurred every year since 1922, except from 1942 to 1944 during world war ii.

 


brian lara becomes second person to score 11 000 runs

hotshot batsman brian lara has become the second player in test cricket history to score 11,000 runs. brian achieved the milestone while delivering a characteristic century to his west indies team score sheet during day one of the final test against australia in adelaide. lara scored an unbeaten 106 by tea and cucumber sandwich time and is now only 107 runs behind test record holder allan border, who plundered and pillaged 11,174 runs in 265 innings.

lara already holds the records for the highest test and first-class scores, 400 not out and 501 respectively.


calvin-hope rivalry gets new digs

espn recently named the basketball rivalry between calvin college and hope college fourth greatest across all divisions of the ncaa, although fans had a different perspective. now when the rivalry makes its way to holland, the teams will have a new facility in which to square off.

hope college has put the finishing touches on the new 102,000 sq ft richard and helen devos fieldhouse, whose foundation contributed the $7.5 million anchor gift. designed by sports architectural firm ellerbe becket, the fieldhouse will hold about 3,400 fans for basketball, volleyball and will also be used as a venue for college and community events.

the state of the art facility will also house hope’s department of kinesiology which includes athletic training, exercise science and physical education. in addition to the construction of the fieldhouse, hope added a new science center in 2003 and renovated the peale science center for ’04-05.

ellerbe becket has designed nearly 20 arenas for nba and nhl teams, including the new facility for the charlotte bobcats.

calvin visits hope saturday, 14 january 2006, and hosts the flying dutchman 8 february 2006. 



confidential eu report about israels annexation of east jerusalem

a confidential report, prepared by top diplomats representing the 25 eu governments, has been leaked to the independent. european foreign ministers put in a veto when publication of the report was planned. they will not risk its relationship with israel. for the first time, israel has given its blessing to the eu to play a key security role in the region. 

according to the independent, the report provides the most detailed and remorselessly critical account yet produced by a western international body of israel's policy in east jerusalem. the 11-page page document concludes that european governments should consider direct intervention in an attempt to curb the systematic measures being undertaken by israel to increase its control and population in the historically - and legally - arab eastern sector of jerusalem. 

during discussions at last monday's meeting, eu foreign ministers decided to express "deep concern" over israel's activities in east jerusalem and its surroundings, including establishing settlements, constructing the west bank barrier and demolishing homes. 

israel's policies in arab east jerusalem are hurting the prospects of a final agreement on the city with the palestinians. a major expansion of ma'ale adumim, the largest israeli west bank settlement, will be joined to jerusalem and this threatens to complete the encircling of the city by jewish settlements, dividing the west bank into two separate geographical areas.

in the 1967 six-day war israel seized east jerusalem, along with the rest of the west bank and gaza, and claims the city as its "united and eternal capital". palestinians want east jerusalem as the capital of a future state of their own.


peter forsberg scores two in win over the boston bruins

in friday's national hockey league contest between the philadelphia flyers and the boston bruins at the td banknorth garden in boston, massachusetts. peter forsberg almost netted his first "hat trick" in a flyers uniform. at one point during the game, he had been given credit for three goals, however an official review took his first goal away, and officially he scored his eighth goal of the season at 13:06 in the second period with assists from simon gagne and former hartford whaler sami kapanen.

to date, there have been 24 hat tricks (3 or more goals in one game) in this nhl season.

forsberg, a 32 year old native of sweden, recently joined the flyers for the 2005-2006 season after spending the nhl lockout season with modo, sweden. 

the flyers ended up winning the game 5-3, adding yet another loss to an already disappointing bruins season.



turkey found buried alive in an austin, texas yard

before the mcintire family of austin, texas sat down for their thanksgiving dinner thursday, the family discovered something unusual: a live turkey buried in their front yard. 

the eldest child of the family, sean, was returning from work yesterday when he stumbled upon the patch of fresh dirt in his yard. he called his father out to look at the patch, then proceeded to examine its contents. the family then discovered the thirteen pound (6 kg) turkey buried in the hole; the turkey was still breathing. they kept the turkey in a dog cage, ate thanksgiving dinner, then took the turkey to a veterenarian where it died during examination.

"the turkey must have been alive in the ground for at least 2 days" said bill rogers, the mcintires' veterinarian, "it takes at least that long for a turkey to starve to death." no legal assistance has been given to the mcintires to find the person who buried the turkey, although the mcintires say the act violates animal cruelty laws.


eu cuts sugar subsidies

the european union agreed to reform its sugar subsidies thursday. the eu has been under pressure by other members of the world trade organization to change its agriculture sector. the eu has been blamed for stalling trade talks at the recent apec convention. 

the eu offered a guaranteed price, paid by consumers, with brussels buying at about three times the average world market price. the wto ruled the eu's sugar prices to be illegal earlier this year after following complaints from australia, brazil, and thailand. the reform package, going into effect in 2006, drops the guaranteed price by 36% and will make 6.3 billion euros (about $10 billion us dollars) available to eu sugar farmers and refiners.

this reform package will help the eu's negotiations in the wto. 


taibu quits zimbabwe cricket team after further threats

tatenda taibu, the captain of the zimbabwe cricket team, has announced that he will stand down from international cricket, after further threats were made against him by controversial zimbabwean cricket figure themba mliswa.

taibu alleges that he was threatened by mliswa at a meeting with zimbabwe cricket board chairman peter chingoka at a meeting earlier this week. he claims that mliswa said to him "if you thought it is over it is not. your time is coming and i will get you". 

taibu had earlier gone into hiding when he received a telephone call, allegedly from mliswa, in which threats were made against him and his wife and child. he says he is now considering his options, and a move to playing provincial cricket in south africa, or county cricket in england appears likely. the largely state-controlled zimbabwean media has largely attempted to portray the defection as a money issue, or a racial issue, and has not aired taibu's allegations publicly.

zimbabwe cricket has lurched from crisis to crisis recently, as political appointees from the mugabe regime infiltrate the sport's governing structure. many of the country's top players have either fled the country or turned their backs on the game, including henry olonga who fled into exile after having an arrest warrant issued in his name for treason, after stating that democracy was dead in zimbabwe at the 2003 cricket world cup. 



23rd southeast asian games officially begins november 27

the philippines will host the 23rd edition of the southeast asian games starting sunday. the host nation is not just hoping to gain the overall championship, but also seeking to boost its tourism industry. with the venues of the games spread around the tropical country, officials were taking advantage of the 10-day sporting event to showcase some of the philippines' best tourist destinations. some events will be held in the cities of bacolod and cebu, and suburbs near metro manila. it is also for the first time in the history of the southeast asian games, the opening ceremony will be held in an open-air park instead of in a stadium. philippine president gloria arroyo, will lead the nation in welcoming more than 7,000 athletes, officials and members of the participating countries ? brunei, cambodia, indonesia, laos, malaysia, myanmar, singapore, thailand, east timor, vietnam and the host.

cebu opened the 23rd southeast asian (sea) games yesterday with pomp and pageantry. the sea games welcome ceremony, served as the "appetizer" for the formal opening in manila.

security is tight with a 17,000-strong police force on alert to ensure the safety of the thousands of athletes and officials taking part, amid the threat of possible attacks by militants.

the government is also determined to impose a strict smoking ban throughout the duration of 23rd southeast asian games. no one will be allowed to smoke within a 50-meter radius from venues in metro manila, bacolod city, cebu city, the subic freeport in zambales province, angeles city in pampanga province, tagaytay in cavite province, and los banos and calamba in laguna province. the ban also covers any form of advertisement of tobacco companies.

a total of 41 events, 441 gold medals are up for grabs, with the philippine martial art arnis as well as ballroom dancing making their debuts.

the basketball event was cancelled after a dispute involving the philippines olympic council (poc) and basketball association of philippines (bap), which saw the former expelling the latter. poc and bap were later embroiled in a court case, which apparently ruled in favour of bap's reinstatement. 

in an unexpected move, representatives of the philippines' largest muslim separatist group will attend the opening of the sea games as a "goodwill measure", a rebel spokesman said yesterday. 

eid kabalu, spokesman for the moro islamic liberation front (milf), said he and four other rebel officials would attend the event to show his group's sincerity in seeking peace in the strife-torn southern region of mindanao. 

however, in the capital, there are hardly any banners to herald the 23rd sea games. there is no excitement and even the mascot, the eagle, is nowhere in sight. inconvenienced and incensed by the treatment, the ten visiting countries blasted hosts philippines for poor arrangements before the start of the 23rd sea games.


japanese probe snatches first asteroid sample

the japan aerospace exploration agency has achieved the primary goal of the hayabusa probe's mission by touching down on the surface of an asteroid in an attempt to collect a sample of what is thought to be the oldest material in the solar system.

despite an earlier aborted attempt, and the apparent loss of an exploratory "micro rover", hayabusa's achievement is significant. no other mission has attempted to bring back material from an asteroid which is believed to be a remnant from the formation of the solar system.

the actual success of the mission to the itokawa asteroid cannot actually be known until 2007 when the probe returns to earth. only at that time can it be established if firing a metal pellet into the surface of the asteroid disturbed it enough to allow a sample to be obtained.

 


tens of thousands of workers demonstrate in ljubljana, slovenia

despite heavy snowing, tens of thousands of workers and supporters marched today in ljubljana, slovenia in the largest demonstration since the country's independence in 1991 to protest against the government programme of economic reforms, including privatisation of public services, tax cuts for businessmen and the abolition of the lower value added tax rate for items like food and books.

the protests, jointly organized by several trade union federations and attended by representatives of almost all slovenian trade unions, began with an hour-long march from ljubljana's tivoli park to the congress square ("kongresni trg"). workers and trade unionists were joined by supporters from croatia, italy and austria, as well as students, anarchist groups, and general population. several politicians from the opposition liberal democracy and social democrats were seen in the crowd. noisy protesters armed with whistles, rattles and even some flares, marched through the snow waving trade union flags and carrying banners denouncing government policies. there were even a couple of old socialist flags with red stars. riot police were seen on side streets and guarding accessess to government buildings, but they did not intervene.

the protest continued at the congress square with speeches of the representatives of trade unions and student organizations who denounced the government policy as leading into greater inequality and decreased standard of living for ordinary people. the loudest boos of the audience were drawn by the remarks about blaming the unemployed for being unemployed, introduction of university fees, and government's waiving of taxes and health and pension fund contributions for church officials. the speeches were followed by a musical program, but the crowd soon started dispersing to escape the weather. trade unions organized transport for 40,000 people to attend, but many buses were stuck in traffic jams on snowy roads and arrived too late for the protest. the police estimated the number of protesters to 25,000.




gallery seeks control themed mail art for exhibit

canadian community art group visual arts brampton is looking for entries for its international entry mail art exhibit "control".

the exhibit's entry information discusses the theme of the show: "are you a control-freak, or more happy-go-lucky? what do you think of corporations' control on the media and governments? is your life quickly spinning out of control? always hitting ctrl-alt-del?"

the exhibition dates have yet to be scheduled, but the show will run in early 2006 at either the fridge front gallery or upcoming world art gallery in shoppers world brampton, a mall in suburban toronto.

while it prefers 4 x 6 inch artworks, vab asks that entries are no larger than 6 x 6 inches. vab's address is "snail mail central / 1 bartley bull parkway, suite 10 / brampton on / l6w 3t7". entries must be received by january 31, 2006.

this show will help visual arts brampton to continue to build up a reputation in the mail art world. the non-profit community art group is in the process of opening up the world art gallery, which will be the first permanent display space to solely exhibit mail art. over the past few years, the club has organized three general no theme exhibits, and "sat: an exhibit of chairs", which is running currently.


china names its new head coach for swimming

zhang yadong has been named as china's new head coach for the 170 member national swim team. zhang, a national coach since 2000, is the coach behind 100m breaststroke olympic medalist luo xuejuan.

the 170 members of the team, who will be aiming to compete in beijing 2008, was announced by the chinese swimming federation on wednesday 21st november.

mr. yadong replaces zhao ge as head coach. zhao has left the national team to coach the guangdong team and has become a director of the guangdong swimming association.


internet virus circulates disguised as e-mail from us government

e-mails containing the "sober x" worm are being sent around the internet disguised as an e-mail from either the federal bureau of investigation or the central intelligence agency, both organizations of the united states government. opening the e-mail on a system running on the microsoft windows operating system should be avoided at all costs, experts say.

the e-mail claims that the recipient has been caught visiting illegal websites, and asks the user to open an attachment to answer some questions. once this virus is opened, a variety of system-damaging events may occur. it is reported that anti-virus and other security measures are disabled, and accessing websites for said assistance is disabled, and that your contacts on your address book can be sent this e-mail, and that your privacy may be invaded.

bbc news reported the virus was unleashed on november 22. messagelabs caught at least three million copies within 24 hours after the breakout, and mcafee, a system security research firm, reports over 70,000 cases of the virus on consumer computers. this is also the 25th variant of the "sober" worm, the first of which was released in october 2005.

the fbi and the cia claim on their website that they did not send out the e-mail, and they discourage opening the e-mail. the "washington post" names this worm as the "worst computer worm of the year". 

a similar e-mail circulated in germany last week. claiming to be sent by the bundeskriminalamt the e-mail told its readers that they were caught downloading pirated software. an attachment also included the sober worm.


queensland national party causing headaches for howard on ir

queensland senator barnaby joyce looks set to complicate australian prime minister john howard's plans to pass his ir reform bill before christmas.

the powerful queensland nationals management committee has urged that changes be made to the bill, including guarantees that penalty rates on "iconic" public holidays such as christmas day and anzac day be protected. the proposed changes were slammed by peter hendy, the chief executive of the australian chamber of commerce and industry, as being "not acceptable" and "inflexible".

nationals senate leader ron boswell stated that he thought that the government would eventually accept senator joyce's amendments to the bill, and federal nationals leader mark vaile said that any changes demanded by the queensland branch of his party should be minor and achievable. john howard and workplace relations minister kevin andrews have previously said that "commonsense" amendments to the bill would be possible, but no changes to the overall substance of the bill would be permitted.

the queensland nationals have provided john howard with plenty of headaches on ir in the past week, with the queensland nationals siding with labor premier peter beattie on thursday in a motion calling on queensland senators to oppose the new changes. 

labor groups are campaigning hard against the workplace reforms, which they say will cause workers to be exploited, and tip the balance of workplace power in favour of powerful bosses. employer groups, however, claim that the changes will allow business to become more flexible and reduce unemployment.

 


mr. miyagi passes away, thanksgiving day

pat morita, nee noriyuki morita, who was best known for his work in the 1984 film "the karate kid" and its sequels, passed away on november 24. the cause of death is not yet confirmed, but was said to be natural. 

pat started out at a stand-up comedian in the 1960s, and styled himself the "hip nip". "'hip nip' just sounds groovy," morita said "a drummer laid it on me." his career took off, and he became a regular on the show "happy days" as "arnold" of "arnold's restaurant" fame. he also acted in the show "mr. t and tina" which was an unsuccessful spin-off of the "welcome back kotter" series.

however, pat's career continued, and he starred in several tv movies including "amos" and a 1987-88 made-for-tv police drama called "ohara". then, for his acclaimed performance in "the karate kid", he was nominated for an academy award. 

at his death, morita had over 100 screen credits, including "the karate kid" sequels, and also as a voice character in the disney films "mulan" and "mulan ii". morita was beloved by many children of the 80s, and remains a popular icon.


heavy rain and floods in sri lanka: over 50,000 families affected

two days of heavy rain caused severe floods in sri lanka, an island in the indian ocean, off of southeast of india. among central, western, and northern regions of sri lanka, more than 50,000 families have been displaced and six people have died. the western, some parts of southern and north-eastern provinces were among the worst hit areas. 

these floods were an additional bitter blow to the victims of last year’s tsunami who are living in temporary shelters; specially in the north-eastern province. the rebel-held kilinochchi, mullaitivu and some eastern parts areas are still waiting for their share of the tsunami aid. the newly elected president has torn apart the agreement signed by the former president and the tamil tiger rebels will have to share the aid between the two. their current weather is expected to improve.


four us soldiers face disciplinary action for burning taliban soldiers' bodies

four us soldiers involved in the burning of two dead afghan taliban bodies on october 1st now face disciplinary measures for their actions. the two officers who ordered the burning of the bodies were reprimanded for lacking cultural and religious sensitivity. the muslim faith does not permit the cremation of dead bodies. the two soldiers responsible for recording a message boasting about the act of the burning and broadcasting it on loudspeakers will face , which may include a loss of pay, confinement to quarters, or demotion in rank. maj. gen. jason kamiya explained that while the broadcast was "designed to incite fleeing taliban to fight," this violates military policy. 

kandahar's governor, asadullah khalid, expressed his confidence into the investigation. religious leaders in the region, however, have criticised its findings and called for more severe punishment of the soldiers involved. an afghan investigation into the matter that was ordered by president hamid karzai has also been completed, although the results have not been released.

the us army investigation concluded that there was no intent to desecrate the bodies as the intention behind the burnings were hygienic reasons. no criminal charges were pressed against any of the soldiers involved.

the footage, filmed by australian journalist stephen dupont, has not been aired in afghanistan, according to the "associated press". 



abc's &quot;alias&quot; to end run in may 2006

the american tv show "alias" will end in may 2006 after five seasons, abc said wednesday. no reason for the cancellation has been given. 

"alias" stars jennifer garner as top secret cia agent sydney bristow. garner has won a golden globe and a screen actors guild award for her performances in the show.

"alias" currently airs thursdays at 8:00 pm est on abc. this has led to a drop in ratings as it is opposite cbs' popular reality tv show "survivor: guatemala".

last season "alias" averaged 10.3 million viewers per week according to nielsen media research. this season they only averaged 7 million viewers per week.



10th anniversary critical mass ride in melbourne

the 10th anniversary ride of the melbourne branch of critical mass saw a reported 1,004 cyclists take part. this event has occurred every month for the past 10 years.

the group has an anarchistic origin and structure, which makes it hard to pinpoint its messages. however, it does have one central message: "we aren't blocking traffic; we are traffic." other central themes are evident, from a non reliance on cars and fossil fuels, a concern for climate change and move towards more sustainable cities, to name a few.

friday's ride started at the state library in swanston st, making its way along latrobe, russell, lonsdale, elizabeth, collins and swanston st to flinders st station, then past federation square, through the carpark to batman avenue, down swan st to richmond station, then along hoddle st to yarra park, through to simpson st, east melbourne, to wellington st collingwood, stanley st to smith st and johnston st, finally along brunswick st, queens pde to edinburgh gardens.

melbourne police division acting superintendent, stephen dennis, said the riders were well behaved.

although the street action didn't go without its threats from other members of the public.

"if any one of those idiots illegally impedes me i'll run straight over them," said truck driver ross thornton, speaking for critical smash. 


one third of english pubs allowed to extend their opening hours

at midnight on november 24, a new licensing law concerning the opening hours of english and welsh pubs, clubs or shops selling alcohol came into effect, allowing around 60,000 establishments in england and wales to extend their opening hours beyond the 23.00 limit in force until then, and dating back to the first world war. about 1000 premises, among which 359 are pubs or clubs, have applied and been granted a round the clock authorization, allowing them to stay open for 24 hours.

tessa jowell, secretary of state for culture, media and sport, expressed hope that this extension in opening times will lower the crave for massive drinking, prompted by the early closing of establishments. the british beer and pub association, in a press release from 25 november, 2005, states ""the change is about treating adults like grown-ups, and giving them more choice for a social life after eleven o’clock."".

concern has been raised throughout the media and diverse health organisations about a possible rise in violence and alcoholism due to this new law, but the first night seems to have gone well, although authorities claim that the effects can only be really measured in six months time, when more establishments have been granted extended hours and the public has become used to the new hours. 


 


spacex scrubs falcon i rocket launch

spacex called off the much-delayed inaugural launch of their new falcon 1 rocket on saturday from kwajalein’s omelek island launch site. the intent was to launch the u.s. air force academy's falconsat 2 satellite, which will monitor plasma interactions with the earth's upper atmosphere and magnetosphere.

the launch was delayed, then finally cancelled after an oxygen boil-off vent had accidentally been left open. the oxygen was unable to cool the helium pressurant, which then proceeded to evaporate faster than it could be replenished. a main computer issue, probably serious enough to cause a scrub on its own, was also discovered.

this long-anticipated flight was originally expected to be launched in january 2005, however a series of setbacks forced a series of delays, with the flight most recently scheduled to be in early 2006. it was intended to be launched from the kwajalein atoll in the middle of the pacific ocean.

the maiden voyage was originally intended to launch from vandenberg air force base in california with a naval research laboratory satellite and a space services incorporated space burial payload.

spacex is a startup company founded in 2002 by elon musk, who is also known for founding the paypal online payment service. the launch price per pound for the falcon i is substantially cheaper than that of other us launch vehicles. in the past musk has stated, "long term plans call for development of a heavy lift product and even a super-heavy, if there is customer demand. we expect that each size increase would result in a meaningful decrease in cost per pound to orbit. for example, dollar cost per pound to orbit dropped from $4,000 to $1,300 ($8,800/kg to $2,900/kg) between falcon 1 and falcon 5. ultimately, i believe $500 per pound ($1,100/kg) or less is very achievable."



nbc cancels &quot;three wishes&quot;

nbc has officially decided to cancel its high-rated reality show "three wishes" after only nine episodes. the network also cut back the number of season episodes for "law & order" from 24 episodes to 22.

"three wishes", which is hosted by christian music artist amy grant, was watched by approximately 8.7 million viewers upon its premiere on september 23. it continued to boast high ratings, but nbc nonetheless rescinded its order for six more episodes of the series. the final episode is scheduled to premiere on nbc on friday, december 9 at 9:00 p.m. eastern standard time (02:00 utc).

in response to the cancellation of "three wishes", many petitions have sprung up throughout the internet and in dozens of cities. a few petitions are listed below.


 


'guantanamo'-style detention facility under construction on australian island

the australian government is currently building a "guantanamo-style detention facility" - a $210 million, 800-bed immigration reception and processing centre - on christmas island, 1400km off australia's northwest coast. the project has residents concerned about the prospect of having imprisoned detainees and possible terrorism suspects as neighbours. 

christmas islanders fear the remote detention facility will be australia's very own "guantanamo bay." 

the island's shire president, gordon thompson, says residents are also worried about the effects the controversial detention centre development will have on the island's tourism industry. "we're not building tourism based on a prison tour," he said, also voicing fears that residents would be barred from areas on the northwest point of the island. he said locals were confused and did not know if the centre would just be used for refugees or as a guantanamo-style prison. another resident complained that access to popular fishing and snorkelling spots on the island would be limited. 

department of immigration (dimia) said that when construction of the christmas island facility was finished, a review was likely to be taken to close some mainland detention centres such as baxter in south australia. "its (christmas island) only use is as an immigration reception and processing centre," said a dimia spokesperson.

mr thompson, who is opposed to the imprisonment of refugees, said the centre was being built on the island in an effort to avoid public scrutiny from mainland australians. "it's a long way from the mainland where the lawyers and trouble-makers are," he said. "we'll be kept away from it."

a resident of eight years, two as shire president, mr thompson said he did not trust the federal government because it ignored the concerns of the 1500-strong community. "there's a sense the commonwealth will do what it wants," he said. "you've got to be a little suspicious of a government that lets its own people be held in guantanamo bay, like david hicks. people here have that feeling that when something big is being built away from the media - it's not fishy, it's smelly."

mr thomson said the shire council were not notified when the current christmas island detention centre reopened last week to detain seven west timorese asylum seekers.

azmi yon, president of the island's malay association, has lived for 37 years on the island and wants the federal government to leave it alone. he said locals were confused and did not know if the new centre would just be used for refugees or as a guantanamo-style prison. "we need something from them in black and white to say what it is," he said. "tell us something, don't keep us in the dark." 

mr yon said the island was home to a harmonious group of chinese, malays and europeans who respected each other's cultures. "why disturb an isolated and unique environment when you can (build the centre) somewhere else?" he said.

mothballed detention centre reopened
a group of seven asylum seekers were transported by dimia to christmas island last week. one detainee, his wife and infant children have been allowed to live in the community under new detainment laws. however, three other asylum seekers remain the sole inhabitants of the current christmas island detention centre - reopened for the seven from indonesian west timor on november 17. 

refugee advocates, democrats and greens senators said the recent west timorese asylum seekers had been "shunted" to the remote facility at a massive cost, raising more doubts about the howard government's promise not to detain children.

democrats senator andrew bartlett, who visited a previous group of 52 vietnamese asylum seekers in december last year, said he was especially alarmed to learn that children were still being detained despite the government's promise that children would only be detained as a last resort.

"we want to know exactly what the cost has been to unnecessarily fly these people over to christmas island and why, seeing that they managed to arrive within the accepted migration zone and should be processed here," senator bartlett said. "the only possible reason this family has been transferred to such a remote location is the very deliberate intention of the government to deny these people proper processing of their claims and to prevent them from accessing adequate legal and other support. it is also assists the government to keep the family away from media attention or public scrutiny."

australian greens senator kerry nettle says the government should suspend the construction of the christmas island detention centre and review the necessity of the facility. "at a time when the government claims to be reforming its immigration detention system, it is increasing its capacity to lock people up," senator nettle said. "after the recent scandals and abuses, the public want alternatives to detention, but the government insists on building more empty prisons."

according to immigration department figures provided at the november 2005 senate estimates:

"* the current immigration detention centres - baxter, villawood, maribyrnong, perth, port augusta and the existing christmas island facility, already have a capacity to hold 1,688 people and they have contingency places for 667 more people, bringing the total capacity to 2,355. "

"*port hedland has a capacity to hold 820 people and is costing $3 million a year to be ready to reopen. "

"*the infamous woomera detention centre holds 800 and costs $2.6 million to keep mothballed."

senator nettle said: "australia's total immigration detention capacity is already 3,975 people. the locals on christmas island are opposed to this facility, yet the government is wasting $210 million on another empty prison. is the government planning to increase the number of people in detention and deport people from the mainland to christmas island?" 

environmental concerns

there has also been environmental concerns about the development. the detention centre site is adjacent to prime "abbotts booby" habitat, in the north-west corner of the island, and is surrounded by the christmas island national park. 

endangered abbott's boobies nest in tall rainforest trees immediately to the north, south and south-east of the site, and their proximity puts the species at the mercy of turbulence generated by the passage of wind across the clearing.

the national park encloses the entire range of at least 35 endemic species, more than any other australian protected area. it is part of the network of habitats of migratory species that australia must protect under international agreements such as the japan-australia migratory bird agreement (jamba) and the china-australia migratory bird agreement (camba).

the wilderness society have said, "there are several serious environmental concerns with the selection of this site, not least of which was the selection process itself, the howard government's self-exemption from environmental scrutiny normally required under the epbc act, and its commitment to "best practice" environmental measures during construction of the detention centre."

research has shown that abbott's boobies nesting within 300 m of clearings experience significantly lower breeding success than birds nesting further away. at last count, 36% of breeding sites across the island were located within this 300 m danger zone.

the centre, under construction since january this year, is not due to be operational until late 2006.



official reveals $44 billion budget for u.s. intelligence

mary margaret graham, the deputy director for national intelligence collection and a 27-year veteran of the central intelligence agency, revealed the annual budget for u.s. intelligence: $44 billion. the apparent slip occurred during a talk graham was giving at a san antonio conference on oct. 31. the disclosure of the number, reported in the nov. 14th issue of "u.s. news and world report", marked the first time the figure has been revealed since 1998, when the figure was almost half its current figure, at $26.7 billion.

steven aftergood, the director of the project on government secrecy at the federation of american scientists and a secrecy expert, and his group have led efforts to sue for the disclosure of the budget on four different occasions. he relayed in an interview that this is only the third time since 1947 (the year of the cia's inception) that the intelligence community has revealed its spending. in 1997, george tenet, then the director of the cia, compelled by the lawsuit brought by aftergood's group under the freedom of information act, made public that year's budget: $26.6 billion. the budget was again revealed in the following year, but in 1999, tenet reversed the policy, and budgets have since remained classified with support from the courts. 

currently, the senate has signed off on a provision presented by frank lautenberg (d-nj) that would strip the security clearances of any government official, including those in congress and on house and senate staffs, who intentionally discloses national security secrets. a request for a roll call vote was avoided when senators lautenberg and john warner (r-va) compromised, and instead, an unusual parliamentary procedure called a "standing division" was implemented to approve the addition of the provision to the defense bill. senator lautenberg could still have requested the "yeas and nays" -- a roll call vote. in this procedure, senators in the chamber at the time rise to denote approval. the associated press reports that democrats accused the republican refusal of a roll call vote to be a reflection that they did not want to go on record in favor of the provision, while the republicans blamed time constraints and said that they did not want to inconvenience senators preparing to leave town for veterans' day.



paul mccartney slams chinese fur practices, rules out future concerts in china

legendary musician has boycotted china in response to a preview of news footage that was filmed undercover at a fur market in guangzhou, china. the footage, some of which is to air during bbc's six o'clock news at 18:00 gmt on november 28, 2005, shows animals (particularly dogs and cats) being thrown from the top of buses and being dropped into boiling water. mccartney's wife, heather, also watched the footage and alleged that some footage she had seen clearly showed that the animals were alive when they were skinned. the footage, which was filmed by an investigator connected to the animal rights group , shows cats squirming in a bag before being thrown into boiling water, and then skinned in a laundrette drier-like machine.

mccartney slammed the practices, saying, "it's like something out of the dark ages. and they seem to get a kick out of it. they're just sick, sick people," referring to the apparent smiles and laughter of the workers handling the animals as they are killed.

he and his wife called for a boycott of chinese goods, adding that this was unacceptable behaviour from the nation to host the next olympics.

however, the chinese ambassador to london's spokesperson said that china is not to blame. "the fur trade mostly feeds markets in the us and europe. this fur is not consumed in china. so the americans and europeans should accept the blame."



detroit lions fire coach mariucci, two assistant coaches

the detroit lions held a press conference this afternoon at their headquarters in allen park, mi to announce the termination of head coach steve mariucci, as well as offensive assistant coaches pat morris and andy sugarman, according to the "associated press". defensive coordinator dick jauron has been named interim head coach through the end of the 2005 season.

mariucci has won 15 out of 28 games in nearly three seasons in detroit. before joining the lions, mariucci coached the san francisco 49ers.

the lions lost 27-7 to the atlanta falcons on thursday, in their annual thanksgiving day game at ford field.


congressman cunningham admits taking bribes

u.s. representative randy "duke" cunningham (r-ca) pled guilty today to conspiring to take bribes in exchange for using his influence as a member of the house appropriations committee to help a defense contractor get business. in total he pled guilty to one count of income tax evasion and four counts of conspiracy, namely mail fraud, wire fraud, bribery of public official and accepting bribes. u.s. district judge larry a. burns scheduled cunnigham to be sentenced on february 27. he is facing up to 10 years in prison and nearly $500,000 in fines, as well as forfeiture of unspecified amounts of cash and property.

in the court hearing, cunningham admitted to accepting "bribes in exchange for performance of official duties" between "the year 2000 and june of 2005", taking "both cash payments and payments in kind" and following up by "trying to influence the defense department".

the federal investigation against cunningham was triggered by his sale of his california residence to defense contractor mitchell wade in late 2003. however, wade never moved in and sold the house at a $700,000 loss three quarters of a year later. at the same time wade's company mzm won tens of millions of dollars in defense contracts. subsequent investigations discovered more questionable business transactions, including interactions with the defense contractor adcs. in his plea agreement he testified that, among other charges, he "demanded, sought and received at least $2.4 million in illicit payments and benefits from his co-conspirators in various forms, including cash, checks, meals, travel, lodging, furnishings, antiques, rugs, yacht club fees, boat repairs and improvements, moving expenses, cars and boats."

cunningham announced his resignation after the hearing. in a written statement released by his law firm o’melveny & myers llp he declared "the truth is -- i broke the law, concealed my conduct, and disgraced my high office. i know that i will forfeit my freedom, my reputation, my worldly possessions, and most importantly, the trust of my friends and family."


monday's no-confidence vote may signal end of current canadian government

a vote of no-confidence, to be held on monday, is expected to signal an end to the current canadian government. the vote is to be held at 6:30pm local time in ottawa, ontario.

the no-confidence vote against paul martin's government was introduced by three of the opposition parties last week. the actual motion was proposed by conservative party leader, stephen harper.


canadian government falls in non-confidence vote

the canadian liberal minority was defeated 171-133 today in a historic vote of non-confidence. the minority government only survived for one year and five months. this is the first time a canadian government has fallen on a simple vote of no-confidence. as a result of the vote, prime minister paul martin is expected to ask the governor general michaelle jean to dissolve parliament tuesday morning. expectations are that the election will be held january 23rd 2006 providing a much longer election campaign than usual and only the second wintertime election in canada's history.

the leaders of all 4 major political parties in canada made campaign style speeches after the vote. according to mainstream media predictions, the campaign will focus on the major themes contained in the 2004 federal election campaign.

this is the third time many canadians have gone to the polls in the last 12 months with municipal, provincial and now federal elections being called.



warrant issued for the arrest of ric flair

ric flair (real name richard fliehr) has a warrant out for his arrest. according to an abc affiliate in charlotte, north carolina, flair took part in an alleged road rage incident last wednesday on interstate 485. allegedly flair got out of his car and assaulted the man in front of him. two warrants have been issued. one warrant for assault on someone's property and a second for assault on another person.


german, iraqi driver abducted in iraq

a german citizen and her iraqi driver were abducted in iraq on friday.

the baghdad bureau of the german tv station ard received a tape from the hostage-takers on monday evening. in it three armed men are demading that germany breaks off diplomatic relations with the iraqi government in exchange for the lives of the hostages. the station has refused to air the tape and only released a still image.

the hostage is a 43-year old archaeologist working in iraq. she is a converted muslim and married to a jordanian. her 10-year old daughter is living with friends in germany.

the german foreign ministry has established a crisis squad and is trying to negotiate the release of the hostages. but the vice chair of the parliamentary foreign committee, hans-ulrich klose, called the demands of the kidnappers "unacceptable".

germany did not participate in the iraq war and does not have soldiers stationed there. it is however training iraqi police officers in neighbouring countries.


greenpeace protest disrupts tony blair cbi speech

two greenpeace protestors entered the cbi conference at the business design centre in islington, london and delayed a speech being made by the prime minister tony blair, in which he was expected to announce the consideration of further nuclear power stations to offset the increasing gas prices being experienced by industry in the uk. the protestors, wearing yellow safety jackets over business suits, climbed up into the ceiling rafters and held banners saying "nuclear: wrong answer", and dropped 'radioactive confetti' onto the delegates down below.

greenpeace threatened to make noise and throw missiles at the prime minister should he make his speech. they requested a ten minute speech before tony blair's speech, but this was turned down by the conference organisers and the speech was delayed whilst delegates moved into an alternative room in the building so that the speech could continue without disruption.


&quot;7th heaven&quot; television series comes to an end

the long-running family drama television show, "7th heaven", will conclude the series (in production since 1996) with the 200th episode. "7th heaven" has been the wb's time slot on monday nights at 8:00 p.m. for the past ten years, since august 26, 1996. 

david janollari, president of entertainment for the wb, and brenda hampton, executive producer, discuss their finishing touches to the final season. brenda hampton states, "we owe a compelling and unforgettable final season to the camden family and to the millions of viewers who helped grow this program into a huge hit"; and states, "although we had anticipated this could be the last season, it was difficult breaking the news to the cast and crew," , executive producer, also notes, "not many shows make it to 10 years and it's even rarer for a series to go out on top after 10 seasons."

"7th heaven" achieved the top 20 viewers of the wb of all times. at the "birth of the twins" in the episode, "in praise of women", on february 8, 1999, the show got the highest viewer ratings of 12.5 million viewers, making it number one in the time slot against all viewers. 

"7th heaven" dealt with several social aspects of real life situation/issues ranging from "teen suicide and sibling rivalry to violence in schools". episodes also touched on subject matters of the iraq war and the death of "real-life american serviceman who was killed in afghanistan". "7th heaven" also achieved over a dozen honors and awards from various organizations. 

"7th heaven" had many honored guest stars such as wayne newton, richard lewis, mary-kate and ashley olsen, and ashlee simpson. other guest stars appear from other shows on the network, such as: "felicity", "smallville", "gilmore girls", and "charmed".

stephen collins as reverend camden sincerely states, ""7th heaven" has been a gift", "plus making a bit of tv history while watching our wonderful cast grow up in real time, has been the experience of a lifetime."


suicide bombers blast two bangladeshi cities

on tuesday morning police in bangladesh have blamed islamic militants for what is believed to be the country's first suicide bombings. up to ten people were killed and dozens of others injured in the two attacks. the attacks left at least 50 people wounded with many of them said to be in critical condition.

the government has accused the hardline , which wants to introduce strict islamic law in the muslim-majority democracy, of staging the attacks targeting the legal system. bangladesh police have arrested six men, including a suicide squad member in different parts of the country, in the last two days.

"this is the first suicide attack in bangladesh," stated abdul kaiyum, national police chief, after blasts in the south-eastern port cities of and , located near the capital .

"these were powerful homemade bombs. it seems jamayetul mujahideen have stepped up their attacks after we arrested many of their members." 

according to chittagong officials, a pair of set off explosives at a police checkpoint outside the main court around 9 a.m. two police officers and at least one of the bombers were killed in the attack.

minutes later, a bomb exploded inside a court in the city of gazipur, about 20 miles north of the capital, dhaka. three people were killed and many more injured, including lawyers and court staff. various reports assume the explosion was the work of a suicide bomber. 

the attacks came two days after security was tightened around embassies in dhaka following a faxed message in the name of al qaeda in south asia. the message also threatened to blow up the u.s. and british missions, as well as other european embassies. 

"jamayetul mujahideen is using islam's name to kill people. the government has taken a hard stand and will now take an even harder stand," said prime minister khaleda zia during a visit to the south.

according to majedul huq, chittagong police commissioner, the blasts appeared to be the work of suicide bombers, who had explosives strapped to their bodies or hidden in bags. 

"the bombers apparently turned more violent as we set up checkposts trying to reinforce security at court premises," huq said.

a wave of bombings has rattled bangladesh in recent months after fundamentalist groups led by afghan war veterans launched a campaign for islamic rule based on the shariat. the militants have often targeted lawyers. on aug. 17, there were nearly 400 simultaneous bombings across the country. jamayetul mujahideen, led by afghan war veteran shaikh abdur rahman, has been held responsible for the attacks. in october, militants attacked courts in three districts.

on nov. 14, two judges were killed when bombs were thrown at their car, and in later weeks other lawyers and judges have received threats. the "daily star" reported that jamayetul mujahideen has threatened to kill three judges and blow up mymensingh press club.

police say a 2,000-strong "suicide squad" has been formed from members of jamayetul mujahideen and two other banned groups, jagrata muslim janata bangladesh and harkatul jihad.

bangladesh is the world's third-most-populous muslim country after indonesia and pakistan.


thai government rejects amnesty proposal for southern insurgents

deputy prime minister chidchai vanasatidya has rejected calls by prawes wasi, the leader of the government-appointed national reconciliation commission for an amnesty to be offered to insurgents in thailand's troubled muslim-majority south.

government and police officials claim that current action targeting the funding of the insurgency is proving effective and an increasing number of local people are cooperating with authorities. it is widely believed that drugs play a role in the violence, with traffickers believed to be involved in funding the militants and recruiting for them.

raids last friday in sungai padi and tak bai districts netted more than ten million baht in assets from suspected drug dealers who the local governor, pracha terat, said were involved in the insurgency.


eu states warned on cia prisons

the european union's highest justice official has warned eu member states that any nations found to have hosted a covert cia jail could have its "voting rights suspended". eu justice commissioner franco frattini said the consequences would be "extremely serious" if reports of such jails turned out to be true. 

according to human rights watch, the secret prisons are located in poland and romania. this comes amid an eu investigation into claims that the us ran clandestine jails in eastern europe. in the case of romania, a senior euro mp has questioned whether its accession to the eu should go ahead as planned. the us has declined to confirm or deny the reports of secret jails, which became public in the us earlier this month. 

speaking at a news conference in berlin, mr frattini called for tough penalties against any involved state, saying "i would be obliged to propose to the council of eu ministers serious consequences, including the suspension of voting rights in the council." he said a suspension of voting rights would be justified if any country is found to have breached the bloc's founding principles of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. such a move would be unprecedented for the eu.

however, a diplomatic source said that to suspend a member state's voting rights in the council of the european union, the other 24 member states would have to vote unanimously to take such a step, which would be unlikely to happen in practice. 

mr frattini said the bush administration had asked for more time to deliver a response to the accusations after a senior commission official formally raised the issue on a visit to washington last week. "right now, there is no [us] response," he said. the allegations that the cia held al-qaeda suspects in secret prisons in eastern europe were first reported in the washington post on november 2, but the newspaper withheld information on the location of the prisons on the request of the u.s. government.

during his first u.s. visit, the newly appointed german foreign minister frank-walter steinmeier failed to receive any clarification on the question of secret cia prisons, but the united states has now officially recognized that this is an issue of great concern to its european allies. seceretary of state condoleezza rice promised an official u.s. clarification on this matter in the near future.


computer professionals celebrate 10th birthday of a.l.i.c.e.

more than 50 programmers, scientists, students, hobbyists and fans of the chat robot gathered in , u.k. on friday to celebrate the tenth birthday of the award winning on hand was the founder the , an annual , designed to pick out the world's most human computer according to an experiment laid out by the famous british mathematician alan turing more then 50 years ago. along with a.l.i.c.e.'s chief programmer dr. richard s. wallace, two other loebner prize winners, robby garner and this year's winner, rollo carpenter, also gave presentations, as did other finalists.

the university of surrey venue was chosen, according to dr. wallace, not only because it was outside the u.s. (a.l.i.c.e.'s birthday fell on the weekend holiday there, so he expected few people would attend a conference in america), but also because of its recently erected statue of alan turing, who posed the famous a. i. experiment which inspired much of the work on bots like a.l.i.c.e. university of surrey digital world research centre organizers lynn and david hamill were pleased to host the event because it encourages multi-disciplinary interaction, and because of the centre's interest in interaction between humans and computers.

dr. wallace gave a keynote address outlining the history of a.l.i.c.e. and . many people commented on the fact the he seemed to have moved around a lot in the last ten years, having lived in new york, pennsylvania, san francisco, maine, amsterdam and philadelphia, while working on the alicebot project. the a.l.i.c.e. and aiml software is popular among chat robot enthusiats primarily because of its distribution under the gnu free software license. one of dr. wallace's powerpoint slides asked the question, "how do you make money from free software?" his answer: memberships, subscriptions, books, directories, syndicated ads, consulting, teaching, and something called the superbot.

rollo carpenter gave a fascinating presentation on his learning bot jabberwacky, reading from several sample conversations wherein the bot seemed amazingly humanlike. unlike the free a.l.i.c.e. software, carpenter uses a proprietary learning approach so that the bot actually mimics the personality of each individual chatter. the more people who chat with jabberwacky, the better it becomes at this kind of mimicry. 

in another interesting presentation, dr. hamill related present-day research on chat robots to earlier work on dialog analysis in telephone conversations. phone calls have many similarities to the one-on-one chats that bots encounter on the web and in im. dr. hamill also related our social expectations of bots to social class structure and how servants were expected to behave in victorian england. he cited the famous microsoft paperclip as the most egregius example of a bot that violated all the rules of a good servant's behavior.

bots have advanced a long way since philanthropist hugh loebner launched his controversial contest 15 years ago. his turing test contest, which offers an award of $100,000 for the first program to pass an "audio-visual" version of the game, also awards a bronze medal and $2000 every year for the "most human computer" according to a panel of judges. huma shah of the university of westminster presented examples of bots used by large corporations to help sell furniture, provide the latest information about automotive products, and help customers open bank accounts. several companies in the u.s. and europe offer customized bot personalities for corporate web sites.

even though turing's test remains controversial, this group of enthusiastic developers seems determined to carry on the tradition and try to develop more and more human like chat bots.
hugh loebner is dedicated to carry on his contest for the rest of his life, in spite of his critics. he hopes that a large enough constituency of winners will exist to keep the competition going well beyond his own lifetime. dr. wallace says, "nobody has gotten rich from chat robots yet, but that doesn't stop people from trying. there is such a thing as 'bot fever'. for some people who meet a bot for the first time, it can pass the turing test for them, and they get very excited."



virginia governor commutes 1,000th us execution

virginia governor mark warner commuted the death sentence tuesday of convicted murderer robin lovitt, preventing him from becoming the 1,000th person executed in the united states since the supreme court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. lingering doubt over lovitt's guilt was a key factor in warner's decision. lovitt's sentence has now been reduced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

this is the first time warner has granted clemency in his four years in office. all eleven previous clemency petitions have been denied. warner chose this petition to be his first, and likely last, granted, noting that clemency should only be used in an "exceptional circumstance. among these are circumstances in which the normal and honored processes of our judicial system do not provide adequate relief - circumstances that, in fact, require executive intervention to reaffirm public confidence in our justice system" .

lovitt was sentenced to death in 1999 for the murder of a pool hall manager. his defense team, including former independent counsel kenneth starr, argued that dna tests could have exonerated lovitt, but weren't performed due to a mistake by a court clerk which resulted in key evidence being thrown away after the trial. 

due to the commution of lovitt's sentence, kenneth boyd, who is scheduled to be executed in north carolina on friday, will likely become the 1,000th person executed since 1976.


tropical storm epsilon forms as 2005 atlantic hurricane season comes to an end

tropical storm epsilon formed today as the record breaking comes to a close tomorrow. storms created after this date will still be included in the 2005 atlantic hurricane season but it is not officially under the date. the storm is the 26th storm in a season that has broken many records including number of storms.

the storm formed 845 miles (1,360 km) east of bermuda. according to forecasters, the storm is only a threat to shipping. at 10am est, the storm had sustained winds of 45 mph. the storm is moving west at 8 mph and is expected to continue that movement for 24 hours.

the 2005 atlantic hurricane season broke many records including number of storms and number of and number of tropical storms that evolved into hurricanes. although the season ends tomorrow, forecasters warn that tropical storms can form in december.

 


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australian senate passes resolution opposing death penalty in shadow of van nguyen execution

the australian senate has passed a resolution "opposing the death penalty" in response to the looming execution of van tuong nguyen. the 25-year-old australian salesman was convicted of trafficking 396 grams of heroin through singapore, a country which has a mandatory death sentence for trafficking more than 15 grams of heroin.

there was some argument in the senate, however, over the exact wording of the resolution. the motion, as originally moved by senator bob brown, leader of the australian greens, expressed the government's "abhorrence of the death penalty." 

senator chris ellison, minister for justice and customs, moved to substitute "abhorrence of" for "opposition to."

greens members and australian democrat members were angered at this. "should we just say 'we oppose that but we don't abhor it'...is trade so important that we cannot speak our mind on utterly important matters of life and death[?]" senator brown asked. 

there was confusion about whether the australian labor party supported the government amendment. 

australian democrat's senator natasha stott despoja made her opposition to the amendment clear. "what is wrong with this place? how can two major parties be such wimps and wimp out on this word? if 'wimp' is considered inappropriate, i could say 'weak',
'timorous' or 'ineffectual'," she said. she later apologised to the labor party and redirected her criticism to the government.

senator ellison later said, "when you look at international instruments, you do not often find the language of emotion. you do not often find language which is colourful or extreme. you find language which spells out the situation...we should not bring emotion into the debate which could well hamper other efforts being made in relation to the van nguyen matter."

a division on the amendment was called and the motion was amended in the government's favour, 34 to 30. the amended motion was then carried.




groups prepare for december wto talks

members of the wto have made statements in preparation of the next wto meeting in december. 

peter mandelson, the eu's trade commissioner, has proposed a six-point package to help poor countries. the package includes guarantees of access to cheap drugs, special help for the 40 least-developed nations, compensation for poor countries affected by the loss of their access to europe for bananas and sugar, relief for african cotton producers, and assistance to help countries build their capacity to trade. the eu is holding strong on its agriculture position while keeping internal dissent in check. mandelson warned france not to veto any agreement saying that failure of the talks would be a "huge missed economic opportunity and a huge setback for multilateralism. those who want to frustrate us, throw logs at us and impose vetoes on us - even from within our own ranks - will not find me giving up." resistance is expected from the us, especially in the areas of textiles, and drugs. these two areas have been a areas of contention between the us and other wto members. 

several south american wto members complained about the current sluggishness of talks. brazil's wto ambassador, clodoaldo hugueney, said earlier this week, "we are seriously concerned about the current state of the negotiations. the burden of adjustment is being placed on developing countries." 

the imf also released a policy discussion paper titled "africa in the doha round". in the paper, written by imf africa department senior economist yongzheng yang, states that the representatives of africa in the current round of wto talks may be too fixated on the markets of wealthy nations. yang writes, "african negotiators may have overlooked the potential market access gains in developing countries, where trade barriers remain relatively high and demand for african imports has expanded substantially." according to the paper africa has primarily sought access of wealthiest nations including the us and the eu while limiting it's attention to china and other countries who imported 30 percent of africa's exports. recent trade issues africa has pushed have included cotton exports, an area that has met much resistance to the wealthier wto members. imf policy discussion papers describe research in progress and are not opinions of the imf.

the wto has also agreed to extend an exemption for members classified as "least developed" from intellectual property rules until july 2013. these members already have an exemption, valid until 2016, for pharmaceutical products. the new extension applies to trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and geographical names indicating goods' place of origin. if a country improves out of the classification, the exemption will no longer apply.



tennessee town mulls 'stop work order' as construction of controversial grain tanks begins

mayor scott jewell of the city of dyer, tennessee did not issue a "stop work order" to dyer grain company late tuesday afternoon as had been expected. the order would have temporarily halted construction of new grain storage tanks.

dyer grain's efforts at expansion have been blocked several times over the past few years both by zoning restrictions on the height of structures and by citizens groups who filed suit against the grain company and the city's board of zoning appeals. the lawsuit was dismissed two months ago. the dyer city council then amended the zoning ordinance to include "grain storage tanks and bins" in a section of the ordinance listing exclusions, such as free standing spires and towers, to the regular 40 foot height restriction on buildings.

several citizens spoke at the november 28 city council meeting to address alleged deficiencies in the building permit issued to dyer grain. the citizens claimed that according to the site plan filed with the application for the permit, the location of the tanks will violate another provision in the zoning ordinance restricting the height of all structures to the distance from surrounding property lines plus ten feet. the citizens were also concerned over a "grain conveyor" that will cross a city street. mayor jewell indicated that he would contact the gibson county building inspector (who is contracted by the city to act as the municipal inspector) to research the citizens' concerns.

jewell contacted ricky bailey, gibson county building inspector, on wednesday. bailey reportedly could find no deficiencies with the permit and, based on this advice, jewell chose not to issue the stop work order himself. the city council could still meet and vote to issue the order. the council meets the second monday of each month.

"the main problem is that the grain company is in an industrial zone -- which is located smack in the middle of a low-density residential zone." nathan reed, an elected alderman of dyer said, "the property values in the area have increased (with inflation) but not at the same rate as other properties."

normal buildings, such as offices and warehouses, can't exceed 40' plus 10' to the eave. the requested change in the ordinance changes the status of the towers from a building to the same status of an antenna or tower.

mr reed added, "the height to the eave is 76', the height to the top of the tank is 105', the height to the top of the elevator (atop the tank) is 133'. the 133' is the only measurement that matters now because the change to the zoning ordinance means this is no longer a "building", but rather the same as an antenna or tower."

"the grain company specifically requested that change to the ordinace -- which was opposed by several citizens...they can build it as high as they like so long as it conforms to the overal height restriction for towers, spires, etc."

mr reed commented on additional concerns, "the citizens are concerned about the health effects of (additional) grain dust, noise, and grain explosions."

the new construction is expected to generate annual property tax revenues of $10,000 to $16,000.


co-creator of berenstain bears dies at 82

stan berenstain, co-creator of the popular berenstain bears children's books, has died due to complications from cancer at age 82. along with his wife, jan berenstain, stan and jan berenstain published over 200 books aimed at teaching children to read and helping them with lessons such as sharing, new siblings.

the first berenstain bears book was published in 1962 and titled "the big honey hunt". with the help of head of children's publishing at random house, author theodor geisel, better known as dr. seuss, the berenstains created a franchise that drew millions of young readers. 

until 1997, when they hired an employee to run the company's computer, mr. berenstain and his family managed the entire ursine enterprise, which has branched out into two television series, videos, stage musicals, toys, cereal and other products.

according to an interview of the berenstain bears official website, papa bear is based on stan, mama on jan; stan clarifies that he's "not as stupid" as papa.

stan fed his interest in drawing as a child, by drawing on paper bags and cardboard.


first face transplant performed on french woman

surgeons in france have performed a face transplant operation on a french woman who had lost her nose, lips and chin after being savaged by a dog. according to iain hutchison, an oral-facial surgeon at barts and the london hospital, the transplant is the first one to use skin from another person.

doctors say the woman's new face will be a "hybrid" between her donor's face and her own face before the attack. in the five hour long operation, the donor's tissues, muscles, arteries and veins were attached to the patient's lower face. it is more favourable to use skin from another person's face instead of skin from another part of the patient's body, as the texture and colour of the skin are more likely to match.

a statement released by the hospital in amiens said that the 38-year-old patient, who wishes to remain anonymous, has not been able to eat or speak properly since the attack in may this year. the woman was reportedly in "excellent general health" and her graft looked normal.

ethical concerns, psychological impact, concerns relating to immunosuppression and consequences of technical failure have prevented teams from performing face transplant operations in the past, even though it has been technically possible to carry out such procedures for years.

mr hutchison warned of several problems with face transplants, such as blood vessels in the donated tissue clotting and immunosuppressants failing or increasing the patient's risk of cancer. he also pointed out ethical issues with the fact that the procedure requires a "beating heart donor". the transplant is carried out while the donor is brain dead, but still alive by use of a ventilator.

according to stephen wigmore, chair of british transplantation society's ethics committee, it is unknown to what extent facial expressions will function in the long term. he said that it is not certain whether a patient could be left worse off in the case of a face transplant failing.

mr michael earley, a member of the royal college of surgeon's facial transplantation working party, commented that if successful, the transplant would be "a major breakthrough in facial reconstruction" and "a major step forward for the facially disfigured."


xbox 360 shortages expected on debut day in europe

the xbox 360 arrives on shelves in europe on friday, but many shoppers may likely leave stores empty handed.

it is expected that at least 300,000 consoles are being made available for the european launch later this week, with only 50,000 destined for the uk. stores are reporting that they may not even have enough stock to fulfill all of their pre-orders.

launched in the us last tuesday, the xbox 360 sold out at many retailers in a matter of hours. the console can be found on ebay however, although most prices are significantly marked up from retail, some as high as $700 usd.

the console launches worldwide in two versions: a standard version, costing ￡279.99, and a core version at ￡209.99. the core version does not include a hard disk which is required to play games created for the original xbox.

the xbox 360 will be launched in japan on december 10. this is the first time a console has been launched in the three major markets (north america, europe and japan) in such a short time.


bush speaks of goals for u.s. withdrawal from iraq, decries calls for timetable

u.s. president bush re-stated his commitment to withdraw troops from iraq and outlined goals for training iraqi security forces that will guide such withdrawal. the presidential speech followed from a newly released white house document titled the national strategy for victory in iraq. white house press secretary scott mccellen claimed that the strategy outlined is what the administration has been following since 2003, and said that the released document is simply an unclassified version of the same for the public to review.

this release follows growing public and congressional dissatisfaction over the continuing violence in iraq, rising us and iraqi death toll, revelations of corruption and misadministration in the reconstruction program and the administration's handling of the war. a day before the president's address, sen. hillary clinton, in an e-mail to her supporters had said "given years of assurances that the war was nearly over and that the insurgents were in their 'last throes,' this administration was either not being honest with the american people or did not know what was going on in iraq." 

"as the iraqi forces gain experience and the political process advances, we will be able to decrease our troop levels in iraq without losing our capability to defeat the terrorists. these decisions about troop levels will be driven by the conditions on the ground in iraq and the good judgment of our commanders," stated the president on nov. 30 while speaking to midshipmen at the united states naval academy in annapolis, maryland.

as was expected, bush did not set a timeframe for u.s. troop withdrawal, which is in direct opposition to recent calls for such a timetable by congressional leaders. the administration and its supporters label such a timeframe as "artificial". in his speech, bush characterized those calling for a withdrawal deadline as "sincere, but...sincerely wrong." and said "setting an artificial deadline to withdraw would vindicate the terrorists' tactics of beheadings and suicide bombings and mass murder -- and invite new attacks on america." 

bush admitted that there had been "some setbacks in training iraq’s security forces," and that their performance is still “uneven in some areas." earlier, in a congressional briefing, general casey, the top u.s. commander in iraq, had said that so far only one iraqi battalion out of 120 being trained was capable of mounting operations without support from u.s. forces. the strategy document released also stated that "it's not realistic to expect a fully functioning democracy able to defeat its enemies three years after saddam is finally removed from power," prompting questions about when the administration made such a determination. 

in the white house press briefing scott mcclellan did not directly answer a question about which, if any of the short, medium and long term goals set out in the strategy has been achieved, saying that "i want to say we've made real progress on all three fronts of the strategy for victory." senate majority leader bill frist (r-tenn) echoed the same sentiment, saying " ... examining the results on the ground, it's clear that we continue to make progress on the political, security and economic fronts"

senator john kerry (d-mass), felt the president was ignoring what his own generals are telling him. 

"the large presence of american forces on the ground feeds the insurgency," stated kerry. 

democratic politicians generally dismissed the speech as a repeat of old rhetoric. 

harry reid (d-nev), senate minority leader, accused bush of "recycling his tired rhetoric of 'stay the course'." according to reid, bush had "missed an opportunity to lay out a real strategy for success in iraq that will bring our troops safely home."

steve clemons, director of the american strategy programme at the new america foundation, said bush's war aims failed to address the strains on u.s. armed forces imposed by iraq. "it's a very expansive commitment and it blows by the structural questions," stated clemons. he added that those problems could only be resolved by a withdrawal, changing the current rules limiting the frequency of combat tours for individual units, or by moving towards a draft. clemons said bush was trying to escape those problems by portraying iraqi forces as more ready than they actually are. 

washington spends more than $6b a month to keep its forces in iraq. more than 2,100 americans and many more thousands of iraqis have been killed since the march 2003 invasion.



u.s. military covertly pays to run stories in iraqi press

the la times reported today that the u.s. is secretly paying iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by american troops. while these stories are mostly factual, they present only one side of events and blend out parts that don't reflect favourably on u.s. or iraqi governments. 

according to the report, the pentagon hired the lincoln group, a washington-based firm that translates the stories into arabic and places them in baghdad newspapers. when published, many of these articles are not marked as originating from the u.s. military, but presented as unbiased news reports, written by independent iraqi journalists. the la times quotes a senior military official, stating that "absolute truth was not an essential element of these stories."

earlier this year, the bush administration came under criticism for distributing videos and news stories in the united states without identifying the federal government as its source, and paying american journalists to promote administration policies. the government accountability office has characterized these practices as "covert propaganda."

u.s. law only prevents the military from planting propaganda through american news outlets. critics charge, however, that in the modern media environment, stories written for foreign news sources are likely to leak into american news.

the response from the pentagon was mixed, with rumsfeld's spokesperson bryan whitman saying that he was unaware of such practice, noting that "this article raises some question as to whether or not some of the practices that are described in there are consistent with the principles of this department." 

on the other hand, lt. col. barry johnson, a military spokesman in iraq, said "this is a military program initiated with the multi-national force to help get factual information about ongoing operations into iraqi news." 

"an important part of countering misinformation in the news by insurgents," added johnson.
"i want to emphasize that all information used for marketing these stories is completely factual."

u.s. spokesperson maj. gen. rick lynch defended the practices.

"we do empower our operational commanders with the ability to inform the iraqi public but everything we do is based on fact, not based on fiction," said lynch.

john schulz, a former executive with voice of america called the military program scary.

"the bush administration, and some elements within the defense department do not seem to grasp the irony that, in their efforts to create, impose or inspire democratic society in iraq, they are subverting the very core of what democracy means and are instead, by example, undercutting the very thing they are attempting to install in iraq," said schulz.



us gross domestic product grew during third quarter of 2005

the us government released a preliminary report on the us economy today. the report, produced by the bureau of economic analysis, states that the economy grew by 4.3 percent in the third quarter of 2005. in the second quarter of 2005, real gdp increased 3.3 percent. 

the rise is attributed to increases in personal consumption (4.2 percent), equipment and software (10.8 percent), government spending, and residential fixed investment (8.4 percent). imports, which deduct from the gdp, also increased. exports, however, increased.

government consumption expenditures increased 8.1 percent. national defense had an increase of 10.3 percent. nondefense spending increased 3.6 percent.

gross national product, which better reflects the economy in from the employee's perspective, increased 4.4 percent in the third quarter. 


orrin hatch accidentally compares iraq to vietnam

while discussing his reasons for opposing immediate withdrawal of u.s. troops from iraq, senator orrin hatch (r-utah) had a slip of the tongue, accidentally referring to iraq as vietnam. "the democratic party seems to be taken over by the michael moore contingent in their attitude toward vietnam, and they continually call for a withdrawal of troops at a time when we haven't finished the job." hatch was speaking on fox news. his spokesman, peter carr, said that senator hatch became confused because he had been reading an article earlier in the day comparing the two conflicts.

hatch has been a utah senator since 1976, when he defeated sen. frank moss (d) on a platform of term limits for u.s. senators. he is currently running against democrat pete ashdown for another term, and is expected to win re-election.

 


australian drug trafficker to be executed in singapore tomorrow

convicted australian drug trafficker van nguyen will be executed at singapore's changi prison tomorrow at 6:00am sgt (8:00pm tonight utc, 9:00am aest). nguyen was caught with 396.2 grams of heroin, more than 25 times the amount that mandates a death sentence.

following an appeal to the prime minister of singapore, lee hsien loong by australian prime minister john howard, nguyen was able to hold hands with his mother and brother as he said goodbye for the last time. 

supporters will hold a vigil outside the prison before his death.

on december 2, nguyen will be handcuffed and taken to the gallows in singapore's changi prison to be hanged for drug trafficking.


former uk law lord urges de-proscription of iranian opposition group mek

former uk law lord slynn of hadley, along with 1,300 british lawyers, urged home secretary jack straw in a press conference at the british house of lords in london to remove the mujahedin-e-khalq (mek), an iranian opposition group, from the eu's list of foreign terrorist organizations. 

they voiced their protest in an statement called " a call for justice". the statement reads: "… for detailed reasons, which are beyond the realm of this statement, renowned international legal experts have concluded that there is no legal basis for the proscription of the people's mojahedin organisation of iran - pmoi. terror tag on the mujahedin is the by-product of the failed policy of appeasement with the islamic republic of iran. continuing the mek proscription is nothing by more concession to the mullahs with serious consequences both for the region and world peace. "

the mek is militant organisation seeking to overthrow the government of the islamic republic of iran. apart from the eu, the united states also consider the mek to be a foreign terrorist organisation.


rebels launch assault in ramadi

reuters reports that around 400 armed men launched an attack on the town of ramadi, seizing control of various streets in the inner city. they allegedly set up checkpoints and distributed leaflets declaring that al-qaeda in iraq, a group led by jordanian militant abu musab al-zarqawi, was taking over the city. 

reuters reports that there were no u.s. forces in the streets and that the u.s. military did not immediately respond to a request for information about the situation.

ramadi is at the south-west of the so-called sunni triangle and its population-size is around 400'000.


iraqi rebels seize control of ramadi's inner city

reuters reports that around 400 armed men launched an attack on the town of ramadi, seizing control of various streets in the inner city. they allegedly set up checkpoints and distributed leaflets declaring that al-qaeda in iraq, a group led by jordanian militant abu musab al-zarqawi, was taking over the city. 

reuters reports that there were no u.s. forces in the streets and that the u.s. military did not immediately respond to a request for information about the situation.

ramadi is at the south-west of the so-called sunni triangle and its population is around 400,000.



no final embrace for condemned man

convicted australian drug trafficker van tuong nguyen has been denied permission to embrace his mother and twin brother before his execution. 

following a request from nguyen’s mother, kim nguyen, and supported by strong international pressure, singapore refused a contact visit, but will allow them to hold hands.

in a statement released by singapore’s ministry of foreign affairs, government officials said contact visits were too traumatic and destabilising for both prisoners and family members. 

in response, australia’s foreign minister, alexander downer, said, "my view is that a prisoner who is to be executed confronts the greatest of all destabilisation to have his life taken away from him, so i don't really identify with that statement.”

mr downer then conceded that "it'll perhaps be very meagre compensation, of course it will be, but it will be nice that they can touch each other…it's better than nothing."

an unnamed singaporean lawyer claimed contact would be made through a hole in the wall. "i think they will bring him to another room and there will be an aperture through which they can reach,” the lawyer said.

the 25-year-old australian man was convicted of trafficking 396 grams of heroin, an offence which carries a mandatory death penalty under singapore law. he received no remissions for a full confession.

he will be executed by hanging at 09:00 aedt tomorrow.

meanwhile, australians attended protest vigils in sydney and melbourne tonight. tim goodwin from amnesty international told the sydney crowd that the death penalty is not an acceptable punishment. "it is ineffective, it is dangerous, it is extreme and it is the most barbaric, brutalising punishment," he said.

 


first quantum byte created

the institute of quantum optics and quantum information at the university of innsbruck in austria has created an entanglement of eight quantum particles, yielding a quantum byte or "qubyte", or eight qubits. this is an important step toward the realization of a practical quantum computer, which would use superposed quantum states to perform complex calculations. a detailed writeup of this work is available in 
english and german. the formal paper was published in the december 1 issue of nature.

contributors to the breakthrough are researchers from iqoqi under the supervision of rainer blatt and hartmut haffner in coaction with otfried guhne and wolfgang dur of the innsbruck research group directed by hans jurgen briegelhave.

with a trap using magnetic fields they captured eight calcium ions, lined them up, and set them up in "w states" using a complicated laser technology. a quantum byte with eight ions provides a computing matrix of 65,536 (0-255 x 0-255) elements that are mostly independent. it is suggested that the method should be scalable so that the number of ions could be increased. this experiment proves that the kind of ion traps used in innsbruck are the most promising technology for the realization of large computing matrices.



australian van nguyen executed in singapore

convicted australian drug trafficker van tuong nguyen was executed at changi prison in singapore today. prison officials have confirmed the execution took place at 0900 aedt (2200 utc thursday). 

the 25-year-old nguyen was arrested at changi airport in december, 2002, while in transit from cambodia to australia. he was found to be in possession of 396.2 grams of heroin. he was convicted in the singapore high court and sentenced to death under the misuse of drugs act which mandates a death sentence for trafficking more than 15 grams of heroin. 

all appeals for clemency were rejected. singapore's high commissioner in australia, joseph koh, said singapore carefully considered appeals from australia but decided the law must be applied consistently. "it had to treat nguyen consistently with similar past cases, and apply the law equally to singaporeans and foreigners," mr koh said.

after saying goodbye to his client, nguyen's australian lawyer, julian mcmahon, said nguyen's execution was a waste. "he is completely rehabilitated, completely reformed, completely focused on doing what is good and now they're going to kill him," he said.

it was previously reported that nguyen's mother would not be permitted to embrace her son before the execution, however, mr mcmahon has confirmed that they were allowed some physical contact. "well i actually wasn't in the room when that happened but there was a grill and they were able to hold each other's hands and kim was able to, at least for some time, i'm not sure how long, was able to touch van on the face," he said. "she told me she was able to talk to him and touch his hair. that was a great comfort to her."

prayer vigils were held outside changi prison and around australia to mark the first execution of an australian since michael mcauliffe in malaysia in 1993. nguyen's body is expected to be returned to australia on saturday for a funeral next week.


australian senate sits for extra day, passes industrial relations legislation

the australian senate sits for an unusual extra day today, in order to finish considering amendments to the . an extended sitting of the senate was held yesterday, december 1, considering these amendments. 

the bill has been declared as urgent and as consequently a timetable for debate is set, so the bill would have either passed or not in its entirety today. key senator has expressed his support of the bill due to his influencing government amendments dealing with public holidays. non-government senators expressed their concerns yesterday and today in regard to these amendments ? senator introduced amendment to try and complement the government amendments, but the government has expressed that they will not be supporting them as they do not contain "right to refuse" provisions.

the senate had not finished debate on all the amendments in the nine page outline of business before 4.30 pm, the time set by the earlier guillotine, and the amendments were consequently put without debate. non-government members did not pursue divisions on all the amendments other than key ones. ominously, during the following third reading debate, fierce thunderstorms had brought about the use of emergency power to the parliament with opposition senator saying that "the lights
may have just gone out in the senate chamber, but they
do not go out on the labour movement!". persons in the gallery of the senate were applauding to non-government speeches, which brought about support from the opposition and skepticism from government senators saying that "no amount of guffaws from those who have been trundled in here today to stand up the back will change the fact that we have been re-elected four times by australian working men and women."

due to government numbers, the bill eventually passed the third reading debate. 



federal opposition hounds treasurer over appointment to rba board, gerard resigns

the australian federal opposition has hounded the treasurer, peter costello, over the appointment of robert gerard to the reserve bank of australia (rba) board. mr gerard announced on friday 2nd that he will resign from the board, citing the events of this week as the reason.

on tuesday, november 29, wayne swan, the shadow treasurer asked of costello in the first question of question time about an apparent statement that costello made to gerard, namely, "i know there's an issue with the tax office but i don't have a problem with you on the board". costello responded that he had no problem with gerard, noting that "he brings a great understanding of australian manufacturing industry to the board", and that the obligatory declaration of interest was "indeed was signed by mr gerard".

later it was said by swan in the house of representatives that gerard's company was using "tax havens as tax avoidance schemes to the value of $150 million" and that the declaration of interest mentioned was only in regard to his personal affairs and on asking the treasurer when he knew this, claimed that him actually knowing the information "would breach the secrecy act". later swan revealed that gerard "and his corporate vehicles" have been "susbtantial donors" to the liberal party. costello maintained that the government "[does] not think that supporting the liberal party is a disqualification from holding ministerial office, prime ministerial office, treasury office or other offices in australia"

swan moved a censure motion to "provide this house with a full and proper explanation of...his communications with mr robert gerard...and his knowledge of mr robert gerard's dispute with the australian taxation office...", which failed in the government's favour with votes 83 to 59 in division.

on wednesday, november 30, swan opened the house in a movement to suspend standing orders again to get information from the treasurer, stating that "the treasurer is in real strife" before the parliamentary secretary to the treasurer moved the gag. in question time, the opposition continued to ask every question in regard to the appointment of gerard. the leader of the opposition kim beazley revealed in his question to the treasurer that "some of his cabinet colleagues have privately said that they did not consider mr gerard was 'a good choice' in the first place for the reserve bank board". the treasurer responded that gerard's "appointment was supported by all
members of the cabinet"

in the subsequent matters of public importance debate, the matter selected was that proposed by wayne swan, namely, "the need for the treasurer to uphold the highest standards of probity in the selection of candidates for the reserve bank board."

on thursday, december 1, the opposition again reserved a number of its questions for inquiring about gerard's appointment. swan revealed in a question to the treasurer that gerard corporation had "acquired an investment company in the tax haven of the british virgin islands eight months after the treasurer recommended his appointment to the reserve bank board". costello responded to swan referring him to "a statement about that allegation in the "australian financial review" today...in which he makes it clear that no income
has been derived."

later, the leader of the opposition tried to move a censure motion on the treasurer, but leave of the house was not granted, so he had to resort to moving a motion to suspend standing orders to move the same motion, to censure the treasurer for his appointment. the motion failed due to government numbers, but the matters for public importance (which follows question time) which was selected as "the need for the government to govern for all australians
not just a privileged few." in order to draw a comparison with the unequal treatment of the treasurer in supporting gerard and the new industrial relations legislation, dubbed workchoices, and said how the treasurer and the prime minister were "laughing up their sleeves", that the treasurer was "not fit to lead", and gerard "is the worst attendee on the reserve bank board." 

the minister for workplace relations, kevin andrews, however focused elsewhere on the mpi, and drew the attention of the australian labor party's ties to the unions, had described the opposition as a "policy free zone", said that "there is one group that represents privilege in this place and that is the australian labor party", and stressed the benefits of workchoices.

craig emerson noted that the queensland branch of the liberal party participated in "deliberate tax evasion", and that mr gerard "paid penalty tax in circumstances of deliberate tax evasion". emerson later said that the liberal party was "soft on tax cheats", "soft on tax cheating liberal party donors...and members".

the adjournment debate also brought up criticism of gerard's appointment in the adjournment debate. christopher bowen noted the "disquiet" in the media, and noted the previous board member bernie fraser also calling for his dismissal. bernard ripoll called for a "full inquiry" into the government's "self serving public policy".

swan has said that gerard had done the "honourable thing", but that he will not let up on pressing the treasurer for a full disclosal of the facts.

the house of representatives as of this date sits next on december 5, 2005.



man charged with huxley attack

in campbelltown, australia, a 36-year-old carpenter faced the local court with charges stemming from five offences relating to the november 9 assault of a northmead teenager named lauren huxley. robert black farmer, also a resident of northmead, was arrested by nsw state protection group officers.

ms. huxley was bashed unconscious, gagged, tied up and doused in petrol. her attacker then set fire to the house and fled the scene. firefighters rescued her from the floor of the garage. the 18-year-old remains in a critical condition in intensive care at sydney’s westmead hospital.

police prosecutor jennifer chenhall told the court detectives have collected a large amount of forensic evidence and have taken numerous statements. one of the charges against farmer relating to the assault includes causing grievous bodily harm with intent to murder. he did not apply for bail and was remanded into custody to face parramatta local court on january 19, 2006.

the arrest comes days after nsw police commissioner, ken moroney, condemned the attack as the worst he had seen in his 40 years of policing and promised that detectives would not rest until the guilty party was caught.

 


hostage standoff in north reading, massachusetts ends in tragedy

in what appeared to be a hostage situation ended in tragedy this afternoon in the quiet massachusetts town of when the body of a 72-year old man, roaldas baran, and his 65-year old wife, zinaida girdauskiene, were found dead in an apparent at 14 country club road.

the situation began when a neighbor heard four gunshots and a woman screaming and called . police arrived at the home, and encountered the 72-year old man standing over, a brief conversation was held with the man who then went back inside the house. then a fifth shot was fired. the team of the north eastern massachusetts law enforcement council was brought in to clear the house and evacuate the surrounding houses. the was also on hand.

, the for , reported on what was found upon the swat team entering the house. ""in the bedroom, lying, apparently a victim of several gunshot wounds, was a female. we know her to be approximately 65-years-old. in the kitchen on the floor, also apparently the victim of a suicide, was a male we know now to be approximately 72-years-old who was her husband."" emily lagrassa, coxley's spokeperson said the man apparently shot the woman and turned the gun on himself. two guns were recovered.

north reading police had been called to the house once before in august 2004. the north reading police are currently investigating further.


search continues for missing plane of george f. baker iii off coast of nantucket, massachusetts

the united states coast guard is currently searching still for the downed beechcraft twin-engine plane piloted by philanthropist george f. baker iii off the coast of nantucket, massachusetts. 

air-traffic controllers lost radar contact with pilot during the afternoon, even though the pilot has just talked with them moments before. the plane also did not issue a distress signal.

weather is not believed to be a factor as visibility was above five miles.


joseph de veuster voted greatest belgian

yesterday, december 1, 2005, the election for the "greatest belgian" ("de grootste belg") was won by father damien (joseph de veuster). runners up were dr. paul janssen, founder of janssen pharmaceutica, and eddy merkx, a cyclist.

father damien is famous for working and living with lepers on molokai, where he persisted in caring for the outcasts, against directions of church hierarchy. eventually, father damien died from leprosy himself.

the belgian "greatest national" poll is organized separately by the flemish and the walloon regional television stations. father damien was elected "greatest belgian" ("de grootste belg") in the poll organized by the flemish television. next week, the walloon poll will conclude, so belgium will have two "greatest belgians".

 


both sides of kenya's constitution dispute are negotiating

after kenyans voted "no" for the implementation of the new constitution, the "orange" anti-constitution campaign and the "banana" pro-constitution campaign finally sat down together to discuss the way forward. 

the draft constitution would have banned foreign land ownership, set the prime minister position to report to the country's president, banned same-sex marriages and restricted regional political parties. it would have also given women equal rights to inherit property, and addressed local elections. the country was attempting to rewrite its post-colonial constitution. this draft constitution was brought forward by the attorney general, amos wako. 

a day after the results were announced, the president of the country, mwai kibaki, fired his whole cabinet. it is not yet known what he plans to do, but hopes for reconciliation are high: a member of the opposition called on the president "to provide leadership in the way forward".



court finds random bag searches in nyc subway constitutional

the new york civil liberties union lost their court battle today regarding the constitutionality of the new york police department's policy of conducting random bag searches in the new york city subway system, which took effect july 21, 2005, in the wake of the attacks on the london underground.

finding that "the risk of a terrorist bombing of new york city's subway system is real and substantial," u.s. district judge richard m. berman ruled that random bag searches are not as intrusive as alleged by the nyclu. justice berman noted that "the threat of terrorism is great and the consequences of unpreparedness may be catastrophic", and reasoned that it would be folly not to allow random searches to take place. former counterterrorism official richard clarke, testified that the unpredictability of the city's searches would deter potential terrorists.

nyclu legal director christopher dunn disagreed with the court's ruling, and believes the decision gives too much power for vague and unsubstantiated threats. "while concerns about terrorism may well justify certain extraordinary measures, they cannot support an indefinite program by which police officers are searching hundreds of thousands of innocent new yorkers seeking to do nothing more than ride the subway."

there are no known plans for appeal by the nyclu, nor word from the mta if the policy will be expanded to its other transit systems, such as the city's busses, the long island railroad, and metro-north railroad.



best's body arrives in northern ireland

the body of former manchester united player, george best, has arrived in northern ireland. it was flown into raf aldergrove, on a chartered plane accompanied by his son, calum, and his agent, phil hughes. bests family, including his father dickie were waiting at the runway of raf base in county antrim.

mr.bests body was then driven in a black herse along a 20-mile route to the home of best's father, dickie, in the cregagh estate in east belfast, where it will be kept overnight.

up to 500,000 people are expected to line the streets to stormont, the northern ireland parliament buildings, where a public funeral ceremony for the former manchester united and northern ireland football player will be held tomorrow.

mr best died at the cromwell hospital in london last friday afternoon, aged 59. a private family service will be held at best's fathers home, which has been turned into a shrine to his son. then a service will take place in the great hall at stormont, before best is buried in a private family service beside his mother ann at roselawn cemetery. among the people attending the private ceremony will be best's lifelong friend denis law, harry gregg and derek dougan.


judge allows student to sue school for revealing sexuality

a u.s. federal judge ruled on nov. 28 that 17-year old charlene nguon can sue her high school principal who revealed to her mother that she is lesbian.

the lawsuit, brought in september by a high school senior in california, claims she was unfairly disciplined by the school for kissing her girlfriend. she also alleges that her sexuality caused the school to suspend her when there was no specific policy addressing displays of public affection in the student handbook, and that her privacy rights were violated when the school principal revealed to her parents that she was lesbian.

the school district sought to have the charges dismissed by arguing in part that nguon was openly gay on campus, and therefore had no right to privacy on the matter.

judge james v. selna of the central district court of california found that the school district was immune from the plaintiff’s claims in a 13-page finding issued on monday. however, the individual administrators, the school principal and superintendent, did not qualify for immunity. in his findings he noted that the administrators did not take "action to stop or remedy the alleged harassment and discrimination", and did not enact an "adequate formal or informal policy to ensure that santiago high is providing a learning environment free from discrimination", which is a requirement of the california education code.

in allowing the lawsuit to move forward, judge selna found that nguon had "sufficiently alleged a legally protected privacy interest in information about her sexual orientation." 

nguon is seeking unspecified damages and is being represented by the american civil liberties union of southern california. 

"this is the first court ruling we’re aware of where a judge has recognized that a student has a right not to have her sexual orientation disclosed to her parents," said christine sun, nguon's lawyer.

nguon was found in the hallway openly kissing and hugging her girlfriend, actions permitted between heterosexual students at the santiago high school in garden grove, california. the school principal, ben wolf, told nguon's mother about her daughter's sexuality after the student failed to stop the displays of affection between her and her girlfriend. during this time, nguon was suspended numerous times for ignoring the requests, and was ultimately forced to temporarily change schools.

no trial date is set. the parties are scheduled to return to court on jan. 23.


 


thousands demand climate change action

thousands of people across australia are taking part in protests calling on the federal government to ratify the kyoto protocol. the 'walk against warming' is part of an international day of action in 40 countries, coinciding with the united nations climate change talks in montreal, quebec, canada.

according to the walk against warming group, "the need to reduce greenhouse gases is at crisis point, we must act now for the sustainability of our planet for future generations."

melinda cook, nature conservation council of new south wales official, says governments need to take much stronger action on the issue of climate change. 

"this international day has been called to put pressure on australia and the us to ratify and to make sure governments are aware that the community is demanding serious commitments and action on greenhouse gas reduction," said cook.

siding with the united states, the australian federal government has refused to ratify the kyoto protocol on climate change, arguing it is damaging to their economic interests. federal environment minister ian campbell says australia is focused on measures that should be taken after kyoto expires in 2012.

"we need to do something that suits the developed world, something that suits the rapidly developing world, partnerships, technologies, economic mechanisms that drive us towards that," said campbell. "we're nowhere near that at the moment and australia wants to be a constructive part of driving us towards a very useful post-kyoto regime."

protesters across australia are using the international day of action on climate change to demand the government adopt a clean energy policy. hundreds of people marched through sydney on saturday to mark the day. 

the protest against global warming coincides with the 12-day conference in montreal, which will discuss climate change measures and future international action when the kyoto protocol expires at the end of 2012. australia and the united states are the only western industrialised nations which refuse to ratify the global kyoto protocol. australia has delegates at the montreal meeting, but will only act as observers.

melinda cook said scientists had predicted huge negative consequences including extreme weather and even social and economic impacts if steps were not taken now. cook also said governments must make a "serious commitment" not to build any more coal fire powered stations.

the united states bush administration and the australian howard government have refused to ratify the kyoto agreement, which pledges industrialised nations to cut carbon dioxide levels to 5.2 per cent below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012.

global action

up to a million people will take to the streets of more than 100 cities across dozens of countries today to demand greater action on global warming. organizers of the protests say the world's leading industrialised nations had failed to make an impact on climate change and some, in particular britain, were backsliding on their environmental commitments.

the united nations meeting in montreal, will be attended by representatives of 189 countries. the centerpiece of the international day of climate protest will be a mass protest in montreal, where at least 15,000 people are expected to lobby delegates.

across the planet, protests are being held in locations from helsinki to seoul. in washington, drivers of fuel-efficient hybrid cars will rally around the white house. in new orleans - devastated by hurricane katrina in august - there will be a "stop global warming" street party in the french quarter.

"there is probably very little we can expect [from montreal] because we are doing nothing to keep fossil fuel in the ground. all these techno-fixes are a waste of time if we continue to burn fossil fuel at the same rate," said george monbiot, an academic and environment commentator, who will address a rally in london.

"there is a lot of cynicism about what the british government is doing. [prime minister] tony blair has promised much and persuaded many that he will deliver but it has turned out to be rubbish. blair had no intention of doing anything on climate change other than talk about it. but this weekend's protests are taking place in a changed context - the media are listening and finally we have to make the politicians listen."



east timor - australia problematic billion-dollar gas and oil accord

australia and east timor officials signed a billion-dollar gas and oil accord, which is necessary because of a current maritime border dispute between the countries, which covers a major oil field. although the accord has to be ratified by east timor's parliament which is ruled by fretilin with 55 seats the biggest block in parliament, but all the smaller parties are said to be working together to veto the deal.

in 1975, portugal abandoned east timor and the people declared self-independence only to be invaded by indonesia with out any intervention from australia or the united states. indonesia then agreed on no formal maritime boards but on a joint exploitation zone splitting profits 50/50. indonesian rule in east timor was marked by extreme violence and brutality and following a un-sponsored agreement between indonesia, portugal and the us, east timor held a referendum and gained independence, but violent indonesian sponsored militia took hold. a peacekeeping force (interfet, led by australia) then intervened putting a stop to the violence. the exploitation zone splitting profits was then changed to 60% in favour of australia, but now a new deal has been proposed 90/10 in favour of timor. in the mean time australia has been accused of profiting by up to 2 billion dollars between the deals by activist groups like http://www.timorseajustice.org/ whose campaigning saw woodside suspended oil pumping in the affected area. 

contemporary international law asserts that the area under dispute belongs to east timor. australia has withdrawn from the maritime division of the international court of justice, which could have settled this matter, instead opting to try to settle the matter without the court.

the previous deal has caused political infighting within east timor about why such a smaller percentage was accepted. 


us passes 1000 executions in 30 years

double murderer kenneth lee boyd became the 1,000th prisoner executed in the united states since 1976. another man was put to death on friday for the 1994 murder of a store clerk, becoming the 1,001st person executed in the united states since capital punishment was reinstated 28 years ago.

the milestone drew a wave of protesters to the central prison in raleigh, n.c., who opposed capital punishment.

kenneth lee boyd, 57, of rockingham, n.c., died by lethal injection for the 1988 shootings of his estranged wife, julie curry boyd, who was 36, and her father, thomas dillard curry, 57. members of both families had asked to be present for the execution.

boyd told associated press in a prison interview that he wanted no part of the infamous numerical distinction of being the 1000th prisoner executed. "i'd hate to be remembered as that," boyd said on wednesday. "i don't like the idea of being picked as a number." 

some argued that boyd, who had an i.q. of 77, should not have been executed. the cutoff for mental retardation in some states, a mitigating factor in some capital cases, is an i.q. of 75. boyd never denied his guilt, but said he couldn't remember killing anyone and didn't know why he did it. 

boyd's son, kenneth smith, 35, who visited his dad every day for the last two weeks, said in an interview on thursday that he felt the attention paid to the milestone had hurt his father's chances for clemency. smith also said his dad was deeply troubled that he might only be remembered as a grim hash mark in the history books. "he didn't want to be 999, and he didn't want to be 1001 if you know what i mean," said smith. "he wanted to live."
belinda j. foster, district attorney for rockingham, n.c., who prosecuted boyd, said she felt confident that the death penalty was warranted in this case. "there are cases that are so horrendous and the evidence so strong it just warrants a death sentence," ms. foster said. michael paranzino, president of the pro-death penalty group throw away the key, agreed. "you'll never stop crimes of passion, but i do believe the death penalty is a general deterrent, and it expresses society's outrage," paranzino said.

"we believe this occasion is the perfect time to reconsider the whole issue of execution," said william f. schulz, executive director of amnesty international, a human rights group that has sought to end the practice of using executions as a punishment for crime around the world. "since 1976, about one in eight prisoners on death row in the u.s. has been exonerated. that should raise serious questions about ending a person's life," schulz said.

according to the non-governmental organization amnesty international, the countries people's republic of china, iran and vietnam are the only nations with more executions in 2004 than the united states. thirty-eight of the 50 us states and the federal government permit capital punishment. an october 2005 gallup poll found that 64 percent of all americans support capital punishment in murder cases.

north carolina executed two prisoners last month, as well as two others earlier in the year.

debate over capital punishment

the grim milestone has prompted global outcry from human rights advocates. in a media statement the european union also condemned the execution, calling for the end of the death penalty worldwide. "we consider this punishment cruel and inhuman. it does not act as a deterrent and any miscarriage of justice - which is inevitable in any legal system - is irreversible." "it is a scandal that the death penalty still exists in a civilised country like the united states of america," said petra herrmann, chairwoman of the german group alive e v.

boyd's death rallied death penalty opponents, and about 150 protesters gathered outside the prison. after watching boyd die, rockingham county (n.c.) sheriff sam page said the victims should be remembered. "tonight, justice has been served for mr. kenneth boyd. what i would ask you to do is not forget the victims of this crime," page said. "pray for them. pray for them and their healing." 

"this is one small step for humankind - backwards," said veteran american campaigner clive stafford smith in an interview with reuters. "the death penalty makes us all far more barbaric. i have watched a lot of people die, and when you come out from watching someone being executed it certainly isn't a better world."

according to kenyan national human rights commission chairman maina kiai, "[it is] a great pity that the us can keep on executing people [when much of the developed world had already ended the death penalty]." "also, the fact that in the us a lot of death sentences that are carried out invariably affect people of colour and poor people, it's an issue of great concern," kiai said.

in singapore, where a 25-year-old australian was hanged just hours before boyd's execution, sinapan samydorai, president of the think-tank think centre, said there was no justice without life. "the us is supposed to be a champion of human rights and democracy, yet they do not recognise the right to life," he said. singapore has a mandatory death sentence for crimes such as murder, firearms offences and drug trafficking, and has hanged 420 people since 1991, mainly for drug trafficking. singapore's death penalty is often believed to enjoy wide public support; although details remain obscure for political reasons.

in japan, where the death penalty is also widely supported, akiko takada of anti-capital punishment group forum 90 said despite frequent use of the death penalty in the united states, "crime there shows no signs of diminishing, so ultimately the death of these people has no effect."



compensation funding agreement reached for australian asbestos victims

james hardie industries has signed a final agreement designed to ensure that compensation will be received by victims who suffer health consequences due to their exposure to the company's asbestos products. the deal, signed on thursday, is expected to cost the company $4.5 billion over the next 40 years, and james hardie is obligated to pay 35 per cent of its free cash flow during each of those years to fund a compensation trust. 

the australian corporate watchdog asic (australian securities and investments commission) is gaining ground on james hardie industries corporate members. it is understood that the company's agreement with the nsw government will not provide hardie directors and executives with the immunities from civil prosecution sought by the company. the possible charges for the members range as high as jail terms of up to five years. 

according to "the weekend australian", a source said, "this arrangement suited asic because rather than channelling its efforts into cases that could provide compensation, it can concentrate on alleged offences that could result in criminal prosecution or banning officers from holding directorships or management positions." 
nsw special commissioner david jackson qc said that former hardie chief executive peter macdonald engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct when he told the stock exchange that the asbestos compensation trust hardie set up in 2001 with $293 million would be "fully funded". at around the same time, james hardie share holders voted for the relocation of its corporate base from australia to the netherlands.

another alleged issue is a controversial $1.9 billion share cancellation, which a nsw mp said attracted asic to look at the activities of hardie chairwoman meredith hellicar. 

the asic task force plan to collect and analyse documents and interview witnesses into at least the middle of next year. until then, any possible new charges are unlikely.


new prince is born in norway

at 10.45 local time, crown princess mette-marit of norway gave birth to a boy at norway's national hospital, the rikshospitalet university hospital in . the new prince is third in line to the throne. "all is well with mother and son," crown prince haakon confirmed at a press conference later that day. due to strict official protocol the name will not be made public until monday, when king harald will gather the "state council", or the cabinet, and inform the government. usually the prime minister will announce the name in front of the royal palace. 

latest news : the prince is named sverre magnus.


military admits planting news in iraq

u.s. military officials have now confirmed that the u.s. military has been paying iraqi newspapers to publish positive news about u.s. efforts in iraq. this confirms the report that the "los angeles times" broke last week.

earlier this year, the bush administration came under criticism for distributing videos and news stories in the united states without identifying the federal government as its source, and paying american journalists to promote administration policies. the government accountability office has characterized these practices as "covert propaganda."



south dakota tower demolition botched

south dakotans got more than a charity bash saturday after a planned demolition of the tallest building in south dakota, a feed plant tower, went badly. experts will attempt to reprise their role on monday, planting more explosives to topple the now leaning zip feed mill tower of sioux falls, or perhaps finish it by smashing it down with a wrecking ball. 

some would like to see the odd landmark stay in its 30 degree list as a tourist attraction. but few believe the partnership that owns it will stand for such a ruse. most believe the tower is a major menace in its present half-demolished position. 

tickets were sold for a dollar each to raise money for local charities, raising over $100,000. the massive concrete structure's ability to withstand the timed and computer designed blasting pattern was underestimated. 

the 202 foot tower was the tallest building in south dakota, but may no longer be so due to its tilt.




scissors, screwdrivers accepted on us flights beginning december 22

the united states transportation security administration (tsa) announced friday that it will relax proscriptions against certain carry-on items. beginning december 22, travelers flying in the united states will be allowed to carry scissors less than four inches in length and screwdrivers less than seven inches in length.

the tsa hopes that by relaxing restrictions on scissors and screwdrivers, screeners will be able to more closely guard against items such as box cutters and bomb making materials. there have been no restrictions on items such as scissor and screwdrivers in checked luggage -- in fact, box cutters, ice axes/picks, knives, meat cleavers, razor-type blades, sabers, and swords can all be transported in checked baggage.

as part of a broader security realignment, tsa screeners will begin performing more random searches of carry-on bags, pat downs, and hand-wand searches of travelers.

"by incorporating unpredictability into our procedures and eliminating low-threat items, we can better focus our efforts on stopping individuals that wish to do us harm," tsa chief kip hawley said.

flight attendants and pilots largely oppose the changes in permitted items -- they maintain that the changes undermine flight security.



bush's iraq 'strategy' seen as public relations exercise

the us commander of the multinational security transition command in iraq said that he had no knowledge of the "national strategy for victory in iraq" document released by the us president. this, along with speculation that the document was chiefly authored by a public opinion analyst recruited by the white house have led to some critics claiming that the drafted 'strategy' is targeting us public opinion, not the iraqi insurgency.

the military, political and economic strategy for iraq, outlined last week by president bush in a speech at the naval academy in annapolis, maryland, was based by a 35-page document titled the "national strategy for victory in iraq". a metadata tag on the document posted on the white house website identified its author as a computer user 'feaver_p'. it is believed to refer to dr. peter d. feaver, a special advisor to the national security council staff.

a political scientist at duke university, dr. feaver analyzed public opinion polls about the iraq war and attitudes towards war casualties. dr. feaver found that us public opinion will support military engagement abroad, despite growing casualties, provided that the public believed that the war was being fought for a worthy cause and that victory was achievable.

dr. feaver was one of the people who helped "conceive and draft" the document, according to a white house staffer, who said that meghan l. o'sullivan, the deputy national security adviser for iraq and afghanistan, and her staff played a larger role. white house officials confirmed to the "new york times" that the document's "creation and presentation strongly reflected the public opinion research". 

the document "reflects the broad interagency effort under way in iraq" according to an nsc spokesman frederick jones and had received major contributions from the departments of defense, state, treasury and homeland security, as well as the director of national intelligence. 

on friday, lt. gen. martin dempsey, whose multinational security transition command is responsible for building iraq's security forces, told reporters that he had seen the strategy document for the first time when it was released to the public. the white house had said that not all senior officers in iraq had necessarily seen the document and gen. peter pace, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, has said that he had read and critiqued the document on several occasions.

earlier, replying to questions about the president's strategy, white house press secretary scott mcclellan said that the document was an "inter-agency document" and an "unclassified version" of the administrations "strategy for victory in iraq" published for the public to view. 

christopher f. gelpi, of duke university, who co-authored dr. feaver's work titled "casualty sensitivity and the war in iraq," stated, "the pentagon doesn't need the president to give a speech and post a document on the white house web site to know how to fight the insurgents. the document is clearly targeted at american public opinion." in their work together, gelpi, feaver and reifler found that the most important factor which determines the us public's tolerance for us military deaths in a war is the public's "beliefs about the likelihood of success," and a secondary, but still important, factor, was found to be the public's belief in the rightness of a war.



turkish islamic militant claims interrogation and torture by cia agents

turkish daily newspaper "sabah" reported that the leader of ansar el islam group (soldiers of god) claimed that prior to the nato summit in 2004 in istanbul, "he was interrogated by three foreigners and beaten."

on 29 april 2004, before the nato summit, which was to be held in june in istanbul, alpaslan toprak, who is claimed to be the turkish representative of ansar el islam, and 15 others were detained by the police after being given information by the cia. 

toprak was separated from others in his group. he was blindfolded and interrogated in a secret location by four people, three of whom were speaking in english. he was beaten up and a gun was placed on his head. his allegations were included in his court statement, dated 12 may 2005.

according to the "sabah", during the interrogation of toprak, a cia plane was in turkey.

the cia has not issued a statement about the specific claims.


blogger attacks amazon &quot;one-click&quot; patent

a lone blogger has recently mailed a request for re-examination of the amazon "one-click" shopping patent to the us patent office. as prior art, he is using an early e-commerce patent and some information about digicash from sources such as the wayback machine, which ironically uses data from alexa (wholly owned by amazon).

he is asking others to submit additional prior art and points out that there may be other prior art that can be found. he is also looking for donations to cover some of his costs such as the usd $2,520 reexamination fee. 


top al-qaeda leader killed in pakistan

pakistani security forces have reportedly killed abu hamza rabia, one of top five leaders in international islamic fundamentalist campaign al-qaeda. with the help of the united states, pakistani forces tracked down rabia and killed him in a rocket attack near the pakistani-afghan border.

rabia was among five people who were killed in the blast on thursday in north waziristan. according to official reports corroborated by pakistani president general pervez musharraf, the blast was set off as the victims were making explosives inside a suspected al-qaeda hideout. an anonymous senior intelligence officer said that a missile attack triggered a massive explosion in a stockpile of bomb-making materials, grenades and other munitions.

hamza rabia is a key associate of ayman al-zawahiri, a prominent figure in al-qaeda. "after osama bin laden and ayman al-zawahri, rabia was the most senior al qaeda official for international terrorism planning," a us counteterrorism official said. according to officials, rabia ranks somewhere between third and fifth in the organization's hierarchy. he is believed to have become the network's operational commander after the capture of abu farraj al-libbi in pakistan in may.

intelligence officials said that rabia was the target of the attack due to his alleged involvement in terror attacks and killings of government officials. he was brought to miran shah, a strategic tribal region where remaining al-qaeda members are believed to have been hiding, by al-zawahri, who is believed to have been on the run along the border. officials, however, say that they have no idea on the whereabouts of al-zawahri or osama bin laden.

bodies of rabia and two other foreigners were retreived and buried by associates from outside pakistan, according to pakistan's english-language dawn newspaper.


world squash titles for shabana and david

amr shabana and nicol david won the men's and women's world squash open's respectively, today, in hong kong. it was shabana's second world title in three years, as the egyptian also won in 2003. it was david's first time winning the biggest tournament in the world. 

shabana beat australian david palmer 11/6,11/7,11/8 in 40 minutes. shabana is currently ranked number 5 in the world, and will likely move into the top 3 next month, as neither the world #1 (theirry lincou), or number 2 (james willstrop) reached the final.

david, who is from malaysia, secured the #1 spot in next month's rankings by reaching the final. david defeated number 1 seed rachel grinham, of australia 8/10,9/2,9/6,9/7 in 53 minutes, to take the title.

 


business briefs for december 4, 2005

these are short blurbs about current events in the business world.

financial ministers and central bank governors from the g7 countries are pressuring china to make it's exchange rate more flexible. "we expect that further flexible implementation of china's currency system would improve the functioning and stability of the global economy and the international monetary system," they said in a written statement. separately us treasury secretary john snow said "china's new exchange rate system has operated with too " he remarked "this rigidity constrains exchange rate flexibility in the region and thus poses risks to china's economy and the global economy."

virgin mobile is in merger talks with the cable operator ntl inc. the deal will create uk's first company able to provide mobile, landline, broadband, and tv services. richard branson, who holds 72% of virgin mobile, will own 14% of the new company to be called virgin. the company will pose a strategic threat to sky broadcasting, which is 37% owned by rupert murdoch's news corporation.

retail gas prices in the united states have dropped an average of 11 cents in the past two weeks according to the lundberg survey.
the survey, released today, says the weighted average price for all three grades fell to $2.16 a gallon as of december 2. the semimonthly survey surveys 7,000 gas stations nationwide. the lowest average price for regular unleaded was $1.89 a gallon in tulsa, ok. the highest price was $2.55 in honolulu. gas prices have fallen about 88 cents a gallon since september according to lundberg.


us, uk persuade russia and china of laptop authenticity

iran's nuclear issue is heating up as united states and britain try to persuade russia and china to accept the authenticity of the evidence found in "the laptop" given to the u.s. nuclear experts showing iran's detailed plans for building a nuclear bomb.

the islamic republic's long time main opposition group mujahedin-e-khalq, a.k.a. (pmoi), has been bringing the nuclear issue to the world's attention.

in a press conference in washington, in august 2002, the mujahedin-e-khalq revealed iran's secret nuclear plan for the first time shocking the western intelligence communities.

three years since then, new evidence emerging each month has created more suspicions about what iran claims to be a peaceful project for civilian use.

driven by increasing pressure from the european allies who have backed down from talks, the islamic republic has hyped up their global campaign to discredit the mujahedin-e-khalq. some policy makers who offered to put the iranian opposition in the list of terrorist organizations now repent from their past policy. the pmoi has been officially designated as a foreign terrorist organisation by the united states and is proscribed by the european union.

the national council of resistance to iran quoted lord alton of liverpool, a lawmaker from the british house of lords, as saying on november 29 in a symposium in the house of lords, "having been involved with the activities of the iranian resistance over this 25 years, i have learned a great deal about that misinformation campaign and the attempts by the iranian regime to discredit the pmoi."

the new campaign has concerned iranian dissidents abroad. an outspoken former national soccer champion, mr. hassan naeb agha, an active member of the opposition, claims to have been approached by family members under influence of iran ministry of intelligence (mois) in a psychological warfare in an attempt to penetrate his personal life to stop his activities.


un accuses us of wholesale rights violations in iraq

john pace, human rights chief for the united nations assistance mission in iraq (unami), condemned both the us-installed iraqi government and the us armed forces for breach of human rights, centring largely around widespread detention without authority or trial.

"there is no question that terrorism has to be addressed. but we are equally sure that the remedies being applied... are not the best way of eliminating terrorism," pace said during an interview on sunday. 

he quoted instances where iraqi judges had ordered the release of groups of prisoners, and had found not only that their orders had been refused, but found themselves locked up as a reprisal.

on the subject of the saddam hussein trial resuming monday, pace told "reuters", "weakness in the system of administration of justice, in addition to the antecedents surrounding the establishment of this tribunal, will never be able to produce the kind of process that would be able to satisfy international standards." 

he also pointed out that the iraqi authorities are the only legal entity allowed to detain prisoners, and that the us prison camps at abu ghraib and similar locations are therefore technically illegal.


business briefs for december 5, 2005

these are short blurbs about current events in the business world.

a uk government sponsored report, routes to better regulation - a guide to alternatives to classic regulation, says the eu is too quick to introduce new rules without considering alternative measures. "all too often the eu looks to introduce prescriptive rules and regulations rather than consider alternative solutions, which can achieve the same goals and help to slash costly red tape," said david arculus, chairman of the task force that compiled the report. the eu commission, under president jose manuel barroso has insisted on impact studies before deciding on whether to propose legislation. the commission announced it will kill off several legislative proposals that have failed to make progress, and is proposing streamlining existing eu rules. the study proposed taking no action instead of introducing new rules. in january, the task force will become an independent commission, which will increase its political strength.

jpmorgan is planning to hire 4,500 graduates in india over two years. the plan moves 30% of its back office offshore. the company intends to move the majority of its foreign exchange trades to mumbai and bangalore and to move much of the processing of credit derivatives contracts. this is an area where us and uk regulators have expressed concern about backlogs across the industry.


interview with jimbo wales

while this wasn't "interview with the vampire", getting a live interview with jimmy wales of the wikimedia foundation is requiring more work and planning than ever. four contributors to four different wikinews language editions (with , , and ) arranged to interview "jimbo" in the wikinews irc channel, squeezed in before interviews with a periodical and a cable news source.

the interview was held publically in the wikinews irc channel because was one of the prime topics for the interview. 

wikinews is approximately one year old, with the english and german editions premiering the first week of december 2004. since then the project has produced more than 13,000 articles in 16 languages, including the recently added hebrew, russian, and japanese.

the project has not been without its detractors, and the questions asked of mr. wales reflected some of the most common criticisms.











the wikimedia foundation has turned to its constituency to cover basic operating costs as well as the ongoing capital expenditures which seem to grow at the same rate as wikipedia's popularity: exponentially. from the first fundraiser in december/january of 2003/2004 (which raised about $30,000 after a server catastrophe) to the fall quarter fundraiser in 2005 (which raised $244,000), each fund raiser has met the goals laid out for it, usually in a very brief time frame.

"we wish to cover two quarters," said florence nibart-devouard, member of the wikimedia foundation board.

the draft budget for just the first quarter of 2006 is projecting costs of more than $400,000; and projections put the year's expenditures near $3.2 million over all. but beyond the general goal of covering the budgets for two quarters, the foundation has not placed a specific financial goal for their upcoming fund raiser.

as the interview progressed, with more and more observers, we got to that point where we really wanted to dig deeper into certain aspects of answers to our questions, but were short on time. then it turned into a classic press conference, with interviewers tossing out questions rapid fire and mr. wales answering quickly and briefly to as many as he could... with all of us wishing we had more time to get more details and explanations.







new bird flu outbreaks reported in europe

cases of the h5 type of the avian flu have been discovered in romanian and ukrainian fowl. romania has banned hunting in parts of the country and ukrainian troops have moved from house to house in villages rounding up chickens, ducks and geese for a mass cull.

the village of ciocile in the romanian county of br?ila has been quarantined and thousands of birds have been killed in an attempt to contain the outbreak, the bucharest daily news reported. the h5 virus had been detected in nearby villages of bumbacari and dudescu in previous tests on thursday.

romanian agriculture minister gheorghe flutur said that further tests in a british laboratory will be needed to determine whether the outbreak is the lethal h5n1 strain, which is feared to be able to mutate into a form that would be easily transmitted between humans.

the h5n1 strain has already been confirmed in the villages of ceamurlia de jos, maliuc and caraorman, where the virus is suspected to have been brought by birds from russia. the large delta area is a destination for migrating fowl.

meanwhile, five ukrainian villages in the crimean peninsula have been the site for a mass cull in order to contain the country's first bird flu outbreak. though tough measures are being taken in the area, villagers say their poultry had been infected by the disease for more than two months without any official action being taken.

ukrainian agriculture minister oleksander baranivsky confirmed the virus as the h5 subtype on saturday. he said that the virus was highly lethal to birds and potentially dangerous to humans. according to official data, more than 2,500 birds had died since friday. samples were sent to british and italian laboratories to determine whether the virus is the h5n1 strain.

though ukraine had previously been declared free of bird flu, the h5n1 virus strain had been found near its borders in romania and russia. ukraine's top veterinary surgeon, petro verbytsky, however stressed that no humans had been affected by the virus, and that contagion was unlikely. "there is 1,000 times less chance of becoming ill from bird flu than there is from tuberculosis," he said.

the h5n1 strain of the avian influenza has killed almost 70 people in parts of asia since 2003, prompting the slaughter of millions of fowl.

 


ford pulls ads from gay media facing afa boycott

facing a threatened boycott from the , pulled its advertising from gay publications early this week. the (afa) quickly claimed a cultural victory after ford made the decision. the afa was threatening to boycott ford because of its previous support for certain gay civil rights associations, such as the human rights campaign, and advertising in the gay media in publications such as "".

in june, the afa announced that it would postpone a boycott when ford agreed to negotiate with the organization. the negotiations were organized by ford executives ziad ojakli and david leitch, both of whom previously held important posts in the bush white house.

"they've heard our concerns; they are acting on our concerns. we are pleased with where we are," said afa’s chairman donald wildmon. "obviously there are still some small matters of difference, as people will always have, but generally speaking, we are pleased with the results?and therefore the boycott that had been suspended [is] now officially ended."

according to the afa’s web site, the list of demands included that ford and all of its brands stop donating money, merchandise, and endorsements to pride celebrations and groups such as the gay and lesbian alliance against defamation, the human rights campaign, and the national gay and lesbian task force. hrc, glaad, and the task force are expected to release statements by close of business on friday. 

the afa ended in may what is considered a largely ineffective nine-year boycott of the walt disney co. the boycott had been launched over its holding of gay-related events at its theme parks and for giving employees with same-sex domestic partners benefits equal to those with other-sex partners.


us secretary rice responds to european enquiries on alleged cia prisons

the united states condoleezza rice has begun to address concerns raised by the eu, the , and several member countries about the cia's detention practices upon her arrival in germany for a european tour that began tuesday.

"as a matter of us policy, the united states' obligations under the , which prohibits, of course, cruel and inhumane and degrading treatment, those obligations extend to us personnel wherever they are, whether they are in the united states or outside the united states," said rice, speaking from the ukrainian capital of on wednesday.

media reports and human rights groups have alleged that the cia transported prisoners through european countries, which could violate and the sovereignty of countries involved. secretary rice claimed that the united states has respected the sovereignty of other countries, and that it has not transported detainees from one country to another for the purpose of interrogation using torture, and has not transported anyone to a country when we believe he will be tortured.

"we consider the captured members of al-qaeda and its affiliates to be who may be held, in accordance with the law of war, to keep them from killing innocents. we must treat them in accordance with our laws, which reflect the values of the american people. we must question them to gather potentially significant, life-saving, intelligence. we must bring terrorists to justice wherever possible," rice told reporters before she left from andrews air force base on monday.

rice said that european nations should realize that interrogations of terrorist suspects have produced information that has saved european lives. however, secretary rice provided no specific cases.
"secretary rice made extra-legal rendition sound like just another form of extradition. in fact, it's a form of kidnapping and 'disappearing' someone entirely outside the law," said tom malinowski, a official in washington.

the cia practice known as "extraordinary rendition" is used to interrogate terrorist suspects outside the u.s., where they are not subject to american legal protection. 

"kidnapping a foreign national for the purpose of detaining and interrogating him outside the law is contrary to american values," said anthony d. romero, executive director of the american civil liberties union (aclu) on the case. "our government has acted as if it is above the law. we go to court today to reaffirm that the rule of law is central to our identity as a nation." 

the aclu feels the government has to be held to account over "extraordinary rendition".




former south african official jacob zuma charged with rape

former deputy president of south africa, jacob zuma, has been charged with rape and has appeared in the johannesburg magistrate's court. zuma has been released on r20 000 bail.
he has since announced that he has voluntarily decided to suspend his participation in the anc leadership structure during the trial.



mass graves found in lebanon

two mass graves discovered in lebanon near a former syrian intelligence center in anjar have reopened the investigations for persons missing from the lebanese civil war (1975 ? 1990).

lebanese officials have announced dna samples of the remains found will be tested.

troops unearthed at least 30 bodies buried in the 1980s and 1990s.

syrian troops withdrew from lebanon last spring, ending a 30-year occupation. prior to his assassination, gebran tueni commented that "the syrian regime has been exposed with the discovery of the mass graves."

amnesty international has been critical of the exhumation, calling for un standards of investigation.



david cameron elected new uk conservative leader

david cameron has been elected the new leader of the united kingdom conservative party, beating off his rival david davis by a factor of two to one in a postal ballot of the nationwide party membership.

the thirty-nine year old has said he is committed to an agenda of reform within his party, characterised by his 'change to win' leadership campaign.


military plane crash in iran, at least 100 dead

authorities have confirmed 128 dead following a plane crash in tehran. the iranian air force c-130 military transport plane collided with a 10-storey apartment building, while attempting to make an emergency landing.

the air force airliner crashed at approximately 14:10 local time (10:40 utc) nearing the runway in mehrabad international airport for an emergency landing because of an engine malfunction eight minutes after the initial take-off, killing all 94 people aboard and sparking fires in the apartment building that houses about 250 people consisting of military personnel and their families. 34 people has been killed from the residents and 132 injured. most of the airplane passengers were iranian radio and television journalists. 

the victims have been recovered to nearby hospitals in towhid residential area in southern tehran.



australian government passes new terror laws

the australia federal government has passed wide-ranging new counter-terrorism laws that civil opponents warned will disintegrate civil liberties. the federal parliament has agreed to laws aimed at stifling home-grown terrorists. the terrorism legislation was rushed through the senate yesterday evening after the government gagged debate on the bill. 

the new laws enable police and intelligence agencies to detain suspects without charge for up to 14 days in solitary confinement. authorities can also restrict and control movements of suspects, including fitting them with electronic tags for up to 12 months. 

prime minister john howard introduced the package after the july 2005 bombings in london. federal justice minister chris ellison told the senate the laws would give authorities the necessary tools to tackle terrorism, while being consistent with international human rights obligations.

john north, president of the law council of australia, an outspoken critic of the package, said lawyers would monitor the government's use of its new powers. "we want governments to know that almost 50,000 lawyers will be watching closely to make sure the new laws are not implemented at the expense of our civil liberties," mr north said. he also said in a letter addressed to prime minister john howard that "the legal profession believes that the ramifications of these laws have the potential to be as terrifying as terrorism itself." this following a media campaign launched by the law council in newspapers vilifying the new legislation as "draconian".

the package, broadly supported by the opposition labor party, gives police tougher powers to stop, search and seize evidence from suspects and enables more close circuit television cameras to be used to monitor public places. the new legislation also updates and allow greater use of security cameras.

the australian greens, the democrats and the law council accuse the labor party of selling out civil rights by supporting the bill, which will give unprecedented powers to police and spy agencies. australian greens leader bob brown condemned the laws. "we are in a new period of mccarthyism and we need to know that, and understand it, and worry that this time it won't be turned around, that citizens, using a law like this, will be brought before courts for political reasons, not security reasons," he told parliament.

following some amendments, the commonwealth ombudsman will be given more power to oversee detention, detainees will have greater access to relatives and police will need to satisfy a greater number of grounds to impose limits on who a suspect can contact. the australian law reform commission will review the sedition provisions next year.

civil libertarians and people who oppose australia's involvement in iraq also have protested. the proposed laws are "horrific for journalists," senior fairfax journalist david marr said. "firstly, there's a completely secret new regime of putting people in preventive detention ? that's entirely secret," he said. "if we report it, if we report that people have gone into preventive detention, we're going to go individually to jail for five to seven years, something like that. even if we report what happened to people in detention, we go to jail. "

australian human rights and equal opportunity commission president john von doussa says the proposed counter-terrorism laws are the first step towards a police state. the legislation gives police extraordinary powers to detain people without charge, but does not set out means by which the application of those powers can be checked or appealed, he said. 

prime minister john howard rejects suggestions the government acted in undue haste by pushing a range of striking new laws through parliament before christmas, despite public outcry over inadequate scrutiny and the gagging of parliamentary debate on many of the bills. 

defence minister, senator robert hill says the government has a responsibility to protect australians. "out of the british bombing, we went back and looked at our laws. we believed that we needed further powers to protect australians, said mr hill. "obviously, we want to put them through as quickly as possible because we are addressing a terrorist threat."


kansas professor assaulted by angry intelligent design supporters

professor paul mirecki, the chairman of the religious studies department at the university of kansas, was hospitalized after being assaulted by two unidentified men who made references to the class he had planned to teach in the spring. the course, entitled "special topics in religion: intelligent design, creationism and other religious mythologies" was intended to support evolution, and explore creationism as a mythology.

professor mirecki had left his home and was driving to breakfast when he noticed the men tailgating him in a pickup truck. he said, "i just pulled over hoping they would pass, and then they pulled up real close behind." "they got out, and i made the mistake of getting out."

john calvert, managing director of the intelligent design network, had previously objected to professor mirecki's focus on creationism as mythology, and claimed that the religious studies professor was "labeling anybody who proposes [intelligent design] to be simply a religious nut".

paul mirecki had already decided to cancel the course after he caused controversy by using the slang term "fundies" to refer to christian fundamentalists in an email to a student organization, the society for open minded atheists and agnostics. professor mirecki has apologized for using the term, which is viewed as a slur by some conservatives.



witnesses testify in former iraqi leader saddam hussein's trial

as the trial of saddam hussein drew another day of testimony, the court heard the testimony of five witnesses of the killing of 140 men in dujail, a town north of baghdad. 

witnesses who feared showing their face or voice were allowed to testify in a covered box with their voice altered. their names were also protected and each witness was named with a letter. the defense was, however, allowed to know the name of the witnesses as long as those names were not disclosed outside the proceedings.

tuesday's court session lasted around nine hours.

testimony highlights

witness a


witness c




stevie wonder to perform pre-game show for superbowl xl

stevie wonder is slated to perform the pre-game show for super bowl xl on february 5, 2006. this announcement was not made by the nfl, but by wonder's record label, motown.

detroit, where super bowl 40 is being held, is the original home of motown, and many of its residents were upset that england's rolling stones would be performing the prestigious half-time show.


h.h. prince karim aga khan iv visits pakistan

his highness prince karim aga khan iv, spiritual leader of isma’illi muslim community, is on an official visit to pakistan. the objective of his visit is to show coordination with the relief efforts and condolence for the victims of the massive earthquake that struck pakistan on october 8, which is reported to have killed over 70,000 people and left millions homeless.

hh aga khan addressed earthquake survivors at the thuri camp, reassuring them of the ongoing support from the aga khan foundation network including helicopters, and of support for reconstruction.

the prince announced a $50.3 million donation for quake relief at the islamabad donors conference.


lawsuit filed against cia for the use of torture

a german man, khaled al-masri, has filed a lawsuit against the cia for alleged torture when he was held prisoner for five months in afghanistan last year. he was arrested in 2004 in connection with the september 11 attacks when he was stopped in macedonia. after being arrested, he was flown to afghanistan for questioning.

masri said his cell in afghanistan was cold, dirty and in a cellar, with no light and one dirty cover for warmth. the first night he said he was kicked and beaten and warned by an interrogator: "you are here in a country where no one knows about you, in a country where there is no law. if you die, we will bury you, and no one will know."

the american civil liberties union (aclu) is representing mr. al-masri in the lawsuit filed on tuesday in alexandria, virginia seeking damages of at least $75,000. the main defendant is former cia director .

u.s. secretary of state condoleezza rice was in germany and would not comment on the lawsuit but the new german chancellor angela merkel said, "i'm happy to say we have discussed the one case, which the government of the united states has of course accepted as a mistake..."

a senior u.s. official accompanying condoleezza rice to romania said that rice had not admitted to any mistakes in the handling of masri. "we are not quite sure what was in her head," he said, referring to merkel.



business brief for december 7, 2005

these are short blurbs about current events in the business world.

verizon announced monday that it will stop making contributions to the pension plans of non-union managers and will instead offer 401(k) plans starting in 2006. the plan is intended to cut labor costs and will effect 50,000 management employees. verizon hopes the change will save $3 billion over the next 10 years.

microsoft plans to invest $1.7 billion in india over four years, nearly doubling the company's workforce in the country bringing the total employee count to nearly 7,000. most of the money will be invested on its existing r&d center, its global software delivery unit, and opening retail outlets more rural areas. microsoft also plans to release an edition of the windows operating system specifically for india.


australian researchers confirm stress makes you sick

australian researchers say they have scientifically proven that stress causes sickness. the garvan institute in sydney has discovered that a hormone, known as neuropeptide y, (npy) is released into the body during times of stress. their findings show the hormone can stop the immune system from functioning properly. 

"neuropeptide y is one of those hormones that gets unregulated or released from neurones when stressful situations occur...it's known for example that it regulates blood pressure and heart rates so your heart rate goes up but it hasn't been known that it actually can affect immune cells as well," said professor herbert herzog, one of the researchers.

herzog feels it is good to finally have proof of something people have suspected for so long. 

"now we have proven without doubt that there is a direct link and that stress can weaken the immune system and that makes you more vulnerable when you for example have a cold or flu and even in the more serious situations such as cancer can be enhanced in these situations," said herzog.

the garvan institute study centres on two key events that enable the human body to recognise foreign substances and control invaders. when our body encounters a pathogen (bacteria and viruses), the immune cells retain and interrogate suspects. their activation is made possible by npy. these cells then return to the lymph nodes, which are found all over the body, with information about the foreign invaders. the lymph nodes are where decisions about defence are made.

"most of us expect to come down with a cold or other illness when we are under pressure, but until now we have mostly had circumstantial evidence for a link between the brain and the immune system," said lead garvan researcher, associate professor fabienne mackay. "during periods of stress, nerves release a lot of npy and it gets into the bloodstream, where it directly impacts on the cells in the immune system that look out for and destroy pathogens (bacteria and viruses) in the body."

in the case of bacteria and viruses, th1 cells are part of the attack team that is sent out on the ‘search and destroy' mission. but when their job is done they need to be turned ‘off' and the immune system reset. the same hormone, npy, that activates the sentry cells now prompts the th1 cells to slow down and die.

"under normal conditions, circulating immune cells produce small amounts of npy, which enables the immune cells on sentry duty and the th1 immune cells to operate - it's a yin and yang kind of situation. but too much npy means that the th1 attack is prevented despite the foreign invaders being identified - and this is what happens during stress,” added mckay.

the impact of stress on the body has been observed in athletes. ph. d researcher at the university of queensland, luke spence, together with the australian institute of sport, studied elite and recreational athletes over five months.

they found elite athletes were more susceptible to respiratory diseases under stress. 

"a lot of elite athletes put themselves through vast amounts of physical stress in their training, but also their emotional, psychological stress of feeling the pressure of australia on their shoulders, wanting to compete and wanting to do their best," said spence.

it's not just athletes who are prone to stress. pressures at work and at home may cause emotional and mental stress that can be equally damaging. almost a third of all work absenteeism in australia is due to illness, costing employers over $10 billion a year.

"i think it has a huge impact for the work force and also for employers - if their employees are constantly stressed, constantly under pressure, they are more likely to get sick," spence said.

further research could lead to the development of new drugs which may inhibit the action of the neuropeptide y hormone. 

herzog warns people to minimise stress "before" it becomes a problem. 

"relaxation methods like yoga will help you to prevent that but there will still be people out there that are not responding to that and treatment by interfering with the system will be important," he said. "there's obviously some time until such a treatment will be available but this is something we will definitely work towards."

the garvan research will be published in the journal of experimental medicine, volume 202, no. 11.


legal sony graffiti advertising backlash

a new advertising campaign in usa for the sony psp which looks like graffiti and is often sprayed on previously vandalized walls has come under attack from other graffiti artists. a collective group of graffiti artists and street artists are now banding together, vandalizing the look-alike graffiti advertisements. the campaign has offended a lot of graffiti artists and street artists, drawing responses like "keep your desperate corporate long arm out of a movement that is the only thing that is ours!"

but not all the responses have been negative, with many artists defending sony saying they have the right. other advertising companies have also voiced their support. "sony and psp have every right to use this type of media," floyd hayes, the head creative director at cunning work told wired news. "they have done it for (a) very long time very successfully and spoke the language of the streets without being patronizing." 
sony says it is paying the building owners like casa maria for the right to advertise on their walls. casa maria was paid $100 for two weeks' use of its wall, co-owner mario arana told wired news. tats cru, the graffiti crew responsible for the designs, have also been targeted with insulting slogans on sony's advertisements.



reputex announces australia and new zealand's most socially responsible corporations

reputex has announced this month a list of the most socially responsible companies in australia and new zealand. reputex, according to its website, is "an alternative to existing ethical investment methodologies which rely primarily on negative screening systems." the list covers 66 organisations. reputex services large to small organisations which want their situation assessed. the organisations are assessed across four sectors; corporate governance, environmental impact, workplace practices and social impact, producing a final result. 
this year, the "westpac banking corporation" gained the only aaa rating followed by "australia and new zealand banking group limited" and "australian postal corporation" with aa ratings.

global ceo of reputex, ms laurel grossman said “more companies are recognising the value of csr (corporate social responsibility) and the vital role it plays in managing mainstream financial risk,” adding “this year 66 companies across australia and new zealand were rated in the a range (-a to aaa), up from 58 companies last year."


south korean regulators fine microsoft $32 million

south korean antitrust regulators fined the microsoft company 33 billion won (us$32m). it also ordered microsoft to make substantial changes to the windows operating system. regulators demanded that microsoft produce two different versions of microsoft windows within 180 days.


these regulations will be in effect for the next ten years, but after five years microsoft can request a review of the market.

a microsoft spokesman said the company would appeal the decision in court.

"we are very disappointed with the commission's decision," said tom burt, a microsoft vice president and deputy general counsel. "ultimately, we will file a lawsuit in korean court challenging the decision."

similarily in march of last year, microsoft was ordered by the european union to pay ?497 million for antitrust violations. microsoft was also asked to share windows operating system code with other companies and offer windows without the media player.

microsoft is also appealing this ruling.


asylum seeker hunger strike enters seventh week

update: chinese asylum seeker ends hunger strike after 54 days.
a chinese man in australian immigration detention is still refusing food, seven weeks after starting his hunger strike.

jen wen zhang, a detainee at sydney's villawood immigration detention centre, has refused food since october 20. mr zhang and five other chinese asylum seekers began the strike in protest at australia's mandatory detention policy. five of the six hunger strikers ended their protest in november.

the department of immigration (dimia) says mr zhang is continuing his hunger strike after being hospitalised a fortnight ago. now back in villawood he is being closely monitored. a dimmia spokesperson said mr zhang was being urged to end his strike. the government continues to resist mr zhang's protest. "as the minister said, his actions will not influence his migration status or outcomes," said the spokesperson.

victorian greens refugees spokesman, peter job, has been speaking to mr zhang, and said the asylum seeker is determined to continue to strike despite his ailing health. mr job said mr zhang believes he was denied a fair hearing from the immigration department and the refugee review tribunal, but was taking political action for all detained asylum seekers.

"he felt he had no option but to fight in the only way he could, with his body," said mr job. "but above all, he spoke of his dread of long-term detention, telling of waking continually in the morning with a sense of profound despair and foreboding due to his incarceration, and telling me he feared the mental health damage he had seen in so many long-term detainees," he said.

mr job says he has tried to convince mr zhang to stop the hunger strike, but says he is in a desperate state. "he is very upset, he feels that he will be in great danger if he returns to china," mr job said. "he said he'd rather die here in australia than go back to china, where he's convinced he'll be persecuted.

refugee action coalition (rac) spokesman ian rintoul said the immigration department has been riddled with problems and too often rejected long-term detainees who are genuine refugees.

"the government itself has recognised there have been many mistakes in the department's processes, there have been many problems with the way asylum seekers have been dealt with," mr rintoul said. "that's why we're desperately trying to urge the government to intervene in this particular case."

immigration minister amanda vanstone said in mid november that the government has done all it can for the chinese asylum seeker. "i don't support this kind of protest, i don't think anyone does, i recognise the risk it can play for the protesters themselves," she said. "i've written to them urging them to get off their protest and making it clear to them that the government doesn't consider cases while people are engaging in this sort of potentially very harmful protest."

another villawood detainee, motahar hussein, says mr zheng's health has drastically deteriorated and suspects that vital organs have experienced permanent damage. 

"though dimia continuously attempts to devise creative ways of crushing mr. jun wen zhang's spirit, he will not be easily intimidated," said mr hussein in a media release. "he is willing and determined to continue with his peaceful and civilised protest. he believes he has no other option. he finds himself compelled to do so by the howard government's policy of inhumane and indefinite detention. he is prepared to continue to the supreme and utmost sacrifice of his own life, hopefully, in an attempt to expose dimia's attitude of injustice and corruption."


microsoft sued due to case of xbox 360s overheating

a chicago owner of an console is filing a against microsoft, the company that manufactured the console. the lawsuit is based on the widely circulated claims that the console overheats, resulting in complete lockups of the system or various error messages. 

robert bryers, the man who has brought this lawsuit against microsoft, claims that the company rushed the console to market to beat competitor releases. he further claims that this rushed release resulted in the company including a faulty and that overheats, resulting in the damage of heat-sensitive chips within the console. microsoft denies that the problems are widespread.

the lawsuit, filed on friday in an illinois federal court, seeks unspecified damages and legal fees, as well as a recall and replacement of the affected consoles. 


passenger claims to have bomb, killed by air marshals at miami international airport

a united states federal air marshal shot dead on wednesday an american airlines passenger named rigoberto alpizar on american airlines flight 924, a boeing 757, at miami international airport, in miami, florida, usa. 

the 44-year-old passenger ran out of the door of the airplane after he reboarded the plane, following a customs check in miami. he was intercepted by the marshals before reaching the jetway and told to get on the ground. according to air marshal service spokesman dave adams, the passenger did so, but then reached for a bag, at which point a marshal fired two or three shots and killed the passenger. the passengers recall that they heard up to six shots. 

the marshals say alpizar claimed that he was carrying a bomb before being killed. no other witness has publicly concurred with that account, although one passenger recalled alpizar saying, "i've got to get off, i've got to get off." no bomb was found when authorities searched the airplane.

the shots were fired in the boarding bridge ? the corridor that connects the aircraft to the terminal. reports also indicate swat teams surrounded the plane. according to "cnn", a federal official indicated that this is the first time an air marshal has fired a weapon near an airplane.

alpizar was a costa rican native who became a u.s. citizen and lived in maitland, an orlando suburb. the 44-year-old passenger was returning from quito, ecuador to orlando, florida. the plane was en-route to orlando from medellin, colombia.

"msnbc" reports that another passenger, mary gardner, told a local tv station, wtvj-tv, that the man started "running crazily through the aisle", as a woman travelling with him ran after yelling that her husband suffered from bipolar disorder and had not taken his medication.

federal air marshals are deployed on flights to deal with security threats on board u.s. air carriers. following the revamping of domestic security after the world trade center attacks, the service was directed to increase its deployment from about fifty to several thousand marshals. in response, the marshal training program was modified and abbreviated, from the original fourteen weeks to five weeks for candidates without prior law enforcement experience and one week for trainees with such experience.



 


british schoolgirl told to return home for wearing crucifix

sixteen-year-old sam morris was suspended from school this week for wearing a crucifix, a well known christian symbol. a student of the sinfin community school in derby, she was told by the school's deputy headmaster, howard jones, to remove the crucifix around her neck. after refusing to do so, trouble began to erupt.

mr. jones talked to the girl for up to 30 minutes, trying to convince her to take off the crucifix. however, the pupil, who is studying for her gcse exams, did not waver and continued to wear it. it was then that mr. jones decided to give the girl a one-day suspension as a "last resort," saying that sam violated the school's jewelry policy.

debra saunders, the student's mother, was unhappy about the situation and wonders if the school is trying to discriminate against christians. sikh students are permitted to wear bracelets called karas, which are a mandatory part of their religion. 

"she thinks it's very unfair when other people are allowed to wear religious symbols," sam's mother said, referring to her daughter. "it just ends up creating a divide between the pupils. everyone is being told that they should be living in unity, but this rule is not right. sam has just as much right to celebrate her own religion."

mr. jones, the school's deputy headmaster, disagrees, saying that the school's policy is "even-handed and fair." he went on to say the following, "as a christian, i don't have to wear a crucifix but sikhs don't have that option and we have to be understanding. we live in a multi-faith society."

the derby city council also weighed in on the matter. one of their spokespeople stated, "it is lawful to ban crucifixes while allowing other religious symbols, but whether it is desirable is another matter." the spokesperson went on to say, "for some people, wearing a crucifix could be a deeply religious gesture, which is why personal needs should be taken into account."

in the meantime, sam has returned to school, sans crucifix.


opposition motions in australian house of representatives attempts to bring government to account on last sitting day of year

on the last sitting day of the year in federal parliament, the opposition opened with three successive motions to attempt to bring the government to account over the major issues that the government has faced over the last fortnight.

the motions to suspend standing orders was first put by wayne swan (the shadow treasurer)
dealt with the treasurer peter costello, calling on him to release documents and information regarding robert gerard; the following two put by kevin rudd (the shadow foreign minister) and (the member for corio) dealt with the government's involvement in the australian wheat board inadvertently paying money to a front business of saddam hussein.

the government with their house majority moved that these speakers and their necessary seconders be no longer heard (the 'gag'), and voted down the motions.



voluntary student unionism bill passes australian house of representatives, enters senate

the bill on voluntary student unionism, as proposed earlier by the federal government education minister brendan nelson passed the house of representatives on december 7 and is now to be debated in the senate. the "higher education support amendment (abolition of compulsory up-front student union fees) bill 2005", commonly known as "voluntary student unionism" or vsu, will have the effect of removing the automatic joining of university students into their respective unions, and the consequent abolition of the payment of union fees. these fees go towards amenities and services provided the student unions. the federal australian labor party opposition, which had originally opposed the introduction of vsu, changed its policy which originally supported automatic unionism of students and compulsory fees, to a stance supporting only retainment of amenity and services fees.

the bill was read a second time on december 6, with opposition members such as brendan o'connor highlighting the perceived government ideological reasons for the pursuit of this bill, stating that the minister "wants to be seen as an ideological warrior", and also explains the reason for the opposition's shift in policy -- that "it takes the student political dimension, which seems to be the obsession of the government, out of the equation, and focuses on the services". one government member, peter lindsay, had noted in response to this, stating that when vsu was introduced in western australia "the world did not end, the services continued to be provided...in fact, more services were provided because the student associiations had to be responsive to the needs of the students so they could get students, of their own free will, to decide to pay a student association fee". 

a heated exchange followed between the next speaker kelvin thomson, lindsay, and the deputy speaker robert baldwin, over a comment "why should students have to pay for outsiders to use a sporting facility? why? the member for wills [kelvin thomson] cannot explain that." which thompson said "provoked" him. thomson's speech further criticised brendan nelson's proposal for a "campus-by-campus ballot", noting "the great deal of opposition everywhere it has been put", the "financial review" description as a plan which "pleases no-one". alby schultz, from the government, had remarked on the "senate employment, workplace relations and education committee inquiry suggested that...some student unions were badly run and gave poor service to the majority of students", and that the money gathered from students "sell[ed] a political agenda which many of the students-and i would say the majority of students-would not subscribe to personally or ideologically", citing examples of the national union of students support for the baxter detention center protest earlier this year. 

further government and opposition members continued the debate until 9 pm in the evening of december 6, where debate was adjourned for the day. 

on december 7 the leader of the house tony abbott moved a guillotine on this debate, where either at 12 noon or at the conclusion of the second reading debate, whichever comes first, the question should be put, and one hour be allotted for consideration in detail and conclusion of other stages of the bill. deputy leader of the opposition jenny macklin in response called the movement of the bill "unadulterated ideology...from this power-drunk government". in the second reading debate, brendan nelson provided summary remarks after the two preceding speakers, stating that "that students should be free to choose what services they will purchase with their money and what organisations they will join", and that the compulsory payment "is a flat tax. the students from the poorest families pay exactly the same as those from the wealthiest, and we think that this is one of the few anachronisms which remain to be addressed". 

in the consideration in detail stage, an amendment proposed by the independent tony windsor aimed to confine the use of fees for academic and recreational purposes only, which failed as there were fewer than five in support for the amendment. opposition amendments were moved by macklin after that to achieve the oppositions views on vsu, but a government member sophie panopoulos termed the amendments "a fraud" and "taxation without representation". the opposition amendments failed due to government numbers.

the bill subsequently passed the house of representatives 78 to 58, and the senate december 7 received the bill on the same day, and due to standing orders, will be debated at the next period of sittings, which will be early next year.



business brief for december 8, 2005

these are some short blurbs about current events in the business world.

the 213 year old new york stock exchange voted to merge with archipelago holdings inc. the merger will change the nyse from a non-profit organization into a for-profit publicly traded company. about 90 percent of the 1,366 members of the nyse's board voted, with 95 percent voting in favor of the merger. the new company will be named nyse group inc. with the symbol nyx.

most of the estimated 6.3 million mexican illegal immigrants who have crossed the u.s.-mexican border had jobs back in mexico according to a survey by the pew hispanic center. "thus, failure to find work at home does not seem to be the primary reason that the estimated 6.3 million undocumented migrants from mexico have come to the u.s. policies aimed at reducing migration pressures by improving economic conditions in mexico may also need to address factors such as wages, job quality, long-term prospects, and perceptions of opportunity," the survey authors wrote.
the center surveyed 4,836 mexicans showing that only 5 percent who had been in the united states for two years or less were jobless in mexico. the survey was conducted in spanish at mexican consulates in 7 us cities over 7 months. the survey reported that new crossovers are less likely to work on a farm. most modern crossovers work in construction, hospitals, and manufacturing.


australian government paves way for nuclear waste dump in northern territory

the australian senate has passed legislation to force a national dump on the northern territory (nt). despite opposition from aboriginal land owners, the nt government, environment groups and labor the can now officially build a nuclear waste repository in the nt after the legislation for the waste dump passed the senate today. the radioactive waste management bill was passed with 34 in favour and 29 against.

the two bills override the northern territory's objection to the radioactive waste dump after the government opposed a previous preferred site near . according to federal labor opposition mp, warren snowdon, it is the first time since 1978 that territory law has been overridden. "it's an absolute disaster and it shows contempt for the northern territory community, it shows absolute contempt for land use planning in the northern territory," he said. 

the has been a resolute opponent of the plan, saying a nuclear dump will expose residents to a new security threat. 

the chief minister of the northern territory, , says transporting nuclear waste to the territory would make it vulnerable to terrorists looking to make a . ms martin says experts on the issue have raised concerns about security at a national nuclear waste facility.

she says scientific debate played no part in the federal government's decision to build a dump in the territory and nuclear waste could be a target while it is being moved to the territory. "you'd have to look at how far around a country you're going to be transporting things like intermediate nuclear level waste," she said. 

"and if you're going to put such a nuclear facility in the middle of central australia you've got to get the waste there by road and that's thousands of kilometres." she says the commonwealth should not expect any cooperation from her government.

the 's (ansto) craig pierce says there would be no point trying to use low level waste to make a dirty bomb because the waste is mostly gloves and labcoats. "it simply would make no sense to get this material and want to blow it up," he said.

"it would have no impact at all. on the intermediate level, that will have a high level of security when it is transported. it won't be transported for very far on road, on land, and it will have an appropriate level of security." 

the said it expected community anger would escalate, now the bills had passed. "last year the federal government gave the people of the nt an absolute categorical assurance there would be no dump in the nt," acf nuclear campaigner dave sweeney said. "today they have broken this promise and bulldozed through bad law in an attempt to gag community concern."

"under the government's proposal, 130 truckloads of radioactive waste would be driven from sydney's lucas heights reactor, through nsw, to an as-yet unnamed site in the nt in the first year alone, with dumping to continue for decades," he said.

the say the legislation could be manipulated to allow waste from other countries to be stored in the northern territory. the party is angry that amendments they proposed were not considered when the bill was passed. says the legislation is not strong enough. 

"in the bill, there were some provisions to supposedly keep out international waste," she said. "we don't think they go far enough and that they are open to manipulation and interpretation. so what we were trying to do is absolutely positively ensure that international waste will not be brought into this facility."

the nt environment centre's gary scott has hinted at civil disobedience similar to that seen during the anti-uranium mining protests at . "i don't think territorians are going to take this lying down unless that is in front of bulldozers," mr scott said.

the centre’s peter robertson has emphasised the importance of the waste dump for the federal government to realise its plans for a second nuclear reactor. "if we get the dump, sydney gets the reactor". establishing a national waste dump is a precondition for the operating license for the proposed which will replace in sydney.

robertson pointed out that the issue of waste is creating an international crisis for the nuclear industry, with no storage plans for the more than 250,000 tonnes of high-level radioactive waste currently in existence. 

a detailed study of three defence sites - fishers ridge, 43 km south-east of , harts range, 100 km north-east of , and mount everard, 27 km north-west of alice springs - will be conducted next year, with the facility to be operational by 2011.

traditional owners of athenge alhere - an estate group of the arrernte nation - have voiced their dissent to the nuclear dump and say they don’t want waste from sydney's lucas heights nuclear reactor brought to their land. "because the land we take care of, because all our ancestors lived in this land and hunted on this land as well, so it's mainly because of the animals and the next generation of our kids and their children, so we still say no," traditional owner benedict stevens said.

coalition mps, including northern territory senator nigel scullion, secured a number of amendments to the bill. they included the ability of the nt government and indigenous land councils to decide on other site options, a prohibition on the storage of high level and overseas waste and the free storage of the nt's own waste.

the south australian government says tenacity staved off a nuclear dump on its land. sa environment minister, john hill, says there could be a federal election before the facility's finally built. "it will take them some time to construct this facility and that gives you some opportunities," he said. 

mr hill says waste should be stored closer to in sydney where it is generated. radioactive waste is currently stored at over 100 locations across the country, including in hospital basements in major capital cities and at universities.

update: nt farmers have threatened to take action if a site near their farms is selected for the dump. fishers ridge, south of katherine, is one of three commonwealth sites earmarked for the facility. sharon shaw's farm 12 kilometres from the fishers ridge site. "the thing that worries us the most, it's on top of a tindal aquifer which really concerns us in the fact that there's many sink holes that turn up every wet as the ground is always shifting," she said. "any normal person without an environmental degree or anything would realise that this ground is unstable."


usa under pressure at climate talks

the european union, canada, indonesia and other nations at the united nations' climate talks in montreal have put pressure on the united states. participants at the meeting want the us to join the global kyoto pact to limit greenhouse gas emissions, to curb extreme weather predictions from global warming. 

environment ministers from over 90 countries are meeting to break a deadlock over how to entice the united states, and other large developing nations such as india and china, to cut production of greenhouse gases. washington has rejected the pact, saying mandatory emissions cuts would harm its economy. 

the united states defended its policy of investing billions of dollars in cleaner technology to reduce emissions, brushing aside calls for it to commit to u.n. discussions on slowing climate change. 

at the heart of the montreal meeting is how to cut emissions after 2012, when the first phase of the kyoto protocol climate change pact ends. 



schwarzenegger heads back to work after feeling ill, being hospitalized

arnold schwarzenegger, republican governor of california, bodybuilder and famous hollywood celebrity, was hospitalized this week around midnight local time, at the advice of his doctor. he was taken to the uc davis medical center due to a rapid heartbeat and symptoms of the stomach flu.

hours after being admitted to the hospital, schwarzenegger was released and has returned to work. schwarzenegger, who is 58 years of age, underwent surgery in 1997 related to a valve in his heart.

spokesperson margita thompson has stated that, "he was observed for a few hours and released. he's feeling fine this morning and is in the office working." she went on to say that a rapid heart beat is fairly common for the type of heart procedure that he had done in the past.



baseball: nationals get soriano from rangers for wilkerson, sledge, prospect

the washington nationals completed a trade late wednesday night that sent outfielders brad wilkerson and terrmel sledge and minor league pitcher armando galarraga to the texas rangers for all-star second baseman alfonso soriano.

soriano batted .268 with 36 homers, 104 rbis and 30 stolen bases last season while earning $7.5 million. he is a career .280 hitter, with a .320 on-base percentage and an ops (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage) of .820. soriano turns 30 in january and his contract ends after the 2006 season.

for the nationals, wilkerson batted .248 last year with 11 homeruns and 57 rbis, but was sidelined for part of the season with a forearm injury. for his career, he is a .256 hitter with a .365 on-base percentage and an .817 ops. he made just over $3 million in 2005, and he turns 29 in june of 2006.

sledge only played 20 games in 2005 because he tore his hamstring, but he is most well-known in washington for hitting the first homerun in nationals history.

espn is reporting that the nationals may play soriano in the outfield because they already have jose vidro, a career .300 hitter, at second base. vidro missed almost half of the 2005 season with leg problems.


council of europe planning to use satellite images in prisons probe

the parliamentary assembly of the council of europe (pace), europe's leading human rights watchdog group, plans to use satellite images and flight logs as part of its investigation into claims that the united states maintains secret prisons in europe.

the european union (eu) has granted pace access to eu archived satellite images and flight logs to help determine whether aircraft linked with cia secret detention centers have been using european airspace. 

according to human rights watch, a humanitarian rights group based in new york, "cia airplanes traveling from afghanistan in 2003 and 2004 made direct flights to remote airfields in poland and romania."


the 2006 winter olympics torch reaches rome

with the arrival of the torch to rome, it begins the ritual of the 2006 winter olympics of turin. the torch will travel across italy transported by more than 10'000 carriers and it will arrive in turin on february 9, 2006, where the winter olympics will be inaugurated, after 11'000 km (6,835 miles) of travel.

on november 27 the flame was burned on the altar of hestia in olympia, in greece, and delivered to the first torch carrier, pole vaulter kostas fidippidis. the first italian to carry the olympic flame is the marathoner stefano baldini, winner of gold medal at the olympics in athens. he received the torch from the president of the italian republic carlo azeglio ciampi.

the olympic torch has a length of 77 cm (30 inches), and is 10,5 cm (4.13 inches) at its widest, with a weight of 1.9 kg (4.2 pounds). it was designed by pininfarina and has a shape that remembers at the same time one ski and the mole antonelliana.<br>
its external shell is made of an aluminum alloy, while the functional inner part is in steel, copper and high-tech polymer. the outside has a paint job resistant to high temperatures.<br>
each torch is designed to burn for 15 minutes, at altitudes from sea level to 5'000 m (16,400 feet), in temperatures between -20°c and 25°c (-4 to 77 fahrenheit).<br>
the flame is fed from a mixture of 40% propylene and 60% butane, which is contained in an aluminum cylinder in the torch.

the route of the torch since the december 8, 2005 until the february 9, 2006:




virginia dangerous dog law bill ready for assembly debate

the key legislative provisions of a new dangerous dog bill could mean felony criminal charges and higher home-owner insurance premiums for virginia dog owners whose pet is deemed dangerous. a spotsylvania county committee, called the "dangerous dog task force", hammered out the basics of the bill that county senator r. edward houck will introduce to the general assembly in january.
within the bill:
the dog would be legally defined as dangerous if it has bitten or attacked a person or companion animal. in the case of an attack on a companion animal, the injuries to the animal are such that it had to be euthanized. currently, the virginia state penal code contains no guidelines in the case of injury or death due to a dog attack.

"we're not talking about a little situation where somebody's pet chases a kid down the street with a bike and maybe jumps up and causes a very slight little scratch or a little nick or something," senator houck said tuesday. "we're talking about where people are seriously disfigured and maimed.

"this journey has just begun, this is going to be a long way," senator houck cautioned, since the proposals before the general assembly could face many changes, or outright rejection.

task force committee member maureen hill-hauch said to the issue of dog owners being held accountable for their animal’s actions, "this will send a clear and convincing message to irresponsible dog owners."

the legislation, called the dorothy sullivan memorial bill, is named in memory of the 82-year-old spotsylvania woman who was mauled to death by 3 neighborhood pit bulls while she was walking her own dog in her front yard. the owner of the attacking dogs, deanna large, 38, has been charged with a felony of involuntary manslaughter. the trial is scheduled to begin december 20.


southwest airlines flight skids off runway at chicago's midway

a southwest airlines boeing 737-700 skidded off the runway at the chicago midway airport on thursday evening. the southwest airlines flight 1248 was en route to midway from baltimore-washington international airport. the aircraft attempted the landing at approximately 7:15 p.m. local time under heavy snow, and skidded off the runway, crashing through a steel barrier surrounding the airport and on to a residential street.

there were 98 passengers on the flight, two of them were reportedly injured and taken to a local hospital and the rest were bussed to the airport terminal.

reports indicate that two vehicles were damaged. one of the vehicles was still lodged under the aircraft when police and fire officials arrived on the scene. taken to the advocate christ medical center in oaklawn were two adults and three children who were extracted from one of the vehicles the aircraft hit. one of the children, a 6-year-old boy from indiana named joshua woods, has died from injuries suffered from the crash. the conditions of the other victims are still unknown.

the accident is under investigation by the national transportation safety board (ntsb), and a final report is expected in about a year.



australian senate agrees ban on tertiary-sector mandatory student unions

the voluntary student unionism bills that have been proposed earlier in the year by the australian government in the australian house of representatives has been passed by the australian senate december 9, without amendment, after an unexpected urgency motion that afternoon. the voluntary student unionism bills aim to stop the compulsory joining of university students into the student union and the consequential abolition of payment of the union fees, which sometimes go to certain amenities and services provided to university students. many students, associations, and vice-chancellors of universities are opposed to the legislation, with rallies and days of action taking place earlier this year. in the process, senator steve fielding of the family first party held the key vote who expressed his late decision to support the passage of the vsu legislation.

the vsu legislation was earlier anticipated to be debated at the next session -- that is, next year -- but appeared on the notice paper today in case the senate had time to discuss the bill, however, at approximately 1.40pm an urgency motion was moved on a number of bills, including the voluntary student unionism (vsu) legislation which entered the senate yesterday. the urgency motion allots time on the second reading to extend to 4.30pm and remaining stages of the bill to 5.00pm. the senate was to adjourn at 3.30pm, but this was extended to approximately 5.15-5.30pm. 

the guillotine was controversial and criticised by non-government senators, who drew on the perceived three and a half hour "filibuster" from government members over non-controversial bills earlier today, where all parties were in agreement, and over perceived trivial bills such as a bill on the european bank in mongolia. earlier senator penny wong of the australian labor party suggested that back-room dealings were taking place to get key australian national party senator barnaby joyce on-side. senator joyce had expressed concerns over the vsu bills contrary to the nationals' support on the bill, and had proposed to amend the bill. the other key senator steve fielding has expressed that he has said that an amenities fee is appropriate if set "at the right level". senator hill has "made no apology" about putting forward the government program, and said that he would "do his best to implement the government program".

a division on the urgency motion followed, which was passed from government senate majority. 

in the second reading, senator wong had said that the government had treated the senate chamber like "an extension of their own party room", and that the government were "drunk on power". she went on to speculate whether the nationals had "rolled over" in regards to senator joyce, or whether the australian liberal party (the other counterpart in the liberal/national government coalition) had done a deal with senator fielding, and drew attention to the potential effects of abolishing the fees. senator natasha stott-despoja from the australian democrats has expressed her opposition to the bill and the policy, terming the day "freaky friday" and went on to say "democracy, in this place, is dead" due to the earlier events of the day, as non-government senators did not know about possible deals that were made or the details of the amendment.

senator ron boswell, leader of the nationals, expressed his support of the abolition of the fees, and the procurement of a package of funding of 80 million dollars towards funding academic and non-union related services, which he said satisfied the national's policy stance on the issue, and warned implicitly against crossing the floor. family first senator fielding has said that the argument can "run both ways" in his speech, and said he had a "great deal of trouble" making up his mind on the issue, but said that family first will be voting for the bill. senator kerry nettle, the next speaker, was incensed at this, and termed senator fielding "senator sellout" but was asked to withdraw that remark. she went on to state amongst her remarks that fielding has "sold out" students.

senator joyce, the final speaker, has expressed his opposition to compulsory unionism, and has said he will put his amendment to abolish compulsory unionism but described his amendment which will ensure alternative funding for services (but not described whether it will be compulsory fees) at parity with funding received today. some senators who wished to speak but could not due to time constraints had their speeches incorporated into "hansard" by leave.

in committee, senator eric abetz has stated the government will be opposing the amendments proposed by senator wong, stating it "erodes the principle" of the legislation, saying it is "taxation without representation". senator wong responded by saying that abetz "didn't have the bottle" to speak to the amendments, and noted the lack of details in the funding package proposed by senator boswell. senator bob brown of the australian greens drew attention to senator fielding's stance, calling him a "failure" in regards to his victorian state, criticising his position on the bill and his absence from the chamber, and praised senator joyce's commitment to his earlier word. senator stott-despoja stated her support for the alp amendments, but these failed due to government numbers.

senator joyce's amendments were then put (as the time cutoff passed) which led to a division, and in the division he crossed the floor on the amendments, which the opposition supported. senator joyce's amendments however were defeated 29 to 31 -- fielding's choice was key in this vote. senator joyce however voted with the government to have the bills stand as printed.

on the third reading, which support signifies final passage of the bill, the vote was 29 to 27, so the legislation did pass. joyce crossed the floor again on this stage. the bill must re-enter the house of representatives again for concurrence, which had already risen the day earlier, and sits again february 2006, next year. 




iranian president says move israel to europe

in october, the president of iran, mahmoud ahmadinejad, called israel a "disgraceful blot" to be "wiped off the map." ahmadinejad further remarked thursday at a summit of muslim nations in islam's holy city of mecca that the jewish state should be moved to europe and questioned whether the holocaust actually took place. 

in an interview with iran's arabic channel 'al-alam', ahmadinejad said that if germany and austria feel responsible for the massacre of jews during world war ii, they should host a state of israel on their own soil. speaking at a news conference on the summit sidelines, ahmadinejad said most jews in israel "have no roots in palestine, but they are holding the destiny of palestine in their hands and allow themselves to kill the palestinian people." the summit condemned terrorism and extremism, stressing the themes of moderation and tolerance.

"some european countries insist on saying that during world war ii, hitler burned millions of jews and put them in concentration camps," ahmadinejad said. "any historian, commentator or scientist who doubts that is taken to prison or gets condemned. although we don't accept this claim [of the holocaust], if we suppose it is true... if the europeans are honest they should give some of their provinces in europe -- like in germany, austria or other countries -- to the zionists and the zionists can establish their state in europe. you offer part of europe and we will support it."

rabbi david saperstein, head of the religious action center of reform judaism, called the comments a "repugnant distortion of history."

united nations (un) secretary-general kofi annan urged all un states to combat holocaust denial, and to "educate their populations about the well established historical facts of the holocaust, in which one third of the jewish people were murdered, along with countless members of other minorities."

tension between israel and iran began before the 1979 islamic revolution when the israelis joined the united states in siding with the shah before he was deposed. recent tensions between iran and israel over the nuclear activities in tehran and israel's many existing nuclear bombs and missile delivery systems have increased as a result of ahmadinejad's comment.

"just to remind mr. ahmadinejad, we've been here long before his ancestors. therefore, we have a birthright to be here in the land of our forefathers and to live here. thank god we have the capability to deter and to prevent such a statement from becoming a reality," said ra'anan gissin, israel prime minister ariel sharon's adviser.

israeli foreign minister silvan shalom said the statement should be a wake up call to all of us around the world. 

"we should do everything we can in order to stop him, and to stop the iranian effort to develop a nuclear bomb," said shalom.

"[ahmadinejad's comment] further underscores our concerns about the regime in iran," said white house press secretary scott mcclellan. "it's all the more reason why it's so important that the regime not have the ability to develop nuclear weapons." 

the iranian blogger babak seradjeh reacted to ahmadinejad's comments by stating, "i wondered why mr. ahmanedinejad doesn't provide the palestinians with a piece of iran. ... such evil remarks in blatant [sic] disregard of documented history is nothing new of course coming from the kind of people that mr. ahmadinejad represents. denying the holocaust, calling to wipe a country off the map, or to move it, are all the stuff of my generation's childhood, in school, on the radio and on tv, in the bold and thick slogans on the walls, the streamlined propaganda that aimed to penetrate all the space it could find in our brains."

another iranian blogger, shahram kholdi, had responded to ahmadinejad's earlier comments about "wiping israel off the map of the earth" by saying that ahmadinejad was calling for ethnic-cleansing. in response to the new statements, kholdi has pointed out that "his excellency president dr. ahmadinejad's" new comments "clarify" ahmadinejad's point of view beyond any doubt. kholdi's response included the direct statement: "first, mr. president, if you do not know history please shut up!"



confidence building reported between iranian and israeli citizens

in contrast with the increasing tensions between iran and israel due to remarks made by the president of iran, the israeli newspaper, the jerusalem post, and the iranian blogger known by the pseudonym "brooding persian" have reported that confidence building measures spontaneously occurred between israelis and iranians during the recent world summit on the information society in tunisia.

the iranian blogger ironically commented the lack of mainstream media attention to the article, stating that "no one was cursed, clubbed, lynched, mobbed, chased, bombed, and i guess that accounts for lack of much interest anywhere in a recently reported contact between delegations from israel and iran in tunis".

the jerusalem post noted that "normally the two enemy states are separated by over 1,500 kilometers, loads of vitriol and, recently, threats and counter-threats in persian and hebrew. ... but in the football-field-sized space, where 18,000 participants at the un summit milled between hundreds of exhibition booths, barely 12 short steps separated the delegations of iran and israel. members of both delegations could not stem their curiosity about the other and visits began one by one."

the iranian engineer saeed kharazi zadeh told the jerusalem post reporter, "iranian people's feelings toward israelis are not as bad as you think" and continued later, "i don't want to explain the actions of my government. i want to explain the feelings of the iranian people. it's not as you think. i want to say that iranian people feel something good about [israelis]. not like they are the enemy." 

the israeli ushi kraush was quoted as saying, "i stood at the entrance to their booth, and told them i'm israeli and asked them if it's ok for me to enter. i was really in shock, they were so friendly and open. you know, i thought they wouldn't allow themselves to speak to us," and later continued, "i met an ayatollah guy who was dressed in the same hat and clothes like khomeini. we chatted and it turns out we studied the same topic: the philosopher ludwig wittgenstein. he translated him to persian."



south carolina says final goodbyes to former governor campbell

former republican governor carroll campbell will lie in state today on the second floor of the statehouse in columbia, sc. he suffered from a fatal heart attack on wednesday. he was 65. he was a native of greenville. there will be a funeral at trinity episcopal church in columbia at 10:30 a.m. local time on saturday, and there will be an additional funeral service and burial at all saints episcopal church in pawleys island.


business brief for december 10, 2005

these are short blurbs about current events in the business world.

alltel intends to spin off its local-telephone unit and merge it with valor communications group.
the deal, worth $4.9 billion, will create a local-telephone company with a rural focus and 3.4 million access lines in 16 states. the deal forecasts $40 million in cost savings annually.
the deal still requires shareholder and regulator approval and if approved will close by mid-2006. this leaves alltel to concentrate on it's wireless services. alltel said it plans a $3 billion share buyback program after it completes the spinoff in mid-2006. alltel stock is up 10.3 percent this year.


on friday, yahoo!, a website listed by alexa to receive the most traffic, bought out del.icio.us, a website used for sharing favorite web pages. yahoo claims that this acquisition does not have a major financial impact on them, and that del.icio.us will still run as an independent website. del.icio.us currently has over 300,000 members since the website's creation two years ago.


in the north american market, coca-cola plans to launch a line of ready-to-drink coffee in the second half of 2006, according to the industry magazine beverage digest. the drinks will be offered under the godiva brand name which already sells coffee in several flavors. the spokesmen for both companies would not confirm or deny the report. mary minnick, coke's marketing chief, has earlier said that coke intends to launch "indulgence coffees" in the north american market. 

in the european market coke intends to offer coffee, named coca-cola blak, in france next month. "we believe we have created a new category of soft drink an adult product in a carbonated beverage, and a whole new drinking experience. this brand is ideal for any part of the day when people are looking for renewed energy or simply to take a break," said coke's vp of global core brands marc mathieu.

coke has attempted to enter the coffee market before. a few years ago coke acquired the brand planet java forming a joint venture with nestle. the drink never caught on and was shelved.


australian activists break into pine gap spy facility

the members of the group christians against all terrorism (caat) breached base security at dawn and two of them infiltrated two perimeter fences and scaled a building, before being arrested. two of the protesters photographed themselves atop a building inside the spy base. 

a northern territory police spokeswoman said three men and two women had been charged over the incident while another woman would be summoned to appear in court next week over obstructing police. the spokeswoman said the activists had allegedly cut holes in the external and internal fences at the defence facility. she said the combined charges carried a maximum penalty of seven years jail.

the group claims it was the first break-in of its kind at pine gap. the group spoke yesterday of their efforts to conceal a digital camera memory stick in the clothing of key members to avoid the images being confiscated by police.

four of the protesters are from queensland, one is from new south wales, and the other is from . they say they wanted to conduct a citizens inspection of the controversial pine gap facility. "we could not allow the us and australian governments to continue to conceal the role of pine gap in the ongoing war in iraq," said sean o'reilly of the group. "it's time the australian public knew the reality of what is happening on our land."

group member jessica morrison claims there is a lot of secrecy surrounding the facility. "so for me it was an attempt to come to a place that i think propagates death and start to proclaim truth," she said.

two of the group were released on bail facing charges, including: unlawfully entering a prohibited area destroying or damaging commonwealth property; trespassing on commonwealth land; damaging property under the nt law. a sixth member was arrested for aiding and abetting but was released without charge.

up to 30 police officers were stationed at a roadblock at the turn-off to pine gap at 6:00 a.m. local time and gap staff were ordered to remain in their cars at the roadblock.

caat member brian law, said four of the group split into two groups and entered the base in a co-ordinated movement. he said four members walked 10km through thick scrub and entered the base at 4:00 a.m. local time. mr law and the fourth member arrested, former donna mulhearn, 37, (taken hostage by militants in in iraq last year) were released.

mr o'reilly said the group conducted a citizens' inspection in protest at pine gap's involvement in the ongoing war in iraq after the group had been refused official entry by defence minister robert hill. "we could not allow the us and australian governments to continue to conceal the role of pine gap in the ongoing war in iraq," mr o'reilly said.

it was unclear last night whether the group would be charged under the . they were bailed to face the alice springs magistrates court next wednesday.


muslim youth to guard christian churches in indonesia

amid fears of attacks like those against churches on christmas eve 2000, jakarta police have announced an increased level of security leading up to the christmas holidays. youth members of nahdlatul ulama, the largest muslim group in indonesia, have volunteered to assist with security around the churches.

the muslim youth organization, the banser, have contacted organizations from other religions to coordinate with the police to ensure a peaceful holiday season.

simultaneous church bombings at christmas in 2000 claimed the lives of 19 people in indonesia.



bush threatens u.n. over clinton climate speech

officials in the bush administration privately threatened the organizers of the united nations climate change conference in montreal, saying that any chance there might have been for the united states to sign the kyoto protocol would be lost if bill clinton spoke friday at the meeting.

the threat was received within minutes of the associated press running a story on clinton being added to the program. "it's just astounding." said one organizer. "it came through loud and clear from the bush people?they wouldn't sign the deal if clinton were allowed to speak."

clinton said, "there's no way that i'm gonna let petty politics get in the way of the deal. so i'm not gonna come." the organizers later reported that they had "called the administration's bluff." clinton delivered his speech as planned.

in his speech friday, clinton described the bush administration's opposition to kyoto as "flat wrong."

vice-president dick cheney directed the u.s. envoy to walk out thursday, in response to comments by canadian prime minister paul martin on thursday. the walk out is not believed to relate to clinton's attendance.



airplane crashes in nigeria

a dc-9, operated by privately owned, sosoliso airlines, crashed in port harcourt, nigeria, reportedly killing at least 103 people. seven people are reported to have survived the crash.

landing during an electrical storm, the plane overshot the runway and burst into flames. the aircraft broke into three main pieces, scattering passengers and wreckage.

some 75 children returning home for the holidays are among the victims.


mozilla to fix firefox security hole in patch

the mozilla foundation announced today a plan to patch vulnerability in mozilla firefox 1.5 in late january or early february 2006.

mike schroepfer, vice president of engineering of the mozilla foundation, states "it's a low-severity issue, but we will address it anyway."

packetstorm security posted that firefox 1.5, released on november 30, has vulnerability in its history.dat file, such that firefox becomes very slow after restarting from a visit to a website exploiting the vulnerability. a url of a few million characters takes advantage of the vulnerability. history.dat stores the user's recently visited sites. initially packetstorm posted that a tailored url could crash firefox. when attempting to recreate the problem, mozilla engineers found that the browser works slowly and takes an extremely long time to load a website, but does not crash.

if one does encounter the problem after visiting an exploiting website, clearing out the history will fix it.



former u.s. senator eugene mccarthy dies

, a democratic senator from minnesota from 1959&ndasp;1971, has died at the age of 89 in , his son announced.

mccarthy ran for president of the united states a total of five times, the latest in the . in 1968 he ran against incumbent , who later withdrew his bid for a second term (johnson was inaugurated following the assassination of , and later won the presidential bid for 1964).

"he was thoughtful and he was principled and he was compassionate and he had a good sense of humor," his son said.


comedian richard pryor dies at 65

comedian, richard pryor, died today after a 19-year battle with multiple sclerosis, aged just 65. 

he was pronounced dead of cardiac arrest at 8:00 a.m. local time in a hospital near his home. he is survived by his wife jennifer lee pryor; along with his six children, richard junior, elizabeth storder, rain kindlin, kelsey, steven and franklin mason, and his three grandchildren

pryor appeared in over 40 films and won grammy awards for his comedy albums.



pakistan bans kite flying

pakistan's supreme court has extended a ban on making, selling and flying kites. the ban, which was imposed on october 25, has been extended until the court meets again on january 26.

officials claim the ban is due to injuries resulting from people using metal kite strings, and due to deaths resulting from kite flyers falling off rooftops.

, a kite-flying festival, where tens of thousands of people fly kites from rooftops and sports fields, takes place in lahore, pakistan every february. hardline oppose basant as wasteful and a hindu festival.


nyc's transit workers approve strike authorization

new york city is on track to grind to a halt on december 15 when the transport workers union local 100 contract with the metropolitan transportation authority expires. union members gathered at jacob javits today and unanimously approved a strike authorization if the negotaions between the twu and mta fail. among the many disagreements are the mta's employee rules and salary increases.

mta employees have complained about the rule that requires them to call and alert a supervisor prior to taking a bathroom break of no more than ten minutes. workers have pointed out that supervisors are not always accessible, especially during the overnight shifts. another rule in dispute is the employee's uniform: "sikh workers, whose religion requires they wear a turban, must wear one made of ta-issued fabric with the ta logo front and center." but the major sticking point has been the pay raises. the union has demanded an 8% increase per year for the next three years, but the mta has offered 5% over two years. the mta was running a deficit during the previous contract negotiation in 2002, forcing the twu to accept what the mta offered. but now, reportedly us$1 billion in the black and offering free rides for the holidays to its riders, the union is looking to cash in on the mta's good fortunes.

the twu began broadcasting radio advertisements on the news stations 1010 wins-am and 880 wcbs-am to gain public support. part of it goes "mta bosses are making buses run faster, while carrying more people, and don't even give the operators enough time for a bathroom break" and "security alert levels are still high, but mta bosses are taking conductors off trains, closing token booths and installing turnstiles that make emergency evacuation very difficult."
michael bloomberg had stressed in the negotiations of 2002 that the city would enforce the taylor law, which prohibits public employees from striking and fines strikers two days wages each striking day. echoing his previous position three years ago, mayor bloomberg said "they should stay in a room until they come to an agreement." corporation counsel michael cardozo said a strike could cost as much as us$10 million a day in police overtime and other expenses. 

the last transit strike was in april 1980, and lasted for eleven days. twu president roger toussaint called the proposed health provisions, pension givebacks, and wage increase "an insult to our members", and went on to suggest that the odds of a strike were 50/50. both toussaint and chief mta negotiator gary dellaverson said they were confident that a strike could be averted, but union members made clear that they will strike if - or as most commuters fear, "when" - the negotiations fail and the deadline is passed.



major explosions at uk oil depot

a series of large explosions have occurred close to , uk. the source of the explosions has been confirmed as the hertfordshire oil storage terminal (hosl), hemel hempstead, known locally as the buncefield complex. up to 150 fire fighters are reported to be at the scene with 10 fire appliances and 1 specialist foamer.

the first 'blast' was heard near hemel hempstead on sunday 11 dec at 6 am. further smaller explosions followed at 6:24am , 6:26am, 6:30am. bbc news 24 reported an additional, fourth large explosion. are currently treating the explosion as an accident. 

reports say the explosion, which registered 2.4 on the , was heard as far away as , and , which is 60km (38 miles) away. eyewitness statements report that the explosion was heard from at least 160km (100 miles) away and as far away as france and the netherlands. pilots reported noticing the blast from the north sea and the west country area of the uk. the which runs close by has been closed in both directions near the blast which is causing travel chaos as other roads become congested.

malcom stewart, a bbc news24 eyewitness who is a tanker driver for the site has reported that the site supplies several oil companies and is a joint operation between total uk and texaco, it is also used by bp, shell and the british pipeline association. the complex is not a refinery but a storage facility for refined petroleum awaiting distribution to airports and filling stations. the eyewitness reports that the depot has approximately 20 tanks which can hold about 3 million gallons (11 million litres or 70,000 barrels) each. another news24 eyewitness has just reported that he has seen at least 5 of these tanks on fire.

the depot operates on a 24 hour basis and is split into 2 parts - aviation fuel and domestic fuel. a number of eyewitnesses have reported on uk news that the aviation fuel side appears to be the part of the site that has been affected.

local authorities were not immediately available for comment but there have been reports of casualties.

some reports on live television state that, "several other neighbours said they did see a plane go into the depot." bbc news 24 were also discussing the idea a possible plane crash as the cause of the explosions. hertfordshire police have now gone on the record to say that there is no plane involved (bbc news24).

the police have issued a contact number 0800 096 0095 and asked that people do not call the emergency services in hertfordshire directly unless it is an emergency. 
in addition to being an oil storage depot, it is a major hub on the uk oil pipeline network with pipelines to killingholme lindsey oil refinery (lor), humberside (10 inch), merseyside (10 and 12 inch), coryton on the thames estuary (14 inch) and heathrow (6 and 8 inch) and gatwick airports radiating from it.

the disaster is believed to be the worst explosion at a petrochemical plant in the uk since the flixborough disaster of 1974.
hertfordshire's chief fire officer roy wilsher said: "this is possibly the largest incident of its kind in peacetime europe." 

a firefighting press officer said that they are stock piling foam from neighboring regions for a prolonged attach which they hope will stop the spread of the fire, however, the inferno itself will have to burn out which could take between 24 hours and a few days.

despite the authorities saying that there is no need to panic buy petrol, filling stations have had above average queues since this morning and some small garages have ran out.

deputy prime minister john prescott has visited the scene.


police are discounting the reports of a small plane being heard nearby just before the explosion.

an oil industry specialist reported on bbc news that a vapour leak could have built up to explosive concentrations because of the ground frost in the area keeping vapour concentration at ground level. this would have resulted in a fuel-air explosion. eyewitnesses report seeing vapour and smelling petrol just before the explosion, leading experts to speculate that there may have been a fuel spillage or vapour leak. a bbc news 24 interview with a petrol tanker driver, who was about to load his tanker at 6am, reported a cloud of mist rolling in from the tank farm area behind the loading bay. all electric lights were turned off and they were ordered to leave the site on foot. as he was doing so a blast blew him off his feet. in another interview a security guard in a nearby office building reported an unusual smell of petrol inside his building before the explosion.





football: world cup draw for 2006

groups for 2006 football world cup in germany were drawn yesterday in leipzig. the groups are:


hundreds attend &quot;international peace conference&quot;

on saturday 10 december 2005, tony benn spoke to around 1,500 people at the opening rally of a peace conference at the royal horticultural hall in london organised by the stop the war coalition in opposition to the occupation of iraq. tony benn told the amassed conference delegates that the anti-war movement, which is calling for troops to be withdrawn from iraq, is the biggest he had seen in his lifetime.

throughout the long day, from 10am to 8pm, there were 33 speakers in total. among these was cindy sheehan, american anti-war activist whose son, a soldier, died in iraq. she spoke in a session along with among others reg keys and rose gentle from military families against the war. several speakers who had travelled from iraq spoke, including hassan juma, president of the iraqi trade union the southern oil workers' union. he condemned what he claimed were attempts by america to strip iraq through privatizing its services. sheikh hussein al zagani, a representative of muqtada al-sadr, was due to speak at the conference but was reportedly denied a visa.

george galloway, the respect mp, closed the conference in a speech in which he urged people to build for a planned international demonstration on the 18th of march next year.



bus explosion in pakistan kills at least 40

a bus loaded with wedding party celebrants exploded into flame in lahore, pakistan, after sparks from fireworks ignited the fuel tank. 40 people are confirmed dead, with some bodies not identifiable from the fierce fire.

up to 70 persons were aboard the bus when the accident occurred. the father of the groom, 57 year old muhammad wazir khan, was aboard the bus and managed to escape with his clothing afire, but suffered only minor injuries.

"we do not know who is dead and who has survived. the tragedy has shattered us," he said to reporters.

injured passengers were taken to nearby hospitals, some treated and released immediately. rescue workers arrived on the scene, delayed by traffic, to remove bodies from the wreck. police investigator rana shabbir ahmad told the afp news agency the bodies were of 11 women, 10 men and a child about nine years old.

the bride and groom, traveling in a separate vehicle, were uninjured.



car entrapped by ice in halifax

halifax, nova scotia

following the first major snow storm of the season, several cars were reported to be 'entrapped' by slick ice in the seaside city of halifax, nova scotia. the ice was believed to be created when the snow, which fell during the night of december 9-10, was packed down by successive cars and trucks passing over it. by morning, several areas of the city had patches of slippery, low-traction crystalline water lying in wait for the next unsuspecting motor vehicle to pass over them. soon enough, your correspondent witnessed cars which had slowed to a stop or were parked find that, try as they might, they were unable to move forward on the ice and were therefore stuck.

luckily, most of the cars were able to extricate themselves after either slowly accelerating in a low gear, or 'rocking' the car back-and-forth to build up momentum. no one was reported injured, and the only damage believed to be done was the excessive wear and tear on the entrapped vehicles.


author of wikipedia character assassination takes responsibility

brian chase, 38, of nashville, tennessee, hand-delivered a letter to the offices of john seigenthaler sr. in which he admits responsibility for false information he anonymously posted in a wikipedia article. initially a prank played on a friend, the false story claimed that seigenthaler was a suspect in the assassination of president kennedy. 

the fake biography made rounds in the media after seigenthaler discovered and denounced it in a "usa today" op-ed article titled "a false wikipedia 'biography'". a known free speech advocate, seigenthaler refused to press charges. he recommended that chase be re-hired for the job he was forced to quit when reporters, following leads from ad-hoc cyber detective daniel brandt, 57, of san antonio, texas, started calling the offices of his employer. 


xbox 360 not a hit in japan

microsoft has launched its much-hyped xbox 360 console into japan, but unlike the european and american markets the japanese are not rushing out to buy them.

when launched in the american and european markets, stores sold out early. in japan, sales are much lower. one store-owner says that fewer than 50 units were sold in the first 2 hours of its release.

many believe that in japan it is difficult for any games console to be successful that isn't from a japanese company, such as sony or nintendo. the first generation of xbox consoles performed similarly possibly due to being released two years after the playstation 2. the large size of the console and the differing style of games was also said to have contributed.

there is still some hope for the xbox 360, takeshi tajima, a bnp paribas analyst, told reuters news agency: "most people are going to wait and see."


missed field goal gives dallas important victory

the dallas cowboys beat the kansas city chiefs 31-28 at texas stadium in irving, texas.

it was a thrilling game which was decided in the final seconds when lawrence tynes missed a 41-yard field goal which would have forced overtime.

cowboys quarterback drew bledsoe passed for a season-best 332 yards, including a 71-yard touchdown pass to terry glenn in the second quarter, and a 14-play 68-yard drive in the fourth for the winning touchdown.

"that was really a great drive, probably the best one of the year," said dallas coach bill parcells.

the win means the cowboys remain tied with the minnesota vikings, who won against the st. louis rams, for the sixth and final nfc wildcard spot with 3 games remaining. the chiefs are now in a three-way tie for the sixth afc wildcard spot with the san diego chargers, who lost to the miami dolphins, and the cincinnati bengals, who won against the cleveland browns.

the chiefs face the new york giants next saturday and the cowboys play the washington redskins on sunday.



business brief for december 12, 2005

these are short blurbs about current events in the business world.

paramount pictures has agreed to buy dreamworks skg for $826 million 
in cash and $774 million in assumption of debt. paramount intends to sell
off the dreamworks' 59 title library which includes gladiator, american beauty, 
and saving private ryan. the library is expected to bring in $850 million to $1 
billion making the dreamworks net purchase price about $500 to $650 million.

dreamworks was established 11 years ago by steven spielberg, david geffin,
and jeffrey katzenberg. spielberg will remain producer-director and geffen
will remain the company's chairman.

paramount will not receive dreamworks' animation studios, which is 
responsible for the hit shrek, but it will own the distribution rights
of previously made dreamworks films. paramount will however receive
dreamworks' television division.

nbc universal, owned by ge, had offered $900 million.


the agricultural fighting continues in the wto. eu's trade chief peter mandelson wants his six-point plan tabled. the plan includes a deal to end cotton subsidies. "we have asked [wto director-general] pascal lamy to consider making the development package that we have been promoting as the first subject in the discussions. i think it would earth these negotiations in the real world, would give them a human face." mandelson said.

this agitated several countries, notably the us, brazil, and several latin american countries. "the us and eu are receiving billions of subsidies and at the end of the day these countries produce far more than they should and our market is flooded with subsidised cotton." said samuel amehou, benin's wto ambassador.

brazil insists that the eu make a better offer. the country's finance minister said "unless the european union is able to improve substantially its offer on agricultural goods, there will not be a successful round."

mandelson countered with "another offer on agriculture would simply be pocketed without listing the levels of ambition overall," he said. "it is for others to come up with better proposals in key areas of industrial tariffs and services."

hong kong secretary for commerce, john tsang, said he wants to build a platform in hong kong for the doha round to push for a final drive towards reaching a conclusion in 2006. tsang said that 
ministers must give a clear direction on how to move forward after the conference.



protesting chinese villagers killed in confrontation with police

chinese security forces have sealed off a village where police have allegedly shot and killed up to 20 people, in what has been touted as the most lethal use of force by authorities since the tiananmen square massacre.

days after reports of the shooting leaked out, beijing has confirmed that police had opened fire last tuesday on villagers protesting against land seizures. according to government statements, three people had been shot dead as police quelled a demonstration. the incident came after months of protest against the building of a power station, which villagers say was on stolen land. 

authorities have arrested the police commander accused of authorising the shootings. hundreds of police have blocked roads into dongzhou village, part of shanwei city in guangdong province near hong kong. 

villagers claim that up to 20 people died in the clash. they say 300 people have been arrested for protesting in recent months. last tuesday's demonstration was to demand the release of three more who had been detained.

a government statement, released after a four-day news blackout, said the villagers attacked police with sticks, knives and molotov cocktails. "police were forced to open fire in alarm," it said. "in the chaos, three villagers died, eight were injured, three of them seriously."

however, villagers claimed that the protest was peaceful and, at most, only fireworks had been thrown into the air. one teenager said: "we didn't expect the police to open fire. they threw tear gas first and then they shot."

according to newspapers in hong kong, residents say that police are going from house to house offering money to take away the bodies of those who died, in order to reduce the visible death count.

local government officials say the killings will be investigated, but rather than blame the officers who pulled the trigger or gave the order to fire, it accused three local men of stirring up unrest, adding: "they must shoulder the legal responsibility for what happened."

the report, which was carried by the state-run xinhua news agency, made no mention of claims by villagers that up to 20 people were killed, some of whom were said to have been chased and executed. 

locals quoted in the hong kong and foreign media said bodies were left in the street and in the sea. shots were reported many hours after the initial clash. 

 


demonstration in hong kong denounces wto

anti-globalization protesters in hong kong began a series of demonstrations on sunday to denounce this week's world trade organization (wto) meeting. 

around 3,000 protesters with signs reading "junk the wto" and "life is not for sale", took to the streets in a carnival atmosphere. "we feel very frustrated with multinational enterprises," said kenzo sasaki, owner of a 20-cow dairy farm north of tokyo. "our main message is for food sovereignty. junk the wto."

some 10,000 anti-globalization protesters, including groups of south korean farmers angry at the prospect of more agricultural imports, are converging on hong kong. police hope to avoid the violent clashes that marked the last wto conference in cancun, mexico, in 2003, where a protester was killed by police. 

supporters of the talks say a trade deal may generate billions of dollars in benefits and possibly lift millions out of poverty, but many opponents say it would largely benefit rich nations at the expense of developing countries.

deep divisions between developed and developing countries, particularly over agriculture, have forced wto states to lower their goals for their sixth ministerial conference, which is being held this week amid tight security.

to avoid trouble, hong kong has blacklisted some people. officials have also glued down loose pavement stones and welded shut sewer grates to prevent protesters from using them as projectiles and pedestrian overpasses have been covered in mesh to prevent objects being thrown.

elizabeth tang, head of the hong kong peoples' alliance coordinating the demonstrations, said she expected any violence to be on a very small-scale and easily handled by police. "people all over the world are feeling that the wto and the way it has been functioning so far has failed to lift the poor out of poverty," tang said.

han dongfang, a fellow marcher who led workers at the 1989 tiananmen square pro-democracy protest, said workers' rights had languished. "the wto is a double-edged sword for china," said han. "chinese workers have no right to organize unions, so how can you protect yourself or get benefits."

spokespeople for the group of 1,500 south koreans protesters said they would demonstrate legally and peacefully, according to a statement by the korean struggle mission, which represents several activist groups. 

the koreans oppose the wto's aim to lower trade barriers for agricultural imports, saying such moves will flood the korean market with cheap rice and bankrupt korean farmers. joo jei-jun, general coordinator of the korean struggle mission, on monday told reporters, "we will be escalating the level of struggle on december 17. "any hindrance to our freedom of expression - either by the hong kong government or the police - will be dealt with in an affirmative manner," he added. 

yang kyeong-kyoo, of the korean confederation of trade unions, said the groups were still discussing protest tactics. "but generally, we will mobilize as many people as we can because december 17 is the last day to make decisions," he said.



indianapolis remains undefeated with win in jacksonville

the indianapolis colts beat the jacksonville jaguars 26-18 at alltel stadium in jacksonville, florida. the colts remain undefeated 13 games into the 16-game nfl season.

marvin harrison caught two touchdown passes from peyton manning, including a 65-yard pass in the second quarter. mike vanderjagt kicked four field goals. the jaguars, who were held to a single field goal in the first 3 quarters, scored two touchdowns in the last five minutes of the game.

the victory guarantees that colts will finish with the best record in the afc, entitling them to a bye in the first round of the playoffs, and home field advantage in the second and third rounds.

only three other teams in nfl history have remained undefeated through the first 13 games of the season: the 1934 chicago bears, the 1972 miami dolphins, and the 1998 denver broncos. only the 1972 dolphins finished the season with perfection. they played a 14-game schedule with three playoff games, including a 14-7 win in super bowl vii over the washington redskins.

"going 16-0 would be great, but it's not the most important thing," said indianapolis coach tony dungy. "we're going to keep our mantra: one game at a time. we're going to do everything we can to beat san diego and we're not going to look ahead."

the colts face the san diego chargers next sunday in indianapolis.


gorillaz nominated for 5 grammy awards

the smash hit "demon days" from cartoon concept band gorillaz has been nominated for 5 grammy awards:

the other nominations for record of the year are "we belong together" by mariah carey, "boulevard of broken dreams" by green day, "hollaback girl" by gwen stefani, and "gold digger" by kanye west.


internet company offers organs from executed chinese prisoners

an internet based company, transplantsinternational.com has begun selling transplants of kidneys from executed chinese prisoners, at a price of ￡23,000. the company states, 'a cadaveric kidney comes from a dead person and in the majority of cases in china, the dead people are prisoners, which allows for us to know at least two weeks ahead of time when the kidney will be ready.'

the prisoners apparently give their consent and are told that their families will receive money for the 'donation'. human rights groups generally oppose such means of obtaining transplants as "organ harvesting" which makes human rights abuses more profitable, and exploits poorer populations. 

amnesty international reports that china carried out 3,400 executions in 2004, which is 90% of all executions worldwide. 

 


sydney racial violence continues

in a second night of racial violence in sydney, residents have been bashed and property damaged throughout the eastern suburbs. hundreds of men, some armed with guns and crowbars, damaged cars and businesses, and attacked people randomly. five men have been arrested and charged. 

police called in riot equipment and extra officers saying car loads of people arrived in the area with many taking part in attacks on property. a witness said police with guns drawn arrested a number of people. there were reports of gunshots near north cronulla beach, but police said there had been no shots fired.

hundreds of men congregated around lakemba mosque at 4:30pm after rumours spread that it would be attacked. the men scuffled with police, and three officers received minor injuries. 

there have been more reports of sms messages promoting further violence against against the opposing parties circulating. 

in an escalation of yesterday's conflict, up to 70 cars invaded cronulla and brighton-le-sands on monday night - following the vicious attacks by cronulla locals on sunday. according to the "sydney morning herald", twenty carloads of men arrived at cronulla by about 10.30pm, smashing shops and cars and threatening people who got in their way. 

a woman was reportedly stabbed in carringbah. four men attacked patrons of a pizzeria, knocking a woman unconscious on the footpath and smashing windows. around 100 cronulla locals surrounded a car carrying men of middle eastern appearance. police dispersed the mob and let the car escape. 

at brighton-le-sands, about 100 men in cars arrived in the area, throwing objects at cars and shops.
mobs ripped out garbage bins, police dogs and helicopters were called as furious locals began to gather, threatening to take back the streets from "wogs and lebanese". police yelled at local residents to stay inside.

a police media release listed these assaults occurring:


five men were arrested and charged. the men were from guildford, sandringham, ashcroft, and hurstville, and the charges included assault police, not comply with directions, driving in a manner dangerous, being in custody of a knife, assault, breach of bail, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, affray and malicious damage. the men charged were between 22 and 30 years of age.

earlier, about 200 men had assembled outside a mosque - some armed with pistols. the group said they had gathered to protect the lakemba mosque because of a threatened attack on it by a gang from the southern beaches. another group said they were preparing to travel to maroubra beach, where up to 300 locals, many armed with crowbars, waited for an arranged fight. 

police confiscated iron bars and other weapons and blocked roads around the mosque. about 20 police cars surrounded the mosque, where four men showed their pistols and ammunition to a news crew, and boasted that others were carrying arms. police were pelted with rocks as the crowd dispersed, but no one was injured.

amidst fears of a third night of violence in sydney some 450 police officers have been deployed in the city to respond to any disturbances. the new south wales deputy commissioner of police andrew scipione says that while they have no specific intelligence, police expect more unrest tonight. he has also said that if needed he will seek assistance from police in other states.

the new south wales parliament will be recalled from their christmas-new year holiday on thursday 15 december, 2005 to pass legislation giving police the power to shut bottle shops and hotels, lock down areas and impound and search vehicles.

at present police in new south wales can ask bottle shop and hotel owners close their doors but can not force them to do so.

police are also investigating sms messages calling on young arabs to start another round of attacks at cronulla beach next sunday. another congratulated australians for the fight against the lebanese, but called for more attacks. "we'll show them! it's on again sunday," the message said.

a usenet posting signed by an unknown entity "action for australia" is calling on australians to become "true blue patriots" and rally on australia day in 2006. "we will assert our democratic right to march through the streets of lakemba," the posting said.

claiming that the sydney suburbs of bankstown and lakemba are the true source of the "lebanese and muslim trouble", they are wishing to arrange a march through lakemba to demonstrate that "australians wish to reclaim the streets".


french police detain 20 terror suspects in dawn raid

french police said on monday they have smashed an islamist terrorism ring in paris. between 20 and 30 people were arrested in the paris region following an investigation into the funding of islamist extremists. police described monday's events as a "major operation aimed at disbanding an islamist network linked to terrorism".

among those arrested in a string of dawn raids were individuals linked to previous terrorism investigations and common crime, the police statement said. those detained remained in custody and police were searching a number of premises and internet cafes. the suspects were under surveillance for several weeks and were detained after evidence emerged that "violent actions" were being planned.

those arrested are suspected of staging armed robberies to finance radical islamist causes. french investigators were reportedly "convinced" those arrested intended to stage violent acts on french territory, a french radio station reported.

some 20 suspects were arrested before dawn in five different regions. others were arrested several hours later around suburban paris. the raids were carried out by the domestic intelligence service, dst, detectives from france's organised crime unit and members of the raid crack intervention squad.

france has been on red alert, the second highest security level, since the suicide bomb attacks on london transport on july 7. 


tramlink fan site closes news section

"croydon tramlink - the unofficial site", a popular website about tramlink, has removed its news section from its website by 6 december 2005 due to legal threats. concerns about the move have already been expressed in the newsgroup "uk.transport.london". one of the articles in contention is claimed to be three years old. after the section was withdrawn, the site maintainer stated in a message on the site that he feels he is not in a positon to defend legal actions should they arise.

in the same statement, the maintiner explains that the news section has been withdrawn because of threats over some of the reports in the news section. the site maintainer further explains that "the aim throughout had been timely, detailed, accurate reporting" with infromation reported "in good faith".

"ic croydon", a local news website, has reported bombardier (the company believed to have made the threats) as stating that some of the reports on the unofficial site were "100% inaccurate" with a spokesperson being quoted as saying that "things came to a head when a potential customer read something on his website and asked us if there was any truth in it. this could have affected our bid."

by contrast the general manager of tramlink's operators is quoted (by ic corydon) as saying "it is a shame. i have warmed to the site over the years. he is such a strong advocate of tramlink," referring to the maintainer of the fan site.




californian governor denies clemency for stanley tookie williams

california governor arnold schwarzenegger has denied clemency for gang founder stanley "tookie" williams, a death row inmate in california convicted of four murders in the 1979.

stanley williams was the founder of a notorious crips street gang. he was convicted in 1981 for the four murders ? one of a murder of a convenience store clerk and of two taiwanese-american motel owners and their daughter.

in recent years, williams has claimed that he has been redeemed. he has become known for his anti-gang efforts, including the brokering of a truce between the major street gang, the bloods, and the crips which he founded. these efforts have earned him nobel peace prize nominations. bbc news has reported alice huffman, president of the california national association for the advancement of colored people, as saying "we believe this is a serious blow to our effort to fight gangs." 

however the violent nature of williams crimes has also been raised. in denying clemency californian governor arnold schwarzenegger said "without apology and atonement for these senseless and brutal killings, there can be no redemption,". despite claims of redemption and renunciation of the gang lifestyle, willams has not provided authorities with information on the gang he founded, and has maintained his innocence of the murders. according to the statement released by the governor, williams' stance was a factor in denial of clemency.

williams will be executed by lethal injection at 12:01 am local time (0801 utc) on tuesday.



strong earthquake strikes afghanistan, no immediate report of damage

an earthquake, measured at 6.7 on the , has struck north-eastern afghanistan. the (usgs) has stated that the time of the quake was 22:00 gmt, and the epicenter was close to the border with pakistan.

the tremor was felt in delhi, muzaffarabad, and . it is the second quake to hit the area in a .



guantanamo detainee david hicks seeks uk passport

according to his lawyers, australian terror suspect david hicks may be granted british citizenship tonight, a move that could see his release from guantanamo bay prison. 

hicks's lawyer david mcleod said his client may be able to leave the us facility in cuba when the high court reveals its decision tonight. "we're quietly confident that the judge will order that he be granted british citizenship," mr mcleod said.

hick's court action is based on his mother's british citizenship and is aimed at securing his release. he has a right under the british nationality act to apply for british citizenship. however, the british home office is reportedly fighting the application saying that because he was accused of "acts that are prejudicial to the united kingdom", the british government would strip him of citizenship immediately - if it were granted.

mr hicks' australian lawyer says: "what we'll be doing is probably prevailing on the us government to honour their agreement with the uk government and release him to the uk and not to subject him to the military commissions," said mr mcleod. "the uk government has repatriated its other citizens and we hope they honour that."

despite the australian howard government's strong support for us military commissions and refusal to ask for hicks's return to australia, the british blair government has condemned the military commissions as a violation of international law. britain won agreement from the us bush administration that no british citizen would be forced to face trial by military commission, and got its citizens released from guantanamo bay.

hicks' lawyers expect him to be granted british citizenship tonight. they will immediately request the us and british governments release him to britain. 

hicks, 30, was due to be the first of nine detainees to face the us military commissions last month before a us district court judge stopped in the proceedings. his trial is due to be held late next year. the us government detained hicks since 2001, after his capture in afghanistan. he has been charged with attempted murder, conspiracy and aiding the enemy. he is believed to be the only westerner left in guantanamo bay prison.


no reprieve for stanley williams, crips street gang founder

stanley "tookie" williams, founder of the crips street gangs, was executed by lethal injection in the state of california just after midnight local time tuesday at the san quentin state prison after spending 24 years on death row. he was 51 years old.

williams said no final words before his execution. it took two nurses 12 minutes to insert catheters into each of his arms, one nurse and one catheter per arm. the lethal doses were injected at 12:20 am, and williams was pronounced dead at 12:35. 

hopes for clemency were dashed monday when california governor arnold schwarzenegger declined to commute williams's sentence to life imprisonment. last minute appeals to the u.s. supreme court were also denied.

williams was convicted in 1981 of the murder of albert owens during the robbery of a 7-eleven convenience store, as well as the murders of motel owners tsai-shai and yen-i yang, and their daughter yee chen lin in 1979. 

following his conviction, williams became an outspoken anti-gang activist and was four times nominated for the nobel peace prize. his anti-gang message began in 1993. he co-authored with barbara becnel an elementary school book series called "tookie speaks out", and wrote a memoir called "blue rage, black redemption."


 


shots fired at sydney church

30 kilometres from the scene of racial violence in sydney last night, more than 20 shells have been recovered from a catholic school and church in south auburn after gunshots were heard.

during a christmas carols event at saint joseph the worker primary school patrons heard what they thought to be gunshots. upon investigation two of the school's staff members discovered bullet holes in their cars.

the catholic church is reported to be concerned about the incident as children as young as five were at the event.


business brief for december 13, 2005

these are short blurbs about current events in the business world.

the uk's retailing giant, marks & spencer, has won their case at the european court of justice. the court's ruling allows losses made in foreign operations to be offset against taxes to be paid in the uk. it is expected that this ruling will require that the uk treasury pay out significant amounts as a number of firms are poised to bring their own cases to take advantage of this ruling.

in a widely expected move, the u.s. federal reserve bumped the interest rate a quarter percent to 4.25%. this is the 13th consecutive rate hike since june of 2003. the central bank left open the possibility of additional rate hikes, but analysts are predicting the trend is probably near a close.

the fed also rewrote its 2 year old explanatory statement by removing language that viewed interest rates to as
adding to growth. because many financial decisions are effected simply by what, and when, the fed speaks the fed wanted to remove any associations between policy actions and any set timetable or speed of their delivery.



racially motivated text messages surface in other states

following the distribution of text messages which resulted in violence in sydney, similar messages are appearing around australia.

queensland premier peter beattie, queensland police and community leaders have called for calm following the circulation of text messages urging gold coast residents to "have a go and fight for the gold coast" on december 18. queensland police said yesterday that text messages calling for people to start "cracking skulls."

believed to also be aimed at australians of middle-eastern origin, the messages are similar to those which sparked the violence in sydney over the past two days.

premier beattie has dismissed the messages as being "mischievous" but conceded that the matter still needs to be taken seriously as "we don't want a few idiots trying to stir up trouble".

queensland police superintendent pointing has been reported to claim that the message may have started as a hoax, but the threat of violence increases as more people receive the message.

superintendent ponting also warned the authors of the message and those found forwarding it that they could face prosecution under the anti-discrimination act. those prosecuted may face a $5000 fine or 6 months imprisonment.

nsw police minister carl scully said police were taking seriously a new round of text messages encouraging unrest. "some of them are crying wolf, they're false, they're hoaxes. but some of them, we think, have credibility and we need to be aware that there is a risk of incidents continuing," mr scully said in melbourne's age newspaper.

victorian teenagers have been questioned in relation to the circulation of inciteful text messages and emails. nsw police said similar messages had also been reported in victoria. victoria police chief commissioner christine nixon said officers had traced the author of a text message and had spoken to the youth involved. "the young people in some of these instances are 15 and 16 year-olds," she said.

"so we're talking about young people who are just impressionable, (looking for) something different to do, perhaps bored," she said police did not have evidence of a strong movement behind the text messages from ethnic or community groups. ms nixon said some of the messages had specified locations while others were of a more general nature and expressed the desire that "we should all get together and beat everybody".

 


jury convicts murdoch of outback murder

a jury has delivered a unanimous guilty verdict in the darwin trial of the man charged with the murder of missing british backpacker peter falconio. 

it took the jury more than eight hours to reach a verdict. 47-year-old broome mechanic, bradley john murdoch, has also been found guilty of the assault and deprivation of liberty of mr falconio's girlfriend joanne lees. mr falconio's body has never been found. 

murdoch flagged down mr falconio and ms lees on a remote central australian highway in july 14, 2001. he then shot mr falconio and bound ms lees with cable ties and threatened her with a gun. 

telling jurors that he "entirely agreed" with their verdict, chief justice brian martin sentenced murdoch to a mandatory life sentence. murdoch's defence lawyer, grant algie, indicated an appeal would be lodged against the conviction. "obviously we are disappointed with the result," he said.

outside court, ms lees said she hoped murdoch would tell her and falconio's family the location of her partner's body. "today marks an intense period of distress for myself and the falconio family. this will enable us to take another step (forward)," she said.
the eight-week trial heard from 85 witnesses and had more than 300 exhibits tendered. the court heard that mr falconio and ms lees were travelling around australia when they were flagged down by murdoch. murdoch told them he saw sparks coming out of the exhaust of the couple's orange kombi van and took mr falconio to the back of the vehicle to show him. ms lees heard a gunshot before murdoch bound her hands with a pair of cable ties. she managed to escape the van, and hid in bushes for hours until she flagged down a road train.

dna matching murdoch's was found on the t-shirt ms lees was wearing when she was found. the court heard it was 150 quadrillion times more likely to match the dna of murdoch than any other person in the northern territory. matching dna was also found on the gear stick of the van and inside the cable ties.

in his defence, murdoch claimed he had nothing to do with the crime. he admitted to the fact he was a drug-runner, detailing numerous trips across australia. his former drug-running partner also gave evidence, saying he believed murdoch was filmed at a truckstop after mr falconio was murdered. 

murdoch has been in prison since august 2002. he was arrested in port augusta over the abduction and rape of two women in south australia. he was acquitted of those charges, but immediately arrested over the falconio case.


us president bush says 30,000 civilians killed in iraq war

united states president george w. bush put a number on the death toll of iraqi civilians, saying "30,000 iraqis, more or less, have died as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence against iraqis. we've lost about 2,140 of our troops in iraq" since the u.s. invasion of the country in 2003.

mr bush said more casualties lie ahead. "as democracy takes hold in iraq, the terrorists and saddamists will continue to use violence," he said. the president mentioned the casualty count in response to a question from the audience during a rare question-and-answer session after a speech on monday. 

the white house later said the 30,000 figure was not an official government estimate. aides said bush was repeating the casualty count mentioned in the media and by independent groups. the web site iraqbodycount.org estimates, as a conservative estimate of those documented to have been killed, the number of iraqi civilians killed at a low of 27,383 and a high of 30,892, based on online media and eyewitness accounts. 

however the lancet survey, which is the only serious scientific attempt to estimate the total number of iraqi civilian deaths, estimates the death toll to be around 10,000. 

another questioner challenged the administration's linkage of the iraq war to the september 11, 2001 attack on new york. bush said saddam hussein was a threat and was widely believed to have weapons of mass destruction ? a belief that later proved false. 

"i made a tough decision. and knowing what i know today, i'd make the decision again," the president said in response. 




council of europe rapporteur says cia abduction claim &quot;credible&quot;

swiss member of parliament , the council of europe's rapporteur of the probe investigating whether secret cia detention centers existed in europe, has said that the information gathered so far "reinforced the credibility" of allegations that the united states secretly transferred detainees through europe and held them there at such centers.

in a report presented to the parliamentary assembly of the council of europe’s committee on legal affairs and human rights in paris today marty also stated that it is too early to tell whether there has been "any involvement or complicity of member states in illegal actions" but added that if any european country was involved it would "stand accused of having seriously breached their human rights obligations to the council of europe".

marty urged the u.s. government to officially deny or confirm the allegations, which it has, according to him, thus far refused.

at a press conference later in the day marty said that regardless of whether the u.s. operated secret detention centers in past he doesn't believe that it would be holding prisoners there today.

poland and romania, named by human rights watch as countries hosting such centers, have denied any involvement.


haitian provisional government dismisses supreme court justices

provisional president boniface alexandre decided on monday to dismisses 5 haitian supreme court justices, saying that the move is in an effort to allow better working relationships between the executive and judicial branches.

the move comes just days after the court ruled that dumarsais simeus should be on the ballot for president in the upcoming elections in haiti. simeus is a u.s. citizen and is argued by members of the government and others that his candidacy would violate the haitian constitution which doesn't allow presidents who have not resided in the country for a period of 5 years prior to the election. however the court ruled that simeus did not renounce his citizenship in haiti, and that dual-citizenship is not a violation of the constitution. lawyers for simeus see this dismissal as related to the ruling.

however the chief of cabinet of the haitian provisional president says that the dismissal of these judges is unrelated to the case involving simeus and will not have an effect on how that case is handled.

a recent gallup poll showed that simeus is one of the most popular candidates in the race.


new jersey apartment building collapses after explosion

an apartment building located in bergenfield, new jersey partially collapsed today around 9:30 a.m. est. the collapse occurred after an explosion was heard and a cloud of smoke was said to be visible from nearby manhattan.

"it was an apartment building, unknown origin for the explosion," stated a police spokesperson located in the city. however, preliminary reports suggest that a gas line may have contributed to the explosion.

"thirty families are going to be homeless throughout the holiday period," said sheriff leo p. mcguire, referring to the number of families that the building houses. the apartment building appears to be three stories high and firefighters are still trying to put out fires.

according to news reports, at least two people have been hospitalized. eyewitness march chance had the following to add: "the building is in flames… and there are a lot of ambulances."

 


haitian supreme court rules simeus eligible

on thursday the supreme court of haiti ruled for the second time that the candidancy of dumarsais simeus does not violate election laws and that he should be added to the ballot. guerdy lissade, a lawyer for simeus said the decision was reached unanimously. in a written statement issued, simeus commented that the decision is, "a victory for the haitian people, who have suffered for too long under the oppression of the same little group of politicians who perpetuate a failed political system, broken economy and violence in our streets."

this is the second time the court has made this ruling; doing so early in november. if the ruling were to be executed it would probably mean delaying the planned election date of january 8. the ballots for president have already been printed. the election officials reason for not including simeus on the ballot during the first ruling was because simeus has obtained u.s. citizenship and the haitian constitution forbids foreign nationals from running for president. however the court ruled that because simeus never renounced his citizenship, he is eligible. however this time the court said that the decision does not mean simeus will be reinstated in time for the presidential elections in january. michel brunache says the ruling wouldn't have an effect on the upcoming elections saying, "the court's new decision has no impact, the issue of simeus' candidacy is closed."


australian guantanamo detainee david hicks gets british citizenship

australian guantanamo bay detainee david hicks has won british citizenship, opening the door for a possible bid to have him freed from the us detention facility in cuba.

justice lawrence collins of the british high court has overturned the british government's refusal of citizenship to hicks, whose mother was born in england. justice collins said the government had "no power to withhold or deprive citizenship".

justice collins said: "in my view it would be improper to fail to give assistance which otherwise would have been given, simply because the claimant was believed to be involved in terrorism and has not had any previous connection with this country."

hicks' lawyer, stephen grosz, said the decision was a breakthrough. he said there was now no reason why hicks should not enjoy the same protection as the nine other british citizens released without charge from guantanamo bay on representations of the british government.

the british government has repeatedly condemned guantanamo as an abuse of legal process. lawyers acting for british home secretary charles clarke immediately announced that they would take the matter to the court of appeal. but justice collins refused the british government a stay of his judgement, meaning that the government is compelled to proceed with hicks' citizenship application.

the british government is anxious not to award hicks citizenship as it fears that hicks' reaction would be to immediately renounce his australian citizenship. this would make mr hicks the primary responsibility of the british government, which could not then strip him of his british citizenship as it would leave him stateless.

mr hicks's lawyers argue that the australian government has refused to plead for his release and has made no attempt to prevent his trial by a us military commission. whereas the uk government acted to remove its citizens imprisoned at guantanamo, and would be compelled to call for the release of mr hicks.

after today's ruling, his lawyers will now press the british government to make arrangements for him to take the required citizenship oath and pledge. they will then urge the home office to seek his release from the detention centre, in cuba, and bring him to the uk. 

hicks, a former kangaroo skinner and muslim convert was caught in afghanistan in december 2001. he faces charges including conspiracy to commit war crimes and aiding and abetting the enemy, all of which he denies. 

foreign affairs minister alexander downer says david hicks' citizenship is not a matter for australia. mr downer says the australian government is neutral about the decision and that it is a matter between hicks and the british government.

"once he is a british citizen then what the british government does in relation to him is matter between him and the british government - it is not a matter that will involve us and we have made that clear all along," he said.

federal opposition leader kim beazley says the outcome is embarrassing and that the government should have taken a stand in favour of a proper judicial process for hicks. "that's the position not taking a strong stand in favour of a proper judicial process puts us in."

greens senator bob brown implored the federal government not to impede hicks's progress to britain. senator brown is concerned the government will lean on the british government to appeal. 

"it's been an affront to the dignity of australia, not just the rights of hicks, that for four years the australian government has recognised the kangaroo court system, this military commission and recognised that in australian law, backed by the labor party, when the australian courts were the right place for hicks to be right from the outset," senator brown said.

federal liberal mp peter slipper has declared, "he's their problem and good riddance". mr slipper has since claimed he was joking.

news of the ruling is still to reach hicks but his lawyers say the home office must comply with it or appeal. the british home office has 14 days to appeal against a high court ruling. hicks's australian lawyer, david mcleod, says his client will remain an australian citizen as well.


municipal elections pushed back in haiti

local elections intended for this fall have been pushed back in haiti. on tuesday the electoral council said that they had determined that the best course of action would be to postpone the october 9 municipal elections until december. the idea is to allow for all efforts to be put into the presidential elections.

in addition, the presidential elections will be moved up from november 13, to a new date of november 6. the runoff for the presidential election is scheduled for december 11. about 1.5 million people have registered to vote so far. the council says that the postponement of the municipal elections will not affect the handover of power to take place on february 7, 2006.


haiti reschedules november presidential elections

on monday the electoral council of haiti decided to move back the presidential elections, slated to take place on november 6th, to a new date of november 20th. the first round will take place on that date and the second round of voting will take place on january 3.

also the council announces that the previously moved municipal elections will take place on december 11th. before it was only known that they had been moved to december. the postponement come off of concerns of security and registration problems.


haiti postpones presidential elections until december

according to interim prime minister gerard latortue, for the 3rd time since the overthrow of president aristide haiti is going to delay their presidential elections, this time moving from the date of november 20th to december 27th for the first round of voting. the second round, previously scheduled for january 3rd, will also have to be postponed, to january 31.

the prime minister says that this time the dates are set and final. he says that they took their time to set the new date and are confident that this will mean better election turnout. according to latortue, "all the problems have been anticipated, and we have a solution for each of them."

the electoral council is expected to confirm the dates on monday, according to max mathurin, head of the council. it's unknown if this new date will affect the expected handover of power on february 7, 2006.


electoral council sets new dates for elections in haiti

on friday the electoral council decided push back the election dates for haiti's first presidential election since the overthrow of president aristide in 2004. new dates have been set for january 8, 2006 for the first round of the presidential and legislative elections, following by a second (runoff) round on february 15. municipal elections have been delayed to march 6, 2006.

according to the council they need more time to organize the election process. they say they would not be able to set up polling stations by the december 27 date set by prime minister latortue a few days ago. they need time to organize poll workers who do not have experience. one council member said that "for practical reasons, it was inevitable that we would miss the deadline," but that they would not miss the january 8 deadline currently set. they need time to print ballots, train poll workers, and distribute voter identification cards, an effort to fight potential voter fraud.

the haitian constitution mandates a handover of power from one government to the next on february 7, but that will not be possible as elections will still be in progress. this is the 4th time the dates have been rescheduled. 


journalist gebran tueni murdered

in an incident that may have long-term repercussions for the relationship between lebanon and syria, the death of anti-syrian mp and journalist gebran tueni's has been marked by protests.

tueni's death was marked with the closure of shops, schools and universities throughout beiruit.


opposition leader jailed in venezuela

carlos ortega, one of the top opposition leaders in venezuela, has been sentenced to 15 years in jail for inciting civil unrest during a strike.

following a military coup d'etat in 2002, the two-month strike battered the country's oil industry in a effort to oust the elected president hugo chavez. 

"from prison, i'll keep working, i'll keep fighting to preserve the freedom, democracy and unity of the people," said mr ortega in a telephone interview. "i'm no conspirator or coup plotter and i didn't betray my country."

while ortega had initially fled venezuela following the
issuing of an arrest warrant in 2003, the bbc reports that
he had returned to venuzuela from costa rica last august.
mr ortega was arrested in march 2005.

supporters of mr ortega have claimed the verdict is 
'politically motivated' according to bbc reports, with an
appeal being planned. 

mr ortega's opposition to 
current venezuelan president hugo chavez is well known. chavez
himself attempted (and failed) to carry out a military coup in 1992. since then, chavez was democratically elected president in 1998, 2000, and survived a recall referendum against him in 2004, and the constitutional reform referendum which he supported was supported by over 70% of the population in 1999.


uniting church at auburn destroyed by fire

the uniting church at auburn in sydney's inner west has been destroyed by fire overnight.

according to a press release by new south wales police, police and fire brigade personnel arrived at the church at approximately 1:35 a.m. local time to discover the church well alight.

around 30 firefighters fought the blaze for two hours before bringing it under control.

the church is located near an islamic centre and police are not sure if the fire is linked to the racial violence in sydney over the past two days. police are treating the fire as suspicious and will be continuing their investigations today.


fires out at the hertfordshire oil storage terminal

after two days, the 2005 hertfordshire oil storage terminal fire has finally been extinguished. 

the fires began after a series of explosions early on the morning of 11 december 2005. the terminal, known locally as the buncefield depot, is an oil storage facility located near hemel hempstead in hertfordshire in the united kingdom. these were some of the largest explosions ever to occur in the country and the incident has been described as the biggest of its kind in peacetime europe. 

the hertfordshire fire service chief roy wilsher said: "there are still some small bund (concrete container) fires, but the tanks are out." 

fire crews would remain at the scene over the next few days cooling the area to ensure fires did not break out again, he said. 

a few residents are being allowed to return to their homes within an exclusion zone set up around the site. 



business brief for december 14, 2005

these are short blurbs about current events in the business world.

in an online discussion milan brahmbhatt, world bank lead economist for east asia and the pacific, answered a few questions about bird flu. brahmbhatt said that the first thing to note is that "economic impacts can only be based on very broad assumptions." brahmbhatt said that estimations of economic impacts are based on the sars epidemic of 2003. 

brahmbhatt said "the most immediate economic impact might arise actually not from actual death or sickness, but from the efforts of people to actually avoid becoming infected, and this was at least the experience during sars, when people tried to avoid infection by minimizing face-to-face interactions with other people, and this resulted in a very severe demand shock for services sectors."

brahmbhatt indicated that since a pandemic flu would be a global disease that wouldn't end as quickly as sars did that the severe demand shock for services would occur globally and last longer. "this could entail a loss of world gdp of four to five percent of world gdp, which, according to oxford, would amount to the sort of staggering of figure of $1,500 to $2,000 billion." brahmbhatt continued. brahmbhatt said "one study for the us calculated that a mild epidemic similar to that which occurred in 1968 might lead to us losses with a present value of perhaps $100-200 billion in today’s dollars." brahmbhatt said that the world bank will continue to calculate the economic impact as more information about the disease becomes available.

japanese gold buyers took in profits causing gold prices to drop. gold has risen 8% since the start of december. gold rose to $540.90 a troy ounce on monday, the highest level since january 1981. gold has now dropped over $20 in late london trading. if gold stays above $500 for the remainder of the trading day it will mark the 10th successive day of trading above the mark. gold has not traded above $500 for 10 days in a row since 1983.

other precious metals were affected by gold's drop. silver has dropped 8% from an 18 year high of $9.23 a troy ounce. platinum has fallen $24 from a 26 year high of $1,015 an ounce. palladium is down 9% to $269 an ounce.

advisors are walking both sides of the gold fence. "it has been a substantial rise in prices and the recent moves seem to be a case of profit taking before the end of the year," said, chief economist at commonwealth securities craig james, "but the fundamental situation is still solid. we believe the price of gold is well supported at $475 an ounce."

tobin gorey of commonwealth bank of australia said "gold has had a good run and the fed lifting rates by an expected quarter-percentage point wasn't going to reverse the selling trend we've seen in recent days." 

"we're seeing a lot of book-squaring and portfolio readjustment away from gold as the end of the year approaches," gorey continued.


lavalas candidate barred from elections

lavalas candidate, gerard jean-juste has been denied an application to be a candidate for president in the upcoming elections. the party had attempted to register the candidancy for him, but electoral council official jaccillon barthelemy says that applications have to be made in person. the party members brought a letter given to them by jean-juste showing his intentions to run. the priest has been jailed since july, because accused of having involvement in the murder of journalist jacques roche. jean-juste was in miami at the time of the murder and has denied any involvement. he has yet to be charged in relation to the crime.

louis gerard gilles, a former lavalas senator and party representative, says that they plan to take the decision to court saying, "the council has no authority to prevent a candidate from registering," and "nothing in the constitution requires he should be present in person." hundreds of lavalas supporters marched the electoral council on tuesday, but were stopped by un peacekeepers.

the decision is seen as a potential catalyst for the lavalas family to boycott the upcoming elections. the party is currently split among moderates and hard-line supporters (those closer to aristide). this decision could swing power towards the hard-liners. if lavalas was to boycott the elections it could mean a major knock to the next government's legitimacy, as lavalas is the country's largest party.


us house honors representative john dingell

representative , (-michigan) was honored by democratic whip (-maryland) for 50 years of continuous service in the united states house of representatives. representative (-michigan) continued the praise of dingell's service in the house through 10 presidencies. speaker of the house and house minority leader nancy pelosi jointly authored a resolution honoring his long tenure.

dingell has been instrumental in drafting, improving or supporting legislation from the obscure to the and continues his quest for universal health care via the house version of the . mr. dingell was honored earlier at the white house with a presidential lunch.



rene preval leading haitian election according to opinion poll

an opinion poll conducted by cid group and gallup in early november shows that former president rene preval is the frontrunner for the upcoming january elections. these will be the first elections held in haiti since the overthrow of president aristide in 2004. preval is a former member of the lavalas family party, the party of aristide. preval is running as an independent in this election and lavalas is expected to run former prime minister, and currently imprisoned, jean-juste.

the poll surveyed the opinions of 1,200 people, and 32 percent said they favored preval. coming in second was the haitian-american industrialist dumarsais simeus with 21 percent. former president leslie francois manigat came in a distant third with 5 percent. others receiving a vote include evans paul, a former mayor of port-au-prince with 4 percent, guy philippe, leader of the 2004 rebellion to overthrow aristide with 4 percent, serge gilles, a former senator with 4 percent, marc bazin with 4 percent, charles henri baker with 2 percent, and dany toussaint with 2 percent.



israel preparing for attack on alleged iranian nuclear sites

"the london times" has reported that, according to military sources, israeli prime minister ariel sharon has ordered israel's armed forces to be prepared by the end of march for an attack on alleged secret uranium enrichment sites in iran.

israel has officially denied that it plans to attack iran. however, sharon warned, "israel?and not only israel?cannot accept a nuclear iran. we have the ability to deal with this and we’re making all the necessary preparations to be ready for such a situation."

israel is now at "g" readiness, which is the highest stage.

israel's general election is on march 28, which coincides with the march deadline set by sharon. former prime minister benjamin netanyahu, who is currently the frontrunner to lead the likud party, claimed that if sharon does not attack "then when i form the new israeli government, we’ll do what we did in the past against saddam’s reactor, which gave us 20 years of tranquillity".

the uranium enrichment sites are said to be concealed in civilian locations.



technology brief for december 14, 2005

these are short blurbs about current events in the technology world.

you have probably heard about the recent mizuho securities stock-trading snafu. mizuho mistakenly tried to sell 610,000 shares of j-com co., a company traded on the tokyo stock market, for just 1 yen each. in fact, it was trying to sell 1 share for 610,000 yen.

various newspapers, as well as jeremy epstein writing in monday's risks digest, pointed out there was a similar snafu on the tokyo stock market four years ago. epstein quoted an earlier digest from 2001 which described the story of a ubs warburg trader, instead of entering an order to sell 16 dentsu shares at 610,000 yen each, accidentally put in an order to sell 610,000 dentsu shares for 16 yen each.

epstein commented:

"that was also on the day of a "public debut" (aka ipo). however, it was a bargain - [the earlier snafu] cost ubs warburg about $100m vs. about $235m [this year] for mizuho securities.

"i assume it's just coincidence that these two failures were both on the
tokyo stock market."

peter g. neumann, the risks digest moderator, added in a footnote:

"i knew the new case sounded familiar! perhaps the 610,000 is a default number for an erroneous field? that's quite a coincidence."

neumann noticed quite a coincidence indeed. but could the recurrence of the number 610,000 in both stories possibly be more than a coincidence?

ruby on rails, a open-source web development framework, finally reached version 1.0.0 yesterday. the rails movie page has been updated for the occasion. this represents a significant milestone for the rails core team. 



alp appoints slw group for 2007 election campaign

the australian labor party has appointed slw group to run it's advertisement campaign for the 2007 australian legislative election.

stw group was successul in gaining the $10 million account it was revealed today. the team dubbed "07" will be lead by senior executives, luke dunkerley and neil lawrence.

alp campaign director tim gartell said that lawrence had a wealth of experience with political campaigns, being part of the adveritsement team responsible for the election of a victorian labor government in the 1980s. he also added that lawrence had worked on the campaign for election of australian republican movement representatives to the australian constitutional convention in 1998.

present polling data from newspoll suggests that the alp is beginning to regain support in the electorate, narrowly polling a higher percentage of primary support since late october, 2005, ending almost 10 months of being behind john howard's coalition government in polling.


cpj names and shames countries who jail journalists

the non-profit committee to protect journalists has published its 2005 list of countries that have jailed journalists. top of the list is china, claimed to be holding 32 of the 125 editors, writers, and photo-journalists detained during the year. this is the seventh consecutive year that china has been top of the cpj list.

following not so far behind china is cuba, accused of detaining 24 journalists. in third and fourth place are the african nations of eritrea (15 journalists detained) and ethiopia (13 journalists detained).

analysis of the detailed breakdown in the cpj report reveals that they rank the united states alongside the junta of myanmar (formerly known as burma) in sixth place on the list with five detained journalists each. according to cpj, they have excluded journalists only briefly detained such as new york times reporter judith miller, instead focusing on those who are detained longer term.

the majority of charges and accusations that have been levelled against journalists are related to "anti-state" activities such as revealing state secrets, and acting against the interests of the state. the report does not include journalists who have not officially been confirmed as detained by a state.


police investigates paf in finland

, Aland's gambling monopoly, has been challenged again by finnish authorities because of an attempt to offer internet gambling to the finnish mainland. in mainland finland, the state-owned gambling institution "ray" ("raha-automaattiyhdistys" in finnish) holds a legal monopoly of gambling. "ray" gives all profits to charity.

at the beginning of this year, "paf" was sentenced for violation of gambling law. on december 14, the interior ministry of finland put "paf" under police investigation again. finland's interior minister kari rajamaki said that "paf" has continued its gambling in finland and ignored its last sentence.

"paf" has filed a lawsuit at Aland's local court with the state of finland and the finnish interior ministry entered as defendants. according to "paf"'s ceo lars porko, the association wants to clear up once and for all who is in fact right in the dispute.

Aland is an autonomous part of finland and as such subject to certain privileges, one of which is the existence of "paf" in the first place.



simeus responds to the dismissal of haitian justices

on wednesday, two days after provisional prime minister boniface alexandre announced that five supreme court justices had been dismissed, presidential candidate dumarsais simeus responded critically to the decision. simeus said that it is, "...a sad and scary day for haiti, for the rights of our 9 million citizens and for the future of freedom, democracy and separation of powers in haiti." some have attributed the firing of the justices to the decision by the court to allow simeus to be on the ballot for president. the decision has been reached twice, most recently on december 8.

simeus characterized the firings as a violation of the separation of powers, claiming that they are motivated by a desire to obtain greater power in the government. according to simeus, "judges of the supreme court and the courts of appeal are appointed life. their term begins at the time they take their oath of office. the supreme court justices are appointed by the president from a list submitted by the senate of three persons per court seat.

they may be removed from office only because of a legally determined abuse of authority or be suspended following an indictment leveled against them. they may not be reassigned, without their consent, even in the case of a promotion. their service may be terminated during their term of office only in the event of a duly determined permanent physical or mental incapacity."


wikipedia and britannica about as accurate in science entries, reports nature

an investigation performed by the scientific review, "nature", on wikipedia and britannica science entries, found that the two encyclopedias have similar degrees of accuracy in their content. 

"nature" used peer reviewing to compare wikipedia and britannica's coverage of science. in this study, entries were chosen from the websites of wikipedia and encyclopaedia britannica on a broad range of scientific disciplines and sent to a relevant expert for peer review. each reviewer examined the entry on a single subject from the two encyclopedias without being told which article came from which encyclopaedia. the reviewers were asked to check for errors, but were not told where the information came from.

among 42 entries tested, the difference in accuracy was not significant: the average science entry in wikipedia contained around four inaccuracies; britannica, about three. in the pairs of articles reviewed, eight serious errors such as misinterpretations of important concepts were detected, four from each encyclopaedia. reviewers also found many factual errors, omissions or misleading statements: 162 in wikipedia and 123 in britannica. additionally, it was found that wikipedia articles are 2.6 times as long as britannica articles, meaning that there is a lower error/ommision per word ratio in wikipedia.

the main criticism about wikipedia was on its readability, with several reviewers commenting that the articles they read were poorly structured and confusing. 

as well as comparing the two encyclopedias, "nature" surveyed more than 1,000 nature authors and found that although more than 70% had heard of wikipedia and 17% of those consulted it on a weekly basis, less than 10% help to update it. 

wikipedia founder jimmy wales welcomed the study. "we're hoping it will focus people's attention on the overall level of our work, which is pretty good," he told bbc news. 



violence cuts short visit of dominican republic president

protests against the president of the dominican republic turned violent on monday in haiti, where tires were burned and thrown at the presidential palace in the capitol city of port-au-prince. leonel fernandez, leader of the neighboring dominican republic, was staying as a guest at the palace. 

the police reacted violently, resulting in 3 people being shot and wounded. protestors had tried to block the motorcade of the dominican president, which resulted in haitian police firing shots into the air. un representative david wimhurst said un peacekeepers were at the protests, but only haitian police and bodyguards of the dominican president fired shots. president fernandez cut short his visit and most of the diplomatic staff withdrew from the country. the dominican ambassador in haiti demanded an apology for the incident.

the protests were over alleged abuses of haitian refugees in the dominican republic, an issue of importance to the relationship of the two countries in the past several months. in may the dominican government deported at least 2,000 haitian in response to murder of a dominican woman. earlier in december several dominican villagers burned down settlements of haitians in response for the death of a business man.

responding to the tensions that have arisen between citizens of the dominican republic and immigrants, president fernandez said prior to his haiti visit, "… we must understand that the countries that share borders, mainly if they have unequal economic and social levels of development, historically usually have relations of conflicts." 

provisional president boniface alexandre said that he hopes these talks could fuel better relations between the neighboring countries. dominican president fernandez says that he deplores any act of violence against haitians in his country.


business brief for december 15, 2005

these are short blurbs about current events in the business world.

the us trade deficit grew to record levels in october. imports have climbed faster than exports despite dropping oil prices. the deficit has widened by $3 billion to the record $68.9 billion for the month. the deficit was forecasted by wall street to narrow. the nations huge trade imbalance has not begun to stabilize. the gap will effect the nations overall growth. morgan stanley has reduced its forecast of the nations growth to 3% from 3.4%. merrill lynch is going further forecasting just 2.3% growth. the deficit with china hit $166.8 billion, $2.3 billion more than the deficit with china for the entire previous year.

wal-mart has agreed to buy the portuguese group sonae sgps sa's retail business in brazil for about $757 million. sonae's 140 stores with an annual revenue of $1.4 billion will double the amount of wal-mart stores in brazil. the stores will continue to operate under their existing names. wal-mart has been expanding internationally and plans to open more than one-third of its stores overseas next year. this is the second acquisition for wal-mart in the last two years in the country. last year the company bought bompreco a 118 store supermarket chain for $300 million.

this new acquisition gives wal-mart 295 outlets in the brazil. wal-mart is the third biggest retailer in the country.

exports rose a tick to c$40.2 billion, the eighth consecutive increase, but imports increased even more?1.2%?to $33 billion. the net $7.17 billion is effectively unchanged since september. imports from china have reached $24.2 billion as of october, like china's imports to the united states, have surpassed the total amount imported the entire previous year.


biotech company amgen announced today that it will purchase abgenix for $2.2 billion. amgen and abgenix co-developed a late-stage cancer drug panitumumab. the drug shows promise as a low-side effect alternative to erbitux (marketed by imclone systems and bristol-myers squibb). 

the takeover means that amgen will no longer have to split profits from the drug 50/50 with abgenix. amgen paid $22.50/share, 53.6% greater than today's closing price, but analysts state that the stock has enough potential to justify the high expenditure.


massachusetts governor mitt romney not seeking second term

earlier today at 6pm est, mitt romney, the governor of massachusetts announced he would not seek a second-term for the highest office in the commonwealth of massachusetts.

the announcement did not come as a surprise due to the fact romney announced he would make an announcement on his political future last month. romney has also been visiting key primary states for the 2008 presidential election and during the 2004 presidential election, republicans told the press, "to keep an eye on romney."

romney was elected in 2003, replacing jane swift and his term ends in janurary 2007. if he does decide to run for the presidency, he will have ample time when the terms ends. so far, romney has denied that he is running for president and may possibly change his mind and run for re-election. he also said that he would endorse his lieutenant governor, kerry healey if she decides to run for governor.

romney, born in detroit, is the son of former governor of michigan george w. romney. becoming governor isn't romney's first foray into politics; romney ran against senior massachusetts senator and kennedy family member, ted kennedy. romney won 41% percent of the vote against kennedy in the closest election in kennedy's entire tenure in the united states senate. romney was also ceo of the salt lake organizing committee which was in charge of planning the 2002 winter olympics from 1999 to 2002, he took charge after the 2002 winter olympic bid scandal. he also sat on the board of massachusetts-based office supply giant, staples, inc.


white supremacist new zealanders provoked by sydney riots

posters calling for "white power" have appeared at wellington railway stations in new zealand. the posters have been attributed to a group called "the white crusaders of the racial holy war".

unlike the usenet postings in australia being made by an unknown organisation "action for australia", the white crusaders of the racial holy war are well known. according to their website, they are "crusaders", and believe in the creativity religion - created for the "survival, expansion, and advancement of the white race."

the posters say "if sydney can do it so can we... let's take back our land".

leaders of the new zealand national party and united future party have condemned the posters. don brash leader of the new zealand national party said that the white crusaders of the racial holy war are "a small, fascist underbelly, hell-bent on causing division and destroying new zealand's egalitarian ethos ... they are thugs and bigots"


arias leads opinion polls in costa rica

a cid-gallup poll shows former head of state Oscar arias sanchez is currently atop in opinion polls as the likely next president with 45% in the poll. arias declared his intention to run after the legislature decided to bring back presidential re-election in 2003. he will be running for the national liberation party. he has been outspoken in favor of the ratification of cafta (the central american free trade agreement).

others receiving votes include otton solis with 20% (citizens action party, pac), ricardo toledo with 10% (social-christian unity party, pusc), otto guevara with 8% (libertarian movement, ml), and antonio Alvarez desanti with 6% (union for change, upc).


constitutional challenge to secret trials in australian courts

six media organisations, including fairfax, are mounting a constitutional challenge to secret hearings in an upcoming terrorism trial in australia.

the trial involves sydney man faheem khalid lodhi, who is charged with committing acts in preparation for a terrorist attack. lodhi is accused of conspiring with french terror suspect willie brigitte to attack sydney's military bases and electricity supply network.

federal attorney-general phillip ruddock will issue a certificate to prevent information judged to be sensitive from reaching the public at lodhi's trial. the federal attorney-general has the powers to do this under the national security information (criminal and civil proceedings) act.

the grounds for the challenge are that national security information legislation violates the separation of executive and judical powers, required by the australian constitution. tom blackburn, sc, counsel for the media groups mounting the challenge claims that the act allows for the federal executive to intrude into judicial matters by ordering parts of the trial are kept secret.

the challenge will be heard on 31st january 2006 by justice anthony whealy of the supreme court of nsw.

in the course of lodhi's trial, towards the end of december justice anthony whealy ruled that evidence and pre-trial maters are to remain secret. this ruling is separate to the constitutional challenge.



mozilla, internet explorer adopt universal rss symbol

jane kim, the program manager for rss in microsoft's internet explorer 7, announced recently that her team had chosen a graphical representation of web syndication feeds ? one popularized by its competitor. microsoft employees have been posting variations of conceptual designs since earlier this year, but have now announced that they chose an icon used by the rival browser, mozilla firefox. the microsoft team collaborated with mozilla staff during the selection process.

"i'm excited to announce that we're adopting the icon used in firefox," wrote kim. "we'll be using the icon in the ie7 command bar whenever a page has a feed associated with it, and we'll also use it in other places in the browser whenever we need a visual to represent rss and feeds." 

microsoft is poised to release ie7 with many of the new features popularized in firefox, such as browser tabs, feed support, full png and css support, and other improvements.


data retention directive passed by eu parliament

on december 14th, after a single reading, the eu parliament passed the data retention directive. 378 parliamentarians voted in favour of the directive, 30 abstained and 197 voted against.

the so-called "big brother" directive, highly controversial at least among those even aware of its existence, requires all internet and telecommunications service providers to log all traffic metadata (who called who, who visited what sites) in europe for 6 to 24 months and turn the data over to police forces, secret services, and other organisations, as decided on by national governments. the law was drafted and passed in three months, an extraordinarily rapid process, and was heavily influenced by earlier uk legislation that failed to pass in britain.

significant aspects of this law are the lack of special measures for security and privacy of the collected data, lack of any rule as to how costs are to be reimbursed. such measures had been proposed as amendments, but the block vote in parliament (following a deal between the leaders of the two largest parties, the christian democrat-conservative european people's party and the party of european socialists, and the european commission) rejected these amendments.

all mention of "terrorism" was removed from the original text, so the approved law specifies these measures for "serious crime" only. the definition of "serious crime" is not specified.

partially, the law harmonises existing practice, allowing police forces to rely on retention of data for their investigations. in certain countries, privacy laws that mandated the destruction of such data after six months have hindered investigations. poland, following one such case, wanted a 15 year data retention period.

however, other influences have made the law much broader than this. specifically, the requirement to log all subscriber information for internet communications has raised serious concerns amongst isps, and technical analysts. the reason: the term "communication" is defined vaguely, as "all emails and internet telephony". there exists no technical means of logging subscriber information for such communications, short of recording every tcp and udp packet that is carried across a network connection. this would create such huge volumes of data that small to medium isps would be unable to operate, and large isps would have to increase their prices considerably. all provisions in the law for reimbursement were removed - this is up to each country to decide.

thus the data retention directive, while cracking down on anonymous public communications tools such as open wifi, cybercafes, pre-paid phone cards (and possibly even public phone booths), has ignored the use of web-based email, self-hosted mail servers, chat systems, vpns, voip technologies, and so on. the premise that criminals will restrict themselves to the few simple protocols that can be monitored to extract "subscriber information" is weak at best.

the technical inadequacy of this law is extreme, and is probably due to its rushed progress through the legislative system. the main driver for this rushed process appears to be a number of national governments that are keen to increase surveillance of their own citizens, and wish eu "backing" for such acts. note that the commission and council do not represent an elected body but are composed of the national governments and professional civil service, and there is considerable tension between these bodies and the elected parliament. it is plausible that the data retention directive was just the first of several laws that will pass through this new "fast track" process.

the foundation for a free information infrastructure, a lobbying association, expects, early in 2006, to see a new attempt to "harmonise patent legislation", the so-called "community patent directive", which will introduce software patents by the back door. note that a previous attempt by the commission and council to impose software patents (the "computer implemented inventions directive") was rejected by parliament in june 2005.

other commentators have noted that the eu produces vast numbers of directives, about ten per month, and most of these get passed into national law only very slowly. ireland and germany have stated that they will take this directive to the european court of justice. however, that will not prevent other countries from implementing it in a more or less severe form.

italy has, in the last few months, been closing cybercafes that do not keep strict records of the identity of every user. it is such indicators that have convinced many privacy advocates that this law is not about terrorism at all, but about monitoring and controlling civil society.


english edition of wikipedia is now larger than the spanish encyclopedia espasa

the english version of wikipedia has reached 865,835 articles, 220 million words, 389,591 illustrations and pictures since january, 2001.. 

compared to the spanish language encyclopedia espasa, which has 117 volumes, 175,000 pages, 200 million words, 197,000 black and white illustrations, 4,500 color illustrations, 5 million bibliographic references and 100,000 biographies , the english wikipedia is now larger, in terms of number of articles and number of words, than the largest encyclopedia of the spanish language. note that this is just a quantitative comparison. no judgement is made about the quality of the above-mentioned encyclopedias.

the project to write espasa was founded in 1860 by jose espasa anguera and continued in 1926 by editorial espasa-calpe, which today belongs to grupo planeta. the main works were published in 1905 and consisted of 72 volumes. in 1931 a 10 volumes appendix was published which includes an update of the previous volumes. 

the reference work has been periodically updated by the biannual "suplementos" since 1935. the latest "suplemento" was published in 2005. in 1997 the work included a world atlas. it has taken espasa 145 years to get to the point where it is today. in less than 5 years wikipedia has reached a similar point.

an average of 1500 new articles are created on wikipedia every day with around 23.4 edits per article.



haitian priest jean-juste held in relation to the murder of a journalist

an angry mob attacked priest, and close political ally of former president jean-bertrand aristide, gerard jean-juste at the funeral of a journalist jacques roche who was found shot dead last week. the body was found handcuffed in a slum district of port-au-prince. journalist jacques roche had been the victim of an abduction, which have been an ongoing problem in haiti for most of this year. at the mass bishop andre dumas said "the death of this journalist must awaken our national consciousness against violence, and all the evils our society is going through."

jean-juste was arrested at the funeral and taken in for questioning. according to michael lucius, head of the judicial police, jean-juste has been detained awaiting instruction by prosecutors on what, if any, criminal charges he will face. the charges could be related to the murder of the journalist, or on possession of illegal weapons, obtained while aristide was still president. speaking to the associated press from the police station, jean-juste said "i'm a priest, i get beaten in a church, and now it's me they want to arrest."



officials of fanmi lavalas party threaten boycott

officials of the fanmi lavalas party in haiti threatened boycott of the upcoming general elections if one of their party leaders, father gerard jean-juste, is not released from jail. jean-juste is being jailed, arrested a month ago on july 21, in relation to the murder of journalist. the fanmi lavalas party is currently divided among moderate factions and those with closer ties to former president aristide.

jean-juste is believed to be a favorite presidential candidate for the party. a representative of the party, gerald gilles, commented saying, "after several consultations, the masses that we represent and the base of the party claim father jean-juste as their presidential candidate. so he will be our candidate," and "we say loud and clear (that) we'll boycott the elections if jean-juste, and many other political prisoners that are potential candidates for our party, are not released."

 

peru-chile rivalry erupts into cyberspace

chilean and peruvian government websites have both experienced attacks by unknown suspects, according to bbc news.

the attacks are reported as being in connection with a dispute over fishing rights in the pacific ocean, and may have to also do with alberto fujimori's detention in chile awaiting extradition to peru.

the most recent messages (on the peruvian judiciary's web page) are believed to be the work of a chilean hacker. according to peru the attacks may be in response to an earlier incident in which the chilean national emergency office's page was struck. (bbc news)

= sources =


british scientists claim 2005 warmest yet in northern hemisphere

scientists in the uk, have claimed that summer 2005 has been
the warmest in the northern hempisphere since reliable recording
began in the 19th century.

the claim comes from researchers at the university of east anglia(uea)
working in conjunction with those of the (uk) meteorological office.

dr david viner of the uea's climatic reasearch unit is
quoted (bbc news) as saying: "the data also show that the sea surface temperature in the northern hemisphere atlantic is the highest since 1880,"



rebel leader says he will run for president in haiti

one of the leaders of last year's overthrow of president aristide in haiti, guy philippe, now says that he will participate in the upcoming elections as a presidential candidate. the leader will run for the party of his guerilla army, the front for national reconstruction (frn). he says that the elections are important for creating a legitimate democratic government in the state of haiti, and that he believes he is the best leader to move the country forward. philippe made the announcement via a port-au-prince radio station, the dominate form of media in the nation.

giving an interview, philippe spoke on several issues believed to be important to the upcoming elections. philippe criticized the interim government of president boniface alexandre and prime minister gerard latortue, which he sees as illegitimate because it does not answer to anyone. he also criticized the electoral council, which is appointed by the government, as being a puppet department. the council, he says, has been too slow in setting up operating registration offices and that the mobile registration offices have not been arriving to districts with low registration. he also recommended that voters do not sell their consciousness. philippe refers to the habit of political parties to send people to exchange money for a promise to vote for their candidate on election day.



sydney's newest motorway to open today

the westlink m7 motorway is set to open today some eight months ahead of schedule.

the 40 km long motorway runs from the hills motorway (m2) at baulkham hills and ends at the south western motorway (m5) at prestons. the motorway features 17 interchanges for access to and from western sydney suburbs.

the most complicated interchange along the motorway is the lighthorse interchange at eastern creek. this interchange links the westlink m7 with the western motorway (m4). it is the largest interchange in the southern hemisphere.

the motorway will be officially opened by prime minister john howard and will be opened in stages. motorists will be able to tell if an interchange is open as it will be indicated by signs.

westlink m7 claim that the road will take more than 200 people and 12 hours to open and is the longest section of motorway to ever be opened in one day in sydney.

the westlink m7 motorway has been funded by the commonwealth government and private enterprise and is owned by westlink m7. it is australia's first toll road to use distance based tolling, with tolls ranging from 40c to $5.97 depending on distance travelled. tolling is fully electronic with motorists requiring an electronic tag or pass. there are no tollbooths as cash is not accepted.

the westlink m7 motorway will be free to travel on until january 15, 2006.



business brief for december 16, 2005

general motors and ford are laying off workers by the thousands and analysts predict a decline in housing production yet according to a cnn money article labor experts and executives say there is already a shortage of workers. retiring baby boomers plus a growing economy expected in 2006 may move the labor market in favor of job seekers. 

"i would say by the end of next year, it could take 12, 13, maybe 14 weeks to fill a spot, and that's when you'll see upward pressure on wages," said jeff joerres, chairman and ceo of manpower.

deloitte consulting and the national association of manufacturers have conducted a survey finding that more than 80% of surveyed manufacturers say they are experiencing a shortage of qualified workers. 90% say they have a moderate to severe shrortage of qualified skilled workers. 83% say these shortages are affecting their production.

"they've been getting lean and pushing the efficiency envelope for a decade," dick kleinert, a principal with deloitte who conducted the nam survey, said "so in this latest survey, when we asked what was the most important factor in their success, being a low cost producer status ranked only no. 3 on the list. what ranked as no. 1 attribute was having a high performance work force."

despite being in financial trouble general motors is holding $15 billion in tech contracts.
the five year contracts, planned to be awarded within weeks. the 40 contracts will be the largest group of contracts ever awarded at the same time.

eds, spun off by gm in 1996, carried out $2 billion in business with gm last year 10% of eds' revenue. eds's contract will expire in june.

gm plans to break up it's tech outsourcing budget into smaller pieces and standardize
its outsourcing operation so that it can remove a partner without effecting the entire operation.
this will shake up the $300 billion tech outsourcing industry.

"this is revolutionary, if it works for both sides, in a couple of years you'll see a lot of other companies doing it." george f. colony, president of forrester research said.

ralph j. szygenda, gm's cto, said he decided that the whole outsourcing industry was broken when gms hermes web site, intended to sell cars in brazil, kept crashing. the site was run by eds, ibm, and a few others. when szygenda held a meeting to find out why, "there was a lot of finger-pointing, and nobody would fess up to the problem," he said. "i realized this wasn't going to work. and i saw it wasn't just a gm problem. it was an industry problem."

so now szygenda intends to implement his plan. either gm's way, or the highway.

what about the little guys? szygenda intends to place $2.5 billion to $3 billion aside on innovative technology. "we use hundreds of start-up companies," he says. "we're not closing out innovation."

altria, parent company of philip morris is preparing for a major restructuring following a victory in illinois with the state supreme court throwing out a $10 billion judgement. the 4-2 decision rule that "light" and "low tar" had been authorised by the ftc. the decision paves the way for altria to spin off kraft foods, a long-expected move held up by major tobacco litigation cases.



nyc transit strike looming

around 8.1 million inner-city residents could be affected by a transit system strike in new york city.

nyc mayor michael bloomberg said in a press conference that there would be "no winners" if a transit system strike became a reality. contract talks have not begun with the metropolitan transit authority (mta) and the transit workers union local 100.

bloomberg also said that the city could lose $400 million a day from its economy during a strike, and city government could lose $22 million per day.

cnn reports that bloomberg has planned to close several key streets in manhattan to general traffic: fifth and madison avenues from 23rd to 96th streets; 26th, 29th, 49th and 50th streets from first to 12th avenues; and part of church street in the event of a complete transit system closure.

a strike, if it occures, would begin one minute after midnight est when the transit workers' contract expires.

cnnmoney: nyc gets ready to strike out


us offers to eliminate duties on cotton, africa says it's not enough

"the united states is willing, under the duty-free, quota-free commitments we will make, to provide duty free access cotton for these west african countries" the us trade representative announced at the wto talks in hong kong thursday. the us is under heavy pressure to drop cotton tariffs and subsidies.

mali, burkino faso, benin, chad, and senegal complain that the tariff free offer does not address the subsidies united states provides to domestic cotton growers. some countries claim the subsidies against the wto's anti-dumping policy.

"the real problem for african cotton producers is dumping on the world market, resulting from domestic and export subsidies. that is why we need to agree this week on additional disciplines on domestic support" eu trade commissioner peter mandelson said.

"they don't take in any cotton. they export cotton. their textile industries have all moved abroad. why would they import any of our cotton? what they need to do is halt the subsidies. without subsidies they can't produce" francois traore, president of the african cotton producers association, said.

portman argued cutting global tariffs are as least as important as cutting subsidies.

india has a 10% tariff on cotton imports, under current wto rules it could raise the tariff to 100% at any time. china imposes a 1% tariff on the first 4 million bales, after which a tariff of 5% to 40% is applied. by comparison the us allows a small amount of cotton at low duties and then applies a 20% on the remainder.

a bill in the us congress this week contains a cotton program known as step 2, which pays exporters and millers to buy us cotton. the wto has declared the program illegal.

"we know with certainty that it's the us subsidies that are causing problems for our farmers." mamadou salissou habi niger's minister of trade said.

african cotton producers have said that they will not endorse any deals that emerge from the hong kong talks if rich countries do not reduce cotton subsidies to their own farmers.



california class commemorates holocaust

a junior high language arts class from manteca, california in the us is commemorating the six million jews who died in the holocaust by collecting six million paperclips. during world war ii, the norwegians wore paperclips on their shirts to protest the nazi slaughter of jews and other ethnic groups.

led by junior high language arts teacher mrs. aryel saldate, the class has already collected over 7,000 paperclips. mrs. saldate had the idea when she saw a special on the television network hbo about another teacher who did the same thing and actually collected 6 million paperclips. although it took the other class five years to achieve this feat, it helped her students realize just how widespread the holocaust was.

mrs. saldate can be reached by e-mail at asaldate@sjcoe.net. the official website for the cause is listed below.

please send your paperclip contribution to:



imprisoned haitian priest may need us doctors

supporters of jailed priest jean-juste say that he needs medical treatment in the united states. his attourney, bill quigley, told reporters that the priest, who was considered a potential presidential candidate before his arrest and long detainment, may have cancer and should be released so that he can seek medical attention in the united states. a doctor, dr. john carroll, who examined jean-juste said that an abnormal white blood cell count, as well as swelling in his neck and under his arms could be early signs of cancer. the government of interim president alenxandre said that their doctors have examined the priest as well and said no signs of cancer exist.

jean-juste has been in jail since july when he was arrested at a funeral of a popular haitian journalist and poet. he was originally detained for questioning related to the murder but also allegations of illegal weapons possessions have been brought up. he's yet to be charged in any crimes. the doctor who made the claim of possible cancer is a supporter of jean-juste and some might think that this is an exaggeration to allow jean-juste out of haiti to plan his political future.


police warn sydneysiders to stay away from eastern beaches

new south wales police commissioner ken moroney has warned people to stay away from cronulla, the eastern suburbs beaches, central coast beaches, wollongong and newcastle this weekend, as more violence is expected. police will be using new powers to set up roadblocks, implement alcohol bans, and search vehicles. there will be 1,500 extra police patrolling on saturday, and 2,000 on sunday. 

"our latest intelligence tells us that large numbers of people are planning to go to these areas on sunday to cause riotous behaviour. in the interests of public safety it is my duty to warn the public that these areas have been identified as targets."

"anyone who wants to travel to these identified areas is very likely to get caught up in long traffic delays and may well have their car searched by police if they want to enter these areas", commissioner moroney said. "any unnecessary travel is almost certainly going to cause traffic gridlock and make it a much harder job for police."

there have been six days of violence in sydney after riots in cronulla on sunday, sparked by an assault on a lifesaver the previous weekend. the police operation, dubbed operation seta, has been attempting to manage the problems. the number of police assigned to operation seta has gradually increased throughout the week, from a couple of hundred on monday night, to the 2,000 expected this sunday. 


 


flooding in nakhon sri thammarat

moderate flooding has hit the province of nakhon sri thammarat in southern thailand. moderate to heavy rain persists in the area, further exacerbating the flooding conditions. the northeast monsoon has intensified the flow of rainfall-laden air from the gulf of thailand. torrential rains have been plaguing the nine southernmost provinces of the country for nearly two weeks and further downpours are forecast for later this week.

thung song district in nakhon sri thammarat province is experiencing waist-high floodwaters in downtown shopping areas. transportation has ground to a halt in affected areas. in songkhla province, the government has called for steps to be taken to prevent further flooding of the commerial district of hat yai. rail tracks have been lifted in some areas to permit flood waters to leave the city, and the thai navy has been ordered to take part in relief efforts.

in muang district of nakhon sri thammarat, many roads have been closed and sandbags are being deployed to help affected businesses. schools throughout the province have been closed because of flooding conditions. other provinces, including phattalung, pattani, yala, narathiwat, trang, sukhothai and satun have experienced similar problems with high tides and heavy rain paralysing much of the region.

the meteorological department of the thailand ministry of information and communication technology issued a weather advisory concerning the flooding, "people in the lower south and navigators in the gulf of thailand should exercise caution and small boats should stay from december 15 until december 18." it is reported that this has left some tourists stranded on smaller resort islands in the gulf of thailand.

across the border in malaysia, three are reported to have died and over 10,000 been evacuated as a result of the flooding.



president bush of the united states authorized nsa surveillance of citizens, bypassing court warrants

in 2002, as a part of ongoing anti-terrorist operations, president bush secretly authorized the national security agency (nsa) to spy on americans and others in the united states making contact with persons in other nations. according to a "the new york times" report, the nsa monitored the international telephone calls and international e-mail messages of "hundreds, and perhaps thousands of people" inside the united states over the past three years without warrants. 

specifically, the nsa performed wiretaps on international communications that included a u.s. participant. the authorization was kept secret until december 2005, when it was reported in "the new york times", engendering serious controversy over both the legality of the blended international/domestic wiretaps and the revelation of this highly-classified program in a time of war.

according to "the new york times", john yoo, the former deputy in the , justified the domestic spying in a classified legal opinion, arguing that these activities were covered by congressional approval of the . that legal argument was similar to another 2002 memo authored primarily by yoo, which outlined an extremely narrow definition of torture. that opinion, which was signed by another justice official, was formally disavowed after it was disclosed by "".

president bush insisted that he has not compromised . 
"revealing classified information is illegal," he said during an unusual live, on-camera version of his weekly radio address, about this secret program that was revealed in media reports yesterday. 
senior members of congress from both parties called for an explanation. chairman , stated that "there is no doubt that this is inappropriate". 
senator defended the nsa directive saying "i don't agree with the libertarians. i want my security first. i'll deal with all the details after that."

traditionally the federal bureau of investigation conducts most domestic eavesdropping after obtaining warrants for it. the domestic mandate of the nsa has been traditionally limited to the surveillance of foreign nationals and embassies. the nsa has reportedly obtained court orders to undertake missions in washington, new york and other cities.

several national security officials say the jurisdiction granted the nsa goes far beyond the . under the act, it's necessary to seek a (foreign intelligence surveillance act) warrant every time law enforcement eavesdrops within the u.s. some officials say they consider warrantless eavesdropping inside the united states to be unlawful and possibly unconstitutional.

one government official involved in the operation said he privately complained to a congressional official about his doubts about the program's legality. but nothing happened. "people just looked the other way because they didn't want to know what was going on," he said. 

"the new york times", the newspaper that broke the news, stated that it delayed publication of this story for a year after the said it could jeopardize investigations and alert would-be terrorists under surveillance.



senate rejects short-term extension of the usa patriot act

the us senate failed to renew certain provisions of the which are due to expire at the end of the year. a vote to end the which has stalled the bill gained only 52 votes, failing to advance the bill. 

a majority of democrats and some republicans have resorted to a filibuster, citing concerns that the bill under consideration which permits government access to confidential personal data failed to safeguard privacy and protect innocent citizens from government scrutiny. four republicans joined the democrats in voting against the bill, while 2 democrats voted in favor of ending the filibuster.

"that decision is irresponsible and it endangers the lives of our citizens. the senators who are filibustering must stop their delaying tactics and the senate must reauthorize the patriot act," said president george w. bush of the senate vote.

the measure to extend some of the patriot act measures has already passed in the house of representatives. the act was originally passed in the wake of the sept. 11 attacks, and gives the government secret access to private information such as library and medical records, as well as roving wiretaps which may apply to multiple phone numbers.



west wing star john spencer dies from heart attack

john spencer, who played vice presidential candidate leo mcgarry on nbc's "the west wing," died of a heart attack friday, his publicist said.

spencer, 58, died at a los angeles hospital, said publicist ron hofmann. hofmann released no other immediate details. 

spencer's work on the show earned him an emmy award for supporting actor in a drama series in 2002, as well as a golden globe nomination. before appearing on the hit political drama, spencer played the quirky and charismatic new york attorney tommy mullaney on "l.a. law."


eu reaches budget deal

the leaders of the european union have struck a deal on the 2007-2013 budget. negotiations were characterized by host country's prime minister tony blair as "extraordinarily complicated".

the biggest issues were different views between france, the uk and rest of the eu. uk wanted to keep it's high membership discount, negotiated before economic growth made it one of the richest members, while other members wanted it to participate with relatively equal net payment. france's primary issue was maintaining farming subsidies. rest of the europe was mostly interested in modernizing european economy by decreasing both uk's discounts and france's subsidies. germany appeared as a pulling force between france and uk to secure the deal.

france continues to receive it's highly criticized subsidies. the uk gave up 10.5 billion euros in exchange for a review of farm subsidies in 2008-2009, but the net membership discount will actually increase. small member states such as sweden increased their role as largest net payers in relative to output.

key features in the reached deal:

most see the resulted budget as a poor comproromise, but necessarily for the state of union and financial planning in the new member states.

 *


nyc transit deadline past, no strike or talks

talks between the mta and transit workers union local 100 (twu) ended this morning at 06:00 est (11:00 utc) with no resolution or job action. the latest offer in the now bitter negotiation was from mta: 3% pay increases per year in a three-year contract with changes in the health benefits and pension plan for new employees.

in a 12:30 est (17:30 utc) press conference, mta president peter kalikow told the press that this would be the final offer the mta would make because "there is no more." kalikow continued that the mta would be in dire straits in 2008 if they were to accept the twu's demands, which included a 24% pay increase over three years and a reduced co-pay towards employees' health care premiums. he continued, "if they [the twu] don't accept it, we will go to binding arbitration. this is our last offer."

although most new yorkers were geared up for a strike when the contract expired at 00:01 est (05:01 utc), the subways and busses continued to run their routes. an ap report, later confirmed by the twu, calls for a limited strike with two deadlines: one at 00:01 est monday for the jamaica and triboro bus lines, and one at 00:01 est tuesday for mta subways and busses. 

because they are run by private companies, a strike by the jamaica and triboro bus employees would not be subject to new york's taylor law, which prohibits public employees from striking and fines strikers two times their salary for each day the strike lasts.

mayor michael bloomberg commented that had the union begun its strike this morning, it would not have been as "damaging" as a tuesday-morning strike. he also added "i thought that the mta offer was more generous than what the municipal emplyees get offered." governor george pataki reminded the union that the taylor law would be applied: "as i said yesterday, i have three words for the twu: 'don't do it.' if you strike, there will be very real consequences."

no talks were held today. bargaining sessions are scheduled to resume tomorrow morning at the grand hyatt hotel, manhattan.



sinn fein expels denis donaldson for spying

sinn fein has expel its former head of administration, denis donaldson, after he confessed to being a british spy since 1980.

mr. donaldson said he deeply regretted his activities over the last twenty years

in a statement to rte news, he described the stormont spying allegations as a sham. 

taoiseach bertie ahern said the incident was 'as bizarre as it gets'. the uk government has been challenged for an inquiry over the matter.

"blair needs to explain whether he knew donaldson was an agent and, if not, how that could credibly be so," said jim allister of the democratic unionist party. "the prime minister should make a full statement to parliament on monday."



cold cases in west australia examined for murdoch link

west australian police have begun a review of cold cases in their state following bradley john murdoch's conviction for the murder of british backpacker peter falconio.

police believe that murdoch from broome, in northern western australia, could be responsible for the claremont serial killings in perth during 1996 and 1997. police have also indicated that they will be exploring the possibility that murdoch had been responsible for the disappearance of hayley dodd, 17 from badgingarra and the disappearance of a woman from broome in 1996.

police will examine the details of the falconio trial to construct a timeline of murdoch's whereabouts. police sargeant graham clifford said "murdoch's methodology and criminal profile were being scrutinised". 


violence at cronulla beach as 5000 people gather

cronulla beach in sydney, new south wales was the scene of racist mob-violence yesterday. in what has been described as disgusting, un-australian and shameful behaviour, participants in a 5000-strong mob assaulted people suspected of being of lebanese origin. the angry, alcohol-fuelled crowd also turned on anyone who tried to help the victims, including police, security guards and ambulance officers. 

following an attack on two lifeguards earlier in the week, allegedly by men of lebanese descent, a protest had been organised via text messages and a small number of usenet postings. 

sutherland shire mayor kevin schreiber says inflammatory text messages calling for revenge attacks fueled the violence. mr schreiber said the heavily-circulated messages ensured troublemakers went to the southern sydney beach looking for a fight. police had patrolled the area all weekend after text messages began circulating among the community calling for vigilante responses to unwelcome visitors on the beach.

"the sending out of that text message was foolish and irresponsible and ensured that people from all over sydney came to cronulla looking to cause trouble and this was further fueled by alcohol," said mr schreiber.

sydney's popular talk-back radio station 2gb also promoted sunday's event. breakfast announcer alan jones has been accused of "fanning the flames." callers who recommended vigilante action were not discouraged to take the law into their own hands. mr jones, notorious for inflammatory comments, repeated the text message for cronulla residents to defend their territory several times.

as the crowd marched along the beach and foreshore area, waving australian flags, the crowd chanted racist slogans, with many wearing clothes bearing racist sentiment. 

middle eastern men were openly targeted and assaulted. a young muslim woman wearing a veil was chased into a kiosk on cronulla beach. police tried to move her away from the chanting crowd but were unable to reach the security of the command post. while the woman and police officers hid in the kiosk, a crowd surrounded the kiosk and shouted "kill the lebs", while others climbed on top of the kiosk.

as police horses and special operations officers formed a line and pushed the crowd away, they were bombarded with beer bottles. after half an hour, an ambulance arrived at the kiosk and people were loaded into it. the ambulance, transporting six injured youths, escorted by police and police horses, was also bombarded with beer bottles. one struck an ambulance officer on the head. his colleague suffered lacerations to the arm.

a total of 25 people, including two ambulance officers, were injured and about 40 cars were vandalised at maroubra as the unrest spread to other beachside communities. police said 16 people had been arrested and charged with 41 offences. locals said today they were in shock and many refused to be named, too scared of retribution for their comments.

those charged were from mortdale, cronulla, bondi junction, kareela, granville, lugarno, greenacre, mascot, northmead, jannali, sutherland, and riverwood. offences included malicious damage, resist police, hinder police, assault police, resist arrest, possess prohibited drug, offensive manner, threaten violence, affray, possess knife in a public place, and driving in a manner dangerous. all of those charged were men between 17 and 40 years of age.

a police strike force had been established to track down those responsible, nsw premier morris iemma said today. mr iemma said video and photo evidence would be used to catch the offenders following incidents which he said showed "ugly face of racism in australia".

he said the government would examine what extra police powers would be needed to combat further outbreaks of violence. a meeting of community leaders would be convened to discuss the problem.

"let's be very clear, the police will be unrelenting in their fight against these thugs and hooligans," the premier said. a series of apparent revenge attacks ? including two stabbings ? occurred overnight following the unrest at cronulla.

prime minister john howard, at a separate press conference, condemned the violence. he said attacking anyone on the basis of their race or ethnicity was unacceptable and should be repudiated. he has refused to call australians "racist". he himself created racism-related controversy when in 1988 he claimed that the rate of asian immigration into australia was too high.

kuranda seyit, the director of forum on australia's islamic relations (fair), an islamic think-tank, was disgusted by the weekends violence. "the cronulla police must send a loud and clear message to others who are potentially considering vigilante action against fellow australians," mr seyit said. he also condemned the previous violence that was allegedly committed by lebanese men, but said that this does not justify yesterdays violence. "i realise that the initial behaviour by the thugs who beat the lifeguard was unacceptable but to take it out any anyone who the mob think are not one of them, is not the solution," mr seyit said.

he suggested that a number of people in sutherland shire were racist, and this contributed to the violence. "obviously the underlying racism and intolerance in the shire is now bubbling to the surface."

nsw deputy police commissioner andrew scipione says police believed neo-nazi and white nationalist groups were among the crowd. "that in fact is something that we're following up," he told the nine network. 

skinheads wearing boots, braces and neo-nazi emblems were among the protestors. three far-right organisations: "australia first party", "patriotic youth league (pyl) and the newcastle-based "blood and honour" - all handed out pamphlets. pyl describes itself as a "radical nationalist" group with links to the german-based skinhead group volksfront, british nationalist party and the new zealand national front.

australia first's dr jim saleam, who was jailed for 3 1/2 years in 1991 for possessing a firearm and organising a shotgun attack on the home of the african national congress's australian representative, said: "i wouldn't condone it, but i wouldn't condemn it," dr saleam said his members had recruited up to 120 people for the rally but denied they were involved in violence.

anti-race hate campaigner matt henderson-hau, who runs the fightdemback.org website, claims only one skinhead at the rally came from within the sutherland shire. "the rest came from the central coast, newcastle and other parts of sydney," he said. mr henderson-hau said neo-nazis had manipulated the crowd at cronulla. "if you remove the nazis from the equation, you will go a long way to dousing the flames and hopefully some cool heads will emerge on both sides," he said.

white nationalist website, stormfront downunder, yesterday featured messages from people in the us, britain and canada supporting the cronulla attacks.

most bloggers were in agreement that anyone committing acts of violence should be arrested and punished, regardless of race, place of residence, or justification for their actions. some are purely critical, whereas others are pointing to previous acts by lebanese youths to explain the violence. 

"round ‘em up?all of them, from both sides?charge ‘em, convict ‘em, jail ‘em," tim blair said. 

"are we living in tsarist russia where peasants with pitchforks chase jews down the street?" said jason soon of catallaxy. he made a distinction between these riots and previous riots, such as maquarie fields. "the denizens of cronulla do not even have the excuse of poverty and deprivation for their actions. the infamy of disgrace will be heavier on them than on the people of macquarie fields."

one blogger said that he did not support sunday’s violence, but argued that it was understandable after what he described as years of violence and intimidation by lebanese youths. 

"this episode is an absolute disgrace. i, however, absolutely refuse to condemn the people who took that action yesterday, especially given the pattern of wilful inaction from the authorities over the last two years. far from demonstrating intolerance (arguably, quite the opposite has been demonstrated here, given the facts), put quite simply, everybody has a limit," said james ozark of "a western heart". 

another blogger, who goes by the name "anonymouslefty", issued a challenge to right-wing bloggers and mainstream pundits, asking them to explain how recent events should have been handled. "what precisely should we be doing differently in order to prevent flare-ups like cronulla? (if andrew bolt and piers ackerman are going to devote their next columns to cronulla - and i'd bet you the shiny biro on my desk that they will - perhaps they'd consider, instead of simply attacking 'multiculturalism' as a vague concept, actually suggesting what they'd do differently.)"

splat guy criticised the use of the national flag and anthem during the riot. "... the ugliest thing of all was the use of symbols of the unity of australians - all australians, not just anglos - like the flag, national anthem, and sports cries as a sort of racial identifier. really unsavoury, really unacceptable, really unaustralian."

racism in post-invasion australia dates back to the white australia policy, which started as government policy in the 1880s, became a national law with the creation of australia as a state in 1901, effectively was stopped in 1973 under the prime ministership of whitlam, and was completed by further reform in immigration law under fraser in 1978. for more depth, see:



imitation gun pointed at australia swimmers during training

photos have emerged in the australian media of a 9mm imitation pistol being pointed at swimmers by a coach. the incident occurred at a swimming camp where a number of young swimmers were training for next year's commonwealth games.

at the camp, nathan schrag, a royal australian navy trainer, aimed the pistol at two swimmers whilst simultaneously firing a real pistol in the air. the two swimmers in question had just completed a two hour set.

it is believed that swimmers as young as 16 attended the camp. the officials responsible for the programme have stated that such methods will not be employed in the future. meanwhile, rod kemp, the sports minister, has said that there is no place for such behaviour in sports training.



u.s. dept. of homeland security visit dartmouth student over library book

a university of massachusetts, dartmouth senior was visited by federal agents in september, after he requested a copy of quotations from chairman mao tse-tung, which is colloquially known as "the little red book".

history professors brian glyn williams and robert pontbriand reported that the student requested the book through the university library via an interlibrary loan, which the department of homeland security monitors. the agents apparently told the student that the book was on a watch list.

the student was writing a research paper on maoist communism for professor pontbriand's class on fascism and totalitarianism. government monitoring of library loans is often viewed as totalitarian practice.

"my instinct is that there is a lot more monitoring than we think," said dr. williams.



president bush defends nsa domestic intercepts

in a radio speech from the white house on 17 december 2005, president bush acknowledged that in the weeks following 9/11 he had "authorized the national security agency [nsa], consistent with u.s. law and the constitution, to intercept international communications of people with known links to al qaeda and related terrorist organizations."

president bush said that the government establishes a clear link to terrorist networks before intercepting these communications, adding that the purpose of the program is to "detect and prevent terrorist attacks against the united states and our allies."

stating that terrorists inside the united states were communicating with terrorists abroad before the 9/11 attacks, president bush said that the authorization he gave the nsa "helped address that problem in a way that is fully consistent with my constitutional responsibilities and authorities."

secretary of state condoleezza rice said that established procedures requiring court approval were simply not quick and flexible enough to respond to the urgency of the terrorist threat, and to allow the administration to eavesdrop on highly mobile targets in order to disrupt potential plots.

before bush's secret order, such wiretaps were obtained through the foreign intelligence surveillance act (fisa) of 1978. it prescribes procedures for requesting judicial authorization for electronic surveillance and physical search of persons engaged in espionage or international terrorism against the united states on behalf of a foreign power. fisa also allows the attorney general to grant permission for emergency wiretaps without a warrant, with retroactive application being made within 72 hours. historically, the vast majority of applications are accepted without modifications by fisa. for example in the 2004 report of fisa to congress it is noted that the number of approved warrants with substantive modifications was 94 out of a total of 1758 while 5 applications were rejected.

house intelligence committee chairman peter hoekstra defended bush's authorization of the surveillance program and to bypass the fisa. chairwoman of the homeland security and governmental affairs committee senator susan collins announced a call on the nsa for a "full briefing" about the program, and said that the program's authority needs to be clarified. house minority leader nancy pelosi said bush's radio address raised "serious questions as to what the activities were and whether the activities were lawful."

the president noted that the nsa activities are reviewed "approximately every 45 days." he added: "during each assessment, previous activities under the authorization are reviewed. the review includes approval by our nation's top legal officials, including the attorney general and the counsel to the president." all people involved in the periodic review are members of the executive branch.

bush also said that nsa's activities under this authorization are thoroughly reviewed by the justice department and nsa's top legal officials, including nsa's general counsel and inspector general, adding that "leaders in congress have been briefed more than a dozen times on this authority and the activities conducted under it." members of congress from both parties are now calling for congressional hearings to learn more.

the president concluded by saying that "this authorization is a vital tool in our war against the terrorists. it is critical to saving american lives. the american people expect me to do everything in my power under our laws and constitution to protect them and their civil liberties."



president alvaro uribe asks washington to stop meddling

alvaro uribe, president of colombia, reportedly told the united states on friday to stop meddling in the affairs of his country. the u.s. ambassador to colombia asked the president to take steps to fight corruption that have plagued colombian regional elections. uribe stated that "the colombian government does not accept the meddling of foreign governments, even if it is the united states."

u.s. ambassador william wood gave a speech in which he claimed that many regional, including mayoral, races had gone unopposed due to bribery and intimidation. the ambassador blames rightist paramilitary groups for most of the offenses. wood suggested that groups who continue to commit offenses despite the peace deal they signed should be stripped of the benefits they have received through that deal.

uribe has been criticized by many human rights groups for going soft on paramilitary organizations. president uribe's father was killed by leftist guerillas.

uribe is a conservative politician and one of the united states closest allies in the region. the ambassador, william wood, apologized for confusion made by his comments saying that "there was no intention to interfere in any way with colombian elections, but rather to support the democratic, free, open and impartial process."

a former ambassador, myles frechette, suggests that because the president is up for re-election in may, he might want to demonstrate to the country that colombia is a sovereign nation.



australia's howard calls for nativity scenes

australia's prime minister john howard has made an impassioned plea to restore the religious meaning of christmas.

mr howard said he had "contempt" for arguments that the religious side of the christmas season should be toned down by removing christmas trees and symbols and nativity scenes. he said he had been saddened by the removal of christmas trees and nativity scenes from public places.

it is thought that the reason behind the removal of traditional christmas scenes was so that non-religious people and those of other faiths were not offended. mr howard said "you don't win tolerant brownie points by pretending to be something that you're not".

backing mr howard, catholic archbishop of brisbane john bathersby said "we are a christian country. if minorities are to integrate, they need something to integrate into. i don't think there is any intolerance in saying, 'this is who we are'".

the president of the islamic council of queensland, abdul jabal, said "we don't celebrate christmas but we support others doing so. it's a time of peace and sharing".

opposition leader kim beazley used mr howard's comments to attack the government's industrial relations policy saying "i would say this to john howard and to the australian people about it, the biggest threat to christmas in this country is john howard's extreme industrial relations law". he added that people who wished to take time off work to celebrate christmas have no rights to do so under the government's industrial relations reforms.


london bomb survivors launch campaign for public inquiry

survivors of the london bombings have urged the british public to write to their mps, and set up an online petition calling for an independent public inquiry into the attacks.

52 people were killed and hundreds more injured on july 7th 2005 when four suicide bombers blew themselves up on three separate london underground trains and a public bus.

earlier this week the british government rejected calls for a public inquiry, arguing that such an investigation would be too expensive, take too long, and be a distraction from their efforts to combat terrorism. instead, the government has offered to put together a "narrative of events".

but survivors of the attack argue that a fully comprehensive investigation could teach valuable lessons which may help reduce the likelihood of future attacks, and improve the response capabilities of the emergency services.

some survivors, such as rachel north (a pseudonym), who has been active in organising a support group for her fellow victims, have been angered by the government's alternative proposal of a "narrative". writing on the weblog she started to help her, and others, come to terms with the aftermath of july 7th, ms north says: 

"even if you don't like the questions, don't like the answers, think you know the answers already, mr blair, it is us, not you, who are paying the cost for this... if the cost of answering questions makes you squirm, then too bad... we run the risks on the trains, the buses, the streets each day... how dare you presume you know our questions and how dare you presume that they can be answered by a 'narrative of what happened', as if we are children to be placated with a story. i know what happened, i want to know why."

ms north also quotes a number of other survivors: 

"we are constantly reminded that this is the worst peace time bombing london has ever seen, for something that bad there should be an inquiry. people died, families lost someone they loved and hundreds are still suffering. you can't put a price on that but apparently the government can." - "fiona"

"if nothing else, an enquiry would make sure some of these lessons were learnt in case, god forbid, anything like this happened again. i thought there were plansin place for emergencies such as this. whilst the emergency services did a fantastic job on the day, i have been stunningly underwhelmed by the support offered to victims since." - "pauline"

an anonymous survivor, writing on the "yorkshire lass" website, says:

"'when i watched the al-qaeda video declaring jihad against the uk i was haunted by the familiarity of the voice, it was my voice, my accent, my dialect. this is not a man who was recruited and trained in some far off country that i have barely heard of, this was a man who was recruited and trained while he lived 20 minutes from my mother's home where i was born and raised.the words he spoke of are words similar to what i have heard many times from disillusioned
young men that i studied for my a levels with. they are the words of hatred i overheard when i worked as a support worker at my local college. they were words of students who were educated... when someone follows through with the actions of those opinions to the detriment of others, questions need to be asked why preventions were not put in place and this needs to be done by public inquiry for peace of mind.i have been told that i am looking for justice in the wrong place and in some way that is right. however, i want some sort of justice, some manner of peace of mind, some questions answered and resolutions made. i don't want others to have to go through what myself and hundreds of other commuters did on that summer's day.'"

relatives of the dead have also been very critical. quoted on the bbc's website, saba mozakka, the daughter of behnaz mozakka,who died in the piccadilly line explosion, said:

"the families will be campaigning for there to be a full public inquiry... a narrative of events will not satisfy anybody. this is not something we will go away on." 

marie fatayi-williams, whose son anthony was killed in the attack, told the bbc: "i ask myself - if there is really nothing to hide then why shy away from a public inquiry? it is the only real way that we can truly get things discussed and see for ourselves what happened and what lessons can be learnt and whether we are better prepared now than on 7 july... i have a son who was killed and is never going to come back. nobody is going to tell me that [an inquiry] is a waste of police time."

the survivors' petition has so far gathered over 100 signatures. the british government has given no response as yet.

 


approval down for president pacheco

according to a poll taken by demoscopia and published in the costa rican newspaper , 53% of respondants say they disapprove of the presidency of . this is an increase in 21 points since the last poll taken in august of this year.

costa rica is the only central american country yet to ratify the (or cafta). pacheco has sent the bill to the legislative branch for ratification but they are not expected to approve until april of 2006. cafta was supposed to go into effect on january 1, 2006.


german hostage freed in iraq

the german archaeologist susanne osthoff, who was abducted in iraq on november 25th, has been freed. 

her brother told n-tv that she had been brought to the german embassy in baghdad and is well. foreign minister frank-walter steinmeier confirmed the reports and said that her iraqi driver, who was abducted along with her, is still in the hands of the kidnappers but they have promised to release him as well.

how she was freed, whether ransom was paid, or even which group abducted her is still unknown at this time. steinmeier declined to answer any questions on the topic.

the captors demanded that the german government breaks off diplomatic relations with iraq, which it has refused to do.

osthoff had been living in iraq since 1991. she is a converted muslim and married to a jordanian. her 12-year old daughter is living in germany. in recent years osthoff became more and more involved with delivering aid to the iraqi people. she was featured on the front page of the new york times in 2003 and appeared in a series about her work in the german daily suddeutsche zeitung.



san diego ends colts' bid for perfect season

the san diego chargers defeated the indianapolis colts 26-17 at the rca dome in indianapolis. it is the first loss of the season for the colts, who are the fourth team in nfl history to win their first 13 games.

san diego pulled ahead early, scoring a touchdown and two field goals in the first half. nate kaeding kicked a 48-yard field goal in the third period to increase the chargers' lead to 16 points, but indianapolis responded with two touchdowns and a field goal in 6 minutes, giving the colts a 17-16 lead.

kaeding made a 49-yard field goal to put san diego up 19-17 in the fourth quarter. the colts' ensuing drive ended when rookie chagers defensive tackle luis castillo sacked colts quarterback peyton manning putting indianapolis out of field goal range. chargers running back michael turner then scored a touchdown on an 83-yard running play, pushing san diego's lead to 26-17 with two minutes left.

the colts attempted a comeback but manning was intercepted in the indianapolis endzone, bringing to an end the game and the colts' 13-game winning streak.

the win means the chargers remain in close contention with the pittsburgh steelers, who won in minnesota, for an afc wildcard spot. san diego and pittsbugh both have 9-5 records, however the steelers won their head-to-head matchup which would searve as a tie-breaker. the colts have already clinched top seed in the afc.

"it's tough to go 16-0. you have to play well every week," said colts coach tony dungy. "the only consolation now is that we won't be asked all those questions, have all the media around and we can have more focus on our ultimate goal, to win the super bowl." the colts no longer threaten the record set by the 1972 miami dolphins, the last nfl team to boast a perfect season.

the colts (13-1) are in seattle next saturday to face the seahawks (12-2), and the chargers (9-5) are in kansas city to play the chiefs (8-6).


israeli pm sharon suffers 'mild stroke'

hospital officials at hadassah ein karem hospital in jerusalem announced that israeli prime minister ariel sharon suffered a temporary mild stroke sunday evening.

"our tests have shown that the prime minister had a mild cva," (stroke) said dr. yuval weiss, a spokesman for the hospital. sharon briefly suffered some minor physical symptoms including slurring of speech and loss of some motor control.

sharon was reportedly returning to his ranch in the negev desert when he told aides he was not feeling well. he was rushed to hospital and admitted shortly after 8pm (18:00 utc). the later statement of dr weiss stated that no invasive procedures were necessary.

sharon's stay in the hospital is likely to be brief, some reports suggest he may be released in the morning although his personal physician, boleslav goldman has stated the stay may be three or four days. despite hospitalisation, he is continuing to maintain full control of events in israel.

sharon has not previously suffered major health difficulties, although the bbc suggests
his stressful life and position may have contributed to the incident and surrounding scare.


kwa?niewski to end his term within 5 days

aleksander kwa?niewski, a post-communistic ex-leader of the "alliance of the democratic left" (sojusz lewicy demokratycznej), will end his term as the president of poland within 5 days. his successor, conservative lech kaczy?ski, from the "peace and justice party" (prawo i sprawiedliwo??), is going to take the reins on december 23rd. this comes as the result of the october 9 elections and the october 23 run-offs, when he defeated liberal donald tusk by 54% to 46%.

although kwa?niewski has quite a good reputation in polish society, he has often been called irresponsible and very static. that was said by some, especially from nationalistic and populist parties, such as "peace and justice", and "self-defense" and "league of polish families", candidates in the last elections (both parliamentery and presidential), who had been promising people a strengthening of the position of polish president. 

the last weeks of kwa?niewski's second term were marked by the issuing of some pardons to people related to the post-communistic left.

kwa?niewski, who took over the presidency after the election of 1995, and then was re-elected in 2000, is the successor to solidarity movement leader lech wa??sa. he was unable to stand for re-election again as the constitution of poland states that the polish president can only be re-elected once. 



dick cheney makes surprise iraq visit

united states vice president dick cheney made a surprise visit to iraq today promoting the recent iraqi election, amidst an upsurge of violence that has killed more than 30 people. the vice president's visit was so secretive that even iraqi prime minister ibrahim al-jaafari was unaware he was coming.

in a visit lasting 10 hours, mr. cheney met with military commanders and iraqi politicians as he was shuttled between locations including the heavily fortified green zone in baghdad and the al asad air base in anbar province west of baghdad, travelling by a group of eight armed helicopters. 
cheney commented on the recent elections, stating that "i think what started here in iraq will have an enormous impact through the region," and "we're, as americans, very proud to be part of that."

later, cheney took questions from 30 troops in a large tent. "from our perspective, we don't see much as far as gains," marine cpl. bradley warren told cheney. i was wondering what it looks like from the big side of the mountain -- how iraq's looking."
"well, iraq's looking good," cheney responded. "it's hard sometimes, if you look at just the news, to have the good stories burn through. part of it is that what we're doing here, obviously, takes time from our perspective, looking back, as i say, to a year and a half ago, i think it's remarkable progress. i think we've turned the corner, if you will. i think when we look back from 10 years hence, we'll see that the year '05 was in fact a watershed year here in iraq."

cheney's visit was marred by a surge in violence after a relatively quiet period following the elections. nearly two dozen people, including two police officers, died sunday in a combination of suicide bombings and insurgent attacks.


black vulture population targeted for reduction at virginia boat launch

a virginia recreation and fishing boat launch on the james river near the dominion virginia power plant at dutch gap is the scene of too many black vultures, according to the u.s. department of agriculture (usda) and the virginia department of inland game and fisheries.

in 2002, more than 350 black vultures were killed at dutch gap in an effort to reduce their numbers to a level of a couple dozen birds. but they made a quick come back in the area, and during this past week a hundred of the birds have been disposed of by a shot to their head with a pellet gun.

the usda reports that both black vultures (coragyps atratus), along with their close relatives called the turkey vulture (cathartes aura), are experiencing population increases stretching well over the last 10 years. 

the species is increasingly a problem by growing into being a nuisance, as well as a threat to health and safety concerns. the presence of the birds in large numbers, at places they roost, can cause damage to property as they peck and claw at construction surfaces, and cause unsanitary human health conditions from the defecation and regurgitation of the birds. their presense at landfills, often in near proximity to airports, is a problem for airplanes during take-off and landing. 

at the entrance to the dutch gap boat launch parking lot, a large yellow warning sign is posted that reads: ""please be aware of possible damage to vehicles and trailers due to the large black vulture population currently inhabiting this parking area. because the black vulture is a federally protected species, chesterfield county is working with the u.s. deptartment of agriculture and the virginia department of inland games and fisheries to resolve the problem. you can help by disposing of all litter (even non-food items such as cigarette butts) in trash barrels. thank you for your cooperation."" the vultures reportedly perch on vehicles and scratch the paint, and for some reason are going after windshield wiper blades.
vultures have shown an ability to adapt to residential and business settings. the bird, with a 4-foot adult wing span, can be seen gliding through the air at virtually any time of day in chesterfield and prince george counties in central virginia.



public services shutting down in new south wales, australia due to lack of money

some public services in new south wales, australia's most populous state, are shutting for extended periods over christmas and new year in an effort to save money.

public hospitals are cancelling elective surgery for periods of up to six weeks. the university of newcastle has forced all staff to take annual leave and has ceased its core functions of research and teaching for three weeks.

a nsw health spokesperson has defended its decision to keep quiet about the shutdowns, saying "they [nsw health] don't want to release any more information - we are telling the public enough." the nsw president of the australian medical association, john gullotta, disagrees saying "we are losing up to three months of the year in shutdowns." he went on to say "a lot of it is about cost savings - they will blame the holidays, but it is about reining in costs."

according to the university of newcastle its shutdown "is, at this stage, a one-off event." further, "the primary objective of the christmas close down is to reduce leave accruals." earlier in the year the university laid off 412 staff in an effort to reduce costs.


evo morales wins presidential elections in bolivia

the new york times has reported that evo morales has won presidential elections in bolivia. morales ran on a campaign of restoring coca farming in bolivia, in spite of the united states' program to wipe out coca growing (in an effort to reduce the cocaine business). morales is an aymara indian and former coca farmer himself. morales described his victory as a signal that "a new history of bolivia begins, a history where we search for equality, justice and peace with social justice."

at 9pm last night jorge quiroga conceded defeat saying, "i congratulate evo morales." the national electoral court had yet to confirm the votes as of sunday night, but morales is expected to win easily. according to the bolivian media based on exit polling, morales is expected to receive 51 percent of the vote, compared to 30 percent for his nearest rival, jorge quiroga.

evo morales' government will be the first to be led by an indigenous president in the nation's history. morales' left of center policies, especially his support for the coca industry will likely not make him a popular latin american figure for the bush administration in the united states, who might be afraid of a closer alliance between morales, hugo chavez in venezuela, fidel castro of cuba, and even the more moderate but still left-of-center luiz lula da silva of brazil.

morales has commented saying that under his administration there will be "zero cocaine, zero narco-trafficking but not zero coca." in addition to being against the u.s. policy of coca extermination, morales is also against many of the neoliberal policies of the past bolivian governments, including free trade agreements. however he might have some difficulty getting through his new programs as the movement toward socialism party to which he is a member did not win control of the congress.


british mp calls for ban on aspartame

roger williams, a uk member of parliament, has called for emergency action to ban the artificial sweetener aspartame (aspartamine), questioning its safety. the mp said that there was "compelling and reliable evidence for this carcinogenic substance to be banned from the uk food and drinks market altogether."

reservations of some u.s. food and drug administration scientists about the safety of aspartame were overridden when the agency initially approved the food additive in 1981, but many other countries followed the u.s. lead in endorsing the chemical sweetener for general public use. aspartame has been linked in various studies cited by mr. williams to brain tumors, anxiety attacks, neurological impairment and other side effects, particularly in experimental animals; however, several reviews by government agencies have found no credible proof of such risk to humans and no country has banned or limited the substance for human consumption and such non-governmental groups as the american cancer society and the american heart association assert that extensive investigation has not shown any serious adverse effects attributable to aspartame. nonetheless, organized groups continue to debate the issue vigorously and there are calls for class action law suits. the initiative by mp roger williams may now bring the debate into the open political arena of the house of commons.

new research on combining aspartame with other common food additives suggests that while each substance alone may be safe enough, some combinations frequently found in commercial products interfere with the development and function of the nervous system in rats. (lau, et al.) few, if any, other experiments with combinations have been conducted. on the other hand, surveys of human populations, which consume aspartame in various combinations with artificial colorings and flavorings, have failed to convincingly show significant harm.

aspartame is sold under the brand names of equal, nutrasweet and canderel and is an ingredient of thousands of "diet" or "lite" products.


anti-racism rally in sydney

a number of rallies were held in sydney on sunday to protest against what they describe as racism in the community. the national union of students organised an event at town hall, and the ted noffs foundation held an event in belmore park later in the day. about 2,000 people marched through sydney, and there were also gatherings in newcastle, brisbane, and melbourne. 

lebanese australian student chadi sankary rejected alcohol as an excuse for racist and violent behaviour. "people are not willing to admit that this is about racism," he said. "you can't be under the influence of alcohol and paint your massive banners with racial slogans on them or you can't make t-shirts while you're drunk so it can't be accepted as an excuse."

matt noffs, of the ted noffs foundation, said that the solution to racism lies with the people, not politicians. he also criticised the weeks police operation, saying that it will not provide a long-term solution. "i don't feel that the responses that have been made during the week have actually helped the situation," he said. "they might have suppressed some of the violence that is sure to happen in these situations anyway but they certainly don't look at the solutions."

tim longhurst, one of the organisers, said that the rally showed the true nature of sydney as a tolerant city. "what we saw today wasn't new. sydney has always been a place where people do get along, and today they came out in force to show that," mr longhurst said.

in a statement supporting the rally, socialist alliance linked the cronulla riots to government policies and actions. "the riots reflect the rising racism in australia, a tide that has been fostered by the howard government’s policies and propaganda that criminalise and lock up refugees, dehumanise and bomb the iraqi people, and define all muslims and middle-eastern australians as potential terrorists."

one sydney blogger criticised the rallies because they focused on racism against minority groups such as lebanese, instead of racism in general. "they're picking on only one face of the disgusting racism that has come to a boil in this city recently, and tried to say they're taking a stand against racism," he said, calling the rally "the racist anti-racism protest."


new jersey devils coach robinson resigns

larry robinson resigned as coach of the new jersey devils on monday afternoon because of stress-related health issues. devils president and general manager lou lamoriello will take over the coach position temporarily until the new coach would be brought "as soon as possible".

"stress is a killer," mr. robinson said during the announcement. "i lost a dear brother last year and that changed my thoughts about life a lot. my parents are no longer around. i want to be able to enjoy my kids. i worked and i played for 20 years so i could give everything i wasn't able to have for myself to my children, and they suffered for my absence."

robinson, who coached devils to 2000 stanley cup championship and 2001 stanley cup finals, returned to coach the devils last july after pat burns was diagnosed with cancer.

"a lot of things were getting to me. i want this team to be successful, but if i can't be at my best and it's bothering me healthwise, i can't do that," robinson said.

robinson's resignation is the second nhl coaching change this season, following eddie olczyk's dismissal by the pittsburgh penguins last week.

54-year-old robinson missed 2 games this month with flu and sinus problems, he said that he already underwent tests, including an cat test because of continuing "horrible headaches".



china has extensive plans for space exploration

china is developing and enacting a long term space program aimed at cultivating and proving the country’s scientific abilities. the project is heavily research based and includes plans extensive manned missions and a modular space station. however the ultimate goal is lunar based.

the chinese hope to develop its own pollution free fuels that may be used in high capacity rockets that may be able to launch upwards of 25 tons into space. the program has plans for a moon based astronomical telescope and extensive research of the moon’s geology. ouyang ziyuan, who heads the moon research program, has explained one particular interest is the helium-3 isotope. helium-3 is thought to have great capacity for a reliable, non-polluting fuel source.

their recent shenzhou 6 mission sent two astronauts into orbit for 5 days. the shenzhou 7 mission expects to launch three astronauts into space in 2007. subsequent missions include plans for launching parts of their space station and eventually. the chinese intend to man their orbiting space station with shenzhou 10. by 2006 the chinese hope to launch the chang’e 1 lunar orbiter which is designed around a chinese commercial satellite. they intend to follow up with landlers and sample collection as early as 2017.

started in 1992, the chinese space program has made rapid progress. shenzhou 6 was their second manned mission and cost china roughly 110 million, quite inexpensive when compared to the space missions of other countries. the programs extensive plans hint that now, more than ever, the program’s progress is heavily dependent on funding. in 2004 the chinese budget was 1.8 billion, almost a 30% less than in 1999 and tiny compared to nasa’s spending potential, upped to 16.5 billion for 2006. the space program realizes that it must fit into the country's grander scheme.

hu shixiang, deputy commander in chief of china’s manned space program told cnn that the chinese are not competing with other countries in their space research, denying any comparison to the cold war space race. he said china is willing to put for international cooperation in their space research.



opposition claims australian treasurer misled parliament

australian treasurer peter costello is facing controversy for the second time in three weeks following the release of a treasury document circulated on october 6, 2005, claiming that the government's work choices act could suppress labour productivity in the short-term.

in november, 2005, when questioned in parliament costello denied that any report or modelling had been done by the treasury. when speaking on abc radio, costello claimed that the document is a "minute" not a report and therefore he did not mislead parliament. he later went on to say that the "report" had cemented the government's claim that the industrial relations reforms will have economic benefits in the long term. costello further explained that a key phrase in the minute, relating to job numbers, was misprinted, and should read "jobs should not fall" instead of "jobs should now fall".

the report also stated that under the new system minimum wage increases are likely to be smaller than those made in the past by the australian industrial relations commission.


bank of italy governor, antonio fazio, presents resignation today

the news was welcomed by many italian politics. the european central bank president said he "fully respected" fazio's decision.


 


spacex cancels falcon 1 launch until 2006

rocket company spacex, notorious for repeatedly pre-announcing its first flight on wikinews, cancels its latest attempt and defers further flights until 2006.

this latest launch attempt on the 19th december was cancelled due to structural issues with the first-stage fuel tank of the falcon 1 rocket. an electrical fault caused a valve to shut inappropriately, and as fuel drained out a vacuum was created causing the side of the fuel tank to buckle inwards.



nyc transit on strike

calling it a "fight for dignity on the job, a concept foreign to the mta," transport workers union local 100 (twu) president roger toussaint officially declared that its union members are now on strike, extending the job action, and bringing the subways and buses of new york city to a halt.

mta president peter kalikow and toussaint took part in last night's negotiations, where the final offer to the twu was made. the mta offered a three-year contract with a 3 percent, 4 percent, and 3.5 percent pay-raise schedule and a retirement age that would stay at 55, but new employees would have to pay more in contributions to the pension and health care plan.

toussaint had said earlier today to striking jamaica and triboro bus operators that he could not accept the mta's offer because it did not address disciplinary actions that the mta could levy against their employees. jamaica and triboro busses began striking 00:01 (05:01) monday morning. both bus lines are privately owned and operated, but their employees are twu members and will become part of the mta's bus service in 2006.

the twu had asked the mta to give its last, best offer by 21:00 monday (02:00 tuesday utc) so that executives would be able to evaluate the terms in time to avert the tuesday morning strike deadline. but when toussaint and kalikow parted last night at 23:00, any hope of preventing the incredible turned into awaiting the inevitable strike declaration.
at his 03:02 press conference, toussaint pointed the finger squarely on the mta.

"with a us$1b surplus, the contract between the mta and twu local 100 should have been a no-brainier. sadly that has not been the case. from the beginning, the mta approached these negotiations in bad faith, demanding arbitration before even trying to resolve the contract. hours before contract expiration, the mta got rid of its us$1b surplus -- a surplus which we believe continues to be understated by some us$100m. the mta knew that reducing health and pension standards at the authority would be unacceptable to our union. they knew there was no good economic reason for their hard line on this issue - not with a us$1b surplus."

then, the words that no one in new york city (except maybe public school students whose classes were delayed by two hours) wanted to hear passed from toussaint's lips: "the local 100 executive board has voted overwhelmingly to extend strike action to all mta properties effective immediately."

the strike was "on."

mayor bloomberg lashed out at the twu with his harshest language yet on the strike. "for their own selfish reasons, the twu has decided that their demands are more important than the law, the city and the people they serve. this is not only an affront to the concept of public service; it is a cowardly attempt by roger toussaint and the twu to bring the city to its knees to create leverage for their own bargaining position." his honor concluded, "we cannot give the twu the satisfaction of causing the havoc they desperately seek to create." 

mayor bloomberg estimated the cost of the strike at us$400 million per day.

this morning the mayor crossed the brooklyn bridge into manhattan, alongside his fellow commuters-turned-pedestrians. but the bitter wind coming from the east river only doubled the frigid mood of the already freezing new yorkers: twu members were picketing on the brooklyn entrance to the bridge.

the strike contingency page on the mta website mirrored kalikow's statement to the press: "the twu announced it would conduct an illegal strike on mta nyct buses & subways throughout all five boroughs as well as on most mta bus company routes. this is in addition to a strike action called at 12:01 monday, december 19, 2005 by the twu against two private bus lines in queens: triboro coach & jamaica buses."

in his press conference kalikow said "the twu's action today is illegal and irresponsible. this blatant violation of the taylor law... it is a slap in the face to all mta customers and all new yorkers."

although contingency plans had been in ready since friday, some aspects have not materialized. 1010 wins has reported that lirr service for the shea stadium park-n-ride will not be in service until 09:00 because the equipment needed to run on the strike contingency schedule has not been put in place.

the lirr will be making additional stops in queens on the main line, as well as operating shuttle trains between jamaica and penn sta. and in brooklyn between jamaica and flatbush ave.. riders going to or coming from flushing, which is normally served by the 7 train, can take the lirr to flushing/main st. on the port washington branch.
all riders are advised that several entrances to penn station have been designated for ticketed passengers only and are specific to the passenger's servicing branch. non-ticketed passengers should enter penn sat. through the 7th avenue entrance.

the mta assures its customers that all contingency service will be in place no later than the wednesday morning rush, and that any holders of 7-day, 30-day, and unlimited metrocards will have their expiration dates extended for as many days as the strike lasts.

at 05:00 nypd put roadblocks into action along 96 st., south of which only high-occupancy vehicles carrying at least four passengers ("hov-4") may enter. john montone reported that even commercial vehicles are subject to the hov-4, including taxis. this lead to some early-hour contingency "confusion and kvetching". taxis are allowed to pick up multiple fares.

the city has reserved the following streets for emergency vehicles only, weekdays from 05:00 to 20:00 :
a detailed list of restrictions, closures, and lane reversals can be found on the nyc.gov website.

the path is reported to be operating normally, which is shuttling riders from 34th street/herald sq. to the wold trade center, and all stations in-between.

airtrain is also in operation, which serves jamaica sta. and jfk airport. an unconfirmed report from one commuter suggested that taxis from the airport are still honoring the airport's "anywhere in new york" flat fare.

the taxi and limousine commission (tlc) has set up a system of flat fare zones and maximum prices for taxis, livery, and vans. livery cab drivers announced that they would operate service along striking bus routes in order to fill in the service gap, and cabbies are allowed to pick up multiple fares for the duration of the strike. ny1 has reported instances of price gouging, leaving new yorkers in the difficult position of deciding whether to sacrifice $50 or schlepp in the bitter cold.



business brief for december 20, 2005

thq has signed a deal with the advertising company massive network. massive network is a broker that places advertising into online games. the ads are unique in that they can change over time like billboards on the highway. in a game about rescuing hostages a hero might walk past coca-cola machine's one week and pepsi the next. he may pick up a newspaper with ads for real companies in it. advertisers get an audience, game makers get extra revenue, and game players get more realistic games. nokia, vivendi, paramount, panasonic, warner bros, universal music and honda have already signed on. game makers sony, ubisoft, and atari have signed on as well.
massive network says it has over 100 titles committed to carrying its ads.

texas's largest utlity, txu corp., in a deal with current communications group plans to offer high speed internet access over power lines in the state. txu has agreed to pay current communications group approximately $150 million over 10 years to use current's bpl network. in the deal txu will become an equity holder in the privately held current. current's other shareholders include google inc. and another us utility company cinergy corp. the deal will offer access to 2 million homes and businesses mostly in the dallas-fort worth area. construction is planned to start in 2006 along txu's 14,000 miles of transmission lines and 100,000 miles of distribution lines. current's only existing internet access customers are through cinergy, where it charges between $20 to $45 monthly for speeds up to 3 megabits per second.


falwell called for boycott of stores using 'happy holidays' in place of 'merry christmas'

before the holiday started, american christian televangelist jerry falwell has asked that christians across america boycott target corporation department stores for their refusal to include "merry christmas" in advertisements or store decore, instead opting to use the more inclusive phrase, "happy holidays."

target was not the only recipient of criticism, as costco and several other stores have used similar greetings during the 2005 holiday season. falwell and the american family association have threatened to boycott target and costco for not using the phrase "merry christmas" explicitly.

in a similar debate, the decorated spruce at capitol hill in washington d.c. was known as a "holiday tree" earlier this year, but was renamed "christmas tree" after objections by speaker of the house dennis hastert (r-il).


security increased at delta plants due to extortion threat

delta electricity, new south wales' second largest electricity producer has increased security at its four plants near sydney following an extortion threat.

delta electricity operates coal-fired power plants at wallerawang and mount piper (near portland) in the state's central west with mummorah and vales point both between sydney and newcastle.

delta reportedly received the letter last week which is said to contain a threat to bomb one of the plants if a "multi-million" dollar payment was not received. jim henness, chief executive of delta electricity denies that the letter threatened to bomb company facilities or harm employees. he did concede that delta has undertaken responses "for the protection of people and plant".

new south wales police have set up strike force wayside investigate the threat. members of the strike force have been working with delta to help identify the source of the extortion demand.

the mayor of lithgow, neville castle said that residents were nervous. he said "obviously there's concern in the community"

"we'd look at it very dimly however to my mind it wouldn't be concerned with terrorism activity because as far as i am aware, terrorists don't forecast what they are goring to do in advance. it seems to be very sudden as to what they do."

lithgow is located close to wallerawang and mount piper plants and a large number of residents are employed at the plants or in the local coal mines that supply them.


truth comes out about suprnova closure

exactly one year since the popular suprnova bittorrent link site went offline, its founder, andrej preston (known as "sloncek" to the internet community), has spoken out about what happened on his website.

after twelve months of speculation amongst former users and many sites popping up to try and take its place, preston says "it is time for everybody to know the truth and that it is time for me to stop pretending like nothing ever happened".

according to preston his nightmare began in november, 2004 when he received a phonecall from his isp stating that preston's servers had just been raided. preston claims that at this time he had no communication from the police.

after reading about himself in various slovenian newspapers in early december, preston decided to take his suprnova.org site offline. at the same time another project preston was involved in exeem was touted as being the biggest thing to happen to file sharing.

preston claims that a month or so after his site went offline his home was raided by the police at 6:30 in the morning. police seized two computers and documents. preston was then called into the local police unit another month later for a hearing. preston, on the advice of his lawyer decided he would not answer anything during the interview with the police. at the conclusion of the interview preston was told that the matter would be handed over to the prosecutor.

preston recalls that on october 18, 2005 he received a notice to go to the post office and pick up another letter which he must sign for. upon receiving the notice preston says that he "became completely depressed and sad". preston however was greeted with good news at the post office when he opened the letter and discovered that his matter had been dropped. he also received his computers and cds back.

the bittorrent protocol uses .torrent metadata files that tells a client application which tracker to contact to find peers (users sharing the file) and verification data for the files to be downloaded. it was thought to be "safer" than traditional file sharing systems from a legal perspective as the files (possibly copyrighted material) were not hosted on a centralised server but were instead located completely on users' computers.

due to the nature of bittorrent a server is required to "track" (assist in locating other peers). these trackers can be a legal target because they "assist" in distributing the data. it is also quite easy for the administrator of a bittorrent tracker to remove torrents and stop users from downloading them.

exeem on the other hand was to be completely decentralised. there was no need for centralised trackers, as each peer on the network acted as a tracker by assisting other clients in finding peers. exeem had a rather difficult time becoming accepted within the internet community following the discovery of cydoor adware in the software. development on exeem has since ceased.

suprnova itself was not a bittorrent tracker nor did it host the actual files being downloaded by the user. suprnova made available the .torrent meta data files needed to locate a tracker and peers.



poll predicts another liberal party minority government in canada

a new telephone poll conducted december 17 and 18 has predicted another minority liberal party government under prime minister paul martin in canada's upcoming federal elections. the poll was conducted by pollara, a canadian public opinion and research company. of those polled, 37% responded that they would likely vote for the liberals, 34% conservative, 17% new democratic party and 10% for the bloc quebecois.

the results show a drop in the liberals' initial lead, from 7 points to 3, and it puts the liberals and the conservatives within the polls margin of error of 3.7%. however, the report indicates that much of that decline is a result of alberta residents increasingly in favour of the conservatives, led by stephen harper. given alberta's seat apportionment in parliament, conservative gains on their established plurality there are not enough to have a major effect on the seat totals. although the green party has announced they will be running members in every riding, their results were not reported by pollara.

in its analysis of the results, pollara commented that "<nowiki>[t]</nowiki>he electorate has rarely been so polarized as in this election. if only rural canadians were voting, we would have a majority conservative government. if only urban canadians were voting, we would have a minority liberal government. women would elect a liberal majority, while men would select a conservative minority. young canadians, 18-24, would easily elect an ndp majority". pollara also indicated that the bloc quebecois would win a clear majority among voters in quebec.

pollara conducted the study by telephone and polled 1208 people. only those who indicated they were very likely to vote were asked what party they would likely vote for. 708 respondents were asked their potential endorsement and the poll is accurate to 3.7% plus or minus.

canadians are scheduled to vote january 23, 2006. this early election stemmed from the ruling liberal party government's loss in a motion of no confidence. the liberal government has faced strong opposition from the ndp, conservatives and bloc quebecois as a result of an embarrassing sponsorship scandal. 



poll shows preval with clear lead, but ineligible candidate simeus could have presented a challenge

an opinion poll taken in haiti from november 6 through 16th shows that former president rene preval leads the race of likely presidential candidates with 30% of those polled. however disqualified candidate dumarsais simeus received 34% of those polled, signalling that if simeus were declared eligible it could be a tight race between those frontrunners. simeus was declared ineligible in september due to his dual citizenship with haiti and the united states. in december the haitian supreme court ruled for a second time that simeus is eligible under the haitian constitution. however the electoral council said that due to the ballots already being printed, simeus could not be added in this election cycle. it should be noted that the poll was taken by a political organization called the democracy group, a political consulting firm hired by the national organization for the advancement of haitians, a group for the restoration of democracy in haiti to which simeus is a member of. however a partner of the polling firm, shawnta watson walcott, says that simeus had nothing to do with the polling procedures and was not involved in any other way.

the poll also showed that among eligible candidates, charles-henry baker received 7%, marc bazin received 5%, and evans paul received 5%. also on the poll was the question of whether simeus should appear on the ballot, to which 54% said that he should. when questioned with whom they trust most to lead the country, 31% said that preval is that person. the polling is said to have a margin of error of 3.7% plus or minus with 703 haitian voters questioned.




early returns in iraqi elections

the independent electoral commission of iraq (ieci) reported uncertified early returns in the iraqi legislative election. the preliminary numbers indicate that religious parties have done well, winning up 80 percent of the vote in some provinces. in baghdad province, the shia united iraqi alliance leads with 58% of the vote. the united alliance had received 1,398,778 votes, followed by the sunni arab iraqi accordance front with 454,107 votes, and the iraqi national list ticket of iyad allawi, the former prime minister, with 330,082 votes. 

in the kurdish dominated northern provinces of w:dohuk, w:erbil, and w:sulaymaniyah, the kurdistan coalition list had received between 87% and 95% of votes cast. in the southern province of basrah the shia united iraqi alliance held a commanding lead with 615,255 votes. allawi's group was in second place with 87,538 votes, while the iraqi accordance front trailed with 37,098. 

according to the ieci, these preliminary results are subject to the adjudication of complaints by the ieci board of commissioners. following the adjudication of complaints, only results certified by the ieci board of commissioners will be considered as final. election officials are investigating more than 1,000 complaints about irregularities, 20 of them considered serious. final results will not be released until early january. abdul husain hindawi, the head of the ieci dismissed calls for a re-vote by adnan al-dulaimi, one of the leaders of the national concord front coalition.


mayor under investigation in san jose, ca, usa for spending without consent

san jose, california mayor ron gonzales is being investigated by the santa clara county district attorney's office. gonzales is accused of secretly agreeing to pay $11 million in city funds to waste disposal company norcal waste systems, without notice or approval by the city council. the scandal has already resulted in an independent investigation, civil grand jury proceedings, gonzales's censure by the council, and council members calling for his resignation or removal from office.

in a statement responding to the da's investigation, gonzales announced he has hired allen ruby, a high-profile silicon valley attorney, to represent him in this matter. ruby has previously represented the national football league in lawsuits against oakland raiders owner al davis. gonzales's statement also supported the decision of the da to conduct further investigations into the city's contract.



two trains collide near rome

two trains have collided at roccasecca, 120km south of rome in the frosinone province of italy.

initial reports claimed 30 injured, with people trapped in the wreckage. a bbc report however suggested there could be at least 40 injured. two people have been reported missing since the collision occurred, possibly being the two drivers of the trains. one person was reported killed.

the incident is already under investigation by the italian authorities and the italian state railway operator, trenitalia. as yet the reasons for the collison are unclear.

relief efforts are being made difficult by the dark and cold weather.

the two trains were travelling on the same line, in the same direction, with different destinations. the first one (regional train number 3361) departed from the roma termini station, in rome at 13:47 and was a local service to cassino, stopping at the major stations along the route. the scheduled time of arrival was 15:38. the second train (inter-regional 2361) also left from the rome terminus, at 14:15, and was heading in the same direction, with a final destination of campobasso. the scheduled time of arrival was 17:27, and the first stop first stop was at cassino, scheduled at 15:42.

around 15:00 the first train had stopped at the station of roccasecca, and was just to restart its journey, when the second train came at high speed on the same rail, slamming into the back of it. the locomotive of the second train was pushed over the first train and landed on the last carriage of that train. the injured were taken to local hospitals for treatment.

a similar incident recently happened in southern poland.

the train service has been suspended over the line. long distance trains are reroutered on an alternative line (the one which pass through formia, villa literna e caserta

it has been alleged that the second train passed a red signal. however no evidence about that has been collected to support this at present. an operator of the railway stated that the signal should have been red, but what he has said came from what he saw on the control panel inside the station, he did not see the colour of the signals. the two train drivers of the second train said that they did not see red signals, but only green signals. it was alleged that the train has been misrouted. actually if the second train had to pass the station without stopping and overtaking the first train it seems resonable that it would pass on a different track. hovewer the railway authority has confirmed that there has been no error in this sense, because both trains were scheduled on the platform 2.

several union representatives of the railways employed claim the security system on most of the italian railways is not updated.
the line was not serviced by an advanced security system to automatically help the driver. works to implement a more modern security system were just made on the line and the new system would be ready in just some days. nevertheless even if the line were equipped by a modern security system, it would be of no help in this case. the locomotive of the second train was a very old locomotive, a diesel locomotive of type 668, with no equipment to dialog with modern security system.

the inauguration of the new "high speed" line between rome and naples was in program just for the day after the crash. the inauguration have been delayed.

the official number of the casualties has risen to 69, and the number of the fatalities has risen to 1 (one of the injured, antonio vallillo, has passed away on december 22).



iranian baha'i dies in jail

the baha'i international community has claimed that a baha'i has died in mysterious circumstances in jail in yazd, iran.

dhabihu'llah mahrami was arrested in 1995 and convicted by an iranian court of "apostasy" - converting from islam to another religion. he was sentenced to death, but following protests from the international community the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1999.

mahrami was a lifelong baha'i, who was fired from his civil service job after the iranian revolution in 1979 on grounds of his religion. an article later appeared in a local newspaper stating he had converted to islam, but mahrami claimed this had been written by colleague and he had always remained a baha'i. after he had repeated this publicly, he was arrested and charged with apostasy. iranian authorities later claimed he was jailed for spying for israel, but this was contradicted by the court documents.

the baha'i community claims that mahrami had no known health concerns at the time of his death, but had been forced to do arduous labour in prison and had received death threats. they say they hold the iranian authorities responsible for his death and his only crime was belief in his religion.

they claim the baha'i community in iran has suffered an increase in persecution this year, with 59 baha'is arrested so far.



business brief for december 21, 2005

the producer price index for finished goods declined 0.7% in november. the index rose 0.7% in october and rose 1.9% in september. the drop in price for finished goods is due to energy prices,
which fell by 4% percent. the index is seasonally adjusted.

the five patents in the lawsuit between ntp and research in motion, the seller of blackberry may be struck down. both companies said that the us patent office will reject the five patents held by ntp. the final rulings are expected to come by mid-february.

china has raised its gdp estimate after a year long survey. china has outplaced italy becoming taking sixth largest economy in the world. world economists now calculate that china's economy will be larger than the economy of the united states, the current largest economy. economists also predict that china will pass france and the uk by the end of 2006. service industries such as telecommunications, retailing, and real estate accounted for 93% of the revision. economists also say that this means that china's growth is more sustanable than previously thought which means pressure will mount on china on other issues including its currency valuation and trade negotiations.


posted deadlines for christmas delivery

in the united states of america and other parts of the word, as christmas and the holidays draw near, shippers have released information on shipping deadlines. remember to always clearly label and address your holiday packages.

fedex international economy

this is the last day to ship to mexico from the us.

deadline to ship using priority mailR service

second day delivery

fedex priority overnight<br>
fedex standard overnight<br>
fedex international priority<br>

this is the last day to ship to canada and puerto rico from the us.

next day delivery

special delivery

ems courier/swiftpost

deadline to ship using express mailR service

express service

fedex website<br>
dhl website<br>
royal mail website<br>
an post website<br>
us post office website<br>
weihnachtspackchen rechtzeitig verschicken


australian on death row in vietnam for smuggling heroin

an australian man arrested last december near the cambodian border in vietnam, trinh huu, has been sentenced to death by a vietnamese people's court for smuggling 2kg of heroin. amnesty international has urged the australian federal government to do everything it can to help the man. the australian department of foreign affairs has said that trinh was receiving consular assistance, but that it was too early to negotiate for clemency as his case is still subject to appeal. the government has reiterated its long standing opposition to the death penalty. 


australia to continue burning indonesian boats

indonesian fisheries minister freddy numberi has asked the australian government to stop burning indonesian boats found fishing illegally in australian waters. his australian counterpart, senator ian macdonald, has said that the practice will continue. "the law is that we are required to offer the boats back on payment of a bond somewhere between $4,000 and $10,000, and if the owners don't pay that in 28 days then the boat's forfeited to the australian government," he said. "we have no use for them and we destroy them and we'll continue to do that." 

the boat owners, who often come from poor backgrounds, generally can't afford to pay and are then deported. while waiting for a decision one fisherman has died . under a 1974 agreement with australia, traditional indonesian fishermen are permitted to take fish within a 12 nautical mile radius of ashmore reef, cartier island, scott reef, seringapatam reef and browse island. often the fishermen caught are traditional fishermen who navigate by the sun, stars and with the wind, so with no visible borders, they often mistakenly fish in illegal waters.

some fishermen are professionally profiteering on catching sharks for their valuable fins while throwing away the rest of the sharks body. there is even confusion as to who could be defined as a "traditional fisherman" and who is just profiteering illegally. fisherman who persist and get caught more than once can end up in detention. 


travel warnings issued for sydney

following the racial violence which occurred in sydney last week britain, canada and indonesia have issued travel warnings for their nationals in or wishing to travel to sydney. the british warning cites recent "sporadic outbreaks of racially motivated violence in cronulla, maroubra, brighton-le-sands" and "areas of south-west sydney". british nationals are advised to "monitor the situation and exercise caution".


work choices fair pay chief heavily criticised

professor ian harper the government appointed fair pay chief has come under heavy criticism this week from the labour groups and the federal opposition. 

professor harper was a non-executive director of the australian derivatives exchange (adx) when it was put under administration in march 28, 2001. the company went broke owing workers more than $700,000. in the process adx breached the corporations law by failing to maintain required cash reserves , although the company eventually gave workers their w:entitlements.

workplace relations minister kevin andrews appointed professor harper in october, mr andrews spokesman defended the appointment saying the government was aware of the economist's history with the company and said in relation professor harper role in adx ’s demise: 
"there has been absolutely no wrongdoing," 
"the government was made aware by prof harper, and also by doing a check ourselves, of the company going into administration.”
"we believe that prof harper is an eminently qualified person to head up the australian fair pay commission."

wayne swan the oppositions treasury, who has attacked the government over the robert gerards appointment to the reserve bank affair,spokesman has said there were serious questions to answer about prof harper's appointment.
"there is a pattern of behaviour here and a stench that surrounds the howard government,".
"this is a government whose actions and appointments are blinded by extreme ideology." mr swan said commenting on the recent history of important government appointments. 

sharan burrow the president of the actu has told abc radio that the government must better scrutinize mr harper’s business behaviour. "how on earth can they expect australians to have any faith in their so-called fair pay commission if the very head they've appointed, another government mate, is under a cloud," 




security is important for potential presidents in haiti

in a debate that took place sunday, sponsored by the u.s. embassy, two potential presidents cited security as an important priority for haiti after the presidential election. they referred to the presidential election as the "restoring of democracy", although the role of the usa in terminating the previous democratic period is disputed, in particular because united states marines and other security personnel escorted and flew the previous democratically elected jean-bertrand aristide out of haiti in circumstances which aristide refers to as "kidnapping". one candidate, charles henri baker stated that "economic development will never come to this country without security," alluding to both the economic situation on the island, where growth has been minimal in the last couple of years, and the security situation involving some areas of the country and even areas of the capitol as not being under police control.

baker added that if elected he planned to quadruple the police force and reinstate the army. the army had been dismantled, with wide popular support, by aristide, because of its massive and systematic human rights violations. baker's goal is to have the police force up to 20,000 officers. another candidate, evans paul agreed saying that "the priority is to create the conditions of economic growth," and pledging to bring inflation down from the 22% in 2004 down to below 10%.


nrma stands by &quot;unsafe&quot; smash repair system

nrma, one of australia's largest insurers, has come under scrutiny following the release of a scathing report into its online smash repairs system.

the report by the new south wales government's staysafe committee found that nrma's online repair tendering system was "unsafe". nrma has said it has no intention of suspending the system despite the findings.

the report, which was released yesterday found that "[the] system of allocating damaged motor vehicles to smash repairers without the repairers physically inspecting the damaged vehicle before quoting for work ... is an unsafe system in its current form". according to committee member and port stephens mp john bartlett the vehicles were "being repaired to the standard of a brick and the crumple zones at the front and rear no longer worked and all the impact was being felt in the cabin".

according to the report "the system would lead to cost cutting and unsafe repair practices, with the quality of repairs lowered by encouraging smash repairers to take short cuts". 

according to nrma, only minor "cosmetic" repairs are put through the system - however often there can be further damage which is only evident after a complete inspection. the nrma system simply places photographs of the vehicles on its website where approved smash repairers bid to carry out repairs.

david brown, head of claims and assessments at nrma, said this of the report: "[w]e totally reject the findings of the report, in fact we find the report's fundamentally flawed with no evidence of safety issues, and [it] has been prepared without seeing the system first-hand". he further added that the system would not be scrapped.

 


indian ocean tsunami, one year after

one year on from the , the world's grief and compassion returned to the tsunami-battered coastlines of the indian ocean, where at least 216 000 people lost their lives. under a clear sky and before a gentle sea, the world commemorated those lost their lives, in one of the worst natural disasters that the modern world has experienced.
since the , patchy progress has been made on the return to a normal life for those who lived through the experience. efforts to implement a warning system similar to that coordinated by the in have past a number of significant milestones. tourist resorts in many places have been rebuilt, and many visiting them at this time do so as a form of remembrance. yet still there remain those who may never recover from the tragic events of one year ago. some $13 billion was pledged to relief and recovery efforts, of which 75 percent has already been secured.

in one of the first ceremonies, joined in a moment of silence at the located in a coastal suburb flattened by the disaster. yudhoyono said that "was under the same blue sky, exactly one year ago, that mother earth unleashed her most destructive power upon us, the assault began with a massive earthquake but ... that was only a prelude to the horrific catastrophe to come." 

in a live video address said "the toughest time after last year's devastating tsunami may be yet to come, it was so brutal, so quick, so extensive that we are still struggling to fully comprehend it."

many of the survivors of the tsunami who live in the andaman and nicobar islands have yet to see significant benefits from international relief efforts. over 10,000 families are having to come to terms with the policies of their government. whilst local people would be happy to continue with traditional wood and bamboo materials, disputes see the government trying to impose higher standards.

in , the anniversary of the massive wave sees tourists returning and reconstruction of resorts. however, not all is so positive. many who lost loved ones suffered from , and whilst 75% of those suffering are said to be recovered, those who still suffer may need life-long psychiatric help. in , the hardest hit part of thailand, there are around 300 people in that category, their symptoms including a deep-seated fear of the sea. binge drinking has also become a problem among many who lost everything, including family, when the disaster struck.

in an attempt to focus on a recovery from the trauma inflicted on the children of thailand, concerned parties have published a number of children's books aimed at rehabilitating. sponsored by the canadian embassy, "the day the tsunami came" tells the tale of a boy who loses his father when the wave hit his fishing village in phanag-nga province. its aim is to spread the message to those affected that they are not alone. apart from publication in thai and english, the book will be available in swedish, dutch, indonesian and singhalese.

measures to prevent a recurrence of the massive casualties have been implemented in the year following the tsunami. earlier this month thailand's tsunami early warning system passed its first official test. national disaster warning centre director plodprasop suraswadi stated, "thailand is the first country in the region to successfully install a comprehensive tsunami early warning system. i believe the system can, from now on, save lives and assets of thais and international tourists alike". the centre is due to be expanded in the coming year to cover "natural disasters [such] as severe floods, forest fires and even air pollution." implementation of the tsunami warning system has not all gone according to plan. earlier in the month a false alarm caused by a technical error panicked tourists and local residents in the six provinces hit by the disaster, , phang-nga , , and .

some villagers refused to take part saying the rites were expensive, inappropriate, events designed to attract tourists and showcase the government.

across europe; hundreds joined in commemorating those who died. in , which suffered the highest loss of life for any country outside of asia, official ceremonies were held, with more swedes attended ceremonies in thailand.



australian states to launch high court battle against ir reforms

after months of threats from the states to take the government of australia to the over its work choices act, new south wales has formally lodged a writ with the high court. other states have indicated that they will follow the new south wales government's lead.

the 30-page statement of claim lodged by nsw industrial relations minister john della bosca and solicitor-general michael sexton claims that the work choices act is unconstitutional as the act extends the commonwealth's powers beyond what the has given them. the government has argued that they have such powers under the corporations provision of the constitution. mr della bosca argues that the corporations provision is there to protect individuals from corporations.

mr sexton said "the heart of the commonwealth legislation is its reliance on the corporations power, and the question is whether that is valid in these circumstances. in other words, whether it's possible to legislate in effect about industrial relations simply because the employer is a trading or financial corporation".

the howard government's plan effectively collapses the state's industrial relations systems, which differ greatly from the new system.



u.s. rep. conyers raises bush censure issue

us representative (-) has brought three resolutions to the house which could begin a process of president bush and vice president cheney, and begin an investigation. 

the first of the three resolutions, h.res.635, would create a select committee to investigate the administration's intent to go to war before congressional authorization, manipulation of pre-war intelligence, encouraging and countenancing torture, retaliating against critics, and to make recommendations regarding grounds for possible impeachment. 

the second, h.res.636, calls for censuring president george w. bush for failing to respond to requests for information concerning allegations that he and others in his administration misled congress and the american people regarding the decision to go to war in , misstated and manipulated intelligence information regarding the justification for the war, countenanced torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of persons in iraq, and permitted inappropriate retaliation against critics of his administration, for failing to adequately account for specific misstatements he made regarding the war, and for failing to comply with executive order 12958.

the third, h.res.637, calls for censuring vice president richard b. cheney for reasons similar to those outlined in h.res.636.

rep. conyers is the sole sponsor of all three resolutions, but rep. (-) has joined conyers in calling for an investigation of president bush's handling of pre-war intelligence. lewis released a statement monday 12/19/05 using strong language to condemn the president. "in my opinion, the president has violated the law, and the house and senate must pursue their inquiries into this illegal program."


40 alleged drunken santas accused of running amok

the conduct by a group of 'santas' making an unclear statement last saturday is not appreciated in the business district of , new zealand. the event, organized in the discussion forum of an online skateboard magazine, caused big media publicity.
alex dyer, spokesman for the group, stated that in auckland is part of a worldwide phenomenon. it is disputed if santarchy is a protest against the commercialization of christmas or not.

auckland central police spokesperson noreen hegarty said to the press that the rampage began in the early part of the afternoon when men wearing ill-fitting santa costumes threw beer bottles and urinated on cars from an overpass, then rushed through a central city park, overturning garbage bins, throwing bottles at passing cars and spraying graffiti on office buildings.

"they came in, said 'merry christmas' and then helped themselves," said a convenience store staff member changa manakynda, according to local newspapers.

one writer using the pseudonym "'le_signage' on the santarchy!" (or also known as the "santacon") website commented, "... after all, this is what christmas is really about… mindless vandalism and petty theft." 

another writer who posted under the pseudonym "santy claus" said of the media coverage,
"there was some major misreporting and chinese whispers. breaking bottles and urinating under a bridge, became throwing rocks at buses and urinating on cars from an overpass. the ‘organisers’ as they were, saw little in the way of crime other than one santa attempting to board a foreign vessel by scaling 20 metres along a rope 60 feet in the air. the difficulty and motor skills involved in this task alone should be a defense in itself of being 'drunk' and 'disorderly'."

due to reputation for integrity and his strict media policy, his sparse communication is mostly one-way: receiving lists from children with wishes for christmas. it is difficult to get his comment about new zealands skateboard interested 'santas'.

in 1994, the staged the world's very first in san francisco. influenced by the movement discordianism, and other subversive art currents.



cuban talk show accuses u.s. diplomat of helping anti-government groups

on a state run talk show in cuba, they dedicated 90 minutes to an attack on u.s. diplomat michael parmly. they accused him, among other things, of "having frequent contacts with his mercenaries, guiding them, supplying them and exhibiting them to the press," according to host randy alonso.

this is sparked by parmly, according to the associated press, "after he met with dissidents and charged that some communist supporters acted like nazi "brown shirts" or ku klux klan members." parmly is accused of being part of a plan in the united states to spark a rebellion with dissidents and/or to find justification to invade the nation. at a december 10 gathering to celebrate human rights day parmly gave a speech saying, "the cuban regime does not represent the people, nor does it have any interest in bettering their lives," and "rather, the regime is obsessed with self-preservation."

parmly replaced james cason whose position is blamed by cuban officials for the imprisonment of 75 dissidents with whom cason had contact. the talk show features journalists and government officials who took turns discussing parmly's actions in cuba calling the diplomats, according to one journalist arlene rodriguez, "they are the same pig with different suits," and "the pig is bush's policy and they are the suits."


greenpeace activists clash with japanese whaling fleet in southern ocean

the environmental activist group greenpeace has attempted to disrupt japan's southern ocean "scientific" whaling fleet. after searching for the whaling fleet for nearly a month, the greenpeace ships, my esperanza and my arctic sunrise, are floating alongside the japanese mothership in australia's antarctic territorial waters, directly south of tasmania.

the japanese whaling fleet has an expected catch of over 900 minke whales ? more than double its previous catch. the fleet - owned by kyodo senpaku and part-owned by nissui, japan's second-largest marine products firm - is also targeting endangered fin whales for what they claim is a scientific program. fin whales are the second largest creatures on earth.

greenpeace say they have asked the whalers to stop whaling immediately and return to japan, but have received no response from the vessels. in inflatables carrying banners which read "defend the whales" and "stop the whaling," crew from the two ships declared their intention to stop the hunt. 

leader of the greenpeace expedition, shane rattenbury said their eight small boats have begun to "interfere" with the whaling process. 

"we positioned our two ships to the stern of the japanese mother ship in order to prevent the whale being transferred on to the ship and we were successful in stopping that process for about 45-minutes," said mr rattenbury, describing a capture boat ramming the greenpeace ship in an attempt to push it clear. 

he said the japanese boat fought back with water cannons and one of several greenpeace inflatables capsized in the wash. all crew were retrieved without injury. 

"we're going to do everything we can over the coming weeks to interfere with the whaling process, and stop the whales being killed," he said, "our small boats will be putting themselves between the harpoon and the whale. 

in a radio call to the whaling vessels, from the bridge of the arctic sunrise, yuko hirono, of greenpeace japan called upon the whalers to stop killing whales "and leave the internationally recognised southern ocean whale sanctuary." japan's scientific whaling has been the subject of repeated criticism by the international whaling commission. 

the japanese institute of cetacean research, claim the amount of scientific data gathered by japan's research program (jarpaii) is extensive and that japan's whale research programs are conducted in accordance with the international convention for the regulation of whaling. the institute of cetacean research say their research does not involve illegal whaling.

greenpeace say over the next 2 years, 40 more fin whales will be added to the annual kill, along with 50 humpback whales. 

"this whale hunt is unnecessary, unjustified, and unwanted," said rattenbury. "once the whales have been measured and weighed by the 'scientists' the butchers get to work and the whales are cut up and boxed for market. this is all about money and not science."

the area in which the japanese fleet is hunting has been designated as the antarctic whale sanctuary, in an effort to allow whale populations to recover after stocks were depleted during the commercial whaling of the last century. 

seventy crew and campaigners from 19 countries are on board the two greenpeace vessels, including the uk, netherlands, canada, australia, ghana, russia, norway, denmark, usa, france, italy, japan, ireland, india, new zealand, spain, sweden, austria and argentina.

japan's whaling program is expected to kill nearly one thousand whales this season.




united states 2003 national adult literacy survey released

preliminary results from the national assessment of adult literacy (naal), released 15 december 2005 by the , indicate gains and losses in among minority adults between 1992 and 2003.

the nationally representative study among us adults age 16 and older found the over-all average prose and document literacy remained relatively unchanged, but quantitative literacy improved 8 points (on a scale of 500.) results among minorities were mixed, with white and asian/pacific islander minorities scoring significantly higher than hispanic or black ethnicities; hispanic subjects in particular had sharp decreases in prose and document literacy (-9% and -8%, respectively) and quantitative illiteracy remained unchanged with 50% of subjects scoring at less than basic literacy levels. 

the national assessment of adult literacy is the most comprehensive measure of adult literacy in the usa. the 2003 naal, with 19 000 participants, was conducted by the , a non-governmental organization which charges for its services. 

the survey measured three types of literacy:


in each of these types of literacy the study categorized the subjects into four classes: below basic literacy, basic literacy, intermediate literacy, and proficient literacy. the break down of literacy was performed across a range of variables, such as ethnicity, gender, age, first language, education, and employment status.

some of the results were surprising, while others reflect continuing trends in the population.

high proficiency in reading continued to decline between 1992 and 2003 among white subjects, as well as among hispanics?both down 1%?while black subjects maintained their level and asian/pacific islanders increased 3%. across the ethnicities education level was a greater indicator of reading proficiently with 4.5% of high (secondary) school graduates reading at this level compared with 29% of college graduates and 36% of subjects in graduate studies/degrees.

an important difference between the 2003 survey and the 1992 survey was both in the make-up of the sample and in the inclusion of subjects who were unable to communicate in english or spanish with the researchers. by ethnicity, the percentage of black participants remained largely the same while the percentage of hispanic and asian/pacific islanders grew significantly and the percentage of white participants was reduced. the instructions were made available in english and spanish, although all testing material was exclusively in english, and 3% of participants who were unable to answer basic literacy screening questions took an alternative assessment. even so, 2% of the subject group were unable to communicate with researchers at all in english or spanish (this was down from 3% in 1992.)

according to the national centre for education statistics, the tests are carried out to measure america's progress in the area of adult literacy. the results are made available to the general public, but are of most interest to researchers, practitioners and policymakers.



san jose, ca, usa, city manager resigns amid norcal investigation

del borgsdorf, the city manager of san jose, california announced his resignation on tuesday, citing "personal reasons" and the "political environment" for his decision. while he denies it is was a factor in his decision, the resignation comes one day after santa clara county district attorney george kennedy announced his office will investigate the city's contract with norcal waste systems for possible criminal prosecution. borgsdorf has been criticized by the city council for not informing the council of the $11 million rate hike promised to the company by mayor ron gonzales.

borgsdorf's resignation follows the resignation of other city officials; stephen haase, the city's planning director, and john bjurman, the city's director of information technology, resigned earlier in the week. in addition, the city council formally censured mayor gonzales last week, and asked for formal apologies from borgsdorf and city attorney richard doyle over the norcal contract. in addition to the waste removal scandal, the city government has been criticized for a no-bid contract with cisco systems to provide it equipment in the new city hall; the cisco deal cost city taxpayers over $3 million in equipment costs and construction delays. 



first charges laid over riot text messages

strike force enoggera, the group of detectives poised with investigating the recent racially motivated violence across sydney, has laid its first charges against a man alleged to have forwarded sms messages encouraging further violence.

new south wales police allege that a 33 year-old matraville man, who was arrested at 9:30pm wednesday, forwarded "offensive and inciting" text messages following the violence at cronulla. the man was taken to maroubra police station where he was charged with using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence and a count of print, publish to incite or urge the commission of a crime. he was granted bail and is to appear in waverley local court on 1 february 2006.

it is alleged that the messages were to incite people to turn out at cronulla on december 18, 2005 for another round of violence.

strike force enoggera commander dennis bray has indicated that more arrests will follow. he also said that arrests will not only be made for organising the events but for the "more serious criminal offences" committed during the violence.

the investigations into the violence have been extended further with the australian survelliance and intelligence organisation (asio) conducting their own investigation into groups thought to have used the violence to promote their own political agenda.



japanese whaling ship to dock in hobart

a japanese whaling ship, the keiko maru, will be docking in hobart on december 24 to transfer a sick crew member to hospital. the crew member is suffering from appendicitis.

greenpeace has called on the australian government to prevent the ship from refuelling. the government stated it is opposed to commercial whaling, but that taking such action would be "counter-productive". greenpeace ceo steve shallhorn said that it is an opportunity for australia to demonstrate its opposition. "the australian government does have control over port authorities and we believe it does have the possibility to refuse to allow the ship to be refuelled," he said.

federal environment minister ian campbell supports the intention of greenpeace activists, but believes that such a protest would not be helpful. "in some respects it can be counter-productive although i share the passion, i share their objective, we share of the objective of trying to stop whaling," he said.

japan claims that its whaling activities in the southern ocean are for scientific purposes, and reject suggestions that the catch is commercial. "anti-whaling proponents have tried to label the research catch as commercial whaling in disguise, but this is a tactic to discredit the research effort," says the question and answer section of the japan whaling association website.



evo morales hoaxed by a spanish church-owned radio station

evo morales has fallen foul of a “bad taste joke” by a catholic radio station joker who posed as the spanish prime minister jose rodriguez zapatero. the voice imitator telephoned evo morales to congratulate him for “"joining the cuban-venezuelan axis"” and asked him to make spain his first international destination as president of bolivia.

the journalist involved in the hoax is said to be an anti-socialist activist very critical of fidel castro, hugo chavez and the government of rodriguez zapatero.

erick torrico, chairman of the area of communication and journalism for the andean university simon bolivar has rejected the action calling it “"an offense that goes beyond the person"” […] “"it is an insult against the people of bolivia, a major blunder which is also an attack against the dignity of the spanish prime minister"” and demanded a “"clear explanation from the government of madrid about the incident that seems aimed to undermine the credibility of the president elect"”.

raul penaranda, chairman of the weekly magazine “epoca” said that the joke was “"wrong, unethical, ill intentioned and irresponsible"”

rodriguez zapatero later spoke to morales to transmit to him a genuine message of congratulations from the spanish government and stated that the call made by the imitator was “unacceptable.”

the spanish government backed up the formal complaint made by the bolivian embassy in madrid to the director of the catholic church as they considered that the call was an ""offense to the bolivian people"".



technology brief for december 22, 2005

seagate technology has said it intends to buy rival company maxtor for $1.9 billion. both companies produce hard drives. the deal, priced at 60% of maxtor's closing share price, is intended to acquire maxtor's customers, not its technology.

seagate, which also makes drives for microsoft's xbox 360, will have over 40% of the hard drive market share. the scotts valley, california, based seagate had 30% of the hard drive market.

provided the deal makes it past regulatory committees, maxtor shareholders will receive .37 of a share of seagate common stock for every 1 share of the milpitas based company.


australian woman wins right to have dead husband's baby

an australian woman has won the right to be impregnated with sperm from her husband, who died seven years ago. the sperm was taken from the man shortly after his death in a car accident, and frozen. the victorian civil and administrative tribunal ruled that the woman should be permitted to take the sperm to new south wales. posthumous conception is illegal in victoria, where the sperm is currently stored. 


bird flu resistant to anti-viral drug

in an article in the december 2005 issue of the "new england journal of medicine" (nejm), researchers from oxford university report that two recent avian flu fatalities in vietnam were patients who had been treated with the anti-viral medication "tamiflu". there has been one other reported case of tamiflu-resistance in vietnam. 

the nejm report documents that during treatment of h5n1-infected patients with tamiflu there can be selection for mutant virus variants that are tamiflu-resistant. this is also been observed with other more common flu virus types. the chances of tamiflu-resistance arising during h5n1 infections might be enhanced by two properties of h5n1; its ability to replicate rapidly and its ability to infect the gastrointestinal tract. in such cases, higher doses of tamiflu and longer course of treatment may be needed. combination treatment with other anti-viral drugs is a common strategy for dealing with viruses that become drug resistant. 



destroyed kelso high school to be rebuilt

the future direction of kelso high school has become a little clearer following an announcement by the new south wales government that the school will be rebuilt on it's former site as a year 7 to 12 secondary school.

the original school built in 1978 was destroyed by fire on august 18, 2005. the cause of the fire remains a mystery. following the fire, students were receiving lessons at a number of locations around bathurst, but have since returned to the kelso high school site where they are housed in demountable buildings on the school's oval. the ruins of the former school lay behind.

a report made following a series of community meetings into the replacement of the school earlier this month said that the community wished for kelso high school to be rebuilt at its former site as a secondary school. the report also said that the community wished for kelso and bathurst high schools to pool hsc resources by sharing subjects and allowing years 11 and 12 students to study across both campuses.

a number of models were proposed at the meetings. these included:

the proposal to rebuild kelso high school as a secondary school and share hsc resources with bathurst high school was made at the community meetings. under this system, both schools will have separate principals and identities with a college director co-ordinating hsc activities between the two campuses. if one school does not offer a subject the student is interested in they will be able to take that subject at the other campus. 


drug website surveys lsd users and culture

erowid, a website with the stated mission of "documenting the complex relationship between humans & psychoactives" has over the past few months been gathering data through a series of surveys about the drug lsd to present at the lsd symposium, scheduled for january 2006 in basel, switzerland.

the website, a popular resource of information about psychoactive plants and chemicals, recently posted its fifth survey, querying users about their age, the number of times they've taken lsd and how that would be affected if lsd was legal. past surveys have been longer and more thorough, asking users about the availability of the drug, positive and negative experiences, and if they've ever experienced lsd related "flashbacks". 

the lsd symposium website states that it will include a panel of over sixty experts from around the world discussing a wide range of topics regarding lsd. topics scheduled include, "the discovery of lsd-25", "appraisal of albert hofmann's life work" and "the history of drug policy" and several others.

lsd is a psychedelic drug known for its mind altering effects, including both visual and auditory hallucinations. lsd was first synthesized by albert hofmann in 1938. hofmann, a swiss chemist discovered the psychedelic effects of lsd on april 16, 1943 when he accidentally absorbed it in its liquid form through his finger tips. since then, it has been made illegal in most countries as a result of the united nations convention on psychotropic substances which requires all parties of the convention to criminalize it in their countries.

erowid, based in california, was created in october 1995, and is hailed by many as a reliable resource for information on drug and drug culture. the website includes information on legality issues, chemical information, user submitted experiences, positive and negative effects of individual drugs and other information.



us senate blocks alaska refuge drilling

by a narrow vote late in the evening on december 21st, 2005 the us senate blocked opening the nation's oil reserve in in alaska . this vote delivers a victory to environmentalists and denies the bush administration their top energy priority. senator (r-alaska) attached the drilling plan to a measure to fund ongoing military operations in iraq and afghanistan. however, the senate late last night agreed to pass the defense bill, without the drilling provision. 

two key republicans, lincoln d chafee (r-r.i.) and mike dewine (r-ohio), joined democrats in opposing the drilling. senator lieberman (d-conn) said yesterday that stevens was to blame for holding up money for the military. by including the drilling measure in the defense spending bill, it was hoped to twist the senators' arms into voting for both provisions together in the scramble to finish the important business before the senate's christmas break.


couples thrashed for sitting in a park in meerut, india

protests erupted on wednesday in meerut, north-east of new delhi, as scenes of female cops beating and pulling the hair of young couples in a local park were telecasted on news channels.

people crowded the streets to protest against the actions which the local police termed as law enforcement.

'operation majnu' as it was termed was aimed at breaking up frolicking couples at company gardens on monday afternoon. chief of police meerut said that the police entrusted to enforce a drive against obscenity had clearly gone overboard.

two policewomen have been suspended and an internal inquiry has been ordered. the two were named as inspector madhu malati and sub-inspector mamata gautam who were most active in the physical assault carried out on the women.

the targets of the assault were not satisfied. one of the women, aged 25, was taking a walk in the park with her brother when inspector madhu malati descended on her calling her a whore and beating her up. priyanka was kicked in the chest and slapped numerous times on her face just like dozens of other women who, after being beaten up were dragged to vehicles waiting to take them to the police station where their parents were called. they were later released after warnings.

students spilled onto the streets of meerut shouting "down with police dictatorship" and set fire to effigies of cops.

after the public humilation of being beaten up, abused and dragged to the police station to make statements, several couples did not make their way back home and are still reported to be missing.

members of parliament said this was the sign of a sick mind. news reports have quoted the meerut police range dig as admitting to extreme and excessive treament by the police in operation majnu carried out in the company gardens on monday.

one angry student protester said that this is a sign of hypocrisy and that india cannot be the country with the second largest population in the world if people sitting together in this country is such a sin.


australian academic study supports nuclear power

a group of melbourne scientists has released a study of the energy problems confronting australia in the future. the study endorses the use of nuclear energy and attacks some of the data used by anti-nuclear campaigners. 

the scientists from the university of melbourne say their research shows that the benefits of nuclear energy have been underestimated and concerns about nuclear waste overplayed. 

the six month study compared the environmental impact, health risks, economic effects and social implications of the use of fossil fuels, renewable energy sources such as wind and solar energy, and nuclear power.

according to the melbourne university, the investigation will significantly impact the nuclear debate in australia, with findings showing that hundreds of times more uranium could be available than was predicted in a widely quoted european study. 

associate professor martin sevior, of melbourne university's school of physics, claims the recent study bolsters the case for australia to invest more in nuclear energy. sevior says his research into nuclear waste disposal should help dispel many environmentalists' fears.

"one thing that's perhaps not always realised is that the amount of waste that comes out of a typical plant is around 30 tonnes a year, he said. "the amount of waste that comes out of a coal-fired power plant is around 1,000 tonnes a day." 

prof sevior says his study has exposed flaws in the european study into the limits of the uranium industry. "this previous research overestimated the energy costs and carbon emissions generated by the construction of nuclear power plants and for mining uranium," prof sevior said.

the australian conservation foundation's (acf) nuclear campaigner, dave sweeney, says the study appears flawed and does not provide a sound argument for the use of nuclear energy.

"it glances over some really key concerns of proliferation, key areas of reactor safety are not delved into too deeply and they have direct links to industry websites for further information," said mr sweeney. "i'm not sure it's altogether appropriate or altogether balanced to be referring people to the nuclear industry's own websites for further information on such matters as radioactive waste, nuclear weapons and nuclear reactor safety." 

the six-month study found australia has more uranium than was previously thought. "we have enough uranium in australia to power the country for thousands of years," said prof sevior.

friends of the earth nuclear campaigner dr jim green said nuclear power should never be considered as an energy source. he said greenhouse emissions saved by switching to nuclear power were only about 5 per cent of total emissions and could only be achieved if thousands of reactors were installed globally. 

dr green said an energy debate in australia was necessary, but it had to go beyond just the nuclear alternative. 


hiv vaccine trial ready to roll in thailand

with first world countries such as canada reluctant to engage in trials of a vaccine for hiv, thailand has completed recruitment of volunteers for phase iii of a clinical trial. over sixteen thousand selected volunteers from a pool of 65,000 will receive the experimental vaccine combination, alvac and aids vac.

the trial is concentrated in the provinces of chon buri and rayong and will be monitored over a period of three years to assess the effectiveness of the experimental vaccination.

in canada questions were raised regarding the safety of conducting wide-scale trials of a vaccine. it was strongly suspected that participants in a trial might be encouraged to engage in unsafe behaviour when, due to the double-blind nature of the clinical trial, they may have received a placebo in place of the vaccine.


station staff on the london tube to take industrial action over staffing levels

the national union of rail, maritime and transport workers (rmt) has called for industrial action on new year's eve over staffing levels on the london underground. union members voted more than five to one in favour of the strike.

the vote for industrial action is because of "back-door attempts to displace hundreds of safety-critical station staff under spurious cover," said bob crow, rmt general secretary, to the bbc. "the rmt will not accept any dilution of safety standards either for our members, or tube users and we hope that the travelling public will join us in calling on london underground to step back from the brink and start talking to us seriously."

following the vote, the rmt called for a 24-hour strike beginning at noon on new year's eve, and if necessary a second 24-hour action to begin 6:30 p.m. sunday, 8 january. transport for london announced a meeting with the 
rmt at acas(the advisory, conciliation, and arbitration service) after the results of the vote were announced.

the london underground responded to the move, pointing to the agreement made last year with the rmt which agreed to shorter working weeks so long as there is no additional cost to tube fare payers. "there are no staff cuts across the tube network," the spokesperson said.

"there can be no justification for the rmt now reneging on its agreement and trying to ruin new year's eve for thousands of londoners," london mayor ken livingstone said.



striking nyc transit workers will return to jobs

striking new york city transit workers will return to their jobs in 12-24 hours under an agreement reached today. while no final contract agreement has been reached, transit work will resume as negotiations continue. at 2:40 pm est, the twu board voted to end the strike. by 3:00 pm, the twu local 100 website had posted a notice to workers to return to work.

mediator richard curreri announced the union is "taking steps" to immediately restore transportation to the city. "we have requested the leadership of the twu to take the actions necessary to direct its membership to immediately return to work and they have agreed to take such actions," mr. curreri told reporters.

thirty-four thousand transport workers union local 100 members walked off the job december 20 after working months without a contract when negotiations broke down over disagreements concerning pensions, health benefits, and pay. agreement had nearly been reached, but just a few hours before a strike deadline, the metropolitan transport authority's chairman, peter s. kalikow, made an unexpected demand, requiring that all new transit workers increase the contribution to pensions from the present 2 percent of their wages to 6 percent, which upset the union members. roger toussaint, president of transport workers union local 100, stated "were it not for the pension piece we would not be on strike." and summed up the whole conflict as "a fight over dignity and respect on the job, a concept that is very alien to the mta. transit workers are tired of being underappreciated and disrespected."

the strike has affected an estimated 7 million commuters in the city over three days, which is about 21 million person-days in total. new york's 34,000 bus and subway workers are affected by the difficulty of their everyday working conditions and health standards for a total of about 10 million person-days per year.



calpine declares bankruptcy, cites natural gas prices

electrical power generator declared on tuesday. the san jose, california based company filed for bankruptcy protection in u.s. federal court, to facilitate debt restructuring and to allow for normal operations to continue. calpine has obtained secured debtor-in-possession financing from and totaling $2 billion. the company announced that some of its subsidiaries would also file for creditor protection under the . calpine and its subsidiaries operate natural gas and geothermal electricity generating plants in 21 u.s. states and 3 canadian provinces.

the recent rise in natural gas prices due to hurricanes rita and katrina has pushed calpine's cost significantly above the locked in selling price for its long-term contracts. calpine has asked the court to void eight long term contracts, including a 20-year contract entered into with the state of california's department of water resources and pacific gas and electric company in 2001.

the company received permission on december 21 from the federal bankruptcy court for the southern district of new york to use $500 million of its financing to continue operating and to keep paying its employees' salaries and benefits.


two australians charged after burning flag during riot

two australian men have been charged with entering a building with the intent of committing an indictable offence and malicious damage by fire, as a result of the 2005 sydney race riots. police have alleged that one of the men, a 17-year-old from hurstville, climbed a telegraph pole in brighton-le-sands and took the flag from the rsl club. with the assistance of the second man, a 24-year-old from penshurst, he set the flag alight. 

the man from hurstville will appear in bidura children's court, and the man from penshurst will appear in sutherland local court. 


former australian defence chief's son to be discharged from the army

private david cosgrove, 22, the son of celebrated former defence chief general peter cosgrove will be discharged from the army after going absent without official leave (awol) and breaching standing orders. 

david cosgrove was placed in holsworthy military prison in october, 2005 for up to 14 days after going awol from his singleton barracks. when released he is alleged to have breached "unit standing orders" and was administratively warned he was "unsuitable for service". it is believed that he will leave the army by march, 2006.

david cosgrove's indiscretions have upset the military at the senior level. senior army figures were furious with the australian newspaper for reporting the incident.

it is also thought to be an embarrassment for general cosgrove who led a much celebrated 40-year military career before retiring to become an executive at qantas.

it has also been learned that another of general cosgrove's sons, phillip, will be voluntarily leaving the army following service in iraq where he was injured.


new south wales road safety campaign begins

in an attempt to keep the number of deaths on nsw roads at a minimum police will target speeding, seatbelt, helmet and drunk driving offences. according to the new south wales roads and traffic authority, 495 people have died on nsw roads between january 1 and december 11. this figure will surely climb over the holiday period.

the rta has also begun double demerit points for speeding, seatbelt and helmet offences. the double demerit points will run for the same 11 day period as operation safe arrival. the minimum penalty for any double demerit offence is 6 points. provisional drivers need to be particularly mindful of these as p1 license holders (those who have had a license 12 months or less) can only incur 3 points. p2 license holders (those who have held a license for 12 to 36 months) have 6 and unrestricted license holders have 12.

according to the rta, 23,624 drivers in the 2003/4 holiday season were issued with fines carrying double demerits and 2,150 motorists had their licenses suspended due to speeding or exceeding their demerit point limit.

the rta introduced double demerits in 1997 in an attempt to force drivers to be more mindful of speeding, wearing seatbelts and motorcycle helmets. double demerit points are now introduced over each major holiday period when a large proportion of road-related deaths occur.

other jurisdictions in australia which have double demerit points over holiday periods are south australia, western australia, and the australian capital territory. 


eu threatens to fine microsoft for failing to open windows server

on thursday the european commission threatened to fine microsoft ?2 million per day if the corporation does not comply with a ruling made in march 2004, stating that microsoft must provide interoperability with its protocols and other competing services. microsoft has until january 25, 2006 to respond to the charges, and may also be fined for days after december 15, 2005 as well.

the european commission says microsoft has failed to comply with an order to supply competitors with "interoperability information" for the protocols implemented in windows server operating systems. these include those used to "deliver file
and print services and group and user administration services, including the windows
domain controller services, active directory services and group policy services" according to page 299 of the european commission's decision. 

microsoft argues that to do this breaches its intellectual property rights as it would be opening windows server up for cloning. it has previously appealed to the european court of first instance, a bid which failed and where microsoft was given until december 15, 2005 to comply with the original decision. microsoft has launched a second appeal attempt.

the decision in march 2004 also forced microsoft to provide a version of windows xp without the eponymous windows media player and to pay fines of ?497 million (us$586 million).


canadian conservatives vow to defend arctic sovereignty

the leader today made bold claims about the canadian region at a campaign stop in , "the single most important duty of the federal government is to protect and defend our national ." . the -hopeful stated, "there are new and disturbing reports of american passing though canadian waters without obtaining the permission of ?or even notifying ? the canadian government."

harper promised a significant increase in military presence in the canadian region, which has had notable soveriegnty disputes with the , , and .
"you don't defend national sovereignty with flags," harper said. "you need forces on the ground, ships in the sea, and proper surveillance."

among other promises, harper stated he would station three armed naval heavy ice breakers in the area of with 500 regular force personnel, recruit 500 more canadian rangers, and build a new army training center in the area of on the .
"as prime minister, i will make it clear to foreign governments ? including the united states ? that naval vessels traveling in canadian territorial waters will require the consent of the government of canada," harper stated.

the conservative party website states this "“canada first” northern strategy will increase surveillance, navy, army and air force presence".

the , the conservatives' most powerful rival in the election, quickly posted a rebuttal on their website. they claim stephen harpers stated defense budget of $5.3() billion over 5 years is not enough to afford the two polar icebreakers, which the liberal party claims will cost $3(cad) billion with the party estimating an upkeep of $150(cad) million per year. "where does mr. harper plan to find another $1 billion?" the party asked in their rebuttal.

the arctic may be an important issue in the future for canadians, as scientists expect the fabled northwest passage of the arctic to open up for year round shipping by 2050 as a result of . according to the online encyclopedia , trade routes from to the could save 4000 through the passage, as compared to the current routes through the .

canada last flexed its muscle in the arctic in 2004 in its most massive arctic exercise ever, with six hundred personnel from the three services (, , ) involved in a large exercise in the .

canadians are scheduled to go to the polls on january 23, 2006 in an early election as a result of a motion in parliament against the former ruling liberal party.



kaczy?ski takes the office of polish president

, conservative politician from poland, internationally controversial for having refused, as mayor of warsaw, to authorize the equality parade for gay rights on june 11, 2005 in warsaw, has taken the office of president in the country today, after swearing an oath before the (joined houses of sejm and senate).

for the first time since 1989 the former presidents of poland, and , have been invited to the swearing ceremony. kaczy?ski hasn't got the insignia of authority of the second republic of poland, as they were relayed to a museum by lech wa??sa, when he ended his term as the president of poland in 1995.

in his speech, kaczy?ski stated that poland needs a new constitution. its effect would be the end of the process of building up the new republic of poland, called "iv rzeczpospolita", according to the new president. kaczy?ski promised also that he will do everything that he is allowed to do to help lawmakers introduce essential political reforms.

kaczy?ski is closely related to the , led by his twin brother jaros?aw. for the last three years he was a mayor of . he's also professor of law at university of warsaw.



u.s. soldier may be charged in shooting of italian agent

on december 22, 2005 the special prosecutors of the roman magistrate's service announced that they were considering charging u.s. soldier mario lozano with manslaughter. 

lozano shot and killed major general nicola calipari during a disputed incident at bp 541, a blocking position for a mobile roadblock located behind a ninety-degree turn on the ramp that joined route vernon to route irish (the road between the heavily fortified green zone and the baghdad international airport). some international observers claim that if lozano is charged, relations between the italian government and the united states government will deteriorate, because the us government prefers to have immunity from criminal prosecution for its soldiers carrying out military actions around the world.


azeri passenger plane crashes

an azerbaijan passenger plane has crashed after taking off from the country's capital, baku, officials say. there was no immediate confirmation of casualties, but the plane is thought to have been carrying at least 18 people. the azerbaijan airlines (azal) aircraft was heading to aktau in kazakhstan, according to russian news sources.

the ria news agency said the plane took off at 2119 (1819 gmt) but disappeared from radar screens 20 minutes later as it flew along the caspian sea coast. it is reported to have come down near the village of kyurdakhany, about 15km (10 miles) from baku, ria said. an interior ministry official told the afp news agency that the plane had crashed with 23 people on board. 

the associated press news agency described the plane as an an-140 twin engine turboprop. a police spokesman, who gave his name as kadykov, told reuters news agency: "the plane has crashed, 23 people on board are dead. an operations centre was set up near the caspian coastline some 20km (13 miles) north of baku, ap reported. a doctor at a hospital in baku said that two bodies were recovered from the suspected crash site. baku and akmau are centres of the caspian sea oil industry.


new south wales alp loses support first time under premier iemma

the liberal/national party coalition has gained support in new south wales the latest newspoll says.

primary support for the coalition rose five points to 43 percent, while the alp's support fell four points to 34 percent. on a two-party preferred basis (where the minor parties are excluded from the polling) coalition support is at 52 percent.

the results are the lowest for the alp in twelve months and the first time the coalition has polled ahead of the alp since the departure of bob carr as premier. 

morris iemma remains the more popular choice for premier with 40 percent support to peter debnam's 18.

the results indicate voter backlash over a series of errors made by the iemma government. these include anger over secret dealings with the cross city tunnel, plans for a desalination plant, a sharp decline in public services and budget blunders.

the next state election is due to be held in 2007.


tolls may be needed for nsw pacific highway upgrade

in a joint statement friday by australian federal roads minister jim lloyd and his new south wales counterpart joe tripodi said that tolls were being considered to fast track upgrades of the pacific highway. over half of the highway between the f3 freeway terminus at beresfield on newcastle and the queensland border is still single carriageway.

despite the new england highway being the "national" highway from the f3 to brisbane, traffic along the pacific highway is almost three times heavier on most sections . by 2021, traffic on the pacific highway is expected to rise by 35 percent.

the new south wales roads and traffic authority estimates that to complete the dual carriageway "north coast motorway" (pacific highway upgrade) by 2016 would cost $au8 billion. since the major upgrades began in 1996, $au2.2 billion has been spent. around 40 to 50 people die on the pacific highway every year.

mr lloyd said "if there are sections of the pacific highway where you can get private sector involvement, get it built quickly, provide value for money for those who wish to use it and alternative routes for those who choose not to, then i think let's go for it". the proposal could introduce tolls on some sections of the highway with other sections (that are completely publically funded) remaining toll free.
the plans have drawn mixed results from transport groups. a spokesperson for the nrma, the largest motorist's organisation in nsw said that tolls should only be considered as a "last resort". he further added that if the only way the road could be upgraded was by use of tolls then the nrma would agree with conditions. he said that any toll should not exceed $au20.

tourism and transport lobby group ttf australia welcomed the move but warned that nsw north coast communities should not be disadvantaged through the introduction of a toll. managing director chris brown said "we don't expect north coast communities to pay 10 bucks to go and get a bottle of milk".



egypt court sentences opposition leader

egyptian opposition leader and former candidate in presidential election ayman nour has been sentenced today for 5 years imprisonment, as it was reported by both officials and nour's lawyer. according to the court, he and his liberal democratic party, ghad, falsified signatures required to register a political party in january 2005. both nour's punishment and his imprisonment have been condemned by the international community.

nour, who stood as a candidate in the recent presidential election, held on september 7 2005, claims that there was political pressure on the judgement and he'll take it to the court of cassation. the leader's lawyer, amir salim, said that the verdict would be annulled by the appeal court, as associated press reports.

groups of nour's supporters, organized mainly by his wife gameela ismail, protested against the decision and the style of government of current president hosni mubarak, shouting "down with mubarak, down with the regime."

ayman nour was arrested in january, 2005 and then imprisoned. he was released when the presidential campaign started.



bolivian president evo morales convinces eu to pay for study of coca

evo morales, newly elected president of bolivia, requested that the european union fund a study to track coca. the study will focus on what happens to the coca and how much of it makes its way into the drug trade. according to angel gutierrez, the eu has agreed and will donate us $499,800 for the study, but will not participate in its implementation. morales has requested similar studies in the past, prior to being elected.

morales himself owns a coca farm and his socialist movement party got its birth in the union of coca farmers. although the coca leaf is also used to make cocaine, morales and his union have fought attempts to eradicate growth of the crop. it is also used by indigenous in religious ceremonies and to chew (to fight fatigue).



haiti might have to postpone elections again

the first round of the presidential elections, currently scheduled for january 8, 2006, might have to be delayed, according to some members of the electoral council. this would mark the 4th time the presidential elections have been moved, and the 5th time for all elections.

the chairman of the council, max mathurin, expressed concern over political unrest that could occur if conditions were not adequate to ensure fair elections. he said, "if certain major technical problems are not solved, elections on jan. 8 could be a catastrophe." the problems related to the current possible postponement involve distribution of voter identification cards, a lack of poll centers, and recruitment of poll center workers. according to reuters, only 500,000 of the 3.5 million voter identification cards have been handed out and few of the 40,000 needed poll workers have been recruited.

rosemond pradel, secretary-general of the electoral council, told reporters that sometime between january 22 and january 29 would likely be the new dates of the elections are indeed rescheduled. however one council member, patrick fequiere, suggested that several months might be needed to guarantee fair elections. pradel blames the delays, in part, on the organization of american states (oas). he is quoted as saying, "our decision to set the january 8th deadline for the first round was based on oas' commitment that voting cards distribution would have been completed by december 25."

however the oas struck back in friday saying that "ninety per cent of the cards are already in the electoral centres, waiting for people to pick them up," and "our problem is that most voters have stopped coming to the centres," according to oas spokeperson louise brunet. denneth modeste, oas ambassador to haiti, says that people are not coming to the centres to pick up their cards because they don't believe the elections will take place as scheduled. she said that "the provisional electoral council should be the leading agency inciting people to collect their cards, instead of spreading doubts."

one presidential candidate, evans paul, complained about the problems saying "i've never seen elections so poorly organized," and "it's not acceptable that people have to struggle for hours in line to register, they have to do the same to get the voting cards, and now they have to walk six hours to reach a place to cast their ballot."

max mathurin says that they should know by next week whether or not the current date of january 8, 2006 is a realistic target for holding the first round of the presidential elections. juan gabriel valdes of the un's peacekeeping missions says that his people are completely ready for elections if they are to take place on january 8th.



bomb explodes in crowded sao paulo street

sixteen people were injured on friday when a homemade bomb exploded in a crowded sao paulo street in brazil. the blast took place on march 25 street where it was crowded with christmas shoppers. according to the police the bomb was left in a trash can. one police official patricia fernandes said, "apparently (the bomb) was an amateur device but we haven't completed the examination."

one woman remains hospitalized in serious condition. according to police the other victims did not suffer life-threatening injuries. the local media is saying that a pregnant woman and a 5 year old girl were also injured, but police did not confirm this.

the bombing is believed to be related to police raids on counterfeit dealers in the area. fernandes stated that "one line of investigation is that this was a reprisal for for ["sic"] police actions in the area."



u.s. taskforce encourages vote to decide puerto rico status

the u.s. task force on puerto rico's status has requested that the u.s. congress set a date for a plebiscite in puerto rico whereby the people would be able to decide if the commonwealth would like to change its status. 

the first vote would consist of a simple "yes" or "no" vote on changing the current commonwealth status. from there, if the vote went in favor of changing status, congress could then set another date for a vote on whether the people favor independence or statehood. co-chair ruben barrales said, "we hope that congress will take a look at the recommendations and hopefully move the question forward."

in past plebiscites, puerto ricans are divided relatively evenly between statehood and commonwealth status. those who favor independence are in a small minority. currently puerto ricans are u.s. citizens and receive many of the benefits that the federal government offers, but cannot vote in national elections and do not pay federal taxes. if puerto rico were to become a state of the u.s., it could mean a shift in the balance of power in congress and in presidential elections.

the press release including the question and answer section can be viewed . the recommendation calls for 2 polls, one on whether to remain at the status quo and the second to decide between independence and statehood. this could create some controversy. in the past there has been a 1 single poll with all options included. there is also the issue on "free association" which falls somewhere between commonwealth status and independence. some in puerto rico might argue that these options are too narrow and stacked against a commonwealth status.


us student reveals book visit a hoax

on devember 24, 2005, two massachusetts newspapers reported that a university of massachusetts at dartmouth student has admitted to falsely claiming a visit from the u.s. dept. of homeland security over a library book. the student has since revealed that his story was a hoax.

the story was first reported in the new bedford standard-times on december 17, 2005. this hoax was widely disseminated by other news and opinion outlets, including wikinews. the student has not revealed his motivation for the hoax; however, he was taking a class on totalitarianism at the time, and a possible extension of the u.s. patriot act was being debated in congress.


chad declares border with sudan a &quot;military operations zone&quot;

chad has declared their border with sudan a "military operations zone" and has also declared a "state of belligerance" exists between chad and sudan. chadian president idriss deby described sudanese president omar hassan al-bashir as an "enemy of chad." the government also called on its citizens to "mobilize against this sudanese aggression." this comes at the heels of increased aggression between the two nations, namely the december 18 attacks against the border town of adre.

while the chadian government fell short of declaring war against sudan, this is the toughest statement president idriss deby has made so far. <nowiki>[cited]</nowiki>link title 

since this conflict is breaking and because of the nature the press in these two nations, most news coming out of the region is spun one way or the other. 


fiesta season begins in colombia

a fiesta season of two weeks begins in colombia in december 25 with the feria de cali followed by the feria de manizales and the carnival of blacks and whites in pasto.

the 48th feria de cali

begins at 1:00 pm in the city of cali and the opening ceremony includes a "cabalgata", (horseriding parade). during the feria, there will be bullfighting events and shows, salsa and caribbean music concerts until december 30. this year concerts will include renowned salsa artists such as jonny pacheco, sergio vargas, jose feliciano, carlos vives, sonora carruseles from miami among others.

feria de manizales

this is the feria of pasodoble, the musical rhythm that accompanies the bullfighting events. these festivals are to be celebrated from january 2nd to january 9th. it includes a beauty contest with the participation of 24 beauty queens from different countries. the beauty queens will be homage in a sort of petals-rain parade on the main streets of the city of manizales.

there will be 16 venues music concerts, each one specializing in different music types including salsa, vallenato, pasodoble, music of the 60’s, tango, etc.

carnival of blacks and whites

beginning with a pre-carnival event on december 28th, the carnival begns on january 2nd with a parade of “colonies” is the most picturesque carnival of the country.

on december 4 is the arrival of the castaneda family, a krewe parade where a typical settler family from the north of colombia caricatured. on december the 5th people will play to paint each other in black to celebrate the day of the blacks and on december the 6th the whites will take revenge by to throwing white talcum to everyone 



australian troops receive christmas show in iraq

a group of australian entertainers have sacrificed christmas at home to spread some christmas cheer among 450 troops deployed in iraq. the show was put on for troops in the al muthanna task group at a base near the town of as samawah.

performer little pattie (patricia thompson), who entertained australian and allied troops during the vietnam war at the age of 17, led the entertainment. she was joined by beccy cole, angry anderson, hayley jensen, bessie bardot, geoff barker and lehmo.

"i feel i'm here to continue a time-honoured tradition which is of australian performers performing for australian forces no matter where they are in the world," little pattie said.

"it's a thing as a country we need to constantly be reminded of that they represent us as a nation around the world" said angry anderson.

the christmas spirit also reached hmas parramatta, which is deployed to protect iraq's oil infrastructure in the persian gulf. the hmas parramatta sailors received a surprise visit from santa claus who handed out presents.


armenian journalists facing prison sentences in turkey

hrant dink, arat dink, serkis seropyan and ayd?n engin, all employees of , an armenian published in ?stanbul, have each been charged with "attempting to affect legal proceedings" by the sisli 2nd first instance court for their alleged attempts to tamper with hrant dink's trial earlier this year. the four journalists will be tried under the 288th article of the , and face a possible 6 months to 3 years in jail if found guilty.

in his , the public prosecutor claimed that the defendants attempted to influence the result of hrant dink's earlier trial by way of articles published in agos, of which dink is the editor. in response to the indictment, hrant dink said, "it is impossible for a man not to be puzzled. i am the defendant at the same time. it is a basic right for a defendant to attempt to affect the legal proceedings. if a defendant is not trying to affect the legal proceedings, then he would do this? we would go, face the court and see the results."

hrant dink was found guilty in october of insulting turkey's national identity, a conviction for which he received a of 6 months imprisonment. he claims he will appeal this decision.



olympics organisers insist london win in 2012 ballot was fair

according to the scotsman newspaper, the directors of the 2012 london olympics have insisted that the city won the right to host the games "fairly and squarely" after claims were touted by an israeli official that a "potentially decisive vote was cast in error by an international olympic committee (ioc) official"

the israeli official, alex gilady, claims that in the third round of voting, greek delegate lambis nikolaou may have accidentally voted for paris rather than madrid, resulting in eliminating madrid rather than paris from the final round. 

london spokesmen and bid leaders have dismissed the claims as "folklore stories", "totally irrelevant" and "tittle-tattle", while the ceo of the madrid bid told the london times, "we were very close to winning. we can never know if the greek vote would have been decisive, but it is lamentable for one human error to have ruined all our hard work."

 


australian wheat to lose out in iraqi market grab

the australian wheat board (awb), the primary economic authority for australian wheat export is set to lose its long-standing trade contract with iraq worth $270m/annum to united states exporters after a deal was struck with iraqi wheat board for a majority share of the $500m wheat market.

aggressive lobbying by united states trade diplomats used the imminent uncovering of awb involvement in the oil for wheat incident as fodder in their recent negotiations. the awb's previous arrangement saw the use of alia, a jordanian based transport corporation owned by the wealthy al-khawam family, to transport their wheat to umm qasr, a southern sea port in iraq.

"there has been obvious corruption in procurement and there were illegal and illegitimate transfers of huge funds abroad, outside the control of the iraqi state," said iraq's finance minister, ali allawi.

the un report headed by paul volcker (former chairman of the united states federal reserve), released in october 2005, noted that the awb was aware the iraqi government used alia as a backdoor for obtaining $310m in kickbacks under the guise as 'transport costs' and adjusted their price for the wheat accordingly which was noticeably higher than their trading price with importers in other regions.

"numerous aspects of the awb-alia relationship suggest that some employees of awb were placed on notice of facts strongly suggesting that awb's payments were in whole or part for the benefit of the government of iraq." said vockler.

sheik hussein al-khawam head of the shiite al-kahawam influential family business operation including teebah, alia, al huda international trading company recently assumed its control on the newly established iraqi airlines in alliance with the new iraqi government, has been under heavy scrutiny from some influential us political analysts, including volcker and which accuse the family of corruption due to dealings with saddam hussien.

recently the awb has scrutinised the united states department of agriculture (usda) for suspending the awb from participating in a usda credit-export scheme .


war between top lawyers in greece

the famous greek lawyers, sakis kechagioglou and george nikolakopoulos have been imprisoned in the athens' jail of korydallus, as they were found guilty of graft and corruption. as a result of this, a big scandal within the greek legal community has been raised through the exposure of illegal actions that judges, lawyers, solicitors and attorneys have done during the previous years. a few weeks ago, after the information published by the journalist makis triantafylopoulos in his popular television show "zoungla" in alpha tv, the member of parliament and lawyer, petros mantouvalos was abdicated as members of his office had been involved in illegal graft and corruption. moreover, top judge evangelos kalousis is imprisoned as he found guilty of corruption and degenerate behaviour.

except from journalists' research about scandals in the legal community of greece, accusations from well-known lawyers and attorneys such as the famous athens' lawyer alexis kougias, against colleagues have as a result a greater dialogue and discussion in the country upon this important issue. 


apaches accuse prescott bush of robbing geronimo's grave

native americans are petitioning congress to investigate the elite skull and bones group and return what they believe are the remains of apache warrior geronimo for reburial. 

the petition alleges that geronimo's grave was robbed in 1918 by members of the society, including prescott bush, president george w. bush's grandfather. the alleged graverobbers stole geronimo's head and his prized silver bridle, which had been buried with him. these allegations are also within a book by yale graduate, alexandra robbins, titled; "secrets of the tomb". robbins suggests that the reason these men robbed graves is; "bones as a society is preoccupied with death; skulls, skeletons, and artwork depicting death are prevalent in the tomb. when bonesmen steal things they use the euphemism that they are taking 'gifts to the goddess' whom they honor within the tomb." 

robbins also said; "i think it's ridiculous that bonesmen's sense of entitlement is broad enough to include items that allegedly don't belong to them. the items they supposedly steal as a prank or competition may be valuable and meaningful to the actual owners. it's appalling that proper authorities have not forced their way into the tomb to retrieve the items that don't belong in there."

an economics professor at clark college, james craven, suggests that; "in the near future, there will finally be large groups of natives showing up in front of 'the tomb' to protest this ugly racism and grave robbing by the bones, and they will not be leaving until that skull and any other native artifacts have been returned...[the theft] is a metaphor for something much bigger and even uglier. it is the ugly racism and hubris of the in-bred power elites who seek to infiltrate positions of power."

in her book, robbins also reports that apaches met with skull and bones representatives following their admission by letter that they did in fact have a skull they called "geronimo". the apaches were offered some bones, but refused to accept them at that time because, according to the petition; "it was obviously not the skull seen in the smuggled photograph."

endicott davison, an attorney for skull and bones, denied that geronimo's skull is in the possession of the group. 


 


queensland premier aims for a move to australian federal politics

australia's most experienced state leader - peter beattie has given his strongest indication for a move to federal politics.

beattie, who has been the premier of queensland for seven-and-a-half years indicated that he only wishes to stay on for another term in state parliament and that he would never say no to federal politics. he further added "i'd love to see the labor party govern federally and you never rule out federal aspirations".

"but frankly, from my point of view, it's more important to deliver on all the things i promised we would deliver on" said beattie. beattie will be working over the holiday period to repair the crises that have engulfed his government this year. his government is yet to recover from a slump in two-party preferred polls following the doctor death scandal, which exposed major problems in queensland's health system.

mr beattie said he would lead his party to victory in 2007 and serve out another term as premier, but indicated he would consider his "exit strategy" ahead of the 2010 state election. "i'm not someone who wants to stay forever" said mr beattie.

mr beattie has been grooming his successor, deputy premier anna bligh and plans to make her treasurer if labor wins the next election.

mr beattie said his agenda for next year in queensland included implementing health reforms, furthering his smart state strategy and kick-starting a multi-billion-dollar plan for infrastructure projects. 

 


taxi driver stabbed to death in nova scotia

a taxi driver was found stabbed to death in his vehicle on christmas day in dartmouth, n.s., police say. police said they found him at about 08:00 ast on sunday (12:00 utc). the man had several wounds, a police spokesperson said. he was pronounced dead at a hospital. no arrests have been made. police are continuing to investigate. 



cheney-rumsfeld &quot;cabal&quot; alleged in the usa

colonel lawrence wilkerson, who was colin powell's chief-of-staff, is attracting news headlines around the globe by publicly accusing members of the bush administration. he said in a speech at the new america foundation: "what i saw was a cabal between the vice president of the united states, richard cheney, and the secretary of defense, donald rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made."

regarding karen hughes's attempts to improve the country's image abroad? "it's hard to sell [manure]," wilkerson said. "if you're unilaterally declaring kyoto dead, if you're declaring the geneva conventions not operative, if you're doing a host of things that the world doesn't agree with you on and you're doing it blatantly and in their face, without grace, then you've got to pay the consequences" said the man who was chief of staff at the state department until early 2005.

wilkerson also described president bush's behavior as "cowboyism" and condoleezza rice as "extremely weak."

the colonel described colin powell as "the world's most loyal soldier," but said he felt his loyalty belongs not to the administration, but to the country.

an email allegedly from powell told wilkerson: "don't characterize my loyalty."



new zealand tsunami heroes to receive special service medal

a new medal has been created for new zealanders who helped in recovery efforts after the boxing day tsunami.

called the new zealand special service medal (asian tsunami) it recognises the work of new zealanders who went to the region after the tsunami; locating the missing, identifying the dead, and assisting those left behind. defence minister phil goff says new zealanders who served in the devastated areas in the first two months after the tsunami, are to receive the medal. 

in a provisional list; which was released today; 163 new zealanders are honoured in which 37 are non-military or police personnel (including aid workers).

also, forty-seven police officers will receive the honour for their work identifying bodies in thailand. 

prime minister helen clark said the medal recognised "the special service of those new zealanders who undertook often harrowing tasks in dangerous conditions". 


four russian stores hit with gas attacks

in russia's second largest city, st. petersburg, four gas attacks left more than 70 people ill. devices with wires, timers, and glass vials of a gas determined on scene to be were found in outlets of makisdom, a home improvement chain store. the chemical is both naturally occurring and manufactured and is used as an oderant for detection of propane or natural gas leaks.

store officials have said that they had received threats that sales would be disrupted before new year's. russians traditionally give gifts on the holiday. police officials said they believed a commercial dispute or a prank not terrorism.

the local emergency hospital was overflowed from the influx of ill people from the attacks. valentina matviyenko, governer of st. petersburg, said that those who sought medical help were not suffering any further medical problems.

a custodian at one of the stores found the devices and alerted police. the devices were found at another store with their vials broken. the devices in the two other stores were carried outside by employees and covered with buckets. the police explosives experts defused them.


colombian terrorists own 42 aircraft

according to the el tiempo newspaper, colombian drug lords and rebels maintain at least 42 aircraft. the fleet includes five light cessna planes, four reconnaissance helicopters and a helicopter set up as an air ambulance. they are also used to transport people and drugs.

the country's biggest guerrilla group, the left-wing farc, operates between 15 and 20 aircraft, most acquired in the early 90's from defunct drug cartels.

right-wing fighters operating in eastern and south-eastern colombia run seven aircraft, while drug traffickers in the southeastern valle province have between 15 and 20 aircraft.

according to a captured terrorist, the head of fighters in meta, in central colombia, has a bell helicopter and a cessna airplane for his personal use. additionally, a drug lord in valle province owns a private plane large enough for 14 passengers.


battle of adre extends darfur conflict

after the battle of ardre, many civilians and military officers of both chadian and sudanese origin were killed. after this, chad declared (according to some translations) a "a state of war" against sudan, and encouraged all of its people to honor that declaration. there have been many conflicting reports of the number of deaths, but a good estimate would be that both sides have lost around 400-600 people. 

these battles and declarations is just a continuation of the darfur that has ravaged this region for several years past. as tensions between the two nations get more fierce, we can only imagine what might come next.



bombmaking materials found near farm of colombian president alvaro uribe

a neighbor of the colombian president called police when they found a bag near the road close to president alvaro uribe's farm. soldiers who then inspected the bag found 11 pounds (5 kilograms) of c4 explosives, detonator cords, and other material needed to assemble an explosive device. the president's spokeperson said, "they found all the elements of a bomb but it had not been assembled and it was not ready to be detonated."

uribe then left the farm and went to stay on another of his farms, this one in his home province antioquia, for the remainder of the holidays.

uribe has been the target of multiple assassination attempts, usually by marxist guerillas. he was, for example, the target of assassination attempts while he was campaigning and then again on his inauguration in 2002. his father was assassinated by marxist guerillas. the administration blames the rebel group revolutionary armed forces of colombia for most of the attempts on the president's life.


record companies subpoenaed over digital music pricing

on friday warner music group announced that it had been subpoenaed by the office of new york attorney-general eliot spitzer to provide information about digital music download pricing. it has been reported that sony bmg music entertainment and vivendi universal have also received subpoenas.

the subpoenas are thought to be connected to an antitrust investigation being carried out by new york attorney-general eliot spitzer. the investigation is believed to be looking at whether warner, sony bmg, emg and universal have colluded to set wholesale song download pricing. 

will tanous, speaking on behalf of warner music group said "as part of an industrywide investigation concerning pricing of digital music downloads, we received a subpoena from attorney general spitzer's office as disclosed in our public filings. we are cooperating fully with the inquiry."

it is also thought that the investigation may be due to the music industry wishing to renegotiate pricing with apple over its itunes online store. the record companies have indicated that they wish to begin variable pricing on music downloads. apple currently sells songs for $us0.99 each.

in september, warner ceo edgar bronfman told an investor conference that "not all songs are created equal ... there are some songs for which consumers would be willing to pay more and some we'd be willing to sell for less". 


australia's richest man dies aged 68

the nine network has announced the death of one of australia's richest men, kerry packer, aged 68.

announcer richard wilkins said on the today show that he had just been handed official confirmation of mr packer's death at 68.

he said a statement from tony ritchie, nine head of news, said: "mrs kerry packer and her children james and gretel sadly report the passing last evening of her husband and their father kerry. he died peacefully at home with his family at his bedside".

packer was the major shareholder in publishing and broadcasting limited (pbl) which owns the nine television network and australian consolidated press, the producer of many australian and new zealand magazines.

packer was also involved in the gambling and tourism industries and owned the crown casino in melbourne.

in the 1970s, his world series cricket revolutionised cricket, bringing one-day cricket to the fore by introducing things such as coloured uniforms, white balls & day/night matches.

business review weekly magazine estimated packer's net worth at au$6.5 billion in 2004. another famous rich australian media magnate, who may have lost his australian nationality, is rupert murdoch.


new zealand christmas road toll is at ten

the new zealand christmas road toll has climbed to only one fewer; than the 11 deaths in the entire period last year; after four people were killed today. the official christmas-new year road toll runs between 4pm on 24th december and 8am on 4th january

“there are 10 families now having to plan funerals and that's enormously tragic for all of those involved”. says national road manager; superintendent dave cliff. he says that he is “disappointed with the high toll this far.”

road victims this christmas 2005 include:

today:

earlier in the week:


actor vincent schiavelli dies in sicily at age 57

the well-known character actor, vincent schiavelli has died at his home in polizzi generosa, sicily. he was 57.

schiavelli appeared in more than 120 films and television shows including the movie "ghost" where he played opposite patrick swayze. he was selected in 1997 by vanity fair as one of the best character actors in the united states.

vincent schiavelli could do with a glance what many actors work a lifetime to perfect. schiavelli had the countenance of one of dali's melting clocks, the hooded eyes of a mobster and the smile of someone who might be light years off his meds.

it was a look that launched his career. by the time schiavelli died at age 57, he had starred in 150 television shows and movies. he had a name people couldn't remember and a face people couldn't forget.


japan's population declines

japan's population declined by 19,000 in 2005 according to the government census, marking the first time it has shrunk since 1899, when it began keeping records. the decline is caused by the low birth rate of 1.29 children per woman. the declining birth rate has been a concern for the island nation for the last few decades as it supports a larger elderly population; 20% of japan's population is 65 or older. as of october 1, the population was recorded at 127,757,000.

 


boyfriend forces missouri woman to swallow cell phone

blue springs, missouri police say a woman they thought had tried to swallow her cell phone may have been the victim of assault. the cell phone was caught in the woman's throat when police arrived. her boyfriend claimed she had swallowed it to keep it away from him.

melinda abell required emergency surgery to remove the phone from her throat. police have now charged the boyfriend, marlon brandon gill, 23, with assault.

police sgt. allen kintz told the associated press that "our initial press release was that she had swallowed a cell phone. subsequent investigation found that she didn't swallow the cell phone voluntarily. that was what we were told initially."



timekeeping will pause into the new year with a 'leap second'

the u.s. naval observatory in washington d.c. will adjust atomic clocks by pausing (adding) a second, and thus let time pass without counting it for the coordinated universal time or utc on december 31st. the mark-time will occur on the last tick prior to the 2006 new year.

the accuracy of atomic clocks is based upon the resonance of caesium 133, which was used to define (in 1958) the second as the length of time for 9,192,631,770 cycles of vibration as they pass through a magnetic field. the resonate constancy of caesium exceeds the accuracy of the earth’s rotation around the sun.

because the earth’s spin will fluctuate due to lunar tides and atmospheric winds, the international earth rotation and reference systems service has had to request 22 'leap seconds' since 1972. the last adjustment made to the utc was in 1998.


australian copyright laws to be overhauled in 2006

the australian federal government has indicated that it will overhaul copyright law in 2006. the changes will legalise the recording of television shows and the right to transfer cds to portable music devices.

the reforms, instigated by attorney-general phillip ruddock aim to add "fair use" clauses for personal use.

a spokeswoman for mr ruddock said the government was close to finalising draft laws which would allow people to copy music from cds legitimately to their own portable music devices and tape television to watch later.

at present both "time shifting" (recording a television show to watch later) and "format shifting" (copying a legally owned cd to another format such as mp3 for play on a portable device) are illegal in australia. while the australian federal police do not pursue offenders, it still must act upon every complaint.

it is unknown whether the new laws will force a levy on blank cds and portable music devices as they did when the laws were introduced in canada.


fire destroys a social security building in brasilia

, brazil - an building of the social security ministry (inss) in brasilia was struck by fire tuesday morning.

firemen report that the blaze was started by an electrical short-circuit.

the building was old and contained a large collection of state documents.

at the time of the fire, the building was unoccupied except for security personnel. no one was injured during the blaze.



jose maria aznar wants nato to take in australia and israel

former spanish pm jose maria aznar has described the nato alliance as a zombie organization that needs to reform or is going to die. he said that in order to fight the “dark forces” of islamic terrorism nato needs to take in like-minded nations such as australia, israel and japan and create a strategic association with regional powers such as india and colombia.

nato is structured in such a way that u.s. generals have operational and tactical control. there are two commands, one for transformation and one for operations; each with a supreme allied commander being the highest ranking military officer.

allied command operations (aco) is in belgium and is headed by the supreme allied commander europe (saceur) who is always an american four star general with the dual role of heading u.s. european command as well. the allied command transformation (act) is in virginia,usa. it is headed by the supreme allied commander transformation (sact) who is always a u.s. admiral with the dual role of commander u.s. joint forces command (comusjfcom).



nyc transit asks members to ratify new contracts

a tentative contract agreement has been struck, five days after new york city was ground to a halt in a transit strike. the executive board of the (twu) local 100 and the (mta) had been negotiating under a media blackout, but terms of the agreement have started to come to light: a 3% increase in salary the first year, 4% increase the second year, and a 3.5% increase in their third year. there will be no changes in the employees' pension plan and the retirement age remains at 55 in exchange for employees contribution of 1.5% of their paycheck.

the new contract still must be approved by the state-run authority's board, whose next regular meeting is on january 25, 2006. there is no word yet if a special meeting will be called. 

the union's workers will vote by mail, a process which may take weeks to complete.

union members probably will ratify the contract because it would be "near suicidal" to strike again, says gary chaison, professor of labour relations at in , massachusetts.

thirty-four thousand transport workers union members walked off the job on december 20, when negotiations broke down over disagreements concerning pensions, health benefits, and pay. the strike, which lasted three days, affected an estimated 7 million commuters daily.




five u.s. defense contractor lobbying groups block ban on forced prostitution and labor

the chicago tribune is reporting that five u.s. defense contractor lobbying groups have held back on passing legislation that would ban contractors from involvement in human trafficking for forced prostitution and labor. the congressional mandate was a response to a variety of abuses around the world including labor conditions imposed upon some iraqis working with contractors in iraq and a sex slave ring operated by dyncorp employees during the bosnian conflict in the 90's.

congress ordered the pentagon to implement regulations barring such practices two years ago; and the pentagon drafted the necessary regulations in the summer of 2005. however, defense contractors such as dyncorp and halliburton's kbr claim that key portions of the defense department's proposal are unrealistic.


study says poor african american women less likely to receive pap smears

black american women living in communities with high poverty rates are significantly less likely to be screened for cervical cancer, a study finds. 

the harvard school of public health's geetanjali dabral datta investigated the relationship between individual characteristics and larger socioeconomic factors and cervical cancer screening rates. the febreuary 1 issue of "cancer" carries the study. more than 40,000 black women from across the united states participated in the black women's health study.

"african-american women have twice the mortality rate from cervical cancer as white women," said elizabeth ward, the director of the american cancer society. "researchers need to investigate how those differences are related to socioeconomic status. one of the big factors that may account for this finding is access to high-quality medical care. often communities that have high poverty rates either lack access to good quality care, or people have to travel longer distances to obtain high-quality care."

david l. katz at yale university's school of medicine said; "while this finding is not surprising, it is noteworthy just the same. no one should die of cervical cancer, because a simple screening test reliably finds the condition in its earliest stages when cure is almost universally achievable. yet, several thousand deaths from this cancer occur each year in the u.s."


former german deputy foreign minister and family abducted in yemen

jurgen chrobog, former secretary of state in the german foreign office, was abducted today in eastern yemen, along with his wife, their three children, and three locals.

the family was travelling as part of a large group in the country when their vehicle went missing around 460 km east of the capital sanaa. according the yemeni interior ministry they were abducted by a tribal group.

reuters named the captors as members of the "al-abdullah" tribe who told the news agency by phone that the life of the family is not in danger and that they are their "guests". they are reportedly demanding that the yemeni government release member of their tribe from prison.

a spokesperson for the german foreign office said it is unknown whether chrobog was singled out or if it was just a coincidence that he and his family were taken.

chrobog had been the german ambassador to the united states from 1994 till 2001 when he transferred to the foreign office, where he himself negotiated the release of germans held abroad.

this incident is the fourth time this year that foreigners were abducted in the country to blackmail the yemeni government.


shooting at indian institute of science, bangalore

a shooting at the , at bangalore, india, left a professor dead. 

the shooting occurred during a dinner being hosted in honour of a conference which was attended by academicians across the country. indiscriminate firing by unidentified assailants led to a number of scientists and technicians getting injured, including a professor from the at new delhi, who later died of his injuries. police believe an automatic weapon was used. the assailants, who reportedly drove in unchallenged through the main gates, have not yet been apprehended, and bangalore is currently in a state of lockdown, with a red alert being declared by the government. no terrorist outfits have claimed responsibility yet. 

the name of the professor who was killed in the attack was m.c.puri a retired professor of mathematics in iit, delhi.


colombian soldiers killed by rebel group

in vista hermosa, more than 200 km south bogota, soldiers were guarding coca eradication workers when they were assaulted by a rebel group, believed to be the revolutionary armed forces of colombia or farc rebel group who operates near the area of the attack. reports are varying between 24 and 28 colombian soldiers were killed in the attack. the army first reported that 24 soldiers had been killed, but the defense minister later placed the death toll at 28.

narcotrafficking is a key source of funding for the rebel group, and is likely a reason for the attack. president uribe is expected to strike back as a result of this attack. according to reuters, president uribe is up for reelection in may and this attack could be related to that. uribe has negotiated peace agreements with some rebel groups, such as the marxist national liberation army, but farc has refused to speak with the uribe administration. this attack is the worst that has happened since uribe came into office in 2002. uribe's father was killed in a kidnapping attempt by farc in 1983.


argentina to pay off imf debt

president kirchner says that argentina will be able to pay off its imf debt of us$9.8 billion dollars next week following the new year weekend. the announcement has come with great applause at home, but according to cnn it has led to a temporary decrease of the value of the argentine peso in international markets. payment was originally scheduled for 2008, and paying off the debt early will save argentina around $1 billion dollars. the payment is made out of the central bank foreign currency reports, which according to cnn total $28 billion.

the economic crisis in argentina started with a recession in 1999. people began to withdraw money from their accounts, which resulted in the government freezing bank accounts. eventually the country would have to default on a large part of their public debt. the crisis led to the increase of the income gap between the rich and the poor, but policies in recent years have brought that back down to previous levels. argentina had previously renegotiated private debt earlier this year of $100 billion which reduced the amount owed by 75% according to abc news.


rebellion in brazilian state prison is over

the rebellion at the urso branco (white bear) state prison in porto velho, the capital of the brazilian state of rondonia, has ended.

the rebelling prisoners entered into an agreement with the brazilian authorities. the secretary of public security of rondonia, renato eduardo de souza, said that the police officers are ready to enter the prison, examine the prisoners and to place them into the cells, and to free the hostages.

informations from the prison indicated the death of at least 16 persons during the rebellion. however the deaths have not been confirmed and some prisoners have affirmed that the deaths were faked.

the rebellion at the prison began on sunday. more than 200 people were held hostage and the prisoners were demanding the return of their leader: ednildo paula souza, aka birrinha, from another prison.

the authorities agreed and said that birrinha will be transferred to urso branco.



australian refugee contractor accused of breaching its duty of care

the australian centre for languages, a company which has a multi-million dollar contract with the australian government to provide refugee services, has been accused of breaching its duty of care following the death of a chronically ill child and allegations of failing to provide three women in their care with food.

a two-and-a-half year old child, richard niyonsaba, died less than 24 hours after arriving in australia.

in november, richard and his family came to australia after spending time in a refugee camp in tanzania. richard suffered from chronic sickle-cell anaemia.

the boy's father, protais ntiranyi had been in the country just 18 hours when he woke, at 4am on november 5 to find his son convulsing. mr ntiranyi who was alone with his family in a fairfield flat was frightened and confused as he did not know what to do to help his son.

the family's case worker, from a company called the australian centre for languages (acl), had earlier shown them a telephone in the flat and allegedly told them to dial 000 in case of emergency. mr ntiranyi had never used a telephone and could not speak english.

mr ntiranyi, roamed the neighbourhood screaming for help in his native language. the only attention mr ntiranyi got was that of a sudanese refugee, who couldn't understand what he was saying but knew he was clearly distressed and in need of help. by the time he brought the neighbour to his flat his son had died.

two sisters and another woman from africa, considered refugees have made claims that they were not provided with food by acl.

princess and yeah yeah gbdeah arrived in sydney on november 4, 2005 and were relocated to newcastle. the sisters allege that when they arrived in newcastle, a case worker from acl presented them with a 12-month lease to sign. they claim that when they refused to sign the lease as they were afraid and unfamiliar with the area that the case worker told them they would not be given any food vouchers.

a third woman, caroline nykango, was with the sisters and signed the lease. she was given a $50 food voucher, but did not know how to use it as she had never used a supermarket.

according to the women the only food in the house was an apple, a packet of rice and some oil. the women went without food for 5 days before walking out and meeting a man on the street who took them to a church for assistance.

princess said "there was no food to eat, she didn't show us how to use the stove, we were sick, we were afraid". "we were told a case worker would come to see us but no case worker came. we told her we didn't want that home, we don't want to sign and she said, 'we will not give you the vouchers unless you sign, we will not give you the food'".

jenny witmarsh from acl said the circumstances described by the women "are not the facts as i understand them".

the two sisters are now living in a house in hamilton, organised with the help of local citizens.

the matter had been referred to an independent inquiry, which should be completed in early february.

in october the federal government awarded a multi-million dollar contract to acl for the care and resettlement of refugees - work that was previously carried out by non-profit and volunteer organisations.

it is believed that only days before richard's death doctors at the newcastle refugee health clinic had written to the immigration department warning the government that problems relating to the health of new arrivals in australia had emerged in the hunter valley. acl also had the contract for the care of refugees in the hunter valley.

organisations which formerly provided care to refugees have strongly criticised acl saying that they can not provide the level of care that these people require.

the family of richard niyonsaba have called on the federal government to review its policy of outsourcing refugee services. the federal government is unlikely to hold an inquiry with the minister for multicultural affairs and citizenship, john cobb disagreeing with the family's version of events.

greg barnes from rights australia is calling for a review saying "we have a child who comes in to australia who's obviously extremely ill and his parents are really, on the face of it, given very little or no support at all".

 


69-year-old australian mother and son on drugs charges

a 69 year old woman and her 39 year old son from southern australia have been charged with drug offenses following their arrest last week. evelyn harvey, a pensioner from perth, and her son johnny harvey, from prospect have been charged with "(possessing) a prohibited drug with intent" in western australia.

west australian police arrested the pair last week after police intercepted a package sent via road courier, allegedly from the son in south australia to his mother in perth. the package containted 3.16kg of compressed cannabis head with a street value of au$40,700.

police allege that mrs. harvey was knowingly receiving the drugs and distributing them to dealers in perth.

detective senior saregent dockery said "if convicted we will apply to the court to have both of them declared drug traffickers". under western australia's crime legislation, the pair's property could be confiscated by the state.

according to police, $5000 in cash was also seized from the pensioner's housing commission unit.


us consumer confidence up

consumer confidence rose in december to levels closer to those before huricane katrina according to the conference board consumer research center's consumer confidence index. the index was at 105.5 before the huricane hit the port of new orleans disrupting oil production and trade for a large part of the country. the index was at 102.7 in december last year.

the index rose to 103.6 from a revised 98.3 for november. the index was expected to only rise to 102.5. 

"consumer confidence continues to bounce back and is now at its highest level since hurricane katrina struck the gulf coast" said lynn franco, director of the conference board consumer research center.

most of the change is attributed to falling gas prices and an improved job outlook.

"the resiliency of the economy, recent declines in prices at the pump, and job growth have consumers feeling more confident at year-end than they felt at the start of 2005," franco said. "even though all of the improvement over the past twelve months has been in consumers' assessment of current conditions, and expectations remain below earlier levels, consumers are confident that the economy will continue to expand in 2006."


former chilean president augusto pinochet fingerprinted

police arrived at augusto pinochet's home this morning in the chilean capital of santiago to fingerprint the 90 year old man and take a mugshot, in an incident his lawyer called an insult. his lawyer, pablo rodriguez, said, "this is insulting but what pains us the most is not that a police record has been made for a former president but that there are no legal grounds to do so," and "this is an arbitrary procedure by the judge." 

judge victor montiglio ordered the mugshots and fingerprints to create a file on pinochet. he has been under house arrest since november 2005.

pinochet is being charged in relation to operation colombo, where 119 political dissidents disappeared during his reign in the mid-1970s. pinochet's regime claims that they all died in clashes with various opposition groups. a government spokesperson said, "once more in chile we can happily affirm that there is equality before the law and that the courts of justice are functioning impeccably."

pinochet is also in other legal trouble. in november he was indicted for tax fraud and other crimes related to some $27 million in foreign bank accounts, according to reuters. and also on monday he was ruled fit to stand trial for the disappearances in operation colombo. this comes as a change of court rulings, previously cases have been dismissed because of medical reasons.


south korea begins sending indictments via sms

south korean prosecutors plan to begin sending legal notices such as indictments and fines via . the move was prompted by the high percentage of the population carrying mobile phones, as well as the cost and slow delivery of paper notices.

a south korean official, lee young-pyo, said, "most people in south korea have mobile phones, and since the notices don't reach them immediately by regular mail, this is a more definite way for the individuals to know they have received a legal notice."

mr. lee also emphasized that sms notices did not replace existing paper notification, and people must apply for the service.

about 70 percent of the south korean population use mobile phones, according to "".


man buys his stolen camera on ebay

a german businessman who had his camera stolen at a restaurant found and made a purchase for the same camera model on ebay. to his surprise, it was his own stolen camera. 

the reason he wanted the same model was because he had matching accessories. the seller was from his hometown, making it even more suspicious. police on thursday were questioning a 34-year old vendor. his statement "claims he got the camera at a flea market, but was also offering other cameras on the internet."


new text message encryption method developed

it was reported a month ago on "the prague post" that two czech programmers, dr. marian kechlibar and ji?i ?atanek, have developed "sms007", which is a program that advertises that no third party would be able to read text messages sent with this method. "we felt that there is too much phone tapping going on in this country," ?atanek said. "everyone has a right to their privacy."

the two are working on a version, set for release next northern hemisphere summer (june-august 2006), that will encode phone calls made from cell phones as well. their prague company, circle tech, is offering a 1 million korona reward ($40,270 u.s.) to anyone who can crack their code.

the program took about a year to develop and uses aes, a symmetric cipher. there are two keys to their code, one on the sender end and one on the recipient end. the keys to the code are not generated until after a person installs the software on his or her mobile phone.

dr. kechlibar is a mathematics professor at the charles university in prague.



greek newspaper reports british spy involved in torturing 28 pakistani citizens

the greek newspaper proto thema is reporting a member of the british embassy staff in athens, nicholas langman, was involved in the abduction, interrogation and torture of 28 pakistani-born immigrants to greece. the alleged victims were detained in connection with the 7 july bombings in london.

the disclosure of british mi6 agents acting openly in greece has precipitated an uproar in the vouli ton ellinon, with the opposition uniformly calling for the matter to be discussed in the parliament.

"such a thing never happened, does not happen and won't happen," said giorgos voulgarakis, the greek minister of public order, in early december when the detainees went public with their charges. jack straw, british foreign minister, has likewise denied the charges.


melbourne victory held to draw by perth glory

nearly 15,000 people turned up to olympic stadium melbourne to see the home side melbourne victory being held to a draw by the visiting perth glory in their round 16 a-league match last night.

victory where without captain kevin muscat who was out serving a ban from victory's previous game against sydney fc. archie thompson wore the captain's armband for the night for victory.

in the first game under alan vest, perth's glory came in strong and held long to pull the tie from the victory.

the lead goal came from damian mori for the glory 5 minutes in, answered by thompson and daniel allsop to give victory a lead 2-1 at half. boby despotovski's equaliser in the second kept the glory in the top four.


mario draghi succeeds antonio fazio as bank of italy governor

fazio has stepped down after an investigation into his role in a controversial bank takeover. mario draghi is to fill his shoes. draghi's former job was managing director of the investment bank goldman sachs. draghi will serve a six year term under a new law that set term limits for the central banks governor passed last week.

draghi, who is 58, has had senior government positions in the past including director general of the italian treasury. he was born in rome and earned a doctorate in economics from mit in 1976. after earning his degree he taught at the university of florence until 1991. during this time draghi was an executive director of the world bank. during his tenure as director general of the treasury he carried out extensive privatisation and was appointed chairman of the italian committee for privatisations. analysts say he has a good reputation but "draghi has a tough job to restore the bank of italy's credibility, but he is appreciated internationally and has done a lot of jobs and done them well," said luigi speranza, an economist with bnp paribas.

lorenzo codogno, an economist with bank of america, looks forward to draghi's tenure as the governor of the central bank "his appointment should lead to a more open italian bank market which will, in the end, mean italians have to pay less for their bank services."



distributed computing discovers largest known prime number

on december 15, 2005, a computing effort of the central missouri state university (cmsu), led by curtis cooper and steven boone, as part of the distributed computing project known as the great internet mersenne prime search (gimps), discovered the largest known prime number, divisible only by the number 1 and itself: 2-1. 

the discovery, which marks the 43rd known mersenne prime and the 9th discovered by gimps, was made by running a free downloadable program called prime95. the cmsu team is currently the highest-ranked contributor to gimps with over 700 computers running prime95.



uproar over sexual eu spoof posters in austria

posters produced and printed by the art project 25peaces, in austria have caused huge public outcry and debate. the posters depict britain's queen elizabeth, having sexual intercourse with us president george w. bush, and french president jacques chirac. a number of public figures including wolfgang schuessel, the austrian chancellor, have publicly denounced the posters.

its creator, artist carlos aires, says he had no desire to offend anyone, ""i suddenly had this image of three decision makers who are having an orgy while everything around them collapses"".




million dollar homepage is close to achieving million-dollar goal

alex tew, a student in england, has almost reached his target of one million dollars on his website: million dollar homepage. he came up with the idea after jotting down ideas before he went to bed on how to become a millionaire before he went to university. then he came up with the million-dollar idea: selling pixels at usd $1 each on a web page. alex currently believes he can make his goal by the end of 31st december, 2005.

advertising companies especially appreciate the website, as they wish to "make internet history" on the million dollar homepage. in fact as of writing, he has already made usd $999,000. the student says advertisers get to keep their ads for a period of five years from purchase and he says he will use the money he has made to guarantee it. alex has said he has already got numerous job offers from companies aiming to secure his money making talent.

tew is undergoing a business management course at nottingham and needed gbp ￡7000 a year to complete his studies. he is understandably overwhelmed by the success he has achieved: "it's just nuts. i'm in a state of disbelief. it's like monopoly money but then i look at my bank account and there's a lot of cash in it." the british national union of students claim that 90% of students are in debt. however, what only worries him is how he's going to spend his money. he has already spent some of his money on a car for himself, as he thinks of what to do with his new fortune.

his website's method is simple; his website is made up of one page divided into 10,000 boxes, each 100 pixels in size. companies can buy one or more boxes for usd $100 each and cover it with a logo, which, when clicked on, transports web users to the customers' own site.
the figures add up with the site now carrying over 240 advertisements and has 30,000 hits a day. even the actor jack black, star of ""school of rock"" and ""shallow hal"", is using the site to advertise his band tenacious d.




bolivia's new president-elect brands bush 'the only terrorist'

bolivia's new president-elect evo morales has branded george w. bush a "terrorist", and has referred to condoleezza rice as "mrs condolences" in an exclusive interview for qatar's news channel al-jazeera.

before departing for an official visit to cuba, morales denounced what he calls a "dirty war" undertaken by bush against him and said that ""bush was the only terrorist because he is the only one who militarily interferes in the domestic affairs of other countries. that's state terrorism, but those who claim their rights are not terrorists"", he reiterated in what has been regarded as an escalation of his anti-washington rhetoric.

at the same time, he said in chapare during the celebration of his victory, that the plan "zero coca" carried out by the us to eradicate coca in bolivia is terminated. ""we are winning the green battle, coca is defeating the american dollar"" he said.

venezuela's hugo chavez is another head of state who has previously labeled george w. bush a "terrorist".



united states justice department opens investigation into white house leaks

the united states justice department has started an inquiry into leaks of secret information divulged to the "new york times" regarding authorization by president bush for the national security agency (nsa) to use wiretaps on suspected terrorist living in the united states. the legality of the spying has been questioned.

james robertson, a former panel judge member of the foreign intelligence surveillance court, resigned in protest over the murky question of the constitutionality of the nsa eavesdropping on international telephone calls and e-mail, which bypassed the jurisprudence of that court. 



teenager in florida, united states skips school, goes to iraq

farris hassan, a 16 year old high school student from florida, decided to visit iraq and left for the country on december 11, 2005 alone and without having informed his parents.

after catching a connecting flight in amsterdam, he arrived in kuwait city on december 13. he called his parents on the telephone and informed them of where he was and his intention to visit iraq. this was the first time his parents learned of his plans. he then attempted to cross the kuwait-iraq border by taxi, but because of tight security for the upcoming elections he was unable to pass through, and spent a week in beirut, lebanon, interviewing minority christians. then on december 25, he flew in to baghdad international airport. relatives picked him up from the airport and put him at a hotel known to frequently house american citizens.

he financed the trip and made all the arrangements himself with money that he had saved up.

the inspiration for his journey was the result of a segment of his english class on 'immersion journalism' at his school, pine crest school. he was working on an assignment on the war in iraq and he wished to experience his subject matter first-hand.

hassan contacted the associated press to announce that he was in iraq to do research and humanitarian work. they were shocked to see an american teenager walking around unaccompanied. they in turn immediately contacted the us embassy, who had been contacted by his parents and were on the lookout for him. hassan's parents were born in iraq, but he does not speak any arabic, making him easily stand out as a foreigner in iraq, where kidnappings of americans and violence are an everyday occurrence. his parents planned to take him to see iraq once the war was over.

u.s. consul general richard hermann reiterated the u.s. embassy's strong warning to u.s. citizens against traveling to iraq as he announced that hassan was with american troops and was on his way home.

he turned in his assignment via email and is due back home over the new years day weekend.


al-qaeda releases video of sudanese hostages

al-qaeda in iraq has released video of sudanese hostages that members of the organization have kidnapped last week.

the video indicates that the militants intend to kill five kidnapped employees of the sudanese embassy in baghdad in two days unless the sudanese government removes its diplomatic mission from iraq. sudan has announced that it will abandon its embassy today, apparently in a bid to free the hostages.



colorado college tigers win 41st annual great lakes invitational tournament

the colorado college tigers beat the spartans of michigan state university in men's ice hockey on friday, for the title of champions of the 41st annual great lakes invitational ice hockey tournament at joe louis arena in detroit.

the tigers, the team chosen to be invited into the tournament and appearing for the first time since 1965 in the tournament, led with a 5-0 lead during the second period, after which michigan state switched goalies. the spartans put freshmen jeff lerg into net, replacing dominic vicari, who was earlier given a penalty for his contact with a member of colorado's team in front of the net. michigan state junior tyler howells scored two goals during the second period, and colorado student brett sterling made the tiger's final goal for the night.

colorado college took first place in the invitational, and michigan state ended in second place, after their previous win over michigan tech at a score of 3-2. the tigers previously beat the university of michigan on thursday, at a score of 6-1.

meanwhile, the university of michigan beat gli co-sponsor michigan tech university with a score of 5-3 for a third place finish in the invitational earlier in the day.

with 2 minutes remaining in the third period, the university of michigan went one up over michigan tech, breaking the 3-3 tie. michigan tech pulled their goalie with one minute remaining to gain a man advantage, but the strategy failed and allowed the university of michigan to get another goal resulting in the final 5-3 score.

the game secured the third place position in the invitational for university of michigan, and fourth place for michigan tech.

the final standings in the tournament are:



abducted german family freed in yemen

jurgen chrobog, former state secretary in the german foreign office, his wife and their three sons have been freed, german foreign minister frank-walter steinmeier confirmed at a press conference.

steinmeier said the family was doing well. they were abducted on wednesday in the east of the country while being on a tourism trip on the invitation of the yemeni government. the captors were demanding the release of five tribesmen held by the government. the yemeni defense minister was apparently the one who was able to negotiate the release.


rapper obie trice shot on detroit freeway

the popular rapper obie trice was shot while driving on a detroit freeway. trice exited into a nearby suburb, where his girlfriend, uninjured in the incident, waved down police. trice has now been released from providence hospital, where a speedy recovery is expected. there are currently no suspects in the shooting.

obie was first signed after eminem introduced him to d12 member bizarre, and appeared briefly in the movie 8 mile. he is currently working on his second album.


error hits greenpeace donations

monthly donors to the greenpeace in the uk have received a shock recently, as their specified amounts were multiplied by 100. thus, a "direct debt donation" of ￡2 monthly would have come out at ￡200, and donations of ￡50 became ￡5000.

the environmental charity says that they will reimburse donors by january 3, and also pay any extra bank charges incurred.

john sauven, a director at the ngo said "we are still trying to find out how this glitch happened but for some reason two noughts seem to have been added, or the computer has converted pence into pounds. our it specialists are trying to work it out and rectify it to make sure it doesn't happen again. the only people who will be out of pocket are us."

one supporter told the herald that she'd no longer let greenpeace access her bank account. 

over 221,000 brits support the organization; the number of those affected was unknown.


world celebrates new year for gregorian calendar

millions of people celebrated the arrival of the new year as the clock struck midnight on december 31, 2005, throughout the world's time zones.

sydney, australia led the way with red lights on the harbour bridge and over 80,000 fireworks over the water. over 1.2 million people were reported to have attended this celebration, making it one of the largest in the world.

hundreds of thousands of people gathered in times square to see the historic lowering of the waterford crystal ball, a tradition began in 1906.

london celebrated the new year at midnight gmt with a ten minute firework display featuring fireworks launched by and from the london eye observation wheel. the countdown to midnight was marked by a laser lightshow and with photos of olympic heroes projected onto a nearby building. an estimated 200,000 people watched the firework display, up on the previous year, despite a tube strike which closed many underground stations.

among other notable celebrations across the world was toronto, which celebrated the new year in nathan philips square. it is the first time the annual event was broadcast to all of canada.


new zealand citizenship requirements tighten in 2006

the citizenship (amendment) act 2005 that amends new zealands nationality law comes into effect today.

as of today babies will only acquire citizenship at birth if at least one of their parents is a citizen in new zealand or its dependencies. babies born to parents who are in new zealand or its dependencies on holiday will no longer become citizens, as was the case until the end of 2005.

the department of internal affairs website says the changes have been brought in to ensure the benefits of new zealand citizenship only go to those with a genuine and on-going link to the country.


four-team trade may be in the works in major league baseball

it looks like baseball stars manny ramirez and miguel tejada might be traded after all. several new york daily news sources claim that ramirez could go to the new york mets as part of a four-team deal. however, budget constraints may complicate the trade. according to the daily news, if this blockbuster deal is successful, the following trades could take place:
mets would get:

red sox would get:

orioles would get:
devil rays would get:



australian volunteer firefighters kept busy on new year's day

a massive bushfire that was threatening west victorian towns of great western, armstrong, moyston, pomonal, halls gap and ararat has stopped spreading due to heavy rainfall giving firefighters their first relief in two days. meanwhile, two major fires have broken out on the new south wales central coast, north of sydney with another in sydney.

the victorian fire has destroyed 5 homes in the stawell and two people have been injured when they fell down a mineshaft while fighting the blaze. reports claim that the fire front was up to 30km in length. earlier today the fire was burning out of control, being fanned by strong winds. this afternoon a weather change came, dumping heavy rain over the region.

five major fires have been reported on the nsw central coast in the woy woy and mount white regions. 50 homes are believed to be under direct threat. residents in affected parts of woy woy, umina and pearl beaches, and patonga, have been taken to makeshift evacuation centres at the gosford leagues club and woy woy bowling club.

the sydney newcastle (f3 freeway) and pacific highway have been closed. motorists which had been standed on the southbound carriageway of the f3 freeway were allowed through at around 6pm aedt following fears of a wind change which could have put them in danger of the fire. police say that the backlog was let through and the freeway remains closed.

intercity train services north of sydney have also been affected with the railway line closed at berowra.

dozens of fire crews and four water bombing aircraft were battling the blazes, according to bushfire volunteer michael wood, with changeable wind conditions starting spot fires nearby. strong north-westerly wind gusts and temperatures of up to 44 degrees posed extremely dangerous fire conditions, the rural fire service said.

the woy woy fire front was expected to make a run to umina and pearl beach in the coming hours. 300 firefighters are working to contain the flames.

cameron wade, a spokesman for the nsw rural fire service said firefighters were battling flames up to 30 metres in height, destroying several homes. a fire station near woy woy was also destroyed along with several fire trucks and volunteers cars.

mr wade also said that crews were being called in from sydney and the hunter to assist local fire crews. six aircraft and a sky crane are also being used.

it is believed that winds in the central coast region are gusting at up to 60 km/h.

another fire in the sydney suburb of belrose is expected to cause problems in the next few hours.

in merimbula, on the nsw far south coast residents are being evacuated, after a fire broke containment lines.

phill koperberg, commissioner of the nsw rural fire service said there were fires concern at junee and cootamundra in southern nsw and at appin and bulli south of sydney.

according to an rfs spokesman, a house in junee was destoyed and a farmer was hospitalised after receiving burns to 60 percent of his body. a total of five homes in the junee area have been confirmed lost.

about 100 people have been evacuated from junee's outskirts amid fears that southerly winds could reach 100 kph, drastically worsening the fire situation.

three homes on the central coast and three in junee have been lost.


tropical storm zeta becomes second cross-season tropical storm in history

tropical storm zeta has become the first storm of the after crossing over from as that seasons 27th storm, breaking the record set by earlier in december. this makes zeta the second tropical storm in history to cross over into another season; the first time this occurred was in 1954-55 with .

zeta currently has a top sustained wind speed of 50mph (85 km/h). it is currently about 1,085 miles (1745 km) southwest of the azores and is proceeding west-southwest at 2mph (4 km/h). forecasters say it is not expected to become a or threaten land.

zeta formed on december 30, 2005, after the official end of the destructive and record-breaking 2005 atlantic hurricane season, which ended on november 30, 2005. the 2005 season was notable for the record number of storms it produced (including zeta), and was the first time storm names used , , and and the second time the letters , , and were used. the season also had the highest-ever number of storms forming in the month of july, and had the highest number of with a total of three, including , the most intense hurricane ever in the atlantic basin.

the most notable of the three category 5 hurricanes was . katrina caused over $100 billion () in damage and 1,383 deaths, especially along and coastlines which suffered catastrophic damage. the storm also caused levees to break in leading to the flooding of the city which is located below sea-level. the , the city government of new orleans, and the government of the state of were all for their handling of the storms aftermath. hurricane katrina, although not yet certified, is most likely the costliest hurricane in u.s. history. 

forecasters are predicting that hurricane seasons are going to be more active than usual for about another decade.



russia cuts off gas supplies to ukraine

russia has ended exports of natural gas to neighbouring ukraine following a failure to reach a compromise over prices. gazprom, russia's natural gas behemoth, began cutting off supplies at 7:00 a.m. utc sunday, january 1. 

gazprom claims to have taken this action because ukraine refuses to pay the market rate for natural gas which is approximately four times higher than the price previously agreed upon by the two. ukraine has stated that they are not averse to higher prices but believe they ought to be introduced sequentially. additionally, russia does not want to honor its contract to supply gas at $50 per 1000 cubic meters until 2008. by comparison, gas produced by opec costs $11.4 per 1000 cubic feet (december 28, 2005), equivalent to $402.6 per 1000 cubic meters, an 8-fold rebate.

gazprom spokesman sergei kupriyanov said enough gas was still being piped via ukraine to maintain deliveries to other countries, and if they were not getting all their gas, it meant ukraine was tapping into it. eighty percent of russian gas exports to western europe pass through ukraine. 

"we have information from the ground that shows ukraine has started illegally siphoning off russian gas destined for european consumers," kupriyanov said. 

ukraine is of the position that since russia will not live up to the agreement to sell at $50 per 1000 cubic meters until 2008, ukraine as a transiting country, has the right to offset the illegal cost increase with seizure of russian assets - namely the gas going through the pipelines in ukraine.

sergei kupriyanov, press secretary to gazprom's chief executive, said "negotiations reach a deadlock when it comes to discussing actual figures ... they have called on us to use price parameters that probably existed in the late 1990s in 2006, which is impossible ... the price of gas and other energy resources has risen considerably over the past few years."

the dispute is also tied to the political situation between the two countries. although a private business, the largest individual shareholder in gazprom is the russian government which owns slightly less than 40%. the dispute was further politicized by the personal intervention of vladimir putin who offered ukraine the chance to delay paying market prices for a further three months. critics of the current russian government have argued that gazprom's action has been an attempt to punish ukraine for forging closer links with the west following the orange revolution. putin's advocates, however, have argued that the status quo is akin to a budgetary transfer between the two governments and costs russia about us$4.5 billion per year. 
special european commission has already counted gas independently,and confirmed its loss. but ukraine disagrees,saing,that it is unjust.german kanzler angela merkel hopes,that the conflict will end soon. 
and a recent poll conducted by vtsiom suggests that 80% of russian citizens support the move by gazprom. ukraine has threatened to retaliate by raising the rent that russia's navy pays to use the ukrainian port of sevastopol as headquarters for its black sea fleet, and refusing to repair russian rockets, which can be repaired only there. 

gazprom stops supplying gas to moldova



oklahoma city suburbs on fire

wildfires are burning homes in oklahoma city. winds in excess of 40 mph have grounded helicopters and tanker planes, the high winds are also driving the fires. firefighters have ordered an evacuation of several neighborhoods. at least three homes have burned. 200 homes have been evacuated. the area has had only a quarter-inch of rain since october with no relief in sight.

several fires have sprung up in the region over the past few days. nearly 30,00 acres of prairie have burned across texas. temperatures have ranged into the low 80s.



steelers defeat lions to advance to nfl playoffs

the pittsbugh steelers defeated the detroit lions 35-21 at heinz field in pittsburgh. the victory earns the steelers the final spot for an afc team in the nfl playoffs.

the steelers, who had a 10-5 record heading into the game, were strong favorites against the lions, who were 5-10. pittsburgh took an early lead on an 81 yard antwaan randle el punt return less than two minutes into the game. however, the lions fought back, with quarterback joey harrington throwing scoring passes on two consecutive drives in the first quarter to put detroit up 14-7.

veteran steelers running back jerome bettis scored the next three touchdowns, matching a career high. his third touchdown resulted in a standing ovation from the crowd of 63,794. this will likely be the last home game for bettis, as he is expected to retire at the end of this season.

the steelers (11-5) go on to play the bengals (11-5) in cincinnati next sunday at 4:00pm in the wildcard round. the steelers split their season series with the bengals winning 27-13 on october 23 in cincinnati, but losing 38-31 at home on december 4.

"we play [the bengals] twice a year and we know them," said steelers receiver hines ward. "it's not going to be easy, but we're more comfortable with them."

the other afc wildcard game has the jacksonville jaguars (12-4) visiting the new england patroits (10-6). the winners of the wild card round will face the indianapolis colts (14-2) or the denver broncos (13-3) in the divisonal round.


12 hurt in san luis de la balsa tourist bus accident

in san luis de la balsa, costa rica a tourist bus carrying foreign tourist flipped over in the highway about 55 miles northeast of the capital of san jose. at least a dozen people were injured. one man, dan mchugh, is a canadian who is among the people hurt.

mchugh says that the roads were slick which caused the bus to slide into a ditch and roll onto its side. he says that he was only cut by shattered glass while other passengers were pinned under the bus.

the nationalities of the other passengers is not immediately known, though mchugh said that there were australians on the bus and the u.s. embassy confirmed that there were citizens of the united states also.

one woman with serious injuries was air-lifted to a hospital in san jose while others were taken to local hospitals in nearby towns.


new zealand's south island and southern north island struck by storms

new zealand's warm sunny new year's weather has come to a sudden end as gale force winds and rain assault southern new zealand.

in parts of the south island new year campers have finished their holiday early as winds averaging 120km/h (75 m/h), gusting at times up to 180km/h (112 m/h), have blown in.

power went out to 1300 homes in the capital city wellington; flights were grounded at the airport, with incoming flights diverted to palmerston north airport. 

“the north island will also be affected by the low,” says metservice forecaster michael short, “with heavy rain around the tararua ranges and mt taranaki.”

the metservice has issued severe weather warnings for most of the south island and the southern portion of the north island; bad weather is also forecasted throughout the rest of the country. 

the metservice says to expect bad weather for the next 10 days as a deepening low moves south of stewart island, but a flow of westerly winds is expected to stay put all week.

holiday makers have been asked by metservice to review their holiday plans and keep up to date with the latest weather.


rape and murder suspects in ciudad juarez arrested

a 17-year-old girl was reportedly raped and murdered in ciudad juarez, mexico's fifth largest city, on christmas eve, and now 3 have been arrested in the incident. according to spokeswoman claudia elena banuelos of the chihuahua attorney general's office, the 3 men were drinking with the victim when one proposed having sex with her. when the victim refused the sex, the attackers raped her, according to the spokeswoman. one of the attackers then allegedly hit her in the head with a blunt object several times, and ran away when he saw she was unconscious. the 3 attackers were identified as mario loya aguirre, eleazar pena navarro and jorge armando sifuentes martinez. 

this was the 32nd murder of a woman in ciudad juarez in 2005 ? police have reportedly solved 26 of these murders.

more than 350 women have been murdered in juarez since 1993, according to federal investigators. a report from amnesty international indicates that as many as 400 women may be missing. at least a third of these killings followed a similar pattern in that young women were assaulted, strangled, and dumped in the desert. police incompetence, cover-ups, and even involvement in the murders have been alleged over the years.

 


redskins qualify for playoffs with win in philadelphia

the washington redskins defeated the philadelphia eagles 31-20 at lincoln financial field in philadelphia. with the win, the redskins advance to the nfl playoffs for the first time in six years.

the redskins pulled ahead in the first quarter, but the eagles answered with mike mcmahon throwing two touchdowns to rookie wide receiver reggie brown.

washington evened the score at 17 on the opening drive of the third quarter, thanks to a 54-yard pass to wide receivcer santana moss and a 6-yard running play by running back clinton portis. david akers put the eagles in the lead again with a 35-yard field goal on the next drive.

mcmahon then made a crucial mistake, when a bad pass was intercepted by line backer lemar mashall at the philadelphia 22 yard line. portis ran the ball up the sidelines on the next play for his second touchdown of the game, putting washington ahead 24-20. free safety sean taylor clinched the victory for the redskins with a 39-yard fumble return.

portis ran for a total of 112 yards in the game and set a franchise rushing record of 1,432 yards. this is the fifth win in a row for the redskins, who finish the regular season with a 10-6 record.

"looking back to 5-6, we talked at that time that if we lost another game we'd be out," said washington head coach joe gibbs. "trying to win five straight is a tough deal, but our guys seemed to understand what it would take. we went back to the basics."

the redskins go on to play the buccaneers (11-5) in tampa bay next saturday at 4:30pm in the wildcard round. the other nfc wild game has the carolina panthers (11-5) visiting the new york giants (11-5). the winners of the wild card round will face the seattle seahawks (13-3) or the chicago bears (11-5) in the divisional round.


new south wales firefighters continue to battle fires, threat eases

firefighters in the australian state of new south wales continue to battle bushfires across the state.

rural fire service commissioner phill koperberg said that there are still three fires on the central coast, while another fire in junee is moving north and is now spread over 35,000 hectares.

he added that it could take up to four days to contain the fires due to rain and strong winds. a southerly change blew through the state last night, easing temperatures and reducing the fire threat. no homes are believed to be under direct threat at this time.

it is feared that the weather which helped the fires take hold may return on the weekend.

fires on the central coast fires continue to affect road and rail transport between sydney and newcastle.

the sydney-newcastle freeway and the pacific highway have been reopened, although there is heavy traffic on the freeway at brooklyn and cowan. drivers have been advised to exercise caution due to thick smoke. trains travelling between the central coast and newcastle to sydney are heavily delayed.

only one person has been killed by the fires, a 65 year old man who suffered a heart attack while helping residents evacuate on the central coast.

27 fires are reported to be burning across new south wales.

 


row over australian flag at bondi pavilion

new south wales premier morris iemma has prompted controversy following recent race-riots, when he urged the waverley council to reconsider its decision not to fly the australian flag over the bondi (beach) pavilion community cultural centre.

"there is no problem with the flag and as for council banning the flag, it's absolute nonsense," responded waverley deputy mayor george newhouse. he said that the premier, who described the council's decision as divisive and disgraceful, did not understand the facts.

"we already fly the flag at bondi, we proudly fly the flag at bondi and this decision has absolutely nothing to do with racism or cronulla. it has everything to do with practical common sense," mr newhouse said. 

"the pavilion is a heritage-listed building and it will cost thousands of dollars to perform a heritage study and then erect the poles, which don't exist. we already have the flag, we love the flag, there is no problem with the flag and as for council banning the flag, it's absolute nonsense," said mr newhouse.

riots took place in december at cronulla, another sydney beach, with many of the proponents and commentators blaming inter-ethnic tensions for the outbreak.

premier iemma last week presented a new flag to the brighton-le-sands rsl club after its symbol was burnt during the december 11 riots.

of the waverly council decision, premier iemma said, "our flag is a symbol of national unity and the council decision is just ridiculous. they want to reconsider it immediately."

the council first voted against installing the flag in march 2005 because of a lengthy and expensive permit process. it is the second time in a year the council has rejected the motion. mayor of waverley, mora main, says there are already number of australian flags flying in the bondi beach area. she said their primary concern was cost - not just $150 for each flagpole, but more than $15,000 because of the need to do a heritage study and consult the community. 

"it's an iconic heritage building. anything that's done to the pavilion needs to go through a rigorous heritage process," cr main said. 

before imposing the ban, the council recently rejected an offer from federal mp malcolm turnbull to pay for an australian and aboriginal flag. 

however, mayor mora main says the council would now have a rethink. 

"i have called on the premier and mr turnbull to meet with me to discuss the appropriateness of putting flags on the pavilion and also how it can be funded," she said. "it's great to hear this discussion about the flags and i look forward to hearing everyone's ideas when we consult with the community." 


microsoft windows metafiles are a vector for computer viruses

microsoft windows metafiles have been discovered to be a vector for computer viruses, as they are treated as image files, but can execute machine code. windows metafiles often use the extension .wmf files, but they may also execute if their extension is .jpeg, .png or any other common image extension.

this vulnerability affects any windows software which displays images, including instant messenger software, email clients, and web browsers. firefox reduces the vulnerability by asking a user before executing windows metafiles, but metafiles masquerading as another format will still be executed automatically by the operating system.

microsoft has not yet issued a patch for the vulnerability, prompting ilfak guilfanov to release an unofficial patch. microsoft's security advisory recommends unregistering shimgvw.dll to disable handling of windows metafiles. critics point out that shimgvw.dll could become re-registered by malicious processes or other installations. they also suggest that malicious windows metafiles could merely remain "dormant" until shimgvw.dll is re-registered.

the exploit has been used to attack online forums which allow embedding of image files via <img> tags, prompting some gaming forums to disable <img> tags . any site accepting image media upload, such as avatars, will also be vulnerable if this site accepts .wmf files, possibly masquerading as another media file format. 

the exploit has also been used by an instant messaging worm, which appears to provide a backdoor for later exploitation via an irc bot .

the mcafee antivirus company said the wmf vulnerability is being exploited to drop over 30 variants of the bifrose backdoor trojan horse, and exploitation by other malware is likely. mcafee estimates the first generation of such exploits had infected more than 6% of their customer base by 31 december 2005. 

"the wmf vulnerability probably affects more computers than any other security vulnerability, ever," said mikko of f-secure. 



bolivian president-elect takes 50% pay cut to aid social programs

so more staff can be hired for bolivia's education, health and social programs, president elect evo morales announced that he and his cabinet will take a 50% pay cut. the 46-year-old leader slashed his future salary of about $3600 a month to $1800.

raising bolivia from its situation as one of the poorest countries in the world is a primary intention of the president elect. "it's a question of sharing the country's situation among us all." said morales. "this is a democratic revolution and we will answer the bolivian people's call."

cabinet ministers and all 157 members of morales' party that were elected to congress will also take a 50% pay cut, morales said. the salaries of 157 substitute congressmen will be eliminated.

morales, who is known across the country as "evo", is bolivia's first native indian president. growing up in poverty has marked his politics. he often says, "for a handful of people there is money, for the others, repression." evo will soon move from his rented single room of a shared house to bolivia's presidential palace.

morales also met with business and civic leaders on tuesday in a conciliatory meeting. morales said his government would create a stable legal and economic environment to attract investment and create jobs which was applauded by the bolivian elite.

"i do not have a professional education, but it is important that we co-operate. you have the professional capacity, i have the social consciousness".


coal miners trapped in west virginia mine

at approximately 6-6:30 am est, the sago coal mine, near buckhannon, experienced an explosion.

6 miners escaped shortly after the explosion, but 13 miners are still trapped in the mine, almost one mile underground, where methane gas is accumulating, making rescue efforts difficult.

nearby homes have been evacuated due to the high levels of methane gas, and fans are being used to help disperse the gas.

at this time it is unclear what has caused this explosion.

the mine is owned by international coal group inc.



pepsico buys poland's star foods

pepsico has acquired poland's star foods, a leading maker of snacks, for an undisclosed sum. the deal strengthens its position in poland in snacks sales such as potato chips. more than half of pepsico's total sales is from snacks, less than 20% is from soft drinks. 

star foods was selling potato chips under the brand star chips, and corn snacks under the brand mr. snaki. star foods was privately held by the mitzalis family, advent international, copernicus capital partners, and cazolico s.a.



new zealand's south island and southern north island struck by storms/brief

south island and southern north island are lashed by high winds, rain as a heavy low approaches. power outages in wellington, and the airport is closed with flight diverted to palmerston-north. met service has severe weather warnings up, and predicts bad weather for the next 10 days.


news briefs:january 2, 2006

south island and southern north island are lashed by high winds, rain as a heavy low approaches. power outages in wellington, and the airport is closed with flight diverted to palmerston-north. met service has severe weather warnings up, and predicts bad weather for the next 10 days.


evgeny adamov will be extradited to russia

following 8 months of deliberations,a switzerland court has decided to extradite evgeny adamov to russia, rather than the united states, where he will face corruption charges. the us warrant for the arrest accused adamov, a former nuclear energy minister, of diverting $9 million slated to improve russia's nuclear security to private projects in the us and russia. he was arrested while visiting switzerland to help his daughter who had had her bank account frozen.

mikhail kamynin, a spokesman for the russian foreign ministry, said "we are plased with the federal court's decision, although we are talking about an independent court. therefore, we assume that all the formalities will be fulfilled in the shortest time ."

adamov has defended himself, admitting that he put us money into his private accounts, but claiming that this was common practice in russia and was necessary to shield the money from hyperinflation and instability in the banking system.


australian government to consider dropping us fta amendment

an amendment of the us fair trade agreement insisted by the opposition may be dropped after lobbying by the us pharmaceutical industry.

mark latham, former opposition leader negotiated the "evergreening" amendment to ensure that drug companies could not extend patents to fight off cheaper generic versions of their medicines. companies caught doing so may receive multi-million dollar fines. the us pharmaceutical industry claims that the provisions are harming investment.

acting prime minister, mark vaile said "we will have a look at it, if (the evergreening issue) is raised by the americans".

"(but) the us will have to prove that labor's evergreening amendment is commercially detrimental, not just philosophically detrimental."

a health department secretary will travel to washington on january 13 to discuss the issue before a formal review of the fta in march.


broadway market cafe occupied against gentrification

for several weeks, a group of local residents has kept francesca's cafe on 34 broadway market, hackney, east london occupied day and night to prevent its demolition and conversion into luxury flats by property developer dr roger wratten.

the occupation was evicted on 21st december by police and bailiffs, and workmen began a partial demolition, but a new group of supporters re-occupied the building on 26th december and have begun rebuilding it including new walls and a replacement roof.

the cafe was bought by dr. wratten from hackney council as part of a number of sales in the street, now surrounded by controversy, and was run by tony platia who had worked there for over 30 years. hundreds of people have attended the cafe in the past few weeks to show support.




colombia signs fta with mercosur

president alvaro uribe signed, on december 30, 2005, a law that ratifies a fta with mercosur and gives colombian products preferential access to a market of 230 million people. colombian entrepreneurs will also be able to import materials and capital goods from mercosur at lower costs due to reduced tariffs resulting from the agreement.

the agreement’s asymmetry clauses favor colombia because it allows the gradual and progressive reduction of tariffs and likewise gives colombia the opportunity to gradually reform its production system to adapt it to the requirements of future negotiations within the scheme of mercosur and the south american community of nations

this agreement along with previous treaties signed with the andean community, mexico, chile and the fta with the united states currently under negotiation, highlight the geographic position of colombia as a center for investment.



bank of america completes acquisition of mbna

bank of america corp. has completed its acquisition of mbna corp. in a deal worth about $34.2 billion. bank of america now has 40 million active credit card accounts. mbna was a leader in affinity marketing with relationships with organizations like the nfl and l.l. bean. shareholders of mbna will receive .5009 common shares of bank of america plus $4.125 in cash for each share. mbna had 24,700 employees prior to the deal, bank of america had over 177,000. 6,000 of those jobs will be eliminated saving the bank $850 million by 2007. bank of america is the world's second largest bank.



octranspo's &quot;new year&quot; of efficiencies?

anyone riding the oc transpo ottawa municipal bus service's express bus routes this morning and this afternoon, in the ottawa area, was probably greeted with an empty bus, and inherently, a "fast and efficient" ride. this is in part because most government workers where off from work still celebrating their christmas holidays and buses were operating on a "holiday schedule;" a lack of planning on behalf of oc transpo.

though, according to oc transpo, the "holiday schedule" means buses this week shall be running a little less often, in reality there isn't that much difference than the regular schedule. to be more precise, from 05h48 until 07h20, on the express 27 route there will be 5 less buses during the "holiday schedule" compared to the "regular schedule." 

"this is probably going to be fine for the rest of this week, when government employees start coming back to work", said yves roy, an oc transpo driver, "but today was a holiday and it appears that express routes only had an average of about 2 to 4 passengers." 

"on my ride in to work, at around 6:10 a.m. this morning, nobody else got on the bus. it was like having a personal stretch limo to myself," said patrick roy, a guard for the commissionaires. also, at around 4:15 p.m. another oc transpo bus driver, whom wished to remain anonymous, stated, "you are the first person i picked up today." he had been working since the morning doing express runs. he then added, "this is a waste of tax payers money." 

ottawa's brt "transitway," has indicated that it cost approximately 42.58$ can per hour to run a diesel bus. it is estimated that 729 express buses ran today for approximatelly 7 hours costing approximatelly 217,287$ can. the cost of operating oc transpo is split between transit fares collected and the tax base (mostly municipal, with some federal and provincial contributions.)

"we then continued to talk about waste of fuel, employee pay, insurance liability issues and even went into details about such hot political items as the kyoto agreement and conservatism," said patrick. "once the driver reached place d'orleans the second passenger joined in the conversation. the driver then took a faster alternate route and dropped us off not far from our homes."

according to peter dickson, editor at the ottawa citizen, last year oc transpo buses followed a 'reduced' sunday schedule and this created havoc on the system. peter asked, if "perhaps this year they where trying to compensate for this inefficiency?" 

amalgamated transit union (atu), oc transpo's union representative has indicated, "at current fleet levels, ottawa's roads would be choked with about 40,000 more cars each rush hour if not for oc transpo." atu suggests 70 per cent of trips in ottawa are now made by car. however, seemingly, due to returning vacationers and other reasons, today may have created an increase in the use of cars and influenced this statistic. according to city councillor clive doucet's web page "currently, 17% of all trips residents make in ottawa are on public transit, up from 15% in the mid-nineties. as a comparison, paris’ modal split is 40% or higher taking public transit while los angeles’ modal split is around 2% for public transit." analysing ridership on a large scale seems to be an important element for the city.

according to ottawa mayor bob chiarelli, "we used to be able to plan a transit system for up to 12 years ahead, with assured funding." this of course is in reference to provincial government funding.
"it would make me happier if we took all of the (fuel taxes) and put them into the transportation infrastructure," mr. hunt, president of the canadian automobile association says. "but we don't have a plan." 

"usually oc transpo bus drivers have two 4 months bookings, for the fall and the winter and two 2 months booking for the spring and for the summer," said yves roy. "for the first time in march 2005, there was a special 1 week booking for the march break that rearranged and redistributed drivers of certain high school bus runs. during previous march breaks, drivers would show up usually waiting 30 or more minutes in an "idling" bus." 

is there such thing as to much efficiency? today is an example of buses and drivers being very efficient. on the other hand, it may be a lack of efficiency within oc transpo's booking department, upper management and the governments.



 

13 coal miners trapped in west virginia mine

13 american coal miners were trapped 2 miles (3 kilometers) inside the sago coal mine in the us state of west virginia. they were trapped since 6:40 am eastern, monday, january 2 following a methane gas explosion which caused the shaft to collapse. rescue operations have commenced and at last report they were 1,400 feet from the location of the miners.

governor joe manchin, who lost an uncle in a 1968 mining disaster is there along with families who held a vigil in the sago baptist church.




sydney opera house 'no war' activists face court for paint cans

two activists convicted for painting the words "no war" in five-metre-high red letters on the highest sail of sydney opera house in march 2003, are facing court action again to prevent them from auctioning the equipment used to paint the controversial sign. 

dr will saunders and david burgess were sentenced to nine months periodic detention and ordered to pay the opera house trust $151,000 for malicious damage to the building on march 18, 2003.

the pair spent six months in jail for painting the slogan on one of the sails of the opera house on the eve of the invasion of iraq. the protesters say they wish to auction the equipment for humanitarian causes in iraq.

police confiscated the paint can and two brushes used in the incident and have now applied for a court order to have the can and brushes destroyed. they are saying such an auction would contravene proceeds of crime laws.

saunders said they wanted to auction the can and send the proceeds to humanitarian causes in iraq. according to the australian newspaper, mr saunders said the auction could be conducted by a registered charity to raise money for the mother and child hospital in basra. 

he said the can should also be preserved as an important piece of sydney history. 

"we want to give the surplus money that we've raised, and anything extra we can make from an auction ? not only the paint pot ... i think we can raise many many thousands of dollars," he said. "we'd be happy to come to any reasonable arrangement with the police about how this auction takes place ... it's just mean beyond belief, petty-minded just to destroy it."

the matter will go before a sydney court on january 16. 

meanwhile, the world-famous sydney opera house is one of 21 international landmarks short-listed to become the new seven wonders of the world. the list includes modern landmarks such as paris' eiffel tower and older candidates like the colosseum in rome and china's great wall.


miners survive underground fire in tasmania

three miners have escaped uninjured after being trapped underground by a mineshaft fire on tasmania's west coast. the men took shelter in a chamber more than a kilometre underground. a worker noticed smoke coming from a shaft at avebury nickel mine on trial harbour road near zeehan at 7.45am. 

the blaze started after a truck working 400 metres underground toppled and caught fire. it took nearly five hours for rescue teams to bring the blaze under control, move the burning truck and reach the trapped miners.

allegiance mining chairman tony howland-rose said the workers were safe. "the emergency response procedures in place at avebury were activated and resulted in the vehicle fire being extinguished and the safe rescue of the miners," mr howland-rose said.

ambulance crews say the men appear to be in good health. queenstown police inspector mark beech-jones says rescue workers reached the men just before midday.

"we've dispatched a number of ambulance service personnel there just to give them a check up but from our initial discussions with them, they are fine," he said.

the avebury nickel mine is a new project for the sydney-based company - allegiance mining. allegiance suspended trading on the stock exchange this morning. mr howland-rose said the suspension of trading would be in place until it became clear what had happened at the mine. 

the mine is undergoing a $60 million redevelopment and was due to resume mining later this year.


southern ocean whale slaughter to resume

the international environmental organisation, greenpeace, have been shadowing a japanese whaling fleet currently operating in the southern ocean in australian antarctic territory. they claim a minor victory against the six-vessel fleet, saying no whales have been killed since christmas eve. however they expect a resumption of whaling and protest activity soon.

greenpeace has two ships, mv esperanza and mv arctic sunrise, active near antarctica, in an effort to disrupt the whalers, who intend on slaughtering over 900 minke whales and 10 fin whales in the region this summer. the activists aim to stop the japanese whaling fleet as it tries to catch nearly 1000 whales for what is claimed to be scientific research.

greenpeace chief steve shallhorn states that the protesters have chased the six-ship fleet northwards, with the vessels now away from the designated whaling zone. greenpeace plan to maintain their efforts to keep the whalers in the public eye.

"what the fleet is doing is trying to outrun greenpeace so that it can sneak back into the whaling grounds and resume the kill," he said. "and for that very reason, we're doing our very best and are succeeding in keeping up with the factory whaling ship. we are certain that they do not want any further publicity."

he said greenpeace will continue its high-speed tailing for as long as it takes. "we're capable of staying out there for many more weeks," he said. "the [japanese] fleet is clearly embarrassed by having their actions exposed to the world, since the spotlight on their activities shows what it really is - commercial whaling with a very thin disguise."

the whalers have been unable to kill any whales since christmas eve due to poor weather and harassment by greenpeace vessels, and the washington-based sea shepherd ship, rv farley mowat. the sea shepherd is operating independently of greenpeace but say they are working towards a common objective ? "the shutting down of illegal whaling in the southern ocean."

greenpeace expedition leader shane rattenbury says the whalers have a season of about 100 days. "their quota is 945 whales. if you lose, say, 10 per cent of those through bad weather, they've got an average they need to catch of 10 a day and it's gone 10 days now without having any whales," he said. "that starts to add up pretty quickly. they're under a bit of pressure to get on with the business."

japan's institute for cetacean research have rejected the claims made by sea shepherd, that japanese warship was being sent to antarctica to protect the fleet against the activists. 

the japanese institute spokesman condemned sea shepherd over the claim by farley mowat captain paul watson, who called on the australian government to keep the peace. 

sea shepherd had requested the presence of the australian navy to monitor events in the southern ocean. however, australia's environment minister, senator ian campbell, said that sea shepherd's threats to attack the fleet "risk setting back the cause of whale conservation many years".

capt watson said yesterday: "stop threatening us, mr campbell, and charge us if you believe we are acting unlawfully. stop posing for the japanese [who] are in blatant violation of international conservation laws."

japan's fisheries agency, which conducts the whaling, said the claim was a tactic by sea shepherd to try to raise the stakes for extra publicity.

"this is why the environmentalists' campaign in the antarctic is a pr stunt: every time they get some media coverage there's always some member not too far away asking the public for money," an agency spokesman said in a statement. "only this time, it completely backfired and now people will question what these groups say."

the spokesman had no response to greenpeace's claim that another vessel had joined the whaling fleet and was refuelling the ships within the boundary of the antarctic treaty's nature reserve.

mr rattenbury said the 57 activists and crew aboard the greenpeace ships were in good health following a quiet new year's day celebration on deck under a midnight sun.

he said his ships were not in contact with the farley mowat, which is believed to be closer to the antarctic ice shelf. the farley mowat's weblog quoted ship captain paul watson as saying the sea shepherd group had no conflict with greenpeace, despite earlier british media assertions.

"as far as i am concerned both sea shepherd and greenpeace are working towards a common objective ? the shutting down of illegal whaling in the southern ocean," said paul watson.

greenpeace believes the fleet killed at least 25 whales from the time it contacted the whalers just before christmas.



bomb blasts in athens destroy finnish diplomat's car

three home made bombs exploded during the night in athens, greece. one of the bombs destroyed a finnish diplomat's car. no one was injured in the bombings and a greek group claiming to be anarchists has told local media that it committed the bombings as retaliation for the jailing of fellow anarchists. the finnish foreign ministry has said that it believes it was an accident that finnish diplomatic property was damaged - as all the evidence points to this -, and finnish diplomats in athens are said to be calm.


us survey finds advertising contributes to increased underage drinking

a survey to test whether exposure to alcohol advertisements affects alcohol consumption by young people found that advertising does contribute to increased drinking, including among underage drinkers.

researchers from the university of connecticut surveyed 15 to 26 year olds, who reported their alcohol consumption over the previous month. the research then correlated this with the respondent's exposure to advertisement, and the money spent by companies on alcohol ads. the alcohol industry's measured media expenditure is roughly $1.8 billion per year. 

the study found that those youngsters exposed to more ads also drank more, and that markets with greater alcohol advertising expenditures also had greater alcohol consumption. these findings also oheld for drinking by those younger than the legal drinking age of 21 years. 

alcohol use by the youth has been a matter of public concern, as it has been linked with lowered educational performance, risky sexual activity, motor accidents and addiction. other surveys have found that underage drinkers account for 20% of alcohol consumption. alcohol advertising is not subject to federal legislation, the industry follows a voluntary code of conduct. 

while many studies have found an association between alcohol advertising and use, the question of whether the link is a causal one is still unanswered. the present survey uses market-level measures of advertising to address criticism of previous studies that relying on self-reported exposure to advertisements might be biased as those who drink may be more likely to pay attention to, and remember the ads. 

the study found greater ad-spending in a market was related to both higher levels of youth drinking and steeper increases in drinking over time, which continued until respondents were in their mid-twenties. the link also held the other way: less alcohol advertising associated with less drinking, more modest increases in consumption over time during the respondents' early twenties and a steady decline in consumption after this period. the results are consistent with findings from studies of advertising bans. 

the study was funded by the national institute of alcohol abuse and alcoholism

the industries voluntary guidelines specify that 70 percent of the audience for its advertising be at least 21 years old, the legal drinking age. industry groups have claimed that its advertising affects only those older than the legal drinking age and that advertising at best causes brand switching. reacting to the study, representatives of the alcohol industry in the uk, which has one of the highest youth drinking rates in europe, said that there was a strict system in place controlling advertising. but studies have found that there is often greater concentrations of alcohol advertisements in media aimed at youth than at adults. 


presidential candidate of haiti, dany toussaint, arrested by united nations troops

former senator and former police chief dany toussaint was arrested by united nations troops on alleged possession of illegal weapons. according to police sources toussaint was arrested by chilean troops when they found the weapons on him in cap-haitien. toussaint was driving through a police checkpoint when the troops spotted the weapons and arrested him.

one police official said, "dany toussaint was carrying several weapons for which he has no valid authorization."

among the alleged weapons are those obtained from parliament when toussaint became a senator, but they were to be returned when his term as senator ended. the u.s. drug enforcement administration has suspected toussaint of drug trafficking in the past. toussaint was also the suspect in the 2000 murder of a radio journalist, jean dominique. currently toussaint runs a private security company.


russia assumes leadership of g8 for 2006

russia became chair of the "group of eight" (g8) on 1 january. it took the chair from great britain. the g8 summit will take place in july in .

russia joined the club of the highest developed countries in the world in 1997. before, the "group of eight" had been the "group of seven", the members being the u.s.a., canada, japan, germany, france, great britain, and italy.

as the chair country, russia is planning to discuss the following issues among the g8-countries:


in 2007, the chair of the "group of eight" will be passed to germany.

"this is a translation of the russian article "Россия ? председатель ≪Большой восьмёрки≫" from the russian wikinews, see .


7.1 magnitude earthquake in fiji

a powerful earthquake measuring 7.1 on the richter scale has struck in the pacific ocean off the coast of fiji on monday at 22:13 (10:13pm) (utc).

the quake hit 579 kilometers below the earth's surface about 100 kilometers north east of ndoi, the us geological survey said.

no damage or injuries have been reported following the quake and the pacific tsunami warning center said they did not expect it to trigger a tsunami as the quake happened far below the earth's surface.

lasarusa veutibau, a seismologist at fiji's mines and resources department, said the quake was too deep to have been felt anywhere in the fiji islands.


abramoff pleads guilty to three charges

jack abramoff pled guilty today to charges of mail fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy charges stemming from the indian tribes investigation.

abramoff, founder and former chairman of the international freedom foundation and former member of the board of directors of the national center for public policy research, reportedly agreed to cooperate in the prosecutor's case against abramoff's former business partners, who are subjects of the suncruz casinos fraud investigation. part of the three-count indictment charged abramoff with influence-peddling a house representative's scotland golf trip with us$50,000. the money in question was solicited from an indian tribe in texas by abramoff, and is rumoured to have gone to representative bob ney (r-oh).

in exchange for his testimony, mr. abramoff is expected to be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years imprisonment, and will be allowed to serve sentences concurrently. he is due in a florida court on wednesday in regards to the suncruz case.


rose parade continues amidst downpour

on the morning of monday, january 2, 2006, the 117th tournament of roses rose parade marched through pasadena, california in only the tenth occurrence of rain on the morning of the parade. fifty mile-an-hour winds buffeted the crowds of spectators for hours before and during the festivities.

many spectators had purchased grandstand tickets for $50 or more only to find the aluminum benches cold and exposed to the winds. umbrellas were ubiquitus though difficult to use effectively in the storm-like conditions. virtually anyone present for more than an hour had a poncho of some sort. those who partook in the traditional campout to claim free seating on the street often left only a single person to stoically wait out the storm until morning, most preferring to sleep in dryer conditions. crowds were smaller than normal.

vendors fared somewhat differently, depending on what they sold. sales of hot food and drinks, umbrellas, ponchos, and tarps were up while sales of pre-packaged snacks and programs were down. many street vendors left once sales or inventory dried up (figuritively speaking).



two deaths unreported in natrecor study

johnson and johnson has released information that two patients have died after taking the company's heart drug natrecor. the deaths were not included in a report of a study the company released in october, and the company says they did not know of the two deaths when the original report was released. the company intends to reanalyze the data to see if these two deaths are of statistical significance to the drug's risk.

natrecor is a drug used to treat acute heart failure and has been approved by the fda since 2001. the fda told the company a year ago to further explore the mortality data, in which the company said to have not found a statistically significant difference for mortality between the drug and a placebo.

a new report is said to be available in march about the possible health effects of the drug.



australia first begins revival campaign

the australia first party is writing to its supporters requesting that they become members in order to re-register as a political party in australia. australia first is seen as a far-right wing party with nationalist ideals.

the party was founded in 1996 by graeme campbell a member of the house of representatives and the australian labor party. in 2001, graeme campbell, one nation offered to endorse him as a senate candidate in western australia. he failed to be elected in the october 2001 election and has remained within the one nation party. 

the party was de-registered by the australian electoral commission in 2004 for not nominating a single federal election candidate for four years.

recently it has been alleged that the australia first party and its offspring the patriotic youth league had been involved in organising the racial violence in sydney in december last year. the party denies this claiming "there is no way a small group of young nationalists could organise 10,000 people to gather at cronulla beach". however the party's website does claim that "australian youth and families should support the cronulla mass mobilisation on december 11".

once the party has been re-registered with the australian electoral commission it intends to contest local government elections in the sutherland shire, marrickville, coffs harbour and newcastle before running for federal parliament in 2007.

the party's nsw secretary, jim saleam said "what's being done in australia now is a situation where the european identity is being deprecated further, to the point where europeans will disappear next century".

"under certain circumstances that would be called a genocide, but it's not, it's called progress."

mr saleam was jailed for three-and-a-half years in 1991 for possessing a firearm and organising a shotgun attack on the home of the african national congress australian representative, eddie funde.

the party needs 500 correctly completed membership applications to apply to the aec for re-registration. the registration process will then take up to 12 weeks.


basf makes $4.9 billion hostile bid for engelhard

basf has made a $4.9 billion hostile bid for engelhard corp. engelhard is a us based supplier of pollution control devices such as catalytic converters, which it invented. engelhard holds 35% of the world market on such pollution control devices. the bid is $37 a share in cash and may be increased by $1 a share. 

basf has over $4.79 billion for acquisitions after it sold basell nv plastics in august. 

if the acquisition goes through it will be the biggest ever hostile takeover of a us company by a european firm according to bloomberg.

engelhard shares have surged above the offer price on the news to about $38 a share. some speculate dow chemical co., the largest us chemical maker, will make a competing offer. 

"dow has an automotive materials business like basf, and is diversified like basf so that it could use all the pieces" said john roberts, a buckingham research analyst.

us regulations going into effect in 2007 are tighter on emmissions. this will increase the demand for engelhard's catalytic converters. limits are getting tighter in the eu and japan as well.

dow chemical declined to comment on the bid or the possibility of the corporation making a bid, stating "it's dow's policy not to comment on speculation regarding possible investment opportunities".



australia records hottest year on record

australia has officially recorded its warmest year on record. according to the bureau of meteorology, (bom) 2005 was the hottest year since reliable, widespread temperature observations became available in 1910. data collected by the bureau show australia's annual mean temperature for 2005 was 1.09°c above the standard 1961-90 average.

the bureau of meteorology says the result is more evidence of climate change. 

the bureau's blair trewin said: "we've seen things like the general retreat of the winter snow line. we've seen a marked decrease in the frequency of frost, especially in inland queensland," dr trewin said. "we've seen an increase in the number of extreme hot days."

and the warming trend is likely to continue. "all the projections we have from climate models we would expect to see continued warming through the 21st century," he said. "numbers like this ... are another piece of evidence that climate change is real and it's a real issue."

despite unseasonably cool weather in the south west of western australia, 2005 was a hot year over most of the nation, with the northern territory (nt) bearing the brunt. the nt area-average maximum temperature was 1.45°c above the long-term mean, the largest anomaly of any state or territory. 

the previous record of +0.84°c was set in 1998. the bureau says that while these temperature departures may seem relatively small, a 1°c increase in mean temperatures is equivalent to many southern australian towns shifting northward by about 100km.

all states and territories, apart from victoria and tasmania, recorded 2005 mean temperatures amongst their top two warmest years on record. the only region recording a cooler than normal year was a coastal strip of western australia extending from cape leeuwin to carnarvon.

australia's previous warmest years on record were influenced by significant el nino events, say the bureau. however, no such event occurred in 2005, making the record warmth even more unusual. since 1979, all but four years have been warmer than average in australia.

australian temperatures have increased by approximately 0.9oc since 1910 - consistent with global warming trends. scientific studies have linked global and australian temperature increases to the enhanced greenhouse effect. 

the early months of 2005 were also very dry over much of australia with the january-may period being the 2nd driest on record. australia's area-averaged rainfall is calculated from a network of around 5000 rainfall stations. observations from this network reveal that, when compared to historical records, tasmania was the wettest state in 2005, while queensland and western australia were the driest. 

over the new year bushfires have caused havoc in many parts of australia, with houses, farm stock devastated. thousands of hectares of bushland and farmland have been burnt out.

environmentalists say the weather is a precursor of things to come: "2005 gave us a little taste of what life will be like if we fail to tackle climate change," greenpeace's catherine fitzpatrick said. "the extreme heat and bushfires of new year's day 2006 showed that it isn't going to be fun. if action isn't taken soon to avoid catastrophic climate change, australians will have john howard to blame for failing to act when he had the chance."

ms fitzpatrick said the federal government was as beholden to the coal and aluminium industries as the japanese government was to whaling companies, and with far more devastating impacts. "today's figures should spur our environment minister ... to real action ? ratify kyoto, quit coal and move towards clean, renewable energy," ms fitzpatrick said.

the howard government claims it is taking appropriate action. federal environment minister ian campbell said he recognised climate change was the biggest modern-day environmental challenge. "i think that climate change is alarming," he said on abc radio. "i regard climate change as the number one environmental challenge ... it is a huge and serious challenge. these figures add to the weight of evidence that climate change is real and it's a problem that the world needs to work together to seek to solve."

australia and the united states are the only developed nations to have refused to sign the kyoto protocol, which calls on countries to cut greenhouse emissions by 5.2 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012.

the government argues kyoto will not work because it does not commit developing nations to reducing emissions. "kyoto excludes most of the emissions in the world. it only covers just over a third of the countries of the world and ... we need something that includes all countries of the world," said senator campbell.

many regions across the globe also reported an exceptionally warm year. according to a preliminary estimate released by the world meteorological organization (wmo), the global mean temperature for 2005 was about 0.48°c above normal, putting 2005 amongst the four warmest years globally since records commenced in 1861. 



12 coal miners are found dead, 1 in critical condition, in west virginia mine

according to many news sources including "cnn" and "usa today", reports indicate that 12 coal miners have been found dead in the mine in sago, west virginia and only one has survived, reversing reports three hours earlier that 12 had been found alive -- a report that had caused celebration amongst family members and friends. 

the family members of the dead miners were notified of the deaths by ben hatfield, ceo of the international coal groi[, at the sago baptist church. hatfield blamed the reversal on "bad information" and "miscommunication." 

"what happened is that through stray cell phone conversations it appears that this miscommunication from the rescue team underground to the command center was picked up by various people that simply overheard the conversation that was relayed over cell phone communications without our ever having made a [public news] release," explained hatfield.

family members walked out of the church saying that the ceo of the mining company had "lied to them". the surviving miner, randal mccloy, is currently in critical condition at ruby memorial hospital in morgantown, west virginia.

the united states mine safety and health administration issued the mine 208 citations last year, an increase from 68 reported in 2004. federal regulations cover concerns over accumulations of combustible materials, including methane gas and coal dust from loose coal, in addition to other safety issues. the agency has announced that it plans launch a in-depth investigation into the incident at sago. the investigation will examine the mine's compliance with health and safety standards and how emergency information was communicated.



new zealand holiday road toll: 20 fatalities

the new zealand christmas ? new year road toll has climbed to 9 more than the 11 deaths in the entire period last year, after a korean man became the 20th victim when his car ended up in a canal.

the official christmas-new year road toll runs between 4pm on 24th december and 6am on 4th january.

the final tally still needs to be officially confirmed by the police; this should happen in the next 1 to 2 months. police national road safety manager, inspector john kelly, says “the final toll may fluctuate, depending on the outcome of investigations into the crashes that took place."

the fatalities are: eight passengers, seven drivers, three motorcyclists and two pedestrians. 

"the toll is one of the highest” says andy knackstedt, from ltnz, “it's certainly nearly double the number that died on the roads [in the holiday period] last year”. 

in 2005, for the full year, 404 people died on new zealand roads, which is 31 less than the previous year.



wildfires still burn in oklahoma, texas

norman, okla. ? national weather service officials are warning of continued fire dangers throughout oklahoma and texas due to serious drought conditions.

more than 220 homes and businesses have been destroyed by fire in oklahoma since nov. 1, according to the oklahoma department of emergency management. wildfires in 29 of the state’s 77 counties have claimed more than 360,000 acres. meanwhile, officials in texas say 238 homes and 254,555 acres have been lost to wildfires in that state since dec. 26.

unseasonably warm weather and wind gusts of up to 40 mph have combined to make an already dangerous situation worse across the southern plains, which also include parts of kansas, colorado and new mexico, said jason levit of the national storm prediction center in norman.

“the region also continues to remain in a severe to extreme drought situation,” levit said. “dry surface vegetation will continue to serve as an excellent fuel for any fires that develop.”

some dry areas, such as the rocky mountains and great lakes, may soon see some much-needed rain. levit says the already fire-ravaged southern plains will have no such luck, however, and people should be aware of the severe danger that will continue to threaten the region.

in oklahoma, state authorities and the national guard have established a command post in shawnee, about 40 miles east of oklahoma city, where they have been joined by officials from the u.s. forest service, the bureau of indian affairs, and the national weather service.

the state was granted access to relief from the federal emergency management agency on dec. 28, said gov. brad henry. the governor requested fire management grants to help cover expenses related to the wildfires that began the previous day. fema’s approval means funds are now available to local governments and volunteer fire departments that responded to the blazes in hughes and seminole counties. requests involving nine other counties were approved in the days that followed.

fires hit the northeastern part of oklahoma city, the state’s capital and largest city, on sunday. fires were said to have destroyed 20 homes over the weekend.

a national guard helicopter and firefighters from north carolina were sent to battle a blaze near the town of davis, in south-central oklahoma, on tuesday. meanwhile, the bia sent two airplanes to help fight a fire near eufaula, in eastern oklahoma. three other bia aircraft aided crews fighting fires near wewoka, in central oklahoma, and additional fires were reported near knowles, oklahoma city, ponca city and tishmingo.

authorities said additional national guard helicopters and forest service planes are available to battle other fires as they break out.
in addition to teams from north carolina, other firefighters from alabama, florida, and tennessee have arrived and are being stationed throughout the state.

the oklahoma state medical examiner’s office said one man has died from injuries sustained from recent wildfires. a 68-year-old hughes county man died dec. 28 from thermal burns and smoke inhalation. the death is in addition to that of a 68-year-old carter county woman who died last month while trying to use a garden hose to save her home from being consumed by flames.

the governor’s office said the state continues to await word on a request for a federal disaster declaration made friday. a disaster declaration by president george w. bush would qualify oklahoma for federal funds to place firefighters ahead of where blazes are burning, and would provide temporary housing assistance and low-interest loans for those whose homes or businesses have been destroyed.

texas authorities say they have 92 aircraft and 650 state workers working to fight fires, and have been joined by crews from alabama, florida, louisiana, tennessee, and wisconsin. the u.s. forest service is also helping the state to handle the emergency.

despite efforts, wildfires on monday claimed nearly the entire town of ringgold, destroying 45 buildings that comprised about 80 percent of the town.



dubai leader sheikh maktoum bin rashid al maktoum dead

"his highness sheikh maktoum bin rashid al maktoum, vice president and prime minister of the uae and ruler of dubai has passed away. he was 62 years old."

the above statement from the ministry of presidential affairs confirmed that the ruler of dubai died earlier this morning in australia. the statement added that "the uae had lost a historical leader from its leaders who dedicated his life to building the country, and strove to do his best for its people." 

the official mourning period will last for 40 days, during which all uae flags will fly at half mast. ministries and government organisations will be closed for seven days, starting wednesday. 

local stock markets in abu dhabi and dubai shed 1.8% and 3.3%, respectively, in early trading.

the dubai shopping festival, the largest business & cultural event in dubai's calendar, has been postponed until further notice, in a statement by ceo saeed al nabouda.

sheikh mohammed bin rashid al maktoum has been named the new ruler of dubai, in an accession process that officials described as being automatic. 


gazprom stops supplying gas to moldova

the russian concern gazprom stopped supplying gas to moldova on january 1, as the latter did not sign a gas supply contract, which stipulates a price of 160 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres for the next three months, according to officials of chisinau and russian concern gazprom.

in connection with this situation, vladimir voronin, current president of moldova, cancelled his winter vacation and created on monday, 2 january, an anti-crisis group, composed of the representatives of the cabinet and sa moldova-gaz.

at the moment, moldova is ensured gas from ukraine, in proportion of 50%, according to an agreement between voronin and his ukrainian counterpart viktor yushchenko.

the head of the moldovan state stated that, theoretically, he agrees to accept the market prices of gas, but, pursuant to him, these must be "logical and not illusory”. 

moldova will continue negotiations with gazprom. an operative staff on energy security headed by minister vladimir antosii was created for this purpose.

chisinau officials say that an agreement on transit of russian gas through moldova should be signed on january 3, and an agreement on new prices was expected to be signed later. the situation in moldova, which does not have other gas sources, is unique, as 15 percent of the natural gas supplies of russia are transited to the west through moldova's territory. negotiators have recently agreed in moscow on a transit price of 2.5 dollars for transportation of 1,000 cubic metres on a distance of 100 kilometres. 


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13 dead when roof crashes over ice-skating ring

this is an excerpt translation of a text found on the german wikipedia site, with an update. 

bad reichenhall, germany.
the roof over the local ice and tennis court crashed shortly after the end of the official skating time on 2 jan 05, at about 16.50 hrs. at the time, there were about 50 people inside, mostly families with children. by 10 pm, five had been found dead, one child among them. 20 to 25 people have been injured, just as many are missing. 

the reason for the cave-in of the roof was most likely massive snowfalls. earlier that afternoon, measurements had been taken to determine its stability. icehockey training had been cancelled for that day. continuing snowfalls hinder the rescue efforts. 

update on 4 january, 15:42 gmt: so far, 14 bodies have been found. 



two mormon missionaries gunned down in virginia

the new year started off on a violent note in chesapeake, virginia, when, just after 6 p.m. est on january 2nd, two missionaries from the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints were shot. the missionaries had apparently parked their bicycles to begin door-to-door proselytizing when they were approached and fired upon by an unidentified assailant. 

the men, ages 21 and 19, were both hit. one of the individuals was killed, and the other is in good condition at a nearby hospital. although there has been some speculation that the missionaries were shot because they may have witnessed a crime, no specific details are available at this time. the gunman, described as a 5'10" black male, escaped on foot.

the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints has approximately 56,000 young men and women performing full-time missionary work throughout the world. missionary work is done on a volunteer basis, and young men are expected to serve a mission shortly after their 19th birthday. male missionaries remain in the field for two years unless there are extenuating circumstances.

the murder was chesapeake's first such crime of 2006. there were 15 murders in the city in 2005.



red colored eu passports worry lithuanian politicians

the old european union countries have asked the us to put back its biometric passport deadline for another year, as biometric data inclusion issues still needed to be resolved. 

in the meantime, the new eastern eu countries are more preoccupied with less sophisticated issues relating to passports, namely the uniform colour required for all eu states.

in former ussr states such as the baltic state of lithuania this new burgundy-colored document may remind many of the soviet-era dark red passports.

mr p. austrevicius, former chief negotiator of the lithuania - eu entrance team said to lithuania's newspaper atgimimas: “if we decline europe's unifying stuff, such as a common passport, how else can we join europe? i don't see any association with the soviet union”

but according to journalist indr? makaraityt?, an unnamed diplomat stated: “we already have had a red colored passport and it can be a sensitive case in our society. we should take this into account".


thai forces on alert for second anniversary of narathiwat armoury raids

two years on from the raids that signalled the start of what is generally accepted to be a separatist campaign in the south of thailand, military forces in the area remain on alert for a repeat of the daring raid that saw four soldiers killed and over 400 guns stolen.

the raid on ratchanakharin army camp in narathiwat province announced the most recent expression of nationalistic beliefs in the predominantly muslim provinces that once made up the malay sultinate of pattani, insurgency action since that time has seen over 1,000 killed, mainly through attacks allegedly made by insurgents. one of the most significant aspects of the raid was that it provided arms for the insurgency movement. according to the government of prime minister thaksin shinawatra, the movement is home-grown and does not include foreign fighters. this significant supply of arms and ammunition has allowed a considerable number of attacks such as drive-by shootings, and efforts to recover the stolen weapons have had minimal success with only ten or less of the guns reportedly recovered.

despite the majority of casualties having been caused by the insurgents, inexperience in handling a modern guerilla campaign have seen actions of thai security forces the cause of casualties, most notable being the tak bai incident where 78 men died in custody. this has not helped in convincing the local community that the government has their best interests in mind.


israeli pm sharon rushed to hospital

israeli prime minister ariel sharon (born ariel sheinerman), 77, has been admitted to hadassah hospital in jerusalem, after suffering what doctors said was a "massive" stroke.

according to reports from hadassah ein karem hospital in jerusalem, the prime minister was put under an anesthetic prior to surgery to address a massive cerebral hemorrhage. he has increased intracranial pressure due to the bleeding.

white house press secretary scott mcclellan said in thursday's press briefing that its "thoughts and prayers" are with the prime minister, and that the white house will "continue to stay in touch with the government of israel."

with sharon in the hospital, control of israel has now been transferred to his deputy, vice-premier ehud olmert.

dr. shlomo mor-yosef, director of hadassah hospital in jerusalem said that sharon suffered "a significant stroke" and that he was "under anesthetic and receiving breathing assistance." minutes later, mor-yosef said that initial tests showed sharon suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and that he was suffering "massive bleeding and was being transferred to an operating theater."

after over 6 hours of surgery sharon received another ct scan which revealed further bleeding. sharon was returned to the operating room for additional surgery that is expected to last several hours.

according to wikipedia, "a stroke or cerebrovascular accident (cva) occurs when the blood supply to a part of the brain is suddenly interrupted" and many news sources are reporting this situation is life threatening.

last month on december 18th, sharon suffered a minor stroke and was admitted to the hadassah ein kerem hospital after feeling unwell driving home and having difficulties with his speech. during his treatment, he was found to have a minor hole in his heart and was scheduled for surgery on january 5th. sharon was treated and released december 20th.

sharon's notorious overeating was a significant risk factor for the health complications he has experienced. prior to his first stroke, he consumed a meal consisting of hamburgers, lamb, kebabs, steak in chimchurri sauce, and salad. since that stroke sharon had lost weight, though he had been known to have his security detail smuggle him pita filled with greasy meat during previous efforts. 

on january 6th, in a front-page article in canada's the globe and mail newspaper, canadian medical experts questioned the anticoagulent that sharon had been receiving before his massive stroke, noting that the decision to use it may have cost him his life, and that he would have been unlikely to receive that treatment in canada. they also noted that his prognosis for recovery is extremely poor.


u.s. supreme court orders accused 'enemy combatant' jose padilla transferred from military to civilian custody

the u.s. supreme court ordered wednesday that accused "enemy combatant" jose padilla, a u.s. citizen, be transferred from military to civilian custody, in order to face charges of supporting terrorism. this latest move comes after much criticism from civil rights groups, several court rulings, and a request from the bush administration.

reportedly a former chicago gang member, padilla was arrested in 2002 as an "enemy combatant", on accusations of taking part in a plot to dirty-bomb apartment buildings, and has been held for the past three years without charge and denied legal rights applied to other u.s. citizens.

the charges he is presently facing are apparently unrelated, instead concerning his alleged aid in financing and recruiting terrorists.

the supreme court's ruling contradicts the 4th u.s. circuit court of appeals' decision made only last month.



australian labor party announces new climate change policy

the labor party of australia has today launched "our drowning neighbours", a pacific climate change strategy. the strategy was announced at 11am today, at parliament house, canberra, by bob sercombe mp (shadow minister for pacific island affairs and overseas aid) and anthony albanese mp (shadow minister for the environment, heritage and water).

senator bob brown of the australian greens party welcomed aspects of the statement but suggested that the policy as stated was weak and pointed out that labor had voted against greens senator christine milne's motion calling for recognition of pacific climate change refugees just two months previously.


teen post officer hides 400 new year cards in japanese snow

japan post apologized yesterday after an eighteen year old school student, employed part-time to deliver new year postcards (known as "nengaj?"), had instead discarded 430 of them along with 170 other postal documents in the snow.

the papers, letters, and postcards -- many hand-written -- were damaged as a result. he had also reportedly considered hiding the cards at his house or taking them to a vacant lot.

"since there were too many and it seemed a tiresome [job] for me, i hid them", said the boy to his bosses at obanazawa-city, yamagata prefecture post office, who enforced disciplinary penalties and said they will pursue legal charges.

the issue started on january 1st when dozens of local residents started complaining to the obanazawa post office that they hadn't received their traditional and regular new year cards. yesterday, the post office released their apology to citizens and the media after discovering that the boy had hidden more than 600 postal documents, including 429 new year postcards, which weren't delivered to their intended recipients.



turkish teenager dies from bird flu

a 14 year old turkish male has died from bird flu in turkey. according to the world health organization (who), it is most likely the teenager died from the deadly strain of the virus.

the teenager's sister has also been infected with another sibling also suspected to have the virus. eight other people, mostly from the same family have been hospitalized in the city of van, turkey with flu-like symptoms.

the children were from dogu beyazit, a farming town in eastern turkey. it is believed that the children raised poultry on a small farm and may have been in contact with sick birds. the family also ate diseased poultry.

the young male was originally thought to have died from a related infection. later tests revealed that the male had in fact died from bird flu.

according to huseyin avni sahin, the head doctor of the hospital in van where the teenager was treated, "(the boy) died of the h5n1 strain of bird flu". turkish health minister recep akdag gave no specific details and said samples had been sent to the who and britain for more tests.

if the teenager is confirmed to have had h5n1, it would be the first death from h5n1 in europe.

huseyin avni sahin has requested more ventilators to treat the ill people.

while h5n1 remains difficult for humans to contract, authorities fear it may mutate into a form that is passable among humans. such a mutation could kill millions of people around the globe.


australia exports less to us despite fta

figures issued by the australian department of foreign affairs and trade show that in the twelve months to october, 2005 exports from australia to the united states fell by 4.7 per cent while imports from the us rose 5.7 per cent. australia and the us entered into a free trade agreement which began in january, 2005.

during the drafting of the agreement it drew heavy criticism for only opening parts of the us market to australia.

the australian government insists that the results are due to a stronger australian dollar and increased competition from asia. acting prime minister, mark vaile said while exports to the us slowed, australia was exporting to other markets "at the same time, there have been buoyant and robust economies operating in north asia that have been very attractive for our exporters to go into those markets, so you can't just look at 12 months in isolation."

critics of the free trade agreement are calling on the government to use its escape clause. "our argument is that we should be looking seriously at the provision in the agreement (under which) the government can give six months notice to end the agreement" said public interest advocacy centre policy officer patricia ranald.

mark vaile has also indicated that he wishes to lobby the us to include sugar in the free trade agreement. this has received strong opposition from sugar farmers in the us.

the news comes just days after mark vaile announced that the government were considering dropping an amendment to the fta to protect generic medicines.


texas defeats usc in 2006 rose bowl

the university of texas longhorns won the rose bowl and the 2005 national championship with a 41-38 victory over the university of southern california trojans.

texas quarterback and heisman trophy candidate vince young sealed the win with an 8 yard run on fourth down with 5 yards to go and 19 seconds remaining. the longhorns followed the play with a successful two-point conversion.

young rushed for 200 yards and passed for 267 yards in the game; his combined 467 total yards of offense set a rose bowl record. 

the victory by the longhorns ended usc's 34-game winning streak ? then the longest in the nation. with the win, the longhorns now control the longest streak at 20 wins. the trojans, coached by pete carroll, came into the game ranked no. 1 in both the bcs and ap polls. considering usc's streak and the longhorns no. 2 ranking, the texas victory was considered an upset.

the morning of the victory president george w. bush called texas coach mack brown to congratulate the longhorns and their victory.


deaths on south african roads at 1215 for december 2005

according to the south african government's department of transport, the number of fatalities on the country's roads during december 2005 was 1,215. this is compared with 1,234 the previous year, where the total number of deaths in traffic accidents was 10,530.

department of transport spokeswoman, collen msibi, stated that 512 of the fatalities were pedestrians, 414 passengers, and 289 drivers. 2005 saw the number of vehicles on south africa's roads rise by nearly half a million to just under eight million with 779,000 new drivers adding to the dangers on the country's roads.

"to deal with this high level of unsafety, traffic authorities will increase the number of patrol vehicles on the road, law enforcement officers and unmarked vehicles to do more spot checks and roadblocks," msibi said.

"our analysis has revealed that most accidents are preceded by offences such as ignoring road signs, driving drunk, speeding, vehicles cutting in front of others, driving defective vehicles and fatigue."

the road toll in south africa is similar to that of south korea, mexico, japan and thailand. however, except for south korea these countries have significantly larger populations.

the worst country in the world for deaths in road traffic accidents, is currently accepted to be china. figures released for 2002 reveal that 250,007 people were killed in that year.

the south african government has acknowledged the problem since 2001. at that time they launched their "arrive alive" campaign, targeting vehicle condition, driver fitness, speeding and drunk driving.


building collapses in mecca at eve of hajj pillgrimage

a hostel collapsed in mecca, the holy city of islam at about 10 o'clock this morning local time. the building housed a number of pilgrims who came to visit the holy city at the eve of hajj pilgrimage. the hostel's guests were mostly citizens of the united arab emirates. the death toll is at least 15, a figure which is expected to rise. the building was situated very close to the holy mosque masjid al haram.


vp cheney role surfaces in u.s. domestic spying

united states vice president dick cheney, in a speech to the heritage foundation on wednesday, admitted to a key role in the domestic spying program. in a ringing defense of the warrantless eavesdropping authorized by president bush, cheney said he had "personally presided" over most briefings of selected capitol hill lawmakers about the program, which was begun in response to the 9/11 attacks and after congress passed a september 2001 resolution authorizing the use of force to combat terrorism.

the national security agency (nsa) has been monitoring certain domestic telephone calls and emails, under the condition that the other end of the message is to or from a foreign location, the white house has admitted. in addition, the "new york times" has reported that the agency has been conducting a widespread data-mining operation of such messages, hoping to identify patterns that might tip off the u.s. government to terrorist operations. bush quickly backed up the decision by michael hayden, then nsa chief and now deputy national intelligence director, repeatedly authorizing the nsa to conduct warrantless searches, according to published reports.

cheney vigorously defended the program, arguing that it could have prevented the 9/11 attacks, though a "washington post" report of his speech notes flaws in his reasoning. cheney avoided mention of words such as "warrantless" and gave no explanation of why the secretive foreign intelligence surveillance act court, which normally issues national security warrants, needed to be bypassed. he asserted however that "the civil liberties of the american people are unimpeded" by the "wartime measure."

cheney may face pressure by some in congress, such as republican senator arlen specter, who has pledged to investigate the eavesdropping program, to testify on capitol hill, though cheney is known to be a major proponent of executive privilege and may well resist.
the vice president, anticipating a "spirited debate" on the necessity of the program, said the leak of "highly classified" data to the "nytimes" had been a "clear detriment to our national security."

the justice department launched a probe last week to seek the source of leaked information about the secretive program. no report has emerged that the justice department is making a formal inquiry into possible illegalities that might have occurred on the part of the nsa or white house. many in congress are interested in this point, as some see this surveillance of u.s. citizens as a violation of their fourth amendment right guarding against unreasonable searches.

the justice department head and former white house counsel, alberto gonzales, has defended the nsa program as legal and constitutional.


&quot;genius&quot; award recipient and other luminaries campaigning for worldwide renunciation of war

in a recent znet commentary, wrote that a group of people, including , , , , and , are promoting the creation of worldwide gatherings to renounce war. their intention, according to zinn, is to make worldwide renunciation of war so popular that halting existing wars and preventing the beginning of new wars is politically irresistible.

in his article, "after this war", zinn asks, "should we not think beyond this war? should we begin to think, even before this shameful war is over, about ending our addiction to massive violence, and using the enormous wealth of our country for human needs?" he goes on to talk of ending not just "this war or that war but war itself. perhaps the time has come to bring an end to war, and turn the human race onto a path of health and healing."

the five people have been actively involved in global issues for many years and have a solid track record of accomplishments on the world stage.

dr. gino strada is a war surgeon and the founder of , a nonprofit, humanitarian organization dedicated to providing assistance to civilian victims of war. his recent book "green parrots: a war surgeon's diary" helped persuade to abandon the use and manufacture of a flying anti-personnel mine.

dr. paul farmer is a professor and practicing physician. in 1987, he helped found the worldwide health organization , which treats some of the poorest people on earth. dr. paul farmer has received a "genius" award from the . 

kurt vonnegut is an american writer and humanist, currently serving as honorary president of the . as a prisoner of war in , , kurt witnessed the fire bombing of dresden. this event formed the core of his book "". in a column for "in these times", he began "... our leaders are power-drunk chimpanzees ... the morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the middle east ... like so many bodies, is already shot to pieces. they are being treated, as i never was, like toys a rich kid got for ."

nadine gordimer from received the 1991 nobel prize in literature and 1974 . she received worldwide praise for her leadership for south africa to re-examine and replace its long held racist policy of .

eduardo galeano's books combine history, political analysis, journalism and fiction. "i'm a writer obsessed with remembering, with remembering the past of america ... condemned to amnesia. "" is one of galeano's works covering the exploitation of by foreign powers from the 15th century onwards.

both nadine and eduardo's books are recognized by the as among the top 40 books in citizens of the world: readings in human rights. "we say no" by eduardo galeano and "comrades" by nadine gordimer are listed there along with the ' of , "independence" by , the ', and "" by 

howard zinn is a u.s. historian, political scientist and author of fifteen books. howard writes, "in a world of clashing interests?war against peace, nationalism against internationalism, equality against greed, and democracy against elitism?- it seems to me both impossible and undesirable to be neutral in those conflicts. i do not claim to be neutral, nor do i want to be... . i will try to be fair to opposing ideas by accurately representing them."



second turk dies from bird flu, more suspected to be infected

a 15 year old female has been the second person to die in turkey from bird flu. the news follows the death of her brother on sunday. six people from another turkish province are also thought to be infected, bringing the total number of suspected cases in turkey to 18.

it has been revealed by turkish officials that samples from the boy tested positive to the strain of bird flu.

the deaths are the first from h5n1 outside of asia. around 70 people have died from the virus in the last two years. of those infected, over half have died.

in an attempt to stop the virus from spreading, the turkish government have placed five areas of eastern turkey near dogubayazit, the affected village, under quarantine. the sale and movement of animals in the region has been banned, livestock is to be kept in enclosed areas, and a hunting ban is also in place in the east.

the turkish government will make 7m lire (us$5.2m, ?4.3m, ￡3m) available to farmers who surrender their poultry for culling to prevent the virus spreading further.

the world health organisation are sending a team of experts to turkey to determine how best to deal with the outbreak.

authorities are urging people not to panic and reasssuring them that the outbreak does not mean a pandemic. at this stage, the virus is only transferred to humans from close contact with infected fowl.



microsoft releases emergency patch for wmf exploit

breaking with the scheduled patch tuesday cycle of bugfix releases, microsoft has released an emergency patch to correct the windows metafile vulnerability that allows a remote compromise of a computer.

microsoft has made available patches for all currently supported versions of their windows operating system. however, the windows 98, windows 98 second edition, and windows millennium edition versions have not ? at this time ? had patches issued for this vulnerability. according to microsoft, these versions contain the vulnerable software component but, "the vulnerability is not critical because an exploitable attack vector has not been identified that would yield a critical severity rating for these versions."

current versions of windows, including windows xp and windows server 2003, depending on configuration, may prompt users to download or install this update automatically for those computers currently connected to the internet. this is the preferred method of protecting your computer from this vulnerability.

other users are advised to visit microsoft windows update to obtain this security patch, if they are unable to obtain the patch or are unsure whether they have it.

previous methods of protection included unregistering shimgvw.dll to disable handling of windows metafiles, as per microsoft's security advisory. since it does not correct the underlying problem, it is unlikely that this method is recommended any longer.

other methods included ilfak guilfanov's unofficial patch, which was not advised by microsoft, but served as a measure to mitigate the immediate effects until an official patch was released. guilfanov has now noted that the patch is no longer needed.


 


bill sweetenham cleared of bullying allegations

australian coach bill sweetenham has been cleared by an independent inquiry of bullying allegations made last year by former british table tennis player matthew syed. syed had accused sweetenham of damaging british swimming and causing the retirement of 13 senior british swimmers.

sweetenham has been the performance director for british swimming since november 2000, when he took over from deryk snelling. his contract, which was recently renewed, runs up till the 2008 olympics in beijing, china.

syed's claims had been denied by sweetenham, british swimming and many of the swimmers involved. despite this and the result of the inquiry some of the swimmers maintain that the inquiry was not thorough enough.

the inquiry will be published later in the month when sweetenham returns from australia.



bloggers investigate social networking websites

the humble beginnings of many popular web services, such as google, livejournal, and yahoo!, are well-documented and available on their websites, and frequently recounted in news stories about the firms. these websites are also scrutinized for any perceived violations of users' privacy or other basic rights.

however, until recently, no investigation had been done into myspace and facebook, two new "social networking" sites of explosive popularity among teenagers and college students. american bloggers, using google and financial records, have begun investigations into the origins and policies of these sites, making some claims that the site owners explicitly deny.
facebook was founded by mark zuckerberg, an individual web developer looking to make friends at harvard university. although facebook has been sued by connectu.com for allegedly copying its concept and data, facebook is actually the first worldwide college network on the internet. as one of the most popular college websites, facebook is notable for its lack of prominent advertising. it quickly accumulated $50,000 in debt in 2004, and it took nearly a year for it to begin turning a profit, so clearly it needed a large amount of venture capital.

in august 2005, independent blogger josh smith theorized that facebook could actually be a data-gathering operation. he determined that facebook received its initial funding from peter thiel, which he named as co-author of the book "the diversity myth", which argues that "multiculturalism" is used to promote social intolerance on american college campuses. smith also found that facebook also received $13 million in funding from "accel partners", a firm whose manager james breyer formerly served as the chairman of in-q-tel, a venture capital firm operated by the united states central intelligence agency.

however, both accel partners and peter thiel have invested in many dot-com companies. peter thiel is the co-founder of paypal, and james breyer has done extensive work in silicon valley. investigating a firm's sources of venture capital has not often led to breakthrough exposes in the past.

more importantly, smith discovered clauses in facebook's current privacy policy which state that they "may share your information with third parties, including responsible companies with which we have a relationship". the privacy policy also warns that "facebook also collects information about you from other sources, such as newspapers and instant messaging services. this information is gathered regardless of your use of the web site." other bloggers have also called attention to this ambiguous statement, which seems to point towards a facebook conspiracy theory. user "timg" at the reddit news website noted that "these sites provide possibly the most accurate and easiest to use resource for mining information about groups of people."

according to chris hughes, spokesperson for facebook,

the main issue surrounding facebook is one of trust. privacy advocates on the web are always wary of any website that asks for detailed personal information, and facebook takes this to the extreme by displaying entire social networks. however, most facebook users seem to trust it deeply, providing full friends lists, phone numbers, and personal photo albums.

trent lapinski, another blogger, began an investigation into myspace in july 2005, when it was acquired by rupert murdoch's news corporation, parent company of fox news. myspace does not often receive criticism about privacy issues, as its users typically do not give out last names or other personal information, but its company history is more interesting. lapinski was threatened with a lawsuit by myspace's legal team when he let them know about his investigation, but on january 4, he decided to come forward with the details anyway.

myspace expressed interest in commenting on this wikinews article but did not respond by press time.

myspace's ceo chris dewolfe and its most prominent spokesperson tom anderson first met in 1999 at xdrive technologies, a dot-com startup which gave away free storage space to internet users. dewolfe and anderson went on to work together at responsebase, llc., which was acquired by euniverse, inc., which later became intermix media. the relationship between these three companies is tangled indeed, and involves the myspace name itself.
according to chris dewolfe, "the general myspace site" was launched in september 2003. tom anderson claims that "myspace was a creative idea before it was a business." however, long before myspace became a social networking website, the name myspace and the domain myspace.com had been used by responsebase for their profitable newsletter about "freebies, deals, & discounts", and a free disk space host similar to xdrive. newsgroup archives show multiple messages linking to copyrighted files hosted on myspace. in 2001, myspace's spokesperson was quoted in an article about "warez". the internet archive has backups of myspace.com going back to 1999, but these cannot be accessed because myspace's current owners have blocked the internet archive specifically from accessing the site.

one newsgroup message from 2001 documents the transition from myspace to responsebase:

actually, myspace had simply shut down and become responsebase-- as evidenced by the "freebies" newsletter above. responsebase also used a list of 8 million e-mail addresses purchased from xdrive for their newsletters. in 2002, responsebase was booted from their isp as an illicit spam organization-- with tom anderson himself listed as their billing contact. and later still, responsebase would be renamed to myspace.

in 2002, dewolfe went on to become a director of "fog cutter capital group", whose ceo, andrew wiederhorn, was convicted of income tax and pension felonies and sentenced to prison. fog cutter continued to pay wiederhorn a salary of $350,000 per month for 18 months while he sat in jail. wiederhorn's wife, tiffany wiederhorn, is on the board of directors at myspace's parent company intermix media.

intermix media itself has a tangled history. in 2004, intermix (then operating as euniverse) was named as a spammer organization on usenet. it purchased responsebase, shut down its operations, and reformed it as myspace. on april 28, 2005, intermix was sued by the state of new york for installing malicious spyware over the internet. according to their press release:

just before the adware investigation was announced, intermix's primary investors sold $25,000,000 worth of intermix stock at roughly $8 per share. when the attorney general announced the investigation, intermix stock fell to $4 per share. intermix's former ceo, brad greenspan, has accused intermix investors of insider trading.

soon afterwards, the spyware issue was settled out of court; intermix paid $7.5 million to the state of new york.

according to "the economist", "as an internet business, myspace.com considers itself to be an entirely new breed ... the community has grown virally, with no advertising." however, this leaves one crucial question unanswered: without advertising, how did the site become popular in the first place?



nhl hockey referee sounds off to website

retired nhl referee bruce hood says his high profile may be the reason why he isn’t in the hockey hall of fame.

speaking wednesday in an exclusive with hockeyrefs.com, he said: "i was honoured to just be nominated. i have been put on the outside of things because of my speaking out on things i believed in."

hood officiated in the nhl for 21 seasons before retiring in 1984. his career included 1,033 regular season and 157 stanley cup playoff games, three all-star games, and three canada cups. 

a group of hall of fame members headlined by former players bobby hall and the late maurice richard nominated hood in 1994, but the effort was unsuccessful. 

despite that, the former nhler says he isn’t upset about not being part of the club. 

hood also discussed the four-official system, the sport’s evolution over the years, and recent controversies involving the nhl officiating department. 

"i never liked the two-referee system," he added. "it is absolutely ridiculous for referees to be skating backwards into the zone all the time."


cbs corporation begins trading on new york stock exchange

the new cbs corporation began trading on the new york stock exchange once again on january 3 after officially finishing its split with viacom two days earlier. the split had been in the works since around march 2005 when viacom announced it was breaking into two publicly traded companies due to stock price stagnation. 

in june 2005, viacom's board approved the split and saying the cbs corporation name would be revived for one of those companies. one of these units would receive most of viacom's broadcasting and mass-media portion of subsidiaries (cbs, upn, infinity broadcasting, now cbs radio) along with viacom outdoor (now cbs outdoor), showtime networks, and paramount's television studio and a few other operations and announced long-time excutive leslie moonves would head that new company.

the split is filled with twists and turns. viacom was founded in 1971 as cbs' television syndication division and was spun off in 1973. westinghouse electric corporation bought cbs and changed its name to cbs corporation. in a ironic twist, viacom accquired their parent company in 1999 and cbs' stock symbol was de-listed as it became a division of viacom. ironically, the new cbs corporation is actually the original viacom. a new viacom was founded and spun off containing mtv networks (which contains cmt and spike tv, two cable networks originally owned by cbs) along with bet, paramount's film studio and home entertainment divisions, online virtual pet game neopets, and a music publisher. it also partially owns sega of america along with the sonic the hedgehog trademarks and is currently in the process of acquiring dreamworks.

cbs unveiled its logo, the iconic cbs eye, and launched the corporation's official wesbite, cbscorporation.com



comedian jon stewart to host 78th academy awards

american comedian and "daily show" anchor jon stewart has been chosen to host the 78th annual academy awards. this is not stewart's first time hosting an awards show as he hosted the grammys in 2001 and 2002.

his choice by the academy of motion picture arts and sciences shows their continuing attempt to target a younger viewing audience. last year's host was chris rock, also a comedian who is popular with young adults, whose performance and jokes at the expense of celebrities irked some academy members. the academy has also been seeking an oscar host with the appeal of popular hosts such as billy crystal, johnny carson, and bob hope.

the choice further demonstrates stewart's transformation from the host of a cult tv show into a mainstream performer. stewart is host of "the daily show", a satirical show aired on comedy central that parodies network and cable news shows. the show started in 1996, anchored by stewart's predecessor craig kilborn, who left in 1999 to host "the late late show with craig kilborn". "the daily show" draws in about 1.4 million viewers nightly. while not a groundbreaking number, sixty-five percent of those viewers are in the 18 to 49 age group, which is the group most coveted by television advertisers.

"the daily show" has become influental in politics and pop culture. stewart has interviewed many guests from both sides of the political spectrum, including 2004 presidential candidate john kerry, bill o'reilly, bill clinton, jimmy carter, and has asked for president george w. bush to come on the show, going so far as publish an invitation in a full page newspaper ad during the 2004 republican national convention.

stewart has interviewed celebrities like bruce willis, ice cube, the rock, and recently interviewed the band the white stripes who then did a live studio performance. 

although "the daily show" is steeped in satire, its emphasis on political coverage and current events has led to many of its younger viewers regard it as their daily news source, especially during the 2004 presidential election. stewart was even considered as a possible replacement for dan rather on the "cbs evening news" by cbs executive leslie moonves, which owned comedy central before splitting into two companies just a few days ago.

although a comedian, stewart can be serious at times. notable was his appearance on the cnn show "crossfire" in which he got into a debate with host tucker carlson over the state of television journalism. he accused "crossfire" of polarizing politics and that it was hurting america, saying "it's not so much that it's bad, as it's hurting america [...] stop, stop, stop, stop hurting america." he referred to carlson and co-host paul begala as "partisan hacks", and said that carlson was "as big a dick on [his] show as [he is] on any show". many believe this highly publicized criticizm led to the cancellation of "crossfire".

"the daily show" has won seven emmys and a peabody award for their coverage of the 2000 presidential election.

the academy awards ceremony will be held on abc this year on march 5th.



ponting breaks cricket records

australian cricketer, ricky ponting made his second century (100 runs) in his 100th match. the australian cricket captain is playing in the final day of the third test against south africa at the sydney cricket ground. he clocked up 120 runs in his first innings.

he is the first player in test cricket history to make twin centuries in his 100th match.

the skipper has also in this match become australia's third-highest runscorer, passing mark waugh (8,029) and trailing steve waugh (10,927) and allan border (11,174).

 


canada wins gold at iihf world junior hockey championship

for the second time in a row, team canada has won the gold medal iihf world junior hockey championship. in an upset 5?0 win over russia the team clinched the title in vancouver, bc.

canada was undefeated this year posting a 6 wins and 0 losses record. going into the competition the united states and russia were favored for the gold and silver, but a disappointing tie with switzerland and a loss to canada during the round-robin knocked the u.s. team from the running

the back-to-back wins are the first since the 1996-1997 wins for team canada.

russia won the silver, and finland won the bronze in an even more surprising and hard fought game against the u.s. 


new zealand maori queen on dialysis

the new zealand maori queen, te arikinui dame te atairangikaahu is undergoing dialysis treatment the tainui tribe confirmed today.

the queen's condition is not believed to be critical, and plans for the celebration in may of her fortieth coronation anniversary continue.
taini rutene; te arikinui dame te atairangikaahu private secretary says "dame te ata is undergoing medical treatment for a long-standing illness. there is no immediate concern." 

according to wikipedia, dialysis is a method for removing waste such as urea from the blood when the kidneys are incapable of this.

the maori queen holds no constitutional function in new zealand, but te arikinui dame te atairangikaahu is an avid supporter of cultural and sporting events. 


singer lou rawls dies of cancer

the grammy award winning velvet-voiced soul singer has died of cancer at age 72, according to his publicist.

rawls sung at game 2 of last year's world series.


english wikipedia reaches one million articles

today, at 23:09 utc, the internet encyclopedia wikipedia reached the point of having over written in english. in comparison, the largest traditional english-language encyclopedia, "encyclopadia britannica", has 120,000 articles. this milestone marks an important point in wikipedia's short history.

there was minor confusion over the millionth article; it was first held to be jordanhill railway station, then a brief biography of baseball player aaron ledesma. the millionth article was later confirmed to be the former, started by wikipedia contributor nach0king (ewan macdonald). "while i am, of course, delighted at being the one to hit this milestone, i must confess, along with many others i timed my contributions tonight to give me a chance at being the lucky one," he wrote on his wikipedia user page.

jimmy wales commented that "we are thrilled that our millionth article in english is about the jordanhill railway station. this is not something which would appear in a traditional encyclopedia, and it shows how wikipedia reflects the needs and interests of people everywhere, and not just the dictates of what academics and cultural mavens claim is worthy of an encyclopedia."

the milestone was celebrated by a party on the freenode irc network, where wikimedia's official irc channels can be found. the milestone was preceded by an announcement to all 30,000 freenode users, that a separate channel, #wikipedia-countdown, was being set aside for a celebration. in that channel, an irc script, ran by wikipedian ems, called off the article numbers as they passed by. a total of 733 different people joined the channel over the course of the afternoon. the tension was high when the millionth article was reached; in the first 40 seconds afterwards, chatting was briefly enabled in the channel, and over 3,000 lines of celebratory chat filled the room; chatting had to be disabled until everyone had calmed down.

wikipedia was founded in 2001 by jimmy wales, the ceo and co-founder of bomis, inc., and larry sanger, an employee of bomis. wikipedia began as a complementary project to nupedia, which was created by wales to be a free internet encyclopedia. nupedia was open like wikipedia but had a much more complex editing system. one day, sanger made a proposal on the nupedia mailing list exploring the possibility of a wiki-based encyclopedia. out of this proposal, wikipedia was born. sanger was appointed editor-in-chief of wikipedia by wales, and the project was underwritten by bomis. nupedia was eventually scrapped.

wikipedia has grown immensely in five short years and is no longer under the control of bomis. the success of wikipedia and some of the earlier sister projects lead wales to create a non-profit organization to run them, called the wikimedia foundation. wikipedia has a user base of around one million registered users and contains over three million pages altogether. it has become one of the world's top 25 websites, as ranked by alexa internet, and has come to the attention of the media worldwide.

a source of negative publicity for wikipedia in november 2005 was the john seigenthaler sr. controversy, in which a then-unknown vandal created a biographical article about seigenthaler on wikipedia that contained numerous false and defamatory statements. this article went unnoticed for several months until it was discovered by victor s. johnson, jr., a friend of seigenthaler's, who brought it to his attention. another friend corrected the erroneous information. seigenthaler contacted wales about the problem and later wrote an op-ed column for "usa today" about the incident, which led to much unfavorable coverage of wikipedia. however wikipedia also experienced some of its strongest growth in usage shortly after his op-ed.

in december 2005, a more positive story about wikipedia appeared in nature magazine, describing a study that reported wikipedia's science articles to be slightly less accurate as those in the encyclopaedia britannica. 

since many wikipedia pages are not articles, the number of articles in wikipedia depends on how an article is defined. to be counted as an article, a wikipedia page must be in the article namespace and contain at least one internal link. this definition will include some stub articles. the number of articles would be about 8% smaller under the alternative definition that an article must also contain at least 200 characters of text.

the next largest wikipedia is the german version, which contains over 350,000 articles. currently there are wikipedias in 125 different languages, containing 3.3 million articles in total.




dna re-test ordered on executed virginia man

virginia’s outgoing governor and possible 2008 presidential contender mark warner ordered on thursday that dna testing should be performed on roger keith coleman, a grundy, virginia man executed in may 1992 for the rape and murder in 1981 of wanda fay mccoy. 

the death penalty was re-instated in the united states after a supreme court ruling in 1976, reversing its brief suspension from 1973. a total of 1,004 prisoners have been executed since then, but none yet have been posthumously exonerated. that could change if the more precise dna testing methods available today find coleman innocent.

coleman, 33, maintained his innocence to the end, saying "an innocent man is going to be murdered tonight. when my innocence is proven, i hope america will realize the injustice of the death penalty as all other civilized countries have," as his final words before being strapped into the electric chair. 

governor warner said regarding the coleman case, "[that] technology has advanced significantly and can be applied in the case of someone who consistently maintained his innocence until execution… my prayers are with the family of wanda mccoy as we take this extraordinary step." coleman's resolute insistence on his innocence drew national attention when he was pictured on the cover of "time" magazine, focusing attention on capital punishment.

the victim was a 19-year-old housewife and coleman’s sister-in-law. dna work done on sperm evidence during the 1990’s found that coleman was within 2% of the possible population of people who could have committed the crime. coleman’s execution was allowed to proceed by then governor douglas wilder.

the biological evidence used during coleman's post-conviction appeal process has been under negotiation for months to agree on a proper method to have it re-tested. four virginia newspapers and the centurion ministries, a new jersey organization, asked for the re-testing. the request was denied by the virginia supreme court. with negotiations over the biological evidence successfully concluded, and with a new appeal from the centurion ministries to governor warner, the testing has begun and may conclude before the end of warner’s governorship on january 14.

the sperm has been kept frozen at a california laboratory for 15 years. dr. blake, the head of the lab, submitted an affidavit attesting to the integrity of the samples. the first set of samples was sent to the ontario centre of forensic sciences lab in toronto on december 15. a second delivery currently is underway.

"we have found that the latest dna technology?in certain instances where the other facts of a case support it?has provided a definitive result not available at the time of trial or post-conviction testing," said governor warner. 


televangelist pat robertson suggests sharon's stroke is act of god in response to gaza withdrawal

christian televangelist pat robertson has come under fire for recent comments he made, suggesting that israeli prime minister ariel sharon's recent stroke was "divine retribution" for pulling israelis out of the gaza strip. robertson made the comments on his show, "the 700 club", which is produced by robertson's christian broadcasting network.

"god considers this land [israel] to be his. when you read the bible, he said 'this is my land.' for any prime minister of israel who decides he will carve it up and give it away, god said, 'no, this is mine,'" said robertson. "i would say woe to any prime minister of israel who takes a similar course to appease the eu, the united nations, or the united states of america."

robertson tempered his comments, adding that sharon is "a very tender-hearted man and a good friend" and that he has prayed alongside the former prime minister. a spokesperson for robertson said he "expresses his deep sadness over ariel sharon’s life threatening stroke and concern for israel’s future security."

reverend barry w. lynn, director of americans united for separation of church and state didn't agree with robertson's comment.

"[a religious leader] should not be making callous political points while a man is struggling for his life," said lynn. "pat robertson has a political agenda for the entire world, and he seems to think god is ready to take out any world leader who stands in the way of that agenda."

the white house immediately distanced itself from robertson's comments.

"those comments are wholly inappropriate and offensive and really don't have a place in this or any other debate," said deputy press secretary trent duffy during a media gaggle aboard air force one.
angell watts, a spokesperson for robertson, who is an ordained minister and bible teacher, said that "robertson is simply reminding his viewers what the bible has to say about efforts made to divide the land of israel."

this isn't the first time robertson has created rifts among conservatives. in late 2005, he called for the assassination of venezuelan president hugo chavez. since this incident, abc family, which airs "the 700 club" because of a contractual clause, due to the fact the network was part of robertson's media empire at one time; has began airing a disclaimer before, during and after the program stating, "the views and opinions expressed by "the 700 club" and cbn do not reflect the views of abc family." he also has made charged comments regarding the residents of dover, pennsylvania after a proposal to teach intelligent design in public schools was defeated.

robertson says he is a southern baptist. he is also a former nominee for the republican party presidential candidate in 1988.




australian government says technology could reduce emissions three times more than kyoto

less than one week out from the inaugural asia-pacific clean development and climate partnership meeting in sydney, the australian government has claimed that technology could be used to cut emissions three times more than the kyoto protocol.

ian macfarlane, minister for industry said that the six countries at next week's meeting will discuss ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions while continuing to produce large amounts of energy.

"while kyoto puddles on, to put it nicely, the real reductions will come from technology" mr macfarlane said. "this is not a diplomatic love-in. it's a hard-edged business plan with targets and reporting duties."

the members of the partnership - australia, the united states, china, india, japan and south korea produce around half of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. of the world's developed nations only australia and the united states have refused to ratify kyoto.

the pact will not set binding targets upon its members, but will monitor its results.

it is believed that the meeting will discuss nuclear energy generation, geothermal energy and capturing and storing gases underground.

the federal opposition is calling on the australian government to ratify kyoto. environment spokesman, anthony albanese, said "the kyoto protocol is the main game, with mandatory fixed targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions over an extended timetable, with economic instruments driving the policy outcomes".


record-breaking 2005 atlantic hurricane season officially ends

the tonight have announced that the has ended with the dissipation of tropical storm zeta which became the 27th recorded storm in the of the 2005 atlantic hurricane season.

in their final public advisory for the storm, which had weakened to a tropical depression, the national hurricane center posted, 

"zeta and the record-breaking 2005 atlantic hurricane season finally come to an end"

the 2005 atlantic hurricane season has proved to be the most active hurricane season ever recorded with 27 storms. a number of records were broken during the season. for example:


forecasters are predicting that other hurricane seasons in the future will be just as active or possibly even more active.


interview with frank warren, founder of postsecret

postsecret is a community art project where people release their secrets by anonymously mailing them on a homemade postcard. frank warren started postsecret in november, 2004 and has since received thousands of secrets from all over the world. the cards appeared in an all-american rejects music video for the song dirty little secret, and postsecret's fee? a $2,000 donation to the national hopeline network 1(800)suicide, a suicide hotline. postsecret has recently published a book of some of the postcards with some of the proceeds also going to the hotline.

wikinews: what is postsecret for you?

you originally sent out 3,000 postcards at the projects inception in november, 2004. over a year later, approximately how many cards have you received?

geographically, how far away have you received postcards?

you let the all-american rejects use the postcards in their video for a donation to the national hopeline network, a suicide hotline. you also have a book out now with some of the proceeds going to national hopeline. is depression the most common theme in the secrets that you have received?

what, in your opinion, is the motivation for people to send you their secrets?

have you ever gotten into any sort of trouble or controversy because of what you have posted on your site? if so, what has happened as a result?

finally, postsecret has touched and aided the lives of many people. how can people help the project?



indonesian fishermen jailed for fishing offences in australian waters

thirty-four indonesian fisherman have been jailed in broome in northern western australia (wa) for illegal fishing offences. seven of the 34 have been jailed in australia before for previous fishing offences. 

their vessels were found hiding in mangroves off the kimberley coast. the fisherman were found in possession of nearly two tonnes of trochus shell, a shell valued for fashioning into high quality buttons, beads and trinkets. they face jail terms up to a year.

the wa fisheries department says the jail terms reflect the seriousness with which the offence is being viewed. department officer chris mitchell says the fishermen had traversed 200 miles of commonwealth waters and were inside the three nautical mile state limit when they were caught.

he says their actions are a serious breach of fisheries laws. "in the early days, the courts would have given a good behaviour bond for a first offender," he said. "that was more specifically for the traditional sail-powered vessels, not these motorised vessels that are coming down and because these are in state waters it is far more serious."

on thursday, skippers of 11 indonesian fishing boats were fined by a perth court. three of the men, who had previous convictions, were fined $15,000 each, with 100 days to pay. the remaining eight were fined $9000 each and given 60 days to pay. 

the captains were fined between $9,000 and $15,000 for fishing and taking trochus shell from australian waters off the north-west coast last month. three of the captains have been caught fishing in australian waters before between 1997 and 2004.

legal aid lawyer david mckenzie, says the fishermen were very poor and it was highly unlikely they would be able to pay the fines. 

the magistrate ordered that they spend between 60 and 100 days in jail in western australia if the fines were not paid. 


tamil tigers blamed for attack on sri lankan navy

13 sailors have been reported killed and others missing or injured after suspected tamil tiger guerrillas attacked a naval vessel off northeastern sri lanka early saturday. sri lankan military say it was one of the worst attacks by the sea tigers of the liberation tigers of tamil eelam (ltte).

according to defence officials, the sri lankan navy fast attack craft was sunk in the early hours of saturday by a heavy explosion carried out by the liberation tigers of tamil eelam (ltte) rebels.
the sri lankan sailors were on patrol when a boat rigged with explosives rammed their vessel off the port of trincomalee. 

sri lanka broadcasting corporation (slbc) said two of the injured sailors had been recovered, who were believed to have been thrown out by the power of the explosion.

the ltte has stepped up attacks against security forces in northern and eastern sri lanka since president mahinda rajapakse was elected on november 17th and invited the rebels to renew negotiations with the government.

with saturday's blast, over 65 security personnel and police officers have been killed in rebel attacks since the election.

the attack follows ltte reports of army abuses and killings. the government is investigating one such incident after five tamil youths, whom the army said were blown up by their own grenade, were found shot dead.

the tigers say they want a political solution to the conflict, which has killed more than 64,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands since 1983. 

a similar attack on the navy in trincomalee harbour killed 12 sailors and led to the collapse of a previous ceasefire in 1995. 

in december, 39 military personnel were killed in a string of mine attacks, the deadliest month since a 2002 ceasefire that some say is strained to breaking point. 


calls for aid to help feed millions, as east africa plunges into drought

millions may starve in kenya, somalia, ethiopia, and djibouti in east africa, because of extreme drought, combined with inequalities built into mechanisms for distributing food, according to the analysis made by amartya sen, who was awarded the bank of sweden prize in economic sciences in 1998. war in parts of the region is an extra exacerbating factor.

the countries need immediate food, water, seeds and any other agricultural product, according to the rome-based food and agriculture organization (fao), which reports that millions of people are on the brink of starvation due to the recent severe droughts that have been devastating the area.

"the whole area is affected," fao representative shukri ahmed said. "the situation is deteriorating." local newspaper reports gave an official death toll at 30 famine-related deaths, said mr ahmed.

many had not expected that the area's dry season would be as severe as it has been, and did not anticipate the effects.

others, such as yves engler, expect famines and massive starvation to continue in the region as long as the imf continues to influence economic policies in the region. yves engler has claimed, consistently with amartya sen's analysis, that the imf is responsible for worsening or actually creating famine in malawi (2002), ethiopia (2003) and niger (2005).

the present drought has been said to be getting worse by the day, and the total figure for those who need food from the world food program could rise from today's 1.2 million, to exceed 2.5 million people, according to united nations (un) spokesman stephane dujarric at the organisation's new york headquarters.

the fao had called for domestic food purchases in areas where harvests were expected to be favorable, coupled with food aid imports elsewhere, the un's mr dujarric said.

crops have failed, and local attempts at distributing supplies have been blamed on poor infrastructure and a lack of supplies. what makes the region's situation even more grave, is that the rainy season failed to aid in the production of much needed crops.

nearly one-fifth of the population of djibouti were said to be facing food shortages and wide-spread starvation. nearly $40 million is said to be needed to offset the famine. 64,000 tons of food are needed by the world food program, but only 16,700 were known to be available. 

the world food program was trying to assess the worst hit areas. 




woman killed in shark attack at amity point, australia

a woman in australia has been killed in a shark attack. the attack occurred at 5pm (local time) just off amity point, north stradbroke island, south-east of brisbane.

the woman, described as 21, had lost both arms up to the elbow and sustained severe wounds to her torso and legs. she was carried to shore by friends and was then flown by rescue helicopter to the princess alexandra hospital in brisbane. surgeons were unable to save her.

the woman was holidaying from brisbane with a church camp and attempts to contact her family have been made.

emergency services rescue helicopter crew officer rod morgan said the woman had suffered massive blood loss. 

"she was very pale" he said, "we were diverted right away and were able to be on the scene within minutes and were able to have the patient at hospital within an hour of the attack."

"she had life threatening injuries she had lost significant amounts of blood and the patient had what we would call an altered level of consciousness where it wasn't able to communicate directly with the patient" said queensland ambulance paramedic lachlan parker. 

there were many witnesses at the scene and they are now being interviewed by police at amity point. they are described as being distraught.

one witness, who asks to not be identified, described that the victim was swimming in the sea with her border collie. when the attack happened, the dog ran home to raise the alarm.

"i was across the road from where she was staying and i saw the dog come flying up the road all wet and shivering and whimpering," she said, "then a little boy came running up and said the girl had lost her leg and her arm and everyone ran out of the house towards the beach. it was just a little black-and-white dog but he was crazy so i locked him under the house."

other reports claim that the woman had been scuba diving in murky shallow water approximately 15 metres from the shore.

the woman is believed to be from mcdowall in brisbane, but her name has not yet been released.

a resident of amity point for 20 years, brad ross, said tourists visiting the area have been warned of potential attacks; "the shore just falls away into 30m of water and there are plenty of bull sharks out there. people know when they enter the water there they're stepping into a shark habitat." 

other beaches on the island are protected by drum lines.

queensland state police inspector peter harding believes from the severity of the woman's injuries that she was attacked by a group of bull sharks, a species known for aggressive behavior this time of year. water police will search for the sharks today and as a result, beaches on the east and west of amity point have been closed.

this is the first attack in the area since august 1972.

local wisdom cautions against allowing dogs in the water at swimming beaches, because of a fear that they attract sharks, perhaps because of residue accumulated from fleas which live on the dog's blood.


 


20 people injured after stand collapse in the carnival of blacks and whites in colombia

at least 20 people were injured when a covered stand collapsed during a main parade in the carnival of blacks and whites in the colombian city of pasto.

according to the police, the stands were designed to support 500 people, but there were 700 on them. the intense rains might have also contributed to the collapse as the tents had become too heavy.

the red cross immediately helped all those affected. most people presented minor injures although 3 people had to be referred to medical assistance centers.

despite the incident the parade continued along the main streets of the city.



two companies plea 'guilty' to birmingham theatre stage collapse

two companies have pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety laws after the stage of the alexandra theatre in birmingham, united kingdom collapsed resulting in injuries ranging from bruises to bone fractures in 30 people.

the two companies, sing along productions and clear channel, said that the collapse occurred after a communications breakdown between them.

during the production of sing-along-a-sound-of-music, members of the audience in costume had climbed onto the stage to participate in a song when the stage fell into the orchestra pit 20 feet below.

the case has been sent to birmingham crown court for sentencing. the case was brought to birmingham magistrates court by birmingham city council under health and safety legislation.



truckies could foot the bill for nsw pacific highway upgrade

just two weeks after a join statement by australian federal roads minister jim lloyd and his new south wales counterpart joe tripoldi that tolls may be used to fast track upgrades of the pacific highway, acting prime minister mark vaile suggested that truck operators could pay up to a $70 toll.

mr vaile claims that industry sources claim that it is $400 less for a b-double semi trailer to drive from sydney to brisbane via the pacific highway than the new england highway (which is the national highway) because of the upgrades carried out over the past 10 years.

mr valie claims the transport industry would accept a $70 toll. "anything we do is going to enhance their efficiency". "therefore the transport industry would be prepared to pay a toll - not just a $5 or $7 or $10 toll. for sydney to brisbane, who knows, (they could pay) a $50 to $70 toll, because these efficiencies are so significant now in running that sector."

the federal and state governments have committed to converting the highway to dual carriageway between sydney and port macquarie and brisbane and byron bay within three years. the remainder of the highway (with the exception of the section replaced by the sydney - newcastle freeway was scheduled to be completed by 2016.

mr vaile said that the new south wales government should look at using public-private partnerships to fund upgrades between port macquarie and byron bay. he further hinted that regular motorists would still pay tolls, although they would be variable depending on the length of highway used.

kathy and greg campbell who lost greg's mother and their daughters becky, 9, and jessy, 8, when a truck slammed into their car head on south of buladelah said the number of trucks which use the single carriageway section is an outrage. ms campbell said that the federal government received au$14 billion a year in fuel excise from motorists and the estimated cost to complete the highway upgrade was au$8 billion.


michael jackson sued for unpaid veterinarian bills

martin dinnes, the owner of dinnes memorial veterinary hospital, alleges that michael jackson owes him over $91,602 in veterinary bills.

the pop star's exotic animals were looked after by the veterinarian at the neverland ranch, where jackson has not lived in since the last child molestation trial in june 2005.

dinnes helped michael acquire animals for his zoo which include flamingoes, giraffes, elephants and orangutans.

his lawyer, brenton horner, stated that dinnes filed this lawsuit with great reluctance. "he has a lot of admiration for michael. this is just a business matter."

a hearing was set for may 2.

 


&quot;hyperspace drive&quot; paper gains interest, aiaa award

the paper "guidelines for a space propulsion device based on heim's quantum theory" by walter droscher (austrian patent officer; retired) and jochem hauser (university of applied sciences in salzgitter, germany; physicist & professor of computer science) has won an american institute of aeronautics and astronautics (aiaa) annual award for the best papers presented at its conferences (nuclear and future flight category).

the paper proposes experiments aimed at using intense magnetic fields to produce a gravitational field, which then propels a space craft. the work is based upon ideas developed by burkhard heim in the 1950s. heim's theories are not widely accepted in the physics community. they do, however, pass many experimental tests, such as accurately predicting masses of fundamental particles within current experimental limits. 

droscher says heim's theories predict two additional forces, one is a repulsive anti-gravity consistent with the dark energy that appears to be causing the universe's expansion to accelerate, and one capable of producing acceleration of a spacecraft without expending mass, i.e. rocket fuel. nasa has investigated possible anti-gravity applications of heim's theories before, but droscher & hauser say their proposed experiments differ significantly.

the u.s. air force has expressed interest in the idea. experiments are expected to proceed if the idea survives further scrutiny in the physics community.



white house, kerry criticizes comments made by televangelist pat robertson

pat robertson, founder of the christian broadcasting network and outspoken televangelist, has once again created political waves after saying that israeli prime minister ariel sharon suffered a massive stroke because he tried to "divide god’s land."

the comment was made during robertson’s 700 club program last week. robertson said that sharon’s stroke was a punishment from god. 

the white house quickly blasted the comment, and distanced itself from robertson. 

"i think [robertson’s] comments were wholly inappropriate and offensive, and really don't have a place in this or any other debate," said deputy press secretary trent duffy during a press gaggle aboard air force one on friday.

duffy also said that president bush continues to pray for the israeli leader, who many say is the region’s best chance for peace. 

"the president spoke about him yesterday and what a historic figure he is, as far as bringing peace to the middle eastern region. and our thoughts and prayers continue to be with him," said duffy. 

numerous religious figures around the world spoke out against robertson’s comments, saying that the comments are not consistent with christian beliefs. 

former us presidential candidate john kerry also criticized robertson, saying that the commentator ignored the risks sharon took to bring peace to israel. 

"it is beyond shocking to think that as prime minister sharon fights for his life, pat robertson would attack his character," said kerry. "perhaps we shouldn't be surprised to hear such venom from someone who claimed hurricane katrina was punishment for the people of new orleans."



representative tom delay not seeking future majority leader position

republican tom delay, representative from the 22nd congressional district of texas, announced on saturday that he will not attempt to reclaim his position in the united states house of representatives. fellow republicans, spear-headed by (r-az) and melissa hart (r-pa), began circulating a petition last week urging to elect a new majority speaker, thus setting the stage for house leadership elections.

in a letter written and addressed to fellow house republicans on saturday, delay said, "during my time in congress, i have always acted in an ethical manner within the rules of our body and the laws of our land."

he asked to convene a body to elect a new majority leader. "i cannot allow our adversaries to divide and distract our attention," wrote delay.

the 58-year-old delay held the leadership post for 3 years, until he was forced to relinquish it in late 2005 after he became involved in an ethics scandal. he stepped down after a texas jury indicted him for money laundering and conspiracy, but initially planned to re-seek the majority speaker post if he was acquitted.




earthquake shakes athens

on sunday, an earthquake rocked the country of greece early in the afternoon. 

seismographs have recorded the earthquake as a 6.7 (estimated) on the richter scale. there are only reports of minor damage at the island of kythira, including 3 injuries. 

the earthquake took place at 1:34 pm local time (1134 utc) and was felt, according to locals, throughout greece and as far away as cairo, egypt, and the coasts of jordan. this is unusual, as previous major quakes in the highly-seismic mediterranean country have been limited to a relatively small region. 

the quake's epicenter was located about 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of athens near kythira, the us geological survey institute said. amending its previous report of a magnitude of 6.4, the usgs, based in colorado, and the national earthquake information center in denver gave a preliminary magnitude of 6.7, however, the thessaloniki aristotelion university's seismology laboratory and the patras seismic monitoring station have recorded the quake at a magnitude 6.9. 

aftershocks have been recorded near the epicentre, however were not as powerful as the original earthquake.

a witness in athens at the time of the quake described the general mood as calm.

more than 100 people died following an earthquake in athens, greece, in 1999.



birmingham central mosque is set on fire

birmingham central mosque in the highgate area of birmingham, uk was burgled and set on fire early saturday morning.

emergency services arrived within a matter of minutes after smoke was reported billowing from the building. the mosque was empty at the time, resulting in no injuries.

damage is said to be confined to an office. west midlands police say an investigation is now being coordinated.


confirmation hearings for supreme court nominee alito to start this week

president bush's highly controversial nominee to fill the seat of retiring supreme court justice sandra day o'connor will have a chance to respond to congressional questions this week, with hearings scheduled for him to appear before the senate judiciary committee.

the 55 year old samuel alito has served as a federal appeals court judge for 15 years, and previously served as a lawyer for the reagan administration.

his lengthy track record of more than 700 judicial opinions includes several writings on abortion-rights, among other issues, including states’ rights, first amendment rights, police rights, and the separation of church and state.


brazilian general dies in haiti

the brazilian general urano teixeira da matta bacellar, military chief of the united nations stabilization mission in haiti (minustah) died in the morning of january 7, in his port-au-prince hotel room. 

early speculations that the commander had committed suicide were supported both by a recently published un report, and by a separate brazilian police investigation. bacellar had been placed in charge of the mission in august 2005, replacing general augusto heleno ribeiro pereira.

since bacellar's death, the post was run by a chilean general. carlos dos santos, the director of the un information center in brazil, told agencia brasil that a new commander is presumed to be named no later than next week.

the un department of peace operations, along with kofi annan and advisors, are evaluating which of the two nominees are best suited to the position.



first tropical cyclone of 2006 forms off west australia

the first tropical cyclone of the 2006 southern hemisphere cyclone season is off the coast of western australia and is predicted to cross land around 9:00pm west australian time (1:00pm utc).

cyclone clare has been upgraded to a category three storm by the australian bureau of meteorology. earlier today it was feared that claire could be become a category four storm as it gets closer to land. the bureau of meteorology warned that if it became category four it could bring winds up to 240 km/h.

current warnings are for "very destructive winds with gusts to 195 kilometres per hour are expected in the dampier, karratha and mardie areas this evening", according to the bureau of meteorology.

warnings for 150 km/h winds are current inland to pannawonica.

a number of communties along the coastline are already being battered by strong winds. neil bennet, senior forecaster for the bureau of meteorology said "we've been looking at gusts around the 80-knot mark, which is roughly 150 to 160 kilometres an hour, being reported from the dampier area".

at 6:00pm west australian time (10:00am utc), the cyclone was 65 km north of karratha and moving south-east at 18 km/h. 

forecasters predict that clare will hit the pilbara region between dampier and mardie.

around 1,500 people in low lying areas of karratha, dampier, roebourne, wickham and point samson have been evacuated by state emergency service personnel.

"we are asking people ... to basically put an emergency kit of essential items together with them, things like food and water to last 48 hours, medicines, clothes and then just important personal documents, such as passports, wills and any other really essential items" said ses spokesperson nita gill.

"most people who are on higher ground, so long as their home's prepared and sturdy and they're ready, they often will just wait out the cyclone in their home" ms gill said.

australia's two largest ports - dampier and port hedland have been closed. the ports export more than 200 million tonnes of iron ore and liquefied natural gas each year.

major industries in the area have also closed.

the bureau of meteorology warns residents of karratha and dampier that a dangerous storm surge may occur causing damaging waves and flooding as the cyclone crosses land. widespread heavy rain and flooding is likely in the pilbara and gascoyne over the next few days.


honda wins car, truck of the year, unveils fit

's and ridgeline truck won the north american car and truck of the year awards at the in . this is the first time a company has won both awards in the same year. the finalists were the , the and the . the awards are intended to recognize vehicles for their innovation, design, safety, handling, driver satisfaction, and value. 

honda also unveiled its latest model the , a us version of the honda jazz sold in nonus markets. the fit comes with a 109 horsepower engine, antilock brakes, six air bags, fold flat seats, full connectivity, 90.1 cubic feet of passenger and cargo space, and 33 mpg for the city 38 mpg for the highway. a sport package will also include honda's first steering wheel mounted paddle shifters. the car will go against another two new japanese subcompacts, the , nissan and will have to wrestle away sales from the category's current top seller 's . 

the car will start selling in april for around $13,000 to $14,000 as a 2007 model. the company plans to sell 33,000 units of the hatchback in 2006.

many automakers expect industry wide sales in the us to be between 16 and 17 million units. honda, which is japan's third largest automaker, hopes to gain us market share with the redesigned civic and the fit. honda hopes that the company's auto sales will rise 4% this year. the fuel-efficient civic helped increase us market share to 8.6 percent last year, some of those sales were taken from ford as gas prices rocketed to $3 a gallon. the us market is extremely important for honda as it receives 64% of its operating profit from the us.


trustpower plans to build new windfarm in new zealand

new zealand electricity generator and retailer trustpower said today that it is considering a wind farm development at lake mahinerangi, south of dunedin, in the lower south island of new zealand. in a development which could be worth up to nz$500 million (us$347 million), to the otago region according to trustpower chief executive, keith tempest.

trustpower said in a statement that the 300 megawatts wind farm, built in three 100 megawatts installments, could eventually provide enough electricity to power 150,000 homes and that it will be a world class installation that will guarantee security of electricity for the region.

according to tempest "a windfarm development at mahinerangi would enable us to better utilise the hydro storage available behind our waipori scheme," lake mahinerangi is also the site of trustpower's largest hydro lake.

trustpower expects to apply for environmental consents under resource management act later in the year if engineering reports prove the site satisfactory. 
after the announcement trustpower’s shares remained unchanged at nz$6.16. (us$4.26)

currently the largest windfarm in new zealand is operating at te apiti in the manawatu; producing 90 megawatts of electricity. nz power companies are seeking to have resource consent procedures simplified for smaller-scale windfarms.


israeli pm, ariel sharon, woken from coma, moves limbs

doctors are awakening israeli prime minister ariel sharon out of a drug induced coma to asess the damage to his brain from a major stroke. doctors reported that he has started to move some limbs and is breathing spontaneously on his own, but say that he is still on a respirator and still in critical condition. "in a test of (his reaction) to pain, we noticed that prime minister ariel sharon slightly moved his right arm and right leg," said dr. shlomo mor-yosef, director of jerusalem's hadassah hospital. "the process of waking him out of the coma could take anywhere from several hours to several days" said mor-yosef.

sharon's blood pressure rose slightly during stimulation which doctors call "a postive sign". dr felix umansky, the chief neurosurgeon treating sharon, said “once he talks to us ... and there are no other infections i will be willing to say that he is completely out of danger."

although he is moving and breathing spontaneously on his own, this does not give any indication as to his other physical or mental capacities.

sharon was rushed to the hospital on wednesday after "feeling unwell". doctors later determined that he had a major stroke.




us dept of justice evacuated over homeless person's coat on bus

the us department of justice in washington, dc was temporarily evacuated monday morning when a suspicious package was found on a nearby bus.

according to city transport officials, a vagrant had left a coat on the bus and an investigation by police had revealed this not to be a threat.

the evacuation, it was stressed, was purely a precautionary measure.


richmond serial slayers arrested in philadelphia

two suspects, believed to be responsible for a killing spree that started on new year's day in the richmond, virginia area, were apprehended in philadelphia, pennsylvania on saturday where they were held on charges of conspiracy to commit murder and auto theft. the two declined to fight extradition to virginia and were flown into the richmond international airport monday afternoon.

police believe the total of seven victims from two different crime scenes were linked, as both groups were bound with duct tape prior to their being brutally murdered. the suspects, both 28-year-olds, are ray joseph dandridge and ricky gevon "cooley" gray.

the initial incident took place on new year's day when all four members of the harvey family were discovered in their basement bound by tape and with their throats slit. johnny hott, a family friend, had discovered a fire at the harvey's home as he arrived for a 2pm family and friends chili party gathering to ring in the new year that sunday. emergency crews responded to a 911 call and put out the fire, which at that point had only caused moderate damage, and then discovered bryan harvey, 49, his wife kathryn, 39, and their two children stella, 9, and ruby, 4. harvey was a musician who achieved some airplay while in the 1980s duo house of freaks, and his wife was a well-known richmond toy store owner who also happened to be the half sister of steven culp who played rex van de kamp on desperate housewives. 

police initially believed the harvey family murders were committed by someone close to the family. but as later events unfolded in nearby chesterfield county, a more random picture emerged. 

a witness reported that a white van was parked outside the harvey residence where a woman identified as 21-year-old ashley baskerville was said to be inside it at the time of the murders. 

then two days later, on tuesday at the goolsby residence, a relative speaking for the shaken victims of a separate home-invasion robbery said that the baskerville woman was with two men who forced their way into the home and robbed them of a computer, television, dvd player and money.

ultimately, ashley baskerville was found dead on friday, bound with duct tape and murdered at her parent’s residence along with her mother mary tucker, 47 and step-father percyell tucker, 55. that residence is located no more than 3 miles from the harvey residence.
the white van believed to have been the one spotted in front of the harvey residence was recovered at the tucker home. a green chevrolet blazer was taken by dandridge and gray to travel to west philadelphia where they arrived some time on friday afternoon at the home of dandridge's father. the two were arrested there by a swat team.

police are also interested in any possible connection the two might have with the murder of gray’s wife. the body of treva gray was found on november 5 southwest of pittsburgh, in the town of washington, pennsylvania. her murder occurred less than two weeks after dandridge's release of from prison. 

dandridge was released from james river correctional center november 2005 after serving a ten year prison sentence for robbery. gray is dandridge's uncle, and believed to be from arlington, in northern virginia.


dow jones breaks 11,000

lower oil and natural gas prices and a general motors (gm) upgrade sent the dow jones industrial above the 11,000 mark for the first time since before september 11, 2001. the last time the dow was above eleven thousand was june 13, 2001 when it closed at 11,012.40 before retreating slightly. the dow's alltime record was set back on january 14, 2000 when it closed at 11,722.98.

the impact of the dow even getting to 11,000 is "psychological and hard to measure, but clearly you can't dismiss it," said hugh johnson, chairman of asset management company johnson illington advisors. "if it wakes up investors then it is of some value."

general motors (up $1.09 to $21.89) was the dow's biggest gainer, up five percent, after goldman sachs raised its rating on the automaker.

sirius radio also added to the dow's gain, up nearly 2 percent (to $6.65) as howard stern made his debut on the satellite waves.

oil prices, although still high, fell $1.21 to $63.05 a barrel. 

=sources=


cyclone clare batters western australia

the eye of cyclone clare, a category three storm hit the western australian coastline at 11pm awst on monday (3pm monday utc).

cyclone clare crossed the coast 100km north of karratha, battering the pilbara region with winds up to 195 km/h.

initially it was predicted that the storm would hit the coast at around 9pm local time, but the storm slowed from 18 to 12 km/h delaying its arrival for two hours.

a large storm surge had been predicted, but forecasters say it is unlikely to eventuate. the sea is predicted to swell by only two to three metres.

reports from the area advise that electricity supply has failed, but there has been no major structural damage to buildings and no injuries. crews are assessing damage in karratha and dampier following clare. work teams are in the process of restoring electricity and telephone services.

earlier today residents of karratha and dampier were advised to stay indoors due to flying debris caused by strong winds and the possibility of power lines being down. this advisory has since been lifted. the bureau of meteorology has advised residents to "proceed with caution".

as the storm moves inland it continues to lose strength, being downgraded to a category two storm earlier today (10:00am awst) when it neared the town of pannawonica. winds were up to 140 km/h. the storm has since been downgraded again, to a category one storm.

the main concern now is for flooding due to heavy rain.

lynne nanini from main roads's pilbara office said the rain that follows may be more troublesome than the cyclone itself.

"we're mainly concerned about any rainfall that may eventuate out of tropical cyclone clare and as in the past, a few cyclones that we've had, most of our damage is actually caused by flooding." she said.



annoying someone online becomes federal crime

president bush signed legislation last thursday that disallows the posting or e-mailing of messages intended to annoy people without having included your true identity. the law, "violence against women and department of justice reauthorization act of 2005", contained this as a rider. the relevant portion of the law is as follows:

clinton fein, owner of "annoy.com" which allows people to send anonymous annoying messages, reported to cnet that "i'm certainly not going to close the site down. i would fight it on first amendment grounds." previous supreme court precedent does allow for anonymous, written annoyance.



&quot;shock jock&quot; howard stern makes his satellite radio debut

the self-proclaimed "king of all media", "shock jock" howard stern made his debut on sirius satellite radio, being introduced by the new official announcer, actor george takei. yesterday with liberal use of profanity. stern made the deal last year to jump to sirius after increasing pressure from the government, due to fallout after the super bowl xxxviii halftime controversy.

stern said, "i don't compete on terrestrial radio anymore." satellite radio is not regulated by the united states government as it is a subscriber service.

in his deal with sirius, stern gets two channels, "howard 100" and "howard 101". the channels launched in october 2005 under the names "douche 100" and "douche 101," filled with mostly dead air. however, due to his contract to former employer, infinity broadcasting (now cbs radio), at the time he could not broadcast on them, so he filled up the time with 24-hour marathons of wack pack members until his contract expired on new year's day. that day, stern did a commercial free segment on his two stations, playing clips from his days as a child, to working at wtbu (boston university college radio), wccc, w4, wwdc, wnbc, and wxrk. then on january 3 and 5, stern and his team did live test broadcasts, listeners did call in during the tests, stern told them that these were test broadcasts and that debut show would be on january 9.

stern began his career in his family's basement, making tapes of fictional radio programs. he then moved into real broadcasting when he began a show at wtbu, boston university's college radio station. he then moved on to hartford's wccc, followed by wwww (w4), before landing a job at dc-101, wwdc, there his morning show became a big hit but was fired for criticizing the station. a notable incident happened the day after the crash of air florida flight 90. he called air florida asking how much a one-way trip from the washington national airport to the 14th street bridge would cost. he then moved to new york's wnbc-am were he had an overnight program (since don imus had the morning show). wnbc management attemepted to control stern but not to much success he was eventually fired before wxrk "k-rock" picked him up and where history was made from then on.

with the departure of stern, k-rock and some other stations have switched to a francished format know as free fm. cbs radio also replaced stern with van halen guitarist david lee roth on the east coast, comedic radio personality adam corrolla on the west coast and a lesser-known dj know as rover.



archbishop levada questioned regarding sex abuse cases in portland

archbishop , who was the roman catholic archbishop of portland, oregon from 1986 to 1995, was deposed in on january 9. levada was questioned by the plaintiffs in a lawsuit seeking damages from the archdiocese of portland for sexual abuse allegedly performed by priests in the archdiocese. the archdiocese filed for protection days before the trial was set to begin.

levada, one of the highest ranking americans in the vatican, was the archbishop of san francisco from 1995 to 2005, when he was appointed to succeed pope benedict xvi as prefect of the . levada was served with a subponea to testify in this case last august, immediately before leaving the united states to assume his new duties in rome. when levada arrived at the deposition, he was served another subponea, to testify in an abuse case involving the archdiocese of san francisco. 

michael morey, an attorney for the plaintiffs, stated, "we expect to find out what he knows and when he knew it." the plaintiffs are seeking over $150 million in damages. kelly clark, another plaintiff attorney, stated, "we are trying to prove that the archdiocese of portland, over the last 40 years, had a policy and practice of responding to child abuse claims in a less-than-appropriate manner." judge elizabeth perris barred attorneys from asking levada about his current position, or his activities when serving at the congration during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

a federal bankruptcy judge ruled on december 30 that parish and school assests of the portland archdiocese can be used to pay claims and other debts of the archdiocese. the archdiocese had argued that the assets were not under its control, and therefore not available to settle the claims.


dick cheney released after health scare

early monday morning, u.s.vice president dick cheney was taken to george washington university hospital after he reported having shortness of breath. 

tests on the vice president indicated that his symptoms weren't related to his extensive history of heart disase, a white house spokesperson said. doctors eventually determined that he was "retaining fluid as a result of anti-inflammatory medication he has been taking for a foot problem," and was prescribed a diuretic. he was released from the hospital around 7:30am, and returned to work on monday afternoon after resting at his home.

doctors say that an anti-inflammatory prescribed to him for an operation on his foot may have played a role in the health scare. he was seen friday using a cane. 

cheney has had a history of heart-related issues for several years and recently had a pacemaker implanted.


story of mouse burning down house proven false

early media reports got it wrong in the case of a new mexico man's house that burnt down after he tried to destroy a mouse he caught by burning it in a trash fire behind his home.

the wacky story was picked up by news agencies reporting that the burning mouse escaped the fire and scurried back into the home of luciano mares, aged 81, of fort sumner. the mouse allegedly caused a window curtain to ignite, and the fire spread to engulf the entire home. 

mares later indicated this was untrue. however, the bonfire did spread to the wooden house, which was completely destroyed as a result, according to local fire officials.



murdoch's news corp. ends automated censorship of myspace

in december 2005, myspace members discovered that mentions and links to content hosted by rival video-swapping site youtube were disabled. debate concerning this issue was apparently even stifled on the site's message boards. regardless, member unrest grew, culminating in a campaign led by 600 myspace members to boycott and relocate to rival sites such as friendster, linkedin (linkedin.com), revver, and facebook. subsequently, myspace reenabled the youtube links and content in late december. however, it appears that myspace also closed down a blog forum where members were complaining about this issue. 

myspace was also apparently banning revver, another video swapping site, but had relented as of early january. to this, revver co-founder oliver luckett responded, "references to his service were banned because myspace saw it as competition".

overall, the blocking of video stored on youtube and other sites or embedded in user profiles has led to accusations of censorship from myspace members. chris dewolfe, myspace's chief executive denies any this, as well as any connection between recent events and the advent of myspace's own video-sharing service, stating that blocking links or entire sites are sometimes necessary when myspace investigates complaints of pornography or racism.

there has been concern among groups of bloggers operating out of myspace that news corp would monitor or censor their activities, ever since they purchased intermix, then myspace's parent company. ellis yu told the blog herald that "their ceo said nothing like that would happen. well, now it has. myspace was built on an open community and now they're trying to censor us, putting business interests above its members!"


fl professor &amp; wife accused of spying for cuba

a florida college professor and his wife have been indicted on charges that they are illegal foreign agents and passed on non-classified information to cuba.

florida international university (fiu) education professor carlos alvarez, 61, and his wife elsa, 55, were ordered to be held without bond or bail on monday. the u.s. magistrate judge andrea simonton sided with federal prosecution arguments stating the couple would leave their five children and flee to cuba if granted bail.

neither of the two entered pleas in miami federal court to the charge that they failed to register themselves as agents from a foreign government.

the couple are reported to have lived "low-profile lives" in the academic community. despite strong criticism from friends and colleagues, federal agents say that the alvarezes have been "secretly spying for the cuban government for decades, using all their academic background as covers."

citing university policy, fiu put the alvarezes on administrative leave, with pay monday, the first day of school for spring semester. supervisors were asked to relay all questions to fiu's media relations director, mark riordan.

the alvarezes were, however, not charged with the more serious crime of espionage, but the indictment does state that they were trained and equipped by cuba's directorate of intelligence and recruited "young people of cuban heritage" in the u.s. to be spies. 

the charge carries up to a 10-year prison term and fines up to $250,000.



saginaw spirit victorious in first home shootout

in their first overtime game ever in the ontario hockey league, the saginaw spirit ice hockey team won against sarnia sting. the spirit were also victorious in the first ever shootout at the dow event center.

friday, january 5, 2006 saw the saginaw spirit play division rival the sarnia sting at the dow event center. coming into the contest, the spirit were in 2nd place in the ohl's west division with 42 points and the sarnia sting were in 5th place with 27 points.

the scoring began at 1:15 of the first period with spirit forward chris chappell scoring on a pass from defenseman steven whitely. after goals from defenseman tyson gimblett at 8:45 and a power play goal from captain patrick mcneill at 11:42, the sting scored their first goal; chad painchaud unassisted at 12:12. mark katic followed with a power play goal at 14:22 to make the score 3-2 spirit at the first intermission.

in the second period, the spirit and sting exchanged goals. the spirit struck first with ryan mcdonough scoring on the power play from michal birner and patrick mcneill at 12:11. the sting responded at 14:19 with a power play goal from nick tuzzolino assisted by chad painchaud and tomas pospisil.

the third period saw the score become tied. the spirit scored on the power play at 2:10 with chris chappell placing the puck in net from michal birner and patrick mcneill. the sting would go on to tie the hockey game with chad painchaud and jamie fraser scoring at 15:59 and 17:31 respectively. the game was tied at 5 going into the overtime period. 

after a scoreless overtime, the first shootout in the history of the dow event center began. sarnia's chad painchaud and the spirit's michal birner were the first to shoot. neither scored. on their next shot, the sting took a 1-0 shoouout lead on tomas pospisil's goal. the spirit would respond as captain patrick mcneill would score on the very next shot. shooting next for the sting, harrison reed did not score and neither did zack torquato for the spirit. according to ohl rules, the game then proceeded into sudden death. the sting shot first. ryan mcinerny's shot was saved by ryan daniels. the spirit sent ryan mcdonough to attempt to win the game. his shot was also blocked by parker van buskirk. sarnia's next shot was off the stick of jamie fraser. it was blocked. the spirit then sent out jesse gimblett, brother of tyson, to take the spirit's next shot. his goal won the game for the spirit at 9:45 pm in front of a sold out crowd of 4,312.

the ohl three stars of the game were saginaw's jesse gimblett with no points, but the winning goal in the shootout, and patrick mcneill with 1 goal and two assists and sarnia's chad painchaud with 2 goals and 2 assists.


iran resumes nuclear research

iran resumed full atomic fuel research today, the international atomic energy agency announced, adding that "the research will involve small-scale enrichment of uranium, usable in power plants or weapons."

"there is a difference between research and producing nuclear fuel ... the production of nuclear fuel is still under suspension," said mohammad saeedi, deputy head of iran's atomic energy organisation.

the united states has said that any enrichment of uranium would be a "serious escalation." a spokesman also stated that iran risks referral to the un's security council, which could impose sanctions, if it pursues its current nuclear course.

british foreign secretary said the conflict with iran would need to be resolved through diplomatic means and that "military action is not on our agenda."

mohamed elbaradei, head of the iaea, told the 35-nation governing board that "iran intended to carry out limited uranium enrichment at its natanz facility, where it broke un seals as iaea inspectors watched."

"iran plans to install a small-scale gas ultracentrifuge cascade in its pilot fuel enrichment plant at natanz," said a western diplomat, reading from elbaradei's report.

european diplomats have said that they will hold an emergency iaea meeting to consider referring to the un for further action and or sanctions. the united states said "this now looks inevitable."

tehran denies wanting nuclear technology for anything but civilian energy programs to satisify the countries "booming" demand for electricity.

western powers disregard iran's claim and say that "iran is to refrain from any work that could help it develop atomic weapons." the eu said iran's latest action was "eroding international confidence in the peaceful nature of its nuclear program".

in berlin, german foreign minister warned that by removing the seals of its atomic plants, tehran had "crossed a line". steinmeier said "that the iranians knew they would face consequences as a result of their action". he also added that he hopes tehran would return to a "path of reason".

today, china also urged tehran to continue talks with the eu trio, with foreign ministry spokesman kong quan saying "all parties should show restraint and make efforts to build mutual trust".

iranian news network khabar reported that the iranian parliament backed the decision by president mahmoud ahmadinejad to resume the research work, terming it a "source of national pride".

the white house said that if iran continues on its current nuclear course, it will leave the no choice but to refer tehran to the un security council for possible actions.


reporter abducted in baghdad saturday morning

freelance writer jill carroll, currently working for the christian science monitor, was kidnapped in western baghdad saturday morning. during the abduction, her iraqi interpreter was fatally wounded, although her iraqi driver escaped and was unharmed.

carroll was attempting to gather direct and accurate views of political leaders when she entered western baghdad's adil area on saturday morning.

christian science monitor's editor richard bergenheim said, "jill's ability to help others understand the issues facing all groups in iraq has been invaluable. we are urgently seeking information about ms. carroll and are pursuing every avenue to secure her release."

at present, no one has claimed responsibility for her capture.



florida bank stand-off ends with hostages rescued

two suspected robbers west of kissimmee, florida released one hostage after negotiating with sheriffs' deputies. other hostages remain inside, authorities say. police later shot and killed one bank robber and arrested a second on after a 10 hour stand-off with police. "a sniper shot the male suspect while the female was in custody", said osceola county sheriff bob hansell. four hostages were not injured.

the suspects had escaped the mercantile bank, a mile west of walt disney world's wide world of sports, with one hostage after authorities blasted through the rear door using an explosive device. but police soon cornered them in their getaway car, authorities said. the male suspect then "used the hostage again as a shield to get into another vehicle," hansell said. "he tried to leave again and at that point he was taken down by one of our snipers."

deputies had been using cell phones to negotiate with the suspects, who were wearing masks, wigs and coats.

around 7:15 p.m. est, police blasted through the bank's rear door. the suspects escaped with a female hostage and drove away in a bank employee's car, but they traveled less than a mile before street barricades stopped them. shots were fired at deputies but nobody was hurt, police said. 

the suspects had been holed up in the bank since tuesday morning. the first hostage was released when the robbers panicked when deputies arrived so quickly after the robbery, said sheriff's spokeswoman twis lizasuain. the second was freed in exchange for cigarettes and the third after deputies agreed to back their vehicles a few feet farther away from the bank, lizasuain said.

police did not release the names the hostages, but the suspects were identified wednesday as a 50-year-old male, gaetano alessandrello, and a 26-year old woman, amanda lynn moeller. it was not immediately clear whether the suspects ever got any money. tourists near the bank, in hotels, were confined to them for hours as police asked them "to stay indoors".
the hostages said they were treated well and were not threatened with violence, hansell said.

the same bank was robbed just 2 months ago on november 16, 2005. it is unclear if the two robberies are connected or not. 


4 injured when bus overturns in charlotte, nc

a school bus overturned tuesday morning in charlotte, north carolina causing minor injuries to two children and two adults. the driver reportedly swerved to avoid a log in the road. the bus rolled down an embankment and came to rest on its roof. 

the children on the bus were 3 and 4 year-olds from the bethlehem center head start program. the bus was carrying 18 children, all strapped into safety seats in accordance with north carolina law. the uninjured were transferred to a second bus and taken to school.



whole foods moves to renewable energy

whole foods market, a natural food grocery chain based in austin, texas, announced that it intends to use wind energy for all of its electrical needs. this will make the company the largest business to use renewable energy in the united states.

"it's a sales driver rather than a cost," michael besancon, a regional president for the company, said. "all of those things we do related to our core values: help drive sales, help convince a customer to drive past three or four other supermarkets on the way to whole foods."

since utility companies send power directly to the national utility grid, whole foods will purchase energy credits equivalent to 100% of the energy they use, a total of 458,000 megawatt-hours of wind energy credits per year from renewable choice energy. that's enough electricity to power 44,000 homes for a year.


former nsa employee alleges illegal spying

russell "russ" tice, a former employee of the national security agency (nsa) who specialized in "special access programs," has admitted to abc news that he was one of the sources the new york times used in its december 2005 investigation into the nsa's spy activity against americans.

he alleges that some of nsa and the department of defense's secret intelligence operations were run in violation of the law and has agreed to testify before congress about their legality.

president bush admitted ordering the nsa to monitor a small number of americans without the use of warrants, but tice believes it goes beyond that. if the full extent of nsa programs is being taken advantage of, he said, the number of americans under surveillance could be in the millions. the ability exists, tice stated, to track every domestic and international phone call as they are switched through centers and to monitor them for key words.

"if you picked the word 'jihad' out of a conversation, the technology exists that you focus in on that conversation, and you pull it out of the system for processing."

tice's security clearance was revoked in may of 2005 based upon "psychological concerns" and the nsa later dismissed him.

the new york times has not confirmed that tice was one of their sources, nor have they revealed the identities of any unnamed sources cited in their article.



stars pose for itv ice-skating show (uk)

the celebrities taking part in a new entertainment show for itv in uk, "dancing on ice", today posed for the press at the natural history museum. the show will be presented by former champion ice skaters torvill and dean, reunited for the first time since 1999. each celebrity will be partnered with a professional ice-skater to dance on ice each saturday night, and will have to win votes from the public to continue on the show.

phillip schofield, who will present the show, announced the names of the stars as they posed for the press photographers. a few passers by took photos using their mobile phones.

the stars on the show include former england football goalkeeper david seaman, the former children's tv presenter and now tv exec andi peters, olympic athlete kelly holmes, former it girl tamara beckwith and actor john barrowman (who played "captain" jack in the recent doctor who tv series).


apple unveils new intel-based mac

apple computer announced on tuesday the first generation of their products to use intel processors. the imac and the new macbook pro - a notebook computer replacing the powerbook - are said to be up to four times faster than their predecessors (up to two times faster in the imac, four times for the macbook.)

these new lines of computers have been set up to support the newest collection of mac software entitled ilife, which has added internet publication software to its high-end graphics, video, and sound tools.



chinese block of wikimedia enters tenth week

the blocking of the wikimedia project by government agencies of the people's republic of china has entered its tenth week. the wikimedia project includes wikinews as well as other popular sites such as wikipedia.

first instituted on october 19, this is the third such block in china, upsetting students and researchers who say that it is having a significant impact on their ability to conduct research, and even pass civil service exams. it is unclear why they are using wikipedia as a sole source for research in the first place.

there is little indication of whether the block is temporary or permanent. as with all internet blocks instituted by the prc, government agencies have not commented. wikimedia has been blocked twice in the past and wikipedia users have speculated that the two previous blocks, both in 2004, were due to articles on banned subjects ? such as taiwanese independence and the tiananmen square protests of 1989. 

many users in china have been using proxy servers and other means to circumvent the block. hopes that the block would be quickly lifted, like the previous two times, faded as weeks turned into months. 

on october 21st, a prominent chinese wikipedia administrator posted, ""if nothing goes wrong, the block should be lifted within one week."" he followed up on the 24th by saying, ""the block will be lifted by wednesday [october 26]. according to procedure (the details of which are unknown), after the appeal is submitted, a reply will come within 3 business days, and my appeal has already been submitted by the isp on friday. my isp has said that so far they haven't encountered a case where an appeal has failed. this should be good news, but it's still impossible to know the reason for the block."" since then, there has been no reported response from government agencies.

during the first block in 2004, users of the project petitioned their isps, one of which is thought to have had a role in restoring access. the second block, slightly later in the year, was only temporary, lasting four days. 

the chinese government has an active policy of blocking websites they consider harmful. sites that have been blocked include foreign news sites (bbc news as an example), information about tibetan independence, the falun gong and some websites based in taiwan.

wikimedia foundation maintains a group of non-profit websites dedicated to open content information that any user can edit. it includes an encyclopedia, news, quote archives, and other information. 



opera singer birgit nilsson, 87 was buried today

she married bertil niklasson; a swedish restaurateur in 1949. she has no children. many fans consider her the greatest post-war dramatic soprano.


un warns neighbours of turkey about bird flu

the united nations food and agriculture organization has asked countries neighbouring turkey, specifically mentioning armenia, azerbaijan, georgia, iraq, iran, and syria, to be cautious and take measures to prevent the avian flu, h5n1, from spreading. the un also warned that civilians in these countries should be given more information about the disease. 

two people have died in turkey so far, possibly a third, and more hospitalized, after contracting the flu virus. all 15 confirmed cases in turkey had close contact with birds. as of now, the h5n1 virus strain does not pass easily to humans and does not spread at all between humans. 



smoke reported on london underground

no injuries were reported when firefighters were called to two london underground stations when the smell of smoke was reported and seen, said police.

a spokeswoman for london transport police said firefighters had checked reports of smoke coming from the bakerloo line, but the incident was not threatening. fire services were sent to oxford circus and piccadilly circus.


ukraine hurt by russian gas deal

the ukrainian parliament voted to oust the prime minister and his cabinet tuesday after the handling of the countries gas crisis with last week.

although russia and ukraine have solved the crisis, for the time being, when the two countries agreed to new gas prices last week, the parliament described the deal as "traitorous," reports the independent of london, and ousted prime minister yuri yekhanurov's government in response.

both members of parliament and even opposition groups, said they were unhappy with the governments response to the crisis, and began to accuse it of "selling out to russia and betraying national interests".

the motion to oust the government, which both shocked and surprised many mp's was backed by 250 of the 450 members of parliament. mr yushchenko's former ally and one-time prime minister, julia tymoshenko, was among those who voted against the government.

yushchenko is calling the no-confidence vote politically motivated.

it is expected, however, that the government will remain in place until parliamentary elections are held, which are scheduled to occur in march.

the debate, at the moment, is whether the standing parliament has the authority to dismiss the prime minister. while the constitutional amendments allowing such an action were adopted jan. 1, yushchenko and yekhanurov claim that only the parliament set to be elected in march will have such an ability.

however, there are some that believe that the parliament's move was more about gaining "political leverage" than responding to the gas crisis, reported the los angeles times.

yushchenko also accused ukraine's parliament on wednesday of "destabilizing the country by sacking his government," a move which sent the local currency plumitting to its lowest point in nearly nine months.

yushchenko met vladimir putin for the first time since the russian president ordered gas taps to be turned off to his ex-soviet neighbor at the new year in a bitter dispute over prices that briefly disrupted supplies to the rest of europe.

last week moscow agreed to a new contract, which ukraine would pay nearly two times the amount it did before. the two leaders barely touched on the energy issue in comments to reporters after their meeting, instead focusing on the positive side of their strained relations.

"ukraine and russia have entered an excellent phase in bilateral relations, a phase of personal friendship, which allows us to discuss wonderful prospects," russia's interfax news agency quoted yushchenko as saying.


comet wild samples near home

stardust, a nasa space capsule carrying precious comet samples from deep space, is scheduled to return to earth january 15, 2006. 

scientists hope to discover new meaning to the beginning of our solar system.

stardust's 2.9 billion mile round-trip mission took it halfway to jupiter to catch particles from comet wild 2 two years ago. its journey will have lasted a total of just over seven years when it lands in the utah desert.

on sunday, the ship will remain in space while a 100-pound (45 kg) capsule loaded with comet dust returns to earth and lands at the u.s. air force utah test and training range at 3:12 a.m. local time (5:12 a.m. est or 1012 gmt). if the skies are all clear on january 15, then people from northern california, oregon and nevada could get quite a show as the capsule enters earth's atmosphere. the show will be quick, but should prove impressive.

comets are thought to be remnants from the process of planet formation, and scientists said the dust collected by stardust will give them their first opportunity to study pristine samples of materials formed billions of years ago. the particles from the comet were captured using a tennis-racket-sized space probe containing ice-cube sized compartments lined with aerogel, a porous substance that is 99.9 percent air. it is the first time since 1972 that any solid extraterrestrial material has been collected and brought back to earth, and the first time ever for comet particles.

during its descent over the desert, the capsule is scheduled to deploy two parachutes, though nasa officials said they have prepared for the possibility of a hard landing. a nasa probe called genesis crashed to earth in 2004 when its parachute failed to open. that craft had been on a three-year mission to collect solar wind ions, which were recovered by scientists even though the spacecraft was destroyed.

stardust's project manager, tom duxbury, said that "after the genesis incident and the columbia shuttle disaster, the mission's team spent six months testing and reviewing the spacecraft's design to make sure there were no errors". once the craft is recovered, it will be whisked away to the johnson space center in houston. only after it is in a secure lab, free of potential contamination, will the probe be pried open to reveal its payload.

"we are at the end of a fantastic voyage," don brownlee, the lead scientist for the mission known as stardust, recently told reporters at a media briefing. "we will learn a phenomenal amount… from the most primitive materials in our solar system. it is a real thrilling time." now, near the end of its long voyage home, the probe is set to plunge back to earth in the predawn hours on sunday.



seven-year old tennessee boy chased by police

a 7-year old tennessee boy who was eager to get his driver's license got an early education when he decided to take his parents pick-up truck for a joyride.

the boy, whose name was not released, remembered to wear his seatbelt and even used his turn signal when he was supposed to.

police chasing the boy initially thought they were chasing a drunk driver. "he was weaving all over the road. he couldn't stay in his lane," officer josh laverette said.

but when the truck came to a stop in front of a house, police saw that it was a boy, a second grader, barely 4 feet tall, behind the wheel. "he was so short he had to sit up close to the steering wheel," laverette said. "whenever he would brake, he would pick himself up with his left foot and stomp on the brake with his right."

the boy had barely avoided several collisions, authorities said.

when police began to talk to the boy, who managed to park in front of his own home, "he said the reason he took the vehicle was because he wanted to get his license," said laverette.

"there were like probably five city cars and three county cars and a state trooper" all of which were chasing the pickup, said susan daniel, a witness to the incident. "it blew my mind because we actually watched him put on his turn signal and turn, and we could see when he went past that he had seat belts on," daniel said. "then to come find out it was a child, i was really shocked."

the boy was charged with driving without a license, eluding police and leaving the scene of an accident. he is expected to appear in juvenile court next week.


internal audit reveals irs improperly identified hundreds of thousands of taxpayers as potential frauds

an internal audit of the irs has found that the irs has improperly identified hundreds of thousands of taxpayers as potential cheats and frozen refunds. many of the taxpayers are unaware their refunds are frozen because the irs does not notify taxpayers of their investigations. the audit found that 80% of a sample of cases flaged as potential cheats were actually legitimate refunds.

many of the frozen refunds were from the poor. the median gross income from the sample was $13,300 with a median refund of $3,519. the median delay was 8 1/2 months. 

republican senator charles e. grassley, chairman of the senate finance committee, said "refunds have been a source of abuse recently, but we need to make sure taxpayers have proper due process when the irs decides to freeze a refund." he noted that taxpayers "can't effectively challenge the irs' actions."

democrat senator said the irs was after fraud "at the expense of honest taxpayers who need these refunds for food, medicine, home heating and other basic needs."


world's biggest polluters won't cut back on fossil fuel

six of the world's major polluters, who participated in this week's asia pacific partnership on clean development and climate (ap6 or appcdc), have launched a multi-million dollar fund to develop clean-energy, but stressed they will be heavily reliant on polluting fossil-fuels for generations to come. 

green groups, labelling the talks a sham, have condemned the climate talks which were held in sydney, australia as a "coal and nuclear pact" between the big polluters and fossil-fuel firms. australian climate change observers have attacked the ap6 outcomes as grossly irresponsible, saying the federal government is willing to accept the reality of runaway climate change.

a communique released by the ap6 states: "we recognise that fossil fuels underpin our economies, and will be an enduring reality for our lifetimes and beyond" - the document said. green groups say the pact has missed a vital opportunity to commit to renewable energy sources. they say the two-day meeting failed to make any serious commitments in combatting global warming. 

combined, the united states, china, japan, india, south korea and australia, account for around half the globe's greenhouse gases. the six countries set up the summit as an ulterior method of tackling global warming outside the kyoto protocol by, they say, focussing on "clean-energy technology."

nuclear power, clean coal technologies, geosequestration and industry-driven environment funds were some of the proposals raised at the summit. unlike the kyoto protocol the six nations have not set any targets to cut greenhouse gases.

climate change observers have broadly criticised the ap6 as a waste of time. australian climate institute's clive hamilton says the meeting did little to cut greenhouse gas emissions. "i think really this conference is about trying to protect the long-term future of the coal industry," he said. "if you look at the sort of business people who have a seat at the table at the conference in sydney, they overwhelmingly represent the polluting industries rather than those that will at some time in the future replace them - the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries."

csiro chief scientist dr david brockway says the technology required to reduce greenhouse emissions is not viable for industry. 

"it has to be borne in mind that anything we are going to do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and intensity from the australian economy will come at a cost," he said. "what we are doing at the moment is doing research to try and reduce the size of that additional cost. i would say in a five to 10 year timeframe a number of these technologies will become viable."

an ap6 communique issued at the end of the conference said reductions in greenhouse gases must be achieved without hindering economic growth - "the partnership aims to mobilise domestic and foreign investment into clean and low-emission technology by fostering the best possible enabling environments," it states. some of the world's big mining and energy firms attended the talks and pledged to improve efficiency.

green groups, who were left out of the conference, say the talks were aimed at subverting kyoto - which obligates some 40 developed countries to cut greenhouse emissions by 5 percent below 1990 levels during 2008-2012. "basically, they haven't agreed to do anything in terms of serious commitment," said monash university climate change expert professor amanda lynch. the united states and australia refuse to sign kyoto claiming its mandatory greenhouse gas cuts would threaten economic growth. 

australian prime minister john howard said, "experience has taught us that seeking arbitrary targets doesn't result in achieving practical solutions to global climate change." mr howard stressed the importance of maintaining economic growth to alleviate poverty, while cutting greenhouse emissions.

he said the summit had injected "an overdue dose of realism into the debate about climate change. we believe it is possible to tackle issues of greenhouse gas emissions and the challenge of climate change without reducing living standards," he said. "the world will go on using fossil fuels for many years into the future because it's more economic to do so. so therefore it's elementary commonsense that you should try and make the use of fossil fuels more greenhouse gas sensitive, you should try and clean up the use of fossil fuel," he said.

the world wildlife fund (wwf) have dismissed mr howard's comments as misleading and irresponsible. the wwf's chief executive greg bourne said, "in my whole business career, i have never seen a more misleading public statement as that... if the statements made today become a reality, this will lock us in to a four-degree rise in global average temperatures, when two-degrees is considered extremely dangerous," he said. "there couldn't be anything more irresponsible than to knowingly embark on a path towards massive increases in emissions and runaway global warming."

the ap6 nations said in the final communique that the eight public/private partnership taskforces created at the conference, will draw up action plans by the middle of 2006 on issues including renewable energy, power generation, cleaner fossil fuels and coal mining.

environmentalists said the sydney pact was doomed to fail because it did not impose targets on its members which comprise nearly half of humanity. the new south wales nature conservation council said the group's voluntary approach was a "licence for government and business to do nothing". "without any incentives or penalties there is no reason for industry to move away from burning polluting coal and oil," said the council's cate faehrmann.

the ap6 countries encompass: 49 per cent of world gdp; 48 per cent of the world energy consumption; 48 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions; and 45 per cent of the world's population. 

many scientists say global warming is melting glaciers, raising sea levels and will cause more intense storms, droughts and floods. current levels of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere are higher now than at any time in the past 650,000 years, research from antarctic ice cores shows.



shooter of former pope john paul ii released from prison

mehmet ali agca, jailed in 1981 for shooting and injuring former pope john paul ii in rome has been released from turkish prison. a turkish court had determined that he had already completed his sentence with time served.

agca shot the pope as he rode around st peter's square in a open-topped car. agca was a turkish militant who was a member of the nationalist grey wolves; however, his motives for the shooting remain unclear.

agca was sentenced to life in prison in italy, before being pardoned by former pope john paul ii in 2000 and extradited to turkey to serve jail time for the murder of abdi ipekci, a journalist. turkish citizens were outraged that he served only four and a half years for murder.



colombian unions reiterate their accusations against coca cola

the workers of coca cola in colombia reiterated their accusations against coca cola for violations to the collective agreements after denying that the world wide campaign they are moving forward has political interests. javier correa, president of "sinaltrainal", the national union of the food industry, denounced that coca cola continues to violate the worker’s right of association. he declared that of 8,700 employees only 2,300 have a direct contract with the company and that contractors and sub-contractors have no right to join the union organization. in addition, sinaltrainal denounced that there is a persecution campaign against its members that has resulted in attacks by paramilitary groups.


lobbyist giant shuts down due to ties with jack abramoff and tom delay

the alexander strategy group (asg), one of washington's top lobbying operations, plans to shut down at the end of january. 

edwin a. buckham, the company's owner and former top delay aide, said monday that the company had been fatally damaged by the publicity surrounding the federal investigation of the lobbyist jack abramoff and former house majority leader tom delay (r-tx).

the company was founded in 1981 and has thrived due to its connections to tom delay. its current clients include fannie mae, freddie mac, microsoft, and the pharmaceutical research and manufacturers of america.

delay has been indicted for money laundering and other charges in texas. asg employed delay's wife, christine, for four years. 


hospitality exchange organisation grows to 100,000 members

the hospitality club became the first hospitality exchange network to pass the 100,000 members milestone on january 11, 2006. its closest competitors, couchsurfing and globalfreeloaders, have 40,000 and 30,000 members.

hospitality exchange organisations are dedicated to putting travellers in contact with locals offering to host them in their house for free, or simply offer them a tour of their city or share a meal with them. besides the obvious financial advantage, the hospitality club believes that "bringing people together and fostering international friendships will increase intercultural understanding and strengthen peace."

servas open doors, the oldest network, in fact formally views itself as a peace initiative, and there are also a number of smaller hospitality exchange networks which focus on specialized audiences, such as agritourism.

w:veit kuhne from dreseden, germany, who founded the hospitality club in 2000 while he was still a student, believes that "one day, everyone will have the opportunity to visit any country knowing that someone will be waiting to receive them with open arms. people will travel in a different way, meet each other and build intercultural understanding through personal contact."

"there will be many members in places like israel and palestine, northern ireland, the balkans, chechnya, rwanda, or timor who will exchange hospitality with each other, and in small steps the hospitality club will have helped making peace a lasting vision for our wonderful planet," he adds.

hospitality club was the first online organisation to offer on a major scale the possibility for travellers to find and contact locals open to cultural exchange. the whole system is entirely free, and hosting fees are supported by google advertisements. the safe and efficient operation of the 30+ languages website and its database, forum, and chatroom depends on the work of hundreds of volunteers from around the world.

anybody can become a member, but they must provide their full name and address, for security reasons. all members have a profile they can fill with information about themselves and their preferences, to help prospective visitors contact the person most likely to welcome them.

the most often mentioned drawback of the system is lack of security. the main difference between hospitality exchange networks and other social networking platforms such as orkut or livejournal is that the former's ultimate objective is to allow for face-to-face meetings. users should realise that there is a risk involved, although according to frenchman jean-yves hegron, main software developer of the hospitality club, "by using the club you have the same level of risk as the one you face whenever you get out from your home."

discussion about strategic or security issues is not allowed on the website's forum, hence critics often mention lack of transparency in how they perceive decisions are taken by volunteers in hospitality club. another point of critique is the fact that there is no legal organisation behind hospitality club, and the domain name is registered to the founder of the club himself. messages containing links to other hospitality exchange networks were at some point deleted without further notice though this policy has since then been reverted. exponential growth of the network has also caused server failures alike to those observed in wikipedia until recently.

the idea of free hospitality exchange is not new. servas was the first organisation to develop it, right after world war ii. it still exists to this day, with over 15,000 members, and is represented as an ngo in the united nations. because democratic, paper-based servas is perceived as bureaucratic by some, hospex was created as the first online network in 1991.

hospitality club succeeded to hospex in august 2000, introducing innovative security features ranging from spam protection to passport control and a sophisticated feedback system, thus making online hospitality exchange available to travellers with higher safety concerns. from 1000 members in july 2002 to 10,000 in february 2004, it quickly grew to 100,000 on 11 january 2006 and is expected to reach the million in about two years.




us general invokes right against self-incrimination in abu ghraib case

maj. gen. geoffrey miller, a top us commander who supervised the detention and interrogation of detainees at guantanomo bay and abu ghraib facilities declined to testify in a court-martial proceeding, by invoking his right to not implicate himself, the "washington post" reports. this is believed to be the first time that the role of senior officers in the prisoner abuse scandal has formally surfaced. 

gen. miller declined to testify during the court-martial trial involving two dog-handlers who are accused of detainee abuse. an attorney for one of the accused is seeking to question miller on whether he ordered the use of dogs to frighten detainees during interrogations. 

gen. miller's lawyer has stated that the decision to decline testifying was taken as miller has been repeatedly interviewed over the last several years, and that he stands by his previous statements made to congress, army investigators and lawyers.


hundreds dead in hajj stampede

according to the saudi interior ministry over 345 muslim pilgrims have been killed in a stampede during the annual hajj pilgrimage near mecca, saudi arabia. 

the stampede at islam's most holy site happened at jamarat bridge, during an event where pebbles are thrown at a pillar to represent the stoning of satan as part of the final rites of the hajj. the stampede began when luggage from a bus tripped pilgrims at the eastern end of the wall, causing a bottleneck. those who were tripped were then crushed by the wave of people behind them.

muslims are required to make a pilgrimage to mecca during their lifetimes, if physically or financially possible, as it is one of the five pillars of the islamic faith. saudi officials had already provided safeguards by installing an oval wall with padded edges to protect pilgrams from a crush, installed security cameras and placed over 60,000 security personnel in the area.

this is not the first time deadly stampedes have taken place during the hajj, with the deadliest stampede during the 1991 hajj, in which 1,426 pilgrims were trampled.

last week, at least 76 people were killed when the al ghaza hotel near the masjid al haram (grand mosque) collasped, the cause of which is unknown.



president bush tours katrina affected region

president george w. bush made a stop over in two of the worst hit cities by today. his stops included , louisiana, and , mississippi.

the president made small speeches in both cities, with references to the many problems that still exist due to a lack of housing, the slow pace of small business administration loans, problems with homeowners insurance payments and the urgent need for bridge rebuilding.

"people in faraway places like washington, d.c., still hear you and care about you," bush said standing in a gymnasium at st. stanislaus college in bay st. louis. "i recognize there's some rough spots. we're going to work to make them as smooth as possible."

bush also recognized and promised that his administration is learning the lessons of its "all-to-slow" and "much-criticized" response to katrina. "obviously the federal response in parts of this devastated area could have been a lot better. we want to know how to make them better. we want to make sure that when there is a catastrophe of any kind, this government, at the federal level, is capable of dealing with it in conjunction with the state and local governments.we want to know how to make it better," bush said during his speech. "i just want to assure you, we are, we are."

bush went on to praise the city's success in getting the essential utilities, such as, water and electric "mostly" on-line. he also said that federal tax incentives will encourage businesses to create jobs and promised that the new levy system will make the city "both safer and more attractive for investment." he also added that all those things will help new orleans and the rest of the gulf, back into a "shining part of the south." he also said "new orleans is a great place to have a convention" and a "heck of a place to bring your family."

bush promises that the federal government has allocated 85 billion dollars for reconstruction efforts, $25 billion of which has already been spent on mostly the effort to clean up the debris and provide temporary housing for citizens.

katrina first made landfall in , florida on august 25, 2005 as a category one hurricane resulting in dozens of deaths in south florida and spawning several tornadoes. 

katrina then passed over florida and headed into the gulf of mexico where it strengthened into a massive category 5 storm.

she then made her second landfall on the morning of august 29, 2005, near , louisiana with winds at 125 mph and a central pressure of 920 mbar, a strong category 3 storm.

katrina is quite possibly the strongest hurricane on record ever, but estimating the size of storms from before the 1960s (the pre-satellite era) is difficult to near impossible.

as of january 4, 2006, the confirmed death toll from katrina stands at 1,386.

demographers estimate of new orleans' 400,000 residents prior to katrina only 25% have returned.


reggie bush to go pro

usc running back has decided to enter the and forfeit his final year of college football eligibility. the winner is the favorite to be the top pick in the draft, in which case he would play for the . 

bush rushed for 1,740 yards during his final college season, and led the trojans to the rose bowl. quarterbacks of the and of the are also likely to among the top draft picks this year.

but vick, who was kicked off the hokies team for repeated brushes with the law off the field, had his chances in the draft further reduced by his latest misdemeanor arrest sunday for brandishing a firearm at a man he believed made a comment about the young woman he was with.



new dna tests find executed virginia man was guilty

new dna tests done on roger keith coleman, the virginia man executed in may 1992 for rape and murder, find him guilty of committing the crime.

the results were announced by governor mark warner during a thursday afternoon news conference. "the confirmation that roger keith coleman’s dna was present [at the crime scene] reaffirms the verdict and the sanction," warner said. 

the tests end more than a decade of debate by death penalty advocates on both side of the coleman issue. more than 1,000 have been put to death in the united states since the penalty was re-introduced in 1976. coleman maintained his innocence in the 1981 crime up until the time of his execution, and never admitted guilt.

the coleman tests, if he were exonerated, would have been the first time a person who was executed would later be found innocent. a report issued with announcement states that testing standards performed today on the dna evidence could only share a profile similar to another’s dna in 1 out of 19 million people, a level of precision not possible at the time of his conviction.

the order for the re-test is one of the last official acts performed by governor warner, who will step down as governor on saturday. the testing was done in toronto, canada by the ontario centre of forensic sciences, whose findings report that coleman could not be ruled out as the source of a sperm samples found from the crime scene. 

the attorney for coleman argued that his client did not have time to commit the crime, and that tests showed semen from two different men was found inside the rape victim, wanda fay mccoy . the attorney also said that another man bragged that he murdered her. 

the governor at the time, douglas wilder, allowed the sanction to proceed against coleman after he failed a lie-detector test administered shortly before the execution was carried out.


 


screen actors guild awards nominations released

the screen actors guild? recently announced the nominees for its 14th annual sag awards?.

nominated for "outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture" are "brokeback mountain", "capote", "crash", "good night, and good luck.", and "hustle & flow".

"outstanding performance by a male actor in a leading role" includes russell crowe ("cinderella man"), philip seymour hoffman "capote", heath ledger "brokeback mountain", joaquin phoenix "walk the line", and david strathairn "good night, and good luck." this continues last year's trend of highly nominated biopic portrayals. this year's historical figures were boxer james j. braddock, writer truman capote, and singer johnny cash, and broadcast journalist edward r. murrow.

"outstanding performance by a female actor in a leading role" nominees are judi dench ("mrs. henderson presents"), felicity huffman ("transamerica"), charlize theron ("north country"), reese witherspoon ("walk the line"), ziyi zhang ("memoirs of a geisha").

nbc newcomer "my name is earl" faces off against longtime award-magnet "everyone loves raymond" in the "outstanding performance by an ensemble in a comedy series" category. also nominated are "desperate housewives", "curb your enthusiasm", "arrested development", and "boston legal".

the cat's drama equivilent sees nominees like "the west wing", "six feet under", "lost", "grey's anatomy", and tnt's "the closer". female dramatic actors include movie-turned-television personalities like sandra oh ("grey's anatomy"), geena davis ("commander in chief"), and patricia arquette ("medium").

other nominees of note include alan alda, famous for his role in "m*a*s*h", who now plays presidential candidate arnold vinnick, candice bergen, formerly of "murphy brown", who now plays shirley schmidt on "boston legal", and "star trek" alumni william shatner, who acts the role of denny crane, also on "boston legal".

shirley temple black will receive screen actors guild awards 42st annual life achievement award. temple is considered by many to be the most famous child actor in history. she is currently an american diplomat.

then-screen actors guild president melissa gilbert said, "i can think of no one more deserving of this year’s sag life achievement award than shirley temple black. her contributions to the entertainment industry are without precedent; her contributions to the world are nothing short of inspirational... in everything she has done and accomplished, shirley temple black has demonstrated uncommon grace, talent and determination, not to mention compassion and courage... she has been an indelible influence on my life. she was my idol when i was a girl and remains my idol today."

this will be new president alan rosenberg's first time at the helm of the ceremonies.

final ballots for the sag awards are due by 12 noon pt, friday, january 27, 2006. the awards will be broadcast sunday, january 29, 2006, on tnt and tbs.


turkish teens died of mutated strain of bird flu

scientists have confirmed that the h5n1 virus found in the dna taken from one of two turkish victims, who died from the disease, has mutated and they now believe that turkey is now a locale for endemic bird flu.

however, the who, stressed that it is too early to tell if the mutation is important.

"we assume this could be one small step in the virus' attempt to adapt to humans," said mike perdue, a who virologist. "but it's only seen in one isolate and it's difficult to make sweeping conclusions. we just have to wait and see what the rest of the viruses from turkey look like."

health officials had raised the number of deaths from the h5n1 virus from 15 to 18 after after it turned up in preliminary tests on two people hospitalised in south-eastern turkey, and in a girl's lungs after she died in the same area. it also has confirmed 147 human cases of the h5n1 virus worldwide and 78 deaths, though this includes only four infections and two deaths in turkey.

all victims are thought to have had close contact with poultry.

health officials suggest the virus can now attach itself more easily to human cells than before. 

the mutation has been found in a mutated version of a key protein, haemagglutinin, which controls the way it binds to cells. this, scientists theorize, may be the key in making it more dangerous to people. the mutation makes the virus more capable of attaching itself to human cells before infecting them. but experts said the mutation had been seen before without severe consequences.

maria cheng, a spokeswoman for the world health organisation, says, "it doesn’t look as if it has significance regarding transmissibility or pathogenicity because it is not borne out by epidemiological evidence we have so far."



turkish government accused of being too slow to respond to bird flu

the turkish government has come under fire from officials in dogubayazit, where three siblings died from the strain of bird flu, for not sending enough resources and not responding quickly enough in the region.

the mayor of dogubayazit, mukkades kubilay, claims that the turkish government sent only three doctors and that there were not enough workers to destroy poultry.

the government has been accused of doing too little, too late. h5n1 was discovered in turkish poultry in december, 2005.

agriculture minister mehdi eker dismissed the claim, saying that culling of infected poultry began immediately following the discovery of h5n1 on december 15, 2005.

questions about whether the government acted aggressively enough early in the outbreak emerged as officials tried to contain the disease, which eker said had been confirmed in 11 of turkey's 81 provinces and was suspected in 14 others.

the number of confirmed human cases of h5n1 in turkey is 18. three of those have died from the virus.

several others with the virus have shown few symptoms or are in a stable condition. authorities suggest that the strain may not be as deadly as first thought. of those who contracted the virus in asia, half died.

an eight-year-old child who became infected after playing with dying chickens has been released from hospital.

nationwide, 355,000 birds have been slaughtered in an attempt to slow the outbreak.

the agricultural ministry is complaining that it has only 24 workers in dogubayazit, a city of 56,000, and culling could take up to a month to complete.

experts are still warning of a possible pandemic, prompting the world bank to release us$500 million in aid to assist countries combat h5n1.



interview with brazilian blogger ricardo serran lobo

ricardo serran lobo is a brazilian blogger who writes about his famous neighbor, the politician roberto jefferson, head of the brazilian labor party in the brazilian congress of deputies. jefferson has become a major figure in the ongoing brazilian mensalao scandal revolving around corruption and bribery.

vizinho do jefferson quickly became very popular among brazilians, describing the routine of jefferson, while providing information about politics and fresh news about the scandal. lobo's blog got third place in the best of blogs contest run by deutsche welle international.

lobo gets an intimate look at the center of brazilian politics by living in brasilia, near residences of parliamentarians (including roberto jefferson), public buildings and the brazilian chamber of deputies. or, as he says in his blog: "near the eye of the hurricane," a reference to the recent political crisis. 

at first, lobo began describing the daily activities of his famous neighbor deputy roberto jefferson. as the crisis moved on, he began to describe the political events regarding it. his writings evolved to not only what is going on with jefferson, but what is going on in brazilian congress, and has interviewed politicians, including roberto jefferson himself.

the blog tries to be informative, with a lot of humour (common with brazilians), and some protests against the bad habits of brazilian politics in general.

jefferson's neighbor, the blog, is an example of citizen journalism and it shows that ordinary people can compete with professional media.



































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iran nuclear talks have stalled

senior iranian diplomats still hope for a diplomatic solution to the current stand off between the united nations and the resumption of its nuclear development program to enrich uranium. the national security council spokesman for iran, hossein entezami, said thursday on a national broadcast that "iran still believes diplomacy could be productive."

the un secretary-general, kofi annan said after a thursday telephone conversation with ali larijani, iran's top nuclear negotiator, that they "are interested in serious and constructive negotiation but within a time frame."

on the one hand, the united states and europe have grown increasingly concerned over iran and its decision to resume full nuclear research. 

on the other hand, the concerns about the failure of the nuclear weapons states such as france, usa and uk to progress in nuclear weapons disarmament as is required by article vi of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which were summarised at the non-proliferation treaty conference, june 2005 by the malaysian representative, rastam mohd isa, have not been addressed.

talks between europe and iran stalled late yesterday to a near standstill and the e.u. joined with the u.s. in its decision to refer iran to the un for possible sanctions.

"our talks with iran have reached a dead end," the german foreign minister, frank-walter steinmeier, said at a news conference in berlin germany. "from our point of view, the time has come for the un security council to become involved." germany is a state alleged by the non-aligned movement to be in violation of articles i and ii of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty due to nuclear sharing.
condoleezza rice, the u.s. secretary of state, said that "iran's actions have shattered the basis for negotiation."

when asked if military force was an option (in iran) rice said "the president of the united states never takes any of his options off the table and nobody would want the president to do that... we are on a diplomatic track and it's not on the agenda at this point to move from that diplomatic track." 

rice's comments have added to speculation that if all diplomatic negotions with iran fail, that attacks on facilities in iran using mini-nukes might be a possibility.

despite the criticism from america, europe, and quite possibly russia and china, to get iran to reverse its current course, some diplomats and experts say that the process of getting iran near that step may take a long time, and may never even work. during the non-proliferation treaty conference, june 2005, it was said that getting usa, france and the uk to disarm according to their obligations under the npt may also take a long time, and may never even work.

iran's government continues to insist that its nuclear path is for "peaceful purposes." in a noted turn from iran's use of aggressive language in defining their position on politically sensitive issue, entezami said, "iran pursues its nuclear research activities in the framework of the international atomic energy agency regulations and under the supervision of the agency. so there is no reason for challenging iran's rights in the field of nuclear fuel." 



australia accused of bullying east timor over oil field treaty

the australian federal government has been accused of bullying and short-changing the tiny nation of east timor (timor-leste). australia and east timor have signed a treaty to share revenue from the greater sunrise energy field located in the timor sea. the treaty means each country gets half the revenue from the area - but any further negotiations on maritime boundaries will be postponed for up to 50 years. 

the treaty, signed in sydney on january 12th was attended by australian prime minister john howard and his east timorese counterpart mari alkatiri. the treaty is the culmination of long-running negotiations and bitter disputes between the two countries on how to split the $40 billion resource.

east timorese prime minister dr mari alkatiri said the landmark agreement would provide a major boost to the nation's revenues - while protecting its territorial sovereignty. "i am confident this is for the benefit of the people," he said. dr alkatiri anticipated production may be up to 10 years away.

however, an australian lobby group has vehemently attacked the failure to address, what they say, the bigger and more important issue of permanent maritime boundaries. timor sea justice campaign (tsjc) spokesman tom clarke says the australia government did not respect conventional maritime boundaries. he says the postponed decision on maritime boundaries means east timor will not be able to gain control of their territory. 

"the australian government has basically bullied the poorest country in asia into postponing its claim to sovereignty," said mr clarke. "so a permanent maritime boundary will not be established under this deal - they're basically leaving that issue for future generations to negotiate." 

other non-government organisations (ngo's) have protested about australia's exploitation in the disputed area. a communique signed by 12 east timor ngo's stated that the maritime frontier with australia should have been established first, before the exploration of resources began. 

australian energy giant woodside petroleum, operator of the greater sunrise project, has given no indication as to when the development might go ahead. company spokesman roger martin said there were still a few steps to go before the greater sunrise joint venture partners would be making any decisions on how to proceed.

prime minister john howard believes the deal is a fair and just outcome and will strengthen relations between the two countries. "it means that the very close relationship between our two countries can not only continue but become even closer," he said.

but tom clarke (tsjc) has described the deal as a "stop gap, band-aid solution" - because nothing had been settled on the issue of maritime boundaries. "it simply postpones the real issues of sovereignty for half a century," he said. mr clarke said east timor clearly had more claim over the energy field than australia. 

"the australian government has continually and blatantly refused to abide by international law. instead, it has bullied the poorest country in asia into a series of dodgy resource sharing deals, to take billions of dollars that simply do not belong to us," he said.

the campaigners claim the deal marks another sad chapter of australian foreign policy betrayal, saying the howard government is determined to increase australia's reputation as a bully in the region. "this really should have been a very simple matter of just drawing a line half way between two coastlines, but once again the greed and self-interest of our, the australian government, has brought shame to all australians who believe in a fair go," mr clarke said.



distributed computing to get &quot;interstellar project&quot;

nasa is awaiting the arrival of very precious cargo from space.

the stardust spacecraft is scheduled to land at around 5:12am (eastern time) on sunday january 15, 2006. onboard are dust particles that have been collected from the comet wild 2. 

when the capsule gets to earth and enters the atmosphere, at about 5am (eastern time), it is expected to put on quite a light show for folks in northern california, oregon, nevada, and utah. the capsule will look much like a shooting star going across the sky. the capsule will be traveling at about 12.8 km or 8 miles per second, fast enough to go from san francisco to los angeles in one minute. stardust will set a new all-time record for being the fastest spacecraft to return to earth, breaking the previous record set in may of 1969 during the return of the apollo x command module. “it will move over the west coast of northern california and will light the sky from california through central oregon and on through nevada and idaho and into utah,” tom duxbury, stardust's project manager said.

the capsule will then release a parachute approximately 32 km (105,000 feet) and descend into the salt flats of utah. if weather is permitting, it will be recovered by helicopter teams and taken to a cleanroom at the michael army air field, dugway proving ground, for initial processing.

the capsule itself, only weighs 45.7 kilograms (101 pounds) and resembles a mini apollo capsule.

not only will it break the record for the fastest spacecraft to return to earth, stardust principal investigator don brownlee of the university of washington, seattle, says “we are nearing the end of quite a fantastic voyage ? our spacecraft has traveled further than anything from earth ever has ? and come back. he also added that “we went half-way to jupiter to meet the comet and collect samples from it. but the comet actually came in from the outer edge of the solar system, out beyond the orbit of neptune, out by pluto."

if the capsule makes it safely back to earth, scientists hope to unlock many secrets about the formation of our universe. 

"locked within the cometary particles is unique chemical and physical information that could be the record of the formation of the planets and the materials from which they were made," said dr. don brownlee, stardust principal investigator at the university of washington, seattle.

"comets are some of the most informative occupants of the solar system. the more we can learn from science exploration missions like stardust, the more we can prepare for human exploration to the moon, mars and beyond," said dr. mary cleave, associate administrator for nasa's science mission directorate.

stardust is bringing back the first samples of contemporary interstellar dust ever collected, and is also the first mission to return samples from a comet, as well as the first sample return mission from the galaxy. not one grain of contemporary interstellar dust grain has ever been examined in a laboratory before.

"we think a significant fraction of comets will be stardust particles actually older than earth and older than the sun, and for drama the stars, and the way you identify those is by their isotopic ratios," stardust principal investigator don brownlee said. "there are fabulous tools now to analyze these and a very anxious group of scientists waiting for these samples."

stardust's main mission was to capture dust particles from comet wild 2, but it is also believed to have captured dust from distant stars, perhaps created in supernova explosions less than 10 million years ago.

the dust can only be found using using a high-magnification microscope with a field of view smaller than a grain of salt. 

but now they have the difficult task of trying to find all these millions of particles, which takes more time and man power that nasa has. that's where nasa decided to try distributed computing.

distributed computing has been a huge success. most of the credit of the success of distributed computing, can be given to the scientists at the university of california, berkeley. scientists there have had and continue to have huge success with a program they created called seti@home, which now uses the distributing platform boinc.

with the success of boinc and other distributed computing platforms, nasa hopes to achieve its goal in half the time with the public's help by creating the project stardust@home

"like seti@home, which is the world's largest computer, we hope stardust@home will also be a large computer, though more of a neural network, using brains together to find these grains," said bryan mendez of the center for science education at the space sciences laboratory. 

but, the project is not for everyone. first, you will go through a web-based training session and then you must pass a test to qualify to register and participate. in the test, the volunteer is asked to find the track in a few test samples. to judge the reliability of the user, they also plan to throw in some ringers with and without tracks. 

if at least two of the four volunteers viewing each image report a track, that image will be fed to 100 more volunteers for verification. if at least 20 of these report a track, uc berkeley undergraduates who are expert at spotting dust grain tracks will confirm the identification.

after passing the test and registering, you will be able to download a virtual microscope (vm). the vm will automatically connect to their server and download so-called "focus movies" -- stacks of images that we will collect from the stardust interstellar dust collector using an automated microscope at the cosmic dust lab at johnson space center. the vm will work on your computer, under your control. you will search each field for interstellar dust impacts by focusing up and down with a focus control.

the other neat thing is that there are no limitations and the more images you examine, the better chance you have at finding an interstellar dust grain.

any interstellar dust particles that you find, then you will appear as a co-author on any scientific paper by the stardust@home collaboration announcing the discovery of the particle.

currently the project is only accepting pre-registration and will be available to the public in mid-march, even before all the scans have been completed in a cleanroom at houston's johnson space center. in all the project is expected to need at least 30,000 person hours, to go through all the images, at least 4 times by 4 different participants.

berkeley will host and maintain the project, but it is unlcear as to whether or not the project will use the boinc platform.

the virtual microscope was developed by computer scientist david anderson, director of the seti@home project, along with physics graduate student joshua von korff.

the stardust spacecraft was launched on february 7, 1999, from cape canaveral air station, florida, aboard a delta ii rocket. 

the stardust project is expected to cost $170-million-dollars with a journey that will have lasted over 7 years and actually went around the sun three times, and "back in time to 4.5 billion years in time to gather these primitive samples that just were released from a comet’s nucleus," duxbury later added.




homeland security helps secure open-source code

the u.s. department of homeland security has dedicated $1.24 million in funding in its effort to protect open-source software. stanford university, coverity and symantec have all taken up the challenge to perform daily scans of code, hunting for security bugs. an automated system to achieve this search will be in place by march '06.


german intelligence participated in u.s. bombing of iraq, media alleges

the bundesnachrichtendienst (bnd) helped the u.s. military during the 2003 invasion of iraq, the daily "suddeutsche zeitung", ard's "panorama" magazine and the "los angeles times" concordantly reported on thursday.

according to their information, two agents of the bnd stayed in baghdad during the war even after the german embassy was evacuated on march 17, 2003. a former "high-ranking official" in the u.s. department of defense told "panorama" that the agents helped to track down targets throughout the iraqi capital for the u.s. defense intelligence agency (dia) as they didn't have enough reliable sources in baghdad. a bnd official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, told the "suddeutsche zeitung" that there was "no dumbness between the bnd and dia" during that time and that it was part of the bnd's "job" in iraq to identify "non targets" like hospitals or embassies. he said this was authorized by the chancellor's office.

the pentagon informant of "panorama" however said that the german agents were much more involved. a common saying during the war was supposedly: "do we have anything from the germans?" according to him, they drove to a restaurant in mansur district of baghdad on april 6th where saddam hussein was assumed to be dining. the bnd agents reported back to the dia that many mercedes cars were parking there. as those cars were presumed to be of saddam hussein, the u.s. military conducted an air strike on the location. hussein escaped, but twelve civilians were killed.

the bnd confirmed that two of its agents operated in iraq during the war but denied all other reports. a spokesperson told "panorama" that it's agency "did not provide target information or target coordinates to the warfaring parties." the intelligence committee of the bundestag exculpated the bnd. its chair norbert rottgen said that the in secret sitting committee, controlled by government parties, concluded with two-third majority that there are no indications that the agents aided the u.s. in selecting targets.

german foreign minister frank-walter steinmeier called the accusations "schizophrenic" while opposition parties are demanding an parliamentary investigation committee. and during a visit of german chancellor merkel to the white house, u.s. president bush said in a response to a reporter's question whether he knew anything about the allegations: "the truth of the matter is, the chancellor brought this up this morning. i had no idea what she was talking about. the first i heard of it was this morning, truthfully".


thai civil rights lawyer somchai neelapaichit presumed dead

prominent thai civil rights lawyer, somchai neelapaichit, is now presumed dead, according to an admission by the country's prime minister, thaksin shinawatra.

somchai rose to prominence as a lawyer defending muslim people accused of involvement in the troubles in the predominantly muslim provinces of southern thailand. according to the information provided by the pm, evidence has been provided to the department of special investigations that leads them to believe the lawyer is now dead. this is not considered news by the journalist's family, according to his wife the country's prime minister admitted to her last year that her husband was dead, and gave assurances that action would be taken against those responsible.

thailand's dsi became involved with the disappearance of somchai in july 2005 when allegations were made that police were involved with the lawyer vanishing. his involvement in cases related to the southern insurgency was suspected to have been behind his disappearance. somchai had lodged appeals with the bangkok criminal court on behalf of five suspects accused of being involved in a raid on a narathiwat armoury where weapons were seized and soldiers killed, alleging that they had not been given fair treatment during their prosecution.

the admission follows on from the conviction of police major, nguen thongsuk, who was prosecuted for illegally detaining the lawyer in 2004. following that he was last seen in public in march 2004. in the case against the police four other officers were acquitted.


u.s. airstrike targeting ayman al-zawahiri leaves 18 dead in pakistani village

a united states military air strike on a pakistani village on friday killed at least 18 people, including women and children. 
u.s. media reports claim that leading al-qaeda member was a target, and that the strike took place in the village of damadola in the bajaur tribal area of northwestern pakistan. 

the pentagon has denied any involvement, leading to speculations that the cia was responsible for the strike. such speculations have been confirmed by an unnamed american intelligence official; although no official statement has been issued.

pakistani intelligence officials have contradicted u.s. claims that ayman al-zawahiri was in the area at the time of the strike and suggested that the u.s. intelligence information placing him there was incorrect. a pakistani intelligence officer claimed that zawahiri was invited to a dinner in the village where the strike took place, but he "did not show up." according to pakistani army representatives, ayman al-zawahiri was not among the dead. al arabiya satellite television network has reported that "a source with contacts with al qaeda reiterated to arabiya that zawahiri is alive."

egypt, who has zawahiri's brother in prison, has provided the united states with a dna sample, which would allow officials to positively identify the fugitive al-qaeda leader. it is also reported that the dna has already been used to run tests at the fbi in washington dc.

pakistan condemned the u.s. air strike, summoned the united states ambassador, and said that the country "does not allow u.s. forces to cross the border in pursuit of taliban and al-qaeda fighters." pakistan's information minister sheik rashid ahmed said that pakistan wants "to assure the people we will not allow such incidents to reoccur."

however, foreign office spokeswoman tasnim aslam said that "according to preliminary investigations there was foreign presence in the area and that in all probability was targeted from across the border in afghanistan."

the foreign office issued a statement saturday saying it lodged a formal complaint with the united states embassy in islamabad, where it will be hand delivered by foreign secretary riaz khan.

pakistani intelligence officials are looking into reports that suggest at least seven foreign militants had been killed and their bodies removed by local supporters. 

this complaint is the second lodged by pakistan against the u.s. in less than a week. the earlier protest was prompted by u.s. missile attack that killed eight people from a village in the north waziristan tribal region. according to local officials, none of the victims were terrorist suspects. as a result of the strikes, protests broke out in different parts of the country. 



john kitzhaber not running for governor of oregon

former oregon governor john kitzhaber announced today that he will not enter the 2006 gubernatiorial race. the democrat stated that he felt he could do more by pushing for reforms in the united states health care system through a grass roots campaign. 

kitzhaber served two terms as governor of oregon from 1995 through 2003 and was succeeded by governor ted kulongoski. kulongoski, who is also a democrat, has received mixed reviews during his first term as governor. some had been urging kitzhaber to enter the race to reenergize democrats who have become unsatisified with the current administration. 

during a speech at a homeless shelter, kitzhaber said, ""at least at this point in time, i can make the greatest entrance not by entering a campaign for governor but by launching a campaign to change the american health care system and by offering people an opportunity to engage around an idea, not just a candidate."


huge star cluster discovered in neighbourhood of milky way

this is a map, by mario juric of princeton university based upon the forthcoming sdss-ii data release 5, of the virgo super star cluster, viewed from far away and from above the galactic plane. it shows the counts of faint blue stars, from a narrow magnitude and color range, that are 10 kiloparsec away from earth.

the map is shown in the lambert projection of galactic coordinates: radial rays are lines of constant longitude, circles are lines of constant latitude, the north galactic pole is in the center, and the galactic centre is towards the left. the counts are shown on a logarithmic stretch, with a dynamic range of 10 increasing from blue to red.

the dotted line through the middle of the map shows the plane of the debris from the saggitarius dwarf galaxy that is being cannibalized by the milky way. this debris is approximately four times further away from earth than the virgo super star cluster is. astronomers have hypothesised that the two may be related.
astronomers at sloan digital sky survey have announced the discovery of a huge star cluster, the virgo super star cluster 10 kiloparsecs (32,600 light years) away from the solar system (roughly the same distance as the galactic centre), in the constellation of virgo. many of the stars have been known to astronomers for centuries, but only now have they realized the existence of the cluster.

in a presentation to the american astronomical society, princeton university graduate student mario juric, the principal author of the findings, explained: "some of the stars in this milky way companion have been seen with telescopes for centuries, but because the galaxy is so close, its stars are spread over a huge swath of the sky, and they always used to be lost in the sea of more numerous milky way stars. this galaxy is so big, we couldn't see it before."

the large overpopulation of stars was discovered by researchers analyzing sdss-i and sdss-ii data. sdss has, to date, imaged roughly one-quarter of the northern sky. the method used was the photometric parallax method. "we used the sdss data to measure distances to 48 million stars and build a 3-d map of the milky way." explained zeljko ivezic of the university of washington, a co-author of the study.

this discovery is one in a series of such discoveries made within the last decade by a new generation of sky surveys. the saggitarius dwarf galaxy was discovered in 1994 using photographic sky images. since then, analysis of photographs by large digital cameras has identified several streams and clumps of stars, some of which (astronomers believe) are milky way companions and others of which are shreds of the saggitarius dwarf or other dwarf galaxies that are also dissolving into the milky way. an earlier sdss discovery was the canis major dwarf galaxy. "with so much irregular structure in the outer galaxy, it looks as though the milky way is still growing, by cannibalizing smaller galaxies that fall into it," said juric.

the first indication that the virgo super star cluster existed was in 2001, when the quasar equatorial survey team (quest) survey, using a 1-metre telescope in llano del hato national astronomical observatory in venezuela, found a clump of five rr lyrae variable stars, which astronomers speculated might belong to a small galaxy being canibalized by the milky way. kathy vivas of the centro de investigaciones de astronomia in venezuela, the author of the quest paper on the discovery, commented that "in light of the new sdss results, it appears that the stellar stream we detected is itself part of the larger structure identified by juric and collaborators."

in a letter to the "astrophysical journal" the quest has presented further evidence for vivas' interpretation, by measuring the motions and chemical compositions of stars in the region.




augustine volcano erupts

augustine volcano in alaska erupted five times on january 13. friday's activity follows two eruptions on january 11. the alaska volcano observatory predicts the increased activity at augustine volcano will continue for several days, possibly for two to three weeks. the volcano last erupted in 1986 and 1976. the avo expects the current activity to be similar to those two eruptions.

the eruptions have prompted alaska airlines to cancel 28 flights into and out of the alaskan cities of anchorage, juneau, kodiak, and fairbanks. ash from the eruptions is likely to spread throughout the cook inlet and surrounding areas.

augustine volcano has recently seen an increased rate of seismic activity, beginning in may, 2005. earthquakes on the island increased from a "normal" rate of 1-2 a day to about 15 a day in mid-december. the volcano also experienced up to two inches of uplift prior to the eruptions.



venezuela will buy spanish planes with european technology

in a communique issued by the embassy of the bolivarian republic of venezuela in madrid as response to the barring of spain's sale of military planes to venezuela, and then made public by the chancellor’s office, venezuela has claimed that the reason why the united states government vetoes the selling of spanish planes to venezuela is because washington wants to continue imposing the flight of american anti-drug patrols dean nations. if the us did so it would violate venezuela's sovereignty he said.

spain says it will keep its promise and will equip the planes using european parts to bypass the us licenses.

venezuela wants to buy 12 planes with a combined value of 2 billion u.s. dollars to carry out its own anti-drug surveillance and interception flights.

venezuela is also attempting to buy planes from brazil, but this move has also been vetoed by the us government under the grounds that brazilian planes use us technology.



iran to end nuclear cooperation

iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad spoke out in a rare news conference on saturday against statements made by europe and the united states, saying that if any country refers it to the u.n. security council over its nuclear program, that it will end their voluntary compliance with surprise inspections and other nuclear cooperation with the u.n. nuclear watchdog, the iaea. he also warned that europe will lose the chance of reconciliation if it pursues sanctions.

president ahmadinejad said that even if iran is referred to the security council for possible sanctions, the action would still not stop its nuclear program. "they keep on threatening us that we have to either accept what they say or they will send us to the security council," president mahmoud ahmadinejad said during a news conference in the iranian capital of .

iran's statements came as europe and the u.s. began to build support for reporting iran to the u.n. security council. however, china has been cautious and has warned the move could only escalate the confrontation.

meanwhile, president george w. bush, and chancellor angela merkel, urged u.n. intervention. "the world needs to send a common message to iran that their behavior...is unacceptable," bush said.

the u.s. and europe continue to have growing concerns that iran is trying to produce nuclear weapons.

on tuesday, britain, france and germany issued a statement declaring that 2 1/2 years of tense negotiations with tehran were a "dead end" and urged the u.n. security council to intervene.

iranian foreign minister, manoucher mouttaki, said to the press yesterday that "the west will bear the consequences if iran is sent to the council. iran does not need to have permission from any country. it is our legal right to have nuclear energy."

in response the bush administration, along with chancellor angela merkel, said that they "cannot allow countries such as iran to blackmail peace-loving countries like themselves."

iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad said that his "country does not need nuclear weapons. they are needed only by people who want to solve everything through the use of force." he then went on to say, "leaders who believe they can create peace for themselves by creating war for others are mistaken."

tehran has always said it has the right under article vi of the ? which the nation has signed but not ratified ? to research nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.




ariel sharon's brain shows activity

israeli prime minister ariel sharon remains in a coma after 10 days.

medical experts on the outside say that sharon's failure to regain consciousness does not look well for his recovery.

on wednesday, doctors began reducing the level of sedatives with the intent of drawing sharon out of an induced coma. hospital officials say that sharon remains "lightly sedated", but are not sure when he will wake up once they stop giving him the sedatives.

new reports say an eeg has shown that sharon has activity on both sides of his brain and doctors say that's the most "promising" signs they have had since they started to bring him out of the coma. doctors also say that activity in both lobes doesn't indicate anything about the extent of the brain damage. "it is another piece of information that on its own means nothing," said dr. gal ifergan, a neurologist at soroka medical center in beer sheva, who is not treating sharon. 

although he has activity on both sides of his brain, sharon could still have extensive brain damage, ifergan said. he also said that it's "very worrisome that he hasn't woken from his coma", yet.

there are 2 major types of stroke, and sharon has had both. the first was a mild stroke dec. 18 caused by a blood clot that lodged in an artery in the brain, cutting off blood flow and causing minor damage. the second occurred just one day before he was scheduled to undergo surgery to repair a hole in his heart. this one was a severe cerebral hemorrhage

"after nine days he has had very slow progress and that indicates more permanent injury to a level where his quality of life is affected," dr. demetrius lopes, a rush university medical center neurosurgeon said. "and then decisions will have to be made," he added.

sharon's condition is still critical but stable.




liberal democrat leadership contenders address party members

four declared contenders in the liberal democrats leadership contest today addressed party members at the london school of economics. the contest was initiated after charles kennedy admitted in a press conference that he had previously sought professional help for an alcohol problem. initially, mr kennedy had stated that he intended to run for re-election in a leadership contest. however, after 25 mps said they would refuse to serve on the front bench under charles kennedy, he resigned immediately and said he would play no part in the leadership contest.

at the meeting today, which had been organised before kennedy's resignation, the four candidates - sir menzies campbell, 
mark oaten, simon hughes and 
chris huhne - were permitted to make 12 minute speeches outlining their vision for the party. the speeches were broadcast live and unedited on bbc news 24, with clips from them appearing in news bulletins later that evening.

the current acting party leader, menzies cambell, the first to declare his intention to stand, said that he wanted new thinking to tackle poverty and social injustice, new thinking to underpin a modern constitution, and a radical democratic revolution. he suggested that international cooperation was the way to make poverty history, and spoke against the decision to invade iraq. he stressed his "experience" as being a key quality needed for a liberal democrat leader.

the mp for the winchester constituency, mark oaten, praised the success of previous leader charles kennedy. he pledged to do all he could to defeat attacks on civil liberties in coming months, and stressed that it was important to try and defeat the identity card bill due to be voted on next month. he suggested that the party "needed to be more progressive, ambitious, and optimistic" and should avoid talking about politics in terms of 'left' or 'right'. speaking about the environment, he said that the solution was not to "dictate how people should lead their lives" but offer positive measures enabling people to take their environmental responsibilities seriously.

the current party president, simon hughes, who unsuccessfully ran for the london mayoral position in 2004, promised a consultative leadership and said he wanted the liberal democrats to be the "party of fairness". he attacked prime minister tony blair as having 'failed', with the poorest paying a bigger propotion of their income in taxes than the richest. he said that there was a need to tackle inequality, and promised to stick with the policy of taxes to tackle inequality. he also supported greater decentralisation of power, and stressed the continued importance of environmental policies.

former mep chris huhne focused on environmental issues, questioning the government's lack of conviction to the kyoto targets and the panicked response to the fuel protests. he spoke against david cameron's lack of environmental conviction and suggested that only realistic means of tackling carbon emissions was through taxation, which could help change behaviour. higher eco-taxes should be combined with lower personal taxes for those at the bottom of the economic scale, he argued. he also promoted greater powers and accountability for local authorities.

the nominations for leadership candidates close on 25th january, with candidates needing the declared support of at least 7 mps and 200 party members from at least 20 different constituencies. no other candidates other than the four above are expected to stand. the vote closes on the 1st march, with the result due to be announced on the 2nd march.



hussein trial judge submits resignation

the chief judge in saddam hussein's trial submitted his resignation yesterday. the reasons for his resignation are still unknown, and it is unknown at this time whether his resignation will be accepted.

rizgar mohammed amin?one of a five tribunal judges overseeing hussein's case?offered to resign, a court official told the press. prosecutor jaafar al-mousawi, told the media that amin's resignation, if accepted, would not affect the proceedings because he can be quickly and easily replaced.

since the trial opened on oct. 19, two defense lawyers have been assassinated, and a third fled the country. police also uncovered a plot to fire rockets at the courtroom in late november 2005.

another court official, who wished for his name not to be released, due to the sensitivity of the case, said amin offered to resign, but efforts were under way to get him to reverse the decision.

at least two judges on the case earlier in the week said that the remarks that amin was going to resign were "untrue."



actress shelley winters dies of heart failure

actress shelly winters died of heart failure today at the rehabilitation centre of beverly hills, her publicist, dale olson said. she was 85. 

winters was hospitalized in october after suffering a heart attack.

winters was the daughter of a tailor's cutter and her mother was a former opera singer. she made her impromptu singing appearance at a st. louis amateur night when she was only 4 years old.

she started her career as a nightclub chorus girl, and advanced to supporting roles in new york plays, then became famous as a hollywood sexpot.

winters is probably best known for her appearance in the movie "the poseidon adventure". she made several appearances on roseanne as roseanne's grandmother.


israeli tourism ministry reconsidering pat robertson deal on christian heritage center

the israeli ministry of tourism is reconsidering cutting ties with christian televangelist pat robertson over the construction of a christian heritage, pilgrimage and tourism site near the sea of galilee. the christian heritage center which would stretch over 125 acres is placed where, according to christian tradition, jesus taught and lived in the galilee region. robertson was one of the people at the heart of the project which was supported by many other evangelicals who worked to raise $50 million (usd).

israeli tourism minister, avraham hirchson, and robertson were just about to sign an agreement that the israeli government would set aside land and infrastructure for the site, when robertson made comments on his daily show, "the 700 club", claiming that israeli prime minister ariel sharon's stroke was "divine retribution" for withdrawing from the gaza strip. robertson said, "'this is my land,' and for any prime minister of israel who decides he is going to carve it up and give it away, god says, 'no, this is mine.'" many evangelicals considered the withdrawal as retreating from biblical prophecy of jewish sovereignty over the holy land.

robertson's comments earned him a harsh backlash from many different groups, including the white house and former presidential candidate, senator john kerry of massachusetts. a spokesperson for robertson said the comments were taken out of context.

on wednesday, robertson sent a letter addressed to sharon's son omri apologizing for his comments. in the letter, robertson said sharon is "kind, gracious, and gentle man" who was "carrying an almost insurmountable burden of making decisions for his nation." the letter further added, "my concern for the future safety of your nation led me to make remarks which i can now view in retrospect as inappropriate and insensitive in light of a national grief." robertson wrote, "i ask your forgiveness and the forgiveness of the people of israel." according to the israeli ambassador to the united states, israel accepts the apology.

however, despite the apology by robertson, it was doubtful that he would be brought back into the plan. hirchson said on wednesday that "robertson's help was no longer welcome." 

ironically, robertson helped make television ministries what they are today, and the heritiage center would contain studios and satellite uplinks for live broadcasts. the groundbreaking for the project is slated to begin later in the year.




sondhi continues using thailand weekly show to attack pm

in his weekly open-air version of the popular "thailand weekly" show, outspoken government critic and founder of manager media, sondhi limthongkul launched another series of stinging attacks against the country's prime minister.

thai pm thaksin shinawatra was accused of planning a cabinet reshuffle in an effort to deflect public attention away from allegations of wrongdoing and corruption. sondhi alleged that politicians with poor public images would be recruited into the cabinet, and that such was a scheme to overshadow accusations of corruption that have been levelled at the prime minister ? mainly by sondhi himself.

sondhi vowed to continue pursuing thaksin for answers to questions raised on the "thailand weekly" show about government corruption.

sondhi went on to make further allegations against the prime minister, claiming that free trade agreements made with china and australia were aimed at benefitting thaksin's family business interests. sondhi claims the agreement with australia would hit local dairy farmer and liquor producers as imports from australia would be allowed without tariffs. garlic and onion farmers were claimed to be impacted by the agreement with china whilst the thaksin family telecom businesses could tap into the chinese market.

sondhi's show finished off with a protest march to government house. the media tycoon led a 3,000 stong crowd with former senator pratin santiprapop. by 11pm the number of demonstrators outside government house was said to be 11,000. pratin addressed the crowd calling for the resignation of the prime minister over a comment he claimed was disrespectful to the king.



symantec admits security flaw

symantec, owner of the security software norton systemworks admits the existence of a security flaw that can be exploited by malwares. the flaw is of the "rootkit" type.

a "rootkit" is a set of tools capable of concealing processes, files and other information preventing the detection of malwares such as virus, spywares and invasion programs. 

in norton, the "rootkit" works as the following: a folder named nprotect keeps all the files deleted by the user. it allows files to be undeleted. the problem is that norton (as a "rootkit") hides the folder not only from the user but also from the operating system. it prevents antivirus and security tools from scanning the folder creating a hiding place for malwares. symantec said that it was to "ensure that a user would not accidentally delete the files in the directory". they also claim to have no knowledge of any attempt to use this flaw and the problem can be easily solved by a normal software update.


gordon brown calls for national day to celebrate 'britishness'

british chancellor gordon brown today used a speech addressed to a conference of the fabian society to outline his plans for a possible national day for britain. with the focus of the speech on promoting 'britishness', mr brown asked whether there could be a celebratory day to help develop 'the ties that bind [british] people more closely together'. 

"what is the british equivalent of the us 4th of july, or even the french 14th of july for that matter? what is our equivalent for a national celebration of who we are and what we stand for? perhaps armistice day and remembrance sunday are the nearest we have come to a british day that is ? in every corner of our country ? commemorative, unifying, and an expression of british ideas of standing firm in the world in the name of liberty responsibility and fairness?"

former prime minister john major spoke to the bbc today programme and agreed that the chancellor was "absolutely right" to promote the concept of britishness, but added "he seems not to mention that many of the actions of the present government have ruptured britishness by their own legislation." 

a spokeperson for the commission for racial equality welcomed the speech, saying "it is important to talk about and identify our shared common values and discuss ideas and find ways to celebrate being british".

gordon brown also argued that the british union jack flag should be reclaimed from far-right groups such as the bnp, saying "the flag should be a symbol of unity, part of a modern expression of patriotism".

the speech was released in advance to the media on the labour party website.



brazil, bolivia promise cooperation

meeting yesterday at itamaraty, brazil's foreign ministry, bolivian president-elect evo morales and brazilian president luiz inacio lula da silva outlined plans for broad cooperation between the two countries during morales' upcoming term in office, which begins on the 22nd of this month. lula's special assistant for international issues, marco aurelio garcia, mentioned in particular that bolivia might be interested in development of its petroleum resources with the help of brazil's petrobras, as well as in increasing social programs and seeking to deepen its relationship with other governments.

according to garcia, there are plans to form a bilateral commission to guide cooperation between the two nations in the coming years.

public statements from the two leaders have characterized the meeting in glowing terms. after the talks, morales described a "relationship of brotherhood," saying that he looks forward to the help of brazil, whom morales says, "leads the region." asked about whether the close bonds between the growing number of leftist governments in latin america constitued the development of an anti-united states counterweight in the region, morales responded, "we are for a culture of dialogue...we are not going to create a bloc against the u.s."


canadian teen faces disputed us military tribunal

19-year-old canadian citizen omar ahmed khadr attended a pre-trial hearing on wednesday, january 11, in front of a military tribunal at the u.s. naval base in guantanamo bay in his case involving charges of murder, attempted murder and aiding the enemy.

khadr was 15 when on july 27, 2002, following the u.s. invasion of afghanistan, he was present in a compound near khost which was surrounded by us soldiers. after a fierce firefight and u.s. bombings of the compound, u.s. special operations forces sgt. christopher speer, who has training as a medic, led a group of us soldiers searching the compound in the belief that everybody inside had been killed. according to u.s. army reports, omar khadr, who was wounded by the bombings and the only survivor in the compound, fired his pistol and threw a grenade which killed christopher speer and wounded three others. in response, khadr was engaged by u.s. forces and shot three times, which left him nearly blind in one eye.

while still 15 years old, khadr was transferred to the u.s. detention facility at guantanamo bay, where he was kept together with adult detainees, separate from other children who received better treatment and some formal education. now khadr is 19 and is facing the tribunal operated exclusively by the us military. 

the tribunal is referred to by different media organizations as a "war crimes court", a "military commission" or a "military tribunal". its legality is presently under dispute. the usa has not ratified the international treaty creating the international criminal court, so the nature of the tribunal under international law is unclear. the miami herald reports that "military defense lawyers and legal observers <nowiki>[condemn]</nowiki> the so-called military commissions as stacked against the defendants", but that the chief pentagon prosecutor, air force col. morris "moe" davis defended the tribunal, stating that the purpose of the tribunals is to provide a fair trial while addressing an enemy whose actions had not been anticipated under the geneva conventions. "we have nothing to be ashamed of, and i'm proud of everybody involved in the process," he said.

the supreme court of the us is expected to decide on the constitutionality of this type of military tribunal in the next few months, with oral arguments in march, to consider charges that the "tribunals" violate us obligations under the geneva conventions. 

khadr has requested an upgrade to his legal team. the military defense lawyer appointed to him by the tribunal is a 31-year-old army captain, who has never before handled a trial defense and just recently returned from his tour of duty in iraq.


ottawa 67's lose to saginaw spirit, 7-5

the saginaw spirit and ottawa 67's ontario hockey league teams faced off in a high-scoring competition saturday night at the dow event center in saginaw, michigan, with the spirit topping the 67's at a score of 7-5.

the spirit made their mark in the first period, scoring three goals. tim priamo scored the first goal of the night, followed by tom craig, who scored his first ever ohl goal. ryan mcdonough rounded out the period with the spirit's third goal.

the second period continued a lead for the spirit, with patrick asselin scoring another goal for the spirit, making the score 4-0 before the 67's responded when julian talbot shot two goals in the period, making the score 4-2. 

saginaw's tyson gimblett and ottawa's joe grimaldi held a fistfight on the ice during second period, with gimblett drawing a two minute instigator penalty, along with a five minute fighting penalty and a ten minute misconduct during the incident. grimaldi was charged with a five minute penalty for fighting. another fight late in the period between the 67's elgin reid and the spirit's jamie klie had both in the penalty box for five minutes.

third period goals, separated only by seconds, from ottawa's chris hulit and jamie mcginn took lead of the game for the 67's, upping the spirit by one. the spirit responded with two of their own from patrick mcneil and matt corrente, regaining the lead for saginaw, 6-5.

with only minutes remaining, ottawa pulled their goalie from net to gain a man advantage. saginaw's last goal of the game was scored by michael birner, making the final score of the game 7-5.

the spirit team maintains second position for their west division, behind the plymouth whalers. the 67's are currently fourth in the east division.


pakistanis condemn us airstrike

pakistani tribesmen numbering in the thousands protested and some set fire to the office of a u.s. related agency as the people and government of pakistan for the second consecutive day on sunday expressed their anger over u.s. attacks on pakistani civilians along the frontier.

many major cities in pakistan were affected by the protests. in the largest city of karachi, the crowd was estimated at 10,000, with chants of "death to america" and "stop bombing against innocent people." riot police were deployed, but there were no reports of violence.

in a nationally broadcasted speech on sunday by president pervez musharraf, he made no reference to the friday air strike. "if we keep sheltering foreign terrorists here ... our future will not be good. remember what i say," he said.

pakistan's information minister, sheikh rashid ahmed, said the attack was "highly condemnable" and that his government wanted "to assure the people we will not allow such incidents to reoccur."

liaqat baluch, a lawmaker from mutahida majlis-e-amal, said "we demand that pervez musharraf resign and american troops vacate all parts of pakistan and go out of afghanistan and iraq." sahibzada haroon ur rashid, a lawmaker from a hardline islamic party, called the attack "open terrorism."

protests opposing the government's participation in the u.s.-led war on terror, and the recent series of u.s. attacks along the frontier that killed civilians were held nationwide. shahid shamsi, a spokesman for the anti-american religious coalition that organized the rallies announced more and bigger protests in the days to come. he said "pakistani civilians, including children, were killed," and explained that "principles cannot be broken in the name of (fighting) terrorism."

unnamed sources in the united states indicate that the missile strikes were intended to assassinate specific al-queda members.

the pakistani prime minister shaukat aziz of the ruling muslim league (q) party demanded an apology from the united states on monday. he also said his scheduled trip to the united states will proceed as planned. he will leave tuesday for talks there on security issues, and meet with business leaders to garner foreign investment.



 


stardust lands in utah successfully

"all stations, we have touchdown," an announcer declared.

stardust, a capsule carrying dust from comet wild 2, has landed safely in the utah desert. it also is the first time in history that a space mission has brought back such material.

"the tiny particles that the stardust mission is bringing back are the most scientifically exciting and technically challenging material that we have ever had the opportunity to study," said monica grady of the planetary and space science research institute (pssri).

when the landing was complete, it drew cheers from excited scientists. 

"it's an absolutely fantastic end to the mission," said carlton allen of nasa's johnson space center.

"everything worked so well. what an exciting moment," said allan cheuvront, stardust spacecraft engineer at lockheed martin space systems. 

many reports are stating from skywatchers, that sighted the speeding capsule as it shot across the sky over the western united states. "we saw it in the sky…it was great," said paula nicholson, public affairs officer at the u.s. army dugway proving ground.

in 2004, another collector capsule from another spacecraft, genesis, which collected solar wind particles crashed into the utah desert, however, the samples did not survive.

after the capsule landed, it activated its locator beacon and helicopter recovery crews successfully located the capsule in the dark. the capsule is reportedly intact from the helicopter observations, and the unofficial touch down time was 5:10 a.m. est. it will be transferred to a "cleanroom" and is expected to be flown to johnson space center early next week where the capsule will be unlocked for the first time since it landed.

when opened, scientists will find the microscopic dust particles trapped in a porous, pale-blue smokelike material known as aerogel made up of 99.8 percent air that was used to snag the dust in space. 

the dust then will be looked at under a microscope to be examined and because this comet is nearly 5 billion years old, they hope it will unlock some of the secrets to the formation of our galaxy and universe.

the capsules speed when it was going through earth's atmosphere was a record breaking 29,000 mph, making it the fastest man-made probe to return to earth. its first parachute opened at nearly 100,000 feet from the ground where it was then guided to a 10-mph landing in the desert.

the capsule also brought back with it 72 black-and-white pictures showing broad mesas, craters, pinnacles and canyons with flat floors on the surface of wild 2, which was a staggering 500 million miles from earth at the time stardust was launched.

stardust was launched in 1999 and its trip lasted over 7 years. stardust traveled about 4.5 billion kilometers (2.88 billion miles), and went around the sun 3 times. in the end, a magnificent achievement for nasa and science in general.




protests erupt in pakistan over us air strike

many pakistanis took to the streets saturday to demonstrate against the u.s. air strike of a village on the border of afghanistan. the main demonstration took place in the city of karachi, where protestors shouted "death to american aggression" and "stop bombing innocent people", a bbc report claims. riot police were deployed to keep order.

a rally also took place in the town of samarbagh, where over 600 people came out to protest, according to the aljazeera news network. speaking at the rally, aizaz-ul mulk afkari, a leader from the hezb-ul mujahidin group, is reported to have claimed that washington was targeting pakistan because of its nuclear weapons.

the previous day, around 8000 tribesmen are reported to have staged a rally in the town of inayat qala. the us has not yet commented on the attack.



israeli pm ariel sharon to undergo more surgery

ariel sharon, 77, is scheduled to undergo a tracheotomy today, which is expected to help wean him off a respirator, which is helping him to breathe, a hospital statement said.

a tracheotomy is a procedure where an incision in the windpipe is made to create a temporary or permanent opening. it will allow for the removal of the breathing tube now inserted in sharon's throat. sharon suffered a major stroke on january 4, 2006. last week, doctors said the plastic tube connecting his windpipe with the respirator would start to cause him damage if left in for too long.

tracheotomies are routinely performed on stroke victims to reduce the risk of infection posed by intubation.

"the prime minister's condition continues to remain critical but stable," said a statement issued by jerusalem's hadassah hospital where doctors have been trying, unsuccessfully, to wake sharon from a medically induced coma. "this evening the prime minister will undergo a ct test after which he will undergo a tracheotomy. the surgery is aimed at helping to wean him off a respirator machine. it will be conducted in the operating room under general anaesthesia."




chelsea's robben sent off after &quot;over celebrating&quot;

today, a controversial decision was taken by referee chris foy in a recent match between sunderland association football club and chelsea football club in the u.k. to send off chelsea's robben after "excessive celebrations". the decision was taken after robben proceeded to embrace fans beyond the barriers of the club, which was seen by the referee to be a breach of safety regulations, as well as fifa policy.

as consensus, ex-match officials watching the game agreed the decision was thought to lack common sense. however, the policy of restricting player celebrations was introduced into fifa policy last year after safety concerns from various match officials. fifa rules state several situations in which celebrations may lead to booking;

however, the rule which bskyb stated in the pre match commentary was more relevant, because the aforementioned rules were not in any way broken; referring to the fact that perimeter fences were only common in spanish football. the guideline stated that ""leaving the field to celebrate a goal is not a cautionable offense in itself but it is essential that players return to the field as soon as possible"".

despite the justification of the referee's call, both robben himself, and commentator andy gray questioned the common sense nature of the decision, noting that quick thinking and spontaneous decision should be something a referee focuses on, rather than the implicit enforcement of minor rules.

in response to the decision, andy gray noted;


tarja halonen wins the 2006 presidential election in finland

helsinki, finland - the second round of presidential elections in finland have concluded, with incumbent tarja halonen of left wing parties gaining 51,8% of the vote (with 100% of all votes tallied), and former finance minister, sauli niinisto of the national coalition party gaining 48,2%. pre-election studies indicated a close match with both candidates gaining approximately 50% support in polls. halonen got 53,9% of the advance votes, while niinisto got 46,1%. both candidates got close to 50% of election-day votes (january 29). the total turnout in the end was 74,0%, or 3,163,096 voters. these results are to be confirmed by wednesday.
in comparison, halonen won the second round against esko aho in the year 2000, with approximately the same percentage. total turnout then was 80,2%. 

halonen failed to win an outright majority in the first round, resulting in a second round against niinisto, the runner-up in the first round.

a major talking-point in the elections was the possibility of finland becoming a member of the (nato). halonen upholds the current finnish policy of non-alignment and a reliable, independent defensive force, but does not outrule the possibility of finland becoming a member sometime in the future. co-operation with nato will continue and be expanded on, despite the fact that the majority of finns oppose outright membership.

halonen will be inaugurated on march 1 for her second term, becoming the 19th president of finland.




finnish presidential election held. niinisto and halonen goes to the next round

helsinki, finland - the first round the presidential elections were held today. with all (100%) of the votes counted, no candidate reached more than the number of votes necessary to win. the top two candidates, the social-democrat incumbent, tarja halonen with 46,4% and the conservative, sauli niinisto with 24,1 %, will go the next round in two weeks time, on the 29th. finland has its presidential election every 6 years and it decided on the alternative vote system of 50%+1.

finland is a nordic country with semi-presidential system of government, in which both president and prime minister are heads of government. the role of president of finland has become smaller the past years due to changes in the constitution, though president is still head of foreign policy and the commender-in-chief of the finnish defence forces. 

one of the main issues in this election is finland's relation to nato. some candidates like halonen and the green candidate heidi hautala oppose and some candidates like niinisto and henrik lax support joining nato. though president is not in a position to decide about this, it is considered by some as a signal from the voters if they support nato supporting or nato resisting candidates.



us justice department sues american airlines on behalf of reservists

the us government has filed a lawsuit against american airlines on behalf of three pilots. the pilots were employed by the company while serving in the naval reserve and air national guard. 

the us department of justice alleges that when the pilots were called into active duty by the us military, american airlines denied them employment benefits. the department of justice said in a complaint filed in the us district court in dallas that american airlines conducted an audit of leave taken for military service by pilots in 2001. the justice department charges that based on that audit american airlines then cut the employment benefits of pilots who had taken military leave while not cuting benefits of pilots who had taken non-military leave.

justice department assistant attorney general wan kim said "this nation depends on our reservists to faithfully carry out their duty. no reservists, indeed no members of the armed forces, should ever be punished or discriminated against for answering the call of duty."

this is the first class action lawsuit under the 1994 uniformed services employment and reemployment rights act.



us senators, eu voice support for iran sanctions

at least 15 united states senators from both the democratic and republican parties voiced strong support for sanctions against iran unless it halts its nuclear program completely, and at least one senator has hinted that military action is a possibility in the future. 

senator john mccain (r-arizona), said on cbs that "the united states should press for sanctions even if that led to higher oil prices." he also added that "this is the most grave situation that we have faced since the end of the cold war, absent the whole war on terror."

another republican senator, of south carolina, speaking on the fox news channel, said there should be "tougher measures." he also stated that "all options should be kept open," which could imply the use of military force. however, senator graham also said that "we need to work together with our european allies."

the most well-known military action by the us against an elected government in iran was the anglo-american covert in 1953 in which prime minister was overthrown and the exiled was restored to the throne as a .

senator (d-california), said she "agrees with mccain's assessment of the extent of iran's threat. iran has much more opportunity to create devastation in the middle east than iraq at this time," she said. "i think it's a very serious threat." regarding the need for continued international cooperation, feinstein stated that the issue is a "major test of the international community."

on thursday, germany, france, great britain and the european union officially declared an end to negotiations with iran, a move endorsed by the united states.

on friday, russia renewed its call for iran to resume cooperation with the (iaea). 

"we again call on iran to reconsider its decisions and return to the state of moratorium and implement full and transparent cooperation with the iaea, as is foreseen in the appropriate resolutions of the agency's board," foreign ministry spokesman mikhail kamynin said in a statement to the press.

defense minister sergei ivanov said "all efforts must be made to ensure the peaceful resolution of the crisis and that diplomatic methods had not been exhausted." he then added that russia's "proposal" to move the final phase of iran's enrichment program to russian territory is "still on the table for discussion."

mohamed elbaradei, chief of the iaea, said in a press release today that he is so far unable to confirm whether iran's controversial nuclear program is peaceful. "for the last three years we have been doing intensive verification in iran, and even after three years i am not yet in a position to make a judgment on the peaceful nature of the (nuclear) program." he also added that iran would only be a "few months from building a nuclear bomb if it has nuclear material at the same time as a weaponization program."

"we still need to assure ourselves through access to documents, individuals and locations, that we have seen all that we ought to see and that there is nothing fishy, if you like, about the (nuclear) program," elbaradei said.

iranian finance minister davood danesh jafari said on an iranian radio station today that "any western sanction placed on iran, in response to its nuclear development program could raise global oil prices... sanctions on iran, could possibly, by disturbing iran's political and economic situation, raise oil prices beyond levels the west expects," he told state radio.

on saturday, the iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad said during a rare press conference to address the european union that iran will "consider using its control over oil prices as retalliation for potential sanctions on iran." today he said, "only diplomacy, not threats to refer it to the u.n. security council, could defuse a standoff."

in a press conference on friday, united nations secretary general kofi annan said that he had spoken to the iranian representative in the iaea in vienna, ali laridziani, who said "iran is interested in serious and constructive negotiations, but without time constraints."

the united states and the e.u. harshly criticized annan's "spin" on the iranian response, stating that because diplomatic talks have reached their limit, the matter should be deferred to the security council.

iran continues to insist that its nuclear energy is to be used to provide electricity for an "energy-needy economy, not to build (atom) bombs."

iran announced on january 10, 2006, that it was going to "resume full nuclear research."




chile elects first woman president

michelle bachelet became chile's first elected female president sunday when her rival, sebastian pinera, conceded defeat after trailing by six points.
bachelet, a member of the center-left group concertacion, previously served as both health minister and defense minister.

outgoing president ricardo lagos called it a "historic day" and phoned bachelet to congratulate her.

at 21:30 local time (00:30 utc of monday), bachelet has said: 

ms. bachelet supporters are reportedly celebrating her victory.

the following results are based in the third official bulletin delivered at 20:50 local time (23:50 utc), corresponding to the 99,71% of the total votes.


new zealand's secrets from 20 years ago released

the new zealand government is to investigate how 20-year-old top secret papers were released. they show that new zealand was spying on the communications of argentina, the soviet union, east germany, france, egypt, japan, north korea, vietnam, laos, the philippines, fiji, tonga, the solomon islands, south africa and even the united nations diplomatic cables.

the leak came when a copy of the government communications security bureau's (gcsb) 1985-1986 annual report was found among the personal papers of former new zealand prime minister david lange. after cabinet signed off, they were released by archives new zealand. 

according to intelligence expert nicky hager, "this is the most secret report and most revealing one ever to come to the public."

duty minister jim anderton says the report should have been returned to the gcsb after david lange had read it. "there'll be some investigation by officials as to how the report was not returned and was just left in the archive like this for people to stumble over... i think there'll be some concern about that."

the report also shows that the united states threatened to spy on new zealand if new zealand didn't back down on its anti-nuclear legislation.

in 1984 after the new zealand government passed laws that stop nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships from using new zealand ports, the united states announced that it was stripping new zealand of allied status until united states navy ships were re-admitted to new zealand ports.


earthquake south of medan, indonesia

two moderate earthquakes occurred off the island of nias, on the west coast of sumatra. the first earthquake at 5:47 am on saturday was a 5.0 magnitude centered 30 km below the ocean floor. twelve hours later the same magnitude quake occurred in the same area.

neither quake caused any panic on the island that is located in an area of the pacific ocean known as "the ring of fire"; panic wouldn't be unexpected because indonesia was the scene of the boxing day 2004 tsumni. 

the area of the pacific ocean is referred to as "the ring of fire" because of several unstable fault lines located there, and any one is expected to cause a major quake bringing massive tidal waves to the coastlines encircling the pacific.


u.s. senators defend pakistan missile strike that killed 18

u.s. senators are defending the missile strike that left 18 pakistani villagers, including women and children, dead in northern pakistan but missed the alleged al-qaeda member .

senator trent lott said the strike was "clearly justified by the intelligence". senator evan bayh explained that with the lack of government control in the tribal areas "regrettably, this kind of thing is what we're left with." he said, "now, it's a regrettable situation, but what else are we supposed to do?" senator john mccain apologized for the strike, but added that he couldn't say the u.s. would not do the same thing again. he added the u.s. has "to do what [we] think is necessary to take out al-qaeda, particularly the top operatives. this guy has been more visible than osama bin laden lately."

meanwhile the killings prompted demonstrations across pakistan on sunday. they were mostly organized by islamist factions, but opposition political parties as well as a key coalition partner of the current government participated. "there has been a protest in every big city, and the government understands why so many people are angry," said pakistan's information minister sheikh rashid ahmad. the demonstrators were mostly peaceful, chanting "death to america" and "stop bombing innocent people," but on saturday the office of a u.s. backed aid agency was set on fire.

a pakistani intelligence official has contradicted reports that dna tests were being performed on the victims to determine their identity. "what do you think, that the families of the victims would let us or the americans dig the graves of their loved ones for fbi tests? an absolutely crazy idea."



arizona may have driest winter in centuries

nearly a month into the winter season, much of arizona has still not received rain or snow. drought conditions have affected the state to varying degrees for the past 11 years, but 2006 looks to be the worst yet.

rain and snowfall are typically most prevalent during january and february, but a high-pressure system has been keeping storms away from arizona. both are needed to refill the water reservoirs and keep forests healthy; if they continue to dry out under the current warm weather, it could cause an earlier fire season than usual.

the lack of rain will also increase farmers' demand on the water supply earlier in the year than usual and may cause problems if the summer monsoons also fail to arrive.



daily protests in sarajevo, organized online

a peaceful protest in sarajevo, lasting for several weeks so far, was ignited by a post on an online discussion board, sarajevo-x. in a post named "patriotism" one user, with nickname stolac92, expressed his dissatisfaction with bosnia today, writing among other things on december 22: "my heart hurts. it hurts because of all injustice, recklessness, theft... but what hurts the most is that we are quiet, we are tolerating, forgiving instead of doing something about it."

after receiving support from other forum members, the user proposed gathering in front of the assembly building every day, starting from 5pm. the protests started the same weekend, and had been lasting since, with couple to several dozen people attending.

forum members decided they will not support any particular political party, but to work for bosnia and herzegovina without political ethnic entities and to support policies which are fair to all citizens and punish criminals. they decided to use an open palm with a bosnian map on it for their symbol, with word "dosta" (enough) as their slogan.

bosnia and herzegovina has been divided in two ethnic ethnities since the end of the war, the serbian republic and federation of bosniaks and croats. economic progress has been slow and created disparity between people.



israeli pm ariel sharon briefly opens eyes

israeli media is reporting that prime minister ariel sharon opened his eyes for the first time since he suffered a major stroke on january 4, 2006.

however, hospital officials said the reports were generated by the sharon family's "impression of eyelid movement, whose medical significance is unclear."

"he was listening to a tape of his grandson and you could see tears in his eyes for a matter of seconds before he closed them again," a doctor treating sharon told afp news agency on condition of anonymity.

army radio, citing unidentified close associates of sharon, say the prime minister could "recognize people around him." 

however, hospital officials state that it is "too early to tell whether the development represented a significant improvement or was just a temporary reflex."

sharon had undergone a tracheotomy on sunday to help with his breathing and to help prevent infection from his respirator tube.




west australian premier geoff gallop resigns

western australian premier, dr geoff gallop, has resigned his post, to treat depression. 
dr gallop says the "debilitating" illness forced him to seek expert help last week. the 54-year-old became state premier in 2001 and was re-elected in february last year.

in a media statement today, he said: 

""it is my difficult duty to inform you today that i am currently being treated for depression. living with depression is a very debilitating experience, which affects different people in different ways. it has certainly affected many aspects of my life. so much so, that i sought expert help last week. my doctors advised me that with treatment, time and rest this illness is very curable. however, i cannot be certain how long i will need. so in the interests of my health and my family i have decided to rethink my career.""

dr gallop says he will not do any further media interviews in the near future. the wa parliamentary labor party will decide on his successor. state treasurer and acting premier, eric ripper, has cancelled his scheduled leave to act as premier in the interim.

dr gallop was first elected to parliament as the member for victoria park in 1986. in today's statement he said: "in fact, what has made this announcement all the more difficult today is that i love being premier, i love the work, i love the state and i love its people.

australian federal opposition leader, kim beazley says dr gallop is a brilliant and innovative leader, who leaves western australia a far better place than he found it. he says dr gallop will be remembered for his decisions relating to wa's environment and education system, along with his vigorous pursuit of minerals development.

federal deputy labor leader jenny macklin says dr gallop's departure is devastating. "for me, he's always been the most brilliant man, an extraordinary politician, a very lively and entertaining character," she said. "i think he's made an enormous contribution both to western australia but also to broader australian politics."

prime minister john howard says all australians will wish dr gallop and his family well for the future. "he worked very hard for the people of western australia as premier," mr howard said in a statement. "despite our political differences i always found it possible to work constructively with him."

the president of the wa branch of the australian medical association, dr paul skerrit, says he was shocked to hear of dr gallop's resignation. he says it shows depression can strike people in all kinds of jobs.

"depression is a thing that smites people when they're in their prime and doing very well," he said.
"people think that you've got to have something wrong with you to get this illness but it's not the case at all." 


miami police officer injured after falling from horse

miami police officer manny gomez is in stable condition after falling from his horse during the three kings parade. gomez landed headfirst on the ground after the stallion lunged forward as he mounted it.

a veteran of the miami police department for twenty years, gomez is days away from retirement.

it is unknown at this time if he has any permanent spinal or back injuries.

 


cnn banned from iran after misquoting president

iran has "barred" time warner inc.'s, cnn, from working in the country "until further notice" due to mistranslating comments made by iran's president, mahmoud ahmadinejad during a press conference saturday january 14, 2006.

in his speech saturday, ahmadinejad defended iran's right to continue nuclear research.

state media complained to cnn that they had used the translation "nuclear weapons" instead of "nuclear technology".

the ban by the culture and islamic guidance ministry was read in a statement on state-run television saying, "due to mistranslation of the words of ahmadinejad during his press conference, activities of the american cnn in tehran are banned until further notice," the statement said. "cnn quoted mahmoud ahmadinejad as saying that iran has the right to build nuclear weapons," the network said in its report of the ban. "in fact he said that iran has the right to nuclear energy." he then adds, "a nation that has civilization does not need nuclear weapons, and our nation does not need them."

cnn has acknowledged that they had made the mistake.

the network then went on to say, "cnn apologized on all its platforms which included the translation error, including cnn international, cnnusa and cnn.com, and also expressed its regrets to the iranian government and the iranian ambassador to the un."

mohammad hossein khoshvaght, director of foreign media at the ministry of culture and islamic guidance, said on state television that he welcomed cnn's apology, but that "so far it's not clear whether it was something pre-planned or a mistake. therefore, we will ban its activities (in iran) for the time being. cnn's right to work in iran would depend on an assessment of the broadcaster's future coverage of the islamic state."

cnn has told its viewers that it has not yet been officially notified of the ban.



free software foundation releases first draft of gplv3

the free software foundation released the first draft for the next version of the gnu general public license at the international public conference for gplv3 in cambridge, massachusetts, usa, today. the revisions mark the first changes to the gpl since the second version was released in 1991.

according to richard m. stallman, the president of the free software foundation, the most significant change to the license are changes to allow gplv3 to be compatible with other popular free software licenses, notably the apache software license 2.0 and the eclipse license. a second significant change, according to stallman, is the addition of a clause prohibiting the use of gpl software for digital rights management (drm), "something for which there can never be toleration."

as of noon est today, the license is available in draft form on the free software foundation's website. the conference about the license, which continues now and into tuesday, is being held in building 10, room 250, on the campus of the massachusetts institute of technology. approximately 200 people attended the morning session of the conference, during which eben moglen gave what he called a "quick" 90 minute overview of the license changes.

while moglen's presentation covered a great deal of legal detail, it was not without levity. when the cell phone of dave turner, an fsf staff member sitting in the front row, rang during moglen's speech, stallman broke in, requesting of the audience, "if you have brought in a portable tracking and surveillance device, you should turn it off," before making other remarks about the police.

the crowd at the conference included a large number of free software celebrities, including bruce perens, andrew tridgell, and chris dibona. according to wikinews reporter brandon stafford, it seemed that ibm and sun were the corporations with the most employees present. representing the companies were bob sutor, craig cook, and mark brown from ibm and simon phipps and doug johnson from sun. also in attendance were representatives from intel, redhat, mysql ab, hitachi, and qualcomm, among others.



ellen johnson-sirleaf inaugurated as liberian president

ellen johnson-sirleaf has been inaugurated as liberia's first elected female president, and also the first elected female head of state in africa.

her vice president, also sworn in, is joseph boakai.

the inauguration took place in the country's capital, monrovia and was attended by several key figures in world politics. the inauguration was attended by us secretary of state condoleezza rice, us first lady laura bush, and south african president thabo mbeki.

the inauguration was held out doors, as liberia lacks any proper buildings for the event to have taken place in, including their capitol building which stood nearby. the bbc reports that guests sat on plastic patio chairs, and were shielded from the sun by palm matting.

johnson-sirleaf's address said "we know that your vote was a vote for change, a vote for peace, security and we have heard you loudly." she asked for a moment of silence for the thousands who died in liberia's civil war.

her victory was formally announced by the liberian elections commission on 23rd november 2005 following the 2005 election. in the second round of votes, her unity party received 59.4% of the vote, versus the 40.6% received for george weah's congress for democratic change.

twenty one parties ran candidates in the election, with one independent also running. voter turnout to the 2005 election was 74.9% in the first round, and 61.0% for the second.



former us president gerald ford hospitalized with pneumonia

former united states president gerald ford has been hospitalized with pneumonia, an official announced today. ford was admitted to the eisenhower medical center in rancho mirage, california, usa.

ford's chief of staff, penny circle, said in a press release, "he is doing well and resting comfortably." she added that there would be no further announcements until 11 am on tuesday.

ford visited the hospital last month for a routine test, which he goes for every december. circle said he had "a horrible cold." ford last visited the hospital in january 2005 for a follow-up on his annual december checkup.

ford, 92, was the nation's 38th president. after the death of ronald regan in 2004, he became the oldest american president alive.


norwegian scientist published fake findings in lancet

according to norwegian and british newspaper sources, jon sudbo, a cancer researcher at the norwegian radium hospital, fabricated at least 900 patient records in his research on nsaid drugs published in october of 2005 (). according to the now-discredited research, the class of drugs, commonly used for pain management, was found to decrease the risk of oral cancer but increase the risk of heart disease.

this field of research is important for the future use of cox-2 drugs and was received with great interest by the united states food and drug administration and other organizations involved in drug safety and efficacy.

several other scientists put their name to the article in the lancet but claim they were misled by sudbo. the lancet is publishing a retraction in its upcoming edition. probes are underway both to investigate how this article passed peer review, and whether previous research by sudbo was fraudulent.

 


polish journalist imprisoned for libelling municipal employee

andrzej marek, a journalist working in the north-western town of in poland, began a three-month jail sentence on january 15 2006.

marek is the editor of a regional weekly newspaper, the "wiesci polickie" ("news from the town of police"). in february 2001, he published an article alleging that a local municipal employee, who privately ran an agency, had a conflict of interest in which he profited from his position to obtain business for his agency.

in november 2002, marek was found guilty of defamation. upon appeal in november 2003, he had the three-month prison sentence suspended on the condition that he apologise to the libellee. marek refused to apologise and applied for a presidential pardon in march 2004. this was eventually refused. on march 23, 2004, a court in suspended the application of the sentence by six months due to problems with marek's wife's pregnancy.

polish websites are calling for appeals to the united nations protesting the prison sentence.


australia to explore a national identity card

the debate over whether australians should be required to have a national identity card has been reignited following an announcement by attorney-general phillip ruddock yesterday that a study will be conducted.

the concept is not new, being first floated by bob hawke in 1986. the idea was abandoned after being defeated in the australian senate and due to strong criticism.

the government cites terrorism and fraud protection as needs for a universal national identity system.

the opposition remains neutral on the proposal, saying only that cost and privacy would be major issues.

defence minister robert hill is cautious of such a plan, saying "i don't believe governments are entitled to any more information about you than is absolutely necessary".

the australian chamber of commerce and industry, which represents big business in australia has voiced its opposition to the plan claiming the system could cost $750 per person to introduce, most of which would be borne by big business.


couple takes lawyer hostage and said to have explosives

a male and a female took 3 people hostage at a law firm in statesboro, georgia. police blocked off a part of this rural town on monday. two suspects , a man and a woman, took a lawyer hostage and claimed that they had explosives.

the suspects, robert eugene brower, 43, a former client of the lawyer, and the female whose name was not released, gave up after demands for cigarettes and food were met and they spoke with a family member.

the standoff lasted for 24 hours and ended, "peacefully," at around 10am said larry schnall, a spokesman for the georgia state patrol. 

the last of the 3 hostages to be released was identified as michael hostilo. he and the other two hostages were not injured. there is no word on the names of the other hostages.

earlier reports stated that there had been a "loud boom" coming from the scene at about six o'clock this morning. authorities have not stated what the booms were.

police are now inside the building to locate and defuse the explosive device that the suspects claimed to have had.

initially when police arrived, there were 3 hostages, but 2 had been recently released and were unharmed, said maggie fitzgerald, a city spokeswoman. "they are upset with some legal issues within the recent past and want to get those issues resolved. we are doing everything possible to end this situation without anyone being hurt."

in a news conference monday night, police chief stan york said brower was angry about "having been convicted in a criminal case", in which the lawyer was his court-appointed attorney. york did not elaborate on the demands of the hostage-takers, other than saying, "they only wanted to call attention to the case."

georgia state trooper larry schnall, a spokesman for the georgia state patrol, said a swat team was sent to the scene. 

this morning authorities convinced the two suspects to give-up, but "incidents leading to an escalation resulted in some gunfire," stan york in a press conference just moments ago. no one was hurt in the brief eruption of gunfire. 

police later said when the suspects tried to surrender they became apprehensive and made a threatening gesture prompting authorities to draw their guns and open fire.

the standoff began at around 9am on monday.


u.s. f-15 crashes near okinawa

a u.s. f-15 fighter aircraft crashed into the ocean early tuesday approximately 45 miles off the coast of ikeijima island, part of the okinawa chain. the aircraft was stationed at the kadena air base.

the pilot, whose name was not released, ejected safely and was rescued.

the cause of the crash is under investigation.



terrorism expert says osama bin laden could be dead

an australian terrorism expert says he has evidence, which could show al qaeda leader osama bin laden is either seriously ill or dead. 

professor clive williams, director of terrorism studies at the australian national university, says he has been provided with evidence, by an indian colleague, to support the theory that bin laden died of massive organ failure in april last year.

professor williams says ayman al zawahiri, bin laden's deputy, has been making all statements on behalf of al qaeda for around a year. 

al zawahiri is believed to have been the target of a strike in pakistan last week which killed at least 18 people in a remote pakistani tribal village, the second such unexplained attack near the volatile afghan border within a week.

however, professor williams says it may be impossible to ever prove if osama bin laden, accused of plotting the september 11, 2001 attacks on the world trade centre and the pentagon building in the u.s., is alive or dead. 

"it's hard to prove or disprove these things because there hasn't really been anything that allows you to make a judgement one way or the other," he said. "but it does seem strange that dr zawahiri has been making all of the statements since then, and nothing's been heard from bin laden since i think the december of the year before."

he says even if bin laden was dead, it would not make much difference - as people would continue to fight for the things they believe he stood for. he has also recommended against confirming his death or otherwise.

professor williams, the visiting fellow at the australian national university's strategic and defence studies centre said the information, which came from a former indian intelligence officer whom he would not identify, was credible but impossible to confirm. 

"it does seem reasonably convincing based on the evidence that i've been provided with that he's certainly either severely incapacitated or dead at this stage," dr williams said. 

but he said, "even if he's dead, it will be almost impossible for western authorities to prove it. it may simply be that we don't hear much about bin laden again ... [or] he may pop up again in six months' time and make a new statement, at which case, of course, we will go back to square1."

al-qaeda in iraq leader abu musab al-zarqawi's actions in targeting shi'ites in iraq were another factor raising doubt that bin laden was still leading al-qaeda. bin laden had promoted a pan-islamic vision and had tried, unsuccessfully, to attract shi'a muslims to al-qaeda.

"from what i have read, zarqawi had a great deal of respect for bin laden, so it would seem unlikely that he would be doing that if bin laden was still around," said williams. there was also the question of how long an ill man like bin laden, who walked with a cane and suffered from a kidney disease, would survive in the tribal areas of pakistan, where he was thought to be hiding.

however, the united states believes bin laden still alive. osama bin laden and his deputy are thought to be living in the area of a missile strike apparently aimed at ayman al-zawahiri, said us counter-terrorism ambassador henry crumpton. he said the al-qaeda leader and his number two were believed to be in the pakistan-afghanistan border region.

the us has not commented on the attack on a pakistan village on friday that killed 18 civilians. us media said the attack was carried out by the cia. thousands of pakistanis later staged anti-american demonstrations. 


rooney and ferguson face inquiry over unsightly language

manchester united manager alex ferguson and striker wayne rooney will face an inquiry from the football association after they were witnessed by over 40 fans, including tv crews, swearing at referee alan bennett. after a string of decisions (which the red half of manchester perceived to be unfair) being given in city's favour, and with the untimely booking of ronaldo, both ferguson and rooney were pushed to their limits of patience, swearing out loud in disbelief.

rooney was first to be heard mouthing off after the decision was taken to give ronaldo his marching orders. he was observed swearing at the referee at half time, and then continuing the tirade throughout the game as a string of bad decisions were taken which stripped united of their fluidity in the game. despite the language from rooney being far from usual, a barrage of assaults were thrown to and from the referee and the striker right through the game.

after the decision was given to take off christiano ronaldo, ferguson's temper boiled and he was heard by many sitting around him to call the referee a "f*cking tw*t" as well as calling his decisions a "f*cking disgrace". this later led on to ferguson launching threats at the referee during half time, and accusing the referee of not being able to handle under the pressure of a premiership game as well as questioning his judgement of the offside rule.

ferguson himself admitted that ronaldo's tackle was rash, and also noted that the side seemed to get better after he had been sent off, saying that they were playing better with 10 men. he still maintained that the side defended well, despite the fact that new signing patrice evra and mikael silvestre afforded city easy opportunities to slip goals in.

the fine that both ferguson and rooney will receive is unknown, although it is thought to be similar to the ban he received in 2003, in which he received a 3 match touchline-ban, and a ￡100,000 after swearing at jeffery winter. 


pakistani official claims 'foreign terrorists' among civilians killed in u.s. airstrike

reports from pakistan say that at least four or five terrorists were killed in last friday's airstrike. the attack took place in the village of damadola in the semi-autonomous agency of bujar, a tribal region bordering afghanistan.

according to unnamed pakistani intelligence officials, top al-queda operative ayman al-zawahiri was invited to a dinner in the village at the time of the strike, but failed to show up.

"according to the available information at least 4 to 5 foreign elements had also been killed in the incident," the political agent fahim wazir of bujar said tuesday. he added that 10 to 12 foreign extremists had been invited to dinner at the compound that zawahiri was supposed to attend, but did not show up and that the "dead bodies have been taken away by their companions to hide the real reason of the attack." 

this is the first official statement by pakistani authorities indicating that foreign militants were killed in the attack, which officials have said also killed innocent civilians. women and children were among the 18 people that were killed in the airstrike. "it is regrettable that 18 local people lost their lives in the attack, but this fact also cannot be denied, that 10 - 12 foreign extremists had been invited on a dinner," the statement also said.

there has been no announcement regarding the names of those terrorists killed and dna tests are still being done on the victims to make a final decision. media reports say that most if not all of the terrorists were egyptian.

u.s. news networks have reported that, according to unidentified intelligence officials, the attack was carried out by unmanned drone aircraft which launched missiles at the target location.

in the wake of two days of protests that erupted across pakistan after the strike, the ruling party demanded an apology from the united states. 
the protesters are opposing the government participation in the u.s.-led war on terror, and the recent series of u.s. attacks along the frontier that killed civilians. shahid shamsi, a spokesman for the anti-american religious coalition that organized the rallies announced more and bigger protests in the days to come. he said "pakistani civilians, including children, were killed," and explained that "principles cannot be broken in the name of (fighting) terrorism." 




iran lifts ban of cnn

yesterday the president of iran, mahmoud ahmadinejad, stated in a letter to the cultural ministry, the country was banning all work of cnn (cable news network), which is owned by time warner inc., for making a translation error during a press conference on saturday.

however, today ahmadinejad announced that iran was lifting the ban. apparently late monday, ahmadinejad had asked the cultural ministry to lift the ban after cnn apologized for their error.

"i want the channel to be allowed to resume its work owing to the apology it made," ahmadinejad said in a letter sent to the culture ministry.

"following a request from president mahmoud ahmadinejad, the ban on the activities of cnn's stringer in iran was lifted," mohammad hossein khoshvaght, director of foreign media at iran's culture ministry, told the media.

less than 24 hours ago iran had banned cnn from the country for misquoting the president as speaking of "nuclear weapons" when he actually spoke of "nuclear technology" during saturdays press conference.



clarence ray allen is executed

clarence ray allen, convicted of ordering a hit in 1980 that resulted in the deaths of the target and two bystanders, was executed just after his 76th birthday, making him the second-oldest man in u.s. history to be executed. he had been in prison for ordering the murder of his son's girlfriend when he ordered the hit that resulted in the death penalty conviction. however, appeals caused him to remain on death row for 23 years. 

his lawyers had attempted to make the case that it would be cruel and unusual to execute the man, attempting to save his life under the eighth amendment to the united states constitution. however, the courts rejected the appeal, and the supreme court refused to hear the case, upholding the death penalty conviction.


australians unite against whaling in southern ocean

anti-whaling protesters have joined forces across australia, canada, germany, new zealand, and the u.s.a calling for an end to the killing of whales for meat by japan. greenpeace organised the international day of action as it continued its efforts to disrupt the hunting of minke whales by the japanese whaling fleet currently in the southern ocean. 

the day of action was being marked to protest the actions of the fleet which protesters believe violate the 1986 international whaling commission (iwc) global ban on commercial whaling. japan's jarpa japanese whale research program was allowed to operate under a special permit in the antarctic according to article viii of the international convention for the regulation of whaling. in its jarpa-2 plan, japan plans to double its annual scientific research catch of to 935, and to add 10 to its quota. the international fund for animal welfare states that over the next two years, japan plans to kill 50 endangered and an additional 40 fin whales.

numerous reports of actions taken in australia and new zealand focused on public awareness of the japanese whaling efforts and collecting signatures of people opposed to whaling.

at sydney's , anti-whaling campaigners asked bathers to sign a dozen metre-high cardboard whale tails placed in the sand and called for an end to whaling in the southern ocean. signatures from a sydney petition would be added to tens of thousands collected elsewhere in the country. they will be handed to the australian government and japanese consulate in june.

waverley mayor mora main urged japanese tourists who enjoyed whale watching in australia to pressure their government to end whaling.

in melbourne, protesters collected hundreds of signatures on a seven metre long fabric whale to take to the japanese consulate. campaigner simon bradshaw said up to 300 people signed the whale within 15 minutes at flinders street station.

"australia is pretty much unequivocally opposed to the whaling hunt on environmental grounds as well as animal rights grounds," mr bradshaw said. "people have been rather disturbed and horrified (by the whaling), so i think they're grateful to be given even a small thing they can do to express their opposition to it."

signatures were also collected in brisbane and hobart. in the tasmanian capital, about 50 people were applauded by bystanders as they marched through the city centre, chanting slogans and waving placards against whaling. protest organiser jessica sheldrick says it is part of a national day of action in four capital cities to educate people about whaling in australia's southern oceans.

"basically, we're here to support our activists that are down there endangering their lives, just to save our marine mammals," ms sheldrick said. "people are, on the whole, totally in support of greenpeace's stance in whaling in the southern oceans. they don't believe it should be happening."

in new zealand, whaling has been condemned at an auckland beach protest. a mock graveyard of black minke whale tails, symbolic of those killed in the southern ocean whale sanctuary, was displayed on an auckland beach. 

greenpeace new zealand say the tails represent the more than 900 whales killed by japan this season. more than 100 people turned up at mission bay beach to mark the international day of action against whaling. around 250 wooden whale tails were placed in the sand and a giant whale tail of sand was made on the beach by children and their parents. 

the new zealand greens party say diplomatic measures have failed to stop the whaling and the government should explore legal options, including the antarctic treaty which allows observers to inspect research ships.

the was designated by the iwc as a sanctuary for whales in 1994.

japan abandoned in 1986, in line with an international moratorium, yet resumed whaling the following year for what it says is "scientific research". japan's whaling program includes fin and humpback whales, both of which are on the world conservation union's list of threatened species.

japan's institute of cetacean research says its whaling is legal and scientifically necessary for sustainable resource management.

international whaling commission rules permit the research hunt, but australia and other anti-whaling countries say it is commercial whaling in disguise as the meat collected from the "research" is later sold in japan. critics say japan is off-loading whale meat for consumption in restaurants and supermarkets.

meanwhile, australia, britain, brazil, france and germany were among 17 countries calling on japan this week, to halt to its antarctic whaling program. "the fact that 17 countries supported this representation, shows how important this issue is, and the depth of feeling around the world," british fisheries minister ben bradshaw said in a statement.

the statement calls on japan to "cease all its lethal scientific research on whales," and was delivered to japan's foreign and farm ministries.

"we urge japan to reconsider its positions and end this unjustified and unnecessary slaughter which is regarded by many countries as a means to by-pass the iwc (international whaling commission) moratorium," bradshaw said.

other signatories of the statement were argentina, austria, belgium, finland, ireland, italy, luxembourg, mexico, new zealand, portugal, spain and sweden.

japan opposes a ban on whaling, insisting it is part of the country's traditional culture, and has continued to hunt whales for scientific research since the international whaling commission introduced a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986.

more than 6,800 antarctic minke whales have already been killed in antarctic waters since japan began its whale research program 18 years ago. meat from whales killed for research is later consumed at japanese restaurants. 

the japanese government has defended its whaling activities, saying that whales are caught for research purposes only. they have also said that they are not breaking international law, in a statement issued by chief cabinet secretary shinzo abe.

"i understand that japan's research whaling follows international rules and is done for the purpose of research on whales' ecosystem," chief cabinet secretary shinzo abe, the government spokesman, told reporters.

the japanese whaling industry's institute of cetacean research (icr) claim serious violations of maritime laws during the recent anti-whaling actions. "already, there are serious violations that provide reasons for concern in terms of safety and international maritime law," icr director-general dr hiroshi hatanaka said in a statement.

the icr said greenpeace had not stopped the whaling fleet from conducting its research. "the issue of sound management and sustainability of whale stocks are far too important to be sidetracked by a d grade public relations campaign," dr hatanaka said.

gavin carter, an adviser to the icr, a nonprofit japanese research organisation, said japanese quotas for whale kills are well below the mammals' reproductive rates.
"the purpose of this research," said mr carter, "is to create a knowledge bank, which the government can then use to facilitate a regulated whaling industry." mr carter urged critics of commercial whaling to be sensitive to other nations' cultural differences, noting that japanese have "used whales for centuries. they eat the whole thing. they use every part. who are we to tell them what to eat, or what not to kill?" he asked.
the greenpeace vessel arctic sunrise has been shadowing the japanese whaling fleet for several weeks in a bid to disrupt japan's annual whale hunt, prompting many heated exchanges. canadian activist texas constantine was thrown out of a small inflatable boat that had been manoeuvring between a harpooner and a minke whale. he spent several minutes in the icy waters before being hauled back on board. 

the harpoon killed the minke whale and its tow rope threw into the water greenpeace activist joe constantine, who was able to climb back aboard the boat to safety, the environmental watchdog said.

"we were out defending the whales. we had been out there for about an hour. i was driving our boat and we were in a good position and the whaler fired its harpoon," constantine said in a statement. "all of a sudden the harpoon line came down on us trapping us between the whale and the catcher," he said. "the line came tight at that point and threw me from the boat into the water. it was a few minutes before our boat was able to come over and pick me up out of the water."

the institute of cetacean research in tokyo accused greenpeace of taking increasing risks in harassing the whaling fleet. "the fact that the rope fell onto their inflatable and one of the activists fell into the water is entirely their fault," the institute's director general hiroshi hatanaka said sunday.


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southampton contemplate theo walcott transfer

southampton bosses are now contemplating the sale of one of their top players, 16-year old to the highest bidder. currently, , and have put in bids for the player, although he admits that he wants to transfer to his childhood dream-club, arsenal.

walcott and his family are keen to take his current skills to an even higher plataeu, and feel that only this kind of skill could be achieved with arsenal, despite the fact that other clubs have offered to outbid arsenal. he is likely to make the move to arsenal's squad when his current contract runs out on his 17th birthday. 

arsenal manager arsene wenger is as happy about the move as walcott himself is. despite the fact southampton has released no details of the proceedings, wenger let slip that the deal was almost done, after revealing he was buying "two and a half" players; , ? walcott being referred to has the "half". when interviewed on his interest in the striker, he revealed that he had been watching him and was a big admirer 


abductors of american journalist jill carroll release videotape with demands

the abductors of american journalist jill carroll released today a silent 20-second video of the abducted journalist on al-jazeera television news channel. along with the video came a statement demanding the united states release all female prisoners in iraq within 72 hours or they will kill her. al-jazeera has not revealed where the video was sent from.

in the video, carroll is seated in front of a white background, apparently speaking, although the tape contained no sound. she appears pale and tired with long brown hair parted in the middle and pulled back from her face.

carroll is a 28-year old freelance reporter working for the "christian science monitor" newspaper in iraq since october 2003. she was kidnapped on january 7 in one of baghdad's most dangerous neighborhoods. just after leaving the office of a sunni arab politician, adnan al-dulaimi, her car was ambushed by gunmen who killed her iraqi translator. the driver got away unharmed as he was pulled from the car by the gunmen who then drove away with the vehicle.

carroll's family has issued a statement pleading for mercy. both al-jazeera and the editors of the boston, massachusetts-based paper have also called for her safe release. 

according to reporters sans frontieres, a paris, france-based advocacy group, carroll is the latest of 31 journalists to be abducted in iraq since the war began in march 2003. six journalists have been killed by abductors, according to the committee to protect journalists.



australian senate inquiry receives 4,000 submisions on abortion pill

the australian senate has been flooded with submissions into an inquiry about the possible use of the abortion drug mifepristone (known as ru486) in australia.

the senate committee is to consider a private members bill, introduced by a group of female senators and mps to strip the australian health minister of his control over the drug. if successful, the drug would then have to be approved by the threrapeutic goods administration before it would be allowed to be used in australia.

senator fiona nash of the argues that the bill is not about abortion but about process. she said "what's been put forward here is who is best able to judge the quality, safety and efficacy of this particular drug and who is best able to judge whether it should be used in australia".

ms nash believes that the tga should be responsible for allowing or denying the use of drugs in australia, not the health minister.

lyn elisson, leader of the said that only around 2,000 of the submissions would be considered as the remainder do not meet the senate's terms of reference. she also said "this bill is not about the morality or legality of abortion.

"it's really about whether the minister for health should have the power of veto over an alternative to legal surgical abortion."

national's senator barnaby joyce argues that all opinions should be taken into account and that the enquiry should be conducted for at least a week.

peter slipper, mp for the claims that the proposed legislation can not be separated from the ru486 issue. he told abc radio "i believe it would be a negation of our responsibility if we were to flick the decision to an unelected body, an unaccountable body, such as the tga."

it is believed that only 100 submissions are from those supporting the use of ru486.

the inquiry has received international attention with submissions from the us, new zealand and austria.
this pill has been available for use in france since 1988, in switzerland since 1999.



40 asylum seekers missing off torres strait

more than 40 asylum seekers are missing after fleeing the indonesian province of papua, bound for australia. coastwatch is searching the torres strait for the 25m boat. four children are among the 43 people believed to be on board. the 25-metre traditional boat is believed to have left the port of merauke, papua, on friday headed for australia's cape york peninsula.

convenor of the australia west papua association louise byrne says the group included some of papua's leading independence advocates. she said they were forced to undertake the journey by boat because the usual means of escaping papua ? crossing the border into papua new guinea ? had become increasingly difficult. 

"the border has tightened up a lot in recent times," she said on abc radio. ms byrne said sheer desperation had forced the group to flee papua. "although it hasn't been announced, i think the indonesian government has changed its policy and is now realising that ... autonomy isn't working and i think they're about to implement a military solution," she said.

ms byrne could not say whether she believed australian authorities should prepare for an influx of asylum seekers from the region. ms byrne was told of the group's escape from papua in a phone call last week. she said fears were growing for the safety of those on board the boat, which was now three days overdue.

"they're not anywhere, so i'm concerned for where they are and that's why the national search and rescue have started looking this morning," ms byrne said. "we've been spending a rather frantic weekend looking for them because it's not far across the torres strait," she said. "it should have taken them a maximum of 15, 16 hours."

the australian immigration department says surveillance flights in the torres strait have failed to locate the boat. a department spokesman says coastwatch surveillance flights in the torres strait region have been adjusted to search for the boat but it has not been sighted. 

australian greens senator kerry nettle has written to foreign minister downer requesting that he make inquiries with the indonesian government to establish if they have intercepted the missing asylum seekers. 

"i am concerned that the boat carrying west papuan asylum seekers could have been intercepted by indonesian authorities en route to australia," said senator nettle. "if the indonesians have intercepted this boat it would be a relief that they have not sunk at sea, but i am concerned about their fate at the hands of indonesian authorities given recent arrests of west papuan activists and ongoing human rights abuses. 

aboriginal communities in cape york are being put on alert. federal and queensland government authorities are monitoring the situation.


gore criticizes use of unwarranted domestic wiretaps

in a forceful speech monday, former vice president al gore criticized the use of unwarranted domestic wiretaps by the national security agency.

gore called the wiretapping program, which the white house insists is vital to the defense of america, "a threat to the very structure of our government" and urged the attorney general to appoint a special counsel for investigation into the matter. he additionally recommended congress to hold comprehensive hearings and for telecommunications companies who are assisting in the program to stop doing so, and suggested the administration is using the threat of terrorism as a means to amass power in the executive branch.
"is america in more danger now than when we faced worldwide fascism on the march - when our fathers fought and won two world wars simultaneously?" he added, "once violated, the rule of law is in danger. unless stopped, lawlessness grows. the greater the power of the executive grows, the more difficult it becomes for the other branches to perform their constitutional roles."

the republican national committee responded to gore's statements, saying, "al gore's incessant need to insert himself in the headline of the day is almost as glaring as his lack of understanding of the threats facing america." they continued, "while the president works to protect americans from terrorists, democrats deliver no solutions of their own, only diatribes laden with inaccuracies and anger."

on tuesday, white house press secretary scott mcclellan also responded, saying that the clinton administration had authorized an fbi search of double agent aldrich ames without a warrant. attorney general alberto gonzales made similar remarks earlier. regarding gore, mcclellan said, "i think his hypocrisy knows no bounds."

opponents of the wiretapping program say this is an inaccurate comparison. on monday's edition of larry king live, new york times reporter james risen said that "under the rules at that time the attorney general could authorize a warrantless physical search of a house. after the ames case," he added, "congress changed that and closed that loophole and so that now that kind of search couldn't be done under the law."

responding to the white house and attorney general's comments, gore said, "the attorney general is making a political defense of the president without even addressing the substantive legal questions that have so troubled millions of americans in both political parties. there are...problems with the attorney general's effort to focus attention on the past instead of the present administration's behavior. [as] others have thoroughly documented, his charges are factually wrong. both before and after the foreign intelligence surveillance act was amended in 1995, the clinton/gore administration complied fully and completely with the terms of the law."



australian wheat board inquiry begins

an inquiry began this week in sydney into whether australian companies paid bribes to saddam hussein during the un oil-for-food programme. 

the inquiry was set up by prime minister john howard, after allegations last year that the australian wheat board paid us$220m in bribes to the iraqi government. the terms of reference of the inquiry are restricted to the awb and two other companies. 


missing asylum seekers found off cape york

australia's coastwatch has found a missing boat which with more than 40 passengers after it had left indonesia's papua province, reportedly bound for australia. 

initial reports say the vessel has been spotted off cape york, three days after it was reported missing. the australia west papua association (awpa) says the boat was carrying people who left for security reasons as a campaign against indonesian rule of the melanesian province continues. 

any application for possible asylum can only be submitted to the australian authorities if they reach the australian mainland. australia operates a detention centre in nauru to process people intercepted at sea while trying to reach australia illegally.

the awpa said the group had been forced to flee papua by boat because the usual way of leaving the province ? by crossing the eastern border into papua new guinea ? had been made more difficult by increased surveillance. "no one (has) come from west papua in boats before like this, seeking political asylum," said a spokesperson for awpa.

fears for the safety of the asylum-seekers mounted over the weekend after the group failed to turn up on australia's cape york peninsula after leaving papua's merauke port on friday morning.

the group had reportedly been making the 250 kilometre journey across the torres strait in a 25-metre traditional boat. 

"a vessel fitting the information reported was located by coastwatch at about 2pm at cape york," an immigration department spokeswoman told afp.

customs and government officials were on their way to meet the boat, she added.

 


heavy selling leads to shortened session at tokyo stock exchange

heavy selling in internet firm livedoor sparked a sharp selloff in japanese stocks wednesday. the exchange had to shorten the trading session as the number of transactions threatened to exceed the system capacity. the tokyo stock exchange has a capacity to handle 4.5 million trades per day.

wednesday's trading problems have added to recent woes with the trading system at the exchange. a glitch halted trading for almost a full day late last year. tokyo stock exchange plans to offer its own shares for listing.

prosecutors raided the tokyo offices of livedoor on monday, following allegations the company had violated japanese securities laws.
livedoor has denied that the company broke market rules by giving misleading information to shareholders. shares in the company dived on tuesday, dragging the overall index lower. one of japan's best known internet companies, livedoor has grown rapidly through a series of takeovers and stock splits before tuesday's share price fall. 


eurozone initiative to challenge us internet technology dominance

quaero is being termed eurozone's response to the us-based internet search giants such as google, yahoo and msn. the project includes the french and german governments along with a host of european technology companies such as thomson, france telecom and deutsche telekom. it is scheduled to be submitted to france's agency of industrial innovation later this month. the agency which has a budget of ?2 billion ($2.41 billion) hasn't specified how much of this money will be spent on quaero. 

president jacques chirac announced the launch of quaero during the french-german ministerial conference in april of last year. it is the latest in a series of initiatives by the europeans to compete with us dominance in technology. europe launched the galileo satellite navigation system last month aimed at rivaling a similar system already available in the us. french broadcasters are also planning an international television network, cfii aimed at presenting the french view on world events. the network is slated to begin broadcasting in french and english to europe, the middle east and africa sometime next year.

designers hope that quaero will be the world's most advanced multimedia search engine to locate and translate video and audio over the internet. a pretty ambitious goal even by the admission of people involved "yes, it's highly ambitious," said jean-luc moullet, who oversees the quaero project at thomson. "there's nothing to compare it to."

however details remain scant and mostly shrouded in secrecy. none of the key players has commented on cost and last week, thomson, removed access to the page on its corporate web site devoted to quaero and instructed its executives not to give any interviews for the project.

most industry experts remain skeptical and fear that the program would be costly and unwieldy to administer and would produce no tangible commercial advances. "i'm not too confident that quaero will be able to produce anything that the private sector isn't already offering or will develop on its own in the future," said john lervik, chief executive of fast search & transfer, a norwegian software company that provides search solutions to businesses for data stored on their corporate networks.


south african presidency defends deputy president's holiday trip

the south african presidency today denied that it had been inconsistent with its explanations and defense of a holiday trip undertaken by the south african deputy president, phumzila mlambo-ngcuka, during december last year, which was funded by the state.

mlambo-ngcuka, who was appointed as deputy president of south africa after the previous deputy president, jacob zuma, was removed from the position following allegations of fraud and corruption, undertook the controversial holiday trip to the united arab emirates aboard a state-owned "falcon 900" national defense force jet during the december holidays last year. when the facts surrounding the trip became known in early january it was criticized by a wide range of critics, including the country's leading opposition party, the democratic alliance (da) and the largest alliance of trade unions, cosatu. the cost of fuel alone for the use of the jet is said to amount to approximately r400,000 (at least $67,000). the total cost to the state and the south african taxpayers for the deputy president's holiday trip amounts to as much as r700,000 (at least $116,000).

the deputy president has indicated that whilst the trip was a private holiday trip, it had also been undertaken for work purposes and that she had visited projects in the uae that she had had an interest in. the deputy president's children and the wife of social development cabinet minister zola skweyiya had accompanied her on the trip.


at least eight people die in office fire in vladivostok, russia

at least eight people have died in a fire in a multi-storied office center, namely, in the office belonging to the russian savings bank (sberbank), in the russian pacific port city of vladivostok, the russian emergency situations ministry said monday. 

a spokesman said that the blaze broke at about 12:00 local time (02:00 utc) on the sixth floor of the building. some of the victims died when they jumped out windows in an attempt to escape the flames. in addition to the fatalities, another 15 people were hospitalized with burns and injuries.

according to firefighters, serious breaches of fire-safety regulations were partly to blame for the deaths. a door to the attic was locked and people could not escape through an emergency exit. 

the fire has been almost extinguished. a team of investigators led by the deputy prosecutor of the maritime territory, sergei luchaninov, is looking into how the fire started.



young iraqi teen death investigated as possible bird flu case

iraq health officials are reportedly looking into the death of a teenaged girl who died near the border with turkey, which is believed to possibly be linked to the h5n1 asian bird flu.

the young woman lived near a resevoir used as a stopover for migratory birds traveling from turkey. her family kept domestic birds, some of which have been sick and died; it is unknown at this time if any of the birds were infected with h5n1.

the inquiry is being investigated, and blood samples have been sent to jordan for further testing. residents in the region fear the virus may have spread from turkey, where un official believe the strain exists in the wild fowl population.


sunderland v chelsea jan 15th 2006

records were set before this sunday afternoon game kicked-off in the north-east; bookmaker's were offering the shortest odds for an away win in the history of the , as top faced bottom at the . sunderland, in the middle of a season breaking records for the wrong reasons, were hoping to avoid a result as bad as the 7-0 defeat local rivals middlesbrough suffered to arsenal the day before.

despite pre-match predictions, the londoners looked out of sorts for much of the first-half, and it was the home side who took a shock-lead on 11 minutes. jon terry failed to completely clear a punt into the box, and pounced with a low, powerful volley in to the bottom corner.

chelsea were not behind for long; sunderland defenders were caught-out on 20 minutes, when a cross, which looked as though it was headed out of play, was headed back across the face of goal by . defenders were caught flat-footed, and argentinian was first to react with a close-range header.

in the second half chelsea began to exert authority; they dominated possession and chances and looked most likely to take the lead. sunderland keeper , suffering criticism from sunderland fans as of late, made a series of superb stops to deny chelsea the lead. it was a cruel deflection off the head of which finally gave the reigning champions the lead on 70 minutes, dutchman providing the strike. the game's main talking point occurred moments later, as robben jumped over advertising boards in order to celebrate the goal with the traveling fans. as stewards scrambled to remove robben from the clutches of the jubilant chelsea followers, referee , working to the letter of the law, brandished a second yellow card and sent the midfield playmaker off.

10-man chelsea held on despite a period of late sunderland pressure. the defeat sees sunderland remain rooted to the foot of the table on 6 points.


bolivia’s morales announces treason trial for army general

president-elect evo morales, who will assume office on sunday january 22, announced on wednesday that general marcelo antezana will face trial for treason after sending 28 aging chinese-made missiles to the u.s. for destruction at the request from the u.s.

general antezana, who was dismissed from his position this wednesday 18, told bolivian media that washington had requested the missiles amid fears that evo morales would win the presidency. days later, he retracted his comments. the defence minister, gonzalo mendez, resigned over the scandal.

morales' political party, movement for socialism, has petitioned the public ministry to bring the transitional president eduardo rodriguez to trial on charges stemming from their investigation.

rodriguez, interim president appointed after carlos mesa resigned in june, said that he had authorized the destruction, but not the transfer of the weapons, which were the only ones of its kind in bolivia. the missile handover was an unapproved arrangement between local soldiers and the u.s. military, according to rodriquez. he made a formal protest to the u.s. embassy on tuesday, he said.
rodriguez said his decision to get rid of the weapons was based on recommendations from united nations and the organization of american states. the army also reported they were a safety hazard. the obsolete surface-to-air missiles were destroyed in the u.s last october.

a u.s. state department spokesman said that a campaign to eliminate portable arms in latin america has been on-going in an effort to keep them from falling into the hands of terrorists.



dogs rescue owner during diabetic attack

in centerton, indiana a man is alive thanks to his 2 dogs.

bill burns was taking his nightly stroll with his dogs, butch and dusty, when he had a severe diabetic attack in a cornfield.

his dogs immediately reacted.

morgan county sheriff's deputy, steve hoffman, was on a rural road just finishing with a traffic stop, when he noticed a light shining from a cornfield. "i noticed what appeared to be an illumination or a light that was flickering and facing my direction," hoffman said. when he got out of his car and walked to where he saw the light, he found butch was holding a flashlight like he would a bone, in his mouth. meanwhile, dusty had stretched himself across mr. burns to try and keep him warm.

hoffman said he then noticed that mr. burns was wearing a diabetic medical bracelet and immediately took him to the hospital.

burns says that he does not remember the ordeal, but thinks that hoffman even seeing the light is remarkable enough for him.

"it's got to be just fate or faith, one or the other," burns said.

the dogs "definitely are the heroes in the story," said hoffman.

burns was in the hospital nearly 4 days before he had been released.

"had he not had the dogs with him that evening, i think the outcome would have been a lot worse," hoffman said.



new zealand prime minister won't visit waitangi marae

the new zealand prime minister helen clark will be attending waitangi day commemorations on february 6th; however she will not visit the lower te tii marae, which has been a focal point for protest in recent years.

her office has said that she would be doing a walkabout on the treaty grounds before attending a reception hosted by the governor general that night.

the prime minister hopes her attendance will be trouble free. 

the leader of the opposition dr don brash is also to attend the attend a reception hosted by the governor general and the dawn service. in 2004 brash was showered with mud at the entrance of the lower te tii marae.

although this is new zealand's national day, the commemoration has often been the focus of protest by maori activists, and is often marred by controversy.

this year co-ordinators will allow all media to attend the waitangi day commemorations. in 2003 and 2004 all non-maori media were banned from the marae.


uk mobile data network collapses

london, uk -- the vodafone gprs (general packet radio service) mobile data network within the uk was off the air for several hours, but vodafone staff were unable to supply any details as to how or why this had happened. the incident seems to have originated within southern england, but spread "nationwide" within a short period.

customers were therefore unable to access data services for a protracted period, including wap browsing from mobile phones, email from personal devices like blackberries and windows mobile messengers, and full access over data cards from laptops. 

some criticism has been levelled at the company for failing to provide an easy source of information on the problem, with the only realistic option being to queue for a response from a call centre, as no information could be found on their public-facing website. this practice, whilst far from unique to vodafone within the telecommunications industry, contrasts poorly with the common practice for most isps (internet service providers), who conventionally provide a "system status" page on their website.


sharp declines in intel, yahoo lead tech stocks lower

sharp declines in technology bellwethers intel and yahoo dragged down the tech laden nasdaq composite index wednesday. the index finished at 2279.64, a drop of 23.05 points or 1 percent. the dow jones industrial average and s&p 500 index ended the day with losses of 0.38 percent and 0.39 percent to end at 10,854.86 and 1277.93 respectively.

the world's largest chipmaker fell nearly $3 or 11 percent to $22.60. internet software giant yahoo was down nearly $5 to close at $35.18 a loss of nearly 12 percent. analysts blamed disappointing sales forecasts for the first quarter for today's selloff. 

a number of research firms including citigroup and ubs handed downgrades to intel stock today. this followed the company's failure to meet analysts’ and its own expectations for revenue and earnings during its fourth quarter earnings release yesterday. 

thomas thornhill lowered his stock rating to "neutral" and commented on intel's competitive situation with arch-rival advanced micro devices. “amd is likely to remain a serious competitor to intel and intel’s longer-term risk profile is now higher than we previously believed”



gas leak disrupts london railway service

london, uk -- commuters in the south east today discovered that it's not only problems at clapham junction that can cause disruption to more travellers from more than one of the major london stations. a single gas leak near battersea park junction interrupted services to and from both waterloo and victoria stations, the 2 main termini covering the areas "south of the river" in the metropolis.

the incident occurred around lunchtime, with trains being cancelled and delayed, and even once the leak had been repaired, the knock-on effects from the earlier disruptions caused delays to peak hour commuters returning home. 

the situation was not aided by differential information being made available on travel news sources, a phenomenon that has become a familiar story since the once-unified british rail was split up into an infrastructure operator and a number of different train operating companies (tocs).


al qaeda bomb maker reportedly killed in u.s. airstrike in pakistan

abc news is reporting that a key al qaeda operative was killed in the u.s. airstrike in pakistan which killed 18 people, including women and children, last week.

an egyptian chemist, midhat mursi, 52, also known as abu khabab al-masri, was identified by unnamed pakistan officials to abc news. the sources said he was among one of three known senior al qaeda members present at the compound that was hit.

"he's the man who trained the shoe bomber, richard reid and zacharias mousssaoui, as well as hundreds of others," said former fbi agent jack cloonan.
mursi has a $5 million dollar bounty on his head and is well-known for his chemical weapons expertise, strange alias, and red beard. 

two pakistani officials also reported the son-in-law of al qaeda's no. 2 leader, ayman al-zawahiri, was also among those killed in the u.s. airstrikes. 

abu ubayda al-misri, abd al-rahman al-maghrebi who was zawahiri's son-in-law, and mustafa osman another egyptian who was an associate of zawahiri, are thought to be among those terrists that were killed. u.s. officials also say that khalid habib, another senior al qaeda operative, may have been at the site of the attack.

pakistani officials have been searching for the gravesights of the 4 or 5 terrorists killed in the attack where three houses were destroyed, but so far have been unsuccessful. provincial authorities say that sympathizers probably took the bodies to be buried in the mountains to prevent their identification.

"we do not have any evidence to prove that they have been killed, but we have indications that they were there and were among those bodies that were taken away," an unnamed official was quoted by the associated press news agency.

pakistani interior minister aftab sherpao had earlier stated that the pakistani government had no knowledge of the identities of the foreigners who were believed killed in the missile attack.

u.s. counterterrorism officials had no immediate comment on the report. the white house, as of tuesday, has not made mention of any u.s. connection with the attack, but called pakistan a valuable ally in the war against terrorists.



new zealand marks waitangi day, 2006

today marks the 166th anniversary of the signing of the treaty of waitangi, new zealand's founding document, in 1840. 

although this is new zealand's national day, the commemoration has often been the focus of protest by maori activists, and is often marred by controversy. this year, the morning celebrations at waitangi were peaceful, and there was only a brief altercation during the afternoon. celebrations also went smoothly at over 60 other sites around the country, except for a confrontation at hayman park in manukau city between local maori and national front members.

new zealand prime minister helen clark did not attend the dawn service at waitangi today, or visit the lower te tii marae. she hosted a breakfast for northland civic leaders before taking part in other events around the country. in the afternoon she visited hoani waititi marae in west auckland, then attended the reception at government house hosted by the governor general.
the leader of the opposition dr don brash visited the upper te tii marae on saturday afternoon.
in his speech at the marae, dr brash said new zealand needs to stop looking in the "rear-view mirror" and that the speedy settlement of claims is important for all new zealanders. 

the current labour government has pledged to finish all treaty claims by 2020, while national's 2005 election policy called for all claims to be settled by 2010.

dr brash said national is still committed to settling claims quickly, but because of the current labour government, national's deadline of 2010 to settle treaty grievances is no longer realistic. the target will be reviewed in a national party caucus meeting next week. 
dr brash also attended the dawn service at the upper te tii marae, where he was asked to offer a prayer; he said about the treaty we "ask your forgiveness for our sins...none of us is without sin, we have all fallen short of the treaty promise". the prime minister has refused to comment on the prayer.

dr brash then visited hoani waititi marae, leaving before the prime minister arrived.

this year also marked the first time in a decade that the royal new zealand navy (rnzn) has had a major presence at waitangi day celebrations.

chief of navy, rear admiral david ledson says "you can either build walls of silence or you can use words to build bridges...we'd sooner use words and conversation to build bridges than sit either side of a stone wall."

at dawn, the rnzn raised the new zealand flag, the union jack and the white ensign on the flagstaff in the treaty grounds.

this was followed by a church service and cultural displays. several boats re-enacted the calling ashore of governor hobson to sign the treaty.

the annual hikoi (protest march) with about 500 people started at lunch time and marched from the lower te tii marae, up to the upper te tii marae and then to the contentious flagpole, where some protestors had a brief standoff with police. 

the day closed with the flags being lowered by the rnzn in a traditional ceremony.

governor-general dame silvia cartwright said in her annual waitangi day address. "celebrations at waitangi on waitangi day have changed a great deal over the years...[now] involving families, schools, youth and community groups...let us as always, remember our history, but let us look forward also to a bright future for our country." 

the governor-general arrived at waitangi on saturday, february 4, where she welcomed the governor-general of papua new guinea to waitangi before she attended a reception onboard hmnzs te mana.

today she attended the dawn service on the treaty grounds, followed by celebrations in hamilton. she then hosted an afternoon garden party at government house in auckland, not at the traditional wellington government house venue. this is her last waitangi day as governor-general.



&quot;fathers for justice&quot; is coming to an end

pressure group and fathers rights campaigners fathers for justice are to suspend their operations. the campaign leader matt o'connor has said last night that the group were looking into claims by the sun newspaper that members of the group had been planning to abduct the 5 year old son of tony blair. 

however, o'connor told channel 4 television that the group could no longer continue after the negative publicity that this accusation will cause. 

the group have been recently famed for their headline grabbing stunts including; throwing flour in the house of commons at the prime minister and the trespassing incident at buckingham palace. these actions have stirred up public support for their campaign. 

o'connor said 'after peacefully campaigning for three years to ensure children get to see their fathers, we condemn any individual who planned this appalling outrage which is anathema to our campaign.' o'connor then added 'i have three young boys myself and couldn't think of anything more traumatic for mr blair, his family and his son than what is reported in this morning's sun newspaper, however we should approach the story with caution as it carries very little information in it.' 

a downing street spokesperson has said that there will be no official response.

mr o'connor has now publicly stated that he wants to distance himself from the group. 'i don't want to be associated with an organisation getting headlines like this'. 

fathers for justice had been working towards removing the radical elements of its membership with an expulsion of 30 of its most extreme members. 

the police have claimed that they were aware of the plan but knew it to have not got past the talking stage. 

this event has left the group in turmoil; they now appear to have no leader and their future is uncertain.


stardust comet samples &quot;visible to the naked eye&quot;

stardust, a nasa space probe, returned with more than scientists bargained for.

"i didn't see anything," said university of washington astronomer, don brownlee, from nasa's johnson space center tuesday.

but then, technicians flipped over the collection grid and scientists all around let out a huge gasp of excitement.

"it's better than we could have possibly hoped for," brownlee said. "it exceeds all expectations. we have a huge number of impacts, and some are quite big and visible to the naked eye. it's a huge success."

in a memo from nasa, scientists said "hundreds of particles" could be seen in the collection tray. "there were two particularly large comet particles that had 'exploded' inside," said the memo.

a lot of the largest particles shattered into little bits of black debris when they landed on the collecter. but many other visible particles left tracks as they landed at 13,000 mph and stopped fully intact. "i remember warning people not to be disappointed if these tracks were very hard to see, but they are absolutely stunning," brownlee said.

before they opened the collector, brownlee admitted that no one really knew whether or not the device had actually caught any particles. "you just don't know if nature is going to cooperate or not. it has been a magic mission."

"the capsule tumbled several times when it landed by parachute in the utah desert, but the impact didn't crack the aerogel," said brownlee.

nasa researcher scott sandford said the collection effort "succeeded well beyond our wildest hopes. i am not sure if it is good clean-room protocol to hug each other, but there was a lot of it going on for the first 10 minutes or so," he added.

stardust traveled nearly 3 billion miles and went around the sun 3 times. stardust's mission in space lasted 7 years.

scientists also hope to use distributed computing to help with looking over the samples. they will use a vm (virtual microscope) which will be developed by the university of california at berkeley. the developers, computer scientist david anderson, director of the seti@home project and physics graduate student, joshua von korff, are expected to design the program which is expected to go public in march.




cnn hires three conservative commentators

american cable news network cnn has began to implement more personalities into its lineup, with the hirings of three prominent conservative commentators as contributors. 

on january 5, the weblog tvnewser reported that bill bennett had been hired by the network as a political analyst. bennett, a republican activist, was appointed by ronald reagan as the secretary of education, and currently hosts a talk radio show, "morning in america". bennet came under fire in late 2005 for controversial statements made following the landfall of hurricane katrina, in which he said on his radio program: "if you wanted to reduce crime, you could?if that were your sole purpose?you could abort every black baby in this country and your crime rate would go down."

on january 17, the "atlanta journal-constitution" reported that "cnn headline news" was hiring radio host glenn beck to host a new primetime show, and just a day later, cnn announced that former republican congressman j.c. watts was joining the network as a political analyst. beck is quoted by the group fairness and accuracy in reporting as saying that "every night i get down on my knees and pray that dennis kucinich will burst into flames."

in an article in "variety", cnn executive vice president ken jautz touted beck, saying "glenn’s style is self-deprecating, cordial; he says he'd like to be able to disagree with guests and part as friends. it's conversational, not confrontational." in response, msnbc host keith olbermann named jautz the "worst person in the world" on his show, saying "that's cordial? compared to who? bill o'reilly? nancy grace? michael savage?"

liberal media watch group media matters sent out two emails to members, saying, "these three actions [hirings] raise serious questions about whether cnn has made a high-level decision to support and promote right-wing individuals, even those who have a history of promoting conservative misinformation and offensive rhetoric," commented media matters' david grossman.

the media watch group fairness and accuracy in reporting also criticized the move in an action alert, saying "the strategy of out-foxing fox by signing up incendiary right-wing talk show hosts is a dangerous one, as msnbc found when it gave a show to hate-radio star michael savage and had to let him go when it turned out that his tv persona spouted the same vitriol featured on his radio show," referring to an incident during a live broadcast that led to savage's dismissal.

cnn has been in a fierce ratings competition with the fox news channel, which has steadily begun gaining market share against the network, featuring several of the most-watched primetime shows.



two-day bird flu conference draws $1.9 billion in pledges

in beijing, china, 1.9 billion us dollars in pledges came from 33 countries and a host of multilateral institutions at the end of a meet co-ordinated by the world bank. the amount exceeded the organization's estimate of $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion in funds required to contain the avian flu over the next three years. in addition to aiding research efforts, the money is expected to help strengthen surveillance and increase the stockpiling of surgical masks and other equipment. 

the united states was the largest donor, pledging $334 million in grants. japan pledged $159 million while the european union pledged $120 million. the eu member nations promised an additional $138 million.

china which is home to a third of the entire world's population of birds pledged $10 million to help other countries with the effort. jia youling, china's chief veterinary official defended the relatively small pledge claiming that china was still a developing country and faced a serious challenge from bird flu within its borders. premier wen jiabao personally attended the conference and announced that the country would share more information on outbreaks in the country, including samples that will assist in tracing genetic changes.

dr. lee jong-wook, the director general of the world health organization, believes that the chinese government was fully committed to sharing information openly and freely about bird flu cases. but he cautions that it would be difficult to stay fully informed about every health development in a country as populous as china.

dr. lee also expressed his concern about reports that children in turkey have now become infected with the a(h5n1) avian influenza virus without becoming ill. some studies suggest that the disease must become less lethal before it can cause a global epidemic, he noted. there is concern that patients may continue to infect more people by going through their daily routines if the flu symptoms remain mild.

some scientists note that the avian flu has been known to occur among poultry in southern china since at least 1996. they are encouraged that the avian flu virus has failed to evolved into a form that is transmittable by people in all this time. this could be an indication that this would never happen. but others including officials from the united nations food and agriculture organization disagree claiming that increased contact between infected poultry and people raises the odds that the virus may eventually adapt better for transmission among humans.



indian city of bangalore to be renamed bengaluru

marking the growing trend in the rise of indian nationalism, the chief minister of the indian state of karnataka, , has announced that the state government will rename bangalore to its pre-colonial name, bengaluru, taking effect from november 1, 2006. the change was suggested by , best known for winning the .

many industrial leaders in bangalore have declared opposition to this name change. "i am absolutely opposed to the name change. the karnataka government should concentrate on spending money to bring about constructive change rather than wasting a huge amount of money in funding a petty, parochial political initiative," said , chairperson and managing director and india's richest woman, and also made a statement of possible explanation with the comment "the truth is that whenever a government considers itself weak in certain regions and thinks it is falling down, it whips up parochial sentiments.” she described the basis of her objection with the comment "bangalore has a global brand name worth billions of dollars," and further stated that "as it is the karnataka government says it is short of funds. why waste it on meaningless things?"

bangalore has a reputation as "india's silicon valley."

other cities to be renamed recently were chennai (formerly madras), mumbai (formerly bombay), and kolkata (formerly calcutta).

the move follows other cities in india being reverted to their traditional indian names, following independence from the united kingdom.



brokerage executive linked to livedoor deals found dead

hideaki noguchi, 38, a close aide to livedoor president takafumi horie was found bleeding in a hotel bed with cuts to his wrists on wednesday in naha, the capital of the southern prefecture of okinawa. he was later confirmed dead and the police suspect that he committed suicide. hideo sawada, the president of hs securities, told reporters in tokyo that noguchi's family had identified the body.

noguchi was a board member at japan m&a management co., a unit of h.s. securities co. the firm was raided by prosecutors earlier this week in connection with fraudulent practices at livedoor, according to the kyodo news agency. he was a graduate of tokyo's meiji university, and joined livedoor in 2000. he had previously worked at kokusai securities co. as an adviser in financing. livedoor was publicly listed on the tokyo stock exchange in april 2000. noguchi then set up the investment unit capitalista co., which merged with hs securities.

news of the suicide is being featured in the japanese media in connection with what is being termed the "livedoor shock". the problems at livedoor have led to the loss of a third of its $6.3-billion value in the stock market. livedoor maintains that its own investigation reveal that it did not violate any securities laws. 

some view the affair as an outcome of the larger struggle between competing business cultures in japan. takafumi horie is part of a new generation of japanese entrepreneurs with little patience for the customs of a traditionally cautious business culture. horie has shown an appetite for publicity through his internet blogs and appearances on tv shows while living a rock star lifestyle that includes private jets and actress girlfriends.

horie is also credited with popularizing stock trading among individual investors. the practice of day trading is relatively new in japan. the nikkei index was up about 40% last year, its best performance since 1986. 



six vehicle pileup disrupts traffic on highway in british columbia

a six vehicle pile up occurred on the john hart highway (british columbia highway 97), north of the john hart bridge in prince george, british columbia, canada which disrupted traffic during the morning rush hour of march 5, 2009. 

no serious injuries arose as a result of the accident, however traffic was reduced to a single lane. traffic control was conducted by a royal canadian mounted police officer who was at the scene at the time of the accident (7:45 a.m.). the rcmp cruiser was not one of the vehicles involved in the pile up. the crash was put under investigation by a traffic analyst.

the john hart highway connects prince george,a city of 70,981 according to the 2006 census, with dawson creek over a length of approximately 250 miles (400 km). the northwest corridor association saw a c$30 million twinning upgrade to the john hart bridge which spans the nechako river, a tributary of the fraser river. the bridge is located 5.4 kilometres (3.4 miles) north of prince george. in march there is a traffic volume of between 11,000 to 12,000 vehicles per day at the north end of the john hart bridge according to the the british columbia ministry of transportation average annual daily traffic aadt reports between 1994 and 2000.


corby's 20 year sentence reinstated

schappelle corby has been told by an indonesian court that her 20 year sentence for allegedly smuggling drugs into indonesia would be reinstated following an appeal attempt. her lawyers had previously been successful in reducing her sentence to 15 years.

indonesian police allege that corby smuggled 4.1kg of marajuana hidden in a body board bag into bali. corby has maintained that the drugs did not belong to her and must have been placed in her bag between brisbane, sydney and bali.

australian baggage handlers had been caught using passenger's luggage to distribute illegal drugs.

judges rejected her appeal last week, reinstating her original sentence at the same time.

the indonesian supreme court has ordered that the drugs be destroyed, signalling that it is the end of any possible future appeal attempts.

another twist has emerged in the corby story with her 18 year old half brother arrested yesterday on charges of producing and possessing a dangerous drug, deprivation of liberty and assault occasioning bodily harm.

corby's lawyer hotman paris hutapea said that the development had "totally ruined his case". speaking before discovering corby's original sentence had been reinstated said he feared the development involving corby's half brother, james kisina, would ruin his attempts to free schapelle.

corby's balinese lawyer, erwin siregar, disagrees with mr paris claiming the arrest could provide evidence to reopen her case if there is any proof or statements that the marijuana she was caught with belonged to her half-brother.

in court today, kisina claimed that he was seeking to obtain information from known drug dealers in brisbane which could assist in corby's appeal.


iraq asks united states to release 6 iraqi female prisoners

the iraqi government has asked the united states to release 6 of the 8 iraqi women that are currently prisoners, which iraq claims is not a bid to get american journalist jill carroll freed. a commission reviewing detainee cases has recommended monday that at least six of them be released.

a human rights ministry official said the call "to free the women was not made in response to demands from carroll's kidnappers." he then went on to say, "there was no outside pressure on the commission" to recommend releasing the women. the official spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisal from insurgents.

abductors holding the journalist have made demands that all female iraqi prisoners be released or they will kill her.

the u.s. said that they currently have 8 women in security detention. but as of wednesday night, refused to comment on whether or not the women had been released.

carroll was kidnapped in january when insurgents ambushed her car and killed her translator. she is 28 years old. the abductors gave a 72 hour dead line and are expected to kill her tomorrow if their demands are not met.

insurgents in iraq have recently kidnapped more than 240 foreigners and killed at least 39 of them since the beginning of the war. some estimates of the number of iraqis kidnapped place it in the hundreds and possibly even thousands. 



al jazeera airs new osama bin laden tape

the qatar-based arabic news channel, al jazeera, announced receipt of the audio tape purportedly from osama bin laden. portions were broadcast in which bin laden offers a "a long-term truce" to allow rebuilding of afghanistan and 
iraq while also making threats of "new attacks" against the united states.

following are several excerpts from the tape.

in a white house press conference today, press secretary scott mcclellan showed no fear: "we are taking the fight to the enemy and we will find them where ever they are. terrorists view democracy as a threat. we will not let up or stop until the job is done. we will win this war on terrorism. we do not negotiate with terrorists, we put them out of business. we're working to advance freedom and democracy. we will pursue those who seek to do harm."

the cia ran voice analyzer tests on the tape against previous tapes and confirmed that the tape is authentic and that of bin laden's voice. 

this tape, says michael scheuer, former head of the cia's bin laden unit, "proves two things...he's not dead. and despite all the things we say about him being isolated and alone, he can clearly dominate the international media when he wants to."

judith yaphe, a former cia middle east analyst now at the national defense university in washington says, "he's saying that whatever measures we've taken, they have not affected him. he's got to reassure people that he's alive and well."

no conditions of the truce offering were present in the portion of the tape broadcast.

al jazeera also says that the tape was made during the muslim holy month of december, in 2005.

u.s. officials also say the terror alert level will not be raised as of yet.

the associated press is also reporting that there is no unusual amounts of "chatter", which is what u.s. officials term as terrorist talk.



uk r&amp;b singer ms dynamite sentenced for assault

the uk musician, niomi mclean-daley popularly known as 'ms dynamite' has been sentenced to carry out 60 hours of community service after admitting to assaulting a policewoman.

the rap star has been fined ￡750 in compensation.

sky news reports that "she had hit the officer in the face at a london police station on january 6."

according to sky news, district judge timothy workman said: "the injury sustained by that one blow were obviously more considerable than first thought.

"i accept that it was one blow and in the circumstances bearing in mind your good character, you have never been in court before, you are entitled to a discount on sentence."

according to her solicitor the catalyst for the row was the racial abuse of her sister annabell, 18.

the bbc reports that ms dynamite's solicitor anthony burton said: "my client has absolutely no excuse for her conduct. she makes no bones about that. 

she apologises profoundly for her conduct to the officer involved, pc marles. "she is deeply ashamed."


radical cleric abu hamza denies encouraging murder

during his trial today, muslim cleric abu hamza al-masri, denied the claim that he had incited his followers to commit acts of murder. instead he claimed that he had asked them to fight abroad. the charges against abu hamza include nine counts of soliciting to murder and three of trying to stir up racial hatred. he denies all 15 charges against him.

when questioned by his defense council he was asked if he had incited followers to kill in england. to this abu hamza replied "no". abu hamza also told the court of his feelings about racism "if you are a scholar you will never distinguish between anyone of any color. racism is one of the greatest sins. i actually condemned it,"

the cleric also denies that he was in possession of a document which could be considered to help in the preparation of terrorist attacks.

the defense barrister warned the jury to ignore the comments of the press as they may have convicted the defendant before the trial has begun. comments such as "captain hook" and "hook off hooky" have been used. mr. fitzgerald told them of "exaggeration and misrepresentation by the media".

the cleric faces nine charges under the offences against the person act 1861, plus four charges under the public order act 1986 of "using threatening, abusive or insulting words or 
behavior with the intention of stirring up racial hatred". the possession of video and audio recordings with the intent to be used to stir-up racial hatred, and a final charge of the possession of the encyclopedia of the afghani jihad, which, is said to have information "of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism". 


berlin court issues provisional order against the wikimedia foundation

a district court in berlin has issued a preliminary injunction against the wikimedia foundation for displaying the true name of a computer hacker on the german wikipedia. the family of the deceased german hacker, known as "tron," obtained the provisional order in berlin on december 14. the order was corrected on december 19 because it was at first addressed to saint petersburg, russia instead of saint petersburg, florida.

tron became famous as the first person to crack the encryption of pay tv and calling cards. he died in 1998, at the age of 26, in an apparent suicide. questions have arisen as to the nature of the hacker's death.

the court has ordered the german wikipedia to remove all forms of the hacker's complete civil name "boris floricic". the court states that this is justified by the fact that the hacker never worked under his civil name, but instead his internet alias.

the legality of the order is in question, because the wikimedia foundation servers are not located in germany, but instead in the united states. whether the foundation will comply or if the family's attorneys have any means to enforce the decision remains in doubt. the case prompted many german media outlets to publicly display the hacker's real name.
on january 17 the same court also issued a preliminary injunction against wikimedia deutschland e.v., the german chapter of the wikimedia foundation, citing the same reasons. in that injuction, the chapter was ordered to cease redirecting www.wikipedia.de to de.wikipedia.org. wikimedia deutschland complied, but its lawyers announced that they will appeal the decision, saying that tron's civil name has long since been public knowledge.


west papua refugees sent to australia's christmas island detention centre

a group of 43 west papuan asylum seekers found on cape york were herded on to an raaf hercules and flown to australia's christmas island detention centre on thursday. the immigration department says the single men in the group will be detained in the remote facility, and the six women and seven children will be accommodated in staff housing.

the group left the papuan port town of merauke on friday in an outrigger canoe and landed on tuesday at janey creek, north of the mapoon aboriginal community on western cape york, without being detected.

police, immigration and customs officials prevented the group communicating with media in weipa, where the group were detained in queensland's far north. the group was kept under close guard throughout the day, with the media required to remain at least 25m away.

officials accompanied the asylum seekers on toilet breaks and trips to the weipa hospital, covering the heads of the new arrivals with blankets or jackets. 

immigrationl officials will interview the group, assessing their claims for asylum, while at the remote island detention facility on christmas island, 2,600km north-west of perth.

the department says the papuans are being transferred as part of the long-standing government policy to process unauthorised arrivals offshore, not because mainland detention centres lack capacity. immigration minister amanda vanstone said the group would be treated the same as any other boat arrivals. 

john wing from the university of sydney's centre for peace and conflict studies says indonesian military activity has been increasing in papua which may encourage more people to seek asylum in australia.

"this may be a trend that we see developing over the coming year or two as the military operations are stepped up in papua against the local people. as in other parts of the world, the fighting and the human rights situation becomes too grim in one's homeland, he said, "these people are forced to flee to the place of nearest sanctuary and in this part of the world, for the papuans, it's australia."

mr wing says he believes a prominent student activist is part of the group of asylum seekers. he says the man has already spent time in jail for attending independence meetings and could be persecuted if he is sent back to papua.

"many villages have been burned to the ground; houses, clinics, schools, churches have all been destroyed by arson, by the indonesian armed forces, and some of these refugees are from that area," he said.

the indonesian embassy says there is no persecution in papua. 

the 36 adults and seven children are the third boatload of asylum-seekers to land on the australian mainland in the past four years.


dog falls on car and kills driver in michigan

a dog fell off an interstate 96 overpass in livonia, michigan killing 81 year-old charles g. jetchick.

jetchick and a passenger, who police would not identify, were transported to st. mary's hospital where jetchick died from his injuries. the passenger suffered only minor injuries.

police say that the 60 to 70 pound (27-32 kilograms) dog was not thrown off the overpass, but "probably fell by accident while trying to avoid a car," sgt. michael a. shaw of the michigan state police said. "we don't know and thats why we are looking for witnesses."

the dog, which fell about 16 feet (5 metres) also died due to its injuries.

shaw has been with the state police for 11 years and has never encountered a similar incident. "we've had rocks and other stuff like that fall off of overpasses. this would be the first dog we've had," said shaw.



new horizons probe bound for pluto on nine year journey

earlier today, an atlas v rocket carrying the "new horizons" unmanned spacecraft probe lifted off from pad 41 at the cape canaveral air force station bound for the last unexplored planet in the solar system, pluto, at 11 am est, after two scrubbed liftoffs the past two days because of bad weather.

the probe will take a nine-year, 3-billion-mile (5-billion-km) journey to pluto, the ninth and final planet in the solar system. it is expected to take photos of the planet that are of the highest resolution ever, since current photos of pluto are not of the highest quality, even those taken from hubble space telescope. it will also attempt to characterize the global geology and morphology of the planet and study the atmosphere of the planet.

after accelerating to 36,000 mph, it will pass the moon in nine hours. the probe will pass by mars in april and then head on to jupiter where it will pass by in february 2007 and continue on. around july 14, 2015, the probe is expected to fly by pluto and its moon charon, after which the probe could possibly make a flyby of one or more kuiper belt objects. (kbos).

new horizons is powered by an onboard nuclear electric generator, known as a radioisotope thermoelectric generator, using 24 pounds (10.8kg) of plutonium as its radioactive "fuel" source. some anti-nuclear activists feared that the launch could end in an accident with radioactive material being spread over a wide area. the chances of such a disaster were calculated by the united states department of energy at 1 in 350.

the tuesday liftoff was postponed because of high winds at the launch site. the wednesday launch was stopped after a severe storm near laurel, maryland knocked out power at the johns hopkins university's applied physics laboratory, which hosts the flight control center for the mission.

as a side note, the probe is also carrying some of the ashes from clyde tombaugh, the discoverer of pluto.



new zealand to send out bird flu brochures

a new zealand newspaper reported on wednesday the 18th of january that the new zealand ministry of health intends to send out brochures, to about 1.4 million households in a national mail drop; on how to prepare for a avian flu pandemic. it is believed that the campaign would begin in march.

the brochures will contain information on how to set up emergency kits, and hygiene guides.

the brochures will complement print, radio and television advertising, which will be running at the same time. advertising started this week on national radio; new zealand's public service radio broadcaster.

dr ashley bloomfield, acting director of public health, would not confirm a mail drop at this stage, but other activities for raising awareness such as more paid advertising, updates to the website and 0800 number, and "possibly" a nationwide mail drop. 

the avian flu h5n1 has killed at least 79 people since 2003. 

 


mark latham in fight 12 months after resigning as australian opposition leader

former australian opposition leader and leader of the australian labor party, mark latham has been accused of assaulting and stealing a camera belonging to a photographer for the daily telegraph in sydney.

the newspaper claims that latham assaulted photographer ross schultz, injuring his wrist outside a fast-food restaurant in campbelltown, a suburb in sydney's south-west. it is alleged that latham stole shultz's camera and smashed it with a hammer when he returned home.

the daily telegraph claims that latham later handed the smashed camera to campbelltown police.

it is believed that latham was angry that the photographer took photographs of his children playing on play equipment at the restaurant. latham accuses the newspaper of stalking and harassment.

mr shultz said "he took the camera and began walking to his car," "i politely asked him to return it. he placed it on the bonnet and then turned around and threw a left hook at me."

"i evaded it easily but he wanted to go toe-to-toe with me. i just kept telling him to calm down, 'you've got kids in the car', but he was off his head. he was so worked up, i wasn't thinking of the camera." 

the daily telegraph claims they were working on a story to coincide with the first anniversary of latham's resignation as opposition leader and as an mp.

mr latham is reported to have a history of violence, breaking the arm of a taxi driver in 2001 and in 1989 allegedly assaulting a labor party stalwart.

 


errant monkeys draw the ire of delhi court

the delhi high court expressed its displeasure to the civic authorities on their continued failure to resolve the problem of marauding monkeys in the court premises. the court was in session when the public interest litigation filed by a supreme court lawyer was brought to its attention.

the petitioner mr.nirmal chopra argued the case and explained how the simians showed up during work hours and attacked people and snatched food from them. the rhesus monkeys have also been blamed for damaging furniture belonging to the lawyers and courtroom fixtures such as electrical fittings. according to mr.chopra india's wildlife act of 1972 empowers civic authorities to kill or hunt animals when they endanger human life. he said that the lawyers from the tis hazari court had requested the state government and the municipality to tackle the situation but no action had resulted. 

the lawyer for the civic authority was quoted by the press trust of india as saying that catching monkeys was no longer its responsibility. the court was informed that a monkey catcher hired by the municipality had required 72 stitches after being mauled during an operation. after this incident the work had to be halted because other monkey catchers refused to take up the job. 

the court gave the civic authority four more weeks to catch the monkeys that are disrupting work at the tis hazari courts. "if you cannot perform your statutory duty, then close down your institution" the court is reported to have told the counsel.

delhi is known to suffer from trouble brought on by monkeys. the animals are reported to invade homes, schools and government offices in the city. scores of animals have moved in as the city expands into surrounding forests. in an effort to control the problem, the delhi administration captured about 500 monkeys and took them to the outskirts of the city last year.



slovak transport plane crashes over hungary

42 of 43 slovak soldiers were killed as an an-24 type aircraft of the slovak army crashed shortly after 8.30 pm utc+1 at a hill in the north east of hungary. there were 43 soldiers (including three women) on the board. the plane was flying from pristina to ko?ice, slovakia as it collided 10 km away from the border to the 800 meter high hill.

two aircraft entered the hungarin airspace, the captain of the second alarmed the authorities. one survivor has been found, there is no news of other surviving.



anzac day marked throughout nz, au

australians and new zealanders throughout the world stood still and turned out in huge numbers for their national war memorial days in remembrance of the failed (anzac) ? , turkey that began on 25 april 1915. the fateful attack was designed to end the first world war quicker by creating a supply line to . a hundred thousand died in the battle, remembered every year as by both nations. the british-directed battle of gallipoli is often seen as a defining moment in the 'birth' of australia and new zealand. the battlefields of gallipoli, where so much blood was shed, has become near-sacred soil.

this is the 91st anniversary of the attack. this is the first anzac day where there have been no survivors left from world war i.

around 10,000 people are turned out at the dawn service at gallipoli.

meanwhile dawn services have been held throughout new zealand. the numbers of veterans may be dwindling, but the numbers of those who come to pay their respects is not. in auckland nearly 20,000 people attended the dawn service at the . during the service, a 62-year-old veteran of the died of a heart attack, falling face forward on to the concrete as the was sounded.

in , about 5000 people gathered at the near the .

speaking at the service royal new zealand returned and services’ association president john campbell said, "we are honouring the anzacs. we are not here to glorify war, but to remember that we value who we are and the freedoms we possess...they did not die in vain. they fought for peace, freedom and democracy."
, , addressed the crowd, at the wellington service saying "soldiers, veterans, all new zealanders who are gathered here, around new zealand and around the world to commemorate anzac day. today is the day we grieve for our fellow new zealanders killed in war. it is the day we honour them, and remember their sacrifice". this is her last anzac day as governor-general.

2006 is the new zealand year of the veteran, and the 90th anniversary of the organisation founded by those who did return from gallipoli ? the .

australia and new zealand commemorate the anzac day public holiday on the 25th of april every year to honour the bravery and sacrifice of the members of the anzac's and of all those who served their country ?

lest we forget.

 


syria voices support of iran's nuclear program

on thursday, syria said that it supports iran's nuclear stance and said it "has a right to atomic technology," and said western objections to tehran's nuclear ambitions were "not persuasive."

it comes in the wake of demands by us and european countries for iran to halt its nuclear fuel enrichment activities. iran notes that its nuclear program is civilian and consistent with article iv of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which establishes "the inalienable right of all the parties to the treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes", and that it in line with article iv, it will not abandon its enrichment efforts. 

the non-proliferation treaty is part of international law and under article vi, requires the us, france, uk and other nuclear weapons states to "pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date <nowiki>[the treaty was signed in 1968]</nowiki> and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control."

president bashar assad of syria, a longtime iranian ally said he "backed tehran's moves toward nuclear power," and wanted to strengthen the two nation's ties. "we support iran regarding its right to peaceful nuclear technology," assad said at a news conference with iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad. "it is the right of iran and any other state to own nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. countries that object to that have not provided a convincing or logical reason."

ahmadinejad also said the two countries needed to "coordinate their positions."
also on thursday, russia's foreign minister called for "a cautious approach to the mounting crisis over iran's renewal of nuclear research."

the two nations have been allies for twenty-six years.


prosecutors continue investigation as livedoor faces possible delisting

the tokyo district public prosecutors office has been investigating allegations surrounding livedoor's acquisition strategies and stock sales. japanese newspaper yomiuri shimbun reports that the company may have made 4 billion yen ($35 million) in profits by following illegal takeover practices. livedoor has been known to use acquisitions to support its rapid growth. it currently owns about 50 technology companies providing financial services and other software over the internet.

recent investigations have centered around the acquisitions of two companies "royal shinpan", a consumer finance company and "cueznet co." an online matchmaking firm. livedoor announced its intent to acquire the two companies in august and september of 2004. 

according to allegations, an investment fund was used to purchase shares in the targeted companies before the announcements were made public. it is believed that after the stock swaps in october 2004, livedoor received the shares of the two companies through this fund. the investment fund also received new livedoor shares in exchange which were then allegedly sold off to a foreign investment fund. livedoor is reported to have issued 12.6 million new shares for the two stock swaps.

since livedoor owned most of the fund, the profits from these sales were siphoned back into livedoor. the investment fund "jmam salvage ichi-go toshi jigyo kumiai" was deemed a voluntary organization and hence avoided registration and disclosure regarding its investors and its investments. concealing ownership of targeted takeover companies violates securities and exchange laws. 
a prosector commented "stock swaps are not illegal, but it is problematic if a company makes deals aiming to make profits by selling its shares this way." 

livedoor shares continued their fall for the fourth straight day on friday. the stock has now lost about 52 percent or $3.3 billion in market capitalization since news of the investigation broke through on monday evening.

the tokyo stock exchange(tse) is considering delisting stocks of livedoor co. and its affiliate livedoor marketing co. livedoor is scheduled to submit the findings of its internal investigation to the tse by friday. 
"if we can confirm they violated listing regulations, we'll have no choice but to decide to delist their stocks," tse chairman and president taizo nishimuro told reporters at a news conference.

a company's delisting would seriously impact its ability to raise funds. 




alan carpenter &quot;effectively&quot; new western australian premier

western australian energy minister alan carpenter has confirmed he will become western australia's next state premier. 

the top job became vacant following premier geoff gallop's shock resignation on monday 16th january. contender police minister michelle roberts has withdrawn from the leadership race, saying mr carpenter has her support. 

speaking in perth today, labor powerbroker jim mcginty said mr carpenter was now "effectively" the wa premier, putting an end to a week of speculation about jockeying for the role.

"we were all shocked and saddened by dr gallop's announcement on monday but to have a new premier by the end of the week is as smooth (a transition) as you could hope for," mr mcginty said today.

mr carpenter will now be elected unopposed when caucus meets on tuesday. wa attorney-general and former labor leader mr mcginty says mr carpenter will make a great premier but it is important he does not change too much.

"in my experience when people start to try to change their appearance or their personality is when they fail," he said. "i'm sure alan carpenter will remain alan carpenter."

alan carpenter was born in albany, western australia, on january 4 1957. after graduating from the university of western australia with an arts degree (politics) in 1979, he began a career as a journalist with the albany advertiser newspaper. he has worked for tvw channel 7, perth and also abc tv as a state political reporter.

in 1992, he became the 7.30 report's presenter in wa and later presented the abc's stateline program. in april 1996, he resigned from the abc and gained alp endorsement for new state seat of willagee. he won the seat in december 1996.

mr carpenter has held the shadow portfolios of disability services, sport & recreation, family & children's services, education and drugs. he became minister for education, sport & recreation and indigenous affairs in february 2001. he became the minister for education and training in june 2003. following the gallop government’s re-election in february 2005, he became the minister for state development and energy.

mr carpenter said he had been well schooled for the leadership position by dr gallop, who shocked parliament on monday with the announcement he was quitting to battle depression.

"i was a huge supporter of geoff, he was an outstanding premier and to match that would be no easy feat," mr carpenter said.


theo walcott deal goes through for arsenal

today, arsenal have confirmed that they will be adding theo walcott to their side, after a 12.5 million pound deal was struck, on the premise that he pass rigorous medical examinations. although the 16-year-old striker cannot sign until he turns 17 on 16 march, seems to see this only as a formality, as the player is set to be unveiled today at highbury.

although there are not many other details at this moment, it is thought that he will not be able to return to southampton on loan, due to the hectic schedule that he will have at arsenal. whatever way the deal may turn out, it seems that theo's family are with him whatever he does.


google refuses to hand over logs to us department of justice

the search engine google has been asked by the u.s. department of justice to hand over its records of user activity. google was asked for information regarding the type of search and the index of pages it had over a week. 
this evidence is being requested by lawyers who are trying to defend the constitutionality of the child online protection act, which was struck down in 1998 by the supreme court. 

google has not complied with the request prompting us attorney general alberto gonzales to request a court order from a federal judge in california. google has nevertheless stated that it would fight the order. nicole wong, the associate general counsel for google, said "google is not a party to this lawsuit and their demand for information overreaches," and that "we had lengthy discussions with them to try to resolve this, but were not able to and we intend to resist their motion vigorously."

unlike its competitors, google is taking a firm stand on this issue with no room to compromise. yahoo has already said that it releases data "on a limited basis and did not provide any personally identifiable information." and microsoft said that it "works closely with law enforcement officials worldwide to assist them when requested". 



danish clothing company sells t-shirts to support farc and pflp

a recently created danish clothing company is selling on the internet t-shirts in order to support the clandestine radio station of the colombian guerrilla group revolutionary armed forces of colombia (farc) and the graphical workshop of the popular front for the liberation of palestine (pflp). in fact the money will be used by these groups to carry on their terrorist activities. farc activities include kidnappings, masacres, bombs, extortions and the drug trade.

"fighters and lovers" is selling the t-shirts at 170 dkk (us$27.6), from which 35 dkk (us$5.7) are to be destinated to support both armed groups.

anna duever, "fighters and lovers" pr chief, said to spanish news agency efe that their objective is to ""defend freedom and social justice, which is farc and pflp are fighting for"". duever believes the fact the farc has been included by the eu in its terrorist group list is a ""political game"". ""we pay our taxes in denmark, and that money is used for financing the troops our government has sent to iraq. that's terrorism. besides, in colombia there's a regime oppressing population and torturing and killing its people"", she said.

colombian foreign affairs minister, carolina barco, said to local media that ""financing terrorist groups is unacceptable and goes against all the international norms. yesterday [tuesday 19] our ambassador contacted the danish government, we sent a protest note and have demanded an explanation."" 

a year ago, a danish ngo named "opror" ("rebelion") stated it had donated money to the colombian guerrilla. a new antiterrorism law in denmark may punish it.




lancet cancer study a hoax

in norway, the oslo and akershus county medical officer has announced that it is launching an inquiry into a possible scientific hoax, involving cancer researchers from norway, the and .

in october 2005, the norwegian researcher along with 13 co-authors published the study in the prestigious medical journal . the study claimed to detect a positive effect of in preventing oral cancer in smokers, based on a controlled case-study, entailing several hundred patients. on the basis of this study, a broader prospective multicenter study was to be started in 2006, partly funded by the u.s. .

on january 17th 2006 however, in , norway announced that there were strong suggestions that the whole study was a hoax. the patient material presented appeared to be invented, and thus the whole study seems to be fraudulent.

the radium hospital in oslo has hired an autonomous investigative committee to look into the matter, led by the swedish anders ekbom from the , stockholm. the editor of the lancet, , said that this was the worst research fraud he has dealt with in his time at the lancet.



whale spotted in river thames, central london

a 15ft (4.5 meter) northern bottle-nosed whale has been spotted swimming in the river thames in central london, uk. the "thames whale" managed to swim up past the thames barrier and under many bridges, reaching as far as chelsea before it turned around just before albert bridge.

tv news helicopters scrambled to provide live tv footage of the whale, and many spectators lined the banks of the river. 

the whale is said to be looking healthy, although some fear that the whale may beach itself as it tried to do before rescuers forced it back into the middle of the river. normally found in the north atlantic, there have been sightings of a second whale near southend.

a vet, having examined the whale, reported that the animal was not swimming purposefully, has some damage around the head area and is losing blood from numerous cuts on its underside. it was last seen floating downstream with the current; its present whereabouts are unknown. 



message in bottle travels from uk to australia

a message in a bottle thrown into the sea by a four-year-old girl in england has been found 9,000 miles away in western australia.

alesha johnson threw the bottle into the water at morecambe bay, lancashire last july, enclosing her heysham address, and a picture of herself. 

the note read: "if you get this message, please write back." 

this week, she received a letter from a 10-year-old from perth, who said he had found the bottle in a local boatyard.

doreen johnson, the manager of the nursery alesha attends in heysham, said: "we were all very excited when the letter from australia arrived addressed to alesha. 

"we never dreamed the bottle would go that far, it's amazing." 

the australian boy, who said only that his name was bob, wrote in his letter that he had asked his father to look up heysham on the internet. 

the child did not enclose an address as he said he was moving house, but would write back when he had his new address: "we are in the middle of moving house and it’s christmas here but when we are settled i’ll write to you again".

nobody will know exactly how it got there but the most likely route would have been into the atlantic, sweeping down the west coast of africa and into the southern hemisphere. after rounding the cape of good hope the bottle must have then crossed the indian ocean. oceanographers suspect the bottle could not have travelled the whole way on its own in only six months, and it must have been caught up by a ship and transported part of the way.

"it was summertime when we threw it in the sea. all the children in class were given bottles to take home in july but alesha’s is the only one that got a reply", she said. 

"i don’t know what the other parents did with theirs. we went straight down to morecambe bay. alesha was only 3 at the time. she could barely throw the cola bottle beyond her feet. i just assumed it would be washed straight back and forgot all about it."

"then recently when i went to pick her up from nursery i was told that she had had a reply from this little boy and it had made it all the way to australia. i couldn’t believe it. i was walking on air for about four days and was really proud. it’s made me very happy." ms. matthews said that bob had made a copy of alesha’s original note and returned it to the time for nursery in heysham. he also wrote to alesha and the family is now looking forward to learning more about him.

"i have never heard of a message in a bottle travelling so far so quickly."

last december a message in a bottle sent from new york was washed up at newquay, cornwall. it had been sent 18 months earlier.


demonstration held in support of jill carroll

reporters without borders held a demonstration today at the grand mosque in paris in support of jill carroll calling for her release. present were mosque rector dalil boubakeur with five french ex-hostages: florence aubenas, roger auque, jean-jacques le garrec, roland madura and ivan cerieix. 

carroll was kidnapped in january when insurgents ambushed her car and killed her translator. she is 28 years old. the abductors gave a 72 hour dead line; that is due to expire this evening, and are expected to kill her if their demands are not met.



us stocks slump as crude oil surges, gold hits 25 yr high

us stocks suffered their biggest declines in more than two years on concerns about oil supplies from iran and nigeria. crude oil prices jumped to more than $68 a barrel, levels not seen since september last year. gold hit a 25 year peak and last traded at $553.50 an ounce.

the dow jones industrial average (djia) slumped 213+ points today amid fears of iran and terrorism. the index has now given up all its gains since the beginning of the year. among its 30 components, only mcdonalds ended the day in positive territory. disappointing earnings dragged down shares of general electric co. and citigroup inc. 

since the start of the q4 earnings season, many analysts have been reducing their earnings expectations. s&p 500 companies are now expected to report a profit growth of 12.7 percent, compared with earlier expectations of 15.5 percent. this analysis was done by bloomberg using data from thomson. earnings growth is expected to slow down to 9.9 percent in the first quarter of this year.

shares of ge gave up $1.35 to end at $33.33 after the firm reported its smallest earnings gain since 2004. ge is the world's second largest firm by market value. q4 earnings rose to 55 cents a share from 54 cents while revenue rose 2.6 percent to $40.7 billion, below analysts' estimates.

the djia was dragged down by citigroup, largest bank in us. its stock fell $1.98 to $45.96. the company reported fourth-quarter earnings of $4.97 billion, or 98 cents a share. the earnings were below consensus estimates of $1. 



iran moves finances out of europe's banks

iran, has decided to pull its finances out of european banks and into different foreign banks. a senior iranian official stated that this is an attempt to pre-empt possible u.n. sanctions over its resumption of nuclear fuel enrichment activities. 

comments by iran's central bank governor ebrahim sheibani, carried on air by the isna student news agency, confirmed that iran had started transferring funds.

"we transfer foreign reserves to wherever we see as expedient. on this issue, we have started transferring. we are doing that," sheibani told the isna agency.

ebrahim sheibani also told the agency that the assets were being moved to an "undisclosed" location.

it is unknown exactly how much money is involved or whether or not iran's investments in europe would be affected by the move. traders have said that they had already factored such a possibility into the market.

gary samore, an expert on iran and vice president for international programs at the mcarthur foundation in chicago, said "the move reflected concern by tehran that the europeans might take unilateral measures amid the crisis over its nuclear program." he also added that its decision to pull its assets from europe "makes sense in terms of preparing for the possibility that europe might take some measure to impose some financial sanctions. i don't know that it changes the diplomatic formula. the key issue is still the question of whether or not the western group can engineer a formal referral to the security council."

it is unclear if an asset freeze or other punishment is imminent in iran, but it has happened before. the country's assets in the united states have been frozen since iranians seized the u.s. embassy in tehran and held its staff hostage after the 1979 islamic revolution.

an italian court last year had ordered an iranian bank account to be frozen at the request of u.s. plaintiffs who were seeking compensation for terrorist acts they believe were supported by the country (iran).

earlier the eu drafted a resolution that calls for referring iran to the 15-nation council. but it is said to stop short of asking for punitive measures against iran. the iaea is expected to meet on february 2, 2006 to discuss europe's draft.




twu members reject contract

in a close vote, union members rejected the proposed contract negotiated by the transport workers union local 100 (twu) and metropolitan transportation agency (mta) after a crippling transit strike ground new york city to a halt in december.

calling the rejection "disappointing news to all new yorkers", mayor michael bloomberg called on the twu and the mta to return to the bargaining table as soon as possible. the twu has expressed that it is ready to negotiate, but the mta has not made any comment at this time.

after a week-long rallying effort, including radio advertisements by tuw local 100 president roger toussaint encouraging union members to vote for the proposed contract, the voting period ended at 12:00 est (17:00 utc) and ballots had been counted by 17:00 est (22:00 utc). the final tally was 11,227 to 11,234 against - a difference of seven votes.



u.s. senate confirms supreme court nominee alito

after several weeks of at times contentious deliberation in the , the united states senate confirmed judge samuel a. alito, jr. to the supreme court with 58 votes in favor and 42 against. only one republican, of rhode island, voted against confirmation. four democrats, including former of west virginia, voted for confirmation. alito was sworn-in later in the day.

alito had been nominated by president george w. bush following the withdrawal of his original supreme court nominee , a criminal lawyer and close associate of bush since before his tenure as governor of texas from 1994-2000. miers, facing harsh criticism of her qualifications for a position on the high court, along with growing opposition from members of the conservative movement, elected to withdraw in october 2005. 

alito was nominated shortly after miers' withdrawal, and faced the judiciary committee in january 2006. 

with the bush administration facing poor approval ratings following the withdrawal of miers, senate democrats put forth a strong offensive to the confirmation of alito. they questioned alito extensively of his record on abortion, exercise of executive authority, his opinions on various legal issues while studying at princeton university and his membership in the group there.

following the judiciary committee's party-line vote approving alito, efforts were spearheaded by ranking judiciary committee member sen. (d-ma) and sen. john f. kerry (d-ma) to filibuster alito's confirmation. however, the motion to end debate on alito ended with a 72-25 cloture vote; senate minority leader harry reid (d-nv) acknowledged that a filibuster was not a realistic option to stop alito's confirmation.

alito is the second judge to be appointed and confirmed to the supreme court by president bush. his first appointee, judge john roberts, was confirmed by the senate in the autumn of 2005. following the death of chief justice william rehnquist, roberts was immediately selected to fill rehnquist's post. 

alito will be replacing supreme court justice sandra day o'connor, who was a crucial swing vote in an ideologically divided court. with the appointment of alito, the court will most likely experience a shift to the political right. how much of a shift cannot be precisely determined, as it remains to be seen how alito will rule in cases involving critical social issues.

alito earned a bachelor's degree in law from princeton university, and did his graduate work at . most of his bench experience has come at the , where he has served as a justice since 1990, when president george h.w. bush nominated him for the post. he follows current supreme court justice antonin scalia as the second italian-american member of the high court.

senator charles schumer (d-ny) told the ap that the united states would "be better and stronger and more unified if we were confirming a different nominee, a nominee who could have united us more than divided us".

senator (d-ri) said he is concerned with alito's "philosophy of the constitution [and] his great effort of many years to expand presidential power at a time when there are real serious questions about the powers the president has".

senator arlen specter (r-pa), chairman of the senate judiciary committee, said there are no doubts about alito's "qualification in terms of education, professional career and his service on the court of appeals."

and in a written statement, president bush called alito a "brilliant and fair-minded judge who strictly interprets the constitution and laws and does not legislate from the bench. he is a man of deep character and integrity, and he will make all americans proud as a justice on our highest court."



ayman al-zawahiri releases new tape

the cia has confirmed that a tape that surfaced today is that of ayman al-zawahiri.

a spokesman for the cia said, "following technical analysis of the tape, the cia has assessed that it is the voice of ayman al-zawahiri." 

the tape was posted on an internet forum that has carried al qaeda communiques before.

on the tape, zawahiri read a poem called the "martyrs of jihad". he said that he dedicates it to "muslim brothers everywhere, to the mujahedeen brothers in islam's fortified borderlines against the zionist-crusader campaign in palestine and iraq, afghanistan and chechnya and to the lions chasing the crusaders' gangs and hired hands in afghanistan's mountains and valleys and its wounded capital, kabul."

he then went on to say, "i am honored to present this mujahedeen poem, written by maulai muhibbulla al-qandahari, who carried the pen and the sword and was known in the circles of scholars and the training camps and the battlefields of jihad."

it is still unclear as to when the tape was made exactly and it is still unclear if it has anything to do with the release of bin laden's tape yesterday. 

on the tape, zawahiri makes no mention of the u.s. missile attacks that killed 18 people, including women and children, and is suspected of killing 4 terrorists last week.

a u.s. counterterrorism expert said there was "no reason to believe it was done recently. it could be something that someone pulled off the shelf and decided to post."

u.s. officials reasoned that the tapes release "might have been timed to assure his followers that bin laden was alive and well" just days after the u.s. air strikes.

on thursday, vice president, dick cheney dismissed bin laden's truce saying that "we don't negotiate with terrorists. i think you have to destroy them."

cheney also said that he thinks the al qaeda truce appeared to be a "ploy," but also added that "it is too early to draw conclusions." he also said, "i'm not sure what he's offering by way of a truce. i don't think anybody would believe him...it sounds to me like it's some kind of a ploy. this is not an organization that's ever going to sit down and sign a truce."



vladivostok fire witnesses dispute official death toll of nine, claim at least 50

at 11:45am on january 16, in vladivostok, russia, a fire broke out on the three upper floors of the "sberbank" building.

photographs taken by eye-witnesses show people, who were trapped, dropping from 8th floor windows to their deaths. according to some reports the firemen who were dispatched to the scene were pre-occupied at the rear of the building. they had apparently been ordered to evacuate the bank and its management from the area, which was not under immediate threat.

official russian media initially denied the fire, accusing the reports of being false.

russian media later confirmed 7 and then, 9 dead. witnesses and those rescued from the burning building have claimed that the figure exceeds 50.

a maintenance employee who worked in the building was quoted as saying, "i know at least about 13 dead inside ... that's the least i've noticed, not to consider those who've dropped down ... 8 of them dropped, looking at the three already dead on the ground, but they went through the windows without hope to be rescued ... they collected and hid the dead bodies inside. i work at this building! i know its layout very well! to declare, as it become clear, a less number of the dead later." 

"my daughter worked in a justice department," - natalia, one of the witnesses said. "she said that there were actually much more dead - up to 70. she went on the dead bodies, getting out from the building … some of them were so scorched, that it was impossible to identify them… 9 victims? that's a lie!" 

georic, a witness: "the cops ("menty"), whom i know, say that they've been loading the dead bodies all night long."

lelya has posted her evidence on january 21, 2006 on the web-site http://news.vl.ru/vlad/2006/01/18/tradegy/ 
"my brother worked in that building, on the 6th flour. so, the night after the fire they visited the building to collect the documents, etc. and they saw how workers transported the dead bodies. he said, there were 50-60.."

eugenia, a witness said, "who has told you, that fireteam arrived in 3 minutes? or in 20 minutes? my uncle worked on anouther side of the building. he personally gave a call to the fire department. they said, "ok, ok, take it easy, here we go..." as if it were just some fun for them, "nothing serious!"

reports from the scene say the fire brigade arrived at least 40 minutes or more from the time the call about the fire was placed.

the fire-safety department officials state that firemen had had "objective obstacles" which hampered rescue efforts. among them were barred emergency exits and a congestion of cars in front of the burning building. 
the mayor of vladivostok in reply to a plea "to rescue those who are still in fire, does human life really cost nothing?" replied saying that, "human life costs nothing in russia."

law-enforcement authorities arrested the inspector who had checked the building in july 2004, and exposed a number of irregularities, such as barred windows in stairwells, but failed to control the elimination of these shortcomings.

lyudmila feofanova, ceo of the maritime branch of "sberbank", was arrested in vladivostok in conjunction with the case of the fire which has killed, according to official reports, 9 and seriousely wounded 17 last monday.

the office of public prosecutor accuses l.feofanova on failure to provide the bank with a fire-prevention system.

the russian official news agencies and mass-media report only 9 victims, several bank employees. 

five days following the fire, people have launched dozens of forums and web-sites, trying to tell their side of the story. they have created lists of those believed to be killed or those that are unable to be indentified.




australian defence minister resigns

australian defence minister, liberal senator robert hill, 59, has resigned after almost a quarter of a century in parliament and confirmed he will retire from the senate. the senator has been the longest serving leader of his party in the upper house since federation. 

robert murray hill was elected to the senate for south australia in 1980. having spent 13 years in opposition, he was appointed environment minister when the howard government was elected in 1996. he will serve out his final few days in the senate in the next session of parliament. 

prime minister howard said senator hill's exit after almost 25 years in parliament and 13 years as liberal senate leader would be a "huge loss" for the government.

mr hill said it was good to make a decision to leave parliament before he was forced out for other reasons.

at his farewell media conference on friday, he said he has "no regrets." questioned over the wisdom of australia's involvement in the iraq war he said, "...there was a time where we saw defence simply in terms of almost hiding behind the moat. we no longer do that." 

"we go out and we look after australia's interests and we become part of an international community that's interested in security and stability, and we're prepared to take risks to achieve those goals," he said.

the australia defence association praised his efforts as defence minister, a position he has held since november, 2001. "he's easily the best defence minister of the howard government and the best, along with (labor's) robert ray since the 1970s," defence association spokesman neil james said.

it's widely expected that robert hill will become the next australian representative to the united nations in new york. senator hill yesterday articulated a case for reform of the global body. "this government believes in collective security, it believes in the commitments of the charter, but it would like to see the un work efficiently and effectively," he said. 

the most likely candidates for the defence portfolio are finance minister nick minchin and health minister tony abbott.



experts fear for the health of london whale

experts are now fearing the worst for the northern bottle-nosed whale that is still swimming in the thames river london. the thames whale was first spotted on thursday, with widespread media coverage yesterday and huge crowds of spectators attracted to the river.

there were hopes that the whale was heading back out to sea, but these were dashed by a fresh sighting of the whale from albert bridge in chelsea.

experts say that the whale is now looking increasingly distressed, with numerous cuts to its body. the whale has already been partly beached on a few occasions, but each time has managed to free itself.

according to blogger andrew (eyedropper.co.uk), a bbc picture editor, if the whale should die it would be up to admiral the lord boyce gcb obe 'to arrange for a tooth to be extracted and sent to the natural history museum, and a proper burial to be made'.




kosovo president ibrahim rugova dies

kosova president ibrahim rugova, the leader for many years of kosova in the most difficult process and struggle for country’s independence, died saturday.

kosovo president ibrahim rugova passed away in his home in prishtina at 11:38, close to his family members, his personal doctor, a us doctor, and his close staff. president rugova suffered from lung cancer, diagnosed in end of august 2005. he fought his illness for months with an exceptional moral courage. the pm had called an urgent cabinet session at 3 pm, sources say.

the death was a few days before the united nations was to begin a belgrade-pristina discussions relating to the road to independence for the province. rugova, 61, has no definite successor in his faction-ridden democratic league of kosovo or head of the kosovo negotiating team, which he was expected to lead. western diplomats are worried about a possible messy power struggle.

the sorbonne-educated literature professor was the architect of the decade-old passive resistance since 1989, when former yugoslav president slobodan milosevic stripped the province of autonomy. 

a statement issued by president rugova’s office said the public would be advised shortly concerning the details related to the events to honor the president.



rescue teams try to save london whale

rescue teams are attempting to save the life of the whale which has been swimming in the london thames river over the past few days. the northern bottle-nosed whale, which had gotten weaker and weaker, became beached this afternoon. rescue teams quickly moved the whale onto an inflatable pontoon, keeping the whale in water but with its blowhole above the surface.

experts then tried to evaluate the condition of the whale by performing ultrasound checks to see how much blubber and blood the whale has, and by taking some blood tests. the breathing rate of the whale was around four inhalations per minute.

the pontoon is currently being towed by a barge slowly downstream.

the british divers marine life rescue team lead the rescue effort. they hope to be able to release the whale in as deep water as possible, but only if it is in good enough health. if the whale is considered to be in too weak a condition to survive, it may be euthanised, experts have said.

the rescue mission is being filmed by television crews, including from helicopters, and broadcast live onto rolling news channels. mark stevens, a member of the british divers marine life rescue team reported on the situation live on tv using a mobile phone, direct from the scene where he was standing in the water. at one point he asked the bbc to tell their helicopter to fly higher, as the noise made the whale's breathing rate temporarily go up.

the whale sightings have captivated the british public, with spectators lining the banks of the thames to take photographs and try and spot the whale. however, the inital surprise at seeing the whale soon turned to concern as experts fear for the whale's long term health. initial plans to transfer the whale from the barge "crossness" to a deep-sea ship have been abandoned as the condition of the whale deteriorates, but it is still hoped to release the whale in the thames estuary.




maryland judge throws out law banning gay marriages

judge m. brooke murdock of the baltimore circuit court in maryland struck down a 1973 law banning same-sex marriage yesterday, ruling the measure violated a state constitutional amendment prohibiting sex discrimination.

the decision will not allow gay couples to be immediately eligible for marriage licenses because murdock stayed the order pending an appeal. the state's attorney general's office filed the appeal right after the ruling was made.

"although tradition and societal values are important, they cannot be given so much weight that they alone will justify a discriminatory statutory classification," the judge stated in the ruling. "when tradition is the guise under which prejudice or animosity hides, it is not a legitimate state interest."

in making the decision, judge murdock wrote, "the court is not unaware of the dramatic impact of its ruling."

ken choe, a lawyer with the american civil liberties union's (aclu) lesbian and gay rights project, said "men and women were indeed treated differently under the law judge murdock struck down. a man can marry a woman, but a woman can't marry a woman. same-sex couples need the same protections for their families that opposite-sex couples do." 

the aclu hailed the ruling, calling it "a historical step toward allowing same-sex couples to legally marry in maryland." she considered but dismissed all the state's arguments for the restriction, noting "prevention of same-sex marriage is not rationally related to the state's interests in promoting stable families and protecting the best interests of children. ... these arguments are illogical and inaccurate."

governor robert l. ehrlich jr. released a statement saying that that the state will "begin a vigorous appeals process. i firmly believe the institution of marriage is for one man and one woman only."

governor ehrlich had sent to attorney general j. joseph curran jr. (d), a letter in response to the ruling advising him to appeal the decision and offered additional resources to support the appeal. 

"we have noted an appeal and think it appropriate that the court stayed the operation of its order," said kevin j. enright, a spokesman for curran, in a statement. "we await having the decision of maryland's appellate courts."

the maryland house of delegates scheduled hearings for january 31, 2006 on proposals dealing with same-sex marriages, including a proposed constitutional amendment.

john lestitian, a plaintiff in the case, said murdock's decision was "a step in a very long process. as a 40-year-old man, i should be able to decide who my family is."

"this is such an exciting moment," said lisa polyak. her partner of 24 years, gita deane, was a plaintiff in the case. "our participation in this lawsuit has always been about family protections for our children. tonight, we will rest a little easier knowing that those protections are within reach."

the equal rights amendment in maryland's state constitution was ratified by voters in 1972. the marriage law which defined marriage as only between one man and one woman was approved the following year.

the lawsuit leading to the decision started when nine gay and/or lesbian couples and one individual sued court clerks in five maryland counties for denying marriage licenses to them, citing legal, financial, and emotional harm. in july of 2004, the aclu filed the suit challenging the state ban on same-sex marriage. 

same-sex marriages are only legal in the state of massachusetts in the united states, with the states of vermont and connecticut recognizing other civil unions. hawaii and new jersey offer some legal protections to same-sex couples, while 13 states have appoved constitutional amendments rejecting recognition of same-sex marriage. courts in california, new jersey, new york and washington state are facing cases on the issue.



exclusive: david anderson talks about the stardust@home project

following the return of the stardust space capsule from its encounter with the comet wild 2, nasa scientists have come up with a novel approach to dealing with the samples of "interstellar dust" that have been collected; they want help from the public.
the stardust spacecraft carried an aerogel-based dust collector, which was exposed to space in varying orientations during different phases of the mission.only one side of the collector was exposed towards the stream of particles coming off the comet wild 2 during the encounter in 2004, while the other side was used to collect interstellar dust at an earlier point in the spacecraft's journey.

although scientists have seen the particles captured from comet wild 2 when they examined the aerogel, they have not examined any of the particles expected on the other side of the collector due to their smallness. they will be examined after they are found with the help of stardust@home. it is believed that on the order of 50 interstellar dust particles impacted the aerogel, each now resting inside a tiny crater.
stardust traveled nearly three billion miles and its mission lasted seven years. at times it was traveling at 8 miles a second. thats fast enough to go from san francisco to los angeles in one minute. 
stardust set a new all-time record for being the fastest spacecraft to return to earth, breaking the previous record set in may of 1969 during the return of the apollo x(10) command module. don brownlee of the university of washington, seattle said "our spacecraft has traveled further than anything from earth ever has ? and came back. we went half-way to jupiter to meet the comet and collect samples from it. but the comet actually came in from the outer edge of the solar system, out beyond the orbit of neptune, out by pluto."

in a move similar to some distributed computing projects, the analysis work for the project will be spread among volunteers on the internet, who are being asked to participate in this scientific undertaking.

"wikinews" reporter investigated the stardust@home project, and discussed its goals with one of its founders. via email, he interviewed david p. anderson, a founder of the seti@home project, and one of the creators of the virtual microscope which will be used to search for captured particles from interstellar space.

i was wondering if i could get some questions answered or if you could give me some "insider" info for the project. i am aware that you are taking place in the development of the vm (virtual microscope)...could i know more about that?
"the 'virtual microscope' lets you scan through a set of images as if you were turning the focus knob on a microscope. the images are fairly large (about 100 kb each) so it's important to pre-load the images. while you're looking through one set of images, the vm is busy downloading the jpeg files for the next set."

"at first we thought we'd have to do this with a java applet or flash program - something tricky and complicated. my contribution was to point out that it could be done fairly easily using javascript, and i wrote a prototype of this."

will this project use the boinc platform/program?
"no. we thought about using some parts of boinc (like the database and web pages for creating "accounts") but it was easier just to do this from scratch."

how long will the project take?

"it depends how many volunteers participate, and how fast they look at the 'focus movies'. it will probably be just a month or two."

anyone can join but they have to take a test before they can participate. what will the test include?

"looking at some focus movies and deciding whether they contain a dust particle. participants see a lot of training examples before they take the test. it's easy, not like a test in school."

how many will be allowed to participate?

"no limit as of now."

when will the project start?

"i think in about 2 months. it will take that long to transport the aerogel to the laboratory, and photograph it with the microscope. the software is ready to go."

will the vm project analyze any of the particles or just look for them?

"stardust@home will only locate the particles. when they are located, they will be cut out of the aerogel and physically analyzed."

thank you for your time david. and great work on the upcoming project and seti@home.




euromillions lottery jackpot set to rise to ￡100m

despite lots of publicity and media attention causing a last minute rush to buy tickets, there was no winner of the ￡85m jackpot in this week's 'euromillions' lottery. this is the tenth week that no-one has won the top prize, which has 'rolled-over' to create bigger and bigger jackpots each week. next week's jackpot now looks set to be worth around ￡100m, the biggest in european lottery history.

to win the jackpot, players must match five main numbers from 1 to 50, plus two 'lucky star' numbers from one to nine. this week's winning numbers were 12, 15, 33, 44 and 50, with the lucky stars being 2 and 6.

the pan-europe lotter is open to players in austria, belgium, france, ireland, luxembourg, portugal, spain, switzerland and the united kingdom.

the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 76,275,360. 

if the estimated ￡100 million jackpot were to be shared equally amongst the populations of the countries participating, each person would receive 50p.



many sag awards presenters announced

a list of presenters at the 12th annual screen actors guild awardsR were announced thursday. the first roster of presenters will include naveen andrews ("lost"), patricia arquette ("medium"), benjamin bratt ("e-ring"), marg helgenberger ("csi: crime scene investigation"), felicity huffman ("desperate housewives"), eva longoria ("desperate housewives"), ellen pompeo ("grey's anatomy"), sag president alan rosenberg, william shatner ("boston legal"), david strathairn ("good night, and good luck.") and hilary swank ("million dollar baby").

the guild previously announced that jamie lee curtis will present sag’s 42nd life achievement award to shirley temple black. ms. black was a legendary child actress in the 1930s, starring in movies including " bright eyes" (1934), "curly top" (1935), "poor little rich girl" (1936), "heidi" (1937), "rebecca of sunnybrook farm" (1938), "the little princess" (1939).

screen actors guild (sag) is the nation’s largest labor union representing working actors.


london whale dies

a northern bottlenose whale died at approximately 19:00 gmt in london today despite rescue efforts. the whale had previously found its way up the river thames and into the central portion of the british capital.

despite whales' ability to breathe out of water, their skeletons are not designed to hold their own massive body weights, and so whales cannot spend long periods of time out of water. 

the death of the whale saved the rescue team from having to decide whether it was advisable to release the whale in such a weak condition. a humane killing had been considered.

the whale managed to gather two days worth of media attention, with londoners and people all over the world captivated by the unusual story.




burns engages india on civil nuclear energy pact

"india's position is unique, and there is a complexity and a difficulty to these talks" told reporters at the end of two days of discussions with the indian foreign secretary, shyam saran. the visit by the us undersecretary of state is the latest in a series of diplomatic missions since july of last year, when the two countries agreed to co-operate in civil nuclear energy projects. saran described the talks as friendly and very intensive and said "we have shared with the united states our plans for a very significant expansion of our civilian nuclear energy capability over the next few years". the two also exchanged views on regional issues surrounding iran, nepal, and sri lanka.

saran and burns head the indo-us joint working group on civil nuclear energy cooperation. india is looking to nuclear energy as a solution for its growing energy requirements. the country is hoping that the discussions will lead to the lifting of restrictions on nuclear technology transfer imposed by the us since india's nuclear tests in 1998. the us has requested a number of safeguards in exchange. india has been asked to separate its military and civilian nuclear programmes, and allow the international atomic energy agency (iaea) to inspect its civilian reactors while continuing its moratorium on nuclear testing. if the deal goes through, the us would be making an exception in the case of india, which is not a signatory to the (npt). the two sides claimed that there is enough good will and trust to reach an agreement while admitting to have encountered difficulties that required more work.

this is the us undersecretary's second visit to new delhi since october and part of an ongoing us engagement that has recently involved others including condoleezza rice and us senator . later this year, president bush is expected to bestow a state visit to the country. the trip which is currently planned for the first week of march will only be the fifth such visit by a us president to india. bill clinton was the last president to visit india in march 2000.

the two countries announced a significant breakthrough in july of last year when the us agreed to help india with nuclear fuel for its tarapur reactor. this was a huge policy change since india had been denied use of for almost three decades while it remained outside the npt. the bush administration defended the move by describing india as a responsible nuclear power and announced that it would work with the us congress on passing the necessary legislation to achieve full nuclear energy cooperation with india.

the agreement has some members of the congress concerned with opposition from both democrats and republicans. critics believe the deal could harm efforts to curb the spread of nuclear weapons and potentially jeopardize the npt. the agreement also hinges on the details surrounding the separation of india's military and civilian nuclear facilities. this may not be very easy as some of the country's nuclear research facilities are thought to contribute to both fields. us senator john kerry has supported the deal "in principle" while saying that the fine print of the agreement would need to be studied when congress votes on the issue. kerry is a member of the us senate foreign relations committee and met with the indian prime minister and other senior officials earlier this month.

the us foreign policy towards india in the recent past shows a transformation recognizing it as an emerging global power and also an important player in regional geo-politics. some believe that this is part of the longer term us effort to strengthen relations with asian countries to counter the rise of china. 

recently, iran's nuclear ambitions have been the cause for displeasure in washington. us alleges that it is attempting to build nuclear weapons while iran maintains that it wants the technology only for energy purposes. , the chief iranian negotiator with the iaea complained of dual standards being set by the us and cited india as an example. iran is bound by the npt since it is a signatory to the treaty.

us undersecretary burns dismissed larijani's remarks calling them outrageous and saying that it was not possible to compare india and iran in the nuclear sphere. "[india] has never been a proliferator, and has been very responsible in safeguarding its nuclear technology. on the other hand, you have a government and a regime in iran, which the iaea says for 18 years conducted secret nuclear research without revealing it to the iaea."

india which has had a long-standing close relationship with iran has supported the initiative taken by the european-3 to find a solution to the issues related to iranian nuclear program. saran said that he would not like to see a confrontation developing in a region that is so close to india and recommended developing an international consensus. 
india which is looking to secure its supplies has signed a deal with iran for a $7 billion gas pipeline project. this deal has been strongly opposed by the united states. work is expected to commence in 2007 and the project will be owned and operated by a consortium from iran, india and pakistan as well as some international energy companies.



rescuers find remains of west virginia miners

in mellville, west virginia, the remains of two miners have been found. the two miners had disappeared at the alma coal mine when a conveyor belt caught fire.

"we have found the two miners we were looking for for ["sic"] the past 40 hours," said doug conaway, director of the state office of miners' health training and safety. "unfortunately we don't have a positive outcome."

governor joe manchin, massey energy chairman don blankenship and u.s. senator jay rockefeller went to a church where the victims families were waiting to tell them the news.

"for over what 45 hours we've been together with the families, we do not have the outcome that we had desired, that we had been hoping for. we have two brave miners that have perished. these two men who perished in this mine, the 12 men who perished in the sago mine, i can only say to each of those families ... that they have not died in vain," manchin said at a press conference after receiving the news.

on monday, manchin plans to introduce legislation dealing with rapid responses in emergencies, electronic tracking technology and mandate reserve oxygen stations for underground miners.

manchin is expected to go to washington d.c. on tuesday to discuss his proposals with west virginia's congressional delegation.

the miners became separated from their team when fire broke out. nineteen other miners were able to escape without injury.

the two have been identified as don bragg, 33, and ellery "elvis" hatfield, 47. they had been missing since saturday.



portugal to produce new volkswagen model in 2008

volkswagen announced the palmela, portugal factory - autoeuropa - has been chosen to produce a new car model beginning the first quarter of 2008, but did not specify the model to be produced.

"the decision to produce a new model in autoeuropa is the result of the competitive cost of production of the factory, well as the favorable conditions of the cooperation established by the portuguese government and the workers," announced wolfgang bernhard.

jose socrates, prime minister of portugal, said he was "satisfied with the decision of volkswagen to produce a new model in the factory of palmela," and considered that the decision, "reflected the confidence [of the investors] in the portuguese economy."

volkswagen will reveal the new model to be produced next week. by 2008, the factory at palmela will only be producing the multi-purpose vehicle sharan and the eos models.

with the end of the production of the multi-purpose vehicle, the factory needs to guarantee new product lines, since the new eos is not sufficient to maintain the current 2,790 workers.

the volkswagen autoeuropa produced a total of 79,896 vehicles last year, of the models volkswagen sharan, seat alhambra, ford galaxy and volkswagen eos, against the 95,660 vehicles produced in 2004.



'australian values' to be taught in nsw schools

the new south wales government will make it compulsory for schools to play advance australia fair, australia's national anthem before class this year.

teachers at primary schools in nsw will also be required to introduce "australian values" lessons from the beginning of this school year. the lessons are expected to teach children "what it means to be australian" and include topics such as family values, community harmony, national heritage, national identity, cultural differences and australian history.

the three rs will also be extended to five and include the topics of respect and responsibility. the nsw government claims that it needs to ensure people respect authority within the community.

adults will not escape the government's plans to foster respect for authority with the government announcing it plans to create a new law enforcement package with new laws to make it easier for police to crack down on anti-social behaviour.

fines and penalties for a range of offences such as damaging public property, including transport and housing, will also be reviewed. 


maoist, army overnight clashes leaves 20 dead in nepal

the nepali army has reported that six security forces and 17 maoist rebels are now dead following an attack on saturday night. security forces have been detaining scores of protesters since fresh demonstrations began in nepal's capital city of kathmandu on friday. five opposition leaders are also reported to be under house arrest in a preemptive move to curb rallies. the government reports that nearly 200 people were taken into custody. the claim is disputed by the opposition which puts the number much higher.

supporters of the opposition have called for a boycott of local elections claiming them to be undemocratic and that they would only entrench the king's rule. an alliance of seven parties is demanding that king gyanendra give up the absolute power he seized last year.



william shatner sells kidney stone

star trek star and actor william shatner has sold his kidney stone for charity.

it has been announced that the actor sold his kidney stone to the online gambling website, goldenpalace.com for us$25,000. the money will be donated to habitat for humanity, a christian charity organization that builds houses for the poor.

"when i was contacted about selling my kidney stone to goldenpalace.com for an original price of us$15,000 i turned it down, knowing that my tunics from star trek have commanded more than us$100,000," shatner said. he said that he countered by offering to sell the ring-sized stone for us$25,000.

shatner refused selling the stone at an auction or on television. when jimmy kimmel interviewed shatner, he offered to sell it on his show, an offer that shatner also refused.



u.s. army interrogator convicted in iraqi general's death

a u.s. military court found army chief warrant officer lewis welshofer guilty of negligent homicide in the death of iraqi maj. gen. abed hamed mowhoush during an interrogation in al-qaim in iraq, near the syrian border, in november 2003.

the iraqi general died after welshofer shoved the general head-first into a sleeping bag, sat on him and occasionally covered the generals mouth with his hands. welshofer's supervisor had approved this technique except that welshofer did not tell his supervisor that he sat on prisoners.

the prosecution described the techniques welshofer used to obtain information from mowhoush as "torture".

the defense argued that welshofer's interrogation methods were covered by official policy. 
his unit's commander captain william ponce wrote in an email three months before mowhoush died that there were no rules for interrogations yet and that "the gloves are coming off, gentlemen ... we want these individuals broken. casualties are mounting."
lieutenant general ricardo sanchez, the commanding officer in iraq, authorized new interrogation techniques which according to welshofer included the sleeping bag method.

the jury consisting of six military officers also found welshofer guilty of negligent dereliction of duty, but acquitted of the more serious murder and assault charges.

two days before his death, mowhoush was beaten with rubber hoses, allegedly by cia subcontractors, in the presence of welshofer and on the next day welshofer held mowhoush while water was poured on this face.

welshinger testified that he had used the sleeping bag technique a dozen to two dozen times in iraq.

the sentencing is scheduled for monday when welshofer faces a maximum penalty of three years in a military prison. last year u.s. army reservist lynndie england was convicted of one count of conspiracy, four counts of maltreating detainees and one count of committing an indecent act and is currently serving her sentence of three years in prison. none of the charges levied against her involved the death of a detainee and her defense also argued that she was acting with consent of superiors.



no evidence of dead terrorists in us bombed pakistan village

in an interview with cnn, pakistani prime minister shaukat aziz said
"there is no evidence, as of half an hour ago, that there were any other people there". 
united states officials have previously stated that as many as eight al-qaeda operatives were dining in damadola when struck by united states missiles. as many as eighteen individuals were killed in the strike.

in the interview prime minister aziz labelled a u.s. report that senior al qaeda leaders were killed in a cia attack as "bizarre".

mr aziz said, "the area does see movement of people from across the border. but we have not found one body or one shred of evidence that these people were there." 

"if you just reflect on what happened; first, we heard that there was a dinner meeting with all the seniors," the prime minister said. "i think that's a bizarre thought, because these people don't get together for dinner in a terrain or environment like that."

the u.s. network abc news reported january 18 on its web site that the attack killed khabab, quoting "pakistani authorities." however a number of pakistani officials have told cnn they cannot confirm the abc report.

j.d. crouch, the usa's deputy national security advisor to president bush told cnn on january 19, that there was no confirmation that any senior al queda operatives were killed in the bombing.




bali nine refused access to federal police files

the bali nine have been dealt another blow with the federal court of australia dismissing an application for them to gain access to documents held by the australian federal police (afp).

the application was bought to court on behalf of scott rush, renae lawrence, martin stephens and michael czugaj, four of the nine australians being held in indonesia for allegedly attempting to smuggle heroin out of bali.

their lawyers have claimed that the afp may have acted illegally by passing information onto indonesian authorities, which led to their arrest. in indonesia, convicted drug smugglers may face the death penalty, which australia is opposed to.

the basis of the argument is that the afp provided information knowing that australians could be sentenced to death if the information was correct.

when handing his ruling down in adelaide, justice paul finn said "it is now the applicants' position that each of them, in their capacity as australian citizens, has a substantiative legitimate expectation that the australian government, its agencies and public officers will not act in such a way as to expose them to the risk of the imposition of the death penalty,"

"(but) there would be no arguable basis at all for any contention that afp officers had a legal responsibility to warn any of the applicants either that they were under police surveillance or that they were exposing themselves to the foreseeable risk of the death penalty.

"having been prepared for whatever reason to engage in criminal activity, the applicants would properly be regarded as the authors of their own harm.

"and the police would have been entitled to have treated them as no more than subjects of an ongoing criminal investigation which fell clearly within the mandated functions of the afp."


sri lankan attack disrupts peace envoy

suspected tamil tiger rebels have ambushed and killed three soldiers in sri lanka's volatile eastern region, as a norwegian peace broker flew in to the country in a last-ditch peace bid.

the patrol was ambushed with a fragmentation mine - the most recent in a series of attacks which have killed over 70 military personnel since december.

the attack came after norwegian peace envoy erik solheim arrived in sri lanka for truce talks. as he arrived, three soldiers were killed in a landmine explosion in the east, which the army blamed on the tamil tigers. rohan abeywardene, deputy inspector general of police said the tamil tigers were responsible for the attack.

the liberation tigers of tamil eelam have threatened to resume their armed struggle this year unless president mahinda rajapakse grants independence - which he has refused to do. the tamil tigers want a separate state in the north and east of sri lanka.

the rebels have fought the government since 1983 to create a separate homeland for ethnic minority tamils, accusing the majority sinhalese-dominated state of discrimination.

the rebels say they are ready to use suicide bombers, as in the past, if war resumes. the sri lankan army is preparing for the worst with analysts say both sides are already engaged in an undeclared war. the tigers, accuse the military and government-backed paramilitaries of a litany of abuses, including rape and executions of tamil civilians and rebels.

about 65,000 people were killed in the conflict before the cease-fire. peace talks broke down in april 2003, when the tigers withdrew, demanding autonomy in the tamil-majority northeast region.

over 100 people have been killed in the escalating violence since december. 


greenpeace, sea shepherds end southern ocean whaling protest

anti-whaling activists are heading home after a month of pestering the japanese whaling fleet near antarctica. with dwindling food and fuel supplies, the greenpeace ships arctic sunrise and esperanza are heading for cape town. the sea shepherd's farley mowat has also left the area due to a refuelling cancellation.

the three ships were in the whale sanctuary where the controversial japanese whaling fleet continue to hunt and kill hundreds of minke whales, including the endangered fin whales - for what japan calls "lethal scientific research." 

greenpeace say they will now switch the focus of the campaign to shed light on the corporate entities behind the commercial whaling industry. greenpeace new zealand whales campaigner, pia mancia, said the two ships exposed the reality of the japanese commercial whaling operation to the world. she said: "it is now time to focus action on those controlling the whaling fleet."

greenpeace southern ocean expedition leader shane rattenbury said, "logistically we cannot remain in the southern ocean any longer, but this certainly isn't the last you'll hear of us... we now need the public to focus their attention on the corporates linked to the commercial whaling."

"for a month now we have dogged, delayed and disrupted the whaling fleet in the southern ocean whale sanctuary, and have no doubt that they have fallen far behind in their bid to slaughter 935 minke whales and 10 endangered fin whales. it is our hope that this struggle will inspire people to help us defend whales, so that it goes down in history as the last time the peaceful silence in the sanctuary is broken by the sound of a grenade-tipped harpoon," mr rattenbury said.

japan has welcomed greenpeace's decision to leave the southern ocean. hideki moronuki from japan's fisheries agency is pleased the whaling mission will no longer be obstructed: "although greenpeace say that they're activities are peaceful, their activities are really dangerous and illegal," he said. 

protesters spent much of their time in the southern ocean in inflatable zodiac boats, placing themselves precariously between harpoons and whales. they escaped serious injury when the japanese allegedly rammed their vessel, and when a protester was pulled overboard by a harpoon rope. activists were also blasted out of boats by water cannons.

the incidents caused slanging matches between greenpeace and japan's institute of cetacean research, both arguing they had evidence the other was at fault. the japanese say their whale cull is scientific research and that they will continue their whaling.

greenpeace expedition leader shane rattenbury has defended the risks taken by activists during the protests. "we feel it's been a justifiable risk somebody had to come down here and do something, politics and diplomacy have failed." he said.

japan says it's too early to tell what effect greenpeace has had on its current research mission. the japan whaling association (jwa), which promotes and protects japan's whaling culture says, "the moratorium on commercial whaling is an anomaly." 

japan's institute of cetacean research (icr) says the whale research programs are conducted in accordance with the international convention for the regulation of whaling. 

the icr say they "do not, in any way, involve illegal whaling... under the iwc's "no waste" rules the by-products of the research program, including whale meat, are required "so far as practicable to be processed". it is this aspect of the program which is often inaccurately sensationalised as "illegal commercial whaling", reads a statement on their website.

a second protest group - the sea shepherd conservation society - has also left the southern ocean. their ship, the farley mowat is also headed for cape town. captain paul watson said: "greenpeace and sea shepherd together have completed the most intensive and ambitious campaign ever mounted against antarctic whaling activities. for 15 days, whales were prevented from being killed."

captain watson said he made the decision to stay in the southern oceans for as long as possible to continue to chase the "illegal japanese whaling fleet across the bottom of the world," he said. "after a 4,000 kilometre chase, the farley mowat had reached its limit." 

the sea shepherds had made arrangements to refuel from a tanker scheduled to supply a fishing fleet near the french kergulen islands. however, the south african company supplying the tanker cancelled the tanker rendezvous, citing extreme weather conditions.

"at that point, there was no choice," said captain watson. "we were 2600 miles from the nearest port... we had to drop out of the chase and make for south africa. we had no safety margin, in fact, we were short of fuel. the figures were ominous. our chase suddenly became a race to survive."

after fuel conservation measures paid off the farley mowat is expected to make it to cape town. "we have just completed the longest voyage that this ship has made in its entire 48-year career," said 1st officer alex cornelissen.

whilst the sea shepherds and greenpeace were not officially working together, 1st officer alex cornelissen of the farley mowat said, "we believe we were working in cooperation with ...(greenpeace). we had different roles, different tactics, and different strategies but the bottom line is that we were both opposing illegal whaling by japan."

the sea shepherd conservation society says it will return to the southern ocean next year with a another, faster vessel to confront the japanese whaling fleet. the farley mowat may also return to antarctica as a secondary confrontation vessel.

the whale hunting season will continue until the middle of march. greenpeace say they targeted this particular hunt because japan had decided to double its quota of minke whales this year in the internationally recognised southern ocean whale sanctuary. 

"this is supposed to be a whale sanctuary and the japanese government is the only one in the world which is defying the ban on whaling here," rattenbury said. "unfortunately so far we have seen 123 whales killed or brought back to the mother ship."

the japanese institute of cetacean research has a quota of 935 minke whales and 10 fin whales. fin whales are the second biggest animal on the planet, after the blue whale. greenpeace say they saw none killed during their actions. "so far we have only seen minkes slaughtered, we have seen no fin whales being killed," rattenbury said.

the greenpeace ships are expected to arrive in cape town around february 5th. the sea shepherd ship farley mowat is expected to arrive in cape town on january 25th 2006.



witnesses of fire in vladivostok under investigation

nearly 300 people turned out at a protest meeting held in vladivostok, russia on january 21st. relatives and friends of the victims and survivors of the recent fire, as well as ordinary citizens were there and full of anger. they had come to protest against the authorities, whom they say mishandled the rescue operation in the terrible fire and have withheld the truth about the real number of dead.

the slogans at the protest read, ""who will tell us the truth?"", ""we want to know the truth!"", ""our lives cost nothing!"", ""authorities should respond!"", and ""firemen are those who should be set on fire!""

the chief of vladivostok city police department colonel nikolay panchenko commented: "the meeting participants are sure, that the authorities hide a true number of the dead and refer to the web-site "fire.zloe.net"."

the web-site "truth about the fire in vladivostok" has been created to spread information about the fire.

panchenko said "we verified the published messages, but none of them was confirmed. we have "detected" the two authors of the messages. one of them has already denied everything he wrote, another is still "hiding out"".

today, a news agency in vladivostok, which maintains another web-site where information about the fire is collected, reports they received an official order from the government services. additional private information about people who post comments on news.vl.ru has been requested.

some human rights experts warn that the witnesses may be persecuted in a situation where the authorities want to hide the truth, and thus to escape responsibility.




four australian states ablaze, two dead, homes lost

bushfires are burning across victoria, south australia, western australia and tasmania assisted by very hot conditions.

victoria is the hardest hit with a single blaze burning out over 100,000 hectares (247,000 acres) and destroying 20 homes.

there are around a dozen fires burning in victoria, with others in south australia, western australia and tasmania.

police are investigating whether or not two people found dead in their car near moyston in south-west victoria died as a result of the fire or died when their vehicle struck a tree.

firefighters in the south of new south wales have been placed on high alert as the hot weather moves north.

firefighters across the affected states are hoping to take advantage of a cool change expected today. 

earlier this month bushfires damaged property in new south wales and victoria.


concerns over neville's celebration

gary neville is likely to face an inquiry from the football association as complaints filter in from liverpool supporters present at the game. neville, who had ran the entire length of the pitch celebrating, was alleged to remark inappropriate comments at the fans, after they had taunted him the entire game.

the true nature of these comments, however, is yet to transpire, but due to police intervention, it may be thought they were anfield related, although such claims are unfounded. despite the fact neville has not been formally charged, the attacks have, at least prompted police to request the referee's report so they are able to fully start correspondence with the fa.


brazilian carnival season is opened

the brazilian carnival season opened sunday, february 6. the annual festival is scheduled to continue until tuesday, february 15 (longer in some regions).

the samba schools parade in rio de janeiro is scheduled for the first day. the parade occurs at the sambodromo plaza, a place which was constructed specially for the event. thousands of onlookers and participants are expected for the televised event, starting at 9:00 p.m. local time and continuing without interruption until monday morning around 6:00 a.m. the parade will then restart monday night at 9:00 p.m.

the samba schools which are scheduled to be in sambodromo plaza sunday, february 6 are: mocidade, imperio serrano, salgueiro, mangueira, unidos da tijuca, tradicao and vila isabel. monday, february 7, the following schools are scheduled: porto da pedra, caprichosos, viradouro, portela, imperatriz, grande rio and beija-flor.

although the samba schools' parade in rio de janeiro is a great event of the brazilian carnival, the brazilian people also celebrate carnival in another ways: going out to the streets, going to saloons, participating in blocos and bandas and following the trio eletrico. 



sample from turkish patient shows mutated bird flu virus

a mutated form of the avian (bird flu) virus has been found in a sample taken from a turkish patient.

the mutated form is said to make the virus easier to attach itself to humans rather than animals says a report in the "nature" journal.

the situation is being monitored by the world health organization but says "it is too early to know whether the virus is changing in ways that would signal the start of a human flu pandemic," says maria cheng a spokeswoman for the who. "it's one isolate from a single virus from turkey. the sample suggests the virus might be more inclined to bind to human cells rather than animal cells, but there's no evidence that it's becoming more infectious. if we started to see a lot more samples from turkey with this mutation and saw the virus changing, we'd be more concerned." 

however, the "nature" report says there is a second mutation that also "signals adaptation to humans." 

cheng also said that "flu viruses mutate all the time. for us to assign public health significance to a genetic change we need to match it to what is happening epidemiologically ? how the virus is behaving ? and clinically ? if it's more or less virulent."

in turkey the fatality rate from the bird flu is 50% where elsewhere in the world reports of infection were only scattered. entire families have been affected in turkey and more reports come out almost every day of mild symptoms.

so far, turkey has suffered four deaths and 21 infections. in addition to those cases the who reports 145 cases and 80 deaths in cambodia, china, indonesia, thailand and vietnam.

"when this outbreak (in turkey) was first reported, there was a lot of concern it was behaving differently," said cheng. subsequent investigation, however, has indicated no major behavioral change. 

"the team there told us that after two weeks of investigating, they haven't found substantial differences in the pattern we've seen in southeast asia," said cheng.

the mutations were discovered by scientists in london, england in a lab.

cheng said this may "signify the virus is trying different things to see if it can more easily infect humans. so far, we haven't seen that the virus has the ability to do this. but it's important that we continue monitoring. we would be concerned if we were seeing successive generations of spread of the virus. we haven't so far. all these people had a very clear history of contact with diseased birds."

health officials say that so far they do not see any evidence yet that the virus can spread easily in humans.

the bird flu virus, strain h5n1, first started to infect humans in 1997 in hong kong. in 2003 it re-emerged and it has so far been difficult to control.


house of supreme court justice threatened

in the town of , new hampshire, a movement is under way to force supreme court justice to sell his home for "public benefit," an expansion of the provision in the of the that the supreme court legalized in the controversial 5?4 decision in where souter was on the majority side. in the june 2005 decision this majority ruled that "public use" included "public benefit," stating that a local council could use the fifth amendment to compulsorily acquire private property for the express purpose of selling it to other private parties whose use was expected to yield increased tax revenues. the decision left many worried that homes would be seized for commercial enterprises or that the decision could be used as a means to remove minority property owners deemed inconvenient. 

the campaign to have souter's house removed is headed by , who is petitioning to replace it with the , a tongue-in-cheek name for what he says will be a memorial to lost freedom. clements already has 188 signatures to put the issue on a ballot, and only 25 are needed. once it is on the ballot, the measure can be approved as soon as march. weare has 8,500 residents.

so far, neither justice souter nor kathy arberg, supreme court spokeswoman, have commented on the matter.


new case of mad cow disease found in canada

a cow in the province alberta, canada, has tested positive for mad cow disease, said canadian food inspection agency officials on monday.

officials also stated that the six-year-old cross-bred cow did not make it into the human or animal feed chain.

"last evening the...laboratory for bse located in winnipeg confirmed the presence of bse in a cross-bred cow born and raised in alberta," said cfia chief veterinarian brian evans. "the animal was detected on the farm where it was born and no part of this animal entered the food for human consumption or feed for animal consumption purposes."

it is the fourth case to turn up in canada since 2003. 

evans also stated that it is too early to tell whether or not export markets would ban canadian cows and beef.

the united states has seen two cases of mad cow disease. the first was discovered in december of 2003 in the state of washington. officials later linked this case to canada because the cow was born on a farm in alberta. the second infected cow was discovered in texas in 2005. the later case was diagnosed in england after earlier samples tested had shown conflicting results.




nasa postpones stardust mission briefing, no revised date as of yet

nasa cancelled a media briefing on its stardust mission, expected to provide an update about analysis of both the "" particles and gathered during the nearly seven year mission. in "media advisory: m06-016," issued earlier today, the space agency announced postponement of the briefing, originally scheduled for tuesday, january 24, 1 p.m. est. no announcement has been made about when the briefing will be re-scheduled. nasa's stated reason for delay was to, "allow the stardust science team additional time to assess and distribute cometary samples."



 


ford motor company cutting 30,000 jobs by 2012

the ford motor company, the second-largest car manufacturer in america, will cut 30,000 jobs and 14 plants as part of a restructuring plan to relieve ford after a us$1.6 billion loss last year in north american sales.

the plan, called "way forward", the brainchild of ford's chief executive officer, william clay ford jr., is to end ford's north american losses by 2008. to accomplish this 30,000 jobs which make up 20 to 25 percent of ford's north american workforce of 122,000 people will be cut and 14 plants will be closed in order to bring ford's production capacity in line with demand.

by the end of this year, the atlanta and st. louis plants will be closed. atlanta makes the ford taurus sedan, which is being phased out. the st. louis plant is one of two plants that manufactures the ford explorer, whose sales had a 29% decline in 2005. it will also close its wixom, michigan plant, batavia transmission in ohio the windsor casting plant in ontario which was previously announced by ford that it was to be closed after contract negotiations with the canadian auto workers union. 

the plant in st. thomas, ontario plant will have one shift cut from it. the plant makes the crown victoria and grand marquis cars. on this cut of the one shift, whitey macdonald, chairperson of local 1520, canadian auto workers union said "there is a lot of anger here today, there is no doubt about it. any time a plant goes to one shift, it puts them in limbo. this car has made the company millions of dollars over the years they have invested in other products and locations - we are entitled to some new investment given our track record." 

positive news for the plant is that ford is still committed to invest $200 million into the plant to upgrade the appearance of the two cars manufactured there. on the contrary, according to automotive analyst dennis desrosier believes that the factory is still "likely" to close. desroiser said, "the st. thomas plant is old, the product is old, it make sense it is on that list. this may be just a short-term reprieve, it may be look at permanent closure in two to three years."

two more plants will close in 2008, another two in 2012. two more plants to be closed are to be announced later this year. also, ford will fire 12% of its 53 executive officers.

due to the company's current contract with the united auto workers union, workers at the idled plants will still be receiving their pay and benefits until ford negotiates a new contract with the union. however, the workers may not earn what they earn today because they will not be eligible for overtime.
the uaw president ron gettelfinger and vice president gerald bantom called say the plan is "extremely disappointing." the uaw issued statement saying "the impacted hourly and salaried workers find themselves facing uncertain futures because of senior management's failure to halt ford's sliding market share. the announcement has further left a cloud hanging over the entire work force because of pending future announcements of additional facilities to be closed at some point in the future."



interview: danny o'brien of the electronic frontier foundation

january's second was with of the electronic frontier foundation (eff) on 23 january in . 

the eff is coming off a series of high-profile successes in their campaigns to educate the public, press, and policy makers regarding online rights in a digital world, and defending those rights in the legislature and the courtroom. their settlement with , the amazingly confused decision by the supreme court of the united states, and the disturbing cases surrounding diebold have earned the advocacy organization considerable attention.

when asked if the eff would be interested in a live interview in irc by wikinews, the answer was a nearly immediate yes, but just a little after ricardo lobo. with two such interesting interview candidates agreeing so quickly, it was hard to say no to either so schedules were juggled to have both. by chance, the timing worked out to have the eff interview the day before the u.s. senate schedule hearings concerning the rule of the , a form of digital rights management which the recording and movie industries have been lobbying hard for - and the eff has been lobbying hard to prevent.























mrmiscellanious made this room no longer moderated for normal users.








canadian federal elections underway

the last polls in the have closed in , and so far reporting polls are indicating a lead, which would end a 12 year long government in canada.

currently all major tv news networks including cbc have projected a minority government for harper's conservatives with the last of bc's polls to decide just how big it will be.

election results from reporting polls are below. please note these include figures from those leading in polls, so these results could be subject to decreases as well.

this early election stemmed from the ruling liberal party government's loss in a motion of no confidence. the liberal government has faced strong opposition from the , conservatives and as a result of an embarrassing sponsorship scandal.



conservative party wins minority government in canada

stephen harper's conservatives have won a minority government in canada with most stations reporting at this time. the conservatives' win ends 12 years of a liberal government plagued by allegations of scandals in recent months.

most major canadian tv networks began to project a conservative win at approx 3:30 a.m. utc 

below are the current results for polls reporting, which are still subject to frequent change. please note this includes both officially elected and leading candidates at this time.

this ends an unusually bitter campaign, with the conservative and liberals both launching harsh attack commercials against each other.

in response to the defeat, former prime minister paul martin has stepped down as leader of the liberal party.

this early election stemmed from the ruling liberal party government's loss in a motion of no confidence. the liberal government has faced strong opposition from the ndp, conservatives and bloc quebecois as a result of an embarrassing sponsorship scandal.

in quebec, the bloc quebecois won the great majority of seats, 51 with 42,7% of the votes, the conservatives won 10 seats with 24,6% while the liberals faced a wall by getting only 20,7% of the votes, which gave them 13 seats at the parliament, down by eight from the last election. in portneuf-jacques-cartier, the radio animator andre arthur was also elected as the only successful independent candidate in canada.

in the vancouver island north riding, incumbent john duncan has been defeated by ndp member and now first time mp catherine bell. in the previous 2004 election bell lost by a mere 483 votes to duncan. this could be seen as quite an upset to duncan, who has been in power in this riding for several years and was likely to be in stephen harper's cabinet as he was part of harpers shadow cabinet during the conservatives time as opposition. bell won this election by just 1.11%.



julian mcgauran defects from australian national party

australian national party senator julian mcgauran left the party in order to join the australian liberal party. mcgauran has made comments to the effect of stating that the liberals have the best chance of representing regional australia.

the prime minister john howard has said that mcgauran was not "poached", over suspicions in relation to an upcoming frontbench reshuffle, and the federal treasurer peter costello welcomed mcgauran's defection, with suspicion he may have orchestrated the move in order to bolster his leadership prospects. 

many nationals felt hurt; victorian nationals leader peter ryan called his move the "ultimate act of treachery".

his house of representatives brother peter mcgauran remains in the national party.




no jail for army interrogator over death of iraqi general

chief warrant officer lewis e. welshofer jr. of the u.s. army's 3d cavalry regiment will not have to serve any jail time for his involvement in the death of iraqi maj. gen. abed hamed mowhoush during an interrogation. the iraqi general died after welshofer shoved the general head-first into a sleeping bag, sat on him and occasionally covered the generals mouth with his hands.

on saturday, a jury consisting of six military officers acquitted him of murder and assault charges, but found him guilty of negligent homicide and negligent dereliction of duty, charges that carry a combined maximum sentence of 3 years and 3 months. on monday the military jurors handed down the verdict involving no prison time but imposed a $6000 fine and restricted his movements between work, worship and his barracks for 60 days.

this sentence stands in stark contrast to that of lower ranking army personal convicted for mistreatment of detainees at the abu-ghraib prison. although none of the victims considered in the abu-ghraib cases died, the sentences handed down were significantly harsher, with former corporal charles a. graner jr. serving 10 years in federal prison, former staff sergeant ivan l. "chip" frederick ii was serving 8 1/2 years and former private first class lynndie r. england serving three years.

before taking effect, the sentence must be approved by maj. gen. robert w. mixon, who cannot order a harsher sentence but may reduce it or set it aside entirely.



australian prime minister announces results of reshuffle

the australian prime minister john howard announced the results of an earlier anticipated reshuffle of the government cabinet. 

brendan nelson, previously of the education portfolio, who introduced the controversial voluntary student unionism legislation late 2005, has been promoted to the defence portfolio. malcolm turnbull, who had been in the media several times in 2005 regarding tax law, is now a parliamentary secretary, as is andrew robb.

the treasurer peter costello, foreign affairs minister alexander downer, and health minister tony abbott remain unchanged. with former nationals senator julian mcgauran's defection to the liberal party, nationals veterans affairs minister de-anne kelly has lost her place, in reflection of the new coalition numbers, with bruce billson taking up the job.

the opposition has commented on the reshuffle, with opposition leader kim beazley stating that the cabinet consists of "old faces" from the "uninspired to the incompetent".



montenegro trainwreck kills 44, injures over 100

a passenger train carrying at least 250 people, many of whom were children, derailed in serbia-montenegro and drove into a ravine tuesday afternoon.

close to 200 have been injured and the death toll has risen to 44. most of the passengers were schoolchildren returning from a ski trip.

"the accident occurred because of a failure of the train's braking system," said interior minister jusuf kalomperovic.

at about 4 p.m. the four-car train derailed near bio?e, a small village nearly 15 kilometers northeast of podgorica as it was emerging from a tunnel above the moraca river.

"the train simply went wild, out of control," said one injured passenger. "i was fine because i was in a back compartment, those in the front got the worst of it."

"it was horrible, i saw many dead and wounded around me," said another passenger from hungary, karman chofu.

"i had fallen asleep when a loud noise woke me," said stanislava bukovic, 60, another injured passenger.

miodrag djurovic, the head of the main podgorica hospital, stated that another five passengers had died overnight. djurovic also said at least 198 people, 90 of them children, have been treated at the hospital. "the children's hospital admitted 90 children, 34 of them are still there, six have undergone surgery," djurovic said.

earlier deputy prime minister miroslav ivanisevic told the media that the death toll stood at 30 and the amount injured at 135, but said those figures could rise as rescuers continue to reach victims. ivanisevic described the wreck "as the worst rail accident in the history of montenegro," ivanisevic also said.

president filip vujanovic and prime minister, milo djukanovic also rushed to the site. "a terrible tragedy happened at bio?e and everything is being done to reduce the number of casualties as much as possible," vujanovic told reporters.

because of the accident, montenegro's transport minister, andrija lompar, and national railways chief ranko medenica resigned.

the driver of the train has been arrested because of suspicion of negligence.

the train was heading from the northeastern town of bijelo polje to the montenegrin coastal city of bar.



cia &quot;rendition&quot; confirmed in europe

the is pressing member governments to provide information concerning cia prisons operating secretly in europe.
in an interim report by the human rights council rapporteur, swiss senator dick marty made public the 42-member nation's preliminary conclusions regarding cia activity on european union soil. 

marty reported, "individuals have been abducted, deprived of their liberty and transported to different destinations in europe, to be handed over to countries in which they have suffered degrading treatment and torture." the report estimates the rendition of "more than a hundred persons." 

but when it comes right down to it, no irrefutable evidence exists to confirm allegations that the cia operated secret detention centers in europe. "there is a great deal of coherent, convergent evidence pointing to the existence of a system of 'relocation' or 'outsourcing of torture'," the report stated while further noting that, "it is highly unlikely that european governments, or at least their intelligence services, were unaware."

"our aim is to find out the truth that is being hidden from us today", he said. he adds that he is afraid of "the pressure put on the media in the united states not to report on this affair."

a researcher for human rights watch, john swift, said; "cooperation is going to be needed if this investigation is going to succeed. european governments are at a crossroads. they can decide to cooperate with this investigation and uphold european traditions of human rights, or they can continue their romance with the cia. but they can't do both."

the report has also been criticized for appearing to lack new content and to be incomplete. former minister for europe and british member of parliament denis macshane has said that marty's report "has more holes than a swiss cheese." us state department spokesman sean mccormack has rejected the report and stated that it was an example of the "same old reports wrapped up in some new rhetoric. there's nothing new here." 

us department of homeland security secretary michael chertoff has stated regarding the us government that "the government acts in accordance with the law and with respect to the sovereignty of host countries in which it operates," and further stated that "the authorities are free to investigate what they want to investigate but we should not allow ourselves to be distracted from the need to identify, prevent and protect against terrorist acts of violence."

the group amnesty international usa is calling for the us congress to create a commission to investigate detention and interrogation practices. the united states neither confirms nor denies the existence of secret detention centers.




allegations of three candidates' drug ties resurface in haitian presidential race

according to the miami herald, sources in the united states and in haiti are saying that at least 2 of the potential presidents who are running in the upcoming haitian elections have ties to the trafficking of cocaine, and 3 candidates for all positions. the miami herald names the 2 presidential candidates as guy philippe and dany toussaint.

guy philippe is the rebel leader who participated in the 2004 haitian rebellion which ousted former president aristide. philippe has long been thought to be part of the trafficking of cocaine through haiti, back to his days a police chief in cap haitien. two top u.s. officials say that philippe was once recruited to be an informant but he turned them down due to the traffickers paying him more. philippe denies the rumors and claims that there is no evidence of his involvement in any smuggling activities. 

dany toussaint has also long been linked to the trafficking business, dating to his time as a chief of police under aristide's government. he has always denied the allegation.

the named last suspect is youri latortue, a candidate for senate in gonaives which is a major drug smuggling area. youri latortue is also the nephew of interim prime minister gerard latortue and is currently working as security chief. he is nicknamed mr. 30 percent due to the fact that he charges 30 percent in exchange for government contracts. the prime minister has defended his nephew saying that he trusts him. youri allegedly has ties to smugglers in gonaives who control the trafficking at the seaport.

according to the u.s. state department, about 8 percent of cocaine manufactured in colombia travels through haiti before reaching the united states.


football


study: partisan political thought is predominantly unconscious and emotional

a recent study led by dr. drew westen, a professor of psychology at emory university in atlanta, georgia has concluded that political partisans use an "almost entirely emotional and unconscious" thought process when digesting damaging information about a favored political candidate.

the experiment used fmri scans of 30 men who self-identified as either a committed republican or democrat. the subjects were given a series of conflicting quotes by either president bush or senator kerry, and covered such topics as the enron scandal and the current state of social security. the quotes were doctored to maximize the apparent contradiction, but were presented as factual.

the results suggests that many seemingly rational political decisions are strongly influenced by unconscious emotional reactions. such conclusions match well results from advertising psychology which say that purchases are also not as rational as people believe. past fmri studies have found that democrat and republican partisans tend to experience different emotions when shown an image of a preferred candidate.

westen will present his results next month at a meetings of the society for personality and social psychology in palm springs, ca.




disney buys pixar

the walt disney company has finalized a us$7.4 billion deal to acquire its long-time partner pixar in an all stock buy-out. the deal will make steve jobs, current pixar and apple ceo, disney's largest shareholder with about 7% (valued at over $3.5 billion) and a member of the board of directors. 

the merger was speculated all day tuesday on the stock market and the announcement came just after trading closed for the day. terms of the merger include pixar's john lasseter becoming disney's new chief creative officer in charge of animation at the combined disney-pixar animation studios, as well as principal creative advisor at , the unit of the company responsible for research and development of disney theme parks worldwide.

jobs purchased what became pixar for $10 million in 1986 from george lucas's computer animation division at lucasfilm. "", its first feature film, came a decade later, and began a long string of animation hits, including "finding nemo". such successes proved to be increasingly elusive for disney to manage on its own. the partnership between the two studios had become shaky in recent years, as former disney head clashed with jobs over the renewal terms of their agreement. in 2003, prior to his dismissal from disney, eisner infuriated pixar's creative team by predicting "finding nemo" would be a failure. steve jobs broke off negotiations in january 2004, having told one executive previously, "i don't see how the relationship can continue as long as eisner is there." 


u.s. democrats highlight water quality issues for troops in iraq

according to former employees of the halliburton subsidiary kbr and internal company documents, coalition troops at a u.s. military base in iraq may have been exposed to contaminated water and the company purportedly blocked efforts to alert the u.s. military.

"we exposed a base camp population (military and civilian) to a water source that was not treated," reads a july 15, 2005 memo by william granger, kbr's official in charge of water quality in iraq and also kuwait.

"the level of contamination was roughly two times the normal contamination of untreated water from the euphrates river," granger said in documents distributed amongst the press by democrats, who are holding a public inquiry into the allegations.

halliburton issued a statement stating it had found "no evidence to substantiate allegations made by these former employees."

ken may, another former kbr employee, said that instances of diarrhea and stomach cramps were numerous.

halliburton stated that their own inspection found no contaminated water, and no medical evidence to substantiate the claims of illness. according to marine corps major tim keefe ? a military spokesman ? a military medical unit found nothing out of the ordinary with regards to the water quality. keefe stated, "the allegations appear not to have merit."

water expert ben carter, of cedar city, utah, wrote, "it is my opinion that the water source is without question contaminated with numerous micro-organisms, including coliform bacteria. there is little doubt that raw sewage is routinely dumped upstream of intake much less than the required two mile distance."

carter said that after he told company officials that they should notify the military, "they told me it was none of my concern and to keep my mouth shut," he said. 

"they brushed it under the carpet," carter said. "i told everyone, 'don't take showers, use bottled water.'" 

according to a july 14, 2005 report authored by jennifer dellinger, it is claimed that halliburton's public relations department was aware of the problem, a statement from the department is claimed to state, "i don't want to turn it into a big issue right now, but if we end up getting some media calls i want to make sure we have all the facts so we are ready to respond."



the wb and upn networks to become the cw network

warner bros. entertainment (a division of time warner, inc.) and cbs corporation announced today the merger of their two struggling television networks together to form one jointly owned network which will debut this fall.

the new network, which is to be called cw (for cbs-warner) will replace upn and the wb networks, which will shut down. the network will be a 50-50 partnership between cbs and warner brothers. the network will be carried on stations owned by the tribune company, amongst others.
the merger is in response to the struggling of both networks, neither of which have attracted much viewership away from the big four networks since they being formed in the early 90s. however each have had some strengths. the wb has been more popular with younger viewers and has had hits with television shows "smallville" and "gilmore girls". upn has recently received critical acclaim for its sitcom "everybody hates chris" and world wrestling entertainment's "smackdown!" has been a mainstay since it debuted on the network. the new network's schedule will be announced in may; until then the networks will operate their schedules independently. the new network is planning to target the 18-34 age bracket in prime time, and will contain both shows from the wb and upn.

with upn's 12 affiliated station, together with tribune's 16 stations gives the new network coverage over half of the country. the tribune stations that will be apart of the new network is wgn in chicago, wb flagship station, wpix in new york and ktla in los angeles. wpix will become the flagship station of the new network. tribune will relinquish its 22.5% stake in the wb in return for a 10-year affiliation agreement with the network in turn.

dawn ostroff, currently the president of upn, will become president of entertainment and john maatta, currently the chief operating officer of the wb, will become chief operating officer of the cw.



iran promises retaliation for israeli action against nuclear facilities

iran is referencing the conditions of the , as justification for defending what it believes is its right under article iv of the npt to have nuclear technology and hold on to its developing nuclear program, despite great pressure from the west and others to abandon certain nuclear technological capabilities. article iv defines "...the inalienable right of all the parties to the treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination and in conformity with articles i and ii of this treaty."

the "associated press" reported today that tehran is planning a retaliation contingency against israel should the country go forward with a strike against iran's nuclear facilities in early march, as ariel sharon said may occur, before he suffered a debilitating stroke in december 2005.

general mostafa mohammad najjar, iran's minister of defense, articulated teheran's position on any military action against iran's nuclear capability, saying that "zionists should know that if they do anything evil against iran, the response of iran's armed forces will be so firm that it will send them into eternal coma, like (ariel) sharon". he also proceeded to question the resolve of the united states and israel to attack iran on the grounds of violating international conventions concerning nuclear energy.

the united states government says that it wants iran to comply by discontinuing uranium enrichment in its facilities, and said iran will be sent to the united nations security council (unsc) over this dispute if tehran maintains its refusal to comply with the international community

both sides are clearly determined in their position, which leads to an interesting development of mohammad elbaradei, the head of the (iaea), saying that the us and other nuclear powers should themselves disarm as well if they don't want to be hypocrites, "arabicnews.com" reports. article vi of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty states that: "each of the parties to the treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control." the united states has signed the npt, but israel has not.

another development which may foment further controversy also came wednesday when iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad blamed the united states for a series of bombings in ahvaz, a town near the border of iraq, which left at least nine civilians dead. "traces of the occupiers of iraq is evident in the ahvaz events. they should take responsibility in this regard," ahmadinejad remarked to iranian state television stations today. 




new report details strain on us army

a report commissioned under a contract to ascertain the effects of the and wars on recruitment of personnel into the united states army has been completed. written by a retired u.s. army officer and executive director of the center for strategic and budgetary assessments, andrew krepinevich, it was not publicly released. upon inquiry, a copy was provided to the "associated press."

as part of the conclusions reached in the krepinevich report, it notes a drop in army recruiting for the year 2005, a first since 1999, which came after the army recently adopted policies of offering increased enlistment incentives. the report states that the army is unable to maintain troop deployment to iraq for a period adequate to disable the insurgency occurring there, and is faced with declining recruitment and re-enlistment rates. 

in an krepinevich interview , he said the army remains an effective force and has plans to expand the number of available combat brigades for use in iraq and afghanistan. the conditions described by the report are listed as being triggered by simultaneous force restructuring, training requirements, and troop deployment requirements as well as the length of the engagement. krepinevich also said in the interview that he believes the reason that pentagon officials do not publicly state that the reduction in troop levels was prompted by stress on the army; "that gives too much encouragement to the enemy."

, former nato commander and retired four-star general in the us army detailed his observations in an interview given on "" in december of 2005; "whether they're broken or not, i think i would say if we don't change the way we're doing business, they're in danger of being fractured and broken, and i would agree with that."

defense secretary donald h. rumsfeld's comments made in a news conference at the pentagon one day after the associated press article was published declared that the report "is just not consistent with the facts." he continued and stated of the us army that "the force is not broken," and that such thoughts were "almost backward." 

he supported this with the following comments "the world saw the united states military go halfway around the world in a matter of weeks, throw the al qaida and taliban out of afghanistan, in a landlocked country thousands and thousands of miles away. they saw what the united states military did in iraq. and the message from that is not that this armed force is broken, but that this armed force is enormously capable." 

he acknowledged the unique requirements of the campaigns in iraq and in afghanistan with the statement that "there is no question if a country is in a conflict and we are in the global war on terror, it requires our forces to do something other than what they do in peacetime."

on the matter of the review of us defense strategy planned for february 2006, he stated that it was "the next step in a long line of bold changes." 

us representative incited controversy when he called for an early exit from iraq in the fall of 2005, arguing in part that the us army was "broken, worn out."




fears about songhua settled

following an explosion in november of 2005, china's songhua river was contaminated with nitrobenzene and similar chemicals. its clean-up by the state environmental protection administration and others was covered previously on "wikinews".

the state environmental protection administration minister zhou shengxian has said that "the water quality of the songhua river will not exceed national standards on a large scale during the spring thaw, and fish in the river and from pounds along the banks are safe to eat." zhou further guaranteed that livestock near the river banks and products from such livestock to be safe to eat, and that the growth of crops will not be inhibited by use of water from the songhua river for irrigation.

concerns of residents that the possible release of remnants of nitrobenzene that may have been trapped in the ice and in the sediment might occur and endanger the safe utilization of the river after the influence of a period of being frozen have been settled. 

zhou said that research indicated only a small amounts of the toxic chemical within the ice and that the quantity that could be entrapped in the sediment was limited by its structure as composed mostly of sand. these characteristics and the inevitable high flow rate of the river once the winter's ice melts in the spring will allow the water to be safe said zhou, referencing an interim assessment of the river spill done by a consortium which began the assessment on december 13 2005.

chen jining of tsinghua university's department of environmental science and engineering, commented that "even in the rare cases when levels are beyond standards in some places, we also have the technology in place for example, activated carbon to ensure safe drinking water supplies."

zhou has also stated that the joint program with russia to monitor boundary rivers will continue. the front of the pollution from the explosion has been predicted to reach the estuary of the armur river in russia near the end of january 2006.



iran accused of blocking bbc website

the bbc news website and a civil liberties organization are claiming that the bbc persian website has been blocked by the government of iran.

reports indicate that the cities of shiraz and zahedan are unable to access bbcpersian.com. as of press time no explanation has been given for the block. the bbc said that it would approach the iranian government to ask about getting unblocked.

iranian internet providers routinely block pornographic and anti-islamic websites, but they also block some pro-reform websites and blogs, sometimes permanently. this follows a history of alleged censorship - in 2004 the pro-reform "emrooz", "rooydad" and "baamdad" online newspapers were reported to have been shut down or blocked often.



scientists discover earth-like planet

an international group of 73 scientists using 4 projects (planet led by jean-philippe beaulieu and martin dominik, robonet led by michael
bode and keith horne, ogle led by andrzej udalski, and moa led by phil yock) from 32 institutions in 12 countries have discovered the smallest earth-like planet yet.

the new planet is about 25,000 light years away and is close to the center of the milky way.

the discovery was announced in the journal nature. the journal also states the planet was found using a method called gravitational microlensing, which detects small planets with a mass like that of earth.

gravitational microlensing is where a light from a distant star is bent and magnified by the gravitational field of a foreground star. the presence of a planet around the foreground star causes light from the distant star to become momentarily brighter.

however, scientists say that the cold temperatures on the planet make the chance of finding any life on it "unlikely."

"we may predict with reasonable probability that microlensing will discover planets with masses like that of earth at a similar distance from their stars and with comparable surface temperature," said study co-author bohdan paczynski from princeton university.

so far the planet only goes by ogle-2005-blg-390lb, and takes about ten years to orbit its parent star, a red dwarf, a star that is smaller and much cooler than our own sun.

scientists say the new planet, which is about five and a half times the mass of earth, could either have a rocky core and a thin atmosphere, or be a small ice/gas world like neptune, but in either case, its "very large orbit and cooler parent star, makes it a very cold world."

the predicted surface temperature is -220° celsius (-364° f), which means that should it have a rocky core, the planet may more closely resemble a massive version of pluto with a surface of frozen liquids and gas. otherwise the planet would be a liquid mass, wrapped in clouds of ice crystals and gas, much like neptune.

"this is very exciting and important," said professor michael bode from liverpool john moores university, a principal investigator for the robonet project which helped to collaborate on the research. "this is the most earth-like planet we have discovered to date, in terms of its mass and the distance from its parent star. most of the other planets that have been discovered are either much more massive, much hotter or both."

this is the third planet in two years that scientists have found using gravitational microlensing.

in the past, more than 150 planets outside our solar system were found using a technique known as the radial velocity method. this method observes a wobble in stars caused by the planet's gravitational effects.



business jet crashes in california killing four

at mcclellan-palomar airport in carlsbad, california, united states, a cessna 560 twin engine jet skidded off the runway and burst into flames immediately after. four people were killed in the accident.

the associated press reports that the plane had run through a barricade and fell down a 100-150 foot cliff, which left parts of the plane in a trail behind it. it then hit the side of the carlsbad airport self-storage building before it came to a stop in a twisted metal ball of flame. 

one of the victims was janet shafran who was the wife of ketchum city councilman steven shafran. the union leader, a manchester, new hampshire newspaper, also reports that another one of the victims was frank h. jellinek, jr., of hampton, n.h. according to the union leader, jellinek was one of the state's most prominent corporate executives. jellinek jr. was chairman emeritus of fisher scientific in hampton since aug. 2, 2004.

by the end of the day tuesday, the san diego county medical examiner's office had not yet confirmed the identities of the two pilots who were also killed. they are believed to be local residents.



us ambassador links india's civil nuclear initiative to iran vote

the united states ambassador to india, david mulford, has reportedly hinted that the u.s. civil nuclear energy pact with india may face problems getting approved by congress if india refused to vote against iran at the upcoming meeting of the united nations nuclear watchdog committee.

the nuclear pact was made after a july 2005 policy shift by u.s. president george w. bush that offered cooperation in india's development of civilian atomic power industry in exchange for its support of the 's (iaea) nonproliferation standards.

the u.s. state department spokesman sean mccormack stated at a wednesday briefing that, "the ambassador was expressing his personal opinion about what the potential political outcome might be. he was giving his personal assessment of how the congress might react to such an action by india." mccormack added that, "we certainly would encourage and hope that they (india) vote for referral this time around."

the iaea is scheduled to meet february 2 to discuss iran's referral to the u.n. security council over its resumption of uranium enrichment. the u.s. claims that iran's nuclear program is aimed at developing weapons, a claim that tehran denies.

india's foreign ministry rejected any attempt to tie its stance on iran to the deal with the u.s. on acquiring nuclear know-how.

india has previously supported the iaea's declaration in september of 2005 that iran had failed to comply with its international obligations. 

the u.s. also opposes the negotiations, begun in 1994, on a proposed gas pipeline between india and iran which is intended to provide india with increased energy capacities.





michael jackson shops in women's clothes

pop star michael jackson was caught by photographers dressed in women's clothing in a shopping mall in the gulf state of bahrain. jackson was dressed in a black "abaya" (a traditional full-length robe), a veil covering his face, dark sunglasses and gloves. jackson was accompanied by three young, western-looking children, their faces covered with black veils, and an adult woman wearing an "abaya" over jeans, her face partly covered, and bodyguards.

after jackson was recognized, he reportedly said "please, no!" and the unidentified woman asked photographers to back off. photographers continued to take pictures while mall security guards escorted jackson and his entourage out through a back door, where they got into a white lexus with darkened windows. a picture published by the australian shows an adult completely covered in black, holding the hand of a young child whose face is covered. mall officials confirmed that it was michael jackson.

jackson has been a guest of the royal family since june 2004, after he was acquitted of sexually molesting young cancer patients who visited his california ranch, neverland, in 2003.



rural victorian fires worsen

firefighters in the australian state of victoria continue to battle blazes across rural victoria which threaten up to 25 communities. major fires of concern are near the grampians national park, la trobe valley and gippsland.

the grampians fire has destroyed 24 homes so far. soaring temperatures and winds up to 50 km/h have fanned the grampians blaze.


hamas wins palestinian election

this morning, hamas leaders announced that they had an "outright majority" in the 132-seat palestinian legislative council. "hamas has won more than 70 seats in gaza and the west bank, which gives it more than 50 percent of the vote," said ismail haniyeh, a leader of hamas.

in order for hamas to have a majority, they needed at least 67 seats. ismail haniya, a senior hamas leader, said they "expected to win at least 70 seats."

just hours after the statement, and based on results that hamas supplied from representatives at polling stations, prime minister, ahmed qurei of fatah and his cabinet submitted their resignations. "this is the choice of the people. it should be respected. if it's true, then the president should ask hamas to form a new government," said qurei. "for me, personally, i sent my resignation."

although qurei submitted his resignation, the party has not officially conceded defeat, but do acknowledge the claim ahead of official results.

fatah has been in control of the palestinian government for decades now, and on wednesday, exit polls released after the polls closed, had shown that the fatah party had a narrow lead in the elections.

however preliminary results based on 95% of the votes cast give hamas' change and reform party 76 seats, leaving fatah with 43 seats. the remaining 13 seats went to several minor parties and independents.

turnout was generally high, over 70% in all regions except jerusalem, where turnout was less than 50%. palestine's central elections commission has stated that israeli authorities prevented electoral arrangements in jerusalem from meeting "the required standards for free, fair and transparent elections".

mushir al-masri, who won the election said in regards to israel, "negotiations with israel are not on our agenda." he also stated, "recognizing israel is not on the agenda either now."

hamas also stated that it has no intentions of disarming and says, "hamas does not plan to change even one word," in the groups charter, which calls for the destruction of the israeli political system.

mahmoud abbas, the current president of the palestinian authority, was not affected by the election results but has said that he, "might resign if unable to pursue a peace policy." abbas has been the president of the palestinian authority for only a year.

abbas is also expected to ask hamas to form the new government.

hamas supporters raised their flag and rushed the parliament after the news that the group won the election. 

as fatah supporters tried to take down the green hamas banners that were placed on the building, both groups threw rocks and broke windows in the parliament building. thousands of hamas supporters cheered and whistled as the green banners were raised again. this is the first confrontation of the two groups since elections ended yesterday.

hamas is labelled as a terrorist group by both the european union and the united states state department, and now will be the ruling faction of the palestinian authority, this creates difficulties for us and eu participation in efforts to resolve the israeli-palestinian conflict.

the washington post reported last week that the us secretly channelled us$2 million
to fatah in the final weeks of the campaign.

united states secretary of state condoleezza rice repeated the us/eu call for hamas to reject violence and recognize israel, and reminded that the us still considers hamas a terrorist group. elmar brok, a senior member of the eu parliament, said that the eu may cut off aid to the palestinians if hamas institutionalizes terrorism once it takes control of the government.

british prime minister tony blair, speaking through a spokesman, stated that britain "can only do business with people who renounce terrorism."

italian prime minister silvio berlusconi was quoted as saying "it is a very, very, very bad result."

however, media and government outlets throughout the middle east such as iran and lebanon, who consider hamas to be in a defence struggle, praised the result of the elections. "the palestinian people faithfully chose the option of resistance and are to fully support it," said iran's foreign ministry spokesman hamid-reza asefi. and some governments such as sweden and japan praised the democratic system at work in palestine. sweden's foreign minister laila frievalds said that the elections were a "a protest against those in power who have not done enough, a reaction to the incapacity to lead the political process forward," though she stated sweden's commitment to the eu's call for hamas to end its violent ways if peace negotiations can continue.

ayyoub muhanna, 29, who owns a spare parts shop in lebanon said; "this is a victory to all the region's free people; the palestinians gave their vote to the party that gave of its blood."



microsoft to licence windows source code

in a move aimed to prevent fines stemming from its antitrust lawsuit filed by the european commission (ec), microsoft announced that it will be releasing portions of the source code to its windows operating system. 

the ec ruled in march 2004 that microsoft had abused its position in the low-end server and media player market, and required that microsoft "disclose complete and accurate interface documentation which would allow non-microsoft work group servers to achieve full interoperability with windows pcs and servers". microsoft reacted by making available 12,000 pages of technical documentation and up to 500 hours of technical support, but the ec came to the conclusion that it was not enough.

announcing that "we are putting our most valuable intellectual property on the table so we can put technical compliance issues to rest", microsoft general counsel brad smith asserted that microsoft would be superseding the ec's requirements as a sign of good faith. "while we are confident that we are presently in full compliance with the decision, we wish to dispel any notion that microsoft’s technical documents are insufficient", said smith.

the ec responded in a memo that it will study microsoft's reply to the statement of objections once it receives the full details. however, ec competition commissioner spokesman jonathan todd commented that "it would be premature to conclude access to the source code would resolve the problem of the lack of compliance with our decision."

a similar offer was made by microsoft in august 2002 during its antitrust lawsuit filed by the united states department of justice and several states' attorneys general. the resulting "microsoft communications protocols program" had suffered continuous criticism regarding excessive cost, paperwork, and non-disclosure agreements. it is unclear at this time if microsoft's planned "work group server protocol program" will suffer from the same issues if accepted by the ec.

microsoft is expected to return to the ec courts in april.




thai government reportedly planning internet censorship

according to a report in the "bangkok post", the thai government's public relations department is considering blocking the website of manager online as a possible instigator of "social chaos".

the report claims that a document was submitted to the communications authority of thailand urging a block be issued against the site as the current calls for participation in anti-government rallies by outspoken government critic sondhi limthongkul may be a threat to social order.

other reports claim that cat telecom cut off a live satellite broadcast by sondi on the astv satellite network on tuesday evening during a discussion related to a planned anti-government rally on february 4.




new canadian leader vows to push canadian sovereignty over the arctic passage

canada's next prime minister, stephen harper, said that canada will be deploying three new armed icebreaking ships to patrol the arctic passage and assert canadian sovereignty over those waters. harper also said canada will be establishing an underwater network of "listening posts" in the arctic waters. 

"the united states defends its sovereignty; the canadian government will defend our sovereignty," harper said. "it is the canadian people that we get our mandate from, not the ambassador of the united states."

harper was responding to comments by the u.s. ambassador, david wilkins, who said yesterday; "we don't recognize canada's claims to those waters. most other countries do not recognize their claim."

the arctic passage is melting and commercial ships are able to cut 2,480 miles in distance off of the trip from europe to asia when compared to using the panama canal.

in addition to the icebreakers, harper announced a $1.7 billion deep-water port.


storms a mixed blessing for victorian firefighters

firefighters in the australian state of victoria have received a mixed blessing overnight as storms crossed the state.

the anakie fire in the state's west received a fair amount of rain helping firefighters to contain the fire.

the kinglake fire north-east of melbourne also received rain, but helped firefighters very little.

the large grampians fire in the state's west and the fire at moondarra in the gippsland region did not receive any rain. the storms did however spark two spot fires alongside the grampians fire.


saudis boycott danish dairy produce

on january 26, 2006, a massive boycott of dairy produce from started in saudi arabia over what is perceived as a danish attack on muslim values. the saudi ambassador to denmark has been recalled for consultations.

the danish/swedish dairy company arla is facing a massive loss after a spreading boycott of its produce in saudi arabia. four saudi retail chains have already removed arla products from the shelves. one retail chain has placed yellow warning tape (common fare for accidents and crime scenes) over arla products. there have been cases reported of arla delivery trucks being attacked by stones thrown from bystanders. marianne castenskiold, a senior consultant for dansk industri, expressed a fear that the boycott will spread to other countries in the region and have detrimental effects on other danish products. denmark is one of the leading exporters of agriculture in northern europe, whose economy is heavily dependent on foreign trade and investment.

the boycott has been announced at friday prayer services in saudi mosques since january 20, 2006, obviously helping to foment popular support of the nation's response to denmark's alleged ignorance of muslim values. on at least one occasion, a delivery truck has been greeted by thrown stones. 

the boycott is a response to the publication of an article in a major danish newspaper, jyllands-posten. in its september 30, 2005 issue, the paper printed 12 drawings of the muslim prophet muhammed, as a response to previous news reports that the publisher of a forthcoming childrens' book about the prophet had had difficulty in finding an illustrator, due to fear of extremist reactions; drawings of the prophet are prohibited by islamic law (see aniconism). in an attempt to start a debate over freedom of speech in denmark, the newspaper printed 12 drawings of the prophet. four of these were of a satirical nature, with one showing the prophet with a turban hiding a lit bomb.

the immediate reactions to the publication of the drawings included ambassadors from 12 muslim countries demanding that the danish prime minister, anders fogh rasmussen, denounce the newspaper. rasmussen rejected this demand, stating that "danish freedom of speech does not allow the government to control what newspapers print". he further noted that the only possible legal action against the newspaper would be one under the charge of blasphemy.

a debate ensued over the following months about freedom of speech and its value in relation to avoiding religious taboos. in mid-december 2005, a delegation from several danish muslim organizations went on a tour in several middle-eastern and arabic countries, reportedly to gain sympathy for their point of view. several reports state that during the tour the difficulties faced by muslims in denmark were grossly overstated.



gm posts first annual loss since 1992

gm admitted thursday night that the loss could swell further as it pays pensions and healthcare costs to thousands of former workers. gm warned that the amount calculated for last year is preliminary and could rise before it is officially reported to the us securities and exchanges commission in march.

the loss was far greater than analysts predicted. , the second of the big three american car manufacturers, beat predictions earlier in the week. in contrast, is expected to report that it will beat last year's profit of $11 billion. 

gm's automotive division lost $1.5 billion in the fourth quarter, driven by losses in north america. this has been attributed to gm's shrinking market share, which has been taken by japanese manufacturers and .

a further $1.3 billion was lost in restructuring charges. as part of the restructure, gm plans to cut 30,000 jobs and close 12 facilities by 2008.

an aide for kirk kerkorian, gms largest individual investor (at 9.9%), has called on the company to halve its $1.1 billion annual dividend, cut executive pay and sell .


queensland's biggest oil spill in 35 years

a oil spill in queensland, australia has been described as a tragedy for the area's marine life and the biggest oil spill in 35 years. the clean-up is expected to take up to a week and cost more than au$3 million.

the spill occurred in gladstone harbour on the central queensland coast, late on tuesday night, after 25,000 litres of heavy fuel poured from a coal carrier. the accident happened when a tug rammed into a korean coal carrier, rupturing its fuel tank. 

several government agencies and four skimmer vessels were called in after the "tom tough" struck the korean-owned, panamanian-registered bulk coal carrier "global peace" - puncturing its fuel tank as it was about to berth.

"it'll just annihilate the stocks plus everything up and down the food chain in relation to what the different fishermen catch," local fishing spokesman warwick sheldon said. "it's right in the middle of the commercial banana prawn fishing season at the moment ? this has the potential to just wipe out their stocks."

queensland premier peter beattie said an investigation was under way to determine whether anyone would be prosecuted. "there will be no cost to the taxpayer because of the law," he said. the clean-up costs will be met by the ship's owners in accordance with international maritime law.

the wildlife protection association of australia (wpaa) says the spill inside the harbour occurred in the worst place possible. "it's probably the worst place that we could ever have a spill because it's inside the harbour," said wpaa president pat o'brien. "it's an area where there's a whole range of animals there that'll be affected by it. there's dugongs and porpoises and animals like that, that breathe air, that come to the surface regularly. turtles again too, they'll finish up with oil all over them."

it is the worst oil spill in queensland since the oceanic grandeur ran aground in the torres strait in 1970 and the second spill in gladstone's harbour within a week. about a tonne of oil spilled in the harbour last week.

a marine investigator from the australian transport safety bureau (atsb) is investigating the incident. investigation leader peter foley says the type of oil involved has added to problem. "it's certainly more difficult to control than perhaps crude oil because it tends to be around the same specific gravity or same density as sea water," he said.


west papuans refugees forced to fly 4000ks despite tuberculosis fears

west papuan asylum seekers, who arrived in australia last week, were forced to make a 4000 kilometre journey to christmas island despite suspicions they had tuberculosis. the west papuans were flown to christmas island on an raaf hercules last week.

two of the group, a man and his child, have now been flown the 2,600 kilometres to perth, western australia from the remote indian ocean island. air force personnel had initially refused to fly them, concerned that the flight crew's health would be at risk.

"it's a complete farce, absurd" said one health official. "it has not only posed an unnecessary health risk, it has been hideously expensive." 

the west papuans were among a group of 43 refugees found last week on the far north-west coast of cape york in queensland. they had made a five-day journey from the indonesian province in an outrigger canoe. they arrived with banners accusing indonesia's military in the province ruled by jakarta of genocide and intimidation. their 25m traditional boat was fitted with an outboard motor and was flying the outlawed west papuan flag. 

amid media scrutiny and the disapproval of the indonesian government, the boat people underwent health checks before being sent to christmas island. x-rays and other medical examinations strongly indicated that at least one man had tuberculosis, yet the group were flown to australia's christmas island immigration detention centre. 

upon landing at the island, health officials recommended the patients be transferred to perth. however, the crew of the raaf hercules refused to take them, saying they were not "adequately equipped".

a department of immigration spokesman (dimia) said an alternative flight was arranged. "at this stage there has been no positive diagnosis for tuberculosis," the spokesman said.

the removal of the asylum seekers to christmas island has been met with fierce criticism from many refugee rights groups and opposition parties, who say it was impractical, potentially traumatising and hugely expensive. the immigration department says it has interviewed most of the asylum seekers but won't say if they have made formal asylum claims.

rallies in sydney, melbourne, darwin, canberra and brisbane were held this week, in support of the west papuan asylum seekers. refugee rights advocates protested the forced transfer to the remote christmas island facility. 

melbourne auxiliary bishop hilton deakin told about 130 people demonstrating outside dimia headquarters in melbourne that, "we know that already the indonesian authorities, in canberra and beyond, are trying to get to them."

yet the he indonesian embassy in canberra denied making any approach, saying: "i can guarantee that there has been no contact whatsoever, it hadn't been requested, it was never even sought."

but the immigration department has confirmed that "a junior delegation" from the embassy went to weipa last thursday seeking access to the asylum seekers. a spokesman for the immigration department said the indonesians arrived in weipa on thursday but by then the papuans had already been put on a plane for christmas island. the west papuans were told they had a right to indonesian consular assistance if they choose. "not one has chosen to do so," the spokesman said.

"the majority of these 43 people are leaders for free expression and self-determination and possible independence because of the oppression from which they suffer," bishop deakin said. "massacres, rapes and all the rest of it have gone on in that country for almost 30 years."

he called on the australian government to cancel its training program with the indonesian military.

democrats leader lyn allison said the australian government had "got it wrong on this issue". the 43 asylum seekers had been "whisked off" before they could tell their story, she said.

greens senator kerry nettle has called on the government to grant access to papuan asylum seekers. the senator says they should not be in detention and they certainly should be allowed to communicate with the outside world. 

senator nettle will go to christmas island this weekend to meet the imprisoned west papuans. she said the immigration department is obligated under the migration act to allow her to meet them.

meanwhile new zealand greens have offered to take the asylum seekers. "new zealand can show the howard government how to be compassionate, as we did back in 2001 when we took some afghan asylum seekers from the tampa," the new zealand green party foreign affairs spokesperson keith locke says.

"it is shocking that the west papuan refugees, having survived 450 kilometres of open water in a flimsy craft, are now bundled off to a christmas island detention camp - well out of range of those australians who wish to help them," he said. 

"under refugee law these papuans deserve special consideration, having come directly from their claimed country of persecution, indonesia, not via a third country, as is the case with most asylum seekers in this part of the world.

"the papuans certain have a good prima facie case. i know from my own visit to west papua last april that there is substantial and ongoing harassment of the local people, particularly those who assert their right to political self-determination," said mr locke. 

on friday last week indonesian security forces shot dead one papuan protester, and wounded two others, in the paniai district, where the 43 asylum seekers originate.



aboriginal sovereignty day declared

representatives of australian aboriginal sovereign nations at a gathering in canberra, have declared that the 26th of january would be known as aboriginal sovereignty day. january 26th (australia day) is australia's official national day - commemorating the landing of the first fleet in sydney cove in 1788.

while the rest of the country celebrated the australia day holiday with medals, barbecues, fireworks and beer under the union jack and southern cross, hundreds of people at the aboriginal tent embassy in canberra lit a ceremonial fire and discussed the land that once belonged to their ancestors. 

indigeneous elders have gathered this week at the aboriginal tent embassy for the corroboree for sovereignty convergence, in response to what they say is the continual government threat to control the historical tent embassy site.

the gathering identified the 34-year-old tent embassy on the grounds of old parliament house in canberra, as a significant place of social, spiritual and political importance to aboriginal peoples - a symbol of the assertion of aboriginal sovereignty. the aboriginal embassy, not considered an official embassy by the australian government, has come under review recently in a bid to remove the campsite and dwellings originally founded on australia day in 1972.

the tent embassy calls on all aboriginal sovereign nations to "stand up against the illegal occupation of our country and continue to resist the oppression of our people." the tent embassy say that "until there is true justice for our people, these issues will not go away and we will continue to resist."

members of the embassy will take a sacred fire to melbourne in march for the 2006 "stolenwealth games" campaign, in an effort to highlight the plight of aboriginal people. the fire will contain a "message of peace, healing and justice, and create a focal point for unfinished business."

the group calls on all aboriginal nations to send representatives to the embassy to commemorate and review the issues of land rights in australia. the tent embassy also announced the establishment of the national tribal law council.

the high court of australia has on a number of occasions rejected any actual legal notion of aboriginal sovereignty.

indigenous leaders, including marji thorpe, gary foley, robbie thorpe and michael mansell claim that native title and reconciliation haven't adequately addressed indigenous rights. they say: "native title has mainly embroiled indigenous peoples in complex legal processes where they have (generally unsuccessfully) had to prove their fundamental human rights to the land."

the campaigners, known as the black gst, say the process "puts the onus on indigenous peoples to somehow prove continuous connection with their land, an impossible task in many situations given the effects of our dispossession and attempted genocide."

on australia day the diverse and vibrant group marched peacefully through canberra, gathered at the embassy on the lawns in front of old parliament house and called for recognition of indigenous sovereignty over the land.

"we're wanting to let all the people know that all the land in australia has been given back to the aboriginal people... and the sovereignty now lies with all aboriginal nations," a spokesperson robert corowa said at the embassy. 

to many indigenous and non-indigenous people, australia day is labelled "invasion day" - in recognition of the colonisation of the continent by the british, he said. "we call it invasion day. the most important thing is that everybody in australia who's now living here... we strongly encourage them to come to the aboriginal tent embassy and place a leaf in our fire."
legal director of the tasmanian aboriginal centre (tac), michael mansell, says the current australia day celebrations should be scrapped and a new national day chosen. mansell said australia day would forever remain a racist blot on australia's political landscape as long as the event was held on the anniversary of the landing of the first fleet.

"there can never be reconciliation between whites and aborigines so long as the anniversary of the coming of white people is the basis for celebrating australia day," he said. "a fair and just society cannot be built on celebrating gains by one race at the expense of another."

mr mansell has also reported the theft of an aboriginal sign from the tac premises. the sign reading: ""australia day yes, let’s celebrate: murder, invasion, rape, theft"" was removed on the 25th of january hours after being installed on the launceston premises.

mansell says that he will replace the sign in an effort to "the obvious need to expose the myth, as expressed in the national anthem, that australia is a free and fair country" and called for "white society" to punish the offenders.

"this is another instance of the continuing trend in tasmania of racist attacks on both people and property by extreme elements of white society who don't like the truth, who don't like aborigines and other races. as with the racial attacks on middle eastern people in sydney, these tasmanian incidents show how australia under the howard government is becoming more openly xenophobic," he said.

activists in brisbane yesterday burned an australian flag to protest against celebrations marking european settlement in australia. around 300 protesters staged an "invasion day" demonstration. queensland premier peter beattie condemned the action.

"i don't care whether they're black or white ... i don't believe we should burn the australian flag, particularly at this time (when) we all know we live in an unsettled world," he said. 

one protester said he believed the wrong flag had been burned: "i just felt deep down that it should have been the british flag they burnt not the australian one."

the tasmanian aboriginal centre has strongly opposed the compulsory singing of the australian national anthem in schools. 

nsw premier morris iemma wants to make it compulsory for nsw schoolchildren to sing the national anthem each day before class. the plan has strong support from both sides of parliament in tasmania as well as the multicultural council of australia and the australian national flag association.

however some aboriginal support groups say forcing the singing of the national anthem diminishes individual enthusiasm for participation. 

michael mansell says, "more importantly, the anthem is about the white people and immigrants and excludes aborigines." he said the words "for we are young and free" were a clear reference to the last 200 years of colonisation by europeans and dismissed the ownership of the country by aboriginal people. 


south africa's table mountain ablaze

a large and dangerous fire has broken out on table mountain in cape town, south africa.

dry and windy conditions have swept the fire around the base of the mountain, pushing it towards the bordering suburbs in the city bowl and vredehoek area with furious flames reaching ten meters into the air.

a number of houses along the border of the reserve are being threatened as the fire heads around the mountain from the cable car station towards the southern suburbs.
thick smoke and high winds are hindering fire-fighting efforts and causing havoc with the traffic around the area. heynes helicopters, contracted to fight fires on the mountain, are assisting from the air. however since the main water reservoirs near the vredehoek area are shrouded in smoke and water must be retrieved from the harbour instead.

so far one elderly woman has reportedly died due to smoke inhalation and many others may be at risk as they attempt to defend their homes. firefighters have been attempting to bring the situation under control throughout the night but the blaze continues unabated.

the cause of the fire is still uncertain. however a 36-year-old british man has been placed under arrest for allegedly dropping a lit cigarette whilst on the mountain.

fires in the area are an annual problem and may threaten to destroy the delicate indigenous fynbos ecosystem. opinions about the effects of the fires on the mountain vary, however, with some specialists indicating that regular fires could cause permanent damage to the ecosystem whilst others believe that the fynbos is actually partially reliant on the heat of the fire to set off the shedding of seeds.

in previous years the area around and fishhoek have been ravaged by fires of similar intensity. the scars of those fires still remain.



former german president johannes rau dies at 75

former german president johannes rau has died on friday morning in his home in berlin at the age of 75, his office announced. rau had been president of germany from 1999 till 2004. he had a heart disease for a long time and had to undergo twice a surgery after leaving office. he is survived by his wife and their three children.

rau was born on january 16, 1931 in wuppertal. he first joined the "gesamtdeutsche volkspartei" in 1952. after the party had been dissolved, he followed his political mentor gustav heinemann to the social democratic party of germany (spd). he was elected member of the state legislature of north rhine-westphalia in 1958 and became governor of the state in 1978. he was an unsuccessful candidate for the chancellorship in 1987. he resigned as governor in 1998 when his party promised to nominate him for the presidential elections. during his presidency, rau became the first german head of state to speak in the israeli knesset.

his successor, president horst kohler, ordered that a state funeral for rau be held on february 7. he said germany "has lost a distinctive politician, a great president and a man who made the world more humane."

chancellor angela merkel said germany "has lost an exceptional personality".

the governor of north rhine-westphalia, jurgen ruttgers, called rau a "great governor" to whom the state and its people owe a great deal. 

spd chair matthias platzeck said the social democrats lost "an irreplaceable friend, who was one of the most outstanding and popular politicians of our country. [...] we will miss him."

israeli president moshe katsav called rau a "great friend of the jewish people and of the state of israel".


german wikipedia to be printed

the german online news site, "der spiegel" is reporting that "zenodot verlagsgesellschaft", the publishing house that has already been selling the german language wikipedia on dvd, is interested in offering a printed version of the german wikipedia. the work would be comprised of 100 volumes of about 800 pages each. two volumes, at a price of ?15 each, would be published every month starting in january of 2007.


halonen and niinisto neck-and-neck heading into sunday's run-off election in finland

the latest poll from finnish newspaper helsingin sanomat in co-operation with gallup puts the two remaining candidates - incumbent president tarja halonen (social democratic party) and former minister of finance sauli niinisto (coalition party) - in a dead heat, heading into the second and final round of the finnish presidential election on sunday. 51% of the respondents supported halonen, while 49% supported niinisto. the result is within the margin of error at 3%. approximately 24% of those questioned refused to state who they will vote for. 

previous polls had given halonen - who received about 46% of the votes in the first election nearly two weeks ago against runner-up niinisto's 24% - a larger lead, though the movement is within the margin of error. in a poll conducted by finnish tv channel mtv3 on tuesday halonen and niinisto were supported by 55% and 45% of the respondents, respectively.

the finnish presidential elections are completed in at most two rounds. if no candidate receives a majority of the votes in the first round, the two top candidates compete in a run-off election two weeks later.


chantelle wins celebrity big brother

chantelle houghton has won the british reality tv show celebrity big brother. michael barrymore came in second place. 

, 22, was the only non-celebrity on the show and was given a secret mission for four days by big brother to convince the other housemates she was a member of the fictional band "kandy floss".

the television show, aired on in the is a spin off of the popular series shown around the world. this series of the show started on 5 january 2006 and lasted for 23 days. there were 11 housemates, six of whom were evicted on the 27 january 2006. 

unknown to either the audience nor the winner until her exit interview, won ￡25,000 for winning the show and not being a celebrity. 

also evicted on the 27th were: 


united kingdom


eastern indonesia struck by earthquake

a major earthquake occurred at 1:58am saturday off the coast of indonesia. it originated from the banda sea, roughly 195 kilometers from ambon city. the earthquake measured 7.7 on the richter scale and occurred at a depth of about 341 kilometers said the u.s. geological survey.

the quake sent people running for their lives as fears mounted that the quake might have caused a massive tsunami.

but good news came as the pacific tsunami warning center said in an e-mail advisory, "this earthquake is located outside the pacific. no destructive tsunami threat exists in the pacific ocean or elsewhere based on historical earthquake and tsunami data."

no deaths or major injuries have been reported as of yet.

in december of 2004, a major earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 struck just off the coast of sumatra, triggering a major tsunami, killing nearly 300,000 people and leaving millions more homeless.

earthquakes frequently take place in the area due to it being positioned on a volcanically active region referred to as the the ring of fire.



o'reilly begins using open editing of its books before publishing them

o'reilly media is opening up editing of its books through safari books online, the company's joint venture with the pearson technology group. 

the company is allowing ordinary people to buy access tomanuscripts before they are finalized.

customers are given access to software to that allows them to make notes on the manuscripts, to expose errors, or make suggestions.

the project is intended to improve the content, find technical errors and make sure that examples make sense and are relevant, rather than proofreading. the service is similar to the ordinary nightly builds of open source software projects. 

the manuscripts will be updated as the author and editor make changes.

a beta version of the service, named "rough cuts", has four books available and o'reilly intends to add up to eight more in the first quarter of 2006.

customers get an "evolving manuscript", a manuscript that hasn't "been fully edited, subjected to final technical review, or formatted for print." 

the books will become available between two to six months prior to the intended publication date. 


manuel zelaya sworn in as president of honduras

yesterday saw the inauguration of a new president of honduras in tegucigalpa, the nation's capital. manuel zelaya, a former bank director and congressman, defeated national party candidate porifirio lobo sosa in a hotly contested presidential election in november 2005. his liberal party, however, still remains the de facto minority in honduras, since the national party shares an alliance with the christian democrats.

zelaya replaces former president ricardo maduro, who served one term in office from 2002-2006. he inherits a nation that is dealing with serious issues concerning crime and poverty. maduro established himself as a hardliner towards gang violence in honduras, most notably regarding the highly dangerous mara salvatrucha gang. while he did a great deal to crack down on violence in his term, he also drew sharp criticisms from human rights groups for his methods, which did not include the use of rehabiliation programs. 

zelaya and the liberals promised such reforms, but he also promised to double the honduran police force during his tenure, as well as create 400,000 jobs between now and 2010, when his term expires. he has also stated his support for a new free trade agreement with the united states, in addition to planning new policies to improve agriculture production, still the primary export of the honduran economy.

mr. zelaya served as a national congressman from 1985 to 1998, and was instrumental in implementing the so-called "open counties program" which increased decision-making powers of municipalities, a plan he says will grow further during his administration. he has been known as a wealthy landowner who carried himself with a sort of bravado both in congress and on the campaign trail, often dressed in cowboy boots and stetson hats. he has also worked in engineering, in addition to his successful careers in agriculture and politics.


fda approves therapeutic use of insulin inhalant

the united states food and drug administration (fda) approved the use of an inhalable form of insulin for treating both forms of diabetes in adults. the product, manufactured by pfizer inc. is called exubera and is a inhaled powder form of recombinant short-acting human insulin (rdna). 

insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas that, when released into the blood, controls the upper limits of glucose presence in the bloodstream. diabetics cannot produce (enough) insulin on their own, and have to control their blood sugars by appropriate diet, exercise and medication. untreated diabetes can have a serious adverse effect on health, it can lead to higher risk of cardiovascular disease, kidney failure, retinal damage and diabetic shock, which can be fatal. insulin has been used for the treatment of diabetes for many years now, but some patients find it difficult (and costly) to use as it has to be injected into the body, usually several times a day. currently, about five million americans take insulin injections. also, the use of any form of insulin can cause blood sugar to drop below safe levels, a condition called hypoglycemia. as a result, the use of insulin must be accompanied by a careful and regular monitoring of blood sugar levels.

the fda has issued guidelines that the inhalable form should not be used by smokers, patients with asthma, bronchitis, or emphysema as tests have shown that its use can reduce the breathing capacity of the lungs. other side effects associated with exubera therapy seen in clinical trials included cough, shortness of breath, sore throat, and dry mouth. the fda has given its approval on the basis of safety studies of short-term use and studies of its effects over long-term use are underway. 

pfizer has said the product wouldn't be widely available until june or july and that exact prices haven't been set. a pfizer spokesperson has said that the price will be "competitive" to injected insulin.



dharam singh steps down as karnataka chief minister

beleaguered karnataka chief minister n. dharam singh, of the congress (i) party, resigned on saturday, in what appeared to be a bid to avert an imminent defeat on the floor of the house.

singh's decision came after he was summoned by governor t.n. chaturvedi to discuss the constitutional deadlock arising out of his failure to take the trust vote in the assembly on friday due to pandemonium that led to its indefinite adjournment.

"i have decided to resign after governor t.n. chaturvedi expressed his inability to convene the assembly again on technical grounds to enable me to move the trust vote," singh told reporters. he said he had sent the resignation letter to the governor as he had no other option but to quit. 

singh demitted office exactly 20 months after he was sworn in may 28 as chief minister. 

the resignation is expected to lead to a coalition government of the janata dal-secular and bharatiya janata party (bjp) to be led by the former's h.d. kumaraswamy, son of former prime minister h.d. deve gowda.

this will be the first time the right wing party, bjp will taste power anywhere in southern india.


us 'psychological operations' comes home

united states defense secretary donald rumsfeld acknowledged in a document called the "information operations roadmap" that the pentagon's information packages meant for foreign consumption are often "consumed by our domestic audience."

the national security archives, a private non-profit research group obtained the document through a freedom of information act request and made it public this month.

"secretary rumsfeld's road map says the american people can't be protected from the pentagon's psychological operations abroad but it doesn't matter as long as he's not targeting the american public. it's the collateral damage theory of propaganda," said the director of the national security archive at george washington university, thomas blanton.

the role of psyop, according to the document itself, is an effort by the military to "convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence the emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups, and individuals."

pentagon spokesman lawrence di rita said the pentagon was not comfortable with propaganda "bleeding back" from overseas to the united states. "we're not ok with it," di rita said. "first of all, we're not lying. we're talking about truthful, accurate information, so that's baloney." di rita said.

the document said that "psyops," are restricted by policy and executive order from targeting us audiences, us military personnel and news agencies and outlets. "however, information intended for foreign audiences, including public diplomacy and psyop, increasingly is consumed by our domestic audience and vice-versa."

"information operations roadmap" said in part: "the increasing ability of people in most parts of the globe to access international information sources makes targeting particular audiences more difficult. today the distinction between foreign and domestic audiences becomes more a question of usg (u.s. government) intent rather than information dissemination practices." 

information used in psychological operations "will often be replayed by the news media for much larger audiences, including the american public...the likelihood that psyop messages will be replayed to a much broader audience, including the american public, requires specific boundaries be established," the document stated.



anti-whaling sea shepherd crew detained in south africa

after seven weeks in the southern ocean disrupting the japanese whaling fleet, a canadian registered anti-whaling ship, the , has been detained by south african authorities.

the , its captain , and his crew, have been detained indefinitely. the (samsa) have placed a guard on the gangplank and are patrolling the ship. 

the farley mowat, which sailed from melbourne, australia on december 6, was detained in cape town harbour, following a request from the canadian government. a samsa official said the ship did not have the required certification.

"they don't have the right certificates for the skipper, the first-mate or the chief engineer," an official said. according to samsa, the detention adheres to canadian maritime laws and followed correspondence from canada, who requested that the authorities check the ship. 

according to scoop independent, the ship and crew have been detained due to the international maritime organization's isps code. under canadian maritime law, both the captain and first officer should be canadian nationals. captain paul watson is canadian, first officer alex cornelissen is dutch. 

samsa claims that the farley mowat was "not in possession of an international ship security certificate or a ship security plan". 

this means the ship allegedly does not comply with the (isps code) ? a comprehensive set of measures to enhance the security of ships and port facilities. the code was developed in response to the perceived maritime threats to ships and port facilities in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in the united states.

the official said the detention was in line with canadian maritime laws and followed correspondence from canada requesting the authorities check the ship.

however, captain paul watson says political pressure from japan is behind the detention of the boat. he says he does not have the necessary documentation required by officials as the boat is registered as a yacht and not a commercial vessel.

 are currently in the antarctic catching whales for the japanese institute of cetacean research (icr)'s jarpa ii lethal research program - a practice condemned internationally by anti-whaling nations. after samples have been taken, the remaining whale meat is sold as a delicacy. 

during the last six weeks in antarctica, the farley mowat has intercepted the japanese whaling fleet, chasing the whalers over 4,000 miles. sea shepherd say the whalers spent 15 days running from them, and that "no whales were killed as the fleet attempted to put as much distance between the whalers and whale defenders as possible." 

during one confrontation the farley mowat crew claim it sideswiped the japanese whaling fleet supply vessel oriental bluebird and ordered it to leave from the southern ocean whale sanctuary.
sea shepherd conservation society say they will return to antarctica in december 2006 with a faster long-range vessel. "we discovered that when we can catch them, we could stop their whaling activities. if we can secure a faster ship we will be able to shut them down completely. we will be making every effort to secure a faster ship so that we can return and intervene more effectively against their illegal killing operations," said captain paul watson.

institute of cetacean research in tokyo councilor dan goodman say that australia, new zealand, and other anti-whaling nations should support japan's commitment to its scientific research. 

japan announced at last year's meeting of the international whaling commission (iwc) this summer its jarpa ii program that includes the killing of 935 and 10 endangered .

in 2007-08, japan will raise its self-imposed kill quotas to include 935 minke whales, 50 fin whales, and 50 . mr. goodman said japan had to kill the whales because certain kinds of data ? including how old whale populations are, how old whales are when they reach sexual maturity, how long whales live for, and what they eat ? cannot be obtained using non-lethal methods.

"these are the kinds of data required to improve management measures for the resumption of commercial whaling," mr. goodman said. "of course the anti-whaling scientists don't believe this kind of data is required because they do not want to see a resumption of commercial whaling."

dr gales, head of australia's delegation to the scientific committee for the iwc, said after years of research the japanese should have concluded by now that piked (minke) whales eat krill. "they're asking for support for science that has no support," he said.

next year, sea shepherd conservation society say they intend to return to the southern ocean whale sanctuary in antarctica to do some research of their own; "we need to research more effective law enforcement measures to shut down this criminal operation that is posing as a research project," said captain watson.



australia's million-dollar-a-month nauru detention centre for two refugees

the cost of maintaining the australian government's refugee detention centre on the tiny island republic of nauru is now estimated at aud1 million per month. the centre is currently home to just two iraqi asylum seekers who were found to be refugees, but refused protection by australian immigration after receiving an adverse security assessment from the australian security agency, asio.

immigration officials say the nauru camps are being maintained in a state of readiness, complete with dozens of staff, in case they are needed for future asylum-seekers. the "million dollar a month" figure is more than six times the official estimate given after the last big group of asylum seekers left the island late last year.

the group of 25 asylum seekers were accepted by australia after nearly five years detained on the island. the decision to release the group followed a september visit to nauru by former immigration minister john hodges with mental-health experts, who said that "the precarious mental health of many of the detainees required urgent attention." the delegates said some men were being constantly monitored for suicide risk or self-harm.

the last two asylum seekers on nauru say they are hitting rock bottom - after their friends were granted refugee and humanitarian visas. both men say they are beyond the point of despair, insisting that they cannot understand why they received adverse security assessments. 

"sometimes i feel that we are a piece of rubbish that everyone is trying to get rid of," mohammed sagar told melbourne's age newspaper. "we feel we are caught in the middle of a situation. it is too much to bear," said mr sagar, who insists neither he nor mohammad faisal are security risks. 

"we strongly reject the finding and we believe it is unfair and unjustified. i have not said or done anything to cause harm in any way to an individual, let alone a whole country."

mr sagar said there was no longer an interpreter at the facility and this accentuated the men's problems. the pair are also concerned that they will lose other support, including access to a psychiatrist, when responsibility for the centre shifts from the international organisation for migration (iom) to australian and nauru authorities in march.

"i feel i am very alone on this very tiny piece of land in the middle of the sea," mohammed sagar, 29, said in november. mohammad faisal, 25, said: "my only option now is just to keep going with medication and sit alone inside my room and cry."

faisal and sagar say they had been been accused of not being co-operative in interviews with an asio officer in january, a charge they emphatically denied. "i am wondering why those officers didn't mention earlier that i haven't been co-operative," wrote sagar. "why they waited four months to tell me this. i feel it is a psychological war. and they waited all this time just to put me under mental pressure."

they had reportedly made "anti-western" and "anti-australian" comments during an interview with asio officers. 

"i've never expected that i would some day get such an accusation thrown on me, because it's terrible," said mr sagar. "i have never been in a police station, for a small fight even. how come to be a security threat for a whole country? it's terrible. i can't imagine it, even. i'm living in limbo. to think there is a possibility, even 1 per cent, to get a rejection, makes me feel very, very bad," he said.

mr faisal says he has a problem with his eyes which he believes could be treated in australia. "i am enduring all this just to get freedom and be treated as a human being. if i didn't have a problem, i would go back (to iraq) and would not endure this terrible situation here. i don't want human rights to be given to me. i want animal rights."

this week a dimia spokesman said "preliminary estimates" of the cost of maintaining the nauru facilities in a contingency state were "around $1 million a month". the spokesman said the cost of maintaining the centre was not affected by the presence of the two men. 

australian democrats senator andrew bartlett said the cost was absurd. he said it was crucial that the two men on nauru not be forgotten: "they can't just be left in limbo."

critics say there are no grounds for maintaining the facility, bearing in mind the christmas island immigration facility with a capacity for over 200 people ? and is currently building a aud300 million 800-bed centre there.

the howard government has negotiated with nauru and papua new guinea for the detention camps to remain in operation, and has indicated that it will re-activate the two camps if people smuggling resumes. prime minister john howard hails the use of offshore detention as an "outstanding success" 

senator bartlett said the pair should be allowed to appeal against the findings to the administrative appeals tribunal, like those who received adverse security clearances on australian soil. "it's obviously not tenable to keep two people stuck on an island in the middle of the pacific on their own," he said. labor immigration spokesman tony burke said: "nauru should be shut down. it's a waste of money, and it's appalling to leave these two languishing."

an immigration department spokesman said officials were working closely with the nauruan government "to find a resolution to the situation".

mr sagar said he had suffered from depression and frustration over the past four years, but it was much harder now. "we had friends we could talk to to pass the time," he said. "now i feel as if time has stopped." he expressed gratitude to australians who had written letters of support. 

among those expressing concern is mohammad al-zirjawi, who was freed in august said, "they will go crazy in the camp alone." mr zirjawi suffers from depression, but says he is trying to make a fresh start.

refugee advocate marion le says the ordeal has been a shockingly long period of detention for those on nauru. she said, "it's been in my opinion an unmitigated disaster."

the immigration department said in november that the government was working to resolve the cases of the two final nauru asylum seekers.


trade hall roof collapses in poland

the roof of a trade hall in metropolian katowice (district chorzow and katowice), poland has collapsed. officials said there are at least 67 fatalities and at least 160 people were injured. more than 125 people are still believed to be trapped inside the building. 

"luckily nothing happened to me, but i saw a macabre scene, as people tried to break windows in order to get out. people were hitting the panes with chairs, but the windows were unbreakable. one of the panes finally broke, and they started to get out by the window," said survivor franciszek kowal.

victims have been transported to hospitals in the mining area.

the trade hall was holding a pigeon exhibition and the collapse is believed to have been caused by large amounts of snow on the roof. at least 500 people were believed to be inside when the roof collapsed.

jaroslaw wojtasik a spokeman for the katowice fire brigade said, "the weight of snow likely caused the roof to cave in at about 5:30 p.m., less than two hours before the event was scheduled to close for the evening."

"from our crisis centres, we have found there are about 20 fatalities. we don't know if foreigners are among them," said andrzej g?ska, spokesman for the regional police department.

rescuers are concerned that people trapped may die from hypothermia due to the freezing temperatures (currently about -15 degrees celsius in chorzow ).

people standing outisde the building were helping rescuers and those that were injured into emergency vehicles.




tunnel under u.s.-mexico border trafficked in people, drugs

the combined efforts by agents from the u.s. immigration and customs enforcement, the drug enforcement administration and the border patrol have led to the discovery of a 2,400-foot (732 metre) tunnel between the united states and mexico. 

an investigation into a suspected drug smuggling operation in , california yielded tips which led to the discovery tuesday by mexican authorities of the nearly half mile long passage. the tunnel opens to the surface inside a small warehouse on the mexican side of the border near the airport. on the u.s. side, it surfaces inside a huge 48,222-square-foot (4480 m) warehouse at otay mesa, a town located near a border checkpoint in the baja area of california.

bales of marijuana weighing nearly 2-tons were seized by mexican agents from that side of the tunnel, while u.s. agents confiscated 200 pounds (91kg) at the other end. there are no reports of arrests.

on wednesday, a second tunnel was discovered this month in the san diego area when a u.s. border patrol vehicle got stuck in a sinkhole. the ground collapsed from the weight of the vehicle. the crude and shallow tunnel was found in an unfinished condition near the san ysidro border crossing. it originated from a vacant lot in tijuana, and is the 21st tunnel to be found over the last four years.


documents allege u.s. army kidnapped wives of enemy fighters

united states military documents indicate that the u.s. army has taken and incarcerated wives of suspected enemy fighters for "leveraging" purposes against their husbands; but lt. col. barry johnson, a u.s. command spokesman, said only iraqi women who pose an "imperative threat" are being held.

a u.s. intelligence officer claimed that, in one instance, the young mother of a nursing baby was locked up and in another case, one american colonel suggested to another colonel that they lure the husband of a kidnapped wife by putting a note on the family's door telling him "to come get his wife."

female detentions by coalition forces have become more of an issue since kidnappers seized american journalist jill carroll and demanded that all iraqi women detainees be freed.

thursday the u.s. military did free five women. all of the released women had been accused of "aiding terrorists or planting explosives," but an iraqi government commission found there was insufficient evidence to continue holding them.

hind al-salehi, an iraqi human rights activist, claims that u.s. units sometimes detained wives to pressure men into turning themselves in.

busho ibrahim ali, iraq's deputy justice minister, denied ali's claims and said hostage-holding was a tactic used under the regime of saddam hussein and that "we are not saddam." 

however, newly released pentagon documents said; "during the pre-operation brief it was recommended by tf personnel that if the wife were present, she be detained and held in order to leverage the primary target's surrender," wrote a 14-year veteran intelligence officer. the intelligence officer said he objected, but that when they raided the house a senior sergeant, who was the team leader, seized her anyway.

"the 28-year-old woman had three young children at the house, one being as young as six months and still nursing," the intelligence officer wrote.

in the released documents most names and signatures are blacked out.

in a second e-mail, a staff officer asked another officer, "what are you guys doing to try to get the husband ? have you tacked a note on the door and challenged him to come get his wife?"

the deputy commander of the brigade advised his higher command two days later, "as each day goes by, i get more input that these gals have some info and/or will result in getting the husband. these ladies fought back extremely hard during the original detention. they have shown indications of deceit and misinformation."

the reply was, "cg wants the husband."(cg meaning commanding general).

johnson said this indicated justification for the detention of the woman, "it is clear the unit believed the females detained had substantial knowledge of insurgent activity and warranted being held."



australian government hopes to establish triage by phone

the australian federal government hopes to slash hospital emergency department waiting queues by setting up a 24-hour national medical hotline.

a government source said that the national health call centre network would be manned by registered triage nurses 24-hours a day, 7-days a week. triage nurses would perform a diagnosis over the phone based upon the description given by the patient. the patient would then be referred to the nearest emergency department, their local gp or pharmacy ? as determined by the nurse.

the issue is expected to be discussed at next month's council of australian governments (coag) meeting in canberra. it is believed that the states and territories are supportive of the system.

if agreed upon by coag, the service will be jointly funded by state/territory and the commonwealth governments at a cost of $40 million a year. the service would take 18 months to set up.

the service will be ran from a centralised call centre and be managed by a private contractor.

julia gillard, the opposition's spokeswoman for health said any national call service needed to be linked with local gps and medical services.

gillard claims that under a labor government, an after-hours "pizza hut" style service would be implemented, with a single national number connecting to a local call centre.

"you would be talking to people in the locality you are in and who know the local services," she said

the australian medical association, an organisation representing more than 27,000 doctors in australia has slammed the proposal saying it will only deter people from seeking appropriate medical treatment.



death of the catholicos

former catholicos of the east and malankara metropolitan of the malankara orthodox syrian church his holiness baselios marthoma mathews ii, who died at devalokam here last thursday evening, will be laid to rest at mount horeb ashram, sasthamkotta, in kollam district at 13:00 hrs on january 28.

the body would be kept at the old seminary here for public homage till 09:00 hrs today, later taken to elia cathedral and from there to sasthamkotta at 13:00 hrs.

catholicos baselios marthoma didymus-i would be the main celebrant at the funeral ceremony tomorrow.

a holiday has been declared for all educational institutions of the church on friday and saturday as mark of respect to the departed spiritual leader, a church spokesman said.


 

amelie mauresmo wins australian open

french tennis champion amelie mauresmo yesterday won her first grand slam title at the australian open in melbourne. mauresmo was winning 6-1 2-0 when her opponent, belgian player justine henin-hardenne, retired, citing a stomach complaint.

after winning a rally in the second game of the second set, henin-hardenne approached the umpire and complained of feeling unwell. she then consulted her trainer before returning to the court. after losing two points, she approached the net and told mauresmo she was too ill to continue, ending the game in 52 minutes.

henin-hardenne apologized to her opponent, the tournament organisers and a disappointed crowd of 15,452 people. “i’m feeling very disappointed for sure to end the tournament this way. i am feeling very sick and couldn’t stay longer and continue,” she said.

she later told a press conference that she believed anti-inflammatory medication she had been taking for a shoulder injury had made her feel ill and left her with no energy. “i felt it when i woke up, but i tried. i knew at the beginning of the match that i could not win it,” she said.

henin-hardenne’s retirement gave mauresmo her third victory by default in the tournament. she reached the fourth round after dutch player michaella krajicek retired with heat exhaustion. in the semi-final, mauresmo was again the beneficiary of a retirement when belgian player kim clijsters retired with an ankle injury.

until now, 26-year-old mauresmo was the only former world no.1 to never have won a grand slam title. she said in a post-match interview that when she returns home to her base in geneva, switzerland, she will toast the win with a bottle of 1937 chateau d'yquem wine which she has been saving to celebrate her first grand slam title.

“i bought a bottle about three or four years ago. very good one. very old one also. i keep it. i thought, "you know, this one is going to be for my grand slam, my first grand slam title,"" she said.

mauresmo’s win comes seven years after the then unseeded player reached the 1999 australian open final, the last time she has reached a grand slam final. she lost to martina hingis and was berated by the press and several players for her muscular build and for acknowledging her then partner, sylvie bourdon, believing if they were open about their relationship, people would be less inclined to gossip. at the time, lindsay davenport complained that playing mauresmo was like playing against a male player. while martina hingis accused her of being “half a man.”

henin-hardenne’s retirement is the first time a player has retired from a women’s grand slam final since brazil’s maria bueno retired in 1966 during a final against australia’s margaret smith court.

mauresmo is now ranked world no.2 and is the first frenchwoman to win an australian open since mary pierce won in 1995. mauresmo takes home the australian open trophy and prize money of $au1,220,000, while henin-hardenne walked away with the runner-up prize money of $au610,000.



corby's star witness convicted of rape

john patrick ford, the australian prisoner who testified at schapelle corby’s bali drug trafficking trial, has been convicted of 11 charges relating to the rape and assault of a woman.

ford’s trial was postponed to allow him to travel to bali in the custody of australian federal police officers to testify that he had overheard a jailhouse confession. ford alleged he had heard another prisoner claim ownership of the marijuana found in corby’s possession. he told the balinese court that corby was the victim of an australian domestic inter-airport drug-smuggling operation. she is currently serving a 20-year prison term after being convicted in that case. 

in december 2005, a county court jury convicted ford of 11 charges, including rape, intentionally causing injury, threatening to inflict serious injury, false imprisonment, aggravated burglary, burglary, making threats to kill and stalking, but a suppression order issued by the court prevented publication of the convictions until the pre-sentencing hearing on friday, january 27, 2006. 

ford’s lawyer, tom danos, told the hearing that corby had written to ford thanking him for risking his own welfare by agreeing to testify. danos urged the court to be lenient in sentencing ford, claiming that his victim had effectively forgiven him for his crimes and that he deserved a lighter sentence for co-operating with authorities investigating the corby case.

ford has been attacked twice in jail since testifying at corby’s bali trial. since returning from bali in march, 2005, ford has remained in protective custody, to prevent further attacks. danos claimed that this would make any jail sentence particularly difficult for his client.

county court judge margaret rizkalla adjourned the pre-sentencing hearing to a date yet to be set.




world celebrates chinese new year

millions of people celebrated the arrival of the chinese year of the dog throughout the world's time zones.

chinese families spent new year's eve cleaning their houses to get rid of bad luck from the past year, before celebrating with reunion dinners.

throughout china and the world's chinatowns, dragon dancers danced and fireworks went off to mark the arrival of the new year. 

in the chinese lunar calendar, the chinese year of the dog ends on february 17, 2007, making it 385 days long, or 13 months. the last time a chinese year was this long was in 1944. 



firefighters find burning body parts in oil drums

new south wales rural fire service officers called to extinguish a small bushfire in the tomerong state forest, about 210 kilometers south of sydney, discovered two oil drums containing burning body parts.

the firefighters called nearby nowra police who established several crime scenes in the area. it is believed the drums contained the remains of two people who police believe lived in the area.

nsw police superintendent kyle stewart told the abc that officers were confronted with an horrific scene. "[it was a] fairly horrific scene, the two bodies were on fire at the time, or the barrels in which they were located, were on fire when the rfs responded and certainly that doesn't add to the pleasantness of the situation," he said.

a 27-year-old man and a 36-year-old woman have presented themselves to police. police say they are assisting detectives with their inquiries.


bob woodruff injured by improvised explosive device in iraq

"abc news" anchorman and his camera operator doug vogt have been seriously injured in an explosion. early reports indicate that both men sustained head injuries in the blast.

woodruff was evacuated to the balad airbase, 68 kilometers north of baghdad and is currently undergoing surgery. "bob and doug are in serious condition and are being treated at a u.s. military hospital in iraq," abc said in a statement. 

reports say woodruff was taping a report inside an iraqi mechanized military vehicle near taji, iraq when the vehicle ran over and detonated an improvised explosive device. abc also reports that exchanges of small arms fire took place shortly after the explosion. "msnbc" reports that woodruff and vogt were wearing body armor and helmets when the explosion occurred, measures that may turn out to have saved their lives. the "associated press" is reporting that the two men were standing in the hatch of the vehicle at the time of the explosion, and that no other people were injured.

woodruff and vogt had been embedded with the 4th infantry division that was accompanying an iraqi army unit.

abc also said that both woodruff and vogt were wearing body armor and helmets.

the u.s. military headquarters in baghdad has confirmed the attack took place. however, no further information has been made available.

vogt, a 46-year-old canadian based in france, is an emmy-award winning cameraman for abc news with 25 years of experience.

according to the committee to protect journalists, 61 journalists have been killed in the line of duty in iraq since the u.s.-led invasion in 2003.

woodruff became the permanent co-anchor of abc's "world news tonight", with elizabeth vargas on january 3, 2006, replacing the late peter jennings.




rare snow storm in portugal

today an uncommon snow storm covered much of portugal. apart from mountainous regions, snow is usually a rare vision in this south european country because flat terrain and a mediterranean climate. however, january 2006 saw a cold wave sweeping across europe, and since early morning snow fell in seaside towns like figueira da foz, in central portugal, and the storm reached record south locations such as algarve.

lisbon, the portuguese capital, received snow for the first time in 52 years. other towns with a record snowfall were leiria, santarem, Evora, setubal, portalegre, sesimbra, palmela, fatima, pombal, abrantes, torres novas and ourem.

highways and roads were closed in much of central and south portugal. in montejunto, one hundred people were evacuated from their vehicles. the storm caused electricity to be cut in elvas and other parts of the alentejo region. a number of car accidents and fallen trees were reported to have only resulted in minor injuries. in lisbon, the city government demanded subway stations to remain open overnight, so that homeless people could find shelter.

at 1500 gmt, phone companies saw a record level of calls and text messages due to surprised people contacting and warning each other.



congressional staff actions prompt wikipedia investigation

edits by massachusetts congressman marty meehan's staff on his wikipedia article spurred a lowell sun story and a subsequent wikipedia investigation of all internet addresses assigned to the congress of the united states.

while edits from the capitol are not generally news, the biographical article for mr. meehan was carefully edited, removing negative comments while expanding with content from the congressman's political flyer. the ip address which made these edits has an extensive editing history on wikipedia, and has been repeatedly blocked in past months for article vandalism and violation of wikipedia policies (wikipedia's log of 143.231.249.141 being blocked from editing).

wikipedia administrators, alerted to the marty meehan article edits, realized that many edits to politically-sensitive articles had been made from ip addresses assigned to the us capitol building, and have begun an investigation into all edits from such addresses.

at the center of the investigation are edits by the ip address 143.231.249.141, which is the proxy through which most of the u.s. house internet traffic passes. jon brandt, spokesman for the committee on house administration confirmed house ownership of the ip . an aide for rep. meehan made two edits to the article on meehan's biography. the first was on july 18, 2005 and replaced the article with his official biography, which was biased towards meehan. a later edit on december 27, 2005 removed text referring to mr. meehan's pledge to only run four terms, or 8 years.

the text that was removed said "he also ran on a platform of term limits. however, after serving four terms as us congressman, the number of terms he pledged that he and no other congressman should serve out, he has since gone back on his word and now is adamently [sic] against the idea of term limits for congressmen." 

the text was replaced with: "his fiscally responsible voting record since then has earned him praise from citizen watchdog groups."

congressman meehan has served seven terms as representative of his home state of massachusetts.

most of the edits from capitol hill ips have not been harmful edits. many edits have been made which were neutral, correcting factual, spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. a sampling of both positive and harmful edits to politically-related articles are included here. 

the communications director for rep. joe wilson took a different approach to editing rep. wilson's article. she contacted wikipedia founder jimbo wales, who advised that she supply a biography on the wikipedia article's discussion page, rather than edit the article directly, for other wikipedia editors to check and to incorporate into the article itself. after she added the official bio to wilson's discussion page, wikipedia editors used it and several other sources to expand the article substantially.

following the reports of the edits from the house ip address, a so-called "checkuser" (a check of confidential information to determine the accounts used by staffers coming from that ip) was performed to determine what users logged-in with an account edited from the house ip address, and the edits made by all of those users were checked as well. they all showed little bias and no vandalism. 

unlike the u.s. house, computers from the u.s. senate are assigned individual ip addresses. to identify possible vandals, the edit history for all senators was checked, and a list of 25 addresses was extracted. while some had good faith edits, others showed unacceptable behaviour.

the entire 156.33.x.x netblock is for senate use only 

the following is a partial list of u.s. senator biographies on the english-language wikipedia edited by senate employees.


while the identity of these ips are not known, a small sample of edits from capitol ips shows both helpful and harmful edits.




a complete list of all the senatorial ips that contributed to political articles can be found here.

the attention of wikipedia administrators was drawn to the pattern of edits to wikipedia articles by congressional staffers at 18:47 on january 29. in response, wikipedia administrators began a systematic examination of all edits to articles made from ip addresses that have been assigned for use by the u.s. senate and house of representatives.

administrators found several places where edits from u.s. senate ip addresses had been to articles on senators.

following online discussions using irc, wikipedia administrator firefox blocked the u.s. house of representatives' wikipedia editing privileges for one week while the issue is discussed. the block was lifted shortly thereafter by a dissenting admin. 

while the wikimedia foundation has not yet issued a statement regarding this, jimmy wales was quoted by the ap discouraging the removal of facts. "you don't delete it," wales said. "if they wanted to put in their side of things, that would seem ethically relevant, rather than just omitting it."



two people charged over burning bodies in drums

a man and a woman have been charged with the murders of two people whose bodies were found burning in oil drums in the tomerong state forest, about 210 kilometers south of sydney on sunday.

the bodies were found by new south wales rural fire service officers who were called to extinguish a small bushfire. the firefighters notified the local nowra police who established several crime scenes in the area. the crime scenes are believed to include an area surrounding a burnt out vehicle believed to belong to the victims, a house where the murders are thought to have occurred, and areas in the state forest.

27-year-old stacey lea-caton voluntarily attended nowra police station and told officers he had witnessed a man and woman being tied up in a house in nowra and he feared they were about to be murdered by another man and woman.

police then attended a property in calymea street, nowra, where 36-year-old kim leanne snibson agreed to accompany them to the station for questioning. 

lea-caton and snibson have both been charged with two counts of murder and faced nowra local court today.

magistrate doug dick issued a suppression order on the identities of the victims, but refused snibson’s request for a suppression order on her identity to protect her children who attend a local school, saying the court processes must be transparent.

lea-caton appeared briefly in the court dock but snibson refused and remained in the cells.

they did not apply for bail and both were remanded into custody to appear in court on april 10.



steve kubby, co-author of california proposition 215, grows dangerously ill in us custody

steve kubby who was facing extradition from canada, returned to california, was arrested, and is now in custody in placer county, california jail, pending a hearing today. he is a medical cannabis patient who relies on the drug to regulate the symptoms of malignant phenochromocytoma, a cancer of the adrenal gland which can cause the level of adrenaline in his system to fluctuate out of control. if left unregulated, this can result in sudden, fatal heart attack, stroke, pneumonia, and a variety of other conditions.

kubby was arrested on arrival at san francisco international airport thursday night on behalf of the placer county sheriff's department, having exhausted his extradition appeals in canada. he was taken to san mateo county jail, pending transport to placer county jail. while at san mateo county jail, he was reportedly denied access to medication and sufficient bedding. on arrival at placer county jail, his blood pressure was dangerously high, and so was given marinol, a thc synthetic.

communication with kubby is highly restricted. according to his wife, michele, kubby has been placed in solitary confinement, denied access several times to sufficient bedding to keep him warm, and denied access to the cannabis which, according to several experts on his universally fatal condition, has been solely responsible for keeping him alive for decades. the marinol he is being given partially mitigates his symptoms, but does not completely control them. he now grows dangerously ill.

in particular, he relates how he was ordered by prison medical staff to take beta-blockers for his blood-pressure. due to the episodic nature of the adrenaline spikes causing the high blood-pressure, according to all of his doctors, the beta-blockers would likely kill him once the spikes dropped. in an interview by phone with journalist pat mccartney over the weekend, kubby reported that, for refusing the beta-blockers, he was coerced into signing a waiver absolving the prison of liability, and has since been refused all care, including even tylenol for pain management. 

activists concerned with medical marijuana, human rights and prison reform will hold a rally at noon today in front of the placer county superior courthouse, where steve kubby is scheduled to be arraigned on violation of probation charges.

kubby was a co-author of california's compassionate use act of 1996, also known as proposition 215. he fled to canada in 2001 to escape the possibility of incarceration for an extended period without access to cannabis, a possibility which, in both his and expert medical opinion, would certainly prove fatal. 



hamas leader discusses future of palestinian state and israel

yesterday, hamas leader mahmoud al-zahar responded to wolf blitzer's questions with accusations that israel is dedicated to establishing a state covering all land between the nile and the euphrates rivers. blitzer pressed al-zahar who then stated that the blue lines on the israeli flag represent the two rivers.
al-zahar said that the new israeli state would include palestine, sinai, syria, jordan and part of saudi arabia and that the knesset lays out the expansion plan. he went on to challenge blitzer to ask israeli leaders about the matter.

when the topic turned to whether hamas has the goal of destroying israel, the hamas leader said that it was israel who has atomic weapons so it is more likely that palestine would be destroyed than israel.



fatah assaults european union office

in a reaction to the ongoing controversy over the september publication of cartoons by the danish newspaper "jyllands-posten", gunmen from the fatah assaulted a european union (eu) office in the gaza strip on monday, prompting denmark to warn citizens to avoid travel to saudi arabia.

the danish newspaper issued an apology to arab countries later monday through petra, a jordanian news agency, for publishing the series of 12 cartoon depictions of the prophet mohammad, some of which characterized him as a sort of terrorist.

the eu office was assaulted in an ordeal that lasted approximately 30 minutes. no one was reported injured and no shots were fired. the gunmen, a group of approximately 15 masked men armed with anti-tank launchers, automatic weapons, and hand grenades, burst into the office of the international observers and then withdrew several minutes later, remaining outside to keep the offices closed.

the gunmen demanded apologies from both denmark and from norway, where the cartoons were republished this month, threatening that citizens of those countries would be prevented from entering the gaza strip.



west papuan refugees may face death if deported

refugee rights advocates and australian parliamentarians on christmas island have expressed alarm at the indonesian government's direct request to prime minister john howard for the return of 43 papuan asylum seekers, who arrived on cape york by boat on january 18th. rob wesley-smith from "australians for a free west papua" said the asylum seekers escaped because their lives were threatened, and would certainly face death if forced to return. 

indonesian president susilo bambang yudhoyono has assured mr howard that the group will not be prosecuted if they are returned.

the west papuan asylum seekers are currently being detained in an australian immigration detention centre on the remote christmas island, 2,600 kilometres off perth, western australia. the group claims genocide at the hands of the indonesian government.

the federal government flew the 36 adults and seven children to christmas island, where the families were put into immigration department housing and the single men in the detention centre.

rob wesley-smith says the asylum seekers should be dealt with according to australian law. 

"the people have escaped... because their lives are at risk," he said. "their fathers have been killed, one of them was in jail for a number of years himself, and this is the reality of the situation in west papua - so no way should they go back - they'd be killed."

supporters of the "west papuan 43" say that the west papuans "are entitled to the support of community groups and their fellow country people. they should also have easy access to translators, medical care and independent legal assistance."

the indonesia human rights committee has called on the government to plea for the immediate release of the asylum seekers into the australian community, and for their claims to be processed fairly and as expeditiously as possible.

immigration minister senator amanda vanstone said it was not always possible to keep women and children out of detention.

the new zealand green party has called for some of the asylum seekers to be processed in new zealand.

mr wesley-smith says they have legitimate claims for refugee status. "there's evidence that some have been mistreated and tortured and they're a cohesive group and strongly politically motivated, and that there is no way that they would be seen as a group to be sent back - that that's just a preliminary assessment," he said.

the 43 asylum seekers told of graphic, disturbing accounts of beatings and torture by indonesian military, during interviews with immigration officers over the past week.

according to the melbourne age newspaper, an immigration source said the refugees had a "very strong case" for refugee status. "some of what has come out of the interviews has been absolutely heart-wrenching," the source said. the group described accounts of vicious bashings while in prison and attacks on villages and livestock in retaliation for the papuans agitating for independence. 

despite human rights organisations and academic reports, detailing thousands of deaths and even "genocide", indonesia says "abuses no longer occur in west papua." 

under the control of the indonesian military an estimated 100,000 west papuans have lost their lives over the last four decades. two days after the west papuan refugees arrived in australia, indonesian troops opened fire in the paniai district, killing a 13-year-old and wounding two others.

west papuan leaders and academics say that the indigenous people may be wiped out because of new threats such as an hiv/aids epidemic and the unchecked environmental devastation caused the exploitation of forestry and mineral resources.

the australian government have yet to make a decision on the asylum seekers, the general affairs counsellor of the australian embassy said in jakarta.

"there is no decision yet, not at all," elizabeth o'neill said. she said verification and interviews by australian authorities were "standard procedure" and valid for anybody arriving in the country without official documents. the process, she said, was in line with united nations conventions and australian laws.

she said the two governments have had good relations since the bali bombing in october 2002 and the tsunami in december 2004. reports in jakarta media say john howard has given assurance to indonesian president susilo bambang yudhoyono that the handling of the west papuan group, who's territory is under indonesian authority, would not disturb the relation between the two countries.

"prime minister howard has even reiterated his support that papua is part of the indonesian sovereignty, and promised to have close communication both at the high level, ministerial and official levels to handle the case without disturbing our relation," said a spokesman.

a department of immigration spokesman said lawyers were currently interviewing the west papuans on christmas island about their asylum claims.

the papuans' boat was only the third boat of asylum seekers to arrive on the mainland since 2001. asylum seekers who arrive by boat are sent to remote detention centres for processing, in what the howard government calls the pacific solution.

australia's borders are protected by mandatory detention legislation. the australian government detains all persons entering the country by boat without a valid visa, including children. since the late 1990’s unathorised arrivals have been transferred to one of the australian immigration detention facilities on the australian mainland, or to manus island, nauru or christmas island as part of the pacific solution. mandatory detention remains a very controversial aspect of australian immigration policy.

a high court decision in 2005 means that detention can also be indefinite - the court ruled that the government had the right to keep a palestinian asylum seeker in detention, even without any prospect of release.

greens senator kerry nettle visited christmas island at the weekend and talked with some of the papuans. she called on the government to move the group to the australian mainland, where there is an established west papuan community. 


teacher confesses to having sex with student

a south australian teacher has confessed to having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student.

24-year-old bridget mary nolan pleaded guilty to three charges of unlawful sexual intercourse with her male student. facing a maximum of seven years imprisonment for each charge, nolan pleaded with the adelaide district court to show leniency, claiming that she had been vulnerable, lonely and depressed because her boyfriend had left her for another woman.

nolan, a music teacher, told the court she invited the boy to her house to discuss a kiss which had occurred between the pair on a school camp. the pair then had sex on three occasions, allegedly at the boy’s instigation. nolan claims she engaged in the relationship out of fear that the boy would retaliate and report her, causing her to lose her job.

nolan’s lawyer, joana fuller, told the court that nolan was a secondary victim. "there's more than one victim (here), in what is clearly a sorry tale. these offences occurred not, as is often the case, as a result of a deliberate, premeditated exploitation of a student-teacher relationship. (nolan) was lonely, she was depressed, she was heartbroken. she was utterly vulnerable at the time these offences were committed,” fuller said.

the boy’s mother told the court the relationship had deeply affected her son. she said that his grades had dropped and that he has lost friends and been subjected to torment, harassment and humiliation by other students. "i will never forgive you for causing my beautiful son so much hurt and humiliation," she told nolan.

the prosecutor urged the court not to suspend nolan’s sentence, saying that she had repeatedly abused her position of trust.

judge gordon barrett adjourned the case for sentencing in march.


sag awards handed out

abc remained a screen actors guild (sag) award winning powerhouse, with "lost" and "desperate housewives" winning outstanding performance by an ensemble in their respective categories. keifer sutherland ("24") and sandra oh ("grey's anatomy") won for the performances in drama series, and sean hayes ("will and grace") and felicity huffman ("desperate housewives") were honoured for their comedy series performances. paul newman won outstanding performance by a male actor in a television movie or miniseries, for his potrayal of max roby in hbo's "empire falls", while s. epatha merkerson role of rachel "nanny" crosby in "lackawanna blues" took the female actor.

the sag selects a random portion of their professional members each year, to vote on each award category. the 12th annual awards ceremony for the 2005 season was hosted on sunday.

william shatner, who was nominated that night for his role in "boston legal", introduced a "cinematic salute" to sag members who perform in television advertisements. shatner himself is a frequent commercial actor, known for appearing in priceline.com commercials.

after a filmed tribute, actress jamie lee curtis presented shirley temple black with the screen actors guild awards 42nd annual life achievement award.



accident in jacksonville, florida, releases low-radioactive gas

wtlv news channel in florida reports an explosion that released radioactive materials at unison industries, located at 7575 baymeadows way. one person was injured, according to the report. 

unison spokesperson wayne moles said "we believe one cylinder of gas may have exploded". the cylinder was filled with krypton gas according to ap. firefighters say at least 40 people became exposed to the low-level radiation. all are undergoing decontamination measures. 

unison manufactures aviation equipment and military applications like ignition generators for tomahawk cruise missiles.




al-jazeera airs new video of ayman al-zawahri

the qatar-based television network has aired a new tape of 's second-in-command, . in his first video appearance to mention the peshawar province missile attack in pakistan, al-zawahri refers to the alleged strike on himself and calls united states president george w. bush, a "butcher" and a "failure".

on the tape, al-zawahri says he survived an american air strike targeting him in eastern pakistan on january 13. the air strike killed 13 villagers and led to widespread demonstrations in pakistan for the alleged deaths of civilians. the u.s. has made no official claim of responsibility for the cross-border attack from afghanistan.

"butcher of washington, you are not only defeated and a liar, but also a failure. you are a curse on your own nation and you have brought and will bring them only catastrophes and tragedies," zawahri said, referring to president bush. "bush, do you know where i am? i am among the muslim masses."

al-zawahri also threatened the citizens of britain and the u.s.a. in the tape; "the lion of islam, sheik , may god protect him, offered you a decent exit from your dilemma. but your leaders, who are keen to accumulate wealth, insist on throwing you in battles and killing your souls in iraq and afghanistan and ? god willing ? on your own land."

a u.s. counterterrorism official said to "ap" reporters on condition of anonymity, that the message broadcast by al-jazeera indicates that al-qaeda believed it was important to show that al-zawahri is alive. the u.s. official also noted that the video was delivered quickly, demonstrating al-zawahri's ability to get his message out even faster than bin laden. as al-zawahri make a reference to osama bin laden's offering of a truce, it appears this tape is recorded not more than 12 days ago, which make a very short time according to al-qaeda standards.

it has been widely reported, but not confirmed, that some al-qaeda operatives were killed by the u.s. airstrike on the village of damadola in pakistan.





bosnian administrator outlines plans

bosnia's new international administrator has taken office after being selected by the european union's foreign ministers. christian schwarz-schilling, a german diplomat, said he hoped he would not require full use of his extensive powers and that the bosnian authorities would take on the burden of building the country's future.

mr schwarz-schilling told the press that he intended to scale back the overarching powers of his office and allow existing bosnian political institutions to take control. he said he wanted "to bring the population to the point of taking real ownership of their institutions and not relying on the high representative as a governor to do this job.” although he refused to comment on the performance of the more assertive departing governor lord ashdown, he did complain of "a top-down approach. it is important than i have done ten years of bottom-up work as a mediator. i am a bottom-up person."

lord ashdown said in an interview today that, while proud of his achievements in bosnia, he profoundly regrets that the notorious war criminals radovan karadzic and ratko mladic are yet to be arrested. 


first iraqi case of avian flu reported

the first case of avian flu in iraq was announced today by the country's health minister, abdel mutalib mohammed. the preliminary result was reportedly from a united states military laboratory in cairo; the world health organisation are expected to seek confirmation of this from a uk laboratory.

the victim was shangen abdul qader, a 15-year-old girl from the northern kurdish village of raniya. her suspected h5n1 infection killed her on january 17. the death of the girl's uncle is also believed to be under investigation due to him having symptoms that may indicate flu.

the area of iraq where the suspected deaths occurred borders turkey where there have been 12 confirmed cases of which four resulted in death. turkey's last reported victim, fatma ozcan, was also aged 15.



americans spent more than they earned in 2005

americans are spending more than they are earning, pushing the national savings rate to lows not seen since the great depression. the commerce department released a report saying that personal savings fell to a negative 0.5% in 2005. 

this means that people spent everything they earned and more. this is the third time that the savings rate has been negative, the previous two times were both during the great depression in 1932 and 1933. the savings rate has been declining since 1984 when it stood at 10.8%, in 2004 it was 1.8%.



coretta scott king passes away

coretta scott king, wife of slain civil rights leader martin luther king, jr. has died at the age of 78. coretta king, tireless crusader for civil rights, died in her sleep.

mrs. king, who had been diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer, died late on monday in mexico, where she had been seeking treatment, a spokeswoman for the family told reuters. 
"mrs. king was in mexico for observation and consideration of treatment for ovarian cancer," the spokeswoman said. "she was considered terminal by physicians in the united states. she and the family wanted to explore other options." king died at hospital santa monica, a holistic health center in mexico.

news of her death led to tributes across atlanta, including a moment of silence in the georgia capitol and piles of flowers at the tomb of her slain husband. flags at the king center - the institute devoted to the civil rights leader's legacy - were lowered to half-staff.

dubbed the "first lady of the civil rights movement," mrs king suffered a debilitating stroke and heart attack in august. she was last seen on january 14 at a dinner marking the martin luther king jr. holiday, where she received a standing ovation.

as she recalled in her autobiography "my life with martin luther king jr"., mrs. king felt she had to step fully into the civil rights movement after her husband's assassination.

after graduating from antioch college in ohio in 1951, she enrolled in the graduate program at boston's new england conservatory of music. it was there she met her future husband, a young preacher and doctoral student at boston university. they were married in 1953.

mrs. king had an influence on the civil rights movement for over half a century. she pushed and goaded politicians to have her husband's birthday observed as a national holiday. following her husband's assassination in 1968, she fought to bring national recognition to king jr. for over a decade, she lobbied to make king's birthday a federal holiday, and in 1983 the bill was signed into law. three years later, the usa observed the first king holiday.

she created a memorial and a forum in the martin luther king jr. center for nonviolent social change in atlanta. the center has archives containing more than 2,000 king speeches.

coretta scott was born april 27, 1927, near marion, alabama. "it was awful," she said of living in marion. "every saturday we would hear about some black man getting beat up and nothing was done about it." 

the rev. jesse jackson, who in 1968 broke the news of king's death to coretta, described her as a "freedom fighter". "she walked with her husband during the ordeal of the montgomery bus boycott. their home was bombed, she endured the hate and violent anger toward their family. and she had to endure the constant knowledge that each time he left their home, he might never return," said jackson. "she was the part of him that made him complete."

in 1969 she founded the martin luther king jr. center for nonviolent social change in atlanta and used it to confront hunger, unemployment, voting rights and racism. "the centre enables us to go out and struggle against the evils in our society," she often said.

she also accused movie and tv companies, video arcades, gun manufacturers and toy makers of promoting violence. coretta king has became a symbol in her own right of her husband's struggle for peace and brotherhood. 

in his state of the union address, us president george w bush remembered mrs king, saying her "lasting contributions to freedom and equality have made america a better and more compassionate nation."

mrs. king is survived by her four children, yolanda, martin iii, dexter and bernice. the family issued a statement thanking the public for an outpouring of support.

 


100th british soldier killed in iraq

the total death toll of the british army in iraq (excluding british soldiers employed privately as mercenaries) reached 100 this morning with a solider dying from injuries suffered in an explosion at um qasr. um qasr is an iraqi port in the southern basra province where british troops operate.

the ministry of defence has yet to name the soldier, a member of the 7th armoured brigade who are better known as "the desert rats". they stated that the blast, which also injured three other soldiers, took place at around 8.30 a.m.

sympathy has been widely expressed by various political and social figures. an official spokesman for british prime minister tony blair, who ordered the country's troops into iraq, said that he was "deeply saddened" by the death, as he is by all fatalities of service personnel. dr liam fox, the opposition conservatives defence spokesman, also expressed his sympathies.

critics of the war also expressed their sympathies but blamed the government for the soldiers' death. reg keys, father of a military policemen who died in an ambush in iraq, said that "we have had 100 chances to learn our lesson. it just goes on and on." george galloway, the respect mp for bethnal green and bow said "our hearts go out to the family of the hundredth british soldier to die in iraq. these one hundred deaths are the all too predictable consequences of the illegal and immoral war in iraq. i don't want another british soldier to die occupying other people's countries." respect echoed the call by the stop the war coalition for a demonstration in parliament square were the names of the all dead will be read aloud.

however, conservative foreign secretary sir malcolm rifkind, who originally opposed the war, claimed that britain could not just leave iraq.

among countries that sent soldiers to iraq, the uk ranks second in number of casualties, above italy with 27 and ukraine with 18, but is well below the us's figure of 2242. the number of iraqi military casualties is agreed to be larger than this, but may lie anywhere between 5000 and 45,000 according to different sources.

the number of iraqi civilian casualties from march 2003 to september 2004 is estimated as 100,000 (excluding the fallujah attack), with most of the violent deaths due to air strikes.


eight dead in goleta california rampage

jennifer san marco allegedly shot and killed herself, as well as an ex-neighbor and six postal workers at the santa barbara processing and distribution center in goleta, california says santa barbara county sheriffs department. authorities say that marco believed that she was threatened by a conspiracy among the workers at the facility.

sheriff sergeant erik raney has said that marco apparently left writings in her new mexico desert home "alluding to a vague plot involving the mail-sorting plant, a local medical facility and the santa barbara county sheriff's department. she obviously felt that the post office was out to get her in one way or another," he said. "that establishes as good of a motive (for the killings) as we can determine at this point."

raney said that the writings were described to him as "ramblings," but raney says, "they alluded to a conspiracy."

in her home, investigators also found a check payable to 'cash' with the notation "will," which could indicate that marco left a will, "and that may shed more light on what's happened here," said raney.

marco has a history of mental illness, but was still able to purchase a firearm and ammunition from ace pawn and antiques, owned by paul castillo.

castillo said, "she (marco) bought the gun for $325.00 without saying why she needed the weapon. she filled out an application for a background check, which didn't turn up any problems, and picked up the gun two days later."


virginia takes action against zebra mussels in private pond

in a first ever effort in the united states to eliminate the presence of zebra mussels in a large body of water, the virginia department of game and inland fisheries (vdgif) announced on monday that a private pond in prince william county, virginia is undergoing water treatment using a chemical potash of potassium chloride in concentrations high enough to kill invasive and native shellfish species.

the pond at the millbrook quarry will undergo treatment for three to four weeks in an effort to eliminate an infestation of zebra mussels, a condition of its waters that was confirmed by state environmental officials in 2002. the treatment is not expected to pose a threat to non-molluscan aquatic wildlife, vegetation, or land-dwelling creatures at the site. officials expect the one-time treatment process will provide protection from the possibility of future infestation for 33 years.

the entire body of water will be treated with potassium chloride to a level of 90 ppm, well below the u.s. environmental protection agency’s (epa) standard of 250 ppm for potable water. there are no expected health risks for humans, or contamination of drinking water wells in the immediate vicinity.

the freshwater zebra mussel species is a threat to native mussels of the region because of their high reproduction rate and their ability to attach themselves in clusters to native mussels, which kills them since they are prevented from opening and closing their shells to feed or burrow. bottom-dwelling marine species are often covered by the zebra mussel.

measures to prevent the spread of zebra mussels vary by region where the species is present. in maryland, boat owners who launch water craft on reservoirs that serve as sources of drinking water are required to register their boat for use only on those reservoirs, to reduce chances of the mussel being transferred from other waters. drinking water treatment and power production facilities where the mussels are present must regularly treat their systems to keep them clear of decaying debris that fouls intake pipes.

zebra mussels were first discovered in north america in 1988, in lake saint clair, a lake between lake erie and lake huron. by 1990 they appeared in all of the great lakes. it is believed that the mussels were accidentally brought over from europe on the hulls of ships.




internet explorer 7 beta released to the public

the screen shot above shows several renderings of the acid 2 css test, used to identify web page rendering flaws in web browsers and html authoring tools:
the long awaited internet explorer 7.0 beta preview was released to the public on january 31. 

large amounts of the architecture, including the security framework, have been completely overhauled. partly as a result of these security enhancements, the browser will be a stand-alone application, rather than integrated with the windows shell. 

the final beta 2 is scheduled by microsoft to be released in april, with the full version scheduled for the summer of 2006.

according to microsoft's announcement, the beta will only run on windows xp service pack 2 systems, but the final release version is intended to be able to run on windows vista, windows xp professional x64 edition, and windows server 2003 as well.

version 7 includes a number of new features. 


the current release is intended for compatibility testing by developers and it professionals, and is not aimed at the general public.




don brash gives third orewa speech

on tuesday the 31st of january, dr don brash, the leader of the new zealand national party gave his third state of the nation speech to the orewa rotary club where he focussed on the economy. 

brash predicted that the new zealand economy is "...almost certainly headed for a recession." he later said "a recent survey in the christchurch press suggested [the] south island was already teetering on the brink of recession."

brash said business confidence in new zealand is at its lowest level in 30 years and almost every day there is another company closing its doors or sharply reducing its staff. he predicted that "many businesses will face very tough times, and that unemployment will rise steeply."
brash said the blame for any recession will lie squarely with the prime minister helen clark and labour. "[the] government is asleep at the wheel." he warned that people will lose their jobs and savings because of its incompetence.

brash also addressed immigration, health, and infrastructure issues.

brash said he had hoped to return as prime minister to give this speech. he also said that he intends to lead national in the next new zealand general election (2008) and would be surprised if he is replaced before then. 

finance minister michael cullen called brash's speech "vastly underwhelming". he also claimed the speech was riddled with inaccuracies, particularly over government spending.

brash's first speech at orewa, delivered by brash on 27 january 2004, was highly controversial. it addressed the theme of race relations in new zealand, particularly the special status of m?ori, new zealand's indigenous ethnic group. some regard the speech as a watershed moment in new zealand politics.



nominations announced for 78th academy awards

today, the nominees for the 78th academy awards were announced in los angeles, california.

best picture nominees this year are "brokeback mountain", "capote", "crash", "good night, and good luck.", and "munich". the director of each of these films received director nominations. nominees include george clooney ("good night, and good luck."), paul haggis ("crash"), ang lee ("brokeback mountain"), bennett miller ("capote"), and steven spielberg ("munich"). this is the first time since 1981 that every best picture nominee also received a nod for direction.

"brokeback mountain" leads this year's oscar pack overall, with eight nominations. "brokeback" is followed by "crash", "good night, and good luck.", and "memoirs of a geisha", who each earned six. "capote", "munich", and "walk the line" each received five nominations. "king kong", "pride and prejudice", and "the constant gardener" picked up four nominations, while "cinderella man", "the chronicles of narnia: the lion, the witch and the wardrobe", and "war of the worlds" pick up three. "a history of violence", "hustle & flow", "mrs. henderson presents", "north country", "syriana", and "transamerica" each received two nods each.

best animated feature film nominees are "howl's moving castle", "tim burton's corpse bride", and "wallace & gromit: the curse of the were-rabbit". none of these films used primarily cgi-animation, the first year this can be claimed, since the 2001 creation of the award category. "corspe bride" marks both tim burton and mike johnson's first nominations. "wallace & gromit"'s steve box is celebrating his first nomination, while co-producer nick park has three oscars for best animation short, a fourth nomination, of which he lost to himself in 1990. hayao miyazaki won the best animated feature award in 2002, for "spirited away".

uniquely neither animation powerhouse, disney or dreamworks, is directly nominated in the category. disney's buena vista entertainment distributes miyazaki film "howl's moving castle", while dreamworks distributed "wallace and gromit", animated by aardman animations.

best foreign language film nominees include italian film "don't tell", france's "joyeux noel", palestine's "paradise now", germany's "sophie scholl - the final days", and south africa's "tsotsi". italy has been up for an oscar 27 times, france 34 times, and germany has had six nominations. this is only south africa's second nomination, with the first coming last year, and palestine's first ever academy award nomination.

nominees for best documentary feature are "darwin's nightmare", "enron: the smartest guys in the room", "march of the penguins", "murderball", and "street fight". "march of the penguins", produced in france, actually grossed more than any of the best picture nominees, the first time in history such an occurrence has happened.

the top 19 films in box office received a total of only 14 nominations, with a majority of these in the categories of visual effects, sound mixing and sound editing.

perhaps one of the most interesting stories for hollywood as a whole, is the tremendous success of participant productions in its first year of operation. ebay founder jeff skoll's movie house produced nominees "good night and good luck." (6), "north country" (2), "syriana" (2), and "murderball" (1). the company aims to fund feature films and documentaries that promote social values while still being commercially viable.

the 78th academy awards presentation will be held on sunday, march 5.



















president bush delivers 2006 state of the union address

united states president george w. bush delivered his annual on tuesday.

bush opened the speech to by honoring , wife of civil rights activist , who died on monday. 

bush emphatically claimed that terrorism was still a serious threat, citing the 2004 . bush also urged what he felt was the need for american troops to continue in iraq, to ensure what he described as the successful transition of the iraqi government.

in reference to the victory of in the , bush urged its leaders to disarm and recognize israel as a sovereign state.

talking about foreign policy, bush said iran is held hostage by a clerical elite and that . he also alleged that , and said the world "must not permit the iranian regime to gain nuclear weapons." 

bush outlined an economic plan that he claims would cut the budget deficit in half by 2009, if successful. bush said that by cutting over 140 programs that were "performing poorly or not fulfilling essential priorities", that the government would save over us$14 billion. bush briefly touched on the upcoming problem of ; with reaching retirement age, bush urged congress to bypass partisan differences in order to save the program. in a rare break from the usual preplanned format of the speech, bush received applause from democrats when he announced that "congress did not act last year on my proposal to save social security".

bush talked about the need for affordable health care. these plans include expanding the , allowing health insurance to be more portable for workers changing jobs. bush also urged congress to support medical liability reform, which he said would help doctors forced out of practice by the high price of .

bush also introduced an energy plan to reduce oil dependency. the "advanced energy initiative" would allocate federal funds for research in technology, and energy, and for research in the use of and fuel in vehicles, bush stated. the president also described his support of funding "additional research in cutting-edge methods of producing ethanol, not just from corn, but from wood chips and stalks or switch grass."

on the topic of education and jobs, bush introduced the "american competitiveness initiative". this plan would allocate more than $136 billion over the next ten years to increase research in the physical sciences sector, provide job skills training for workers in these areas, and improve the quality of math and science education. he urged congress to make temporary tax relief permanent. he also mentioned that he would like congress to pass the power of , which was given briefly to president bill clinton in 1996, before being in 1998 by the supreme court, six to three.

bush closed the address emphatically claiming what he called the historic courage of americans, and saying that in iraq, "like americans before us, we will show that courage and we will finish well."

the democratic rebuttal, delivered by virginia governor , criticized bush's speech, saying that bush had failed to uphold his previous promises, and that his administration had caused many of the problems that bush promised in his address to fix. kaine also stated that the democratic party had previously introduced many policies similar to bush's, but these policies had not been supported by republicans.

in addition to kaine's speech, a second rebuttal, delivered in spanish, was given by mayor antonio villaraigosa.

, who became an anti-war activist after her son was killed serving in iraq and gained recognition in 2005 for her protests outside in texas, was arrested in the house gallery by capitol police officer mike weight about fifteen minutes before the speech. initial reports claimed that she had attempted to unfurl an anti-war banner; in fact, sheehan wore a t-shirt with the words, "2,245 dead. how many more?" sheehan had been invited to the speech by . in contrast, beverly young, the wife of , was ordered to leave the gallery but not arrested during bush's speech because she was wearing a shirt with the words, "support the troops defending our freedom." sheehan is charged with unlawful conduct in violation of d.c. code §10-503.16(b)(7), a misdemeanor prohibiting demonstrations in the capitol carrying a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $500 fine. capitol grounds regulations defining the prohibited activities allow "wearing tee shirts, buttons, or other similar articles of apparel that convey a message."

on wednesday, capitol police dropped charges against sheehan and apologized for ejecting her and young. "the officers made a good faith, but mistaken effort to enforce an old unwritten interpretation of the prohibitions about demonstrating in the capitol," chief terrance gainer said in a statement.


at&amp;t sued over nsa eavesdropping

a class action suit has been filed on tuesday by the (eff) against the telecom giant . the suit, filed in san francisco, alleges that at&t violated federal laws by collaborating with government to eavesdrop on u.s. citizens.

the bush administration and nsa have come under fire over the issue. they defend the program by saying they are only listening in on suspected terrorists.

the eff claims that at&t turned over 2 databases consisting of their subscribers' communication and internet usage records.

attorney kevin bankston representing the eff said the government could not conduct their surveillance without the help of companies like at&t. he also said their goal is to tell at&t that it is not in their fiscal best interests, along with not being legal, to cooperate with the president's wiretap program.

according to the class action suit, at&t granted "access to all or a substantial number of the communications transmitted through its key domestic telecommunications facilities, including direct access to streams of domestic, international and foreign telephone and internet communications." the lawsuit is seeking damages of $22,000 for each at&t customer in addition to punitive fines.

at&t is also facing scrutiny from the and possibly fines for failing to properly certify that customer records were safeguarded.



online retailers in canada experience strong growth

comscore media metrix canada has reported that online retailers in canada have seen significant increase in traffic to their websites. in december 2005, 17.9 million shopped retail web sites, an increase of 13 percent over december 2004.

at the top of the list is ebay with 10.9 million visitors, an increase of 16 percent over december 2004. amazon was next with 6.5 million, an increase of 21 percent.

best buy, canadian tire, apple, sears, and walmart are among the retailers who all saw an increase in online retail sales.

flowers and home furnishings purchases also showed big increases from a year ago.


rumsfeld explains renaming of war

according to the "associated press", secretary of defense donald rumsfeld explained to pentagon reporters today why the term, "the long war" should be used instead of the "war on terror." president bush used the new term last night during the state of the union address.

rumsfeld stated, "what we're trying to do is tell the truth," and he says the truth is that "just as the cold war lasted a long time, this war is not something that's going to just go away."

on "cnn", general kimmitt of the u.s. army was asked yesterday about the "long war" categorization by rumsfeld and president bush. kimmitt's response was; "well, first of all, the president's exactly right and the secretary of defense is exactly right. it will be a long war. it's a fight against al qaeda and its associated movements...how do we fight that? it's quite simple. we fight it internationally. we fight it interagency. and we fight it with persistence. and we fight it with patience. and it's going to take a long time. ..but we have got to stay in there long enough to make sure that, when we do hand off, we hand off to competent forces and not just run for the doors before the job is done." 

this is not the first occasion that the bush administration has sought to rename terms and phrases connected with the war on terror. the most recent example is president bush using the phrase "terrorist surveillance program" to describe the national security agency's practice of domestic wiretapping while bypassing court-ordered warrants.

the term "long war" has also been used to describe a war between the habsburgs and the ottoman empire from 1593 to 1606 or as a concept describing several wars in the 20th century as one long war.



bathurst, australia's new hospital to be almost doubled in size

bathurst regional council, the local government responsible for the city of bathurst and its surrounds in central western new south wales, australia yesterday revealed it had received a development application for the new bathurst base hospital.

the new hospital is to be built behind the current hospital on the same site and is expected to cost the new south wales government aud96 million. the bathurst hospital will be the first in the bathurst-orange-bloomfield redevelopment project.

the new hospital will have 149 beds, up from 85 for the current hospital. the hospital will also feature a mental health unit - previously psychiatric patients had to travel to orange to the bloomfield hospital for treatment.

the bathurst hospital is expected to have state-of-the art facilities and will share some services with the to be constructed orange base hospital.

the bathurst regional council has approved the demolition of 12 buildings on the hospital site for enabling works. the hospital site is heritage listed although council decided that as the buildings do not contribute to the streetscape they may be demolished.

the demolitions are expected to take place late next month and will take around six weeks to complete. a temporary driveway will then be built to replace the current service entry for food and linen as it will become part of the work site.

upon completion of the new hospital, the current ward block will be demolished leaving the original building from the late 19th century intact. the original building is expected to become an education centre and consulting rooms.

the original building was opened in 1834. since then the facility has undergone numerous upgrades and add-ons, with the present ward block being opened in stages from 1978 to 1982.

other buildings expected to be retained include the daffodil cottage (a cancer care centre) and the original nurse's quarters known as poole house.


scientists shocked at great barrier reef bleaching

scientists say australia's hot summer has had a devastating effect on queensland's great barrier reef. coral reef specialists are comparing the severity of the damage to the worst case ever recorded in 2002.

university of queensland scientists say they were shocked by the reef's condition and are concerned the entire reef may be at risk of destruction from global warming.

professor ove hoegh-guldberg said most of the reefs they saw were completely bleached. "going down to 10 metres, every piece of coral was a glowing white colour - all that brown colour had disappeared and that was surprising for us," he said.

australian conservation foundation's don henry is worried. "the important thing from this warning is that we're starting to see this damage to the reef from warmer waters and climate change happen more often and more extensive," he said. "there's going to be a point when the reef just doesn't recover."

with february, the hottest month, just ahead, this is a critical time. the last severe cases of bleaching occurred in 1998 and 2002, the last leaving more than 5 percent of the reef destroyed.

professor hoegh-guldberg, a renowned coral expert, said he was amazed at the damage to corals on the keppel islands. "corals at the keppels are completely bleached and we are only halfway through january," he said.

the great barrier reef is a big attraction for australia’s tourism industry, which employs 6 per cent of the country’s workforce and contributes 12 per cent of exports. paul marshall, manager of the great barrier reef marine park said "we are going to be pretty lucky to escape coral deaths in the southern great barrier reef." 

the reef's future looks even darker following a report by climate scientists. the united kingdom meteorological office report, "avoiding dangerous climate change", suggests that a two-degree warming would also see 97 percent of the world's coral reefs lost, lower crop yields, put 2.8 billion people at risk of water shortage and the total loss of summer arctic sea ice, sparking the extinction of the polar bear and walrus.



fbi to begin investigation into shooting of us air force mp

the united states federal bureau of investigation (fbi) is currently investigating if a possible civil rights violation was committed by a sheriff's deputy of the san bernardino county after the shooting of an unarmed u.s. air force security force officer.

the military policeman, senior airman elio carrion, 21, was shot while on leave after serving a six month deployment in iraq. the incident took place on sunday, in chino, california, after a short police chase. carrion was the passenger of luis fernando escobedo, 21, when police began chasing escobedo's blue chevrolet corvette for speeding. the car reached over speeds of 100 mph (160 km/h) during the short five minute chase.

after the chase ended in a crash near his house, jose luis valdez began taping the accident aftermath. the grainy, low-quality videotape shows carrion laying on the ground with the officer standing over him. the deputy appears to say, "stay on the ground." the deputy then seems to say "get up" several times. carrion then said, "i'm going to get up." as carrion begins to rise, the deputy fires three shots which hit carrion in the chest, leg and side. after carrion is hit he said, "i mean you no harm." the deputy responded by shouting "shut the fuck up" twice, and then "you don't get up!" a neighbor is heard saying, "you told him to get up." the video shot by valdez was given to police, with a copy sold by him to television station ktla.

carrion is now in the hospital and in good condition. 

cindy beavers, a spokesperson for the san bernardino county sheriff's department stated the deputy has been put on paid leave. beavers also mentioned that sheriff gary penrod had invited the fbi to join the investigation. the fbi released a statement confirming this. 

penrod issued a statement on monday saying, "as with all investigations, the circumstances involved in this shooting will be reviewed, it would be inappropriate for me to make any additional comments until the investigation is completed."

experts say the video is open to interpretation. 

last week, in a similar but unrelated incident, a news helicopter caught footage of st. louis, missouri police officers using what appears to be excessive force on a suspect in detaining him.



israeli pm ariel sharon receives feeding tube

on wednesday, doctors inserted a feeding tube into israeli prime minister ariel sharon's stomach.

"tonight prime minister ariel sharon underwent a gastrostomy, a process in which a tube is inserted into the stomach for feeding. the procedure was carried out under anesthetic and was successful," said ron krumer, a spokesperson for jerusalem's hadassah hospital where sharon is continuing to be treated for a major stroke he suffered on january 4, 2006. he then added that, "the prime minister is still in a critical but stable condition."

doctors say that the chances are slim that he will return to consciousness or return to a meaningful level of activity. as a result it is expected sharon will be unable to serve as prime minister anytime in the future. currently his position is being filled on an interim basis by deputy prime minister ehud olmert.

sharon, who had been prime minister of the state of israel since 2001, suffered a massive stroke on january 4 during the run up to a new series of israeli parliamentary elections. his centrist kadima party faced fierce competition from the conservative likud party (which he split off from in late 2005) and the democratic socialist labour party. 




australia to send 200 more troops to afghanistan

australia's foreign minister, alexander downer, says the federal government will contribute another 200 troops to assist the dutch military in a former taliban stronghold. australia also pledges $150 million in aid for the reconstruction of afghanistan. 

"we have 190 at the moment, special forces, we've got another 110 going there to provide additional support for them with two helicopters, and this would be another 200 on top of that." mr downer said.

speaking outside a two-day international donors conference in london, mr downer said australia's commitment to afghanistan was not as large as some countries, but it would nevertheless make a big difference.

he said australia would build on the millions it has already spent in afghanistan, with a new pledge of $150 million over 5 years through aid agency ausaid. canberra has spent 110 million dollars in the war-torn country since the coalition invaded in late 2001.

mr downer joined world leaders in london for the signing of the afghanistan compact: "a road-map for international donors and the government of afghanistan to work together to rebuild the country into a stable and democratic state."

australia's latest troop commitment, for a provincial reconstruction team in conjunction with the netherlands, will take its total in afghanistan to 500 troops. downer said that the troops would probably be sent to take part in a proposed provincial reconstruction team with dutch soldiers in the southern province of uruzgan as early as july.

"july, august would be the pencilled-in planning at the moment, so that would involve australia sending around 200 troops over and above the troops we already have in afghanistan," he said. 

mr downer said afghanistan still had a security problem but things were going in the right direction.

"we know how important it is for the new democratic government in afghanistan and the new free and democratic processes there to survive, and every country that possibly can needs to give support to afghanistan," he said.

under the compact, afghanistan has pledged to meet targets in security, governance, rule of law and human rights, and economic and social development in return for military and financial aid from its international partners.

australia also has about 900 troops in iraq. about 450 of the soldiers are guarding japanese forces in southern samawa, which japanese media reports said could end by may.

downer said australia would "wait and see" what japan would do before deciding whether to bring its samawa troops home or redeploy them elsewhere in iraq. 

australia has already committed some 300 troops and support personnel to afghanistan.



ruddock hints at australia card

australian attorney-general philip ruddock says he may introduce plans to make australian citizens carry an identity card to avert terrorist attacks. "i'll make an announcement soon and that could be this week," ruddock said. "it depends upon when i'm fully satisfied about the issues that we want examined."

according to a recent poll of 1200 people, over 50 percent would support a national identity card. a newspoll in the australian newspaper found that 31 per cent of voters were opposed to the id card.

australian prime minister john howard refloated the possibility of an "australia card" after the july 7 london suicide bombings. british prime minister tony blair's government is considering introducing cards identifying britons by fingerprints and iris scans. 

australia last debated a national id card (to cut down on tax avoidance), the "australia card", in 1987, but was defeated in the senate after public outrage. mr howard, then in opposition, opposed the card, but now says times have changed. "this is an issue that ought to be back on the table...in the wake of something like the terrible tragedy in london," howard told a news conference in june last year. 

australia has been on medium terror alert since 2001. while there hasn't been a major terrorist attack on australian soil, prime minister john howard says it's a "possibility." 

mr ruddock is expected to announce this week the terms of an independent inquiry into an id card, citing national security and fraud prevention as key concerns. the inquiry will investigate the possible benefits of such a card in combating terrorism and fraud, and whether it could be introduced at a reasonable cost.

opposition public accountability spokesman kelvin thomson said he was unsure whether it would help australia's fight against terrorism as there was no great evidence to suggest id cards assisted those countries that already had them. 

australian privacy foundation chief anna johnston said the poll was good news for those who opposed the id card. she said the lower level of support for the id card compared with 1986 showed that people were better informed.

"i would suggest that this shows the government is already on very shaky ground on this proposal if there is only this very small majority of people in favour of it," ms johnston said. "because as more details emerge about what is actually being put forward, support will drop."

attorney-general philip ruddock, said that policy should not be dictated by public opinion. 

advocacy groups say that work had already started on creating a coalition of lobby groups in readiness for a campaign. "we're starting to marshall our resources now," ms johnston said. "like the australia card debate, we are looking to establish a broad coalition of people across the political spectrum and from all walks of life."

ruddock's comments have been slammed by security experts, who say national id cards do not make australia any safer and could have the opposite effect. 

james turner, security analyst at frost & sullivan australia, said: "id cards cannot protect us from terrorism because an id card cannot indicate intention. it's like signature based anti-virus, the av signature can only point out the currently known viruses; and an id card can only identify currently known baddies."

jo stewart-rattray, director of information security at vectra corporation said: "as far as its goal being to protect us from terrorist attacks, i don't think so. the bad guys will always find a way to propagate their own version of these cards. it is not protecting us against terrorist attacks by any means."

stewart-rattray's comments echoed those of ex-mi5 chief dame stella rimington, who recently said id cards were "useless" at fighting terrorism. "if we have id cards at vast expense and people can go into a back room and forge them they are going to be absolutely useless. id cards may be helpful in all kinds of things but i don't think they are necessarily going to make us any safer," said rimington.

bruce schneier argued that id cards will not help improve security and would have the opposite effect. he says the card will require an "immense database" with "enormous" security risks.

"the security risks are enormous. such a database would be a kludge of existing databases; databases that are incompatible, full of erroneous data, and unreliable. as computer scientists, we do not know how to keep a database of this magnitude secure, whether from outside hackers or the thousands of insiders authorised to access it," wrote schneier.

roger clarke, of the australian privacy foundation asked whether the "billions it would cost would be worth it", especially considering the "enormous intrusions into the affairs of the majority of law-abiding citizens".

according to privacy international, around 100 countries have compulsory identity cards. they also stated that "virtually no common law country has a card".


americans practice attack response procedures

in recent days, there has been a notable increase in nuclear attack drill activities in la, houston and the state of south carolina.

sources in the houston police department have disclosed that they are running these nuclear disaster drills across the city of houston, texas.

"in the last week i have multi-checked with sources of mine in the houston police department and confirmed that hpd has been running nuclear disaster drills," said capt. eric may, as he warned of a possible nuclear attack that might occur in the texas city or houston metro area. capt. eric may also mentioned that a likely target could be the british petroleum plant in texas city, texas.

local citizens have also noticed ongoing swat exercises involving numerous government agencies in the area, including homeland security, the hpd and the pasadena police department.

"after leaving the texas city police station, i noticed one thing really strange, as i counted at least 11 different types of official police and government vehicles parked in the police lot. i have never seen this before and it has me a little worried. what are they planning?" said local resident john watkins.

besides this increased activity in the houston area, there have been reports that the bank of america has been in contact with homeland security officials discussing the topic of how to deal with customers in the case of a pending "national disaster." employees of the bank have been ordered to remain silent, as ones from all levels have been told of the proper procedures to take. employees in both houston and la have disclosed they were recently told not to distribute certain things from safety deposit boxes in the event of a national emergency, including gold, silver and firearms. they were, however, allowed to hand out important papers to asking customers.

it seems as if british petroleum may also be conducting nuclear disaster exercises in the houston area, as an email from an alleged bp employee has surfaced on the internet. although his identity has not been proven as of yet, he states that he holds the position of a "building monitor" and has never had any responsibilities before. however, on friday, january 27th, he was called into a meeting and told that he had best get his men ready for some disaster drills to be starting in the next week.

the us government is also running a nuclear disaster drill in the charleston, sc area from january 31st to february 2nd. the organizers said that nuclear drills should not frighten citizens, but should instead encourage them to learn how to protect themselves in the event of an attack. it should be noted that the government has run other nuclear disaster tests before, including one last summer called "sudden respond '05." therefore, this increase of disaster drills may just indicate that the government is taking the threat of a nuclear attack seriously and not necessarily that there is one impending.


puppies used to smuggle heroin

ten puppies with bags of liquid heroin surgically implanted into their bellies were having seizures in a drug bust in medellin, colombia, said authorities. 

"they utilized a wide range of smuggling, the most repulsive of which was the use of puppies," said john p. gilbride, head of the dea's new york office.

"there have been cases of animal cruelty that have led to the discovery of drug labs, but not to the extent of an animal being used to carry drugs, especially a puppy," said aspca spokeswoman jo sullivan.

investigators believe that the dogs were used to smuggle heroin into new york on commercial flights. the drugs were then to be distributed and sold along the east coast.

"ten puppies, including labrador retrievers, were rescued during a 2005 raid on a farm in colombia," said the united states drug enforcement agency (dea) on wednesday. the agency also announced that they had made more than 30 arrests. 

authorities believe that a veterinarian, andres lopez elorez (who is also believed to be a fugitive in spain), opened the bellies of at least six of the ten puppies, inserted 500?ml bags of liquid heroin, and then stitched them back up. three puppies had died due to infections after the drugs were removed. a total of 3?kg of heroin were recovered from six puppies. the bags were found using ultrasound.

"the surviving dogs are still alive and well, we're told," said gilbride. "i think it's outrageous and heinous that they'd use small, innocent puppies in this way. this investigation identified the individuals who were responsible for overseeing and smuggling millions of dollars worth of heroin from colombia to the east coast."

the investigation revealed that the smugglers, whose ring was based in medellin, not only used people and puppies to conceal their drugs, but also body creams, aerosol cans, and the linings of purses and luggage.

a tipster is said to have led authorities to the puppies.

it is not known how many puppies were actually used in the smuggling operation.

three dogs were adopted by colombian police. at least one of those puppies will be trained to sniff for drugs.

about 24 kilograms of heroin was seized in recent raids in colombia which have resulted in more than 20 arrests and another ten in custody in new york. a total of at least 24 kilograms have been seized in these raids.


united states department of justice workers among government wikipedia vandals

in response to recent accusations that employees have engaged in wikipedia vandalism and other forms of perceived negative editing of articles, wikipedia editors have set up listing all wikipedia edits made through that are allocated to the united states house of representatives and other united states government agencies. the house ip address was briefly banned from editing wikipedia articles in the wake of the initial controversy, but the ban was lifted on january 30 after wikipedia administrators decided that there have been a number of valuable contributions made through the house and senate ip addresses in addition to the controversial edits.

on january 31 and february 1, however, the u.s. house of representatives' common ip address, 143.231.249.141, were banned again for three hours due to vandalism. because the ip address is shared by house staff members, it is uncertain whether or not the same person(s) responsible for the previous vandalism are also responsible for the latest.

examples of contributions submitted through the house ip address included removing, "in 2005, he has come under scrutiny for accepting campaign contributions from embattled former house leader tom delay," from the article on , removing election statistics from the article on , and, in the article on , changing the paragraph 

to

after the block from wikipedia expired, the house of representatives user continued to edit the article on chris shays. chris shays had co-sponsored a bill with marty meehan, whose staffers had previously been found to have been negatively editing wikipedia entries, the american civil liberties union said of the bill "key elements of shays-meehan violate the first amendment right to free speech because the legislation contains provisions that would violate the constitutionally-protected right of the people to express their opinions about issues through broadcast advertising if they mention the name of a candidate." all mentions of the bill were removed from the article. also removed was a paragraph about chris shays raising $70,000 with house speaker dennis hastert at a country club event.

again, the ip address was blocked for an eight-hour period.

wikipedia edits in congress are not coming from the house of representatives alone. an edit from the senate in july removed references to a plagiarism scandal with senator joe biden, who has informally said he may seek a democratic nomination for president in 2008. as of february 4, 2006, the edit has not fixed by wikipedia users.

ip addresses from the cia, the , the marines, and the navy are listed on the site as having made several cases of vandalism. some examples of vandalism from the department of justice ip ranges involve articles on tv and radio shows, a baseball player, or just complaining about their work. in addition to accusations of vandalism, there have also been accusations of government employees introducing perceived bias, political spinning, or misinformation into wikipedia articles by adding or removing information.

these cases include articles on an irish politician, and in the george w. bush article, introducing accusations of hugo chavez being a dictator, and removing information covering the george w. bush substance abuse controversy. in addition, a person using a department of justice ip address edited a page covering indicted former republican majority leader tom delay. the editor removed two paragraphs stating a judge ruled that tom delay had broken state law by not disclosing over $600,000 of fundraising money, a quote from tom delay in which he stated that it drives the democrats crazy wondering why the republican party institutes pro-israeli policy, and a subsection on controversies involving delay's relatives. edits to george w. bush's article were done within the span of an hour. edits to tom delay's article were made within an hour as well, although followed by a shorter, minor second session of editing later that day.

an editor using a cia ip address is accused of vandalizing an article on the current president of iran. editors using marine and navy ip addresses based in , florida are accused of vandalizing an article on a rock song and on former u.s. president bill clinton, and accused of adding racist comments to articles on an actor and martin luther king, jr., and adding comments that are perceived to criticize the men and women in the navy reserves.

the ip addresses of the department of justice, the cia, and the navy and marines stationed in pensacola, florida were found using the at the official website. neither the government nor the wikimedia foundation have released an official statement.

the u.s. house of representatives' ip address is not the first governmental address to have been blocked after accusations of disrupting wikipedia. the ip address belonging to a subdivision of the ministry of agriculture, food and rural development in alberta, canada was blocked for three months since late 2005. an ip address belonging to the has been repeatedly blocked from the german wikipedia after accusations of vandalism, including sexually explicit comments.



report details british billionare donations to australian political party

an australian electoral commission (aec) report has revealed that british billionaire michael ashcroft made a record au$1 million donation to the liberal party of australia. the aec is legally required to make public the identities of major donors to political parties.

the controversial donation by lord ashcroft (deputy chairman of the british conservative party), to the liberals in 2004, is believed to be the biggest single donation from an individual in australian politics. his donation pushed the liberal party's total for 2004-05 to $66.5 million. 
australian democrats' senator andrew murray expressed alarm at the foreign donation. "there is no such thing as a free lunch," he said. "foreign interference and influence in australian domestic politics is absolutely unacceptable. donations from overseas entities and foreigners must be banned outright."

senator murray has calculated that between 1998-99 and 2002-03 a total of $607,178 was paid to australian political parties from foreign entities. he is concerned that foreign foundations can elude australian disclosure laws. 

"i don't know about you, but i've never met a businessman ever that will give you that amount of money without expecting something in return," senator murray said. 

australian electoral commission figures have also finally disclosed the backers behind the new right-wing religious party, family first. craig winkler, chief executive of software firm myob, gave $200,000 to the party, while dan daniels, a victorian pharmaceuticals millionaire, contributed $95,000.

the federal opposition say around $8 million given to the liberal party in 2004-05 will remain undisclosed under looming changes to the rules governing political donations.

"if the liberal party receives the same level of donations next year, up to $8million in secret donations will flow to liberal party coffers with no public scrutiny," opposition spokesman for state affairs alan griffin said. 

prime minister john howard led the liberal/national coalition to its fourth consecutive election victory in 2004. the win has boosted the liberal government’s majority, giving it control in both houses of parliament.

ashcroft, 59, who is also the largest individual donor to the british conservative party, serves with howard on the conservative international democrat union committee.


iraqi police find 14 tortured dead bodies

fourteen bodies were found on thursday by police in baghdad, iraq. according to the iraq interior ministry, the bodies appeared to have been tortured. each one had been blind-folded and had their hands tied behind their back. the men, all civilians, were stabbed repeatedly, had marks on their wrists which suggests their wrists were tied together, and all of the victims had gunshot wounds to their heads.

eleven of the men were found in the back of a truck. the other three were found near a road in rustamiya on the southeastern outskirts of the capital. 

police do not yet know the identities of the men.

shi'ite-led interior ministry security units are being accused by sunni leaders for carrying out retribution killings against the sunnis; however, the ministry denies the charges.


tom baker launched as voice of bt text messaging

tom baker, one of the ten actors to play the doctor in the bbc's long-running television series doctor who, has become the voice of the new bt text messaging voice service, which translates a text message sent from a mobile phone to a bt landlines into a voice messages heard by the receiver as an answerphone message.

baker's voice will replace the earlier computer-synthesized voice that was previously used. bt said that his voice was chosen as it was instantly recognisable. it took him 11 days to record 11,593 phrases and sounds which could then be broken down and reassembled by a computer to make new words. it then took five months to process these recordings to make a workable service.

bt have said that there will be no barriers as to what tom baker's voice can 'say', including rude words. "what appeals to me most is the thought that i will be bringing good news to people whether it is a cheeky message, a birthday greeting, or just a quick hello," said baker.

the service, which can only be received by those with a bt line, costs nothing to receive voice messages, and text messages are charged at the normal rate.

bt group revealed that texts to landlines had soared 70 per cent in volume on the first day that tom baker's voice was used to deliver messages, and have now passed the three million mark in just ten days.



estonian oil spill kills 5,000 birds

an oil spill in north-west estonia has, according to scientists in the country, killed an estimated 5,000 birds across the baltic countries of estonia, latvia and lithuania.

the oil spill, which occurred on january 31, killed 2,000 birds just off the coasts of the nearby vormsi and osmussaar islands. finnish authorities have also reported that birds in the nordic countries have also been affected.

the oil spill occurred on the coast of the northern harjumaa region of estonia, and has been credited to a liberian tanker heading toward singapore. by the end of the first 24 hours following the spill, authorities had already picked up 400 dead birds, killed by contact with the oil.

the coasts of estonia have historically been a winter flocking place for birds from across north and central europe, due to the suitable climate for many species. the spill could endanger numbers, especially if the death toll continues to increase in the next few days.


new south wales set to adopt harsher anti-cannabis laws

new south wales premier morris iemma has proposed strengthening the states anti- laws. the government is undertaking a complete rewrite of such laws in response to concerns voiced by some health professionals about the link between the drug and mental health issues. the proposed legislation will also increase jail sentences for those convicted of growing cannabis . 

"there is growing evidence of a link between long-term cannabis use and the incidence of severe mental health problems," said mr iemma. 

under the plan the current cannabis cautioning system, introduced in 2000, is to be reviewed. cannabis users would be required to attend counseling to "understand the link between cannabis use and mental illness" to avoid being charged for their first offence. at present those issued with their second cautioning notice are required to call a counseling service. 

current penalties do not distinguish between hydroponic cultivation and other forms of cultivation. the new set of penalties proposed by mr iemma include:
those found hydroponically growing cannabis will be hit particularly hard by the new laws. mr iemma defended the government's proposals by referring to expert advice on the effects of this type of cannabis on users. "regular cannabis use can exacerbate mental illnesses and associated criminal activity. experts tell us that potent, hydroponically grown cannabis is a particular problem," he said.

the content of in cannabis changed sharply in the 1970s with the rediscovery and spread of the technique, wherein the material used by the unfertilized female plant to create seeds is diverted to the production of trichromes, which contain thc. potency rates have risen slowly but steadily since then with the refinement of various cultivation techniques. these techniques also have resulted in much greater yields. 

the concentration of thc in cannabis as related to genetics, correct nutrient supply and may be controlled by , however these conditions are also regularly met using soil-based growing techniques. 

under the new laws hydroponic cannabis houses will be subjected to the same search and warrant powers as those which are used for the manufacture of amphetamines and heroin. 

dr john currie from drug and alcohol services at sydney's westmead hospital supports the government's position, telling abc "there is growing evidence that the long term use of cannabis can cause mental illness, whether you're predisposed to it or not". 

"equally as worrying for us is that just ordinary people who don't have a mental health problem can still get trouble when they do have long term use of cannabis" said dr currie. 

the prime minister has also accused cannabis of playing a role in australia's mental health problems. "i think we are paying a dreadfully heavy price for the abuse of what was so called recreation and socially acceptable drugs despite the clear evidence, unaccepted until a few years ago, that these things were doing massive damage within our community," mr howard has said in parliament.

mr howard signaled that he supported the move in new south wales to increase penalties for cannabis, especially hydroponic cannabis which the nsw government claims is stronger. "i welcome the change in direction of many of the states," he said.

the mental health council of australia has warned the government of over-estimating the role of cannabis in mental health. john mendozza, the councils chief executive, told abc "i don't think we should overstate the role of cannabis in the nation's mental health crisis. it is a factor, but it is not the reason that we now face a mental health crisis."

the government's claims are based in part upon an australian study conducted in 2002, which found regular use of cannabis among teen-age girls to be predictive of later anxiety and depression, though not that among boys. a different study published in 2005 actually found that those who suffer with depression and use cannabis "for medical reasons" reported less depressed moods. 

research has shown that cannabis use is risky for adolescents with an abnormal gene (which occurs in about 25 percent of the population of northern european descent). compared to the rest of the population, those with the abnormal gene and who smoke cannabis regularly during adolescence have an increased risk of developing later in life, though none of these factors separately predicts the illness. 

on the other hand, new south wales' government proposals has been met with stiff opposition from various factions, including parts of the medical community. doctor alex wodak, of the australia drug law reform association in an interview with said "i think many people, not just me, see this as more motivated by concern about the march 2007 elections than any public health measure."

"if governments were really serious about cannabis and in favour of draconian responses for a drug which after all, doesn't cause any deaths, then what would they do about a drug that causes 19,000 deaths in australia a year - namely tobacco?" asked dr wodak. 

the nsw laws contrast with calls from the in south australia for a relaxation of anti-cannabis laws. state leader sandra kanck said, "politicians and media commentators are getting on the bandwagon, saying we need to recriminalise the personal use of marijuana. that would make around 476,000 south australians - 40 per cent of the population - retrospective criminals. about 75,000 people in the state would break the law each week if marijuana was criminalised. we need to recognise that drugs are used, and have appropriate policies to deal with that. prohibition didn't work in america in the 1920s and it won't work now". 

south australia, western australia and the australian capital territory already distinguish between cannabis which is grown hydroponically or using artificial light and conventional cannabis for possession offences.

south australia also goes one step further by having separate penalties for cannabis possession in public and in private. in south australia possession of up to 20 cannabis plants for personal use is punishable by a $500 fine.

when compared to other jurisdictions the australian capital territory has the lightest penalties for cannabis offences. penalties for cannabis possession range from $100 for possessing 25 grams of leaf or 2 or less "non-artificially cultivated" plants to a $5,000 fine and/or 2 years gaol for possessing an amount of cannabis not covered by the above.

the northern territory has some of the toughest anti-drug laws in australia when contrasted with other states. a person can receive a 25 year gaol sentence for having more than 20 plants in their possession.

the nsw government's decision to introduce tougher penalties for cannabis cultivation and possession comes at a time when other western countries are relaxing their laws in this regard.

in the united states, anti-cannabis laws vary greatly from state to state with respect to personal use, medical cannabis and cultivation. cannabis is still broadly prohibited under the federal , and the federal government selectively enforces the law so as to frustrate various forms of legalization at state and local levels, for example in "". 

personal cannabis use in the netherlands is subject to a of official tolerance, though it remains technically illegal. the netherlands regulates the sale of cannabis in , though the non-tolerance of cultivation above five personal plants creates an irregularity of supply (the so-called "back-door problem"). legislation is under consideration to address this by regulating commercial cultivation. the current protestant government has sought to limit the number of coffee shops, and in border towns bar sales to foreigners. 

certain provinces of canada have adopted a policy of non-enforcement of anti-cannabis laws against personal use, to the point that in the vancouver and toronto areas, operation of cannabis cafes is tolerated, though they are not permitted to sell. cultivation is still aggressively interdicted. the city of vancouver has drafted a licensing model similar to the netherlands, which has not yet gone into force. the recent have brought a minority conservative government, which may bring reversals in liberalization of cannabis laws. 

in the united kingdom cannabis has been as a class c drug, making it less likely for an individual to be arrested for possession. there is political pressure in the uk to either schedule strong cannabis separately or reverse the rescheduling altogether, citing the alleged dangers. on the dangers of strong cannabis, there is a similarity of public discourse especially between the uk and australia. 





'kama sutra' worm set to strike

computer security experts warn that a malicious computer worm, dubbed "kama sutra," is set to wreak havoc this friday, february 3rd on microsoft windows computers worldwide. kama sutra is designed to destroy files that end in .doc, .zip and .pdf.

the kama sutra worm has been spreading through cyberspace since january 16, packaged in emails with subject headings such as: "give me a kiss" and "crazy illegal sex."

when users click an email attachment, their pcs become infected with destructive, self-replicating software. the worm affects microsoft windows operating systems and is programmed to go to work on the third of every month, overwriting or corrupting microsoft files and others such as portable document format (pdf) files.

"this one can damage your office files, your microsoft excel spreadsheets and your powerpoint presentations," tino klironomos, a computer retailer, said. "(the files will be) all gone, history."

computer security company lurhq reports that there may be hundreds of thousands of machines already infected with the worm, which also goes by the monikers "blackworm," "cme-24," "blackmal," "mywife.e" and "nyxem."

to prevent the worm, windows users should arm themselves with anti-virus software. people can also protect their pc with up-to-date anti-virus gear and firewall protection. free anti-virus tools are available from many anti-virus organisations. these tools can detect and remove the kama sutra worm from an infected machine. 

experts say: "make sure your virus definitions are up to date. besides being careful about opening email messages and attachments, users should back up their most valuable computer files on an external device such as a cd, zip drive or dvd."

steve bass at pc world says: "stop worrying. if you update your virus program signatures regularly, and do a weekly av scan, i don't think you have much to worry about..." 

other advice is not to open any messages with the subject headers "crazy, illegal sex", "give me a kiss" and "hot movie."

the worm will not affect machines running on non-windows operating systems such as mac os x or gnu/linux.

many security systems reported a very small amount of vandalism, even though the threats were very high.



ru486 abortion pill hearings begin in australia

an australian senate inquiry into the abortion pill "ru486" has started public hearings in melbourne. a controversial conscience vote on the issue to overturn laws which prohibit australian women's access to the drug, will be held in federal parliament on february 9.

the senate committee is considering a bill to remove ministerial control of the abortifacient drug mifepristone - or ru486. health minister tony abbott says the issue of whether to allow women access to the drug "is one of principle." abbott, who is against abortion, insists he is the right person to control the drug's use in australia.

besides its use internationally as an "abortion pill", there may also be a small chance that it may help treat various other medical disorders including prostate cancer, breast cancer, and inoperable brain tumours amongst other conditions. mifepristone is effectively banned in australia, with minister abbott controlling whether it is made available. 

the bill, sponsored by a group of female senators and mps, would hand mr abbott's powers over to the therapeutic goods administration (tga) - the body that controls all other pharmaceutical drugs in australia. the bill seeks to have the tga determine the drug's availability and not the health minister.

democrats leader lyn allison, said she was "cautiously confident" the parliament will overturn the current arrangements when the conscience vote takes place. "those who are in favour of the bill are saying this is a choice that ought to be available to women and that on the basis of the studies that have been done overseas it is at least as safe as surgical termination," senator allison said.

reproductive choice australia (rca)say that medicine is placed at the whim of politics, saying that over 80% of australians are pro-choice. a national survey found 87% of women aged 18 to 49 support a woman’s right to choose.

ru486 is available in much of western europe and north america, but was effectively banned in australia under laws initiated by now-retired pro-life senator brian harradine.

christine read, medical director of family planning group fpa health, said misoprostol, also known as cytotec, is across the world to invoke contractions to expel the fetus after a woman had taken ru486. "it is used extensively in obstetrics and gynaecology for termination of pregnancy and to induce labour, so it's used in the medical management of miscarriage," dr read said.

dr sharman stone, said yesterday the issue was not about misoprostol, but rather that "the tga should make the decision about any drugs - that is its job. any other conversations about other drugs are simply irrelevant to this argument," dr stone said.

family first senator steve fielding says lifting a ban on ru486 would pave the way for do-it-yourself home abortions. "ru486 is different to other drugs in that it is an abortion drug which could see do-it-yourself home abortions," he said in a statement. "the question is, should policy be made by bureaucrats or our elected leaders?

senator fielding claims australians are worried about the high number of abortions in australia, as reflected in submissions received by the senate committee.

on monday the committee will move to sydney for a final day of hearings. 



federal judge calls epa head's post 9/11 conduct &quot;conscience-shocking&quot;.

federal judge, judge deborah a. batts refused to grant former environmental protection agency (epa) head, christine todd whitman, immunity from a class-action lawsuit brought by people in lower manhattan and brooklyn. the suit seeks to hold whitman personally liable for her actions as epa administrator and the suit claims that thousands of people (including children) were "unnecessarily exposed" to airborne asbestos and other hazardous substances.

"whitman's deliberate and misleading statements made to the press, where she reassured the public that the air was safe to breathe around lower manhattan and brooklyn, and that there would be no health risk presented to those returning to those areas, shock the conscience." the judge said in her 83-page ruling. "shock the conscience" is a legal standard that lawsuits must meet to hold u.s. government officials personally responsible for their actions.

"no reasonable person would have thought that telling thousands of people that it was safe to return to lower manhattan, while knowing that such return could pose long-term health risks and other dire consequences, was conduct sanctioned by our laws," batts said. the statements by whitman came two days after the september 11, 2001 attacks in new york city that brought down the twin world trade towers. 
batts noted that the epa and whitman repeatedly reassured residents that the air seemed safe to breathe. the epa's own internal watchdog discovered that the agency gave misleading assurances apparently at the urging of white house officials.

bloomberg news states that calls to whitman's consulting firm and to the epa weren't immediately returned.




tensions continue to rise in middle east over &quot;mohammad cartoons&quot;

the publishing of a series of cartoons of the prophet mohammad in a copenhagen newspaper sparked a string of harsh and in some places violent reactions in the middle east, forcing european leaders to try to calm the situation.

this backlash started in late september 2005, when the danish newspaper jyllands-posten published a dozen cartoons depicting the prophet mohammad. the images ranged from serious to comical in nature; a particularly controversial cartoon portrays mohammad with a bomb wrapped in his turban. the jutland-based newspaper states that the images were meant to inspire some level of public debate over the image of islam in europe, and had no direct aim of offending anyone.

however, many muslims follow the doctrine of aniconism concerning the portrayal of mohammad. this tenet of islam states that the prophet mohammad should not be depicted in any type of art, regardless of the intent of the piece. this belief, along with the potentially insensitive nature of some of the caricatures, have caused offense to many muslims in the arab world.

in the past month, the controversy over these cartoons escalated. the cartoons were re-published last month in spain, italy, germany, france and the netherlands (where the latter two nations have large muslim populations), and have begun to re-circulate throughout the middle east. 

many danish companies have been targeted for boycotts. as "wikinews" reported last week, arla foods, denmark's top dairy company, has seen their sales fall to zero in some middle east nations. carrefour, a french retail chain, has pulled all danish products from its shelves in the region. earlier this week, protests were held throughout the region, including the gaza strip in jerusalem, where hamas supporters led an assault and protest that surrounded the european union offices for israel.

hamas members, some armed with guns, stormed the eu office (which is primarily staffed by arabs) and demanded apologies from eu member states, saying they would otherwise face serious consequences. "it will be a suitable reaction, and it won't be predictable," said abu hafss, a member of the al quds brigade (an affiliate of the group islamic jihad), in a press conference outside the eu offices. and the abu al-reesh brigades, a group related to the late yassir arafat's fatah party, warned that eu member states had 10 hours to apologize for the cartoons or their citizens would be "in danger".

jamila al shanty, a newly elected hamas legislator, stated that more rallies will be planned in protest of the cartoons. "we are angry - very, very, very angry," al shanty said today, adding that "no one can say a bad word about our prophet."

the iranian newspaper hamshari daily has stated that on february 8 it will publish anti-semitic cartoons in response to the danish cartoons, apparently failing to notice that denmark has only a tiny jewish population, since most escaped to sweden during the world war ii holocaust. the newspaper says that the cartoons will lampoon the holocaust despite denials by the iranian government that the holocaust even happened.

"jyllands-posten", the newspaper that first published the cartoons did issue an apology to arab countries on monday, shortly after the eu office incident. but with the support of the government of denmark, the newspaper had earlier defended its actions fiercely, citing the universal right to free press, and its duty to serve democratic traditions by inspiring debate. indeed, anders fogh rasmussen, prime minister of denmark, said "we are talking about an issue with fundamental significance to how democracies work." in fact, some european pundits have placed more fault on muslims for refusing to "accept western standards of free speech and pluralism". when the cartoons were originally published in 2005 they were intended to highlight and redress the unequal restrictions applied to islamic content in european newspapers in comparison with content referring to other religions. the cartoons are also self-referential, with one character in the cartoons writing in arabic on a blackboard "jyllands-posten's journalists are a bunch of reactionary provocateurs", and another cartoon showing a cartoonist having to work in hiding because one of the cartoons he is drawing includes an image of the prophet mohammad. the text around the cartoons stated:

however, some world leaders have elected to help defuse what could be a major social crisis in europe and the middle east. france's foreign minister philippe douste-blazy said that freedom of the press should be exercised "in the spirit of tolerance", sentiments which were echoed by united nations general secretary kofi annan. ursula plassnik, foreign minister of austria, said that the european community must "clearly condemn" acts which insult religion. and hamid karzai, president of afghanistan, warned europe that "any insult to the holy prophet (peace be upon him) is an insult to more than one billion muslims and an act like this must never be allowed to be repeated." 

rasmussen, in an interview with arabic tv al arabia, said that "...danish government condemns any expression and any action which offends people's religious feelings..." and also said that he does not understand why, as the cartoons were originally published in september, the situation has only truly started to deteriorate in the past week.

in denmark, there are counter-demonstrations by moderate muslims saying they don't want the images banned. munira mirza commented that many muslims "want to be able to say: 'hey we're not children, we can handle criticism, we don't need special protection - we're equal'. many don't want to be treated as a special group, seen as worthy of more protection from criticism than other groups because of their apparent victim status."

religious satirist stewart lee commented that "jyllands-posten" had "tried to deal with a subject they don't know enough about, and this is one of the teething problems of the cross-over of cultures in the world. i'm sure the level of offence is far greater than would have been intended."

the director (directeur de publication) of "france soir", a french national newspaper was fired in response for publishing a cartoon titled: "yes, we have the right to (joke about) characterise god" (oui, on a le droit de caricaturer dieu). the "france-soir" web site is presently offline. the cartoon is partially visible on a nouvelobs.com website. 

today, liberation, another french national newspaper, is publishing two of the "mohammad cartoons". other newspapers across france are asking for their rights to freedom of the press to be defended.

charlie hebdo, a well-known satirical newspaper, will publish articles to support cartoonists, freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

the general reaction in france seems to be that most citizens except religious people (catholics, muslims...) are astounded by the level of anger against the "mohammad cartoons".

on february 9 2006 queensland premier peter beattie gave the courier mail newspaper his blessings in publishing the jyllands-posten muhammad cartoons/depictions of muhammad stating that he is a firm believer in free speech and ones freedom of expression.
on the very same day he got his legal representative to write to the author of this site photoduck.com demanding he censor material relating to him and his government.

although many newspapers have not republished the cartoons in order to avoid backlashes, the drawings have appeared on the internet and are being revealed at a number of web sites and blogs. on january 30th, fox news contributor michelle malkin placed the drawings on her blog, and encouraged others to do the same. 





indonesia warns australia over west papuan asylum seekers

indonesia's ambassador to australia has warned that relations between the two neighbors could be "strained" if the howard government grants political asylum to a group of refugees from the troubled indonesian province of .

the 43 west papuans, pro-independence activists and their families, arrived on , australia on january 18 after a five-day voyage in an outrigger canoe. they were later taken to an immigration detention facility on christmas island, a remote australian territory in the indian ocean.

a spokesman for the group says they fear they will be killed if returned to indonesian-controlled papua, where a pro-independence movement has been operating since the 1960s.

jakarta's ambassador warned of strained relations if they are granted asylum. indonesia's ambassador, teuku mohammad hamzah thayeb, said the group had nothing to fear from indonesian authorities. asked if granting asylum to the group would strain australia/indonesia relations, thayeb said: "i would hope it will not, but it certainly would have an effect. that's why we have to manage this together and find a solution." president has also guaranteed the group's safety should they return.

queensland national senator , who met with the 43 refugees on christmas island, said they appear to have a genuine asylum claim and had been persecuted because of their christian beliefs. "there are documented cases of members within their families being shot," he said. "there's certainly on the record experiences of them being jailed and tortured so i think they would be under risk if they went back," he said.

the group, which includes seven children, arrived carrying a banner accusing indonesia of terrorism and genocide in the province. indonesian troops have been repeatedly accused of rights abuses in papua province, which was taken over by jakarta in 1963. over 100,000 papuans, one-sixth of the population, have died in military operations. 

immigration minister said, "if they ask for protection we will consider the claim appropriately and if it is appropriate to offer it, we will offer it." 

the leader of the asylum seekers, herman wainggai, says the indonesian military treat indigenous papuans "like animals". mr thayeb disagreed: "we have changed fundamentally within ourselves," he said. 

indonesia offered papua special autonomy in 2001 in an effort to quell unrest from the melanesian population in the resource-rich area. mr wainggai described the papuan autonomy as a "sham", and said there have been many reports of the indonesian military "murdering and raping people, and destroying villages since autonomy came into force."

papua controversially became an indonesia province after a vote in 1969 overseen by the united nations called the . the act of free choice was drafted by the un and gave every adult the right to vote on the issue of independence. however, only 1022 people hand-picked by the indonesian authorities were allowed to vote. reinforcing the dubious nature of the poll, the voters gave 100 per cent approval to become part of indonesia.

indonesia's ambassador said there was no reason for the west papuans to seek asylum as they were not criminals. 

the australian greens said the indonesian ambassador's assurances that west papuan asylum seekers would be safe if they returned home should not be believed.

"the new indonesian ambassador's assurances about the safety of west papuan refugees if they are returned to indonesia are not credible," senator nettle said. "the escalating repression of the independence movement and generalised suppression of the people of west papua is well documented." 

"the australian government should not give in to indonesian pressure," senator nettle said.
senator joyce said the group of native west papuans were christian, which meant they are ethnically, religiously and politically isolated after an influx of indonesians to the province.




cialis blog controversy is major war of words

pharmaceutical giant eli lilly and company is currently engaged in a war of words with john mack, editor of the monthly newsletter "pharma marketing news". mack and eli lilly are debating the origin of the cialis blog, a long-running web site containing information about the popular anti-impotence medication cialis. the web site features information about cialis' clinical trials and commentary from lilly icos executives. 

mack has suggested that eli lilly and company sponsors the cialis blog. however, lilly icos has asserted that it has nothing to do with the web site. 

mack disputed eli lilly's version of events calling the cialis blog "too far-fetched to be believed" and an example of lilly's "incredible incompetence." another blog, envisioning 2.0, notes that the "cialis blog is not endorsed by the powers that be at lilly icos, according to lilly spokesperson kindra strupp." 

"pharmaceutical executive" first mentioned the cialis blog in an october 2004 article about pharmaceutical blogging. the author of the story assigned responsibility for the blog to lilly icos without attribution. 

other bloggers have posted comments on envisioning 2.0 and mack's pharma marketing blog suggesting that the cialis web site may be unofficial. they cite evidence from a whois search indicating that mircea piturca of romania apparently registered the blog. 

mack and bloggers commenting on the debate have all urged eli lilly to take action against the site. they all believe it is in the company’s best interest to have the site shuttered. 




egyptian passenger ferry sinks in red sea

an investigation has been commenced by egypt into the friday sinking of one of el salam's passenger ferries in the red sea. m/v al-salam boccaccio 98 was carrying 1408, including many egyptians returning from work in saudi arabia. the ship left from the port of dubah in saudi arabia enroute to the port of safaga in egypt. on the west coast of saudi arabia during the night a sandstorm occurred due to high winds.

david osler of lloyd's list has said of the ship that "it's a roll-on, roll-off ferry, and there is big question mark over the stability of this kind of ship," he continued and said that "it would only take a bit of water to get on board this ship and it would be all over. ... the percentage of this type of ferry involved in this type of disaster is huge." 

mamdouh ismail, head of al-salaam maritime transport company, stated that another one of el salam's ferries, saint catherine received a distress call from one of the lifeboats of the boccaccio when it arrived in dubah from safaga. the saint catherine notified its company headquarters, and el salam reported it to egyptian authorities.

according to a statement given to the "associated press" by ismail, the ferry was carrying 96 crew members, 1,200 egyptians, and 112 other passengers. a transport ministry spokesman has stated that 314 people have been rescued. more than 185 bodies have been recovered from the sea according to an egyptian police official who has requested anonymity.

four rescue ships from egypt arrived friday afternoon, approximately ten hours after the sinking of the 35-year-old ferry in the night near the egyptian port of hurghada. aid from britain and the united states was initially refused. later, both the british hms bulwark and the us p3-orion maritime naval patrol aircraft were recalled, but due to its distance at the later time, the request for the return of the bulwark was called off by egypt.




new pre-iraq war memo leaked

british television station channel 4 news and newspaper the guardian have reported that they have obtained a secret transcript of a meeting between united states president george w. bush and british prime minister tony blair on january 31, 2003, two months before the beginning of the iraq war. the memo has been viewed by phillipe sands, a professor of international law at university college london, and by channel 4 news. last year, professor sands reported on doubts about the legality of the invasion in iraq voiced by government lawyers, which eventually forced the british government to publish the full legal advice given to them by the attorney general.

according to the two sources, the transcript suggests that the invasion of iraq was already decided at the point of the meeting, and that bush had stated that "the diplomatic strategy had to be arranged around the military planning". blair is reportedly quoted as responding that he is "solidly with the president and ready to do whatever it took to disarm saddam".

the memo from the sources also states that bush suggested "flying u2 reconnaissance aircraft planes with fighter cover over iraq, painted in un colours", so that "if saddam fired on them, he would be in breach [of un resolutions]".

according to the memo, president bush said he "thought it unlikely that there would be internecine warfare between the different religious and ethnic groups".

the british government did not deny the existence of the memo last night, but insisted that "the prime minister only committed uk forces to iraq after securing the approval of the house of commons in a vote on march 18, 2003." it added that they "do not comment on the prime minister's conversations with other leaders."

the bbc reported that chief spokesman for the national security council frederick jones said that "the white house would not comment on what was said or not said in alleged private conversations between mr bush and foreign leaders," and added that the white house "was not going to re-litigate how the nation went to war". 

the purported document has not been confirmed as authentic by either government so far.



leisel jones sets two new swimming world records at trials

australian swimmer leisel jones has broken two swimming world records this week. swimming at the australian trials in melbourne for the commonwealth games, leisel knocked over one second off her old 200 m breast stroke world record, coming in at 2:20.54.

two days later she did it again, this time knocking almost half a second off the 100 m breast stroke. finishing in 1:05.71 she regained the 100 m record from jessica hardy, who had beaten leisel's old record in the semi-finals at last years world championships in montreal.

also at the trials, libby lenton set a new 100 m freestyle world record of 53.42 and jade edmistone reduced the 50 m breast stroke record to 30.31.


news briefs:february 3, 2006

"breaking news:"
iraqi police find 14 tortured dead bodies
fourteen bodies were found by iraqi police in baghdad. according to the iraqi interior ministry, the bodies appeared to have been tortured. each one had been blind-folded and had their hands tied behind their back. military officials for the united states said that the killings were in retaliation after aircraft were fired upon from the ground.

the time is "11:40 (utc)" on "february 3rd (utc)", and this is audio wikinews: news briefs.

'kama sutra' worm set to strike<br>
the 'kama sutra' worm is set to strike today. the worm is programmed to activate itself on the third of every month - overwriting or corrupting microsoft office word documents, microsoft office excel spread sheets, and portable document format files. experts say the worm, also known as "blackworm," "cme-24," "blackmal," "mywife.e" and "nyxem", can be avoided simply by having and updated anti-virus program and doing a weekly scan.

tensions continue to rise in middle east over "mohammad cartoons"<br>
the publishing of a series of cartoons of the prophet mohammad in a copenhagen newspaper, starting in september 2005, sparked a string of harsh and violent reactions in the middle east. the controversy recently escalated, with many european companies being boycotted in the middle east and hamas members storming the eu office demanding apologies from eu member states.

taken from wikipedia's current events section.


to receive more up-to-date news items as they occur, please visit wikinews.org.

this has been a news brief for audio wikinews.

this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


pentagon's quadrennial defense review released

the pentagon released its findings from its quadrennial defense review today. this review focuses mainly on defining and identifying weak points in united states defenses, and prescriptions for improvements in those areas. 

this review, known as the quadrennial defense review because congress requires it every four years, does not alter the pentagon's approach in iraq. it also leaves intact the defense department's broader strategy for keeping the u.s. military big enough to fight other major conflicts.

the plan proposes a 4.8% boost to the department of defense budget, eliminates no major weapons programs and includes an 8 percent overall increase for weapons (to us$84 billion) for the budget year starting sept. 30. this review excludes the energy department's nuclear weapons programs.

overall, there was an emphasis on finding ways to adopt a more indirect approach to the war on terror; a shifted emphasis from performing tasks to enabling other countries to perform. some of the specific proposals include:






other highlights include:




president bush to request usd$439.3b defense budget

the bush administration said thursday that it will request a defense department budget of us$439.3 billion for 2007. this is an increase of over 4%. this does not include a planned supplemental bill to fund ongoing actions in iraq and afghanistan.

the proposal's details are still not final, but the budget that president bush will submit next week will be for planning purposes. $2.3 billion of the budget will go to preparing for a bird flu epidemic.

many weapons programs were tweaked but no major weapon system was cut. funding for unmanned aircraft will be increased.


1,000+ of saudi arabia's guest workers feared drowned

an aging ferry deemed unsafe sank in the red sea on friday with about 1400 people on board, mostly egyptians who travel back and forth to saudi arabia to work as guest workers.

egyptian president hosni mubarak's spokesman, suleiman awad, said there were not enough lifeboats, and questions were raised about the safety of the old ship that had 220 cars on it as well as the passengers. "the speed with which the ship sank and the lack of sufficient lifeboats indicate there was some deficiency," awad said.

"it's a roll-on, roll-off ferry, and there is big question mark over the stability of this kind of ship," said david osler of lloyds list. "it would only take a bit of water to get on board this ship and it would be all over. ... the percentage of this type of ferry involved in this type of disaster is huge."

tens of thousands of poor egyptians work in persian gulf countries for years to earn money. they travel by ship as it is a cheaper option than flying.



scores killed in manila game show stampede

at least 79 people, nearly all of them women, were trampled to death and 290 more injured saturday morning in a stampede outside the ultra stadium in pasig city in metro manila. the crowd, estimated at 30,000, had been lined up to get tickets to the wowowee game show, popular for its prizes. according to reports, the stampede was triggered when someone shouted a bomb threat.


gates pledges $600 million for global plan to stop tuberculosis

tuberculosis does not frequently make headlines, but it kills about two million people each year. in a new effort to fight the disease, the stop tuberculosis partnership on january 27 requested us$31 billion for a global plan to stop tuberculosis, which the partnership claims would prevent an estimated 14 million tb deaths during the next ten years.

to kick-off the funding drive, bill gates pledged to donate us$600 million. "every 15 seconds somebody dies of tb, avoidably, preventably," said uk chancellor of the exchequer gordon brown, who helped launch the plan at the world economic forum in davos, switzerland. "i welcome the gates foundation's announcement today. for far too long, world leaders have ignored the global tuberculosis epidemic, even as it causes millions of needless deaths each year," said brown.

"the global plan is fundamental for africa, where tuberculosis was declared an emergency by 46 countries in 2005," said nigerian president olusegun obasanjo.

tuberculosis is a contagious disease caused by bacteria that spread through the air and usually attack the lungs. one-third of the world's population is now infected, and 5-10% of infected people suffer active tb disease sometime during their lives. left untreated, each person with active tb will infect on average between ten and 15 people every year. 

tb is active worldwide, though most deaths are in southeast asia and africa. 

drugs in use for more than four decades can cure the disease. the world bank ranked a common tb-treatment strategy, called dots, as one of the "most cost-effective of all health interventions". 

a childhood vaccine against tuberculosis has been available for more than 75 years.

"this is a disease with a huge impact that is completely treatable and preventable," said dr. peter small, a member of the stop tb coordinating board. "it's not that we can't do something about it, it's that we've chosen not to."

in addition to limited funding, the fight against tb has also been hampered in recent years by two developments. because hiv weakens the immune system, people who have the virus that causes aids are much more likely to become ill with tuberculosis than those who are hiv-negative. tb is the leading cause of death among people with hiv/aids.

the second problem lately has been the evolution of drug resistance among many strains of the bacteria that cause tuberculosis. some strains, called multi-drug resistant, are immune to the effects of more than one drug.

stop tb claims that full funding of the plan will help achieve the millennium development goal to have "halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of tuberculosis." the plan aims to provide:


"we have a unique historic opportunity to stop tuberculosis," said dr. marcos espinal, executive secretary of the stop tuberculosis partnership. "the challenge now is for people to work together in putting the plan into action, in order to stop one of the oldest and most lethal diseases known to humanity. this plan tells the world exactly what we need to do in order to defeat this global killer."

there has already been significant progress against tb over the past several years. since 2000, estimated spending on tuberculosis control in the 22 hardest-hit countries has increased from us$800 million to us$1.2 billion; as a result, the number of patients receiving tb treatment in these countries more than doubled.

according to stop tb, implementing the new plan will require us$56 billion over ten years--us$47 billion for expanding access to treatments already available, and us$9 billion for research and development of new diagnostic tools, drugs, and vaccines. the total number is us$31 billion more than the amount stop tb estimates will be spent if current funding trends continue. the investment, the group insists, would have a profound effect on the number of tuberculosis cases averted and lives saved.



new zealand newspapers publish &quot;mohammad cartoons&quot;

two new zealand newspapers, fairfax-owned the dominion post and the christchurch press, today controversially published all 12 cartoons of the prophet mohammad, which have triggered international outrage. some of the cartoons were also broadcast on television new zealand's current affairs programme "close up" yesterday.

in september 2005, the danish newspaper jyllands-posten first published the cartoons. the images range from serious to comical in nature; a particularly controversial cartoon portrays mohammad with a bomb wrapped in his turban.

the dominion post editor tim pankhurst says the decision today to publish the cartoons was in defense of press freedom and it is important for readers to make up their own minds.

"we do not wish to be deliberately provocative but neither should we allow ourselves to be intimidated...if we allow christianity and more particularly the catholic church and the pope to be satirised, and we do, should islam be treated differently?" 

javed khan, president of the new zealand federation of islamic associations, says he hopes it will not affect new zealand's trade, but believes there could be "serious repercussions". "we won't call for a boycott, and we don't want to see one, but news gets around the world pretty quickly. muslims will make their own decisions and as you know, they've taken drastic action against denmark". he also said the government should take a stand against the cartoons.

ethnic affairs minister chris carter has criticised the newspapers for publishing the cartoons, saying that it undermines new zealand's reputation as a tolerant country. prime minister helen clark has condemned the actions of the newspapers and tvnz, saying that the publishing of the cartoons was gratuitous and she could not see the point of it. she said that the issue was one of judgment, not freedom of speech, and she thought that neither publishing the cartoons nor the reaction to it will do anything to bring communities and faiths together.

both co-leaders of the m?ori party have spoken out strongly against the decision to publish the cartoons. "it's one thing to promote freedom of the press and freedom of expression, but quite another to use those rights to justify the decision to insult religions and beliefs," said co-leader pita sharples. 

in contrast, cartoonist tom scott said that the islamic community needed to get a sense of humour. "[they] clearly have god on their side so they don't need cartoonists as well," he added. scott faced a blasphemy prosecution in 1969 over an anti-christian cartoon.

some muslim religious leaders have called for boycotts against countries that have published the cartoons, and many danish companies have been targeted. arla foods, denmark's top dairy company, has seen their sales fall to zero in some middle east nations.

new zealand's fonterra co-operative group, the world's fifth largest dairy company, has run advertisements saying that the milk in its products do not come from denmark.

new zealand's embassies in the middle east have been placed on high alert.

update, february 5, 2006: hundreds of people have marched down auckland's queen st to protest the publication of the cartoons. the march was organised by the pakistan association of new zealand to let the public know about the hurt that muslims have felt.




new laws to combat 'endemic' hong kong bird flu

health officials in hong kong say that avian bird flu (h5n1) appears to be taking hold in the region - where the deadly virus has surfaced in local poultry. hong kong's health secretary said in a media conference on friday that positive tests for h5n1 in a bird brought into hong kong from china indicates that the virus is endemic in the region. 

dr york chow says new laws will be introduced to restrict movement of poultry. "it's not just hong kong, he said. "this virus will exist in neighboring areas, southern china as well as hong kong," dr chow said. "since different kinds of wild birds and chickens have this virus, we can be quite sure that this virus is endemic in our birds," he said.

health bureau spokeswoman sally kong later clarified dr chow's comments, saying the secretary meant that bird flu was endemic in asia - but not in hong kong specifically. whilst bird flu is considered endemic in vietnam, indonesia, laos, cambodia and thailand, international standards require that countries be certified as 'endemic' by test results showing a cycle of disease recurrence in an area. mrs kong said hong kong does not meet such standards. 

york chow said the government intends to ban individual households from raising chickens, ducks, geese, pigeons, turkeys and quails. the legislation to ban private ownership could be in place next week. current hong kong legislation allows private poultry ownership of up to 20 birds. under the law change, the current exemption will be removed. the unauthorised keeping of poultry will be an offence warranting fines of up to $100,000, however, those keeping commercial racing pigeons in new towns and villages may be exempt.

dr chow encouraged the surrender of backyard poultry to the agriculture, fisheries & conservation department. those who want to keep birds before the new legislation comes into effect must have them vaccinated against avian flu. the government may set a date for the central slaughtering, dr chow said.

permanent secretary for health, welfare & food, carrie yau, stated that the risk of a bird flu outbreak still exists even if chickens are vaccinated - as the virus may mutate. she asked private poultry give their birds to the agriculture, fisheries & conservation department. 

she stressed there will not be any compensation.

the department visited 35 villages and 1,500 households in sha tau kok and the north district in the past two days, with 113 chickens collected and another 112 vaccinated. the department's acting assistant director thomas sit said most backyard poultry owners do not implement biosecurity measures. he called on owners to surrender their poultry.

the customs & excise department has stepped up patrols to prevent the inflow of smuggled chickens.


manipulation alleged in the &quot;mohammad cartoons&quot; affair

the danish tabloid "ekstra bladet" has published a 43-page document allegedly used by danish islamists in an international tour meant to involve the arab world in a backlash against the mohammad cartoons. 

the document contains several "extra" cartoons showing mohammad as a pig, mohammad sodomised by a dog and mohammad as a pedophile. these cartoons have been said to be fabrications intended to heat up the issue.

the recent surge of indignation among many muslims occurred three full months after the original publication of the cartoons.





indigenous brazilians asserting their land claims

the last few months have seen the number of land conflicts involving indigenous people increase rapidly. brazil has 400,000 "first people", many of whom express that they need more respect.

hundreds of indians occupied eight plots of land last week in an attempt to reclaim what they claim is their property. they were calling themselves victims and they threatened to destroy power lines.

in the southern region of brazil, around a dozen indians were injured in a police operation which apparently led to the destruction of two villages on land which is the focus of a legal dispute with the aracruz cellulose company.

there have been incidents throughout brazil. the amazon jungle in the north, and in the southern state of catarina where eight indians were arrested for property invasion and aggression.

the indigenous people have organized themselves over the past three decades. they have become a "political force", said rubem de almeida a local anthropologist.

the government of brazil have been somewhat successful in bringing about improvements which improve the reality for the indigenous communities.

some of the indigenous people say they can't simply wait for the mainstream; so in april of this year there are major demonstrations planned.


iran reported to u.n. security council

the iaea board has passed a resolution to report iran to the united nations security council. the decision by the 35-nation board came on saturday. 

the resolution was made without waiting for the director of the iaea, mohamed elbaradei, to finish preparing a report on (and ) nuclear programs for the regular iaea meeting scheduled for march 6. according to "al-jazeera", elbaradei refused to accept pressure from western states to finish his report in advance of the march 6 meeting. elbaradei said in written responses to requests by the us and eu member states that he had given iran until the meeting in march to answer questions to iaea enquiries, stating, "due process, therefore, must take its course before <nowiki>[we are]</nowiki> able to submit a detailed report". elbaradei also said that another iaea verification mission was due in iran shortly and that he had only in mid-january sent extra questions to iran based on what diplomats called newly released intelligence.

the text of the resolution, made without the results of the report, which will only be ready in march, requires elbaradei to report to the security council "steps iran needs to take to dispel suspicions about its nuclear ambitions."

the resolution states that there are serious concerns about iran's nuclear program. it also notes, "iran's many failures and breaches of its obligations," (to the non-proliferation treaty) and expresses "the absence of confidence that iran's nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes." 

the resolution also states that iran is to:





the resolution calling for the referral was apparently drafted by several members states of the european union together with the united states. political analyst joshua frank claims that the us is not interested in diplomatic means of limiting iran's possible shift towards nuclear weapons development and that the major reasons are iran's oil supplies and plans to open an international oil bourse in , which would challenge the , on march 20, 2006.

the agency vote sets the stage for future action by the top u.n. body. russia and china insisted, in casting their votes with the majority, that future votes on deliberations should wait until at least march. the outcome could include economic and political sanctions. this process of successive escalation of the tension between iran and the western members of the security council was described by , responsible for about 700 inspections for weapons of mass destruction in iraq, as " and momentum". he was in favour of "inducing iran to forego enrichment" but also recommended that the united states give a similar commitment not to attack iran with either conventional or nuclear weapons, just as it apparently has to north korea.

27 of the 35 nations on the board voted for the referral.

three nations that voted against the resolution: cuba, syria and venezuela. five other countries algeria, belarus, indonesia, libya and south africa, abstained. 

jack straw, foreign secretary of the united kingdom, a state obliged under article vi of the to destroy its own, existing nuclear weapons, said that the iaea vote showed "the international community's determination to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons in the middle east."

after the decision, iran said today that it would "immediately" begin the steps to "restart full-scale uranium enrichment" and "curtail" the powers of the iaea inspectors.

javad vaeedi, deputy iranian nuclear negotiator, said in a press conference after the vote, "after this decision, iran has to immediately bring into force its parliamentary law to suspend voluntary implementation of (the watchdog agency's) additional protocol (on snap inspections) and (pursue) commercial-scale enrichment which until today was under full suspension." he also said, "this resolution is politically motivated since it is not based on legal or technical grounds."

iran has also said that a proposed deal by moscow to enrich iranian uranium is dead. 

"there is no adequate reason to pursue the russian plan," said vaeedi. "commercial scale uranium enrichment will be resumed in natanz in accordance with the law passed by the parliament."

iran had said that it will "end cooperation with iaea", if referred to the security council. 

as of january 31, 2006, the deputy director general for safeguards of the iaea had reported that "iran has continued to facilitate access under its safeguards agreement as requested by the agency, and to act as if the additional protocol is in force, including by providing in a timely manner the requisite declarations and access to locations."





bhp halts operations after mine death in western australia

a bhp billiton nickel mine at leinster, 645km northeast of perth, western australia has halted operations after the death of a mine worker. wa police say mark quinn, 32, an employee of mining contractor macmahon's, working about 900 metres underground, was killed in an explosion.

the cause of the explosion is not yet known. department of community and employment protection investigators have travelled to the site from kalgoorlie to conduct an inquiry.

global resources giant bhp billiton ltd./plc, says employees are being briefed and counselled over the incident. the mine will remain closed until the investigation is complete. police will prepare a report for the coroner. 

according to media reports, no-one else was injured in the explosion - the cause of which is not yet known. the accident comes almost two years after a bhp billiton worker died in a gas explosion at the boodarie iron plant in port hedland, wa. the plant was then abandoned after the incident in may 2004.

in april 2004, a man was killed at bhp billiton's nelson point facility, also at port hedland in wa. in may 2000 a truck driver was killed at a bhp pilbara iron ore operation in wa. bhp billiton employ some 37,000 people at over 100 operations in 25 countries.

coal mines in the united states' west virginia district were also suspended earlier this week, due to increased amounts of miners' deaths.



rio tinto makes more than $4 billion

rio tinto group, the world's third-largest miner, say they will return a record annual profit of over au$5.32 billion to shareholders, following surging commodity prices - doubling the group's profit. earnings from operations jumped 118 percent last year.

the london-based company unveiled a net profit of 58 per cent on the previous year. the result was boosted by increases in commodity prices driven by demand from china. chinese interests account for around 15 percent of rio tinto's sales.

rio tinto's ceo, leigh clifford said demand for iron ore remains strong. prices for the steelmaking raw material and metalshave climbed to records amid rising demand from china. 

"china clearly continues to have a major impact on what they are doing," said tim barker at bt financial group. "with commodity prices as strong as they are at the moment, and not showing any signs of a change of direction, one would think there is still room for some improvement in earnings in 2006," he said.

the company produced 65 million tons of iron ore in the second half, 15 percent more than a year ago. rio and other miners last year secured a record 71.5 percent price increase.

rio tinto say they are studying further mine expansion and will invest around $9 billion to meet the global demand led by china. projects include expanding wa iron ore mines, its coal mine in nsw and copper interests in the usa. 

other investments would see the expansion of a titanium dioxide project in madagascar and canada, in the cortez hills gold venture in the usa, and in the argyle diamonds underground mine development in north west australia.



news briefs:february 4, 2006

"breaking news"
iran reported to u.n. security council<br>
the iaea has passed a resolution, by 27 to 3 votes, to report concerns over iran's nuclear program to the un security council. iranian officials have said that iran will respond by downgrading its cooperation with the iaea and resuming full scale fuel enrichment.

the time is "17:00 (utc)" on "4th february (utc)", and this is audio wikinews: news briefs.

egyptian passenger ferry sinks in red sea<br>
stormy conditions have caused a ferry traveling from saudi arabia to egypt to sink. the ferry was carrying 96 crew members, 1,200 egyptians, and 112 other passengers. 314 people have been rescued and over 185 bodies have been pulled out of the red sea. at least 1,000 people are still believed to be missing.

gates pledges $600 million for global plan to stop tuberculosis<br>
the stop tuberculosis partnership requested us$31 billion for a global plan to stop tuberculosis on january 27, which the partnership claims would prevent an estimated 14 million tb deaths during the next ten years. to kick-off the funding drive, bill gates has pledged to donate us$600 million. tuberculosis is a contagious disease caused by bacteria that spread through the air and usually attack the lungs, it kills about two million people a year.

taken from wikipedia's current events section.


to receive more up-to-date news items as they occur, please visit wikinews.org.

this has been a news brief for audio wikinews.

this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


danish and norwegian embassies set on fire

the norwegian and danish embassies in damascus, syria have been set alight by crowds numbering in the thousands. reports indicate both embassies have been destroyed by fire. the building hosting the danish embassy also contained the embassies of chile and sweden.

the danish embassy was initially torched, at a time when it was reportedly empty. officials and staff had been evacuated. attempts to disperse the protest outside the embassy using tear gas were carried out by syrian police and it is reported that a number of protesters were taken to hospital.

the attacks on the embassies may have been provoked by text messages which reportedly circulated among syrians claiming that danes would burn copies of the qur'an in a copenhagen square. some of those who gathered outside the embassies in damascus were reported to have been chanting, "with our blood and souls we defend you, o prophet of god. there is no god but god and muhammad is the messenger of god."

earlier in the week, text messaging circulated in egypt that said;
"denmark wants to burn the sacred qur'an saturday in copenhagen in response to the muslim boycott," and "send (this message on) and you will be rewarded," the text said.

despite claims in the text messages that the holy book of islam would be burned on saturday, there were no reports to indicate that it occurred.




manhunt on for gay bar attacker in massachusetts

authorities have killed the man sought in connection with an attack on patrons of a gay bar in new bedford, massachusetts wednesday night, february 1. jacob d. robida, 18, of new bedford was wanted on suspicion of three counts of attempted murder and hate crimes.

robida entered puzzles lounge around 11:30 pm wednesday night and asked if it was a gay bar. the bartender said yes and served robida a drink acquired with a fake id.

after finishing the drink and ordering a second one, robida moved to the back of the bar where a game of pool was being played and started swinging a hatchet at a customer's head. while the bartender was calling the police, robida struck a second patron with the hatchet and then pulled out a gun shooting the first victim in the face and the second twice in the head. a third person was also shot.

robida was captured saturday february 4, 2006 in norfork, arkansas after a gunfight with police. a police chase began after robida killed a police officer who pulled him over for a routine traffic stop. after his car was spotted on arkansas highway 201 he was chased into norfork and stopped at a police barricade. once stopped robida killed the passenger in his car and fired on police. at this point the police returned fire and shot robida twice in the head, and he was then taken to a hospital in springfield, missouri.

robida died at 3:38 a.m. sunday february 5, 2006 as a result of his injuries. the female passenger who was traveling with robida and was killed before the shoot out with police has been identified as jennifer rena bailey of charleston, west virginia. she appears to have had a prior relationship with robida, however his reason for picking her up and later killing her is still unknown.



portuguese air force merlin helicopters enter service

on friday the 3rd, the portuguese air force started to operate eight eh101 merlin helicopters, replacing the old french made puma helicopters; which have had more than 30 years of service, first used during the portuguese colonial war.

after the war, the puma were used in missions of search and rescue,transport of patients and evacuation missions, and also assisted the usaf in recovery of nasa's space shuttles.

twelve merlin have been purchased; in three different models: six sar (for use with search & rescue), four in csar (for deployment of troops to zones out of the country) and two in sificap (for fisheries control).

the merlin is capable of carrying more than 3 tons, its maximum speed is 309 km/h and it has a range of 1390 km. the merlin is the helicopter used for the transportation of the president of the united states george w. bush and other vip's.

four puma operating in the azores and in madeira will continue in service, for the next few months, until the last four merlin csar helicopters are delivered. the air force is currently considering using these four onboard a future logistic support ship. (lpd)

a ceremony was held at the air base of montijo, attending was portuguese minister of national defence, luis amado. he said during the ceremony that the old puma might be converted for civilian protection missions, such as fire fighting.

"the government will decide the future of the puma helicopters on the board of appreciation that is being done with other sectors of the government, namely the ministry of internal administration, in the possibility of the puma being adapted for other missions, for example on the scope of the civilian protection".

the merlin, was purchased in 2001 by the government of antonio guterres. the two first helicopters arrived in february 11 of last year, being held in february 24 an official ceremony in the montijo air base, attending both the president of the portuguese republic, jorge sampaio, and the then minister of national defense, paulo portas.

they have cost the portuguese government ?446 million, (approximately us$536 million). this deal has given ?60 million in counterparts, relatively in orders of production in the workshops of ogma. it's expected that this sum will grow to almost a total of ?315 million.

at dawn on thursday, a puma took off from the lajes air base to the hekabe, a ship that was 250 km from the cost of the terceira island, in azores, evacuate a russian sailor with the symptoms of a appendicitis. after refuelling in faial the helicopter reached the ship at 0825 utc. seventy minutes later the puma landed on the faial island airport and the patient went to the horta hospital.

during december 21 and 22 an sa330 puma helicopter, from the lajes air base, was called to aid in the transportation of dangerous substances from the russian ship "cp valour" to land. the ship wrecked on december 9, 2005, near the faial island, due to bad weather conditions, and had in its manifest some containers considered dangerous.


mother seals fight gallantly for their pups

pictou island had 2,000 to 3,000 seals on it when struck by a "severe" storm that buried the tiny canadian island in snow and created rough ocean effects wednesday and thursday.

jane macdonald, an island resident, said that she woke up thursday morning to see "wall to wall seals" and their puppies "decimated" by the storm.

macdonald commented, "the seal puppies were literally swept away into the water because their mothers couldn't get them to higher ground. a wave would hit and the pup went under. the mother pushed it up with her nose, and then another wave would hit."

"after the sixth or seventh wave, the pup didn't come up," macdonald said. "the more you watched, the worse it got. the mothers struggled so hard to save their babies and it just couldn't be done, i'd never seen anything like that."


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us army chaplains adopt new program to aid personnel in spouse selection

the spouse selection aid program created by former minister and doctor of psychology john van epp has been adopted by .

since the onset of the us campaign in afghanistan, 56,000 of the active duty, , and personnel have been divorced. the program titled "no jerks" was adopted with the intent of providing army personnel subject to periods of long deployment with effective advice for consideration in the selection of spouses who are able to adapt to the circumstances that military service causes in regard to the potential family stresses of possible injury also.

army spokeswoman martha rudd has said in regard to marrying in to the military that "not everybody is cut out."

van epp said of the high divorce rates and increased prevalence of domestic violence that "settings like military bases are incubators ... they try to hatch ... relationships extremely fast." epp sent 200 program workbooks to iraq in january 2006.


masterminds of uss cole and limburg bombings escape from yemeni prison

among 23 militants that broke out of a jail in sanaa, the capital of yemen, were 13 al-qaeda members, two of which were convicted for the bombings of the uss "cole" and the french supertanker "limburg", said interpol.

interpol released a "urgent global security alert" after the men escaped. the alert calls the escapees "dangerous individuals." 

interpol's secretary general ronald k. noble said in the alert that at least 13 of the 23 men were, "convicted al qaeda terrorists, some of whom were involved in attacks on u.s. and french ships in 2000 and 2002. their escape cannot be considered an internal problem for yemen alone. unless interpol red notices are issued urgently for these fugitives and unless the world community commits itself to tracking them down, they will be able to travel internationally, to elude detection and to engage in future terrorist activity."

noble also added that "al qaeda terrorists have been deemed a serious threat to the entire world community by the u.n. security council, by interpol and by a wide range of countries."

noble said that he issued the alert himself because, "the escape and unknown whereabouts of al-qaeda terrorists constituted a clear and present danger to all countries."

reports also say among the escapees are top militants jamal ahmed badawi and fawaz yahya al-rabeei. 

interpol says the men had escaped by digging a 220-foot long tunnel which took them to a mosque.

rabeie is the leader of the group responsible for the "limburg" explosion in 2002 which killed one bulgarian crew member, injured 12 others and spilled 90,000 barrels of oil into the . he was facing the death penalty. 

badawi was serving a 15 year sentence for the bombing of the cole in 2000 which killed 17 sailors. he was sentenced in may of 2003. after his sentencing badawi declared, "this is an unjust verdict, this is an american verdict. there are no human rights in the world, except for the americans. all the muslims in the world are being used to serve american interests." 

terrorists used an inflatable raft to carry out the attack on the "cole".

additionally, reports suggest that abu assem al-ahdal, a leading al-qaeda official in yemen, may also be among those that have escaped.



suspect in gay bar attack dies after gunfight with police

the man who was suspected of attacking three men in a gay bar in massachusetts died early sunday morning after being shot in a gun battle with arkansas state police.

jacob d. robida, 18, fled massachusetts on friday after a warrant was put out for his arrest in the aforementioned gay bar attack. along the way he picked up his girlfriend, 33-year-old jennifer rena bailey, in charleston, west virginia. robida was pulled over in a traffic stop by gassville, arkansas police officer jim sell. sell asked robida to get out of the car, and robida shot him three times before getting back in the car and leaving. a witness called 911, but sell died at the scene.

robida led baxter county, arkansas sheriff's officers and arkansas state police officers on a high-speed chase. robida ran over spike strips in norfolk and drove on two flat tires for a while. he ultimately wrecked his car into some parked vehicles while trying to avoid a roadblock on arkansas state road 5. robida shot at the officers, who returned fire, shooting robida twice in the head. bailey was killed in the gunfight; though some witness said robida shot her before firing on the officers, an autopsy and forensic investigation will determine how she died.

robida was rushed to cox-south hospital in springfield, arkansas, where he was pronounced dead at 3:38 a.m. cst (0938 utc).


 

new south wales to introduce 'parenting contracts'

new south wales premier morris iemma announced sunday that his government would be introducing "parenting contracts" for parents of children who are at risk of neglect. the contracts are the next element of the government's "respect and responsibility" reforms announced last month.

premier iemma believes that the contracts will help to reduce juvenile crime by forcing parents to take responsibility for their children's actions.

parents would be forced to sign the contracts by the children's court. they could require parents to attend parenting classes, undergo counselling, stop drug use or stop consuming excessive amounts of alcohol depending on the situation. the nsw deparment of community services would be allowed to apply to the court for the contracts to be drawn up.

if parents failed to comply with the contracts their children would be removed by authorities.

the department of community services would be able to apply to the court for contracts to be drawn up.

the plan follows the murder of a taxi driver in sydney by two 14-year-old girls last week. following the arrest of the girls, mr iemma said he was concerned about the whereabouts of the girl's parents. mr iemma denies that the contracts are a kneejerk reaction to that incident. 

speaking of the plan mr iemma said, "we know the majority of people naturally take their responsibilities as parents very seriously."

"however, those children who are failed in this regard by their parents are at risk of becoming adolescents and adults without respect."

nsw community services minister, reba meagher referred to studies showing that out of 1,000 neglected children, 256 came into contact with the juvenile justice system.

"there is plenty of evidence to show that children who are failed by their parents are more likely not to complete their schooling, to become involved in crime and to abuse their own children." said ms meagher.

a similar proposal has been made in south australia by the opposition. the liberals have promised a similar system of contracts in south australia if they are elected.

child welfare advocates claim that it is not clear whether or not the plan is the best solution to the problem.

jane woodruff from the association of child welfare agencies said "do we know that this is the right strategy and if we do, where's that evidence, where's that research, where's that practice experience so we don't make mistakes in such an important area?".

"if parents are going to be required to attend a certain range of services, who's actually going to provide those services?" she said.

tasmania's human services minister, david llewellyn said that he has not been able to look at the proposal in detail, but felt that "on the surface it does not seem appropriate legislation for tasmania".



latham to face court on assault, stealing and malicious damage charges

former australian opposition leader mark latham has been issued with court attendance notices for assault, malicious damage and stealing from person by campbelltown police.

the notices follow an altercation between latham and a daily telegraph photographer on january 19.

police briefs allege that latham snatched the photographer's camera worth $12,000 and started to walk to his car. 

when the photographer demanded that latham return his camera, latham is alleged to have thrown a punch at the photographer, but did not injure him. 

police later found that the camera had been destroyed.

sydney's daily telegraph said following the incident last month that it intended to claim $12,000 against latham for damage to a camera carried by its photographer.

latham is due to appear in campbelltown local court on march 22.



catholic priest murdered during prayer

turkish prime minister recep tayyip erdogan condemned the assassination of a catholic priest. many people in turkey associate this incident with the current crisis over the publication of cartoons of the prophet mohammed in european papers.


danish mission in beirut set ablaze

in lebanon sunday, protesters set fire to the building housing the danish mission. about 200 people were detained by police, 30 were injured and at least one person died according to officials. prime minister fuad saniora said 76 syrians, 35 palestinians and 38 lebanese were arrested.

ghazi aridi,lebanese information minister, said that the lebanese government had unanimously "rejected and condemned the ... riots," which "harmed lebanon's reputation and its civilized image and the noble aim of the demonstration." 

"the cabinet apologizes to denmark," said aridi.

 

danish and austrian embassies in tehran attacked

four-hundred protestors threw fire bombs and stones at the danish embassy in , iran today as part of continuing reaction to the , originally published in denmark. iranian were sent in, but several protestors made their way into the embassy and burned documents before being removed. tear gas was used against the demonstrators, at least nine of which were injured.

denmark has repeated its request to the iranian government for better protection of its embassy. iran's minister of trade has halted all trade between the two countries. it is rumored that iran is planning to review its trade ties with all of the countries in which the cartoons have been published. iran's ambassador in denmark has returned to iran.

demonstrators also attacked the austrian embassy in tehran today, as a protest against the austrian newspaper that published the cartoons, . windows were broken, but no fires were reported. 

demonstrators were also fueled by the iaea's treatment of iran's nuclear arms program.



conservative canadian government sworn in

at 11:18 a.m., february 6 2006, stephen harper was sworn in as prime minister of canada at rideau hall in ottawa, ontario, canada. that same day at approximately 11:22 a.m. with the her excellency the right honourable michaelle jean, governor general of canada present, stephen harper signed in his new cabinet. swearing in of each cabinet minister is currently happening (february 6th 2006, 11:25 a.m.) and being broadcast live on television stations such as global television and rogers telecommunication cpac channel.

at 12:27 p.m. the swearing in of cabinet ministers was complete and the governor general officially signed in the cabinet. canada now has a new government that will be directed by the conservative party. the conservatives party according to global news "have not been sworn into government since brian mulroney in 1984." 

one member of the liberal party has crossed over to the conservatives. david emerson crossed the floor, even though he was elected two weeks earlier as a liberal. for this he has been admitted into the cabinet by prime minister stephen harper. 

 


bhp mine remains closed during death probe

bhp billiton ltd says its underground leinster nickel mine in western australia, where a contractor was killed in an explosion last week, will stay shut until the outcomes of a government investigation are released.

a bhp spokesman in perth refused to estimate how long company and government officials will take to investigate the incident. "these investigations can go on for quite some time and the mine will remain closed for that same length of time, said brian watt. "but it's difficult to speculate"

watt declined to comment on how much damage the underground explosion caused to the mine, or how much time would be needed to bring the operation back on line once a decision to resume is made.

bhp billiton have confirmed the death at the leinster nickel operation, north of kalgoorlie in western australia - 950 km north east of perth. bhp said the incident occurred late in the afternoon of friday, february 3. 

mark quinn, 32, from broken hill in far western new south wales and an employee of macmahon’s, was fatally injured. he was working approximately 900 meters underground when an explosion occurred. bhp said in a media release that there were no other persons injured as a result of the incident.

the cause of the explosion is not yet known. operations at leinster have been stopped and employees at site are being briefed and counseled.

bhp billiton is the world's third largest nickel producer, with the leinster mine producing up to 45,000 metric tons of nickel concentrates a year.

following speculations that leinster's closure may lead to a nickel shortage, a spokesperson told "reuters" that bhp billiton had sufficient nickel concentrate stockpiled to last until the mine reopens. 

the western australian government has described the fatality rate in the mining industry as "deplorable and atrocious". 

john bowler, western australia's employment protection minister says he will consider implementing changes to improve the safety record of the mining industry. mr quinn's death is the third underground fatality and the fourth mining death this financial year. 

the new minister, john bowler, says he will consider implementing any changes needed to improve safety in the industry. 

"bhp halts operations after mine death in western australia" february 5, 2006 


wikinews investigates wikipedia usage by u.s. senate staff members

staff members of the offices of united states senators, using senate-linked , have been editing wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia that allows its users to edit its content. in some cases, they have removed facts from the articles. 

using the public history of edits on wikipedia, wikinews reporters collected every senate ip address from which wikipedia edits had been made as of february 3, then examined where the ips came from and the edits that were made from computers connected at those addresses. ip, or internet protocol, addresses are unique numbers electronic devices use to communicate with each other on an individual basis.

the investigation showed the vast majority of edits from senate ips were beneficial and helpful to wikipedia. examples include the creation of the articles on , which organizes students to promote in the developing world, and , which was designed to hold the body of first u.s. president george washington within the white house capitol building; and significantly expanding the article on in november. dozens of small corrections have been made to grammar, spelling, or small facts ? many of them related to the senate.

senators' staff members have sometimes had to fight to correct inaccuracies. an edit to jay rockefeller's article by his staff removed information which may have been biased or untrue. the staff member who edited said, "apologies, i was new to using wikipedia, and i didn't fully realize the workings of the website," after other users continuously reinserted the information. the staffer removed the suspect paragraphs 12 times until another wikipedia user finally removed the information. four days later, wikipedia founder got involved.

the senators' offices were contacted about this article, but no response was received before press time.

staffers in the offices of senator , who, according to his changed wikipedia biography, "announced in mid-june 2005 that he will seek the democratic presidential nomination in 2008 if he believes his message and vision for the country resonate with americans," removed a paragraph about a 1996 plagiarism scandal, as well as changing the section regarding a possible 2008 candidacy to read very positively. a second staffer toned down and removed information about other plagiarism issues as well. the same addresses from biden's office edited the article on hamas, which has recently won a majority in the palestinian legislative council, and is listed as a terrorist organization by australia, canada, the european union, israel, and the united states, to give its first two paragraphs a more biased stance by removing information about its social welfare programs.

references, citations, and descriptions of ' use of the word "ragheads" were removed from wikipedia's article, as was mention of legislation, co-sponsored by burns, that would reduce native american tribal sovereignty. these were replaced by a paragraph titled "a voice for the farmer". the citations supported the discussion of senator burns's legislative record regarding .

the staffers of senator changed a description of coleman as a liberal democrat in college to an "activist democrat," and then to "an active college student." they removed references to coleman's voting record during his first year of congress, which lined up with president bush 98% of the time, which cited . they also removed a reference to coleman being persuaded by to run for senator instead of governor in 2002.

"when you put 'edia' in there, it makes it sound as if this is a benign, objective piece of information," said erich mische, senator coleman's chief of staff, to the associated press. mr. mische admitted the senator's office had made the edits, and he would take responsibility for removal of the sentence about the voting record. "that probably should have stayed in there."

"it appears to be a major rewrite of the article to make it more favorable. if they're trying to edit in such a way to change the public record, that's a problem," jimmy wales said to the associated press about the incident.

according to the , "coleman's decision to run for senator, rather than governor, was sealed during a walk with president bush in the white house's rose garden," rather than karl rove. rove had actually persuaded the former house majority leader of minnesota and current governor, tim pawlenty, not to challenge norm coleman in the senate elections. still, other portions of the edit removed references to karl rove entirely, and their citations, while accentuating the positive side of several issues, including changing "a budget bill that cut funding from a number of programs" to "a deficit-reduction bill."

the california block of senate ip addresses made several edits to the article, removing reference to her membership in the trilateral commission and to her net worth, with husband , but also adding an extensive list of awards.

even more problematic than the edits to the article about dianne feinstein, however, were those made to the article about her husband. references to a 1992 fine for failing to disclose mr. blum had guaranteed her campaign loans were removed, along with citations, and a paragraph regarding a conflict of interest debate from 1997 when mr. blum had invested millions of dollars in chinese businesses when ms. feinstein was campaigning in the senate to lift trade sanctions against the country. mr. blum later announced he would donate all profits from his chinese investments to charity.

the staffers of senator removed a paragraph relating to harkin's having falsely claimed to have flown combat missions over north vietnam, and his subsequent recantation after inquiries by the "wall street journal" and . another paragraph removed related to a supposed pro-israeli stance.

wikinews reporters also discovered that a handful of miscellaneous vandalism edits had been made to some senators' articles. vandalized articles included those of tom coburn and harry reid. the edits to reid's were made three times, while the coburn vandalism was made two times, after it had been restored to a prior version. an edit to an article about a controversy over senator rick santorum's statements about constitutional rights to privacy with regards to sexual acts, seemingly coming from rick santorum's staff members, removed a reference to an effort to redefine santorum's last name as a neologism meaning "the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex."

the u.s. senate sergeant at arms owns the ip block 156.33.0.0 to 156.33.255.255. requests to learn the mapping of these thousands of ips were not responded to at press time. however, the lower 100 blocks of addresses appear to be mapped to the 100 senators based on their state's alphabetical listing. this was partially confirmed using e-mail responses from the offices of senators; where the originating computer was connected to the network directly and was not a part of block 222 (a section which seems to be reserved for servers), the ip addresses matched the predicted pattern.

when examining the edit behavior of ips it also tended to match the predicted pattern. ips which were assigned to florida had edits to and and other florida-related pages primarily, while those assigned to california had edited . edits coming from the u.s. house of representatives were less traceable because they came through a ---meaning they all showed up under one ip address.





google removes german bmw from search results

the search engine google announced the removal of the official german bmw web site from its search results today. google is reported to have removed the website due to the use of a trick to raise its website ratings in the search engine's results.

the online version of forbes magazine reported that the german word for used car, "gebrauchtwagen", appeared 42 times in a doorway web page created by the german car manufacturer. doorway web pages contain many keywords designed to attract search robots. the page presented to google's robot for indexing was significantly different from the page presented to the site's visitors.

according to a recent blog post by matt cutts, one of google's software engineers, this technique is "a violation of our webmaster quality guidelines." these guidelines encourage webmasters to "avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings."

bmw reacted to the measure by claiming that it had no intention of manipulating the search results, but instead used the doorway pages with the objective of "offering a better service" to those looking for used cars.



iran demands that iaea end surveillance of its nuclear program

shortly after ending its cooperation with the international atomic energy agency (iaea), the government of iran has now ordered the iaea to discontinue some of its surveillance of iran's nuclear facilities. tehran has also asked the agency to remove any and all signage from their nuclear sites by the end of next week.

this is in response to the saturday resolution by the iaea to report iran to the united nations security council, which was made without waiting for the director of the iaea, mohamed elbaradei, chairman of the iaea, to finish preparing a report on (and ) nuclear programs for the regular iaea meeting scheduled for march 6. elbaradei had given iran until march to answer iaea questions. by a vote of 27 to three (with five abstentions), and without the information in elbaradei's report planned for march 2006, the iaea recommended that the matter of the iranian nuclear program be brought before the security council.

the recommendation claims that there are serious concerns about iranian nuclear aims, and the agency does not have confidence that the program is intended solely for civilian or other non-military use. although the meeting was taken without waiting for elbaradei's march report, the recommendation requests elbaradei to make his report anyway, including a list of "steps iran needs to take to dispel suspicions about its nuclear ambitions" by march 6.

the iaea's resolution calls for iran to reinstate a freeze on its nuclear programs, consider ending construction of a plutonium-producing heavy water reactor, and to continue allowing the iaea's purposes and actions in iran. however, the council will not implement any further action until elbaradei makes his full report on march 6.

elbaradei also reported to the iaea monday that iran would also demand a reduction in the amount of facilities inspections from the agency, and that they would discontinue their agreement to the additional protocol of the (npt) if the agency reported iran to the security council. this protocol entitles the iaea to hold unannounced inspections of facilities, increased surveillance capability, and placing iaea seals on nuclear equipment.

other diplomatic ventures are being planned. on february 16, iranian officials will meet with the russian government in moscow to discuss the possibility of russia enriching uranium for export to iran in exchange for a halting of its nuclear enrichment program. and wang guangya, china's ambassador to the un, said monday that "even with the adoption of this iaea resolution, it is the belief of most of the members there that a diplomatic solution is the way out within the framework of the iaea."




u.s. expels venezuelan diplomat

the u.s. state department declared last week that jeny figueredo frias, the chief of staff to the venezuelan ambassador, was "persona non grata" and given 72 hours to leave the country. "we don't like to get into tit-for-tat games with the venezuelan government like this, but they initiated this and we were forced to respond," said department spokesperson, sean mccormack. 

the earlier action by venezuela had been the february 2 expulsion of u.s. naval attache, john correa. accusations were made that he had been passing secrets from the country's military to the pentagon.

tensions between venezuela and the united states have been on the rise lately, resulting in several verbal broadsides from notable figures on both sides of the conflict. 

in an interview with the "miami herald", donald rumsfeld compared the venezuelan president, hugo chavez to adolf hitler, "he's a person who was elected legally -- just as adolf hitler was elected legally -- and then consolidated power and now is, of course, working closely with fidel castro and mr. morales and others."

on february 5th, chavez responded with a similar comparison, saying "i think hitler could be a nursery baby next to george w. bush." he told a rally of supporters that bush was "worse than hitler" and vowed to buy more arms to defend his nation as their diplomatic relations deteriorated. 

jeny figueredo received a "hero's welcome" in venezuela upon her return monday. "i'm not a victim, i feel proud," said figueredo. speaking to a crowd of supporters gathered in caracas, she shouted: "down with imperialism!"

according to figueredo, she had become a very uncomfortable person for the bush administration as she was in charge of managing venezuela's plans for subsidized oil to the poor us underclass.

tensions have also increased due to spain's sale of weaponry to venezuela, including u.s. technology. the united states has attempted to block these sales.



hamshahri newspaper plans cartoon response

the iranian newspaper hamshari daily has stated that it will publish anti-semitic cartoons in response to the danish mohammad cartoons. the newspaper, owned by the tehran city council, says that the anti-semitic cartoons will lampoon the holocaust, following denials by the iranian government that the holocaust even happened, and will show "america and israel's crimes and plundering". the newspaper has launched an international competition to find the most suitable caricatures about the holocaust.

farid mortazavi, the paper's graphics editor, said to the guardian newspaper that ""the western papers printed these sacrilegious cartoons on the pretext of freedom of expression, so let's see if they mean what they say and also print these holocaust cartoons"." 

mr mortazavi said that the february 8 edition of the paper would invite cartoonists to enter the competition, with gold coins as prizes for the 12 winning artists -- the same number of cartoons that appeared in the conservative danish newspaper jyllands-posten lighting the touchpaper for fury which has swept around the islamic world.
according to the article alongside the original "mohammad cartoons" in the jyllands-posten newspaper in late september 2005, the cartoons were intended to show that:

iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad has criticised the argument of freedom of speech employed by european newspapers to justify publication of the cartoons.

anti-semitic cartoons will be chosen rather than anti-secular or anti-christian cartoons for the response to the danish newspaper despite the fact that denmark has only a small jewish population of between 6000 and 7000.

in related events, mr jahjah of the arab european league have launched a similar "freedom of speech campaign" in which they hope to demonstrate that european news media are only willing to publish anti-muslim cartoons, and will not publish anti-christan or anti-semitic cartoons. the first of these cartoons (drawn by nabucho) is shown on this page. 

paul belien of the brussels journal noted that "the three ael cartoons posted so far have been very instructive in that they have all mocked the nazi persecution of the jews and the holocaust, as if mr jahjah wants to emphasize that islamofascism is indeed the ideology he adheres to."




military presence increased in melbourne for 2006 commonwealth games

police chief commissioner christine nixon has warned of an increase in police and military activity in melbourne, australia, in preparation for the commonwealth games. officials say a major security sweep of melbourne is underway at the athletes' village.

a 24-hour temporary police station inside the 20-hectare parkville site will be staffed by 109 officers. the station will house a monitoring centre for the village's closed-circuit tv network. melbourne's newest police station, keeping tabs on nearly 6000 athletes and officials from 71 countries will operate for seven weeks.

ms nixon said people should not be alarmed. "they will be seeing, over the next month or two, an increase in some air activity and perhaps military on the streets coming into place for the support they'll give to the games." commissioner nixon says the defence forces have an important role to play. 

"you won't certainly see an armed soldier walking down the streets of melbourne, that's not the security level that we have and the presence that we need," she said. "military will be there, they'll be checking trucks and cars going into venues, they'll be doing all of that."

more than 150 defence force personnel and police moved on to the village site on tuesday. games minister justin madden said the sweep would continue until athletes arrived at the village on march 5. sweeps of all venues will take place before the games begin.
more than 1200 defence staff have been seconded to the games security team. f/a-18 hornets and black hawk helicopters will enforce a 75km no-fly zone around the mcg. 

every vehicle that enters the village - and every other venue - will have to first pass through a bomb search bay that includes x-ray machines. army security sweeps are continuing across all venues. these, combined with comprehensive bag and personal checks at games time, are seen as the best way to guard against a terrorist strike.

"if people ring up and say, 'oh look, there's a bomb in it', we'll be pretty much able to say 'no, there's not'," commissioner nixon said. 

while security is being stepped up at the village, ms nixon said there is no direct threat to the games overall. "we have a medium-level of security at these games," she said. "the risk assessment is we have no direct threat to the games, no evidence at all."

the victorian government has declared birrarung marr, alexandra gardens, albert park and the yarra river to be official games venues, giving police the power to enforce tough anti-protest laws. a similar ruling on yarra park - home to the mcg - will also come into effect.

games laws provide for fines of $2000 for offences such as blocking access, erecting signs, kicking stones or throwing missiles in "venues".



9/11 conspirator moussaoui ejected from court

, the only member of the u.s. september 11, 2001 attacks to be brought to trial, was removed four times from a monday court session in alexandria, virginia where jury selection is underway for the penalty phase of the trial over his guilty pleas to conspiracy. moussaoui disrupted the proceeding with verbal outbursts directed at the judge.

appearing before the u.s. district judge leonie m. brinkema at the albert v. bryan united states courthouse, the citizen of france moussaoui began calmly by saying with a heavy french accent that, "i want to be heard by this court before the proceedings start."

judge brinkema warned moussaoui that it was not the proper time for him to speak. but moussaoui, 37, who was unrestrained by shackles and wearing a green jump suit labeled with the word "prisoner" across the back, said "these lawyers are not my lawyers," referring to the defense team led by federal public defender gerald zerkin. "everybody here know that these people do not represent me."

the unsolicited comments prompted the judge to dismiss him. moussaoui offered no resistance as he was led away by marshals, but shouted over his shoulder to the judge, "i don't want them to represent. i'm al-qaida; they are american. they are my enemies." he said of the proceeding, "this trial is a circus."

a jury pool of 18 members, six of whom will serve as alternates, will be selected from the group of 500 potential jurors who appeared monday. four court sessions were convened that day to begin sorting through the candidates, and judge brinkema allowed moussaoui to return for each of the three remaining sessions. she instructed potential jurors, "if any of you feel that that outburst or the way he conducted himself might affect the way in which you would go about judging this case, you need to clearly put that statement on the jury questionnaire."

these instructions were repeated to each group of potential jurors after moussaoui conducted similar outbursts during the remaining sessions, which resulted in his further dismissals.

moussaoui, in a surprise, pleaded guilty in april to six conspiracy charges of terrorism, leading to yesterday’s start of the jury selection to decide whether he will spend the rest of his life behind bars, or be executed for his involvement in the 9/11 attacks. 

moussaoui was arrested on immigration charges three weeks prior to the attacks. the prosecution contends that he could have prevented the attacks by alerting authorities to the al-qaeda plans while he was jailed in minnesota after his arrest. 


united states v. zacarias moussaoui


norway-led peacekeeper base attacked in afghanistan

demonstrators today attacked a norwegian peacekeeper base in meymaneh, , north-west afghanistan. the demonstrators fired at the base, threw hand grenades and . 32 norwegian, 16 finnish, three latvian and one icelandic peacekeepers were present at the camp during the attack, say the norwegian defence forces.

according to local authorities, says , four demonstrators were killed. the amount of injured demonstrators varies between five and 30, depending on the source. in addition, five norwegian peacekeepers were injured. the original attack consisted of around 700 demonstrators, says . there was a 'core' team of around 30 armed demonstrators within the crowd.

the peacekeepers fired teargas and warning shots in response to the demonstrators' attacks. britain has, according to bbc, sent 120 reinforcements. fighter airplanes have fired warning shots around the crowd. according to some sources, afghani police and military were sent to the area as well.

the purpose of the demonstration remains unknown, say the , but it is believed that the demonstrations have a connection with the muhammad cartoons published by .



opposition attacks government over involvement in wheat kickbacks as australian parliament resumes sitting

the australian parliament resumed sitting february 7, 2006, with the australian labor party federal opposition attacking the government during question time over its involvement and knowledge of illegal kickbacks being paid by awb limited to saddam hussein.

opposition leader, kim beazley, and shadow foreign affairs minister kevin rudd asked all of the opposition's questions during question time and focused solely on the oil-for-food program. 

one item of interest during the session was a statement to the parliament on march 25, 2003, where the prime minister john howard had said "...the oil for food program has been immorally and shamefully rorted by saddam hussein"; questions arose when the prime minister first knew of the rorts taking place and what action he took into investigating awb. the prime minister has stated that he "[denies] that the government turned a blind eye" to warnings that he has received and at the time "it was common between the government and the opposition that the awb was an organisation of total integrity and repute."

beazley later moved a censure motion against the prime minister, the deputy prime minister mark vaile, and the minister for foreign affairs alexander downer for their "failure" to investigate warnings and their "gross negligence in allowing awb to provide au$300 million to the saddam regime". the motion failed along party lines.



journals tackle scientific fraud

after a rapid succession of cases of major scientific fraud, scientific journals are questioning the effectiveness of the current peer review system and asking what their role should be in policing fraud.

less than a month after the confirmation that south korean scientist hwang woo-suk's cloning results were falsified, another case was discovered. a norweigian researcher had made up patient histories of about 900 people for a study on cancer. richard horton, the editor of "the lancet", in which the research appeared, has responded to the scandal, "peer review is a great system for detecting badly done research, but if you have an investigator determined to fabricate an entire study, it is not possible to pick it up." 

while carefully examining the data for every publication would be prohibitively expensive, several techniques to screen for falsified data have been developed. for example, images can be checked for after-the-fact manipulation. the scandals have led to some readers looking more carefully at suspicious papers for evidence that the data are human-manufactured. jan hendrik schon's fraud was partly revealed due to just such analysis by readers in 2002.

some institutions are taking further steps to prevent fraud. in october, emory university introduced a tip line where people can anonymously report suspicions of scientific misconduct. so far, five investigations have been launched based on reports to the tip line.

while many are working to deter future scandals, some scientists have pointed out that such fraud does not discredit all science. dieter imboden, the president of the swiss national science foundation's research council, has said: "bear in mind that every experiment will be repeated at some stage and it is one of the important principles of science that only things which can be verified independently by different groups are considered to be safe scientific facts." 





albuquerque academy chargers win final game to finish 13-1

the albuquerque academy eighth grade basketball team used tough defense to close out the 2005-2006 season with a win, 46-30 over los lunas.

the chargers spread things evenly in the first quarter; five players scored for the team in the period. both forward jon cabarrus and guard dylan gordon followed their own shots and scored on putbacks. forwards xavier moya and chris thompson provided tough inside defense on one possession. while los lunas managed several rebounds, they were unable to get any baskets over the outstretched arms of moya and thompson.

cabarrus scored on another putback for his fourth points of the game late in the quarter, helping academy to a twelve to eight lead at the end of the first.

the second period was a low scoring one for both teams. the chargers scored just nine points, but also held los lunas to only three. both offenses were struggling when guard andrew matthew stole the ball and made a pass to gordan, who threw another pass to fellow guard jordan fleisher, who took the ball and scored on a layup.

with a minute in the half, reserve matt brown took a pass and drove the length of the court for a layup. academy ended the second half with a twenty-one to eleven lead.

academy again spread the ball around in the second half, with eight charger players scoring. leading the way in the second half was patrick zacharias, who scored seven points in the half.

gordon connected with thompson on a play that gave thompson a layup. gordon stole the ball away from los lunas and made a pass to thompson while sandwiched between two los lunas defenders. thompson received the pass under the basket and scored on a layup.

los lunas came back with a three pointer by #24 and some layups by other players. the quarter ended with academy still holding the lead, 33-22.

aa was again playing tough defense midway through the fourth quarter until #32 hit a three pointer, sparking a small los lunas rally, but it was not enough to overcome the offense and defense of the chargers. 

zacharias scored on a tip in of a gordon shot that hung on the rim and fell out. zacharias was also fouled on the shot and made the free throw to complete the three point play. team manager lincoln stanfield also saw action in the game, and even scored his first points of the season at the end of the fourth quarter. with less than fifteen seconds left, stanfield received a pass underneath the basket. his shot didn't fall, but he was fouled with seven seconds left. stanfield's first free throw bounced up after hitting the rim but didn't fall through. his second shot bounced high in the air two times before falling through the hoop. stanfield threw his arms up in celebration over his made shot, putting an end to academy's 14-1 season.



outrage in mexico after sheraton hotel evicts cuban officials

an order given by the u.s. treasury department to the sheraton hotel in mexico city to expel 17 cuban officials visiting the capital has sparked political outrage and has been strongly condemned by the mexican government.

mexico's foreign relations department has started a probe and warned that it could fine or even close the hotel if it can prove the hotel violated mexican laws.

the cuban officials visited mexico last week to attend a meeting with u.s. energy executives. they moved to another mexico city hotel on saturday after the sheraton hotel evicted them.

according to kirby jones, president of the u.s. - cuba trade association, the u.s. treasury department pressured the hotel's owner, starwood hotels & resorts worldwide, claiming it was violating a 1961 law that bans u.s. companies from doing business with cubans.


ru486 debate enters australian senate

the looming debate on whether the australian health minister tony abbott or the (tga) should regulate mifepristone, , has entered the australian senate, february 8. a is due to be conducted on this issue.

the first speakers have been all women speaking in support of passing control from the health minister to the tga: senator , senator , senator . they have drawn attention to the fact that abortion is already legal in australia, the inappropriateness of a parliament minister to regulate a single drug versus a scientific and independent body, and if ru486 is an unsafe drug then the tga will not approve the drug. petitions were presented by moore with the undersigned stating "medical experts, not the health minister" should regulate the drug.

other senators, including (lib.), (labor), also later spoke against the bill; senators (lib.), (labor) spoke in support.


six year old suspended for sexual harassment

a six year old boy in the first grade at downey elementary school in massachusetts was suspended for touching a female classmate.

the boy allegedly touched the girl underneath the waistband of her pants briefly while in class. the boy was suspended for three days but hasn't returned afterwards because he feels uncomfortable about returning. his mother is trying to transfer him to another school.

the brockton superintendent of schools, basan nembirkow, says "take all allegations of sexual harassment seriously and conduct investigations. the principal is trained to handle these situations and assisted as needed by the district sexual harassment officer."

a spokesperson for the brockton public schools, cynthia mcnally, said "unfortunate this situation has gotten this kind of publicity...wouldn't have suspended the boy without conducting an investigation."


french satirical weekly reprints caricatures

paris, france- the french satirical weekly charlie hebdo reprinted in its wednesday february 8, 2006, issue the cartoons originally printed in jyllands-posten, representing caricatures of the muslim prophet muhammad. charlie hebdo is known for its ferocious critical tone and general hostility towards organized religion.

charlie hebdo normally prints 140,000 copies; 160,000 were printed of these issues, but were sold out before midday. the paper announced an exceptional re-issue of 160,000 the next day. according to "le figaro", the final printout could exceed 400,000.

some french muslim associations had tried to obtain an injunction against the publishing of the paper, claiming that the cartoons incited to racial and religious hatred, but the court rejected their request on procedural grounds, as recommended by the public prosecutor. the judge, jean-claude magendie, remarked that the 1881 law on the press is very formal in order to protect the rights of defense with respect to freedom of speech.
the french government had law enforcement officers, many equipped for riot control, guard the outside of the parisian offices of the paper, should some protesters try to disrupt public order. however, at mid-day, no protesters could be seen. charlie hebdo is normally highly critical of police action and extraordinary security measures.

another french satirical weekly, "le canard enchaine" did not publish the jyllands-posten muhammad cartoons because they were, according to it, "not very fun and not very original", but published series of cartoons mocking islamists (those exploiting the muslim faith for political purposes). the "canard" called them "satanic drawings", in a probable allusion to "the satanic verses", a novel whose author was sentenced to death by islamists.



one of the &quot;lackawanna six&quot; may have been among yemeni prison escapees

the fbi and relatives of jaber elbaneh, 38, a member of the lackawanna six and former resident of lackawanna, new york, are trying to find out if he is one of the 23 members of al-qaeda who escaped from a yemeni prison on friday, february 3, 2006.

the "yemeni times" reported tuesday that one of the men that had escaped was gaber al-bana'a which authorities say could be elbaneh. the middle eastern media outlets have spelled his name many different ways, and the buffalo fbi office is investigating the latest accounts and reports that refer to elbaneh. "we're making inquiries and trying to get some answers," said fbi spokesman paul m. moskal. elbaneh has a us$5 million dollar bounty on his head.

a u.s. official said, "jaber elbaneh was a member of the cell and was among those who escaped from prison in yemen. elbaneh never returned to the us after his training in afghanistan. the other six of the lackawanna cell were arrested when they returned to the u.s.."

the "lackawanna six" are a group of american-born men of yemeni descent, arrested in lakawanna new york, who pleaded guilty after admitting they attended an al-qaida training camp. they had traveled to afghanistan in 2001 and were arrested in lackawanna, near buffalo, in 2002. their sentences range from seven to ten years. the members of the cell also included mukhtar al-bakri, sahim alwan, faysal galab, shafal mosed, yaseinn taher, yahya goba and jaber elbaneh, who was in a yemeni prison.



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jyllands-posten reconsiders printing holocaust denial cartoons

jyllands-postens (the jutlands post)'s editor-in-chief, carsten juste has scrapped supposed plans to publish holocaust-denial cartoons simultaneously with iranian paper hamshahri. the message currently on the front page of their website indicates that the news was "based on an over-interpretation of a statement made by culture editor flemming rose". juste emphasizes that the cartoons will under "no circumstances" be published by the paper prior to seeing them.

jyllands-posten, denmark's most widely-circulated newspaper, has come under criticism for its original publishing of the so-called "mohammad cartoons". originally published with the intent of sparking debate about the image of mohammad, the last prophet of islam, the images have instead sparked a series of dangerous, sometimes bloody riots throughout the middle east following their republishing in newspapers throughout europe and the arab world. 

hamshahri's announcement concerning the publishing of cartoons questioning the reality of the holocaust came in response to the cartoons, which have been viewed as highly offensive and insulting to many muslims throughout the middle east and the world at large. the announcement follows a brief period earlier this year when the government of iran faced worldwide rebuke when its president, mahmoud ahmadinejad, referred to the holocaust as a myth fabricated by the west to secure a jewish homeland in the state of palestine.

according to the associated press, the post's culture editor, flemming rose had offered to print the planned holocaust-denying cartoons commissioned by iranian paper hamshahri as a response to the riot-provoking cartoons depicting the prophet mohammed. in an interview with cnn's american morning on wednesday, rose said that jyllands-posten would contact hamshahri to print the pictures the same day.




curious death befalls collaborator days before movie release

alan shalleck, 76, associate in the children’s book series curious george, was found dead in his driveway 8 february 2006. covered in black garbage bags, his body had been disregarded by neighbors and passersby who presumably mistook it for a collection of refuse.
speculation has risen around the case due to the seemingly odd coincidence of shelleck's death with the curious george film's friday release. as of yet, investigators are not releasing any solid information involving the case. 

a boynton beach, florida border’s book and music store employee, shelleck had been missing from work for two days prior to the discovery of the body by burt venturelli, a maintenance worker at the retirement complex shelleck called home. 

venterelli told "sun-sentinel" reporters “i went to drag it this morning and said, ‘this is a body, this isn’t garbage.”’ he also stated that shelleck's body was naked from the waist up and that there was "blood all over the place."


insurgency targeting of teachers causes south thailand school closures

with an increase in the number of insurgent attacks targeting teachers, many schools in thailand's southern province of yala have closed. the country's interior minister, kongsak wanthana, has given assurances that security measures will be strengthened and teachers will be able to return to work.

school closures were initially sparked with the shooting of four teachers at ban lue mu school in yala late last week. these had been teachers awaiting a military escort home, a fifth teacher was shot on his way home. approximately 250 primary schools in yala province were closed as teachers were afraid to go to work. the three southernmost provinces have problems in ensuring adequate educational cover as many teachers in the violence-torn area have sought transfers elsewhere in the country.

attacks on those viewed as supporting the government have seen a recent increase in the area, with insurgents mounting attacks on motorcycles during the day in addition to remotely detonated bomb attacks. since the start of february, the death toll exceeds one person per day. generally identified as having started in early 2004, the insurgency in the predominantly muslim provinces that border malaysia are reported to have resulted in a death toll exceeding 1,000.



bird flu found in africa

the h5n1 avian flu virus, also known as bird flu, has been found in nigeria by italian scientists. tests done on samples in a laboratory confirm that the strain is the one that can kill people, although no human cases have been reported said the paris-based united nations body. this is the first time is has appeared on the continent.

reports say tests of the virus closely resemble the virus in asia. the virus has been discovered in poultry flocks in a large nigerian farm. "it is the first report of the disease in africa," the paris-based world organization for animal health (oie) said on wednesday.

"it's going to be very difficult to mount an eradication campaign," said dr. alex thiermann, president of the oie's international animal health code, from paris, france. "with what we have today, it is a highly pathogenic h5n1 - the same, or very closely related to the previous ones," said thiermann. he also added, "a full genetic analysis of sample viruses is expected to be completed by late thursday."

maria zampaglione of the paris-based oie said "an outbreak has been detected. a local poultry farm keeping 46,000 birds was affected, of which 42,000 were infected and 40,000 of those, died." the farm is located in jaji, which is a village in the northern state of kaduna.

"the farm is located near the niger delta, one of the largest over-wintering areas for wild birds in africa." said thiermann.

quarantine measures on the control and movement of poultry have been taken, and the farm has been disinfected said nigerian authorities.

"however, it is too early to say how serious the outbreak is and how big its spread could be," said ilaria capua of the italian bird flu centre in padua. "we have to be cautious in evaluating the possible implications of these findings."

in rome, samuel jutzi, a director of the un's food and agriculture organization said, "if the situation in nigeria gets out of control, it will have a devastating impact on the poultry population in the region. it will seriously damage the livelihoods of millions of people and it will increase the exposure of humans to the virus."

"when you have 46,000 chickens in a house, usually you have some degree of biocontainment...so these (chickens) are not likely to be the ones to first encounter migratory waterfowl," thiermann said. 

wildlife circles have been debating on whether or not wild birds are spreading the virus around the globe. experts believe they are playing a role but most believe poultry movement, poultry products and poultry manure is the main cause of the spreading of the virus.

"but probably not in this case," said thiermann. "while it's too early to blame the wildlife, it's very likely to be in an area that's remote enough that it's not likely to be associated with international trade."

oie spokeswoman zampiglione also said, "experts had been fearing an african outbreak for months. the conditions there are more likely to lead to contagion from birds to man." 


george deutsch resigns nasa post after texas a&amp;m refutes his resume

george deutsch, a controversial george w. bush appointee at nasa, resigned his post as press officer the same day that texas a&m university confirmed that he never graduated from the school. the resume of the 24-year old had claimed he received a "bachelor of arts in journalism, class of 2003."

mr. deutsch gained notoriety when it was revealed he had instructed nasa web site designers to insert the word "theory" at every mention of the big bang, on the grounds that it was a religious matter. "this is more than a science issue, it is a religious issue. and i would hate to think that young people would only be getting one-half of this debate from nasa." said mr deutsch in an e-mail.

mr. deutsch also told public affairs workers to limit reporters' access to james hansen, a top climate scientist and longtime director of nasa's goddard institute for space studies. dr. hansen's lectures and papers were also to have been censored by public affairs workers. dr. hansen stated he would ignore the restrictions, which came through the less official channels of phone calls.

dr. michael griffin, nasa chief, appeared to back dr. hansen's claims of internal censorship, when he sent a strongly worded email message to all nasa employees stating "it is not the job of public-affairs officers to alter, filter or adjust engineering or scientific material produced by nasa's technical staff." several other nasa employees reported similar tampering after the incident. nasa personnel told the "new york times" that "mr. deutsch played a small but significant role in an intensifying effort at the agency to exert political control over the flow of information to the public."

climate science has long been linked with the space program because many of the underlying mathematical modeling techniques were originally developed to help understand the atmospheres of other planets, such as venus.

mr. deutsch was given his job in nasa's public affairs office in washington after working on president bush's re-election campaign and inaugural committee.



us senate offices evacuated

reports say that an office building for members of the united states senate in was evacuated after tests detected the presence of a "possible ". the hazardous materials division has since determined that it was a false alarm. it is possible that a cleaning solvent could have tripped the sensor.

"at approximately 1830 (2330 gmt) this evening (wednesday) we received an alarm at the capitol police for a nerve agent in the attic of the russell building," capitol police sergeant kimberly schneider said. "this is on the senate side of the capitol. at this time we have received negative results on this testing. at this time, nobody has indicated that there are any symptoms present... a runny nose or something of that nature. that would indicate a presence of a nerve agent and nobody has reported that thus far."

eight senators and over 200 senate staff members were evacuated into an underground garage next to the building until 2130 (230 gmt). the people were then briefed on the situation and screened; however, no one showed symptoms of exposure to a biological agent.



home office release statistics showing drop in uk's violent crime

the home office department of the uk government have released statistics claiming an 11 percent drop in violent crime over the 2005 christmas period, with a 21 percent drop in 'serious violent crime'. 

this drop in violent crime coincided with a six week police campaign, aimed at reducing the level of alcohol related disorders. home secretary charles clarke said "[these] figures are a credit to all those committed to tackling alcohol related disorder. delivering results, reducing violent crime and underage sales in local communities takes us another step closer to removing such unacceptable behaviour from our streets."

the police campaign followed the introduction of new uk licensing laws which allow pubs and bars to potentially open for longer than the previous 11pm curfew, with '24 hour' opening a possibility. critics, including the opposition conservative party, had predicted that this would lead to a rise in drunken behaviour. culture secretary tessa jowell, a strong proponent of the new laws, said of the statistics "thanks to the new licensing laws, the police and local authorities have joined forces to use tougher powers to deal with the problem at the source."

the conservative party are accusing the government of spinning the statistics, suggesting that the drop in violent crime was due to the police campaign. shadow home secretary david davis said "what this shows is that if you put more bobbies on the street you will cut crime. however these figures are a result of a six-week crack down on violence which cost ￡2.5m - what happens when this money runs out?"



sweden reaffirms aims for oil-free economy

in the past year, mona sahlin, the swedish minister for sustainable development, announced plans to break the nation's dependency on oil by 2020, without building new nuclear plants. she stated that, “there shall always be better alternatives to oil, which means no house should need oil for heating, and no driver should need to turn solely to petrol.”

as part of the program, sweden has recently organized the roles of various agencies in the expansion of its wind power program. 

the royal swedish academy of sciences is concerned the oil supply is peaking and that future high oil prices could cause global economic recession. sweden currently gets the majority of its electricity from nuclear and hydroelectric power, and 26% of all its energy comes from renewables (6% is the eu average). sweden's long term aims for energy independence are partially rooted in the 1970s oil shocks.

in related news, exxon mobil senior vice president stuart mcgill claimed on tuesday that energy independence for the united states "is simply not feasible in any time period relevant to our discussion today." he stated "no combination of conservation measures, alternative energy sources and technological advances could realistically and economically provide a way to completely replace those imports in the short or medium term." mcgill proposed "energy interdependence" as the solution best suited to importing nations.



bird flu spreading through indonesia and china

two indonesian women, 23 and 27, have tested positive for the h5n1 strain of avian influenza. they are in "serious condition but seem to be improving," said hariadi wibisono, a senior health ministry official. they are being treated in the designated bird flu hospital, sulianti suroso in eastern jakarta. it is believed that both women had contact with infected poultry. this brings indonesia's number of confirmed cases of the virus to 25.

a 26 year old female farmer in fujian, china whose surname is "lin", also has the deadly h5n1 virus. she was admitted to the hospital in january, but it was only confirmed on wednesday that she had the virus. some of the people that have come in close contact with the woman are under observation by local health officials. her current condition is reported as stable. this is china's eleventh confirmed case of the virus. 

julie hall of the beijing-based world health organization said that the latest patient was "highly likely to have had contact with sick animals," but the who is still waiting for information on how she could have gotten the disease.

some experts believe migrating birds from china's qinghai lake nature reserve are spreading the virus; however, there others who believe it's shipments of poultry and poultry products along with poultry manure.

as avian influenza confirmed in nigeria, "we shouldn't assume that is just in nigeria" said david nabarro, the united nations' coordinator for bird flu and pandemic influenza. "the outbreak in nigeria means [we] have another central point for the virus to become embedded into the poultry population."

about 20 countries have reported outbreaks of the virus in birds which has sickened people who come in contact with the infected birds. if the rate of human infection continues to increase, so does the chance the virus will change into a form easily transmitted by humans.



berlin court repeals preliminary injunction against wikimedia germany

the amtsgericht berlin-charlottenburg has repealed an injunction that it had issued in january against wikimedia deutschland, the german chapter of the wikimedia foundation.

the court found that identifying the deceased boris floricic as the hacker tron in an article of the german wikipedia does not constitute a breach of the personal rights of floricic or his parents, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. it said that those rights only protect deceased persons from libelous or disfiguring characterisations of their biography; this is not the case in the wikipedia article. the court also found that the personal rights of the parents were not infringed upon as well, as the article does not enable anyone to identify them.

the lawyer of the parents, friedrich kurz, called the decision "arbitrary", "tangibly illegal" and a "misjudgment" as his clients have a unique surname which would make it possible to connect tron to them. he announced that he would appeal the decision, even to the european court of human rights if necessary.

the chairman of wikimedia deutschland, kurt jansson, said they are happy that the court "confirmed our interpretation of the law completely" and hoped that the attorney of the plaintiffs would refrain from taking further legal actions due to the "decidedness" of the ruling.

the court in berlin had issued an injunction against wikimedia deutschland on january 17th, banning them from redirecting www.wikipedia.de to de.wikipedia.org.



repeal of ministerial control of ru486 bill passes australian senate

the bill on whether the australian federal health minster tony abbott should not exercise ministerial control of the abortifacient ru486 has passed the australian senate february 9, 2006. if the bill passes the australian house of representatives, the therapeutic goods administration (tga) will exercise control and evaluation of the suitability of the drug for use in australia.

senators were allowed a free vote on the issue. the result of the vote on the third reading, the final stage of the bill, was 45 for to 28 in favour of tga exercising control. 23 of the 26 female senators voted in favour of the bill, while numbers were more evenly split between the male senators; 21 of them voted for the bill and 25 were against.

the bill will be debated in the house of representatives on february 14, 2006.



neil entwistle, suspect in murder of wife and child, arrested in england

neil entwistle was named as a "person of interest" by authorities for the murder of his wife rachel and nine-month-old baby daughter lillian in their hopkinton, massachusetts home. both were shot to death and found under a pile of blankets in the bedroom. the family had just moved into the home and had only been living there for ten days. entwistle has not been in the united states since the murders.

however; it has been confirmed that entwistle was arrested in england on two counts of murder, and one count of illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition on thursday. until today he has not been a suspect.

"entwistle was arrested by british authorities and faces murder charges," said emily lagrassa, spokeswoman for the middlesex district attorney's office. "he is in police custody in england at this time." entwistle was arrested at around noon (7 a.m. et). 

a statement was released by the family of rachel entwistle saying, "the family is deeply saddened at the arrest of neil entwistle for the murders of rachel and lillian. we are heartbroken at the loss - to understand how this happened." 

district attorney martha coakley, of middlesex county, ma, said that entwisle could have been planning a murder-suicide, but abandoned the suicide part of the plot after carrying out the murders. 

"on thursday night, (january 19) rachel was alive and had spoken with family members," said coakley. she also says that authorities believe, "at some time on friday morning, neil entwistle, with a firearm that we believe he had secured some time before that from his father-in-law joseph materazzo, shot rachel entwistle in the head and then proceeded to shoot baby lillian, who was lying on the bed next to her mother. we believe possibly that this was intended to be a murder suicide, but we cannot confirm that. the murder was effected, the suicide was not. forensic evidence linked the gun to mr. entwistle and his wife, but she had never used it (the gun). what we believe happened next was that neil entwistle returned the gun to his father-in-law's home, that he then made preparations to leave the country."

she also stated that entwistle was observed leaving boston's logan international airport on a flight to england. he had purchased the ticket on the phone.

"he was then in worksop with his parents. authorities went to the uk to pursue that investigation. they returned, the investigation pursued. we explored motive, with witnesses, with information from searches, internet capabilities," coakley added. "based upon that information and forensic information late tuesday afternoon that linked the 22 handgun owned by joseph materazzo both to neil entwistle and to rachel, we believed we had probable cause to seek an arrest warrant for neil entwistle's arrest."

framingham district court issued the warrant for his arrest last night. 

entwistle has been at his parents home in england since last month and reportedly refused to cooperate with massachusetts investigators when they arrived in england to question him about the deaths.

so far, entwistle has not spoken in public nor did he attend the funerals of his wife and child.

when appearing before the bow street magistrates' court entwistle said that he will not voluntarily consent extradition to the u.s. "at this stage."

district judge timothy workman said during the hearing, "i am remanding you in custody at this stage. i am not granting you bail because at this moment i don't have sufficient information to make that decision." 

when entwistle was asked if he understood the charges that had been filed against him, he said, "i do."

court was adjourned until friday.



police embarrassed after car stolen from station

german police are embarrassed after a 27-year-old man, whom they had just booked for burglary, walked out of the police station and stole an unmarked police vehicle. "it's not just unusual, it's embarrassing," said a spokesman for police in the town of eschwege.

it is thought that the man stole the key from an officer at the station. when he was booked and released, he was observed by officers getting into the unmarked police car. the officers gave chase resulting in the man's re-arrest. three vehicles (including the stolen police car) were damaged during the pursuit. the stolen vehicle was recovered upon arrest of its unlawful driver.



700,000 march in beirut; hezbollah leader lambasts bush and rice

a massive demonstration march on thursday of over half a million shiite muslims in beirut, lebanon heard sheik hassan nasrallah, the leader of hezbollah, tell the u.s. president george w. bush and his secretary of state, condoleezza rice, to "shut up" after they reportedly accused iran and syria of fueling protest demonstrations over the muhammad cartoons. 

"defending the prophet should continue all over the world. let condoleezza rice and bush and all the tyrants shut up. we are an islamic nation that cannot tolerate, be silent or be lax when they insult our prophet and sanctities. we will uphold the messenger of god not only by our voices but also by our blood," nasrallah told the crowd, estimated to be 700,000 (police said the figure was likely to be even higher).

the hezbollah leader also told the crowd that protests must continue until laws are passed in europe banning insults to muhammad. 

nato defence ministers are in brussels meeting to discuss the controversy's security implications. the upheavals of protest in afghanistan are blamed for the deaths of 10 people in that country this week. muslim protests have spread across the middle east, asia and africa. 

speaking wednesday at a joint news conference in washington with the new israeli foreign minister, tzipi livni, the u.s. secretary rice said, "iran and syria have gone out of their way to inflame sentiments and to use this to their own purposes and the world ought to call them on it."

her comments were preceded earlier that day president bush who also called for an end to the violence: "i call upon the governments around the world to stop the violence. to be respectful. to protect property. to protect the lives of innocent diplomats who are serving their countries overseas."


&quot;world can't wait&quot; protesters rally outside the white house

washington, d.c. ?

on a rainy saturday, february 4, 2006, several thousand protesters gathered in a corner of the ellipse in washington, d.c. to protest the current administration’s stance on the war in iraq and to demand that president bush be or resign as commander-in-chief.

saturday’s demonstration that lasted through five hours of rain ended with a march around the white house was organized by a group called world can’t wait ? drive out the bush regime. the group organized a smaller rally near the capital during the .
demonstrators came from as far away as hawaii; new york sent 12 buses. however the crowd was significantly less than the 30,000 protesters that organizers had anticipated. the actual numbers were more like 2,000 to 3,000 and varied with the strength of the rain. refused to comment on the size of the crowd. 

a series of speakers included a 96 year old great grandmother, and a georgetown law student that led a protest against a speech given by gonzales. the speeches were followed by the dropping of a 30 foot wire effigy of president bush from the stage. the crowd, which had already been in a frenzy, chanted in unison: "bush step down! bush step down!" after it fell, protesters kicked and cursed at the fallen mass of chicken wire and construction paper.

some protesters got more visual and burned a mock us flag that contained corporate logos instead of stars as at least one protester yelled that the flag burners were "fbi plants."

the rally ended with a march around the white house through closed streets escorted by the capital police and the uniformed division of the united states secret service. a group of ten to fifteen counter-protesters waited in front of the white house and although cursing was traded, the obvious police presence kept the scene peaceful.


espn trades al michaels for &quot;oswald the lucky rabbit&quot;

in an odd move, espn's parent company, the walt disney company, traded the contract of nfl play-by-play analyst al michaels to nbc universal in exchange for various sports considerations and oswald the lucky rabbit, a cartoon character walt disney created 79 years ago but lost to charles b. mintz when he created his own studio. oswald is generally understood to be the precursor to mickey mouse.

oswald the lucky rabbit was created in 1927 by walt disney for charles b. mintz, and distributed by universal studios. disney directed 26 oswald cartoons before a budget dispute with mintz forced disney to leave and create his own studio. mintz, however, owned the rights to oswald, and kept the character. oswald soon was bought by universal, who would continue to create oswald cartoons on a regular basis until 1938. most of the succeeding oswald cartoons were directed by walter lantz, who would later become famous for universal's most well-known cartoon character, woody woodpecker.
michaels, 61, will again join john madden in the analyst booth for nbc's sunday night football coverage beginning in the 2006 season. this follows the announcement the previous day that joe theismann, mike tirico and tony kornheiser would be in the broadcast booth for espn monday night football. it was previously believed that theismann and michaels would announce monday night football for espn.

in consideration for releasing micheals from his abc contract, disney received the rights to the early disney-directed oswalds, while espn received the following rights from nbc sports:




new zealand labour party spending in question

the new zealand electoral commission has referred the labour party to the police for allegedly overspending nz$418,603 in last year's general election.

labour asserts that the money was not spent on an election related activity.

the electoral commission chief executive, dr helena catt says "election expense provisions exist to help ensure a fair contest".

catt says it is unusual for the police to investigate a party for overspending. "it's the first one that i'm aware of under mmp". 

meanwhile, election expense returns are still being sorted out. only 13 of 22 parties met the 19th december deadline to have all returns in. 



australian governments to meet for first coag meeting of 2006 today

the (coag) will meet in canberra today for its first meeting of 2006. members of coag are the , , australian capital and northern territory , and the president of the australian local government association. coag is chaired by the prime minister.

on the agenda is a wide range of issues such as health, economic reform, regulation, and education.

the state leaders (all of whom are members of the ), met last night to develop a strategy for dealing with john howard, australia's prime minister.

coag is expected to agree on a au$1 billion health package. the centrepiece of the package will be reforms to mental health care. other elements of the package include the introduction of the national health call centre network, accelerating the implementation of a national electronic health records system, and reducing the number of disabled young people living in nursing homes

mr howard said yesterday "i want all of the heads of government of this country to understand it's a serious issue and the australian public will expect no less than a coordinated genuine commitment by all of us to try and solve the problem."

mr howard told federal parliament yesterday part of the problem can be attributed to the closing of mental health institutions. "there is abundant evidence that that process went too far, and whilst i do not advocate and i do not believe australia would benefit from turning back the clock to the institutions of old, nor can we as a decent society tolerate having people with mental illnesses out in the community unsupported and untreated." said mr howard.

the mental health council of australia's chief executive, john mendozza said there needs to be a massive injection of funds into mental health care and it needs to happen quickly.

"any australian who has attempted to access mental health services through the public system will have found that unless they are extremely unwell, and that is a danger to themselves or the community, they probably won't gain admission to those public mental health services, and that simply is not good enough." said mr mendozza.

the prime minister has also accused cannabis of playing a role in australia's mental health problems. "i think we are paying a dreadfully heavy price for the abuse of what was so called recreation and socially acceptable drugs despite the clear evidence, unaccepted until a few years ago, that these things were doing massive damage within our community," mr howard told parliament yesterday.

"i will ask them (the state premiers) to agree with me that part of the solution to the mental health problem is a tougher line on marijuana, and i imagine they will agree with me," said mr howard.

mr howard signaled that he supported the move in new south wales to increase penalties for cannabis, especially hydroponic cannabis which the nsw government claims is stronger. "i welcome the change in direction of many of the states," he said.

the mental health council of australia has warned the government of over-estimating the role of cannabis in mental health. john mendozza told abc "i don't think we should overstate the role of cannabis in the nation's mental health crisis. it is a factor, but it is not the reason that we now face a mental health crisis."

"the real reason is that governments collectively have under-funded the investment in community services for well over a decade and hence we have a large unmet need in the community." said mr mendozza.

the national health call centre network was announced by the federal government in january as a means of reducing the number of people going to hospital emergency departments for treatment. under the plan call centres would be set up with trained nurses who could advise people on the best cause of action to take for a wide variety of health problems.

under the health package the introduction of an electronic health records system known as healthconnect will be fast tracked. governments promise that healthconnect will improve the quality and safety of health services by providing timely and accurate medical history on a patient. participation in healthconnect will be voluntary and patients may withdraw at any time.

coag will also discuss setting up a national inquiry into early childhood education. the inquiry is expected to explore the possibility of free access to pre-school education. coag documents warn "by the time australian children enter formal education, they have very different levels of preparedness for life and learning,"

"australia's investment in early childhood development before school entry remains low by international standards." says the documents.

coag is also to explore how to implement a system to ensure trade qualifications gained in one state can be used in another. under the current system, the majority of trade qualifications gained through state technical colleges are not recognised in other states. only the small percentage of courses which award certificates under the australian qualifications framework are recognised nationally.

the federal government has also indicated that it wants $11 million spent over four years ease skills shortages in trades such as plumbing and electrical. federal opposition education spokeswoman, jenny macklin said "eleven million over four years will have little or no impact on the raging skills crisis which is hurting australian businesses and families,"

"it will provide just 900 training (places). the australian industry group has predicted that by 2010 we will need 100,000 extra skilled tradespeople if we are to address the skills crisis."

the topic of economic reform is expected to arouse debate at the meeting today as the federal, state and territory governments argue about how to fund it.

victorian premier has been one of the key figures behind the plan which has been worked on by state and federal officials over the past past six months.

from 1995 until 2004, the federal government made payments to state and territory governments for reaching milestones in deregulating their economies. if a state failed to meet a required reform as determined by the national competition council payments were withheld until the milestone was met. john howard abolished the scheme stating that the states and territories already received enough revenue through the .

the states are said to be arguing that the federal government should be sharing the revenue achieved through their reforms.

it is expected the plan will fail to reach agreement and will have to be considered by a working party.

federal treasurer peter costello has said that economic reform should be bought about by abolishing eight state and territory port and export authorities and create a single national regulatory authority.

the treasurer also indicated he would like to see utility regulation become a federal responsibility.

"australia would be better served if it could get a uniform system of regulation in relation to ports and port access, in relation to access regimes generally, and in relation to utilities," mr costello said.




tomb discovered in valley of the kings

archaeologists have discovered a tomb, referred to as kv63, in egypt's valley of the kings. it is the first such discovery since howard carter's 1922 discovery of tutankhamun's tomb. the discovery was made by a team from the university of memphis. zahi hawass, head of the supreme council of antiquities said in a statement that five intact sarcophagi that all contained mummies and 20 large storage jars that were sealed with pharaonic seals had been recovered.

american archaeologist kent weeks, who was not part of the team but had seen photographs of the site, told the associated press that ""it could be the tomb of a king's wife or son, or of a priest or court official"". the find refutes the long held belief that the valley of the kings has little left to discover. according to weeks: ""it's ironic. a century ago, people said the valley of the kings is exhausted, there's nothing left,"" he said. ""suddenly carter found tutankhamun. so then they said, 'now there's nothing to find.' then we found kv5. now we have kv63.""

kv63 is located in the area between kv10 (amenmesse) and kv62 (tutankhamun), in the very centre of the valley's eastern branch and near the main crossroads of the network of paths traversed by thousands of tourists every day. the tomb was found at a depth of some three metres beneath the ground. the burial site is believed to date from the latter portion of the 18th dynasty (ca. 14th century bc), but the occupants have not yet been identified.



irish win narrowly over italy in rbs 6 opening match

ireland won the opening match 26-16 last saturday. the match, pitting italy vs. ireland at , was not the game many thought it would be. the italian side captained by showed that the were a force to be reckoned with. "in the first 20 minutes we really hadn't much ball and didn't get into many attacking positions. they got their confidence out of that and they took the game to us. it was an ugly game of rugby by any standards," said ireland coach .

the question to be asked is whether or not italy played well, or ireland played poorly. "if you go to the and play like that you're going to get obliterated," stated the ireland skipper. italian boss said, "against the irish we succeeded in stopping the opposing attacks." staying confident of their impressive show against the irish, italy's squad to face england next weekend remains unchanged.


greek government's phones tapped for a year

the phones of more than 100 people including the prime minister of greece costas karamanlis and key ministers were tapped for a period of almost a year starting before the 2004 olympics. the illegal wiretapping was carried out by spy software installed in phone provider vodafone's central system and discovered when the company started receiving complaints from customers about their phone service last march. the case, as well as the government investigation that followed, became public last thursday in the greek press. 

while the government refutes main opposition party's pasok accusations of mishandling the investigation by keeping it secret, the identity of the culprits remains unknown, although both american and mi6 agents are widely blamed. the greek government has said four antennae near the us embassy in athens were used to transmit the conversations recorded. the embassy is located at approximately the center of the surveillance triangle. on thursday approximately 800 protesters in athens marched peacefully to the us embassy and shouted anti-cia slogans while about 400 protesters in thessaloniki clashed with the police, after trying to smash traffic cameras. 

the death of vodafone employee kostas tsalikidis contributes to the espionage-mystery nature of the case. tsalikidis, who was vodafone greece's head of network design at the time, was found hanged in his athens apartment on march 9, 2005, two days after the illegal taps had been discovered. while his death was at first ruled as suicide, his family has filed a lawsuit claiming he was murdered. the lawsuit calls for his body to be exhumed, an autopsy to be performed and his apartment investigated. a check of emails on vodafone's server was also requested in order to locate evidence of their deletion, and the company to give details on why they were deleted. his brother panagiotis tsalikidis has already given testimony quoting his brother's fiancee claiming that a few weeks before his death tsalikidis told her that "vodafone is in danger of closing down," and "leaving vodafone is a life and death matter."

while the case continues to unfold, a poll shows a great majority of the greek public believe the government has not revealed all the evidence pertaining to this case. most also believe that foreign secret services, governments, and embassies are most likely responsible for the wiretaps. 

the government has not released all the names of the people that were victims of the illegal wiretapping. government figures that were targeted include the ministers of foreign affairs, defense, public order and justice.




2006 olympic winter games open in italy

the 20 olympic winter games are set to start today in turin, italy.

producers of the olympics have promised, "rhythm, passion and speed," as an estimated 35,000 people will pile inside the stadium and nearly two billion will turn out for the events.

dancers, abutting the majestic alps, paid a tribute to seven nations, including austria, germany and france, in the opening ceremonies wearing green sheaths and pulling fake cows on wheels. it was to pay homage to livestock and mountain life, and so the audience could cheer both, everyone was supplied with cowbells. dancers then brought out big white bubbles which were stuck to their heads. bacilli, who has performed in concerts for "u2" and "the rolling stones" said the balls signify snow.

eight women, italian actress sophia loren, chilean writer isabel allende, american actress susan sarandon, nobel peace-prize winner wangari maathai of kenya, and three olympic medal winners carried the olympic flag. this was the first time ever that only women carried the flag.

at least 6,100 volunteers who worked an estimated 10,000 hours helped to organize and run the ceremonies.

unfortunately, in the hours before the games were to start, eight cross-country skiers, a former gold medalist from germany, and two americans, were suspended for five days each after they failed blood tests. the tests say that they had elevated levels of hemoglobin, an enzyme within red blood cells that can increase endurance. however, the positives results could be due to the body's acclimation to mountain air, or dehydration. the american skiers are kikkan randall of anchorage alaska, and leif zimmermann of bozeman, montana.



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thai ministry orders work halted on much-delayed ongkharak reactor

according to a report by thailand's "the nation", the science ministry has ordered a halt to work on the much-delayed ongkharak reactor.

the reactor, first commissioned from u.s. firm general atomics in 1997 by thailand's office of atomic energy for peace (oap) has had prolonged delays in the project and faced threats from activists.

despite calls in 2002 for the reactor to be completed within two years, the reported position of the government now is to seek advice from the office of the attorney general on how to proceed. irregularities uncovered by the state audit commission may lead to cancellation of the contract and legal action taken against people believed to have been involved in corruption or abuse of authority.




poll embarassment for blair

a by-election in the scottish constituency of dunfermline & west fife has seen a once safe labour seat won by the liberal democrat party, despite a series of scandals rocking the uk's third party during their search to find a new leader.

the poll was called to replace the mp rachel squire, who died last month, and saw the liberal democrats' candidate willie rennie overturn a labour majority of 11,562 to defeat the labour party candidate, catherine stihler (currently an mep) by 1,800 votes. the result will come as a blow to chancellor of the exchequer gordon brown, who lives in the constituency and represents the neighbouring area of kirkcaldy & cowdenbeath.

however, the result was also viewed as a blow for other parties: the scottish national party, who came third in the general election, could only increase their share of the vote by 2% and remain in third place, despite claiming that they were a close second during the campaign. meanwhile, the conservative party, buoyed by the election of david cameron as party leader, saw their vote fall by 2.5% the scottish socialist party were also hit, registering a slight fall in their vote despite fielding a high-profile candidate in john mcallion, the former labour mp and msp for dundee east.



university of illinois student newspaper runs six prophet mohammed cartoons

university of illinois student newspaper "the daily illini" has republished six of the prophet mohammed cartoons from the jyllands-posten in an editorial published on february 9, 2006.

opinions page editor for the daily illini, chuck prochaska said, "we felt this would be a perfect opportunity for us to have a free-speech debate about a clash of worlds we've had ever since 9/11. it just seemed people didn't have a grasp about why this controversy was going on. everyone knew there were cartoons and that they were allegedly offensive, but they were very difficult to find (on the internet) if you don't speak danish." 

the decision to run the cartoon was reached after prochaska and editor acton gorton discussed the controversy surrounding the cartoon in different humanities classes in the past few days.

reactions to the cartoon were strong, prochaska said; however, the controversy did not create any riots or produce any threats. he also stated that several muslims called the paper's office to complain about the cartoon, but they were not threatening. "it's almost a split. a lot of people are saying 'congratulations for having the guts to do this and defend the first amendment.' others are saying 'just because you have the right to do this doesn't mean you should.'"

some muslim students voiced concern saying, "we don't understand why people have to see the images to understand (their offense)."

however, other muslim students were not angry with the decision of the paper to print the cartoons. bilal aziz, a muslim student at the university said, "i can see the images opening up further discussion on the muslim religion." 

in a letter to the editor published february 10, urbana-champaign campus chancellor richard herman noted his disappointment in the decision to publish the cartoons but encouraged students and the local community to exercise their rights to freedom of expression.

some letters to the editor from muslim students expressed their disappointment and outrage at the newspaper's decision. other letters, including those from alumni, voiced their approval at the editors' courage to run the controversial cartoons.

so far, many national newspapers have declined to run the cartoons, and at the moment, only one other student newspaper in the whole country has run the cartoons in their paper.




neil entwistle agrees to extradition

neil entwistle, 27, appeared before a magistrates' court today and agreed to extradition to the united states, where he will face double-murder and weapons charges. entwistle is now the prime suspect in the killings of his wife rachel, 27, and nine-month-old baby daughter lillian. both were shot to death and left under a pile of blankets in the bedroom of their hopkinton, massachusetts home. 

district judge anthony evans said in court, to entwistle, "you are agreeing to be sent immediately to the us and there will be no extradition proceedings?" entwistle replied, "that’s right, yes."

ben brandon, entwistles council, said "neil believes he will receive a fair and proper hearing in the us on these very serious allegations," and wishes to go back to the u.s. "as soon as possible. he is anxious that any delay could cause his late wife’s family, and his own, additional distress."

earlier on thursday, entwistle had said before the court, that he did not agree to extradition "at this stage."

however; entwistles lawyer said that "he never changed his mind. he was always inclined to consent to extradition. he was going to think about it overnight with our advice. and overnight, after reserving his position, he has consented."

entwistle was reportedly planning a murder-suicide. instead, police believe he fled to england, where he was subsequently arrested in london.

if convicted of first-degree murder, entwistle could face life in prison. 



israeli pm ariel sharon undergoes emergency surgery

israeli prime minister ariel sharon underwent emergency surgery at hadassah medical center in israel to treat intestinal damage revealed by a recent computed tomography, better known as a ct scan. the chief surgeon said, "sharon is out of danger, for the moment. his condition is stable and the surgery was a success." sharon is currently in the intensive care unit (icu) of the hospital.

yesterday doctors treating sharon had noticed a swollen abdomen and ordered a ct scan on his torso and found the damage to his intestine. later tests had shown that part of the large intestine had developed necrosis and needed to be immediately removed.

hospital director shlomo mor-yosef stated a press conference that there were "no complications" during surgery. "his (sharon's) key problem is lack of consciousness. there is no significant change in his condition. doctors did not find any occluded artery and there were no blood vessels blocked. he is stable but in critical condition at this time and he is in no immediate danger at this moment."

yosef also said that sharon's sons and family had met earlier and decided to go forward with the surgery and treatment.

doctors removed at least 50cm of sharon's large intestine.

yosef also said that possible reasons as to why sharon's intestine was damaged were, "maybe infection or decline of blood supply to the intestine." yosef also said that the surgery was both a "routine procedure" and "not a dramatic" one. "hospitals perform these operations sometimes two or three times a day," he added.

yael bossem-levy, a spokesman for hadassah medical center said earlier that, "the prime minister's life is in danger. his condition is now very serious, or critical. sharon's digestive tract has undergone severe deterioration while he's been unconscious, and there appears to be a blockage in his blood circulation. the restricted blood flow raised the possibility of necrosis, or death of tissue, in the intestines."

levy also stated that sharon's condition has "deteriorated to its most critical point since his admission."

the 77 year-old leader has been hospitalized since january 4th, after suffering a massive stroke which left him comatose. this is his seventh surgery since his hospitalization.

sharon has been hospitalized for thirty-nine days, and has been on a feeding tube for two weeks.




hospital morale vital during any outbreak: expert warns

hospitals must prepare their staff for the trauma from an outbreak of bird flu, a medical expert advised today. if not, they risk the collapse not only of services but also of morale at a time when they most need both.

charles gomersall, the director of intensive care at hong kong's princess margaret hospital, told a symposium on bird flu that he "predicts will have few staff two weeks into an epidemic if do not have mechanisms in place to minimize the stress and effect on morale."

he said hospitals need to offer staff counseling and daily briefings in order to manage the stress.

h5n1 avian flu virus has mostly affected birds, but at least 88 people in seven countries have died since the re-emergence of the virus late 2003.

there is no evidence yet that the virus has mutated to point where humans can pass it on, but experts predict millions could die if it does.

gomersall insists hospitals need properly equipped facilities and trained staff now. once an epidemic starts there is only a very short time between when symptoms present and admission to intensive care.


iran to abandon nuclear non proliferation (npt) if threatened to cut down on nuclear activities

coming on the anniversary of the 1979 islamic revolution, mahmoud ahmadinejad has said that if forced to limit its nuclear activities, iran will altogether abandon the . 

ahmad said that the nuclear program is a peaceful pursuit to better "industry, medicine and economy".
addressing large crowds in , he attacked the notion of a referral to the united nations security council, and the perceived bullying by the board of the international atomic energy agency.
he further warned, in reference to article iv of the npt which allows for civilian development of nuclear energy, in exchange for nuclear weapons states disarming (article vi), that "on the other hand, if we are seeing that in total disregard for our following these rules and regulations that you still push to impose on iranian rights- understand that it will not be tolerated and that the nation of iran will reconsider its policies".

although the vast majority of sovereign states (187) are "party" to the npt, iran would join the small minority of states that are not party to the npt. withdrew from the npt on january 10, 2003. , , and are not parties to the npt. 

having previously reiterated in 2004 that it would not leave the npt, iran performed a u-turn on its position towards treaty signatories, first showing signs during september 2005 when iran's top nuclear negotiator that it would quit the npt when warned that tehran could quit the npt if brought before the unsc.




craigslist sued for hosting discriminatory housing ads

craigslist.com, a popular free online classifieds site, has been sued for hosting discriminatory housing ads by the chicago lawyers' committee for civil rights under law inc., a fair housing group.

the housing ads cited as objectionable included such statements as "no minorities," "requirements: clean godly christian male," and "only muslims apply."

stephen libowsky, a lawyer for the housing group, said "our goal is to have the internet places like craigslist treated no differently than newspapers and other media who have traditionally been posting real estate advertisements. all of the gains are going to get lost if the same rules don't apply."

craigslist ceo jim buckmaster conceded "we admit that one or two postings per 100,000 are discriminatory" but explained that craiglist's 19 employees could not physically screen the 8 million new ads posted each month. he continued, "instead, we've done something much more powerful and effective, in providing our users with a flagging system whereby problematic ads are promptly removed by users themselves." buckaster claimed the "no minorities" ad was removed within two hours.

buckmaster wrote on the site that, "though well-intentioned, this lawsuit misguidedly demands that we regress to primitive, mistake-prone, and wholly inadequate methods, methods which would actually be less effective in catching discriminatory ads than what we have in place currently, and which would vastly reduce the number of legitimate non-discriminatory ads that the site could process."

he continued, "ironically, if this lawsuit were to succeed the net effect would be to deal a double blow to civil rights - by significantly reducing access to equal opportunity housing, and by undercutting our fundamental free speech rights - thereby doing a great disservice to the very persons these lawyers purport to represent."

buckmaster also said "it is our understanding that the law is very clear to the effect that sites like craigslist cannot be held legally liable for the content of postings submitted by end users." this claim appears based upon section 230 of the communications decency act which states that "no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."

under section 7b of the web site's terms of service agreement, users are not allowed to post an ad "that violates the fair housing act by stating, in any notice or ad for the sale or rental of any dwelling, a discriminatory preference based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status or handicap (or violates any state or local law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of these or other characteristics)".




lewis &quot;scooter&quot; libby testified that leak was authorized

according to federal prosecutors, lewis "scooter" libby jr., the former chief of staff to vice president dick cheney, told a grand jury that his superiors authorized him to disclose to reporters information from the u.s. national intelligence estimate. portions of the report included still-classified information on iraqi weapons capability leaked in june and july 2003.

libby's claim of authorization was revealed in a letter by special prosecutor patrick j. fitzgerald, written january 23 and included in papers filed in court by libby's defense team on monday. although this letter did not say which "superiors" libby referred to, the national journal reported on thursday that their sources said this included his immediate boss, v.p. cheney. if this is confirmed, it could broaden the scandal.

mr. libby was obliged to step down after he was indicted on charges that he lied about his role in exposing the identity of valerie plame wilson, a c.i.a. operative, to the journalist robert novak in july 2003.

federal prosecutors plan to use the confession to establish that mr. libby was part of the bush administration's public relations campaign to rebut mr. wilson's op-ed column in "the new york times". the column stated that there was little evidence to support the administration's claims that saddam hussein was pursuing weapons of mass destruction.



steve fossett breaks record for longest nonstop flight, lands safely

steve fossett, 61, has broken the record for flying the longest nonstop flight in aviation history and has landed safely in england although, steve ridgeway chief executive of virgin atlantic, the company sponsoring fossett's record bid said, "he burst two tires on landing and the poor globalflyer had to be dragged off the runway."

fossett had to land at bournemouth airport in dorset instead of his planned destination of manston airport in kent, because of generator problems.

after the flight, fossett told the press, "i was really lucky to make it here today, there was a lot going on. the tension of the final part really took it out of me, but i will be fine in the morning." 

fossett broke the previous record of 25,361 miles (40,210 km) (set by dick rutan flying the lightweight voyager aircraft in 1986) when he passed over shannon ireland, even though he lost 750 pounds of fuel just after take-off from kennedy space center wednesday. his record has been recorded to have been broken at; 11:59am on february 11, 2006, (est). his trip has taken about 80 hours (3 1/2 days) and covered 26,389.3 miles (42,469 km).

the plane fossett was flying is a lightweight experimental aircraft. the globalflyer is the only plane to make a non-stop circumnavigation of the earth on one tank of fuel.

fossett has broken 110 world records.



spacex delays falcon 1 launch again

spacex corporation has postponed the launch of the maiden flight of their falcon 1 rocket again at their kwajalein launch facility. although not as damaging as the previous delay on november 11, this is certainly a significant set back for elon musk, the founder and ceo of spacex.

a full engine test was conducted on the rocket, and the launch pad equipment which holds the rocket on the launch pad after engine firing seemed to work as planned. this safety equipment is designed to keep the rocket from causing damage or being destroyed in the event that some equipment malfunction occurs immediately after the rocket engines start. under similar circumstances with other rockets the entire rocket together with its payload would have been destroyed due to a computer report of malfunction.

the exact reasons for failure were not disclosed by spacex, but elon musk said on his web site, "i will post a longer update next week, after we have enough time to finish forensics of recent events and formulate next steps."




protest held against muhammad caricatures in paris

several thousand muslims protested today in paris, france, as well as the eastern city of , against the publication of in a danish newspaper and the re-publication of some of these caricatures in french newspapers: the daily and the weekly charlie hebdo.

the protesters consider that these caricatures insulted their prophet, and thus, they contend, their religion and themselves. charlie hebdo is a weekly paper known for its extremely acerbic positions against organized religion; it often mocks , the largest religious denomination in france.

some banners claimed that should not imply the possibility of insulting religious figures. other banners claimed that french society was applying dual standards. some protesters demanded a law against "islamophobia"; france does not have and has a tradition of .

many of the female protesters wore a scarf to hide their hair, and some wore a or veil. the french government enacted a , a move widely considered to be targeting the veil and scarf, which many consider a sign of subordination of females.

the protest was organized by muslim associations from the , most notably the union of muslim associations from . seine-saint-denis, a with a high proportion of immigrants, is notorious for social tensions. this is where the started from.

in a related move, the (cfcm), a private nonprofit considered by the french government to be its main contact with the muslim community, is litigating against the newspapers, alleging the publication of the caricatures incited to religious hatred. muslim associations attempted to prevent the publication of charlie hebdo, but their claim was rejected on procedural grounds.

the protest was followed at a distance by a large complement of and other police forces. no notable incidents were mentioned.

in related news, it has come to attention that a number of additional cartoons not included in the jyllands-posten set may have had a role in bringing the issue to international attention. for example, three images which are reported to be considerably more obscene were portrayed in gaza as if they had been part of the jyllands-posten set. one of the pictures, a photocopied photograph of a man with a pig's ears and snout, has been identified as an old associated press picture from a french "pig-squealing" contest, and makes no reference to islam. it was reportedly circulated by danish muslims as if it was an anti-islamic image. these and other images circulating around the middle-east are partly responsible for much of the violent protest. the problem is being escalated by restrictions on the media in the middle-east -- for example, attempts to accurately portray the jyllands-posten cartoons and paint an accurate picture of the situation in the jordanian media led to the arrest of two jordanian editors, and the pulping of many newspapers before they were distributed.



michelle kwan withdraws from olympics

, a figure skater on the united states olympic team, has pulled out of the olympic games because of a groin injury. according to a newsbreak bulletin on nbc, she injured her right hip in a fall during practice on saturday. the muscle pain continued to worsen and at 2:45am she went to the team doctor. the team doctor determined this was a serious injury and michelle made the decision to pull out of the olympics and give the alternate emily hughes the chance to skate. 

emily hughes was contacted at 8:45pm eastern time that she would be needed at the games. she is scheduled to fly to italy on sunday. emily hughes is the younger sister of olympic medalist .


pennsylvania man named in alleged terror plot

michael curtis reynolds, 47, from wilkes-barre, pennsylvania, is accused of trying to work with al-qaeda, according to the fbi.

"the phildelphia inquirer" has reportedly obtained court transcripts from reynold's rule five hearing, before a federal magistrate judge in pocatello, idaho that revealed a "convoluted plot" that also includes cyberspace intrigue, an fbi sting, and then an exchange of money in idaho. reynolds was represented by federal defender, nick veith, at the hearing.

according to the transcripts, fbi agents say that reynolds was plotting to blow up the alaska pipeline, another pipeline in pennsylvania and a refinery in new jersey, with a person who he thought was an al-qaeda operative. it is also reported that he had planned an attack against standard oil co. in perth amboy, new jersey and williams refinery in opal, wyoming. however, the standard oil refinery, now chevron, does not exist anymore. the refinery had closed more than a decade ago. all that remains in its place is an empty field. armada hess is the only active refinery in perth amboy.

so far, reynolds has not been charged with terrorism. 

however, a prosecutor in reynolds' december hearing said that, "he tried to provide material aid to al qaeda." the prosecutor also said the case "involves a federal offense of terrorism."

a municipal judge from conrad, montana, shannen rossmiller, 36, led the fbi to reynolds by posing as an al-qaeda operative. reports say that rossmiller was looking through terrorist websites when she came across a post by reynolds who was seeking $40,000 that he would use to buy fuel trucks that would blow up refineries in new jersey, wyoming and part of the alaska pipeline. after six-weeks of e-mailing each other, rossmiller agreed to pay the money, and set up a meeting with reynolds in pocatello, idaho. it is reported that after the plans were made, rossmiller then contacted the fbi who then set up a sting operation, two months ago, against reynolds. "i feel compelled to do what i can and i know that i have an ability to do something. i'm out for the hunt," said rossmiller.

rossmiller started to look through terror websites just after the september 11 terrorist attacks in nyc. she has read the koran, studied the radical islamist lifestyle, and learned just enough arabic to lurk around in terrorist related chat rooms and "ensnare" the extremists. she also said that he has "assumed several the identities of more than two dozen male personae on the internet," and was also part of "a large number" of cases involving the hunting of terrorists. court records also show that rossmiller had posed on the internet as an algerian terrorist to "befriend" ryan anderson, a muslim convert and a member of the national guard from the state of washington, who wanted to hand over information to al-qaeda on how to destroy army tanks and humvees.

assistant u.s. attorney john c. gurganus jr. said, according to transcripts, "he (reynolds) was doing it as a plan to disrupt governmental function, to change the government's actions in foreign countries, and to impact on the national debate about the (iraq) war."

reynolds denies trying to work with al-qaeda and stated that he was "a patriot seeking to expose an al-qaeda cell inside the united states." philip gelso, reynolds's attorney, has not commented on the case. 

authorities searched reynolds' home and took his computer as evidence, and some documents allegedly spelling out his terror plots. according to gurganus, in e-mails on his computer, reynolds "described what explosives should be used (in the attacks) and where they should be placed." gurganus also told the judge that reynolds, "knew the plots could get him the death penalty as a traitor and that he would have to leave the country immediately once they were carried out." 

according to the british the inquirer, microsoft was issued a subpoena last month to allow the department of justice access to reynolds' hotmail account.

reynolds has been in lackawanna county jail, held without bail, since december 5, 2005, when he was arrested about 25 miles from the thunderbird motel in pocatello, idaho for an unrelated weapons charge. he was charged with possession of an unregistered explosive device when authorities found a grenade in a duffel bag that was inside a home in pocatello that reynolds was staying at before he came to idaho. the grenade charge carries a minimum sentence of three to seven years, to be served in a federal prison. on december 20, a jury indicted and charged reynolds with two counts of unlawfully possessing hand grenades. 

reynolds pleaded guilty to attempted arson in 1978, a misdemeanor and menacing. he was sentenced to a conditional discharge. he has also been previously convicted of disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and breach of the peace.
the times-tribune received a letter on the 13th that used reynolds’ return address at the lackawanna county prison and bears a rubber stamp as used to mark outgoing mail from the jail that detailed reynold's denial of ties to al-qaeda. the letter is postmarked with a date of february 10th, before the philadelphia inquirer story was published.

titled "patriot games," the letter's content addresses the charge regarding the grenade found at his residence in a comment stating that it was planted there "by someone known to myself and to the fbi." in denial of work for and also in denial of any desire to work for al-qaeda, reynolds wrote that “i know what losses terrorists inflict on people. i would never work to assist them or harbor any,” referring to his claim of a colleague being killed in the september 11 attacks on the twin towers.

in the letter reynolds explains the investigation that he claims to have been working on to track "a person that i had believed to be a terrorist" and to expose them "once i had solid proof of who or where they operated from."

reynolds claims that his family founded bedford hills, new york in 1676. he further claims that he personally has given military service in the us army, written a military police handbook, trained swat and drug enforcement teams. he further claims to have been an engineer with military clearance and to have taught in thailand as a first grade teacher and also an english teacher to buddhist monks.

as an explanation for his prosecution, reynolds has written that he believes it to have been due to his military service and that he believes the case would be dismissed provided a hearing in front of a judge.

when questioned as to the authenticity of the letter, prison warden janine m. donate said that the letter appeared to be from the prison.




sondhi may face legal action from thai rak thai party

according to the thai news agency sondhi limthongkul, an outspoken critic of the government and prime minister, may face legal action.

this would not be the first time the de-facto leader of the campaign to oust the prime minister has faced legal action over his words. in 2005, a number of lawsuits were filed by the prime minister against sondhi, most notable being a 1 billion baht suit in november. thailand's king, bhumibol adulyadej (rama the ninth) made use of his 78th birthday speech to comment on the issue and advise that the government must accept some criticism. this resulted in the dropping of the lawsuits.

sondhi's recurring open-air rallies and protests have made calls for prime minister thaksin shinawatra to resign or to be impeached. it is remarks made at a rally held this weekend at the royal plaza in bangkok that are under scrutiny by lawyers for the ruling thai rak thai party. dr surapong, who announced the party's investigation of the remarks, described them as "offensive" and "verbal abuse". he called for a halt to the accusations whilst a petition detailing alleged offenses of the prime minister was reviewed.

that petition was submitted for the attention of the king as the climax to sondhi's last rally in royal plaza on february 5. after addressing a crowd estimated to number more than 100,000. sondhi then delivered the petition through an aid at the residence of the president of the privy council. several accusations are leveled at the prime minister in the petition, including allegations that he has used his position for personal financial gain.

a new petition seeking the prime minister's impeachment, which was started on february 10, reached 7,500 signatures in just 3 days. thammasat university's student union has started this effort which, according to the country's constitution, requires a total of 50,000 signatures gathered within 180 days for the impeachment process to begin.



oklahoma student paper publishes new controversial cartoon

the vista, a student paper at the university of central oklahoma in edmond, oklahoma, has published a cartoon including one of caricatures of the prophet mohammad. the cartoon itself has been perceived as being very offensive, besides the fact that it includes one of the infamous caricatures.
the cartoon was made by cary stringfield, the paper's cartoonist. it shows two men of middle eastern origin with the one on the right holding one of the mohammad caricatures (caricature: the one with the bomb in his turban). the man on the left is shown as saying: "i'm not sure this response is appropriate for that cartoon." (pointing to the background of violent protest). the man on the right replies by saying: "i agree, if we only had a nuclear bomb, then we could show them."
the vista is published twice a week on tuesdays and thursdays. the cartoon was published on tuesday february 7, 2006. since then there has been some/many verbal/written protests to the paper. the paper published an explanation in their thursday paper which is linked to below.

since then, some have found it hard to decide if the cartoon or the follow-up article was more offensive. the muslim student organization at uco has issued a letter with numerous signatories to the paper to protest their distaste at the inappropriate content. but in the feedback posted on their website, some readers have supported the cartoon as representing freedom of speech.


jaafari nominated iraq pm

the majority shia group in iraq has nominated ibrahim jaafari for prime minister. he was chosen in a tight vote with vice-president adel abdel mahdi.

united iraqi alliance, who backed both men, chose a nominee today after talks amongst party leaders concerning the nomination, which had originally stalled on saturday. 

there is little doubt that mr jaafari will lead the new government considering that the uia is the largest of the iraqi political parties. however, many say that he will be faced with the challenge of getting the support of the nation's sunni and kurd populations.

 


newspaper alleges u.s. drawing up plans to attack iran

the british newspaper has reported on alleged plans for a u.s. attack on iran. the plans were allegedly made in retaliation for iran's uranium enrichment program due to suspicions that it is for military application in the development of .

the paper has also reported that the alleged plans to attack iran may be a possible motivation for the development of nuclear weapons by iran; there have been other of military response by both the u.s. and .

on february 12, 2006, the sunday telegraph claimed that strategists at the are "drawing up plans for devastating bombing raids backed by submarine-launched ballistic missile attacks against iran's nuclear sites" as '"a last resort" for the situation. 

the newspaper also claims that preparations are extremely active, stating, "central command and strategic command planners are identifying targets, assessing weapon-loads and working on logistics for an operation,".

assessments of the time scale for include three to ten years. according to the , cities likely to be targets because of their alleged role in nuclear weapons development include medium-size towns such as or bushire (?????), population estimated as 165,000 (2005) and with a population of about 511,000 (2005) and the small mountain town of . 

just a few days earlier, an interpress service article by gareth porter reported that two ex-cia operatives, paul pillar and ellen laipson, as saying that one of the main reasons motivating iran to move towards developing nuclear weapons was the belief in a .

according to this interpress service report, ex-cia official paul pillar led the preparation of all national intelligence estimates (nies) on iran from 2000 to 2005 in his role as national intelligence officer for the near east and south asia, and told the interpress service that all of the nies on iran during that period "addressed the iranian fears of u.s. attack explicitly and related their desire for nuclear weapons to those fears" and furthermore that "iranian perceptions of threat, especially from the united states and israel, were not the only factor, but were in our judgment part of what drove whatever effort they were making to build nuclear weapons."

ellen laipson, the other ex-cia official also stated, "the iranian fear of an attack by the united states has long been a standard element in nies <nowiki>[national intelligence estimates]</nowiki> on iran."

just a few weeks earlier, on january 25, 2006, former un weapons inspector recommended that the united states give a similar commitment not to attack iran with either conventional or nuclear weapons, just as it apparently has given to , stating, "regime changes, we know, from the outside are not that much of a panacea. so i think <nowiki>[the united states]</nowiki> should contemplate similar offers to iran as they have to north korea."




us vice president shoots man in hunting accident

u.s. vice president dick cheney accidentally shot a fellow hunter in the face on saturday during a bird hunting trip at a south texas ranch. 

the victim, 78-year-old harry whittington, is an austin lawyer who was accompanying the vice president on a south texas quail hunt when he was sprayed with shotgun pellets to his face and chest. the wounded hunter is currently recovering at corpus christi memorial hospital where he is in stable condition, and is said to be alert and joking with visitors.

cheney spent several hours at the hospital with whittington before departing for washington, praying for a happy and permanent reconciliation with whittington.

the incident was not disclosed by cheney's office until sunday. lea anne mcbride, the spokeswoman of vp cheney, explained the delay was in deference to the owner of the ranch, katharine armstrong, where the accident occurred. ms. armstrong first reported the news to "the corpus christi caller-times" on sunday , approximately 18 hours after the incident.

armstrong said that cheney was the right-most man in a three-man formation and that whittington had failed to observe hunting protocol when he quietly approached the formation without announcing his presence. cheney, who was using a 28 gauge shotgun, fired at a flushed covey of quail, inadvertently hitting the lawyer from a distance of about 30 yards. it is not known if any quail were struck.



record snowfall in northeastern united states

the national weather service announced that some 27 inches of snow was measured at 4:10 p.m. est at central park in new york city today, breaking a record set in 1947. this after a day of snowfall and storms in the northeastern united states.

the poor weather conditions prompted the shutdown of laguardia, john f. kennedy, and newark international airports. delta airlines also canceled flights in and out of washington, philadelphia, baltimore, providence, and hartford. in massachusetts, heavy snow and blizzard warnings were in effect as visibility had been greatly hindered by the falling snow. there were other reports of near-blizzard conditions in parts of connecticut, and rhode island.

adding to the storm, wind gusts as high as 60 mph in new england prompted concerns over coastal flooding.

in new york city, department of transportation employees worked a twelve-hour overtime shift to salt and plow the snow from streets and highways. alternate-side of the street parking regulations are suspended, but not the city's public schools, much to the chagrin of new york's children.

although the streets are navigable, the long island rail road (lirr) is a different story: service between jamaica and penn stations remains suspended, as is service along the port washington and hempstead branches. additionally, all running branches are expected to be running with 30 minute delays. the mta subways will cross-honor lirr tickets, so customers will be able to take the e train from jamaica instead.



day 2 results - olympic winter games

the following are the medal results for the second full day of competition for the winter olympic games in torino, italy. 

results are courtesy of nbc and the ioc


australian pm links cannabis use to mental illness

australian prime minister john howard has linked cannabis use to mental illness, and called for state governments to take a tougher line on the drug. speaking at a meeting of federal, state and territory leaders, mr howard said that fighting drug abuse would be a significant element of the new mental health strategy.

at a coag press conference on friday, mr howard explicitly stated that there was a relationship between cannabis use and mental illness. "we need, as part of the campaign on mental health, to address cannabis and amphetamine abuse which is a key, but not of course the only ingredient in the problem," he said.

mr howard has also said that in the past australians have not taken the problem seriously. "at least a generation of australians were too passive about the consequences of illicit drug use," he said.

south australia's director of public prosecutions, stephen pallaras qc, called today for courts to be tougher on cannabis related crime, because of the harm to the mental health of cannabis users. "i have heard the research on the link between mental illness and cannabis and it concerns me greatly," he said. "it may be time to reassess the way the court approaches sentencing in light of research on cannabis. we are waiting for the right case to bring before the court of appeal."

south australia has separate penalties for cannabis possession in public and in private. in south australia possession of up to 20 cannabis plants for personal use is punishable by a au$500 fine.

professor george patton, of the centre for adolescent health in melbourne, also made the link between the drug and mental illness, suggesting that there was evidence of a "predictive" link between cannabis use and the development of illnesses such as schizophrenia.
"people presenting with schizophrenia for the first time, depression and anxiety, often have frequent cannabis use (and) there's increasing evidence cannabis use predicts the development of schizophrenia and other psychotic illness," he said.

"the big difference from 20 or 30 years ago is there were fewer people using cannabis then. what we're learning now is that cannabis these days is a potent drug with powerful side effects."

dan lubman, consultant psychiatrist at orygen youth health, warned that the relationship was quite complicated, and argued that it was difficult to draw clear conclusions.

"a high percentage of the population we treat are cannabis users with mental health problems, but just because you use cannabis doesn't mean you'll develop psychosis," he said. "it's a complicated relationship and that's why we need to be very clever about how we approach this issue."

the mental health council of australia has warned the government of over-estimating the role of cannabis in mental health. john mendozza told abc "i don't think we should overstate the role of cannabis in the nation's mental health crisis. it is a factor, but it is not the reason that we now face a mental health crisis."



melbourne police raid hydroponic cannabis growers

police last week launched a number of raids across melbourne and surrounding areas, targeting hydroponic cannabis-growing operations. there were seven arrests on thursday, in melton and werribee, across the western and northern suburbs, and a farm near bacchus marsh.

three men appeared in court on friday. one man, arrested at the farm, was charged with cultivating cannabis after police found 102 plants growing hydroponically.

according to acting detective senior sergeant jason kelly the raids come at the end of a six month operation. he said that more arrests would be following in the next few weeks.

these arrests coincide with the state and federal governments tough new stance on cannabis, and hydroponically grown cannabis in particular. the prime minister john howard, and nsw premier morris iemma, have linked cannabis use to mental illness, citing a number of statements by researchers.


australian governments to spend $1.1 billion on mental health

australian prime minister john howard and state and territory leaders have promised to spend an extra au$1.1 billion on mental health over the next five years. the funding is part of a broad strategy to improve the standard of mental health care, and includes additional places for medical students and a national phone advice network.

the announcement was made at the council of australian governments meeting. nsw premier morris iemma praised the plan. "at long last there is real hope for the mentally ill and their families," he said.

the focus of the strategy will be prevention and early detection. this includes a tougher stance on cannabis cultivation. in the past few weeks the prime minister and a number of state premiers have linked cannabis use to mental illnesses such as schizophrenia.

the number of medicine positions at universities will be increased by increasing the cap on full fee paying students. loan assistance for medical students will also be increased.

federal opposition leader kim beazley was critical of the announcement, saying that the mental health system has been in need of reform for ten years.


first of the bali nine sentenced

scott rush and renae lawrence, the only female member of the bali nine, were today sentenced in the denpasar district court to life imprisonment.

the bali nine were arrested in april 2005 in bali, where they were accused of trying to smuggle 8.3 kg of heroin in to australia.

the sentence issued to lawrence is a surprise to both herself and the prosecution, as a 20-year sentence was all but promised for co-operation.
although under indonesian law, lawrence could have received the death penalty, judges felt a custodial sentence was in order because of her youth, cooperation and general politeness.


the independent questions wikipedia's accuracy

united kingdom newspaper "the independent" has run a story scrutinizing the accuracy of wikipedia articles, using eight experts in various fields to comment on particular articles' validity. the experts' opinions ranged on topics from the russian revolution of 1917 to kate moss, tony blair and invitro fertilization.

robert mchenry, a former editor-in-chief of "encyclopaedia britannica" posits his belief that contrary to the underlying notion that wikipedia articles are constantly improving, the "mass [of articles] tend to the mediocre."

according to historian antony beevor, "with wikipedia's entries, there is a lack of satisfaction, not so much through inaccuracy but there are a lot of vague statements which you cannot really disprove but which you don't think are necessarily helpful."

while noting that wikipedia's most controversial topics are rife for distortion, "the independent" article goes on to point out that a number of studies have shown articles to be accurate. in comparing the online site to the "encyclopaedia britannica", "nature" found that on average, wikipedia had only one more error per entry than the traditional "gold standard" for encyclopaedias. likewise, the german computer magazine, "c't", gave wikipedia a 3.6 rating out of 5 for accuracy, which surpassed two other rivals, such as microsoft encarta which received a 3.1.


wikipedia suffers outage

wikipedia, the well-known free-to-edit encyclopedia, suffered a period of extended downtime starting approximately 10:00 utc, following a failure of the primary dns/nfs server, which caused numerous cascading failures on other servers within the wikimedia cluster.

this failure led to all wikimedia projects and web sites being rendered inaccessible for several hours. technical staff worked to restore services using backup equipment, and set up temporary hosts to fulfill some of the roles of "zwinger", the failed host.

following restoration of the backbone of the cluster, several problems arose within the database, causing pages to appear missing. at this time, it was noticed that the normal editing pattern of users was inadvertently causing damage to pages, although no histories were lost. the exact cause for the database issues is not known; while there was a heavy replication lag at the time, it has been asserted that this would not have caused such wide problems.

in order to prevent future problems and to protect the integrity of data, editing was shut off for two hours and 47 minutes. meanwhile, technical staff worked to restore several squid cache servers and to reduce the dependencies on nfs mounts.

editing returned to near-normal levels from about 21:45 utc. 

as of 22:00 utc, no official statement has been released commenting on the downtime.


bali nine ringleaders sentenced to death

the ringleaders of the so-called bali nine were today sentenced to death by a denpasar court. andrew chan received the news via translators at about 3:45 p.m. aedt, and myuran sukumaran was sentenced at about 4:50 p.m. aedt. the two were charged with attempting to smuggle 8.3 kg of heroin from bali to australia.

the australian federal police have been criticised for allowing the bali nine to travel to indonesia, where it was known they could face the death penalty. yesterday two other drug mules, renae lawrence and scott rush, were sentenced to life imprisonment.

prosecutors asked for the death penalty for both men. chan was alleged to be the mastermind of the operation, and myuran was alleged to be an enforcer. chan, who claimed to have rediscovered his christian faith, prayed for divine intervention prior to the sentence being handed down. outside the court indonesian protesters shouted "death! death!". chan fell over after jostling with a media scrum, and sukumaran threw a bottle of water at the media.

donald rothwell, a professor of international law at the university of sydney, has said that, unlike countries such as singapore, it may not be long before the two are executed.

"the indonesian judicial system is one in which death sentences are often carried out very quickly," he said.

"so unlike the situation of van nguyen in singapore, where an appeal process and a clemency process played out over quite some time, this may not be the situation in bali."

foreign affairs minister alexander downer told parliament today that he had made a direct request to the indonesian government that the death penalty not be imposed. "on the 18th of december last year, i wrote to the indonesian attorney-general reminding him that the australian government was opposed to the death sentence and we didn't want to see, in the context of the bali nine, any of the australians sentenced to death," he said.

in bali the death sentence is carried out by firing squad.


all verdicts are consistent with the recommendations of the indonesian prosecutors, except for renae lawrence. in her case prosecutors requested 20 years imprisonment.




day 3 results - olympic winter games

the following are the medal results for the third day of competition for the winter olympic games in torino, italy. further details of all the winter olympics action can be found at olympic winter games 2006 on wikipedia.

results are courtesy of nbc, the ioc and are updated as necessary.

the home side was knocked out of the women's ice-hockey by sweden, a great disappointment to the large italian crowd.


study says people don't understand the emotional tone of emails, but think they do

people only ascertain the intended tone on an e-mail message about 56% of the time, not much better than chance, according to a study led by prof. nicholas epley (university of chicago) and prof. justin kruger (new york university). the research also found that people think they've correctly interpreted the tone 90% of the time.

epley and kruger discovered that not only were the receivers of the e-mails overconfident about their understanding of the message's tone, but the senders were as well. about 78% of the senders thought that the receiver would correctly interpret the tone of their e-mail message.

epley explained that "people in our study were convinced they've accurately understood the tone of an e-mail message when in fact their odds are no better than chance." 

he observed that "people often think the tone or emotion in their messages is obvious because they 'hear' the tone they intend in their head as they write." kruger likened this to findings from previous research by elizabeth newton that people vastly overestimated their ability to convey a tune by tapping out its rhythm. "it's impossible not to hear the song as you're tapping away," he said. "so you have a hard time separating yourself from your own perspective and realizing how impoverished the listeners' data really are."

epley stated that similar misunderstandings of emotional tone play a major role in starting online .

the study has been published in the "journal of personality and social psychology".



trainee police officer shot in nottingham

a policewoman in england has been shot while on a "routine" call-out.

the 23-year-old officer was with a male colleague on her way to the scene of an attempted burglary when she was confronted by a male suspect. as soon as trainee officer rachael bown challenged him, he pulled a firearm and shot her in the stomach before making off.

ms bown is recovering in hospital where her condition is described as "stable". the incident happened just after midnight in lenton, a district of nottingham.

her commanding oficer, chief superintendent marcus beale told london-based "sky news" earlier this morning that emergency surgery "looks to have gone very well and, god willing, she'll be ok."

he added: "she was on a routine call out to a burglary and it's ended up having fairly serious consequences. thankfully, she's stable. we expect her to be in hospital for several days."

pc bown was wearing her body armour when she was shot.



tibetans protest google on valentine's day

tibetans convened on tuesday in dharmsala to protest google's decision to launch a censored version of its search engine in china.

demonstrators are protesting the censorship, which disables any searches linked to issues of human rights, tibet, taiwan's independence and the 1989 tiananmen square massacre. under china's censored version of the search engine, searches for these topics will produce omitted sites or direct users back to chinese government websites.

google had agreed to compromise with beijing's censorship policies and limit specific searches in order to increase profits.

teaming with students for a free tibet in order organize a peaceful protest, demonstrators sent out 30,000 e-mails around the world, urging people to boycott google this valentine's day. tibetans also protested at the googleplex after google's announcement to censor their search engine for china. 

a popular tibetan news site run by exiled tibetans shut itself down on tuesday, leaving only the message: "we do not have any right to deny you our contents, but we commit this offense to help you realize a fact."

many people are angry over what they argue is hypocrisy, citing google's ipo filing:

"don't be evil. we believe strongly that in the long term, we will be better served--as shareholders and in all other ways--by a company that does good things for the world even if we forgo some short term gains. this is an important aspect of our culture and is broadly shared within the company."



gao reveals $1.6 billion spent on public relations by the bush administration in 2003-2005

a new 154-page government accountability office (gao) report says seven federal departments together spent us$1.6 billion on 343 contracts with public relations firms, advertising agencies, and media organizations, as well as individuals involved in such activities.

congressional democrats requested the report after several incidents surfaced in which journalists or commentators were paid to promote the bush administrations programs, but did not disclose the financing, so called payola. in one case, armstrong williams was paid $186,000 for promotions of president bush's no child left behind law. the administrations position was that an agencies' mission includes spreading information about federal programs.

at that time, the gao had independent objections to the ready-to-air news stories the administration's provided to tv stations in order to promote it policies. the administration claimed the burden of disclosure falls to the tv stations.

congress has now inserted a provision into an annual spending bill requiring federal agencies to include "a clear notification" within the text or audio of a prepackaged news story that it was prepared or paid for by the government.

rep. henry a. waxman (d-calif.) said "careful oversight of this spending is essential given the track record of the bush administration, which has used taxpayer dollars to fund covert propaganda within the united states." 

the seven agencies covered by the report are commerce, defense, health and human services, homeland security, interior, treasury, and veterans affairs.



israeli group announces anti-semitic cartoons contest

in response to the iranian newspaper hamshari's announcement of an anti-semitic cartoon contest inspired by the jyllands posten muhammad cartoons controversy, an israeli group announced its own anti-semitic cartoon contest yesterday, open to jewish cartoonists only. 

from their february 13 release: 

already organizers have received mixed responses to their contest and have published a number of them, including the following:

not hesitating to set an example, the group has adopted three logos showing three anti-semitic figures. they set a deadline of march 5, 2006 but due to an unexpectedly large response are considering extending it.

amitai sandy was interviewed on 16 february 2006 by the "national public radio" program "fresh air".





body found on a kingwood street in houston

a body was found on a kingwood street in houston, texas today. police said the unidentified man appeared to have no signs of injuries from a car, but police said there was a large amount of blood. he was taken to a local morgue for a autopsy as detectives question people in the neighbourhood on the man's death.

the man was found lying in the middle of a intersection at 2:20 a.m. local time.



california police kill knife-wielding man

a long beach, california man was shot today by long beach police. police allege that the man lunged at police who returned fire and killed the man.

two police officers are reported to have been attending another call in the area when they noticed a man bleeding from his head and wielding a knife. the man did not listen to police orders to drop down and unsuccessfully tried to subdue him with a taser stun gun. as the man lunged at the officers with a knife, both fired several rounds at him, killing him.



the tel aviv magistrates court sentences omri sharon

on february 14, 2006, the tel aviv magistrates court sentenced omri sharon, son of the comatosed prime minister ariel sharon, to a nine month prison term, a nine month suspended sentence, and a 300,000 shekel (usd 63,500) fine. omri's lawyers have already stated they will appeal a "exceptionally harsh verdict". ariel sharon has not been charged so far.

judge beckenstein decided to delay his prison sentence six months due to the current health of his father. beckenstein was quoted as saying: "this is a swamp of political corruption and it must be dried up." in addition gavriel manor, an accomplice of omri, was sentenced to a nine month suspended sentence for his involvement.

omri was indicted on august 28, 2005 over a fundraising scandal relating to his father's 1999 election. at the time omri was exempt from prosecution due to parliamentary immunity but decided to stand trial. 

according to israeli prosecutors omri received over $1,300,000 in contributions and donations from israeli and other companies between july 1999 and february 2000. this violated the amount allowed by party finance laws. he was then charged of investing the funds into a corporation called annex research.

on november 14 omri sharon plead guilty in a plea bargain with prosecutors. he later resigned from the israeli knesset on january 3.



man shot by us vice president suffers mild heart attack

harry whittington, the hunter accidentally shot by dick cheney, suffered a mild heart attack tuesday. physicians explained that one of the shotgun pellets still in mr. whittington moved to his heart. doctors have decided to leave the pellet rather than risk surgery in the 78 year old attorney. they are still optimistic that whittington will make a full recovery.

he is currently in stable condition.



u.k. soldiers arrested over iraqi abuse video

three british soldiers have now been arrested by military police in connection with the video showing abuse of iraqi civilians by u.k. troops. one of them is reported to be the cameraman.

the video, filmed january 2004 in the town of amara north of basra and made public on saturday, shows the troops punching, kicking and beating four iraqi teenagers with batons just inside their compound. a leering commentary is provided by the cameraman. 

earlier footage showed an explosion in the compound, reportedly from one of three hand grenades thrown by iraqi protesters. the marines then ran outside, apprehended these four iraqi youths and brought them inside the walls, where the abuse took place.

the provincial council in basra has suspended relations with the british forces in response to the footage, which has been widely shown in the arab media. two iraqis claiming to be among the abused youths have come forward demanding compensation, and the abuse has been condemned in britain and across the middle east.



warner music sees large growth digital music revenue

warner music group first quarter earnings rose sharply mostly from growth in digital music sales offsetting falling cd sales. warner music sells digital music to several online services including apple's itunes at wholesale. the company's first-quarter revenue from digital music sales doubled to us$69 million, accounting for 7% of overall revenue. madonna, green day, and james blunt are signed to subsidiary labels of warner.

warner music has undergone restructuring after being sold in 2004 by former parent company time warner. cutting costs, exploiting current assets, and digital music has been the company's focus since going public in may.



chinese party elders denounce media censorship

a group of former senior communist party officials in china have denounced the recent closure of freezing point (bing dian), an investigative newspaper, along with the state of government censorship in that country. the group includes li rui, a former aid to chairman mao zedong, hu jiwei, a former newspaper editor, and zhu houze, an ex-propaganda chief.

in an open letter addressed to the current government, the group said that strict censorship may "sow the seeds of disaster" for china's political transition.

in the letter, signed on february 2 but released on tuesday, the group called current censorship methods overly restrictive and unnecessary for the modern china: "history has shown that only a totalitarian system needs news censorship, out of the delusion that it can keep the people locked in ignorance."

freezing point was a supplement of the china youth daily and was allegedly shut down due to the publication on january 11 of an article by zhongshan university professor yuan weishi regarding the way history is currently taught in china, although the papers editor, li datong, says that it has experienced difficulties with the government on several occasions in the past. mr. yuan's article was critical of chinese textbooks, which never admit the culpability of the government and instead shift the blame to other nations.

no response from the government has yet been issued.



day 4 results - olympic winter games

the following are the medal results for the fourth day of competition for the winter olympic games in torino, italy. further details of all the winter olympics action can be found at olympic winter games 2006 on wikipedia.

results are courtesy of "nbc", the ioc and are updated as necessary.


last three bali nine smugglers jailed for life

the remaining three members of the bali nine have been sentenced to life in prison by a denpasar court. matthew norman, 19, si yi chen, 20, and tan duc thanh nguyen, aged 27 were found guilty of exporting narcotics. the court found that the heroin they had been caught with was the same as that found strapped to the bodies of the four others arrested at denpasar airport.

the australian federal police have been criticised for allowing the bali nine to travel to indonesia, where it was known they could face the death penalty. all nine have now been found guilty and sentenced, with seven receiving life in prison, and the two ringleaders being sentenced to death yesterday.


all verdicts are consistent with the recommendations of the indonesian prosecutors, except for renae lawrence. in her case prosecutors requested 20 years imprisonment.



public smoking ban in virginia snuffed out

the virginia legislature's house of delegates voted unanimously in a sub-committee to kill a bill that would ban public smoking in the mid-atlantic state. the vote was reached during a six-member sub-committee meeting on thursday.

the virginia senate, the upper house of the general assembly, passed on monday a week ago a bill that would ban the indoor smoking of tobacco in restaurants, bowling alleys, and other public places, including workplaces. the bill was not expected to pass the house, but the thumbs up signal by the senate signaled a shift in tolerance towards the product in a state known for its 400-year economic history steeped in the cultivation of the cash crop.

the general laws sub-committee based its vote on the rights of property owners, rights that would be violated by a state-wide ban. the debate was largely centered on the issue of restaurant smoking. the committee noted there was no law that said a restaurant must allow smoking. 

"they have a right not to go where people are smoking," said delegate john cosgrove (r-chesapeake). he noted the consumer and the restaurant businesses can decide whether to allow smoking. "they have a right and responsibility to take care of themselves," he said.

a virginia beach restaurant owner, matt falvey, said "the plain truth is that the majority of our citizens do not smoke, and do not want to be around smoke," according to the "richmond times-dispatch". falvey, who owns three restaurants, said "in addition, restaurant workers should not be subjected to the harm caused by secondhand smoke."

falvey said he has smoking sections in his restaurants because not to would put him at a competitive disadvantage with other restaurants that have smoking sections. an across the board state-wide ban would level the playing field by settling the issue.

senate bill 649, known as the virginia indoor clean air act, to become law in the nation's 4th largest tobacco growing state would require passage by the house. last year, the senate killed a similar bill to ban indoor smoking in public places. new procedural rules introduced in virginia this year allow a bill's passage to be blocked by sub-committee, but there remains a slim chance it could be revived. 

the original version of the bill, which allowed cities and counties to decide locally on the issue, was voted down by the senate. the bill was brought back by brandon bell of roanoke county, and passed in a revised version that would make than ban state-wide, with no local authority on the issue. the measure was passed by the senate in a 21 - 18 vote, after it received the support from the virginia restaurant association. 

in maryland, a similar ban was voted down this week by a house committee. new jersey is the latest state to join the ranks of a total of 11 states that ban smoking in restaurants, bars, and workplaces.

soybean over-took tobacco as virginia’s top cash crop in 2005.



american bar association denounced president bush's warrantless domestic surveillance program

on monday, the american bar association denounced president bush's program of domestic surveillance without court issued warrants. the program has been the subject of much debate, with the opposition claiming it is unconstitutional, and supporters saying that it is constitutional and that it helps to catch terrorists.

in the past, wiretap warrants could be secretly obtained from a special court created by the 1978 foreign intelligence surveillance act or publicly obtained from any federal court. the bush administration maintains that the congressional measure authorizing war in september 2001 empowered eavesdropping without any court issued warrant. the aba has also asked congress to affirm that granting such authority was not its intention.

president bush has claimed that only a small number of americans were subject to nsa eavesdrop without the usual requisite warrants. but, russell tice, who worked for the nsa for 20 years, has disagreed, saying that millions of americans could be affected "if the full range of secret nsa programs is used."

mr. tice said that individual conversations can be isolated based upon keywords, such as 'jihad', but such technology is most often used for keyword based traffic analysis of the conversations of suspects, as well as their acquaintances.

the aba sets academic standards for law schools and controls the code of ethical standards for lawyers. 

last may, the nsa revoked tice's security clearance based upon so-called psychological concerns, and later dismissed him. tice has responded that this is simply the nsa's way of dealing with whistleblowers. nsa has made no further comment.



new photos of abu ghraib prison abuse

an australian tv station has shown new photos allegedly showing more of the prisoner abuse in the abu ghraib prison. 

"dateline", a current affairs programme broadcast on the sbs public network, claimed the images they displayed were examples of the range of abuses carried out at the abu ghraib prison in iraq and included previously unseen material such as killing, torture and sexual humiliation. the program also alleged that prisoners at abu ghraib had been killed when u.s. soldiers ran out of rubber bullets as they tried to handle a jail riot, and started to use live rounds.

executive producer mike carey said dateline had obtained a file containing hundreds of pictures, some known and others that show new abuses. however, he declined to say how the pictures came into their possession.

some pictures appear to show u.s. soldier charles graner who had a leading role in the earlier abu ghraib abuse scandal. many of the new images are more graphic than those previously published - these new photos include prisoners performing sex acts and wounded/dead prisoners. sbs alleged the photographs of the dead bodies were of people who had died at abu ghraib during interrogation. 

the guardian cites an unnamed us defense official saying that the army had reviewed the pictures posted by sbs and confirmed that they were among those that are subject to the freedom of information act request made by the aclu. the american civil liberties union has been granted access to pictures in possession of the army that had not been publicly released by a u.s. federal court in september, but the u.s. government appealed the decision.

pentagon spokesperson bryan whitman stressed it is u.s. policy to treat all detainees humanely. he further said that "the abuses at abu ghraib have been fully investigated," and that "when there have been abuses, this department has acted upon them promptly, investigated them thoroughly and where appropriate prosecuted individuals."

the pictures have been shown widely on television throughout the middle east, including in iraq. saleh al-humaidi, a yemeni journalist, told reuters "this is truly american ugliness that no other country in the world can compete with... the americans ought to apologize to mankind for their government's lie to the world that it is fighting for freedom and that it came to iraq to save it from saddam hussein's oppression." 

u.s. secretary of defense donald rumsfeld testified that not all known photographs of the abuses at abu ghraib had been publicly released at the senate armed services committee inquiry in may 2004. mr rumsfeld said, "beyond abuse of prisoners, there are other photos that depict incidents of physical violence toward prisoners, acts that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhuman." 




ru486 debate complicates with amendments posed in australian house of representatives

the ongoing debate over whether the australian health minister tony abbott, or the (tga) regulate the abortifacient (ru486) has complicated with a number of members proposing amendments to the senate bill, now in the house of representatives.

in the debate on february 14, (liberal, ) noted his intent to propose an amendment in the later stage, noting his views that the tga process is "so far removed...from the concerns and the beliefs of the community" and that he is "unable to convince [himself] that completely leaving these decisions to the tga is the right thing to do". his amendment loosely aims to propose a "disallowable instrument in parliament where there is a disagreement with the findings of the tga."

the introduction of amendments has caused confusion on procedural matters february 15 in the questions to the speaker period (that follows ), where members can ask questions of the speaker on procedural and other technical matters. in the following vote on the proposed legislation, if one of the votes on the amendments succeeds, this has the effect of discontinuing the other amendment proposals, as each of the amendments proposed has the effect of being a complete alternative bill.

the ru486 debate will have precedence over all other matters in the house until it is dealt with. voting is expected on thursday.



iranian newspaper website attacked

the website of hamshahri newspaper was brought down this week in response to an internet attack. hamshahri daily is an iranian newspaper that sponsored a contest to produce cartoons denying the existence of the holocaust. service to the website was restored today, after several days offline.

hamshahri daily sponsored the cartoon competition on february 8. the contest followed upon the controversy caused by the twelve cartoons published by the danish newspaper [[w:jyllands-posten|. those twelve cartoons sparked outrage and have led to widespread demonstrations and boycotts.

last year, [[w:president of iran|iranian president]] [[mahmoud ahmadinejad]] denied the existence of the holocaust, saying "they have invented a myth that jews were massacred and place this above god, religions and the prophets".

the hamashahri website was the subject of a [[w:denial-of-service attack|'denial-of-service' attack]]. in a denial-of-service attack, attackers bombard the website with requests for pages until the server overloads.

hamshahri daily is owned by the [[w:tehran municipality|tehran municipality]], which is allied with president mahmoud ahmadinejad. ahmadinejad is the former mayor of tehran.



[[category:iran]]
[[category:journalism]]
[[category:middle east]]
[[category:politics and conflicts]]
[[category:mahmoud ahmadinejad]]
[[category:jyllands-posten]]
[[category:depictions of muhammed]]
[[category:the holocaust]]

german constitutional court prohibits shooting down hijacked passenger planes

the bundesverfassungsgericht has declared legislation which would have allowed the german air force to shoot down hijacked passenger planes unconstitutional.

the luftsicherheitsgesetz (literally: aviation safety act) was passed in january 2005 and mainly dealt with uncontroversial matters concerning the safety at airports. one provision however allowed the minister of defense to order the air force to shoot down a hijacked plane as a last resort if it could be presumed that that plane would be used as a weapon to kill people on the ground.

the court based its decision to strike down that provision on three considerations:

gerhart baum, a former interior minister and one of the plaintiffs, hailed the decision as "historic" and said that were it not for that ruling "we would have martial law while fighting crime".

defense minister franz josef jung said "it is our duty to protect the citizens from terrorism". he announced that he would consider lobbying to change the basic law.

the ruling is expected to also have bearing on current discussions to extend the mandate of the bundeswehr (german military forces) to help police large events like the upcoming soccer world championship in germany, as it implicitely reaffirms the separation of armed forces and the police.



evolution may occur faster than once thought, scientists claim

two graduate students at harvard university claim to have shown that evolution can happen much faster than previously thought. physics student peter lu and his former roommate, economist motohiro yogo, decided to apply an economics model to a well-known marine fossil record in order to predict how fast life can adapt to changes in the environment. the technique, vector autoregression, is used to predict the stock market based on its historical behavior.

initially their model confirmed previous analysis that life was slow to adapt. however, fossil-preserving rocks from some periods are more commonly found than from others. when they compensated for this, the lag disappeared. so far as could be seen from the geological record, the biosphere seemed to respond immediately to changes. this would mean that life could rapidly recover from large extinctions; it was previously thought such recovery would take millions of years.



day 5 results - olympic winter games

the following are the medal results for the fourth day of competition for the winter olympic games in torino, italy. further details of all the winter olympics action can be found at olympic winter games 2006 on wikipedia.

results are courtesy of "nbc", the ioc and are updated as necessary.


repeal of ministerial control of ru486 bill passes australian house of representatives

the australian house of representatives have considered the bill regarding whether the australian health minister tony abbott, or the therapeutic goods administration (tga) regulate the abortifacient mifepristone (ru486), and has passed the bill unamended.

earlier today, the prime minister john howard (australian liberal party, bennelong) has spoken on the amendments earlier proposed by jackie kelly (liberal, lindsay) and andrew laming (liberal, bowman), speaking in favour of the laming amendments and reiterating his support for abbott, stating that he is the "best friend that medicare ever had", abbott's usual phrase he states in question time in support of the government's handling of medicare.

howard's counterpart, the leader of the opposition, kim beazley (australian labor party, brand), spoke in support of the bill in its unamended form, noting that it is "simply commonsense that the minister does not have the scientific capacity" to evaluate the drug, and reiterating that the bill is "not really about tony abbott". more controversially he however said that those with certain personal views such as tony abbott's conservative catholic faith should not hold certain offices in government, which drew criticism from the government later in the debate noting that an earlier labor prime minister of australia john curtin's pacificism was a strong wartime leader.

later, the kelly amendments were put to the vote and were lost on the voices and in subsequent division with 49 agreeing to the amendments and 96 disagreeing. the vote on whether the bill should be read a second time 95 for to 50 against. in the consideration in detail stage, the laming amendments were debated, but the vote on these amendments were lost with 56 supporting the amendments and 90 against them.

the bill as unamended was agreed to and passed the third reading on the voices, without having to resort to a vote.

larvatus prodeo (lp) blogger "kate" welcomed the decision, but warned that the abortion issue was far from settled. "personally, i think this is not only a good thing for women in australia, but also demonstrates democratic processes at work. now we can commence stoushing about whether or not the tga should allow the drug into the country," she said. 

one commenter on lp, paul norton, suggested that division over the issue would deepen in the next few years, and that people opposed to legalised abortion would become more vocal. "i expect that the loud minority will become louder over the next couple of years, and more authoritarian and fanatical in their attempts to twist legislators’ and candidates’ arms, until state and federal election results show that their loudness is directly proportional to their minority status amongst australians."



photo essay: valentine's day at the u.s. viet nam war memorial

the vietnam veterans memorial is the most visited monument in the washington, d.c. at close to 4 million visitors a year. conceived as a symbol of a never ending reminder of our connection to the veterans of vietnam, the wall holds strong memories for everyone who visits the wall.

there are nephews like david quatrone of new jersey who came to find his green beret uncle ferdinand quatrone who served six tours of duty. 

there was alan earls of missouri who came to find his aunt's younger brother who perished during the tet offensive. 

there was even 11 year old gema from miami, florida who came to see the wall and connect hereself to her schoolwork; "i wanted to see the wall to understand what they were teaching us. i want to write an article about it." 

stephen birks of fort long beach came to find larry rabren who dated his sister when stephen was just 14.

each has a story to tell and to remember this valentine's day night. 



canadian idol comes to ottawa

this weekend, march 25 and 26, was a big weekend in the area for canadian idol want a be's. canadian idol is a national singing competition that is organized by ctv inc. a canadian broadcasting communications company for canadian citizens. the television show, greatly based on "american idol," has been on going for several seasons. in the past auditions have been know to have line-ups of thousands of people, however, this year after taking a tour around the new location it appears that line ups were manageable. having the auditions at the st. laurent shopping mall makes this easier said idol's security coordinator rick paciorek. organizers have decided to change the way the auditions will "rock and roll."

having decided last minute, saturday evening, to participate in the singing contest i decided to practice "i heard it through the grape vine" and "it's all coming back to me now." lined up and registered on sunday at around 10:30 a.m. the whole thing was fairly easy. compared to previous year’s contestant may show up at any time they wish, in between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.

at 10:30 a.m. sunday morning there were no real line ups for registration. security and canadian idol greeting staff did however say that saturday was "crazy (busy) with people lining-up as early as 5:00 a.m."

after receiving my competition number 16350 i tagged it to my shirt and ran back around to wait in line. compared to my previous experience in toronto 2003 this was heaven. a few competitors explored the shopping mall during this time. in toronto 2003 the line up lasted about 18 hours before i got passed the first step.

anxiety was in the air and to sooth the feeling a lot of people socialized. i talked to the closest person to me, a girl called bambi that sings regularly at a local pub called the royal oaks. she sings every thursday. just before heading off to the audition a large pack of competitors just came back from the new museum of war. as i waited in line i wondered if i should practice my songs. within no time, we were up! we were called to sing in front of two judges in groups of five. the whole ordeal was over within approximately 2 hours. actually, by 12:30 i was at home eating lunch and a little disappointed in my last minute decisions.

also, compared to last year the maximum age limit went up from 26 to 28 years old. participants may now be between the age of 16 and 28 years old.

there is even a "forum" discussion for those that want advice or comments about canadian idol. . the next canadian idol auditions will be held in halifax april 8 & 9, 2006.




authenticity of new abu ghraib photos confirmed

" has reported today that the has confirmed the authenticity of the images aired by television network . contradicting claims made by some media outlets, sbs dateline's executive producer mike carey claimed on thursday that the program's researchers have found cases of prisoner abuse that have not been dealt with by us authorities. he described the new images available to sbs as a "quantum leap" compared to the previously broadcast pictures.

carey announced that next week's program will show more abuse pictures, but he noted that some images featuring prisoners in sexually humiliating acts will not be broadcast, as they were deemed too graphic. next week's program will also include interviews with a us soldier that has been convicted of prisoner abuse and another former soldier who witnessed the crimes. 

the " has noted, as suggested by sbs, that several news outlets including themselves have "not published a substantial number of photographs they are holding." the "washington post" further explains that "newspapers that have held these images have been constrained, in large part, by the sheer graphic nature of them, especially the nudity."

the "washington post" also cites sbs's ability to circumvent "the u.s. government's efforts to keep abu ghraib images out of the public eye" as another reason why the images were not first published by other media outlets.

the u.s. internet news site "" has now published some of their own previously held back pictures and confirmed that they possess "files and other electronic documents from an internal army investigation into the abu ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal", which include the originally published pictures, as well as the ones published by sbs. 

"salon" notes that some of the files from the criminal investigation command refer to cia agents that interrogated prisoners at abu ghraib, but that no cia officers have been prosecuted "despite the death of at least one iraqi during a cia interrogation there", underscoring the claim made by sbs that some of the pictures document previously unprosecuted abuse. 

the us government expressed concerns about the new abuse pictures being published. john bellinger of the state department told "bbc", "we felt that it was an invasion of the privacy of the detainees themselves to have these photographs come out... (and that the publication could also) fan the flames around the world and cause potentially further violence".



5 of the newly published pictures


europe restricts poultry as bird flu spreads to eight european nations

authorities across europe have issued restrictions on commercial poultry farms, following the outbreak of bird flu in eight previously unaffected nations. the virus has been found in migratory birds much earlier than had been expected.

tests have confirmed that wild swans in greece, bulgaria, italy, austria and germany had died from the deadly h5n1 strain of the virus. other suspected cases of the virus have been detected in slovenia, croatia and denmark.

european health officials had expected wild birds migrating from africa to europe in spring to carry the disease into western europe. it is thought that swans were migrating from russia and ukraine to the black sea driven by unusually cold weather.

globally, 91 people have died after contracting the virus from close contact with diseased birds, but the greatest concern for european authorities is that an outbreak will occur among domesticated fowl, destroying local poultry industries. the h5n1 strain of bird flu is highly contagious, and lethal to birds. a single outbreak can kill tens of thousands of birds, and all birds must be culled across a wide region to prevent the spread of the disease.

no domesticated poultry or humans are thought to be infected in western europe at this time. authorities continue to conduct intensive checks.

a number of countries across europe, including denmark, sweden and the netherlands have required that domesticated fowl be kept indoors. in germany and hungary, two mile protection zones have been placed around the locations where dead swans, with all poultry required to be kept indoors and the shipping of meat outside the zones prohibited.

the european union has toughened its bans on poultry products and now bans the importation of untreated bird feathers into its 25 member nations. the eu also hopes to test 60,000 wild birds and 300,0000 domestic birds as part of its bird flu surveillance program.

in france, the government asked citizens to keep domesticated fowl indoors throughout the country. domesticated ducks will be vaccinated.


france says iran's nuclear program is a &quot;military cover&quot;

foreign minister philippe douste-blazy of france went on french tv and accused iran of having a "clandestine" nuclear program saying, "no civilian nuclear program can explain the iranian nuclear program. so it is a clandestine iranian military nuclear program. the international community has sent a very firm message by saying to the iranians: 'come back to reason. suspend all nuclear activity and the enrichment of uranium and the conversion of uranium', but they are not listening to us. that is the reason why, for the first time for days, the international community is united. it's not just the europeans -- france, germany and the british, it's also russia and china."

however, on a french radio station the iranian chief nuclear negotiator ali larijani said, "contrary to all the propaganda against us, we are not seeking a nuclear bomb, since we are a signatory to (the nuclear) . we are a responsible country - it is western propaganda that keeps on saying that iran is seeking a bomb, but it is not true. we want to be in this camp of countries that have nuclear energy technology but no nuclear weapons, such as brazil and japan" 

china has expressed concern. foreign ministry spokesman qin gang has said that beijing wants a "peaceful solution by diplomatic means."

iran resumed small-scale on tuesday, after the iaea reported it to the un security council. iran had stopped the enrichment process nearly 2 1/2 years ago.

"now it's up to the security council to say what it will do, what means it will use to stop, to manage, to halt this terrible crisis of nuclear proliferation caused by iran," added douste-blazy. during discussion of the crisis of nuclear proliferation less than one year earlier, in the month-long 2005 review conference of the parties to the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, several representatives of non-aligned states complained about the violation of article vi of the npt by the official nuclear weapons states, including france, who allegedly have not yet made significant moves towards nuclear disarmament as required under article vi, and about nuclear proliferation to previously non-nuclear weapons states, such as germany, under "" arrangements.



tokelau voters reject self-rule

the people of tokelau have rejected greater independence from new zealand in a referendum held this week. 60% of the eligible voters voted "yes" to become an independent state in free association with new zealand, but this failed to reach the two thirds support required to take effect. the turnout for the referendum was high, reaching almost 95% of registered voters.

tokelau, a 12 square-kilometre archipelago with a population of 1,500, consists of three islands that do not have roads, an airport or a capital. it is a dependent territory of new zealand, but new zealand's prime minister said tokelau is already "exercising virtually all the responsibilities of a self governing country". according to the un and new zealand, tokelau would have relied heavily on new zealand for financial assistance even if independence had been chosen.


thaksin escapes constitutional court scrutiny

in a move that has been greeted with dismay by some groups, thailand's constitutional court has rejected a petition submitted by 28 of the country's senators. the petition levelled allegations against the prime minister, thaksin shinawatra, of having maintained influence over shin corporation and been involved in the decision to sell the family's remaining stake in the company to temasek holdings, the investment arm of the singapore government.

the court's decision to reject the petition seeking impeachment was reached following an 8-6 vote. the submitting senators were said not to have provided evidence documenting thaksin's interest in shin corp. or how he was involved in the sale. this is despite a former judge from the constitutional court endorsing an opinion shared by some senators and academics that the court was bound by law and precedent to review the allegations.

the president of the federation for democracy, weng tojitrakarn expressed disappointment at the court's decision not to review the petition, stating that "it's the duty of the court to seek evidences". he pledged that his group would press for the resignation of the eight judges who supported the prime minister.

according to weng an interview with the prime minister's son, panthongtae shinawatra, reveals thaksin's involvement in the sale. panthongtae is said to have claimed the sale was a matter for "puyai", which weng interprets as meaning thaksin.

this is not the first time that thailand's beleaguered pm has faced judgement from the court, nor may it be the last. in 2001 the court acquitted thaksin by an even closer 8-7 vote. the charge in that case was concealment of assets. a new petition being organised by students of thammasat university calling for impeachment has reportedly reached 20,000 of the 50,000 required signatures.

further controversy over the pm's family's involvement in shin corp. was revealed in a thai news agency report. according to the secretary-general of the country's securities and exchange commission the pm's son and daughter may face fines for failure to report their shareholding in shin. other issues relating to shin corp. are also under investigation by the sec with collection of evidence and documentation expected to be complete within a week.



baltimore ravens' deion sanders announces retirement

on february 13, baltimore ravens cornerback deion sanders announced his re-retirement from the nfl. last january, many assumed sanders would be leaving the league after spending 14 years in it. 

sanders won back-to-back super bowls with the san francisco 49ers and dallas cowboys. sanders is the first professional athlete to win a world series and super bowl in his pro career. the all-pro cornerback had 53 interceptions, was selected to the pro bowl eight times and was once defensive player of the year. 

reports speculate sanders, who broadcast with "cbs" after his first retirement, may go back into news broadcasting, possibly on the [w:fox broadcasting company|"fox"]] nfl pre-game show. 

after his retirement, current ravens cornerback chris mcalister stated, "i'll miss deion, just as the rest of the ravens organization will. i learned a lot from him."



olympic biathlon silver medal stripped due to doping

the international olympic committee (ioc) announced that biathlete olga pyleva, russian federation, has been excluded from the xx olympic winter games after failing an anti-doping test carried out by the ioc. this is the first instance of an athlete being ejected from the 2006 winter olympics.
pyleva, 30, tested positive for carphedon, a prohibited substance, on february 13 after the women's 15 km individual, biathlon event, in which she won the silver medal.

itar-tass news agency reports that pyleva tested positive for cordedon, a stimulant banned by the world anti-doping agency (wada). the substitute, phenotropil, was prescribed by her doctors following an ankle injury according to nikolai durmanov, head of the russian anti doping committee.
the ioc determined that pyleva would be disqualified from the 15km women’s individual biathalon, would be excluded from the remainder of the xx olympic winter games and would have her olympic accreditation immediately withdrawn.

the ioc routinely performs pre and post event tests for a broad array of illegal substances. for each individual sport, the top five finishers plus two random finishers are tested. so far the ioc has conducted 400 of the expected 1,200 tests to be done at these games.

under ioc rules, olympians that test positive for a banned substance are considered guilty regardless of circumstances.

martina glagon of germany, who finished with a bronze medal, will be awarded the silver. albina akhatova, pyleva's russian teammate will get the bronze.



un calls for guantanamo shutdown

in a 40-page report released today, the united nations special envoys on torture reported their findings regarding the united states detention facility at guantanamo bay on the island of cuba. the report concludes that certain procedures practised at the facility, and during transport to it, constitute torture. moreover the report states that "attempts by the united states administration to redefine 'torture' in the framework of the struggle against terrorism, in order to allow certain interrogation techniques that would not be permitted under the internationally accepted definition of torture, are of utmost concern." the report goes on to state that "the interrogation techniques authorized by the department of defense, particularly if used simultaneously, amount to degrading treatment in violation of article 7 of iccpr and article 16 of the convention against torture."

the report recommends that the united states bring the detainees to trial "in accordance with criminal procedure" or "release them without further delay", and that "the united states government should close the guantanamo bay detention facilities without further delay." to avoid further practices amounting to "torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, discrimination on the basis of religion, and violations of the rights to health and freedom of religion" the report recommends that "in particular, all special interrogation techniques authorized by the department of defense should immediately be revoked."

in response to the report, white house spokesperson scott mcclellan said that the facility housed "dangerous terrorists". us officials have dismissed most of the claims as "largely without merit" and pointed out that the authors of the report never visited guantanamo bay, despite an invitation issued to three of the five investigators in november.

in an interview with the german weekly newspaper "die zeit" the united nation's special rapporteur on torture and coauthor of the report manfred nowak said that it was the "sole responsibility of the united states that we could not visit guantanamo". he adds that the united states explicitly barred the un inspectors from talking to detainees, without which proper investigations are impossible. he pointed out that the need for interviews with prisoners, in order for considering investigations to be comprehensive, "is also the position of the united states when it concerns other countries, like china".




switzerland: charges dropped in the aubonne bridge affair

on the 1st of june 2003, during the g8, a 19-person group of altermondialist militants held an illegal barricade, without notice, on the highway bridge which crosses the aubonne river.

a rope was put across the road: at one end, 20 metres above the river, militant martin shaw had tied himself; the rope would get up to the bridge, loop around the barrier, bar the road, loop again at the other barrier, and get down to its other end, with militant gesine wenzel.

the rope was protected by two barrages of militantes and by posters reading "do not shoot", and "stop here or you will kill two people" (photo ). neither wenzel not shaw had any form of security system and the rope was not tied to the barriers; thus, the lives of the two militants depended on the integrity of the rope barring the road. both activists were invisible from the road, unless looking over the barrier.

a dozen minutes afterward, the police arrived and tried to free the way for the 200 cars stalled by the blockade. the policemen saw the militants hanging at the end of the rope, and thus tried to have the cars drive below the rope by lifting it. then, 25-year old gendarme deiss, from schaffouse, moved in and cut the rope with his knife. gesine wenzel was saved "in extremis" and pulled onto the bridge, shocked. martin shaw fell 20 metres into the shallow river, suffering severe injuries to his spine and several fractures; he had to spent one full month in hospital to recover, and still suffers from his wounds.

deiss did not speak any french (the indident took place in the french-speaking part of switzerland) and was unaware of the presence of the militants; sergeant poget was responsible for the intervention of the police. the plaintifs requested that poget and deiss be convicted for simple (for wenzel) and severe (for shaw) injuries by negligence.

the plaintifs argued that the policemen had not tried to discuss with the activists and were not properly coordinated.

the clause of "rupture of causality links", which describes cases where things cannot be predicted, does not apply here because once the situation was assessed, it was the duty of the policemen to warn their colleagues.

maitre garbade, lawyer of the plaintifs, also underlined the risks of being softer with the police and of the feeling of impunity which could follow. since policement are typically confronted to delinquents, he said, their errors bring to context the offences committed by their victims, which tends to induce clemency for them (in this matter, the activists were trialed and convicted for blocking traffic circulation).

he also mentionned the difficulty of the investigation; the police was tempted to negate that a policeman had cut the rope, refused to aknowledge some testimonies, and gave immediate psychological support to deiss, which was not done for the victims. "i do not believe that this trial would have taken place if it was not for the two video recordings", he said.

maitre garbade went on saying that it was common sense to check the end of a rope before cutting it and requested that poget and deiss be convicted for simple (for wenzel) and severe (for shaw) injuries by negligence.

m. stoll, first substitute to the procuror, warned against the "myth of police impunity" and argued that he had recently requested and obtained conviction of two policemen. "then are no preferences within the prosecution," he said.

the prosecution went on arguing that the "rupture of causality links" did in fact apply, since the time between poget realising the situation and deiss cutting the rope was very brief (one minute). absence of dialogue between the policemen and the militants was understandable because the protest was unexpected, illegal and dangerous (the activists had blocked the highway without adequate signs warning the motorists).

the confused messages of the posters were also alluded to "do not shoot" and "stop here or you will kill two people", while a simple drawing of two people hanging from a bridge would have make the situation instantaneously clear for everybody; such drawings are featured on the web site of the activists.

the prosecution conclued saying that the "most probable cause" of the accident was the protest itself, and dropped the charges.




hotel development proposal could displace buffalo, ny business owners

savarino construction services corp. has proposed a $7 million hotel project at the forest and elmwood avenue intersection, according to "". the proposal calls for a 5-story, 45,000 square-foot 80-room hotel with underground parking for at least 50 vehicles, and 4,500 square-feet of retail space on the lower level.

hans mobius, the owner of the five properties to be purchased in the plan (1109 to 1121 elmwood), reportedly signed a contract with savarino to assemble the development. 

"we saw a huge opportunity to bring something to the elmwood village that will make sense and bring a service that's currently not available," said eva hassett, vice president of savarino. "elmwood is such a wonderful place to eat, shop, walk and spend time. we believe this project will add to that vibrant environment."

some business owners in the area see it differently. "wikinews" interviewed 2 of the 4 owners whose business's would be demolished if the development goes through.
nancy pollina, of don apparel at 1119 elmwood, who found out about the development only yesterday, said she is "utterly" against the proposal. her apparel shop has stood at the same location for nearly 14 years. she has volunteered in the community, and helped create several gardens around bus shelters in the city, and served on forever elmwood board for six years as head of beautification. patty morris co-owns don apparel with pollina.

"to say this is a good looking project, i want to say the emperor has no clothes. this [project] does not take into consideration the needs of the college students. i have been told by college students, these shops here, are the reason they leave the campus," said mrs. pollina. 

michael faust, the owner of mondo video said, "well, i do not really want to get kicked out of here. the landlord was very open, and the deal he made with me when i moved in here was 'the rent is cheap and i [the landlord] will not fix anything and that will not change.'" faust said he first learned of the development plan, "about 48 hours ago. i found out on tuesday when the buffalo news called and asked for my opinion on this." faust has not said if he will make plans to relocate. "we have to see if this [house] is going to get knocked down first," said faust.

an "informational" meeting, where citizens can voice opinions and learn about the proposal, will be held on tuesday february 21, 2006 at 5:00pm (eastern), at the burchfield-penney art center gallery at buffalo state college, rockwell hall.

executive director of forever elmwood corporation, justin p. azzarella would not comment on whether or not the organization supports the development, saying, "you will just have to come to the meeting."

forever elmwood corp. is designed to preserve and protect the unique and historic nature of elmwood avenue and its surrounding neighborhoods and encourage neighborhood commercial revitalization. the organization was founded in 1994.

nearly two years ago, the forever elmwood corp. assisted in the blocking of the demolition of the edward atwater house at 1089 elmwood next to "pano's" restaurant which is at 1081 elmwood. owner pano georgiadis wanted to expand his restaurant onto the property where the house now stands, but the common council denied his permit to demolish saying the house is a historical landmark and needs to be protected. georgiadis, who has a bleeding ulcer, said that all the court cases landed him in the hospital. "i got a bleeding ulcer, and since then, i don't care about this house anymore, or this city. i just go to work every day. i think [preservationists] are parasites," said georgiadis.

georgiadis will not be attending tuesday's meeting saying, "i will be out of town."

in 1995 hans mobius proposed a plan to develop a "walgreens", that was to be placed in the same location, but residents and business owners shot down the proposal. "walgreens" eventually withdrew its request for a variance after pressure from the community.



bird flu could kill between 1.4 and 140 million people - australian researchers

two australian researchers at the australian national university estimate that a global pandemic of the deadly h5n1 strain of bird flu could kill between 1.4 and 140 million humans and cause a global recession. they will formally present their research to the lowy institute in sydney today.

professor warwick mckibbin, a well respected economic modeller, member of the board of the reserve bank of australia and health expert and dr alexandra sidorenko modelled the effect of a bird flu pandemic on human health and the global economy. their study looks at four possible scenarios - mild, moderate, severe and extreme.

under the mild scenario, they predict that 1.4 million people worldwide and 2,100 australians would die. the extreme scenario predicts 140 million worldwide deaths with 214,000 australians among them. 30 percent of the australian population would be expected to become infected should a pandemic occur.

in the extreme case, the global ecomomy would suffer losses of us$4.4 trillion or 12.6 percent.

prof. mckibbin says that his economic estimates do not only include the cost of death but also for lost productivity. in an interview with abc, professor mckibbin said "firstly, there's a reduction in the labour force. now, interestingly it's not just that people die which is causing economic loss, but actually there is a substantial amount of illness in any influenza pandemic. "

"and so we try and capture both the death and the impact of that on the economy as well as illness during the pandemic, and including the fact that different economies have different labour market structures and that it's not just workers that get sick but also children, and we try to model the fact that carers will be taking time off work. " said prof. mckibbin.

pandemics have broken out every 10 to 40 years since the 19th century. the last pandemic was in 1968 caused by the hong kong flu. 

"it is 37 years since the last pandemic and many argue that another pandemic is overdue," warns the report. the report advises investment in asia, where health systems are less developed.



mcgovern calls for whistleblowing before alleged us attack on iran

ex- agent , of , has called for people with inside information on the alleged - threats to launch an attack on iran to become by revealing this information. mcgovern is strongly critical of the administration of the us.

he claims that he personally had missed a chance to try to stop the by failing to whistleblow about a cable sent by general on august 20, 1967 regarding a significant underestimate of troop numbers.
he called for "shedding light on what the bush administration is up to beneath the " and asked that "those of you clued into israeli plans and u.s. intelligence support for them might clue us in too."

mcgovern alleges that an attack on iran is likely to happen in march, saying "anyone who has been near a tv in recent weeks has heard the drumbeat for war on iran. the best guess for timing is next month."

he recommended from his personal experience "don't bother this time with the once-independent congressional oversight committees... nor should you bother with the once-independent . find some other way. ... just be sure you get the truth out ? information that will provide the oxygen for democracy."

mcgovern also claims that whistleblowing could have stopped the , saying "any number of people would have had a good chance of stopping the iraq war, had they the courage to disclose publicly what they knew before it was launched." just five days before the attack on iraq officially started, mcgovern and his colleagues called for whistleblowing and claimed that the bush administration was misrepresenting the case for an attack on iraq. mcgovern described the administration's information on march 15, 2003, saying "it's been cooked to a recipe, and the recipe is high policy."

in september 2004, mcgovern along with , who had precipitated a national uproar in 1971 when he released the pentagon papers, the us military's account of activities during the vietnam war, to the new york times, along with several other colleagues had already announced that they would form a whistleblowers' support network for revealing possibly classified information regarding the conduct of the occupation of iraq.


 


usa rejects un guantanamo report

scott mcclellan, white house spokesman, dismissed a united nations report today dealing with the guantanamo bay facilities. the un report said that the united states government should "expeditiously bring all guantanamo bay detainees to trial" without further delay, and called upon the u.s. to close the guantanamo bay detention facility.

mcclellan responded, "these are dangerous terrorists that we're talking about that are there and i think we've talked about that issue before and nothing's changed in terms of our views." mcclellan added, "we know that these are dangerous terrorists that are being kept at guantanamo bay. they are people that are determined to harm innocent civilians or harm innocent americans. they were enemy combatants picked up on the battlefield in the war on terrorism." 

three months ago, the us ambassador to the czech republic, jan krc, asked that country to give asylum to a group of guantanamo detainees which would have set them free in europe. the u.s. request to the czechs about asylum was "a humanitarian request because we clearly need to place these people somewhere," krc said.

in a press encounter, kofi annan responded to a journalist, he didn't accept all the conclusions of the report but, "sooner or later there will be a need to close guantanamo, sooner or later". he said, "i cannot agree with everything in the report, but i did indicate that the basic premise, that we need to be careful to have a balance between effective action against terrorism and individual liberties and civil rights, i think is valid."

the united nations report is based upon information from the united states government, interviews conducted by the experts with former guantanamo bay detainees currently residing or detained in france, spain and the united kingdom. the u.s. government's invitation for un investigators to visit the prison was turned down because the united states would not allow the un investigation team to conduct interviews with detainees. the report follows an 18 month study by 5 experts in various areas of human rights.





australian bird flu vaccine trial results &quot;promising&quot;

the australian based pharmaceutical company csl has announced that despite promising human trials of their bird flu vaccine, more research is needed before the final formula can be developed.

late last year the australian federal government gave csl au$ 5 million to speed up research into the bird flu vaccine.

the vaccine was tested on 400 australians aged between 18 and 45 in october last year to determine its safety and effectiveness. the strain of bird flu used for the trials was taken from a bird flu victim in vietnam and neutralised to prevent it from being contagious.

the next phase of the trial will include 700 people from varying age groups. 

csl has previously indicated that once their vaccine is approved, it could take between three and six months to manufacture enough of the vaccine to inoculate every australian.



colombia’s uribe orders the bombing of a natural national park

after 6 policemen who supervised the manual eradication of coca plants were killed in the serrania de la macarena national park, 270 km south of bogota, president alvaro uribe announced this thursday from washington that he authorized the colombia]n air force to bombard the area, where, according to the authorities, they found eight sites with tents and equipment belonging to the revolutionary armed forces of colombia (farc), allegedly responsible for the death of the police officials.

“we are going to define the way to evacuate the area of macarena to bomb it before the coca eradicators enter again” said the president. “this is a difficult confrontation, which represents an important effort to defeat terrorism once and for all”, stated the minister of defense camilo ospina.

even though the bombing started this thursday, the authorities confirmed that the manual eradication in the macarena area will continue. some coca eradicators, most of whom are peasants, decided to give up the job due to the difficult security conditions. however, general jorge daniel castro, director of the national police, stated that since january 20th when the operation started more than 140 ha of coca crops have been eradicated.

the announcement made by uribe has outraged environment activists who warn about the ecological damages that the military actions may cause in the area which was declared national park in 1971. the macarena area has been saved from fumigations.



day 6 results - olympic winter games

the following are the medal results for the sixth day of competition for the winter olympic games in torino, italy. further details of all the winter olympics action can be found at olympic winter games 2006 on wikipedia.

results are courtesy of "nbc", the ioc and are updated as necessary.


graffiti game banned in australia

the office of film & literature classification review board in australia has refused to classify marc ecko's getting up: contents under pressure. the computer game's premise is a future world where freedom of expression is suppressed by a tyrannical city government and to win the game the player has to express his message through graffiti. 
the decision was made by 5 members who voted 3/5 against the classification of the game; ms maureen shelley, the convenor, broke the deadlock on the grounds it encourages crime. the game cannot be sold, demonstrated, hired or imported without a classification. australia is the only country to ban the game so far. the decision comes even though oflc guidelines state that adults may hear, read and see what they wish.

the game was originally rated ma15+ for strong violence, and strong themes on 18 november 2005. 

other games to be banned in australia include postal and bmx xxx, while
'combat: task force 121', a game whose premise involves shooting people to defend us interests from marxist rebels 
was rated m (below the maximum rating of ma for a video game in australia) and is therefore available to buy by anyone of any age.

atari australia, the games local distributor has said it strongly disagrees with the outcome and they defend the original ma rating 
"we are definitely investigating all our options at the moment. if we can appeal it we will," said mr david wildgoose, public relations manager at atari.
any action to be taken would take place after they receive the review board's written decision.
mark ecko has been also expressed his point of view
“i am extremely disappointed in the australian government classification review board’s move to ban my video game ... based solely on a perceived notion that it somehow will promote the crime of graffiti.” 

ms maureen shelley, when questioned on her decision by the abc’s lateline, said she didn’t need proof that video games encourage crime?only that she thought they could. 


u.s. looking for asylum for some guantanamo prisoners

some men imprisoned at guantanamo are not considered a threat by the pentagon. 
for months united states officials have been trying to find a country which will grant these men asylum.

"what's clear here is that the military had its own military secret tribunal. there were no lawyers there, i wasn't there," said a boston attorney who represents two of the detainees in question. "they determined at this tribunal that these men were not al qaeda, they were not taliban. they were not criminals, they were not enemies. they were a mistake."

three months ago, the us ambassador to the czech republic, jan krc, asked that country to give asylum to a group of guantanamo detainees which would have set them free in europe. the u.s. request to the czechs about asylum was "a humanitarian request because we clearly need to place these people somewhere," krc said.

us judge james robertson said in december 2005 that "nothing… establishes that the government has or could reasonably have a concern that these petitioners would return to the battlefield if released." 

the u.s. state department told abc news yesterday in a written statement,"it is the long-standing policy of the united states not to transfer a person to a country if it is determined that it is more likely than not that the person will be tortured… we are looking into resettlement… outside china." however,the us government has denied granting asylum within the usa to these men.

with regard to guantanamo bay prisoners in general, the white house spokesman, scott mcclellan said yesterday, "these are dangerous terrorists that we're talking about that are there and i think we've talked about that issue before and nothing's changed in terms of our views." mcclellan added, "we know that these are dangerous terrorists that are being kept at guantanamo bay. they are people that are determined to harm innocent civilians or harm innocent americans. they were enemy combatants picked up on the battlefield in the war on terrorism."



85 rescued, thousands feared dead in philippine landslide

bbc news is now reporting that at least 83 people were rescued after a massive landslide buried three villages in saint bernard, southern leyte province, in central philippines, friday. so far, 19 people have been confirmed dead. up to 1,500 are thought to still be missing. the red cross has despatched a plane with rescuers and basic equipment; they have also appealed for us$1.5 million for relief supplies for the affected area. 

it is believed that the slides were triggered by heavy rains of up to 200cm (79 inches) in just 10 days and an earthquake of magnitude 2.6. some residents had already left the area previous to the disaster fearing landslides but had returned following easing of the rain.

houses and an elementary school packed with children were buried, officials and witnesses said. photographs and footage show only coconut trees and a few tin roofs sticking out of the soil after part of a mountainside collapsed on the farming village of guinsaugon in southern leyte province.

rescue efforts are being hampered due to continual rock falls, washed out bridges, chest deep mud and a lack of heavy equipment. "rescuers are scared because they can still hear the mountain rumbling," said maria lim, the mayor of saint bernard, where a minor earthquake was felt on friday morning. president gloria arroyo has ordered the navy and the coast to the area to assist with relief efforts when conditions improve. two us vessels are also on their way to help.



british parliament bans smoking in pubs, workplaces and clubs

mps at the british parliament have voted by large majority of 200 to bring in legislation banning smoking in all pubs, clubs and workplaces in a landmark free vote. the ban is expected to come into force from summer 2007. 

the originally proposed fine of ￡200 was raised to ￡2500 for failing to stop people smoking in banned areas in the late stages of the parliamentary process. other fines include a fixed penalty notice of ￡50 for lighting up in banned areas and spot fines of ￡200 for failing to display no smoking signs in banned areas.

smoking may also be banned in "substantially enclosed" venues such as railway stations and football stadiums; this may also include cars carrying passengers but no decision has been taken on this as yet. ministers will finalise precise regulations after a three month consultation.

the vote was politically fraught, as the labour party in government had proposed a 'compromise' bill, in line with their election manifesto, which would allow pubs not serving food to be exempt from the ban. with many labour mps threatening to rebel against this compromise however, in favour of a full ban, labour granted its members a free vote. mps then voted for the full ban by a margin of 453 votes to 125,- a majority of 328.

mps then debated a last-minute amendment to exempt private members clubs, which was also rejected, by 384 votes to 184,- a majority of 200. the prime minister, tony blair, voted for a complete ban along with his health secretary, patricia hewitt.

the ban will bring england in line with scotland, northern ireland and wales, which will all be introducing a full smoking ban for pubs and clubs. the bill also gives ministers powers to increase the age for purchasing cigarettes from 16 to 18 which ministers will begin the consultation process upon shortly.



full extent of abu ghraib detainee abuse revealed

the online magazine, salon.com claims to have received a dvd containing what may be all of the material from an army investigation into the infamous abu ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.

according to salon's report, the dvd includes an investigative report by the army's criminal investigation command (cid). in a report by special agent james e. seigmund, the summary of the content includes, "a total of 1,325 images of suspected detainee abuse, 93 video files of suspected detainee abuse, 660 images of adult pornography, 546 images of suspected dead iraqi detainees, 29 images of soldiers in simulated sexual acts, 20 images of a soldier with a swastika drawn between his eyes, 37 images of military working dogs being used in abuse of detainees and 125 images of questionable acts."

salon claims their source is a uniformed officer who spent time at abu ghraib and is familiar with the cid investigation. the dvd of material is described as all from a period of october 18, 2003 to december 30,2003.

in reporting on salon's scoop, the guardian reported that a pentagon spokesman said recent reports, "could only further inflame and possibly incite unnecessary violence in the world". ibrahim al-jaafari, the prime minister of iraq condemned the abuse, whilst pointing out that members of us forces had already been punished for it. 

whilst the salon report concedes that prosecutions related to the abuse continue, it notes that none of the cia interrogators who were said to operate at the prison have been prosecuted and no high-ranking officer or official has yet been charged in relation to the abuse.





cheney gets ovation, shooting victim apologizes to cheney

harry whittington, the person who was shot by vice president dick cheney in a hunting accident, was released from the hospital today. he said to reporters that "my family and i are deeply sorry for all that vice president cheney and his family have had to go through this week."

only minutes later, cheney received a standing ovation from wyoming lawmakers. "i want to thank you for that welcome home," cheney said in his first public appearance after the shooting, when he was addressing the wyoming state legislature.

the chief of emergency care dr. blanchard, who treated whittington explained that the reasons for the discharge are whittington's "excellent health". he added that whittington was "a lucky person" to survive the shooting.



day 7 results - olympic winter games

the following are the medal results for the fourth day of competition for the winter olympic games in torino, italy. further details of all the winter olympics action can be found at olympic winter games 2006 on wikipedia.

results are courtesy of nbc, the ioc and are updated as necessary.


switzerland: policemen acquitted in the aubonne bridge affair

the 23-page judgement, particularly long for such an affair, was pronounced by the president on friday at 11:45.

acknowledging the lasting physical and psychological harm caused to shaw and wenzel, the tribunal reacted to the deliberate will to turn the trial into a political tribune: "the tribunal is not the control authority for the police", the president reminded. he ruled out any commentary about preliminary investigations, which had been subject to the criticism of maitre gerbade, attorney for the plaintiffs, during his requisitory.

the judging underlines the non-violence of the alter-globalisation militants, who "cannot be compared to the vandals" who has made a rampage in geneva and lausanne the same day. he also reminded a particularly difficult context for the policemen, who were facing their 4th important intervention of the morning. a filling station had notably been put to fire, fortunately without any harm to people. the tribunal also specifically quoted indymedia, which it said is an "honourable source". 

reminders of facts insisted on several points:

the militant who was acting as a sentry to protect the rope was not forcibly evacuated by the police, but rather left her station on her own will, in an attempt to interdict the passage of cars under the rope, then lifted by the police.

"one minute and ten seconds" at most passed before the rope was cut by deiss, one minute of "confusion and general mess", according to the court.

several policemen were tempted to cut the rope to allow the passage of cars and remove the blocking of the highway, but were told not to do so by a sergeant; thus, cutting the rope seems to be what one would naturally be tempted to do, according to the court.

the numerous cars stranded on the highway because of the blockade were a risk of major accident; the drivers were infuriated by the stop and the radio was reporting the unrest in lausanne and geneva, creating and atmosphere of stress and fear, according the president.

the warnings put by the militants ("do not shoot" and "stop here or you will kill two people") were seen by the court as "ambiguous" at best, and "incomprehensible" at worst, since the militants were sitting on the highway, a dangerous place where their own lives were in jeopardy.

"as a consequence, noting can be reproached to the policemen", the president said. "bullshit", shouted shaw, who then rose, and barred the room with a poster reading "police everywhere, justice nowhere"; after insulting the tribunal, the militants and their friend in the audience left in much turmoil, letting the president free to proceed.

the accident occurred as a "series of misunderstandings" and of unlucky causes. confronted to a completely new situation (no such event had ever occurred then), the policemen acted for what they though was the best interest of the militants and the users of the highway. denying any will to call the attention of the offence committed by the plaintiffs, the court however the lack of security rope, of signals, of notification to the authorities and the possibility for the militants to rope themselves at 4 or 5 metres high rather than 25.

in conclusion, the court pronounced acquittement for poget, acquittement for deiss, the payement of the spendings of justice by the state, and the restitution of the evidences to the parties.

even before the audience, in anticipation of the verdict, the militants protested in front of the courthouse, brandishing posters ("your cops are your responsibility") and mocking the court.

in addition to the noisy events of the court room, shaw also gave much talking after exiting the courthouse, criticising the justice of the canont of vaud: "the whole system is corrupted from bottom to top", he said. he complained that it is not possible to obtain justice in switzerland.

a press conference followed. the commucation to the press on the site of the militants calls of "direct action".




japanese h-iia rocket launches satellite into orbit

the has successfully launched another of their h-iia space rockets. its payload, the mtsat-2 satellite designed to control air traffic and track weather patterns, has successfully separated from the rocket. it is due to be inserted into a geostationary orbit on the 21st of february.

the satellite is owned by the civil aviation bureau and the japan meteorological agency, part of the ministry of land, infrastructure and transport.

the rocket was launched from the tanegashima space centre in the southern region of kagoshima, at 15:55 (06:55 gmt). it is the ninth in a series of h-iia rockets, which form the main part of the japanese space program. a previous h-iia rocket was launched less than a month ago.



first bird flu cases registered in maharashtra, india

the first cases of bird flu have been registered in the world's second most populous country, india. the cases registered are reportedly from the nandurbar slaughter house in the western state of maharashtra. some 1500 birds have been reported as having the disease. maharashtra animal husbandary minister anees ahmed confirmed the reports and said that effective steps will be taken with the help of eminent veterinarians. ahmed also said a high-level meeting was under way in mumbai to assess the situation and to decide how to cull the large flocks of birds in poultries in nandurbar and dhule districts.

the minister also stated that state authorities had decided to cull all 500,000 chickens in the farms in an area of roughly three kilometres around the farms where the infected birds were found. 

more than 25,000 chickens had died in poultry farms in the district over the past 10 days, district official jayant gaikwad said.

this is the first time that the disease has been reported in india, a nation of 1.1 billion people. there were no reports of infected people and maharashtra government officials said there was no reason to panic. 

the federal cabinet was meeting in new delhi to take stock of the situation. 

india's animal husbandry and health authorities have a contingency plan in place in case of an avian flu outbreak. the government has said that there are adequate supplies of the generic tamiflu drug to meet an emergency. 

ahmed said consignments of the drug had been flown to northern maharashtra, but there have so far been no reports of humans becoming infected.

doctors have been rushed to the affected areas to take precautionary measures, he added. india's animal disease laboratory also confirmed the virus in dead chickens. 

maharashtra is the second most populous state in india, having a population of 120 million.

the h5n1 strain of bird flu, which has killed at least 90 people since early 2003, can infect humans in close contact with birds.



20 wounded in explosion at philippine karaoke bar

an explosion has been reported near the gate of the philippine army's 104th brigade headquarters, inside a karaoke bar on southern jolo island. at least 20 people are reported to have been injured. 

according to witnesses, most of the wounded were female entertainers, and men who were drinking at the bar.

u.s troops are encamped on the grounds for joint military exercises.

security is a major concern for these exercises, mainly due to the presence of the abu sayyaf guerilla group, which is related to al-qaeda, and is stationed about 580 miles south of manila.

lt. col. mark zimmer, a military spokesman said that no american deaths have been reported.



british university academics vote for strike action

university academics in the association of university teachers (aut) and natfhe unions in britain have voted in favour of strike action in protest against academic salaries. the unions claim that academic pay has fallen 40 per cent in relative terms over the past 20 years and that employers have broken public promises to use extra government funding to improve pay.

members were given the options of voting for strike action and also for 'action short of a strike'. 64% of those who voted in the aut, and 70% of the natfhe members, voted for strike action. 81% of members voting in aut, and 87% of natfhe members, voted for action short of a strike. turnout for aut members was 51%, and turnout for natfhe was 47%.

natfhe general secretary paul mackney said, "this is a strong mandate for action and shows the level of dissatisfaction throughout higher education." speaking to the employers, he said that they must respond immediately with an offer - not talks about talks - if they are to prevent disruption. aut general secretary sally hunt said, "university staff do not appreciate being lied to and today they have said that enough is enough."

the universities and colleges employers' association (ucea) claimed that the ballot represented only a "small minority" of academic staff and offered 'constructive negotiations', but only if the threat of industrial action was dropped. jocelyn prudence, chief executive, said that they would seek to minimise any impact upon students.



h5n1 confirmed in france

the strain of bird flu lethal to humans, h5n1, has been confirmed to have infected a dead wild duck, found on monday, in marshland near lyon in the east of france. france is the seventh country in the european union to suffer this virus; following austria, germany, slovenia, bulgaria, greece and italy. suspected cases of h5n1 in croatia and denmark remain unconfirmed.

globally, the h5n1 strain has infected 171 people, and killed 93 of them, since 2003.

a 3 km (2 mi) safety area has been set-up from the area in which the bird died. in accordance with eu guidelines, vets will check all the birds in this zone. surveillance has increased on wild birds within 10 km (6 mi).

in an attempt to address the public concern, a telephone line and website has been set-up. this notifies them not to touch dead birds, but to report them straight away to the authorities.

france, as the largest producer of poultry in europe, already has farmers worrying about their livelihood; despite the fact the avian flu has not affected any of the nation's poultry. if the disease transfers to poultry, the transport of poultry can be restricted.

further tests have been done on two ducks that have died in the region in the north of france.



avian flu is confirmed in egypt

yesterday february 17, 2006, the world health organisation officially declared presence of the h5n1 strain of the avian flu virus in egypt.

"there is avian flu now in egypt," hassan el bushra, regional adviser for emerging diseases at the eastern mediterranean regional office of the who said. his response was to the reported presence of h5n1 virus in dead birds in three areas in egypt - namely cairo, giza, and al-minya.

today february 18, 2006, a responsible source from egyptian ministry of health announced reporting of another 25 cases of infected birds in al-minya with aftermath of 35 confirmed cases between birds, yet there are no human cases reported.

egypt has banned the import of live birds and has tightened quarantine controls at airports to keep out bird flu. it has also canceled the annual bird hunting season to minimize contacts between people and migrant birds.
in cairo phone numbers 3912136, 3907147, and the hotline 152 have been assigned for reporting any suspected cases. 
a newly formed unit formed of veterinarians and preventive medicine specialists in giza actively studying more than 70 reports of dead birds for exclusion of h5n1.

egyptian prime minister ahmed naxif has advised people who breed poultry at their homes to dispose of their birds to prevent the virus from spreading.

"the time has come to get rid of the idea of breeding chickens on the roofs of houses, especially under current circumstances," he said.

many egyptian citizens breed chickens and pigeons on the roof of their residences for their own consumption and as a source of extra income.

despite avian flu mainly being a disease of poultry, it has also infected 171 people, killing 93 of them, and is steadily mutating. if it acquires the ability to pass easily from person to person it could cause a pandemic that might kill millions.



us pressure group proposes covert attack on iran

the iran policy committee, a pressure group meant to influence us government policy towards iran, made up of former white house, state department, pentagon and cia officials, and supported by several members of the us congress, called for covert military action on iranian territory and support for the mujahedin-e khalq (mko or mek), which is presently (though controversially) listed by the state department as a foreign terrorist organization. the mko has had public support in several eu countries and the us, including from many members of congress.

members of the iran policy committee proposed removing the mko from the list of foreign terrorist organizations and supporting it as part of iranian "civil society". their proposal is to support iranians by both covert military methods and other methods to remove the system of government under which president mahmoud ahmadinejad was recently elected, in the second round of presidential elections in 2005, and replace it by a new form of government. 

on february 15, 2006, human rights watch (hrw) defended its may 2005 report on the mko, describing additional interviews and verifications it had taken to check claims of inaccuracies in its report. it claimed that the former report was accurate. in the may 2005 report, hrw claimed on the basis of various documents and interviews with ex-members of the mko that "abuses <nowiki>[occurred]</nowiki> ranging from detention and persecution of ordinary members wishing to leave the organization, to lengthy solitary confinements, severe beatings, and torture of dissident members." the report also noted that the mko is strongly focused on its leadership, the husband and wife team of massoud and maryam rajavi, to the extent that members burned themselves alive in protest when maryam rajavi was arrested in paris.

meanwhile in the uk, the conservative party said that military action against
iran "should not be ruled out to deal with its controversial nuclear programme", that "it was wrong for the european union's foreign affairs spokesman javier solana to rule out the use of force" and that "it is wrong for britain's foreign secretary, jack straw, to echo <nowiki>[javier solana]</nowiki>."

the previous removal of an elected government in iran in which the us was involved was operation ajax in 1953, a complex plot involving the cia and british intelligence services, motivated by mohammed mossadegh's nationalisation of oil companies.




students find fossilised giant penguin

children on a field trip in new zealand have discovered what may be the finest giant penguin fossil yet found. these early penguins stood 1.5 metres (5 feet) tall, weighing over 100 kilograms (220 pounds), and lived some 40 million years ago. 

while the party of 22 from the hamilton junior naturalists club were looking for fossils, they did not expect to find anything this significant in their trip to kawhia, an hour southwest of hamilton. group leader chris templer said that the sea was already beginning to erode the fossil, and if it had not been found for another 18 months, there might not have been much left. he has dreamed of making a find like this since he began hunting fossils as an eight-year-old. "i went 'oh my god', and just about keeled over on the reef," he said. 

the fossil has been carefully removed after consultation with te papa (the national museum) and local m?ori. experts are excited by the completeness of the kawhia fossil. although roughly a dozen extinct penguin species have already been discovered in new zealand, only a few fossilised bones have been found from most of these species. te papa has only three bones from the largest giant penguin. according to alan tennyson, curator of fossils at te papa, the kawhia discovery might be of international significance. "i think it's very exciting to find something like this...it's a very rare event to find such a well preserved specimen," he enthused.



eleven die in libya over muhammad cartoon t-shirt

at least 11 people died in benghazi, libya on friday when about 1,000 protesters surrounded and set fire to an italian consulate and burned danish flags. the demonstration was in protest of italian reforms minister , who had worn a t-shirt displaying the .

a libyan government statement said, "eleven casualties, including dead, resulted from the clashes." some of the casualties were police officers.

after wearing the t-shirt, calderoli offered to resign.

on saturday, libya suspended its interior minister, nasr al-mabrouk. libya said that "excessive use of force" was used in the riots the day before. the government also said that "all those involved in friday's riots and the officials responsible for them" should be investigated and referred to the courts. "we condemn the excessive use of force and the inappropriate way that went beyond the limits of carrying out the duties of the police."



cia covert &quot;rendition&quot; operative blows her cover for frequent flyer miles

a december cia report revealed several incidents of sloppy undercover work by agents. in one humorous series of incidents, a clandestine operative booked herself at foreign hotels under aliases, but insisted that frequent-flier miles earned at the hotels be credited to her personal frequent-flier account.

other incidents detailed included cases of covert agents who failed to remove their cell phone batteries, making them vulnerable to electronic tracking even if the phone was off.



un says polio eradicated in egypt and niger

the united nations world health organization reported on february 15, 2006 that polio had been eradicated in egypt and niger. there has been no reported case of the disease in the past year, leading officials to believe the disease is no longer present.

egypt's minister of health hatem mostafa el-gabaly said wednesday, "polio has been endemic in our country for all of recorded history. the best tools of our age finally defeated this enemy, who has been with us from pharaonic times."

the disease, poliomyelitis, commonly known as polio was reported in 16 countries in the past year. in 2005, 1926 cases of polio were reported up from the 1255 cases reported in 2004. 

in august 2003, prominent nigerian clerics called for a boycott of immunizations. the clerics called the vaccine a plot led by the united states to sterilize nigerians or infect them with aids.

immunizations started up after local officials ended the boycott in july, 2004. nigeria reported having 782 cases of the disease in 2004, up 427 from the previous year.


united states to expand 'information operations' against terror

the united states secretary of defense donald rumsfeld said that u.s. public diplomacy efforts need to do more in the media to communicate a message friendly to democracy. 

"we'll need to do all we can to attract supporters to our efforts and to correct the lies that are being told, which so damage our country, and which are repeated and repeated and repeated," rumsfeld said in an address to the council on foreign relations in new york city on friday. he said that insurgent groups have learned to use media and its new satellite and internet technologies, and are working 24/7, to manipulate public opinion.

rumsfeld called for the need to implement a "strategic communications framework" to present news information in afghanistan and iran. he warned, " ...the [news] vacuum will be filled by the enemy and by news informers that most assuredly will not paint an accurate picture of what is actually taking place." he said there was a need for communications training of military public affairs officials. the department of defense would begin with an emphasis on using out-sourced media expertise found in the private-sector, as was done with the controversial use of lincoln group who placed pro-democracy stories in iraqi media in a business arrangement with the u.s. military. 

rumsfeld was critical of the u.s. media for its sharp response to that program at his address in new york, which he said had the effect of stopping that military effort. in an appearance on the "the charlie rose show", a televised program taped earlier and then aired by pbs last friday, the same day as his new york address, rumsfeld said "when we heard about it, we said, 'gee, that's not what we ought to be doing.' ... they stopped doing that." but in a "los angeles times" report, a lincoln group insider and a u.s. commander in iraq, general george w. casey, said the program was still in existence.

the white house has signaled a shift towards the use of media in the "war against terror". the u.s. secretary of state condoleezza rice said in senate testimony on wednesday last week that $10 million is already appropriated to support political dissidents, labor union leaders and human rights activists in iran. the bush administration will be asking for an additional $75 million in funding for the 2006 fiscal year to expand the program.



india win hutch cup one day series 4-1

india won the final match of the recent cricket series. yuvraj singh made a unbeaten 107 (93b, 15x4)helping india's , chasing 287, achieved with 19 deliveries remaining on a good batting pitch. india have clinched the hutch cup odi series 4-1. mahendra singh dhoni (77 not out, 56b, 6x4, 4x6) was another important contributor to the indian innings.

the pakistani bowling, apart from a probing spell from paceman rao iftekar anjum, was made to look ordinary. the pakistani fielding let the side down again. mohammed sami lost the ball twice. when on 64, yuvraj was put down at covers by shoaib malik.

india preferred to rest sachin tendulkar and irfan pathan. tendulkar carried the drinks, indicating that in this indian side experience and youth blended into one.

in tendulkar's absence, rahul dravid opened the innings with gautam gambhir.

the left-handed gambhir sparkled with a few pick-up shots on the leg-side; this also showed pakistan's pacemen were not bowling the right line.

mohammed asif has not been a big factor in the odis since the away going delivery is a lesser weapon in this variety of the game, especially if a side is bowling in the afternoon. it was his two-way movement that made him so dangerous in tests.

gambhir once again wasted a start, but the opening pair had, importantly, raised 69. dravid's 50 (6x4) might have consumed 82 deliveries, but he made sure that, in the absence of virender sehwag and tendulkar, the indians had enough wickets in hand before they began the final onslaught. the chase was splendidly orchestrated.

it was sreesanth who dented pakistan in the morning after zaheer khan and ajit agarkar shared the new ball. the kerala paceman, who is learning fast, cut down on his pace realising that there was not too much assistance for him from the wicket. he struck thrice and pakistan, from 62 without loss, slumped to 77 for three. in the context of the match, sreesanth's spell of 5-1-25-3 was crucial. both imran farhat and kamran akmal, after putting together 62, fell to pull shots, and shoaib malik steered right into suresh raina's hands at gully. there is fluency about sreesanth's run-up and action that is hard to ignore, and he did bowl well at the death, swinging the ball into the right-hander.

and off-spinner ramesh powar won a leg-before decision against an ominous looking inzamam on the sweep; the delivery drifted into the right-hander from outside the off-stump and then straightened.

pakistan recovered through a strokeful fifth-wicket stand of 95 in 110 balls between mohammad yousuf (67, 85b, 6x4) and vice-captain younis khan (74 not out, 79b, 3x4, 2x6). yousuf appeared set for his hundred when he flicked ajit agarkar into zaheer khan at mid-wicket.

abdul razzaq biffed a 15-ball 24 before miscuing a pull of r.p. singh, but pakistan lost some momentum towards the end. however, the 18 runs off the last six balls by zaheer came in handy for the side; younis twice smote the left-armer over the mid-wicket ropes.

the bowlers, backed by aggressive fielding, had performed a fair job, under the conditions.



new zealand medical student funding to be reviewed

the new zealand government has announced that it will be reviewing funding for medical and dentistry students at otago and auckland universities to certify the institutions' standards and help staff retention.

the dean of auckland university's faculty of medical and health sciences, professor iain martin says the review “can’t come soon enough”.

the medical students association welcomes the review. it says that it has been worried about student debt for years "high debt encourages too many graduates overseas, or into high paying areas of practice at the expense of areas like general practice" 



leader of 1992 pro-democracy uprising joins calls for thaksin's resignation

major general chamlong srimuang, the leader of the 1992 pro-democracy movement that ended thailand's last military junta, has joined the calls for prime minister thaksin shinawatra to resign.

chamlong is expected to join the next anti-thaksin rally, announced by sondhi limthongkul, in sanam luang (royal plaza) in bangkok on february 26. chamlong initially introduced the current pm to the political stage, making his stand against thaksin all the more embarrassing for the prime minister.

the forthcoming rally is expected to have over 100,000 in attendance. the people's alliance for democracy is leading the affair with various academic and pressure groups all calling for the displacement of the prime minister.

the main thrust of calls for the pm to resign or be impeached are over regulation changes in the telecoms sector that are widely held to have benefitted thaksin and his family. changes permitting 49% foreign ownership in the telecoms sector had been implemented for only a few days prior to the prime minister's family netting over 70 billion baht from selling their stake in the shin corporation.




washington post source outed by slashdot reader

the home town of a washington post article source about hackers attacking and controlling networks of personal computers to install spyware and send spam advertising was revealed by a slashdot reader. the reader found meta-data information inside the washington post image of the hacker and was able to extract the town entered as the location of the photo. the article in the february 19th washington post details 0x80's earnings of around $6,800 a month sending out spam from controlled personal computers

the hacker, calling himself "0x80" agreed to be interviewed for the post article under the condition that he not be identified by name or home town.

after a link to the article on slashdot, a reader uses the iptc information encoded into the image to learn the location entered as part of the picture's metadata: roland, ok. posters on slashdot said that the washington post removed the image in an effort to contain the damage.

the washington post has not commented on if this will instigate a change in their use of meta information for undisclosed sources.



pittsburgh's bettis to work as nbc studio analyst

jerome bettis, who announced his retirement from the pittsburgh steelers on the night they won the super bowl xl in detroit, has been tapped as a studio analyst at nbc. his first game in the broadcast booth will come september 7th, on the same night the steelers will receive their super bowl rings. "it will be the proudest night of my life," bettis said. "i will finally get my ring and i will start my new career in television in front of all the steelers fans."

bettis, a notre dame graduate, began his career in 1993 with the los angeles rams, but was picked up by the steelers in 1996 and became the nfl's 5th leading rusher in pittsburgh.


radioshack ceo resigns

ceo of radioshack corp., david edmondson resigned friday after admitting to lying in the contents of his resume. claiming to have two college degrees, a theology diploma called a thg, and four years of education, mr. edmondson only attended two semesters at a college known now as heartland baptist bible college (formerly known as pacific coast baptist college). there are no records of any diplomas issued to mr. edmondson. these discrepancies caused edmondson and the board to mutually agree to his resignation as president and ceo of radioshack. initially, radioshack launched an internal investigation of mr. edmondson's statements; however, this investigation has since been halted.

the company had recently suffered a drop of 62% of net income in its fourth-quarter, prompting restructuring plans and a closing of up to 10% of stores.

david edmondson will receive a severance package valued at less than one million dollars in cash from radioshack.



2006 algarve cup preparations

teams are preparing for the 2006 algarve cup international soccer tournament, march 9, 11, 13 and 15. the annual women's invitational, held in the algarve region of portugal, features some of the world's top teams and may foreshadow face-offs in the 2007 women's world cup. the united states women's national soccer team, champions in four of the last six algarve cups and second ranked in the world, will join the number one ranked germany at this year's competition. the three "groups" of four teams who will play each other at the beginning of the tournament have yet to be finalized. however, it's been reported that the u.s. will be in a group with france, denmark and china. the u.s. recently beaten china and tied france to win the 2006 four nations tournament. 

teams with the luxury of being full-time players (some women professional athletes must keep regular jobs) will take a break from training before they begin arriving in algarve next week. 


australia sends more troops to afghanistan

the australian government has confirmed it will send an extra 200 troops to afghanistan as part of a security and reconstruction team. prime minister john howard says troops will leave from late july and will spend about two years in afghanistan separate from the special forces and commandos already serving there. in a press conference in canberra today, mr howard said the deployment was "further evidence of the government's ongoing commitment to assist the people of afghanistan in consolidating their embrace of democracy and resisting any attempt on the part of the taliban to come back."

the australian greens oppose the deployment of new troops. in a press release, senator bob brown voiced his opinion on the matter, and said the following about australia's deployment: "the announcement that australia will be sending 200 more troops to afghanistan comes hard on the heels of the bush administration announcing the withdrawal of 3000 troops from the same theatre," he said. "without the us withdrawal there would be no australian deployment. this is john howard once again using the adf to meet the bush administration's political shortcomings. our troops should be kept at home."

"the adf contribution will be a mixed security and reconstruction taskforce of approximately 200 personnel and will be deployed over a period of two years," howard told reporters. the australian defence force (adf) troops will be deployed from late july and work alongside dutch soldiers as part of a nato force. the extra 200 troops will bring the number of adf personnel to more than 500.

australia sent 1,550 troops to afghanistan in 2001, including special forces, to join the u.s.-led strikes against the taliban regime. australia's only fatality in afghanistan came in february 2002 when a soldier was killed after his vehicle hit a land mine. violence has intensified in afghanistan in recent months, particularly in the south and east, with a wave of raids, roadside and suicide bombings killing dozens of people. 



californian computer company lodges antitrust suit against microsoft

tangent computer, a computer services and hardware company based in burlingame, california has filed a lawsuit against microsoft. the lawsuit filed on february 14, 2006 claims that microsoft continues to breach federal antitrust laws.

tangent alleges that microsoft fosters tactics "to prevent and destroy competition" while raising prices of its software to "supra-competitive levels." tangent is arguing that the tactics are a violation of section 2 sherman antitrust act, a federal law prohibiting unfair business practices and monopolies.

the lawsuit details legal issues which have faced microsoft since the 1980s, and requests that an amount of monetary damages to be determined by a jury at a trial.

tangent is an original equipment manufacturer who has purchased and installed microsoft operating systems since 1995. in addition to their hardware business, they also provide internet content monitoring, spam filtering, anti-spyware and adware solutions, network vulnerability assessments, active directory tools and migration services.



microsoft changes oem license, forcing new purchases after motherboard upgrade

microsoft has recently made changes to the windows license agreement, saying that, “an upgrade of the motherboard is considered to result in a new personal computer to which microsoft oem operating system software cannot be transferred from another computer."

this will force users who upgrade their motherboard, even via the oem, to purchase a new license agreement. the only exception is a defect for which the oem replaces the motherboard.

microsoft claims it needs to have "one base component left standing that would still define that original pc. since the motherboard contains the cpu and is the heart and soul of the pc, when the motherboard is replaced (for reasons other than defect) a new pc is essentially created.”

microsoft has asked its oem partners to begin enforcing the new policy when they upgrade a client's computer.



maryland, us school close-mouthed on police incident

the following day, principal karen harris sent a brief letter to parents. the letter acknowledges that an incident involving the school required assistance from the baltimore county police. the letter assured parents that the situation was not dangerous, but did not describe the incident. 

the harris letter asked those with questions to contact the school by phone. jane martin, the assistant principal, declined to describe the event that had called for police assistance. she indicated school administrators became concerned that rumors of a bomb, gun, or other violence were spreading mainly among 4th and 5th grade students. this concern prompted the principal’s letter. martin said that the school was not evacuated on february 14th.

at the time of this article the baltimore county police department has not responded to inquiries.


thick fog blankets houston area

a dense fog has enveloped the greater houston area in texas, united states, ahead of an incoming warm front. visibility has been reduced to under a quarter of a mile, in some places as low as 100 feet. motorists are advised to use caution during the morning commute. the fog advisory is scheduled to lift at 12 pm cst.



paul bernardo admits to more rapes

paul bernardo, canada's most notorious serial murderer, has admitted more crimes. bernardo has admitted to raping at least ten additional women during his time as the "scarborough rapist."

in the early 1990s, bernardo murdered three young women in southern ontario with his wife karla homolka. after his trial, he admitted to being the "scarborough rapist." bernardo had previously claimed to have raped 15 women between 1986 and 1991. today, his lawyer announced that he has confessed to 10 additional rapes.

paul bernardo is serving a life sentence as a dangerous offender. in canada, dangerous offender status allows the courts to impose an indefinite sentence. bernardo will almost certainly never be released.

bernardo's wife, karla homolka, was released last year in what has been widely called a "deal with the devil". homolka provided testimony that helped convict bernardo, but which minimized her own participation in the murders. investigators later discovered that homolka had played an active role.



three ohio men indicted for terrorist plot against u.s. military in iraq

a federal grand jury in cleveland handed down indictments tuesday against three ohio men on terrorism related charges, including their alleged involvement in planning attacks overseas to kill u.s. and coalition military personnel in iraq and other countries.

the three men, mohammad zaki amawi, marwan othman el-hindi, and wassim mazlous, all pleaded not guilty. the men were arrested over the weekend in toledo, the town where they lived over the past year. they are expected to appear in a federal district court on tuesday afternoon.

the indictment does not specify that any attacks were imminent. in a press conference in washington, attorney general alberto r. gonzales said the indictments were intended to stop potential attacks before they could be launched. "we cannot wait until an attack happens," he said. "we will continue to use our criminal laws as congress intended." he declined to say how far the alleged conspiracy had progressed or how close the group was to attacking american interests abroad or at home. 

the three men are accused of having learned how to make bombs and suicide vests, of carrying out jihad training exercises that included firearms training and target range practice, and conspiring to provide material support, money, training, and communications equipment to themselves and co-conspirators in the middle east. they are also accused of using a business front to funnel money to co-conspirators in the region. 

the indictment said the men recruited others to wage holy war against the united states and its allies. mr. gonzales would not say how large a group they had assembled. 

one of the men, mohammad zaki amawi, a citizen of both the united states and jordan, is alleged to have twice threatened to kill or harm the president. he is also charged with distributing information about how to make and use an explosive device, relating to a plot that prosecutors claim to have begun in november 2004.

john pistole, the deputy director of the f.b.i., described the men as "hiding in plain sight", and said toledo had been added to a growing list of small towns where groups with roots in the middle east are alleged to plot actions against the united states. 

mr. gonzales declined to comment on the controversial use of phone wiretaps before obtaining a court warrant, and how that might have played a role in the case. 

mr. gonzales noted that the three men could face as much as life in prison, if convicted of the charges.



senator hatch lashes out at critics of domestic surveillance program

at a private luncheon in his home state of utah, republican u.s. senator orrin hatch delivered some strong words for critics of president bush's domestic surveillance program and war on terrorism.

speaking to a few dozen political and business leaders, hatch defended the president's surveillance actions: "i have to tell you, this president has guts and he deserves your support." he reserved specific criticism for his fellow congress leaders, saying that while they are "moaning and groaning in congress because [the president] didn't abide by what's called the fisa act, the foreign intelligence surveillance act," the act was no longer applicable to current conflicts.

on the war in iraq, hatch was even more disdainful of the critics. he said that the united states stopped a mass murderer in saddam hussein and that nobody denies that saddam hussein was supporting al-qaeda, adding "well, i shouldn't say nobody. nobody with brains."

notably, the bi-partisan 9/11 commision charged with investigating issues related to the september 11, 2001 terrorist attacks did not find an operational link between al-qaeda's 9-11 attack and ousted iraqi president saddam hussein.

senator hatch is expected to run for reelection for his 6th term in november 2006. his challengers include state house majority whip steve urquhart (r) and pete ashdown (d).




narathiwat raid recovers stolen weapons

a raid on a village in thailand's narathiwat province has netted a variety of munitions believed to be being held for insurgency activity. according to security forces, this includes weapons stolen from the cho airong army base in january 2004 ? a raid widely seen as the start of current insurgency in the country.

the cache of weapons was located in tanyong limoh village buried behind a house. according to the security forces, the area is known for harbouring islamic insurgents. the munitions recovered in the raid include ak47 assault rifles, dynamite, handguns, and fertilizer which can be used in the manufacture of home-made explosives.

in one of the other troubled southern provinces, yala, a border police officer was shot near his home. other local policemen quickly arrived on the scene and opened fire on the militants who had killed sergeant major prapon suwankota; one insurgent was killed.



australian resort manager faces possible 10-year prison sentence in indonesia

barbara kathleen higgs, 43, a manager of the bulan baru (new moon) resort on the indonesian island of lombok has been charged with possession of cannabis and could face a maximum 10 years in prison if convicted.

indonesian police allege that they found 50 grams of cannabis and two bags of cannabis seeds at higgs' house in senggigi, where she has lived for five years with her husband.

under indonesian law there is no provision for bail. ms higgs will remain in custody until her trial is complete.

according to police brigadier kadek sudeartana, ms higgs has been the "target of operations for one month". sudeartana also said that ms higgs was suspected of being in possession of drugs after tip-offs from a number of members in the community.

the husband of ms higgs, who refused to give his name claims the arrest is a misunderstanding. "it's been a mistake", he said. "you'll find that by tomorrow all the charges have been dropped". 

australian consular officials from bali have visited ms higgs and offered their assistance.

ms higgs is the most recent australian to be caught up in drug offences in indonesia, with the bali nine, schapelle corby, michelle leslie and graham payne facing the indonesian legal system in recent times.

australian prime minister john howard and minister for foreign affairs alexander downer have once again warned australians to avoid drugs when travelling overseas.



mladic arrest operation 'under way'

reports are showing up on several sources that an operation to arrest ratko mladic for war crimes is currently in-progress in serbia.



an interview with jimbo wales

just five years ago, when jimbo wales founded wikipedia, the project's goal of 100,000 articles seemed ambitious. yet today, the project, now one of the top 25 websites in the world according to alexa, is nearing closer 1,000,000 articles in english, and 3.5 million articles across all languages. this week, we interviewed jimbo wales.<br><br>


wikinews: "raul654 asks: "recently, there were revelations about organized attempts by us congressmen to whitewash their articles. what is your take on this, as well as earlier reports of corporate astroturfing?""

jimbo wales: the question is invalid. there were no revelations of organized attempts by us congressmen to whitewash their articles. not any evidence of "corporate astroturfing" of which i am aware. there was evidence that some congressional staffers edited wikipedia in inappropriate ways. but the internal evidence of the type and style of these edits do not suggest "organized attempts".<br><br>

wn: "nichalp asks: "budget permitting, are there any plans to increase the number of wikipedia servers, specifically into the less developed countries?""

jw: we are always buying new servers. there are no specific plans to add servers in less developed countries, but we have looked into it as a possibility. we are particularly interested in doing so if it helps increase access and reduce costs for those users.<br><br>

wn: "an anonymous reader asks: "how much of a role do you feel the wikipedia community (and the communities of its sister projects) should have in the running of the wikimedia foundation? do you see an increasing separation of the organization from the projects? if so, do you regard that as beneficial or a potential problem?""

jw: the community has always been and will always be absolutely crucial to the running of the wikimedia foundation. we are increasing the community input and activity in the foundation through a new series of committees to delegate things to community members which have traditionally been handled by me or the board. i do not see any increasing separation of the organization from the projects, quite the opposite. i consider the increasing integration of the community and the foundation as overwhelmingly beneficial.<br><br>

wn: "aloan asks: "english wikipedia is approaching 1 million articles, but less than 1 in a thousand are featured articles. the list of featured articles english wikipedia should have has few featured articles, and recent surveys of articles chosen at random show that many articles are poorly written. how can we get from here to an encyclopedia of well-written articles? or should we not worry too much about coverage and content?""

jw: we should be tightly focused on the quality of our coverage and content. the goal of wikipedia is to create and distribute a freely licensed high quality encyclopedia. the path to that goal will require us to be flexible and thoughtful. the first steps will come soon with the article review system, which will initially be used simply to gather data. after we have data, we can begin to work on how we will focus our attention to improve quality.<br><br>

wn: "georgestepanek asks: "you've said that 'wikimedia's mission is to give the world's knowledge to every single person on the planet in their own language.' but very few of the wikipedias in the languages of third-world countries are seeing as much activity as the first-world language wikipedias. do you have any ideas on how this could be turned around?""

jw: i am a believer in outreach. i would like for the foundation to raise money specifically to pay one or more minority language co-ordinators. the goal would be to reach out in a more organized way to professors and graduate students and expat communities who have good internet access, to seed projects for languages where the majority of speakers have poor internet access.<br><br>

wn: "jacoplane asks: "how do you feel we will be able to reach wikipedia 1.0? the tools currently available for vetting our articles are crude at best. the featured article process seems too slow, and the article validation feature seems to have died a quiet death. are you planning a big push on this front?""

jw: isn't that the same question as the quality question? the article validation feature has not died a quiet death at all.<br><br>

wn: "quadell asks: "most important decisions on wikimedia projects are handled with consensus. however, we sometimes have to deal with legal issues, especially related to copyright law. for instance, we as a community may need to decide whether to consider a certain use "fair", or how to deal with conflicting copyright claims. dealing with this through consensus is problematic, since we can't do something illegal even if there is widespread misguided support for it. in general, how can we as a community deal with these issues?""

jw: i don't think there is any real problem with this. the community is strongly in support of following the law. i don't know of any particular cases of widespread misguided support for something illegal. in particular cases, there can of course be [dis]agreement, but i have never seen anyone in the community argue that we should not listen to the advice of our legal team.<br><br>

wn: "raul654 asks: "where do you see wikipedia in 10 years?""

jw: i don't know. my favorite answer to this is to say, the real question is: where will the world be after 10 more years of wikipedia. :) seriously, i think we'll eventually see a tapering off of new article creation in the large language wikipedias as more and more "verifiable" topics are covered. at this point, most changes will be expansions and updates and quality improvements to existing articles. but in 10 years, it seems likely to me that many languages which are now quite small will have very large wikipedia projects. our community will continue to become more diverse as more and more people worldwide come online.<br><br>

wn: "kevin myers asks: "the values reflected in certain wikipedia policies (anti-censorship, neutral point-of-view) are problematic in cultures where freedom of expression is limited, as the blocking of wikipedia in mainland china and arguably the muhammad cartoons controversy attest. as wikipedia expands internationally, do you foresee wikipedia becoming increasingly controversial in countries where "western values" are seen as a potential threat?""

jw: i don't think that neutrality and objectivity are really controversial among most people of the world. it is true that the leadership in some places does not value these things, and may actually work against these things, but we can not deviate from our goals to accommodate them.<br><br>

wn: "on a similar topic, vsion asks: "are there currently any efforts being undertaken by the foundation to address the people's republic of china's blocking of wikipedia or to alleviate its effect?""

jw: beijing-area wikipedians are working to have the block lifted. our position is that the block is in error, even given china's normal policies. wikipedia is not propaganda, it is basic information. we expect that the block will be lifted.<br><br>

wn: "david.monniaux asks: "the foundation receives daily accusations of libel from semi-well-known people who have an entry on wikipedia or are mentioned in some wikipedia entry. what do you propose? would a strict application of the rule of citing controversial claims suffice, in your opinion?""

jw: yes. i think that our current systems do a good job of addressing these sorts of complaints, although it is very time-consuming for us here in the office. what really works wonders is a very strict application of the rule of citing controversial claims particularly relating to biographies of living persons. the new policy on biographies of living persons is a very strong step in the right direction.<br><br>

wn: "tony sidaway asks: "in the past six weeks the number of userboxes on english wikipedia has risen from 3500 to 6000 and, despite your appeals for restraint, the number pertaining to political beliefs has risen from 45 to 150. can the problem of unsuitable userboxes still be resolved by debate?""

jw: my only comment on the userbox situation is that the current situation is not acceptable.<br><br>

wn: "larsinio asks: "how can wikipedia effectively explain to the public its open-contribution model without simultaneously worrying the public about inaccurate information?""

jw: i think we do a reasonably good job of that. the best thing is to point to our overall quality while at the same time pointing out that we are currently a work in progress. over time, this answer will change as we move toward '1.0'. at that time, we can point to '1.0' for those who are made nervous by the live editing.<br><br>

wn: "rob church asks: "do you consider the encyclopedia to be 'finished'? do you think it ever can be?""

jw: nothing is ever finished. human knowledge is always growing.<br><br>

wn: "raul654 and pavel vozenilek both asked, "what kind of cool new features/announcements can we expect to see in the next year or two?""

jw: i think this question is too hard for me to answer. i almost never "announce" anything, and features are developed publicly by the community. i think other people have a better idea than i do what will happen in the next year or two. :) ask brion [vibber].<br><br>

wn: "celestianpower asks: "if you had not founded wikipedia, and had just been referred to it by a friend, how active a contributor do you think you would be?""

jw: [i] dream fondly of such a scenario. i might actually get to edit articles then. instead of spend the morning (this morning) documenting transactions and taking phone calls.<br><br>

wn: "opentoppedbus asks: " was less successful than had been anticipated. do you see a shortage of money holding back wikipedia/wikimedia in the short-to-medium-term, and are there any plans to bring in income from sources other than individual donations?""

jw: the last fundraising drive was more successful than had been anticipated, by a long shot. it was the most successful fund drive in our history. [regarding a quoted goal of $500,000], mav wrote something like that somewhere, in a scratchpad kind of way. that number was just a placeholder and had nothing to do with me or the official view of the foundation. he's apologized repeatedly for it.<br><br>

wn: "thryduulf asks: "what is your single greatest wish for wikipedia?""

jw: i would have to just point back to our original goal: a freely licensed high quality encyclopedia for every single person on the planet. that's what i remain focused on daily.<br><br>


an interview with jimbo wales/color-free


hope fades for families of trapped mexican miners

almost 600 desperate family members and others remained camped outside the 
pasta de conchos coal mine near san juan de sabinas, in the northern mexico state of coahuila where 65 mexican miners were trapped by a gas explosion around 2:30 a.m. (0830 gmt) sunday. some are threatening to storm the mine while soldiers are trying to keep them calm and rescuers continue to pick through the rock and debris with hand tools, fearing that any power equipment might set off another explosion. 

the local newspaper's headline caused panic by quoting one of over a dozen surviving miners who were close enough to the exits to escape: "they are surely dead," ("la prensa de monclova"). however, arturo vilchis, civil protection director, refused to speculate on the condition of the miners, while javier de la fuente, an engineering contractor with mine owner grupo mexico s.a. de c.v. also tried to hold out some hope.

the men were each supposed to be carrying oxygen tanks, each with a six hour supply, and there's some hope that they could reach other oxygen supply tanks, or that some air might be reaching them through the ventilation shafts into which rescuers have been pumping more oxygen since shortly after the explosion.

juan rebolledo, vice president of international affairs for grupo mexico, assured onlookers that u.s. mining experts were on the way, and officials at the u.s. mine safety and health administration have confirmed that they've sent a specialized equipment truck and several mining experts which should arrive at the mine site on wednesday afternoon.

meanwhile consuelo aguilar, a spokeswoman for the national miners' union, called for an investigation into grupo mexico's responsibility for the disaster. pedro camarillo, a federal labor official, said nothing unusual was found during a routine evaluation in early february.



preparations for inaugural bathurst international motor festival begin

the bathurst regional council has begun preparing the mount panorama motor racing circuit for the inaugural bathurst international motorsport festival (bimf) to be held between april 13 and 16, 2006. the mount panorama motor racing circuit is considered to be the home of motorsport in australia.

council's staff have been busy cleaning the facilities, erecting signage, checking pedestrian bridges and inspecting the track surface for the past few days.

the bimf will be the first event to be held at the 6.2 kilometre circuit over easter since 2000. in 2000, event management specialists held the first motorcycle racing event since 1990, but due to ems going bankrupt a short time after their 2000 event was ran and the inability of the then bathurst city council to find another promoter, the easter event was canned. 

the bimf is inspired by the festival of speed and goodwood revival in the united kingdom. the bathurst regional council and event promoter global entertainment team promise that the event "will cater for all motoring enthusiasts, collectors and historians".

according to the bimf website, the on-track program consists of:

off the track, the organisers have promised manufacturer displays, merchandise stands, music, joyflights, off-road demonstrations and joyrides, autograph sessions and interviews with influential people in the australian motor industry.



alternative to controversial hotel proposed to buffalo, n.y. business owners and residents

residents and business owners in the elmwood avenue neighborhood and surrounding area in buffalo heard a competing proposal for development in their neighborhood at the february 22 meeting held at the burchfield-penney art gallery, at buffalo state college. the meeting, attended by at least 140, was originally to consider the elmwood village hotel but also included a new revitalization proposal from rocco termini which would increase retail space, but involves less demolition and no hotel. 

rocco termini, a buffalo, new york developer wants to develop the corner of elmwood and forest, the same spot where savarino construction services corporation want to build the elmwood village hotel.

termini proposed that a similar revitalization take place on the intersection like one that incorporated 3 buildings on aurburn and elmwood just last year. termini's proposal will add more retail space than savarino's proposal with the possibility of including up to seven retail outlets.

"i just think it's necessary to preserve the streetscape that we have. that's the whole point of living and shopping on elmwood," said termini. "you should be able to go into little shops, that have unique items, and that bring people to elmwood. when you bring a big box on elmwood avenue, it takes something away from the urban-streetscape, just as suburban areas do not want a big box wal-mart. we don't want a big box on elmwood avenue and i think that's just what this (the hotel) does, brings a big box to elmwood," said termini. 

when asked if there were any development companies currently interested in his proposal termini said, "i will be willing to take a look at this myself," said termini. "or i would be more than happy to be partners with sam, sam savarino," who is president and chief executive officer of savarino construction services corp.

an unnamed source close to the project stated, "rocco has serious concerns that the mobius's asking price could make his project infeasible."

it is unknown if savarino construction or the city of buffalo will consider termini's proposal.

termini purchased and developed several buildings and areas including the ellicott lofts on ellicott street in buffalo, which opened in 2003, the oak school lofts which used to be a buffalo alternative school, and ‘is’ lofts on oak street in buffalo.

eva hassett, vice president of savarino construction, and karl frizlen an architect from the frizlen group and designer of the hotel commented on the development proposal. hassett said, "we've been thinking about it and trying to put it together for the last few months, and it was made public a couple of weeks ago." 

"there are lots of different areas you can look at. this is an elmwood avenue hotel. putting it somewhere else makes a completely different kind of hotel. we wanted a hotel that people could walk to from the business on elmwood. we wanted a hotel that people could walk to from the albright knox art gallery. this is really a location for this kind of hotel. other locations end up being for other kinds of hotels," said hassett

"we are excited about the concept of a boutique hotel at this corner. we think it makes sense to the various businesses in the area or the galleries just down the street. we also believe that this is a way for the visitors of buffalo to experience what the best of what buffalo has to offer. we think it will be a great way for people from out of town, to get to know what we know about the city," said hassett.

although hassett had said that the proposal has only been around "for a few months", karl frizlen said that he came up with the idea "three years ago when hans mobius," former owner of the properties at risk, "came to me and asked what we could do with these properties." frizlen also said that he introduced mobius to "four different developers, who after seeing the properties, did not want to tackle them, saying that they felt like it was too much for them to take on."

hans mobius did not attend last nights meeting.

frizlen is also designing the former telephone company building at 504 elmwood which would be a "mixed use building with retail on the lowest level and lofts on the other two floors."

after speeches from developers, residents and business owners were invited to present questions and comments.

mark freelend, a buffalo resident, and local artist, said "i'm looking at my house in the picture, and i'm picturing all the houses on granger street behind me, and i'm realizing that, if this is implemented (the hotel), we will get zero sunlight. the sun is supposed to be free, for everyone. the people on granger are going to have eighty windows looking at them and their children being raised, and playing in the backyard, guests looking in the windows of their houses twenty-four hours a day. a million people starring into their houses. no sunlight, and they are on permanent reality tv. put a price on that!"

"i think this hotel is totally out of scale to the area and it does not conform to the style (of elmwood) at all. it will totally obscure the gateway of elmwood. the gateway now has open arms that allow for passage and view into the commercial corridor. this hotel stands as a brick wall as far as i can tell," said nancy pollina one of the owners of don apparel at 1119 elmwood. pollina referenced to the recent 'revitalization' project on auburn and elmwood saying, "that building was boarded up for years, and that was beautiful a renovation. that building was not in any less need of repair than hans mobius's properties."

both residents and business owners in the area are concerned that the proposal is moving too quickly and said that the developers should wait before having any city meetings and wait for a consensus from the community on the hotel.

mrs. pollina said, "i think people feel passionate about their neighborhood, and this is their neighborhood. i feel that what was most shocking is that the city's planning board meeting and common council meeting, which are they need to push this through, is next week without almost no notice. this (the proposal) is being rushed.

however; sam savarino did say that "some people have gotten emotional about this project. and i want to let the community know that we will listen to what you have to say. we're not forcing this down anybody's throat. if this is not something this community wants, we do not want to have it here."

the city's planning board is expected to meet on february 28, 2006 at 8:00am in room 901 on the 9th floor of city hall. the city's legislative committee meeting of common council is expected to take place on the same day at 2:00pm in council chambers on the 13th floor of city hall.

it has just been confirmed from an unnamed source close to the project that "significant changes" will be made to the design of the elmwood village hotel. "its not being cancelled, just redesigned," he said. the changes are not yet known, but they are could be released "tomorrow. he (savarino) doesn't want it released until he touches base with a few people today."


australian children suffering from iodine deficiency

almost half of all australian primary school children are mild to moderately iodine deficient, researchers say. a new study documenting iodine nutritional status in australian schoolchildren has revealed many are not getting enough iodine - which can lead to mental and growth retardation. the report's authors say iodine deficiency is "the sleeper health issue in australia", and potentially a very serious one.

the results of the australian national iodine nutrition study published in the medical journal of australia this week, revealed that children in mainland australia are borderline iodine deficient. the report has prompted calls for all edible salt to be iodised. they say adding the mineral to salt is the simplest and most effective method of preventing iodine deficiency disorders.

a cross-sectional survey of 1709 schoolchildren - aged 8?10 years, from 88 schools - was carried out in new south wales, victoria, south australia, western australia and queensland, between july 2003 and december 2004. tasmania was excluded from the study - where an voluntary iodine fortification program using iodised salt in bread, is ongoing.

the authors say the results confirm the existence of inadequate iodine intake in the australian population. they call for "urgent implementation of mandatory iodisation of all edible salt in australia." most iodine in food comes from seafood, milk and iodised salt.

professor cres eastman, director of the national iodine nutrition study, and chairman of the australian centre for control of iodine deficiency disorders, says it is crucial that children and pregnant women in particular have an adequate intake of iodine. iodine deficiency can lead to serious health problems including brain damage, stunted growth and deafness.

professor eastman says manufacturers could easily remedy the situation by using iodised salt in their products in line with the united states and most european countries. "i suspect they won't do that on a voluntary basis, we've tried so far and haven't succeeded, so we've convinced the food standards of australia and new zealand| that all salt should be iodised," he said.

the report says the decline in iodine intake appears to be due to changes in the dairy industry, where chlorine-containing sanitisers have replaced iodine-containing sanitisers. iodine released from these chemicals into milk has been the major source of dietary iodine in australia for at least four decades, but is now declining. another contributory factor has been the decreasing consumption of iodised salt used in foods. the report states that few if any food manufacturers use iodised salt in the preparation and manufacture of foods. 

professor eastman says iodine is added to only 10 per cent of australian salt in contravention of a world health organisation recommendation that all salt be iodised. he says authorities are reacting slowly to his urgent calls for mandatory iodised salt.

"the effects of iodine deficiency are dependent upon how severe it is and when it occurs. so if we go to the pregnant woman, she doesn't get enough iodine, she won't make enough thyroid hormone, and the foetus won't get the amount of thyroid hormone it needs for adequate and proper development of the brain, so you'll then see consequences being loss of iq, learning difficulties, hearing difficulties and other neurological problems," professor eastman said. 

"if an infant's not getting enough iodine... brain development won't be completed and they won't grow normally, and as you get older the problem will be that you will develop a goiter and your thyroid won't function as well as it should, so that may have all sorts of pernicious effects upon normal function in life."

more than two billion people around the world live in areas prone to iodine deficiency, and yet the problem is easily fixed. the world health organisation (who) recommends that every country should iodise all edible salt. the most well known effects of idd are visible goiter and cretinism, a condition characterised by severe brain damage occurring in very early life. who say iodine deficiency is the world’s most prevalent, yet easily preventable, cause of brain damage.

professor eastman said he is alarmed by what they found. "pregnant women in australia are getting about half as much as what they require on a daily basis. so that alarms me, because there's quite serious potential for adverse effects and brain damage in the next generation of children born in this country," he said. "if iodine deficiency is serious you lose 15 iq points, on average. there shouldn't be anyone suffering from iodine deficiency in a developed country like australia."

lydia buchtmann for food standards australia new zealand, says they are looking at mandatory guidelines on iodine by the end of the year. she says the issue is complicated and will take time to get right. we need to "make sure there's sufficient iodine added into the food supply, to help those people with a deficiency. but at the other end of the scale we've got to make sure the people who eat a lot of food - we all know the teenage boy who comes home from school and eats a whole loaf of bread - that those people don't get too much and get overdose," ms bauchtman said. "one of the reasons that iodine is going down is because people are taking that good healthy eating message and not adding salt during cooking."

senior researcher mu li, of the university of nsw's school of public health, said "it is reasonable to assume that pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers are also iodine deficient, putting the next generation of children born in this country at risk of the neuropsychological consequences of iodine deficiency."



arsenal beat real madrid 1-0

arsenal beat real madrid 1-0 in a uefa champions league second round, first leg match on february 21, 2006. a 47th minute goal from meant that arsenal became the first side from england ever to win at the .

arsenal generally had the better of the game, henry's goal coming after he made a surging run from midfield, evading challenges from both and before shooting low past . arsenal's spanish forward had had an early chance, which was saved by casillas while blocked a shot. at the other end, real's david beckham had two chances, one a missed header and the other a clear one-on-one, but saved. late on in the game, arsenal sub could have scored a second, but casillas saved at his feet, before ronaldo just missed a beckham cross in front of an open goal.

the second leg of the tie will be played at on march 8, 2006.

real madrid: casillas, cicinho, sergio, woodgate (mejia 9), carlos, gravesen (julio baptista 76), beckham, guti, zidane, robinho (raul 63), ronaldo.

arsenal: lehmann, eboue, toure, senderos, flamini, ljungberg, hleb (pires 76), gilberto silva, fabregas (song 90), reyes (diaby 80), henry.


mozambique and zimbabwe struck by earthquake

a magnitude 7.5 earthquake occurred in southern mozambique near the small farming town of espungabera near malvernia just after midnight.

the region is comparatively remote, and detailed reports of what has occurred at the epicenter are not yet available. according to the us geological survey (usgs), damage is expected, but there are no detailed reports at this stage. as of february 23, february 23, 2006 07:13 ust there are no reported injuries. the area is approximately 100 km away from the zimbabwen border.

residents in the surrounding region have been urged not to return to buildings due to possible aftershocks. the region is home to the east african rift system.

the earthquake was felt as far as 800 km away as johannesburg and durban, south africa, and in zambia. no damage is expected in those countries.

earlier usgs reports had estimated the magnitude at 6.9. in comparison, the recent 2005 kashmir quake in pakistan had a magnitude of 7.6.

the quake occurred at february 22, 2006 22:19:08 universal standard time (ust).



baltimore police seek sex offender for failure to register

police in baltimore county, maryland asked for the public's help to find 23-year-old matthew p. keenan. police said an arrest warrant had been issued for keenan on the charge of failing to update his information with maryland's state sex offender registry.

police described keenan as a white male, 5'6" (1.7 m) tall, 150 pounds (68 kg) with brown hair and brown eyes. they believed keenan was last seen in the armistead gardens neighborhood of baltimore, maryland.

mandatory registration for offenders convicted of certain sexual or violent crimes began in maryland after 1994. addresses of offenders have been made public.

according to the registry, keenan is a child sex offender. detectives added that keenan was convicted of raping a child in 2002. this conviction led to the requirement that keenan keep his current address on file with the registry. keenan's last verified address listed with the registry was in the 3700-block of north point road in dundalk, maryland.

police asked those with information on keenan to call them at 410-307-2020 or metro crime stoppers at 1-866-756-2587.




uk and aussie troops will not fight opium in afghanistan

colonel gordon messenger, commander of the british forces in southern afghanistan, has said that troops under his command will not be engaged in the fight against cultivation. "there will be absolutely no maroon berets [of the marines] with scythes in a poppy field," he said.

the united nations has reported that a "fear that afghanistan might degenerate into a narco-state is slowly becoming a reality." 

u.s. state department officials and the claim that afghan drug trafficking is a primary source of funding for terrorists. doug wankel, a former drug enforcement administration official who is point man for the u.s. counternarcotics initiative at the american embassy in , said the opium industry is "financing terrorism. it's financing subversive activities. it's financing warlordism. ... and if it's a threat to the government of afghanistan, it's a direct threat to the national security interests of the united states."

australia recently committed 200 extra troops to afghanistan. john howard has said that they also will not be involved in destroying opium poppies. "well, dealing with that is overwhelmingly the responsibility of the local authorities," he said. 

a 2005 u.s. state department report warned that afghanistan is becoming a "narcotics state". afghan hectares in opium cultivation has increased by 50% since the coalition invasion; up from an average of 67,000 prior to the invasion (1998-2001), to an average of 97,000 since the invasion (2002-2005). the last year under the taliban, 2001, saw production of 185 metric tonnes; in 2005 production was 4,100 metric tonnes.

afghanistan produced 87% of the world's opium in 2005 with 104,000 hectares in production. president karzai has blamed the coalition for this situation, "this particular operation (controlling opium production) was supposed to be done by an agency, a department that was funded by the international community, by the united states, by britain. the failure is theirs, not ours." karzai said. "where international money and creation of forces for destruction of poppies was concerned, it was ineffective and delayed and half-hearted." karzai is opposed to aerial spraying which was proposed by the united states, as is done in other drug producing regions of the world, because of what karzai called "health concerns".

adrian edwards of the united nations stated 2 months ago that early reports indicate "there will be an increase in poppy cultivation in 2006".




michael morales execution postponed indefinitely

the execution of michael morales, convicted in 1983 of the murder of terri winchell, has been postponed indefinitely because san quentin state prison (california) could not comply with a federal court's order that his execution be supervised by licensed medical personnel.

morales was originally scheduled to be executed at 12:01 a.m. on february 21, 2006, but the execution was postponed until 7:30 p.m. that evening after two anesthesiologists assigned to participate in the execution withdrew on ethical grounds. the anesthesiologists were originally asked to participate in compliance with an order by a federal judge.

in his february 14 ruling on a motion by morales's lawyers, u.s. district judge jeremy fogel required that either morales should die of a lethal dose of barbiturates instead of the standard three drug combination used in lethal injection, or that two anesthesiologists should be on hand to ensure that morales would feel no pain from the two drugs that caused paralysis and heart failure. fogel also ruled that the barbiturates should be administered by a licensed medical professional.

prison officials could not find a medical professional willing to administer the single-drug lethal injection.



mpaa launches seven lawsuits against torrent, ed2k and usenet sites

the motion picture association of america (mpaa) has launched seven separate lawsuits against internet sites in its latest anti-piracy crackdown. the mpaa claims the targeted sites had been "facilitating the distribution of copyright works".

the mpaa has commenced legal action against the following bittorrent tracking sites?isohunt.com, bthub.com, and torrentbox.com which are all owned by the same person; torrentspy.com; niteshadow.com as well as ed2k site ed2k-it.com and usenet search engines?nzb-zone.com, binnews.com, and dvdrs.net.

the lawsuits mark the first time that the mpaa has targeted usenet related sites; in the past the mpaa has only brought action against sites who actually hosted copyrighted material or who assisted in the running of the networks used to distribute it.

generally, the digital millennium copyright act (dmca) limits the liability of search engines for providing links to unauthorised copies, so long as the site operators do not know the content is infringing, are not making profit from the distribution of copyright works, and remove links when requested by copyright owners.

it is thought that the dmca limitations will not apply to the sites targeted as they are allegedly filled with almost nothing but copyrighted movies, software, and music. 

isohunt.com, one of the search engines targeted, provides a copyright statement claiming that "we respect copyright, and will filter such p2p links at your request". 


al askari mosque bombed in samarra, iraq

explosions at the al askari mosque in the iraqi city of samarra at 6:55 a.m. local time (0355 utc) february 22 ripped through the mosque, destroying the northern wall which shattered the golden dome.

no injuries were reported from the blast, but sectarian violence has broken out in the region after the attack on the shi'a holy site.

the interior ministry reported that four bombers entered the mosque, one in the uniform of iraqi security forces. two bombs were planted, which went off in the morning. the blasts damaged the northern wall and caused the dome to collapse.

police originally feared there may be victims buried in the rubble.

the mosque is one of the most holy sites of shi'a islam as it holds the remains of ali al-hadi and his son hassan al-askar, the 10th and 11th shi'a imams. the grandson of al-hadi was the 12th imam, the "hidden imam" muhammad al-mahdi whose shrine stood adjacent to the mosque.

within hours of the blasts, sunni mosques had been attacked or set afire. an association of sunni clerics reported that ten imams had been killed, and that 15 were kidnapped by shi'a protesters.

overnight gunmen in police uniforms seized 11 sunni men from a prison in basra and killed them.

thursday's violence escalated after the protests on wednesday. in the single deadliest incident, 47 people were killed at a roadblock in diyala province, northeast of baghdad, as they were returning from a protest. in baquba, at least 16 were killed in a suicide bomb attack in a crowded market.

atwar bahjat, correspondent for the al-arabiya network, and two local journalists were kidnapped and killed leaving samarra.

"cbc" reports as many as 168 mosques have been targeted, both sunni and counter-counter attacks on shi'a.

grand ayatollah ali sistani called on shiites to take to the streets, but peacefully. "we invite the faithful to protest and express their condemnations, on the violation of their sanctities, by peaceful means," says the online message from his office. "we stress upon everyone going through the shock of this atrocious crime not to be drawn into what the enemies want them to be drawn into, which is sectarian discord"

"if its security institutions are unable to provide the necessary security, the faithful are able to do that by the will and blessings of god," the grand ayatollah said in a separate, written, statement, suggesting the armed shi'a militias may be deployed to protect other holy sites if the government and the u.s. troops are deemed incapable of doing so.

iraqi president jalal talabani appeals for calm to avoid a "devastating civil war". reports in televised news conferences indicate that initial investigations point to "infiltration" of the iraqi security forces.

thursday declared a day of national mourning.

"the main aim of these terrorist groups is to drag iraq into a civil war," iraq's national security adviser mowaffak al-rubaie told al-arabiye television.

"anti-democratic forces have tried everything to push the country into a civil war and sectarian violence," iraqi foreign minister hoshyar zebari said today in a phone interview with bloomberg. "this is the biggest challenge we as iraqis face, and efforts are under way to prevent it."

ashraf qazi, the united nation's top envoy to the region, has said he will ask the country's political and religious leaders to hold a dialogue moderated by the u.n.

 


president remains most popular politician in romania

the president of romania, traian b?sescu, continues to be the most popular politician in the country, according to a survey by the romanian centre for urban resources (curs). the survey shows that 63% of those interviewed have a good or very good opinion of the president. even though this result is better than the 60% approval rating he received in october 2005, it is lower than the 71% approval he obtained in june 2005.

the second-most popular major politician is the opposition leader and head of the social democratic party, mircea geoan?, who has an approval rating of 47%. he is trailed by the prime minister, c?lin popescu-t?riceanu, with 44%. gigi becali, the leader of the new generation party, recorded the largest increase in popularity, with an approval rating of 30%, in comparison to the 20% he achieved in october 2005.

the survey also looked at romanians' opinions towards the major political parties. 42% of the respondents stated that they would vote for the governing justice and truth alliance, made up of the national liberal party and the democratic party. 25% stated that they would vote for the social democratic party, while the right-wing greater romania party would receive 14% of the vote. both of these parties recorded decreases in popularity. on the other hand, the new generation party and the national initiative party gained in popularity, with the new generation party attracting 4% of potential votes.

44% of the people interviewed believe that romania will join the european union in january 2007, as scheduled, while 18% think that the safeguard clause will be activated, postponing accession until 2008.



arroyo declares state of emergency due to coup attempt in philippines

filipino president gloria macapagal arroyo declared a state of emergency friday following reports from security forces on a foiled coup attempt. arroyo's emergency powers allow arrests without warrants and the extended detention of prisoners without charges.

brigadier general danilo lim, the commander of the 1st scout ranger regiment, an elite military unit, is being held following accusations that he intended to join his troops with anti-arroyo protestors. the troops were reportedly planning to inform protesters that the soldiers were no longer supporting arroyo hoping that this news would foment an uprising against the president.

arroyo has forbidden protest rallies, but more than a thousand filipinos attended rallies anyway (bloomberg.com says "thousands of filipinos"), and police broke up a couple of rallies on edsa, the main street of manila, as they were heading downtown (to makati), with shields and nightsticks. the filipino peso dropped 1.1% vs. the us dollar, its biggest decline since 2002. 

the crisis comes during the weekend when the country is recognizing the 20th anniversary of the "people power" revolution that ousted dictator ferdinand marcos, who fled and stayed in exile in the united states.

this is not the first time ms. arroyo's regime has survived attempts at deletion. at the beginning of her presidency, supporters of the ousted president estrada stormed malacanang and demanded arroyo's resignation. later, in 2003, 300 soldiers took over a hotel in manila in another bid to topple arroyo. people have alleged that the arroyo administration engaged in corruption and failed to keep the economy stable. arroyo won the 2004 election, but some people accused her of doing so by cheating. those allegations led to an attempt to impeach arroyo in september 2005, which failed. 



six teenagers die in car accident in victoria, several others injured

six teenagers were killed in a horrific road accident near mildura in north-western victoria, australia late at night on february 18. 

cassandra manners, aged 16, stevie-lee weight, 15, cory dowling, 16, shane hirst, 16, and his sister, abby hirst, 17, died at the scene. josephine calvi, 16, was flown to the royal adelaide hospital, where she later died of head injuries. seven other teenagers were injured, including 15-year-old marco medici who is now in a stable but critical condition in the alfred hospital in .

the accident occurred after the teenagers left a 16th birthday party and walked along myall road, cardross, south-east of mildura. a car allegedly came speeding around a bend, hit the gravel on the side of the road, lost control and struck the group. the alleged driver, later identified as 34-year-old thomas graham towle, fled the scene on foot, leaving his 10-year-old daughter and four-year-old son in the car. towle was later arrested by police in redcliffs. he was taken to mildura police station for questioning.

towle has been charged with six charges of culpable driving causing death, four charges of negligently causing serious injury, one charge of failing to stop and one charge of failing to render assistance after an accident. towle faced mildura magistrates' court on february 20. magistrate john dugdale remanded him into custody to reappear before the court on june 26.

meanwhile, the town of mildura and surrounding areas is in deep mourning. premier steve bracks said the state government will provide $au40,000 for counselling and support services.

around 3,000 people attended the funeral for josephine calvi today. funeral services for the other five teenagers were held last week.



thai snap-election set for april 2, 2006

in the face of mounting pressure and a hostile political climate in urban areas, thai prime minister thaksin shinawatra has announced the dissolution of the lower house, the house of representatives of the country's parliament.

the move follows an audience earlier today with the king at the dusit palace and is despite defiant statements yesterday that the pm would neither step down nor dissolve parliament. an increasing number of voices have questioned thaksin's suitability to hold the office of prime minister, with a petition to the constitutional court and a student-led petition for his impeachment contributing to the political uncertainty.

the prime minister announced the decision in a live tv broadcast, offering to "accept and respect the public's decision" in the forthcoming election. following discussions with the election commission of thailand, he stated that the election ? required to be held within 60 days ? would be on april 2. this should lead to the lower house reconvening on may 2. election of a prime minister and appointment of cabinet ministers would be the first item of business.

protestors who are planning a mass demonstration at sanam luang in bangkok this sunday are undeterred by the move. according to suriyasai katasila they will protest anyway, aiming for resignation "because prime minister thaksin is the centre of the problem".




investigation wanted into the murders of iraqi academics

majid majhoul hawi al-moussawi said his family "locked the door and left for syria, the only country that would have us. we are grateful, but there is no work. there is nothing for us here." he took his family out of baghdad after his daughter hanan, 16, was kidnapped.

professionals in iraq say they face a deteriorating situation. young physicians are looking for other countries to train in and even the patients are leaving, no longer confident in the care they can get in iraq.

dr. omar kubasi supported the claims that a systematic campaign to destroy iraqi academia is occurring, stating, "i think it's part of the plan for the country's destruction. the situation in the last six months has gotten so bad, we couldn't continue."

amer hassan fayed, assistant dean of political science at baghdad university said; "it's creating a brain drain, we could end up with a society without knowledge. how can such a society make progress?"

hundreds of iraqi academics have been assassinated since the u.s.-led coalition invasion in march 2003, and there have been no charges brought against any suspects in the murders. 
caroline lucas, the green party mep for southeast england, is calling for a united nations investigation into the killings which, she said, is forcing thousands of iraqi educators to flee for their lives. 
"iraq is undergoing a major brain drain, and can ill afford to lose academics and teachers to a continuing wave of violence. iraq's education system, once one of the best in the region, has been decimated: some 84 percent of the country's higher education institutions have been burned, looted or destroyed, according to the united nations university. these assassinations, which appear to be countrywide, non-partisan and non-sectarian, must be investigated by the u.n. special rapporteur on summary executions -- and those responsible brought to justice. iraq needs security and stability, but it is clear that the continued u.s. and (british) occupation is contributing to the problem, not the solution," lucas said.



london mayor ken livingstone faces month-long suspension over nazi jibe

the adjudication panel for england has ruled that london mayor ken livingstone should be suspended from office for one month over an insult given to an "evening standard" reporter in which he likened the reporter to a concentration camp guard after being hassled by the reporter outside his home.

the suspension of an elected representative by an unelected panel over an issue in which a law was not broken is unprecedented. the mayor's deputy, nicky gavron, has condemned the decision, as has the chairman of the association of london government robin wales.

ken livingstone will announce next week what his action will be. he may appeal to the high court.



earthquake hits ottawa, canada

"an earthquake struck ottawa, canada at approximately 8:45 p.m. eastern standard time on february 24, 2006." said one area resident. natural resources canada, however, says the earthquake of 4.5 magnitude struck western quebec on february 25 at approximately 1:39 utc (coordinated universal time) which is effectively gmt (greenwich mean time). (earthquakes are generally listed in utc time to ensure an absolute and consistent basis of when they occurred.) this may have been felt several hundred kilometres away.

according to the "canadian press" the earthquake was centred north of thurso, quebec, "approximately 45 kilometres east-northeast of ottawa, said john adams, a seismologist with natural resources canada." witness reports state somewhat violent shaking with little or no property or personal damage. "it started as a rumble, then shaking... the whole house was shaking and the glasses were rattling," said jeff thiessen, a resident of manor park. one ottawa resident said "the ground shook for about 30 seconds and was felt by residents near the city center." there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage to property.

according to the u.s. geological survey (usgs) "a magnitude 4.0 eastern earthquake typically can be felt at many places as far as 100 km (60 mi) from where it occurred, and it infrequently causes damage near its source."

follow-up reports indicate that rumbles could be felt as far as kingston, ontario, montreal, quebec and new york. the canadian geological survey stated 14 seismometer stations revising a magnitude of 4.5 from 2.99 on the richter scale. the usgs pronounced it to be a 4.0 tremor.

the edinburgh earth observatory also demonstrates that this earthquake, with a reported depth of approx. 18 km, occurred near the north american plate. however, according to usgs, "the western quebec seismic zone is far from the nearest plate boundaries, which are in the center of the atlantic ocean and in the caribbean sea." because the area has many faults, some smaller, deeper and some not yet detected, few, if any, earthquakes can be linked to named faults. furthermore usgs says that the best guide to predicting earthquakes of the sort, in the western quebec seismic zone, is actually having the earthquake.

the ontario region has not encountered a major earthquake since october 1990 when a 5.0 occurred in eastern ontario. the ottawa sun reports this is the third significant tremor in the region for 2006. the two largest damaging earthquakes for this region occurred in "1935 (magnitude 6.1) at the northwestern end of the seismic zone, and in 1732 (magnitude 6.2) 450 km (280 mi) away at the southeastern end of the zone where it caused significant damage in montreal." smaller earthquakes, such as this, are felt about three to four times a year.



australian treasurer makes &quot;extremely divisive&quot; comments

australian federal treasurer peter costello, next in line for prime minister, has called for muslim extremists to be stripped of their citizenship. in a speech to the sydney institute on the 23rd february, he described multiculturalism as "mushy and misguided". 

politicians from all sides have spoken out at the remarks and many from the islamic community say they're offended by mr costello's comments, with muslim leaders saying that it is "extremely divisive" and a blight on australia's international reputation.

mr costello particularly singled out muslims in his remarks, saying extremists should move to countries where they feel more comfortable. mr costello's comments targeting muslim extremists, won support from prime minister john howard, and controversial ex-politician pauline hanson. 

"before entering a mosque visitors are asked to take off their shoes," mr costello said. "this is a sign of respect. if you have a strong objection to walking in your socks don't enter the mosque. before becoming an australian you will be asked to subscribe to certain values. if you have strong objection to those values don't come to australia."

abdul el ayoubi, a director of the lebanese muslim association said, "it's upsetting to hear such comments, especially when you consider that the majority of muslims have accepted the australian way of life and australian values."

45 per cent of australia's population are from culturally diverse backgrounds. the ethnic communities' council of victoria (eccv) has called for tolerance rather than division. "peter costello's comments are divisive, arrogant, provocative and do nothing to unite the nation at a time when responsible leadership on this issue is called for," eccv chairman phong nguyen said. 

"to have the leaders of our nation, such at the prime minister and treasurer, making gratuitous comments about race and religion based on ill-founded perceptions rather than facts, is extremely divisive and will harm australia nationally and internationally," he said.

mr nguyen said mr costello appeared to be aligning himself with the "now discredited argument of his colleague danna vale ? that australia is in danger of becoming a muslim nation". 

in his speech mr costello made a public call for muslims who want to live under sharia law to find another country, while also referring to "mushy multiculturalism". 

justin li, vice chair of the nsw ethnic communities' council, said mr costello's comments had deliberately and unfairly targeted muslims.

"obviously nobody supports violent people in our society, but what we don't understand is why allegedly violent muslims are any different from any violent people of other cultures or religions," he said. "what about deporting the people who participated in riots in cronulla last year? those people did not exhibit any australian values in their actions."

mr li added the comments were "political point scoring" made to sit well with sections of the community which do not support multiculturalism. "our political leaders think that there is advantage to be gained making comments against our muslim australians at this stage in time," he said.

malcolm thomas from the islamic foundation of victoria says it's the fact that mr costello singled out muslims. "if you remove the word muslim from what he said, well then i totally agree with peter. yeah, i'm prepared, just as much as peter, to be as intolerant to anyone who wants to attack australia and the australian values, irrespective of their race or religion or ethnicity," said mr thomas. "language is everything. the words are marginalising a segment of our community and creating division within the community."

mr thomas also points out that the suggestion to strip people of citizenship has limited potential, given that a third of muslims living here were born here. "australian muslims are australian. we can't differentiate that. and i think people need to keep that in mind." he said.

another muslim community leader said costello is promoting division and islamophobia and should be censured. keysar trad, president of the islamic friendship association of australia, has said he genuinely hoped the prime minister would censure mr costello.

mr trad said nobody was protesting australia's secular laws through any other means than the normal democratic process. "we have not asked for sharia law to be imposed. i don't know anyone in this country who is asking for sharia law to be imposed and i don't known anyone in this country who has rejected the rule of law," he told abc radio. "rather than try to promote understanding and harmony in this society, his comments are highly divisive and he is stirring up islamophobia, and these comments should really be beneath any decent politician."

in his speech, mr costello said where there was reason to believe people were not truthfully or honestly meeting their citizenship test, there was every right for them to be denied citizenship.

"if by subsequent conduct they show that they don't meet the test then we could invite them to forfeit their australian citizenship," he said. "now you can only do this if they have another citizenship." 

but mr el ayoubi said: "if you've come to this country, you've come to this country to live under a democratic system and you've come into this country to abide by the rules, the principles and the values of this country, and you should do that."

mr costello emphasised that australia is a secular state under which the freedom of all religions is protected. "but there is not a separate stream of law derived from religious sources that competes with or supplants australian law in governing our civil society," he said. "the source of our law is the democratically elected legislature. if a person wants to live under sharia law these are countries where they might feel at ease. but not australia."

mr costello said there were some beliefs and values which were so central to australian society that those who refused to accept them refused to accept the nature of australian society.

"if someone cannot honestly make the citizenship pledge, they cannot honestly take out citizenship," he said. "if they have taken it out already they should not be able to keep it where they have citizenship in some other country."

his comments follow prime minister john howard's claims this week that a fragment of the islamic community is "utterly antagonistic to our kind of society". last week liberal backbencher danna vale said that australia could become a muslim nation within 50 years because "we are aborting ourselves almost out of existence".

mr costello said he had attended an australia day citizenship ceremony at the stonnington town hall in his electorate of higgins during which a state mp "extolled the virtues of multiculturalism". he said the mp said becoming an australian did not mean giving up one's culture or language or religion ? and it certainly did not mean giving up the love of their country of birth.

"the longer he went on about how important it was not to give up anything to become an australian, the more it seemed to me that, in his view, becoming an australian didn't seem to mean very much at all, other than getting a new passport."

islamic council of victoria president malcolm thomas said he was disappointed at mr costello's speech. "we have had the uninformed comments of danna vale, we have had the comments made by the prime minister and now we have these comments ? all they do is reinforce a stereotype which doesn't exist." mr thomas said that singling out muslims was pandering to a conspiracy that muslims wanted to overtake australia.

"australian muslims are australians first," he said. "they abide by the law and they want to live here in peace and harmony. they are not interested in taking over the country. they are not interested in creating a theocracy".

ikebal patel, an executive member of the australian federation of islamic councils, said the comments were "inflammatory". "islam law teaches that when you go into a country you embrace the laws of that country," mr patel said. "i hope we are not going away from multiculturalism as the founding stone of our immigration policy."

mr patel said the timing of the comments smacked of an attempt by the government to deflect attention from the awb scandal. 

mr costello said muslims who did not like the depiction of the prophet muhammad in newspapers should recognise this does not justify violence.



fbi confirms that ricin was not found at the university of texas

the fbi has confirmed that the chunky substance discovered in the moore-hill dormitory at the university of texas on thursday is not the poison ricin.

ricin is one of the most deadly poisons in the world and can exist in the form of a pellet, mist, or powder. some symptoms of exposure can include vomiting and dehydration, sweating, nausea, fever, cough and difficulty of breathing.

an earlier report by the associated press had said tests had found the substance might be ricin. such tests are designed to error on the side of caution, thus ensuring that possible poisoning victims receive treatment in time. 

last year there were similar false positive reports of ricin in london, which were further publicized by vice president cheney and secretary of state colin l. powell. 


riots cease in dublin against unionist march

40 protesters have been arrested, and 14 people have been hospitalised, including main correspondent , and six gardai. 13 of the arrested will be dealt with tonight during a special sitting of dublin district court.

the riots, which have been described as the worst that dublin has seen in a quarter of a century, broke out at 12.45 pm. about 1,000 loyalist protestors, including members of the , had travelled from northern ireland in order to march from parnell street down to (the seat of the ) on kildare street. 

the march never got underway, however; the protesters were transported to the location by bus following a consultation with gardai that suggested a march would be unsafe. the march was intended to commemorate victims of republican paramilitary activity. 

loyalist protesters proceeded to demonstrate outside leinster house for a short time, but the parade was cancelled as around 300 republican protestors from across ireland moved onto kildare street. gardai ordered major premises to shut as the violence increased. missiles, fireworks, petrol bombs, and rubble and tools from a building site on o'connell street were thrown by republican protestors onto gardai. as the rioting proceeded, looting broke out, the loyalist protesters were advised to leave the region, and cars were burned out between kildare street and o'connell street.

political figures, led by , and including leaders of major political parties from across ireland's political spectrum such as , , the , the irish , and the have condemned the violence. has commented that "it is the essence of irish democracy and republicanism that people are allowed to express their views freely and in a peaceful manner. people who want only to attack gardai and property have no respect for their fellow citizens." 

, a party which split from the main body of sinn fein in 1986 and which had been involved in the organisation of the counter-demonstration, have declared that it was irresponsible for the authorities to allow the marches to go ahead. it is believed that around ?50,000 will be necessary to clear up and repair the damage caused to o'connell street, dublin's main thoroughfare, and the street will remain closed until tomorrow. it is feared that the riots will have a significant impact on the , and on plans by the irish government to recommence annual commemorations of the 1916 .



dublin unionist march turns violent

a unionist march in central dublin, ireland turned violent after republican protesters tried to disrupt the parade. so far, several garda siochana police officers and a journalist have been injured. due to the violence, the march has been called off.

hundreds of republican protesters turned out to oppose the "love ulster" march organized by the victim's group fair. democratic unionist and ulster unionist politicians were planning to take part in the march. the march was to highlight the deaths of protestants in northern ireland by irish nationalists. a delegation was also to meet the justice minister, michael mcdowell, after the march.

a counter-protest was organised by republican sinn fein, a political party that is believed to be linked to the continuity irish republican army and which split away from sinn fein in the 1980s, just as the continuity ira split away from the provisional ira. sinn fein stated they had no involvement in the violence. counterprotesters threw bottles, fireworks and many different objects at riot police. 

however, an on-looker stated "they have no right to be coming down here and rubbing our noses in it." he added that many catholics also suffered during the conflict known as the "the troubles". kelly ann moore, 20, a republican protester said "loyalist protesters knew what was going to happen if they tried to do this. they were trying to provoke this violence."

"the troubles" is an ongoing conflict that stems from the partition of ireland in the 1920s into two entities, the irish free state and northern ireland. the irish free state eventually became the republic of ireland, an independent nation, while northern ireland became a constituent part of the united kingdom. the conflict is split into two camps, the nationalists or republicans which advocate a united, single ireland and the unionists or loyalists which advocate a continued union with the united kingdom. the conflict also boils down into religious divides as unionists are generally protestant and nationalists are usually catholic.

taoiseach (prime minister) bertie ahern condemned the violence and stated "there is no excuse for it and that it is the essence of irish democracy and republicanism that people are allowed express their views freely and in a peaceful manner." 

other politicians condemned the violence too. sean crowe, sinn fein td for dublin south west said the rioting was "disgraceful" but included that the unionist rally had been "provocative". 

alban maginness of the social democratic & labour party stated "it is disturbing that marchers have been prevented from peaceful demonstration. this action of extreme republicans simply plays into hands of those of the unionist right who cannot conceive unionist rights being upheld in a new ireland."



venezuela's government to restrict flights to the us

the u.s. department of state says that the venezuelan government's measure to restrict flights to the united states violates the agreement of 1953.

in a press release the venezuelan institute for aviation (inac) announced the decision to "reduce" starting on march 1st all operations of american airlines in venezuela.

later, the official institution ordered delta and continental airlines the suspension of all of its activities in venezuelan territory. it also ordered american airlines to reduce the frequency of its flights to and from the united states.

venezuela argues that the american aviation services does not respect the terms of the agreement between both countries that allows the operations of us-based companies and vice versa.


oxford march supports animal testing

oxford, england - today saw the first demonstration in support of oxford university's new animal testing facility on south parks road. around 600 students marched under the banner of pro-test, an organisation set up several weeks ago in opposition to speak, which campaigns and demonstrates frequently in the city for animal rights.

the demonstration began at 11:30am outside balliol college on broad street, in the historic centre of the city, and (just before midday) marched along holywell street and mansfield road up towards south parks road. police prevented the pro-test demonstration from reaching the actual building site because of a speak protest (around 150 people, according to thames valley police) which was occurring there at that time. the crowd was addressed by neurosurgeon tipu aziz, dr simon festing (executive director of the research defense society), and liberal democrat mp dr evan harris, amongst others.

students demonstrated for different reasons, however. some were obviously marching in favour of animal testing in order to further medical research, while others wanted to show solidarity with researchers and the university, who have been coming under increasing pressure from organisations such as the animal liberation front (alf). 

last year, the alf claimed responsibility for its arson attack on the long bridges boathouse, and recently it put out a communique stating that they "must target professors, teachers, heads, students, investors, partners, supporters and anyone that dares to deal in any part of the university in any way." speak and the alf are separate organisations; the former campaigns peacefully, while the latter often uses tactics such as threatening letters, intimidation and criminal damage to further its cause. it should be noted, however, that in an interview for sky news on the 25th february, a spokeswoman for speak refused to condemn their activities.

the pro-test march returned back down mansfield road and holywell street (in order to avoid passing the speak demonstration), and finished outside the radcliffe camera. after a few speeches, everyone dispersed, the demonstration having passed off peacefully, though there was an attempt by five speak demonstrators to break through the police line. speak activists continued to leaflet on cornmarket street, and marched down from outside the research lab into the centre around 2pm.




u.s. appeals court to reconsider hawaiians-only admission policy

the united states 9th circuit court of appeals in san francisco on wednesday voted to reconsider an earlier decision against kamehameha schools, an independent school in honolulu, regarding the legality of its admission policy that favors native hawaiians.

a majority of the 23 eligible judges (one judge from hawaii recused himself) on the 9th circuit court voted to reconsider the august 2, 2005 decision, in which the court ruled 2-1 that the school's admission policy violates federal civil rights law by absolutely barring non-hawaiians from attending the school.

a date has not been set for the rehearing of the case before a so-called "en banc" panel of 15 of the 24 judges. 

the case was filed in june 2003 on behalf of an anonymous non-hawaiian student who applied for admission to kamehameha and was rejected. u.s. district judge alan kay ruled in november 2003 that kamehameha's admission policy was not in violation of civil rights law, citing the school's unique historical circumstances and its mission in remediating the socioeconomic and educational disdvantages that native hawaiians face. kay's ruling was overturned by the 9th circuit in its august 2005 ruling.

the student is currently completing his final year at a public high school. the rehearing of the case means that the student will most likely not be able to attend kamehameha before he graduates in june.

kamehameha schools was established in the 1884 will of hawaiian princess bernice pauahi bishop, the last direct descendant of king kamehameha i. her will directed that the schools give "preference to hawaiians of pure or part aboriginal blood." 

kamehameha schools' admission policy, according to its web site, is to "give preference to applicants of hawaiian ancestry to the extent permitted by law." in theory, qualified non-hawaiians may be admitted after all qualified hawaiian applicants are offered admission, but in practice there are usually fewer spaces than there are qualified hawaiian applicants.


first australian convicted under new anti-terrorism laws

former taxi driver joseph terrence thomas has become the first australian convicted under new new anti-terrorism laws.

thomas was convicted by a supreme court jury of receiving a plane ticket and au$4,740 (us$3,500) from al-qaeda associate khalid bin attash. the 32-year-old was also convicted of having a pakistani visa changed to appear that he had been in the area for two weeks, instead of two-and-a-half years.

the jury acquitted thomas on further charges of intentionally providing himself as a resource at the al farooq terrorist training camp in afghanistan and of agreeing to become a sleeper agent for al-qaeda in australia. 

during the trial, prosecutor nicolas robinson alleged that thomas told australian federal police officers that al-qaeda wanted him to conduct surveillance of australian military installations. 

outside the court, thomas’s father, ian thomas, told reporters he was happy his son had been acquitted of the more serious charges. "the acquittal has been a great victory - i've always supported our son and family and will continue," he said.

thomas’s wife, maryati thomas, said she was relieved thomas was not convicted of all charges. "it's a big victory for us, the fact that he's here and all the family have been standing right next to us," she said.

federal attorney general philip ruddock said the convictions show australia’s new anti-terrorism laws are working. "the importance of not engaging with terrorist organisations and in this case receiving money from such an organisation ought not be underestimated by the broader community,” he said.

defence barrister lex lasry applied for bail, telling the court that thomas had no previous convictions and had already spent time in custody in pakistan and three months in the maximum security acacia unit at barwon prison. justice philip cummins remanded thomas into custody for a pre-sentencing hearing on march 2, 2006. 

thomas faces a maximum of 25 years imprisonment for receiving funds from al-qaeda and a maximum of two years imprisonment for altering his visa.



anglican church offers landmark compensation deal

the anglican church in south australia has agreed to pay up to au$4 million to 36 victims of alleged paedophile robert brandenberg.

brandenberg, a priest and former church of england boys society leader, committed suicide in 1999, on the same day he was to face court on child sex offence charges.

peter humphries, lawyer for the victims, said the deal was the result of three years of negotiations with the church. "two thirds of the batch of claims have been assessed and we're satisfied that the church has made sensible offers ? we'll be recommending settlement in next day or so," he said.

humphries said he has recommended most of the victims settle with the church. "for those clients who accept offers that will be it," he said.

24 victims have agreed to accept the church’s offer and have settled their claims. the remaining 12 are expected to be finalised soon.



eva hassett, vp of savarino construction services corp. answers questions on buffalo, n.y. hotel redesign

"wikinews" was the first to tell you that the elmwood village hotel development in buffalo, new york was to undergo "significant changes".

the elmwood village hotel is a proposed project that would be placed at elmwood and forest aves. in buffalo. in order for the development to take place, at least five buildings that house both businesses and residents, must be demolished.

to confirm and to get more information about the changes, "wikinews" interviewed eva hassett, vice president of savarino construction services corporation, the development company in charge of building the hotel.

wikinews: the hotel proposal is being redesigned. could you comment on that? what changes are being made? are they significant?

eva hassett: the hotel has been resized as a 72-room, four story building. this is 10% smaller in number of rooms and a full story lower. we are also redesigning the facades in a way that will minimize the mass - more of a vertical feeling than horizontal. different materials, windows, details. the smaller size of the hotel also makes the number of on-site parking spaces more appropriate and hopefully represents less of a challenge to an already difficult parking situation.

wn: will you still be going before the city's planning board as scheduled on february 28? same for the common council?

hassett: we will be on the planning board agenda this tuesday morning but i do not expect that the board will vote on the item that morning. i think we will be mainly explaining the new design and hearing input/questions.

wn: will there be anymore public meetings?

hassett: we would be happy to do one more big public meeting. we will be talking to forever elmwood about that on monday (february 27, 2006). we would like to see if there is support for the new design and we also want to honor the public's request for another meeting. i am hopeful that meeting can take place the week of march 6th.

wn: is savarino considering mr. rocco termini's design/proposal? if no, do you (savarino) support/oppose?

hassett: we are hopeful that we can build the hotel as redesigned. we think it would be a great addition to the elmwood ave. area, a good way for out-of-towners to see what buffalo offers and a big help to the businesses there.

wn: are you considering more time for the community to make a judgment?

hassett: as i mentioned above, we expect to have one more meeting to get public reaction to the new design, and i think the planning board may want an additional meeting to make their determination. we do however, have constraints that will limit the amount of extra time. we still think it is a great project for the city and elmwood; and we still want it to be something that the community wants as well.

so far, the city of buffalo's city planning board is still scheduled to meet at 8:00 a.m. (eastern) on february 28, 2006 followed by the common council meeting at 2:00 p.m. on the same day.

images of the design are not yet available. "we are working on the renderings this weekend, but i will likely have some early in the week," stated hassett.



opposition may boycott thai election; demonstrators want thaksin out

having outlined his manifesto in his last pre-election radio broadcast, beleaguered thai prime minister thaksin shinawatra has failed to deflect calls for his resignation.

offering an increased minimum wage, additional debt relief for farmers, and pay rises for civil servants the pm starts the election campaign with his thai loves thais ("phak thai rak thai") party in good shape for the snap election announced last friday.

thaksin's dissolution of the lower house of parliament, and move to re-establish his authority through elections has met with criticism from leaders in the troubled southern provinces as well as from political opponents. zafi-in jae-loh, the deputy chairman of narathiwat islamic committee said the move would do nothing to help the situation faced by ethnic malay muslims in the south. the three southernmost provinces, narathiwat, pattani, and yala face near-daily bombings and shootings with a considerable armed forces presence contributing to tensions in the area.

opposition parties concerned that the three years early election will not resolve the current political situation have announced that they may boycott the april 2 poll. the democrats ("phak prachatipat") and the smaller great people's party ("phak mahachon") took over 25% of the vote in the february 2005 elections. third placed at the last election with 11.4% of the vote, the thai nation party ("phak chart thai") have yet to announce their decision, leaving party leader banharn silapa-archa to decide.

despite the upcoming election, and in the face of rumours of violence, a mass protest against the prime minister still went ahead. the people’s alliance for democracy was reported to be monitoring a crowd they were suspicious of ahead of the rally in sanam luang, bangkok. however the main rally went off peacefully. noon saw the arrival of former politician chamlong srimuang with the santi asoke buddhist sect, including barefoot monks and nuns. reports indicated that the total number in attendance and supporting the call for the now-caretaker prime minister to go were in the tens of thousands. many protesters vowed to stay overnight. alluding to past protests that had toppled thai governments, chamlong said "we can eat anything, sleep anywhere. tonight we will sleep here". anti-thaksin banners displayed at the open-air rally stated that the he had "no right to rule", while others read "thaksin=toxin" below an image aimed at comparing the pm with adolf hitler.

calls for the pm to go have a long history, with his policy of pursuing his opponents through the courts drawing the attention of the king, thus leading to thaksin dropping cases against media firebrand, sondhi limthongkul. a challenge through the country's constitutional court was brought by 28 of the country's senators following the pm's family selling their 49% share in shin corporation tax-free. the sale, to temasek holdings, was widely seen as allowing control of key telecoms infrastructure to pass into foreign hands. wikipedia describes temasek as, "the investment arm of the singapore government."




boston college defeats nc state in double overtime

the boston college men's basketball team defeated the north carolina state wolfpack at home in a 74-72 double-overtime thriller on feb. 25. the bc eagles, ranked #11 going in to the contest, left with a 22-6, 9-5 record in the atlantic coast conference, while the nc state wolfpack dropped to #19 after the game with a 21-7, 10-5 record.

boston college star sean marshall finished with 22 points, including three 3-point shots, while craig smith had 18 points, 14 rebounds and six assists for the eagles. 

ilian evtimov led the wolfpack with 16 points.

bc outscored the wolfpack by two in the first half, which was reversed in the second half. only miller's second overtime 4-pointer put bc decisively in the lead and allowed them a victory.


australian government accused of neglecting regions

simon crean, shadow minister for regional development, has accused the howard government of abandoning regional development and showing no commitment to rural australia. in a media release timed to coincide with the ten-year anniversary of the howard government, mr. crean said that the privatisation of telstra and a failure to reform the regional partnerships program demonstrated the governments lack of commitment to the bush. 

"the minister for transport and regional services has failed to clean up the regional partnerships program, four months after a senate inquiry recommended major changes," he said. "au$1.1 million dollars spent on the gunnedah grains to ethanol project has been wasted - it still hasn't produced a single litre of ethanol. likewise beaudesert rail, the recipient of $5.7 million in government grants, has not travelled a single kilometre."

regional partnerships program provides government assistance for projects in regional areas. according to a government media release, there is $360.9 million available under this program for the period 2005-06 to 2008-09.

mr crean also criticised the national party for "[selling out] rural and regional australia - on telstra, on trade and on essential services."

"last week's revelation that telstra plans to get rid of 5000 payphones after privatisation show the serial contempt of the bush by the coalition."

the minister for transport and regional services, warren truss, has distanced himself from the telstra announcement, saying that telstra has an obligation to maintain services. "certainly, there is a still a demand for payphones around australia. telstra are expected to provide those kinds of services," he said. 

"i think the time will come when we will move on to new technology and some of those systems that were more important in the past will be less important in the future but there are still many australians who still depend on payphones and community telephone systems. telstra has an obligation to provide those."

warren truss' office was contacted to provide a response to mr. crean's criticisms, but had not responded by the time this article was published.



australian prime minister blames asylum seekers for &quot;children overboard&quot; scandal

australian prime minister john howard says the refugees he falsely accused of throwing their children into the ocean deserve no apology because they did the next worst thing - "they irresponsibly sank the damn boat, which put their children in the water".

the "children overboard" affair became a controversial focus in the 2001 federal election campaign, when the prime minister was roundly accused of cynically exploiting australia's fears of illegal immigrants by demonising asylum-seekers. mr howard and senior ministers falsely claimed on the eve of the election that children had been thrown in the water to guarantee their rescue by the australian navy.

the boat sank, and the crew of hmas adelaide saved 219 asylum-seekers. the then defence minister, peter reith, released dubious photos of the rescue as evidence that children had been thrown in the water. the australian government only corrected the record after the election. 

mr howard says: "they irresponsibly sank the damn boat, which put their children in the water. i'm sorry, if i had have been told definitively, if i had been told that that story was completely wrong, i would have said so, but i wasn't," he says in the book 'the howard factor'. 

"and my last act before the election was to put that video in the public domain so that i wasn't accused of concealing it, because it was ambiguous. watching that video, you couldn't tell whether people were being thrown in the water or not, it was just impossible. but after all, they did sink the boat." mr howard said the refugees "don't carry any visible signs of being demonised".

figures from the department of immigration (dimia) about the 219 mainly iraqi asylum-seekers, shows the group wound up with the highest success rate for all refugee claims made under the so-called pacific solution. dimia 96.5 per cent of the iraqis who were awarded humanitarian protection, though most have since been settled in new zealand, not australia.

refugee rights advocate, jack smit, from the west australian-based group project safecom says: "refugees don't sink damned boats, mr howard!" he said in a media statement: "the prime minister remains one of the very few politicians in australia who maintains the slandering descriptive word 'illegals' to denote boatpeople." 

"refugees rarely sink their boats," said mr smit, "usually it is the people smugglers who do the sinking, sometimes the sinking is due to physical sabotage by sting operators working from countries such as indonesia, and sometimes these sting operators are contracted by countries such as australia."



australian government announces study of tax system

the australian federal treasurer, peter costello, has announced a study to compare the australian taxation system with those of other countries. it will include overall tax levels, as well as indirect tax, income tax and company tax systems. mr costello says that the results are intended to inform discussion of the future of the tax system.

"the aim of the study is to provide a public document that compares australian taxes to those in other countries. this will identify those areas where australia leads comparable countries and those areas where it lags. it will enable a focus on the most important areas," mr costello said in a media release.

the study will be lead by mr richard (dick) warburton and mr peter hendy. mr warburton is chairman of caltex australia ltd, and has been chairman of the board of taxation since its inception in september 2000. according to its website, the board of taxation is "a non-statutory advisory body charged with contributing a business and broader community perspective to improving the design of taxation laws and their operation."

the australian democrats welcomed the study but warned that nothing would be achieved without serious reform of the tax system.

"the inquiry announced yesterday by the treasurer may turn out to be a step in the right direction but will be a pointless exercise if it ends up being simply a 'desktop' report," said senator murray, democrats tax spokesperson.

"the problem with mr costello's approach is that in contrast to the approach taken on the gst, the new tax system, and the business tax system, he has seen income tax change to be solely part of the budget process. across the whole of the political and public policy spectrum, there is strong agreement that reform is needed, not just tax cuts, and that the income tax system needs redesigning, not just fine tuning."



five month old girl injured in &quot;deliberate&quot; house fire

a five-month-old girl is in a critical but stable condition in sydney's westmead children's hospital after receiving burns to 11 percent of her body in a house fire. the fire broke out at around 2am sunday in the department of housing property in kelso, a suburb of bathurst, nsw, australia.

police and fire crews were called to the house after a neighbour reported seeing the fire and four men, described as being of "aboriginal" appearance, running from the area.

police said that the five-month-old girl and her twin sister were sleeping in a front room when the fire broke out. the twins' parents rescued their children and fled before flames engulfed the entire house.

inspector chris davey said police thought the fire may have been deliberate and had spent sunday gathering evidence at the scene. "we're treating the fire as being deliberately lit at this point in time - we have investigators on the ground trying to identify four males seen to be leaving that area," he said.


accidental explosion occurs in israel

an explosion occurred at the rafael arms development authority in kiryat bialik, israel today.

at least six people have been injured including police officers and medics. rescue services say the injuries range from "moderate" to "light."

the explosion is not believed to be terror related. "we are not talking about a suicide attack. it is a work accident. we don't know exactly what, a chemical that blew up in a bottle," said moshe weizman, a regional police spokesman.

rafael makes electronic warfare systems, missiles and tank armor.



london mayor ken livingstone to appeal over suspension

london mayor ken livingstone, who on friday was told that he would face a four-week suspension from office over remarks made to a newspaper journalist, has said today that he will seek a judicial appeal. 

the ban was issued to ken livingstone by the adjudication panel for england for 'bringing his office into disrepute' by comparing an evening standard journalist to a 'concentration camp guard' when doorstepped by the journalist as he was leaving a private party in febaruary 2005.

ken livinstone refused to apologise to the journalist over the incident, saying "i have nothing to apologise for". responding to claims that his comments were anti-semitic, ken livingstone said of the daily mail group, who own the evening standard, "no one in britain is less qualified to complain about anti-semitism...in truth, those papers were the leading advocates of anti-semitism in britain for half a century".

the four week suspension is due to start on wednesday. the mayor has asked for the suspension to be stayed until his appeal has been heard. the appeal will seek review of both whether his comments were a breach of the section of the code of conduct which prohibits "bringing one's office into disrepute" and whether the sanction is appropriate.

it is estimated that the legal costs of the appeal will be around ￡80,000, which will have to be funded by the mayor should he lose.





reaction to ken livingstone suspension

the news that london mayor ken livingstone is to face a one month suspension over comments made to an "evening standard" journalist was a surprise to many across the political spectrum when it was announced on friday.

deputy mayor nicky gavron, who would take over the mayor's duties in the event of a suspension, said "this decision is absurd - millions of londoners elected the mayor, and three unelected officials remove him. an elected mayor should only be removed by the law or by the electorate, not by an unelected body."

support was also received from the stop the war coalition, who said in a statement that they were appalled - "ken livingstone was elected by millions of londoners and he has been suspended by an unelected quango". the trades union congress also condemned the statement, praising the mayor's "absolute commitment and exemplary and consistent record in opposing racism of any form". the national assembly against racism vice chair said that they were "outraged" at the decision, also praising the mayor's record of anti-racism campaigning.

the board of deputies of british jews suggested that the mayor had been "the architect of his own misfortune" by failing to apologise over the incident, but said that they had not sought anything other than an expression of regret.

the muslim association of britain argued that the suspension was a serious blow to democracy and free speech by undermining "the essence and values of democracy".

the chairman of the london jewish forum adrian cohen welcomed the decision, but suggestion that it should never have reached the point of a suspension "when a simple apology could have avoided all the pain caused to so many jewish londoners", a sentiment echoed by the jewish leadership council.

the editor of the evening standard, whose journalist is at the centre of the controversy, claimed that the journalist had behaved impeccably and accused mr livingstone of being stubborn.




power inquiry calls for radical power shift in british democracy

the power inquiry, set up in 2004 to examine participation and involvement in british politics, today published "power to the people", its final report, making 30 key recommendations designed to "save british democracy from meltdown".

the recommendations include decentralising power, from central government to local government, replacing the first-past-the-post electoral system with a more responsive one, reducing the voting age to 16, and giving citizens the right to initiate legislative processes.

the independent newspaper covered the story with a front page splash titled "blueprint to give power to the people". the paper has been "campaigning for democracy" ever since the 2005 general elections, in which the labour party won 55.2% of the seats with just 35.3% of the votes. the newspaper ran a petition urging the prime minister to institute urgent reform of the voting system.

the final report credited the use of proportional voting elsewhere in europe with both a reversal of declines in voter turnout and the formation of flexible, responsive coalitions,

"[i]t is significant that most european countries have proportional systems which should provide a wider choice of parties from a more diverse political spectrum who all stand a good chance of winning places in parliament or even in a governing coalition. this therefore raises the question of whether this factor can be treated as a genuinely significant cause. we feel it still can. firstly, because it is such a commonly cited factor in all the expert and public evidence received by the inquiry. and, secondly, because there is recent research to suggest that proportional systems have, on the whole, limited if not halted election turnout declines in comparison to britain."

the power inquiry is funded by the joseph rowntree charitable trust and the joseph rowntree reform trust limited, and the inquiry is holding a conference on saturday, march 25, 2006 to discuss their findings, before formally ending.

chair of the inquiry, helena kennedy challenged politicians to "rise above their party ranks and start treating democratic reform as a non-partisan necessity - not a political toy".

the prime minister's official spokesman said that the report dealt with many issues, which were all matters to be debated within parties and between parties, adding that the report had added to the debate.

oliver heald, shadow constitutional affairs secretary for the conservative party, welcomed the call to give more power to mps, but opposed the plan to drop the voting age to 16. the liberal democrats acting president simon hughes welcomed the report, saying "british democracy is in crisis whatever the government pretends - most voters are ignored and most people feel they have no influence".


thinktank recommends changes to australian student fees

the centre for independent studies has released a paper calling for reform of university student fees system. the paper, authored by andrew norton, argues that the cap on loans to full fee paying students is too low. the current cap allows for loans during a lifetime of au$50,950.

"setting the fee-help limit at this amount biases the market against courses that are long or have high per year costs, or both," argues norton in the paper. "the loan cap is a crude way of controlling lending, taking no account of course costs or capacity to repay."

according to norton, this undermines student choice and competition. he argues that the system should function more like commercial lending.

"a truly radical reform would make student loans mimic commercial loans: students with good earning prospects could borrow large sums, other students could borrow less, and some could not borrow at all," he said. "instead of denying or limiting loans to people doing high cost courses, as now occurs, the government could deny loans to people who are unlikely to repay."

the paper was criticised by senator kerry nettle, education spokesperson for the australian greens. she argued that the changes would mean an increase in costs to students already struggling to pay, and called on education minister julie bishop to rule out the changes.

"to consider refusing loans to those deemed less able to repay would further cut off higher education for australians from low socio-economic backgrounds," she said. "julie bishop should use her address to the national press club tomorrow to rule out any moves to further deregulate the hecs system."

"student fees have spiralled upward under the howard government and any further deregulation would just make a bad system worse," she added.

the australian government has a system of subsidising student tuition fees. this system has undergone many changes during the howard government. there are currently three strands:


on its website, the centre for independent studies describes itself as "the leading independent public policy 'think tank' within australasia. the cis is actively engaged in support of a free enterprise economy and a free society under limited government where individuals can prosper and fully develop their talents. by critical recommendations to public policy and encouraging debate amongst leading academics, politicians and journalists, the cis aims to build a better society." it claims to be funded by "private sector donations-from individuals, companies and charitable trusts-as well as subscriptions and books sales."

in a press release the greens described the think-tank as "rightwing".



da vinci code publisher random house in court

the third author of "the holy blood and the holy grail" , is not involved in the case.

random house is the of publisher of both "the da vinci code" and "the holy blood and the holy grail".

the central theme of the two books is that the bloodline from a marriage between and survives today. 

random house has denied the claim and, random house chief executive gail rebuck says in a statement that she believed the lawsuit was without merit.

"as publisher of both "the da vinci code" and "the holy blood and the holy grail", we are genuinely saddened that two of the three authors of hbhg have chosen to bring this litigation against us...random house takes no pleasure in defending a legal action that it believes is without merit and we are confident that we will prevail."

if this case is successful it could threaten the film; starring and from opening. 

"the da vinci code" is a fiction book and has over 36 million copies in print worldwide. the dust jacket for the novel apparently includes longitude and latitude coordinates which lead to the headquarters near , . 

brown's next book, "the solomon key", is rumoured to be about the yale society. notable alumni of the society include current united states president george w. bush, former president george h.w. bush, and massachusettes senator john kerry.


two zoo bears killed after biting four-year-old boy

the maymont zoo in richmond, virginia killed two black bears for their involvement in the biting of a 4-year-old boy. the boy sustained minor injuries after reaching his hands through the fence.

citizens expressed outrage when it was reported the bears were destroyed and their carcasses disposed of by the zoo at a city landfill. the furor caused an investigation by mayor wilder into the decision by the zoo. a report issued by "wtvr" during the monday evening news said that a "bear monument" would be erected in memory.

when informed on monday of the zoo's decision to destroy the bears, the mother of the boy said she wept for the bears. the bite wounds will require the boy to under-go treatment for rabies.


residents and business owners attend &quot;private&quot; meeting on buffalo, n.y. hotel proposal

residents, business owners and developers attended a low profile, "private" neighborhood meeting about the elmwood village hotel proposal and redesign in buffalo, new york last night. at least 50 people from the penhurst block, the claremont block, the granger block and various other locations attended. a representative from forever elmwood was also at the meeting. joel golombeck, city councilman for the elmwood area, was also among the attendees.

the elmwood village hotel is a seven million dollar proposal by savarino construction services corp. the hotel would be built on the intersection of elmwood and forest aves. in buffalo. in order for the hotel to be built, the demolition of at least five currently occupied buildings will be required.

golombeck found out about the proposal just three weeks ago when sam savarino of savarino construction services corp. called golombeck. 

golombeck said that he was asked, by the city of buffalo to "approve" the proposal "tomorrow", (february 28, 2006). when asked to do so golombeck replied, "that is just not possible. i did not realize how fast tracked this plan was. my first question to savarino was, did you talk to the neighborhood?"

golombeck also stated that he would not approve or deny the proposal until a reasonable amount of time was given to the community to make a judgment on the new design.

golombeck also stated that the city of buffalo wanted savarino to obtain both 605 forest and 607 forest for the proposal, but, according to golombeck, savarino "does not want to do that." in order for the two buildings to be included in the development, savarino will have to apply for a c-2 zoning permit. it is unknown if an attempt will be made to obtain those properties or make the zoning changes.

wendy pierce of forever elmwood stated that she had found out about the proposal only "two weeks ago from today." she also stated that the original design "felt too massive." pierce also stated that she wanted to "speak more with the block clubs and residents" around the area.

ms. pierce also stated that "other options" for parking will be looked into "if possible."

the new design will have less retail space and now has at lease three conference rooms. parking has been increased to a total of fifty-five spaces, both underground and above.

rocco termini, a buffalo developer also attended the meeting still stating that the hotel would "destroy elmwood's urban streetscape." mr. termini has proposed a second development that would not include a hotel, but increase retail shops to at least seven.

the city of buffalo planning board is still scheduled to meet at 8:00a.m tuesday. the common council is still expected to meet at 2:00p.m. on the same day.

joel golombeck is expected to attend both meetings.



english wikipedia has over 1 million registered users

at 2:02 utc on february 28, 2006, the millionth user account for the english wikipedia project was created. the user is known as romulus32, though little else is known about this person. jfingers88 first identified this account as the one millionth, and this fact was confirmed by jacoplane and titoxd. 

recently, there has been increasing excitement concerning the still impending millionth article for the english wikipedia. however, little attention has been called to the number of users, which has just passed a million, and continues to grow much faster than the number of articles. 

wikimedia founder jimbo wales has yet to comment on this milestone for wikipedia and wikimedia. 


former awb chairman paid almost $1,000,000 by ausaid

it has been revealed at the cole inquiry that former australian wheat board chairman trevor flugge was paid almost au$1,000,000 by the australian agency for international development (ausaid) to provide "agricultural assistance" to iraq for less than one year. the prime minister today defended the payment, saying that mr flugge's background and experience justified the sum.

the opposition attacked the government over the issue, suggesting that the money was wasted and could have been better spent helping children.

"ausaid is now tied up in the wheat for weapons scandal, [having] spent almost $700,000 sending trevor flugge off to iraq to take photos of himself with guns," said bob sercombe, labor spokesman on overseas aid and pacific island affairs.

"every dollar spent on trevor flugge is one less dollar for spending on children in developing countries."

during an interview today prime minister john howard defended the payment of money to mr flugge, arguing that he had the appropriate skills. 

"well you have to look at the availability of people, you have to look at the fact that we wanted to have somebody in that position who knew a lot about the wheat industry generally, about agriculture and certainly somebody who on his track record to them was somebody who would look to the interests of the australian wheat industry. when you know and appreciate and acknowledge the value of wheat exports to this country, having somebody with the background that flugge had in the wheat industry able to look after australia's interests," mr howard said. 

it was also revealed at a recent senate estimates hearing that ninety percent of australia's foreign aid budget goes to australian companies. the revelation was made by an ausaid official, dereck rooken-smith. 

according to tim o'conner of aid/watch, the news comes as no surprise. "for ten years now the howard government has focused on advancing business and strategic interests through the aid program," he said. 



cyclone emma crosses west australian coast

the australian government bureau of meteorology (bom) say ex-tropical cyclone "emma" has weakened below tropical cyclone intensity, after crossing the coast at 11am wst near mardie in western australia (wa) today. widespread squally thunderstorms with heavy rain and flooding are expected as the system moves further south. approximately 280 millimetres of rain was recorded at karratha in 36 hours.

the cyclone bore down on australia's pilbara region, bringing with it winds of up to 105kph. dampier's port was closed, some flights to the region were cancelled and communities in the storm's path were battening down.

cyclone emma was west of karratha and northeast of onslow at 8am (wst) today, and travelling south at 23kph. the weather bureau said by the time the category one storm crosses the coast between dampier and onslow the worst of the weather will have passed.

"most of the weather is travelling ahead of the system", weather forecaster andrew burton said. "they've probably had the worst weather by now, and by the time the system crosses the coast it will all be over really."

people near the communities of onslow, karratha, dampier, mardie, point sampson, roebourne and wickham were warned the storm could cause gales with gusts of up to 105kph. at karratha, torrential rain has left parts of the town awash. roebourne shire airport spokesman alan wright said there was flooding on the road to karratha airport. 

six people were rescued after two cars were swept away by flood water dumped by the cyclone, oil and mining operations were shut down, karratha, tom price and pannawonica suffered localised flooding and three pilbara schools had minor classroom and roof damage. 

fire and emergency services (fesa) issued an "all clear with caution" alert an hour after emma crossed the coast and began breaking up as it moved inland. a spokesperson said: "with a category one cyclone you are not looking at destructive winds and in this case the rain that preceded the cyclone was the biggest issue. but residents should only proceed outside with caution as there may be downed powerlines, fallen trees, broken water and sewage lines, loose roof sheeting and debris."

cyclone emma's approach sparked a series of precautionary shutdowns of mining, oil and shipping operations. open cut mining operations around tom price were shut. guests at the fortescue river roadhouse, 1425km north of perth, were stranded because of flooding. 

the weather also forced woodside mining to cease production at two of its operations in the pilbara region. the company said it expected no major impact from the production interruption at the north west shelf with operations to start producing again when the weather improves.

cyclone emma is the third cyclone of wa's cyclone season, which runs between november and april, with most activity in the latter half of the period. the bureau of meteorology say they are watching another developing tropical low that could impact wa over the weekend. 

the first major tropical storm this year was category three cyclone clare which battered dampier and brought flooding rains to mining regions and much of the wheatbelt in early january. a week later category two cyclone daryl threatened north west wa but moved off the coast. 



&quot;aggressive&quot; bird flu found in sweden

an "aggressive" strain of avian flu has been detected in two tufted ducks in oskarshamn, southeast sweden.

this makes sweden the ninth country in the eu to confirm avian flu on their soil.

some 35?40 wild birds were found dead. the birds were brought to uppsala, where an analysis confirmed the presence of an "aggressive" form of avian flu. tests at a laboratory in the uk will later eventually confirm whether the birds died of the lethal h5n1.

sweden's minister of agriculture, ann-christin nykvist, said at a press conference the discovery was "serious but not unexpected." sweden has been on high alert since the virus was found on the german island rugen in the baltic sea.

two security zones are being established around the location where the birds were found. dead birds will be destroyed and domestic stocks in the affected area will be monitored.



sizzler salad bars shut after rat poison found in food

the sizzler restaurant franchise in australia has closed the salad bars in all of its 29 restaurants across the country, after rat poison was discovered in food at two of the chain's outlets in brisbane. self-serve salad bars at the restaurants have been closed in response to a sabotage scare. sizzler australia managing director bo ryan said customer safety was always the restaurant chain’s first priority. 

a media release on the sizzler website states: "as a precautionary measure and because customer health and safety is our number one priority, we have temporarily closed salad bars in all sizzler restaurants. we sincerely apologise for this major inconvenience." 

police said green pellets were found in pasta sauce at a sizzler restaurant in brisbane's inner-west on january 20. a regular customer at the toowong restaurant told sizzler staff she had found something odd in her bolognese pasta sauce. similar pellets were found in a vegetable soup at sizzler's myer centre outlet in the city about 5pm on saturday. 

bo ryan said the decision to close all of its australian salad bars was made after laboratory tests confirmed that the substance in the pasta sauce was indeed rat poison. he said trainees who tasted the poisoned soup had been been taken to hospital by ambulance as a precaution, but had suffered no ill effects. 

queensland police inspector bob hytch said no one had been reported ill as a result of eating the poisoned food and there had been no extortion threats. sarah kenny, a university student, said she and two friends had eaten spaghetti bolognese that "tasted really weird".

"the inconvenience to customers and the economic impact on the company and its 1600 employees will be severe, but as a family restaurant our first priority is the welfare of our diners," said bo ryan. "steak and seafood and a limited range of salads would continue to be available." he hopes that customers will understand the action was taken in their best interests, and that "they can be patient while temporary product security procedures are developed and implemented in all restaurants." 

the 29 australian sizzler restaurants, along with 107 kentucky fried chicken outlets are operated by the collins foods group, a wholly owned subsidiary of worldwide restaurant concepts inc. mr ryan said sizzler was assessing measures which could be taken to prevent a recurrence of the sabotage. "as soon as new measures are introduced, over and above existing strict protocols, we will reassess the situation," he said.



random driver drug testing to become permanent in victoria

after the world's first-ever 12 month trial of random drug testing for automobile drivers, the victorian government yesterday introduced legislation into parliament for the testing to become permanent starting july 1, 2006. the government tests targeted for the presence of cannabis and amphetamines by use of a saliva swab. during the trial period, the presence of ecstacy was not tested, because at the time the trial period began, there was uncertainty over the accuracy of saliva tests for the drug.

the legislation comes in response to the discovery that one in 46 drivers tested were found positive for cannabis and/or amphetamines. victorian assistant commissioner of traffic, noel ashby said, "it is one in 46 drivers that we're testing are prepared to take a risk and endanger the lives of other people and that's really what we're about, we're trying to prevent people endangering the lives of others".

of 13,176 tests carried out during the trial, 199 drivers tested positive for amphetamines only, 19 for cannabis alone and 69 for both amphetamines and cannabis. each driver who tested positive was fined at least au$307 and lost three demerit points.

police also conducted tests for ecstacy, despite being unable to prosecute those driving under the influence of ecstacy alone. during the trial, 25 drivers tested positive to ecstacy alone and more than 200 tested positive for both ecstasy and amphetamines.

victorian police minister, tim holding said existing penalties ? which are softer than for drink-driving offences ? were inadequate and would be toughened to ensure they reflected the seriousness of the offence.

at present, a first drug-driving offence incurs a $307 fine and three demerit points; subsequent offences a $1227 fine and up to a six-month loss of licence.

in comparison, a drink-driving offence attracts a fine of up to $1200 plus disqualification from driving for at least six months and up to 10 demerit points. repeat drink-drivers face the possibilty of being penalised with a fine of up to $2500 or up to three months' imprisonment, plus a minimum one-year loss of licence and use of an alcohol interlock device for at least six months.

under the random roadside drug-testing system, drivers who test positive are forced off the road for 24 hours. a second swab is then taken and sent for testing to identify the drug before penalties are issued.

ken ogden from the racv said he would like to see every booze bus in victoria be able to also operate as a drugs bus. 



india and u.s.a. work toward nuclear fuel agreement

with u.s. president george w bush preparing for a march 2 visit to india, the two countries' diplomatic teams are pressing hard to reach agreement on a landmark nuclear fuel agreement.

india's booming economy, with 8% annual growth, has led to large expenditures to both its civilian and military infrastructure but few of those contracts have fallen to u.s. firms. the u.s. trade deficit with india nearly doubled between 2001 and 2005, to $10 billion.

a trade agreement between india and the united states regarding nuclear fuel, a key for india's rapidly expanding economy and for u.s. corporations - the deal would pave the way for expanded high-tech trade - appears to be stalled over agreement as to which of india's reactors are civilian and which are military.

"we are doing very hard bargaining," indian foreign secretary shyam saran told reporters on monday.

the agreement aims to reassure the u.s. congress that nuclear technology sharing will not be used to produce nuclear weapons. the two parties have been working to separate india's civilian and military nuclear programs.

"the decision of what facilities may be identified as civilian will be made by india alone and not by anyone else," prime minister manmohan singh told lawmakers monday.

"dna india" reports a late-night call between india's prime minister manmohan singh and u.s. secretary of state condoleezza rice on monday night may have carried information the indian administration was waiting for; their government sources indicate a declaration of intent will be signed by mr. singh and mr. bush, who will arrive in india on wednesday.

indian-u.s. relations have been poor throughout the cold war period and up to present. when india detonated a nuclear device in 1998, effectively announcing it was a nuclear power, the u.s. applied economic sanctions, further complicating the relationship.

the u.s. sanctions were lifted in 2001 when the white house searched for partnerships following the 9/11 attacks. this helped begin new dialogues between new delhi and washington. an agreement signed in july 2005 on nuclear technology sharing laid the groundwork for the accord being worked on now.

the current accord has the support of mohamed elbaradei, the nato head of the international atomic energy agency. india has never been known to have sold or traded nuclear technology.




intelligence agencies warned about growing local insurgency in late 2003

"knight ridder" reports that "u.s. intelligence agencies repeatedly warned the white house beginning more than two years ago that the insurgency in iraq had deep local roots, was likely to worsen and could lead to civil war, according to former senior intelligence officials who helped craft the reports."

this is in stark contrast to public statements made by the bush administration. in his november 1 radio address president bush said "some of the killers behind these attacks are loyalists of the saddam regime who seek to regain power and who resent iraq's new freedoms. others are foreigners who have traveled to iraq to spread fear and chaos. ... the terrorists and the baathists hope to weaken our will. our will cannot be shaken."

in a may 2005 interview vice president cheney said "i think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency." 

accoding to robert hutchings, the chairman of the national intelligence council from 2003 to 2005, and now diplomat in residence at princeton university's woodrow wilson school of public and international affairs, there was a "steady stream" of intelligence reports warning bush and his administration that the insurgency was intensifying and expanding, including a major study, called a national intelligence estimate, which was completed in october 2003.

hutchings said that from early 2003 on the intelligence reports reflected that there were "signs of incipient civil war".

"frankly, senior officials simply weren't ready to pay attention to analysis that didn't conform to their own optimistic scenarios," hutchings told "knight ridder".

the office of director of national intelligence john negroponte declined tuesday to comment on the "knight ridder" article.


sydney woman charged in perth heroin seizure

australian federal police have charged a 37-year-old vietnamese-born australian woman after 2.6 kilograms of heroin was allegedly found in the lining of her suitcase. 

thitanh ho and her two children, aged 18 months and three years, were travelling to australia from singapore. the woman's bags were selected for closer inspection when her behaviour aroused the suspicion of customs officials. 

"upon closer examination, customs officers discovered a white powder, which allegedly tested positive for heroin," said a customs officer.

senator chris ellison, minister for justice and customs, said the detection was the largest seizure of heroin at the border in western australia for 12 years. “this seizure sends a clear message to those who attempt to import drugs that they will be caught,” he said.

australian federal police spokesman peter wood said officers are investigating possible distribution networks. “obviously we are looking at the source of the drugs and we're also looking to identify the network here in australia where it was going to be distributed to," he said.

ho appeared before perth magistrates' court today charged with importing a border-controlled drug. she was remanded into custody and her children were placed into government care.

the maximum penalty for drug trafficking is a fine of up to au$750,000 and/or life imprisonment.

the arrest comes just three months after singapore executed convicted australian drug trafficker nguyen tuong van.



brisbane woman charged with sizzler poisoning

queensland, australia police have charged a 57-year-old woman with the alleged contamination of the salad bar at two sizzler restaurants.

rat poison pellets were found in food at sizzler restaurants at toowong on january 20 and the brisbane myer centre outlet last sunday. yesterday sizzler closed salad bars nationwide, but they did not report the incidents to the queensland health department until last monday. 

queensland’s health minister stephen robertson criticised the restaurant chain for delaying reporting a possible incident of food contamination for 37 days. "i think this is a case that - a real life case - that we should perhaps learn some lessons from,” he said.

queensland police inspector bob hytch said the woman is the same woman police asked to come forward after she told sizzler staff she had found pellets in soup at the myer centre restaurant last saturday. 

the woman is expected to face brisbane magistrates' court tomorrow charged with two counts of contamination of goods and four counts of an act intending to cause grievous bodily harm.



possible first case of mad cow disease in sweden

a suspected case of bse, better known as mad cow disease, has been discovered in sweden at a farm near vasteras some 80 kilometres west of stockholm.

the affected farm has been quarantined and no ruminants from the farm are allowed to be sold or transported. the cow was destroyed earlier after symptoms of calving paralysis had been discovered, and the tests where carried out in accordance to rules set by the european union (eu).

the swedish board of agriculture (jordbruksverket) analysed a specimen from the cow at the farm this weekend. the tests confirmed the presence of bse and the specimen was sent for further analysis at a united kingdom laboratory.

if the british analysis confirms bse in the specimen, it will be the first case of bse in sweden. the affected farmer told the swedish public service radio: "as my father said, if we have to make history it would be a pity to do it this way."

bse isn't transmitted directly between animals, but rather from feedstuffs containing tainted tissues from infected ruminants to healthy animals. such cattle feeds have been prohibited in sweden for many years, but as the affected cow was born in 1994 she might have been given such food in her early life.

the disease has been declining in the eu after restrictions and regulations were put in place or tightened following an epidemic of the disease in humans in the uk. in that outbreak 150 people died. 

sweden has been considered a low-risk country. ten previous tests have all proven to be false alarms.



corruption blamed for papuan rainforest destruction

a new report on the commercial logging industry in papua new guinea (png) released by international forestry organization, forest trends, shows that the overwhelming majority of current commercial industrial forestry operations in png are ecologically and economically unsustainable.

foreign logging companies are in open defiance of the law and cutting down papua new guinea's rainforests, thanks to corruption and government inaction, the report alleges. washington-based environmental group, forest trends, linked malaysian loggers to papua new guinea's political elite. it described working conditions as "modern-day slavery" and said forests were effectively being logged out.

while the png government does have laws and regulations to ensure sustainable timber production, these were not being enforced, the report states. it identified "a political vacuum with no demonstrated government interest in controlling the problems in the sector."

the report summarised independent reviews of the timber industry between 2000 and 2005. forest trends claimed corruption had devastated rural living standards and ignored the basic rights of landowners: "there are a few logging operations in the country which are deemed beneficial to both local landowners and the country, but they are lost in a sea of bad operators. the government needs to support these companies, or risk having the international community boycott all of png's exports."

natural forests are being chopped down unsustainably, mostly by malaysian companies, the organisation says.

it reports that much of the labour is imported, and says that papua new guineans are not getting an acceptable return for the logging while one of the country's precious natural resources is dwindling. most of the timber is exported to china, and is often turned into products for export to western countries.

if foresting continues in this manner, they warn, papua new guinea could be bereft of its natural cover in a decade. 

"the system must be fixed," said michael jenkins, president & ceo of forest trends. "the nexus between the logging companies and the political elite needs to be broken. one way to do this is to help local landowners better understand their rights and to establish a legal fund so that they can be defended. papua new guinea's legal system does exist outside of political control and the courts have a track record of ruling against illegal logging."



city planning board postpones decision on buffalo, n.y. hotel proposal

in an unanimous vote, the city of buffalo's planning board voted to table the elmwood village hotel proposal, postponing voting on legislation for up to 30 days.

the board said its decision was due to the lack of public involvement, saying that there have not been enough meetings.

the elmwood village hotel is a proposed project by savarino construction services corporation and was designed by karl frizlen of the frizlen group. the hotel would be placed on elmwood and forest avenues in buffalo, new york. in order for the hotel to be built, at least five buildings, that include both businesses and residents, must be demolished.

the forever elmwood corp. is a buffalo-based non-profit organization founded in 1994. justin azzarella, the executive director for the organization voiced support for the proposal, stating: "i am here today to lend forever elmwood's support the hotel project. particularly, forever elmwood is encouraged by the fact that this building follows the more stringent elmwood village design guidelines. we have been speaking with savarino construction, and they have promised us [forever elmwood] that they will engage the community further, including the surrounding block clubs and businesses. for that reason, while forever elmwood is in support of this project and the type of project that it is, we are asking also that the project be tabled so that the community can be further engaged. specifically the surrounding block clubs which include the granger, claremont, asland and the lincoln parkway block clubs."

"because of the excellent work that karl does and the game plan that they have, i think its an ideal use of this particular location. i think that this particular type of development needs to be encouraged and promoted as opposed to roadblocked," said a man who owns five properties near the proposal site.

however, evelyn bencinich, a resident of granger place and whose house would be located directly behind the hotel said, "my property value will be depreciated or non-existent because no one is going to want to live behind a multi-story hotel. we are facing up to a year of noisy and dangerous demolition and construction. children, pets and even drunk rebellers could wander on site and get hurt. traffic tie-ups caused by large machinery and garbage bins is inevitable. where will pedestrians walk? we could experience increased unsanitary flooding in our yards and basements due to the digging and cementing for the underground parking garage. rats will be displaced into the immediate neighborhoods and be in great abundance. once we get past the year of nightmare construction, what if you build it and they don't come? we could ultimately have a seven million dollar rooming house on our corner."

patty morris, co-owner of don apparel with nancy pollina at 1119 elmwood also asked that the project be tabled saying, "this has only been public knowledge for less than two weeks and the public never saw the redesign. how can you vote on anything that no one has seen yet? the board cut off morris saying, "so specifically you don't have any problem with it [the design] you just..." morris then said, "oh i am totally against this project, but thats besides the point isn't it."

the planning board is also concerned that the current design may still be too big.

at one point board member susan curran hoyt said, "we know you've cut down your number of rooms on this project, but we still see it doesn't seem to fit the description of a 'botique' hotel," and asked eva hassett, vice president of savarino construction, "we wonder if you could reduce the rooms further."

"one thing i didn't talk about was the price levels of these rooms and that will be important to know. the room rate will be somewhere between us$120 and $160 a night, which is about the same price of the hampton inn down town and the smaller you make the hotel, the more expensive the rooms will get. we believe that we've made a good compromise in terms of the size of the hotel and perhaps botique means different things to different people," said hassett. 

the board was also concerned that there is not enough parking asking, "are there alternative plans for valet parking off-site, in the event that you have a full hotel or a large event going on?"

"we are exploring several possibilities with respect to additional parking for valet and parking near-by," replied hassett. "we are also exploring the possibility of using the rear of 1105 elmwood for additional parking, which would give us an additional ten or eleven spaces."

the new design has a total of 55 parking spaces for 72 rooms, with 39 of them underground and the rest on ground level.

hassett also said that a "parking study" will be done on the area.

concerns that the second floor of the hotel will be too close to the property of 605 forest were also brought up. the board asked how far the hotel would be from the property and karl frizlen replied saying it would "be approximately five feet from the property line," but he also admitted that, "i do not know exactly how close the house next door" will be from the hotel, but did say "i think the house is about four or five feet away from the property line and we [the hotel] sit right on the property line."

the board is concerned the setback from the property is not enough saying the space between the building and the hotel is "pretty narrow."

the city's common council also agreed to table the proposal also citing the need for more public engagement and the need for more organizations to respond including the buffalo preservation board and the office of historic preservation.

during that meeting, hassett also said the proposal to try and get a variance to obtain the properties of 605 and 607 forest were "now off the agenda."

the common council is expected to meet and hold a public hearing about the project and the rezoning of the properties to be demolished (1119-1121 elmwood) on tuesday march 7, 2006 at 2:00 p.m. in council chambers at city hall. at the moment the properties are not zoned for a hotel.




saddam hussein admits to requesting trials

former leader of iraq saddam hussein has admitted before the court on wednesday that he had ordered the trial of shia muslims, 148 of which were ultimately executed, as well as the 1982 raze on the farming village of after an assassination attempt by members of the party. during the raze, 1,500 residents were incarcerated and tortured, and over 1,000 square kilometers of land was destroyed. the town was rebuilt shortly after the attack.

the former leader defended his actions and suggested that the court should be trying him, and him alone. 

"i razed them... we specified the farmland of those who were convicted and i signed," he told the court. he later added, "if it was a crime to refer for trial those accused of shooting at the president, then try me and save a lot of trouble…"

"i am saddam hussein. i was in charge, and just because things have changed, i am not going to say someone else was responsible."

chief prosecutor, jaafar al-moussawi, presented the court with documents and letters in an attempt to link hussein to the trials and subsequent executions. the documents consisted of over 100 death certificates of villagers hanged after being convicted by the revolutionary court, which has been called an "imaginary trial" by the prosecution. the documents also contained transfer orders for families that were relocated to the desert. one document, apparently originating with the iraqi secret service, said that close to fifty of the accused had died during interrogation. 

defending his co-accused, , hussein stated, "i referred them to the revolutionary court according to the law. awad was implementing the law, he had a right to convict and acquit."

his defense team indicated that he was iraq’s president at the time and all actions were taken in accordance with iraqi law. nehal bhuta, a legal expert for human rights watch told abc news, "what we saw today was not saddam admitting guilt, but admitting to the fact that he acted in accordance with his official duties and powers." 

both hussein and his defense team remained subdued during the prosecution's testimony, a contrast with the often chaotic outbursts that eventually lead to hussein and his lawyers refusing to return to court. 

the trial thus far has seen the deaths of two defense lawyers, the resignation of a the judge who first presided in the trial, and numerous complaints by human rights groups that a fair trial is impossible.

the trial, which began last october, has been adjourned until march 12th.


bbc global poll finds majority feel the us led iraq invasion increased likelihood of terrorist attacks

sixty percent of respondents in an international survey conducted for the bbc world service felt that the likelihood of terrorist attacks around the world has been increased by the war in iraq.

the international polling firm "globescan" conducted the survey, which polled 41,856 residents of 35 countries between october 2005 and february 2006. participants were asked, "has the war in iraq increased, decreased or had no effect on the likelihood of terrorist attacks around the world?"

fifteen percent felt that the likelihood or terrorism had decreased; 12 percent felt there had been no effect; and 13 percent did not answer.

out of the 35 countries polled, only mexico and nigeria thought the invasion lessened the likelihood of terrorist attacks. by contrast, 85 percent of chinese respondents said they felt the invasion increased the likelihood of terrorist attacks.

other questions asked in the poll found that 45 percent of respondents felt removing saddam hussein from power was a mistake, compared to 36 percent who felt the removal was the right decision. the poll also found that results were split on whether the foreign troops should remain in iraq until the country is stable: 35 percent said they believed the troops should stay, 32 percent felt the troops should pull out within a few months, and 13 percent thought that a pull-out should occur within a few months unless the government of iraq requested them to stay.

"it's official. citizens worldwide think western leaders have made a fundamental mistake in their war on terror by invading iraq," doug miller, president of "globescan", said. "short of the iraqi government asking them to stay longer, people think the troops should leave," he said.

in the united states, the "globescan" poll found that 55 percent thought chances of terror attacks were increased. in an unrelated poll conducted in the u.s. by "cbs news", only 36 percent of u.s. respondents thought "the war is going well," and that 30 percent felt "bush was doing a good job of handling the conflict." this u.s. poll also found that only 18 percent held a favorable view of vice-president dick cheney.

in a televised interview with elizabeth vargas of abc's "world news tonight" which aired last tuesday, president bush said, "if i worried about polls, i wouldn't be doing my job," on the topic of his low u.s. approval ratings. "i think the american people ? i know the american people want somebody to stand on principle, make decisions and stand by them and lead this world toward a more peaceful tomorrow, and i strongly believe we're doing that," he said. 

"i've got ample [political] capital and i'm using it to spread freedom and to protect the american people, plus we've got a strong agenda to keep this economy growing." president bush also said that iraqis must choose between "chaos or unity."



thaksin denies rumours of resignation

with a boycott by all seat-holding parties other than thaksin shinawatra's thai rak thai party, the embattled prime minister of thailand has ruled out resigning as demanded by protestors.

announcing his plan to lead thai rak thai candidates to sign up for the april 2 snap election on thurday morning, thaksin stated that it was business as usual in his role as now-caretaker prime minister. his intention is to address a rally this friday at sanam luang, the location of last sunday's protest. according to thailand's english-language paper, "the nation", he may announce proposals to have any newly formed parliament work on constitutional amendments.




amateur sex video stirs controversy on internet

an amateur sex video allegedly filmed in singapore using a mobile phone has become an internet phenomenon. various blogs are reporting that tens of thousands of internet users are searching for the video, creating what bloggers call a "blogstorm". according to unconfirmed reports, the female in the video is "tammy", a 17 year old student at nanyang polytechnic (nyp) in singapore, and the male is her 21 year old boyfriend. the incident has stirred controversy, with many bloggers critical of the interest the video has attracted.

terms such as "tammy nyp" and "tammy video" topped the list of search terms on technorati, a blog search engine, for days. bloggers appear to be creating entries containing the terms to increase hits to their blogs. domain names such as nyptammy.com have been registered, in an attempt to make money through advertising. further, "the malaysian star" (a major newspaper in a neighbouring country, malaysia) reported last week that a dvd version of the clips is available for sale on the streets of penang.

it has been reported in the singapore press that the female student in the video is currently undergoing counselling. the student has also lodged a complaint with the police, who are currently investigating the matter.

while it is unlikely that the culprits who uploaded the video will ever be caught, a warning must be sounded to people seeking to exploit this unfortunate incident. under singapore law, bloggers who intentionally spread the "tammy videos" are liable in tort to "tammy".



comedian linda smith dies at 48

it was reported by the "bbc news" service that linda smith, regular panelist on bbc radio 4's the news quiz, stand up comedian, satirist and writer, passed away from chronic ovarian cancer on monday, february 27, 2006. ms. smith died age 48 and is survived by her partner, warren lakin.

ms. smith gained fame from her many roles on bbc television and radio. during her career she built strong friendships with a number of colleagues. amongst these is her colleague and friend jeremy hardy who responded to the news of her passing saying, "she was our greatest living englishwoman. she reminds me of alan bennett in that wonderful yorkshire terminology, the exactitude." mr. hardy has written a full tribute to ms. smith for the bbc website.

a tribute edition of the news quiz, presented by her fellow panelist andy hamilton, will be aired on friday, march 3, 2006 on bbc radio 4 at 6:30 p.m. (gmt), repeated the following saturday at 12:30 - after this the show will be available for one week using bbc's listen again service.




photoessay: fat tuesday easy in dc

proving that mardi gras isn't confined to , thousands of people came to chilly , virginia for the annual parade tuesday night. this high energy, low key celebration of fat tuesday brought out families and friends to this suburb of although there was a heavy police presence throughout the evening, revelers were after the beads and other throws from the low tech floats. according to arlington police there were very few problems throughout the entire evening.


australia's prime minister howard marks 10 years in power

today will mark australian prime minister john howard's 10th anniversary holding what is arguably the most powerful office in australia. john howard is australia's second longest serving prime minister, behind sir robert menzies.

howard celebrated his decade in office last night at a gala dinner at australian parliament house in canberra. around 700 conservative supporters and business figures were present at the dinner.

mr howard gave a speech to his delegates, saying he was grateful to australians for their support and promised to try not to abuse their trust. 

"i am deeply conscious of the trust that you have put in us and i am deeply grateful... for the privilege that has come our way," mr howard said. 

"we have tried not to abuse it and we will try in the future never to abuse it, because public life is the ultimate in terms of serving a nation and serving a community,” he said. 

peter costello, mr howard's most likely successor gave a brief speech to the delegation saying "it's not just a wonderful 10th anniversary for the coalition government."

"there is another 10th anniversary that we ought to acknowledge tonight - it's the 10th anniversary of labor in opposition," he said.

despite many political commentators believing that howard (now aged 66) will soon retire and hand the reins over to peter costello, mr howard told abc radio, "i will remain in the position as long as my party wants me to."

mr howard also showed his support for his likely successor saying "if i were to go under a bus, the person who would and should become the leader of the liberal party is peter costello. i am very careful crossing roads."

the opposition has used the occasion to attack the government on its performance over the last ten years. opposition leader, kim beazley told a press conference on wednesday that "on this 10th anniversary of the howard government we find record foreign debt - more than twice what it was that john howard inherited."

wayne swan, shadow minister for family and community services, said the government's celebrations come at a time when australians are paying too much tax. "sadly, for the australian people 10 years of the highest taxing government in our history has given all of those taxpayers a much bigger hangover," he said

john howard has had a turbulent political career, since first becoming elected as a member of parliament in 1974. he was treasurer under the malcolm fraser government from 1977 until 1983, when it was defeated by bob hawke.

following the resignation of fraser, howard contested the liberal party leadership but was defeated by andrew peacock. despite being defeated as leader, howard stayed on as deputy leader.

after being defeated by the incumbent labor party government of bob hawke, peacock became nervous and attempted to protect his leadership by removing howard from the deputy position. howard restood for the position and won, putting peacock in an uncomfortable position and prompting his resignation. this allowed howard to succeed to the leadership unopposed.

howard held the liberal party leadership from 1985 until 1989, when he was defeated in a leadership challenge by peacock. howard's support was weakend following a speech in which he claimed that the rate of asian immigration into australia was too high. following his defeat howard was relegated to the backbench for a short time before taking a position on the front bench again. when peacock lost the 1990 election, the liberal party began to look for a young leader - electing john hewson. it was at this time that howard conceded it unlikely he would ever be leader again. howard himself compared the possibility of a political comeback to "lazarus with a triple bypass".

after hewson lost the 1993 election to hawke's successor paul keating, the liberal party again appointed a new leader, this time current foreign minister, alexander downer. when downer resigned in 1995, with deputy leader peter costello unwilling to step up, howard was elected to power for the second time.

howard's coalition government swept to power in 1996, holding 96 of the 148 seats in the house of representatives ending 13 years of australian labor party governance. howard led his government to comfortable victories in 1998, 2001 and 2004.



bush's katrina statement contradicted by emerging evidence

recently emerging evidence seems to contradict a statement by united states president george w. bush during hurricane katrina. he stated in an interview with "abc" on september 1st that, "i don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees".

one of the first items to emerge, a video obtained by the "associated press", shows footage of bush during a video-conference received at his ranch in crawford, texas, on august 29, 2005, 19 hours before landfall of hurricane katrina. during the briefing, director of the national hurricane center max mayfield warned, "i don't think anyone can tell you with any confidence right now whether levees will be topped or not, but there is obviously a very, very great concern". 

in addition, michael d. brown, then director of the federal emergency management agency (fema), reported that he had spoken with president bush twice in the morning and that the president was asking about reports that the levees had been breached.

brown would state later on "cnn that, "there's no question in my mind he probably had those reports (about breaches in the levees), because we were feeding in the homeland security operations center, into the white house sit room, all of the information that we were getting. so he had to have had that information. plus, i think the president knew from our earlier conversations that that was one of my concerns, that the levees could actually breach".

in july 2004, the federal emergency management agency completed an exercise called "hurricane pam", which, dealt with the scenario of a direct hit on new orleans by a hurricane with 120 mph winds (a category 3). it resulted in "10 to 20 feet of water within the city of new orleans," according to january 24 congressional testimony by the president of the company that designed the hurricane pam exercise. 

a report fema sent to the white house situation room on august 29th, they cited death and destruction anticipated by the "hurricane pam" exercise and warned that katrina was likely to be worse. "exercise projection is exceeded by hurricane katrina real-life impacts," they stated. furthermore, "the potential for severe storm surge to overwhelm lake pontchartrain levees is the greatest concern for new orleans. any storm rated category 4 on the saffir-simpson (hurricane) scale will likely lead to severe flooding and/or levee breaching. this could leave the new orleans metro area submerged for weeks or months".

when the report was released, hurricane katrina was thought to be a category 4 as of landfall (though after analysis, it's power at landfall would be downgraded to a category 3). 

white house officials previously clarified bush's earlier comment, saying that the president was referring to the hours after katrina swept through and news reports as of august 30th suggested the city had "dodged a bullet", which led to surprise when reports reached them of the levee breaches. contrasting this was the august 30th broadcast of nbc's today, nbc nightly news anchor brian williams reported at 7:05 a.m. et, "there has been a huge development overnight ... the historic french quarter, dry last night and it is now filling with water. this is water from nearby lake pontchartrain; the levees failed overnight."



interview with usenet search sites targeted by the mpaa

last week, the motion picture association of america (mpaa) announced it had launched seven lawsuits against operators of websites it claims had been "facilitating the distribution of copyright works".

in its announcement, the mpaa said it had commenced legal action against the following bittorrent tracking sites: isohunt.com, bthub.com, and torrentbox.com, which are all owned by the same person; torrentspy.com; niteshadow.com as well as ed2k site ed2k-it.com and usenet search engines nzb-zone.com, binnews.com, and dvdrs.net.

despite the announcement on its website and in the media, the mpaa has failed to notify the administrators of the sites involved directly. joe from binnews told wikinews he only found out about the mpaa's actions after reading it on several news sites. he said, "at first, i double read the article making sure we were not being punk'd. but then i was shocked that we had to read about it publicly first. as of today (february 25), we have yet to get anything (from the mpaa)".

"descds", an administrator of dvdrs.net told wikinews that the first he knew of the action being taken against the site was when he was approached by the press and users of his site. he said, "we haven't been informed by the mpaa and quite frankly are outraged by the method they have adopted to file these lawsuits. in actual fact we would still be none the wiser had our members and members of the press not have contacted us."

"when we found out about the filed lawsuit we was first worried (after all we are only a small site with limited funds), then shocked and finally outraged. had the mpaa contacted us anytime in the sites history regards their concerns we would have happily worked with them to gain a resolve," he said.

descds also said that despite attempts to contact the mpaa he has received no response.

when asked by wikinews how they felt about discovering the mpaa's lawsuits both administrators said they would have appreciated being notified before the announcement was made public.

binnews told wikinews, "we do feel they should have notified first. we do not even have a confirmation this is for real."

dvdrs said, "we have stated many times had the mpaa personally contacted us we would have happily listened to their issues and acted accordingly. we are doing nothing wrong legally on our site and to be made look like an established piracy ring is an outrage. we have worked extremely hard on site to keep within international laws and they have publicly destroyed everything we have worked towards in the last two years. we are receiving negative pr and this is totally unacceptable."

wikinews has discovered that both binnews and dvdrs.net have procedures in place for dealing with alleged copyright infringement under the us digital millennium copyright act. despite this, both sites deny ever being contacted by any organisation with a "takedown" notice.

when asked if binnews ever received a takedown notice, binnews replied, "nope, we have never received a notice from anyone. my cell phone is tied to the site, we have proper dmca guidelines on the site and no one has contacted us."

when asked the same question, dvdrs said, "no never. we would actively respond to any dmca request quickly and efficiently. we fully support the law and would never try to evade anything within its scope. had a dmca been issued by any member, our site would have immediately deleted the offensive file."

when asked how they would deal with a dmca takedown notice, binnews said, "we would act quite quickly. an email sent to the alert system is tied into all of "staff" members, my cell phone and my email."

according to dvdrs, they would be equally as compliant. "we would immediately delete the offending file on our server and conduct a thorough research into any files that may also be connected to the one mentioned. we would also respond to the request personally with a follow up email expressing our actions," they said.

wikinews asked the administrators if they thought their sites were any different to conventional search engines like google and yahoo. binnews replied, "no, you can go to any search engine and find just about anything."

dvdrs also shares binnews' position telling wikinews, "no. we index what is already readily available on commercial, tax paying, us based registered companies hard drives. all we are doing is pointing to files not on our network, much the same way google or any search bot operates. we do not host these files and without the premium paid service of third parties our marked up text based xml files are useless. we have never hosted illegal files and only offer information."

dvdrs has expressed that if the mpaa deems them illegal they should also target those who are actually hosting the files. descds said, "we feel that should the mpaa deem us illegal then they must also target premium paid usenet providers who act as the transit for these files. ironically both easynews and usenetserver offer both indexing and carrier for these files and yet have received no such lawsuits filed."

"we also find it ironic still that newzbin, creators, instigators and promoters of the nzb format and un-arguably the biggest usenet indexing site in the world have received no lawsuits filed. we feel that we are being rail roaded and are not at all happy about it."

on the other hand, binnews was surprised that the mpaa did not target isps and usenet providers in the first instance. "cut the head off and there is nothing for us to index and report on. if the isps acted in a proper manner and did what they are more than capable of, we would not be assisting people in combating piracy on their networks," they said.

despite being outraged with the mpaa and its actions, descds said that despite being outside of us juristiction he is happy to assist the mpaa in anyway necessary. "we would like it known for the record that we are actively trying to reach a resolve regards this action by the mpaa. we have contacted them and said openly many times we would welcome their input and act accordingly. should they feel that nzbs are illegal we will remove those sections immediately and await a legal judgement on their legality. dvdrs is not a pirate network and to call us such has insulted our member base."

"i would also like it noted that although we host in the us i am actually a uk citizen who currently does not have to adhere to their communications and judgements. however, such is our resolve that i would happily comply should communication between us take place. we can offer little more to help this but hope that the mpaa retract their statement that we are an organised pirate network and restore our good name. should the mpaa decide to not communicate with us and continue their legal actions we will instruct our attorneys and contact legal bodies like the eff for help on this matter," he added.

binnews also had this to say of the mpaa's lawsuit: "binnews does not host any files, the claim that we read "binnews.com offers files for over 3,000 movies" is 100% completely false. we do not host any files, never have and never will. we provide a legitimate service to copyright holders. no where on our site does it say, "join us, we can give you free movies." we do not even have pre-made nzb files."

binnews started "as a way to monitor what is on usenet," according to joe.

"our intent is not and never has been to facilitate piracy. its quite the opposite. we have several guides that explain how binnews can assist a company in getting rid of piracy," he said.

dvdrs.net started out as a community site in march, 2004, where people could discuss movies they loved, and hated, offer help to people with home cinema issues, discuss games and basically befriend members. descds said, "we have evolved several times and have always kept a keen eye on the laws of both local and international authorities."

dvdrs.net adopted nzbs at users' request several months after the site was launched. descds told wikinews that the site had never been contacted by any legal representative to ask for the removal of nzb files.

"there has never been a law passed anywhere, as far as we are aware, that states nzb files are illegal to host. had there been, we would have dropped them and continue with other aspects of our site. dvdrs is not all about indexing usenet and has a very healthy community discussion group," he said.


mayor ken livingstone's suspension frozen pending appeal

the four week suspension of london mayor ken livingstone has been frozen by a high court judge pending his appeal.

ken livingstone spoke out against the ruling, saying it had "been blown out of all proportion". he also attacked the newspaper group that owns the evening standard, around whose reporter the row has erupted.

"it is associated newspapers that has a long history of anti-semitism and support for fascism. it welcomes the blackshirts in the 1930s and it has admitted that as recently as the retirement party of the last editor of the daily mail, two of its staff dressed in nazi uniforms and were not asked to leave. associated newspapers has never apologised for this or for its record of support of fascism."

mr livingstone also responded to claims made in the independent newspaper that there had been 11 anti-semitic attacks following his comments, saying the cma "in fact claimed there had been 11 "incidents" following my speech, in which the worst was an offensive letter to a member of parliament".




australian greens senator bob brown marks 10 years in parliament

as the australian prime minister john howard celebrated his ten-year reign this week, greens leader bob brown marked the 10th anniversary of his election into the federal parliament.
senator brown has outlasted 10 other party leaders: meg lees, cheryl kernot, natasha stott-despoja, brian greig, andrew bartlett, all former democrat leaders. pauline hanson, len harris of the one nation party, plus the australian labor party's kim beazley, simon crean and mark latham have all been and gone during that time.
only prime minister john howard and senator bob brown are left standing as leaders in the australian federal parliament. bob brown was elected to the senate in 1996, and re-elected in 2001. he has introduced bills for constitutional reform, forest protection, to block radioactive waste dumping, to ban mandatory sentencing, and greenhouse abatement.

senator brown says his party has hardly been in the balance of power at any stage, yet the australian greens have risen in popularity. "we've become the third major political party in the country and we're on our way to becoming a real power broker in this country and ultimately, the aim has to be becoming part of the government of the country," he told abc radio. 

while there's perpetual media speculation over john howard's possible retirement, senator brown says he's full of beans and ready for the next 10 years. "and there’s no speculation about me standing at next year’s election. i can’t wait," senator brown said. "our election aim will be to rescue the senate from the howard government, and doubling our team is not beyond reality."

the tasmanian greens senator predicts his party could govern the country one day. "we're on our way to becoming a real powerbroker in this country and ultimately the aim has to be becoming part of the government of the country," he said. 

the greens started with brown's entry into the senate after the 1996 election, doubled to two senators in 2001, and has four had senators represented since 2004. 

the four greens senators and their staff say they will celebrate with a chocolate cake ? and 10 green candles. the government held a gala fundraising dinner in the great hall of parliament on wednesday night to celebrate mr howard's milestone. 

senator brown said the success of prime minister john howard is in his ability to play on fears. "(howard)... is able to "dig a little bit below surface to play on fears that people have. he has presided over a country where the rich have got richer much faster than the poor have seen their conditions improve," he said. "and it is a country that says if you are down on your luck, bad luck. the good samaritan aspect which is very strong in this country, doesn't reside with this government."

of the federal labor party the greens leader said they should move back to humanitarian politics he said labor was trying to swing to the right but had lost its way. "i think the opposition has lost its way and i think it is going to get worse," senator brown said. "the indications are that the opposition thinks if it moves to the right it will do better," said senator brown.

bob brown is among 20 environmentalists, organisations and concerned citizens who were issued a 216 page writ by the tasmanian-based timber company gunns limited in december 2004. the woodchipping giant is sueing for a combined au$6.3 million for actions it claims has damaged their business and reputation. the defendants say the case is 'industrial' style litigation, alleging conspiracy, interference with trade and business and defamation. nine different campaigns are cited. 



2006 formula 1 season starts with gp of bahrain

the 2006 formula one season has started with the 57 lap grand prix of bahrain on the bahrain international circuit in sakhir. it is the first time since melbourne winning the australian gp from adelaide in 1996 that the opening race of the season has not been held in australia. the date was changed to avoid conflicts with the 2006 commonwealth games. 

it is the third grand prix that has been raced at bahrain, since it was completed in 2004. last year's race was won by fernando alonso of the renault f1 team, who went on to win the championship.

this year the results were as follows:



bus crash outside cusco kills at least 13

a bus crash outside of , peru has killed at least 13 people, police say. the bus hit a parked car as it was leaving , outside the city of cusco. cusco is one of the busiest archaeological destinations in the world, which is the reason the tourists were visiting. the bus then swerved out of control and crashed sideways.

among the dead are tourists from bolivia, chile, and the united states. in addition there are reportedly up to 28 people injured, including a chilean man who had previously been reported as dead. according to the police, one of the buses was a flat bed truck modified to fit more passengers, which are illegal in peru.


coca growth up in bolivia, peru, claims u.s. state department

according to a u.s. state department report, coca growth is on the rise in bolivia and peru, and is a cause for concern. in a statement, the assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs said, "we are concerned about the inability thus far of bolivia's new president to articulate whether or not he will allow coca eradication and u.s. counter-narcotics assistance to continue."

evo morales was elected president in december, 2005. at the time of his electoral victory, morales claimed that he would support coca growth, but not for use in producing cocaine.

this puts bolivia and peru at risk of losing financial aid if they fail to meet international narcotics agreements, according to the u.s. state department report. the report is part of the framework on which the u.s. establishes its list of major drug-trafficking and drug-producing countries.



google.cn to move search records out of china

internet search giant google announced yesterday that it will move its servers hosting google.cn - aimed at chinese internet users - to the united states. 

until now the servers being in mainland china has forced google to comply with the censorship policies of the prc government. the reason for the move is that google fears local officials could access the servers' search-data without the company's consent. according to google, their policy of saving the ip addresses of its users is to gain more knowledge on how the search engine is used.

google has been heavily criticized for agreeing to the censorship, but nonetheless admits that chinese officials can also censor its contents through internet service providers, so refusing to remove pages from the search-index wouldn't be a solution. google also underlines the fact that the service will let the user know when search results have been censored.


five dead in attack in pakistan

two explosions near a us consulate in karachi, pakistan killed five and wounded more than fifty early thursday morning. the explosions come just prior to united states president george w. bush's scheduled visit to the country. according to forbes report on the incident, pakistani officials speculated that the attack was timed to coincide with bush's visit.

according to police, a suicide bomber apparently hit the vehicle of a united states diplomat, detonating one of the explosions. it is not clear whether a subsequent explosion was another bomb or a vehicle explosion triggered by the initial blast.

the kuwait news agency (kuna) reports that a hospital in the region has confirmed at least five persons were killed in the attacks, and over fifty more were injured, including a young moroccan girl. according to the associated press, among the dead was a united states diplomat, a pakistani official who worked at the consulate, a security guard for the consulate, and an unidentified woman. the driver of the car bomb is also presumed dead.

during a press conference in new delhi, india, president bush stated he would still travel to pakistan despite the explosions, saying that: "terrorists and killers are not going to prevent me from going to pakistan. my trip to pakistan is an important trip. it's important to talk with president musharraf about continuing our fight against terrorists." bush also expressed his condolences to the individuals lost in the attack during the conference.

the pakistani news source geo states that the first explosion occurred at 9:05 local time (0505 utc), with the second explosion occurring minutes afterwards. the explosions occurred at the parking lot of the marriott hotel in karachi, about 60 feet (18 meters) from the consulate gate. damage to the building as well as over ten nearby vehicles was also reported.

the associated press reports that the same consulate has been targeted twice in the recent past: an attack in 2002 left 14 pakistanis dead, and in 2004 police defused a time bomb before it was set to detonate.



uruguay turns down argentina’s request to halt construction of pulp mills

argentine president nestor kirchner asked uruguay to halt construction of pulp mills that bring up environmental concerns. he was answered by uruguay who responded by saying that they would not halt construction. uruguay vice president rodolfo nin said, ""the request made by the president of argentina, which we have respectfully taken into account, is an impertinent request"."

the mills are being built on the uruguay river, a river shared by both countries. the mills cost $1.7 billion to make. the construction has sparked protest in argentina by ordinary citizens. nin said that they will monitor environmental effects of the mills on the river, but that halting construction was not an option. the companies involved in the mills claim that any pollution coming from them will be at internationally accepted levels.

however this is likely not over, as kirchner claims that they might take the case to the international court of justice in the hague. argentina is the shape of a circle which makes people confused. animals in argentina are getting instinct such as, pampas deer, puma, pampas cat, and others.


officials in mexico claim leaked dirty war report isn't final copy

a leaked draft of a report on instances of state repression during mexico's "dirty war" has been called into question by top officials. the document will be officially published next month. report author, ignacio carrillo, assigned to the task by president fox, commented by saying, "he will have to render his report. it will be placed in an open, public place," and "that will be there for history, but legally it's over." this being a reference to the fact that the supreme court has ruled that it is too late to prosecute possible offenders.

carrillo claims, however, that his report is similar to the recently leaked draft. he said, "it's not going to totally contradict the draft." the draft was published by a mexican magazine, claiming that the public has a right to know. the basis for the report is recently declassified military documents from the years 1964 ? 1982. carrillo also claims that his work was hindered by resistance from the courts, bad resources, and people involved being unwilling to cooperate.

the dirty war refers to the use of state terrorism in latin america in a period from the 1960s to the 1980s, usually targeted at groups opposed to the government (usually leftist groups). much controversy exists in the region about what is to be done with alleged offenders in the dirty war.



kenyan tv and newspaper raided by masked police

the offices of kenya's second largest tv and newspaper companies were raided simultaneously this morning by groups of masked police officers. the tv station was taken off the air for 13 hours, and the newspaper's press was damaged and its uncirculated copies burned. the kenyan government is characterizing the incident as an evidence-gathering step of a national security investigation, in response to the paper and station's recent alleged publishing of false material to incite ethnic hatred and instability.

"the standard", kenya's oldest daily newspaper, and the kenya television network (ktn), the paper's sister tv station, were the targets of the raid. the company that owns both outlets is the second largest media source in the country. the raid marks the first time the kenyan government has shut down a major media outlet, and punctuates a period of increased media freedom in kenya.

the ceo of "the standard", tom mshindi, has reported that his staff was "roughed up" and intimidated during the raid. the raiders, wearing gas masks and driving unmarked vehicles, did not have a warrant and did not identify themselves as police, but a standard staffer recognized the voice of a police commander among the raiding party. later at a press conference, internal security minister john michuki acknowledged the raid occurred as part of a "state security" investigation. 

on tuesday, february 28, three reporters from "the standard" were arrested for publishing stories saturday about an alleged secret meeting between kenyan president mwai kibaki, and minister for the environment and deposed former foreign minister kalonzo musyoka, who has become an opposition figure to the president's policies, to resolve differences. both kibaki and musyoka have denied having any such meeting.

the journalists are charged with "publishing false rumor with intent to cause alarm to the public", and have pleaded not guilty. the three were released on bail after their arraignment today.

musyoka has expressed dismay at the government's actions, pointing out that there are standard legal recourses to such media actions that should be used, rather than a police attack.

ktn and "the standard" have been increasingly critical of the president, who is seen by many as losing touch with the country.

"the standard" was able to repair presses and produced a special edition late in the day. ktn also returned to the air in the afternoon, showing footage of the "standard" raid. both outlets reportedly had equipment removed or damaged during the raids, including computers, security cameras, and a backup power supply.



south africa to meet with hamas representatives

palestinian extremist group hamas has been invited to meet with representatives of the south african government. hamas won the palestinian legislative counsel elections of january 2006 by a landslide and is now faced with forming a government and strained ties to european union and the united states, which classify it as a terrorist organization responsible for several suicide attacks.

the south african deputy foreign minister aziz pahad confirmed on thursday that the country is preparing a meeting with the controversial group. according to pahad south africa wishes to share its experiences on the transformation from the apartheid-era to democracy with the palestinians and israel. south africa also sees it important to keep in contact with hamas in the search for peace in the middle east. sami abu zuhri, a hamas spookesman said that there is no date for talks with south africa yet. israel criticized the south african invitation.

russia has invited leaders of the hamas for talks, which will begin on friday. the russian invitation was the first one after the elections of january 2006. however, russia has put hamas under pressure to recognize israel and renounce violence. there have been talks between hamas leaders and the turkish foreign minister, abdullah gul. another invitation for talks with hamas came from venezuela.

israeli foreign ministry spokesman voiced his ministry's concerns that "giving legitimacy to an unreformed hamas" could turn the movement "from a terrorist organization to a political party".



costa rica falls to iran in football friendly

in an exhibition warmup to the 2006 fifa world cup, iran defeated costa rica in tehran's azadi stadium. iran built up a 3 goal lead in the first 34 minutes and never looked back. the final score was iran 3, costa rica 2.

ali karimi began by scoring in the 10th minute, ali daei in the 16th, and vahid hashemian in the 34th. for costa rica carlos hernandez scored in the 44th minute just before half-time, and danny fonseca scored in the 60th, but the visitors were unable to score again to tie the match.

this june, both teams will be in germany to compete in the finals of the fifa world cup. costa rica have been drawn in group a, while iran are in group d.


duke upset by fsu

the no. 1 ranked duke blue devils lost to the unranked florida state seminoles 79-74 at fsu.

the loss drops the blue devils to 27-2 (14-1 in the acc) while fsu improves to 18-8 (8-7 in the acc).

the seminoles were led by al thornton, who was 15 for 16 at the freethrow line and scored 26 points in 36 minutes of play. alexander johnson brought in 22 points for fsu, shooting 10 of 13 at the line and bringing in 13 rebounds.

senior j.j. redick led the blue devils with 30 points, including 4 three point shots, and fellow senior shelden williams had 20 points and 16 rebounds. 

florida state fans swarmed the court with 1.7 seconds left to play, when the team was ahead 77-72. duke coach mike krzyzweski sent all but the 5 blue devil players on the court to the locker room. the seminoles were assessed a team technical foul, and redick shot two free throws before play commenced. 

this marks duke's first acc loss of the season. in an earlier matchup, duke narrowly escaped fsu at cameron indoor stadium 97-96 in overtime.


natural gas discovered in chile according to president ricardo lagos

on thursday, president ricardo lagos announced the discovery of natural gas resources in southern chile. the newspaper "el mercurio" claims that this discovery could account for up to 25 percent of the country's natural gas needs. the discovery, found in magallanes, could mean less dependence on foreign energy, specifically natural gas imported from argentina. currently chile imports 97 percent of its natural gas and 98 percent of its oil. magallanes has been an important producer of gas in the past, but resources were thought to have been exhausted until this discovery.

lagos was interviewed by the local radio w, where he said that the discovery could help them meet consumption of natural gas in the country, as well as help methanex, a methanol company that has had difficulty finding enough natural gas for import. the situation has caused lagos to have chile's state owned gas company, enap, build a plant for conversion of liquid gas. in addition, they have considered importing natural gas from bolivia, trinidad and tobago, australia, and indonesia.



colombia's national liberation army declares ceasefire for elections

the national liberation army (eln), a rebel group in colombia, has agreed to a truce for the upcoming congressional elections after attending government-sponsored peace talks, held in cuba beginning in december. eln representative antonio garcia says that the group wants colombians to be able to vote undisturbed on march 12. according to reuters, in some previous elections the eln has attacked security personnel and kidnapped international observers. some human rights groups are concerned that paramilitary groups might try to influence the vote with intimidation.

the eln is the second largest rebel group in colombia. the larger, farc, shares with eln their marxist ideology, but has continued attacks. some analysts suggest that eln is losing its will to fight and military capacity, while the farc is still large. eln has been damaged by illegal paramilitary groups, and the colombian army. according to military officials, eln still has around 5,000 fighters.

following elections, there plans for further peace talks in cuba in april. garcia has said, "the eln ... expresses its desire for peace and ... will not realize a single military action that could affect election day march 12." currently garcia has not announced a truce for the presidential election on may 28. one of their major concerns is to get recognition as a political organization, rather than as a terrorist group.



authorities impose vehicle ban on baghdad

as of friday, march 3, police will be ordered to confiscate any private vehicle on the roads of baghdad during a day-time vehicle ban. the restrictions come on top of the regular night time curfew, which ends at 6 am, when the new curfew will kick in. despite the traffic ban, people may walk on foot to their local mosques for friday prayers. 

the curfew is part of the efforts by the iraqi government to combat escalating violence after the bombings of the golden mosque of sammarra on the 22nd of february. according to the bbc at least 400 people have died in the violence following the assault on the shia shrine; the arab network al-jazeera estimates this number to be at least 500. 

the security situation in the country as a whole has greatly deteriorated since the attack that triggered a wave of violence between the shiite and sunni muslim groups. the iraqi administration fears that clerics might encourage violence during the day's friday prayer, and interim prime minister ibrahim al-jaafari made an appeal on iraqi tv for the religious leaders, asking them to "express themselves in the language of national unity." 



2006 &quot;stolenwealth&quot; games to confront commonwealth games in melbourne

the possibility of large-scale protests in the face of the 3,000 journalists covering the melbourne 2006 commonwealth games, has event organisers and the government worried. 

the group "black gst" - which represents indigenous genocide, sovereignty and treaty - are planning demonstrations at prominent games events unless the government agrees to a range of demands including an end to aboriginal genocide, aboriginal sovereignty and the signing of a treaty.

the black gst say they hope the focus of the world's media will draw attention to the plight of indigenous australians during the games. organisers say supporters are converging from across australia and from overseas. organisers say up to 20,000 people may take part in talks, rallies, colourful protests and many cultural festivities designed to pressure the federal government on indigeneous rights issues. they want the government to provide a temporary campsite for the supporters, saying "organised chaos was better than disorganised chaos."

the 2006 stolenwealth games convergence, described by organisers as the "cultural festival of the 2006 commonwealth games," was virtually opened on march 2nd with the launch of the official "stolenwealth games" website. scoop independent news and perth indymedia reported that the launch was held at federation square in melbourne. the site contents were projected via wireless laptop by the stolenwealth games general manager, and a tour of the website was given on the big screen. he said "overwhelming amusement was the response from the audience." the group say permanent access points to the website are being set up at public internet facilities across victoria during the coming weeks. 

"interest in the stolenwealth games is building all over the world and this fresh, exciting and contemporary site will draw in people from stolenwealth nations around the globe to find out about the latest news and events," said a stolenwealth games spokesperson. "we have been getting many requests from around the world wanting to know about the stolenwealth games. we have provided many ways that individuals and organisations can support the campaign by spreading the word."

the victorian traditional owner land justice group (vtoljg) which represents the first nation groups of victoria, has announced its support to boycott the 2006 commonwealth games until the government "recognises traditional owner rights." the group asserts that culture has been misappropriated in preparation for the games.

organisers of the campaign say they welcome the formal support from the traditional owners. "while some seek to divide and discredit indigenous australia, this support is further evidence that the aboriginal people are united in opposition to the ongoing criminal genocide that is being perpetrated against the aboriginal people" said black gst supporter and aboriginal elder, robbie thorpe. 

"we now have endorsement from the vtoljg and the aboriginal tent embassy for the aims and objectives of the campaign and we are looking forward to hosting all indigenous and non-indigenous supporters from across australia in march," he said. the black gst group have said "the convergence will be held as a peaceful, family-focussed demonstration against genocide, and for the restoration of sovereignty and the negotiations towards a treaty."

but the campaign has received flak in mainstream media, such as melbourne's herald sun, who wrote: ""the proposal to allow blackgst to set up an aboriginal tent embassy at a site well away from the commonwealth games will be interpreted by some as the state government caving in to a radical protest group. a major concern for the government... is to protect the event from disruption... no chances should be taken...""

the black gst has been planning the convergence for months, calling for aboriginal people and their supporters to converge on melbourne. the melbourne-based indigenous rights group have called on thousands of people concerned about the plight of indigenous australians to converge on melbourne during the games, which they have dubbed "the stolenwealth games". but the choice of kings domain has made conflict almost inevitable, as the area is one of the areas gazetted by the state government as a "games management zone".

under the commonwealth games arrangements act, any area gazetted as a management zone is subject to a range of specific laws - including bans on protesting, creating a disturbance and other activities. the protest bans will be in effect at different times and places, and offenders can be arrested. 

a spokeswoman for the black gst, which advocates peaceful protest, said the site had been chosen because it was close to where the queen will stay on march 15. "we figured that she is only in melbourne for 27 hours or something like that so we thought we would make it easy for her to come next door and see us," she said. "we are a very open, welcoming group, so she will be welcome to come and join us." 

kings domain is the burial site for 38 indigenous forefathers of victoria. black gst elder, targan, said trade union groups have offered to install infrastructure at the site. the group initially worked with the state government to find a suitable camp site, but the relationship broke down when the government failed to meet a deadline imposed by the protesters. "while we are disappointed the ministers were not able to meet deadline on our request, we thank them for their constructive approach towards negotiations and the open-door policy exercised," said targan. 

a spokesman for games minister justin madden said the government was still investigating other sites. victoria police games security commander brendan bannan said he was not convinced the black gst represented the views of most indigenous people. "we are dealing with the aboriginal community and they don't seem to support it at all … the wider aboriginal community don't support disruption to the games at all," he said. 

the government was told that black gst supporters would camp in fitzroy gardens and other city parks should it fail to nominate a site. a spokesman for aboriginal affairs minister gavan jennings said the government was taking the issue seriously, but had not been able to finalise a campsite before the deadline. 

under special games laws, people protesting or causing a disturbance in "games management zones" can be arrested and fined. while prominent public spaces such as federation square, birrarung marr, albert park and the alexandra gardens fall under the legislation, such tough anti-protest laws cannot be enforced in the nearby fitzroy gardens.

games chairman ron walker has urged the group to choose another date for its protest march through the city, which is currently planned to coincide with the opening ceremony on march 15. the group believes that an opportunity to gain attention for indigenous issues was lost at the sydney olympics and has vowed to make a highly visible presence at the games.

the black gst said the australian aboriginal tent embassy's sacred flame, burning over many years at the canberra site will be carried to melbourne before the games, and its arrival would mark the opening of the protest camp from where a march will proceed to the mcg before the opening ceremony. 

black gst claims supporters from all over australia, including three busloads from the west australian land council, will gather in melbourne during the games for peaceful protests.

aboriginal affairs minister gavin jennings had offered victoria park to the protesters. victoria park, former home of collingwood football club, where one of the strongest statements of aboriginal pride, when st kilda star nicky winmar in 1993 raised his jumper and pointed to his bare chest after racial taunts from the collingwood crowd.

black gst, which has labelled the games the stolenwealth games, said the state government had failed to find a suitable venue. black gst may encourage protesters to camp in prominent parks such as fitzroy gardens and treasury gardens. graffiti supporting the action has also appeared in central melbourne.

melbourne city councillor fraser brindley has offered his home to the black gst organisers. "i offered my home up to people who are organising visitors to come to the games," he said. cr brindley will be overseas when the commonwealth games are held and has offered the free accommodation at his flat at parkville. he said he agreed with the protesters' view that treaties needed to be signed with indigenous australians. "i'm offering it up to the indigenous people who are coming to remind her majesty that her empire took this land from them," said cr brindlley. nationals leader peter ryan said: "this extremist group has no part in the australian community." melbourne councillor peter clarke said the actions were embarrassing and that he would try to discourage him. "it's not in the spirit of the games," he said.

aboriginal elder, targan, said the possibility of securing victoria park was delightfully ironic. "there's a lot of irony going on," targan, 53, a phd student at melbourne university, said. "gst stands for genocide, sovereignty and treaty. we want the genocide of our people to stop; we want some sovereignty over traditional land, certainly how it is used, and we want a treaty with the government," targan said.



australia will not export uranium to india

the australian foreign minister, , has confirmed that australia will not export to india while it is not a signatory of the (npt). the confirmation was prompted by a recently announced agreement between india and the united states involving the sale of civilian nuclear technology.

"well our policy has developed over many years, going right back to the time of the fraser government actually, our policy has been that we would only export uranium to countries that are signatories to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty," mr. downer said in an interview on today's am radio programme.

mr. downer also said that the australian government was disappointed when india and pakistan developed nuclear weapons, but supports the new united states deal with india as an attempt to engage with india and "open up their civilian nuclear industry to international atomic energy agency inspectors."

"we've considered very carefully over the last few months the american proposal for this agreement that president bush has signed with the indians, and our view about it is that it's a good step forward in what's been a difficult situation," mr. downer said.

the (alp) supported the government's stance on exporting uranium to non-npt countries. "any future agreement to export to india must be dependent on india becoming a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and the negotiation of a bi-lateral agreement ensuring that australian uranium is only used for peaceful purposes," they said in a press release.

the deal between the two countries involves the us supplying civilian nuclear technology to india, in exchange for money and a promise to open some reactors for inspection. india has said it will reclassify 14 of its 22 nuclear reactors as being for power generation only, which will allow the international atomic energy agency (iafa) to inspect them.

in a press briefing, national security advisor steve hadly said that the agreement would bring india "into the international non-proliferation mainstream", including "placing its civilian nuclear facilities and programs under iaea safeguards, and also harmonizing its export control lists with those of the and the ." the deal stops short of normalising india's nuclear status; however it is not clear that this could occur without a complete renegotiation of the npt, or an abandonment of nuclear weapons by india.

the director of the iaea, mohamed elbaradei, called india "an important partner in the non-proliferation regime".

the npt permits 5 states to own nuclear weapons: france (signed 1992), the people's republic of china (1992), the (1968; obligations and rights assumed by russia), the united kingdom (1968), and the united states (1968). all other signatories have agreed that they will not seek nuclear weapons technology. 187 sovereign nations are currently signed on to the npt; however india, pakistan, and israel have not. india and pakistan possess nuclear weapons, and israel is suspected of possession of nuclear weapons.

australia has 30% of the world's available uranium. according to the , from 2000 to 2005 australia exported 46,600 tonnes of uranium, to the value of over 2.1 billion. australia currently exports to the usa, japan, south korea, spain, france, the united kingdom, sweden, germany, belgium and finland. exports are for electricity generation only, in accordance with the npt.



harry browne, former us presidential candidate and best selling author, dead at age 72

harry browne, two-time us libertarian party presidential nominee and best-selling author died of lou gehrig's disease in his home in franklin, tennessee, wednesday night, 1 march 2006. he was born 17 june 1933 in new york city and grew up in los angeles, california.

he was the public policy director for downsizedc.org and was a consultant to the permanent portfolio family of mutual funds.

he was nominated by the us libertarian party as its presidential candidate in 1996 and again in 2000.

he is also know for his articles (including those on lewrockwell.com) and books including:


his writings focused largely on supporting libertarian ideas and investment advise. "how you can profit from the coming devaluation" predicted the future rise in gold prices in the 1970s.

he is survived by his wife pamela lanier wolfe browne and his daughter autumn.



fire fighters join &quot;tr&quot; roosevelt conservation partnership

quoting theodore roosevelt, who said that we must do “the greatest good, for the greatest number,” harold a. schaitberger, of the international association of fire fighters, (iiaf), announced that the his organization was joining the theodore roosevelt conservation partnership, (trcp). 

in a press release, schaitberger, who is iiaf general president, said, "i’m proud to announce that, along with a number of our sister unions in the building trades, the machinists and others, we, (the iiaf), are joining the theodore roosevelt conservation partnership (trcp), and will be rolling out its programs and benefits for your enjoyment over the coming weeks."

praising the trcp as, "an organization that focuses its efforts solely on conserving, maintaining and enhancing access to land and water available for americans to enjoy their interests in hunting, fishing and shooting," schaitberger explained that the iiaf is also, working with (the trcp) to extend this program to our canadian members." 

schaitberger explained that the trco, "is founded in the spirit of theodore roosevelt, the 26th president of the united states, and an avid outdoorsman who believed, “there can be no greater issue than that of conservation in this country..."

schaitberger also shared plans for his member workers unions, in the iiaf will "initiate a union-focused sportsman club that will have its own magazine, web site, radio show (in addition to the television shows already in production) and affinity programs to promote union-made products and equipment and offer discount merchandise and trips." 

the iiaf general president indicated that this state "greatest good for the greatest number" statement, "is a guiding principle of trcp. it is a guiding principle of this iaff. and together, we hope it will do some good for you as you enjoy the outdoors."
the iiaf web site is located at http://www.iiaf.org

the trcp is a non-profit organization who's web site says is, "driven by a board of directors and a policy council made up of leaders from many of the country’s top hunting, fishing and conservation groups. we have a national focus on access and conservation issues affecting hunting and angling and are supported by our own nationwide network of over 90,000 sportsmen and women and more than 1,400 affiliated local and state-level clubs and organizations, that themselves represent nine million americans."



pakistan government blocks bloggers ahead of bush visit

pakistani bloggers have been reporting this week that the pakistani government has started blocking local access to the blogging tool blogger.com. blogger.com, along with its companion domain blogspot.com, is one of the most widely used blogging tools in pakistan. because of the government's decision to block the site, many pakistani bloggers are now unable to update their blogs.

bloggers are debating whether the move by the pakistani government is a sign of a long-term online censorship campaign, or a temporary move to prevent potentially embarrassing blog coverage of u.s. president george w. bush's visit to the country this weekend.

"truth is ? it may have very little to do with bush's visit," writes indian blogger neha viswanathan on the global voices email list, run by the berkman center for internet & society at harvard law school. "the anti-bush protest has hardly found a voice online. i really do think this might be the first of other blocks. this might be on a very experimental basis to see how far they go. the pakistani govt has hardly had any dialogue with bloggers at all. "

"the other theory is of course the one on danish cartoons- which is likely," she continues. "but there is so much content on that outside of the blogosphere (the limited one at blogspot) that it doesn't' seem to fit together. i wouldn't be surprised if the govt of pakistan comes up with an it censorship policy."

other bloggers see a more direct connection with the bush visit. "i have communicated with several bloggers and friends back in pak[istan]," writes uae-based pakistani blogger omer alvie. "so far there's no resolution to this problem. bush's visit in pakistan is resulting in protests, a strike in lahore and curfew areas in islamabad. the feeling among bloggers is this is all rather suspect. neha, might be right this might be on experimental basis. i feel this a a ["sic"] precursor to what the government can do in the future."

to date, the pakistani government has offered no comment on the decision to block online access to blogger.com.



ian thorpe starts to recover from chest pains

australian swimmer ian thorpe is reported to be feeling much better after suffering from chest pain for some time.

the olympic gold medalist was due to swim in the 100m and 200m freestyle and in three relays at the commonwealth games, but due to his complaints his fitness has been in doubt. he has been unable to take the drugs needed to overcome his pain as they are banned from the games.

thorpe told the media thursday "it's actually the best i've felt in a while; the antibiotics are starting to work."



band sticker causes bomb scare at ohio university

a sticker for the pensacola, florida folk-punk band this bike is a pipe bomb was found on a bike near the ohio university's oasis restaurant by a university police officer.

the university police, who were unaware of the band's existence, summoned the columbus police bomb squad, who destroyed the bike to ensure that there was no bomb inside. the university later discovered their error.

the bike's owner, a graduate student, has been charged with "inducing panic," a misdemeanor. he has been released and is due to appear in court march 13 on the charge.

the band's label, plan-it-x records, has not yet commented on the incident. the font and style of the sticker are common among such humorous stickers.


 


emergency at jds uniphase in san jose, ca

the san jose, california fire department and hazardous materials crews today responded to a chemical emergency at a jds uniphase manufacturing facility. the incident, at 80 rose orchard drive, off north first st., sent between 15 and 17 people, including two firefighters, to the hospital with symptoms and for observation. 

those exposed to the hazard reported a smell of "burnt rubber", along with symptoms of eye and throat irritation. 

over 48 others were held in a nearby building while the incident was assessed. rose orchard way was closed for much of the day while emergency crews responded. estimates put the incident at about 10 a.m. (1800 utc). 

as of 6 p.m. television news reports, authorities still had not determined the source or nature of the chemical, but said neighboring buildings were not in danger. 

jds uniphase manufactures fiber optic communications and test equipment, and was formed from a merger of jds fitel and uniphase corporation in 1999.



no hotel previously on site of proposed buffalo, n.y. hotel location

the common council requested on tuesday that a picture be found on what many thought was the site of a previous hotel.

the proposed elmwood village hotel would be placed on the intersection of elmwood and forest. it was suspected by residents and business owners in the area that hotel once stood in the same spot.

the elmwood village hotel is a proposed development by savarino construction services corp. in order for the project to proceed, at least five buildings (1119-1121 elmwood) would need to be demolished. all five houses are currently occupied by businesses and residents.

after some research, a freelance journalist writing for "wikinews" was able to determine that there was never a hotel on the proposed elmwood village hotel site. however; there was a temporary hotel located on the northeast corner of elmwood and forest.

buffalo was the host of the pan-american exposition from may 1 until november 2, 1901. it was a fair designed to feature the latest in technology, including electricity. there was a midway, athletic events, and had african, eskimo, and mexican villages. however; what is likely the most famous event that took place at the exposition was the assassination of then president william mckinley on september 6, 1901. he was shot by leon czolgosz just outside the temple of music and died eight days later while in the home of john milburn on delaware avenue in buffalo. just a short time later, theodore roosevelt was inaugurated on september 14, 1901 at the wilcox house on delaware avenue in buffalo. nearly eight million people attended the exposition.

during that time several hotels and rooming houses were built around the exposition including the elmwood at 717 elmwood, the hotel elmhurst at forest and lincoln parkway, hotel gibbs 1005-1021 elmwood, the r. palmerton merritt at 441 forest and the norman at 422 forest. none of these hotels or rooming houses exist today.

probably the most famous hotel that was built during the exposition was the statler's pan-american hotel built by ellsworth milton statler a freelance journalist writing for "wikinews" has obtained the only known reproduction photo of the hotel [pictured at the top]. the hotel stood on the northeast corner of elmwood and forest avenues in buffalo, had 2,100 sleeping rooms and accommodations for 5,000. at the time, the statler was the largest hotel [based on the number of rooms] ever constructed. it was also the largest temporary hotel. it was three stories high, plastered on the inside, made mostly of wood and was covered with ornamental staff on the outside, which made it semi-fireproof. every room was an outside room and was well lighted and ventilated. it was located within one block of the exposition's main entrance.

the statler was built for only one thing, the exposition. work began in 1900 and finished just before the beginning of the exposition. when the exposition ended in november, the hotel was taken down.

maps from 1894 show that there was no hotel, let alone any buildings or houses on the intersection. however; research did show that the homes 1119-1121 elmwood, the buildings that would be demolished to build the elmwood village hotel, were built sometime before 1915 but were not on the intersection prior to 1902.

based on research conducted at the buffalo historical society, it was concluded that between the years of 1890 and 1902, no other major hotel existed in the area. in fact, research had shown that almost every hotel built in the area, existed only during the time of the exposition. 

research also indicated a hotel or a rooming house at 1089 elmwood around 1901-1903. the only known name of the hotel was the john c. hill hotel. the hotel was in the house now called the atwater house. the house was the first house to be built on the east side of the block.

the atwater house is currently vacant and owner pano georgiadis wants to demolish it to expand his restaurant. the house was built by 1894 and the original owner and builder of the house is currently unknown. its earliest known occupant was edward atwater who in 1862 founded the oil refinery company of atwater & hawes in buffalo. the site of this company was recently uncovered in the canal district during an archeological dig. 

at the moment, current research does not show any connection between the two men.

the exposition was a commercial failure and what profit statler did make on the hotel, went to build another temporary hotel for the 1904 st. louis exhibition. that hotel was successful and the profit made from it was used to build the first permanent statler hotel at 107 delaware avenue in buffalo. the hotel is no longer in operation, but small offices are currently operating in parts of the building.





howard's 10 year party gatecrashed

62 clendon rd toorak, victoria was the address of john howard's 10 year celebration as scores of invited guests ranging from fellow liberal party members to the business elite. yet scores of onlookers without a $10,000 per table invitation had something different to say about prime minister as they staged a counter party.

unionists and members of the local melbourne community chanted at the arriving prime minister and other politicians in attendance about the lack of access australians have to the political process in australia. john howard's white ambassadorial sedan headed a convoy that was egged and surrounded before entering the myer family's estate. a tarpaulin was laid on the road in-front of the entrance which read "raise funds for the needy, not the greedy" and "howard: unforgivable, lies".

the media watched on as a congregating crowd shared pizza and engaged in a game of cricket, as a parody of john howard's bowling attempts in a mid-2005 game with troops deployed overseas. a couple of people arrived suited up in black after messages had been circulating asking people to attend the counter-party in formal attire.

police cordoned off a path leading up as guests arrived at which point most people left. one police officer was targeted and heckled by protestors and the media as he was not wearing identification after being involved in man-handling one middle-aged man away from the scene.

no injuries occurred and no arrests were made.



u.s. pentagon releases guantanamo detainees' names

the united states pentagon, under court orders, has released the names of hundreds of guantanamo detainees.

an associated press request under the freedom of information act (foia) brought about the release of the information, but the u.s. military is not being cooperative in doing so. the pentagon has released 6,000 pages of documents on a website. 

the documents are the transcripts of combatant status review tribunals of 500 detainees. the transcripts were released in june 2005 in response to an associated press foia request, but with the names blacked out.




black box voting finds anomalies in electronic voting logs of 2004 u.s. election

last june, black box voting successfully sued palm beach county, florida for their audit record of the 2004 presidential election. the organization, which opposes most current electronic voting initiatives, examined the machines logs and recently released a report of their findings.

black box voting claims that "the internal logs of at least 40 sequoia touch-screen voting machines reveal that votes were time and date-stamped as cast two weeks before the election, sometimes in the middle of the night [after the logic & accuracy tests but before the election]."

such access, they claim, requires "a high degree of inside access", but represents a "hasty or clumsy" intrusion. the hursti experiments have demonstrated that such access need not leave any trace if done carefully.

the palm beach county supervisor of elections, arthur anderson, has responded that his staff investigated the problem and found the votes to be normal, but that "the dates somehow changed."
jeff darter, an it official for palm beach county, has declined a request, by a member of the palm beach county electronic voting technical committee, for the identities of the individuals who had access to the machines.

black box voting also claims that the logs provide support for claims by some voters that the wrong candidate was selected when they tried to vote. in addition, there appear to be numerous operator errors resulting in date, or other, inconsistencies.


 


diebold &quot;whistleblower&quot; faces criminal charges in california

the legal documents discussed the legal ramifications of activist allegations that had used uncertified voting systems in elections beginning in 2002. jones day represented the controversial electronic voting machine manufacturer at the time. the firm's lawyers concluded that if such uncertified systems were used, then diebold could be sued by alameda county for millions of dollars. the memos also discussed whether the california's secretary of state had the authority to investigate diebold.

mr. heller has been charged with felony access to computer data, commercial burglary and receiving stolen property. he has pled not guilty.

blair berk, heller's attorney said, "it's a devastating allegation for a whistle-blower. certainly, someone who saw those documents could have reasonably believed that thousands of voters were going to be potentially disenfranchised in upcoming elections."


minnesota gop's cd raises privacy concerns

the minnesota republican party is distributing a cd as part of a lobbying effort seeking a definition of marriage amendment, which would outlaw gay marriage.

along with its pitch for the definition of marriage amendment, the cd asks people their views on various controversial issues, including abortion, gun control, and illegal immigration.

the cd has raised privacy concerns after it was discovered that the information is reported back to the minnesota republican party along with the name of the person filling out the questionnaire, while the cd does not reveal that the data is being sent.

governor tim pawlenty has said that the cd "should make clear that [it] is mining information."



ayman al-zawahri releases new video tape

ayman al-zawahiri, al-qaeda's second in command, has released a new videotape.

in the tape zawahiri says that jesus and the prophet mohammed "are not sacred anymore.".

zawahiri also referred to the prophet muhammad cartoons saying, "they did it on purpose and they continue to do it without apologizing, even though no one dares to harm jews or to challenge jewish claims about the holocaust nor even to insult homosexuals. the insults against prophet muhammad are not the result of freedom of opinion but because what is sacred has changed in this culture. the prophet mohammed, prayers be upon him, and jesus christ, peace be upon him, are not sacred anymore, while semites and the holocaust and homosexuality have become sacred.".

in the video, zawahiri also called for muslims to attack the west. he also said muslims need to prevent the west from "stealing muslims' oil.".

"(muslims have to) inflict losses on the crusader west, especially to its economic infrastructure with strikes that would make it bleed for years. the strikes on new york, washington, madrid and london are the best examples. we have to prevent the crusader west from stealing the muslims' oil which is being drained in the biggest robbery in history. reaching power is not a goal by itself ... and no palestinian has the right to give away a grain of the soil. the seculars in the palestinian authority have sold out palestine for crumbs... giving them legitimacy is against islam.".



sydney's gay and lesbian mardi gras celebrated by 450,000 people

nearly half a million people packed into sydney's "golden mile" on saturday night to applaud the city's 28th annual gay and lesbian mardi gras parade. parade organisers estimated the crowd at over 450,000. they lined oxford st - along the parade's route - in sydney's unofficial gay district, cheering the 6,000 participants and 120 floats. 

the mardi gras event was the culmination of a month of gay-pride festivities. many parade participants adopted the theme of the film "brokeback mountain". the parade was led as usual by the motorcycle group, dykes on bikes. amongst the frivolity and colour, onlookers saw "kate moss dancers" snorting 'cocaine', and the gun-wielding - apparently gay-friendly - dick cheney. a lampoon of prime minister john howard - a pirate ship carrying "captain crook" was also featured. 

a mardi gras participant, filipino fyljoy volefdico, 25, said: "i think within australia there is really a lot of culture and it's great when the whole community comes together and celebrates it." 

jay lynch, who met his partner at the event two years ago, said: "it has become a meeting ground for gays from around the world and as discrimination continues it's important we can connect on this level, and continually redefine what it means to the community." 

chair of the new mardi gras board, marcus bourget, said the event is about providing a powerful voice for the lesbian and gay community. describing the parade as "a great aussie tradition", bourget said he was proud of the event. "we've run a fairly sophisticated marketing campaign this year, which has led to gradual growth internationally," he said. 

newcastle woman donna newella said mardi gras had become many things to many people, "it is not just about gays and lesbians," she said. "it's about all different issues that have arisen," she said "freedom of speech, being able to represent one's identity and being able to put a political point across."

the first mardi gras took place on june 24, 1978 as a protest against a ban on homosexuality in australia. it began as an improvised street party following a gay-rights rally. however when a city official interrupted the festivities, things turned ugly. on that night there were 53 arrests and many allegations of police brutality. homosexuality was later decriminalised in australia in 1984. 

local businesses realise the economic importance of the event, which is a huge money-spinner, they say. visitors to sydney for last year's mardi gras contributed an estimated $46 million to the state's economy. organisers say about 6000 international visitors, the majority from britain and the usa, attended this year's event. 

"we came all the way from america to see this," mrs phyllis drucker 67, from los angeles, said. "we were told it's the best in the world, and we're going to have a ball."

a float entitled "love between the flags" highlighted the need for racial harmony and cultural acceptance following last year's cronulla riots. creative director graham browning said the theme of the parade, "i believe", aimed to reflect political and social issues. the nsw police service, with 45 members also marched in the parade. 

mardi gras parade chief deborah cheetham, an internationally renowned soprano, rejected suggestions the parade was passe. "maybe we're just in that period of transition. it's not tired," said cheetham, who led the parade with her partner and 14-year-old daughter. "there will always be a need for mardi gras."

sydney lord mayor clover moore said the parade was a celebration of sydney's diversity. "when you're a child the thing that really excites you is either christmas or the royal easter show and i think as an adult mardi gras is the only equivalent," ms moore told reporters.

"i didn't want to miss any of this," said 17-year-old jennifer mackay from outer sydney, who arrived with three friends 10 hours before the start. 

"it's like christmas for the gay and lesbian community," said the parade's creative director, graeme browning.



iranian refugee child granted $400,000 in compensation for &quot;psychological harm&quot;

eleven-year-old iranian refugee boy, shayan badraie, who suffered psychological injuries during his time spent inside australia's immigration detention centres, will receive a federal government payout of au$400,000 in compensation. the government will also pay his family's legal bill of more than $1 million.

between 2000 and 2002 the badraie family were incarcerated behind the razorwire of the (now mothballed) woomera detention facility, a remote desert camp in outback south australia - and later sent to the villawood detention centre in sydney. in 2001, video footage of his condition was smuggled out of villawood, inciting national debate over prime minister john howard's controversial policy of detaining children. 

badraie's family lawyer, rebecca gilsenan, said the family are "looking forward to living a normal life in the community. the settlement will enable the treatment he needs to somehow rectify the damage done in the detention centres. the fact the government has settled the case indicates a serious concern on their part they were going to be found guilty of negligence," gilsenan told reporters. 

shayan, his father and stepmother arrived in australia in 2000, and were sent immediately to the notorious woomera desert camp. during his 17 months incarceration, shayan stopped drinking, eating and speaking. 

"he witnessed a series of incredibly traumatic and violent events, the sort of events no adult or no child should be exposed to," gilsenan said. "within a year of being detained at the detention centre... he had developed psychiatric illness to the point of diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder and later depression," she said.

the court heard evidence from former senior immigration official philippa godwin that detention could damage the mental health of refugees - directly contradicting the government's claims the centres were safe. opposition immigration spokesman tony burke said: "children should never have been put in detention and money will never undo the damage and pain."

the department of immigration said the agreement was "no admission of guilt". immigration minister amanda vanstone says she does not believe a $400,000 is a backdown. vanstone said an offer was made to the badraie family's lawyer some time ago but they turned it down. 

compared with similar countries, australia has some of the toughest policies in the world against refugee arrivals. policies include immediate mandatory detention of boat arrivals, the detention of workers and students who overstay their visas are sent to detention camps under harsh conditions. immigration detainees often languish in limbo with some up to six years while their cases are being heard. these camps have been condemned by many international human rights groups. 

greens senator kerry nettle says "hundreds of children have been mentally scarred by their time in immigration detention and further claims are planned." she blames the federal government's policy of mandatory detention. 

"the government has accepted the responsibility for the health consequences of their policy of mandatory detention," senator nettle said. "there is a raft of children, we are talking hundreds of children, and adults, who have had their mental health significantly impacted by the policy of mandatory detention."

she rejected that the federal government deserve congratulations over settlement: "to have gone through these proceedings, and spent the amount of money they have spent, to put shayan's mother in the witness box for two weeks, is not an indication of a willingness and public accountability by the government to accept responsibility for their actions," senator nettle said.

lawyer rebecca gilsenan says the landmark case may pave the way for more litigation by other refugee families. it is the first time the department has conceded that a child has been psychologically harmed in its detention. 

gilsenan says the outcome sets a precedent for other detainees. "the problems that shayan experienced were systemic problems rather than ones that were just specific to him, although the particular treatment that he received was disgraceful," she said. "so it's quite possible that there are other children or even adults out there who lived in a similar environment during that time in immigration detention and possibly have similar problems."

she says she hopes the systemic problems highlighted in the case will now be addressed. "i can only hope that the government takes notice of this and doesn't continue to spend taxpayer money on having to compensate people for treating them in a disgraceful way in immigration detention."



deported australian granted visa after two years in serbian limbo

an australian resident, deported to serbia in 2004, will return home to sydney this week. the immigration department says robert jovicic will be given a special purpose visa and his status as a permanent resident will be reinstated.

he became a nationless man, impoverished, battling mental health problems and sleeping on the streets of belgrade. mr jovicic, 39, was born in france and arrived in australia as a two-year-old with his serbian-born parents. like nearly one million australian residents eligible for australian citizenship, jovicic never officially became an australian citizen. 

ex-federal immigration minister, and now attorney general, philip ruddock ordered jovicic's deportation on character grounds in june 2004 - after he was jailed for committing crimes in support of a heroin addiction. mr jovicic says he had since kicked his drug habit.

the current immigration minister amanda vanstone said it was a "very hard decision" to allow mr. jovicic to return to australia. "[the community] expected to be protected from non-citizens who break the law. on balance, after some anguished consideration, i decided to allow him to return," the minister said. she said mr jovicic was not stateless, he had just refused to apply for serbian citizenship.

his family say serbia revoked his citizenship after discovering "the paperwork used by australian authorities to deport him was invalid". they claim he has since been unable to work, access doctors, welfare or even book a hotel. his family also claims that he does not speak serbian, and has not been permitted to work because of this. he says he is grateful his ordeal is nearing an end. 

robert jovicic's sister says people have no reason to fear her brother's return to australia. "people need to be reminded that he's not a drug addict any more. he stopped using a long time ago," susanna jovicic said. "if people fear that he's going to re-offend, i think that he's more chance of winning lotto," she said. "all he wants is his life back. i think that's the most paramount thing that people need to understand. once he'd done his time, i know that in jail he stopped (using heroin). he came out, he started a new life." 

ms jovicic said the family is yet to pursue compensation. "i can tell you right now, we have not had a conversation about compensation..." she said. "we just want him home." she says the first priority will be to seek medical treatment. her brother's health problems include scoliosis, an enlarged prostate, mental illness, sand in his kidneys and the need of a catheter to urinate. 

she said immigration minister amanda vanstone's decision to allow his return "validates our belief that robert was wrongly deported," she said. "i think anybody who has been deported has the legal right to return. the family will be there at the airport waiting for him and it will be quite emotional."

minister vanstone said in a november 2005 media release: "mr jovicic is not an australian citizen:
mr jovicic, a convicted criminal, had his permanent visa cancelled in october 2002 under section 501 of the migration act by the former minister for immigration, philip ruddock... as an adult between 1984 and 2002, mr jovicic was convicted on charges of burglary, theft, possessing stolen property and possessing prohibited substances. in 1998 mr jovicic applied for australian citizenship but was refused on the grounds that he was not of good character."

commonwealth ombudsman john mcmillan found senator vanstone's department had unfairly deported people with criminal records who had lived in australia since they were children. however, vanstone said she supports the changes to the migration act which allow the immigration minister to "deport non citizens who break the law on character grounds and make the decision unappealable."



transit strike affects 100,000 in helsinki

in helsinki, the finnish trade union for bus and truck drivers has gone on strike on sunday evening, mainly over the use of part-time labor. the strike is estimated to affect 100,000 people in the capital area, crowding the remaining transit system on monday morning. the strike is halting almost half of all bus traffic in and around helsinki, especially hurting travellers commuting from outlying cities espoo and vantaa, where over 60% of bus traffic will be stopped.

the strike also affects 4,000 of finland's 55,000 delivery trucks, as well as waste management in many areas. the strike is not affecting trains, trams or the underground, but heavy crowding is to be expected. authorities are also warning of traffic jams during rush-hours as people use personal cars instead of public transportation.



new zealand's 2006 census is held tonight

tonight is census night in new zealand, when all people in the country are legally required to fill in census forms. the census of population and dwellings is conducted by the new zealand government department statistics new zealand, which (with two exceptions) has done so every five years since 1881. this year is the first time that new zealanders can choose whether to fill in the traditional paper forms or fill them out online.

6500 census collectors were employed this year to deliver the forms and collect them over the days following the census, along with 400 supervisors.

as in previous years, some people have tried to evade the census. libertarianz party members and others gathered at the wellington botanical gardens to incinerate their forms. another man announced he had been cryogenically frozen overnight and pronounced "legally dead" to avoid filling in the forms. 

data collections manager dave martyn said legal action would be taken against people deliberately not taking part in the census. 

"the fine is usually $500 per form plus court costs. if the person still doesn't fill out the form, the ongoing cost is $20 a day until they do."

preliminary census results are scheduled to be released in may 2006.



wikipedia's wales is considering a &quot;stable&quot; version

wikipedia founder jimmy wales has said that he's considering a "stable" edition of the community-edited encyclopedia, according to an interview with the . the edition would be "a body of work" that has already "been through the community-review process," he proposed. 

"the basic idea is that we're going to do a research project to gather feedback on all the articles on the website from the general public. just a feedback we're going to use for research purposes, first to determine where our strengths and weaknesses are, and then, based on that, we're going to think about what to do as a next step."

with regard to whether this would hurt the democratic spirit of wikipedia, wales responded "no, not really. i mean, obviously, we want to be very careful as we change the social model in any way, to not wreck the magic of what works. i guess in that sense it's a concern, but we don't really have any worries about it."

plans to create stable versions of articles date back for years, with the most serious of discussion happening from fall 2005 on.

to experiment with wikipedia, "the star" submitted a new article on former east york mayor . none of the errors were corrected until after the star acknowledged the false information.

 


2006 oscars handed out at kodak theatre

the 78th were hosted by , host of comedy central's "".

"crash" won the best picture award, a surprise for many predictors. co-producer commented "[thank you for] embracing our film, about love and about tolerance, about truth. thank you to the people all around the world who have been touched by this message. and we are humbled by the other nominees in this category. you have made this year one of the most breathtaking, and stunning, maverick years in american cinema, thank you."

paul haggis and also won best original screenplay for "crash".

directed and co-produced by canadian paul haggis, film distribution rights were purchased for just usd$3 million by lions gate films. noted film critic called it his favourite picture of 2005, and the picture made many north american "10 best" lists.

backstage, best director winner commented to the press on how ' refreshed his will to direct. "before i get into making this movie, i was very tired from two very ambitious work, ' and ". i almost wanted to retire. i felt i had enough, i hit the bottom, sort of like my mid life crisis or something, and this movie teach me how to look at myself, how to manage myself in movie making again, enjoying making them, and the movie was shot very simple, nothing special, but most important, it taught me again, it's about human emotions, drama and acting."

foreign language film winner gavin hood (") commented that he felt the oscar win would "change the way south africans view their moviemaking... hopefully it means that people will keep investing in our local stories, because this gives investors a little more confidence and what we want more than anything else is that people and human emotion is universal and we're more alike than we think we are around the world... we're actually so similar as human beings inside."

"tsotsi" was the people's choice award winner at the 2005 toronto international film festival, while "crash" debuted at the fest in 2004. "capote" and "brokeback mountain" both played at the festival days after debuting at the telluride film festival. tiff's winners often go on to win best picture or best foreign language film; ' ("crouching tiger, hidden dragon"), ', and "" are such examples.

stewart's humor fell short of expectation for most north american film and television critics who commented on the broadcast.

at one point, stewart jokingly chastised hollywood for being "out of touch" with mainstream american values. actor george clooney later responded to this notion, saying, "we are a little bit out of touch in hollywood. it’s probably a good thing. we’re the ones that talked about aids when it was just being whispered. and we talked about civil rights when it wasn’t really popular. we bring up subjects. this group of people gave hattie mcdaniel an oscar in 1939 when blacks were still sitting in the backs of theaters. i’m proud of this academy, of this community. i’m proud to be out of touch."


 


dvdrs.net closes - &quot;can not recover from recent events&quot;

dvdrs.net, a usenet search engine targeted by the (mpaa) in its recent anti-piracy campaign, has closed while the site is restructured. part of the restructuring will be the deletion of its index.

in a statement posted on dvdrs.net just days before its disappearance, descds, a site administrator, said, "the site will be closed for restructure. all reference to usenet will be removed, the logo adapted (its a long time coming anyway) and nzb indexing sections dropped."

descds reports that he is unhappy about dvdrs.net being seen as a piracy network, as it has been since news of the mpaa's actions. "since the pr press release broke we have been seen as an organized pirate network and this is unacceptable. in the first day of the press release we had 100 new members sign up looking for pirated movies. this has continued everyday since and we will not allow dvdrs to be used this way. we have not, will not and never shall host illegal files here," he said.

"we also understand that dvdrs will always be seen, in light of recent press, as a site that dealt in illegal file sharing. we feel there is no way we can recover from this and thus will re-launch talk dvd with some of dvdrs database and ideas." 

descds also stated that he hoped the mpaa could see that he was happy to work with the mpaa to reach a resolution, maintaining that he had done nothing wrong and that the site was far more than a usenet indexing site. 

"indexing usenet is still a part of the site granted, but we are now far more than that with in depth articles on dvd-r/w, dvd+r/w, dvd+r dl, dvdram, blu-ray and hd dvd media, software and hardware technology. we also have a healthy movie, game and hardware review section as well as active news. our forums are also more about technology than usenet," descds said in his statement.



new zealand online auction web site bought for nz$700 million

john fairfax holdings limited announced today that it will be purchasing the new zealand online auction site trademe in a deal worth nz$700 million.

an additional $50 million will be paid out if earnings targets are met over the next two years. 

sam morgan, who founded trade me in 1999, is set to make over $220 million.

fairfax chief executive david kirk said "i am delighted sam morgan will remain with trademe for a good period of time. we also welcome as new colleagues the entire trade me staff." trademe has 48 employees.

"the business will be run absolutely as it is today. there's not a lot we can do to improve the way the business has been run and developed."

the purchase follows acquisitions of other online businesses worth au$200 million by fairfax since the late 1990s, which according to its competitor news corporation have produced limited returns.

trademe is new zealand's largest auction site, and became the most popular website in new zealand in 2005.

during peak hours, trademe has approximately 30,000 - 50,000 people on line at any one time, and 565,000 auctions running. trademe has about 1.2 million members, representing a sizable proportion of new zealand's population of around 4.2 million people. trade me accounts for over 60% of new zealand's web traffic. 

the transaction needs to get final approval under the new zealand overseas investment act. this is expected to take place in april.



australian prime minister visits india

australian prime minister john howard began a visit of india yesterday. interest in the visit has been dominated by the issue of uranium sales and australia's stance on the recent agreement between the united states and india.

before departing, mr howard gave an interview at kirribilli house, in which he stressed the importance of australia's relationship with india, and emphasised their economic significance. "india is one of the great coming powers of the world. the economic growth has been enormous. it's important that we do what we can to strengthen the economic relationship with india," he said.

this is mr howards second visit to india as prime minister. he will meet the indian president, prime minister, and also sonia gandhi and others. the visit is expected to continue until wednesday.

alexander downer earlier in the week welcomed the us-indian agreement on nuclear technology, but stated that australia did not sell to countries that had not ratified the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. mr howard indicated that there are still no plans to change this policy. "we don't have any plan to change our current policy. we sell uranium to countries which adhere to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty," he said.

in an interview later in the day in delhi, howard was less committed on the issue, and suggested that policy may change depending on circumstances. "we do have a long-standing policy of only selling uranium to countries that are part of the npt regime, but we will have a look at what the americans have done and when we get a bit more information about that we'll further assess it," he said.

senator natasha stott despoja, foreign affairs spokesperson for the australian democrats, accused the government of a "backflip" over the issue. "in what looks a policy backflip in less than a week, the pm now appears to be considering the export of uranium to india despite the fact that it has not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty," she said in a press release. senator lyn allsion also called for policy to remain as it is, saying, "the government must be consistent in its commitment to achieving a nuclear-free world."

senator christine milne of the australian greens went further, arguing that howard was crumbling under pressure from washington and had backed down over the issue of uranium sales. "the deputy sheriff has once taken his running orders from us president george bush and is yet again undermining international law. australia has already torn up international law to follow george bush into iraq and guantanamo bay; now the world will be less safe as they tear up the npt," she said.

mr howard adopted a wait-and-see approach to the us-indian agreement. "of course it has to run the gauntlet of the american political process. we're certainly not going to suddenly change our policy just because the indians and the americans have reached an agreement. we'll study it, and if there are things that should additionally be done that are in australia's interests then we'll do them," he said.



h5n1 bird flu virus reaches poland

two cases of the deadly h5n1 avian influenza virus have been confirmed in polish birds. the h5n1 strain of bird flu has already been found responsible for the deaths of over 93 humans in the entire world. some scientists fear it may be starting to establish a foothold in eastern and central europe.

there have been isolated cases of h5n1 transmission from birds to humans, raising fears among the international scientific community that the virus will combine with a human influenza virus, mutating in such a way that it could transfer readily from human to human. a global pandemic, similar to the spanish influenza outbreak of 1918, could result.
the two cases in poland were discovered in the northern town of toru?, famous as the birthplace of nicolaus copernicus. two swans have been confirmed to have been carriers of the virus. samples from the subjects have been sent to the european union (eu) laboratories in weybridge, england, but initial assessments have been seen as highly reliable. "yes, we have confirmed that it is definitely h5n1," said jan zmudzinski, director of poland's national laboratory, in the town of pulawy. a hygiene-security zone protected by police has been established, extending up to several hundred metres from the spot on the river bank of the vistula river where the swans were found.

, a resident of toru?, told wikinews that he has observed authorities putting precautionary measures in place to attempt to slow the spread of bird flu. he said that during march 6 and 7 he observed:
the world health organisation held a three-day emergency meeting in geneva, switzerland, to discuss plans to deal with the virus, and also to revisit contingency plans for the possibility of a future pandemic. with the discovery of h5n1 in poland, fears of a pandemic have increased in the scientific community. "events in recent weeks justify that concern," said margaret chan, special advisor to the who on avian influenza.

while bird flu has not affected europe's agricultural output as much as it has that of southeast asia, there have been some serious economic consequences of the recent bird flu outbreaks on the continent. france has been forced to increase its subsidies to poultry farmers, spending over 52 million euros ($63 million usd) in aid. over thirty bird cases have been confirmed in france, while germany is currently investigating a possible case in a cat. 


thaksin rebuffs resignation calls while elite call for appointed pm

beleaguered thai prime minister thaksin shinawatra may have offered to speak with entrenched opponents such as the people's alliance for democracy (pad), but defiantly refuses to give them the satisfaction of him resigning unconditionally. instead thaksin has promised not to take office if his thai rak thai party gets fewer than 50% of the votes. with the three main opposition parties boycotting the election, a mass abstention would be required to force the pm out in this way.

protests led by chamlong srimuang's dharma army foundation are reportedly going to continue until the caretaker pm resigns. the former bangkok governor led a popular but bloody revolt against the military government of general suchinda kraprayoon in 1992; he is now one of the prominent figures staking out sanam luang, calling for the resignation of thaksin, and vowing to stay until he goes. the kick-off of this extended protest was on sunday, with protesters from southern provinces arriving as early as 11am for a protest that saw thailand's "the nation" reporting 60,000 present for a march to the democracy monument and on to government house.

attacks from other directions have come alongside the mass-protests. 96 members of bangkok's elite have put their names to a petition to go before the king. calling for the invocation of section 7 of the constitution to appoint an interim prime minister, signatories include a former central bank governor, former ambassadors, and more than a dozen senators.



study reveals 10% of telecommuters work nude

a survey by sonicwall, a sunnyvale, california-based company, reports that 10% of worldwide telecommuters are nude while working, finding 12% for men and 7% for women, respectively.

a gender gap also exists for showering on work-at-home days, with 44% of women showering, while only 30% of men did. the survey also found that 39% of both sexes wear sweats while working from home.

the survey also covered less racy topics, including opinions on productivity. 76% felt that working at home increased productivity.

the number of telecommuters has increased sharply in recent years. for example, 43% of u.s. government employees telecommute at least part of the time, up from only 19% one year ago.



book review controversy over daniel dennett's 'breaking the spell'

professor of philosophy daniel dennett's (tufts university) new book "breaking the spell" uses the scientific method commonly employed to analyze natural phenomena in order to examine religion. "the new york times"' february 20th review by leon wieseltier, which was strongly negative, has sparked debate about the merits of this approach.

"breaking the spell" attempts to present an understanding of religious memes (pieces of information that can spread from person to person) in the same way as richard dawkins approached genetics in his selfish gene theory. dennett's book presents the point of view of an individual religious meme, in competition with other memes, trying to maximize its own successful spread.

wieseltier objects to dennett's "meme's eye view" analysis as "scientism", claiming that "dennett lives in a world in which you must believe in the grossest biologism or in the grossest theism, in a purely naturalistic understanding of religion or in intelligent design, in the omniscience of a white man with a long beard in 19th-century england or in the omniscience of a white man with a long beard in the sky." not all aspects of human life can or should be illuminated by scientific methods, claims wieseltier.

dennett responded that this criticism followed a pattern of recent "stunts" by the "new york times" book review: "when you can't stand the implications of some scientific discipline x, but can't think of any solid objections, you brand them instances of the sin of xism and then you don't have to take them seriously!" he continues to state that "the very idea of an intensive scientific exploration of religion so upsets wieseltier that he resorts to flagrant falsehoods ? and doesn't even bother supporting his claims with citations."

wieseltier also criticizes several of dennett's quotations of fellow philosophers, including david hume, william james, and personal friend of dennett's thomas nagel. 

brian leiter, a professor of philosophy at the university of texas, also objects to wieseltier's claim that some aspects of human life can not be illuminated by a scientific approach. "'the view that science can explain all human conditions and expressions, mental as well as physical' is not a 'superstition' but a reasonable methodological posture to adopt based on the actual evidence, that is, based on the actual expanding success of the sciences... during the last hundred years," writes leiter. 

dennett is eager for the religious to read "breaking the spell", and spends the first third of the book motivating and justifying his project; this may have had bearing on the "times"' selection of reviewers.

both the selfish gene theory and the idea of memes were originally popularized by professor richard dawkins (university of oxford, biologist), in his book "the selfish gene". the selfish gene theory is the most widely accepted basis for mathematical models in evolutionary biology, as it has repeatedly correctly modeled various problematic situations, such as gender ratios in insect species with haploid males.

daniel dennett is among the most widely read living philosophers, highly regarded for the diversity of his academic contributions. many of his popular works concern evolution, memetics, and human thought.



south dakota governor signs abortion ban into law

republican governor mike rounds of south dakota signed south dakota house of representatives bill into law today, banning all abortions in the state except to save the life of the mother (with no exceptions for rape and incest) to take effect in july. 



porn star promotes italian wine

roberto cipresso, one of italy's most respected winemakers, has gone into business with savanna samson, a new york porn star, whose real name is natalie oliveros.

the wine world had previously suspected that cipresso's collaboration with samson would be little more than a publicity stunt. such fears evaporated when u.s. wine expert robert parker rated their effort at 91, describing it as "an outstanding wine of exceptional complexity and character".

samson's husband, daniel oliveros, who introduced her to the winemaker, is a manhattan wine merchant. the couple met when she was a dancer at scores, a popular strip club. 

savanna samson's last film earned her the porn industry's highest award for best all-girl sex scene. her best-known films are "big blowout", "fetish underground" and "poke her".

roberto cipresso's previous investor was pope john paul ii.


at&amp;t to buy bellsouth for $67 billion

at&t inc. and bellsouth announced a us$67 billion merger deal sunday. if approved by shareholders and regulators, the merger would create the largest telecommunications company in the united states, with control of over half of the telephone lines in the country and the largest cellular service provider, cingular wireless.

"this transaction combines two solid, very well-run companies," at&t chairman and ceo edward e. whitacre said in a press statement. "bellsouth operates in an attractive region with a growing economy. it has great employees and an outstanding network, with fiber optics deeply deployed in its service area. it has a strong record in terms of customer service and a sound, conservative balance sheet. these strengths, added to those of at&t, will improve our ability to provide innovative services to more customers while returning substantial value to our owners and improving our growth profile."

at&t and bellsouth had shared ownership and operations of cingular wireless, which will be absorbed by at&t as part of the merger. if the deal passes shareholders, bellsouth stock holders will receive 1.325 shares of at&t common stock for each single share held of bellsouth stock. at a rate of 1.325 shares of at&t stock per bellsouth share. though subject to approval by government regulators and shareholders of both companies, the merger is expected to be completed within the next year.

bellsouth and at&t employ nearly 316,000 people in the united states. the merger, if approved, would give at&t 70 million telephone users, almost 10 million broadband subscribers, and at&t will provide services to more than half the companies on the "fortune 100" in 22 states.

whitacre will remain as chairman, ceo and a member of the board of directors of the combined company. duane ackerman, currently chairman and ceo of bellsouth, will remain in his position for a transition period following the merger. additionally, three members of bellsouth's board of directors will join the at&t board.

the announced purchase recalls the planned us$115 billion dollar merger of mci worldcom and sprint in 1999 that was prohibited by the federal government. despite this, analysts think the federal actions will be smaller, since these actions came under protest three months ago due to the actions of their european rivals.

with the price of at&t closing at us$27.99 per share, and the price of bellsouth closing at us$37.09 per share, at&t will pay an additional 17.9% for each stock of bellsouth. this operation ultimately leads to a capitalization of us$165 billion, and officials with the companies predict a force reduction of at least 10,000 employees, lower costs of operation in networks, and an overall savings of $2 billion after the second year, with altogether savings reaching us$18 billion. 

at&t also announced that it will try to acquire the us$10 billion worth of stocks that were yielded during the company's bankruptcy in 1984.

the corporate headquarters for the combined company are expected to remain in san antonio, texas, though georgia governor sonny perdue and atlanta mayor shirley franklin said monday that they will work to persuade at&t executives to move their headquarters to the bellsouth hq in atlanta. cingular's headquarters will remain in atlanta, as will the combined company's southeast regional telephone company headquarters.



australian senator bob brown calls for ban on junk food ads

australian greens senator bob brown today called for a ban on junk food advertisements during times that children are watching tv. in a press release, the senator referred specifically to the previous night's episode of "four corners".

"the extensive use of psychologists to analyse little children’s responsiveness to tv advertising, including how best to influence parents to buy goods by 'nagging' from children, is exploitation without honour," senator brown said.

the documentary, entitled "how the kids took over", investigated the increase in marketing to children, who "have a say" in au$700 billion worth of spending each year. "the marketing assault is aimed not only at getting children to spend. even companies who market adult products, such as cars, are enlisting children to help persuade their parents to buy the 'right' brand," the program summary said.

in the past the government has rejected such calls. it recently launched a $6 million advertising campaign encouraging children to exercise an hour each day.

senator brown says he plans to propose a senate inquiry.



chavez accuses us of plotting separation of oil rich state

hugo chavez, president of venezuela, has accused the united states of supporting a separatist movement in the oil-rich state of zulia. zulia has a large portion of venezuela's oil and gas reserves and is ruled by governor manuel rosales, a friend of the united states.

the zulian political organization, "own course", a group of right-wingers opposed to chavez, has proposed holding a referendum to form a neo-liberal capitalist economy in the zulia state which shares borders with colombia.

chavez described the secessionist attempts as a crazy move and warned that the separatists could face military action. he said that the imperialists are attempting to give strength and form to the secessionist movement, with the goal of controlling the oil in the region.

president chavez also claimed the secessionist movement is part of a plan by the u.s. to overthrow and kill him.


hall of fame baseball player kirby puckett dies of stroke

kirby puckett, a former professional baseball player and minnesota twins legend, died monday afternoon, march 6, in a phoenix, arizona, hospital, one day after suffering a stroke and undergoing emergency surgery for the resultant cerebral hemorrhage. he was 45 years old.

the hall of fame center fielder, whose .318 career batting average is surpassed only by joe dimaggio among right-handed hitters, was a ten-time all-star in twelve seasons with the minnesota twins. "puck" won six gold glove awards and five silver slugger awards for defensive and offensive excellence at his position, and led the twins to world series championships in 1987 and 1991. he retired as the twins' all-time leader in hits, doubles, total bases, at-bats and runs, records that he still holds to this day. unfortunately, his playing career was cut short in 1996, when he was diagnosed with glaucoma, which has left him blind in one eye. even though his career was considerably shorter than those of most inductees, it was long enough for baseball hall of fame eligibility. he was inducted in 2001, his first year of eligibility.

puckett had gained weight in recent years, and was reportedly still suffering from a bitter divorce in 2002, and was still depressed about his career being cut short. his professional relationship with the twins ended in 2002, and he went into seclusion thereafter. however, the twins have constantly attempted to contact puckett in hopes that he would return to help the team in some form. he also had his personal reputation sullied by an incident in 2003 where he was accused of groping a woman in a bathroom in a minneapolis-area restaurant. he was cleared of all charges, but the emotional damage he incurred from the incident had increased his self-imposed seclusion from the baseball community.

puckett suffered the stroke early sunday morning at his home in scottsdale, arizona. he was initially transported by ambulance to scottsdale memorial hospital, then was airlifted to scottsdale osborne hospital for emergency surgery in an attempt to stop a cerebral hemorrhage. after that, he was transferred st. joseph's hospital and medical center's barrow neurological institute in phoenix in hopes of further treatment. his condition declined, however. he received the last rites and passed away monday afternoon.

puckett is survived by his ex-wife tonya, his children catherine and kirby jr., and his fiancee, jodi olson. funeral arrangements are pending.



australians need bigger toilets

standards australia, the non-government standards setting organisation in australia has indicated that it is reviewing the weight limit for toilet seats as they need to accommodate the "increasing size of humans".

obesity levels have been rising for years in australia. australian bureau of statistics data shows that the percentage of australian men who are overweight or obsese rose 10 percent in the last ten years to 62 percent. the number of females who are considered overweight or obese rose 8 percent to 45 percent. standards australia is considering recommending strengthening loos for larger users. they say experts will examine the seats "from the perspective that people are getting bigger." 

standards australia says as the community's weight increases, and many more australians are in the heavier categories, toilet regulations have to be updated. general manager of standards development colin blair says toilets are currently required to meet a rigidity test of 45 kilograms (99 lbs) - which accommodates most people's weight in a seated position.

he says a committee including manufacturers and consumers will assess whether that is still adequate. "they will re-look at what the statistics are on weights of people, they will re-look at that rigidity load and then that document will go to public comment, so obviously the experts out there will have an opportunity to re-look and see whether that load is appropriate," said colin blair.

standards australia review committee member steve cummings, head of research and development for toilet manufacturer caroma dorf, said toilet seats currently only had to withstand a 45kg load. "we are bringing it in to line with the weight of a heavy australian," he said. 

the draft seat standard is due to be issued for public comment mid-this year and set for release by the end of 2006. 

health economist paul gross recently said the price of obesity for the community was about $11 billion a year.



ukraine does not allow transnistrian goods transit without moldovan customs stamps

on march 3, ukraine instituted a new customs regime at the border with transnistria. under the order issued by ukrainian customs' head, at the request of president viktor yushchenko, all the transnistrian goods that are transported via ukraine will have to be accompanied by customs documents released by the moldovan authorities.

ukraine pm has charged the foreign ministry and the state customs officials to render the account to the society for the goods circulation on the transdniestrian frontier. "in january i met the businessmen and authorities from moldova, ukraine and transdniestrian in . in the course of the meeting the sides voiced their precise positions towards the rules of the game," noted pm of ukraine speaking about the special terms of freight transportation via the territory of moldova, ukraine and transdniestrian region. according to his words, the freight from transdniestrian region will cross ukraine only if it has moldova’s stamp. "it means no additional taxes or excise," stressed pm yekhanurov. 

, high representative for the cfsp, welcomes implementation by moldova and ukraine of joint declaration on customs: "i welcome that the joint declaration of the ukrainian and moldovan prime ministers of 30 december 2005 is now being implemented, whereby ukraine only recognizes moldovan customs stamps and moldova facilitates the registration of transnistrian enterprises in chisinau. the implementation of this declaration is very important for the establishment of an orderly regime on the ukrainian-moldovan border to which the eu attaches great importance." solana added also: "i call on the economic agents of the transnistrian region of moldova to register with the relevant authorities in chisinau in order to promote the unimpeded flow of goods across the border. i also call on the self-proclaimed transnistrian authorities not to block this registration. ... i condemn any efforts by the self-proclaimed transnistrian authorities to impede the free flow of international trade."

the so-called transnistrian president qualified 's decision as economic attack and called on the ukrainian authorities to revise it so as to avert "a social-economic catastrophe" in the region.

trade between transnistria and ukraine totals about 400 million.

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largest mass extinction in 65 million years underway, scientists say

environmental scientists say they have concrete evidence that the planet is undergoing the "largest mass extinction in 65 million years". leading environmental scientist professor norman myers says the earth is experiencing its "sixth extinction." 

scientists forecast that up to five million species will be lost this century. "we are well into the opening phase of a mass extinction of species. there are about 10 million species on earth. if we carry on as we are, we could lose half of all those 10 million species," myers said. 

if we do not do more, myers says, the planet will continue to lose around 50 species per day compared to the natural extinction rate of one species every five years. he projected this rate in the late 1980s to much criticism, but the figure is now widely accepted by scientists. "the whole thing is taking place in what you might call a flickering of an evolutionary eye," said myers. "it's hard to keep up with unless we damp down on some of the causes of the evolution."

 the australia museum's frank howarth says "there are over 30 extinction 'hotspots' across the globe. he says up to 80 per cent of crucial habitat has been wiped out. biodiversity hotspots are areas that have more than 1500 endemic plant species and which have lost more than 70per cent of original habitat." hotspots feature, according to myers, "exceptional concentrations of species that are found nowhere else in the world."

evidence shows that insects, which account for more than half the described species on earth, are disappearing faster than birds. "many areas of australia's ecosystems depend on the work of insects... we put a lot of effort into looking at these hotspots, about what insects actually occur there, whether their numbers are increasing or decreasing, because they tell us a lot more about some of the high level effects," howarth said.

myers argues that we are destroying the earth’s biodiversity quickly enough to witness the beginning of a mass extinction of species?one of only six such events in the earth’s history. he says around 30 hotspots contain the last remaining habitats of at least half of earth’s land surface. 

he says more parks and reserves are needed, and while warnings are desperate, he believes the situation can be turned around. "we would be the first generation in the whole of human history since we came out of our caves to tackle a mass extinction head on and cancel it... and if we do, i think people will cheer for us from thousands of years ahead." myers projects that safeguarding the hotspots would cost one billion dollars per year.

the global amphibian assessment, an international convention of amphibian biologists, indicated in 2004 that over a third of the world's amphibian species are threatened, making them the most threatened group of animals on the planet. more than 120 species have likely become extinct since the 1980s, and around two-thirds of the south american harlequin frog species vanished in the 1980s and 1990s. the decline of amphibians in protected habitats has puzzled conservation biologists for nearly 20 years. 

recent research suggests that climate change may be driving widespread frog extinctions. results of a study published in the january 2006 "nature" journal reveal how warming alters a fatal skin fungus affecting frogs. the article says hundreds of species around the world are teetering on the brink of extinction or have already become extinct. 

"disease is the bullet that's killing the frogs," said j. alan pounds, the study's lead scientist from the tropical science center in costa rica. "but climate change is pulling the trigger. global warming is wreaking havoc on amphibians, and soon will cause staggering losses of biodiversity," he said.

according to the study, rising temperatures favor the chytrid fungus, which seems to kill frogs mostly in cool highlands or during winter?implying that low temperatures make it more deadly. national science foundation program director sam scheiner said their study "demonstrates the complex nature of global climate change, including how climate affects the spread of disease, and why these must be integrated if we are to understand and reduce threats to species extinctions."

scheiner says the message goes beyond amphibians: "global warming and the accompanying emergence of infectious diseases are a real and immediate threat to biodiversity and a growing challenge for humankind."

scientists are warning that by the end of this century, the planet could lose up to half its species, and that these extinctions will alter not only biological diversity but also the evolutionary processes itself. they state that human activities have brought our planet to the point of biotic crisis. 

in 1993, harvard biologist e.o. wilson estimated that the planet is losing 30,000 species per year - around three species per hour. some biologists have begun to feel that the biodiversity crisis dubbed the "sixth extinction" is even more severe, and more imminent, than wilson had expected.

professor myers and colleague andrew h. knoll say that what we do now will define a course for evolution. in their 2001 american institute of biological sciences report, myers and knoll forecast that the effects of a sixth extinction will leave gene pools so depleted that species may not bounce back. species such as rodents and cockroaches that have adapted to human environments will dominate. 

niles eldredge in his paper "the sixth extinction" says that with the high rate of extinction, there is little doubt left in the minds of professional biologists that the biosphere is currently facing a mounting, unprecedented loss of species. 

whilst previous mass extinctions were due to natural environmental causes, research shows that wherever on earth humans have migrated other species have become extinct. human overpopulation especially in the past two centuries is said to be the underlying cause of the sixth extinction.



dana reeve, 44, wife of christopher reeve, dies of lung cancer

dana reeve, the widow of christopher reeve, died of lung cancer late monday. she was 44.

reeve served as chairwoman of the christopher reeve foundation and founded the christopher and dana reeve paralysis resource center. she and her late husband, famed for his movie acting role of "superman", became advocates for paraplegics when he suffered a spinal injury in 1995 that left him paralyzed after falling off a horse. christopher reeve died in 2004.

kathy lewis, president and ceo of the foundation said in a statement to the media, "on behalf of the entire board of directors and staff of the christopher reeve foundation, we are extremely saddened by the death of dana reeve, whose grace and courage under the most difficult of circumstances was a source of comfort and inspiration to all of us."

reeve, who was not a smoker, announced in 2005 that she had lung cancer.

reeve is survived by her 13-year-old son, will; a step-daughter, alexandra; a step-son, matthew; her father, dr. charles morosini; and sisters deborah morosini and adrienne morosini heilman.


three explosions in varanasi, india

at least 15 people are feared dead and at least 60 others are wounded after three explosions in the hindu pilgrimage town of varanasi, india. 

at approximately 1230 utc/0730 est, the first explosion occurred outside the crowded sankat mochan temple. the second took place just minutes later at the cantonment railway station, leaving a crater just outside the stationmaster's room, and the third occurred on the shiv ganga express, which had been leaving for new delhi.

officials say that the area has been cordoned off and the injured have been shifted to a hospital on the benaras hindu university campus. they also report that at least four unexploded bombs were found near a holy site by the ganges river.

according to media advisor sanjay baru, prime minister manmohan "has appealed for peace and calm. he is constantly monitoring the situation."



multiple vehicles crash in west palm beach, fl

at least eight cars and a tanker have crashed on u.s. route 27 near west palm beach, florida. at least five people have been injured and no fatalities were been reported.

a gasoline tanker was in an accident with a flat-bed semi when several vehicles collided with the tanker. at least one semi has burst into flames.

fire rescue capt. don delucia said that "severe fog might have caused the accident and hampered crews from getting there."

both lanes of traffic were shutdown for several hours.



big 12 names players, coach of the year

after this weekend, texas can celebrate not only bringing home the big 12 conference trophy but also having the all-big 12 player of the year, p.j. tucker, and the first recipient of the defensive player of the year award, lamarcus aldridge.

rival kansas, who tied with texas for the no. 1 slot in the conference but was denied the trophy, had coach bill self named coach of the year and brandon rush named freshman of the year. michael neal of oklahoma was named newcomer of the year.

the all-big 12 awards are selected by the league's head coaches, who are not allowed to vote for their own players. 

tucker, a unanimous all-big 12 first team choice, is the first longhorn to earn big 12 player of the year recognition. he leads the team and ranks sixth overall in the conference in scoring (16.1), while leading the league in rebounding (9.0). he is also fourth in field goal percentage with a .531 mark. he has led ut in scoring seven times in league play and is second in the big 12 overall with 10 double-doubles. 

aldridge wins the first defensive honor awarded by the big 12. he is first in the big 12 with 59 blocks overall, including 27 in conference games. he has 81 defensive rebounds in 2005-06, ranking third in the league. aldridge can score as well, leading the big 12 with 13 double-doubles. 

neal is the second-straight sooner and fourth overall to win newcomer of the year. one of the top long-range threats in the big 12, the junior college transfer ranks first in conference games in 3-point field goal percentage (.495) and 3-point field goals per game (3.86). he is also averaging a team-best 14.8 points in league action. he has shot 50.0 percent or better from beyond the arc 11 times this season. 

rush is the first freshman in conference history to be named to the all-big 12 first team. the top scoring freshman in the conference with 15.1 points per game, rush also ranks seventh with a 6.6 rebounding average. he is the fourth ku player to surpass 400 points (408) in his freshman season. the native of kansas city, mo. is the second jayhawk to win freshman accolades (jeff boschee, 1998-99). 

self wins his first big 12 coaching honor and the third for a jayhawk mentor. after returning just 21.2 percent of his scoring from a year ago, self guided ku to a share of the big 12 regular season championship, its sixth in league annals. starting three freshmen and two sophomores, kansas recorded its 18th straight season with at least 22 victories. 

the all-big 12 first, second, third and honorable mention teams were also announced, while conference coaches also selected all-defensive and all-rookie teams for the first time. 

player of the year
p.j. tucker, texas, f, jr., 6-5, 225, raleigh, n.c./enloe 
defensive player of the year:
lamarcus aldridge, texas, f, so., 6-10, 237, dallas, texas/seagoville 
newcomer of the year: michael neal, oklahoma, g, jr., 6-3, 191, mesquite, texas/lon morris junior college 
freshman of the year: brandon rush, kansas, g, fr., 6-6, 202, kansas city, mo./mt. zion academy (n.c.) 
coach of the year: bill self, kansas
overall record: 276-128; 13th season record at kansas: 69-23; 3rd season 

all-big 12 first team position/height/weight/class/hometown/previous school(s) 

all-big 12 second team

all-big 12 third team 

all-big 12 honorable mention (listed alphabetically by school)
aaron bruce (baylor), mario chalmers & julian wright (kansas), jimmy mckinney (missouri), aleks maric & wes wilkinson (nebraska), kevin bookout & michael neal (oklahoma), mario boggan & jameson curry (oklahoma state), martin zeno (texas tech) 
big 12 all-defensive team 

big 12 all-rookie team 

source:


ontario college teachers begin strike

all across the canadian province of ontario, college teachers have gone on strike, leaving more than 150,000 students in 24 colleges without classes.

the ontario public service employees union rejected the final offer from college management, after negotiations at the delta chelsea hotel in downtown toronto.

this strike comes just a month before many student's scheduled graduations. if courses are extended into the summer, to compensate for lost school time, students' ability to maintain jobs to pay for their education would be severely limited.

“a prolonged strike would not only affect college students, but also have a ripple affect on the ontario economy and workforce. potential employers are expecting 44,000 new graduates and 100,000 returning students to enter the workforce this may, families have made summer plans, and some seasonal businesses may experience a significant loss if the school year does not finish on time,” says tyler charlebois, director of advocacy for the college student alliance. “i hope for the sake of ontario, the provincial government takes this situation as seriously as we are and takes action as necessary.”

opseu was asking for more teachers, smaller classes, and more faculty time for students. a strike vote was 80.4% in favour of action. humber had the least support for the strike, with only 67.0%, followed by st. lawrence with 67.7%. st. clair, boreal, centennial, and sault all had more than 90% support.



small plane crashes on median of interstate 75 in michigan

a small, single-engine plane crashed in the median of interstate 75 near holly, michigan tuesday afternoon. the crash site is located about 100 feet from the east holly road overpass, near exit 98, with approximate geographical coordinates of .

the piper model pa-28-180 aircraft crashed in the median during mid-afternoon local time, and slowed traffic when police and rescue teams were en route to the scene. according to local television station weyi-tv, two passengers were aboard the plane, and did not sustain any large injuries.

according to the faa database, the plane was manufactured in 1968, and was issued a license in 1970. the most recent owner according to the database is a flying school in coldwater, ohio.



australian emergency services personnel exposed to asbestos

at least 250 members of australia's emergency services personnel in new south wales have been informed that they could die from exposure to fatal levels of asbestos following emergency response training south of sydney.

members of the urban search and rescue (usar) unit are thought to be at risk. they were told last week they may contract life-threatening illnesses following training on a demolition site at holsworthy army barracks. the site was created to simulate rescues in the event of a terror attack or natural disaster. it has been regularly used by emergency services personnel since 2004.

some of the emergency services personnel spent up to three weeks at a time crawling through the rubble.

reports claim that when notified last week, senior personnel were left devastated. it can take decades for asbestos related illnesses to appear and can take up to 30 years before those exposed can be cleared of infection.

in addition to the emergency service personnel, doctors, nurses and hazardous material personnel could also be at a mild risk. even morris iemma, premier of new south wales, who visited the site has been warned he could be at risk.

according to "the daily telegraph", a repected sydney newspaper, it has been established that "no proper tests were done at the site before it became a training ground for hundreds of top-level rescuers in 2004",
"personnel were kept in the dark for up to a year about the asbestos before being told last week",
"nsw public officials and a host of ministers may have been exposed",
"ambulance chief greg rochford and mr mullins have been at the site and must face a health clearance", and
"the dust diseases tribunal is conducting an investigation into the long-term impact the mass exposure could have on emergency services in nsw."



prosecution to proceed with alternate witnesses in moussaoui trial

the judge in the u.s. federal death penalty trial against ruled on friday that prosecutors can seek replacement witnesses for seven federal aviation administration (faa) employees whose testimony was tainted, and therefore disallowed because of pre-trial coaching by a (tsa) lawyer.

the 18-member jury (6 alternates) were sent home for a week while the court dealt with the revelation that government aviation security witness had been contacted prior to the trial by tsa lawyer , to help prepare their testimony in the case.

martin, aged 51, is accused of misconduct by sending prosecution witnesses e-mail that included trial transcripts of another related case along with observations of her own that pertained to the moussaoui case, including suggestions and talking points. she was recently suspended with pay by the tsa and retained roscoe howard to act as legal council in the face of legal actions that might arise against her. 

judge initially ruled to prevent testimony from any aviation employees, but reversed her decision after the prosecution argued they would have little case left if their testimony remained inadmissible. faa employee testimony is expected to take the form of what measures would have been taken by the agency to prevent against the september 11, 2001 airliner attacks in new york city and washington d.c. if moussaoui had warned officials of the plan prior to the strikes. 

the connection to the carla martin involvement in the case was discovered in a separate trial involving liability law suits against two u.s. airline companies for losses as a result of the attacks. family member lawyers of flight attendants drew attention to contacts by martin to persons involved in the case. 

the jury will return monday for the trial's resumption.

a u.s. federal public defender appointed to moussaoui argued for the jury to spare his life during opening statements on monday, march 6, in the trial that will determine his fate ? either life in prison or death by lethal injection.
defense attorney edward b. macmahon said that moussaoui "aspires to martyrdom," and called on jurors to deny the al-qaeda operative his wish to die. a wish that would result in him becoming "a smiling face on a recruiting poster for osama bin laden," macmahon said.

moussaoui is believed by some to be the missing member in the team of 19 other attackers that carried out the suicide airliner strikes in new york city and washington d.c. arrested in minnesota on immigration charges three weeks prior to the attacks, moussaoui could have warned officials of the pending attacks, but failed to do so, argued assistant u.s. attorney rob spencer for the prosecution in opening statements.

the second day of the trial both moussaoui and juror's attention was riveted as a federal prosecutor read a radio transmission account of the exchange between a flight attendant on flight 11 and ground controllers.

"we are flying low. we are flying very very low. we are flying way too low," amy sweeney told controllers, according to an associated press report. the plane crashed into the north tower of the world trade center at 8:44 a.m. after she said, "oh my god, we are way too low!"

moussaoui has claimed that he had no involvement with the 9/11 attacks when he pleaded guilty to:
he said that he was to play a role in another future attack on the white house using an aircraft. four of the conspiracy charges each carry a maximum penalty of death.

family members of the nearly 3,000 killed in the attacks were able to watch the alexandria, virginia courtroom proceedings by closed-circuit television in six u.s. cities: new york, boston, central islip, n.y., , n.j., and philadelphia.

moussaoui has a history of disrupting previous trial proceedings with outbursts. he has disavowed his lawyers, and mostly ignored his mother who was present during the opening days of the trial because she had spoken to his defense lawyers.
upon leaving the tuesday, march 7 court session for a recess, moussaoui pumped his right fist in the air and shouted, "allah akbar! god curse america! bless osama bin laden!"

the outbursts have been timed to occur outside the earshot of judge brinkema and the jury as those persons filed out of the courtroom for recesses.
moussaoui pleaded guilty in april last year to the conspiracy charges. evidence linking him to the plot was discovered when his duffel bags were searched after the attacks.




sault professor sides with students during college strike

jerry zuchlinski, a natural resources professor at , is taking the side of the administration during the 2006 ontario, canada college teachers' strike.

the , ontario professor disagrees with opseu's suggestions that staff is overworked and underpaid, while joining his colleagues on the picket lines. he told newspaper "soo today", "i don't feel that the faculty concern with being overworked is valid. i do the same job that they do."
while the rest of the faculty carried signs stating, "faculty care about quality education," professor zuchlinski's read, "faculty lazy greedy + stupid."

the position is especially bold, as 92.2% of sault's faculty support the strike, the fourth highest percentage overall. voted overwhelmingly in favour, with 96.6%, while was least supportive of the action, with 64.0%.

the denied the final deal offered by the college compensation and appointments council on monday night. faculty have been without contracts since 31 august 2005.

zuchlinski said the faculty were offered a deal that would pay many as much as $95,000 per year, which, according to sault college campus news represents a 12.6% increase over four years.

the strike comes just a month before the end of the school year, which means courses may be extended into the spring and summer, making it difficult for students to find jobs to pay tuition.



gordon parks, african american filmmaker, dies at 93

renowned african american artist gordon parks, known for his photography, film direction, and autobiographical works, including the book and film "the learning tree", died tuesday at his home in new york. he was 93.

parks was a pioneering black artist with an impressive list of honors and accomplishments, including at least 40 honorary doctorate degrees. he was the first african american staff photographer for "life" magazine, where he worked from 1948 to 1972. president reagan presented him with the national medal of arts in 1988. he published at least five semi or wholly autobiographical books.

gordon roger alexander buchannan parks was born november 30, 1912, in fort scott, kansas, the youngest of 15 children. after his mother's death when he was 16, he moved to st. paul, minnesota, where he attended high school. he dropped out in order to find work during increasingly hard times, traveling extensively in the north and northwest looking for jobs. 

in 1938, he bought his first camera and experimented with both documentary and fashion photography. at age 30, he won a fellowship and traveled to washington, d.c., where he worked as a photographer for the farm security administration and later for the office of war information.

during his time at the fsa, parks composed photo-essays critical of the racial and social prejudices many faced. his work drew attention both to himself and to the poverty and social injustices of the time.

after the beginning of the war, parks moved to harlem, where he found a job as a fashion photographer for "vogue" and continued to take socially provocative photos of slum life in the city. it was these photos that convinced "life"'s photography editor to hire him.

in 1962, parks wrote "the learning tree", based on his kansas childhood. the book was a success, and parks later directed the film version, for which he also wrote the screenplay and the music. "the learning tree" was one of the first 25 films placed on the national film registry. parks next directed "shaft" and its successful sequel, "shaft's big score", as well as a blaxploitation comedy called "supercops".

parks' other artistic achievements include a ballet, written about martin luther king, jr., four other memoirs, a collection of poetry, several original musical compositions and at least one other fictional, non-autobiographical novel. collections and exhibits of his photography have traveled extensively within and beyond the united states.

he is survived by his three ex-wives, sally alvis, elizabeth campbell, and ms. young; his daughter, toni parks parson, and his son, david, from his first marriage; and a daughter, leslie parks harding, from his second marriage; five grandchildren; and five great grandchildren. a son, gordon parks jr., died in 1979.



events cancelled at humber due to college strike

due to the province-wide college strike, events at humber college in etobicoke, ontario, canada have been cancelled or delayed.

latin jazz night, set to happen on wednesday evening at 8:00 pm is cancelled, as is an evening of sketch comedy, which was scheduled for sunday, march 12 at 8:00 pm.

the evening of sketch comedy is organized by students of the humber school of comedy. humber is the only institution to offer comedy courses at a post-secondary or post-graduate level. the evening is a part of students' marks.

theatre humber's production of "the rover" has survived the axe. set to play from friday, march 31 ? saturday, april 8 at the humber theatre, it has been pre-emptively postponed.

faculty of 24 colleges across the province went on strike as of monday night, after no deal was made in continued collective bargaining.



house approves renewal of the patriot act

the house of representatives voted tuesday to reauthorize with small revisions several amendments to the usa patriot act, clearing the way for the patriot act to be re-signed into law by president bush.

the bill, which passed the house with a vote of 280-138, will be sent to president bush this week. major provisions of the patriot act were approved earlier this year by both the house and the senate. this bill offered slight revisions to past amendments to the overall act. the act itself was set to expire on march 16.

representative f. james sensenbrenner (r - wisconsin), chairman of the house judiciary committee, introduced the senate bill into the house for consideration and urged his colleagues to vote for its passage under a special suspension of the rules.

sensenbrenner highlighted three revisions in arguing for the bill's passage. one change established a person's right to challenge legally any orders given to him or her under the foreign intelligence surveillance act. the bill also included multiple provisions allowing that anyone who is ordered by the fbi under a number of acts to produce evidence or testimony does not have to reveal the name of anyone from whom he or she sought legal advice. the amendment also contains a section that amends the original act to specify that libraries are not considered wire or electronic communication service providers.

the senate passed the same measure last week by a vote of 89-10.



police release photographs of those of interest in connection with cronulla riots

in australia, new south wales police have released photographs of up to 20 men who are of interest in connection with the race riots in the sydney suburb of in december, 2005.

strike force enoggera detectives have been vigourously investigating the riots over the past few months. police have reportedly shown photographs at schools, pubs and clubs in an attempt to identify those who they are looking for.

detective superintendent ken mckay told the media on february 23, 2006 that they wanted "people who were involved in assaults, throwing missiles and damaging vehicles at cronulla on december 11 to come forward and hand themselves into police". he warned them that they would have around 10 days before the photos would be released publicly.

according to a statement on nsw police's website, police have exhausted all other investigative angles and have released the photos "of excellent quality and predominantly from news organisations" in an attempt to gain information from the general public.

in addition to the photographs, police will release a video showing "a large number of middle eastern males and vehicles that police wish to identify in relation to their behaviour on the night of december 12." according to nsw police. the videos have been supplied to police by witnesses. one was filmed at a service station in cronulla and the other was filmed on the corner of the kingsway in cronulla. the vehicle was a hatchback with a rear p-plate.

of late, two further arrests have been made in relation to the cronulla riots. a 27-year-old man handed himself into police at penrith, yesterday and was subsequently charged with two counts of riot and affray.

on february 27, 2006, police arrested a 23-year-old man at his home in cronulla. he was charged with hinder police and police allege that he tried to prevent police from arresting another man during the cronulla riots.

so far, 66 people have been arrested in connection with the riots. police say "anyone who can assist the strikeforce in identifying these people or if they have any other information in regards to riots and revenge attacks at cronulla, maroubra and brighton is urged to contact crimestoppers on 1800 333 000..."




eighteen found dead in a bus in iraq

eighteen men, ranging in ages from young to elderly, whose bodies were found bound and blindfolded in a minibus in baghdad, were hanged. "the medical report shows that all of them were hanged," a source at baghdad's yarmuk hospital said. "we found a rope round the neck of one of the victims."

a security patrol discovered the minibus just before midnight on the road between the and khadra districts. the victims, all men, had been handcuffed, blindfolded and either hanged or shot to death, police lt. maitham abdul-razzaq said.

police say they have no clues to the victims' identities. the bodies were found near the amriya district of western baghdad ? one of the city's most dangerous sections, abdul-razzaq said.

official figures suggest an increase in such killings since the destruction of a major shrine in two weeks ago sparked reprisal attacks. local people have accused the shiite-led, us-backed government's police and other security forces of abducting and killing sunni civilians.

the dumping of bodies bearing signs of torture and killed execution-style has become a feature of iraq's violence between armed factions. 

meanwhile, the u.s. ambassador to iraq warned that the country is vulnerable to rebels’ attempts to exploit the political situation caused by the shrine attack. "there is a concerted effort to provoke civil war," he said.

iraq's parliament is expected to sit on sunday for the first time since the december elections. 

 


bonobo chimp threatened in congo

the congo's population of bonobo, or pygmy, chimpanzee ("pan paniscus") is dwindling, according to researchers.

dr. ino guabini, a primatologist with the world wildlife fund reports that only about 5,000 remain in congo. in 1984, their numbers were estimated at 100,000.

it is illegal to hunt bonobos, but their meat is considered tasty; and is a traditional food in the congo. the meat is often sent to expensive & secretive restaurants in congolese cities.

the bonobo is best-known for resolving squabbles through sex rather than violence. rivals are greeted with genital handshakes and sensual body rubs. fights are often settled with a "french kiss" and sex, either heterosexual or homosexual. bonobo's communication is primarily vocal.

dna evidence suggests that the bonobo and common chimpanzee separated just 500,000 years after they diverged from the last common ancestor with humans, between four to seven million years ago. chimpanzees are the closest living relatives to humans, and are an important research model in both biology and psychology.


witness convicted of perjury in best bakery trial sentenced to one year

zahira sheikh, the main prosecution witness in the high-profile best bakery case, has been sentenced to a year in prison for lying in court and a fine of rs. 50,000. zahira sheikh changed her testimony many time. a committee appointed by the supreme court said it believed she had been bribed to lying in court.


north korea fires missiles during training exercise

on wednesday march 8, north korea launched two , during military training exercises near the border with china, according to "" which cited two military sources.

the sources, however, dispute where those missiles were launched. an "asian security source" stated that the missiles may have been launched in the direction of china by mistake, and landed just inside the north korean border. a "western military source", however, claimed that they were launched to the east, in the direction of the , but still says they landed in north korean territory.

north korea surprised the world when it launched a over northern japan in 1998. since then, it has conducted many missile tests, including a dense battery of land-to-ship missile tests in 2003 when tensions rose over its possible possession of . it is believed to be developing a ballistic missile that could reach alaska, hawaii, or even the continental united states.



toronto to have socialized city-wide wi-fi access

toronto's public utility, toronto hydro telecom, will make canada's largest city into a huge .

"this is both an exciting and very important initiative for the city of toronto", said toronto's mayor, . "it puts us on the leading edge of the telecommunications industry nationwide and globally."

toronto hydro telecom will offer customers free access for the first six months. after that, it will begin to charge for services.

"wi-fi technology is the new benchmark for urban living", stated toronto hydro president david dobbin. "it's standard equipment in many electronic devices, from laptops to portable entertainment units."

private telephone companies are questioning why a public utility needs to compete with the private sector.

mike lee of questioned why the city of toronto wanted to enter the internet access business.

"it will not be an easy business", lee told the "". "in this day and age, the focus should be on core operations more than anything. i was surprised to see they are looking to get into this business."

brian sharwood, a telecom analyst in toronto, said the municipality will likely install the wireless transmitters and receivers on its lamp posts as a way to blanket the city, a process known as "".


wikinews interviews gary fung from isohunt

as reported on "wikinews", , a and search site frequented by a massive number of internet users everyday, has recently been one of the targets of the 's anti-piracy campaign. originally starting out as an irc indexing site in january of 2003, isohunt added torrent search later that year in july and has been steadily growing since. by december, isohunt had 16,248 torrents available. today that amount is around 250,000.

isohunt has survived while many similar sites around it crumbled, yet was operating long before the others had even been thought of. in april of 2005, isohunt also gained torrentbox after its administrator gave it to gary fung of isohunt.

"wikinews" interviewed mr. fung, the 22 year-old canadian administrator of the sites.

"why did you start your site?"<br>
for fun, and to learn web programming (php and mysql). also a web search engine for p2p networks has not been done, and would be useful.

"i read on your site at the time, news of the mpaa's actions hit the news, that you had not been notified, how did you find out? how did you react?"<br>
i found out first from mike at slyck.com, who have received letters of the press release, along with other news outlets like cnet. within a few hours, all the news sites posted about it.

"do you feel it is appropriate for the mpaa to publicly announce that they have commenced action against your sites and others before you even receive notification?"<br>
yes, although not surprising. factually speaking, industry associations like the mpaa often use the threat of pending lawsuits to intimidate to-be defendants, and it serves their purpose of spreading fud to the public at large.

"have you ever received a takedown notice from any company in accordance with the dmca?"<br>
at least once a day, often many times a day. i've lost count of how many takedown requests we've received now, it would be at least in the hundreds, if not a thousand. we have a thorough copyright policy outlining our stance, compliance and procedures: http://isohunt.com/dmca-copyright.php. some of them come back and actually thank us with satisfaction for our prompt processing. for others, such as indie content producers for tv shows and movies, we actually talk to them about using bittorrent to aid their distribution. and such partnerships are in the works.

"how do you go about dealing with them?"<br>
we verify their authenticity, whether identified works are within their copyright, and disable them if found to be aiding in possible copyright infringement.

"do you think the service you provide is any different to that of major search engines such as google and yahoo?"<br>
no. we are all search engines, only designed for different markets. "torrents" for example are metadata pointers that describe and link to resources on bittorrent swarms. google and isohunt for example are different only in forms of links and types of data they index. both serve the purpose of organizing information on open networks on the internet (www and p2p), making them useful and searchable.

according to the isohunt website, gary received official notification of the mpaa's lawsuit on february 28, 2006. gary admits that he was impressed by the amount of research which was put into the suit. he said: "i have to say i am impressed by the depth of their legal research, evidently their lawyers have been watching us for at least a year, since we exchanged letters last year. however, their core accusation is false. we do not operate this search engine and other p2p services for the express object of infringing mpaa's copyrights, there are many other torrents of content we index that are not owned by the mpaa, copyrighted or non-copyrighted. we would comply with dmca takedown requests, given sufficient identification. which they did not."


agriculture's impact on human evolution clarified

university of chicago, illinois biologists dr. benjamin voight, dr. sridhar kudaravalli, dr. xiaoquan wen and dr. jonathan pritchard have identified regions of human dna showing the strongest marks of natural selection within the last 5,000 to 15,000 years.

they found that many recent genetic changes are related to the development of agriculture. in particular, the genes for digestion of milk into adulthood occurred only after some level of domestication of animals. most mammals drink milk only in infancy.

the work may shed light on the genetic factors involved in various human medical conditions, including high blood pressure and alcoholism.

the chicago finding also contradicts the tacit assumption of much social science that human evolution "ground to a halt" in the distant past. even evolutionary psychologists have tempered their claims based upon this assumption.

the study is based upon dna changes found in three populations examined by the hapmap project: africans, east asians and europeans.

the study has been published in plos-biology.



uk vending machines begin selling sex toys

bars and nightclubs in london, manchester, and newcastle, uk, now carry vending machines selling sex toys for about ￡5. these fuchsia-pink tabooboo machines are usually located near toilets to render deliberating customers a modicum of privacy. however, some hairdressing salons are giving the machines "center stage". products available from these unconventional vending machines include mini vibrators, "silicone ticklers", "lust fingers", and bottles of "love liquid" (an edible lubricant).

the alphabet bar in london's west end, host to the first sex toy vending machine in the u.k., claims many people visit especially for the machine, and describes it as a "great success". alan lucas, the managing director of the company behind this enterprise, tabooboo, suggests that the success of the machines is due to younger people having a more liberal view of sex toys. he stated, "the most popular product is a vibrating rod ring which is something [the man] wears [on his penis]".

the machines are expected to begin appearing in the u.s. and italy.


buffalo, ny magazine to publish prophet muhammad cartoons

the magazine "free inquiry", issued in buffalo, new york and published by the center for inquiry, is to publish some of the islam's prophet muhammad cartoons. these cartoons were originally published in the danish newspaper "jyllands-posten", causing waves of violence and protests among muslims worldwide.

tom flynn, editor of the secular magazine, said that he was only acting alongside several european papers that reprinted the cartoons "demonstrating a commitment to free expression and a free press." he commented further that "no religious teaching, community, or institution should be held immune from criticism simply because of its religious nature."

three articles will be published alongside the cartoons. in the first, flynn will trace the controversy and explain the magazine's decision to publish them. a second, by r. joseph hoffmann, director of the council for secular humanism's committee for the scientific examination of religion, will present further commentary; the last will be on the history of the prophet muhammad.

four of the original twelve cartoons are to be published: the image of muhammad wearing a bomb with its fuse lit as a turban, another claimed to show horns coming out of the prophet's turban, muhammad [or an imam] greeting suicide bombers in heaven, and one showing a male face on a muslim with islam's star and crescent. flynn said this last cartoon "is included as an example of how the collection's less sharply focused entries fell flat."

arif desai, imam of the islamic society of niagara frontier in amherst, new york, said that the muslim community felt sorrow over the magazine's decision to publish the cartoons.

"we feel sorrow, we feel hurt and insulted as these are very disturbing, insulting cartoons of the prophet muhammad. obviously, we know and believe in freedom of speech, but along with freedom of speech comes responsibility," said desai.

the cartoons will be published next week on march 15, 2006.



buffalo, n.y. hotel proposal delayed further

the common council of buffalo voted on tuesday to send the elmwood village hotel proposal "to committee for further discussion", after citing the need for more public involvement.

the "elmwood village hotel" is a development proposal by the savarino construction services corporation, a project designed by the architect karl frizlen of the frizlen group. the hotel would be placed on the southeast corner of elmwood and forest avenues in buffalo. 

to make way for the project, at least five buildings located at 1109 to 1121 elmwood ave would be demolished. at least two properties on forest avenue could also be demolished. the elmwood properties, according to eva hassett, vice president of savarion construction, are "under contract", but it is unclear if savarino construction actually owns the elmwood properties. hans mobius, a former mayorial candidate, is still believed to be the current owner the properties. mobius also owns 607 forest avenue.

the properties 605 and 607 forest avenue could also be included in the proposal according to hassett.

"we would use a special development plan to rezone 1119-1121 elmwood and 605 forest to a c-2 zoning category," stated hassett. it is possible that savarino construction may try to obtain a variance for 605 forest, which would allow them to enforce eminent domain, should the hotel be allowed to go forward.

the building at 607 forest was also discussed to be rezoned, but it is unclear what the plans would be for that property. during the february 28 common council meeting, hassett stated that the properties 605 and 607 were "now off the agenda".

pano georgiadis, owner of pano's restaurant at 1081 elmwood, owns the property at 605 forest and attended tuesday's common council meeting.

"having a hotel is a bright idea. we all love the idea of a hotel, but the way that it is presented, is wishful thinking. this hotel does not fit. it's like putting two gallons of water in a gallon jug, it does not fit. at the last meeting, the architect admitted that they are planning to put the undergound parking lot and the hotel, right at the property line. if i open my window, i will be able to touch the wall, that goes fifty feet high", said georgiadis. 

"there is a problem having a seventy-two room hotel and fifty-five parking spaces. that means that all the other cars will spill all over the neighborhood. the footprint is simply too small. if you have a bigger [parking] lot, and a smaller hotel, i will welcome a hotel. i have a parking lot at my own business, and i am chasing people all day long. remember, the city says it has 'zero tolerance [for illegal parking]'. try telling that to the guy from albany who came to see his kids, that are going to buffalo state, who would get tickets totaling over a hundred dollars", added georgiadis.

the city's planning board is scheduled to meet on march 14, 2006 at 9:00 a.m. about the proposal. although a discussion will take place, no vote is expected to be taken.

at the moment, none of the properties are zoned for a hotel. savarino construction plans on asking for a c2 zoning permit. if that does not work, they plan to implement a new zoning plan called a "special development plan" which would allow for only a hotel on the site. that zone would not be able to be changed.

"this [project] justifies mobius's refusal to invest in any maitenance or improvements", on the properties said clarence carnahan, a local resident. "where were the council persons over the years? where were the city inspectors over the years, to make sure that he maintained and improved his properties? the government was supposed to be protecting, not being preditorial. i see a predatorial issue here when it comes to this hotel. over the years: why has the local government been disfunctional when it came to mobius's properties? refusal to invest in improvements, doesn't that sound like a slumlord? maybe i am missing a point here, but what kind of messages does this send to other slumlords that havn't been jailed or fined? it's [the hotel] trying to be pushed through."

carnahan also presented signs for residents and or business owners who are opposed to the hotel, that could be placed in windows or on stakes in the yard. some of the signs said, 'no tell hotel', 'hans off, no hotel', 'it takes more than a hotel to make a village'. and 'keep elmwood free, no hotel'. carnahan plans on making more signs for a protest to be held on saturday march 18, at 2:00 p.m. (est) on elmwood and forest. some signs were given to individuals after the meeting.

"first things first, hans is the problem, and i don't think it has been addressed. let's roll back the clock on this project. what can we do with hans? there is such thing as eminent domain, which could be of greater interest to the community, to seize the property at its lowest assessed value", said nancy pollina, co-owner of don apparel with patty morris at 1119 elmwood. "there are so many ideas that have not been explored and we are about to give this parcel away, to a big developer."

mobius has not returned any calls by "wikinews" regarding the situation.

a freelance journalist writing for "wikinews" has obtained a letter, exclusively, addressed to one of the five business owners from hans mobius stating:

"there is a proposal to develop my property which you are currently renting. because of opposition to this development, it does not look like it will happen. i will let you know if there any changes."

despite the letter, there have been no plans or decisions made to end the proposal. 

to date, none of the business owners or residents of 1119-1121 elmwood have received an eviction notice.

business owners and residents gave an indication of what they would like to see happen at the corner; a project similar to one done locally last year. there, developers renovated two buildings on auburn and elmwood avenues, merging the buildings into one thus allowing for more shop space. among some of the shops to move in after the development were cone five pottery, the ruby slipper, and abraham's jewelers. prior to the renovation work, the left building in the picture was boarded up for several years. many of the concerned locals would like to see a similar development on forest and elmwood.

rocco termini, a developer in buffalo, proposed a similar design at the february 28 community meeting 

in an interview after the february 28 meeting, termini stated, "i will be willing to take a look at this myself, or i would be more than happy to be partners with sam, sam savarino", who is president and chief executive officer of savarino construction services corp.

so far savarino construction has no plans to team up with termini.


nfl owners agree to cba extension, 30-2

the owners of the teams of the national football league agreed wednesday night at 7:35 p.m. edt--25 minutes before a final deadline of 8:00 p.m. edt--to a collective bargaining agreement extension proposal put together by the nfl players association. the final vote was 30-2, with ralph wilson of the buffalo bills and mike brown of the cincinnati bengals voting no.

faced with a severely limiting salary cap of us$94.5 million in 2006 and the total loss of the salary cap in 2007, potentially ending the era of parity in the nfl, the owners' final caveat was not with the nflpa, but with themselves. they were arguing over the continuation of revenue sharing, and how it should proceed through the cba extension. in the end, owners agreed to a three-tiered revenue sharing system: the top five revenue teams would each pay the highest share into the revenue sharing pool, teams 6-10 would each pay the middle share, and teams 11-15 would each pay the lowest share. the lower 17 teams would then split the revenue sharing pool.

the cba extension permits the salary cap to rise to $102 million for the 2006 season, and $109 million for 2007. it also extends the maximum proration period for signing bonuses to five years in 2006, then six years in 2007, before returning to five years in 2008.

the owners and the nflpa have been working on a cba extension for nearly two years. if the deadline had passed wednesday night, then the current cba would have ended after the 2007 season, with the owners fearing a strike and a possible challenge from another professional football league, like the usfl in the mid-1980s. this fear is substantiated by the 2004-05 strike in the nhl, during which an unsuccessful challenge was made by a re-formed world hockey association.



former teacher in france surrenders after holding 22 hostage in school

the man who took at least 22 people hostage in colbert de torcy high school near , france, most of whom were teenagers, surrendered without incident.

reports indicated 20 of the hostages were students, and two others were adults, possibly school employees. this was higher than initial reports of 18 students and two adults. according to a school receptionist, bernadette mercier, the students ranged in age from 17 to 18 years old. the school holds up to 1,500 students. no one was harmed in the incident.

the situation began when the man, aged 33, walked into colbert de torcy high school at 1:00 pm gmt, thursday afternoon and officials say he was suffering from . "we knew him, so we simply let him in," mercier said. "he seemed totally normal."

the hostage-taker was reported to be armed with a gun, which later turned out to be fake.

the man had lost his job as a at the school two years ago. he was quoted as saying he "wants to talk to the press about his employment problems." he's also asked to speak with francois fillon, the local mayor and former french education minister. mr. fillon was the author of an education reform program.

students were allowed to use their to communicate with their families according to jean luc prigent, head of security for the le mans region which includes the school. a special hotline was set up, along with a crisis center for parents of the students.

a hostage rescue team called the , was dispatched to the scene, coming by helicopter from villacoublay military airport just west of paris.

the school is located in northwestern france in near the city of le mans.



bangkok blast injures two tourists

a small explosive device detonated this afternoon at a police guard post near to the residence of former prime minister general in bangkok. the device injured two tourists, one canadian and one british.

prem was thailand's pm from 1980, dismissing parliament and resigning the position in 1988. he went on to join the country's privy council and now chairs it.

the explosion comes against the backdrop of political tension in the country, with all main opposition parties boycotting the april 2nd election called by thaksin shinawatra. protests against the pm now occur daily, with a proposed boycott of goods and services from companies associated with the pm or his family being put into place.


three charged following release of cronulla riot wanted photographs

three men have been arrested and a further six "positively identified" following the public release of photographs showing "persons of interest" to police in relation to the last year.

a 20-year-old man from , a suburb of , handed himself into police yesterday after seeing his photograph in a newspaper. he was subsequently charged with riot and affray.

an 18-year-old man from bella vista was arrested in a hotel yesterday afternoon after he was identified by the public. a 33-year-old miranda man was also charged after handing himself into police last night. he will appear in sutherland local court today.

following the release of the photographs on march 8, police have received information from the public identifying seven of those wanted in relation to the riots.

new south wales police minister yesterday urged the others to turn themselves into police before being arrested. "i'd say to those people, save yourselves the embarrassment and turn up to a police station", he said.

police and the police minister have also criticised sydney's middle eastern community for failing to assist in identifying men wanted for revenge attacks after the riots.

"generally speaking, when caucasians are put on the front pages of newsletters, they're identified", said mr scully.

"and unfortunately, when footage is presented of people of middle eastern background, we get zip."

a spokesman from the lebanese friendship association said that the middle eastern community was being persecuted.
"we are sick and tired of people saying why aren't we doing enough", said keysar trad.

"if the beat police can't recognise them, then the chances of anyone recognising them are very, very slim."

other muslim leaders urged parents to question their children and hand them into police if they suspect they took part in the revenge attacks which occurred after the riot. lebanese muslim association spokesman abdul el ayoubi said parents should have questioned their children when the events first occurred.

"if (their children) were involved then they have a duty to take them in", he said.

"what they have done now, might be nothing to what they could do next time."

the nsw islamic council has also backed mr ayouvi's calls.

detective superintendent ken mckay, the head of strike force enoggera which is investigating the riots, said he was confident of making many more arrests over coming days thanks to the assistance of the public. "it wouldn't surprise me if we had, within the next day or two, the majority of them." he said yesterday.

"i'm confident (of arresting all 20). if i was a betting man i'd be running at close to odds-on."


looted, possibly contaminated body parts transplanted into usa, canadian patients

fears of contaminated bone and skin grafts are being felt by unsuspecting patients following the revelation that funeral homes may have been looting corpses.

janet evans of was told by her surgeon, "the bone grafts you got might have been contaminated". she reacted with shock, "i was flabbergasted because i didn't even know what he was talking about. i didn't know i got a bone graft until i got this call. i just thought they put in screws and rods."

the body of , the former host of "," was supposedly looted along with more than 1,000 others, according to two law enforcement officials close to the case. the tissue taken was typically skin, bone and tendon, which was then sold for use in procedures such as dental implants and hip replacements. according to authorities, millions of dollars were made by selling the body parts to companies for use in operations done at hospitals and clinics in the and .

a , biomedical tissue services, has reportedly been taking body parts from funeral homes across , . according to , they set up rooms like a "surgical suite." after they took the bones, they replaced them with pvc pipe. this was purportedly done by stealth, without approval of the deceased person or the next of kin. 1,077 bodies were involved, say prosecuters.

investagators say a former dentist, michael mastromarino, is behind the operation. biomedical was considered one of the "hottest procurement companies in the country," raking in close to $5 million. eventually, people became worried: "can the donors be trusted?" a tissue processing company called lifecell answered no, and issued a recall on all their tissue. 

cooke's daughter, susan cooke kittredge, said, "to know his bones were sold was one thing, but to see him standing truncated before me is another entirely." now thousands of people around the country are receiving letters warning that they should be tested for infectious diseases like hiv or hepatitis. on february 23, the brooklyn district attorney indicted mastromarino and three others. they are charged with 122 felony counts, including forgery and bodysnatching.


usa leaving abu ghraib

united states army officers stated that the abu ghraib prison will be closed within months, and its prisoners moved to other prisons and camps in iraq. some of the 4500 detainees will be sent to the new camp cropper, which is built for this special purpose. the operation of abu ghraib will be transferred to the government of iraq. lieutenant colonel keir-kevin curry said: "no precise dates have been set, but the plan is to accomplish this within the next two to three months."

lt. col. barry johnson, military spokesman, says "clearly there's a lot of emotion attached to abu ghraib. for iraqis, it dates back a lot further than abuses committed by american soldiers, and it makes it a magnet for attacks."

the prison complex was a widely feared center for torture and execution under saddam hussein, and as many as 4,000 people were executed in the prison in 1984. the buildings at abu ghraib were originally built by british contractors in the 1960s.

pictures of extensive detainee abuse in abu ghraib taken inside the prison in november 2003 had been released earlier this year. in january 2005, a united states army court martial proceeding found army spc. charles graner guilty of abusing prisoners at the abu ghraib prison. the jury sentenced graner to ten years in prison. a total of nine other american soldiers were found guilty in allegations stemming from the abu ghraib prison abuse scandal.




daisuke enomoto will be the fourth space tourist at the iss

japanese entrepreneur daisuke "dice-k" enomoto, 34, is set to become the fourth private citizen in space. the arlington, virginia-based company "space adventures", which specializes in spaceflight-related travel, announced on march 7 that enomoto was approved by the russian space agency as a flight candidate.

enomoto has now passed the physical examinations necessary to be cleared for training, finished the medical preparation, and signed the contract for the flight. his training with the russian federal space agency will include physical and aeronautical preparation as well as russian language instruction.

enomoto will be the first japanese person to fly to the international space station (iss). his trip, to take place in a soyuz tma-9 rocket, is scheduled for september, with a ticket price of us$20 million.

united states entrepreneur gregory olsen returned from the iss in october 2005; previous space vacationers were american dennis tito in 2001 and south african mark shuttleworth in 2002.



czech pub food eating experiment resulted in lost weight, lower cholesterol

on february 8, the same day super size me opened in prague, a czech film company's volunteer known as karel gustav bozan began a 1 month diet of czech pub food and beer in a czech version called "super spek me"; which translates loosely as "super flab me".

zuzana pudilova of aerofilms described the volunteer at that time: "he is a well-built man between 45 and 50. he is almost 2 metres tall, he is not exactly thin but until now he has had quite a healthy lifestyle." 

karel ate typical czech pub food for an entire month with three rules: no vegetables or fresh fruit (unless they came with a meal) no exercise, and lots of beer.

karel's menu consisted entirely of typical czech dishes. obesity therapist, iva malkova, had warned at the beginning of the project: "people in the czech republic eat much more fat, especially animal fat than is recommended." pub meals in the czech republic often consist of such fatty items as goose with dumplings or sausages.

yesterday the results were announced; karel lost six kilos, his cholesterol went down and so did his liver enzymes, triglyceride and uric acid levels. his blood pressure did not change. at his interview with radio prague he said: "i feel good, great! the food was varied and there were even enough greens in the garnish. as for beer, i tried to alternate brands but i always settled it with pilsner. i liked the experiment, it was all paid for by the distributor, aerofilms. i would do it again, maybe they will propose it to me!" 

zuzana pudilova of aerofilms said: "the result of the experiment is surprising - both for us and the experts who monitored it. the medical report says our volunteer has lost weight and his blood sugar has dropped. so we have come to the conclusion that fatty czech pub grub is not all that bad for you - which i guess wasn't meant to be the result of the experiment at all."




japanese buddhist priest arrested for child prostitution

a 73-year-old buddhist priest and temple nursery school director was arrested for soliciting a child prostitute, police reported on friday.

itsushi ehara, chief priest of komyoji temple in aki-ku, hiroshima, is alleged to have violated the japanese anti-child prostitution and pornography law.

police state that ehara admitted to the allegations during questioning, responding "i did it to alleviate my work stress." police also claim that he confessed to membership in child prostitution clubs, and has paid several high school girls to have sex with him on more than 20 occasions.

tokyo police allege that ehara paid 80,000 yen to a 15-year-old girl, a first-year high school student, to have sex with him at a hotel in shinjuku-ku, tokyo, in august 2004.



mars reconnaissance orbiter enters martian orbit

after journeying seven months to reach its destination, the mars reconnaissance orbiter entered the martian orbit. the successful orbital maneuver garnered applause from nasa controllers at the jet propulsion laboratory in pasadena, california.

on friday, the orbiter made a 27-minute engine burn. the maneuver slowed the orbiter down twenty percent to 27,000 kilometers (11,000 miles) per hour and put the satellite into an elliptical orbit set to bring it within 400 kilometers (250 miles) of the martian surface.

as of now, the european space agency's mars express along with nasa's mars global surveyor and mars odyssey are orbiting the planet. the mars reconnaissance orbiter will make it the fourth satellite monitoring mars.

the mars reconnaissance orbiter was launched seven months ago on august 12, 2005. the orbiter was outfitted with the most powerful monitoring equipment ever sent to research the planet. the craft is equipped and designed to recover more data than all other previous missions combined.


global measles deaths plunge by 48% over past six years

the world health organization and united nations children's fund announce that the global drive has cut measles deaths by nearly half between 1999 and 2004. the number of deaths fell from 871,000 in 1999 to an estimated 454,000 in 2004 (the most recent year for which data is available). they report the reduction is as a result of ""major national immunization activities and better access to routine childhood immunization"".


gale norton resigns as u.s. secretary of the interior

gale norton announced her resignation today as united states secretary of the interior, effective at the end of march. she stated that she was leaving for "personal reasons." the announcement came as the senate indian affairs committee investigates jack abramoff. e-mails seen by the committee have suggested that there was a close relationship between abramoff and norton's former deputy, steven griles. according to john mccain, r-ariz., abramoff gained access to griles by promising donations from his clients to italia federici.

during her tenure in the department of the interior, norton supported drilling in the arctic national wildlife refuge, and opened other public land for drilling.

the president has nominated dirk kempthorne, the current governor of idaho to replace her. by tradition this particular secretary comes from a western state or territory.


american hostage tom fox found dead in iraq

tom fox, an american who was among four christian activists kidnapped in iraq in november last year, has been found dead, according to the u.s. state department.

fbi spokesman noel clay reports that a body found friday morning was fox, 54, of clear brook, virginia.

according to iraqi officials, fox's body had been found with gunshot wounds and his hands tied. officials also say that he was beaten before his death.

according to clay, further tests will be done in the united states; the u.s. embassy in baghdad is still investigating. clay also said that "the state department continues to call for the unconditional release of all other hostages".

al-jazeera aired video footage on tuesday of the other three hostages, canadians james loney, 41, harmeet sooden, 32, and norman kember, 74, from great britain. the three had not been heard from since last year. the recent video release of them was filmed on february 28.



12000 commonwealth games tickets remain unsold

with three days until the start of the 2006 commonwealth games in melbourne, australia, organisers still have some 12,000 tickets yet unsold after mailing out some 150,000 invitations to buy tickets to the games' opening ceremony. at least 40 invitations were sent to the families of 40 deceased people. organisers have since apologised for this mistake.

melbourne 2006 chief executive john harnden says: “opening ceremony sales are going well…we've sold about 4000 tickets over the last seven days, [and] those rates of sales are continuing... overall, the rate of sales for tickets are fantastic ... it's an enormous number ? bigger than any other commonwealth games ever sold." tickets to the opening ceremony cost $590aud. 

the xviii commonwealth games will be held from march 15th through the 26th. the opening ceremony will be held wednesday night. it will be opened officially by queen elizabeth ii.


former yugoslavian president slobodan milosevic found dead in his cell

former yugoslavian president slobodan milo?evi?, 64, has died in the u.n. war crimes tribunal detention center in the hague, netherlands. the serbian socialist party and un officials confirmed his death, and tribunal president fausto pocar has ordered an inquiry, which will be done by the dutch police and the dutch coroner. a toxicological examination and a full autopsy have also been ordered on milo?evi?. 

a statement said that milo?evi? "was found lifeless on his bed in his cell at the united nations detention unit. the guard immediately alerted the detention unit officer in command and the medical officer. the latter confirmed that slobodan milo?evi? was dead." 

french foreign minister philippe douste-blazy said that milo?evi? died of natural causes. he had been suffering from chronic heart problems and high blood pressure.

march 3 blood samples from mr. milo?evi? showed traces of rifampicin, an antibiotic used to treat serious bacterial infections like tuberculosis and leprosy. 

zdenko tomanovi?, his defence lawyer, quoted mr. milo?evi? as saying, "i have never taken any antibiotic in five years." mr. milo?evi? claimed the day before he died that people with an interest in silencing him were trying to poison him.

an adviser to the chief prosecutor reported "he has a proven track record of taking unprescribed medicine, of messing with his medication," and suggested the complete cause of death may never be known.

the trial against milo?evi? had been delayed 20 times due to health problems. in 2002 judges ordered a psychiatric review to determine the strain the trial was putting on him. in late february the tribunal denied his petition for a transfer to a hospital in russia.

milo?evi? was on trial and charged with more than 60 counts of genocide and crimes against humanity for the role he played in the balkan wars, which includes the massacre of 8,000 muslims at srebrenica in 1995 and emanating from the bosnian conflict. 

he was extradited to the hague in 2001, and his trial began in 2002. he refused to be given a lawyer and was defending himself in court, pleading not guilty to all charges against him. he faced life in prison.

milo?evi? served as president of the republic of serbia from 1989 to 1997, and the president of federal republic of yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000. 


agriculture department investigating possible u.s. case of mad cow disease

the associated press has reported that the united states department of agriculture is currently investigating a possible case of mad cow disease. usda official john clifford said that a routine test indicated the possible presence of the disease.

the agriculture department says that the first test was inconclusive and that further tests are being conducted in the department's laboratory in ames, iowa; however, those test results for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (bse) will not be available for at least 4-7 days.

"this inconclusive result does not mean we have found a new case of bse. inconclusive results are a normal component of most screening tests, which are designed to be extremely sensitive," said clifford. "we remain very confident in the safety of u.s. beef."

clifford also stated that no parts of the cow have entered the human food or animal feed chain. 

at least 150 human deaths worldwide have been linked to the consumption of affected cattle, most in the united kingdom. one case of the disease was reported in a human in the u.s., but the centers for disease control believe that the individual got it while traveling in the u.k.

the u.s. has had a total of two previously confirmed cases of the disease. the most recent occurred in june when, for the first time, a calf born in the u.s. tested positive for the disease. the first case was in december 2003 when the disease was found in a cow born in canada located at a washington state farm.

on march 3, the eu confirmed sweden's first case of mad cow disease. canada reported its fourth case of mad cow disease in january.




bush nominates a new ambassador to australia

united states president george w. bush has nominated robert davis mccallum, jr. to be the new us ambassador to australia. the ambassadorship has been vacant for 12 months and 28 days.

mccallum is an associate attorney-general for the department of justice and previously represented big tobacco companies at an atlanta law firm. he also has a master's degree from oxford university and is a rhodes scholar as well as having a bachelor's degree from yale.

former deputy secretary of state, richard armitage, said earlier this month that the fact australia was still without an ambassador might indicate a "lackadaisical attitude" to the region.

mccallum is one of the 15 skull and bones members from the 1968 group, of which president bush was also a member.



photoessay: the idiotarod: when good shopping carts go bad

when you mix a shopping cart, six team members, bar hopping and bonus points for schmoozing bar hostesses and sabotaging your enemies, you get the annual washington, d.c. idiotarod race. on saturday, this bizarre fund raising event, which originated in san francisco 13 years ago, pitted teams of "sleds" together to race from bar to bar in washington, d.c.'s fashionable dupont circle and adams morgan neighborhoods. each "sled" consists of a "borrowed" shopping cart and six human dogs to pull the cart. points are given for originality, the best time and best sabotage of another sled.

the race is held to benefit the arlington food assistance center and is organized by ellen shortill and kristen heatherly. their organization, called "smashed" or "society for mature adults seeking to help, entertain and donate", takes the position that donating small amounts many times ultimately benefits the smaller charities. said shortill, "our goal is simply to have fun and raise money for those charities that don't really get any attention." 

the race this year consisted of 22 teams. although team "save nola" got to the last bar first, teams can win bonus points for (among other things) flirting with bar hosts and hostesses at any of the five bars along the route. the route is approximately 3 miles long, and each team is required to spend at least 20 minutes in each bar. heatherly noted that "it doesn't matter who got here first, ultimately its the team with the most credits and the best time that wins." 

unique among the participants are brothers pete and chris magnuson who are attempting to get on the 10th edition of amazing race on cbs. their team called "pick pete and chris" ran through the streets with t-shirts hawking their website and their fervent desire to be chosen for the next edition of the television show.

"its not really about who wins, its that we get to have a blast and raise some money," said shortill. the charity event raised about $500 and various canned goods for the food pantry.


united kingdom hit by snow storms

snow storms and strong winds have disrupted travel around much of scotland, northern england and parts of wales. the storms follow earlier unseasonal snow storms on march 2. snow is relatively unusual in march in the united kingdom. as snow fell on a sunday, schools have not been disrupted as they would be closed anyway, but many businesses have been forced to remain closed.


man takes baby and woman hostage in hospital

the man that took a woman and her newborn baby hostage has been arrested by the police. he made no demands, neither has it been confirmed whether he had a gun. nobody suffered any injuries in the incident. the 32-year-old man was the woman's ex-boyfriend.

he entered the room in the hospital in eschweiler, germany, where a woman and her new born child lay. he took them both hostage, no contact was achieved, and his eventual demands are not known. the smell of fuel was reported from the hospital, and part of the hospital was evacuated as police and fire department entered the building.



czech woman wins the first sudoku world championship

jana tylova, a 31-year-old czech woman, came from behind to win the inaugural sudoku world championships to become the top sudoku player in the world. tylova works as an accountant for a construction company in the czech city of most, and she beat 85 players from 22 countries.

a graduate student from harvard university, thomas snyder, who had been leading, came in second and wei-ha huang, a 30-year-old google software engineer in california, came third.

tylova, the only woman in the top 18, finished only ninth after the first round before passing all the men to claim the championship. she is already being called "queen jana of sudoku".

"there is no difference between men and women, and i tried to prove that even in logic, men and women are on the same level", said tylova as people cheered loudly. jana smiled shyly while accepting her trophy from wayne gould who came upon sudoku in japan and popularised the game worldwide.

jana told reporters: "i find it very difficult to give advice at all, but i can advise people to practice every day and to follow websites where there are a lot of games available." tylova revealed that before competitions she played sudoku two hours per day. "it will probably be more now", she said. she showjumps with her horse impulse during the rest of her spare time.

austria, belgium, britain, czech republic, croatia, denmark, france, germany, poland, hungary, the netherlands, india, italy, japan, venezuela, switzerland, the united states, the philippines, estonia, slovakia and turkey were the countries represented in the championship contest.


nasa spacecraft enters mars orbit

a nasa spacecraft set to probe mars reached orbit around the planet on friday, joining five others currently active. the mars reconnaissance orbiter's two-year mission is expected to gather more information about mars than all 12 previous successful missions put together.

the mro's tasks will include scouting for possible future landing sites, analyzing the planet's atmosphere, monitoring its weather, and searching for locations where there may have been water in the distant past. the us$450 million spacecraft is the most advanced probe so far sent to mars, and can radio back 10 times more data to earth than any previous probe. cameras on the mro can see objects on the planet the size of a card table.

after its seven-month journey toward the planet, reaching orbit was a critical step. several previous probes have failed due to the difficulty of the precise timing needed to keep the spacecraft from being pulled in by the planet's gravity. twenty-one of the thirty-three previous probes have failed for some reason to complete their missions.

project manager jim graf, who described himself as "relieved" at the "picture perfect" completion of this step, expects the results to "rewrite the science textbooks on mars." the next step is for the craft to begin "aerobraking" to slow down and change its orbit from elliptical to circular.

the total cost of the mission, including the spacecraft, launch, and support team, is us$720 million.




u.s. found in violation of native americans rights

a un (unchr) committee on the convention on the elimination of racial discrimination (cerd) found the the us government in violation of native americans' land rights and the international anti-racism convention.
the committee of 18 independent experts said in a press release that it had received credible information alleging that western shoshone peoples were being denied their traditional right to land. the decision details us actions against the western shoshone and calls upon the united states to immediately:

bernice lalo, western shoshone delegate, said, "the mines are polluting our waters, destroying hot springs and exploding sacred mountains?our burials along with them?attempting to erase our signature on the land. we are coerced and threatened by mining and federal agencies when we seek to continue spiritual prayers for traditional food or medicine on shoshone land." mr. lalo continued, "we feel the decision will be helpful by opening the door. we will continue this struggle to give our children a better chance."

joe kennedy, a western shoshone, said, "we have rights to protect our homelands and stop the destruction of our land, water, and air by the abuses of the united states government and the multinational corporations. he said, "the situation is outrageous, and we're glad the united nations committee agrees with us."

laura inouye, oxfam america, said, "this is a tremendous victory for the shoshone people; the un decision acknowledges the u.s. government's violations of shoshone civil, political, economic, and cultural rights." inouye concluded, "hopefully, they will now be granted the justice that the us government has denied them for years." oxfam america is a human rights organizaition which has backed the western shoshone.

a un official said, according to the ap, that the us mission to the un in geneva had no immediate response to the decision.

the western shoshones' rights to the land, 60 million acres stretching across nevada, idaho, utah and califonia, were recognized by the us under the 1863 treaty of ruby valley, which was signed by president ulysses s. grant a few years later. 
it was questioned by the us supreme court, 1979; the land was labeled 'government trusteeship' and much was claimed as federal territory. president bush signed a bill in july 2004 that gave approval to distributing more than $145 million as compensation after the shoshones voted to accept the distribution in a disputed election. 

jim manley, a spokesman for sen. harry reid (d. nevada) and a proponent of the bill, said "the tribe twice has voted decisively in favor of the distribution."




arrests for kite flying in pakistan spring festival

a ban against kite-flying during a traditional festival to welcome the onset of spring in the punjab region of pakistan has led to significant numbers of arrests. conservative figures put the number arrested following the imposition of thursday's ban at around 500, higher figures of 1,400 are given in australian reports which describe events following the ban as a crackdown.

at issue is the use of glass coated or metal kite strings, and this leading towards serious injury or even death. in the 2004 celebration of the basant festival up to nine people were killed including from electrocution when using metal strings.


queen elizabeth ii arrives in australia for 15th visit

queen elizabeth ii and arrived in australia yesterday for a five-day tour which includes the opening of the 2006 commonwealth games in melbourne, the queen's 15th visit of her reign and her first since 2002.

their tour began when they landed at fairburn air force base in canberra where they received a state welcome, attended by john howard, major general and several hundred well-wishers. the couple accepted flowers and chatted with the crowd for a few minutes before being driven off in a black rolls royce.

the queen and prince philip spent last night at government house before beginning official duties in sydney today. in sydney, they will officially open the new colonnade of sydney opera house and receive a 21 gun salute.

republican campaigners have used the occasion as an opportunity to reopen the republican debate.

"while the queen is held in great affection by the australian people, many australians recognize that it is no longer sensible for us to have a citizen of another country, who visits australia only occasionally, as our head of state," said allison henry, national director of the australian republican movement.


swedish olympic snowboarder dies during practice run

swedish died sunday during a practice run on in the . johansson, who competed in the in the , was preparing for an upcoming competition.

even though he collided with no obstacles upon his landing, autopsies reported that the rough fall caused several internal injuries. he was 26.


chicago requires blind students to take driver's education

mayra ramirez, a 16 year old chicago, usa student is blind. in order to graduate, she and dozens of other visually impaired students in chicago schools are required to pass a written rules-of-the-road exam. "in other classes, you don't really feel different because you can do the work other people do," ramirez said. "but in driver's ed, it does give us the feeling we're different. in a way, it brought me down, because it reminds me of something i can't do."

michael vaughn, a spokesman for chicago schools said, "i can't explain why up to this point no one has raised the issue and suggested a better way for visually impaired students to opt out of driver's ed."

blind students are typically told that they must take the class to graduate; although, by law, any parent can request a change in a disabled student's education plan. this law is rarely, if ever, disclosed to the students, according to the chicago tribune. 



generic tamiflu in india

cipla received marketing approval from the drug controller-general of india and will launch a generic version of oseltamivir, anti-flu, in the domestic market this month. the drug will be priced at about rs 1,000 per strip of 10 75 mg tablets, which is less than half the current tamiflu market price of $60. the required dosage is two tablets every day during five days.


&quot;massive&quot; oil spill in alaska

bbc news is reporting "up to 267,000 (one million )" of crude oil has leaked from a pipeline in the oilfield. although not as large as the in 1989, this is thought to be the largest spill on record affecting the .

the alaska wilderness league reports that there is "no confirmation" of the quantity of oil lost; but it points out that it is not only the oil that causes problems. the cleanup efforts will also have environmental impacts.

the associated press first reported this spill on 2 march.


18 motorcyclists killed during bike week

2006 was the deadliest datona beach bike week ever, with a total of 18 bikers being killed on florida roads, according to the florida highway patrol. this year's festivities brought in about 500,000 bikers to the daytona area, and 14 of those killed were from florida. walter fliss, 51, had recently bought his motorcycle before being killed when he drove into a construction site. another biker rode into a guardrail, and others were killed on their way home.


google launches google mars

if you thought google maps, google earth and was enough, then meet google mars. 

google officially launched the new google mars yesterday as another add-on to google maps. the service offers three different ways to view mars: elevation, visible landscape, and infrared view. the images come from two different nasa missions, mars global surveyor and 2001 mars odyssey, and the data was prepared in collaboration with nasa researchers at arizona state university.

the color-coded elevation data is a shaded-relief map taken by the mars orbiter laser altimeter (mola) on nasa's mars global surveyor spacecraft. the visible data is made from black and white images taken by the mars orbiter camera (moc), which is also located onboard the mars global surveyor, and the infrared images were produced by the thermal emission imaging system (themis) on nasa's mars odyssey spacecraft. the themis data is the sharpest map of mars made so far, as it shows colder areas in darker colors and warmer regions in brighter colors, and as they are infrared images dust and clouds are transparent.

google has added various bookmarks showing points of interest such as landings of spacecraft, locations of mountains, and craters. 

the data is not currently available through google's google earth client.




thousands of thai protesters prepare to march on government house

with thailand's "the nation" reporting over 100,000 in attendance at the latest rally against pm thaksin shinawatra, the people's alliance for democracy plans to spend the night at sanam luang before marching on government house in the morning.

reports indicate that over 6,000 officers are involved in policing the event, but no trouble is anticipated. police do not intend to prevent the protesters from marching to government house.

this latest large-scale protest against the caretaker prime minister is likely the most significant since the february 26 protest, and with pro-thaksin groups making their way to bangkok, the bloody confrontation of 1992 has been brought up as a reminder. free to air tv stations have broadcast coverage of the king's intercession in the '92 dispute, where a popular uprising had been met with a military crackdown. panthep puapongpant, a pad representative, indicated that the protest for tuesday morning would take heed of the advice and proceed peacefully. concerns over a potential clash with pro-thaksin groups have been averted as a result of the pm's supporters planning their rally for march 16.

with voters' choices in the upcoming april 2 election already severely restricted due to the three main opposition parties' boycott, the disqualification of candidates from minor parties further reduces the options open to those who don't boycott the election. up to 200 may be disqualified for reasons such as holding party membership for less than 90 days or having membership in more than one party.


u.s. senate debates raising national debt ceiling

the u.s. senate is debating the 2007 budget this week, dealing with, among many things, controversial issues such as the oil drilling in alaska, raising the national debt ceiling, and an amendment that would fund $1.5 million dollars to veterans' health-care. the senate is also considering budget measures over an amendment that would increase funding for local and state law enforcement to combat methamphetamine.

the national debt ceiling is supposed to prevent the u.s. public debt from growing to excessive amounts. if the national debt grows to reach beyond a previously budgeted ceiling level, branches of government are shut down and provide only limited services. the shut down force a reduction in spending. the measure is meant to prevent excessive amounts of national debt from occurring. rather than letting the level of national debt approach that ceiling, it is typical practice within the u.s. congress to raise the national debt ceiling annually.

the $781 billion increase asked for this year is the fourth hike request in the last five years. bush administration budgets have pushed debt ceiling increase request to a level of 46% higher over five years, a $3 trillion increase.

senator judd gregg, budget committee chairman, argued in favor of increasing the ceiling, citing growths in the economy under the bush administration. kent conrad, ranking democrat member of the budget committee, rebutted that the economy has not been recovering as well as it has been after world war ii and six other similar recovery periods, and that the economic period after world war ii averaged 3.2% in growth.

a "paygo" amendment by conrad burns would have required offsetts for any new spending beyond the original resolution. it failed, needing 51 votes, but receiving 50. lincoln chafee's amendment would increase funding by $2 billion for the americans with disabilities act.



chinese government approved nanjing purchase of mg rover

the chinese national development and reform commission approved today the plans by nanjing automobile group to revive the mg rover brand. 

nanjing automobile are planning to annually produce 200,000 cars, 250,000 engines and 100,000 gearboxes on the assembly lines purchased from mg rover.

the first mg produced in pukou in nanjing in the east of china will be the sedan version of mg-75, in the first half of 2007.



wikipedia class action site vanishes, backers revealed

the internet group that once solicited complaints for a class action suit against wikipedia has shut up shop and revealed its roots. claiming to have been prompted by the john seigenthaler wikipedia biography controversy, the site http://www.wikipediaclassaction.org once sought parties to build a defamation suit against the wiki-based encyclopedia. today, that site points to the officialwire news service, known to be associated with greg lloyd smith. the long-standing wikipedia-alleged association between officialwire and the quakeaid "charity" has also been confirmed due to that site being replaced with a similar redirection.

the class action website was initially registered to one jennifer monroe who is affiliated with quakeaid, an organisation which wikipedia editors have accused of being a scam following quakeaid personnel having created their own article on wikipedia last year. this came at the time of the indian ocean earthquake, when wikipedia user baoutrust added quakeaid to wikipedia's victim donations page and sparked a dispute about the legitimacy of the organisation. wikipedia editors did not acknowledge the tax-exempt status of the organisation which quakeaid displayed on its home page; however, this can now only be seen via google's cache. the 501(c) registration quakeaid used to list is generally accepted as what defines an organisation as a charity with the united states. however, a number of groups removed quakeaid from their public lists of charities following the wikipedia dispute.

the dispute between quakeaid and wikipedia editors sparked a negative publicity campaign waged via baou trust's news service, officialwire. a number of articles which portray wikipedia, or wikipedians in a bad light have been published on the service. the site for the proposed class-action suit provides a link displaying results of a search of officialwire for stories about wikipedia. this is not the first instance of the directors of baou trust using their newswire to run a smear campaign: a long-running campaign against former directors of the equity company ieq was mounted following greg lloyd smith's hostile takeover of the firm.

smith is no stranger to controversy, having been the target of legal action by amazon.com when he registered the amazon.gr and amazon.com.gr sites and set up an amazon.com look-alike selling greek-language books. amazon initially filed suit in greece, and later in the us where their complaint described initial communication from smith as a "thinly-veiled shakedown" when he offered to sell a controlling interest in citi to the company for $1.6 million. the amazon suit sought triple damages under rico statutes stating, "fraudulent acts of mail and wire fraud, extortion and criminal copyright infringement constitute a pattern of racketeering, and pose a threat to society."


mad cow disease confirmed in u.s.

john clifford, chief veterinarian of the united states department of agriculture, confirms that tests done on a sample from a cow on a farm in alabama indicate bovine spongiform encephalopathy or "mad cow disease". the original results were confirmed by a western blot test. 

"we received a positive result on a western blot confirmatory test conducted at the usda laboratories in ames, iowa, on samples from an animal that had tested 'inconclusive' on a rapid screening test performed on friday, march 10, 2006. in this instance, the inconclusive result from the contract lab in georgia was confirmed through a second rapid test at the national veterinary services laboratory. now, the western blot test has returned a positive result, and that is sufficient for us to confirm this animal to be positive for bse, which is why we are making this announcement today," said clifford.

"the samples were taken from a non-ambulatory animal on a farm in alabama. a local private veterinarian euthanized and sampled the animal and sent the samples for further testing, which was conducted at one of our contract diagnostic laboratories at the university of georgia. the animal was buried on the farm, and it did not enter the animal or human food chains," he added.

clifford also says the cow was at least ten years old, explaining, "while epidemiological work to determine the animal’s precise age is just getting under way and is ongoing, the attending veterinarian has indicated that, based on dentition, it was an older animal, quite possibly upwards of 10 years of age. this would indicate that this animal would have been born prior to the implementation of the food and drug administration’s 1997 feed ban," and that they are still looking into where the cow could have been born and raised. the cow had only been on the alabama farm for about a year. clifford also confirmed that the cow was meant for producing beef.

"we will be working to locate animals from this cow’s birth cohort and any offspring," said clifford. a birth cohort identifies animals born in the same herd within one year of the affected animal.

clifford also adds that no part of the cow made it into the human food chain, saying, "i want to emphasize that human and animal health in the united states are protected by a system of interlocking safeguards, and that we remain very confident in the safety of u.s. beef. again, this animal did not enter the human food or animal feed chains."

this is the third case of mad cow disease in the u.s. the first case turned up in december of 2003, when a cow from a washington state farm, born in canada, tested positive for the disease. 

the second cow to test positive for the disease, found last june, was born on a farm in texas.

on march 1, 2006, sweden announced its first possible case of mad cow disease, and on january 23, canada announced its fourth case of the disease. 

worldwide, at least 150 people have died from variant creutzfeldt-jakob disease, which is linked to mad cow disease.




800 british troops being pulled out of iraq

britain announced monday it will reduce its troop level in iraq by 10 percent (about 800 troops) within the next two months. defense secretary john reid said that iraqi security forces are more capable of handling security in the country.

reid told the house of commons; "our commitment to the coalition remains certain. this is a significant reduction which is based largely on the ability of the iraqis themselves to participate and defend themselves against terrorism, but there is a long, long way to go."

during combat operations in the spring of 2003, britain had 46,000 military personnel in iraq. by may of 2004 the level had dropped to 18,000, and then to 8,500 by the end of 2005.

mr reid said that the reduction had not been prompted by escalating violence against british troops in iraq.

u.s. military spokesman, lt. col. barry johnson, said it was "each nation's prerogative and decision on how to best support the coalition effort."


geysers of water on one of saturn's moons

nasa has announced that the cassini spacecraft has found what seem to be geysers spewing water on the moon enceladus. the find raises the possibility of life on other planets, as liquid water is believed to be a requirement for life. "this marks the first time that scientists have seen evidence of water in liquid form so close to the surface on another body beyond earth," said cassini scientist torrence johnson. although life may be found on the moon, most scientists concede that if enceladus does harbor life, it probably consists of microbes or other robust organisms capable of living in extreme conditions. this latest discovery shows that life in other parts of the universe may be more probable than previously thought.

"we realize that this is a radical conclusion ? that we may have evidence for liquid water within a body so small and so cold," said dr. carolyn porco, cassini imaging team leader at the space science institute, boulder, colorado. "however, if we are right, we have significantly broadened the diversity of solar system environments where we might possibly have conditions suitable for living organisms." 



warmest canadian winter on record

the winter of 2005/2006 has been the warmest winter in canada since the beginning of the nationwide weather record in 1948, with average nationwide temperatures 3.9°c above the long-term average. statistically, such a strong deviation from the average is expected to be observed only once in 100 years. 

while most of the country was experiencing temperatures of at least 2°c above normal, in most of alberta, saskatchewan and the northwest territories the temperatures were 6°c above normal, with some regions averaging up to 8°c above normal.

for this statistic the months from december through february were counted as winter.

lack of ice in eastern canada will probably affect the annual harp seal hunt, which typically starts around march 15. in february, so little ice had formed that environment canada reported that such poor ice conditions had never been seen before in recorded history. the last time conditions approached what we saw in february 2006 was in 1969. the year 1981 was the third lowest ice year in recorded history.

in 1981, a number of harp seal mothers, who normally whelp only on ice, went to the shores of prince edward island and nova scotia and gave birth on land. that year, due to the lack of ice, hundreds of thousands of seal pups drowned. the seals who were born on land faced both natural dangers such as death by exposure, and the danger of death at the hands of thousands of sealers, both licensed and unlicensed. these sealers took this rare "opportunity" to walk right up to a baby seal and kill it. some of these seals were also attacked by domestic dogs. 


more arrests from cronulla riots

new south wales police say a 21-year-old woman has been charged in relation to the riots at sydney's cronulla beach last year. she is the first woman to be arrested over reprisals from the december 11 race-fuelled riot. the woman was charged with affray, assaulting police, resisting arrest and disobeying police direction. she was refused bail.

police said the charges related to the violent and anti-social behaviour of a large number of people who gathered at brighton-le-sands on the night of the cronulla riot. 

three men have also been arrested in relation to the cronulla riot. a 19-year-old man handed himself into police yesterday and is due to face parramatta local court charged with riot and affray. 

a 21-year-old man from cronulla also yesterday handed himself into detectives from strike force enoggera, which was set up to investigate the racial unrest. the man was among the 20 whose photos were released to the media last week.

another man, whose photo was release to the media, handed himself in to police last night. he was charged with riot and affray and given conditional bail to appear at sutherland local court on april 6.

police say strike force enoggera has arrested 78 people to date, with 189 charges laid.


israelis storm palestinian jail

afp and reuters have reported that israeli troops have stormed the palestinian jail in jericho in a bid to snatch a prisoner israel claims is responsible for the assassination of an israeli minister five years ago. there are reports that one palestinian has been killed and at least 18 prisoners and security officials have been wounded.

the israel defence forces (idf) demanded the handover of six prisoners, including ahmed saadat 
the alleged instigator of the 2001 assassination of israeli cabinet minister rehavam zeevi. 

israeli military officials issued a warning that unless the jericho prisoners gave themselves up they would be killed. 

the leader of the popular front for the liberation of palestine ahmed saadat told al-jazeera television in a telephone interview from the jail, "we are not going to surrender. we are going to face our destiny with courage." mr saadat told the bbc's arabic service, "the occupation are planning a massacre in the jericho complex. there is shelling from all angles and destroying the prison from all sides." 

saadat also said two of his colleagues had been killed. 
the troops opened fire with small arms and stun grenades. israeli soldiers blew up the outer wall of the jericho prison compound and idf helicopters fired missiles into the prison. it has been reported that us and british monitors stationed there withdrew before israeli troops arrived. the israeli army moved in, bulldozing parts of the prison's outer compound and demanding saadat's surrender. president abbas blamed the british and the americans for the developing crisis. in recent weeks, abbas signalled he was willing to release front for the liberation of palestine (pflp) leader, ahmed saadat.

reuters reports that protests have surged across palestinian territories, with most anger directed at britain and the united states. militants set fire to the british cultural centre and stormed the eu compound in gaza. there have been threats to kidnap and kill foreigners.

"this operation was ordered by the prime minister in the fight against terrorism. we are committed to the murderers of minister rehavam zeevi remaining behind bars," gideon ezra, israel's public security minister, told public radio.



chinese wikimania 2006 to be held in hong kong

the chinese community of wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, is planning for a 2006 chinese wikimedia conference (2006中文維基年會), which is scheduled on the 26th and 27th of august this year. hong kong has been selected, from six candidate cities, to hold the event. 

during selection of the host city, the chinese community favored hong kong mostly, while taipei was the second, and shanghai and beijing were tied for the third. the leader of the organzing committee, kaurjmeb from taipei, taiwan, said that "comparing the advantages and disadvantages, hong kong is much better than taipei," when she announced the result late march 14th at midnight. she said that hong kong wikipedia users have been active, and other users agreed with that, so it led to success for hong kong in being selected as the host city.

wikipedia is a multilingual web-based free-content encyclopedia. it is written collaboratively by volunteers, allowing most articles to be changed by anyone with access to a web browser and an internet connection. wikipedia's policies guide most acticles to be acceptable to most people. begun in 2001, wikipedia has more than 2,500,000 articles in 212 languages. the chinese version, which started on october 2002, reached nearly 60,000 acticles recently, and the number is increasing by more than 3,000 acticles every month. its users are from mainland china (prc), taiwan (roc) and other places all over the world. 

thirteen percent of the users of the chinese wikipedia are from hong kong, and more than 6,000 hongkongers have contributed by editing acticles. due to the efforts of hong kong's active users, there is a lot of information related to hong kong. the aim of the chinese wikipedia conference is to gather the chinese wikipedia's users and other people, in order to discuss issues related to intellectual property, open educational resources and media etc., by means of talks and seminars.

holding the event in hong kong enables people from mainland china and taiwan to meet together. hong kong users, however, mainly worry about whether the resources for holding such an event are enough. luckily, the student union of the chinese university of hong kong is willing to give a hand. ben cheng, previous vice-president, pointed out, "issues about intellectual property and wikipedia are ignored in hong kong." they hope that helping to organize such events can promote wikimedia and its meaning to the citzens in hong kong. on the other hand, another student organization, the hong kong secondary sudents union, also showed its interest in helping with the organizing work. rock li, the internal secretary, said that "if the event is held in hong kong, people from hong kong will be more aware of intellectual property." 



coldest month of march in stockholm since 1942

with cold westerly winds from the north atlantic expected this weekend (march 18-19), stockholm is likely to record its coldest month of march since 1942, with an average temperature of -6,4°c, and the snowiest march since 1970.

temperatures are expected to stay over 0°c this week, but past weeks have been very cold, making this month the coldest in many years.

up to now, snow has covered stockholm for 78 days in a row, limiting heat absorption from the sun by reflecting sun rays away.

very low temperatures have been recorded in several areas around the capital, but the average for this winter is far above the winter average of -9,6°c recorded back in 1942.

if any records are to be set for this winter, it’s likely to be the lack of deviations from the long-term winter average. it’s likely to be the most nearly average winter since 1907, thus making it very unusual indeed.

this year will also be the snowiest since the winter of 1969-1970, when snow coverage in stockholm lasted from november 23 to april 20.

the national meteorological institute smhi expects the daily average temperature to rise above zero at the end of the month.



isaac hayes quits south park over scientology episode

isaac hayes has quit his role in comedy central's animated series "south park", where he has been the voice of chef since 1997.

hayes, an outspoken scientologist, said "there is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins," in reference to the "trapped in the closet" episode which mocked the church of scientology and several celebrity followers.

matt stone, a co-creator of south park, told the associated press that "this is 100 percent having to do with his faith of scientology... he has no problem ? and he's cashed plenty of checks ? with our show making fun of christians."

stone claimed that "[hayes] wants a different standard for religions other than his own, and to me, that is where intolerance and bigotry begin."

trey parker had earlier explained that hayes was the only reason scientology had not been the subject of a south park episode sooner. he said, "to be honest, what kept us from doing it before was isaac hayes. we knew he was a scientologist and he's an awesome guy. we were like, 'let's just avoid that for now.'"

stone & parker decided to create the episode after hearing that comedian penn jillette had been barred from poking fun at the controversial religion on his cable show "penn & teller: bullshit!".

in january of 2006, comedy central's united kingdom affiliate removed the episode trapped in the closet from its broadcast schedule, reportedly to avoid legal action by actor tom cruise.

according to an article by roger friedman at foxnews on march 20th, hayes might not have quit south park himself. friedman questions the statement of mr. hayes, and points to the information that mr. hayes suffered from a minor stroke on january 17th, and may not have been alone in the decision.



buffalo, n.y. hotel proposal threatened by possible lawsuit

during monday night's meeting, pano georgiadis, owner of 605 forest and owner of pano's resuraunt at 1081 elmwood avenue in buffalo, threatened to "sue" savarino construction if they tried to obtain a variance on his property to build the elmwood village hotel.

the elmwood village hotel is a proposal by savarino construction that would be placed on the corner of forest and elmwood in buffalo. in order for the project to move forward, at least five buildings (1119-1121 elmwood) which include both residences and businesses will have to be demolished. the hotel was designed by architect karl frizlen of the frizlen group. although the properties are "under contract," according to hassett, it is unclear whether savarino construction owns the properties. hans mobius, a resident of clarence, new york and former buffalo mayoral candidate, is still believed to own them.

currently, none of the properties is zoned for a hotel.

a freelance journalist writing for "wikinews" asked hassett what kind of zoning permit they [savarino] would be applying for and, if 605 forest is included, what zone that would be.

"there is a 'special development plan' in front of the council, which changes only one thing about the zoning. it allows one permitted use for just a hotel. the rest of the zoning remains as it is under the current elmwood business district zoning. 605 and 607 forest are not required for the project. they are not part of the footprint for the project. let me answer this question again. this is on the record, in council: 605 needs to be rezoned in order to facilitate the project because of the sideyard requirement. anything in c-2 is excluded besides the hotel. so we've taken the c-2 and included the hotel as a permitted use, and excluded everything else and everything else remains the same."

however, during the february 28 common council meeting, hassett was quoted as saying that the two properties were "off the agenda."

"now karl said, at the last meeting, that they will build this hotel right on the borderline [property line]. if a wall forty-five to fifty feet high goes next to this house, of course it's not right. you really have to go with whatever the city code says, so you have to get back as many feet as the city code says," said georgiadis.

"if you try to get a variance to change the code, i will sue you. this is my home, number one," added georgiadis. "first of all i think we are all wasting our time here, you [savarino], have already made up your mind, but if you go against city code, and you try to do the most rooms with a minimal amount of parking, again, i will sue you. if you build a hotel, in my idea its going to fail. it's doomed, ok. [if] it's going to be a home for the disabled, for the homeless, for recovery people, but that's another story. then how is it going to be when we say, well i told you so? you will be over and done with. its very hard to take a four story building [hotel] down."

georgiadis stated last night that he was against the proposal and signed a petition to stop it, jokingly saying, "this isn't a paper to sign to build the hotel, is it? don't make me sign the wrong thing."

joseph golombeck, district councilman, was at monday's public meeting and said, "we also did request this and the reason we are doing this as a special business district is so that it has to be this specific plan. they [savarino] can't go halfway through it and in six months decide that [the hotel] it's going to be three floors. they can't decide it's going to be five floors. it has to be, per law, exactly what it is that they brought to us [the public] so far, and then ultimately to the city of buffalo common council when it's approved. so if it gets approved, it has to be this specific, exact project. they couldn't make it fifty parking spots, they couldn't make it thirty. it has to be specifically what they have right here."

a man who lives on granger street in buffalo attended the meeting, speaking in favor of the hotel development. he claimed, "there are a lot of low property values. hopefully if we embrace development, our property values, for those of us who have property, will go up. there are a lot of people unfortunately, who are working hard, that do not get a chance to come to these meetings. i myself was at work and wasn't able to go to the last two meetings. i express that we appreciate that you [savarino] invest in the city of buffalo and for what you hope, because i do not think savarino is into losing money. these people are not in business to be losing money here. they are hoping for the success of this [the hotel] more than any one of us. they are hoping that the property values in this area will go up more than any one of us, because it will benefit them [the residents and business owners], more than any one of us. i want this city to develop. i don't think anybody else is here understanding that we're looking for development in this city, we are looking for the city to get better. the councilman here is not interested in buffalo failing."

evelyn bencinich, resident of granger street, would have the hotel directly behind her home, if it were to be built. 

"what about construction [time]? is that just for the exterior, the nine months? or does that include the interior? is there going to be blasting through bedrock? is there property protection for damage? are you [savarino and the frizlen group] responsible?", asked bencinich.

according to frizlen, there is a layer of solid bedrock at least 30 feet from the surface of the land saying, "we anticipate that the bedrock is at least thirty feet down." he also admitted that "we haven't done any soil sporrings," but did say "the bedrock is somewhere in between twenty-five and thirty feet [down], we don't need to go that deep. so blasting is most likely out of it [the question]."

"personally, i can only speak from the city side, but a few years ago we rebuilt vulcan street, in the northwest corner of buffalo, and there were a couple of properties that were damaged and they [the owners] were able to file a claim against the company that did the work and they won in each case. it was the same thing with a school that was built on military road. there were a couple of problems with foundations on a couple of properties, and they weren't sure if caused by the school or not, but the insurance company ended up paying them," answered golombeck.

"i would assume that savarino is insured with someone. so if there is a problem with anything that happens to your properties, what i would recommend is that anybody that lives on granger place, if this does go through, that you get pictures taken of your basement and of your foundations, because god forbid if there is a problem, you want to have an before and after [picture]. you don't want to come afterwards and there's a crack in there [foundation] and you have no way of proving that it happened," added golombeck.

according to golombeck, the properties that mobius owns have been "in housing court on several occasions, but has a date of april 11, 2006 that he is going back [to court] for these properties. so it is in housing court and i wouldn't know mr. mobius if he walked in this room right now," stated golombeck.

"i've gone after him on numerous occasions and everytime he gets out of housing court with a slap on the wrist. if i am a conspiracy theorist and say that there is a lot more going on than meets the eye. i can only get him into housing court. once he's in housing court, the judge rules on it. now i don't mean to take any shots at previous administrations, but i am hoping with the new administration, being in here, that the inspections department is going to be a much better department than it has been for the previous several years."

the city's planning board on march 14, 2006, agreed to send the elmwood village hotel proposal back to the common council so that it may "be opened back up to discussion from the public."

on march 2, 2006 the common council sent the proposal "to committee" for further discussion and also requesting that the public be "engaged further."

during that meeting, justin azzeralla, executive director for forwever elmwood, said that the organization "supports the hotel project."

also on march 2, the planning board agreed to table, or postpone, any decision on the hotel proposal for at least thirty days, also citing the need for the public to be "more engaged."

the common council is expected to meet on march 21, 2006 at 2:00pm local time where they may approve or deny the proposal.

according to "the buffalo news", at least six common council members support the hotel project and are pledging to vote to approve it at the meeting on tuesday, march 21.

however, the city's planning board will get the final say on the project. 


pflp leader ahmed saadat captured by israeli forces

ahmed saadat, leader of the popular front for the liberation of palestine, and five other palestinians surrendered after israeli troops stormed the jail in the west bank town of jericho. israeli general yair naveh announced that the operation was successful.

israel accuses saadat of involvement in the october 17, 2001, assassination of rehavam zeevi, then minister of tourism. the palestinian authority jailed saadat in 2002, under the terms of an international agreement and under the supervision of monitors from the united kingdom and the united states.

israel launched the raid soon after the monitors left the jail complaining that the palestinian authority had given them insufficient security. israel quickly arrested and searched many of the prisoners, but a few prisoners, among them saadat, fortified themselves in the jail, even as israel proceeded to bulldoze it.

saadat is now in israeli custody for the first time. palestinian president mahmoud abbas complained that the uk and us monitors were responsible for the prisoners' security and that their withdrawal violated the international agreement.



new zealand commonwealth games flag-bearer announced

it was announced last night at the new zealand commonwealth games team function, that olympic triathlon champion hamish carter will carry the new zealand flag into the opening ceremony of the melbourne commonwealth games.

hamish carter was a gold medallist at the 2004 summer olympics, and a bronze medallist at the last commonwealth games held in manchester.

the xviii commonwealth games will be held from march 15th through the 26th. the opening ceremony will be held tonight. the games will be opened officially by queen elizabeth ii.


hawaiian dam bursts

on march 14, 2006, the ka loko reservoir on the hawaiian island of kauai gave way around 5 a.m. after several days of torrential rains and thunder. the resulting wave destroyed coastal highways, killed one person, and left seven others missing. the missing and dead count is expected to increase as searchers investigate the waters that flowed into the pacific. even though kauai had received 5-6 inches of rain in the past day, most residents admitted that the island was not prepared for this situation. although oil was spilled into the water, there has been no sighting of significant damage.

this dam break has many concerned about the possibility of another reservoir break, especially since most of hawaii's reservoirs are at least a century old and privately owned. engineers have begun to drain both the morita and waita reservoirs, also on kauai, to prevent any possible breaks. although the governor stated that most of the responsibility for privately owned reservoirs belongs to the owners, she did admit that the state was also failing in its monitoring responsibilities, noting that the department in charge of monitoring reservoirs only has two employees. although the primary owner, the mary n. lucas trust, has made no comment, a partial owner, mr. jimmy pflueger, has admitted he was devastated by the damage done by the reservoir.

the dam, 40 feet high and 80 feet long, released 300-400 million gallons of water, about 1400 acre-ft. many tourists, as well as native residents, have been stranded without transportation, as the destruction of the main lihue highway, the kuhio highway, has closed down the airport. the coast guard has taken over the main part of the search, although hawaii national guards has also been activated. kauai county's mayor has declared kauai to be in a state of emergency.



australian troops to provide front-line combat support in iraq

australian troops in southern iraq will shift to an "overwatch" role, says defence minister brendan nelson. australia has around 460 troops in southern iraq engaged in training the iraq military and guarding japanese military engineers. dr nelson says the soldiers currently on rotation in iraq as part of operation catalyst will soon provide "front-line combat support" for coalition troops.

"we will move some time over the next three to four months pending the movement of the japanese to supporting the overwatch program," he told abc radio. "so what we will be doing is we will be supporting the iraqi security forces, iraqi police and iraqi local government in administering and managing their own affairs. and we will respond to requests from the iraqi government."

overwatch was "a support program" that involved "providing covering fire to coalition allies in iraq." the australian deployment was expected to end around july this year, but dr nelson has said the mission would now continue into next year. his statement followed the british announcement that it would withdraw 800 troops from iraq in the next few months.

"the british and the americans are looking at significant draw downs in two to three years. we haven't set any such timeline... i think we will be there into 2007... we haven't committed to another two to three years unlike the americans. we take it on a day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month basis," said the minister.

dr nelson ruled out australian troops being deployed to more dangerous areas, such as basra, where the british troops have been based. but he declined to say whether the new mission will be more risky. he says "everything the troops do in iraq is associated with danger."

on march 7th, australian greens leader bob brown slammed the howard government's determination to keep troops in iraq, as american and british troops are withdrawn. "australian troops are being subject to thoughtless bravado by john howard and brendan nelson and they need to be brought home immediately," senator brown said. 

operation catalyst is the australian defence force (adf) contribution to the rehabilitation and reconstruction of iraq. operation catalyst currently comprises approximately 1320 australian defence force personnel.



china and russia object to the security council statement on iran

a draft u.n. security council statement backed by the united states, britain, and france calling for a report in two weeks on iran's compliance with demands that it suspend was objected to by china and russia on tuesday. russia and china prefer a six-week deadline and want the report to go to the international atomic energy agency, rather than to the security council. 

while the security council members agree that iran should not be making nuclear weapons, they disagree on the course of action to take. iran says that its nuclear program is for producing energy, but the iaea has expressed a "lack of confidence" over iran's intentions. some nations in the west, including the u.s., claim that iran's goal of nuclear energy production is a cover for nuclear bomb development.

the draft security council proposals cite "the conviction that continued iranian enrichment-related activity would intensify international concern." they reiterate that proliferation of weapons of mass destruction "constitutes a threat to international peace and security." ayatollah ali khamenei, iran's supreme leader, said the nuclear program is "irreversible," and any retreat would endanger the islamic republic's independence. russia and china, on the other hand, are not as skeptical of iran. they state that tough council action could cause iran to withdraw from the and to ban inspectors sent from the international atomic energy agency. 

following last month's iaea board report to the security council, expressing lack of confidence, iran ended its voluntary cooperation with the iaea under the additional protocol and said it would start uranium enrichment and bar surprise inspections of the facilities.



2006 commonwealth games open in melbourne

the xviiith commonwealth games were opened officially by queen elizabeth ii tonight, in melbourne, australia in a two-and-a-half hour spectacular opening ceremony held at the melbourne cricket ground. about 80,000 spectators were in attendance, and hundreds of thousands lined the riverbank of the nearby yarra river, watching as the queen's baton made its way to the stadium. 

the queen's baton final runner was john landy, the current governor of victoria, and a bronze medalist in the 1956 summer olympics.

the ceremony began with the flags of australia, england, (previous host) and india, (next host) being raised.

in a change from the traditional format, the teams did not enter in alphabetical order; instead, they entered in order of regions of the commonwealth, starting with the european nations. then africa, asia, the americas, the caribbean and finally oceania entered the stadium.

melbourne funk band the cat empire provided musical accompaniment as the athletes marched into the arena, playing music specifically written for each continent.

the queen, dressed in gold and accompanied by the duke of edinburgh, received the baton, which has travelled to all 71 competing nations, where she read the message placed within the baton (366 days earlier on commonwealth day, march 14, 2005).

the queen's said "i am glad to have this opportunity to offer my best wishes to every athlete and official taking part in these friendly games ... it now gives me the greatest pleasure to declare the 18th commonwealth games open."

the queen, who is 80 next month (21 april), was taken aback when the audience joined in a tribute of happy birthday, ending with eight bars from god save the queen, led by new zealand opera singer dame kiri te kanawa.

4,500 athletes representing 71 teams from 53 commonwealth countries will be competing at the games this year. a potential global television audience of 1.5 billion is expected to tune in. the commonwealth games will run through to the 26th march.


car explodes in paris, at least 1 person killed

a car bomb exploded in a car traveling on the a1 highway north of paris, france, killing one man. the incident happened in the departement of seine-saint-denis, near the paris suburb of la courneuve.

a passenger in the car was injured and hospitalized. the passenger, whose life is not in danger, was to be questioned.

a french fire brigade received the call just before 10:00am gmt to put out a car fire. a criminal act is suspected ? terrorism has been discounted, although murder by planting a bomb in a victim's car is said to be unusual in france. checks were to be done for a possible criminal background of the dead man. 


japanese chief cabinet secretary called attention to winny

japan's chief cabinet secretary, shinzo abe, has advised against using the winny peer-to-peer software due to concerns over its interaction with viruses. one virus, antinny (or "kintama" (testicle)-virus) is believed responsible for uploading documents to the filesharing network without first obtaining user permission. this is believed to be the cause of virus-induced leaks from the police and defense agency.

the chief cabinet secretary stated in a press interview, "unless each one bewares and takes counter measures, information leaks cannot be prevented. the most secure measure is not to use winny." 



shin corporation defamation suit fails

shin corporation, the multi-billion baht telecom and it giant, has lost its defamation suit against supinya klangnarong for her comments in an interview with the thai post in july 2003.

in her interview supinya, secretary general of the campaign for popular media, had stated that shin corporation gained revenue following the election of prime minister thaksin shinawatra, the company's founder. as a result the corporation sued her and five of the thai post's executives for defamation.

the court's finding that supinya has a right to express her opinion, and that it did not defame shin corp. followed a number of attempts by the company to settle out of court or otherwise avoid a judgement.

this judgement comes at an inopportune moment for the prime minister: his family's recent tax-free sale of their stake in shin has acted as a catalyst for the protests calling for thaksin to resign.


afghan opium plantings expected to be up 40% from 2005

in spite of the u.s. government's "five pillar counternarcotics strategy" for combating narcotics in afghanistan, approximately 140,000 hectares of poppies were planted in afghanistan this year, according to the associated press. this would be an increase of about 40 percent from 2005. the united nations office on drugs and crime's rapid assessment survey released last month indicates that poppy planting for 2006 increased in 13 provinces, decreased in only three and remained stable in 15.

afghan government officials are asking the drug lords to invest their illegally earned profits in afghanistan, according to helmand gov. mohammed daud, the governor of the biggest opium-growing region. 

during a trip to the region by u.s. ambassador ronald neumann, daud said; "we as a government will provide them the opportunity to use their money for the national benefit."

the narcotics trade currently accounts for 35 per cent of afghanistan's income.
doug wankel, a former drug enforcement administration official who is point man for the u.s. counternarcotics initiative at the american embassy in kabul, says the opium industry is "financing terrorism. it's financing subversive activities. it's financing warlordism. ... and if it's a threat to the government of afghanistan, it's a direct threat to the national security interests of the united states."

the usa's "five pillar strategy" includes public information, alternative livelihoods, eradication, interdiction, and law enforcement/justice reform. 




tony blair's education bill passes with support from opposition parties

tony blair, leader of the ruling labour party in the united kingdom, won the first house of commons test of his education and inspections bill, but had to rely on support from the main opposition party, the conservative party. the result has been seen as a blow to mr blair's authority.

the vote was 458 for, 115 against, a majority of 343. 52 labour backbench members of parliament voted against the bill, and another 25 did not vote.



australians may choose to change head of state beyond queen elizabeth ii: howard

australian prime minister john howard has given his strongest indication yet that australians may choose to change their head of state beyond queen elizabeth ii's reign. the comments are the first from mr howard, a proud monarchist, casting doubt over the future of the monarchy in australia.

in an interview with the bbc, mr howard said that he did not believe australia would become a republic while queen elizabeth ii is on the throne, but he conceded that he did not know what would happen after elizabeth ii's reign ends.

"i do not believe this country would become a republic while the queen is on the throne; beyond that i don't know," mr howard told the bbc.

in a separate interview with british broadcaster itv, mr howard refused to predict whether he thought prince charles would become king of australia and indicated that it would be for the australian people to decide.

"well, that is a matter for the australian people, and i believe in democracy," he said.

"if the australian people want to change the system, they will. but if they don't, they won't. the only prediction that i make is that i do not believe that this country will become a republic while the queen is on the throne."

republicans have seen significance in mr howard's comments. ted o'brien, chair of the australian republican movement said mr howard has provided some recognition for a possible australian head of state.

"mr howard's recognition that it is very unlikely that the country will become a republic while the present queen is on the throne indicates quite clearly that this may not be the case when prince charles takes over," he said.

"mr howard is an astute reader of the mood of the australian people, and this change in language, if not in sentiment, is clearly some recognition of the likelihood of a future australian head of state," added allison henry, arm national director.

monarchists are urging people not to make too much from mr howard's comments. professor david flint from australians for constitutional monarchy said that to think australia will become a republic based on mr howard's comments would be grasping at straws.

"he's just saying that he doesn't know the future, he can't tell the future, none of us can," he said.

"it would be grasping at straws for the republicans to say that this means australia will become a republic or that the prime minister says that."

tony abbott, australia's health minister and staunch monarchist said he did not believe australia would become a republic after queen elizabeth ii's reign. mr abbott told abc that he believes the person on the throne is irrelevant: it is the institution that australians admire.

"it's the institution, not the individual which really counts," he said.

"i am quite confident that were the queen to pass on and her successor to occupy the throne that there would be the same magic and same personal affection between even australians and our monarch." 


new zealand boarding school closed due to gastro-enteritis outbreak

nelson boys college was closed today because of an outbreak of gastro-enteritis in its boarding houses.

about 40% of the school's boarding students have been hit with what is thought to be the highly contagious and violent stomach bug, norovirus.

the principal, salvi garguilo, says the boys are being well cared for at the school, helped by nelson hospital.

they will stay isolated until they are no longer contagious.

nelson college will reopen on monday.


united nations general assembly votes to establish un human rights council

yesterday, the united nations voted overwhelmingly to establish a united nations "to promote and protect fundamental rights, and deal with major human rights offenders," according to a press release.

170 countries voted for the proposed resolution and four voted against (, the , , and the ), with three abstentions (, , and ). the council will replace the , which has lost credibility in past years due to politicization.

the united states objected that the resolution did not go far enough to exclude from membership in the new council those nations which it alleges are the worst human rights abusers. 

rodrigo malmierca diaz, the cuban ambassador, declared that a "huge discredit" had befallen the previous commission due to the "political manipulation, hypocrisy and double standards imposed on its work by the united states and the european union." 

the 191-member general assembly approved the resolution, which stated "members elected to the council shall uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights, fully cooperate with the council, and be reviewed under the universal periodic review mechanism, during their term of membership."

the resolution calls for elections for the new body on may 9, 2006 and an inaugural meeting on june 19, while the commission will be abolished on june 16.

the council will consist of 47 members, each elected individually by a majority (96 members or more) of the general assembly. if the council members fail to uphold high standards of human rights, they can be suspended from the council by a two-thirds majority of assembly members present at the meeting.



demonstrators protest condoleezza rice's trip to australia

anti-war demonstrators in sydney, australia on thursday dubbed u.s. secretary of state dr condoleezza rice a "war criminal" and "murderer." two protesters were evicted and five people were arrested during protests against the u.s.-led invasion of iraq.

dr rice, on a three-day trip to australia, said she understood why people found it hard to be positive about iraq when all they saw on their television screens was violence.

soon after rice began her speech at the university of sydney's conservatorium of music, two protesters shouted from the rear of the auditorium, "condoleezza rice, you are a war criminal," and "iraqi blood is on your hands and you cannot wash that blood away." standing with their palms towards her, the young man and woman repeated their accusation until security intervened to remove them from the hall.

about 15 minutes into rice's address, a third protester appeared at a balcony door, interrupting her speech as she referred to freedom. "what kind of freedom are you talking about? you are a murderer," said the demonstrator before he was quietly escorted from the hall. "i'm very glad to see that democracy is well and alive here at the university," she said.

in her speech, rice sought to justify the u.s. occupation of iraq, describing iraqis as now more free. one student asked about abuses committed by u.s. forces at the abu ghraib prison in iraq. she said the abuses had made her "sick to her stomach." however, she defended guantanamo bay, cuba, where human rights groups say detainees are held in inhumane conditions and in detention flouting international laws. 

before rice began her speech, about 50 protesters were gathered at the front gates of the conservatorium. the group were confronted by police on horseback and by police dogs. police used the horses to charge into the group of activists and push them back, as a police helicopter hovered.

a police spokeswoman said the group was blocking pedestrian access to the building and that police had spent more than 20 minutes warning them to move. the police then moved in and pushed the crowd back 20 metres. police say five people have been charged with "hindering police in the execution of their duties." 

the "stop the war coalition" says rice is a "war criminal" and is not welcome in australia. the group's spokeswoman, anna samson, says the protest is one of many planned in the lead-up to the third anniversary of the invasion and occupation of iraq on march 20. 

paddy gibson, from the university of sydney's student's council, says the protest is in opposition to the iraq war, and to the use of the university of sydney's campus to host rice, "the most powerful woman in the world," who they say is a war criminal. "they're saying, '... you've got sydney uni's support to stand up and peddle your murderous hate speeches,' which is what we see it," he said. 

"you've got 180,000 people killed, as we said, for no other reason than strategic control of the region's oil resources. and the anti-muslim racism that's been whipped up to justify this war is being felt by sydney university students," said mr gibson.


civilians killed in u.s. raid near balad

a u.s. raid near balad on wednesday resulted in the deaths of between nine and 13 civilians. an associated press photographer recorded pictures of the bodies of two men, five children, and four covered corpses reported to be women. the victims had bits of rubble tangled in their hair and were covered in dust. police capt. hakim azzawi said in an interview with the washington post that 13 in total were dead, two men, five children, and six women. the u.s. military confirmed the attack but said only four people died ? two women, a man and a child.

family of the victims said the 11 dead people were wrapped in blankets and driven in three pickup trucks to the tikrit general hospital. 

the us military said that the raid resulted in a "foreign fighter facilitator" being taken into coalition custody for questioning.

police capt. laith mohammed stated that the attack 50 miles north of baghdad involved u.s. warplanes and armored vehicles, which flattened a house in the village of isahaqi. 

ahmed, the brother of the dead man, told the associated press, "the dead family was not part of the resistance. they were women and children. the americans have promised us a better life, but we get only death."
photos of the victims of the u.s. raid



remote new zealand island evacuated as volcano erupts

the new zealand department of conservation (doc) began an emergency evacuation of staff from raoul island, the largest and northernmost of the kermadec islands, due to a volcanic eruption that occurred this morning at 8:21am (new zealand daylight time). six doc workers were living on raoul island when it erupted.

rolien elliot, doc area manager for warkworth, said, “a helicopter has been sent to pick up the doc staff that are based on the island, five of whom have been accounted for. one staff member is missing after going on a routine mission to check the water temperature of the lake ... we are monitoring the situation closely, with the safety of the staff being our top priority."

doc staff on the island have been communicating with new zealand using a satellite phone.

the last eruption occurred in 1964 (see photo), when workers had to be evacuated because of the possibility of continuing activity.

it takes two days' sailing for a navy frigate to reach raoul island from auckland.


first gold for nz: commonwealth games

moss burmester won the first gold medal for new zealand in the 2006 commonwealth games, in melbourne yesterday. burmester carried on the nz tradition of winning the final of the 200m men's butterfly. his winning time was 1min 56.64 sec., a best by 0.25 sec., putting him in the top ten in the world.

2006 commonwealth games open in melbourne


no charges over election spending for new zealand labour party

labour won't be prosecuted over its election spending, even though police did find a prima facie case.

acting police deputy commissioner, roger carson, said yesterday that police did find a prima facie case that labour had breached section 221 of the electoral act. section 221 prohibits advertising promoting a party unless the secretary of the party gives written authorisation.

in the alleged case of over-spending on taxpayer-funded pledge cards, police say that there was insufficient evidence to show that an offence under section 214b of the electoral act had been committed. section 214b sets the maximum amount that parties may spent on election expenses.

police will be sending labour a warning saying that the party risks prosecution if a similar complaint is received in the future.

in february the new zealand electoral commission referred the labour party to the police, for allegedly overspending nz$418,603 in last year's general election.


new zealand department of conservation leaves raoul island, minus one

the new zealand department of conservation (doc) made an emergency evacuation of staff from raoul island, the largest and northernmost of the kermadec islands, due to a volcanic eruption that occurred this morning at 8:21am (new zealand daylight time).

a helicopter picked up the five available staff, but one missing staff member could not be found before it had to leave. the return journey is 2000km (1300 miles).

the missing man, aged in his 30s, failed to return "after going on a routine mission to check the water temperature of the lake," according to rolien elliot, doc area manager for warkworth.

she said that when two of the others went to look for their colleague where he was thought to be, they “had to retreat due to further volcanic activity and the track being impassable with fallen trees and ash.”

the blast had significantly changed the island's landscape. 

"there's been about five hectares of native bush cleared and a lot of mud and evidence of boulders and rocks that have been thrown out of the crater itself," the helicopter pilot john funnell said to one news.


chinese bloggers pressure leads to kitten killer giveup

wang jue, a chinese nurse appearing in a disturbing internet video stomping a cat with her high-heel shoes, gave herself up to authorities after bloggers and some print media started a campaign to trace back the recording. in the beginning, she was labeled as the "kitten killer of hangzhou," because it was believed she was from there; but some internauts recognized an island in northern heilongjiang province.

wang posted an apology on the luobei city government official website. she said she was recently divorced and didn't know what to do with her life. the cameraman, a provincial tv employee, and she lost their jobs when internauts discovered their identities.

nevertheless, since china lacks laws against cruelty to animals, wang and the cameraman might be freed soon.

the site (http://www.crushworld.net/) where the video was first posted is no longer active.


second gold for nz: commonwealth games

new zealand has won its third consecutive gold medal in rugby sevens after beating england last night 29-21.

new zealand qualified for the final game after defeating australia in the semi-finals 21-19.

the members of the winning new zealand sevens team were: soseni anisi, joshua blackie, tamati ellison, nigel hunt, tafai ioasa, cory jane, tenerau latimer, liam messam, lote raikabula, amasio raoma, alando soakai and onosai tololima-auva'a

meanwhile, fiji beat australia 24-17. in the bronze medal play-off.

also last night hayden roulston won silver for new zealand, in the track cycling - men's points race. 


australian dfat director knew of trucking company involved in alleged iraqi kickbacks

the was told on friday by a former director of the middle east branch of the (dfat) that she had heard the name "alia" during her time at dfat. alia is the trucking company used by the (awb) and alleged to have been paying kickbacks to 's iraqi regime.

previously, , australia's foreign minister, insisted that nobody in dfat knew about alia until it was named in the report on kickbacks paid to iraq under the oil-for-food program.

jill courtney, a former director at dfat, told the cole inquiry that she heard of alia some time in 2000.

in a statement provided to the inquiry, ms courtney states "when i saw the name 'alia' in newspaper reports of the cole inquiry over the last few weeks in relation to the jordanian trucking company used by awb i recognised the name and i now believe that it was a
name that i had heard in that context during the time i worked in the middle east branch in 2000 and 2001."

ms courtney told the inquiry that she hard heard or read about alia as a jordanian trucking company which was being used by the awb during her time at as a director of the middle east branch at dfat. ms courtney said that she could not recall how she came by the information.

ms courtney was asked by john agius sc (counsel assisting the inquiry), "is there any possibility that you saw it or heard of it as a jordanian trucking company, and that what you have done when you read about it in the newspaper, in the context of this inquiry, is to learn then that it was being used by awb, and that you have fused the two matters together?" she replied, "no."


putin promises to continue energy production increases

at a meeting in the kremlin on thursday of group of eight (g8) energy ministers, russian president vladimir putin promised that russia will continue to increase energy production and to make nuclear energy more accessible. 

"russian companies are already completing projects that have strategic importance for a real strengthening of global energy security," putin said. putin, president of the g8 this year, has placed emphasis on energy security at a time when many nations are hit by rising energy prices and fears of supply problems.

putin spoke of the development of the , which contains 3 trillion cubic meters of gas; of oil and gas pipelines, such as the ones under the baltic sea; and of a pipeline from eastern siberia to the pacific. russia has more than doubled oil exports, from three to seven million barrels a day. putin addressed concerns the current pipeline capacity will not be able to keep pace with demand, saying the projects are "the first in a series that world markets will benefit from soon." putin also said that the will soon pass laws to clarify the role of foreign investment in future projects.

some have been wary of the russian government's growing role in the country's energy market. , a russian energy company that the government has the majority stake in, cut supplies to the in january, affecting supply in several european countries. 25 percent to a third of the eu's gas supply comes from russia, much of it by way of the ukraine. 

after the meeting on thursday, us energy secretary samuel bodman said, “we are hopeful of a very substantial rebirth of the global nuclear industry.” 



china enters the low-cost laptop competition

longmeng, which means "dragon dream" in mandarin, is the name of a low-cost laptop computer. it was developed by the institute of computing technology (ict) under the chinese academy of sciences. there are conflicting reports about the price: "bloomberg" reported the laptop would be priced at 1,500 yuan (about usd 187 or eur 153), while "people's daily" and "shanghai daily" reported a lower price of 1,000 yuan (about usd 125 or eur 102). the lower price would make the laptop competitive with the one laptop per child project initiated by the massachusetts institute of technology (mit).
the longmeng has a godson ii processor, which is equivalent in processing power to the pentium iii. it is actually a computer, a dvd player and a video game player, using the linux operating system. it is the size of a textbook, 14 x 17 cm. (5 1/2 x 6 3/4 in.) and weighs about half a kilogram (1.1 pounds).

the new laptop was announced by zhang fuxin, an ict engineer. according to fuxin, the purpose of this project is to provide everyone with a personal computer.

the laptop is marketed by the menglan group from the eastern city of changshu in the province of jiangsu. they plan to sell 100,000 of the low-cost laptops in 2006. the longmeng is intended for low-income groups as well as rural-area students.


taipei mayor ma hopes local hiv midway home &quot;patients out only&quot;

ma hosted a public meeting in wenshan district. a chief of village from the district complained to ma that the harmony home association, a halfway-home for hiv-infected people within the district, makes the members panic. 

ma replied that when dealing with this problem, city government must concern both professionalism and feelings of the community. 

ma said that public health bureau would brief the community monthly, and "hope patients of the center stay out only and don't come in." ma also said to locate another place to provide centralized carring as soon as possible.

this remark disappoints the association. nicole yang, secretary general of the association, said she was not invited to the meeting, and stressed that hiv-infected people have rights of residency, but the people in this midway home have no place to go. she said government should help to place them.

last july, community officials learned about the association. the association, along with carring and housing of under-supported hiv-infected people in taiwan then have been under heavy disputes.

in chinese :

in english:


labor claims victory in two australian state elections

the australian labor party (alp) has claimed victory in the two australian state elections held in tasmania and south australia on saturday. south australia will have a majority government, after being governed with a minority government made up of a combination of alp and other parliamentary members.

in tasmania, labor has been returned to its third consecutive term in government. the party has won 14 seats while the liberals have won seven, the greens two. at the close of counting on saturday night, only two seats remained in doubt.

at his victory speech, labor leader and premier paul lennon said that during the past two terms, labor has made tasmania strong.

"we've made the economy strong again," he said.

"we've taken tasmania from the bottom to the top of the economic pile."

"now we're rebuilding health, rebuilding education, we're making tasmania a much better place to live."

"over the next four years we'll be economically progressive, socially progressive ... and we're going to speak out for children."

mr lennon also said that the government can still do a lot for tasmania.

"we can still have a better tasmania than the one we've got today," mr lennon said.

"i want us to lead the nation economically, i want us to lead the nation socially, i want us to lead the nation with aboriginal reconciliation."

conceding defeat, rene hidding, leader of the opposition and liberal party in tasmania said that it the result was not unexpected.

"after the disaster of 2002, it was universally accepted that we would need at least two elections to be in a position to win government," he said.

mr hidding said that it will be good for mr lennon and the state to have a majority government.

"it is good for [labor leader] paul lennon and tasmania that he will become the premier elected by the people, as opposed to the situation he was forced into," he said.

in south australia, the mike rann labor government was returned to power and will be able to form a majority government. political observers predict that when counting is completed, the rann government will have 30 seats in the 47 seat lower house. when brought to power in 2002, the rann government had to form a minority government with the assistance of an independent member as it did not command a majority in the lower house.

at his victory speech, mr rann said that his government will work for all south australians.

"we made a fundamental promise that we would govern south australia as if we had a majority of 10 and govern for all south australians," he said.

"we stuck to that pledge and we will continue to stick to that pledge."

he also promised that independent member rory mcewan, who gave his support to allow labor to form its previous miniority government, and karlene maywald, a representatice of the nationals, will retain ministerial positions within his government.

"they have made us a better government by bringing the regions and the country to cabinet," mr rann said.

rob kerin, leader of the south australian liberal party and opposition leader, has conceded defeat and said it's clear that the south australian people want labor to govern them.

"it's up to them who they have govern them, and they've made it clear on this case that they want to have labor for the next four years, so we respect that decision," he said.

the liberals are expected to hold 13 seats in the lower house.

it is expected that mr kerin will resign as party leader in the next few days.


more medals for nz: commonwealth games

the following is how the medal table for new zealand looked after the third day of competition for the 2006 commonwealth games, in melbourne, australia.

new zealand won six medals yesterday.
half of them were in the women’s and men’s triathlons.

in the women's individual triathlon sam warriner won silver; followed closely by andrea hewitt who won bronze.

bevan docherty won silver in the men's individual triathlon

a bronze in the women's 50m rifle prone pair is the 500th commonwealth games medal for new zealand in the 76 year history of the games.




thousands in san francisco protest us wars

thousands of protesters gathered at san francisco's civic center to protest us wars and foreign policy in iraq, the philippines, cuba and other places. domestic issues were also included in the speeches and signs. the protesters then marched through downtown san francisco on a pre-planned route. they passed glide memorial methodist church to protest president bush's cutting of programs like glide's that provide food for needy people. the march also passed by the hilton hotel, where protesters were calling for a boycott in response to the hotel workers union's difficulty in obtaining a new contract.

pro-israel counter-protesters gathered across the street from the war protesters, although their number was much smaller.

california green party candidate todd chretien suggested that there were ten to twenty thousand war protesters present.


train kills seven on tv show

a runaway train killed seven people and injured eleven more today in the small town of young, uruguay, about 235 miles west of montevideo. the victims were taking part in an uruguyan reality game show, desafio al corazon, or "a challenge to my heart," where communities can raise money by performing tasks. the task in this accident was to push or pull a train with two cars attached to it down a railroad track. the train gathered too much momentum and ran down the people in front of it. 

one eyewitness, ana portela, said that the train was in motion when "somebody slipped and fell under the locomotive, and others were falling alongside it. there were shouts and somebody cried 'my arm!' everybody was in a state of shock." 

local authorities have declared three days of official mourning as uruguayan president tabare vazquez offered his deepest condolences for the victims of the crash. a spokeswoman from the channel airing the program, mrs. graciela baccino stated, "channel 10 offers its solidarity and support to the families involved in this unexpected tragedy that came, in fact, while they were trying to help others." the money raised would have gone towards a local hospital. 



second oil disaster in estonia within two months

estonian and finnish oil spill response vessels are working on cleaning up the oil spill caused by the sinking of the runner 4. the dominican-registered ship sank on march 6 near the estonian coast in the gulf of finland.

this oil disaster may be even worse than the one of february, which was described by the bbc as the worst oil spill that estonia has ever experienced. in the february spill, approximately 35 000 birds died. according to the baltic times, specialists say that this time up to 40 tons of oil might have leaked into the sea from the runner 4. the ship was carrying, according to mtv3, over 100 tons of heavy fuel oil and 35 tons of light fuel oil.

the ship runner 4 sank due to a collision with another ship, in a convoy following a russian icebreaker. the crew managed to leave the ship before it sank.

on march 13, a week after the ship sank, the estonian border guard sent its multipurpose vessel eva-316 to the site to start the oil cleanup. around the same time, the finnish dedicated to the cleanup the oil spill response vessels "hylje," "halli" and "seili". also, the finnish frontier guard patrol ship merikarku was sent to the site to conduct underwater robot examinations of the sunken ship. according to the finnish environment institute press briefing on this, estonia does not have adequate equipment for oil spill response in icy conditions, so help was needed.

the reaction to the disaster is criticized by jouni pirttijarvi, an inspector at the finnish environment institute (ymparistokeskus). he says, according to finland's national broadcasting company (yle), that the countermeasures should have started a week ago, immediately after the disaster, instead of now. he said, "it's difficult now to get the oil under control. it's spread all around, and ship traffic is spreading it further. we should have come here a week ago. then the oil would have been closer to the disaster area [the ship's sinking site]. we weren't asked for help [by the estonians] then, so now we decided to help without asking [before it's too late]." (translation from the finnish-language original). 

finland will be paying the costs of the cleanup, as estonia did not make an official request for help. the estonian border guard's representative helena loorents says that finland was not asked for help, as every day spent in the cleaning costs a lot of money. estonia simply cannot afford this.

according to urmas raudsepp, the director of estonia's institute of marine research, the oil spill's location was only found out on thursday march 16. the finnish ships had, however, arrived at the site on the day before.

jouni pirttijarvi also said that the conditions in the site are bad. the wind is over 17 meters per second (38 miles per hour) and it is raining. the oil spill is moving into waters too shallow for the three finnish vessels, so they can no longer do their job. hylje will be heading back to finland on march 19 and the other two might follow within a few days. according to the estonian paper postimees, the oil spill is now a kilometer (0.6 mile) away from the estonian capital of tallinn.







100s of thousands take to the streets across france

hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets across france this weekend to pressure the conservative government to discard a new law, which they say will erode job security.

the marches were mostly reported as festive and peaceful. other reports indicate that youths pelted police with objects, overturning and setting fire to a car at the end of the main protest in paris. police fired many rounds of tear gas. demonstrations were also reported in marseille, rennes and lille, where police charged and teargassed crowds.

rally organisers estimate the turnout across the country at over a million people, with around 500,000 of them in paris. however, the interior ministry reported 503,000 nationwide, with 80,000 in paris.

the protesters are demanding that the government withdraw the "first job contract" (cpe) ? which allows employers to fire workers under the age of 26 without explanation in their first two years on the job. the aim of this new law is to encourage businesses to employ more young workers, given that their employment will be more flexible and convenient in economic terms. in the western city of rennes, students wore plastic garbage bags with signs declaring: "i am disposable." 

the paris march began with students in front and workers behind, but turned into a multi-generational mix including many parents who joined their teenage children. banners declared "no to throw-away youths" and "tired of being squeezed lemons." the actions are only the third time in almost four decades ? after 1968 and 1994 ? that students and workers marched together.

"i risk working for two years for nothing, just to be fired at any moment," said paris student coralie huvet, 20. unemployment is currently a major political issue in france. the french national average is 9.6 percent, and youth unemployment is nearly 21 per cent. the rate rises to 40-50 percent in some of the poor suburbs hit by several weeks of youth rioting last year.

recent opinion polls show that 68 percent of french people oppose the new law, a rise of 13 percentage points in a week, and that french prime minister dominique de villepin's popularity has dropped six points to 37 percent.

since the beginning of march, protests, occupations and direct action against the new cpe employment law in france have been increasing, with university and school students leading the dissent. 

railways have been blockaded, airports disrupted, and up to two thirds of france's universities have been occupied or disrupted, as well as many schools. clashes with police have occurred throughout the country. 



playstation 3 delayed until november

sony is delaying until november the release of its new playstation 3 video game console, for all countries. playstation 3 was supposed to be released this spring, but the president of the sony gaming division, ken kutaragi, says the company has decided on improvements since they last announced the release date. he says that sony wants to include all the latest technology available today, and indicated that the system will run linux out of the box the new, later release date could be advantagous to rival microsoft corp., which released its competing xbox 360 console recently. sony's australia/new zealand managing director said the ps3 release in new zealand is still six to 18 months away.


queensland braces for category 5 cyclone

thousands of residents are evacuating coastal areas of far north queensland (qld), set to be lashed by cyclone larry tomorrow morning. the australian bureau of meteorology warns that the "very destructive core of severe tropical cyclone larry, with extreme gusts up to 280 km/hr (174 mph) should cross the coast between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. aest on monday (sunday, 2100 to 2300 utc). destructive winds are expected to commence along the coast between ingham and port douglas. gales are already being experienced along the exposed coast in the warning area."

tropical cyclone larry, currently building off far north queensland, is expected to intensify before crossing the coast. queensland tropical cyclone warning centre spokesman bruce gunn says people should treat warnings very seriously. "this is the worst cyclone we have had for many, many years," he said.

the bureau of meteorology (bom) says the cyclone poses a "very serious threat to life and property" and will now post warnings on the hour on its website.

the bom also warns coastal residents between cairns and townsville of dangerous storm tide when the cyclone crosses the coast. the bureau says the sea is likely to steadily rise up to a level which will be significantly above the normal tide, with damaging waves, strong currents and flooding of low-lying areas extending some way inland. people living in those areas should be prepared to evacuate if advised by authorities.

mandatory evacuations have been enforced in low-lying seafront areas, including in the johnstone and cardwell shires south of cairns, which are expected to bear the force of larry and its four metre storm surge.

disaster coordination centres have been activated in cairns and townsville. "there have been mandatory evacuations of coastal shires south of cairns ... and emergency shelters set up for people who feel at risk with nowhere to go," said a cairns city council disaster coordination centre spokesman. "it's most likely thousands of people are evacuating to avoid the high tide."

premier peter beattie has issued a disaster declaration. local governments now have the power to enforce mandatory evacuations. queensland education department announced that schools in the hardest hit areas will be closed tomorrow, while flights to townsville and cairns have been cancelled. 

state emergency service (ses) volunteers are doorknocking and advising residents to leave. bruce gunn from the queensland cyclone warning centre says the cyclone will coincide with a high tide. "we are talking seawater a couple of metres above the high-tide mark, possibly more than that, with waves on top, so this is a very serious situation we are talking about," he said.

mr gunn told the abc that severe weather will be experienced several hours before the cyclone reaches the coast. "while we are saying the coastal crossing will be between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. aest, the few hours leading up to that will be rather bumpy ? not very nice to experience," he said.


polling data on president bush's approval rating indicates recent decline

a new cbs news poll reports that americans are increasingly negative about the , and that president bush's job approval ratings, now down to 34%, continued to decline. the telephone survey of a nationwide random sample of 1136 adults was conducted march 9-12, 2006 and results were released on march 13. the maximum for results based on the full sample is plus or minus three percentage points. some questions were only asked of half the sample. the poll was conducted shortly before the third anniversary of the us-led invasion of iraq, and covered feelings about the war in iraq and overall impressions of president bush.

a cnn-usa today-gallup poll also released on march 13 put the president's approval rate at 36%. other polls conducted over a similar period had similar results, including those by nbc-wall street journal and by pew, reporting 37% and 33% approval respectively.

the cbs poll estimates that 47% of americans think the eventual success in establishing democracy in iraq is not at all or not very likely, an increase from 35% when polled on the same issue two months ago. the latest poll found that 15% answered that success is very likely, while 36% thought success is somewhat likely. both these assessments have dropped from previous poll results of 21% and 42% respectively of those polled in january. 

more than half believe that iraq will never be a stable democracy, an increase from 39% who two months ago believed it could be stabilized. 5% believe iraq will become a stable democracy in the next year or two. 

64% of americans believe the outcome in iraq will not affect security in the united states, compared to 28% who believe a positive outcome will deter terrorism in the united states. 

poll results suggest that 71% of americans believe that civil war is happening now in iraq, and a majority say the war is not going well. 46% believe most iraqi people now feel resentful of the u.s., up from 26% in april 2003, although this is a slight decrease from 48% in april 2004. in contrast, 32% say most iraqis feel grateful, down from 53% in april 2003, and 13% say most iraqis feel both grateful and resentful.

when asked who is winning the war, 29% said the u.s., 12% said the iraqi resistance and insurgents, and 53% said neither side. 

on progress by the u.s. to train iraqi troops to manage the conflict, the poll measured a decline from 54% in january to 41% now, although those who felt they didn't know enough to say increased from 26% to 35%. 

according to the poll, 50% of americans do not believe the u.s. government is providing u.s. troops in iraq enough resources to succeed, compared to 37% who do. however, 76% oppose reinstating the draft to provide additional soldiers for iraq. according to the cbs report, 59% of americans believe that the troop numbers should be decreased or that they should be removed entirely. however, 63% believe the troops will remain in iraq for two or more years. the poll found that 44% of people believe that if the troops were withdrawn, violence in iraq would increase, while 42% thought the violence would not change. only 11% of people felt it would lead to less violence.

according to the poll results, the majority of americans, 54%, believe the u.s. should have stayed out of the war, and 70% believe the war is not worth the costs. a more narrow majority of 51% thought removing was not worth going to war. 

when asked why president bush went to war, 21% said it was to protect the united states, 19% said to protect u.s. oil interests and 11% say to complete the iraq war effort started by his .

cbs report that 60% of americans say the war has taken longer than expected, while only 4% say shorter. when asked whether the united states' military action in iraq has made the u.s. safer from terrorism or not, 30% say it has made the u.s. more safe, 23% say it has made the u.s. less safe and 44% say it has made no difference. 

in this poll, slightly more people say the war in iraq is separate from the war on terrorism than say it is a major or a minor part of the war on terrorism. this is a reversal from the results in december 2005, when 43% of people said it was separate, while 53% said it was a major or minor part of the war on terror.

the latest poll indicates that 57% of americans now disapprove of president bush's performance as president, an increase from 51% who disapproved of his performance two months ago, and a dramatic increase from disapproval ratings of 21% in april 2003. his job approval is now at 34%, down from 42% two months ago. in april 2003, just after the start of the war in iraq, president bush had a job approval rating of 73%. when broken down by party affiliation, cbs reports that his approval rating is now 74% among republicans, 6% among democrats and 28% among independents.

the poll also found that more people disapprove than approve of the way congress is handling its job. the approval rating for the president's handling of the war in iraq is 31% and for foreign policy in general is 30%. foreign-policy approval ratings vary by party affiliation, with 64% of republicans approving, compared to 6% of democrats and 24% of independents. similarly, 73% republicans approve of the president's handling of the economy, compared to 9% of democrats and 28% of independents. 

the poll indicates that nearly two-thirds of americans believe president bush says things are better in iraq than they actually are, up to 66% from 58% in january, and less than one-fourth believe that president bush describes things accurately. in comparison, 24% feel the media portray the situation in iraq as better than it is. by contrast, 35% say the media description is accurate. 

cbs report that the war in iraq is still seen as the nation's most significant problem. 41% of americans see the democratic party as more likely to make the right decisions regarding iraq, while 35% see the republican party as more likely. the poll results also indicated that a similar number of people approve and disapprove of the president's efforts against terrorism. in contrast, more people approved than disapproved of these efforts back in january, when 52% approved and 43% disapproved.

based on the latest cbs poll, nearly two thirds of americans believe the country is on the wrong track, as opposed to a little over a quarter who believe the united states is on the right track. when divided by party affiliation, perception of being on the right track varies from 62% by republicans to 20% by independents to 8% by democrats. when asked about companies from foreign countries operating u.s. ports, 42% say it is never okay, 17% said it is okay if the country was an ally, and 36% said it depends on the country.


avian flu cause of egyptian woman's death

a 30 year old egyptian woman has died from an infection with the h5n1 strain of the avian flu. the cause of death was confirmed by the cairo-based us naval medical research unit (namru). the woman was keeping birds in her home in violation of a government ban on the practice.
the egyptian health ministry has also reported that initial tests of a 28 year old man indicate that his is the second case of human infection in egypt. both cases were from the same area in the country, and both people reportedly were treated with the drug tamiflu. doctors are expecting the man to survive.

nearly 100 people worldwide have died from the h5n1 virus, according to the world health organization (who).


report specifies 'black room' of abuse in iraq

a new york times report tells of a shadowy military unit named task force 6-26 which, in early 2004, used a former iraqi military base near baghdad as a top-secret detention center. inside, american soldiers made one of the former iraqi government's torture chambers into one of their own, dubbing it the black room.

the black room was a garage-sized room, painted jet-black and with no windows. inside, soldiers beat prisoners and abused them verbally. they used them for target practice with paintball guns in a nearby area. the intention was to gain information from the detainees as to the whereabouts of abu musab al-zarqawi, a salafi islamist militant, a guerrilla leader, and the putative leader of al-qaeda in iraq.

the temporary detention site was part of camp narma, the headquarters of task force 6-26, and was the first stop for many insurgents before going to the abu ghraib prison, which was a few miles away.


personal relationship between bush and mccallum questioned

australia's major newspapers are highlighting the personal relationship between the u.s. president george bush and his newly nominated australian ambassador, robert mccallum. australian reporters phillip hudson of "the age", and mark coultan of the "sydney morning herald", have written stories examining the bush/mccallum friendship which allegedly dates back to 39 years ago when they were inducted into the skull and bones society.

the australian ambassadorship post had been vacant for 13 months, which former deputy prime minister tim fischer said was an "unforgivable" delay. the mccallum nomination on march 11 would replace the former ambassador tom schieffer who left the post in february 2005. united states president george w. bush nominated mccallum on march 11th.,2006

mccallum is an associate attorney-general for the department of justice and previously represented big tobacco companies at an atlanta law firm. he also has a master's degree from oxford university and is a rhodes scholar as well as having a bachelor's degree from yale.

the two australian papers report on activities of bush and mccallum in their younger years, and the "sydney morning herald" alleges that personal connections were instrumental in the career advancements of both men. 

mccallum also made news last year when he overrode u.s. justice department lawyers who had been handling the government's tobacco racketeering trial for the past 5 years. mccallum ordered the lawyers to reduce the penalties sought at the close of the nine-month trial from $130 billion to $10 billion, angering some of the trial lawyers to the point where it is reported they threatened to quit their jobs. mccallum said the reduction was necessary as a matter of law.




federer wins pacific life open in indian wells

yesterday, in , california, roger federer, the top ranked tennis player in the world, defeated 7-5, 6-3, 6-0 to win his third consecutive , part of the . blake held an early lead 4-1 in the first set, but federer came back and dominated the last two sets. federer is the first player to win three pacific life opens in a row since 1976. federer remained at number 1, while blake moved up from 14th to 9th in the world rankings.

federer struggled to find his game at first, but he caught on to blake's playing style during the start of the game. "he played aggressively, took the ball early, put away his forehands when he could, didn't miss on the backhand, made me run around," federer said. "that's usually what i do. he gave me a little bit of my own medicine." federer has now won three titles this year, one of them being the . he has a 22-1 record, with his only loss going to rafael nadal at the dubai tennis championship. his final statement was, "it was a hard-fought battle in the beginning. really got the better of me in the beginning, so i had to react and not panic. i did a good job there. in the end, i played fantastic tennis with some great shots once again ... the form is excellent right now."

blake took out 2nd seeded rafael nadal in the semifinals and nearly cruised through the first set. unfortunately, he made just enough mistakes in the end of the set for federer to pull through after a 5-4 lead. blake is now 19-5 for the year, with wins at the sydney international and the . after the match, he said, "a couple of shots he was swinging at, you could tell, just he had that confidence where he feels like he's not going to miss. everything was going in ... here are a lot of guys that can go through little runs like that, three or four games where they feel like they can't miss, you wait it out, wait it out, then you get your chance. i couldn't wait any longer. he's one of the guys that can keep it up. he kept it up for that whole set, probably set and a half really. actually, from early in the second set, he was playing like that. it's tough to combat that. it's been a great week. this stings right now. i think as long as i'm a competitor, as long as i'm on tour, it's always going to sting after a loss. but i'll just reflect on the fact that it's a good week, i moved up in the rankings played some great tennis, had some fun out here."


scotland wins gold, silver in 400m im

david carry and euan dale yesterday pulled off a remarkable feat for scotland ? claiming both first and second place in the 400m individual medley swimming race in melbourne.

for carry, who swam a 4:15.98, the gold was his second of the games and scotland's forth gold medal in swimming until now. he becomes the first scottish person to win two golds at the games in thirty-two years ? david wilkie being the last scot to do so in 1974.

the games have presented several surprises thus far ? most notably australia's failure to win more than one gold medal in the men's events up to this point. matthew john cowdrey won the sole gold medal for australia in the 50m freestyle on saturday. by contrast, the australian women have had an excellent start so far, with a medal haul of 21 out of a possible 37.

south africa once again demonstrated its strength in men's freestyle swimming by winning the 4 x 100m freestyle relay in 3:14.97, beating the australian by slightly over half a second. canada claimed third place. 

 


six nations cup

in the six nations cup, ireland beat england 28 points to 24, to win the triple crown. france, on the other hand, won the overall championship. remember ? the rugby world cup is only but eighteen months away! looking at irelands performance in the championship they are certainly a team that gel well together and are on the way up.ireland have now beaten england on the last three occasions that these sides have met.


crowe, holmes succeed in takeover of rabbitohs

australian actor russell crowe and businessman peter holmes a court have succeeded in their bid to take over the south sydney rabbitohs, an australian national rugby league (nrl) club. the men required that 75% of the club's members vote yes on the $3 million takeover bid for it to pass; and it narrowly won, by just 32 votes (0.8%). former souths player and manager, george piggins, has vowed never to attend another game of his former club.

supporters of the bid have said it gives the rabbitohs a chance to return to their glory days after last year's finish of 13th in the 15-team competition. the team has not won a premiership in 35 years but still retains the record for most premiership wins, with 20 on the record books. those against the bid objected that the club is selling out 98 years of heritage.

 

lukashenko wins disputed belarus elections

it appears that alexander lukashenko, 51, has won the 2006 belarus presidential election, and is heading for his third term in office. the official preliminary results are 82.6 percent for lukashenko and six percent for the main opposition candidate , says the bbc. the turnout for the elections was 92.6 percent of belarus' seven million eligible voters. the final results will be available monday morning.

before the elections, the opposition candidates accused lukashenko of plans for rigging the elections. several opposition newspapers were closed down and journalists were arrested some weeks before the elections. many foreign observers, including the polish, finnish and danish delegations, were refused entry into the country before the elections.

approximately 10 000 supporters of milinkevich gathered in oktyabrskaya square in belarus' capital, minsk. according to the bbc, they shouted anti-lukashenko slogans and waved flags that are banned under lukashenko's regime. the protests have not involved violence so far. 

lukashenko previously warned people against the start of uprisings similar to recent ones witnessed in the ukraine and georgia. he said that people attempting to stage a coup will be treated as terrorists and will be executed. the european union and the united states have expressed their concerns over allegedly authoritarian rule in belarus. the eu is planning to deny visas to belarusian officials with alleged involvement in election rigging, as a response to the denial by belarus of entry into the country to eu election observers.

milinkevich demands new elections. according to the bbc, he said, "we demand new, honest elections. this was a complete farce... we will demand that this election be recognized as invalid, including by international organisations," milinkevich said, according to the . 

milinkevich notes that the opposition candidates were restricted from the media, and opposition supporters were arrested. lukashenko, in contrast, has control over belarus' propaganda machine, including state television. according to the afp, opposition candidate milinkevich received in total one hour of tv air time for his campaign. belarus officials reject his demands, and insist the elections were free and honest. 

lukashenko denied being a dictator, saying "... it's impossible to have a dictator in europe. only stupid people would think that." he said the u.s. president george w. bush is more of a dictator than he himself is.




cuba and japan to play in wbc final

today, at 9:00 pm est, japan and cuba will face off in the final. the matchup will take place in petco park, california. coaches higinio velez of cuba and sadaharu oh of japan highly praised both teams. "we know the asians," velez said. "we have played against the asians, we know how the asian teams play, and they're great players. they put everything into the field, great effort, very similar to latin american players. they play hard, they have their tactics, they have their technique, and all i can say is that you will have a wonderful game [monday]." cuba has a record of 5-1 against japan at the summer olympics.

cuba defeated a mlb player-filled team from the dominican republic 3-1 to earn this berth to the finals. vicyohandri odelin has been rumored to be the starter for cuba tonight. cuba has no mlb players, whereas the japanese team has two?ichiro suzuki and akinori otsuka. cuba has earned a medal at each olympiad, taking the gold in 1992, 1996, 2004 and the silver in 2000. before the world baseball classic even began, cuba was at risk of not being able to attend, due to tension between the us and cuba. however, cuba has gone all the way with a 5-2 record, knocking out panama, the netherlands, venezuela, puerto rico, and the dominican republic in the semifinal.

japan barely made it into the semifinals through a complicated tiebreaking process, and managed to defeat an undefeated south korean team that had beaten them twice before with a shutout, 6-0. a two-run homer by young kosuke fukodome sealed the game. led by their powerful coach, sadaharu oh, japan was favored as the major asian power, but instead struggled through qualification with a 3-3 record. they ravaged taiwan, china, and mexico, but failed to overcome the united states or korea. ichiro suzuki has led this team into the finals with a .345 average, one homer, and four stolen bases.



keisha castle-hughes playing virgin mary

new zealand actress and "whale rider" (2002) star keisha castle-hughes will star as the blessed virgin mary in the upcoming new line cinema film, "nativity". 

castle-hughes, 15, who is of australian and maori descent, was the youngest actress to be nominated for a best-actress academy award when she was recognized for her role in "whale rider".

catherine hardwicke, who is best known for "three kings" (1999), will direct.

"nativity" looks at the life of the biblical couple mary and joseph prior to the birth of jesus, showing how their faith, love and beliefs are tested. the script incorporates the couple's journey from nazereth to bethlehem, and includes figures such as king herod and the three astrologers (a.k.a. the three kings or the three wise men).

filming is scheduled to begin in may and will include locations in morroco and italy. the studio aims for a december 2006 release.

 

macasana, india priest killed

fr eusebio ferrao (60), of st francis church in , india, was found murdered in the early hours of the morning on saturday, march 18, in the of the church. three people from who stayed with fr ferraro and had dinner with him friday night are suspected of suffocating him with a pillow. the archbishop has urged the authorities to find the culprits and bring them to justice. 

fr ferrao, a diocesan priest, writer and the parish priest of macasana parish in , was found dead by parishoners on saturday morning.

when he did not arrive to celebrate mass, parishoners went to check at the parish house and found him. his cook was found bound and gagged in the house.

the macasana parish, dedicated to the patron saint of goa, st francis xavier, was set up in 1809 and is situated in the southern subprovince of , india.

according to the last available records, it has a catholic population of 3,200. 


landmine kills two in india

a land mine blast killed two persons and injured 10 others in the indian state of chhattisgarh. the explosion took place as a police vehicle reached kolar-ghat in rajnandgaon, 110 km from state capital, raipur.

police chief vivekanand blamed maoist rebels, who want to establish a communist state in india.


citizens protest buffalo, n.y. hotel proposal

on saturday march 18, citizens in buffalo demonstrated to make their voices be heard. the protest mounted by people opposed to the elmwood village hotel proposal took place on the proposed site at forest and elmwood avenues.

the elmwood village hotel is a 72-room, seven-million-dollar hotel proposed by savarino construction services corporation. the hotel would require the demolition of at least five buildings (1109-1121 elmwood), which house several shops and residents. karl frizlen, an architect with frizlen group, designed the hotel. although the properties are "under contract," it is still unknown if savarino construction actually owns the buildings. it is believed that hans mobius, a resident of clarence, new york and former buffalo mayorial candidate, is still the owner. the hotel is expected to be a franchise of the wyndham hotels group.

despite the cold weather, at least 40 people showed up to walk the picket line for 2 two hours.
clarence carnahan, a buffalo resident, supplied signs that citizens could use during the protest. some of the signs said, 'no vacancy, no hotel,' 'no tell hotel,' 'hans off' and 'our neighborhood, our choice, no hotel.'

"the concern is they are going to tear down established businesses that have been here for years," said charles leist, a protester.

"we're fighting to the bitter end. we're hoping that we can squelch this. we don't think we can, but we're going down kicking and screaming," said patty morris, co-owner with nancy pollina of don apparel at 1119 elmwood. don apparel is a vintage clothing and collectible shop and has been at the same location for nearly 14 years.

the city's common council is expected to vote on the proposal on tuesday, march 21, 2006 at 2:00 pm in council chambers, on 13th floor in city hall.

the planning board is expected to vote on the proposal on tuesday, march 28, at 8:00 am in room 902 on the 9th floor of city hall.

even if the common council approves the proposal, the planning board will get the final say in the matter.

so far, no other protests are scheduled. organizers say they will wait until the common council votes before organizing any more protests.



utah father accused of using shock-collars to punish his children

scott david dover, 45, a father of two young boys in cedar city, utah, was arrested on thursday and charges against the father could be filed today.

police say he used electric dog collars to discipline his children. conviction could result in up to 15 years in prison. dover is being held in iron county jail; bail was set at ten thousand dollars.

police sgt. jerry womack said that the boys, both about six years old, did not have any burns or marks on them and that it was not known whether the collars had ever been placed around their necks. he also said, however, that dover admitted to using the collars on his sons.

"it sounds bad, but it actually administers a mild shock. he just felt that was an option for discipline. we disagree vehemently," said womack.

cedar city police were contacted on wednesday by the department of child and family services.

"the kids are ok. try to always remember that this child needs guidance, protection and someone to show them the way. to us, discipline means guidance, working with children on their strengths or showing them that some things could be done differently," said carol sisco, spokeswoman for the utah department of human services.

the "shock-collars" emit small electrical currents and are used for training dogs.

so far, the mother has not been charged. latest reports said the boys were still living with her. police are still deciding whether to file charges against her.


maria menounos will present the 2006 eurovision song contest

the american nbc journalist and hollywood actress maria menounos gave her first official press conference in greece, as a presenter of the semi-final and the final of the eurovision song contest 2006, which will take place in athens on the 18th and 20th of may, 2006.

menounos, who is of greek ancestry and speaks fluent greek, arrived yesterday in athens. today, she talked about the presentation of the song contest and expressed her excitement about being in greece. she will present the song contest along with the popular greek pop star sakis rouvas.

before official confirmation by greek national television (ert) of menounos as the co-host of the contest, greek media had reported the names of the famous actresses jennifer aniston and monica bellucci as possible presenters.

the eurovision song contest 2006 final and semi-final will take place in the olympic indoor hall in athens.


french national assembly to approve copyright bill

the french is to adopt a bill, known as ("≪ droits d'auteurs et droits voisins de la societe de l'information ≫", "author's right and related rights in the information society"), tomorrow. this bill reforms the french code of intellectual property (cpi) and other laws, mostly in order to implement the 2001 .

the directive mandates legal protections of (drm) measures against circumvention. drms are "digital locks" that prevent users from freely copying or playing contents, in order to enforce the copyright of the authors, artists, publishers and producers. the initial draft of the bill, proposed by , made circumvention of drms, or even facilitation thereof, a felony ("delit"), with a maximal penalty of 3 years in prison and/or a 300,000 fine as with . since drms, circumvention and facilitations were not legally defined, it was feared that the law would effectively prevent competitors from creating players, especially based on , compatible with major systems such as 's or 's ? or even to prevent the creation of any free software capable of loading files with drm capabilities, that is, potentially most future text, audio or video .

the initial draft also conserved the threat of a counterfeiting felony conviction for those exchanging copyrighted files on the internet. this was judged to be unfairly repressive and unrealistic. in france, it is commonplace for internet users to have broadband up to 16 megabits per second in cheaply priced (?30 a month or lower) packages, often comprising phone and television ; millions of users, especially the young, are believed to use file sharing software. lawmakers, from both the majority party and the opposition, found it unwise to turn millions of citizens into potential felons. as a consequence, the minister proposed a "gradual" scheme where mere downloading of one file would be punishable by a ?38 fine, which was adopted as an amendment. it remains to be seen how the law will be enforced.

with respects to drms, lawmakers from both the majority ump party, the centrist and the opposition adopted amendments that make it compulsory for publishers of drm-encumbered content to give the specifications to whomever would like to implement a compatible player. this proposal was decried by some us news sources as targeting apple computer's system, tied to the players. it is yet unknown, though, if these amendments would apply to companies that choose not to claim the new special protection awarded to drms by the law, which enable them to sue those who implement software meant to circumvent their protections.

lawmakers also expressed concerns that the proposed law would weaken existing legal exceptions to copyright, especially the right for users to make copies of copyrighted files for private use (cpi l122-5).

the lawmaking process was quite a bumpy one. in december, lawmakers adopted a surprise amendment that would legalize peer-to-peer sharing as "private copy", much to the dismay of the minister of culture. the amendment, proposed by a bipartisan coalition of majority ump and opposition lawmakers, was the first in a series that would have established a system known as the "global license" through which internet users would have paid a flat fee in exchange for an authorization to use peer-to-peer services. the fees collected would be redistributed to authors and performers. in march, the minister tried to withdraw article 1 of the law, which was the one that was amended to his dislike, but the next day he had to reintroduce it because withdrawing it may have been unconstitutional. the assembly then voted the article down and adopted an article 1 "bis", essentially an amended version of article 1 without the legalization of peer-to-peer sharing.

the law, initially presented as an uncontroversial, technical text, soon became a hot topic. some lawmakers, both from the opposition and the majority, decried intense lobbying by the entertainment industry. some amendments were nicknamed the " amendment", from the name of a major entertainment company that some lawmakers and commentators claim has inspired them. ump lawmakers such as denounced pressures and even blackmail from some powerful lobbies.

the assembly will very probably adopt the bill on march 21, despite the opposition of some ump, udf and opposition lawmakers. the bill will then be sent to the for further amendment and approval. since the government declared the bill to be urgent, it is probably that after examination by the senate, the bill will be sent to a mixed assembly/senate commission for harmonization, then finally voted. given that some ump and opposition lawmakers have voiced concerns about the constitutionality of some episodes of the lawmaking process, it is likely that the bill will get sent to the for constitutional review. finally, jacques chirac is likely to sign it into law.



new zealand attorney-general resigns

david parker resigned today from cabinet, a day after he resigned his position as attorney-general and after publicity around his filing of an incorrect declaration with the companies office on behalf of queens park mews limited.

the declaration said that the three shareholders had unanimously agreed not to appoint an auditor for the company; but according to "investigate magazine", another shareholder, russell hyslop, had never been consulted about the matter.

parker confesses to making a "mistake" over the returns. he says when hyslop was declared bankrupt in 1997, he cleared it with the official assignee for the first two years. he then forgot to clear on other years.

parker was saying early this morning that he would persist in holding his other portfolios. 

knowingly authorising a false statement is an offence under the companies act. the maximum penalty under section 373(4) for filing a false return is a fine of $200,000 or five years of imprisonment.


alfonso soriano refuses to play

the washington nationals' biggest offseason acquisition, alfonso soriano, refused monday to take left field in the nationals' spring training game against the los angeles dodgers. the nationals threatened soriano with disqualification if he refuses to take the field tuesday against the st. louis cardinals, which could result in the forfeiture of some or all of his 2006 salary, which is in the neighborhood of $10 million.

soriano, normally a second baseman, has steadfastly refused to be moved to the outfield. he has also requested a trade if the nationals do not intend to use him as their starting second baseman over jose vidro.

this issue has been hanging over the heads of the nationals organization since soriano was acquired in a trade from the texas rangers in december. however, as soriano played with the dominican republic in the world baseball classic, monday was the first day that he was scheduled to play for the nationals during spring training.


un inaugurates rapid-response fund for future disasters

after every earthquake, flood, or other disaster, the call goes out for pledges to fund emergency relief. then a second round of begging tries to convert those pledges into actual payments. in the meantime, some relief is delayed, and people die. money that does eventually come may not be in proportion to the need. for example, relief funding for the 26 december 2004 tsunami generally came rapidly and exceeded the amount requested, but famine relief for 3.5 million kenyans suffering drought is now 75% underfunded.

to help solve these problems, the united nations this month created the central emergency response fund (cerf) as a rainy-day savings account, to be dipped into when urgent needs require that money be spent within days--not in several months after aid pledges start being fulfilled. the fund is about half way to the goal of half a billion dollars in deposits, which could be spent for either natural or man-made disasters.
"we meet to launch a fund that is proactive rather than reactive. the cerf will provide a ready pool of resources that better empower the united nations in funding immediate relief efforts in the aftermath of disasters," said un secretary-general kofi annan on march 9.

jan egeland, the un emergency relief coordinator, will manage the fund. "we are working on the two first allocations from the cerf...one is to the horn of africa and kenya drought, the other one is to cote d'ivoire where humanitarian work and the civilian population is suffering so much," he said. "too often, aid resembles a lottery in which a few win but most lose based on considerations other than need. we must move from lottery to predictability so all those who suffer receive aid."

the biggest donations paid so far are $41 million from sweden and $30 million from norway. the largest pledges are $70 million from the united kingdom and $24 million from the netherlands.


japan wins world baseball classic, 10-6


today at around 6:00 a.m. utc, akinori otsuka struck out cuban star youlieski gourriel to give japan a 10-6 victory over cuba in the inaugural world baseball classic. daisuke matsuzaka recorded the win with a 1.38 era and was named the tournament's most valuable player. the game was played in petco park before a crowd of 42,696.
the highly-touted japanese team took a commanding lead in the first inning. vicyohandry odelin walked one man with the bases loaded, and hit another. the four-run first inning was capped off by toshiake imae's two-run single. cuba used three pitchers in the inning, including starter omari romero and reliever norberto gonzalez.
japan also added two more runs in the fifth inning, after three straight base hits to start the inning and michihiro ogasawara's sacrifice fly with one out. ichiro suzuki's one-out rbi single off of adiel palma in the ninth drove in osmani urrutia, which proved to be the winning run. after an intentional walk, kosuke fukudome put the game away with a base hit to left that scored two. michihiro ogaswara added a sacrifice fly.

cuba's eduardo paret started the bottom of the first inning with a solo home run that landed in the first row of the left field stands.
cuba mounted a rally in the ninth, when ariel pastano led off with a double. he was eventually driven in by cuban shortstop eduardo peret's infield single, but cuba was unable to score any more runs.
cuba responded with four straight hits of their own in the bottom of the sixth, scoring two runs. designated hitter yoandy garlobo grounded into an inning-ending double play, with men on first and third.
frederich cepeda's two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning off of soichi fujita cut the japanese lead to 6-5, before the four-run japanese ninth put the game away.

after 5 failed tries at the olympics, japan has finally capped it off with this gold-medal win at the classic. "my players showed me a fantastic performance tonight," sadaharu oh, the team's coach, said through a translator after the game. "i know they did it for japan." most people agree that this victory has driven home the fact that baseball is now an international sport, not just an american sport. the team has stuck with the tournament, through bad calls and good alike, and the reward was the sterling silver trophy presented to them as champions of the world baseball classic. even ichiro suzuki was amazed by their work, saying "to be honest, i never imagined we'd get there. we had a great team, the best. i hope we showed everyone what a great sport baseball is." 

cuba's amazing run was stopped short, but beisbol was still at the top of cuba's mind after the defeat. “personally, i think we have shown the quality of cuban players,” cuba manager higinio velez said. “i told everybody to have patience. i said we are team of men, not names.” the cuban team barreled through so many major leaguers, but today everything cracked, especially the pitching. however, they never gave up, rallying in the last inning, but just like frederich cepeda said, “we went and fought for this game just like every other game in this tournament, but japan also went out and fought for this game. we tried to get back on top, but they played better than we did and they deserve the victory because they played better.” due to the deal that allowed cuba into the wbc, they are donating all their money to hurricane katrina victims.

mlb commissioner and wbc organizer bud selig admitted, "the intensity in the stands as well as the intensity on the playing field was absolutely remarkable, and i'm not sure that going into it you could have felt that. i'm very confident that this will be the platform that we use to take this sport internationally to the dimension that i want to take it and believe that we will." spikes worn by oh, a jersey worn by matsuzaka, a baseball cap worn by nobuhiko matsunaka, a helmet worn by ichiro, and a warm-up jacket worn by koji uehara, will all be sent to cooperstown's baseball hall of fame to be displayed.



un creates rapid-response fund for disasters

after every earthquake, flood, or other disaster, the call goes out for pledges to fund emergency relief. then a second round of begging tries to convert those pledges into actual payments. in the meantime, some relief is delayed, and people die. money that does eventually come may not be in proportion to the need. for example, relief funding for the 26 december 2004 tsunami generally came rapidly and exceeded the amount requested, but famine relief for 3.5 million kenyans suffering drought is now 75% underfunded. 

to help solve these problems, the united nations this month created the central emergency response fund (cerf) as a rainy-day savings account, to be dipped into when urgent needs require that money be spent within days--not in several months after aid pledges start being fulfilled. the fund is about half way to the goal of half a billion dollars in deposits, which could be spent for either natural or man-made disasters.
"we meet to launch a fund that is proactive rather than reactive. the cerf will provide a ready pool of resources that better empower the united nations in funding immediate relief efforts in the aftermath of disasters," said un secretary-general kofi annan on march 9.

jan egeland, the un emergency relief coordinator, will manage the fund. "we are working on the two first allocations from the cerf...one is to the horn of africa and kenya drought, the other one is to cote d'ivoire where humanitarian work and the civilian population is suffering so much," he said. "too often, aid resembles a lottery in which a few win but most lose based on considerations other than need. we must move from lottery to predictability so all those who suffer receive aid."

the biggest donations paid so far are $41 million from sweden and $30 million from norway. the largest pledges are $70 million from the united kingdom and $24 million from the netherlands.


queensland mops up after cyclone larry's billion dollar devastation

areas in far north queensland remain without electricity, running water or sewerage after category 5 cyclone larry hit the coast on monday morning. queensland premier peter beattie has declared a state of emergency in innisfail and says he is worried about the outbreak of diseases. army engineers are among more than 1,000 people assisting in queensland's cyclone relief effort.

premier beattie says it could be more than a week before power is restored in innisfail. "the whole bloody place is blown apart... this is going to be a long, slow recovery," he said. 

larry caused widespread damage as it crossed the coast south of cairns, with winds of up to 290km/h (180 mph). thousands of buildings were damaged and most of the australia's banana crop has been destroyed. thousands of kilometres of power lines were brought down. many key roads are flooded.

state emergency service volunteers are putting tarpaulins on damaged homes. "some homes will need complete rebuilding and that will take many months. but right now let's get the bandaids out and get people settled as much as we can and then start the serious rebuilding of the innisfail area." said kathryn ryan, from the disaster management group

hospitals are unable to cope with the lack of clean running water and reliable power supplies. there are concerns about outbreaks of dengue fever and other mosquito-borne diseases. "our main concern is with the quality of the drinking water, the quality of people's food supplies and any health risks from inundation by water," a health spokesman said.

queensland health minister jim guthrie says there is no electricity in innisfail, the hardest hit town in cyclone larry's path. "it's just too difficult to keep the hospital operating," he said. "there's no mains power but they're also having trouble with generators - there's a lack of fuel."

the region's banana, sugar cane and avocado farm industries will need rebuilding. jan davis, of fruit growers' group growcom, says cyclone larry will have widespread effects on the fruit industry. 

among supplies flowing in were nearly 10,500 gallons of water and 6,000 in-flight meals provided by qantas. troops also set up a water purification unit, and health authorities warned residents to boil their water. "there most certainly would be around 7,000 people … that are effectively homeless," federal minister bob katter told the associated press. "they're sitting in four walls but no roof." some 17,000 homes were blacked out in cairns.

ergon energy regional services manager geoff bowes says generators have been sent to innisfail to provide power for sewerage works and some supermarkets and extra staff have been flown in from brisbane and townsville. "nothing could prepare us for this," he said. 

the australian reports that building industry and government sources have estimated the cost of larry as "one of australia's most costly natural disasters, with a damage bill expected to exceed $1.5 billion."

so far there have been no deaths or major injuries reported. forecasters have warned of more wild weather for queensland, with a second cyclone expected to approach the coast later this week. the bureau of meteorology say tropical cyclone wati is moving towards the west-northwest at 13 km per hour and should gradually intensify over the next 24 hours.



ohio man kills teen who walked on his lawn

charles martin, 66, of union township, ohio called 911 on sunday saying, "i just killed a kid. i shot him with a goddamn .410 shotgun, twice. he's laying in the yard." 

police say martin shot and killed larry mugrage, 15, a high school freshman, for walking onto his lawn on sunday. 

"i've been harassed by him and his parents for five years. today just blew it up," martin told dispatchers when he called 911.

martin has been charged with murder.

on monday, judge james shriver ordered that martin be held without bail. a hearing is scheduled for thursday.



protesters mark 3rd anniversary of iraq invasion

thousands of people around the world took to the streets in a "global day of action" to mark the third anniversary of the us-led invasion of iraq. the weekend rallies and demonstrations drew smaller crowds than earlier anti-war demonstrations, when millions gathered in 2003 and 2004. us president george w. bush, with dwindling public support for the war, marked the occasion with a speech, outlining his commitment to democracy in the region. 

tens of thousands of protesters gathered this weekend across the united states to protest what they say is the continuing occupation of iraq. protestors called for accountability from the current administration. according to u.s. group, united for peace and justice, over 500 cities planned protests in all 50 u.s. states. 

in portland oregon, about 10,000 anti-war protesters took almost an hour to pass through downtown streets on sunday 19th march. some carried signs reading: "impeach the evildoer." on saturday, more than 7,000 people marched through downtown chicago. about 200 people gathered sunday at chalmette national cemetery to protest the military conflict overseas. they say the war had hurt the country's ability to help new orleans recover from hurricane disaster. around 20 demonstrators were arrested in washington, dc. about 200 joined a march sunday along new york's fifth avenue. 

in toronto, canada some 1,000 protesters converged opposite the u.s. consulate. in ottawa, dozens of demonstrators gathered two blocks from parliament hill and later at the national gallery to protest the wars in iraq and afghanistan. several hundred protesters marched through downtown halifax. protests in montreal and vancouver also attracted hundreds. 

in seoul, 1,000 people demonstrated - urging the south korean government to bring their troops home. south korea has 3,200 troops in northern iraq - the largest contingent of foreign troops after the us and britain. in kuala lumpur, malaysia, about 600 people protested peacefully - in contrast to the 2005 gathering when police fired on demonstrators with water cannons. in tokyo, about 800 demonstrators took to the streets, after some 2000 protested the day earlier.

about 1,000 protesters gathered near new york's times square at a rally where speakers denounced the bush administration and the continuing us troop presence in iraq. the demonstrations were organised by many diverse groups. 

many more thousands also gathered in cities around the globe, including in the iraqi cities of basra and baghdad. in rome tens of thousands took to the streets, with signs: "stop the war in iraq" and "no to the war for oil." prime minister silvio berlusconi, a supporter of us president george w. bush, sent nearly 3,000 italian soldiers to iraq despite the objections of a majority of italians.

in london, police estimated a crowd of at least 15,000 showed up for the anti-war march. the city's mayor ken livingstone made an appearance at the event in trafalgar square which peace groups had organised to demand the immediate withdrawal of 8,000 british troops, the second largest military contingent after the united states in iraq.

a turnout of several thousand people was reported in denmark, greece, spain and turkey. in athens, nearly 2,000 protesters marched to the us embassy, led by palestinian immigrants who chanted anti-american slogans, "get the imperialists out of iraq and afghanistan" and "bush is terrorist number one". protests were also held outside us facilities at souda military base on the island of crete and in greece's second city of salonika.

demonstrators in istanbul, led by leftist and islamist groups, called for the american troops to pull out of iraq with banners saying "united states, go home". communist party officials in portugal organised an anti-war rally in lisbon, claiming solidarity with "the fight of the iraqi people". in copenhagen, some 3,000 people marched in the streets, organisers and police said, with banners reading "bring back the troops now". demonstrators rallied outside the us embassy before marching on to the british embassy. police said one person was arrested.

peace activists staged a peaceful march in geneva where one of the anti-war organisers said that "there is even less legitimacy to the american presence in iraq today than there was three years ago". in stockholm where a few hundred people braved the cold and falling hail to gather at an outdoor rally in the swedish capital, the mother of a british soldier killed in iraq took the stage, putting the blame on the us and british leaders. in barcelona, spain, 2,000 people - according to police - joined a march protesting the war. 

in australia actions drew around 1,000 people in both sydney and melbourne demonstrated, with smaller rallies in other cities. reports in perth indicate between 500 and 1000 people took part in a demonstration.

the government still has over 1,300 troops on duty in and around iraq. in february, prime minister john howard announced an additional 450 adf troops will be sent to iraq, despite other countries withdrawing numbers. mr howard justified the reversal of policy as being in the "broader interests of democracy in the middle east". 

australia's oppostion defence spokesman robert mcclelland said it's a "question of resources". for instance, we've spent $1.2 billion on the war in iraq to date, and that's more than we spend each year on the entire australian federal police budget," he said. "australian people are very concerned that we're going to be sucked along into a civil war situation in iraq." 

"the truckloads of tortured, mutilated bodies, smashed infrastructure and cost of the iraq war now approaching one trillion australian dollars are outcomes of the prime minister's decision to back president bush's invasion 3 years ago," greens leader bob brown said.

a hawker britton opinion poll suggests that almost two thirds of australians want adf troops to leave iraq within the next couple months. last week, visiting us secretary of state condoleezza rice was heckled by campaigners in sydney, who accused her of "war crimes" and having "blood on her hands".

president bush marked the third anniversary of the start of operation iraqi freedom with a speech given in cleveland, ohio. elaborating on the effort to build democracy in iraq mr bush said, "we are implementing a strategy that will lead to victory... the united states will not abandon iraq," he said. "americans have never retreated in the face of thugs and assassins, and we will not begin now."

according to bloomberg, president bush is giving a series of speeches aimed at "rallying americans behind his policies." the u.s. has 133,000 troops in iraq. u.s. military deaths in iraq have surpassed 2,300. public support for the war is falling and the cost of the conflicts in iraq and afghanistan rising to $9.8 billion a month. 

the president told the audience: "in the face of continued reports about killings and reprisals" he could "understand how some americans have had their confidence shaken," he said. "others look at the violence they see each night on their television screens, and they wonder how i can remain so optimistic about the prospects of success in iraq. they wonder what i see that they don't." he alluded to the northern iraqi city, tal afar. he said the city "was once a key base of operations for al qaeda and is today a free city that gives reason for hope for a free iraq."

much of downtown cleveland where mr bush spoke was barricaded off by police. about 100 anti-war protesters chanted for the president to leave. the group held signs with peace messages and beat drums. 

four polls published last week put bush's approval ratings at an all-time low - somewhere between 33 and 36 per cent. a cnn/gallup poll has his approval rating at 36 per cent. the pew centre's poll put approval at 33 - the lowest rating of his presidency.

u.s. defence secretary donald rumsfeld wrote in the washington post on monday, arguing the iraqi insurgency was failing. he wrote: "turning our backs on post-war iraq today would be the modern equivalent of handing post-war germany back to the nazis." vice president dick cheney also "remains optimistic about the outcome of the us involvement."

three years on, with 2,300 americans killed, 17,000 troops injured, somewhere between 30,000 and 100,000 iraqis killed and the onset of "civil war," the us occupation of iraq costs $200 million each day. 

meanwhile the conflict continues in iraq. on tuesday around 100 iraqi insurgent fighters, armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, stormed a jail near baghdad, killing at least 17 policemen. authorities said all 33 prisoners were freed and 10 attackers were killed. after burning the police station, the group detonated roadside bombs as they fled. at least 13 policemen and civilians and 15 gunmen were wounded in the attack. 

a recent wave of violence has left more than 1,000 iraqis dead since the bombing last month of a shiite muslim shrine.


demonstrator in coma - serious allegations against the french police

during the large demonstration against the impending so-called first employment contract law (in french: contrat de premiere embauche - cpe) on saturday in paris, one of the demonstrators was perilously injured in the head. now, allegations have been brought against the french riot police compagnies republicaines de securite (crs). eyewitnesses report that officers of the crs kicked 39-year-old cyril ferez while he was lying on the ground. a report of a crs-officer draws a different picture of the incident.

the incident happened during the evacuation of the place de la nation by the crs at the end of the demonstration against the first employment contracts at about 8.30 p.m. cyril ferez works for the orange telecommunication company in torcy and is a member of the trade union sud-ptt, which represents workers at post offices and telecommunication companies. according to the photographer bruno stevens, cyril ferez was running away from the police, together with some other demonstrators. "he was slower. he was hit directly on the head. he collapsed like a sack. they hit him further while he was lying on the ground," the photographer told the french newspaper liberation. while he was hit by the police, he did not react in any hostile way towards them, said another photographer, victor tonelli. the police are said to have hit the demonstrator with night sticks and with their feet. the trade union sud-ptt accuses the police of not having called for medical help for the injured person, despite having been called to do so. the trade union demands an official meeting with the home secretary on wednesday afternoon and calls the behaviour of the police as not being worthy of the government of a democratic state. according to a report of the press association reuters, the seriously injured person was immediately hospitalised. according to members of the government, referring to the treating doctors, cyril ferez was admitted to the hospital henri-mondor de creteil with 2.7 grammes of alcohol in his blood. according to a report of a crs-officer, with a copy of it on hand of the press association afp and relying on statements of cyril ferez (before he fell into his coma), the injuries are not a result of a fight between crs-officers and cyril ferez. according to this report, cyril ferez was attacked by other demonstrators. the report was given to the police audit. members of the opposition party and the trade unions demand a complete clearing up of the incident.

on sunday morning, cyril ferez fell into a coma. the police audit "inspection generale des services" wants to investigate the incident. therefore, the police audit would like to find out which witnesses were on site and which officers of the crs were involved in the incident. doctors assume that cyril ferez, if he survives, will suffer from neurological consequences. directly after the demonstration, the police prefecture had claimed that 18 demonstrators had been injured, but that there was no seriously injured person among them.

french trade unions and student organisations have announced a general strike for 28 march. on saturday, about 1.5 million people participated in the countrywide demonstrations against cpe.



yellow sheep river develops ?123 linux based computer

engineers at china's yellow sheep river have developed a desktop computer, called a municator, which costs only ?123 ($150 us). the machine is designed to help bridge the digital divide in china and to expand china's small domestic semiconductor industry. its development has been heavily subsidized by local governments.

the municator measures 14.5 x 18 x 3.7 cm. (5.7 x 7.1 x 1.5 in.), and weighs 0.65 kg. (1.4 pounds). it is expected to use an existing tv as a monitor. the operating system is a gnu/linux distribution, known as thinix 3.0, which is developed by yellowsheepriver inc. itself and overseen by the chinese government for security reasons. the municator was shown last week at the 2006 cebit fair in hannover, germany.

video coverage from cebit 2006 speculated that the municator will include applications such as: firefox for web browsing, thunderbird for e-mail, gaim for instant messaging, skype for voip, red office (99 percent compatible with microsoft office and based on open office) for linux for word processing, and mplayer for audio/video playback. the skype application for voip is currently only available from skype on i386-32 processors under linux, but cebit's video briefly shows a beta version of skype running on the municator's screen.

the 64-bit godson 2c 400-800 mhz cpu used in the machine has a mips-like instruction set, and is roughly as fast as a 500-mhz pentium iii. the godson ii is made exclusively in china, and consumes relatively little power for its speed in comparison to x86 intel and compatible amd chips. a similar chinese laptop project called the longmeng also uses the godson ii.

no version of microsoft windows supports the godson ii, and due to the independent nature of the chinese government, the municator is unlikely to ever run microsoft windows or its applications. banners at cebit 2006 proclaim "say no to wintel try now!"

the mit media lab has a similar initiative to develop an inexpensive linux machine, known as the $100 laptop, which seeks to begin production by the end of 2007.


godson ii cpu information: 


correspondence of late greek orthodox leader of americas to be published

the personal correspondence of the former archbishop of north and south america, and spiritual leader of the greek orthodox community in the united states of america for 37 years, iakovos coucouzis, will be published during 2006. the archbishop passed away in 2005. the publication of the correspondence of the late archbishop will be the result of co-operation between the theology school of the aristotle university of thessaloniki , the non-governmental institute for national and religious studies and the program ecumenical hellenism.

according to athanasios angelopoulos ? who, along with theology professor athanasios karathanasis and political science student nicolaos mottas, has the scientific diligence of the project ? the personal correspondence of iakovos contains important information about the national issues of greece, such as the cyprus, macedonian and the northern epirus issues.

a dynamic personality, the spiritual leader of the greek orthodox community in the united states from 1959 to 1996, iakovos, constructed relations with all the american presidents, from harry truman to bill clinton, and with various personalities from the americas, such as minority leaders, with most famous being his friendship with martin luther king jr. the personal correspondence of the greek orthodox leader contains letters between iakovos and various united states presidents, including john f. kennedy, richard nixon, ronald reagan and george h. w. bush, and with other political personalities ? ministers, ambassadors, washington, d.c. officials and former greek prime ministers, including constantine caramanlis and andreas papandreou. according to professor angelopoulos, the two-volume publication will contain photocopies of the original correspondence documents and moreover a major text ? written in by angelopoulos in greek and translated into english by nicolaos mottas ? which will summarize the essentians and meaning of iakovos' correspondence, as well as its impact on the political, social and religious life of the greek orthodox community in the united states of america and on greek-american relations.

the supervisor of the project, professor athanasios angelopoulos, stated that archbishop iakovos' personal correspondence will be published in 2006. the publication, which will be prefaced by the archbishop of athens and all greece, archbishop christodoulos, will be presented in thessaloniki, athens, and possibly to the greek community in the united states.



president bush calls on helen thomas during press conference; question stirs debate

during a press conference on tuesday, president george w. bush called on veteran white house reporter helen thomas for the first time in three years. she asked, "... your decision to invade iraq has caused the deaths of thousands of americans and iraqis, wounds of americans and iraqis for a lifetime. every reason given, publicly at least, has turned out not to be true. my question is, why did you really want to go to war?"

bush replied, "and when [saddam hussein] chose to deny inspectors, when he chose not to disclose, then i had the difficult decision to make to remove him. and we did, and the world is safer for it."

the exchange has provoked extreme responses in the blogosphere, with conservative commentators like fred barnes of fox news portraying helen thomas as being "unprofessional" and "improper" in "accusing the president."

barnes argued, "reporters aren't supposed to fire accusations at the president or anybody else they're interrogating, and that was wrong." he pointed out that helen thomas is an outspoken critic of the war in iraq and the presidency of george w. bush. fox news reporter brit hume said of thomas, "she has an agenda, period, and always has had an agenda of sorts." conservative commentators mostly agreed that president bush "got the better of the exchange."

liberal commentators like josh marshall from talking points memo focused on the president's response, saying, "of course, that's not what happened. [...] we got the resolution passed. saddam called our bluff and allowed the inspectors in. president bush pressed ahead with the invasion."
he added "his lies are so blatant that i must constantly check myself so as not to assume that he is simply delusional or has blocked out whole chains of events from the past."


 

time: 15 iraqi civilians dead; u.s. marines under investigation

"time" magazine has reported that the u.s. military is investigating allegations of killing civilians in response to the death of a u.s. marine. the marine was killed when a roadside detonated near his convoy. his fellow marines are alleged to have entered homes in a western iraqi town and shot and killed fifteen members of two families in retaliation, including a three-year-old girl.

"time" claims to have a videotape showing the results of the marines' assault, describing it as "graphic documentation," but has stated that the evidence is inconclusive; it does not prove the guilt of the marines involved. the military's own reconstruction of events, as well as the eyewitness accounts of residents whom time interviewed, portrays a violent response by a group of u.s. marines who believed they were under fire and had lost one of their own.

last week the u.s. military announced that (ncis) has been handed the matter to determine whether the troops deliberately targeted civilians and broke the laws of war. military officials initially indicated that 15 iraqi civilians had died when gunmen attacked a convoy with small arms fire, prompting the marines to return fire. u.s. marines have also claimed that the civilians were used as shields by insurgents and that the fault lies with the insurgents.

relatives of the victims have been paid usd $2,500 for each of the 15 dead civilians by the united states.



buffalo, n.y. hotel proposal approved by common council

the city's common council met in council chambers today with a full agenda. among the items in the agenda was the elmwood village hotel proposal.

the elmwood village hotel is a proposed hotel by savarino construction services corporation and is designed by architect karl frizlen of the frizlen group. it is to be placed on the corner of elmwood and forest avenues in buffalo and will require the demolition of at least five properties (1109-1121 elmwood).

during the hour-and-a-half meeting, the common council approved the hotel proposal. the entire voting process for the proposal took less than two minutes, and the public was not allowed to speak. the council voted unanimously in support of the proposal; however, the city's planning board must also approve the proposal. the board will meet on tuesday, march 28, 2006 at 8:00 a.m. on the 9th floor of city hall, room 902.

the approval allows for the rezoning of all five properties, including 605 forest, to a "special development plan," or a c-2 zone. 

"there is a 'special development plan' in front of the council, which changes only one thing about the zoning. it allows one permitted use ? for just a hotel. the rest of the zoning remains as it is under the current elmwood business district zoning. 605 and 607 forest are not required for the project. they are not part of the footprint for the project. let me answer this question again. this is on the record, in council: 605 needs to be rezoned in order to facilitate the project because of the sideyard requirement. anything in c-2 is excluded besides the hotel. so we've taken the c-2 and included the hotel as a permitted use, and excluded everything else, and everything else remains the same," eva hassett, vice president of savarino consrtruction, said to "wikinews" during a public meeting on march 16, 2006.

however, during the same meeting, pano georgiadis, owner of 605 forest and owner of pano's restaurant on elmwood, threatened to "sue" savarino construction saying, "if you try to get a variance to change the code, i will sue you. this is my home, number one."

savarino construction hopes to break ground this summer.

despite the council's approval, organizers have scheduled another protest that will be held this saturday, march 25, 2006 at 2:00 p.m. on forest and elmwood.

some citizens are even considering legal action and are considering an "injunction in state supreme court," going "pro se, meaning i am going to present the case myself," said clarence carnahan, a concerned citizen and local business owner who is opposed to the hotel, to "wikinews."

carnahan wrote a "notice of cease and desist" which was also presented to the council at today's meeting.

patty morris, co-owner of don apparel with nancy pollina, said, "we are going to fight the good fight to the bitter end, but we cannot afford it [legal action]. now it's a legal matter, and it's in the hands of the law, and i know there are some people very interested in hiring a lawyer."

nancy pollina says that she is "looking into a defense fund" and is currently talking to lawyers.



small airplane crashes in colombia

an aiplane from the patrulla aerea (air patrol) crashed in mosquera, narino, a small and remote town in the south west part of colombia. immediately after takeoff, the plane, a cessna, was pushed by heavy crosswind, and crashed into a house, killing a boy, his mother and a doctor on board. the pilot, rafael arenas, aged 42, who had been working for 10 years on the air patrol, survived with burns on 90% of his body, but died later in the intensive care unit of el valle universitary hospital.

the air patrol is a colombian ong, created and staffed by pilots and doctors to bring medical care to people in the most abandoned regions of the country.



canada bans &quot;where the bloody hell are you?&quot; ad

less than a week after it was first banned and then cleared for screening in the u.k., an australian tourism ad featuring a bikini-clad girl asking prospective tourists "where the bloody hell are you?" has been banned in canada. ironically, it wasn't the controversial question ? a line described as "warm, friendly and inviting" ? that got the ad banned, but its opening: "we've poured you a beer." this line was ruled unacceptable by the canadian regulator, as it refers to an unbranded beer.

australian tourism minister fran bailey was "quite astonished" by the move but has thanked the canadian government for providing free publicity for the ad, saying, "as far as this particular canadian regulator is concerned, i'd love him to come out here and i'll buy him a beer and say thank-you." 



windows vista delayed until january 2007

microsoft plans to delay the consumer versions of its next operating system, windows vista. originally due out by the end of 2006, windows vista home basic, home premium, and ultimate editions now have a release target of january 2007. business editions will continue to be released in november 2006. two different reasons for this have been given in interviews; the first reason being a six-week delay in completing security related work on the operating system and the second reason is that, as a result of this delay, computer hardware manufacturers and resellers will generally not have enough time to prepare for a holiday 2006 launch. analysts have said this could put some computer manufacturers into turmoil, though a number of the largest resellers of windows xp have made public statements supporting microsoft's decision to delay the consumer release of vista to january.

currently, windows xp has been the longest-current operating system from microsoft, debuting in 2001.




bc queen of the north ferry sinks

at approximately 00:26 hrs, on wednesday, march 22, the british columbia ferry mv queen of the north hit a rock near gil island in wright sound, off the coast of british columbia, canada, 75 from the start of ship's schedule journey from prince rupert to port hardy on the northern tip of vancouver islandport hardy. the ship missed a course change and ran agroung off gil island. it took about an hour for the ferry to sink, giving passengers time to get out. the vessel was carrying 101 passengers and crew, and all but 2 were accounted for. thanks to quick-response of nearby aboriginal fishing villager of hartley bay, and the ccgs sir wiflrid laurier. survivors were quickly fetched from the queen of the north's lifeboat and brought to hartley bay and onboard the coast guard ship, and eventually back to prince rupert onboard the sir wilfrid laurier. hartley bay. 

the queen of the north, is (apx) 9,000 gross ton, motor driven vessel, built in germany in 1969. the queen of the north had been on this 15 hrs, 274 nautical mile ferry run since late may 1980. in the summer and on relief work, her smaller sister ship, the queen of prince rupert also performs that run.



eu bans 92 airlines, buries &quot;flying coffins&quot;

eu transport commissioner jacques barrot on wednesday banned 92 airlines, some planes of which he described as "flying coffins," from landing at european airports, declaring them unsafe by international standards. 

"this blacklist will keep dubious airlines out of europe," barrot said. "it will also make sure that all airlines operating in europe's skies meet the highest safety standards."

the airlines categorically banned are:

the full list can be found at the eu website (pdf).



eta declares permanent cease-fire

the armed basque separatist organisation "eta" (euskadi ta askatasuna) has announced a permanent cease-fire as of friday 24th march 2006. a video release by the organization shows three people seated at a table in front the eta emblem, faces covered with masks and wearing basque berets. the video was broadcast on spanish national television and distributed to local basque media outlets. 

eta, western europe's most active separatist group, seek to create an independent state covering spain's northern basque country and parts of south-western france. the group broke two ceasefires in the 1990s.

for over three decades the armed organisation has waged a violent campaign for independence for the seven regions in northern spain and south-west france that basque separatists claim as their own. eta, whose name stands for basque homeland and freedom, originated in the 1960s as a student resistance movement bitterly opposed to general franco's repressive military dictatorship.

eta is considered by spain, france, the european union and the united states to be a terrorist organization, with more than eight hundred killings attributed to it.

a permanent end to hostilities by eta was a condition set by the socialist government of prime minister jose luis rodriguez zapatero for beginning negotiations with the organisation.

"(translated/edited from spanish by wikinews)"

euskadi ta askatasuna (eta) has decided to declare a permanent cease-fire from 00:00 am on the 24 of march 2006. 

reflection of eta 

the objective of this decision is to impel democratic process in basque country so that by means of dialogue, negotiation and agreement, basque can make the necessary political change. 

it is necessary to construct a democratic framework for basque country, recognizing the rights that basque corresponds to, and to assure the potential development all political options. at the end of that process the citizens and basque citizens should have their right to speak and the ability to make decision on their future - enabling democratic solutions to the conflict. 

eta considers that it corresponds to all the basque agents to develop this process and to adopt the agreements corresponding to the future of basque country, considering their plurality and totality. the spanish and french states must recognize the results of this democratic process, without interference or limitation. the decision that basque citizens we adopt for our future will have to be respected. 

call of eta 

we must assume responsibilities, to construct the democratic solutions that basque needs. it is the moment for making decisions from openwork, and dialogue of the facts. eta makes a call to the authorities of spain and france to respond positively to this new situation; and so that they do not set up obstacles to the democratic process, leaving aside repression and showing the will to give a negotiated exit to the conflict. 

finally, we make a call to the citizens and basque citizens in general and to the militants of the abertzale left, so that they are implied in this process.

commitment of eta 

eta has shown desire and willingness, from an open process until the end, and thus to obtain to a true democratic situation for basque country, surpassing the conflict of long years and constructing a peace based on justice. 

we reaffirmed commitment to take agreed steps in to that will and continuing fighting until obtaining the rights of euskal herria the future. the overcoming of the conflict, here and now, is possible. 

that is the desire and the will of eta. - in euskal herria (basque country), march 2006 - euskadi ta askatasuna

 


minority mars paris cpe protest

(this is a translation of the french wikinews article: 
manifestation contre le cpe a paris)

a demonstration was planned for two p.m. [local time and utc, saturday, march 18], departing from the place denfert-rochereau in paris. everyone had set out by three p.m., the crowd being compact.

retired people, post-highschool students, highschool students and employees all gathered to protest against the government's bill establishing the "contrat premiere embauche," ? first employment contract.

a security service provided by the unions maintained order more or less well. even so, an impressive body of very visible police sought to prevent any excess.

the first demonstrators arrived about five p.m. at the place de la nation, in a festive atmosphere. 
in the procession were musicians, grimy youths and colorful banners. along the edges of the procession and at the place de la nation could even be seen sellers of sandwiches and drinks.


toward six p.m., some hooded youths began to confront the forces of order massed at the edges of the place de la nation. they threw bottles and pyrotechnical devices and burned a car. the confrontation, which lasted at least until eight p.m., produced one serious injury ? a sud-ptt union member, who it seems was struck by members of the crs security force.
some demonstrators at first sought to place themselves between the ruffians and the police, but they had to give it up, faced with the barrage of bottles.

after the automobile fire, around seven p.m., the mobile gendarmes charged, in order to establish a security perimeter around the vehicle on fire, to permit the firemen to extinguish it. in view of the small distance that separated the "forces of order" from the brigands when they burned the car, one can ask why the mobile gendarmes did not try to prevent this act of gratuitous vandalism.

the police charged several times and threw tear gas. by eight p.m., the confrontations still continued, and a mobile gendarme said that the objective was to make the demonstrators leave the place de la nation.

a strange impression is felt when this sort of occurrence breaks out in a demonstration that was until then well-mannered. it is like thunder from a blue sky. 
the crowd suddenly opened, and the hooligans were there, ready to come unglued, the crowd of demonstrators transforming themselves into rubberneckers around the protagonists of the confrontation.

once again, a few provocateurs, undoubtedly fewer than about thirty, caused a movement of several tens of thousands of people to get out of hand.



duckworth wins contentious democratic primary in il-06

in one of the most contentious democratic primary races of the season, iraqi war veteran tammy duckworth garnered 44% of the vote in the 6th illinois congressional district, beating out christine cegalis (40%) and lindy scott (16%). duckworth's victory earns her a spot in the race against republican state senator peter roskam, who won the republican nomination to replace retiring congressman henry hyde. 

cegalis ran for the seat in 2004, garnering 44% of the vote, the best achieved by a democrat against hyde. working off of momentum gathered in that race, she continued to increase her grassroots organization and her internet campaigning to gain support from democrats across the nation. cegalis, a software engineer, was running unopposed for the nomination until duckworth joined the race in december. supported by the democratic establishment, duckworth quickly out-fundraised her opponents, receiving support from prominent democrats such as john kerry, hillary clinton, rahm emmanual, and barack obama. 

the race became strongly contested between self-proclaimed progressive activists supporting cegalis and democrats who preferred to work with the party candidate. duckworth, who lost her legs in iraq in 2004, received a strong showing of support from outside the district, including large fundraisers in new york and chicago. 

scott, a former pastor of an evangelical church in des plains, attempted to paint the race in religious terms. his campaign was run on the principle that he could win votes through his moderate, religious views, which he said would attract republican voters in the district. 



pandermalis announces 2007 acropolis museum opening

the president of the organization for the construction of the new acropolis museum, professor dimitrios pandermalis, announced that the museum will be ready to operate as an exhibition center for archaeological treasures in 2007. in response to this statement, the greek government re-issued demands regarding the subject of the parthenon marbles' restoration to greece from the united kingdom.

after visiting the construction site, greek culture minister george voulgarakis reiterated yesterday that the new athens museum would be ready to receive visitors by the end of next year.

the new acropolis museum, which is located in the area of makriyannis, just a few metres away from the rock of the acropolis, will cover an area of about 23,000 sqm. according to the greek ministry of culture, the whole project would cost 129 million euros.

the parthenon marbles ? also known as the elgin marbles ? are currently located in a specific hall in the british museum of london. the demand from the side of the greek government as well as from greek or non-greek organizations and british celebrities like sean connery for the restoration of the marbles ? a demand which was an idea of the former greek culture minister and actress melina mercouri ? didn't have any result until today due to the denial from the side of the british museum administration.



new book links bonds, giambi and sheffield to balco

the new book game of shadows: barry bonds, balco, and the steroids scandal that rocked professional sports, by mark fainaru-wada and lance williams of the san francisco chronicle, is being released today. the authors not only implicate professional baseball celebrity barry bonds in the use of performance-enhancing drugs, but also say gary sheffield received human growth hormone and testosterone from greg anderson, bonds's personal trainer. 

the book goes on to claim that jason giambi also took performance-enhancing drugs from anderson. bonds continues to insist that he did not realize his trainer was giving him steriods. he claimed in his grand jury testimony that he thought he was receiving flaxseed oil and an arthritis salve. sheffield's response to the claims was quite simple: when asked if the allegations made against him were true, his response was "nope."

despite the book's accusations of sheffield and giambi, it centers around bonds and the founder of the bay area laboratory co-operative or balco, victor conte jr. conte is currently serving four months in prison for distribution of steriods and money laundering. it appears that the steroid controversy concerning bonds will only intensify as he continues to march on towards the career home runs record, one of baseball's most sacred records. 


42 west papuan asylum seekers get temporary australian visas

the australian government has granted temporary visas to 42 of the 43 west papuan asylum seekers who arrived by boat in january. the group accuse the indonesian military of "conducting genocide in their homeland." the 36 adults and seven children spent five days at sea in a traditional outrigger boat before arriving in far north queensland's cape york. they have been since been detained under australia's mandatory detention policy.

immigration minister amanda vanstone said the 42 west papuans have been given temporary protection visas (tpv). "these people have completed their medical and character checks and will be moved into the community," she said. most of the group are being relocated by private jet from australia's remote immigration detention centre on christmas island to melbourne. senator vanstone said a decision was still pending on one of the asylum seekers, as there were further specific case issues to be addressed. 

however, the indonesian government says the refugees should be sent back. indonesia's president susilo bambang yudhoyono has told prime minister john howard that the group should not be given political asylum. he assures that they would not be prosecuted. last month, indonesia's ambassador, hamzah thayeb, warned that australia's relationship with indonesia would be affected if the papuans were granted asylum.

a spokesman for foreign minister alexander downer dismissed suggestions that the decision would cause a rift between australia and jakarta. "we've got an excellent bilateral relationship with indonesia and we wouldn't expect that any particular issue is going to bring that into question," he said. mr downer personally informed his indonesian counterpart, hassan wirajuda, of the decision. "it's a matter of some significance between our two countries," said mr downer.

indonesia has insisted that there are no human rights abuses in papua. djoko susilo, a member of indonesia's parliamentary foreign affairs commission, labelled the decision "an unfriendly gesture by the australian government."

since their arrival, the 43 west papuans have accused the indonesian military of "genocide in their homeland," taken over by indonesia in the 1960s after a widely disputed independence referendum.

herman wainggai, who spoke for the asylum-seekers, thanked the australian government and people for a fair and just decision. "we were threatened in an extremely dangerous position ... we had to flee to australia from the intimidation of the killing and the persecution inflicted by indonesian authorities against us," he said. 

"we trust that indonesia will act with maturity and see that the situation in west papua is very serious and one which must be dealt with peacefully and with humanity, not by violent means," he said. 

the indonesian house of representatives (dpr) has denounced the australian government's decision, urging the government to send a formal protest note to the australian government over the visas and political asylum granted to the 42 indonesian citizens. "we question the decision to grant visas and political asylum at a time when the security situation in papua province is tense," said member of the house commission i for defence, foreign and information affairs effendy mara sakti, of the indonesian democratic party-struggle (pdip).

another house commission member, yudy chrisnandy of the golkar party, said the granting of political asylum and temporary visas was unethical and could disrupt relations between the two countries. 

amnesty international has expressed particular concern about human rights violations in papua, but welcomed the decision. "while welcoming today's decision ... amnesty now encourages the government to consider the plight of the papuan refugees, as under australia's temporary protection regime the refugees now face isolation from their families left behind and face uncertainty about their future," the organisation said in a statement. amnesty reports of "extrajudicial executions, 'disappearances,' torture, ill-treatment and arbitrary detentions in papua province." 

australian greens senator kerry nettle also welcomed the decision. "the situation in west papua is clearly very dangerous for those who assert their right to self-determination, so the decision to grant protection visas is a good one," senator nettle said. 

west papua have been seeking sovereignty since the united nations handed the province to indonesia in 1969. a spokesman for the free west papua campaign, nick chesterfield, said the decision highlights the dire situation. "what this clearly demonstrates is that the world needs to wake up to what is happening in west papua and start to actively look at ways of ending the sickening violence that the indonesian military continues to inflict on the people of west papua," mr chesterfield said. 

"rather than being isolated and locked up thousands of miles away on christmas island, these very courageous individuals can receive the support they deserve from the local community. this decision also means australians will be able to hear first hand about the atrocities and escalating human right abuses that are unfolding in one of our closest neighbouring countries," said mr chesterfield. 

meanwhile, the "morning star" flag of west papua was raised in marrickville, new south wales, by senator nettle and the mayor of marrickville, sam byrne. the flag, officially unrecognised by indonesia in the west papuan region, was raised to "urge city citizens to support self-determination for the west papuans people." 

uniting church minister reverend john barr, who recently returned from the area, warned of an "intensification of violence" and also recounted demands from protesters to have the freeport mine and the indonesian government held responsible for despoiling the papuan environment. "we have heard one student was shot dead and many are badly wounded. i could hear people yelling and fleeing as my contact spoke to me on the phone from the grounds of the theological seminary," he said in a statement.

the jakarta foreign correspondents club has stated concern that no foreign journalist has had official access to papua in the past eighteen months. in that period there has been "a significant build-up of troops in papua with reports of widespread displacement of civilians, arson, and arbitrary detention in the central highlands region." 

last week, indonesian media showed police shooting directly at students on local university grounds. authorities have not released details of casualties among the demonstrators. "i can't tell you exactly how many were shot," says hans magel. "in such traumatic circumstances, we ourselves are finding it difficult gathering casualty figures. the latest information we have is that 22 were seriously injured."

indonesia has effectively maintained a ban on access to papua for many foreign organisations since 2003. indonesia’s minister of defense, juwono sudarsono, said in february that the government will "maintain curbs on foreign media" reporting from papua. he is quoted as saying, "we feel that our unity and cohesion are being threatened by the presence of foreign intrusion and concerns so there is a balance between international concerns and sovereignty that we want to strike very peacefully." 

minister sudarsono also stated that the curbs should "extend to foreign nongovernmental organizations (ngos) and churches, whom he thought might create conflict in the province by encouraging papuans to campaign on issues of human rights." he stated that he feared reporters could be "used as a platform" by papuans to publicize the alleged abuses. 

ken roth, executive director of human rights watch, is alarmed at efforts by the indonesian government to ban or limit press coverage of human rights violations and other issues in papua. in a letter to president yudhoyono, roth urged the indonesian government to respect press freedom and to allow full press coverage of all issues affecting the province. 

senior indonesian ministers have vehemently denied that the people of west papua are being repressed.



police arrest hostage taker in greek mental clinic

a hostage situation in the private mental clinic castalia, in the suburb of glyfada, south athens, has ended with the arrest of a 26 year old man. the man had locked himself up along with three hostages in the accounts department, on the first floor of the building. 

according to greek police the man, who was armed, has mental problems and is a drug addict. his demands were unknown to the police, as he did not communicate them to the police negotiators. the situation in the castalia clinic prompted the greek minister of public order to cancel his scheduled meetings in order to supervise personally the rescue operation. 


pad petitions election commission for thaksin's disqualification

thailand's people's alliance for democracy (pad) has petitioned the country's election commission to disqualify caretaker prime minister thaksin shinawatra from the upcoming april 2 election and to postpone it, to bring an end to the current political crisis. according to the bangkok post, approximately 1,000 pad protesters rallied outside the election commission's headquarters to mark delivery of the petition.

parinya thewanarumitkul, a law lecturer at thammasat university, claimed at a thai journalists association forum that he had evidence that the pm had abused his position by using government resources to aid in the organisation of a march 3 rally of thai rak thai supporters. in addition, parinya expressed doubt that the required 500 mps would be returned, due to the main opposition party election boycott and the requirement for 20% of the eligible electorate to vote for a candidate, even when the candidate stands unopposed.

thailand's democrats, the current main opposition party, who are boycotting the april 2 election, raised doubts over the validity of a number of thai rak thai candidates' listings. calling for the election commission to investigate these allegations, pichai rattanadilok na phuket of the national institute of development administration also highlighted the 46 constituencies where the prime minister's party stands unopposed, viewing vote buying as a possibility in these areas.

according to democrat claims, over 200 people who applied to be on ballots failed to meet the requirement to have maintained party membership for 90 days prior to the announcement of the election. it isn't just the candidates of smaller parties that have caught the eye of the democrat panel examining candidate credentials. they claim that at least three of the thai rak thai candidates should be disenfranchised due to having not voted during the 2005 election. the three accused ? including the party's deputy leader ? dispute the claim that they failed to vote. party deputy somchai sunthornvat claimed it was a person with the same name who had failed to vote, and threatened to sue the democrat party for making the allegation.

while pad protesters demonstrated away from government house, the beleaguered pm returned unnanounced from his election campaigning in the country's northeast. in addition to his having been continuingly called upon leave office, his key privatisation policies had been dealt a serious blow by the ruling that the privatisation of the state-owned power company egat was unlawful.

judges overturned two royal decrees that had been the foundation of the plan for thailand's largest ever ipo. supporters of the eleven civic groups that had filed the petition with the court greeted the decision with cheers. mention of conflicts of interest in the privatisation process adds fuel to the accusations of anti-thaksin groups, who accuse the pm of leading a government that indulges in cronyism.




information from prisoner leads to freedom for 3 hostages

three men, james loney, 41, and harmeet singh sooden, 32, both from canada, and norman kember, 74, of britain were rescued today by british sas and canadian jtf2 special forces in western baghdad. major general rick lynch, a spokesman for the us military commented on how the rescue was initiated: “we detained two suspects this morning, the detainees gave us intelligence that led us to the rescue of the three hostages.” 

the three men are part of a chicago based pacifist group entitled christian peacemaker teams. the organization opposes the presence of foreign troops in iraq and has members in iraq to investigate detainee abuse by coalition forces. a fourth member of their group, tom fox, an american, was found shot and killed in baghdad on march 10th.

the activists had been held since november 26th, 2005. the group swords of righteousness brigades claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. after their rescue, both canadians required medical attention, according to british foreign minister jack straw.



representative accuses bush of signing bill not passed by congress

on march 15, congressman henry waxman (d-ca) sent a letter to president bush's white house chief of staff andrew card, accusing bush of signing a law that did not pass the house of representatives.

the bill in question is called the deficit reduction omnibus reconciliation act of 2005. before a bill is passed into law the same version needs to be approved by both the house and the senate.

waxman cited a $2 billion spending difference over the next 5 years between the conflicting versions of the bill.

waxman also stated his understanding that either the speaker of the house or his staff called the white house to inform president bush of the situation before signing the bill. another letter was written march 22 by house minority leader nancy pelosi and congressman waxman asking the white house to respond.

the full text of the letter can be found in the sources section below. 


canadian press speculates on special forces role in iraq

canadian news agency the canadian press (cp) is speculating that canadian forces soldiers, specifically the elite joint task force 2 unit, may have been involved in the rescue of two canadian hostages in baghdad, iraq, james loney and harmeet singh sooden, christian peacemaker team members both held hostage there since november 2005.

prime minister stephen harper has refused to answer questions about whether these troops were involved. it would be significant to canadians if their troops were involved in iraq, as canada previously refused to contribute troops to the us-led invasion of iraq.


two explosions in la paz kill 2, injure 6

two explosions were heard in the city of la paz, bolivia on tuesday night, march 22 and in the early morning wednesday, march 23. the first occurred at the linares motel, at 21:50 (01:50 utc), and left two people dead and four injured. the second explosion occurred at 01:45 (05:45 utc) at the hotel riosinhio ii, less than a block from the la paz bus terminal, injuring two people.

hours later, two suspects in the crime were arrested by the police in the city of el alto. they were american claudio lestat, approximately 30 years old (25 according to some sources) and his partner, uruguayan alda ribeiros, of 35 years (40 according to other sources). dynamite was used in both explosions, according to government attorney jorge gutierrez.

president evo morales indicated that the promoters of the incidents were "industrialists" and "oligarchists" who, "using external agents", claimed to halt the reforms that have been happening in bolivia. he also suggested that the united states could be behind the incidents: "is there an effort against terrorism from the government of the united states, or did they send north americans to commit terrorism in bolivia?" despite the accusations, the united states embassy in la paz announced its cooperation. 

however, authorities have not ruled out religious motives, because lestat is a self-proclaimed "minister of pagan rites". police also announced that the chilean consulate in the bolivian capital was also a target, to be attacked on saturday the 25th.

names and ages of the victims of the explosions are: marlene patzi tapia (26), cristian lopez (26), alva natividad heredia (44), and jessica wilson (24), the last from the united states. also affected were marco antonio romero galindo (20), ivan quiroga (27), elizabeth de quiroga (44) and ximena vargas (18).

this article was translated from the spanish wikinoticias dos explosiones en la paz dejan dos muertos y seis heridos


virologists discover why h5n1 doesn't spread easily between humans

virologists think that the reason the h5n1 strain of bird flu has poor ability to spread between humans is that the infection does not cause coughing or sneezing.

us and japanese scientists, led by professor yoshihiro kawaoka at the university of wisconsin at madison, found that avian influenza and human influenza viruses infect different tissues in the respiratory tract. another group of scientists, based at the university of rotterdam, has also published similar results.

professor kawaoka's team discovered that bird flu tends to be found among alveoli deep in the lungs. human flu is instead most prevalent in the mucous lining of the nose and sinuses, as well as the throat, windpipe and bronchi.

human flu infects parts of the respiratory system that cause coughing and sneezing. when an infected person coughs or sneezes, tiny droplets containing the virus are released into the air, which other humans can inhale, becoming infected. as bird flu infects the alveoli, it doesn't cause coughing or sneezing, and heavy exposure to the virus is required before it can get to the lungs.

professor kawaoka said, "for the viruses to be transmitted efficiently, they have to multiply in the upper portion of the respiratory system so that they can be transmitted by coughing and sneezing."

for h5n1 to be transmitted easily among humans, it would need to undergo multiple mutations, according to professor kawaoka.

"certainly, multiple mutations need to be accumulated for the h5n1 to become a pandemic strain," he said.

these mutations would have to affect where the virus binds in the human body and affect the way in which it reproduces.

currently only one strain of h5n1, a/hong kong/213/03, has shown the ability to latch onto cells in both the upper and lower parts of the human respiratory system.



journal nature study 'fatally flawed', says britannica

"encyclopadia britannica" has strongly criticised the scientific journal "nature" for last year's investigation into the encyclopedia's accuracy compared to that of the open-source online encyclopedia, wikipedia. "britannica" also called for a retraction of the article. "nature" has rejected the accusations, saying that their comparison was fair and that they do not intend to retract their report.

in a 20-page response (titled "fatally flawed") to the report's findings that there was not a significant difference in accuracy between the two encyclopadias, britannica wrote that 'almost everything about the journal's investigation [...] was wrong and misleading.' the document goes on to call the investigation 'invalid', 'completely without merit' and 'careless'. britannica also accused "nature" of 'misrepresenting its own results'. the last 12 pages of this comprehensive rebuttal are responses to specific article criticisms, mainly consisting of differences of opinion on style and article composition, but some citing outright factual errors on "nature"'s part.

in their response, "nature" refused to reveal their original data for comparison, and commented that "britannica" had raised their grievances in private some time ago, and then received no further correspondence until "britannica"'s open letter of 22 march 2006. "nature" notes that "britannica" criticised 'less than half the points [their] reviewers raised', and states that the two encyclopadias were subject to the same treatment.

wikipedia has been stigmatised as unreliable due to its open-source nature and a perceived problem with vandalism. the december 2005 study was seen at the time as a major boost to the credibility of wikipedia. jimmy wales was notified by one of his team members, on 27 january 2006 that all corrections provided by "nature" were in place. recent changes to some of the wikipedia editing policies have attempted to resolve some of the reliability issues raised.

wikipedia has yet to comment.


 



benedict xvi elevates 15 to cardinal

pope benedict xvi elevated 15 men to college of cardinals today at an ordinary consistory, a ceremony in which the new princes of the roman catholic church receive three-cornered hats of crimson, the color distinguishing their new office and signifying their willigness to shed blood to spread the christian faith.

in addition to fulfilling vital roles as advisors to the pope and leaders at the highest administrative and pastoral roles of the church, some cardinals (those below age 80) also serve as electors in the conclave, the means by which a new pope is chosen.

according to the announcement made in an audience by benedict xvi on 22 february 2006, the new cardinals eligible to participate in a conclave are:


three cardinals elevated for their distinguised service include:


explosion in french college

a large explosion ripped through a research building of the Ecole nationale superieure de chimie de mulhouse (enscmu) in mulhouse, eastern france. mulhouse's mayor, jean-marie bockel, confirmed that the blast killed one person and injured another. police declared code red, and the neighborhood was evacuated.

according to the french press, tf1, the victim was in his forties and had worked at the institition for about a year. a young woman was seriously injured and about a dozen people received minor injuries, with two suffering from shock. 150 firefighters were on the scene. 

the enscmu is a technology college, with an enrollment of 8,000 and a 25-hectare campus near the town's centre. it is known for its museum of coloring agents (musee des colorants), which has about 2700 samples, mainly from the second part of the nineteenth century. the museum's database is available online in french.

the blast occurred at 11:25 gmt (12:25 local time). it is reported to have been heard two kilometres away and to have broken the windows of nearby buildings. the blast was followed by a fire that was contained by about 15:00 (local time).

the explosion's cause is not yet clear but it is believed to have happened in a ground-floor laboratory in an annex building constructed in 1977. the lab was apparently focused on industrial safety.



bnp lose council seat in keighley

the british national party(bnp), a far-right political party failed to hold on to one of its seats on bradford city council, west yorkshire, uk. the byelection was called after the incumbent bnp councillor, angela clark, stood down. bnp had won the seat in 2004 after it adapted an ongoing campaign against gangs grooming girls for sex. the bnp claimed white girls were being groomed by asian men for sex. the original campaign was organised by angela sinfield, whose 13 year-old daughter was groomed by a gang which she pointed out contained white and asian men. sinfield joined the labour party last year and was its candidate for the keighley west seat. she sensationally won the seat with 1819 votes over the bnp's 1216, a swing of 11.4 per cent from the bnp to labour. the voter turnout was near general election levels, 58.8 per cent.three bnp councillors remain on bradford city council, with two of them up for election in may.



lawsuit accuses chicago priest of molesting 13-year-old boy

rev. chester przybylo has been accused in a civil law suit of molesting a 13-year-old boy almost 20 years ago, when he was serving at holy martyrs parish in chicago.

the plaintiff said the abuse took place in the apartment of a friend of rev. przybylo and the rectory of five holy martyrs, and continued for more than a year. rev. przybylo supposedly threatened to have the plaintiff's mother, a polish immigrant, deported if he resisted.

the plaintiff says that he told a bishop and another pastor about the abuse, but he said, "i was yelled at and told to go to confession as if i sinned."

rev. chester przybylo is currently the pastor at shrine of christ the king church in western chicago, a conservative catholic congregation which is not officially recognized by the roman catholic hierarchy.

rev. przybylo has denied the allegations.


university suspends lecturer accused of racism

leeds university has suspended a lecturer who praised the british national party (bnp) in a new book. frank ellis, a lecturer in russian and slavonic studies, also praised the book "the bell curve", citing a theory from it claiming black people are less intelligent than white people. he also claimed research by hans eysenck and arthur jenson supported this. vice-chancellor professor michael arthur suspended ellis following a meeting yesterday, march 23. it is expected that disciplinary measures will take months, during which time ellis remains an employee of the university. the race relations (amendment) act 2002 requires universities to promote racial equality.

ellis spoke at the american renaissance conference in 2000. he criticised the stephen lawrence enquiry and the macpherson report which followed it. this year bnp leader nick griffin was a speaker at the conference.



bush declares immunity from patriot act oversight

on march 9, 2006, u.s. president george bush signed the reauthorization of the patriot act, which contained requirements for congressional oversight of executive use of the act's powers. in a statement immediately following the signing ceremony, however, it was revealed that bush "did not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform congress about how the fbi was using the act's expanded police powers."

such signing statements typically allow the president to inform congress about how he interprets the bill he has just signed into law. however, bush's declaration that he would not follow the oversight rules if doing so would "impair foreign relations, national security, the deliberative process of the executive, or the performance of the executive's constitutional duties" is seen as extraordinary by legal scholars, who feel it contradicts language in the bill directly, and may violate the system of check-and-balance on which the u.s. government is founded.

the controversy surrounding the statement follows several other high-profile cases where bush has claimed constitutional authority to bypass a law, including a claim that wartime powers permitted wiretaps of international phone calls without warrants, and a signing statement bypassing the mccain detainee amendment.


violence, arrests end minsk, belarus protests

after four days of protesting the disputed election victory of alexander lukashenko in , belarus, protesters have been dispersed by riot police using clubs. police arrested some 300 protesters in the process of ending the demonstration. 

the european union released a statement condemning the arrest of these protestors, and "decided to take restrictive measures against those responsible for the violations of international electoral standards, including president lukashenko." the twenty-five member states have called for the immediate release of all protesters, including an estimated 400 arrested during the five-day protest against the election.

spokeswoman janelle hironimus of the us department of state also responded to this morning's raid, stating: "as we have said before, we condemn all acts by the government of belarus to deprive the citizens of that country of their right to peacefully express their views."

canadian official pamela greenwell, a spokeswoman for the foreign affairs department, confirmed that a freelance canadian journalist was also arrested during the raid.



fcc head kevin martin endorses telcos' tiered internet plan

kevin martin, current head of the fcc, voiced his support on wednesday for a tiered internet. this plan would open the door for at&t, bellsouth, verizon, and other telcos to limit bandwidth to popular web sites such as google unless those sites paid significantly higher rates.

network neutrality is usually taken to mean that telcos and isps may not limit services or bandwidth, charge extra fees, or otherwise discriminate based upon a site's identity or content type.

however, mr. martin said he viewed network neutrality as applying only to outright blocks, and that other forms of content- or identity-based pricing were acceptable and did not violate network neutrality.

when the telcos began their recent lobbying campaign, professor michael geist (university of ottawa, faculty of law) said that "while prioritising websites or applications may hold some economic promise, the lack of broadband competition and insufficient transparency surrounding these actions will rightly lead to growing calls for regulatory reform that grants legal protection for the principle of network neutrality."

according to "the nation", the multi-tiered approach being considered by the telcos could eventually expand to set limits on the number of downloads, media streams, or even email messages.

senator ron wyden (d-oregon) has proposed legislation to prevent a two-tiered internet.


cape town charges frontline fellowship pastor with halloween paintball assault

peter hammond, a pastor & director at cape town frontline fellowship, has been charged with assault, after leading his four children on a paintball shooting spree, targeting trick-or-treaters last halloween.

his 11 year old son had originally been a codefendant, but the charges were recently dropped. as a result, the charges against hammond have been transferred out of juvenile court. mr. hammond will file a plea next month.

cape town frontline fellowship is an evangelical missionary organization. peter hammond is also known for his work as a pro-gun activist, and a number of chrisitian missionary & anti-islamic books. 


u.s. court adds limit to police searches

the supreme court recently ruled that police cannot search a home when one resident invites them in but another tells them to go away.

the 5?3 decision puts new limits on officers who want to search for evidence of a crime without obtaining a warrant first. if one occupant tells them no, the search is unconstitutional, justices said.

the decision ended a trend of rulings by the court. about two-thirds of the 30 rulings under the leadership of roberts have been unanimous, a high number on a court that has in the past been polarized along ideological lines.

the court's liberal members, joined by centrist , said that an officer responding to a domestic dispute call did not have the authority to enter and search the home of a small-town lawyer in 2001 even though the man's wife invited him in.


mishap destroys spacex falcon 1 after maiden launch

the falcon 1 rocket, launched by spacex, was destroyed shortly after its maiden launch today. despite an earlier highly successful static test firing off the main engines, this fourth attempt at launch failed during the first stage burn. after clearing the tower, an onboard webcam revealed a swirl of flame around the base of the rocket before contact was lost.
both the falcon 1 launcher and its falconsat payload were lost.

it was later revealed that a fire had cut a helium pneumatic line causing the safety valves in the fuel system to automatically close, shutting down the main engine. the cause of the fire and the fuel leak that fed it has yet to be determined.


council pres. removes easter bunny from st. paul, mn city hall

a cloth easter bunny holding a sign that said "happy easter" was removed from the lobby of city hall in st. paul, minnesota.

the city's human rights director, tyrone terrill, requested that the display be removed because it could offend non-christians, but also said that no one had complained to him about the display.

"this has just gone too far. we can't celebrate spring with bunnies and fake grass?", said council member dave thune.

"as government, we have a different responsibility about advancing the cause of religion, which we are not going to do," said council president, kathy lantry.

the display was put up by a city council secretary and no city funds were used to buy the display. for nearly ten years, the same secretary put up decorations in the same lobby to celebrate st. patrick's day, christmas, valentine's day and fall.


news briefs:march 25, 2006

the time is "0110" on "the 25th of march", and this is audio wikinews: news briefs.

explosion in french college<br>
"a large explosion has ripped through a research building of the Ecole nationale superieure de chimie de mulhouse (enscmu) in mulhouse, eastern france. the mulhouse mayor, jean-marie bockel, confirmed that the blast had killed one person and injured another. a code red was declared by the police, and the neighborhood was evacuated."<br>
"it is not yet clear what caused the explosion - it is believed to have happened in a ground-floor laboratory. there are no signs it is related to recent protests by students of the college."

cape town frontline fellowship pastor accused of assault for shooting trick-or-treaters with paintball<br>
"peter hammond, an evangelist pastor & director at cape town frontline fellowship, has been charged with assault, after leading his four children on a paintball shooting spree, targeting trick-or-treaters last halloween."<br>
"his 11 year old son had originally been a codefendant, but the charges were recently dropped. as a result, the charges against hammond have been transferred out of juvenile court."
fcc head kevin martin endorses telcos' tiered internet plan<br>
"on wednesday, kevin martin, the head of the fcc for the bush administration, voiced his support a tiered internet. this opens the door for at&t, bellsouth, verizon, and other telcos to limit bandwidth to popular web sites, like google, unless those sites pay significantly higher rates."

to receive more up-to-date news items as they occur, please visit wikinews.org.

this has been a news brief for audio wikinews.

this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


police arrest roof-climbing graduate of high school in hopkinton, massachusetts

hopkinton, massachusetts police yesterday arrested a former student of the hopkinton high school who had entered the school and climbed the roof.

christopher stevens, 19, a graduate of hopkinton high school, entered the school around dismissal time, carrying a baseball bat and chain, smoking a cigarette. stevens headed towards the library and was trailed by school administrators. although the buliding was mostly clear, those still left in the buliding were told to leave immediately. stevens then broke some windows and climbed onto the school's roof. stevens told officials he took some medicine and was suicidal.

stevens suffered cuts on his hands; when a police officer tended to his cuts on his hands, the officer grabbed him and pulled him down to a lower section of the roof. he was then lowered down from the roof in a rescue basket where he was placed in a ambulance to be taken to at leonard morse hospital in natick, massachusetts to be treated for the cuts on his hands and the medicine overdose.

stevens has yet to be charged. however, he will most likely face charges. the incident is under investigation and police are not sure what made stevens come back to the high school. no other students were injured.



over five hundred hispanic students protest immigration laws in los angeles

on the day before a large rally planned in downtown los angeles, hundreds of latino los angeles high school students staged a walkout this friday to protest proposed federal legislation that calls for building a 700-mile-long fence along the mexican-american border and cracking down on illegal immigrants. 

students carried red, green, and white ballons, and shouted cheers of "viva mexico!". protestors claimed that the new laws were unfair to immigrants, both legal and illegal. they stated that "...this country was built by the blood, sweat and tears of immigrants..." students were urged by activists and community groups to stage a walk out during classes.

the protest was relatively peaceful, resulting in a few traffic jams, and one arrest. one man was arrested for throwing bottles at police officers, although it is unknown whether or not the man was a student. 

this walkout is one among similar other protests as the senate judiciary committee is set to begin debate next week on motions to toughen immigration laws in the united states. it is estimated that 11 million illegal immigrants reside within u.s. borders.


 


h.e. suzanne mubarak and h.r.h. prince charles open the british university in egypt

today h.e. suzanne mubarak, wife of the egyptian president, and h.r.h. prince charles inaugurated the british university in egypt. the visit started with a tour of the campus, where they saw a demonstration physics laboratory as well as seminars in engineering and business. this was followed by speeches in front of the main building (pictured) by the chairman of the board of trustees mr farid khamis, h.e. suzanne mubarak and finally by h.r.h. prince charles. the ceremony was completed when mrs mubarak and prince charles unveiled a plaque at the entrance to the main building.



hyshot tests hypersonic &quot;scramjet&quot; in australia

a supersonic jet engine known as a "scramjet," which could substantially reduce air travel time has been tested at woomera, in south australia's far north. an international team launched the terrier-orion rocket carrying the hypersonic scramjet?an oxygen-sucking supersonic combustion ramjet engine. the rocket took the prototype aircraft to an altitude of 314km (195 mi) before crashing ten minutes later, a spokeswoman for the hyshot program said. a supersonic boom was felt across the woomera test range seconds after the jet took off. 

the queensland-led hyshot iii experiment uses a scramjet engine developed by uk company, qinetiq. travelling at 8,000 km/h (~5000 mph), or ten times the speed of a conventional jet, and almost eight times the speed of sound (mach 8), the rocket turned and powered back to earth some 400 km (250 mi) down the range. the scientists are hoping the scramjet kicked into action during a six-second window shortly before impact.

the advantage of a scramjet is that once it is accelerated to about mach 4 by a conventional jet engine or booster rocket, it can fly at hypersonic speeds, possibly as fast as mach 15, without carrying heavy oxygen tanks, as conventional rockets do.

team leader professor allan paul says that the flight went well, but that it will take several months to analyse the collected data. he told the media it was too soon to tell if the $2 million experiment had been a success. 

another hyshot team member michael smart said the flight followed the nominal trajectory and impacted 400 km (250 mi) from its launch pad. dr smart said that radar tracking data showed the experiment had gone to plan.

professor paull said scramjet-powered passenger jets were still a long way off, but it might be possible to have a scramjet-powered vehicle within the next decade. he says the team is happy with the result so far.

nasa set the speed record for a jet-powered aircraft in [november 2004] during the third and final flight of the experimental x-43a scramjet project. 

two hyshot scramjet flights had previously been made?one on 30 october 2001 and another on 30 july 2002. supersonic combustion was achieved on the second flight. hyshot iv launch is planned for 28 march.


pentagon: russia provided information to iraq

the pentagon claims that saddam hussein received intelligence from a russian ambassador about united states plans and movements during the opening days of the 2003 iraq invasion. russia's foreign intelligence service has denied the allegations in a statement issued friday stating "similar, baseless allegations concerning russia's intelligence have been made more than once. we don't consider it necessary to comment on such fabrications." 

a report released by the pentagon on friday states that russia had a source inside the us central command base in doha, qatar, who passed information to russia's ambassador to iraq. it is alleged that the ambassador provided the information to hussein. the intelligence passed to hussein provided information on us military plans, troop numbers, units and locations.

the report does not comment on the value or accuracy of the information which was allegedly leaked to hussein. the pentagon claims that the report is based on iraqi documents and interviews with iraqi officials. a pentagon staffer who assisted in compiling the report, brigadier general anthony cucolo, stated that there was no evidence that russia has a spy inside central command. he further added that key details provided to hussein were incorrect.


tens of thousands rally against thailand's prime minister

in the latest attempt to evict prime minister thaksin shinawatra ahead of next week's election, tens of thousands of protesters have rallied in bangkok, thailand. officials say as many as 10,000 police have been mobilised for the protest against the thai pm. another 10,000 officers are on standby. police estimated the crowd at 30,000 people.

organisers had hoped the rally would draw one million people, but officials said about the same number of monks were chanting prayers for peace and unity nearby - far fewer than the 100,000 that attended earlier demonstrations. 

thaskin has called a snap election three years early in hopes of ending the crisis. there have been chants of "thaksin, get out". there are reports of bands playing music near the prime minister's offices. a sign written in english has been posted on the fence of government house reading "for rent". 

a poll released this week showed bangkok people are becoming fed up after weeks of rallying. today's rally was a "united call" on king bhumibol adulyadej to replace thaksin. the palace reports that the king is following events closely but says there are no signs he will act against thaksin. the monarch has intervened publicly twice in his 60-year reign. the campaigners want the king to appoint a neutral government to carry out political reforms.

the three main opposition parties are boycotting the election, declaring the electoral process "unfair" as thaksin has taken over the independent institutions. thaksin, once the richest man in thailand, transferred ownership of his companies to family members and employees prior to becoming prime minister. 

the weekly rallies in bangkok, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, make the movement to depose the troubled thaksin the "largest massing of public dissent since 1992," when huge demonstrations and the army's subsequent massacre of protesters culminated in the end of military rule in thailand.

the latest rally on saturday launched a series of protests due to continue with a march through the main shopping district. the protestors will converge on police headquarters on monday to demand criminal charges be brought against the prime minister. 

police would be stationed at the rally site, near his office, and at other key government offices, national police spokesman general achirawit suphanaphesat said. thaksin, who has been accused of clamping down on dissent and stifling freedom of the press, vowed to call a state of emergency if protests turn violent.



norman kember returns home safely

the freed hostage arrived home earlier saturday. in a prepared statement delivered at , he responded to earlier accusations that he was "not grateful" for the multinational effort culminating in his release.

"i do not believe that a lasting peace is achieved by armed force, but i pay tribute to their courage and thank those who played a part in my release."


greece, greeks celebrate independence day

today, greece and greeks all over the world celebrate the greek independence day; the 25th of march, 1821, during which the struggle of the greeks against the powerful ottoman empire started. the president of the hellenic republic, carolos papoulias, and the greek prime minister, costas karamanlis, attended the great parade of the armed forces at the constitution square of athens. earlier, in the orthodox cathedral of athens, archbishop christodoulos performed a te deum which was attended by the political and military leadership of the country. 

the greek independence day was celebrated in all the large cities of greece, including thessaloniki, patras, and corinth where the local authorities had the opportunity to attend parades of the armed forces and high-school students.

hellenism across the world celebrates the independence day as well. from london to melbourne, greek communities organized events and parades in honour of march 25, 1821. the big parade in new york city, united states, will be attended by thousands of greeks and greek-americans. the greek government will be represented by the secretary of state, dora bakoyiannis. 


buck owens, country music icon, dies at 76

country music singer-songwriter icon and 1996 country music hall of fame inductee buck owens has passed away at his residence. he was 76. 

family spokesman jim shaw made the announcement. 

considered by many the original rhinestone cowboy, owens was responsible for over 20 number one hits including his first, "act naturally," in 1963, "together again," and "i've got a tiger by the tail". most of his biggest hits were released from the mid 1960's to mid 1970's. among the numerous recording artists who recorded his songs were emmylou harris, the beatles, who recorded "act naturally", and dwight yoakam, who had a 1988 duet with owens on "streets of bakersfield". many of these artists made hits for themselves as well with his songs. he was mentioned in cameo-passing during the creedence clearwater revival song "lookin' out my backdoor".

he transformed country music with his honky-tonk "bakersfield sound", so named for the town of his residence 100 miles north of los angeles where he moved in 1951. with roy clark, he co-hosted the long-running popular television comedy country-themed musical variety show "hee-haw" from 1969-1986. owens's memorable red, white and blue guitar became his visual performance trademark. 

owens had throat cancer surgery in 1993 and was hospitalized with pneumonia in january 1997. 

born alvis edgar owens on august 12, 1929 outside sherman, texas, he was the son of a sharecropper, and moved with his family to arizona during the great depression at age 8, and by age 16 was playing music in taverns. 

his first wife bonnie sometimes performed with him, later becoming a lead back-up singer after their 1953 divorce. one of their two sons, alvis alan owens, became a singer under the stage name buddy alan and had a 1968 top 10 hit "let the world keep on a -turnin", and sang many duets with his father. 

his two other sons, michael and john, survive him. 




riots greet french government's labor reform

student protests against the french prime minister dominique de villepin job reform plan to give employers the right to dismiss young employees within the initial two years of their employment turned increasingly violent over the last two weeks.

the controversial program called the cpe, "first job contract", is to encourage employers to hire people under the age of 26. the french government claims that this process is necessary to reduce the unemployment rates of young people, which is pegged as high as 23% (this rate is the quotient of the number of people under 26 deemed to seek employment over the total of those employed and deemed to seek employment, which excludes the large proportion of students in that population). however, student protestors and trade unions say that the legislation infringes on workers' rights, and opinion polls show that some two-thirds of the population want the cpe either modified or dropped altogether.

the cpe allows employers to hire people age 26 and younger on a contract for up to two years which may be terminated at any time without explanation. while supporters of the law say that it will make younger people more attractive for employers, opponents say it makes it harder for young people to find long-term employment as there is no incentive for employers to offer any other form of contract.

labour unions and student organisers are calling for a national strike on tuesday, the fifth strike in the past two weeks.

the french labor laws are claimed to be among those protecting employees the most in europe; they prevent employers from trimming their workforces without paying substantial severance packages. prime minister de villepin's claims to intend to reduce youth unemployment by focusing on attracting modern industries relying on higher employee turnover and more flexible employment arrangements.

the current program is similar to the cne ordinance the prime minister issued last summer for small businesses in france. 

cpe was adopted under an exceptional "fast-track" procedure allowing the executive to pass legislation through parliament without parliament having to approve it, known as "49-3" following from the number of the relevant article in the french constitution. this procedure is normally reserved for important but controversial texts considered a crucial and urgent element of the policies of the prime minister. once 49-3 is declared, the law is considered adopted by parliament unless the national assembly votes a motion of censure, which terminates the prime minister and his cabinet's term. following standard practice when 49-3 is used, a motion of censure was proposed by the opposition, then voted down by the assembly (in which the ruling ump party has a majority).



riot police arrest belarusian opposition leader kozulin

presidential candidate aleksandr kozulin, leader of the belarusian opposition against president alexander lukashenko, has been arrested by belarusian police, according to witness reports at a march. the march was being held to protest the arrests of 200 fellow demonstrators who are being held at a detention center in the area. witnesses stated that kozulin was pulled out of a crowd of protestors and arressted by riot police at the scene. 

interfax news agency stated that aleksandr milinkevitch was also arrested. sergei voznyak, a press secretary for milinkevitch, has since stated, "a few minutes ago i spoke to milinkevich's aides. he has not been arrested and is in safety." he also commented that the personal spokesman for milinkevitch, pavel mazheiko, had been arrested. 



protesters rally for a second time against buffalo, n.y. hotel proposal

for the second weekend in a row, demonstrators protested the elmwood village hotel proposal on the proposed site.

the elmwood village hotel is a proposed hotel by savarino construction services corporation and is designed by architect karl frizlen of the frizlen group. it is to be placed on the corner of elmwood and forest avenues in buffalo and will require the demolition of at least five properties (1109-1121 elmwood).

the proposal also required that all five properties, including 605 forest, be rezoned to a "c-2" zone, or a "special development plan." the rezoning was passed by buffalo's common council on march 21, 2006.

russell smith, owner of the six nation's gift shop at 1121 elmwood, also participated in the protest.

"i am a native american and we opened a native american gift shop and we are just brand new [and just] opened. having started out a business for the first time, and it the only native american shop in the city, and i do not see the use of any hotel, especially at this district. the elmwood strip is pretty well established. some of these people have been here a long while you know and they're [savarino construction] disrupting their livelihood," said smith to "wikinews".

when smith was asked if he was going to be in any of the shops in the new hotel he replied, "we don't have the option of getting into the hotel or any of the shops that are going to be there. we haven't [had] any idea that they [savarino] were even planning to tear these buildings down to put a hotel here until we had moved in. i think thats a little unfair."

former city of buffalo mayor anthony masiello was asked to sign the petition to stop the hotel when he walked by, but he declined saying, "i respect what you are doing, but i am for the hotel."

despite the cold weather, at least 45 people showed up to walk the picket line.

for the moment, no further protests have been scheduled, pending the final decision on the hotel proposal by the city's planning board which meets tuesday, march 28, 2006. the meeting begins at 8:00am and will be held in room 902 on the 9th floor of city hall in downtown buffalo.

on saturday morning several individuals attended a meeting with a lawyer to see what could be done, if anything, about the proposal and about hans mobius, former buffalo mayoral candidate and owner of the properties to be demolished at 1109-1121 elmwood.

one of the attendees, nancy pollina, co-owner of don apparel with patty morris, stated that "there is a case" but that she is likely unable to afford the large attorney's fees. pollina reports that she is looking into a "legal fund."

some of the affected are considering going to the new york state supreme court pro se to seek an injunction. 

some tenants of mobius's buildings have accused him of being a "slumlord" and claim that he "intentionally neglected" his properties with the intention of selling. mobius, who has owned the properties for about 20 years, tried in 1995 to sell them to a developer who wanted to build a walgreens drugstore on the same site as the proposed hotel.

mobius is expected to appear in housing court on april 11, 2006. he has not returned any phone calls from "wikinews".



seattle shooting leaves seven dead

seven young people are dead with two more hospitalized in seattle, washington, after a murder-suicide shooting saturday morning in the capitol hill neighborhood. the gunman, identified by police and witnesses as kyle huff, 28, left a party briefly to retrieve a pistol-grip shotgun and a handgun from his nearby truck. when he returned, he started firing. he turned his shotgun on himself when apprehended by a police officer on the porch of the house where the shootings took place. the king county medical examiner's office identified the dead as jeremy martin, 26, christopher williamson, 21, jason travers, 32, justin schwartz, 22, suzanne thorne, 15, and melissa moore, 14.

no altercation was reported at the party, and no motive has been identified for the killings. before returning to the party, huff spray-painted the word, "now," on the sidewalk, and on the steps approaching the house. seattle police officer steve leonard heard the shots, and arrived on the scene to find huff emerging from the house. huff was warned to drop his weapon, at which point he aimed his shotgun at his own head and fired.

three of the victims were killed in the living room, and another two were found dead on the porch and steps of the house. another died at the hospital. one of the hospitalized victims was initially reported in critical condition, but was upgraded monday morning to satisfactory condition.

huff, originally from whitefish, montana, had been charged in 2000 with felony criminal mischief for firing on a sculpture with a shotgun, according to flathead county, montana sherriff jim dupont. police found an assault rifle, a machete and ammunition in huff's truck, and a search of his north seattle apartment turned up three more rifles.


news briefs:march 26, 2006

i'm phillip hong. the time is 0800 (utc) on the 26th of march (utc), and this is audio wikinews: news briefs.

"the pentagon claims that saddam hussein received intelligence from a russian ambassador about united states plans and movements during the opening days of the 2003 iraq invasion. the intelligence passed to hussein provided information on us military plans, troop numbers, units and locations."
australia's new controversial workplace regulations come into effect this week<br>
"the australian council of trade unions (actu) has urged the federal opposition labor party to focus on industrial relations (ir) as radical changes come into force from monday 27th march. the legislation was passed in a row of controversy by parliament in december last year."
norman kember returned home safely<br>
"the freed hostage norman kember arrived home earlier saturday. in a prepared statement delivered at heathrow airport, he responded to earlier accusations that he was "not grateful" for the multinational effort culminating in his release."

to receive more up-to-date news items as they occur, please visit wikinews.org.this has been a news brief for audio wikinews. this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.

the time is "0100" on "the 26th of march", and this is audio wikinews: news briefs.

tens of thousands rally against thailand's prime minister<br>
"in the latest attempt to evict prime minister thaksin shinawatra ahead of next week's election, tens of thousands of protesters have rallied in bangkok, thailand. some 10,000 police have been mobilised for the protest. another 10,000 officers are on standby. police estimated the crowd at 30,000 people."
riot police arrest kozulin, belarusian opposition leader<br>
"presidential candidate aleksandr kozulin, leader of the belarusian opposition against president alexander lukashenko has been arrested by belarusian police, according to witness reports at a march. the march was being held to protest the arrests of 200 fellow demonstrators who are being held at a detention center in the area. witnesses stated that kozulin was pulled out of a crowd of protesters and arrested by riot police at the scene."
death claims buck owens, country music icon, at 76<br>
"country music singer, songwriter icon and 1996 country music hall of fame inductee buck owens has passed away at his bakersfield, california residence. he was 76. considered by many as the original rhinestone cowboy, his career included over 20 number one hits including his first, "act naturally," in 1963, "together again," and "i've got a tiger by the tail." most of his biggest hits were released during the mid 1960's to mid 1970's."

to receive more up-to-date news items as they occur, please visit wikinews.org.this has been a news brief for audio wikinews. this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


australia's new controversial workplace regulations come into effect this week

the australian council of trade unions (actu) has urged the federal opposition labor party to focus on industrial relations (ir) as significant changes come into force from monday 27th march. the legislation was passed in a row of controversy by parliament in december last year.

the contentious workchoices measures aim to move workers onto a federal industrial relations system and increase to the use of individual workplace contracts - under which conditions such as overtime and penalty rates can be set. the new workchoices arrangements include scrapping of unfair dismissal rights; the control by federal government over state-based ir systems; more encouragement of individual contracts; award-cutting of award rates; secret ballots for industrial action and removal of the no-disadvantage test in new contracts.

the union movement has launched a fresh campaign to protest this week's changes. actu secretary greg combet warns that some employees will feel the effects as soon as they come into force, because they will no longer be protected by the previous unfair dismissal laws. he says with the changes becoming enforced this week, the federal opposition party must now concentrate on industrial relations and not on "political infighting". 

australia's prime minister, john howard, says he's prepared for a union scare-mongering over the ir laws, but assumes the campaign will fail. "i predict the scare campaign will go on," he said. "i also predict that the scare campaign will fail." mr howard says workers should wait and experience the new system for themselves and that the changes will give workers greater flexibility. "over time it will be beneficial," he said.

combet feels different about the effects. "it's likely, somewhere around australia tomorrow, someone is going to be sacked unfairly and they'll be the first victim of the new laws," he told the abc. "the really significant thing is that the balance of power in the workplace is shifting sharply to the business community, to the employer."

federal workplace relations minister kevin andrews told reporters last week that "the sky would not fall, because people would go to work next monday and not detect any difference." he described union protests as "hysterical outbursts". "there is nothing in this legislation that people need to worry about in the ordinary course," he said.

despite the howard government's increased majority in the senate, the passing of bill has not been smooth. in november last year, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators rallied across the nation to express dissent of the ir legislation. ex-finance minister, senator nick minchin, said most australians "violently disagree" with the recent ir changes and there was a real prospect that the high court could overturn the work choices laws.

the hr nicholls society, described as one of australia's most politically conservative organisations, has likened the new federal laws to the former soviet system of "command and control." society president ray evans says he does not like the centralised power being handed to the government under the changes, nor its encroachment on states' rights. 

evans says the myriad of complex new laws would create a system where "so-called ir professionals would stand to make a lot of money sorting through it... every economic decision has to go back to some central authority and get ticked off," he said . "there is a lot of that sort of attitude in this legislation and i think it is very unfortunate."
kemalex plastics owner richard colebatch of the hr nicholls society said the changes are "very complicated for anybody to decipher... the professionals will spend a lot of money, the employers' money, working their way through the mire trying to create the new rules people are going to work towards."
but the prime minister says "more jobs will be generated in the small business sector as a result of the removal of the absurd job-destroying unfair dismissal laws, and the greater flexibility for people to make workplace agreements at the enterprise level will lift productivity," he told reporters in melbourne. "sure some people will complain, but a lot of people will benefit through getting job opportunities. young people, who will get an opportunity to put their step on the bottom rung of the ladder for the first time, will benefit enormously."

the australian medical association (ama) said workchoices regulations do not go far enough in clarifying who can legally issue medical certificates for sick leave. ama vice-president dr choong-siew yong said workchoices regulations meant employers and employees faced uncertainty and confusion over sick leave. 

"the regulations fail to acknowledge two very serious failings," dr yong said in a statement. "one, if people are seriously ill, they should be seeing their medical doctor. two, opening up medical certification to a whole range of non-medical practitioners will make it difficult for employers to take sick leave seriously." 




xviii commonwealth games competition ends

the following is how the medal table looks after the final day of competition for the 2006 commonwealth games, in melbourne, australia.

in the final event of the games, new zealand defeated the reigning netball commonwealth champion australia, 60-55, for the first time in 12 years.

australia received its largest medal haul in commonwealth games history, receiving more than a third of the gold medals available; a total of 221 medals. 

south africa was the best of the african nation, winning 38 medals.

there were 247 events and 24 disciplines in the games. events included:

the games will be officially closed tonight, (0900 utc) with the handing over of the games to delhi for 2010 commonwealth games.


european union demands release of belarusian opposition leader

the european union (eu) has demanded the release of , a belarusian opposition leader arrested during a protest rally in minsk. kozulin was one of the leaders in a series of rolling protests against the recent election victory of president alexander lukashenko.

the eu president is "appalled by the violence used against demonstrators by the belarusian authorities," it said in a statement. "it expresses serious concern about the arrest of demonstrators and members of the democratic opposition, including presidential candidate alexander kozulin, and demands their immediate release," the statement said.

reports indicate that the streets of minsk have settled to a "peaceful standstill" on sunday, after riot police moved in to break up a protest rally - a day after reports that police brutally dispersed large crowds in the capital. police in riot gear stormed a rally on friday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck. during a rally on saturday, alexander kozulin was "pulled out of a car by police and taken away." 

kozulin's spokeswoman nina shedlovskaya said he had been beaten by police. on sunday, kozulin's wife, irina, described his condition was "ok." "the rescue squad wasn't called for him," she told the associated press. also sunday, about 80 pro-lukashenko youth activists picketed the u.s. embassy in minsk, shouting "hands off belarus." russian news agencies report that the polish embassy was also picketed.

kozulin was detained as protesters marched on a jail holding others detained during what is being called "the biggest protests in belarus for ten years." belarus independent media centre reports that the "arrest of 460 people in the protest tent camp on friday morning had provoked the population and strengthened the general protest mood in belarus." 

the belarus imc report says: "more than 5000 people gathered on saturday in the centre of minsk for the demonstration which had been announced. authorities opposed the protest with all available police forces, special services and the army."

demonstrators demand a repeat of last week's election poll. mr lukashenko, president of belarus since 1994, has been widely accused of pursuing "soviet-style policies, closing down the media and cracking down on rivals." president lukashenko contends the united states and western european countries are giving financial and moral support to the opposition group. 

eu commissioner benita ferrero-waldner also demanded that belarus release members of the opposition.
"i urge the belarussian government to adhere to the rules of democracy," ferrero-waldner was quoted as saying. "if the belarussian government does not show remorse, visa bans will probably be sharpened. in concrete terms, that means that those responsible will not be able to travel to eu member states. foreign assets of belarussian lawmakers could also be frozen. it's important that sanctions do not hurt the people." 

, belarus's main opposition leader, praised belarussians who have been protesting since the election. however he acknowledged that their numbers were not enough to defeat lukashenko's government.



george mason university upsets uconn, advances to final four

the george mason university patriots of the colonial athletic association (caa) defeated the university of connecticut huskies today in overtime, 86-84. 

gmu becomes the first team from the caa to reach the final four in a ncaa division i basketball championship, and only the second 11th seed (lsu was the other in 1986). the huskies were the number one seed in the washington region. gmu is also the first true mid-major to reach the final four since 1979 with penn state and indiana state. 

this year held the patriots' first ncaa tournament game victory, where they beat michigan state (no. 6 seed) and the university of north carolina (no. 3 seed) in the first two rounds. they defeated wichita state in the third round, setting up today's match against uconn.

although gmu lost to the university of north carolina - wilmington in the caa championship bid, the ncaa selection committee awarded the team an at-large bid. this drew criticism from sports commentators such as billy packer, who felt it was more appropriate to give at-large bids to schools from major conferences, like the big east, big 10, or acc. packer argued that the tougher schedules during the regular season in those conferences gave more legitimacy to teams in those leagues.


crash kills indy driver paul dana

indy racing league (irl) driver paul dana died sunday afternoon, following injuries sustained during a crash in the warmup session of the toyota 300 race at homestead-miami speedway.

during the warmup, ed carpenter's car spun out of control heading into a turn due to a tire failure. carpenter's car hit the raceway wall and went into a spin down the race track when dana hit his car on the side while travelling at over 200 mph (321 km/h). the team reported that paul was warned of the danger by his spotter, but did not ease off as much as other drivers in the section of the track. the slow-motion footage appeared to show paul hitting debris from ed's car a few seconds before the main impact.

both were taken to a nearby hospital, where dana died nearly two hours later, shortly after noon local time (1700 utc). according to henry block, senior director of medical services for the irl, carpenter was listed in stable condition at the hospital.

dana's wife, who was attending a church service in indianapolis at the time, was informed of his death shortly afterwards.

despite dana's death, the toyota 300 continued as scheduled. however, teammates danica patrick and buddy rice did not compete. dan wheldon beat helio castroneves by the car's cone nose to win the race. wheldon had placed dana's number, #17, onto his car before the race.

dana's death is the first in the league for nearly three years. tony renna, the last driver in the league to die in a fatal accident, was killed during a test at the indianapolis motor speedway. dana was also the first death at homestead since 1997, when nascar craftsman truck series racer john nemechek was killed in an accident.



airbus a380 safety test injures 33

thirty-three people were injured during a test of the airbus a380, a double decker superjumbo jet, in hamburg, germany. injuries include friction burns from sliding down the escape ramps and one broken leg. 853 volunteer "passengers" and 20 crew members took about 80 seconds to evacuate the aircraft, beating the test's requirements by 10 seconds and over 200 people "rescued". only eight of the plane's sixteen exits were used, as required by the test; the crew members were not told in advance which doors would open. the test was carried out in a dark hangar and the plane's aisles were littered with debris to simulate actual emergency conditions.

the a380 will be the world's largest passenger airliner, almost twice as large as the current largest airliner, the boeing 747. airbus has had 159 planes on order by 16 customers, and the first a380s will go to singapore airlines towards the end of the year.

this test was important to airbus, as in august 2005 an airbus a340 overshot the runway and 300 people escaped before the plane burst into flames. infrared camera recordings of the test will be analyzed by authorities such as the european aviation safety agency, while the us federal aviation administration was present during the test. the european aviation safety agency will confirm the test results this week; airbus intends to repeat the test on saturday if the aviation agency fails this attempt. 

the volunteers, who were paid 60 euros (about us$72) and a meal, were from airbus staff, sports clubs, and dancing clubs in the hamburg area where the test took place. airbus recruited people from clubs in order to get volunteers in good physical shape.

two days later, the american and european aviation authorities (the faa and easa, respectively) officially certified the a380 to carry 853 passengers. this certification demonstrated that the test procedures use by airbus met their respective standards. 




prince closes xviii commonwealth games

prince edward formally closed the xviii commonwealth games last night in a spectacular 4 hour ceremony at the melbourne cricket ground.

about 85,000 spectators were in attendance; british prime minister tony blair and australian prime minister john howard were also there.

melbourne 2006 chairman ron walker said that the games were “the greatest coalition of commonwealth nations ever seen….we have all been united by the moment… …melbourne, we did it!”

commonwealth games federation chairmen mike fennell; named indian shooting competitor samaresh jung as the winner of the david dixon award, for being the best athlete of the 18th commonwealth games. jung won five gold; one silver and one bronze medal in the games.

fennell also praised the organisation, crowds, volunteers, transport, and support services as well as the athletic performances and he said that the games had been an “incredible success”.



sweden names jan eliasson new foreign minister

during a press conference at 10:15 a.m. cest (0815 utc), prime minister goran persson of sweden appointed jan eliasson as the new foreign minister. 

eliasson will be taking over the ministry post from laila freivalds, and will have carin jamtin, the current minister for development aid, as his deputy foreign minister. until the transfer on april 24, 2006, jamtin will be acting minister of foreign affairs.

eliasson is currently chairing the un general assembly. he has also held positions as the swedish ambassador to the united states, and as secretary for foreign affairs within the swedish government. eliasson will fulfill his role of chair of the general assembly, ending his term on september 11, 2006.

freivalds was forced to resign last week when her involvement in talks between a swedish internet hosting site associated with the controversy over the cartoon of mohammed was questioned. 


news briefs:march 27, 2006

the time is 1200 utc on the 27th of march, and this is audio wikinews: news briefs.

european union demands release of belarusian opposition leader
"the eu has demanded the release of alexander kozulin, a belarusian opposition leader arrested during a protest rally in minsk. kozulin was one of the leaders in a series of rolling protests against the recent election victory of president alexander lukashenko."
crash kills indy driver paul dana
"indy racing league (irl) driver paul dana died sunday afternoon, following injuries sustained earlier today during a crash in the warmup session of the toyota 300 race at homestead-miami speedway.
during the warmup, ed carpenter's car spun out heading into a turn, hitting the wall and continuing to spin down the track when dana hit his car on the side while travelling at over 200 mph or 321 km/h. both were taken to a nearby hospital, where dana died nearly two hours later, shortly after noon local time (1700 utc)."
airbus a380 safety test injures 33
"thirty-three people were injured during a test of the airbus a380, a double decker superjumbo jet, in hamburg, germany. injuries include friction burns from sliding down the escape ramps and one broken leg. 853 volunteer "passengers" and 20 crew members took about 80 seconds to evacuate the aircraft, beating the test's requirements by 10 seconds and over 200 people "rescued"."

to receive more up-to-date news items as they occur, please visit wikinews.org.this has been a news brief for audio wikinews. this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


creekstone farms sues usda for refusing to allow mad cow testing

creekstone farms premium beef, an organic meatpacking company based in arkansas city, kansas, filed a lawsuit against the u.s. department of agriculture (usda) for what the company claims is threats by the usda that it would face prosecution if it proceeds with plans to test nearly 100% of its beef for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease or bse.

the usda position is that allowing any meatpacking company to test every cow would undermine the agency's official position, a position that holds to random testing as a scientifically adequate measure to assure safety. it also claims that 100% testing does not ensure food safety because the disease is difficult to detect in younger animals.

the usda currently tests about 1% of cattle slaughtered in the u.s. the usda's objection is believed to be the result of pressure from larger meatpacking operations. in 2004, the president of the national cattlemen's beef association told the washington post that "if testing is allowed at creekstone, we think it would become the international standard and the domestic standard, too." creekstone farms says tests cost about $20 per animal, increasing the cost of beef by about 10 cents per pound. 



bomb blast near mosul, iraq kills at least 40

a bomb blast near the northern city of mosul has killed at least 40 iraqi people. the bomber struck shortly after noon in front of a u.s. military base. the defence ministry said 30 people were injured in the blast which they said was carried out by a suicide bomber. the u.s. military says a car bomb had exploded at an iraqi police recruiting centre at kisak, west of mosul. 

the blast follows the killing of 20 shiites at a mosque compound in baghdad. shiites have blamed u.s. forces for killing 22 people sunday and cut off political talks in protest. the united states has said no mosque was attacked.



greek court rules worship of ancient greek deities is legal

greek court has ruled that worshippers of the ancient greek religion may now formally associate and worship at archeological sites.

prior to the ruling, the religion was banned from conducting public worship at archeological sites by the greek ministry of culture. due to that, the religion was relatively secretive.

the greek orthodox church, a christian denomination, is extremely critical of worshippers of the ancient deities. 

today, about 100,000 greeks worship the ancient gods, such as zeus, hera, poseidon, aphrodite, and athena. the greek orthodox church estimates that number is closer to 40,000.

many neo-pagan religions, such as wicca, use aspects of ancient greek religions in their practice; hellenic polytheism instead focuses exclusively on the ancient religions, as far as the fragmentary nature of the surviving source material allows.



western australia braces for another cyclone

towns and communities in north western australia are preparing for the sixth cyclone of the season. 
the bureau of meteorology says a cyclone warning is current for a category 3 cyclone for coastal and island areas between cape leveque and bidyadanga. a cyclone watch extends south to dampier. the cyclone is expected to move roughly parallel to the coast in the next few days and intensify further. 

in port hedland, residents were urged to prepare for glenda, which today was a category 1 storm off the kimberley coastline, to the north. dampier port supports the offshore oil and gas industry from north west cape to broome and offshore, the largest oil and gas export area in australia.

fire and emergency services authority of western australia (fesa) district manager gordon tiddums advises residents to closely monitor the cyclone's path and take to take precautions such as cleaning up loose material and rubbish and getting emergency supplies. 

widespread heavy rain is expected to continue during the next few days in the north and east kimberley. recent tropical storms have dumped 560 millimetres in the wyndham area over the past few days. around 30 elderly people and young children have been evacuated from the oombulgurri aboriginal community, 80 kilometres west of wyndham. 

the weather bureau says that cyclone floyd continues to weaken as it heads towards the wa coast. cyclone floyd has been downgraded to a category one system. the bureau says gales may develop during the day as the cyclone nears the coast and the system is still causing winds of more than 100 kilometres an hour.

category four cyclone floyd caused wind gusts of up to 280km an hour did not threaten the coast or the state's massive resources industry. 


stanis?aw lem dies at 84

, one of the most popular modern writers who wrote in a language other than english, died march 27, aged 84. he died of heart failure while staying at a cardio-surgery clinic in krakow, poland.

lem, described as “one of the deep spirits of the age,” was the author of dozens of books, which have been translated into 41 languages and sold over 27 million copies. he gained international fame for "the cyberiad", a series of short stories from a mechanical world ruled by robots, first published in english in 1974. 

despite his international popularity, lem is not a member of the science fiction and fantasy writers of america. he turned down an invitation to join the non-profit association after his honorary membership was taken away because of anger at his critical commentary about the quality of much of the science fiction being published in the united states. many of his books have been filmed, most notably the book "solaris", which has spawned two films - one by andrei tarkovsky in 1972 and the other by steven soderbergh and starring george clooney in 2002.



candace parker double dunks, makes basketball history

on march 19, 2006, , the 6 foot, 4 inches (1.93 meters) tall forward, made history and set a record as the first woman ever to double dunk in an ncaa game. the media buzz is that parker has taken up to a new level... the air.

during a women's ncaa championship game against the army black knights, parker made her first dunk of the game with 13:44 left in the first half. the lady vols were ahead, 14-13, as sidney spencer fed the ball to parker, who flew over opponents to the net, becoming the first woman to slam dunk in an ncaa game. the crowd roared... not once, but twice. with 14:18 left in the second half, parker took nicky anosike's pass and soared above army and lady vol players. parker palmed the ball and stuffed it through the rim for her second slam dunk in the game. even the famously focused coach pat summit took a moment to appreciate the feat. 

during an npr interview, sports analyst, nancy lieberman, spoke about what parker's dunking foreshadows for women's basketball. both lieberman and summit noted that parker frequently dunks the ball during practice, as other women do. lieberman says that women's basketball has developed immensely in recent years. and she expects audiences will see women ncaa and professional basketball players use dunking and other spectacular skills much more in the future.

most people are celebrating parker's double dunk as a success. in both women's and men's basketball, a few have questioned whether dunking makes the game better. but, adding a dunk shot will certainly change the game, as will the continued development of point guards. basketball analysts usually agree that dunking is exciting and most say that using this high-percentage shot will draw bigger audiences to women's hoops. 


shiites claim coalition forces killed men in a mosque

shiite politicians raged against the usa and stopped negotiations on a new government after a u.s. military attack killed at least 16 people in what the shiites said was a mosque. 
iraqi police said gunmen fired on a joint u.s.-iraqi patrol who were not far from the mosque. police (and representatives of radical shiite cleric muqtada al-sadr) said everyone killed was in the complex for evening prayers and there were no gunmen.

ap video from sunday night showed dead male bodies lying on the floor with gunshot wounds. the ap cameraman said it was filmed in the living quarters of the small mosque's imam.

"in our observation of the place and the activities that were going on, it's difficult for us to consider this a place of prayer," said a u.s. military spokesman. "it was not identified by us as a mosque, though we certainly recognized it as a community gathering center. i think this is frankly a matter of perception."


uk pm addresses joint sitting of australian parliament

the prime minister of the united kingdom tony blair addressed a special joint sitting of the australian parliament march 27, 2006. after introductory speeches by both the prime minister of australia john howard and the leader of the opposition kim beazley, blair spoke on globalisation and trade, security, terrorism, and the war in iraq and afghanistan. he also touched on the middle east and climate change. 

mr blair started by reminiscing about his childhood, when he lived from the age of two until five in adelaide, south australia. "i remember returning from the hospital where my sister sarah had just been born, looking at her in the back of the old austin that we drove; running errands for our neighbour, mr trederay; taking showers under the garden hose in the heat on the lawn; visiting friends up-country in the adelaide hills; and being chased by magpies as i ran across the open ground near our home."

he talked about the inevitability of globalisation, but warned that it should be tempered by social justice. "globalisation is a fact, but the values that govern it are a choice. we know the values we believe in: democracy and the rule of law, but also justice, the simple conviction that, given a fair go, human beings can better themselves and the world around them." he later linked security with justice, saying "there is no prosperity without security and no security without justice. that is the consequence of an interconnected world."

he described the two perspectives on trade as "open or closed", meaning those who support free trade and reduction of tarrifs, and those who are more protectionist. mr blair was firmly in the "open" camp, but he warned that poverty must also be tackled. "everywhere you look today, the tide of protectionist sentiment is flowing. in this world trade round we have the opportunity to make it ebb. at stake, obviously, is our commitment on world poverty and development." according to blair, rich western nations have a long way to go before their markets can be considered open. "europe’s agricultural protection is a policy born of another age and it is time to end it. but change in europe alone is not the answer. america must open up; japan, too."

he also linked trade to development, saying that the connection was a matter "of justice, because the poorest nations need to be able to stand on their own two feet and trade in our markets."

he warned of the immediate threat of "islamist extremism", but argued that terrorism did not begin with the september 11 attacks in the united states, but rather had a much longer history. "it simply came to our notice then. its victims are to be found in the recent history of many lands, from russia and india but also algeria, pakistan, libya, saudi arabia, yemen, indonesia, kenya and countless more."

he acknowledged that the decision to invade iraq was as divisive in britain as in australia, but sought to justify military action, saying "for almost three years now we have been in iraq with full united nations support. from the outset our forces in afghanistan have been there with un authority. in both cases, there is the full support of democratically elected governments." he also spoke of the gains made by both iraq and afghanistan. "in each case, the people have, for the first time, been offered a chance to vote. in each case, they have seized it, despite obstacles we can scarcely imagine."

he spoke in support of the us alliance, but said that maintaining some independence was important. "i do not always agree with the united states. sometimes they can be difficult friends to have."

mr blair called on the united states to work for security in the middle east, and especially for a two state solution. "once the israeli election has taken place, we must redouble our efforts to find a way to the only solution that works?a secure state of israel and a viable, independent palestinian state."

mr blair emphasised the need to focus on climate change, and said that it was even more important now with the crisis over oil prices. he noted the differences between the australian and british approaches to climate change, and argued that co-operation was needed. "at some point we must bring it all together. there will be no agreement worth having that does not involve the united states, china and india, as well as the rest of us."


australian artist pro hart dies

pro hart, the self-taught, internationally-acclaimed australian artist, died at home in broken hill on march 28 after family members decided to cease his medication. the 77-year-old had been ill with motor neurone disease. family members described his passing as peaceful. hart is a household name in australia.

hart's son, john hart, says a state funeral is being organised for his father. he says his father lost the ability to paint about six months ago. pro hart's son david today said the funeral for the "brushman of the bush" will be held in the far-western new south wales mining city of broken hill next tuesday. "it will be held next tuesday", he said, "probably in the town's civic centre."

born kevin charles hart in broken hill on may 30, 1928, his mining mates nicknamed him 'professor' due to his passion for invention. he started painting "cheeky" pictures on the wooden beams of the mines he worked in. hart went to few art classes and started painting full-time in 1958.

since then, he has exhibited all over the world, including london, new york, paris and tokyo. he also illustrated several books. hart's preoccupation with art began as a teenager on his family's sheep station near menindee. 

his work hangs in collections all over the world. agent amanda phillips says hart was one of australia's most renowned artists yet his paintings are not in the national gallery of australia. "he's a great australian, i mean he's been given an mbe for his services to art, he's been honoured all around the world, his work hangs in major collections around the world, why isn't he displayed here in australia? a spokeswoman for the national gallery confirmed they had a "very limited collection" of pro hart's works although no paintings.

hart is renowned for his unique 'cannon' technique, which he developed in 1970. 'cannon' painting works by filling balls with paint and firing them at the canvas using a hand-held cannon.

"if you don't fit in their groove, they don't want to know you," hart once said of the australian art community. hart gained his widest recognition in australia when he featured in a television carpet advertisement, painting a carpet with spaghetti, milk, wine and other foods. "oh mr hart, what a mess!" was the catchcry. 

the federal member for parkes, john cobb, said hart had been an inspirational figure in broken hill and helped to establish the town as one of the australia's greatest artistic centres. 

prime minister john howard described hart as a great artist whose portraits of the outback were instantly recognisable. "not only will he be remembered as one of our finest painters but also for the mark he made in sculpture and through his book illustrations," howard said in a statement.
"he made a wonderful contribution to art and culture in australia, enhancing its profile on the world stage." 

he said hart's artistic legacy was assured. "i think they'll remember the colour, they'll remember the unconventional methods and they'll remember the identification with a city which is part of the history of this country; a very special part."

fellow artist ken done said hart's legacy was "in his paintings". he said the painter was best known for his portraits of the outback. "but i think his strongest pictures were the ones he did about his time underground ? those tougher times, tougher men ? and he brought a real sensitivity to that experience," done said. 

hart received the member of the order of the british empire award in 1976 for his services to art in australia. he is survived by his wife raylee, three sons and two daughters.


long beach, ca redevelopment agency ends talks for church

the long beach redevelopment board voted last night to walk away from negotiations over the filipino baptist fellowship church property. eminent domain action, authorized at the march 13 meeting, was not addressed.

during the opening comment period, the attorney for the church, john eastman, noted his difficulty in speaking on the question, since the agenda did not indicate what question was before the board. the board chair, thomas fields, replied that it was not appropriate for the board to answer questions during the public comment period. 
after a five minute open session, the board recessed to discuss the church property in closed session. fifteen minutes later, the board returned and announced that negotiations with the church were over.

attorney eastman and rev agustine, pastor of the church, conferred with long-time city clerk jan pittman to clarify the meaning of the decision. she said that she understood the decision to mean that the board would not proceed with eminent domain. responding to questions, she said that eminent domain proceedings are held in the city of norton, and that no further notice would be due to the church if eminent domain proceedings were initiated.
the church property is located in long beach on atlantic avenue, a four lane road with two parking lanes. most of the properties in the two block area have been acquired by the city and razed. the east side of the street was redeveloped five years ago with the construction of single family housing. the west side of the street is expected to be developed with higher density housing, but plans have not been announced. the city's redevelopment project was begun in 1996. the filipino baptist fellowship purchased the church in 2002, in the open market. 

the lb redevelopment agency websites are included for completeness, but they are not current at this time.



australia grants temporary asylum to 12 commonwealth games athletes

twelve athletes from sierra leone, who disappeared from the commonwealth games in melbourne last week, have been granted bridging visas by australia's department of immigration. the group have been released into the sydney community. three of the sierra leoneans say they face forced female circumcision if they go back.

department of immigration spokesperson sandi logan said the bridging visas were only a stop-gap measure. "the bridging visa simply enables them to be here lawfully if in the period of time between now and then the type of visa they apply for requires further investigation on a country basis or a country profile, if in fact that's the type of visa and the type of investigation that's required," he said.

a group of six sierra leoneans contacted the northern beaches refugee sanctuary - who had previously given shelter and assistance to six other missing athletes. members of the first group of athletes told media that they feared for their safety if they were forced to return to sierra leone. 

originally 14 of the nation's 22-strong games delegation were reported missing. two other sierra leone athletes remain at large after visas allowing them to compete in the games were cancelled by the department of immigration.

in total, eleven athletes are still missing after the games finished on sunday, including seven from cameroon, a bangladeshi runner, and a tanzanian boxer. 

the abc report that two missing cameroon athletes have contacted immigration officials in perth. refugee advocate group, the coalition for asylum seekers, refugees and detainees (carad) says the men are receiving legal advice. the department of immigration says they are in the country legally as their visas do not expire until april 26.

twenty-one athletes disappeared from the 2002 commonwealth games in manchester, britain. 



uk petrol prices rise to five-month high

petrol prices across the uk rose to an average of 91.1p per litre (u.s. $6.02 per u.s. gallon) of premium unleaded on tuesday, which is the highest they have been for five months. prices have been rising ever since december 2005, when they reached a trough in the current cycle of 87.6p a litre ($5.79/gal.), and have gained about 1.5p a litre (2.6 cents) in the last 10 days.

across the uk, petrol prices ranged from 86.9p to 100.9p ($5.74 to $6.67) for unleaded and 89.9p to 105.9p ($5.94 to $7.00) for diesel.

these figures coincide with the results of a motorists survey from aa personal loans, which showed that most drivers are ignorant of petrol prices. just 14% of those surveyed were able to correctly give the current price of petrol. out of 1700 people surveyed, the lowest estimate was 69p a litre ($4.56/gal.) and the highest was ￡3 a litre ($19.83/gal.).


georgia mother loses child custody over humorous religion

rev. mary magdalen (rachel bevilacqua) of the , a or , lost custody of her child in february of 2006, seemingly due to her involvement with the church. church members are touting the judge's response to her involvement with the church together with his decision as religious discrimination, and the is examining the situation.

judge james punch () allegedly denied custody of the child her son out of anger, after seeing videos of rev. magdalen in a bondage "dress" and papier mache goat’s head at the church's and piece. judge punch repeatedly asked, "why a goat? what’s so significant about a goat’s head?" when rev. magdalen replied, "i just thought the word 'goat' was funny," the court then pressed her to explain how her actions were funny, finally concluding with the statement, "obviously there's nothing funny in those pictures."

according to rev. magdalen, the judge reportedly lost his temper and shouted at her, calling her a "pervert," "mentally ill," "lying," and a participant in "sex orgies." proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online.

judge punch ordered that rev. magdalen is to have absolutely no further contact with her son, not even in writing, after february 3, 2006. on march 9th, the judge issued a verbal order stating that rev. magdalen was to cease all communication on the internet regarding her son, thereby preventing her from posting transcripts of the actual court proceedings (however, a transcript of her own testimony was made available on march 26th).

rev. magdalen has been a major figure in the church of the subgenius since 1997 when she and her son moved to dallas, texas to be with her fiance rev . jesus (steve bevilacqua) and help keep the for-profit church afloat. the church members traditionally consider the for-profit arm to have "religious significance", due in part to the church's intentional parody of and , and the church declares itself to be "the only religion that is proud to pay its taxes." the bevilacquas relocated to in 2004.

religions or deities engaging in , such as the church of the subgenius, discordianism, the , and the , have become significantly more widespread through the internet. however, the church of the subgenius is relatively old, dating to 1979, and gained much of its current popularity through its published books, including the "," and its radio program. discordianism is even older, dating to 1958 or 1959, and has strongly influenced modern non-satirical neopagan religions. such religions are now generally termed "postmodern" instead of "parody", as their followers frequently insist the religion is as real and valid as any other religion, but often accept the postmodernist critique of religious metanarratives.

rev. magdalen's case has been profiled on a number of popular blogs and internet sites, including and .

following the word of this case being spread on the internet, judge punch recused himself without comment. the case is being re-assigned to another judge, and rev. magdalen will return to court next month.


related links


white house chief of staff andrew card resigns

president bush has announced that andrew card, white house chief of staff, has resigned, and will be replaced by current budget director joshua bolten. 

in recent weeks republican insiders have been urging the president to reshape his advisors to deal with his declining popularity ratings. bolten has had wide experience both on wall street and in washington. in washington he has been the deputy chief of staff and also the director of the office of management and budget. 

card will remain as chief of staff until april 14. it is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post. he had previously served as state representative in holbrook, mass., his hometown, so it has been speculated that he may return to mass. to run for office. 


5.5 magnitude earthquake shakes tokyo

at 13.30 gmt, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake 800 km south of tokyo according to the japan meteorological agency.

the quake affected oita, kochi and miyazaki prefectures without any reports of injuries or severe damage.

the epicenter was reported below the pacific ocean floor, however; no tsunami alert was issued.

a previous earthquake in october of 2004 killed at least 40 people and injured 3,000 when a magnitude 6.8 earthquake shook the region of niigata in northern japan and in 1995 a magnitude 7.3 earthquake shook kobe, japan and killed at least 6,400 people.



uk public sector workers strike over pension rights

local government workers in the uk withdrew their labour yesterday as part of a dispute over pension entitlements. the members of 11 different trades unions were involved in the 24hr strike. as the day began they declared that support for the strike was solid. although the strikers work for local councils, their pay and conditions are agreed nationally. the local government association which represents the local councils in england and wales declared predictions that 1.5 million people would stay away from work as "wildly optimistic".

the unions' complaint is that local government workers are being treated unfavourably compared to other public sector employees. they say that agreements on pensions that have been reached with civil servants, teachers and health workers will allow those staff to continue to retire at 60 while local government staff will be forced to work until they are 65. civil servants work for national government, teachers work for local councils but have their own pension arrangements and most health workers are employed by the state-controlled national health service.

the local government association claims that if council workers continue to be able to retire at 60, it will increase the levels of council tax (a tax on people living in properties which funds a proportion of local government expenditure) by 2%.

the striking workers provide a wide range of services from assisting teachers in the class room, through inspecting kitchens for hygiene to provising care to the vulnerable in society. in some places council workers collect tolls for road tunnels or manage ferries. mainstream media have reported on the strike all day with heavy coverage of disruption to commuters where transport has been affected. the unions have emphasised the large number of their members who are women working in low paid jobs.

the government which regulates the scheme claimed that the early retirement provisions (called the rule of 85) were age-discriminatory and had to be removed.

the strike ended at midnight. the unions have not declared any further strike days.

the unions involved were aep, amicus, cywu, gmb, napo, nipsa, nuj, nut, tgwu, ucatt and unison.

wanker 



buffalo, n.y. hotel proposal gets final approval by city planning board

the proposed elmwood village hotel got the final approval it needed from the city of buffalo's planning board this morning.

in a unanimous vote, the board approved most of the design and site plan of the hotel.

the elmwood village hotel is a proposed hotel by savarino construction services corporation and is designed by architect karl frizlen of the frizlen group. it is to be placed on the corner of elmwood and forest avenues in buffalo and will require the demolition of at least five properties (1109-1121 elmwood).

despite the fact that today's meeting was not a "public hearing", several citizens lashed out at the board after the approval.

"thanks for destroying buffalo," said one man.

"[i am] disgusted. because they did not allow the community to speak, it is the bastardization of the concepts of justice and democracy, and that's what happened [today]," said clarence carnahan, a local business owner and concerned citizen, to "wikinews". he also referred to some board members as "immoral pigs."

"[i feel] frustration because no one could speak. i was going to address the displacement of all the shops that are there and that they should be grand-fathered into the new space. we did not get to say that. [i am disappointed] that they are endorsing this enormous monstrosity." said nancy pollina, co-owner of don apparel with patty morris at 1119 elmwood.

although the board approved the hotel proposal, savarino construction must still go before the board to approve things such as signage and lighting. the planning board meets again on april 11, 2006 at 8:00a.m., but it is unknown if the hotel proposal will be on the agenda.

pano georgiadis, owner of pano's restaurant at 1081 elmwood and owner of 605 forest avenue in buffalo, threatened to sue savarino construction at a public meeting on march 15, 2006 saying, "if you try to get a variance to change the code, i will sue you. this is my home, number one. if you go against city code, and you try to do the most rooms with a minimal amount of parking, again, i will sue you."

today, georgiadis confirmed to "wikinews" that he is "definitely" suing, but that his "situation is different" as compared to others looking into legal action. "this is my property. they did it [changed the code] without my approval."

last week, the common council voted and approved the rezoning of all five properties including 605 forest.

some are also considering taking the case to the new york state supreme court to "seek an injunction"
and would go "pro se, meaning i am going to present the case myself," said carnahan.

despite the approvals by the common council and planning board, organizers schedulaed another protest for saturday april 1, 2006 at 2:00p.m. on the proposed site at forest and elmwood.

"we are not going to go down without a fight. we are going to go kicking and screaming," said pollina.


former secretary of defense caspar weinberger dies at 88

former united states secretary of defense caspar weinberger has died in the state of maine today at the age of 88. weinberger was hospitalized for pneumonia and having a high fever shortly before his death.

weinberger served under ronald reagan's administration during the 1980's, in which he pushed for more defense programs in the united states military, including the strategic defense initiative space defense program. he was also indicted on felony counts of lying to the independent counsel investigating the iran-contra affair, but was pardoned by then-president george h. w. bush days before he was to go on trial..

weinberger also was the publisher and chairman of forbes magazine in the early 1990's. he authored a book, "fighting for peace", and co-authored another with peter schweizer, entitled "the next war". both books are based on the effects of the cold war.

weinberger's funeral will be conducted at the arlington national cemetery.



u.s.a. researchers report plagiarism in putin's dissertation

researchers at the brookings institution, a non-profit think tank located in washington d.c., have recently accused russian president vladimir putin of making improper use of almost 16 pages and six figures from a 1982 translation of a 1978 textbook in his economics dissertation. "strategic planning and policy", written by university of pittsburgh professors william r. king and david i. cleland, was published in 1979. 

brookings institution researchers clifford gaddy and igor danchenko claim that putin's dissertation, which earned him a candidate's degree in economics from the st. petersburg mining institute, copies almost verbatim from the text. 

gaddy states, "i'm convinced that putin did read that textbook. this is exactly the style of governing the country that he has used in russia. he's actually taking their ideas and treating russia as if it's a corporation -- 'russia incorporated.'" 

many russian government officials at the time would pay a ghostwriter for such publications, as gaining a degree could add legitimacy to one's governing policy. in that sense, it is possible putin bought or paid for the dissertation and did not read over - in essence, passing plagiarised work off as his own, but not himself committing plagiarism. gaddy states: "it's very clear he never wrote the thing in the first case, this is a clear diploma-mill-type operation. this is a dissertation, paid for, made-to-order."

although gaddy and danchenko set out searching for putin's views on economics and sustainable development, they noticed in reading his dissertation that certain sections seemed out of place. the only english language source in the text was king and cleland's book. in the translation from russia to english of the dissertation, text was discovered that came from that book without credit. 

king and cleland have no plans to sue. 

vladimir putin's dissertation reference at the russian state library:

http://sigla.rsl.ru/view.jsp?o=a&f=1016&t=3&v0=%d0%9f%d1%83%d1%82%d0%b8%d0%bd&o=a&f=1003&t=1&v1=&o=a&f=4&t=2&v2=&o=a&f=21&t=3&v3=&o=a&f=1016&t=3&v4=&o=a&f=1016&t=3&v5=&tr=cyr-common&cc=n&i=3&s=2&i18n=en&ce=...u


thousands rally in columbus, ohio, for undocumented immigrants' rights

on march 26, thousands rallied outside the columbus, ohio statehouse, advocating rights for undocumented immigrants. this was one of a series of rallies following one in los angeles, which was reported to have drawn over 500,000 attendees.

the sponsoring coalition included the immigrant worker project, the farm labor organizing committee (floc), ufcw local 880, miguate (of [dover, ohio]), and the red [network] de inmigrantes de ohio. organizers wanted to raise awareness of bill pending in the us senate, hr 4437, which would make it a felony to be an illegal alien, or to assist aliens in entering or staying the country illegally. organizers also called for "true" immigration reform plan that would provide a path to citizenship for all immigrant workers.

 



thai police forward anti-thaksin pad accusations to corruption commission

an attempt to have the thai police bring charges against current caretaker prime minister thaksin shinawatra has resulted in the police forwarding the allegations brought by the people's alliance for democracy (pad) to the national counter-corruption commission (nccc).

the accusations centre around the attempted privatisation of egat, the electricity generating authority of thailand. the privatisation process was derailed last week with the ruling issued by the country's supreme administrative court. they struck down two royal decrees that had been written to allow listing the utility company on the stock exchange of thailand.

sondhi limthongkul, one of the main representatives of the pad, delivered the complaint to police secretary maj-gen prawut thavornsiri on monday. according to the thai news agency, the accusation that the legislation attempting to privatise egat was an act of malfeasance has been forwarded to the nccc by the police.

with pad protesters using every tactic they can think of to remove the caretaker pm ahead of this sunday's election, the street demonstrations that have characterised the protests since before the announcement of the snap election have moved. now focussing on the business areas of bangkok, today's protest centred on siam paragon, an up-market retail complex where protesters sought to bring their anti-thaksin message to shoppers.



exit polls suggest kadima victory in israeli elections

early exit polls for the israeli parliamentary elections suggest that the newly formed kadima party of prime minister ariel sharon and acting pm ehud olmert managed to capture between 28 and 32 seats in the 17th knesset with labor coming in second with 20 to 22 seats ahead of yisrael beiteinu with 12 to 14 seats. likud got 11 or 12 seats, the national religious party took 8 or 9 seats and shas 10 or 11 seats. the pensioners party performed better than expected, capturing 6 to 8 seats, united torah judaism got 5 to 6 seats and meretz around 5 seats. arab parties are expected to get 7 or 8 seats.

the results mean that olmert could probably form a center-left coaltion to implement his unilateral disengagement plan for the west bank.

"kadima has won today. the next prime minister is ehud olmert," said roni bar-on, a member of the knesset for kadima. his party did worse than expected from opinion polls, which saw them at gaining about 40 seats.

"this a crisis unlike any that has ever hit likud," said dan naveh, a senior mk of the party referring to likud's fall from being one of the dominating israeli parties in the last decades to finishing only 4th.

correspondents for the bbc stress that israeli exit polls are considered to be relatively unreliable, and that it may take some time to get definitive results.



beatles' apple corps sues apple computer

the beatles' apple corps has filed a lawsuit against computer and electronics maker apple computer in a london court this week, the third such lawsuit in a long running trademark dispute between the two companies. apple corps claims that apple computer's itunes music store violates an agreement reached between the two companies in 1991, which barred apple computer from using the "apple" brand in certain uses in the music business.

the trial is set to begin on wednesday in the royal courts of justice, located in central london. presiding judge martin mann has stated that he owns an ipod portable music player, which is made by apple computer and marketed alongside the itunes music store.

apple corps has twice before sued apple computer over its use of the "apple" name. the first lawsuit was settled out of court in 1981, with the young computer maker paying $80,000 and agreeing to stay out of the music business.

in the late 1980's apple computer added audio recording abilities to its macintosh computers, prompting apple corps to file suit again in 1989. that lawsuit was settled in 1991, also out of court, with apple paying $26.5 million. the settlement included a more specific agreement over the boundaries between the two brands: apple computer was allowed to use its name to market "goods or services...used to reproduce, run, play or otherwise deliver such <nowiki>[music]</nowiki> content," but barred from distributing music on a physical medium such as cd or cassette.

apple corps' latest suit, filed in september 2003, claims that the computer company violated the 1991 agreement with its itunes music store, which sells digital music that can be downloaded to personal computers. a statement from apple computer stated that "apple and apple corps now have differing interpretations of this agreement and will need to ask a court to resolve this dispute." some observers have suggested that the wording of the 1991 agreement, which did not explicitly bar digital music distribution, could be to apple computer's advantage.

a similar suit was filed simultaneously in california, apple computer's home state, but on september 21, 2004 the parties agreed to have the case heard by the uk court.

beatles songs have not been licensed for digital download on any of the online music services.

apple corps was founded by the beatles in 1968. apple computer was started by steve jobs and steve wozniak in 1976, and launched the itunes music store in 2003.




cyclone glenda intensifies to category 5 storm

tropical cyclone glenda has intensified overnight. according to the australian bureau of meteorology, glenda was upgraded from a category 3 to a category 5 storm around 8 p.m wst tuesday (1200 utc).

the bureau of meteorology predicts glenda will approach the coast later today. the bureau is also warning about the possibility of gale force winds along the pilbara coast between pardoo and mardie. these winds are predicted to extend west to exmouth tomorrow.

the bureau is also warning residents of the central and west pilbara coast that there is a risk of 200 kilometre per hour (124 miles per hour) winds tomorrow as glenda nears land.


us federal reserve raises interest rates - energy prices could affect inflation

the us federal reserve has raised the federal funds rate by 25 basis points (a quarter of a percent) to 4.75%. the federal open market committee said, "economic growth has rebounded strongly in the current quarter but appears likely to moderate to a more sustainable pace." the commmittee also said that the recent rise in energy prices has had a small effect on inflation and increasing productivity has offset growing labor costs which has helped keep inflation modest. 
however, the rise indicates the advent for future wariness over the state of the economy, with huge budget deficits yet to ofset it seams unlikely that the rates will decrease in forthcoming years, the federal chairman ben bernanke appeared at the senate board in the pursuit to implicitly state the statusquo worries. 


blair challenges new zealand to fight against global warming

british prime minister tony blair sees new zealand facing the challenge of playing a significant role in the fight against global warming. he mentioned in a video conference between auckland and a conference hosted by victoria university of wellington that the country could be a important factor in performing that change. it could persuade others to adopt reasonable policies for sustainability, he told a conference in te papa.

tony blair, who visited new zealand for 24 hours, said that the pressure must be kept on governments to address climate change whether or not they are signatories to the kyoto protocol. he encouraged ordinary people as well to take part in solving this great task: "one of the things you and other people can do is keep up the pressure... there are going to be some difficult decisions for government".


australian house of representatives acknowledges cyclone larry efforts

the australian house of representatives today acknowledged the impact of the recent devastating and the efforts of the support given to the residents and communities of north queensland in order to restore normal life.

the leader of the opposition, (, ) supported the motion, and congratulated the move to put in charge of operations, stating that soldiers "know how to work through logistics issues...how to work around officialdom or blockages", praised both local federal and state members of parliament, and especially the labor queensland state premier, .

australian history" and how the banana industry in north queensland was decimated. katter went on to describe the financial problems of the people in the region, the "huge gap" between the cost of rebuilding and insurance payouts, also asking "are we going to pay people virtually nothing to sit on their backsides to do nothing or are we going to pay them a decent wage and have them rebuilding our communities for us?"

the debate is set to continue in the main committee, as an opportunity for many more members of the house of representatives to speak to the motion, without taking up further time in the chamber.



jian seng ghost ship affair brings criticism of australian government

criticism was targeted to government efforts in the affair of the jian seng in the australian senate march 28 and 29 over the handling of the ghost
ship, the tanker "jian seng", which was found abandoned and unlit in
the gulf of carpentaria.

senator joe ludwig (labor,
queensland) asked of the minister for justice and customs senator
chris ellison in question time whether he stood by his claim that
he made yesterday that the discovery of the jian seng demonstrated that the
australian government had in place "aerial and maritime surveillance to
intercept a vessel in these circumstances, and that was done", and asked why it
took the government two weeks to intercept the vessel after it entered
australian waters. senator ellison responded that at the vessel's first
sighting on march 8 "it was not doing anything illegal", and criticised the
opposition's claim that the ship was drifting for seventeen days, saying
that "it was not stated as having drifted for the whole of the 17 days". ludwig
went on to note that it was not customs that spotted the ship but a "passing
australian barge", but ellison had defended this, stating that ludwig "thinks
that commercial vessels have absolutely no role in looking out for australia"
and that ellison will "rely on reports to our hotline and go out and inspect
vessels".

later, senator kerry o'brien (labor,
tasmania) criticised the government's implementation of coastal defense,
and highlighted the dangers of ignoring the ship for seventeen days, saying
that "it posed and possibly still poses unknown environmental and quarantine
risks" and that the "jian seng" "has been refused admission to weipa
harbour...it could have been carrying literally anything. it could have been
carrying chemicals. it could have been carrying guns".

senator david johnston (liberal,
western australia) went on to debate that there are no shipping lanes in
the area where the "jian seng" was found, and that devoting resources to a
harmless ship would leave gaps in the coastal defenses elsewhere.



search for body fails on new zealand's raoul island

according to a statement by a police officer sent to raoul island in order to find the body of mark kearny, 33, who worked on researches on volcanoes on raoul island, kearny was checking the temperature of the crater lake on march 17 when it erupted, blowing trees over, throwing boulders into the air, and burying the surrounding area in mud up to 5m deep.
a team of specialists has been sent to the island, but it is likely that the immense heat has destroyed the body of mr kearny.



news briefs:march 29, 2006

i'm phillip hong. the time is 0630 utc on wednesday the 29th of march 2006, and this is audio wikinews: news briefs.

bomb blast near mosul, iraq kills at least 40
"a bomb blast near the northern city of mosul has killed at least 40 iraqis. the bomber struck shortly after noon in front of a u.s. military base. the defence ministry says 30 people were injured in the blast, which was carried out by a suicide bomber. the u.s. military says a car bomb had exploded at an iraqi police recruiting centre."
blair challenges new zealand to fight against global warming
"the british prime minister tony blair sees new zealand facing the challenge of playing a significant role in the fight against global warming. he mentioned in a video conference between auckland and wellington that the country could be a important factor in performing that change."
cyclone glenda intensifies to category 5 storm
"tropical cyclone glenda has intensified overnight. according to the australian bureau of meteorology, glenda was upgraded from a category three to a category five storm around 8 p.m. australian western standard time (noon utc) tuesday."<br><br>
"the bureau of meteorology predicts glenda will approach the coast later today. the bureau is also warning about the possibility of gale force winds along the pilbara coast between pardoo and mardie. these winds are predicted to extend west to exmouth tomorrow."
to receive additional up-to-date news items as they become available, please visit wikinews.org. this has been a news brief for audio wikinews. this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


thousands strike in uk over pensions

as many as 1.5 million government workers, members of 11 unions, went on strike on tuesday in protest of a government decision to reduce their retirement benefits, a change which would take effect in october.

the strike closed thousands of schools, libraries and leisure centres, disrupted commuters, and reduced some facilities to emergency only staffing.

unison claimed that more than a million workers had joined the strike, with general secretary dave prentis saying "this overwhelming show of strength from lands end to john o'groats has obviously taken the local government association and some local councils by surprise".

the benefits change, would effect the "85 year rule," of the local government pension scheme, which allows government employees to retire at 60 as long as the sum of their age and their years of employment sum to 85 or greater. according to union representatives, the new retirement plan is targeted at lower paid employees, leaving higher paid employees to enjoy the same benefits as before.

ahead of the strike, the local government association claimed that the changes proposed by unions "would add at least 2% a year to every council taxpayer's bill".

the participating unions point out this is likely to be the largest strike in britain since 1926.



darfur declares swedish foreign minister unwelcome

according to the governor of darfur, swedish acting minister for foreign affairs carin jamtin is not welcome in the region due to sweden's involvement in the mohammed cartoons controversy. her planned visit has now been cancelled for security reasons. jamtin's press secretary, john zanchi, believes that the true motivation is that darfur's governor wants as little foreign involvement as possible in the local conflict. sweden has been actively working to send un peacekeepers to the region.

jamtin had earlier stated a desire to visit darfur after receiving worrying reports of the humanitarian situation there. her visit had been cleared by the government in khartoum. the foreign minister will continue her trip to other parts of sudan, including a visit to the vice president. 


rivers flood in central europe

the czech capital, prague, is preparing for the flood and flood defences are being set up along vltava shores. many locals are watching the rising river, remembering the . currently a quarter of the record flow of 2002 is flowing in vltava. further development depends on weather - if the melting does not combine with heavy rains, the floods are not expected to cause catastrophic damage. 


president bush to limit congressional oversight in patriot amendment act

president bush signed the "usa patriot act additional reauthorizing amendments act of 2006" into law. in the signing statement, bush averred that he could withhold information about the administration's controversial use of foreign intelligence surveillance act powers and national security letters if he deemed that they impaired foreign relations, national security, the deliberative processes of the executive, or the performance of the executive's constitutional duties. lawmakers and legal experts have questioned the president's authority to contravene the congress's intent in such a way. 

the patriot act reauthorisation bill specifically mandates the inspector general of the department of justice to audit the administration's use of investigative authority granted by the foreign intelligence surveillance act and national security letters and requires these audits to be submitted for congressional review. 

in the signing statement, president bush wrote "the executive branch shall construe the provisions of h.r. 3199 that call for furnishing information to entities outside the executive branch, such as sections 106a and 119, in a manner consistent with the president's constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch and to withhold information the disclosure of which could impair foreign relations, national security, the deliberative processes of the executive, or the performance of the executive's constitutional duties."

this follows on the heels of the signing of the congressional ban on torture issued in january of this year, when the president declared that he would view the interrogation limits in the context of his broader powers to protect national security. a senior white house official told a boston globe reporter that "of course the president has the obligation to follow this law, [but] he also has the obligation to defend and protect the country as the commander in chief, and he will have to square those two responsibilities in each case." the official added "we are not expecting that those two responsibilities will come into conflict, but it's possible that they will."

lawmakers tried to get a handle on president bush's use of signing statements in 2003, by passing a justice department spending bill that required the department to inform congress whenever the administration decided to ignore a legislative provision on constitutional grounds.

bush signed the bill, but issued a statement asserting his right to ignore the notification requirement. 

sen. lindsey graham, (r-s.c.) voiced concern over the way national security is being used as a catch all phrase in this and a number of other signing statements, saying "if you take this to its logical conclusion, because during war the commander in chief has an obligation to protect us, any statute on the books could be summarily waived,"

david golove, a new york university law professor who specializes in executive power issues, said "on the one hand, they deny that congress even has the authority to pass laws on these subjects like torture and eavesdropping, and in addition to that, they say that congress is not even entitled to get information about anything to do with the war on terrorism."

sen arlen specter, (r-pa) chairman of the senate judiciary committee argued "he (bush) can say whatever he likes, i don't know if that has a whole lot of impact on the statute. statutes are traditionally a matter of congressional intent," 

sen patrick j. leahy, (d-ver) said in a prepared statement: "the president's signing statements are not the law, and congress should not allow them to be the last word, the president's constitutional duty is to faithfully execute the laws as written by the congress, not cherry-pick the laws he decides he wants to follow. it is our duty to ensure, by means of congressional oversight, that he does so.

the signing statement is a written proclamation, issued by the president of the united sates that accompany the signing of a law passed by the legislative branch and generally sets forth how the executive branch intends to interpret and enforce the new law. 

the use of signing statements started with the us's fifth president james monroe (1817-1825) and from that time was used sparingly. in fact from monroe to jimmy carter (39 th president 1977-1981) there were a total of a 109 signing statements issued, 75 of which were to protect presidential prerogatives and 34 were to instruct the executive branch agencies on the interpretation of sections of the law. whereas from the reagan administration through the clinton administration there were a total of 396 signing statements made with 322 to protect presidential prerogative and 74 to instruct on presidential interpretation of the law. following along this sharp increase the bush administration issued 435 statements almost entirely objecting to encroachments upon presidential prerogatives. 
the key argument involved here is in the interpretation of the constitution. the bush administration is acting from on an idea called the unitary executive theory - you may have noticed it is mentioned twice in his signing statement - this theory holds that all three branches of the federal government have the power and duty to interpret the constitution and that the meaning of the constitution is determined through the dynamic interaction of all three branches.

this idea gained strength during the reagan administration as a response to the presidency having been severely weakened by vietnam and, watergate and is mainly championed by the "federalist society," a group of conservative lawyers who nearly all worked in the nixon, ford, and reagan white houses. it largely claims its authority from two sources within the constitution?the "oath" and "take care" clauses of article ii. the "oath" requirement acts as a sort of shield, protecting the president from enforcing things he independently determines are unconstitutional, and the "oath" clause directs the president to "faithfully execute the office of the president and [to] preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the united states." 

acting on this theory, then deputy assistant attorney general in the office of legal counsel samuel alito wrote a draft memo on feb. 5, 1986 outlining a strategy for strengthening presidential authority. it laid out a case for having the president routinely issue statements about the meaning of statutes when he signs them into law. he explained his thoughts this way:

"since the president's approval is just as important as that of the house or senate, it seems to follow that the president's understanding of the bill should be just as important as that of congress," he later added that "by forcing some rethinking by courts, scholars, and litigants, it may help to curb some of the prevalent abuses of legislative history." 

phillip cooper, a professor of public administration at portland state university states his objection to this; "it's nothing short of breath-taking. in every case, the white house has interpreted presidential authority as broadly as possible, interpreted legislative authority as narrowly as possible, and preempted the judiciary. 

the office of legal consul under president clinton declared: "if the president may properly decline to enforce a law, at least when it unconstitutionally encroaches on his powers, then it arguably follows that he may properly announce to congress and to the public that he will not enforce a provision of an enactment he is signing. if so, then a signing statement that challenges what the president determines to be an unconstitutional encroachment on his power, or that announces the president's unwillingness to enforce (or willingness to litigate) such a provision, can be a valid and reasonable exercise of presidential authority."



turn up and don't vote, urge anti-thaksin activists

in the last days before the thai snap-election this sunday, some activists seeking the removal of the now-caretaker prime minister thaksin shinawatra are urging voters to use the "no-vote" box on ballot papers.

a women's rights group issued their second statement on the subject, urging voters to turn up at polling stations and register their abstention. the statement from women and the constitution network said, "we want the thai people to go to the polls and exercise their voting right by choosing to abstain." an earlier statement had called for the beleaguered pm to resign. according to thailand's the nation other groups, including student organisations are urging voters to use the "no-vote" option.

calling into question whether the election will result in a full parliament, the bangkok post claims to have information from a thai rak thai party insider that around 100 of the 168 seats where they stand uncontested may not meet the minimum requirement that 20% of the eligble voters vote for the candidate. with less than the required 500 members in the lower house, ratification of a new prime minister will not be possible.


un security council calls on iran to suspend uranium enrichment

the u.n. has unanimously approved a non-binding statement earlier today reaffirming its commitment to the , including the right of ntp states to "develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination", and also calling for iran to temporarily suspend this right ? including all activities related to uranium enrichment and reprocessing, including research and development activities ? in order to " in the exclusively peaceful purpose of its nuclear programme and to resolve outstanding questions".

the five permanent members of the u.n. security council agreed on the statement earlier today. this is the first action by the security council over the alleged fears of some countries that iran wants to join the of nations possessing nuclear weapons.

the security council requested that in addition to the 's ongoing inspections in iran, that it monitor iran's compliance with "the steps required by the iaea board". russia and china, two members of the security council, have stated opposition to using force or imposing sanctions on iran.

the iaea was requested to file a report in thirty days' time.


cyclone glenda closes in on western australia

the australian bureau of meteorology has reported the occurrence of 100 kilometres per hour (62 miles per hour) winds along the pilbara coast as tropical cyclone glenda closes in.

at 8 p.m. wst wednesday (1200 utc), the bureau of meteorology reported that glenda had weakened and reclassified it as a category 4 storm. the bureau of meteorology expects glenda will cross the coast between exmouth and karratha tonight.

the bureau of meteorology predicts gale force winds gusting up to 130 kilometres per hour (80 miles per hour) to develop in the affected region during the day. they predict that later, as the cyclone nears the coast that winds up to 250 kilometres an hour (155 miles per hour) will occur near the cyclone centre.

the bureau also warns of the possibility of a dangerous storm surge between karatha and onslow as the cyclone crosses the coast.they warn that tides are likely to rise above the normal high tide make causing flooding and damaging waves.

the fire and emergency services authority of western australia has placed residents in karratha, roebourne, point samson, wickham, dampier and mardie on red alert. residents are advised to:

fesa has issued a blue alert for people between de grey and whim creek including port hedland, south hedland, pannawonica, onslow and exmouth. a blue alert means that residents should begin taking precautions and making preparations for a possible red alert condition.



nigeria arrests charles taylor for war crimes trial

yesterday in nigeria, former liberian president charles taylor was arrested after being caught trying to flee the country. nigeria had announced that it would allow taylor's transfer to liberia at the request of the new liberian president . the government of nigeria reported taylor to be missing on monday; they had made known earlier that day that they would not take responsibility for taylor's arrest or transfer. after his flight however, he was arrested on the border of cameroon by nigerian authorities who transferred him to where he was met by un authorities who took him into custody. he is to be tried by the -backed for sierra leone in freetown.

richard dicker, director of the international justice program for , expressed enthusiasm over taylor's capture: "this is an extraordinary moment for the people of west africa. taylor’s trial should bring long awaited justice to the victims of sierra leone’s brutal war and promote the rule of law in a region devastated by violence."

chief prosecutor of the war crimes court, desmond de silva, commented: "today is a momentous occasion, an important day for international justice, the international community, and above all the people of sierra leone." taylor was exiled to nigeria in august of 2003 after leading liberia into a civil war.

taylor will stand trial for allegedly having the "greatest responsibility" for , crimes against humanity and other violations of international law perpetrated under his leadership; the specific charges include responsibility for murder, hostage taking, extermination, rape, murder, sexual slavery, and use of child soldiers.



australian federal police raid home over unauthorised access to pay tv services

australian federal police officers reportedly raided the home in argenton, west of newcastle, new south wales of a man suspected of distibuting software to enable unauthorised access to pay tv services foxtel and austar.

a spokesperson for the australian federal police said that officers seized computer equipment, including an "external hardware drive". the spokesperson said police were assisted by foxtel's fraud invesigators and computer forensic experts from ferrier hodgson.

debra richards, executive director of the australian subscription television association, the organisation which represents the interests of australian pay tv service providers, said, "industry members are working cooperatively through astra to address a problem that results in lost revenue and resources that would otherwise be used to grow the australian television and production industries." 

"the real victims here are the consumers who are being hoodwinked into being involved in a criminal activity, often paying more than they would otherwise for a legitimate service," she said.


judge sentences ali to 30 years for bush assassination plot

ahmed omar abu ali, a 25-year-old u.s. citizen, was sentenced by a u.s. district court judge to 30 years in prison on tuesday for plotting to assassinate united states president george w. bush. ali, a self-proclaimed member of al qaeda, was arrested by saudi officials in 2003 at the islamic university of medina.

prosecutors had originally asked for a life sentence, but the judge said that the 30-year sentence was adequate, comparing the case to the "american taliban" john lindh. in addition, the judge pointed out that ali's actions "did not result in one single actual victim. that fact must be taken into account."

ali had given a statement to saudi officials after his capture stating that he had joined al qaeda and talked with its senior members about plots to assassinate the president and to establish a terrorist cell in the united states. he asserted that his confession had been obtained through torture.


new zealand declares 2007 switch of energy efficiency strategy

the new zealand government's energy efficiency strategy has been considered ineffective and will hence be replaced in 2007. energy minister trevor mallard and the government's spokeswoman on energy efficiency jeanette fitzsimons announced that the four-year-old national energy efficiency and conservation strategy would be revamped. originally, this strategy was meant to achieve a 20 per cent improvement of the energy efficiency rate and increase renewable energy supply by 30 petajoules until 2012. 


son charged with eye-gouging attack on mother dies

a mentally ill new zealand man who had been accused this week of biting off his elderly mother's finger and gouging her eyes has been found dead. the 41-year-old man died in a mental health unit in hamilton overnight apparently from natural causes, police said.

he was accused of having attacked his 73-year old mother by biting off a finger and gouging her eyes. it is certain that she will become blind in at least one eye. the man, 41, was due to appear in rotorua district court earlier this week but was not considered to be mentally stable. he has been diagnosed schizophrenic before.


news briefs:march 30, 2006

i'm phillip hong. the time is 0730 utc on wednesday the 30th of march 2006, and this is audio wikinews: news briefs.

uk public sector workers strike over pension rights
"government workers in the uk withdrew their labour on march 29 as part of a dispute over pension entitlements. the members of 11 different trades unions were involved in the 24-hour strike."
nigeria arrests charles taylor for war crimes trial
"yesterday in nigeria, former liberian president charles taylor was arrested after being caught trying to flee the country. nigeria had announced that it would allow taylor's transfer to liberia at the request of the new liberian president ellen johnson-sirleaf. he is to be tried by the un-backed war crimes court for sierra leone in freetown."
cyclone glenda closes in on western australia
"the australian bureau of meteorology has reported the occurrence of 100-kilometre-per hour (62 mile-per-hour) winds along the pilbara coast as tropical cyclone glenda closes in."<br><br>
"at 8 p.m. western australian time wednesday night, the bureau of meteorology reported that glenda had weakened, and they reclassified it as a category 4 storm. the bureau of meteorology expects glenda will cross the coast between exmouth and karratha tonight."

to receive additional up-to-date news as it occurs, please visit wikinews.org. this has been a news brief for audio wikinews. this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


eu warns microsoft: forthcoming vista risks antitrust breach

the european commission has warned microsoft that features the company intends to include in its next version of known as may breach the european union's laws.

the eu's commissioner in charge of competition, , wrote to , ceo of microsoft, last week informally warning him that microsoft's plans to include security features, search tools, copyright protection services and an application to create documents similar to 's files into vista would violate european antitrust laws, according to her spokesman jonathan todd.

mr. todd said that the commission was worried that features microsoft plans to include in vista may prevent customers from choosing their own software combinations. he emphasised that the letter was not a signal of a formal antitrust inquiry into windows vista.

the commission wrote the letter following a letter from microsoft asking them to indicate if there were any possible competition issues with the new system. mr. todd said: "we assume that microsoft has its own interests at heart. it wants to launch another product without having to worry about the commission instituting various actions under antitrust law." 

microsoft's top lawyer in europe, horacio guttierez, said wednesday that adding such functions into the operating system was essential if microsoft was to meet customer demand. "i know consumers want more secure computer systems," he said.
windows vista includes software called windows defender, which seeks out and removes and adware. guttierez claims that forcing microsoft to sell windows without defender "is a bit like forcing bmw to sell cars without airbags".

"we have a responsibility to make our products better and more secure for our customers," he said.


australian mps exchange fighting words over healthcare rebate

abbott was asked a in today about the benefits of the safety net. he alleged that criticism by the opposition health spokeswoman julia gillard (, ) that the safety net favoured liberal/ coalition electorates was misleading as it was a labor electorate, that received the "highest safety net benefits per electorate".

this led gillard to make a personal explanation after question time, stating that "the top four electorates receiving money under the medicare safety net are , , and " ? all coalition electorates. the leader of the opposition, (, ), put a question to the , (, ) asking of the speaker his "assurance that no person is being deliberately misled by the actions of any other person". 

abbott had then interjected towards beazley, saying "you big bellowing cow"; the speaker asked abbott to withdraw, but abbott mentioned that "the leader of the opposition regularly interjects 'pompous ass' and 'goose', but i am happy to withdraw". beazley then responded through the speaker saying of abbott, "i think that he is a sleazy, dummy-spitting, little git."

abbott then made a personal explanation of his own, saying "the safety net benefit per person in the electorate of the member for grayndler was $591, the highest in new south wales...the safety net benefit in the electorate of sydney was $589, the second highest...the benefit in the electorate of lowe was $458, the third highest".

the matter was not further raised at the time, but after the matter of public importance debate, gillard moved a motion to suspend standing orders which would prevent abbott from explaining his earlier claim "when this claim is totally untrue", to correct the "grossly inaccurate and misleading statement", to "apologise to all members in this place" and to "apologize to the member for grayndler and his constituents". gillard also listed the amounts of payments "released by the minister himself", that wentworth received $7.8 million, north sydney received $7.5 million, bradfield received $6.9 million, warringah received $6.3 million; whereas grayndler received only $3.6 million. she attempted to debate the motion but a gag motion to silence gillard was moved and won because of government numbers. anthony albanese, the member for grayndler attempted to second the motion but the gag was moved on him as well. the final vote on the motion was lost 55 to 79.



captors release american journalist jill carroll

jill carroll, an american journalist, has been released by her captors after having been held for 82 days.

caroll was abducted on january 7, 2006 in baghdad by gunmen and was dropped off by unknown individuals at the iraqi islamic party's branch office in the western part of the amariyah district in baghdad. her translator was killed during the abduction, but her driver escaped.

carroll is a freelance journalist who writes for the "christian science monitor".

"she was released this morning; she's talked to her father and she's fine. this is a wonderful day," said david cook, chief of the "christian science monitor's" washington bureau.

"she is ok. she is safe. she is more or less scared. i told her calm down and we would take care of her," said tariq al-hashimi, the party's secretary general.

"i'm really grateful she was released and thank those who worked hard for her release, and we're glad she's alive," said united states president george w. bush.

earlier, her captives threatened to kill carroll if all iraqi women prisoners were not released from prisons in iraq.

"i am just happy to be free. i just want to be with my family quickly," said carroll. "i was treated well. it's important people know that. i was not harmed, they never said they would hit me."

carroll had written that she had gone to jordan to "learn as much about the region as possible before the fighting began." she arrived in the middle east in 2002 to cover the iraq war.

"there was bound to be plenty of parachute journalism once the war started, and i didn't want to be a part of that," added carroll.

one week ago, three peace activists were released during a british-led operation in iraq. jim loney and harmeet singh sooden, both canadians and norman kember a british man were released on march 23, 2006. a fourth member of the group, tom fox from the u.s., was shot dead and found earlier in march in baghdad. they were members of a group called christian peacemaker teams.



first brazilian astronaut accompanies iss replacements

a russian-us crew bound for the international space station launched at 8:30 a.m. almt thursday (0230 utc) from the cosmodome in baikonur, kazakhstan in a russian soyuz tma rocket. included with the crew was marcos cesar pontes, 43, brazil's first astronaut.

pontes, who flies for the brazilian air force, was joined on the trip by russian cosmonaut pavel vinogradov and u.s. astronaut jeffrey williams. the russian and u.s. astronauts will be spending the next six months onboard the iss. in ten days pontes will return along with outgoing astronauts american bill mcarthur and russian valery tokarev.


optus b1 outage leaves all new zealand sky tv digital subscribers without service

an outage of , believed to have occurred due to a problem during realignment of the satellite has resulted in a loss of service to all subscribers of 's digital service, an estimated 550,000 people . sky tv's terrestrial uhf service is unaffected.

users of the digital service see a rain fade error message which is the standard error message that occurs when signal is lost on sky's digital set-top boxes. sky has temporarily removed the scrambling of their terrestrial uhf sky sport channel, allowing anyone able to receive the signal to view the channel (regardless of whether they are subscribers to any of sky's services). there are 3 other pay tv uhf channels operated by sky but none of the others have been unscrambled. original media reports suggest the unscrambling of sky sport 1 was done as the award ceremony was being held that evening, however the channel remains unscrambled after the end of the awards ceremony. sky sport 1 is probably one of the most popular sky channels and provides coverage of including matches which will be played during the weekend beginning in the evening of 31 march 2006.

the outage began at around 30 march 2006 1850 nzst and is ongoing as at 31 march 2006 0755 nzst. however service has been partially restored as of 0820 nzst. it appears the satellite is still under realignment as not all channels work and with some the signal quality is poor. certain channels that were available as of 0820 nzst were no longer available as of 0835 nzst.

sky's website briefly went down and when it returned has been modified to include a special front page mentioning the outage . their phone service was frequently overloaded (engaged) and plays a message mentioning the outage in a continuous loop with normal voice prompts removed.

according to sky's media release , the optus b1 is still contacting optus's ground stations and optus is currently attempting to realign the satellite. early media reports had indicated the satellite could be uncontactable and a report on nightly news programme quoted experts suggesting that it is possible the satellite potentially could not be properly realigned. earlier reports had also quoted a sky spokesperson suggesting the problem could be fixed by midnight .

the outage has also affected other services using the optus b1 satellite believed to include some air traffic control functions, some interbank transmissions and also the new zealand fire service in-fill paging service . other broadcasters using the satellite include who offer both their tv channels free to air via the satellite and the australian and . juicetv, a free-to-air terrestrial uhf music channel provided by sky is also not broadcasting instead displaying the rain-fade error message. which is community broadcast in auckland is also affected as it originates from a free to air broadcast from the satellite.

it has also been reported that the radio network analog radio channels have been affected throughout the country and that users of sky's mysky box are unable to use the box even to watch prerecorded shows as the box needs a connection to the satellite to operate .

the nightly news programme report also mentioned that several pubs had had reduced patronage due to the loss of the sport broadcasting or racing. reported loss of patronage in at least one pub . however the channel which provides coverage of racing events also broadcasts free to air on uhf in cooperation with sky tv and appeared unaffected at 2245 nzt.

the optus b1 satellite is 14 years old and is considered in urgent need of replacement as it lost its primary scp on 21 may 2005 and is now running on the one and only backup scp. it has an intended lifespan of between 10 to 15 years. however the launch of the replacement satellite of the optus d class was delayed in august 2005 but are now intended to be launched in june 2006 .

sky tv is the predominant pay tv broadcaster in new zealand and the only one who use satellite. the only other pay tv broadcaster of any significance is who operate a cable network in and reaching an estimated 160,000 households with a reported 62,000 subscribers to their network (this figure likely includes customers who do not subcribe to their tv service). they also provide access to several of sky's channels. world tv offers several asian channels using the sky network. mirchee tv offer several channels targeting the south asian market via a terrestrial setup using satellite receiving equipement.

at present, an on is attempting to sell the satellite. 


cynthia mckinney (d-ga) and officer tangle on the hill

u.s. representative cynthia mckinney (d-ga) allegedly punched a capitol hill police officer in the chest after he grabbed her arm. the officer was pursuing her after she failed to pass through the metal detector, which house members are not required to do.

mckinney has complained about government security in the past. she protested about being stopped in 1993 and 1995. in 1996 and 1998, she complained that white house security didn't treat her the same as her white colleagues. at one time, a security officer mistook her 23-year-old white aide for the congresswoman. she is quoted on the hill as having said, at one, "i am absolutely sick and tired of having to have my appearance at the white house validated by white people."

mckinney has been one of the most vocal critics of the 9/11 reviews and she hosted a july 22nd, 2005 congressional briefing: "the 9/11 commission report one year later: a citizens' response - did they get it right?"



luxembourg, india spar over arcelor takeover bid

several weeks ago netherlands based company mittal steel made a takeover bid for arcelor, prompting legislation from luxembourg (5.6% owners of arcelor, the largest stockholders) and cries of discrimination from india.

mittal is owned by the world's fifth wealthiest man, laskshmi mittal, an indian. after the takeover bid, the luxembourg chamber of commerce attempted to introduce new rules that would stop companies with less than 25% of their shares in free float from making a cash and bid offer for a company whose location is in luxembourg. india news reports then claimed that this was a discriminatory action because laskshmi mittal is an indian.

luxembourg officials have disputed this, stating that their actions were only due to the need to comply with eu legislation. the country's minister for economy and foreign trade, leannot krecke, stated, "the government will have no role in impeding the bid. we intend to bring the takeover bill in may to put in the best international practices in our economy." krecke also stated that a similar bill will have to be brought to the national governments of each of the 25 eu member nations so that they complied with eu legislation. 

word of new delhi's displeasure with luxembourg's stance seems to have been translated to luxembourg during a meeting that the finance ministers of both countries had in india. 

meanwhile, mittal has announced that it is prepared to cut the cash portion of its buyout offer. mittal will do so if arcelor increases its dividend to shareholders above the 80 cent market consensus. a spokesman for mittal stated: "if arcelor decides to distribute extra cash to shareholders, we will consider that as an advance payment on our offer and adjust the cash component of our offer accordingly."


tourist ferry sinks off bahrain coast; at least 44 dead

at approximately 8 p.m. eest (1700 utc) in bahrain, a ferry that was believed to have been carrying about 150 tourists and locals was reported missing and overturned off the coast of bahrain, near the sheikh khalifa causeway bridge, sitra. the united states fifth fleet has been called in to help with the rescue.

earlier reports from "reuters" stated that at least 40 bodies had been found, but "abc news" reported that at least 44 are dead.

"there are 52 survivors and there are also 44 dead (bodies) that were retrieved. so far, the (rescue) operations continue. god willing, there will be more survivors rescued," said bahrain's interior minister abdulla al khalifa.

one resident said, "i have seen at least 48 bodies," and "abc news" reported at least 44 dead. however, "many on board were rescued," a bahraini official was quoted as saying.

"the first report we received was that a dhow (a wooden boat) has capsized. we are preparing a helicopter to join the rescue. there is no initial indication that this was an attack," said a u.s. navy spokesman.


u.s. actor charlie sheen questions 9/11 theories

charlie sheen, appearing on cable television news network station "cnn" on march 24, questioned the credibility of the theory that 19 hijackers caused all of the destruction to the world trade center.

sheen said; ""it seems to me like, you know, 19 amateurs with box cutters taking over four commercial airliners and hitting 75 percent of their targets, that feels like a conspiracy theory… i am an american citizen that loves my country…. people want the truth. they want the truth. and what's been offered to us resembles nothing of the sort.""

in recounting his reaction on the day of the event, sheen said,"i "was up early and we were gonna do a pre-shoot on spin city, the show i used to do. i was watching the news and the north tower was burning. there was a feeling, it just didn't look like any commercial jetliner i've flown on any time in my life and then when the buildings came down later on that day i said to my brother, 'call me insane but did it sorta look like those buildings came down in a controlled demolition?"'" 

writer marc jacobson, of the "new york" magazine, who co-appeared with sheen on the same program said in response: ""well, i think he's doing a reasonable rendition of what other people that believe in this stuff say. and when he says he has his facts straight, i mean, i think the facts are in question. i mean, i think, just because you know what it says on all of these different web sites doesn't mean that that's necessarily the fact. that's the reason why the united states government, with their endless amounts of resources, let us down by not doing the proper work on the 9/11 commission. that's a real problem. well, you know, but, i mean, it's just one of those kind of things where you do this work and nobody really cares, but then charlie sheen is interested, so then everybody is interested, and that's fine. you know, obviously, this material needs to be looked at again, because there's been a lot of problems with the 9/11 commission report. people feel it's not adequate. most of the people who had lost people during that time feel it's not adequate. and it's just i think we're living in a truth vacuum, in a sense, that any time there's a truth vacuum, these ideas -- because people are smart. they put two and two together. sometimes they get five; sometimes they get 12, but sometimes they get 11, like 9/11, but sometimes they get four. and the thing is that, if you have a situation where the so-called facts are covered up and aggressively covered up, then you're going to get these conspiracy theories."" one website is claiming that google had been censoring out any news articles relating to sheen and 9/11 from it's search engine.

regarding the plane that hit the pentagon, sheen also has questions: ""just show us how this particular plane pulled off these maneuvers… it is up to us to reveal the truth. it is up to us because we owe it to the families, we owe it to the victims, we owe it to everyone's life who was drastically altered, horrifically, that day and forever. we owe it to them to uncover what happened."" 

some supporters of sheen's theories have complained about the lack of mainstream media coverage. they point to cnn's recent cancellation of ed asner's interview on showbiz tonight, where he was expected to support sheen's position, as an example of the "media blackout". 

marina hyde of "the guardian" proposed a theory of her own with regard to sheen: "frankly, with dentistry as expensive as yours, you simply can't afford to let the man stamp his jackboot down on your face, and so it is that when faced with the inquiry 'did lee harvey oswald act alone?', you find yourself thinking: 'god, i mean… do any of us? like, he had to have people, you know? at least an agent and a publicist.'"




court rules rubber-stamping thai election ballots not required

with the actual poll only days away, thailand's administrative court has ruled against a new requirement introduced by the country's election commission. voters will not be forced to complete ballots with a rubber stamp and may instead use a pen.

ruling that the change to require the use of a rubber stamp is in contravention of election law, judge anuwat tharasawaeng highlighted that election law does not mandate how a mark must be made on the ballot.


canada freezes aid to palestine

canada has become the first western country to freeze aid and cut diplomatic ties to palestine after the palestinian legislative council installed a government led by hamas. no other country has yet followed through on threats to end aid to the palestinian authority. aid may still go to palestine through the united nations.

the canadian arab federation head, faraj nakhleh, later expressed his dismay at the decision, which he says will harm the interests of the 3.5 million palestinians who are at risk of starvation. 


rainy weather in hawaii enters sixth week

heavy rains have hit the main hawaiian islands for nearly six weeks, contributing to flooding in many places in the islands: a deadly dam break in northern kauai, a sewage spill in honolulu's waikiki district, and record rainfall totals in many areas of the state. 

a series of upper-level storm systems have formed northwest of the island of kauai, drawing tropical moisture from the south over hawaii and forming areas of heavy rain and thunderstorms.

the island of kauai, on which an earthen dam broke on march 7 killing seven people, has been hardest hit. mount waialeale, in the center of the island, has received 90 inches of rain during the month of march and 126.69 inches since the weather pattern began on february 19. 34.31 inches of rain had fallen at lihue airport, the most rain in a single month since records started in 1950.

tourism officials are concerned about the long-term effect that the heavy rains may have on tourism, and they expect to launch a marketing campaign once the weather improves.

the entire state remains under a flash flood watch until at least saturday. weather forecasters expect a return to normal weather patterns early next week.



lethal earthquakes rock western iran, 70 or more die

at least 70 people are dead and hundreds more injured after three earthquakes and several aftershocks rocked western iran between doroud and boroujerd in the lorestan province at 11:06 p.m. local time (1936 gmt) on thursday. some estimates of those injured currently range between 700-1,200 people.

the first earthquake measured a 4.7 on the richter magnitude scale and was in a mountainous area and the second measured a 5.1. the third quake measured a 6.0 and hit doroud and the villages surrounding the area at 4:47 a.m. local time (0117 gmt) on friday.

according to the u.s. geological survey, however, a 5.7 magnitude quake occurred at 0117 utc followed by an earthquake of 4.7 magnitude fifteen minutes later. they also report that the previous day, a quake measuring 4.7 in magnitude occurred in the same area.

power has been cut to some areas and there are reports of at least 330 villages that have been severely damaged. some reports say that at least 20 villages have been destroyed. thousands have been left homeless as a result.

in december of 2003, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake killed over 31,000 people and in february of 2005 a 6.4 eathquake killed 600 people near zarand in the kerman province.


faust seeks murphy disqualification in pa congressional primary

jane faust, former republican committeewoman once convicted of forging signatures, was a plaintiff yesterday in pennsylvania's commonwealth court (state court). her lawyer, larry otter, argued that patrick murphy should be thrown off the ballot for the democratic primary election in the eighth congressional district of pennsylvania. the eighth district is primarily located in bucks county, pennsylvania.

otter argued that during the period of election petition signature collection, murphy had signed his name as the circulator on two petition sheets, but was not present for each signature that was signed on those sheets, and thereby breaking pennsylvania state law. pennsylvania law states that whoever signs a petition sheet as a circulator must be present for each signature and see each signature placed on the sheet.

murphy admitted that he was not at the sheet for every signature, and he agreed that the 96 signatures on those two sheets should be invalidated. he also stated that he was unaware of that particular election statute. otter argued that the candidacy should be thrown out because when murphy presented his signatures he was required to sign an affidavit stating he would "not knowingly violate any election law." it was otter's contention to judge robert simpson, jr., that it is unbelievable that murphy would not know the law, as murphy is a lawyer.

"mr. murphy is a member of the bar of this court. he can't say he doesn't know what the law was. he's been campaigning over a year," otter said. he then continued, arguing that since murphy knowingly falsified his name on those two circulation petitions, he also failed to fulfill his candidate affidavit, which according to state law is a criminal offense. 

the campaign manager for the murphy campaign, josh nanberg, said, "under otter's argument, any candidate who has a meeting and puts a clipboard at the front table and ... goes to the bathroom should be thrown out. that's ridiculous."


death toll of bahrain tourist boat capsizing rises to 57

at least 57 people are now known to have died when a boat designed similar to a traditional dhow capsized one mile of the coast of bahrain in the persian gulf. seventeen were indian and a further 13 of the dead are british; people of another six nationalities are also known to have died. the passengers were mostly foreigners from the nass-murray and roberts construction company, and were enjoying an evening dinner cruise in celebration of their completion of part of the bahrain world trade centre towers. most who died were dining on the lower deck, and were trapped below.

over 130 people were onboard the boat at the time, although some say the boat was only licensed to carry 120. others say the limit was 150. eyewitnesses say the boat was overloaded. the boat capsized in calm seas soon after it left, trapping many below. helicopters from the us navy searched for 13 missing persons until friday morning, when the search was called off. the dhow had been modified to have an extra, higher deck making the vessel less stable. the exact cause is unknown - suggestions from eyewitnesses include the boat suddenly turning left, being hit by a wave, and many of the passengers moving to one side of the boat together. the bahrain interior ministry is to investigate the accident and establish if the boat was seaworthy.


condoleezza rice visits the united kingdom

condoleezza rice the united states secretary of state has been visiting the north west england as a guest of jack straw the united kingdom foreign secretary. she has been staying in liverpool and travelling to blackburn, mr straw's constituency.

her meeting has been followed by street protests outside her hotel on hope street and earlier visit to a mosque was cancelled after public order fears.

her visit is scheduled to last from march 30, 2006 to april 1, 2006.


auto parts maker delphi plans to cut 8,500 jobs; union contracts

the world's second largest auto parts maker, , has announced today that 8,500 salary workers may be out of a job soon as part of a major restructuring plan, which will also include voiding the contract with the union. the move would also shutdown over a third of its factories worldwide, including twenty one located in the united states.

eight plants in the u.s. are slated to continue operating. those located in , , , mississippi, , , , new york, , , , ohio, , , and , will continue to serve as delphi properties. the rest of the factories are said to either be sold to other companies, or to be closed entirely. 

the plans were brought up to a bankruptcy judge earlier today. in addition to the proposed closings and layoffs, 34,000 workers may experience cut wages and less benefits. hourly workers wages will drop from 27 to $22 an hour soon, and will further decrease to $16.50 in late 2007. 

delphi previously filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in october 2005. in the original filing, requests were made to drop the hourly wages down to $12.50 an hour.



news briefs:april 1, 2006

i'm phillip hong. the time is 1200 utc on saturday the 1st of april 2006, and this is audio wikinews: news briefs.

death toll of bahrain tourist boat capsizing rises to 57
"at least 57 people are now known to have died when a traditional wooden dhow capsized one mile of the coast of bahrain in the persian gulf. at least 17 were indian and a further 13 of the dead were british; people of another six nationalities are also known to have died."

nz sky tv customers to get refund for satellite failure
"on thursday night, a failure of the optus b1 satellite affected the sky pay tv network and also caused a blackout of other satellite-based systems. sky tv subscribers will get a refund for the inconvenience. the satellite was down from thursday evening to friday morning. it also covers international emergency service and air traffic coordination. however, thanks to backup services, no serious effects were caused."

sewage spill fouls waikiki beach
"more than 48 million gallons of untreated sewage that flowed into the ocean from a sewer spill on friday, march 24, have forced honolulu city officials to post signs warning tourists on waikiki beach to stay out of the water. a 42-inch pressurized sewer line in waikiki cracked on friday, march 24, sending untreated sewage into the ala wai canal on the mountain side of waikiki. engineers believe that heavy rains since february 19 overwhelmed the sewer line, which was constructed in 1965."

to receive additional up-to-date news as it occurs, please visit wikinews.org. this has been a news brief for audio wikinews. this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.

this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.

i'm phillip hong. the time is 0100 utc on the 1st of april, and this is audio wikinews: news briefs.

lethal earthquakes rock western iran, 70 or more die
"at least 51 people are dead and hundreds more injured after three earthquakes and several aftershocks rocked western iran on thursday. some estimates of those injured currently range between 700-870 people."
judge sentences ali to 30 years for bush assassination plot 
"ahmed omar abu ali, a 25-year-old u.s. citizen, was sentenced by a u.s. district court judge to 30 years in prison on tuesday for plotting to assassinate united states president george w. bush. ali, a self-proclaimed member of al qaeda, was arrested by saudi officials in 2003 at the islamic university of medina. prosecutors had originally asked for a life sentence, but the judge said that the 30-year sentence was adequate, comparing the case to the "american taliban" john lindh."
rainy weather in hawaii enters sixth week
"heavy rains have hit the main hawaiian islands for nearly six weeks, contributing to flooding in many places in the islands. a series of upper-level storm systems have formed northwest of the island of kauai, drawing tropical moisture from the south over hawaii and forming areas of heavy rain and thunderstorms."

to receive additional up-to-date news as it occurs, please visit wikinews.org. this has been a news brief for audio wikinews. more news at 1200 utc.


iraq war vet claims atrocities by u.s. soldiers

joshua key, a 27-year-old u.s. war deserter, alleged to a canadian immigration and refugee board yesterday that american soldiers had been kicking the severed head of an iraqi in ramadi "like a soccer ball." 

"i couldn't believe someone could do that to a human being," said key, who is the first u.s. army deserter to make application for refugee status after serving in iraq. 

the u.s. army's attitude in iraq was "just shoot and ask questions later," according to key. he said, "it's like people could kill if they just wanted to. everything is justified." 

key also claimed to have witnessed a "trigger happy" platoon squad sergeant shooting part of an unarmed iraqi man's foot off after the man had raised his foot as a sign of disrespect.

there are five members of the u.s. armed forces requesting asylum in canada but key is the only applicant who has combat experience in iraq, said key's lawyer, jeffry house. "he has boots-on-the-ground experience about what the actual conduct of the war in iraq is," house said.

key also said at the hearing; "(iraqis) are just normal people. they're farmers, mothers, fathers; just like us, just like my home country. i didn't see why we was there." 

key now works as a welder in british columbia where he and his wife have four children under six years of age.

there were no representations made at this hearing to dispute the claims made by key; but key also did not provide any proof to substantiate his allegations.


nz sky tv customers to get refund for satellite failure

on thursday night, a failure of the optus b1 satellite affected the sky pay tv network and also caused a blackout of other satellite-based systems. sky tv subscribers will get a refund for the inconvenience.

the satellite was down from thursday evening to friday morning. it also covers international emergency service and air traffic coordination. however, thanks to backup services, no serious effects were caused.

satellite experts and astronomers questioned sky's explanation that the solar eclipse had hampered attempts to get the service back up and running ? the eclipse happened nearly 24 hours before the outage, and thus the satellite should have been in a different area of the sky. a spokesman of sky tv said the problem occurred because the eclipse happened at the moment the sun was required to charge the satellite's batteries for a routine realignment.

the pay tv company is considering paying compensation to advertising customers as well.


sewage spill fouls waikiki beach

more than 48 million gallons (180 million l) of untreated sewage that flowed into the ocean from a sewer spill on friday, march 24, have forced city officials in honolulu, hawaii, united states, to post signs warning tourists on waikiki beach to stay out of the water.

a 42-inch pressurized sewer line in waikiki cracked on friday, march 24, sending untreated sewage into the ala wai canal on the inland (mauka) side of waikiki. engineers believe that heavy rains since february 19 overwhelmed the sewer line, which was constructed in 1965.

city officials say that they had no alternative but to pump the raw sewage into the ala wai canal, which empties just west of waikiki, to prevent the wastewater from backing up into homes and hotels. repair crews worked around the clock to fix the sewer break. the spill was finally stopped on thursday.

at first, tides and winds took the sewage spill out to sea, but southerly winds sent the sewage back toward waikiki beach, forcing city officials to take action. signs were posted on beaches on the west side of waikiki. bacteria tests taken on the 29th showed levels of bacteria from three to sixty times acceptable levels.

health officials will continue to test bacteria levels daily, but there is no estimate as to when the contamination will dissipate; warning signs may be in place for as long as several months.



auckland city council acts to remove suspect chemicals in pre-school's soil

chemicals, which the auckland city council said are a suspected cause of cancer and are considered toxic, have been found in soil at a children's playcentre in auckland. the contamination was found at the auckland central playcentre in freemans bay, and the council will now spend $100,000 removing the top 50 cm (about 20 in) of soil at the playcentre, doing landscaping and replacing playground equipment.

the presence of "polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, including benzo-a-pyrene," was suspected at the school playground and was confirmed by a chemical analysis on tuesday. the chemicals may cause temporary digestive and respiratory distress, as well as irritation of the eyes and skin. the levels of benzo-a-pyrene found were between 0.06 and 4.82 milligrams per kilogram of soil at surface level, according to the ministry of education. a potential risk is present at levels above 3.5 mg.



wikinews interviews frugalware linux founder

the frugalware development team describes --frugalware as a general purpose linux distribution, designed for intermediate users who are not afraid of text mode. frugalware also plans to offer a live cd with desktop options, to be developed by one of its teams. a live cd enables running the linux software on most compatible intel and amd chipset architectures, without having to partition a drive.

a freelance journalist writing for "wikinews" interviewed the founder of frugalware linux, miklos vajna.

wikinews: frugalware is a slack distribution at present. are there plans for developing binary package management platforms of it?

miklos vajna: our package manager is called pacman, and its primary purpose is to install binary packages. if you want to install packages from source, you can use our "repoman" tool.

wikinews: what are your visions for the future of frugalware, do you plan to globally distribute it as a product, and would you consider allowing a major corporation to sponsor your efforts?

miklos vajna: the second. frugalware is free, but maintaining it needs hardware, mirrors, money. we got several donations already (build servers), and we continuously need them. if a corporation want to sponsor us, i think that is totally o.k. :-)

wikinews: what is arch linux in relationship to your project? and how do their efforts fit into your game plan?

miklos vajna: the common [thing] in arch linux and frugalware is the package manager. (to be strict: nothing else.) developing our package manager is a common effort. if anyone [is] interested in its development, he/she can subscribe to the pacman development mailing list.

wikinews: i've successfully installed frugalware, opensuse, and winxp on the same box. do you see a lot of people doing this sort of thing in the future?

miklos vajna: we support having more than one operating system on a single machine ? though this matters only in case frugalware is the last installed operating system. we do not have any statistics about what operating systems do other people use besides frugalware, if they have more than one.

wikinews: is it possible that pearpc and frugalware may have a relationship to distribute the pearpc emulator with frugalware in the future?

miklos vajna: it is already available .

wikinews: what kinds of software might you include with further editions of frugalware? is muse part of the base package for electronic musicians, or will you have those sorts of things?

miklos vajna: no . it is not available at the moment. you can request a package by filing a feature request to our bug tracking system, at .

wikinews: is the autoupdating feature of frugalware unique to frugalware and perhaps a keystone to future developments?

miklos vajna: i have never tried other autoupdating features. what one can see is that upgrading even from the previous stable release ? which means installing 6 months of update at once ? requires only a few tricks, and these are documented. so it works as it should, and we always pay attention not to break this great feature.

wikinews: what can new users of frugalware do to test and relay infotmation back to the developers through the correct channels?

miklos vajna: we have released stable versions two times a year. there are testing releases every two months. if one would like to help us, then download these releases, test them, and if something is broken, then file a bug report to the bts (mentioned above already).

frugalware has new x windows video drivers that provide a major speed improvement over available patches for previous editions of linux. alex smith has been working on them as a developer.

in addition, the pearpc emulator mentioned above, which comes with the package manager, may, with proper tuning and installation of a "legal" copy of mac osx, enable many intel and amd frugalware users to use the apple os on their desktops. alex smith is also a contact person for the pearpc project, which can also be found in irc://irc.freenode.net and at http://www.pearpc.net.

the official release time of the latest edition frugalware-0.4 was mar 30 07:42:21. the developers can be reached for comment through irc at #frugalware in the irc.freenode.net network.



&quot;the simpsons movie&quot; hits theatres july 2007

"the simpsons", a major hit animated television show, is set to appear in movie theatres. it has been confirmed that "the simpsons movie" will appear in theatres july 27, 2007.

"the simpsons" has been on television for 17 seasons and fox confirms that it will run at least two more seasons. the show is currently contracted through fox until 2008 and is the longest running television show on prime-time in the united states. an estimated over nine million people watch the show every sunday night, but that number is down from earlier peak viewer numbers.

moviegoers that go to see "ice age: the meltdown" will get to see a 25-second 'teaser' trailer of the upcoming movie.

"the simpsons" first began on the "the tracey ullman show" in 1987 and in 1989 they started their 30-minute series on fox. 


donald trump plans ￡300m &quot;golfing paradise&quot; for rural scotland

american multi-billionaire donald trump has announced plans to build a massive golf complex on an 800-acre site just north of aberdeen, scotland.

speaking last night from the trump tower in new york, trump said that the development will be akin to a "homecoming" for him. the ginger-haired property tycoon's mother is from the western isles of scotland. 

the ￡300m project at menie in aberdeenshire will include both a links course and an inland course, and a 400-bedroom hotel as well as a golfing academy and holiday homes. the facilities are being built with the intention of attracting the open championship to the site, officially dubbed "trump international golf links, scotland".

fields and sand-dunes make up the landscape of the coastal site. trump said of the location, "as soon as i saw it there was no question about it. i looked at 211 fantastic sites all over europe, but here it is - the dune size and the ocean front. there is no piece of land that i have ever seen that is comparable to this." the billionaire claims that the complex, set to be his only development outside the united states, will be the "best course in the world."

local and national political figures, including scottish first minister jack mcconnell, have welcomed the announcement with open arms, as the project is expected to bring in an additional ￡157m to the region's economy within the first ten years. scottish tourism company visitscotland is also optimistic, expecting an influx of international visitors to play on (or simply visit) the site. plans to expand the a90 road running past the site in the near future will enable more road traffic to and around the area. an ￡60m expansion of aberdeen airport will also allow for vastly increased international air links, akin to those operated using boeing 767 aircraft.

work on the golf complex itself is set to begin in september this year, with the trump organisation hopeful for a spring 2008 opening date.



iaea chief, russia, china express concerns about threats against iran

following the recent un security council non-binding presidential statement supporting the and calling for iran to temporarily suspend its right under the npt to enrich and reprocess , the chief of the , mohamed elbaradei, and diplomats from russia and china have expressed their concerns about the threats of economic sanctions or military actions against iran.

he opposed both economic sanctions and military actions, saying about the latter, "there is no military solution to this situation. ... it's inconceivable. the only durable solution is a negotiated solution."

the russian foreign minister, , said that "russia doesn't believe that sanctions could achieve the purposes of settlement of various issues." 

he also supported the validity of the iaea's investigations, saying "before we call any situation a threat, we need facts, especially in a region like the middle east, where so many things are happening. ... we prefer very strongly to base our specific actions on specific facts, and in this particular case the facts could be provided by the <nowiki>[international atomic energy agency]</nowiki>. so far, they have not been provided." 

china's deputy foreign minister, dai bingguo, said, "the chinese side feels that there has already been enough turmoil in the middle east. we do not want to see new turmoil being introduced to the region, because that would not serve the interests of any party and would only be very detrimental to the interests of the people in middle east." 

a recently leaked letter by british diplomat john sawers, dated march 16, 2006, revealed intentions by the uk to get the un security council to refer to chapter vii of the , which allows for the use of economic sanctions and/or military force as a method of , in relation to iran. the recent un security council non-binding presidential statement referred to as a method of conflict resolution, but not to economic sanctions nor military force.


sun releases t1 source code

on march 21, 2006, sun microsystems released the source code for its newest processor, the ultrasparc t1. the ultrasparc t1 is available with four, six or eight cores, each able to work on four threads at a time. the concept is similar to that of the intel pentium ee which uses two cores with two threads.

a multicore processor is like having many cpus on the one chip. multiple threads allow each core to work on a number of tasks concurrently on a single core. this is particularly useful in a server environment where the ultraspac t1 was designed to be used.

sun call the open source version of their processor the opensparc t1 and have made the source code (in verilog format) and specifications available on the opensparc t1 website under the general public license, the same license under which most distributions of linux are released.

industry observers say that the move is triggered by the sparc architecture's shrinking market share to the likes of ibm's power architecture and x86 based chips from intel and amd.

open source hardware has been gaining momentum since 2002, when kofi annan issued a challenge to technology companies. despite sun's opensparc t1 not being the first open source processor in the world, it is the first time that the design for a proprietary design processor has been released to the open source community.


flooding in honolulu wreaks havoc

torrential rains pounded honolulu and the eastern part of the island of oahu on friday during the midday, causing flooding along streams and major highways and closing a major shopping mall.

between 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. hst (2030 to 2300 utc), rain fell at the rate of about one to two inches (2.5 to 5.0 cm) an hour in honolulu and up to three inches (7.5 cm) an hour in waimanalo on the southeast coast.

makiki stream overflowed its banks at several points along its route, especially in the pawaa district where homes and businesses near kalakaua avenue were inundated by up to a foot of water. several houses in manoa were also reported flooded as manoa stream overtopped its banks.

kahala mall, a major shopping mall in the upscale district of kahala, was closed due to flooding that left 80% of the stores under as much as a foot and a half of water. according to eyewitness reports, the flooding started when rushing water breached a wall in the mall's movie theatres. the mall remains closed today and tomorrow while officials assess damage and clean up.

the rainstorm capped one and a half months of heavy rain and thunderstorms in the state of hawaii, and arguably its rainiest march in recent memory.



thais head to the polls for snap election

today sees the snap election for the lower house of thailand's parliament. with only one of the parties with seats contesting the election it is seen more as an attempt by current caretaker prime minister thaksin shinawatra to shore up his position in the face of mass protests and accusations of malfeasance.

the snap election was called on february 24 by the beleaguered pm, approximately one year after the previous election where his thai rak thai party took 377 of the 500 seats in the lower house making it the first party to have been able to form a government without entering into a coalition.

with the main opposition parties, democat party ("pak prachatipat"), great people's party ("phak mahachon"), and thai nation party ("phak chaat thai") boycotting the election the results may not carry the legitimacy that thaksin is seeking. along with the people's alliance for democracy (pad), the main opposition parties have called upon voters to mark their ballot as an abstention. with over 150 changwats (constituencies) having a single thai rak thai candidate on the ballot, some may not reach the required 20% of the eligble votes to be returned. this would leave the parliament short of its 500 seat requirement and unable to reconvene and ratify the appointment of a prime minister.

allegations of corruption centre on the prime minister's family's involvement in the sale of shin corp. to temasek holdings, described by wikipedia as the investment arm of the singapore government. on january 23, the pm's family sold their 49.6% share in the company tax-free for us$1.88 billion. whilst protests and allegations had been made prior to the sale, it was a catalyst that provoked mass rallies in bangkok demanding the pm's resignation.

with polls opening at 8 a.m. local time (0100 utc), the bbc reports that voting has been steady and that the pm and his children voted a couple of hours after the polls opened. some have used the poll as an opportunity to protest, with one university lecturer arrested for completing his ballot paper in blood.

polling closed at 3 p.m. local time (0800 utc) with unofficial results expected later in the day.




news briefs:april 2, 2006

i'm phillip hong. the time is 1200 utc on the 2nd of april 2006, and this is audio wikinews: news briefs.

thais head to the polls for snap-election
"today sees the thai snap election for the lower house of the country's parliament. with only one of the parties with seats contesting the election it is seen more as a an attempt by current caretaker prime minister thaksin shinawatra to shore up his position in the face of mass protests and accusations of malfeasance. the snap election was called on february 24 by the beleagured pm, approximately one year after the previous election where his thai rak thai party took 377 of the 500 seats in the lower house making it the first party to have been able to form a government without entering into a coalition."
iraq war vet claims atrocities by u.s. soldiers
"joshua key, a 27-year-old u.s. war deserter, alleged to a canadian immigration and refugee board yesterday that american soldiers had been kicking the severed head of an iraqi in ramadi "like a soccer ball." key now works as a welder in british columbia where he and his wife have four children under six years of age. there were no representations made at this hearing to dispute the claims made by key; but key also did not provide any proof to substantiate his allegations."
the simpsons movie to be released into theatres in 2007
"in entertainment news, the simpsons, a major hit animated television show, is set to appear in movie theatres. it has been confirmed that the simpsons movie will appear in theatres july 27, 2007."

to receive additional up-to-date news as it occurs, please visit wikinews.org. this has been a news brief for audio wikinews. this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


mayor of dzerzhinskiy city near moscow shot dead

the mayor of the city of dzerzhinskiy near moscow was shot dead on friday, march 31, as the interfax news agency reports, quoting moscow region law-enforcement officials.

the body of victor dorkin, the head of the local government board of dzerzhinskiy, was found at 03:05 (gmt+3) in the city at 5 tomilinskaya st. near the children's playground. preliminary crime scene investigation reported that dorkin suffered multiple gunshot wounds, and that 10 shells were found fired from a makarov pistol. an investigation is in progress.

dorkin was 52. he was educated as a chemical production engineer, and was a science candidate since 2004. he was first elected as mayor of dzerzhinskiy in 1991.


rice and straw arrive unannounced in baghdad

united states secretary of state condoleezza rice and united kingdom foreign secretary jack straw have made a surprise visit to baghdad, iraq to meet iraqi officials.

the pair, who have been together for the past few days as part of rice's visit to the united kingdom, arrived at 10:30 a.m. local time (0630 utc) to visit iraqi prime minister ibrahim jaafari and iraqi president jalal talabani, among others. mr. jaafari, who is of the majority shia alliance, is under increasing pressure to stand down after failing to gain adequate support from the opposing sunni and kurd minority groups.

according to leading shia politicians, who are also losing faith in the prime minister, the us ambassador to iraq zalmay khalilzad has claimed that george w. bush "doesn't want, doesn't support, doesn't accept" mr. jaafari's decision to stay at his post. mr. jaafari responded by claiming the comments undermine president bush's commitment to a democratic iraq.

the unannounced visit comes after her brief trip to jack straw's constituency of blackburn, england, where she faced anti-war protests. at one speech, she admitted that the united states had made "thousands of tactical errors" in iraq, but later dismissed the comments as being made purely figuratively.

on the formation of a united iraqi government, condoleezza rice said she considered it a "matter of urgency." speaking to reporters in baghdad, she said that, "the fact that we're going out to have these discussions with the iraqi leadership is a sign of the urgency which we attach to a need for a government of national unity."

jack straw is reported to have said that, "we're committed to iraq, very committed. but we need to see progress."

ambassador khalilzad said last saturday that the prospective government "...needs to have a good programme to govern from the centre and needs good ministers who are competent." he made a damning comment regarding the speed of the process by claiming that, "iraq is bleeding while they are moving at a very slow pace."



blasts rock thai polling stations

several explosions occurred at polling stations in narathiwat, thailand, during the current snap election. narathiwat is one of the country's southern muslim-majority provinces. 
two policemen and four soldiers were injured. the area is a often seen as a hotbed of activity as a result of the resident separatist rebels. more than 1,200 people have died in clashes and revenge killings in the troubled southern region, all directly linked to the insurgents, who are mainly spread across three of the main muslim provinces.

the election has been called three years early because prime minister thaksin shinawatra, who is accused of corruption and abuse of power, has been the subject of increasing discontent in several anti-government protests across the country.

in protest of the election, three of the rival parties in the thai parliament have begun a boycott with the intention of reducing the number of seats able to be filled in the parliament to below the 500 required for a government.

thaksin, who is a member of the thai rak thai party, has promised to stand down from the prime-ministerial post if his party gains less than 50% of the vote in the election. results are expected later today.


us helicopter crashes in iraq; 2 unaccounted for

the two crew-members of a us army apache helicopter which went down near youssifiyah, iraq are said by u.s. officials to be presumed dead after several failed searches for their bodies in the surrounding area.

a statement by army officials said yesterday that early reports suggested that the ah-64d apache longbow helicopter crashed at around 5:30pm local time on saturday, near the town of youssifiyah, located approximately 12 miles southwest of the iraqi capital of baghdad. the statement went on to say that the aircraft had been on "combat air patrol" at the time of the incident.

the statement, which was vague in its details, did not specify a definite crash site. regarding current efforts to find the wreckage (and presumably the bodies), it was merely stated that "two pilots are presumed dead, but recovery efforts continue following the crash." the identities of the two victims are known; they are being withheld until their families are notified.

no other details regarding the crash were released, and the cause of the crash is unknown at the present time, but youssifiyah has been the site of insurgency in the past. as of 3 p.m. gmt today, the us military have announced that they believe the aircraft was shot down.



british military denies secret meeting regarding action against iran

claims in the british newspaper "the sunday telegraph" that senior military officers of the united kingdom will meet with government officials on monday to discuss a us-led assault on iran have been denied by the ministry of defence.

however, the defence correspondent for the bbc paul wood said that "us plans for a possible strike are thought to be at an advanced stage." this echoes reports made in december by the influential german magazine "der spiegel" that, according to a report by intelligence expert udo ulfkotte, during a december 2005 visit to ankara, turkey, cia director porter goss asked turkish prime minister recep tayyip erdogan for support in a potential air strike against the iran's recently infamous nuclear facilities, including the enrichment facility at natanz. "der spiegel" goes on to say that, "more specifically, goss is said to have asked turkey to provide unfettered exchange of intelligence that could help with a mission."

while speaking on british television channel itv1 during her recent visit to the uk, us secretary of state condoleezza rice said, "we believe that diplomacy has a chance to work but we are going to work with whomever we can, in whatever form we can, diplomatically, to try and bring the iranians around. iran is not iraq. i know that's what's on people's minds. the circumstances are different." however, she then added, "the president of the united states doesn't take his options off the table."

also on the programme with rice was jack straw, the british foreign secretary. after admitting that un security council member russia was uneasy regarding the iran issue, he said, "they are worried about the possibility of the iranians stirring up trouble for them, but they also share our high suspicions that iran may be using its civil nuclear capability to develop a nuclear weapon and they do not want that."

in the initial article, "the sunday telegraph" stated that "a high-level meeting will take place on monday in the ministry of defence at which senior defence chiefs and government officials will consider the consequences of an attack on iran." the ministry of defence, (often abbreviated to "mod"), later denied all the claims, and made it clear that there were absolutely no plans for a meeting of the kind described in the newspaper.

however, the article also went on to claim that an attack centred around removing iran's nuclear capabilities was inevitable if tehran failed to accept the demands of the united nations. somewhat surprisingly, the mod failed to comment on this point, merely stressing the false nature of the claims regarding the meeting supposedly set for tomorrow (monday, april 3).

regarding his country's nuclear program, iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad is maintaining his defiant stance, alluding to the fact that article iv of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (npt), which was reaffirmed by the united nations security council in its march 29, 2006 presidential statement, implies that iran has as much right to press on with such technologies as any other nation which is party to the npt.


 


uk government links london 2005 attacks to the occupation of iraq

a report from the british government concludes that the occupation of iraq motivated the men that performed the suicide bombings of london summer 2005. other motivating factors are identified: economic deprivation, social exclusion and a disaffection with the society in general.


herb sendek leaves nc state

according to many published reports and tv sources, herb sendek, who is under fire at north carolina state unversity in his role as the basketball head coach, has accepted the job of head coach at arizona state university (asu), for reportably at least a seven-figure contract. the "arizona republic" reported that sendek will be named head coach on monday, and school officials did not deny it.

sendek went 170-118 (.590) during his 10-season stay at nc state, and this past year went 22-10 overall, and 10-6 in the acc. sendek is replacing rob evans, who was fired on march 10. evans went 119-120 in eight years at asu.



greek president attends inauguration of greek orthodox church in egypt

the president of the hellenic republic, carolos papoulias, attended the inauguration ceremony of the greek orthodox church of the annunciation in alexandria, egypt. the ceremony was blessed by the ecumenical patriarch of constantinople, bartholomew. also attending, in addition to the greek president, were two ministers of the greek government, a former prime minister of greece, many greek businessmen and the orthodox bishops of africa. 

the development of the church of the annunciation in alexandria has been financed by the onassis foundation. tomorrow, president papoulias will meet unofficially in cairo with president hosni mubarak of egypt. 


photo essay: cherry blossoms bloom in dc



tv stations are watching the flood in dresden

not only do the citizens of the cities near rivers with rising water in germany have sleepness nights - the flood also means more work for tv and radio stations as well. at 04:00 utc the river elbe had risen to a level of 7.36 meters, with the river continuing to rise. rtl, a local news agency, along with several other agencies have positioned themselves at critical points along the river in order to provide tv and radio users with information.

the media can be found at these critical points along the river where they expect something unusual to happen, or where efforts are being made to protect cultural assests of the city. equipped with satellite uplinks, video editing tools, and other means to make the filmed clips ready for broadcasting, rtl has positioned itself near the "radeberger schankwirtschaft" at the bruhlsche terrassen. helpers there have tried for the past few days to keep the water away from the restaurant, using a dam of sandbags. 

"this article is translated original reporting from german wikinews" 


british report says the u.k. is preparing 'mass graves' for humans if bird flu mutates

a report titled: "managing excess deaths in an influenza pandemic" dated march 22, 2006, leaked from the home office in the united kingdom states that the u.k. is preparing 'mass graves' in the event that the avian flu [bird flu] mutates. it also states that, "there are likely to be substantially more deaths than can be managed within current timescales." and that as many as 320,000 people could die if the virus mutates.

"common [mass] burial stirs up images of the burial pits used in the great plague of 1665 ? where in london 70,000 people died," the report added. it suggests that ways can be found for large-scale burial to provide recognizable individual gravesites in order to counter this association. 

"prudent precautionary planning is under way across all elements of the response, including the health service, other essential services and local authorities," said a home office spokesman. however; at the moment, the virus only infects humans who have been in close or direct contact with infected poultry. the u.k. also reports that it has stockpiled at least 14.6 million doses of anti-viral medication.

the report cautions that vaccines against the virus "will not be available in the first wave of a pandemic" and that the vaccines would not be a "silver bullet." it also states that the local officials are prepared to handle only 48,000 deaths in wales and in england for a pandemic lasting 15 weeks, however; the reports states further that, "even with ramping local management capacity by 100%, the prudent worst case of 320,000 deaths is projected to lead to a delay of some 17 weeks from death to burial or cremation."



business brief for april 3, 2006

mirs, an israeli manufacturer, has created a mobile phone that blocks sex numbers, images, and other "worldly temptations." the phones do not have text messaging, videos, or a camera. the company, a subsidiary of motorola, has sold 20,000 of them. they were originally intended for orthodox jews who scorn television and radio but see mobile phones as a modern necessity. arabs have expressed interest in the phones, via jordanian businessmen, also for religious reasons, though they are not of the same religion. jordan is one of the few arab countries that has a peace treaty with israel.

french company alcatel said this weekend that it will buy lucent technologies for $13.4 billion. the merger will cut costs by dropping 8,800 employees, approximately 10% of their combined workforce. lucent's ceo patricia russo will serve as the ceo of the new company, to be based in paris. russo said that research and development costs are a primary reason for the merger.


2006 new zealand maori electoral option

today marks the beginning of the 2006 m?ori electoral option. the m?ori option process is held by law every five years following the census, giving voters of m?ori descent the choice of being on the general roll or the m?ori roll. once m?ori electors have decided which roll they are on, the representation committee will begin the process of redrawing the electoral boundaries. 

the m?ori roll does not generally affect the proportionality of the parliament, which is determined by the party vote ("see electoral system of new zealand"). however the size of the m?ori roll does determine how many m?ori seats there are, and it is possible (through what is known as an overhang) for a party to win more seats than its share of all votes should allow. also if a party wins a seat, it does not have to meet the 5% party vote threshold to be represented in parliament. the m?ori party benefited both ways from the m?ori seats in the 2005 election.

national party leader dr. don brash said the option was promoting a "racially-divided electoral system" and national accused the government of state-sanctioned separatism.

brash says getting rid of the m?ori seats is an important policy for his party and that the taxpayer should not have to pay the $4.5 million bill.

m?ori party co-leader, tariana turia said that national may need the m?ori party after the next election, and that she is "sick to death" of political opportunism.


murder, rape of albert namatjira's great-granddaughter makes belated news

sometime during the night of friday, january 28, 15 year-old jenissa ryan was assaulted and raped in alice springs. she was discovered near the entrance of centralian senior secondary college around 10:30 a.m., and a college employee called an ambulance. the attack was not reported in the mainstream national media until this week, when it became known that the victim was the great-granddaughter of famous indigenous artist albert namatjira.

in an article published in saturdays sydney morning herald, russell skelton said that the fact that she was an aborigine, and the location of her bashing, contributed to her death. "if jenissa had been white, she might be alive today, though the scars of her brutal bashing and rape could never be erased. if she had been bashed and left for dead almost anywhere else, assistance would have been immediate and the outrage strident." he also said that if her connection to namatjira had been known, jenissa's death would have been a "national scandal."

police believe that she was attacked by a number of youths her own age while walking home. she continued to walk home, but collapsed unconscious near the entrance to the college. here, according to police, she was found by three teenage boys, who dragged her out of view and raped her.

jenissa was still alive when found. skelton considered it likely that people had seen her during the morning but done nothing. "that means a number of residents of middle-class grevillea drive probably noticed. the white t-shirt and striped tracksuit pants were hard to miss," he said.

she was taken to alice springs hospital, and then flown to adelaide's women and children's hospital.

on february 13 northern territory police charged a 16 year-old male and a 15 year-old female with assaulting jenissa ryan. three other males, aged 14, 15, and 16, have been charged with having unlawful sexual intercourse with jenissa ryan. police expressed gratitude for the assistance they had received from members of the public.

father asaeli raass said that both indigenous and non-indigenous people were in denial about the incident. "yes, it's a painful thing, but people are sweeping it under the carpet when they should be confronting the big issues jenissa's death raises," he said. he also said that the initial wave of publicity "never travelled outside alice springs."

jenissa's mother, carmel ryan, said that her daughter wanted to be a painter, like her great-grandfather. "she wanted to be like him, to make a creative contribution we would all be proud of. tragically that can never be, but i feel nothing but sorrow for the parents of the children involved in this terrible event," she said.


queen approves new zealand governor-general's appointment

her majesty queen elizabeth ii, queen of new zealand, on the recommendation of the prime minister of new zealand, announced today that she had approved the appointment of judge anand satyanand as the next governor-general of new zealand. he will take office on august 4.

prime minister helen clark says, "judge satyanand will bring many personal strengths to the role of governor-general, including a broad knowledge of the workings of government and the law, as well as a deep appreciation of the different groups and communities which make up contemporary new zealand."

national leader dr don brash said, "judge satyanand has had a long period of public service in both judicial and quasi-judicial roles, and i congratulate him on his appointment... his experience makes him well suited to carry out the very important functions of governor-general..."

dame silvia cartwright will complete her term on 4 august 2006, and judge satyanand will be sworn in as governor-general at "a date to be determined thereafter".

anand satyanand is of indo-fijian descent and a former new zealand lawyer, judge and ombudsman. he will become the thirty-fifth representative of the sovereign since 1840, and the first of asian descent.



australia and china enter into uranium deal

china has entered into a "nuclear safeguards agreement" which will allow it to purchase from australia. under the conditions of the agreement, china must not use australian uranium for military purposes.

the agreement was signed by australia's foreign minister and his chinese counterpart, in the presence of their leaders australian prime minister and chinese premier .

australia will not allow uranium to be exported to any country which has not entered into a nuclear safeguards agreement. a requirement of this agreement is that the country wishing to purchase uranium must also be a signatory to the un's .

alexander downer stated that china needs the uranium for its nuclear energy program. he said "given china's high projected growth in electricity demand over the coming years, there are clear environmental benefits in diversifying from fossil fuels to low greenhouse-emission technologies such as nuclear power."

china is expected to build between 40 to 50 nuclear plants over the next 20 years.

ian macfarlane, austalia's resource minister said that exports should begin within four years and that the agreement was only the beginning of the export process. he told abc radio "the signing of this agreement is really only the start of the process,

we need to move forward, there needs to be commercial negotiations between companies in australia that are producing uranium and companies in china that wish to purchase it" he said.

it is believed that australia, which holds 40 percent of the world's uranium, may need to increase production. at present, australia produces 10,000 tonnes per year. it is expected that china will require 20,000 tonnes a year from australia.

"uranium will only be sold by contract to utilities, it cannot be used for military purposes, china will also be subject to international atomic energy safeguards and that means inspections," australian foreign minister alexander downer has stated and continued "thirdly, there will be a system that will track australian nuclear material."

kevin rudd, australian opposition's foreign affairs spokesman said that he supported the agreement. labor's foreign affairs spokesman kevin rudd supports the deal.

"if we have with china effective bilateral safeguards arrangements then there should be no impediment," he said. 

professor ian lowe from the australian conservation foundation said in response to the deal that "this is no time to be increasing the amount of fissile material in the world."



c-5 galaxy military cargo plane crashes at dover air force base

the pentagon confirmed that a c-5 galaxy military cargo plane crashed at dover air force base in delaware, saying that the plane was having "mechanical problems" and crashed "while taking off." the plane was carrying 17 people.

"abc news" reported no fatalities, but allen metheny, assistant director in the state department, said that some were injured and taken to the hospital; the extent of the injuries was unknown. at least 10 people have been reported to have been taken to bayhealth hospital.

the plane crashed about 6:45 a.m. edt (1045 utc) and broke into three separate sections. 

the c-5 galaxy is the largest plane in operation in the u.s. military.


iran tests torpedo, plans more tests

on sunday, iran tested its second underwater missile, the fajr-3. the underwater missile, iran claims, can evade sonar.

"the missile carries a very powerful warhead that enables it to operate against groups of warships and big submarines. even if an enemy's warship sonar can detect the missile, no warship can escape from this missile because of its high speed," said general ali fadavi of the revolutionary guards. he said the missile can travel at 328 feet a second.

if iran's claims are correct, it would make this missile the fastest underwater missile in the world. the second fastest missile would be the russian's va-111 shkval, which was developed in 1995.

iran successfully tested its first missile on march 31, 2006, and claims that it can "evade radar and it can evade anti-missile missiles," said hossein salami, head of the revolutionary guards air force. "this technology is completely new, without copying any other missile systems that may exist in other countries" and also says it can carry several warheads.

it is also reported that more missiles will be tested during war games later in the week.


18 dead after multiple twisters strike us midwest

high winds and multiple tornadoes caused destruction across the american midwest yesterday, killing 18 people when they hit five states in the early evening, although that figure is expected to rise.

in dyer county, tennessee alone, 12 people were killed, and in gibson county, tennessee, a further three were lost, bringing the death toll up to 15 in that state alone. the remaining three lives were lost in missouri as a result of high winds, although the freak weather also hit the states of arkansas, kentucky, ohio and illinois.

when asked about the storms which caused chaos in tennessee, dyer county sherriff jeffrey holt said, "this hit about 7:40 last night, so the warnings were out. they were being tracked all the way across arkansas and missouri as it was coming in. we had plenty of warnings, i think, just the amount of destruction in the area is what caused our fatality count to get so high. destruction is almost absolute total destruction along some of the path of this. there's just nothing left of houses but foundation."

numerous power failures were reported across the affected areas, with some county authorities reporting that the blackouts may go on for several days.

a dispatcher in pemiscot county, missouri informed the press that, as of monday morning, some people were still trapped in their houses as a result of the storms.

in illinois, tornadoes touched down across at least seven counties according to local emergency officials, but no-one was severely injured or killed. the emergency management spokesperson for illinois patti thompson reported that a large storm front which spanned the breadth of america from illinois southwards was the cause of last night's dramatic weather.

in the state of ohio, a wilmington-based meteorologist informed members of the associated press that "in every county in southwest ohio there has been some type of damage."

repair costs for damage across the affected area are expected to be six-figure sums, and extensive work to replace destroyed segments of the infrastructure such as gas and power supplies is already underway, said officials in all seven of the states hit this morning. the current death toll is expected to rise today, with at least one more unconfirmed death reported in missouri already.


alcatel and lucent will merge

lucent technologies (usa) and alcatel (france) announced a merger yesterday. the currently-unnamed entity will be a global corporation based in paris, france and will become the second largest telecommunications equipment company behind cisco, pulling ahead of ericsson.

sixty percent of the new company's shares will be held by alcatel, but patricia russo of lucent will serve as ceo. bell labs, the new jersey-based research and development holding of lucent also being acquired by alcatel, will keep their us headquarters, and a us-based entity will be set up from bell labs to manage sensitive us government contracts. the new firm will employ over 26,000 researchers.

however, 8,800 employees, or roughly 10% of the combined personnel, are set to be let go with the merger, after russo's halving of the lucent workforce. cfdt, the main french alcatel union involved in the deal, called a meeting of the french and european work's council (comite d'entreprise) in opposition to this move.



british fbi-style agency launched

prime minister tony blair launched a new crime-fighting agency to deal with "brutal and sophisticated" crimes by organised gangs. the agency's mandate and powers have been compared to that of the united states' fbi.

the "serious organised crime agency (soca)", has approximately 4,200 "law enforcement officers", some of whom are ex-spies, and will use their ￡400m annual budget to fight counterfeiting, fraud, drug and people-trafficking.

the agency was created out of the national crime squad, the national criminal intelligence service and investigative staff from the immigration service. soca is chaired by ex-mi5 chief sir stephen lander.

soca will take advantage of new powers which have been brought in by the blair government to help tackle serious and organised crime. the main four are:

queen's evidence<br>
prosecutors are now able to offer formal statutory deals, such as immunity or a reduced sentence, to those who testify against other accused criminals.

financial reporting orders<br>
courts can compel criminals to supply their bank statements of up to 20 years past, to demonstrate that they have had no crime related earnings.

disclosure notices<br>
courts can limit the suspect's right to remain silent, by ordering prison terms or fines if the suspect refuses to testify or provide documents.

law enforcement officers<br>
soca officers are empowered to exercise multiple powers, that of the police, immigration and customs officials.

when prime minister tony blair announced soca yesterday, he made several comments regarding the nature of organised crime today and the disorganised and underpowered police force expected to combat it. after announcing that soca would make life "hell" for what he dubs "criminal mr. bigs", he continued to outline what he believed to be the type of crime britain was dealing with today.

"the level of sophistication, the level, frankly, of brutality with which many of these gangs operate today means that we have to do it differently. organised crime is a chain, the bottom link of which is the consumer and the individual victim. even an apparently invisible and victimless crime like defrauding a financial institution has ramifications for ordinary people. organised crime, like most crimes, tends to make victims of the poor as least as much, if not more, than the wealthy. so there is an imperative to act."

after declaring that he would introduce any necessary new powers to help the new agency achieve its goals, he said, "there is absolutely nothing, in my view, that should come before the basic liberties of people in this country to be freed from the tyranny of this type of organised crime."

 


5 dead in pakistan bomb attack

five people are dead and three are injured after a roadside bomb blew up a minibus in rural pakistan. according to a security officer, who has chosen to remain anonymous, a mother and her 5-year-old child are among the dead.

they were travelling in a minibus, which was on a dirt track in the village of tata khel, approximately 25km west of the town of miran shah. of the eight individuals thought to be in the vehicle at the time, three died in the explosion, two died later in hospital and the remaining three are injured.

this attack comes at the same time as another similar incident, this time in the village of ghulam khan. in this bombing, the vehicle was damaged but there were no casualties. another recent attack involved two militants who attacked troops with a grenade in the town of mir ali. five soldiers were killed, and the two assailants were subsequently shot. all three incidents occurred in the troubled northern region of north waziristan.

the pakistani authorities have deployed thousands of troops to the affected area over the past few years, but as of yet any positive effects are hard to see.



third of thais vote 'none of the above'

according to unofficial estimates by the thai news agency (tna), 10 million voters chose the "none of the above" option in sunday's election. these estimates put the party-list vote for incumbent prime minister thaksin shinawatra's thai rak thai (trt) party at 16 million. (thai rak thai means, literally, "thais love thais" .) shinawatra cited a total vote of 28 million, compared to 32 million in the previous general election.

reporting the pm's appearance on national television, tna quoted him as saying he might resign to achieve better national unity. "i'm ready to have a break in politics if ...". his offer is conditional on the return by major players in the anti-thaksin people's alliance for democracy (pad) to their prior roles, and on the participation of opposition parties in the next general election.

choosing to emphasise thaksin's claim of victory, an article in the thai publication "the nation", written in the english language, included passages portraying the pm less favourably. "tell me how the country would be better off without me", thaksin challenged at a party meeting. "the 16 million should be told how the country will be reconciled if i step down."

sunday's poll passed fairly peacefully, although three bomb blasts injuring six persons were reported in narathiwat, one of the southern provinces where malay separatist tensions have seen over 1,000 killed since january 2004.



u.s. jury decision moves moussaoui closer to execution

a united states federal fuckin' damned jury found that self-confessed al-qaida conspirator zacarias moussaoui may, according to u.s. law, be put to death after deciding that his statements to fbi agents led directly to at least one death in the terrorist attacks on september 11, 2001. 

moussaoui is alleged to have had prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks, but did not inform fbi agents of it. evidence of moussaoui's knowledge of 9/11 attacks are based on moussaoui's own testimony, and some al-qaida members have said that "he knew nothing" and is "boasting" of it and that ramzi binalshibh is the actual '20th hijacker'. aaron zebley, one of the fbi's two chief case agents on the moussaoui investigation, also testified that "moussaoui knew nothing about some key elements" of the 9/11 plot.

moussaoui is the only person to face charges in connection with the 9/11 attacks. it was not expected that moussaoui would testify on his own behalf during the trial, but he changed his mind and testified in the last week of march that he was supposed to fly a plane with the "shoe bomber" on 9/11. moussaoui's lawyers said that his claim was absurd and that moussaoui was intentionally trying to elicit an execution for martyrdom purposes.

moussaoui refused to stand and prayed silently as the verdict was read. "you'll never get my blood, god curse you all," moussaoui said after the jurors had left the courtroom.

the jury took four days to arrive at the verdict. "by this verdict, the jury has found that death is a possible sentence in this case," a court spokesman said. on the key question before the jurors, they answered yes on whether at least one victim died on 9/11 as a direct result of moussaoui's actions.

if the jury had voted against his eligibility for the death penalty, moussaoui would have been sentenced to life in prison.

the jury began weighing moussaoui's fate last wednesday. during its deliberations, jurors asked only one question, seeking a definition of a "weapon of mass destruction." one of the three convictions for which moussaoui could be put to death is conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.

the jurors were told that a plane used as a missile (the tactic employed on 9/11) qualifies as a weapon of mass destruction.

moussaoui pleaded guilty april 2005 to conspiring with al-qaida to hijack aircraft and other crimes. at the time, he denied being part of the 9/11 plot, saying he was being trained for a separate attack, but he changed his testimony when he took the stand and claimed he was supposed to have flown a hijacked jetliner into the white house that day.

moussaoui was in jail at the time of the attacks, but prosecutors argue federal agents would have been able to stop or at least minimize the attacks if he had revealed his al-qaida membership and his terrorist plans when he was arrested and interrogated by federal agents.

the last people executed without killing anyone were julius and ethel rosenberg fifty years ago.

now that this first phase of the trial to decide possible penalties is established, the jury of nine men and three women will hear more testimony, expected last as long as 3-months, on whether the 37-year-old frenchman will face life imprisonment or execution. 

testimony will include the families of 9/11 victims who will describe the human toll of the al-qaida operation, in which four passenger airliners were taken over and two were flown to new york city and crashed into the world trade center, a third airplane struck the pentagon, and the last crashed in a field near shanksville, pennsylvania apparently, after passengers intervened.

court-appointed defense lawyers, whom moussaoui has tried to reject, will summon experts to suggest he is schizophrenic after a cruel childhood during which he faced racism in france over his moroccan ancestry.




judge throws out petition case against patrick murphy in pa congressional race

on friday, judge robert simpson jr. threw out a petition challenge brought by jane faust against patrick murphy, a candidate for the 8th congressional district in pennsylvania. josh nanberg, murphy's campaign manager, stated, "we won."

the case centered on objections to murphy's nominating papers. the judge threw the case out due to a part of the law which requires that any objections must be raised at least seven days prior to the court case to allow the defendant time to collect evidence. the objections in this case were brought the day of the trial.

jen paski, a spokeswoman for the democratic congressional campaign committee said, “we were very distressed by this challenge and we are absolutely thrilled that it failed."

the lawyer who filed the challenge on behalf of faust has stated that he will continue the case, and will attempt to bring it to the state supreme court, the pennsylvania supreme court.



tom delay will not seek re-election; to resign from congress

according to various news reports, former united states house majority leader tom delay (r-texas) will announce his withdrawal from the congressional race on tuesday, april 4, 2006.

in an interview on monday, april 3, 2006, delay spoke with "time" magazine's white house correspondent mike allen, revealing his plans to give up his bid for re-election to the house seat representing the 22nd district in texas. in addition, delay said that he plans to leave congress in the next few months, though he has not yet decided on the date.

delay's office released a taped statement to media outlets on april 4, 2006 that addressed his decision to resign from congress. "i will make that resignation effective sometime before mid-june, but largely dependent on the congressional calendar. i plan to begin focusing on the next phase of my life as a private citizen." delay's statement points to "negative, personal campaign[ing]" by "liberal democrats" as a reason behind his resignation. he plans to determine "new ways from various arenas outside of public office that will allow me to continue to contribute to and engage in the policy, political, and cultural issues of national importance to the conservative majority." delay will be moving from texas to his property in virginia in order to be closer to washington, dc. 

delay has served in congress for 11 terms. he temporarily gave up his seat as house majority leader in 2005 after he was indicted in texas on money laundering charges and then permanently relinquished his house leadership position in january 2006. delay has allegedly been linked to lobbyist jack abramoff, who in january 2006 entered a guilty plea to charges of conspiracy to corrupt public officials, mail fraud, and tax evasion.


iran tests its second missile

iran has successfully tested the kowsar land-to-sea missile, and a "flying boat", iran state media report.

according to the country's state television service, "a super-modern flying boat was successfully tested in the 'great prophet' war game in persian gulf waters. because of its hull's advanced design, no radar at sea or in the air can locate it. it can lift out of the water. it is wholly domestically built and can launch missiles with precise targeting while moving."

iran says that the kowser missile can be used to sink enemy ships in the gulf. iran also announced that the missile's onboard systems could not be scrambled by enemy action.

brian whitman, a spokesman for the pentagon in the united states, said, "we know that the iranians are always trying to improve their weapons system by both foreign and indigenous measures. it's possible that they are increasing their capability and making strides in radar-absorbing materials and technology. [however] the iranians have also been known to boast and exaggerate [in] their statements about greater technical and tactical capabilities."

on friday, iran tested its fajr-3 missile, which iran says can evade radar and can carry many warheads. on monday, iran tested in the straits of hormuz a torpedo that the country claims can evade sonar.

it is estimated that at least 1500 ships and aircraft, and at least 17,000 iranian revolutionary guard troops, are participating in a week-long war games exercise in the gulf.


collyer brothers to bid for everton f.c.?

rumours in london and merseyside have linked paul and oliver collyer, creators of the football management series championship manager, with a possible bid for premiership football team everton.

the goodison park club, under the chairmanship of former coronation street actor bill kenwright, were subjects of a failed takeover bid in august 2004. after suffering the blow of failing to get beyond the qualifying stage of the champions league, kenwright is known to have recently sought additional investments in the club.

while a move is not thought to be imminent, the recent takeover of the brothers' games development company sports interactive by game giant sega could well prove the catalyst for action by the lifelong evertonians. the company's pr guru miles jacobson was forced into an official denial of the story soon after the takeover news broke on tuesday morning. the collyers themselves have as yet been unavailable for comment.



thailand's prime minister announces resignation

thailand's prime minister, thaksin shinawatra, announced his resignation in a national telecast on tuesday, april 4, 2006. his statement included an apology to his supporters and a hope that his resignation will help heal divisions in the country ? "our house is broken and it needs to be put back together." he will not continue as prime minister when parliament reconvenes; however, he will continue as a member of parliament and as thai rak thai (trt) party leader. the process to select his successor will begin in the first new session of parliament.

only the previous day, monday, thaksin had expressed his intention to continue as prime minister, following his party's election win. the reversal came after an audience with king bhumibol adulyadej 

although thaksin's trt party won the april 2nd election, the results were disappointing, with over one-third of voters choosing 'none of the above'. after the election there had been continuing calls for his resignation. 

thaksin's standdown will likely end months of calls for the dissolution of his government which has been charged by protesters of corruption and misuse of authority. in october 2005, he sued sondhi limthingkul's newspaper, the phujatkarn daily, over corruption allegations. sondi's move to open-air shows where he detailed further corruption allegations grew into the pad (people's alliance for democracy) and following the shin corp sale, pad protests forced thaksin to call a snap election.




university of florida wins ncaa basketball championship

the gators beat the bruins 73-57 in the last night. the win gave the gators their first championship. the gators, a number three seed in the tournament, spent most of the night dominating the bruins on both offense and defense.

joakim noah, center for the gators, recorded 16 points, nine rebounds, and a ncaa tournament championship game record 6 blocks. noah said, "it's like i'm in a cloud. not only does this feel good, but it smells good and it tastes good. i can't even describe it."

in the previous two games the bruins allowed only a combined 90 points, but they never seemed to get organized on defense. florida's early lead stayed throughout the game, with the bruins unable to re-take the lead.

joakim noah's father was a french tennis player (now a singer) who won the tennis tournament. his grandfather was a soccer professional. it's the first time a french basketball player has been part of a winning championship team. he'll join on the french national basketball team.


berlusconi in trouble over use of bad word

italian prime minister silvio berlusconi has found himself under fire for using the word "coglioni" to describe his opponents during the run-up to the general election in italy. roughly translating to "idiot", "cretin", or "fool" in english, it is italian slang for "testicles", it is as rude as the term "prick-head".

romano prodi, former european union commission president and opponent of berlusconi, was quick to criticize his use of the term, stating, "with all the respect i have for (berlusconi's) voters i would never use that anatomical term we heard today used about us."

berlusconi later defended himself, stating that his comments were supposed to be "ironic" and that his opponents were manipulating what he said. 


flooding danube threatens thousands

the danube river, running from germany to the black sea in romania, is currently at 859?cm (28 ft 2 in) higher than its normal level in budapest, hungary. climatologists are predicting that the river will crest as high as 865?cm (28' 5"). this places the crest higher than in 2002, when floods swept across all europe. the danube crested at 860?cm (28' 3") high then. 

according to officials, 11,000 buildings are in danger of flood damage, and 172 hectares (475 acres) of land are currently under water. officials also placed the country under a level 3 alert (on a 3 level scale).

margit island is completely under water, with 3500 sandbags giving it protection. the riverside is no less under water, and the underground number 2 (m2) is currently in danger of being closed since one of its stations, battyany ter, is flooded. 

according to hungarian water engineers, a flood of this magnitude hasn't occurred since 1838 when ice coming down the river blocked the danube, creating a natural dam which caused the water to flood everything behind it.

general elections are on sunday in hungary. the election is heated with mszp and fidesz in a virtual dead heat with polls rating both at 45%. other smaller parties are voicing concern about gaining a 5% toe-hold to gain a seat in parliament. it is not yet clear how the flood will impact the final campaign.



six papuans reported camping on australian island

the australian government has received reports that a family of six people from the indonesian province of are camping on bamboo island in the torres strait. the australian customs service is trying to verify the accuracy of the reports.

it is believed that the group consists of a union activist, his wife and four children. one of the children is believed to be two months old.

a spokesman for australian immigration minister amanda vanstone said that the government were aware of the reports but that it is an operational matter and no further comment will be made.

the australian customs service cannot confirm the reports and are seeking assistance from other authorities in the area. a customs spokesperson said that the area they are searching is massive with hundreds of islands, and that he was unaware of any island called bamboo.

father yus mawengkang, a priest in papua, said the family had been transported to the island on fishing boats and hoped that they would be collected by australian authorities. he was quoted in the sydney morning herald as saying, "they cannot stay there for too long… they only have some packets of instant noodles and canned fish only to survive for a few days."

the latest group of papuans are believed to be from the town of merauke, the same town where 43 people left to seek political asylum in australia two months ago. all but one of that group were granted refugee visas, sparking a diplomatic row between australia and indonesia.


apple releases program to limit ipod volume

apple has released an application that limits the volume produced from its ipod portable music players. the software update, ipod software 1.1.1, works with the ipod nano and the video version. apple released the program in response to complaints that it had not taken necessary measures to prevent hearing loss in ipod users. 

in california, a class-action lawsuit was filed against apple in january over claims of hearing loss from ipod use.

apple's worldwide vice-president of marketing for the ipod, greg joswiak, indicated that this patch is available for people who want "an easy-to-use option to set their own personal volume limit." it is available for free download.

the software also has the option of being used with parental controls to prevent children from modifying the volume.

ipods sold in france already have the volume limited, as the law forbids a sound louder than 100 decibels (db). the american speech language hearing association published a study where it appears that ipod's (and mp3 players's) power is 120 db, comparable to a live concert. a gunshot is 140 db. 


waikiki beaches reopen after sewage spill

one and a half weeks after a broken sewer line in the waikiki district of honolulu spilled 48 million gallons of raw sewage, health officials for the state of hawaii removed warning signs today from waikiki beaches after water samples taken yesterday indicated that bacterial levels had returned to normal.

the sewage spill into the ala wai canal forced the closure of waikiki beaches when bacterial levels from the spill reached hazardous levels. officials credit improved weather and the return of trade winds for the rapid dissipation.

beaches in nearby ala moana park near the mouth of the ala wai canal remain closed for the time being. water quality at the spill site on the ala wai continues to improve, and the bacterial levels in the canal are expected to return to normal within a week.




australian pm announces $1.8 billion mental health plan

australian prime minister john howard has announced a five year plan costing au$1.8 billion to address issues with the country's mental health system. the plan follows a commitment made at the council of australian governments (coag) meeting in february.

the federal government will improve access to clinical and health services, increase the number of mental health professionals in australia, create mental health work teams consisting of gps, psychiatrists, psychologists and mental health nurses, provide respite services for people suffering mental illness and their carers, and introduce new programs for community awareness.

mr howard said the plan addresses issues which fall into its area of responsibility. he hopes that the states and territories will complement the federal government's package by investing in supported accommodation, hospital and emergency services, crisis care services and the provision of mental health care in gaols.

under the federal government's plan, psychologists will play a greater role in the mental health system. from november, patients will be able to claim a rebate from medicare (australia's universal healthcare scheme) for the services of psychologists if they have been referred by a gp or psychiatrist. at present patients pay around $100 for a standard 30 minute consultation.

mr howard claims that there is an issue for mental health professionals in treating patients with a substance abuse problem and mental illness. to address this the government will provide extra funding for drug and alcohol rehabilitation services.

the government will increase the mental health workforce by funding an additional 400 mental health nursing and 200 clinical psychology places. 900 personal helpers and mentors will also be employed.

the government has promised increase funding for telephone counselling and suicide prevention services, living skills programs and additional support for those with a mental illness who are having difficulty finding or keeping work.

the government will also provide 900 personal helpers and mentors, increase funding for living skills programs and provide additional employment assistance to those who have difficulty finding or retaining employment due to their illness.


cats could play significant role in transmitting bird flu to humans, say dutch researchers

according to dutch researchers, tests performed on cats at rotterdam's erasmus medical center by dutch show that cats could play a key role in transmitting bird flu to humans.

reports have noted that there are increased deaths in europe and asia involving cats that are carrying the deadly disease and also say that cats could play a key role in allowing mutation of bird flu so it can be transmitted between humans.

"apart from the role that cats may play in h5n1 virus transmission to other species, they may be involved in helping the virus to adapt to efficient human-to-human transmission," said researchers.

the experiments were performed on eight cats, all of which were exposed to the h5n1 virus in three different ways. in all three cases, the cats became infected. the researchers said that most domestic cats became infected with the h5n1 virus when they came in contact with wild and or domestic birds. in some cases, those cats transmitted the virus to other cats.

however, researchers said that their research was performed experimentally with infected cats and that those experiments did not show a mutation in the virus but did say that "such mutations cannot be ruled out."

researchers have strongly suggested that cats be kept indoors, but also said that this measure would be "impossible" in some parts of the world.

researchers also say that cats need to be included in any precautionary measures against the virus.

"we have to take a number of precautionary measures. we need to keep in mind that mammals can be infected and that they can spread the disease, in principle. the potential role of cats should be considered in official guidelines for controlling the spread of h5n1 virus," said dr. albert osterhaus, of erasmus university in rotterdam in the netherlands. 


homeland security spokesman arrested for trying to seduce a minor

brian doyle, 55, the deputy press secretary for the united states department of homeland security, has been arrested for attempting to contact a 14-year-old girl and initiating a sexually explicit conversation. the "girl" was, in fact, an undercover detective mounting a sting operation.

he was charged with 23 felony counts. these included seven counts of using a computer to seduce a child and sixteen counts of transmitting harmful materials to a child. in chats with the "girl", doyle stated that he worked for the dhs and gave her his work and government cell phone numbers. he also wrote sexually explicit messages to the subject via aol instant messenger and sent "her" explicit hardcore pornographic videos.


apple unveils &quot;boot camp&quot; allowing windows to work on macs

apple unveiled today a new program called "boot camp" which will allow macintosh users to switch between running mac os x and windows on start-up of their intel-based macintosh computer. shares of the company rose roughly 7% in response to the news.

after apple switched to intel processors, enthusiasts and hackers have been trying to install windows xp on a mac. because macs boot using a faster and more modern system that windows does not support, booting windows was a very complicated task. 

mac enthusiasts reportedly achieved this task in mid-march when the website onmac.net hosted a contest . the winning solution found involved a lengthy process that took both operating systems off and put them both back on. in addition, individual files had to be downloaded and installed, and there were no drivers for many things, most notably games. 

apple fixed both of these problems, with all major drivers included, and the process reportedly now takes less then an hour as compared to 3-9 hours. 

the program is available for download, in beta form, from the apple website. it will be included in the newest mac os, called leopard, once that operating system is released. 


thaksin departure doesn't signal end to thai political crisis

despite promising to step down before the new parliament convenes, caretaker thai prime minister thaksin shinawatra is still embroiled in controversy. opposition parties have stated they will not run in the by-elections on april 23.

democrat leader jurin laksanawisit was quoted in thaiday, an insert in the thai edition of the international herald tribune as saying, "the three parties still do not trust him because he is still the caretaker prime minister and behind the person who will be the new prime minister."

leading candidates for the pm's job are thai rak thai (lit. "thais love thais") party deputy pm, somkid jatusripitak, and pokin polakul, a former parliamentary speaker. according to the bangkok post, thaksin favours pokin whilst others within the party favour somkid. 

the key to the potential crisis is 38 seats in democrat territory. these were among over 200 seats where the populist thai rak thai party ran unopposed due to major opposition parties boycotting the election. these constituencies are special because the sole candidate in each of them failed to get the required 20% of eligble votes. by-elections will be held on april 23, but a repeat of the void election will leave the parliament short of the 400 constituency mps and in a situation which is not anticipated in the thai constitution.

the soon to be ex-pm has appointed police general chidchai vanasatidya, the justice minister, to run the country and cabinet while he takes some time off. according to the thai news agency, the caretaker prime minister has begun packing to leave government house.

fighting on, thaksin shinawatra has instructed his lawyers to file yet another defamation suit against sondhi limthongkul, media firebrand and one of the leaders of the people's alliance for democracy (pad); chatree tharipassaro filed the suit at the criminal court on behalf of the caretaker pm, allegations contained within centre around remarks sondhi made at various anti-thaksin rallies.




swan in fife, scotland dies with h5n1 bird flu virus infection

it has been confirmed that tests done on a dead mute swan found in the village of cellardyke in fife, scotland has tested positive for the deadly strain of h5n1 bird flu virus. the swan is believed to have been native to scotland.

two other swans found in richmond park in glasgow are being tested for the h5n1 virus. they are among at least 14 other dead birds and 12 more swans found in glasgow, that are being tested for the h5n1 virus.

this is the united kingdom's first confirmed case of the h5n1 virus and would make the u.k. the 14th country to report the virus.

"the risk to humans has not changed by the fact that we have found the virus in the u.k.. there is a better chance of a person winning the national lottery than catching bird flu in the u.k. today," said doctor jim robertson from the national institutes for biological standards and control in a press conference.

"we also have to work on the assumption that there is some spread among wild birds. there is no doubt we are getting closer to the day when moving birds indoors will be necessary," said former president of the british veterinary association, bob mccracken. "the situation is that the virus is there, and it will probably continue to circulate among the birds. it will spread through close contact, irrespective of species. there is one big question mark: will the virus disappear from wild birds after a period of six months, or will it still be present after a period of six years?" added mccracken.

mccracken also said that the virus could turn up in more birds saying, "i would start from the assumption that a small pool of wild birds in the fife area are infected and potentially passing it on to other birds" and that seagulls could pose a threat of passing on the virus because they have been known to peck at the bodies of other dead birds that were infected. "we have to assume that," he said.

in a statement by the department for environment, food and rural affairs, released yesterday, the scottish executive confirmed that a "highly pathogenic h5 avian flu" virus was found in a sample taken from the dead swan.

the swan was discovered march 29, 2006 and has been confirmed as a domestic species and officials say that it may have caught the virus from another infected bird. officials also report that the area where the swan has been found is being sealed off.

"in accordance with a recent eu decision the scottish executive is putting in place a protection zone of a minimum of three kilometres radius and a surveillance zone of 10 kilometers. keepers of birds in the protection zone are being instructed to isolate their birds from wild birds, by taking them indoors where ever possible," said the scottish executive in a statement.

samples from the swan were sent to the european union bird flu laboratory at weybridge.

"bird keepers outside the protection zone should redouble their efforts to prepare for bringing their birds indoors if that becomes necessary. they must also review their biosecurity measures to ensure that all possible precautions have been taken," said charles milne, chief veterinary officer for scotland yesterday in the statement.

an exercise named 'exercise hawthorn' was to prepare people for a possible pandemic was taking place yesterday and was halted just after the discovery of the dead swan. officials were in the second phase of the exercise. taking part in the exercises were the ministry of defence, the association of chief police officers, the environment agency and several other areas of the british government.

"i brought to an end the national avian influenza exercise to ensure that we can bring all our resources to bear on this situation. we are already in a high state of readiness and i have every confidence that officials north and south of the border will work together to manage this incident successfully," said the united kingdom's chief veterinary officer, debby reynolds.

however; today reynolds stated "there is no reason for public health concern" and also stated that in order for bird flu to infect humans, it would require "extremely close contact with infected birds, particularly feces."

according to the world health organization h5n1 has killed 109 people worldwide since 2003.



guinea's pm fired by president

today, guinean president lansana conte fired his prime minister, cellou dalein diallo, for "grave wrongdoing and serious misconduct." the two appeared to be in a power struggle as president conte quickly reversed a shuffle planned by pm diallo that would have replaced allies of president conte with allies of pm diallo. the shuffle was announced on a radio broadcast but was stopped short by army members because secretary-general of the presidency, fode bangoura, had not been notified. opposition groups called for a new government while president conte was receiving medical treatment in switzerland, but he returned immediately to reduce any concerns.

local journalist maseco conde says he believes the army was acting under the orders of president conte and not under its own initiative. he says in the current context of guinea's politics, it would not be possible for anyone to take such an initiative without the consent of president conte. but the journalist says even though mr. conte is still in control, this latest political fiasco shows he is losing his tight grip on power.



duke lacrosse season ends, coach resigns

amid an escalating rape and racial discrimination scandal involving members of the duke university men's lacrosse team, monday the university announced it has cancelled the rest of the team's season. head coach mike pressler has also resigned after 16 seasons with the blue devils, winning last year's atlantic coast conference championships, and leading his 2005 squad to the national title game.

allegations of rape surfaced last week when an african-american exotic dancer came forward, saying she was forcefully engaged into sexual intercourse by a group of caucasian lacrosse players at a house party. the investigation is continuing, with investigators awaiting dna test results from all 46 white athletes on the team of 47. 

no charges have been filed. however, a team member has been suspended from the university for an e-mail proposing a grisly entertainment in his dorm room. dna samples have been taken from the 46 caucasian team members.


massachusetts lawmakers enact plan for universal health coverage

legislators in the massachusetts general court, their name for the state legislature, approved legislation on tuesday, april 4, that would make it the first state in the united states to require all residents to have health insurance and impose penalties for non-compliance. massachusetts governor mitt romney, a republican who is expected to run for u.s. president in 2008, is expected to sign the bill.

the bill passed the lower house, the massachusetts house of representatives by a vote of 155-2, and unanimously by the state senate. the democratic party holds supermajorities in both houses of the legislature.

among the bill's provisions are these:

at least one other state (hawaii) requires employers to provide employee health insurance, but no other state holds individuals accountable for coverage.


indian police break up hunger strike over dam project

medha patkar, narmada bachao andolan activist in the ninth day of a hunger strike protesting the sardar sarovar project, is forcibly moved to hospital in new delhi by police.

on the ninth day of the hunger strike she and two other activists had undertaken to protest the indian government's decision to raise the height of the sardar sarovar dam across the narmada river and the lack of progress in rehabilitating people displaced by the dam project, patkar was taken to the all india institute of medical sciences where she was placed under intensive care. doctors have said that she is conscious and her condition is stable. 

police sources say that patkar has not been arrested as of now, but an first information report has been lodged against her for attempting to commit suicide. 

activists of the narmada bachao andolan tried to prevent the police from moving patkar and some were arrested on rioting charges. 

patkar, jamsinh nargave and bhagwatibai patidar began an indefinite fast on march 29, refusing food and medical care. they called on the government to reverse its decision to raise the height of the dam under construction from 110m to 121m
and demanded proper rehabilitation for people displaced by the project. supreme court rulings of oct 2000 and march 2005 stated that further construction on the dam (above 110m) was illegal until temporarily and permanently affected families were rehabilitated as per the narmada water disputes tribunal award. 

patkar said "if the construction work for increasing the height of the dam is started, over 35,000 people will lose their land by the month of june." and that "yet, most of the villagers living along the narmada river bank have not been provided alternative land holdings".

the indian water resources minister saifuddin soz and other central ministers met the protestors and called on them to end the fast, promising suitable rehabilitation. 

"we urge medha patkar to break her fast. she is welcome to continue her protest and raise the issue with prime minister manmohan singh, my ministry and the courts," said soz.

on april 3rd, the prime minister manmohan singh appealed to the hunger strikers to end their fast. three union ministers are also planning to visit the dam site to personally supervise the rehabilitation work.

the sardar sarovar project involves the construction of a series of large hydroelectric dams on the narmada river in india. although first conceived of in the 1940s by the country's first prime minister, jawaharlal nehru, the project began only after 1979. officials say that the dam is essential for drought-prone areas in gujarat and madhya pradesh but the dam has been mired in controversy over its environmental impact, costs and benefits since the late 1980s.

local protests have coalesced under the narmada bachao andolan (save narmada movement) led by medha patkar. the world bank was a funder of the ssp, but withdrew after an independent review in 1990. indian writer arundhati roy has protested the narmada dam project.



german soccer player gets preliminary injunction against far-right party

patrick owomoyela, a soccer player in the german national team, has achieved a preliminary injunction against the far-right npd over a pamphlet of the party depicting owomoyela.

on the cover of the pamphlet concerning the upcoming soccer world cup in germany, the npd had shown the torso of a man wearing a jersey of the national soccer team with the number 25, which is the fixed number of owomoeyela in the team. below it were the words: "white. not just the color of the jersey. for a real national team."

the court found that this portrayal "defames [owomoyela] in an unbearable racist manner" and ordered that the npd cease distributing the pamphlet under penalty of 250,000 ?.

owomoyela's lawyer and the german football association also intend to press criminal charges for defamation and hate speech against the party.

npd spokesperson klaus beier said the reference to the word "white" was not related to skin color, but rather to a series of betting and corruption scandals in german soccer in recent months.

he also claimed that "neither the player nor his number were recognisable". however, although partially covered by the caption, the number 25 is easily identifiable on the image.


news briefs:april 6, 2006

i'm phillip hong. the time is 1500 utc on the 6th of april 2006, and this is audio wikinews: news briefs.

dead swan found in fife, scotland confirmed h5n1 bird flu virus
"reports say that the dead mute swan found in fife, scotland last week, was infected with the deadly h5n1 strain of bird flu and that a second swan is being tested for the deadly strain. this is the united kingdom's first case of the virus."
massachusetts lawmakers enact plan for universal health coverage 
"massachusetts lawmakers approved legislation on tuesday, april 4, that would make it the first state in the united states to require all residents to have health insurance and impose penalties for non-compliance. massachusetts gov. mitt romney, a republican who is expected to run for u.s. president in 2008, is expected to sign the bill."
duke lacrosse season ends, coach resigns
"amid an escalating rape and racial discrimination scandal involving members of the duke university men's lacrosse team, the university announced it has cancelled the rest of the team's season. allegations of rape surfaced last week when an exotic dancer came forward, saying she was forcefully engaged into sexual intercourse by a group of lacrosse players at a house party. no charges have been filed."

to receive additional up-to-date news as it occurs, please visit wikinews.org. this has been a news brief for audio wikinews. this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


libby says bush authorized nie leaks

according to papers filed in u.s. federal court by patrick j. fitzgerald on wednesday, i. lewis "scooter" libby, vice president dick cheney's former chief of staff, has told investigators that he was authorized by president bush to divulge to reporters information from the national intelligence estimate (nie) on saddam hussein's efforts to develop nuclear weapons.

libby's testimony to the federal grand jury included the statement that he had received "approval from the president through the vice president" to release portions of the nie. according to court documents, he also stated that this type of authorization was "unique in his recollection".

it was libby's understanding that bush's allowing the information to be released in effect declassified the information. although legal experts disagree on this authority, libby stated that it was a white house lawyer who so counseled him.

this information has come to light due to fitzgerald's efforts to collect information regarding the "outing" of former cia operative valerie plame. fitzgerald has broad authority to conduct investigations, as the special prosecutor in the case. although libby's statements released yesterday may seem inflammatory, it is unknown what effect they will have on either vice president cheney or president bush. 


mckinney apologizes for confrontation with security guard

speaking on the us house floor thursday, cynthia mckinney stated, "there should not have been any physical contact in this incident." her remarks were in relation to an incident last week where she struck a us capitol police officer as he attempted to stop her from walking through a metal detector. during her speech she also stated that she would vote for a resolution supporting the efforts of the capitol police.

her speech comes on the same day when a disctrict of columbia grand jury began hearing testimony regarding the mckinney case. it is possible that mckinney may be charged in relation to the case, possibly as early as next week.



ship sinks off djibouti, killing at least 109

a ship sank off the coast of djibouti yesterday about 1 p.m. eastern african time (1000 utc), killing 109 people. at least 20 more are reported missing. reports say that 36 people are currently receiving medical care, and seven are in serious condition.

the ship was bound for the religious festival of djamaad, in the town of tadjoura. built to hold roughly 80 people, it was reported to have been carrying at least 200 people as well as construction materials at the time it sank. though the cause of the accident has yet to be determined, ismael tani, advisor to the djiboutian president umar guelleh, said that the overload probably caused the disaster. eyewitness omar souleiki, however, blamed it on a small wave. search operations by the djiboutian, french, and american naval vessels have been called off for the night.



interview with glen stollery of scientomogy.info

glen stollery is a new zealand website developer who created the site scientomogy.info in mid 2005. the site, which is a parody of tom cruise and his involvement with the church of scientology, became the centre of controversy when it was served with a number of cease and desist orders initiated by the church. on march 19, 2006, glen issued a media release stating that his web hosting provider, youtube, had removed videos of tom cruise which formed part of the site. the release suggested that youtube had taken this action under external pressure from cruise or viacom. 

responding to a query by wikinews reporters, youtube stated "we have not received a dmca notification letter from viacom." the church of scientology was offered the opportunity to respond to the claims made by stollery during the interview. no reply was received.

this exclusive interview deals with these issues and others relating to the website. it was conducted with glen via email between march 21 and april 3, 2006.


cults have always interested me for years simply based on their mystery/ability to draw unwavering devotion to in some case absolutely ludicrous premises even from otherwise very intelligent people. as such for probably all of my adult life i've read books on persuasion, unconscious influence,

lgat (large group awareness training) and for want of a better term "brain washing"; i've also always looked to improve myself in all areas i can so at the same time i would also read self improvement material. however, my interest in cults really peaked in 2003. i was a tony robbins advocate, and when attending an "unleash the power within" weekend live seminar i saw to my horror it had some striking makings of a lgat/"/est/" type event, with cultish rituals such as 15-18 hour days with almost no breaks for food or even the bathroom, repetitive chanting, unconscious influence techniques, a charismatic leader, and strict guidelines that could even be seen as totalitarian.

from there i researched robbins further, as well as other groups using similar practices such as landmark forum and scientology, and although i do not believe robbins is leading a destructive cult, i do believe he uses unconscious persuasion, building participants into a frenzy and subjecting them to intense peer pressure and group dynamics in an effort to sell additional products/services whilst they are in this heightened state. i read pro-scientology material like dianetics (as best as one can) and "clear body, clear mind", and all of the church ot material, as well as many critic's books such as "l. ron hubbard, messiah or madman", "a piece of blue sky", "bare-faced messiah", and of course all the critical websites i could find to really see inside the cult without going "inside" the cult.

it was when tom cruise began his very vocal promotion of scientology and more specifically his fierce opposition to psychiatric medication that i decided i would act and create the site. the thought of young impressionable fans following any of his advice and dropping their meds or joining the cult make me sick to the pit of my stomach, so my theory was i could poke some fun through parody whilst at the same time getting across a few serious home truths about scientology.


the website itself is very basic. there's no dynamic pages, shopping cart, or database to run so i simply quickly wrote up the html myself. as such the site cost nothing to build, though in october last year when scientology's lawyers threatened me with the lawsuit and it was suddenly in every newspaper the site had just under 10 million hits in 3 weeks, and the gigabytes downloaded did cost me a bit. it was then i moved the videos to a third party provider and that's worked perfectly.


just me! though i received and still do receive a huge amount of support through xenu.net and alt.religion.scientology, as dozens of critics have been threatened just as i was.


the real tipping point for me was tom cruise's statements about psych meds. scientology owns a front group specifically to oppose psych meds and psychiatrists called cchr (citizens commission on human rights), staunchly opposing all medication of that genre. cruise's numerous statements that no one should be using any psychiatric medication was not only ignorant but darn right dangerous. life threatening in fact. cruise stated that the opposed brooke shield's use of medication for post-partum depression, and that she was ignorant about the history of psychiatry - well he is most certainly ignorant of the circumstances of every medicated individual in the world, and as such his comments that people should get off the meds and take vitamins and exercise was absolutely outrageous.

i am not anti-cruise... before he started this propaganda regime i would have proudly stated i was a cruise fan! but c'mon let's be realistic here; no one can possibly argue that it isn't irresponsible for tom cruise to effectively tell every child and adult on prescribed medication for a "chemical imbalance" (a mental illness like depression, bi-polar, schizophrenia, add/adhd, etc.) to suddenly stop their meds and start “exercising and taking vitamins.”

think about how many people his statements could have (and from the over 1000 posts on my website "has had") on those who are unwell? it was irresponsible, ignorant, and dangerous; and if my site pokes a little fun at him for doing that and possibly makes those people think twice before following his advice, then i'm happy.


if you take a close look at the site you'll see that i actually make little comment and let the videos speak for themselves. when people see tom jumping on oprah's couch declaring his undying love for a woman he just met, followed by his completely out of character argument with matt lauer about medication and scientology (calling him glib, stating he was an expert in medicine as if he [had a] ph.d., and then repeating himself over and over again), followed by his appearance on "60 minutes" where he threatens to walk out when, then lying to a reporter at a press conference about alien's having any involvement in the tenets of scientology... well, they soon work it out themselves!


i believe he's a reasonably smart guy who unfortunately has been, for want of a better term; "brain-washed" into believing the teachings of l. ron hubbard. i mean, he quotes him verbatim. all the "no such thing as a chemical imbalance" "psychiatry causing wwi and wwii" "electro-shocking children" "psychiatric industry producing a nation of drug addicts" - all comes from the writings of scientology and the cchr. and, of course he's entitled to his own opinion - he just shouldn't force it on everyone else and use his position as a household name more responsibly.


well, "coincidentally" the "same day" viacom pulled the south park episode about scientology off-air reportedly due to cruise's pressure to drop all promotion of mi3 if they didn't the site hosting all my videos pulled them citing "removed at the request of the owner".


just like viacom was saying "it wasn't tom that make us pull south park trapped in the closet it was because of respect for mr. hayes" obviously the videos were not pulled at my request. i received no notice, warning, or communication of any kind (sort of rude after pulling many, many millions of new viewers to their site!) nor are they even replying to requests as to what happened.

they even pulled original work that was created for us exclusively and we were the only copyright holders of! on the same day viacom announced they were pulling south park? occam's razor points directly at cruise involvement here as well.


definitely not all of them! many of the videos were on youtube (the hosting company) already, so i simply linked to those files. others were linked to directly from the copyright holders (like msnbc, access hollywood, 60 minutes, cnn, etc.) so again we didn't actually infringe on the copyright, simply pointed our site at their file. others were snippets of video that were held under "fair use" for commentary purposes.


no, because as i mentioned ours were removed, and youtube's policy is to remove the video and inform the user - not state that we requested their removal.


it was sent from the church's and rtc's (the company that actually owns all scientology's trademarks) law firm "moxon and kobrin" and essentially said i must immediately cease and desist using the domain as it infringed on their trademark "scientology" and was causing confusion as (they claim) my site was being mistaken for theirs, citing breach of the lanham act. i was told to immediately transfer ownership to them or face a usd $100,000 lawsuit.


yes. originally i had a 'knee-jerk' reaction and told them "okay" and bought [the domain name] "passionofcruise.info". then i met with a trademark lawyer and a commercial lawyer specializing in suits like this and found that their claims were without any merit whatsoever.


the local church called me for several weeks playing "good cop" - he never mentioned lawsuits or the like just kept wanting to meet with me to "chat about it" (i refused). but no, never heard from the law firm again.


no. i think they got their just desserts.




dozens die in iraq bombing, al-sadr blames occupation forces

at least seventy civilians were killed, with many more injured in an apparent suicide attack at the popular buratha mosque in northern baghdad soon after the friday prayers. police have said that two of the bombers were dressed as women. the attack comes a day after the iraqi interior ministry issued a warning about possible attacks on mosques.

the chief imam of buratha mosque, sheikh jalaluddin al-saghir, who is also a member of the iraqi parliament, stated that shias are being targeted "as part of this dirty sectarian war waged against them as the world watches silently."

shia cleric moqtada sadr on the other hand asserts that recent bombings were in fact the work of the us-led coalition forces. regarding thursday's najaf bombing, he was quoted as saying: "this is not the first time that the occupation forces and their death squads have resorted to killings".

sadr further charged the occupying forces, and more specifically the united states, with "killing religious shia clerics in order to start a sectarian strife".

u.s. ambassador zalmay khalilzad issued a statement, urging all parties to remain calm: "i urge all iraqis to exercise restraint in the wake of this tragedy, to come together to fight terror, to continue to resist the provocation to sectarian violence and to pursue justice within the framework of iraq's laws and constitution."



blair, ahern unveil plan for northern ireland devolution

british prime minister tony blair and irish taoiseach (prime minister) bertie ahern have unveiled their plan to restore a power-sharing executive government in northern ireland by a deadline of november 24.

the plan calls for the northern ireland assembly's members to be recalled on may 15 and given six weeks to form an executive. if no results comes within six weeks, then the members are to be given another 12 weeks to attempt to form an executive. after that, if no result is achieved by november 24, then the salaries of all members will be suspended, and the irish government will be given greater influence in northern ireland.

the assembly has been suspended since october 2002 following the allegation of the existence of a republican spy ring.

blair and ahern acknowledged the diffculty of implementation of the plan, which has been hampered by the murder this week of denis donaldson, a former british spy in sinn fein.

blair said of the plan, "we have today set out a framework, beginning with the recall of the assembly on the 15th of may and running up to november of this year, for that ultimate decision to be made. at that point we close the chapter ... or we close the book." his verdict on the plan was, "if the parties really can't find a way forward, we have to call a halt and find a different way forward."

ahern said, "it is time to talk and to agree. people are entitled to firm assurances that if there is deadlock that it will not be allowed to continue indefinitely." his verdict on the plan was, "i don't look at the end date of this. in fact, i look at this as a start of a process. i do not want on 24 november to be thinking about another plan."

ian paisley, the leader of the democratic unionist party said "the dup will not be forced, rushed or bullied into accepting any level of ira criminality. currently there is no evidence that sinn fein/ira will be any further advanced in giving up criminality in november." paisley also denounced the involvement of the irish government, saying, "this part of the uk is not really a part of the uk but is a part of the uk where a foreign government has more say over northern ireland than the people of northern ireland."

gerry adams, the president of sinn fein, said that the statement contained "negatives and positives." "we welcome that the assembly has been brought together ... we have concerns about the timeframe, about other aspects of the statement, but we think that's a good forward step. we would like to think that unionism generally would see it as a positive opportunity. i appeal to unionism to seize this opportunity. it is about a shared future for all the people on this island. it appears that they [the two governments] are saying to the dup, 'if you don't come on board, we are going to go ahead without you.' "

the leader of the ulster unionist party, sir reg empey's response was, "we urgently need to have an input into, and make changes to, direct rule decisions on education, water rates and the review of public administration, to name but three. this is our job." empey was also critical of the dup's statement, saying, "we have been told by the democratic unionist party that the belfast agreement was binned, consigned to the dustbin of history. looking and listening to today's press conference, it didn't look binned to me. it's actually back centre stage."

the sdlp's mark durkan said, "all we have today is an 11-paragraph announcement that tells us less rather than more. that's why the sdlp will need to see the legislation that follows it. it may be better ? or indeed worse." he further added, "a shadow assembly was agreed between the dup and sinn fein in 2004, in the so called comprehensive agreement. we are still living with the damage caused by that bad deal."

united states president george w. bush issued a statement saying, "today is an opportunity for all in northern ireland to take control of their future and bring the political process to a successful completion this year." "we remain steadfast in our support of the peace process and the efforts of the british and irish governments to achieve a lasting peace under the principles of the good friday agreement."


jimmy rollins' hitting baseball streak ends at 38

the 38 game hitting streak of jimmy rollins has ended. the streak begain on august 23, 2005. after two games into the 2006 regular season, he went 0-4 in a 4-2 loss against st.louis, promptly ending his pursuit of the impressive record 56 game feat accomplished by joe dimaggio in 1941. another record that rollins' was chasing has been largely overlooked. the national league hit streak record shared by pete rose(1978) and willie keeler(1897) was 44 games, just 6 more than rollins' accomplished.

the streak was not without controversy. many contested that the streak should not count due to the fact that it spanned two seasons. the major league marks for longest hitting streak in one season and longest hitting streak spanning two seasons are separate records. for example, willie keeler's hitting streak was accomplished in one season in 1897. he also had a hit in the last game in 1896, making his streak 45 over two seasons. others believed that the streak was more difficult since rollins had to wait six months before trying to start again. "i think it will be almost a little bit more special if he ends up going as far because of the layoff," cardinals shortstop david eckstein said before the streak ended.


men pose as police on australian freeway, commit assault and robbery

new south wales police have arrested and charged a man after an attack on the sydney-newcastle freeway (f3) north of sydney.

police allege that on march 25, 2006 at around 11:20 p.m., a 22-year-old man was pulled over by three men posing as policemen on the f3 freeway on the new south wales central coast. he was assaulted by one of the men and forced into the passenger seat of his car. during the seven-hour ordeal, he was raped and robbed. his bank card was taken and used to withdraw cash from his bank account. the man was found by a passing driver at canton beach, where the group left him after the attack.

on thursday, a 28-year-old man handed himself in to police at toukley. he was arrested and questioned by detectives before being charged with robbery in company, aggravated kidnapping, and driving whilst disqualified.

police are still searching for the other two men involved in the attack.


electronic frontier foundation files motion to stop at&amp;t from forwarding internet traffic to nsa

the california-based filed a brief on wednesday claiming that has been illegally forwarding internet traffic directly to the national security agency.

the eff has asked that the forwarding be stopped immediately. according to eff staff attorney kevin bankston, "the evidence that we are filing supports our claim that at&t is diverting internet traffic into the hands of the nsa wholesale, in violation of federal wiretapping laws and the fourth amendment. more than just threatening individuals' privacy, at&t's apparent choice to give the government secret, direct access to millions of ordinary americans' internet communications is a threat to the constitution itself. we are asking the court to put a stop to it now."

the motion was filed under seal allowing only the judge and litigants to view the complaint. the procedure allows at&t five days to explain to the court their reasons for keeping the information from the public.

in the class action lawsuit, eff is representing all at&t residential customers nationwide.


australian provisional driver caught doing more than twice the speed limit

according to police, a 22 year-old male provisional driver from macquarie fields in sydney's west has been clocked doing 202 kph (125 mph) in a 110 kph (68 mph) speed zone. in new south wales provisional drivers are limited to a maximum of 100 kph (62 mph) regardless of the actual road's limit.

the driver was detected by a highway patrol officer who was carrying out radar duties along the hume highway at mittagong, south of sydney.

police also discovered after stopping the man that his driver's licence had already been suspended. he was subsequently charged with driving whilst suspended and dangerous speeding.


honolulu man dies after fall into sewage-contaminated harbor

a honolulu man who fell into the sewage-contaminated ala wai yacht harbor died thursday night of a massive bacterial infection that caused the loss of one of his legs, septic shock, and ultimately organ failure.

oliver johnson, 34, a honolulu mortgage broker, died between 9:15 and 9:30 p.m. hst thursday (0715-0730 utc friday) when his family removed him from life support. on friday, march 31, johnson had apparently fallen into the waters of the ala wai yacht harbor, located at the mouth of the ala wai canal on the western side of waikiki. 

at the time, the canal and surrounding beaches were contaminated by over 48 million gallons of untreated sewage. the extent to which the sewage spill contributed to johnson's symptoms remains unclear.

johnson earlier reported that he had fallen accidentally into the harbor, then later indicated that he had been involved in a fight on board a boat and had been pushed or thrown into the harbor waters. a security guard at johnson's apartment reported that he was bloodied and soaking wet, and that he stumbled into the lobby and collapsed. paramedics took johnson to straub hospital where he was treated and released.

johnson reported steadily worsening leg pain that weekend and was admitted to queen's hospital on sunday with breathing difficulties. doctors that night amputated his left leg above the knee to try to halt the spread of the infection, and johnson was placed in a medically induced coma. 

initially suspecting that johnson had contracted streptococcus-caused necrotizing fasciitis, doctors later found that johnson had contracted three different bacteria, two of which, vibrio vulnificus and aeromonas hydrophila, have flesh-eating properties. despite the amputation, johnson's condition steadily worsened to the point where doctors said that his other leg and left arm would also have needed to be amputated to save his life.

an autopsy performed by the honolulu medical examiner's office reported that johnson had suffered from massive organ failure caused by septic shock. the medical examiner noted that johnson had a vulnificus infection on his foot and suffered from chronic alcoholic liver disease which may have contributed to the infection's taking hold.

the honolulu police department has opened a third-degree assault case; with johnson's death, homicide detectives are also investigating. state health officials are also investigating johnson's illness.

johnson's family has retained an attorney to investigate the causes surrounding his illness and death. it is not clear yet whether any legal action will be taken.

sewage spill fouls waikiki beach march 31, 2006



semapedia introduced to africa: powered by &quot;made in ghana&quot; technology

the ghana-india kofi annan centre for excellence in ict introduced the semacode technology and the semapedia application to a segment of the ghanaian public in a presentation delivered by guido sohne, developer-in-residence at the centre and chief software architect of corenett ltd, a ghanaian electronic transaction processing company.

introduced for the first time in africa, semapedia is a way of associating internet sites with physical barcodes that can be read by cameraphones, enabling one to look up information about physical objects quickly and easily.

the semacode (a url barcode), was conceived in canada (north america), and includes portions (such as one of the very first versions) that were developed in ghana (west africa) by local software developers. simon woodside, the founder of the semacode corporation and the semacode community site contacted mr. sohne for assistance in developing an early version of semacode and mr. sohne in turn recommended francois bonin, another developer-in-residence at the kofi annan centre for excellence, to develop this software. mr. bonin successfully delivered on the project to develop an implementation of this technology, which later on has become increasingly widely adopted and known.

the significance of semacode is that one can now link a real world, physical object to arbitrary data. before there has been no link, except for things like ordinary barcodes such as those used in stores to label products, or on books to indicate publication details. unlike semacodes, traditional barcodes have limited storage for information, are fixed function and good for only one narrow application, and also require the use of special, custom hardware and software to read or access such barcodes.

with the semacode approach, all it now takes is for an ordinary camera phone, equipped with a semacode reader software package (available free of charge by pointing your mobile phone web browser to the over the air distribution). there is no need to purchase any hardware or software to read these two dimensional barcodes.

semacodes, by embedding a url into a barcode, enable any portion of the internet to be 'attached' to any object, and can replace barcodes by going further to give arbitrary information on the internet, not just the simple product number.

after the successful development of the core of the semacode encoding software (called the semacode tagger), semacode went on to achieve user adoption, such as with the inception of the semapedia, the physical wikipedia.

in the words of stan wiechers and alexis rondeau who are the founders of the physical wikipedia, "semapedia is a non-profit project. the idea was to bring the amazing knowledge from the wikipedia to places in the "real" world where it matters. being able to stand in front of a building and dive into its history right on the spot is something incredibly useful to anybody.

doing that by just taking a picture with your mobile phone of a semacode is a very very simple interaction that is understandable to everybody. we have been explaining and showcasing to people with no technical background at all and they still immediately understand the use and value of our project.

semapedia is a community project, everybody can go to our site and create semapedia tags via a simple text entry form right away, print them out and start hyperlinking ojects to the information he wants people to know."

following his interest in the initial development of the semacode encoder, mr sohne has continued with semacode technology by developing free software, licensed under the gnu general public license, to create semacodes. the first version of his software was developed as an experiment to investigate the benefits of writing code for the apple mac os x operating system. mr sohne had at the time recently acquired an apple powerbook and used the semacode as a goal to be achieved that would serve as a learning exercise for the newly acquired hardware. this software grew to include a c to javascript port of the semacode encoder to run within a web browser, so that it could be accessible on all platforms, and not just the apple platform. 

within computer software development, a port can be considered akin to a translation between two human languages. it retains the essence of its source, yet is somewhat different while performing the same function. with that transformative step, each web browser is itself a full blown semacode encoder, regardless of platform. and since each semacode created by the software is in a hyperlink format, all the semacodes created can be conveniently stored by web engines such as google.

powering this all, are deceptively simple semacode symbols that are easy to create and quick to read, a testament to simple ideas brought to life by complex systems. perhaps the real genius of the idea behind the semacode, brainchild of mr. simon woodside of semacode corporation, is that it is so simple that it works so well and so easily. it was not so simple before the breakthrough concept of the semacode as a url barcode that is accessible by a wide variety of 'off the shelf' camera phones!

today, this introduction of the semapedia and its associated technologies, at
the prestigious ghana-india kofi annan centre for excellence, explained and
explored the possibilities that are opened by the use of semacodes. the
audience received the talk very well and suggested several interesting ways of
locally applying semacodes during an engaging discussion during question and
answer time.

the introduction of the semapedia immediately preceded the launching of the
first african entry into the semapedia which will take place immediately after
the talk, when several members of the audience used semacodes to tag the
ghana-india kofi annan centre of excellence with its corresponding entry into
the wikipedia.

during the presentation mr sohne said that "the time has come for african
content to take its place in the global constellation. we need more african
content, and anybody can help add more content to the wikipedia. so tag
something today. it's really easy to do and the software is free too!"

if it can be done in ghana, then it can easily be done elsewhere in africa and
even in asia, europe and north america too. it is rare to find african
created technology being used today in western cyberspace so this event is
indeed a laudable step forward for african technology as well as an indication
of the benefits of collaborative development based on liberal software
licensing such as open source software that can arise from further north/south
private sector partnerships.

 


news briefs:april 9, 2006

april 9, 2006

the time is 1600 utc on the 9th of april 2006, and this is audio wikinews: news briefs.

libby says bush authorized nie leaks<br>
"according to papers filed in u.s. federal court by patrick fitzgerald on wednesday, lewis "scooter" libby, vice president dick cheney's former chief of staff, has told investigators that he was authorized by president bush to divulge to reporters information from the national intelligence estimate (nie) on saddam hussein's efforts to develop nuclear weapons."<br><br>

apple unveils "boot camp" allowing windows to work on macs
"apple unveiled today a new program called "boot camp" which will allow macintosh users to switch between running mac os x and windows on start-up of their intel-based macintosh computer. shares of the company rose roughly 7% in response to the news."<br><br>

"our latest photo essay involves a flower of the more delicate kind."<br><br>

"the japanese cherry blossoms have again bloomed around the tidal basin in washington, d.c. and a city along with thousands of visitors mark the beginning of spring with their arrival. the accompanying national cherry blossom festival is an annual celebration, commemorating the march 27, 1912, gift to the city of 3,000 japanese cherry trees from mayor yukio ozaki of tokyo."

you can check out the latest photo essay and more news by going onto wikinews.org. this has been a news brief for audio wikinews. this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.

the time is 0400 utc on the 9th of april 2006, and this is audio wikinews: news briefs.

men pose as police on australian freeway, commit assault and robbery
"new south wales police have arrested and charged a man after an attack on the sydney-newcastle freeway north of sydney."<br><br>
"on thursday, a 28-year-old man handed himself in to police at toukley. he was arrested and questioned by detectives before being charged with robbery in company, aggravated kidnapping, and driving whilst disqualified."<br><br>
"police are still searching for the other two men involved in the attack."
blair, ahern unveil plan for northern ireland devolution
"british prime minister tony blair and his irish counterpart bertie ahern have unveiled their plan to restore a power-sharing executive goverment in northern ireland by a deadline of november 24."<br><br>

"the plan calls for the northern ireland assembly's members to be recalled on may 15 and given six weeks to form an executive. if no results comes within six weeks, then the members are to be given another 12 weeks to attempt to form an executive. after that, if no result is achieved by november 24, then the salaries of all members will be suspended, and the irish government will be given greater influence in northern ireland."<br><br>

"the assembly has been suspended since october 2002 following the allegation of the existence of a republican spy ring."

to receive additional up-to-date news as it occurs, please visit wikinews.org. this has been a news brief for audio wikinews. this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.

hello and welcome to audio wikinews newsbriefs, at 0000 utc, april 9, 2006. 

ship sinks off djibouti, killing at least 109
"a ship carrying passengers bound for a religious festival sank off the coast of djibouti on thursday. 109 people are reported dead, 20 reported missing, and 36 people are injured. the boat, designed to carry 80 people, was said to have been carrying 200 people when it sank. it is believed that the overload contributed to the accident."
electronic frontier foundation files motion to stop at&t from forwarding internet traffic to nsa
"the california-based non-profit organization electronic frontier foundation filed a motion on wednesday alleging that at&t has been illegally forwarding internet traffic to the u.s. national security agency. eff’s motion alleges that at&t is violating federal wiretapping laws and threatening u.s. citizens’ right to privacy. "
honolulu man dies after fall into sewage-contaminated harbor
"a honolulu man died thursday, one week after falling into the sewage-contaminated ala wai yacht harbor in waikiki. oliver johnson had reportedly fallen into the harbor during a fight and contracted a flesh-eating bacterial infection that lead to massive organ failure and the loss of one of his legs. honolulu police and state health officials are investigating."

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. until next time, have a good day.

"this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license."


tennessee hit with second wave of tornadoes; 12 dead

at least twelve people are dead as severe thunderstorms in tennessee destroyed homes and other structures for the second time in a week.

twenty-four people were killed in western tennessee alone by tornadoes spawned by severe thunderstorms on sunday, april 2.

throughout the southeastern united states, 52 tornadoes, 515 hailstorms, and 160 reports of damaging winds were reported in an 24-hour period between friday, april 7 and saturday, april 8. 



row ensues as calmac starts sunday ferry crossing service to lewis and harris

the "loch portrain" ferry, operated by caledonian macbrayne, will arrive at 10 a.m. bst (0900 utc) today at leverburgh, in the western isles of scotland, despite strong opposition from presbyterian residents who regard it as a breaking of the sabbath.

according to harris west councillor morag monro, more than 700 people on both harris and lewis signed a petition opposing the sunday service. the western isles council is also opposed to the new service.

they are also considering legal action.

"at the moment we are investigating whether there is a legal option open to us to protect us from this imposition," she said.

"it is not just church people who are opposed, but also those who have come to appreciate a day of relaxation and a chance to be together with their families for one day."

it has been welcomed, however, by many people at the southern crossing at uist.

councillor archie campbell (of the north uist/berneray) will be expected on the vessel today, and is a campaigner for the "7 days per week" service.

there is little sign of opposition expected when the ferry completes its journey, as the campaigners will be in church as the vessel arrives.



state bank of india employee strike settled

negotiations between the state bank of india and its employees over pension benefits have resulted in a settlement, ending a seven-day strike.

the bank, which is based in mumbai and majority-owned by the nation's central bank, is india's largest commercial bank, with over 9000 branch offices. 

the settlement calls for workers whose final monthly salary was up to 21,040 rupees (us$471) to receive half that amount as pension; workers with salaries larger than that would receive 40%. the bank's previous pension maximum was 4,250 rupees (us$95)

the bank's 200,000 employees will return to work monday.



ny post columnist suspended over extortion allegation

the "new york post" has suspended gossip columnist jared paul stern pending an fbi investigation into allegations that he tried to extort money from billionare ron burkle. stern has denied the allegation. 

stern contributes to page six, the "new york post"s gossip and celebrity news section. the allegation first appeared in the "new york daily news", the "post"'s long-standing rival. the "daily news" reported that, in a sting operation, stern was videotaped asking burkle for cash, in exchange for weeding out negative stories on burkle. 

the "post" said that it is cooperating with the federal investigation. 



us federal reserve ceases to publish m3 index

on march 23, 2006 the federal reserve ceased publication of the m3 monetary aggregate, in line with an announcement it made in november, 2005. the m3 is a measure of money supply in the united states, 

the m3 is most general of the many measures of "money supply", the quantity of money available within the economy for purchasing goods, services, and securities. the money supply is monitored and adjusted by a central bank, to keep inflation in check, because money supply has to change in tune with real gross domestic product (gdp) to prevent inflation (or deflation). 

in november last year, the us federal reserve announced that it would cease publishing m3 data, saying, "[the] m3 does not appear to convey any additional information about economic activity that is not already embodied in m2 and has not played a role in the monetary policy process for many years", adding that the costs of collecting the data required for the index outweighed its benefits.

some commentators have questioned this decision and have speculated that this would allow the federal reserve to covertly fund the us budget deficit and its negative balance of trade or hide the fall in international demand for the us dollar. in march, 2006, rep. ron paul introduced a bill (hr 4892) requiring the federal reserve to reverse its decision. 



first results from italian election

on 9 and 10 april 2006, italians voted to elect members of parliament as well as the country's next prime minister. 

the election was fought mainly between coalitions: the centre-left l'unione (the union), led by romano prodi, and the currently-ruling centre-right house of freedoms, led by incumbent prime minister silvio berlusconi. initial polls do not indicate a clear winner.

the main party in l'unione is the federation of the olive tree, and the house of freedoms' main party is berlusconi's forza italia party.

it is expected that no party will obtain an outright majority of seats. polls closed on monday at 3 p.m. cest (1300 utc).

according to italian law, the prime minister must have the support of both houses of parliament: the senate (the upper house) and the chamber of deputies (the lower house).

first exit polls of nexus published by major newspapers at 15:00 (local time) give the following partial results:

l'unione (the union) chamber (of deputies): 50% - 54%
l'unione (the union) senate: 50% - 54%
house of freedoms chamber (of deputies): 45% - 49%
house of freedoms senate: 45% - 49%

later exit polls showed house of freedoms in the lead in both houses.

these are based on mock voting booths outside 1,050 polling stations across the country that are expected to be representative samples, where people can anonymously indicate how they voted. the margin of error on nexus's exit polls is 2 percentage points.


former colombian intelligence official claims colombia had a plan to kill chavez

rafael garcia, the former director of the information and technology department of security administrative department (spanish acronym das) , the colombian intelligence agency, from prison stated that there was a plan to assassinate venezuelan president hugo chavez.

the information was revealed by garcia in an interview with "semana" magazine in which he accused former das director, jorge noguera, of providing the paramilitary death squads with information and lists about union leaders, professors, and left-wing leaders who then after were found dead. he accused noguera of working with paramilitary chief "jorge 40" in a conspiracy to kill chavez and other venezuelan officials.

he denounces also that a system installed on a border post between the colombian department of guajira, and the venezuelan state of zulia for migration control was in reality an espionage system aimed at venezuela.

garcia said that noguera had plotted a fraud to obtain 300,000 votes for the 2002 election campaign in favor of alvaro uribe.

according to "cambio" and "semana" magazines, noguera was appointed consul in milan after an scandal broke in which he was organizing a coup d’etat against chavez in 2005.



detroit woman dies after child's 911 calls are neglected

the family of a detroit, michigan woman plans to file a wrongful-death lawsuit against the city after her six-year-old son's calls to emergency operators were allegedly dismissed as a prank. the family released the tapes of the emergency calls to the media on friday.

sherrill turner, 46, died on february 20 of complications from an enlarged heart. her son robert made two calls to 911 to report the emergency.

"my mom is passed out," said robert turner when he called 911 the first time.

"where's mister turner at?" asked the operator. robert replied that his mother was unable to speak. 

"okay, well, i'm going to send the police over to your house to find out what's going on," added the operator, before hanging up on the boy. however, the police never came, and an ambulance was never dispatched to the home.

the boy called 911 three hours later, and reports say the operator who answered the call may have been the same operator that answered the first call. the operator asked to speak to the mother before saying "before i send the police over there." then she said to the boy, "you shouldn't be playing on the phone. now put her on the phone before i send the police over there to knock on the door, and you're going to be in trouble."

"it was taking too long," said robert. 

delaina patterson, the boy's older sister, who lives in novi, michigan, said that after 9:00 p.m. help did come, but only the police and no ems or medical personnel.

the operator, whose name has not been released, remains on the job pending an investigation by city officials.


farmhouse raided as investigation into ontario massacre continues

ontario provincial police raided a farmhouse on sunday, continuing an investigation into what is called ontario's "biggest massacre".

on saturday, eight bodies were found in or around vehicles near the village of shedden, approximately 30 kilometres from london, ontario. police would not identify the victims, but believed they knew each other and were from the toronto area. they also refused to comment on any possible links between the deaths and organised crime.

neighbours believed the house was owned by a former leader of a motorcycle gang. police have closed off a 15 square kilometre area while they search for clues. they would not comment on the reason for the raid.


news briefs:april 10, 2006

hello and welcome to audio wikinews newsbriefs, at 0900 utc, april 10, 2006.

detroit woman dies after child's 911 calls are neglected

"the family of a detroit woman plans to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of detroit. sherill turner died on february 20 from complications from an enlarged heart. her five-year-old son, robert, reportedly made two emergency calls to 911, but the calls were allegedly dismissed as prank calls. the detroit police department is investigating."

farmhouse raided as investigation into ontario massacre continues

"ontario provincial police raided a farmhouse on sunday, continuing an investigation into what is called ontario's "biggest massacre". a couple of days earlier, eight bodies were found in or around vehicles near the village of shedden, approximately 30 kilometres from london, ontario. police have closed off a 15 square kilometre area while they search for clues."

state bank of india employee strike settled

"a strike by the 200,000 employees of the state bank of india over pension benefits ended sunday with a settlement. workers will return to work on monday. the mumbai-based bank is the largest commercial bank in india, with over 9,000 branches throughout the nation."

voting begins in italian election

"finally, italians go to the polls today in parliamentary elections. the election pits the center-left l’unione coalition led by romano prodi against the center-right house of freedoms coalition led by prime minister silvio berlusconi."

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. until next time, have a good day.

"this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license."


defense systems of air force one exposed on the internet

a website has released a document it says is from the united states government, and which it claims contains information related to 's anti-missile defense system. an air force base website is believed to be the source of the information, but was not identified in the document, however.

"having information about a target's countermeasures does two things. it gives you an opportunity to choose a different weapon and to choose a different attack style... perhaps choosing to launch a salvo attack, or choose a missile that uses an active beam," said daniel goure of the lexington institute.

air force one is the primary form of transportation for the president of the united states, george w. bush. the u.s. air force maintains two boeing 747-200b series aircraft that are used only for the transportation of the president.

"it is not a good thing. we are concerned with how it got there and how we can get it out. this affects operational security," said director of public affairs for the air mobility command's 89th airlift wing at , lt. col. bruce alexander.

the document also is said to include detailed maps of the interior of the two planes, the locations of secret service agents and the location of the plane's medical center, detailing where the oxygen tanks are kept. this would assist snipers to target and detonate them.

as of friday, the document was said to be still available online, however efforts to locate the page have so far been unsuccessful.



france to replace controversial youth worker law

french president jacques chirac has announced that the new youth job law that has fueled protests for the past few weeks is to be replaced by other measures to attack unemployment amongst young adults.

students and unions protested the new law, which would have given employers the freedom to fire youth workers under the age of 26 without reason during a two-year "trial period". the prospect had sparked somewhat violent protests across the country in the past two months.

union leaders have given government officials until easter to withdraw the existing law or face yet another general strike.



seven south thailand constituencies face one horse race

following a phyrrhic victory by the thai rak thai party, thailand's caretaker prime minister thaksin shinawatra resigned to try to defuse the country's political crisis. it remains unclear what the eventual outcome will be.

in 38 constituencies, thai rak thai (lit. "thais love thais") stood unopposed and failed to garner support from the required 20% of eligible voters. seven of those 38 may face the same ballot choice in the upcoming april 23 by-elections, according to the thai-based english-language newspaper, the bangkok post. a repeat of the mass abstention that saw trt resoundingly rejected in the south would leave the lower house of the parliament short of the required 500 seats and, according to the country's constitution, unable to convene and elect a prime minister. a reading of the constitution reveals that the only likely fallback position would involve intervention from the monarch.

leaders of the pad (people's alliance for democracy), who have spearheaded the campaign to bring down the prime minister, may face arrest, according to a report from the thai news agency. protests organised by the pad have been peaceful, and no specific charges that may be used against the organisation's leaders are given in the tna report.




nasa plans to send probe into moon's surface

nasa, the united states' space agency, has announced that its next mission to the moon will not only orbit the moon, but also send two craft crashing into its surface. the lunar reconnaissance orbiter (lro), whose main mission pertains to mapping the moon, will send a spent fuel stage and an impactor probe towards a crater on the south pole. the crater seems to be rich in hydrogen and possibly ice. 

the mission is part of the run-up to trying to land astronauts back on the moon, and perhaps keep them there for a longer period of time than the apollo missions did. scott horowitz, nasa's associate administrator for the exploration systems mission directorate, had this to say: "what this mission buys is an early attempt to know what some of the resources we’re going to have ... we know for sure that for human exploration to succeed we’re going to have to essentially live off the land." 

twice before, with the pentagon's clementine spacecraft and with the lunar prospector, scientists have seen hints of ice on the moon's surface. it is nasa's hope that this mission may provide better answers to the question of water ice on the moon. this would prove useful to the agency's goal of a four-astronaut mission to the moon by 2020. 

the name of the project is the lunar crater observation and sensing satellite, or lcross for short. it will launch with the lro in october 2008 and use its onboard cameras and spectrometers to watch the impact of its upper stage into the surface. the upper stage roughly resembles an suv in mass - around 4,409 pounds.

the project manager, daniel andrews said: "we will create a substantial plume and excavate some sample material, some of which we think will be water ice." after the first crash, lcross will attempt to fly through the plume of debris, taking readings and sending them back to earth. once done, it will itself crash into a different region of the crater, allowing both the lro and stations on earth to observe the plume that it creates.


voyager 1 signal received by radio amateurs

on march 31, 2006 the -dl/iuz team in , managed to receive a signal by the american space probe using the 20m antenna. it is the first time that a group of has successfully attempted this. the team included: freddy de guchteneire, james miller, hartmut pasler and achim vollhardt. 

voyager 1 had been launched on september 5, 1977 by and was the first spacecraft to transmit close-up pictures of and . in 2004 voyager 1 entered the , the region where the has weakened enough to mix with the , thereby leaving the .

voyager 1 is now 98 from (14.7 billion km or three times the distance from earth to ). it is the most distant human-made object. the nuclear powered probe continues to measure the properties of the interstellar magnetic field.

voyager at nasa's jet propulsion laboratory


protest outside cole inquiry

the australian activist organisation aid/watch staged a protest outside the cole inquiry on tuesday. in a press release, kate wheen of aid/watch attacked the government over the scandal, claiming that foreign aid is being used to benefit businesses rather than those in need. "it’s scandalous that awb was paying kickbacks to the iraqi regime, but it is unethical, immoral and possibly illegal that our government can ruthlessly support australian business whilst so many in iraq remain in such great need," she said.

the cole inquiry, started in january this year, is tasked with investigating whether australian companies paid bribes to saddam hussein during the un oil-for-food programme. the government has denied any wrongdoing. in a press conference on monday, the prime minister defended his ministers. "i do not believe, on the information known to me that any of my ministers have been guilty of dereliction of duty and i am very, very happy to provide the statement and, if asked, to appear."

the australian trade minister, mark vaile, and foreign affairs minister, alexander downer appeared before the inquiry this week. during questioning, both men rejected all suggestion that they made any mistakes or acted in any way innapropriately.

on monday mark vaile repeatedly answered that he "couldn't recall" details of whether he was aware of the many warnings given to the government from various sources that dealings between the awb, formerly the australian wheat board, and the iraq government were corrupt and supplied the pre-invasion iraq government with up to 300 million dollars of funding.

alexander downer spent 3 hours before the commission on tuesday and said that he could not specifically recall the details of any of the 21 cables containing warnings about the possibility of kickbacks being paid to the iraqi government. he claimed that he did not have time to read all the material in his department and spent much of the year travelling. the labor party opposition has pointed to the fact that this testament seems to contradict statements previously made to parliament.

the commission also received a written statement from howard, which will be assessed by the inquiry's lawyers to determine whether he should be called before the inquiry. howard has said that he is prepared to appear before the commission, if required.



phil mickelson wins masters

yesterday in augusta, georgia at augusta national golf club, american phil mickelson won the 70th masters with a final round score of 69 and a four round total score of 281, seven under par and two strokes better than south african tim clark, the sole second place finisher. this was mickelson's second consecutive major as well as his second green jacket. in a five-way tie for third place at four under par were jose maria olazabal, retief goosen, tiger woods, chad campbell, and fred couples. rounding out the top ten were eighth place finishers angel cabrera and vijay singh followed by stewart cink in tenth place.

although mickelson had to fire up during the last few holes to take the '04 masters over ernie els, nothing of that sort was required during sunday's round. he parred the first six holes before making two straight birdies at 7 and 8, and then went on to make two more at 13 and 15 before finishing off with a bogey at 18. last year, mickelson put tiger's jacket on for him. this year, tiger helped phil into the jacket. "i certainly enjoyed having the jacket put on me," mickelson said. "i love the chance to compete against guys like tiger, guys like retief and ernie and vijay and fred who are playing so well. it gives me an incredible feeling of accomplishment to be able to come out on top this week." after 42 straight misses at majors, mickelson is now on track with one major per year for the past three years. 

playing partner fred couples nearly got within one stroke of mickelson but went on to miss the birdie putt and another par putt to sink out of contention. putting was also tiger woods's major hindrance. he made three three-putts and had an overall total of 33 putts with a final round of 70. afterwards, woods remarked, "it was frustrating. i felt in control of my golf swing from tee to green. once i got on the green, i was a spaz. i didn't have it all day - even this morning (in the third round) i didn't putt well." clark capped off a great run and a final round 69 with a chip-in from the sand at 18 for a birdie. clark moved to number 15 on the official world golf rankings, woods stayed at number 1, couples moved to 21st, and mickelson moved up to 2nd.



buckingham palace releases trivia about queen elizabeth ii

as approaches her 80th birthday, on april 21, has released 80 little known facts about her.

did you know that: the queen owns all , , and in british waters. she has sat for 139 official portraits, opened 15 bridges in the uk, launched 23 ships, and speaks fluent . 

the queen sent a message of congratulations to apollo 11 astronauts, for the first moon landing on july 21 1969, and it was put in a metal container and placed on the moon's surface. 

or that in 1976 at an army base she sent her first . or she has owned more than 30 , starting with susan who was her 18th birthday present. and in 2002, at 76 years of age, that the queen was the oldest monarch to celebrate a .


prodi claims victory in italian election; berlusconi refuses to concede

italian opposition leader romano prodi, leader of the center-left coalition "l'unione" ("lit." "the union"), was declared the victor today in parliamentary elections held sunday and monday, but prime minister silvio berlusconi has yet to concede his office.

official but not yet confirmed results indicate that "l'unione" won control of the lower house or chamber of deputies with 49.8% of the vote to 49.7% for berlusconi's center-right casa delle liberta ("lit." "the house of freedoms") coalition. the winning party automatically receives a minimum of 55% of the seats in the lower house, giving prodi at least 340 seats in the 630-seat chamber.

berlusconi, however, claims that his party would control the 315-seat senate by one vote, resulting in a split parliament. the current results, however, show prodi with a 158-156 lead in the senate, giving him enough seats of support in both houses. berlusconi's spokesman also indicated that his party has requested a recount.

italian law requires that the prime minister receive the support of both houses of parliament. should the two houses be controlled by different coalitions, the stalemate would result in new elections. a caretaker government would rule in the meantime.



israeli pm ariel sharon declared 'permanently incapacitated'

the israeli cabinet today (tuesday) declared prime minister ariel sharon "permanently incapacitated," a declaration that officially ends his tenure as prime minister.

acting prime minister ehud olmert, whose centrist kadima party won parliamentary elections in march, is currently in negotiations to form a coalition government.

sharon has been in a coma since suffering a massive hemorrhagic stroke on january 4. under israeli law, olmert can serve in the capacity of acting prime minister for only 100 days, until april 14, before a permanent replacement must be chosen. the official announcement was moved up to tuesday because the jewish holiday of passover begins on wednesday, april 12. olmert is expected to be named as sharon's permanent replacement.



five charged in ontario killings

four men and a woman have been charged with first-degree murder in what the ontario provincial police calls "internal cleansing" of a biker gang.

the eight victims found on saturday in a farmer's field in shedden, ontario, as well as one of the suspects have been linked to a biker gang called the "bandidos", ontario provincial police confirmed on monday afternoon. according to police, the victims were shot dead.

"the victims of this crime have been positively identified and are associated [with], or belong to, the bandidos motorcycle gang," det. supt. ross bingley told a news conference in london, ontario. 

"this is an isolated incident with ties to the bandidos." 

"there's nothing to indicate that there's anything outside the bandidos ...this is simply an internal cleansing," said det. insp. don bell.

six people who were found dead are believed to be full members of the gang:

the other two victims were associated with the gang, according to police:

the five people charged are kellestine of dutton, ontario, eric niessen of monkton, ontario, kerry morris, also of monkton, ontario, frank mather of dutton, ontario and brett gardiner of no fixed address.



news briefs:april 11, 2006

hello and welcome to audio wikinews newsbriefs, at 0900 utc, april 11, 2006.

a couple of breaking news stories at this hour.

israeli pm ariel sharon declared 'permanently incapacitated'

prodi claims victory in italian election; berlusconi refuses to concede

france to replace controversial youth worker law

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. until next time, have a good day.

"this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license."


straw and bush respond to iran situation

the united kingdom's foreign secretary jack straw dismissed the nuclear 'first-strike' plan reported in the new yorker magazine on saturday.

according to the new yorker story, written by seymour m. hersh, american military and intelligence officials were making plans for a massive nuclear strike on iran in order to stop the country developing nuclear weapons. the story also said that us special forces were already operating in iran gathering target information.

the iranian government insists that its nuclear development program is purely for meeting civilian energy needs, but several intelligence agencies around the world believe that iran's true goal is to develop nuclear weapons. the international atomic energy agency has said that it has not seen indications of diversion of nuclear material to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices after several years of intensive inspections in iran, but has also expressed uncertainty about the nature of iran's nuclear program and called for confidence building measures from iran. 

a former us intelligence official claimed that iran's president, mahmoud ahmadinejad, is referred to as "the new adolf hitler" within the white house. some military officials believe that bush wants a "regime change" in iran. president ahmadinejad has previously disputed the existence of the holocaust and at a conference discussing zionism, he described ayatollah khomeini's statement that israel as an occupying force in palestine should be "wiped off the map" as "a wise statement".

an anonymous pentagon official said "this white house believes that the only way to solve the problem is to change the power structure in iran, and that means war. it also reinforces the belief inside iran that the only way to defend the country is to have a nuclear capability."

us aircraft flying from carriers in the arabian sea have been flying practice nuclear weapon missions within range of iranian radar, widely seen as an effort to intimidate iran.

in the last few years iran has been constructing a series of underground facilities to support its work. colonel sam gardiner, a military analyst, says there are over 400 targets in iran that would need to be destroyed to end iran's nuclear program. in one option of a plan reportedly presented to the white house by the pentagon this winter, "bunker-busting" mini-nuclear weapons would be used to penetrate the deepest-buried facilities, some of which are 75 feet below the surface. 

an insider claimed that the joint chiefs of staff tried to remove the nuclear option from the plan, citing problems of huge casualties and radioactive contamination, but the white house retained it. another source claimed that while nuclear weapons were seeing more interest amongst civilian staff and within "policy circles", military officers remained very much opposed to their potential use, with some high-level officers threatening resignation.

the insider said "if senior pentagon officers express their opposition to the use of offensive nuclear weapons, then it will never happen".

when asked about the veracity of the claims made in the new yorker article, the white house said "as the president has indicated, we are pursuing a diplomatic solution". the defense department also said that iran was being dealt with through "diplomatic channels". the c.i.a. said that there were "inaccuracies" in the account.

since then, bush has described the plan as "wild speculation", without denying it, in a speech delivered at johns hopkins university in washington dc.

"the doctrine of prevention is to work together to prevent the iranians from having a nuclear weapon," he said. "i know here in washington prevention means force. it doesn't mean force necessarily. in this case it means diplomacy. what you are reading is just wild speculation which happens quite frequently here in the nation's capital."

jack straw said "the idea of a nuclear strike on iran is completely nuts." speaking on a bbc television show, straw said "i have made clear the british government's position on this time and time again which is widely shared across europe."

"the american administration, condoleezza rice, [and] president bush use slightly different language. they say that it is not on the agenda. they are very committed indeed to resolving this issue - it is a complicated issue - by negotiation and, yes, by diplomatic pressure. "

straw stated that the uk would not launch a pre-emptive strike on iran, going on to say that he was as "certain as he could be" that neither would the us.



australia's deputy pm faces iraqi kickback inquiry

yesterday, australia's deputy prime minister, mark vaile, appeared before the cole inquiry into kickbacks paid to saddam hussein's iraqi regime. it is the first time in over a decade that a senior government official has been called to give evidence before a royal commission in australia.

the inquiry heard that mr vaile could not recall being told any specific details of the allegations made against the wheat exporter awb before 2003, and despite his department receiving information about the allegations, it came as no surprise that he was not informed as he held no responsibility for the un oil-for-food program.

mr vaile has been australia's trade minister since 2000 and the deputy prime minister since 2005.

mr vaile told the commission that despite the cables received by his department in 2000 alleging that the awb agreed to pay a kickback to hussein's regime in iraq, inflating wheat prices and paying money into another non-iraqi account, he does not recollect being told specific details of the allegations.

when asked by counsel assisting the commission john agius about how such cables are dealt with, mr vaile told the commission that they are looked at by department officers who decide whether or not they need the minister's attention. mr vaile said that if a particular cable needed his attention it was generally put into a ministerial submission. he said that such submissions may require ministerial action, while others just contain information which he may need to make a note of. once the submission has been read, the minister signs it and it goes into the system.

mr vaile told the commission that on occasion he receives information from cables via briefings from his advisors and departmental officers.

when questioned about a cable sent to the department of trade containing concerns raised by the un about awb's dealings in iraq dated january 13, 2000, mr vaile said that he was briefed in a general sense on the issues raised. despite the un's concerns being stated in the cable, mr vaile said that he "can't recall being aware of the substance".

mr vaile said he was under the belief that the department of foreign affairs and trade (dfat) and australia's un mission were taking care of the un's concerns. he said that he did not have responsibility over the issues being raised "that's my recollection, and my recollection is that there were concerns that had been raised about an awb contract, and that dfat and the mission in new york were dealing with it, bearing in mind that i was not - i didn't have direct ministerial responsibility for either the un mission in new york or the oil-for-food program" he said.

when asked if he would have expected to be briefed in detail on the issues in the cable, mr vaile said "given the circumstances at the time, in terms of my direct ministerial responsibility and being new in the portfolio, probably not."

mr vaile told the inquiry that he was surprised that he had not been briefed about a cable dated march 11, 2000 from austrade to the department of trade. the summary of the document said "it may be necessary to advise the minister of the situation."

the inquiry heard that in april, 2000 mr vaile was told by an advisor that the issue raised in january, 2000 had been resolved with the un.

when questioned by mr agius about why he did not follow up on the allegations made against awb in 2000, mr vaile said he was too snowed under with work. "my best recollections are that i was pretty well snowed under in taking on the responsibilities of a new portfolio and the breadth of issues, having come from a much narrower base in the previous portfolio, and i recall early in 2000 being very, very focused on what to do next in the wto process after the seattle ministerial failed in the december of 1999" he told the inquiry.

mr agius then questioned mr vaile about allegations made by us wheat associates in 2003 that awb had been inflating wheat prices to iraq. at the same time there were also allegations that money was being paid to hussein's regime, that awb was not being transparent in their dealings. at the time mr vaile defended awb based upon information provided to him by his department. he claims that it was some time later that he learned the information he was given was provided to the department by awb. mr vaile said that his department did not conduct an investigation into the allegations despite them being raised in 2000 and again in 2003 by separate parties.

mr vaile also admits that at the time, he dismissed the allegations made by us wheat associates as he believed that they were putting pressure on the us administration with regards to wto negotiations between australia and the us.

mr vaile told the inquiry that the first ha became aware of possible corruption with connected with awb was in april, 2004. the inquiry heard that mr vaile and alexander downer (australia's foreign minister) had received a submission claiming that awb had acted properly, but the company they paid to transport wheat in iraq had been paying kickbacks to hussein's regime. mr vaile said that at the time he saw no need to review procedures within his department for the distribution of information regarding awb.

according to mr vaile, the only time the department of trade investigated its files to locate information it had received on awb's dealings in iraq was around march 2004 to assist the un's inquiry into the oil-for-food programme.


state farm insurance allegedly destroying papers

zach scruggs, a lawyer for united states senator trent lott, says that state farm insurance company is destroying records related to claims for damage from hurricane katrina.

the records allegedly contain information saying that state farm fraudulently denied insurance claims made by its policy holders, including lott, that had homes there were damaged or destroyed when hurricane katrina came ashore on the gulf coast.

scruggs said that lott has "good faith belief" that many employees of the insurance company in biloxi, mississippi are destroying engineer's reports that were inconclusive as to whether or not water or wind was the main cause of damage to the buildings affected by the hurricane.

lott is among thousands of home and/or business owners who had their property damaged or destroyed during the hurricane and had their claims denied because state farm claimed that their policies don't cover damage caused by floods or water that was driven by the wind.

state farm has not issued a statement on the matter so far. 


rapper proof (d12) shot and killed outside detroit nightclub

rapper proof, born deshaun holton, was shot and killed on april 11, 2006, at approximately 4:30 a.m. edt (0830 utc) at the triple c club on 8 mile road in detroit.

proof was known for his work together with his good friend eminem and his group d12.

another man was shot shortly afterward, and was taken to st. john hospital.

on april 12, 2006, mario etheridge, 28, of detroit turned himself in to the police, having been named by several witnesses. mario was allegedly a bouncer at the club. "police said he is a cousin of keith bender jr., the bouncer who was allegedly shot by proof during the fight." the fight that started inside the club was reported to be over a pool game. the argument was taken outside where, "a shot was fired in the air, proof allegedly pistol-whipped bender, knocked him to the ground and then shot him. etheridge then allegedly opened fire on the rapper, striking him four times in the head and chest. one week later, keith bender jr. died of his injuries on april 18, 2006.

official police reports are yet to determine the series of events which left proof and keith bender, 35, deceased. bender died 8 days later on april 18, 2006. following proof's death, rapper snoop dogg called on fellow musicians to unite, describing the incident as "a loss to the hip-hop community".

the tributes were led by fellow rapper the game who was first to comment on the tragedy. the game remembers how he and proof became 'real cool and real homies' and that 'proof will always be remembered and i as well as the black wall street family will keep his memory & his family in our prayers 1'. the second to comment on proof was long time friend royce da 5'9" who was deeply saddened by the death of his good friend. royce had been a friend of proof for over 9 years and the two had recently reconciled. royce echoed the music community, saying 'he is such loss for the hip hop community...i hope that he will be remembered for the talented artist and great person that he was, and not the tragedy that he fell victim to'. 

eminem was the third to discuss proof's death days after his passing, clearly affected by the tragedy. eminem described proof as "funny, smart and charming" and said that he would be sorely missed and described him as "the heart and ambassador of detroit hip-hop". eminem said that proof was, and always will be, his best friend.

tributes poured out of the uk with vm2k6 leading the remembrance. proof's demise which was mainly overlooked by the uk media was documented and reflected by vm2k6 in which he calls proof 'fresh, talented and meaningful, a rarity in hip hop today'. he continues saying that proof had 'the greatest ability to transfer his experiences and most of all feelings into words' and finished with the heartfelt line- 'i guess its only in death you really begin to shine'. 

several fan videos were released in tribute to proof, including the hit "good die young" music video which used d12's 2004 single, which is currently one of the highest discussed and viewed videos on youtube.com. many other "slide show" flicks were created, which are appearing all over the internet. the "good die young" clip was produced by ryke video productions.

proof stated how he wanted to be remembered in an interview with sohh.com shortly after his album release; 'i want people to say that i was a true artist', ' that i did it best and stayed true to hip hop roots' and 'i'd want people to understand i did it for the love not for the charts.' 



former iranian president rafsanjani states iran is enriching uranium

iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad confirmed on tuesday that the country has successfully enriched from 164 of their .

"i am officially announcing that iran has joined the group of those countries which have nuclear technology. this is the result of the iranian nation's resistance. based on international regulations, we will continue our path until we achieve production of industrial-scale enrichment," ahmadinejad said.

"iran has put into operation the first unit of 164 centrifuges, has injected (the uranium) gas and has reached industrial production. we operated the first unit which comprises of 164 centrifuges, gas was injected, and we got the industrial output. we should expand the work of these machines to achieve a full industrial line. we need dozens of these units (sets totaling 164 centrifuges) to achieve a uranium enrichment facility," said iran's former president, akbar hashemi rafsanjani, earlier today. 

ahmadinejad had said on monday that he would release "good nuclear news which will be a source of pride for the whole iranian nation" today and that reports from the media are part of the united states campaign involving "psychological warfare."

"nothing can stop our civil nuclear program as the iranians are a courageous nation and not afraid of intimidations. we are not after atomic bombs," added ahmadinejad. 

according to the (iaea), iran began to test 20 centrifuges in march. iran's current enrichment is only to reactor-grade ? around 3.5% of the isotope . uranium-235 has a and is one which is easily . in order to create a nuclear bomb, a few hundred metric tons of natural uranium must be used enriched above 90% of uranium-235. experts have said that if iran is going to attempt to make enough uranium-235 for a nuclear bomb, they would need to install a few thousand centrifuges in series or process the gas through the same set of centrifuges over 50 times.

on wednesday, mohamed elbaradei, the president of the iaea, will visit iran to review the progression, if any, to iran's nuclear program and will release a report at the end of april.

the united states said that iran is "moving in the wrong direction" in regards to its nuclear program and that if it continues its program, it will discuss the possibility of taking steps with the united nations.





australian foreign minister tells inquiry it was the un's job to investigate iraq kickback claims

alexander downer, australia's foreign affairs minister, told the cole inquiry yesterday that it was not his department's job to investigate claims that wheat exporter awb was paying kickbacks to saddam hussein in the lead up to the us-led invasion of iraq in 2003.

mr downer, who entered the inquiry via a back entrance to avoid the crowd waiting outside told the inquiry numerous times that he did not read a series of diplomatic cables which raised concerns about awb in iraq. mr downer admitted that he did not have the time to read diplomatic cables and the only time he did so was when he is "stuck on a plane" and has nothing else to read.

the claims are in stark contrast to a statement made to parliament in february where mr downer said "of course i would have read them".

when asked why the department of foreign affairs and trade did nothing about the allegations first received in 2000, he told the inquiry that his department couldn't investigate awb and responsibility for the oil for food program laid with the un. " the department does not have the legal authority to go into awb and access their files" he said.

"they (the un) also had people on the ground in iraq because insofar as there could be infringements of the sanctions regime, those infringements could take place within iraq and australia had no access to iraq during that period." mr downer told the inquiry.

mr downer admitted that the department of foreign affairs and trade had dealt with each cable, despite he not reading them and that were satisfied with assurances from awb that there was no substance to the allegations.

mr downer was also asked about an unassessed intelligence report, sent to the national security committee of cabinet which raised concerns about alia, the jordanian trucking company used by the awb to transport wheat around iraq. the document alleged that alia may have been paying kickbacks to the iraqi regime.

mr downer told the inquiry that the intelligence may not have been dealt with."there is so much intelligence. it's a very major challenge, to deal with intelligence" he said. 

when asked by terry forrest, counsel for awb executives what the point of sending intelligence to his department when it was never read, mr downer conceded that it was "physically impossible" to read it all.

mr downer was also questioned about a cable delivered in june 2003 from us army captain puckett which claimed that every contract under the un's oil for food program contained a kickback. mr downer told the inquiry he didn't see the cable as being important because the information was provided by "a junior officer in the us army".

mr downer denied claims made by former awb executive andrew lindberg that he had been told about the possibility that money may have been paid to iraq by alia. according to mr downer it is common practice in his department to have two advisors at such meetings, where one of them takes notes so there is a record of what is said. according to mr downer, no notes were taken during the meeting despite it being "the usual practice".

mr downer told the inquiry that he had no idea why notes weren't taken during the meeting, despite the meeting being quite important. he also told the inquiry that he couldn't recall if he noticed that nobody was taking notes as he would have been "focused a little more on the meeting than on somebody taking notes".


u.s. claims of iraqi bioweapons labs contradicted in classified pentagon report filed on 27 may 2003

in an article published on wednesday by the washington post, reporter joby warrick alleged that the bush administration and the cia "possessed powerful evidence" that contradicted assertions made by president bush one month after the iraqi war began, where trailers found in iraq were said to have been mobile biological weapons labs.

on may 27, 2003, president bush made public statements on these trailers by asserting that "we have found the weapons of mass destruction," which coincided with the cia publishing a whitepaper that detailed how the trailers were allegedly used to produce biological weapons. 

warrick's news report revealed that evidence exists to support that two days before the presidential statements were made and the cia whitepaper was published, that a fact-finding group reached an opposite conclusion.

the group was comprised of u.s. and british civilian experts that investigated the labs and concluded unanimously that they had nothing to do with biological weapons production. they relayed their results back to washington, where warrick said in the front page "washington post" article that the newspaper interviewed six of the nine group members.

according to "the washington post", this preliminary report was followed up with a detailed 122 page final report three weeks later, titled "final technical engineering exploitation report on iraqi suspected biological weapons-associated trailers." the report remains classified to this date.
reuters reported that an unnamed u.s. official confirmed the existence of the field report filed on may 27, 2003, and said that the field report had not been evaluated at the time of bush's statement. "you don't change a report that has been coordinated in the (intelligence) community based on a field report," he reportedly said. the bush administration continued to make claims about having found mobile biological weapons facilities throughout 2003. 

on june 8, 2003, an unnamed senior cia official stood by the interpretation that the trailers were mobile bioweapons labs saying "it is what we think it is, to the best of our knowledge".

then secretary of state colin powell claimed in june 2003 that "confidence level is increasing" that the trailers were intended for biological weapons production. 

white house speaker scott mcclellan said on july 16, 2003, that "we've seen some of the evidence of his weapons of mass destruction program through two mobile biological weapon labs that have been discovered."

vice president dick cheney claimed in september 2003 that the trailers were "mobile biological facilities". then cia director george tenet claimed in a speech on february 5, 2004, that the trailers "could be made to work" as biological weapons labs. 

the alleged existence of mobile biological weapons laboratories was one of the cornerstones in colin powell's presentation in front of the united nations to make the case for war on february 5, 2003. much of the information came from an iraqi defector dubbed curveball who was an asset of the german bnd. the credibility of this source was disputed by the bnd.

the iraq survey group reported in september 2004 that the trailers were "impractical" for biological agent production and "almost certainly" designed and built for the generation of hydrogen. asked about the prospects to turn the trailers into biological weapons labs, rod barton, a member of the iraq survey group, said "it would be easier to start all over with just a bucket". 

the washington post cites unnamed sources among officials and members of the initial survey group as claiming that the original classified report from may 27, 2003 and the classified final report three weeks later came to the same conclusions as the unclassified findings of the iraqi survey group. 

scott ritter, a former united nations weapons inspector, wrote september 8, 2003:
"however, it now is clear that these so- called labs were nothing more than hydrogen generation units based upon british technology acquired by iraq in the 1980s, used to fill weather balloons in support of conventional artillery operations, and have absolutely no application for the production of biological agents."

in the april 12, 2006 press conference, scott mcclellan said "i will point out that the reporting i saw this morning was simply reckless and it was irresponsible. the lead in the washington post left the impression for the reader that the president was saying something he knew at the time not to be true. … the president's statements were based on the joint assessment of the cia and dia that was publicly released the day before [the president made his statements]." 

he did not answer repeated questions whether the president knew of the secret report at the time he was asserting that "we found biological laboratories" on may 29, 2005. when asked why the secret report was not made public earlier mcclellan responded by saying that "it takes a substantial amount of time to coordinate and run through a declassification process".



australian pm to face cole inquiry

australian prime minister john howard will face the cole inquiry into iraqi kickbacks by wheat exporter awb on thursday.

mr howard said in a statement that he has been asked to appear at the inquiry. "the cole commission of inquiry has requested that i appear at its hearings" he said.

mr howard expects that he will give evidence around 10 a.m. "the inquiry has indicated that it would suit its convenience for me to do that at 10 a.m. tomorrow" said mr howard.

it will be the first time an australian prime minister has appeared before an inquiry since bob hawke faced the hope inquiry into australia's intelligence services in 1983.



news briefs:april 12, 2006

hello and welcome to audio wikinews newsbriefs, at 0915 utc, april 12, 2006.

former iranian president rafsanjani states iran is enriching uranium

straw and bush respond to iran situation

australia's deputy pm faces iraqi kickback inquiry

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. until next time, have a good day.

"this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license."


grover norquist attempts to trademark 'k street project'

grover norquist, a conservative activist, is working to trademark the term 'k street project'. norquist feels that democrats, along with republican jay boehner, have hijacked the term and made it symbolize corruption and scandal, which he says is entirely unrelated to his project, a branch of americans for tax reform.

norquist states that his project is just a job listing for lobbyists in washington, as well as a list of political ties or campaign contributions that they may have. originally founded in 1989, the goal of the k street project was to correct the imbalance that norquist saw in lobbyist's political views in washington.

norquist later stated: “some people say kleenex when they mean tissue. we will jealously guard the real phrasing the way kleenex and coca-cola do. we will sue anyone who says it wrong and make lots of money.”

a spokesperson for house minority leader nancy pelosi (d-ca) said, "republicans can call it anything they want. it doesn’t change the fact that every single republican is responsible for enabling and benefiting from a k street project that puts their cronies ahead of the american people."


186,000 cases of chikungunya in reunion

with 186,000 cases of chikungunya, a viral fever, on the island of reunion, nearly one quarter of the population of that french overseas departement has officially been affected since mar. 2005.

the epidemic has gotten markedly worse in the past few months, with the worst point being 45,000 new cases in the week from jan. 30 to feb. 5. the prime minister dominique de villepin has stated on wednesday (mar. 1) that "nine out of ten patients were struck since the beginning of the year (...). no one could have anticipated the progression of it."

the virus is also present in the indian ocean in seychelles, in mauritious and especially in mayotte, where the line of 2000 cases would have been crossed, according to xavier bertrand, minister of french health. that represents a doubling in 10 days.

according to philippe renault, medical epidemiologist of the cire (regional epidemiological intervention center of the rhone-alpes), the propagation of the epidemic will show the first signs of stabilization, at a very high level. he urged against drawing hasty conclusions, however. "an infectious disease can reach a plateau, then start again. it is necessary to wait until the decrease is clear on all the indicators."



bomb threat that diverted ryanair jetliner reportedly a hoax

according to the uk department of transport, ryanair flight 25, carrying 172 passengers and crew en-route from paris to dublin, was diverted to prestwick international airport in glasgow, scotland following a bomb threat discovered by the plane's cabin crew. the threat, a written note, was found in a magazine on the plane. the uk's "times online" and "reuters" are now reporting that the threat was a hoax.

"this obviously had the potential to be a major incident and one which was taken extremely seriously by the security forces and indeed the police. i am extremely glad it appears to have been nothing more than a hoax, but i am disappointed about the inconvenience passengers have suffered. i’m very glad that the response has been entirely appropriate and that at the end of the day no harm has been done," said msp john scott, whose ayr constituency covers the airport.

"reuters" also reports that police have not found a bomb on the plane, though passengers were still being questioned.

the ryanair jet liner, a boeing 737, was diverted, and escorted while landing by two royal air force tornados.

"at approximately 13.45 today a tornado f3 from raf leuchars was diverted from a routine training flight in order to assist a ryanair flight from paris to dublin. two additional tornados were also scrambled from raf coningsby. the plane has now safely landed at prestwick airport and the three jets have now landed back at base. the incident is now a matter for strathclyde police," said a spokesman for the uk ministry of defence.

"there is an ongoing incident at glasgow prestwick airport. police and emergency services are in attendance," said a spokesman for the airport.

"a note was passed to the cabin crew onboard claiming that there was a bomb. the captain immediately reported this to uk air traffic control and was instructed to divert to glasgow prestwick airport. said a spokesman for ryanair. 

the scare caused the airport to close for two hours, according to police; a security alert remains in place. 

all 172 passengers were evacuated from the plane. authorities are still searching luggage and passengers, but there is no word on whether or not explosives have been found or if there have been any arrests. three other flights were not allowed to leave the airport and four arriving flights were diverted to stansted and edinburgh airports in scotland. most of the passengers are reported to be in their twenties. reports also note that at least 71 schoolchildren were on the plane.

they were "quite distressed," said strathclyde police assistant chief constable john neilson. "as soon as they landed they were fine. there’s appropriate support from the health services for them." he also said "people are still being interviewed" and that he thinks "we will know for sure what’s happened once everybody has been interviewed."

"all [passengers and crew] are safe and well and are being interviewed by strathclyde police," said a spokesman for the strathclyde police.

"all passengers together with ryanair are co-operating fully with the police and local safety authorities. the aircraft will now be subject to a detailed search, following which we expect it will be cleared to travel onwards to dublin. ryanair apologises sincerely for any inconvenience caused to these passengers, however the safety of our passengers and aircraft will always be our number one priority," added the ryanair spokesman.


coroner's inquest rules two british men were intentionally shot by israeli soldiers

a coroner's inquest hearing ruled on monday, april 10, that tom hurndall, a 22 year old man from north london, england, was intentionally killed by an israeli on soldier april 22, 2003. mr. hurndall died nine months later from the single gunshot wound to the head. 

on thursday april 6, the same court decided that the award-winning cameraman james miller, 34, was also intentionally shot in the neck by an israeli sniper three weeks previous to the hurndall shooting. both men were shot within a mile of each other near rafa in the gaza strip.

the cases were presided over by dr andrew reid, who said he would be writing to the uk attorney general lord goldsmith to see if there was any further legal action which could be taken in relation to the deaths of tom hurndall and james miller. 

the five man, five woman jury at saint pancras coroners court in north london complained of a lack of cooperation by the israeli authorities in their investigation of both cases. saying in their verdict of the hurndall case that "the jury would like to express its dismay with the lack of cooperation from the israeli authorities", and, in the miller verdict "it is a fact that from day one the israeli authorities have not been forthcoming in the investigation into the circumstances surrounding mr miller's death.” the israelis originally put out statements claiming that opposition forces shot both men and that mr. hurndall was wearing camouflage gear when he was shot. however images by a south african photographer showed him unconscious and bleeding heavily moments after being shot, he was dressed in casual clothes but wearing bright orange trousers and a vest top. 

mr hurndall, a manchester metropolitan university journalism and photography student, who had entered gaza from jordan with the international solidarity movement (ism). 
had described being "shot at, gassed and chased by soldiers" in the war-torn gaza strip in the days preceding his fatal shooting. the inquest reveled that just before he was killed shots were fired from an idf watchtower, causing palestinians children to flee. one child froze and mr hurndall went to help but was shot in the head. sergeant taysir hayb was convicted of manslaughter by an israeli court and jailed for eight years for shooting him.

james miller was killed on his last day of work on a hbo film titled "death in gaza" a documentary about the impact of violence upon children in the conflict zone which has gone on to win three emmys and a bafta. he was reportedly filming palestinian children throwing stones at israeli tanks in rafah at the time. the shooting was described as "slow, deliberate, calculated and aimed". he was approaching soldiers from the idf (israeli defense force) while holding a white flag when he was shot by lieutenant hib al haib of the bedouin desert reconnaissance unit.

british legislator, gerald kaufman said tuesday, sanctions must be imposed against israel if it does not hand over officers and troops suspected of being responsible for the killing of the two british men.



news briefs:april 13, 2006

hello and welcome to audio wikinews newsbriefs, at 0800 utc, april 13, 2006.
bomb threat that diverted ryanair jetliner reportedly a hoax

australian pm to face cole inquiry - australian foreign minister tells inquiry it was the un's job to investigate iraq kickback claims

u.s. claims of iraqi bioweapons labs contradicted early in classified pentagon report

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. until next time, have a good day.

"this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license."


islamic web forum releases videotape of ayman al-zawahiri

an islamic militant web forum has released a videotape of al-qaeda's second in command, ayman al-zawahiri, who reportedly released the tape to commemorate the battle of tora bora in december 2001.

"the islamic nation must support the heroic mujahedeen [holy warriors] in iraq, who are fighting on the very front line for the dignity of islam. and to my brother mujahedeen in iraq, i say, stay firm. stay together. your enemy has begun to falter, so don't stop pursuing him until he flees defeated," said zawahiri in the tape which was believed to have been made in november 2005.

"i warn all muslims in iraq: anyone who impedes the jihad against the crusader occupiers is a traitor to god and his prophet ... and a traitor to the rest of the muslims," he added.

zawahiri also accused united states president george w. bush of being the "caesar of washington."

"bush, son of bush, eliminating israel is the duty of every believer. if we commit to peaceful action, they will demand we adhere to international laws and treaties that mean nothing to them. if we adhere to that, they will ask us to impose constraint on what they call terrorism and war on israel. then if we adhere to that, they will demand we recognize israel and establish normal relations with it," zawahiri continued.

zawahiri also praised abu musab al-zarqawi, the leader of an iraqi militant group, calling him his "beloved brother" and says, "i have lived with him up close and have seen nothing but good from him."

zawahiri has made at least three other tapes since november, all of which were broadcast by al-jazeera. he appeared in two tapes in january, and in one tape on march 4, 2006. the latest video was not released immediately after the date it was allegedly filmed, nor has al-jazeera yet broadcast the video by zawahiri despite having broadcast his three previous tapes.

al-qaeda's leader, osama bin laden, released an audio tape on january 19, 2006. parts of that tape were aired on al-jazeera and it was the first time in over a year that bin laden had been heard.



nepal's king gyanendra cracks down on protests; 3 dead

nepal's king gyanendra deployed lethal force against protestors in kathmandu on thursday as a general strike and pro-democracy protest spread through nepal threatening the future of the monarchy.

government forces fired on protesters in the kathmandu neighborhood of kalanki, killing three people and injuring more than 100, according to officials at two city hospitals. two of those killed appeared to have been shot in the head by live bullets.

kathmandu was under a curfew from 2 a.m. to 8 p.m. local time on april 20. non-governmental organizations such as the united nations and the red cross were denied permission to move through the city during the curfew, and journalists were also denied curfew passes. the united nations office for the high commissioner for human rights called the move a "clear violation" of their agreement with the nepali government.

the curfew was reportedly extended until 3 a.m. local time friday. protestors intend to continue protests on friday.

gyanendra assumed direct rule in february 2005, citing the failure of political parties to control a maoist insurgency that has killed 13,000 people. he has pledged free elections by april 2007, but an alliance of political parties has demanded he relinquish power to an all-party government immediately.

the protests have touched all areas of nepalese society. as an example, a peaceful protest meeting called by the nepal bar association was fired upon by nepalese police on april 13, 2006. about 1500 people took part in the protest which took place at babarmahal in kathmandu. 50 were reportedly injured in the firing. nepal bar association president shambu thampa was one of the casualties. it is not clear at this time whether the police used rubber, or live bullets. after the protest, tear gas shells were used to disperse the crowd. the authorities reportedly detained 72 people.

later that day, around 100 people were arrested at a rally in a stadium at maitighar. most of those detained were associated with the association of international ngos (ain).



ayya vaikunda avataram declared as a holiday for tirunelveli district

the ayya vaikunda avatharam is a festival celebrated in a grand scale in the southern districts of tamil nadu. people from almost all the districts of tamil nadu visit swamithoppe pathi, the religious headquarters of ayyavazhi. and for the comfort of the devotees, for a long time the religious leader of ayyavazhi bala prajapathi adikalar and some other ayyavazhi movements demanded from the government, a leave of absence for the districts of tirunelveli, chennai, madurai, thoothukudi and virudunagar. 

taking into consideration, the government of tamil nadu have announced the day of vaikunda avatharam (march 4) as a holiday for the districts of tirunelveli and thoothukudi, the districts in which the ayyavazhi followers was populated mostly, from this year. 

still, they request for a leave for the districts for chennai, madurai and virudunagar.


amber alert canceled in toronto

nevaeh gough is back with her family, and police in toronto have cancelled the amber alert issued earlier today when she was driven away by her father, daniel james david, after an alleged domestic altercation between the 10-month old's parents.

police were called to a home on warden avenue at 1:35 p.m. edt (1735 utc) regarding a domestic dispute. police allege mr david arrived at a motel where the mother and child were staying and assaulted the infant's mother, then drove away with the child. when he returned to the hotel, they allege he forced the mother into the car and drove her to the home on warden avenue, from which he later fled.

police issued the alert, along with descriptions of mr david and his vehicle, and the warning that he may have a gun.

the alert was canceled off after approximately an hour when the baby's grandfather brought her to the police, about 7 p.m. local time.

mr david was described as 5’10”, black, with black, short hair and brown eyes and has a cheek scar under his right eye. his vehicle is a silver, four-door, 2006 mazda m6, with ontario license plate ayfz 177.

anyone with information to his whereabouts is asked to contact police at 416-808-4300, or crime stoppers anonymously at 416-222-tips (8477), or online at www.222tips.com .



canada tests cow for mad cow disease

initial tests done on a six-year-old dairy cow in fraser valley, a farming community near vancouver, british columbia in canada, are inconclusive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or "mad cow disease," said canada's food inspection agency.

further tests are being conducted at winnipeg's national centre for foreign animal disease and results are expected on sunday. officials also say the cow did not enter the human food chain.

"canada has a suite of internationally recognized safeguards that work together to provide high levels of human and animal health protection," officials for the agency said in a statement.

if the results are positive, this will be canada's fifth case of the disease since 2003.


australian pm faces inquiry into iraqi kickbacks

australian prime minister, john howard appeared before the cole inquiry on thursday, the first time an australian prime minister has appeared before an inquiry with royal commission powers since 1983.

unlike his foreign minister alexander downer who gave evidence before the inquiry on tuesday, mr howard entered through the front door where he gave a brief address. he told the press that his government is being open about the iraqi kickback affair. " just want to make one point and that is that the appearance by me, earlier this week by the foreign minister and also by the trade minister, demonstrates absolutely how open and transparent and accountable the government is being in relation to this matter" mr howard said to reporters.

mr howard was questioned by john agius, counsel assisting the inquiry. counsel for awb, the company at the centre of the scandal did not apply to cross-examine the prime minister.

terrence cole, the inquiry's commissioner received an application from peter geary and micheal long's counsel to cross-examine the prime minister but refused it on the grounds that the proposed line of questioning was similar to that of mr aguis' and that there was no evidence that mr howard had "ever met with mr geary or mr long".

mr agius questioned the prime minister about a series of diplomatic cables sent to his office, which raised concerns about awb's contracts in iraq.

mr howard told the inquiry that he doesn't recall reading or being briefed about any of the cables referred to by the inquiry. the inquiry also heard that prior to 2003 there was no system in place to identify which cables had been bought to the prime minister's attention.

in his statement to the inquiry, mr howard said that his office had not received four of the cables mentioned by the inquiry. under questioning, mr howard confirmed this but conceded that it was likely that his staff had read the other 17.

when asked whether there were any guidelines which guided his advisors in deciding which cables should be bought to the prime minister's attention, mr howard replied "no, there weren't".

the inquiry heard that the only discussions about which cables which should be bought to mr howard's attention occurred when an advisor changed in very generic terms. mr howard told the inquiry that he would tell a new advisor "well, you've got to exercise your own judgment, i can't possibly read everything, and clearly i want things brought to my attention which are, in your judgment, important and are relevant to issues in front of the government at the time".

mr howard admitted that the government had an interest in iraq using the united nations oil for food program for its own financial benefit, but said he did not expect cables dealing with alleged breach of un sanctions to have been bought to his attention.

the questioning then turned to a statement mr howard made to the national press club on march 13, 2003, one week prior to the us-led iraqi occupation. speaking about saddam hussein mr howard said "he has cruelly and cynically manipulated the united nations oil-for-food programme. he's rorted it to buy weapons to support
his designs at the expense of the wellbeing of his people".

mr agius asked mr howard if his statement was based upon briefngs he had received. mr howard told the inquiry that the information was based upon "open source" intelligence stated at addresses by british foreign secretary jack straw and the united states state department. mr howard said one of his advisors "checked with some cables to confirm that those cables supported the open-source claims and was satisfied that they did".

mr howard denied seeing the cables used by the advisor to support the claims, but believed he would have told her to be sure that everything they were saying can be supported by fact. mr howard told the inquiry that he never knew about cables which referred to hussein rorting the un oil for food program. mr howard admitted that at the time his "general knowledge" was that hussein had breached un sanctions and was rorting the oil for food program.

"my general knowledge at the time and belief was that the program had been rorted, and it was not seriously in dispute. nobody was arguing it hadn't been rorted" mr howard said.

the prime minister was questioned about an unassessed intelligence report which mentioned a jordanian trucking company known as "alia" paying kickbacks to hussein. in response to this mr howard told the inquiry that he could not recall the information being bought to his attention, which was not unusual.




news briefs:april 14, 2006

hello and welcome to audio wikinews newsbriefs, at 0900 utc, april 14, 2006.
islamic web forum releases videotape of ayman al-zawahiri

canada tests cow for mad cow disease

"ford motor co. confirms that it will close two of its assembly plants by 2008 -- one in minnesota, the other in virginia. a total of 4,300 people are employed at the two plants."

"and the united front for democratic change's attack on the chadian capital of n'djamena has been repelled by the chadian army. the united nations security council condemns the rebel attack."

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. until next time, have a good day.

"this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license."


explosion rocks jama masjid in india

twin blasts have rocked the historic jama masjid in old delhi (india), killing at least five people and injuring thirteen. the explosions were not strong enough to damage the 17 century mosque.

the first explosion occurred around 1730 hrs local time (ist) and the second at 1740 hrs. the explosives were reportedly carried in plastic bags. there were around 1000 people in the mosque at the time of blasts as the day happened to be friday, considered holy by the muslims as well as because of the fact that it was the first friday after milad un nabi, prophet muhammad's birthday. the blasts took place just before the azaan. some sources claim that the mosque was almost empty with only 100-150 people in the premises when the blast took place. the first blast occurred near gate no. 1, a place where people wash their hands before offering prayers.

the injured have been admitted to lok nayak jai prakash hospital. alert have been sounded in major mosques in india, especially in mumbai. fire trucks, ambulances and bomb disposal squads reached the site and have cordoned off the area for their operations. the nearby shops have been asked to suspend operations. the delhi state government has requested the people to maintain calm and announced an ex-gratia compensation of rs. 50,000 for the seriously injured and rs. 25,000 for those with minor injuries. it is being speculated that these blasts might be linked with coincidental six grenade attacks in srinagar, that took place the same day. as of 15 april, no terrorist group has claimed the responsibility of the blasts. the delhi police have arrested four people and are questioning them for the blasts. however, the police have ruled out involvement of any major terrorist group because of the crude nature of explosives.

it has been established that the explosives used in the blast were very crude in nature and consisted of potassium chlorate and sulphuric acid. these two were separated by a rubber wall. when the acid corroded the rubber to make contact with the potassuim chlorate on the other side, the explosion was triggered.


flight 93 cockpit recorder played in moussaoui trial

the los angeles times reports that the transcript of the voice recorder on united airlines flight 93 was read during the on-going trial of zacarias moussaoui, the self-proclaimed al-qaeda member being charged with terrorism in connection with the september 11, 2001 attacks.

the transcript is the first recording of the hijacked airplane's voice recorders to be released to the general public. in 2004, when the 9/11 commission report was finished, some details of the recording were published, however the full transcript was not included in the publication.

the transcript, which has been viewed by the 9/11 commission report, references to people trying to get in the cockpit at 9:58 a.m. est. the transcript at timestamp 09:58:57 records a voice in arabic saying, "(they want to get in here. hold, hold from the inside. hold from the inside. hold)." minutes later, a voice in english is recorded, stating, "in the cockpit. if we don't, we'll die." 

the reading of the united airlines flight 93 voice recorder transcript during the on-going trial of zacarias moussaoui confirms what has already been stated in the findings of the 9/11 commission ? there is nothing to show any passenger ever got into cockpit or fought the terrorists before the plane crashed at 10:03 a.m. est. 

the transcript does not record anyone saying, "let's roll" as stated in previous media reports, but has one person saying "roll it." the phrase "let's roll" has become a popular catchphrase, said to be stated by todd beamer, in reference to the attempt of passengers of flight 93 to stop the hijackers. president bush used the phrase in his 2002 state of the union address.



forecast cloudy for cosmic launch

the cosmic atmospheric research spacecraft launch is likely to be rescheduled to saturday due to inclement weather.

cosmic is currently scheduled to launch tonight between 5:10 and 8:20 p.m. pdt (saturday 0010 to 0320 utc ). the air force launch weather team at vandenberg air force base is predicting a 70% chance that weather conditions will prohibit the launch from happening tonight.

if tonight's launch is cancelled, it will be rescheduled for saturday. times for a rescheduled launch have not been announced.

the weather outlook for saturday shows improved conditions with only a 10% chance of rain.



egyptian official states al-qaeda explosives expert killed in airstrike

mohsin musa matawalli atwah, 45, who is accused of being an al-qaeda explosive expert, was killed in a missile attack on wednesday night in pakistan, said sheikh rashid ahmed, pakistan's information minister. at least eight other alleged terrorists, both foreign and of pakistani descent, were also believed to have been killed in the strike. however, the body of atwah has not yet been found and the identities of the others killed are not yet known. it is believed that at least two children were also killed.

"we can confirm the identities of the foreigners killed once we have carried out a thorough ground check," said pakistani military spokesman major general shaukat sultan.

atwah, also known as abdul rahman al-muhajir, muhammad k.a. and abdel rahman, is accused of being responsible for the bombings of the american embassies in kenya and tanzania on august 7, 1998 which killed 20 americans and at least 200 africans. atwah is on the fbi's list of most wanted terrorists with a bounty of five million dollars.

"his death has been confirmed. the confirmation is based upon multiple intelligence sources," said ahmed.

"i confirm the death of this egyptian terrorist," said an egyptian minister.

pakistani forces used missile fire and explosives launched from assault helicopters to kill the expert in the north waziristan village of naghar kalai, which lies near the border of afghanistan.

atwah "had been living here for quite some time," said one security official.

however, it is believed that associates of the alleged terrorists killed removed the bodies and buried them in an unidentified location, but at least four tribesmen that were killed were buried in the town's cemetery.

so far, neither the united states fbi nor u.s. officials in egypt have confirmed the death of atwah.


bear in tennessee kills six-year-old girl

a six-year-old girl was killed after a black bear attacked her. her mother and two-year-old brother, also attacked, were critically injured.

the nearly 400-pound bear attacked the family when they were staying at chilwoee campground located within the cherokee national forest in tennessee. the family was visiting a nearby waterfall when they were attacked.

according to rescuers, the girl managed to escape from the bear, but was found only an hour later by a rescuer who fired shots that scared the bear away.

"allegedly, after the rescue squad found the little girl, one of the squad members fired a shot from a small-caliber handgun. we don't know whether the bear was hit or not. there was no blood, but it chased off," said dan hicks, a spokesman for the states wildlife resources agency.

the mother and the brother both remain in critical condition at a hospital in chattanooga. the boy's skull was punctured by a bite to the head, before the bear attacked his mother. the mother was trying to scare the bear away with rocks and sticks before being attacked. according to doctors, she had several puncture wounds to her neck, but had too many other claw and teeth marks for them to count. both are expected to recover.

investigators have not yet been able to speak to the mother because of the severity of her injuries. 

"she may not remember the attack at all," said hicks, who also said that it was only tennessee's second documented attack involving a bear.

"there is a chance that the same bear would attack someone else, so i hope they do catch him," said lynn rogers of the north american bear center.

officials have baited traps with honey buns and doughnuts to try and catch the bear.

authorities have not yet released the names of the victims. the campground has been closed.



salon: rumsfeld allowed guantanamo abuse

according to the online magazine salon on friday, united states secretary of defense donald rumsfeld let an "abusive and degrading" interrogation happen in 2002, citing an army document obtained through a freedom of information act request as its source. the magazine quoted a december 2005 army inspector general's report where officers told of rumsfeld's direct contact with the overseeing general at the u.s. naval base at guantanamo bay, cuba. 

according to the article, the victim, mohammed al-kahtani, was made to stand naked in front of a female american interrogator and accused of being a homosexual, forced to wear women's underwear and to perform "dog tricks" on a leash and went though 18-20 hours of interrogation per day during 48 of 54 days. 

salon reports that "on dec. 2, 2002, rumsfeld approved 16 harsher interrogation strategies for use against kahtani, including the use of forced nudity, stress positions and the removal of religious items." according to the report, rumsfeld revoked these harsher interrogation techniques in mid-january 2003 and they were not approved again.

salon cites army investigator lt. gen. randall schmidt's statement, which was made under oath, that he concluded that although rumsfeld did not specifically order the interrogation methods used on kahtani, the open-ended policies approved by rumsfeld paired with lack of supervision of day-to-day interrogations permitted the abusive conduct to take place.

pentagon spokesman jeffery gordon told reuters that "we've gone over this countless times and yet some still choose to print fiction versus facts," and added that "twelve major reviews, to include one done by an independent panel, all confirm the
department of defense did not have a policy that encouraged or condoned abuse. to suggest otherwise is simply false."



new apple software lets microsoft windows boot on macs

last week, apple computer released a program for their mac os operating system called "boot camp assistant", which will allow macs to boot microsoft windows. the software was released as a beta version for apple computers powered on the intel architecture, which is also used by windows. "assistant" works by creating a hard drive partition to contain the windows operating system. unlike the current method of reformatting, the software will arrange files so that the new partition will not erase existing files. after the partition is created, the user must load a microsoft windows install disc.

while macs will support booting competitors' operating systems with "boot camp assistant", apple will not offer support for them. "infinite loop" reports that this has led to people accidentally permanently installing windows on their computers. another concerned party is microsoft, who claims that their commitment to the macintosh operating system "has not changed."

one group seen to benefit is gamers, who will no longer be left waiting for delayed releases of macintosh versions of games. peter cohen of "macworld" notes that he has been able to play certain games with a moderate level of quality. however, he considers this to be a disadvantage for mac developers, who are responsible for bringing software already available for windows to the macintosh operating system.



police confirm lagoon bodies are boys missing from milwaukee, wisconsin

police in milwaukee, wisconsin have confirmed that the bodies of two children recovered yesterday from a small pond in mcgovern park are indeed those of purvis parker, 11, and quadrevion henning, 12, who lived nearby. the two boys were reported missing nearly a month ago.

police had shown photos of the two bodies to parker's mother, angela virginia, who said she believed that the bodies were those of the two missing boys. today's autopsy confirms their identities, and lists drowning as the cause of death. police have said there is no evidence to suggest foul play. 

"honestly i don't think there was any foul play. that makes it kind of nice for the family that they weren't held against their own will," said dennis frazier, henning's uncle.

"it looks like it has been in the lagoon for quite some time," said nan hegerty, chief of the milwaukee police, when the first body was found. according to hegerty, two people walking in the park spotted the first body at around 7:23 p.m. cdt on friday. the second body was found at about 10 p.m. cdt by divers for the police department. both boys were fully clothed when found. 

according to hegerty, the pond where the bodies were found had been checked several times in the past.

"apparently that body too had come up to the surface and was caught in a somewhat of a weedy, wooded area of the lagoon," added hegerty.

both boys had been missing since march 19, 2006.


news briefs:april 15, 2006

hello and welcome to audio wikinews. today is april 15th, 2006. 

police confirm lagoon bodies are boys missing from milwaukee, wisconsin

police in milwaukee, wisconsin have confirmed that the bodies of two children recovered yesterday from a small pond in the city's mcgovern park are indeed those of purvis parker, aged 11, and quadrevion henning, age 12, who lived nearby. the two boys were reported missing nearly a month ago.

police had shown photos of the two bodies to parker's mother, angela virginia, who said she believed that the bodies were those of the two missing boys. today's autopsy confirms their identity, and lists drowning as the cause of death. police have said there is no evidence to suggest foul play.

u.s. claims of iraqi bioweapons labs contradicted in classified pentagon report filed on 27 may 2003

in an article published on wednesday by the washington post, reporter joby warrick alleged that the bush administration and the cia "possessed powerful evidence" that contradicted assertions made by president bush one month after the iraqi war began, where trailers found in iraq were said to have been mobile biological weapons labs.

on may 27, 2003, two days before president bush said "we have found the weapons of mass destruction" and the cia published their whitepaper detailing how these trailers were allegedly used to produce biological weapons, a fact-finding group comprised of u.s. and british civilian experts that had investigated the labs concluded unanimously that these had nothing to do with biological weapons production and relayed their results back to washington, according to the washington post. the paper said it interviewed six of the nine group members.

in wednesday's press conference, white house press secretary scott mcclellan said "i will point out that the reporting i saw this morning was simply reckless and it was irresponsible. the lead in the washington post left the impression for the reader that the president was saying something he knew at the time not to be true. ... the president's statements were based on the joint assessment of the cia and dia that was publicly released the day before..."

this has been a news brief for audio wikinews. we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. 

this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


iran president warns israeli government is heading towards annihilation

days after the iranian administration announced their first successful enrichment of uranium, president mahmoud ahmadinejad has made threatening comments against the israeli government at a conference to discuss palestine.

during the three day conference on friday, ahmadinejad is reported to have commented on and suggested that the israeli government was "heading toward annihilation," and that it will soon be liberated. 

iran is known to be a supporter of palestine, and has previously offered an unknown amount of money to the palestinian authority to make up for the loss of western donations since hamas won the .


mumps outbreak strikes iowa, midwest united states

more than 600 suspected cases of mumps have been reported in iowa since december, well above the state average of five cases a year. state and federal officials are searching for the source of the outbreak.

officials from the centers for disease control are contacting passengers of several commercial flights that may have carried individuals infected with the virus. mumps can be transmitted by coughing, sneezing, and sharing cups or eating utensils.

symptoms of the infection include headache, coughing, and most notably swelling of the glands at the base of the jaw. in some cases, mumps can lead to serious complications such as meningitis, sterility, and deafness. most children in the united states are immunized against mumps.
 


10-year-old oklahoma girl found murdered

police in purcell, oklahoma, about 40 miles (64 km) south of oklahoma city, on friday discovered the mutilated body of a ten-year-old girl in the apartment of a man who lived in the same apartment complex.

the body of jamie rose bolin was found in a storage bin in the bedroom closet of kevin underwood, 26, said tim kuykendall, district attorney for mcclain county. underwood has been arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder and is being held without bail. he has no criminal record or history of mental illness.

the girl was last seen on wednesday near the purcell public library, and her family reported her missing that night. officials waited until thursday night to issue an amber alert because no abduction was reported.

underwood reportedly drew the suspicion of law enforcement at an information checkpoint set up at the apartment complex. among the other items found in underwood's apartment were a decorative dagger, a hacksaw, barbecue skewers, meat tenderizer, and a wooden cutting board, according to police.

preliminary autopsy reports find that the girl died of asphyxiation and blunt force trauma to the head. deep saw marks found on the body indicate that the suspect attempted to decapitate the girl, say authorities. as the body was found unclothed, police also suspect that bolin was molested after she died.

"regarding a potential motive, this appears to have been part of a plan to kidnap a person, rape them, torture them, kill them, cut off their head, drain the body of blood, rape the corpse, eat the corpse, then dispose of the organs and bones," purcell police chief david tompkins said.

according to kuykendall, underwood said he began fantasizing about eating someone a year ago. the prosecutor added that authorities believe "that while she was ultimately chosen to be the victim of this horrific crime, that other people had been targeted and considered," including a woman and a 5-year-old boy. he added that this was one of the most atrocious crimes he had seen as district attorney, and that he intends to seek the death penalty.



news briefs:april 16, 2006

hello and welcome to audio wikinews newsbriefs, at 0800 utc, april 16, 2006.

10-year-old oklahoma girl found murdered

mumps outbreak strikes iowa, midwest united states

iran president warns israel is heading towards annihilation 

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. until next time, have a good day.

"this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license."


australian cheerleaders told to cover up

australian cheerleaders have been told today to cover up their midriffs under calls by gymnastics australia, as they believe it encourages girls to be self-conscious.

nerine cooper, head of gymnastics australia, told the sunday telegraph, "we don't want girls to feel under pressure to lose weight because of uniforms." 

lisa ince, head of sydney professional dancers, disagreed. "it's ridiculous really, if the thinking is that a midriff is offensive, then every dance school and athletics club would face the same restrictions," she said.

the ban will affect about 150 teams registered with gymnastics australia.


australia could help discourage nuclear weapon proliferation: opposition

a finance spokesperson for the australian federal opposition has said that australia could use its power as a large uranium exporter to discourage the proliferation of nuclear weapons. australia has the largest known reserves of uranium but is the world's third largest producer behind canada and the commonwealth of independent states.

lindsay tanner told channel ten that: "we could play a much stronger role as a uranium exporter as part of a relatively small number of major uranium exporters, in using that influence collectively for good on nuclear weapons proliferation".

mr. tanner said australia could join forces with other major uranium exporters to discourage the spread of nuclear weapons. "we don't seek to collectively use our influence, along with the influence of other countries like canada who are major uranium exporters, to try and restrict the proliferation of nuclear weapons," he said.

the australian labor party is said to be divided about its uranium mining policy. the debate within the party has come to the forefront following a decision earlier this month to export uranium to china. at present, labor opposes the opening of new uranium mines. the party's resource spokesperson, martin ferguson is calling for the policy to be thrown out.

peter garrett, another member of the alp said last week he did not support any changes to the party's uranium mining policy but refused to rule out doing so in the future.

mr. tanner said that it is "perfectly reasonable" to reconsider the party's policy as "the world has changed". he said that the issue of nuclear proliferation should be at the centre of any change to the party's policy.

"so there's a number of things we could be doing, but we aren't doing yet, and i think (that) should be central to the debate about the future of labor's policy and the future of australia's approach" said mr. tanner.

opposition leader kim beazley has deferred discussion of the issue until next year's national conference.


britain could face electricity blackouts

british mps on the commons environmental audit committee warn britain could face widespread electrical blackouts if new generating capacity is not added soon.

clean and renewable generating methods will be preferred in the government's energy review, including a return to nuclear power generation. but the committee warned that no new nuclear power plants are expected to come online until at least 2017 with the proposed network not reaching full capacity until as late as 2030. meanwhile nearly a quarter of britain's current generating capacity is scheduled to go offline by 2016, creating a shortfall described by the committee as a "generation gap" which could not be bridged by nuclear energy.

"very substantial investment in new generating capacity and energy efficiency will be required if the lights are to stay on," committee chairman conservative mp tim yeo said. the committee stated that an "extensive" building programme of new gas-fired power stations would be needed to meet the predicted shortfall.

the committee's statement drew some support from environmentalists as well as from some energy sector industries. friends of the earth was cautiously cheered by the committee's commitment to energy efficiency, and support of reduced emissions. "...people understand renewables is the next big thing and we should get on with it," said maf smith, ceo of scottish renewables to bbc.


police in aruba make an arrest in natalee holloway case

aruban police have made an arrest in relation to the natalee holloway case. 

holloway, 18, was visiting the island from alabama and has not been seen since may 30, 2005, with joran van der sloot and brothers deepak and satish kalpoe. all three boys were arrested as suspects in the disappearance in june 2005, but were released when a court ruled that there was not enough evidence to continue holding the boys.

a spokeswoman for the public prosecutor's office in aruba, mariaine croes, said that authorities are not yet prepared to release details about the arrest, but did say that the suspect is 19 and that his initials are "g.v.c.". names of suspects arrested in aruba are not usually released to the media, so authorities use initials in place of a full name.

family members and relatives of natalee have posted a us$250,000 for information leading to an arrest in the case. a us$1 million dollar reward has also been posted for the safe return of natalee.

 


antalya to host children from 40 countries

the city of , turkey, is going to host almost 1000 children from 40 countries on april 23, the international children's day. the children will march through the city and perform special performances. this day was declared international children's day by mustafa kemal ataturk to indicate how important children are for the future of the country. 

this day, turkish children representatives replace officials of various ranks, including the prime minister, the president and ministers, governors of and even the parliamentarians in the house of parliament, where the children representatives discuss topics concerning children's issues.


10,000 refuse to pay u.s. taxes to protest iraq war

an estimated 10,000 conscientious objectors chose to withhold some or all of their u.s. income taxes due monday, april 17, in protest to the use of us military power in iraq. some plan to instead donate their required tax to charity.

the internal revenue service does not distinguish tax resistors from any other person behind on their taxes, and will apply the same fines and interest used against the other americans who do not pay their taxes on time. legal action is possible for extreme cases, but more commonly the irs uses wage or bank account garnishing.

the tax protestors are well aware of these risks, yet refuse to pay on principle. jim allen, who served in the army for 20 years and now teaches at st. louis university, acknowledges that he will likely end up paying more due to the fines than he is refusing to pay today. "i am not opposed to paying taxes, but i am when such a large percent is going to pay for war. sooner or later, they're going to get their money, but until that happens, i'm going to continue protesting. this is too important not to." allen and his wife withheld $1300 - or 42% of what the couple owes the irs, estimating this to be the proportion of his taxes that would otherwise go to military spending.

other protestors simply refuse to file at all. becky pierce of boston fills out a 1040 to determine her tax, but then donates that amount to charity without filing. pierce says she follows in the footsteps of american protesters like henry david thoreau, a protester of the mexican-american war who went to jail rather than pay taxes. "you need to have control of your money," pierce says. "i'm a self-employed carpenter. no one is reporting what i make. that's why i can go unnoticed."


ecumenical hellenism program's representatives visited u.s.a.

on the occasion of the one year since the death of archbishop iakovos of america, the aristotle university of thessaloniki church history professor, athanasios angelopoulos along with his collaborator, london's westminster university politics graduate nicolas mottas, represented the program ecumenical hellenism and the institute for national and religious studies of thessalonika at the first annual memorial service for the late archbishop iakovos which took place in boston on april 9, 2006. 

the memorial service for archbishop iakovos - which was followed by a parade in central boston honoring the greek independence day - were attended by five members of the greek parliament, the consul general of greece in boston and hundreds of greeks and americans from massachusetts. 
the memorial service, which was offered by his eminence, the metropolitan of boston methodios, was followed by a speech from athanasios angelopoulos dedicated to archbishop iakovos' memory. more specifically, angelopoulos mentioned that ""the late archbishop was the proper and the only person who could inspire the presidents of the united states, so that this country co-celebrates along with the greek-americans every year, the spiritual goals of freedom and democracy, on the occasion of the historic event of the greek revolution in 1821"". angelopoulos made also a reference to the late metropolitan silas of new jersey, who died in 2000 and was a personal friend of iakovos. speeches were also offered by the metropolitan of boston as well as from consul general of greece.

by the opportunity of the first annual memorial service of the former greek orthodox leader, professor angelopoulos and nicolas mottas, met with the director of archbishop iakovos' archives and for years personal secretary of the archbishop, nikie calles, at the greek orthodox archdiocese of america - as well as with paulette poulos, director of development of leadership 100 and former secretary of iakovos at the onassis cultural centre - in new york city, ny, regarding the inedited correspondence of the late archbishop on human rights and national issues; an ambitious work, which is scheduled to be published in both greek and english, within 2006. the representatives of ecumenical hellenism - a program which started in 1996 and existed under the patronage of the hellenic republic president constantinos stephanopoulos and exists under the patronage of the ecumenical patriarchate and the church of greece - had also the opportunity to meet with the current archsbishop of america, demetrios. 



suspect in oklahoma girl's murder blogged about depression, &quot;dangerously weird&quot; fantasies

kevin ray underwood, the suspect in the murder of 10-year-old jamie rose bolin of purcell, oklahoma, reportedly kept a weblog in which he joked about cannibalism, discussed the effects of not taking his prescribed medicine, and talked about "dangerously weird" fantasies.

underwood was arrested friday after investigators searched his apartment and found jamie's body in a plastic bin in his bedroom closet. also reportedly found in his apartment were barbecue skewers and meat tenderizer, which law enforcement officials believe he intended to use to eat the girl's flesh.

people who knew underwood reported that he was a relatively unassuming man, seemingly trustworthy. his mother described him as "a wonderful boy" and said of jamie, "i would like to be able to tell her family how sorry we are. i just feel so terrible."

in the profile of his blog, entitled "strange things are afoot at the circle k" (), underwood described himself as "single, bored, and lonely, but other than that, pretty happy." also on his profile page, he poses the question, "if you were a cannibal, what would you wear to dinner?" and answers, "the skin of last night's main course."

in an entry dated september 8, 2005, underwood reportedly described 1998 as "the year that a large part of me died" and "the longest year of my life." he reported losing contact with most of his friends, making an online acquaintance only to lose her again, and suffering panic attacks from being around people at college. two of his friends also were involved in a car accident, one fatally injured. 

he reported in that entry that in the last year he found himself becoming more and more detached from the world, never leaving his apartment except to go to work or his parents' apartment. in an entry dated september 24, 2004, he reported that his fantasies were "just getting weirder and weirder. dangerously weird. if people knew the kinds of things i think about anymore, i'd probably be locked away. no probably about it, i know i would be."

in an entry dated february 4, 2006, he said that he had hardly left the apartment in almost two months, and that "a week or so ago, i spent my day off sitting here at the computer, barely moving from the chair, for 14 hours."

his last blog entry was dated thursday, april 13, 2006, one day after authorities believe underwood killed jamie bolin.



greenpeace founder supports nuclear energy

an article supporting written by appeared in the washington post outlook section yesterday. moore was a co-founder of who currently co-chairs an industry-funded initiative, the clean and safe energy coalition, which supports increased use of nuclear energy. moore and u.s. senator chuck hagel (r-nebraska) spoke during the opening session of the 2005 american nuclear society's winter meeting in november.

moore says that his views have changed since founding greenpeace, and he now believes that using nuclear energy can help counteract catastrophic climate change from burning fossil fuels. says moore, "the 600-plus plants emit nearly 2 billion tons of annually -- the equivalent of the exhaust from about 300 million automobiles." moore also cites reports from the clean air council that coal plants are responsible for 64 percent of sulfur dioxide emissions, 26 percent of nitrous oxides and 33 percent of mercury emissions. 

"meanwhile, the 103 nuclear plants operating in the united states effectively avoid the release of 700 million tons of co2 emissions annually," says moore. "nuclear energy is the only large-scale, cost-effective energy source that can reduce these emissions while continuing to satisfy a growing demand for power. and these days it can do so safely." moore points out that the average cost of producing nuclear energy in the united states was less than two cents per kilowatt-hour, comparable with coal and hydroelectric. he predicts that advances in technology will bring the cost down further in the future.

according to moore, british atmospheric scientist , father of the gaia theory, also believes that nuclear energy is the only way to avoid catastrophic climate change. concerns about past accidents in the nuclear industry were also mentioned, as he claims the chernobyl nuclear disaster as example, calling it "an accident waiting to happen. this early model of soviet reactor had no containment vessel, was an inherently bad design and its operators literally blew it up". he also recognized the difficulty of dealing with nuclear waste.

moore was a founding member of greenpeace in 1971 and was instrumental in its early campaigns, but left the organization in 1986. greenpeace is known for its campaigns of nonviolent direct action against atmospheric and underground nuclear testing.

= sources =


canada confirms fifth case of mad cow disease

canada's food inspection agency has confirmed that a cow in british columbia, canada, tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or "mad cow disease". officials announced on friday that initial tests done on the purebred six-year-old dairy holstein had come back inconclusive. the cow was found in fraser valley, a farming community near vancouver, british columbia.

officials also say that the beef supply is safe because none of the infected cows had made it to the human food chain. "this finding does not affect the safety of canadian beef. tissues in which bse is known to concentrate in infected animals are removed from all cattle slaughtered in canada for domestic and international human consumption. no part of this animal entered the human food or animal feed systems," said agency officials in a statement on sunday.

"this animal, a six-year-old dairy cow, developed bse after the implementation of canada's feed ban. investigators will pay particular attention to the feed to which the animal may have been exposed early in its life, when cattle are most susceptible to bse. the cfia is collecting records of feed purchased by and used on the animal's birth farm," the statement continued.

however, the united states does not believe a ban on canadian beef will come immediately. "information gathered through this investigation will help us to determine what, if any, impact this should have on our beef and live cattle trade with canada. based on the information currently available, i do not anticipate a change in the status of our trade," said u.s. agriculture secretary mike johanns.

this is canada's fifth confirmed case of the disease since may 2003, and officials have tested more than 100,000 cows since the first case of the disease turned up in alberta. this is the second cow to test positive for the disease this year. 

at least 150 people worldwide have died from eating beef contaminated with the variant creutzfeldt-jakob disease, a nerve disease that is usually fatal. most of the deaths occurred in the united kingdom.


final testing confirms bse case in b.c. - canadian food inspection agency press release.


news briefs:april 17, 2006

hello and welcome to audio wikinews newsbriefs, at 0900 utc, april 17, 2006.

suspect in oklahoma girl's murder blogged about depression, "dangerously weird" fantasies

police in aruba make an arrest in natalee holloway case

britain could face electricity blackouts

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. until next time, have a good day.

"this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license."


explosion in tel aviv injures at least 40, kills at least 8

two of the victims died after they had arrived at ichilov hospital in tel aviv. of the wounded, six were seriously hurt, 12 sustained moderate wounds, while the rest were lightly injured. 

a suicide bomber targeted the same restaurant, “the mayor’s felafel,” on january 19. at least 20 were wounded in that attack. the restaurant was reportedly full of holiday travellers.

palestinian group islamic jihad has claimed responsibility for the attack, as it has for six suicide bombings carried out since a cease-fire was declared in february 2005. palestinian sources identified the bomber as sami salim hamad, an islamic jihad activist from the village of qabatiyah, on outskirts of the west bank city of , where the occurred in 2002.

the suicide bombing was the first since hamas took over the government of the palestinian authority less than three weeks ago. on sunday, islamic jihad pledged to carry out more attacks.

the bush administration has strongly criticized the attacks, calling it "a despicable act of terror for which there is no excuse or justification." khaled abu helal, spokesman for the hamas-led interior ministry, called the attack "a direct result of the policy of the occupation and the brutal aggression and siege committed against our people."

israeli foreign ministry spokesman gideon meir said israel held hamas responsible for the attacks, accusing it of "giving support to all the other terrorist organizations."

the known deceased:
piroska boda (50): citizenship: romanian, nationality: hungarian, foreign worker in natanja, spending easter holidays in tel aviv
rozalia besenyei (48): citizenship: romanian, nationality: hungarian
7 others are known to be of israeli citizenship


rail accident in northern greece

a rail accident occurred on sunday night outside the town of drama, northern greece, having as a result the death of four people and the injury of 22. the intercity train, which was operating the route from thessaloniki to alexandroupolis, had 65 passengers onboard and according the hellenic railway organisation(ose) the accident occurred when a truck driver attempted to drive through a grade crossing. 

forty people were transferred to the hospital of drama and 22 remain hospitalised; two of them to be in critical condition. the driver of the truck, yannis papadopoulos, 40, a police trainee and a kindergarten teacher were killed, however the police have not released the names of the last two.

ose expressed its sorrow for the deaths and the minister of macedonia-thrace visited the site of the accident and declared that the state acted immediately. however, this rail accident raises a question about the safety of the hellenic railways as well as the policies that the greek ministry of transport should apply. 



sondhi may face arrest over lese majeste allegations

thai media mogul and outspoken critic of the current government, sondhi limthongkul faces arrest should he fail to answer a second summons over lese majeste allegations.

instead of turning up to face the police yesterday, sondhi sent his lawyer to deliver a written testimonial, and a variety of other evidence. the accusation that he insulted or attacked the monarch centres around speeches made at a number of the rallies organised by the people's alliance for democracy (pad) during their ongoing campaign to remove caretaker prime minister thaksin shinawatra.

when the summons was first issued on april 10, the country's justice minister, chidchai vanasatidya, quickly denied accusations that the charges were government-orchestrated. chidchai, currently acting as prime minister said, "i affirm that the summoning has nothing to do with politics".

sondhi has been given another seven days to surrender himself to police for questioning.




us allegedly committed acts of violence in iran using ex-members of mek during past year

on thursday, the internet news publication raw story corroborated claims that the u.s. is involved in acts of violence committed in iran. it claims that these are being carried out by retrained ex-members of the people's mujahedin of iran (mek) rather than by traditional us soldiers.

a previous claim was made by former united nations weapons inspector scott ritter in june 2005 that united states security forces have been sending members of the mek into iranian territory. ritter claimed that the cia had used the mek "to carry out remote bombings in iran of the sort that the bush administration condemns on a daily basis inside iraq".

early this month, seymour hersh made a similar statement in new yorker magazine about the entry of us troops themselves into iranian territory, but without supporting the claim that they carried out acts of violence. hersh claimed that us combat troops are "now operating in iran" and that according to a "government consultant with close ties to civilians in the pentagon, the <nowiki>[combat troop]</nowiki> units were also working with minority groups in iran, including the azeris, in the north, the baluchis, in the southeast, and the kurds, in the northeast <nowiki>[sic]</nowiki>." according to hersh, the government consultant also said that the us troops "are studying the terrain, and giving away walking-around money to ethnic tribes, and recruiting scouts from local tribes and shepherds."

in thursday's report, raw story supported the previous claims about the us committing acts of violence in iran, with the difference that it claimed that the acts are being carried out by proxy retrained ex-mek members rather than by traditional us soldiers, and that the incursions have been occurring for about a year.
raw story cited an unnamed united nations source "close to" the un security council who stated that former mek members have been used as a proxy by the us for "roughly a year" inside of iranian territory. an intelligence source quoted by raw story said that the former mek members were made to "swear an oath to democracy and resign from the mek" before being incorporated into us military units and retrained for their operations in iran. the mek is an iranian opposition group listed by the u.s. state department as a foreign terrorist organization but describes itself as "secular" and "patriotic, muslim and democratic".

raw story cited the un official saying that "we are already at war". retired u.s. air force colonel sam gardiner made similar remarks on cnn on friday saying "i would say -- and this may shock some -- i think the decision has been made and military operations are under way."

raw story said that the mek has been used in the iranian provinces of baluchistan and khuzestan and quoted a senior british intelligence official saying that british intelligence believes that the mek is responsible for the violent attacks in the southern iran, and that people from a "us special mission unit" are present on iranian territory, but was unsure as to the links between us military and the mek.

according to the national council of resistance of iran, which is alleged by the fbi to be "an integral part of the mek", professor raymond tanter of georgetown university and a former white house aide argued on al-jazeera television that the only way to confront iran's threats is to support the mek and its removal from the u.s. state department list of foreign terrorist organizations and from its classification as a terrorist organization by the council of the european union.

raw story reports that the office of the undersecretary of defense intelligence did not return calls for comment.



british national party to tempt voters in may local elections

in the run up to the uk's may local elections, attention has again been drawn to the british national party (bnp). party spokesman and councillor candidate for the area of steven tyler stated "now we are a party with sensible policies which have made us much more electable than in the past,"

the bnp local election manifesto of april 14 outlined the party's commitment to environmental and tax reforms, with a focus on a zero-tolerance campaign against anti-social behaviour and the removal of what the bnp sees as preferential treatment of asylum seekers. 

the party has said it will field a total of 365 candidates for local authority seats in the may 4 elections. currently the bnp has 15 councillors across england and stated at its campaign launch that it intends to add "another 15 or 20" seats.

research undertaken on behalf of has indicated that up to 25% of people have said that "they might" vote for the bnp. from mainstream parties have admitted that they need to face the challenge presented by the bnp in the may 4 election.

former conservative leader iain duncan smith told bbc radio 4's "" program that the bnps message was gaining headway in disadvantaged areas and identified that “what we have picked up in these very difficult communities is the collapse in the quality of life for so many people". duncan smith went on to say, "the whole sense of the quality of life in these communities has become a rich feeding ground for people who want to stigmatise others as being the cause of this." 

"if voters are unhappy with conventional parties, one of the key reasons is because successive tory and labour governments have failed to provide enough affordable housing where families wish to live," commented liberal democrat . he added that voters should not be taken in by the “simplistic promises” of the bnp.



still no action in standoff in ontario town

seven weeks after citizens of the six nations of the grand river reserve repossessed land near caledonia, ontario, on february 28, the ontario provincial police, who have authority from a court to arrest the protesters for contempt of court, have yet to act.

on april 11, more than 50 police cruisers, two paddy wagons, and several vans gathered outside an abandoned school on unity road in caledonia. however, reports from last night are that visible police presence is minimal, with just a few police cruisers parked down the road from the protest site.

before the site was blocked, henco industries had begun construction on 10 luxury homes out of a total of 71 scheduled to be built as part of the $6 million douglas creek estates subdivision.

the tract of land under dispute was registered as a land claim by the six nations band council in 1987 but its status has yet to be settled. the land originally made up part of a large land grant given in 1784 to the six nations for services rendered during the american war of independence. the government and the developer claim that the six nations surrendered title in 1841, but the band disputes this.

the protesters are demanding a nation-to-nation dialogue with the canadian government and continue to call for a peaceful resolution. some protesters, however, have stated that if the opp forcefully try to remove them, they will defend their land with force.

"if they break the peace, we'll do what we have to do," said protester dick hill. "things are very tense. we are trying to defend our lands, which were taken from us. every time we try to stand up for who we are and what we are, they come and drag us away."

an injunction was issued to the development company a month ago that allowed for the protesters to be removed. police have not enforced the injunction. 

however, david ramsay, ontario's aboriginal affairs minister, said that the province was going to have a meeting with both protesters and developers in an attempt to address their concerns.

"this is a very serious situation. i have to be very hopeful that we're going to see a peaceful end to this situation. we think we can resolve this by negotiating, and by talking so that's what we're doing," added ramsay.


news briefs:april 18, 2006

hello and welcome to audio wikinews newsbriefs, at 0900 utc, april 18, 2006.
explosion in tel aviv injures at least 40, kills at least 8

canada confirms fifth case of mad cow disease

us allegedly committed acts of violence in iran using ex-members of mek during past year

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. until next time, have a good day.

"this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license."


dead body found in suitcase floating in auckland harbour

in auckland's harbour, a suitcase containing a dead body has been found. police, first suspecting a possible kidnap and ransom plot, have now arrested two male students from china. they have not been accused of any crime, but they are in custody and "are helping police", as detective inspector bernie hollewand told iol reporters.

specialists say the body had been dead for about 24 hours by the time it was found and had multiple injuries. forensic police believe that the murder took place in an inner-city auckland hotel.


man attacks, kills mental patient

last thursday, a mental patient at rotorua hospital's psychiatric ward in new zealand was assaulted. today, she was named as moria albert, 51, from rotorua. after the attack, she was taken to the intensive care unit and placed on life support, but died that afternoon.

the attacker, nigel mountford of rotorua, was charged with murder and appeared in court on friday. he entered no plea, and a psychological assessment is pending.


us congress drafting bill that may affect internet freedoms

the united states congress is currently drafting a bill known as the communications opportunity, promotion, and efficiency act of 2006 that would revise and update the . currently phone and cable lobbyists who own the broadband networks, such as those from at&t and bellsouth, are calling on the federal government to permit them to operate internet and other digital communications services as private networks. the bill as it now stands states that certain classes of internet providers "may not unreasonably" impair, interfere, restrict or limit applications or services, such as web sites or voice-over-ip phone connections. 

consumer advocates such as common cause and some large internet companies such as google and yahoo are concerned that this change will result in a loss of what is being called , and are demanding specific language in the bill to address it. three weeks ago, the subcommittee on telecommunications rejected an amendment to the bill that would have strengthened provisions for network neutrality. the amendment was defeated by a vote of 28 to 8.

network neutrality is a principle of computer networking that describes networks designed so that no communication, application, or service is either given preferential treatment or restricted. 

advocates of network neutrality fear that allowing broadband networks to operate unregulated could lead to preferential treatment toward certain companies at the expense of others. phone companies who oppose network neutrality legislation contend that some mechanism needs to be in place in order to pay for expansion of the public internet. 

edward whitacre, at&t's chief executive officer, had made remarks on the issue that consumer groups found inflammatory. in remarks made on november 7, 2005, presumably referring to internet sites using their network connections, he called for "some mechanism for these people who use these pipes to pay for the portion they're using. why should they be allowed to use my pipes?" 

whitacre has since reversed his public statements, saying on march 21, 2006, "any provider that blocks access to content is inviting customers to find another provider. and that's just bad business."

federal communications commission chairman kevin martin believes that the fcc already has the authority to enforce network neutrality provisions, citing a north carolina case in which the fcc acted against madison river communications for blocking vonage voip phone service.

representative from , chairman of the , describes the bill as a way to "ignite the marketplace ? unleashing great advances in technology and delivering to consumers a variety of new services at a lower cost that were once never even imagined. every consumer in the nation with a telephone, television and access to the internet will be better for it ? the wave of the future is now." 

, a fcc commissioner, said recently, "this internet may not be the one we know in the future there are threats to it out there... entrenched interests are already jockeying to constrain the openness that has been the internet's defining hallmark." 

a recent poll done by (see source 5) shows that the internet has taken on an important role in the daily life of americans. with two-thirds reporting it is important for personal communications and researching products, over half said it is important for getting news and, about 40 percent cited online banking, e-commerce, and retrieving government information as significant ways in which they used the internet. they expressed a great deal of concern about discriminatory practices of communications network operators.

the revision of the 1996 telecommunications act was proposed by house energy and commerce committee chairman joe barton, -, and u.s. rep. bobby rush, -, in late march and went on to the full committee on april 5.



missing nun found dead

according to buffalo, new york police commissioner h. mccarthy gipson, sister karen klimczak, 62, a catholic nun who went missing on friday, has been found dead in a shallow grave. her body was found inside a shed in the backyard of an abandoned house just five miles from her home. police believe that she was either suffocated or strangled and her body did not show any immediate signs of a gunshot wound or a stab wound. they are waiting awaiting the results of an autopsy.

"we've lost a tireless champion of the people," buffalo mayor, byron w. brown said on monday.

klimczak founded and lived in the bissonette house in 1989, a halfway house for ex-convicts who are considered to be non-violent. it was named after rev. a joseph bissonette, a priest that was killed in the house in 1987 by an ex-convict that was residing there.

"it is a tremendous tragedy that this repeats itself 19 years later," added brown.

craig lynch, 37, an ex-convict who has been living in the house since april 5, according to gipson, was arrested and confessed to the murder while also admitting to being on drugs at the time. according to gipson, however, lynch said the murder was "an accident." lynch was paroled in january from wyoming correctional facility after time served from a conviction related to auto theft.

police say he was attempting to steal klimczak's cellular phone from her room when she returned home on friday. detective sgt. james p. lonergan, the lead investigator on this case, says lynch then attacked klimczak from behind when she got to the door and then proceeded to dispose of the body.

"he initially hid the body behind a house on george street and he covered it with some debris. he [then] went to a shed behind a vacant house and dug a shallow grave, then he brought the body there and put it in the grave," said lonergan.

the phone, along with some of the victims clothing and various personal belongings, were found in two different trash cans near her home.

lynch is expected to be charged with larceny and second-degree murder.



greenpeace report says chernobyl death toll has been underestimated

a report published by greenpeace questions an estimate made by the (iaea) that 4000 deaths have resulted from the . greenpeace claims that this estimate is 'a gross simplification of the breadth of human suffering' and that over the last 15 years, 60,000 have died in because of the accident, and estimates that the total death toll for and could be another 140,000.

the figure of 4,000 deaths given by the iaea report referred to cancer fatalities within a group of 600,000 people, comprising of those who were sent in to clean up after the accident and those relocated after the accident. the greenpeace report calls this figure 'misleading', saying that the report 'hid the true scale of human impact of chernobyl'.

ivan blokov of greenpeace said "it is appalling that the iaea is whitewashing the impacts of the most serious nuclear accident in human history".

the iaea have not yet responded to the report. 

the spokesman gregory hartl stated that "the greenpeace report is looking at all of europe, whereas our report looks at only the most affected areas of the three most affected countries." furthermore, "the who felt it had recourse to the best national and international scientific evidence and studies when it came up with its estimates of [up to] 9,000 excess deaths for the most affected areas. we feel they're very sound."

the report has been released at a time when the uk government is considering whether new nuclear power stations should be built in the country.



illinois ex-gov. ryan found guilty of corruption charges

former governor of illinois, george h. ryan, sr., and nobel peace prize nominee, was convicted on monday of 18 counts of corruption-related charges, including racketeering and lying to law enforcement authorities. the sentencing hearing is scheduled for august 4.

current governor rod blagojevich has replaced ryan, a republican, who served as the 39th governor of the state of illinois from 1999 to 2003. he is best known for his state-wide moratorium on executions in 2000. 



sudan reports first bird flu case

today, in khartoum and al jazirah in sudan, one farmer and about 100,000 chickens were diagnosed with the first appearance of the deadly h5n1 strain of bird flu. the samples will be sent abroad to the 
world health organization for further testing. most of the infected poultry has already been disposed of. h5n1, which has spread throughout europe, northern africa (including neighboring egypt), central asia, and the middle east, has already killed about 100 people. there is no word yet on the man's identity or condition.



president bush receives anti-free speech award

george w. bush, president of the united states of america was awarded the first place jefferson muzzle, anti-free speech award for 2006, by the thomas jefferson center for the protection of free expression. the nsa warrantless wiretapping that was authorized by a secret executive order by him was cited as the primary reason for this distinction. 

according to their website: ""...the jefferson muzzles are awarded as a means to draw national attention to abridgments of free speech and press and, at the same time, foster an appreciation for those tenets of the first amendment.""

the commonly accepted legal use of electric surveillance of u.s. citizens is when the government gets a warrant from the united states foreign intelligence surveillance court. the court was established by the foreign intelligence surveillance act of 1978. however, the bush administration maintains that they are allowed to conduct warrantless eavesdropping under the authorization for use of military force of 2001. 

""our position is that the authorization to use force, which was passed by the congress in the days following september 11th, constitutes that other authorization, that other statute by congress, to engage in this kind of signals intelligence,"" attorney general alberto gonzales said on december 19, 2005. 



accused have denied guilt in suitcase murder case

two men charged after the body of a chinese student was stuffed into a suitcase and thrown into auckland's harbour on good friday would deny their guilt, a court was told today.

one of them appeared in auckland district court today to be confronted with the charge of kidnapping a 19-year-old english language student, ransom and murder. the other accused appeared on a charge of hiding evidence for the murder. they have been granted name suppression until their next appearance in court. 

according to lawyers, pleas of not guilty would be entered.


vodafone launches new video news service for mobile phones, new zealand

customers of vodafone 3g in new zealand are now able to watch live video news bulletins on their mobiles. this service, offered in corporation with the prime channel, part of the sky news network, replaces a service just offering news clips. 

to access the live bulletin, a 3g handset is required and the phone needs to be in a 3g coverage area. at 5:30pm the sky news streamed channel will automatically broadcast prime's 'first at 5.30' show until 6pm. to watch the 'live!' mobile tv channels, customers must either pay a flat fee of $2.99 a week for unlimited access, or pay 99 cents for a one-off session lasting fifteen minutes.


new zealand, australia fly in extra personnel to help quell solomon island riots

the new zealand and australian governments plan to send reinforcements to the solomon islands following a written request for help from the solomon islands' government.

violence began yesterday in honiara, the capital of the solomon islands, when protestors took to the streets opposing the election by parliament of snyder rini as the new prime minister. the streets of the capital witnessed arson and widespread looting.

australian prime minister john howard said "we have a long term commitment to the security of the solomon islands and we are absolutely determined that the solomon islands will be a stable democratic country and that can only happen if we go the distance."

new zealand prime minister helen clark said the “situation in honiara continues to be a cause for concern…police are still attempting to regain full control and it is clear that the solomon islands government needs assistance from its neighbours to restore law and order."

a contingent of 110 australian soldiers and 80 australian federal police officers left for the islands today. thirty new zealand police and twenty five new zealand army personnel will leave on a royal new zealand air force plane on thursday morning. 

they will provide extra support to the ramsi security force currently based there. the current violence is the worst the capital has seen since australia, new zealand and other pacific governments intervened in 2003 to end years of civil unrest.


george galloway exposes news of the world 'fake sheikh'

george galloway, an mp in the british parliament for bethnal green and bow, has won a court battle allowing him to publish photos of the infamous news of the world "fake sheikh", undercover reporter mazher mahmood famed for setting up high-profile figures. george galloway had a meeting with the reporter after being approached via a contact. over dinner at the dorchester hotel, mazher is said by george galloway to have asked leading questions over political party funding and to have solicited anti-semitic remarks. george galloway became ever more suspicious, especially after seeing that the reporter's driver had a 'mouthful of gold teeth', as described in journalist andrew marr's book.

after threatening to release a photograph of the reporter, who has in the past tried hard to keep his identity secret, the news of the world sought an injunction against publication, claiming that they feared for his safety, and lost.

in a post on the "guardian" newspaper's "comment is free" weblog, george galloway said that mazher "has crossed the cusp of reputable journalism into seeking to procure criminal acts".



news briefs:april 19, 2006

hello and welcome to audio wikinews newsbriefs, at 0900 utc, april 19, 2006.

new zealand, australia fly in extra personnel to help quell solomon island riots

sudan reports first bird flu case

greenpeace report says chernobyl death toll has been underestimated

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. until next time, have a good day.

this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


india sends special envoy to nepal

india has decided to send karan singh as the prime minister's special envoy to nepal. singh is scheduled to hold talks with king gyanendra as well as the leaders of the nepalese pro-democracy movement, in an effort to end the deepening political crisis in that country. 

nepal has witnessed growing protests against king gyanendra's decision last year to dismiss the government and assume direct rule. since then, a seven-party opposition alliance has led nationwide protest demanding that the king immediately hand over power to an all-party government, dismissing king gyanendra's offer to hold election by april 2007. 

the king is also directing a difficult campaign against a maoist guerilla movement in the countryside. 

singh is a senior diplomat and is also related to king gyanendra by marriage. india's foreign secretary shyam saran is also scheduled to accompany the special envoy. india has long expressed concern over the situation in nepal, calling for a return to representative government. 

speaking to a television news channel, singh said "it is not our intention to interfere in the internal affairs of another country but the last thing that we would want is for nepal to dissolve into chaos because india's vital security interests are involved. our human interests are involved. there's an open border between nepal and india and our commitment to parliamentary democracy is there."



oil prices surge over $75 a barrel to a record high

political instability in oil-producing countries is seen as a major cause of this rise. the standoff over 's nuclear program has led to strong words being exchanged and a possibility of sanctions being imposed on iran, the world's fourth largest producer of oil. violence in earlier this year has led to a drop the country's production by almost a quarter. nigeria is africa's largest oil exporter and is also a major supplier of gasoline-rich crude oil to the united states, where demand is set to increase as the "driving season" begins next month. 

edmund daukoru, the president of opec and nigerian oil minister said on tuesday, "the current shoot up we are experiencing is as a result of the iran problems and it's not helped by the flare up between israel and the palestinians. but mainly it's the threatening statements being made against iran as a result of its nuclear program."



four korean women accuse jms leader jeong myeong-seok of rape

four south korean women have accused (hangul: ???, hanja: 鄭明析), the leader of the organization jms, of rape.

the four women were crying and wearing hats, sunglasses and mouth masks to cover their faces. gim du-hyeong (金度?), the former leader of exodus, accompanied them on the press conference held in , .

exodus is a south korean non-governmental organization against jms, formed by former members of jms. exodus had been tracing jeong myeong-seok in many nations for many years.

gim du-hyeong stated that jeong myeong-seok was an instructor for the international sung-gong association under . according to other sources, in march 1980, jeong left the unification church and established "ae-chun church". later, the name changed and the organization reached the world. "jesus morning star "(jms), "international christian association" (ica), and "global association of culture and peace" (gacp), are all closely related organizations.

the organization operates worldwide, primarily on university campuses. there are 240 branches of the church in korea alone, and there are organizations in almost all universities.

gim said the major branch of these colorable religious organizations, "jesus morning star" (jms), was named after the acronym of jeong's romanized name, "jms". gim also said jeong established and exploited the evil dogma of "salvation through intercourse" to rape countless women from korea, japan, taiwan, hong kong, and malaysia.

jeong myeong-seok was born in wolmyeong-dong in . gim said that wolmyeong-dong was later claimed a sacred place by jms. and before jeong fled korea, he had been living lavishly and promiscuous here.

in september 2001 jeong myeong-seok was charged with sexual assault by the korean government and left the country. in november, the taiwane version of covered the story of "korean cult leader raped over hundred taiwanese female college students". members of exodus soon came to taiwan and held a press conference with an involved woman in local .
gim said, under heavy critics of taiwan media, jeong fled to hong kong, and still kept raping korean women who came to visit him. he was arrested by local immigration department in 2003 july, but escaped to mainland china on his 100,000 usd bail. jeong was still wanted by .

gim said, since then jeong have been staying in one of four lavish villas in , province.

gim said, on april 2 he had a group sex with more than 50 women from korea, japan, hong kong and china. jang and gim, two of these women, fell for the invitation of a taekwondo performance, and were also raped and injured badly in crotch.

the two women escaped on april 4 and tried to take plane back to korea. jeong's gang attempted to kidnap them, but they were saved by chinese police, and returned korea for treatment on 7.

then, four other presenters cried out and accused jeong had sexually violated them in hong kong, malaysia and mainland china. they demand media's effort to prompt international community to bring jeong to justice.

in chinese :

in chinese :
in english:
in chinese :
in chinese :


white house press secretary mcclellan resigns; advisor rove reassigned

white house press secretary scott mcclellan announced his resignation on wednesday, and advisor karl rove has given up his policy-making duties, continuing a series of personnel changes in the administration of u.s. president george w. bush.

"i have given it my all sir and i have given you my all sir, and i will continue to do so as we transition to a new press secretary," said mcclellan, who has served as press secretary since july 2003. he is expected to remain on the job until his replacement is named. among people under consideration to replace mcclellan include fox news anchor tony snow, former treasury spokesman rob nichols, and former pentagon spokeswoman victoria clarke.

rove, who was instrumental in managing bush's two presidential campaigns, will serve as a deputy chief of staff and senior advisor to president bush, focusing on long term strategic planning, according to cnn, which quoted a senior white house official. joel kaplan, the acting deputy budget director of the office of management and budget, has been named to succeed rove. 

mcclellan's departure comes shortly after the resignation of longtime chief of staff andrew card and the appointment of josh bolten, former director of the office of management and budget, as card's replacement. more personnel changes are expected in the next few weeks.

bush announced tuesday that trade representative rob portman will assume bolten's former position as head of the omb.



uk political parties discuss green issues in run up to local elections

the main political parties in the united kingdom have been battling fiercely over environmental issues in the run up to the local council elections on may 4th. david cameron, the new leader of the conservative party, has been talking up his party's green credentials under the slogan 'vote blue to go green', ahead of his 'fact-finding' trip to norway to see a shrinking glacier. meanwhile, chancellor gordon brown, widely considered to be the next labour leader, has been discussing green issues and policies ahead of his trip to the us, where he will deliver speeches at the un, g7 and imf. the liberal democrat party, who have the longest track record of supporting green policies, haven't been quite as active, with leader ming campbell criticised for being slow to give up his 'gas-guzzling' car.

the political wrangling between labour and the tories intensified after labour produced a party political broadcast, shown on tv, which portrayed david cameron as a chameleon, changing his colours to appeal to his audience but remaining blue underneath. margaret beckett mp, labour's environment secretary, accused cameron of a 'flip-flop', criticising him for voting against the cleaner neighbourhoods and environment act. the liberal democrats suggested that cameron is merely 'posturing' and said the government has done nothing on issues like aviation emissions.

the green party, which has no mps but has meps and london assembly members, said that cameron "gave tokenism a bad name" and was fooling no-one. green party speaker keith taylor attacked cameron's record on actual green policies, contrasting his rhetoric of the environment being a "top priority" with his support for airport expansion and road-building.

cameron has also hinted that he is unsure about the idea of building new nuclear power stations, which the tories have long supported. blair still claiming not to have decided on the issue either, the political debate on this issue is yet to get really started.



native protesters repel police raid in caledonia, ontario

just before 5 a.m. edt (0900 utc) on thursday, ontario provincial police officers armed with guns, tasers, tear gas, and pepper spray stormed the area that dozens of six nations protesters have occupied for the past 52 days.

"people were pepper sprayed...another man was shot in the back with a taser and we were told more police officers would be coming back," said protester hazel hill.

"the police just completely swarmed the territory," said protester mike desroches, adding that the officers entered with guns drawn. no shots were fired.

"they swarmed every which way, i couldn't even hazard a guess how many cops," said another man, clyde powless. the protesters have been unarmed since the beginning of the occupation, although a police statement said some officers needed medical attention for injuries sustained "while confronted by the protesters with […] axes, crowbars, rocks and a various assortment of make-shift batons".

opp deputy commissioner maurice pilon confirmed that 16 people were arrested before protesters called in reinforcements that caused police to retreat. a spokeswoman for the protesters, janie jamieson, made it clear that the confrontation was not over. "we're prepared ... for however long it takes," she said.

protesters started a huge tire fire to block the road in an attempt to prevent a further incursion by the police. a dump truck was also stopped astride the road and roadblocks set up to prevent the passage of traffic.

protesters expect more natives to support them in the near future.


mayan mob lynch couple in guatemala

a man and a woman were lynched and burned to death by a furious guatemalan mob who attacked them. around 800 people snatched the couple from a jail in a village, 25 miles southwest of guatemala city, where they were being held for attempting to kidnap a 7-year-old boy. 

a police spokeman said, "the people […] took them out of the jail, beat them until they were unconscious, and then burned them with gasoline before anyone could intervene". 

in the past, many crimes have been committed in guatemala by mobs and local criminals. in 2000, a japanese tourist and a guatemalan bus driver were killed after being attacked by a mob who thought they were there to kidnap children. lynch mobs have killed about 360 people in the impoverished and crime-ridden guatemala since 1996, when it emerged from a 36-year civil war that killed about 200,000 people, mostly mayan peasants. 


kucinich asks bush about alleged us support for armed insurgency in iran

u.s. rep. dennis kucinich (d-oh) claimed in a letter to president george w. bush on april 18, 2006 that the us seems to be supporting both the (pejak), an armed group associated with the kurdistan workers party (pkk) and based in iraq, and the (mek) in insurgent activity in iran during 2005 and in particular in killing twenty four iranian soldiers in march 2006.

both the pkk and the are listed by the and by the council of the european union as terrorist organizations. the fbi alleges that the is "an integral part of the mek", i.e. essentially the same organisation as the mek, while the ncri itself claims that the mek is just one of five components of the ncri.

kucinich compared the alleged us support for against the government of iran with bush's previous criticisms against insurgent groups, writing to bush, "u.s. support for insurgent activity in iran is not tolerable. you have claimed numerous times that the object of the so-called " is to target lawless insurgent groups."

kucinich asked bush to report to congress both on us military operations in iranian territory and on us use of organisations in military actions against the iranian government, stating, "previously i asked you to immediately report to congress on the extent of u.s. military operations currently in iran. now, in light of the evidence described above, i urge you to report to congress on u.s. support for military operations in iran by anti-iranian insurgent groups."

bush's response is not yet known.



news briefs:april 20, 2006

hello and welcome to audio wikinews newsbriefs, at 0900 utc, april 19, 2006.

new zealand, australia fly in extra personnel to help quell solomon island riots

sudan reports first bird flu case

greenpeace report says chernobyl death toll has been underestimated

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. until next time, have a good day.

this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


her majesty queen elizabeth ii turns 80

today marks the 80th birthday of her majesty queen elizabeth ii, whose reign has lasted over 54 years.

her majesty became the first female to become the sovereign since queen victoria, who died in 1901 after a 64-year reign.

she was crowned on june 2, 1953, in westminster abbey. it was the first coronation that was televised live. she is queen of sixteen independent nations known as the commonwealth realms, which includes the united kingdom.

one of the most peculiar incidents of her reign was when michael fagan broke into buckingham palace and entered the queen's bedchamber in the early hours of july 9, 1982.

the monarchist league of new zealand, said in a press release: “there is scarcely a single public figure who can compare with the queen. she is universally admired and respected for her professionalism, dignity and example.”

despite her age, royal watchers say her majesty will never abdicate. if her majesty is reigning on september 9, 2015, she will become the longest reigning monarch in british history.

cries of “god save the queen!” have been said across the commonwealth today.


7.7 magnitude earthquake strikes kamchatka peninsula

according to the u.s. geological survey, an earthquake struck at 23:25:05 utc april 20 (local time 12:25:05 april 21) on the kamchatka peninsula in russia.

the hypocenter of the quake was located at 61.092° n 167.100° e at a depth of 43?km. according to the japanese meteorological agency and the u.s. national oceanic and atmospheric association, there was no danger of a tsunami.

according to wire reports, damage has been reported in several villages in russia. the associated press reports via local reports that public facilities in the village of telichiki near the seashore have been damaged and that transmission of electrical power has been affected. cnn reports that the population of the village is 2,000.



employees of mumbai's bus service best announce indefinite strike

at least 45,000 employees of the best, mumbai's public transport provider, are going on strike indefinitely. workers are unhappy with changes made to wages and are concerned about their working conditions. union leaders say the strike will end when the company rethinks its decision. 

nearly 3,300 buses will be taken off the road since talks with union leaders have drawn an inconclusive response; at least 450,000 commuters are expected to be affected by the strike. another round of talks is expected to take place later today. an industrial court has termed the strike call illegal. best has warned employees participating in the strike that they would be faced with disciplinary action.

sharad rao, general secretary of best's workers union, said that "the management took this decision arbitrarily without even coming to the negotiating table. they moved to the committee to change the wages and other conditions on their own, and that is absolutely illegal. three days ago, they have again moved to the bht committee asking them to freeze the dearness allowance which no worker is going to tolerate". dearness allowance is an inflation-linked component of wages.

"i have been on the road for the last one hour. normally i would have just hopped on to a bus," said commuter mukul chandan. commuter janki patel reported, "i travel by bus everyday, but today because of the strike i have had to take an auto and its going to cost me rs 200 just one way."


king of nepal to restore democracy

in an address to the nation, the king of nepal, gyanendra said that he was turning the nation pro-democratic.

"we are committed to multi-party democracy and a constitutional monarchy. executive power of the kingdom of nepal, which was in our safekeeping, shall from this day be returned to the people. we hope peace and order is restored to the country by protecting multi-party democracy. we ask the seven-party alliance to recommend the name for the post of prime minister at the earliest," said the king in his address to the nation today.

girija prasad koirala, the former prime minister of nepal and leader of the opposition alliance said he will meet and discuss the announcement made by the king, before responding.

earlier, united states ambassador james moriarty, had said that "his [the king's] time is running out" and that "ultimately the king will have to leave if he doesn't compromise. and by 'ultimately' i mean sooner rather than later."


 


nigeria announces clearing of paris club debt

president olusegun obasanjo of nigeria announced that nigeria will complete repayment of all debt owed to the paris club of creditors by friday. the director general of the debt management office (dmo), mansur muhtar confirmed that the central bank of nigeria (cbn) would transfer $4.5 billion to the recipient countries on friday.

the paris club is an informal group of creditor governments from major industrialized countries. under the terms of an agreement signed last year, nigeria will pay $12.4 billion in exchange for a 
debt cancellation of an estimated $18 billion, representing about 60% of the $30 billion nigeria owed the paris club creditors. the agreement is the biggest debt relief deal for an african nation. 

nigeria, africa's largest producer of oil, has used "windfall" earnings from the prevailing high oil prices in making these payments. 

the paris club agreement was negotiated in october 2005, with the nigerian delegation headed by ngozi okonjo-iweala, the minister of finance. the deal is part of the free-market reforms pursued by president obasanjo. 

the announcement comes in the wake of the endorsement of the reform programme by the international monetary fund (imf), which marks the last step for the debt relief deal to be completed. nigeria is the first country to qualify for the imf's policy support instrument (psi), which provides assessment and endorsement of a country's economic policy by the imf, for those countries that do not require fund assistance. 

speaking before the commencement of the federal executive council meeting at the council chambers, state house, president obasanjo said, "by friday, april 21, we would have cleared ourselves of all debts owed to paris club." he also added, "considering the outstanding debts to the london club and those owed internally, we are not out of the woods yet."



condoleezza rice will visit greece and turkey

u.s. secretary of state condoleezza rice will visit athens and ankara during next week by the opportunity of her participation in the nato foreign ministers meeting in sofia, bulgaria. the announced that the head of us diplomacy will meet with greek prime minister and foreign minister as well as with the turkish prime minister, . 

in the two mediterranean countries, rice will have the opportunity to discuss the mutual interests between the usa and its strategic allies, greece and turkey. the promotion of democracy and peace in the middle east, the cyprus issue, the possibility of turkey's accession in the european union, and war against terrorism in north eastern europe and asia will likely be discussed.


pbs show asserts greenhouse gases, atmospheric pollutants dimming future

this week, the public broadcasting service aired a "nova" program titled “dimming the earth”, which presented research by leading scientists on the complex systems of our global climate and human activity's effect on it. one of the largest interactions (or "inputs") humans have with the atmosphere is the ever-increasing use of fossil fuels. consumption has risen 2% per year for this decade.

fossil fuels burnt in factories and automobiles send their waste into our atmosphere in two forms. the first is co and other greenhouse gases, which have received substantial attention in the last few years because of the way they trap heat in the atmosphere. the second is the tiny particles of sulfur dioxide, soot and ash, which scientists call aerosols (basically smog). research into understanding the negative health effects of air pollution has resulted in the development of catalytic converters for cars as well as devices to remove particulate solids from industrial waste before it reaches the air. 

more recently, atmospheric scientists have come upon the phenomenon of the reduction of direct sunlight reaching earth's surface? observing a nearly a 5% decline between 1960 and 1990, with evidence of a recovery since then. this has been dubbed the "global dimming" effect, and is probably due to the way these aerosols act upon clouds. it is important to realise that this does not represent a net loss of this much sunshine to the climate system - if so, large temperature declines would have been observed. instead, the sunshine is absorbed elsewhere in the system, with a much smaller net loss.
clouds form when moisture gathers around airborne particles, such as pollen or dust. clouds formed by the aerosol particles emitted by fossil fuel consumption are made of many more tiny droplets than "natural" clouds. these smog-created clouds have two notable effects: they shield sunlight from reaching earth's surface and, due to water's reflective nature, the millions of tiny droplets suspended in them reflect light back into space, allowing even less light to reach earth.

many scientists now believe that global dimming caused by these pollutants has mitigated the temperature rises brought about by global warming. over the last thirty years, earth's temperature has increased by about 0.5 oc.

in the absence of global dimming, however, the earth might be 0.3 oc warmer than it currently is, suggesting that a "tug-of-war" exists between greenhouse gases and particulates released by burning fossil fuels. efforts to mitigate the human health dangers of smog have allowed more heat into our atmosphere and brought about a sharper increase in global warming.

dr. james e. hansen, professor at columbia university and the head of the goddard institute for space studies , believes that if we continue on our current pattern, this warming could be as much as five degrees in the next thirty years and ten to fourteen degrees over the course of the century. such a temperature rise would devastate life on earth, likely bringing on a cascade of self-reinforcing warming effects. earth's forests drying and burning, a steady thawing of the greenland and arctic ice sheets, and, most dangerous of all, a release of the methane hydrates that are now frozen at the bottom of the oceans, could remake the planet into something inhospitable to human life. dr. hansen warns that, according to his research, man has just 10 years to reduce greenhouse gases before global warming and other responses to human activity by earth's climate reach a "tipping point", becoming unstoppable. 


pakistan says senior al-qaeda official killed in shootout

a saudi arabian man named abu marwan al-suri, 38, suspected of being a senior al-qaeda "bag man", was killed in a shootout on thursday, according to the pakistan army spokesman major-general shaukat sultan. it is believed he has been killed at a checkpoint in khar, a town in the tribal district of bajaur, pakistan, when he opened fire on security officials from inside a car. according to sultan, al-suri opened fire when asked to stop his car. al-suri wounded two people and killed one pakistani security official.

"his death is quite a significant blow to al-qaeda," said officials. 

al-suri is believed to be one of several senior al-qaeda officials targeted in a united states lead airstrike in january in the damadola village of bajaur, pakistan against ayman al-zawahiri, which killed at least 18 civilians and several militants. zawahiri was not killed in the strike. suri was also believed to be giving money to the families of iraqi militant leader abu musab al-zarqawi as well as other militants in afghanistan and pakistan. al-suri is also believed to have been a close associate of zawahiri.

"he was giving them money every three months," said officials.

pakistani officials say they have his body and that it will be examined to determine its true identity at a hospital in the city of peshawar.

officials also say a notebook with instructions in arabic on making bombs and explosive devices was found with al-suri. the notebook also contained diagrams and drawings of circuits.


woman arrested for heckling chinese president hu at white house

, who was seen on television heckling president hu jintao during his appearance this week, was formally charged in a united states federal court for the misdemeanor of willfully intimidating, coercing, threatening, and harassing a foreign official. 

according to the , wang wenyi gained press credentials for working with the -run newspaper "". she then stood on a camera stand and shouted in chinese: "stop oppressing the falun gong," as well as "your time is running out," and "anything you have done will come back to you in this lifetime." she also shouted in english, "president , stop him from persecuting the falun gong." the falun gong is a religious group who is currently being persecuted in china for unconventional beliefs.

wang wenyi was then "escorted" by the secret service away from the south lawn where the appearance was taking place. over 35 supporters attended wang's arraignment on friday. if she is convicted, she could receive up to six months in jail and a $5,000 fine.

this is the 47-year-old wenyi's second incident in five years involving protest of a chinese leader. july 2001, she confronted then-president during a tour of malta. according to wang, she introduced herself to jiang and then urged him "to stop the killing of falun gong practitioners in china." security officials dragged her away, but jiang called her back and spoke to her in chinese saying that the "falun gong practitioners were killing themselves."

wenyi's court-appointed lawyer, david bos, challenged the criminal charge on the basis of free-speech.

"it's making the first amendment rights of all americans just evaporate," he said, while he said wang's remarks were "relatively innocuous."

the first amendment to the states; ""congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech" ... (or the freedom)" to petition the government for a redress of grievances"." 

hu is in the u.s. for a weeklong conference with president bush.



bjp leader pramod mahajan shot at in mumbai

pramod mahajan, the general secretary of india's main opposition party, the bharatiya janata party, was shot in mumbai earlier today. the attack occurred at mahajan's residence at around 6:30 a.m. ist (0100 utc). 

there are few details available at this time, however sources say mahajan was shot three times at close range by his brother praveen mahajan, allegedly over a property dispute. praveen later surrendered at the worli police station. his lawyer nandkumar rajukar claimed that he was depressed and suffering from some mental trauma. 

pramod mahajan was rushed to the nearby hinduja hospital, where he is currently being operated upon for a serious injury to his liver. a senior surgeon at the hospital stated that mr. mahajan was still in critical condition and that the next 72 hours would be "crucial". three bullets are still lodged in his body and doctors are finding it difficult to extract them. there is talk of using the help of doctors from the armed forces, who have better experience in treating bullet injuries. mr. mahajan's liver was severely injured in the incident, leading to massive blood loss. doctors say that he is currently on a ventilator and that the bullets cannot be removed for fear of causing even more bleeding.

praveen mahajan has been booked under section 307 of the indian penal code that deals with attempt to murder. he underwent a psychological examination, which indicated that he was mentally stable.

senior politicians from across india are arriving in mumbai to offer their support to the popular leader. the prime minister of india manmohan singh, speaker of the indian parliament somnath chatterjee and the president of india a p j abdul kalam have expressed shock over the attack.



russian commander: tu-160s penetrate us airspace undetected

a senior russian air force commander has claimed that new, upgraded bomber aircraft were unchallenged by us air defense systems when they penetrated a radar zone near the canadian coast in us territory during an april training exercise, reports the russian news agency ria novosti. 

commander of russia's long-range strategic bombers, lieutenant general igor khvorov said that the bombers successfully carried out four mock tu-95ms cruise missile launches, 200 mock bombings, and 53 mock sorties during the exercise. the ria novosti reported that the united states air force is currently investigating how the tu-160's escaped detection. 

lieutenant general igor khvorov said, "they were unable to detect the planes either with radars or visually."
khvorov denies any link of the tests to the current us-iranian tension, saying, "of course, our exercises did not have anything to do with the situation in iran, but their organization indirectly echoed in that region."

the tupolev tu-160 is a strategic bomber introduced in 1987. it resembles the north american b-1b lancer, but is larger and faster, being powered by four nk-32 afterburning turbofans, the largest in any combat aircraft. it is not considered to be a stealth aircraft due to its exposed engine inlets and broad wing gloves.

according to khvorov over the course of this year, two additional tu-160s will be commissioned for the long-range strategic bomber fleet with the numerous upgrades, including the ability to launch cruise missiles, aviation bombs, and satellite communication.



jawad al-maliki named iraqi prime minister

in the first meeting of the iraqi parliament since general elections were held four months ago, jawad al-maliki of the islamic al'dawa party, a member of the shiite-led united iraqi alliance, has been named prime minister-designate of iraq by president jalal talabani. he will replace interim prime minister ibrahim al-jaafari, whose candidacy for the permanent position led to an impasse in negotiations to form a national unity government.

according to adnan pachachi, acting parliament speaker, al-maliki has one month to present his list of cabinet minister to parliament for approval. should al-maliki's cabinet fail to win support, someone else will be asked to form a government.

also elected during the initial meeting was sunni politician mahmoud al-mashhadani as the speaker of the council of representatives. khalid al-attiya, a shiite, and aref tayfour, a kurd will serve as deputies. talabani was also re-elected as iraqi president during the meeting.

al-maliki called on the formation of a national unity government "to eradicate injustice that the iraqis have suffered." "we will work as one family to lead the political process, not based on our differences, sects or parties," al-maliki said.

reaction has been mostly positive so far. sunni leader tariq al-hashimi of the iraqi islamic party pledged to work with al-maliki, and to "work together in order to form a unity government." 

kurdish leaders have not commented thus far, but independent kurdish politician mahmoud othman was said to have welcomed al-maliki's nomination. u.s. secretary of state condoleezza rice also welcomed al-maliki's nomination as an "important milestone" for the iraqis.

sunnis, kurds, and secularists have opposed al-jaafari's renomination, citing weak leadership and sectarian strife.



south thailand election reruns hit by violence

thailand's troubled southern province of narathiwat saw the driver of an election official shot dead in the hours immediately leading up to today's by-elections. the attack, shortly after 6 a.m. local time (2300 utc), saw the 41 year old driver instantly killed and a woman passenger hospitalised from injuries sustained in the attack.

thailand's three southernmost provinces have been the centre of an insurgent campaign that has left over 1000 dead in the last two years. the predominantly muslim region overwhelmingly rejected the thai rak thai party candidates who stood unopposed in the april 2 general election forcing by-elections in an effort to fill the country's lower house of parliament before it is due to reconvene on may 2. rules laid out in the country's constitution require that any candidate standing unopposed must receive votes from 20% of the eligible electorate to be elected. with the major opposition parties continuing their election boycott, these is some doubt if the full compliment of 500 mps will be elected by the may 2 deadline.

according to the thai news agency, there are by-elections in 40 constituencies spread over 17 provinces, despite voting being compulsory, turnout is expected to be low as this is the third set of elections since the start of the month.



nagin, landrieu advance to runoff in new orleans mayoral election

new orleans mayor ray nagin and louisiana secretary of state mitch landrieu will most likely face each other in a may 20 runoff election for mayor of new orleans.

with all 442 precincts reporting from elections on saturday, nagin has reportedly received 41,489 votes (38%), leading all candidates but falling short of the majority needed to avoid a runoff. landrieu received 31,499 votes (29%); ron forman, 18,734 votes (17%). all three are democrats.

nagin, 49, was first elected in 2002 on a platform of fighting government corruption, but he has since become better known for leading the recovery effort in new orleans after hurricane katrina. at the same time, he has come under criticism for certain remarks, such as asserting that new orleans would remain a "chocolate city" with an african-american majority.

nagin said that he was "humbled by the support from this community," and called on new orleanians to "bring this city together ... it's time for black and white, hispanic and asian, everybody to come together for one new orleans. it's time for us to stop the bickering."

landrieu, 45, brother of u.s. senator mary landrieu (d-la) and son of former new orleans mayor moon landrieu, said, "tonight, we take the second step on this journey back home, and i ask all new orleanians to join with me in this march as we proclaim to america that new orleans will be rebuilt."

forman pledged to "work day and night with either mitch or ray to rebuild this city."

a special challenge in this election was bringing together new orleans residents displaced by the catastrophic flooding in the aftermath of katrina. it is estimated that nearly six out of every ten residents still registered to vote in new orleans live outside the city. 

polling was held at 76 polling stations (compared with 262 four years ago) and ten satellite stations were opened throughout the state for absentee voting. civil rights groups challenged the plan, and instead advocated for polling stations to be setup in houston and atlanta where many displaced residents now live. state officials and federal courts rejected the plan, citing legal questions.



linux distributors agree on standard for desktop software

major distributors of the operating system linux have agreed on a new standard that includes common elements for desktop software, in a move to make linux a more effective competitor to microsoft windows.

the free standards group (fsg) will unveil the linux standard base (lsb) 3.1 on tuesday at the desktop linux summit in san diego. the first distribution to include lsb 3.1 support, xandros, is expected to be released on may 1, followed shortly by versions by red hat, novell, and others. the status of ubuntu's upcoming version is still unclear .

the standards aim to resolve difficulties that programmers face in developing software for linux. because linux, developed by finnish programmer linus torvalds, defines the kernel or core of the operating system, there is a wide variety of graphical interfaces for it and differing software libraries. lsb 3.1 standardizes core pieces of linux to make development easier.

"one of the big things that's difficult is consistency, and that's windows' biggest strength," jim zemlin, executive director of the free standards group, told the associated press. "if you buy a windows program, you know it will run on a windows computer, and linux needs to work the same way. [...] if you really want to become a broadly adopted and used technology, you have to have that degree of standardization," he said.


michael schumacher breaks formula one record for most poles

bologna, italia - michael schumacher has set the formula one pole record. "schumi" won the pole position at the san marino grand prix. the pole position was the 66th for schumacher. ayrton senna held the previous record. senna won his f1-career 65 pole positions between years 1984-1994. schumacher has been racing in the f1-series since 1991. senna won 40% of his pole attempts (161 races) compared to schumacher's 28% (235 races so far). this new pole record reawakened the affection for senna who died in 1994 on the fifth lap at the same race, the san marino grand prix, a race won by schumacher who was also champion the same year.


aljazeera airs new audiotape by osama bin laden

aljazeera has aired a new audiotape it says contains the voice of al-qaeda's leader, osama bin laden. the tape is 11 minutes and 26 seconds long, believed to have been made after march 14, 2006.

according to aljazeera, in the tape, bin laden talks about the "situation in iraq, palestine and sudan" and says that the isolation of the hamas-led palestine is a "war by crusaders and zionists against islam."

"i say that this war is the joint responsibility of the people and the governments. while the war continues, the people renew their allegiance to their rulers and politicians and continue to send their sons to our countries to fight us. the war goes on and the people are renewing their allegiance to its rulers and masters. they send their sons to armies to fight us and they continue their financial and moral support while our countries are burned and our houses are bombed and our people are killed," said bin laden.

"the blockade which the west is imposing on the government of hamas proves that there is a zionist crusaders war on islam. i have sworn to only live free. even if i find bitter the taste of death, i don't want to die humiliated or deceived. the war is a responsibility shared between the people and the governments. they do not want a truce unless it is from our side only. they insist on continuing their crusader campaign against our nation and to loot our wealth," he added.

bin laden also talked about sudan saying, "i call on mujahedeen and their supporters, especially in sudan and the arab peninsula, to prepare for long war again the crusader plunderers in western sudan. our goal is not defending the khartoum government but to defend islam, its land and its people. the politicians of the west do not want dialogue except for the sake of dialogue to drag us on, for them to gain more time. they want an armistice that is observed only by us."

the united states has since said that they believe the tape is authentic.

"we just heard from the intelligence community that they believe it's authentic," said scott mcclellan, spokesman for the white house.

"we are continuing to take the fight to the enemy abroad and making it difficult for them to plan and plot against americans. the al qaeda leadership is on the run and under a lot of pressure. we continue to take all terrorist threats seriously and that is why we are acting on all fronts doing everything within our power to prevail in the war on terrorism," added mcclellan.

aljazeera last aired an audiotape in january by bin laden, where he promised new terrorist attacks in the u.s. but also offered the u.s. a "long-term truce."



emergency declared in peru as mt. ubinas threatens to erupt

the government of peru declared a state of emergency in the vicinity of the ubinas volcano on saturday as it began to spew out ash and smoke over a 6km area, indicating a possible eruption in the near future. the civil defense institute has recommended the total evacuation of the 3,500 residents of the district of ubinas.

the peruvian military has been ordered to aid in the evacuation of civilians from the area. aid shipments of tents, water and powdered milk are being sent to the affected area.

those who decided to evacuate were brought to the town of querapi by bus. others who reside near the volcano chose to stay behind to protect their livestock and belongings. 

no human deaths have been reported so far, but llamas and alpacas have died after eating grass contaminated by volcanic pollutants. people have reported eye and breathing problems following exposure to the acid-laden ash and smoke. 

the 18700-ft. high ubinas is peru's most active volcano, with 23 eruptions recorded since 1550. the current activity follows a 40-year dormant period. scientists at the institute of geophysics have warned that a dome of incandescent lava appears to be building up in the volcanic crater. 



by-elections fail to provide way out of thai political crisis

with the bangkok post reporting indications that 14 unopposed candidates failed to meet the requirement of receiving votes from 20% of eligible citizens, thailand's constitutional court may be asked to consider breaching the constitution and convening the new parliamentary session without quorum.

the april 2 general election saw caretaker prime minister thaksin shinawatra's populist thai rak thai (lit: "thais love thais", or "thai unity") party win the controversial election, but a significant boycott and use of the abstention option on ballot forms forced thaksin to announce he will not assume the post of pm in the parliament's next session. the three main opposition parties had refused to participate in the snap election leading to a significant number of constituencies where trt stood unopposed. over 40 candidates failed to meet the 20%-of-eligible-voters requirement forcing yesterday's by-elections.

thailand's snap election was the pm's response to ongoing demonstrations and accusations of malfeasance, particularly in relation to his family's sale of their interest in shin corp, a major thai company, to temasek holdings which is described by wikipedia as "the investment arm of the singapore government." the mass rallies that ensued, organised by the self-styled people's alliance for democracy, and the mainstream opposition boycott damaged the pm's attempt to use an election to renew his mandate.



swazi king says political parties are no longer banned

king mswati iii, of swaziland has said that political parties are no longer banned under the country's new constitution that came into force in february. 

king mswati iii is the absolute monarch of swaziland, a small landlocked country in southern africa. mswati’s father, king sobhuza ii, banned political parties in 1973. a new constitution was brought into effect by royal decree in february by king mswati, which proclaimed the right to freedom of association and freedom of speech but did not explicitly lift the ban on political parties. 

in an interview with the news agency agence france-presse (afp), king mswati said, "the old constitution had actually written that we banned political parties but these days when you read our new constitution, our new constitution allows the freedom of rights." he added, "there is nothing which says we ban parties."

this week marks the 20th year of mswati's ascention to the throne. he has been criticised for his lavish lifestyle, while ruling over a country struggling with unemployment, poverty and the world's highest hiv infection rates. a pro-democracy movement has been active in the country since its independence from british colonial rule. in the last few months, there have also been firebombings of government offices and official residences, and members of a banned pro-democracy group, the people's united democratic movement have been arrested on treason charges. 

in the afp interview, the king also spoke against using violence to bring about change in the country, and said that "doors are wide open" to those who wanted to convey a message. he also expressed hope of international assistance in overcoming the challenges facing the country. 


tennis player rafael nadal crowned &quot;king of clay&quot;

at the start of the tournament, 19-year-old rafael nadal of spain was seeded as the second favourite to take the monte carlo masters clay court title, ranked only behind the current world number one, 25-year-old roger federer of switzerland. 
the finals match-up in question, the first where the number 1 and 2 seeds faced each other since 1985, was won in four sets; 6-2, 6-7, 6-3, 7-6, ending in just eleven minutes short of four hours.

as the lengthy matchtime suggests, the action on the court was a see-saw battle with both players looking as though they would go on to win at different points of the match. at times, it was difficult to see who was the more experienced. nadal, the more successful of the two on a clay tennis surface, played to roger federer's weakness. roger federer didn't give up without a fight, but his best, which is capable of beating "anybody" on his day, seemed to remain in the locker room as roger federer's aggression came a rare second to nadal's accurate baseline style.

nadal wins the monte carlo masters for a second consecutive time. nadal can celebrate his unexpected but much welcomed victory in monaco, if only for a little while ahead of the next tournament in the clay court series.


indian supreme court verdict: amu to remain a minority institution

the of india has said that the (amu) will remain a minority institution and that its character will not change, but refused to stay, till the pendency of the matter, the high court’s verdict striking down the 50% quota for students belonging to the minority community. justice headed the bench. the next hearing will be on may 10, 2006.

the court referred the matter to the chief justice for allocating it to a larger bench. the aligarh muslim university hailed the sc's interim order on the institution's minority character as a "major victory" and said the issue of granting 50% reservation to muslims would be held in abeyance till a final verdict. 

earlier this month, amu had moved the supreme court challenging the allahabad high court's verdict, which had put down the minority status of the institution. the appeal to supreme court challenging the high court verdict that amu was not a minority institution entitled to protection under article 30 (1) of the .

the allahabad high court on january 5 had struck down the provision of the aligarh muslim university amendment act, 1981, by which the status of a minority institution was accorded to amu. it had also quashed the 50 per cent quotas for students. by doing so, it had upheld its last year's judgement, terming as unconstitutional the minority status of the university and 50 per cent reservation for the muslim students . the division bench referred to the sc judgement in the ajeez basha case of 1968, which had already taken the view that amu was not a minority institution and any enactment of a law by could not overrule the judgement.

this copyrighted material has been reproduced with the prior permission of cnn-ibn-


112 year old joke fools political activists and the associated press

on friday april 21, 2006 associated press released a story which has been reprinted in many newspapers throughout the united states. the article prints as factual several false and historically inaccurate assertions by reverend patterson, a native hawaiian sovereignty activist, who seems to have taken a 112 year old joke seriously. 

the direct falsehood reported as fact by associated press (not merely attributed to reverend patterson), and which reverend patterson uses as a basis for his april 30, 2006 "national day of prayer for hawaiian natives", is as follows:

"...it was cleveland as president who set aside april 30, 1894 as a day of prayer and repentance over the u.s. role in the hawaiian monarchy's overthrow."

the fake proclamation attributed to president grover cleveland, was allegedly printed in the new york sun february 26, 1894, and has been reported as real on several hawaiian sovereignty websites; cited as real by rev. kaleo patterson; and now reported as real by associated press in many newspapers.

the misunderstanding regarding this joke proclamation started with helena g. allen, in her book "the betrayal of liliuokalani", pp. 314-315, which provided the text of that proclamation. she did so in the context of discussing the constitution of the republic of hawai`i, despite the fact that the date on the proclamation was 4 months before a constitution was produced for the republic of hawaii. she wrote:

helena allen cited its publication in the new york sun, february 26, 1894. allen does not say who arranged for the newspaper publication of this joke proclamation. she strongly implies it was cleveland who actually authored the proclamation to show contempt for the revolutionary hawai`i government headed by president sanford b. dole. 

but that interpretation is doubtful for a number of reasons. as a joke, it hardly seems very funny for cleveland to be calling an officer of the government of the united states (john stevens) "the devil." the description of the provisional government as a "miserable herd of missionaries" also doesn't come across as very humorous, since this was a government with which he had continuing diplomatic relations. the whole tone and tenor of the proclamation make president cleveland seem emotional, irrational, insulting and arrogant.

a more likely interpretation is that the joke was at the expense of president cleveland -- his political opponents were poking fun at the zealousness of grover cleveland's continuing support for a deposed queen regarded by many as corrupt. the u.s. senate committee on foreign affairs published the morgan report the same day the joke proclamation was allegedly printed in the new york sun. washington politicians (including president cleveland) had seen the morgan report beforehand, and knew the date it would be published. they knew the report would clear the u.s. of any wrongdoing in the overthrow of the monarchy, and support the legitimacy of the revolutionary dole government. they knew the morgan report would severely criticize the royalist regime, and repudiate the blount report that cleveland had orchestrated for the purpose of justifying his attempt to destabilize the provisional government and restore his friend liliuokalani to the throne. cleveland's enemies may have published the joke proclamation to poke fun at him.

regardless whether the joke proclamation was cleveland's own expression of contempt for the dole regime, or whether it was cleveland's opponents' expression of contempt for the cleveland regime -- either way, we know for sure that it was only a joke. the proclamation was never issued in any official way. it is not included in cleveland's presidential messages and papers. the fake proclamation was apparently published in only one newspaper. 

president grover cleveland was a friend of liliuokalani and was very aggressive in blocking annexation. during his first week in office he withdrew from the senate a treaty of annexation proposed by the hawai`i provisional government that had been approved by u.s. president harrison; and he sent james blount to hawai`i. blount went to hawai`i, without senate confirmation or even notification, as paramount minister plenipotentiary under secret orders. his actions while there seemed to imply a mission to destabilize the revolutionary government and to produce a report that would derail efforts in congress to accept hawai`i's offer of annexation. blount took actions, which seemed to encourage a royalist counterrevolution, and wrote a report portraying the
overthrow of the monarchy as planned and supported by the u.s. rather than by local revolutionaries. blount intervened to sabotage negotiations whereby liliuokalani offered dole that she would give up all claims to land and political power in return for a lifetime annuity. after the submission of blount's report, minister willis, cleveland's representative to hawai`i, ordered president dole to step down and to put liliuokalani back on the throne. 

but despite all these things, after the u.s. senate published the morgan report containing lengthy sworn testimony which repudiated the blount report, cleveland changed his mind, gave formal diplomatic recognition to the republic as the legitimate government of hawai`i, and engaged in normal diplomatic negotiations with the dole government on matters such as further implementation of treaties.

as much as political activists may want to believe cleveland declared april 30, 1894 as a day of mourning for their cause, the reality is that cleveland made no such statement, and in fact treated the republic of hawaii with dignity and respect after his initial impressions regarding the hawaiian revolution were shown to be in error.

further research into the citation of helena g. allen referring to the new york sun, february 26, 1894, has yielded no such article as she mentions. it is possible her citation was incorrect on the date, so further research into the february 25th, 1894 and february 27, 1894 editions will be conducted. unfortunately, helena g. allen died in 2003, so she is not available to answer questions about her citation.




oil prices drive new investment in clean technology

investors are rushing to fund new ventures in renewable energy as americans continue to see rising gasoline prices at the pump. the price for crude oil continues to rise to new record highs ($75 per barrel of crude oil on nymex as of friday's close). according to the results of a survey reported by the san francisco gate, in the 1st quarter of 2006 investments in the clean technology sector has increased by 13% to $3.36 billion in the us. in addition to attracting venture capital, clean technology companies are receiving a buzz from high profile investors.

bill gates, founder of microsoft, announced last week that his venture group (cascade investments) initiated the purchase of 25.5% ownership in pacific ethanol inc. pacific ethanol is an ethanol production company that plans to expand operations by opening a new facility in california. gates is not alone in high profile investments into the clean energy market, bob metcalfe (founder of 3com and inventor of ethernet), who acts as the managing partner of polaris ventures, announced the vc's first investment into the energy market. polaris, which manages over $3 billion in funds, invested $6.8 million into greenfuel technologies corporation of cambridge, ma. greenfuel technologies is an emissions to biofuels company, that utilizes natural algae in their patented bioreactors to turn greenhouse gas emissions from power plants into rich bio fuel. polaris's investment into greenfuel was part of the company's $18 million series b financing round that also included a high profile venture capital investor: draper fisher jurvetson. when asked about the new industry venture, bob metcalfe said, "energy has got to be one of the top five problems the world faces, and it's been frustrating to watch activists and politicians fail to solve the problem...now it's time for the entrepreneurs and scientists to give it a try." 

according to the international energy association, demand for renewable energy fuels will more than quadruple in the next decade. the current jump in oil prices is fueling investment into this relatively new market as investors view clean technology as an emerging opportunity rather than a public relations campaign. as gasoline prices continue to rise, alternative fuels become respectively cheaper and more attractive. in his latest state of the union address, president bush outlined a plan to direct new investment into ethanol production and other clean technologies. according to a poll conducted by cbs news, americans now see gas prices as one of their top three main concerns. with pressure coming from constituents, politicians are beginning to exert pressure on new spending on renewable technology to promote energy independence. yet another front in this debate is that of environmental concern. with global warming on the rise, and many european governments eagerly searching for a carbon dioxide solution, the promise of reducing these emissions by 46% (as claimed by greenfuel's bio reactor system) begins to resonate as a promising environmental and business opportunity.



explosions rock egyptian resort town of dahab

three explosions rocked the egyptian resort city of dahab and killed at least 24 people. between 60 and 150 people were injured in the attack.

the blasts came at the height of the tourist season, officials said. the three time bombs exploded in a busy restaurant and in a market area in the red sea resort city within a span of five minutes.

dahab is located on the gulf of aqaba on the eastern side of the sinai peninsula.

an early written statement, attributed to the egyptian interior ministry, gave the death toll as 23 people: 20 egyptians, a german child, and two victims of unknown nationality.

the statement also listed the 20 foreigners who were wounded as three danes, three britons, two italians, two germans and one each from the united states, france, korea, lebanon, israel and australia. the nationalities of the other victims were not specified.


microsoft and eu face off in luxembourg court

today, court proceedings in the european union's court of first instance in luxembourg began as microsoft corporation filed an appeal against the european union commission's decision in an anti-trust case, commenting that the commission made several mistakes in its decision to fine microsoft 497 million euros, or approximately 613 million dollars concerning several allegations that microsoft used its majority share in desktop software to also take over the video and media player business. the commission also forced microsoft to produce a version of windows xp that did not include windows media player. only 1,787 copies were ordered through march 31st. microsoft has also alleged that the proposed punishment of 2 million euros per day is too severe. the eu has also proposed that microsoft's upcoming operating system, windows vista will also exclude rivals through bundling programs. although a decision is not expected for at least several months, analysts have predicted that a verdict in favor of microsoft would destroy the eu commission's prestige as well as any case against microsoft.


world leaders condemn deadly explosions in egypt

president bush condemned the deadly explosions in the egyptian resort city of dahab monday and pledged to bring terrorists to justice. he commented at the venetian resort hotel casino where he was speaking to raise money for republican rep. jon porter. "i strongly condemn the killings that took place, the innocent life lost in egypt," bush said. "this is a heinous act against innocent civilians."

"the united states sends our condolences to the families of those who were killed," bush said. "we keep those were injured in our thoughts and prayers and i assure the enemy this ? we will stay on the offense, we will not waver, we will not tire, we will bring you to justice for the sake of peace and humanity."

president hosni mubarak, whose economy is heavily dependent on tourism, called the blasts a "a wicked terrorist attack."

the egyptian government has said the militants who carried out the bombings were locals without international connections, but other security agencies have said they suspect al-qaida.



lawsuit sends buffalo, n.y. hotel proposal to new york supreme court

attorney arthur j. giacalone has filed a lawsuit in new york supreme court against the city of buffalo's common council and planning board, alleging that the proposed elmwood village hotel was approved "without giving meaningful consideration to either the impact on the adjoining residential neighborhood, or the unique character of this section of elmwood avenue." giacalone is representing nancy pollina and patricia morris, who operate the don apparel (a vintage clothing and collectibles shop at 1119 elmwood avenue), angeline genovese and evelyn bencinich, owners of residences on granger place which abut the rear of the proposed site, nina freudenheim, a resident of nearby penhurst park, and sandra girage, the owner of a two-family residence on forest avenue less than a hundred feet from the proposed hotel's sole entrance and exit driveway.

the elmwood village hotel is a 72-room, seven-million-dollar hotel proposed by savarino construction services corporation and designed by architect karl frizlen of the frizlen group. its construction would require the demolition of at least five buildings, currently at 1109-1121 elmwood, which house several shops and residents. although the properties are "under contract," it is still not known whether savarino construction actually owns the buildings. it is believed that hans mobius, a resident of clarence, new york and former buffalo mayoral candidate, is still the owner. the hotel is expected to be a franchise of the wyndham hotels group.

the lawsuit, filed in state supreme court, is seeking annulment of the city of buffalo's rezoning and site plan approvals for the hotel. 

"had the common council members complied with state law and waited to receive comments from the county's planning agency, they would have been obliged to address the county's concerns regarding the replacement of former residential buildings with 'a much larger commercial structure', the health effects of placing a 55-vehicle parking area next to existing homes, and the absence of a traffic study to assess the likelihood that the project would add 'considerable congestion' to the elmwood/forest intersection," said giacalone.

"the four-story hotel will overshadow the neighboring homes and backyards, impacting quality of life and property values. equally as important, the project will displace a unique and diverse group of businesses that have served nearby college students and buffalo's arts and theater community for many years, and replace them with upscale retail establishments that will cater, not to local residents, but to affluent tourists and business travelers," added giacalone.

on march 22, 2006 the city's common council approved the rezoning for the proposed hotel and on march 28, the planning board approved the design and site plan of the hotel.

the lawsuit, entitled pollina et al. v. common council of the city of buffalo et al., [index no. i-2006-3885], has been assigned to the honorable rose h. sconiers, and is scheduled for oral argument at 9:30 a.m. on thursday june 8, 2006.




cyclone monica misses darwin


clashes in athens during condoleezza rice's visit to greece

greek leftist groups of masked youth demonstrators clashed with greek police and riot squads in stadiou avenue, in athens, during american secretary of state condoleezza rice's meetings with greek officials. anarchist mobs hurled molotov cocktail bombs and the police-riot squads fired tear gas. according to police information, the youths smashed some 20 store fronts and set six vehicles alight.
police had thrown a cordon around central road arteries of the city since tuesday morning, while two street protests - organized by the kke and synaspismos leftist parties - were staged at propylea on panepistemiou street as well as on klafthmonos square. moreover, yesterday, a team of about 15 members of the greek communist party, climbed on the top of athens' concert hall, just meters away from the u.s. embassy, in order to hang a huge banner with the message "condoleezza rice go home". 

in her short stay in greece, america's chief diplomat met with the greek premier costas karamanlis in maximus palace as well as with her counterpart, the greek foreign minister dora bakoyiannis. the agenda of their discussions included iran's nuclear program, the greek-turkish relations, the cyprus and macedonian issues as well as the co-operation between the united states and greece.



alabama postal workers and customers become ill, suspicious substance found

six workers in the post office in hueytown, alabama developed breathing problems and 23 were sent to the hospital after a chemical used in the manufacture of fishing lures leaked from a package. 

the post office, located five miles west of downtown birmingham, alabama, was evacuated, and hueytown firefighters in hazardous materials attire inspected the chemical. the chemical was found to have leaked from an inadequately designed package, evaporated quickly leaving a garlicky scent, and discolored the flooring tile in the post office. workers complained of symptoms ranging from breathing difficulties to vomiting to burning in the throat.

the chemical was later identified as "j.j.'s magic," a yellow dye for soft plastic fishing lures which contains garlic oil as a fish attractant. the manufacturer confirmed that a two-ounce bottle of the product was sent to a customer in suburban birmingham and speculated that the container may have cracked in transit. 



study claims recreational ecstasy use and depression unrelated

a new study published in the may 2006 issue of the journal of psychopharmacology and conducted at the university of louisiana at lafayette finds no significant link between ecstasy (mdma) use and depression. 
a common street drug, ecstasy is found mostly in tablet form, and often taken in a nightclub setting. its psychological effects include making users affectionate, giving them the impression of heightened senses in response to music, and overall euphoria. physically the drug acts as a stimulant, a mild diuretic and causes hyperthermia, which is why, in combination with physical exertion leading to perspiration, users often drink large amounts of water to prevent dehydration.

serotonin is an important neurotransmitter, also known as 5-ht or 5-hydroxytryptamine, implicated in controlling mood. in fact, most well known anti-depressants, such as paxil or prozac, are believed to work by stabilizing the level of serotonin in the brain (ssris).
ecstasy is believed to increase the levels of serotonin because of its effects on mood. research in lab animals has provided evidence that it causes long-term post-use serotonin depletion. a common hypothesis among many researchers is that drop in serotonin levels below normal could be recognized by a corresponding decline in mood.

sixty-four participants took part in the study. one half of the participants between the age of 18 to 45 were obtained by word of mouth or over the internet. the other half consisted of controls that had no experience taking ecstasy, recruited from introductory psychology classes at the university. 

according to the study, participants filled out a questionnaire about their personal and drug use history. the personal history questionnaire queried the gender, age, psychiatric background, and current anti-depressant drug usage. alternately, the drug history questionnaire explored the lifetime usage and usage habits of a wide variety of substances, including specific questions about abstinence from ecstasy and the most ecstasy taken by the participant in 12 hours.

two tests were performed to assess psychiatric function: the beck depression inventory-ii(bdi-ii) and the shipley institute of living scale(sils) .

the bdi-ii is a 21-question self-assessment that according to many sources is empirically valid for highlighting the presence and severity of depressive symptoms, and meets the requirements of the dsm-iv, which is the standard reference that mental health professionals use to diagnose psychological disorders.

the sils is administered to assess cognitive abilities. it was developed in 1940 as a measure of general intellectual functioning, and is still administered in its original form.

according to the study there was no significant difference in the bdi-ii scores between the control and experimental groups. furthermore, no significant correlation was found between any of the conditions of ecstasy use.

this study seems to go against the consensus that mdma reduces serotonin levels and causes some measurable damage. however, there are other studies in the same journal that go into more detail about individual usage habits and harm reduction strategies that need to be considered alongside the data presented with this study. the study claims that when experimental groups are gathered via the internet, they could be biased (more available information, taking less) and adopt different harm reduction strategies than average users. 

however, according to professor david nutt at university of bristol, one could conclude ecstasy causes less harm, and has less societal costs than alcohol.



cyclone monica degraded

cyclone monica was expected to hit darwin as a category five storm, with winds of up to 350 km/h (220 mph). but the national weather bureau downgraded it to category two on the morning of april 25, 2006, when it lost power after making landfall. monica was a category five cyclone when it touched down in the remote aboriginal community of maningrida, in the northern territory, late on 24th night.
a spokeswoman for the northern territory police, fire and emergency services said some parts of the area had been damaged by the storm. maningrida "certainly suffered extensive damage to some buildings and structures," she told the sydney morning herald, although no serious injuries have been reported

tropical cyclone monica now poses no risk to the northern territory of australia. monica was downgraded to a tropical low, but the cyclone has the potential regroup over the warm seas north of australia. monica could intensify back into a category two or even three cyclone before striking the north coast of western australia at the nt/wa border.

cyclone monica hit australia just a month after category five cyclone larry tore through the community of innisfail, about 100 km (60 miles) south of cairns. thousands of homes were destroyed by cyclone larry, with a damage bill expected to top a$1bn ($707m, ￡405m). 

"a cyclone watch is current between the daly mouth river right through to the kimberley" says ms jenny farlow, an nt forecaster.

meanwhile the cyclone has hampered government efforts to crack down on illegal fishing in the gulf of carpentaria. rough seas combined with busy officers have grounded the effort to a halt, and three indonesian fishing boats in australian waters are reported to have gone unchecked.


news briefs:april 25, 2006

the time is 22:47 utc on 25 april 2006 (utc), and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

lawsuit sends a buffalo, n.y. hotel proposal to the new york supreme court<br>
"attorney arthur j. giacalone has filed a lawsuit in new york supreme court against the city of buffalo's common council and planning board, alleging that the proposed elmwood village hotel was approved "without giving meaningful consideration to either the impact on the adjoining residential neighborhood, or the unique character of this section of elmwood avenue.""

anzac day marked throughout nz and au<br>
"australians and new zealanders throughout the world stood still and turned out in huge numbers for their national war memorial days in remembrance of the failed australian and new zealand army corps (anzac) ? attack on gallipoli, turkey that began on 25 april 1915. the fateful attack was designed to end the first world war quicker by creating a supply line to russia. a hundred thousand died in the battle, remembered every year as anzac day by both nations."

"a senior russian air force commander has claimed that new, upgraded tu-160 bomber aircraft were unchallenged by us air defense systems when they penetrated a radar zone near the canadian coast in us territory during an april training exercise, reports the russian news agency ria novosti. lieutenant general igor khvorov , commander of russia's long-range strategic bombers, said that the bombers successfully carried out four mock tu-95ms cruise missile launches, 200 mock bombings, and 53 mock sorties during the exercise. the ria novosti reported that the us air force is currently investigating how the tu-160's escaped detection."

an emergency is declared in peru as mt. ubinas threatens to erupt<br>
"the government of peru declared a state of emergency in the vicinity of the ubinas volcano on saturday as it began to spew out ash and smoke over a 6km area, indicating a possible eruption in the near future. the civil defense institute has recommended the total evacuation of the 3,500 residents of the district of ubinas. the peruvian military has been ordered to aid in the evacuation of civilians from the area. aid shipments of tents, water and powdered milk are being sent to the affected area"

cyclone monica misses darwin<br>
"tropical cyclone monica has missed darwin, the territorial capital of australia’s northern territory, dissipating into a category one cyclone at 1030 aest (0030 utc). the cyclone was originally expected to hit darwin as a category five, but lost power as it traveled across the northern territory, moving further south than anticipated. while this may bring relief to many residents fearing a return of the infamous cyclone tracy, authorities have warned that monica still packs a punch and will bring 90 kph winds to the region"
to receive the latest news, please visit wikinews.org.

this has been a news brief for audio wikinews.

this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


in depth: buffalo, n.y. hotel proposal controversy

in february of 2006, the savarino services construction corp. proposed the construction of a seven million dollar hotel on elmwood and forest avenues in buffalo, new york. in order for the hotel to be built, at least five properties containing businesses and residents would have to be destroyed. it was not certain whether the properties were owned by savarino or by the landlord hans mobius. the hotel was designed by karl frizlen of the frizlen group, and is planned to be a franchise of the wyndham hotels group.

elmwood avenue is known by the community as a popular shopping center, and nancy pollina of don apparel (who is "utterly against" the construction) claims it's the only reason why students from buffalo state college leave campus. additionally, michael faust of mondo video said he did not want to "get kicked out of here [his video store property]."

in 1995, a "walgreens" was proposed to be built on the same land, but walgreens later withdrew its request for a variance because of pressure from the community. more recently, pano georgiadis tried to get the rights to demolish the atwater house next to his restaurant on elmwood avenue, but was denied a permit due to the property's historical value. he has since been an opponent to the hotel construction.

in the process of debating the hotel, it was thought that a hotel had previously existed on the proposed site, however; research done at the buffalo and erie county historical society had shown that no hotel had previously existed on the site.

on february 21, 2006, 140 people attended a meeting that was held at the buffalo state college to discuss the hotel proposal. citizens were opposed to the hotel development, including mark freeland, who claimed that the hotel will effectively prevent nearby granger street from getting any sunlight, and would make the households on that street "on permanent reality tv." nancy pollina claimed that the proposal was being rushed. alternatives were suggested, including a plan to commercially revitalize the street without the construction of a hotel. rocco termini, the developer who proposed the plan, claimed that small stores would "preserve the streetscape" of elmwood avenue.

one of the main objections at the meeting was the design of the building: a large box-shaped building that dwarfs the small shops on that street. in an interview with eva hassett of savarino construction services corp., she told "wikinews" that the hotel would be a story shorter and have 10% less rooms. in addition, the aesthetics of the building were to be changed, different building materials were to be used, and the smaller building would allow for more parking. when asked if savarino agreed to termini's proposal, they asserted that the hotel would be a great asset for buffalo. hassett agreed to another large meeting that was held in late february.

a more low-profile meeting was held on february 27, 2006 to disucss the redesign. one of the attendees was joseph golombek, who had only heard of the hotel proposal a few days earlier. he claimed that he was asked to approve the hotel the next day, to which he had responded that he would not accept or reject until the community has had more time to look at it. in addition, golombeck claimed that two of the properties, 605 forest and 607 forest, would need to be re-zoned in order for the hotel development to go through. at a meeting of the city planning board, they unanimously agreed to postpone voting on the hotel plans for thirty days due to a lack of meetings. 

termini, who appeared at the first meeting, still claimed that the hotel is bad. he proposed another idea, again without a hotel. susan curran hoyt claimed the hotel is still too large, and asked if the hotel size could be further reduced. evelyn bencinich complained that her property value will be deprecated as a result of the hotel, and that the construction process of the hotel could result in serious consequences.

on march 10, 2006, it was reported that the planning board further delayed voting on the hotel.

at a meeting on march 13, 2006, savarino confirmed that they are seeking a variance on 605 forest in buffalo. originally, both 605 and 607 forest were requested for a variance. 605 forest is the property of pano georgiadis, a local restaurant owner, who has threatened to sue if they had requested the variance. a petition has been drawn to prevent the construction, which had been signed by georgiadis. however, signs of support have been found, including a citizen claiming that the hotel will raise property values. "the buffalo news" claimed that at least six of the common council members have approved the hotel construction.

on march 18, 2006, citizens protested on elmwood and forest avenues in buffalo against the construction of the hotel. at least forty people arrived to picket for two hours. one complaint within the crowd was that the hotel would destroy businesses that had been around for years.

on march 22, the common council unanimously approved the construction of the elmwood village hotel in less than two minutes. the approval also allowed for the rezoning of all five properties to allow for hotel development. while 605 and 607 forest avenue are not needed for the hotel, savarino still needs the rights to 605 forest avenue to fulfill certain requirements. six days later, another protest occurred. several individuals met with a lawyer to see if any legal action could be taken. while it has been claimed that there is a case, the legal fees would be too expensive. a legal fund has been looked into.

on march 28, the planning board, who has the final say, approved the hotel construction. this has aroused plenty of controversy for the plan, with one man saying, "thanks for destroying buffalo." georgiadis, the owner of an affected property, has confirmed that he is "definitely suing." 

attorney arthur j. giacalone has filed a lawsuit in new york state supreme court against buffalo's planning board and common council on april 21. the lawsuit claims that the plans were approved without giving consideration to the effects on the community. giacolone is representing several people, including nancy pollina, one of the business owners affected by the plans. the lawsuit, titled "pollina et al. v. common council of the city of buffalo et al.", has been assigned to rose h. sconiers.

on april 26, more people have been named in the lawsuit, including the mayor of buffalo, byron w. brown, savarino construction services corporation, hans j. mobius and his son hans s. mobius, who are owners of the properties at stake, pano georgiadis, owner of pano's restaurant on elmwood, and cendant corporation, the parent company of wyndham hotels. in addition, savarino is prohibited from doing any construction and mobius is prohibited from preventing the lawsuit.

in an e-mail interview with "wikinews", councilmember joseph golombek stated that the city is fighting the lawsuit, claiming that they "believe that [they] did everything fairly and properly (as well as legally)."

as of june 2, 2006, the preliminary hearing for the lawsuit was postponed to june 22, and was subsequently postponed indefinitely.

as of july 13, 2006, according to savarino construction services corporation, the plans for the hotel will be withdrawn and will undergo a "do-over". by the end of next week, the new proposal will be submitted.

"we're lovers, not fighters. our energies should be spent on developing a really wonderful project, not wasted in court. we'll start over with a clean slate and take as much time as necessary to hear people out and end up with a very positive project for the neighborhood," said president of savarino construction, sam savarino.

savarino asserts that the problem was not with the design or the location, but with the rushed process involved with the proposal.

since then, the preliminary hearing for the lawsuit has been rescheduled for august 10, 2006, and as of august 14, 2006, has been postponed indefinitely pending savarino's next action.

 hans mobius has decided to place a for sale sign in front of the properties at 1109-1121 elmwood.

savarino now states that "legal complexities now exist" as a result of the sign being put up.

documents that lead back to nearly 1815 have turned up. according to the documents, "no business of anykind whatsoever" can be placed on the site of the proposed hotel. this discovery may cause the closure of any and all businesses on the site and may even prevent a hotel from ever being built.

savarino is claiming that a judge will look at the documents to determine if the rules, which are stated on the original deeds of the properties, if a hotel can be placed there.

the original owner, erastus granger sold the land, which was known as the granger estates to different people to build upon, but had restrictions which include no businesses or bars/saloons. for the time they were written, the documents also state that no barn, farm or stable can be built on the properties.



sri lankan army chief critically injured in ltte suicide bombing

a female suicide bomber from the militant separatist group ltte disguised herself as a pregnant woman and detonated a bomb inside the sri lankan army hq in colombo yesterday evening. eight soldiers were killed in the attack and lieutenant general sarath fonseka was severely wounded. 

the sri lanka air force launched retaliatory strikes against rebel positions this morning at 00:30 gmt. this attack threatens to put an end to the uneasy ceasefire between the tamil rebels and the sri lankan government that has been in place since 2002.


security alert shuts down west london

several suspect packages were found in the shepherds bush area of west london this morning, which led to many roads in the area being closed, along with the "hammersmith and city" tube line.

the area re-opened shortly afterwards, after bomb squad experts determined the packages were safe, and a woman walked into hammersmith police station and admitted placing the packages as "works of art".

police are still advising motorists to avoid the area, due to heavy traffic.


two suicide bombers attack peacekeeping base in egypt

just days after the bombings in the egyptian resort town of dahab, two more suicide bombers struck a multinational peacekeeping forces base near the gaza border. the attack occurred at around 1300 gmt. the number of casualties is not known at this time with the spokesperson for the multinational force and observers (mfo) and egyptian security forces giving conflicting reports. according to major nathan bond, an mfo spokesman, no peacekeepers were injured in the attack. however, egyptian security personnel maintain that one norwegian, one new zealander and four egyptians were killed in the bombing.


tony snow named new white house press secretary

u.s. president george w. bush on tuesday named tony snow, a former news anchor and talk show host for the fox news network, as his new press secretary.

bush said in a press conference, "i'm confident tony snow will make an outstanding addition to this white house staff. i am confident he will help you do your job. my job is to make decisions, and his job is to help explain those decisions to the press corps and the american people."

snow said in response, "these are times that are going to be very challenging. we've got a lot of big issues ahead, and we've got a lot of important things that all of us are going to be covering together, and i'm very excited and i can't wait."

snow, 50, replaces scott mcclellan, who submitted his resignation last week.

before joining fox news in 1996, snow was a speechwriter for bush's father, former president george h.w. bush. at fox news, snow was a weekend news anchor and host of "the tony snow show" on fox news radio. he was also a nationally syndicated columnist for the "detroit news" from 1993 to 2001.


others named in lawsuit against buffalo, n.y. hotel proposal

a copy has been obtained of the lawsuit filed against the city of buffalo for allegedly fast-tracking a seven million dollar hotel proposal.

the elmwood village hotel is a 72-room, seven-million-dollar hotel proposed by savarino construction services corporation and designed by architect karl frizlen of the frizlen group. its construction would require the demolition of at least five buildings, currently at 1109-1121 elmwood, which house several shops and residents. although the properties are "under contract," it is still not known whether savarino construction actually owns the buildings. it is believed that hans mobius, a resident of clarence, new york and former buffalo mayoral candidate, is still the owner. the hotel is expected to be a franchise of the wyndham hotels group.

according to official court documents, there are more defendants than previously thought. documents state that not only buffalo's common council and planning board are named in the lawsuit, but also the mayor of buffalo, byron w. brown, savarino construction services corporation, hans j. mobius and his son hans s. mobius owners of the properties at stake, pano georgiadis, owner of pano's restaurant on elmwood, and cendant corporation, the parent company of wyndham hotels are also named in the suit.

according to the lawsuit, during the length of the trial, savarino construction along with their employees, hans mobius and his son are not allowed to make any alterations or "engage in the physical alteration" of any of the said properties, 1109-1121 elmwood and 9999 forest. the suit also states that the owner of 605 forest, pano georgiadis is also to follow the same rule.

the suit also states that hans mobius, his son and employees or "agents" are not allowed to "take any step, lawful or otherwise, to terminate [the] petitioners, nancy pollina and patricia morris," owners of don apparel at 1119 elmwood "tenancies." although the business is owned by pollina and morris, they are without a lease.

within the suit it states that the rezoning of the properties 1119-1121 elmwood and 605 forest, by the common council, from a 'r3' dwelling district to a c2 commercial zone "constitutes as impermissible 'spot-zoning'" and is "not in accord with a well-considered plan for the development of the community and is null and void." according to the suit the courts of new york have defined spot-zoning as "the process of singling out a small parcel of land for a use classification totally different from that of the surrounding area, for the benefit of the owner of such properties and to the detriment of other owners." the suit also states that the proposed site for the hotel is different from the surrounding properties because none of the zoning classifications, 'eb' [elmwood avenue business district], 'r3' [dwelling district], 'r1' [one family district] and 'r2' [dwelling district], permit the construction and operation of a hotel.

it is alleged that savarino construction "failed to utilize forms obtainable from the city clerks office, failed to include an accurate map or survey showing the location of all buildings and structures and failed to include the names and addresses of each of the owners of the properties to be rezoned."

it is also believed that recommendation in regards to [hotel] compatibility, different land uses, traffic studies, community character, population density, relations between other residents and business owners, public convenience, governmental efficiency, and achieving and maintaining a satisfied community, were to be sent to erie county's planning agency and was to refer savarino's rezoning application and site plan to the agency, however; the lawsuit alleges that although a referral was given to savarino, it "does not appear that the 'full statement of such proposed action' was forwarded to the county [agency]." 

the suit also alleges that the common council "failed to wait the 'statutorily-mandated' 30-days after the county's planning agency's receipt" of recommendations from the council. the county's planning agency replied to the recommendations, however; the agency replied on march 27, 2006, just six days after the council made its recommendations, falling well short of the "statutorily-mandated" thirty days. the agency's reply however, did not support or oppose the recommendations or hotel proposal.

public hearings are required to be registered by the city clerk to the city planning board, and according to the suit, "no record" of the public hearing on march 7, presenting the initial proposal to the public, was made within the city's clerk office or planning board.

the suit also alleges that the common council and planning board also violated the state's environmental quality review act or seqra and the city's environmental review ordinance by allowing the planning board to be the "lead agency" instead of the common council. a lead agency is an involved agency principally responsible for undertaking or approving an action and therefore responsible for determining whether an environmental impact statement or eis is needed, according to the seqra regulations. the suit also states that the hotel proposal "constitutes an action under the seqra" because the project could "affect the environment by changing the use, appearance or condition of any natural resource or structure that requires one or more approvals from an agency or agencies" and that the common council and planning board are "obliged to comply with both the letter [recommendations] and spirit of the seqra review process" which include identifying the areas of environmental concerns and taking a "hard look" at them. the suit also claims that the common council has the "sole authority to grant savarino construction's rezoning request" and "to approve the special development plan," but it also claims that the planning board is "an involved agency" but that it is "clearly subordinate to that of the common council" therefore the decision made by both the council and planning board to allow the planning board to be the 'lead agency,' is in "violation" of the state's seqra and "renders all determinations" made by the planning board and common council on march 14, 21, and 28, 2006, "void and unauthorized." it goes on to say that the council "proceeded without or in excess of their jurisdiction, and/or made a determination in violation of lawful procedure, affected by an error of law, and/or in an arbitrary and capricious manner." it also states that unless the requirements of the seqra are met, then the petitioners have the right to "seek a temporary restraining order" from the court if circumstances require it.

the suit also states that a failure to grant a preliminary injunction, through the courts, will result in "irreparable injury" to the petitioners and that the council and planing board have failed to comply with the requirements of the seqra and have violated several other state laws and city codes.

so far, savarino construction has not responded to any calls or e-mails. district councilman joseph golombek also has not responded. georgiadias was unavailable for comment.

a preliminary hearing is scheduled to take place at 9:30 a.m. on june 8, 2006 in the supreme court building at 50 delaware avenue in buffalo, on the 8th floor, part 31.



chickens at a norfolk farm to be culled after testing positive for bird flu

35,000 chickens at witford lodge farm at norfolk, england are to be culled after some chickens found dead tested positive for bird flu. further tests are being carried out to establish which strain of the virus it was, but preliminary results suggest it is not the h5n1 strain, but is instead the h7n7 strain. the birds are being culled as a precautionary measure.

the h7n7 strain can be transmitted to humans, but not as easily or as lethally as the h5n1 strain. previous outbreaks of the h7n7 strain include one from 2003 in the netherlands, which infected more than 80 people and led to the death of one vet.

so far the only positive test for h5n1 in the uk has been a dead swan found in fife.



news briefs:april 26, 2006

the time is 00:38 utc on 26 april 2006, and this is wikinews audio news briefs.

others named in lawsuit against buffalo, n.y. hotel proposal<br>
"more named in the lawsuit against the buffalo, n.y. hotel proposal. according to official court documents, there are more defendants than previously thought. documents state that not only buffalo's common council and planning board are named in the lawsuit, but also the mayor of buffalo, byron w. brown, savarino construction services corporation, hans j. mobius and his son hans s. mobius owners of the properties at stake, pano georgiadis, owner of pano's restaurant on elmwood, and cendant corporation, the parent company of wyndham hotels are also named in the suit"

study claims recreational ecstasy use and depression unrelated<br>
"in other news... a new study published in the may 2006 issue of the journal of psychopharmacology and conducted at the university of louisiana at lafayette finds no significant link between the use of ecstasy and depression. ecstasy is believed to increase the levels of serotonin, because of its effects on mood. research in lab animals has provided evidence that it causes long-term post use serotonin depletion. a common hypothesis among many researchers is that the reduction in serotonin levels below normal could be detected by a corresponding decline in mood. this study seems to go against the consensus that ecstacy reduces serotonin levels."

"just days after the bombings in the egyptian resort town of dahab, two more suicide bombers struck a multinational peacekeeping forces base near the gaza border. the attack occurred at around 1300 gmt. the number of casualties is not known at this time with the spokesperson for the multinational force and observers (mfo) and egyptian security forces giving conflicting reports."

alabama postal workers and customers become ill, suspicious substance found<br>
"six workers in the post office in hueytown, alabama developed breathing problems and 23 were sent to the hospital after a chemical used in the manufacture of fishing lures leaked from a package. the post office was evacuated, and hueytown firefighters in hazardous materials attire inspected the chemical. the chemical was found to have leaked from an inadequately designed package, evaporated quickly leaving a garlicky scent, and discolored the flooring tile. workers complained of symptoms ranging from breathing difficulties to vomiting to burning in the throat."

to receive the latest news, please visit wikinews.org.

this has been a news brief for audio wikinews.

this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.

thank you for listening.


germans and arabs establish a search engine that competes with google

in the city of riyadh, saudi arabia, seekport, a german and saudi founded technological company, began to start on a web-search engine dedicated to the arabic language called sawafi. according to arabic marketing officials, it is predicted to compete with the popular web-search engines, such as google or yahoo. sawafi's goal is to be as successful as the chinese web-search engine, budai, which in china, which has made a great improvement to its marketing businesses. although internet access is low in the middle east, sawafi wishes to reach the other arab communities in north america or europe.



maoists in nepal declare three month ceasefire

maoist rebels in nepal announced a three-month ceasefire from thursday onward saying that this move reflected their support for the formation of a new . maoist leader prachanda said in a statement that the people's liberation army would not carry out any offensive military action during the tenure of the ceasefire. maoist rebels have been fighting to overthrow the monarchy in the himalayan nation since 1996 and over 13000 people have been killed in the insurgency. the maoists' announcement has been welcomed by india, which has indicated that it will likely resume sending financial and military aid to nepal.


human rights watch implicates 600+ in war prisoner abuse

a human rights project, the detainee abuse and accountability project (daa), released a report in washington saying that allegations of detainee abuse, torture and killings have now implicated at least 600 u.s. military and civilian personnel deployed in iraq and afghanistan, as well as the prison for terrorist suspects in guantanamo bay, cuba. the project is a cooperation between new york university's center for human rights and global justice, human rights watch and human rights first.

the human rights groups say they analyzed thousands of pages of government documents and conducted interviews with witnesses and prisoners who say they were abused by u.s. troops.

"over 95 percent of those implicated were military personnel," said hina shamsi, a senior counsel for the group human rights first. "the remainder were from the cia or other intelligence agencies or were civilian contractors working either for the military or the cia the cases involve over 1,000 acts of abuse, including homicide, assault, cruelty, maltreatment, maiming and sexual abuse."

"we found that abuses were pervasive, extending far beyond abu ghraib and that investigations have been incomplete and delayed, which has left a general failure of accountability," she said.

in the two years since the abu ghraib scandal surfaced, the human rights groups say 40 people have been sentenced to serve time in prison. of those, 10 have been sentenced to a year or more in detention.

lieutenant commander jeffrey gordon, a press officer at the department of defense, told voa the allegations outlined by the human rights groups "are false."

commander gordon says the military has conducted more than 600 criminal investigations resulting in charges against 251 soldiers who faced courts-martial, the military's equivalent of criminal trials, or administrative punishment.

commander gordon says all allegations of abuse are taken seriously, people were held accountable, and the military's system of justice does work.

the information from the human rights groups comes at same time as the news that a u.s. army lieutenant colonel is expected to be charged in connection with the abuse of detainees at the abu ghraib prison in iraq. 

"two years ago, u.s. officials said the abuses at abu ghraib were aberrations and that people who abused detainees would be brought to justice," said the faculty director of the center for human rights and global justice at nyu law school, professor meg satterthwaite. "yet our research shows that detainee abuses were widespread, and few people have truly been brought to justice."
a detainee in outdoor solitary confinement cell talks with a military policeman at abu ghraib prison on outskirts of baghdad (file photo - june 22, 2004) 
two years after the abu ghraib scandal caused a worldwide uproar, reports say lieutenant colonel steven jordan will become the highest-ranking officer to be charged in the case.

colonel jordan's attorney says he expects his client will be charged within the next few days on several counts, including dereliction of duty, conduct unbecoming an officer and lying to investigators.

the colonel led the joint interrogation and debriefing center at abu ghraib between september and december 2003.

military investigations determined that colonel jordan, who was trained as a civil affairs officer, had no experience with interrogating prisoners and failed to properly supervise soldiers under his command.

the report from the detainee abuse and accountability project 



australia to introduce universal health and welfare smartcard

australia's federal cabinet has approved plans for a universal smartcard, which would be required to access health and welfare services from 2010. the card will be introduced from 2008.

the face of the card will contain its owner's name, a photograph, a number and the cardholder's signature. the card will also have a chip that will store a second photograph, address, date of birth, and details of children. cardholders will be able to optionally include details of their next of kin, medical information and organ-donor status.

australian prime minister john howard says the card will replace 17 cards and vouchers used throughout australia's health and welfare system. the card will be used to access unemployment benefits, pensions, healthcare rebates, childcare subsidies, veteran's entitlements and family tax benefits.

mr howard denied that the card was intended to be a stepping stone for a national identity card. he said that the card would not be compulsory and no person would be required to carry the card at all times.

australians have never been keen on the idea of a national identity card. the idea for a national identity card first appeared in 1985 with a proposal for the australia card but was eventually given up upon, since then the idea has resurfaced on numerous occasions, most recently in 2002 after the london bombings. mr howard said his government had looked into a national identity card but the disadvantages outweighed the advantages.

the government hopes that the card will crack down on welfare fraud. the government estimates that it will cost $1 billion to implement the card and claims the card will save $3 billion over 10 years.

the australian labor party, has cautiously welcomed the card, claiming to support it "in principle". the party's public accountability spokesman, kelvin thomson said that labor will question if the card will be used to track people for national security purposes.

"will this card be used for national security purposes and, if so, how?" mr thomson said. 

peter hendy, chief of the australian chamber of commerce and industry (a body representing businesses in australia said that the card would be intrusive and increase operating costs for businesses.

the australian council for civil liberties has also expressed concerns. accl president terry o'gorman said he is concerned that the card will infringe the right to privacy.


israeli report: iran acquired missiles capable of striking europe

israel's intelligence chief major general amos yadlin was quoted by the haaretz newspaper as saying that bm-25 missiles from north korea had arrived in iran. earlier, a german diplomat confirmed that his country's intelligence sources had recovered information about such an iran-north korea missile deal. the bm-25s (which were originally manufactured in the ussr as ssn6s) are capable of delivering nuclear payloads. these weapons have a range of around 2500 kilometres,which brings europe within striking distance. teheran already possesses shihab-4 class missiles which are capable of hitting israel.



&quot;voxtel&quot; company will be transformed into &quot;orange&quot;

by the decision of the shareholders the "voxtel" company will be transformed into "orange". 

the shareholders of "voxtel" are: france telecom ? 61%, mmt-bis ? 30%, mobilrom ? 4%, ifc ? 5%.

"orange" - is one of the world mobile communication leaders and is a daughter enterprise of the "france telecom" group. the "orange" group is present in 17 countries, where it has more than 80 million mobile communication subscribers.



full-mast flag generates controversy at parliament hill

the conservative government of canada announced on monday, april 24 that it will no longer lower the flag on top of the peace tower at parliament hill whenever a canadian soldier has been killed in action, reversing a practice set down by the previous government in 2002. instead, a spokesperson for prime minister harper said that all casualties of war would be honored equally on remembrance day. this announcement came after the news of four canadian soldiers killed by an improvised roadside bomb in afghanistan. 

the government has said that in the event of a canadian soldier death, flags would fly at half-mast at the soldier's operational base, at their home base, and at the defence headquarters in ottawa. the flag at peace tower will only be lowered to half-mast outside of the remembrance day in the case of the death of a former governor general, senator, prime minister, or an important public figure.

the mainstream media have mostly published articles which show the decision in a negative light. the canadian newspaper the chronicle-herald carried a front page editorial on april 27 titled "lower flag as sign of respect" which argued that the flag should be lowered "out of respect for those killed in action". the newspaper pledged to fly their own flag at half-mast whenever a canadian soldier died in combat, and urged readers to do the same. readers were also urged to write members of parliament to protest the government's decision. in the opinions page the next day, the chronicle-herald published two editorials from readers who criticised the front page editorial, while dedicating the rest of the page to letters that spoke in favour of the newspaper's campaign.



drug, alcohol, tobacco abuse rising among california teens

california high school students’ consumption of alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs is headed up, according to a nationwide study of teen substance abuse released in april. 

nationwide, the rate of underaged drinking remained basically unchanged, but in california, it rose from 15.28 percent of california children between 12 and 17-years-old who said they had consumed alcohol in the previous month in 2002, to 16.81 percent who said they had in 2004.

binge drinking, defined as drinking five or more drinks on the same occasion (i.e., at the same time or within a couple of hours of each other) on at least one day in the past 30 days, was reported by 10.27 percent of kids in 2004, up from the 9.16 percent who said they binged in 2002.

the report found that, in 2004, 10.9 percent of the nation’s kids from the ages of 12 to 17 had used an illegal drug in the past month, down from 11.4 percent in 2002.

in california, the number of kids who said they had used an illicit drug in the past month rose, from 11.44 percent in 2002 to 12.05 percent in 2004.

among california’s 12- to 17-year-olds, those who said they had used marijuana in the previous month rose from 7.66 percent in 2002 to 8.52 percent in 2004. those who had used marijuana in the past year rose from 14.11 percent to 14.6 percent over the period.

only cocaine use was down among the age group, from 1.7 percent who said they had used it in the past year to 1.61 percent.

the use of any illicit drug, other than marijuana, in the month preceding the interviews of the 12- to 17-year-olds rose from 5.79 percent to 5.97 percent, according to the report. nearly 8 percent of the age group in california had used pain relievers for “non-medical” purposes, such as getting high, the survey reported, a topic not explored in the previous survey.

more than 9 percent of california kids from 12-17 said they were abusers of or dependent on alcohol or illicit drugs in the 2004 survey, up from just over 8 percent in 2002.

tobacco use, including chewing tobacco, increased in the age group from 9.22 percent to 10.88 percent. cigarette smoking rose from 7.48 percent to 8.69 percent. fewer smokers, however, reported being at great risk of smoking a pack or more a day.

the report, state estimates of substance use from the 2003-2004 national surveys on drug use and health, issued april 6, estimates state rates of use of illegal drugs, binge and underage drinking, serious mental illness and tobacco use. samhsa combined two years of data from the annual national survey on drug use and health to enhance the precision of estimates for the less populous states.

the report shows that california increased from 24.7 percent of 12 to 20 year olds using alcohol in the past month to 26.3 percent, while wisconsin increased from 34.7 percent to 38.3 percent. michigan and south carolina, however, showed decreases in underage drinking from 31.8 percent to 30.2 percent for michigan and from 27.3 percent to 24.1 percent for south carolina.

for illegal drug use, six states registered decreases in current use among youth ages 12-17, illinois, nebraska, north carolina, south dakota, vermont and virginia. there were no statistically significant increases in current drug use among youth in any state, and there were no increases in either the 18-to-25 year old age group or the 26- and -older age group.

“while we are making progress on drug and tobacco use among youth, underage drinking continues as a stubbornly persistent problem,” samhsa administrator charles curie said. “it’s time to change attitudes toward teen drinking from acceptance to abstinence. it begins by recognizing the importance of parents talking to their children early and often about alcohol, especially before they’ve started drinking.”

the estimates show that past month use of any illicit drug in 2003-2004 ranged from a low of 5.8 percent in mississippi to a high of 11.8 percent in alaska for all persons aged 12 and older. four jurisdictions showed decreases from 2002-2003 in current use of any illicit drug: the district of columbia, florida, nevada and washington.

“state-by-state data is a powerful tool for policymakers at the federal, state and local levels to identify needs and target prevention and treatment resources. it is clear from the findings that illicit drug, alcohol and tobacco use varies substantially among states and regions. that is why we continue to work though innovative programs like access to recovery to increase the flexibility of federal funding available to states and communities,” curie said.

mississippi and utah had the lowest rate of past month marijuana use (4.2 percent) in 2003-2004 for population ages 12 and older, while alaska had the highest rate (9.9 percent). eight states were ranked in the top fifth nationally for past month marijuana use in all three age groups, 12 to 17, 18 to 25 and 26 and older. these states are alaska, maine, massachusetts, new hampshire, new mexico, oregon, rhode island and vermont.

seven jurisdictions had decreases in past month use of marijuana between 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 for those ages 12 and older: colorado, district of columbia, florida, montana, nevada, new hampshire, and washington.

rhode island had the highest percentage of persons aged 12 or older using cocaine in the past year, 3.5 percent. ohio was the only state to show a decline in the use of cocaine in the past year, from 2.5 percent to 2.1 percent of persons aged 12 and older.

in the district of columbia and hawaii, approximately 3.1 percent of those 12 or older used narcotic pain relievers nonmedically, while 6.3 percent of those in kentucky did. washington and kentucky were in the highest fifth for use of prescription pain relievers nonmedically in all three age groups. arkansas and maine had increases in the 12-17 age group, while california, montana and new york had increases in nonmedical use of prescription pain medications among those ages 18 to 25. a decrease in nonmedical use of pain relievers was seen among those ages 12 and older in hawaii (from 3.9 to 3.1 percent).

eight states were in the top fifth for both underage use of alcohol and underage binge use of alcohol: iowa, massachusetts, montana, new hampshire, north dakota, rhode island, south dakota and wisconsin.

tobacco use in the past month by youth increased in california, but overall in california, tobacco use by those 12 and older fell from 22.5 percent to 20.7 percent due to a decrease among persons aged 26 and older. in kansas, the percentage of persons aged 18-25 using tobacco in the past month increased from 45.7 percent to 49.9 percent.

the data show that west virginia had the highest rate of serious psychological distress among persons aged 18 and older in the past year (12.7 percent) while hawaii had the lowest rate (7.1 percent). increases in serious psychological distress appeared in 10 states, arizona, california, florida, illinois, iowa, new jersey, pennsylvania, texas, west virginia and wyoming, generally the result of increases among persons aged 26 and older.


members of granny peace brigade acquitted

18 members of the granny peace brigade (an anti-war activist group) were acquitted on charges of disorderly conduct during a protest outside a times square military recruiting center in new york city last fall. 

the defendants in the case - some were in their 80s and 90s - were charged with two counts of disorderly conduct during their october 17, 2005 protest of the iraq war.

the judge neil ross says that his verdict is not a critique of any particular police agency but that evidence showed there was no blockage of pedestrian traffic and anyone who wanted to enter the recruiting center could do so. the manhattan courtroom erupted into applause after judge ross said that the prosecution ""failed to prove each defendant guilty of each charge.""

the defense lawyer norman siegel said that the women were pleased by the verdict and was quoted saying that, ""they are great americans, and they walk the shoes of great americans who have made america the place that it is,""

if any of the defendants were convicted, they each could have faced up to 15 days in prison.



iran nuclear impasse continues

the iranian supreme leader, ali khamenei, warned the united states against any attack on his country saying "the americans should know that if they launch an assault against islamic iran, their interests in every possible part of the world will be harmed." earlier this week ayatollah ali khamenei said that iran was ready to begin offering nuclear technology to developing countries.

speaking at a rally in north-west iran this thursday, president mahmoud ahmadinejad was quoted as saying "those who want to prevent iranians from obtaining their right, should know that we do not give a damn about such resolutions."

iran says that its is meant for producing energy and that it has a right under of the (npt) to enrich fuel for that purpose. the president of iran, mahmoud ahmadinejad stated,"[iran] won't back down one iota". the us has called on iran to stop its enrichment work and accuses iran of trying to build a nuclear bomb. the us "is leaving all options on the table" not excluding military strikes with nuclear weapons or with conventional weapons in the eventuality of sanctions being ineffective. iranian leaders have made strong statements against possible sanctions or military action against their country. the ayatollah khamenei said, "the iranian nation will give a double response to any strike." tehran has vowed to respond against us targets worldwide in the case of a us led attack against iran. 

according to some claims, the us has already started attacking iran. on april 18, congressman dennis kucinich (d-oh) wrote a letter to george w. bush requesting information about claims that the us has already sent us covert operatives and/or retrained ex-members of and the (pejak, associated with the pkk) into iranian territory in order to provoke existing ethnic tensions by incidents of violence. mek and pkk are classified by the and by the council of the european union as .

the un security council has called on iran to suspend its enrichment work by friday and permit additional inspections of its nuclear programme. iran has rejected the demands. the iaea is scheduled to report on iran's compliance of the security council resolution on friday.

a 90 minute meeting between gholam reza aghazadeh, the president of and mohamed elbaradei, the head of the iaea provided no breakthrough and no new proposals were made, although aghazadeh's deputy mohammed saidi said the talks were "encouraging." 

speaking secretary of state condoleezza rice spoke in vienna at a meeting of nato foreign ministers over iran's nuclear program. "the united states believes ... that in order to be credible the security council of course has to act," to reporters. condoleezza rice also said that it was "highly unlikely" tehran would comply with the us's demands and that the un "cannot have its word and its will simply ignored by a member state." further, rice stated that "i look forward to discussing this with my colleagues and to i and others making that case, and i would certainly hope the security council is prepared to take some action."

the german foreign minister said, "we expect [iran] to meet international standards and ... to allay world suspicions that its civil nuclear operations are being used to develop a possible weapons program."

russia and china have called for negotiations to resolve the issue with president vladimir putin saying that the iaea must retain the lead in the process. 

widespread resentment of western influence on past iranian internal affairs, such as which removed the democratically elected prime minister of iran in 1953, has called some experts to bring into question the possibility of a coalition of nato or u.s. led forces against iran. the likelihood of any against iran is uncertain, apart from the claims that us troops and or have already started small scale attacks. with a large young population increasingly pro-western, there are fears that any strike against iran could damage any democratic movement as the population as a whole resents pro-western influence in its internal affairs. 

iran has nearly four times the land area of iraq. iran's is to 768,000/350,000 active/reserve military troops and the paramilitary include 11,000,000 troops.



pakistani militants behead suspected us informant

pro-taliban militants in pakistan's troubled province decapitated a cab driver on suspicions that he was an american informant. this is the fourth such killing in the region this month. 

the deceased was found on tuesday in a town 25 south of in an area where us forces are hunting militants. two weeks ago, another decapitated body was found with a note saying the victim was an american spy and that other us sympathizers could expect to meet the same fate. waziristan, like , is engaged in a small-scale civil conflict with the pakistani military. 


criticism over qingzang railway as opening nears

the qingzang railway is a project by the chinese government to build a unique railway linking tibet with mainland china. the railway will include sections at high altitude, crossing 5000 metre high mountains, long tunnels and lots of track laid on permafrost. the railway is being hailed in china as "an engineering miracle", but has attracted criticism from across the world over fears that the railway, the first to link it to outside the region, will increase chinese control over the tibetan autonomous region and will erode tibetan culture and traditions.

currently, tibet can only be reached by air and by road. departing from lower-altitude airports to fly into tibet carries the risk of experiencing high altitude sickness, and the landing at lhasa can be 'hair-raising'. travelling by road means several days on a bus or hitchhiking on trucks over windy mountain roads. when the quingzang railway opens, it is expected that direct trains will run from beijing and other cities.

china has long received criticism over its treatment of tibet. the tibet autonomous region excludes many areas claimed to be part of 'historic tibet', and the former government of tibet, headed by the dalai lama, now live in exile in india. china claims that the railway will bring greater freedoms and economic opportunities to the people of tibet. for an area that has long been in relative isolation though, the railway is bound to have a profound effect. locals may worry about what would happen to their trade if they were suddenly forced to compete with businesses from mainland china. much of tibet is also ancient, with old buildings and traditional practices, which may be under threat from the new physical link with china.

there are also concerns from environmentalists. the passage between tibet and china contains some unique flora and endangered animal species, such as tibetan antelope, which may be threatened by the railroad. construction of the railway will generate 7,000 tons of rubbish from 20,000 builders. some of this rubbish will have been buried on the spot whilst some forms of non-degradable rubbish which may pollute water is said to have been transported to golmud or lhasa for treatment. a bridge is also said to have been built at wudaoliang basin to enable animals to cross. once open the railway will generate more waste, and whilst the carriages are said to be enclosed, preventing passengers from throwing out rubbish, it remains to be seen what additional impact the running of the railway will create.
as well as passengers, the railway will also have a strong use in transporting freight, currently carried on trucks. this will mean that more coal and petroleum-based products will be brought into tibet. whilst china claims that this will enable tibetans to stop logging pine trees for fuel, aiding the local ecology, the railway will accelerate tibet's use of climate-damaging fossil fuels.

some canadian student groups had called for a boycott of the group, who has a contract with china to provide some of the carriages.

most of the line is now complete, ahead of schedule. signaling equipment is currently being installed, with trials said to begin in july. the railway is scheduled to open fully in 2007. luxury carriages will carry tourists, with sleeping compartments and oxygen tanks to enable breathing within the high-altitude areas.



news briefs:april 28, 2006

the time is 13:00 (utc) on 28 april 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

china

the qingzang railway is a project by the chinese government to build a unique railway linking tibet with mainland china. the railway will include sections at high altitude, crossing 5000 metre high mountains, long tunnels and lots of track laid on permafrost. the railway is being hailed in china as "an engineering miracle", but has attracted criticism from across the world over fears that the railway will increase chinese control over the tibetian autonomous region and will erode tibetian culture and traditions.

iran

the iranian supreme leader, ayatollah ali khamenei warned the united states against any attack on his country saying "the americans should know that if they launch an assault against islamic iran, their interests in every possible part of the world will be harmed". earlier this week ayatollah ali khamenei said that iran was ready to begin offering nuclear technology to developing countries.

pakistan

pro-taliban militants in pakistan's troubled waziristan province decapitated a cab driver on suspicions that he was an american informant. this is the fourth such killing in the region this month.
the deceased was found on tuesday in a town 25 kilometres south of wana in an area where us forces are hunting al-qaeda militants. 

canada

the conservative government of canada announced on monday, april 24 that it will no longer lower the flag on top of the peace tower at parliament hill whenever a canadian soldier has been killed in action, reversing a practice set down by the previous government in 2002. instead, a spokesperson for prime minister harper said that all casualties of war will be honored equally on remembrance day.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


opposition leader alaksandar milinkievi? jailed in belarus

the leader of the main opposition party, , has been jailed for 15 days in belarus for taking part in an 'unsanctioned rally'. the march, held in the centre of , marked the 20th anniversary of the . held every year, it is a traditional forum for expressing political opposition. at least 6,000 protesters took part, accompanied by riot police.

demonstraters are said to have asked permission for the rally and to have received authorisation for having the protest on some sites. protestors say that their protest was on the authorised sites and was not unlawful.

conflicts between the opposition party and the government, led by alexander lukashenko, have been numerous since lukashenko was as president on march 19, 2006. the opposition party has organised numerous demonstrations and rallies, and over 1,000 of their members being arrested.

milinkievi? has said that he has received "a political sentence". other opposition leaders and were also jailed on the same day.

us secretary of state condoleezza rice has said the us "condemns this act" and called upon belarus to act within accepted international principles on the treatment of political opposition. nato chief has also condemned the action.



city of buffalo, n.y. fighting lawsuit against hotel proposal

councilmember joesph golombek has responded to the lawsuit filed against the city of buffalo for allegedly 'fast-tracking' a hotel that will be built on the corner of elmwood and forest avenues in buffalo. the lawsuit, filed by attorney arthur j. giacalone, was filed in new york state supreme court on april 21, 2006.

the elmwood village hotel is a 72-room, seven-million-dollar hotel proposed by savarino construction services corporation and designed by architect karl frizlen of the frizlen group. its construction would require the demolition of at least five buildings, currently at 1109-1121 elmwood, which house several shops and residents. although the properties are "under contract," it is still not known whether savarino construction actually owns the buildings. it is believed that hans mobius, a resident of clarence, new york and former buffalo mayoral candidate, is still the owner. the hotel is expected to be a franchise of the wyndham hotels group. buffalo's common council, planning board, mayor of buffalo, byron w. brown, savarino construction services corporation, hans j. mobius and his son hans s. mobius owners of the properties at stake, pano georgiadis, owner of pano's restaurant on elmwood, and cendant corporation, the parent company of wyndham hotels are among those named in the suit.

councilmember joesph golombek said that the law department is "fighting the lawsuit because they believe that we did everything fairly and properly (as well as legally)."

golombek also stated that the lawsuit "could delay the start of the project" and that if he were "mr. savarino i would counter sue for any damages a postponement could bring."

"except for the lawsuit the city is finished with the project. in my opinion i believe those opposed to the project are simply use to the city procrastinating on projects. this one was passed quickly by comparison. thus part of their frustration." said golombek.

"i understand the frustration of some of the people opposed to the project. but, in order for elmwood to grow and thrive it will need to change. this change is a positive for that community," he added.

golombek also said that he is looking into "helping the displaced businesses."

at least five businesses, six nations gift shop, don apparel, h.o.d. tattoo, skunk tail glass company, and mondo video, will be forced to close their doors or relocate. many of the buildings are also home to residents who will also have to move.

"i have personally contacted adjacent and nearby business associations and property owners to ask about the possibility of helping the displaced businesses. hopefully the project will go through in a timely fashion and the displaced businesses will be able to relocate," said golombek.

a preliminary hearing is scheduled to take place at 9:30 a.m. on june 8, 2006 in the supreme court building at 50 delaware avenue in buffalo, on the 8th floor, part 31.



family devastated by body mix-up

the mother of australian soldier, private jake kovco, has spoken of her anger at being told it was not her son's body in the casket delivered to melbourne airport. she says all hell broke loose when the defence minister brendan nelson told private kovco's wife and family that there had been a mix-up. "they've told us at some stage somebody was told it was a bosnian in that coffin," she told the age.

prime minister john howard, speaking on southern cross radio, says the family has every right to be upset. "i just want to say again how incredibly sorry i am for what has happened," he said.

mr howard received an angry phone call from private kovco's widow shelley last night and told southern cross radio he completely understands mrs kovco's reaction.

judy kovco says she is still seeking a full explanation from the army about her son's death, she insists he did not shoot himself.
dr nelson has told macquarie radio that reports private kovco accidentally shot himself while cleaning his gun are incorrect, "it was near him in his vicinity and he made some kind of movement which suggests that it discharged," he said.


peace activist claims iran keen to compromise on nuclear issue, cheney, rumsfeld allegedly block negotiations

veteran anti-nuclear activist and journalist praful bidwai claims that while iranian authorities "will not sacrifice <nowiki>[iran's]</nowiki> rights under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (npt) to engage in peaceful activities, including uranium enrichment for power generation", they are also "keen to reach a deal or compromise on the nuclear issue" and "are also working diplomatic channels to let it be known that tehran wants talks which will lead to a peaceful resolution of the nuclear issue." 

the alternative news website raw story published a story on april 20 that alleged united states vice-president dick cheney and secretary of defense donald rumsfeld have obstructed the progress of diplomatic discussions which could help solve the conflict between the united states and iran. the conflict involves the alleged plan of attack on iran led by the united states, and iran's alleged intention to develop nuclear weapons. diplomatic relations between the united states and iran have remained suspended since 1980, following the iranian hostage crisis.

the website alleges that information from several different unnamed sources claim that expatriate arms dealer manucher ghorbanifar, a key figure in the iran-contra affair, has been ordered by us authorities to monitor and report on "any interaction and attempts at negotiations between iranian officials and us ambassador to iraq, zalmay khalilzad." raw story also claims that sources "close to the un security council", a "high ranking intelligence official" and another "intelligence source" attributed the failure of the recent attempts at direct contacts between khalilzad and iranian officials as "part of an ongoing attempt by cheney and rumsfeld to squash diplomatic activities". the claims of the internet publication's allegations have not yet been independently verified.

in addition, the raw story also claims that us house of representatives intelligence committee chairman peter hoekstra (r-mi) "approved using ghorbanifar as an intermediary" and "attended at least one meeting in paris with curt weldon (r-pa) and harold rhode to meet with ghorbanifar."

bidwai states that dr. hasan rowhani, a member of the supreme national security council chosen by iranian head of state ayatollah khamenei, as saying that iran is prepared to suspend its uranium enrichment for a short time.

on april 18, when asked whether us action against iran could include a strike using nuclear weapons, u.s. president george w. bush answered "all options are on the table. we want to solve this issue diplomatically and we're working hard to do so."



 


u.s. web host target of denial-of-service attack

the servers of a u.s. web hosting company that hosts several high-profile weblogs was the target of several denial of service attacks (dos) on friday.

hosting matters, a web host located in jacksonville, florida, experienced an abnormal surge in internet traffic at approximately 10:00 a.m. edt (1400 utc). upstream providers confirmed shortly afterward that one of their servers was the target of a massive denial-of-service attack. 

system administrators took steps to isolate the target server from the network. partial recovery was achieved and minor disruptions were reported after 12 noon edt. 

the host suffered another attack around 8:30 p.m. edt, which was resolved shortly before 9:30 p.m. 

glenn reynolds, whose popular instapundit blog was one of the sites affected, reports that the attack appears to have originated from computers in saudi arabia, though it is not clear whether the perpetrators were also located there. on its emergency operation forum, hosting matters would not elaborate as to the target or likely source of the attack, except that it appears to have come from outside u.s. borders. one of their administrators, known only as "stacy," said, "i sincerely doubt that country's leadership has the least bit of concern for extraditing over something like this." 

it is believed, but not confirmed, that the target of the attack was aarons.cc, a weblog that had apparently been hacked in the past. at the time of this writing, the site is still down. hosting matters has stated that the target site would not be brought back online in order to avoid further problems. 

hosting matters hosts several high-traffic blogs, many of which, like instapundit and power line, are generally supportive of the policies of president george w. bush. 

syndicated columnist michelle malkin commented on her weblog, "we are all affected by cyberterrorist tactics, wherever they may originate." 

david allyn of "grouchy's liberaltopia," one of the few blogs critical of bush hosted on hosting matters and found via technorati, commented, "hopefully, they have isolated the fucknozzles that have been attacking the servers. i can only hope that whoever is doing this dos attack dies a horrible death that is dragged out for hours." 



u.s. members of congress arrested over sudan protest

eleven protesters, including five members of congress, were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly. protesting the ongoing atrocities in the sudan region, tom lantos, -, a survivor and the founder of the congressional human rights caucus, said from the steps of the sudanese embassy, "the slaughter of the people of darfur must end."

"the sudanese government has shown total disregard for the wishes of the global, civilized community. i have no optimism as to the actions of the sudanese government," lantos said.

democratic house members james mcgovern and john olver of , sheila jackson lee of , and jim moran of were among the others arrested and released after paying $50 fines after being arrested in front of the sudanese embassy.

olver said, "we must hold the sudanese government accountable for the attacks they have supported on their own citizens in darfur."

meanwhile, president bush met with darfur advocates this friday in support of rallies all over the us this weekend against the ongoing genocide in western sudan.

"the genocide in sudan is unacceptable... there will be rallies across our country to send a message to the sudanese government that the genocide must stop. ... i want the sudanese government to understand the united states of america is serious about solving this problem," bush said.


news briefs:april 29, 2006

the time is 10:00 (utc) on 29 april 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

the servers of a u.s. web hosting company that hosts several high-profile weblogs was the target of several denial of service attacks on friday.hosting matters, a web host located in jacksonville, florida, experienced an abnormal surge in internet traffic at approximately 10:00 a.m. edt (1400 utc). upstream providers confirmed shortly afterward that one of their servers was the target of a massive denial-of-service attack. system administrators took steps to isolate the target server from the network. partial recovery was achieved and minor disruptions were reported after 12 noon edt.

veteran anti-nuclear activist and journalist praful bidwai claims that while iranian authorities "will not sacrifice [iran's] rights under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (npt) to engage in peaceful activities, including uranium enrichment for power generation", they are also "keen to reach a deal or compromise on the nuclear issue" and "are also working diplomatic channels to let it be known that tehran wants talks which will lead to a peaceful resolution of the nuclear issue." so far, according to claims by raw story, united states vice-president dick cheney and secretary of defense w:donald rumsfeld, have obstructed the progress of diplomatic discussions which could help solve the conflict between the united states and iran. the conflict involves alleged threats by the united states to attack iran and iran's alleged intention to develop nuclear weapons.

eleven protesters, including five members of congress, were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly. protesting the ongoing atrocities in the sudan region, rep. tom lantos, d-calif., a holocaust survivor and the founder of the congressional human rights caucus, said from the steps of the sudanese embassy, "the slaughter of the people of darfur must end."

buffalo, new york ? councilmember joesph golombek has responded to the lawsuit filed against the city of buffalo for allegedly 'fast-tracking' a hotel that will be built on the corner of elmwood and forest avenues in buffalo. the lawsuit, filed by attorney arthur j. giacalone, was filed in new york state supreme court on april 21, 2006. a preliminary hearing is scheduled to take place at 9:30 a.m. on june 8, 2006 in the supreme court building at 50 delaware avenue in buffalo, on the 8th floor, part 31.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


iaea iran report leaked

the director-general of the international atomic energy agency, mohamed elbaradei, has issued a new report titled "implementation of the npt safeguards agreement in the islamic republic of iran" and distributed it to members of the united nations security council and the agency's member states, but notes that the report is to remain secret, stating that "unless the iaea board of governors and security council decide otherwise, the agency cannot authorise its release to the public."

iran is presently neither a member of the un security council nor of the iaea board of governors. 

as of 20:52, 29 april 2006 (utc) or earlier, the report was made available on the internet on the website "payvand.com", dated april 28, 2006. it is unknown whether or not the release was authorised by the united nations security council or the iaea.

the report's concluding paragraphs summarise the iaea's findings: "33. all the nuclear material declared by iran to the agency is accounted for. apart from the small quantities previously reported to the board, the agency has found no other undeclared nuclear material in iran. however, gaps remain in the agency's knowledge with respect to the scope and content of iran's centrifuge programme. because of this, and other gaps in the agency's knowledge, including the role of the military in iran's nuclear programme, the agency is unable to make progress in its efforts to provide assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in iran. ... 37. the agency will pursue its investigation of all remaining outstanding issues relevant to iran's nuclear activities, and the director general will continue to report as appropriate."




ayman al-zawahiri appears in new videotape

al-qaeda's second in command ayman al-zawahiri has released a new videotape onto the internet.

on the tape, zawahiri said that the united states and british forces "have achieved nothing but loss, disaster and misfortune."

"al-qaeda in iraq alone has carried out 800 martyrdom operations in three years, besides the victories of the other mujahidin. and this is what has broken the back of america in iraq," said zawahiri.

zawahiri also stated that the president of pakistan, pervez musharraf, needed to be overthrown.

"the west which claims to support democracy ... is encouraging musharraf to stay in power by any means after he demonstrated his aptitude at killing muslims. i call on the pakistani people to stand with islam against the zionist-crusader assault ... and topple this bribe-taking treacherous criminal," said zawahiri.

"musharraf is fanning the flames of civil war in pakistan on behalf of america in waziristan and baluchistan. he is inviting the pakistani army to fight its own people and brothers and turn a blind eye to the indian threat," added zawahiri.

the tape is 16 minutes long. on april 23, the leader of al-qaeda, osama bin laden released an audiotape onto the internet. leader of al-qaeda in iraq, abu musab al-zarqawi, released a tape just two days after bin laden's.


british home secretary faces pressure to resign over foreign offender release crisis

british home secretary, charles clarke, is facing increasing pressure to resign from office over a scandal involving the release of foreign prisoners without subsequent deportation hearings.

it was recently revealed that, since 1999, 1,023 prisoners were released after serving their sentences, but were not subjected to deportation hearings to determine whether they should be allowed to stay in the united kingdom. five of the criminals have subsequently re-offended, with crimes involving drugs and violence. "it's clear that the increasing numbers of cases being referred for consideration led to the process falling down," said clarke, "i do apologise. i have apologised, i continue to do so." 

despite the admission of error on behalf of his department, the home secretary faces the very real threat of further crimes committed by the released offenders and still more pressure to resign. an intense effort is under way by the police and immigration services to track down 63 of the higher-risk released offenders, and more arrests are expected today.



maoists in india kill 13 and free 25 hostages

the bodies of 13 tribal villagers were found deep in the forest 22 km from a relief camp in the indian state of chhattisgarh. police said on saturday that maoist rebels in dantewada district took the 13 tribal villagers hostage at gunpoint along with 27 other natives earlier this week. the maoists had slit the throats of the victims. india faces the problem of maoist insurgency in many areas and the local peasants are harassed by both government authorities and the rebels.


taliban abducts indian engineer

an indian engineer working in afghanistan was kidnapped on friday evening while travelling from , the capital of province, to . a. suryanarayana works for a bahraini telecommunications and construction firm, "al mayyad". according to the chinese news agency xinhua, , a spokesman for the taliban, has claimed responsibility. 

later, another spokesman for the taliban, threatened to kill suryanarayana within hours if their demand that all indian citizens leave afghanistan within 24 hours is not met. the abducted man's wife has said that she and her three children will commit suicide if anything untoward happens to her husband. a team of indian experts headed by the joint secretary of the ministry of external affairs, k.b.s. katoch, has been dispatched to afghanistan to facilitate the release of suryanarayana.


spanish-language version of u.s. anthem stirs controversy

a spanish-language version of the u.s. national anthem "the star-spangled banner" has sparked controversy amid a developing debate over the status of illegal immigrants.

produced by british record producer adam kidron and due to be released friday, the recording "nuestro himno" (our anthem) features recording artists wyclef jean, hip-hop star armando "pitbull" perez, and puerto rican singers carlos ponce and olga tanon.

the song uses spanish lyrics based closely on the english original, says kidron. however, a remix planned for release in june will include lines critical of u.s. immigration policy.

president george w. bush declared friday that the anthem should be sung in english and not spanish. "i think the national anthem ought to be sung in english, and i think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn english and they ought to learn to sing the national anthem in english," said bush.

in response, kidron said, "the intention of recording 'nuestro himno' (our anthem) has never been to discourage immigrants from learning english and embracing american culture. we instead view 'nuestro himno' as a song that affords those immigrants that have not yet learned the english language the opportunity to fully understand the character of the star-spangled banner, the american flag and the ideals of freedom that they represent."

news of the release of "nuestro himno" sparked surprise and outrage on internet blogs. columnist michelle malkin called the spanish-language version an attempt to "pander to ethnic grievance-mongers who don't respect american laws or traditions." 

the political website "the american street" points out that the u.s. bureau of education commissioned a spanish-language translation of the anthem in 1919, which is displayed on the library of congress' website. 

the melody to "the star-spangled banner" itself was borrowed from english drinking song "to anacreon in heaven." kidron, in noting this, says, "there's no attempt to usurp anything. the intent is to communicate."



shuttle will launch in july: nasa

nasa says that the space shuttle discovery will launch in july as planned and that no more safety changes will take place until after july's launch.

tests that nasa performed on the shuttle have found that there is no way to stop the "ice frost ramps" that fall off the shuttles when they launch.

"the decision was to fly these ice frost ramps as is, knowing that we can expect to have some small foam loss that could pose a risk," said the shuttle's project director, wayne hale in a press conference.

"there was a strong concern from several folks that we should wait until we have a good design on those pieces of foam and then change them as well before we go fly. we considered that very strongly. however, at the end of the day, we came back to the fact that it is more appropriate to make one change at a time to take care of the biggest problem and then work toward the next situation we would like to improve." added hale.

in february 2003, shuttle columbia broke up during its return to earth because 2 foam pieces that fell off the shuttle's fuel tank hit the wing of the shuttle. nasa grounded the fleet until modifications were made to its fuel tank.

in 2005, another piece of foam was seen falling off discovery, and the fleet was grounded again and the fuel tank had to be redesigned. the redesign removed two pieces of foam from cables that were insulated from wind when the shuttle was taking off.

hale called the changes the "largest aerodynamic change that we have made since the shuttle first flew."

"we're in a flight test program. when you make a major change, you should fly that major change and if you have to make additional changes then you make them after the flight," said hale.

nasa is expected to completely retire the shuttles by 2010, but plans at least 16 more flights to complete the international space station.


zarqawi shows face in new video

the first “visual issue” of the emir of al-qaeda in iraq, abu musab al-zarqawi, was issued april 25, 2006, by the mujahideen shura council. a thirty-four minute video containing an approximately twenty minute oration by zarqawi, footage of him leading mujahideen in training on the battlefield and in a war room, and seated amongst local leaders of al-anbar province. his speech touches upon a variety of topics, including the purportedly victorious and successful state of the mujahideen in iraq, waging jihad in iraq while steadying eyes on jerusalem, and usama bin laden’s proposed truce with the west. in fact, the video proper opens with an excerpt of a speech by bin laden urging muslim youth to jihad. on the refusal of the proposal, he warns u.s. president george w. bush, his allies of the “crusaders, shi’ites and the converters” that they will never enjoy life as long as blood courses through the veins of the mujahideen.

zarqawi also speaks of the alleged lies of the administration and the true state of the american soldier in iraq. he states: “why don't you tell about the reality of your soldiers and their failure to fight...why don't you tell your people about the soldiers who commit suicide, why don't you tell your people that your soldiers can not have any sleep without taking drugs which makes them like animals… and they are driven by your generals, who are like the crusaders and evangelists, to the slaughterhouse.” he also condemns the iraqi political process, and those who speak falsely of being one of the mujahideen, trying to convince muslims that the government is an attempt to apply shari’a law.

concerning the mujahideen shura council, which appeared on the iraqi land following the seeming disappearance of zarqawi, he admits to “being one of them” and continues to hold title as the emir of al-qaeda in iraq, part of the umbrella for the mujahideen in that state. “they all stretch their hands and stand on the same line,” zarqawi argues. other portions of the video show zarqawi inspecting local areas, using a rocket with a range of 50 kilometers, and a final image of him firing an automatic weapon, and stating: “american will go out of iraq, humiliated, defeated.” 
a full transcript of the video has been provided below:

in the name of allah the most gracious the most merciful
mujahedeen shura council of iraq
then fight in allah's cause thou are held responsible only for thyself and rouse the believers. it may be that allah will restrain the fury of the disbelievers; for allah is the strongest in might and in punishment (alnisa’a:84)
o’ banner’s holders stand,
where are the lions of anbar?
where are the lions of salah aldeen?
where are baghdad’s men?
where are the knights of ninawah and the champions of dyalah?
where are the courageous of kurdustan?
where are you the lions of monotheism?

be fully aware of the apostate media sources.
i swear by allah, that they have nothing with us except the sharp swords, and between them and us will only be the frightened nights.

i swear by allah that america will be defeated in iraq.

(field commander is talking):

as for the developing and manufacturing, the brothers, by the grace of allah have developed and improved two missiles in alanbar province in particular.

(when missile was fired):
against the make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies, of allah and your enemies, and others besides, whom ye may not know, but whom allah doth know. (alanfal:60)

a message for mankind

i focus this call to the young men of islam; gather together in fighting the crusades and the jews, and remember allah at all times repeatedly, by allah, it’s either victory or martyrdom. no one will surpass his fate, and he who ever turns out to be a martyr, his sole will freely be flying around the paradise as it wishes, close to the throne of allah; what a great difference between being near his family and/or near his lord.
o’ young men of islam every where, especially those near the battles, where the obligation is further; o’ young men in aljazeera, egypt, and sham; o’ siblings of salah aldeen, o’ knights of mohammad alfateh, continue your support to your brothers in iraq, whereby the gravest of the wars is continues, and its fire is on the rise, the crusades have invaded them, killed thousands of them, and abducted thousands, whishing to eliminate them. and they are instead, by the grace of allah, fighting the crusades patiently, giving up all they’ve got for the sake of allah and in order to defend themselves. may allah be with them and those who support them.

all praise be to allah granting might to his religion with his victory, lowering the infidels with his supremacy. sorting circumstances by his order; plotting for the disbelievers with his arrangement; he who alternated the days with his divine justice.
and peace be upon who allah raised the minaret of islam with his sword.

my treasured nation,
i am conversing to you not with falsehoods, hoping to find with you open ears and prudent hearts, for the honest man does not deceive his family.

the crusade enemy, when invaded iraq, meant to control this nation and reinforce the zionist state, from the nile to the euphrates. however, allah granted your sons the mujahedeen by standing firm before the strongest crusaders attack to the islamic land.
they stood strong against this attack for over three years, disbursing their soles and their wealth. they stood against this massive military, media, and economical attack not for anything except to defend you, your religion, your sons, and your honor.
allah dispersed the enemies’ gathering and their defeat became clearer to who ever has eyesight and prudent heart.
here are your sons, by the grace of allah, indulging into one battle after another, and attack after attack; they by the will of allah hold the upper hand in the battle field now.

if it wasn’t for the continuous and ongoing media muting, you would’ve seen the astonishing. by allah it’s the championships and the victories coming to us, and you my nation should thank allah for this great bounty, that allah prepared a group of your sons the mujahedeen defending you and protecting your honor, otherwise the sunnah in iraq would’ve been in between a revulsion crusade and a betraying shiite. and the women of the sunnah would’ve been on the laps of the revulsion crusades and the betraying shiites; abu ghraib and the interior ministry jails remain memorable.

my treasured nation,
we are in iraq a stone throw from the masjed alaqsa, we fight in iraq and our eyes are on alqsa which will never be freed except with a guiding quraan and a prevailing sword; “but enough is thy lord to guide and to help” (alforqan:31)

the history and experience had showed that you have no one after allah except your mujahedeen sons; they are your protection, your strong shield, and your beating heart. they become happy to your happiness and sad to your sadness; they stay up all night for your protection and have jealousy for you. their hearts burst in sorrow for your state, and their tongues never stop chanting: o’ allah elevate the state of humiliation and defeat away from my nation, o’ allah bring back victory to my nation.

as for the american administration, and to its chairman the cross banner’s holder bush, we say to him and to whoever is swimming in his space from the jews and the crusades and form the shiites and others, we say that you will never be safe in the islamic land, and by allah you will never feel secured so long we still have a beating nerve and a moving eyelash.
previously, our leader osama bin laden may allah protect him, had offered you a long truce. it could’ve been better for you and those who are with you if you’d have accepted, but your arrogance pushed you to refuse. here you are today, running from east to west trying to find solutions “will not stand except as stands one whom the evil one by his touch hath driven to madness” (albaqarah:275). you turned to be a grave liar, betraying your own people that everything is under control, and then soon everyone finds out about your lies and so on. you became like the one who’s treating himself from alcohol by alcohol. you were never at any time truthful with yourself or your people, although it’s found some truth in your great grandparents you are fully detached from.
why don’t you show the truth about your soldiers and their inferior state of struggle?
why don’t you tell your people about the continuous suicides amongst your soldiers?
why don’t you tell your people that your soldiers can never go to sleep unless they take the hallucinating and drugging pills? so they become like cattle driven by your war generals, the neozionists, to the killing fate.
why don’t you tell your people about the congregational escape and the defiance among your troops?

listen you grave liar and insolent one; your dreams will never come true, our blood and bodies are between you and your imaginings. and what is coming your way is much greater than what passed by the will of allah.

the game of rotten democracy that you brought to iraq, after you gave hope to people about freedom, happiness, and the economical/personal security; all of these lies went with the winds and will never come back by the will of allah.

there we see you today, trying with all what you got to bring together the clusters, the parties, the partners from your tails to bring about a handicapped government that it might pull you out from your crucial pitfall.

we believe that any government you place in iraq, whether be it from the betrayal shiites or zionist kurds, or your tails from the sunnah; it will only be an apostate government that will aid the crusades, and it came only to be a poisoned dagger stabbed in the heart of the islamic nation.

america learned today that its planes, tanks, momentous troops, and its tails from the shiites army will never be able to finalize the battle with mujahedeen. therefore, it’s trying to surround the jehad by pushing its tails from those who are counted to sunnah, those who accepted to play the role and be a rope that tightens around the sunnah’s necks and pull the americans from their defeat. they used those who use the islamic slogans as a mask to spread their masters’ propaganda on the importance of organizing the military and the police, and confuse the muslims with their mixed messages injecting poison in honey, forgetting intentionally or not that every occupier throughout history used a cover up face from the occupied to use them in order to establish a solid base and embezzle the wealth of the country and its people.
allah has said: “and he amongst you that turns to them (for friendship) is of them” (5:51)
that is by constituting for this life and the hereafter.
and allah has said: “for pharaoh and haman and (all) their hosts were men of sin” (28:8)

therefore, we repeat our warning to whoever is trying to reorganize and spread the military and the police forces, which was established only to be a tool for the occupier in their bigger plan, and to implement laws other than the law of allah.
be extremely aware, those who join these apostate forces have nothing with us except the sharp swords, and between them and us will be nothing except grave days and nights.
allah has said;” those who believe fight in the cause of allah, and those who reject faith fight in the cause of evil: so fight ye against the friends of satan: feeble indeed is the cunning of satan” (4:76)

having said the previous, and having mentioned the defeat of the enemy and his paraphernalia. the enemy is trying today to seduce two kinds of people to the alleged parliamentary game to harvest the fruits of the mujahedeen whom only trying to make the word of allah prevails.
the first kind of which is the one trying to attach oneself with the mujahedeen, although they never lived the mujahedeen life nor they ever supported them at the occupation time. the second of which is those who had at the beginning the honor of fighting the crusades, however what counts is the end; their efforts won’t be accepted by the law of islam unless they strive with action to make the word of allah prevails, using what allah lawfully guided us with, the clean means, not by using evil parliaments striving to have the word of allah mixed with other man made constitutions and laws. the aim does not justify the means here.
although these two kinds, and whoever follows their footsteps, allege that they are trying with these parliaments to implement the law of allah. however, the actions and the historical experiences oppose their myth. anyone that is following the political map in iraq knows that the majority of the parliaments’ members are from the shiites and the atheists of kurds and sunnah, not to mention those of the mixed motion believes. therefore, the heavy side in the balance of the parliaments will always be in the hand of evil.
allah has said: “beware of them lest they beguile thee from any of that (teaching) which allah hath sent down to thee” (5:49)

and allah has said: “fast thou not turned thy vision to those who declare that they believe in the revelations that have come to thee and to those before thee? their (real) wish is to resort together for judgment (in their disputes) to the evil one, though they were ordered to reject him but satan's wish is to lead them astray far away (from the right” (4:60)
as for you patient truthful mujahedeen, may allah accept from you and us the best of deeds, and may allah bless your jehad. you were able by the will of allah and his support to stop this crusades’ attack and you’ve bounded him with injuries. thus, continue your jehad and operations, and elevate your hits, it’s only the sign of victory and it’s the last breath of the cross worshipers in the land of two rivers. the low fighting self-esteem of the crusades’ soldiers is an only obvious sign in iraq. therefore, renew your intentions, and correct yourselves, and carry on together against your enemy. your enemy is uncovered, by the will of allah, weakened, unprotected, and broken in pieces. do not give him a chance to take its breath, continue your stabbings one after the other, o’ banner’s holders stand,

where’s are the lions of anbar?
where are the lions of salah aldeen?
where are baghdad’s men?
where are the knights of ninawah and the champions of dyalah?
where are the courageous of kurdustan?
where are you the lions of monotheism?
o’ siblings of khaled and muthananh, saad and meqdad and salah aldeen.
where are the immigrants? where are the supporters?
where are the people of surat altawbah and alanfal?
where are the people of alfath and alqital?

o’ leaders of this nation; who is for the crying women, who is for the jailed dignified women, who is for the purified women in the jails of the shiites.
o’ allah, there is no life except the life of the hereafter, o’ allah grant victory to immigrants and their supporters.

be very aware from the embezzlers, with their masters the crusades, trying to surround you. be aware and extremely aware from putting down your weapons, and then you will harvest nothing but the defeat, beat and crush in this life and the hereafter.
you were always supplicating to allah day and night to ease the way for you to join the jehad in afghanistan and chechnya or other places. after that, allah chose you for the trade of jehad at your own land, and opened for you the doors of paradise. be extremely aware of closing these blessed doors, be aware “and be not like a woman who breaks into untwisted strands the yarn which she has spun, after it has become strong”(16:92)

do not let the trade of jehad depart your land; otherwise you will be disgraced and you’ll be only ruled by the scum; “they set you hard tasks and punishments, slaughtered your sons and let your women folk live” (2:49)

“if ye turn back (from the path), he will substitute in your stead another people; then they would not be like you” (47:38)

finally, i glad tied the nation by establishing the mujahedeen shura council of iraq, which will be by the grace and will of allah as the kernel for the establishment of an islamic state, in which, the word of allah prevails. all praise be to allah, the efforts are being joined, and the hands are being extended and shaken for the obedience of allah and his messenger and the jehad in the cause of allah. and this council will be, by the will of allah, an umbrella for every truthful mujahed. i am honored to be one member of this blessed council under its blessed leadership. at the same time remaining the ameer (leader) of the alqaeda organization in the land of two rivers (iraq).

the servant of jehad and mujahedeen, glorifying allah, your brother abu musaab alzarqawi.
friday, 23 rabii awal 1427,
april 21, 2006.

all praise be to allah.

in the name of allah the most gracious the most merciful, and peace be upon our prophet muhammad his family and companions.

i welcome our beloved sheikh in the land of anbar, the land of jehad. and we ask allah to keep it a thorn in the eyes of the disbelievers.

i would like to inform about the great victory in the battles of ramadi, killing many of the disbelievers and taking over the center and headquarter of the infidels.
taking over the city for several days, preventing the crusades from even coming near it.
and this operation was a clear message against the visit by the infidels’ ambassadors ( rice and straw).
in general, the self esteem of the mujahedeen is high, in opposite to the infidels whom are always in continuous deterioration.

as for the developing and manufacturing, the brothers, by the grace of allah have developed and improved two missiles in alanbar province in particular, that will be used soon, one has the ability to travel 40km with a 50kg warhead, here’s a picture of it…

then fight in allah's cause thou are held responsible only for thyself and rouse the believers. it may be that allah will restrain the fury of the disbelievers; for allah is the strongest in might and in punishment (alnisa’a:84)

and the other is anti armored vehicles, is carried on the shoulder and has been internally modified to penetrate armored vehicles, and here’s a picture of it.

“it is part of the mercy of allah that dost deal gently with them. wert thou severe or harsh hearted, they would have broken away from about thee: so pass over (their faults), and ask for (allah\'s) forgiveness them in affairs (of moment). then when thou hast taken a decision, put thy trust in allah. for allah loves those who put their trust (in him” (3:159)

if allah helps you, non can overcome you: if he forsakes you, who is there, after that, that can help you? in god, then, let believers put their trust (3:160)

sheikh ayman alzahahre’s voice:
o’ islamic nation, the turf of iraq now is the most dangerous field of jehad in this century. therefore, the nation must support the courageous mujahedeen that are fighting in the very forefront defending the honor of islam and its dignity.

sheikh abu musaab: by allah, american will be defeated in iraq, by the will of allah, and it’ll leave iraq humiliated, crushed, and defeated by the will of allah.
 


sniper's tower attacked in ramadi

a video released by the mujahideen shura council operating in iraq shows an attack on an american sniper town in the city of ramadi.

at the beginning of the clip it says this is revenge on the sniper who killed a young girl and her mother. apparently the sniper also killed a local civilian on monday.

the official press release by the group is translated, quoted below, and sourced. 
in the name of allah the most gracious the most merciful

o’ allah, straighten up our aim and make us stand firm

all praise and thanks are allah’s, the lord of all that exists. and peace be upon our prophet muhammad, his family and companions in entirety.

download a film showing hitting a snipers tower of the crusaders in a seat of the agriculture university taken by the crusaders forces as a location for them .

http://www.sendspace.com/file/5xyws0 
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=m7m6h69v 
http://www.sendspace.com/file/lbe07l 
http://www.bigupload.com/d=0169cf88 

allah is great,

“honor, power and glory belong to allah, to his messenger, and to the believers, but the hypocrites know not.”

the media committee of mujahedeen shura council of iraq


mexico on the verge of decriminalizing possession of small amounts of drugs

the congress of mexico has passed a bill that will decriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs for personal use. the passage of the bill has drawn criticism from washington, d.c.
under the law possession of up to five grams of marijuana, half a gram of cocaine (or about 4 lines) or 25 milligrams of heroin would no longer be a crime in mexico. in addition, possession of small amounts of lsd, mda, ecstasy, and methamphetamine would also be legalized, officials said.

current mexican drug possession law allows charges to be dropped against defendants if they can prove that they are addicts and if the amount is the quantity necessary for personal use. the new law reportedly removes the "addict" requirement and sets specific legal quantities

president vicente fox is expected to sign the bill. according to president fox's spokesman, ruben aguilar, "this law gives police and prosecutors better legal tools to combat drug crimes that do so much damage to our youth and children."

san diego mayor and former police chief jerry sanders seems to disagree, calling the legislation "appallingly stupid, reckless and incredibly dangerous." 

"if enacted, even the most reasonable person will have room to question mexico's commitment to the war on drugs," he said. "i think many, including myself, will view this as a hostile action by a longtime ally to the united states."





the sultan's elephant arrives in london

'the sultan's elephant', an enormous theatrical spectacle, has arrived in london on the start of its four day show. the elephant, a huge moving stage measuring forty feet high and weighing 42 tonnes, is the creation of the royal de luxe theatre company. the elephant will move through london, accompanied by a troop of puppeteers and circus acts, telling the story of the sultan who set off to find the little girl from his dreams with a time-travelling elephant.
at a rumoured cost of ￡1 million, the sultan's elephant is one of the biggest public art pieces ever performed in london. the project has been organised by helen marriage and nicky webb from artichoke productions, and has required co-operation and funding from a number of different bodies, including the arts council england, the mayor of london and the city of westminster.

the story began on wednesday, when a 'crashed spaceship' landed in london, smashing up the pavement around it. the elephant first made an appearance on the thursday.



mujahideen shura council claims responsibility for various attacks in iraq

the mujahideen shura council, in seven communiques issued amongst nearly two dozen between today, april 28, 2006 and yesterday, claims responsibility for a suicide bombing in al-basra targeting british forces, several bombings and sniper attacks targeting american and iraqi forces, and the attempted murder of the iraqi minister of interior.
1. on friday, april 21, 2006, a suicide bomber detonated himself on a gathering of british forces in al-basra, allegedly destroying three vehicles and killing their occupants.

2. the second message states that the judge of appeals of al-najaf court was assassinated tuesday, april 25, and his weapon and car were confiscated.

3. an improvised explosive device (ied) was detonated on the motorcade of the iraqi minister of interior in an attempted assassination in baghdad. in this third message, the group states: “we ask allah to help us to get his head the next time”.

4. on wednesday, april 26 an ied was detonated on a “crusader” armored vehicle in al-mosul, destroying it and killing its occupants.

5. the fifth communique indicates that a rocket was fired at an american humvee in al-ameriya on april 24.

6. a “cross soldier” was purported to have been sniped in al-ameriya on april 24.

7. the seventh communique states that two american soldiers were sniped in al-ameriya on saturday, april 22. 


more details are available here 

hawaii legislature reaches agreement to suspend gasoline price cap

conference committee negotiators in the hawaii state legislature have reached agreement on a bill that will suspend hawaii's controversial gasoline price control law, commonly known as the "gas cap."

under the proposed bill created by the conference committee, the current gas cap law would be immediately suspended for an indefinite period. the cap price would continue to be calculated, but the governor would have sole discretion to reinstate the price cap. the bill would also call for increased reporting of profits by oil companies.

the bill draft still needs majority approval by both houses (which appears likely), and signature by governor linda lingle.

the current law uses wholesale gasoline prices from three mainland markets to set the maximum price that oil companies can charge for gasoline. retailers are free to charge whatever they wish. 

the law was proposed by the democratic-controlled legislature during a time when oil company profits in hawaii compared with the mainland came under intense scrutiny. republicans, including lingle, opposed the bill.

since the law went into effect in september 2005, price fluctuations due to the disruption of gasoline supply in the wake of hurrican katrina have resulted in gas prices of more than $3.00 a gallon in honolulu, with significantly higher prices on the neighbor islands. currently prices of unleaded gasoline in honolulu range from $3.00 to $3.42 per gallon, the highest in the nation. 

during the current legislative session which expires thursday, the house of representatives (the lower house) passed a version calling for outright repeal of the law, while the senate (the upper house) called for modification of the formula used to calculate the cap.

however, in recent weeks, the main proponent of the gasoline price cap law, senator ron menor (d-mililani), softened his position, allowing for an indefinite suspension of the gas cap. negotiations between the house and senate had reached an impasse over the calculation of the cap level. senate negotiators pushed for a formula that would have set cap levels about 15 to 20 cents lower than the current formula. the leadership of the legislature intervened as the deadline for conference committee reports loomed.

hawaii is the only state in the united states to institute price controls on gasoline in recent years.



kidnapped indian engineer killed by taliban

indian embassy officials in afghanistan confirmed today that the body of the abducted indian engineer k. suryanarayana had been found in kandahar. the taliban abducted suryanarayana at gunpoint on friday. 

his abductors had stated that if all indian citizens in afghanistan did not leave that country by 7 p.m. ist (1330 utc) today, suryanarayana, who they claimed was an "american spy", would be killed. suryanarayana was apparently killed while he was trying to escape a few hours ago. the indian prime minister dr. manmohan singh has condemned the beheading, calling it an "inhuman act". indian security forces are enroute to afghanistan to investigate the matter and the indian foreign secretary mr. shyam saran has said that india will do whatever it takes to bring the perpetrators of this brutal murder to justice. suryanarayana leaves behind his wife and three children.


australian civil rights activists protest terror suspects' internment

about 100 people protested the detention and treatment of 13 men accused of terrorism offences and held at the barwon maximum security prison, in the state of victoria, australia. 
the protestors bussed and drove 56km from melbourne out to the barwon maximum security prison to voice their disapproval of the treatment of the 13 men accused of terror offences who are currently being held in the acacia unit of the prison. some of the accused have been held in solitary confinement for 6 months up to and during their trial.

the group civil rights defence organised the event with family members of the accused and news reporters as a peaceful protest. a small group of about 15 police officers awaited the arrival of the group. the police said that their main concern was the health and safety of everyone as the protest was being held next to a busy road. officers only approached when the country fire authority was summoned by a passerby to put out an open camp fire, as there was fire restriction in effect in the area. the fire fighters were met with laughter and sarcastic applause. enclosed fires and barbeques were considered acceptable.
the men being held are nacer benbirka, shane gregory kent, aiman joud, fadl sayadi, hany taha, amer haddara izzydeen atik, abdullah meri, shoue hammoud, bassem raad, ezzit raad, ahmed raad and majed raad. 

in a statement read at the protest, one of the accused and his wife (eman abdou and shane kent) said they were upset at the australian media for participating in lying to the australian public and the government for the way they have treated the accused. 

"i believe the conditions out at the barwon prison acacua unit are oppressive and inhumane. furthermore i am upset at the australian media for participating in lying to the australian public. these men have a right to a fair trial, and everyone is innocent until proven guilty," the statement read.
the statement also went on say that the limited legal visits were often shortened and that the best treated accused are in solitary confinement for 18 hours a day while some are in solitary confinement consistently. omar mehri, the brother of one of the accused spoke at the day's event and talked about verbal harassment and hate mail he and his family have received. he also talked of his brother being amazed to see grass after 5 months.

speakers at the event said the current laws used to prosecute murderers and other criminals should be used to prosecute terrorist suspects and had the same sentiments as eman abdou and shane kent. they said the laws were unjust and the treatment of the accused was cruel and unusual, constituting torture under the terms of the un charter. 

omar merhi, brother of one of the detained said in a statement "my brother and the other arrested men are confused and want to know why they are in australia's highest security unit for simply practising their religion."

civil rights defence



 


trapped australian miners found alive

two miners trapped since tuesday in the beaconsfield mine in tasmania, australia, have reportedly been found alive by rescuers. todd russell and brandt webb were trapped by a rockfall caused by a minor earthquake on tuesday night. hopes for their survival had faded after the body of a fellow trapped miner, larry knight, was discovered on thursday.

according to the mine's owners, the men are located in the mine where they were last seen, over 900m below the surface. rescuers are communicating with, but still unable to free, the trapped men, and will be supplying them with food and water. it could be up to 48 hours before the men are extracted from the mine.


ten people injured as elderly driver hits crowd at australian show

ten people have been injured at the royal bathurst show after they were allegedly hit by a vehicle driven by a 82-year-old woman. the bathurst show is the largest agricultural show in regional new south wales, australia.

according to police, the incident happened at 5:10 p.m. saturday (0710 utc) when a mazda sedan driven by an 82 year-old woman reversed into a large crowd which had been standing about the showground ring. saturday is typically the busiest day of the show, with many events taking place in the ring.

police and st. john ambulance personnel who were already present at the show arrived almost immediately and began providing assistance. after assessing the incident, additional police, rescue, ambulance and fire personnel were deployed.

those injured range in age from five to 71 years. the most severe of the injuries were sustained by a 71 year-old man who suffered head injuries and a five year old boy from a neighbouring city who suffered both head and severe leg injuries. both have been airlifted to westmead hospital in sydney and are described as being in a critical condition.

other injured people were taken to both bathurst and orange base hospitals.

the driver of the vehicle was taken to hospital suffering from shock.

police are investigating the incident, have seized the involved car, and questioned witnesses.


economist john kenneth galbraith dies

john kenneth galbraith, the canadian-born us economist, died in hospital yesterday 29 april 2006 in cambridge, massachusetts following a short illness. he was 97.

he wrote numerous books including the affluent society in 1958. he taught at harvard from 1948 to 1975 and served as ambassador to india under president john f. kennedy.


london hosts anti-racism concert ahead of local elections

saturday saw london's trafalgar square play host to a 'love music hate racism' anti-racism concert, ahead of the local elections taking place this week. the event aimed to celebrate multi-racial society and to send out a message telling people to use their vote to stop the british national party gaining council seats in the election.

the lineup of bands at the event included belle & sebastian and the paddingtons, with speakers including gurinder chadha (director of bend it like beckham) and kat fletcher (nus president).

love music hate racism was set up in 2002 in response to rising levels of racism and electoral successes for the british national party, whose policies are often considered fascist and designed to provoke racism. the organisation has arranged over 200 events across the uk. the organisation is inspired by rock against racism, a similar group set up in the 1970s to challenge the national front, famed for gigs featuring the clash and the tom robinson band.

fears that the bnp may do well in the elections this week have grown since employment minister margaret hodge warned mps that the bnp might make gains. since her announcement, the number of voters considering voting for the bnp has been shown to grow in some polls, prompting some to criticise her announcement as being potentially counter-productive.

police estimate that 3,000 people attended the event on saturday.




comedians lampoon bush at white house correspondents' dinner

on saturday, april, 29, 2006, us president appeared alongside impersonator to deliver a self-lampooning comedy act at the dinner. the annual event is well known for its evening lineup of fun-filled theatrics, attended by politicians and people from the media and entertainment industries. in his double-act with bridges, bush sent up his reputation for delivering nonsense lines and making verbal gaffes (for which the word " has been coined).

bush talked about spreading his agenda "globally and around the world, as well as internationally", whilst bridges, who delivered many of the more cutting lines, said, "how come i can't have dinner with the 36 percent of the people who like me?" the president's pronunciation of the word "nuclear" and dick cheney's hunting accident were also mocked.

the primary source for edgy political humor that saturday night, however, occurred when rising star of "", , assumed the helm as critic. with the president sitting visibly within several feet, colbert warmed up the act by sarcastically admiring the president for thinking "with his gut, and not the head". 

colbert's character, which shares his name, is a based on right-wing news channel personalities. "fox news gives you both sides of the story ? the president's side and the vice president's side," he said. colbert's jabs at the president and his administration, usually made from the comedy central studio in manhattan, garnered nervous laughter from the washington d.c. audience. although visibly red-faced, bush sat quietly as colbert continued to dig deeper into what bloggers and pundits are now considering to be the unfriendliest presidential roast in whca history.

colbert didn't spare the white house correspondents, either:

since the event, which was held at the washington hilton on saturday night, the full 25 minute video and transcript have been circulating extensively via the internet.



london planetarium closes to make way for celebrity-themed show

the london planetarium, famous for its distinctive green dome and for being next to madame tussauds, will close this week to make way for a new celebrity-themed show opening in july. the planetarium used to be an attraction in its own right, but in recent years has become simply a feature tacked onto the end of the waxworks tour, the original 45 minute show cut down to just over 10 minutes. the planetarium will be renamed 'the auditorium' and will feature a show that "gets to the heart of celebrity", being produced in collaboration with animation house aardman productions.

famous astronomer sir patrick moore has called the decision "most regrettable", and many have commented that the change from space to celebrity is an unfortunate sign of our times.

to say 'farewell' to the planetarium, tussauds have allowed free entry in its penultimate week, from 24th - 30th april. visitors could enter through the group admissions entrance to see the show, running every twenty minutes. unlike the queues for madame tussauds, which typically run right up the street, few people waited to see the planetarium show, even on the saturday. the show, titled "journey to infinity", was projected onto the inside of the dome using digistar 3 digital projectors. it told the story of space, starting from earth and zooming out to reveal the other planets in the solar system, the milky way, the other galaxies and the rest of the universe. it ended with an optimistic message suggesting that humans would continue to explore space, going further than ever before.

the london planetarium opened in 1958 on the site of an old cinema that was destroyed in the second world war. evening laser performances called 'laserium' were held between 1977 and 1990. a ￡4.5 million redevelopment saw it relaunch in 1995 with a new 'digistar ii' monochromatic 3d projection system. this was upgraded to the full-colour 'digistar 3' system in 2004 which is currently in use.

the planetarium at the also famous royal observatory in greenwich has also been closed since september 2004, however this is due to re-open in 2007 having received a ￡15 million redevelopment programme. it will be three times the size of the old planetarium, and has received backing from astronomer royal sir martin rees, and the astronomer royal for scotland, professor john brown.



legislators in us states call for the impeachment of president bush

legislators in three states have introduced resolutions calling for the impeachment of u.s. president george w. bush and vice president dick cheney. 

us state legislators karen yarbrough of illinois, paul koretz of california, and david zuckerman of vermont have each introduced resolutions to begin impeachment proceedings. yarbrough and koretz are democrats, and zuckerman is a member of the vermont progressive party.

yarbrough's resolution charges bush with directing the national security agency to perform surveillance without a warrant in violation of the foreign intelligence surveillance act; violating the torture conventions of the geneva convention, and "leaking classified national secrets to further an agenda." koretz' similar resolution also calls for cheney to be impeached.

zuckerman introduced a resolution last tuesday in the vermont house of representatives that asks congress to "initiate impeachment proceedings against president george w. bush." the resolution says "george w. bush has committed high crimes and misdemeanors as he has repeatedly and intentionally violated the united states constitution and other laws of the united states." twelve vermont state representatives (democrats, progressives, 1 independent) have endorsed the resolution.

the illinois resolution invokes section 603 of jefferson's rules for the national house and senate, which allows for the introduction of impeachment charges "by charges transmitted from 
the legislature of a state or territory." section 604 also states that an impeachment charge brought by any means would be a privileged motion, superseding most other business in the u.s. house of representatives. 

as of april 30, the illinois resolution has been referred to the rules committee and has been sponsored by 17 representatives including yarbrough.

in response to the vermont resolution, the state's republican party chairman james barnett said, "if this is the best they can do at this late hour of the legislative session, then it's time to close down shop and go home for the summer so they can explain to their constituents that they didn't reform health care because they were too busy trying to impeach the president."

according to a cbs poll, the president's public approval rating has steadily declined, and is so far at an all time low of 33%.


militants kill 22 villagers in kashmir

suspected muslim militants shot dead over 20 villagers in the doda district of the indian state of jammu & kashmir early on monday morning.

no group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but police suspect that the pakistan-based lashkar-e-toiba is involved and have called the attack "pre-planned."

eyewitnesses say armed men in military fatigues raided the village, made the residents line up and then opened fire on them injuring 9 villagers and killing the rest. 

the attack comes just after by-elections in the state and just before prime minister manmohan singh's meeting with militant leaders. the union home ministry has convened an emergency meeting in new delhi. officers from the intelligence bureau are also likely to be present. 



some australian government welfare recipients will be forced to pay their bills

australian federal minister for families, mal brough, has told a function in the hunter valley in new south wales' central east that he plans to introduce a system forcing parents, who receive welfare payments and who also are identified as neglecting their children, to pay their bills.

under the proposal, parents who are identified will be required to attend an interview with centrelink (the agency responsible for welfare payments) to arrange for up to 30 percent of their benefits be automatically deducted to pay their bills and buy food.

mr brough says that there are a small percentage of parents who neglect their children, by spending their welfare payments on alcohol, drugs or gambling. the families minister says these parents neglect their children by failing to provide their children with food and clothing.

during his speech, mr brough said that many had expressed concerns about the government being able to identify those "abusing" the system but said that school principals, welfare workers, police and courts would be able to identify children in such situations.

mr brough said that similar voluntary programs operating in cape york in queensland had operated successfully and that similar programs should be bought in nation-wide. he said that not every family suffering from these problems would voluntarily take up the scheme and that the government would need to make it compulsory for some families.

australian welfare organisations have criticized the plan claiming it is impractical.

lin hatfield dodds from the australian council of social service said that the government needed to do more to assist families in crisis, but the problems raised by the government were "human problems and not financial problems".

nationals senator, barnaby joyce who holds the balance of power in the australian senate said he would not support the proposal if it was rushed into parliament as part of this years budget, expected to be handed down next week. "i don't think anything you do in a rush works out terribly well," said mr joyce.

kim beazley, leader of the australian opposition said that the government would not be able to organise such a system, saying that they were unable to organise "a kick in a street fight". 


first pictures from the israeli photo/spy satellite eros b

imagesat international, the israeli company that operates the recently launched photo/spy satellite eros b, published its first photographs of potential targets in the middle east. analysts say the timing of this announcement shows that israel intends to carefully monitor iran's nuclear facilities to assess the threat for israeli security. the dual-use satellite, second in the eros series, can observe small details on the ground at very high resolution. 

israelis commemorate today those who have fallen in military service and in terror attacks since the un resolution on the establishment of the state in november 29, 1947. israeli chief of staff, major general dan halutz, said that the threat from iran shows that israel must be strong to defend its people. 


bolivian troops told to seize natural gas fields

bolivian president evo morales has ordered that all foreign-owned natural gas fields be turned over to the national government of bolivia. 

president morales signed a decree that orders troops to seize the fields "immediately" to ensure gas production. the decree also says that companies have 180 days to sign over their fields or leave the country.

the fields are owned by such companies as the united states' exxon-mobil corporation, brazil's petroleo brasileiro sa, spanish-argentine repsol ypf sa, and great britain's bg group plc and bp plc. 

"the looting by the foreign companies has ended. we are not a government of mere promises, we follow through on what we propose and what the people demand. we want to ask (the armed forces) that starting now, they occupy all the energy fields in bolivia along with battalions of engineers," said mr morales after signing the decree.

"the time has come, the awaited day, a historic day in which bolivia retakes absolute control of our natural resources," added president morales.

one of morales' vows in his presidential campaign was to "recover" the country's natural resources by renationalizing them. president morales explained, on a visit to brazil in january, that renationalising the industry would not mean expelling foreign companies or expropriating foreign property. "foreign companies have every right to recover investments and make profits, but profits should be balanced".

bolivia has the second largest supply of natural gas in south america after venezuela.


may day march takes place in london

workers and trade union members have taken part in the traditional may day march in london, ending in a rally at trafalger square. tuc leader brendan barber addressed the crowd, praising the labour movement and expressing solidarity with the workers of the peugeot manufacturing plant in coventry, who face redundancy.

an estimated 40,000 people took part.



blue security anti-spam community target of large-scale spam attack

beginning monday morning, many bluefrog and blue security users began receiving an email warning them that if they did not remove their email addresses from the blue security registry, they would begin to receive huge amounts of unsolicited email. as quickly as four hours after the initial warning message, some users began to receive an unprecedented amount of spam. most of the messages were simply useless text. users reported that blue security's website was unavailable or extremely slow in responding.

blue security is an online community dedicated to fighting spam. as they became more popular, their member list increased substantially. the members' email address is encrypted and added to a list of e-mail addresses that wish to stop receiving spam. blue security maintains the encrypted list, which uses an encrypted hash function. spammers are encouraged to remove all addressed from their email list that are also in blue security's do not intrude registry by using free compliance tools available at blue security's web site.

according to blue security's web site, "a major spammer had started spamming our members with discouraging messages in an attempt to demoralize our community. this spammer is using mailing lists he already owns that may contain addresses of some community members." reportedly, blue security has received complaints from users about spam allegedly sent from blue security promoting their anti-spam solution and web site. 

blue security states they are "an anti-spam company determined to fight spam and as such never has and never will send unsolicited email." there are also reports of non-users of bluesecurity/bluefrog receiving the warning emails, which now seems is also being sent to email addresses of people who have never added their email address to blue security's do not intrude registry.

there are several versions of the warning messages, two are copied below:


u.s. government to improve recruitment for civil service jobs

according to the washington post, nearly sixty percent of the federal government's workforce will be eligible for retirement over the next ten years; with ninety percent of senior executive service officials expected to do so. besides depleting social security funds, baby boomers will once again leave a big impression on the american workforce and economy. calling it a "federal retirement tsunami," the united states office of personnel management (the bureau responsible for government human resources) is preparing for this event in a few manners. in a news release today by the bureau, director linda springer announced that the office would be releasing a major media campaign in efforts to recruit future employees.

with only twenty four percent of united states citizens with a bachelor degree or higher, according to the u.s. census bureau, it's no wonder it has been difficult to attract qualified or interested employees for federal government positions; particularly young people. "we've been hearing for so long about how incompetent and shady the government is, but a lot don't understand the benefits," said howard university sophomore victoria hooks. 

"the challenge is clear, and we are hard at work... with a 21st century approach to the workplace, the federal government will ride the retirement wave and set the standard for a modern workplace... it will be a modern workplace, one that requires innovative training and encourage more flexibility by managers. the federal workforce will be one that the american people can count on," said springer in support of the initiatives for recruitment. other efforts for recruitment will also include additional employment benefits such as special salaries and relocation bonuses, especially for women.

the recruitment advertisements will reveal themselves in a series of four commercials around the country beginning in mid may 2006.


nintendo revolution name revealed

today, nintendo revealed that the real name for the console previously known by the codename "revolution", is wii. the name was revealed in a message posted on nintendo of america's official site, which is shown below.

in the immediate aftermath of the announcement, the name received much criticism for sounding too much like "wee", an english slang word meaning urine. the name also sounds similar to "yes" in french and "good" in japanese.


blogspot ban lifted in pakistan

as of 6th may, 2006, the pakistani government has once again put a ban on blogspot. this has been confirmed by numerous bloggers across pakistan.

the banned blogs can now be accessed through an alternative sites such as pkblogs.com - blogspot proxy and other proxy servers.

since the morning of may 2, 2006, the blanket ban on the blogspot.com blogs has been lifted. this has been confirmed by various people on the 'action group against blogspot ban in pakistan' mailing list. the six baloch and plenty of indian sites are still blocked.

the website was originally blocked because some of the blogs it hosted, reportedly contained ""sacrilegious" content", mostly in the form of cartoons that were earlier published by jyllands-posten, and republished in some . the supreme court of pakistan directed the government of pakistan to block all websites that contained such content on march 1, 2006. 



inter-balkan summit to take place in thessalonika, greece

the northern port of , greece's second biggest city, will host the inter-balkan co-operation summit, on the 3rd and 4th of may 2006. the countries of southeast europe who are part of the inter-balkan cooperation; greece, turkey, bulgaria, serbia-montenegro, romania, albania, croatia, bosnia and fyrom will be represented by their leaders, prime ministers and ministers of foreign affairs. 

the inter-balkan cooperation summit will focus on all the developments, both economic and political, in the area of southeast europe, with the main topic being the situation in kosovo.

on the sidelines of the inter-balkan cooperation summit, which will take place at the hotel of thessaloniki, greek premier will meet with his turkish counterpart recep tayyip erdogan on thursday in order to discuss bilateral issues, including the cyprus problem. 

for the safety of the leaders as well as for the convenience of city's traffic during possible demonstrations, a security plan has been prepared according to local police. three years ago, thessaloniki was the host city of the 2003 european union summit. 


nine alarm fire engulfs brooklyn warehouses

a warehouse fire on brooklyn's waterfront has become a nine alarm blaze. the complex of seven old warehouses has been virtually destroyed and authorities are currently investigating it as arson.

some 400 firefighters have working to extinguish the fire which started a little after 5:30 in the morning. a technique referred to as "surround and drown" has been employed in which fire trucks have flanked the complex on three sides while boats pump water from the adjacent river onto the blaze.

according to the new york fire department, some six million gallons of water have been pumped onto the site and the ninth alarm, which was posted around noon, makes it the second biggest fire in the city's history.

by noon, many of the buildings had been almost entirely destroyed. area residents say that the complex was due to be demolished anyway to make a new park.


flight from armenian capital yerevan crashes near sochi

an armavia airbus 320 passenger plane flying from armenia's capital, yerevan, to the city of sochi in southern russia has crashed into the black sea. the jet was found 6 km from the coast and carried a total of 113 people. among the passengers were 8 crew and 6 children. controllers lost contact with the plane at 0215 local time (tuesday 2215 utc).

rescuers have found the corpses of a woman and a girl and another 12 body parts at the site of wednesday's crash of armenia's airbus a-320 plane off russia's black sea coast, a spokesman for the russian prosecutor general's office told interfax. other reports say that at least 25 bodies have been found.

there were 77 armenian citizens, 26 russian citizens, 1 ukrainian and 1 georgian citizen on board of the armenian air liner, armenian civil aviation department head artyom movsisian told on a news conference.

"most of the russian citizens are of armenian origin," movsisian said. 

"rescue efforts are being hampered by deteriorating weather conditions, heavy rain and rough seas," a spokesman for the russian emergency situations ministry said. 

"the fragments were found six km (3.7 miles) from the shore near the airport of adler. the search operation continues," said beltsov. the location of the crash site has been ascertained by a numerous fragments and life vests, and a large oil slick.

"the only thing [we] know is that when the crew asked for permission to land, the air controller in sochi responded that bad weather meant this was not yet possible," gayane davtyan, head of armenia's civilian aviation authority said. "contact with the crew was lost at 600 meters, when the plane went to circle for a second time."

the cause of the tragedy remains unclear, but the investigators are pursuing two main versions: bad weather conditions and poor maintenance.

the russian prosecutor general's office believes terrorism can be ruled out as a factor in the a-320 plane crash near the russian black sea resort of sochi on wednesday morning.

"we don't have any information that could indicate a possible terrorist attack on board the plane," russian deputy prosecutor general nikolai shepel told interfax on wednesday. 

an official from the regional department of the emergency situations ministry in southern russia said "apparently there were malfunctions on board, as the pilots were making another attempt to land at the adler airport."

"the plane was in an ideal technical condition, the crew was well qualified," said the airline's deputy commercial director, andrei aghajanov. the cause of the crash is under investigation.

in the area where the plane crashed, more rain is expected in the next hours and the water temperature is currently between 8 to 10 degrees celsius.

the russian and armenian presidents have announced on wednesday that friday, may 5th, would be a day of mourning in remembrance of the 113 people that died in the crash. 

the worst crash involving an two-engine a-320, which was first built in 1984 and remains the most popular airbus on the market, occurred in august 2000, when a gulf air plane crashed off bahrain on a flight from cairo, killing all 143 people on board. the airbus a320 is a short-to-medium range commercial passenger aircraft and a total of 328 people have been killed in earlier a320 accidents.

about 20 boats and a be-200 amphibious aircraft are involved in the recovery operation, emergency services said, adding that two more be-200s would fly to the scene if necessary. a group of rescuers from the russian emergency ministry is expected to fly to the crash site in the next few hours.


transit chaos in bogota, colombia

as managers of local transit companies tend to boycott developments of transit rules in bogota, the whole transportation system was a complete chaos on tuesday (2).

the local administration intends to develop the year 2000-stablished "transmilenio" system, and to accomplish that, old buses must be removed from main routes and from active service. the protest included a complete halt of public service, and people recurred to private cars, trucks, and cabs for transportation. bogota has in place an already strange rule to stop the movement of cars around the city depending on the day of week and the last number of the license plate. such a rule was cancelled for the time the protest continues, and other measures were announced by the mayor luis eduardo garzon. garzon hinted several penalties will be applied to those who omit showing to the streets to give service, going from a buch of hundreds of dollars, to the total cancellation of transit licenses for bus companies (already in the past those measures were announced with no real effect and no real sanctions).

the protest was also infiltrated by people who damaged more than 70 machines of the transmilenio system, public schools called the day off and there will be no classes on wednesday (3). most public and private corporations and business, sent people home by 14:00 local time (19:00 utc), to help avoid security problems.



wikinews interviews ethan zuckerman

on friday, april 28, wikinews interviewed ethan zuckerman, the founder of geekcorps, a non-profit organization that sending people with technical skills to developing countries for development projects. ethan has also founded global voices online and helped found tripod.com, the free web-hosting company now owned by lycos. he serves a fellow at the berkman center for internet and society. tripod. 

the interview was held publicly in a dedicated irc channel.

i got interested in geekcorps because i'd lived in ghana as a student in 1993 and 1994
while over there, i was amazed at just how little internet connectivity was available
i did a bit of volunteer work helping wire an environmental organization, but basically the only people who had regular net access were us embassy employees.
so i was fascinated to learn that my friends in ghana were getting online in the late 1990s, and i wondered whether anyone would start building net-based businesses, as people were doing in the us
my wife and i went back to ghana to visit friends and found that there was a huge deal of enthusiasm about the web and the potential it represented, but almost no expertise
people were really desperate to learn, but very few people were able to teach at the same time, i was ready to step down from tripod, and i knew a lot of burned out geeks
i started wondering whether some of my friends would be interested in sharing their skills in the developing world and whether that would be a useful thing to do
lots of international development folks seemed to think it was a good cause, so i started working on it fulltime.
we ended up sending about 100 people overseas over the four years i was involved with the project
we usually sent about 6-8 to a country at a time, working with a variety of businesses, ngos and government agencies biggest projects were in ghana, mali, mongolia, senegal.
basically, i'm concerned about the ability of people all over the world to make a good living, send their children to school, build nice houses, have enough food and clean water, etc there's clearly something of a tradeoff offered by all sorts of globalization - as millions of chinese are lifted out of rural povery, industrial manufacturing jobs in the us disappear but the us has a pretty good history of innovating and creating new jobs in fields that require a lot of intellectual endeavor the us continues to found interesting software companies, pioneer new net services and generally do a lot of the interesting development on the cutting edge of tech i think a lot of routine coding jobs are up for outsourcing, but i don't think that people who design software - or who manage the outsourcing and software development process - are going away any time soon it's very hard to outsource creative activities - it's somewhat easier to outsource repetitive processes.
i think we need to worry less about individual job loss and more about the ability to continue creating new projects. at the same time, i'm very excited to see companies in the developing world moving up the value chain as well, starting to innovate and create new projects as well...
they're very different projects and communities, wc is a magazine -it's a chance for a small group of smart people to write original content on green issues it's a lot less global than gv - perhaps overly focused on the us and europe - and has a tight subject focus gv is an edited aggregator people are not so much writing original, opinionated content on gv as they are linking to other content indeed, we ask people to try very hard not to be especially opinionated on gv. not npov, but a similar perspective - you point, you don't advocate
<ethanz> also gvo is huge - 10 regional editors, about 60 regular contributors, a network of about a thousand blogs we regularly link to the community has a very different feeling - much more international, more 24/7. both are fascinating projects, successes in their own ways, but quite different on the tech issues, a little - in both cases, we're taking very simple weblog tools and asking them to support very large communities. and a little bit on the issue of how they interface with mainstream media in both cases, we're interested in amplifying memes and getting them picked up by popular press as well as on the web.
blogs are essentially about opinion, asking for npov in the blog space misses the point - we want to know what opinions people in syria have but we want our middle east editor to try to fairly represent the different opinions taking place in that space that said, he's got an opinion as well so asking for npov isn't the right thing to do - asking him to point to a diversity of opinions is, in our case

geekcorps can be found online at www.geekcorps.org and global voices online is at www.globalvoicesonline.org.


new zealand government to unbundle local loop

the new zealand government has announced that it would require telecom to unbundled the local loop to provide "faster and better broadband internet services." new zealand used to be the only country in the oecd to have investigated unbundling the local loop and then rejected it. this means now that any internet service provider in new zealand can create their own plans / speeds for new zealanders. the shock announcement, due to a leak of the plan to telecom, saw the stock lose over nz$2 billion over the new zealand, australian and american listings.


armenian president offers condolences over black sea air crash

armenia's president robert kocharyan expressed his condolences wednesday morning to friends and families who lost their loved ones in the air crash over the black sea.

early wednesday morning, an armenian airbus a-320 flying from the capital of armenia, yerevan, to the russian black sea resort of sochi crashed with the loss of all 113 passengers and crew.

"i was deeply grieved to learn about the air crash," president kocharyan said. "i offer my sincere condolences to the families and friends of the passengers and the crew. i assure that the families of those who died will receive the necessary assistance, and the authorities will make every effort to discover the causes of the accident."

the russian and armenian presidents have also announced on wednesday that friday, may 5th, would be a day of mourning in remembrance of the 113 people that died in the air crash.

russian emergency services said the airliner had crashed at about six kilometers (3.7 miles) from the coast while approaching land in stormy weather.



bjp leader pramod mahajan dies in mumbai

senior politician and general-secretary of bharatiya janata party, pramod mahajan, passed away in hinduja hospital, mumbai at 16:10 ist (10:40 utc) today. he was 56 . his younger brother pravin had shot him three times from point blank range on april 22, 2006. he was given 25 bottles of blood to compensate for the extensive bleeding he suffered. his pancreas and small intestine were also damaged. over the past 12 days his condition had remained critical yet stable. he was on a respirator, and ionotropes had to be administered to him to keep his blood pressure up. the seriousness of the condition made it unsafe for doctors to operate on him and remove the bullets lodged in his body. 

events took a turn for the worse when he developed acute respiratory distress syndrome 36 hours ago. this prompted physicians to further increase the level of respiratory support provided to him. this afternoon doctors reported that he was suffering from multiple organ failure - the first indication that his life was in grave danger. his family members and well-wishers were allowed to see him around 14:30 ist today. the attending physicians from hinduja hospital made an official statement of his death at 16:50 ist. pramodji's family made the decision to cease giving him artificial ventilitaion after doctors made it clear to them that chances of mr. mahajan's recovery were very bleak. he will be given a state funeral tomorrow in mumbai at 12:00 ist (6:30 utc).



communal tension erupts in vadodara, india

violence erupted in vadodara in the state of gujarat after municipal authorities demolished a "dargah" (muslim shrine). the shrine was an unauthorised structure that was obstructing a road-widening project. 

the muslim community objected to its demolition citing the fact that it was at least 200 years old. they also observed that many hindu temples that were unauthorised were spared. despite the reservations of the minority community, the authorities decided to proceed with the razing of the "dargah", leading to rioting. 

at least 6 people were killed in the clashes, and one citizen (35 year-old rafiq vora) was burnt alive in his car by an angry mob. curfew has been imposed in the troubled areas and the sending of instigatory text messages prompted authorities to temporarily block the sending of mobile-phone text messages in the town. 

vadodara is infamous for the horrific hindu-muslim clashes in 2002, which left thousands dead. to avoid the recurrence of such a tragedy, six battalions of rapid action force anti-riot police and multiple companies of the central reserve police force have been rushed to vadodara. gujarat chief minister narendra modi, who was chief minister during the 2002 gujarat violence, for which the state government was accused by various independent human rights groups as well as major indian newspapers of supporting, and in some cases instigating, the violence, is visiting vadodara and has promised that all efforts would be made to prevent the situation from escalating any further. home minister shivraj patil is also monitoring the situation closely.



soft drink companies to stop high school soda sales

most u.s. soft drink companies will stop selling their soda products at high schools across the nation as part of a soft drink industry deal that aims to reduce childhood obesity.

the agreement, announced wednesday morning by the william j. clinton foundation, means that the nation's biggest beverage distributors, coca cola co., pepsico, cadbury schweppes plc, and the american beverage association, will pull their soda products from vending machines and cafeterias in schools serving about 35 million students, according to the alliance for a healthier generation, a joint initiative between the clinton foundation and the american heart association.

"this is an important announcement and a bold step forward in the struggle to help america's kids live healthier lives," said bill clinton, according to a press release from the foundation. "these industry leaders recognize that childhood obesity is a problem and have stepped up to help solve it. i commend them for being here today and for taking this important step. there is a lot of work to be done to turn this problem around but this is a big step in the right direction and it will help improve the diet of millions of students across the country."

under the agreement, high schools will still be able to purchase drinks such as diet and unsweetened teas, diet sodas, sports drinks, flavored water, seltzer, and low-calorie sports drinks for resale to students.

the companies plan to stop soda sales at 75 percent of the nation's public schools by the 2008-2009 school year, and at all schools in the following school year. the speed of the changes will depend in part on school districts' willingness to change their contracts with the beverage distributors, the release said.

california had already banned soda sales at logan and other state high schools, starting in july 2007, under a bill signed by governor arnold schwarzenegger. "california is facing an obesity epidemic," he said at the time. he said he plans for the ban to be the first step in creating a healthier california.

the bill banning soda sales, sb965, was introduced last september by senator martha escutia of state senate district 30 in southern california. sb965 is one of several bills signed into law to "eliminate junk food and soda from campuses, and to increase the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables available to students," said schwarzenegger. the new law will go into full effect by july 1, 2007.

state law already bans soda sales at the lower grade levels.

elsie lee szeto, the director of food and nutrition services of new haven unified school district in union city, california, said that, under the new law, no less than 50 percent of all beverages sold to students between a half hour before school begins and a half-hour after school will have to meet specific criteria that include alternatives like fruit based drinks that are comprised of no less than 50 percent fruit juice and have no added sweeteners. all milk sold will be two percent fat milk, soy milk, and other similar non-dairy milk.

about 16 percent of our nation's children and adolescents are overweight or obese ? nearly four times more than forty years ago, according to the alliance for a healthier generation.

according to the center of science in the public interest (cspi), a non-profit advocacy group in washington d.c., two out of three teenagers in california drink soda everyday. the average intake for males 13 to 18 is three or more cans of soda a day.

a recent study by researchers of children's hospital boston showed a connection between consumption of sugary drinks and childhood obesity.

children's hospital boston's cara ebbeling, phd, and david ludwig, md, phd, led a controlled trial for 103 children ages 13 to 18. half of the teens, picked randomly, were sent non-caloric beverages of their choosing. the remaining teens were asked to continue their regular eating and drinking habits as a control group.

after six months, the group that had received the calorie-free drink deliveries had an 82 percent decrease in the consumption of sugary drinks, while the control group continued unaffected. the body mass index of the drink delivery group decreased, while the control group had a slight increase. other factors such as exercising and television viewing did not change in either group.

ebbeling concluded that one 12-oz sugary drink every day converted to a one pound weight gain over 3 to 4 weeks. "it should be relatively simple to translate this intervention into a pragmatic public health approach. for example, schools could make non-caloric beverages available to students by purchasing large quantities at low costs," she said.

the agreement announced today "is really the beginning of a major effort to modify childhood obesity at the level of the school systems," said robert h. eckel, president of the american heart association.


8.0 magnitude earthquake occurs near tonga

an earthquake with estimated magnitude 8.0 (later, revised to 7.9 by usgs) shook the pacific island of tonga. the strongest quake of the year so far, the earthquake occurred at 04:26 local time (15:27 utc) on may 3 at 19.9°s, 174.2°w, about 150 km south of neiafu, tonga and 2150 km north-northeast of auckland, new zealand. 

three more earthquakes with moderate magnitude of 5.1 (1700 utc, 06:00 local time), 5.4 (1756 utc, 06:56 local time) and 5.1 (1928 utc, 8:28 local time) were felt in the same region, according to usgs report. 

the pacific tsunami warning center in honolulu issued tsunami warnings for fiji and new zealand and a tsunami watch for other areas in the pacific, including hawaii, but excluding the west coast of north america. the warning and watches were cancelled at 1736 utc (7:36 a.m. hst).

according to the latest bulletin, sea level readings indicated a tsunami was generated. there was some definite tsunami activity recorded near pago pago and niue.

no major damage or injuries have been reported in tonga, but power was temporarily lost, which reportedly prevented tongan authorities from receiving the tsunami warning issued by the ptwc.

fourteen schools in hawaii located on or near coastlines were closed all of wednesday despite the warnings being lifted. 



news briefs:may 3, 2006

the time is 18:30 (utc) on 3rd may 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

south pacific

an earthquake with estimated magnitude 8.1 has occurred at 1527 utc today near 19.9° south, 174.2° west, near tonga.
the pacific tsunami warning center in honolulu has issued tsunami warnings for fiji and new zealand and a tsunami watch for other areas in the pacific, including hawaii, but excluding the west coast of north america.

india

violence erupted in vadodara in the state of gujarat after municipal authorities demolished a dargah (muslim shrine). the shrine was an unauthorised structure which was obstructing a road-widening project.
the muslim community objected to its demolition citing the fact that it was atleast 200 years old. they also observed that many hindu temples which were unauthorised were spared. despite the reservations of the minority community, the authorities decided to proceed with the razing of the dargah, leading to rioting.
at least 6 people were killed in the clashes, and one citizen (35 year-old rafiq vora) was burnt alive in his car by an angry mob.

mumbai

senior politician and general-secretary of the opposition bharatiya janata party, pramod mahajan, passed way in hinduja hospital, mumbai at 16:10 ist (10:40 utc) today. he was 56 years of age. mr. mahajan had been shot three times at point blank range by his younger brother pravin on 22 april 2006. after being shot, mr. mahajan was rushed to hospital where he was given 25 bottles of blood to compensate for the extensive bleeding he suffered. pramodji also sustained severe injuries to his pancreas and small intestine. over the past 12 days his condition had remained critical yet stable. he was on a respirator, and ionotropes had to be administered to him to keep his blood pressure up. the seriousness of the condition made it unsafe for doctors to operate on him and remove the bullets lodged in pramodji's body.

new zealand

the new zealand government has announced that it would require telecom to unbundled the local loop to provide "faster and better broadband internet services." new zealand used to be the only country in the oecd to have investigated unbundling the local loop and then rejected it. this means now that any isp in new zealand can create their own plans / speeds for new zealanders. 

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.

this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


zacarias moussaoui to serve life in prison

u.s. district judge leonie brinkema has agreed to a federal jury's recommendation that zacarias moussaoui, convicted for conspiring with al-qaeda in the september 11 attacks, spend life in prison. he will serve his life term in a federal maximum security prison, in florence, colorado.

"god curse america. god save osama bin laden. you'll never get him," said moussaoui moments before judge brinkema read her sentence.

brinkema responded, "you came here to be a martyr and die in a big bang of glory. but to paraphrase the poet t.s. eliot, instead you will die with a whimper."

the jury, which consisted of three women and nine men, announced their verdict after one week of deliberation and a trial that lasted only six weeks.

"america, you lost! i won!," said moussaoui after the verdict was read. 

at least three jurors came to a conclusion that moussaoui did not know enough about the attacks, three said that his role in the attacks were minor, three said that as a child, moussaoui suffered from racism, nine said that his father abused him, and the other jurors said that the "dysfunctional family" forced him to leave his home.

this verdict "represents the end of this case but not an end to the fight against terror," said u.s. president george w. bush. "mr. moussaoui got a fair trial. the jury convicted him to life in prison, where he will spend the rest of his life. in so doing, they spared his life, which is something that he evidently was not willing to do for innocent american citizens. it is really important for the united states to stay on the offence against these killers and bring them to justice."

carie lemack, the daughter of a september 11 victim, said "there's absolutely nothing in this country that all 9/11 family members are going to agree upon except that the attacks should never happen again, and i respect everyone's opinion. i think what's important is that we make sure moussaoui will not get what he wants, which is to become a martyr and go down in history being someone bigger than he was. i'm glad that the jury looked at the evidence and realized he's just an al-qaeda wannabe."

when moussaoui spoke he said; "i have seen an amount of hypocrisy beyond any belief, your humanity is very selective humanity...you have branded me as a terrorist or a criminal ...you should look at yourselves first ...i am a mujahid and you think you own the world, and you must admit you are wrong."

he described the trial as a "wasted opportunity for this country to understand and to learn why people like me and people like mohamed atta and the rest have so much hatred for you. you don't want to hear, america. you will feel. we will come back another day," he declared.



earl woods, father of tiger woods, dies at age 74

earl woods, the father of tiger woods, died from cancer today at his home in cypress, california, at the age of 74. 

woods died of prostate cancer, which returned to his body after a previous bout with prostate cancer from 1986-1998, but it was treated with radiation. 

although earl was sometimes posed as an overwhelming, bossy father, tiger treated earl as "an amazing dad, coach, mentor, soldier, husband and friend." tiger also posted that "i wouldn't be where i am today without him, and i'm honored to continue his legacy of sharing and caring." 

tiger skipped this week's pga tour event, the wachovia championship, to be with his father. two of his closest friends, mark o'meara and john cook, followed suit. 

woods, who grew up as an african-american child during the 1940's in rural kansas, played baseball as a high-schooler and in the negro leagues, withstanding racism the whole way. during his two trips in the vietnam war as a green beret, woods met his lifelong friend, vietnamese col. vuong dang "tiger" phong, after whom he named his son.

earl met his wife, kutilda punsawad, in thailand. they married in 1969, and their son, "tiger", was born december 30, 1975.



rescue attempts continue for tasmanian miners

rescuers are continuing their efforts to reach the trapped miners in the beaconsfield mine in northern tasmania.

a five tonne borer drilling machine has been secured in place to drill a one metre hole through the remaining 12-16 metres of rock that fell into the main shaft.

since drilling began at 7pm last night, the machine has made a 2 cm wide pilot hole half way to the miners.

the trapped miners have been given egg sandwiches and yogurt, and have received apple ipod mp3 players filled with the miners favourite songs to pass the time and drown out the sounds of the drilling.

meanwhile on the surface, the ever-growing media frenzy in beaconsfield has forced the mine operators to enforce bag checks of rescuers entering the mine to ensure that no recording devices are taken into the mine.


voting day for local elections in england

voting day, thursday 4th may, has begun for the local elections taking place in england. the elections will appoint local councillors, and, in some boroughs, local mayors. council elections include all 32 london boroughs, 36 metropolitan boroughs and 88 non-metropolitan districts. mayoral elections will be held for hackney, watford, newham and lewisham. in the non-london council areas, the voting will affect either a third or half of the total number of councillors. in london, all council seats are up for election. some council areas are not taking part in the election.

polling stations will open between 07:00 and 22:00. many voters will also have had the opportunity to apply for a postal vote. counting begins once the polls close, with the results typically available in the early hours of the next morning.

the labour, conservative and liberal democrat parties have all launched major campaigns, as have some smaller parties such as the green party, ukip (united kingdom independence party), respect and the bnp (british national party).


filmmaker releases trailer for open source feature film

new filmmaker solomon rothman has released a trailer for his upcoming full length open source film called 'boy who never slept.' both the movie and the trailer are offered under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-sharealike 2.5 license. the movie is set to be released at the end of may.

the film centers on the life of an insomniac writer who meets a teenage girl online, and a friendship that grows into an unlikely love story wrapped in harsh reality. the movie deals with various issues, including the romanticization of love, age-related issues in relationships, like statuatory rape (he's 23, and she's 16), and the idea of love in the online realm.

rothman, a writer, amateur filmmaker and web designer, lives in the los angeles area. he wrote, directed and produced the movie with aurora mae, his girlfriend and partner. producing the movie for $200 while they were in college, they used friends as actors and later sold the camera on ebay to recoup the expense. 

rothman has spoken about the power of the internet as a distribution source for movies and has said "i believe it's possible that this movie i shot with no budget and released online for free could potentially reach as many viewers as a major theatrical release."

rothman and mae started out with the idea of creating a full-length movie that could be shared totally for free online. the film includes a custom soundtrack and script, both of which will be released open source as well.

the trailer is available on the official movie website and can also be found on google video, youtube.com, ifilm.com, addictedclips.com, and the internet movie archives. 



iso adopts open document format

after a six month voting window, adoption of the open document format (odf) as an iso/iec standard has become official, with a unanimous vote supporting the odf (and some abstentions). the odf format allows developers to produce office-type applications which use an inter-operable standard, allowing users to share documents without requiring a specific application to read them. the format covers text documents, spreadsheets, databases, charts and presentations.

iso secretary-general alan bryden said, "[this publication] reflects the international community's recognition of the importance of open formats in enabling business interoperability."

so far, the two major applications which support the odf format are openoffice.org and koffice. microsoft office currently dominates the market for office applications, although several third-party applications also contain limited support for the microsoft office formats.



picasso's painting sold for $95.2 million

pablo picasso's famous portrait of his lover has been auctioned for $95.2 million at sotheby's in new york on wednesday. 1941 masterpiece "dora maar with cat/ dora maar au chat" was sold to an anonymous buyer. this is the second highest amount ever paid in an auction. the highest amount paid so far for a painting is $104 million ("boy with a pipe/garcon a la pipe" by picasso, 1905), which was auctioned in 2004. vincent van gogh's "portrait with dr. gachet" was sold at $82.5 million.

dora maar, herself an artist, believed to have helped picasso in the execution of the famous masterpiece "guernica," which depicted the horror of spanish civil war. they had a relationship that lasted for a decade.

picasso was born in malaga, spain on 25 october 1881. he died at the age of 92 in 1973.




former victorian premier considers political comeback

former victorian premier, jeff kennett said that he will consider returning to politics over the next 48 hours following the resignation of liberal party leader, robert doyle. mr kennett was premier of victoria from 1992 until 1999, when the steve bracks labor government narrowly defeated him.

mr doyle has resigned following his approval rating sinking to a low of 15 percent.

there have been rumours of mr kennett returning to politics after the liberal party lost its second election in 2002 election. these have now been heightened by mr doyle's resignation. mr kennett said numerous people have approached him over the past few months about a return to politics. "i have received over the last few months significant numbers of approaches from both political and non-political people" he said.

it is expected that transport spokesman, terry mulder and planning spokesman ted baillieu may also run for the position of victorian liberal party leader. the new leader will be decided at a party meeting on monday, when mr doyle will formally resign from the position.

if the party selects mr kennett as its leader there may be a number of interesting scenarios played out as mr kennett is not currently a member of parliament. he may be endorsed as leader immediately (in which case he would be an "outsider"), an acting leader may be elected until mr kennett returns to parliament at either the november 25 election or by winning a by-election. if the party decides to endorse mr kennett immediately, it would be the first time since 1993 that a party has had a leader who has not been a sitting member of parliament.

mr kennett has the support of john howard, australia's prime minister and most senior liberal party figure. a spokesperson for mr howard said that mr howard would welcome mr kennet's return to politics.


prime ministers of greece and turkey meet in thessalonika

the greek premier and his counterpart of turkey, , had a meeting, for 45 minutes, in , northern greece, in the sidelines of the inter-balkan cooperation summit. caramanlis and erdogan had the opportunity to discuss the bilateral issues between greece and turkey, such as the cyprus issue, the dispute between the two countries in the area of aegean sea as well as the process of turkey's efforts to become a member of the european union. today, the prime minister of turkey will have the opportunity to visit the turkish consulate of thessaloniki; the house in which the founder of the republic of turkey, , was born.

except from the caramanlis-erdogan meeting, important discussions took place in thessaloniki between the leaders of southeast europe countries. the bulgarian prime minister denied the reports in bulgarian media, whereby the bulgarian public sector was backing out of the - oil pipe construction. in addition, the leaders welcomed the signing of the agreement for constructing a state-of-the-art railroad network in southeast europe, which as he said, would modernise rail transport, reduce travel time and increase the quality of the services provided in the region. 

japan, a major contributor to balkan reconstruction projects, has guest status at the meeting, represented by deputy foreign minister, akiko yamanaka. the summit focused on the european prospects of the southeast european countries, economic relations, the issue with kosovo, and the political crisis in serbia, following the failed arrest of wanted general mladic and the freezing of negotiations with the european union.


states challenge to australian work choices act begins

the challenge against the australian federal government's work choices legislation has begun in canberra today. the challenge was initiated by the governments of new south wales, western australia, south australia, queensland and victoria and joined by the and unions nsw.

the states claim that the legislation, passed by parliament in december last year, is unconstitutional. the federal government will argue that the legislation is permitted under , commonly known as the "corporations powers". the states argue that this section was never intended to be used for industrial arbitration.

today, the court heard new south wales' challenge to the laws. solicitor-general of nsw, michael sexton, sc, said that the legislation would have been considered unconstitutional since federation over 100 years ago. he questioned whether or not the authors of australia's constitution intended for the corporations provisions to extend to employees.

"what we do say is that this legislation would have been considered beyond a commonwealth power for most of the last century" he told the court.

another lawyer for new south wales, bret walker, sc, said states had been given the power of industrial relations, not the commonwealth government.

some of the submissions made by new south wales were attacked by justice haynes, one of the seven high court judges presiding over the case, described the submission as being sloppy and ill-prepared.

justice haynes said that the definitions in the constitution need to be read in context of the 1890s, which were boom and bust times for corporations in australia. he said that today, corporations are different to in the past. he also said that the authors would have been aware that there could be changes in the way the constitution was interpreted.

the premier of queensland, is concerned that if the states lose their case that the powers between the states and commonwealth would need to be revised.

"we will need a constitutional convention to reshape the powers between the states and the commonwealth" he said.



lava flows from mount merapi

scientists warn that mount merapi, or "the mountain of fire," a large indonesian volcano on the island of java is likely to erupt. molten lava and shallow volcanic earthquakes were recorded on wednesday, as well as further tremors on thursday morning.

mount merapi is the most active of 130 volcanoes in indonesia. it is a strato-volcano with an active summit lava dome. it has small eruptions every 3-4 years and larger eruptions every 10-15 years. it has produced more pyroclastic flows, popularly known as heat cloud and magma, than any other volcano in the world. the last fatal eruption happened in 1994, killing 60. during the eruption in 1930, 1,300 people died. historians say that mount merapi has been erupting for 10,000 years.

mount merapi is considered very sacred by the locals. according to the local folk-lore the volcano's eruption is the result of spirits being angered by not receiving sufficient offerings or by a disrespectful attitude among the people in slopes. 27,000 locals in 3 villages could be affected by this eruption. scientists gave a warning of eruption a fortnight back and asked for immediate evacuation. the nearest city is yogyakarta. the awesome sight of the erupting volcano has attracted many tourists and locals.


mount merapi erupts

kevin anderson, correspondent for the bbc, reports mount merapi is erupting. reporter hans van den broek in java told the bbc that mount merapi is erupting, just about 40 km from where he is.

it has been rumbling and spewing ash for some time, but the bbc correspondent said that this is the real thing.


celebrations for the time 01:02:03, 04/05/06

fans of quirky numbers everywhere celebrated recently as the clock struck 01:02:03, 04/05/06 (using the dd/mm/yy date convention). this once-in-a-century event was highlighted in advance by webloggers and websites such as boing boing. for countries where the mm/dd/yy convention is more common, the event happened a month ago on 5th april.

the date attracted numerous comments when posted to the news website digg, and the special date has been mentioned by hundreds of thousands of websites, according to a google search.

blogger robert scoble exclaimed, "the things geeks care about!"

whilst 01:02:03, 04/05/06 won't happen again for another hundred years, those who missed out might want to celebrate 06:06:06, 06/06/06 in just over a month's time, unless you're a hexakosioihexekontahexaphobic. that is, the fear of the number 666. 



news briefs:may 4, 2006

the time is 17:00 (utc) on may 4th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

united states

zacarias moussaoui, convicted for conspiring with al-qaeda, will get life in prison. the attacks in september 2001 killed nearly 3,000 people and 4 commercial jetliners were used in the attacks. u.s. district judge leonie brinkema, the trial judge, has agreed to the sentence and formally sentenced moussaoui who will never leave prison. he will serve his life term in a federal, maximum security prison, in florence, colorado.

greece

the greek premier kostas caramanlis and his counterpart of turkey, rejep tayyip erdogan, had a meeting, for 45 minutes, in thessaloniki, northern greece, in the sidelines of the inter-balkan cooperation summit. caramanlis and erdogan had the opportunity to discuss the bilateral issues between greece and turkey, such as the cyprus issue, the dispute between the two countries in the area of aegean sea as well as the process of turkey's efforts to become a member of the european union. today, the prime minister of turkey will have the opportunity to visit the turkish consulate of thessaloniki; the house in which the founder of the republic of turkey, kemal ataturk, was born.

england

voting day, thursday 4th may, has begun for the local elections taking place in england. the elections will appoint local councillors, and, in some boroughs, local mayors. council elections include all 32 london boroughs, 36 metropolitan boroughs and 88 non-metropolitan districts. mayoral elections will be held for hackney, watford, newham and lewisham. in the non-london council areas, the voting will affect either a third or half of the total number of councillors. in london, all council seats are up for election. some council areas are not taking part in the election.

indonesia

scientists warn that mount merapi, or "the mountain of fire," a large indonesian volcano on the island of java is likely to erupt. molten lava and shallow volcanic earthquakes were recorded on wednsday, as well as further tremors on thursday morning.
mount merapi is the most active of 130 volcanoes in indonesia.it is a strato-volcano with an active summit lava dome.it has small eruptions every 3-4 years and larger eruptions every 10-15 years. it has produced more pyroclastic flows,popularly known as heat cloud and magma, than any other volcano in the world. the last fatal eruption happenned in 1994, when 60 people got killed. 1,300 died during the eruption in 1930.

australia

rescuers are continuing their efforts to reach the trapped miners in the beaconsfield mine in northern tasmania.
a five tonne borer drilling machine has been secured in place to drill a one metre hole through the remaining 12-16 metres of rock that fell into the main shaft.
since drilling began at 7pm last night, the machine has made a 2cm wide pilot hole half way to the miners.
the trapped miners have been given egg sandwiches and yogurt, and have received mp3 players to pass the time and drown out the sounds of the drilling.

and more news from the united states

picasso's famous portrait of his lover has been auctioned for $95.2 million at sotheby's in new york on wednesday. 1941 masterpiece "dora maar with cat/ dora maar au chat" was sold to an anonymous buyer. this is the second highest amount ever paid in an auction. the highest amount paid so far for a painting is $104 million ( "boy with a pipe/ garcon a la pipe" by picasso,1905 ),which was auctioned in 2004. 

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


rhode island congressman patrick kennedy involved in car accident near u.s. capitol

u.s. representative patrick j. kennedy (d-ri), son of massachusetts senator edward kennedy, was involved in a traffic accident near the u.s. capitol in washington, d.c.

capitol hill police reported that kennedy was alone his 1997 ford mustang when the accident occurred thursday at about 2:45 a.m. edt (0645 utc) near the 100 block of c street se. police say his eyes were red and watery, and he was unbalanced and had slurred speech. police also say that kennedy had received three "notices of infractions" that are connected with the crash.

according to the police report, kennedy drove his car into a security barrier near the capitol building. when questioned by the police, he told them that he was "headed to the capitol to make a vote," when no votes were scheduled for that time of the morning. 

kennedy said in a written statement that he had returned home around midnight and had taken the sleep aid ambien and the anti-nausea drug phenergan, both of which are known to cause drowsiness and sedation. he awakened a couple hours later and was "disoriented" when the incident occurred. he also said that "at no time before the accident" did he take alcohol, and pledged to cooperate in any investigation.

today, kennedy said, "apparently, i was disoriented from the medication" and that he "never asked for any preferential treatment." he also announced that he is checking himself into the mayo clinic in rochester, minnesota.

"i know i need help. as in every recovery, each day has its ups and downs.," added kennedy. this is not the first time kennedy has been to the mayo clinic. last christmas, kennedy spent time at the clinic and went back to work after he was "feeling focused and in good shape." 

however; robin costello, spokeswoman for kennedy said, "we have no knowledge of any citations," but she did admit that a report was filed.

capitol police have not commented on the report or allegations, but sgt. kimberly schneider, capitol police spokeswoman did say, "the united states capitol police are continuing to investigate." 

it is not known whether any sobriety test or arrest was made. kennedy was not injured.


conservatives make gains in english local elections

most of the results have now been declared from the local elections that took place across england yesterday. the conservative party has made the biggest gains, winning 316 new council seats and gaining a net control of 11 new councils. the liberal democrat party also made some gains, getting an overall bigger share of the vote than labour, but only winning a modest 18 or so extra councillors.

the british national party has doubled its number of councillors, winning 11 seats in the barking and dagenham area, as well as a few elsewhere. the green party has won a few extra councillors. the respect party won 12 seats on the council of tower hamlets, making them now the official opposition.

robin wales has been re-elected as the mayor for the london borough of newham, dorothy thornhill re-elected the mayor of watford and steve bullock re-elected as the mayor for lewisham. results have not yet been announced for the election of the mayor of hackney.

in an immediate development, tony blair sacked charles clarke from the post of home secretary.

initial estimations suggest that turnout was 36%, a reduction of three points compared to 2004.



michelle wie makes cut in korean men's golf tournament

u.s. golfer made the cut yesterday in the 2006 sk telecom open in , south korea, finishing the second round with a 3-under-par 69 and 5-under-par overall, tying her for 17th overall.

this was wie's eighth attempt at making it past the halfway point in a men's professional golf tournament. she had played in seven tournaments on the pga, canadian, nationwide, and japanese tours, failing to make the 36-hole cut in all seven attempts.

the 16-year old golfer from hawaii became the second woman to accomplish this feat in a korean men's tournament, after made the cut in the 2003 sbs pro-golf championship and went on to finish 10th.



kennett rules out political comeback

after announcing on thursday that he was considering a comeback to victorian state politics, former premier jeff kennett has ruled out a comeback.

following the resignation of state opposition leader robert doyle, mr kennett announced that he had been approached several times about returning to politics over the past few months and that he was contemplating standing for the victorian liberal party leadership. he announced today, at a press conference that he would not be returning to state politics.

when asked whether he would consider a move to federal politics, mr kennett said he had no intention of going to canberra. "i have no intention of going to canberra, i don't like flying and i don't like being away from home at night." he told the media.

following mr kennett's announcement, terry mulder, the victorian liberal's transport spokesperson said that he was withdrawing from the leadership race. his move paves the way for planning spokesperson ted baillieu to become the party's new leader unopposed.

mr mulder said that mr baillieu had "overwhelming" support within the party.

australia's prime minister, john howard said that he believed mr baillieu would make a very good leader, but was disappointed that mr kennett had ruled out a comeback.




australian government announces $52.5 million financial assistance package for ford

australian prime minister john howard and federal industry minister ian macdonald today announced that the federal government would be providing ford australia with a au$52.5 million (us$40.4 million) "financial assistance package". additional assistance will also be provided by the victorian state government.

according to mr howard, the injection will secure ford's manufacturing operations in australia "for the long term".

from the package, au$40 million will be used for the design and manufacture of ford's next model falcon and territory vehicles, which will be built in australia.

despite being given a major facelift in 2002 and another in 2005, the falcon's bodyshell dates back to 1998. the current falcon will need to serve the company until at least 2007 when the new model is anticipated. in the meantime, it will face stiff competition from the completely new holden commodore (the falcon's major competitor) which will be released in the second half of this year. 

the additional au$12.5 million will be spent on the development of a light commercial vehicle platform, which will be built overseas and marketed to around 80 countries. mr howard said that the light commercial project would involve construction of a research and development centre, which will become the base for r&d projects in the region.

mr macfarlane said that the research facility was exciting for australia and that it would put the australian automotive in the spotlight.

“the funding has helped ford australia secure the largest automotive r&d project ever undertaken in australia which is equally exciting news for local ford employees and australian component producers” he said.

“the project will see ford australia become a centre for automotive design and engineering excellence in the asia pacific region which will bring spin-off benefits for the broader industry,” 

“this opportunity will put both ford australia, and the australian automotive and components sectors on the world map as far as our automotive design and engineering capabilities are concerned.” mr macfarlane said.

mr howard claims that the projects will create 273 jobs and secure the future of the "iconic" ford falcon, which has been built in australia since 1960.

the financial package is conditional upon ford australia giving the australian automotive component industry an opportunity to supply components for the vehicles produced by the two projects.


charles clarke loses home secretary position in cabinet reshuffle, uk

the united kingdom home secretary charles clarke has lost his position in a cabinet reshuffle by tony blair, on the morning after the labour party suffered losses in local elections across england. the news follows two weeks of headlines caused by the release of over 1000 foreign prisoners mistakenly released from prison at the end of their sentence rather than being deported.

current defence secretary john reid will replace clarke as the new home secretary, and jack straw will become commons leader.




riots in mexico

there has been a riot in santiago, a small town 25 kilometers from mexico city. violence exploded when three flower sellers were arrested on suspicion of trading without permits. 

rioters attacked the police with sticks, machetes and petrol bombs.

thousands of police quelled the crowd with tear gas and batons. dozens were arrested. the arrested include peasant leader, ignacio del valle.

all 11 police officers held hostage by rioters were released. 

javier cortes santiago, a fourteen year old boy, was killed in the riots. 

in 2002 rioters managed to cancel plans to build an airport in the town. 



indian music composer naushad ali dies

acclaimed hindi music composer naushad ali passed away due to old age in mumbai this morning at the age of 86. family sources say that he had been in ill health in the recent past. 

naushad ali, popularly known as naushad, was born in 1919. he came to mumbai ( then known as bombay ) to pursue his career as music composer in 1935. he got his first break in the film prem nagar in 1940, and established himself through his work in sharda. naushad had composed music for popular hindi films such as mughal-e-azam, mother india, baiju bawra and pakeezah. he also has the credit of introducing famous singers lata mangeshkar and mohammad rafi to hindi film music. he was awarded the prestigious dadasaheb phalke award for lifetime contribution to hindi cinema in 1981. his last contribution was to the 2005 film taj mahal - an eternal love story.

he was also passionate about angling as his hobby.


darfur rebel leader signs peace plan

the sudanese government and sudanese liberation movement (slm), led by minni minnawi, signed a peace deal to end three years of conflict. two smaller rebel groups rejected it despite last-minute efforts to get their support. 

the deal, which followed intense talks in abuja, capital of nigeria, calls for the disbandment of rebel forces and the disarmament of the pro-government janjaweed militia. the conflict had killed about 200,000 and left about two million homeless. the accord, initiated by the african union, was reached after two years of negotiations.

"i accept the document with some reservations concerning the power sharing," mr minnawi said. the slm are the largest rebel group in the darfur region of sudan. one of his officials told that the slm wanted more seats in parliament but had agreed to the deal to end the suffering of the people in darfur.

two smaller groups said they were not happy with the terms of the deal. the justice and equality movement (jem) said it wanted fundamental changes to the document. the group's chief negotiator, ahmed tugod, reiterated the rebels' demands for the post of vice-president in the khartoum government, to have the allocation of 6.5 percent of sudan's national income to a darfur development fund, and for greater representation in national institutions. 

"we decided not to sign it unless fundamental changes are made to this document, it did not meet a series of key demands." mr tugod said. 

the other faction of sudanese liberation movement (slm) likewise refused to sign it. "we need the document to be improved upon," the group's spokesman abdel wahid muhamed el nur said. 

rebel negotiators faced intense pressure to accept the amended deal, as diplomats from the united states, britain, canada and the european union struggled to find common ground. the initial deadline for the peace talks was sunday at midnight, but was extended thrice. the peace plan was prepared by mediators from the african union and was amended after the rebel groups did not agree at an early draft. international negotiators, including u.s. deputy secretary of state robert zoellick, nigerian president olusegun obasanjo and british international development secretary hilary benn, said the deal was the best hope for peace in darfur.

the new plan decided to:


observers said failure to reach an agreement would have been disastrous for the people of darfur, who have suffered through three years of conflict that has claimed 200,000 lives and driven more than 2 millions from their homes. the conflict began in the arid and impoverished region early in 2003 after a rebel group began attacking government targets, claiming the capital khartoum was neglecting the region. the rebels said the government was oppressing black africans in favour of arabs.

on the other side, arab janjaweed militias, drawn from arab tribes, had been conducting a campaign of destruction with alleged help from the government. to flush out the rebels they had allegedly been targeting innocent civilians. more than 90 villages were burnt and destroyed, millions have fled their destroyed villages, with many heading for camps near darfur's main towns. but there was not enough food, water or medicine. the janjaweed patrol outside the camps and darfurians said the men were killed and the women were raped if they venture too far in search of firewood or water. many women were reported being abducted by the janjaweed and held as sex slaves for more than a week before being released. some 200,000 had also sought safety in neighbouring chad, but many of them were camped along a 600km stretch of the border and remain vulnerable to attacks from sudan. chad was worried that the conflict could spill over the border. its eastern areas have a similar ethnic make-up to darfur.
darfur, which means land of the fur, has the history of tensions for many years over land and grazing rights between the mostly nomadic arabs, and farmers from the fur, massaleet and zagawa communities. 

human rights groups said that genocide was taking place, though a un investigation team sent to sudan said that while war crimes had been committed, there had been no intent to commit genocide. in april 2006, the un security council passed a resolution imposing sanctions against four sudanese nationals accused of war crimes in darfur that include two rebel leaders, a former air force chief, and a janjaweed militia leader. 

sudan's government denied being in control of the janjaweed and president omar al-bashir called them "thieves and gangsters". after strong international pressure and the threat of sanctions, the government promised to disarm the janjaweed. but so far there was little evidence that this had been implemented. thousands of extra policemen were deployed but the refugees had little faith in the sudanese security forces. some 7,000 african union troops had slowly been deployed in darfur on a very limited mandate. experts said the soldiers were too few to cover the whole area, and the african union said it did not have the money to fund the operation for much longer. sudan was unhappy with suggestions that the un take control of the peacekeeping mission. 

many aid agencies working in darfur were unable to get access to vast areas because of the fighting. they said a peace agreement is vital before the rainy season begins in june when planting of food crops must be completed. united nations officials, meanwhile, warned that they would be unable to provide food and other aid to the more than two million people living in refugee camps unless the security situation improves.



cindy sheehan urges canada to welcome u.s. deserters

cindy sheehan, a prominent u.s. anti-war activist, appeared at a news conference at the canadian capital of ottawa, ontario on thursday to speak being in afghanistan, and in favour of canada giving u.s. deserters refugee status.

"i believe our war resisters are legitimate refugees," ms. sheehan said while also alleging that the soldiers are within their rights to desert because many are "lied to" by u.s. military recruiters who tell them they won't have to fight in iraq.

sheehan, the mother of a fallen american soldier who served in iraq, called on the canadian prime minister stephen harper to "open the border" to u.s. military deserters.
"my son was an honourable, honest person lied to by his recruiter," she said.

sheehan said that canadian soldiers being in afghanistan enables the united states to carry on its "illegal and immoral" war in iraq. "i believe my country shouldn't be in afghanistan anyway," ms. sheehan told reporters on parliament hill. "it's never about spreading freedom or democracy or making the world safe, it's about lining the war profiteers' pockets. my country supported osama bin laden in the fight against russia," she said. "and now they go in and tear down that country. it's back in the hands of the drug lords, it's producing more opium than ever, and it's not safe. there's not any rebuilding going on, because it's being occupied by occupying forces." 

she made an address to approximately 300 students on wednesday night at the university of toronto. her appearances are part of a cross-county campaign targeted at university campuses.


news briefs:may 5, 2006

the time is 15:00 (utc) on may 5th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

england

most of the results have now been declared from the local elections that took place across england yesterday. the conservative party have made the biggest gains, winning over two hundred new council seats and gaining a net control of 12 new councils. the liberal democrat party also made some gains, getting an overall bigger share of the vote than labour, but only winning a modest 18 or so extra councillors.
the british national party has doubled its number of councillors, winning 11 seats in the barking and dagenham area, as well as a few elsewhere. the green party have won a few extra councillors.

and here is more news, concerning the outcome of the local elections in england.

the united kingdom home secretary charles clarke has lost his position in a cabinet reshuffle by tony blair, on the morning after the labour party suffered losses in local elections across england. the news follows two weeks of headlines caused by the release of over 1000 foreign prisoners mistakenely released from prison at the end of their sentence rather than being deported.
current defence secretary john reid will replace clarke as the new home secretary, and jack straw will become commons leader.

australia

after announcing on thursday that he was considering a comeback to victorian state politics, former premier jeff kennett has ruled out a comeback.
following the resignation of state opposition leader robert doyle, mr kennett announced that he had been approached several times about returning to politics over the past few months and that he was contemplating standing for the victorian liberal party leadership. he announced today, at a press conference that he would not be returning to state politics.

also from australia the news has reached us, that …

australian prime minister john howard and federal industry minister ian macdonald today announced that the federal government will be providing ford australia with a au$52.5 million (us$40.4 million) "financial assistance package". additional assistance will also be provided by the victorian state government.
according to mr howard, the injection will secure ford's manufacturing operations in australia "for the long term".

india

acclaimed hindi music composer naushad ali passed away due to old-age in mumbai this morning at the age of 86. family sources say that he had been in ill-health in the recent past. ali had composed music for hit hindi films such as mughal-e-azam,mother india and bajju bawra.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


u.s.; china has provided military aid and training to venezuela

china is expanding military and economic connections in latin america, including countries that are barred by a u.s. law from receiving military training and aid from the u.s. itself.

"china's profile in the region has been ratcheting up sharply," said thomas shannon, assistant secretary of state. 

u.s. gen. bantz craddock, head of u.s. southern command, advised the house armed services committee that china's military is increasing its involvement, "offering resources to cash-strapped militaries and security forces with no strings attached." 

according to jose ruiz, a spokesman for southern command, china has participated in exchanges of senior defense officials with ecuador, bolivia and chile and has provided military aid and training to jamaica and venezuela.

further, as reported by jane's defense weekly, caracas may be close to finalizing a deal with china to procure a new chinese national defense communications network. the network is a satellite based system, incorporating strong encryption and other security measures.


porter goss resigns as director of the cia

according to united states president george w. bush, cia director porter goss has resigned.

"he has led ably. [he] helped make this country a safer place. he has a five-year plan to increase the analysts and operatives. he honours the proud history of the cia, an organization that is known for its secrecy and accountability. we've got to win the war on terror," said bush in a press conference on friday.

"i would like to report to you that the agency (cia) is back on a very even keel and sailing well," said goss.

the reasons for goss's resignation are not yet known and as of the moment, the president has announced no replacement.

goss was appointed as the cia's director in 2004 and served as director for 19 months. he was previously an undercover agent for the organization and was also a member of the u.s. house of representatives for 16 years.



4 year old indian boy runs 40 miles in 7 hours

a four-year-old indian boy from the eastern state of orissa ran 65 kilometers (40 miles) continuously, setting an indian record and possibly a world record as well.

budhia singh, a slum resident whose talent was discovered by a local coach, completed his run in seven hours and two minutes. budhia had originally planned to run 43 miles, but doctors intervened at the 40-mile mark when he started showing signs of extreme exhaustion. 300 cadets from the central reserve police force, which plans to sponsor his upbringing, escorted budhia, while thousands of onlookers cheered him on.

officials from the limca book of records, india's best-known record book, witnessed the run and said that budhia's accomplishment would appear in the 2007 edition of the book.

coach biranchi das says that he had seen budhia's talent when budhia accidentally entered a sports field without permission. das had the boy run laps as punishment, but after five hours the boy was still running.

human rights groups in india decried the run, saying that government officials endangered budhia's life by allowing him to run in sweltering temperatures. "it is an act done so rashly or negligently to endanger human life or the personal safety of others as defined under section 336 of the indian penal code," said suhas chakma, director of the asian center for human rights.

das said that doctors had examined the boy and found nothing wrong.

"i loved running today. i can run as much as i want," budhia said after the run.



warehouse burns in helsinki, finland

a former warehouse of vr group, a finnish railroad company in helsinki, finland, is currently on fire. reports say smoke can be seen throughout the city center.

the warehouse was scheduled to be demolished next monday.


polls open for the 2006 parliamentary elections, singapore

singapore polling stations opened this morning at 8 a.m. sgt (0000 utc) and are expected to run until 8 p.m. sgt (1200 utc) tonight. election results are expected from as early as 10 p.m. sgt (1400 utc).

for the first time in 18 years, the incumbent people's action party (pap) has not won a walkover victory on nomination day on 26th april after opposition parties fielded candidates for 47 of the 84 seats. however, political analysts believe that the pap will win a majority victory again.

this is the first parliamentary election for prime minister lee hsien loong after he took over from the former prime minister and current senior minister, goh chok tong stepped down in august 2004 in a planned leadership transition. lee, 54, is the son of the minister mentor lee kuan yew, who was the prime minister of singapore from 1959 to 1990.

as election surveys and exit polls are banned in singapore, it is difficult to determine how the political outcome might be. however, in the previous parliamentary elections in 2001, the pap won 82 of 84 seats with 55 walkovers. the 2 remaining seats went to chiam see tong of the singapore democratic alliance (sda) and low thia khiang of the workers' party (wp). a win of less than 80 of the 84 seats could prove an embarrassment for pm lee.

the last nine days saw intense campaigning from the incumbent pap, the sda, the wp and the singapore democratic party (sdp). several thousands of people attended the opposition rallies. debates about the widening income gap, rising medical costs, job cuts, and calls for a less authoritarian political system dominated the campaigning.



rescue of tasmanian miners delayed

rescuers working to free miners trapped during the beaconsfield mine collapse have moved to a slightly faster blasting method. the rescue effort was expected to conclude on sunday, however due to rescuers encountering extremely hard rock, it has been once again delayed.

the vertical distance had previously been estimated at 1.5 metres, although rescuers believe it could be less with work being carried out overnight.

todd russell, 34, and brant webb, 37, have been underground for 13 nights after a minor earthquake triggered a rockfall in the beaconsfield gold mine. they survived because they were in a small cage when the collapse occurred. their workmate larry knight, 44, died in the collapse, and his funeral is to be held in launceston on tuesday. his family members have delayed the funeral proceedings with the hope that the trapped miners will be freed and able to attend.


cruise liner off england coast catches fire

a cruise ship caught fire 32 km (20 miles) off the southeast coast of england. the blaze started in the engine-room of the calypso, which had 708 passengers and crew onboard. 

the passengers were mainly dutch.

specialist firefighters transported by helicopter from the east sussex fire and rescue service tackled the fire.

it was tugged to southampton by the anglican monarch, a tug boat jointly operated by england and france. the relieved passengers left to boat 16 hours after the fire started. 

"a team will be going onboard to assess the situation, so time will tell," said the maritime and coastguard agency spokeswoman.

there were no causualties and no evacuation.



car hits five-year-old australian girl

a car driven by an 80-year-old man has hit a five year old girl at a pedestrian crossing at frenchs forest road in seaforth, in sydney's north at 4 p.m. aest.

sophie delezio, 5, was rushed to sydney children’s hospital. she has injuries to shoulder, jaw, numerous rib fractures but her most serious injury is bleeding around her left lung. she is expected to fully recover. she is expected to be in intensive care for three weeks. she is not expected to have to undergo surgery. a drug called novoseven is credited with stopping the bleeding around her lung.

the 80-year-old driver of the car that crashed into her has been arrested on negligent driving causing grievous bodily harm and failing to give way at a pedestrian crossing. he is expected to front manly court on 15 july 2006. 

sophie was also involved in an accident involving a driver crashing into the roundhouse childcare centre on december 15, 2003 causing her severe burns to 85% of her body. she also lost both feet, some fingers, and her right ear.


getafe cf coach schuster criticises preliminary spanish world cup pick

on friday, luis aragones, coach of the spanish national football team, announced the preliminary squad for the world cup finals in germany. the pick was criticised by getafe coach bernd schuster.

the 27-man squad includes 7 players from the premier league, among them chelsea left-back asier del horno. schuster claims that getafe full-back mariano pernia should have been picked instead. "all del horno has done this year is kick barcelona's lionel messi in the champions league," says schuster, referring to horno's red card in the champions league game between chelsea and barcelona back in february.

pernia, who was born in argentina, has dual citizenship, and could play for spain in the world cup finals. according to schuster, pernia had a successful season in la liga, scoring ten goals.

aragones must announce his 23-man squad by may 15.



10 american soldiers killed in helicopter crash in afghanistan

ten american soldiers were killed when a helicopter crashed near the afghanistan-pakistan border close to a landing zone in the kunar province. a military spokesman said it crashed while conducting combat operations. the soldiers were involved with operation mountain lion, which is aimed at rooting out al-qaeda and former taliban militants.

"the remains of all the 10 soldiers have been found and there are no survivors. there is no indication that the helicopter came down due to some enemy action. additional aircraft and crews were also at the landing zone and confirmed that enemy forces did not cause the crash," said lt. tamara d. lawrence, a spokeswoman for the u.s. military.

however; muhamad hanif, a taliban spokesman, said that the crash was the result of the taliban. he also said that advanced weaponry was used to shoot down helicopters.

"we have no indication that that happened," said lawrence in response to hanif's claim. "the crash occurred in a very mountainous terrain and the landing zone was very difficult. it was a mountain-top landing zone. there were various weather factors that could have come into play…. there were high winds. we are investigating any possible causes for the accident but there were no enemy actions detected at the scene," she added.

in june of 2005, taliban forces brought down a chinook in the same province, which killed all american soldiers onboard. according to the military, rocket-propelled grenades were used in that attack.

there are at least 20,000 coalition forces in afghanistan; 18,000 of them are american soldiers. at least 2,500 of the american soldiers are also involved with operation mountain lion.


anarchists, police clash in central athens during anti-war rally

tension and battles between greek police and anarchist demonstrators took place in the centre of athens, greece, during the anti-war demonstration of the 4th european social forum which is taking place in the greek capital, from 4 to 7 of may 2006. the march of the approximately 1,000 anarchists ended with clashes between groups of anarchists and police. riot police used tear gas, while a branch of a greek bank, a fast-food store and around 50 shop windows in central athens were damaged.

the anti-war demonstration rally staged by the 4th european social forum started today morning with socialist politicians, peace and environmental groups from greece and all over the world attending. the synaspismos party, a coalition of social movements and ecology parties of greece organized the demonstration.

thousands of people from europe, asia, and america, members of greek labour unions and non-government organisations took part in the march together with representatives of the steering committee. according to the european social forum and the organizers, there were approximately 80,000 demonstrators.

a group of youths set off clashes outside the british embassy, the war museum, the ministry of foreign ministry and the parliament. they then headed to ermou street, where they vandalised several shops. riot police arrested more than 15 people. further small-scale incidents were reported shortly after 5pm near the u.s. embassy and the athens police headquarters, when a group of anarchists hurled molotov cocktails against police officers and cars.


iraqis celebrate deaths of british troops

a british military helicopter crashed in basra on saturday killing four crew members. local iraqis filled the surrounding streets celebrating the crash before a clash occurred with british troops upon their arrival.

"we can confirm it was a british military helicopter that has crashed and an investigation is ongoing," a british military spokesman in london said.

an afp reporter on the scene heard from a local policeman that the helicopter was hit by a rocket fired by local militia.

according to basra police spokesman lieut. colonel kareem al-zaidi, "a multinational forces helicopter was hit by a rocket and went down on houses in central basra". he also added that fire-fighters later found the four british crew members charred in the wreckage and that no causalities on the ground resulted from the impact.

earlier, an afp journalist sighted the downed british military helicopter and reported he saw two burnt crew members after the impact which caused the helicopter to burst into flames.

after the crash, it is reported that hundreds of people from the local area, many of them youths, celebrated the helicopter's downing in the streets surrounding the crash.

on the arrival of british troops at the scene, including two tanks and one land rover, the crowd allegedly attacked the british forces with rocks, debris and petrol bombs.

a british spokeswoman, capt. kelly goodall, said british soldiers who responded came "under attack by a variety of weapons, including small arms fire, petrol bombs, as well as blast bombs and stone."

british soldiers used foam to extinguish their vehicles, escaping uninjured.

members of the crowd allegedly shouted slogans such as "victory for the mehdi army!" and "we are all soldiers of al-sayed" in support of local militants lead by shi'ite muslim cleric moqtada al-sadr.

during the conflict, an afp photographer was shot and wounded in the leg by a rubber-coated bullet. contrary to reports from the british defence department, the journalist said that british soldiers raised their rifles and shot one man dead and also later shot the driver of a car in a local street dead.

as conflict was escalated, british and shi'ite gunmen exchanged fire which resulted in the addition deaths of four iraqis including two children. an estimated 30 civilians were reportedly injured in the melee.

an iraqi policeman in basra said the helicopter was downed by a rocket and said four iraqi civilians, including two children, were killed and another 19 wounded in the fighting.

military forces later cordoned off the scene and imposed a curfew on the surrounding area in basra.



tornadoes cause millions in damages in waco, texas

early saturday morning winds up to 90 miles per hour struck waco, texas and central mclennan county, united states, causing widespread damage and leaving many households without electricity.

no deaths or serious injuries have been reported; however, there is a tremendous amount of damage in 15 areas of the city, leading mayor virgina dupuy to declare the city a disaster area.

the hardest hit area was franklin avenue, where the coca-cola bottling plant's roof was peeled open as if by a giant can-opener. there were sprite bottles spread out onto the street. the nearby furniture row shopping center was also hit hard. some furniture was found as far as three-quarters of a mile away. other hard-hit areas were robinson, hewitt, woodway, and speegleville. densely populated inner waco was spared of any catastrophic damage, though hundreds, and possibly thousands, of trees have fallen, and roofs destroyed.

the main concern is restoring power to over 23,000 households and businesses. many gas stations and grocery stores in the disaster areas were closed until power is restored. those that remained open have had to throw out all perishable items. also of concern is getting electricity to those with medical needs. the city has provided help to those without power at the dewey recreation center.

the storm is the hardest to hit the area since the tornado that struck on may 11, 1953, which tore through downtown and killed 114 people.

waco has seen more than its share of tornadoes recently. only a week ago, an f1 tornado damaged many houses along orchid and kendall lanes. no people were injured, though two horses were killed when their stable collapsed.

the national weather service confirmed this morning's winds were a f2 tornado, where wind speeds may have reached 115 miles per hour in some locations.


pap returned to power in 2006 parliamentary elections, singapore

the incumbent people's action party (pap) has retained its power in the singapore parliament after getting 66.6% of the valid votes. it maintained 82 of the available 84 seats after securing 45 of the 47 contested seats, together with 37 of the seats that it won on nomination day on 26th april through walkovers. the opposition parties singapore democratic alliance (sda) and workers' party (wp) also retained one seat each.

despite having more seats contested in this election compared to the 2001 general elections, the breakdown of seats remains unchanged from the previous election. however, the pap only won a reduced majority, having only 66.6% of the valid votes compared to the 75% that it won in the previous election because of the spectre of terrorism and a poor economy then.

the pap took all 7 contested group representation constituencies (grc) in ang mo kio, aljunied, east coast, jalan besar, tampines, pasir ris-punggol and sembawang, making up 38 of the seats. it also took seven of nine of the single seats in bukit panjang, chua chu kang, joo chiat, macpherson, nee soon central, nee soon east and yio chu kang.

among the opposition parties, the wp had the best showing, taking 16.34% of the valid votes, which is an improvement over the 2.7% that in received in the previous election. in the hougang ward, the incumbent low thia khiang of the wp took 13,987 (62.74%) of the votes, defeating eric low siak meng of the pap who only managed 8,306 (37.26%) of the votes while the remaining 277 votes were voided. the opposition win in hougang is a big disappointment for pap, which had dangled a carrot of some s$100 million in housing upgrading grants. 

despite losing all of its grc contests, its best performance was in the controversial and hotly-contested aljunied, where it took 43.9% of the votes against george yeo's pap team who won 56.08% of the votes. just a few days before, james gomez of the wp was heavily criticised by the pap for a non-submission of a certificate proving of his status as a minority. it then became a heavily debated issue in the campaigning until the pap decided that it should move on to more important issues. opposition position poster girl sylvia lim of the wp aljunied team seems to be the most likely to be appointed as a non-constituency member of parliament (ncmp) as she got the highest non-winning number of votes.

chiam see tong of the sda beat pap's sitoh yih pin in the potong pasir ward with a margin of 8,242 (55.84%) over 6,518 (44.16%) votes. the remaining 186 of the votes were voided. this is an improvement over the previous election where he only won 52.4% of the votes. however, they did not manage to win any other seats. they received more than 30 percent votes for the seats that they did not win.

contrary to the performance of the other opposition parties, the singapore democratic party (sdp) performed poorly in this election compared to the previous election. it lost all the 7 seats that it contested and only received 4.06% of the valid votes compared to 8.1% in 2001. sdp blamed the losses on the ban of political podcasts. sdp also alleged that the media waged a relentless campaign against it and that the lawsuit against it by the pap prevented it from raising the issue involving the national kidney foundation scandal.



australian veteran nine network reporter dies

during a live press interview broadcast at the beaconsfield gold mine on the seven and nine networks, veteran 60 minutes news reporter richard carleton suffered a massive heart attack.

other reporters witnessed carleton going red in the face, walking a short distance then collapsing to the ground. a few minutes earlier carleton asked beaconsfield mine manager matthew gill about the safety of the mine.

ambulance officers worked to revive carleton for over 25 minutes, before he was rushed to hospital. he was pronounced dead upon arrival at launceston hospital.

carleton had a history of heart problems, which includes a heart attack in 2003 and a bypass operation in 1988. he was also diagnosed with prostate cancer in early 2005.



sudan will welcome un peacekeepers in darfur

the government of sudan has expressed that the darfur peace accord with main rebel group, sudan liberation army, led by minni menawi, can overturn the previous rejection of un peacekeepers. so far, only african union peacekeepers were allowed in darfur.

"the sudan government will be open for any assistance," bakri mulah, secretary-general for external affairs in sudan's information ministry, said in khartoum, sudan.

in new york, john r. bolton, the us ambassador, on saturday welcomed khartoum's new willingness to accept a un peacekeeping force to take over from au soldiers in the darfur region. he cited the sudanese government representatives' comments to indicate they were now willing to accept the un force. he said, " we view this as a very encouraging sign, the first positive outcome from the abuja peace agreement. "

in the meantime, top un humanitarian official jan egeland has arrived in sudan to review the situation in the darfur region. he is expected to visit southern darfur, where fighting has broken out recently. it is the first visit by a un official to the region since the peace deal was signed.

he said that access for aid workers in darfur was at its worst level in two years. "at the moment darfur is slowly being strangled, it's dying in front of us, half of the population now has become war victims...so i believe, yes, we are turning the corner, but the whole world has to put pressure on the parties." said mr egeland, the un's emergency relief co-ordinator. 

earlier, un secretary general kofi annan requested khartoum to issue visas to his team of assessors so they could plan for the deployment of an international peacekeeping force to replace the 7,000 african union troops later in the year. the au troops, now running out of funds, had largely been ineffective in stopping atrocities, leaving millions to struggle in camps with little food or water. while details for a un peacekeeping force are finalised, the us diplomat said the us had asked rwanda to send in some 1,200 troops to supplement the au forces.

in a recent development, an unknown assailant shot a spanish united nations aid worker in chad. she is working in the eastern part of chad to assist the refugees from darfur region. 2,00,000 refugees have crossed the border to escape from the violence in darfur. she is in critical condition. 



iran says it may withdraw from nuclear non-proliferation treaty

in a letter to the united nations, iran's parliament has said it may have to withdraw from the if pressure to end its nuclear program escalates.

the letter to un secretary general kofi annan stated that if the issues with iran's nuclear program are not settled by peaceful methods, then "there will be no option for the parliament but to ask the government to withdraw its signature."

"should the un secretary general and security council members not fulfill their crucial duties in settling arguments, there will be no choice for the but to demand the government withdraw the ratification of the additional protocol and put on its agenda a review of article 10 of the npt," said the letter, signed by at least 160 deputies.

in the non-proliferation treaty, article 10 states that a country can withdraw its signatories from the treaty if the interests of the country have been compromised. in 2003, north korea withdrew from the treaty for the same reason.

"we will not accept any resolution that is against our rights. any action by the security council will have a negative influence on our cooperation with the agency. the involvement of the security council will direct the path of cooperation towards confrontation. it's obvious that the security council should not take any action that it is not capable of dealing with later because we will not refrain from our rights," said iran's foreign ministry spokesman, hamid reza asefi in a press conference on sunday.

"suspension and pause is not on the agenda at all, and the security council should not do something that will get it into trouble later on," and "intervention by the security council in this issue is completely illegal," added asefi.

united nations secretary general kofi annan still urges iran and the united states to hold direct talks. according to journalist and anti-nuclear-weapons activist , iran is "keen to reach a deal or compromise on the nuclear issue" and "numerous governmental and non-governmental experts" in iran believe that there is "fairly broad agreement" that a compromise proposal could be negotiated which would be politically acceptable in iran. 

annan stated, "if everybody - all stakeholders and key players - were around the table, i think it would be possible to work out a package that would satisfy the concerns of everybody. should they (iran) be offered a diplomatic package allowing them to pursue nuclear energy for peaceful ends, and they resist that, how do they explain it to the world?"

asefi also said that iran isn't prepared to discuss it's nuclear program with the united states "one-on-one".

"the u.s. isn't prepared to have talks on a one-to-one equal basis. they are following the politics of threat. so under these conditions we see no necessity to start talks with them," said asefi. 

the treaty was opened for signatures in 1968 and in 1970 entered into force. there are 187 signatures on the treaty.



the sultan's elephant entertains london

the sultan's elephant, a giant piece of street theatre by french group royal de luxe, has been entertaining londoners over the course of this weekend. the show started on thursday, when a 'crashed rocket' was in place at victoria place. on friday, an oversized marionette of a young girl emerged from the rocket and met with the giant mechanised elephant. over the course of the weekend, these two giant puppets have been parading around london streets, closed especially for the event.

whilst friday remained hot and sunny, the weekend turned wetter, but the rain didn't seem to put off the crowds, some of who received a second soaking from the elephant's trunk! the elephant stopped at trafalger square over lunchtime on the saturday, before parading to horse guard's parade, where seating had been specially erected around a giant stage.

over ten puppeteers operate the elephant, made mostly of wood, using a complex arrangement of hydraulics and motors. the elephant moves its feet, wags its tails, waves and squirts water from its trunk, flaps its ears, blinks, and can even open its mouth to reveal a moving tongue. the girl marionette is held on a big frame, and was given a ride on the elephant's trunk using a crane. the girl has been seen licking a giant lollipop, and even do a wee on the road.

the spectacle will end on sunday with a grand finale.



news briefs:may 7, 2006

the time is 15:30 (utc) on may 7th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

iran says it may withdraw from nuclear non-proliferation treaty

iran

in a letter to the united nations, iran's parliament has said it may have to withdraw from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty if pressure to end its nuclear program escalates.
the letter to un secretary general kofi annan stated that if the issues with iran's nuclear program are not settled by peaceful methods, then "there will be no option for the parliament but to ask the government to withdraw its signature."

human rights watch implicates 600+ in war prisoner abuse

united states

a u.s. army lieutenant colonel is expected to be charged soon in connection with the abuse of detainees at the abu ghraib prison in iraq. the news came on the same day human rights groups released a report charging that abuse of prisoners in u.s. military custody overseas has been widespread and only limited steps have been taken to investigate and punish those involved.

iraqis celebrate deaths of british troops

iraq

a british military helicopter crashed in basra on saturday killing four crew members. local iraqis filled the surrounding streets celebrating the crash before a clash occurred with british troops upon their arrival.
"we can confirm it was a british military helicopter that has crashed and an investigation is ongoing," a british military spokesman in london said.
an afp reporter on the scene heard from a local policeman that the helicopter was hit by a rocket fired by local militia.

sudan will welcome un peacekeepers in darfur

sudan

sudan government has expressed that darfur peace acccord with main rebel group, sudan liberation army, led by minni menawi, can overturn the previous rejection of un peacekeepers. so far, only african union peacekeepers were allowed in darfur.
"the sudan government will be open for any assistance," bakri mulah, secretary-general for external affairs in sudan's information ministry, said in khartoum, sudan.

pap returned to power in 2006 parliamentary elections, singapore

singapore

the incumbent people's action party (pap) has retained its power in the singapore parliament after getting 66.6% of the valid votes. it maintained 82 of the available 84 seats after securing 45 of the 47 contested seat, together with 37 of the seats that it won on nomination day on 26th april through walkovers. the opposition parties singapore democratic alliance (sda) and workers' party (wp) also retained one seat each.
despite having more seats contested in this election compared to the 2001 general elections, the breakdown of seats remains unchanged from the previous election. however, the pap only won a reduced majority, having only 66.6% of the valid votes compared to the 75% that it won in the previous election because of the spectre of terrorism and a poor economy then.

australian veteran nine network reporter dies

australia 

during a live press interview broadcast at the beaconsfield gold mine on the seven and nine networks veteran 60 minutes news reporter richard carleton suffered a suspected heart attack.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.

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anti-censorship developers targeting china's &quot;great firewall&quot;

three university of toronto students, ron deibert, nart villeneuve, and michael hull combined their political passion and love of free expression to create the software program that is attracting attention globally from people like sharon hom, executive director of new york-based "human rights in china".

"we've been trying to circumvent both the firewalls and the censorship surveillance," said hom; "so it's something we are very, very interested in."

"it's enormous," says deibert who directs the citizen lab at the u of t's munk centre for international studies, where the threesome works. "if it works the way we hope it does and is distributed worldwide, it will have a huge impact on freedom of speech."

according to andrew chung of the "", "china blocks countless websites, from ones featuring porn to those devoted to falun gong, a spiritual movement banned in china. anything on human rights is off-limits. same for democracy." although the precise out by the chinese government is dynamic and more specific than this implies, any censorship of the internet is seen by some free-speech advocates a gross violation of human rights. 

the citizen lab taking on powerful censors such as china is like the people of lilliput taking on gulliver. "it's a huge uphill battle," deibert agrees. "the trajectory in terms of global politics is toward greater state control (of the internet). i see closure everywhere."

villeneuve, 31, shrugs his shoulders and smirks, "it just seems like the right thing to do."

the citizen lab even has "black boxes," mini-computers that can be "planted" discreetly inside these countries to run the tests. "this kind of research is illegal in almost every country we do it in."

psiphon is supposed to be able to effectively turn anyone's personal computer into a proxy server. the censored user may then connect to the computer running psiphon and accesses banned content from there, all out of the view of censors. psiphon data is also encrypted and moves globally on a network reserved for secure financial transactions, so the censor wouldn't be able to tell a psiphon request from a mastercard purchase.

"we're making the internet run the way it's supposed to," said villeneuve; "because people have broken it."



1 dead, 13 injured in dublin bus pursuit

one person is dead and 13 others, including 5 members of the garda siochana, ireland's police force, are injured following the pursuit of a stolen bus throughout the south of dublin city and county. 

a driver who was not authorised to take the vehicle early in the morning of may 7 stole the coach from the yard of private hire operator dualway. the bus was later located at dublin heuston railway station by the coach company, where the driver attempted to run over the son of the owner of dualway.

the driver then returned to the dualway depot in rathcoole in what developed in to a high speed pursuit involving up to 20 patrol cars and a police helicopter. the gardai fired several shots at the driver's tires in an attempt to stop the car, as well as laying tacks. the bus was driven down the wrong side of the n7 naas road, where it collided with a number of cars, killing a female driver, and rammed five garda patrol cars that were blocking the road. the driver was apprehended and arrested at the dualway depot after crashing the bus.

sections of the n7 as well as surrounding roads were closed following the incident for forensic examinations, and the luas tram services were severely curtailed.



michael schumacher wins the european grand prix

this weekend the fifth grand prix weekend of the formula 1 season, the grand prix of europe, took place in germany on the nurburgring track. unlike the previous race, michael schumacher was only second on the grid after qualifying on saturday, losing out the pole position to fernando alonso, the first renault pilot. however, in the last part of the race, "schumi" outpaced alonso on the track and took the lead thanks to some fast laps with the track free of traffic while alonso took his final pitstop. the german passed the checkered flag and won for the 86th time in his formula 1 career.

in spite of his second "defeat", fernando alonso stands in the lead of the drivers championship, 13 points ahead his closest competitor, michael schumacher.

felipe massa, the second ferrari driver, was third. this achievement is the first podium of his formula 1 career. 

kimi raikkonen struggled with the car this weekend, but ended up finishing the weekend with a fourth place. kimi pushed hard on the closing laps and closed the gap to felipe massa to +0.4 seconds upon crossing the finish line.

nico rosberg, the "discovery of the season", had a nice race for the williams formula 1 team. he finished 7th.



march against new french copyright law

paris, france -
protesters marched denouncing the new copyright bill, known as dadvsi.
opponents to the bill contend that the broad civil and criminal penalties that it enacts in order to fight illegal online copying of copyrighted works will in fact have a chilling effect on a variety of unrelated developments, especially in free software. more than 160,000 people signed the anti-dadvsi petition from eucd.info, a watchdog group fighting developments of the eu copyright directive.
the protest, uniting elected officials, representatives from computing and internet organisations, political groups, and simple citizens, walked in a festive and peaceful atmosphere from the place de la bastille (site of the former royal prison) to the ministry of culture. it was organized by a variety of associations, including stopdrm,april , the odebi league, audionautes, various free software and linux user groups, and sponsored by the french communist party and its young adult affiliate organisation, the youngs of the french socialist party, the youngs of the centrist union for french democracy, the young greens. all the sponsors of this march are listed here. depending on estimates, between 300 and 800 people marched, a low number by french standards.
the dadvsi law, among other issues, enacts an extensive protection of copyrighted content online and a protection of digital rights management techniques, including civil and criminal penalties for help in circumventing them. opponents contend that the bill, depending on how it is amended in the french senate, could in effect criminalise the writing of players compatible with new online distribution formats for music, video or even text, and thus make such content unplayable on systems such as linux, thereby generating a monopoly for established suppliers.

supporters of the bill, such as cinema and recording industry groups, contend that strong measures are needed to thwart online copying, which, according to them, is responsible for important losses of sales and revenue. they deny the risks for free software and other freedoms, claiming that, despite vague provisions, the law will be enforced wisely by the judiciary. they claim that new online legal commercial downloading platforms will flourish when peer-to-peer copying has stopped.

the bill is due to be examined in the senate this week. then, under the fast track procedure requested by the government, it may be signed into law by president jacques chirac after a mixed commission merges the text from the senate and the lower house of parliament, the national assembly. opponents have already indicated they would mount a constitutional challenge before the constitutional council. the bill, when it was examined by the national assembly, proved divisive; the ruling ump party was split on the issue, some even sponsoring a "legal licence" which would enable french internet users to copy copyrighted content legally, provided they would pay a flat fee which would be split between the rights holder.
protesters, as well as deputies from all parties, contend that major lobbies influenced the bill’s passage. some amendments were nicknamed "vivendi universal", from the name of a major record company that allegedly suggested it. protesters recalled that minister of culture renaud donnedieu de vabres was convicted of money laundering in 2004.




uk government report into ufos released

a report by the ministry of defence investigating the possible existence of unidentified flying objects (ufos) was released today. the report was confidentially published in 2000 and has come to light after dr david clarke of sheffield hallam university requested it citing the freedom of information act.

the report concludes that "no evidence exists to suggest that the phenomena seen are hostile or under any type of control, other than that of natural physical forces ... there is no evidence that 'solid' objects exist which could cause a collision hazard".

explanations such as meteors and the aurora borealis effect are accredited as the cause of most, if not all, ufo sightings.



soft drink foes cheer victory, lament remaining junk foods in schools

last week’s announcement that most soda manufacturers will stop selling their sugary products in u.s. schools did not mention that avoiding lawsuits was part of the motivation for the self-imposed ban. some of those who threatened legal action to stop the soda sales are patting themselves on the back over the agreement, while lamenting that the deal did not go far enough, and now plan to press for more restrictions.

“though there is room for improvement ? sugary “sports” drinks still will be sold in schools, for instance ? this voluntary agreement is certainly good enough that cspi will drop its planned lawsuit against coca-cola, pepsico, cadbury-schweppes and their bottlers,” said michael f. jacobson, the executive director of the center for science in the public interest . “i hope this settlement contributes to the momentum that is building in congress for legislation that would require usda to update its standards for foods sold outside of school meals. that would enable usda to eliminate the sale of candy, cookies, french fries, potato chips, and other snack foods, as well as sports drinks, that are standard fare in school vending machines and stores.” 

in the wake of the announcement of the agreement by the three largest soft drink companies, their bottlers and the public health advocacy group, the alliance for a healthier generation, jacobson thanked his team of litigators for “negotiating effectively with the soft-drink industry over the past six months, and for demonstrating that the judicial system can play an important role in spurring public health advances.”

richard daynard, a law professor and president of the public health advocacy institute, which threatened the soft-drink industry with lawsuits, said in an institute press release, “the industry agreement with the clinton foundation and american heart association comes after sustained pressure from potential litigation and negotiations with public health groups and their lawyers. it is a credit to the role of litigation and the legal system as a component of effective public health strategy."

"this agreement demonstrates the potential of public health litigation to help control the obesity epidemic," he said.

in an email exchange with the james logan courier, margo wootan, director of nutrition policy for the center for science in the public interest, said, "last week's announcement that soft drink companies will pull all sugary sodas from schools is great step toward improving school foods. this agreement is the culmination of the tremendous national momentum on improving school foods -- from the local policies (in la, nyc, chicago, philadelphia, dc, etc.), state bills (in 2005, 200 bills were introduced in 40 states to get soda and junk foods out of schools), the strong bipartisan bill pending in the u.s. congress, and threats of litigation against soda companies."

"while today's agreement is a huge step forward, it is by no means the last step" wrote wootan, " we still have a lot of work to do to improve school foods."

the agreement, announced wednesday morning by the william j. clinton foundation, means that the nation’s biggest beverage distributors, and the american beverage association, will pull their soda products from vending machines and cafeterias in schools serving about 35 million students, according to the alliance for a healthier generation, a joint initiative between the clinton foundation and the american heart association.

under the agreement, high schools will still be able to purchase drinks such as diet and unsweetened teas, diet sodas, sports drinks, flavored water, seltzer and low-calorie sports drinks for resale to students.

the companies plan to stop soda sales at 75 percent of the nation's public schools by the 2008-2009 school year, and at all schools in the following school year. the speed of the changes will depend in part on school districts' willingness to change their contracts with the beverage distributors.

some food activists criticized the deal for not going far enough and undermining efforts to go further.

michele simon, the director of the center for informed food choices, based in oakland, ca., called the deal “bogus” and a “pr stunt” by “big cola” in an effort to “sugar coat it’s image.”

“this announcement could potentially undermine ongoing grassroots efforts, state legislation, and other enforceable policies,” wrote simon in an article at www.commondreams.org,” for example, in massachusetts where a stronger bill is pending, a local advocate is worried about the adverse impact, since legislators could easily think that clinton has taken care of the problem and ignore the bill. what was already an uphill battle?getting schools and legislatures to take this problem seriously?was just made worse, not better, by this bogus agreement.

“even from a health standpoint, the deal is hardly impressive. diet soda full of artificial sweeteners, sports drinks high in sugar, and other empty-calorie beverages with zero nutritional value are still allowed in high schools,” simon wrote, “also, parents concerned about soda advertising in schools will not be pleased with the agreement. not a word is mentioned about the ubiquitous marketing children are subjected to daily in the form of branded score boards, school supplies, sports bags, and cups (just to name a few), which is required by exclusive coke and pepsi contracts. “

she’s not the only one criticizing the deal.“ while the initial details are promising, phai is concerned about some aspects of the agreement as it is being reported,” daynard said in the press release. “the continual sale of "sports drinks" is a cause for concern. while they have a role for marathon runners and others engaged in sustained strenuous sports, for most students "sports drinks" are just another form of sugar water. furthermore, the change in beverages offered must be carefully monitored and cannot depend entirely on the schools’ willingness and ability to alter existing contracts. soda companies have spent decades pushing these unhealthy drinks on children and should bear the responsibility for their removal. phai is also concerned about the enforcement of this agreement and its silence on industry marketing activities in the school system,” he said.

"importantly, the agreement doesn't address the sale of chips, candy, snack cakes, ice cream, or any of the other high-fat, high-calorie, high-salt foods that are sold widely in schools," said wootan of the center for science in the public interest, "this is a voluntary agreement and is not enforceable, we need senator harkin's school foods bill to lock in the beverage standards and give them the force of law."

even the diet drinks, which will still be offered, need to go, said ross getman, an attorney in syracuse, ny. getman has advocated that soda should not be sold in public schools and that long-term "pouring rights" agreements, which give a company exclusive access to sell their brands at a school, are illegal for a variety of reasons.

getman, who contends that some diet sodas are contaminated with benzene, a cancer-causing chemical, said the soda “industry gets an "f" for incomplete” for “the industry's failure to pull all soda from school and to recall products.”

schools account for about $700 million in u.s. soft-drink sales, less than 1 percent total revenue for coca-cola, pepsico and cadbury, the nation's largest soda companies.

ten of the largest u.s. school districts have already removed soft drinks from vending machines, according to getman. states including california, maine and connecticut have also banned sugary sodas in schools.

center for science in the public interest



sex-for-aid spreads in war-torn liberia

the aid agency save the children says an alarming number of girls in liberia, as young as eight, were having sex with un peacekeepers, policemen, teachers and humanitarian aid workers in exchange for money, food or favours.

"people don't really accept it but because of the financial constraints, people just have to do so. most of them are in households headed by only the mother, catering for children. their fathers got killed in the war, or some fathers are living but can't afford to care for their children; they have to accept the situation, so there is no way out. " 

the report says most people cited lack of economic and livelihood opportunities, as well as chronic poverty, as underlying causes for the ongoing exploitation of children. parents reported feeling powerless to stop children who were having sex in exchange for goods and services, as they did not have the economic means to provide for their children. in some instances, families cited that transactional sex was a means of supporting the wider family to access things such as food or money to purchase food. in other cases, children identified more personal needs such as clothing or being able to access video clubs to watch films. the widespread nature of the problem meant it affected children in a broad cross section of environments. 

the study, conducted by save the children, was intended to explore the ways in which children in 'internally displaced person' (idp) camps are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse as they attempt to meet their basic and other needs. it also explored the roles and responsibilities of humanitarian agencies in providing more protective systems for the delivery of assistance. during the discussions in the field, 315 men, women and children were consulted.

the people of liberia have experienced ongoing suffering over the past two decades as a result of war and displacement. children have been drawn into this in many ways, such as recruitment into armed forces, separation from their families, witnessing atrocities, rape and torture. thousands have been driven from their homes into exile in neighbouring countries or camps for idps within liberia, the report says.

liberia has been shattered by the 1989-2003 civil war which caused an estimated 250,000 deaths in a country of barely 3 million people. the war forced around 1.3 million people from their homes into camps around the capital monrovia or abroad.

elections late last year saw harvard-trained former world bank economist ellen johnson-sirleaf elected as the new president. her government faces a massive task in rebuilding an economy and society torn apart by years of bloodshed. many liberians have been, and continue to be, heavily reliant on humanitarian assistance as a means of survival. those who are able to find work often still live in chronic poverty with the national average wage being only us$50 per month.

the report found that people unanimously agree that attitudes have fundamentally changed since the war.

“it is like the cultural tradition is not holding any more. people have lost the cultural values and the tradition has been broken down. ” 

most people said that children were not involved in prostitution before the war, or to a very small extent, and that this only happened in the cities but not in the villages.



ahmadinejad sends letter to george w. bush

for the first time in three decades, direct and at least partially public diplomatic communication will commence between the united states (us) and iran. iranian government spokesman gholam-hossein elham said that iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad has sent a letter to the u.s. president george w. bush proposing "new solutions for getting out of international problems and the current fragile situation of the world". 

mr gholam-hossein elham did not say whether the letter mentioned the nuclear dispute, one of the diplomatic problems currently straining relations between iran and the usa. this information arrived one day after the iranian parliament announced that it might retract from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (npt) if western pressure over its programme was to increase.

differing reports have been made as to whether or not the letter will be made public, and if so, when. in its online report of 8 may 2006, 09:25 gmt, the bbc quoted iranian foreign ministry spokesman hamid reza asefi as saying that the contents of the letter would be made public once bush had received it. the updated version of the report of 8 may 2006, 14:52 gmt, quotes asefi as saying that the contents would be made public "at the right time". an abc report quoted gholam-hossein elham as saying "it is not an open letter."

iran's foreign affairs minister, manouchehr mottaki, delivered the letter to the united states' interests section in the swiss embassy in tehran on monday. the united states has not held diplomatic relations with iran since the 1979 iranian hostage crisis.

u.s. secretary of state condoleezza rice said "this letter isn't it. this letter is not the place that one would find an opening to engage on the nuclear issue or anything of the sort."

"it isn't addressing the issues that we're dealing with in a concrete way," she added.

john r. bolton, u.s. ambassador to the united nations, also read the letter, saying, "i think it is typical of iran that when major decisions are about to be taken ... that they have tried to throw sand in the eyes of the proponents of the action. that's what this may be."

the letter has since been put on an official iranian website, and on tuesday, ahmadinejad said "the letter to us president george bush carries the iranian nation's views and comments on international issues as well as suggestions for resolving the many problems facing humanity."




u.s. president george w. bush nominates gen. michael hayden as director of cia

united states air force general michael hayden has been nominated as the new director of the cia. 

"the men and women of the cia will have a strong leader to support them," said u.s. president george w. bush in a press conference today.

"this is simply too important to not get absolutely right," said hayden.

the nomination sparked controversy from republican and democratic critics, who claim that the military background of michael hayden makes him unsuitable, because the cia is a civil institution rather than a military arm of the government. saxby chambliss calls it a "major problem" due to the intelligence budget that is already controlled by the pentagon up to and/or more than 80 percent. peter hoekstra, intelligence committee chairman, says he would oppose the nomination of general michael hayden as "the wrong person, the wrong place at the wrong time".

hayden was head of the nsa from 1999-2005 and was in charge of the eavesdropping program that allows the u.s. government to monitor e-mail and international telephone calls of suspected terrorists without obtaining a warrant. last year, he became the deputy for the director of national intelligence john negroponte.

hayden also is currently serving more than 35 years in the u.s. air force and from 1980-1982 he served as intelligence chief at osan air base which is located in south korea.

on friday, porter goss resigned as director of the agency.


thailand election was invalid, rules court

thailand's constitutional court has ruled that the general election, held on april 2, 2006, is invalid and orders a fresh poll. thailand is in the middle of political turmoil since the election, which was called by prime minister thaksin shinawatra in the face of mounting protests.

"the constitutional court voted 8 to 6 that the elections were unconstitutional and voted 9 to 5 to hold a new election," said judge ura wangomklang on monday.

earlier, the opposition parties boycotted the april poll. as a result, some of the seats remained empty, which meant parliament could not be formed. thaksin shinawatra, the prime minister, was unable to form a new government.

king bhumibol adulyadej of thailand had to intervene to resolve the crisis. he described the situation as a "mess" and said any parliament with no opposition presence would be undemocratic. he initiated the court to pass a ruling to bring back the country to normalcy.

the crisis began when prime minister thaksin shinawatra sold 49.6% family stake in telecoms company shin corporation in january. massive protests were held all over demanding his resignation. he dissolved the parliament in february and called for an emergency election to prove he still had widespread public support. three main opposition parties decided to boycott the poll.

thai rak thai party (trt), led by thaksin shinawatra won 57% of the votes in the election held in april amid opposition boycotts. but there were millions of "reject" votes (that is, voters selecting "none of the above"), which lead to 40 seats being vacant and the legislature unable to set up a government. two rounds of by-elections failed to resolve the crisis.

soon afterwards, under the intervention of king bhumibol adulyadej, the top judges from thailand's three main judicial institutions - the supreme, administrative and constitutional courts - met to discuss the situation.

thailand's ruling thai rak thai party (trt) and the former opposition democrat party pledged on monday to join the new poll after the court ruling.




union criticizes east london line 'privatisation'

the transport union rmt has criticised transport for london (tfl) for the decision apparently to privatise the east london line, which is undergoing a major upgrade and extension programme over the coming years. the announcement follows a report from bbc news which claims that a 'leaked memo' has revealed plans for the line to be run by the private sector come 2009. rmt general secretary said "there is no earthly reason why its operations should not remain within london underground", adding that the union would take steps to safeguard the jobs of its members currently working on the line.

responsibility for the east london line extension was officially transferred from the strategic rail authority to transport for london in november 2004, and london mayor ken livingstone has pledged to deliver the ￡900m extension by the end of the decade. however it has always been the plan that the line, once built, would form part of the national rail network, rather than the underground network. network rail will manage much of the track, and private companies will run the trains under strict franchise from the london rail arm of tfl, in the same manner as tfl franchises the bus services.

phase one of the project, due to be complete in june 2010, will see a northern extension to dalston junction and a southern extension to crystal palace and west croydon. this is in plenty of time for the 2012 london olympic games.

control of the north london line, currently run by silverlink, will also pass to tfl from autumn 2007. it is planned that eventually the line will join up with the east london line, the west london line and the south london line to form a circular 'orbirail' service.



theo walcott is the big surprise in eriksson's preliminary world cup squad

17 year old striker is the biggest surprise in england national team coach 's preliminary pick for the in germany. injured is also one of the players in the squad.

theo walcott hasn't yet played a game but eriksson thinks that the team needs players with walcott's pace. eriksson decided this morning to pick walcott ahead of players like and . when he named walcott there were a lot of surprised journalists in the press conference room. "sometimes you do it on feelings as well and i am excited about theo walcott," eriksson said at the press conference.

he consulted his assistant coach tord grip and arsenal fc coach arsene wenger when he picked walcott. wenger, who in january convinced the arsenal fc directors to transfer walcott from , is impressed of what he has seen of him.

walcott's former mentor, huw jennings, agrees with sven-goran eriksson. "he has got tremendous ability and pace, which england are short of," jennings said in an interview with the bbc.

as expected, wayne rooney was picked despite his severe injury. eriksson thinks he should be in the team as the world class player he is. if rooney isn't expected to be fit enough to play in the tournament he can be replaced, but that has to be done before june 9.

the final squad must be announced by may 15.


news briefs:may 8, 2006

the time is 17:30 (utc) on may 8th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

united states

united states air force general michael hayden has been nominated as the new director of the cia.
"the men and woman of the cia will have a strong leader to support them," said u.s. president george w. bush in a press conference today.
"this is simply too important to not get absolutely right," said hayden.
hayden was head of the nsa from 1999-2005 and was in charge of the eavesdropping program which allows the u.s. government to monitor e-mail and international telephone calls of suspected terrorists without obtaining a warrant. last year, he became the deputy for the director of national intelligence john negroponte.

iran

it has just been announced that for the first time in three decades, direct, and at least partially public, diplomatic communication will commence between the united states (us) and iran. iranian government spokesman gholam-hossein elham said that iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad has sent a letter directly to us president george w. bush proposing "new solutions for getting out of international problems and the current fragile situation of the world".
the iranian foreign ministry spokesman hamid reza asefi said that the contents of the letter would be made public once bush had received the letter. according to a bbc report timestamped "8 may 2006, 09:25 gmt 10:25", spokespeople for bush claimed that the letter had not yet been received.

thailand

thailand's constitutional court has ruled that the general election, held on april 2, 2006, is invalid and orders fresh poll. thailand is in the middle of political turmoil since the election, which was called by prime minister thaksin shinawatra in the face of mounting protests.
"the constitutional court voted 8 to 6 that the elections were unconstitutional and voted 9 to 5 to hold a new election," said judge ura wangomklang on monday.
earlier, the opposition parties boycotted the april poll. as a result, some of the seats remained empty, which meant parliament could not be formed. thaksin shinawatra, the prime minister, was unable to form a new government.

liberia

the aid agency save the children says an alarming number of girls in liberia, as young as eight, were having sex with un peacekeepers, policemen, teachers and humanitarian aid workers in exchange for money, food or favours.
"people don't really accept it but because of the financial constraints, people just have to do so. most of them are in households headed by only the mother, catering for children. their fathers got killed in the war, or some fathers are living but can't afford to care for their children; they have to accept the situation, so there is no way out. "
the report says most people cited lack of economic and livelihood opportunities, as well as chronic poverty, as underlying causes for the ongoing exploitation of children. 

canada

psiphon is being launched the end of this month as a highly anticipated software program that allows internet users inside china, iran, saudi arabia and burma, to get around censorship without getting detected by the censors.
three university of toronto students, ron deibert, nart villeneuve, and michael hull combined their political passion and love of free expression to create the software program which is attracting attention globally from people like sharon hom, executive director of new york-based "human rights in china".

australia

rescuers working to free miners trapped during the beaconsfield mine collapse have moved to a slightly faster blasting method. the rescue effort was expected to be concluded on sunday, however due to rescuers encountering extremely hard rock, it has been once again delayed.

england

the transport union rmt has criticised transport for london (tfl) for the decision to apparently privatise the east london line, which is undergoing a major upgrade and extension programme over the coming years. the announcement follows a report from bbc news which claims that a 'leaked memo' has revealed plans for the line to be run by the private sector come 2009. rmt general secretary said "there is no earthly reason why its operations should not remain within london underground", adding that the union would take steps to safeguard the jobs of its members currently working on the line.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.

this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


tasmanian miners rescued

the two miners who had been trapped almost one kilometer beneath the surface in beaconsfield, tasmania in a collapsed gold mine for 14 days have now been rescued.

the men, brant webb and todd russell, were well enough to walk out from the lift onto the surface and threw their arms up in exultation. they then walked to a board and removed their location tags to indicate that they were no longer underground at approximately 5:59 a.m. aest before embracing family and friends and making their way to the waiting ambulances. the vehicles slowly made their way through the crowds with a police escort and the miners waved to the crowds through the open rear doors. they will undergo medical supervision at launceston hospital for a period of time before being confirmed well enough to return home.

the last stages of the rescue, cutting the final sections of the escape tunnel had proceeded very slowly because very hard rock was encountered and work had to proceed gently to minimize the chances of further rock collapses.

the escape tunnel was completed at 4:47 a.m. aest and it took another hour for the men to be transported to the surface via a "crib room" at "level 375" (375 metres underground) where they were medically examined and were also able to shower.

a bell at beaconsfield's uniting church pealed just after 5 a.m. aest to celebrate the rescue, and an air raid siren was sounded. this was the first time the church bell had been rung since the end of world war ii. a local fire engine drove through beaconsfield's streets sounding the siren to wake residents for the good news.

a funeral will be held later today for a third miner, larry knight, who was killed in the collapse that trapped the miners on april 26.



apple corps loses court case against apple computer

the beatles' label apple corps lost its court case against apple computer today in the high court. apple corps argued that the itunes music store was a breach of the 1991 settlement reached between the two parties. the 1991 agreement was that apple computer would not sell music branded with an apple. mr justice anthony mann agreed with apple computer's defence that, while the itunes music store is branded, the music it sells is not - "i conclude that the use of the apple logo ... does not suggest a relevant connection with the creative work." during the case apple corps showed the court just how many times the apple computer logo appeared during a typical download. the song purchased during the demonstration was le freak by chic.

after the case closed apple computer ceo steve jobs extended an invitation to the record label, "we have always loved the beatles, and hopefully we can now work together to get them on the itunes music store". apple corps have decided to take the case to the court of appeal. speaking for apple corps, manager neil aspinall said, "with great respect to the trial judge, we consider he has reached the wrong conclusion."




varanasi bombings suspect shot in kashmir

the main suspect in the 7th march bombings in varanasi, was shot dead by indian security forces in handwara area of north kashmir early this morning. abu zubair, an operative of the pakistan-based terrorist group harkat-ul-jehadi-islamia was gunned down in a joint operation involving jammu & kashmir state police special task force and the indian army.

" on specific information, zubair was killed in a fierce encounter in handwara " said nitish kumar, a police official, adding the man was considered to have played a leading role in the varanasi attacks. kumar said zubair came from the north indian state of uttar pradesh and was attempting to flee to pakistan.

the twin blasts in the sankatmochan temple and the cantonment railway station of the temple city of varanasi on march 7, had left close to 20 dead and nearly 100 injured. 



bush announces food aid to darfur, au faces fund crisis

president george w bush has announced us emergency food shipments to darfur, a province of sudan. he has asked congress to approve $225m in aid. sudan and the biggest rebel group signed a peace deal last friday to end the three year old civil war, claiming more than 200,000 lives. 

condoleezza rice, us secretary of state will address the un security council to help speed up the deployment of un peacekeepers to the darfur region. 

"she's going to request a resolution that will accelerate the deployment of un peacekeepers into darfur," president bush said. "we're now working with the un to identify countries that contribute those troops, so the peacekeeping effort will be robust." 

the government of sudan had previously denied un deployment. but, after the signing of the peace treaty, they have expressed their keenness on the deployment of un peacekeepers.

so far, there are around 7,000 african union peacekeepers in darfur, but they have failed to play any significant role to control the violence in the region. they are facing a serious shortage of funds and man-power. it had been two months since any soldier in the peacekeeping forces were paid, nigerian envoy to the african union confirmed yesterday.

ambassador sam ibok, nigerian envoy to the au said, "there have been some cash flow problems, but that has been resolved now and troops will be paid in the next week or so. "

chad, sudan's neighbouring state, welcomed the signing of the darfur peace agreement between the sudanese government and the main faction of the rebel sudan liberation movement. chad broke off diplomatic relations with sudan on 14 april, a day after an attack on n’djamena by rebel forces from sudan. also, chad withdrew its delegation from african union-brokered peace talks for sudan’s troubled western darfur region citing sudanese aggression. currently, there are more than 200,000 darfur refugees. 

foreign minister ahmat allami said, "chad welcomes the signing of the abuja peace deal on darfur between the warring sudanese parties after a long period of negotiations."

libya announced today that it would resume effort to normalize bilateral relations between chad and sudan. a libyan official said a tripartite summit would be held soon.




australian budget for 2006-2007 released

the australian budget (appropriation bill no. 1) for 2006-2007 was released by the australian liberal party-australian national party coalition government treasurer, peter costello (higgins, liberal).

costello noted the resilience of the economy against natural disasters and terrorism, and through "disciplined and prudent management" the government was able to "repay labor's debt" of quoted 96 billion dollars of net debt and the government was now "debt-free".

costello noted that the government budget was in "surplus for the ninth time" with a forecast surplus of 10.8 billion.

costello announced "new investment in physical infrastructure and research infrastructure". the auslink program is to receive an additional 2.3 billion, an "increase of nearly 20 percent", and noted that the budget would allocate "800 million to accelerate duplication of...the hume highway", and "270 million dollars to railtrack" in the development of the north-south rail corridor. 

costello noted the government's commitment to the health of the murray river system by a "new injection of 500 millions to the murray-darling basin commission" for a "range of capital works and improvements".

costello also announced funding for health and medical research, noting an increase in funding for the nhmrc to a base funding of 700 million dollars a year, a "fivefold increase", sixty-five additional fellowships for researchers, and 235 million dollars for "physical infrastructure".

costello announced in regard to tax reform a "new comprehensive tax reform plan" "another installment in income tax reform", a "major improvement in business tax" and a "plan to simplify and streamline superannuation" "most significant change in nearly 20 years"

costello remarked that if one could reduce the tax burden, one "should aim to do so", and thus announced he would "reduce marginal tax rates" at the other end of income tax scale, and would increase tax-free thresholds. 

on superannuation reform, costello proposed to "sweep away the current raft of complexity" and "increase retirement incomes". the core of the plan is the "proposal to exempt australians age 60 or over from any tax" on particular superannuation arrangements.

costello announced changes in family assistance payments. the family tax benefit payment is now available to those earning under aud$40,000. the limit on the number of subsidised after school hour places would be removed.

furthermore, costello noted that "an additional 1000 to be paid this financial year to over 1000 people eligible for the carer payment".

costello announced that 10.7 billion dollars would be allocated to the australian defence force, and announced 2.2 billion would be spent to acquire c-17 heavy lift aircraft.

on intelligence, costello announced an increase asio staffing to 1800 and improvements to its technical capabilities, and a further 125 million to enable increased operations for asio.

costello also said that 389 million dollars would be allocated over four years to combat illegal fishing.

costello concluded by forecasting that australia's economy would grow to a "trillion dollar economy" and that the budget would "build opportunities for the future". 

processing of accompanying bills then begun by parliament.

the federal australian labor party opposition will have a right-of-reply tomorrow.



third australian miner laid to rest

today, the day that saw the rescue of trapped miners brant webb and todd russell in beaconsfield, tasmania, their colleague larry knight, 44 was farewelled at a funeral service in launceston. knight was killed when a small earthquake triggered a rockfall killing knight and trapping webb and russell.

mr. knight was driving a telehandler which had a small cage attached to its lifting arm that mr. webb and russell were inside when the rockfall occurred. mr. knight had been a miner for the past five years.

mr. knight's funeral was held at st john's anglican church in launceston and was attended by over 700 mourners including tasmanian premier paul lennon, beaconsfield mine manager matthew gill and todd russell. it is unknown whether or not brant webb attended the service, but it has been reported that he told doctors he intended to.

mourners were told that mr. knight was a laid-back man and fitted the expression "happy as larry well". one of knight's friends since high school and member of christian motorcycle club "the god's squad", chris brooks, said that mr. knight had become more content with life and focused on his children in recent years. mr. brooks said that mr. knight will be "missed deeply".

mr. knight's daughter, lauren, who lives in queensland read a letter she had written to her father for his birthday three years ago. 

"you're a wonderful, caring, understanding and forgiving father, a long-standing friend, my solid rock and inspiration," she read.

according to ms. knight, her father kept the letter in the back of a clock for "safe keeping".

the god's squad played a major role in the funeral service. on the way to the cemetery, they provided an honour guard for the hearse, led by someone on knight's own harley davidson.



british foreign secretary: no plans for iran

newly appointed british foreign secretary, margaret beckett, today confirmed that there are no plans for military action in iran. beckett has been speaking at a meeting in new york to discuss international policy concerning iran with her counterparts from france, germany, russia, china and the us.

speaking on bbc radio she said, "it's not anybody's intention to take the course of military action". beckett refused, however, to rule out action as 'inconceivable' in the way that her predecessor jack straw had.

"what people are concerned to do is to get iran to recognise the strong view and the clear will of the international community that they should comply with the ieae <nowiki>[international atomic energy agency]</nowiki> board. you're inviting me to tread down the path of talking about military action - i'm not going to do that. everybody expresses their views, their stance, in their own way. the way that i choose to express it is that it's not anybody's intention to take the course of military action. that i think is simple and straightforward and clear."

tony blair, speaking in a monthly press conference, said that the change of foreign secretary would not change policy "one iota".


australian &quot;3 cdma&quot; customers have 90 days to move to 3g

hutchison, the company which operates the "3" mobile network in australia has announced that it's 2g cdma customers will have 90 days to migrate to their umts based 3g mobile telephone network or be without service. hutchison said that customers who were under contract and wished to leave would be able to do so without penalty.

in february, hutchison rebranded their cdma service from orange to 3 cdma to coincide with its 3g network's company name. hutchison has been offering their cdma customers special deals to tempt them into moving to their 3g network and has so far migrated around 200,000 users voluntarily.

it is believed that the migration will cost au$145 million but will save the company around au$70 million per year by not having to operate two separate networks.

kevin russell, ceo of hutchison said that customers are looking to get more from their mobile telephone and that customer demand for 3g services is strong. "customer demand to move to 3g has been very strong," he said. 

"it is clear that customers want more from their mobile service," 

"with a critical mass of our 2g customers now using our 3g service, the time is right to commence plans to close our 2g network" said mr russell.

paul budde, an independent telecommunications analyst said that some customers might not wish to migrate because of the inferiority of 3g handsets to those used on the cdma network.

another hurdle may be that umts 3g networks have similar coverage to gsm network cells (base stations), which have around 35 km range of coverage. cdma by comparison has a 90 km range.

hutchison was the first telecommunications company to launch a 3g network in australia, however it only operates in sydney, melbourne, brisbane, the gold coast, adelaide, perth and canberra. if users go outside these areas they roam onto telstra's 2g gsm network.

telstra has announced plans to build a au$1 billion 3g network nationwide and will decommission its cdma service around 2008. at present telstra has entered into a sharing deal with hutchison to use the "3" network while its network is rolled out.

optus and vodafone have also announced plans to build a 3g network in co-operation with each other nationwide.



news briefs:may 9, 2006

the time is 13:30 (utc) on may 9th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

united states

president george w bush has announced us emergency food shipments to darfur, a province of sudan. he has asked congress to approve $225m in aid. sudan and the biggest rebel group signed a peace deal last friday to end the three year old civil war, claiming more than 200,000 lives.
condoleezza rice, us secretary of state will address the un security council to help speed up the deployment of un peacekeepers to the darfur region.

united kingdom

newly appointed british foreign secretary, margaret beckett, today confirmed that there are no plans for military action in iran. beckett has been speaking at a meeting in new york to discuss international policy concerning iran with her counterparts from france, germany, russia, china and the us.
speaking on bbc radio she said, "it's not anybody's intention to take the course of military action". beckett refused, however, to rule out action as 'inconceivable' in the way that her predecessor jack straw had.

australia

the australian budget (appropriation bill no. 1) for 2006-2007 was released by the australian liberal party-australian national party coalition government treasurer, peter costello (division of higgins, liberal).
costello noted the resilience of the economy against natural disasters and terrorism, and through "disciplined and prudent management" the government was able to "repay labor's debt" of quoted 96 billion dollars of net debt and the government was now "debt-free".
costello noted that the government budget was in "surplus for the ninth time" with a forecast surplus of 10.8 billion.

australia

the two miners who had been trapped almost one kilometer beneath the surface in beaconsfield, tasmania in a collapsed gold mine for 14 days have now been rescued.
the men, brant webb and todd russell, were well enough to walk out from the lift onto the surface and threw their arms up in exultation. they then walked to a board and removed their location tags to indicate that they were no longer underground at approximately 5:59 a.m. aest before embracing family and friends and making their way to the waiting ambulances. the vehicles slowly made their way through the crowds with a police escort and the miners waved to the crowds through the open rear doors. they will undergo medical supervision at launceston hospital for 24 hours before being confirmed well enough to return home.

today, the day that saw the rescue of trapped miners (brant webb and todd russell in beaconsfield, tasmania), their collegue larry knight, 44 was farewelled at a funeral service in launceston. knight was killed when a small earthquake triggered a rockfall killing knight and trapping webb and russell.

india

the main suspect in the 7th march bombings in varanasi, was shot dead by indian security forces in kashmir early this morning. abu zuber, an operative of the pakistan-based terrorist group harkat-ul-jehadi-islami was gunned down in an coordinated operation involving the jammu & kashmir state police special taskforce and the indian army.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


concrete supplier indicted in boston 'big dig' scandal

boston's central artery and third harbor tunnel project (ca/t), unofficially known as the big dig, plagued by cost overruns and reports of shoddy workmanship, has been hit with yet another scandal as six employees of its primary concrete supplier have been indicted for falsifying records regarding allegedly inferior concrete supplied to the massive highway construction project.

federal prosecutors alleged in a 135 count indictment that of the 135,000 truckloads of concrete, a "web" of falsified documents were used to cover up a conspiracy where at least 5,000 truckloads ? 1.2 percent of the concrete used ? did not meet specifications. the company, aggregate industries ne inc. was paid us$105 million for the concrete.

aggregate said in a statement thursday that it would cooperate with authorities.

"as a result of extensive testing by industry experts, aggregate industries is satisfied that all of the concrete it has supplied on the big dig and throughout the commonwealth is structurally sound," the statement said.

massachusetts attorney general tom reilly said "we have no evidence whatsoever that the structural integrity and safety of the tunnel has been compromised."

commonwealth of massachusetts governor mitt romney said in a prepared statement, "no one in massachusetts should be surprised to learn that a project so badly mismanaged, over budget, and grossly delayed is now also facing allegations of criminal misbehavior." romney and lt. governor kerry healey have also announced that they have decided to return campaign contributions from workers of aggregate industries.

indicted were: former general manager robert prosperi, 63, of lynnfield, massachusetts; marc blais, 36, of lynn, massachusetts, a dispatch manager; john farrar, 42, of canterbury, connecticut, a dispatch manager; gerard mcnally, 53, of rockland, massachusetts, a quality control manager; gregory stevenson, 53, of furlong, pennsylvania, district operations manager; and keith thomas, 50, of billerica, massachusetts, a dispatch manager. stevenson and farrar are no longer with the company. aggregate says it has suspended the others.

according to the indictments, 

at the arrest hearing, assistant u.s. attorney fred wyshack said, "the taxpayers of this community and this country will be paying for years to come." 

lawyers for the employees say the men believed their conduct was legal, that the concrete supplied by aggregate industries met all the strength requirements of the project, and that big dig managers sometimes waived the 90-minute rule when trucks of concrete were lined up to meet heavy demand. stephen delinsky, an attorney for one of the defendants, said they delivered quality concrete, but prosecutors probing the troubled project are looking to place blame. "it's always easy to blame the lowest level, which is the concrete manufacturers. each defendant believed that they acted in good faith. they believed at all times their conduct was legal and believed the concrete delivered to the big dig was appropriate."

a spokesman for project manager bechtel/parsons brinckerhoff declined comment.

on august 11, 2005, it was announced that the massachusetts state police searched aggregate's offices in june and found evidence of faked records that hid the poor quality of concrete delivered for highway project. on march 19, 2006, the international herald tribune reported that massachusetts "attorney general tom reilly plans to sue bechtel/parsons brinckerhoff and other companies if the two sides do not reach an agreement over 200 complaints of poor work in the construction of a highway system under the center of boston, the boston globe reported saturday. reilly was said to be seeking $67 million from bechtel and $41 million from other companies." 

the purpose of the project was to remove the more than 50-year-old aboveground interstate 93 freeway running through downtown boston by burying it, and connecting the massachusetts turnpike with logan airport by running a third tunnel below boston harbor. the project was completed this year after serious delays and cost overruns reached us$14.6 billion, a more than 500% increase over the original estimate of us$2.6 billion. more than ten years of detours to traffic ended when the last major section opened in january.


full text of ahmadinejad's letter to bush made available online

the french daily "le monde", which has a tradition of publishing full texts by politicians and intellectuals, was one of the first organisations to publish of iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad's letter to us president george w. bush on may 9, 2006. on the same day, us daily "the wall street journal" published a scan of the english text, and the iranian islamic republic news agency (irna) published the full text. in the uk, "the guardian" published the full text two days later.

the full text of the letter included discussion of a wide range of international, social, political, economic and religious issues including proliferation of nuclear weapons, wmds, the "war on terror", "unified international community", "the possibility of the existence of wmds in one country", saddam hussein, the iran-iraq war, guantanamo bay, the holocaust, the establishment of israel, the palestinian legislative election in 2006, us vetoes of unsc resolutions against israel, operation ajax in 1953, the shooting down of the iranian passenger plane air flight 655, iran's nuclear program, september eleven, economic inequality, international inequality, the monotheistic religions, and the liberal form of democracy.



high school seniors take last-chance exit test while judge prepares to strike it down

fifty james logan high school seniors are scheduled to take the california high school exit exam today and tomorrow, while an oakland judge is preparing to strike down the law requiring would-be high school graduates to pass the high-stakes test.

alameda county superior court judge robert freedman said monday that he will make his final decision today at 2 p.m. pdt on whether to issue an injunction against the enforcement of the law requiring the exam’s passage, citing “equal protection” concerns.

the ruling would affect about 47,000 california high school seniors, and dozens at james logan high school, who have yet to pass the exam and would be barred from being graduated if they don’t.

last week, state schools superintendent jack o’connell released new statistics showing that 46.768 seniors, or 10.7 percent of the class of 2006, still haven’t passed the test.

sixty-one percent of those students are poor, and 44 percent are english learners.

of the 50 james logan students taking the test today and tomorrow, 35 speak english as a second language. eight are special education students. of the five black students taking the test, four are special education students. of the three white students taking the test, two are new to the district and the other is a special education student.

one, an asian immigrant, has a 3.67 grade-point-average.

o’donnell wrote the law requiring the test when he was in the state legislature in 1999.

in a statement to the press, o’donnell said "recognizing that today's ruling is not final, i intend to do everything in my power to ensure that at the end of the legal day we maintain the integrity of the high school exit exam," o'connell said.

gov. arnold schwarzenegger said "delaying the exam's implementation does a disservice to our children by depriving us of the best tool we have to make sure schools are performing as they should be."

he said he was “disappointed.”

the attorney who sued the state feb. 8, arturo gonzalez of the san francisco law firm morrison & foerster, "felt strongly that the state should not deprive a student of a diploma unless the state can say that every student has been fairly and properly prepared for that test," he said. "there is overwhelming evidence that students throughout the state have not been taught the material on the test. and many students have been taught by teachers not credentialed in math and english."

the suit, was brought on behalf of lead plaintiff liliana valenzuela, a richmond high senior who maintains a 3.84 grade-point average and is ranked 12th out of 413 in her class. valenzuela has passed the math portion of the exam, but not the part on english, which she speaks as a second language.

gonzalez contends the test is unfair, particularly to english learners, because students who have failed the test repeatedly are more likely to attend overcrowded schools with less-qualified teachers.

judge freedman said he was persuaded by that argument, but wanted to give the state a chance to change his opinion.

he asked lawyers on both sides to come prepared to talk about how conditions in the schools can be equalized.

gonzalez urged seniors who still need to pass the test to keep going to classes and studying. "it is absolutely critical for students to understand that even if the order is made final, only those students who passed their classes will get a diploma," he said. 

author's note: this story is released to wikinews under the cca 2.5 license. a statement to that effect appears at the original site.


buncefield oil depot tank 'was overflowing'

a report by the british health and safety executive (hse) into the buncefield oil depot fire of december 2005 has suggested that an oil tank at the site was overflowing for 40 minutes before the first explosion took place. a fire soon spread throughout the depot and some of the surrounding area, sending huge plumes of smoke into the air, and the fire took several days to be extinguished.

the hse report, the third progress report into the disaster, explains with 'reasonable confidence' that tank 912 in bund a of the site started receiving unleaded motor fuel from 7 p.m. utc on december 10, 2005. by 5:20 a.m. the next day, the tank had started to overflow, spilling through air vents at the top of the tank and down the outside. vapour from the fuel started to form from 5:38 a.m., and by 5:46 a.m. was 2 metres deep, flowing in all directions. the first explosion took place at 6:01 a.m.

control systems measuring the levels within the tank should have prevented overspilling. a 'servo level gauge' should have sent data back to the control room, but this gave an unchanged reading from 3 a.m., despite the levels continuing to rise. additionally, a second, float-based safety cut-out should have stopped the inward flow once the 'ultimate high level' was reached, but this too appears to have failed.

it is not known for certain what caused the spark that led to the first explosion. any evidence is likely to have been destroyed in the fire, and so the exact cause may never be known.

the hse report did not place any blame, for fear of jeapodising future court cases. some, including mp for the hemel hempstead mike penning, have called for a full public inquiry. many local residents were forced to leave their homes after suffering damage to their houses from the explosion.

the explosion and fire, whilst being one of the biggest health and safety disasters in britain, did not cause any deaths.


china enters un human rights council

the un general assembly elected the un by secret ballot on may 9, 2006. with the participation of 191 member countries and all votes valid, the assembly elected 44 of the 47-strong membership of the new council, practically putting an end to months of thorny debates. three seats from eastern europe will be elected on wednesday. sixty-seven states stood for election.

india emerged as the top vote-getter in tuesday's elections, winning 173 out of 191 votes in a secret ballot to elect the 47-member council. it was the biggest tally for any country, surpassing japan (158) and china (146) in asia.

, , , , , , , , , , , , and are included in the asian group.

, , , , , , , and were elected for latin america and the caribbean group. 

, , , , , , , , , , , , and comprise the african group.

the western european and other groups include , , , , , , and .

all groups were completed but that of eastern europe, which only selected three of six seats: , , and . another voting round will be held to elect the remaining three seats 

the initially opposed this council and declined to run for a seat citing inadequate correctives. a us state department spokesperson criticizes the records of new council members cuba, china, russian and saudi arabia, hinting that they do not merit being on the council. us ambassador john r. bolton has said the us would work with other member states "to make the council as strong and effective as it can be."

the creation of the human rights council is seen as a key component of overall reform of the united nations. the new human rights council replaces the 60-year old, largely discredited human rights commission. the commission was disbanded after a number of countries with dubious human right records manipulated elections to win seats and began to work together as a bloc to defeat resolutions critical against any one of them. 

the new council will be required to conduct a regular review of the human rights record of all countries beginning with those serving on it. the council will have its first sitting in geneva on june 19.



last american survivor of the titanic disaster dies

on may 6, 2006, lillian asplund, the last american survivor of the titanic, died in her home in shrewsbury, massachusetts. she was 99 years old.

"she went to sleep peacefully," said vice president of the nordgren memorial chapel ronald e. johnson, which is located in worcester, massachusetts.

barbara joyce west dainton and elizabeth gladys "millvina" dean are the two remaining survivors living in england, however they were too young to have a memory of the titanic sinking.

"i could see the icebergs for a great distance around. it was cold and the little ones were cuddling close to one another and trying to keep from under the feet of the many excited people … my little girl, lillie, accompanied me, and my husband said 'go ahead, we will get into one of the other boats.' he smiled as he said it," said asplund's mother shortly after arriving in massachusetts after the disaster. throughout her life, ms. lillian asplund avoided talking about her survival.

the mother of asplund, selma and her three-year-old brother felix were also on the ship and both survived. her father and three other brothers were lost at sea. selma died in 1964 on the 52nd anniversary of the disaster. she was 91 years old. lilian's brother felix died on march 1, 1983 at the age of 73.

the titanic sank on april 15, 1912 when the ship struck an iceberg tearing a hole in the side of the hull. at the time, it was the biggest ship ever built. the titanic museum’s collection in indian orchard, massachusetts, was the first permanent exhibition of rare titanic artifacts and documents donated by survivors.


palestinians get interim aid

the united nations, the united states, russia and the european union have agreed on a "temporary international mechanism" to get aid to the palestinians for a trial period of three months, to ease financial tensions on the new government led by hamas.

the quartet issued a statement after a day of talks in which egypt, jordan and saudi arabia warned of a civil war if the hamas-led palestinian authority was left to collapse.

"the quartet expressed its willingness to endorse a temporary international mechanism that is limited in scope and duration, operates with full transparency and accountability," it said.

the palestinian authority has been facing a financial crisis since us and eu aid was suspended in april. there has been a large effort from the muslim world, particularly egypt to help raise and fund the pastinians. 

the palestinian authority employs some 165,000 people and the un estimates a quarter of the palestinian population relies on government salaries. it is estimated that $240 million is needed to cover the pa salaries for march and april.



possibility of new graphic health warnings on nz cigarette packs

new zealand associate minister of health damien o'connor has proposed that warnings, both images and text, should cover 60% of the packaging of cigarettes sold in the country. new zealand is required to do so under obligations to the world health organisation.

the new images would depict throat cancer, rotting teeth/gums and gangrenous feet. ashley bloomfield, chief advisor on public health, says written warnings aren't as effective as pictures, and that many smokers do not know most of the diseases that smoking can cause.

if the proposal were adopted, the ministry would dictate the size and placement of the images to the tobacco companies, but would not subsidise the cost of the changes.


southern australian munitions factory explodes

an australian munitions factory exploded in south australia. two people were killed, another two were injured and one is still missing. 

the factory produced explosives for quarrying, civil engineering and the military. 

the explosion leveled everything within 100 metres and could be heard from 70km away. 

emergency services have been held back to a one kilometre radius of the factory until an explosives expert from adelaide could come. 

“it's very dangerous, so we're holding back,” police inspector phil warwick said, “it's an explosives factory. all right it's exploded, but that doesn't mean all the explosives have gone. there's still smoke coming from the area, which means there must be fire or heat. put them (remaining explosives and fire) together and we could have another (explosion).” 


britney spears announces she is pregnant again

pop-singer britney spears, 24, announced last night on the "late show with david letterman" that she is pregnant again.

"so, we've established now that you are in fact pregnant, is that right?" asked letterman.

"yes, sir," replied spears. she added, "don't worry, dave, it's not yours."

spears gave birth to her son sean preston last september after marrying back-up dancer kevin federline, 28, in november 2004. this will be spears' second child and federline's fourth.

in 2004, shortly after the birth of her son, spears put her singing career on hold to raise him. her last album to be released was her "greatest hits" album in 2004.

in february, a photo of spears was taken while she was driving her car with her son in her lap. in april, her son allegedly fell from a high chair, hitting his head and prompting child welfare agents to go to her home. no charges have been filed in either case.


australia will help in east timor if requested: downer

australian minister for foreign affairs, alexander downer (, ), told the australian house of representatives on tuesday that australia would provide assistance to east timor if the east timorese government or united nations requested it.

northern territory member, david tollner (,), who has long had an interest in east timorese affairs, asked mr downer to update the parliament on "recent developments in east timor".

riots in east timor's capital killed five people on april 28 following a march supporting 600 east timorese soldiers who were dismissed for deserting following complaints of discrimination between those from the east and west of east timor. the australian government issued a travel advisory for east timor on may 4, 2006 advising australians to avoid the country.

mr downer today told parliament that there was no indication of violence against foreigners despite the warning still being in place. he continued by saying that the government was "deeply concerned" and would continue to monitor the situation closely. "we have, in a number of ways, strongly urged the leaders of east timor to resolve quickly and peacefully the differences that there are and, of course, to do so with full regard for the democratic institutions of the country, its constitution, the rule of law and international norms of human rights." said mr downer.

parliament also heard that australia had agreed with members of the united nations security council to conduct a new operation in east timor. "australia does stand ready to offer assistance if requested by either the east timor government directly or the united nations." mr downer told parliament.


explosives stolen from california mine

according to the alcohol tobacco and firearms agency or atf, at least 686 sticks of dynamite and at least 30 pounds of ammonium nitrate were stolen from gold mountain mine company in big bear city, california located in san bernardino county. fuel oil and mining equipment are also among the items stolen. when combined, the fuel oil and ammonium nitrate become combustible and authorities fear what could be done with the explosives.

"the obvious concern is someone stole it, and what are they going to do with it? this is a quantity of explosives that could do significant damage. we need to recover these items," said john d'angelo, spokesman for the atf.

the thieves cut locks on the gate that leads to the facility and then cut the locks on a metal storage bin and stole its contents and everything inside the facility. the man responsible for mining operations in the area does so as a hobby. the robbery was reported on may 3.

"we urge anyone who has information about this theft to contact atf and the san bernardino sheriff's department. our job is to keep the public safe. we take the theft of explosives extremely seriously, and we will relentlessly follow up every lead until we solve the case," said john a. torres who is the special agent in charge of the atf in los angeles.

authorities have offered a $25,000 reward for information about the crime that leads to an arrest and conviction.


uk hacker faces extradition to us

gary mckinnon was today told that he would be extradited to the us pending appeal. mckinnon stands accused of having caused $700,000 worth of damage to us military computer systems. describing himself as a "bumbling hacker," mckinnon said his intention was to look for ufos and information regarding technology that he claims the us government is withholding.

karen todner, mckinnon's solicitor, explained that "there is power under the computer misuse act to charge him here and he could stand trial here. in fact, had that happened he probably would have been tried, served his sentence and have been released by now." speaking after the trial, district judge nicholas evans said, "i readily accept, if convicted in the us, the probable sentence is likely to be appreciably harsher in the us than, in comparable circumstances, it would be in the uk. it must be obvious to any defendant that if you choose to commit a crime in a foreign country, you run the risk of being prosecuted in that country."

judge evans reported that the us government has made promises that mckinnon will be tried in a civil court, rather than facing a military hearing. despite these assurances mckinnon still fears what could happen to him, "as one person has said to me, most people in guantanamo have not been proved to be terrorists but allegedly i directly attacked the military."

ms. todner indicated that they intend to appeal against this initial ruling. "we're proposing to appeal this to the secretary of state, and if we're still refused we will then appeal to the high court for a decision to allow gary to be tried here as a british citizen." this seems unlikely to be successful, however, as struan robertson, a computing law expert, explains, "the only way out of it is if he faces the death penalty or if he can prove extradition is politically motivated, which he hasn't done. the fact that he may get 70 years in the us is irrelevant. the treaty makes an exception for capital punishment, but facing a harsh sentence is not in itself grounds to block extradition."



judge delays exit exam decision until friday

a california judge has delayed until friday his decision on whether to stop the state from requiring high school students to pass the california high school exit examination in order to graduate.

on monday, alameda county superior court judge robert b. freedman said he would issue an injunction against the high-stakes test, which was taken tuesday by thousands of seniors in danger of not being graduated unless they pass, unless the state’s attorneys came up with an otherwise convincing argument by 2 p.m.

instead, freedman said he would wait until friday to issue his decision.

the san francisco law firm morrison & foerster filed the lawsuit on behalf of richmond high school senior liliana valenzuela and others. it contends that the test violates the “equal protection” concept of the law in that poor students and english-language learners don’t have access to equal education.

the ruling would affect about 47,000 california high school seniors, and dozens at james logan high school, who have yet to pass the exam and would be barred from being graduated if they don’t.

thirty-two james logan students were scheduled to take the second half of the two-day test wednesday, along with thousands of others throughout the state.

last week, state superintendent of schools jack o’connell said that about 47,000 california high school seniors still needed to pass the test or face the prospect of completing four years of schoolwork without receiving a diploma. o’connell wrote the law requiring the test while serving in the state legislature.

the statistics o’donnell cited also show that, while nearly 90 percent of seniors have passed the test, only 71 percent of seniors who are english learners have passed, and 83 percent of those classified as low-income have passed.

of the 50 taking the first part of the test at logan high on tuesday, only 13 were native english speakers.

cynthia o’brien, who is coordinating the administration of the exit exam at james logan, said she’d like some certainty about whether the test is going to be required or not.

“the politicals in state and our judicial system need to get together and do the right job by the students. if the exit exam is going to go forward, then it needs to go forward. if not, then it needs to be cancelled completely,” she said after a long day of testing tuesday.

“it is not fair to the students to work their hearts out and agonize over something that has such a large impact on them and then find they didn't need to work so hard. i know there are probably students who have not taken the exam seriously, but the vast majority of logan students have. they deserve better than to not know from one day to the next what they need to do to be granted a diploma. most of our students who are taking the exam this go around have given up electives, lunches or time after school to prepare for the test,” she said.

"i am afraid that the message we are giving our students is that you don't need to care,” o’brien continued, “then, one day, the system will pull the rope tight, and students will be caught not having what they need. yes, they should all be doing their best, but when the system cries wolf too often, people tend to ignore the message.”

o’donnell, in a statement released on monday, said he would try to make sure the test counts.

"recognizing that today’s ruling is not final, i intend to do everything in my power to ensure that at the end of the legal day we maintain the integrity of the high school exit exam, and that all graduates in the class of 2006 will enter college or the workforce with a diploma that reflects their mastery of critical academic skills,” he said.

“independent research shows that because of the high school exit exam, students are working harder and learning more, and those who are struggling are getting the help they need to succeed,” he said.

california governor arnold schwarzenegger said, "delaying the exam's implementation does a disservice to our children by depriving us of the best tool we have to make sure schools are performing as they should be. we must increase our efforts to help all students meet the minimal bar set by the exam, not lower our standards or expectations of them.”

"i am disappointed in the court's tentative ruling to stop implementation of the california high school exit exam this year but i remain hopeful this will not be their final word,” he said.

if freedman grants the injunction, the state’s lawyers say they’ll appeal.

whatever happens with valenzuela vs. california, the battle isn’t over. next week, freedman is scheduled to hear arguments in another suit that seeks to block the test. lawyers for public advocates claim the department failed to hold until december a public hearing to consider alternatives to the test, six years after the legislature approved it.


uk attorney general says guantanamo should close

the attorney general of the united kingdom, lord goldsmith, has called for the closure of the guantanamo bay detainment camp at a speech in london today. he said that "the existence of guantanamo bay remains unacceptable - it is time, in my view, that it should close." the united states, which operates the naval base, has been under pressure for some time to close the camp, over fears that prisoners have been mistreated and are being held for long periods of time without conviction or trial.

lord goldsmith said, "not only would it, in my personal opinion, be right to close guantanamo as a matter of principle, i believe it would also help to remove what has become a symbol to many - right or wrong - of injustice. the historic tradition of the united states as a beacon of freedom, liberty and of justice deserves the removal of this symbol."

in the past few days, u.s. president george bush has said he "would very much like to end guanatanamo," but said he had to wait for a supreme court ruling on whether inmates could be tried by military or civilian courts. this ruling is expected in june.




icann rejects .xxx top-level domain name proposal

the internet corporation for assigned names and numbers (icann) today rejected the creation of a .xxx top-level domain name in a 9-to-5 vote. the .xxx domain would have been created for use by websites that offered pornography. supporters of the proposal, which would have created a new sponsored top-level domain (stld), say the 'triple x' domain would make it easier to recognise and filter pornographic websites. opponents suggested that the domain wouldn't be used by all sites, as registration would be voluntary, and that it would legitimise pornography.

current sponsored top level domains include .coop, used by cooperative associations, .museum for museums, and .travel for travel agents, airlines, and other travel-related sites. .post, for postal services, is also currently under consideration.



fight continues, 100 dead in somalia

mogadishu, capital of somalia, is witnessing a heavy fighting over the past four days. almost 100 people have died and 200 have been wounded in the clashes, as health officials said yesterday. the battle between the islamic court union and the alliance for the restoration of peace and counterterrorism has centered on the northern neighborhood of sii-sii. many of the casualties are civilians caught in the crossfire. there was a temporary truce, but that did not last long.

islamic militia leader sheikh sharif ahmed called a unilateral truce on tuesday in response to appeals from those affected by the violence. but his opponents said the truce was called because of a lack of ammunition. the warlords' alliance spokesman hussein gutale rageh said they would only accept the ceasefire if their rivals withdrew from territory they have occupied during the fighting.

the fighting started late on sunday, when an alliance of warlords attacked the vehicle of a group allied to the islamic courts, according to eyewitnesses.

this is the second round of the city's most serious fighting in a decade. in march 2006, clashes between the two sides killed at least 90 people. 

the united nations has appealed to both sides to halt the clashes.
un special representative for somalia, francois lonseny fall, appealed today for the rival militias to end the hostilities, saying they had created fear and chaos for civilians caught in the crossfire.

" the indiscriminate use of heavy machine guns, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and artillery in and between urban areas is unacceptable," said francois fall. 

somalia has not had an effective national authority for 15 years after the ousting of longtime dictator president siad barre in 1991. 
a un-backed transitional government has based itself in the central city of baidoa, but has so far failed to assert itself elsewhere.

islamic fundamentalists have portrayed themselves as an alternative capable of bringing order and peace, but they have not hesitated to use force and have allegedly linked up with al-qaeda terrorists. the islamic courts have restored order to some parts of the city by providing justice under sharia - islamic law. the courts say the warlords alliance is a pawn of the united states.

last week, somalia president abdullahi yusuf accused the us of funding the coalition of warlords. the us government says it does support efforts to restore stability to somalia but refuses to give details on who it backs and how. the alliance of warlords recently created the alliance for the restoration of peace and counter-terrorism. it has an anti-terror task force based in nearby djibouti. it accuses the islamic courts of sheltering foreign al-qaeda leaders.



legislative assembly election results declared in 5 indian states

the ruling left-front party in the indian state of west bengal retained power in the state after winning 232 out of 294 state legislative assembly seats. this is the seventh consecutive victory for the left front in west bengal. the chief opposition national aemocratic alliance managed to bag only 30 seats while the congress managed to get only 21 seats.

in tamil nadu, the democratic progressive alliance (dpa) led by dravida munnetra kazagham (dmk) has won 162 seats . the dpa have won a clear majority over it's closest rival, an alliance led by the admk, which has won only 71 seats out of 234 assembly seats. the dmk alone doesn't enjoy a simple majority and political negotiations are on to finalize the government structure.

the left democratic front has won 95 out of the 140 seats in the kerala state legislative assembly, beating it's rival the udf by 42 seats, thereby securing the majority.

in assam, the indian national congress has won 55 seats in the 126 seat assembly, thereby beating the agp, which has managed to get 26 seats. other regional parties have won 45 seats. this implies, however, that the congress has not achieved the majority required (64 seats out of 126 is the minimum) to form the state government. the congress will now have to form a coalition with other parties to get the required number of seats.

the dpa has won 21 out of 30 seats in the legislative assembly of the union territory of pondicherry, thereby securing a majority over the admk, which managed to get only 6 seats.


marxists retain west bengal, regain kerala

marxists retained west bengal and regained kerala in assembly elections in 5 indian states whose results were declared today. tamil nadu is likely to have its first coalition government headed by dmk's leader m karunanidhi. assam faces a hung assembly, while the congress-led front won overwhelmingly in pondicherry

the left front, led by the communist party of india (marxist), won 235 out of the total 294 assembly seats in west bengal. west bengal chief minister buddhadeb bhattacharjee has scored a thumping victory in jadavpur, winning by a margin of over 58,000 votes. 

"it is our victory. all credit goes to the people," bhattacharjee told reporters.

veteran cpi(m) leader and previous chief minister jyoti basu hailed the ruling left front's "march to power" in west bengal for the seventh successive term as "unprecedented in parliamentary history". basu was chief minister of west bengal from 1977 to 2000.

tamil nadu is likely to have its first coalition government headed by dmk leader m karunanidhi after chief minister jayalalithaa is voted out of power. the dmk-led front won in 162 out of 230 assembly seats in tamil nadu. and for the fifth time, dmk chief m karunanidhi is all set to become the chief minister of the state. 

in kerala, the left democratic front was victorious in 98 seats out of 140 constituencies. the udf, which came to power last time with 99 seats, won only 41 seats.

assam is heading for a hung assembly, whereas in pondicherry, a union territory of india, indian national congress-led front won 20 of 30 seats.



australian parliament hears reply to budget

the australian house of representatives heard the traditional right-of-reply to the budget released may 9, from the , led by (labor, ), plus budget replies from minor parties in the australian senate.

while the budget is politically popular, having as one of its main features significant tax reform, beazley focused on the omissions in the budget, such as the failure to address a skills shortage.

beazley opened by stating that "this budget fails middle australia and mortgages our kids' future", and continued by stating that "after ten long years, they deserve a break" from the howard government.

beazley introduced the key idea of his budget reply by speaking directly to middle australia, "tonight i seek a binding agreement between us… australia is counting on you to do the next round of heavy lifting… relying on you to drive a new wave of economic prosperity… under a beazley labor government, when you put in, you get back".

beazley contrasted that idea by criticising the treasurer, saying that after five budgets without a decent tax break, which was affected already by "soaring petrol prices", likening him to a poker machine with a payout of only "ten bucks".

beazley's commented solicited applause from the galleries, and continued sporadically through his reply, which focused on five points:

beazley also announced the founding of an independent expert body on infrastructure, and a "building australia" fund to invest in infrastructure.

in his conclusion, he stated his "unshakable faith in the australian people", and criticised the government's failure to "deal with climate change now", the government's mishandling of foreign debt, rising up to "half a trillion dollars" -- beazley likened costello to , with an anvil about to drop on his head.

beazley welcomed the tax cuts, but noted the influence of rising oil prices and student debt. beazley also noted that he would not have spent the money on the iraq war and would not have paid money to saddam's regime, referring to the awb scandal.

beazley's speech ended in further applause.

senator (, victoria), the leader of the democrats, was the first to speak in the senate on the budget.

allison stated that the budget was developed through the eyes of "political strategists" and was developed with "little interest in the social, economic, and environmental mess left behind".

allison criticised the government, stating that "manufacturing can't compete against cheap imports", criticised size of the trade deficit and foreign debt, noted the lack of the budget to address high petrol prices, noted that bankruptcies are at their highest, and high household debt, saying that "you won't read about them in this budget".

allison argued that "surplus should have been invested in the future", to address climate change, student debt which was "burdening generations with personal debt", and strongly criticised the government in regard to its failure to fund education, saying it was "an act of vandalism".

allison said that the budget was a budget "for buying votes, not for the long-term future of the nation".
allison continued to describe how the government had lost its environmental credentials, stating that the "environment in much better hands when the democrats held the balance of power".

allison responded to the budget allowances for transport infrastructure, saying that the budget "ignoring public transport" and that freeway funding was not sustainable.

allison argued that the income tax cuts introduced in the budget were "rewarding those on the highest incomes the most". in response to the mental health provisions in the budget, she stated that more must be done on mental health, smoking, obesity related disease, and said that the treasurer's "generosity was not extended to the ".

she noted how the government was "cynically failing indigenous australians", describing a government scheme of an assistance payment to indigenous australians which was based on attendance at schools, and that the government had revised the total amount of payment downward based on the expectations that indigenous australians will not attend schools.

ellison concluded by stating that "the democrats are committed to what we know to be the priorities for a sustainable future for all australians, well beyond a costello next decade and most definitely beyond the next election."

senator (tasmania, ) presented the australian greens budget reply speech.

she begun by describing how the howard government had said they had "delivered rivers of gold and manna from heaven", and that the budget message was such that "people were prompted to rejoice and be glad to spend, spend, spend".

milne went on to say that australia had become "two nations...one that is fixated on the present and cannot see what the problem is and the other that can see the problem and the huge risks for our children, grandchildren and future generations."

milne noted that the capacity of the environment to provide and fuel economic growth by traditional means "is in doubt". she went on to criticse the squandering of a "a minerals boom which has delivered corporate profits to the treasury", stating that the money should have been spent on "nation-building".

milne went on to criticise australia's interest in nuclear power and criticised australia's export of uranium, and noted the impact of salinity and climate change, and called for the establishment of a "climate change disaster fund".

milne responded to the auslink funding proposed by the government budget, by also criticising the lack of development in public transport. milne also echoed ellison's criticism of the government's treatment of its indigenous population, stating "if we cannot address aboriginal disadvantage in an economic boom time, when can we address it?"

milne concluded by stating "the greens’ vision for australia and the values we hold mean we would not squander the surplus on a spending spree. we do not support the tax cuts or superannuation windfall for high-income earners." and reiterated the points of view that the greens felt needed addressing.

stephen fielding (south australia, ) was the final senator to speak on the budget in the senate. 

he criticised the lack of support for low and middle income earners, stating "the government claims this is a budget for families, but the big winners are the high-income earners", and reiterated his earlier calls for reduction in fuel price by "10c a litre". 

fielding noted that family first supported the fact that more families would receive benefits, but called for a greater increase in the benefit rather than "the child-care rebate, which only goes to parents of children attending formal child care".

fielding concluded by noting that "families do benefit from this budget and will welcome it. but, for the average australian family, this budget will not be the bonanza the government would like us all to believe it is."



news briefs:may 11, 2006

the time is 23:00 (utc) on may 11th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

somalia

mogadishu, capital of somalia is witnessing a heavy fighting over the past four days. almost 100 people died so far and 200 wounded in the clashes, as health officials said yesterday. the battle between the islamic court union and the alliance for the restoration of peace and counterterrorism has centered on the northern neighborhood of sii-sii. many of the casualties are civilians caught in the crossfire. there was a temporary truce, but that did not last long.
islamic militia leader sheikh sharif ahmed called a unilateral truce on tuesday in response to appeals from those affected by the violence. but his opponents said the truce was called because of a lack of ammunition. the warlords' alliance spokesman hussein gutale rageh said they would only accept the ceasefire if their rivals withdrew from territory they have occupied during the fighting.

india

the ruling left-front party in the indian state of west bengal retained power in the state after winning 204 out of 294 state legislative assembly seats. the left-front is currently in the lead in 26 other constituencies where counting in progress- an indication that the party may win 230 seats.

west bengal, india

in recent assembly elections in 5 states of india, the counting has began today.
communist party of india ( marxist )-led united front is leading in 235 seats out of total 294 assembly seats in west bengal. west bengal chief minister buddhadeb bhattacharjee has scored a thumping victory in jadavpur, winning by a margin of over 58,000 votes.

australia

the australian house of representatives heard the traditional right-of-reply to the budget released may 9, from the australian labor party, led by kim beazley (labor, brand), plus budget replies from minor parties in the australian senate.
while the budget is politically popular, having as one of its main features, significant tax reform, beazley focused on the omissions in the budget, such as the failure to address a skills shortage.

greece

aek athens fans ruined and plundered the ferry "ierapetra", during the route from heraklio, crete, to the port of rafina in attica. more specifically, about 700 aek supporters went on board after the end of the greek soccer cup final, between olympiacos and aek which took place in crete. the victory of olympiacos over aek, with a 3-0 score, caused irritation within the supporters of aek which caused damages in both the stadium and the ship.

united states

some of the nearly 700 sticks of dynamite that were stolen from gold mountain mine company in big bear city, california on may 3, has been returned to a fire department in riverside, california. an unknown individual placed two plastic tubs of the dynamite in front of the fire department, which prompted streets around the department to be shut down and an elementary school was put on lockdown while the bomb squad examined the package. at least 10 houses near the scene had to be evacuated. the dynamite was then removed without incident.

united states

congressional republicans and democrats demanded answers from the u.s. administration thursday about a government spy agency secretly collecting records of everyday americans' phone calls to build a database of every call made within the country.

president george w. bush facing intense criticism assured americans that their privacy is being "fiercely protected."

"we're not mining or trawling through the personal lives of millions of innocent americans". president george w. bush leaving for a commencement address at mississippi gulf coast community college in biloxi.

the top ranking democrat on the senate judiciary committee said that he was very shocked about the nsa revelation.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


giorgio napolitano elected italian president

the italian parliament in unified session elected giorgio napolitano the new president of the italian republic on may 10th.

napolitano, 80, was elected on the fourth ballot with 543 valid votes (the threshold to win the election was 505). the number of "great electors" (the parliamentarians of both houses and the regional delegates) present was 1,000, of which 990 voted.

the election process started on may 8th, but no winner emerged from the previous three ballots, which required a two-thirds supermajority. italian parliamentary rules allow a simple majority from the fourth ballot onward.

other candidates who received more than two votes were umberto bossi (42), massimo d'alema (10), giuliano ferrara (7), gianni letta (6), silvio berlusconi (5), roberto dipiazza (3) and sergio pininfarina (3). there were 347 blank ballots, along with 14 votes of "null" and 10 vote that went to candidates who only received two votes or fewer.

italy was in an unusual political situation in which the term of outgoing president carlo azeglio ciampi was due to expire as the new center-left government led by prime minister romano prodi needed to be appointed. prodi's coalition won the election of april 9-10, defeating the government of berlusconi. it was not known if the president of the republic was to be elected first or if the old president was still able to assign the role of prime minister. it was decided, after the election of the two presidents of the senate and the house of parliament, to elect the new president of the republic first.

ciampi's term expires on may 18, but he has agreed to resign on may 15 before napolitano's inauguration.

napolitano is the first person to be elected president of the republic who previously was a member of the italian communist party.



aek athens fans damage ferry-boat in greece

angry fans of the aek athens football team damaged the ferry "ierapetra" during the route from heraklio, crete, to the port of rafina in attica. about 700 aek supporters boarded the ferry after the end of the greek football cup final between olympiacos and aek which took place in crete. the victory of olympiacos over aek, 3-0, angered the supporters of aek, which is believed to be the catalyst for damage in both the stadium and the ship. 

the prosecutor ordered a preliminary inquiry into the incidents that took place onboard the ierapetra. during the trip, a group of youths started breaking everything for no apparent reason. they caused extensive damage to the passenger lounges and the bars, while they responded to the crew’s pleas with cursing. a greek police officer was injured in the leg by a flare, and a crewmember was also injured. 

the owner of the ship, dane sea line of piraeus, estimates the cost of damage to the ship at ?150,000. 

the greek media has accused the administration of greek police and the ministers of public order and shipping of negligence in not doing more to prevent the events.


explosives stolen from a california mine, partially returned

some of the nearly 700 sticks of dynamite that were stolen from gold mountain mine company in big bear city, california on may 3, has been returned to a fire department in riverside, california. an unknown individual placed two plastic tubs of the dynamite in front of the fire department, which prompted streets around the department to be shut down and an elementary school was put on lockdown while the bomb squad examined the package. at least 10 houses near the scene had to be evacuated. the dynamite was then removed without incident.

at about 11:00 a.m. pdt today an individual passing by the fire department called 9-1-1 to report suspicious packages left in front of the department.

"there's still more missing, and we want the person who left the packages to come forward. whoever turned this in did the right thing. this person turning in this dynamite [is] a very good sign that perhaps he or she is willing to cooperate," said atf spokesman john d'angelo.

this crime is "a very big deal when you consider the damage one stick of dynamite could cause. in excess of 500 pounds of explosives ? that's a large amount," added d'angelo.

at least 500 pound of explosives and at least 30 pounds of ammonium nitrate are still missing and authorities are still offering a reward of $25,000 for any information leading to an arrest and conviction.

authorities do not believe the theft is related to terrorism, despite the same materials having been used for these purposes in the past. in 1995, timothy mcveigh used ammonium nitrate in the attack on the alfred murrah federal building in oklahoma city, causing the deaths of 168 people.


usa today reports nsa obtained call logs from communications companies

american newspaper "usa today" reported on thursday that the united states' national security agency (nsa) collected millions of call logs from telecommunications companies in 2001. the report comes almost four months after a previous nsa controversy involving the monitoring of international calls placed within the united states.

members of congress called for answers from the government about the report detailing the agency's collection of records from telecommunications companies of american phone calls.
the top-ranking democrat on the senate judiciary committee said that he was very shocked about the nsa revelation. "it is our government, it's not one party's government. it's america's government. those entrusted with great power have a duty to answer to americans what they are doing," said senator patrick leahy of vermont.

at&t, verizon communications, and bellsouth, three major telecommunications companies in the united states, began releasing logs of millions of phone calls to the nsa shortly after the september 11, 2001 attacks, according to the "usa today" report.

earlier this year, the "new york times" released a report stating that the nsa had been monitoring certain phone calls placed between the united states and other countries. nominated cia director michael hayden commented on the nsa program on january 23, 2006, stating: "the purpose of all this is not to collect reams of intelligence, but to detect and prevent attacks." hayden was the head of the nsa during the programs' durations.

president george w. bush assured americans that their privacy is being "fiercely protected." "we're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent americans," commented bush after leaving for a commencement address at mississippi gulf coast community college in biloxi.

according to the report, the information released by the telecommunications companies does not detail the content of the calls. the identities of those that placed and received the calls were recorded.

the supreme court of the united states has previously ruled that logs of numbers dialed are not considered 'private' because they are being communicated to the telephone company.


australian emergency telephone service lost in southern nsw, act

australia's emergency telephone service, triple-0, which is operated by telstra, has been lost in southern new south wales and the australian capital territory following damage to two optical fibre cables.

it is believed that in two separate incidents, optical fibre cables were cut at gundagai and narrandera in southern nsw. in addition to the loss of the triple-0 service, 34 mobile base stations in the region have also been affected. according to telstra, local calls are still possible, and they recommend that people dial their local fire, ambulance or police station in case of an emergency.

telstra says that services will be restored as soon as possible.



israeli gasoline supplier to palestinians cuts supply

israeli company dor energy, the sole supplier of gasoline and cooking gas to the palestinian territories, cut off all deliveries on wednesday, citing us$27 million in unpaid bills.

mujahed salameh, director general of the palestinian petroleum agency, predicted an "economic catastrophe" which would cripple factories and transportation as many people would be unable to work. 

he said that the palestinian authority does not maintain petroleum reserves and that gasoline supplies would run out in many areas by thursday. the associated press reported long lines at gas stations in the gaza strip, and gasoline stations through the west bank have begun rationing.

dor energy had threatened supply cutoffs twice before 2006, which were averted when the palestinians made last-minute payments.

palestinian president mahmoud abbas is reportedly in talks with u.s. and european union officials in an attempt to get israel to resume delivery of fuel. for israel's part, a spokesman for prime minister ehud olmert said that the israeli government would "absolutely not" bail out the palestinians.

the gasoline shortage is expected to deepen an economic and humanitarian crisis in the palestianian territories since the u.s. and eu cut off aid to the palestinian authority after hamas won parliamentary elections.



calls for corporate tax reform in australia goes unheeded

peter costello’s budget announcement has led to rejoicing for small businesses, but the lack of joy for those pushing for radical corporate taxation reform has led to many businesses asking “what about us?”

personal taxation and small business have been the big winners after this year’s federal budget. although dampened by the twin economic threats of rising interest rates and petrol prices, there should be a reasonable amount of real income savings for both low and high income earners, with those receiving medicare, or a superannuation benefit, privy to an even lower level of taxation (0% for those on super benefits).

small business also has benefited from the howard government’s 11th annual budget, with them receiving a higher level of reducing depreciation, leading to a higher level of deductions in the years following the uptake of new technology or other capital. they are also privy to a au$435 million dollar tax cut to compensate for their changing accounting requirements under the government’s new aifrs reporting standards, as well as increasing the uptake of both the small business tax relief scheme and cgt (capital gains tax) concessions.

the budget was not a complete loss for big business however, as superannuation laws have been tweaked to streamline contribution and payment rules previously impeding those with multitudes of staff.

but this is not enough, says big 4 accounting firm ernst & young. in their newly published paper “taxation of investment in australia: the need for ongoing reform”. in it they lead the charge for a greater streamlining and organization of the corporate tax system in australia, submitting that it will lead to reductions in “disincentives to work save and invest in australia [as well as improving] the international competitiveness of australian businesses.” this follows from a recent report brought out by mr. costello himself about the need for tax reform in australia.

a budget night mr. costello was notably coy about any future reform of corporate tax in australia. he alluded to the report by his ministers but kept from outlining the government’s plan precisely.


oil pipeline explodes in nigeria; 200 feared dead

200 people feared dead in an explosion at an oil pipeline near lagos in nigeria. many of the bodies had been burnt beyond recognition. firefighters were on the scene of the explosion at ilodi; a fishing village 25 miles east of nigeria's main city of lagos, and red cross workers were helping survivors.

"there was a big fire and quite a number of people died," red cross spokeswoman okon umoh said. many of the bodies had fallen into the water of the coastal village. the blast took place when villagers were scooping out fuel that was gushing out from a ruptured pipe.

nigeria is africa's leading oil producer, the world's seventh-biggest exporter and fifth-biggest source of u.s. oil imports. but, most of the population lives in poverty. the pipelines often pass through poor communities, who break them to steal the precious oil. 

nigeria has a history of pipeline disasters. at least 1000 people died in jesse in a pipeline blast in october 1998. 



jihadis still work online

the 7/7 train-bombing report just released in the uk suggested that the internet may have played a role in the bombers' preparations. the bombers used a local bookshop to access extremist websites. they got hold of some of the materials needed to make the bombs online. 

today search engines say they won't provide details helpful to terrorists. but more4news has been searching arabic websites to see what kind of jihadi information is still available online 


mohamed elbaradei: highly enriched uranium found in iran is &quot;of little significance&quot;

back in 2003, inspectors had discovered several sites in iran that tested positive for highly enriched uranium, but the uranium was believed to have come from equipment that was previously from pakistan.

on friday, reuters published a report quoting un diplomats from vienna who wish to remain anonymous alleging that preliminary analysis of microscopic dust collected from equipment at the now razed research center in iran in january of 2005, contained traces of "highly enriched ". "it's no smoking gun. there could be many explanations. but it increases pressure on iran to come clean about lavizan," reuters reported the european diplomat as stating.

according to the islamic republic news agency, mohamed elbaradei, the head of the iaea, said today that the finding of the highly enriched uranium is "of little significance at the current juncture." elbaradei also pointed out that the investigation into where it came from is continuing and that the uranium could have come from equipment that was imported to iran, but that "time is still needed to reach a conclusion in this respect."

elbaradei also highlighted that he is aware of the right for iran to use nuclear material for "peaceful purposes" and that "a balance between iran's nuclear rights and concerns of the international community would not be created through verbal disputes, but rather dialogue would be the solution."

speaking on friday about the allegation, former un weapons inspector and former head of the institute for science and international security, david albright said, "even if it is the same contamination, this is a significant finding because it indicates something was going on at lavizan. it could be part of iran's known centrifuge program or a parallel program."

in response, iran's foreign ministry spokesman, hamid reza asefi asserted, "these comments lack any importance and do not come from a real source." denying that his country had carried out any work at the lavizan-shiyan facility, asefi added that the un claims were "baseless and without importance."

on friday iran's president, mahmoud ahmadinejad responded to the un allegations saying, "they are trying to frighten our country by waging a propaganda campaign using strong words. the people of iran and the country are not afraid of them" and that "this whole thing is just psychological propaganda, but they know the islamic republic nation of iran is a strong nation. i think they have better sense than to have a war with iran. every country has the right to defend its right in accordance with the agreed way."

iran started to enrich uranium at its natanz nuclear facility april 11, and continues to claim its program is for peaceful purposes.


exiled chagos islanders win right to return home

the islanders of chagos archipelago have won a high court battle that may allow them to return to the islands they were exiled from in 1971. the chagossians (also known as ilois) had previously won another high court battle in 2000 which paved the way for their return, but this was overturned by foreign secretary jack straw using an order-in-council, a little-used piece of legislation involving the royal perogative. yesterday, the high court judges ruled that the use of this action was "irrational and unlawful". the government has 28 days to decide whether to appeal. 

of about 4,000 exiles from the chagos islands, most live in poverty within the poor areas of mauritius. all the exiles have british citizenship, with about 250 living in the uk. the case won in the high court yesterday was brought by chagossian community leader olivier bancoult, who has been fighting for the right of exiles to return to the islands for many years.

a us military base currently occupies diego garcia, the biggest island in the group, after having been leased the land by the british government. the base played a role in the iraq war. mauritius has claimed ownership of the island, but it is currently considered by the british to be part of the british indian ocean territory. under the treaty arrangements between the uk and the us, the us is allowed to stop people living on the islands.

it remains to be seen whether, and when, the ilois will be able to return. lawyers for the ilois argued that although they would not initially be able to live in diego garcia, they should be allowed to return to another of the 52 islands within the group (which contains over 600 islands in total).

a spokesman for the foreign office said: "we are disappointed with the judgement." they have not yet decided whether to appeal.



news briefs:may 12, 2006

the time is 18:00 (utc) on may 12th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

nigeria

200 people feared dead in an explosion at an oil pipeline near lagos in nigeria. many of the bodies had been burnt beyond recognition. firefighters were on the scene of the explosion at ilado, a fishing village 25 miles east of nigeria's main city of lagos, and red cross workers were helping survivors.
"there was a big fire and quite a number of people died," red cross spokeswoman okon umoh said. many of the bodies had fallen into the water of the coastal village. the blast took place when villagers were scooping out fuel that was gushing out from a ruptured pipe.

united nations

according to the united nations, preliminary test results show that highly enriched uranium has been found on nuclear equipment in the former physics research center at lavizan-shiyan. the results are expected to be confirmed through other lab tests, but diplomats say the uranium is a "very high level of enrichment, close to weapons-grade."

italy

the italian parlament in unified session elected giorgio napolitano the new president of the italian republic on may 10th.
napolitano, 80, was elected on the fourth ballot with 543 valid votes (the threshold to win the elction was 505). the number of great electors (the parlamentarians of both houses and the regional delgates) present was 1,000, of which 990 voted.

israel

israeli company dor energy, the sole supplier of gasoline and cooking gas to the palestinian territories, cut off all deliveries on wednesday, citing us$27 million in unpaid bills.
mujahed salameh, director general of the palestinian petroleum agency, predicted an "economic catastrophe" which would cripple factories and transportation as many people would be unable to work.
he said that the palestinian authority does not maintain petroleum reserves and that gasoline supplies would run out in many areas by thursday. the associated press reported long lines at gas stations in the gaza strip, and gasoline stations through the west bank have begun rationing.

united states

the american newspaper usa today reported on thursday that the united states' national security agency collected millions of call logs from telecommunication companies in 2001. the report comes almost four months following a previous controversy of the agency, which included the monitoring of international calls placed within the united states.
congressional members called for answers from the government about the report detailing the agency collecting records of american phone calls from communication companies.

australia

australia's emergency telephone service, triple-0, which is operated by telstra has been lost in southern new south wales and the australian capital territory following damage to two optical fibre cables.
it is believed that in two separate incidents, optical fibre cables were cut at gundagai and narrandera in southern nsw. in addition to the loss of the triple-0 service, 34 mobile base stations in the region have also been affected. according to telstra local calls are still possible and they recommend that people dial their local fire, ambulance or police station in case of an emergency.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


judge suspends california high school exit exam requirement

as expected, alameda county superior court judge robert freedman today issued a preliminary injunction stopping the state from requiring would-be high school graduates to pass the california high school exit exam, but the state superintendent of schools said he would try to overturn freedman's ruling.

just before 2 p.m. pdt, freedman announced his decision in his oakland courtroom. 

on monday, freedman announced his tentative decision to stop the state from requiring students to pass the test, but withheld his final decision until today to give lawyers in the case time to make further arguments.

in his statement, freedman said state school officials "are enjoined and restrained from denying any high school senior who is a member of a 2006 graduating class and who is otherwise eligible to graduate and receive a diploma from participating in graduation exercises and receipt of such diploma solely on the ground that such student has not passed all parts" of the exam.

the ruling effects 47,000 seniors statewide, about 11 percent of the class of 2006, who have yet to pass both the english and math sections of the exam.

at james logan high school, about 70 students are effected.

in the case, "valenzuela vs. o'connell", lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that their clients were denied equal opportunity to pass the test, as they are not offered equal educational opportunities in california schools because of their non-english primary language backgrounds or their low economic status. the students represented face not graduating despite meeting all requirements for graduation except passage of the test, 

freedman agreed, at least in part. in his decision, he said: "there is evidence in the record that shows that students in economically challenged communities have not had an equal opportunity to learn the materials tested on the (california high school exit examination)."

originally, the case involved 10 students and their families, but since its filing in february, four of the students have passed the test, leaving six students as parties to the case.

"i’m greatly disappointed in today’s court decision to halt the california high school exit exam as a graduation requirement for the class of 2006," said state superintendent of schools jack o'connell. "this is not only a great disappointment to me, it is a setback for students and hard-fought school accountability in the state of california."

"the preliminary injunction against california’s exit exam denies the vast majority of students in the class of 2006 the opportunity to graduate with diplomas that certify mastery of essential skills in reading and math," he said.

"we will continue to fight the case," said o'connell, "i have directed our attorneys to immediately appeal this ruling, and to seek a stay of the judge’s order." 

o'connell wrote the law requiring the test as a state legislator in 1999.

"i applaud superintendent o'connell for his decision to appeal the ruling issued today delaying the california high school exit exam graduation requirement," said california governor arnold schwarzenegger. "he has my full support in his efforts to secure the exam's implementation this year. i stand behind the exit exam because it is our best resource for ensuring that schools are giving our children the knowledge and the skills they need to begin successful lives."


native hawaiian sovereignty bill to be debated in u.s. senate in june

the u.s. senate has scheduled debate and a vote in june on a bill that would allegedly initiate a process for native hawaiians to achieve the same level of self-governance and autonomy over their own affairs that many native american tribes currently have. critics of the bill characterize it as going much further than any existing tribal recognition, creating a governing entity based solely on race, without the same requirements as needed for native american tribal recognition, such as having existed predominantly as a distinct community, having exercised political influence over its members as an autonomous entity, and have continuously been identified as a tribal entity since 1900.

senator daniel akaka (d-hawaii), the main proponent of bill s. 147 (the native hawaiian government reorganization act) and a native hawaiian himself, had been giving daily speeches on the senate floor since may 9 in support of the bill to raise awareness of it. his advocacy of the bill has led it to become known as the "akaka bill." opponents of the akaka bill have made daily responses to the senator's speeches as well.

"i thank our majority leader, the senior senator from tennessee, who is working to uphold his commitment to bring this bill to the senate floor for a debate and roll call vote," akaka said after receiving the pledge from majority leader bill frist (r-tenn.) on friday. he also recognized his chief opponent, senator jon kyl (r-ariz.), who worked with akaka "to uphold his promise to allow the bill to come to the floor for a debate and roll call vote."

frist is expected to file a cloture motion after the senate returns from its may recess. a vote on the cloture motion would occur within 48 hours of filing.

opponents of the bill, including kyl, charge that the bill is a race-based privilege that the u.s. constitution prohibits. others, such as sen. lamar alexander (r-tenn.) imply that passage of the bill could have unintended consequences. in a speech on the senate floor on tuesday that preceded akaka's, alexander likened the bill to recognizing hispanic populations descended from pre-republican texas or giving tribal status to the amish or hasidic jews, the "honolulu star-bulletin" reported.

akaka believes that he has bipartisan support for his bill, with four republican senators pledging support for it. at least six republican senators would need to vote for the bill for it to pass, assuming that the bill receives solid support from akaka's fellow democrats and the chamber's one independent member who usually votes with the democrats.

a recent report from the u.s. civil rights commission recommended that the bill be rejected. (pdf)

"the commission recommends against passage of the native hawaiian government reorganization act of 2005 (s. 147) as reported out of committee on may 16, 2005, or any other legislation that would discriminate on the basis of race or national origin and further subdivide the american people into discrete subgroups accorded varying degrees of privilege."

although the u.s. civil rights commission redacted the findings section of their draft report before approving their final report, opponents of the akaka bill have challenged the characterization of the findings section as being "historically inaccurate" by akaka bill supporters.

supporters of the bill, which include the democratic members of hawaii's congressional delegation and republican governor linda lingle, counter that hawaii is a unique case because of its former history as an independent nation before the overthrow of the hawaiian monarchy in 1893.

kyl had placed a block on the bill when it was originally placed on the senate schedule in july 2005, but has since agreed to allow the bill to come to a floor vote. the bill was later deferred indefinitely due in part to hurricane katrina.



merapi roars, compulsory evacuation ordered

indonesian authorities have ordered the compulsory evacuation of thousands of residents living on the slopes of the volcano mount merapi in central java. the alert level has been raised to the highest level, warning of an imminent eruption of the volcano that has been rumbling for weeks and spewing lava and black ash.

"this morning we raised the status of merapi to the top alert which is the red code" said subandrio, head of the merapi section at the centre for volcanological research and technology development.

"every resident has been ordered to evacuate."

"because there has been constant lava flows that cause hot gases, we have raised the status to the highest level," said bambang dwiyanto, head of the region's vulcanology center.

more than 1,000 people who live closest to the crater, including the elderly and mothers with young children, have already been evacuated. but some residents have remained reluctant to leave; they fear losing property and livestock. 27,000 locals in 3 villages could be affected by this eruption. 

the scientists have warned that the greatest danger could come from hot gasses expelled from the volcano's crater. 

the 3,000m (9,700ft) peak, in densely populated central java province, is one of 129 active volcanoes in indonesia and part of the pacific "ring of fire" - a series of volcanoes stretching from the americas through japan and southeast asia.
it has small eruptions every 3-4 years and larger eruptions every 10-15 years. it has produced more pyroclastic flows, popularly known as heat cloud and magma, than any other volcano in the world. a gas cloud from the volcano's last eruption in 1994 killed 60 people. during the eruption in 1930, 1,300 people died. historians say that mount merapi has been active for 10,000 years. the locals consider mount merapi very sacred. according to the local folklore the volcano's eruption is the result of spirits being angered by not receiving sufficient offerings or by a disrespectful attitude among the people on the slopes.



news briefs:may 13, 2006

the time is 18:00 (utc) on may 13th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

indonesia

indonesian authorities have ordered the compulsory evacuation of thousands of residents living on the slopes of the volcano mount merapi. the alert level has been raised to the highest level, warning of an imminent eruption of the volcano which has been rumbling for weeks and spewing lavas and black ash.

france

the french daily le monde, which has a tradition of publishing full texts by politicians and intellectuals, was one of the first organisations to publish the full english text of iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad's letter to us president george w. bush, on may 9, 2006. on the same day, the us daily the wall street journal published a scan of the english text and the iranian islamic republic news agency (irna) published the full text. in the uk, the guardian published the full text two days later.

united states

the u.s. senate has scheduled debate and a vote in june on a bill that would initiate a process for native hawaiians to achieve the same level of self-governance and autonomy over their own affairs that many native american tribes currently have.
senator daniel akaka (d-hawaii), the main proponent of bill s. 147 (the native hawaiian government reorganization act) and a native hawaiian himself, had been giving daily speeches on the senate floor in support of the bill since may 9 to raise awareness of the bill. so connected is akaka to the bill that the bill has become known as the "akaka bill."

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


liverpool win an exciting fa cup final

liverpool football club won the 2006 fa cup 3-1 on penalties after an eventful final against west ham united ending 3-3 after extra time. whilst the first twenty minutes started slowly, the pace couldn't have been any faster during the rest of the ninety minutes of normal play. west ham took an early lead from a jamie carragher own goal 21 minutes into the game, before scoring another through dean ashton seven minutes later. two goals down, liverpool scored with a goal from djibril cisse just four minutes later and then drew level in the second half with an impressive volley from steven gerrard. paul konchesky put west ham back in front on the 54th minute with a left wing cross that somehow ended up in the back of the net. 

with west ham 3-2 up, play continued at a frantic pace with plenty of opportunities for both teams, but the hammers looked set to hold out till the final whistle. as the clock hit 90 minutes though, gerrard, despite suffering from cramp, saved liverpool from defeat with a last minute goal.

going into extra time, both teams were suffering from the fast tempo of the first 90 minutes, with several injured and cramp-suffering players on both teams. with both sides having used up their three substitutions however, they had no choice but to battle on, and compared to the rest of the match, play slowed down considerably. west ham nearly snatched victory with a shot from nigel reo-coker, but liverpool keeper pepe reina managed a deflection, and with the ball landing at the injured foot of west ham's marlon harewood, it was all he could do to get a shot in, which went badly wide.

as extra time finished, the game turned to the penalty shootout to decide the cup winners. 40 year old teddy sheringham scored one for west ham, but with three of west ham's penalties getting saved by the keeper, liverpool won 3-1, missing just one penalty themselves.

west ham were firm underdogs in this final, but the teams proved to be a good match for each other, and pundits agreed that this was the best fa cup final for several decades.


fitzgerald to announce new evidence against libby

federal prosecutor patrick fitzgerald announced on friday that he would introduce new evidence in the perjury and obstruction of justice case against former vice presidential chief of staff lewis "scooter" libby.

one of the new pieces of evidence consists of handwritten notes that vice president dick cheney left on the margins of ambassador joseph wilson's oped column questioning the administration's handling of evidence regarding weapons of mass destruction (wmd) in the run-up to the iraq war. fitzgerald charged that "those annotations support the proposition that publication of the wilson op ed acutely focused the attention of the vice president and the defendant - his chief of staff - on mr. wilson, on the assertions made in his article, and on responding to those assertions." fitzgerald describes the notes as reflecting "the contemporaneous reaction of the vice president to mr. wilson's op ed article" and views the relevance of these notes as "establishing some of the facts that were viewed as important by the defendant's immediate superior." 

in the margins of wilson's article cheney wrote a series of questions about the legitimacy of wilson's cia-sponsored trip to niger: "have they done this sort of thing before? send an amb. [sic] to answer a question? do we ordinarily send people out pro bono to work for us? or did his wife send him on a junket?"

lea ann mcbride, spokesperson for the vice president, declined to comment on the publishing of the notes, but stressed that the office of the vice president continues to cooperate with the investigation. 




bulls clinch position in super 14 rugby semi-finals

the bulls rugby team has managed to reach the semi-finals of the southern hemisphere provincial rugby union competition, the super 14. despite entering the match with the burden of having to score 32 points and receiving a bonus point (by scoring four tries). the bulls managed to overcome fellow south african team, the stormers, at newlands stadium in cape town on saturday may 13, winning the match 43 points to 10 in the final round of the regular season.

entering the final round of the regular season, the bulls and fellow south african durban-based sharks, as well as the australian canberra-based brumbies were the only sides in contention for the fourth and last finals position. after the brumbies, who unlike the sharks were actually ahead on the number of points, were soundly defeated by the canterbury-based crusaders, 33 points to 3, the result meant that either the sharks or bulls could mathematically take fourth position on the ladder. the sharks stormed to victory over perth-based western force, winning 41 points to 25, meaning that the bulls would have to score at least four tries to be ensured of a bonus point, to move ahead of the sharks, who were now sitting in front of them on points difference.

despite the set back of both prop danie thiart and captain victor matfield to the sin-bin in the first half, the pretoria-based bulls entered halftime leading 26 points to 3. a try to the stormers happened in the opening minute of the second half, though the bulls held on to the victory. bryan habana scored the last try, which was subsequently converted and pushed the bulls into fourth place on the table on points difference. the bulls will now faced the crusaders in new zealand next week for a spot in the final, the other spot is to be contested also in new zealand, between the wellington-based hurricanes and the new south wales waratahs.



more sky tv problems, nz

sky tv had problems earlier with some viewers unable to tune into certain channels.

it was caused by a streamlining issue not related to satellite problems.

the problem caused the following channels unable to be seen: sky movies, j2, cartoon network, sky news, pay-per-view movie channels, radio channels including; national radio, concert fm and george fm.
most of the free-to-air channels, however, were working, along with the sport channels, some channels did suffer from picture pixelation.


us continues to deny red cross access to all detainees

in a statement released on thursday, the (icrc) said that icrc president jacob kellenberger "deplored the fact that the u.s. authorities had not moved closer to granting the icrc access to persons held in undisclosed locations."

the icrc started making requests to get access to all u.s. detainees, including the ones held in alleged secret prisons, over two years ago. after kellenberger met with senior officials, including secretary of state , defense secretary , and national security adviser , he was again refused access to terrorist suspects held in secret detention centers, chief icrc spokesperson antonella notari said on friday.

kellenberger said that "no matter how legitimate the grounds for detention, there exists no right to conceal a person's whereabouts or to deny that he or she is being detained".

in response, spokesman sean mccormack said that the icrc has access to the vast majority of u.s. detainees, but said that "there is a certain subcategory of individuals who have forfeited their protections under the and there is not an obligation to allow access to those individuals."



word 2007 will include blogging tools

lead programmer of microsoft word, joe friend, wrote on his blog that the upcoming version of microsoft word (which will be a part of microsoft office 2007 suite) will have blog editing and publishing functions.

friend said: ""when i write a blog post using my blog providers web-based editor i miss some of the familiar word features that i've come to rely on, specifically background spelling (those little red squiggles) and autocorrect. these features keep me from making stupid mistakes.""

friend also said that word 2007 will not generate unnecessary html code. ""bold become <nowiki></nowiki>, italic becomes <nowiki></nowiki>, heading 1 become <nowiki></nowiki>, quotes become <nowiki></nowiki> and on it goes.""

previously, critics of microsoft word's html generation capabilities held that the application generated unneeded and bulky html code.

graphic files that users would use in blog entries will be converted to the png format, which includes support for alpha channel (i.e. partial) transparency.

to create new or publish post, there will be three mouse-clicks: to create "file" → "new..." → "new blog post"); to publish "file" → "publish" → "blog".


australian govt announces proposals for copyright update, allows private recording and transfer between media

in a move designed to both clarify existing copyright law, and extend existing provisions to digital media users, the australian attorney-general has announced a proposed update of copyright law.

the new law, described as "commonsense amendments", will clarify provisions allowing individuals to legally record programs and transfer recordings between media such as cd and mp3 for private use, whilst at the same time ensuring that unauthorised copying and usage remains illegal. 

these provisions have broadly existed to date and in previous analogue media, but over the past few years have been eroded by stricter laws and licensing agreements, and by measures intended to prevent piracy, which have made it harder for legitimate users to undertake actions they see as part of reasonable ownership rights, such as backups and private use of purchased materials.


prison riot breaks out in haiti

a riot took place at the main prison in haiti on sunday. the prison is located within a few miles of the parliament building.

according to the "associated press", at least 100 prisoners stormed the roof of the prison and were seen holding what appeared to be 2 dead inmates. prisoners were also heard chanting "freedom or death" and held a banner saying "justice."

haitian police and united nations peacekeepers arrived on scene shortly after the riot erupted and surrounded the prison.

the riot occurred just hours before the inauguration of haitian president rene preval. preval, who previously served as prime minister in 1991 and as president from 1996 to 2001, had no official statement about the riot, which occurred just a half-mile from the parliament building from which preval was inaugurated sunday.


alonso wins spanish gp: fans are rejoicing

fernando alonso became the first spaniard to win the fia formula-1 spanish grand prix. unlike in the previous race, this time, michael schumacher placed third after the qualification on saturday. giancarlo fisicella, alonso's teammate, started second, thus completing the front row by renault. two ferrari cars occupied the second row.

in the race, which took place in barcelona, montmello circuit de catalunya, schumacher struck hard to overtake renault drivers, but finished with this goal half done. unable to compete with alonso's speed, he easily overtook fisico after the first pit stop.

as said by the winner about his own speed, he "controlled the second part of the race" and slowed down because of the huge gap between him and his closest competitor, michael schumacher.

although he set the fastest lap in the race, this time, felipe massa did not have enough pace to overtake fisicella, thus completing the race on the fourth place. kimi raikkonen did not struggle as much with the other drivers as he did with his own car and finished fifth. all the other competitors, except for the sixth place jenson button, finished with a gap more than a lap.

in the drivers' championship, fernando alonso won back 2 points from michael schumacher and now has a 15-point lead.



news briefs:may 14, 2006

the time is 18:00 (utc) on may 14th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

haiti

a riot has broken out at the main prison in haiti and gunshots have been heard inside. the prison is locatd within a few miles of the parliament building.
united nations peacekeepers are on scene and have surrounded the prison.
according to the associated press, at least 100 prisoners are on the roof of the prison and are holding what looks to be 2 dead bodies, however; no casualties have been officially reported. the ap also reports that prisoners are saying "freedom or death" and are holding a banner saying "justice."

united states

in a statement released on thursday, the international committee of the red cross (icrc) said that icrc president jacob kellenberger "deplored the fact that the u.s. authorities had not moved closer to granting the icrc access to persons held in undisclosed locations."
the icrc started making requests to get access to all u.s. detainees, including the ones held in alleged secret prisons, over two years ago. 

united states

federal prosecutor patrick fitzgerald announced on friday that he will introduce new evidence in the perjury and obstruction of justice case against former vice presidential chief of staff lewis "scooter" libby.
one of the new pieces of evidence consist of hand-written notes that vice president dick cheney left on the margins of ambassador joseph wilson's oped column questioning the administration's handling of wmd evidence in the run-up to the iraq war. 

australia

in a move designed to both clarify existing copyright law, and extend existing provisions to digital media users, the australian attorney-general has announced a proposed update of copyright law.
the new law, described as "commonsense amendments", will clarify provisions allowing individuals to legally record programs and transfer recordings between media such as cd and mp3 for private use, whilst at the same time ensuring that unauthorised copying and usage remains illegal.

united states

lead programmer of microsoft word, joe friend, wrote on his blog that new version of microsoft word (which will be a part of microsoft office 2007 suite) will have blog editing and publishing functions.

sports - rugby

the bulls rugby team has managed to reach the semi-finals of the southern hemisphere provincial rugby union competition, the super 14. despite entering the match with the burden of having to score 32 points and receiving a bonus point (by scoring four tries). the bulls managed to overcome fellow south african team, the stormers, at newlands stadium in cape town on saturday may 13, winning the match 43 points to 10 in the final round of the regular season.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


wave of attacks strike policemen in brazil

pcc ("primeiro comando da capital", portuguese for first command of the capital city) criminals have been backing several attacks against security forces in the state of sao paulo, brazil. since friday, there have been 81 deaths: 22 military and 6 civil policemen, 8 prison personnel, 3 city guards and 4 civilians have been targeted. 180 attacks against personnel, police departments, busses and banks have been recorded.
in the meantime, there have been 53 prison riots across sao paulo, mato grosso do sul and parana, with hostages. there is no confirmed count of wounded and dead, but early information indicates that rival faction members have killed criminals during the riots.

this has been a response to the government's decision last week to isolate the leaders of the group. criminals have also set fire to more than forty buses and banks, but there haven't been any confirmed victims.

as a response to these incidents, the state police of sao paulo have arrested 82 suspects. they have closed streets near police departments, and armed policemen are patrolling regions of the city.




australian senator to oppose petrol deregulation

australian senator barnaby joyce (nationals, queensland) has moved to oppose the government's planned changes to the country's petrol retail industry. the national party, of which senator joyce is a member, governs australia in coalition with the liberal party.

the government plans to amend regulations governing the petrol industry to allow oil companies to own more than five percent of petrol stations. senator joyce has given notice to disallow regulations that would force the government to debate them in the house of representatives and the senate.

senator joyce said the proposed changes would hurt the smaller retailers in the industry. "what we need is protection for independents and mum and dad businesses," he told the australian financial review.

senator joyce is concerned that the proposed regulations would start takeovers of smaller retailers by oil companies. "obviously the sites they're going to get are the sites that are controlled by independents or independent franchisees, what i would term the mum and dad operators," he said.

"in 1980 we thought it was a good thing for there to be wider participation in the retail market by mum and dad operators and i still think that's a just cause," said senator joyce.

it is not the first time senator joyce has gone against his party's legislation. senator joyce refused to support a government bill changing australia's trade practices law in october 2005 and voted against voluntary student unionism legislation in december 2005.


satellite phone subsidy to be extended in australia

senator helen coonan, australian minister for communication, information technology and the arts, has announced the federal government will be extending its subsidy on satellite telephone handsets.

the scheme allows those living or working in parts of remote australia without conventional mobile telephone services to claim a subsidy of up to au$1,200 on the purchase of a satellite telephone.

the program was supposed to run for five years from 2002 until 2007. the program will continue until 2009.

in addition to the extension, the scheme's eligibility criteria will be changed from july 1, 2006 to ensure that the scheme "continues to be well targeted," according to senator coonan.

the changes will allow aboriginal corporations and educational institutions to claim the subsidy, which were previously ineligible. “these changes include increasing the level of support available to indigenous corporations who may now be able to receive more than two subsidies in some circumstances, and introducing educational institutions as an eligible category,” senator coonan said.

the government will also change the way the subsidy is calculated. in the past, it had been calculated based upon the call plan chosen by the customer. the government will now calculate the subsidy based on the amount of time the customer spends in remote areas. those operating a business in areas without ground-based mobile telephone services will be eligible for the full au$1,200 subsidy, while those who spend some time in such areas will be eligible for au$900.


australian mitchell dean wins honolulu triathlon

australian mitchell dean won the honolulu triathlon on sunday, defeating american manuel huerta by five seconds to win the event in 1 hour, 46 minutes, and 55 seconds.

huerta came in second at 1 hour and 47 minutes flat, and haven barnes finished third at 1 hour, 47 minutes, and 6 seconds.

in the women's race, jasmine oeinck of littleton, colorado won in 1 hour, 56 minutes, and 21 seconds. sarah groff finished second in 1 hour, 57 minutes, and 18 seconds; and sara mclarty finished third in 1 hour, 58 minutes, and 8 seconds.

dean and oeinck both earned us$3,000 for their victories.

about 900 triathletes entered the event, which includes a 1.5 km swim at ala moana beach park just west of waikiki, a 40 km out-and-back bicycle leg along nimitz highway to aloha stadium, and a 10 km run around ala moana beach park and kewalo basin. about 250 fewer athletes entered this year, a drop attributed to local triathletes concerned about water quality after the recent sewage spill in nearby ala wai canal.

this year's course was changed from last year's amid complaints from east honolulu residents frustrated with the number of sporting events scheduled in the area, including the honolulu marathon.

the honolulu triathlon hosted the 2004 u.s. olympic triathlon trials, and was the only international triathlon union world cup event in the united states in 2005. it is one of four such qualifying events in the u.s. this year.



saddam hussein's trial resumes, ex-iraqi president formally charged

the trial of saddam hussein resumed monday in baghdad where the former iraqi president is now officially charged with murder, with torturing women and children, and with razing farmland and authorizing the illegal arrests of 399 people in the 1980's.

hussein refused to answer the charges, and when judge abdel-rahman asked hussein if he pleaded "guilty or not guilty", hussain simply replied, "this is no way to treat the president of iraq." rahman then entered a plea of "not guilty" for the former president.

"i can’t just say yes or no to this. you read all this for the sake of public consumption, and i can’t answer it in brief. this statement cannot influence me or shake a hair of my head," said hussein.

"you are before saddam hussein, president of iraq. i am the president of iraq according to the will of the iraqis and i am still the president up to this moment," he added.

"after allegations of coming under an assassination attempt, you issued orders to security forces and the army to arrest residents and use all weapons against them. as a result of your orders to use force against dujail residents, nine people were killed in the first two days ... and 399 others were arrested," said rahman.

hussein's half brother barzan ibrahim who was head of the mukhabarat intelligence agency, was called in shortly after saddam rejected to enter a plea. ibrahim was also charged with the same offenses including the murder of 148 dujail shiites in 1982, who were sentenced to death for an assassination attempt on the former iraqi president. most died while under interrogation or were put to death.

"all you said are lies, everything you mentioned is a lie," said ibrahim.

in the iraqi court system, plaintiffs are the first to present their case on the complaint and present evidence against the defendants. when the charges are read, it means it's time for the defense team to present their case.

seven other former members of hussein's government are also on trial, facing the same charges. the trial began october 19, 2005.


greek soccer champions celebrate title win with maradona

a spectacular fiesta took place in karaiskaki stadium in piraeus, greece, when 30,000 supporters of olympiacos f.c., along with players and team administration, celebrated their 34th alpha ethniki title. guest of honour was the retired argentinian superstar diego armando maradona, who personally delivered the cup of the champion to the players of olympiacos and went on stage, in the centre of the stadium, and shouted "viva grecia, viva olympiacos!". 

diego maradona had also the opportunity to deliver a short skills demonstration with olympiacos' brazilian superstar, rivaldo, on the karaiskaki pitch - something which caused delirium within the fans' ranks. olympiacos' season ended with a 0-0 draw against ionikos, but this result was irrelevant, as the club was already secure, at the top of the greek championship table. this season, olympiacos have accomplished the double in greek football, winning both the championship and the cup competition.

as a result of its league position, olympiakos will play in the champions league next season, entering at the group stage. 


michigan woman kidnapped in 1976 found alive in arizona

genevieve rachel nielsen, 31, who was kidnapped when she was 21 months old from her home in oakland county, michigan, has been found living under another name in arizona on sunday, mother's day.

in 1976, eric douglas nielsen, the ex-husband of laura gooder of pontiac, michigan, took gooder's daughter to his home for a visit and never returned her.

"it's bittersweet. [gooder] has complete joy and relief that her daughter is alive, but it is a painful reminder of the 30 years she was without her daughter on mother's day. the daughter believed her mother had been killed in a car accident a long time ago. she obviously was told something completely different from the father," said michael bouchard, an oakland county sheriff who was in charge of the investigation. after authority interviews, they contacted the daughter to tell her that her mother was indeed alive, remarried, was residing in michigan and was a mother to 3 boys.

"the daughter is just reeling. she was shocked. ... her whole life is a house of cards built on lies," added bouchard.

a tip led bouchard and federal marshals to an arizona prison where eric nielsen was allegedly being held for 7 years under assault charges.

"he was due to get out at the end of the month, so that put some urgency on us," said bouchard.

so far, according to bouchard, the mother and daughter have not yet made contact. "they're both just trying to come to grips with it."

"it is pretty surreal. i am keeping my fingers crossed and waiting for her to call," said gooder.


u.s. restores full diplomatic relations with libya

the u.s. has announced full diplomatic relations will be restored with libya and the country removed from the list of nations the u.s. considers to be state sponsors of terrorism following a 45-day open comment period.

renewal of diplomatic relations between the two states comes after extended diplomatic efforts by both parties to end the 25-year break.

"it is a result of mutual interests, agreements and understandings," said abdurrahman shalgham, libyan's foreign minister.

"we are taking these actions in recognition of libya's continued commitment to its renunciation of terrorism and the excellent cooperation libya has provided to the united states and other members of the international community in response to common global threats faced by the civilized world since september 11, 2001," said condoleezza rice, the .

diplomatic ties were strained between the countries following the rise to power of libyan leader in 1969, and u.s. economic sanctions against the country beginning in the 1970s. they were severed following the u.s. removal of diplomatic personnel from libya in 1979 after a mob set fire to the u.s. embassy in tripoli, and the u.s. closing the libyan embassy and expelling libyan diplomats in 1981.

the removed international economic sanctions in 1999, following libya's acceptance of regarding . in 2003 libya announced efforts to dismantle military programs to develop weapons of mass destruction as well, which led directly to diplomatic negotiations with the u.s. and the opening of a diplomatic liaison office in tripoli in 2004.



mass evictions from oakland's public housing

due to an oakland housing official's acts of fraud, 34 poor families face eviction from lockwood gardens, by order of the oakland housing authority. 

fear and panic have set in at some of east oakland's public housing units, as police agents from the oakland housing authority have been making late-night visits to tenants, and demanding that the families pack up and move within a five-day period. 

after refusing to pack up and run, more than 30 families are facing mass eviction by the oakland housing authority (oha) from their public housing units at lockwood gardens, a hope vi project on 65th avenue in east oakland. 

the oha is claiming that at least 34 families currently facing eviction from lockwood gardens are unlawful occupants (squatters) who have illegally gained possession of the housing units. oha officials have served them 30-day, forcible-detainer eviction notices in an effort to remove them. 

on april 28, the first three cases out of 34 families facing eviction were headed for alameda county superior court, but the court hearings have been delayed repeatedly as judge winifred smith moves to consolidate all the cases.

in defense of some of the evictees, oakland's eviction defense center has teamed up with attorney bob salinas, of sundeen salinas & pyle, to file a demurrer seeking dismissal of evictions on behalf of the first three families that were served forcible-detainer
eviction notices. lockwood gardens has 372 units; and it is part of a revitalization project of east oakland's public housing properties, and a partial recipient of $26,510,020 in grant funding from the hope vl program administered by the department of housing and urban development.

the revitalization funds were divided between three public housing projects in 1994 and 1996, and renovations have since taken place to demolish and rebuild the three locations into modern housing units in oakland's eastside neighborhoods. 

laura lane, an attorney with the east bay community law center, is also representing a number of the families facing eviction at lockwood gardens and those cases will head to court at a later date. 

currently, out of the 34 families facing eviction, the eviction defense center (edc) is representing nine families in court, and the east bay community law center (ebclc) is representing 12 families. one family has already been frightened into moving away from
their public housing unit by the oha; no one seems to know if the remaining seven families facing eviction have moved away or are seeking legal representation elsewhere. 

jennifer bell of goldfarb and lipman is the general counsel for the oakland housing authority, and is leading the charge in court to evict the 34 families from their housing units in east oakland.

during an april 24th interview with david lipsetz, a senior policy analyst with the oakland housing authority, he blamed the tenants for what is occurring and accused all the families of committing fraud to move into public housing. at first, 29 families faced
eviction, although that number has slowly risen to 34 as new families are served with eviction notices. 

"the oha has served eviction notices to 29 families at lockwood gardens because none of the families applied for, or got onto the waiting list to move into their public housing units," said lipsetc. "the tenants worked with a former clerk to gain access to the
units. the oha does not have any files on the families, and the oha does not believe that any of the families signed a lease before moving into those units. forcible detainers are standard procedure for those that have illegally moved into the oha's public housing units."

lipsetz said that the oha just recently discovered that the 29 families who are now living in those housing units did not match the names of the clients on the oha list waiting to move into those units. 

"as far as we can tell," said lipsetz, "there were no signed leases, no files established for these families, no security deposits have been paid before moving in, and those families got ahead of all the other families on the waiting list to move in."

contrary to what lipsetz stated on behalf of the oakland housing authority, the facts reveal that the families have all signed leases, tenant agreements to maintain a drug-free environment, occupant's responsibility statements, lease compliance forms and
a host of other documents before moving in otheir public housing units. those documents were all counter-signed by a host of clerks and managers working for the oha. the soon-to-be-evicted tenants' billing summaries, tenant leases and notices have a host of names on them, such as kim boyd, an oha supervisor; donald mcshane, an oha manager; and alice ferguson, another oha manager. 

in addition, as important as it may be that low-income tenants should not jump in line ahead of one another to move into this much-needed subsidized housing, most housing authorities across the nation recently have said the hell with their waiting lists, and allowed hurricane katrina's victims to jump in ahead of all of those already waiting in line for housing.

a web page called "hud's public housing program" has a section titled "when will i be notified?" hud's website states: "if the ha determines that you are eligible, your name will be put on a waiting list, unless the ha is able to assist you immediately." the
web page may be found at http://www.hud.gov/renting/phprog.cfm

after discovering that the families facing eviction did indeed sign leases and other documents before moving into lockwood gardens, suddenly no one at the oha would go on record to comment about the signed documents that contradicted the accusations of oha spokesman david lipsetz.

the documents clearly reveal that the 34 families facing eviction at lockwood gardens have all beenchecked out, and qualified as being eligible to move into those units, regardless of what the oha may say at this point.

the entire controversy appears to have been triggered by acts of deception and fraud on the part of an official of the oakland housing authority, carolyn wilson. "the police have been looking for carolyn wilson of the oakland housing authority ever since she
disappeared recently," said ms. kelly, a resident of lockwood gardens who prefers to use only her last name for this story. 

"i moved into lockwood gardens on october 27, and carolyn wilson's name is on my lease," said kelly. "i first received a message from the oha at my mother's home, telling me that a unit was available at lockwood gardens, and i went to their office location on 65th
avenue to fill out the necessary forms to move in. i supplied birth certificates, photo ids, social security numbers, income statements and everything else asked of me to qualify for moving in. there's no way that i committed fraud by following through with
everything being asked of me by the housing authority."

kelley said she and her young child were disturbed by an unexpected, late-night arrival of oha police at her door.

"i am a 41-year-old woman with an 11-year-old child, and i am very frightened by the way the oha has been treating me," she said. "i was terrified recently when the oha police showed up at my door around 10 p.m. at night, accusing my family of committing fraud to move into this townhouse; and they served me a five-day notice to surrender my home to the oha, or else."

officer jerold coates, a 13-year employee of the oha police department, and officer malcolm williams are involved in the investigation taking place at lockwood gardens. according to ms. kelly, "officer coates told me that carolyn wilson was demanding that everyone must pay her $500 to $1,000 to move in, and he wanted to know how much i paid her before moving in. i denied paying
ms. wilson anything extra to move into lockwood gardens." 

kelly added, "from what i am being told by others is that carolyn wilson of the oha skipped town with everyone's security deposits of $500 to $1,000 for each family involved in the scam, and that the oha will not receive a subsidy from hud for the families
facing eviction in those units, because the oha believes that the wrong families are residing in those housing units."

one of the families that moved into lockwood gardens, and is now facing eviction, moved away from another public housing location in oakland in order to move into the hope vl project on 65th avenue. it takes permission to move from one location to another in public housing, and managers or staff at the oha had to give their blessings before this family was allowed to relocate to lockwood gardens. 

jorge aguilar, an attorney for the eviction defense center, has his own understanding of what is going on. "an agent of the oakland housing authority defrauded nearly 30 families of the most vulnerable segment of the community," he said. "they are now trying to cover their wrongful act by evicting those families. the oha is trying to circumvent measure ee [oakland's just cause for eviction measure]. the irony is that the oha is using forcible detainers to evict, which have traditionally been used to defend tenants from
landlords using self-help evictions."

aguilar recently witnessed the human suffering already caused by the oha's eviction threats and rough handling of the families involved. he said, "during a recent interview with one of the families facing eviction, a little boy started crying and stated that
the police came by and tried to take my bedroom away from me."

another lockwood gardens tenant named winou wakeyo said, "i'm from jimma, ethiopa, and i moved into lockwood gardens on november 22, 2005. i work 12 hours a day on sundays for a pastor who told me to come here to find housing, and i did everything the housing
authority asked of me before moving in. a big policeman came by recently late at night with a five-day notice telling me that i must surrender my home to the housing authority. there were two policemen. it scared me very much, and someone later told me to find a defender to save my housing, and i contacted the eviction defense center for help.

"i do not understand the customs of this country, and i asked my defender what i did wrong, and i was told that someone stole some money. the housing authority stopped accepting my rent for april, and about two weeks ago, they suddenly sent back the rent that i
paid for march, and i do not understand why they are doing this to me." 

laura lane, an attorney for the ebclc, said, "the oakland housing authority seems to be in a complete disarray. the management has failed to adequately screen, train or supervise its employees. but when the employees make mistakes or fail to follow the law, the
oakland housing authority's response is to blame the tenants, blame the attorneys, blame the federal government -- blame anyone but the oakland housing authority. there is an utter failure to accept personal responsibility."

after it became apparent that many families were seeking legal help to fight the evictions, a meeting was held on march 20 at the east bay community law center for the victims of the housing scam. when the tenants started sharing what had occurred to them,
most of the families involved suddenly realized that carolyn wilson of the oha had stolen their security deposits, and skipped out of town. 

tenants at lockwood gardens believe that there may be another 40 families or more to face eviction, since they learned that oha police are also investigating other public housing properties in oakland that may be caught up in the housing scam. 

as recently as april 22, oha police were back at lockwood gardens pounding on the tenants' doors, and demanding to know if the families have moved yet. 

"this time the police were not satisfied to know if my family had moved yet," said kelly, "but they wanted to know if any of us noticed any other families moving out of here lately. considering the way they have been treating us, i don't think we have to tell them anything at this point, and they need to talk to my attorney if they have any further questions." 


news briefs:may 15, 2006

the time is 18:00 (utc) on may 15th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

brazil

pcc (primeiro comando da capital, portuguese for first command of the capital city) criminals have been backing several attacks against security forces in the state of sao paulo, brazil. since friday, there have been over 60 deaths: military and civil policemen, relatives to them and city guards have been targeted. 115 attacks against personnel and police departments have been recorded.
in the meantime, there have been 53 prison riots across sao paulo, mato grosso do sul and parana, with hostages. there is no confirmed count of wounded and dead, but early information indicates that criminals have been killed by rival faction members during the riots.

united states

secretary of state condoleezza rice has said in a statement that full diplomatic relations will be restored with libya and that the country will be removed from the list of nations that sponsor terrorism.
"i am pleased to announce that the united states is restoring full diplomatic relations with libya. we will soon open an embassy in tripoli. in addition, the united states intends to remove libya from the list of designated state sponsors of terrorism. libya will also be omitted from the annual certification of countries not cooperating fully with united states' anti-terrorism efforts," said rice in a statement posted on the u.s. department of state's website.

iraq

saddam hussein's trial resumed today and the former iraqi president was officially charged with murder, the torturing of women and children, farmland razing and illegally arresting 399 people in the 1980's.
hussein refused to enter a plea, and when judge abdel-rahman asked hussein if he pleaded "guilty or not guilty", hussain simply replied, "this is no way to treat the president of iraq." rahman then entered a plea of "not guilty" for the former president.

australia

senator helen coonan, australian minister for communication, information technology and the arts, has announced the federal government will be extending its subsidy on satellite telephone handsets.
the scheme allows those living or working in parts of remote australia without conventional mobile telephone services to claim a subsidy of up to au$1,200 on the purchase of a satellite telephone.
the program was supposed to run for five years from 2002 until 2007. the program will continue until 2009.

australia

australian senator barnaby joyce (nationals, queensland) has moved to oppose the government's planned changes to the country's petrol retail industry. the national party, of which senator joyce is a member, governs australia in coalition with the liberal party.
the government plans to amend regulations governing the petrol industry to allow oil companies to own more than five percent of petrol stations. senator joyce has given notice to disallow regulations that would force the government to debate them in the house of representatives and the senate.

united states

genevieve rachel nielsen, 31, who was kidnapped when she was 21 months old from her home in oakland county, michigan, has been found living under another name in arizona on sunday, mother's day.
in 1976, eric douglas nielsen, the ex-husband of laura gooder of pontiac, michigan, took gooder's daughter to his home for a visit and never returned her.

sports - triathlon

australian mitchell dean won the honolulu triathlon on sunday, defeating american manuel huerta by five seconds to win the event in 1 hour, 46 minutes, and 55 seconds.
huerta came in second at 1 hour and 47 minutes flat, and haven barnes finished third at 1 hour, 47 minutes, and 6 seconds.
in the women's race, jasmine oeinck of littleton, colorado, won in 1 hour, 56 minutes, and 21 seconds. sarah groff finished second in 1 hour, 57 minutes, and 18 seconds; and sara mclarty finished third in 1 hour, 58 minutes, and 8 seconds.
dean and oeinck both earned us$3,000 for their victories.

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honolulu police shoot gunman in standoff

honolulu police on saturday fatally shot a man who reportedly fired a shotgun at them on a residential street in rural oahu.

police received a call at about 6:30 p.m. hst that a man in a black trench coat had fired a shotgun at a parked car on kaukama road in ma'ili, on the west coast of oahu. the specialized services division of the honolulu police department was called to the scene.

when officers ordered him to get out of the car, the gunman fired a shotgun at the officers, then pointed two handguns at an officer, who fired at the gunman, hitting him in the head. the man was pronounced dead at the scene.

the officer involved has been placed on administrative leave, as per standard hpd procedure after a fatal shooting.

the gunman was later identified as tracy peters, 47, who had a long criminal history with 23 criminal convictions, including drug possession, firearms violations, and second-degree robbery. 

peters had reportedly been experiencing family problems, and had warned acquaintances that he was going to do something drastic. "the next time you see me, i'm going to be in a casket," he said.



australian man caught driving with no licence twice in one day

new south wales police have charged a 29 year old sydney man for driving whilst disqualified twice within three hours on sunday. police claim that the man had been disqualified until 2012.

police allege that they caught the man driving a nissan skyline whilst disqualified. he was subsequently charged and granted bail to appear in the downing centre local court on june 5.

following being charged at redfern police station, police allege that when the man was released at 3:30 p.m. aest he walked back to his nissan skyline and drove away. police spotted him again in newtown, pulled him over where he was taken back to redfern police station and charged.

at redfern police station, the man was refused bail and was kept in custody until monday.


trawler sinks in foveaux strait, three generations killed

after a trawler sank in heavy seas on saturday, in the foveaux strait, new zealand, on the way back from . of the nine people on board, including three generations of one family, only three survived. 

police believe the boat sank in less than a minute. 

during the previous ten years, another six incidents occurred in the strait, costing eight lives.

maritime new zealand investigators arrived in bluff yesterday to begin an inquiry into the cause of the tragedy.


india postpones test-firing of agni-iii ballistic missile

the indian government has once again delayed the testing of the medium-range agni-iii missile. the state-run defence research and development organisation had planned to conduct trials later this month. the agni-iii, which has a range of 3000 kilometres and the ability to carry nuclear warheads, is intended to boost india's nuclear-deterrence capabilities to a great extent. the drdo also has plans for developing an inter-continental ballistic missile for the same purpose.

prime minister dr. manmohan singh said that the nation had more pressing issues, such as poverty to deal with, and could not afford to divert huge funds to the test-launch programme.

the d.r.d.o, which has often been criticized for its failure to meet deadlines, indicated its disappointment at the government statement. at a public function for the inauguration of the new d.r.d.o headquarters at new delhi, chief controller s.c narang pointedly said that his team was prepared to launch agni-iii within the week. experts have stated that unless india displays its nuclear capabilities more seriously, its nuclear-deterrence capabilities will not seem credible.


new zealand department of prime minister and cabinet employee named as telecom mole

michael ryan, a messenger at the office of the prime minister, has been identified as the mole who leaked confidential papers to telecom.

the leaked papers were detailing the plan for the government to unbundle the local loop. it was to be released on thursday with the 2006 budget, but since telecom, a publicly traded company, found out they decided to release it early. 

michael ryan, may 2, was told to shred a document, but instead of doing that he took it and gave it to telecom's group financial controller peter garty, a close friend. he gave it to peter garty because he thought he would find it interesting. michael ryan told peter garty to not make a copy of it. peter garty made a copy.

telecom shares fell from $5.65 to $4.65 following the disclosure, wiping about $2 billion off the value of the company.

the states service commission has passed the case onto the police.

the mole has lost his job. his actions were described as "gross and disgraceful dishonesty" by prime minister . 


un releases 2006 list of &quot;10 stories the world should hear more about&quot;

news articles frequently discuss some issues but neglect others that might be more critical. today the un issued its third annual list to focus attention on a set of these relatively ignored stories. there is no particular order to the list, summarized here:



flooding ravages northeastern united states

the new england region of the united states has received the heaviest rainfall in decades leading to flooding and massive road closures. the states affected are maine, massachusetts and new hampshire. a state of emergency has been declared in all these areas. the floods have also led to thousands of evacuations in many cities. only a single death has been reported.

the main concern in many cities and towns is whether the dams that hold rivers from flowing in cities will hold long enough.

these floods are the worst in new england since 1936 when over 150 died. 
in maine, many roads and bridges were damaged or submerged as residents were evacuated from their homes in lebanon because of two dams near breaking point.

in haverhill, mass. sewage pipes broke spilling 115 million gallons of sewage into the city a day. over 1000 people have had to evacuate their homes in lowell because of the flooding.

in peabody, mass. the downtown area is currently flooded.

over 600 roads were damaged or completely submerged by the floods in many areas of the state. the hardest hit cities have been manchester and newmarket who are both leading in the most amount of evacuations. the flood waters have also weakened and destroyed many dams.



australia won't take back spent uranium

australian prime minister john howard told journalists in washington that australia had no plans to take back spent uranium, despite the us pushing for such a system.

on monday, mr howard held talks with us energy secretary sam bodman who has indicated that the us would like to see a system where countries lease nuclear fuel instead of buying it. once the fuel had been used, it would be returned to the country where it originated.

mr howard accused the media of misunderstanding australia's role in the uranium industry. he told reporters that australia is simply a uranium supplier and that it does not convert uranium into nuclear fuel. mr howard believes that the us plan is to create a group of uranium processing nations that will take radioactive waste once it has been used.

"the question of waste disposal of course is an issue for those who process uranium and develop nuclear fuel, rather than the supplier of the uranium - which if australia were to remain as a bare exporter would be the situation obtaining in relation to us" said mr howard.

according to mr howard, the purpose of the plan is to stop the proliferation of countries that have the capacity to process nuclear fuel. 

mr howard said that australia would continue to sell uranium to other parts of the world, subject to its own safeguards. for a country to purchase uranium from australia they must enter into a nuclear safeguards agreement, prohibiting australian uranium from being used in weapons and must be a signatory to the un's nuclear non-proliferation treaty. mr howard claims that it is still more attractive for australia to sell uranium rather than leasing it.

mr howard told reporters that he asked the us to keep him informed on the proposal but does not expect australia to be involved in the development of the proposal.


man mistakenly interviewed live on bbc news 24

a man spoke of his embarrassment and shock after he was mistakenly rushed into the bbc news 24 studio and interviewed live on the news channel about the apple corps (beatles) vs. apple inc. court case. 
the producer called for the real guest, ict expert guy kewney, but guy goma, waiting in a wrong reception area of bbc television centre, mistakenly heard and identified himself as kewney. he was taken into the studio and as the presenter asked the first question, the bemused look on his face was clear to see. however, the reporter charged on anyway, embarrassing congo-born goma with a further two questions which he struggled through.



bellsouth denies phone records were handed over to the nsa

bellsouth, said in a statement yesterday that the telecommunications company did not hand over customer call records to the national security agency or nsa. on may 11, 2006, "usa today" reported that the nsa collected millions of call logs from telecommunications companies in 2001 under a contract the nsa claims to have had with the company.

bellsouth said that they conducted a "internal review" and that the review "confirmed no such contract exists and we have not provided bulk customer calling records to the nsa," said jeff battcher, spokesman for bellsouth. 

"we do not believe that any final review will turn up anything different from what we have currently found. there is no link between the nsa and bellsouth that we can find in what we feel is a very exhaustive review. we wouldn't have made this bold statement if we weren't confident about this," added battcher.

at&t and verizon communications were also said to have handed over customer call logs, but verizon said on friday that they don't "and will not, provide any government agency unfettered access to our customer records or provide information to the government under circumstances that would allow a fishing expedition."

on monday, massachusetts representative edward markey of the house energy and commerce subcommittee on telecommunications asked for help from the federal communications commission or fcc, to investigate whether verizon, at&t, and bellsouth violated privacy rights under communication laws and regulations.


ex-indian diplomat's passport revoked

the ministry of external affairs has revoked the passport of mr. harish kumar dogra who was removed from his post as india's high commissioner to new zealand in april. the government has also suspended the passports of his wife and domestic help. india has informed wellington of the developments and has said that travel documents would be issued to dogra and his family to enable them to return home. sources say dogra had applied for a new zealand visa which would have enabled him to stay in that country for another 40 days. dogra had been posted as high commissioner two years ago and was recalled after charges of human trafficking were made against him. 
the former high-commissioner, however, refused to obey the recall order and
accused foreign secretary shyam saran of impropriety, asking the latter to either prove the charges or resign.


bi-directional censorship from the great firewall of china

on may 12 radio free asia reported some people outside china will get a "server connection has been reset" error message when they are trying to search some political keywords on baidupedia. however, the internet censorship is not just on baidupedia because it's due to the keyword filtering technology on the great firewall of china.

one of the first people to find this filtering technology was shi-min fang, a biochemist with a stance against ethical lapses in china. fang, whose site "新語絲" has been blocked by the prc government for years, had found that his chinese name cannot be searched since last august if someone outside china uses an internet search engine that is based in china. he posted a message to his own forum. a forum visitor gave him a method to verify what he found. by randomly choosing a website url that is in china and adding banned keywords to that url, the server connection will be reset without displaying the normal "page does not exist" error message. take http://www.163.com/六四 for example, if you use that url to link to the site when you are outside china, you will find the server connection will be reset.

a chinese wikinews reporter, , also performed this test. he chose some political keywords such as "民主" (democracy), "江?民" (jiang zemin), "法?功" (falun gong) and asked people to search on google, baidu and sogou (a chinese search engine developed by sohu), and some wikipedians from china, taiwan and united states joined the test.

, chinese tester shi zhao found there is no problem to search such political keywords on chinese search engines other than google. and taiwanese testers , alex s.h. lin and american tester roc found they will get the "server connection has been reset" error message when they tried to search those political keywords on chinese search engines other than google.

from the test the testers believe that the keyword filtering technology on the great firewall of china is bi-directional. people outside china cannot visit any chinese websites that have political keywords, and people in china cannot visit any websites outside china that has political keywords.

baidupeida that went online this april is a service that provided by the chinese internet search company, baidu, and its form is very similar to wikipedia, which is blocked by the prc government since last year. it would also allow users to join the editing on baidupedia.



ayaan hirsi ali leaves dutch parliament

dutch member of parliament ayaan hirsi ali has announced she will leave parliament, after minister of immigration and integration rita verdonk announced that hirsi ali never obtained dutch citizenship. 

in a press conference an emotional ayaan hirsi ali announced that she will leave parliament and move to the united states to work with the conservative think tank american enterprise institute in september after reaching a deal with us authorities concerning her security. originally she was to have moved to the usa in may of 2007. in national paliament she will be replaced by amsterdam government member laetitia griffith starting june 1.

the direct reason for hirsi ali's departure, is that minister for immigration and integration and fellow party-member, rita verdonk has announced that hirsi ali never obtained dutch citizenship, because she lied in her application for refugee status in the netherlands. she claimed to be a refugee directly from war-torn somalia and to have only narrowly escaped the threat of forced marriage. in fact, she had held a refugee status in kenya at the time. she changed her name and date of birth. 

these facts, which hirsi ali previously divulged, were reported last thursday (11 may 2006) by the dutch television program "zembla". she had already informed the public of these aspects of the story of her immigration to the netherlands as early as september 2002 in an interview in the political magazine hp/de tijd.

media speculations arose that she could lose her dutch citizenship because of this 'identity fraud', rendering her ineligible for parliament. in a first reaction minister rita verdonk said she would not look into the matter, but after member of parliament hilbrand nawijn insisted, she declared that she would investigate hirsi ali's naturalisation process. this investigation took three days. the findings were that hirsi ali never received dutch citizenship after all, because she lied about her name and date of birth. she pretended to be ayaan hirsi ali, born in 1967, but official records say ayaan hirsi magan, born in 1969. therefore verdonk's position was that hirsi ali never received dutch citizenship. after accusation by 
prime minister jan peter balkenende she works too much on her own and lacks team spirit she said to have no doubt ayaan will be returned citizenship of the kingdom of the netherlands.

on may 16, hirsi ali resigned from parliament after admitting lying on her asylum application. hirsi ali has announced that she will move to the united states in september 2006. there she will work on finishing her book "shortcut to enlightenment" and working for the conservative think tank american enterprise institute. in a reaction, former vvd-leader hans wiegel stated that her departure "would not be a loss to the vvd and not be a loss to the tweede kamer". wiegel said that hirsi ali was a brave woman, but that her points of view were polarizing. former parliamentary leader of the vvd, jozias van aartsen, was more positive about hirsi ali, saying that it is "painful for dutch society and politics that she is leaving the tweede kamer".

ayaan hirsi ali has been a member of parliament for the liberal dutch people's party for freedom and democracy (vvd) and is known for her controversial positions on the relationship between women and islam.

the events surrounding ayaan hirsi ali has had considerable effects on dutch politics:



department of defense releases 9/11 video of plane hitting pentagon

the united states department of defense (dod) is releasing surveillance video showing american airlines flight 77 hitting the pentagon on september 11, 2001. the video was taken from a pentagon security camera.

on december 15, 2004, a legal advocacy group called judicial watch filed a lawsuit against the dod in an attempt to have the video released through the freedom of information act.

"we fought hard to obtain this video because we felt that it was very important to complete the public record with respect to the terrorist attacks of september 11," said judicial watch president, tom fitton.

"finally, we hope that this video will put to rest the conspiracy theories involving american airlines flight 77. as always, our prayers remain with all those who suffered as a result of those murderous attacks," added fitton.

according to the advocacy group, u.s. officials say they did not release the video earlier because it was part of the investigation into convicted plotter for al-qaeda, zacarias moussaoui.

"now that the trial of zacarias moussaoui is over, we are able to complete your request and provide the video," said chief of the department of defense, office of freedom of information, william kammer.

however; some are not sure what is shown on the video. 

michael berger, spokesman for 911truth.org said "in fact, i thought that was underwhelming." and "it doesn't clarify anything ? i don't see a plane in that image. we would like to know what happened. four-and-a-half years later, we still don't have definitive proof that a plane hit that building." 

911truth.org received five times the average visits to their website after the video's release on tuesday. mr. berger's group is hosting a conference june 2 in chicago where skeptics of the official explanation of 9/11 plan to work out a variety of scenarios that suggest the u.s. government's complicity in the september 11, 2001 attacks on the pentagon and world trade center.



controversy over translation of norwegian national anthem

a suggestion to translate the national anthem of norway into urdu is causing controversy. the progress party opposes the idea, saying that people who cannot understand norwegian could just hum with the norwegian citizens. norway celebrated syttende mai, its constitution day on may 17 with traditional children's parades last week. the song is usually sung on this occasion.

the editor of utrop, a newspaper for the minorities in norway, suggested the translation of the national anthem in an editorial in the national paper vart land. such a translation, he said, would allow immigrants of pakistani origin to show their love for norway by singing the norwegian national anthem. the title of the national anthem is after all "ja vi elsker (dette landet)" which translates as "yes, we love (this country)."

"this is integration in reverse," said per-willy amundsen, the progress party spokesman on issues dealing with immigration. according to him, "the best gift that the immigrants could give to norway would be learning the language of their new homeland."



settlement returns billions to california schools funding

the state’s teachers and schools chief jack o’connell have settled their lawsuit against gov. arnold schwarzenegger and, as a result, billions of dollars in school funding o’connell and the teachers claimed the governor misappropriated during the state’s fiscal crisis will be returned to the schools.

"the restoration of funding to califoria school districts is very positive news,” new haven schools superintendent pat jaurequi told the james logan courier.

"this is a day for celebration in schools throughout california. when this lawsuit was filed, i promised that i would fight up and down the state until the funding owed to our schools was restored," o’connell, the state superintendent of public instruction, said in a statement last week. "i also promised i would give the governor credit for doing the right thing if he restored this critical funding. today, i want to thank governor schwarzenegger for working with the education community to invest wisely in our schools ? the best investment we can make in california’s future.”

“this is a good thing for our schools and community colleges throughout california,” said barbara e. kerr, president of the california teachers association, one of the parties to the lawsuit. “having all the money owed to our schools under proposition 98 and the governor’s agreement of 2004 restored to our students is the news we’ve been waiting for.

in a statement regarding the settlement, schwarzenegger said, "i am pleased to announce a resolution that will put the dispute regarding proposition 98 funding behind us and allow us to invest an additional $3 billion in schools in a way that best helps our students.”

proposition 98 is an amendment to the state constitution, passed in 1988, that established a minimum funding level or guarantee for k-12 education and community colleges. o’connell and the california teachers association sued schwarzenegger and the director for the california department of finance last summer after when they diverted billions of dollars earmarked for the schools under prop. 98 to overcome budget deficits that were crippling california, violating an agreement made with educators the previous year.

the agreement restores funding proposition 98 funding that was due, but not provided in the 2004-05 and 2005-06 fiscal years. the governor’s may budget revision will include $2 billion and language that provides an additional $3 billion to be paid in installments between fiscal year 2006-07 and fiscal year 2013-14, or until paid in full.

in addition to the settlement funds, schwarzenegger’s “may budget revision,” announced last week, also directs billions more of the state’s money to schools. schwarzenegger said bulging state coffers, filled by unexpected tax revenues, allowed him to budget an extra 8.1 billion for schools, for a total of $55.1 billion-an over 17% overall funding increase from 2004-2005.

the settlement and the new budget figures “will allow us to make good on the debts to schools created through the recent lean years and to make important new investments in public education,” said o’connell.

schwarzenegger had some ideas about how the money should be spent. "for k-12 schools, i propose that we concentrate these funds to improve instruction in schools with low academic achievement. we should direct the funds to the classroom level for such things as lowering class size, attracting and supporting quality school leadership and fully credentialed and experienced teachers, supporting greater involvement of parents, providing more counselors in high schools, and increasing quality professional development, instructional materials, improved instruction and accountability.” he said.

although pleased by the outcome of the lawsuit, jaurequi was cautious about predicting its effect in new haven “ it is significant to note that two-thirds of the new funding is one-time in nature and is not an ongoing revenue stream,” she said.

"although the budget process is far from over and we will likely differ on some of his budget priorities, i am happy to thank governor schwarzenegger for working with the education community to invest in public education,” said o’connell, who’s been embroiled in controversy and litigation over the california high school exit exam in recent weeks.

"i am particularly pleased to see that the governor has increased funding to expand remediation programs for students who are struggling to pass the california high school exit exam, and to pay for new summer and evening administrations of the exam,” said o’connell, who wrote the law requiring the exam when he was a state legislator in 1998, “ i also applaud the increase in funding to expand and improve student nutrition programs giving more students the opportunity to make healthier food choices on campus. in addition, i am very happy to see additional funding for high school counselors. our state currently has the lowest ratio of counselors to students in the nation. this is a statistic we need to improve upon "


7.4 magnitude hits pacific near new zealand

yesterday, at 10:39 p.m. utc, a 7.4 magnitude earthquake rocked the pacific ocean about 180 miles southwest of raoul island, a member of the kermadec islands in new zealand. witnesses disagreed on the length of the earthquake, which was felt as far south as christchurch, new zealand, although they agreed the quake lasted from 30 seconds to a minute. ever since the volcano eruption on raoul island on march 18, the islands have been experiencing about 30 earthquakes a day. the pacific tsunami warning center predicted that the earthquake might create a small tsunami with a radius of about 60 miles. there have been no reported injuries or deaths.

the tsunami occurred a couple of hours before a previously-scheduled test of a tsunami warning system. the test had 29 countries participating.

"it is a big earthquake, but the depth would limit any damage," seismologist ken gledhill says.



spanish socialist workers' party proposes human rights bill for great apes

spain’s partido socialista obrero espanol (psoe), the spanish socialist workers' party, and the confederacion de los verdes, the green party, proposed a bill to grant some human rights to all great apes (), which include humans, bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and orang-utans. humanity shares about 97% of its genome with the great apes.

the proposal was submitted by , a delegate of the confederacion de los verdes, and is inspired by the declaration on great apes published by the great ape project. founded in 1993, the great ape project (gap), calls for an extension of moral egalitarianism to encompass all great apes. the declaration on great apes demands the right to live, the protection of individual liberty and the prohibition of torture for all great apes.

the proposal does not assign the lesser apes gibbons (), siamangs () or the new world anthropoids () similar rights. the latter include the species of the capuchin monkeys (), a tool using species that possibly demonstrates a degree of self-awareness in the mirror test experiment.

the proposal is scheduled to be discussed in parliament at the end of may. after new zealand, spain would be the second country to grant special rights to apes.

the archbishop of pamplona and tudela, fernando sebastian, opposed the proposal as ridiculous, given the fact that monkeys would be granted more rights than unborn human embryos.

the president of the spanish section of amnesty international, delia register, expressed surprise at the idea to grant human rights to great apes when, at the present time, they aren't granted to all human beings.


wuerl appointed washington, d.c.'s new bishop

pope benedict xvi today named donald w. wuerl, bishop of pittsburgh, to be the new archbishop of washington, d.c., succeeding cardinal theodore e. mccarrick, who had held the position for the last five years. mccarrick presented his resignation upon turning 75 to the pope, as is custom for all bishops.

prior to his new appointment, bishop wuerl had overseen the over 800,000 catholics in the pittsburgh community for the last 18 years. a native of pittsburgh, the bishop was educated in rome and spent time serving in the diocese of seattle.

the new position is significant because of its location. the prelate of the diocese of washington is often the most influential because of its frequent contacts with the white house, congress and the rest of the government. wuerl said he was prepared to accept his new role as one of the foremost spiritual leaders of the american arm of the church.

the diocese of pittsburgh consists of allegheny, washington, butler, beaver, greene and lawrence counties in the state of pennsylvania.

archbishop pietro sambi, apostolic nuncio to the united states, made the announcement of bishop wuerl’s appointment this morning, and a press conference was held in washington at 10 a.m. edt. a following press conference will be held at 6 p.m. edt with wuerl in st. paul seminary, pittsburgh. the archbishop of washington is traditionally a cardinal, so there is the possibility that wuerl will soon be elevated to cardinal status.



news briefs:may 16, 2006

the time is 22:30 (utc) on may 16th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

new zealand

yesterday, at 10:39 pm utc, a 7.4 magnitude earthquake rocked the pacific ocean about 180 miles southwest of raoul island, a member of the kermadec islands in new zealand. witnesses disagreed on the length of the earthquake, which was felt as far south as christchurch, new zealand, although they agreed the quake lasted from 30 seconds to a minute.

united states

the new england region of the united states has received the heaviest rainfall in decades leading to flooding and massive road closures. the states affected are maine, massachusetts and new hampshire. a state of emergency has been declared in all these areas. the floods have also led to thousands of evacuations in many cities. no deaths have been reported as of yet.

united states

the u.s. has announced full diplomatic relations will be restored with libya and the country removed from the list of nations the u.s. considers to be state sponsors of terrorism following a 45-day open comment period.
renewal of diplomatic relations between the two states comes after extended diplomatic efforts by both parties to end the 25-year break.

netherlands

dutch member of parliament ayaan hirsi ali has announced she will leave parliament, after minister of immigration and integration rita verdonk has announced that hirsi ali has never obtained dutch citizenship.
in a press conference an emotional ayaan hirsi ali announced that she will leave parliament and she has announced that she will become fellow at the conservative think tank american enterprise institute in september after reaching a deal with us authorities about her security.

australia

australian prime minister john howard told journalists in washington that australia had no plans to take back spent uranium, despite the us pushing for such a system.

new zealand

michael ryan, a messenger at the office of the prime minister, has been identified as the mole who leaked confidential papers to telecom.
the leaked papers were detailing the plan for the government to unbundle the local loop. it was to be released on thursday with the 2006 budget, but since telecom, a publicly traded company, found out they decided to release it early.

india

the indian government has once again delayed the testing of the medium-range agni-iii missile. the state-run defence research and development organisation had planned to conduct trials later this month. the agni-iii, which has a range of 3000 kilometres and the ability to carry nuclear warheads, is intended to boost india's nuclear-deterrence capabilities to a great extent.

united states

bellsouth, said in a statement yesterday that the telecommunications company did not hand over customer call records to the national security agency or nsa. on may 11, 2006, usa today reported that the nsa collected millions of call logs from telecommunications companies in 2001 under a contract the nsa claims to have had with the company.
bellsouth said that they conducted a "internal review" and that the review "confirmed no such contract exists and we have not provided bulk customer calling records to the nsa," said jeff battcher, spokesman for bellsouth.

united states

the united states department of defense (dod) is releasing surveillance video of american airlines flight 77 hitting the pentagon on september 11, 2001. the video was taken from a pentagon security camera.
on december 15, 2004, a legal advocacy group called judicial watch filed a lawsuit against the dod in an attempt to have the video released through the freedom of information act.

india

the ministry of external affairs has revoked the passport of mr. harish kumar dogra who was removed from his post as india's high commissioner to new zealand in april. the government has also suspended the passports of his wife and domestic help. india has informed wellington of the developments and has said that travel documents would be issued to dogra and his family to enable them to return home.

united kingdom

a man spoke of his embarrassment and shock after he was mistakenly rushed into the bbc news 24 studio and interviewed live on the news channel about the apple (beatles) vs. apple corp court case.

australia

new south wales police have charged a 29 year old sydney man for driving whilst disqualified twice within three hours on sunday. police claim that the man had been disqualified until 2012.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


culture of violence reported in central australian aboriginal communities

australian media reports that a recently leaked northern territory police briefing paper exposes "shocking" cases of sexual abuse and violence against women and children in remote australian aboriginal communities.
central australian crown prosecutor, dr nannette rogers, alleged a range of "dreadful" cases she has heard of. her paper claims details of abuse (over a 15-year period), including the rape of a seven-month-old baby, and the sexual assault and drowning of a girl by an 18-year-old man. the report refers to a disturbingly abusive and secretive indigenous male culture. she says a "web of kinship" has helped to create a "conspiracy of silence" and that aboriginal communities were suffering from "tragedy fatigue," allowing horrific crimes to appear unremarkable. 

"it doesn't augur well for aboriginal people to be functional human beings with the attributes of turning around and caring for children themselves," she said. "the child grows up seeing violence done to him or her and having violence done to him or her." 

tangentyere council chief executive william tilmouth says it is appalling behaviour. "it's a behaviour that's got to stop, it's behaviour that denigrates the family, as well as the women," he said. 

senior indigenous elder margaret kemarre said, "there are more violence and there's no respect for people around here, no respect for elders and no respect for parents, as we see it now, and it's, you know, it's getting more and more," she said. "i think the grog (alcohol) is really taking away all our families. it's really destroying us." ms kemarre says the answer to the problem apart from reducing the amount of alcohol in central australia, is tougher sentencing by the white justice system.

jane lloyd, from ngaanyatjarra pitjantjatjara yankunytjatjara women's council, said more police are necessary to help restore law and order in remote communities, particularly the remote outstations. "there is a history and tradition of violence, especially in western desert cultures. it's become more extreme," ms lloyd said.

australia's federal indigenous affairs minister mal brough, says there are indeed problems with policing. "you go into a community here in the territory of over 2,500 people and there's not one policeman," he said. mr brough says the federal government has started working with the nt government over housing and other matters, but something needs to be done urgently about alcohol.

northern territory chief minister, clare martin, says slow progress is being made. "we are taking much stronger measures on alcohol," she said. "talking to the aboriginal community over the last couple of months in alice springs, the community is very concerned about the impact of alcohol and have decided that enough is enough - that we have to stand up and take tough measures." she said there was no simple solution to the problems of violence, abuse, and alcoholism plaguing many indigenous communities.

mick gooda, of the cooperative research centre for aboriginal tropical health, says dysfunctional aboriginal communities should be shut down. "children are at risk... they should be removed from their families," he said. "we should not shy away from these hard decisions on the basis that we might be creating another stolen generation. i think what we're talking about here is kids being removed from risk situations." 

lyla coorey, author of a 2005 federal parliamentary report on the extent of child sexual abuse in indigenous communities, say the reasons that child sexual abuse is more prevalent in aboriginal remote communities are numerous. "we must look at the factors that particularly make indigenous children vulnerable to ongoing abuse, she told abc radio. "i think we need to look at all aspects of indigenous children's lives. and it will become apparent that they are probably singularly the most disadvantaged group of australians."

"you look at perhaps the social environment that they're growing up in. they're surrounded by neglect, parents who are involved in heavy substance abuse. and i think that in itself is a major issue," said ms coorey "and i think if you attempt to examine why that is the case you will find that a number of adults, indigenous adults, are still suffering and still reeling from their own experiences of child sexual abuse."

traditional owner betty pearce says, "this is not an aboriginal culture. twenty years ago, ...had an aboriginal person done that, he'd have been killed - had he raped a child." 

indigenous affairs minister mal brough has alleged on abc television that "pedophile rings were working behind a veil of customary law." mr brough says he does not want to steamroll the territory government but that he will do "whatever it takes" to tackle the abuse of aboriginal children.

nt chief minister clare martin said mr brough had been incredibly irresponsible. "we have no evidence of that," she told southern cross broadcasting. "two weeks ago mal brough had quite a session with our police commissioner, didn't mention (it). he had a long session with me, didn't mention it, (then) goes on national television, can't say where it came from, and under our law it must be reported." if mr brough had evidence of pedophile rings, he had an obligation to report it, ms martin said.

opposition leader kim beazley described mr brough's claims as libel. "there is nothing in aboriginal customary law that justifies abuse," he said. "aboriginal customary law regulates relations between the genders quite strictly and protects people in a situation where they are not yet physiologically adults. the argument that somehow or other these events relate to aboriginal customary law (is) libel. they don't."

the northern territory police association says mr brough's comments are offensive and ignorant. "mr brough claims that our members turn a blind eye to crime in aboriginal communities," association president vince kelly said. "that is the most ridiculous claim i have ever heard from a federal indigenous affairs minister." police often did not have the evidence to arrest suspects, mr kelly said. "to suggest police turn a blind eye to crime in aboriginal communities is nothing short of insulting. to suggest our members apply the law differently in aboriginal communities is ignorant and displays an absolute lack of understanding of the operational realities our members face in isolated aboriginal communities, often dealing with complex tribal systems," he said.

australian greens senator bob brown said that the focus on aboriginal social breakdown, including rape, paedophilia and destructive drug addiction has to broaden to include white exploitation, profiteering and disdain for aboriginal culture.

"we are 11 years into mr howard's prime ministry. his most memorable early contribution to this outrageous situation was to reject what he labelled 'black armband' view of history. the problem is he turned the black armband into blinkers," senator brown said. "the prime minister should lift this issue to the top his personal agenda. the plight of the first australians is a national disgrace. australia must restore health, safety and dignity to aboriginal australians."


__noeditsection__

apple releases macbook

apple computer today introduced the new macbook line, which includes the macbook and macbook pro. it is the successor to the ibook line and contains intel core duo processors and a host of features, and starting at a price of $1,099. the macbook features a 13.3" widescreen display, while the pro can be purchased with either 15" or 17" displays. it comes in two colors: black (2 ghz model only) and white (1.83 and 2 ghz models). this release leaves only one powerpc processor computer that has not made the transition to intel chips, the powermac g5.


hawaii to spend $4.9m on coqui frog eradication

the hawaii state legislature has appropriated us$4.9 million to fight the coqui frog and other invasive species.

about $2.9 million will be used to hire 58 additional inspectors at hawaii's airports to improve detection of invasive species, an increase of 75% over the current level. the remaining $2 million will be used specifically for coqui frog eradication using citric acid and hydrated lime.

much of the money will go to the big island of hawaii, where the coqui frog infestation is most serious. about $1.8 million will go to the big island, with $150,000 going to maui and $50,000 each going to oahu and kauai.

native to the caribbean, the coqui frog is believed to have entered on plants shipped from florida or puerto rico. without natural predators, the frogs' population density has grown to the point where it has become a nuisance. it is best known for its loud chirping, which keeps some residents on the big island and maui awake at night.

ecologists also fear that the coquis could threaten native bird species by eating the insects the birds rely on for food.


pacific tests tsunami warning systems

thirty countries, including new zealand, are participating in a test to see how well countries can respond when a tsunami strikes.

the test started at the tsunami warning centre in hawaii where a fake 9.2 magnitude earthquake occurred near chile, starting a tsunami rolling across the pacific.

a second fake earthquake happened north of the philippines to test the responses in the western pacific.

new zealand's civil defence has recently come under fire for failing to do enough to protect its citizens after international news agencies warned that a tsunami, which never arrived, was expected to hit new zealand.

the new zealand government's emergency management plan has also been criticised for being too unclear and insufficient.


rescued australian miners sign multi-million dollar media deal

the two australian mine-workers, who were trapped for 14 days underground in a collapsed mine, have signed a media deal reportedly worth aud$2 million for their story of survival. local media reports that the lucrative deal, announced by the nine network, is believed to be the "highest ever paid to secure news talent". a planned tv special will be the outcome of a deal secured by publishing and broadcasting limited (pbl), which owns the nine network. 

miners todd russell and brant webb were entombed nearly a kilometre underground following a cave-in on april 25 at the beaconsfield gold mine in tasmania. a third miner, larry knight, was killed in the rock-fall. the two survivors trapped in a wire cage, survived by drinking water seeping through rocks until rescuers managed to dig a small tunnel to deliver fresh food and water. their tale has captured the attention of the nation, with media corporations fighting for exclusive rights to the miners' story.

the nine network's chief executive eddie mcguire said under the pbl deal, woman's day, the australian women's weekly and the bulletin magazines would also have access to the men. the nine network has announced it would broadcast a two-hour special with entitled "the great escape."

another deal is expected to be brokered with u.s. media. mr mcguire said the deal would not restrict the pair from selling their story to cnn, the us today show and good morning america, who have all reportedly made contact with mr russell and mr webb this week. 

under the pbl deal, woman's day, the australian women's weekly and the bulletin magazines would also have access to the men, mr mcguire said. nine says it also wants the footage and photographs taken by the miners during their ordeal. the footage remains in the hands of the mining company.

the men, who were rescued on may 9, have not spoken publicly about the time they spent trapped underground. 

see wikipedia article: beaconsfield mine collapse



half of australian defence force's munitions of no use

an audit conducted by australia's auditor general has found aud $1 billion worth of munitions (bombs, explosives and ammunition) stockpiled by australia's defence forces are unusable in their present state. australia holds $2 billion worth of munition stock.

of the $1 billion considered unusable, $300 million is unrepairable and needs to be disposed of. the unusable munitions are waiting to be detonated at the woomera weapons range in remote south australia.

the audit also found that the defence department did not have the knowledge to safely store and maintain bombs and other ammunition.

following the report being tabled in parliament today, the government has ordered a review into the process by which munitions are purchased by the country. speaking to a defence industry conference in sydney, australian defence minister, brendan nelson said the government would be conducting a three-month inquiry into how australian defence forces purchase munitions and equipment.

at present defence supplies are purchased by the defence materials organisation (dmo) with no firm policy or guidelines from the government.

the federal opposition has seized upon the audit saying it also mentioned that payments made to contractors prior to supply had not been adequately explained by the dmo.

senator mark bishop, the opposition defence industry spokesman said that the dmo paid more than $20 million on a $26 million contract for missiles prior to being supplied. senator bishop also said that the dmo "negotiated a series of benefits that never materialised".

senator bishop said that the dmo could not justify the payments to the auditor general. "the dmo could not provide documentation to justify these prepayments and the auditor questions the validity of the prepayments," senator bishop said.



mundine beats green in super-middleweight wba eliminator

former world champion boxer anthony mundine has beaten long-time rival danny green on a unanimous points decision in a non-title world boxing association (wba) super middleweight bout. mundine, an ex-rugby league star promoted the much-anticipated fight that attracted around 40,000 spectators and a national record for a pay-per-view television event. 

"who's the man, who's the man?" mundine asked the crowd after the fight. western australia's danny green (the "machine") was defeated after 12 rounds at the sydney football stadium by "the man" mundine. mundine has improved his overall record to 26 wins and three losses. his victory sets up a world title bout against denmark's mikkel kessler. 

after the bout mundine praised his opponent's tenacity: "i just wanna' thank danny for a great fight... i was starting to get loose man, danny was starting to put a lot of pressure on me, he's got a good long jab, i had to evade that," said mundine. "i utilized my speed to catch him and it paid dividends. i was looking for the knockout, i caught him with a few great shots, [and] he can take a great punch. he put up a good performance. he come around, he come prepared - i was the better man tonight dan, thank you very much. we can do it again maybe, soon." 

green agreed that mundine fought the better fight. "he just beat me fair and square. i have no excuses at all, i trained unbelievable, my preparation was great... anthony was the better man tonight," said green.

the wba fight consolidated six years of taunts and hyperbole to settle a long-running feud between the men and their supporters. according to media reports the battle was personal from the outset with mundine's mother lyn yelling at her son from ringside to "knock him out choc, shut him up my baby". 

sports media commentators reported that the pace remained hectic in the first four rounds as mundine stood firm and used his jab as green mixed his trademark "power punches." as the fight wore on, mundine appeared in greater control and in better condition. however, mundine did end up on the canvas in the seventh round, after being pushed through the ropes by green. 

throughout the fight, green's power punches "missed, missed and missed again". in the final "ferocious" round, mundine rocked green with a combination to the head, taunting green to "come on." green attempted plenty of combinations, but mundine's speed caused problems. after 12 rounds, judge pinit prayadsab from thailand gave the fight to mundine 118-11, south korean michael lee scored it 116-113 and australian derek milham had it 118-112.

australian newspapers report that the appreciative crowd included corporate ceos, former world heavyweight champion joe frazier, bikie gangs, peroxide blondes and rugby league players. referee terry o'connor described the event as a fight australia can be proud of. "they both gave their all, it was a great fight." he described the atmosphere at aussie stadium as "fantastic" "it was the greatest fight i have refereed, it was brilliant," o'connor said. 

the "man v machine" event fight, promoted by mundine's boxa international and the "green machine" promoters is believed to have beeen the "biggest boxing match in australian history", grossing an estimated $20 million. each boxer is reported to be earning a seven-figure sum, while spectators have paid up to a$1000 for a seat at the bout. foxtel reported record sales for their exclusive pay-per-view event, claiming that subscriptions outsold the lennox lewis v mike tyson heavyweight bout. heavy betting ensued with one punter laying a $500,000 bet on mundine to take the honours.

of his upcoming bout with denmark's mikkel kessler, mundine said: "it was a close fight last time. i think he's the best fighter out there, but i've shown i can match it with him. i'm ready."



news briefs:may 17, 2006

the time is 18:00 (utc) on may 17th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

australia

australian media reports that a recently leaked northern territory police briefing paper exposes "shocking" cases of sexual abuse and violence against women and children in remote australian aboriginal communities.
central australian crown prosecutor, dr nannette rogers, detailed a range of "dreadful" cases she had prosecuted.

iran

in response to european union offers of a light water reactor in exchange for the halting of iran's uranium enrichment, mahmoud ahmadinejad spoke to supporters in the central city of arak, dismissing them as being "candy for gold".
"they say they want to give us incentives! do you think you are dealing with a four year old child to whom you can give some walnuts and chocolates and get gold from him?"
ahmadinejad has ruled out any suspension of its nuclear programme, finding its previous halt of two years a "bitter experience".

australia

an audit conducted by australia's auditor general has found aud$1 billion worth of munitions (bombs, explosives and ammunition) stockpiled by australia's defence forces are unusable in their present state. australia holds aud$2 billion worth of munition stock.
of the aud$1 billion considered unsuable, $300 million is unrepairable and needs to be disposed of. the unusable munitions are waiting to be detonated at the woomera weapons range in remote south australia.

australia

the two australian mine-workers, who were trapped for 14 days underground in a collapsed mine, have signed a media deal reportedly worth aud$2 million for their story of survival. local media reports that the lucrative deal, announced by the nine network, is believed to be the "highest ever paid to secure news talent". a planned tv special will be the outcome of a deal secured by publishing and broadcasting limited (pbl), which owns the nine network.

united states

the hawaii state legislature has appropriated us$4.9 million to fight the coqui frog and other invasive species.
about $2.9 million will be used to hire 58 additional inspectors at hawaii's airports to improve detection of invasive species, an increase of 75% over the current level. the remaining $2 million will be used specifically for coqui frog eradication using citric acid and hydrated lime.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


verizon says customer phone records were not handed over to the nsa

on may 11, 2006, the "usa today" published an article claiming that the united states national security agency (nsa) collected millions of call logs from telecommunications companies in 2001 under a contract the nsa claims to have had with phone companies.

since the publication, telecommunications giant verizon has denied that customer phone records where handed over to the nsa in the time frame "from the time of the 9/11 attacks until just four months ago." 

"contrary to the media reports, verizon was not asked by nsa to provide, nor did verizon provide, customer phone records from any of these businesses, or any call data from those records. none of these companies -- wireless or wireline -- provided customer records or call data," verizon said in a statement. this does not address the question whether the long-stance carrier mci, that verizon bought in january, handed over records to the nsa, and whether they still continue to do so.

verizon also says that records from local calls are not tracked. "phone companies do not even make records of local calls in most cases because the vast majority of customers are not billed per call for local calls."

on tuesday, bellsouth also denied that it gave their call records to the nsa.

however; "usa today" said that they are "confident" about their story and "will look closely into the issues raised by the bellsouth and verizon statements. sources told us that bellsouth and verizon records are included in the database," said steve anderson, spokesman for "usa today". the paper was using anonymous sources that they claim had "direct knowledge of the arrangement." anderson also stated that they will not "dismiss" the denials made by verizon or bellsouth "without taking a closer look"

qwest's former chief executive joseph p. nacchio confirmed through his lawyer that the nsa requested qwest to provide calling data, but that qwest declined to do so citing a lack of legal process.


college ice hockey could follow nhl and add second referee

university of maine men's ice hockey head coach tim whitehead has proposed that the national collegiate athletic association adopt the four-official system.

the system, which has two referees and two linesmen, was adopted by the national hockey league for the 1998/99 season on a trial basis before being fully implemented for 2000/01.

“my rationale for the proposal is to get more calls right,” whitehead told the hockeyrefs.com website. “it’s about getting the best system we can for the game.”

maine competes in hockey east, one of six division i conferences. currently, division i employs a three-official system of one referee and two assistant referees. 

adding a second referee could result in logistical and financial difficulties for both conferences and schools.

“this would open a lot of opportunities,” said whitehead, who isn’t opposed to young, college-age officials doing his games if “they’re the best out there.”

the ncaa men's ice hockey rules committee will vote on the proposal in june


nz finance minister introduces 2006 budget

today the new zealand finance minister, hon. dr michael cullen, presented the 2006 new zealand budget to the house of representatives. there is a nz$8.5 billion oberac surplus and a nz$1.5 billion cash surplus.

it has been labelled as the "bondi budget" by national leader don brash, "helen clark and michael cullen believe there is a place for tax cuts - it's called australia" he said. 

the budget allocates new operating spending of $9.6 billion and capital of $2.7 billion over the next four years.

key issues in the budget includes:


ups plans $1 billion expansion, 5,000 new jobs at ky air hub

the world's largest package delivery company, ups has announced a $1 billion dollar expansion at its louisville, kentucky air hub to meet their projected future demands. the expansion will add an estimated 5,000 jobs and make the facility the size of 113 football fields when completed in 2010. it will make the facility capable of handling nearly 500,000 packages an hour. 

ups is already the largest employer in kentucky with nearly 18,000 employees. many of the positions are part time and are held by students from the university of louisville and jefferson community college, with whom ups has a tuition reimbursement deal. 


us stocks plummet

us stocks plunged along with other stock markets overseas as a greater than expected rise in consumer prices fueled investors' fears that the federal reserve's campaign of raising interest rates is not over. at the close of trading at 4:00 pm edt, the dow jones industrial average had fallen 214.28 points, or 1.88%, to 11,205.61. technology stocks were not safe from the selling as well, as the nasdaq fell 33.33 points, or 1.50%, to 2,195.80. the nasdaq has now turned negative for 2006. broader stock indices also finished much lower. the s&p 500 fell 22 points (1.68%) to 1,270.32. this is the biggest point loss on the dow in 3 years.

the consumer price index (cpi) showed that prices to the consumer increased by a greater-than-expected 0.6% in april. core cpi, which factors out volatile food and energy prices, swelled by a greater-than-expected 0.3%.

market breadth was extremely negative with advancers beating out decliners by a 5 to 1 ratio on the new york stock exchange. volume was heavy with 2.95 billion shares changing hands. of the 30 stocks that make up the dow jones industrials, 29 of them closed down for the day. the only stock in positive territory was hewlett-packard, which closed up $1.05 (+3.38%) to $32.16/share after reporting quarterly earnings after the close tuesday.

the selloff comes on the heels of the dow rising to within 80 points of its all-time closing high of 11,722.98 just last week. that rally was built on hopes that the federal reserve was close to ending its interest rate hike campaign. since that time the dow has experienced 3 double-digit point losses. many market analysts and technicians, including ken tower from schwab's cybertrader, felt that the market was overbought and was due for a short-term correction. today's inflation report suggests that the fed might have to tighten interest rates further to combat inflation and slow economic growth to a more sustainable pace. higher interest rates increase the cost of money, thus discouraging borrowing by businesses and individuals. 
european stock markets fell more sharply than those in the us. london's ftse fell 2.92%, frankfurt's dax tumbled 3.4%, and paris' cac 40 fell 3.18%.


fbi searching michigan farm for clues in disappearance of jimmy hoffa

the fbi and bloomfield township, michigan police are searching land on a horse farm in milford michigan for clues or evidence related to former teamsters union leader, jimmy hoffa who was 62 when he went missing in 1975. the fbi received a tip a few weeks ago from a fbi source which authorities believe is credible and detailed enough to warrant a search of the property.

the fbi says that the search is "in connection with the ongoing investigation into james riddle hoffa's disappearance, for evidence of criminal activity that may have occurred under prior ownership," said dawn clenney, a special agent for the fbi. "this is one [tip] we felt we needed to follow up on," added clenney.

however; barbara ann crancer, the daughter of hoffa said "we've been down this road many times before. all they told me is a new tip came in and they were going to search somewhere in milford. it's always a shock when it all comes rushing back again."

previous searches and claim have turned up nothing. most recently, in may 2004, official frank sheeran for the philadelphia teamsters said in a biography that he was the one to kill hoffa by shooting and killing hoffa in a detroit home. a detorit tv station, wjbk investigated the claims and found blood in the home, but tests proved that it did not belong to hoffa. his body was also previously suspected of being buried in giant's stadium in the endzone in meadowlands, new jersey, a trash facility linked to the mob in hamtramck, and a landfill also in new jersey.

authorities say that the search could take several days to complete and that heavy digging equipment will be brought in on thursday to assist in digging four locations on the land.


australian opposition expected to release workplace plan

australian opposition leader kim beazley is expected to release his workplace plan when he will speak to a union delegate meeting in sydney today.

at the meeting today, there will be delegates from the construction forestry mining energy union (cfmeu), energy union, australian manufacturing workers union (amfu) and australian workers union (awu).

under the plan, employers will be prevented from employing overseas migrants for 12 months after sacking australian workers from the same job.

in a statement, andrew ferguson, cfmeu's nsw secretary said that his union is contacted regularly after australian workers are sacked for less expensive overseas labor. "there is not a day that goes by that people don't contact the union looking for help finding a job because employers are importing cheap labour rather than investing in australian workers".

mr ferguson welcomed the opposition's incentives. "kim beazley's proposal is a welcome step forward in rectifying the short-sighted policies of a government that has completely failed to look out for the interests of working australians."


canada extends afghanistan military role for two more years

canadian prime minister stephen harper asked for and received the approval of the house of commons (lower house of the ) for a two year extension of the in afghanistan on wednesday. 

the prime minister is not required to seek approval of the house of commons to deploy forces, and mr. harper opened the 6 hour debate by declaring he would extend the mission by a year, with or without support from the commons. 

prior to the parliamentary debate, the conservative government consulted the three opposition parties. the and the voted against the motion.

thirty members of the official opposition, voted for the extension. the liberal party allowed their members a free vote on the measure, and the majority opposed. voting for the measure, interim leader bill graham said mps were not given sufficient time to debate the issues, and were voting "with a gun put to our heads." 

ndp leader jack layton said the conservatives were on the "wrong path". the extension in afghanistan, he said before the vote, would "render canada incapable of responding to other situations in the world."

the minority government received commons approval by only four votes: 149-145.

tragically, , a canadian female soldier posted in afghanistan, was killed by taliban rebels on the day of the debate.

australia is committed to a similar extension. the prime minister of australia will arrive today, (18/05/2006), for a state visit to address the parliament of canada and attend various functions.



dee caffari on last stretch of round-the-world sailing challenge

briton dee caffari and her 72 ft steel cutter aviva are on the last part of their journey around the world. the former pe teacher from hertfordshire is just 55 miles from becoming the first woman to sail around the world solo against the prevailing winds and currents.


indian markets plummet: sensex loses 826 points, nifty down 246

the bombay stock exchange senstitive index (sensex) crashed 826 points and the national stock exchange's index (nifty) 246 in what was the largest ever intra-day drop in the their histories. at the end of day's trade, the sensex closed at 11,391 and the nifty at 3,388. the market breadth is also negative - 2081 shares have declined, with only 336 stocks advancing.

analysts speculated that the reason for this drop was that the u.s. cpi number, which was released yesterday, was above expectations. this, coupled with weaknesses observed in the london metal exchange, has led to losses in emerging markets like india, mexico, and brazil.

asian regional strategist at jpmorgan chase, adrian mowat, believes that the sensex will stabilise at around the 11,000 mark after correcting by around 5-6%. indian finance minister p. chidambaram dismissed the issue and described it as a routine fluctuation. the main losers in today's crash were the steel and cement segments.


australian rugby league club to have extra police at all nsw games

the canterbury bulldogs, a team in australia's national rugby league, has entered into an agreement with new south wales police to provide extra police at all games in nsw. the agreement follows a spate of violent incidents at bulldogs matches this year.

in march, there were fights during and after a game between the bulldogs and wests tigers at telstra stadium, the bulldogs home ground. this led police to step up their presence at bulldogs matches for the rest of the season. a month later, a group of bulldogs supporters abused four south sydney cheerleaders at another home match.

according to nsw police, a meeting was held between the police executive and bulldogs ceo, malcolm noad where it was decided that the club will pay for additional police at all bulldogs games across nsw. the additional police will include specialist police (including riot police) to provide security for spectators.

only police that are working outside their normal rostered hours will be paid for by the club.

the police commander of the north west sydney region, assistant commissioner said he was pleased that the club was working with the police proactively. “it is pleasing to see the club taking a proactive stance to ensure the games proceed with a strong police presence to provide increased safety” he said.

assistant commissioner clifford warned that police would not be specifically targeting bulldogs supporters, but anyone who is causing trouble at games. “it is hoped this initiative will stamp out violence at future bulldogs matches. police will be targeting anyone doing the wrong thing, regardless of which team they support,” he said.



new italian government proposes withdrawal of troops from iraq

in his first speech since being sworn in as the country's leader, italian prime minister romano prodi says the us-led invasion of iraq had been a mistake. he says his new government will propose the withdrawal of italy's 3000 troops from iraq. 

"we consider the war in iraq and the occupation of the country a grave error," mr prodi told italian parliament this week. "it has not resolved, but complicated the situation of security. it is the intention of this government to propose to parliament the return of our troops from iraq." his speech resulted in jeers from italy's centre right parties.

mr prodi said his government intends to continue "good relations" with washington. he did not give a date for a withdrawal, saying a "technical timeframe" would have to be agreed with all sides involved. italy's centre-left parties opposed the us-led invasion of iraq three years ago. 

mr prodi said his government will remain on the front lines in the war against terror and would participate in anti-terror operations if they were sanctioned by international organizations, such as the united nations. "we are convinced participants in the war against terrorism, even militarily, when it is legitimized by an international organization to which we belong." he said.

former prime minister silvio berlusconi was defeated in a tight election to prodi's centre-left bloc in april this year. as opposition leader, prodi has always opposed the war in iraq. berlusconi sent 3,000 troops to iraq in 2003. the move was widely opposed by the italian public. 

although troops were already expected to return home by the end of 2006, prodi did not give an exact timeframe for the withdrawal. he said it would only happen in consultation with iraqi authorities.



cholera outbreak hits angola

a cholera epidemic in angola has killed over 1,200 people in the past three months. the un world health organization (who) says about 35,000 people have fallen ill, half the victims in the capital of luanda, where the first cases were detected in february. 

the un say the epidemic is angola’s worst cholera outbreak in almost two decades continues to rage on with 546 new cases and 31 deaths reported in the last 24 hours. a third of the victims are children under 5.

the medical charity mangola, medecines sans frontieres and the world health organisation say it is the worst outbreak recorded in the country. spokesman for medecines sans frontiere richard veerman said: "angola is heading for its worst ever outbreak and the situation remains very bad in angola," he said. 

"it's very worrying, the official number of deaths countrywide is now more than 1,200, which is likely under-reported. many people will be at home and die at home and have no possibility to come to one of our treatment centres."

cholera, an acute intestinal disease caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium vibrio cholerae, causes copious, painless, watery diarrhoea that can quickly lead to severe dehydration and death if treatment, including rehydration, is not given promptly.


nepal parliament passes resolution to curb king's power

prime minister of nepal, giriraj koirala proposed in parliament a resolution which is aimed at drastically curtailing the monarch's powers. according to the resolution, the king will be stripped of his status as the supreme commander of the royal nepal army (which is to be renamed as the nepal army cabinet). portions of the nepalese national anthem that praise the king have been cut.

the proposal also aims at cutting down on the king's allowance and his right to be exempted from paying taxes. the government which is currently referred to as the "king's administration" will henceforth be known as the "nepalese government". the resolution also changes nepal's status from that of a hindu nation to a secular one. the king's advisory council will no longer exist and his security will be taken care of by parliament. the king will also now no longer have the privilege of being above the law of the land since the resolution provides for him to be tried in court if the situation so warrants.

analysts have expressed concerns saying that under the current constitution, this proposal cannot become law till the king signs it. politicians say however that this proposal is above the constitution and reflects the will of the people. king gyanendra restored democracy to the himalayan kingdom after weeks of massive anti-monarchy protests earlier this year.


record typhoon chanchu batters south china

a powerful typhoon that killed 37 people in the philippines has hit southern china. typhoon chanchu battered coastal guangdong and fujian provinces where an estimated 900,000 fled to safety. with winds up to 170 kph, chanchu is the strongest typhoon on record to enter the south china sea in may. 

xinhua news agency said 11 people had died in china from the storm and four others were missing. the storm made landfall near shantou in the northern tip of china's guangdong province.

xinhua reports that chenchu slammed in shantou city of guangdong and continued northward bringing gale-force winds and rainstorms to the regions and triggering flooding, mountain torrents and landslides. nearly 200 houses in north shantou were flooded stranding more than 6,400 people. 

typhoons occur in the south china sea every year between may and september.


news briefs:may 18, 2006

the time is 18:00 (utc) on may 18th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

nepal

prime minister of nepal, giriraj koirala proposed in parliament a resolution which is aimed at drastically curtailing the monarch's powers. according to the resolution, the king will be stripped of his status as the supreme commander of the royal nepal army (which is to be renamed as the nepal army cabinet). portions of the nepalese national anthem which praise the king have been cut out.

angola

a cholera epidemic in angola has killed over 1,200 people in the past three months. the un world health organization (who) says about 35,000 people are have fallen ill, half the victims in the capital of luanda, where the first cases were detected in february.
the un say the epidemic is angola’s worst cholera outbreak in almost two decades continues to rage on with 546 new cases and 31 deaths reported in the last 24 hours. a third of the victims are children under 5.

italy

in his first speech since being sworn in as the country's leader, italian prime minister romano prodi says the us-led invasion of iraq had been a mistake. he says his new government will propose the withdrawal of italy's 3000 troops from iraq.

australia

australian opposition leader kim beazley is expected to release his workplace plan when he will speak to a union delegate meeting in sydney today.
at the meeting today, there will be delegates from the construction forestry mining energy union (cfmeu), energy union, australian manufacturing workers union (amfu) and australian workers union (awu).
under the plan, employers will be prevented from employing overseas migrants for 12 months after sacking australian workers from the same job.

united states

the fbi and bloomfield township, michigan police are searching land on a horse farm in milford michigan for clues or evidence related to former teamsters union leader, jimmy hoffa who was 62 when he went missing in 1975. the fbi received a tip a few weeks ago from an fbi source which authorities believe is credible and detailed enough to warrant a search of the property.

india

the bombay stock exchange senstitive index (sensex) crashed 826 points and the national stock exchange's index (nifty) 246 in what was the largest ever intra-day drop in the their histories. at the end of day's trade, the sensex closed at 11,391 and the nifty at 3,388. the market breadth is also negative - 2081 shares have declined, with only 336 stocks advancing.
analysts speculated that the reason for this drop was that the u.s. cpi number, which was released yesterday, was above expectations. this, coupled with weaknesses observed in the london metal exchange, has led to losses in emerging markets like india, mexico, and brazil.

sports - sailing

briton dee caffari and her 72ft steel cutter aviva are on the last part of their journey around the world. the former pe teacher from hertfordshire is just 55 miles from becoming the first woman to sail around the world solo against the prevailing winds and currents.

sports ? australian rugby

the canterbury bulldogs, a team in australia's national rugby league have entered into an agreement with new south wales police to provide extra police at all games in nsw. the agreement follows a spate of violent incidents at bulldogs matches this year.

sports ? football

fc barcelona captured europe's top football trophy on wednesday with a 2-1 victory in the final against english club arsenal f.c.
the game was watched by 79,500 fans - including king juan carlos and queen sofia of spain.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


keep your eyes peeled for cosmic debris: andrew westphal about stardust@home

stardust is a space capsule that collected samples from comet (also known as "wild 2) in deep space and landed back on earth on january 15, 2006. it was decided that a collaborative online review process would be used to "discover" the microscopically small samples the capsule collected. the project is called . unlike projects like , stardust@home relies entirely on human intelligence.

andrew westphal is the director of stardust@home. wikinews interviewed him for may's interview of the month (iotm) on may 18, 2006. as always, the interview was conducted on , with multiple people asking questions.

stardust is a nasa discovery mission that was launched in 1999. it is really two missions in one. the primary science goal of the mission was to collect a sample from a known primitive solar-system body, a comet called wild 2 (pronounced "vilt-two" ? the discoverer was german, i believe). this is the first "sample return" mission since apollo, and the first ever from beyond the moon. this gives a little context. by "sample return" of course i mean a mission that brings back extraterrestrial material. i should have said above that this is the first "solid" sample return mission ? genesis brought back a sample from the sun almost two years ago, but stardust is also bringing back the first solid samples from the local interstellar medium ? basically this is a sample of the galaxy. this is absolutely unprecedented, and we're obviously incredibly excited. i should mention parenthetically that there is a fantastic launch video ? taken from the pov of the rocket on the jpl stardust website ? highly recommended ? best i've ever seen ? all the way from the launch pad, too. basically interplanetary trajectory. absolutely great. 

is the video available to the public?

yes [see below]. ok, i digress. the first challenge that we have before can do any kind of analysis of these interstellar dust particles is simply to find them. this is a big challenge because they are very small (order of micron in size) and are somewhere (we don't know where) on a huge collector? at least on the scale of the particle size ? about a tenth of a square meter. "so"...

we're right now using an automated microscope that we developed several years ago for nuclear astrophysics work to scan the collector in the cosmic dust lab in building 31 at johnson space center. this is the ares group that handles returned samples (moon rocks, genesis chips, meteorites, and interplanetary dust particles collected by u2 in the stratosphere). the microscope collects stacks of digital images of the aerogel collectors in the array. these images are sent to us ? we compress them and convert them into a format appropriate for stardust@home. 

stardust@home is a highly distributed project using a "virtual microscope" that is written in html and javascript and runs on most browsers ? no downloads are required. using the virtual microscope volunteers can search over the collector for the tracks of the interstellar dust particles. 

how many samples do you anticipate being found during the course of the project?

great question. the short answer is that we don't know. the long answer is a bit more complicated. here's what we know. the galileo and ulysses spacecraft carried dust detectors onboard that eberhard gruen and his colleagues used to first detect and them measure the flux of interstellar dust particles streaming into the solar system. (this is a kind of "wind" of interstellar dust, caused by the fact that our solar system is moving with respect to the local interstellar medium.) markus landgraf has estimated the number of interstellar dust particles that should have been captured by stardust during two periods of the "cruise" phase of the interplanetary orbit in which the spacecraft was moving with this wind. he estimated that there should be around 45 particles, but this number is very uncertain ? i wouldn't be surprised if it is quite different from that. that was the long answer! one thing that i should say...is that like all research, the outcome of what we are doing is highly uncertain. there is a wonderful quote attributed to einstein ? "if we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called "research", would it?" 

how big would the samples be?

we expect that the particles will be of order a micron in size. (a millionth of a meter.) when people are searching using the virtual microscope, they will be looking not for the particles, but for the tracks that the particles make, which are much larger ? several microns in diameter. just yesterday we switched over to a new site which has a demo of the vm (virtual microscope) i invite you to check it out. the tracks in the demo are from submicron carbonyl iron particles that were shot into aerogel using a particle accelerator modified to accelerate dust particles to very high speeds, to simulate the interstellar dust impacts that we're looking for.
and that's on the main stardust@home website [see below]?

yes.

how long will the project take to complete?

partly the answer depends on what you mean by "the project". the search will take several months. the bottleneck, we expect (but don't really know yet) is in the scanning ? we can only scan about one tile per day and there are 130 tiles in the collector…. these particles will be quite diverse, so we're hoping that we'll continue to have lots of volunteers collaborating with us on this after the initial discoveries. it may be that the 50th particle that we find will be the real rosetta stone that turns out to be critical to our understanding of interstellar dust. so we really want to find them all! enlarging the idea of the project a little, beyond the search, though is to actually analyze these particles. that's the whole point, obviously! 

and this is the huge advantage with this kind of a mission ? a "sample return" mission. 

most missions rather do things quite differently... you have to build an instrument to make a measurement and that instrument design gets locked in several years before launch practically guaranteeing that it will be obsolete by the time you launch. here exactly the opposite is true. several of the instruments that are now being used to analyze the cometary dust did not exist when the mission was launched. further, some instruments (e.g., synchrotrons) are the size of shopping malls ? you don't have a hope of flying these in space. so we can and will study these samples for many years. and we have to preserve some of these dust particles for our grandchildren to analyze with their hyper-quark-gluon plasma microscopes (or whatever)!

when do you anticipate the project to start?

we're really frustrated with the delays that we've been having. some of it has to do with learning how to deal with the aerogel collectors, which are rougher and more fractured than we expected. the good news is that they are pretty clean ? there is very little of the dust that you see on our training images ? these were deliberately left out in the lab to collect dust so that we could give people experience with the worst case we could think of. in learning how to do the scanning of the actual flight aerogel, we uncovered a couple of bugs in our scanning software ? which forced us to go back and rescan. part of the other reason for the delay was that we had to learn how to handle the collector ? it would cost $200m to replace it if something happened to it, so we had to develop procedures to deal with it, and add several new safety features to the cosmic dust lab. this all took time. finally, we're distracted because we also have many responsibilities for the cometary analysis, which has a deadline of august 15 for finishing analysis. the is project has no such deadline, so at times we had to delay the is (interstellar, sorry) in order to focus on the cometary work. we are very grateful to everyone for their patience on this ? i mean that very sincerely. 

and rest assured that we're just as frustrated!

i know there will be a "test" that participants will have to take before they can examine the "real thing". what will that test consist of?

the test will look very similar to the training images that you can look at now. but.. there will of course be no annotation to tell you where the tracks are! 

why did nasa decide to take the route of distributed computing? will they do this again?

i wouldn't say that nasa decided to do this ? the idea for stardust@home originated here at u. c. berkeley. part of the idea of course came…
if i understand correctly it isn't distributed computing, but distributed eyeballing?

…from the seti@home people who are just down the hall from us. but as brian just pointed out. this is not really distributed computing like seti@home the computers are just platforms for the vm and it is human eyes and brains who are doing the real work which makes it fun (imho). 

that said… there have been quite a few people who have expressed interested in developing automated algorithms for searching. just because we don't know how to write such an algorithm doesn't mean "nobody" does. we're delighted at this and are happy to help make it happen 

isn't there a catch 22 that the data you're going to collect would be a prerequisite to automating the process?

that was the conclusion that we came to early on ? that we would need some sort of training set to be able to train an algorithm. of course you have to train people too, but we're hoping (we'll see!) that people are more flexible in recognizing things that they've never seen before and pointing them out. our experience is that people who have never seen a track in aerogel can learn to recognize them very quickly, even against a big background of cracks, dust and other sources of confusion... coming back to the original question ? although nasa didn't originate the idea, they are very generously supporting this project. it wouldn't have happened without nasa's financial support (and of course access to the stardust collector). did that answer the question? 

will a project like this be done again?

i don't know... there are only a few projects for which this approach makes sense... in fact, i frankly haven't run across another at least in space science. but i am totally open to the idea of it. i am not in favor of just doing it as "make-work" ? that is just artificially taking this approach when another approach would make more sense. 

how did the idea come up to do this kind of project? 

really desperation. when we first thought about this we assumed that we would use some sort of automated image recognition technique. we asked some experts around here in cs and the conclusion was that the problem was somewhere between trivial and impossible, and we wouldn't know until we had some real examples to work with. so we talked with dan wertheimer and dave anderson (literally down the hall from us) about the idea of a distributed project, and they were quite encouraging. dave proposed the vm machinery, and josh von korff, a physics grad student, implemented it. (beautifully, i think. i take no credit!) 

i got to meet one of the stardust directors in march during the texas aerospace scholars program at jsc. she talked about searching for meteors in antarctica, one that were unblemished by earth conditions. is that our best chance of finding new information on comets and asteroids? or will more stardust programs be our best solution? 

that's a really good question. much will depend on what we learn during this official "preliminary examination" period for the cometary analysis. aerogel capture is pretty darn good, but it's not perfect and things are altered during capture in ways that we're still understanding. i think that much also depends on what question you're asking. for example, some of the most important science is done by measuring the relative abundances of isotopes in samples, and these are not affected (at least not much) by capture into aerogel. 

also, she talked about how some of the agencies that they gave samples to had lost or destroyed 2-3 samples while trying to analyze them. that one, in fact, had been statically charged, and stuck to the side of the microscope lens and they spent over an hour looking for it. is that really our biggest danger? giving out samples as a show of good faith, and not letting nasa example all samples collected?

these will be the first measurements, probably, that we'll make on the interstellar dust there is always a risk of loss. fortunately for the cometary samples there is quite a lot there, so it's not a disaster. nasa has some analytical capabilities, particularly at jsc, but the vast majority of the analytical capability in the community is not at nasa but is at universities, government labs and other institutions all over the world. i should also point out that practically every analytical technique is destructive at some level. (there are a few exceptions, but not many.) the problem with meteorites is that except in a very few cases, we don't know where they specifically came from. so having a sample that we "know" for sure is from the comet is golden! 

i am currently working on my bachelor's in computer science, with a minor in astronomy. do you see successes of programs like stardust to open up more private space exploration positions for people such as myself. even though i'm not in the typical "space" fields of education? 

can you elaborate on your question a little ? i'm not sure that i understand...

well, while at jsc i learned that they mostly want engineers, and a few science grads, and i worry that my computer science degree with not be very valuable, as the nasa rep told me only 1% of the applicants for their work study program are cs majors. i'm just curious as to your thoughts on if cs majors will be more in demand now that projects like stardust and the mars missions have been great successes? have you seen a trend towards more private businesses moving in that direction, especially with president bush's statement of man on the moon in 2015?

that's a good question. i am personally not very optimistic about the direction that nasa is going. despite recent successes, including but not limited to stardust, science at nasa is being decimated.

i made a joke with some people at the tas event that one day spaceshipone will be sent up to save stranded iss astronauts. it makes me wonder what kind of private redundancy the us government is taking for future missions. 

i guess one thing to be a little cautious about is that despite spaceshipone's success, we haven't had an "orbital" project that has been successful in that style of private enterprise it would be nice to see that happen. i know that there's a lot of interest...! 

now i know the answer to this question... but a lot do not... when samples are found, how will they be analyzed? who gets the credit for finding the samples? 

the first person who identifies an interstellar dust particle will be acknowledged on the website (and probably will be much in demand for interviews from the media!), will have the privilege of naming the particle, and will be a co-author on any papers that we (at ucb) publish on the analysis of the particle. also, although we are precluded from paying for travel expenses, we will invite those who discover particles and the top performers to our lab for a hands-on tour. 

we have some fun things, including micromachines. 

how many people/participants do you expect to have? 

about 113,000 have preregistered on our website. frankly, i don't have a clue how many will actually volunteer and do a substantial amount of searching. we've never done this before, after all!

one last thing i want to say ... well, two. first, we are going to special efforts "not" to do any searching ourselves before we go "live". it would not be fair to all the volunteers for us to get a jumpstart on the search. "all" we are doing is looking at a few random views to make sure that the focus and illumination are good. (and we haven't seen anything ? no surprise at all!) also, the attitude for this should be "have fun". if you're not having fun doing it, stop and do something else! a good maxim for life in general!



two australian car ferry operators caught drunk on the job

two men operating a car transport ferry at berowra waters, new south wales, australia, north of sydney have been charged with operating a vessel with high range prescribed concentration of alcohol (pca) according to police. the ferry crosses berowra creek between bay road and berowra waters road, berowra waters and operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

police met the ferry at its eastern terminal on thursday at 7 p.m. aest after receiving a report from a passenger that the boom operator appeared to be drunk. upon the ferry's arrival, police spoke with the boom operator and conducted an on-the-spot breath test. the man returned a positive blood-alcohol reading.

police then spoke with the ferry's captain about his boom operator. the captain was also subjected to a breath test, which returned positive.

the pair was taken to hornsby police station where they were required to undergo a further breath test. the test at the station returned a blood-alcohol reading of 0.17 for the boom operator and 0.15 for the captain. both were more than seven times the legal limit of 0.02 for passenger vessels.

even though the boom operator was not controlling the ferry, a person who is responsible for observing the safety of passengers is taken to have been operating the vessel under nsw law.

the pair will appear in hornsby local court on a date to be set.


rep. hunter calls for hearings about alleged &quot;cold-blooded killings&quot; of civilians by u.s. marines

, a member of the from california and the chairman, said thursday that the incident involving marines firing on unarmed iraqi civilians in the town of on 19 november 2005 will be subject to congressional hearings as soon the criminal investigation is completed.

"if there were problems in the chain of command, if there was a cover up, if there was anything that wasn't reported, let the chips fall where they may but don't presume anything," mr. hunter said. 

the incident is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the and multi-national forces iraq. no official investigation report has been released yet.

some military commanders have said that it appears the marines did not follow the rules of engagement. "this report is going to be ugly," one commander said.

, a and member of the house of representatives, said earlier on wednesday that what happened near the iraqi town of haditha was "much worse than was reported in time magazine". on march 21, "time" reported that "u.s. killed 15 iraqi civilians in their homes", including "seven women and three children". "time" also reported that u.s. troops were responding to an and insurgent fire. 

murtha, referring to preliminary military investigation reports, said, "there was no firefight. [...] there was no ied that killed these innocent people. our troops over-reacted because of the pressure on them. and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood." he also said that the civilian death toll was 24 and not 15 as reported by time magazine. 

according to the "new york times", murtha stated that he himself did not read official findings of the military inquiry, but had been told about the inquiry by commanders due to his background of military service and connections to its workings.

marine corps spokesperson lt. col. sean gibson would neither confirm nor deny murtha's charges.

duncan hunter said in response to murtha on friday "i don't want to see these troops who have done such a magnificent job end up being portrayed in the american media by what comes out of the haditha investigation".



state schools chief to appeal california high school exit exam ban to state high court

state schools superintendent jack o’connell has his lawyers working “around the clock” to prepare to ask the state supreme court to overturn a lower court judge’s ban on using the california state high school exit exam as a graduation requirement, he said today.

"in an effort to seek resolution of this issue as quickly as possible, i have asked my attorneys to appeal directly to the california supreme court,” said o’connell in a prepared statement, “they are working around the clock to prepare those papers, and we expect to file within 24 to 30 hours. this is a remarkably fast turnaround for an appeal of a ruling that was made less than a week ago." 

most appeals of a superior court decision go to an appellate court first. 

last friday, alameda county superior court judge robert freedman ruled against maintaining the california high school exit exam as a condition of graduation for the class of 2006, saying that the law requiring high school students to pass the test is unconstitutional because economically and racially disadvantaged students weren’t offered equal educations and therefore didn’t have an equal chance to pass.

in his statement, o’connell acknowledged that some students need more help than others, but said the test should stand, anyway: "we know that some students at some schools need extra attention to overcome challenges brought to the classroom and challenges within the schools they attend. we agree those students must have every option available to them to learn the skills on the exam. but i strongly disagree that the remedy for students still struggling to pass the exam is to simply hand them a diploma whether or not they have learned what they need to know.”

arturo j. gonzalez, the san francisco attorney who persuaded freedman to stop the use of the test, told reporters that freedman had ruled correctly and that the state should give up and let the students graduate. "there is no basis for the supreme court to take diplomas away from 45,000 students who have passed all required courses," he said in an email exchange with the james logan courier. "to do that, they would have to find that judge freedman abused his discretion. given the overwhelming evidence in support of his ruling, i do not think that any of the seven justices will find an abuse of discretion." 

california governor arnold schwarzenegger said he supported o’connell’s bid to reinstate the test and would "put the full weight of my administration behind reinstating the california high school exit exam graduation requirement.”

o’connell, who wrote the law, wants the requirement to be enforced against this year’s would-be graduates who haven’t yet passed the test and so is set to ask the state supreme court to immediately stay freedman’s injunction to allow the state to withhold high school diplomas as originally planned.. at last count, the ruling affects about 47,000 california seniors, including about 70 from james logan high school.

“the decision came as more than 1,100 california high schools prepare for graduation ceremonies,” he said, “it created confusion and uncertainty not only for seniors in the class of 2006 but for juniors in the class of 2007.”

cynthia o'brien, who oversees testing at james logan high school, told the courier she wants the confusion to end. "if the exit exam is going to go forward, then it needs to go forward. if not, then it needs to be cancelled completely," she said last week.

"many students now wonder whether they should enroll in summer school or plan to take a summer administration of the exit exam,” he said, “administrators and teachers are left wondering whether students who need the extra assistance will bother to enroll. and students who should be buckling down to learn the skills they need to succeed in college or the workplace have now been told they can get a diploma whether or not they have those skills.

"it is our responsibility to all of california's children, especially our disadvantaged and minority students, to equip them with the most basic skills they will need in college, in work and in life,” said schwarzenegger. “ postponing the exam graduation requirement will hurt our children in the long run by depriving us of the best tool we have to measure how well schools are doing their job.”

he said he’s budgeted more money to help students pass the test: “my 2006-07 budget will add $7.7 million for three additional administration of the exam and we will also provide $65 million this year to give students at risk of failing the exam the support they need to pass it." 

the high court has 90 days to decide whether to hear o’connell’s appeal once it’s filed, but could act more quickly if it chooses.

the author releases this story to wikinews under the creative commons 2.5 license.


missing girl from british columbia found safe

a missing 11-year-old girl was found safe on thursday around 5 a.m. pdt after disappearing may 16 while riding her scooter to a local video store near the north okanagan town of armstrong, british columbia. carmen kados left home on her regular two kilometer trip to the local store around 6:45 p.m. tuesday. she wasn't seen again after leaving the store around 7:15 p.m.

carmen's mother called authorities and reported the young girl missing around 8:45 p.m. -- police located her scooter, a cell phone and the video she had rented in a parking lot near the store. other possessions were found but exact details were not disclosed for investigative purposes, according to corporal henry proce, spokesman for the royal canadian mounted police.

"the first 24 hours, the first 48 hours, are crucial and as more time elapses you become more and more fearful of a worst-case scenario," proce said.

a wide net was cast in hopes of locating kados -- police and as many as 65 search and rescue volunteers searched the largely rural area, scouring railroad tracks, streams, and parking lots. the girl and her alleged abductor were located separately around 5 a.m. thursday. the suspect in the abduction was identified as a transient known to police. police indicate that community involvement, including tips and a description of the abductor, were instrumental in locating the suspect.

kados was brought to vernon jubilee hospital, and her parents joined her there. police reported she had been injured, but the injuries were not life threatening. both kados and her parents are traumatized by the incident; spokesman proce did not expect they would be making a public statement soon.

"i think anybody that's a parent can only begin to imagine how it must feel not to know where your child is," said proce. "this is a little 11-year-old girl and to not know where she is even for an hour, never mind 36 hours, would be something only a few of us can even imagine."



hawaii governor lingle lobbies gop for akaka bill passage

hawaii governor wrote a letter to republicans in the u.s. urging passage of the controversial native hawaiian government reorganization act (s. 147), commonly known as the after sen. (d-hawaii), its main proponent.

in a letter dated may 15, 2006 addressed to senate majority leader , lingle cited a recent report by the that urged defeat of the measure on the grounds that it is racially based, calling it a "misguided action" and saying that it was based on a "grossly flawed understanding of the history of hawaii and of the law itself."

lingle cited the fact that were governed by their own leaders prior to western contact, and that the u.s. itself recognized hawaii as a sovereign nation and entered into treaties with it as far back as 1826. after the overthrow of the monarchy and hawaii's subsequent annexation in 1900, the government of the former kingdom was "subordinated to the federal government," lingle said, asserting that native hawaiians' relationship to the u.s. has been political in nature rather than purely racial. she claims that this relationship was not adequately reflected in the civil rights commission's report.

opponents of the akaka bill have disputed the accuracy of lingle's claims, as well as those of her attorney general, mark j. bennett. they point out that throughout the hawaiian kingdom period, through the annexation of hawaii and into statehood, no racial group in hawaii ever had an exclusive government for their race alone, and that the akaka bill specifically creates a new government based on race, not on politics.

attached to her letter was a three-page summary written by hawaii attorney general mark bennett, outlining the state government's criticisms of the crc's report. bennett said that the report reflected "a complete lack of understanding of this country's longstanding practice of dealing specially with its native peoples." bennett also cited congressional precedent in legislation that compares the situation of native hawaiians to that of native americans. bennett sums up the criticism by saying that there is "simply no legal or moral distinction between native hawaiians and american indians or alaska natives, that would justify denying native hawaiians the same treatment other native american groups in this country currently enjoy."

according to the civil rights commission's report, a panel of experts briefed the commission on january 20, 2006; and public comment was solicited until march 21, 2006. the commission noted that most of the comments received were in opposition to the legislation, and that while the supporters "took great pains to analogize the situation of native hawaiians with those of native americans," many of the opponents argued, "in very personal terms, that the proposed legislation would be inconsistent with basic american principles of equality, traditional hawaiian values, and their own personal ethics."

in the end, the commission recommended against passage of s. 147 as reported out of committee or any similar bill that "would discriminate on the basis of race or national origin and further subdivide the american people into discrete subgroups accorded varying degrees of privilege."

two of the seven commission members reportedly rejected the conclusion and are expected to file formal dissents.

frist had pledged to file a motion before the senate to bring the measure to a vote when the body returns from may recess. should 60 of the 100 senators approve the cloture motion, a vote would occur after a maximum of 30 hours of debate. the bill, if approved by the senate, would still need to pass the house by the end of the year.



opensync interview - syncing on the free desktop

this interview intends to provide some insight into opensync, an upcoming free unified data synchronization solution for free software desktops such as kde, commonly used as part of the gnu/linux operating system.

hi cornelius, armin and tobias. as you are now getting close to version 1.0 of opensync, which is expected to become the new synchronisation framework for kde and other free desktops, we are quite interested in the merits it can provide for kde users and for developers, as well as for the open source community as a whole. so there's one key-question before i move deeper into the details of opensync:

what does opensync accomplish, that no one did before?

cornelius:

how do the end-users profit from using synching solutions that interface with opensync as framework?

cornelius:

how does opensync help developers with coding?

cornelius:

tobias:

why should producers of portable devices get involved with your team?

cornelius:

do you also plan to support applications of opensync in proprietary systems like osx and windows?

cornelius:

what does your synchronisation framework do for kde and for kitchensync in particular?

cornelius:

what was your personal reason for getting involved with opensync?

cornelius:

armin:

tobias:

can you tell us a bit about your further plans and ideas?

cornelius:

armin:

tobias:

what was the most dire problem you had to face when creating opensync and how did you face it?

cornelius:

armin:

what was the greatest moment for you?

cornelius:

armin:

tobias:

as we now know the worst problem you faced and your greatest moment, the only one missing is: what was your weirdest experience while working on opensync?

cornelius:

tobias:

now i'd like to move on to some more specific questions about current and planned abilities of opensync. as first, i've got a personal one:

i have an old ipod sitting around here. can i or will i be able to use a program utilizing opensync to synchronize my calendars, contacts and music to it?

cornelius:

armin:

which other devices do you already support?

cornelius:

which programs already implement opensync and where can we check back to find new additions?

cornelius:

armin:

it is time to give the developers something to devour, too. i'll keep this as a short twice-fold technical dive before coming to the takeoff question, even though i'm sure there's information for a double-volume book on technical subleties.

as first dive: how did you integrate opensync in kitchensync, viewed from the coding side?

cornelius:

and for the second, deeper dive:

can you give us a quick outline of those inner workings of opensync, from the developers view, which make opensync especially viable for application in several different desktop environments?

cornelius:

armin:

to add some more spice for those of our readers, whose interest you just managed to spawn (or to skyrocket), please tell us where they can get more information on the opensync framework, how they can best meet and help you and how they can help improving sync-support for kde by helping opensync.

cornelius:

armin:

many thanks for your time!

cornelius:

armin:

tobias:

further information on opensync can be found on the opensync website: www.opensync.org
this interview was done by arne babenhauserheide in april 2006 via e-mail and koffice on behalf of himself, the opensource community, spreadkde.org and the dot (dot.kde.org).
it was first published on the dot and is licensed under the cc-attribution-sharealike-license.
a pdf-version with pictures can be found at opensync-interview.pdf (opendocument version: opensync-interview.odt)


wellington hurricanes in super 14 rugby final

the hurricanes came through to the 2006 super 14 final after a 16-14 win over the new south wales waratahs in wellington on friday night, nzst. the hurricanes took an early lead in the opening moments of the game with a piri weepu penalty and a couple of minutes later this was followed up with another penalty this time from david holwell.

the waratahs fought back, however, with peter hewat scoring a try in the 14th minute, which he then failed to convert. he made amends seven minutes though when he converted a waratahs penalty.
lome fa'atau went over the line for the hurricanes on the half-hour mark to put them up 13-8 and this is what the scoreline looked like going into half-time.

the second half began with the hurricanes failing to take the lead they deserved and it was the waratahs who started off the second half scoring when, in the 64th minute, the hurricanes conceded a penalty that was converted by hewat. this was followed by another penalty five minutes later that hewat again dealt to putting the waratah's up 14-13.

after the waratahs were penalised from their scrum in the 72nd minute, jimmy gopperth scored a 50-metre penalty kick to put the hurricanes back in front, 16-14. try as they may, the waratahs were unable to score in the final eight minutes. 

the final is the first final the hurricanes have ever qualified for, having been previously been defeated in three other semi-finals. the hurricanes also earned the right to host the semi-final, which was the first ever played in hurricanes territory, by beating the waratahs a week earlier in sydney, 19-14, in the final round.

the hurricanes will now meet the winners of the crusaders vs bulls clash that will take place tomorrow night at jade stadium in christchurch, new zealand. the crusaders have been backed as "unbeatable" against the bulls. the game was chris whittaker's last for the waratahs in super 14 rugby, after he announced his retirement earlier this year. the match was officiated by jonathan kaplan. it was the waratahs 14th loss in the 15 waratahs matches that kaplan has been the referee.


un: guantanamo bay should be closed

the united nations committee against torture told the united states today that the us should close its detention facility at guantanamo bay, cuba as well as disclose the existence of any secret prisons it operates. 

the committee, made up of 10 independent experts has urged the bush administration to put a stop to the use of torture or cruel treatment during the interrogation of terror suspects.

in an 11-page report, the committee said that the us should not detain anyone in a secret facility under its control. the committee also said that the us should disclose and investigate any such facilities. it is alleged that the us has a number of secret prisons where suspects are transported to and questioned using techniques that violate international human rights conventions.

earlier this month, the us sent 30 officials to a torture committee hearing in geneva. the delegation was criticized for failing to comment on questions relating to america's alleged secret prisons.

the committee ruled that there was evidence that us military personnel in iraq and afghanistan had violated the rights of some detainees. the committee said that some of the us' techniques had resulted in the deaths of prisoners during the interrogation process. the committee further claimed that "vague" guidelines had led to abuse of detainees.

according to the "associated press", john b. bellinger iii, a state department legal advisor and participant during the hearings at geneva, said of the recommendation to close the base that, "one, seems to be beyond their mandate; two, legally wrong to say that the existence of guantanamo is a per se violation of the convention; and, three, a not very practical recommendation given that they say that it ought to be closed but that individuals can't be sent back to a large number of countries."

president bush said previously on ard german television that he wants to close the guantanamo bay detainment camp. according to white house spokesman tony snow, the president is waiting for the us supreme court to decide on the issue of whether military tribunals or civilian courts would try the detainees.




elephants dream: free content 3d film released to the internet

the 3d animated short film "elephants dream", formerly known as "project orange", was released to the internet yesterday. the film is available under the creative commons attribution license, allowing anyone to download, modify and distribute it. the 10-minute film has been called "the first open source movie" by "newsforge". not only is the movie itself free content, even the computer files containing the 3d models used in the film are available under the same terms.

the project was first announced one year ago and was jointly produced by the blender foundation and the netherlands media art institute. the film tells the story of emo and proog, two men trapped inside a surreal machine world. only freely available open source software was used to create the movie. most of the work was done using blender, a 3d modelling and rendering tool. the blender foundation is selling an extended edition on dvd, which includes subtitles in 34 languages, a "making of" documentary, commentary tracks, and all files used to create the movie.

in spite of the successful completion of the project, the blender foundation "has no intention to grow or expand into a company or studio" according to the project website. "instead, the foundation aims at endorsing and supporting activities within (educational) institutes, universities and companies."




news briefs:may 19, 2006

the time is 17:00 (utc) on may 19th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

united states

on wednesday john murtha, a member of the united states house of representatives, said that the incident on november 19, 2005 near the iraqi town of haditha was "much worse than was reported in time magazine". on march 21, 2006 time magazine reported that "u.s. marines killed 15 iraqi civilians in their homes", including "seven women and three children". time reported that u.s. troops were responding to an ied and insurgent fire.

india

as the dispute over a government proposal to increase the quota of university seats reserved for students from the other backward castes (obcs) continues, pro-quota demonstrators in patna, india were baton-charged by police, apparently after the protest turned violent.
police officials alleged that the rally organised by medical students had commenced without prior permission from the authorities.

norway

a suggestion to translate the national anthem of norway in a language spoken by immigrants to the country is causing controversy. those who oppose this suggestion say that the people who cannot understand norwegian could just hum with the norwegian citizens. since a week, there have been huge patriotic rallies in norway to mark the occasion of norwegian constitution day on may 17. the debate is over the suggestion to translate the norwegian national anthem in writing to urdu, a language spoken by many immigrants in norway.

united nations

the united nations committee against torture told the united states today that the us should close its detention facility at guantanamo bay, cuba as well as disclose the existence of any secret prisons it operates.

united states

hawaii governor linda lingle wrote a letter to republicans in the u.s. senate urging passage of the controversial native hawaiian government reorganization act (s. 147), commonly known as the akaka bill after sen. daniel akaka (d-hawaii), its main proponent.
in a letter dated may 15, 2006 addressed to senate majority leader bill frist, lingle cited a recent report by the u.s. civil rights commission that urged defeat of the measure on the grounds that it is racially based, calling it a "misguided action" and saying that it was based on a "grossly flawed understanding of the history of hawaii and of the law itself."

united states

state schools superintendent jack o’connell has his lawyers working “around the clock” to prepare to ask the state supreme court to overturn a lower court judge’s ban on using the california state high school exit exam as a graduation requirement, he said today.

australia

two men operating a car transport ferry at berowra waters, new south wales, australia, north of sydney have been charged with operating a vessel with high range pca according to police.

sports ? rugby

hurricanes are through to the super 14 2006 final after a 16-14 win over the waratahs.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


us general in iraq claims employment can undermine insurgency

lt. general peter chiarelli, the no. 2 ranking us general in iraq, has made the assertion that providing jobs for the iraqi people is key to ending the insurgency and stabilizing the country.

in a video teleconference with reporters at the pentagon he said, "by creating jobs and opportunity, the iraqi government would take away a major source of support for violent movements -- aimless, underemployed, young men who would otherwise rather be gainfully employed and supporting their families, but are laying ieds, shooting rpgs and fighting iraqi security forces and the coalition because they lack alternatives…. in areas where unemployment is the highest, as i go out and talk to people in those areas, and they tell me the one thing that you can do to lower the number of insurgencies is find jobs for the people. and we're committed to help both the iraqi government and the prts as they go about the business of doing exactly that."

the general also said that the insurgents were taking advantage of political disputes within the iraqi leadership as they are attempting to form an inclusive government.

chiarelli's assertion is similar to a claim made by lt. general john r. vines in 2005 that insurgents often attack us forces out of a desire to earn money instead of ideology. simple tasks, such as placing a bomb or mine, are often done in exchange for amounts as little as $100 to $150.

the estimated unemployment rate in iraq for 2005 was 25-30%. 

opponents of the bush administration's handling of the war say that iraq's unemployment crisis is partially a result of decisions made by the coalition provisional authority in 2003 to disband the iraqi army and purge the iraqi civil service of high-ranking members of the baath party. both of these moves led to an estimated 500,000 iraqis losing their jobs, about one out of every ten iraqi workers at the time.



indonesia hit by 6.1 magnitude earthquake

according to the united states geological survey (usgs), a strong magnitude 6.1 earthquake has been reported beneath the molucca sea in indonesia at approximately 10:44 p.m. local time and hit approximately 120 miles off the country's sulawesi island.

the quake was recorded at 34 miles beneath the earth's surface and there are no immediate reports of damage to buildings or injuries.

according to dailin wang of the tsunami warning center in ewa beach, hawaii, the quake was not powerful enough and did not require a tsunami warning to be issued.

in january, a magnitude 7.7 quake was reported beneath the banda sea 195 k.m. south of ambon city. no tsunami was reported and no one was injured, but there were reports of some damage to buildings.


raggs debuts on australia's seven network

new television stars in australia, the raggs kids club band started as simply a mall touring promotion.

airing on australia's seven network weekdays at 9:00 am, the series features new songs, animated segments, and "letters from friends", as well as the music videos and concert scenes that the dvd releases focused on. another noticeable change is the design of the costumed characters that star in the series, which now have larger heads, besides many other modifications.

characters in the series include original members raggs, trilby, fido, b. max (b. maxwell oliver) and razzles. new to the series is dumpster, an opinionated cat. the stars live together in a home, and learn to develop positive relationships with each other.

more concerts for the show will be filmed in september 2006. producers are inviting fans to contact them, to be notified when the open tapings happen.

created by raggs llc production, the series is co-produced with southern star entertainment pty limited. raggs was created by former advertising executive toni steedman, who now manages raggs llc full-time. beginning as a promotional company managing mall's kids clubs, raggs expanded to a touring show, released cds, a dvd, and a line of merchandise. the series' creator plans to have the show on the air in the united states, within the next few months. sixty-five episodes were produced.

this certainly isn't the first time a fictional band has had a television series. the archies, josie and the pussycats, the banana splits, and alvin and the chipmunks are all notable examples.



apes and birds are able to plan ahead: psychologists

according to psychologists in leipzig, germany, apes and some birds are able to plan their actions ahead of time.

psychologists nicholas mulcahy and josep call at max planck institute for evolutionary anthropology say that apes are able to save tools to use at a later time, that will assist them in retrieving food. 

the results of the testing are "groundbreaking" and is "a starting point from which we can begin to reconstruct the evolution of the human mind. apes and jays can also anticipate future needs by remembering past events, contradicting the notion that such cognitive behavior only emerged in hominids," said thomas suddendorf, a psychologist at the university of queensland brisbane, australia.

one aspect of the study is that "our extraordinary abilities of planning for the future did not evolve entirely de novo. planning for future needs is not uniquely human," added suddendorf.

an experiment was performed using bonobos and orangutans. the psychologists placed the apes alone in a room for five minutes. each of them had a choice of two tools that would allow them to retrieve food and six that would not. the apes were allowed to look at and observe the tools; however, they were not allowed to handle them. 

the apes were then taken to a room next door, allowed to take whatever tools they chose, and left alone in the room for at least one hour, while a researcher removed all other tools from the first room. the apes then returned to the first room (where the food was), but the food was not accessible unless they had the right tool to retrieve it. 

after repeating the same test several times with each ape, researchers began to see that most apes would begin to use the right tool for the job. researchers also received similar results even when the apes were left alone in a room overnight where they would sleep.

to make sure that the apes were not associating the tools with the food, they removed the food from the room, but would still give it to the apes if they used the right tool to retrieve it. after this change, most of them did not bring the proper tools, which researchers say confirm that the retrieval is a way of planning for the job.

in experiments using scrub jays (found mostly in the western united states), at the university of cambridge in the united kingdom, psychologists have shown that the birds, who usually hide their food to eat later, will hide it again if an enemy bird saw them do it the first time, unless the bird is dominant. the subordinate jay could however, fight the other for the food.

"these results suggest scrub jays remember who observed them make specific caches," said joanna dally who was involved in the study with the scrub jays.

"together with recent evidence from scrub jays, our results suggest that future planning is not a uniquely human ability, thus contradicting the notion that it emerged in hominids only with the past 2.5 to 1.6 million years," said mulcahy and call in the study.


space shuttle discovery safely arrives at launch pad

on friday in cape canaveral, florida, space shuttle discovery began its 4.2 mile, 7 hour long journey to the launch pad, completing successfully. discovery weighs approximately 4.5 million pounds.

the launch was supposed to occur in may, but nasa pushed back the date because of a faulty fuel sensor.

this will be discovery's second mission since the space shuttle columbia broke apart during re-entry in 2003. engineers believed that foam falling from the shuttle and smashing into the wing caused the disaster. after the accident, nasa grounded the shuttle fleet to determine the cause.

in 2005 cameras had shown during launch that a piece of foam being shed from the external tank, as well as smaller tile and foam dings. nasa and the crew decided that mission specialist stephen robinson should attempt to pull out the protruding gap fillers. cameras also detected a small piece of thermal blanket near the cockpit that fell off, but later tests in wind tunnels had shown the piece to be of little concern and discover landed safely.

nasa is scheduling the launch for discovery to be between july 1 and july 19, 2006 and steve lindsey will commander of the mission, flying with pilot mark kelly, two spacewalkers, mike fossum and piers sellers and mission specialists stephanie wilson and lisa nowak. european space agency (esa) astronaut thomas reiter is also part of the crew but he will remain on the international space station (iss) for several months.


crusaders to meet hurricanes in super 14 final

the rugby union side, the crusaders, are to meet the hurricanes in christchurch on saturday night for the 2006 super 14 final after defeating the bulls 35?15 at jade stadium.

the match started with both sides being lead out by regular field players, as opposed to the traditional captains leading out their respective sides. greg sommerville lead out the crusaders, in honour of his 100th match for the side, while bakkies botha lead out the bulls in recognition of his 50th match milestone.

the bulls were on the back foot immediately after fourie du preez knocked on a daniel carter kick. the bulls also failed to capitalize early on, with morne steyn missing a 35 m penalty kick straight in front in the 7th minute.

the scoring opened up in the 16th minute, with all black flyhalf and 2005 irb world player of the year daniel carter kicking a penalty for the crusaders, as well as taking his own season tally to 200 points.

after a leon macdonald chip kick, which he managed to regather, the crusaders were able to produce quick ruck ball which ended with a grubber by centre casey laulala for winger rico gear to run on to and place down for the first try of the match. carter subsequently missed the resulting conversion.

the bulls' first points came in the 29th minute with steyn kicking a 40m penalty to put three points on the board for the south african team. however, nearly straight after the kickoff, the crusaders forced a turn over and again were able to produce quick ruck ball for laulala to put away gear for his second try of the night. carter missed the conversion, which was in a similar position to the first.

carter was then able to lengthen the crusaders' lead with a dropped goal 35m out. after some good mauling, springboks' winger bryan habana was able to score a try for the bulls in the corner just before the stroke of halftime. steyn missed the conversion, leaving the score 16?8 in favour of the crusaders at half time.

in the second half, the crusaders scored a try through lock chris jack after 17 phases, most of which consisted of pick and goes. this drew the bulls fowards in and allowed half back andrew ellis to pass out to jack who scored. carter kicked the conversion to make it 23?8.

four minutes into the second half, promising young scrum half andrew ellis went down with what appeared to be an injury to his right knee. he was ably replace by all black scrum half kevin senio. three minutes later, habana went down with a leg injury. this could be potentially devastating news for springboks coach jake white. reserve scrum half senio later went off to the blood-bin, forcing cameron mcintyre on. carter then switched into scrum half until senio returned for mcintyre.

after the bulls managed to control the ball for the next 20 minutes, the crusaders forced a turn over. fullback macdonald was able to place a grubber into the corner, going out off a bulls player. some quick thinking by aaron mauger to throw the ball in quickly resulted in try to hooker corey flynn, which is his second in two weeks. carter missed the subsequent coversion.

mauger was again involved in the action later, this time scoring himself an impressive try in the 67th minute. after receiving a high pass from carter, mauger ran 51 m to score, beating 4 tacklers in the process and scoring the try in the 5th tackle. carter converted and in doing so eclipsed andrew mehrten's record of 206 points in a season.

late in the game, pierre spies scored a consolation try after quick ruck ball and breaking a senio tackle. steyn converted. this left it a 35?15, the final score.

after the match, bulls captain victor matfield praised the crusaders: "they punished us like they always do".

the bulls loss continues their poor run at jade stadium, having won only once, back in 1996. in fact, the crusaders have not lost at jade since round 2, 2004. it also continued the run of new zealand teams - no new zealand team has lost to a south african team in a semi.

the crusaders started the match as large favourites, paying $1.07 compared to the bulls $7.00.

the final will be held at 7:35 p.m., saturday, may 27 at jade stadium. it is the fourth all new zealand final in 11 seasons of super rugby. it is expected to be a sell out.


riot at guantanamo bay detention camp

inmates at guantanamo bay detention camp in cuba have attacked guards with fan blades and other makeshift weapons. rear admiral harry harris, the commander of joint task force guantanamo says some detainees were injured in "the most violent outbreak" at the facility since it was opened in 2002.

officers fired rubber bullets at the detainees after the guards were attacked with "broken light fixtures, fan blades" and other improvised weapons. rear admiral harris says, "minimum force was used to quell the disturbance".

the new york times reports that a riot-control unit with batons and shields quelled thursday’s disturbance. another episode involved two other groups of inmates who tore apart their quarters and attacked guards.

military officials said the detainees' actions were designed to draw attention to the plight of the terror suspects detained indefinitely in "gitmo". rear admiral harris, said that a prisoner was pretending to hang himself to lure the guards into the room. "the detainees had slickened the floor of their block with faeces, urine and soapy water in an attempt to trick the guards," he said. "they then assaulted the guards with broken light fixtures, fan blades and bits of metal."

the guards used pepper spray and blasted the detainees with several shots from a shotgun, firing rubber balls during the five-minute fight. no guards were hurt, but six inmates were treated for "minor injuries," he said.

colonel mike bumgarner said guards shot five rounds of "nonlethal" pellets from a 12-gauge shotgun, and a rubber grenade from an m-203 launcher. he said rioting then broke out in two other blocks of camp four when around 50 detainees damaged their quarters and made weapons to attack the guards. colonel bumgarner said it took an hour to bring the disturbances under control. he says the six detainees received minor injuries.

a military spokesman said 60 of the detainees were later transferred to more secure areas of the camp. colonel bumgarner says "detainees were jumping out of the beds on top of the guards" and some guards were knocked to the floor. "frankly we were losing the fight at that point," he said. "this illustrates to me the dangerous nature of the men we have detained here," rear admiral harris told reporters in a teleconference.

earlier in the day, two other detainees attempted suicide by overdosing on hoarded prescription drugs. guantanamo officials said there have been 41 suicide attempts by 25 detainees and no deaths since the camp opened in january 2002. defense lawyers contend the figure is higher.

meanwhile, the united nations committee against torture has called on the united states to shut down guantanamo and close any other "secret prisons" it operates. the un declared the indefinite detention of suspects without charge a "violation of the un convention against torture."

"the state party should cease to detain any person at guantanamo bay and close this detention facility, permit access by the detainees to judicial process or release them as soon as possible," the committee said. they called on the us to "ensure that no one is detained in any secret detention facility under its de facto effective control".



australian pm pushes for &quot;full-blooded&quot; nuclear energy debate

australian prime minister john howard has told media in canada that he wants "a full-blooded debate" in australia about the issue of nuclear power. "i have a very open mind on the development of nuclear energy in my own country," he said. "that includes an open mind on whether or not australia should in fact process uranium for the purposes of providing fuel for nuclear power in the future in australia." 

australia and canada are two of the world's largest uranium producers, and the nuclear energy issue was discussed at length during prime minister howard's visit to the country this week. mr howard said soaring oil prices and environmental concerns from fossil-fuel energy are adding pressure towards the debate in australia. "i think it is inevitable. the time at which it will come should be governed by economic considerations," mr howard said from ottawa.

australian greens leader senator bob brown labelled the prime minister's call "a sham". senator brown says the prime minister has already made up his mind. "his talk about a public debate is a complete sham, he's made up his mind," he said. "he's had no mandate, but he's got control of the senate and therefore we are going headlong into becoming a major agent in the nuclear proliferation right around the world."

scientists have said australia could not develop a nuclear power industry in time to stave off the effects of climate change. greenpeace australia says that even if there was a doubling of nuclear energy by 2050 it would only reduce greenhouse gas emissions by five percent, well below the large cuts scientists say are necessary. academics at nsw university and the university of technology sydney have said, "no private investor would take on the risk without huge government subsidies." 

the nsw greens mlc ian cohen said that after 50 years, the nuclear industry still had not found a way to store its waste safely. "we don't want it back and we don't want to create it here."

steve shallhorn, chief executive of greenpeace australia pacific says the prime minister should have used his trip to canada to learn why "nuclear power is not a viable option." mr shallhorn said that, in canada, nuclear power has driven up the price of electricity and created dangerous amounts of waste. he says its effect in reducing greenhouse gas emissions is also negligible.

"nuclear power can only solve a very tiny portion of greenhouse gas problems because electricity is only one source of the problem," said mr shallhorn. "nuclear power is not going to solve emissions from aircraft, from the industrial sector or from industrial processes."

"i think it is inevitable. the time at which it will come should be governed by economic considerations," mr howard said from ottawa.

australia is one of the world's top coal producers. the howard government has supported the coal industry in the face of calls for more renewable energy. treasurer peter costello, next-in-line for the prime minister's job, has said "nuclear power would cost twice as much as coal power, adding that nuclear energy was not economically right for australia at the present time because it had such large resources of gas and coal."

john howard said nuclear power in australia "could be closer than some people would have thought a short while ago." federal industry minister, ian macfarlane, claimed it could be as early as 2020.

the opposition's environment spokesman, anthony albanese, said labor opposed nuclear power on cost, safety, and waste and proliferation grounds. "labor will not change that view." he said he looks forward to "labor ending john howard's nuclear fantasy." energy experts say that australia could not develop a nuclear power industry in time to stave off the effects of climate change, and such a program would be prohibitively expensive. 

a 2005 survey found 47 percent of australians supported nuclear power and 40 percent opposed it. the federal opposition party, and all six state governments, oppose nuclear power. australia has a strict "no new mines" uranium policy.


'da vinci code' opens in theaters, sparks controversy

moviegoers around the world are expected to queue into movie theaters during the opening weekend of the movie "," despite the disapproval of both critics and clerics.

the film, directed by , is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by , which has sold over 60 million copies worldwide. officials at sony-owned , which distributed the film, expect the film to gross us$50 million to us$80 million during its first weekend in the united states, based on figures from early matinees on friday. "the early matinees are very strong and extremely encouraging," said steve elzer, a spokesman for columbia.

outside the united states, the film is also proving controversial, as long lines formed outside theatres in china, while the movie's release has been postponed indefinitely in india and banned outright in the philippine capital of manila.

"the da vinci code" stars and , who respectively play a harvard professor on religious symbols and a french cryptologist who become involved in a murder mystery revolving around the works of leonardo da vinci, a secret that could rock the foundations of the roman catholic church if revealed, and a society formed to protect that secret.

the film was previewed at the to mixed reviews, and critics have generally given the film a cool reception.

certain thematic elements in the film and novel have caused a religious backlash, as catholic officials call the movie blasphemous. "'the da vinci code' gratuitously insults jesus christ and the catholic church," said vincent nichols, the roman catholic archbishop of birmingham, england. "it deliberately presents fiction as fact."

the catholic church in china called on its followers to boycott the film, while a catholic lay group in the united states plan is planning rallies outside 1,000 theatres nationwide. francis slobodnik, who is coordinating the campaign for the pennsylvania-based group, called the film "an insult directed towards god."


two christchurch, new zealand, hospitals have a virus outbreak

two christchurch hospitals, christchurch hospital and princess margaret hospital, have had an outbreak of norovirus.

a special isolation ward in the christchurch hospital has been setup for 20 patients and 12 staff, who have contracted the disease.
princess margaret hospital has also setup similar conditions.

norovirus causes severe vomiting and diarrhoea. people who get this disease usually recover within 48 hours.

it is possible to get this disease from infected's vomit or feaces, contact with the sick, eating infected food, or touching infected surfaces.

visitors are urged to stay away from wards 23 and 29, where the outbreak occurred, unless it is absolutely necessary.

this happened in 2004, as well, when 200 patients and staff got the disease.


nelson, nz, man trying to sell leg online

update:
he has just been offered $4000. this was done through the new zealand radio station, zm which gave him $20,000 of advertising after he spoke on their station, friday.

original story
nelson man shane torrance is trying to sell his leg that got amputated because of diabeties for $3000 (nzd) to help his daughter, who also has diabetes.

he posted it on trademe (http://www.trademe.co.nz) but it was removed within a couple of hours of it first appearing online.
it is against trademe's terms and conditions to buy and sell body parts on their website.

shane torrance could also be charged for trying to sell his amputated leg under the crimes act or the human tissues act.

he said he kept it because "i'd had it for 42 years".


china completes &quot;mammoth&quot; three gorges dam hydro-electricity project

the has announced the completion of an enormous dam across the yangtze river, an important milestone for the world's largest hydroelectric project. the official xinhua news agency reports the event as a "landmark in the construction of the project." 

launched in 1993, the three gorges project, including the 2,300 metre long, 185 metre high dam with 26 power generators, is being built in three phases on the middle reaches of the yangtze river - china's longest river. built with over 16 million m of concrete, the three gorges dam is considered the biggest reinforced concrete dam in the world. 

the three gorges reservoir is capable of holding nearly 40 billion m of water, including a space of 22.15 billion m for extra flooded water. with a length of more than 6,300 km and a natural fall of 5,400 metres from the west to the east, the flood-prone yangtze river is the third largest in the world.

the gigantic project is expected to generate around 15 million megawatts of electricity, 84.7 billion kwh annually when the entire project is completed in 2008. but whilst proponents of the world's largest hydropower project laud the increased electricity generation and improved flood control as benefits to china, opponents claim destruction of the environment, ruin to china's cultural heritage - disaffecting millions of local residents.

"in my view, building the three gorges dam is a ridiculous and evil farce," says dam opponent dai qing. "many people have known something is wrong with the project, but few have dared to speak up," she said. after it becomes operational, the 660km reservoir created by the dam will drown 13 towns, 4500 villages and 162 archaeological sites. 

friends of the earth (foe) are also strident vocal critics. "the dam is having a titanic social and environment impact," the group said this week. "sometimes people are being moved out by truncheon and bulldozer because they refuse to leave their home for fear of not being rehoused. human rights violations are massive and brutal," it said. foe pointed to evidence that the dam was already having a serious environment impact.

foe points to a scientific study by the east china normal university in shanghai, published in march in geophysical research, which said that in 2004, the three gorges dam has reduced the supply of sediment to the yangtze delta to just 35 per cent of the norm.

millions of tonnes of silt are drawn along the yangtze river every year, and critics argue the dam will intercept much of it - with potentially disastrous consequences. they say the lack of sediment further downstream would lead to soil erosion, and the accumulation of sediment in the reservoir could raise the dam level, submerging even more land. 

opponents say the reservoir could fill with the accumulated garbage from tens of millions of households. the china yangtze river three gorges project development corp. has spent $2.5 million on a vessel to collect as much as 7 million cubic feet of garbage that accumulates at the dam each year, according to xinhua. some argue that the impact of the dam project will contribute to the extinction of the rare yangtze river dolphin. 

the dam project will force the relocation of a total of 1.13 million people, and communities that have lived in the area for millennia will disappear. researchers warn sedimentation and rising water levels in the reservoir will lead to the evacuation of tens of thousands more people.

but as the waters rise, that which can not be saved will disappear along with some world famous natural scenery. critics say the dam is under threat from earthquakes, with two geological fault lines nearby. officials working on the project counter this by saying the worst that can happen is a tremor measuring 6.0 on the richter scale, while the dam is built to withstand force 7.0.

"although the dam is now complete, we still have a long way to go and cannot become self-satisfied or relax our efforts in the least," li yongan, general manager of the three gorges project development corp, said. the official china daily in an editorial called for people to remember the more than 100 workers whom died during the dam's construction. "the best possible way to repay such a debt of gratitude is to make sure the highest safety and quality standards are observed up till the very end of the entire building process," the editorial said.



sydney off-ramp to charge $1.20 for 200m drive

the new south wales roads and traffic authority announced friday night that a aud$1.20 toll will be charged on a pair of new 200 metre long on and off ramps from the warringah freeway to falcon street, north sydney.

according to the rta the ramps are part of the lane cove tunnel project. the new ramps are being constructed so that traffic can enter and leave falcon street from the northern side of the warringah freeway. at present, there are only on and off ramps on the southern side of the intersection.

the southern ramps will remain toll-free.

according to the rta, the toll was set at $1.00 in 1999. inflation has been applied to that value to bring it to the $1.20 that will be charged when the ramps open. heavy vehicles will pay $2.40 to use the ramps, although commercial buses will not be tolled.

as with all of sydney's newest toll roads, tolls will be collected electronically.

neither nsw premier morris iemma nor transport minister eric roozendaal has commented on the tolling arrangements for the ramps.


australian democrats in &quot;continuous downward spiral&quot;: founder

australian democrats founder, don chipp has told patrons at the party's national conference in melbourne that "the party is not only in a low position in the public esteem but it seems to be in a continuous downward spiral". chipp helped found the party in 1977 after becoming discontent with the liberal party.

mr chipp told patrons at the conference that the party has suffered recently due to public personality clashes and a lack of unity and that the 2007 election would determine the party's future.

mr chipp said that the party had deteriorated over the past few years and that the party could have capitalised on public dissatisfaction with both the government and opposition, which he says is at its highest level in 30 years. "why has this wonderful creation … deteriorated to such an extent that almost all political commentators forecast its death at the election to be held next year," he said.

"the voters' disgust and resentment of the two major parties is infinitely greater than 30 years ago." mr chipp told the conference.

the party has been in steady political decline since 1998. under the senate electoral system in australia, at each general election only half the senate is elected. at the 2004 election, no democrats were elected, leaving only the four members elected in 2001 and the lowest number of democrat members since 1977.

mr chipp urged the party to embrace change. he said that those who do not believe they could successfully contest their seat at the next election or who were considering retiring from politics should "resign immediately".

"perhaps all the current senators should ask themselves if they think they can personally retain their seat at the next election," he said. 

"if they believe they cannot win, or if they decide they will not stand for the next re-election, they should give consideration to resigning from the senate immediately," said mr chipp.

"the democrats are a fragile institution with few members and limited resources, (and) one must ask, 'is it moral that a senator be allowed to sit out their term in comfort while the party disintegrates around them?'" mr chipp said.


us navy sailors jailed in australia on drug smuggling charges

two sailors from the ship uss boxer, and a canadian man living on queensland's gold coast have been sentenced to jail for bringing seven kilos of the drug commonly known as 'ice' (methamphetamine), valued at about a$1 million, into australia in june last year.

a court in townsville, queensland heard that seven kilograms of methamphetamine were hidden in the radar compartment of the uss boxer. abc radio reported that the drugs were taken ashore by sailor andrew labanon and handed to chief petty officer daniel maio at a townsville motel. maio had arranged to pay labanon $10,000 to bring the drugs ashore when the boxer was visiting townsville. maio and a third man, iranian-born canadian mehdi mohammadi, attempted to travel to the gold coast before australian police arrested them. 

maio, changed his plea to guilty during the trial, and was sentenced to 12-and-a-half years in jail, with a non-parole period of six years. judge kerry cullinane sentenced labanon to six years jail, he was ordered to serve at least three years before being eligible for parole. mohammadi was given a sentence of 14 years, with a minimum non-parole period of seven years.

a task force of more than 20 undercover federal police agents intercepted the drug smuggling operation last june. australian federal police (afp) welcomed the jail terms. afp spokesman jason byrnes said: "we've taken almost seven kilos of ice off australian streets..." 

he said the australian police were "very satisfied with the three convictions and this was another great example of federal police with customs' support targeting main offenders of drug crime against australia and australians."



iraq swears in first full-term government

the iraqi parliament approves the new government - the first first full-term government since the us-led invasion in 2003 - consisting of 37 ministers which now holds members from kurdish, shiite and sunni sects including foreign minister hoshivar zebari (kurd), deputy prime minister salam zaubai (sunni) and oil minister hussain al-shahristani (shia).

due to disagreements the positions for the interior, national security and defence minister roles have been left vacant. for now the new prime minister, nouri maliki (shia) is also taking the role of interior minister while sunni deputy prime minister salam zaubi will take the role of defence minister. kurdish deputy prime minister barham saleh has taken the role of acting national security minister. the mixed cabinet of sunni, shiite and kurdish sects also includes two women, the human rights minister wijdan mikaeil and women's affairs minister fatin abdel-rahman.

several members of the sunni factions led a walk-out before the approval of the new cabinet after their proposal to postpone the event was turned down.

mr maliki hopes that people not associated with any or iraq’s militia groups will fill these positions.

british prime minister tony blair so far has hailed the progress as “a very, very crucial change in iraq”. the news has also prompted a response from the new italian prime minister - "italy supports iraq in this direction", romano prodi, italian prime minister - after mr romano said he would propose the withdrawal of italy's 2,600 troops in iraq.

in the following speech to the 275-seat assembly by prime minister nouri maliki announced that his government will focus on the issues of stability and security by working with the occupying forces, putting in place new laws to break up militias and integrate them into the federal forces. in his speech mr. maliki also mentioned other issues such as terrorism and "an objective timetable" for multinational forces to leave iraq.

there are mixed feelings about whether the formation of the new government can bring peace amongst the religious factions. many people hope however that these are the first steps to quell the resent escalating sectarian violence that has spread across the country. some of the recent violence includes a bomb blast in a predominately shia precinct of baghdad, a suicide bomb attack on a police station in qaim and numerous accounts of dumped bodies bearing evidence of torture and execution. hundreds of people have been killed and even more have fled their homes since the bombing of a shiite shrine in february 2006 in fear of more sectarian violence.

sunni politicians have made allegations that death squads are operating as part of the security forces and are to blame for many of the killings.



5 killed in kentucky coal mine explosion

an explosion in a coal mine in eastern kentucky, located in the united states, killed 5 miners. one miner was able to walk out of the mine. the explosion occurred at darby mine no. 1, owned by kentucky darby llc and located in harlan county. federal mine safety officials say the explosion happened sometime between midnight and 1 a.m. local time saturday.

according to kentucky governor ernie fletcher, they "don't know the details of the cause," of the explosion.

the miners were part of a maintenance crew that was on duty during the time of the explosion. it is not known how many miners were inside the mine when the explosion happened; however, no mining was in progress when the explosion occurred.

rescue crews are on scene. the names of the miners are not known.

the law issues have been actualized since 14 coal miners been killed in west virginia in two accidents last january. a senate committee endorsed bill would make coal mining safer by requiring miners to have at least two hours of oxygen available instead of one. mine operators would also be required to keep extra oxygen packs accessible along escape ways in the mine. a temporary rule by the mine safety and health administration requiring coal operators to give miners extra oxygen was earlier issued but miners pressed congress for a permanent legislation.

msha publishes emergency temporary standard on mine evacuation


explosion blasts palestinian intelligence service hq

an explosion has ripped through the headquarters of the palestinian general intelligence service in the gaza strip. palestinian officials say several people were wounded in the explosion, including intelligence chief tareq abu rajab.
abu rajab, the head of the "mukhabarat" intelligence service, was among 11 people wounded at his heavily guarded headquarters in northern gaza. he was with several bodyguards in an elevator when an explosion blasted the building. abu rajab's bodyguard and nephew, ali abu hassira, died shortly after the blast. at least eight other people, most of them bodyguards, were wounded in what has been called an assassination attempt. 
unidentified gunmen opened fire on the convoy of vehicles transporting abu rajab to hospital, causing no injuries. the explosion followed a night of armed clashes between gunmen from the rival hamas and fatah factions. 
presidential spokesman nabil abu rudeina condemned the blast and called for launching an immediate inquiry into the bombing. "the assassination attempt of the head of the palestinian intelligence services chief tareq abu rajab is a serious escalation and an attempt to undermine national security," abu rudeina said. 
the attack "will lead to a degeneration of the situation in the palestinian territories" added abu rudeina, currently with palestinian authority president abbas in the red sea resort of sharm el sheikh ahead of an international economic conference. "president abbas ordered an immediate investigation," he said. 
tawfiq tirawi, a top security official in the west bank who serves as rajab's deputy, indicated at a news conference that an alternative security force of hamas militants might be responsible. hamas government spokesman ghazi hamad was cautious not to call the blast an assassination attempt, saying that "hasty accusations" should be avoided. 
some fatah members demanded that abbas dissolve the hamas government and call a new election. a group calling itself the fatah protection unit demanded that hamas disband its 3,000-strong militia within three days. the militia was deployed earlier this week, despite abbas' vehement opposition. 
reuters reports that the hamas-led palestinian government faces international action unless the militant islamist movement renounces violence, recognises israel and embraces existing peace plans. 
 

 


munster win 2006 heineken cup

munster won the , beating biarritz 23 to 19 at in , wales. the match is 's first final appearance. it is 's third, after two final losses in the past. a jumbo screen was placed in the streets of , where thousands of munster fans gathered.

scoring opened just after three minutes, when biarritz winger scored a try down the left sideline. the try, which came in centimetres of the touchline, was converted from the sideline by , taking biarritz to seven points to nil. landed a penalty in the 7th minute, putting three points on the board for munster. biarritz held out a munsters for eight minutes, before taking the ball in their own in-goal area to take the ball to their 22. munster regathered the ball, planted the ball down on the left corner to scored munster's first try. o'gara converted the try, taking munster to the front, leading 10 points to seven, 18 minutes in.

a penalty on munster's tryline in the 21st minute saw biarritz go for a penalty kick. the kick, just left to the posts was converted by yachvili, taking the game to 10 points all. biarritz kept the pressure on munster, coming close to scoring another try in the 27th minute. dashed from a munster scrum on the biarritz try line to score a try. o'gara converted the kick, putting munster at 17 points to 10. biarritz kicked the ball out on the 40th minute, taking the game into halftime.

munster opened the scoring in the second half, with o'gara slotting a penalty goal two minutes in, taking munster 10 points in front of biarritz, leading 20 points to 10. a penalty went to biarritz in the 47th minute, with biarritz opting for a kick. yachvili was successful with the kick, giving biarritz three points, taking the game to 20 to 13 to munster. less than three minutes later, yachvili slotted another penalty goal over, taking biarritz within four points of munster, who lead 20 to 16 after the goal.

the scoring tightened for the following 10 minutes, until biarritz was awarded a penalty in the 69th minute. yachvili landed the penalty kick, putting biarritz just one point behind munster, the score now being 20 to 19 with 10 minutes remaining. munster, searching for a way to further their lead, was awarded a penalty in the 73rd minute. o'gara was successful, taking munster to 23, with biarritz on 19. munster held on to the game, winning their first heineken cup.


news briefs:may 20, 2006

the time is 18:00 (utc) on may 20th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

palestine

an explosion has ripped through the headquarters of the palestinian general intelligence service in the gaza strip. palestinian officials say several people were wounded in the explosion, including intelligence chief tareq abu rajab.

united states

duncan hunter, a republican member of the united states house of representatives from california and the house armed services committee chairman, said thursday that the incident involving marines firing on unarmed iraqi civilians in the town of haditha on november 19, 2005 will be subject to congressional hearings as soon the criminal investigation is completed.

china

china has announced the completion of an enormous dam across the yangtze river, an important milestone for the world's largest hydroelectric project. the official xinhua news agency reports the event as a "landmark in the construction of the project."

cuba

inmates at guantanamo bay detention camp in cuba have attacked guards with fan blades and other makeshift weapons. rear admiral harry harris, the commander of joint task force guantanamo says some detainees were injured in "the most violent outbreak" at the facility since it was opened in 2002.

united states

there has been an explosion in a coal mine in eastern kentucky, located in the united states, killing 5 miners. one miner was able to walk out of the mine. the explosion occurred at darby mine no. 1, owned by kentucky darby llc and located in harlen county. federal mine safety officials say the explosion happened sometime between midnight and 1 a.m. local time saturday.

australia

australian prime minister john howard has told media in canada that he wants "a full-blooded debate" in australia about the issue of nuclear power. "i have a very open mind on the development of nuclear energy in my own country," he said. "that includes an open mind on whether or not australia should in fact process uranium for the purposes of providing fuel for nuclear power in the future in australia."

australia

australian democrats founder, don chipp has told patrons at the party's national conference in melbourne that "the party is not only in a low position in the public esteem but it seems to be in a continuous downward spiral". chipp helped found the party in 1977 after becoming discontent with the liberal party.

australia

two sailors from the uss boxer, and a canadian man living on queensland's gold coast have been sentenced to jail for bringing seven kilos of the drug commonly known as 'ice' (methamphetamine), valued at about aud$1 million, into australia in june last year.

australia

the new south wales roads and traffic authority announced friday night that a aud$1.20 toll will be charged on a pair of new 200 metre long on and off ramps from the warringah freeway to falcon street, north sydney.

new zealand

two christchurch hospitals, christchurch hospital and princess margaret hospital, have had an outbreak of norovirus.
a special isolation ward in the christchurch hospital has been setup for 20 patients and 12 staff, who have contracted the disease. princess margaret hospital have also setup similar conditions.
norovirus causes severe vomiting and diarrhoea, people who get this disease usually recover within 48 hours.

movies

moviegoers around the world are expected to queue into movie theaters during the opening weekend of the movie "the da vinci code," despite the disapproval of both critics and clerics.
the film, directed by ron howard, is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by dan brown, which has sold over 60 million copies worldwide.

sports - rugby

the crusaders are to meet the hurricanes in christchurch on saturday night for the 2006 super 14 final after defeating the bulls 30?15 at jade stadium.

sports ? rugby

munster have won the 2005-06 heineken cup, beating biarritz 23 to 19 at millennium stadium in cardiff, wales. the match is biarritz's first heineken cup final appearance. it is munster's fourth, after three final losses in the past. a jumbo screen was placed in the streets of limerick, (rep. of) ireland, where thousands of munster fans gathered.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


kentucky derby winner barbaro injured in preakness, does not finish race

kentucky derby winner barbaro, sent as the post-time odds-on favorite in this year's preakness stakes at pimlico race course in baltimore, maryland, breaks down in the opening stretch of the race, shattering any chance of a triple crown winner this year. bernardini, the 12-1 4th choice out of 9, ends up winning this year's preakness, stopping the clock at 1:54.65. following up 5 1/4 lengths behind was sweetnorthernsaint, sent to the post at 8-1, and hemingway's key at 29-1, six lengths further back.

according to dr. larry bramlage, the on-call veterinarian for the american association of equine practitioners, barbaro's injury was "significant" and "would require major stabilizing surgery." barbaro's injury effectively ended the horse's racing career.

bernardini, a colt by a.p. indy out of cara rafaela, by quiet american, was bred and is owned by the darley stable of sheikh mohammed, is trained by tom albertrani, and was ridden to victory by javier castellano. today's preakness marks the first preakness win for jockey javier castellano, who previously rode ghostzapper to a win in the 2004 breeders' cup classic. the preakness was only bernardini's 4th career start.

bernardini paid $27.80 on a $2 win bet. the $2 exacta of bernardini and sweetnorthernsaint (8-7) paid $171.60, the $1 trifecta with hemingway's key in third (8-7-3) paid $1,956.40, and the $1 superfecta with 2nd-favorite brother derek (8-7-3-6) paid $11,151.20.


pair extradited and charged over granville, sydney shootings

detectives from new south wales have successfully extradited a 30-year-old woman and 23-year-old man from western australia wanted in connection with a double murder in the sydney suburb of granville on march 29, 2006.

the victims of the murders were 26-year-old bassam chami, who died at the scene, and 25-year-old ibrahim assad, who died following surgery at westmead hospital.

following the shootings, nsw police setup a strike force, called lasswade to investigate the murders.

the woman was arrested by detectives of the major crime squad in western australia at 9 p.m. aest last tuesday. she was found and arrested at a motel in victoria park, perth.

shortly after the woman's arrest, the man was arrested by the tactical response group as he exited a unit in east victoria park.

on wednesday, four members of strike force lasswade flew to perth and was successful in applying to have the pair extradited to nsw to face questioning and charges. the pair arrived in sydney on saturday night.

once in nsw, police took the pair to surry hills police station where they were questioned and subsequently charged. the man was charged with one count of murder and another of attempted murder. the woman was charged with two counts of being an accessory to murder.

both suspects were refused bail and are due to appear in court on monday.


snowy hydro scheme to go public

the new south wales (nsw) government says small investors will have the first opportunity to buy shares in one of australia's most unique public assets - the snowy hydro scheme, the sale of which begins officially on monday, may 22. nsw finance minister john della bosca denied the sale was incongruent with labor's stance on privatisation, or that it was a pre-election strategy.

the new south wales, victorian and federal government jointly owns the hydroelectric scheme and have decided to sell their shares by floating the company on the australian stock exchange.

nsw taxpayers hold 58 per cent of the shares in the scheme and the state government stands to make between $1.5 billion and $2 billion from the sale. selling the snowy hydro scheme could raise up to $3 billion for the victorian, nsw and federal governments. 

mr della bosca told the abc: "we've looked at all sorts of arrangements to raise more capital." he said the sale would secure the future of snowy hydro. "snowy is at a point where it's not responsible for it to go further into debt and the best thing for it, to be able to do, is raise capital on the stock exchange." the minister denied the privatisation was a "grab for cash".

liberal senator bill heffernan is demanding a constitutional referendum to hand control of all rivers to the commonwealth. he claims the snowy hydro sale would damage regional australia and is being forced by state governments, to prop up their budgets. "i've expressed my extreme distress and disappointment both to the federal and state governments in no uncertain manner," he said. "i think it's a national disgrace and i think we will live to regret it in the future. 

senator heffernan says he has had trouble trying to raise the issue with his colleague, the finance minister nick minchin. "there's been no discussions," he said. 

nsw irrigators have withdrawn support for the sale after the nsw, victorian and federal governments agreed to a 10 per cent limit on the number of shares an individual can buy. 

greens mp slyvia hale says she believes the government will attempt to limit the release of documents relating to the sale when parliament resumes next week. "as with everything connected with the sale things have been kept very quiet and the government will continue, i believe, to try and ensure that critical information is withheld from the public," she said.

she says the sale should be suspended while an inquiry takes place.


ray nagin re-elected new orleans mayor

new orleans mayor ray nagin won re-election saturday night, successfully weathering a challenge from louisiana lieutenant governor mitch landrieu and allowing him to oversee the continued rebuilding of the louisiana city decimated by hurricane katrina.

with all 442 precincts reporting, nagin won 59,460 votes (52.3%) to landrieu's 54,131 votes (47.7%). the two candidates had been neck-and-neck in the returns through the night. early returns with 22% of precincts reporting showed nagin leading 51% to 49%, while a later update with 48% of precincts showed landrieu with the lead with the same margin.
nagin first won the office in 2002, winning 76,469 votes (58.72%). nagin, a cable executive, defeated new orleans police chief, richard pennington, in that election by a lead of more than 22,000 votes with pennington receiving 53,781 votes (41.29%). the total votes cast for both mayoral candidates in 2002 was 130,250 in comparison with the 113,591 total votes cast in this latest election.

both nagin and landrieu called for the citizens of new orleans to work together in unity. nagin, in his victory speech, said, "it's time for us to stop the bickering. it's time for us to stop measuring things in black and white and yellow and asian. it's time for us to be one new orleans."

landrieu struck a similar tone in his concession speech: "one thing is for sure that we as a people have got to come together so we can speak with one voice and one purpose," he said. "join with me in supporting mayor nagin."

nagin and landrieu, both democrats, agreed on most issues confronting new orleans, including upholding the right of residents to rebuild in all areas of the city, and lobbying for increased recovery aid and upgraded levee protection. 

what differentiated the two candidates was leadership style. nagin, a former cable executive is best known for his maverick, straight-talking, political-outsider style, and his sometimes controversial remarks to the media in the aftermath of katrina. landrieu, a member of a prominent political family in louisiana, emphasized his ability to reach consensus and bring people together during the campaign.

race also appears to have played a factor, with nagin winning majority black neighborhoods and landrieu winning majority white neighborhoods. however, nagin did also get a significant crossover vote from the more heavily populated, predominantly white neighborhoods. in 2002, both mayoral candidates, nagin and pennington, were black. nagin won 100% of predominantly white precincts in that election while his opponent faired better in predominantly black precincts.

louisiana secretary of state al ater said that turnout was comparable to the april 22 primary, when about 37 percent of eligible voters cast ballots.

nagin's new term begins may 31, one day before the atlantic hurricane season begins.




finnish metal band win 51st eurovision song contest

lordi, described as "cartoon metalheads" wearing latex monster masks, beat runner-up russian "heart throb" dima bilan to win this year's 51st eurovision song contest held in athens, greece. 
bosnia's hari mata hariwas came third.

in a spectacular show, hosted by maria menounos and sakis rouvas, lordi amassed 292 points after a public vote - 44 ahead of russia. greece's singer anna vissi, who was one of the favourites to win, came 9th, followed by ireland's brian kennedy. from the start of the song contest as well as during the televoting, the greek organisers presented viewers choreographies and dances inspired by greek culture and music, both ancient and modern. in addition, the world famous greek singer nana moushouri was presented by the hosts and gave the sign for the start of televoting.

wielding spark-spewing instruments, the "monster-themed" rock band beat 23 other competitors, scoring 292 points from telephone voters in 38 countries with its song "hard rock hallelujah" in a performance that both shocked and amused viewers.

a spokesperson for lordi said: "we won the contest, looking like this,” he said. “it just goes to show that europe is not such a bad place." the finnish band thanked viewers for voting for their song, which featured the lead singer hoisting a double-headed-axe microphone stand above his head. the win has been dubbed as a "radical departure" from the catchy pop tunes, folk songs and emotional ballads normally associated with eurovision.

complete with distorted guitars, a catchy chorus and "mock-demonic imagery," lordi is reminiscent of 1970s american band kiss - an inspiration acknowledged by lead singer mr lordi. "what this has shown is that there are different styles of music than just pop and rock," mr lordi told news media after the surprise victory. "that should be the goal of eurovision," he said.

mr. lordi, whose real name is tomi putaansuu, hails from lapland and says his band's masked personas are just characters. "the guys behind the masks are not interesting - underneath, there's just a boring, normal guy who walks the dogs, goes to the supermarket, watches dvds and eats candies. you really don't want to see him." he said. but the characters "live on stage and they live in a fantasy world", he said. "this element of mystery is one of the cornerstones of lordi." 

the band has upset many finns with their outrageous behaviour. "this is a victory for rock music... and also a victory for open-mindedness," mr lordi said. "for the millionth time, we’re not satanists or devil worshippers. this is entertainment. the masks are like our calling card and we’ll never perform without them. it would be like santa claus handing a child his gifts at christmas time and then pulling off his beard…"

the 51st annual eurovision was broadcast live across europe, watched by an estimated 100 million viewers. regarded by many as the "contest good taste forgot," eurovision is adored by fans of kitsch and camp everywhere. 

lordi join the likes of abba, bucks fizz, dana and celine dion on the elite list of eurovision winners.

because of lordi's first place finish, next year the 52nd eurovision song contest will take place, for the first time, in helsinki, finland.


violence escalates in afghanistan

two french special forces troops and a us soldier were among 34 killed in afghanistan in a violent upsurge in recent days. general rahmatullah raufi, military commander for the southern provinces, said the clash erupted when militants ambushed a military convoy.

fears of a resurgence of the taliban have been boosted by a sharp rise in violence in the past few weeks, much of it in helmand province. around 120 people died in 24 hours last week. attacks on friday have claimed another 34 lives. officials say the fighting was some of the heaviest since the taliban were ousted by the us-led invasion in 2001.

the french defence ministry said two french soldiers were killed on saturday in a battle with taliban forces in . france has had 200 special forces officers in south-eastern afghanistan since 2003. a us soldier was killed and six others wounded after a bloody clash on friday in , when a joint patrol encountered taliban fighters.

the taliban have stepped up attacks on foreign and government forces recently as nato increases its peacekeeping force from 9,000 to 16,000 - as they prepare to take over from us forces in the south.

helmand, the main poppy-growing region, has become a major focus of violence. over the past week there has also been attacks in and the western city of . scattered clashes in the southern provinces in the past four days have killed around 150 people, including taliban, afghan police and military personnel and civilians. 



300 vietnamese fishermen rescued after record china typhoon

survivors were found on 22 vietnamese ships near the pratas islands, off the southern coast of guangdong province. state television reported the rescue as the "largest international marine rescue operation ever mounted by china." 

eight fishing ships sank 1,000 km east of vietnam's central city of danang, while eight remained missing. rescuers had found 26 bodies and rescued 81 others, the vietnamese government said in a statement. "however, the number of missing fishermen and the ships remains huge," prime minister phan van khai said on state-run vietnam television. 

on the da nang coast, relatives of the missing fishermen erected altars with flowers and fruits. weeping families burnt incense and prayed for loved ones to return.

typhoon chanchu was downgraded to a tropical storm on thursday when it crossed the southern chinese coast. the storm caused landslides, flooding and forced around a million people to evacuate. landslides and collapsing buildings killed 15 people and left four missing in china's fujian province. eight more people died in neighboring guangdong province. flooding in southern taiwan swept two women to their deaths. 

chanchu, the most powerful on record to enter the south china sea in may, left a wake of damage in the region - killing at least 37 people in the philippines last weekend. 

the typhoon, with winds of up to 170 km per hour, has reportedly killed 23 people in china. vietnam's fisheries ministry had listed more than 400 fishermen as missing from danang city and the nearby provinces of quang nam and quang ngai.



'naked guy' andrew martinez dies

andrew martinez, a former student at the university of california at berkeley who was better known as "the naked guy" in the early 1990s, committed suicide on thursday. he was 33.

guards at the santa clara county jail reportedly found martinez unconscious in a jail cell, with a plastic bag cinched around his neck, at about 11:19 p.m. wednesday. martinez was taken to a local hospital where was pronounced dead early thursday. he had been incarcerated since january 10 on charges of battery and assault with a deadly weapon. 

martinez is best known for attending his classes in the nude in the fall of 1992. he became an instant celebrity, appearing on national television talk shows where he defended his practice as a form of free speech and a challenge to sexual repression in western society.

martinez was eventually expelled from uc berkeley for violating the school's code of conduct, and berkeley city officials passed a strict anti-nudity ordinance.

family and acquaintances report that martinez had been suffering from undetermined mental illness over the past decade for which he never found comprehensive treatment, and had been in and out of halfway houses, psychiatric institutions, and jail.

said close acquaintance bryan schwartz, a civil rights lawyer in washington, d.c., "he was a person with tremendous gifts and charisma who could have been a great asset to our society, but instead i feel like society -- me included -- failed him. it's such a waste."



militants target rally in srinagar

a meeting organised by the youth congress at srinagar's sher-e-kashmir park to mark the 15th death anniversary of the late prime minister rajiv gandhi has been attacked by terrorists. 

official sources say intense firing and some explosions were reported by eye-witnesses. there were at least two militants involved in the incident according to deputy inspector general of police gopal sharma. 

a number of people, including inspector general of police, srinagar, k rajendra and deputy superintendent of police faizal ahmad have been injured in the attack which occurred around 13:59 ist (0729 utc). security forces stated that they killed two of the "fidayeen". two civilans and one police officer lost their lives in the cross-fire.


iran stands defiant on uranium enrichment

iran has rejected european union incentives to give up its enrichment program. foreign ministry spokesman hamid reza asefi said that any plan has to acknowledge iran's legal rights under , including article iv of the .

it is believed that britain, france, and germany, all member states of the eu, are developing incentives for iran to give up its enrichment programming in an attempt to defuse mutual fears and perceptions of threats by us, israeli, and iranian governments. the incentives are believed to include a raft of security, trade and technology benefits.

the proposal by the three eu members encourages other nations to support the construction of , to set up a nuclear fuel bank and the relaxation of united states trade restrictions to allow iran to purchase commercial planes built in the us. these incentives are conditional upon iran renouncing its rights under article iv of the npt, i.e. stopping its uranium enrichment program, and cooperating with the united nations international atomic energy agency (iaea) in ways additional to its present cooperation, which at present includes continuous monitoring of many key iranian nuclear facilities by the iaea.

if iran doesn't comply, britain, france and germany will support economic sanctions against iran, the refusal to issue visas to iranian officials and a freeze on the assets belonging to individuals and corporations with ties to the iranian regime.

mr asefi said he would not comment on the proposal at this stage. he said it would be "hasty to comment on a raw proposal that has been brought up in the media, and still neither officially nor unofficially given to us."

mr asefi said that any plan would have to recognise iran's rights to be considered. "the basis of our work is that the islamic republic of iran's rights must be recognised in any plan," he said.

"we cannot retreat. the proposal should provide ways to secure our rights," he said. "we will not stop enrichment."

mr. asefi warned europe against economic sanctions saying that they would harm europe. "we have broad trade and economic ties with european and non-european countries. these ties can be damaged and this damage will harm european countries even more." he said.


professionals and students continue strike in new delhi

students from delhi university and medical colleges around the capital, parents, lawyers, and accountants joined the striking medicos, under the banner of ‘youth for equality’.

the students and their supporters want total rollback of a proposed quota-hike for other backward classes (obcs) in elite educational institutions, and a review of the present reservation policy. "there are very less seats in the post-graduate streams compared to the undergraduate courses. hence the reservation move will affect the future of majority students," said student leader praful raj. 

the students have support from many groups. they were led by the youth for equality, an aiims initiative, while united students, a du and jnu group, iit alumni, rwas (under the banner of united residents joint action), resident doctors associations from various government and private hospitals, chartered accountant’s association, students from private universities like ip, and parents of agitating students also joined in. 

students from medical colleges in rajasthan, orissa, gujarat, punjab and karnataka also took part in the rally. students and doctors say the government has showed "scant regard to the sentiments of the students", who have been protesting the proposed quota-hike for obcs in elite educational institutions.

the students had appealed to prime minister manmohan singh to set up a non-political judicial committee to review the existing reservation policy and sought an audience with him to discuss the issue.


trojan nuclear power plant cooling tower demolished

at 7 a.m. pdt the 499-foot water cooling tower of the trojan nuclear power plant was imploded using dynamite. the cooling tower, which is located in rainier, oregon, is the largest in the world to be demolished. for the past thirty years the tower has been an icon of the pacific northwest. 

controlled demolition incorporated, which was hired to bring down the tower, used approximately 3,300 sticks of dynamite. the company also imploded the king dome in seattle, washington in 2000. prior to the implosion, interstate 5 and highway 30 as well as river traffic on the columbia river was blocked as a precaution.

the plant, which is owned by portland general electric, began operation in may 1976 and was shut down in january 1993 due to structural problems. it was decommissioned in 1999 when the reactor was taken upstream by barge to hanford nuclear reservation. some fuel rods are buried at the site, although they are in a casket over 900 feet from where the cooling tower sits.




interview with ton roosendaal about elephants dream and free content movies

three days after the internet release of the free content 3d short "elephants dream" (see ), we exchanged e-mails with ton roosendaal about the reaction to the film, open source filmmaking, and the changes to blender that resulted from the production. ton roosendaal is the lead developer of the blender 3d rendering and modelling software that was used for the movie. he is also the chairman of the blender foundation, a non-profit organization which was formed in support of the software and projects like "elephants dream".

how much money did the blender foundation spend on producing the movie? has the money been fully recouped by dvd orders and donations?

we still have to finish the final bookkeeping for this project. it has been executed in co-production with the netherlands media art 
institute, and we each had our own internal budgeting for the project. when you exclude expenses of pre-production and producer personnel, the 
total budget was about 120,000 ?, of which we covered half. our contribution was roughly covered half by the dvd sales, and half by european union support (http://www.uni-verse.org consortium).

one of the most common criticisms of cgi films is focus on technology over content. for instance, "final fantasy: the spirits within" flopped with audiences, in spite of being an undisputed technical milestone. i've seen many reviews that criticized the plot of "elephants dream" as too bizarre or confusing. in retrospect, are you happy with the story development process?

haha, i knew the story and plot would get a mixed acclaim. there's a couple of reasons i'd like to mention for it.

first of all; the criticism resembles how people witness blender itself, too. many people expect that free software is an easy accessible mass audience product. we get a lot of complaints by non-artists that they can't get into the software easily, whilst the complexity of commercial products like maya or houdini is perceived as a confirmation of its "quality". apparently an open movie created similar expectations with the audience.

luckily we also got many positive reviews of the artistic result of the movie. it is quite abstract, but definitely has many layers of information, inspiring many of the viewers to see relevant real life messages hidden here.

for this project we've teamed up with the netherlands media art institute, internationally renowned as a resource for video art. so for "elephants dream", we've had the luxury to challenge ourselves to create real independent artistic content as well. the artists had a lot of freedom from the start; they were responsible for the concept, story and creative development of the entire movie. this has resulted in a lot of quite personal choices, based on what the artists liked to do themselves. i really cherish such an approach, it has resulted in a very motivated team working crazy hours the last months to get it all realized.

but, most importantly; the main target of our project was not only to create a 3d movie short, but to experiment with ways to improve the efficiency and quality of open source development. on this aspect only, this project was just a huge success, and the main reason for our sponsors (the dvd pre-sale) to support it. i know they might have liked a cartoonish funny movie with furry animals better, but for that you get already pretty well served by the bigger 3d animation studios. :)

i'm the first to admit that - looking back especially - certain aspects worked out quite weakly; there's loose ends and questionable decisions, 
especially in story development and continuity. that's just the risk of doing experiments, and nothing i regret really. the five artists from our user community who were invited to make the movie were young people with no professional background in filmmaking. their personal incentive to participate in this project was also to learn from it, and to create a good portfolio for their future career. i've witnessed them grow in competence in the past year enormously, something i'm incredibly proud of.

on the technical level, the only major criticism i've seen of "elephants dream" is the character animation, especially in the opening scene -- many reviewers felt that the movements seemed a bit unnatural. do you agree with these criticisms? if so, what do you think can be done to improve on that level?

yeah, the challenge the artists set themselves - to use quite realistic personages - is also something that easily works against you. in many 
animation movies they introduce characters in the beginning in a way you get used to their specific characteristic movements, so you accept 
a certain level of non-realism easily. (check the weird walk cycles in "the incredibles" for example). another aspect is that we've started work on the first scenes, and ended with the last scenes. i can clearly see the animation quality increase, and that whilst the ending scenes were done in much less time due to time constraints.

we also didn't schedule to do 9.5 minutes of animation either…. originally it was more like 6. but, it's always easier to look back to define the right decisions, eh? :)

i'm very happy with the reviews we got so far; luckily the movie was perceived as a professional quality product, and reviewed based on comparisons with what the big studios come up with. even when we couldn't satisfy all these quality demands, it has luckily not been branded as a pathetic presumptuous attempt by amateurs!

do you think there is hope for a full-length open movie project in the near future? would the blender foundation be interested in such a project, or do you intend to continue focusing mainly on shorts?

i'd like to wait a little while with defining what a next project would look like. given the constraints of "organizing projects to improve 
open source development", we might have not much choice either. it would probably mean to work with a new team each time, so most likely 
be based on shorts only. on the other hand, there's also clear signals that this approach works well, and creates excitement and involvement of a lot of people, also from producers and sponsors. that might enable us to set up a next project based on larger targets. for a full-length feature film however, we should involve a sufficient amount of experienced film makers as well, and/or invite the first team to participate again. that would put a lot of pressure on the required budget…. you can't do that based on a 1000 dvd pre-sale target. would more be like 20,000 or so…. :)

how did the process of making the movie feed back into the development of blender? are there major technical changes that were made only or primarily because of the film?

already during the pre-production phase the artists have defined the key targets for blender development. this then was coordinated with the 
online development community too. i've done the most crucial (re-)development mostly myself, though. especially on the character animation tools, on the rendering pipeline and compositing tools.

it is especially the latter i'm most satisfied with. in 3d movie production the compositing stage creates a giant content bottleneck. by transparently integrating this in our render-pipeline, a very efficient workflow has been achieved. and, not to forget, blender now also offers the first production-level open source compositor on the market!

the current summary you can find in our work-in-progress release notes.

what are the key technical features in blender you want to add or improve for future movie projects?

depends on what the movie is about! there's always hundreds of features you can work on. however, we'll have to work on that anyway, movie project or not. there's a lot of professionals using blender "now", and they can't wait for the blender foundation to do movies! look at this studio for example:
http://www.plumiferos.com/

i read that at least one proprietary software package, reaktor, was used for the sound effects. is this because no equivalent free software solution exists yet? will future projects have a "free software only" policy?

we've limited the "open source tools" requirement to our own studio orange only. that was what we could keep in control at least, and i can tell you it was not always easy even... :)

for sound and music we've decided from the beginning to seek an external sponsor. we have chosen to work with the best quality studio and composer we could find, preferably using open source, but not as a prerequisite.

my own competence is solely within the cg [computer graphics, ed.] side of movie making. when it comes to music editing, or video encoding and dvd authoring, i could only decide to choose to work with external parties with proven competences in that area. i have to be practical in projects like this, especially to ensure it will be realized.

hopefully, now we've got so much attention world wide, we can involve more non-cg open source next time, too. i will definitely strive for the maximum here, but it will fully depend on the amount of professional support we can get.

blender itself was originally closed source freeware, until it was "liberated" through a fundraising campaign. if you could choose one proprietary application to "set free" where such a goal could be realistically achieved, which one would it be?

well, the "realistically achieved" demand makes it quite difficult. :) looking back at similar cases, like mozilla and openoffice.org, it 
was always very circumstantial. it just happens sometimes, you can't organize something like this to happen in advance. the only common denominator is "a company in troubles"… so, who's in trouble now?

what is your personal favorite computer-animated full-length film?

uuuh… that differs every week! probably "ice age" (the first one). mostly because they didn't overdo showcasing 3d technology so much, but created truly adorable characters and great funny gags.



news briefs:may 21, 2006

the time is 17:00 (utc) on may 21st, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

afghanistan

two french special forces troops and a us soldier were among 34 killed in afghanistan in a violent upsurge in recent days. general rahmatullah raufi, military commander for the southern provinces, said the clash erupted when militants ambushed a military convoy.
fears of a resurgence of the taliban have been boosted by a sharp rise in violence in the past few weeks, much of it in helmand province. around 120 people died in 24 hours last week. attacks on friday have claimed another 34 lives. 

iran

iran has rejected european union incentives to give up it's uranium enrichment program. foreign ministry spokesman hamid reza asefi said that any plan has to acknowledge iran's "legitimate rights".
it is believed that britain, france and germany, all member states of the eu, are developing incentives for iran to give up it's enrichment programming in an attempt to avoid an international stand-off. the incentives are believed to include a raft of security, trade and technology benefits.

india

a meeting organised by the youth congress at srinagar's sher-e-kashmir park to mark the 15th death anniversary of the late prime minister rajiv gandhi has been attacked by terrorists.
official sources say intense firing and some explosions were reported by eye-witnesses. there were atleast two militants involved in the incident according to deputy inspector general of police gopal sharma.

india

new dehli: almost 10,000 people marched to jantar mantar from maulana azad medical college in an anti-reservation rally on saturday. doctors and medical students say they will continue to strike and protest, despite an appeal from the prime minister to call off their agitation.

china

china has rescued more than 300 vietnamese fishermen who were missing in the wake of a record typhoon which blasted the south china sea.
survivors were found on 22 vietnamese ships near the pratas islands, off the southern coast of guangdong province. state television reported the rescue as the "largest international marine rescue operation ever mounted by china."

australia

new south wales detectives have successfully extradited a 30-year-old woman and 23-year-old man from western australia wanted in connection with a double murder in the sydney suburb of granville on march 29, 2006.
the victims of the murders were 26-year-old, bassam chami, who died at the scene and 25-year-old,ibrahim assad who died following surgery at westmead hospital.

united states

new orleans mayor ray nagin won re-election saturday night, successfully weathering a challenge from louisiana lieutenant governor mitch landrieu and allowing him to oversee the continued rebuilding of the louisiana city decimated by hurricane katrina.

australia

the new south wales (nsw) government says small investors will have the first opportunity to buy shares in one of australia's most unique public assets - the snowy hydro scheme, the sale of which begins officially on monday 22 may. nsw finance minister john della bosca denied the sale was incongruent with labor's stance on privatisation, or that it was a pre-election strategy.

canada

a missing 11 year old girl was found safe on thursday around 5:00 am pdt after disappearing may 16 while riding her scooter to a local video store near the north okanagan town of armstrong, british columbia. carmen kados left home on her regular two kilometer trip to the local store at around 6:45 tuesday evening. she wasn't seen again after leaving the store at around 7:15.

united states

andrew martinez, a former student at the university of california at berkeley who was better known as "the naked guy" in the early 1990s, died on thursday in an apparent suicide. he was 33.

europe

a "cartoonish" band from finland has won this year's eurovision song contest in athens. "monster-themed" rock band lordi beat 23 other competitors. lordi scored 292 points from telephone voters in 38 countries with its song "hard rock hallelujah" in a performance that both shocked and amused viewers.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


possible anthrax scare in norway

during the weekend, 11 estates in the capital of norway, oslo, received suspicious white powder by mail. the owners of the estates are mainly elders, and mainly the estates are located in the west.

some of these owners have received antibiotic cures, because this powder might be . the test-results for anthrax were released during the morning of the 22nd of may.

the results of the tests did not indicate any form for anthrax. however, this is the second time that white powder is found in the mail, the first time was shortly after the 9-11 attacks.


five dead in louisiana church shooting

a lone gunman has shot and killed four in-laws at the ministry of jesus christ church in baton rouge, louisiana.

the suspect, identified as anthony bell (25), was arrested sunday in a nearby apartment block close to the church. the suspect's wife, erica bell (24), was also shot and killed.

bell abducted his wife and her three children during a sunday morning church service. the children, one was an infant, were found unharmed. his relatives described bell as having “domestic problems”.

it is unclear where the fatal shooting of mr. bell's wife occurred. the church pastor and mother to erica bell, claudia brown, was wounded during the rampage and was hospitalized in serious condition. 

bell has been charged with five counts of murder, attempted murder, and kidnapping.



sweden wins world ice hockey championships

the swedish won the monday in , latvia, defeating the by a score of 4-0 to become the first country to win both the and the ice hockey world championships in the same year.

kronwall, a , was named the mvp of the tournament.


downer welcomes australian nuclear energy debate

australia's foreign affairs minister alexander downer has given his support for a serious debate on nuclear energy in australia. mr downer's comments follow similar comments made by australian prime minister john howard in canada last week.

mr downer said that climate change has strongly influenced many to change their position on nuclear power and to encourage debate. he encouraged people to keep an open mind on nuclear power within the context of reducing greenhouse gases. the production of nuclear energy produces far fewer greenhouse gas emissions than coal and oil power stations.

mr downer also said that it would make sense for australia to investigate nuclear power generation given that it has 30 to 40 percent of the world's uranium reserves.

mr downer said any discussion would need to look at whether australia would build nuclear power stations in the future and whether a uranium enrichment program would be undertaken.

"there's the question of whether australia itself would eventually, some time, no doubt in the far distant future, build nuclear power stations," he said.

"there's a question of whether australia would ever enrich uranium - in other words, we go up the processing chain, rather than just dig it out." mr downer said.

unlike australian industry minister, ian macfarlane and finance minister, nick minchin, mr downer refused to say when he thought nuclear energy would become a reality in australia. mr downer said the construction of nuclear power plants would depend on two things - political debate and economic considerations. mr downer said that nuclear power plants can be very expensive to build and they would need to be comparable in overall cost to oil and coal based power plants for it to make economic sense.

opposition treasury spokesman wayne swan has said he does not support australia building nuclear power plants. he also said that australia had large energy reserves and has no need for nuclear power generation. "we are a country with an abundance of energy, we're are optimistic about what can occur with clean coal technologies, we have an abundant supply of gas ? i don't see the need for australia to go down that road."


mark rocket first new zealander to book virgin space flight

mark rocket, a christchurch internet entrepreneur, has purchased a $300,000 flight into space with virgin galactic.

in 2008 he will take off for space from the mojave desert, near los angeles in an eight man spacecraft. he will spend about 10 minutes in space.

he has said that he always wanted to go into space ever since seeing the first star wars movie. he even changed his name because of the movie, but won't say what from.

he has already been to california to see the development of the rocket and visited the international space development conference.

mark rocket said: "i guess i'm just a real space nut."


nsw govt to rebuild high school with private funding

new south wales minister for education and training, carmel tebbutt told parliament that kelso high school, which was destroyed by fire on august 18, 2005 will be rebuilt under the nsw government's new schools public private partnerships (ppp) program. under the program, the bulk of construction costs come from private companies who own the schools for 30 years, after which time they revert to government ownership.

the ppp program began in october 2001. according to the government, 19 schools will be delivered under the ppp program by 2009.

the announcement follows member for bathurst, gerard martin's statement to parliament on september 14, 2005 that the government would be rebuilding the school at a cost of $18 to $25 million. "the government has accepted the responsibility of the $18 million to $25 million to rebuild the school, which is proceeding post haste" he said.

the ppp announcement has been seen as a backflip by the government.

when approached by wikinews, brad hazzard, the opposition's education spokesperson said that the coalition did not have a formal policy in this area but generally were supportive of the ppp program so long as infrastructure and maintenance are addressed.

australian greens education spokesperson, john kaye, said that problems were already emerging with the ppp program in nsw. in march 2006, it was revealed that the government had to negotiate an exit strategy so that after school hours child care could be provided. in a media release provided to wikinews, dr kaye said, "yet another flaw in a nsw public private partnership (ppp) has been uncovered. just like the cross city tunnel, the community suffered because the contract failed to protect the quality of service delivery,"

“after numerous complaints from parents, the iemma government had to negotiate an exit strategy from the contract to provide out-of-school-hours childcare. corporate giant abc learning which had purchased the original provider, peppercorn, was clearly not interested in the expensive end of childcare".

dr kaye also pointed out that an auditor general’s report found alarming evidence that the basis for ppp in nsw could be based on unreliable financial models. dr kaye said that the auditor general has "cast a very large shadow" over the government's claimed savings from the ppp program.

“it appears that the nsw government does not know with any degree of certainty how much it would cost to perform the same function in the public sector. any attempt to say that private sector control is cheaper is now fraught with danger,"

“the auditor general’s report proves that the methodology used by the government to estimate the costs of public sector provision is highly unreliable and suspect" said dr kaye.

both carmel tebbutt and gerard martin gave no response when contacted by wikinews.


pm john howard's nuclear push causes alarm

australian prime minister john howard has announced he wants a "full-scale nuclear debate", and three of his senior federal government frontbenchers - foreign minister alexander downer, resources minister, ian macfarlane, and environment minister ian campbell - have all suggested australia, which has around 40 per cent of the world's known uranium reserves, should consider enriching uranium - a step in processing that would allow it to be used as reactor fuel as well as for nuclear weapons. 

however there is strong opposition for nuclear power in the australian community. the australian greens have rejected the prime minister's assumption that nuclear power might be 'desirable' for australia. the greens say they challenge mr howard to show "true leadership on climate change and nuclear non-proliferation."

greens climate change and energy spokesperson senator christine milne said mr howard was "playing politics" by floating the idea and testing public opinion before developing a government position.

"instead of pandering to us president george bush and uk prime minister tony blair - the two most unpopular leaders in the world today - prime minister howard should demonstrate real leadership and put some authenticity into the government's response to climate change and terrorism," senator milne said. "nuclear power and nuclear proliferation are a threat to both."

senator milne challenged advocates of nuclear power to explain what they will to do about nuclear waste, how large a public subsidy they are prepared to pay to prop up nuclear power, and why the sustainable development commission was wrong when it recommended last month against expanding nuclear power in britain.

"australians have already had to subsidise uranium mining companies to clean up after mines have closed, while last week's budget papers revealed that ansto can't estimate the cost of decommissioning the lucas heights nuclear reactor," senator milne said. "when will advocates of nuclear power admit that it is too slow, too expensive and too dangerous to be a solution to climate change? nor is there any safe way to dispose of the waste. it is not even safe to transport, a concern supported by the head of the international energy agency..." said senator milne in a media release.

"instead of turning to nuclear power, australia should ratify the kyoto protocol, invest in renewable energy, adopt a national energy efficiency target and improve public transport.

"several studies examining options to achieve deep cuts in australian greenhouse emissions all show this goal can be achieved, cost effectively, without resorting to nuclear power," said senator milne in a media release.

greens leader bob brown says the prime minister is sending a message of approval for indonesia to become a nuclear power. "australia and our region are essentially nuclear-free. mr howard is abandoning that security to grab uranium profits and facilitate an australian role in nuclear enrichment," senator brown said. "this robs australia of its moral strength to argue against indonesia resurrecting the soeharto plan for 12 nuclear reactors and to advance its interest in russian-built floating nuclear power stations."

"this will make our region much less secure for the next generation of australians," senator brown said. "john howard has talked up regional terrorism. now he is promoting nuclear power proliferation in our neighbourhood. at best his logic is faulty, at worst he is taking australia into a future unnecessarily menaced by the nuclear threat," senator brown said. 

labor mp kelvin thomson says john howard's push towards nuclear power generation could heighten the risk of a terrorist attack. "the problem with nuclear power is that more of it that is around, the easier it is for terrorists to get access to it and i'm not satisfied that in this day and age we can be absolutely certain that terrorists can't access it," mr thomson said. 

mr thompson said the government should be focussing its interest on "much safer and environmentally-friendly" abundant renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power. mr thomson said australia was a potential world-leader in solar power. "surely you exhaust all the other alternatives first before you say let's go down the nuclear road," he said. 

"the problem with nuclear power is that more of it that is around, the easier it is for terrorists to get access to it," he said. "i'm not satisfied that in this day and age you can be absolutely certain that terrorists can't access it."

union leader bill shorten, a federal labor candidate at the next election, believes the issue is unpopular with the electorate. a survey in 2005 found 47 percent of australians supported nuclear power and 40 percent opposed it.

professor frank muller from the university of new south wales, said the framework to manage nuclear power needs to be put in place first. he says it could take decades before a nuclear power plant could operate. "so it actually takes even longer to provide a greenhouse benefit than it does to build a power plant," he said. professor muller says nuclear power stations are expensive to build, and safety is a major issue.

opposition environment spokesman anthony albanese said: "john howard's nuclear fantasy is australia's nightmare," mr albanese told reporters. "intractable problems with nuclear energy when it comes to economic costs, safety, disposal of waste and contribution to nuclear proliferation remain up to some 50 years."

mr albanese said that if mr howard was serious about nuclear power he should say where a nuclear power plant would be built, and where the waste it produced would be stored. "if he's so confident that nuclear energy is safe... i'm sure he'll have coalition mps volunteering to have a nuclear reactor in their electorate and to store their waste in the electorate," he said. 

mr albanese said the current labor policy remained opposed to nuclear energy in australia.



one of saddam hussein's defense lawyers thrown out of court

bushra khalil, one of the defense lawyers for former iraqi president, saddam hussein, was thrown out of court by chief judge raouf abdel after speaking out of turn.

"the right of defence is sacred. we have never seen in our whole career a lawyer ordered out of the court room like this. we should not be treated like this, we are defending those men who defended the honour of the nation, yes they are the honour of the nation," said an egyptian lawyer, in court for hussein's defense.

khalil was attempting to make a speech when judge abdel told her to stop talking. when khalil continued to speak out of turn, judge abdel ordered court guards to remove her from the courtroom. khalil then threw her lawyer's robe onto the floor and walked out of the courtroom.

"you have to stick to the rules, you are a lawyer, you should behave by the rules," said judge abdel to khalil while she left the courtroom.

hussein objected to the judge's orders and protested saying, "i am saddam hussein, president of iraq. i am above all."

"you were president, now you are the defendant," replied judge abdel.

this is the second time that khalil was thrown out of the courtroom. back in april, judge abdel had khalil removed for the same reasons. this is also her first appearance in court since april's incident.


chief of world health organization dies

the head of the world health organization (who), doctor lee jong-wook, 61, has died after doctors performed brain surgery on him to relieve a blood clot.

"i am sorry to tell you that dr lee jong-wook, director-general of the who, died this morning. [this is a] very sad bit of news" and lee "was an exceptional person and an exceptional director-general. under his leadership, the who has been strengthened and has been able to give an effective response to world (health) problems," said elena salgado, spain's health minister in a statement during the organization's 192-nation annual assembly held in geneva. the panel observed two minutes of silence to honor lee.

lee was rushed to cantonal hospital in geneva when he felt sick on saturday. he became sick while he was at an official meeting. doctors then determined that he had a blood clot in his brain and operated on lee immediately.

"he had been in hospital since saturday afternoon, where he underwent surgery to remove a blood clot on his brain (a subdural hematoma). he remained in intensive care. at 07:43 this morning, he was declared dead," said a statement by the who on its website.

"all of the staff of the world health organization extend their most sincere condolences to dr lee's family. the sudden loss of our leader, colleague and friend, is devastating," continued the statement.

"the world has lost a great man today. lee jong-wook was a man of conviction and passion. he was a strong voice for the right of every man, woman and child to health prevention and care, and advocated on behalf of the very poorest people," said kofi annan, the united nations secretary general.

lee became head of the who in 2003 and leaves behind his son, wife and two brothers.


researchers say ozone hole &quot;likely to contract, may disappear&quot;

researchers say the ozone hole over antarctica is likely to contract and may disappear by 2050 - as a result of a global reduction of chlorofluorocarbons (cfcs) and other ozone-depleting emissions.

the findings are based on a series of numerical simulations carried out by eiji akiyoshi of tokyo's national institute for environmental studies (nies), using projected emissions of cfcs and other gases blamed for the ozone hole. 

according to the japanese report released last week, the antarctic ozone hole is currently at its largest, but is likely to begin gradual contraction around 2020 and possibly disappear around 2050. it is believed lowered cfc emissions can cause the hole to gradually close, the nies reported. the team's findings are in line with research by other scientists.

the scientists say cfc levels in the earth's atmosphere have been in gradual decline since the mid-1990s, as a result of global efforts to reduce their emission. 

but while earth’s ozone layer is slowly being replenished following the international 1987 agreement banning cfcs, the montreal protocol, the recovery is occurring in a changing atmosphere and is unlikely to stabilize at pre-1980 levels, according to a recent university of colorado study. 

the co-author of a paper by the danish meteorological institute in the may 2006 issue of "nature" said: "we now have some confidence that the ozone layer is responding to the decreases in chlorine levels in the atmosphere due to the leveling off and decrease of cfcs, and most of the improvements are in agreement with what we had hoped for with the montreal protocol in place."

"but we are not out of the woods yet, and the ozone recovery process still faces a number of uncertainties." 

other scientists say that harmful emissions have not been lowered enough to influence the ozone hole's size. some scientists suggest the hole won't heal until much later because old refrigerators and air-conditioners still emit cfcs. 



former chaplain at guantanamo tells about abuse and underage prisoners

james yee, a muslim chaplain formerly stationed at the guantanamo detention camp, is now speaking out about his experience and the incidents he witnessed at guantanamo. on may 22, mr. yee held a speech at dartmouth college and told an audience of 100 he was accused of espionage and spying by the us in september 2003 and was kept in isolation for 76 days.

mr yee claimed in the dartmouth, a dartmouth college newspaper, the united states was "accepting torture" and that this "damages the reputation of the u.s." he continued: "we've lost that status of being the beacon of human rights because of abu ghraib and guantanamo".

on may 5 mr yee had spoken at the university of california, davis, to the uc davis center for the study of human rights in the americas (cshra). they had hosted a forum about the treatment of prisoners at guantanamo bay. 

mr yee believes journalists and congressmen who visit guantanamo prison do not get an unsanitized picture of conditions there, and spoke at length about his personal experience there, what prisoners and interpreters told him during his time as guantanamo chaplain, and what happened when he was imprisoned.

in one incident a cell door had mistakenly been left unlocked by guards, and a prisoner left his cell and attempted to lock the three guards in the cell while they were conducting a search. the guards easily overpowered the would-be escapee. "but the incident didn't stop there," said mr yee who said this incident lead to a violent reaction from the guards.

"one of the guards continued to bludgeon that prisoner on the back of the head after already being shackled at the ankles and his wrists behind his back and, of course, it was a bloody affair. there was blood all over."

yee also said that some prisoners were children "the ages of some of the prisoners down there, as young as 12 to 14 years old. prisoners as young as 12 to 14 years old were being held down in guantanamo when i was there."

james yee was accused of espionage by the military on september 10, 2003, and arrested while heading home from cuba on a leave of absence. after 76 days, james yee was released and the criminal charges against him were eventually dropped. he said he was locked away in solitary confinement and abused in a manner similar to that of the other detainees at guantanamo.

about the treatment he received when he was imprisoned, mr yee said he was first more worried about his family, "i was arrested in secret, held incommunicado. i never showed up at the airport in seattle like i was supposed to have, where my wife and daughter were waiting. they didn't know what happened to me. my parents in new jersey had no idea what had happened. i essentially disappeared from society, from the face of the earth."

mr yee then said he was dressed up as a prisoner and subject to "sensory deprivation". "and down on the way, on this trip to charleston, the guard pulls out of this bag these goggles ... so now i can't see a thing. he takes out these heavy industrial type ear muffs ... puts them on my ears, and now i can't hear a thing. we call this tactic 'sensory deprivation.' sensory deprivation, it's something that i recently read that the american psychiatric association has included in a draft of their definition of torture."

taking an ironic look at his own capture mr yee said: "on another aspect of the treatment he experienced, yee said, "one of the most ironic parts of this situation is that down in guantanamo, as the muslim chaplain, i was able to protect certain religious rights for the alleged, suspected, taliban and al-qaeda prisoners down in guantanamo. the point is, i was denied my religious rights as a u.s. citizen in military custody, the very same rights that i was able to uphold for prisoners down in guantanamo." 

maj. gen. geoffrey miller, commander of the guantanamo detention camp, is said to have made the decision to jail mr yee. miller was then transferred to iraq, where there was a prisoner abuse scandal at abu ghraib. the extent of miller's involvement in mr yee's treatment at guatamano and abu ghraib is not known. the us administration has not elaborated on mr yee's claims.

in may 2004, when mr yee's case attracted the attention of the media, gen. james hill, chief of the u.s. southern command, which oversaw military operations at guantanamo, called yee's incarceration necessary, "given the circumstances at the time." col. william costello, a southern command spokesman, also said in may 2004, "there's really nothing more that we're going to share on the case. we've dropped the charges. ... i'm not at liberty to talk about what the investigation entailed." 

us have denied abuse on guantanamo detention camp. on june 1st, 2005 secretary of defense donald h. rumsfeld, said, "but little has been said about the great lengths that the military go to at guantanamo bay to accommodate the religious practices of detainees in their care. there are specific instructions as to how those involved in the custody of detainees should handle themselves with respect to religious matters. special meals are provided to meet cultural dietary requirements. schedules are respectful of prayer. indications of the direction to pray are provided."




steel major arcelor ready to reconsider mittal's offer

luxembourg's largest steel company arcelor is ready to study mittal steel's improved takeover offer, the former said on sunday, opening the door to possible talks with indian steel magnate laxminivas mittal. arcelor chairman joseph kinsch told reporters after a meeting of arcelor's board that the company's directors would be ready to examine the details of mittal's latest offer once it has been approved by the cssf (luxembourg's financial regulatory body). 

until sunday, arcelor, the world's second-largest steel company, had firmly rejected world-leader mittal's bid to take the former company over and form a global steel giant. the softening of arcelor's stance comes after mittal steel raised its hostile cash-and-equity bid by a third on friday and dropped a key demand for family control over the combined entity. 

media reports had suggested that arcelor was trying to find another company to rescue it from being taken over by mittal steel. possible candidates included russian tycoon vladimir lisin and russia's magnitogorsk iron & steel works (mmk). mittal's move on friday came after the value of its initial offer fell more than 10 percent behind the market worth of arcelor, as the latter announced a buyback of its own shares at above-market prices to ward off mittal steel.

laxminivas mittal, who has hinted that the bitter takeover battle might have a hint of racism involved in it, told the french newspaper "la tribune" that he was sure that the attractive nature of his revised offer would enable him to obtain over 50% of the arcelor shares. he added that he was of the opinion that the involvement of a russian third party would not be in the best interests of arcelor's shareholders.


news briefs:may 22, 2006

the time is 17:00 (utc) on may 22nd, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

australia

australian prime minister john howard has announced he wants a "full-scale nuclear debate", and three of his senior federal government frontbenchers - foreign minister alexander downer, resources minister, ian macfarlane, and environment minister ian campbell - have all suggested australia, which has around 40 per cent of the world's known uranium reserves, should consider enriching uranium - a step in processing that would allow it to be used as reactor fuel as well as for nuclear weapons.

iraq

bushra khalil, one of the defense lawyers for former iraqi president, saddam hussein, was thrown out of court by chief judge raouf abdel after speaking out of turn.

switzerland

the head of the world health organization (who), doctor lee jong-wook, 61, has died after doctors performed brain surgery on him to relieve a blood clot.

luxembourg

luxembourg's largest steel company arcelor is ready to study mittal steel's improved takeover offer, the former said on sunday, opening the door to possible talks with indian steel-magnate laxminivas mittal. arcelor chairman joseph kinsch told reporters after a meeting of arcelor's board that the directors of the company would be ready to examine the details of mittal's latest offer once it has been approved by the cssf (luxembourg's finiancial regulatory body).

australia

new south wales minister for education and training, carmel tebbutt told parliament that kelso high school, which was destroyed by fire on august 18, 2005 will be rebuilt under the nsw government's new schools public private partnerships (ppp) program. under the program, the bulk of construction costs come from private companies who own the schools for 30 years, after which time they revert to government ownership.

new zealand

mark rocket, a christchurch internet entrepreneur, has purchased a $300,000 flight into space with virgin galactic.
in 2008 he will take off for space from the mojave desert, near los angeles in an eight man spacecraft. he will spend about 10 minutes in space.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


seven year old boy swims from alcatraz to san francisco

braxton bilbrey, a 7-year-old boy from glendale, california, swam from alcatraz to aquatic park in san francisco, california. the length of the swim is approximately 1.4 miles.

"it kind of seems like a long way, but i'm not totally worried. it's not that far," bilbrey said before he started swimming.

"for a 7-year-old to be that motivated and stick with a goal that long is amazing," said bilbrey's mother, stacey bilbrey.

bilbrey, who has participated in several youth triathlons, trained for four days a week for 2 hours at a time. he decided to take the swim after reading about johnny wilson, a 9-year old fourth grader who also made it across, taking just less than two hours in october 2005.

"if you were to ask me if a 7-year-old is old enough to do it, i'd say maybe one out of 10 million, but he's that one," said bilbrey's coach, joe zemaitis. zemaitis made the swim along with bilbrey. a united states coast guard boat and two additional swimmers followed to take action in case an emergency occurred.

alcatraz was formerly a federal prison noted for being "escape proof" while in use.


britain expects troops out of iraq within next 4 years

britain says it expects all foreign combat troops to withdraw from iraq by 2010. it is the first solid statement from britain on a firm date for troop withdrawal. prime minister tony blair says the new iraqi national unity government offers "new hopes for the country."

he was speaking at a news conference with iraqi prime minister nouri al-maliki, whose new government was sworn in on saturday. a senior british official travelling with the prime minister, said the withdrawal of the present multinational force should be accomplished within four years. 

he told reporters that london hoped all but some non-combatant foreign soldiers could be withdrawn by the time of the next iraqi election in late 2009 - provided the country moved in the right direction. "the aim is to take iraq to a position where the multinational force is able to withdraw during its period in office," the official said. according to reuters, the statement is perhaps the firmest call yet from one of the two main allies in the united states-led invasion of iraq on a date for pulling out troops. 

he said the unity government will hasten the handover of control from coalition forces back to iraqis, allowing britain bring some troops home by mid-year. britain has around 7,000 troops in iraq. prime minister maliki said overall control of security in most of iraq's 18 provinces could gradually pass into iraqi hands by end-2006.

as violence continues across iraq with at least 11 people killed in shootings and bomb attacks, mr blair said it had taken "three years of struggle" to reach the formation of a government. "it's been longer and harder than any of us would have wanted it to be but this is a new beginning," he said from baghdad. 

the installation of iraq's first full-term government since 2003 has forced discussion on withdrawal plans for approximately 150,000 foreign soldiers stationed there. the united states says it is too early to discuss a timetable for pulling out its 133,000 troops.

108 british military personnel have been killed in iraq since it joined coalition in 2003. mr blair is expected to visit washington this week to meet with president george w. bush.



montenegro secedes from serbia

after a referendum, the montenegro region of serbia and montenegro declares independence to form the new republic of montenegro. unlike other balkan states such as slovenia, croatia and bosnia, montenegro has achieved independence without violence. "i am convinced montenegro could be the next country from this region to join the european union, after romania, bulgaria and croatia, which are further along the process," says prime minister milo djukanovic, who has promoted montenegro's independence. it is also predicted that montenegro will join the united nations in september.

the referendum, with an 86.3% voter turnout, had a 55.4% approval for the secession, which satisfies the european union's minimum 55% approval. with a population of 650,000, montenegro is the world's newest country. serbia reluctantly agreed to the split, and the european union approved. despite expectations, there were no riots that night; however, early celebrations had occurred in the capital podgorica based off of expected results.

this is the first time montenegro has been independent since 1916, when it became a part of austro-hungary. in 1918 montenegro merged with serbia. soon serbia, croatia and slovenia together formed "kingdom of serbs, croats and slovenians", which later changed the name into kingdom yugoslavia. in 1945. yugoslavia became a communist state. in 1991 and 1992 four of six yugoslavian republics declared independence but two, serbia and montenegro, remained together.

some analysts note that serbia and montenegro has not functioned as one state since the belgrade agreement, signed three years ago. each republic had separate anthems, laws, and currencies and their joint parliament did not meet very often.



ian paisley rejects sinn fein nomination

plans to restart the northern ireland assembly failed today as the controversial democratic unionist party leader and protestant evangelist ian paisley rejected the nomination by sinn fein's gerry adams for him to be first minister of a new northern ireland executive. gerry adams nominated his colleague, martin mcguinness, the deputy leader of sinn fein to be the deputy first minister. 

britain restarted a shadow version of the assembly last week for the first time in 3 1/2 years to form a power sharing home rule government made up catholics and protestants by a november 24 as directed by the belfast agreement. however, accusations of a spy ring lead to the suspension of the assembly and direct rule from london was reinstated in 2002. 

adams rose to his feet and uttered the following "i want to move that iain paisley be returned as first minister and martin mcguinness be returned as deputy first minister on the restoration of devolved government," in gaelic before translating it for the rest of the assembly to understand.

after being asked by speaker eileen bell, "dr. paisley, do you accept the nomination as first minister on restoration of a devolved government?" 

paisley rejected the nomination instantly stating "certainly not, madam! and i think it goes without saying that the reasons are known well throughout this province, and they've been endorsed by the majority of unionist voters."

paisley further more stated, "are we going to have in the government of northern ireland those who are terrorists, those that condoned and even planned murders, who robbed banks, who committed criminal acts and who will not support the police?" the dup will not support sinn fein until the irish republican army disbands, renounces crime and sinn fein accepts the police service of northern ireland, something it has refused to do for decades during the time of the royal ulster constabulary.

the united states special envoy to northern ireland, mitchell reiss, stated "we need to start getting on with business, talking to each other, trying to work out some of the problems today, not leaving them until the last minute."

the assembly has adjourned until tuesday.



australian treasurer enters nuclear debate

peter costello, australian treasurer and the man most likely to succeed prime minister john howard as liberal party leader has thrown his support behind a nuclear power industry in australia.

mr costello said that when nuclear power generation becomes economically viable, australia should pursue its use. "if it becomes commercial, we should have it. that is, there's no in-principle objection to nuclear energy" mr costello said.

mr costello said that nuclear energy was clean and safe, provided waste was dealt with. "nuclear energy is an efficient form of energy. provided you deal properly with the waste, then it's safe,"

"it has much less greenhouse emissions than coal." mr costello said.

long time environmentalist and labor party member for kingsford smith, peter garrett said that the government were only discussing nuclear energy to cover up its inaction on climate change.

"when really, when you look seriously at what is going on here, australia needs to make a decision about why we are not addressing climate change and find those necessary alternatives that will make up the energy mix" he said.

mr garrett said that it was a "farce" that pm howard leaves the us and suddenly becomes pro-nuclear. "it's more than hypocritical, it's a farce for the prime minister to come back from america and suddenly become born again for nukes" he said.

federal environment minister, ian campbell rejected mr garrett's claims that the government has ignored climate change and renewable energy, but said that nuclear power needed to be considered. he denied that the debate on nuclear power is a cover-up.

"we need to look at all of the options, not have this false debate about renewables versus coal or coal versus nuclear" he said.

"we need everything and we need to do it very well and that's how we will secure australia's future." mr campbell said.

the federal opposition's environment spokesperson, anthony albanese said today that mr howard's viewws were stuck in the past and were not in the best interests of australia.

however, mr albanese said mr howard's views were retrospective and not in australia's best interest.

“this is classic john howard whether it be the gst, whether it be the extreme industrial relations agenda, or whether it be this nuclear fantasy which will become australia's nightmare ? john howard always returns to the past” mr albanese said.

“for john howard to say that there hasn't been a debate on nuclear energy would suggest that he went to sleep in the 50s and he's just woken up.” 

mr albanese claims that the high cost and safety concerns surrounding nuclear energy outweighed any benefits. “the problems of cost, safety, waste disposals and nuclear proliferation in the climate of terrorism are more acute today than they've ever been.” he said.



malaysian home ministry ban approved documentary

malaysian documentary the last communist was passed without cuts by the national film censorship board in march. ten days before it was supposed to start screening, the home ministry retracted the approval. 

the film made its world debut at the berlin film festival 2006 without filmmaker amir muhammed in attendance. it also appeared at the seattle international film festival 2006 and the london film festival 2006. it has been reviewed favorably in variety and uk's sight & sound. sight & sound called the film an "essayistic delight" and of amir muhammed "the only visible heir to the chris marker tradition."

the ban comes after berita harian, a conservative malay daily, printed a series of articles critical of the film and the censorship board. in the first article, the reporters ask government ministers and professors to comment on the impact of the film. the response is wholly negative.

home minister datuk seri mohd radzi sheikh ahmad issued a retraction of the approval on may 5, 2006. deputy minister datuk tan chai ho described the reasons behind the ban as, "the public was not very happy about the movie."

neither the berita harian journalists nor their sources had seen the full movie. the article misstates that the film glorifies "the communist leader" when chin peng is mentioned only once throughout the film. 

at the request of opposition parliamentary leader lim kit siang, the documentary was screened for ministers of parliament. culture, arts and heritage minister datuk seri dr rais yatim said, "the plot isn't controversial and there's nothing that could be deemed as offensive from the cultural viewpoint." lim kit siang called the movie, "an eye opener for all".

on monday, 22nd may, radzi announced that in the annual meeting of the umno supreme council, in june, the government is scheduled to decide whether to keep the ban on the film, or let the people decide.

at the time of the ban, radzi had not seen the film either.
http://www.redfilms.com.my/lelakikomunis.htm official homepage


drug crackdown in northern nsw nets two suppliers

new south wales police, on monday arrested and charged two people in separate simultaneous raids in northern nsw. the raids follow an investigation into cannabis supply by strike force bayan.

police conducted three separate raids simultaneously around 7:30 p.m. on properties in mullaway, woolgoolga and halfway creek, all just north of coffs harbour on the nsw north coast.

police claim to have seized aud $400,000 worth of cannabis at a property in mullaway and have arrested and charged a 35 year-old man with drug possession.

the other person caught by the operation was a 46 year-old woman at the woolgoolga property. she was charged with supplying cocaine.

police found a large amount of cannabis and money at the halfway creek property but are yet to lay charges over the discovery.

back in december 2000, a alcohol and other drug sector agency forum discovered that the rate of cannabis use among young people in the coffs harbour area was particularly high and that many cannabis users come from families where parents and even grandparents use the drug. 


mother charged with manslaughter

an overseas student who is currently in dunedin has been charged with manslaughter because of her baby's death.

the 20-year-old will appear in dunedin court this afternoon.

her baby was born in the early hours of saturday, may 20. the mother was taken to hospital on the same day about 2:30 p.m. because her friends were concerned about her health, she was suffering from internal bleeding. it was later discovered that she had given birth. the baby was found at around 11 p.m. at studholme college, which was where she was staying.

they interviewed the mother and performed an autopsy on the baby.

detective senior sergeant tony wakelin says: "she's obviously quite traumatised still. physically she's recovering well, but she's got a long way to go psychologically."

police would not comment on the case any further since the case is now before the courts.


global warming underestimated, say scientists

some scientists say current climate change estimates may be significantly underestimating the potential scale of global warming. the team of researchers report that the actual warming due to human fossil fuel emissions could be 15 percent to 78 percent higher than estimates that fail to take into account the feedback mechanism which involves carbon dioxide and earth temperature.

greenhouse gases are believed to contribute to global warming, yet scientists have said that global warming itself triggers greenhouse gas emissions - meaning that the earth may get hotter faster than climate models predict.

another team of researchers in california, has reported a similar conclusion: "when the earth has warmed up in the past, due to the sun's natural cycles, more greenhouse gases have been spewed into the atmosphere. as greenhouse gas levels rose, so did the earth's temperature," the scientists reported.

dr margaret torn of lawrence berkeley national laboratory said: "it means the warming is happening faster, each decade is actually warming faster than it would have," dr torn said. "it's the pace of change that will be one of the big problems. it's how humans adapt and the cost that will depend on the rate of change of climate."

over the past 30 years, the earth has warmed by 0.6 degrees celsius, nasa has reported. over the past 100 years, it has warmed by 0.8 degrees c, indicating a recent acceleration in warmth. current climate models predict temperature increases of 1.5 to 4.5 degrees celsius, but the california team realised that additional carbon dioxide caused by the natural solar cycle may elevate these estimates.

taking this information on board could mean temperature increases of 1.6 to 6 degrees celsius - and the higher temperatures are more likely, they said in a statement. 

meanwhile, another group of leading us scientists has linked global warming to the recent increase in hurricane intensity. they warn that humans must develop cleaner energy and transportation immediately - or bear the risk of more extreme storms.

"one is faced with repeating history, of putting up with $200 billion worth of damage every so often," said dr. peter webster, a professor at the georgia institute of technology and author of a 2005 study that found the strength and duration of hurricanes has doubled in the last 50 years. "i’m not sure how many $200 billion the country can afford," he told journalists.

lawrence berkeley's dr torn said humans are the biggest unknown: "to predict the future, you have to guess how much co2 levels will go up. that depends on the biggest uncertainty of all - what humans decide to do. do we get smart and prevent co2 emissions? do we continue with business as usual? or will we end up somewhere in between?" 



hurricane forecasters: up to 10 hurricanes in atlantic

forecasters with the u.s. in predict that up to ten hurricanes will form in the north this hurricane season, and that up to six of them will be considered "major." the hurricane center also predicts that from 13 to 16 "named" storms this season (i.e. of strength or greater, with winds in excess of 39 mph or 62 km/h.)

a major hurricane, as defined by the national hurricane center, is one that rates category 3 or above on the , with sustained winds of 111 mph (179 km/h) or more.

conrad lautenbacher, administrator of the , says that warmer ocean temperatures and low make conditions favorable for hurricane development. although it is too soon to predict how many storms will make landfall, lautenbacher says that it is possible that two to four hurricanes could affect the united states.

according to noaa, the atlantic basin has been in an active period since 1995, with nine of the past eleven seasons with above average storm activity. max mayfield, directory of the national hurricane center, said, "the research is telling us we are in an active period that may last 20 years, and that's not good news. so the message is clear: we need to be prepared." 

"it takes just one hurricane over your house to make for a bad year," said mayfield.

last year, 28 named storms developed into 15 hurricanes, of which seven were major. the hurricane center had predicted five major hurricanes out of nine total hurricanes that year. five hurricanes (, , , , and ) were so destructive that the world meteorological organization retired their names.

the north atlantic hurricane season runs from june 1 to november 30.



australian pm to be snubbed by up to six irish mps

when australian prime minister john howard speaks to ireland's dail (lower house) later today irish time up to six members will not be in attendance to protest australia's involvement in the invasion of iraq.

joe higgins, one of the members who will dissent from parliament for mr howard's speech called him a xenophobe and warmonger. "i would describe him as xenophobic, as a warmonger, as an anti-trade union representative of australian and indeed world big business," he said.

mr howard said that the boycott plans were an example of democracy at work. "well, i would say to them, isn't it terrific to celebrate the joy of democracy? and part of the joy of democracy is the right to peaceful and lawful dissent," mr howard said.

"the irish brought many things to australia and one of them was dissent. so they are living exemplars of that irish spirit, god bless them," mr howard said.

it is the first time mr howard has visited ireland as australia's prime minister. mr howard was last in ireland in 1986, when he was leader of the opposition.

mr howard's visit has also encouraged predictions about the 2007 australian general election.

two community leaders in ireland have said they expect mr howard to secure a fifth term in office when australia goes to the polls in 2007. university college dublin president hugh brady said that he had been told by his sources that mr howard was expected to return to office next year.

eugene mccague, the dublin chamber of commerce president, followed mr brady's comments, telling a group of business people that mr howard could share some advice with irish taoiseach (prime minister) bertie ahern. there will also be an election next year in ireland and mr ahern will be seeking a third term in office.

"i hope if you have a few moments, the taoiseach could take an opportunity to ask and learn from you what are the secrets of winning three general elections in a row, or indeed in your case four general elections in a row" mr mccague said.

"and i also suspect he might like to understand what the secret is of somebody whose party members are clamouring for him to lead them into a fifth general election in a row."


howard government confirms &quot;secret nuclear power committee&quot;

an internal government committee has been created to look at australia's nuclear energy role. the federal government has admitted it has set up a "secret committee" to examine the economics and science of nuclear power. during a senate estimates committee, the department of prime minister and cabinet's deputy secretary, duncan lewis confirmed that the committee had been formed following statements by us president george w bush to create a global nuclear energy partnership. he told the senate estimates that the committee would effectively try to develop an australian perspective on the american proposal.

labor opposition environment spokesman, anthony albanese, says the information has not been made public because of the sensitivity of the issue. "this hasn't been announced, the work's been done behind-the-scenes because the government knows that this is indeed a very dangerous path for australia to go on," he said.

greens senator christine milne said that the establishment of a secret committee to look at nuclear power was deeply troubling: "prime minister john howard says he wants a full public debate on whether australia should adopt nuclear power, yet his government has set up a secret committee to examine the matter," senator milne said.

"the latest evidence about climate change supports the greens' position that nuclear power is no solution to climate change, as the government claims. as well as being dangerous it is too slow to mobilise," senator milne said in a media release.

democrats leader lyn allison says it is extraordinary that the government did not make the details of the committee public. "it's very clear... that we're looking here at a very secret, narrow and possibly a biased inquiry," she said. "if that's where it is going, in fact we'll be moving as soon as we can to establish a senate inquiry into this, we think it needs to be open, it needs to be public." senator allison said in a media release that howard's push for nuclear power "is greed and glow in the dark politics..." 

"the government has no plan for power generation into the future that doesn't add to greenhouse emissions or produce intractable waste. the enrichment process is energy-intensive and australia is already the world's highest per capita greenhouse gas emitter. we cannot afford another energy guzzling industry, especially when this government has abandoned renewable energy," she said. "enriching uranium concentrates the isotopes making the uranium more hazardous, more polluting, and makes australia a greater target for nuclear terrorism."

senator milne said on the democrats website: "australians want leadership on this issue, not knee jerk reactions to what george bush thinks is a good idea. they want a debate that isn't set up to merely justify selling enriched uranium and nuclear power."

anthony albanese says john howard's push for a nuclear energy debate would become "australia's nightmare." mr albanese said mr howard's views were retrospective and not in australia's best interests: "this is classic john howard whether it be the gst, whether it be the extreme industrial relations agenda, or whether it be this nuclear fantasy which will become australia's nightmare ? john howard always returns to the past," mr albanese said in a news limited article. 

"for john howard to say that there hasn't been a debate on nuclear energy would suggest that he went to sleep in the 50s and he's just woken up." mr albanese said the dangers and costs of nuclear energy outweighed the energy benefits. "the problems of cost, safety, waste disposals and nuclear proliferation in the climate of terrorism are more acute today than they've ever been."

meanwhile a new study by the australia institute has identified several areas on australia's east coast, where nuclear power plants could be built if the howard government decide to take the nuclear energy path. the australia institute say they have consulted experts who say that the plant will need to be located on the coast, near transmission lines and be near a major centre with good rail and port access.

the institute's dr clive hamilton said the area south of wollongong, the central coast of new south wales, the sunshine coast and other areas in queensland and victoria would be ideal. "you can't have a nuclear industry without specifying where the nuclear power plants are likely to be," he said. "we're really taking up the prime minister's challenge to have a debate about nuclear power in australia. we want to make it an honest debate and to start talking about where you would put the nuclear power plants if they were to be built." 

dr hamilton suggests the nuclear debate barely touched the surface. "wherever a nuclear power plant is built in australia, some people aren't going to like it, that's just an inevitability," he said. "i think if we're going to have a serious nuclear debate rather than just a false debate then we need to start to talk about the reality of building nuclear power plants which, in the end, comes down to location."



israeli forces capture hamas commander

israeli troops have captured ibrahim hamad, the leader of the military wing of the islamic group hamas in the west bank town of ramallah. israel accuses the 41-year-old hamad (who has headed the izzedine al- qasam brigades in the west bank since 2003) of masterminding a string of suicide bombings including attacks on cafes and universities in jerusalem. hamas, which has launched some of the biggest attacks against israel, declared an informal truce 15 months ago. since then, hamas also won the palestinian parliamentary elections in january of this year.

the raid (which was executed early this morning) involved israeli troops, jeeps and a bulldozer. eye-witnesses say the soldiers surrounded a row of shops in which hamad was hiding and threatened to demolish the building if he did not come out. the bulldozer then proceeded to ram the iron doors of the shops, after which hamad emerged and surrendered. the israeli troops then ordered him to strip to make sure he was unarmed. after this, he was arrested and taken away in his underwear. 

hamad had been wanted by israel since 1998, he was arrested by the palestinian authority but was released in 2002 during a major israeli offensive in the west bank. the bbc's correspondent in jerusalem, caroline hawley says it is not clear why israel moved against hamad since hamas has not carried out any attacks for over a year. israeli operations in the past few months have been concentrated against the more active group palestinian islamic jihad.


turkish and greek fighter planes collide in mid air

two fighter planes, a turkish plane and a greek collided in mid air and crashed into the . the location of the crash is approximately 10 miles east of , a greek island in the southern part of the aegean sea.

yiannis papageorgiou a spokesman for the says that the greek f-16 was dispatched to intercept and identify the turkish plane that according to papageorgiou was violating the flight information region, when the two planes collided.

the greek defense ministry said earlier "the planes collided during interception manoeuvres above karpathos. we don’t know what has happened to the greek pilot yet." a passing merchant ship rescued the turkish pilot, halil ibrahim ozdemir, who refused to be rescued by greek frogmen. the greek pilot was killed in the incident.

vecdi gonul, defense minister for the turkish government released a partial statement saying, "we’re still waiting for definite information and our chief of staff is speaking to the greek chief of staff."

when the event became known, turkish foreign minister, communicated immediately with his counterpart, dora bakoyiannis in order to have a first conversation regarding the fighter planes' crash. 

both countries of their airspace over the sea and fighters sometimes conduct mock dogfights in the area between the two countries.


australia saves three billion plastic bags from circulation

the australian minister for the environment and heritage, senator ian campbell, has praised supermarket shoppers and operators for cutting three billion plastic bags from circulation during the past two years. he said a report compiled by the australian national retailers association, representing major supermarkets, showed that by the end of last year supermarkets had reduced their annual use of lightweight, single-use bags by 45 per cent compared with 2002.

"this is an enormous achievement by shoppers and supermarket management and a clear demonstration of a behavioural change by thousands of australians," senator campbell said. "the cutback means fewer bags in the litter stream. the goal must be to stop plastic bags getting into the litter stream and spoiling australia’s environment." 

the senator says the result came from entirely voluntary action ? "no regulations, no levies or additional costs to shoppers. i am delighted that the major supermarkets are committed to achieving the 50 per cent goal by the end of this year. i also share their view that development of a viable degradable bag to replace existing lightweight plastic ones is a key to achieving further significant reductions."

plastics have been widely used in australia in the past few decades but environmentalists say plastic bags have had a devastating impact on the nation's natural environment. according to clean up australia plastic bags can take between 20 and 1000 years to break down. despite their recyclable nature, an estimated 6.67 billion or 36,700 tonnes of plastic bags are disposed of in landfill sites throughout australia each year.

many thousands of marine mammals and seabirds die every year around the world as a result of plastic litter. a 2004 nsw parliamentary paper reported that plastic bags are of "significant concern in the marine and aquatic environment, as aquatic life can be threatened through entanglement, suffocation and ingestion." the then federal environment minister was reported as saying: "all environmental ministers believe that all plastic bags should be phased out within five years. if this voluntary campaign isn’t working then of course we have to consider what to do (next)…."



former u.s. senator lloyd bentsen dies at 85

according to family, former united states senator for texas and former treasury secretary, lloyd bentsen has died at the age of 85 in his home located in houston, texas.

bentsen is most famous for his words during a vice presidential debate on october 5, 1988. indiana senator dan quayle, the republican candidate for vice president, compared his congressional experience to that of former president john f. kennedy when he sought the presidency. bentsen replied, "senator, i served with jack kennedy. i knew jack kennedy. jack kennedy was a friend of mine. senator, you are no jack kennedy." the sharp rebuke, however, didn't save bentsen, as george h.w. bush and quayle defeated michael dukakis and bentsen in the 1988 elections.

in 1998, bentsen suffered a small stroke, which he said was caused by a 3-month long trip to 15 different nations. 

"i enjoy challenges and being involved," bentsen said.

bentsen was born on february 11, 1921 and represented the state of texas for 28 years.


amnesty report 2006: disadvantaged pay price of war on terror

the human rights watchdog ngo amnesty international described 2005 as a year of contradictions with signs of hope for human rights being undermined through "deception and failed promises" of "arrogant" governments. amnesty international issues annual reports on the development of human rights issues, with detailed reports on the situation in every individual country.

at the launch of its 2006 international report, the secretary general for amnesty international ("ai"), irene khan, said that a number of governments have "paralyzed international institutions and squandered public resources in pursuit of narrow security interests, sacrificed principles in the name of the 'war on terror' and turned a blind eye to massive human rights violations. as a result, the world has paid a heavy price, in terms of erosion of fundamental principles and in the enormous damage done to the lives and livelihoods of ordinary people".

according to the release report, iraq sank into a "vortex of sectarian violence in 2005." secretary general khan warned: "when the powerful are too arrogant to review and reassess their strategies, the heaviest price is paid by the poor and powerless ? in this case, ordinary iraqi women, men and children." a 2004 lancet study estimates that 100,000 excess deaths have occurred with roughly three times as many injured since the us-led invasion in 2003.

continuing her criticism of international bodies, ms khan stated that "intermittent attention and feeble action by the united nations and the african union fell pathetically short of what was needed in darfur," referring to the conflict that a number of reports estimate has killed over 300,000 people.

the amnesty international annual report claims that european governments have been "partners in crime with the united states," by defying the absolute ban on torture through the alleged use of extraordinary rendition.

the united kingdom pursued "diplomatic assurances" to deport people to countries where they face torture. "just as we must condemn terrorist attacks on civilians in the strongest possible terms, we must resist claims by governments that terror can be fought with torture. such claims are misleading, dangerous and wrong - you cannot extinguish a fire with petrol," said ms khan. "powerful governments are playing a dangerous game with human rights. the score card of prolonged conflicts and mounting human rights abuses is there for all to see ... the ‘war on terror' is failing and will continue to fail until human rights and human security are given precedence over narrow national security interests," said ms khan.

amnesty international list their key demands in 2006: to address the conflict and end human rights abuses in darfur; to negotiate for an arms trade treaty to govern the trade of small arms so that they cannot be used to commit human rights abuses; that the us administration close guantanamo bay detention camp, and disclose the names and locations of all ‘war on terror' prisoners elsewhere; and to insist on equal standards of respect of human rights from all governments, whether in darfur or guantanamo, chechnya or china.

"the political and moral authority of governments will be increasingly judged on their stand on human rights at home and abroad. more than ever the world needs those countries with power and international influence... to behave with responsibility and respect for human rights. governments must stop playing games with human rights," declared ms khan.


human to human transmission of the h5n1 avian flu may have infected seven indonesian family members

the world health organization (who) said in a statement that all seven indonesian individuals infected with the deadly h5n1 avian flu (bird flu) virus, six of whom have died, contracted the disease through "close and prolonged exposure to a patient during a phase of severe illness." all victims were part of the same family. a 10-year old boy is believed to have contracted the disease through his aunt and then spread the virus to his father. this is the first report of the virus spreading through a three-person chain.

according to the who, experts have not been able to find the birds or animals responsible for spreading the disease. 

"although human-to-human transmission cannot be ruled out, the search for a possible alternative source of exposure is continuing," said the who in a statement on its website.

"all confirmed cases in the cluster can be directly linked to close and prolonged exposure to a patient during a phase of severe illness" and that the 32-year old father was "closely involved in caring for his son, and this contact is considered a possible source of infection," said the who in a statement.

however; the who also said that that tests performed on samples from the patients, "found no evidence of genetic reassortment with human or pig influenza viruses and no evidence of significant mutations. the viruses showed no mutations associated with resistance to the neuraminidase inhibitors, including oseltamivir (tamiflu)"

they also stressed that "to date, the investigation has found no evidence of spread within the general community and no evidence that efficient human-to-human transmission has occurred." in january, dna taken from two turkish teens confirmed that they died from a mutated strain of the bird flu virus.


new toll proposal on u.s. interstate 95 nearing passage

a $5 toll proposal for travel on interstate 95 is gaining momentum in north carolina, and has passed this week in the virginia general assembly. toll booths would be set up at the border between the two states to collect revenues estimated in excess of $150 million annually, money that would be split by each state to help pay for needed maintenance of the interstate highway.

virginia has apparently changed plans to go it alone with road improvement priorities to the i-95 section at the approach and departure corridors to washington, d.c. the state strategy of partnering with private, for-profit road construction companies, such as clark construction group and fluor virginia inc., necessarily meant the placement of revenue collecting toll booths where they are least wanted and most inconvenient, on the already congested interstate travel points near the capital city of the united states. 

two proposals to widen the springfield interchange improvement project with more high-occupancy-vehicle lanes near washington, d.c. on the virginia side come at a combined cost in the range of $1.5 billion for the state to complete. a public-private partnership to fund the improvements, looked at by virginia's department of transportation in january 2005, has now taken on a less region specific funding solution in favor of an interstate solution.

as a practical matter, toll collection booths located at the north carolina-virginia state line would spare motorists in the most affected virginia region the hassle and expense of toll payments, but it misses imposing a toll on roadway users who are most responsible for the needed improvements. that expense, as currently proposed, is passed on to motorists using i-95 for the longer haul.

north carolina governor mike easley has remained opposed to a virginia-north carolina interstate toll road compact. the estimated $4 billion in needed repairs to i-95 in that state, where in some places the roadway is 20-years-old, places a stress on budget resources necessary for the state to perform needed maintenance.

senator clark jenkins of tarboro county in north carolina proposed legislation "to get the discussion started about the concept."




audiotape of al-qaeda leader osama bin laden surfaces on internet

a new audiotape of al-qaeda's leader, osama bin laden, has surfaced on the internet.

on the tape, bin laden claims that it was him alone who assigned the hijackers to perform the september 11, 2001 attacks on the united states and that zacarias moussaoui had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks.

"the truth is that he has no connection whatsoever with the events of sept 11th, and i am certain of what i say, because i was responsible for entrusting the 19 brothers -- allah have mercy upon them -- with those raids, and i did not assign brother zacarias to be with them on that mission," said bin laden who was speaking about the 9/11 highjackers.

"since zacarias moussaoui was still learning how to fly, he wasn't number 20 in the group, as your government has claimed. it knows this very well," added bin laden.

bin laden also said that moussaoui confessed because of "pressures exercised against him during four and a half years [in jail]."

the pentagon is aware of the tape and has confirmed its authenticity.

in april, bin laden released an audiotape to aljazeera saying that the isolation of the hamas-led palestine is a "war by crusaders and zionists against islam" and spoke of the "situation in iraq, palestine and sudan."



police retrieve body of american tourist on hunting holiday in new zealand

police officials have retrieved the body of an american tourist who plunged to his death moments after stepping out of a helicopter while hunting in the southern alps, new zealand.

57-year-old clifford wayne senter, of new hampshire in the us, died when he slipped on wet ground while exiting the helicopter, and plunged down a steep bluff near lois peak in mount aspiring national park. he had been hunting chamois at the time. 

low cloud and fog has prevented search and rescue teams from reaching him on monday night but a recovery team was deployed early tuesday. the team found mr senter's body at the base of the bluff in the afternoon.

police said that mr senter had been in new zealand for a week on a hunting holiday, with his wife and two friends.


east timor descends into further violence: downer

on tuesday australian minister for foreign affairs, alexander downer (division of mayo, liberal) told parliament that the government has received fresh reports of violence in east timor.

mr. downer told the australian house of representatives that he has received fresh reports of violence erupting in parts of the east timorese capital, dili, as well as other parts of the nation.

according to the australian department of foreign affairs and trade (dfat), there were shootouts near becora and fatuahi on tuesday involving the east timorese military and militia.

violence erupted in east timor in april 2006 following the dismissal of 585 east timorese soldiers for deserting. on april 28, 2006, five people were killed in violent clashes in dili. an independent commission has been setup by the east timorese government to investigate complaints by the dismissed soldiers. mr. downer urged the commission to "conclude its work quickly as a first step to the resolution of the current crisis".

mr. downer said that he had made it clear to the east timorese government that australia will assist in east timor if requested. he said that the australian military have a rapid response team, consisting of naval ships, aircraft and troops deployed in northern australia ready to go to east timor if requested.

dfat is advising australians not to travel to east timor due to what it calls an "extremely dangerous security situation". it advises that those who are already in east timor consider leaving.


the australia institute identifies ideal sites for nuclear power stations

the australia institute, an australian research organisation that some consider to be aligned to the political left, has released its analysis of ideal locations for a nuclear power plant in australia.

according to the institute, they consulted with a number of nuclear energy experts and determined the best possible sites for a nuclear power reactor in australia. these sites include the popular holiday destinations of port stephens in new south wales and westernport bay in victoria.

the institute identified sites based on the needs of nuclear power generators. they said the most important criteria is for the site to be on the coast so it has access to large volumes of water used by the reactor for cooling. the institute found inland locations are not suitable as "australia’s inland water supplies are unreliable and are already over-committed."

the institute also reports that port stephens and westernport bay meet other desirable criteria, being near major electricity transmission lines and have good rail and port access for imported fuel rods.

the institute said that unused fuel rods would need to be imported, but "spent fuel will need to be stored in perpetuity". according to the institute, in europe nuclear waste is often stored on the power plant's site.

dr clive hamilton, executive director of the australia institute said that the government is yet to give an indication on potential nuclear power sites and there is only a small number of sites which would be suitable for a power generation reactor. “it is not clear whether the government has yet considered where the proposed nuclear power plants will be located, but there are only a limited number of suitable sites. other likely sites include the central coast and the area south of wollongong in nsw, the sunshine coast in queensland, and port phillip bay and portland in victoria”.

mr hamilton said that the institute had decided to investigate possible locations as there is little point having a nuclear debate where no possible sites are identified. “the prime minister has said he wants a national debate about nuclear power, but there is little point in debating it in the abstract”.

mayor of port stephens, craig baumann is not impressed by the australia institute's findings. he said he would be opposed to any nuclear power facility being built in port stephens.

"i just don't like the idea of any power station, something like vailes point being stuck on the shores of port stephens,"

"obviously the power station should be close to transport, obviously large volumes of water and the grid that it's meant to service" mr baumann said.

mr baumann did however suggest a possible location for a power plant.
"i'd suggest that they move the ships out of garden island and stick it right in the middle of sydney."

if the government decided on a location in victoria for a nuclear power plant there would be some legal implications, requiring the federal government to overturn state law (which is difficult). victoria enacted the nuclear activities (prohibitions) act in 1983 which states it is to "protect the health, welfare and safety of the people of victoria and to limit deterioration of the environment in which they dwell by prohibiting the establishment of nuclear activities".

under the act, nuclear power generation is specified as a prohibited activity.


sir edmund hillary angry with mountaineers who left british climber to die

sir edmund hillary, the new zealand mountaineer and explorer, is angry with 40 mountaineers, including mark inglis, the first double amputee to reach the summit of mount everest, who left a british climber to die. sir edmund was the first person to climb mount everest, in 1953. 

david sharp, 34, who had reached the summit of everest after two other unsuccessful attempts, ran out of oxygen on his way back. sharp was found 305 meters below the summit, in a cave. he had apparently climbed alone.

according to inglis, he was the first of 40 people to pass david sharp, and his party was the only one that offered help. he radioed in to his base camp, but his expedition manager, "russ," said, "mate, you can't do anything. he's been there x number of hours without oxygen, he's effectively dead." 

"the trouble is, at 8,500 metres it's extremely difficult to keep yourself alive, let alone keep anyone else alive," inglis told television new zealand.

hillary faulted commercialisation of the mountain for the climber's death, saying that had a fellow climber been in distress he would have helped him even if it meant abandoning his own summit quest. "i think the whole attitude towards climbing mount everest has become rather horrifying," the new zealand herald newspaper quoted him as saying. "the people just want to get to the top. they don't give a damn for anybody else who may be in distress."

hillary said that heading for the summit and letting people lie dying is not pleasant and he hopes it is not repeated.

sharp's parents, for their part, said that they do not blame inglis, or anyone else for their son's death; the other climbers had to look after themselves.


british sailor resumes around-the-world voyage after stop in hawaii

british sailor , seeking to become the first person to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe in a north-south direction, set sail from honolulu on may 17 after a nine-day stop for supplies and repairs to his boat.

flanagan had spent his stay as a guest of the waikiki yacht club, which arranged for emergency repairs to his boat.

flanagan, 45, left england on october 28, 2005, headed south through the atlantic and around the coast of south america. his boat, the 40-foot vessel barrabas, suffered structural damage during stormy weather around at the southern tip of south america, as a loose wire cut a gash into the mast of his boat. he also suffered dislocated wrists while navigating through the storm.

flanagan had initially sought to become the first person to circumnavigate the globe solo without stopping, but the stop in honolulu brought that goal to an end. when flanagan reached hawaii, he had traveled 18,221 miles (29,318 km), becoming the first person to sail solo from britain to hawaii westward via cape horn.

flanagan said it had been a dream since he was 15 to be the first to sail the world through the frigid instead of the more traditional pacific/atlantic route. 

the next major landmark on flanagan's journey is the . according to flanagan, to successfully navigate the arctic ocean, he would need to reach the bering strait by july 15. he hopes to travel along the northern coast of russia to the united kingdom, conditions permitting.



major fire breaks out at istanbul airport

a huge fire that started in the cargo area has engulfed part of turkey's ataturk international airport in istanbul. all flights to and from the airport have been diverted and major fire-fighting efforts are in progress. 

hundreds of people have evacuated the area, which is about 1 kilometre away from the passenger terminal.

a witness told turkish news channel ntv that the blaze broke out in the cargo area of terminal a, presumably due to an electrical spark, at around 12:30 utc. the area in which the fire is raging is near the location of the fuel depots. unconfirmed reports suggest that there were about 250 cargo-handlers present there but most of them seem to have escaped unharmed.

thirty metre high plumes of smoke are rising into the air and the billows can be seen from all over istanbul, which indicates the severity of the inferno. several fire engines and ambulances are rushing to the scene even as aircraft overhead try to douse the fire in an attempt to prevent it from spreading to a hotel nearby. the airport, incidentally, is located very close to a military hangar.



news briefs:may 24, 2006

the time is 17:30 (utc) on may 24th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

turkey

a huge fire which started in the cargo area has engulfed part of turkey's ataturk international airport in istanbul. all flights to and from the airport have been diverted and major fire-fighting efforts are in progress. hundreds of people have evacuated the area which is about 1 kilometre away from the passenger terminal.

australia

on tuesday australian minister for foreign affairs, alexander downer (division of mayo, liberal) told parliament that the government has received fresh reports of violence in east timor.

united states

james yee, a muslim chaplain formerly stationed at the guantanamo detention camp, spoke at the university of california, davis on may 5. the uc davis center for the study of human rights in the americas (cshra) hosted a forum about the treatment of prisoners at guantanamo bay.
yee, who earlier said that journalists and congressmen who visit guantanamo prison don't get a real unsanitized picture of conditions there, told about his personal experience, what prisoners and interpreters told him during his time as guantanamo chaplain, and what happened afterward.

australia

the australia institute, an australian research organisation that some consider to be aligned to the political left, has released its analysis of ideal locations for a nuclear power plant in australia.
according to the institute, they consulted with a number of nuclear energy experts and determined the best possible sites for a nuclear power reactor in australia. these sites include the popular holiday destinations of port stephens in new south wales and westernport bay in victoria.

new zealand

sir edmund hillary, a new zealand mountaineer and explorer, is angry with 40 mountaineers, including mark inglis, the first double amputee to reach the summit of mount everest, who left a british climber to die.

new zealand

police retrieved the body of an american tourist who plunged to his death moments after stepping out of a helicopter while hunting in the southern alps, new zealand.

sports - sailing

british sailor adrian flanagan, seeking to become the first person to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe in a north-south direction, set sail from honolulu on may 17 after an nine-day stop for supplies and repairs to his boat.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


fishermen make &quot;very rare&quot; find in siberia

in siberia, fishermen made what experts are calling a "very rare" discovery. a complete and nearly intact skeleton of a mammoth has been found in krasnoyarsk, russia off the shores of a small lake. the skeleton became visible when waters from a recent flood receded.

"it happens very rarely. i've been in the area 14 years and this is the first time. the bones are usually spread around over a wide area. the find has retained a backbone, a skull with teeth and a tusk and other anatomic details," said alexander kerzhayev, deputy director of the museum and archeologist in novoselovo, russia.

kerzhayev also said that the mammoth appeared to have lived until about 50-years old. "it was an adult mammoth, judging by the size of bones it was at least 50 years old," he added also saying the mammoth appeared to have died from being sick.

however, kerzhayev also says that the museum does not have the resources to retrieve the remains and that "no one seems to care" about the discovery adding that small portions of the animal could be retrieved.


california supreme court revives high school exit exam

the on-again, off-again requirement that california high school seniors must pass the high school exit exam is back on again, after the california state supreme court today granted the state's request that the court stay a lower court's decision to stop schools from requiring the test.

lawyers for state superintendent of schools jack o'connell asked for the stay after alameda county superior court judge robert freedman ruled may 12 that the test requirement was unfair and unconstitutional, and forbade the state's schools from using it as a graduation requirement. o'connell's lawyers also asked the supreme court to hear their argument that the court should endorse the test and overturn freedman's ruling, but the court sent the case down to the 1st district court of appeal for hearings.

"i am extremely pleased that the supreme court has reinstated the california high school exit exam as a condition for graduation," o'connell said after the decision was announced. "as a result, school districts can continue their graduation exercises as planned before this litigation began."

arturo gonzalez, lead counsel for the students who challenged the test in court, told the james logan courier, "our clients are disappointed in today's 4-3 split decision of the california supreme court. however, this fight is not over. we intend to seek immediate relief in the court of appeals in san francisco. we are hopeful that oral argument can be scheduled in time to obtain an order that would allow the class of 2006 to graduate."

o'connell said he's instructing school districts to withhold diplomas from those who haven't passed the test. "i will communicate with districts today to ensure they are aware that the exit exam is a graduation requirement," he said. " students who have worked hard to pass this exam will be given a diploma that signifies their mastery of essential skills in reading and math. i hope that this decision will give students in the class of 2006, their parents, and their schools certainty.

california gov. arnold schwarzenegger praised the court's decision. ""today's ruling is a victory for the children of california and for our future as a state," said schwarzenegger. "the exit exam ensures that our schools are living up to their responsibility by giving our students the skills and the knowledge they need to succeed in college and in the workplace. postponement would have deprived us of the best tool we have to measure how well schools are doing their job."

the ruling affects about 70 students at james logan high school who haven't passed either the math or language arts portions of the test, or both. as many as 47,000 are affected statewide.

"it's crazy, i want to cry," said zuhal, a senior who hasn't yet passed the test after she heard the news. then she started crying.

raymond, a senior who has had trouble with the math portion of the test, said he had made plans for graduating based on freedman's banning of the test. "i'm really disappointed," he said. "i feel really bad. they should cancel it right now. graduation day is too near."

both students took the test earlier this month, but won't know if they passed until august 15, said ray, too late to receive a diploma with their classmates.

"the supreme court did not say that judge freedman was wrong. four justices simply questioned whether allowing our clients to graduate was the appropriate remedy," said gonzalez, "we intend to demonstrate that the relief was proper. if the constitutional rights of our children are violated, we cannot punish them further by depriving them of a diploma that they have rightfully earned by passing all required courses."

o'connell said students who haven't passed the test would have more opportunities. "we will not give up on the students who are still struggling to pass," o'connell said, " they will continue to be given every option to master those skills they will need in order to succeed beyond high school."

o'connell said he looked forward to arguing the case in the appellate court. ""in sending this case to the court of appeal, the supreme court has provided us an opportunity to argue the merits of this case," he said.

o'connell, who wrote the law when he was a state legislator in 1999, said the test is an important ingredient in california's school reform efforts. "we know, and look forward to sharing with the court, that as a result of the exit exam, our students have studied harder and learned more than they would have otherwise," he said. "schools, administrators, school board members, parents, and even policy makers here in sacramento paid more attention to the needs of students who were falling behind their peers.

"today’s court action marks an important step for school accountability. i will continue to fight to make sure every student who graduates in california has the skills necessary to succeed," he said. 

the author releases this story to wikinews under the creative commons 2.5 license.


british plane catches fire in afghanistan

a british plane caught on fire in afghanistan. it was a four-engine propeller aircraft that got into trouble while landing. one of the aircraft's tyres exploded.

ambassador escaped injury after the military transport plane, in which he was travelling, caught fire at an airstrip in southern afghanistan. 

none were seriously hurt. all 27 people on board were safe. 



multinational force sent to east timor

after the breakdown of law and order in the world's newest nation, east timor's foreign minister, jose ramos horta has requested military assistance from australia, new zealand, portugal and malaysia. the force would "disarm renegade troops and police rebelling against the state" and "...australia and new zealand will come soon" mr horta said to reporters.

the first troops from australia's 1300 strong commitment to east timor, which also includes three ships, helicopters and armoured personnel carriers, will likely arrive in east timor by this afternoon, having been on standby in recent weeks in preparation for such a possibility. two of the royal australian navy's amphibious landing ships, hmas kanimbla and manoora, are currently heading north to east timor with troops on board, and the rest of australia's 1300 strong task force would likely arrive in the next 48 hours. approximately 120 portuguese military police and 60 police and troops from new zealand would join them. australia may also send troops from 4 rar (commandos) and sasr from holsworthy, nsw and perth respectively.

the uprising in east timor has resulted from the firing of nearly 600 east timorese soldiers who went on strike, alleging ethnic discrimination and poor pay and conditions. they are led by the highest ranking officer in the renegade force, australian-trained major alfredo reinado, who east timorese president xanana gusmao has vowed to hunt down, and who will undoubtedly be an important target for the australian task force entering an ill-defined area of operations (ao) where east timorese government forces have been battling the renegade troops and police.

foreign minister ramos-horta told the abc that he hoped foreign forces would not have to engage the renegade east timorese troops but would have "an immediate calming effect throughout the country" and "encourage political dialogue."

 

australian government under pressure to reveal nuclear sites

the australian labor party has placed pressure on the federal government to reveal potential sites for nuclear power plants. the pressure comes after the release of a report by the australia institute, which identified several locations on the east coast of australia as "ideal" nuclear power sites.

speaking in the australian house of representatives on wednesday, opposition leader kim beazley (brand, labor) asked australian treasurer and acting prime minister peter costello (higgins, liberal) to name potential nuclear sites.

"as part of the government’s intention to consider nuclear power in australia, will it nominate the proposed sites of its nuclear reactors and their associated high-level nuclear waste dumps?" mr beazley asked.

mr costello replied by attacking labor's policy on limiting australia to three uranium mines, supporting uranium exports while being opposed to an australian nuclear energy industry. mr costello said "it would be a funny kind of a policy if australia was prepared to mine uranium
and to sell it to other countries but was so opposed to the nuclear industry".

labor member, maria elliot (richmond, labor asked mr costello to rule out nuclear reactors and waste dumps in the northern rivers region of new south wales (part of which falls into mrs elliot's electorate) and the adjoining region of south-east queensland. mr costello gave no assurances that there were no plans to build a reactor in the region.

during an interview whilst in ireland, australian pm, john howard took the opportunity to attack labor's nuclear policy. he said mr beazley's opposition was "hypocritical". "i’m also in awe of his hypocrisy on the issue. apparently it is alright to export uranium to other countries that will then produce nuclear power with all the problems he says are unacceptable in australia. well in my view if nuclear power is unsafe, unacceptable and anti the environment, you shouldn’t export uranium to any other country" he said.

state labor leaders have voiced their opposition to nuclear energy.

queensland premier peter beattie said he would fight strongly against any plans for a nuclear reactor in his state.

nsw premier morris iemma said that nsw had laws prohibiting the building of a nuclear power plant in nsw. under nsw law, the mining and enrichment of uranium and construction of nuclear reactors is illegal unless unless the australian nuclear science and technology organisation (ansto) operates those reactors. the only nuclear reactor in australia, hifar is owned by ansto and is situated in lucas heights, south of sydney in nsw. hifar's replacement opal is due for completion in 2007, and will operate alongside hifar for six months.

victorian premier steve bracks said he was strongly opposed to the construction of nuclear reactors in victoria despite many locations in the state being identified as ideal. as with nsw, victoria also has laws prohibiting nuclear power generation.


howard's revival of nuclear debate &quot;surprising&quot;: political expert

dr frank cain, a political expert and lecturer in defence and australian political and economic history at the university of new south wales has told wikinews that many political commentators are finding prime minister john howard's revival of the nuclear debate "surprising".

australia came close to building a nuclear power reactor in the jervis bay territory in the late 1960s but was later abandoned in 1971 after massive anti-nuclear demonstrations. the fear that australia would produce nuclear weapons as a by-product of its nuclear energy programs killed the plans and a change in government ended the plans.

the fear that the jervis bay reactor could have been used to produce weapons grade plutonium was substantiated when secret 1969 cabinet documents were released in 2000 stating that "the government will acquire a facility with long term defence implications" and "over 25 years of operation the reactor will provide six tonnes of plutonium".

anthony albanese, the opposition's shadow minister for environment and heritage accused mr howard on tuesday of living in the past and of not being serious about the debate.

in an interview with wikinews, dr cain said that there are a number of possibilities for mr howard's nuclear revival. dr cain said one of these could be to challenge the opposition over its three mine policy. "one of his (howard's) motives might be to challenge the alp over its three-mine policy" said dr cain.

dr cain warned that such a move would be unpopular with younger voters, "the young people would not support his programme for the uranium mining companies to expand their mine numbers and production" he said.

speaking on the economics of nuclear energy in australia, dr cain said it was still uneconomic due to australia's large supplies of coal and natural gas. "it still remains uneconomic for australia to commence generating electricity from nuclear plants. our coal supplies will last for another century and the natural gas deposits seem unlimited. these gas supplies will probably displace coal generation and thereby reduce the greenhouse gas problem" he said.

martin sevior, an associate professor in particle physics at the university of melbourne told abc radio on monday that nuclear power can be generated "almost as cheaply as coal". he said in the future nuclear power should be able to be produced for $aud40 per megawatt-hour, versus the current price of $30 per megawatt-hour for coal.

prof sevior said that when the cost of carbon sequestering was included in the running costs for coal fired power plants that nuclear energy was "very, very competitive".

john price, a professor at monash university and expert in nuclear energy (having designed some in the uk) told abc radio that nuclear energy is competitive in many parts of the world, including europe, north america and eastern asia.

prof price said that the use of nuclear energy in australia is "inevitable" in australia's future and that it may well be economically competitive with new lower emission coal fired power plants of which the costs are not known.

according to prof price, victoria will need to generate 3 gigawatts more electricity within the next ten years, but conceded that it is likely that gas and coal fired plants will be built to meet that need.

howard would not be proposing for the government to own its own uranium enrichment plant and would need to entice an overseas company to establish a plant in australia according to dr cain. dr cain questioned whether a company from france, russia, the us or china would be willing to come to australia to "do what it has been doing quite well in its own country for decades".

dr cain said overseas companies would see "no financial advantage for them to do so".



zogby poll finds 45% want new 9/11 investigation

forty-five percent of american adults surveyed in a zogby poll think that the september 11, 2001 attacks should be investigated anew. poll results indicated that 42% believe that there has been a cover up (with 10% unsure) and 45% think "congress or an international tribunal should re-investigate the attacks, including whether any us government officials consciously allowed or helped facilitate their success" (with 8% unsure). 

these are figures from a nationwide telephone survey of 1200 individuals conducted by zogby international from friday, may 12 through tuesday, may 16, 2006. the results have a margin of sampling error of +/- 2.9.

the poll was commissioned by 911truth.org, a single issue website aimed at pinning the blame of 9/11 on the bush administration.

the results of this zogby poll were released last monday (22 may), but went largely unreported by the mass media, possibly due to bias within the source. 


family narrowly escapes fiery death in christchurch, new zealand

a family visiting christchurch, new zealand from australia was minutes away from being burnt to death.

they were staying in the meadow park holiday park, papanui.

the fire started about 3 a.m. nzst and station officer paul rodwell said, "from the description, they were a few minutes away from perishing."

new zealand-born elaine puku is on life support in christchurch hospital's intensive-care unit after receiving internal and external second-degree burns while trying to rescue her children. 

other family members - malcolm puku, 47, and sons jeremy, 17, matthew, 13, and jordan, 10 - were also in the fire, but escaped grievous injury. they are currently recovering from minor cuts and smoke inhalation.

"i opened up the door into the lounge and the room was like a big volcano, so red and bright and yellow, and all this billowing black smoke," malcolm puku said.

there were no smoke alarms in the unit.

"it doesn't have any fire-protection smoke alarms because it's an old place," rodwell said.

fire safety officer graham davies said that the accommodation is exempt since it was built before fire detectors became compulsory.

the motel is now under investigation by the fire service.


pakistani immigrant convicted of n.y. subway plot

a pakistani immigrant was convicted on wednesday of plotting to blow up a new york city subway station in a case that shed light on police investigation tactics since the sept 11 attacks.

shahawar matin siraj, faces a maximum life sentence after a federal court jury convicted him of conspiring to place and detonate an explosive on the city's mass transit system.

siraj, 23, was arrested on the eve of the 2004 republican national convention on charges he planned to attack a subway station in herald square, the dense shopping district that includes flagship department store.

siraj claimed he was entrapped by an over-zealous police informant twice his age, egyptian osama eldawoody, 50, who met the siraj in an bookstore while spying on mosques for the new york police.

taped conversations between the two men were played by prosecutors during the trial plans were discussed to bomb the herald square subway station in midtown manhattan.

mr eldawoody testified in 2003 and 2004 that he served as the 'eyes and ears' of the police and was paid more than us$100,000 to report about daily mosque activities, including prayers.

prosecutors said siraj had the will to carry out a plot supporting his extremist views. their case was strengthened by the testimony of a co-conspirator who pleaded guilty in the case and an undercover police officer who said siraj openly supported leader .

the jury also heard testimony by a bangladeshi-born undercover police officer, who met siraj while infiltrating a muslim neighborhood as part of an investigation following the sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. 

during one conversation, siraj "complimented" osama bin laden, the officer testified. 

"he said he was a talented brother and a great planner and that he hoped bin laden planned something big for america," said the officer, who testified under an alias because he is still involved in active investigations.

"the verdict is an important milestone in safeguarding new york against terrorist plotters whether home-grown or foreign," said new york police commissioner raymond kelly.



malaysian culture minister pans documentary

"about 20 [ministers of parliament] but 40 journalists including photographers," said filmmaker amir muhammed about a screening of his controversial documentary at the national film institute on sunday, may 21. 

among the ministers to comment on the film, culture, arts and heritage minister datuk seri dr rais yatim has been widely quoted in the press.

on may 21, malaysia's national news agency, bernama, filed a story entitled, "rais finds the 'last communist' not offensive." with reference to the may 18th screening, bernama reports rais said, "the plot isn't controversial and there's nothing that could be deemed as offensive from the cultural viewpoint."

commenting on interviews with former members of the malayan communist party, "they were vague, not conclusive for any quarters," he said.

the national daily new straits times also reported on the screening. it reports rais said the film is "not important enough to be controversial".

the daily followed up with an article where rais is reported as saying the film "indeed 'glorifies' former communist leader chin peng", filed may 24. "amir should have interviewed the security forces, the home guard, the families of the home guard who were killed by the communists, and government officials of the time," said rais.

the bernama article incorrectly attributes the source of the ban to the internal security ministry, it was widely reported that the home ministry was responsible.

the film has picked up controversy because it is inspired by the malayan emergency. 

chin peng himself is living in exile in north thailand. he released an autobiography last year entitled, "chin peng: my side of history." 



fighting in dili continues ahead of multinational deployment

ahead of the deployment of 1000-1300 australian troops in the next couple of days, fighting between renegade east timorese military forces and government security forces has continued in east timor's capital, dili, from which at least 21,000 people have fled. the 600 renegade military personnel were fired from east timor's 1400 strong army after striking over poor pay and conditions, including ethnic discrimination. based in the aileu mountains, the rebel force is making small attacks around the southern, eastern and western sides of dili, but reports of gunfire in the city centre are developing.

australian-trained major alfredo reinado, who leads the renegade force, has said that he aims to “guarantee justice and the creation of a professional defence force,” not topple the east timorese government.

lieutenant general peter leahy, the vice chief of the australian defence force, is to touch down in dili today to discuss australian troops' deployment in dili and their rules of engagement (roe) with the east timorese prime minister, mari alkatiri, and other government officials. however, gunfire and the burning of houses has been reported on a main road to dili international airport, cutting it off from the city. in response, australian prime minister john howard announced the deployment of 150 soldiers from 4 rar (commandos) with blackhawk helicopters and c-130 transport planes in order to take the airport and secure its perimeter to allow for flights to continue.

the multinational deployment has been met with appreciation amongst both the rebel and government forces. foreign minister jose ramos-horta has said that that the arrival of troops and police from australia, new zealand, portugal and possibly malaysia (which has indicated it may send up to 500 police and troops), is still necessary for security. news of the arriving australian-led peacekeeping force, was welcomed by dilinese refugees mr ramos-horta said; "their mere presence in dili, the capital city, will have a psychological calming effect." the leader of the rebel forces, major reinado has also welcomed the deployment, saying that he hoped the peacekeepers would be able to create a peace. maj reinado has said "this is the only solution, ...there is no other way, or it will be war forever. the government has taken too long. it is not capable of resolving this." and even told portuguese news agency lusa that he would personally shake the hands of the arriving multinational force. the united nations security council, having appealed for an end to fighting, welcomed the deployment of military forces to east timor.

australia also led the successful international force east timor (interfet) and united nations transitional administration in east timor (untaet) forces from 1999 to 2002.

 


indo-pakistan talks on siachen end in deadlock

the defence secretary-level discussion between india and pakistan on demilitarising the siachen glacier ended in a stalemate, without any major breakthroughs being made. both sides however declared they would abide by the cease-fire agreement made in 2003. 

india says that it will not pull its troops back from their current position on the world's highest battlefield till pakistan agrees to validate its present position on the ridges that hem the glacier. indian liuetenant general pattabiramayyah has said that unless the pakistan clarifies its current position on a map, india will be susceptible to a surprise attack similar to the one that occurred in the kargil sector in 1997. pakistan believes that recognition of indian positions would be a de-facto surrender of its claim over territory from the last marked point on the line of control - point nj 9842 - to the karakoram pass.

both countries have maintained troop positions on the ridges for over 20 years. the inhospitable siachen glacier, according to a ladakhi proverb, is a place where "one is only visited by either his closest friends or deepest enemies". 


u.s. appeals court upholds honolulu aerial ad ban

the u.s. 9th circuit court of appeals on tuesday ruled that honolulu's ban on aerial advertising is constitutional and rejected the arguments of a pro-life/anti-abortion group that contended that the ban restricts free speech.

in a unanimous ruling, the court ruled that the city's ban on aerial advertising is not pre-empted by federal law and violates neither the free speech provisions of the first amendment nor the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment. writing for the court, judge margaret mckeown wrote that "honolulu’s airspace is a nonpublic forum, and the ordinance is reasonable, viewpoint neutral, and rationally related to legitimate governmental interests." ("nonpublic forum" is defined as a place that is not traditionally or explicitly opened to free expression.)

the center for bioethical reform (cbr) challenged honolulu's ban, claiming that the ban infringes on their right to public advocacy. the group planned to fly a plane towing a 100-foot banner showing graphic images of aborted fetuses, and contended that authorization they sought and received from the federal aviation administration authorized the group to fly in all fifty states and puerto rico.

the cbr has driven vans with such images around honolulu in the past few years.

judge david ezra, u.s. district judge for hawaii, ruled in november 2004 that the ordinance was constitutional. the appeal was argued before the 9th circuit in honolulu in november 2005.

announcing their intent to appeal to the u.s. supreme court, gregg cunningham, executive director of the cbr, said, "we never expected to get justice in the u.s. district courts or in honolulu. our goal has always been to get to the u.s. supreme court. it's the only place we feel we'll get a fair hearing.

"if the environmental groups and political leftists who are trying to suppress the truth about abortion think we're going to go away because we lost two cases that we fully expected to lose, they're in for a rude awakening," cunningham said.

hawaii has had a statewide prohibition on billboards and similar forms of advertising since 1927, and is unique among u.s. states in this regard. in addition, since 1957, honolulu has had a comprehensive law regulating the size and content of signs. honolulu's ban on all aerial advertising was enacted in 1978. 

honolulu mayor mufi hannemann praised the decision, saying, "this obviously has strong implications for our visitor industry to know that when people come here they're going to see things here that really make for an island paradise type of vacation. this is great news for us."

mary steiner, head of the outdoor circle, an environmental group that supports the ban, said, "we have never doubted for a moment the importance of the scenic environment that it is just as important as any of the rest of the environmental issues that are out there. we're not going to stand by and let it be destroyed in any way, shape or form."



student faces expulsion over blog post

a 17-year-old student faces expulsion by the plainfield school district in plainfield, illinois as a result of blog posts he made on xanga.com which were critical of the school staff, alleging bullying and intimidation. the student has already been suspended for 10 days for the "inappropriate comments" and "threats" the school felt he had expressed on his blog. the posts were not made on school time or with school equipment.

on may 1, the student posted the following message that apparently initiated the suspension:

on may 2, the student continued his passionate rant, giving some background to the controversy:

attorney carl buck, who feels the school authorities have overstepped their boundaries, says, "the district is going to take away the student's education for exercising his freedom of speech... i feel like they are trying to control his freedom of speech. ... he is saying, 'you can't bully people and we have a right to object and you can't throw people out of school for voicing their opinions.'"

other students at the school posted messages of support in their own xanga blogs. a blogger named meghan wrote, "as americans, we have the right to speak our mind." another student, heather, who found out about the possible expulsion through the local news, wrote that "first of all, xanga is outside of school ... second of all ... there was no threat towards anyone on his posts."

in a related case in march 2006, the 9th circuit court of appeals ruled that an alaska high school acted improperly by suspending a student for carrying a banner reading "bong hits 4 jesus" across the street from the school.



trains grind to a halt in northeast us

from washington d.c. to new york city, trains powered by overhead electric lines stalled for more than two hours due to what amtrak called a "major power outage." while working to restore power, amtrak attempted to provide alternative transportation in the form of diesel locomotives and buses. power was restored at 10:30 a.m. edt. delays continued for much of the day. 

besides long-distance rail services such as acela, local commuter trains were affected. seven septa lines in the philadelphia area were temporarily shut down, and five more ran shortened routes. also affected was maryland's marc and new jersey transit.

no specific cause has been reported, but amtrak's site indicates that they are investigating.


enron executives kenneth lay and jeffrey skilling found guilty

a jury in houston found former enron corp. ceos kenneth l. lay and jeffrey k. skilling guilty of 6 kinds of white-collar crime on may 25. lay was convicted of all ten counts against him, while skilling was convicted of only nineteen of the charged twenty-eight counts. the variety of charges on which both men were convicted was astonishing; conspiracy, wire fraud, false statements to banks and auditors, and others. both men now face many years in prison.

outside the courtroom, skilling continued to proclaim his innocence. "obviously, i'm disappointed, but that's the way the system works," skilling said after the verdict. he is expected to appeal. lay did not immediately speak to reporters outside the courtroom.

the verdict was reached on the sixth day of deliberations after a four-month-long trial and brings to a close the first of the wave of accounting scandals earlier in the decade. the verdict also represents another major victory for the government, which has successfully prosecuted a number of high-profile executives involved in accounting scandals, as well as obtained sixteen guilty pleas from former enron executives.

sentencing has been set for september 11, 2006. u.s. district judge sim lake ordered lay to post a $5 million bond and surrender his passport before leaving the courtroom.


news briefs:may 25, 2006

the time is 17:00 (utc) on may 25th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

east timor

ahead of the deployment of 1000-1300 australian troops in the next couple of days, fighting between renegade east timorese military forces and government security forces has continued in east timor's capital, dili, from which at least 21,000 people have fled. the 600 renegade military personnel were fired from east timor's 1400 strong army after striking over poor pay and conditions, including ethnic discrimination. based in the aileu mountains, the rebel force is making small attacks around the southern, eastern and western sides of dili, but reports of gunfire in the city centre are developing.

india and pakistan

the defence secretary-level discussion between india and pakistan on demilitarising the siachen glacier ended in a stalemate, without any major breakthroughs being made. both sides however declared they would abide by the cease-fire agreement made in 2003.

australia

dr frank cain, a political expert and lecturer in defence and australian political and economic history at the university of new south wales has told wikinews that many political commentators are finding prime minister john howard's revival of the nuclear debate "surprising".

australia

the australian labor party has placed pressure on the federal government to reveal potential sites for nuclear power plants. the pressure comes after the release of a report by the australia institute, which identified several locations on the east coast of australia as "ideal" nuclear power sites.

united states

a pakistani immigrant was convicted on wednesday of plotting to blow up a new york city subway station in a case that shed light on police investigation tactics since the sept 11 attacks.
shahawar matin siraj, faces a maximum life sentence after a brooklyn federal court jury convicted him of conspiring to place and detonate an explosive on the city's mass transit system.

united states

the u.s. 9th circuit court of appeals on tuesday ruled that honolulu's ban on aerial advertising is constitutional and rejected the arguments of a pro-life/anti-abortion group that contended that the ban restricts free speech.

new zealand

a family visiting christchurch, new zealand from australia was minutes away from being burnt to death.

wikinews

one wikinews reporter recently had the opportunity to interview jimmy wales regarding general thoughts and a look ahead toward wikimania. jimmy wales makes himself available to the public from time to time and has also co-founded a for-profit company called wikia.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


bittorrent index sues mpaa

valence media, the parent company behind popular bittorrent index site torrentspy, has filed a federal lawsuit against the motion picture association of america (mpaa), alleging that the organization hired a hacker to break into torrentspy's servers and steal private information.

the lawsuit, which valence media and various employees filed in the united states district court for the central district of california, charges the mpaa with conspiracy, unlawful business practices, misappropriation of trade secrets and violations of the california invasion of privacy act and the electronic communications privacy act of 1985.

according to the lawsuit, mpaa employee dean garfield paid an unnamed hacker us$15,000 to steal email correspondence and other sensitive information, allegedly telling him that they "don't care how you get it".

in june of 2005, torrentspy alleges, the hacker then broke into the servers, obtaining private emails, invoices, billing information and an excel spreadsheet detailing torrentspy's income and expenses.

in an interview with "cnet", kori bernards, the vice-president of the mpaa, called the allegations "false" and implied that torrentspy might be trying to deflect attention from the mpaa's own lawsuits against the site.

justin bunnell, forrest parker, wes parker, and valence media vs. motion picture association of america ltd.


taylor hicks crowned american idol winner

the finale was broadcast on and , from the in .

hicks got a recording contract with the as his prize.
his first single is called "do i make you proud" written by tracy ackerman, andrew watkins and .

hicks is expected to release an album in the upcoming months.


australian troops land in east timor

after approximately 150 australian troops from 4 royal australian regiment (commandos) secured comoro airport in dili yesterday, the total number of australian troops in east timor has risen to 600, with a further 1200 in transit or directly supporting operation astute. malaysia, new zealand and portugal have also begun their deployments. malaysia has now sent 25 military officers ahead of its 500 strong commitment of military and police personnel; new zealand has committed two c-130s, and an infantry company is on standby pending negotiations over rules of engagement; portugal's 120-strong commitment has commenced preparations, but is not expected to arrive for a matter of weeks. the australian contingent involved in operation astute has been placed under the command of brigadier michael slater, who arrived in dili this morning.

currently, the australian department of defence states operation astute's tasks are:


australian forces are already actively operating in dili; infantry patrols are operating in the area, supported by the four blackhawks from the 5th aviation regiment that have arrived so far. blackhawks have also been operating missions above the hills around dili to seek out rebel positions and communicate a strong presence to the rebel soldiers. two armoured personnel carriers and an infantry platoon have set up position in and around the un headquarters and dili police station, which came under attack earlier today, and was the location of considerable violence yesterday when east timorese army soldiers killed 12 east timorese police and wounded numerous others, including 2 un personnel. "at the moment things are relatively stable, the troops are arriving and we are establishing good control throughout the dili area" brig slater said of the situation.

yesterday 80 australian nationals were evacuated by raaf c-130, a number that is rising as flights in and out of east timor have been unhampered since the securing of comoro airport. approximately 800 australian nationals were in east timor at the beginning of conflict.

events involving east timor's government are complicating the situation. reports state that prime minister mari alkatiri is reluctant to allow foreign troops to independently operate in the country and arguing with president xanana gusmao over who should control the small nation's still loyal military of 800 troops. after president gusmao declared he had taken over command of the military and ordered all east timorese military personnel to barracks, alkatiri stated that he believed the president does not have a constitutional right to take control of the military, as that depends on a 'situation of emergency' being declared, which is itself dependent on the parliament.

according to mark thompson, a military budgeting specialist from the australian strategic policy institute, operation astute would cost a similar amount to australia's earlier peacekeeping operation in east timor - approximately $200 million.



appeals court asked for quick decision in california high school exit exam case

lawyers for students who sued to stop the use of the california high school exit exam today filed a request for an expedited hearing of their case in appellate court, hoping to have the test set aside in time for graduation.

"it would be tragic if students were deprived of the once in a lifetime opportunity to graduate with their classmates due to scheduling issues in this matter," according to the text of the appeal filed in division four of the first appellate district.

today's filing fulfills a promise made by lead attorney arturo gonzalez yesterday after the state supreme court issued a stay of an alameda county superior court judge's order that the test not be used to determine graduation. ""our clients are disappointed in today's 4-3 split decision of the california supreme court. however, this fight is not over," gonzalez said, " we intend to seek immediate relief in the court of appeals in san francisco. we are hopeful that oral argument can be scheduled in time to obtain an order that would allow the class of 2006 to graduate." 

on may 12, alameda county superior court judge robert freedman decided that the test was unfair and unconstitutional and issued an injunction against the use of the test. the following week, attorneys for state superintendent of schools jack o'connell, author and avid supporter of the law requiring the test, appealed freedman's decision directly to the state supreme court, asking the court to stay the effect of the injunction immediately and to over rule it. yesterday, the court issued the stay, but send the state's appeal down to the appellate court. 

"yesterday, the supreme court noted that it was "not persuaded" that the injunction was the appropriate remedy," according to the papers filed in court today. "it stayed the injunction and remanded the case to this court with instructions to "establish a schedule for expedited briefing and argument."

"plaintiffs respectfully submit that, if the schedule established by this court does not allow for a decision on the remedy issued by the trial court before the bulk of high school graduations have taken place, then that schedule cannot be considered to be expedited," according to the filing, "there is only one issue that needs to be decided by this court prior to the pending high school graduations ? whether, assuming plaintiffs prevail on their constitutional claims, the injunction granted by the trial court was an appropriate remedy."

in the filing, lawyers for liliana valenzuela, et al., who sued in february to have the test set aside so she and the other students involved in the case could graduate, remind the appellate court that the state supreme court needed only a few days to reach its decision.

"with the majority of graduations occurring in early june, plaintiffs respectfully submit that it is a reasonable interpretation of the supreme court's order to set a hearing for this matter next week," lawyers wrote in the filing.
cynthia o'brien, who oversees testing at james logan high school in union city, expressed some exasperation over the on-again, off-again situation regarding the test. "what is happening at this time with the emotional lives of students who are in limbo is not reasonable or in their best interest" she said. "although the exam's intention is to create a better education environment for students (my words), it is now more about politics than the students."

however, she's not opposed to the test itself. "i believe that the intent of minimum proficiencies is in the right direction. we do a disservice to students who are not prepared to compete in their adult world," she told the james logan courier, " i do believe that the state needs to study real alternate paths that could be pursued, such as using proficiency on star, a senior project demonstrating both math and english proficiency or some other pathway." 

the author releases this story to wikinews under the creative commons 2.5 license.


judge orders u.s. department of justice officials to testify

the united states district court for the district of columbia has ordered four u.s. department of justice (doj) officials to give testimony after a freedom of information act (foia) lawsuit was filed by citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington (crew).

judge emmet sullivan granted a motion for discovery by crew to serve depositions to james kovaka and steve brady, both attorneys with the doj responsible for processing foia requests in the case. also ordered to provide testimony were daniel metcalfe, head of the doj's office of information and privacy, and robert mccallum, associate attorney general whose nomination as u.s. ambassador to australia is currently pending in the senate.

crew sued after the doj failed to respond to the group request for information for close to a year. the request relates to the doj's lowering of the government penalty request from $130 billion to $10 billion in the landmark case "united states of america v. philip morris incorporated, et al.", which crew believes to be politically motivated.

crew specifically requested the doj to disclose contacts between mccallum and his former law firm, which the group says represented the tobacco companies. mccallum is also before a different court with 5 other justice department officials in a trial where they are accused of ethics violations relating to a case involving north american indians.


melbourne - adelaide train services disrupted into next week following fatal crash

rail services between melbourne and adelaide in australia are expected to be disrupted until early next week following a fatal crash between a truck and freight train in lismore, victoria 170 km (105 miles) south-west of melbourne.

the b-double truck hit the side of a 1,375 metre long freight train at a level crossing at 7:13 a.m. aest on thursday in heavy fog, derailing two locomotives and 44 goods wagons. victorian police said that the truck had been wedged beneath the wreckage of the train.

the driver of the truck, thought to be a 34-year-old man from wedderburn in victoria's north-west died in the crash. the train driver and an observer escaped uninjured. police said it could take a number of days to retrieve the truck driver's body. "it could possibly take days to retrieve the body" a victorian police spokesperson said.

great southern railways, which operates "the overland" passenger train service between melbourne and adelaide said it expected rail services to be disrupted up until early next week. the company will transfer passengers to bus services or allow them to claim a full refund.

the crash will also disrupt freight services between melbourne and adelaide.

local residents and the victorian opposition are blaming the crash on the level crossing itself, which has no booms, lights or bells.

rob dennis, a local resident said the level crossing is the cause of the crash, as it is not fitted with boom gates or flashing lights.

"and it's a blind turn for anything in a large vehicle," he said. 

terry mulder, the opposition's transport spokesperson said the bracks government should have spent part of the $750 million allocated to fast rail projects to upgrading level crossings in victoria.

"the state labor government has wasted $750 million on fast rail projects," mr mulder said.

mr mulder said that victoria has 2,274 level crossings, 1,468 which have no warning systems in place.



hundred million dollar new zealand drug bust

new zealand police officers and customs officials working with hong kong authorities have seized methamphetamine with a street value of $135 million dollars (nzd).

the drugs were found in a container from china, among bags of cement.

there were 96 1-kg bags of crystal methamphetamine, or p, worth $1 million each and 150kg of pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient in the making of p, worth $40 million.

"it's a group that's operating offshore that's sending produce to new zealand and possibly to other places," police detective inspector, bruce good said. the inquiry team also found loaded guns, fake passports and $50,000 in cash while searching an auckland home. weapons discovered included a m16 assault rifle, three handguns and a tiny pen gun, which is banned in new zealand.

six people have been charged and are in custody, two new zealanders, one person from hong kong and three from mainland china.

this is 10 times bigger than any other drug bust in new zealand, reports detective superintendent nick perry. the previous largest confiscation of crystal methamphetamine was just over 8 kg, which was discovered in wellington after being smuggled into new zealand from the port of auckland.


u.s. senate passes immigration reform bill

the u.s. senate today approved a comprehensive immigration reform bill thursday by a vote of 62-36. among other provisions, the bill seeks to bolster security along the u.s.- border, create a guest worker program, and grant many illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, all positions supported by the bush administration.

the bill passed today by the senate is in stark contrast to the version passed by the house of representatives in december 2005, which provides for no guest worker program and makes illegal immigration a felony.

in a statement, president bush said, "i look forward to working together with both the house of representatives and the senate to produce a bill for me to sign into law." 

senate majority leader bill frist called for swift talks with the house to create a compromise measure. frist, who had earlier supported the house version of the bill, voted in favor of the bill passed today. he expects that "the most contentious part" of the bill would be how to handle the status of illegal immigrants already in the united states.

while democratic senators were mostly united in support of the bill (38-4 in favor), republican support was divided (32-23 against). sen. jeff sessions, r-, said, "the vast majority of the 11 million or so people here will be given every benefit this nation can bestow as a product of their illegality. i don't think that's a good principle."

house majority leader , r-, acknowledged the difficulty in reaching a compromise, but expressed optimism that an agreement could be reached. "i'm hopeful that we will come to a resolution and pass a bill," he said.



science minister visits australia's newest nuclear reactor, receives nuclear power report

australian minister for education, science and training, julie bishop visited the australian nuclear science and technology organisation in lucas heights, new south wales today. the purpose of her visit was to inspect progress on australia's newest nuclear research reactor - opal. whilst at the facility, she received a report on the economics and safety of a nuclear power industry in australia.

opal, which stands for open pool australian light water reactor is expected to become fully operational by early 2007 and is in its final stage of development.

the reactor, which will replace australia's sole nuclear reactor - hifar will be used to research microbiology, biotechnology and gene therapy in addition to the production of agents used in nuclear medicine.

the report presented to ms bishop at ansto was written by professor john gittus and discussed the economics and safety of nuclear energy in australia.

the major conclusion of the study was that new generation nuclear power plants would be as competitive as newer types of coal power plants in australia. the report also found that nuclear energy is "the safest, most secure way of generating electricity with greater price stability in comparison to gas or coal power generation" according to ms bishop.

prof gittus' report found that when the cost of environmental damage and carbon dioxide emissions from coal or gas fired power stations were considered, nuclear power becomes more attractive.

speaking on the report, ms bishop said she wishes for an evidence-based debate about nuclear energy in australia. “i welcome this report as a useful contribution to what i hope will be an evidence-based debate about nuclear power in australia. the debate must focus on the facts and not be biased by emotion.” she said.


indian communists protest us involvement in country's internal affairs

the congress-left coalition government at the centre was asked by the to advise the government of the state of chattisgarh not to accept any offer by the u.s.a. to help combat in the area. the cpi also expressed concern at the fact that a foreign country was being allowed to interfere in india's internal affairs. 

the u.s embassy in india had earlier offered to help train local law-enforcement authorities in chattisgarh and to remove thousands of land mines planted by naxals in the area. reports stated that america's offer had been "welcomed" by the bharatiya janata party-led government in the state. this is the first time another nation has offered to help india tackle naxalism in the latter country.

the communist party of india's politburo reacted sharply to the offer, and condemned the chattisgrah government for allowing foreign interference in india's affairs without the prior consent of the centre. the cpi also asked the central government to clarify to the u.s embassy that washington's involvement in india's internal affairs was not welcome. cpi leaders a. b bardhan and shamim faizi said such meddling was not new for the us, and recalled us ambassador david mulford's letter to west bengal chief minister buddhadeb bhattacharjee criticising the latter's remarks against the american interference in india's internal matters. the cpi had recently criticised the centre for voting against iran at the iaea. 

chattisgarh is one of at least 13 indian states combating naxals and who claim they are fighting for the rights of the impoverished peasants in the region. thousands have died over three decades of violence, and the last 17 months have seen a rise in the number of attacks. the released a report earlier this year that showed that by 2010, 30% of india's land area could become part of the "red-corridor", which currently stretches from the indo-nepal border all the way down to the southern state of andhra pradesh. prime minister dr. manmohan singh stated last month that naxals were a big threat to india's internal security. 


shots fired on capitol hill

there have been reports of gunfire heard in the rayburn house office building in washington d.c. at approximately 10:30 a.m. edt (1430 utc), leading to a lock down of the united states capitol. senate sergeant at arms bill pickle announced there were no injuries. fox news reported that a man with a gun was apprehended by capitol police, but no confirmation has been made of this.

the senate was in session when the lockdown occurred, but the house of representatives was not. many members of congress had already departed in advance of the long memorial day holiday in the us. bbc news initially reported some witness as saying the sound may have been a car backfiring. the associated press and fox news also reported speculation about fireworks or the gunfire having come from an indoor shooting range located in the basement of the rayburn building. msnbc suggested the noise may have been from a maintenance man working on an elevator shaft near the area where the shots were heard.

police evacuated portions of capitol hill and told staff members to lock their office doors and "stay inside" as police searched the rayburn building floor by floor. at 3:15 p.m., cnn reported that capitol police had declared an "all clear" and employees and others inside the rayburn building were allowed to leave.

employees in the capitol complex were alerted to the incident via messages sent to their blackberries. they first urged employees to move to an interior office space away from windows, closing doors, grabbing their 'go-kits' and then to await further instructions. a second message sent at 12:20 p.m. edt reminded employees to lock their office doors, and issued a code word that capitol police would use to confirm their identity when knocking at any door.

as the events unfolded, bill pickle said "we have been told by staff of shots fired and the smell of smoke in the lobby of the rayburn house building," said mr pickle. in a later statement he said "police responded to the area where they believed the shots came from and smelled what seemed to be gunpowder."

at a press conference lead by sergeant kimberly schneider, public information officer of the u.s. capitol police, reported that shots were fired inside rayburn house office building garage but that there were no current reports of injuries. it was later announced at 1:20 local time that there were two minor injuries, a woman who was shaken up and a policeman who twisted his ankle.

current evidence indicates that the reports of gunfire in the rayburn building were actually staffers and congresspeople hearing the sound of construction work in the elevator. a mechanic was reported to be using a pneumatic hammer, the sound of which, when echoing up the elevator shaft, could be misheard as gunfire by those unaccustomed to either sound. reports of smoke have not been officially explained, though several comments have chalked the reports of smoke up as paranoia induced, suspecting people heard the warning of gunfire and attributed the origin of a slight or strange smell to the ignition of gunpowder.



us marines may face death penalty for &quot;massacre&quot; of civilians in iraq

according to the ", military and pentagon officials" said thursday that it is expected an investigation will find that the deaths of more than 20 civilians in iraq were a war crime. according to nyt source a group of "carried out extensive, unprovoked killings of civilians" and the killings were "methodical in nature."

the naval criminal investigative service is expected to call for criminal charges, including murder, negligent homicide, dereliction of duty and filing a false report. lawyers involved in discussion thought it could lead to charges of murder, an offense carrying the death penalty.

the incident happened in the iraqi town of on november 19, 2005, after an attack on a convoy when one us marine was killed. according to nyt source evidence indicates sustained operation by marines that lasted three to five hours. civilians, including women and children were killed inside two or more homes, as well as five men standing near a taxi at a checkpoint. military officials initially indicated that 15 iraqi civilians had died when gunmen attacked a convoy with a roadside bomb and small arms fire, prompting the marines to return fire.

on thursday, , the commandant of the marine corps, said without referring to any specific incident "recent serious allegations concerning actions of marines in combat have caused me concern" in a speech emphasizing the rules of lawful combat. 

, a from minnesota (r) and retired marine colonel said about the allegations "this was not an accident. this was direct fire by marines at civilians". he continued "this was not an immediate response to an attack. this would be an atrocity".

john sifton of said "if the accounts as they have been alleged are true, the haditha incident is likely the most serious war crime that has been reported in iraq since the beginning of the war". he continued "here we have two dozen civilians being killed ? apparently intentionally. this isn't a gray area. this is a massacre".

the us marines are from , located in southern california. three marine officers, the battalion commander and two company commanders who were stationed in haditha at the time, have been relieved of duty, although statements by military officials have not linked the action to the incident.




sculptor to teach animation maquettes at vab creative studio

"we're extremely pleased to present such a unique course at vab," group president keith moreau commented. "alvaro is a master of his craft, and students are sure to benefit immensely from the experience."

alvaro has specialized in for 16 years, creating sculptures used by companies including , , and . his works have served as reference for animators, and as prototypes for toys. some of his most recent work is for the disney-pixar film "", which will was released today in theatres. cervantes has taught the workshop at 's , home of a respected animation program.

the meet-and-greet is free for everyone. the timing and price of the course will be established by wednesday.

the visual arts brampton creative studio is located in the bartley's square mall, at the corner of hurontario and steeles avenue. the studio is the only suite in the lower level, and is accessible through a glassed in lobby.

for more information on the meet-and-greet or the course, contact visualartsbrampton@gmail.com, or phone 905-453-9142.


symantec antivirus vulnerability found

vulnerability allegedly affecting at least two versions of symantec antivirus software has been found. the vulnerability requires no interaction from the end-user, and has the potential to grant complete system level access to an attacker, according to eeye digital security, the organization that originally discovered the vulnerability.

according to eeye, the symantec antivirus 10.x and symantec client security 3.x product lines are both vulnerable, and other symantec products may be vulnerable as well.

symantec released a brief statement early today, in which they confirmed that they have received a report pertaining to a "potential remotely exploitable vulnerability," but that it affected only antivirus corporate edition 10.x. the company denies that any of its 'norton' line of consumer-grade products are affected.


news briefs:may 26, 2006

the time is 17:00 (utc) on may 26th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

united states

police sealed off the united states capitol today after receiving reports of gunfire in the rayburn house office building parking level. the house was not in session, the senate was. senate sergeant at arms bill pickle has said that there were no reports of any injuries.

united states

the u.s. senate today approved a comprehensive immigration reform bill thursday by a vote of 62-36. among other provisions, the bill seeks to bolster security along the u.s.-mexican border, create a guest worker program, and grant many illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, all positions supported by the bush administration.

australia

rail services between melbourne and adelaide are expected to be disrupted until early next week following a fatal crash between a truck and freight train in lismore, victoria 170 km (105 miles) south-west of melbourne.

east timor

after approximately 150 australian troops from 4 royal australian regiment (commandos) secured comoro airport in dili yesterday, the total number of austalian troops in east timor has risen to 600, with a further 1200 in transit or directly supporting operation astute. malaysia, new zealand and portugal have also begun their deployments. malaysia has now sent 25 military officers ahead of its 500 strong commitment of military and police personnel; new zealand has committed two c-130s, and an infantry company is on standby pending negotiations over rules of engagement; portugal's 120-strong commitment has commenced preparations, but is not expected to arrive for a matter of weeks.

australia

australian minister for education, science and training, julie bishop visited the australian nuclear science and technology organisation in lucas heights, new south wales today. the purpose of her visit was to inspect progress on australia's newest nuclear research reactor - opal. whilst at the facility, she received a report on the economics and safety of a nuclear power industry in australia.

united states

the popular bittorrent index site torrentspy has filed a federal lawsuit against the motion picture association of america (mpaa), alleging that the organisation hired a hacker to break into torrentspy's servers and steal private information.

new zealand

new zealand police officers and customs officials working with hong kong authorities have seized methamphetamine with a street value of $135 million dollars (nzd).
the drugs were found in a container from china, among bags of cement.

india

the congress-left coalition government at the centre was asked by the communist party of india to advice the government of the state of chattisgarh not to accept any offer by the u.s.a to help combat naxalism in the area. the cpi also expressed concern at the fact that a foreign country was being allowed to interfere in india's internal affairs.
we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


ahern, blair to lead northern ireland talks

the secretary of state for northern ireland, peter hain, has announced that next month, the prime ministers of both ireland and the united kingdom will meet with the parties of the northern ireland assembly before the summer break.

taoiseach bertie ahern and the british prime minister, tony blair, will meet at hillsborough castle, possibly on june 27, to hold "intensive talks" with the parties and to establish a "clear timeline" to the restoration of devolved government in northern ireland.

hain has invited all the parties of the assembly to form a committee to discuss obstacles to formation of a power-sharing government in northern ireland. 

hain has asked assembly speaker eileen bell to convene the first meeting of the committee on june 6 in order to prepare for the talks. the committee is expected to have three members from the four main parties (the dup, uup, sdlp and sinn fein) and two from the alliance party.

the two main parties did not take the news kindly. the democratic unionist party will not sit on the committee if it leads to negotiations with the republicans as it continues not engage in direct talks with sinn fein nor will dup take part in talks running alongside the talks between the parties and the premiers. 

sinn fein says it will not sit on the committee if it turns out to be only a "talking shop". however, martin mcguinness of sinn fein said the party will judge the committee "on its ability to contribute to the restoration of the power-sharing executive".

the social democratic and labour party says it will only enter if the committee "is the vehicle for restoration of the agreement's institutions, not a talking shop or meaningless sideshow".

however, ulster unionist party leader sir reg empey was more optimistic and welcomed the initiative, commenting that the committee would "ensure adequate cross-community consensus". empey further added, "this committee prevents the dup from running away from the substantive work that needs to be done in identifying the blockages that are standing in the way of the restoration of devolution."

attempts to form a new northern ireland executive failed monday when ian paisley, leader of the democratic unionist party, refused the nomination to be the first minister of northern ireland after being nominated by sinn fein leader gerry adams.

last month, blair and ahern made a joint statement calling for the return of home rule government in northern ireland as part of a plan by the two. they set a deadline of november 24 for power-sharing government to be set up in the northern ireland assembly, which has been suspended since october 2002 over allegations of a ira spy ring. one of the men implicated, denis donaldson, turned out to be a spy for british intelligence, he was murdered in his home on april 4, 2006, a few days before the statement by blair and ahern.

if no power-sharing government is formed by november 24, direct rule from london will continue but with greater input by the republic of ireland, a proposition which has greatly irked some unionists.



no diplomas for now; california exit exam appeal must wait

seniors who haven't been credited with passing the california high school exit exam won't be getting diplomas when graduation ceremonies are held next month because the first district appellate court won't hear the court case about the test until july 25. 

the attorney for the students suing to block use of the test says he still expects to prevail.

"this case is far from over," said arturo gonzalez, the lead attorney in valenzuela vs. o'connell, in which liliana valenzuela, a richmond high school student, and others sued to block the state's use of the test as a graduation requirement, "we think there is a strong chance that students in the class of 2006 will receive their diplomas, even if it is after commencement ceremonies. it is important that students not get discouraged. they have to stay in school and pass their classes."

on may 12, alameda county superior court judge robert freedman agreed with gonzalez' argument that the state's use of the test as a graduation requirement was unconstitutional because poor and minority students don't have access to equal educational resources, and therefore don't have equal protection under the law. he issued an injunction against the use of the test. 

that injunction seemed to pave the way for those of the 47,000 seniors statewide who haven't yet passed the test, but have completed all other requirements, to receive diplomas with their classmates at upcoming graduation events. 

but state superintendent of schools jack o'connell quickly filed an appeal of freedman's ruling and asked the state supreme court to issue a stay of freedman's injunction. earlier this week, the court granted o'connell's request for a stay, allowing schools to deny diplomas to students who haven't passed the test. the court also ordered the appellate court to hear o'connell's appeal of freedman's ruling against the test.

on thursday, gonzalez petitioned the appellate court to expedite their hearing of the case to as soon as next week, but today the court denied gonzalez' request and scheduled the case for a hearing on july 25.

in an email to the james logan courier, gonzalez said he thinks his case is strong enough to withstand the appeal. "we intend to vigorously defend judge freedman's ruling," he said, "the record strongly supports his decision."

"if the court of appeals upholds judge freedman's ruling, students in the class of 2006 may still receive their high school diplomas," he said.

about 70 seniors at james logan high school in union city, ca., mostly minorities and those who are learning english, still need to pass the test.

o'connell, an avid defender of the test, which is required by a law he wrote and championed when he was in the state legislature, said this week that he would make sure school districts knew that they had to require the test be passed in order to hand out diplomas to students.

"i will communicate with districts today to ensure they are aware that the exit exam is a graduation requirement" he said, "students who have worked hard to pass this exam will be given a diploma that signifies their mastery of essential skills in reading and math."

the author releases this story to wikinews under the creative commons 2.5 license.


peacekeepers take control in east timor

the australian presence in east timor so far has been characterised by vigorous patrolling into the capital dili, with the main goal being to lock down the city in order to separate and concentrate the various conflicting forces in east timor. despite the australian military being provided strong rules of engagement by the east timorese government, so far no soldiers have fired their weapons or been fired upon, although they might have been fired over by gangs earlier today. outside the hotel timor today, where east timorese prime minister alkatiri was about to hold a press conference, an australian patrol arrested what appeared to be two gangs about to storm the hotel with the help of reinforcements. the men numbered around 30, carrying machetes, knifes, spears, slingshots, and arrows. the prime minister claimed that the gangs were attempting a coup d'etat. civilian gangs, allegedly provided arms by the east timorese military, have so far been blamed for much of the violence in dili.

as the rest of the 1300 strong australian deployment is expected to arrive in east timor tomorrow, australian prime minister john howard has said that although his government did foresee the current situation in east timor, military action would have constituted an invasion until mandated through the united nations' or east timorese government's request. "...people say you should have seen it coming. the answer is yes, i did, but until you are asked, it happens to be an invasion." said mr howard. east timor requested military assistance from australia, malaysia, new zealand and portugal on may 23, foreign minister jose ramos-horta explaining that the government "...[couldn't] control the situation,"; all four nations responded positively to the request.

despite one newspaper running the headline "we'll stay till job's done, says pm", the chief of defence force, air chief marshall angus houston has said that he hopes the australian military will be able to be replaced within a few months by a un peacekeepers. in any case, acm houston has said that he is believes the australian presence will stabilise the situation soon, perhaps aided by the good relations that exist between the adf and the leader of the rebel group, major alfredo reinado. maj reinado was trained by the adf for three months and has openly welcomed the arrival of the peacekeeping force, saying that the deployment is the "only solution" in the face of the government's inability to resolve the conflict.

after praising the speed of the deployment, washington revealed that the us assisted the transport of australian troops to position in townsville and darwin two weeks earlier.

indonesia has now closed its border to east timor, president susilo bambang yudhoyono saying that "besides security reasons, the closure of the border is to prevent the possibility of issues that may worsen the image of indonesia."




gang violence continues in east timor

gang violence continued in east timor today, despite patrols by foreign soldiers being stepped up. there are presently 600 troops from australia, new zealand and malaysia in the east timorese capital of dili, with that number expected to rise to 1,300 by the end of the weekend.

the east timorese government requested international assistance on thursday following weeks of violence. the violence started when 600 east timorese soldiers were dismissed from the military after claiming they had not been considered for promotion due to them being from the western region of the country. they also claimed that the top positions in the military had been reserved for those from the eastern regions.

east timorese youths are forming gangs and allying with groups of feuding police and military personnel. there have been reports of youths patrolling neighborhoods carrying machetes, swords and knives near government buildings. they said they were protecting the areas against "rogue army elements".

as with the east timorese military, the general population's support is divided between the remaining army and the sacked soldiers. the police force in the country is said to be non-existent, which is helping to fuel the violence.

ethnic attacks are also occurring in the country. gangs from opposing ethnic backgrounds rampaged through the streets torching buildings and looting shops. tit-for-tat arson attacks by opposing factions have become common.

speaking to australia's abc radio, a un spokesperson said that the tension has been increasing in east timor for sometime. "it's basically pay-back time between the different groups," 

"this is a communal dispute that's escalated because of the overall situation," they said.



tamiflu maker on alert after bird flu deaths in indonesia

the world health organization (who) on saturday asked the swiss manufacturer of the antiviral medicine tamiflu to prepare the global stockpile of the drug for distribution after a family of seven indonesians died from the h5n1 avian flu virus. however, the who says that there is no cause for alarm at this point.

"whenever there is a cluster, we contact roche just to let them know that if we need to send the stockpile that they should be ready to do so," said a spokeswoman for the who, maria cheng. however, cheng says "we have not asked that anything be sent, and nothing from roche has been sent."

jules pieters, director of the who's rapid response unit, informed roche holdings ag to be on alert for the next two weeks after the indonesian health ministry informed the who of the deaths of the members of a family cluster in kubu simbelang village in north sumatra. "we were quite keen to inform roche quite timely, we knew thursday would be a holiday in europe and wanted to make sure roche warehouses would be open," he said. 

pieters also said that the move was part of standard procedure in cases where there is reasonable suspicion of human-to-human transmission. the who flew 9,500 doses of tamiflu into indonesia along with protective gear as a precaution.

according to the who, the virus has not mutated into an easily human-transmittable form, nor had it spread outside the family, who were all blood relatives in close contact.

officials in indonesia also reported on friday that two more fatal cases of avian flu were reported, this time between an 18-year-old man and his 10-year-old sister. tests on the two victims are expected to be sent to who laboratories for confirmation.

the who also says that they have "no intention of shipping that stockpile" and that they consider this "a practice run," said spokesman for the who, dick thompson. the who also said that the virus has not mutated and so far has not shown any signs of human to human transmission outside the affected family members.

roche holding is expected to remain on high alert for at least two weeks.




crusaders win super 14 final in eerie mist

the canterbury crusaders won the inaugural super 14 title, downing the wellington hurricanes 19 points to 12 at jade stadium, christchurch. the game was dominated by surreal conditions - a thick fog made viewing the game from the top of the stands impossible. only one try was scored in the mistake-riddled game, to crusaders centre casey laulala.

both sides were consulted prior to the match on whether the final should be postponed, as a thick fog engulfed the sold-out jade stadium. patrons in the south stand turned their attention to the stadium screen behind them, as they could not see anything through the mist. the television audience was in a similar position, with most of the pictures being shrouded in a white cloud. sky sports commentators split the commentary between themselves and a sideline commentator, as they could not see the other side of the pitch from the commentary box.

referee jonathon kaplan and the players of both the crusaders and hurricanes were asked if they wished to continue at half time, there was apparently a clear view that everyone wanted to continue with the final. the final score was 19 points to 12, a converted try being the difference. for the crusaders, it was the team's sixth championship in 11 years. despite the eerie conditions, jubilant celebrations followed after full-time.


cricket: west indies win odi series, beat india 3-1

the west indies beat india by six wickets in the fourth one- day international at the port of spain, to clinch the 5 match series 3-1. the indian batting order failed again, managing to make only 217/5 at the end of 50 overs. the highest scorer was mohammad kaif, who scored 62 runs before being bowled by dwayne bravo. the top-order including sehwag, dravid and raina collapsed, with the top three batsmen raking up only 33 runs between them.

the west indies began the chase strongly, but was dealt an early blow by phatan who sent samuels back to the pavilion in the 5th over. ajit agarkar dispatched sarwan for 49 four overs later, putting more pressure on the windie middle-order. brian lara pleased his home fans with a 61-run knock before scooping one to raina. the skippers' fellow trinidadian teammate bravo put up an unbeaten 69, notching his first odi half-century and pulling the west indies out of their early slump, in the process. in the end the home-team reached the target of 218 comfortably with 6 overs to spare.

the match was played at the queen's park oval, port-of-spain, and trinidad and was refereed by e.c broad. the match-umpires were b.r. doctrove and simon taufel. west-indian veteran s. bucknor was the t.v umpire. d.j. bravo was awarded the man-of-the-match award for his fine performances both with the ball and the willow. 


news briefs:may 27, 2006

the time is 17:00 (utc) on may 27th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

indonesia

an earthquake measuring 6.2 on the richter scale has struck indonesia's central java province early on saturday morning, killing at least 2,700 people, and injuring thousands more.

east timor

gang violence continued in east timor today, despite patrols by foreign soldiers being stepped up. there are presently 600 troops from australia, new zealand and malaysia in the east timorese capital of dili, with that number expected to rise to 1,300 by the end of the weekend.

east timor

the australian presence in east timor so far has been characterised by vigorous patrolling into the capital dili, with the main goal being to lock down the city in order to separate and concentrate the various conflicting forces in east timor. despite the australian military being provided strong rules of engagement by the east timorese government, so far no soldiers have fired their weapons or been fired upon, although they might have been fired over by gangs earlier today.

northern ireland

secretary of state for northern ireland peter hain has announced that next month, the prime ministers of both ireland and the united kingdom will meet with the parties of the northern ireland assembly before the summer break.

switzerland

the world health organization on saturday asked the swiss manufacturer of the antiviral medicine tamiflu to prepare the global stockpile of the drug for distribution after a family of seven indonesians died from the h5n1 avian flu virus. however, the who says that there is no cause for alarm at this point.

pakistan

the coalition government of sindh province in pakistan headed by dr arbab ghulam rahim appears to be in trouble as his difference with urdu speaking coalition partners become deeper and wider.

united states

seniors who haven't been credited with passing the california high school exit exam won't be getting diplomas when graduation ceremonies are held next month because the first district appellate court won't hear the court case about the test until july 25.

sports - rugby

the canturbury crusaders have won the inaugral super 14 title, downing the wellington hurricanes 19-12 at jade stadium, cristchurch.

sports ? cricket

the west indies beat india by six wickets in the fourth one- day international at the port of spain, to clinch the 5 match series 3-1.
we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


libertarians flock to new hampshire for annual festival

less than five years ago, a yale university grad student by the name of jason sorens wrote an essay for "the libertarian enterprise," a libertarian news and commentary site published by science-fiction author l. neil smith. frustrated by a lack of political clout, sorens proposed that libertarians - people who are socially tolerant and fiscally conservative - could move to a single state and have a much greater impact. sorens received more than 200 messages in response, and the free state project was born.

the strategy has matured since that announcement, but the core idea remains intact. in a state with a population of 1.3 million, 20,000 activists can break beyond the novelty value of american third-party viewpoints.

as of this writing, over 7100 people have made that original pledge. this year, spurred by the success of early movers, a second pledge was created. known as the "first 1000", this pledge has a strict timeline for success; 1000 people must agree, by the end of 2006, to move to new hampshire by the end of 2008. like the original statement of intent, should the signers fall short of the goal, none of them are obligated to follow through. as of today, nearly 300 people have signed on to the first 1000.

most free staters, or "porcupines" so named for the group's mascot, know each other only by way of communicating over the internet. once per year, they shed their online monikers and meet in real life, at the annual porcupine freedom festival, known affectionately as "porcfest".

porcfest '05 brought an estimated 500 activists from around the country, including former presidential candidate michael badnarik. while the press attended the event, free staters used the festival as an opportunity to socialize and relax.

free state project


pope benedict xvi visits poland

pope benedict xvi is currently visiting poland on his third pilgrimage. the motto of his pilgrimage to the home country of previous pope, john paul ii, is "stand firm in your faith".

the pope arrived at ok?cie airport in warsaw on may 25. he met with president lech kaczy?ski and prayed in an evangelic-augsburg church together with representatives of seven minor polish churches. the following day he said mass at pi?sudski square, mirroring a precedent set by his predecessor 27 years earlier. benedict xvi talked in latin and in small parts in polish. later that day he went to cz?stochowa.

on may 27, benedict xvi visited wadowice, home town of john paul ii, and krakow. crowds of people gathered on the b?onia meadows. benedict xvi addressed young people in his speech and was met with applause. benedict xvi expressed his contentment with his visit in poland.

tomorrow will be the last day in the pilgrimage; the pope will visit the site of the nazi concentration camp in auschwitz and meet with representatives of other religions.

there were some concerns about the reaction of polish people to benedict xvi - based on their strong attachment to his predecessor. however, the pope was warmly welcomed and people were excited by the visit.

the pilgrimage garnered significant media attention, not only polish press, but also from other countries. seven tv stations, including cnn, nbc, bbc, and euronews, broadcast live reports from the event. journalists from several german stations and russian ntw came to poland for the visit.



sale sharks defeat leicester tigers to win guinness premiership

the sale sharks defeated the leicester tigers in the guinness premiership final, claiming the team's first title of the modern competition. the game was played at a rainy twickenham stadium on saturday, may 27, the final score being 45 points to 20.

sale entered the game as the top english rugby union club after finishing atop of the 2005-06 guinness premiership. in addition, leicester finished second, so it was 1st v 2nd. the scoring opened up in the 3rd minute, with fly-half charlie hodgson land a penalty kick for the sharks, scoring continued for the sharks a few minutes later when mark cueto scored the opening try of the match.

leicester hit back in the 9th minute with flanker lewis moody scoring the team's first try, with andy goode converting the try, the score was now a lot closer, ten minutes into the game. moody's try was followed by a period of no scoring, until magnus lund scored a try for the sharks in the 17th minute to extend sale's lead. more points came for the sharks over 10 minutes later, with hodgson kicking another penalty goal in the 31st minute.

leicester also got a penalty shortly after hodgson kicked sale's, goode was successful in kicking the penalty goal for leiceter in the 36th minute. sale hit back in the closing moments of the first half, with oriol ripol fortuny scoring a try, which was converted by hodgson. sale went into halftime leading leicester 23 points to 10.

penalty kicks were exchanged in the early stages of the second half, with leicester's goode kicking one in the 43rd minute, with hodgson kicking one in the 45th minute for the sharks. hodgson got another penalty goal in the 48th minute, extending the sharks' lead over leicester.

in the 63rd minute, charlie hodgson kicked another penalty goal for sale, furthering the lead, with less than 20 minutes left in the final. in the 70th minute, with 10 minutes remaining on the clock, charlie hodgson landed a drop goal. leicester replied with a try in james hamilton in the 74th minute, although it may have been too late, goode converted the try. sale got more points on the board in the 78th minute, with hodgson landing another penalty goal. in the final moments of the game, chris mayor scored a try, which was converted by valentin courrent.


israeli air force attacks militant bases in lebanon

lebanese officials have stated that jets from israel have bombed the bases of a palestinian militant group near beirut. reports say missiles were fired at camps run by the pflp a few hours after an israeli soldier was hurt when a rocket which was fired from lebanon hit an army base near the israeli town of safed. 

israeli officials stated that they were holding the government of lebanon responsible for the attack that originated from within the latter country's borders. according to the associated press, israel is going to make an official complaint to the united nations security council. a spokeswoman for the israeli army said, "the state of israel holds the lebanese government responsible for any terror attack emanating from its territory."

no militant group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, although the lebanese extremist group hezbollah and palestinian militants based in lebanon have, in the past, claimed responsibility for such attacks. israel has also responded to such incidents by conducting air-operations similar to the one it conducted today. there were reports that the israeli planes fired up to eight missiles during the two runs they conducted, but there do not seem to be any casualties. 

hezbollah said israel's air strikes were "part of israel's targeting of security and stability in lebanon". 


queensland liberal and national parties move towards becoming a single party

the liberal and national parties in queensland have moved towards unification following separate meetings today. in most states of australia and at the federal level the two parties co-operate with each other to form a coalition.

the coalition is generally led by the more dominant party, which in other states and at the federal level is generally the liberals. in queensland this is reversed.

if the queensland proposal is successful it will create a single conservative party in the state. many see it as the only way to challenge peter beattie's labor government, which holds a 31-seat majority in queensland's lower house.

the idea was originally floated by queensland nationals leader lawrence springborg two years ago but was rejected by most liberals who feared such a merger would disassociate them from the federal liberals. the idea was also unpopular with national party members.

the new party would be led by opposition leader lawrence springborg, currently of the nationals, with liberals leader bob quinn as his deputy. liberal state director geoff greene said that the party would follow a liberal-style structure with branding to be "negotiated".

the news has made big shockwaves in canberra with most of the fedreal national party with mark vaile strongly against the move and queensland senaton banabry joyce saying he would sit as an indepent. 

mr geoff greene said that there would be discussions held in canberra over the coming days. it is believed that liberal prime minister, john howard will be involved in the discussions. if the parties merge, both will need to make changes to their constitutions.


activists in tunisia thrashed by police

activists from tunisia's only independent human-rights body have been assaulted by the police in that country, according to reports. witnesses say the roads leading to the tunisia human rights league were blocked by plainclothes policemen who insulted and kicked activists who attempted to breach the cordon. u.s diplomats and french lawyers, who had been invited to the meeting, were also present at the scene. no arrests have so far been reported in this incident, which according to human-rights activists, is the latest in a chain of government atrocities that include beating lawyers, jailing opponents and stifling the press.

mokhtar trifi, the president of the group, said: "it is shameful that those invited to support human rights in tunisia cannot gain access to the headquarters of the human rights league." some pro-government members of the human rights league, however, accuse their leadership of cronyism, physical and verbal violence against militants and of sidelining members who disagree with them. 

meanwhile, members of the tunisian national organisation for lawyers have begun a hunger strike in protest against the law of the supreme bar institute that was endorsed by the tunisian parliament. the lawyers accuse the ministry of justice of seeking to control the lawyers' syndicate. the government says it is committed to democracy and respects human rights, adding it has no political prisoners and that it has not jailed anyone for expressing their opinions.


two boys dead after their father throws them off hotel balcony

a father and his two sons are dead after he threw them off the loews hotel balcony 15 floors above the ground in miami, florida. dr. edward van dyk, 43, threw both of his sons, 4 and 8, off the hotel balcony and then jumped off the balcony himself. 

police say that van dyk and his wife qinuo were having problems in their marriage but were getting ready to celebrate their ten year wedding anniversary and did not have a fight before the tragedy. police also say that van dyk was attempting to get back at his wife for the problems.

according to qinuo, she heard one of the boys yelling. when she got to the room to see what was wrong, all she saw was her husband jumping off the balcony. she then looked off the balcony to find her two sons and her husband lying motionless on the roof of the hotel, two floors above the ground.

"it's unfortunate that this gentleman was so selfish and in an effort to get back at his wife he took the two most loved people in the world away from her. it's a terrible tragedy," said bobby hernandez a spokesman for the miami beach police department.

van dyk was working out of alton memorial hospital and was a doctor of radiation oncology and was employed at the hospital for just over one year. he was also in charge of the hospital's cancer unit.

"we are shocked and saddened by this tragedy and we offer our deepest sympathy to mrs. van dyk and her family," said rob shelton spokesman for the hospital. 

van dyk left no note or clues as to the reasons why he killed his sons and himself. guests in rooms near the incident did not hear any noise. the family was on vacation from alton, illinois.


interview with librivox founder hugh mcguire

old books never die. they don't even fade away. instead, their copyright expires and they are released into the public domain, where hordes of volunteers breathe new life into them. groups like project gutenberg, distributed proofreaders and wikisource digitize, preserve and categorize classic works of literature, old encyclopedias, and even periodicals.

hugh mcguire, a writer from montreal, decided that he did not only want to read these voices from the past ? he wanted to hear them. "on a practical level," he says, "i wanted to download a free audiobook." disappointed with the somewhat meager outcome of his search, he decided to create an open community website dedicated to creating spoken word versions of public domain texts. in august 2005, librivox was born. the call to action is simple enough:

less than a year later, the website features a hundred or so completed books, and 300 people have contributed chapters or poetry. "probably another 400
have done or are expected to do chapters for books not yet completed or cataloged," mcguire explains. the finished audio files, like the texts they come from, are released into the public domain and offered in the mp3 and ogg vorbis file formats. volunteers use the active forums and a wiki to collaborate. we asked hugh mcguire about the state of the project, internationalization, and the place of librivox in the larger free content community.

why did you decide to take the acoustic fate of public domain works into your own hands, and how did you go about it? 

i think that a vibrant public domain is very important to a healthy world, and so i thought: here's a way to help the cause. i launched librivox, emailed some friends and some podcasters who where doing literary stuff, and invited them to record a chapter of joseph conrad's "secret agent." things have grown steadily since. by the way, akma was the first guy i know of to do something like this, with [lawrence] lessig's "free culture." that, i think, started my thinking about this, but it took a while for the idea to crystallize.

do you personally record audiobooks, and did you already do so before librivox?

librivox was my first experience recording audiobooks. i still do the odd chapter, but i am a bit delinquent in finishing some of them these days!

is there a particular librivox book which you think stands out because of the quality, the overall effort involved, its popularity, or for some other reason?

my personal favourite is "notes from the underground" (dostoyevsky). other random good ones: 

[ed.: see the librivox catalog for a full index.]

browsing the catalog, i find that the quality of the spoken audio varies greatly from text to text or even from chapter to chapter. if someone wanted to re-record a chapter because they didn't like the speaker, would you then offer two versions?

yes. we take the wikipedia approach: if you think it should be better, please help it be so. you'll note we offer a couple of versions of some books. indeed our weekly poetry project celebrates this diversity of voice: each week a new short poem is chosen and as many readers as wish to record a version, so you get 20+ versions of the same poem, a very interesting audio experience.

besides works whose copyright has expired, there is an increasing number of modern books available under creative commons and similar licenses. you mentioned larry lessig's "free culture", but it also includes some out of print titles by publishers who are open to the concept, such as o'reilly. do you want to limit the scope of librivox strictly to old public domain works, or do you have plans to include recent works under reasonably permissive licenses as well?

we are only doing public domain works, for a number of reasons, partly to keep simplicity in our copyright situation -- public domain means its as simple as can be. cc makes things more complex. also, there are other sites, notably podiobooks.com, which are better suited to cc works than librivox. we find it makes things clear and easy to say: published works, public domain, and leave it at that.

as far as i can tell, podiobooks.com features "free as in beer" content ? material which you can download, but which isn't under a free content license. instead of "public domain", wouldn't "free content" work just as well, using something like the free content definition to limit the scope?

this needs more discussion obviously: we chose public domain because the texts we use are public domain and we didn't want to add new
restrictions, especially not non-commercial, since already our recordings are being used for a number of commercialish projects (i can't recall any specific project names, but some pay-education sites use lv stuff). that's good and well and fine with us. we don't want to have to give anyone permission to use our recordings, we want anyone to use them for whatever they want.

also, for the thing to work you need to have many dedicated volunteers willing to do the management (onerous) and many willing to do the reading. while "pride and prejudice" will attract many readers, i don't know about o'reilly's latest tome on xml... though i might be wrong.

are there plans to fully internationalize the website?

lv is a totally open project, so where the volunteers go, we go. we have books in german, italian, french, spanish, hebrew, finnish, japanese, old english... and possibly a few more. we also have a wiki, and our response to such questions is to encourage any non-anglos to make translations there, and we can incorporate into the site as needed. we have a language policy, which basically says that in general the forum language is english (so that admin know what's going on) but that if a non-english book project is started, the language in that thread can be whatever volunteers wish to use.

i was thinking specifically about things like the user interface of the website and the forums. are there plans to internationalize these? many people speak no english at all, so an english website might not work for them.

in order for this to happen we need volunteers willing to do it. we have no budget (literally zero) and our structure is totally loose and open, so if a volunteer or group of volunteers offer to do this, we will find a way to help make it happen. there is the constraint that we'd be most comfortable with active volunteers doing it, who understand the project and its particularities. 

since everything is volunteer, the current admin would have to find the time to manage this, too, but i expect if there were a serious desire on the part of some volunteers, we'd have no problem adding the text. we have a wiki, where anyone is welcome to write the text in whatever language, and then we could easily post pages up to the site.

has podcasting helped you in gaining more awareness?

sure! podcasting was the inspiration for lv ... easy, cheap, do-it-yourself audio! superb. podcasting is an important part of our distribution, but torrents and regular downloads are probably bigger.

so, do you have an idea how many people listen to your podcast?

last estimation was in the 5000 range.

besides human readers, there's also the fully automated approach of turning text into sound. text-to-speech software is getting better every year, with an increasing focus on "natural" voices.

i don't find text-to-speech very interesting. lv is about people reading to you, which is very different than having a computer - no matter the naturalness - read to you. our recordings have mistakes, fumbles, coughs, and beautiful human voices being human, reading wonderful works of literature. it's not "just" transmission of audio information, it's something much more, and something no computer, robot etc. could ever replicate. 

do you not sometimes get worried that your work might eventually be made obsolete by technology?

see above, but we don't really feel like we are in competition with other projects. many of us are working for similar goals, and there's room for many of us. personally, i am very much interested in what the "readers" get out of the process, as much as the listeners. if there are computer-generated public domain audiobooks, so much the better. there are also many other audiolit projects, and we all seem to be doing parallel stuff. i think that's great. the beauty of lv, podcasting etc. is that it's all so cheap to do - you can have your choice. i will choose a real human reading over a computer reading any day, but others might not agree. that's fine. lvers read out of love of literature, and nothing more. 

wikisource is the wikimedia project which digitizes and archives free content texts. there's also an existing wikimedia effort to create spoken versions of wikipedia articles. are you guys aware of each other, and possibly already working together?

we're aware of some of these projects, and have corresponded with some of these and others. there's so much to do! it's great that so many are doing this stuff, and that people can choose the things that interest them. this is the thing about lv (as with wikipedia etc) ... we can't control our volunteers, nor do we want to. we just give a framework, and hope for the best. 

what is the last audiobook you've listened to?

to be honest, i haven't listened to a full book in a long while! last chapter i listened to was from whitman's "leaves of grass." 




fernando alonso wins 2006 monaco grand prix

fernando alonso won the fia formula-1 monaco grand prix for the first time in his career today. 

during saturday's qualifying session, michael schumacher made a strange mistake in the la rascasse corner, when he driver locked his car's wheels, bringing the vehicle to a halt and finished the race causing the drivers behind him to lose time on their fast laps. after a long investigation the fia's stewards decided to cancel all his fast laps as a penalty for the unsporting behaviour displayed by him. article 112 of the regulations, applied by fia, prevents the f1 team ferrari to appeal this decision. thus, schumacher and felipe massa, who crashed his car earlier in the qualification, were last on the starting grid. the ferrari team decided to change the engine in both cars, because there was no more stringent penalty that could have been imposed on them. michael started the race from the pit-lane.

alonso was in the lead for the most of the race. kimi raikkonen and mark webber, who were the only serious competitors to alonso for the first part of the race, lost their cars (due to engine failure) almost simultaneously, one by one. after that alonso drove to victory with little opposition from the other drivers.

with a huge gap from the spaniard, mclaren driver juan-pablo montoya took second place.

the circuit was a great success for red bull team as david coulthard came in at third place.

there was no traditional champaign douse after the race in memory of Edouard michelin, one of the owner of michelin company died a couple of days before the race.



more earthquakes shake the south pacific

two more major earthquakes about 30-minutes apart, have struck in the countries of papua new guinea and tonga, according to the united states geological survey (usgs). experts do not believe that the two quakes are related.

the first quake struck in papua new guinea on the small island of new britain at 0312 utc and had a magnitude of 6.2. the second quake, on the island nation of tonga struck at 0336 utc with a magnitude of 6.7. no injuries or damage have been reported from either of the quakes.

"they're probably unrelated, they just happened at the same time," said geophysicist with hawaii's pacific tsunami warning center, barry hirshorn. he also said that neither quake posed a tsunami threat.

"no destructive pacific-wide tsunami threat exists based on historical earthquake and tsunami data," said a statement n the warning center's website. 

however; the statement also said that large earthquakes like these could sometimes "generate tsunamis that can be destructive" within 100 km of the epicenters and added that cities in that range should be warned of the possibility and take "appropriate actions."

just yesterday, a magnitude 6.3 quake struck the island of java in indonesia that killed over 3,000 people.


oilers make it to cup final

raffi torres and ethan moreau each scored as the edmonton oilers defeated the mighty ducks of anaheim 2-1 at the arrowhead pond of anaheim saturday night. with the win, the oilers are western conference champions and advance to the stanley cup final to meet either buffalo or carolina. 


authorities detonate bomb left on doorstep in florida

according to st. johns county sheriff's office in julington creek, florida ten homes had to be temporarily evacuated after a suspicious package was left on a doorstep of a home on west pleasant place in the city and featured a photo of the skyline of new york city and the former world trade center towers.

"we have a sept. 11 scene - a scene of new york city prior to sept. 11. after that fact, we're not going to too many specifics about the device itself, certainly we'll let atf and our investigators look at that," said chuck mulligan, st. johns county officer.

the tenants were not expecting a package and called police to report it as being suspicious. the bomb squad responded and used a special robot to look at the package and open it. when the robot opened the package, authorities saw what appeared to be a bomb. they then detonated the package two times, both of which exploded. after recovering the material, they determined that two pipe bombs had been inside the package.

"normally, even if someone has designed a package to look as though it's an explosive device, we find nothing explosive inside. certainly different today," added mulligan.

it is still unknown who placed the bombs on the doorstep and why they did it. so far no arrests have been made and no suspects have been announced. authorities have set up a tip line for anyone who has information on the case.


news briefs:may 28, 2006

the time is 19:00 (utc) on may 28th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

south pacific

two more major earthquakes about 30-minutes apart, have struck in the countries of papua new guinea and tonga, according to the united states geological survey (usgs). the two 
quakes are not believed to be related.

tunisia

activists from tunisia's only independent human-rights body have been assaulted by the police in that country, according to reports. witnesses say the roads leading to the tunisia human rights league were blocked by plainclothes policemen who insulted and kicked activists who attempted to breach the cordon.

lebanon

lebanese officials have stated that jets from israel have bombed the bases of a palestinian militant group near beirut. reports say missiles were fired at camps run by the pflp a few hours after an israeli soldier was hurt when a rocket which was fired from lebanon hit an army base near the israeli town of safed.

australia

the liberal and national parties in queensland have moved towards unification following separate meetings today. in most states of australia and at the federal level the two parties co-operate with each other to form a coalition.

united states

stardust is a nasa space capsule that collected samples from comet wild 2 in deep space and landed back on earth on january 15, 2006. it was decided that distributed computing would be used to "discover" the samples the capsule collected. the project is called stardust@home.

united states

a father and his two sons are dead after he threw them off the loews hotel balcony 15 floors above the ground in miami, florida, and then jumped off the balcony himself.

sports ? formula 1

fernando alonso won the fia formula-1 monaco grand prix for the first time in his career today.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


opposition should push for australian federal electoral reform: whitlam

former australian prime minister, gough whitlam has attacked the labor party's stance on electoral reform during a speech at the opening of labor member kevin rudd's new office in brisbane.

mr whitlam said that the australian opposition's recent record of defending the rights of citizens and improving the functioning of governance was "abysmal".

he also said that the labor party seemed to have ignored the fact that the incumbent government has an advantage in determining election dates.
"they don't seem to care that the national elections are held on the date which the incumbent prime minister calculates will give the biggest advantage to his party," he said.

"in this way, he restricts the capacity of the alternative government to choose candidates, prepare policies and plan campaigns."

as well, mr whitlam voiced his belief that labor should push for fixed four-year terms, much the same as those which operate in some australian states.

mr whitlam said the joint standing committee on electoral affairs' report last year, which found that election terms should be fixed for three-years at the least could be used to push for reform. mr whitlam added that it has long been labor party policy for australia to fix four-year terms for both houses of parliament.

mr whitlam said the issue of electoral reform was urgent.
"referendum proposals must be submitted to the electors... not less than two nor more than six months after they have been passed by an absolute majority in each house of the parliament. the issue is urgent."

mr whitlam also warned that if labor won the next election that it would be frustrated by a coalition majority in the senate. senators are elected for six-year terms with half of them due for re-election every three-years.


violence in east timor causes united nations evacuation

an upsurge in violence in east timor has made the united nations evacuate hundreds of staff members and families from the country. 

sukehiro hasegawa, the special representative to secretary-general kofi annan in dili said, "a temporary relocation for non-essential staff is the most judicious choice at this time."

the decision comes after the australian-led peacekeeping operation and the east timorese government struggled to contain unrest in dili, the country's capital. 

gang members, some wielding machetes, have been fighting along ethnic lines. there also has been looting and buildings have been razed. 

staff members and families will be relocated to darwin, australia. over 100 united nations staff will remain in east timor awaiting the arrival of more australian peacekeeping forces.

the peacekeeping operation began after an appeal by the government for international help. australian forces are part of the multinational force that numbers over 2000 military personnel. 

the peacekeepers say they do not directly engage in combat. this brought confusion from one child who said, "why aren't the australians doing anything?" 

the australian prime minister john howard said, "it's a trickier operation than some people think, nobody should assume that it's just a simple walk-in-the-park military operation -- it's quite challenging."



nsw school maintenance a &quot;disgrace&quot;: opposition

new south wales opposition leader, peter debnam has called the maintenance backlog in nsw schools a disgrace following an announcement by the iemma government to spend aud$120 million over four-years.

mr debnam challenged the government to fix the problem before the election in march next year and said that the plan was a "fraud".

in 2005, the nsw auditor-general released a report disclosing a $116 million maintenance backlog in schools across the state. the report stated that there were 1,000 outstanding maintenance jobs, ranging from leaking roofs and fraying carpets to classrooms in need of paint across the states' 2,224 government-owned schools.

on sunday, nsw premier, morris iemma announced that his government would be spending $120 million over a four-year period to clear the backlog. during the announcement, he admitted that the government needed to do more to clear the backlog. “it is part of our plan to ensure our children have the best possible education and the best possible learning environment,” he said.

teachers have said that the level of funding and time frame were not enough to clear a backlog spanning 10 years. president of the nsw teachers federation, maree o'halloran said, "why should children have to wait four years for overdue maintenance work which forms the maintenance backlog?"

"in 2005, the auditor-general identified a $115 million maintenance backlog and professor tony vinson called for an additional $90 million dollars for maintenance per year, over two years." said ms o'halloran.

opposition education spokesperson, brad hazzard said that the government's plan is a fraud and that the reason students are leaving school is because of the out-dated infrastructure.

"the announcement of extra money is a fraud because it is over four years," said mr hazzard.

"the state government has shown no foresight about the major problem that causes … students to walk away from the public school system annually - 1960 infrastructure in the 21st century." said mr hazzard.


tauranga man charged with the robbery of a bank

adam leatham, 22, was arrested on saturday for armed robbery of a cherrywood westpac bank branch last week, tuesday, may 23.

leatham appeared in tauranga district court this morning for five charges relating to the robbery.

police say that he was wearing orange overalls, a balaclava and a pistol when he stole $6300 from cherrywood at about 3:15 p.m.

outside the bank leatham was trying to hijack a car, he threatened an old man with his pistol, eventually stealing a black mitsubishi mirage. the car was later found abandoned around fairmont terrace in the glenn terrace or ridge street area.

leatham will be back in court friday.

police would like any information from anyone who saw "suspicious activity" around the bank on tuesday, around 2:00 p.m.


malaysia bans film &quot;the last communist&quot;

the film was passed without any cuts by the national film censorship board in march but the home ministry retracted the approval ten days before film was scheduled to start screening. 

the film is described as a "semi-musical documentary" and is inspired by the leader of the disbanded malayan communist party, chin peng and the malayan emergency during which over ten thousand malayan and british troops and civilians lost their lives.

the film features "interviews with the people in the towns [peng] lived from birth to national independence" that is "interspersed with specially composed songs in the mould of old-fashioned propaganda films." the film made its world debut at the berlin film festival. it also appeared at this year's seattle international film festival and the london film festival.

the ban comes after berita harian, a conservative malay daily, printed a series of articles critical of the film and the censorship board. in the first article, the reporters ask government ministers and professors to comment on the impact of the film. 




australian woman dies in backburning operation near bathurst

a 42 year-old woman has died following an accident during a backburning operation on a farm at black forest, near bathurst in new south wales' central west. according to police the woman died after suffering burns to 98 percent of her body.

a backburn is carried out to reduce the amount of material that could fuel a fire during the bushfire season. in australia, it is common for these backburns to be carried out this time of year, in preparation for the fire season.

at around 2pm on sunday, the woman and a group of people were conducting the backburn on the property when the wind suddenly changed direction. the woman tried to move out of the fire's path but tripped when she was climbing a fence where she was engulfed by the fire.

the woman was rushed to bathurst base hospital before being airlifted to the royal north shore hospital in sydney where she died at 1:30 a.m. today.


boeing delivers final 717 to airtran, ending douglas era

boeing commercial airplanes on tuesday delivered the final 717 jet built to airtran airways in ceremonies in long beach, california, bringing production of mcdonnell douglas jets to an end. 

"airtran airways would like to thank the many boeing employees for their hard work and dedication over the years and enabling us to build a world-class aircraft fleet that is unparalleled in the aviation industry," said joe leonard, chairman and chief operating officer of airtran airways.

the final boeing 717 was the 15,599th plane built by the long beach plant, the original home of douglas aircraft and mcdonnell douglas. it also marked the end of the popular dc-9 family of jets, which has sold over 2,400 units over its 41-year history.

in 1995, mcdonnell douglas introduced the md-95, which later became the boeing 717 when mcdonnell douglas merged with boeing in 1996. the 717 had suffered from slow sales throughout its history, with 155 planes ordered. in january 2005, boeing announced that it would cancel the 717 program after completing all outstanding orders.

the 717 program's demise leaves the c-17 military cargo jet as the only remaining jet aircraft built in california. some workers from the 717 program have transferred to the c-17 program. its future is also uncertain as boeing's contract to produce the aircraft expires in 2008.



in the land of the open source elves: interview with &quot;battle for wesnoth&quot; creator david white

if you've always wanted to live in a world populated by elves, dwarves and wizards, you don't need to pay for a ' subscription or buy the special extended dvd trilogy edition of ' just yet. you could instead give "" a try ? an turn-based strategy game in a fantasy setting. for the practically minded, "open-source" means that the code which the game is made of is available to anyone who wishes to use, redistribute or change it. it was created by volunteers and can be freely shared. even the multiplayer online part of the game is free (no ads or spyware either).

but "wesnoth", as it is often abbreviated, is notable not only because it is free. while its graphics are simple by modern standards, the sheer number of units and scenarios that are available for the game is staggering. this is where the "open source" philosophy comes truly into play: anyone can contribute art or new campaigns. as of may 2006, the forum where users can share and discuss their own art contained over 25,000 messages. most of this art is made available under the same open source terms as the game itself.

"battle for wesnoth" lets you command armies of units such as archers, swordmen, mages and gryphons during the course of a campaign consisting of multiple missions. typically, your mission is to defeat an enemy leader, but some scenarios let you liberate a prisoner, find a lost artifact, traverse dangerous territories, and so on. your best units can be taken from one mission to the next, "levelling up" in the process. even units of the same type vary in their abilities, making the tactical use of the right unit at the right time very important.

the game is reminiscent of turn-based strategy classics such as ' or '. throughout each campaign, the player is informed of the progress of the story. for instance, in the "heir to the throne" campaign, the player follows the story of prince konrad, who must reclaim the throne of wesnoth from an evil queen.

the game was originally designed by david white, who is still the project's lead developer. we exchanged e-mails with david about the state of open source gaming, the future of "wesnoth", and the collaborative aspects of game development.

david, thanks for taking our questions. open source games suffer from the problem that very few people have all the abilities needed to make a good game: programming, graphics, story development, sound effects, music, and so on. when you started battle for wesnoth, how did you deal with this? 

not very well. :) 

version 0.1 of wesnoth was developed entirely by me, and it was ugly. it had awful graphics, and no sound or music at all.

i think the best way to deal with the problem is to make an early version of the game which showcases the desired gameplay. then, people with the appropriate skills who like the game will contribute. this worked out well with wesnoth, anyhow, as i soon attracted a fine artist, francisco munoz, and once the graphics were decent, more people started wanting to help.

i noticed that the forum allows anyone to submit art for the game. how important have contributions from ordinary players been for development?

well, as with almost any free software project, contributions from users have been very important. in the area of art, this is definitely so, though making a substantial contribution of art generally requires a reasonable amount of skill, so the number of people who can contribute art is somewhat limited.

this has meant that the number of people who contribute art is much smaller than, say, the number of people who contribute bug reports or feature requests. still, there are plenty of good pixel artists out there, and we have had many good contributions from our community.

also, within the game itself, it's possible to directly download new campaigns from the internet, many of which have been created by players. do you think that, in essence, we are seeing the beginnings of applying "" principles to game development?

on one hand, i see the ability to directly download new campaigns as a mild convenience ? it wouldn't be much more difficult for the user to, for instance, go to a web page and download campaigns.

on the other hand, it does blur the line between 'developer created content' and 'user created content' and so, like a wiki, makes it much easier for any user to contribute to the game.

i think that for an open source game, making it as easy as possible for users to contribute content is a key way to help make the game succeed. we have tried hard to do this in wesnoth. i don't think that with something dynamic like a game, it's quite as easy to make absolutely anyone be able to edit it or contribute as easily as they can in a wiki, but we have tried to make it as easy as possible. 

how do you moderate user-submitted content? are there scenarios or graphics you have rejected because they crossed a line ? sexual content, excessive violence, etc.?

well, there are basically three levels of content acceptance:


content only makes it to (1) if the developers happen to like it very much. we don't have any firm rules as to what is allowed and disallowed, and a campaign that has short-comings from the developer's point of view might still be allowed if it is exceptional in other areas. as an example of this, the campaign 'under the burning suns' contained explicit references to religion. to avoid controversy, we wanted to avoid references to religion in wesnoth. however, recognizing the exceptional quality of the campaign, we decided to accept it into the official version of wesnoth in spite of this one aspect we didn't like.

artwork containing nudity has also been a controversial point in the past, as has violence (particularly explicit depiction of blood). we generally take the point of view that we will review each item as it comes, rather than making blanket rules.

with regard to whether we allow things onto the campaign server, (2), our general policy is that to be allowed onto the campaign server, the content need only be licensed under the . however, we reserve the right to remove content that we consider to be distasteful in any way. fortunately, our content submitters are generally very reasonable, and we haven't had to exercise this right.

our aim is to keep wesnoth appropriate for users of any age and background ? of course, it contains some level of violence, but this is not depicted very explicitly, and only parents who do not want to expose their children to animated violence of any level need be concerned. for this reason, we also do not allow expletives on our forums or irc channels.

how do you feel about games like "", where players trade user-generated content for money?

i've never understood the appeal of games like that. i don't enjoy cheating in games, and to me buying items with real money seems like cheating ? except worse, since it actually costs money.

what changes to the game or gameplay do you anticipate in the coming months and years?

well, we've avoided making many gameplay changes at all, since very early on in wesnoth's development. wesnoth is meant to be a simple game, with simple gameplay, and 'changing' gameplay will probably lead to it being more complex. we want to keep it simple.

changes will probably focus on improving existing features, and making the engine a little more customizable. enhancing the multiplayer component is big on the list ? we've progressively added more and more features on the server. we also want to add more graphical enhancement. for instance, a particle system to allow various combat effects.

if you had unlimited resources at your disposal to improve the game, what would you change about it?

wesnoth was always designed to be a simple game, with simple goals. it has exceeded all the expectations i originally had for it. there is still some 'polishing' work going on, but really i don't think there is too much i would dramatically change.

probably the largest thing i can name is a much better ai than we currently have. i'm pretty happy with the ai developed for wesnoth ? i think it's much better than ais for most commercial games ? but it could be better. that's the only area of wesnoth that i think could really be very dramatically improved.

i am pretty happy with our in-game graphics. some people compare our graphics to modern commercial games, and think our graphics are laughably poor. we often get comments that our graphics are around the same quality as those seen in snes or genesis games, or pc games from a decade ago. (these people should try playing a strategy game on the snes/genesis/pc from this long ago; wesnoth's graphics are much better).

i am very happy with our graphics overall. i think our artists have done an excellent job of making the game look attractive without detracting from functionality. adding 3d graphics, or changing the style of the 2d graphics would only be wasted effort in my mind ? i think we've achieved a great balance of making the game easy and clear, while making it look good.

with unlimited resources, i would like some more storyline/cutscene images, and a nice new title screen, but these are relatively small concerns i think.

there are some enhancements to multiplayer i would like added ? multiplayer campaigns is a long-time feature request. as are more options and features on the multiplayer server.

overall though, if i had 'unlimited resources', i'd much rather develop an entirely new game. we don't have enough good open source games ? it's a waste to pour all the resources we have into one. :) 

wesnoth has dwarves with guns, "world of warcraft" has gnomes and goblins with explosives and flying machines ? where do you, personally, define the limits of the fantasy genre? are there scenarios playing in a steampunk world, or ones with modern technology? would you allow those?

actually we have dwarves with 'thundersticks' :) ? mysterious weapons that make a loud sound and do lots of damage, but are clumsy and unreliable. the developers do not comment on whether or not these 'thundersticks' are or are not like 'guns' on earth. we like to keep wesnoth slightly mysterious, and leave some things up to the player's interpretation, rather than spell it out.

we once used to have dragoons with pistols, and other weapons like that, but we made a very intentional decision to remove them.

i don't like categorizing things into 'genres'. many people debate whether wesnoth is an 'rpg', or 'strategy game', etc. i think the debate of what genre something is in is largely irrelevant.

we do have a vision for what the world of wesnoth is like though ? and wesnoth is a world of ancient-era weaponry, with a little magic. of elves and dwarves and orcs. very much inspired by tolkien. i actually originally chose this setting because my focus was on technical excellence ? writing a good, solid engine ? not on creating a new fantasy world. i decided to stick with a very well-known, proven theme, figuring i couldn't go wrong with it.

we probably wouldn't allow anything that departs dramatically from the world we've made into the official version of the game, but we'd be happy to have it on our campaign server. the main attempt at a 'total modification' of wesnoth is a project known as spacenoth, which has a sci-fi/futuristic theme.

at this time though, there is no release of this project. i hope they do well though.

how do you feel about turn-based games like "heroes of might and magic" with their massive army-building and resource management? do you think there's going to be an open source equivalent of this type of game soon?

i haven't played heroes of might and magic very much. the few times i have played it, i thought it was boring to be honest. i don't like the type of game where one marches armies around a 'large map' and then must 'zoom in' to a different 'battle field' every time a battle takes place. i find games like that to take far too long, and tend to become tedious.

i would prefer a civilization or perhaps colonization type game. freeciv is nice, though it's close to being a clone of civilization ii. i'd like an original game that had the same sort of theme as civilization, but with new and innovative rules.

every online game and community is also a social space. have you met interesting people through wesnoth whom you would not have met otherwise? are there other stories you can tell from the community ? have there been real world meetups, chat rooms, etc.?

i've come into contact with lots of very interesting people through wesnoth, and have learned a great deal from them. the wesnoth developers ? many of whom are from europe ? used the lsm conference in france in 2004 as an opportunity to meet each other. nekeme, an organization dedicated to developing and promotion free games was kind enough to sponsor two developers to go. unfortunately, i was not able to attend, but the developers who did had a very nice time.

we have several irc channels on irc.freenode.net, and the most popular ones ? #wesnoth and #wesnoth-dev are usually fairly busy with both discussion about wesnoth, and friendly discussion of other topics.

also, the developers have tried to make a habit of playing "co-operative multiplayer" games against the ai. during these games, we use the in-game chat facility to get to know each other better, and discuss improvements to the game.

are there other open source games that have personally impressed you, or that you enjoy playing?

i'm afraid i haven't played many. i like rpgs, and i know lots of people love and similar games, but i much prefer party-based and generally more storyline-oriented rpgs.

freeciv is pretty well-done, though i am happy to play commercial games, and so i think civilization 3 and civilization 4 are both technically superior in virtually every regard. i think that's an inevitable problem when you make an open source game a straight clone of a commercial game.

probably the most promising open source game i've seen is , but it still has a long way to go.

honestly, i don't play that many games. i like playing commercial rpgs, usually console-based, with my wife, and i occasionally like playing the commercial series. to play an open source game, it'd have to be very good, and appeal to my tastes, and i haven't found any open source games like that, sadly.



indian supreme court issues notice to government over quota issue

a vacation bench of the indian supreme court comprising justices arijit pasayat and l.s panta issued a notice to the central government questioning the basis for the government's decision to reserve 27% of the seats in universities for members of the other backward class group of castes. the notice also asked the government to explain how this move would be implemented without depriving meritorious students from the "forward" castes their fair chance at securing seats. the court also wanted the centre to explain the basis on which castes would be classified as "backward" or "forward".

the government has been granted eight weeks time by the bench to file an affidavit in regard to this notice. the apex court also said that it would examine the effects of this policy, which, the petitioner said, would divide the country on the basis of caste thereby threatening india's integrity. the bench said that the questions posed to it had serious social and political significance and would hence be dealt with appropriately. the two petitions were filed by shiv khera and advocate ashok kumar thakur. additional solicitor general gopal subramianam, who was representing the respondents, accepted the notice and appreciated the court's view that striking medical students should return to work in the interest of the patients.

the medical students welcomed this move and have decided to start running parallel outpatient clinics from tomorrow onwards. they have however clarified that their movement will continue despite the government's assurances that the number of seats in institutes will be increased. the main opposition party, the bjp has said that it supports the reservation policy, but that financially disadvantaged students from the "forward" castes should also be given consideration.


fan resurrects sitcom

a fan that set up his own company and bought the rights of his favourite sitcom has today released the dvd.

craig robins, 41, was so frustrated that "joking apart", originally shown on bbc two in 1993, had not been released that he secured the rights from the bbc and did it himself. as a video technician, he was able to produce the dvd, and has established a label to sell the product.

he is thought to be the first individual to have achieved such a feat.

"joking apart" was written by steven moffat, best known for writing coupling and some episodes of the new "doctor who." it is based upon the collapse of moffat’s first marriage.

the show stars robert bathurst, who played david in "cold feet", and fiona gillies, who appeared in "peak practice". the cast members say that people who remember the show often approach them. bathurst, gillies, moffat and co-star tracie bennett recorded interviews and a commentary for the disc in central london in january.

the disc, available from today, is being distributed via robins’ website. he hopes to release further forgotten classics.

moffat says: "i would be absolutely delighted if this was a success."




iraq roadside bomb kills four, including two journalists

a roadside bomb in the iraq capital baghdad has killed four people, including two journalists working for television network cbs. the two journalists, cameraman paul douglas and soundman james brolan, both british, were embedded with the american 4th infantry division and were on a routine patrol when a nearby car packed with explosives was detonated. a u.s. army officer and an iraqi interpreter were also killed. cbs correspondent kimberly dozier, who the journalists were working with, was seriously injured and was flown to an u.s. military hospital to receive surgery.

with the addition of these two journalists, iraq is now "the deadliest war for reporters in the past century", according to , the total coming to seventy-one. this compares to sixty-nine reporters killed during world war two, and sixty-three in .

cbs president sean mcmanus said it was "a devastating loss".



australian pm doesn't support queensland party amalgamation

the highest ranking member of the liberal party of australia, prime minister john howard has said he would not support a joining together of the queensland liberal and national parties. 

the prime minister said, pointedly: "there is one thing that i will fight for to my last political breath, is to preserve the nationwide unity of the liberal party of australia. i don’t want any arrangement that in any way disturbs that". mr howard's statements come after the queensland branches of both parties held separate meetings where the proposal to amalgamate them was supported in-principle.

in an interview with abc radio yesterday, mr howard said there had only been an agreement made to discuss whether a merger of the two parties should occur and that nothing was concrete at this stage. mr howard warned that the proposal would need to be discussed with both parties at a federal level and that the state's decision would not be able to be made in isolation.

the australian leader said that as the leader of the liberal party he would not support any move that would dilute the party's identity. "now speaking for myself as leader of the liberal party throughout the country, i am totally opposed to anything that would alter the existing identity of the liberal party," he said.

"i am opposed to any new name for the liberal party in queensland, i don’t want new liberals, or old liberals, i just want the liberal party of australia operating throughout the country" mr howard told abc radio.

mr howard said that he believes the coalition between the liberal and national parties had served him well over the past ten years and that he supports a close relationship between the two parties.

the prime minister hinted that the only merger he would support would be one in which the liberal party takes over the national party. he said he would not support a new conservative party in the state.

while quick to say that he was not wishing for national party members to quit the national party and join the liberals, it was noted mr howard did not say he was opposed to the idea.

in the statesman's view the queensland liberals are part of a nation-wide party, and mr howard vowed to fight any proposal that would split them from the rest of the country. 

australia's highest ranked national party member, deputy prime minister mark vaile has said that he sees little need for change. he told abc radio that he believes the coalition have a "winning formula" federally. mr vaile also said he had concerns about how the proposal could affect the coalition at the federal level.

mr vaile said that the decision to merge would be left to the national party's queensland members. he said that the national party operates differently to other parties in that it is based at a divisional level within each state and then forms together federally. essentially, each state branch can operate differently from others so long as it fits into the federal system.


new zealand to get new postal codes

new zealand post is set to new bring in four digit postal codes for new zealand, at a cost of $80 million (nzd).

the new zealand herald reported that a new postal code system will be revealed wednesday, may 31.

there will be 1800 different zones and an automatic mail sorter will sort the mail into 10,000 different mailboxes within the new zones.

on thursday everyone will get a sheet in their mailbox explaining the changes.

new zealand post communications spokesman richard maclean said that hundreds of jobs will be lost, mainly in provincial areas such as tauranga, taupo and new plymouth.


earthquake kills thousands in indonesia

an earthquake measuring 6.3 struck indonesia's and early on saturday morning, killing at least 5,427 people, and injuring thousands more. severe damage has been reported in the city of yogyakarta, with over three thousand buildings having collapsed and electricity and communications links broken. the (usgs) reports that the quake struck at 5:54 a.m. local time (2254 utc friday) and the epicentre was offshore, approximately 25 km (15 miles) southwest of the city.

nearby , which has seen increased activity in recent weeks, had emitted a large cloud of purple smoke and shortly before the earthquake, and vulcanologists have confirmed that the earthquake has increased the volcano's activity. indonesia lies on the , a zone containing the boundaries of tectonic plate that encircles the basin of the pacific ocean, and is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

hospital efforts were being hampered by , which the usgs have measured as being up to 4.8 in , and currently by a lack of doctors, beds, and medical supplies. the indonesian transport minister hatta radjasa has said that the earthquake has damaged the yogyakarta , closing it to air traffic until at least sunday.

many countries have offered aid to the devastated region, with the united kingdom offering three million pounds ($5,600,000 u.s), australia offering three million australian dollars ($2,270,000 u.s) china offering two million u.s dollars, and the united states, european union, japan, and offering further immediate aid. the , red crescent, as well as unicef have been providing tents and emergency supplies to the victims.

many residents spent the night outdoors, either afraid to return for fear of more aftershocks, or because they had lost their homes. in the bantul district, up to 80% of houses were destroyed, leaving an estimated 150,000 homeless. the indonesian president, , visited the disaster area and has called in the army to assist in rescue efforts.



toronto transit workers strike illegally

some service in the greater toronto area continued through other transit services, but was of limited use without a link to downtown toronto.

ttc workers said they'd been locked out, but toronto mayor david miller and the ontario labour relations board ruled yesterday afternoon that the walkout was illegal and ordered employees back to work. they complied with this order. they had not complied with a cease-and-desist order issued that morning.

service resumed sporadically during the evening (after rush hour) and is expected to continue as normal today.



u.s. military truck crash kills civilians; kabul riots

a u.s. military spokesman, lieutenant colonel paul fitzpatrick, said no u.s. troops had been hurt, and that an investigation has begun into the incident. 

the u.s. military also said the crash was caused by brake failure but afghans often complain about aggressive driving tactics of the u.s. military. convoys often pass through crowded areas at high speed and occasionally disregard road rules. u.s. military says such driving is necessary to protect the troops from attack. 

afghan rioters also claimed u.s. troops had shot and killed civilians at the scene of the accident. 

chanting "death to america," rioters stoned the u.s. convoy involved in the accident monday before heading to the center of kabul where they ransacked offices of international aid groups and searched for foreigners. smoke billowed from burning buildings along the path of destruction.



dutch pedophiles set to go political

a group of pedophiles in the netherlands will make a political party tomorrow, may 31. the party titled "naastenliefde, vrijheid en diversiteit (nvd)" - neighbourly love, freedom and diversity - is set to enter the 2007 "tweede kamer" (lower house) elections, though they are not expected to gain any seats.

controversially, the party - or nvd - wants to abolish the legal minimum age for youth sexual contact with other youth, lower the legal minimum age for sexual contact with adults to 12, then eventually abolish age restrictions altogether. the members think, contrary to established law protecting minors from sexual abuse, legalising voluntary sex at a young age will diminish the risk of excesses. 

ad van den berg, one of the pedophile party's founders, says: "forbidding it will only feed the curiosity of children. (...) raising children also means letting them get acquainted with sex." the minimum ages for youth-youth sex and youth-adult sex in the netherlands currently stands at 16 and 18 respectively. 

the nvd also wants to decriminalise much of the porn industry with plans to legalize the possession of child pornography. they want to lower the minimum age for participation in a pornography production; this currently stands at 18, but the group wants the age to be lowered to 12. the child sex advocates from the nvp say any child who is sexually active at age 12 could voluntarily act in a porn movie. 

the party also wants to establish a child pornography "hallmark", which would somehow ensure involvement of minors in a specific production was voluntary. 

ireen van engelen exposes the underlying motives of the small but radical group of pedophile campaigners: "they make it appear as if they wish for more rights for children, but their stance that children from age 12 up should be allowed to enter into sexual contacts of course only serves their own interest."

political scientist joop van holsteyn thinks the establishment of the nvd to decriminalise acts most people find abhorrent is a trojan horse to insert the subject into an otherwise unwilling political debate. "what is ethically sound is not laid down in the law: it is an element of the political struggle. if it gains publicity, they already have attained their goal, but they will find more opponents than proponents."


operation marham:india rushes aid to indonesia

the indian government has begun to send humanitarian aid to the earthquake hit yogyakarta region of indonesia. the relief effort, named operation "marham" involves the indian air force and the indian navy and aims to deliver aid materials to the victims.

defence minister pranab mukherjee was away on an official visit to china and japan - a result of which the indian response was initially delayed. mr. mukherjee, however, on sunday night asked the defence ministry to make preparations to dispatch aid to indonesia immediately. 
on the sea, the naval vessel "ins rajput" has been redeployed from the south china sea to jakarta. it is expected to reach the indonesian capital with 7 tons of relief material today. the "ins tabar" will leave the port of chennai, india, today carrying additional aid. 

in the air, an i.a.f cargo plane carrying 35 tons of relief material has been sent to indonesia. another airforce plane, an il-76, will fly out from india today carrying a similar quantity of relief material. 

among the supplies india is sending to the victims of the indonesian earthquake are tents, medical equipment and rice. military doctors may also be sent to aid the casualties.

the indian president dr. apj abdul kalam and prime minister dr. manmohan singh conveyed their condolences to the indonesian president susilo bambang yudhoyono. 


east timor: president gusmao takes emergency powers to quell unrest

president xanana gusmao has taken special security powers in a bid to quell the violence raging in east timor. the period of emergency rule, which would last 30 days, was imposed to "prevent violence and avoid further fatalities" and lead to "rapid reestablishment of public order."

gusmao, a popular former guerilla leader, will take sole control of the army and police and also the management of the 1,300 strong australian-led peacekeeping force on the troubled island. 

at least 27 people have been killed, criminal documents reported stolen, and looting widespread in the east timorese capital, dili during the present period of unrest.

the australian military commander in east timor, brigadier michael slater has called the mobs "gutless thugs."

the decision to give emergency powers to president gusmao was taken in "close collaboration" with prime minister mari alkatiri. mr alkatiri was unable to stop the rioting that followed the government's decision in march to lay-off 600 soldiers when they refused to work, complaining of discrimination.

as the disorder grew during april and may, east timor appealed for international assistance. justice minister domingos sarmento said that portugal had offered to provide east timor with 120 security personnel by the weekend.




news briefs:may 30, 2006

the time is 17:00 (utc) on may 30th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

east timor

president xanana gusmao has taken special security powers in a bid to quell the violence raging in east timor. the period of emergency rule, which would last 30 days, was to "prevent violence and avoid further fatalities" and lead to "rapid reestablishment of public order."

afghanistan

kabul afghanistan saw the worst violence on monday since the fall of the taliban after a large u.s. military cargo truck crashed into about a dozen vehicles at an intersection in kabul killing at least 7 civilians and injuring about 40.

indonesia

the indian government has begun to send humanitarian aid to the earthquake hit yogyakarta region of indonesia. the relief effort, named operation marham involves both the indian air force and the indian navy and aims at delivering aid materials to the victims in as short a time as is possible.

australia

the highest ranking member of the liberal party of australia, prime minister john howard has said he would not support an amalgamation of the queensland liberal and national parties. the statement comes after the queensland branches of both parties held separate meetings where the proposal was supported in-principle.

united states

james yee, a muslim chaplain formerly stationed at the guantanamo detention camp, is now speaking out about his own experience and the incidents he witnessed at guantanamo. on may 22, mr. yee held a speach at dartmouth college in front of an audience of 100 people, telling from his experiences about his time at the american naval base in guantanamo bay.

netherlands

members of the dutch pedophile movement are set to found a political party tomorrow, may 31. the party, naastenliefde, vrijheid en diversiteit (nvd) - neighbourly love, freedom and diversity - is set to enter the 2007 tweede kamer (lower house) elections.

new-zealand

new zealand post is set to bring in new postal codes for new zealand, at the cost of $80 million (nzd).

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


bomb blasts near greek minister's house

a bomb exploded near the house of the greek culture minister,georgios voulgarakis, in lycabettus hill, athens, wrecking a number of cars.

the device, which the police said consisted of 2-3 kg (4-7lb) of dynamite, had been placed on a bike left between two cars.

the explosion at 7:42am (gmt +2), close to the home of minister voulgarakis, is the second time the former minister for public order has been the target of a bomb attack.

while the perpertrators are not yet known, giorgos voulgarakis, who had been receiving death threats, is unpopular with leftist parties over questions of immigration.
a trained dog of a greek anti-terrorist unit had been sniffing around the area of the minister’s home each morning. the september 2003 attack nearly burned down his house.

two primary schools and a kindergarten nearby were slightly damaged but there were no reported injuries. 

as bomb technicians searched the school grounds, frantic parents rushed to take their children home.

the leftist "epanastatikos laekos agonas"(revolutionary popular rally), is the group which some greek media have accused for today's bomb attack. no official claim of responsibility has yet been made and the police investigation continues.

all the greek parties, including the major opposition party, pasok; the communist party (kke), synaspismos and laos parties, have strongly condemned the terrorist attack.



iraq to investigate alleged massacre in haditha

the iraqi government is to launch a formal investigation into that united states marines murdered civilians in the iraqi town of in november 2005.

in an interview with the bbc, the iraqi prime minister nouri al-maliki said: "it is not justifiable that a family is killed because someone is fighting terrorists." and speaking to the reuters news agency, said "we will hold those who did it responsible."

following the announcement, on tuesday, may 30, the white house spokesman tony snow said they would make the details of the us investigation into the incident public.

initial reports from the pentagon stated the gun battle that ended in 15 civilian casualties, as well as 8 terrorist deaths, was a fight with militants. 
eyewitness reports claim that went house to house gunning down innocent men, women, and children without cause or provocation. the wall street journal reports that there is evidence to support these claims.

lance corporal roel ryan briones of hanford, california, who was in haditha on that day, told the los angeles times, "they ranged from little babies to adult males and females. i'll never be able to get that out of my head. i can still smell the blood."

while some politicians sounded a note of caution that not all facts are yet known for conclusions to be drawn, , a congressman, said in an interview with cnn "it is as bad as abu ghraib, if not worse." 

the united states president, , is said to have learned of the haditha incident from a journalist earlier this year and has already had a briefing on it from his national security advisor, stephen hadley.



man shot in rotorua, new zealand

a man in rotorua today was shot after being involved in a crash outside the rotorua international stadium.

witnesses said that one man pulled out a handgun and shot another man in the head.
witness alby king said "i just heard this big car crash, and we had a look and there was two guys fighting, and one just shot the other in the back of the head."

the man, who was shot, survived the shooting and is in serious but stable condition at hospital.

the police say they have arrested a 38-year-old in relation to the shooting, he was found in a street nearby after fleeing the scene.

the police would not comment on whether or not it was a gang-related incident.


third gayfest begins in bucharest

the third edition of bucharest's gay pride festival, gayfest, opened yesterday, may 30. the festival, which will last until june 4, consists of a series of lgbt cultural events, including film screenings, theatre and photographic exhibitions, as well as public debates about lgbt issues, and a gay pride parade on june 3, expected to attract hundreds of people. gayfest is organised by accept, romania's largest lgbt organisation, and supported by the romanian government and ministry of health, as well as various private organisations.

the main theme of the third gayfest is the legalisation of same-sex civil unions and marriages in romania. florin buhuceanu, the executive manager of accept, said that, "the time has come for romania to acknowledge the rights of all its citizens. guaranteeing the equality of rights through the recognition of gay marriage... is just a step forward." he added that, "the [gayfest] activities mark the most focused drive yet to change opinions on gay marriage in romania." same-sex couples currently have no legal recognition in romania. legalisation of either civil unions or marriage between people of the same sex would be possible through an amendment of the family code, if approved by a majority in parliament.

last year's gayfest, which included the country's first gay pride parade, attracted a significant amount of controversy from right-wing groups, as well as the romanian orthodox church. it was initially not given authorisation from the bucharest city hall, which claimed that it could not guarantee its security. approval was, however, later given due to pressure from the romanian president, traian b?sescu and the justice minister, monica macovei, both of whom support lgbt rights. 

unlike recent gay pride parades in poland and moscow, which ended in violence and were actively opposed by government officials, this year's bucharest gayfest parade was authorised by the city hall without controversy, even though the romanian orthodox church is once again expected to protest its organisation. in the past few years, romania has significantly changed its gay rights record, introducing an anti-discrimination law in 2000 that includes sexual orientation, and repealing its last anti-gay law, article 200 of the penal code, in 2001.


french 'ipod bill' seeks digital music player interoperability

legislation pending in the french parliament would require that music purchased online for use on digital music players be compatible across all players. it has become popularly known in france as the "ipod bill," after the popular music player made by apple computer, and could pit france against apple and other distributors of online music. 

the national assembly (lower house) and senate (upper house) have passed two separate versions of the legislation. both would reduce the penalties for piracy, require software companies to provide details on how their programs work, and create an agency that would have jurisdiction over digital copyright issues, including how often music can be legally copied by a customer for personal use and ensuring compatibility across devices.

unlike the assembly version, the senate version does not contain provisions that would require manufacturers such as apple and sony to open all music sold on their platforms to work on players other than their own. currently, the stores for apple and sony sell music only for use on their own players. critics of the changes say that the senate's changes would defeat the purpose of the bill. 

the two versions must now be reconciled in conference committee, a process that could take months.

speaking in support of the bill, assembly member christian paul said, "we oppose the idea that the seller of a song or any kind of work can impose on the consumer the way to read it, forever, and especially in the consumer's home. can we allow a couple of vendors to establish monopolies tightly controlling their clients and excluding competition?"

christian vanneste, the national assembly sponsor of the ipod bill, said, "in france, there are two distinct mentalities. on one side is the backwards left, which is anti-american, and on the other is the right, which thinks that the u.s.a. shouldn't be the only one with good ideas, and who want to compete with them."

after the national assembly's vote in march, apple denounced the measure as "state-sponsored piracy." they refused to comment on the legislation after the senate's vote on may 10.

francisco mingorance, european policy director for the business software alliance, said that the assembly's proposal is "about ripping off technology from those who developed it and putting it in the public domain." the business software alliance represents apple, dell, microsoft corp., hewlett-packard co. and other major computer hardware and software companies.


yangtze river in china polluted

the yangtze river, the third longest river in the world, is polluted. it supplies water to 186 cities. the river takes 40% of china’s waste, 80% of which is untreated. it is the only source of drinking water to shanghai, a city with 20 million people.

“many officials think the pollution is nothing for the yangtze, but the pollution is actually very serious,” said yuan aiguo, a professor with the china university of geosciences.

in china 300 million people do not have access to drinkable water. clean up campaigns have made limited progress because of inconsistent law enforcement. 

the yangtze is part of a plan to move 45 billion litres of water by 2050 to the north via canals. environmentalists fear the water may not be safe to drink.

the pollution has caused a fall in the biodiversity of the yangtze. animal species have fallen from 126 in the mid 80s to 52 in 2002.


states challenge ir laws in high court

high court proceedings have commenced with every australian state challenging the legality of the howard government's radical new industrial relations workplace reforms.

acting employment protection minister john kobelke said the new laws reduced the pay, employment conditions and job security of many western australian workers and their families.

the minister said the proceedings challenged the validity of john howard’s work choices legislation that came into effect on march 27, this year.

all the state governments have objected to the legislation on the basis that it is unconstitutional and new south wales led the combined states’ legal challenge.

mr kobelke said it would remain to be seen whether the howard government has the right to overrule established constitutional practise by its reliance on the corporations power to underpin its work choices legislation.

the corporations power of the constitution enables the commonwealth to regulate foreign, trading or financial corporations but the acting minister disputed the corporations power gave the commonwealth ‘a blank cheque’ over industrial relations.

john kobelke said, ‘contrary to assertions from canberra, the scope of the corporations power has yet to be judicially settled.’

"no other federal government has attempted to do what the howard government has done with the corporation's power,’ the minister also said.

mr kobelke said he believes the high court challenge will be one of the most significant constitutional cases in modern history and that the carpenter government opposes the potential ill-effects of the legislation on workers and their families.

"the laws threaten the very essence of federalism and if the howard government has its way, the corporations power will be used to sideline the states."

the high court proceedings concluded yesterday, with a decision not expected until next year.


racist scuffle on anti-obe teachers' forum

a western australian teachers’ website has come under fire by the education and training minister for publishing racist comments.
education and training minister, ljiljanna ravlich, today expressed concern about racist, abusive and offensive comments appearing on the anti-outcomes based education website plato.

minister ravlich said she was disgusted by some of the highly offensive comments made by members belonging to the group, people lobbying against teaching outcomes.

'some of the comments are obscene and, quite frankly, i worry that these people might be teaching our children,' she said.

plato has since confirmed a teacher who is employed in the non-government education sector in western australia made the abusive comments.

the plato website was established to express dissent about the controversial outcome based education system after minister ravlich insisted it continue to be used despite claims it was ineffective.

last month the ongoing controversy even prompted a response from prime minister howard who criticized the obe method of teaching school children used in wa, describing it as 'gobbledegook' and that it could be 'dumbing down' the high school english syllabus.

one member from the school teachers’ forum named, 'fed up teacher,' launched a vicious and racist verbal attack on a member who posted a comment supporting the obe system.

when the member objected to being labelled a 'nazi' and the use of the term because her parents had suffered under the nazi regime, her response drew a further personal attack.

the posting by fed up teacher said, 'the nazis had the right idea, it is a pity they didn't get to your parents before you were conceived, you really are a pathetic piece of trash that somehow escaped the final solution.'

minister ravlich condemned the attacks as disgusting and said it was just one of many offensive postings appearing on the website.

'the website is littered with insults, foul language and abusive and racist comments,' said ms ravlich.

the minister said plato has only about sixty members and as such was not broadly representative of the 'thousands of dedicated and professional teachers in western australian schools.


john w. snow resigns as united states secretary of the treasury

john w. snow resigns as secretary of the treasury. 
george w. bush has nominated goldman sachs ceo henry paulson to succeed him. if confirmed, he will be the first wall street figure to hold the post during the bush administration.



the pirate bay and piratbyran raided

a raid involving 50 members of the swedish national criminal police has taken the servers of and (the pirate bureau) ? a swedish lobby organisation that originally developed the pirate bay ? into custody. the search warrant was given on grounds of alleged copyright violation and assisting copyright violation. this move comes as a bit of a surprise, as the legality of the site has been under public debate for over three years, with the operators frequently issuing public press releases. 

"wiredfire", in an interview with rickard falkvinge, head of the swedish , is reporting that police arrested three staff members, ultimately taking only two into custody. the "associated press", however, is reporting that ulf goranzon, a police spokesman, is claiming that none were arrested, they were just under suspicion of violating copyright law.

the site operators speculate that the police wish to test the legality of the operation. purportedly, this move comes due to political pressure exerted by united states media corporations. swedish public broadcaster has backed this claim. rickard falkvinge has stated that the (swedish anti-piracy bureau) has admitted to being behind the police action, and he suspects the ifpi is also involved. tobias andersson, of piratbyran agrees, claiming that the antipiratbyran "has clearly misled the police" and "has fooled the police into shutting down its antagonists, the piratbyran. the antipiratbyran previously gained notoriety by paying an infiltrator to plant copyrighted material on the swedish isp bahnhof's servers.

dan glickman, ceo of the motion picture association of america (mpaa), has applauded the move, citing it as a reminder that "there are no safe harbors for copyright thieves". kori bernards, an mpaa representative, claimed the pirate bay to be "one of our no. 1 targets." the mpaa allege that the pirate bay made available over 150 thousand files, including summer blockbusters such as "mission: impossible iii" and "x-men 3". 

however, the pirate bay claimed that as they only host .torrent files and not copyrighted material, they are not in contravention of copyright laws. the pirate bay also served as a distribution point for freely licensed material such as some linux distributions and independent music and film.

the pirate bay claims to be the world's largest tracker.

in the raid, the police also took several private servers unconnected to the pirate bay. some have claimed that there is no legal basis for these seizures.

initially, there were also rumors that this could be another stunt by the pirate bay to promote awareness. this possibility, however, has been already dismissed and only had some credibility given the fact that approximately one year ago today they claimed something similar like this, but instead were simply updating their servers. at current there are already some publications made available by officials confirming the authenticity of the raid.

on june the 1st the pirate bay site changed its "site down" note to "site down - will be up and fully functional within a day or two".

gottfrid svartholm, owner of webhotel prq said "i was arrested for interrogation, and they begun to ask question about pirate bay, what i knew and what connections i had to it. i got no public defender, and my regular legal representative was also under arrest, so i said nothing at all". according to mr. svartholm, the police told him that they were not obligated to provide a public defender, as the crime he was accused of doesn't lead to jail sentence if he is found guilty. 

the day after the raid, mr. svartholm is trying to limit the damage for prq's other customers that also had their servers confiscated, even if they didn't have any connections to the pirate bay. 





thousands protest tuition in giesen, germany

between 3,000 (police estimate) and 8,000 people (organiser's estimate) took to the streets in giesen, germany today, protesting the planned introduction of tuition fees at hessian universities.

beginning at 1pm cest (1100 utc) students, pupils and ordinary citizens marched through much of downtown giesen, accompanied by a massive police presence, in the largest demonstration the city has seen in years.

they occupied the office of the regierungsbezirk and the city office. 

from 4 to 7pm, at least 200 people also blocked the berliner platz, the most important inner city crossing, bringing most of the downtown bus and car traffic to a standstill. the crowd dispersed after the police threatend several times to clear the crossing by force.

students unions from all parts of hesse called for the joint demonstration in giesen.

in july, the hessian state legislature is due to pass a bill that would require all undergraduate students to pay a tuition fee of 500? per semester; graduate students could be charged up to 1,500?.


tourist bus attacked by militants in kashmir

terrorists in kashmir threw a grenade at a tourist bus in the heart of srinagar, killing one person and injuring 21 others. eyewitnesses say that the vehicle, in which were travelling tourists from west bengal was attacked near the dal gate. the injured are being treated at the kashmir institute for medical sciences. 

no terrorist outfit has yet claimed responsibility for this attack, which is the fourth incident this week. this is also the second time tourists were the targets. the number of militant attacks this month has increased after prime minister dr. manmohan singh decided to hold a round table conference with the moderate parties in kashmir. 

state tourism director farooq ahmed shah condemned the attack saying, "it is a very unfortunate incident and we are trying our level best to improve the situation. however, it is unfair to say that tourists are unsafe in the valley. such incidents take place all over the world." tour operators however are concerned that attacks such as this one will result in customers calling off trips to kashmir. 



rutte elected leader of the vvd

mark rutte has been elected leader of the dutch people's party for freedom and democracy (vvd). in a close internal election, the junior minister for education beat the minister for immigration and integration rita verdonk and backbencher jelleke veenendaal.

on 31 may 2006, the party's president jan van zanen announced the result, which was broadcast live on dutch television. he announced that 28,788 people voted in this election, that is 74% of the eligible vvd members. they voted mostly by telephone and via the internet. mark rutte obtained 51.5%, leaving rita verdonk second, with 45.5% of the vote. jelleke veenendaal obtained 3.0% of the vote.
mark rutte is the current junior minister for education, culture and science, with a special responsibility for higher education and science. he was the first to put forth his candidacy and the vvd leadership and the party board backed him. after studying history and leading the vvd youth (jovd) rutte became manager for unilever. in 2002 he became junior minister for "social affairs and employment", after a cabinet reshuffle he became junior minister of the ministry for education, culture and science. rutte is generally perceived to stand on the progressive side within the vvd. he promised "to make the vvd a party for everyone and not just of the elite". his youthful and charismatic appearance has been likened to the successful leader of the dutch labour party (pvda) wouter bos. it is generally expected that rutte will stand down as junior minister and return to his seat in parliament.

the elections were called after the 2006 municipal elections. jozias van aartsen, who led the vvd until after the elections, stepped down as political leader of the vvd, after his party performed particularly bad in those elections. 


oie: china, indonesia and africa &quot;under-reporting&quot; human and animal bird flu cases

the world organization for animal health (oie) and the food and agriculture organization, both part of the united nations, have stated that some countries, particularly china, indonesia and some countries in africa are "under-reporting" the number of human cases of the deadly h5n1 avian flu (bird flu) virus, but also said that the countries are not hiding them "deliberately."

"we know that some countries might be under-reporting ... most do not do it deliberately. we are concerned about china and indonesia and africa because the virus seems to be so widespread that we could not get all the information. it is difficult to know about each individual outbreak in a back yard," said doctor christianne bruschke, in rome, italy on wednesday and who is head of the oie's bird flu taskforce.

bruschke also said that farmers lack the education they need on the virus and need to be reimbursed financially for any education they need citing that the "richer nations" should help fund the education they need and that lack of veterinary clinics, distance to them, and time are also to blame for the under-reporting.

in africa, "farmers will probably not report sick animals," said bruschke.

"their veterinary services are very weak and many countries do not have laboratory facilities - we have all the ingredients there that could lead to under-reporting," she added.

bruschke also said that indonesia may not be reporting all human or animal cases also stating that the virus is "permanently infecting poultry" in the country which makes it increasingly difficult for anyone to report outbreaks.

"i think it could be the case because in certain regions the virus is getting more or less endemic, so in regions like java, they might not report every single outbreak anymore," said bruschke.

according to bruschke, china is cooperating but she also said that "[china] is a very big country" and that there are cases of infections in wild birds.

"we sometimes see the outbreaks in wild animals - they will not always detect them. there is also not a very good compensation scheme in place so we feel there might be under-reporting," said bruschke.


news briefs:may 31, 2006

the time is 21:00 (utc) on may 31th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

iraq

the iraqi government is to launch a formal investigation into claims that united states marines murdered civilians in the iraqi town of haditha in november 2005.

kashmir

terrorists in kashmir threw a grenade at a tourist bus in the heart of srinagar, killing one person and injuring 21 others. eyewitnesses say that the vehicle, in which were travelling tourists from west bengal was attacked near the dal gate.

united nations

the world organization for animal health (oie) and the food and agriculture organization, both part of the united nations, have stated that some countries, particularly china, indonesia and some countries in africa are "under-reporting" the number of human cases of the deadly h5n1 avian flu (bird flu) virus, but also said that the countries are not hiding them "deliberately."

china

the yangtze river, the third longest river in the world, is polluted. it supplies water to 186 cities. the river takes 40% of china’s waste, 80% of which is untreated. it is the only source of drinking water to shanghai, a city with 20 million people.

netherlands

mark rutte has been elected leader of the dutch people's party for freedom and democracy (vvd). in a close internal election, the junior minister for education beat the minister for immigration and integration rita verdonk and backbencher jelleke veenendaal.

romania

the third edition of bucharest's gay pride festival, gayfest, opened yesterday, may 30. the festival, which will last until june 4, consists of a series of lgbt cultural events, including film screenings, theatre and photographic exhibitions, as well as public debates about lgbt issues, and a gay pride parade on june 3, expected to attract hundreds of people.

germany

up to 7,000 people took to the streets in giesen today, protesting the planned introduction of tuition fees at hessian universities.

sweden

a raid involving 50 members of the swedish national criminal police has taken the servers of the pirate bay into custody. the search warrant was given on grounds of alleged copyright violation and assisting copyright violation. this move comes as a bit of a surprise, as the legality of the site has been under public debate for over three years, with the operators frequently issuing public press releases.

france

legislation pending in the french parliament would require that music purchased online for use on digital music players be compatible across all players. it has become popularly known in france as the "ipod bill," after the popular music player made by apple computer, and could pit france against apple and other distributors of online music.

new zealand

a man in rotorua today was shot after being involved in a crash outside the rotorua international stadium.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


scientists discover prehistoric cave with unknown lifeforms

scientists in israel say that a cave containing an ecosystem with unknown life forms have been discovered in the israeli city of ramle. the cave was found when miners were drilling in a rock quarry.

"until now eight species of animals were found in the cave, all of them unknown to science," said a biologist at hebrew university of jerusalem, dr hanan dimantman. he also said that all of the life forms were found alive except for one.

at least eight species of unknown life forms were found to closely resemble scorpions. dimantman also said that the cave has been sealed off from the outside world, receiving no sunlight for at least 5 million years, when parts of israel were under the mediterranean sea. the life forms consist of four freshwater and seawater species and at least four terrestrial species. scientists believe that they are related. bacteria were also found, which scientists say served as food for the life forms. dna tests have shown these life forms to be "unique" and unknown in science.

"every species we examined had no eyes which means they lost their sight due to evolution," added dimantman. "this is a cave of fantastic biodiversity."

the cave has been closed off to the public so researchers can examine it further.


chemical explosion in billingham

there were been several large chemical explosions at the terra nitrogen uk chemical plant (previously owned by ici) in billingham, teesside, england. the explosions started at 0015 bst. people living in billingham and nearby middlesbrough were advised to stay inside and keep windows closed if at all possible. nearby roads were closed off for approximately two hours by police, for safety reasons.

cleveland fire and rescue previously declared the incident a "major emergency", but was brought under control later in the morning. an ammonia leak was also reported, with nearby residents noticing the smell was contained, but is not cause for concern as it ignited immediately on release, preventing any fumes getting into the atmosphere. the plant was safely shut down later in the morning.

the explosion, resulting in a fire "involving mixed gases" was the immediate ignition of an ammonia gas leak, said a spokesman for the fire brigade.

the fire was visible for up to 10 miles, and the blast was heard up to 20 miles away.



satellite images show destruction of zimbabwe community

human rights group amnesty international has released satellite images showing how the zimbabwean community of porta farm, which once housed some 10,000 people, has been completely destroyed. taken in 2002 and 2006, the photos starkly contrast the previous built-up area with the empty scrubland that remains.

according to amnesty international, residents of porta farm were given less than 24 hours notice to leave their homes. human rights monitors reported that several people died in the chaotic environment of the ensuing demolitions and forced evictions. two children were reportedly among the dead.

zimbabwe's forced evictions programme (called operation murambatsvina) has been widely condemned both within zimbabwe and beyond. a 2005 report on operation murambatsvina by united nations special envoy anna tibaijuka estimated that it has cost 700,000 people their homes or livelihoods. she was present at porta farm during the second day of its demolition, and was shocked by the brutality of the evictions.

residents of porta farm had fought eviction in the past, winning judgements from the high court of zimbabwe that they should not be evicted unless the government provided suitable alternative accommodation. however the high court dismissed a contempt of court action that attempted to stop the 2005 evictions, giving no reason.

the zimbabwean government (led by president robert mugabe) says that the programme is in the public interest and was not against the law. it has denied responsibility for the deaths.



reported bigfoot sighting in clarence, new york a hoax

hans mobius, 72, a former candidate for mayor in buffalo, new york, a horse farmer and owner of properties 1109-1121 elmwood in buffalo where a hotel is proposed to be placed, reported that he had taken pictures allegedly of "bigfoot" to which experts later dismissed as a "hoax."

while mobius was taking photos of a wooded area on his clarence, new york horse farm on tuesday, he caught the creature in a photo who was running out from behind a john deere tractor nearly 200 feet from him. the creature appeared to have two legs and have fur all over its body.

"i called my friend and said, 'i think i saw bigfoot.' i told my wife and daughter to keep it to ourselves. but my daughter said, you'd better send [the pictures] to somebody," said mobius.

mobius claims that the incident is not a hoax and that he believes that it is possible he could have seen the creature. "i don't want to come across as a nutcase here. it's the damned craziest thing." he added also saying he "saw this thing out of the corner of my eye. it looked like he might have been confused." mobius says it then vanished into the woods.

however; experts are convinced the incident is a hoax.

"it's obviously a man in a suit. look at the forearms. there's not natural taper at the wrist. it looks like a sleeve transitioning into a glove," said a professor of primatology, paleontology, evolutionary morphology and anatomy at idaho state university, doctor d. jeffrey meldrum.

"[the hair] looks unnatural. it disperses light like artificial fur would. that raises real questions about the credibility of the photos. is someone pulling a prank on him? or is it him having a laugh, just killing time at others' expense,?" added meldrum.

"there's no doubt in my mind that what we're looking at is a guy in a gorilla suit," said professional videographer david bittner, who helps to identify the authenticity of videos and photos with meldrum.

the last bigfoot sightings occurred in batavia, new york in the 19th century and in cattaraugus and chautauqua counties in western new york.


u.s. offers direct talks on nuclear issue; iran dismisses as 'propaganda'

in a major foreign policy shift, u.s. secretary of state condoleezza rice on wednesday announced that it would join european nations in multilateral talks with iran over its nuclear energy issue if iran fully and verifiably suspends its nuclear enrichment activities.

"we urge iran to make this choice for peace, to abandon its ambition for nuclear weapons," she said. at the same time, rice acknowledged that iran had a right for civil nuclear energy.

however, the official iranian news agency, irna, said in a dispatch following rice's remarks, "given the insistence by iranian authorities on continuing uranium enrichment, rice’s comments can be considered a propaganda move." iranian lawmaker kazem jalali, speaking unofficially, said that the u.s. offer "can be considered positive but the precondition set by the u.s. is not appropriate."

european union foreign policy chief javier solana welcomed rice's remarks. "direct u.s. participation would be the strongest and most positive signal of our common wish to reach an agreement with iran," solana said.

iran and the united states have had no diplomatic relations and no direct official contact since the 1979 islamic revolution in which 52 americans were held hostage in the american embassy in tehran.


taiwan mp shoves proposal in mouth

amid chaos in the legislative yuan over a proposal about creating direct transport links with mainland china, taiwan’s democratic progressive party deputy, wang shu-hui, snatched the written proposal and shoved it into her mouth. opposition members failed to get her to cough it up by pulling her hair. she later spat the proposal out and tore it up. this is the third time that the dpp’s actions have stopped a vote over this issue. 

during the incident another dpp members, chuang ho-tzu, spat at an opposition member. 

the amendment to the statute governing the relations between the people of the taiwan area and the mainland area would have permitted direct transit between mainland china and taiwan, which now has to be routed through an intermediate?usually hong kong. opening such links is supported by the opposition pan-blue alliance, which controls the legislature, but opposed by the independence leaning dpp government.

direct transport links between taiwan and mainland china have been banned after the two sides split amid a bloody civil war in 1949. the communist government in the mainland and opposition politicians in taiwan supporting chinese reunification have vowed to lift the ban, but their efforts have repeatedly been blocked by the ruling dpp, which cites national security concerns.



australian house of representatives has &quot;no rules&quot;: gillard

the has accused speaker of the australian house of representatives, david hawker (, ) of failing to be impartial.

during question time today, opposition leader, (labor, ) asked the government to confirm comments made by cameron thompson (liberal, ), which asked for prime minister john howard (liberal, ) to explain his role in the failed merger of the and liberals in queensland. according to mr beazley, mr thompson claims that the president of the liberal party in queensland was appointed by mr howard and that his actions would have been known and agreed upon by the prime minister.

the house's speaker refused to allow mr beazley to debate his question claiming it was not relevant. mr beazley argued that his question directly related to mr howard in his capacity as prime minister and to disallow his question was "shutting down accountability".

the opposition's next woe came when stephen smith (labor, ) asked the prime minister to confirm accusations that the government's new industrial relations laws (called workchoices) had placed pressure on the low pay commission to lower the minimum wage of australian workers. mr howard took the opportunity to attack mr beazley's role as minister for employment, education and training in 1993 saying that he had contempt for the unemployed.

anthony albanese (labor, ) raised a point of order, claiming that the prime minister's answer was irrelevant. this was refused by the speaker, who said that mr howard was attempting to answer a "lengthy question". mr albanese then interrupted mr howard as he was continuing his attack on mr beazley telling the speaker that the question was very specific and that mr howard's answer was irrelevant. mr albanese was ordered to resume his seat, and when he failed to do so was ordered out of the house.

following mr albanese's ejection, mr smith argued that the prime minister was not answering his question before also being ordered out of the house by the speaker. as mr howard began to continue his answer, julia irwin (labor, ) interrupted mr howard. mrs irwin was then ordered to leave the house.

the opposition found itself another member short in the house after julia gillard (labor, ) was removed for calling health minister tony abbott (liberal, ) an "idiot". ms gillard's comment followed mr abbott tabling a document written by medibank private relating to a media campaign to counter negative views on its sale. part of the document claimed that medibank private had "established a hypothetical but possible scenario: julia gillard arguing that the sale will mean higher premiums".

mr abbott joked that "medibank private sure know the member for lalor (julia gillard)".

it was ms gillard's second ejection in two days. she was removed from the house yesterday for calling mr abbott a "snivelling grub", the same term mr abbott labeled an opposition mp last week without being removed.

following the house's question time, mr abbott and peter costello (liberal, ) accused lindsay tanner (labor, ), wayne swan (labor, ) and kim wilkey (labor, ) of deliberately blocking a camera's view of mr howard during one of his answers. mr tanner said "it's not our fault he's short" and mr wilkie said that he never raised from his chair and that mr abbott needed to "get his facts straight".

following her removal, ms gillard told reporters that speaker of the house, mr hawker had double standards. "we've reached a stage ... where there are no rules in the house of representatives," ms gillard said.

"four opposition members were tossed out of parliament today. i don't think anybody watching question time could say that's a fair result."

"we've seen double standards in operation all week" she said.

she said that it was not unusual for people to walk around the chamber and talk to each other during question while government members were speaking.

"at the end of the day there is wandering around and chatter in question time," she said.

"but why is that? because the quality of what's coming off the government front bench doesn't bear listening to" she said.


ubuntu releases 6.06 lts version of popular linux distribution

the ubuntu foundation released its fourth version of the popular gnu/linux operating system distribution yesterday. codenamed "dapper drake", the release improves on its predecessor, breezy badger, or 5.10. the 6.06 lts version will be the first to offer long term support: three years on the desktop and five years on the server.

upgrades to existing ubuntu 5.10 installations can be accomplished by running the update manager program, where an option to upgrade to 6.06 will be displayed.

because the software in the gnu/linux operating system comes with permission for everyone to modify and redistribute it, there are many versions (called "distributions") of the operating system available. ubuntu builds on the popular debian gnu/linux distribution. like debian, it is made almost entirely of free software.

users quickly swarmed ubuntu's servers and mirrors trying to download the new version. the servers are currently responding slowly; moderators at the ubuntu forums suggested that users download with bittorrent if at all possible, which is much less prone to such slowdowns.

since its first official release in october 2004, ubuntu has become one of the most popular linux distributions. it is intended to be user-friendly without being insecure by design, a charge sometimes leveled against other beginner-friendly distributions like linspire. the distribution is offered for free, and cds are available for order via the internet without charge (including shipping).


military helicopter crashes into tv tower in georgia, u.s. killing four

a united states military mh-47 chinook helicopter has crashed in colquitt county, georgia after clipping a wire connected to the wfxl television tower. it is not known whether the wire was the cause of the crash, or if the helicopter was having problems prior to the incident.

according to lisa eichhorn, a spokeswoman for fort rucker, alabama, at least 5 soldiers were on board the helicopter. four of the five soldiers have been killed. the surviving soldier only suffered cuts on his hands and above his eye. the names of the victims are not known and the military says they will not release any names for at least 24 hours after family members have been reached.

authorities also say that the 1,000 foot tower "has a conspicuous tilt," said ken clubb, a chief engineer on the scene of the crash.

reporters and onlookers were being kept from the scene mainly as a result of the possibility that the tower may collapse. a reporter for wtxl, an abc affiliate out of tallahassee, fl was arrested at the scene.

investigators from ft. rucker, where the chopper was scheduled to land, were en route to the scene.


firefighters battle fire at los angeles international airport

a fuel storage tank at los angeles international airport (lax) caught fire today.

the 1-million gallon storage tank caught fire at about 8:30 a.m. local time (pdt) according to ron myers, a spokesman for the lax fire department. myers said that planes were not at risk and no flights were cancelled, delayed or diverted. no injuries were reported and no evacuations were ordered.

the fire is said to have been caused by a spark from a welder performing work on the tank. reports say the fuel container was mostly empty, but authorities are still investigating.



three terrorists gunned down by police in india

an attack against the rashtriya swayamsevak sangh headquarters in nagpur was thwarted by the maharashtra police early today morning. the militants were driving a white ambassador car and were armed with ak-47s. they were confronted and killed by security forces as they tried to break through the security cordon surrounding the building.

nagpur police commissioner s.p.s yadav said that the car was chased by police after it broke through the first barrier about 200 metres away from the headquarters. when confronted, the militants opened fire and were killed after a five-minute shootout. yadav also said that two policemen had been injured in the incident, one of whose condition was serious. the identities of the three men is yet to be established. a diary was also recovered from the terrorists. 

a high level security alert has been declared in nagpur and other sensitive areas in the vicinity. r.s.s chief ram madhav urged the government to take more steps to safeguard the offices of the organisation. this is the second time the police has prevented a major terror attack from taking place in maharashtra. last month the anti-terrorist squad had recovered 30 kilograms of rdx, 17 ak-47 rifles and 50 hand-grenades from a jeep in aurangabad. eleven suspected militants were also arrested. 



news briefs:june 1, 2006

the time is 22:00 (utc) on june 1st, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

england

there were been several large chemical explosions at the terra nitrogen uk chemical plant (previously owned by ici) in billingham, teesside, england. the explosions started at 0015 bst. people living in billingham and nearby middlesbrough were advised to stay inside and keep windows closed if at all possible.

india

a terror attack against the rashtriya swayamsevak sangh headquarters in nagpur was thwarted by maharashtra police earlier today. the militants were driving a white ambassador car and were armed with ak-47s. they were confronted and killed by security forces as they tried to break through the security cordon surrounding the building.

zimbabwe

human rights group amnesty international has released satellite images showing how the zimbabwean community of porta farm, which once housed some 10,000 people, has been completely destroyed. taken in 2002 and 2006, the photos starkly contrast the previous built-up area with the empty scrubland that remains.

united states

a fuel storage tank at los angeles international airport (lax) caught fire today.

australia

the australian labor party has accused speaker of the australian house of representatives, david hawker (liberal, wannor) of failing to be impartial.

united states

a united states military mh-47 chinook helicopter has crashed in colquitt county, georgia after clipping a wire connected to the wfxl television tower. it is not known whether the wire was the cause of the crash, or if the helicopter was having problems prior to the incident.

computers

the ubuntu foundation released its fourth version of the popular gnu/linux operating system distribution yesterday.

united states

hans mobius, 72, a former candidate for mayor in buffalo, new york, a horse farmer and owner of properties 1109-1121 elmwood in buffalo, where a hotel is proposed to be placed, reported that he had taken pictures allegedly of "bigfoot", which experts later dismissed as a "hoax."

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


two iraqi women, one pregnant, killed by us soldiers

two women, one of them about to give birth, were shot dead by us forces as they rode in a car headed toward a maternity hospital in , 60 miles north of baghdad, according to witnesses and iraqi police capt. laith mohammed.

nabiha nisaif jassim, 35, and her 57-year-old cousin, saliha mohammed hassan, were killed by the gunfire, according to the associated press. jassim, a mother of two, was pregnant with her third child; doctors at a nearby hospital tried unsuccessfully to save the baby.

khalid nisaif jassim told reporters that he was rushing his sister to the hospital for childbirth. "i was driving my car at full speed because i did not see any sign or warning from the americans. it was not until they shot the two bullets that killed my sister and cousin that i stopped.

"god take revenge on the americans and those who brought them here," he added. "they have no regard for our lives."

a us military statement released friday disputed the account. "a local national sedan entered a clearly marked prohibited area near coalition troops at an observation post," the statement read. "as the vehicle neared the troop location and failed to stop despite repeated visual and auditory signals, disabling shots were fired into the vehicle. the vehicle stopped, changed direction, and quickly departed the area."

the e-mailed statement to the associated press also expressed regret for the loss of life, noting that "coalition forces go to great lengths to prevent them."

"" reported that the women's bodies were "wrapped in sheets and lying on stretchers outside the samarra general hospital before being taken to the morgue, while residents pointed to bullet holes on the windshield of a car and a pool of blood on the seat".

the us military has increased the number of investigations into charges of misconduct against us troops, most notably following the of as many as 24 civilians in the town of , west of baghdad. initially, 15 civilians and eight insurgents were reported dead in gunfire following a roadside bombing that killed a us marine. military spokesman major-general william caldwell said, "there are three or four (investigations) at least at this time" and that they are in "the first stages." 



us accused of sinking the pirate bay

debate about the raid on the world's largest bittorrent site in sweden continues. according to the swedish public television network svt, requests for the closure of "the pirate bay" were made at a meeting between the swedish justice department, police and the u.s. government in april. u.s. officials presented issues relating to the pirate bay on behalf of the mpaa.

according to the svt report, the swedish justice department asked police to act, which allegedly claimed that the legality of the pirate bay was unclear. an official of sweden's justice minister subsequently contacted the country's head procecutor and head of police, who ordered the raid. debate is rife in sweden about whether or not the swedish justice minister should cave to us demand where the legality of the issue in sweden is not clear. the justice minister has firmly denied svt's story and having had any influence on the police action.

according to a statement on the pirate bay web site and interview with slyck news, the pirate bay plans to have the site up and running within a few days. there is speculation that the new site will be running in a country other than sweden.

henrik ponten of sweden's ip protection organisation, antipiratbyran, said to dagens industri that the main target of the raid was the anti-copyright lobby organisation piratbyran and not the pirate bay. he has since claimed that he was misquoted.

the pirate bay's and piratbyrans' sites were hosted by the swedish company prq. according to a statement on prq's website, "all servers and network equipment was seized in an act of blatant abuse of power by public prosecutor hakan roswall". prq accuses the police of not only seizing servers hosting the pirate bay and piratbyran, but also other servers which were unrelated to the two sites. prq is planning to sue the swedish government to get their hardware back and for compensation of economic losses. according to idg, 9 other sites were taken offline when police seized prq's equipment. expressen.se writes that owners of prq were running the pirate bay as a hobby project and that was the reason why all servers were seized.




fatal coal mine accident in western turkey

a mine accident killed at least nine miners in a coal mine in western turkey. a methane explosion collapsed a mine shaft about 150 meters below the town of odakoy, in bal?kesir province, near the border with bursa province. rescue work was slowed by the presence of gas, with rescue workers having to be hospitalized for methane poisoning.

turkey suffers relatively frequent mine accidents, especially due to methane pockets either igniting or poisoning miners. some observers fault old & untrustworthy equipment, or a disregard for safety regulations.


federal and nsw governments withdraw snowy hydro shares

the australian federal and new south wales governments will not be selling their shares in snowy hydro limited (the owner and operator of the ). snowy hydro limited's major shareholder is the nsw government with a 58 percent shareholding. the victorian government owns 29 percent and the federal government has a 13 percent stake.

nsw premier morris iemma announced in december 2005 that he wished to sell the state's share in snowy hydro that caused the federal and victorian governments to follow.

the proposed sale has attracted immense criticism by those who believed that the sale would affect the environment and water supplies along the , this was reinforced yesterday when 58 eminent australians presented a petition to the government opposing the sale.

prime minister john howard announced today that the federal government would not be selling its 13 percent share of snowy hydro following what he calls "intense community reaction". in a statement, mr howard said, "this decision to sell the snowy hydro has created significant unhappiness, concern and unrest throughout the australian community."

mr howard said that the sale was not an election promise by his government and that the federal government failed to see any long-term benefits from the sale. he also said that the government needed to "safeguard the interests of all those dependent on australia's iconic water resources".

the federal government has however stated that despite refusing to sell its share in snowy hydro that it will not be purchasing additional shares if nsw and victoria push ahead with the sale of their shareholdings.

despite telling macquarie radio earlier this morning that his government would be pushing ahead with the sale as it was in the best "interests of nsw", premier iemma announced shortly after mr howard's release, that the nsw government would be withdrawing its shares from sale.

mr iemma conceded that the sale would be extremely difficult with the federal government withdrawing its 13 percent from sale. "the prime minister has pulled the rug out from under the sale," mr iemma said. "the circumstances are significantly changed."

"the commonwealth decision makes it extremely difficult for nsw to proceed," he conceded.

victoria is yet to announce whether or not it will be withdrawing its shares from sale.


katharine close, 13, wins scripps national spelling bee

katharine "kerry" close, a 13-year-old 8th-grader from asbury park, new jersey, spelled "ursprache", a word for the ancestor of a language or language group, to win the 79th annual scripps national spelling bee on thursday night. close beat out 274 other contestants from 9 to 15 years old. this was close's last year of eligibility; she was one of only two contestants this year to be in her fifth year at the national competition. she finished seventh in 2005, having gotten a better ranking every year she's competed.

this is the bee's first appearance on network television, with the finals airing on abc; earlier rounds were televised in the afternoon on espn. close, who enjoys running, music, reading, and her puppy, is the first new jersey resident ever to win the competition, which she prepared for up to two hours each day. 

saryn hooks, 14, was nearly eliminated in the eighth round, with "hechsher", a symbol indicating that a food has been certified kosher. the judges mistakenly had the word down as "hechscher"; after being removed, she was reinstated in the next round after the judges received the correction. hooks, who spent six months reading the entire dictionary to prepare, came back with confidence and finished in third place, missing "icteritious" in round twelve. this is the first time the judges have made such a visible error in the televised broadcast.

kendra yoshinaga, 12, of thousand oaks, california, a favorite for the finals, was knocked out in the seventh round just before the abc broadcast began by "cointise", a scarf worn on a lady's headdress. yoshinaga said that this third national bee she's competed in felt "a lot more rigid" than the previous two. 

this year's schedule was rearranged for the abc news broadcast: previous championships have been held earlier in the day. the spellers have all been given more media attention; for this reason yoshinaga is perhaps one of the few who didn't want to win, claiming that it would be too much. she has already received her share of attention, as co-author of "the spelling bee and me: a real-life adventure in learning", a children's book about her experiences.

"people i don't know very well seem to make a big deal about it, but my really close friends know that it's not a really huge part of my life," she says, of her relative fame. keenly interested in politics and social issues, yoshinaga spent a large portion of her last two trips sightseeing in washington, but this trip, she says, has been more focused on studying.

"my mom sometimes finds words for me from books and magazines," says the homeschooler, who studied over 30,000 words in the week preceding the national bee. paige kimble, bee coordinator, wouldn't have been surprised to see her break into the top ten.

another favorite eliminated earlier on in the competition was samir patel, who tied for second in last year's 19-round marathon and placed third in 2003. patel misspelled "eremacausis" in round 7, joining yoshinaga and 6 others in a tie for 14th place. 

the studious 12-year-old has one more chance at the national finals; yoshinaga has two, as students may compete from their fourth through eighth grade years.

cody boisclair, a 23-year-old graduate student at the university of georgia, misses the competition. he competed in the 1997 and 1998 finals, placing fourth in his second try. the bee has changed since he began participating, becoming more international, and with increased media attention putting more pressure on spellers. though many critics claim that the rote memorization and drilling of spelling bees is not a particularly beneficial activity, boisclair believes his experience in the bee helped his knowledge of language rather than serving as a simple display of memory.
"i was one of those people who tried to dissect the word into its component parts, to find similarities to other words that i was familiar with," says boisclair, who began reading at the age of two. "although i did do some drilling, i tried to find relationships to help me remember words, and even tried to analyze the words i was studying as i studied them." his analysis skills led him not to a career in lexicography or linguistics but rather to graduate study in computer science.

boisclair, who spent the evening watching the bee on television while in a chat room with several other former national finalists, looks back on the competition as one of the highlights of his school years. "i think the best thing about it was a sense of camaraderie?for once, i really felt like i fit in somewhere. i was with people my age who were, by and large, 'on the same wavelength'." 
also, jasmine kaneshiro, 14, from honolulu, hawaii, was not a favorite, having done quite badly last year, did better. she moved up from 72nd place in the 2005 bee to 45th place. it was her second year. "i'm pleased with my performance this year," kaneshiro said. 

 


new zealand's taupo airport worst in the world

the international federation of airline pilots associations has rated taupo airport the worst in the world due to its “critically deficient” safety measures.

the main concern is over the complete absence of air traffic controllers at taupo.

in 2004, the civil aviation authority rejected a recommendation made by its own staff to install a flight information service. caa director john jones said that the proposal was rejected because it was not cost effective. a spokesman yesterday reaffirmed that position.

"failure to endorse the major safety recommendation of the study team would expose the director to a level of risk that would be difficult to defend in the event of an incident at taupo that might have been mitigated by an [information service]. we believe your recommendation would place the travelling public and aviation participants at risk and would be indefensible in a coroners court," study team leader len wicks wrote in an internal memo.

the new zealand airline pilots association has issued 11 "special operating procedures" for pilots at the taupo airport. the airport that had the next lowest number of air traffic controllers is that of umtata, south africa, which has five.

taupo is the tenth busiest airport in new zealand. it receives and sends out more flights than napier, dunedin or invercargill, but this distinction is largely negated by its air traffic control woes.

air new zealand eagle air general manager doug roberts, however, said that his airline had been flying to taupo for decades without difficulty. likewise, taupo air charter, which has operated in taupo for 25 years, has suffered no problems in its flights.


consensus reached on incentive package for iran

in , top diplomats from the united states, russia, china, united kingdom, france, and germany reached an agreement on thursday on an incentive package to offer to iran in exchange for its giving up .

the specifics of the incentive package were not revealed, but a delegation from europe led by european union foreign policy chief javier solana is expected to formally deliver the offer to iran in the coming days. iran would then have several weeks to respond.

in a prepared statement, british foreign secretary margaret beckett said, "we have agreed on a set of far-reaching proposals as a basis for discussions with iran. we believe they offer iran the chance to reach a negotiated agreement based on cooperation."

beckett did not mention any sanctions to be taken against iran if it refuses to comply. the united nations security council is expected to take up the question of sanctions should iran turn down the offer.

the agreement comes a day after the united states offered to participate in multilateral negotiations with iran over its nuclear program if iran suspends its uranium enrichment program. iran agreed to the idea of holding talks but rejected the preconditions.

in the first direct reaction by the iranian government to the offer, iranian foreign minister manouchehr mottaki said on thursday; "iran welcomes dialogue under just conditions but won't give up our rights," iranian state-run television reported. "we won't negotiate about the iranian nation's natural nuclear rights but we are prepared, within a defined, just framework and without any discrimination, to hold dialogue about common concerns," he said.




world conference of expatriate greeks to take place in athens

the first world conference of greeks living abroad will take place in athens, greece, between 6-8 of june 2006. the congress is organised within the frame of the celebrations for the ten years of "ecumenical hellenism" program's operation. in the organisation of the conference, the university la trobe of melbourne, australia joins with its co-operation. 

the congress is organised under the patronage of the greek ministry of foreign affairs and the municipality of athens as well as under the blessing of the ecumenical patriach bartholomew i of constantinople, the archbishop of athens and all greece christodoulos and the orthodox patriarch of alexandria, theodorus.

official guests of the congress - which will take place in a central athens hotel as well as in the zappion conference centre - are topmost personalities of the expatriate hellenism, top members of the political, religious and cultural leadership of greece as well as businessmen and university professors from europe, america and australia. 
according to the conference's organisers, an especial distinction of honour will be delivered to the mayor of havana, cuba, who is an official guest of the congress, as a result of his offer to the classical studies in latin america and to orthodoxy.

the organiser of the first world conference of greeks living abroad, is the program "ecumenical hellenism"; a result of the co-operation between the greek national line publishing house and the institute for national and religious studies of thessaloniki. 



&quot;metric tonne&quot; of date rape drug was bound for us

scottish police have arrested a man and a woman after finding britain's largest ever stash of gamma-butyrolactone. the man in charge of the operation, graeme pearson, director of the scottish crime and drug enforcement agency, called the find "the most significant discovery of the drug in the uk." 

denise caron macpherson, 45, and hanan rabin, 53, have been charged with exporting the drug, also known as ghb, to the united states between 19 april and 24 may. the news of the scottish factory comes as a us study found drug use was involved in two-thirds of sex attacks, while 5 per cent were given an actual "date rape" drug.

graham rhodes for the roofie foundation, a helpline for victims of drug rape, said: "i am very relieved this has been recovered as in the wrong hands it is very dangerous. not only is it used to spike the drinks of people to rape them but it's also used to assault and rob people."

used by ravers, robbers and bodybuilders, the base chemical (gamma-hydroxybutyrate) was taken during a raid on a house and business in west lothian. the haul would have been put on the united states illicit drug market and sold for fun and more sinister purposes.

in its non-powder form ghb is barely detectable: clear and having no smell it can be particularly potent with a few drops mixed into an alcoholic drink. once a sufficient amount of the salty liquid has been ingested the victim can be knocked out within an hour.

while ghb is known both as "liquid ecstasy" and the date rapist's "plan a", the versatile compound is also used by body builders instead of anabolic steroids, by dieters and as a sleeping aid.

in britain, ghb is a "class c" drug which means making it, holding it and selling it is punishable with up to two years in prison. the effects of rape, for which the drug is reportedly used, can last a lifetime. jane cumming, from support group crisis, said she received an average of 4 calls a week from people claiming to be victims of date rape.

the pair, who were caught in livingston, were accused of distributing the drug in scotland from macpherson's house around the same time as they were exporting to the united states, while macpherson was also charged with cannabis possession.



90 days of hard labor for abu ghraib dog handler

convicted on the first of june by a military jury for participating in prisoner abuse at abu ghraib, former sergeant santos cardona, 32, a dog handler in the united states army, was today sentenced to ninety days of hard labour and demoted to the rank of specialist. 

cardona was charged and convicted on two counts: aggravated assault, for using a belgian shepherd dog to threaten detainees with actions "likely to produce death or grievous bodily harm," and for dereliction of duty in relation to this act. he was cleared of seven other charges. 

cardona faced up to three and a half years in prison on these charges, and despite the conviction his attourney has expressed relief at the sentence. he will not be held in confinement during the term of his sentence.



news briefs:june 2, 2006

the time is 18:00 (utc) on june 2nd, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

austria

in vienna, top diplomats from the united states, russia, china, united kingdom, france, and germany reached an agreement on thursday on an incentive package to offer to iran in exchange for its giving up uranium enrichment.

iran

a car was on its way to maternity hospital in samarra, 60 miles north of baghdad. two women, one of them about to give birth, were shot dead by us forces according to witnesses and police capt. laith mohammed.

united states

convicted on the first of june by a military jury for participating in prisoner abuse at abu ghraib, former sergeant santos cardona, 32, a dog handler in the united states army, was today sentenced to ninety days of hard labour and demoted to the rank of specialist.

greece

the first world conference of greeks living abroad will take place in athens, greece, between 6-8 of june 2006.

australia

the australian federal and new south wales governments will not be selling their shares in snowy hydro limited (the owner and operator of the snowy mountains hydro-electric scheme).

scotland

scottish police have arrested a man and a woman after finding britain's largest ever stash of gamma bytro lacktone. the man in charge of the operation graeme pearson, director of the scottish crime and drug enforcement agency, called the find "the most significant discovery of the drug in the uk."

sweden

debate about the raid on the world's largest bittorrent site in sweden continues. according to swedish television, requests for the closure of "the pirate bay" were made at a meeting between the swedish justice department, police and the us government in april. 

new zealand

taupo airport has been rated the worst in the world by the international federation of airline pilots associations because safety is "critically deficient".

united states

katharine "kerry" close, a 13-year-old 8th-grader from asbury park, new jersey, spelled "ursprache", a word for the ancestor of a language or language group, to win the 79th annual scripps national spelling bee on thursday night.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


hackers hit swedish police website

hackers have brought the swedish police service's website down. it is suspected this might be retaliation for the raid on the pirate bay on may 31.

the police's website went down on late june 1, after a sent large amounts of traffic to the site, causing it to crash.

police spokesmen lars lindahl said today that a link with the pirate bay ""is quite possible, but that is only speculation"." he added that a criminal investigation has started.

it was later revealed a 17-year-old student, who claims “it only took 10 minutes”, carried out the attack that kept the site down for almost a day.




late indian politician's son in critical condition after suspected drug overdose

rahul mahajan's condition has improved and has been taken off ventilator support. rahul's ct scan report is normal and his vital parameters have shown an improvement. he will however, be kept under observation for another 3 days. "the condition of rahul mahajan has gradually improved over the last 12 hours. after due assessment of clinical status and investigation, our team of doctors found his vital parameters improving," a medical bulletin released by the apollo hospital said.

rahul mahajan, the son of late bjp leader pramod mahajan has been admitted to the apollo hospital in new delhi in a critical state, apparently after a drug overdose. rahul was found in an unconscious state in his father's residence in new delhi early today morning. vivek moitra, pramod mahajan's secretary who was with rahul at the party has been declared dead presumably as a result of the same drug. police say the rahul, vivek and three other men were drinking champagne together and were also apparently consuming cocaine. this assumption is based of the fact that opiate traces were found in the deceased mr. moitra's pocket.

doctors described rahul's condition as "critical but stable". they said that details regarding what led to his present condition would be revealed after the conduction of a toxicology test. two domestic helps rushed the men to hospital in the early hours of today morning. the helps disturbed the scene by clearing up the glasses and the bottles. traces of what seems to be cocaine were however found in one the glasses. 

rahul is currently on a ventilator and his condition will have to be closely monitored for the next couple of days. he was supposed to visit assam tomorrow to immerse his father's ashes in the brahmaputra. mr. pramod mahjan died about a month ago after being shot by his brother. rahul was on anti-depressants as a result of this.




british police shoot man in anti-terrorism raid

at dawn this morning a team of 250 policemen stormed a building in , london, england. a part of the police teams were armed, while others were equipped with chemical weapons gear. two men were arrested and one was shot in the raid made under the 2000 .

deputy assistant commissioner peter clarke, the metropolitan police's anti-terror chief, said he had acted on specific intelligence, "we planned an operation that was designed to mitigate any threat to the public either from firearms or from hazardous substances." 

the injury to the man who was shot was not life threatening and the independent police complaints commission, who have opened an investigation into the incident, say a single shot was fired. at where the man, later arrested, was taken armed guards were seen at the entrances.

the man, said to be 20 years old, who was not shot, has been questioned at paddington green police station. others at the address have been moved out - two residents have been treated in hospital for shock.

the search at the house in lansdown road is said to be ongoing. police have closed lansdown road, rothsay road and prestbury road and a blind has been erected around the premises. the civil aviation authority report a four-day "no fly area" below 2,500ft is in force over east london. 

the british intelligence agency, , and the health protection agency also had a role in the operation, which british prime minister had been told about. the raid is not thought to be linked to the london tube and bus in july 2005.

police say the raid was carried out in search of a 'suicide vest' that could be used to release poison gas. police say mi5 believe there exists 'firm intelligence' that such a vest exists.

as of friday evening, police had yet to discover weapons, chemicals or any other evidence of a planned attack.

the two men arrested are believed to be 23 and 20 year old brothers, and , both of bangladeshi origin. abdul kahar was shot in the shoulder during the raid, his injury is said to be non life threatening.


federal air marshal's cover blown

a federal air marshal decided to exit a southwest airlines flight today after dropping ammunition on the aircraft floor. the incident occurred at chicago’s midway airport.

after earlier arriving from philadelphia, the marshal was on board a southwest airlines jet bound for kansas city, when his gun’s clip fell to the aircraft floor, spilling bullets. according to southwest airlines spokeswomen whitney eichenger "he picked up the bullets immediately." she also added, "since he was no longer traveling incognito, he decided not to continue on the flight to kansas city."

because of the incident, the flight was delayed 45 minutes.



preliminary hearing against buffalo, n.y. hotel proposal delayed

in a statement, attorney arthur giacalone in charege of the case, nancy pollina et al opposing savarino's elmwood village hotel, who is co-owner with patty morris of don apparel at 1109 elmwood in buffalo, new york has said that the preliminary hearing in new york state supreme court has been delayed.

"the court appearance has been adjourned for two weeks to 6/22," said giacalone.

the elmwood village hotel is a 72-room, seven-million-dollar hotel proposed by savarino construction services corporation and designed by architect karl frizlen of the frizlen group. its construction would require the demolition of at least five buildings, currently at 1109-1121 elmwood, which house several shops and residents. although the properties are "under contract," it is still not known whether savarino construction actually owns the buildings. it is believed that hans mobius, a resident of clarence, new york and former buffalo mayoral candidate, is still the owner. the hotel is expected to be a franchise of the wyndham hotels group. 

buffalo's common council, planning board, mayor of buffalo, byron w. brown, savarino construction services corporation, hans j. mobius and his son hans s. mobius owners of the properties at stake, pano georgiadis, owner of pano's restaurant on elmwood, and cendant corporation, the parent company of wyndham hotels are among those named in the suit.

according to giacalone, the city of buffalo has requested two week extension to prepare their defense. area councelman joseph golombek has been contacted to further confirm the date change request, but has not yet responded.



oil workers kidnapped off of nigerian oil rig

eight oil workers have been kidnapped after gunman boarded the bulford dolphin oil platform off the african coast of nigeria. one american, one canadian, and six britons were among those kidnapped. the names of the victims are not known, but families have been notified. at least 84 workers were on the platform at the time of the incident.

"some unknown persons boarded the rig at 0300 local time (0200 utc) and took eight workers. one of the abductees was made to call their onshore office in an attempt to open negotiations. other than that, we don’t know who appears to be responsible or what the condition of the abductees might be," said a spokesperson for the dolphin drilling company.

gunmen boarded the platform from three speedboats firing shots from their weapons while doing so. at least twenty gunmen are blamed for the incident.

authorities investigating the crime do not know who is responsible. "we are on their trail and trying to secure the hostages’ release as soon as possible," said a spokesman for the nigerian police.

oil drilling on the platform has been suspended until further notice.


senior liberal wants centralised control over water resources

nsw senator bill heffernan wants the federal government to take control of all the nations waterways. he is calling for a referendum on this issue.

the move comes after the federal government pulled out of the sale of the snowy hydro scheme because of community opposition

mr heffernan has accused the states of bad mismanagement of the waterways, and says that a central nationwide organisation should look after them. "australians today should have great heart and great national pride in the fact that people power has convinced the politicians that we ought to retain one of the seven engineering wonders of the world in safe hands," he said.

new south wales environment minister bob debus has rejected the proposal to give responsibility to the federal government, he says he cannot see how they could manage it by themselves, "it has no particular skills to do so and we still need the states to be involved," he said.



national rugby competition to kick off in australia

following a three-day summit in sydney rugby union officials reached a decision to start a national rugby competition in australia in july 2007. the aim of the competition will be to bridge the gap between super 14 and club rugby. the competition will most likely be similar to similar to new zealand's national provincial championship and south africa's currie cup.

it was revealed that the eight-team competition will involve three teams from new south wales, two from queensland and one each from the act, western australia and victoria. the qru later revealed that one of the queensland sides will most likely be playing out of queensland rugby's old home ballymore stadium, with the other team going to either the gold coast or northern queensland.

some sydney clubs, in particular, randwick and sydney university football club were opposed to the competition, and want stand-alone status in the competition rather than being part of a cumulative sydney team, also believing that the competition will see them lose funding. businessman john singleton came out and showed his interest in having one of the nsw sides playing at central coast stadium.

super 14 players will be playing, but as there will be twice as many clubs as the super 14, so there will be a lot of available spaces for club footballers. there is no plan for an immediate draft. although super 14 players will be playing, around 30 players will be unavailable due to wallaby duties. the abc has apparently expressed interest in broadcasting the games next year.


17 arrested in canadian counter-terrorism operation

seventeen people, including five minors, have been arrested in the toronto area on terrorism-related charges. over 400 officers, drawn from the royal canadian mounted police (rcmp), the canadian security intelligence service (csis), and the toronto, peel, and durham police departments raided a dozen locations throughout the greater toronto area. more arrests are expected overnight.

anonymous sources have told canadian press that those arrested are suspected to have been inspired by al qaeda, and that they had plans to detonate explosives somewhere in ontario. according to bbc news, three tonnes of ammonium nitrate, a common fertilizer that can be used as an explosive, have been seized. rcmp assistant commissioner mike mcdonnell stated, "to put it in context, the 1995 bombing of the murrah federal building in oklahoma city that killed 168 people was completed with only one ton of ammonium nitrate.” in order to protect the investigation, he was unable to provide any information as to the potential targets, but did state that the toronto transit commission was not targeted. 

the suspects are currently being held under extremely heavy security at a police station in pickering, just east of toronto. according to rcmp spokeswoman cpl. michele paradis, “the investigation is ongoing.” the suspects are expected to appear in court today, in brampton.
they have all been charged under section 83 of the "criminal code of canada". 

the father of one of the suspects, mohammed abdelhaleen, told reporters: "i'm shocked. it's crazy - it's just crazy. it has no meaning whatsoever."

the following contains the names released by the rcmp, that have been arrested. the list does not contain the names of the 5 charged minors. under canadian law, the police may not reveal any information concerning anyone under the age of 18. it is arranged by city of residence.

toronto:

fahim ahmad, age 21<br>
jahmaal james, age 23<br>
amin mohamed durrani, age 19<br>
steven vikash chand (aka abdul shakur), age 25<br>

mississauga:

zakaria amara, age 20<br>
asad ansari, age 21<br>
shareef abdelhaleen, age 30<br>
qayyum abdul jamal, age 43<br>
ahmad mustafa ghany, age 21<br>
saad khalid, age 19<br>

kingston:

mohammed dirie, age 22<br>
yasim abdi mohamed, age 24<br>


australia in the midst of a &quot;baby boom&quot;

australia would appear to be in the middle of a baby boom, with the largest number of births recorded since 1992. figures from the australian bureau of statistics revealed that 261,400 births were registered in 2005, 6,200 more than 2004.

australian treasurer, peter costello believes his speech during the 2004 election may have influenced australians to have more children. in 2004, mr costello said that each family should have three children. after seeing the statistics for 2005, he said "one for mum, one for dad, and one for the country - it was a light-hearted way of making a serious point,"

"i am delighted that at least some families have been taking up the challenge," said mr costello.

the howard government believes that australia's aging population and low birth rates will threaten the country's economy in the future.

as part of the 2004 budget, the howard government introduced an aud $3,000 maternity payment to all mothers who give birth to a child. as of july, the payment will increase to $4,000. as a further incentive to have more children the government increased family tax benefits and from july, will allow families to claim a 30 percent childcare rebate (capped at aud$3000 per year).

wayne swan, the opposition's treasury spokesperson said mr costello isn't the reason for the boom. "i am willing to let peter costello claim credit for higher interest rates, even higher fuel prices, but i think claiming his charms have lifted the national libido may be a bridge too far" he said.


new zealand greens party has new co-leader

new zealand green party has elected a new party co-leader, russel norman at the agm this weekend.

russel normans election to co-leader follows the death of previous co-leader, rod donald.

russel norman, 39-year-old, was elected on the first ballot at silverstream, upper hutt on the greens annual general meeting.

norman was up against four other candidates, including mp nandor tanczos. tanczos would have been automatically put in as co-leader if a remit had passed stating that a co-leader had to be an mp.

dr norman will make his first speech on climate change on june 4, 2006.

"members chose me for a variety of reasons, mainly because... i focused on the main issues for the greens, around climate change, public transport, those kinds of things." dr norman said. dr norman said he would not try to fill donald's shoes but make his own mark instead. he is the greens party development coordinator in wellington. he also holds a phd in political studies.


the pirate bay back online

swedish site the pirate bay is back online following the swedish police raid of their office on may 31.

pirate bay has previously announced on their website that they "will be up and fully functional within a day or two". a pirate bay spokesperson identified as brokep told slyck news that if necessary, they'd reopen in another country. the reopened website is currently hosted in the netherlands.

the web page titles have been changed to "the police bay" and the indexing capability is reduced, with the search function disabled, though this is expected to change. all searches are now returned with the error message:

searches can still be done with google and other search engines by adding site:thepiratebay.org to the search. most attempts at downloading .torrent files resulted in error messages during the first hours after the site went back online, however torrent downloads seem to be working fairly well now. 

currently 11:00 a.m. june 6 , the pirate bay seems to be back and operational, but downloads still aren't working too well; you may be able to, you may not. there's probably a lot of traffic right now. 




shock in greece as teenagers confess to murdering 11-year old missing boy

alex meschisvili, 11, was missing from his home in veria, northern greece, since february 3, 2006. five months later, greek public opinion is numbed as the developments of the missing child case bring five children, aged from 11 to 13, to admit that they killed alex after a fight. according to the police directorate of imathia, the alleged murderers are two greek brothers, one romanian and two albanian boys.

the juveniles allegedly confessed to the act and have indicated the place where they buried the body in the center of veria, at an abandoned house just behind the municipal building. 

while the search for the finding of alex' body continues, the local police bureau in collaboration with the thessaloniki police department continue their own investigation, based on all the information available since the disappearance of the 11-years old boy, reviewing all scenarios and any relevant information. 

if there is confirmation of alex meschisvili's murder by the alleged juveniles, it will be the first known case of a teenager's murder by teenagers in the crime history of greece.


indonesian human-to-human bird flu infection may be false alarm

human-to-human transmission of the h5n1 avian flu (bird flu) virus was earlier suspected in an indonesian nurse currently hospitalised who was showing symptoms of the virus. however it is now being reported that tests on the woman for avian virus have been returned showing negative results, and that the samples are being sent to a world health organization approved laboratory in hong kong for further analysis and confirmation.

"thank god, the result came back negative," said senior official for the indonesian health ministry, hariadi wibisono.

the nurse had been in close contact with two children, brother and sister, who have died. the sister, nine, was confirmed of having died from the virus by local lab tests. the brother was buried before any blood tests could be taken, but showed similar symptoms.

it was reported on friday that an analysis has shown that the virus has not mutated, and the who has said that there was no evidence so far of human-to-human transmission.

other members of the same family are currently ill, but all members have received the tamiflu antiviral drug.

"i think it is a cluster. the local test from the victim in pamulang is bird flu positive. the symptoms of the virus are very similar to previous clusters we've had. the parents are also suffering from flu, and we are giving them a full dose of tamiflu now," said indonesia's health minister, siti fadilah supari.

"the characteristics of germ (the boy had) is very similar (to his sister's), and now their mother and father are suffering from flu. they are all in the pamulang district," added supari.

the nurse, whose initials are "c.i.," 25, has been put in isolation at bandung's hasan sadikin hospital, but officials say that her condition is stable and that her case may be the result of human-to-human transmission due to the fact that she has not had any contact with poultry.

"we could not confirm whether she is positive of having been infected by avian influenza virus or not, although she had earlier have contacts with siblings, 18-year old ad and 10-year old ai, who died of bird flu virus recently," said hadi yusuf, chief of the bird flu team at sadikin hospital.

"when she arrived at this hospital last night, her body temperature was very high, namely 39.6 celsius degrees but now it has decreased to 37 celsius degrees. after considering her contact with dead bird flu victims, we declared her a suspected bird flu case. but she is still fully conscious, her breathing problems are not too serious and she's not experiencing chest pain," added yusuf.

the names of the children and the nurse have not been released. the nurse is undergoing treatment and has been administered tamiflu. she is expected to be released when the required amount of doses is given, which officials say could be as early as next week.


montenegro prepares to declare independence

montenegro is preparing today to declare its independence from serbia in a special parliamentary session in the capital, podgorica. the official announcement comes two weeks after a referendum, where just over 55% of voters chose to support the split.

the 650,000-strong nation has been tied in this current union with serbia since 1918, and the two countries are the last to remain joined since the dissolution of yugoslavia. this evening, the alliance will come to an end to the sounds of the montenegrin national anthem, which will be played to mark the occasion.

the main feature of tonight's session is to be the reading of the official declaration, which prioritises montenegrin membership of the european union and nato. a draft version of the document states that "montenegro is determined to build its state policy by respecting the principles of the united nations, eu, council of europe and organization for security and cooperation in europe."
despite initial intentions that the event be low-key, thousands are expected to turn out in celebration of the split. among those not expected to attend the session is serbian prime minister vojislav ko?tunica, who openly supports pro-union movements. ko?tunica is not the only serbian official who is against the separation: serbia and montenegro's president, svetozar marovi?, has reputedly resigned today ahead of tonight's events.

the session is set to begin at 8 p.m. local time (1800 utc), and will include the presentation of a final report by slovakian diplomat franti?ek lipka, who is the head of the referendum's commission.



iraq rejects us probe clearing us troops of killings civilians in ishaqi

adnan al-kazimi, an advisor to the iraqi prime minister nouri al-maliki, said, "we have from more than one source that the killings were carried out under questionable circumstances. more than one child was killed. this report was not fair for the iraqi people and the children who were killed".

the u.s. military yesterday made a statement about ishaqi allegations that u.s. troops "executed a family … and then hid the alleged crimes by directing an air strike, are absolutely false". troops had been fired on and they returned fire and called in air support, which destroyed the house, killing one militant and "up to nine collateral deaths".

in march, the u.s. military said four people died when they attacked a house suspected of holding an al-qaida operative. the house was destroyed by fire from the ground and air.

the bbc has video evidence that us forces may have been responsible for the deliberate killing of 11 iraqi civilians. the videotape, from a hard-line sunni group opposed to coalition forces, shows a number of dead adults and children at the site. clearly gunshot wounds according to john simpson, bbc world affairs.

local iraqis said there were 11 total deaths, and claimed that they were killed by u.s. troops before the house was leveled. an unidentified local said, "after they handcuffed them, they shot them dead. later, they struck the house with their planes. they wanted to hide the evidence. even a 6-month-old infant was killed. even the cows were killed, too" 

also according to associated press police in ishaqi say five children, four women and two men were shot in the head, and that the bodies, with hands bound, were dumped in one room before the house was blown up.

riyadh majid, nephew of faez khalaf, who was killed, said u.s. forces landed in helicopters and raided the home. ahmed, khalaf's brother said nine of the victims were family members who lived at the house and two were visitors.

the u.s. military said in march that the allegations were being investigated. on friday u.s. military said it was targeting and captured an individual suspected of supporting foreign fighters of the al-qaida in iraq terrorist network. gen. william caldwell, a u.s military spokesman acknowledged there were "possibly up to nine collateral deaths". 
the 'collateral deaths' are:

according to there is a widespread public perception that u.s. troops can shoot and kill with impunity and iraqi leaders are too weak to do anything about it. abdullah hussein, an engineer in baghdad, says to reuters "ishaqi is just another reason why we shouldn't trust the americans", and continue "first they lied about the weapons of mass destruction, then there was the abu ghraib prison abuse scandal and now it's clear to the world they were guilty in haditha" 

john simpson, bbc correspondent in baghdad says "it's hard to find an iraqi here who has not suffered, through his family, his friends, from the tough tactics the americans use".

, human rights minister, said a fact-finding commission would be sent to ishaqi in the next few days.




researchers discover giant asteroid impact crater in antarctica

researchers have found a giant asteroid impact crater under the wilkes land ice sheet of antarctica and it may have been responsible for creating the conditions in which dinosaurs evolved, but may also have been the cause of a mass extinction.

"this wilkes land impact is much bigger than the impact that killed the dinosaurs, and probably would have caused catastrophic damage at the time," said ohio state university professor of geological sciences, ralph von fres.

"all the environmental changes that would have resulted from the impact would have created a highly caustic environment that was really hard to endure. so it makes sense that a lot of life went extinct at that time," added von fres.

the crater is over 300 miles wide and was made about 250 million years ago by an asteroid nearly 30 miles wide. researchers say that it may have caused an earth-wide extinction level event (ele), but also may have created the conditions under which dinosaurs evolved. the species that benefited include the archosaurs, the immediate ancestors of the dinosaurs.

it is thought that nearly 96% of earth's ocean life and at least 70% of animals on land were made extinct. the impact itself may also have caused the supercontinent gondwana to break, ultimately forming australia.


news briefs:june 3, 2006

the time is 17:00 (utc) on june 3rd, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

iraq

adnan al-kazimi, close to iraq prime minister nouri al-maliki rejects us probe clearing us troops of killings civilians in ishaqi. the u.s. military yesterday said that troops executed a family is "absolutely false".

indonesia

human to human transmission of the h5n1 avian flu (bird flu) virus is suspected in an indonesian nurse currently hospitalised who is showing symptoms of the virus. she had been in close contact with two children, brother and sister, who have died.

england

at dawn yesterday morning a team of 250 policemen stormed a building in forest gate, london, england. a part of the police teams were armed, while others were equipped with chemical weapons gear. two men were arrested and one was shot in the raid made under the 2000 terrorism act.

montenegro

montenegro is preparing today to declare its independence from serbia in a special parliamentary session in the capital, podgorica. the official announcement comes two weeks after a referendum, where just over 55% of voters chose to support the split.

australia

nsw senator bill heffernan wants the federal government to take control of all the nations waterways. he is calling for a referendum on this issue.

new zealand

new zealand greens party has elected a new party co-leader, russel norman at the annual general meeting this weekend.

australia

australia would appear to be in the middle of a baby boom, with the largest number of births recorded since 1992. figures from the australian bureau of statistics reveraled that 261,400 births were registered in 2005, 6,200 more than 2004.

india

rahul mahajan, the son of late bjp leader pramod mahajan has been admitted to the apollo hospital in new delhi in a critical state, apparently after a drug overdose.

antarctica

researchers have found a giant asteroid impact crater under the wilkes land ice sheet of antarctica and it may have been responsible for the creation of the dinosaurs, but may also have been the cause of a mass extinction.

sweden

the pirate bay is back online following the swedish police raid of their office on may 31.

sports - rugby

following a three-day summit in sydney rugby union officials reached a decesion to start a national rugby competition in australia in july of 2007. the aim of the competition will be to bridge the gap between super 14 and club rugby.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


bush calls for ban on gay marriage

united states president george w. bush used his weekly radio address to propose the country's constitution be amended to ban same-sex marriages. 

mr. bush formally defined marriage as a "union between a man and a woman" and said that an amendment was needed because the presence of "activist" courts left him with no alternative. he also stated that, "ages of experience have taught us that the commitment of a husband and a wife to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability of society." 

democrats have accused the government of using this as a smokescreen to divert attention from more important issues. senate minority leader harry reid said, "bush republicans would rather focus on purely divisive maneuvers than real solutions that address the growing energy crisis."

the president may be able to focus attention on a subject of his choosing at a time when an energy crisis or the war in iraq may be a distraction for his republicans and a vote-winner for democrats.

a recent gallup poll showed that 59% of americans were against validating gay marriages by law. it is possible the republicans will use this finding to gain a political edge come election time. an amendment such as one to ban gay marriage may not pass, but some assert this will be a vote-winner for the republicans during the mid-term polls in november.

any such amendment would need two-thirds approval in the house of representatives (290 out of 435) and the senate (67 out of 100) as well as the approval of three-fourths of the state legislatures (38 out of 50). currently, the republican party holds 231 seats in the house and 55 seats in the senate, and has majority control of 20 state legislatures. a similar amendment was defeated in 2004.



one week after quake, geologists fear mount merapi eruption

an indonesian government volcanologist reports that mount merapi spewed lava and ash many times on saturday, renewing fears of a devastating volcanic eruption.

government geologist subandriyo said that merapi's lava dome has swelled 56 feet (17 m) in the past week to a height of 330 feet (100 m), raising fears that it could collapse and release a pyroclastic flow of hot gases and rock fragments burning everything in its path. the quake is believed to contribute to the growing instability of the lava dome, scientists said.

the mountain also sent about 90 trails of molten lava down its western slope on thursday, said geologist tri yani.

the announcement comes one week after a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck the city of yogyakarta, killing at least 6,000 people and injuring tens of thousands more. since then, the region has experienced over one thousand aftershocks - most were weak, but some were strong enough to jolt villagers awake in the area.

villagers in the vicinity of the mountain have started performing ancient religious rituals aimed at averting an eruption. the royally appointed guardian of the mountain, "mbah" maridjan, was reported to have led a silent procession of about 100 people on a march around a village near the volcano.


nigerian kidnappers release 8 oil workers

eight oil workers who were kidnapped from a bulford dolphin oil platform off the coast of nigeria on friday have been freed. one american, one canadian and six britons were among those freed and were "in good health." the movement for the emancipation for the niger delta was thought to have been behind the crime, but deny any involvement or connection.

"all the hostages have been released. they are with the governor now [and are] looking very fine," said spokesman for the state of bayelsa in southern nigeria, ekiyor welson.

earlier reports stated that all 8 hostages were freed, but spokespeople for the nigerian police later withdrew that statement and said that only 2 had been freed and talk lead to the rest of the hostages being freed. the companies that the former hostages work for have denied paying for their freedom. 

those responsible for the kidnappings are not yet known and officials have not released the names of any of the hostages.


sex slave auctions held at british airports

the british crown prosecution service (cps) has said people are being sold into the sex trade in auctions held at british airports.

nazir afzal, the cps director, says british airports are becoming crime hotspots and "we are now seeing 'slave auctions' being held in public places at airports where brothel keepers are bidding for women destined for prostitution."

the people being traded are said to include those of eastern european origin. airports mentioned included britain's "big three": gatwick, and .

, the chief constable in charge of an investigation called "operation pentameter," said there might be hundreds of foreign slaves living in britain.

a world-scale criminal activity, police have said men or women who have visited brothels where they suspect people have been coerced into prostitution should contact the authorities in confidence.

the scandal in which british airports have become key crossing points in slave markets is expected to be discussed more fully at a cps conference on monday.


iran warns disruption of oil may be a consequence of u.s. &quot;wrong moves&quot;

ayatollah ali khamenei, the supreme leader of iran, has said that the oil flow between iran and the united states will be "at serious risk" if any "wrong move" is made against the country.

"we are committed to our ideals and national interests and if anyone threatens our national interests it will face the iranian nations' wrath," said khamenei during the 17th anniversary ceremony of the death of the former spiritual leader of iran, ayatollah ruhollah khomeini.

"if the u.s. makes a wrong move against iran, energy flow in the region will be definitely put at serious risk. you [the united states] can never maintain security for [the distribution of] energy in the region. a country with war criminal records such as the us should never again take the term human rights into its mouth. we are a peace-willing nation and our only weapon is the belief and resistance of our people," added khamenei.

however, the u.s. has stated that it wants to resolve its issues with iran by diplomatic means, but it may use military force, including nuclear weapons, describing these as "options on the table". the u.s. has expressed a willingness to join talks with iran along with germany, france, china, russia and the united kingdom, but said that it will do so only if iran ends its uranium enrichment program. iran has responded by expressing a willingness to hold talks over matters of "mutual concern," but rejected the call to halt enrichment.

"we shouldn't put too much emphasis on a threat of this kind. after all, iran is also very dependent on oil revenue," said secretary of state condoleezza rice also adding that the united states will "not allow iran to drag [out]" talks on its nuclear program. 

"we really do have to have this settled over a matter of weeks, not months, but the fact is there are two paths, and we hope they're going to choose the path that is a path away from confrontation and toward a solution," added rice.

iran is the fourth largest producer and supplier of crude oil in the world, it is party to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and it has stated that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes and that it will "not start a war."

"we will never start a war. we have no intention of going to war with any government. we have no problem with the world. we are no threat whatsoever to the world and the world knows it... the other suggestion is that iran is seeking a nuclear bomb. this is an irrelevant and wrong statement; it is a sheer lie. we do not need a nuclear bomb. we do not have any objectives or aspirations for which we will need to use a nuclear bomb. we consider using nuclear weapons against islamic rules," said khamenei.



explosion in turkey injures eight

eight people were injured in an explosion outside a shopping mall in the turkish mediterranean port of on saturday.

according to dogan news agency, the governor of mersin province huseyin aksoy said, "the explosion was caused by a remote-controlled bomb … connected to a mobile telephone." 

as shown on private news channel cnn turk, the injured were carried on stretchers to waiting ambulances. damages amounted to broken windows in the immediate area.

while radical islamic, kurdish, and left-wing militants are active in turkey, there has been no claim of responsibility for the attack. 



suspects deny london bomb plot, say lawyers

the two brothers who were arrested on friday regarding intelligence of a chemical bomb plot in east london have denied all the accusations, according to their lawyers.

in relation to the accusations of manufacturing a chemical device, kate roxburgh, mohammed abdul kahar's lawyer, said "(kahar) says there's absolutely not a word of truth in any of it. he says the police are not going to find anything because there is nothing to find." 

koyair's lawyer has denied his client has been involved in a terrorist plot.

the announcement comes after the dramatic events of friday morning, where over 250 police officers were involved in a raid on a house in the forest gate area of the city. the raid took place after british security services received intelligence of a "viable" chemical device within the property.

mohammed abdul kahar, aged 23, and his 20 year-old brother abul koyair were arrested in a dawn raid on friday under the terrorism act after several weeks of surveillance by mi5. during the operation, kahar was shot in the shoulder. 

early reports suggested that police were responsible for the injury, from which kahar is now recovering. however, one source claims that it was actually abul koyair who pulled the trigger, accidentally wounding his brother in the panic - an allegation that koyair has denied.

the brothers, who are both muslim and of bangladeshi origin, are being questioned today at london's high-security paddington green police station. meanwhile, police officers are still searching the house for a device, which they believe to be a conventional explosive with added chemical components.

due to the ongoing investigations, there is still a large police presence at the residence, as well as a layer of sheeting surrounding the building. despite the small yet ever-present chance of a chemical incident, other residents of the street have not been evacuated. 

in response to safety fears, police said that "nothing suspicious was found in an initial search of the house and that neighbours are not in danger."

bbc news reported that health secretary patricia hewitt was "keeping ministers informed" about the unfolding situation but would not comment about specific points of the investigation.



portugal beats luxembourg, in preparation for the world cup

portugal's national team defeated the luxembourgish team by 3-0 yesterday, in portugal's last game in preparation for the 2006 world cup. two goals of simao and another of figo resolved the game.

in the first part of the game, scolari, the head coach of the team, used the same "eleven" players that were used on the euro 2004. at halftime, scolari changed deco, costinha and pauleta for postiga, petit and simao.

simao was important for the win of the portuguese team. after a few seconds in the game, the benfica's player scored the first goal of the game. at the 74th minute, simao, taking a penalty kick as the result of a foul committed against figo, scored the second goal.

the team’s captain, figo, scored the last goal in the 84th minute.

the next game of the portuguese national team will be on june 11 against angola, already at the 2006 world cup. in group d, portugal and angola will also face the national teams of mexico and iran.



news briefs:june 4, 2006

the time is 18:00 (utc) on june 4th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

turkey

eight people were injured in an explosion outside a shopping mall in the turkish mediterranean port of mersin on saturday.

iran

ayatollah ali khamenei, the supreme leader of iran has said that the oil flow between iran and the united states will be "at serious risk" if any "wrong move" is made against the country.

england

the two brothers who were arrested on friday regarding intelligence of a chemical bomb plot in east london have denied all the accusations, according to their lawyers. the announcement comes after the dramatic events of friday morning, where over 250 police officers were involved in a raid on a house in the forest gate area of the city.

nigeria

eight oil workers who were kidnapped from a bulford dolphin oil platform off the coast of nigeria on friday have been freed. one american, one canadian and six britons were among those freed and were "in good health." the movement for the emancipation for the niger delta was thought to have been behind the crime, but deny any involvement or connection.

indonesia

an indonesian government volcanologist reports that mount merapi spewed lava and ash many times on saturday, renewing fears of a devastating volcanic eruption.

great britain

the british crown prosecution service (cps) has said people are being sold into the sex trade in auctions held at british airports.

sports ? football, or as the case may be soccer

portugal's national team defeated the luxembourgish team by 3-0 yesterday, in portugal's last game in preparation for the 2006 world cup.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


australian nuclear power plants rejected by states

australian media reports that prime minister john howard is expected to push a nuclear energy inquiry through federal cabinet this week. meanwhile, a list of possible sites for nuclear reactors has been leaked by the opposition to media. the locations, listed in 1997, include adelaide, darwin, perth, lucas heights, goulburn, holsworthy, and broken hill in new south wales and other sites.

west australian (wa) premier alan carpenter says the list of fourteen potential sites were a "facade to soften up western australians into accepting a nuclear waste dump." the wa premier said people would not only be surprised but "stunned to learn that the federal cabinet considered possible sites... without disclosing them to any state government." 

mr carpenter said in a media release that the document mentions a site near perth airport. "people should wake up to what's happening around australia, particularly in wa," said mr. carpenter. "only a few weeks ago, we had three prominent wa liberal mps supporting a nuclear waste dump in wa," he said. "this is all a facade in the howard government's push to soften up west australians for a nuclear waste dump." 

premier carpenter, whose labor government stridently opposes uranium mining in wa, stated his opposition to a nuclear waste dump: "i vehemently oppose the prospect of our state becoming the dumping ground for the world's nuclear waste and that is what will happen if we allow uranium mining in wa. the evidence is mounting and indisputable."

the south australian government has ruled out any possible nuclear power plant in sa. "a nuclear power plant would bankrupt our state," sa premier mike rann said. "it would not be commercially viable and would not, in my view, be acceptable to the public. nuclear power plants need giant populations to sustain them, there is no-one coming to me from the commercial sector or the mining industry or anywhere else, suggesting a nuclear power plant."

earlier, foreign affairs minister alexander downer said south australia should build a nuclear power station to run a desalination plant. premier rann dismissed the idea as ridiculous and said comments by mr downer highlight divisions within federal cabinet. he said mr downer is at odds with the federal finance minister nick minchin, who says the high costs of nuclear power would rule it out.

mr rann says south australia will not allow nuclear power. "for once i'm agreeing with nick minchin," he said. "i think nick minchin is right that a nuclear power plant isn't necessary and won't happen and i think that alexander downer is having a bit of a lend of him." 

victoria's energy minister theo theophanous said nuclear energy in australia did not make sense when the cost and problems of waste disposal were considered. mr theophanous has rejected a report that found nuclear power could be competitive with conventional energy generation if it was subsided with help from a taxpayer subsidy.

a recent report found nuclear power could compete with gas or coal-fired electricity if taxpayers helped to pay for it or shouldered the risk of its production. the ansto report found nuclear plants could be built in the next 10 to 15 years and an australian version would cost about $2.5 billion to establish. to make it viable, taxpayers would pay hundreds of million towards start-up costs, said the report.

but mr theophanous said victoria had already had concluded the nuclear proposal did not add up. "i had my department look at this and provide a report to me more than a year ago in relation to the prospect of nuclear power," he said. "the problem is a commercial one as much as anything else. it costs roughly double the price to produce power out of nuclear energy. if you're going to pay double the price, why not put in wind farms? why not use renewable energy, which is even cheaper than nuclear energy?" said mr theophanous .

the victoria government urges householders to reduce greenhouse emissions by reducing daily energy consumption. a new campaign identifies simple measures residents can adopt to cut power bills and greenhouse emissions, including turning the heating thermostat to no more than 20c, washing clothes in cold water and turning appliances off at the switch when they are not being used.

new south wales premier morris iemma has also declared his opposition to nuclear power. he said no nuclear power stations would be built in nsw as long as he is premier. mr iemma urged state opposition leader peter debnam to join him in opposing the construction of nuclear power plants in nsw. "while ever i'm premier of nsw there won't be any nuclear power plants in nsw," he told reporters.

queensland premier peter beattie says he "would not jeopardize the state's coal industry by supporting a nuclear power plant." mr. beattie has ruled out uranium mining in queensland to protect the state's huge coal industry. he said he would not support a nuclear power plant. "the state government would not support it," mr. beattie said. 

"we have the power to block them and we would block them, we would not support nuclear power. why would we have a nuclear reactor in competition with the coal industry?" mr. beattie told media.

the australian conservation foundation (acf) chairman don henry says a nuclear debate must consider climate change. "if the inquiry is just about nuclear power it will be a waste of taxpayers money because nuclear power is too dangerous, too dirty, and too slow to tackle climate change," he said. "if the inquiry is going to be fairdinkum, it needs to look at that issue: what can we do right now to tackle climate change in australia?"

australian greens climate change and energy spokesperson senator christine milne said in a media release: "instead of turning to nuclear power, australia should ratify the kyoto protocol, invest in renewable energy, adopt a national energy efficiency target and improve public transport. "several studies examining options to achieve deep cuts in australian greenhouse emissions all show this goal can be achieved, cost effectively, without resorting to nuclear power." 

greens senator rachel siewert says: "the nuclear industry is engaged in a concerted effort to be given one last chance for redemption... yet every step of the nuclear fuel chain, from mining, milling, enrichment and operating reactors to waste storage, is subject to the same human error, material breakdowns, complexity and incompetence as any other area of human endeavour." said senator siewert. "the current inventory of nuclear waste will already present our descendents with a monstrous intergenerational headache. allowing so much as a kilogram more of this material to be produced is simply immoral." 

the acf say "nuclear energy is not a solution to climate change." acf president professor ian lowe says "nuclear is too slow to provide any legitimate answer to climate change or to energy security for the developing world." the acf report that, as an energy source globally, uranium provides less power than renewables do. "uranium is inextricably linked to very serious environmental and health problems via nuclear weapons and radioactive waste. there is nothing ideological about opposing its use..."

the australian newspaper reports that prime minister howard is preparing to appoint chief scientist jim peacock, a supporter of nuclear power, and other high-level nuclear industry experts to the team. the public inquiry, to be undertaken by three or four selected experts is expected to "examine the economics of nuclear energy, health, safety, environmental and proliferation issues as well as waste and storage." the taskforce will take submissions and is expected to prepare a report to government within four or five months, with the government's response early in 2007.

the australian nuclear science and technology organisation (ansto), ian smith, says "at least three" power plants would be required. mr howard said the ansto report challenged the view that the cost of nuclear power was prohibitive. dr smith told a senate estimates hearing that australia would require "multiple power stations to make the industry viable".

federal industry minister ian macfarlane said the nuclear energy inquiry would also include consideration of nuclear enrichment plants in australia. mr macfarlane said he would consider a nuclear power plant in his own toowoomba electorate. 

prime minister john howard insisted he would not be deterred by the unpopularity of nuclear power.



portuguese military land in east timor

120 soldiers of the portuguese republican national guard (gnr) landed this sunday morning in baucau, the second-largest city in east timor, after their departure to east timor had been delayed twice due to difficulties in arranging adequate air transportation. the soldiers were received by the portuguese ambassador to east timor, local representatives and hundreds of locals.

after the landing of the aircraft that transported the portuguese soldiers at approximately 7 a.m. local time (2200 saturday, utc), hundreds of people started to enter the runway with flags of east timor and portugal. in addition to the hundreds of locals that were expecting the gnr soldiers, the portuguese ambassador, joao ramos pinto, and other local authorities received the soldiers.

both the population and the authorities believe that the presence of the gnr troops, many of whom have also served in iraq, may be essential to allow the inhabitants of dili to return to their homes.

a portuguese military column then left at the beginning of the afternoon, from baucau to dili, transporting the 120 soldiers and an medical team of portugal's national medical emergency institute, inem. now in dili, the portuguese contingent's main objectives will be to provide security in the city and its suburbs, and to train dili's police force.

the destruction of many public buildings in the last days forced a move of the portuguese headquarters from a dili police station to the dili hotel 2001, a touristy complex just outside the east timor's capital. the hotel's gymnasium will be converted to a command post. some of the other hotel divisions have already a infirmary, set by a inem team, and a communications center, set by a portugal telecom technical team, working.

an antonov an-124 airplane is expected to leave lisbon next tuesday with the rest of equipment for the portuguese force, mainly vehicles, six vans of public order, five jeeps, three pickup trucks, and six armoured vehicles, like those used in iraq by the republican national guard.

unlike the troops from new zealand and malaysia, who are under the direct command of the australians, portugal refused to put its troops under australian command. this decision was announced by portugal's foreign minister, diogo freitas do amaral, during a news conference in lisbon this friday. freitas do amaral added that early that day a meeting was held between him, an australian general, and a second unidentified person.

the australian mission "was expressly sent from london to lisbon to ask for clarifications" to a agreement that was signed last thursday (june 1) in dili, between portugal and east timor, reaffirming that the gnr group has its own operational command.

jose ramos horta told lusa news agency that the soldiers of the gnr "have to start acting with autonomy and hardness" in the entire city, dili, to reestablish the law and order. the foreign minister also told the agency that he "respects" the decision of the portuguese government to put the gnr force out of the australian command of the international force, affirming that is essential to reach an agreement this monday, so that the portuguese republican national guard "can be operational."

ramos horta added that this would be the position that he will defend in a meeting this thursday morning with the diplomats of australia, portugal, new zealand and malaysia. this meeting will define the way that the forces of the four countries will work on the country, having the troops of australia, new zealand and malaysia working under a single australian command, and the portuguese force working in an "autonomous" way and reporting directly to president xanana gusmao.

the east timorese minister, guarded by australian elite soldiers, and travelling in a civilian car, heard complaints about the lack of protection given by the 1.300 australian soldiers already at the city, while saying "that is obvious that there's a arousing frustration of the population before the apparent impunity with those groups that continue to destroy".

the portuguese military are in east timor in response to a request of help made by the east timor authorities to australia, portugal, new zealand, and malaysia. this is the second time that the special operations team of the gnr has been to this former portuguese colony, after being in east timor between february, 2000 and june, 2002.



retired indian police official shot in train

an armed gang killed a retired ips officer and looted cash and valuables from passengers in an air-conditioned compartment of the rajendra nagar - lokmanya tilak superfast express near the patna junction, an official said. the six robbers, who were armed with five guns were arrested by the government railway police karbigahiya and mithapur localities. superintendent of railway police g.p sinha said that anil kumar singh was shot when he resisted the gang's attempts to steal his belongings. 

as the news spread, railway personnel rushed singh to a patna medical college hospital where he was declared dead. the grp acted on a tip provided by one rinku, who was among those arrested in the train itself, and took his fellow thieves into custody. some articles, including wallets and suitcases, looted from the passengers during raids were recovered by the grp. 

anil kumar singh had retired from the police force at the rank of dig. he was also a practicing lawyer at the patna high court. mintu, the attacker who had fired at singh was also arrested. the train was allowed to resume its journey after being stopped for a few hours at the patna junction.


terrorists execute 19 turkomen and two kurds in diyala province, iraq

gunmen in iraq have killed 19 turkomen, two kurds and injured one while sparing the lives of four sunnis. the deaths came after three minibuses were ambushed at a bogus "checkpoint" in diyala province.

a police official said the victims were taken "one by one from their cars and executed." 12 students, as young as 15, and older men were among the dead in the attack, 55 kilometres northeast of baghdad.

some were shot as they tried to flee the scene. reuters news agency has released photographs that showed six of the victims were shot in the chest.

the mayor of qara tappah, serwan shokir, said the buses were carrying commuters from his town to baqouba where the students were going to take exams.

police questioned the sunni arabs who were not killed by the gunmen about the incident.

the killings in diyala, an ethnically mixed part of iraq, come as prime minister nouri al-maliki is working to find interior and defence ministers for the fledgling us-supported shiite-led democracy.

on the tactics used by the terrorists, police said they had created their own checkpoint near udhaim and had stopped the vehicles to kill the passengers. 



brazilian soccer team defeats new zealand all-whites

the new zealand soccer team, the all whites, was beaten 4-0 during a friendly match against brazil in geneva on monday morning nzst. 

new zealand goalkeeper glen moss put in a good effort to keep the scoreline down by producing a string of saves, but ronaldo, adriano, kaka, and juniniho all managed to put the ball past him to score for brazil.

new zealand looked comfortable early on and moss even managed to save a one-on-one with brazilian skipper cafu. however it was brazil who went into the half-time break 1-0 up courtesy of ronaldo's goal in the 43rd minute.

brazil then stepped it up in the second half and new zealand was forced to spend long spells defending.

adriano put the ball through the legs of moss in the 51st minute to put brazil further ahead, and kaka and juninho then sealed brazil's win with one goal each in the last minutes of the match.

for brazil, the match was a warm-up for the 2006 fifa world cup in germany, which begins on june 9, with the hosts playing costa rica in munich. brazil's first match is on june 13, against croatia in berlin.


nsw government walks away from cross city motorway negotiations

new south wales premier, morris iemma announced on sunday that his government would be reversing 13 controversial road changes and alterations that were carried out to force traffic into the cross city tunnel.

the road changes were initially approved by the nsw roads and traffic authority and formed part of the contract with the cross city motorway (who operate the tunnel).

the government wished also for the company to lower the toll from aud$3.37 to the $2.90 discounted toll that will expire at midnight mon. jan 5.

cross city motorway wanted aud$96 million as compensation but the government's highest offer was only $30 million. cross city motorway were being "greedy" said nsw roads minister, eric roozendaal.

nsw premier morris iemma said that his government had tried to negotiate a suitable compensation package. "we've negotiated over the last three months in good faith. we've done our best ... to reach an arrangement satisfactory to all -- to taxpayers to motorists and one which the company could live with" he said. 

despite the government walking away from negotiations the company could still come to the government with an offer, mr iemma said.

"obviously, the ball's in the company's court in relation to their response," he said. 

the premier said it would be wise for the company to continue the reduced toll. "it is in their commercial interest to ensure that motorists have got incentives to use this road."

the nrma, the peak motoring organisation in nsw, also believes that the toll should remain at its discounted rate. "it's now up to the cross city tunnel operators to also make sure motorists get a fair deal by only charging a fair toll and not raising the toll back up to that exorbitant level it was before" said nrma president alan evans.

mr iemma said he expected there might be a lawsuit made by cross city motorway against his government but believes his government is in a good position to defend any claims for damages.

cross city motorway is expected to respond on the issue today.


handbag used in hurricanes assault reached $22,750, new zealand

the handbag used to hit super 14 hurricanes player, chris masoe by tana umanga after masoe had punched a patron has just been sold on the new zealand auction site, trade me. the brawl occurred in a christchurch pub, the jolly poacher. masoe was fined $3,000 for his actions, but umanga received no punishment.

the confirmed winning bid was $22,750 (nzd) from sue langmaid, a.k.a. susie45, wanganui, on behalf of an anonymous friend. there were numerous fake bids placed, one reaching one hundred million dollars.

the original owner of the bag, 22-year-old nichole davis, christchurch said to the sunday star times "at the moment i'm thinking it's pretty crazy. it's right up there. i thought i would get $600. i'm thinking it's an insane amount of money. i'll worry about it if it actually comes through. right now i just want to relax. i've definitely been lucky and it's quite like winning lotto."

the auction page got over one million page views, which made the site trademe.co.nz unusable for ten minutes.



united nations report: deserts threatened by global warming

a new report, titled "global deserts outlook," has been released on world environment day by the united nations environment programme (unep). the report suggests that the world's deserts face dramatic changes as a result of global climate change: high water demands, tourism and salt contamination of irrigated soils. desert margins and mountainous areas within deserts that have been important for people, wildlife and water supplies for millennia, are under particular threat, say unep.

2006 is the united nations' international year of deserts and desertification. yet deserts could become the "carbon-free power houses of the 21st century," some experts believe. they argue an area 800 by 800 km of desert, such as the sahara, could capture the solar energy to generate all the world's electricity needs - and more. 

the report, prepared by experts from across the globe, flags options that may help governments and relevant bodies deliver a more sustainable future for the earth's desert regions.

"there are many popular and sometimes misplaced views of deserts which this report either confirms or overturns. far from being barren wastelands, they emerge as biologically, economically and culturally dynamic while being increasingly subject to the impacts and pressures of the modern world," said shafqat kakakhel, unep's officer in charge and deputy executive director. 

"if the huge, solar-power potential of deserts can be economically harnessed the world has a future free from fossil fuels. and tourism based around desert nature can, if sensitively managed, deliver new prospects and perspectives for people in some of the poorest parts of the world," said mr kakakhel.

almost one-quarter of the earth's land surface ? some 33.7 million square kilometres ? has been defined as "desert" in some sense. these deserts are inhabited by over 500 million people, significantly more than previously thought. in many parts of the world desert cores remain pristine, representing some of the planet's "last remaining areas of total wilderness," stated the unep in a news release.

desert species are on the brink of extinction the global deserts outlook reports. at risk animals include various species of gazelle, oryx, addax, arabian tahr and the barbary sheep as well as one of the falconers favourite prey, the houbara. "at greatest risk are the few patches of dry woodlands associated with desert mountain habitats which may decline by up to 3.5 per cent per year," said the study.

as a result of their valuable water supplies being diverted to domestic or agricultural use, desert wetlands, fed by the large rivers crossing deserts, are probably the most threatened ecosystem. probable impacts include those created by roads, settlement expansion and other infrastructure developments around areas of desert montane. by 2050 the report estimates that desert wilderness - those areas where there are no nearby roads - will decline from just under 60 per cent of the current total desert area to just over 30 per cent.

the pharmaceutical potential of desert plants has yet to be tapped, suggests the report. scientists across the globe are analysing many desert plants for potential medicinal compounds - including anti-cancer and anti-malarial substances, antioxidants, as well as appetite suppressants.

the intergovernmental panel on climate change (ipcc), who advise governments and the united nations, have reported that temperatures in deserts could rise by an average of as much as five to seven degrees by 2100. the problem, unep say, will almost certainly be compounded by the melting of glaciers - whose waters sustain many deserts. 

the impacts of climate change include the transformation of semi-arid rangelands into deserts, unep reports. they say water supplies are under threat from salinization and pollution by pesticides and herbicides, and that rising water tables beneath irrigated soils has led to more salinization of soils.

in some coastal areas ground-water supplies have been contaminated as seawater invades subsurface waters, the report shows. large rivers that run through deserts have supported desert people for millennia, but many have been dammed, with water loss downstream having led to serious impacts on flood plains and river ecology.


australian charities slam new welfare rules

australia's biggest charity organisations are refusing to cooperate with the howard government's reform rules. the federal government expects about 18,000 people a year will lose their payments for eight weeks when the new welfare-to-work regime comes into force on july 1.

only 23 organisations have signed up to a government registry to "financially case manage" the most vulnerable unemployed, who will be left without income under tougher rules. has told fairfax newspapers it will not participate because it believes the welfare shake-up is unjust.

about 18,000 people a year, according to the government, are expected to lose their benefit for infringements of job search rules. those with dependants, and those deemed "exceptionally vulnerable," will be eligible for case management by a charity on the government register.

but the brotherhood of st laurence and the have refused to register. the moral dilemma of whether to become an agent for a policy some believe is "unjust" may be contemplated by the , and others.

charities will be paid $650 to manage each eligible unemployed person it assigns them, the government has said. it wants charities to assess a person's "essential" expenses and notify , which would then decide whether or not to pay the bills.

director of lin hatfield dodds said she did not expect many of the 400 agencies in her network to sign up to be case managers. has also not registered. sue leppert, executive director of anglicare australia, said many of her member agencies would definitely not register and others were grappling with the issue.

many australian charities strongly oppose the policy of stripping all income from unemployed people for infringements. there is much concern that sole parents and many disabled people will be diverted from specific pensions to the newstart allowance. they will then be subject to stringent job search rules, potential infringements and harsh penalties.

charities also have been alarmed that under the new policy, people can immediately lose their payment for eight weeks if they refuse a job offer, are dismissed for misconduct, or are voluntarily unemployed.

the executive director of the brotherhood of st laurence tony nicholson said the policy was unjust. "first they suffer an eight-week suspension of payment, and to add insult to injury they have to justify to some case manager their expenditure on their meagre income."

sole parents whose youngest child has turned six, and disabled people who are assessed as capable of working 15 hours per week, will no longer be granted a pension under the welfare to work plan.

at the launch of a nation-wide advertising campaign for the government reform, said: "the advertising campaign is part of an education process designed to encourage more people on income support to move into work." "the howard government is investing $3.7 billion to deliver greater employment services and other assistance, including rehabilitation, to those people required to look for work," said minister hockey.

a spokesman for the minister said the government was trying to ensure "rents will be paid and kids won't get tossed out of home" if parents failed to meet their job search obligations. 


u.k. doctors successfully transplant a beating heart

british doctors have successfully transplanted a beating heart into the chest of a 58-year old man, the first operation of its kind in the united kingdom. 

the "trial" surgery was performed at papworth hospital just outside of london, england in cambridge. the operation could be "equivalent if not superior" to the current transplanting methods, doctors said. the method has only been performed two other times, in germany.

usually hearts would be injected with potassium, which stopped the heart from beating, after which it would be covered with ice. this put the heart in "suspended animation" but gave doctors only a six-hour window to examine and transplant, doctors said.

"normally the heart is in suspended animation but they still start to deteriorate," said professor bruce rosengard, head of the team of doctors who operated on the man.

the new method involves connecting the heart to a machine that pumps warm, oxygen enriched blood through the heart. the heart is able to keep beating with this method. the new process allows surgeons to look more closely and longer at the heart for any signs of damage. it also allows them to find a match for whoever may need it.

"once hearts are hooked up to the device, which takes about 20 minutes, any deterioration is fully reversed. if we look at resuscitating hearts that are currently unusable, the number of transplants could be tripled or quadrupled," added rosengard. "the goal of this trial is to demonstrate that this is at least equivalent if not superior," he added.

the director of transplants in the united kingdom chris rudge also says that doctors are working on using the same new method with different human organs.

"in the longer term it is not just hearts that can be handled by such systems but other organs too, particularly the liver," said rudge.

the 58-year old man is doing "extremely well. at his exam one week after the operation, all his functions were absolutely normal," rosengard said.

at least 19 more operations are planned in the u.k. and in germany.


somali &quot;anti-terrorism alliance&quot; gets us funds; so do &quot;blackhawk down&quot; warlords

according to the scotsman, former us intelligence officials said a secret operation to support the alliance for the restoration of peace and counter-terrorism in war-torn somalia appeared to involve both the cia and us military. the officials spoke under condition of anonymity.

the warlord factions that drove the us and un troops out of mogadishu in october 1993 led to the withdrawal of american forces from somalia in 1994. this switch in allegiances from president clinton's administration have so far not stopped the sharia courts, who have gained control of the capital, mogadishu.

a key objective of us policy in the horn of africa region is the us fear of somalia becoming a safe haven for al-qaeda. somalia experts in us say, according to the east african newspaper, that the militias linked to the sharia courts have support among mogadishu residents. mohamed asser, resident, said. "the era of warlords in somalia is over. this morning mogadishu is under only one hand, the islamic courts."

john prendergast, who served on the national security council staff in the clinton administration and now tracks somalia for the think-tank international crisis group said that three alliance leaders recently told him that they were receiving funds from the cia. "our assessment is between $100,000 and $150,000 per month," prendergast said.

giving money to warlord factions would violate the united nations’ arms embargo against somalia. the united nations, which is administering the embargo, is investigating how the warlord alliance came to receive a shipment of weapons. prendergast believes this policy has resulted in an backlash: "by circumventing the new government and going straight to individual warlords, the us is perpetuating and even deepening somalia's fundamental problems, and compromising long-term efforts to combat extremism."

the armed militias behind the islamic courts also are said to receive funds from unnamed sources.

michael zorick, former somalia political officer in the us embassy in nairobi, kenya argues that us support of the somali alliance for the restoration of peace and counter-terrorism had increased support for islamists. according to zorick, the united states should give more support to the somali government and push for peace. the analyst's advice went against the bush administration, which recently had the regional expert reassigned to chad. 

william bellamy, us ambassador to kenya, a country that shares a northern border with somalia, was willing only to confirm american diplomatic support for the warlords in somalia. "lost in the diplomacy and politics is the fact that the us is reaching out in many ways to help improve the lives of ordinary somalis," mr bellamy said. this includes $84 million food aid and many years of peace initiatives. the cia declined to comment and us government officials refused to discuss any secret us involvement in somalia, strategically placed in the horn of africa.

the somali government, the transitional central government in city of baidoa, a bystander to the recent events, is the 14th of such authorities in somalia since the overthrow of dictator mohamed siad barre in 1991. the government is currently seeking talks with the islamists groups with a view to establishing peace for the country.

according to the mercury news the bush administration has deployed about 1,500 us troops in the tiny nation of djibouti, on somalia's northern border. that seems to be a part of a us regional strategy if the warlords lose on battlefield. 


terrorists seize 50 in iraq

on june 5, gunmen, who had posed as police officers, raided a bus station in central baghdad and captured 50 people. attackers raided bus stations and seized travellers and local vendors. this happened a day after 21 people were dragged off buses and killed in diyala province. 

of the 50 people, there are two syrians and one is an interior ministry official. the gunmen rounded up people from the area including people from the many travel agencies that populate the area. the people were then herded into cars and taken away. 

"they took all the workers from the company and nearby shops," says haidar mohammed eleibi, who works for the swan transportation co. in the salihiya business district. most of the buses at the station were headed to jordan, syria and lebanon.



alan garcia wins peruvian presidential election

alan garcia, the former president of peru in 1985-1990, has once again won the presidential election of peru in a runoff against candidate ollanta humala. garcia received the majority of the votes in lima and most of peru's urban areas, while humala received most of the votes from the rural areas. 

alan garcia's first presidential term ended in economic disaster and hyper-inflation and resulted in the popular support for the election of president fujimori. after his disastrous first term, very few would have considered garcia's comeback to be possible. 

many in peru did not like ollanta humala's relationship with venezuelan president hugo chavez whom they felt was interfering with peruvian affairs. garcia and chavez have had a clash of words many times before this election and many saw a vote for garcia as a vote against humala and chavez.

humala accepted his defeat and saluted garcia and his party. this statement was, however, rejected by humala's spokeswoman.


gunmen enter palestine tv station in hail of bullets

gunmen forced their way into a building used by palestinian television in khan younis today. approximately 15 gunmen fired toward the sky as they stormed the building shouting, "you are collaborators. you are biased. you are dirty people" the staff reported.

the armed men then discharged their weapons wildly into cameras, computers and other equipment leaving one employee of the transmission centre to say, "the whole place is ruined." after wreaking havoc for several minutes and beating up a cameraman, the vandals left.

palestine tv stopped broadcasting for 30 minutes in protest at the attack. 

according to palestinian president mahmoud abbas, leader of the opposition fatah party, the hamas government has until midday (0900 gmt) on tuesday to agree with a manifesto that touches on an issue at the heart of palestinian politics. the script indirectly recognises israel as it calls for a palestinian state to exist beside israel. 

hamas came to power in the january 2006 elections, overcoming the incumbent fatah parliament. the party denied being involved in the attack on the television station.

abbas has threatened a july referendum on the manifesto if parliament does not accept the treatise by the specified time.


president bush pushes for gay marriage ban

us president george w. bush is pushing for a national ban on gay marriage, as the us senate opened a debate on a constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage. "changing the definition of marriage would undermine the structure of the family," said bush, who raised the issue at the .

"the defense of marriage act declares that no state is required to accept another state's definition of marriage. if that act is overturned by the courts, then marriage recognized in one city or state may have to be recognized as marriages everywhere else," said the president.

bush criticized judges who overturned state laws. state legislatures "are being thwarted by activist judges who are overturning the expressed will of their people... marriage is the most fundamental institution of civilization, and it should not be redefined by activist judges," he said. the "cornerstone of a healthy society" is traditional marriage, bush declared, and the issue should be returned ? "back where it belongs: in the hands of the american people."

at the white house, bush told supporters of the amendment that he's "proud to stand" with them. his comments come as the u.s. senate starts three days of debate on the measure. all senate democrats, except of nebraska, oppose the ban.

whilst many in the senate do support bush's amendments, in the final throes of an election cycle, few are prepared to support the bill. "a vote for this amendment is a vote for bigotry pure and simple," said democratic senator of massachusetts, where the state supreme court legalized gay marriages in 2003.

"marriage between one man and one woman does a better job protecting children better than any other institution humankind has devised," said senate majority leader . "as such, marriage as an institution should be protected, not redefined."

senate democratic leader harry reid of nevada, who says he believes marriage is the union of a man and a woman, said he nonetheless would vote against the amendment on a test vote wednesday.

"the reason for this debate is to divide our society, to pit one against another," reid said in remarks prepared for delivery on the senate floor. "this is another one of the president's efforts to frighten, to distort, to distract, and to confuse america. it is this administration's way of avoiding the tough, real problems that american citizens are confronted with each and every day."


white house urges patience on iran

bush administration officials say iran should be given time to consider a package of incentives aimed at halting the country's nuclear enrichment and reprocessing activities.

tehran will need some time to mull over the offer, and the first response may not be the last word, says white house spokesman tony snow.

"i would caution against leaping to conclusions, until the leadership in iran has actually had an opportunity to look over the packages of incentives and disincentives offered by the eu-3 with the support of the united states," he said.

the plan was drafted by the three european nations that have been negotiating the nuclear issue with iran - britain, france and germany - with the backing of the united states, russia and china. details of the package have not been formally released.

during a session with reporters, snow downplayed comments made over the weekend by ayatollah ali khamenei. iran's supreme leader said the flow of iranian oil would be disrupted if the united states makes - what he called - a wrong move.

the white house spokesman predicted there would be a number of statements coming out of iran before tehran gives its final answer. he said, at the moment, the white house is neither optimistic nor pessimistic, but hopeful.

"it is easy to make comments into a vacuum, and my sense is that, again, the iranians are going to realize this is a serious offer, and it is an offer that offers great promise for them," snow said.

european union foreign policy chief javier solana is to formally present the package to the iranian government in tehran, perhaps as early as tuesday.

last week, u.s. secretary of state condoleezza rice urged iran to give careful consideration to the plan, but indicated tehran would not have an indefinite amount of time to respond.

iranian officials have indicated they plan to study the document. but, they stress, have no plans to suspend uranium enrichment, which is a key condition that has been attached to the deal.

tehran says uranium will be processed for use in power plants. but the united states and europe say they are concerned iran's civilian nuclear power program is really a cover for the development of nuclear weapons.


￡5.8m turner watercolour a british record

in britain one of the most important watercolours to be put up for sale in half a century has been snapped up for 5.8 million at christie's (actual selling price: ￡5,832,000 including excess). 

in "the blue rigi: lake of lucerne, sunrise" the telephone bidder bought a softly glowing yellow sunrise in which jmw turner trapped a moment of cause and effect - gun, dog and the flight of ducks.

"in a technique of almost unimaginable subtlety turner expresses his lifelong preoccupation with the effects of light, shade and atmosphere," said noel annesley, honorary chairman of christie's, who personally took the gavel for the auction.

the painting has two sister paintings also from switzerland: the red rigi and the dark rigi. "turner had never made any drawings like this before and never made any like them again," said john ruskin, the 19th century art critic, when he saw the works. 

in 1842 the painting was bought by its first owner elhanan bicknell for 80 guineas and was in the property of its latest owners since 1942. the auction house has said they plan to keep the identity of the newest buyer, who paid slightly more than 80 guineas, secret.

in 2000 rosetti's pandora was the last most expensive watercolour ever sold in britain - it went for ￡2.6m, less than half the price of the blue rigi.


icelandic pm Asgrimsson resigns

the icelandic prime minister, halldor Asgrimsson, announced his resignation on june 5 after the governing progress party suffered losses in recent local elections.

Asgrimsson's successor will be minister of foreign affairs geir haarde. haarde is leader of Asgrimsson's coalition partner, the conservative independence party.


pittsburgh pirates defeat colorado rockies, 5-2

in monday night major league baseball action, the pittsburgh pirates won a victory over the colorado rockies in denver, 5-2. the pirates up 3-1 by the 6th inning and strong pitching throughout helped hold off the rockies.

ian snell pitched 6 1/3 innings for the pirates, and recorded a career and season high 10 strikeouts, giving up only 2 runs, 6 hits, and a single walk. in the first three innings, snell threw 29 of 35 pitches for strikes. the win was his 6th of the season. snell's previous career high in strikeouts was nine, set may 3 against the new york mets.

coming off a 7-3 homestand, the pirates hoped to turn around their dismal 4-22 road record, and break a 4-game road losing streak. a strong appearance in their first game of the 3-game series will ease many doubts.


sedition trial underway in auckland, new zealand

the trial of timothy selwyn, 31, for publishing seditious statements has begun in auckland. 

the charge of publishing seditious statements refers to leaflets found in ponsonby road, 2 km from the prime minister's office in sandringham road, auckland, after an axe attack on the window of the prime minister's electorate office, during the foreshore and seabed legislation debate.

sedition is defined within new zealand as being "speech, writing or behaviour intended to encourage rebellion or resistance against the government". selwyn has been charged under section 81(1)(c) of the new zealand crimes act 1961, which forbids any such publication which means "[t]o incite, procure, or encourage violence, lawlessness, or disorder". the new zealand police cite the pamphlet as being seditious.

this is the first prosecution for sedition in new zealand for at least 75 years.

the decision to charge selwyn has drawn considerable controversy within new zealand, with many bloggers protesting. blogger idiot/savant, who has extensively researched the history of sedition in new zealand, called the law "an archaic holdover from feudalism, which should have been relegated to the dustbin of history long ago." blogger lewis holden, stated "allowing the state to prosecute an individual for publishing an idea is morally abhorrent and wrong. the state should not have such a power at its disposal: to do so invites abuse of our right to freedom of speech." 

at the time of the attack, prime minister helen clark said "this is violent criminal behaviour and there is no place for it in a democracy...".

the crown says to find him guilty the jury must decide if the pamphlets encouraged other new zealanders to break the law through similar crimes, and whether selwyn knew that is what the material set out to do.



wellington, new zealand inner city speed limit has decreased

wellington city has dropped the speed limit of some of its streets to 30 km/h from june 6. the speed limit was changed after a student was killed in a bus lane, willis street.

wellington coroner garry evans suggested the changes.

lambton quay, central wellington, is one of the routes affected.

"104 crashes have been reported in the past five years in the lambton quay area - a third of which involved pedestrians. the council hopes to reduce the number and severity of accidents. the lower speed is more appropriate for the area and better reflects the speed many drivers already travel at," says deputy mayor alick shaw. 

the mother of the student killed, brenda bongiovanni, said that she is relieved to hear the changes.

the new speed limit will apply from lower willis st to the lambton interchange & bus terminal adjacent to the central railway station, and mercer st and bunny st, the distance is 1.3 km.


india to get $6 billion out of the big blue

announcing the news in bangalore to an audience of 10,000 employees, the package presented is three times as large as that invested by ibm over the previous three years, said samuel j. palmisano. "we see india's role as central to our global enterprise," he said. 

the $6 billion investment by ibm, also known by the nickname "big blue," is larger than the $3.9 billion total foreign investment promised to india by microsoft corp., intel corp. and cisco systems inc.

ibm is currently the largest multinational in india employing 43,000 people in 14 indian cities. 15,000 new jobs were added last year as the company took 10,000 out of europe. the new foreign investment is expected to create more jobs in india's thriving telecommunications industry.

estimates put ibm's sales revenue in india at $1 billion. while the home market valuation of $15 billion is a figure expected to grow 25 per cent a year. in the first quarter of this year ibm's indian wing grew 61 per cent compared to the year before.

"ibm is excited by the opportunities in india over the long term and we are also encouraged by the domestic opportunity that india offers," said palmisano.

addressing specifically ibm's plans in india the head said he wanted to automate it services, create a "one-stop shop" for hardware information and it goods, build a new r&d centre in delhi and forge links between ibm's consultants, developers, engineers and scientists.

"ibm is not going to miss this opportunity," said palmisano.



pitt and jolie's multi-million dollar charity baby

brad pitt and angelina jolie are to let getty images sell photos of their new baby shiloh nouvel jolie-pitt - and have asked the proceeds go to charity.

"while we celebrate the joy of the birth of our daughter, we recognize that 2 million babies born every year in the developing world die on the first day of their lives. these children can be saved, but only if governments around the world make it a priority," the couple said, in a joint statement.

it is thought the rights to the photographs will be bought for upwards $5 million and that the money will go to a charity for african children. 

getty images will arrange a private photo shoot for the baby. "we are honored that the jolie-pitt family has recognized our long-term commitment to these critical issues, as well as our ability to use the power of imagery to make a difference in the lives of many," said jonathan klein, getty's ceo and cofounder.

born in a hospital in namibia on may 27 paparazzi were immediately interested in a snapshot of the hollywood stars' child who weighed in at 7lbs. 

the baby's mother angelina jolie, 30, an oscar winning actress, is a goodwill ambassador for u.n. high commissioner for refugees. she has two adopted children maddox, 4, and zahara, aged 15 months.


signs about colleague missed in missing persons case: detective

former new south wales detective and deputy mayor of bathurst in the state's central west told a police integrity commission in the nearby city of orange information he provided about his location on the morning a woman went missing was incorrect.

janine vaughan went missing at around 4 a.m. on december 7, 2001. she had left a local pub and was last seen getting into a red car. mr hosemans became a person of interest after ms vaughan's mother, jennifer said that the only man she had heard her daughter speak about was "a guy who she had seen in bathurst and who she described as drop-dead gorgous". 

jennifer vaughan later found out that the man was high-profile detective and deputy mayor brad hosemans. ms vaughan's best friend said that mr hosemans had walked past the clothing shop that ms vaughan had worked in and smiled and winked at her.

at the inquiry on monday mr hosemans said he was in bathurst on the morning of december 7, 2001. in 2002 he had told the police he was at his mother's house near newcastle at the time janine vaughan disappeared. 

mr hosemans told the commission he had found an eftpos fuel receipt that showed he might have returned from his mother's a day earlier than he initially believed. his initial statement to police was based upon a bank statement which must have been subject to "processing delays," he said.

the officer who initially handled the case, despite being on charges of indecent assault following an incident at the bathurst golf club was mr hosemans. he was later acquitted of the golf club incident but police told the inquiry it was unusual for an officer who was facing such charges to be heading a missing persons case.

ms vaughan's case was later handled by one of nsw's highest-ranking detectives, detective inspector paul jacob. inspector jacob, on monday was asked by mark buscombe, counsel assisting the inquiry if he had considered mr hosemans a suspect at the time. "had it hit my radar, i may have taken a different course," inspector jacob replied.

inspector jacob only wrote to mr hosemans a year after ms vaughan disappeared, after claims that mr hosemans had a relationship with her. facing the inquiry for a second day today, inspector jacob said errors had been made in the handling of ms vaughan's case. he told the inquiry that, after a review of evidence before him, mr hosemans was struck off the suspect list.

the inspector was then asked about notes he made which said, "flowers and chocolates in weeks leading up to disappearance. brad seen. statement-takers left out issue with brad." inspector jacob said the note should have raised suspicion but he was overworked and subsequently overlooked it.

the inquiry heard ms vaughan had rejected mr hosemans prior to her disappearance. "ms vaughan told (a friend) that he (mr hosemans) was ringing her up at night, walking past the store, asking her out, but she said no," mr buscombe said.


eu diplomat proposes deal with iran to drop npt article iv.1

the european union's head diplomat javier solana has offered iran a number of benefits to persuade the oil-rich state to drop some of its rights under article iv.1 of the , i.e. stop an uranium enrichment program.

during the two hour meeting in the iranian capital solana is thought to have offered help to build iran's nuclear generators and supply fuel for the northern persian gulf state's energy needs.

this main offer may have been accompanied by a number of sweeteners such as the offer of european airbus airplanes and united states relaxation of the trade of boeing aircraft parts with iran.
the proposal the european emissary carried had previously been seen by security council powers united states, china, britain, russia, france and also germany. were iran to reject the solana offer the united nations security council sanctions could be used to stop iran's nuclear program.

"larijani said iran will study the package, clause by clause, and respond," said an unnamed official who knows ali larjani, iran's chief nuclear negotiator.

however there were also some "ambiguities" to resolve, said larjani himself.

iran has noted several times that as party to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (npt), the country can enrich uranium for peaceful needs, such as for the production of electricity. 

but a move to enrich uranium on a larger-scale, such as a plan for 3,000 centrifuges by the end of 2006, might lead american officials to say iran could have the potential to get a nuclear weapon within ten years.

while iran's head of state, ayatollah ali khamenei recently warned about the disruption of oil supplies if iran was attacked, president mahmoud ahmadinejad is said to be considering the newest package on the table.

'we have two options - one is cooperation, the other is confrontation,' said the iranian foreign minister manuchehr mottaki. 



epa block massive west australian energy project

the western australian (wa) environmental protection authority (epa) has advised against the massive greater gorgon liquefied natural gas project off wa's pilbara coast. proponents of the projects say gorgon is one of australia's biggest export ventures, scheduled to provide up to 6,000 jobs and exports of up to $1.2 billion.

epa chairman dr wally cox said the gorgon project operators (chevron, exxonmobil, and shell), had made an effort on flora and fauna issues but in its present state, the gorgon proposal was "unacceptable." gorgon lng general manager colin beckett said that gorgon was a world-class gas field and that the joint venture partners were confident that the decision would be reversed.

environment minister mark mcgowan said there was a definite process to be followed. the minister says he will make a final decision on the gorgon proposal after considering the epa report - and any subsequent report from the appeals convenor. the epa recommendations on the gorgon proposal are subject to a two-week appeals period.

the epa's dr cox said that joint venture had "not been able to demonstrate that impacts from dredging, the introduction of non-indigenous species and the potential loss of fauna could be reduced to acceptable levels."

in september 2003 the wa government provided "in-principle agreement" to the gorgon joint venturers subject to a number of conditions. dr cox said that the environmental review and management programme had further highlighted the terrestrial and marine conservation values of barrow island and the adjacent waters.

"flatback turtles in particular would be put at risk from the proposal with two of the most important nesting beaches located adjacent to the proposed lng processing plant site and the materials off-loading facility," dr cox said. "there is very little science available on the life-cycle, behaviour and feeding habits of flatback turtles and as a consequence it is not possible at this time to identify management measures that would ensure ongoing survival of this pilbara flatback turtle population."

dr cox also said that the proponent had not been able to demonstrate that risk could be reduced to satisfactory levels in the areas of: impacts on the marine ecosystem from dredging; the introduction of non-indigenous species; potential loss of subterranean and short range endemic invertebrate fauna species. "as a result, the proposal in its present form cannot meet the epa's environmental objectives and is considered environmentally unacceptable," dr cox said.

despite the epa's decision to block the proposal, the australian newspaper reports that wa premier alan carpenter was prepared to overrule the epa's advice: "while he stopped short of providing a guarantee the project would go ahead, mr carpenter said it involved "massive economic and social benefit" for the state." 

the australian petroleum production and exploration association (appea), has welcomed the bi-partisan support by the premier, and the leader of the opposition, paul omodei, to the gorgon project. appea's chief executive, belinda robinson, said. "it also involves the world's first commercial carbon sequestration project. it's hard to imagine what more could be done," ms robinson said.

"the gorgon project is a world class gas resource of more than 40 trillion cubic feet, and its development has the potential to deliver 6,000 jobs, $2.5 billion in annual export income, and more than $17 billion in government taxes and royalties over its 60 year life," ms robinson said.

the gorgon project proposal involves a two-train, 10 million metric-ton-per-year liquefied natural gas (lng) plant and a domestic gas plant on barrow island, located off australia's northwest coast. home to australia's largest operating onshore oil field for the past 40 years, the island is also a class a nature reserve.

however, the greens applauded the wa epa's advice. greens senator rachel siewert said in a media release: "this is the second time the wa epa has knocked back this proposal. the proponents should review their options to put the project on the mainland, which will ultimately be a win for the regional economy and a win for the unique environment of barrow island."

"this is a proposal that should always have been located on the mainland. proposing to build something on this scale inside australia's most precious island nature reserve was deeply flawed from the beginning," said senator siewert. "the island has been dubbed 'australia's ark' for its unique cargo of endangered species, many of them now extinct or endangered on mainland australia. he must take strong action to look after the island."


tubes, grateful dead musician vince welnick died of 'probable suicide'

former "tubes" and "grateful dead" keyboardist/vocalist vince welnick is dead of a "probable suicide", according to the sonoma county sheriff/coroner.

welnick was found dead in his home in forestville, california, on june 2, 2006. his cause of death is not being released at the family's request, says coroner's sgt. will wallman.

the 55-year-old musician began his professional career in his native phoenix, arizona, putting together a garage band called "the beans". the group moved to san francisco in 1969 and changed its name to "the tubes", eventually releasing eight albums. welnick was picked in 1990 to succeed the late brent mydland as "the grateful dead" keyboardist, and eventually moved on to solo projects. he was later elected to the rock and roll hall of fame.

welnick is survived by his wife, lori.



federal reserve chief's stagflation scare

u.s. federal reserve chairman ben s. bernanke has told an international monetary conference inflation is creeping higher and will receive "particular scrutiny."

benanke's comments, to an audience of bankers at the willard hotel in washington, has tripped up stocks and bonds which fell by 199 points on us markets monday (1.8 per cent loss).

the comments seem to have been interpreted by traders to mean there will be an interest rate rise.

a strategist at wells capital management said: "here we have some suspicion the economy may be weakening ... and a struggling stock market," "and the fed chairman chooses [monday] to inform everyone he has decided to get tough on inflation," says jim paulsen.

the panicked markets had expected no rate rise at the next federal reserve meeting on june 29. the united states central bank began raising interest rates two years ago - 16 consecutive rises later it stands at 5%. 

the news might also suggest the billowing crude and commodity markets have affected other parts of the economy. excluding energy or food prices, core inflation was "at or above the upper end of the range that many economists, including myself, would consider consistent with price stability," mr bernanke said.

bernanke said his core inflation canal was between 1% and 2% a year. quarter inflation, however, was rising: 3% through six months; 2.3% over 12 months. "these are unwelcome developments," bernanke said when he announced the figures.

overall the economic data was "consistent with the softening in the pace of overall economic activity that seems to be under way," bernanke said in his speech.
stagflation is the economic problem of rising inflation and falling growth. the federal reserve often lower interest rates to finance the economy but in an inflationary economy interest rates might also need to rise. such a situation might put the fed in an uncomfortable pinch. 

monetary policy is an incomplete science. even so, bernanke is old enough to remember the 1970s when the federal reserve declined an interest rate rise. recession and high prices appeared to be the result.


google launches google spreadsheets

google has launched an online spreadsheet site, in a private beta. 

the site will allow spreadsheets to be shared between up to 10 users, which is aimed to be useful to teams and small businesses. "many people already organise information into spreadsheets. where they are struggling is to share it" said the product manager, jonathan rochelle.

google recently bought the online word-processor writely, launched a calendar product, as well as a desktop search tool. many see this as them straying into microsoft's markets.

google spreadsheets uses very advanced ajax (asynchronous javascript and xml) and client side scripting to mimic very effectively it's desktop counterparts' functions.

it is surprisingly fast, has very good formatting and advanced formula support, but best of all it has complete support for microsoft excel .xls files, and very good collaboration: just enter the e-mail address and you can share easily.



embattled thai election commission hands trt case to attorney general

thailand's election commission passed their subcommittee report on to the office of the attorney-general without making a recommendation. the report, which the nation describes as all legal documents detailing the allegations that the caretaker prime minister's populist thai rak thai party paid small parties to take part in the april 2 snap election.

the ec subcommittee led by nam yimyaem concluded in their report that thai rak thai had engaged smaller parties illegally in an effort to avoid the minimum voter requirement of the constitution. the report's recommendation was that the party should be dissolved.

the ec passing the buck on the election fraud allegations follows on from scathing criticism from the country's supreme court president, charnchai likit-jittha. in a letter to the acting senate speaker, charnchai rejected speaker suchon chaleekrua's proposal that he nominate two new members to the election commission to fill present vacancies. citing the constitutional requirement that the ec be politically neutral, charnchai said of the three remaining commissioners they, "are not in a position to have the trust to continue with their work".

the troubles of the election commission may see doubt cast on the proposed date of october 15 for a rerun of the general election.



australian pm announces nuclear taskforce

as expected by media sources, australian prime minister, john howard announced on tuesday that he would be setting up a "prime ministerial taskforce" to investigate uranium mining, processing and nuclear energy in australia.

the results of the review to be undertaken by the taskforce are expected to be made public in november. the taskforce is to investigate:

mr howard said the taskforce will be led by former telstra ceo and nuclear physicist, dr ziggy switkowski and will include five other members. in a statement, mr howard announced two of the five additional members. one of australia's foremost nuclear researchers, professor george dracoulis from the australian national university and economist professor warwick mckibbin, a board member of the reserve bank of australia.

the prime minister said that he would announce the other three members today, after they confirm their availability.

dr. jim peacock, australia’s chief scientist, will assist the review process.

mr howard said that australia should investigate the potential to capitalise on its vast uranium reserves. he said australia had 40 percent of the world's known uranium reserves, and australia could "increase and add value to our uranium extraction and exports".

the prime minister told reporters that nuclear energy is not something that will happen in the short term in australia, but may occur in the long term. "i don’t expect to have nuclear power stations in australia within the next two or three years," he said.

"i do think, however, that we need in an open-minded and as emotionless fashion possible, to have a serious debate about this issue." mr howard said.

mr howard said that it is "foolish" for australia to remain solely as an exporter of uranium given the vast amounts of the mineral the country has.

the opposition has been calling on the howard government to name possible locations for nuclear power stations since announcing that they wish to investigate the use of nuclear energy. mr howard told reporters that it the plants would be built by private enterprise and those calls on the government were "putting the cart before the horse".

mr howard said that his government expected the opposition to run a "fear campaign" on the issue and that he would not be deterred, as he believes the public's opinion on nuclear energy has shifted significantly. he said that he wanted a full and open review, examination and debate.

during his press conference on tuesday, mr howard was asked if the taskforce had been weighted to come up with a favourable report as the members announced so far were pro-nuclear. mr howard denied the claim saying that members had been selected who knew the subject and were "open-minded and clear headed".

claims of a conflict of interest with ziggy switkowski have begun to surface after it was revealed that he is a board member of the australian nuclear science and technology organisation, which runs australia's only nuclear reactors in lucas heights, south of sydney. mr howard, speaking on abc television defended the claims saying "he's a nuclear physicist ziggy switkowski, he's a proven person in the commercial area, he's got strong public administration skills, that's a good combination for something like this".

in order to minimise the conflict of interest, switkowski resigned from the board of ansto on june 7 2006.


white house diverted $1.6b war funds to border security

"united press international" (upi) reports that the senate took us$1.9b out of the 2006 emergency war supplemental funding to fund border security last month. the white house reportedly called for the transfer that was put into an amendment sponsored by senators bill frist and . out of the $1.9b, $1.6b was meant to replace equipment that has been destroyed or worn out after four years of combat in afghanistan and iraq.

an unnamed pentagon budget official told upi "you can't tell me that illegal aliens coming across the border pose the same kind of threat to national security as insurgents in anbar do against marines."


20 percent of victorians drive on worn tyres

a survey released today by the racv and victorian automobile chamber of commerce found that 20 percent of cars in victoria have at least one worn or unroadworthy tyre.

the study looked at 1,000 cars last month and found of those 200 had at least one tyre that had worn.

chief engineer for the racv, michael case said that driving on worn tyres could increase the distance it takes a car to brake and road safety. "increasing the braking distance can increase the chance of running into the car in front of you and having an unnecessary collision and if that collision is serious enough certainly it can cause injuries" said mr case.

it is widely accepted that tyres are one of the most important parts of a vehicle. as tyres are the only part of a vehicle in contact with the road, they affect acceleration, braking and cornering.

as well as the safety issues associated with driving a vehicle with a worn tyre, drivers can be fined for "driving an unsafe vehicle" and fined aud$171, in addition police may "defect" the vehicle, restricting its use until repaired. victorian law requires that tyres have a minimum tread depth of 1.6mm.

wikinews investigated the average price of each tyre on a typical large and small australian sedan, and suv and found the cost to be aud$129, aud$105, and aud$191 respectively.


11,000 evacuated in indonesia as mount merapi threatens to erupt

the indonesian government has ordered the evacuation of 11,000 people form the magelang district as spews ash, lava and smoke from its dome. the dome continues to rise and scientists fear it may collapse. smoke and ash are rising at least 2.4 miles into the sky and lava is rising at least 4 miles from the volcano's crater.

"of course it is dangerous. but we don't know for sure whether the lava dome will collapse," said an indonesian government volcanologist, subandriyo.

at least 40 cars and trucks have been ordered to assist in the evacuation and take villagers to nearby schools and government buildings that have been turned into makeshift shelters.

"since monday we have evacuated ... more or less 2,000 people. the people that we need to evacuate are around 11,000. the lava has spread out in various directions. the lava domes are weakening," said edi purwanto, who is in charge of the evacuation post. 

scientists also say that the recent earthquake on may 27 which had a of 6.3 may have caused the volcano to become unstable and likely "shook the mountain." at least 5,800 people were killed in the quake.

"i don't think that's unreasonable. the volcano is an unstable pile of rock. it's fragile. i would be surprised if it [the quake] didn't literally shake the mountain," said an arizona state university volcanologist who studies the volcano, stanley williams.

the volcano sits 280 miles to the east of indonesia's capital of jakarta.


body found in the christchurch, new zealand avon river

anthony james creamer's body was found in the christchurch avon river on june 6.

he was a sickness beneficiary and lived in avonside street which is located near the avon river.

christchurch police detective inspector malcolm johnston said that there were no suspicious circumstances relating to the death and no suspicious injuries had been identified. however, he said it was still too early to tell the exact cause of death and police could not yet rule out foul play.

"there is no apparent suspicious injuries, but we will wait for the results of the post-mortem," johnston said.

a member of the public spotted the body tangled in weeds in the middle of the river near locksley avenue, in dallington, about noon. they flagged down a police car and the officer jumped into the river and brought it on to the riverbank. 

the body was fully clothed and early suggestions were that it had not been there long.

the autopsy should be completed by june 7.


&quot;ten commandments&quot; judge loses alabama gubernatorial primary

alabama gov. beat back a republican primary challenge from , the former judge who tried to put up a monument in his courthouse. 

in the weeks leading to alabama's gubernatorial primaries, polls showed riley had pulled ahead of moore, the former state chief justice who became a hero to the religious right in 2003 when he was ousted over his refusal to remove a 5,300-pound ten commandments monument from the state judicial building.

moore conceded in his hometown of gadsden, telling supporters, "god's will has been done."



real body found at mock crime scene in florida

when 29 students attended a fake crime scene in fort lauderdale park during a field trip set up by their teacher, sue messenger, they found the body of a homeless man. police said he died of natural causes and there was nothing to indicate that foul play was involved. the students are part of a criminology class at st. thomas aquinas high school.

at first, some students thought the body was a "dummy". "we thought it was ms. messenger messing around with us," said 16-year-old josh rozental, who was the one that had discovered the body. "when i went over, knowing what i know about rigor mortis and postmortem lividity, it was apparent to me that actually this was a deceased individual. so the biggest thing is i wanted them to move off…. i knew there was going to be an investigation and i just wanted them to back off and for us to not to disturb anything," said messenger.

"it was a good crash course. the first thing we thought was, 'that's a real good dummy she set up,'" said 15-year-old juan cantor, a student at the high school.

for 20 years messenger has been using "paper skeletons, fake weapons, notes, shell casings, and sunglasses" that students could find to further their education. the study was in its fifth of 13 days.

"the students went up to this one area … and found a man with his back against the wall and he looked dead. they thought it was part of the skit," said kathy collins a fort lauderdale police detective.

police said the man was david wayne bodie, 45. 


us reveals nazi war criminal's location was known two years before his capture

the 27,000-pages of documents released on tuesday reveal that while the united states and west germany knew the location of nazi war criminal adolf eichmann two years before his capture, the fact was kept secret. the documents were declassified as part of the nazi war criminals disclosure act of 1998.

west german intelligence informed the us in march 1958 of the whereabouts of the senior gestapo officer, who was living under the alias "clemens" in argentina where he had arrived seven years earlier.

it was not us policy at the time to go after nazi criminals since they were still recruited for cold war operations.

"it now appears that west germany could have captured him in 1958, if it wished to," said university of virginia historian timothy naftali. he also said that cia helped west germany at the time to suppress part of eichmann's diary - which was in the possession of life magazine - that would have embarrassed west german national security adviser hans globke, himself a former nazi.

eichmann was captured by israelis in 1960 in argentina. he was tried in jerusalem and received the death penalty. 



rahul mahjan gets two days in police custody

rahul mahajan, the son of slain bharatiya janata party leader pramod mahajan, who was arrested on monday under the narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances (ndps) act, was remanded to two-day police custody by a patiala house court in new delhi on tuesday.

mahajan was discharged from apollo hospital and brought to the tughlaq road police station in a wheelchair. he was later produced in the court. though the police wanted a five-day custody, the court granted only two days.

subsequently, mahajan was taken to the police station for interrogation. he was reportedly confronted with the other accused, sahil zaroo, who is also in police custody till june 12.

zaroo was arrested in srinagar on june 3 for allegedly purchasing and supplying drugs to the 7 safdarjung road bungalow in the early hours of june 2. he has allegedly disclosed to the police that he bought drugs at the instance of mr. mahajan's personal secretary bibek moitra, who subsequently died. the police also questioned mr. mahajan's erstwhile aide, harish sharma, to find out if he had any role to play in destruction of evidence at the scene of crime. additional deputy commissioner of police (new delhi) manish aggarwal said they were also probing the role of the three domestic help. 


u.s. senate defeats bill banning gay marriage

the united states senate has defeated a proposed constitutional amendment banning . the bill was defeated 48 to 49 and did not receive the minimum amount of 60 votes to that would allow the bill to be taken to the full senate. the bill fell 18 votes short of the 67 that were needed for approval. in order for the bill to become part of the , this bill would have had to be approved by a two-thirds majority in both the senate and the , then be approved by the legislatures of three fourths (that is, 38) of the states.

however, senator , -, who is a supporter of the bill says, "we're building votes."

"most americans are not yet convinced that their elected representatives or the judiciary are likely to expand decisively the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples," said john mccain (-) who opposed the bill.

"a vote for it is a vote against civil unions, against domestic partnership, against all other efforts for states to treat gays and lesbians fairly under the law," said massachusetts senator .

the bill would define marriage as between a man and a woman, and would preclude the official recognizing of same-sex marriages. the bill is expected to be taken back to the senate in july. 

already, 45 states have banned gay marriages.


kenya deports somali businessman

following its decision yesterday to bar somali warlords and their associates from entering the country, kenya today deported a somali businessman, citing his links to leaders engaged in the ongoing civil conflict in somalia.

abdirashid hussein shire was arrested by police at a hotel in the kenyan capital nairobi and escorted to a flight out of the country, reportedly heading for dubai. shire is alleged to be a supporter of the alliance for the restoration of peace and counter-terrorism, an alliance of somali warlords who are currently engaged in a conflict with the islamic courts union for control over mogadishu, the capital of somalia. 

yesterday, the kenyan government barred somali warlords or their associates from entering the country. the kenyan foreign affairs assistant minister moses wetang'ula declared them "persona non-grata". 

"the government would like to reiterate its previously stated position that it will not permit its territory to be used by those who persist in destabilising somalia and undermining our ongoing efforts to restore peace and security in that country," said the kenyan foreign ministry in a statement released tuesday.

kenya has been closely involved in efforts to normalise the situation in somalia. kenya hosted and mediated talks between the various somali factions for more than two years, leading to the formation of the transitional federal government (tfg) in 2004. the somali cabinet was named in august 2004 at the united nations headquarters in nairobi. 

the kenyan president mwai kibaki is also the current chairman of the intergovernmental authority on development, a seven-member regional development organization in eastern africa. the igad passed a resolution in march in support of the transitional government, expressing concern over the upsurge of violence in somalia and calling for a cessation of hostilities. the resolution also called for the lifting of a un arms embargo to "enable igad and the au deploy the peace support mission to somalia".

many somali leaders have homes or business interests in kenya, whose capital nairobi forms a regional business hub. 



news briefs:june 7, 2006

the time is 17:00 (utc) on june 7th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

indonesia

the indonesian government has ordered the evacuation of 11,000 people from the magelang district as mount merapi spews ash, lava and smoke from its dome. the dome continues to rise and scientists fear it may collapse. smoke and ash are rising at least 2.4 miles into the sky and lava is rising at least 4 miles from the volcano's crater.

iraq

on june 5th, gunmen posing as police officers raided a bus station in central baghdad, capturing 50 people. attackers raided bus stations, seizing travellers a day after 21 were dragged off buses, killed.

united states

the united states senate has defeated a bill banning gay marriage. the bill was defeated 48 to 49 and did not receive the minimum amount of 60 votes that would allow the bill to be taken to the full senate. the bill fell 18 votes short of the 67 that were needed to approve the bill and place it into the constitution.

australia

as expected by media sources, australian prime minister, john howard announced on tuesday that he will be setting up a "prime ministerial taskforce" to investigate uranium mining, processing and nuclear energy in australia.

australia

the western australian (wa) environmental protection authority (epa) have advised against the massive greater gorgon liquefied natural gas project off wa's pilbara coast. proponents of the projects say gorgon is one of australia's biggest export ventures, scheduled to provide up to 6,000 jobs and exports of up to $1.2 billion.

united states

alabama gov. bob riley beat back a republican primary challenge from roy moore, the former judge who tried to put up a ten commandments monument in his courthouse.

australia

a survey released today by the racv and victorian automobile chamber of commerce found that 20 percent of cars in victoria have at least one worn out or unroadworthy tyre.

new zealand

anthony james creamer's body was found in the christchurch avon river on june 6.
he was a sickness beneficiary and lived in avonside street, which is located near the avon river.

united states

when 29 students in florida attended a fake crime scene during a field trip, set up by their teacher, sue messenger, they found a real body.
the body of a homeless man was found in fort lauderdale park by the students and police say he died of natural causes and there was nothing to indicate that foul play was involved.

australia

raw audio will commence australia's first regular live music webcast on june 11, called the sunday sofa sessions.
the webcast, which will be broadcast every sunday at 8pm (brisbane time), will feature a selection of south-east queensland's bands and musicians, and the occasional overseas and interstate guest.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


security alert at british parliament

" is reporting that the has been reopened following a "security alert" in which the house of commons was "locked down" after someone threw powder in the central lobby. a scotland yard statement is expected soon (18.55 bst). 

" in the united kingdom report that powder had been located within the central lobby. tests on the powder showed that it was not , and the "all clear" was given at 18.50 british time.


kimberly dozier heading back to us

cbs reporter kimberly dozier, who was wounded may 29 in iraq is on her way back to the united states, where she will be admitted to the close to washington d.c. she was apparently very responsive, and was "talking animatedly."

col. w. bryan gamble, a spokesman at landstuhl regional medical center in where dozier had stayed in intensive care for much of the past week, said her progress has been "encouraging." while dozier was in iraq working on a report about american forces in iraq on memorial day, she was wounded from a car bomb that actually killed paul douglas, a camera operator, and james brolan, an audio technician, as well as an american soldier and an iraqi interpreter.

cbs has reported that she remembers the explosion, possibly indicating that she doesn't have any significant brain damage.



billy preston dies at 59

musician , a so-called """", died in at the age of 59 after a long illness. 

a native of , , preston played while in his teens with , and .

he later backed up the , playing keyboards on ', ' and '. he also played on the hit beatles single "'."

as a soloist, preston topped the record charts in the early 1970s with "outta space," "will it go round in circles," and "nothing from nothing."

he joined the rolling stones on tour and backed them up on "can't you hear me knocking" and "heartbreaker."

he also wrote the hit "," and collaborated with , , , and .

he won two , including one for his involvement in the concert for , staged by ex-beatle in 1971. last year, in one of his final appearances, preston performed in with former beatle and harrison's son, .

plagued by drug and alcohol abuse, preston had scrapes with the law on narcotics and other charges. he suffered from chronic kidney failure, and had been in a coma since november.


scientists working to save chesapeake bay oyster population

the chesapeake bay, on the atlantic coast, is the largest estuary in the united states. it is famous for its seafood, especially crabs and oysters. however, in the last century, the bay's oyster population has been in steady decline.

for hundreds of years, watermen of the chesapeake bay have made a living by harvesting oysters. in the last 50 years, the number of oysters has declined dramatically.

tommy leggett is an oyster restoration and fisheries scientist with the chesapeake bay foundation, an environmental organization that works to protect the bay's resources. "our population is down to one to three percent of historical levels. so, consequently our bay's water quality is down," leggett said.
graham blake grew up on sarah creek, a tributary to the bay. his father and grandfather made a good living as watermen by harvesting, transplanting, fattening, and then re-harvesting oysters from the creek. 

it was an early form of oyster farming. in the 1940s and ‘50s his family could harvest 200 to 300 bushels of oysters each day. blake says those days are long-gone.
"there is none of it like my father made his living, that is non-existent. some are still trying to make a living on the water, oystering and crabbing and so forth,” blake said. “they have got to do a lot of things. they can't just do it in one industry anymore."
in the late 1950s, parasites, which were introduced from foreign oysters, began to kill the chesapeake bay oyster population.

graham and tommy are now stocking the creek bed with hundreds of thousands of disease resistant young oysters. when they reach adulthood, they are transplanted to state sanctuary reefs in the bay.

"since 2000 we have been attempting to grow about a million oysters a year as brood stock to be placed on state sanctuary reefs to help jump start rivers,” leggett said. “to date, we have produced about five million oysters that we have transplanted onto a number of reefs in the virginia portion of the chesapeake bay." 

the project seems to demonstrate that watermen and other entrepreneurs can grow oysters in the bay using aquaculture techniques.

"we have pretty well demonstrated it, and over a number of years we have had industry people come out to the site. there have been a number of people who have scaled up and are growing more oysters than we are now,” leggett said. “oyster farming in the bay is just getting ready to take off."
according to leggett, the number of commercial operations growing oysters on the bay will dramatically increase in the next several years. his primary goal is to restore the natural oyster population to what it once was, but it is a goal he says may not happen in his lifetime.

"we are just learning some of the pitfalls and the roadblocks that we are going to encounter. we try and learn from our mistakes and change the way we do things,” he said. “it will happen in time. it's not going to happen in the short term."


wayne rooney will play in germany

england soccer player wayne rooney, 20, has been passed fit to play in the fifa world cup soccer tournament which starts on june 9 in germany. the ￡27 million manchester united star had a scan on wednesday that showed the 4th metatarsal he broke on apr 29 had healed - in less than 6 weeks.

rooney was supposedly spotted boarding a plane to germany while the bbc claim sources close to the football association indicated rooney was in england's final world cup squad.

the news is considered a big boost to england's chances to win the world cup. manchester united manager sir alex ferguson had said the player's chances of playing were "a forlorn hope." 

the english soccer club, recently bought by american billionaire malcolm glazer, was concerned the investment would risk a worse injury if the previous toe-bone break had not healed when he started to play again. manchester united's club doctor todd gill and physiotherapist rob swire, accompanied by a small army of red devils' lawyers, were said to have attended the foot scan.

the scan was considered so important to england's fortunes that eriksson sent england's doctor to observe the event. a fifa official was also present in the crowd at the moment of truth for rooney's foot. the official would have been final decision-maker in case of a dispute between one of the richest soccer clubs in the world and the country that invented the game.

the swedish manager of the english football team sven-goran eriksson, who had said rooney would play some part in the competition, named rooney in england's 23-man squad for germany. 

the world cup tournament pits soccer players from national teams against each other for a trophy. previously graced by pele and maradona, england has not won the competition for 40 years. 


portuguese republican national guard in dili confined to headquarters

the portuguese republican national guard (gnr), that arrived last sunday at dili, have interrupted their patrols in the streets of dili and are now confined to their temporary headquarters.
according to a portuguese governmental source, the gnr force is confined to its improvised headquarters in dili, with orders from the government not to go out into the streets, due to a diplomatic block in the negotiations with australia about the command chain.

the decision was made after a incident during the middle of the afternoon (local time), when a republican national guard patrol was transporting three men to a new temporary detention center, guarded by australian troops. the australian soldiers refused to receive the detained men, questioning the legitimacy of the portuguese soldiers to make arrests.

at this moment, urgent negotiations are being made in new york. portugal is waiting for president xanana gusmao and the timorese government to clarify the action of the portuguese force on the bilateral agreement signed between the two governments that guarantees operational autonomy to the portuguese soldiers.

contacted by sic reporters, the spokesman of the portuguese foreign ministry, carneiro jacinto, denied that the problem is the presence of the gnr in east timor. carneiro jacinto told sic that the case is being handled through diplomatic channels, including the united nations, the government and the timorese presidency. carneiro jacinto also said that it's necessary to clarify the case once and for all, so that situations "serious like this one" will not be repeated.

ana pessoa, east timor's state minister, told tsf news agency that the idea that the portuguese contingent's mission in timor may be threatened makes no sense. she said all that is being discussed at this time is what mission the gnr force will assume in east timor.

last friday (june 2) an australian mission held a meeting with portugal's foreign minister, diogo freitas do amaral, who was sent to ask for clarification of the agreement signed the day before (june 1, thursday) between portugal and east timor. the agreement gave the portuguese republican national guard troops their own operational command, reporting directly to president xanana gusmao.

in a meeting on monday (june 5) between australian, malaysian, new zealand and portuguese representatives, the four countries discussed the creation of a coordination structure, instead of an entirely australian-led command, for the police forces working on the timorese territory.

beyond the 120 soldiers of the portuguese republican national guard force, that arrived this sunday to east timor, there are 70 australian and 200 malaysian police officers in the country. a new zealand police team also arrived yesterday from auckland to negotiate their possible contributions towards policing. in addition to these police forces, the international force includes more than 2,000 australian, new zealand and malaysian soldiers.




northern ireland parties fail to form devolution committee

after three days of talks, parties in northern ireland have come to a stalemate over the election of a chairperson for a committee to help setup a devolved government in northern ireland. it is now up to northern ireland secretary of state peter hain to choose the next course of action.

the committee, known as the preparation for government committee, convened monday to begin its first task: the election of a chairperson for the committee. its main task however is to help set a roadmap for devolved government in northern ireland. the committee is made up of the two republican parties (sinn fein and sdlp), the two unionist parties (dup and uup) and the non-sectarianist alliance party.

sinn fein's proposal is for the chairpersonship to revolve between them and the democratic unionist party. however, the dup refused that proposal.

the dup proposed that speaker of the assembly eileen bell should be the chairperson. however, bell stated that it would inappropriate for her to take the post and refused. they also suggested the dup mp for south antrim william mccrea and alliance party leader david ford as possible candidates.

peter hain called the refusal of parties to cooperate "frustrating."

sinn fein, sdlp and the alliance party have all blamed the dup for the failure.

"yet again the dup, instead of helping to remove obstacles to devolution, have shown themselves to be nothing but obstructive and lacking in any spirit of co-operation, "said sean farren of the sdlp.

mark durkan, the leader of sdlp, has criticized both peter hain and the dup and its leader, ian paisley on monday.

"if the dup is not prepared to do the business or give any substantive indication in the course of june, then the british government would be as well stopping the salaries at the end of june," said sinn fein's martin mcguinness.

"the practical reality is that the two biggest parties have not shown they are prepared to move forward at all." said david ford, the leader of the alliance party.

"the prevarication and petty wriggling by the dup is preventing the potential for progress and holding us all up to public ridicule." said ulster unionist party's alan mcfarland.

on monday, ian paisley asked for extension of the november 24 deadline fot two weeks. it was refused.

this is part of plan by british prime minister tony blair and irish toaiseach bertie ahern to set up a devolved government in northern ireland after its assembly was suspended in october 2002 over allegations of a ira spy ring.

if a plan for devolved government is not setup by november 24, direct rule from london will continue with greater input from the republic of ireland.




two arrested in england with alleged connections to canadian bomb plot

counter-terrorism police has arrested two males, aged 16 and 21, in england. 

the two are accused of having connections to a canadian bomb plot in which 17 people were arrested in toronto on june 3. the alleged plot included plans to bomb and takeover the canadian parliament, take military police officers hostage and bomb public buildings. it also included beheading canadian prime minister stephen harper.

"the times" quoted an anonymous security source as saying, "we believe that people living in the uk played a pivotal role in helping to organise this series of planned attacks. this is an example of the extremist soup we have in this country with lots of overlapping links."

"the operation did not involve armed officers," said the manchester police department.

police say that the 21-year-old came from canada and arrived at manchester airport in england yesterday while walking off a plane. police also say that he lived with some of the suspected terrorists arrested in toronto. he is said to be of pakistani descent and may have citizenship in the united kingdom. 

the 16-year-old was arrested in west yorkshire a few hours after the 21-year-old was arrested. police say that they tracked him down via cellular phone records and documents found in toronto.

police say that the two males are connected and that a security alert was issued when authorities learned the 21-year-old male had left canada.

the names of the 2 suspects have not yet been released. police have searched at least 4 homes in dewsbury, hanover square and bradford in england.


five south korean workers kidnapped from nigerian natural gas facility

five south korean workers have been kidnapped from a natural gas facility operated by shell petroleum development company in the nigerian delta. 

a group called the movement for the emancipation of the niger delta is claiming responsibility for the attack and kidnappings and says that one kidnapper and at least six nigerian soldiers were killed on a nigerian military boat, when gunmen entered the facility. the group's main demand is the release of a jailed militia leader, mujahid dokubo-asari.

"[the korean workers] are in good health and have been returned to one of our bases. as long as the units holding these individuals do not come under attack, no harm will come to the prisoners. we do not kill those fortunate to be captured by our fighters," said the group.

the group also says that they "plan more attacks" on facilities and oil rigs in the near future.

"in the next few weeks our attacks will increase with the destruction of several facilities of crucial importance to the oil industry," said the group.

one of the kidnapped victims is identified as park chang-am. 

"i want dad to come back so we can go fishing," said the son of chang-am, park myong-il.


auckland man convicted of sedition

selwyn faced two charges of "making a seditious statement" relating to pamphlets he had left near the scene of an axe attack on the prime minister's electorate office in november, 2004, which had called upon like-minded new zealanders to "engage in similar acts of civil disobedience" and to "take similar action of their own". the charges were laid under s81(1)(c) of new zealand's crimes act 1961, which criminalises any statement intended to "incite... or encourage violence, lawlessness, or disorder". the offence carries a penalty of up to two year's jail. after deliberating for almost four hours, the jury convicted selwyn of one charge, and acquitted him of the other.

speaking after the trial, selwyn said that the jury had "criminalised a press statement".

the trial has raised significant controversy within new zealand, with many bloggers protesting. blogger idiot/savant called the verdict "shameful" and said that it "opened the door to further prosecutions for what is effectively a political crime". 

selwyn is currently free on bail pending sentencing next month, and is likely to appeal.



abu musab al-zarqawi killed in airstrike

the head of al-qaeda in iraq, abu musab al-zarqawi, has been killed in an air strike on a building north of baqubah city, according to the iraqi prime minister nouri maliki. 

"today [sic] zarqawi has been terminated," he said thursday, and suggested the man the united states had placed a $25 million price tag on for death or capture was located through intelligence.

"what happened today is a result of co-operation for which we have been asking from our masses and the citizens of our country," he said.

the leader of coalition forces in iraq, general george casey said al-zarqawi was killed in a two-storey safehouse about 8 km north of the city in diyala province.

several aides also died with him in the wednesday evening raid by u.s. f-16 warplanes, including his key lieutenant and spiritual adviser sheik abdul rahman. some analysts believe a us counter-terrorism unit, task force 145, was involved in the attack.

al-zarqawi's body, recovered after two 500-pound bombs had blown through his cover, was identified through fingerprint, tattoo and scar analysis and head likeness. al-zarqawi, whose real name was ahmed fadhil nazzal al-khalayleh, was believed to be in his late 30s when he died of injuries while us forces gave medical aid.

the first munition exploded at 6:15pm was a gbu-12 laser-guided bomb that was shortly followed by the newer gbu-38; both carried 500lb of explosives for total cost of $40,000.

the self-proclaimed frontman for osama bin laden's activities in iraq, al-zarqawi, a jordanian national, is said to have been involved in the beheading of foreigners, hundreds of suicide attacks, and an insurgency against coalition forces after the iraq war in 2003.

it had been reported al-zarqawi's most recent campaign was to create problems between shi'ite and sunni groups in iraq with ethnic killings.

for the iraqi government the killing of the wanted murderer is what they sought but it remains unknown what effect the removal of this known figurehead of the iraq insurgency will have on levels of violence in the country. al-zarqawi was not the only person to oppose the us-backed iraqi government.

"zarqawi didn't have a number two. i can't think of any single person who would succeed zarqawi...in terms of effectiveness, there was no single leader in iraq who could match his ruthlessness and his determination," was the view of rohan gumaratna at the institute of defense and strategic studies in singapore.

applause was heard as mr maliki, with u.s. ambassador zalmay khalilzad and u.s. gen. george casey, by his side, told news reporters "al-zarqawi was terminated." 

sources claiming to be al-qaeda in iraq later confirmed that al-zarqawi had been killed and said that they would fight the united states and the interim iraqi government despite his death. 

united states president george bush spoke to journalists in the white house rose garden about al-zarqawi's death. "zarqawi's death is a severe blow to al-qaeda. it's a victory in the global war on terror, and it is an opportunity for iraq's new government to turn the tide of this struggle," he said.

the us military also confirmed that six people were killed in the strike, including al-zarqawi, and his spiritual adviser sheikh abd-al-rahman the death toll is reported at three men, three women. some reports had said al-zarqawi's wife and daughter died. however u.s. officials state that there is no evidence confirming the death of al-zarqawi's wife and daughter.



oil falls $1.19 on news of al-zarqawi death

the price for a barrel of oil dropped after news broke that 's leader in iraq abu musab al-zarqawi had been killed in a us airstrike thursday. the death of al-zarqawi seems to have been interpreted by the market as good news for the future supply of oil from the region.

this is against the backdrop in 2006 when the price of oil had reached a record high of $70 a barrel.

today on the new york mercantile exchange light crude futures for july dropped from over $70 a barrel to a low of $69.54 before rising to $69.63 for a $1.19 loss. "there's less of a terror threat in iraq now," said naohiro niimura, vice president of energy derivatives at mizuho corporate bank ltd, in tokyo, who gave his reason for the fall.

iraq lies over one-third of known oil reserves but since the iraq war in 2003 has been unable to pump more than 2 million barrels a day - 1 million less than prior to the coalition invasion. in may exports were said to be 1.5 million bpd.

the line on a graph that plotted oil price had done a steady incline over recent years, though many factors are involved in the price of a barrel of oil so it is almost impossible to say how much the troubles in iraq contributed to this rise. 

iraq's exports make up the largest proportion of its gross domestic product and a significant proportion of world supply. investors were said to have been worried about developing in the country citing lack of security and legal protection.

al-zarqawi, known for videotaped beheadings, suicide bombing campaigns against coalition forces and civilians and reportedly some attacks on oil infrastructure inside iraq, had claimed responsibility for bombing three hotels in amman, jordan. it was hoped the death of osama bin laden's operative in iraq would remove a man who had opposed the us-backed shiite-led state and western influence in the wider-region. 

the iraqi prime minister nouri maliki's recent appointment of new security and home affairs ministers also may have affected the oil market. director general of marketing and economics at the iraqi oil ministry said both pieces of news together were "a positive indicator for security," said shamkhi faraj. 

other voices sounded a note of caution against the optimism: "the situation in iraq has now become so chaotic, that it transcends the death of one man, influential as al-zarqawi was," said edward meir.

the analyst at man financial believes the threat to the iraqi oil industry is political as well as physical.

"yes, al qaeda attacked oil installations but they were not the only actors and they were not the main actors," he said. "there is also a new factor -- political parties that are using threats against oil to gain leverage."

in an announcement about oil, thursday, deputy prime minister barham salih of the iraqi government said it hoped to produce 4.3 million bpd in four years.


news briefs:june 8, 2006

the time is 17:00 (utc) on june 8th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

iraq

the head of al-qaeda in iraq, abu musab al-zarqawi, has been killed in an air strike north of baqubah, according to iraqi prime minister nouri maliki.
several aides also died with him in the wednesday evening raid, including his key lieutenant and spiritual adviser sheik abdul rahman.

economy 

a barrel of oil got cheaper after news broke that al qaeda's leader in iraq abu musab al-zarqawi had been killed in a us airstrike. the death of al-zarqawi seems to have been interpreted by the market as good news for the future supply of oil from the region.

nigeria

five south korean workers have been kidnapped from a natural gas facility in the nigerian delta. the company is operated by shell petroleum development company.
a group called the movement for the emancipation of the niger delta is claiming responsibility for the attack and kidnappings and says that one kidnapper and at least six nigerian soldiers were killed on a nigerian military boat, when gunmen entered the facility. the group's main demand is the release of a jailed militia leader, mujahid dokubo-asari.

new zealand

freelance journalist tim selwyn has been found guilty of sedition. this is the first conviction for sedition in new zealand in over 75 years.
selwyn faced two charges of "making a seditious statement" relating to pamphlets he had left near the scene of an axe attack on the prime minister's electorate office in november, 2004, which had called upon like-minded new zealanders to "engage in similar acts of civil disobediance" and to "take similar action of their own".

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


international forces in dili reach agreement

the international forces in east timor have reached an agreement about the coordination of the military and police forces in the field. representatives of the four countries reached the agreement during an urgent meeting after an incident between australian and portuguese soldiers yesterday.

in the agreement reached between australia, new zealand, malaysia, portugal and the timorese government, operational autonomy is given to the international forces, which will operate in cooperation and coordination with each other.

the agreement also stated that in an initial phase dili will be divided into sectors, and each area will be under the control of an international force. outside of its area of responsibility, the military or police force will only be able to operate if other international forces request their actions. also was agreed that the police forces will assume total control of the city after the military forces leave their current occupied positions. a situation that is expected after the arrival of the remaining equipment, mainly vehicles, for the portuguese republican national guard (gnr) and the arrival of the remaining malaysian police officers and their equipment.

in an official notice, the timorese foreign minister, jose ramos horta stated that "the objective on a long run is for the gnr to operate has a tactical intervention force in all the city of dili".

ramos horta explained that "in the next days, maybe already tomorrow morning, they [the australian, malaysian, new zealand and portuguese forces] will do some coordination training, in way to assure that the four forces know exactly what each one will do". "since some are from the army and the others [portuguese republican national guard] are a specialized police and that they never worked together, its useful to carry out some practical exercises", he added.

in another subject, ramos horta explained that the australian soldiers that are in maubisse, next to a rebel group lead by major reinado, and in gleno, ermera, next to another group of "military opponents", are there "containing those elements".

"those groups are not comparable with other people that are here in dili and that must be disarmed", ramos horta said.

"the australian presence in maubisse and gleno aims in containing those groups on their areas, until arrives the moment in which the president decides that is time for also mister alfredo reinado and the others to put down their weapons", he said. "this is not urgent because they are not causing problems to anyone", he justified.

the urgency of the resolution and clarification of the command and cooperation of the international forces was originated after an incident between australian and portuguese soldiers. when yesterday a portuguese gnr patrol transported three people to a temporary detention center managed by australian soldiers.

the detainees were arrested by a gnr special operations team, after being caught looting a governmental warehouse, in balide, dili.

the australian soldiers then refused to receive the detained men, questioning the legitimacy of the portuguese soldiers to make arrests. the portuguese contingent transported the detainees to the timorese prison services in dili.




five kidnapped south korean natural gas plant workers released

five south korean natural gas plant workers who were kidnapped yesterday have been released to a member of the nigerian senate, david brigidi. the five ex-hostages walked into a nigerian government building and were in good health.

the kidnappers, who belong to the group movement for the emancipation of the niger delta, released the workers after mujahid dokubo-asari pled for the release. mujahid dokubo-asari is a militant who is currently in prison and the kidnappers were demanding that he be released.

"all five korean prisoners captured by our unit in the attack on the daewoo camp were released … at the request of dokubo-asari," said the group.

shell petroleum development company operated the plant in the nigerian delta where the hostages worked. shell has since closed the plant after the group said yesterday that more attacks were "planned" on the facility. the plant is located in port harcourt and daewoo engineering and construction co. and korea gas corp. were the workers employers.

today the group again reaffirmed their earlier statement that all "oil companies in the niger delta are again warned to leave while they can."


new hiv drug could stop virus from spreading

in a small-scale trial on humans, american scientists say they may have developed a new drug that could stop the spread of hiv and "rapidly clears" the blood of the virus.

"there is a lot of interest in this product," said editor keith alcorn of the national aids manual.

the drug called pa-457, which is derived from betulinic acid and comes from by-products from paper manufacturers, is being manufactured and developed by maryland drug manufacturer panacos pharmaceuticals. the drug is known as a maturation inhibitor, which is a new group of drugs. its purpose is to break down the protective protein coating of hiv. the drug exposes the inner genetic material by making holes in the coating of the virus essentially causing it to break down and disabling its ability to be passed from one human to the next. the drug also shows that it works on strains of hiv that are resistant to other medications. the drug is also compatible with other hiv drugs.

"it's a truly novel new class of drugs, and i really support their development. if pa-457 turns out to be non-toxic, easy to use and not to select for resistance, it will find good use," said charles boucher who researches hiv at utrecht university medical center in the netherlands.

"it stops the virus by interfering in one of the final stages in its assembly and stops it from 'budding out' from the wall of a cell," said alcorn.

scientists are expected to begin a larger scale test on 48 people in one month, whose drugs are no longer working; however, the drug itself is not likely to be available for wide-scale use for at least 3 years. test subjects will be administered either a placebo or pa-457 that will be taken in combination with the medication they already take.

"this provides the basis for future studies that will be designed to provide a detailed understanding of the interaction between pa-457 and its target as well as insights into the design of new generations of maturation inhibitors," said ceo of panacos pharmaceuticals, graham allaway.

at least 80% of those suffering from the disease have shown resistance to other medications.


australian unemployment at lowest level in 30 years

australian prime minister john howard announced australia's unemployment rate for may 2006 on thursday. the rate had dropped to 4.9 percent, the first time since 1976 that unemployment in australia had been below five percent.

mr howard said 56,000 full time jobs were created in may with 38,000 of those taken up by women. he said it was a symbol of how well his government was managing the economy. "the result is a wonderful symbol of the success of the government’s economic policies." said mr howard.

according to the government 1.8 million jobs have been created since it took office in march 1996.

the number of people actively seeking work also increased, a sign mr howard said that people are "confident of finding work."

at an interview in sydney, mr howard told reporters that he believed the unemployment rate would be driven down further when the benefits of his workchoices industrial relations reforms begin to show. "i believe, as some of the effects of the workplace relations changes work their way through, then the unemployment rate, particularly in small business, will go down even further," he said.

mr howard denied that workchoices had any affect on the figures for may saying that it was too early to tell. "i am not going to make that claim. it’s only may’s figures and the changes only came in march. i think it is too early to make that claim" mr howard told reporters.

following the announcement, liberal mp wilson tuckey said that the rise in the number of jobs could not have happened without the government's industrial relations reforms. "we wouldn't have achieved these outcomes, particularly in employer hiring, without the changes we've made," 

"when employers have confidence in their hiring arrangements as the workchoices gives them, they're going to go out and hire more people" said mr tuckey.

stephen smith, workplace spokesperson for the opposition attacked mr tuckey's claims, stating that all the government's new industrial relations legislation has achieved is reduced wages. "the suggestion that somehow we've got these employment and unemployment figures as a result of 30 days of john howard slashing wages is a complete nonsense," he said.

"it's great that we've got a 30-year low in unemployment but that's a result of 15 years of continuous economic growth and a resources boom." said mr smith.


26 australian citizens detained in immigration centres

according to a government document, the australian federal government has detained 26 australian citizens in immigration detention centres over the past ten years. in its count, the document does not include high-profile cases involving cornelia rau, vivian solon and "mr. t", for which the government has already accepted liability.

responding to a question on notice from labor mp steve georganus, phillip ruddock, former australian immigration minister said that the commonwealth ombudsman was looking into 220 possible cases where people have been illegally detained and of those 26 had been identified as legitimate australian citizens. "of the 220 cases bearing the descriptor 'released not unlawful' the department has identified 26 cases involving australian citizens" he said.

according to mr georganus, his question was put to the government six months ago. he received a reply from mr ruddock last week.

mr georganus said that the errors should not be occurring in a democratic country. "when you see 26 australian citizens locked away in australia in a democratic country in the year 2006, you lose all confidence," he said.


34 people injured in assam serial blasts

at least 34 people were injured when a series of explosions rocked different parts of the state of assam in india, on thursday night. according to the police, four explosions of a very high intensity occurred in different parts of the state after 7 p.m. those injured in the explosions are being treated at local hospitals.

police said the first explosion occurred when militants lobbed a grenade at a crowded market in islampur, 80 kilometres north of guwahati, injuring 21 people. in the second incident, five passers-by were injured in another blast near the golokganj police station close to the border with bangladesh. the third explosion took place in the western district of dhubri town where three people were wounded. the last explosion occurred in nagaon, 120 kilometres east of guwahati, injuring four people, including a policeman. 

the attacks come a day after the central government announced dates for the third round of talks between government peace representatives and an 11-member civil society group from assam chosen by the militant, separatist group united liberation front of asom (ulfa). the ulfa has demanded the release of five of its top leaders from prison if new delhi wants to hold direct talks with the separatist group. assam chief minister tarun gogoi said "we have already recommended their release to the authorities in delhi. we want peace back in the state."


congressional candidate raj bhakta challenges schwartz to debates

republican candidate (r) has challenged incumbent u.s. rep. congresswoman (d-13) to a series of debates.
bhakta, a former contestant on the television show , accepted an invitation to debate on 'the daily show' with jon stewart. schwartz, however, declined - wishing to keep the debates in the district instead of on tv.
"you wonder, why wouldn't somebody want to debate their opponent?" bhakta said. "either, they are afraid that they are going to look worse, which i would if i were her, or, you are just so full of contempt for the voters that you figure you are above that and they will vote for you anyway."
now, bhakta suggests a series of 12 debates, six in montgomery county and six in . 
"we want to get out and take questions from the voters," he said. "i have nothing to be afraid of." 
calls to schwartz's office were not returned before deadline.
while both candidates have said they want to debate, the specific details of where and when have yet to be ironed out.
"anytime, anyplace, i'll debate," bhakta said.
he even purposed one for the fourth of july.
"her vision for america's future, on the day america was born, versus my own," he said.
"my issues, quietly clearly, are how do we deal with the big issues of the country and the big issues of the area and northeast philadelphia," bhakta said, "which are rising crime, declining services, a mayor who's trying to destroy northeast philadelphia."
as his grassroots campaign continues, bhakta gains confidence.
"meeting with the people and talking with the people, you realize what makes this country great," he said. "it gives me a lot of confidence when i'm out there and talking to people because i realize how very poorly represented they people."
bhakta wants to launch a movement to "save the northeast." "it needs some saving," he said. 
his campaign is compiling crime statistics for the northeast that show a "quintupling of crime." bhakta says that over the past four years crime in "most areas" has increased fourfold. 
"that is ridiculous," he said. "it's unbelievable. a community can only hold up to that kind of attack for so long. take a ride down schwartz street and it looks like that - four times as much crime."

=sources=


details emerge on how al-zarqawi's location was pinned

someone said to be an informant within abu musab al-zarqawi's trusted circle told coalition forces the insurgent leader was going to have a meeting, it has emerged. this information appears to have led us f-16cs to a safehouse in the iraqi town of hibhid, where the jordanian and five others, including a child, were killed on wednesday.

"we had absolutely no doubt whatsoever that zarqawi was in the house. there was 100 percent confirmation," caldwell said.

the informer is said to want the insurgency to pursue a strategy within the iraqi political process, which in the informer's view was in contrast to tactics executed by al-zarqawi's leadership that involved ethnic killings. 

it was one of the last in a long line of breadcrumbs leading the hunt for the iraqi government's most-wanted murderer to the doorstep of an attractive isolated house in hibhid.

in a late-april video al-zarqawi had been shown spraying bullets from a machine gun with a horizon in the background. this is said to have revealed the general location of al-zarqawi, found near diyala province, in the north east of iraq. the ethnically mixed region had seen an upsurge in violence and over days preceding the airstrike. 

murders had included a number of decapitated heads left in fruitboxes. al-zarqawi had been known for kidnapping and video beheadings of westerners in iraq. 

another al-zarwaqi insider also had given vital clues to the investigators before the final tip-off. a former customs clearance officer in rutba identified as ziad khalaf al-karbuli had named sheikh abu abdul-rahman as al-zarqawi's spiritual advisor and gave-up contact details. 

ziad khalaf al-karbuli had appeared on jordanian television, may 23, to confess his links to al-zarqawi, and to his murder of a jordanian driver and his kidnap of two moroccan embassy employees in 2005. the vital clue about abu abdul-rahman was not broadcast.

with details from the al-karbuli interrogation the gunsights got closer to al-zarqawi. "through painstaking intelligence effort, they were able to start tracking him, monitoring his movements and establishing when he was doing his link-ups with zarqawi, " maj. gen. william caldwell said of the investigators.

the us search for the sheikh included the use of remote controlled aircraft, it was revealed.

however; it is said neither the al-karbuli information nor the al-zarqawi betrayer lead the americans to press the fire button on al-zarwaqi's two-story home. al-zarqawi was hard to catch because he reportedly eschewed trackable cell-phones in favour of high-tech thuraya-made satellite phones to communicate.

the death certificate was signed by the secret informant who said both sheikh abu abdul-rahman and al-zarqawi would be in hibhid, wednesday night. 

for the elusive insurgent who had previously escaped attempts to bomb him, the execution came after comparison of this source's information with tracks of the location of satellite phone users. 

the location found was beside a property with a courtyard surrounded by fields away from other buildings. it appears then the us command made the decision to strike at an address in the small town, near baqubah.

us special forces were on the scene to photograph the dead al-zarqawi at 6:17 p.m., two minutes after two 500lb bombs were dropped. al-zarqawi was said to be alive and being given medical assistance when he died of wounds sustained in the bombing.

the announcement of the killing was made thursday by iraqi prime minister nouri maliki. iraqi prime minister nouri al-maliki said to viewers of iraqi television the $25 million bounty for information leading to the death or capture of al-zarqawi would be "honored."



news briefs:june 9, 2006

the time is 17:00 (utc) on june 9th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

indonesia

kevin anderson, correspondent for the bbc, reports mount merapi is erupting.

india

at least 34 people were injured when a series of explosions rocked different parts of the state of assam in india, on thursday night. according to the police, four explosions of a very high intensity occurred in different parts of the state after 7 p.m.

iraq

someone said to be an informant within abu musab al-zarwaqi's trusted circle told coalition forces the insurgent leader was going to have a meeting, it has emerged. this information appears to have led us f-16cs to a safehouse in the iraqi town of hibhid, where the jordanian, and five others were killed on wednesday.

australia

australian prime minister john howard announced australia's unemployment rate for may 2006 on thursday. the rate had dropped to 4.9 percent, the first time since 1976 that unemployment in australia had been below five percent.

australia

according to a government document, the australian federal government has detained 26 australian citizens in immigration detention centres over the past ten years. in its count, the document does not include high-profile cases involving cornelia rau, vivian solon and "mr. t", for which the government has already accepted liability.

united states

in a small-scale trial on humans, american scientists say they may have developed a new drug that could stop the spread of hiv and "rapidly clears" the blood of the virus.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


new videotape of ayman al-zawahiri aired on aljazeera

al-qaeda's second in command, ayman al-zawahiri, has released a new videotape. the arabic television network aljazeera has aired the tape.

on the tape, al-zawahiri said, "god bless the prophet of islam in iraq, the persistent hero of islam, the holy warrior abu musab al-zarqawi." according to aljazeera, the tape was made before the death of abu musab al-zarqawi who was the leader of al-qaeda in iraq.

during the broadcast, al-zawahiri talks to the general muslim population saying, "i call upon them to reject any referendum on palestine, because palestine is not for bargaining or bidding. palestine was a land of islam, and its liberation is the duty of every muslim. i call upon muslims everywhere to support the brothers in palestine."

al-zawahiri also claims that the united nations is trying to "occupy" sudan and is attempting to "divide" the nation.

"the spineless sudanese government ... is joining the united states in dividing sudan to stay in power. in sudan, the crusader (u.n.) security council decided to send military experts to darfur in preparation for its occupation and division. i call upon every muslim and everyone who has faith in sudan, and every fervent muslim in darfur to confront the zionist crusader plot to occupy the lands of islam," added al-zawahiri.

zawahiri also talks about judges in egypt who wish to make the judiciary system independent.

"in egypt, the crusader system supports the secular system that violates the judges' integrity, cheats in elections and enforces emergency law. oh judges, you won't obtain independence unless your country is liberated first, and our home will not be liberated unless islamic sharia [law] is implemented. the regime won't give you your independence because to do so would be to kill itself," said zawahiri, who was addressing the egyptian judges.

"i have to be frank with you. you are part of the problem. you agreed on the constitution and the secular laws imposed on the nation by arms and suppression and torture and rigged elections. i tell the egyptian judges you will not gain independence because america and israel simply and clearly do not want that, and what you see today in procedures against you is part of their promised american reform plan," added zawahiri.

zawahiri also talks about the aid to the palestinian government, which has been frozen. "the arab governments did not have the courage to even meet the palestinians' needs for one month. because the orders came from <nowiki>[</nowiki>washington d.c.<nowiki>]</nowiki> to their agents to starve the palestinians and to isolate them," added zawahiri.

the videotape is approximately 17 minutes long and it is unknown where aljazeera got the tape.


54 killed, 20 injured in tanzanian bus crash

a bus accident in the north of tanzania located approximately 15 miles to the east of mount kilimanjaro killed at least 54 people and injuring 20 after falling into the malala river. police say that the bus was packed with too many people and witnesses claim the bus was speeding.

"there were some (people) that were standing, plus cargo on top...it is not allowed within the law because the bus's capacity is 26 passengers," said arusha regional commissioner, abbas kandoro. he also said the bus had at least 74 people on board.

"the bus was carrying 74 passengers. fifty four people have died," added kandoro.

a crane has been called in to assist in the rescue and police fear that more bodies will be found under the wreckage.

the people were traveling from arusha to mererani.


germany wins, 4-2 over costa rica in first world cup match

the 2006 soccer world cup kicked off in the allianz arena in munich, friday, with hosts germany cruising to a 4-2 win over costa rica.

the first match of group a, which was full of attacking football, was a goal-fest for jurgen klinsmann's side, whose miroslav klose notched up a brace.

the highlight of the match went to german midfielder torsten frings for a 30-yard shot that sent the new tournament football swerving viciously past a hapless costa rican keeper.

the match had started brightly for the side, missing captain michael ballack, when on 6 minutes left-back philipp lahm curled in from the top-left of the penalty area. 

but the joy the home crowd had after the spectacular start was punctured 6 minutes later by paulo wanchope. the costa rican striker broke through a static german defence to pass the ball neatly by jens lehmann. 

klose, who had 7 goals for the team in the 2002 korea/japan world cup, tapped in a second to again give the german side the lead with a quarter of an hour gone.

during the game possession of the ball was dominated by the hosts who, while looking vulnerable on the break, looked like scoring whenever they went forward.

they scored a third, klose's second, on 61 minutes, when the striker was first to react to a rebound from his own header, which had been saved by jose porras.

wanchope kept the home team on their toes breaking the german defence for a second time but any chance of the central american team pulling off a shock was ended when frings' bullet hit the back off the net.

the game was played in spirit, the only yellow card going to costa rica's daniel fonseca for a first-half challenge.

group a
attendance: 64,950

referee: horacio marcelo elizondo (argentina). 





major blaze hits large muslim building in the netherlands

a major fire destroyed a large muslim building in the city of vlaardingen, the netherlands on friday evening. firefighters were working to put out the blaze before burning out of control and at one point causing evacuations from nearby buildings.

the fire erupted just before 8 p.m. local time (1900 utc) and was controlled around 10 p.m. (2100 utc), according to fire officials. 

the blaze was located in a large muslim building, including a mosque on the first floor. no persons were believed to be injured in the inferno.

authorities said they were investigating the cause of the fire but suspected the cause was arson. police officers and fire crews were evacuating the surrounding residents. the fire department called it a "major fire" and all units were called to the scene. also on the scene were water fire units as the building is located near a river.

vlaardingen is located about 10 miles from the hague.

after the murder of theo van gogh on november 2, 2004, many mosques in the netherlands were set on fire.

on november 8, 2004, a bomb exploded at a muslim school in the south of the country.



ecuador beats poland, 2-0 in group a

a strong defensive display and two well taken goals saw ecuador beat poland in the second group a match at the soccer world cup. 

the thousands of polish fans who had traveled to the veltins-arena stadium in gelsenkirchen, germany, saw their team struggle to put together attacking plays.

ecuador, whose captain and defender ivan hurtado was taken off injured on 67 minutes, scored a goal in the first half and one ten minutes from the end for a 2-0 victory.

the first twenty minutes was cagey with both sides unable to find form; there was not one chance on goal for the first twenty minutes.

when one did come it was ecuador who capitalised: a throw-in from the right into the penalty area was flicked on for carlos tenario to nod passed the outstretched fingers of artur boruc into the far corner of the polish net.

while first half-possession was equal for both sides poland dominated the second period as ecuador sat back on their lead, content to hit on the break.

poland continued their early form of choosing the wrong pass and many times lost the ball in the third of the pitch nearest the opposition goal.

ecuador scored a second ten minutes from time; in a rare attack near the polish goal the ball was threaded by polish defenders leaving a two on one with a stranded boruc.

agustin delgardo didn't miss from ten yards.

the polish game never got going for manager pawel janas until the last five minutes when they hit the horizontal and then the vertical whitework of christian mora's goal.

much of the credit for the performance of luis suarez's ecuador side must be put at the feet of their defenders, particularly giovanny espinoza and ivan hurtado.

he will be hoping his defensive leader recovers for the next game against costa rica while poland must contend with a german side who won their first game of the world cup, friday.

group a
attendance: 52,000

referee: toru kamikawa (japan). 




australian government to review censorship of &quot;hate material&quot;

the australian federal government is looking at reviewing censorship laws to ensure that so-called "hate material" is adequately censored. the government claims the review is required following the approval of eight publications and a film that allegedly promoted terrorism

australia's attorney general, phillip ruddock said he had written to censorship ministers in each state and territory informing them that he wishes to raise the matter with them in july. he said that the government did not wish for material advocating or promoting "terrorist acts" to be available in australia.

under australia's censorship laws, the classification board (which is part of the office of film and literature classification can refuse to classify a video game, book or film in certain circumstances (including incitement of crime or violence). an item that is refused classification can not be sold, hired or exhibited in australia.

in a statement mr ruddock said that any censorship review had to find the right balance between freedom of expression and the incitement of violence. "i will be asking my state and territory colleagues to consider whether current laws strike the right balance between freedom of expression and community concerns about promotion of acts of violence."

"freedom of speech is a right all australians would fiercely defend so it is important to consider these issues carefully," he said.

mr ruddock also has referred eight publications and one film to the classification review board in response to community concerns about the dissemination of material that promotes terrorism.

last year, eight publications and a film were referred to the australian federal police for investigation after concerns they incited hatred and acts of violence. the afp could not get sufficient to pursue a prosecution.

the classification board classified the material in december 2005 after it found that the material did not fall under refused classification provisions. the board found that the material did not promote or incite violence or crime.

in response to the classification, mr ruddock said "this is an important issue and further consideration of the classification of this material is warranted."


oklahoma allows execution of repeat child molesters

gumm, a sponsor of sb 1800, said that ensuring the safety of children is the government's greatest moral obligation. gumm also asked "we allow the death penalty for someone who has killed a body. why would we allow someone to escape who has killed a soul?"

one senator argued against the bill suggesting "the healing power of forgiveness" is more important than that of the death penalty.



'net neutrality amendment' fails in u.s. house

on thursday, congress turned down the "net neutrality amendment" to the communications opportunity, promotion, and enhancement act (cope act) 269-152. 

the cope act is designed to make it easier for telecommunications companies to offer cable tv service and strengthen competition. proponents hope it would lower the price of high-speed internet for consumer by enabling internet service providers to bundle phone, data, video and mobile phone services. the act is the first major telecommunications bill to come before congress in over a decade, and it passed by 321-101 vote on thursday.

portions of the "net neutrality" amendment to the cope act sought to assure that communication companies who provide internet services treated all data delivery passing through their connections equally. it specified that each broadband provider has the duty "not to block, impair, degrade, discriminate against, or interfere with the ability of any person to use a broadband connection to access, use, send, receive, or offer lawful content, applications, or services over the internet." the amendment's passage would have prevented at&t, verizon, comcast and other broadband providers from charging content providers like google, yahoo, amazon or ebay for priority access to their networks. democrats were largely in favour of the legislation with 140 ayes and 58 noes, whereas only 11 republicans voted for the measure, with 211 against.

house minority leader nancy pelosi argued that "the imposition of additional fees for internet content providers would unduly burden web-based small businesses and start-ups," and that "they would also hamper communications by noncommercial users, those using religious speech, promoting civic involvement and exercising first amendment freedoms."

the phone companies and their congressional allies argued that the restrictions in the amendment would discourage investment in upgrading networks. chief technology officer for bellsouth william l. smith told the "washington post" that telephone companies should be able to charge companies for having their content load faster than that of competitors. "if i go to the airport, i can buy a coach standby ticket or a first-class ticket," smith said. "in the shipping business, i can get two-day air or six-day ground."

the legislation has been subject to intense lobbying by telecommunication companies on one side, and content providers on the other. the bill is due to be discussed next in the senate, where lobbying efforts from both sides are expected to intensify. the white house said that it supports the current bill. 


pilot with 9/11 links deported from new zealand

a yemeni man linked to the september 11, 2001 attacks in the united states has been deported from new zealand, only the second time that section 72 of the immigration act is used to deport someone. consent of the governor-general was required and there is no right of appeal.

rayed abdullah, a united states-qualified pilot, arrived in new zealand in february under a variation of his name.

immigration minister david cunliffe says “the government considered that the man's continued presence in new zealand posed a threat to national security because he was directly associated with persons responsible for the terrorist attacks in the united states on 11 september 2001," 

"we don't have any specific information that he was a terrorist. we know that he was associated with terrorists," he said, adding that his "activities in new zealand" warranted the deportation. once his real identity became known, he was identified as having close connections to people involved with the 11 september 2001 attacks in the united states, and had been named in the 9/11 commission report,"

"initially, he lived in auckland where he undertook some english language training, the stated purpose of his visit. he then shifted to palmerston north where he was building up his flying hours flying with an instructor ? he'd previously trained as a pilot in the united states."

"with immigration officials, police arrested the man in palmerston north on monday, 29 may, and he was deported to saudi arabia the next day."

"for security reasons, i cannot comment further. i am advised; however, that at no point was there any specific risk to new zealanders during the man's time in this country."

the us government's 9/11 commission report says that abdullah lived and trained in phoenix, arizona with hani hanjour, the saudi arabian believed to have piloted flight 77 into the pentagon. abdullah was a leader at the islamic cultural centre in phoenix where, the fbi says, he "reportedly gave extremist speeches at the mosque". 
the report also said another associate of hanjour, faisal al salmi, had flight training with rayed abdullah but wanted to keep his training secret.

the federal bureau of investigation said al-salmi was deceptive when he was asked if he had taken flight training at the behest of an organisation.
section 72 of the immigration act 1987 provides that where the immigration minister certifies that the continued presence in new zealand of a person constitutes a threat to national security, the governor-general may, by order in council, order that person's deportation.


second fire in 24 hours hits muslim building in the netherlands

just a few hours after fire crews put out a suspected arson fire, another fire hit the large muslim building. the building has now been completely destroyed, a spokesman for the dutch police said.

the building was engulfed in flames on saturday morning. authorities are investigating and do not rule out a possibility that it was arson.

a turkish mosque that was located in the building has been there for over 14 years and relations with visitors and the neighborhood are fine, according to police.

both fires didn't result in any injuries but after the second fire on saturday, the buildings has been completely destroyed and police fear the entire building could collapse.


plane lands safely in seoul after losing radar, nose and windows in storm

an aircraft made an emergency landing friday night and landed safely without its nose, radar and windows. the plane landed at the airport of . the plane lost parts in a severe storm between island and seoul.

hail also destroyed the plane's cockpit windows that were made of security glass. the windows remained in place but the pilots were unable to see through the glass. the radar could have solved the problem, but was also damaged by the storm. the pilots decided to use two very small windows on both sides of the cockpit.

the plane was carrying 200 people, including 177 students of primary education schools on a school trip, a spokesman of asiana airlines said saturday.

the pilots lee chan-go and kim yong-ik will be rewarded because they landed the plane safely despite all the problems.

no one was injured in the incident.


two teenagers killed in greater manchester

two teenagers have been found shot to death in salford, greater manchester, w:uk. one of the victims is a 15-year old girl, the other victim is a male aged 18.

emergency services were called to reports of a shooting on saturday morning. they found the girl dead at the scene. the man died in an ambulance en-route to the hospital.

a greater manchester police spokeswoman said officers were still trying to establish the circumstances of the shooting.

"police were called to orion place in lower broughton, salford, following reports that shots had been fired. officers attended and discovered the body of a 15-year-old girl. an 18 year-old boy was also found at the scene. he was taken to a hospital by ambulance but died a short time later. the investigation is at a very early stage and inquiries are continuing," the spokeswoman said. 

the heath avenue area is sealed off while officers investigate.



all blacks defeat ireland in rugby

the all blacks defeated ireland 34 points to 23 in rugby union at waikato stadium in new zealand. the irish came close to recording its first ever win against the all blacks, leading 16 points to eight at half time, but a late surge by the new zealanders ensured a clean record was kept against them. the all blacks performed the traditional ka mate haka as their pre-match tradition. the decision was made prior to the day of the test after members of the public complained about the cut-throat gesture in the kapa o pango haka, first performed at the tri nations in 2005.

scoring quickly opened for the home side, with doug howlett getting a try in the first minute of the game. luke mcalister missed the conversion. mcalister missed a penalty shot soon after. ireland quickly responded, and ronan o’gara was able to put points on the board, and converted it to give ireland the lead, 10 points to five, with play just past 10 minutes. o’gara was successful with another two penalties, and ireland went into the second half leading 16 points to eight.

in the second half, mils muliaina was able to give the all blacks breathing space, scoring a try in the opening exchanges of the second half. ireland responded with a try to andrew trimble that was also subsequently converted. mcalister landed two penalty goals for the all blacks to put the team back in the game, with around 20 minutes remaining. a penalty goal to mcalister in the 71st minute put the all blacks ahead, with just nine minutes remaining. a try to troy flavell ensured the all blacks kept its record against ireland intact. it was richie mccaw's first test as the all black captain, coach graham henry was impressed with the win, but described the effort as rusty. the sides will contest a second test next week.



england wins first match with 1-0 victory in group b

england beat paraguay 1-0 in a bruising encounter among the shadows of the commerzbank arena, frankfurt, saturday.

in the sunshine and heat, which reached 30 degrees celsius, it became a physical game that saw three bookings and the referee frequently blowing his whistle.

england got the perfect start scoring after just 3 minutes from a david beckham freekick. swung in from the left of the field, the ball clipped the head of paraguayan captain carlos gamarra on its way to the net.

however; the game was not attractive for the neutral. both sides looked nervous and no side got control of the midfield. passes were frequently misplaced and attacks from both teams lacked cutting edge.

paraguay lost number one goalkeeper justo villa to an injury in the sixth minute of the game. aldo borbadilla replaced him.

missing wayne rooney, arguably their team's most skilled player, whose recent injury though healed had ruled him out for this match, the noisy england fans in the crowd didn't have much to sing about except the victory.

england's swedish manager sven-goran eriksson's side had more possession but failed to score more than the one early goal. on their part, paraguay was unable to capitalise on a number of english defensive errors to get an equaliser. 

england next face trinidad and tobago while paraguay face the england manager's home nation, sweden.

group b
attendance: 48'000

referee: marco rodriguez (mexico)


first tropical depression of 2006 forms

the thundershowers and torrential rain lie east of the center. however, over the weekend, if persistent develops closer to the center of circulation, the tropical depression could become tropical storm alberto. 

this is the first t.d. of the . some of the rain will hit the north-eastern part of the , but the bulk of the heaviest rain will remain east of the tropical depression over the western half of cuba where 10 to 30 inches are possible by early monday.

deadly and are possible. picked up 22.7 inches of rain in the last 24 hours. from sunday into tuesday, the heavy rain will hit florida and could become a good source of drought relief for much of the state. 

in the , clusters of thunderstorms extend westward from to just south of mexico. any thunderstorms over land could produce flooding and mudslides in the higher elevations. slow development of a off the coast of guatemala is possible over the next few days as it heads northwestward to along the southern mexican shores.


scotland go down to south africa in rugby

the springboks defeated scotland in a rugby test in durban, south africa. the springboks intended to defend its unbeaten home record under jake white, whilst the scottish showed good form in the six nations. 

scoring opened in the third minute, with percy montgomery landing a penalty goal to put south africa three points in front. scotland replied five minutes later with a penalty goal of its own by chris paterson to tie the game at three points all. in the 15th minute, the springboks team was disallowed a try after the referee consulted the television match official. however, in the 16th minute, schalk burger is given a try. it was converted by montgomery, to give the springgboks an 11 points to three lead. a minute later breyton paulse touches down in the corner for another south african try, though it is not converted, scotland now trails three points to 15. paterson booted a penalty goal in the 25th minute to put scotland back in the game, though montgomery did the same in the 32nd minute. the springboks entered the break leading 18 points to six.

four minutes in from the break, paterson kicked a penalty goal, putting scotland back in the running, the score now being 18 points to nine, with over half an hour of game time remaining. however, the south africans made a scottish comeback all the more unlikely as andre snyman scoring a try in the 53rd minute. montgomery converted the try, and south africa was now leading 25 to nine. south african took the lead to 28 points with another penalty goal in the 61st minute. two minutes later montgomery scored a try and although he missed the conversion, he was successful with a penalty shot six minutes later. with just over ten minutes remaining, the score was 36 points to nine in favour of the springboks. simon webster made sure that scotland finished on a high note, scoring the last try of the match, which was subsequently converted by paterson. the final score was 36 points to 16. the nations will meet again next week.



oklahoma state men's golf wins 10th ncaa title

the oklahoma state university men's golf team won its 10th ncaa title last saturday under first year head coach mike mcgraw.

after tying for fourth in the big 12 conference championship, mcgraw said "the disappointment we felt after the conference championship was so deep, but these guys came back and changed their season by realizing you can't take winning for granted."

jonathan moore, a redshirt freshman, became the eighth individual national championship for oklahoma state, the first since charles howell iii in 2000. okalhoma state also swept both team and individual championships in 1978, 1987, and 2000.

the golf coaches association of america based in norman, oklahoma named mike mcgraw coach of the year earlier this week for guilding oklahoma state to five tournament wins this season.

florida took second place while both minnesota and wake forest tied for third at the ncaa championships.



shiv sena activists disrupt news conference in jammu

activists of the shiv sena today disrupted a news conference of syed ali shah geelani, the leader of the breakaway fraction of the all party hurriyat conference (aphc) kashmir's largest separatist alliance. geelani was scheduled to address the press after his release from prison. he was arrested on wednesday in south kashmir on charges of inciting people against the indian state during a series of speeches in poonch district of south kashmir in 2001.

shiv sena activists barged into the venue of the press meet and shouted slogans against him for his pro-pakistan utterances. "they are supporters of pakistan. they say that they want independence. we will allow them to allow them to raise anti-india themes here. we will not allow them to organise a news conference till they support india," said an activist of the shiv sena. arguments also broke out between the activists of shiv sena and supporters of geelani. things turned worse when the police intervened to calm it down.

geelani, accused the police of supporting the activists of the shiv sena, when they tried to take him away to cool off tempers. "we were giving a news conference peacefully when supporters of shiv sena came in and started shouting slogans. now the police are also supporting them," he said, as he was being escorted away by policemen.

geelani, who supports jammu and kashmir joining pakistan, is supported by most of the armed islamist militants fighting indian rule in the disputed region in a conflict that has killed more than 45,000 people since it began in 1989. the 77-year-old separatist has been arrested and jailed on several occasions for making statements urging people to support kashmir's accession to pakistan.


rebels blow up oil pipelines in assam

normal life in the asom continued to be disturbed for third day in a row on saturday following the series of subversive activities engineered by the banned united liberation front of asom(ulfa). in the latest incident, police on saturday morning sounded red alert in the guwahati city as an explosive timer device found in front of kamrup sp office in panbazar.

"the recovered device was kept in a tiffin box, which was programmed to explode at 6:15 [ist] in the evening," said police sources adding that the hand of ulfa was suspected. the passengers of delhi-bound rajdhani express had a miraculous escape as a bomb planted on the tracks near naharkatia in the dibrugarh district detonated just before the superfast train was to pass last night, said official sources. on friday night, at least six persons injured in the state, following five powerful blasts that was suspected to be triggered by the banned outfit.

these blasts came barely hours after a powerful bomb explosion that killed five people and injured over 15 at a busy vegetable market in the guwahati city on friday evening. according to police, at least six persons injured when a bomb exploded in the house of one milan deori in rupaisiding- tapoban-tiniali area in the tinsukia district allegedly planted by ulfa militants. besides this the outfit reportedly blew off four oil pipelines belonging to assam gas company limited and oil india limited (oil) successively at two places in the dibrugarh district last night.

police source said that two blasts occurred at 10:25 ist and 25 minutes later damaged pipeline used for electricity generation at namrup thermal power plant at a place under naharkatia police station. later two more explosions severely damaged two crude oil pipelines belonging to oil, nearby bhadoipanchali. in another incident, at least three army personnel injured when militants hurled grenade at an army truck at doomdooma in tinsukia district at around 8 p.m. ist yesterday. on thursday, there were four separate explosions that left 34 people injured in the districts of dhubri, mangaldoi and nagaon.



grolier poetry bookshop has new owner

the grolier poetry bookshop in cambridge, massachusetts, has a new owner, nigerian poet and wellesley college philosophy professor 
ifeanyi menkiti. menkiti purchased the bookstore from longtime owner louisa solano. publisher's weekly and the boston globe have reported that he plans to maintain the readings and other events that the store has long been famous for, expand the selection of international writers and maintain more regular hours.

grolier is one of only two all-poetry bookstores in the united states, and had been in danger of closing. such poets as t.s. eliot and marianne moore have frequented grolier. it is a harvard square historic landmark.


prix de west exhibit opens in oklahoma city

today, during the exhibition's banquet, the museum is to present bob kuhn with their lifetime achievement award. over 50 pieces of his work is being featured in a special exhibit at the museum.

for more information, visit the national cowboy & western heritage museum website.



london terrorist suspects released without charge

two brothers who were arrested in london last week on suspicion of being involved in terrorist activities were released without any charges by the uk police on friday. 

twenty year old abul koyair and twenty three year old mohammed abdul kahar were arrested during a police raid on june 2 at a house at lansdown road, forest gate, during which mohammed kahar was shot in the shoulder. they were detained under the terrorism act 2000 on suspicion of being involved in terrorist activities. both the men denied any such involvement. 

police sources had earlier said that they had information that a chemical device might be found there, the assistant commissioner andy hayman had earlier said the police had received "specific intelligence" regarding the location. police found no such device.

the police complaints commission is investigating the circumstances of the shooting of mohammed kahar. 



news briefs:june 10, 2006

the time is 18:00 (utc) on june 10th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

netherlands

just a few hours after a suspected arson fire was put out by fire crews, another fire hit the large muslim building. the building has now been completely destroyed, a spokesman for the dutch police said.

new zealand

a yemeni man linked to the september 11, 2001 attacks in the united states has been deported from new zealand, only the second time that section 72 of the immigration act is used to deport someone.

australia

the australian federal government is looking at reviewing censorship laws to ensure that so-called "hate material" is adequately censored. the government claims the review is required following the approval of eight publications and a film that allegedly promoted terrorism.

india

normal life in the asom continued to be disturbed for third day in a row on saturday following the series of subversive activities engineered by the banned united liberation front of asom(ulfa). 

england

two teenagers have been found shot to death in salford, greater manchester. one of the victims is a 15-year old girl, the other victim is a male aged 18.

kashmir

shiv sena activists today disrupted a news conference of syed ali shah geelani, the leader of the break away fraction of the all party hurriyat conference (aphc).

united states

the united states house of representatives with a vote of 321 yeas to 101 nays passed the cope act, hr 5252, at 10:05 pm, june 8, 2006.

korea

an asiana airlines airbus aircraft made an emergency landing friday night and landed safely without its nose, radar and windows. the plane landed at the airport of seoul.

sports ? football or soccer

england beat paraguay 1-0 in a bruising encounter among the shadows of the commerzbank arena, frankfurt, saturday.

sports - rugby

the all blacks have defeated ireland 34 points to 23 in rugby union at waikato stadium in new zealand.

sports - rugby

the springboks have defeated scotland in a rugby test in durban, south africa.

sports - golf

the oklahoma state university men's golf team won their 10th ncaa title last saturday under first year head coach mike mcgraw.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


trinidad and tobago hold sweden in second group b match

lars largerback's swedish side failed to break a high-energy team marshalled with great confidence from midfield by the trinidadian captain dwight yorke. 

some excellent defending from carlos edwards and the caribbean back four managed to keep out its european rivals for a famous first ever point in the world cup tournament for the small island country.

trinidad and tobago started the game with a reserve goalkeeper after first choice kelvin jack was injured after warming up. but shaka hislop produced a string of outstanding saves, which included one 11 minutes from time when he stuck out a hand to stop marcus allback placing the ball over him.

the sending off of avery john, after getting booked for a second time for a lunge, this time on christian wilhelmsson on 46 minutes, did not stop the soca warriors. in reply leo benhakker changed to a more attacking 4-3-2 system and threw on an extra attacker.

the west indies team led by yorke was competitive and hard in the tackle but swedish pressure meant the team was in its own half of the pitch most of the game. the team had few chances on goal because its attacking plays were few; but one shot from substitute cornell glen clipped the crossbar to the glee of supporters.

sweden made many goalscoring chances but its strikers must feel unfortunate that none were converted. 

rami shaaban in the sweden goal did not have a save to make. a statistic that says much for the dominance of the swedish yellow jerseys is that sweden had eight corner kicks to trinidad and tobago's one.

group b
attendance: 65'000

referee: shamsul maidin (signapore)



new hawaii airline sparks fare war, free seat giveaway

new hawaii airline go! started interisland passenger service on friday, but not before starting a fare war with hawaii's two existing interisland carriers that culminated with one of them resorting to a free giveaway of seats on go!'s opening day.

the new airline, a division of arizona-based mesa air group, started a fare war in march when it offered an introductory fare of us $39.00 one-way, which was matched by hawaiian airlines and aloha airlines. normal interisland fares prior to that point averaged about us$79 one way.

the fare war intensified in the week leading up to go!'s startup, when go! on wednesday announced a $19.00 one-way fare good during go!'s first month of operation. hawaiian immediately matched the fare but not by aloha. thom nulty, aloha's vice president of marketing, initially dismissed the fare cut, saying, "over the years, we've seen many startups come and go with goofy fares designed to steal passengers away from hawaii's homegrown airlines."

however, aloha on thursday went even goofier than both go! and hawaiian, announcing a plan, called the "great go away giveaway," to give away 1,000 vouchers for free tickets at hawaii airports on friday morning on a first-come-first-served basis. eager passengers lined up at honolulu international airport as early as 7 p.m. thursday night to snag the free tickets, and the 500 tickets allotted at honolulu were gone by 9 a.m. friday.

mesa air ceo jonathan ornstein quipped on the name of aloha's promotion, "they'd like us to go away so they don't have to give away seats." he also announced that go's original $39.00 promotional fare will become permanent.

ornstein later reported that go!'s first day of operation went smoothly. "i think the day went really flawlessly, certainly in consideration it was our first day of operations," ornstein said.


cherokee nation tribunal approves new constitution

the constitution includes the creation of a speaker for the legislative council and would be the third in line of succession, behind the principal chief and deputy chief. the constitution also changes the name of the judicial appeals tribunal to the supreme court and increases its size from three to five. another provision is a two consecutive term limit for elected officials.

principle chief chad smith said. "this is a historic day for the cherokee nation ... our constitution requires that the people review our constitutional laws every 20 years, and modify when necessary. today, the (supreme) court has reaffirmed the obvious, we were a government exercising inherent sovereignty before there was a united states. the greatest exercise of that sovereignty is to pass our own constitution, without interference from outsiders."

for a side-by-side comparison of the 1976 and 1999 constitutions, see the 1999 constitution of the cherokee nation: a review and comparison between the 1976 and 1999 constitutions of the cherokee nation in preparation for the ratification vote on july 26, 2003.



three inmates commit suicide at guantanamo detention facility

three inmates hung themselves with nooses made from their bedsheets at the u.s. base in guantanamo bay, cuba. according to the u.s. military, the time of death is not yet clear; the men were "found unresponsive and not breathing in their cells by guards." two of the men are reported to be saudi, the third being yemeni. according to admiral harry harris, one of the prisoners was a mid-to-high level al-qaida operative, another belonged to a splinter group, and the other was captured in afghanistan.

commander of the u.s. southern command, general john craddock, said the three men had left suicide notes, but craddock refused to discuss the contents.

base commander navy rear adm. harry harris said the suicides were acts of "asymmetrical warfare". according to reuters his expressed opinion was that the suicides were an act of war, "they are smart. they are creative. they are committed. they have no regard for life, neither ours nor their own. i believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us," he told reporters. it must be noted however that the concerned officer has not claimed to have the educational qualification to analyse the prisoners in a psychological manner, so his authority to comment on this matter might be questionable.

ken roth, human rights watch in new york, said "these people are despairing because they are being held lawlessly". mr roth continued "there's no end in sight. they're not being brought before any independent judges. they're not being charged and convicted for any crime." 

moazzam begg, 37, who was released in 2005 after spending two years under detention at guantanamo told the associated press: "we all expected something like this but were not prepared. it's just awful. i hope the bush administration will finally see this is wrong."

barbara olshansky, of the center for constitutional rights which represents about 300 guantanamo bay detainees, said "i think people [detained at guantanamo] have this incredible level of despair that they will never get justice. olshansky said the us government "not only failed these people but pushed them on the road to death".

the united nations recently asked the u.s to close down the detention centre after reports of abuse were made, including the flushing of quraans down toilets, force-feeding of inmates, sleep deprivation and beatings of underage prisoners. 




argentina start with 2-1 win in group c

the game saw the team in orange and the team of the blue and white stripes trading attacks at a furious pace all match. the argentines dominated the first half while in the second half it was ivory coast who had opponents defending.

as the excitement reached a climax, on 82 minutes the pressure of the team two goals down paid when a great attack ended with a didier drogba score. he struck a first time shot low past roberto abbondanzieri from the middle of the penalty area.
the argentines had scored first when an in-swinging freekick delivered by juan riquelme was knocked-down in front of goal. hernan crespo pounced on the loose ball inside the six yard box to score on 25 minutes.

on 37 minutes the argentine midfield "quarterback" riquelme made the second goal when he split the ivory coast line with another well-executed pass. it had just the right strength that the runner javier saviola had only to stab past the oncoming keeper to score. 

roberto abbondanzieri had a strong shot-blocking and tackling defence in front of him, supplemented by two defence-minded midfielders. the only real sight on goal the ivory coast had in the first half drew out of him a point blank save from the boot of kadar keita.

the incredible stamina, enthusiasm and high technical skill shown by the west african team, nicknamed "the elephants", really tested the argentina defence. but while pressed back, jose pekerman's side commanded the game, having had 60 percent of the ball possession, and looked dangerous on the break.

the quick accurate passing, movement and speed of ball play led to some mistimed challenges; five cautions were awarded by the belgium referee. this may reflect the hard, competitive spirit in which the game was played.

the evening's entertainment in hamburg had begun with some controversy when ivory coast goalkeeper jean-jacques tizie juggled with the ball on his line. no goal was given and in the end it did not change the result of the game for argentina.

group b
attendance: 49'480

referee: frank de bleeckere (belgium)


scientists discover new kind of shark in northwest atlantic

a new species of has been found in the northwest off the coast of south carolina.

according to scientists, the species, classified as genus sphyrna, looks much like the scalloped hammerhead, but is "genetically distinct" from the scalloped hammerhead. university of south carolina biology professor joe quattro, who discovered the shark, describes it as "cryptic"; it is described as a rare find. this is the ninth such species of the hammerhead shark to be discovered. scientists have named the species a 'cryptic species' because no formal name has been selected for the shark.

according to dr. quattro, "if south carolina's waters are the primary nursery grounds for the cryptic species and females gather here to reproduce, these areas should be conservation priorities." scientists say the shark only breeds off the s. carolina coast and that it is at a risk for extinction. "management plans are needed to ensure that these sharks are not adversely impacted so that we can learn more," added dr. quattro.

so far, there are only 454 other named and classified species of shark in the wild. two other scientists, dr. jim grady at the and dr. trey driggers with the , are also among the biologists to help with the discovery.


iraq: alleged death squad members beheaded in new video

a new video posted on the internet by iraqi insurgents shows the beheading of three men, whom the killers allege are members of a death squad. insurgents say the beheadings are in retaliation for the killing of sunnis. the islamic militant group ansar al-sunnah has posted the video and claimed responsibility for the killings.

"they are with a death squad group, whose mission is to capture sunnis in quick operations on the main streets of baghdad and its surroundings," said the group in a statement posted on its website. the statement also says that judges for the group sentenced the members of the squad to death "so justice is served and also as revenge for our sisters... and brothers who were killed and are killed every day at the hands of those apostates."

the video shows the victims held at gunpoint, they identify themselves as being part of a death squad and are then beheaded.

"whoever insists on fighting islam and muslims and joins the apostasy army, we say to him, 'you will not go any further without us targeting you, god willing. and you will not drive a car without us following you. and you will remain to live in terror until we terminate you so your end becomes in hell, and what a humiliating ending it is," continued the statement.

it is not known when the video was made and the victims have not been identified. 



rice beats oklahoma in first round of ncaa super regional, 10-4

the rice university baseball team defeated the university of oklahoma 10-4 in the first game of the ncaa super regional.
brian friday and josh rodriguez helped push rice to an early led with consecutive home runs in a four-run first inning.

wayne graham, rice's head coach, said, "obviously, i'm happy with the way we hit the ball. we attacked the ball real well. when we answered their runs, that was critical. we never got complacent."

rice (54-10) and oklahoma (44-21) will meet sunday for the second game in the series at rice's reckling park. if oklahoma wins, a third game will be played monday. if rice wins, it would send the team to the college world series for the fifth time, the first since winning the title in 2003.


biarritz defeat toulouse to win french rugby championship

biarritz defeated stade toulousain to win the 2005-06 top 14 french rugby club championship. biarritz was able to put the loss of the heineken cup final to munster behind it and run 40 to 13 winners in france's domestic championship, claiming its second title in a row. the final was played at stade de france in saint-denis on saturday. biarritz made it to the final by defeating usa perpignan the previous weekend, as did toulouse with stade francais.

biarritz entered halftime leading toulouse nine points to six. with the scores close, the game had the potential to go either way in the second half. however, defending champion biarritz took control. biarritz wings jean-baptiste gobelet and sireli bobo, centre damien traille, hooker benoit august and number eight imanol harinordoquy all scored trys for biarritz in the second half. with dimitri yachvili being successful with three conversions, as well as booting another three penalty goals, biarrirtz stormed to victory. toulouse was only able to put gregory lamboley in for their only second half try, whilst a conversion and penalty goal by jean-baptiste elissalde along with a drop-goal by frederic michalak saw the final score at 40 points to 13. michalak left the field around the 60th minute, which may rule him out of france's tests against the springboks and romania later this month.



australian opposition promises to scrap workplace agreements

kim beazley leader of the australian opposition has promised to scrap workplace agreements introduced as part of the howard government's controversial workchoices industrial relations reforms.

speaking at the new south wales australian labor party today, mr beazley promised that a government under his leadership would create "a land of decency and fairness". mr beazley said such a plan has no place for individual australian workplace agreements (awa).

"i believe awas are nothing more than a means to cut wages, cut conditions, undermine decency and fairness in our workplaces," he said.

"so today delegates i announce that a beazley labor government will abolish john howard's australian workplace agreements."

the opposition leader told his party faithful that awas can not be fixed. "i know awas can't be fixed, they can't be made good, they must be rejected," said mr beazley.

mr beazley said a government under his leadership would reward hard work and effort.

"the government i lead will be guided by one core principle - when you put in, you get back," he said.

"that's my pact with middle australia. when australian workers put in a good day's work they'll get job security, decent wages, decent conditions, decent protections against unfair dismissal." 

the announcement comes as the australian council of trade unions (actu) launches its multi-million dollar advertisement campaign against the government's changes. the unions say their ads portray the stories of real australians who have been affected by the government's industrial relations reforms.

actu leader greg combet welcomed mr beazley's proposal, saying they were beneficial for both the alp and the nation as a whole.

"it means that there is a clear choice between the liberal-national government and the labor party on these industrial relations issues at the next election," he said.

"more important than policy commitments, what mr beazley is clearly articulating are labour movement values: fairness, decency, respect for people, dignity in their workplace, the right to be represented, sharing in the economic wealth.

"these are all extremely important values that he is articulating and i think it is those values that are going to put labor in good stead."

mr combet said that the alp state conference in nsw showed the amount of support mr beazley has within his party, despite recent party in-fighting, leadership speculation and attempts by the government to undermine mr beazley's leadership.

australian prime minister, john howard accused mr beazley of giving in to union pressure. "it is clear from mr beazley’s awa rollback plan that the labor party will do whatever it takes to make the unions happy, even if it is at the expense of australian workers," he said.

mr howard accused mr beazley of planning a return to an industrial relations system that left one million australians without work. mr howard also said that mr beazley has promised to eliminate awas but has failed to put forward a replacement. "mr beazley today proposed that labor would abandon awas but did not outline any replacement for the existing arrangements," said mr howard.

in a statement, mr howard said that mr beazley had no plan to ensure the continued growth of the australian economy and accused mr beazley and his party of failing to "take advantage of an increasingly competitive global marketplace". 

defending his government's legislation that allows awas, mr howard said that awas give negotiating power to workers. "awas now play an integral role in the nation’s workplace relations culture, with almost one million australian workers since 1996 enjoying the benefits of making workplace agreements on their terms, " he said

the prime minister also dismissed any claims that awas have reduced wages and satisfaction of employees. "awas have delivered higher wages, greater productivity and enhanced satisfaction for employees, " he said.


australia defeats england in rugby

australia defeated england 34 points to three in the first of two rugby union test matches at sydney's telstra stadium. the game was another meeting of the 2003 rugby world cup finalists, which saw jonny wilkinson land a field goal in extra time to win the rugby world cup, although the sides have played each other since then, it was the first return to telstra. in the lead up to the game, england coach andy robinson slammed the condition of the pitch of telstra stadium. he visited the stadium the day before the test and said he had fears that scrums could be affected by the condition of the pitch. scrums played a powerful role in the sides last contest at twickenham last year when the english almost embarrassed the wallabies with its impressive scrummaging. since their last clash, john connolly has been appointed the head coach of australia, and the game against england will mark his debut. with a new-look team, the wallabies entered the game having lost eight of its previous nine matches.

england's olly barkley kicked off the match, and just three minutes in, australia was awarded a penalty. stirling mortlock's kick is wide of the posts, and the score remains nil-all. england's scrum prospered in the first twenty minutes, and australia missed a few oppoortunities to score tries. in the 18th minute, england was penalised for not releasing the ball in the tackle. mortlock was successful with the shot at goal, and australia moved ahead, 3 points to nil. just after twenty minutes england looked dangerous as mike catt throws a long pass to speedster tom varndell near their own goaline, but a stray pass to tom voyce led to little. three minutes later australia was awarded another penalty, and england found itself a little further behind on the scoreboard when mortlock was successful with another penalty kick. shortly after iain balshaw goes in for england off a barkley kick, but being wrapped up by australian captain george gregan, the television match official ruled a no try. after an unsuccessful scrum on the australian scoreline, barkley misses a penalty kick just left to the posts. english captain pat sanderson makes an optimistic break shortly after though a pass is intercepted. mortlock misses a penalty goal soon after, but on the stroke of half time he kicks another penalty goal to put australia nine points in front as the game goes sinto half time.

barkley got england's first points a few minutes into the second half, being successful with a penalty kick, taking the game to nine to three, with australia still in front. though shortly after barkley is penalised for not releasing the ball, and mortlock kicks a penalty goal to take australia's lead to 12 points. australian fullback chris latham scores the first try of the match in the 54th minute, with mortlock's conversion, australias takes a convincing 19 to 3 lead over the english. australia furthered its lead to 22 points as mortlock lands another penalty goal, with under 15 minutes remaining in the game, an english comeback seemed unlikely. australia sealed the victory when clyde rathbone makes a break up field and passes to mark gerrard who regathers his own kick to score a try. mortlock converts gerrad's try, and australia lead 29 points to three with around seven minutes remaining in the game. on debut, rodney blake charges over to score another try for the wallabies and although mortlock misses the conversion, australia won 34 to three.



australian cabinet discounted potential security risks with nuclear energy

australia's justice minister, chris ellison has said that the australian federal cabinet did not consider security issues when it decided to setup an inquiry into nuclear power.

speaking to the nine network, senator ellison said when considering energy, security concerns are not an issue. "when you look at sources of energy you don't look at any potential terrorist threat," he said.

the justice minister said that cabinet discussed measures for protecting crucial infrastructure but denies that a nuclear power station is any more of a target than the electricity grid or rail system.

senator ellison said that restricting the country's use on nuclear power because of the threat of terrorism was giving in to terrorists. "energy sources are very important for the future of any community and i think we're not about to be stymied or restricted in that approach because of any threat of terrorism,"

"i mean, we're going to continue living in the way we do. once we change that, the terrorists win," he said.

leader of the australian greens bob brown says that the failure to consider security implications associated with nuclear power generation is "daft".

senator brown accused the government of failing to consider the possibility of nuclear material becoming available to terrorists. "it's daft to say the least and it's really pig-ignorant of the dangers of nuclear material coming into the hands of terrorists," he said.

senator brown said he is concerned that the move encourages indonesia, a country that he claims to have a terrorist problem to build nuclear reactors. "the government doesn't understand that their paving the way for nuclear enrichment or reactors in australia encourages indonesia, which has plans for up to 12 nuclear reactors and which the government knows has real problems with terrorism."

the greens leader said that there is a possibility a nuclear reactor could become a terrorist target. "it does make the threat of terrorists getting nuclear materials or targeting a reactor real, and it must be a consideration for any inquiry," he said.

the opposition has also raised concerns about security risks associated with nuclear energy. stephen smith said, "we don't think that the economics are there for nuclear power stations in australia, let alone the national security risks that go with that and the waste disposal risks that go with that."


fernando alonso wins british grand prix

?fernando alonso for the first time in his career won the fia formula-1 british grand prix at the silverstone circuit. 

alonso was in the lead for the most of the race. michael schumacher started third, but finished before kimi raikkonen. alonso teammate giancarlo fisicella beat felipe massa on the second pit stop and finished on the back of raikkonen.

bad luck for jenson button, ruefull race for english fans.



netherlands ease to 1-0 win in group c

the attacking midfielder, who plays for english club side chelsea, dazzled in the zentralstadion; almost as bright as the sunlight which had split half the field into dark shadow by the end of the match.

the shadows the serbia and montenegro team chased in the game were that of the flying dutchman. the goal robben scored, enough to win the game for his side, was tucked away in a one-on-one with dragoslav jervic after he had out-sprinted the defence to reach a through ball.
in the second half marco van basten's team seemed to suffer with the heat as opposition got more offensive play; but a goal for serbia and montenegro did not look likely.

serbia and montenegro gave up 60 percent of the ball possession to the netherlands, which also restricted the balkan's team to just four shots on target.

and with its accurate passes, skill and pace the team, known as the "orange men" for the colour of their kit, still threatened. in the second half robin van persie's free kick was driven low across the goal and missed the far post, as well as holland's forwards, by centimeters.

the match was decided by a single goal partly because it was tightly contested in midfield; of the six yellow cards issued by german referee markus merk, they all went to defenders and midfield players.

robben's individual display, which included a moment when he evaded two opposition players only for his shot to be blocked, earned him the man of the match award from fifa's technical study group. he was the bright spark that exposed serbia and montenegro's lack of pace in defence. 

ilija petkovic's team did not create enough goal-scoring chances and might think to beat ivory coast and argentina, the two other teams in group c, they need to work on the attack game.

group c
attendance: 37'216

referee: markus merk (germany)




news briefs:june 11, 2006

the time is 18:00 (utc) on june 11th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

cuba

three inmates hung themselves with nooses made from their bedsheets at the u.s. base in guantanamo bay, cuba.

australia

australia's justice minister, chris ellison has said that the australian federal cabinet did not consider security issues when it decided to setup an inquiry into nuclear power.

australia

kim beazley leader of the australian opposition has promised to scrap workplace agreements introduced as part of the howard government's controversial workchoices industrial relations reforms.

sports ? football or soccer

arjen robben was the difference as the netherlands won their first world cup match 1-0 against serbia and montenegro in leipzig, germany, sunday.

sports - rugby

biarritz have defeated stade toulousain to win the 2005-06 top 14 french rugby club championship.

sports ? racing

fernando alonso for the first time in his career won the fia formula-1 british gran prix at the silverstone circuit.

sports - rugby

australia has defeated england 34 points to three in the first of two rugby union test matches at sydney's telstra stadium.

sports - baseball

the rice university baseball team defeated the university of oklahoma 10-4 in the first game of the nc-double-a super regional.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


lauren nelson crowned miss oklahoma

lauren nelson, 19, sophomore at , was crowned last night at the oral roberts university . nelson is the youngest contestant to become miss oklahoma. she will receive a $16,000 scholarship and represent oklahoma in the .

nelson is the daughter of mark and sherrell nelson of . competing for the first time in the miss oklahoma pageant; she became qualified for the pageant at the oklahoma state fair. in 2004, nelson was miss teen oklahoma.

lindsay miller from , miss grand lake, won an $8,000 scholarship for being the first runner-up.



mexico score three against iran in group d

two half-time substitutions by ricardo la volpe helped mexico to a 3-1 win over iran in nuremburg, germany on sunday.

the first half of this group d tie ended 1-1 and it appeared to be a close contest between two hard-working teams. then the mexican coach ricardo la volpe, who was observed smoking a cigarette during the game, made two substitutions at half time. this seemed to change the game.

shifting from three to two forwards, in the second half the central americans won the ball more often in midfield; they then piled pressure on the iranian goal with an effective short passing game. iran failed to adequately adapt to this tactical change.

with 15 minutes remaining an iranian defensive error led to the game-winning goal, and a great flowing move four minutes later made the result look convincing for mexico.

the mexican team did lose experienced striker jared borgetti to what seemed to be a leg muscle injury on 46 minutes. this will be a concern to the coach. but the majestic performance of captain rafael marquez, who seemed to be nearly everywhere, ensured onfield leadership was unaffected.

his team had to wait a while for the go-ahead goal. on 75 minutes ebrahim mirzapour's clearance fell short; his centre back then failed to control the ball and omar bravo was put through to slide the ball in for his second goal. in the first half bravo had deflected a guillermo franco header into the net for his first. 

iran, in all red kit, had a good first period but was out-played in the second. iran equalised from a goalkeeper error on 36 minutes. centre back yahya golmohammadi poked into the top of an empty net after mexico keeper oswaldo sanchez had leaped and missed at a ball crossed in from a corner kick. 

branko ivankovic's iran side conceded the third goal on 79 minutes, mexico's familiar green and white shirts now swarming all over the iranian defence. zinha passed the ball wide to the right of the penalty area. zinha, surging forward, rose unmarked on the penalty spot to greet the cross and guided the ball into the bottom right corner of mirzapour's net.

group d
attendance: 41'000

referee: roberto rosetti (italy)



third former williams trader admits manipulating natural gas prices

daryl brown, former trader of oklahoma-based williams power company, pleads guilty in federal court of conspiracy to manipulate natural gas prices between 1998 and 2002, during the california energy crisis. brown is the third williams trader to plead guilty of similar charges since 2004. brown had agreed to cooperate in an ongoing probe.

u.s. attorney kevin ryan said, "mr. brown admitted that approximately 75 percent of the trades he reported to industry newsletters were deliberately fabricated. these false data skewed published prices so the company could illegally profit."

brown will be sentenced on september 22.


opening day of the 56th bad hersfeld festival

manager of the festival elke hesse and mayor hartmut h. boehmer presented the welcoming speech. the viennese elke hesse is the first woman who runs the festival. the hessian minister of state delivered the greeting of the provincial government and chairman of federal dr. norbert lammert spoke to the audience. they characterised the cultural importance of the festival.

first premiere was the classic of goethes ?faust“ on the very same evening. further premieres are ?dreigroschenoper“ from bertolt brecht, the taming of the shrew from william shakespeare, ?das spiel von liebe und zufall“ from pierre de marivaux an the childrens act town musicians of bremen from brothers grimm. supplemented by classical music concerts in the afternoon, the theater performances take place in the evening until august 6, 2006.


portugal win against world cup first timers in group d

with the goal scored after four minutes it might have seemed the game would be a rout for the portugal side. with attacking stars figo, ronaldo and pauleta, they lined up against an angolan team who made their first appearance at the world cup in the rhein energie stadion.

but a score of 6-0 or 5-1 - the scores of the two times the teams had played in their recent fixtures - was not to be. and, in a defensive move, on 61 minutes ronaldo, was pulled off by portugal's brazilian coach luis felipe scolari. 

ronaldo in the first half had a header that hit the angolan crossbar but it might be the yellow card the gifted 20-year-old had received which prompted the move to rest the player.

angola did not make the game easy but when it seemed the portugal coach was content with his side to defend the lead against the former portugal colony some in the crowed jeered loud enough to be heard on television.

this would be no disrespect to figo who was on exceptional form, involved in almost every portugal attack. despite the defensive tactics he might have created more goals but for the deep-sitting angolan defence that made it difficult to get a clear sight of goal. 

angola, in an apparent attempt to keep the score respectable, kept 11 men in their own half of the pitch for much of the game. in the second half, as the clock ticked, angola appeared reluctant to attack the portugal goal in numbers such that portugal could catch them on the break.

the only goal conceded by luis de oliveira goncalves side was the result of the inventive play of portugal's famous number seven. figo cleverly knocked the ball around a defender and ran at speed into the penalty box. his run brought angolan goalkeeper joao ricardo toward him, and figo found pauleta in the perfect position to pass the ball into the net.

group d
attendance: 45'000

referee: jorge larrionda (uruguay)



snow hits new zealand

a huge snowstorm has hit new zealand.

some parts of south canterbury have had as much as 30 cm.

some bus services in christchurch have closed down, including the rangiora line.

christchurch airport has closed.

the metservice reports that there is a good chance of getting up to a half a metre of snow.

further north in auckland, the bad weather also caused power outages when an earth-wire at the otahuhu substation snapped. the substation is the main supplier of power going into auckland.

internet service provider (isp) xtra reports that some people will experience internet failure, especially where the power outages are, auckland and the rest of the upper north island.

the power is expected to be back by at least nightfall nzst, however some places are reporting to have had power back.


anti-tubby smith ad rejected by university of kentucky student paper

the kentucky kernel, the university of kentucky student newspaper, rejected a full-page ad calling for tubby smith's dismissal as the men's basketball head coach. richard cheeks, a professor at the school, and a group called concerned fans for uk basketball sought the $1,700 ad.

cheeks said "we see the program in decline. ... we don't want it to decline the way the louisville program did in the latter years when denny crum was there. so we decided that we were going to begin to get our message out."

a spokesman for kentucky basketball, scott stricklin, said "being that he's one of the nation's winningest coaches, he pretty much knows what it takes to win championships because he's done it here," stricklin said.

the kentucky kernel's general manager, chris poore, the decision to reject the ad was without the influence from the university of kentucky's administration.

in the past nine seasons at kentucky, smith has obtained a 241-71 record, including winning the 1998 national championship.


oklahoma baseball team defeats rice, evens series in ncaa super regional

the university of oklahoma baseball team defeated rice university 11-5 in the second game of the ncaa super regional sunday. oklahoma's (45-21) win over rice (54-11) evened the series to 1-1.

ryan rohlinger led the sooners hitting 3-for-4, which including two rbi at the plate. offensively, every one of oklahoma's starters had at least one hit.

oklahoma and rice will meet again at monday at rice's reckling park. the winner of this game will go on to play in the college world series. the game can be seen in oklahoma live at noon on espn.


blair asked to intervene as british artist faces jail in turkey for collage

tony blair has been asked to speak out on behalf of a british artist, , who has been charged in turkey with "insulting the (turkish) prime minister's dignity". this carries a sentence of up to 3 years in jail. the case was brought after dickinson displayed a collage showing tayyip erdogan, the turkish prime minister, as a dog, being awarded a rosette by president bush in a pet show. 


german tax authority migrating 12,000 desktops to suse linux and kde

the lower saxony, germany tax authority is migrating 12,000 desktops to use suse linux with kde as the desktop environment. the systems are being migrated from sun's solaris x86 version 8, which has been in use at the organization since 2002.

according to eva brucherseifer, president of the kde community in germany and managing director of basyskom, the migration process in its "peak phase" and is porting 300 systems every day. the company basyskom is configuring the desktops.

brucherseifer said "the decision made by the regional tax office in lower saxony represents an important step towards increased flexibility, enhanced usability and ? last but not least ? reduced training and support costs." 

german cities using or planning to use open source software include schwabisch hall, mannheim, treuchtlingen, leonberg and isernhagen. mannheim is planning to deploy linux on 110 servers and 3,700 desktops.


argentina defeat wales 27 to 25 in rugby

argentina has defeated wales in rugby at raul conti stadium in puerto madryn on sunday. both nations scored three tries each, but it was the kicking of federico todeschini that got argentina home in the 27 to 25 win. it was welsh head coach gareth jenkins's first game in charge.

after opening pressure applied by the welsh, mark jones scored the opening try of the game, dashing over in the corner to give the welsh a five to nil lead after five minutes. the try was not converted. however argentina was quick to reply as juan manuel leguizamon scores a try for the pumas one minute later to level the scores at five-all. with federico todeschini being successful with his conversion, argentina takes the lead seven to five. ian evans intercepts a pass and runs 60m to score wales' second try. with nicky robinson's conversion, wales is back in front with a 12 to seven lead. gavin thomas is yellow-carded at the ruck which results in a penalty for argentina which todeschini kicks to bring the score to 12 to 10 to wales. one man down, wales avoids conceding another try as ignacio fernandez lobbe penalisesd for a double-movement. one minute from half-time wales has second played yellow-carded in alix popham. argentina scores a late try with jose maria nunez piossek running in the right corner. todeschin adds the conversion,subsequent penalty shots are taken by both nations, though wales' missed and argentina goes into the break leading 20 to 12.

six minutes into the second half, robinson misses a long range penalty goal and the scores remain at 20 to 12 for argentina. however, in the 62nd minute he gets another shot at goal and is successful to get wales to 15 to 20. minutes later rodrigo roncero is sent to the sin bin for argentina, and robison kicks a penalty goal to narrow the gap to 20 to 18. with just two points separating the nations, with three minutes remaining, francisco leonelli scores a try for argentina and todeschini's conversion takes their lead to 27 to 18. however, in the third minute of extra play, james hook scores a try for wales and robinson adds the conversion. however, after wales is penalised for holding on in a tackle, the referee signals the end of the match and argentina wins 27 to 25.


australian healthcare workers don't wash hands often enough

researchers at the university of new south wales have discovered that australian healthcare workers do not wash their hands often enough in the course of their work. researchers claim the practice places patients at risk of contracting infections.

the study, which looked into hygiene practices in australian hospitals, found that some healthcare workers only washed their hands 15 percent of the time. mary-louise mclaws, a researcher at the university of nsw, said that the research found that most staff only washed their hands after using the toilet or when they felt dirty.

professor mclaws said healthcare workers should wash their hands after coming into contact with each and every patient. even after simple tasks such as taking a patient's temperature and making a bed, healthcare workers should wash their hands according to the study.

researchers explained that despite more sinks being placed in hospitals, infection rates were still high. they concluded that behaviour modification was also required.

the study also found that hand washing after coughing or sneezing was beneficial for preventing the spread of influenza. professor mclaws said, "we really need to get the message into the community that we wash our hands to protect others too".


5 killed, 35 injured in train crash in israel

a train carrying 200 people has crashed into a pick-up truck in netanya, israel. at least 75 people are injured and at least five have died. police say that the truck was pushed onto the tracks by another car when the train smashed into it. the driver was not injured.

"a train travelling from tel aviv to haifa struck a truck at ... a junction. as a result of the impact, the first three carriages of the train were derailed. we are dealing with a large number of casualties," said a spokesman for the israeli police.

witnesses say that the driver of the truck managed to escape before the train hit the vehicle "crushing" it in the process.

"i'm not sure why (the truck) got stuck, but its two front wheels got caught. the driver got out before the crossing gate came down. ... the train just continued steaming ahead with the truck, and the truck was crushed," said miri, a witness on the scene.

the train was traveling from tel aviv to haifa.



10-year-old child takes grandmother's car for 85 km drive

police in the australian state of new south wales have reported that they pulled over a 10 year-old child driving his grandmother's car along the newell highway in north-western nsw on sunday.

according to police, they received numerous calls around 12:30 p.m. aest on sunday from truck drivers who were concerned that two children appeared to be alone in a red holden commodore station wagon, one of which was driving along the busy highway. the newell highway is the primary road transport route between melbourne and brisbane.

moree police dispatched a highway patrol unit that located the vehicle 35 km north of moree.

when signalled by police, the 10-year-old driver pulled over and got out of the vehicle with his six-year-old brother to speak to police. they told police that they were with their grandmother in boggabilla when they decided to visit their grandfather in moree, 120 km south. the children said they had taken their grandmother's car to make the trip. when pulled over by police, they had travelled around 85 km.

sergeant matt clifford said "they appeared to be driving normally … certainly better than probably some other people on that road".

police drove the vehicle to the children's grandparents' home in moree where the children were returned to their grandparents.


large meteorite strikes in norway

a large meteorite slammed into the side of a mountain near the area of troms and finnmark in norway at about 2:05 a.m. on june 9, 2006. 

scientists say the explosive force of the meteorite could have been "compared to the hiroshima bomb." truls lynne hansen of the northern lights observatory, however, called this description "an exaggeration."

"this is simply exceptional. i cannot imagine that we have had such a powerful meteorite impact in norway in modern times. if the meteorite was as large as it seems to have been, we can compare it to the hiroshima bomb. there were ground tremors, a house shook and a curtain was blown into the house," said norwegian astronomer, knut jorgen roed Odegaard.

"of course the meteorite is not radioactive, but in explosive force we may be able to compare it to the bomb," added Odegaard.

the last record for a meteorite impact in norway was alta, weighing over 198 pounds. it struck in 1904.

"the record was the alta meteorite that landed in 1904. that one was 90 kilos (198 lbs) but we think the meteorite that landed wednesday was considerably larger," said Odegaard. he also said that area residents could find remnants of the meteor.

professor kaare aksnes of the institute for theoretical astrophysics at the university of oslo later apologised for the comprison with the hiroshima bomb "we cannot be completely sure, but the light and sound phenomena were exceptional. it indicates that there has been a great deal of energy involved." 



singer kevin aviance attacked outside manhattan, n.y. gay bar

kevin aviance, a 38-year-old gay male drag queen and singer, was attacked outside the "phoenix," a gay bar in manhattan, new york's east village. police say that he suffered head injuries, a broken jaw and bruises, but is in stable condition.

"i thought they were going to kill me. i was thinking 'is this the way i'm going to die?’” said aviance.

police call the assault a hate crime and say that four boys ages 16-20 are responsible for the attack. police also say the boys were calling aviance "faggot." jarell sears and akino george, 20, gregory archie, 18 and gerard johnson, 16 are being charged with first-degree assault and hate crimes.

according to len evans, the publicist of aviance, people who were walking by refused to help. evans also said that aviance was not in drag at the time of the attack, saying that he was "dressed like a boy." evans also says that at least "six or seven" people were involved in the attack.

"they kicked me in my back, they kicked in my knees. they just kept kicking," said aviance. "i've been doing this for 15 years and i've never been harassed. if anything people approach me with warmth."

aviance was scheduled to perform at several gay pride events in manhattan, before the pride parade on june 25. evans says that he will not be performing at those events.

"i'm supposed to be doing all this stuff. with my jaw wired shut, what can i do?" added aviance.

aviance has had several number one dance hits including "din da da" in 1997, "alive" in 2003 and "give it up" in 2004.


australian late scores down japan 3-1 in group f

in what amounted to a dramatic last 10 minutes guus hiddink's side overturned japan's single goal lead as the searing heat of the fritz walter stadium, kaiserslauten, made australia's all-out-attack brand of football too hot to handle.

australia had faced disciplined and organised japanese defending for 84 minutes of the game. captain tsuneyasu miyamoto looked impressive while goalkeeper yoshikatsu kawaguchi made key saves against australian captain mark viduka - including a double one in the first half.

the socceroos might consider themselves unfortunate for the goal they conceded. it was disputed with questions of goalkeeper interference. in any event, on 25 minutes mark schwarzer failed to reach a cross looped in from the right; the ball sailed over his head and into the net. 

the match had good passing, inventive plays; both sides played with three defenders and encouraged attacking football, with much of the play in and around the penalty areas. after second half substitutions, australia ended the match with three forwards over six feet in height and this may have made the difference.

but had japan scored from a number of good opportunities they made the australian come back may not have been enough.

the equaliser on 84 minutes owed to similar element of luck or goalkeeping error as the first goal. the japan keeper missed a throw from the left. the ball fell loose to midfielder tim cahill, close to the penalty spot. the substitute drove the ball low through the legs of players to score.

then the japanese may feel unfortunate - a minute later tim cahill appeared to up-end a japanese player in his penalty box. no penalty was given; the score remained 1-1.

zico, the brazilian manager of the japanese team who had been minutes from successfully guiding his team to a first game win, then watched as tim cahill on 89 minutes scored his second from the top of the semi-circle; with much deftness, he curled the ball in off the right post. kawaguchi had no chance.

at this point the japanese, in the 30-plus celsius heat, seemed to be exhausted while the australian substitutes were just warming up. substitute john aloisi used his pace to beat yuichi komano and put the ball in the bottom left corner for the third goal. 

there were seven cautions in the game and a total of 33 fouls. however; it was australia, who had more cautions and committed twice as many fouls as their opponents, whose extra aggression paid in the end.

group f
attendance: 46'000

referee: essam abd el fatah




10 killed in shootout in kashmir

at least nine people were killed in a series of attacks in kashmir on monday, including one close to a camp housing hindu pilgrims, while a boy died in police firing. suspected islamist militants threw three grenades at a crowded bus station in jammu city, police said, killing one person and wounding 22. the station is close to a camp where hundreds of pilgrims are staying before embarking on a long journey to amarnath, a hindu shrine deep in the himalayas.

"i was about to board a bus when something exploded between some buses," said manoj kumar, who sustained glass splinter injuries and was admitted to a local hospital. islamist militants fighting against indian rule in the disputed region have attacked the annual pilgrimage several times in the past but the last three years have been peaceful. there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

in a violent day in the troubled himalayan region, a teenage boy was killed in kupwara district when police fired to disperse muslim demonstrators protesting against what they believed had been the desecration of a koran and a mosque, witnesses and police said. twenty others, including 10 policemen, were injured in the clash 85 km northwest of srinagar. on saturday, villagers told journalists that soldiers had entered a mosque wearing shoes and then desecrated a copy of the islamic holy book.

a policeman was killed and another wounded as suspected militants fired on a police patrol in sopore town, north of srinagar, police said. and unidentified gunmen shot dead seven labourers -- said to be from the indian state of bihar -- in anantnag district in south kashmir. no group claimed responsibility and the army said it was investigating.

according to wikipedia, the conflict between islamist separatists and the military in jammu and kashmir has claimed thousands since the early 1990s. the region has long been a source of conflict between india and pakistan, with both nations claiming sovereignty over it.


tamil nadu cuts diesel prices by 0.45 rupees

the tamil nadu government on sunday said it would forego sales tax on the incremental component of the recent diesel price and yet maintain bus fares of state transport undertakings (stus) at existing levels. announcing this, chief minister m. karunanidhi said following the decision, the incremental retail price, inclusive of the sales tax component, would come down from rs. 2.23 a litre to rs. 1.78. as a result, the price of diesel, that increased from rs.33.72 a litre to rs.35.95 on tuesday, would come down to rs. 35.50. but, by foregoing the sales tax of 45 paise a litre, the state government would lose rs.180 crore annually. the decision not to increase the fares would result in rs.100-crore additional burden on the stus, mr. karunanidhi said in a statement.

his announcement came after a similar initiative by maharashtra and a day after union petroleum minister murli deora met him in chennai. a couple of days ago, the chief minister had said that any reduction in the sales tax could result in the bus fares going up. in the statement, mr. karunanidhi said the rising crude oil prices globally necessitated an increase in fuel prices. it had become routine for the ruling party to explain the circumstances leading to the increase and the opposition to protest. the upward revision in petrol and diesel prices was being talked about by the centre for some months now, but was put on hold. the centre, he said, had little option but to increase the price despite some of the coalition partners opposing the move and even the president of the indian national congress (congress party) sonia gandhi not favouring it. 

while a reduction in levies on petroleum products by the centre and the state government was a temporary solution, the long-term solution was to reduce consumption of petroleum products and promote research on their alternatives. in a statement, aiadmk general secretary jayalalithaa said the state government could reduce the price burden by reducing the sales tax on petrol and diesel. noting that it was not her suggestion but what mr. karunanidhi had given when she was chief minister, she said the centre had recently said that such a move could reduce the impact of petrol and diesel price increase. 


news briefs:june 12, 2006

the time is 18:00 (utc) on june 12th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

india

at least nine people were killed in a series of attacks in kashmir on monday, including one close to a camp housing hindu pilgrims, while a boy died in police firing. suspected islamist militants threw three grenades at a crowded bus station in jammu city, police said, killing one person and wounding 22.

israel

a train carrying 200 people has crashed into a pick-up truck in netanya, israel. at least 35 people are injured and at least one has died. police say that the truck was pushed onto the tracks by another car when the train smashed into it. the driver was not injured. 

united kingdom

tony blair has been asked to speak out on behalf of a british artist, michael dickinson, who has been charged in turkey with "insulting the (turkish) prime minister's dignity". this carries a sentence of up to 3 years in jail.

norway

a large meteorite struck in norway slamming into the side of a mountain near the areas of troms and finnmark at about 2:05 a.m. on june 9, 2006. scientists say the explosive force of the meteorite could have been "compared" to the "hiroshima bomb."

new zealand

a huge snowstorm has hit new zealand. some parts of south canterbury have had as much as 30 cm of snowfall. some bus services in christchurch have closed down, including the rangiora line. christchurch airport has closed. the metservice reports that there is a good chance of getting up to half a metre of snow.

india

the tamil nadu government on sunday said it would forego sales tax on the incremental component of the recent diesel price and yet maintain bus fares of state transport undertakings at existing levels.

germany

the lower saxony, germany tax authority is migrating 12,000 desktops to use suse linux with kde as the desktop environment.

australia

researchers at the university of new south wales have discovered that australian healthcare workers do not wash their hands often enough in the course of their work. researchers claim the practice places patients at risk of contracting infections.

united states

kevin aviance, a 38-year-old gay male drag-queen and singer, was attacked outside the "phoenix," a gay bar in manhattan, new york's east village. police say that he suffered head injuries, a broken jaw and bruises, but is in stable condition.

australia

police in the australian state of new south wales have reported that they pulled over a 10 year-old child driving his grandmother's car along the newell highway in north-western nsw on sunday.

sports ? football or soccer

world cup debutants australia beat japan 3-1 in the opening game of group f, monday.

sports - rugby

argentina has defeated wales in rugby at raul conti stadium in puerto madryn on sunday.

sports - baseball

the university of oklahoma baseball team defeated rice university 11-5 in the second game of the ncaa super regional on sunday.
we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


czech republic coast to 3-0 win over usa in group e

tomas rosicky's lethal finishing ensured an easy 3-0 win for the czech republic against the united states in group e, gelsenkirchen, monday.

the immaculate surface of the veltins arena, a pitch that can be covered and uncovered by a retractable roof over the stadium, saw the czech republic give usa a lesson in football efficiency.
the united states had 55 per cent ball possession but scored no goals; the team lacked aggression and creativity near the czech republic goal. passes did not reach the forward players in goal scoring positions. 

in the air long balls into the box were picked like apples from a tree by czech republic goalkeeper petr cech. on the ground, the usa short passing game faced resolute blocking and tackling from the czech republic defence.

for the czech republic, rosicky and pavel nedved were a problem for the usa defence whenever they got the ball.

on 76 minutes the two combined for rosicky's second goal of the match, nedved sent his team mate through three usa defenders. with the outside of his right foot, the younger protege of czech football clipped the ball over kasey keller's left arm.

the first goal had come on five minutes; it equaled the third goal in directness and the clean finish. a long ball down the left flank of the usa defence led to a first-time cross into the box. jan koller headed powerfully past kasey keller.

the pick of the three, on 35 minutes tomas rosicky picked the ball up 35 yards out from goal; a few seconds later the teamgeist football had glided beautifully into the net, swerving left of a diving goal keeper.

for the seventh successive time an american side has failed to beat european opposition in a world cup match and with italy in the same group usa coach bruce arena may need his players to produce something special to get past the group stage of the tournament. 

jan koller had to go off with a muscle injury on 41 minutes. this is unfortunate for the czech republic coach karel bruckner as he was the czech's highest goalscorer in world cup qualification. as a tall well built man koller provided a different means of attack to the small, sprightly - and today deadly - rosicky.

group e
attendance: 52'000

referee: carlos amarilla (paraguay) 



judge shot at courthouse in nevada

today in , nevada a judge has been shot in a courthouse while he stood near a third floor window. the police and a team have been searching the nearby parking garages for the shooter. judge chuck weller was hit in the chest with the bullet at the mills b. lane justice center around 11:15 a.m. . 

he was rushed to the washoe medical center said police spokesperson steve frady. police have closed off many blocks in the downtown casino district around the courthouse to look for the shooter. 

the police have found one suspect. his name is darren roy mack.


pittsburgh steelers quarterback roethlisberger hospitalized after motorcycle accident

ben roethlisberger, starting quarterback for the national football league's pittsburgh steelers, has been seriously injured in a motorcycle accident monday at roughly 11:30 a.m. edt. early reports indicate he has broken his nose and jaw, but the full extent of his injuries remain unknown. roethlisberger has already undergone surgery for his nose and mouth. he was riding without a helmet on second avenue near the intersection of 10th street in downtown pittsburgh when he collided with a silver chrysler new yorker, reportedly striking the windshield with his head.

backup quarterback charlie batch was at the emergency room at mercy hospital today, but was unavailable for comment. steelers head coach bill cowher has talked to ben in the past about riding without a helmet, and retired steelers quarterback terry bradshaw has spoken out strongly against the habit of riding without a helmet in the past.

a press conference held around 10:30 p.m. confirmed that roethlisberger successfully underwent seven hours of surgery, and suffered no serious injuries in the initial accident apart from the broken nose and jaw. initial reports of knee injuries were overstated. actual knee injuries were limited to road rash, and do not extend to joint injuries.


italy shut out ghana for 2-0 win in group e

the match was notable for being the first time ghana had played in the world cup. at 25 years and two months ghana also had the youngest team at the tournament. in the end the team's inexperience showed in the result.

italy responded to early ghanian pressure with forceful passing and aggressive attacks through luca toni. at first this effected to keep the fearless africans, always looking to attack themselves, on the back foot. 

with luca toni italy always looked dangerous going forward. on 25 minutes he evaded a defender and rasped a shot onto the underside of the crossbar. it missed going over the goaline by just a yard.

ratomir dujkovic's side had the best chance to shock the azzuri after half an hour. emmanuel pappoe had space in the box - but skied his attempt over the bar. for some time it seemed goals might go in at both ends, as action was at one end, then another. but with tiredness ghana lost some discipline in defence and ran out of ideas in attack.
the challenge of the two superb italian defenders, fabio cannavaro and alessandro nesta, proved too tough. the italian penalty area was almost impermeable to the white shirts for long stretches.

ghana found no good opportunities to test italian goalkeeper gianluigi buffon partly because ghana was unable to deliver crosses to target inside the box. efforts on goal were restricted to shots from outside the box from michael essien.

only four out of ghana's 14 shots were on target. in contrast italy had 18 shots; 13 were on target. this tells the story of a game in which two teams attacked a lot, but a vastly superior defence won.

andrea pirlo scored the game-winner. on 39 minutes, he received a pass from a corner at the top of the area; in plenty of space, he curled it low and hard into bottom left corner of the net.
richard kingston made a number of good saves to keep the italians ahead by just the one goal but could not do anything about samuel kaffour's error on 83 minutes. kaffour's back pass was too short and vincenzo iaquinta rounded kingston to score.

earlier, as ghana got desperate, asamoah gyan tried something to unlock the italian defence: a solo run; powering past blue shirts he got as far as the penalty area. then he appeared to be fouled by daniele de rossi; the referee did not blow his whistle.

marcelo lippi, the italian coach, might feel this game, the second in group e, was a good work out for the italians who were just a bit too wise for the ghana team on this occasion. 

group e
attendance: 43'000

referee: simon (brazil) 


czech republic coast to 3-0 win in group e


rice university baseball team beats oklahoma, will play in college world series

the rice university baseball team (55-11) beat the university of oklahoma (45-22) in the ncaa super regional 9-5. rice won the series between the two schools 2-1 and will now play in the college world series.

rice rallied in the 6th inning and turned a 4-3 deficit into an 8-4 lead. rodriguez put rice up 5-4 with a bases-loaded single, then joe savery helped bring the score to 8-4 after a hit toward center field that was just right of the 400-foot sign.

other schools that have already advanced to the college world series are cal state fullerton, oregon state, clemson, and georgia tech. south carolina and georgia will play later today to determine which school advances to the college world series.




thousands of floridians evacuate for tropical storm alberto

twenty thousand residents in the gulf coast of central florida were ordered to evacuate monday as tropical storm alberto approaches the coast. alberto, the first atlantic tropical storm of this summer, had a maximum windspeed of 70?mph (110?km/h).

florida governor jeb bush declared a state of emergency, which allows him to call up national guard troops to help with disaster efforts. "we're talking about powerful forces of nature," bush said. "people need to take this seriously." 

as of 11 a.m. cdt june 13 (1500 utc), the center of tropical storm alberto was located near latitude 29.8°n and longitude 83.8°w, or about 50 miles (80 km) southeast of tallahassee, florida. the storm was moving to the northeast at 9 mph (15 km/h), and had a minimum central pressure of 996 mbar (29.41 inhg). windspeed was measured at 50 mph (85 km/h). the national hurricane center has issued a tropical storm warning for the gulf coast of florida between bayport and the indian pass, and the atlantic coast from south santee river in south carolina to flagler beach in florida.

alberto came ashore about 50 miles (85 km) southeast of tallahassee, florida at 12:30 p.m. cdt june 13 (1630 utc), making it the earliest storm in 40 years to hit the united states, according to the national hurricane center in miami, florida. the earliest on record was hurricane alma, which took a similar path and hit florida's west coast on june 9, 1966.

scientists say that in this year's hurricane season, 16 named storms could form, with six of them being major hurricanes. last year's storm season was the most active on record, with 28 named storms and 15 hurricanes.



entertainment software association says new oklahoma law unconstitutional, plans to sue

the entertainment software association president douglas lowenstein confirmed speculations that his group is planning to file a lawsuit against the state of oklahoma because of a new law, hb3004. under this law, games that have "inappropriate violence" are added to a list of materials that are considered harmful to minors.

lowenstein said that the esa believes "hb3004 will restrict the first amendment rights of oklahoma's citizens and intend to file suit in oklahoma federal district court shortly, asking that the state's new video game law be overturned."

similar laws have been found unconstitutional in st. louis, indianapolis, washington, illinois, and michigan. a california video game law is currently being reviewed in federal court. last week, a minnesota law was passed fining minors $25 for purchasing games rated "mature" or "adults only". shortly afterwards, the esa filed a lawsuit there.



computer-controlled prosthetic ankle patent awarded to oklahoma city company

martin bionics, a company based out of oklahoma city, oklahoma, was awarded the patent to a computer-controlled ankle. the oklahoma center for the advancement for science and technology funded $573,000 towards the development of the device.

the computer-controlled ankle functions similar to how the brain controls a real human ankle. although prosthetic ankles allowed for some basic performance, the technologies remained limited in where and how they may be used.

vice president of research and development, jay martin, said "this design grants a greater sense of security and confidence to the amputee. functioning at a higher level, walking with a smoother step and dressing without limits will provide the patient with greater self confidence."

martin bionics plans to have the ankle commercially available within the next two years.


dallas beats miami again in nba finals, leads series 2-0

the dallas mavericks beat the miami heat 99-85 in the second game of the nba finals and lead the series 2-0. the second game was solidly in dallas' favor the entire time.

miami star shaquille o'neal scored his career low in points for a playoff game and sat out the final 15 minutes. o'neal was handed a $10,000 fine, as well as a $25,000 fine for the team, for declining to speak to reporters after the game.

miami head coach, pat riley, said "i've been in a lot of playoff games, and i've gotten beat by 40, 30, 25, won by 25 or 30. doesn't make any difference. the whole thing is about the next game and trying to leave this one behind us. maybe it will set a fire in us a little bit."

dallas must win two more games to become the nba champions.


100 people were detained in russia after police mistook rugby match as brawl

authorities in southern russia detained over 100 people when police mistook a game of rugby as a brawl. police apparently received a tip that a large crowd had gathered at an empty sports ground on the outskirts of the city on sunday afternoon. around 70 policeman arrived at the scene to find a large number of cars parked around the area, and what appeared to be a crowd that was watching two rival gangs fight each other.

the police stopped the event and around 100 people were detained until they learned that they were actually playing a game of rugby. everyone was released within a few hours, but authorities were displeased that they had not informed them of the sporting event earlier. a spokesperson for the police said, "given the difficult, troubled situation in the region, at a time when counter-terrorism actions are being actively conducted, citizens are obligated to inform [authorities] either verbally or in writing of their intentions."

"the fact that police took us to be hooligans, this isn't the first time," said one of the organisers.


tropical storm alberto strikes florida

tropical storm alberto is on-going. one wikinews associate on the ground in florida provided this cover story from the front page of a local paper http://media.tbo.com/ttt/images/pdfs/tribfront.pdf .

tropical storm alberto is currently over florida. at present the west florida coast has flood warnings. the weather channel is providing clear live footage of the tropical storm as it progresses over florida.

businesses like walmart are beginning to take the storm seriously. walmart has approximately 80 affected retail units in the area.

17 shelters opened in 11 different counties according to the weather channel.



vaccine developed to fight alzheimer's disease considered &quot;promising&quot;

a team headed by yoh matsumoto at the tokyo metropolitan institute for neuroscience in japan has developed a dna vaccine, with no side effects, to fight alzheimer's disease and call the drug "promising." the vaccine, thus far, has only been tested on mice and is only in the experimental stages.

tests are going to soon be done on monkeys and if that turns out successful then tests on humans could be done in perhaps three years, said lead researcher yoh matsumoto of the tokyo metropolitan institute for neuroscience in japan.

"this work represents a promising new line of vaccine development but more research would be needed to see if this could be replicated safely in humans," said doctor clive holmes of the alzheimer's research trust.

the vaccine is given by an injection and works by reducing the amount of certain amyloid proteins, which scientists believe are the cause of the illness. the study says that the amount of amyloid proteins in different areas of the brain was reduced, in some cases, up to 50%. in the lowest amounts, the protein was reduced 15.5%. in direct areas of the brain, such as the hippocampus and cerebral cortex, the reduction of the protein was 40-50%. amyloid proteins, when over produced, are believed to cause the symptoms of the illness by forming masses in the brain, which spread. the vaccine involves injecting the mice with the protein and then the dna vaccine. the vaccine codes itself to the protein, stopping the spread of the masses by not allowing the protein to reproduce.

"dna vaccines are given by intramuscular injection, which stimulates the production of anti-amyloid-beta antibodies. in the early stage, we highly expect that dna vaccination will prevent disease progression and, hopefully, normalize brain function," said matsumoto.

however, matsumoto also said that patients who are experiencing "advanced cases" of the illness will have "irreversible damage" even if they received the vaccine.

"in advanced cases, however, neuronal loss and brain atrophy are very severe and irreversible. so it may be difficult to obtain clinical improvement with dna vaccination," said matsumoto.

in 2003 18 of the 298 people testing the vaccine had symptoms of brain swelling and the trials were stopped. at least 6% of those testing the vaccine had an over-reaction, which caused swelling of the brain and some even suffered brain damage.

researchers say the new development is "safe" but that it will be "years" before any real and extensive clinical tests of the vaccine begin.

"any of these vaccines could prove safe and effective. but we are years away from seeing them widely used in clinical practice -- but perhaps as few as three years away," said chairman of the alzheimer's association's medical and scientific advisory council, dr. sam gandy.

"the findings support the idea that a vaccine is our best hope for fighting this devastating disease for which there is currently no cure," said doctor susanne sorensen, of the alzheimer's society.


act civil unions act invalidated by governor general

australian governor-general major-general michael jeffery has formally created an instrument declaring the australian capital territory's civil unions act, 2006 invalid. the instrument comes into effect from midnight tonight (aest).

wayne berry, speaker of the act legislative assembly called on the governor-general earlier today to deliver an address from the assembly about the act's civil unions act. according to the governor-general, mr berry was advised that the request would have to be referred to the federal government.

major-general jeffery said that he must refer the matter to the federal government for their consideration. after consideration, the government is required to advise him in the federal executive council as to whether or not he should exercise his powers. the governor-general denied having authority under the constitution to act without the advice of the federal executive council where there is a difference between the policies of the act and the federal government.

under the commonwealth australian capital territory (self government act) 1988, the governor-general has the authority to disallow any act passed by the act government.

australia's attorney general phillip ruddock acknowledged that the governor-general had conveyed the act government's request and despite the act government expressing that it would make some amendments to its act, the federal executive council decided that it was more appropriate to disallow the act altogether.

mr ruddock said he, the minister of territories, and the governor-general attended the executive council meeting.

mr ruddock said that the act government is welcome to discuss any further amendments with the government in the future, but made it clear that he would not accept any legislation allowing the marriage of same-sex couples even when given a different name.

senator kerry nettle of the australian greens and the australian democrats have prepared a disallowance motion they will present on june 14. if passed, their motion would disallow ruddock's move to quash the act's civil union law. "the attorney general phillip ruddock has today trampled on the rights of the act in order to deny rights to same sex couples, but still we don't have any logical explanation as to why," senator kerry said in a green party media release. "the greens are appalled at the lengths the howard government will go to in order to deny basic rights to fellow australians on the basis of their sexuality."

the attorney general attacked the civil unions act, saying that it was "provocative" and was intended to make civil unions mirror marriage, an area where the federal government has legislative powers. mr ruddock said the government would defend any attempt by states or territories to "intrude" into areas under which the federal government has responsibility.


bush makes a surprise visit to iraq

president george w. bush has made a surprise visit to iraq hoping to bolster some support. he also went to meet their new prime minister nouri al-maliki and talk about next steps in the war. even al-maliki didn't know that bush was coming until five minutes before he arrived.

the trip comes as over 70,000 mostly iraqi citizens prepare to deploy into baghdad to try and bring security to the capital.

it was a very dramatic move by the president to travel to a violence crazed area in baghdad less than a week after the death of al-zarqawi. bush met with al-maliki in a very well forified green zone in a palace once used by saddam hussien.

aside from al-maliki and his cabinet, bush was to see jalal talibani, iraq's largely ceremonial president. bush also was to meet with the speaker of the parliament, a few national political leaders and many u.s. troops.



left parties in india protest fuel price hike

the left parties, joined by regional forces like samajwadi party and telugu desam party, today staged street protests to demand the roll back of the fuel price hike as the communists said the upa government could not take their support for granted. barring states ruled by the left and uttar pradesh, where the ruling samajwadi party's workers stopped many trains and blocked highways at several places, the protests had little impact. strikes by truckers against the price hike that coincided with the protests, however, affected transport services in orissa, tripura and madhya pradesh.

in delhi, cpi(m) leaders prakash karat and sitaram yechury and cpi's a b bardhan courted arrest at the parliament street police station with a large number of left activists. leaders from the samajwadi party,rashtriya lok dal and janata dal-secular were also present. they said the protest was meant to mount pressure on the government to reverse its "anti-people" decision and the issue would be raised in the upa-left coordination committee meeting on wednesday. 

in west bengal, the ruling left front organised sit-ins before the offices of oil psus. normal life in kerala, another left-ruled state, was paralysed by a dawn-to-dusk strike called by trade unions. shops and business establishments remained closed while attendance in government offices was thin. over 5,000 left activists, including cpi secretary d raja, were taken into custody across tamil nadu when they tried to picket central government offices and roads. 



bank staff in india threaten strike

members of the all india bank employees association have threatened to go on nation-wide strikes to express their unhappiness with the move to privatise banks, allowing foreign direct investment in the banking sector and outsourcing of services. the exact dates of the strike will be decided at the aibea national general council meeting to be held in chennai on june 13 and 14. speaking to press persons on friday, c.h. venkatachalam, secretary of the association, condemned the attempts to continuously `attack the financial and banking sector.' 

the aibea was against the government's intention to privatise public sector banks and the disinvestment of shares up to 49 per cent. in the past decade, a number of private sector banks had folded and hence, in the best interests of the investor, banks should continue to remain in the public sector, he said. merging public sector banks into five or six big banks in order to enable them become global institutions dealing with international trade and business was a `retrograde' idea, he charged. the total assets of all the 27 public sector banks in the country (less than u.s. $300 billion) were well below the assets of any top global bank, he added. 


feminist gathering in tehran dispersed by police

police dispersed a group of activists who had gathered at the haft-e tir square in tehran on monday, reportedly using pepper spray and beating up some of the protestors. the group was staging a demonstration calling for equal treatment for women under the iranian law and better protection of their rights. the iranian justice minister jamal karimirad later said that 70 people were detained in connection with the event, of whom 42 were women. 

he also said that the reports of police beating up the protestors were being reviewed. 

the activists were protesting against gender discrimination in iranian law, which is partly based on the islamic sharia law. women have had the right to vote and be elected to the majlis (parliament) since 1963, but under the prevailing laws, they are excluded from constitutional posts such as judge and president and their testimony in court is only worth half of that of a man. similarly, "blood money" or compensation paid to the family of a murdered woman is only half of that for a man. the protestors were calling for equal divorce and custody rights for women, reform of inheritance laws, as well as a ban on polygamy. 




korea republic win 2-1 against togo in group g

in the first half the result looked like it might go togo's way; the team, on its debut appearance at the world cup, had the better of a slow game and went into the break 0-1 up.

passes were at walking speed in the commerzbank arena, , as both sets of players seemed to struggle with the stifling heat. with the snow-roof closed for television conditions approached something like a sauna.

the goal for otto pfister's side was scored by kader on 31 minutes. between two defenders, kader took a ball delivered from the right wing, which he deflected into the penalty area with his thigh. kader ran on to the ball and fired low across the keeper; it went in off the right post.

mohamed kader arguably was togo's outstanding player of the match and caused trouble for korean republic in the second half with his pacey runs. 

but a second half substitution and a sending off favoured the 2002 tournament's semi-finalists to stage a come back. 

the korean republic upped the speed of their short passing game and when midfielder ji sung park, 30 yards from goal, turned and beat jean-paul abalo a chance for the equaliser looked on.

the togolese defender hacked down the surging winger park, who plays his club football for manchester united. he was given a second booking and sent off. issued by graham poll, this was the second red card of the 2006 world cup in germany. 

the goal came direct from the freekick; on 54 minutes chun soo lee used his right foot to send the ball with pace and bend beyond kossi agassa.

with the korea republic playing against 10 men the game opened up. but togo, though it had just 36 per cent of ball possession in the game, was not a push over. the west african team mounted a number of dangerous counterattacks.

on 63 minutes the energetic moustapha salifou was in space on the edge of the area but could not keep his shot down.
seven minutes later dick advocat's half time substitute, veteran jung hwan ahn, added another korean example to the textbook of how to shoot from long range. wider to the right than chun soo lee's the 30-year-old drove it over agassa into the same right corner.

the korea republic came into the tournament on bad form, which included a 3-1 loss to ghana. but to beat togo dick advocat's side had to improve during the match, which might give them confidence against france and switzerland, also in group g. 

group g
attendance: 48'000

referee: graham poll (england) 



france draw with switzerland in group g

the derby between neighbour nations was expected to be a close affair and as it turned out this was the case, as a good defensive team cancelled out the more talented attacking one.

an unusual statistic from the game is that switzerland edged ball possession. french star players zinedine zidane, patrick viera and thierry henry looked slow and indecisive and failed to dictate the game.

in the first half the french had the better chances with thierry henry getting in good positions. but it was the swiss who came closest to scoring after 25 minutes. 

from a set-play, alexander frei chipped the ball towards goal; the ball missed everyone and hit fabian barthez's left post. liliam thuram was first to the rebound.

switzerland, while playing a strong defensive game, had more chances to get the ball into barthez's net in the second half. daniel gygax's downward header from five yards brought a brilliant leg save from the french keeper.

for the french the second half continued as the first: zidane was not as influential as the french might have wished, viera was not aggressive and henry did not show the creative flair he had done during the season for his club side, arsenal.

an 84th minute substitute vikash dhorasoo, 10 yards out to the left of pascal zuberbuehler's goal, had the best french chance in the match but his shot skewed wide.
philippe senderos, the 21-year-old swiss central defender, was arguably the best player on the pitch for switzerland coach koebi kuhn. however; moments from the final whistle the swiss might have had another hero. 

a free kick to the left of barthez's penalty area was whipped across goal for swiss runners. but swiss's first man alexander frei in an attempt to score with his hand deflected the ball wide of them all. the score remained a draw.

raymond domenech's french team might be disappointed with the result but arguably it could have been worse.

group g
attendance: 52'000

referee: valentin ivanov (russia) 



former irish taoiseach charles haughey passes away

the former irish taoiseach charles j. haughey passed away on at his home in kinsealy, county dublin. he was 80 years old. 

haughey was leader of the fianna fail parliamentary party and served three terms as the taoiseach as well as holding ministerial posts. widely credited with founding the celtic tiger economy, he was never far from controversy with the arms crisis and various planning and corruption scandals attributed to him. tributes were paid to mr. haughey by irish president mary mcaleese, by the current taoiseach and fianna fail leader, bertie ahern, the tanaiste mary harney and leaders of several irish political parties, as well as a tribute from his great adversary of the 1980's, former fine gael leader garret fitzgerald. 

although no cause was given, haughey was suffering from prostate cancer. a state funeral will be held on friday, june 16.



rhode island representative patrick kennedy pleads guilty to dui

representative of rhode island, patrick kennedy has pleaded guilty to driving while under the influence of prescription drugs after he was involved in an early morning car accident in may close to the united states capitol. according to police, kennedy said he was "headed to the capitol to make a vote."

"i am pleading guilty to driving under the influence," kennedy said to magistrate judge aida melendez, who presided over the case in the district of columbia superior court.

kennedy had charges of failure to exhibit a driving permit and reckless driving against him dropped in exchange for pleading guilty. kennedy was also ordered to pay a $250 donation to the boys and girls club of greater washington and a $100 donation to the victims of crime fund. judge melendez also ordered kennedy to serve a 10-day jail sentence, but said if he followed the terms of his plea, then he won't have to serve the time. kennedy is also on a one-year probation and must seek drug treatment.

"i've always said that i wanted to take full responsibility for my actions. today in court, i suffered the consequences of my actions," said kennedy during a press conference just outside the courthouse. "i look forward today to moving on to the next chapter in my life," he added.

kennedy admitted to taking a sleeping pill called ambien and also phenergan, an anti-nausea prescription medication the morning of the accident, but said that he was not drunk.


news briefs:june 13, 2006

the time is 22:00 (utc) on june 13th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

united states

twenty thousand residents in the gulf coast of central florida were ordered to evacuate monday as tropical storm alberto approaches the coast. alberto, the first atlantic tropical storm of this summer, packs 70 mph (110 km/h) winds, and threathens to intensify into a category 1 hurricane before making landfall.

the tropical storm is currently over florida. at present the west florida coast has flood warnings. the weather channel is providing clear live footage of the tropical storm as it progresses over florida.

india

the left parties, joined by regional forces like samajwadi party and telugu desam party, today staged street protests to demand the roll back of the fuel price hike as the communists said the upa government could not take their support for granted.

iran

a feminist gathering in 7-tir square of tehran, iran was broken up by the police. the protesters who demanded "the revocation of the discrinminatory laws against women in iran" were intending to have a non-violent gathering but were beaten up and arrested by the police forces.

iceland

the icelandic prime minister, halldor Asgrimsson, announced his resignation on june 5 after the governing progress party suffered losses in recent local elections.

india

members of the all india bank employees association have threatened to go on nation-wide strikes to express their unhappiness with the move to privatise banks, allowing foreign direct investment in the banking sector and outsourcing of services.

australia

australian governor-general, major-general michael jeffery has formally created an instrument declaring the australian capital territory's civil unions act, 2006 invalid. the instrument comes into effect from midnight tonight (aest).

united states

representative of rhode island, patrick kennedy has pleaded guilty to driving while under the influence of prescription drugs after he was involved in an early morning car accident in may close to the united states capitol.

japan

a team headed by yoh matsumoto at the tokyo metropolitan institute for neuroscience in japan have developed a dna vaccine, with no side effects, to fight alzheimer's disease and call the drug "promising." the vaccine; however, has only been tested on mice.

united states

the entertainment software association president douglas lowenstein confirmed speculations that his group is planning to file a lawsuit against the state of oklahoma because of a new law, hb3004. under this law, games that have "inappropriate violence" are added to a list of materials that are considered harmful to minors.

united states

martin bionics, a company based out of oklahoma city, oklahoma, was awarded the patent to a computer-controlled ankle.

russia

over 100 people were detained by authorities in southern russia when police mistook a game of rugby as a brawl.

sports ? football or soccer

togo made the korean republic sweat but two spectacular goals gave dick advocat's men the win in group g, tuesday.

france and switzerland drew 0-0 in their first match of the world cup in group g, tuesday.

sports ? basketball

the dallas mavericks beat the miami heat 99-85 in the second game of the nba finals and lead the series 2-0.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


brazil trot to 1-0 win over croatia in group f

croatia had sat back and made it difficult but brazil seemed to be in no great hurry to impress and was satisfied with the margin of victory. 

one noticeable feature of the match, brazilian forward ronaldo appeared to display an exaggerated lack of interest in the game. carlos alberto parreira substituted the real madrid striker after just over an hour.

"i don't know what happened to him," robert kovac, the croatian centre-back said. "he didn't run ... it was very easy," he said. 

second best to three croatian defenders, with the experience of 181 caps between them, ronaldo did not get a shot on goal until the second half. 

the 72,000 fans in the olympia stadium saw the best of brazil in the first half with kaka and ronaldinho bright in midfield. lacking muscle from ronaldo, brazil was confined to long range shooting. 

roberto carlos fired a shot from 40 yards, which was put over by stipe pletikosa; the croatia keeper then, after 15 minutes of the match, tipped a ronaldinho effort behind. cafu also had a shot on target and another from kaka went wide.

a successful long-range effort came from kaka at 42 minutes. at the top of the semi circle he curled the ball with the inside of his left foot, the keeper's right hand not even close.

the world cup champions of 2002 were tested in defence as the croatians probed for an equaliser. but the team with red and white chequers did not use their 50 per cent of possession to create many clear openings, nor did they capitalise on brazilian errors. 

on 59 minutes brazil's defence had a lapse in concentration: a misplaced pass between the back three nearly allowed the quick croatian substitute ivica olic a chance on goal. the advantage came to nothing as the defence recovered. 

the best croatian chance fell to niko kranjcar, minutes from the end. when the cross came into the box the midfielder was unmarked - but his header went far over the bar.

the croatian manager, zlatko kranjcar might consider a one-goal loss a good result against the reigning champions. carlos alberto parreira might think by brazil's high standards the game was a bad training session. 

but the result was a win and was brazil's eighth successive world cup win, a tournament record.

group f
attendance: 72'000

referee: benito archundia (mexico) 



canada's richest man dies at age 82

kenneth thomson, canada's richest man and the 9th wealthiest person in the world according to forbes's 2005 ranking, died monday morning at his office in toronto. the cause of death is reported to be a heart attack.

he was the former thomson corp. chairman and the company's controlling shareholder. he made most of his money by making his father's trans-atlantic newspaper (the globe and mail) into one of the world's leading resources for electronic information and data.

mr. thomson is survived by his wife, marilyn; three sons, david, who succeeded him as chairman of thomson in 2002, peter and taylor; and a sister, audrey campbell. a memorial service will be held on a date that has yet to be announced.


new zealand's national party's bill blocked

the has gone over its allocated funding for the past election, because of a communication mixup that resulted in the party booking $900,000 plus (gst) of advertising, rather than the $900,000 including gst they were allowed to spend. it should be noted that advertising is invariably quoted exclusive of gst in new zealand, resulting in the mixup. because of this the national party tried to get a bill passed so they could get a one off exemption that would allow them to pay the money owed to , , , and radio stations. however three parties; , and the blocked this from happening, by one vote, on june 13, 2006.

it is prohibited to go over the allocation of money by the broadcasting act.

, head of new zealand first and foreign minister, says "national has already broken the law by using more election advertising than it was entitled to and should just pay up. the law should not be changed to accommodate national's dilemma."

, head of the national party, says that he finds the statements "quite unbelievable", as mr peters was essentially suggesting that a member of parliament deliberately break the law.

the national party has two options, they could lose the amount owed from the next elections budget or break the law and pay.


alleged spiritual leader of jemaah islamiyah freed from prison

abu bakar bashir, 68, the accused spiritual leader of jemaah islamiyah a militant islamic organisation with links to al-qaeda has been released from an indonesian prison after serving his 25 month sentence.

bashir was convicted for conspiracy, in connection with the 2002 bali bombing. bashir was accused of playing a pivotal role in planning the attack which killed 202 people, 88 of whom were from australia. the judges ruled that he was not involved in the attacks, but had approved of it. 

bashir has denied having links to ji or any other militant organisation and has denied all charges against him. he has also condemned the bali bombing as a "brutal act".

as bashir was released from cipinang prison in jakarta, he was greeted by hundreds of supporters who yelled, "god is great". bashir gave a brief address to his supporters, thanking allah for his freedom, vowing to uphold "islamic sharia (law)" and said indonesia needed to the law and was shrouded "in darkness".

the australian government has expressed its disappointment at the release of mr bashir. speaking before the australian house of representatives, prime minister john howard said "i want them (the indonesian government) to understand from me, on behalf of the government, how extremely disappointed, even distressed, millions of australians will be at the release of abu bakar bashir," he said.

"many australians will see that particular outcome, although a product of the indonesian justice system, as an extremely disappointing result."

australia's foreign minister, alexander downer assured the families of those killed in the attacks that the government shares their pain. "we ... accept the decisions of the indonesian courts, but we are deeply disappointed with that release today and we share the pain with those families that suffered so much as a result of the bali bombing," mr downer said.

the united states has also expressed dismay at bashir's release. speaking in jakarta, us embassy spokesman max kwak said, "we were deeply disappointed that a person convicted of a sinister conspiracy was given such a short prison sentence".

muhammad hikam, an indonesian politician claimed bashir would have got a longer term if indonesia was given access to riduan isamuddin hambali by the united states who have him imprisoned. hambali is believed to be mastermind of the bali bombings and is alleged to have links to bashir.


beazley gaining office would threaten australia's economy: treasurer

australian treasurer, peter costello (higgins, liberal) told parliament on tuesday that the greatest threat to australia's economy would be for opposition leader kim beazley (brand, labor) to gain office.

mr costello said that the australian economy would suffer with mr beazley at the helm. "the greatest threat to the australian economy domestically… would be the election of the leader of the opposition," said the treasurer.

"i can think of nothing that could be worse for the australian economy than kim beazley being in a position of influence."

mr costello told the house of representatives that despite unemployment dropping below five percent last week, mr beazley made no comment on the matter. mr costello referred to a statement made about the oppositon leader in the australian newspaper, which said "beazley is the leaf blower of australian politics?lots of noise but all that comes out is hot air."

the treasurer went on to say that mr beazley is "not an economic four-cylinder leaf blower,"

"he is a v8 turbocharged double-exhaust leaf blower. there is no end to the leaf blowing and the hot air that comes out as a consequence."

mr costello said labor's proposed changes to the government's controversial industrial relations laws (known as workchoices) would harm the economy. costello defended his government's ir reforms saying that countries around the world were moving to make their labour markets more flexible.

the treasurer warned that labor's proposed changes would return industrial relations in australia to the 20th and 19th centuries.


pittsburgh steelers quarterback roethlisberger upgraded to fair condition

on tuesday, nfl quarterback ben roethlisberger was upgraded to fair condition at pittsburgh's mercy hospital. the extent of his injuries is now known. roethlisberger lost two teeth and chipped others, suffered a concussion, a broken upper and lower jaw, a broken nose, broken facial bone, a 9 inch laceration to the back of his head, and road rash injuries to his knees which thankfully do not extend to the joints. police confirmed that roethlisberger was riding without a helmet and additionally, did not have a pennsylvania motorcycle license; he had a learner's permit, which expired march 29, 2006. given this fact, roethlisberger was in fact legally obligated to wear a helmet in the commonwealth of pennsylvania.

steelers officials and roethlisberger's agent, leigh steinberg, confirmed that ben had received a letter last year from team representatives warning him that parts of his contract might be affected if he were to be injured while riding a motorcycle. the letter was apparently sent in order to both put the team on solid legal footing were a major accident to occur, and apprise ben of the risks he is taking by riding a motorcycle.

records kept by the pennsylvania department of transportation indicate that 180 helmet-wearing motorcyclists died in wrecks in 2004 and 2005 in pennsylvania. in the same period, 157 helmet-free bikers died in wrecks.

pennsylvania's 35-year-old law requiring helmets to be worn was amended in 2003 to make helmets optional under certain circumstances. according to the amended law, a motorcyclist will no longer be required to wear a helmet if the rider is:



spain beat ukraine 4-0 in group h

luis aragones might like to play the yellow shirted ukrainians again because after only one quarter of the match it looked effectively over as a contest. and a red card against the ukraine team just after half-time helped the red shirts complete the rout with two more goals.
spain, with only carles puyol in the starting line from a team that reached the 2002 world cup quarter finals, had been unbeaten in 21 matches under aragones. spain's superb form showed in a great understanding between players with passes meeting runs all over the pitch.

after four minutes ukraine's long free kick from the left touchline found vladimir yezerskiy, but he could not direct his header toward goal. ukraine got flagged offside six times in the first period.

then two goals came in a five minute spell for spain. on 13 minutes marcos senna drove a shot from long range which was tipped over by oleksandr shovkovskyi. the result, a corner, was met by a stooping xabi alonso at the near post who deflected the ball into the net.

four minutes later a free kick was awarded against andriy rusol 30 yards from goal. the tall, dark-haired ukrainian number six stood in the wall and promptly received the shot from david villa on the side of his head. shovkovskyi, in mid-flight, could not adjust his position to stop the ball going in the net.

two goals down ukraine did not get another chance on goal until the second half when substitute sergi rebrov shot over on 72 minutes. illustrating a one-sided game, spain had 10 shots on target to ukraine's two. 

david villa, with luis garcia and fernando torres was one of spain's three forwards. he got his second goal on 47 minutes when he fired low to shovkovskyi's right from the penalty spot. 

vladyslav vashchuk was sent off for his foul on torres; as the athletico madrid striker burst through the ukrainian defence the referee judged vaschuk had pulled on the spainard's shorts. 

the first three goals were from still ball set-ups but the brilliance of the fourth showed the team work, movement and accurate passes that characterised the play of the spainish.

curly-haired puyol charged from the half-way line and gave the ball off in field; he ran more and received the ball again near the penalty area; headed into the path of torres, and the 22-year-old shot right footed past shovkovskyi.

in the 77th minute 19-year-old cesc fabregas was given a substitute appearance in the game. the midfield player became spain's youngest player to play at a world cup.

four goals down, ukrainian coach oleg blokhin was shown on television smiling. he might reflect that tunisia and saudia arabia, the two other teams in group h, had not been highly touted as potential world cup winners. 

group h
attendance: 43'000

referee: massimo busacca (switzerland)


saudi arabia and tunisia share dramatic draw in group h


russia to build world's first floating nuclear power station

russia has chosen the remote town of along russia's northern white sea coastlines for the world's first floating nuclear power station.

the station will float on a river flowing through the town and into the . the plant will look like a 10-storey building and weigh 21,000 tonnes. in five years it'll generate enough electricity for 200,000 people. the cost will be $336m.



faa allows commercial spaceflights out of oklahoma spaceport

the faa has issued a license for commercial spaceflight operations to the oklahoma space industry development authority (osida). the osida will oversee the operations of "suborbital, reusable launch vehicles" out of the clinton-sherman industrial airpark spaceport in burns flat, oklahoma. testing at the spacesport is expected to begin sometime next year.

bill khourie, director of osida said, "this is a tremendous opportunity for oklahoma. the benefits are just enormous as to what can branch out from this."

rocketplane kistler, an oklahoma-based company, has started production of spacecraft and is working on the final steps of its license applications. rocketplan kistler plans on a "fairly extensive flight test program" in 2007 and commercial flights by 2008.

a texas-based company has also expressed interest in the oklahoma spaceport.

other united states spaceports include california spaceport, mojave airport (california), kodiak launch complex (alaska), spaceport florida, and virginia spaceport. a spaceport is also planned in south new mexico, the southwest regional spaceport.




miami beats dallas 98-96 in third game of the nba finals

the miami heat beat the dallas mavericks by a score of 98-96 in the third game of the nba finals. dallas leads the series 2-1.

miami led at half-time by nine points, but dallas outscored them in the third quarter 34-16.

dallas held a 89-76 led with 6:30 left in the fourth quarter. a late 17-5 run led by dwyane wade put miami back into the game. with 9.3 seconds left, miami's gary payton hit the game winning shot. dirk nowitzki had a chance to tie the game for dallas, but failed to hit his freethrow.

miami head coach, pat riley, said "the basketball gods were good to us tonight, that's all you can say."

the next game will be june 15, 2006 in miami. dallas needs to win two more games and miami needs to win three more games to become the 2006 nba champions.



saudi arabia and tunisia share dramatic draw in group h

saudi arabia lost 8-0 to germany in their first game in the world cup of 2002 but looked more composed against tunisia, wednesday, when they overcame a goal deficit to lead before roger lemerre's north african team grabbed an injury time equaliser.

two different styles were evident as brazilian coach marcos paqueta set his saudi arabian side up playing a short passing game. tunisia, nicknamed by fans the carthage eagles, were strong on set plays and used long balls to reach striker zaid jaizi.

jaizi missed an opportunity with an early header from a corner but scored after 23 minutes when a set play from the right was not cleared. jaizi was patient and waited for the ball to drop then kicked it on the volley in controlled sissor motion. 

in the first half saudi arabia did not test the tunisian defence as they did in the second when they were able to score twice on the breakaway. their best shot was on 37 minutes from a nawaf al temyat free kick. ali boumnijel saved.

the goal came from the side in the all green strip in the 57th minute from a beautiful sweeping move down the tunisian left flank. the ball, crossed low into the box, met yasser al-kahtani who had rushed in at the near post. the striker's deft touch was soon followed by a net that billowed high behind boumnijel.

though they were vulnerable to high balls into the penalty area saudi arabia were disciplined in defense and did not get cautioned in the game. they conceded just six shots at goal of which only the two that were goals were on target; the saudis themselves achieved double those statistics at the other end. 

the 84th minute goal that put saudi arabia in the lead was scored by sami al jaber. two minutes earlier he had joined the action as substitute for the younger al-kahtani. one of his first touches was to beat boumnijel in a one-on-one.

the dramatic finish had four minutes of injury time. in the 92st minute the joint of crossbar and post stopped a deflected saudi arabian free kick making the score 2-1.

then, in the 93rd minute, another long ball found its way to tunisia's best player, jaizi. in line with the goal jaizi chipped to radhi jaidi who leaped high and headed powerfully downwards. the ball went underneath mabrouk zair's grasp and the score was 2-2.

group h
attendance: 66'000

referee: mark shield (australia) 


spain beat ukraine 4-0 in group h


united church of christ loses puerto rico conference over glbt issues

on june 10, 2006, the iglesia evangelica unida de puerto rico, also known as the "puerto rico conference " a conference of the ucc, voted by a 3-1 margin to withdraw its affiliation with the ucc as a body, over discomfort about the ucc’s stance on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues. . formed in 1931, this conference affiliated with the ucc following the denominations founding in 1957. 

this vote to disaffiliate means most of the 68 previously affiliated congregations will become independent, although denominational officials expressed hope that several might continue affiliation, through other conferences or special arrangements.

in a speech, john thomas, president of the ucc, called the vote to disaffiliate 'deeply painful.'

there are 68 congregations and 6000 members of the iglesia evangelica unida de puerto rico. 

38 conferences remain in the united church of christ. 




north korea to test missile that could reach u.s. mainland

south korean foreign minister ban ki-moon says that north korea is prepared to test an with an estimated range of 3,500 miles. 

the missile, , could with such a range reach the mainland. on tuesday, lee tae-sik, south korea's ambassador to the united states, confirmed the reports saying, "preparations did appear to be under way."

"if north korea fires a missile now while the six-party talks remain off and questions are being raised in the international community about the effectiveness of the talks, there is a possibility it will have a seriously negative impact on the resolution of the north korean nuclear problem," said ki-moon.

ki-moon also says that n. korea should set aside its plans to launch the test missile and return to talks with south korea, the united states, , , and , on its nuclear program.

however; tae-sik states that "the signs that [n. korea] is moving in that direction, yet we cannot rule out the possibility that at the last moment it will change its mind." he also said that the preparations could be "quite worrisome", but also said that the u.s. and other nations should not "make a conclusion" that n. korea will test the missile.

"cnn" quoted an anonymous u.s. intelligence official as saying, "[n. korea] is doing everything you would expect if you are going to launch a missile. there is reason to think they are doing it for show."

according to alexander vershbow, the us ambassador to , the u.s. will respond to the test of the missile with "appropriate measures."

n. korea last tested a short-range missile in 1998 which shot over japan's mainland and landed into the . this will be n. korea's first long-range test since the nation imposed a "moratorium" in 1999. according to tae-sik, n. korea may be abandoning the moratorium in a move to pressure the u.s. into making diplomatic concessions.

n. korea is currently refusing to hold talks with the 5 nations because of financial sanctions placed on the nation.



diesel spill in northern saskatchewan

early indications are that between 5,000 and 6,000 litres of fuel leaked from a storage tank into a stream leading to welcome bay, which is near wollaston lake in the northeast part of the province.

the rcmp is still investigating cause of the spill. "we're trying to determine the circumstances around the leak, whether it was an intentional act or whether it was due to a problem with the tank," rcmp spokesperson sgt. brian jones said.


germany beat poland and top group a

poland, who lost their first round match, had hoped for a draw. but a sending off, an incessant german offensive, a couple of strikes against the woodwork and then an injury time winner defeated them. the german fans then cheered the six points that put the team top of group a. 

the polish tackled furiously but in the 75th minute had the extra handicap of having radoslaw sobolewski sent off. he tugged miroslav klose from behind earning a second yellow card from the spanish referee.

it took until two minutes into injury time for the german team to score the decider. this was not for lack of chances. in the first half klose, bastian schweinsteiger and lukas podolski had all failed to get shots on target. 

klose might have had three goals in the second half; he missed a cross, had a shot saved and, in the 90th minute, hit the crossbar with a header. michael ballack smacked the rebound onto the same piece of artur boruc's woodwork.

if playing 10-men helped klinsmann's team so did his substitutions. he removed the young germans poldolski and schweinsteiger. they had appeared inhibited by the aggressive polish defence. 

of the three substitutions made, two would combine to score the winner: the experienced neuville and young sprinter david odonkor. on 92 minutes ondonkor was sent down the right wing. he crossed and the ball was met on the bounce by neuville in front of artur boruc.
pawel janas's side did not have many chances. on 27 minutes ireneusz jelen had an opportunity to set up a goal but chose to shoot. in the second half his long range shot did not trouble jens lehmann. poland now need costa rica to take three points from ecuador on june 15, to have any chance to progress in this competition. 

the german team were always dominant in and around the polish penalty area. they had 58 per cent of ball possession, three times as many shots on goal and six more corner kicks as the poland side. one reason why was left-back philipp lahm; this right-footed player was fifa's man of the match.

his brilliant movement and passes created chances for the german strikers. lahm got forward even more in the second half after sobolewski's sending off; and when odonkor was brought on to run down the other wing it seemed only a matter of time before one of the combination cracked the polish defence. 

group a
attendance: 65'000

referee: luis medina cantalejo (spain) 


"fifa world cup group a table june 14, 2006"


immigration detainees on hunger strike in oxford uk

one hundred and twenty detainees at an immigration removal centre in oxford, uk, are on hunger strike. the protest started when some detainees refused breakfast on wednesday 14th june 2006. a letter from the hunger strikers explaining why they are seeking to draw attention to their plight in this way has been reproduced in full below.

those detained at the centre are mostly men who have sought asylum in the uk and whose asylum applications have been rejected. these people are then held without knowing how long they will be detained for - some end up being held for many years while awaiting deportation. 

the removal centre, known as campsfield, or campsfield house is approximately 5 miles north of oxford and has been in operation since 1993. it was managed on behalf of the uk government by global solutions limited, until may 2006 when it was taken on by geo uk, the centre has a capacity of 198. only males are detained at campsfield. 

according to the campaign group barbed wire britain over 2,600 individuals, mostly asylum seekers, are detained indefinitely in the uk without trial and with no automatic right to bail. 

there have been reports in the uk press of the state taking people to detention centres without notice, in the early hours of the morning using excessively heavy handed tactics, taking children out of schools and separating families. 

many uk people and politicians express their disgust at the way detainees are treated, yet it continues. perhaps this action by the detainees themselves will further highlight their plight and result in more uk electors writing to their mps and demanding improvements to the way in which rejected asylum seekers are treated. 
"we are detainees at campsfield removal centre in oxford. most of us have been here for a long while now. there are people who have been detained for up to two years and down to three months. we are cramped in here like animals. we are treated like animals and moved around different detention centres like animals. the immigration service have taken husbands from their families and taken people who ran away from persecution in their various countries, and dumped everyone in here.

once you are put in here the immigration service forget you. there are detainees who have applied to go back to their own countries that are still being held here for months without any news about their cases, just so that the private security companies get more money.

detainees are asked to seek asylum and then refused. the immigration service also ask detainees to apply for bail. when you get a bail hearing date all of a sudden they serve you with removal papers that are not valid. there are many of these situations. in most cases the immigration service don't take you to your court hearings. and then they tell the judges you refused to turn up, just so the hearing goes ahead in your absence. many detainees have been served with removal papers and travel documents but nothing happens on the removal day.

campsfield has become a slave house. we detainees are treated like slaves, to do odd jobs for officers. detainees are handcuffed to see doctors or dentists in hospitals or clinic appointments. we have some racist security officers who make racist comments to detainees and go out of their way to make you feel like committing suicide. detainees have to be at the point of death before they get to see the doctors.

the food is not worth eating. even dogs would refuse to eat what we eat. but we don't have a choice; every single day we eat the same food (the food we eat is rice, chicken, sandwiches, and left-over eggs)".

=sources=


samples being taken from poultry farms in eastern oklahoma for lawsuits

oklahoma officials resumed testing soil, water, and runoff from 20 eastern oklahoma poultry farms for attorney general drew edmondson's lawsuit against 14 poultry companies in arkansas. the lawsuit alleges their operations have polluted lake tenkiller and illinois river watershed.

the original order authorized soil samplers to enter the property "one time". edmondson then asked for a clarification for "one time". federal magistrate sam joyner said, in a supplemental order, "with regard to soil samples, plaintiff (oklahoma) is permitted to enter and leave the property, as necessary, beginning with the first date of entry and proceeding on subsequent contiguous days until the necessary soil samples are obtained."

bev saunders, spokesman for poultry partners, said farmer's resistance to testing was unlikely. poultry partners represents a group of about 400 farmers. she went on to say "we don't agree with this, but we do abide by the law."



university of california, san francisco inviting tobacco users to test new nicotine vaccine

tobacco users are being invited by the university of california, san francisco's habit abatement clinic to test nicvax, a new vaccine being developed by nabi biopharmaceuticals. tobacco users may be test subjects under the condition that they are at least 18 years old and willing to commit to a one-year program of injections and follow-up visits. ucsf is one of nine testing centers.

when tobacco smoke is inhaled, the chemical nicotine enters the bloodstream. the blood affected by nicotine eventually enters the brain, triggering neuro-receptors to react and cause addiction. this vaccine would produce antibodies to identify the nicotine molecule and prevent it from reaching the brain. "with little or no nicotine reaching the brain, smoking is less rewarding. that gives the smoker a chance to change the behavioral and social factors that also influence smoking," said victor reus, md, principal investigator for the study at ucsf.

the antibodies of the nicvax last up to 12 months within the human body. if a person tries to smoke months after beginning the vaccination, there would not be a typical soothing feeling.



j.j. redick arrested for drunken driving

j.j. redick was arrested and charged with drunk driving early tuesday in durham county, north carolina and lost his driving privileges in north carolina for 30 days. redick was released on a $1,000 bond shortly after being arrested.

according to the arresting officer redick had "very glassy eyes, strong odor of alcohol coming from breath" and a blood-alcohol level of 0.11. the legal limit in north carolina is 0.08.

in a statement released by duke university, redick apologized saying, "i regret what happened last night, and want to apologize to my family and the duke community for the incident."

duke coach mike krzyzewski said, "j.j. knows he made a mistake and regrets it. he represented the very best in college athletics and exhibited outstanding character at duke the last four years. he is and will continue to be a credit to the duke basketball family. as his friend and his coach, he has my total support."

j.j. redick is expected to be taken in the first round of the nba draft that takes place on june 28. how the incident hurts redick in the draft is unclear.



new zealand to get free-to-air digital television

the new zealand government has announced that new zealand is to get free-to-air (fta) digital television by the start of next year.

the broadcasters: tvnz, canwest, m?ori television, the tab and radio new zealand have forged an alliance called freeview which has leased satellite space for the digital television. digital television will mean viewers can receive a crisper picture, clearer radio signals, limited reception problems, and more channels.

freeview will require television viewers to buy a set top box, similar to the sky network television decoder. some viewers in some areas will need to buy a satellite dish as well. the approximated cost will be $200 or, with a dish, $400 (nzd). however, there is no subscription cost, unlike sky television.

mr cavanagh, radio new zealand chief executive, says "it will be a [sic] hard to claw back the gains made by sky, which has dominated the digital space."

new zealand is one of the last developed countries to make the switch to digital. analogue will be switched off between 2012 and 2016.


australian pm should convert to islam: bashir

abu bakar bashir, the alleged spiritual leader of the jemaah islamiyah militant islamic organisation gave an address on return to his school in surakarta in central java where he urged australian prime minister john howard to convert to islam.

speaking outside his school (considered by many to be a terrorism finishing school), before thousands of students and onlookers, bashir said "if john howard wants to be safe and avoid going to hell, i suggest he convert to islam."

mr bashir also urged mr howard, the united states and other "infidels" not to fight the muslim world. "maybe with god's permission they can kill us, but they certainly can't beat islam," said mr bashir.

the islamic cleric denied having links to ji or any other terrorist organisation saying that western media had been "twisting his beliefs". he dismissed claims by the us and australia that he is the spiritual leader of ji.

mr bashir said that the islamic militants involved in the 2002 bali bombing has taken the wrong path, but stopped short of condemning their actions. "their wrong step was to use a bomb as a weapon in a safe area," he said. 

"bombs are only to be used in conflict areas." 

"in safe areas just preach, and we don't need bombs like that." 


australian government to censor 3g mobile content

helen coonan, australia's communications minister announced on wednesday that the howard government planned on introducing legislation into parliament restricting access to inappropriate or harmful material on so-called "emerging content services". the government considers 3g mobile communications and subscription-based internet portals to be emerging content services.

senator coonan said in a statement that the government was supportive of new technology, but felt that the technology requires safeguards to ensure that children are not exposed to inappropriate content.

“the government supports the development of innovative new communications services which provide access to the internet, email, games, instant messaging, chat rooms, video clips and television programs,” she said.

“however, these new content services may also potentially carry offensive or harmful content and we need to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect children from exposure to content that might be harmful.”

senator coonan said the government intends to prohibit material rated x18+ and restrict access to other services based upon the subscriber's age and content classification. speaking of the proposed legislation, the minister said “it will extend the current safeguards that apply to content delivered over the internet or television to be applied to content delivered over convergent devices,"

“this will include prohibition of content rated x18+ and above, requirements for consumer advice and age-restricting access to content suited only to adults.”

the announcement comes as the government released a report into the effectiveness of the current regulatory framework and how it applies to new delivery methods.

the report, received by the government in april, found that the differences between television, print, radio and internet media would be blurred by devices such as 3g mobile phones and wireless internet access. it suggested that the government regulate based on the amount of control service providers have over content instead of via the method used to access it.

it also found that much of the content available via emerging content services was based upon that of other mediums, where censorship already takes place.

the report did however express concern about mobile chat services, claiming they could be used by pedophiles to target children. the report found it would be more difficult for parents to supervise their children's mobile chat behaviour as they would have access to the service from anywhere. the report said this could be countered by the fact that mobile users are easier to identify than users on the internet, making pedophiles less likely to use the service.

the report also suggested that internet access via mobile telephones be limited to customers over the age of 18, unless minors have permission from their parent or guardian. under current australian law, a minor is unable to sign up for an account with an internet service provider, but is able to access wap based internet services without restriction.


&quot;living fossil&quot; found in laos

a retired biologist from florida state university has captured photos of a rodent in laos which scientists thought was extinct for 11 million years. science education professor emeritus, david redfield and bird watcher, uthai treesucon, were able to catch the rodent, but only after failing to do so four times. they returned it to the wild after they took photos and a video of the rodent.

"we went to laos specifically to find this animal. we were extremely fortunate in so many ways to be able to do this. we photographed it with stills and a movie camera. then we took it back to its habitat and released it. it's easily one of the most gratifying experiences of my life, and i hope these pictures will help in some way to prevent the loss of this marvellous animal," said redfield.

the rodent, whose scientific name is "laonastes aenigmamus", is called laotian rock rat and known to local villagers as 'kha-nyou'. it belongs to the family diatomyidae. it was photographed in laos near the village of doy, in may 2006. the rodent resembles a tree shrew or a squirrel. it walks like a duck and has angled feet that allow it to climb trees. these are the first live photos of the rodent to be taken, but last year, researchers found bodies of the dead animal being sold at local meat markets. the rodent has since been named as a new species.

"these images are extremely important scientifically, showing as they do an animal (with) such markedly distinctive anatomical and functional attributes. this is a truly exciting discovery," said mary dawson , the curator at the carnegie museum of natural history in pittsburgh, who confirmed the findings.

the rodent was able to be officially named after researchers compared bones from fossils of the rodent found in asia, to bones of a recently found laotian rock rat. last summer, a fossil of the same rodent was found in china.

"dr redfield's sighting of the living animal is the first to be recorded scientifically. these are the first photographic images of the recently discovered 'living fossil' laonastes aenigmamus," said dawson.


war on terrorism memorial planned near oklahoma capitol

a memorial dedicated to oklahomans killed in the war on terrorism is planned for just north of the oklahoma capitol. the memorial would be built next to the proposed veterans affairs department building on the side of lincoln boulevard between nw 30 and ne 32.

the plans would also have statues and memorials honoring veterans south of the capital moved to the veterans affairs building.

the veterans affairs building is part of a $196 million bond issue that will also pay for six other projects. if oklahoma legislators could take up the measure as early as a special session this month and include it in the state's 2007 fiscal year. the measure is expected to be raised next year if the bond issue is not acted on this year.

war on terror memorial design committee will oversee the task of seeking designs for the memorial. because no state money has been set aside for the memorial, the committee would also raise money for its construction. similar memorials around the country range in price of $1 million to $2.2 million.


ecuador make short work of costa rica in group a

the win for the south american team meant both ecuador and germany, each with six points from two games, progressed from group a into the knock-out phase of the fifa world cup in germany.

it was a comfortable match for ecuador's columbian coach luis suarez. he managed to rest three key players - goal scorer carlos tenorio, provider luis valencia, and impressive centre-back giovanny espinoza, with substitutes before the game was out.

ecuador played keep ball well and maintain a slow tempo while alexandre guimaraes's side did not look a team able to raise the pace of the game and sustain pressure on christian mora's goal.

the game-winner was scored after seven minutes of action. valencia to the right of the penalty area whipped a ball across the goal. tenorio, unmarked in front of jose porras, dipped his body and headed in.

costa rica and ecuador both missed opportunities before half time: douglas sequeira was unmarked at the ecuador far post but his header was mistimed and wide. 

then edison mendez and agustin delgado nearly combined for a carbon-copy of the first goal; but the striker, who had ran in unmarked in front of porras, did stab at the ball and skewed it wide.

after he had another shot saved degaldo's third attempt found the net. he shot hard from an angle inside the penalty area and beat porras on his near post. 

it was then tenorio's substitute kaviedes's turn to miss two then score one. a save from porras, a header wide, and finally the striker connected for a beautiful far post volley, finishing off another mendez cross. 

costa rica were unlucky when a clever first time chip from alvaro saborio beat mora only to hit a post but they had not created the clear chances that ecuador had at the other end. 

the long shots from carlos hernandez and mauricio solis's tricky run were acts of individual play. no match for a solid-looking team who got its second consecutive world cup shut out and will play germany for the honour of group a winner, on june 20.

group a
attendance: 50'000

referee: coffi codjia (benin)


"fifa world cup group a table june 15, 2006"

germany beat poland and top group a


rallies in greece as universities' strike continues

university students continue their opposition to a new law, proposed by the greek government, through organizing new rallies in athens and thessaloniki as well as through the persistent occupancy of many departments in the two biggest universities of greece, the university of athens and the aristotle university of thessaloniki.

students are opposing the law?proposed by the minister of education marietta yannakou?which has to do with the foundation of private universities in greece as well as other aspects of the academic organization. 

the strike of the students has been backed by the greek general confederation of labour (gsee), the synaspismos and kke-communist parties, as well as by various professors who oppose the specific governmental law. today, students organize demonstrations in the two biggest cities of greece. more specifically, students and university professors have gathered at propylea in central athens and march towards the ministry of education while in thessalonika the demonstration has been focused outside the ministry of macedonia-thrace.

during the previous week and more specifically during the demonstrations of last thursday, the rallies had resulted to fights between anarchists and police in the centre of athens; for that the minister of public order had been accused for the violence that police forces exercised. however greek police officials answered that anarchists who took part in the rallies caused heavy damages and provoked the police forces. yesterday, a specific statement by thanos veremis, professor and ministry of education official, in which he characterized the protesters as roughs and eternal students(sic), caused much of irritation and agitation within the university students' movement. 


major cell phone companies working on linux-based platform for phones

four major cell phone makers, motorola, nec, panasonic, and samsung, and two wireless providers, ntt docomo and vodafone, have announced they will work together to provide a linux-based platform for cell phones. this move could threaten the dominance symbian and microsoft in the operating systems market for cell phones.

peter gorham, an independent market analyst, said "linux is also rock solid, unlike some of the existing operating systems. it would mean no more taking your batteries out of your phone to get it to reboot. and this would make things a lot easier for application developers."

on the lack of u.s. provider's support in this alliance, gorham said "i am surprised that there aren’t any american carriers involved in this alliance, but they are probably skeptical about the longevity of these kinds of alliances. but motorola and samsung have a vested interest in the success of this thing, in part because they have a large customer, vodafone, involved."

this alliance is not the first effort to standardize on linux for cell phones. several groups are currently working on this, including linux phone standard forum, open source development lab, and electronics linux forum.

according to christy wyatt, vice president of market development at motorola, said this effort differs from other efforts because it will establish a common platform for all participating manufacturers.

linux is already being utilized on some mobile devices. motorola has already shipped five million of these including the ming model for china and rokr e2 music phone in asia. the rokr e2 will be available in europe soon.



news briefs:june 15, 2006

the time is 18:00 (utc) on june 15th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

united kingdom

one hundred and twenty detainees at an immigration removal centre in oxford, uk, are on hunger strike.

indonesia

abu bakar bashir, the alleged spiritual leader of the jemaah islamiyah militant islamic organisation gave an address on return to his school in surakarta in central java where he urged australian prime minister john howard to convert to islam.

australia

helen coonan, australia's communications minister announced on wednesday that the howard government planned on introducing legislation into parliament restricting access to inappropriate or harmful material on so-called "emerging content services".

united states

the faa has issued a license for commercial spaceflight operations to the oklahoma space industry development authority.

united states

oklahoma officials resumed testing soil, water, and runoff from 20 eastern oklahoma poultry farms for attorney general drew edmondson's lawsuit against 14 poultry companies in arkansas. the lawsuit alleges their operations have polluted lake tenkiller and illinois river watershed.

greece

university students continue their opposition to a new law, proposed by the greek government, through organizing new rallies in athens and thessaloniki as well as through the persistent occupancy of many departments in the two biggest universities of greece, the university of athens and the aristotle university of thessaloniki. the students are opposing the - proposed by the minister of education marietta yannakou - law which has to do with the foundation of private universities in greece as well as other aspects of the academic organization.

united states

a memorial dedicated to oklahomans killed in the war on terrorism is planned for just north of the oklahoma capitol.

new zealand

the new zealand government has announced that new zealand is to get free-to-air (fta) digital television by the start of next year.

united states

tobacco users are being invited by the university of california, san francisco's habit abatement clinic to test nicvax, a new vaccine being developed by nabi biopharmaceuticals.

laos

a retired biologist from florida state university has captured photos of a rodent in laos which scientists thought was extinct for 11 million years.

united states

j.j. redick was arrested and charged with drunk driving early tuesday in durham county, north carolina and lost his driving privileges in north carolina for 30 days.

sports ? football or soccer

ecuador created chances freely and kept costa rica quiet for a 3-0 victory in the aol arena, hamburg, thursday.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


documents reveal al-qaeda wants war between u.s. and iran, iraq insurgency weakening

documents found at the hideout of abu musab al-zarqawi revealed al-qaeda's desire to force a war between the u.s. and iran. the document was translated by iraqi national security adviser mouwafak al-rubaie, but the authenticity of the information could not be confirmed to be from al-qaeda. 

the documents reveal that al-zarqawi was planning to destroy the relationship between the shi'ite iraqis and the united states. the document also said the u.s. military was hurting the insurgency by seizure of weapons, disrupting their financial outlets, massive arrests, and training iraqi security forces.

the translated document said, "generally speaking and despite the gloomy present situation, we find that the best solution in order to get out of this crisis is to involve the u.s. forces in waging a war against another country or any hostile groups."

mowaffaq al-rubaie said, "these documents have given us the edge over al-qaeda and (they) also gave us the whereabouts of their network, of their leaders, of their weapons and the way they lead the organization and the whereabouts of their meetings."



england beat trinidad and tobago 2-0 in group b

england's win meant they were guaranteed a place in the knock-out round of the fifa world cup in germany this year as they had taken six points from two games in group b.

it was when wayne rooney and aaron lennon made an entrance as substitutes in the 58th minute that england kicked into gear. lennon came on in place of england's fourth defender as sven-goran eriksson told his men to go for the socca warrior's jugular.

until that moment trinidad and tobago though not sealed-tight against england's attacks were more able to counter-attack due to the english side's slow play and lack of movement. 

the caribbean side had looked especially strong on set plays and long balls floated towards england's goal.

england's goalkeeper paul robinson perhaps best showed his side's nerves: he missed three crosses. on two of these occasions leo beenhakker's side were inches from taking the lead. in the most dramatic of them, john terry had to volley a ball off the goalline to stop england going into half-time a goal down to a stern john header.

the caribbean threat lessened with the substitutions as constant pressure meant trinidad and tobago attacker cornel glen when he did break was often unassisted. while england's threat increased with rooney in the centre, and with lennon and later substitute stuart downing who both tested the socca warriors from wide positions.

with 62 per cent of ball possession the story of england's game was simply the missed opportunities. trinidad and tobago was massively overpowered 23 shots to seven.

on 43 minutes peter crouch had the sort of miss that was so spectacular it may make highlight reels. unmarked in the centre of the goal it might have been easier to get the ball on target than to skew the volley so far wide.

he was not the only culprit. michael owen, before he was substituted with rooney, had missed two in more ordinary ways. 

lampard had peppered shaka hislop's goal with shots all game. three on 74, 77, and 78 minutes - but none troubled the west ham keeper. the fifa man of the match in the first england game may not want to remember this one. 

on the 83 minute mark england captain david beckham crossed to the 6' 7" crouch at the far post. this time he rose confidently above brent sancho and powered a header into the top left corner. trinidad and tobago were finally solved.

for a side that had all game struggled to find the killer instinct steven gerrard's late goal was well received. on the edge of the penalty area he cut left and fired left-footed into the top left corner. the win now looked comfortable.

group b
attendance: 41'000

referee: toru kamikawa (japan)


"fifa world cup group b table june 15, 2006"

sweden stuns paraguay two minutes from time in group b


version 0.44 of svg image software inkscape released

after 6 months of development, the inkscape project released today a new version of their svg-based gpled vector drawing program. it features improved performance and many new features, such as a layers dialog, better pdf export, configurable keyboard shortcuts and support for clipping and masking. inkscape runs on windows, linux, and mac os x. 

inkscape started in 2003 as a fork of the vector drawing editor sodipodi. inkscape does not yet have as many features as the best commercial vector editors, but it is currently suitable for a wide range of applications. inkscape's implementation of svg and css standards is incomplete; most notably, it has not yet fully implemented svg filter effects, animation, and svg fonts. inkscape is currently under active development, which is indicated by the version number below one; new features were being added regularly.


tram derails in geneva

a tram derailed on thursday in the middle of the afternoon on the boulevard georges favon, near route du stand, geneva, causing major traffic jams. by chance, this spectacular incident caused three light casualties. sometime after 15.42, amazed eyewitnesses saw the tram travel 30 metres across the road, then up the sidewalk. it came, at the closest, to around 30 cm from a shop window. the three casualties are suffering from whiplash injuries to the neck and back according to raymond wicky, head of the service d'incendie et de secours (sis; fire and help services). on the other hand, the driver was affected psychologically by the incident, as were several shop owners.

psychological assistance has been offered to them. nine fire engines, two ambulances, and a dozen policemen and cars quickly arrived at the scene. a large security perimeter was placed around the immobilised tram whose length covered half of the road. 

around a dozen onlookers assisted with the efforts made to move the tram from the road back onto its tracks. a truck then towed it back to its depot, where police and the swiss federal department of transport are to examine the vehicle.

only a few elements that caused the derailment are known: the tram was on a line different to its normal route. police will investigate whether the tram was travelling too fast, or if it was a faulty switch at the junction, which would have connected the tram to rue du stand, and then return it to normal route. another element is that drivers have the possibility to change the switches in front of them. the inquiry will determine if the driver, wanting to turn here, chose to merge into his normal route and possibly, this caused the incident.

ats/cab


bill gates to step down from daily roles by july 2008

bill gates will step down from his daily roles at microsoft by july 2008. gates, who founded the company, has been running it for three decades now. gates plans to spend more time working on health and education at the bill & melinda gates foundation.

taking place immediately, ray ozzie, chief technical officer, will assume the title of chief software architect. also happening immediately, craig mundie, chief technical officer, will become chief research and strategy officer.

gates said "our business and technical leadership has never been stronger, and microsoft is well-positioned for success in the years ahead. i feel very fortunate to have such great technical leaders like ray and craig at the company. i remain fully committed and full time at microsoft
through june 2008 and will be working side by side with ray and craig to ensure that a smooth transition occurs."

gates, who will remain chairman of the corporation, also said he believes "the road ahead for microsoft is as bright as ever."



sweden stuns paraguay two minutes from time in group b

the result meant sweden needed at least a draw in their next match with england to get into the knock-out phase ahead of trinidad and tobago.

the match was played at a fast pace as both teams wanted a win from the game. what it lacked in flair it made up for in enthralling passion. there were eight yellow cards in this cut and thrust encounter which sweden edged on the shot counter 17:16. 

in the end what decided the match was sweden's speed and ability to get behind paraguay's defence and shoot from inside the penalty area. rarely did paraguay do this. sweden's captain and centre-back olof mellberg had a strong game and may be the reason andreas isaksson had only three saves.

lars lagerback's half-time decision to take off zlatan ibrahimovic for marcus allback also seemed to tilt the outcome of the game in sweden's favour. the striker combined well with freddie ljungberg. 

allback frequently got in good attacking positions and stretched paraguay's defence to breaking point. but for 43 minutes, after successive near misses it seemed like paraguay would just contain the sweden strikers. 

on 59 minutes allback ran clear of the paraguay defence to receive a bouncing ball; he lobbed aldo bobadilla and ran around him for the tap in. unfortunately for sweden the thing that hit the net was paraguay's denis caniza; who had run at full speed to clear the ball just before allback got there. 

allback then had another chance, set up by larson on the six-yard box. as he swiveled, with the defender behind him, the goal keeper guessed where he was going to shoot. 

the pace of the game did not relent and the creative movement of the swedish attacks began to leave anibal ruiz's paraguayans behind. freddie ljungberg found more space down the left and was also able to roam across to the right.

when a long ball reached allback to the left of goal the striker headed across goal. ljungberg ran in from the right and headed it back across the goalkeeper; one bounce and in. 

bobadilla made 9 saves in the match but this one was a finger tip too far. sweden after a disappointing scoreless match against trinidad and tobago hung on to their world cup hopes and look set to qualify from the group together with england.

group b
attendance: 72'000

referee: lubos michel(slovakia)


"fifa world cup group b table june 15, 2006"

england beat trinidad and tobago 2-0 in group b


americans united for separation of church and state investigating united church of christ convention deal

americans united for separation of church and state (au) is investigating a deal between the governor of connecticut, the united church of christ (ucc) and the hartford civic center to keep the ucc's biennial convention in connecticut. the state of connecticut is paying the $100,000 fee for the use of the hartford civic center. 

the timing of the investigation coincides with another au investigation of the national baptist congress of christian education (nbcce) convention being in held in maryland this month. the state of maryland budgeted a $150,000 grant for the annual convention. 

rev. barry lynn, the executive director of americans united, is also an ordained minister in the united church of christ .



australian senator to introduce bill for same-sex marriage

the australian democrats deputy leader, senator andrew bartlett moved in the australian senate a bill to amend the marriage act to provide for same-sex marriages. 

senator bartlett's second reading speech which was incorporated into the hansard described that the bill "reverses the marriage amendment act 2004...which...changed the definition to that of a union between one man and one woman only", and refuted arguments against same-sex marriage proposed by some conservative government senators. bartlett continued to say that "we do not want to send the message that discrimination is acceptable in australia" to our children, or to other nations."

the federal government is opposed to civil unions. in an interview on june 8, prime minister john howard said, "i don’t see it in any way as discriminating against homosexuals, it’s not, it’s designed to preserve the special status of marriage in our community and that’s what it’s all about."

debate on the bill will occur at a later date. a bill proposed later in the sitting day by the australian greens to stop the governor-general disallowing act state law establishing civil unions failed, by a majority of two votes. 



auckland, new zealand sexual attack premeditated

a sexual attack on a woman in her pukekohe, south auckland home was, police say, premeditated.

a man, who had been drinking, told the victim that he needed to use her phone, she handed him a portable phone through a small opening in the door and then closed the door. the man pretended to use the phone and then when she opened the door again to regain her phone the man barged his way in, at about 9:00 p.m., tuesday, june 13 nzst.

it was a five-hour attack and she only managed to escape when, the next day, she was driven to an atm to withdraw money where she fumbled with her bank cards and while the attacker was distracted she ran to a service station.

the victim told police that she believed that the man had been stalking her for about a week. criminal profilers are worried that he may strike again.

detective senior sergeant grimstone says "the terror in the woman's eyes is clearly visible as she asks for help at a service station."

the attacker could be wearing blue jeans and a black jacket that was taken from the victim's house. the attacker is described as an unshaven m?ori male in his late 30s or 40s.



bush proclaims northwestern hawaiian islands a national monument

u.s. president george w. bush yesterday signed an executive order declaring the a , creating the largest protected marine area in the world and the largest single conservation area in the history of the united states.

in a signing ceremony attended by hawaii officials, including hawaii governor , bush pledged, "this region holds the largest and healthiest untouched coral reef system in the united states. and we're going to preserve it."

bush reportedly moved quickly to protect the archipelago after a screening of 's documentary "voyage to kure" in april. he invoked powers under the antiquities act of 1906, which gives the president the power to restrict the use of public land by executive order. the area was under consideration as a national marine sanctuary, but bush's invocation of the antiquities act bypasses the yearlong consultation that would be necessary.
as a national monument, the northwestern hawaiian islands would be subject to one of the highest levels of protection in the u.s. all fishing will be phased out over five years, and visitors will require permits for snorkeling and diving. lingle had enacted similar protections as hawaii governor, but the protections were limited to a three-mile radius from shore.

the national oceanic and atmospheric administration would manage the monument along with its 13 national marine sanctuaries.

advocates for the fishing industry have raised concerns about the feasibility of further protections, asserting that a small fishery operation in the area would cause little environmental impact. kitty simonds of the western pacific regional fishery management council said, "the president can do whatever he wants to do, but we're disappointed that we can't continue on a small, healthy bottomfish fishery."

environmental groups generally lauded bush's move.

"when you add it all up, it's a world-class ecological jewel. from both a national and global perspective, this really is a landmark conservation event," said joshua reichert, head of the environment program for the private pew charitable trusts.

the preserve, covering all the islands northwest of niihau, covers 140,000 square miles (360,000 km2), covering 10 islands and atolls, and stretches for about 1,400 miles (2,200 km). 


four incidents occur at australian reactor in a week

the australian federal opposition has attacked the howard government following four incidents in a week at the hifar nuclear research reactor in lucas heights, south of sydney. the incidents come just a week after the australian government announced an inquiry into the feasibility of nuclear power.

the first incident occurred on june 8, when a carbon canister containing radioactive material exploded, blowing out seals in a cell at the lucas heights site. the accident is believed to be an explosion in a carbon canister containing radioactive material, which blew the seals out on hot cell no 2 in building 54 releasing small amounts of xenon and krypton into the atmosphere.

jenny macklin (jagajaga, labor), shadow science minister and deputy leader of the opposition accused science minister julie bishop (curtin, liberal) of misleading the parliament. ms bishop told parliament on wednesday that "there was no measurable contamination found outside the immediate area where the incident occurred,"

ms bishop denied there being any radiation threat to the community. "according to ansto, there was absolutely no radiation threat to the health of the workers of ansto or the community."

jenny macklin said in a statement on wednesday that details of the incident were being hidden. "the local community deserves to be told what actually happened at the lucas heights reactor last thursday, and why the release of radioactive gases into the atmosphere was not made public," said ms macklin.

following ms macklin's statement ansto said it was "surprised and disappointed" at ms macklin's comments. ansto refuted that it failed to adequately notify the community saying that they released a media statement the day after the incident. ansto said that radiation released during the incident was "so low as not to be directly measurable". ansto said that it could however calculate the amount of radioactive material released and it was a "very small fraction of the radiation dose received by everyone each year from naturally occurring
sources of radiation".

ansto assured the public that the releases could not be detected off-site.

following a statement by the science minister on thursday that she was unaware of any incidents at ansto in the 12 months prior to the latest incidents, the opposition again questioned ms bishop's competence. ms macklin asked how the minister could not be informed about compliance reports issued by australia's nuclear regulator arpansa that state there were 12 incidents at lucas heights in 2005.

following ms macklin's removal from the house, anthony albanese (grayndler, labor), shadow environment minister questioned ms bishop about incidents at ansto on wednesday. according to ansto, a worker received a low dose of radiation from iodine-123 while packaging radiopharmaceuticals. ansto claims that the technician received a dose around four per cent of the annual limit for radiation workers and much less than a thyroid cancer patient would receive during a nuclear medicine scan.

in a statement, ms macklin later accused the science minister of being ill-informed of the incident at lucas heights, saying it was concerning the government had an "incompetent" science minister at a time when they were "pushing the benefits of nuclear power".

responding to the opposition's questions during question time in the house of representatives, the science minister accused the opposition of engaging in a scare campaign to close down a facility that provides "a medical service for cancer suffers across australia.

ansto has said that the radiation dose received by the technician was so low he did not require medical attention once he had undergone several tests.

ansto admitted another two incidents occurred at its lucas heights facility on thursday. the first occurred when a worker who was cleaning a production area burst a package of radioactive material. the second occurred when a worker packing a radiopharmaceutical dropped a small vial. ansto said that the amount of radiation received by both workers was extremely low.

ansto said that while it is uncommon for two incidents to occur on a single day, it was not uncommon for minor incidents to occur once a month.



wade leads miami to win over dallas in nba finals, ties series 2-2

dwayne wade had 36 points to lead the miami heat to a 98-74 victory thursday night over the dallas mavericks. miami's win over dallas evens the nba finals series to 2-2.

wade hit 13 of his 23 shots. miami's shaquille o'neal added 17 points and 13 rebounds.

dallas scored only seven points in the fourth quarter for a record-low in any quarter in the nba finals history.

miami coach pat riley said "it was our best game, there's no doubt, of this series. our defense was very active tonight. we did not want to give them free throws and did not want to give them layups and jumpers."

the fifth game of the series will be played in miami this sunday, june 18. the sixth and, if necessary, the seventh games will be played in dallas.



argentina thrash serbia and montenegro in group c

on one side of this one-way game there was an embarrassment of argentine talent; on the other there was the humiliation of ilija petkovic's side being out-played for 90 minutes by a team at the top of their form.

with the roof over the veltins arena it was dark enough in the stadium for camera flashes to light up in the crowd. on the pitch the argentine players provided the flashes of brilliance.

an early goal after six minutes was the first of six goals that were the product of almost flawless team play and individual execution. argentina swept down the left, maxi rodriguez ran at speed into a pass and toe-poked first time beyond dragoslav jevric.

the next one was the climax of a 24 pass move. esteban cambiasso tapped the ball forward to hernan crespo just inside the penalty area; a back heal and cambiasso ran on and smacked it past jevric.

on 35 minutes the argentina fans in the crowd seemed to know which way the game was going. the chant "ole" was heard as the argentines continued to pass amongst themselves with great ease.

totally dominant, the blue and white stripes had over 60 per cent ball possession come half-time. roberto abbondanzieri in the argentina goal was for the most part the spectator number 52'001.

it could have been four nil at the break but on 36 minutes crespo's effort was judged to have come from an offside position. crespo got booked because he did not stop when the referee blew his whistle. the television replay showed the linesman was mistaken.

the third goal came on 41 minutes. jevric could only palm a javier saviola shot to maxi rodriguez at the far post who stuck away his second off the post.

savo milosevic won his hundredth cap for serbia and montenegro, a statistic that included games with the yugoslavia football team. he forced a corner with a hard long range shot and failed to reach a header after danijel ljuboja had briefly stretched argentina on the right.
on 64 minutes mateja kezman appeared to make a frustrated two-footed lunge which caught javier mascherano. the referee reached for the red card and made a hard position harder for the unfortunate serbia and montenegro team.

then it was the lionel messi show. the argentines were comfortable but had not scored in the second half until the 19-year-old barcelona striker came on after 74 minutes. soon there were three more goals to the total.

messi set up crespo for a tap in; he burst into the penalty area and a delivered a superb low pass across the goal that beat both the keeper and defenders.

another young argentine carlos tevez got past two half-hearted challenges from the serbia and montenegro defence and put the fifth around jevric. 

the goal many argentines in the crowd had waited for came two minutes from time. messi, recently back from injury, was fed on another burst into the penalty area. he beat jevric at his near post.

this year montenegro made their split from serbia official in the political arena. in the veltins arena, friday, the performance of the two national sides combined might be grounds for the coming football divorce.

the mathematics of the group c table mean jose pekerman's argentina are not yet through to the knock-out stage of the fifa world cup. they would go through if the netherlands did not lose to ivory coast, who played friday.

group c
attendance: 52'000

referee: roberto rosetti (italy) 

serbia & montenegro


"fifa world cup group c table june 16, 2006"


news briefs:june 16, 2006

the time is 18:00 (utc) on june 16th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

australia

the australian federal opposition has attacked the howard government following four incidents in a week at the hifar nuclear research reactor in lucas heights, south of sydney. the incidents come just a week after the australian government announced an inquiry into the feasibility of nuclear power.

australia

the australian democrats deputy leader, senator andrew bartlett moved in the australian senate a bill to amend the marriage act to provide for same-sex marriages.

united states

u.s. president george w. bush yesterday signed an executive order declaring the northwestern hawaiian islands a u.s. national monument, creating the largest protected marine area in the world and the largest single conservation area in the history of the united states.

switzerland

a tram derailed on thursday in the middle of the afternoon on the boulevard georges favon, near route du stand, geneva, causing major traffic jams. by chance, this spectacular incident caused three light casualties.

new zealand

a sexual attack on a woman in her pukekohe, south auckland home was, police say, premeditated.

sports ? football or soccer

argentina thrashed serbia and montenegro 6-0 in a display that stunned the crowd in gelsenkirchen, friday.

sports ? basketball

dwayne wade had 36 points to led the miami heat to a 98-74 victory thursday night over the dallas mavericks. miami's win over dallas evens the nba finals series to 2-2.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


american idol winner ruben studdard wins lawsuit

former american idol winner ruben studdard has won a lawsuit and $2 million against his ex-manager ronald w. edwards and edwards' promotions company, sez inc. the lawsuit was for misappropriating the singer's money and credit cards. the suit claimed edwards misused more than $246,000 of the singer's money. according to the judge's ruling, edwards stole money from studdard's checking and other bank accounts, improperly used his credit cards and even used studdard's money to repay a $10,000 bank loan. 

jefferson county circuit judge scott vowell awarded studdard $500,000 for actual losses and another $1.5 million in punitive damages. vowell dismissed edwards' promotions company from the suit because it was bankrupt and had no money or assets. edwards filed a petition for chapter 7 bankruptcy on june 17, 2005. studdard has sold 2.2 million records, but because of the damage done to his credit by edwards, it is now even hard for ruben to buy a home, said vowell.



united states house votes against setting date for withdrawal from iraq

in a nonbinding resolution, the u.s. house voted 256-153 that an "arbitrary date for withdrawal or redeployment" of u.s. troops is not in the nation's best interest. the resolution also declared the iraq war as part the global war on terrorism. 24 representatives did not vote on the resolution.

john boehner, republican house majority leader, said, "retreat is not an option in iraq. achieving victory is our only option, for the american people and our kids."

nancy pelosi, democrat house minority leader, disagreed saying, "stay the course? i don't think so mr president. it's time to face the facts. the war in iraq has been a mistake, i say, a grotesque mistake."

despite pelosi's opposition to the resolution, 42 democrats voted in favour of the resolution.

yesterday the u.s. senate rejected a proposal to withdraw combat troops by the end of 2006.


timorese rebels begin disarming

east timorese rebels begun disarming friday, when the rebel leader, lt. cmdr. alfredo reinado, and his men handed over ammunition and more than a dozen weapons to australian peacekeepers. the disarming started after a official request of president xanana gusmao this week.

the disarming process requested this week by east timor's president, xanana gusmao, started today in maubisse, as alfredo reinado, the leader of the military rebels, handed over his m-16 rifle, with telescopic sight, to an australian soldier. followed by him, his men saluted him and handed over their weapons. as reinado checked that they were unloaded and turned them in to an australian soldier, that noted down the weapon type and serial number.

in this ceremony at a ninteenth century portuguese village, where reinado's rebel group camped after fleeing the timorese capital, dili in april, reinado and his men gave up 12 automatic rifles and four pistols. these were then stored at a container guarded by australian soldiers.

after delivering the weapons lt. cmdr. alfredo reinado guaranteed in a press conference that he will continue to fulfill the orders of xanana gusmao.

regarding the polemic question about the continuation of the timorese first prime minister, mari alkatiri, in power, the commander clarified that he is a "military and a lieutenant commander on the hierarchy of the armed forces" and that he is only "fulfilling orders".

the disarming process of the rebels' weapons will be also followed in gleno, where the remaining rebel troops lead by the lt. cmdr. marcos tilman and alves tara are camped.

the start of the process had been announced this thursday by marcos tilman and confirmed by army brig. michael slater, commander of the australian-led forces. the announce was made 24 hours after president xanana gusmao have proclaimed, in message to the parliament, that the hour for the second phase of the international military forces in the country had arrived. the international military forces, as the second phase starts, will leave dili into the interior of the country, leaving the timorese capital in control of the international police forces.

according to army brig. michael slater, that was speaking to the press in dili to announce formally the beginning of the disarming process, the international force "will guarantee protection" to the rebels, that as of today are disarmed, in way that "nobody will go to their meeting with aggressive intentions".

questioned regarding if the delivery of the weapons translates as a surrendering of the military rebels, mick slater rejected that classification, pointing out that "east timor is not crossing a civil war".

"there's no civil war and nobody is surrendering. there's yes a internal dispute. the important is to create a reliable climate next to the population, taking it to gradually return to its communities", he added.

first prime minister mari alkatiri and timorese foreign minister jose ramos horta showed to be satisfied with the delivery of the rebels' weapons.

"it's a good start to stabilize the country. i expect that others follow the example", alkatiri pointed out.

"they have not done harm to anyone and they have pledged they would not involve in violence with their comrades in the defense force," ramos horta said. "so that has only boosted their credibility", he added.

regarding the ex-lieutenant gastao salsinha, spokesman of the 600 individuals that subscribed an petition denouncing alleged practical discriminatory in the timorese armed forces, marcos tilman assured that "they don't have any weapons".

dismissed from the army in march after going on strike to complain of discrimination, the rebels have been hiding in the mountains surrounding dili, since the start of the violence in the country in the last months.

by request of the timorese authorities, a force of more than 2,000 military and police troops of australia, new zealand, malaysia and portugal started to arrive at dili as may 25, 2006, to establish order and peace in the country, after a violence wave have caused the death of more than 2 dozens of people and 130,000 refugees.




united states identifies new al-qaeda leader in iraq as egyptian abu ayyub al-masri

the u.s. identified the new al-qaeda leader in iraq as abu ayyub al-masri, an egyptian with ties to ayman al-zawahiri. zawahiri was the number two in command of al-qaeda.

"we think that abu ayyub al-masri is in fact, probably, abu hamza al-muhajir. they are probably one and the same" said major general william caldwell, spokesman for the u.s. military in iraq.

abu ayyub al-masri is thought to specialise in bomb making.

the announcement came eight days after iraq's prime minister nouri maliki said abu musab al-zarqawi, who had been identified by al-qaeda as its leader in iraq, had been "terminated" in a u.s. airstrike near baqubah.



netherlands defeat ivory coast in group c

the result meant both the netherlands and argentina moved into the knock-out round of the fifa world cup as they both had six points; while the ivory coast and serbia and montenegro had no points with one game left in group c. 

excitement in the first-half gave way to a gritty second-half as marco van basten's orangemen changed to a more defensive formation and showed resilience to stop the elephant's charge.

the netherlands committed 24 fouls in the match but could not stop ivory coast taking 16 shots, nine of which hit the target. late in the match robin van persie used his chest to stop a didier drogba header going over the goal line.

henri michel's side played an attractive passing game but as the game went on this proved ineffective against the wall of orange-shirted netherlands defenders. a more direct approach might have been better; as the tall, 180 centimeter, forward didier drogba showed when van persie was forced to clear from a corner.

edwin van der sar, in the netherlands goal, conceded his first goal for his country since october 2004 but was otherwise safe and did not allow any rebounds from shots. in the second period he was helped by the netherlands defence who blocked numerous shots from reaching their destination.

the best of the entertainment was in the first half. the first goal led from a free kick earned by van persie on 22 minutes. van persie ran at speed horizonal to the penalty area and was cut down in full flight by kolo toure.

van persie took the free kick and hammered the ball left footed around the wall into the net. 

suddenly ivory coast were opened up again three minutes later. good passes and movement and arjen robben found ruud van nistelrooij in space to the right of jean-jacques tizie. the striker passed the ball high over the keeper.

the two goal lead did not reflect the play which had seen some good moves by ivory coast and an emmanuel eboue penalty appeal rejected.

on 32 minutes creative midfielder didier zokora gave van der sar a warning when he smacked a powerful long range shot against his crossbar.

seven minutes later bakary kone ran from the centre of the field to space on the netherland's left side. kone reached the edge of the penalty area and let fly with his right foot; the ball thumped into the top right of van der sar's goal.

at this point the ivory coast looked better than the netherlands defence. on 42 minutes drogba intercepted a misplaced pass but on the breakaway could not thread his pass to his team mate when 2 on 1 with the last defender.

it was not to be ivory coast's day. while ivory coast still looked to pass through the netherlands the dutch looked more than capable to hold out for the win.

group c
attendance: 52'000

referee: oscar ruiz (columbia) 


"fifa world cup group c table june 16, 2006"



avian flu found in eastern canada

canada's broadcasting corporation reports that a case of avian flu has been discovered in a bird in the eastern province of prince edward island.

the case was discovered in a gosling found in the community of o'leary and confirmed at the atlantic veterinary college in charlottetown. the announcement was made in a press release issued by the government of prince edward island.

chief health officer for pei, dr. lamont sweet, said, "from the information we have received, there is a low risk of human illness at the present time." he went on to suggest that people in west prince who have contact with domestic or wild birds who may be experiencing flu-like symptoms should consult their physician.




angola hold mexico to 0-0 draw in group d

while the angolan's game was not all defense, they had eight shots and five corner kicks, it was mexico who had much the best chances in the game and will be disappointed not to have scored a number of goals.

three minutes into injury time ramon morales hung a high ball that dipped over the angolan keeper. ricardo stretched and the 36 year old goalkeeper, who did not have a football club, clinched the ball like a trophy and earned his team a 0-0 draw. it was angola's first world cup point.

for a nation where average life expectancy is 38 years this was the biggest result in angolan football history. the result also meant if angola beat iran they still had a mathematical chance to get into the knock-out stage of the fifa world cup.

in the first half the crowd was subdued as chances were few. mexico had free kicks saved, one from rafael marquez had come off the post. for angola figueiredo's free kick found fabrice akwa only for the captain's header to go nowhere near the goal.

the best chance in free play before the break fell to mexico's guillermo franco. a long ball into box on 44 minutes bounced off a defender but ricado was in the way of franco's weak shot.

ricardo la volpe had been banned from smoking on the touchline by fifa after being observed doing so in his first game. against iran the mexican coach was credited with a change in the game after half time. 

"sans" cigarettes, this happened again against angola but his team just couldn't get past ricardo. 

franco was denied once more on 55 minutes when he tried to lob the keeper but ricardo got a hand to it. the ball then dropped to jesus arellano but his shot was tame and a defender on the line cleared.

when a defensive clearance rebounded to omar bravo ricardo was in the right place to pick up the striker's scuffed shot.

ricardo, the fifa man of the match, missed a few crosses but when he got them he didn't drop them. on 64 minutes a cross was whipped in from the right and he caught the cross spectacularly with one-hand.

angolan attacks were limited. mendonca's drive went straight to oswald sanchez while a figueiredo blast from outside the box cleared the bar.

on 80 minutes andre was sent off for deliberate hand ball, his second yellow card offense in the game. all angolan energies were now diverted to keep the scores level.

it was a difficult last ten minutes. jesus arellano floated a cross from midfield to jose fonseca but his volley went wide. with great technique marquez connected superbly with a long 35 yard drive but ricardo leapt to his right and used both hands to push the ball behind for a corner.

while two minutes remained mexico hit the post for the second time in the match. ricardo missed a fast cross but omar bravo's instinctive redirection toward goal was centimeters out.

the qualifiers from group d was not settled by the result, friday. mexico's progress became more tricky. but the central americans still had the upper hand. luis de oliveira goncalves's side had to score goals against iran while mexico needed only to not lose to portugal in their last game to certainly go through. 

group d
attendance: 43'000

referee: shamsul maidin (singapore) 


"fifa world cup group d table june 16, 2006"



russia launches new civil remote sensing satellite

a russian soyuz rocket successfully launched a civilian earth observation satellite into orbit today at the baikonur cosmodrome in central kazakhstan. the satellite's mission is mainly to assist exploration of natural resources, monitor pollution and natural or man-made disasters.

the three-stage soyuz rocket lifted off at 0800 utc (4:00 a.m. edt), little under nine minutes later in an orbit with an apogee of approximately 230 miles, a perigee of around 125 miles, and an inclination of about 70 degrees. the resurs dk1 spacecraft, weighing close to 15,000-pound, successfully separated from the soyuz upper stage. 

the dk1 is the newest member of the resurs satellite fleet, the first in an upgraded series of spacecraft, and is capable of producing one-meter resolution images in black-and-white(two meters in color). the dk1 can document an area of up to 270,000 square miles a day and its advanced communications system allows fast downlinking of recent images to ground stations. 

images from the new satellite will be used by russian government agencies, international groups, as well as sold commercially. the satellite will also monitor sea surface status, polar weather and ice conditions as well as assist in topographic and thematic mapping in remote regions. 

in addition to the dk1, two secondary payloads were attached. one is the italian pamela (payload for antimatter-matter exploration and light-nuclei astrophysics) instrument, housed on the upper side of the satellite designed to examine cosmic rays in order to learn more about dark matter and the relationship between matter and antimatter. the other is a russian particle detector for designed for identifying earthquake precursors in earth's magnetic field. 

further launches of these updated satellites are expected in the next few years. the soyuz rocket's next scheduled launch is a cargo delivery flight to the international space station, to be followed by the launch of the eurosat metop-a weather satellite. 



fiji defeat italy in rugby

fiji defeated italy 29 to 18 in rugby in fiji on saturday. it was their first meeting since november of 2005, when italy were victorious in monza. the match was played in front of a capacity crowd at churchill park in lautoka.

norman ligairi scored the opening try of the match six minuets in to put the fijians in front. rupeni caucau extended fiji's lead in the 28th minute with another try. fiji scored another two tries in the first half as well. italian andrea lo cicero scored their only try in the first half to see the score at 29 to eight as the nations entered half time. italy scored another try through josh sole but fiji were able to hold onto their lead and win the match, with the final score being 29 to 18.


all blacks defeat ireland in second rugby test

the all blacks defeated ireland in the second of two rugby tests. the all blacks managed to create a good lead in the first half, though the irish fought back to get within just three points. the all blacks however held on in the end to win. the match was played at eden park in auckland, new zealand.

the match kicked off after the all blacks performed their traditional haka as the rain started to pour down. byron kelleher opened up the scoring in the first half, scoring a try for the all blacks after the first five minuets. luke mcalister kicks over a conversion to take the new zealanders to a seven to nil lead. mcalister added another three points with a kick at goal when the all blacks were awarded a penalty, taking their lead to 10 to nil. clarke dermody charges over with just over 10 minutes remaining in the first half, though the irish were upset about an alleged knock-on in the lead up to the play. mcalister converted the try, and the all blacks now led 17 to nil. with around nine minutes left, ireland scored their first points through paul o'connell who ran through to score under the posts. ronan o'gara converts the try to put the irish within 10 points. minutes later, mcalister kicks a penalty to extend the all blacks lead to 20 to seven. minutes before half time, jerry flannery scores a try for ireland to put them back in the game, o'gara converts, and the sides go into the break with the all blacks leading 20 to 14.

o'gara kicks a penalty goal after 10 miutes into the second half, putting ireland within just three points of the all blacks, the score now being 20 to 17, with around 30 minutes to go. a period of no scoring followed, with the score remaining separated by just three points. the lock was broken by mcalister was scored under the posts for the all blacks with under 10 minutes remaining. mcalister converted his own try and the all blacks held onto the win. the final score was 27 to 17.




three people die in new south wales, australia car accidents

police were kept busy around blayney in new south wales' central west this morning as two separate crashes on the mid western highway claimed three lives. both accidents occurred within 20 minutes of each other and were only seven kilometres (4 miles) apart.

the first accident occurred five kilometres north of blayney towards cowra at 7:45 a.m. aest. a b-double truck carrying woodchips slammed into a parked table-top truck as it went around a corner. as a result of the crash, the b-double rolled over. the parked truck's passenger died at the scene, while its driver was airlifted to orange base hospital suffering abdominal injuries.

a second accident occurred two kilometres south of blayney, towards bathurst. both the driver and passenger died when their car left the road and collided with a tree. police said they were investigating the crash and would prepare a report for the coroner.

in a report released in 2004, the nrma said that the government should give priority to upgrading the highway among others within the region. in 2005, the nrma also expressed concern about the highway being reclassified as a regional road (from a state road), putting the onus for maintenance and improvements on councils, which already have limited resources.

according to a 2004 audit conducted by the nrma, the mid western highway is the fifth safest highway statistically in nsw with 18.7 major crashes per 100 million kilometres travelled and 11.5 fatalities per 100 million kilometres travelled. according to the nrma, the most dangerous highway in nsw is the great western highway, which has 51.5 crashes and 30.8 fatalities per 100 million kilometres travelled.

upon closer examination of statistics, the safety record of the stretch between bathurst and cowra (which also happens to be the most heavily used) is comparable to that of the entire new england highway and more dangerous than the pacific highway with 29.5 crashes and 15.6 fatalities per 100 million kilometres travelled. a 14-kilometre section between bathurst and blayney is particularly dangerous according to the nrma.


australia defeat england in rugby to win cook cup

australia has defeated england 43 points to 18 in the second match of the cook cup series between the two nations in rugby union. the second win for australia saw them win the cook cup trophy, which was held by england entering the series. the match was played under a closed roof at telstra dome, melbourne in australia. regular australian captain george gregan entered the game off the bench in the second half to receive his 120th cap for the wallabies - setting a new world record.

the first points of the match went to england with andy goode booting a field goal to put them up by three points. a few minutes later george smith charged over to score a try under the posts for the wallabies, stirling mortlock added the subsequent conversion to take the australians to a seven to three lead over the english. in the 14th minute, mark gerrard catches a cross field bomb from stephen larkem to score the second australian try. although mortlock missed the conversion, australia move to a 14 to three lead over england. goode was able to give england another three points, kicking a penalty goal in the 25th minute. rodney blake, one of australia's heroes from the previous test, appeared to have hurt his ankle and is replaced by al baxter. minutes out from half-time, lote tuqiri scores for australia. mortlock is successful with the conversion to take the score to 19 points to six going into break.

mark chisholm runs in the first try of the second half, and with mortlock adding the conversion, australia's lead extended to over 20 points. although an english comeback now looked unlikely, minutes later george chuter scores a try for england, although goode missed the conversion, the score was now 26 to 11 to australia. with 20 minutes remaining, mortlock kicks a penalty goal to take to score to 29 to 11. a few minutes later, gerrard runs in for his second side and with mortlock adding the conversion, australia now moved the score to 36 to 11. a late try to larkham, which was converted by mortlock sees australia take the score to over 40 points. in the 80th minute of the match, moments from halftime, varndell receives a pass from balshaw to run in a late try for england. the final score was 43 points to 18.




portugal beat iran 2-0 in group d

iran used defensive tactics to frustrate portugal in the commerzbank arena and until one hour of play the scores were level. the defence had blocked shots, ebrahim mirzapour had made some great saves. 

figo had created most of portugal's best opportunities. in the first half the team in the maroon strip had 5 corners in the first 15 minutes and, after half an hour, had 68 per cent of the possession.

a deco shot from a close angle forced mirzapour to make a one-handed save over the bar. by half time richard carvalho, and later ronaldo, had missed the target with a header from a figo corner.

branko ivankovic's side did not trouble ricardo at the other end but this did not make the brazilian coach of the portugal team adjust the 4-5-1 formation which had pauletta up front on his own.

in the second half figo was again the centre of everything but this did not look enough. it was deco's brilliant 25 yard shot, from figo's rolled pass, which won it.

mirzapour could only stand and watch the ball rise into the net as deco fell backwards onto the ground.

portugal had ten shots on target to iran's one; from a vahid hashemian header which produced a photographer friendly save from ricardo. iran allowed figo to take 13 corner kicks and conceded 63 per cent of ball possession.

after the first goal the second looked more likely as iran were forced to get forward to equalise. if they did not they would play only one more game at the world cup.

rasoul khatibi got on the end of a long ball into the box but, at an angle, dragged wastefully wide of the far post.

on 78 minutes figo attacked the iranian penalty area once more and was brought down by yahya golmohammadi. golmohammadi, iran's captain, ten minutes later was taken off injured, clutching his left shoulder after he had stepped in front of ronaldo.

ronaldo passed the penalty in high using the inside of his right foot.

portugal were due next to play mexico and would go through as winners of group d if they did not lose.

group d
attendance: 48'000

referee: eric poulat (france) 


"fifa world cup group d table june 17, 2006"

angola hold mexico to 0-0 draw in group d


news briefs:june 17, 2006

the time is 18:00 (utc) on june 17th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

australia

police were kept busy around blayney in new south wales' central west this morning as two separate crashes on the mid western highway claimed three lives. both accidents occurred within 20 minutes of each other and were only seven kilometres (4 miles) apart.

sports ? football or soccer

just when portugal might have wondered if they could breakthrough deco produced a wonderful goal to send luiz felipe scolari's side into the knock-out stage of the world cup, saturday. 

sports - rugby

australia has defeated england 43 points to 18 in the second match of the cook cup series between the two nations in rugby union. the second win for australia saw them win the cook cup trophy, which was held by england entering the series.

the all blacks defeated ireland in the second of two rugby tests. the all blacks managed to create a good lead in the first half, though the irish fought back to get within just three points. the all blacks however held on in the end to win. the match was played at eden park in auckland, new zealand.

fiji defeated italy 29 to 18 in rugby in fiji on saturday. it was their first meeting since november of 2005, when italy were victorious in monza. the match was played in front of a capacity crowd at churchill park in lautoka.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


ghana surge past czech republic in group e

the czech republic had tomas ujfalusi sent off after 66 minutes but in this game ghana had the best of the chances over the 90 minutes.

the african team played short quick passes as well as long ones and had relentless energy. they commanded the field with their physical presence.

with 10 minutes left some sides up by a single goal would hold the ball near the opponent's corner flag to run down the clock. ratomir dujkovic's side, at 25 years and two months the youngest at the fifa world cup, did not.

against ten men they seemed determined to get a killer second goal. they eventually achieved this after numerous chances.

they surged forward in numbers such that sometimes the ten men czech republic broke with three players attacking four defenders - which might be a dangerous situation when two of them are pavel neved and tomas rosicky and your side is only one goal in front.

the czech republic did not take their opportunties to score. their star midfielders looked busy but with the team's best strikers on the injury list - milan baros and jan koller - the czech attack was toothless and a bit disorganised. 

at one point rosicky let a low cross through his legs for a runner behind when he was in fact in the best striker's position. 
on 57 minutes neved left an imprint of his frustration in the stadium when he kicked an advertising hoarding which left visible stud holes.

the game had started brilliant fashion for the passionate ghanians. they never looked back from the second minute when asamoah gyan took a long ball down on his chest and from the edge of the area drove the ball low past petr cech.

on 31 minutes gyan got behind the defence but cech, in a good position, saved. gyan should have chipped it. in the second period the promising 20-year-old arguably missed many equally good chances with only petr cech to beat - again shooting low when he might have gone high.

karel bruckner had petr chec to thank for the score not being an embarrassment. after the sending off saves from ghanians came on 71, 73, 77, and 79 minutes. 

any hope the central europeans could surprise with a comeback ended when sulley muntari showed how to beat cech on 84 minutes. in space in the area, he fired high left-footed inside the near post.

but before that there was drama of a sending off and missed penalty. ujfalusi had interrupted matthew amoah's kicking leg when he was clean through and was shown a red card by horacio elizondo. 

the referee delayed the red card slightly and this led to what seemed to be a misunderstanding. the crowd roared when the belated red was flashed. gyan, perhaps in eagerness, might have taken this noise a sign the whistle had blown. 

he took the penalty, though the referee was not yet in position to let it be taken. this earned the striker a yellow card and put him out of the usa match. an example of the inexperience of the young team. 

his serbian coached then watched as gyan hit midway up the right post with the actual penalty and the score stayed 1-0. 

on 93 minutes there was a flurry of activity near the ghana goal and richard kingston pulled off two fine saves. but with captain stephen appiah and michael essian in control of midfield ghana looked a powerful side who well-deserved their win against the understrength czechs.

with three teams in group e now on three points all eyes then turned to the next games, as potentially any of the four teams still could qualify.

group e
attendance: 45'000

referee: horacio elizondo (argentina) 


"fifa world cup group d table june 17, 2006"

united states of america draw 1-1 with italy in group e


united states of america draw 1-1 with italy in group e

kasey keller made three crucial saves as nine-man usa drew 1-1 with ten-man italy in an heart-pounding group e match.

the match was played in kaiserslautern and there were many american fans present. those who had seen the czech republic crush the usa 3-0 might have been surprised at the way the underdogs played against the azzuri. 

bruce arena's side began with a 4-5-1 formation and started the game with great energy, attacking from the first whistle. however; arguably against the play italy scored first. a set piece 45 yards out was driven low and alberto gilardino got in front of his defender and glanced a header to the far post.

usa got an equaliser on 26 minutes. christian zaccardo tried to clear a corner one way but skewed the ball the other. own goal, gianluigi buffon did not move. 

then there was a crucial turning point in the character of the game. daniele de rossi rose for a midfield challenge and hit brian mcbride under the left eye with what looked like an elbow.

blood streamed from mcbride's face. uruguay referee jorge larrionda gave de rossi a straight red.

larrionda went on to show two more red cards in the match which equalled a tournament record. there had only been three other fifa world cup games with three red cards: 1938 brazil v czechoslovakia; 1954, brazil v hungary; and 1998, denmark v south africa.

for a few minutes mcbride remained shirtless on the touchline while he received boxer treatment and three stiches for his cut. italian manager marcello lippi replaced francesco totti with midfield tackler gennaro gattuso.

with half an hour gone the own goal and de rossi's mistake had given the usa a massive advantage. but it appears they did not keep their heads.

ten minutes after pablo mastroeni had grazed the crossbar with a shot he made a horrible lunge at the ankles of andrea pirlo. jorge larrionda flashed the red again.

just before half-time the usa had neutralised their advantage. in less than one minute after the restart they were to hand the italians the advantage. 

eddie pope was sent off after he received his second caution: two yellow cards equal one red card and now it was ten men versus nine. 

lippi almost immediately got substitute alexandro del piero on for one of his defenders to take advantage of their extra player. arena brought on another defender and lined up 3-3-2. by 80 minutes this had become 8-0-0.

for a game with so few players and so much drama there were very few chances. only three shots were on target; all for italy. usa had 8 shots; none on target.

a statistic that suggests the draw was a tactical victory for the usa coach. italy's forward line was guilty of getting caught offside 11 times.

pirlo went close with a freekick and almost forced carlos bocanegra to head another dangerous dipping cross into his net; fortunately for keller it clipped the bar.

as the americans were stretched further kasey keller made a couple of crucial saves from lippi's extra attacker. on 73 minutes he got one hand to a del piero header and then palmed away two-handed his long range drive.

in the last 10 minutes italy passed well and created a few chances to score. vincenzo iaquinta broke the offside trap, but failed to control the ball with only keller to beat. 

on 90 minutes gilardino headed wide under pressure from steve cherundolo.
usa, despite playing the entire second half with 9 men might say they were unlucky not to get a second goal. a damarcus beasley shot beat buffon but was over-ruled because mcbride was standing offside in the keeper's line of sight. 

on usa attacks landon donovan kept the ball well which allowed respite from italian attacks and spurred his team on to play further up the pitch, until their stamina cracked with ten-minutes left.

the referee arguably was fair if not consistent. in the second half as both sets of players tired decisions appeared more based on necessity to be more lenient.

lunges were not whistled and there was an aggressive shirt pull in the usa penalty area that was ignored. in an earlier world cup match, a ukraine player had conceded a penalty and was sent off for doing this. 

the shared point meant either one of italy or czech republic would qualify from group e for the knock-out stage of the fifa world cup. usa next play ghana: a win for ghana would mean qualification while the usa would qualify if they won and italy beat the czech republic.

group e
attendance: 46'000

referee: jorge larrionda (uruguay) 


"fifa world cup group e table june 17, 2006"

ghana surge past czech republic in group e



south africa defeat scotland in second rugby test

south africa defeated scotland in the second of two rugby tests between the two nations, with the springboks also winning the test in durban the previous week. the match was played in port elizabeth at the epru stadium.

percy montgomery got the first points of the match as he kicked an early penalty goal for south africa to put them out in front three to nil within the first couple of minutes. montgomery kicked another penalty for south africa in the fourth minute, taking south africa out to an early six to nil lead, as well as taking his own international points tally to 600 points, becoming the first springbok to do so. scotland's simon webster scores the first try of the match. although chris paterson misses the conversion, scotland are now just a point behind, the score now six to five. the springboks furthered their lead with another successful penalty kick from montgomery in the 16th mnute, as well as jaco van der westhuyzen kicking another around the 25 minute mark, taking the score to 12 to five. a late try was disallowed by the television match official to scotland's webster, so the sides entered half-time at 12 to five.

montgomery opened up the scoring in the second half, kicking a penalty goal five minutes in. subsequent penalties to scotland's paterson, as well as another to montgomery saw the score move to 18 to 8 with over 25 minutes remaining. south africa score their first try through fourie du preez and although montgomery misses the conversion, the springboks now move ahead to a 23 to eight lead. with around ten minutes remaining the match, donnie macfadyen scores a try for scotland, and with paterson's conversion, the score moved to 23 to 15 with the springboks still in front. montgomery got the final points of the match, with another two successful penalty goals. the final score was 29 to 15.




argentina defeat wales 45-27 in rugby

argentina defeated wales on saturday in the second of two rugby test matches between the two nations. the final score was 45 to 27, with the match being played at velez sarsfield in buenos aires. the pumas also took the first match, 27-25, played in the previous week in puerto madryn. argentina's federico todeschini ended the match with 30 points.

argetine martin durand almost scored a try in the 15th minute, but the television match official disallowed it. however, gonzalo tiesi was over for argentina soon after. penalty goals to todeschini saw argentina accumulate 16 points in the first half, though james hook kicked two penally goals for wales, the nations went into half-time with argentina leading 16 to six.

argentina scored early in the second half through juan martin fernandez lobbe, and with subsequent penalty goals, argentina moved to a 32 to six lead over wales. gareth delve posted wales' first try of the match, scoring after 60 minutes, in the second half. two late tries by shane williams and lee byrne reduced the scoreline in the end. the score at full-time was 45 to 27, which saw argentina take the series between the nations 2 to nil. argentina now await the all blacks who play them in argentina next week.




romania lose 62-14 to france in rugby

france defeated romania 62 points to 14 in a rugby test match on saturday at cotroceni stadium in bucharest. french centre yannick jauzion scored a try in the early stages of the match that saw france take the lead. damien traille converted the try as well as kicking a subsequent penalty goal that took france to a 10 to nil lead over romania. romanian full-back florin vlaicu was successful with two penalty goals, however, france then ran in a number of subsequent tries. remy martin scored for france as well as tries going to thierry dusautoir and damien traille. france entered half-time with a commanding 31 to six lead over romania.

sylvain marconne scored for france in the second half which was subsequently converted by traille to take the game to 38 to six. catalin fercu scored romania's first try in the 59th minute. thomas castaignede scored for france, and with traille being successful with the conversion, france moved to a 45 to 11 lead over romania. french tries then followed to dimitri szarzewski, julien laharrague and david marty. the final score was 62 to 14 to france. france now head to capetown to play south africa who have just come off a two game series win over scotland.



legality of nsw traffic and parking fines to be tested in court

the legality of speeding and parking fines in new south wales, australia is set to be tested in court this week. a lawyer from sydney will challenge the authority of the state's infringement processing bureau to issue fines for speeding and parking offences.

the lawyer claims that when the nsw government moved control of the bureau from the nsw police to the office of state revenue in october 2001, the government failed to make correct legislative changes. he claims that all fines issued since the move are invalid.

the basis of the case revolve around whether or not the infringement processing bureau has powers to issue penalty notices (fines) under nsw law.

the bureau said that the case would only be relevant to fines which are disputed by a person in court. the bureau said that only five per cent of fines are challenged.

"people who did not elect to go to court and have paid their infringement notice will not be affected by any decision, so the issue of refunds does not arise," a statement by the office of state revenue said.

for the 2004/2005 financial year, the infringement processing bureau recorded revenues of aud$158.7 million from fines.

nsw opposition leader peter debnam said the government has once again failed to write legislation correctly. "the bottom line with this thing is that the government simply hasn't done its homework. we see this time and time again, legislation going through parliament, and it ends up costing tax payers a fortune," he said.


the second-oldest british survivor of world war i turns 108

the second oldest british veteran of the first world war turned 108 on saturday, june 17th. he celebrated this at his retirement home in wells, in the south-west of england.

harry patch was called up to fight in 1917 at the age of 18, whilst he was a plumber's apprentice in bath. several days later he was in belgium, participating in the third battle of ypres, in belgium, a battle which would kill 70000 soldiers in three months alone. patch left the combat zone on september 22 after he was hit by a piece of shrapnel from a shell that had killed three of his companions. 

"i always remember september 22. that was the day three of my friends were killed," he said. "it was mud, more mud, and even more mud, and the lot was mixed with blood," he remembers. patch is still convinced that the war was useless.

the oldest living british veteran of the war is henry allingham, 110, who served in the royal naval air service, which would later become the royal air force. the oldest man to have seen combat in the war is moses hardy, 113, in the united states, and the oldest to have served in the armed forces during the war is emiliano mercado del toro, 114, again from the united states.


paris court of appeals overturns restrictions on maryam rajavi, ncri officials

on the eve of the third anniversary of the june 17 raid on the central office of the national council of resistance of iran and homes of dozens of iranian political refugees and dissidents, paris court of appeals in separate rulings revoked all restrictions on mrs. maryam rajavi, the iranian resistance's president-elect, and all those arrested on june 17, 2003. the rulings came while the investigative magistrates were insisting on continuing the restrictions. 

for the past three years, mrs. rajavi and 16 members and supporters of the iranian resistance had been under judicial restrictions including the denial of the right to travel, entry to the headquarters of the national council of resistance of iran in auvers-sur-oise, and the right to have contact with each other. 

mrs. rajavi welcomed the verdict and said, "the case was conceived at the request of the fascist theocracy ruling iran and was solely based on lies churned out by this regime. with the latest ruling, the time has come for this dossier to be brought to an end and all proceedings halted.", "the shameful june 17, 2003 raid was a futile attempt to destroy iran's democratic opposition and aid the iranian regime. if resistance against religious despotism for freedom is considered a crime, then i and all members and supporters of the resistance proudly accept this crime. we are determined to establish democracy in iran. nothing can save the clerical regime from its inevitable fall and nothing can stop the iranian nation from attaining freedom and democracy," she added.

following the court ruling, dozens of iranian and french sympathizers of the resistance went to mrs. rajavi's residence in auvers-sur-oise, to congratulate her. mayors of auvers-sur-oise and cergy, in the northern paris province of val d'oise also joined the celebrations.

lawyers involved in the case welcomed the decision by the paris court of appeals to remove all restrictions imposed on mrs. rajavi in a press release issued on friday. they described the reasons presented by the investigative magistrates to reject the appeal as baseless, "the whole case was based on one sided and biased claims and extremely suspicious witnesses who were obviously in contact with iran's secret services," said the statement.

the lawyers stressed that the investigative magistrates should now draw the necessary conclusions and admit to the emptiness of the file against members of the resistance and remove prosecution orders. "this was done three years ago to please tehran," the statement added, "and it is now clear that it was aimed to win commercial contracts."

"today, no appeasement is acceptable especially after the worrying trend taken by the clerical regime over this period which was largely envisaged by mrs. rajavi," concluded the statement.
full text of maryam rajavi's speech

shortly after 6am on tuesday, june 17, 2003, 1,300 hooded and heavily-armed french policemen and special forces from a dozen security and intelligence agencies, equipped with armored cars, helicopters and boats, launched the largest police operation in three decades to raid 13 offices and homes of iranian refugees. the main target was the office of the national council at auvers-sur-oise. police arrested rajavi, the ncri's president-elect and 164 iranian political refugees and activists.

hours after the raids, three leading human rights organizations in france - the human rights league, france liberte foundation and the international federation of human rights - issued a strongly-worded joint statement condemning the action. 
crackdown on iranian resistance in france turns into a scandal


croatia and japan share point in group f

both teams worked hard and had clear chances to score but lacked the necessary ruthlessness in front of goal. on a hot field and under the blue sky in the frankenstadion the conditions won as the match petered out at a walking pace.

in the first period japan's goal keeper yoshikatsu kawaguchi kept japan in the game. kawaguchi dived low to his left to save darijo srna's driven penalty after dado prso had been knocked down from behind by tsuneyasu miyamoto.

the yellow card for the central defender and captain of the japan team meant he would miss japan's next match against brazil.

the japanese keeper was centre of the action again when the croatian coach's son niko kranjcar turned brilliantly and rattled the crossbar from 25 yards.

with half an hour gone kawaguchi got a shock - a bouncing back pass bobbled one meter in front of him. fortunately for japan though it evaded his control the ball trickled just wide of the post.

croatia had the better opportunities. overall, their physical presence meant they were dangerous from their 11 corner kicks and were capable of making space to shoot from the edge of the area.

if zlatko kranjcar might have wished for more luck in front of goal, japan coach zico might also rue the lack of finishing from his team. atsushi yanagisawa missed an open goal on 50 minutes.

both sides gave their best in the heat and deserved their first fifa world cup point. the result did not play either team out of the world cup but the advantage in group f remained with brazil and australia who had three points after the first games.

group f
attendance: 41'000

referee: frank de bleeckere (belgium)


"fifa world cup group f table june 18, 2006"



woman attacks with a dead puppy

a woman that was angry her new chihuahua had just died entered a dog breeders home and pummeled him on the head with her dead puppy. lisa lynn hopfer was charged with trespassing and third-degree assault with her chihuahua on the june 7 incident. the 33-year-old woman told police she had taken the puppy to a veterinarian, who said it was only 4 weeks old and needed to be returned to its mother. but before she could return the puppy named chloe, it died.

early wednesday she went to the breeders home and wrestled him as she tried to get down to the basement and take another puppy. then the breeder got lisa out of her house and that is when she started to get beaten over the head with a dead chihuahua. as the woman drove away she waved the dead puppy out of the sunroof and shouted numerous threats at the breeder. 

police said they are considering felony burglary charges against woman and misdemeanor assault charges.



brazil beat australia with two second half goals in group f

the game had started slowly as australia, playing defensively, kept many players near the edge of their penalty area. but a goal by adriano four minutes after half time changed that and made for a more attacking game.

after nine minutes vince grella set the tone for the first half when he raked his studs on ronaldo's calf. while the referee did not give a caution for this bad foul, four of the five cautions issued by german referee markus merk came in the first half. two went to australian players.

brazil were closed down quickly and suffered 25 fouls in the game. when they had the ball australia, who wore a dark blue strip instead of their traditional yellow and green, used their ball possession effectively and got forward with neat passes. 

the brazilians in contrast did not start well. on an elusive run into the penalty box ronaldinho had used fine skill to elude his markers but then trod on the ball and fell over. ronaldo then had an embarrassing moment when he created a good opening to shoot only to kick at fresh air.

and when roberto carlos had broken free unmarked the attacking left-sided defender jumped up and down in frustration when ronaldo over hit his pass. 

brazil's goal came four minutes after half time.

ronaldo rolled the ball across the edge of the box to adriano. the striker moved quickly to his left and passed a firm shot through scott chipperfield's legs. the ball hugged the grass and beat mark schwarzer's out-stretched left hand.

australia in an effort to get an equaliser replaced a defender with an attacker. but they found it hard to get past brazil's defence; ze roberto made two key tackles to stop marco bresciano and harry kewell.

on 56 minutes harry kewell missed australia's best chance. the ball came loose to his feet and the goal beckoned. but dida dived at his feet and kewell skied his effort over the bar.

while australia made good forward moves brazil attacked into the space they left behind. kaka flicked a ronaldinho corner on to the crossbar and in injury time missed wide when he only had schwarzer to beat.

the exciting second half was rounded off when on 89 minutes robinho, who was a lively substitute for ronaldo, hit a powerful shot off the inside of schwarzer's left post. fred tapped in the rebound.

the result meant brazil qualified for the knock-out stage of the fifa world cup while australia would need to get a least a draw against croatia in their final group f game to extend their stay in germany.

group f
attendance: 66'000

referee: markus merk (germany)


"fifa world cup group f table june 18, 2006"



news briefs:june 18, 2006

the time is 22:00 (utc) on june 18th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

united states

a new book claims that al-qaeda made plans to gas the new york subway system in 2003. according to extracts due to be published in next week's time magazine, the author of the one percent doctrine, ron suskind, asserts that al-qaeda's number 2 cancelled the attack 45 days before it was due.

australia

the legality of speeding and parking fines in new south wales, australia is set to be tested in court this week. a lawyer from sydney will challenge the authority of the state's infringement processing bureau to issue fines for speeding and parking offences.

sports ? football or soccer

japan and croatia have drew 0-0 in the heat of nurnberg, sunday. 

brazil beat australia 2-0 in a competitive encounter that got better as the game progressed in munchen, sunday.

sports ? rugby

france defeated romania 62 points to 14 in a rugby test match on saturday at cotroceni stadium in bucharest.

argentina defeated wales on saturday in the second of two rugby test matches between the two nations.

south africa defeated scotland in the second of two rugby tests between the two nations, with the springboks also winning the test in durban the previous week.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


france held to 1-1 draw with korea republic in group g

on 81 minutes france were punished for their complacency by a korea republic team that had never given up and that ended the last minutes of a strange match arguably the stronger side.
for most of the game korea republic, in an almost luminous red outfit were not in the game. their three forwards hardly got a touch; in fact they didn't have a single shot in the first half and had only two on target in 90 minutes. 

by contrast the french had three times as many shots as the koreans but managed only four accurate attempts on lee woon-jae's goal - two more than the koreans managed. a poor showing for a side so at ease it played mostly in its opposition's half of the pitch and did not concede a shot until the 54th minute.

all looked good when henry had scored after nine minutes. the ball got through the defence via a deflection; and with a touch from his right foot the arsenal striker put the ball into the perfect position to pass it in with his left.

with the great throng of red koreans bouncing up and down and singing there was a great atmosphere in the zentralstadion and it did not sound like their side were a goal down. 

a patrick viera header followed from a corner and was saved by lee woon-jae. there was no great french appeal but the television replay clearly showed the ball had crossed the line. 

after half time the french kept to their slow passing game which made dick advocaat's hustling team exceptionally tired without killing them off. with ten minutes left the korean game sprang to life and deckchairs were brought out to witness a mugging.

eric abidal brought down lee young-pyo and got a yellow card. quick korean passes found their target and the french suddenly looked a little disorganised.

a cross from deep near the right corner flag from seol ki-hyeon found cho jin-jae. beyond the far post, the substitute headed back into the path of park ji-sung who from five yards helped the ball over both fabian barthez and william gallas. 

the slowness by which the ball went over a grasping barthez and the french centre half was tantalising and made the score seem more painful.

now there was a ripping end-to-end contest. three minutes later thierry henry got a chance to make it 2-1 but lee woon-jae jammed his arm hard on the ground for a magnificent left-handed save. in the final minute ahn jung-hwan screamed a free kick past barthez's right post.

the result meant france, who still had not won a game since the 1998 world cup final, probably had to win their last match against togo for a chance to reach the knock-out stage of the 2006 world cup. their captain zinedine zidane, who got a caution in the game, would be ruled out for that tie.

korea republic now lead group g with 4 points and would certainly advance as group winner if they won their last game against switzerland.

group g
attendance: 43'000

referee: benito archundia (mexico)


"fifa world cup group g table june 18, 2006"

switzerland too much for togo in group g


united states' production of new books declining

the world cup is not the only international competition going on this summer. with vacation and beach reading season in full swing, american readers find themselves trailing their reading counterparts across the pond.

for the first time in five years, american production of new book titles trails that of great britain, a country of one-fifth the population of the usa, the kansas city star recently reported. last year, production of new titles in the uk surpassed 206,000, compared with 172,000 in america.

bowker, a consulting firm following the publishing industry, suspects that as america's wealth increases, more entertainment options compete with books for americans' leisure time. the figure does not necessarily reflect whether americans read books less than brits, and does not, for example, track the comparative reading of reprints and classics.


&quot;avast ye scurvy file sharers!&quot;: interview with swedish pirate party leader rickard falkvinge

mp3s for the people? the , a new swedish political party first publicized in january, wants to legalize sharing music, movies, and other copyrighted content using the internet. what may seem like a doomed effort by a small group of idealists is attracting significant media attention, in part due to a recent police raid on the pirate bay, an extremely popular (see wikinews coverage). 

the pirate bay allows people to download content listed in its database using the bittorrent protocol (including the latest hollywood movies or computer games) and has gained something of an international cult status, in part for its public and irreverent responses to legal threats received from copyright lawyers of major corporations. the site was reopened days after the raid on dutch servers (but is now back in sweden again). rickard falkvinge, leader of the pirate party, argues that regardless of the legal outcome in the case, the web site demonstrates that copyright law in its current form is not sustainable.

adopting the moniker of the maligned "internet pirates", the party argues for drastically limiting the scope and enforcement of copyright law, abolishing patent law, and protecting privacy in what it sees as a "control and surveillance society". the party is hoping to garner enough votes in the september election to become a small but important faction in the next swedish parliament. rickard falkvinge found some time in between interviews and party work to answer our questions.

there are rumours that the swedish government was indirectly acting on behalf of the u.s. mpaa in shutting down the site. do you feel that your government is beholden to u.s. interests?

oh, the mpaa said so themselves in a press release, it's more than a rumor. check their press release "swedish authorities sink pirate bay". "[ed.: see below]"

and yes, this particular fact has caused something of an uproar in sweden. it's widely believed that swedish authorities were more or less ordered by a foreign power to act forcefully against an entity that was in, at worst, a legal gray area according to swedish law.

the raid must have boosted your recognition. how many members do you currently have, and how successful has your fundraising effort been so far?

our member count is at 6540, no, 6541, no wait, 6543... well, you get the picture. our members register themselves on our website after paying the membership fee electronically, which helps reduce our admin load considerably.

fundraising brought in 108,000 sek "[ed.: approx. 14,700 usd or 11,600 eur]", enough to buy 3 million ballots, which is some kind of at-least-we're-not-starving minimum. we're not full, but we're not starving, either. following the raid on the pirate bay, we have received another 50k in donations. my sincere thanks to everybody who wants to help out; we are now looking into getting more ballots to make sure we don't run out on election day. (10 million ballots was our initial full-score aim.)

do you think you will be able to cover future expenses such as radio and television ads?

following the raid on the pirate bay, and our tripling of the member roster, we don't need advertising. we've been mentioned almost every news hour across all channels on national television in the last week.

also, the established parties have now started to turn, following our success. parties representing almost half of the elected parliament are now describing today's copyright situation as not working. they still don't understand why, though, they are just echoing what we say without understanding what the words mean. we'll get around to teaching them ? them and the voters alike.

this might be hard for people not following the swedish media to grasp, but we have made a "big" splash. today, our minister of justice was quoted as saying that he's open to changes to copyright laws that would make file-sharing legal, with the headline "bodstrom (his name) flip-flops about file sharing." immediately underneath were the pirate party's comments to his suggestions. let's take that again: when a minister makes a statement about file sharing, media calls us for comments, and publishes them next to that statement. that's how big we have become since the raid on the pirate bay.

the minister of justice later denied having made that statement to the press that reported it.

we will never be able to pay for television ads, the way i see it. unless a very wealthy donor comes on stage. (if any such person is reading this, we have planned how to spend up to $375,000 in a cost-efficient way up until the elections, on the chance that donations appear. that spending does still not include any tv ads.)

are you aware of similar initiatives in other countries?

some are trying, but none have achieved the necessary momentum and critical mass that we have. we expect that momentum to happen once we get into swedish parliament and show that it can be done.

"[ed.: a of the party was recently launched. see also: intellectual property activism category on wikipedia]"

the name "pirate party" seems to identify the party with what is currently defined as a crime: piracy of software, movies, music, and so on. will a name like "pirate party" not antagonize voters, given that the label is so negatively used? how about potential allies abroad who argue for a more balanced copyright regime, such as the electronic frontier foundation or ?

oh, it "is" a crime. that's the heart of the problem! the very problem is that something that 20% of the voters are doing is illegal by punishment of jail time. that's what we want to change. where the established parties are saying that the voters are broken, we are saying it's the law that is broken.

besides, it's a way of reclaiming a word. the media conglomerates have been pointing at us and calling us pirates, trying to make us somehow feel shame. it doesn't work. we wear clothes saying "pirate" in bright colors out on the streets. yes, we are pirates, and we're proud of it, too.

also, the term is not that negative at all in sweden, much thanks to the awesome footwork of the pirate bureau (), who have been working since 2003 to educate the public.

if you are elected, and have the opportunity to become part of the next government of sweden, do you intend to focus only on the issues in your platform (ip law and privacy)?

our current plan is to support the government from the parliament, but not be part of it. if we're part of it, that means we get a vested interest to not overthrow it, which puts us in a weaker position if they start going against our interests.

overall, our strategy is to achieve the balance of power, where both the left and right blocks need our votes to achieve a majority, and then support the issues of whichever government that agrees to drive our issues the strongest. basically, we sell our votes on other issues to the highest bidder in exchange for them driving ours.

have you already made any contacts in swedish politics?

contacts... i'm not sure what you mean. several of us have been shaking hands with some of the established politicians, particularly in the youth leagues, if that's what you mean.

i was thinking along the lines of exploring possible modes of cooperation with established political parties ? are you already taken seriously?

we are taken seriously by most of the youth leagues and by at least one of the represented parties. in particular, which is what counts, we are now taken seriously by national media. however, we can't tie contacts that explore modes of cooperation quite yet ? since our strategy depends on holding the balance of power, we need to not express a preference for whom we'd like to cooperate with, or we'd put ourselves in a weaker bargaining position.

what is your position on moral rights, as recognized by european union copyright laws: the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and the right to the integrity of the work. do you think these rights should be preserved?

we safeguard the right to attribution very strongly. after all, what we are fighting for is the intent of copyright as it is described in the us constitution: the promotion of culture. many artists are using recognition as their primary driving force to create culture.

publishing anonymously or pseudonymously happens every day on the internet, so no big deal there either.

the right to integrity, however, is an interesting issue. we state that we are for free sampling, meaning you can take a sound that i made for my tune and use it in your own tunes, or for that matter, a whole phrase. that's partially in line with today's copyright law on derivative works; as long as you add your own creative touch to a work, you get your own protection for the derivation. we want to strengthen that right.

you might want to consider the alternative. in the 50s and 60s, a lot of rock and roll bands started doing covers of old classical music. this would almost certainly have been considered to violate the integrity of the original artist ? and was considered to do so by many ? but in the eyes of many others, it was instead great new culture of a previously unseen form and shape.

so i don't have a definite answer on the integrity issue. while i am leaning towards the promotion of new culture taking precedence over a limitation right, there may be unconsidered cases.

do you feel that trademark law is adequate as it is?

yes. we have not seen any hidden costs to trademarks that outweigh the benefits of reducing transaction costs on a market where seller and buyer are not personally acquainted.

how do you intend to deal with eu treaties which define certain legal frameworks for the protection of intellectual works?

what can they do? fine us? send us an angry letter?

come on, countries need to think more like corporations. if the fine is less than the cost to society, which it is in this case, then the right thing to do is to accept the fine with a polite "thank you".

actually, national media just called me about this very question; the department of justice has stated that we can't allow file sharing, as it would break international treaties. my response was that it is more important to not have 1.2 million swedes criminalized, than it is to avoid paying a penalty fee.

do you think that weaker intellectual property laws would lessen the amount of products released in sweden by foreign companies, such as hollywood studios?

as long as they believe that they will have a revenue here that exceeds the cost of operations, they will keep coming here. anything else would be wrong from a corporate standpoint.

besides, you need to remember what we are doing is to change the map according to what reality looks like. we do not want to change people's behavior. we want to change the law so it reflects what the world actually looks like.

so, as they apparently make a profit today, i expect that to continue.

do you feel that the music industry in its current form will still be needed in a world where non-commercial copying is permitted?

it's not so much if they are needed where non-commercial copying is permitted, rather if they are needed when they're not necessary any more to be the middle man between consumer and artist.

the music industry "will" lose its current chokepoint, because they don't add any value to the end product any longer. they will probably survive as a service bureau for artists, but they will not be able to control distribution.

it's actually quite simple: if they get their act together and provide a service that people want to buy, they will remain. if not, they will vanish. today, they have legislated that people must buy their service regardless of whether it adds value or not, and that's not gonna hold in the long term.

why fight against intellectual property laws, instead of focusing your energy on creating freely licensed content, such as creative commons films or open source software?

i want to raise the issue a level, to show that it's not about payment models or what level of control the copyright holder chooses to exert over his or her work.

let me put it this way: we have achieved the technical possibility of sending copyrighted works in digital, private communications. i can send a piece of music in e-mail to you, i can drop a video clip in a chat room. that technology is not going away, leaving us with two choices.

so ? "if" copyright is to be enforced ? if you are to tax, prohibit, fee, fine, or otherwise hinder the transmission of copyrighted works in private communications, the only way to achieve that is to have all private communications constantly monitored. it's really that large.

also, this is partly nothing new. we've been able to do this since the advent of the xerox copier ? you could photocopy a poem or a painting and put it in a letter in the mail. again, the only way to discover or stop that would have been for the authorities to open all letters and check their content.

so we're at a crossroads here. either we, as a society, decide that copyright is the greater value to society, and take active steps to give up private communications as a concept. either that, or we decide that the ability to communicate in private, without constant monitoring by authorities, has the greater value ? in which case copyright will have to give way.

my choice is clear.

the pirate bay was shut down and re-opened days later on a dutch server. according to a swedish newspaper report, traffic has doubled since then. how long do you think the cat and mouse game will continue?

until one of two things happen: the authorities realize they can't enforce laws that require monitoring all private communications, especially given the large international level of grassroots support, or [they] actually start monitoring all private communications.



author claims al qaeda planned to gas new york's subway system

a new book claims that al-qaeda made plans to gas the new york subway system in 2003. according to extracts due to be published in next week's time magazine, the author of "the one percent doctrine", ron suskind, asserts that al-qaeda's number 2 cancelled the attack 45 days before it was due.

suskinds book states "u.s. intelligence learned of the plot from a laptop computer belonging to a bahraini jihadist captured in saudi arabia in early 2003."

the book continues, "the computer contained plans for an easily constructed and concealed device that releases deadly hydrogen-cyanide gas using a remote trigger."

the cia built a prototype of those designs shown on the computer and then showed it to the united states president, george w. bush. the president then ordered an alert to all levels of the us government.

al-qaeda had planned to put them in the subway cars and other strategic places.


major league baseball, june 19

a brief look around major league baseball. . . 

philadelphia 8, tampa bay 5

the philadelphia phillies snapped a five game losing streak, defeating tampa bay 8-5 between a father's day crowd of 42,658 earlier today at citizens' bank park in philadelphia. phillies first baseman ryan howard homered and knocked in four runs, and phils' closer tom gordon, in a game for the first time in over a week, pitched 1 2/3 shaky innings for his 19th save. the phillies are 15-5 in games in which howard hits the long ball. tampa of carl crawford was 2 for 5 with a homer and 2 rbi for the losing rays.

with the phillies getting farther away from the mets in the nl east, the phils are likely to start concentrating on the nl wild card race if not now, very soon.

washington 3, n.y. yankees 2

further south, washington nationals' third baseman ryan zimmerman hit a walk off 2 run shot in the bottom of the 9th to lift washington over the visiting new york yankees, 3-2. zimmerman, whose hitting has gotten hotter with the temperatures, hit the game winner off of yankees losing pitcher chien - ming wang spoiling his major league debut

oakland 5, l.a. dodgers 3

oakland right-hander joe blanton, pitching into the ninth inning, helped the streaking oakland a's to their tenth straight win over the los angeles dodgers, 5-2 earlier today. blanton gave way to oakland reliever huston street, who pitched an inning for his 17th save. oakland center-fielder jay payton and infielder marco scutaro each had three hits for the a's, who edged into first place in the al west over texas.

detroit 12, chicago cubs 3

chicago's mark prior made his season debut after a series of injuries that left him sidelined. the detroit tigers gave him a rude welcome, as they knotched 6 runs in the first inning on 3 homers. jose guillen had a 3-run homer in the first inning to contribute to the tigers route. prior didn't last 4 inning and gave up 7 earned runs. the cubs lost their 6th in a row and are only one game ahead of the cellar pirates. detroit sweeps the cubs and now holds a 1.5 game lead over chicago's american league team, the white sox.


geoff ogilvy wins u.s. open

today, at winged foot golf club, in mamaroneck, new york, geoff ogilvy won the 106th u.s. open with a score of 285, 5 over par. jim furyk, colin montgomerie, and phil mickelson all tied for second place one stroke behind at 6 over. ogilvy, born in adelaide, australia took home almost $1.25 million dollars. other notable scores include vijay singh at a tie for 6th at 8 over, david duval making a comeback at a tie for 16th place at 11 over, adam scott at a tie for 21st at 12 over and ernie els tying for 26th at 13 over.

defending champion michael campbell of new zealand, retief goosen, and tiger woods all missed the cut in the hardest u.s. open in a long time - the worst open on record was also at winged foot in 1974, where winner hale irwin shot 7 over. this was tiger's first tournament since his father's death on may 9, although he said in a press conference that there was no excuse for his awful playing. woods said of his poor playing, "i don't care if you had what transpired in my life of recent or not, but poor execution is never going to feel very good."

ogilvy came in to the clubhouse, almost sure of his second place. but phil mickelson's double bogey at the 18th hole gave ogilvy a boost in the leaderboard, bringing him to first. he said later, "i thought, make this and come in second in the open on your own. i never thought phil would make bogey at the last. he ended up making double, and it's got to be a hard one to swallow for phil, because he's obviously been the outstanding player at majors in the last eight or nine months." mickelson only hit 2 out of 14 fairways on sunday and 24 out of 56 total. he managed to scramble out in the first three rounds, but the course fought back on sunday. his tee shot at the final hole went far left. he played the shot very aggressively and ended up hitting a tree and putting the ball only 25 yards farther. it just got worse from there for mickelson. his third shot ended up buried in the left greenside bunker. his fourth went back over the green and into the rough. he chipped out and one-putted for the catastrophic double bogey that cost him the championship. 

ogilvy didn't win purely by mickelson's double bogey, though. he saved par on the 17th with a chip-in from the rough, and overcame a few tough shots to save par at the 18th. his last two us opens resulted in a missed cut in 2003 at a tie for 28th last year. his win this year at the wgc accenture match play championship set him up for the first australian major win since steve elkington at the 1995 pga championship. 

besides mickelson, there are quite a few other contenders who are not going to forget today - or the vicious 18th hole - for a while. colin montgomerie made a remarkable comeback after a poor round yesterday, holing a 75-footer for birdie at the 17th hole. his second shot, from 172 yards away in the fairway, went far right into a very deep cut of rough. his third shot went 40 feet past the hole. he put his par putt 10 feet from the hole, missed that putt, and went on to also make double bogey. jim furyk hit a bunker shot to 5 feet on the 18th, but two-putted and came up one stroke short of oglivy. padraig harrington, who ended up in sole fifth at 7 over, went bogey-free for 15 holes and bogeyed the last three to fall out of contention. and of course, there's kenneth ferrie, who started the day out tied with mickelson for the lead. he just crashed the whole day, making 6 bogeys and no birdies to fall to a tie for 6th at 8 over.

a summary? the mickelslam is no more, and another newcomer has made his statement at the 2006 us open. no one can deny that winged foot has provided yet again a challenge that has beaten even the best of players.



2000 houses still have no power in canterbury, new zealand

2000 cantabrians are still without power a week after a huge snowstorm struck and took out the electricity in mid and south canterbury.

sunday june 18 came and brought more snow to mid and south canterbury, but just a minuscule amount compared to last weeks.

civil defence says "it is keeping an eye on the situation, and welfare work is continuing to make sure everyone is coping. iroquois helicopters are reportedly on standby at wigram air base if needed,"

chief executive of orion (a power company) roger sutton says, "another 20 or 30 homes are without power in the lake coleridge area."

repair crews were taken out of duty on sunday because the snow got too deep, but should be back on the job monday june 19.

nz post also reports that they have had to cancel deliveries to some dunedin suburbs because it got too icy. nz post says that deliveries will continue on tuesday june 20 or if the weather clears up before that.

the metservice has put severe weather warnings for some of the central cities of the north island.

barry stratton, transit, says that all roads are open in the south island, but some will have delays.


niobium discovered in mbeya

a large quantity of niobium was discovered at panda hill in mbeya region in tanzania. two companies did the prospecting assessment; one of which is rex well, a subsidiary of euronet africa of uk. mining could start any time. 

last year's survey by the firm indicated that the area has about 90 million tonnes of niobium. the company would use open cast method, as most of the mineral is found near the surface.


switzerland too much for togo in group g

well worked moves led to a goal in each half from alexander frei and tranquillo barnetta.

despite the relative youth of an outfield of twenty-somethings, and 21-year-old center-back philippe senderos who helped shut out the togolese, the swiss appeared to be the more organised team.

togo were lively going forward and individual acts of skill tested the swiss defence who could not always close down quickly enough. a statistic that showed the game was a bit more even than the scoreline, togo had seven shots on target to switzerland's nine.

switzerland had to soak up a good deal of togoese pressure and otto pfister's side were unfortunate not to have scored.

in the first period tomas dossevi had time and space but from 15 yards out he chose to shoot first time and the ball skewed badly wide. emmanuel adebayor then ran at speed and wrong-footed a swiss defender. he fell but carlos amarillo declined the penalty appeal.

on the day when the swiss did go forward they arguably were more ably assisted by a midfield which gave their attack more potency. though ball possession was split down the middle the swiss managed a third more shots at goal than the togolese. this was partly due to 21-year-old right-midfield barnetta who had a goal and an assist in the game.

the first goal was scored on 17 minutes. ludovic magnan sprayed a long ball to the far post, barnetta intelligently knocked it into the path of alexander frei, and the striker, in the center of goal, could not miss from 5 yards.

two minutes from time barnetta was rewarded with a goal; he ran on to a pass and drove low across goal. the ball cannoned in off kossi agassa's right post.

the result put switzerland on four points with at least a chance of qualifying for the knock-out stage of the world cup if they did not lose to korea republic in their last group g game, and certain qualification if they won.

group g
attendance: 65'000

referee: carlos amarilla (paraguay)


"fifa world cup group g table june 19, 2006"

france held to 1-1 draw with korea republic in group g


iwc passes pro-whaling resolution after close vote

pro-whaling countries within the international whaling commission celebrated yesterday after a resolution was passed which stated that the commission's 20-year moratorium on commercial whaling is "no longer necessary" and which went on to blame whales for depleting fish stocks. 33 countries voted in favour of the resolution, with 32 voting against, and china abstaining. the vote is considered a victory for japan, which has long argued for a return to commercial whaling, and has been 'recruiting' sympathetic nations to join the iwc in order to bolster its vote.

the vote does not directly enable a return to commercial whaling, as that would require a three quarters majority, but is significant in being the first time that a major vote at the iwc has sided with the pro-whaling nations in two decades.

previous votes during the conference had been narrowly won by the anti-whaling group of countries, including a motion to introduce secret ballots, to introduce an exemption allowing japanese coastal communities to whale, the elimination of a southern ocean whale sanctuary and a block on the iwc discussing dolphins and porpoises.

commercial whaling has been banned under the iwc moratorium since 1986, but some whaling has been able to continue. japan and iceland have hunted a number of minke whales every year under an exemption for 'scientific whaling'. norway flat out refused to accept the original ban. the stated aims of scientific whaling are to examine the stomach contents of captured whales, in order to examine the whale ecosystem and the effect that whales may have on fish stocks. however, the whale meat from scientific whaling catches is usually sold commercially in order to fund the research. some observers, including scientists from new zealand, have accused japan and iceland of simply using scientific whaling as a legal loophole. other whaling allowed under the iwc moratorium includes subsistence whaling by aboriginal groups.
greenpeace activist adele blogged the news from their stockholm office expressing reservations over the legitimacy of the vote saying it would "change little or nothing" as previous votes had already been passed in favour of the anti-whaling group of countries. mike townsley from greenpeace international said, "greenpeace is disgusted that any member of the iwc would seek to promote whaling based upon the false notion that whales consume so much fish that they are a threat to food security for coastal nations". he added that the declaration was more like a whaler's "wish list, peddling predictable and well-rehearsed rhetoric". 

a paragraph within the declaration passed at the iwc meeting suggested that a number of international ngos with self-interest campaigns were using threats in an attempt to direct government policy "on matters of sovereign rights related to the use of resources for food security and national development". in response, greenpeace says they were dedicated to the principles of "peaceful protests", adding that the threat was to the world's whales. they stated that they had "delayed, disrupted and documented hunts in the southern ocean" in order to defend the whales, however.

dr. joth singh from the international fund for animal welfare (ifaw) said, "after losing on every single proposal they brought to this meeting, the whaling countries and their supporters cooked up a non-binding statement, sprang it on the commission and pushed it to a vote - they want to kill whales, and they're willing to kill the commission to do it." he added that they were concerned, but not disheartened by the news.

japanese commissioner, mr minoru morimoto, praised the winning vote and said the declaration "added weight to japan's proposal to normalize the iwc and bring it back to its original function of managing and regulating sustainable commercial whaling."

the iwc has historically always voted against pro-whaling motions by a majority of around ten votes, but the number of members favoring a return to commercial whaling has increased in recent years, with japan persuading several new countries to join the iwc, including many that have never done any whaling at all. as japan has given aid to some of these new countries, some observers have accused it of buying votes.



news briefs:june 19, 2006

the time is 18:00 (utc) on june 19th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

new zealand

2000 cantabrians are still without power a week after a huge snowstorm struck and took out the electricity in mid and south canterbury. 

st kitts and nevis

pro-whaling countries within the international whaling commission celebrated yesterday after a resolution was passed which says that the commission's 20 year moratorium on commercial whaling is "no longer necessary" and blames whales for depleting fish stocks. 33 countries voted in favour of the resolution, with 32 voting against, and china abstaining.

tanzania

large quantities of niobium was discovered at panda hill in mbeya region in tanzania.

sports ? football or soccer

togo were eliminated from the 2006 fifa world cup after a 2-0 loss to switzerland in group g, monday.

sports - golf

today, at winged foot golf club, in mamaroneck, new york, geoff ogilvy won the 106th u.s. open with a score of 285, 5 over par.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


italy seeks indictment of u.s. marine

italian prosecutors have asked a judge to indict a united states soldier for fatally shooting italian intelligence officer nicola calipari at a roadblock in iraq a year ago. the shooting occurred when calipari was escorting the italian journalist giuliana sgrena on her way to baghdad airport. when their car came under fire from u.s. marines at a roadblock, calipari was fatally shot while trying to shield sgrena, who was only lightly wounded in the incident.

the circumstances of the shooting are a matter of dispute between italy and the united states. the u.s. military claims that the car was approaching the checkpoint at high speed, when the troops attempted to signal the car with light signals, aiming a green laser at the windshield and warning shots. when the car failed to slow down, the soldiers shot into the engine of the car.

the italian government claims that there were no warning signs prior to the shootings. they contest that the car was speeding and that it accelerated after the first round of fire. moreover, they allege that a proper inquiry into the case was impossible since the vehicle was removed and army logs destroyed shortly after the incident.

italian prosecutors are arguing that the shooting was a "political murder" as calipari was a civil servant and the shooting damaged italy's interests. in italy, murder suspects cannot be tried in absentia unless the murder has political connotations. it is expected to take at least two months for a judge to rule on the indictment request.

the u.s. embassy in rome declined to comment.



ukraine beats saudi arabia 4-0 in group h

the win was ukraine's first in the world cup finals.

oleg blokhin's team were aggressive from the start and their first world cup goal was scored from a corner after just four minutes. andriy rusol ran to the near post and met maxim kalinichenko's hard spun cross with his knee. 

ukraine, whose slick passes and fast runs frequently pulled the saudi arabia defense out of position, could have been four goals up by half time.

in one instance, from another kalinichenko corner andriy shevchenko had a powerful header cleared off the line by ahmed dokhi. 

sehiy rebrov, in acres of space, scored the second from 30 yards; his strong shot dipped across mabrouk zaid, who slipped in a vain attempt to reach it.

the second period began as the first had; ukraine scored early. kalinchenko provided another beautiful cross which shevchenko guided toward the far post with his forehead.

shevchenko surged down left wing and set up the fourth goal on 83 minutes. into the penalty area, shevchenko committed the keeper and then gave the perfect ball to kalinchenko who passed it into the roof of the net.

though ball possession was equal the telling statistic was the shot total. ukraine had 19 shots; nine on target. saudi arabia had six shots; none on target.

there also were 49 free kicks in the match which might be partly due to the rain over the aol arena which made the pitch slipperly. ukraine committed 25 of the fouls and got three of six yellow cards.

it was not a rigourous test for the east european side but they now had three points which meant a draw in their next game against tunisia would definitely send them into the round of sixteen if tunisia did not win against spain, who also played monday. the result against ukraine would almost certainly put paqueta's saudi arabia out of the world cup.

group h
attendance: 50'000

referee: graham poll (england) 


"fifa world cup group h table june 19, 2006"

spain passes tunisia test to win 3-1 in group h


spain passes tunisia test to win 3-1 in group h

after just eight minutes before which spain had appeared to have left off from their form that destroyed ukraine zied jaizi attacked into the spanish box. his strong run ended with the ball prodded to jaouhar mnari. the tunisian number 12's shot was saved by iker casillas but he passed the rebound into the turf and over the keeper.

spain were behind. and then it started to rain hard.

for 70 minutes spain attacked and failed to beat the tunisian keeper ali boumnijel. while he made seven saves the wet conditions made holding the football hard and boumnijel faced a lot of shots. 

in the first period crosses and corner kicks met heads in the tunisian box but none of the succession of different foreheads found the target. on 43 minutes xabi alonso went closest: his header from a corner was cleared off the line by anis ayari. 

as the clock ticked it seemed spain's short passing game was the longest route to goal.

in the end luis aragones's three substitutions can be said to have unlocked the tunisian defence. on 71 minutes the floodgates opened like the storm clouds had in the gottlieb daimler stadion.

joaquin ran down the right and passed to cesc fabregas at the top of the area. fabregas's first time shot was not particularly powerful but boumnijel gave up a rebound and in followed raul. 1-1.

for his second assist fabregas then played in fernando torres who rounded the keeper for the game winner.

on 90 minutes raul chipped to the far post for torres who then appeared to be tugged to the floor. the young athletico madrid striker scored low under the keeper from the spot.

torres, who with three goals in two matches became the top scorer at the fifa world cup, could have had two more goals in the final minutes from surges through the tunisian defence. in the first instance the keeper saved well and in the second torres blasted over.

the goals though they came late created a scoreline that reflected spainish dominance of the game. they outshot their opponents by 20 and had 11 more corner kicks. tunisian players accrued six yellow cards in their attempt to hold back aragones's side who also hogged 66 per cent of possession.

the result meant spain were through to the round of sixteen of the fifa world cup and that tunisia had to beat ukraine in their third and final match of group h if they wanted to join them there.

group h
attendance: 52'000

referee: carlos eugenio simon (brazil) 


"fifa world cup group h table june 19, 2006"

ukraine beats saudi arabia 4-0 in group h


united kingdom home secretary proposes paedophile law

british home secretary john reid has met criticism from several quarters for his suggestion that the uk should adopt a law allowing the public naming of known paedophiles.

the united states has legislation known as 'megan's law' which reid has suggested should be adopted. such a law would allow concerned parents to access information regarding paedophiles in their area. gerry sutcliffe, a home office minister, has been sent to the us to investigate whether a similar system could be introduced.

a spokesman for prime minister tony blair issued a statement on comments reid made over the weekend, "the important thing and the difficult thing in this is to get the balance right between, on the one hand, protecting the public and giving the public as much information as possible, and on the other making sure that you don't have vigilantes".

the spokesman denied that there were immediate plans to adopt megan's law, "what's important is that gerry sutcliffe goes to the us and looks at how they do things there. we are not planning immediately to import us laws but we do need to consider how these operate".


new zealand pm faults japan over whaling commission vote

new zealand prime minister helen clark has accused japan of creating a rift between pacific countries. she accuses japan of influencing the voting of some member nations of the at the international whaling commission by supplying vast amounts of aid to certain small pacific nations. 

new zealand provides a total of $23 million a year in aid to three of the six pacific nations ? kiribati, the solomons, and tuvalu. japan pledged approximately 45 billion (633 million) in aid for all pacific nations. new zealand's annual budget for aiding pacific nations on the other hand totals merely nz $173 million.

miss clark is quoted as saying "one would hope that over time japan might reflect on the damage this is doing to [its] relationships around the world" and that it "sprayed a lot of money around" to garner support.

the prime minister has ruled out any retaliation against the islands, saying it would not affect any future aid funding.



australian house of representatives moves to affirm support for heterosexual marriage

the australian house of representatives yesterday discussed as part of a motion moved by (, ) that sought to affirm and "celebrate" support for marriage "between a man and a woman" and called on the government to "enact policies that promote and strengthen marriage".

johnson discussed the earlier passed in 2004 that effectively removed the possibility for same-sex marriage, and continued that the failed efforts of the australian capital territory (act) to provide for civil unions within that state was a matter for "grave alarm". johnson then argued against same-sex marriage saying that "children come from marriage and families stem from marriage". johnson criticized the earlier act legislation that provided for the dissolution of civil unions by letter to the act registrar, stating, "marriage is a lifelong commitment". however, johnson went on to discuss the breakdown of marriage and the status of single parents to argue, "surely we all agree that the best environment for the rearing of children is one that has both a mother and a father".

no other members of parliament spoke against or criticised the motion before debate was interrupted.

interestingly, the australian senate is yet to debate a motion moved by the in order to repeal the marriage amendment discussed and institute same-sex marriage. the are also supportive of same-sex marriage, but neither of these parties hold seats in the house.


twin babies in nz foster home die of head injuries

the new zealand police who are investigating the deaths of male twin babies say that they suffered from serious head injuries.

the two babies were named chris kahui and cru kahui. they lived in a auckland house with 12 family members. child, youth and family have removed two other children living at the mangere home.

the police are investigating a double homicide after the two babies were taken off life support at starship hospital, auckland. the twins were admitted to starship on tuesday june 13. at the time of admission they both suffered from head injuries and one suffered from a broken thigh.

a post-mortem revealed that the babies had died from numerous injuries and brain damage, however police cannot tell if any of the injuries were historical.

new zealand is ranked third for the rate of child murder in the organisation for economic co-operation and development (oecd).


tony blair orders two government jets

uk prime minister tony blair is set to give the go-ahead for an order of two government jets. one jet is likely to contain 70 seats, whilst the other will be smaller with around 15 seats. previously the prime minister has chartered aircraft or used a royal plane. both planes would be second hand and not bought outright but leased on a long-term contract.

government departments, as well as the royal family, who will have first priority, will be able to use the jets, but will have to pay for the full cost of travel. 

the story was first reported by bbc correspondent james hardy, and comes out of a study into ministerial travel costs.

the nicknames 'blair force one' and 'blair force two' have already begun to stick. american presidents have traditionally used a special jet called 'air force one'.



apple plans to sell movies on itunes

apple computer is planning to sell full-length feature films for download via the online itunes music store. the store currently sells digital music tracks, and more recently has begun to sell tv episodes.

apple executives are in negotiations with film studios to arrange the deal and settle on pricing structures. it is expected that films will retail for around $9.99 us dollars, although some studios are reported to want to set a higher price.

itunes is currently by the biggest online retailer of digital music, with its software tightly integrated with the popular ipod line of products. newer versions of the ipod include a colour screen capable of displaying videos, and so consumers could watch the films on the devices, but it is not yet clear how many people will want to do this.

apple ceo steve jobs is also the largest single shareholder of disney, which now owns animation studio pixar, however he could end up playing a wider role within the film industry if itunes becomes the dominant online distributor.

a full-length tv movie, 'high school musical' from disney, is already available on itunes, suggesting that the technical infrastructure is already in place.



shashi tharoor starts his campaign for secretary general of the un

the indian government has announced its support for shashi tharoor's candidature to the post of the secretary general of the united nations. tharoor is a writer, journalist and is currently the under-secretary-general for communications and public information of the un. arguably the most powerful multilateral position in the world, the author will have his work cut out in trying to win broad based support for his candidature from the developed world.

tharoor met the prime minister and president of india, who have expressed their solidarity and whole hearted support to his campaign. it is generally understood that mr. tharoor has the blessings of the incumbent kofi annan, with whom he has shared a long and fruitful working relationship.

pakistan have threatened to nominate their own candidate, leading to speculation that the asian vote may be fragmented. however, it remains to be seen if these threats are translated into action.


interview with bbc creative archive project leader

the creative archive project is a bbc led initiative which aims to make archive audio and video footage available to be freely downloaded, distributed, and ‘remixed’. the project is still in a pilot stage, and is only available to uk residents, but the long-term future of the project could have a major impact on the way audiences interact with bbc content.

the project is partly inspired by the creative commons movements, and also by a general move within the bbc to be more open with its assets. additionally, educational audiences such as schools have expressed an interest in using bbc content within the classroom, both to watch and to create multimedia content from.

so far, clips made available under the licence have included archive news footage, nature documentary footage, and video clips content designed for educational uses. “it’s done very well with the audiences we’ve directed them towards ? heavy bbc users,” says paul gerhardt, project leader. users downloading the clips are also prompted to fill in a questionnaire, and so far 10-15% of people seem to be doing something with the material, although the bbc can’t be sure what exactly that is.

one of the biggest limitations within the licence as it currently stands during the pilot scheme is that the material is only available for use by people resident in the uk. the bbc’s creative archive sites use ‘geo-ip filtering’ to limit downloads to the uk, but there is some confusion over whether people who create their own content using the material can upload their creations to their own websites. a question within the faqs for one of the more recent selections of clips suggests that this isn’t possible, saying “during this pilot phase material released under the terms of the creative archive licence cannot be used outside the uk - therefore, unless a website has its use restricted to the uk only, content from the 'regions on film' archive cannot be published on it.”

“we want people to make full use of this content, whether they cut and paste it or whether they share it, and we completely accept that we’ve got a bit of a contradiction at the moment by saying uk-only and yet encouraging people to put it on their sites to share it with others, because you can’t expect people to have geo-ip restriction technology,” admits mr gerhardt. “we’re thinking hard about how to deal with this after the pilot ? at the moment it’s quite likely that we’re probably going to need to find a distribution partner outside of the uk, so that if you’re outside of the uk you’ve got roughly the same experience as in the uk, but the content could be surrounded by sponsorship messages or advertising or whatever. once we’ve done that then leakage from one to the other won’t really matter very much.”

the creative archive project has not been without critics from the commercial sector, worried that the bbc giving away their content for free would make it difficult for them to be able to make money from their own content. the bbc has explained to some of the commercial players that the content would be limited during the pilot, would not be available in broadcast quality, and that watermarking technologies would be trialled so that content could be recognised when it crops up elsewhere. the bbc is also investigating a business model for the future where there would be a “close relationship between public access to low-resolution content and a click through to monetising that content if you want to buy a high-resolution version”. people who want to play around with the material might discover they have a talent and then find they need to get a commercial license to use it properly, mr gerhardt explains, and the project wants to make it easy for this to happen.

before the project can go ahead with the full scale launch, it will have to go through a ‘public value test’ to assess its overall impact on the marketplace, and commercial media companies will have a chance to input at this point.

for ease in clearing the rights, all of the content available under the pilot project is factual, but in the future the project could include drama and entertainment content. the bbc may also, in the future, work the creative archive licences into the commissioning process for new programmes. “this raises some really interesting ideas ? if you have a documentary series, you could use the creative archive to release the longer form footage, for instance ? that would create a digital legacy of that documentary series,” mr gerhardt explains. “the other interesting thought in the longer term would be for the bbc, or another broadcaster, to contribute to a digital pool of archive material on a theme, and then invite people to assemble their own content out of that. we could end up broadcasting both the bbc professionally produced programme accompanied by other programmes that other people had made out of the same material.”

one of the ways that the creative archive licence differs from the other ‘copyleft’ licences like creative commons, aside from the uk-only limitation, is that the licence currently allows the bbc to update and modify the licence, which may worry those using the licence that their rights could suddenly become more restricted. “the licence at the moment is a draft, and we’ve given warning that we may well improve it, but we wouldn’t do that more than once or twice. the ambition is that by the time we scale up to the full service we would have a fixed licence that everyone was comfortable with, and it wouldn’t change after that.”

“the ambition is to think about creating a single portal where people can search and see what stuff is out there under the same licence terms, from a range of different suppliers. the idea is that if we can create something compelling like that, we will attract other archives in the uk to contribute their material, so we’d be aggregating quite a large quantity.”

the creative archive project has captured the interest of many internet users, who are growing increasingly, used the idea of being able to ‘remix’ technologies and content. some groups have been frustrated with the speed at which the project is developing though, and with some of the restrictions imposed in the licence. an open letter to the bbc urges the dropping of the uk-only limitation, the use of ‘open formats’, and to allow the material to be usable commercially. 

mr gerhardt has publicly welcomed debate of the licence, but makes it clear to me that the whole bbc archive will never all be available under the creative archive terms. “we will make all our archive available, under different terms, over the next five to ten years, at a pace to be determined. there would be three modes in which people access it ? some of the content would only be available commercially, for the first five year or so after broadcast, say. the second route is through a ‘view again’ strategy where you can view the programmes, but they’d be drm-restricted. and the third mode is creative archive. over time, programmes would move from one mode to another, with some programmes going straight to the creative archive after broadcast.”

others who disagree with the ‘uk-only’ restriction within the licence include suw charman, from the open rights group, who has said “it doesn't make sense in a world where information moves between continents in seconds, and where it is difficult for the average user to exclude visitors based on geography.” on the project generally, though, she said “i think that it is a good step along the way to a more open attitude towards content. it is a toe in the water, which is far preferable to the attitude of most of the industry players, who are simply burying their heads in the sand and hoping that lawsuits and lobbying for new legislation will bolster their out-dated business plan.”

other organisations currently participating in the creative archive scheme include the british film institute, the open university and teachers' tv. two artists have been awarded scholarships to create artworks using bbc archive material, and bbc radio 1 has held a competition asking people to use the footage in creative ways as backing visuals to music. the process of making the bbc’s archive material fully available may be a long one, but it could end up changing the way that people interact with the uk’s public service broadcaster.



bbc's famous 'top of the pops' programme to be axed

the bbc has confirmed that its famous top of the pops music programme is to be axed this summer, after media guardian broke the news. the programme began on new year's day in 1964 and has featured most of the top bands and artists ever since.

the last show will be on july 30, 2006.

the controller of bbc two, roly keating, said "i've really enjoyed the last year that top of the pops has transmitted on bbc two and the team did a sterling job in revitalising the format for our audience, but we all recognise that the time has come to move on."



germany too hot for ecuador in group a

the germans got goals from miroslav klose, whose two tallies put him top of the fifa world cup scorers chart with four goals, and lukas podolski, his first at the competition.

luis suarez's side had 57 per cent of ball possession but jens lehmann had to make just two saves from edison mendez's and edwin tenorio's 35 yard efforts.

after the third goal what there was of a contest ended. this was partly because both sides had already achieved qualification through to the round of sixteen and wanted to conserve energy. 

it also was 27 degrees celsius in the olympiastadion and together with the 65 per cent humidity playing at a fast pace for a long time was difficult.

the first goal came on three minutes. bastian schweinsteiger brought down a cross level with goal and cut it back to klose. the polish born striker finished neatly across cristian mora from the edge of the six yard box.

ecuador were no big threat going forward and had rested carlos tenorio, augustin delgado and ivan hurtado, the captain, for the game. marlon ayovi was ecuador's captain against germany.

germany's second was set up by michael ballack. his brilliant chip surprised two ecuador defenders and klose stole in between them and before the advancing mora to score.

in the second half there was no hurry to the german game, ecuador had much of the possession, but klinsmann's team looked a constant threat on the break. on one such fast attack bernd schnieder on the right wing crossed low for podolski who slid in and tipped the ball toward the far post.

germany and ecuador had to wait on the outcome of the group b match between sweden and england to know their next opponents. the winner of group a would play the runner-up in group b and "vice versa".

group a
attendance: 72'000

referee: valentin ivanov (russia) 


"fifa world cup group a table june 20, 2006"

poland win 2-1 against costa rica in group a


poland win 2-1 against costa rica in group a

the result of the match gave poland three points but they did not qualify for the next round of the fifa world cup as ecuador had six and germany nine. costa rica left the 2006 world cup without a victory in three games.

though the pace of the game was rather slow in the heat the outcome did seem to matter to the two teams who both wanted a world cup win.

referee shamsul maidin produced his yellow card ten times; five for each side, which was to that date the highest caution tally of the tournament.

alexandre guimaraes's central americans had the best start with a goal from a freekick. ronald gomez fired hard and low through the wall and it somehow went between an off-balanced artur boruc's legs.

jose porras in the costa rica goal then helped poland to an equaliser. porras missed at the near post a corner maciej zurawski clipped to the far post. polish defender bartosz bosacki notched his first international goal off the underside of the crossbar.

another set-piece in the second half led to the winner for bosacki. jacek krzynowek delivered from another corner, again to bosacki, who headed beyond porras. 

group a
attendance: 43'000

referee: shamsul maidin (singapore) 


"fifa world cup group a table june 20, 2006"

germany too hot for ecuador in group a


news briefs:june 20, 2006

the time is 18:00 (utc) on june 20th, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

new zealand

new zealand prime minister helen clark has accused japan of creating a rift between pacific countries. she accuses japan of influencing the voting of some member nations of the pacific island forum at the international whaling commission by supplying vast amounts of aid to certain small pacific nations. 

australia

the australian house of representatives yesterday discussed as part of private member's business a motion moved by michael johnson (australian liberal party, division of ryan) that seeked to affirm and "celebrate" support for marriage "between a man and a woman" and called on the government to "enact policies that promote and strengthen marriage".

italy

italian prosecutors have asked a judge to indict a united states solider for fatally shooting the italian intelligence officer nicola calipari at a roadblock in iraq a year ago. calipari died just after freeing the italian journalist giuliana sgrena, as he was escorting her to the baghdad airport.

united kingdom

uk prime minister tony blair is set to give the go-ahead for an order of two government jets.

new zealand

the new zealand police who are investigating the deaths of male twin babies say that they suffered from serious head injuries.

united kingdom

the bbc has confirmed that its famous top of the pops music programme is to be axed this summer, after the news was broken by the media guardian. the programme began on new year's day in 1964 and has featured most of the top bands and artists ever since.

sweden

the pirate party, a new swedish political party first publicized in january, wants to legalize sharing music, movies, and other copyrighted content using the internet.

united states

apple is planning to sell full-length feature films for download via the online itunes store. the store currently sells digital music tracks, and more recently has begun to sell tv episodes.

sports ? football or soccer

germany made light of heat and humidity to brush ecuador aside 3-0 in their final group a match, tuesday.

poland came from behind with two set-piece goals to beat costa rica in group a, tuesday.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


sweden score late against england for 2-2 draw in group b

seconds from time england looked likely to win against a team they had not beaten since 1968. but a long throw from the swedish left was missed by sol campbell and henrik larson got a touch that crawled into the far corner of paul robinson's net. 

for england, who needed at least a draw to top group b and play ecuador in the round of sixteen, the drama began after two minutes. striker michael owen fell to the floor unchallenged apparently badly injured. owen rolled off the pitch and was substituted with peter crouch. later it was confirmed owen returned to england and would not play again at the 2006 world cup.

sweden pressured an unsettled england early on with aerial balls, from corners especially; these tactics would provide two goals in the second half for the scandinavians.

england had 55 per cent of ball play in the game and were most dominant before half time. 

sven-goran eriksson's side had the lead on 33 minutes. joe cole on england's left took a clearance on his chest 35 yards from goal. cole volleyed the ball first time on a high dipping trajectory and a scrambling andreas isaksson could only paddle it in off the post.

joe cole created the second goal for steven gerrard on 85 minutes with a chip to the far post that gerrard headed powerfully on target. joe cole also earned seven fouls for his side, two of which got swedish players cautioned.

joe cole aside, sven-goran eriksson's england might have been fortunate to had gone one goal up with five minutes to go as sweden had many chances in the second half.

the chance sweden converted to make it 1-1 came on 51 minutes from one of sweden's 12 corner kicks. marcus allback, standing on the left edge of the six yard box, flicked tobias linderoth's cross with his head and it looped behind him over the defence and in the net.

an almost identical corner brought a reaction save on to the crossbar from england's robinson. sweden captain olof melberg then hit the crossbar with an effort. from yet another dangerous linderoth corner gerrard cleared the ball off the england goalline.

given the swedish pressure the last minute equaliser perhaps created a fair reflection of the game. it also seemed to expose in the group b winners a weakness defending high balls. sweden play the winner of group a, germany, in the next phase of the fifa world cup.

group b
attendance: 45'000

referee: massimo busacca (switzerland) 


"fifa world cup group b table june 20, 2006"

paraguay beat trinidad and tobago 2-0 in group b


paraguay beat trinidad and tobago 2-0 in group b

paraguay edged the game from start to finish and got a goal in each half.

trinidad and tobago could manage just two shots to trouble aldo bobadilla in the paraguay net. kelvin jack, who started his first fifa world cup game, made seven saves.

after 25 minutes jack was a bystander when roberto acuna's freekick was driven hard into the box. jack's central defender brent sancho inadvertently directed the ball goalbound with his head.

the goal that sealed the game for the south amercians was scored six minutes from time by nelson cuevas after he had exchanged passes with roque santa cruz.
the game was notable for being the last appearance for carlos gamarra, 35, for his national side. he had played 110 games for paraguay.

after three games the group b table was topped by england with seven points and then sweden with five points with paraguay and trinidad and tobago going out of the competition.

group b
attendance: 46'000

referee: roberto rosetti (italy) 



"fifa world cup group b table june 20, 2006"

sweden score late against england for 2-2 draw in group b


nz law exempts working farm dogs from embedded id tag rule

new zealand farmers have won a key victory in parliament, with mps voting to exempt working farm dogs from microchipping legislation, passing 61:60.

the federated farmers debated the law for a long time, saying that the cost of microchipping all their dogs will be a huge cost and an inconvenience. under previous legislation, all newly registered dogs were to have identification microchips embedded by july 1. the microchips in dogs are for owner identification, in case of attacks on humans. this law was introduced when carolina anderson, 7-year-old, was attacked in 2003.

parliament has been debating several proposed amendments to the local government law reform bill, which aimed to change the microchipping requirement.

blogger david farrar says "it is very messy for the government to lose the vote after piling so much pressure on." in the end only labour, progressive plus new zealand first voted for it.

the green party split votes (rare for a party). four greens mps voted for the farm dog exemption and two against. 

the four green mps were - sue bradford, keith locke, sue kedgley and nandor tanczos. the greens had previously proposed that only dangerous dogs should be microchipped.

in favour of exempting farm dogs:

"total: 61"

against:
"total: 60"


australia's old parliament house becomes heritage listed

australian john howard announced on tuesday that in canberra has been heritage listed. it is the 31st entry on the national heritage list.

the listing acknowledges the role the building has in shaping australia's culture and protects it from being modified in any way which could affect its historic value.

old parliament house served as the home of australia's parliament from 1927 until 1988, when it was relocated to the parliament house. from 1901-1927, parliament met in melbourne in the (the state parliament was relocated for 26 years). before being known as old parliament house, the building was known as provisional parliament house - as it was intended to be used for 50 years before a permanent building could be built.

in the 61 years the building was used as the seat of parliament, the government changed only seven times, and several new political parties were formed (the , , and the ).

mr howard said the building played an important part in australia's political history. "old parliament house will always be an important part of our political history with its rich collection of original furniture, art and memorabilia helping to illustrate the story of australia's political customs and functions," he said.

according to mr howard, the national heritage list lists sites which have helped shape the country. "the national heritage list contains places that have played an important role in the development of our nation, such as captain cook’s landing place in new south wales, port arthur in tasmania and the australian war memorial in canberra," said the prime minister.

the building currently houses australia's national portrait gallery, and serves as a venue for receptions and exhbitions.



northern hemisphere celebrates summer solstice for 2006

around 17,000 people converged on the ancient monument of stonehenge this morning to celebrate the northern hemisphere's summer solstice. despite a night of torrential rain, spirits were high as the sun rose over the horizon, though clouds blocked out the dawn for much of the event.

the summer solstice is the longest day of the year, having the greatest length of time between dawn and dusk. stonehenge is constructed so that on the dawn of the solstice, the sun appears in the centre of one of the stone structures. pagan rituals have taken place at this time every year for many centuries.



england fans watch match in cinema

in the darkened auditorium of the cinema in covent garden, the audience (or should that be crowd?) were behaving almost as if they were at the stadium, singing along to the national anthem, cheering at the england goals and groaning at the sweden chances. at times, chants being sung by the england crowd at the match were even picked up and sung along to by those watching the cinema screen like some kind of football karaoke contest.

trailers before the match were replaced by a soundtrack of england anthems, both the successful and not-so-successful ones, and the traditional movie treat of popcorn was replaced by trays of beer (in plastic cups) being brought in by the punters. the cinema had cheekily listed the screening as being 'directed by sven-goran eriksson' and as 'starring wayne rooney (hopefully)'.

despite a disappointing 2-2 draw, the audience seemed impressed with the experience. "i'm a bit short and so wanted to make sure i had good view without having to jostle around for position," amanda, from london, explained to me. "i also liked that it was non-smoking, and there was a fabulous atmosphere". sian, caio and laura, who lived locally, said they wanted to see the match on the big screen and commented on the excellent picture quality. 

other events that have been broadcast by the cinema chain include concerts by robbie williams and elton john. odeon marketing director luke vetere said "offering films is just one part of the cinema experience - our ambition is to offer guests the chance to watch other events they feel passionate about". watching football in the cinema is not a brand new event though, during previous world cups such as in 1966, film footage from the matches was broadcast in cinemas after the event, providing a way for people to see the games in colour when tv broadcasts were in black and white.

cinema screenings aren't the only way that fans can watch the world cup games in high-definition this year though, as both sky tv and telewest have been broadcasting the games in hd to viewers with a special set-top box. there have been trials with hd on the growing freeview platform too, with a pilot group of a few hundred viewers in london. however, as any move to roll out hd on freeview would use up extra space on the broadcast spectrum and would require viewers to buy a new set-top box, it seems unlikely that this will happen any time soon.



mexico lose 1-2 to portugal but still qualify in group d

the three goals came in the first period of a match in which mexico had a player sent off and missed a penalty in the second.

portugal had rested deco, ronaldo and pauletta but with figo, simao and maniche still packed an offensive threat.

five minutes into the game simao ran down the left side of the penalty area and passed a ball square. it deceived the mexican defence and maniche, who ran on to it, placed the ball high beyond oswaldo sanchez.

the second goal came after 23 minutes when rafael marquez reached with his hand to meet a cross from a corner. the resultant penalty saw a theatrical display by sanchez on the goal line but simao scored hard to his right.

if mexico's omar bravo had a better game the result might have been a mexican victory. in the first half he volleyed wide and via a ricardo leg-save hit the crossbar; on 63 minutes through on goal he blazed over.

bravo's best chance came on a 56 minute penalty kick after a move of neat passes ended with miguel's arm connecting with luis perez's ball control in the area. bravo stepped up and hit well over.

statistics say ball possession was equal and shots on goal were just shaded by mexico despite the fact ricardo la volpe's side had to play the last half hour with 10 men.

perez received his second yellow card four minutes after bravo had missed his penalty - sent off for foul simulation in the portuguese penalty area, in an apparent attempt to get another. 

the biggest threat to portugal's goal was posed by jose fonseca. he got four of six shots on target and scored the only mexican goal, a glancing header from bravo's corner kick.

defeat to portugal did not alter the top two positions in group d. luiz felipe scolari's portugal would next play the team placed second in group c in the round of sixteen, while mexico had to play the winner of that group. 

group d
attendance: 52'000

referee: ?ubo? miche? (slovakia) 



"fifa world cup group d table june 21, 2006"



angola draw 1-1 with iran in group d

angola needed to win at least 2-0 in their game and for mexico to lose 2-0 to portugal in the other group d game played, wednesday.

for fifteen minutes goncalves de oliveira might have thought his side could do what was necessary when ze kalanga's beautiful cross to flavio was headed over ebrahim mirzapour and angola were one-up.

the news from the other group d game played concurrently was that mexico were losing 2-1; two more goals for angola or portugal or one more goal for each would do it.

however; branko ivankovic's team were not to be beaten. iran had 55 per cent of ball possession in the match and saw twelve shots saved by the angolan keeper, ricardo.

iran may consider they were the better side on the day and deserved to share the point they earned 15 minutes after they conceded.

a corner met sohrab bakhtiarizadeh who, barely challenged, guided his header into the open net to the right of a stationary ricardo.

in the first half, on 26 minutes, a similar move almost resulted in a goal for iran. vahid hashemian saw his header, also from a corner, cleared off the line by the man on the post, mendonca. when iran scored there was nobody on the post.

group d
attendance: 38'000

referee: mark shield (australia) 



"fifa world cup group d table june 21, 2006"



news briefs:june 21, 2006

the time is 19:00 (utc) on june 21st, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

united kingdom

around 17,000 people converged on the ancient monument of stonehenge this morning to celebrate the summer solstice. despite a night of torrential rain, spirits were high as the sun rose over the horizon - though the cloud did block out the dawn for much of the event.

australia

australian prime minister john howard announced on tuesday that old parliament house in canberra has been heritage listed. it is the 31st entry on the national heritage list.

new zealand

new zealand farmers have won a key victory in parliament, with mps voting to exempt working farm dogs from microchipping legislation, passing 61:60.

sports ? football or soccer

a few hundred england fans weren't watching the match against sweden last night in a pub or at home, but instead had ventured out to their local cinema to see the game on the big screen.

portugal struck two early and held on to beat mexico in their final group d match in gelsenkirchen, wednesday.

angola scored its first fifa world cup goal against iran in a 1-1 draw that was not enough to put the african side into the round of sixteen.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


argentina and netherlands play 0-0 stalemate in group c

both sides had rested key players for the game and seemed to give the greatest respect for the other side's abilities and in the end both defenses won. 

with lionel messi and carlos tevez, who started for rested players, argentina had the talent to get a win. however; though messi was lively the argentines struggled for space to trouble the orangemen and argentina had to settle for a draw, which was enough to top group c. 

the netherlands, who had rested arjen robben and giovanni van bronckhorst, had the best of the first twenty minutes play. in this time they had 65 per cent of the play, although this was to almost even out by the end of the match. 

a goal nearly came when dirk kuyt robbed a defender to the left of the penalty box and ran toward goal. had kuyt passed to ruud van nistelrooij instead of forcing a near post save out of roberto abbondanzieri there may subsequently have been a more open match. 

argentina then had more of play though they needed a set piece to trouble the opponent's defence. a juan riquelme freekick fizzed low into the box and khalid boolahrouz almost tipped into his own net but edwin van der sar's right post intervened.

the teams denied each other space which made it hard to pass around the penalty boxes and get clear sights of goal. this is implied in the game statistics. both keepers made three saves during the game; while - indicating some attacking play - there were 17 corner kicks as defenders successfully blocked crosses and shots.

the best two moments in a second half that was more scratchy than the first came from the boot of tevez. on 72 minutes a hard shot from outside the box produced a one-handed save from van der sar and a last minute effort from a long ball whizzed wide.

in the round of sixteen argentina would play the runners-up of group d who were mexico. the netherlands would play portugal for the right to get into the fifa world cup quarter-finals.

group d
attendance: 48'000

referee: luis medina cantalejo (spain) 



"fifa world cup group c table june 21, 2006"

ivory coast beats serbia and montenegro 3-2 in group c


ivory coast beats serbia and montenegro 3-2 in group c

this match had no effect on the fifa world cup round of sixteen as the two sides started the game without a point in group c. the win was ivory coast's first at a world cup finals.

serbia and montenegro had been beaten 6-0 in their previous group c tie with argentina but to begin with seemed to have put that behind them.

nikola ?igi? with great skill took down a long ball from dejan stankovic and rounded boubacarthe barry on 11 minutes. ten minutes later sasa ili? made it two when cyrille domoraud under pressure miscontrolled the ball six yards from goal.

moments of indiscipline - two milan dudic handballs and the sending off of albert nadj for a second yellow card just before half time - seemed to show it was the broken will of the balkans team that eventually lost the game. 

ivory coast would end the match with 68 per cent of ball possession and having had 14 extra shots, including a blaise kouassi effort that hit the white of jevric's goal.

serbia and montenegro were 2-0 up when on 37 minutes dudic stuck out his hand to touch a ball tossed in front of dragoslav jevric's goal. aruna dindane tucked the spot kick away. moments later the side in blue were down to 10 men when nadj walked for a rough challenge into the side of abdulkader keita.

in the second half dindane bagged his second, a header from a keita cross. then bonaventure kalou stepped up and scored the winner from another penalty six minutes before time. 

milan dudic had also a hand in the second ivory coast penalty as it was his hand that had got in the way of kalou's shot.

both sides lacked the necessary discipline to keep 10 men on the pitch for the whole game. domoraud received a second yellow in injury time and the captain had started to walk even before the referee had flashed his red.

group d
attendance: 66'000

referee: marco rodriguez (mexico) 



"fifa world cup group c table june 21, 2006"

argentina and netherlands play 0-0 stalemate in group c


85-year-old jailed for shoplifting in new zealand

an 85-year man, reginald hugh donovan has been jailed for a month by the christchurch district court for shoplifting. he is the oldest person in new zealand to be sentenced to prison.

mr donovan has been previously banned from many stores for shoplifting and has been convicted about 50 times for it. 

the christchurch district court judge, colin doherty, said to mr donovan "you are a recidivist and incorrigible thief. you steal predominantly from local supermarkets. the extent of your offending is not great in monetary terms, but you persist."

he has always promised to stop shoplifting after receiving sentences of supervision and community work. he blames his poor memory for his shoplifting problems.

mr donovan was found stealing small items and he did not have enough money in his pocket to pay for those items. he suffers from deafness, dizzy spells, chronic breathing difficulties and the after-effects of a disabling accident.


red cross movement admits israeli magen david adom

the movement admitted the israeli national emergency and medical relief service, the magen david adom (mda), after a 58 year wait, despite objections by some muslim member countries.

the emblem, into which the star of david may be placed, made it possible for israel's mda to join the humanitarian network ? which makes up the world's largest relief agency ? after decades of isolation.

the decision had met with resistance from some muslim countries opposing the israeli group's admission, including representatives of the organisation of the islamic conference, as well as and delegates.



australian government to provide internet filters for families

australian minister for communications, information technology and the arts senator helen coonan announced on wednesday that the federal government would be spending $116.6 million on a package of measures to protect australians from inappropriate material on the internet. dubbed "protecting families online", the package includes free filtering software for all families.

the government claims that its national filter scheme will be central to the package. in addition to providing families with free filtering software, the government will also provide libraries with filters for internet terminals. it is hoped that the filters will ensure that children using the internet from libraries can do so without being exposed to inappropriate material.

as part of the package, the government's internet safety and advisory agency ? netalert will be located within the australian communications and media authority ? the chief regulatory authority for telecommunications, radiocommunications, internet and media services. the government will also give netalert an additional $5 million to spend on advertising to promote its services.

in addition to the protecting families online package, the government will again examine (isp) level filtering. a trial will be carried out in tasmania to determine its effectiveness. according to senator coonan it is the fourth time the government has undertaken such a trial.

as part of the trial, the acma will be required to report on isp level filtering around the world and work with netalert to investigate advances in filtering technologies.

senator coonan assured internet users that the initiatives were only to protect children from inappropriate material and the government wasn’t dictating what adults could access. "this is not a one-size-fits-all approach to protecting australia families and we are not dictating to every australian internet user what they should and shouldn’t see," she said.


science academies urge teaching of evolution

the interacademy panel on international issues (iap), a global network of the world's science academies, has released a statement urging parents and teachers to provide children with 'the facts about the origin and evolution of life on earth'. the statement is signed by 67 of the 92 member academies of the organisation, and notes that in some schools around the world, "testable theories" about evolution are being "concealed, denied or confused by theories not testable by science".
the statement presents four "evidence-based facts" that no scientific evidence has ever contradicted. these include the earth being approximately 4.5 billion years old, life on earth being at least 2.5 billion years old, and commonalities in all living organisms indicating a common primordial origin based on the process of photosynthetic organisms.

the news follows developments, mainly in the , where there is a concerted effort to include the teaching of 'intelligent design' (id), a theory which claims that complex biological features indicate that the presence of an intelligent 'designer' in schools. opponents of this movement argue that it doesn't qualify as a scientific theory, and is simply a disguise for creationist beliefs. in the us, where the separation of church and state is mandated by constitutional law, efforts to include id in school syllabi were quashed by the courts, as the teaching of religion in schools is against the establishment clause of the constitution of the united states. despite this, george bush has in the past remarked that he believes intelligent design should be taught in schools. the president has not shown any sign of plans to personally intervene in the legal debate however.

in december 2005, following legal case between the parents and the school district of dover (pennsylvania, usa), the judge decided that intelligent design was a religious view, and that it was unlawful to teach it as an alternative to evolution within the classroom. the iap statement suggests that the science academies believe that id is still being taught within some schools, however.

a gallup poll conducted in may concluded that 46 percent of americans believe that god created man in his present form sometime in the past 10,000 years, with 13 percent believing mankind evolved with no divine intervention and 36 percent saying that mankind developed over millions of years from lesser life forms, but with god guiding the process.

the iap statement acknowledges limitations in current understanding, but argues that the process of science allows it to be open-ended and subject to correction and expansion as new understanding emerges.


ghana beat united states of america 2-1 in group e

there was not much difference between the two sides, the youngest squad in the tournament versus the 2002 fifa world cup quarter-finalists, although the manner of the ghana win might have left a sour taste in the mouth of usa coach bruce arena.

early in the game, claudio reyna was dispossessed with the ball in a last man defensive position. haminu draman ran on to goal with the ball and one-on-one passed it by kasey keller. reyna was stretchered off with a knee injury; the usa captain came back on but was substituted before half time.

landon donovan took the usa captaincy following reyna's departure.

the second ghanian goal was from a penalty. the ball was played into the usa penalty area and razek pimpong fell to the pitch next to oguchi onyewu. the replay was not conclusive but did show the defender's arms were not in a position to push hard on the ghana player who had appeared to make a rapid fall.

though he was the last defender before the goalkeeper onyewu was not cautioned for the challenge. stephen appiah converted the penalty inside right foot to top left of the net, seconds before half time.

united states had drawn level from clint dempsey on 43 minutes when damarcus beasley intercepted a defensive pass and weighted the perfect ball for the striker to run on too.

the crowd booed the referee when the half time whistle blew but in the second half their team did not do enough to put richard kingston, and the ghana goal, under pressure. the usa got just three shots on target in the game.

ghana conceded 32 fouls in the game and the pressure on their defence increased in the second half when they had to defend their lead.

from eddie lewis's short cross to the near post brian mcbride went closest to making the score 2-2 flicking a header onto a vertical. donovan got in good positions, a freekick close to the penalty area and a run into the box, but in both cases his decision to pass badly and not shoot relieved the pressure for ghana.

a feature of the game the fifa technical study group might look at was the number of ghana players who spent a long time on the ground with injuries under challenges. there was five minutes of injury time at the end of the match. this meant the game ran well past the finish time of the concurrent contest between italy and czech republic also in group e. 

the half-time kick-off also started five minutes behind the match italy won to top the group. one point ahead of a ghana team who had reached the round of sixteen in just their first fifa world cup finals.

group e
attendance: 41'000

referee: markus merk (germany) 



"fifa world cup group e table june 22, 2006"

italy sink czech republic 2-0 in group e


news briefs:june 22, 2006

the time is 18:00 (utc) on june 22nd, 2006, and this is audio wikinews news briefs.

italy

the interacademy panel on international issues (iap), a global network of the world's science academies, has released a statement urging parents and teachers to provide children with 'the facts about the origin and evolution of life on earth'. the statement is signed by 67 of the 92 member academies of the organisation, and notes that in some schools around the world, 'testable theories' about evolution are being 'concealed, denied or confused by theories not testable by science'.

australia

australian minister for communications, information technology and the arts, senator helen coonan announced on wednesday that the federal government would be spending aud$116.6 million on a package of measures to protect australians from inappropriate material on the internet.

new zealand

an 85-year man, reginald hugh donovan has been jailed for a month by the christchurch district court for shoplifting. he is the oldest person in new zealand to be sentenced to prison.

sports ? football or soccer

in a game that on paper pitted youth and talent versus experience and organisation ghana came out on top with 2:1 the score at the final whistle, thursday.

we invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. this has been audio wikinews newsbriefs. thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.
this recording has been released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.


italy sink czech republic 2-0 in group e

despite having had to replace key central defender alessandro nesta, who was injured after 17 minutes, the "azzuri" defeated the czech republic comfortably. 

italian fortunes were helped when on 46 minutes the czech republic had jan polak sent off for his second yellow card offense within a 12 minute period before half-time.

before that italy had gone ahead with nesta's substitute rising well to meet and head down francesco totti's corner. marco materazzi had an exceptional game with fabio cannavaro and was awarded fifa's man of the match.

it was thought alessandro nesta's groin injury meant he would miss the round of sixteen and possibly any later world cup matches italy would play.

for the czech republic 33-year-old pavel nedved worked very hard for little reward - other than perhaps a showcase final appearance at a world cup against a very good side.

on 15 minutes gianluigi buffon was forced to make a double save from nedved's drive and marek jankulovski's follow-up from a close angle.

in the second half filippo inzaghi came on for alberto gilardino and on a number of ocasions found himself unmarked behind ten man czech republic's lines. he put his first chance - a free header six yards out - wastefully wide but rounded the keeper to score on a breakaway three minutes from time.

the result meant italy would play the runner-up of group f in the round of sixteen, while karel bruckner's czech team would check out of their hotels.

group e
attendance: 50'000

referee: benito archundia (mexico) 



"fifa world cup group e table june 22, 2006"

ghana beat united states of america 2-1 in group e


garden at elmwood and forest in buffalo, n.y. dedicated

yesterday, a recently-planted garden and "welcome to the elmwood village" sign at the corner of elmwood and forest avenues in buffalo, new york was dedicated to the community at 6 pm. the garden was planted by a group of local citizens known as the "elmwood village gatekeepers", who formed to maintain the green space on the corner which is unmaintained by hans mobius, the owner of the land and properties at 1109-1121 elmwood.

"this is our neighborhood, and we don’t want to see it go down-hill. the lawns are part of the look of this corner that we love, and we can do something about," said joe runfola an area resident.

the "gatekeepers" are hopeful that the "annuals and the perennials planted in the garden can be enjoyed by all for years to come," said owner of don apparel with patty morris, nancy pollina.

local artist steven myers and owner of gateway studios on elmwood and forest painted the new welcome sign.

"in the design, i wish to show the transition from green parks, to lively urban neighborhoods, to downtown, in the background. the four colors, red, white, yellow and black will also be incorporated in their pure form to represent the native american medicine wheel, which teaches us that the four symbolic races are all part of the same human family," said myers.

the newly formed group hopes to plant an elm tree at the proposed site in july.

so far, 2 of the 5 businesses on the proposed site have relocated or closed their doors. the group is hopeful that a lawsuit filed against the developer savarino construction services corporation and the city of buffalo will stop the proposal from moving forward and hope that the garden can become a "community garden."

the preliminary hearing, which was scheduled for 9:30am today was initially postponed until july 20, 2006; however, attorney arthur j. giacalone, who is representing the petitioners of the lawsuit nancy pollina and patricia morris, angeline genovese and evelyn bencinich, owners of residences on granger place which abut the rear of the proposed site, nina freudenheim, a resident of nearby penhurst park, and sandra girage, the owner of a two-family residence on forest avenue less than a hundred feet from the proposed hotel's sole entrance and exit driveway, has said that the preliminary hearing has been postponed indefinitely and at the moment no new date has been set. according to giacalone, savarino construstion has not yet presented their case and has not yet filed their papers.


australia draws with croatia 2-2, advances to next round in group f

australia drew with croatia 2-2 in a drama-packed final group f game in stuttgart, thursday. 

the draw put australia on four points and croatia on two, allowing the australian team, nicknamed "the socceroos", to progress into the fifa world cup round of sixteen.

the action-packed match, which was witnessed by 52'000 at gottlieb daimler stadion, had controversy throughout the game.

croatian defender stjepan tomas handballed two australian crosses within the croatian penalty area; but only one penalty was given. this was inconsistent with matches such as the clash between serbia and montenegro against cote d'ivoire (the ivory coast), where milan dudic of serbia and montenegro committed two fouls against cote d'ivoire the previous day and both penalties were awarded on that occasion. 

there was high tensions in the last moments of the match, as croatia was desperate to get a winner while australia did not want to concede. this is reflected by the fact that this game was only the fifth time in world cup history (and the second time in the 2006 world cup) where three players had been shown a red card in one match. the other times were 1938 - brazil vs. czechoslovakia, 1954 - brazil vs. hungary, 1998 - denmark vs. south africa, and 2006 - usa vs. italy. 

three players were shown two yellow cards, but in the confusion of the last few minutes of the match, english referee graham poll had only sent two of those players off the field.

dario simic was first to go after fouling harry kewell, halting an australian breakaway. australian brett emerton walked when he committed a handball foul, preventing an attacking pass by croatia.

josip simunic should have gone at the 90 minute mark when poll flashed him a second yellow card for what may be described as a rugby tackle in a last ditch attempt to stop another australian breakaway. 

the referee failed to realise that he had booked simunic 61 minutes into the game and allowed him to stay on until he was booked a third time after the end of injury time three minutes later. in the fifa match report, the last booking was also officially recorded.

poll later claimed to the fifa referee committee when he booked simunic for the second time he had marked down the number of australian craig moore instead.

an earlier drama in a second half saw croatia's go-ahead goal. tim cahill fail to challenge niko kovac until the edge of the australian penalty area; this resulted in kovac using the space for a low shot at australian goalkeeper zeljko kalac. kalac's egregious attempt at the save seemed almost like a dive out of the way when the ball hit a bad bounce in front of him, and rolled into the net. 

the game started spectacularly with arguably the best freekick goal the tournament seen to this point, scored by darijo srna. right footed, 30 yards out, he curled it over the wall and past the out-stretched right hand of kalac into the top left corner of the australian net.

on 37 minutes poll penalised tomas' handball and craig moore converted the penalty shot easily down the middle. stipe pletikosa gave plenty of space for moore to shoot, having committed his dive a metre left while moore was still having his run up.

pletikosa later made two outstanding saves, a reaction stop from kewell and then to grab a low cross amidst flying legs on his goal line.

australia had more shots at goal and ball possession in the match, and their second equaliser came 11 minutes from time. marco bresciano's cross was flicked onward by john aloisi, allowing kewell to strike past pletikosa near the far post.

australia manager guus hiddink might think the match was a rather surreal affair, but the reality is he has progressed australia into the round of sixteen for the first time at the world cup finals. italy, winners of group e, will meet them in the round of sixteen.

group f
attendance: 52'000

referee: graham poll (england)



"fifa world cup group f table june 22, 2006"



san jose mayor gonzales indicted on six counts

ron gonzales, the mayor of san jose, california, and his financial aide, joe guerra, were indicted by a criminal grand jury on june 22 on six undisclosed charges. gonzales and guerra surrendered to the santa clara county sheriff's department thursday morning, where they were processed and released on bail. while the indictment has been sealed, the grand jury was investigating gonzales's role in an $11 million contract amendment with norcal waste systems. the county district attorney has scheduled a press conference for 1:30 p.m. friday pdt on the indictment. gonzales and guerra will appear before the county's superior court for a hearing on monday, june 26.